Industrial Strength: Inside Track – Sept 12, 2013

Cut Copy explains the spirit behind Free Your Mind 

Cut Copy’s fourth album Free Your Mind, out on November 1 through Modular Recordings, was recorded in its hometown of Melbourne. The follow up to the Grammy-nominated and ARIA-winningZonoscope was inspired by rock’s two global Summers of Love.

The first, in 1967, started in San Francisco as a reaction ’against the Vietnam War where the hippies’ idealistic view of society was manifested through politics, drugs, music, creativity and a sense of social justice. The second Summer of Love, in 1988 and 89 in the UK, came in the wake of Maggie Thatcher’s harsh rule. Pop culture’s response was through acid house, ecstasy, raves, smiley faces and revolutionary fervor.

Both the summers were exciting in the way they celebrated communally. Free Your Mind embraces the spirit of the times and also imagines what the next youth revolution will sound like. Cut Copy frontman Dan Whitford, who produced the album explains, “The concept of freedom is one that’s universally positive and timeless, and whatever each person’s version of that freedom is, it’s a good thing to be reminding ourselves to be free.”

With this spirit in mind, they’ve released early material in different ways. They cut the grooves of album track Let Me Show You Love into 120 bespoke dubplates for a lucky few who were at the right place at the right time. YouTube user debaser22 got the keys to share the experience with fans all over, uploading a crude document of his first listen. For the album’s title track, six billboards were placed around the world (In Australia, the UK, Chile, Mexico City, Detroit and the California desert) and anyone who traveled to one of these billboards could listen to the song via their smart phone on the band’s website. The site has videos of the billboards.

Darren Middleton takes indie route 

After 20 years with Universal Music with Powderfinger, Darren Middleton has decided to go down the independent road for his debut solo album Translations. His priority was to release the album worldwide at the same time through online services.

“In the past, I often found it frustrating when releases were staggered overseas,” he posted, referring to the Powderfinger days. He’s just released the first single Let’s Go (see darrenmiddleton.com) which he says “began life in a 16th century bell tower in Florence, Italy.”

This week (Sept 11) he showcased the album at BigSound in Brisbane at Black Bear Lodge with a band featuring Marty Brown (Clare Bowditch), John Hedigan (Something for Kate) and Jamie Barlow (The Melodics/Private Life).

Singer songwriters release double-A cassingle (yes really) 

Sydney’s Richard Cuthbert and Brisbane’s Edward Guglielmino are idiosyncratic, at best. They met at an open mic night in a rundown bar in Berlin and been close since. When they decided on a joint tour of seven dates along the East Coast, they thought it’d be groovy to release a double A side cassingle, It can be downloaded from their wbesites or bought at their shows.

Guglielmino recalls when he first heard a Cuthbert track on triple j and rushing to Rocking Horse Records to order it. “We thought we should try and replicate that ’anticipation’ for a song. This experience will be nostalgic for some – for others it might even be the first time they experience a wait time around hearing a tune, and I am sure that others will just find this frustrating. However I think it is important for people the same age as my sister [20] to experience waiting to hear a song. For many this may seem a bit abstract, but I think most music fans can recall, the joy of hearing a song after waiting for it.”

Stone Temple Pilots get their joy back

Stone Temple Pilots and Scott Weiland might be suing each other and dissing each other via the media after Weiland got sacked in February because of the “toxic” atmosphere he created. But it’ll be a different story when they play Australia early next year.

New singer Chester Bennington, who joined STP in April while staying with Linkin Park, says that onstage and on their upcoming EP, everyone’s having a good time and smiling. “The fact that we all get on so well, we enjoy each others’ company we have same work ethic and we enjoy what we’re doing, it’s a trip in a lot of ways,” he toldRolling Stone.