Friday, December 2, 2011

Finally finished the EP!!!!!

After a long and tiring 6 months the EP is FINALLY finished!! So exciting, can't wait to share it :D

- cowgirl in the sand

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Busy Bee!!

This weeks gig line up is bursting at the seams! Tuesday was a fabulous night down at the Palmy Cafe with gorgeous food and great people!

From now on I've got The Basement (a typical favorite of mine!) TONIGHT!!
Twin Towns tomorrow afternoon, The Loft in Chevron on Saturday and Kirra Kite Fest on Sunday!

Wowie! What a big week... Sleep while your dead I guess?

- Cowgirl in the Sand

Thursday, November 10, 2011

FINALLY EXAMS ARE OVER!!!


The day has come! Now I can get back to bringing you beautiful people that EP thing I keep talking about... Here is a sneak preview of what it maayyyy look like ;)

- Cowgirl in the Sand

Monday, November 7, 2011

Jeg Elske Deg



- Cowgirl in the Sand

EP - Due in 3 weeks!

Can't wait for these exams to be over so I can go back to working on the EP!
So close to finally finishing I can almost taste it!!! Raarrrrrrr
thank you (once again) to the beautiful Steph Costan who has helped me through all of this, would have never been able to do this without you! The photo is of us being all cute and mixing! ;)


- Cowgirl in the Sand

Monday, September 12, 2011

Surfers Paradise Event- Music on Cavill Mall

This weekend!

Saturday 17th September - Music on Cavill Mall

Kim Sheehy
Jaya McLoughlin
Mattie Barker
Gabrielle Lambe
Evan Manttari
Looly Costan

Cavill Mall Stage from 12pm til 6pm!

- Cowgirl in the Sand

Monday, August 22, 2011

Sinners Are Grinners






















(as seen in RAVE Magazine)

- Cowgirl in the Sand

Fairytale on Elm Street

Brisbane musician Erin Harrington, from Miss Elm, talks to Stephanie Pickett about her new EP and upcoming Australia tour.

In light of her readily approaching tour and EP launch, Erin Harrington, lead singer and songwriter for the band formerly known as Erin Louise, pushed for a name that would better represent the new band vibe. As well as staying true to her initials (Erin Louise Margaret), the new name, Miss Elm, also points directly toward the theme of the Elm Tree, which helps to represent the woodland vibe within Harrington’s music. There are also implications towards the Nightmare on Elm Street movie, which Harrington hopes people will specifically reference to, as that will help to drive her quirky vibe.
As the music of Miss Elm is extremely intricate with many thick layers, Harrington assures that she is hoping to get as many band members as possible coming on the upcoming tour beginning in November. “I’ve definitely got a band show for Sydney and the EP launch in Brisbane, it’ll be the whole six piece thing with drums, bass, flute, violin, backing vocals and me on keys and lead vocals”, explains Harrington.
Although Harrington is excited about the entire tour, the Oxford Arts Factory in Sydney and The Chandelier Room in Melbourne are the two venues that she just can’t wait to set up her keyboard at and finally bring her music to.
Over and above being the creative body behind Miss Elm, Harrington played the role of assistant engineer/ producer to Matt Larner throughout the entire recording and production process, as she wanted to be the driving factor behind her music from fruition to completion. The pair got creative in the studio, particularly within the song Little Tree, where percussive sounds were created on literally anything they could experiment with. “I was jumping on an old computer and using my fishnet stockings for percussion sounds, which was really interesting and fun to record”, tells Harrington.
The music of Miss Elm seems to be pulled from various different genres, which spiked my intrigue as to where on earth Harrington gets her inspiration! She rambled off a long list of artists, however paid particular attention to her appreciation of Gabby Young and Other Animals from the UK and the Jazz workings of Netherland’s, Caro Emerald.
The quirkiness within Harrington’s music will be replicated artistically on the night of the band’s EP launch, with a woodland themed stage set up, fairy lights and mystical make up.
It is not in Harrington’s nature to keep things mainstream, so although EP launches tend to be focused solely on one particular band, she has made it clear that she intends to operate the night as an arts hub, where local musicians, artists and film students can showcase their work as a source of networking. “It’ll be an amalgamation of the arts community!” Harrington keenly explains.
For a musician as passionate and hard working as Harrington, it was not surprising to me that she has always wanted to pursue a career in the music industry. “Ever since I was little I was playing every musical instrument in the house, always dreaming about singing on stage. Dad’s a musician and mum’s in theatre; it kind of runs in the family I suppose”, tells Harrington.

Miss Elm will be performing a free gig on the Gold Coast this Saturday Night (27th August) at Swell Tavern for AliveLive TV.
The EP launch will be in West End on 11th of November. (11th of the 11th 2011… Erin’s lucky number!)
You can find Miss Elm’s music, gig dates and other fun facts on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/misselmmusic

Monday, July 25, 2011

clean

"Music washes away the dust of everyday life".
Art Blakey

- Cowgirl in the sand

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Success In Half The Time











(As seen in RAVE Magazine)

- Cowgirl in the sand

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Urthpeople Power - Urthboy Interview























(As seen in RAVE Magazine)

- Cowgirl In The Sand

Landslide Of Love - Avalanche City Interview
















(As seen in RAVE Magazine)

- Cowgirl In The Sand

Monday, June 20, 2011

Pretty.

"Peeling to the lethargic beat of tumescent music, she wore vivid makeup, glitter in her hair and crystalline clothes, all hooks, straps, sequins and secret snappers. The stripper's art needs special garments made to tear away like the husk of a pomegranate. So you do not notice the woman as she is, because you are looking for fulfilment of the mind's eye. You are examining an idea — depravity or pleasure, or their perilous symbiosis." — David Thomson, Suspects, 1985

- Cowgirl in the sand

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Perception

Blink vacantly, stare blankly
Into the troubled minds of others.

- Cowgirl in the Sand.

Friday, May 27, 2011

The Dust



-Cowgirl in the Sand

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Interview with Henry Wagons, from The Wagons.

With a recent wrap up of his US tour and upcoming Australian tour pushing its head eagerly around the corner, Henry Wagons, the main man behind country-rock band Wagons, takes time out of his rapidly moving lifestyle to sift through the ins and outs of what it takes to be part of the rich, alternative country band, that is Wagons.

You’ve just wrapped up your US tour. Were there any real highlights of this experience?
It’s probably out of a bacon and maple flavoured donut in Portland, or a bacon and egg waffle in Austin Texas, gotta be one of those two. Music is kind of the number one thing but one of the things that really helps me through is being able to eat weird local stuff everywhere I go. So, whether it’s me being bamboozled at the lack of vegetables in any meal in The States or really enjoying a fried steak… some pretzel M&Ms. We visited a town called Astoria on the way to Seattle and that’s where The Goonies, Short Circuit and Kindergarten Cop were all filmed in the ‘80s. We stopped off there and had an amazing meal… I had some sort of salmon sandwich next to a river that I recognized from The Goonies so that was probably a highlight too.

So mostly revolving around food?
Mostly! But there were some musical highlights too, there were so many gigs that it kind of all blurred into one. We played 16 gigs in 18 days all across the country, so it was pretty much non stop music and being in checking queues. We had a bunch of great gigs at South By South West and we really enjoyed our time in Canada too at Canadian Music Week. The whole trip was basically revolving around playing in front of the good people that are putting out our record in the US and Canada later in the year. A lot of them hadn’t seen our band before so we’re sort of going there and showing them what they are in for over the coming year or two when we’ll be touring the album over there. It all went really well, they all seemed to really like the band, so I’m very pleased that they’re into it.

You begin your Australian tour soon. How are you as a band preparing?
Pretty much the same way we did for the US, by rehearsing and eating. We are in the process of getting up the new show as we speak and kind of adding in a new song or two. Tasmania’s coming up in one and a half weeks and they are going to be our guinea pigs because we’re trying the new show out there for the very first time and we’re all really excited. The American tour and the tour I just did were kind of revolving around the Bluesfest in Byron Bay, we were mostly still playing old material, but in the tour that starts at the end of the month we’ll be mostly playing new stuff.

Are you more nervous about the show in Melbourne because it’s your hometown?
I’m always really excited to play at home, playing a venue that I’ve grown up going to… it’s one of the best venues in the city, The Forum Theatre, so I’m very excited to be playing a headline show there. We’ve played a couple of times but as a support, so it’ll be amazing to play a headline show.

It’s the sort of venue where they put your name up in the old plastic, dusty cinema letters out the front, it makes me very excited to have my name up in lights so I’m really looking forward to it. I get a couple of things… the Melbourne show is at the end of the tour, it’s the very last of 20 shows so I’m excited for that, because at that stage I’ll know all the songs really well and mastered the set more or less. I’m excited to play the new material and it’ll be fresh and edgy and at the forefront of my mind, it’ll be a new experience at the start of the tour and that’ll be exciting to watch I hope and by the end we’ll have found our stride, so by the time we get home it’ll be really fun.



For me as long as I have some sort of raised platform and faces in my direction I get excited. Whether there’s 20 people or 5000 people it doesn’t really matter to me I’ll give it my all as long as I have somebody’s attention span at my disposal. I get just as excited playing at “shitsville” Toronto as I do playing the Forum Theatre in Melbourne, it doesn’t bother me.

Your on stage performances have been described as extremely energetic, are you like that all the time or is this something you usually have to gear yourself up for?
I mean, I do a few jumps on the spot behind stage seconds before I go, in a pretty Balboa fashion, but it more or less comes pretty naturally. Once the lights are on and the smoke machine hisses I’m there. It’s quite second nature to me, I get excited pretty easy!

With your upcoming tour around Australia, is there anywhere in the country you haven’t toured before?
We’re more or less visiting everywhere we’ve been. In our past for sure, there have been some low lights, but there are some real diamonds in the rough that we are so excited to visit. I’m really looking forward to getting down south of Perth and Toowoomba again; I’ve had some great times there. Lismore and all that Northern NSW part of town is really beautiful and I’m looking forward to all of that. You never know where your next good show or time is going to be specifically. I’m even guilty of having a good time in the abject desolation of Canberra… haha! So that just goes to show you how random it can be.

Are all the people on your front cover part of the band and going on tour with you?
Well actually most of the people on the front cover aren’t in the band they are just members of the ‘Wagons Cult’. On our previous record we had kind of a cult-like vibe on the front of the cover and this next album, the one I just released is supposed to be a sequel to that in that the cult has gotten a little bit bigger. It’s moved from the setting of ploughing the fields into a sort of screwed up mansion, and the cults got a picture a bit more fucked up on the brink of collapse. Most of those extras are for effect purposes, rather than being in the actual band. However, our band is quite big, there are six of us in the group. Our touring members are quite flexible in that it can go down to a four, or even sometimes three-piece at any given point, but it’s still always fun. If there are less members, we just make more noise.

Are the songs predominately written by you? Or is it more of a collaborative process?
The songs are written by me and I sort of flesh out the general arrangement with the band. They definitely are crucial to the overall sound, but I’m the major songwriter. I like to think that it’s more of a benevolent dictatorship, everyone has a say and my boys are the first people I seek outside opinion from. So they don’t really have a hand in the songwriting but they definitely get their dirty mitts all over it.

How long did it take you to write the music for the album?
The songwriting process is quite fast for me, I’m not very prolific, I’m not someone who sits around the campfire, or shows up to someone’s house and asks them to listen to four new songs that I’ve written this morning, I don’t just spit out songs. I seem to let the embryo of the song linger in my mind for months, until it comes to actually completing them by necessity when it’s time for another album release. I have them sort of bubble away in the cauldron of my mind for months but they actually come to realization and completion pretty quick. I’d say the actual writing process I had together over about a month and then we spent a couple of months in and out of the studio finishing the album. So all in all, the turnover was pretty fast.

Do you have a favourite track on the album?
I think that album is pretty turbulent in the sense that there are quite a few moods that are covered in the record, which kind of reflect where the album has come from. There’s a whole mix of influences and a whole mix of those calm and then hectic kind of moods on there.

My favourite song changes depending on what kind of sound I’m after or mood I’m in, if I’m a bit frazzled after having just spoken to someone about my mobile bill, I may need a calm and tranquil song like My Daydream, but if I’m gearing myself up for a night out I might prefer to put on something like Down Low. They are all my babies, I can’t really tell the difference. I feel as if I have ten healthy, beautiful children prancing around in front of me and I can’t choose which one I like the best.




Did you play a role in the production of the album?
I did! See the production was a collaboration between the band, Cornel Wilczek and myself. We all put our two cents in. Most of the mixing and production was done with basically Cornel and I. Sitting on this plush ‘70s vintage couch exchanging weird ideas over three weeks, just fiddling with sounds and making pristine sounds screwed up and screwed up sounds pristine. Cornel was an absolute genius at distorting and distressing sounds.

I recorded a lot of it at his studio through the most Hi-fi equipment: the best microphones, and preamps into a really high-tech rig. We spent hours making it sound distorted and old. In the lead up to this album I listened to a lot of old Nashville stuff like George Jones and there are a few songs that bare those influences pretty strongly. The idea of using old analog filters, distortions and cube saturations was really exciting to me.

Are there any bands that you feel are a massive influence to your music?
Well I think that some of the biggest figures are the bedazzled, Las Vegas, glitzy, singer-songwriter, entertainers. They are not the most fashionable influences but give me some Elvis Presley and some Roy Orbison, or heading to the more credible side Neil Young and Mel Haggard. Then there’s the credible meeting the bedazzled, like Porter Wagoner, who is an amazing influence too. Basically, a lot of those old ‘70s daggy dudes, who generally only make an appearance in your parent’s record collection. I have somehow managed to absorb them as well and I love them!

You’ve obviously had a lot of national and international success with your band… did you ever think you would get so popular?
No, I’m always surprised and very grateful, I’m like that when I get any attention whatsoever, so the fact that audiences seem to be building and there are people offshore that seem keen to throw me around The States, yeah I’m really thankful for that. When I first started this group I did not start making dark, outlawed country-rock music in order to become popular, I just wanted to scratch an itch in my songwriting and here I am many years later, doing it full-time! I never thought this would be possible, I didn’t even aspire to it, I’ve just sort of fallen into it and I’m very glad I have, it’s a great life!

What inspired the name Wagons?
It goes back to when I first started this group, I actually got into music from the recording and production side of things, rather than being a virtuoso player or singer. The first thing I ever made was actually a cassette tape and it was a bunch of songs inspired by the fact that my now drummer got me a late Johnny Cash record, American Recordings. This, combined with the fact that I was reading Cormac Mccarthy’s Border Trilogy at the time, which are kind of psychedelic, arty Western novels, made me want to make a screwed up country sort of theme.

I ended up writing recording the songs and passing around this cassette to my friends, but I didn’t know what to call it. For Christmas someone had given me a collection of Western short stories and all I knew is I wanted a short name (because the stamp I was using for the front of this cassette tape had large letters) that reflects the sort of dark, Western, fucked-up-ness of that tape. I was scanning through the index of all the cowboy stories, you know ‘Six Shooter’, ‘Horses On The Horizon’, ‘Leather Cats’, and the name I decided to choose relatively at random was ‘Wagons’. So that was that and ever since I made the imprint of that first ink stamp it sort of just stuck.

Henry Wagons plays at the free Mess+Noise Lunchbox gig at 1pm on Friday 20th May at the Workers Club in Melbourne

FasterLouder presents Wagons’ ‘Rumble, Shake And Tumble’ tour:

Workers Club, 51 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
Friday 27th May – Royal Oak, Launceston
Saturday 28th May – Republic Bar, Hobart
Friday 3nd June – Wheatsheaf Hotel, Adelaide
Sunday 5th June – Wheatsheaf Hotel, Adelaide
Wednesday 15th June – X-Wray, Fremantle (Henry Wagons solo)
Thursday 16th June – Prince of Wales, Bunbury
Friday 17th June – Settlers Tavern, Margaret River
Saturday 18th June – The Bird, Perth
Sunday 19th June – Mojo’s, Fremantle
Thursday 23rd June – Transit Bar, Canberra
Friday 24th June – Clarendon Guesthouse, Katoomba
Saturday 25th June – Annandale Hotel, Sydney
Thursday 30th June – Gollan Hotel, Lismore
Friday 1st July – The Cow, Toowoomba
Saturday 2nd July – Hi-Fi Bar, Brisbane
Friday 8th July – Karova Lounge, Ballarat
Saturday 9th July – National Hotel, Geelong
Saturday 16th July – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

(Originally Found on FasterLouder: http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/features/28599/Wagons?page=2)

- Cowgirl In The Sand

Sunday, May 15, 2011

MOM'S THE WORD






















(As seen in RAVE Magazine - Brisbane Street Press)

- Cowgirl In The Sand

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Noah And The Whale MOBY FINK

















(As Seen In Rave)
- Cowgirl In The Sand

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Working Holiday























(as seen in RAVE Magazine)

- Cowgirl in the Sand

Monday, March 28, 2011

Fish

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." Albert Einstien.

-Cowgirl in the Sand

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Homeless.

Positive. Positive. Positive. Positive. Positive.
We will not be our predecessors.

and I will never stop.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Them.

They all know something I don't.

- Cowgirl in the Sand.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Mixed Bag- YEO


















(As seen in Rave Magazine - Brisbane Street Press)

- Cowgirl in the Sand.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

LOVE IS IN THE WATER






















(As seen in Rave Magazine - Brisbane Street Press)

- Cowgirl In The Sand

LOVING SUMMER























(As seen in Rave Magazine)

- Cowgirl In The Sand

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

UNTHANK YOU

After literally just returning home from the recording studio, Becky Unthank, one half of the forefront of The Unthanks talks to Stephanie Pickett about her tour in Australia and the production of their latest album Last.

Don’t be fooled by the title of The Unthanks latest album, Last, as Becky reassures that although a lot of people have confused it as being a farewell album, it most certainly is not. According to Becky, it is much the opposite, where herself and sister Rachel are constantly looking for new songs to record and perform. On top of writing new music, The Unthanks are constantly progressing with work from their previous albums and have found a way to make it all fit in with their busy work regimes. “We were mostly developing our music on stage but I think now, because we are so busy, with any time we get, we work on new and old songs… so the one month we are in Australia we will complete our project for a film on ship building in England”.
With a band as motivated and non-restrictive as this one, it is difficult to categorize their music into one genre as they are constantly exploring new styles and developing on those styles. Becky reiterates this fact, “When asked what music we play I always say folk music because that’s what we’ve grown up doing and at the end of the day when we look for songs, they are folk songs most of the time, but it’s just so hard to categorize because folk music revokes certain stereotypes and I feel like I haven’t justified the music in describing it in such a way”. The fact that the band has such a wide array of musical influences ranging anywhere from Sufjan Stevens to Robert Wyatt, is a good indication of why there seems to be such a fluidity and lack of limitation within the style of their music.
Music with such edge is constantly progressing and Becky believes that although this album has a lot of fundamentals from its predecessors, there are also a lot of new and exciting elements. “In some ways it’s similar to the last album because it’s got brass, a whole string section and a bit of drums, bass and double bass, but I played my boyfriend a track from the new album and his reaction was really funny, he was like, ‘Ooh, you’ve gone back to the dark side… it’s like you’ve gone back to the band!’ So I think in some ways our music has improved since our last album. It’s hard to say we are going to do a particular song in a certain style, they just kind of happen the way that they happen, but I am pleased because although I loved the last album I missed elements of the album before”.
A humble Becky admits that although she is excited about revisiting the major cities of Australia including Sydney and Melbourne, her most sacred memory of her last visit was during the time she spent in rural Australia, Yachandandah to be more specific. “It was a really little tucked away festival, so there was so much to explore, I can’t wait to get back over there”.

Tour dates and music available on their official website:
http://www.rachelunthank.com/
Or check out their latest music on Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/rachelunthank


STEPHANIE PICKETT

(As seen in Rave Magazine - Brisbane Street Press)

- Cowgirl In The Sand

Live the life you lust.