Friday, August 29, 2008
Ladyhawke Continues To Be Our Favourite Thing Ever
4:45PM Jess McGuire | Wahey! An obsession I had over a week ago is still going strong, which is brilliant news for Ladyhawke. Well, not really for her, but certainly for me. I was lucky enough to get a preview copy of her album to review for a very nice publication, and without giving away too much… by jingoes, what a clever thing that Pip Brown is, eh? She is, of course, from Wellington – my newly adopted home town – so it makes sense she’d be totally amazing.
If there’s one thing I love as much as Ladyhawke, it’s Popjustice. So when the two things I care most for in the world collide, I’m as happy as a porcine creature in effluents. Popjustice have just announced:
The problem with the Ladyhawke album is that we’re finding ourselves spending a lot of time telling people how good it is. This is time we could otherwise be spending listening to the Ladyhawke album.
I could not agree more. Here’s Popjustice’s solution to this problem.
After the jump, the video for Ladyhawke’s new single ‘Dusk Till Dawn’
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It’s A Sack-Tastic Voyage At Fairfax!
12:11PM Clem Bastow | As we mentioned yesterday, Fairfax staff are striking in Sydney, Melbourne, Illawarra and Newcastle in protest of Fairfax’s proposed 550 job cuts (not to mention other issues like freelance agreements and pay rates), the first and highest profile of which was Age editor-in-chief Andrew Jaspan. Well, it seems if there’s something Fairfax big wigs like even less than letting people keep their jobs, it’s letting striking people keep their jobs!
Radio broadcaster and Sydney Morning Herald columnist Mike Carlton has been sacked for refusing to write his weekly column during a strike.
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Anticipation For US ‘Kath & Kim’ Reaches All-Time Low
12:00PM Clem Bastow | As the “this is going to suck” juggernaut continues to roll in ahead of the premiere of NBC’s remake of Kath & Kim, it’s looking less and less like our Stateside friends are in any way confident that the show – starring Selma Blair as “Kim” and Molly Shannon as “Kath” – will be all NBC is no doubt hoping it’s cracked up to be. And given that here at Defamer Australia we are more or less certain it will blow, we continue to bring you even the most questionable K&K related hate mail news: here’s today’s!
US TV network NBC has rolled out a massive ad campaign and billboard blitz for the show but it appears Americans don’t really care about the foxy morons.
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Channel Ten Staff Shocked To Find ‘Kenny’ Cannot Actually Fix Dunnies
11:25AM Clem Bastow | When it comes to satire, spoofs and mockumentaries, there have admittedly been times when the line between reality and fiction begins to blur; witness Spinal Tap’s entry into the general consciousness, actual gigs and endorsement deals for Rock’n Rolls (the “street” Hot Pocket). However, there are also times when you wonder if audiences are so dumb that films need to be screened with a ’serving suggestion’-esque disclaimer to avoid any future confusion. That might have avoided situations like this one at Channel Ten HQ when Shane “Kenny” Jacobson came to visit:
The water was off yesterday (no taps, no flushing) for several hours at the network’s South Yarra headquarters on the very day the famed loo lord was there on promo duties for Kenny’s World, Ten’s spin-off of the hit movie that follows the S-bend saint around the globe.
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YouTube Clip Of The Day
11:01AM Jess McGuire | Kaan, our dear technical guru around these parts, sent Clem and yours truly this video of fellow who makes sculptures out of chewing gum. This Romanian fellow is AMAZING, but the video is not embeddable. Damn you!
Then I began exploring YouTube, and it seems that there are quite a few chewing gum artistes out there. The guy below – nowhere near as good as the Romanian – even ended up on Ellen!
I can’t be the only one who is dying to run out and buy a pack of gum right now, surely? More » 
‘All Saints’ Cast React To Mark Priestley’s Death
10:30AM Clem Bastow | Tributes have started to pour out of the Australian television, film and theatre industries for actor Mark Priestley, who was found dead on Wednesday afternoon. The show that enjoyed a ratings spike on Tuesday, with 1.7 million tuning in to see Priestley’s character Dan get married, All Saints stopped filming yesterday for at least 24 hours, and members of the cast have offered their thoughts about their co-star’s tragic death.
John Howard, who plays Dr Frank Campion, said Priestley was a fine actor: “He had the most extraordinary combination of very deft comic touch and great emotional depth.”
John Waters, who plays Dr Mike Vlasek, was stunned. “I worked with him on stage and on screen and will miss him more than I can say right now,” Waters said. “Mark the actor was intuitive, and graced every scene in which he appeared with a touch of whimsical genius that only he could apply.”
More » What Will The Young Divas Do Now That Paulini Has Left?
10:03AM Jess McGuire | It’s taken a good couple of days for the news of Paulini’s exit from superladygroup the Young Divas to really sink in. At first, I think I was in denial. This couldn’t actually be happening, surely? Sadly, yes.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, here’s what the papers had to say.
When the Young Divas recorded their last track, Turn Me Loose, sounds like singer Paulini Curuenavuli took lyrics literally.
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Did You Happen To Love That Scruffy Dude Who Performed A Hendrix Cover During The Idol Auditions?
9:31AM Jess McGuire | Well, did you? He was rather good, I suppose, in a “I’m a real musician” sort of way (how he’ll cope with the theme weeks remains to be seen, of course). If you didn’t make note at the time, the fellow in question is Wes Carr, and as soon as I heard James Mathieson reveal the identity of Dicko’s mancrush, I thought to myself “I know that name… I know that name!
And it turns out I did. Anyone remember Ben Gillies from Silverchair’s 2005 side project Tambalane? More » 
Vonette Cherry Continues To Wreak Havoc On MySpazz While ‘The Kids’ Turn To YouTube To Exact Their Videoblogging Revenge
9:24AM Jess McGuire | Do you recall the MySpazz blogger I directed you toward a while back because they were riling up the coolsie kids with their tongue-in-cheek entry regarding The Top 10 Most Overrated Albums of All Time?
Well, she’s kept up with the pot-stirring, and the youth seem unable to identify the pisstaking approach with which she has been tackling all things music related on her blog, and are descending upon it to comment in their thousands. In fact, “Vonette Cherry” has become one of the top bloggers on MySpace!
Her latest flaming (hot) entry is titled “Emos Today Are Ruining Teenagers For Everyone“, and in it Vonette neatly encapsulates assorted movements of yesteryear.
In particular, her highly sarcastic but succinct summary of Grunge tickled me: More » 
