This is the video for “Tapes & Money” by Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs.
If you forgive the “feet don’t fail me now” sample at around the 1:13 mark, this is really quite a good song. Orlando (TEED) is also kinda hot, but that likely speaks more of my increasingly odd taste in men, than anything else. Maybe I have a thing for men who do live sets on their own?
This is the video for “Candy Walls” by Trust, from their album TRST.
I’m an absolute sucker for the song’s monotonous 90s vocals running through soaring 80s space synth. I really am. The rest of the songs on their album are also pretty rad, especially “Sulk” and “Gloryhole”. Pitchfork also managed a pretty good album review, for once, that I could agree with.
Canada is killing it musically right now. Grimes, d’Eon, Austra and now Trust, in particular, are doing an excellent job of making me proud to be Canadian.
It’s true. We did. To clarify though, we wanted to eat burgers there and then take some travellers away with us.
Huxtaburger is on Smith St in Collingwood, Melbourne. I liked the simple Cosby Show-themed menu, the wagyu meat patties (I struggle to think of wagyu as pedestrian as beef, when wagyu is so much more), and I liked the way the burgers held together as you munched your way through. The prices weren’t unreasonable and the IKEA kids stools were perfect for encouraging quick turnover at the tables outside the place.
We started with the Theo burger each. Double wagyu patties with cheese, mustard, pickle and bacon. The bacon made it saltier than it needed to be but it was an otherwise indulgent burger. The Huxtaburger (read: house cheeseburger) was a lot better, being better balanced in every way.
As much as I enjoyed the burgers, and this is something I mentioned while we were still at Huxtaburger, is that they just weren’t anywhere near as good as Blacows burgers. I know thats an unfair comparison, but an unavoidable one when you’ve had Blacows.
This is “I Want Your Love” by Chad Valley from his album Equatorial Ultravox. He opened his set in Tokyo with this song and I was instantly a lovestruck teenager.
Who knew one man with a keyboard and two microphones could sonically dominate a small Japanese club with the most energetic chillwave music? All of it was amazing. Even the “Pocari Sweat” written on the front of his keyboard.
If you haven’t seen this man live, you really need to make the effort to do so. Easily the most performance I’ve seen since in recent years. A bold claim, I know, but by no means unwarranted.
Also, amen for Japanese editions. I picked up his album post-gig and it was chock full of remixes I’ve been chasing forever online. The Dreamtrak remix of “How Does It Feel Now?” is exceptional, as is the Trophy Wife remix of the same song. I’ve already mentioned how good the Wintercoats remix of “Shell Suite” is, so yeah.
This is footage someone shot of Trophy Wife the night we saw them in Tokyo.
They opened for Chad Valley as part of a double bill in a venue that was a mission to find and could fit maybe 40-50 people. Thankfully we found the place, the crowd were into it, and their set was just fantastic. I’d rattle off a setlist but they wouldn’t mean a lot. Just imagine lots more of whats in the video above. It was so very very good.
Also, take special note of the drummer, second from the left. He was hot as fuck on the night, but English in that way that says he’d sooner glass me than say hi if I chatted him up on the dance floor.
The song in the youtube clip above is “Canopy Shade” from Trophy Wife’s EP Bruxism, which you can hear better below.
Went for a wander with Rodney through Namba to find coffee or something and we saw this.
Now, that’s a car park.
This is a photo of the second best burger to ever pass my lips.
Blacows in the Ebisunishi area of Tokyo make black wagyu burgers so awesome your soul will weep with unimaginable joy. Honest. To. God. The first bite was akin to Buddha touching earth with his right hand. Just… wow.
The first time we went there, I had the bacon cheeseburger. Although the bacon made it saltier than I would have liked, I was still astonished by how good it was. The second time we went there, I had the cheeseburger and this was unmitigated joy with every bite.
If you like burgers or Japan, I can’t recommend more highly heading to Blacows.
So, we grabbed frozen gyoza from Max Valu while in Osaka, only to realise we couldn’t read the instructions. So, I had to email Tim to find out what to do and then had to get Piers to follow Tim’s instructions for using their microwave / grill thing. I don’t know if they tasted any good.
