In a bid to connect like-minded artists, enthusiasts and promoters around Australia, we’re launching a new project titled Vagrant – a travelling gig series, a pop-up club-night with no fixed abode, an open-source platform for eclectic and experimental music.

Vagrant exists anywhere and everywhere – the name travels from city to city and from town to town, but each instance of Vagrant is  curated by local individuals and artists.  The events will be connected by an ideology and the same approach to experimentation in Australian music, but – uniquely – Vagrant will be staged and curated by different promoters in each location.  It’s an open-source platform, where each event is defined by its participants, and is supported and promoted by New Weird Australia.

It’s our hope and intention that Vagrant will be an on-going project, although its success depends on you.  We’re looking for individuals or collectives who are keen to stage a Vagrant event in their local area (whether that’s a thriving metropolis or  a small regional town) – and to encourage you to do so, we’re offering small grants of up to $750 to make it happen.

Here’s how it works:

• you stage an event in your city or town, with your own curated selection of artists and performers whose approach marries that of New Weird Australia
• you find a venue, source production equipment as necessary, promote the show locally and manage the event on the night
• the event carries the name ‘Vagrant’ and is noted as being a New Weird Australia project, but otherwise the design and style of promotion is up to you
• you can charge a ticket price or make it a free event – whatever you collect on the door is retained by you
• you can apply for a small grant of up to $750 to cover artist fees, travel, marketing and production costs – whatever you deem the grant to cover, we insist the artists are not out of pocket and that their fees and expenses are covered within your budget
• New Weird Australia will commit to promoting the event through its online channels, and will circulate media releases regarding the project as a whole

What we’d like in return:

• an eclectic and original event, in keeping with the New Weird Australia sensibility
• an event which clearly fosters the appreciation of eclectic and experimental music within your community
• a commitment to ensuring that artists are looked after both financially, and with appropriate support and resources on the night
• a good-quality, mixed audio recording of the event (ideally a desk recording) and photographic documentation of some form
• all events to be staged by 30th July 2012

How to apply:

email info@newweirdaustralia.com no later than Monday 14th May 2012 with the following information:

• a proposed overview of the event you’d like to stage with an indicative list of artists (need not be final at this stage) and venue location.  Note, you must have in principle commitments from artists and the venue before applying.
• a budget / financial breakdown of the event, showing proposed New Weird Australia contribution of up to $750, with an express indication of how artists will be remunerated
• a brief overview of your work either as an artist or promoter, showing commitment / experience in staging or participating in events of this nature

Feel free to email us in advance of the 14th May deadline with any queries or clarifications.  We will respond to applications and confirm either way by Monday 21st May 2012.

Note: this round of funding is designed to act as a pilot for future Vagrant events – if you are unsuccessful in your application for June 2012 events, please note that we may well be interested in staging your event later in the year.

If you would like your work to be considered, please download some of our releases and – once you have a feel for our work – submit images directly to our Flick group at www.flickr.com/groups/newweirdaustralia.

A couple of notes to be aware of:

(1) all of our artists are Australian, so we’re looking for Australian-born or Australian-based photographers only.

(2) any work submitted to the group must be made available to us under a Creative Commons licence.

(3) we’re particularly keen to see images of nature, urban decay, occult paraphernalia, vintage electronics & computers, strange phenomena and abandoned buildings – but open to other images of a similar weird sensibility.

You will of course be consulted before your work is used, and full attribution will be given on the release. Do get in touch if you have any questions about the process. Now get submitting!

New Weird Australia has released a series of archive live recordings, exclusively via the Free Music Archive. The free download recordings, dating back to 2010 and 2011, are culled from New Weird Australia events staged during the period, and feature exclusive work from Ambrose Chapel, Axxonn, Forenzics, Scattered Order and Stitched Vision.

The Free Music Archive is an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads, directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America. Inspired by Creative Commons and the open source software movement, the FMA provides a legal and technological framework for curators, artists, and listeners to harness the potential of music sharing.

View Releases:

• Forenzics: Live at FBi Social 2011
• Axxonn: Live at The Excelsior 2011
• Scattered Order: Live at The Excelsior 2011
• Stitched Vision: Live at The Red Rattler 2010
• Ambrose Chapel: Live at The Red Rattler 2010

We’re on the hunt for new contributors for the New Weird Australia radio show and podcast series – based anywhere in Australia, or indeed around the world. We’re looking for people who are interested in making pre-produced packages of material to be aired on the radio show, and featured in our podcasts.

Contributions would initially take the form of ‘NWA Profiles’ packages – interviews and recordings with people or groups who are active in the Australian underground & experimental music communities (artists, promoters, label managers, writers, venue owners, festival producers etc).

If you currently make radio, or are interested in producing packages of this kind, download the ‘Information for Contributors’ PDF for full details and submission guidelines.

New Weird Australia is supporting three unique Australian events this month, in Canberra, Perth and Sydney.

The Low Light Social on Saturday 14th January is a special evening of left field sound presented with Canberra’s hellosQuare Recordings, featuring six artists from around Australia and overseas who explore the common ground that sit nicely between electronic beat music, guitar folk forms, noise blasts and free jazz. The line-up features Tetras (Switzerland), Kangaroo Skull (Melbourne), Kasha (Canberra), Thomas William (Sydney), Spartak, Danger Beach + Mornings DJs. MORE INFO.

In Perth, Scitech, in partnership with New Weird Australia, presents a special pre-public holiday edition of their regular Analogue to Digital event on Wednesday 25th January. This mid-summer edition features a diverse line-up of Perth experimental musicians who all work towards developing a certain sonic intensity and ‘heat’ in their music, either through harsh distortion or spectral ambience. Acts playing at Scitech include Ourobonic Plague, Craig McElhinney, Furchick, No Hand Path, K Wilson, Brain Full of Light and guest speaker Adam Burgess, as well as a High Voltage Show in the Lottery West Science Theatre. MORE INFO.

Wormwoodstock, The Wormwood Festival runs from Friday 27th January at 1pm to Sunday 29th and over thirty inspiring DIY bands and solo artists from around Australia, in an intimate camping setting, 1.5 hours from Sydney. It’s designed to be an intimate festival for around 300 people, with DJs, performance artists and mind-blowing visuals from Wormwood regulars Optic Soup thrown into the mix. The line-up includes Scattered Order, Zeahorse, Brackets, Domeyko/Gonzalez, Thomas William, Nakagin, Feathers, Justice Yeldham, No Art, Nhomea, Kris Keogh, Kasha plus an array of acts from Melbourne label Fallopian Tunes – Document Swell, Trjaeu, Wild Dog Creek, Red Hymns & Yolke. MORE INFO.

On 4th November 2011, New Weird Australia staged a show at Black Wire in Annandale, Sydney featuring performances from Pimmon, Black Vanilla & Rites Wild.

This video captures performances from all three artists, and was directed & edited by Tessa C. Stevens for The Pyramid Scheme.

the-pyramid-scheme.com

New Editions, the label imprint for New Weird Australia, winds up its first series of releases with two new albums on January 4th 2012 – from Thomas William vs Scissor Lock and Strange Forces.

Since launching in 2010, the series has released albums and EPs from Caught Ship, Blake Freele, Paneye, TANTRUMS, No Zu, Kris Keogh, Forenzics and Spartak.  Each release has been available in both physical and digital formats.  The final two releases in the current series see Sydney artists Thomas William and Scissor Lock coming together for their debut collaborative release, ‘Jewelz‘, as well as the first Australian physical release for Brisbane psych-rock ex-pats Strange Forces, who have been tearing up a storm in Berlin over the last two years. Listen to preview tracks from each release in the players below.

Both releases will be available on January 4th 2012, with pre-release physical copies available in CD Digipak editions at the Unpopular Music 2011 event on Saturday 17th December. New Editions will launch a second series of releases in 2012.

We’re delighted to welcome Canberra based duo Spartak to the New Weird Australia family - returning with their third album Nippon on the New Weird Australia imprint New Editions. Released on October 29th 2011, Nippon sees duo Shoeb Ahmad and Evan Dorrian continuing to explore a hybrid sound of ‘indie’ rock, improvised jazz, electronic music and modern composition.

Since 2006, they have travelled around Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Japan numerous times, playing alongside hardcore bands, sound artists and free improvisers alike. This new release sees the duo expand on the loose improvisations of their previous work by taking in a more brittle electronic edge, alongside a reclaimed punk attitude, with recordings edited from performances in Kyoto, Tokyo and Osaka on their recent tour of Japan.

Visit the New Editions page for more information on the release, to order the limited CD album or download the digital edition.

Saturday 8th October 8pm
The Silent Hour
Level 1, 77-83 William St, Woolloomooloo, Sydney

SPARTAK
Formed by Shoeb Ahmad and Evan Dorrian in 2007, Spartak have performed regularly around Australia, SE Asia and Japan alongside the likes of My Disco, Lawrence English, Lucky Dragons, Minamo and Andrew Pekler with their textural improvisations on guitar, drum kit, electronics and other found sounds . ‘Nippon’ was recorded while on tour in Japan earlier this year and suitably follows their last album ‘Verona’ (released on the English label Low Point) with it’s opposing influences of sound manipulation and hardcore/indie rock.

Also performing on the night are:

BRAIN DRAIN
Brain Drain is a Sydney based artist who straddles the divide between structure and improvisation, often revelling in the contrast between the two. His primarily guitar-driven pieces centre around creating both mood and rhythm through loops and using this repetition as a foundation on which to improvise. Since 2010, Brain Drain has released three albums: a self-titled debut cassette, the follow-up Wahine Division, and the collaborative album, Popolice Versus Brain Drain. braindrain3053.tumblr.com/

THE DEADLY NIGHTSHADES
The Deadly Nightshades are a brother sister duo making experimental vocal folk music in their hometown of Sydney. They record their voices in single, raw takes, and use these recordings to experiment with panning, layering and tuning.

Vox - Volume 10 in New Weird Australia’s compilation series – is now available for free download. Exploring the voice in experimental, alternative and eclectic musics, Vox is co-curated by artist and musician Gail Priest and NWA’s Stuart Buchanan, and features exclusive, unreleased material from Kusum Normoyle, Paul Heslin, The Deadly Nightshades, Kučka, Mimic Mass, Major Napier, Alice Hui-Sheng Chang, Scissor Lock and ronnu panda, alongside music from Holy Balm, Donna Hewitt, Sky Needle, Furchick, Mosaic Mosaic, Rabbit Island and Juarez.

Visit the release page for download information, artist links and sleeve notes from Gail Priest.