Things go quiet... again

Hello there,

There you go - forgot I had this blog. And thought now would be a good time to give it an update.

A couple of shows recently - one at the Shark Bar a couple of Fridays ago. Nice and loud, just the way we like it...





We then played what I think will be our last show promoting the "Traces" ep last week at Rics in Brisbane. Rics is a funny venue to play for a band like us, in that we rely on a roaring foldback system to hear ourselves with the sequencing that goes on. With Rics, you have a PA system thats tucked away above the front doors facing into the venue, essentially to contain the sound because they have a db limit that they continually police. Then you factor in a drummer like Mat, who belts the shit out of his kit, and in the end, I am more or less playing off him whilst you can faintly here the sequencing tracks somewhere up in the air. Makes for an interesting time. But we like playing there, and talked about doing alternate versions of some of the songs when we play there again. Maybe...

It was a great night to catch up with a few people too. We haven't seen Emerson Bavinton, who engineered and mixed the "Traces" sessions, since we finished the ep. So it was cool to catch up with him and talk future recording stuff. Some of my favourite Brisbane bands, Aheadphonehome & Restream, were playing across the street at The Troubadour, which was a bummer as I would have loved to have caught both sets. But guys like Andrew from Restream and Phil from Aheadphonehome were there at various times during our set, which was very nice of them. Great guys. And Tom and Ian from Axxonn (www.axxonnband.com), one of my favourite Brisbane acts at the moment were there too.

Headed back to Bris on Saturday night to catch the Church in all their underappreciated glory at The Zoo, only to find out they had cancelled due to band illness (I hadn't checked my emails for a few days). Bummer, as I'd heard their Vic shows were pretty special.

Ah well... Drifted over to the glorious Hangar, which was celebrated its 2nd birthday. Caught awesome sets by Axxonn and the re-constructed Aheadphonehome (once a solo act, now a five piece). I'm a big fan of the Hangar - its a great space, and the line ups are very diverse on any given night. Good crew there too.

So... no gigs coming up. Writing new stuff, make a start on the next lot of recordings...

Curt

Time Off's "Have You Heard..?" - unedited

This was in last week's Time Off magazine
Have you heard?

the sea shall not have them

What do you think is your band’s greatest strength?
Hopefully fooling people into thinking that all this noise comes from just two people.

What movie do you think your music would best accompany and why?
The movie that is unfolding in your head when the drugs take hold and you happen to be at one of our shows. Umm, failing that.... I've always liked "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind". And "Jaws" too - when it's down to just Chief Brody and Bruce (the shark) in the final few minutes. We would love to re-score that showdown.

What are your plans for the immediate future? And the rest of the year?
Immediate future - to get through this bottle of red in front of me, then finish this new song we've got so we can throw it into Saturday night's set hopefully. Rest of the year - I'm planning to lock Phil from Aheadphonehome away in a cabin for a weekend, Wolf Creek style, and together we’re going to make a deal with the devil. And something beautiful will come from that I would imagine. And the band will birth & polish some new songs with a view to an album later in the year. It'll give those 10 people that keep coming to our gigs something new to listen to, I guess.

What is your favourite song lyric and why?
"I think it's dark, and it looks like rain, you said. And the wind is blowing like it's the end of the world, you said. And it's so cold, it's like the cold if you were dead. Then you smiled for a second..." The Cure - "Plainsong" from "Disintegration". Pure fucking poetry if you ask me. When the press etc eventually stops taking the piss out of Robert Smith, they will realize what a true artist the man is. And at least when you see The Cure live, he still sings their songs in original key, unlike Bono. Bono can fuck off & go save the world, and let Smithy keep saving people's souls!

Favourite hangover cure?
Kids. Having kids stops you from getting to that point where you know you're going to be hurting in the morning. They are completely unforgiving, in the nicest way :)

BAND MEMBER: CURT EMERTON
ROLE: GUITARS / BASS / NOISES
NEXT UP COMING EVENT / GIG / RELEASE: "TRACES" EP OUT NOW. SPLIT EP WITH AHEADPHONEHOME & DEBUT ALBUM LATER IN THE YEAR

Welcome

Welcome to The Sea Shall Not Have Them's blogspot...

The weekend was fun... Everyone rags on about there not being many places to play on the Gold Coast, but I actually think the Shark Bar is one of the better places to play. For a start, its kinda in the middle of the coast, so you are not trying to drag people either up to Sufferers Paradise, or down to Coolangatta. More importantly, the venue itself is a pretty good band room - we've always managed to get a decent thumping sound up there, and it doesn't take many bodies to fill the room and therefore get a little bit of "vibe" happening. Pool tables too, beach across the road, whats not to like..?

We have been doing some shows around Sth East Queensland with our good mates HELM (www.myspace.com/ghostatthehelm) and these have been great fun. HELM are at the start of a national tour to support their album release "Vol 1 Keelhaul" and we are very thankful to have been invited along. Whilst the "genre pig" (Lucas from Helm's term) could ignorantly lump these boys into the metal category, HELM are offering something which is more than a little different to that. Their music takes in all sorts of influences and spits out a noise which seems to defy easy categorisation - yes you hear metal, but also post rock, I hear some blues in there, and some damn strong hooks too.

For us, it's been a good opportunity to gig test some new material too. 3 new songs in various states of development made their way into the set on Saturday night. In fact, "Popdrone" was only birthed on Wednesday night at rehearsal.

Setlist went like this:
Fluid
Theme From An Airless Room
Sophie And The Spaceman (new version)
Since When?
From Far Away
Popdrone
Second To Last
Stormsong
(with various segueways in between etc)

We have another show in early March, and then some quiet time. Mat has plenty of things on his plate in the coming months, including the birth of his first baby. So its exciting times for him... We are going to use this time to develop new material with a view towards an album later in the year. And there are other plans in the pipeline too...

Stay tuned,
Curt