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Book Of Caverns
When I lived in Tokyo a few years ago, I played the bass guitar in a band called Hunting Tom. It was a very international band, with an Aussie on each of bass and rhythm guitar, an American/Scottish lead singer, a Japanese lead guitarist and a British drummer.
We never really played any gigs (playing to an entire primary school in their school gym on “culture day” doesn’t exactly count) but we did rehearse a lot and there was a good dynamic in the group. We had a lot of fun with it, and also recorded some great original songs that I was proud of.
Eventually as with so many hobby bands, we self-imploded. Our drummer quit to write the Great British NovelTM, and the tension between our lead singer and rhythm guitarist/songwriter bubbled over. Pretty soon my girlfriend (at the time) and I decided that it was time to return to Australia so we could get married and make babies, and that was the end of Hunting Tom.
I’ve kept in contact with the guys, all of whom are still based in Tokyo. Two of them, Ray and Yoshi (undisputably the most talented of our group) continue to make music, and the band that they have since put together is called Book Of Caverns, featuring Yoshi on lead guitar and Ray on lead vocals/rhythm guitar. Their sound is rockin’ and has certainly evolved for the better from our hack sessions five years ago.
If you feel like checking out some new rock’n‘roll, then they have a MySpace page up as well as a video on YouTube from one of their recent gigs. And if you really dig the tunes then you can also order the three-track demo CD Black Hole by emailing the guys (info at the bottom of the bands FreeWebs page).
Nice one guys!
Tags: band, bookofcaverns, hunting+tom, japan, rocknroll, tokyoThe SXSW Partying Continues!
The Interactive part of South By Southwest has finished, but the parties certainly aren’t over — Austin is just getting started.
I wrote most of what I got up to with the SitePoint guys here, here, here and here. Once the panels were over and the rest of the team headed home to Australia, I caught up with my good friends Brendon and Laura who live here in Austin. I’m staying with them until next Wednesday, before I fly to San Francisco for a couple of days, then home.
I’ve spent the last couple of days relaxing at their place. It’s big, it’s comfy, it’s newly renovated. Their cat pissed on my doona the first night, but apart from that it has felt very homely and they have been very accommodating.
The only problem is that while I’ve recuperated (and even managed to get a bit of work done), the SXSW Music festival has been in full swing. Every day there have been amazing bands playing simultaneously in a hundred different venues, and I’ve been vegging out in front of the television or working on the laptop.
When I scrolled through the program tonight, I kicked myself when I noticed that the Australian Music Collective were holding a BBQ all afternoon, complete with a stack of Aussie bands including You Am I, Beasts of Bourbon, Dallas Crane and the Hoodoo Gurus! And here I was spending the day watching college basketball and sending emails to people whose business cards I had collected!
Brendon, Laura and I headed into town to see if we could catch the last of the Aussie gig. We saw a band called Mink play, but their singer had a North American accent so I don’t know if they were in fact Australian.
Luckily, You Am I were playing a second gig later in the evening at a bar in town called Dirty Dog. I convinced Brendon to stick around til late, and it turned out to be an awesome show. Tim and the boys were in fine form — drunk to the hilt and full of attitude — and belted out a set that included a few new tunes and several old classics.
Being a fairly small bar, I managed to get right up the front without much problem, and just for a few minutes felt like I was in my early twenties again, rocking out at a university show. Tim had all the moves and the passion that I remember from when I saw You Am I play live so many years ago, and ended up breaking the microphone stand and getting down on his knees, leaning forward and singing right in front of me. It was a rockin’ set!!
Unfortunately my camera battery died before I got the chance to take any pictures. However I did ask the girl next to me if she would mind emailing me some of hers, so I’ll post them if she comes through for me and is OK with that.
We also saw British singer/songwriter Robin Hitchcock play, as well as Canadian band Sloan play. Hitchcock apparently has been around for years and has a cult following; I didn’t really get into it, but it was OK. Sloan, for the most part, rocked. They sounded like a cross between Weezer and the Dandy Warhols, and I liked it a lot… except when their rhythm guitarist/singer and drummer switched places for a couple of songs. Dude, you can’t sing! Sit back down and stick to the drums, you’re doing your band a disservice!
My ears are still ringing, but at least now I feel like I got a taste of the Music element of SXSW and can go home not having completely missed out.
Of course, tomorrow I’m off to an NBA game, so I’m pretty excited about that too…
Tags: austin, music, robinhitchcock, sloan, sxsw, sxsw07, sxsw2007, texas, youami
Matthew Magain works as the manager for online media at