Mannequin Republic update

So it's been a busy few months with festivals galore and gigs and heaps of interviews and more to come!
Just thought we'd update you on what's been going down!
Recently Byrnes just made a quick trip to Los Angeles for work related matters. Such matters included catching up with The Plastiscine's lead singer/guitarist, Katty Besnard. There was much rejoicing. Also Byrnes managed to score a sweet chat with a few artists. We won't tell you who just yet but let's just say, Mannequin Republic needed a female artist/band to interview to balance out the ones done so far. And also Aussie fans may well be seeing the other band on our shores in coming months. And you will most probably get a raging boner in the process of reading said interviews. Many thanks to The Blackout, Brett Gurewitz and The Black Rebel Motor Cycle Club for giving up their time to chat with Mannequin Republic.

An update on our artist roster. This week we recruited Blair Jackson. A Scotsman living in Australia. Pretty cool! Great dude with some amazing songs to share with you all. Cannot wait for future gigs with Blair!

Andrew Lowden is still rocking the suburbs. Keep a look out for a secret singer/songwriter evening involving himself and Elle Bliss and hopefully Blair Jackson.

Speaking of Elle Bliss. The lovely lady has been itching to get some tunes out there for everyone to enjoy and finally we have something! Keep your ears and eyes peeled for her debut EP release. What an absolute joy to have around!

Back on The PLastiscines. The girls will be heading to Canada next week for a couple of shows. One of them being at the World Champs for Mountain Biking. Or something like that. So if you're in the Quebec region make sure to go check out an amazing band! They will certainly rock your underwear off and possible your socks.

The Jon Experiment has finally found a guitarist. In fact I am well informed that this dude is pretty amazing and has learned the songs straight off Facebook and Myspace song clips. Sounds great! So far he is un-named, unknown, and most probably a figment of everyone's imagination.

Also there is heaps of stuff happening for a few of the other bands we're doing PR for. The Lyrical is busy recording and is keen to release a debut album by October. Album launch is going to be epic!
Spruce Moose will be heading down to the Gold Coast for a great day out! They will be playing the main stage of the Broadwater Parklands, Spring Music Festival....Darryl Braithwaite will also be on the bill after them! And it's totally free! Nice work guys!

We've also joined forces with MimiMuse Management. Their band, A Beggar's Second will be flying over for a quick visit to Brisbane and its surrounds. Check them out at The Live To Shine Festival and we will be announcing some more dates with supports around Brisbane.
6th November- Live To Shine Festival
7th November- Alloneword Club
8th November- Ric's Bar.... supported by TroubleKarmaFlow
9th November- The Beetle Bar..... supported by Elle Bliss and another act TBA
11th November- The Step Inn for Mannequin Republic Band Camp 3 with The Lyrical, Andrew Lowden, and Spruce Moose.
12th November- The Jubilee Hotel (Upstairs) for Mannequin Republic Band Camp 4. Bands to be announced.

Finally, Mannequin Republic would just like to thank all that have supported us and continue to do so. We really appreciate it and know that we don't say it enough. It is also an absolute joy to have the bands we have on our roster. They're all amazing musicians and just knowing the likes of Andrew Lowden, Elle Bliss, Blair Jackson, Jon X, The Plastiscines, makes us feel really special. WE're proud to represent you.
Also a shout out to some others. Huge kudos to The Lyrical for being so supportive and helping us grow! Many good times in the future for sure! Many thanks to the photographers as well, Dianne Laura, Rachel Tinney from TooManySteves, and Studi02 Photography. Check them out on Facebook if you haven't already. All amazing photographers. DropDead Gorgeous. Fanny you're a star!
Also to all the bands that we do PR for and any others that have stumbled into our lives, thank you very much for the support. To all the bands/artists that send us demos and Myspace links, we listen to everyone. We will get back to you as soon as we can and let you know what we think. We want to try and help everyone. We want to take everyone on and put them on the books but it is sometimes simply not possible with the workload we already have.
Big big big kudos to Pistol Whipped as well! They're doing great things for electronic music and DJing and all that stuff! Check out the next epic Pistol Whipped evening!

And finally, huge thanks to Thomas Hughes and Ian Gnatz. Ian has been doing a solid job from Thailand, getting the business to a point of looking respectable. The design of the business cards, the logo, and the website is all down to him. Ian will also be sourcing out some merchandise over in Thailand. Thomas has been great with sourcing out ideas, radio stations and anything to do with the press. Hopefully there will be many more fruitful years with both these jamokes.

More updates to come!
www.mannequinrepublic.com.au

Peace and fight the good fight for local music!

<3

The Blackout from Wales

Mannequin Republic again got the chance to interview an awesome band. This time we interviewed a band that will be arriving on our shores next year for Soundwave 2011 in Feb-March.
The Blackout has come a long way since playing heaps of small gigs in South Wales. From regular touring spots with The Lost Prophets and a tonne of festival appearances world-wide, they are certainly on their way to rock stardom. We had a chat to The Blackout's vocalist Sean Smith and instead of asking him some wanky questions about their last album or their fans or what it's like to be signed up to Epitaph Records, we showed him some words and he gave his opinion on them.



*Tattoos:

"Oh i saw a girl with a tattoo on her back once. Shit she should've had my bastard kids. I love women with tatts. I love them too. My friend is a tattooer and he told me the worst place to get tattooed is your little toe. So we tattooed each others toes and it's pretty bad! I've got my stomach tattooed and that didn't really hurt that much.. probably because I was quite chubby back then. I've lost some pounds since"

*Twilight:

"Um... fuck that shit. Vampires don't sparkle in the daylight, they die. Well... I don't really have anything else to say about it."

M.R: Is it like a Disney Lost Boys type film?

Smith: No, it's not a Lost Boys, which is one of the best vampire movies of all time, it's just for fat goth girls (laughs). Which I love but they like Twilight, I just don't. Are they making another movie?

M.R: Probably....

Smith: Well, if I get casted, Twilight is brilliant, if I don't get casted, Twilight is dog shit.

*Food

I love food. It makes me hard just looking at most foods. Sushi is my favourite but because I don't know where every sushi place is in the world I have to settle for Burger King. So instead of sushi it's "Chicken Royale" which is known as the "Long Chicken" in Germany.

M.R: Any vegetarians in the band?

Smith: God no. We're not pussies. But technically a vegan woman does eat meat from time to time. In bed.....usually my bed.

M.R: Um... riiight.

Smith: Are you a vege-bastard?

M.R: No i love my meat....and not in bed.

*Drugs

Well I take drugs everyday. Heroin mainly. And then I take vitamins afterwards to keep my body up with the heroin. Well.. I guess we're not fully against drugs, I mean heroin and stuff is stupid. However Bob Marley was always pretty happy most of the time (laughs).

*Michael Jackson

Brilliant. The guy who produced our album, Jason, told us a story his friend engineer worked with Michael Jackson and it was before the time where you had autotune and stuff and it was all on tape so you had to go back and record it all rather than record sections and Michael Jackson was always note perfect. And that's something you will not find anymore because you don't need to be a perfect singer anymore and I'm definitely one of those people. But yeah, computers can make you sound perfect where back in that time he was just a really good singer and a good songwriter as well.

M.R: What's your opinion towards all the scandals that surrounded him?
Smith: To me nothing was proved. And yeah, I'm gonna say innocent until proved guilty. Even though he paid money but I think it was just to stop it anyway. Most of it was rumours. I hear rumours about me all the time.


M.R: REally? Which ones?
Smith: They're not bad....just strange ones.

*Nirvana- Nevermind

Funny, there's a baby's willy on the cover. I.. um.. I recently thought about them a lot because I thought about how much I love Dave Grohl. And I decided next time I see him I'm going to make an award and give it to him. An award for winning at life! But yeah, I'm not a big fan of being miserable, I think that's stupid, because I'm always miserable (laughs) but I'd rather listen to music that brings you up than takes you down. It's like drugs, like uppers and downers. But yeah, I never really got into Nirvana.. I got into metal very early.

*Straight Edge

(long pause) (sigh) It's cool, I guess. It's up to the person so I wouldn't really judge for or against it. I've never been straight edge but I think it's kind of a close community. Where we come from straight edge never was like a community, it was just a year when everyone was straight edge and then it just faded away. In America it seems to be more popular but in the end it's a lifestyle choice everyone has to make for themselves. And I'm not for or against it, if you're straight edge, it's cool if you're not, whatever. It's your choice.

*Computer games

We bring our Xbox with us wherever we go..it's on the bus now and we play Call Of Duty, Guitar Hero a car game.. we're all into computer games I guess. I like to play while being on tour, mostly guitar hero and football and stuff. If I would have a Xbox at home I'd play all the time so I keep it for the tour, for the down time.

*Dirty Love (Sean Smith's side project)
Okay. Um.. don't know what to say about it. Trying to make a website for it now, I'd like to get more designs together, get it up and running..because not enough people know about it yet, so I'm trying to make it more popular. It's just going to be T-Shirts and all the designs I come up with and I like and like wearing. Because I'm fed up seeing people's T-Shirts designs and it's just something someone knocked up in two minutes, it's not very good. So basically it's just stuff that I like, I find funny and I'd wear.

M.R: Are you involved in the designing process for the the Blackout merchandise as well?



Smith: Me and Gavin (vocals) always sum up ideas.. Gavin is like the drawer, we both have ideas but he's the one that gets on his mac and designs and creates it. So yeah, we do merch for the band.

M.R: Thanks for the chat Sean and look forward to catching up next year for Soundwave 2011!

Smith: Always a pleasure. I look forward to buying a blow-up doll. I collect them from different countries. One of the many true rumours floating around (laughs)

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Interview

Mannequin Republic were backstage at Splendour in the Grass and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club were kind enough to sit down briefly to answer a few light questions.

Mannequin Republic: Thanks so much for taking time out today to have a little chat.
Robert Levon Been: No problems man. It's a pleasure to be here in Australia


MR: Are you excited about playing to the crowds at Woodfordia?
RLB: Yeah man. It's a real nice place. Kind of earthy and a bit hippie. I like it. The stages are pretty small compared to what we usually play in Europe or the US.
MR: Is there anyone you're keen to see while you're here?
RLB: Man we would love to see The Pixies but they play on the Sunday. I am actually curious to see the local talent. I got told to catch Washington and The Temper Trap. So I will be doing some detective work here. See if I can take back some Aussie music to show off to my friends back home.

MR: You guys seem to support a lot of bands such as Kings of Leon and others. Do you make it a habit of touring with bands you admire? And who are your musical influences?
RLB: I like those guys. We always had fun with Kings. They're always drunk. I heard about the pigeon shit incident and laughed. I have a sneaking suspicion it was a spinal tap moment they pulled. I admire them because they have broken through in the USA. They have had to work hard for it.

As for my own influences. People assume Jesus and Mary Chain. I love them for sure but we are often compared to that great band and they never were an influecne for me.
I've admitted to liking a lot of heavy metal when I was in junior high, Metallica and Alice in Chains, but I've come a long way since then. Ride, The Stone Roses, The Verve. Richard Ashcroft should rock out man. I think the locals will be in for a real treat.

MR: Was music important to your growing up?
RLB: Not really. I used to just fuck around, smoke, skate with my friends. I stumbled across it pretty late. I had a brain snap I guess and wondered why the fuck i was just sitting around wasting myself away.

MR: Is the life of a touring musician what you thought it would be?
RLB: Yes and no. My Dad always warned me about pitfalls along the way. I sort of listened. When you're so young you think you're inviincible. YOu learn though. I guess touring is both good and hard. It's life rolled into one hectic tour I guess.

MR: What are your other non-musical passions?
RLB: Travel. Ive always wanted that and Im doing it now. Um....I know Peter (Hayes) loves darts. And we all love motorbikes.
MR: Do you have a favourite city?
RLB: I used to. But now i just settle anywhere. It's part of my love for travel I guess. I used to just like one city and then shit talk the rest (laughs).

MR: OK just a few more pointless questions for you. Who would you like to see as President?
LBR: Without a doubt Ralph Nader. That guys is a champion. fighting a battle each and every election....a losing one but a great one.
MR: ...and finally. What do you think you will take from your touring of Australia this time around?
RLB: Oh man. I hope every time we tour we get more fans. I like to think we will. And that's the same as everywhere we tour. We have a great following here so hopefulyl we can put on a good show and the kids will love us for it. Hopefully we will be back again next year for a full tour.
MR: Oh really when?
RLB: Well if not January-February, then hopefully somewhere around your East Coast Bluesfest. I love that festival. I want to play at it.

Many thanks to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's Robert Levon Been for taking time out to chat. Their 2010 album Beat the Devil's Tattoo is out now through the band's own record label Abstract Dragon.

What Festival will you be going to?

Let's face it, there are a shitload of festivals going on. Even during winter these days it's not just Splendour in the Grass.
Oh well. Bitch moan.

The recent leak of the Soundwave Festival line up has given us here at Mannequin Republic orgasms. This is why Soundwave will always be our number one mainstream festival to attend. They never fail to deliver a line up that usually has something for everyone. This year I admit has alot more metal and some of the old skool lovers of that genre will love the fact that Iron Maiden, Slayer and others are going to be there. Soundwave manage to vary the line up each year. 2010 saw a whole shitload of headlining bands attend and perform throughout the day. Whereas 2009's line up was generally smaller bands with a couple of huge headline bands.

The Bronx, The Gaslight Anthem, Breathe Carolina, Pennywise, New Found Glory etc are all pretty good reasons to attend. The Gaslight Anthem I feel will win alot more fans. Their music is suitable for large arenas And The Bronx? Well what more can I say. They're entertainment personified. Amazing live and extremly intereactive with the audience.
The lack of hardcore bands so far is fair enough. 2010 saw a ridiculous number of hardcore, emocore, and post- hardcore acts come out to Australia for the festival. Hence why the crowd demographic was so young. Rest assured 2011's lineup will be 20+ years.

If I were to pick a festival to suit my tastes, and theyre quite broad, I would choose Soundwave. The crowds are generally better, and amazingly, cleaner. Big Day Out lost me sometime after 2003. To me that was the best BDO. Great line up and a cool rock oriented crowd. Unfortunaetly like anything, its become popular and cool to be at.
So far this year, BDO did nothing for me and actually turned me off from going again unless Radiohead headlined haha.
Splendour in the Grass lacked the romance of Byron. The Byron smell, the Byron feel. It lacked charisma?

It is easy for me to justify why i will be going to Soundwave we do alot of cross promotion with Soundwave and Epitaph and there will be Epitaph affiliated bands there in 2011.. It will be by far the best festival of the year for 2011. Experimence wise and line up wise. The only major downsides i've had over the last few Soudnwaves, is the lack of Australian bands, the horrible venue that is Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney (no shade, no water, dusty), and the fact that it is more of an American event in Australia. Think Warped Tour or Bamboozle in the USA.

So what festival will you be attending in coming months and 2011?