John Shand Posts

September 6, 2017 / Features - Archive

Scouting a car-boot sale an 11-year-old Yaron Hallis found an LP by someone with his father’s name: Leonard Cohen. Highly amused, he bought it, beginning a life-long love affair that has seen Hallis’s band, Monsieur Camembert, play an annual tribute to this other Leonard Cohen since 2005. The 2017 event…

September 3, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

POOR DAVID’S ALMANACK (Acony/Thrillhill) 8/10 Albums are like novels: each speaks to you with a unique voice in a unique space. Some recorded music is reverb-laden, cavernous and remote, and at the polar-opposite end of possibilities is this new one from American singer/ songwriter/guitarist David Rawlings. Poor David’s Almanack sounds…

September 2, 2017 / Concert Reviews - Archive

Sound Lounge, August 12 8/10 This was music as colour: huge splashes and explosive bursts of brightness. The sonic equivalent of Fauvism, if you like. The music of Melbourne’s Way Out West has always been vibrant across its 16 years, but this current version of the band takes that to…