This is non-stop baby

Kimbra. Remember that name.

It's both a question and a demand.

Perhaps you recognise the name from previous posts (such as our first full interview) or any one of her amazing live shows. You might know her minor hit Settle Down, which scored a spot just outside triple j's Hottest 100 at the start of the year. Also winning the coveted 'Best Use of A Tampon' award in this blog's very own Good, Bad & James Blunt Awards 2010. Or perhaps her lending her vocal talents to Miami Horror's I Look To You.

However, if it's drawing a blank, not a name you find synonymous with neo-soul pop of the highest order or one you're paricularly familiar with. It soon will be.

That was a bit Yoda wasn't it? Look, the point is, Kimbra's got a new single out and you should really check it out before she postively explodes on the music scene. It's called Cameo Lover and it's available as a handy little EP right now on iTunes. There's also a brilliant accompanying video - which you probably saw last A/V Room post.

But it's so good that I'm just going to post it again:

Yeah, that just happened.

...aaaaaaaaaaaaand we're back

Two weeks. Ouch. Boy am I shite at updating my loyal fans (and capitalising on new ones). The more astute among you have probably already realised why this is. Two words: Comedy Festival.

Aside from a busy and dare I say successful season - actually yeah, it was successful and here's the proof - there was all those other brilliant shows to see and experience.

Aside from the scads of brilliantly funny shows from the likes of Sam Simmons, Tom Ballard, Steve Sheehan, Maria Bamford and Bo Burnham, here are some other MICF highlights - in no particular order or detail.

*Scatalogical humour with Paul Foot at a Hungry Jack's at 4am

*Secret Santoni Cabaretoni at The Tuxedo Cat

*Good friend/medical practitioner/living partner Dr. Professor Neal Portenza getting a special mention in the Golden Gibbo nominations.

*Dr. Brown's Clown Classes: tough, revealing and rewarding.

*Reggie Watts murdering the HiFi bar

*single-handedly starting a crowd singalong of Come On Eileen on the final night of Festival Club prior to Dave Callan's DJ set.

There's probably many more besides, but most importantly are all the wonderful people who came out and supported Al's Music Rant. If you were there, I thank you, I had brilliant audiences every night - no matter the size - and without a good audience, there is no point. Your laughter, support (and ticket revenue) are what keeps it all ticking along. So here's to the next show...

Now it's time to bring some life back to the pages that inspired the show to begin with.

The A/V Room

Remember that little collection of music video posts a while back?

No? ...really? it was quite memorable, got a lot of feedback about that one. I have a real love/hate relationship with music videos, as detailed by the lil' sorta-manifesto accompanying the original post. But collating the best videos scattered across the internet for my own nefarious purposes was a lot of fun. Plus in the intervening weeks there's been some more that have actually tickled my fancy, of course there's a million more that I hated, but let's stick to the good stuff shall we?

The Biggest, Scariest Interview Yet (Part 2/2)

Sorry for the dealy in broadcasting, the post-Comedy Festival show blues has been swift and brutal. Think of it in equal and apposite correlation to the show's success. And while there may be some new blood to the site (hopefully? in which case, hello and welcome); I really have been doing my best to get this second half up, so no more mucking about...

So, you’ve (hopefully) seen Big Scary as part of their Four Seasons headline tour, so you’ve seen their costume-changing sense-of-humour, you’ve seen their excellent taste in support acts and their obvious brilliance. But what next? With the Four Seasons behind them, it’s time to focus on that ever-pressing debut album. In Part Two of our in-depth interview, strummer Tom Iansek and drummer Jo Syme talk about their writing and recording process, their plans for the future, as well as reflecting on how far they've come. 

Twinkle Twinkle (Update)

Thought it was time to check in with a quick update/ego-stroking session.

As you probably know by now, Al's Music Rant has been playing as part of the 2011 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. What you might not know is that there seem to be quite a few people (besides myself) who will tell you that it's a musical-come-comedy extravaganza well worth your clams and your lung power.

The Pun seemed to enjoy the show. Immensely. In particular commenting on its evolution from these humble pages to a live show. They call it a 'blistering success' with 'seemingly limitless inventiveness.' Lovely. But I particulary being noted that I rock, and to be saluted. As do you The Pun, as do you.

Culture zine The Enthusiast were a little slow on the uptake - here's the short and Tweet of it.
But now the full review by the wonderful Mel Campbell is up online. She calls it "Intelligent" and "highly entertaining" saying "Newstead's eye for the absurd marries perfectly with his shrewd ear for genre cliches." How many MICF shows can you say feature a wedding between body parts? Boom. Recommendation.

Then there's the Herald Sun's David Swift, who kindly gave my blog abilities a gentle rubbing in his four-star review of the show. His favourite bit? many. My favourite bit? "his mash-ups of black lyrics on white power chords were masterful" 

Read the full review here

Speaking of said mash-ups, I woke up at an ungodly-hour to perform said song and have a chat on triple j Brekkie with the wonderful Tom & Alex. It was an absolute ball, coveting the usually hip triple j listeners' tastes with references to Ke$ha, Rogue Traders and even the theme from The Neverending Story. If you didn't catch the madness live, you can always stream or download the podcast over at the boy's page (or direct link here); or proving that radio is clearly NOT a visual medium, here's the song in YouTubage

Finally, some love from comedy blogger I Like Your Shtick who is charting a wonderfully written course through this year's MICF. The nicities didn't stop with Al's Music Rant, but also towards the show I directed, Patrick Miller's Archibald Wheeler Whets The Whistle.

Which brings us to the point where I tell you that tickets are going quickly for both Al's Music Rant and Archie, so get in quick. 

Bookings available here:

Al's Music Rant | TryBooking

Archibald Wheeler Whets The Whistle | Ticketmaster

If you've already seen the shows, there's a few things you can do (aside from coming down again), you can tell all your friends how much you liked it, or check out some more great comedy with my MICF Picks.

There's plenty of amazing, talented stuff out there, you've just gotta have a bit of a dig, not too dissimilar to the music world, no?