Today turned out to be a very busy day. It always happens this way. Monday is a holiday, Tuesday and Wednesday are not at all busy, and then everything comes up all at once on Thursday. The actual days may change, but it's always this way right before vacation. And I have to go to this work event thing tonight that I really don't want to go to. So my day will only end at like 10pm. Fun. So today I was very stressed and busy and won't be done any time soon. So I'm playing you some lovely, de-stressifying music that I've been wanting to share.
We'll go in chronological order, so starting with Rhye. Rhye put out a really-damn-good album last year, called Blood, and has now put out a pretty-good EP, called Spirit. This one lies somewhere between the nice-but-unimpressive level of the first album, and pretty-damn-good level of the second album. But there is one pretty-damn-good song on this EP in particular, called Wicked Dreams. So we start with that today. I love this song. I love the the pick up at about 2:45, the the little loopy guitar at like 3:30, but really just all of it. It just keeps getting better, this song.
And then we've got Aurora. I may have mentioned her earlier this year because I went to her concert and it was really good. Really fun. And there were floating, light-up jellyfish. She's a total weirdo and I love it. So, similar to Rhye, she put out an EP last year, called Infections of a Different Kind (Step I), followed by an album this year, called A Different Kind Of Human (Step II). Last year I had shared the best song off of that EP, Queendom, which is probably still her best song. But now the title track of the new EP, A Different Kind Of Human, is right up there with my favorite songs by her. So that's your track 2 for today.
Finally time to catch up on the trip I took with my parents! So after their time in Sydney we went on this train called The Ghan, which is a train that runs straight through the middle of the country from Darwin in the north to Adelaide in the south, taking 4 days / 3 nights. It's kind of like a cruise on rails. You have your cabin on the train and all your meals and drinks and stuff are included, and then you get off every day for excursions, which are also included in the price of the trip. I had been really wanting to do this since I first learned about it last year, and I thought it was the perfect thing to do with my parents. A lot of the activities in Australia are outdoorsy and quite physical, which can be tough on older folks, but this catered specifically to older folks so it wasn't too physically strenuous. It also takes you right through the heart of the outback to show you some of the most desolate and inaccessible parts of the country, which would normally take hours and hours over days and days to do if you drove by yourself. So this way you can just relax and do it, with showers and meals cooked for you.
The trip from north to south makes a stop in Katherine the first day to visit the Katherine Gorge, then in Alice Springs the second day, and Coober Pedy on the third day, before dropping you off in Adelaide on the fourth morning.
The first stop, Katherine Gorge, is in the Nitmiluk National Park, and is known as Nitmiluk Gorge in the local aboriginal language. We just had a short cruise down the Gorge, followed by a quick walk up to see some ancient paintings that date back thousands of years. Northern Australia is famous for it's crocodiles in the water, so we were told to be careful, but we were there in the mid-afternoon heat, so sadly did not get to see any for ourselves. But the gorge itself is (dare I say it...) gorgeous. It's all these cliffs cut by rivers at 90 degree angles, and the way the guide explained it there are natural breaks in the rock which ran perpendicular to each other, and at some point there was seismic activity that pushed it all up. So imagine if you score half a mango then flip it inside out. Kind of like that. Then the rivers run in between the cubes of mango. And the cave paintings were also really impressive, mainly in scale. They were pretty basic as far as art goes, but some of them were these massive paintings done about 20 feet up on a cliff face, and nobody is actually sure how they got there. There's plenty of theories, but no real answer.
Then it was back on the train for dinner and sleep, before our big day in Alice Springs. We opted to pay for an upgraded excursion this day, so we hopped on a little 6-seater plane and flew over to Uluru, which you may know as Ayers Rock. It's about an hour flight, but they take you for a scenic flight around the rock. And it's not the only rock there. You can see some other ones way off in the distance, but about a 45 min drive (or a 5 min flight) away are The Olgas, also known as Kata Tjuta. This is a similar set of rock monoliths, but while Uluru is one massive rock, Kata Tjuta is made up of like 35 different monoliths spread out over a larger area creating valleys in between. Both are sacred sites for the local aboriginal communities, but because Uluru is the largest monolith in the world it is more famous. What pictures you've seen of it actually only show the tip. It's kind of like an iceberg, and it extends down into the ground for like 2.5 kilometers. While Uluru itself is very impressive, I actually think Kata Tjuta is more interesting. It looks completely different from every angle, and I wish we had time to explore the valleys between the monoliths, but with our limited time we only got a tour around Uluru. Which was great. The guide was fantastic and extremely knowledgeable about the local traditions, people and environment. It was probably the best information I've gotten since moving to Australia about aboriginal populations in Australia. And she recommended me some books and stuff so I can learn more. So it was extremely informative and very impressive to see this world famous landmark that I've been wanting to see since I was a kid. After the flight back they had arranged an outback barbecue for us for dinner at an old telegraph station, that came with camel rides (there are thousands of wild camels all over the outback, not that we saw any, but they're there), and an astronomy lesson. It was a really nice evening, then back onto the train for one more night.
The last day was in Coober Pedy, which is a famous opal mining town. But it's real claim to fame is that it's an underground town. At least for tourists that's the interesting part, anyway. Homes and shops and churches and everything have been carved out underground to keep out of the heat, because it can get over 110 F / 50 C in summer. So they took us around town and showed us some of the mines and underground houses and stuff, which was interesting enough, but definitely the least interesting day for me. Then it was sundowners and canapes in the middle of nowhere before hopping back on the train for our last night.
Sadly, our stops in Darwin and Adelaide on the way in and out were just airport stops, no time to actually explore, but we did plenty on the train and had a really wonderful time. I would highly recommend it to anyone who comes to Australia. Although it is definitely geared at very old people. There were very few people under 50 on the train. Like 6, myself included.
Then it was back to Sydney for a couple more nights to go to our family bar (there's a bar called Minskys here!), do some souvenir shopping, pack, and see the Vivid lights since it had just started. Overall, really great trip with my parents. Very nice time together, really relaxed trip, they really liked Australia, and I hope to have them back soon. But before that, I'm going home to see them Saturday.
And before that, I'm sharing music with you. Today is 3 good songs from 3 decent artists. First up is FOXTROTT. I don't actually remember where I heard FOXTROTT, but I heard the song Better With You and loved it. This is off a set of 3 EPs she released in 2018, then repackaged at the end of the year into an album titled Meditations I-II-III. Overall a decent listen, but Better With You is by far the best song, so we'll just share that.
Then we'll move away from the glitchy electronics and into some good old singer-songwriter territory. First we move from Montreal (FOXTROTT) way down south to New Zealand, with Aldous Harding. She just put out her third album, Designer, a couple of months ago. The first single off of this album was The Barrel, which came out last year and is fantastic and I don't know how I haven't already shared. It's such a great song. So good that it got me super excited for the album and made me go back and listen to her other two albums. And I'm sad to say she's a bit boring. But The Barrel is fantastic. I have to share it with you.
And lastly we're sticking with singer-songwriter stylings, but moving back in time and back up north to the US with Norma Tanega. The Californian is most famous a a songwriter (and partner) for Dusty Springfield, but she also released her own album called Walkin' My Cat Named Dog back in 1966. That was her only album, and then she's been working as a percussionist and musician on other projects since then, but never released another album of her own. But I've just started watching the new What We Do In The Shadows TV show (which you should also do) and they use her song You're Dead as the theme song. And it's a great song. Short and sweet, classic folk sound, like most of her album. The album is definitely worth a listen, it's very good, but nothing that really stands out as unique. Just good old folk music.
This is going to be a busy week at work. Today would have been super slow, actually, but I set up a bunch of planning meetings because we're moving to a new office very soon. Which means it turned out to be very busy, and it's now almost time to go home and I've finally got some free time to sit down and think about writing. But that also means I don't have, and won't have, time to write about the rest of the trip with my parents before next week. But that's ok, I want to write about it, so I'll definitely find the time.
But today I have to share Kelsey Lu with you. So this woman has been making music for a few years now. She came onto my radar big time with the release of her single Due West last year, which is an amazing song. And that is the first song you get to listen to today. I'm honestly surprised it wasn't on my blog last year, but now I'll make up for it.
So good, right? I can't even tell you how many times I've listened to that song. That's the first single off of her new album, Blood, but when it came out nobody knew what or when the album was about. It was just a single. So I went back and listened to her Church EP from 2016, which was the only available music at the time. And I wasn't so impressed. It was a bit esoteric for me. I just didn't get it. But I was very excited about hearing Blood when it finally came out. And it has been something of a grower. But grown to the point where it is one of my favorite albums of the year, and I find myself going back to listen to it and wanting to listen to it more than any other album so far this year. If I haven't heard it for a couple of weeks, I just get an urge to. That's a good sign.I'd say she's definitely my favorite "new" artist this year, or at least it's my favorite debut album this year, and will definitely be in my top 10.
She's also got a crazy story, which in short boils down to being raised super conservative in North Carolina, but growing up making music (specifically the cello, which is her first instrument, but she's taught herself much more) then running away and becoming a stripper and making her own music and eventually getting to LA and getting a record deal. In a nutshell. And she is now one of the performers at Vivid Sydney, and I went to her concert last night. And it is probably one of the best shows I've been to. I would put her up in my top 5 concerts for sure. She was incredible. The best song of the night was the opener, Dreams, which, incidentally is off of Church. An EP which I now looooooooooooooooove. So much love for it. After getting really into Blood I went back to listen more and now I get it. Now I love it. It's incredible. She's incredible.
So she started the show by walking out in the dark among the audience (it was in a small room), before getting on stage and spending the next 10+ minutes by herself building up this song. The recorded version is only like 8 minutes, so we got the extended cut. And I could have kept listening. It nearly brought me to tears. Her voice is incredible, her music is incredible, her theatrics are incredible. Seriously if you have the chance, go see her. Do not miss this woman.
Mark June 2nd in your calendars, because today is the day Jai Paul returned. I've written about him before. Like 7 years ago. When he only released 2 singles ever. Both of which were incredible and you need to go listen to them. After those 2 singles, he was working on an album and it got leaked in 2013, so he just kind of retreated from the world of making music. Which was extremely sad. Because his music is so extremely good. But he has now come to terms with it, and he's also apparently started a production space with his brother called the Paul Institute and has been producing for some other people, and is now putting his music out in the world again. Starting with the leaked album, titled Leaked Album 04-13 (Bait Ones), which is now fully available on Spotify. And along with it came two new songs, Do You Love Her Now and He that I just listened to for the first time, and feel obligated to share with you. They may not be as good as Jasmine or BTSTU, but super tasty tracks. Very sexy. Very nice. He says there is much more music from the time of the leak that he was working on, which is where these two singles came from. So hopefully that means this time he'll be in control and be able to release his own album on his own terms, and we will get Jai Paul back in the world. Dream come true.
