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Sunday, May 17, 2009

The last year has been a busy one for us, with recording sessions in Darwin and Adelaide, bringing the Adelaide CTC contingent to Darwin to record last December, and playing some great shows including Environment Day Expo 2008, 80's cover night at Happy Yess, Ludmilla Family Fun Day, Darren Hanlon's Xmas Show, Sarong It's Right with The NEO, Long Way to the Top End at the Adelaide Fringe 2009 with 11 other Darwin bands, and the opening of Casuarina Library.

We also got to launch our new album in front of family and friends in Adelaide at the Wheatsheaf Hotel in Thebarton and in Darwin at the Darwin Community Arts monthly gathering in Malak, with international food, art from Malak and Anula Primary schools, a recycled art 'house' building project and a screening of the Australian film The Castle. Kudos to Darwin Community Arts for a lovely night.

We have been inspired by all this and are now taking a short break to finish some new songs, ready to start all over again around Darwin festival time in August.

by Alice

It's done...

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Hello all,

the CD is now officially launched! The songs are available for downlaod online or, if you want a hardcopy go to Big Star in Adelaide or the Happy Yess in Darwin. Otherwise just email us at admin(at)countrytowncollective.com

The Adelaide gigs were great and there was a huge buzz around the conglomerate of the Northern Territory descending into the Fringe Festival. Country Town Collective joined forces between the Adelaide and Darwin crew and celebrated the event as a 7-piece. It worked. There are heaps of interviews and pics on the Music NT Forum page. Here is the link to Deb's documentary about "It's a long way to the Top End" http://musicnt.ning.com/video/long-way-to-the-top-end-doco

For our CD launch in Darwin we invited Tracey Bunn and the Jigsaw Collective to come and play with us at the Malak Houses Festival, organised by Darwin Community Arts. On a Saturday night we played in the Malak carpark, transformed into a building house empire. It was great to support the community efforts in Malak and play music to the people that came out for just that.

Until soon, hugs,
Anja

Houses

Saturday, February 07, 2009

well the album is finished!!!
we are launching it in adelaide on sunday 8th march at the Wheatsheaf Hotel with Red Plum and Snow and Greedy Stout (tix through Fringetix- just $5 and cds will be on sale!), and in Darwin on the third Saturday in April at Chambers Crescent Theatre at Malak (more details on this soon- it's going to be a lot of fun, and Darwin Community Arts will be hosting the event with the theme of 'Houses' and govt housing policy is on the agenda..) all the tracks from the cd will be free to download in low res mp3 format from our website at www.countrytowncollective.com, but we'll also set up through cd baby and itunes, and if you want the real thing we'll have cds available at gigs. we are so happy to share it with you, and if you like it please spread the word!
love, peace, light xxxx

by Alice

Darwin Festival

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Darwin in a September mood means the Festival has passed and only the wet season is in sight. September is usually the month of fare wells when many decide to move on before it becomes to hot and unbearable. So they think... We have played at the Darwin Festival - thanks to Music NT - which was a great experience. Zephyr took some amazing photos that are now live. It's odd to recall moments that have gone by. And we've got a few songs recorded and will be recording more this year. For the next months we are looking forward to play a few gigs here and there and to go in hibernation mode like everyone else in this town. There might be big CTC gathering coming up in December, when the Adelaide crew hits Darwin and we'll be fusing our music together.

Hugs to everyone and thanks for the support, Anja and the CTC

Recording in Darwin

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The weekend was hard work and it was fun. Thanks to Lewis for chipping away and surviving on tea by giving us the freedom of being us. It is a great feeling to hear the songs coming out, live, only a few takes and almost every time the second one was the winner. Thanks to Mark, who jumped into the cold water and did so brilliantly as can be listened to in Blue Dress... Not to speak of the trumpet in Free Love which we are holding back just yet a little bit longer to keep for our selves... And thanks to Jeremy for giving us his talents and making us sound great. Alice and I were amazed that the recorded tracks needed almost no mixing or touch up and had a great sound. We recorded at the Christchurch Cathedral and at Brown's Mart which was both an experience in itself. Not every track came out perfect but then why would one want to be perfect anyway? Hugs, Anja and the CTC

Thursday, December 27, 2007

I have some great plans for next year for the band, and I want to share them with you!!
I am thinking about posting some lyrics, for a start, with the recordings we have of the songs so far.... Anja and Jack recorded both gigs at Happy Yess this year, and I did some scratch tracks with Jeremy here recently so there are heaps of recordings lying around now not getting heard..
I am also pretty sure that, post-thesis (a celebration in itself!!!!!) I am about to be inspired to a bit of a song writing fest and.. well I can sense a new direction. Can I point out that the songs on myspace are about five years old now, some of them??!!
I suspect that I am always going to be more of a Cat Stevens, John Lennon, glass half empty kind of songwriter than say,... Alicia Keys (who is incredibly brilliant!!!!! Love her stuff, so much).. but I think that I am ready to write some ... anthems is what I want to say!! Something on the line of Hunters and Collectors..
So I am thinking of my New Years Resolutions for 2008 (and I actually achieved my one for 2007, so happy) and think that music, along with cooking, is going to feature quite a lot. So hopefully there will be more gigs, and more of an effort with the recording!! And visits to some places, to catch up with everyone.
Love to you all. Happy new year!

by Alice

About the Recordings

We have talked about putting out a new song every month or so, but in the meantime here's some background on the songs here:

Something Sometime. Love Can't Be Cheated, Darling - all written in Wickham, WA in late 2005. Wickham is a town of about 500 people and very isolated.... these songs to me picture something of the emptiness of that desert environment. Darling - I lay down on my bed with my guitar on another hot evening (the summer I spent in Wickham the temperature was 6 months around 40 degrees celcius) and played these patterns over and over for about 2 hours till I hit on this riff. To me it's a very pink song. Something Sometime is bright yellow, green and blue, with some red and orange and purple. Love Can't Be Cheated is dark green with a bit of gold.

One Day We'll Meet Halfway is mostly indigo or dark blue with some pale blue grey and also maroon. I wrote this song in mid 2003 while living in Adelaide and after watching Big Brother (reality TV show) on the TV. I just felt so sad about these people's inability to really connect.

Love Can't Be Cheated is one of few songs I have written where all the lyrics got written in basically one night. I couldn't sleep but these verses just kept suggesting themselves.

Darling is a song about grief.

Something Sometime, Love Can't Be Cheated, Darling - recorded and produced by Alex Carpenter, Adelaide, September 2006. Recorded on 8 track reel to reel tape, mastered to tape. Something Sometime performed by: Alice Rae (guitar/vocals), Alex Carpenter (guitar, synth), Susie Chittleborough (vocals, tambourine), Michelle Gray (triangle, glockenspiel, chimes). Love Can't Be Cheated (live take) performed by: Alice Rae (guitar/vocals) and Alex Carpenter (tambourine). Darling performed by: Alice Rae (guitar/vocals), Alex Carpenter (guitar, snare), Susie Chittleborough (bass) Adrian Riessen (glockenspiel).

One Day We'll Meet Halfway (live take): recorded and produced by Chris Sager in Melbourne, early 2006, with Chris's electric guitar.

Let us know what you reckon. There will be some more recordings soon we hope,

lotta love

Alice

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Alex has now given us all the first rough mixes for the tracks we recorded in September. Some of these we will make available first thing next year. For now we are planning some more recording around Xmastime.

Thanks to Cilla and Jordie Lane for a much fun show at Bar 303 in Melbourne on October 27. We had a great time and are going to try to get back to Melbourne in about 6 months time (around March/April hopefully!)

We would like to invite all our Adelaide friends and family to our end of year show at the Prince Albert Hotel on Friday 29 December. Afterthought (Adrian's band) will be on first at 9 pm or so, and the CTC will play 2 sets of old and new stuff from around 10 pm.

more soon! Alice

Monday, September 25, 2006

The band has just finished recording four tracks for our first EP:

'Something Sometime'
'13'
'Love Can't Be Cheated'
'Darling'

All tracks were recorded on 1/4 inch tape, with sound production by Alex Carpenter.

The EP is due out in Jan/Feb 2007.