#anyways this is my little guy robert and the hands are his friend joshua’s

[sevenminiaturemonkeys]

more oc stuff heehee

my silly little civil war guys

(click on the pic for better quality plspls)

[daggerzine]

Coming in first.....Jeremy Jensen opens up about The Very Most.

I definitely haven’t heard enough of Jeremy Jensen’s music, but what I have heard (under the name The Very Most) I really like. I went over to his Bandcamp page and noticed a plethora of releases so yeah, the dude is prolific. If you’ve listened then you’ll know that Jensen likes melody and I’m assuming he’s got a few Beach Boys and Beatles’ records in his collection. His songs have plenty of hooks but have this dreamy background and for as many songs as the guy’s written over the years he manages to make each one unique.  Some are quite grand while others are quite low-key and simple. We’ve been Facebook friends for quite some time and I enjoy his posts, but wanted to find out more so I shot him some questions and he was more than happy to answer. 

Were you born and raised in Boise? I was born in Roosevelt, Utah, raised in Nampa, Idaho (a suburb of Boise that had about 30,000 people in it when I lived there and now has around 100,000) and have been living in Boise for over 20 years now.

What are some of the best things about Boise? It’s a city I’ve always heard good things about and been very curious about, but have never been there. Boise is a high-desert town on the edge of the largest stretch of forest in the lower 48.  My favorite things about Boise are the Boise River and the surrounding foothills. I’m not a huge outdoor enthusiast, but the river is so nice to walk along. We’ve got miles and miles of trails called the Greenbelt that run right along the river. I also love that Boise has plenty to do as far as an arts and music scene goes, but it’s not such a huge city that commute times are out of hand. It’s also affordable compared to Seattle, Portland, and California, but it is becoming less affordable as we grow, and we’re growing really fast. There’s plenty of good food here too. The schools are good here. It’s a really good place to raise kids. David Lynch loved living here when he was a kid in the late 50s - early 60s. We put an exclamation mark after the word “Library” on the signs for all our libraries. I’m not making that last one up. Also, it’s pronounced “Boy-see”, not “Boy-zee,” and anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong.

What was the first song you remember hearing that really knocked your socks off? Dog and the Butterfly by Heart. This was probably in 1981 when I was five. It was just so pretty and Ann Wilson has a really great voice. I also loved the LP artwork, which was vaguely Chinese-themed.

Jeremy and the gang

How old were to when you first picked up an instrument? Was it parental pressure ro did you want to do it? I did 5th grade orchestra in school. I played violin for those first couple years and then switched to string bass, which led to electric bass, which led to guitar. I wanted to do it. My dad claims he had a rule in the house that every kid was required to play a musical instrument, but I was unaware of the existence of that rule. Maybe I didn’t need to be.

What was your introduction to the punk/new wave/indie music scene? When was the transition and how did it happen? Well, my mom bought U2’s The Joshua Tree, which I really loved, and which helped me learn of bands like R.E.M. She also enrolled me in the Columbia House CD club, where my first purchases included their album Green. I guess this would have been about 1990. Around ‘91, my friends introduced me to The Violent Femmes and The Smiths, and, like so many others, The Smiths were my platonic ideal of what a band should be. In 1993, I heard Built to Spill on a local college radio show. Their song “Three Years Ago Today” sounded like pop from another planet to me, and it blew me away that a band from Boise was making those sounds. Not only did that experience lead me to K records, which led me to indiepop, which changed my listening habits forever, it also made me believe that I could make good music, even though I was from a podunk town in Idaho. A lot of us Idahoans have inferiority complexes. Built to Spill will always be heroes to me.

Had you been in any bands before The Very Most? Yeah. I led a band called The Yukon and You with my wife and a friend of ours. I was also in a surf-rock band called D.O.L.L. The very first high school band I was in was called Thrush. Later, all three of my kids would get thrush when they were nursing. I’ve also played a lot in my brother Elijah’s bands over the years: Pajama Party in a Haunted Hive (named after the Beat Happening song) and his current project With Child. I’ve played in a few other local bands over the years too. Never a cover band though.

How/when did you form The Very Most? What was the initial inspiration? I started accumulating recording gear around 2000. I guess I wrote a bunch of songs. I don’t remember ever writing them though. I started recording them and when I finally finished an album in ‘03, I needed a band to play them so that I could sell CDs at shows. I actually started playing as The Very Most in ‘02 before the album came out, but the intention was to have a band ready for a record release show. The band started as a duo with my sister Rachael who was living with my wife and I at the time. Over the years, the band has gone through a lot of mutations both in number of members and instruments. We got a drummer, a female singer, a keyboardist. For a while we had a full-time vibraphonist. I think something like 12-15 people have been in the band for at least one show or more. As recently as a year ago I was playing a solo synth-pop set as The Very Most, but now I don’t play live as The Very Most at all.

What are some faraway places that the band has taken you to? What are some favorite foreign cities? Well, we haven’t gone on any really long tours, but we played the UK (including Indietracks) and I’ve played in Glasgow and Dublin three times. Glasgow and Dublin are my favorite cities in the world that I’ve been to. I’m not as fond of huge megalopolises that are basically 50 different cities glommed together (kinda how New York and London are). Glasgow, Dublin, Portland, and, also, Bristol in England kind of have a unified feel to them. (Boise does too.) It’s like the difference between a concept album and a epic White-album-style album. 

How does your songwriting process go? Does it start with a riff from you or something else? It almost always starts with a guitar or keyboard riff. I come up with these little main ideas for songs and record them really quickly in my software. Then I revisit them and decide which ones to flesh out into real songs. The order usually goes like this: riffs, basic tracks, a few ornamental type parts like keyboard leads, writing the lyrics, recording the vocals, and then usually adding a few more ornamental parts and backing vocals.

How active is The Very Most these day? Any upcoming plans? The Very Most is inactive live, but very active in the studio. I’m working on a new album, but haven’t played live for about a year. I think once my album is done and ready to release, I’ll probably get a two or three piece version of The Very Most ready to play a few shows.

Is your label, Coming in Second, still active these days? Not really. Two or so years ago I had some grand plans to get it going again, but we haven’t released much. Just a couple download-only things. There aren’t any plans to release anything else at the moment through that label.

Tell us about your involvement with the band The Hermit Crabs. Well, I think it was 2010. The web label EardrumsPop had this compilation called “Between Two Waves” where the idea was that people from two different bands combine forces to create a new song, hopefully with a new band name. I decided to get in touch with The Hermit Crabs, from Glasgow, Scotland, so we could do that song together. The name of the project was Baffin Island and, in addition to the song for EardrumsPop, we ended up making an EP and a few other songs for compilations. We did it by emailing files to one another. Anyway, that’s how I got to know Mel, the leader of The Hermit Crabs. She came from Glasgow to Boise to record a Hermit Crabs album in 2012. That album, In My Flat, didn’t get released until 2015 though. Since then we’ve done a couple Hermit Crabs tracks together internet-style for the Rose Melberg tribute compilation and also a Matinee Records compilation that hasn’t been released yet.

Any current Boise bands that we need to know about? With Child, Canal Canal, Bruce Robert, Sleepy Seahorse, Central City Music Company, Bonefish Sam and His Orchestra, Idle Chatter.

What are some new bands/records you’ve fallen in love with? THE GOON SAX!! Best new band in quite some time. Unfortunate band name, though. I don’t think we left enough good band names for the next generation. Starry-Eyed Cadet and Space Daze are two really great new-ish bands too. My daughter’s favorite band Boy Pablo is really nice. Kinda like a cross between Prefab Sprout and Mac DeMarco.

What are your top 10 desert island discs? In no particular order: Jonathan Richman - Rockin’ and Romance Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds Some sort of Debussy box set Built to Spill - There’s Nothing Wrong With Love Belle and Sebastian - Push Barman to Open Old Wounds Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career R.E.M. - Reckoning The Softies - Holiday in Rhode Island The Aislers Set – The Last Match

Any closing comment? Final thoughts? Anything you wanted to mention that I didn’t ask? I just want everyone to wish me luck in making the new The Very Most album. I think it’ll be as good as the other ones. Different, but as good or better. At least I think.

https://theverymost.bandcamp.com/

https://cominginsecond.bandcamp.com/]

[roodiaries]

Sydneyside

Foreword: This blog post is divided into sub-sections to make it seem less long ;)

Residing on Sydney's North Shore: The Compartment Life

I arrived back in Sydney in late January 2017 with a vague resolve to get a house, job, girlfriend, life, etc. on a nice comfy, non-committal, short-term basis. I haven't spent more than a year in one accommodation since I was 18 in fact.

House was the first objective, even before a guarantee of a stable income and some rapidly dwindling funds, post-Asia/East Coast travel. I spent a week of searching high and low for an affordable place with my own room and not in the back end of beyond. I visited numerous dull-sounding (and looking) suburbs, such as Lidcombe, Ashfield, Arncliffe and Auburn. I did also check one out in Woolloomoolloo. That would have been a cool place to call home, and Russell Crowe lives there!

I settled for a shared-room in the north shore suburb of Willoughby, and sacrificed my single-room agenda because there was a giant partition in this room (a deal-breaker and meaning I had privacy and my own corner), and the room-mate seemed a good fit: a shift-working nurse from The Philippines named Andrew, and not a major party guy. The 'landlord' – actually renting out the place himself and sub-letting it to us – was a Korean wing-chun instructor called Sam who worked in the studio area at the front of the house, but lived elsewhere with his family. There was also a single room near ours, where a guy from Taiwan called Dean was staying. I regret not hanging out with those three more often, but our schedules clashed and everyone was always busy. In 5 months (before Dean left), we managed to eat dinner together a total of once! The lack of a communal area or large kitchen kind of prevented much socialising anyway, and I mostly just saw Andrew (but even sharing a room, I wouldn't see him for up to a week at a time). It was functional and comfortable, but not social.

Pullman Prestige

I got a job at the Pullman Sydney Hyde Park Hotel in the Food & Beverage Department in late February. Like my apartment and car, I found the job on Gumtree – the perennial lifesaver! I immediately loved the job, and it was certainly my favourite one so far in Australia. I ended up staying the entire 6 months that I was permitted with the WH visa. I liked the prestige of wearing a tie and uniform at work, and being in a fancy, air-conditioned establishment right in the heart of the city. It was my first taste of hospitality, and I particularly enjoyed the team atmosphere, with staff bonds forged via countless high-pressure stressful-but-funny situations,

e.g.:

Having just two hours to transform two rooms, including the main events room from a day conference into a giant dinner party complete with dance floor, stage, hypnotists and countless decorations, while trying to manage the three-inch high flood of reeking viscous sewage in the pantry next door

Anzac Day when every room was full with lunch events and tonnes of staff were needed (getting paid double-time = $49 per hour), listening to stories of veterans and their relatives (but later that day I was in the wars myself when I fell down the stairs and sprained my ankle!)

Numerous sports teams (AFL and NRL) eating relentlessly and drinking unstoppably, and all the constant clean-ups and late-night stays; listening to their conversations was surprisingly boring

When outlandish day-conference guests and clients rampaged illegally through the uncleaned, bombshell-like pantry and store-rooms, clambering dangerously over furniture

Being behind the pop-up bar during massive rushes, and having my first exposure to lemon and lime bitters (which I learned to make), as well as pouring techniques for wine and beer

The classic 'no cutlery or glasses ready' scenario right before a big event and the rush to find everything with not enough staff or time, making do with the wrong types

Lorenzo not getting along with the rest of the staff, tickling you while you carried stuff and refusing to do the vacuuming because it was beneath him! “Not the hero we deserve, nor the one we need.” But also a legend in his own right

Mardi Gras night in March – our hotel was the starting point for the whole half-a-million-strong parade: as extravagant floats passed by, we served drinks and canapes to numerous drag queens and divas (with requests including putting a sausage roll between their boobs, “can I take you home tonight?” and much more, producing plenty of awkward laughter and lack of a clever response from myself)

Arguments with the narky banquet chefs: “where's your supervisor!?” Plenty of tut-tuts if you couldn't carry three plates or were not on time, but all good fun in the end (I think)

Some shifts in breakfast or room service: plenty of awkward customer exchanges – e.g. saying “have a good day!” and then finding they were just getting up to get food; trying to choose between saying “you're welcome,” “that's OK,” “no problem” and “no worries,” and then mixing them up: “that's no worries, welcome!” Also when the owners of the building were in town, and I took away the coffee of Wong Kan Seng, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, before he was finished (almost died of mortification); and some good times there too, especially working with Joshua (the only other Englishman who also started on the same day as me), as well as Steve or Anne Sophie in room service

Particular mention goes to the banquets team I worked with the most: Bibek with his sudden high-pitched voice when speaking to customers (“room service”) and the infamous brown bag; Jess, the Aussiest girl in the hotel who always helped me out patiently while never taking shit from nobody; the supervisor Jona who hired me, taught me the ropes and was always keen for after-work beers; Guthrie with his laid-back attitude and film chats; and management trainee Sy whose random soundbites echo in my head to this day (“get to the choppers,” “OK team, it's show time,” “time to disappear”), always facilitating an atmosphere of fun and nonsense in the face of some overwhelming shifts.

Since I still work for the same company in a different location right now, I won't bitch too much, but plenty of staff at Pullman Sydney were not happy and began quitting over various issues, including management and lack of shifts. Money often seemed to be favoured over staff (or customers for that matter) with shifts regularly cut and annoying initiatives to upsell more stuff (the guests don't want a bloody extra croissant, leave them alone FFS). Lack of sufficient staff for a shift was also a constant blight, but in general you had a lot of freedom and variety working in banquets, and were often given considerable responsibility, and the experience was definitely a positive one.

A Brief Commentary of Sydney as a City

Overall, I like Sydney a lot. I prefer it to Melbourne, Canberra and definitely Adelaide. However, it’s a city of two halves. On the one hand, you have the dingy, dull, congested, prosaic, worn-out, uninventive, crappy, commercial-and-business-dominated city centre, which has a surprisingly high East Asian population (it feels like 50% Asian, not that that’s a bad thing; just unexpected). On the other hand, you have the stunning Sydney Harbour & Parramatta River (together known as Port Jackson) with its unending bays and natural/man-made sights; and the relaxed coastal suburbs with further wondrous views west over the city and east out to the vast Pacific Ocean. Public transport is second to none, and the Opal card makes travelling relatively cheap and convenient (by bus, train, tram and boat). Going out is expensive, but there are always cheaper hidden places, and happy hours provide good value for money: the beer and bars improve exponentially when you escape the CBD. Like much of Australia, it feels very suburban, middle-class and family-oriented: sometimes a little too clean and organised for my tastes (though I never visited notorious parts like Blacktown or Mount Druitt). It also has access to some incredible nature and national parks in all directions. It’s somewhere I’m glad I lived, but not somewhere I particularly need to live in the future. It lives up to the hype in many ways, but from my perspective, it can’t match the major European cities for history, architecture, food or atmosphere.

Social Life a.k.a The Pub & A Few Other Things

I had three main friends outside of work: Tatjana and Eisen from my farm work days in Renmark, and Mark from my uni exchange in Singapore. I spent many sessions out in Sydney's array of bars: those at Circular Quay and Darling Harbour which were pricier but had wondrous views while imbibing copious schooners of sweet wholesome 'cold ones'. These included but were not limited to the Bavarian Bier Cafe (lovely German beers for $5 at happy hour), Pontoon, Sweeney's, Hotel Harry's, Lord Roberts, The Clock, The Palace Hotel, Bald Rock Hotel and all other bars in Balmain (where Mark lived and our favourite suburb, full of homely pubs). I was sad when all three of them left in June/July.

I don't want to try and seem cool by boasting about drinking sessions (I could never claim to be cool), but I did not do a lot else outside of work: this was due to the physical and mental toll some of the long shifts (especially night ones) took on me, leading to a reluctance to do any other exercise, and the unpredictability of my schedule meaning I couldn't reliably sign up to many social clubs. However, I did get out and about to enjoy some fantastic city walks along Sydney's coastal suburbs: Botany Bay, Spit Bridge to Manly, Bondi to Coogee, the Royal National Park, and the Blue Mountains to the west. I also enjoyed a four-day holiday in April to Queensland to visit Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island and a natural adventure playground full of intriguing rainforest, a highway on the beach, sea swimming pools, freshwater perched lakes, and lots of dingoes.

In addition, I occasionally worked for my Romanian friend Costi, who helped people move house in his spare time. One extremely memorable, epic job was during the hottest day of the Australian summer, when it was a ridiculous 43ºC in February: we drove 3 hours over the Blue Mountains to the town of Bathurst to help a Bangladeshi family move to Sydney; their new apartment had several flights of stairs which we had to carry everything up by hand, sweating profusely in the mean time; then we had to drive back to Bathurst (so 9 hours of driving that day) because the neighbour also wanted to use our van to move house, so we slept on his mattress, then woke up very early and began packing his stuff into the van. His furniture was way too big, so we had to drive to Sydney with half of it, unload it, and then drive back again to Bathurst, pack the rest and unload again at his new house, finishing at about 6am on Monday morning. It was a full 48-hour working weekend, including 18 hours of travelling and a great deal of physical work: I would name it as one of the hardest, most intense single shifts I've ever done. However, it was made a lot more enjoyable by the company of Costi, who drove the whole time, never bitched or complained and maintained a calm, good-natured demeanour throughout the weekend, making it feel like a doable team effort for which I was well-compensated. A legend and a role model, that's for sure.

Riding the Bus

A boring topic to write about in my blog, but taking public transport on average twice per day over 7 months in Sydney provides one with a window into a city's soul. I loved crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge every day to and from work or social events, basking in epic sunsets and sunrises over the incredible Sydney Harbour while jamming to the classic tunes (see Crossing the Bridge playlist below for details).

-The time the bus driver didn't know how to get to the Harbour Bridge because of roadworks and shouted to the passengers at large to ask for directions!

-The time the driver yelled at a guy to come to the front because he supposedly hadn't tapped on his Opal card, but it turned out that he had: the incident had a tense racial undertone because he was the only black guy on the bus...

-When the driver of the last bus of the night couldn't pull up at the last stop before the bridge due to taxis obstructing the stop; a girl was waiting and screaming desperately for him to stop – and even I (Captain Quiet On Public Transport) – shouted to the driver to stop somewhere! He didn’t.

-The drunken night bus back to Artarmon after a late shift: two guys that had just met for the first time, the younger, cockier and skinnier of whom constantly disagreed bluntly with everything the much older, bigger guy said, leading to a confrontational end to the conversation (this journey was always followed by an unpleasant 25-minute uphill walk through the lost lonely suburbs where not a soul stirs and spider webs hang over the path ready to snag an unsuspecting face passing through).

Thanks for taking the time to read,

Scroll down for photos and previous blog posts,

Oliver