OFFCUTTS, THE BASICS, HOT LIQUID SEX

The Troubadour: 25.05.07

In only their second outing with bassist Ruth Nitkiewicz, Hot Liquid Sex clearly gel well together in their new line-up as Nitkiewicz and vocalist/guitarist Ocean Wilson harmonise and share an onstage rapport with each other. More rock and roll than the pop that their cutesy appearance and all-female line-up may suggest, Ocean's raw guitar tones are surprisingly muscular, so much so in fact that at times they seem to overshadow her vocals. But alas, rock and roll ain't noise pollution.

As The Basics' set opens, a number of female punters can't resist the temptation - and rather abstract act - of blowing for all they're worth an abundance of bubbles across the front row. Replete with matching retro grey suits, the trio confidently and charmingly ply their smile-inducing, if not overly original, palette of three-part harmony-infused, bright 60s pop.

While they're clearly ripping a page straight out of the books of The Beatles, The Byrds, The Beach Boys, and The Kinks, to name a few, it at least indicates that they've got a good taste in music. It could be worse; it could be fucking emo. Their cover of The Sonics' 'Have Love, Will Travel' is a treat, but lacks the rawness of The Black Keys' version. 'Second Best' and the white man reggae of current single 'Looking Over My Shoulder' see the lads in fine form.

Lead by the lanky, suspender-sporting bassist/frontman Tommy Spender, Offcutts open their set with the captivating blues harmonica intro of 'Diamond Bike', followed by 'By The Way'. Spender is about as charismatic as they come - he boogie-woogie struts his arse round the stage, and after sporadically rattling a tambourine he drops the instrument and catches it with his foot, with which he continues rattle it creatively.

In equally fine form though is guitarist Az, whose consummate command of his instrument and deft technique - which he makes look oh-so-easy - provides the floorboards on which Offcutts' sound is based. The awesome 'Cold Morning Happiness' and 'Valium Girl' are the pick of the band's set, although the former seems to lack some of its studio polish in the live setting. Spender rounds out the joyous night with a brief striptease, which has the bubble-blowing girls all but spent from blowing, before Offcutts close the curtain with the explosive 'Step Back'.

JUSTIN GREY

From ----Tommy to ---AZ

Oh wow,
Happy Birthday man!!!
I Can't wait for the jadie elmo song!!!
its always in my head.
i think its a brilliant song.
Some amazing shit happened here Friday night.,
It was my first night alone looking after the whole hotel so i was a little on edge. It was also the opening night of the show so every one else was out on the tear so to speak. Anyway i was a little edgy. The hotel is in the absolute thick of the dodgiest part of kings cross. I'm talking, 100 metre's from barons, right behind the main street.
I'm on the ground floor. Every night i fall asleep to the sounds of junkies howling and dying in there own demented pain.
Screaming fights ,whores raped or being fucked outside my window ,which faces a lane, which, incidentally, is acoustically brilliant. So its pretty wild here. People ring the intercom and i have to get out of bed and decide of they're a pissed guest who's lost their key at 3 in the morning or some tattooed freak on meth looking for a fight.

So, I'm here watching a film with Jodie Foster called "Panic room" not very good but some amazing cinematography and pretty suspenseful.
When i hear this acapella rapping. I thought it was a backpacker pumping a track loud into the lane, But it had a quality to it.
It was live!
I turned off the tv and literally 5 foot from my kitchen window this guy was rolling a joint or getting a head job and he was spitting Man !
he sounded amazing, not some pissed badly elocuted rap but real deal musical, technically perfect American rap, Like the guy who raps over that awesome jungle brothers track, i quickly opened up a pro tools session and stuck the mic up to the gap in the window. It sounds brilliant. I'm definitely going to make a track with it. It was like that homeless guy in Chicago that i recorded singing that Burt Bacharach song. Which unfortunately was stolen, but nonetheless. I seem to have these amazing things happen in lanes outside my house.
And last night i was sitting here drinking some wine late at night with the woman that runs the hotel and the actor Kim Gygnal came in a brought his guitar down and we had a great sing and chatted about Arvo Part and Gillian Welch.
Remember him? he was Colin Carpenter in the comedy company years ago. A great actor.
So yeah , my time here so far has been action packed and incredible. The show has been getting great reviews and good crowds. I'm proud of the sound. The music is more seamless and transparent.

I wrote three new songs this week, beginning to end, and have been practicing them all week. They are pretty soppy songs but an exercise nonetheless. One has pretty complicated finger picking so its great to write something i have trouble playing,. Today , being Sunday, is the day i will put them all down. The roof garden is lush and its a sunny day so I'll be up there for a bbq tonight and throughout the day. Sydney is an awesome town and in some respects quite hollow. i love it, its like me.
i love you your wife and your children
xxx

DIARY OF TOM IN LA DAY 2- Scream studios was everything it should of been . Located a block down from" Intercontinental Absurdities" Frank Zappa's studio and house, it was a relatively unassuming building. Inside however, was covered with platinum and gold records from albums that had been mixed there ranging form Nirvana's Nevermind, Janet Jackson, Motley Crue , Allanis Morisste, Tracey Chapman, etc.tnThe staff were polite, the donuts were fresh, the speakers were loud, the jet lag was minor. We got down to business. At the end of the night having finished 2 songs we were so pleased with ourselves and the mixer that we headed out into the burbs for a "drive" and maybe a "beer". It was an innocent enough premise. I was looking forward to driving into Hollywood and listening to the mixes on the cars stereo and most importantly we were jet lagged and thought we should be having scrambled eggs. "yeah the guy said it was just up this road then left".................... ha....... An hour later, after driving past an Airport, miles of car parks and basically nothingish shops we ended up down town , A place where streets were lined with cocoon like homeless encased in plastic bags and shopping trolleys. Every light we pulled up at hyena people would glance at us like zombie soldiers. Car jacking happens a lot down town at night. We got out of there only to end up on a gay night club strip. I wasn't wearing leather chaps and az had forgotten his make up so we weren't allowed in. No bother. We headed in the rough direction of our cheery ,old El Patio , however we noticed a bar that was on the brink of the sobering 2am cut of time in LA, and found ourselves a couple of drunk loud mouths siting out the front who instantly bought us expensive tequila. One was a brash producer from NYC and the other a Director. Both were well on the way to crazed alcoholic stupor and had in their onslaught worn their waiter down to a slumped wreck, still clutching the bill in one hand and snoring loudly on a table. They related stories of Kings cross and Steve Erwin etc the usual.... They bought us another round of drinks and the Producer went on in a bitter, and muscular vernacular about how his bitch of an ex girlfriend had left him and how he wanted to super-glue her front door shut. He brought her $600 dollar Ug boots and $1000 sunglasses only to have her blow him off at an exclusive cocaine party in the hills. Surprise surprise, He was pissed. The next minute we were following the two jack asses though a lackadaisical soiree of the holly wood hills to her house with 6 cans of whipped cream and another bottle of tequila. You see, he needed a couple of "diggers" for a bit of moral support and we needed a couple of LA boys to show us the town. We were all drunk now and standing on her corner we were abused for waking people with our loud debating over the battle plan. After a long time the producer backed down his original idea and decide instead to write in huge, creamy, fat free letters " I LOVE YOU ROBBIE" on La Brea BLVD below her apartment window. How romantic! How totally creamy! Whatever it meant to him or her it was a lot of fun watching these two fatty corporate guys trying to clearly spell with whipped cream. He bribed us all after our good nights work back to his place in the valley for more beers. It turned out when we walked into his place that he was the Exec Producer of the Jerry Springer show. He was proud of 'his' episode with the man who legally married his horse and, in full permission of the court and all its officials, engages in intercourse with his..,, well,,his wife (ride?). From there the conversation took another left hand turn through the barn yard and the Director who had just finished the new Velvet revolver Video told us a little holly wood tale. Apparently a colleague on a film had invited him to his buddy ,George Clooney's , for a huge bash. He was walking around the party getting drunk and, working if not the room then something out, when he stumbled across Clooney's pet Pot bellied Pig. A 200 kilo prized pet called sally or something un piggy like that. The pig appeared to be in the same state as the guests and was lying on its side in the kitchen enjoying the keen attention of some guy who was writing in the pigs fur. Some pigs have a thick "nap" on there coats that can be written on like velour suede and in it this man was kneeling down drawing the Van Halen logo. Our friend the director had noted the poor reproduction of his favorite bands logo and said "Hey buddy, that doesn't even look like the proper logo. if you're gonna do it ,at least do it right.!" "FUCK OFF" he replied, "Its my band and i can do it how i like" it was none other than Eddie Van Halen Himself. I didn't care if he was lying. He was funny. I guess in our time in LA that's what seems the most bizarre. Rock Stars and movie stars are just people too , who need somewhere to take yoga, or eat or get wasted. It just seems like they all chose this weird place in the desert called Los Angeles. After more tales and tequila and plans to fly us to play Wembley for the new a Jerry Springer show, and a 30 minute call to some Australian guy who wrote the cheques we left. I drove us home in a drunken blaze, and all the way we argued for no other reason than the sheer fire of tequila and big talk. We argued and talked until the light came up and guests had complained about the noise. The next morning the alarm clock with its insistent little yell pulled us out of a churning angry sea of alcohol were we flopped upon the heaving deck of 10 AM. I was rotten. Luckily az was still drunk and ran off to the studio. I however descended into hell and for the next 7 hours fought to keep water down. My body does not like tequila, extra specially not now.