Triple J Lowest 200

Every year Australias favourite ABC affiliated radio station hosts a popularity contest. It’s kind of like the charts, except this is based solely on what people vote. I suppose it’s a yearly musical election of sorts!

Anyway, after this countdown, there’s usually a debate of some kind on a musicians facebook group I’m part of. The TLDR is usually along the lines of Triple J is garbage and everything voted in is garbage and everything is garbage. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that many of the hot tunes aren’t my cup of tea, but just because I don’t like tea, doesn’t mean other people don’t (and I have no right to determine what tea anyone should drink!)

This year the debate got me thinking - Triple J is all about supporting Australian Independent artists, and they have access to this massive data base of votes. Why not have a follow up show showcasing the music that ended up at the bottom?

There are pros and cons to this - The biggest obvious pro is a segment like this would support the unknown underdog artists that would never make a blip on a mildly mainstream musical list like this. It would literally be career changing.

Saying that, there are also two main con’s I can see. The first is who’s to say there aren’t 1000 tunes that came equal last? The other con is the lower scoring tunes may not be of a professional standard, which is empirical for the success of a show such as this (and also to uphold the reputation of Triple J, and the support they provide for artists trying to break into the scene)

Perhaps instead of a “pure” lowest 200, they could do a curated show based upon tunes in the lowest 200? I don’t know, I don’t have access to their data base, nor the social capital to make this happen!

Speaking of bands, I’m #representing the Button Collective in this shoot! This is my modified Button Band Shirt that was once thrust upon me before a gig we played in Bellingen. Twas a fun night, and tis a comfy shirt! You can listen to our tunes below (and yes, in this case, totally judge our music by a photo shoot ;P)

Tiny Owl Forest

Boy has it been an eventful few days. I'm not one to seek out adventure, but when you're a musician adventure seems to seek you out, particularly if you're the type of musician who tends to play their fair share of festivals and go on their fair share of tours. 

I've spent the time just between Christmas and now travelling to Byron Bay Falls festival to play gigs with the Button Collective, finding out my tiny dog noodle went missing and being unable to do anything about it because I was away (It's all good now, she was returned to us by a very kind couple), dropping my partner at the airport, sleeping in a backpackers in surfers paradise so I could do an enormous amount of washing following my tent/possessions getting drenched in a Byron Bay storm, and finally starting the Vanishing Shapes summer tour. 

These past few weeks have been very up and down, and I miss home a lot (although a bit less now that I'm not on my own anymore) It's interesting seeing these photos so long after I took them, particularly after the home sickness I've been feeling. I remember stressing a lot about the concept of being away from home for a month while taking these, desperately trying to prepare all of the tech items/non tech items I would need to continue my various creative projects as normal. 

Like this time last year, I'm taking photos of every outfit I'm wearing whilst of tour. It helps me maintain a bit of a schedule, and normality, so stay tuned for that! :) 

Vintage Peter Pan

According to one of my students I look like peter pan in this outfit. I like the challenge of gender, but I'm feeling more Captain Cook (with my frilly sleeves and pirate skirt) than Pan. 

I wore this outfit to a button collective gig, and then to school the next day. I've not worn the blouse for a while, and I actually felt fresh and inspired by the outfit (instead of feeling like I was wearing a uniform) 

So the gig I played with the Button Collective wasn't just ye olde run of the mill mid week gig. It was actually a live stream (Which you can watch here!) Being live streamed is really strange. We had a physical audience sitting in front of us, and joining that audience was a bunch of cameras, which created a digital audience as well, but one that we weren't aware of until after the event had passed. 

Lets leave the life stuff for a bit and talk about tights for a second. Specifically sheer tights (This little rant may have been spurred on by Annika Victoria's latest Video). As you've probably noticed I wear a lot of tights. I have many different patterns, colours and textures in my collection and all of my tights that aren't sheer last forever. 

Sheer tights however rarely survive more than two or three wears before they become holy and ascend to heaven. I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but my tights alway start their ladders at the toes, specifically my big toe. Now, it may be longer than my other toes, but there's nothing especially sharp about my big toe that would cause tights to ladder. 

Shirt: Thrifted, Skirt Home Made, Belt: Thrifted, Tights: Coles, Shoes: so soft

So anyway, after the first wear of a new pair of sheer tights, there's a small ladder and hole by my big toe (which has usually cut off a little bit of circulation my this time) Upon the removal of my shoes I study the ladder, and deem it small enough for the "clear nailpolish trick" (Basically you attack the ladder with clear nailpolish in an attempt to stop it from getting any worse) Usually this lets me wear the tights a couple more times before the ladders spread up the rest of my legs and it's time to mourn the loss. 

Despite this I keep coming back! Probably because of all the pretty awesome unique styles of sheer tights.