THIS IS A HAPPENING THING.
You need to go to http://ifeeldirty.tomasford.com, like, RIGHT NOW. You can get a free copy of the single over there. As of right now. I’m a little bit excited.
Here’s the video, in case you need convincing to click over to the subdomain…
Dear Future Me,
This is what your website used to look like. Now it is slightly more colourful.
Much love,
Current Me
Drum Media Perth, who I write for, decided that the best candidate for interviewing me was myself. They were probably wrong; chatting to myself was laughably torturous. I’m still reeling. The finished result is one of my favourite bits of press ever. Check it out:
Hey you,
Do you like fun? Do you like amazing live dance music shows? Do you like karaoke?
If you have answered:
A) Yes.
B) I guess so, or
C) Oh my god, what kind of fabulous party are you throwing! You’ve got to tell me. Tell me! Do it! Tell me!
… then please accept my invite to join me for THE BEST NIGHT OF YOUR LIFE.
Given the awesomeness of my new single I FEEL DIRTY and the long process to get it released, a bog standard launch gig didn’t seem appropriate. Instead, I’ve opted for an EPIC KARAOKE THROWDOWN. It’ll run from 8pm until venue closes at Ya Ya’s in Northbridge on SATURDAY AUGUST 6.
I’ve called in favours from around the Perth music scene (to be revealed in the coming weeks) to make sure we’ve got a lineup of karaoke guests that will shock and awe you, plus you’ll be able to sing yourself. There will of course be my full on, multiscreen TOMAS FORD live dance music experience at 11pm, followed by open karaoke slather.
The single, I FEEL DIRTY, is a pop-sized blast of sweaty, intense punk disco. It came out of my early shows; I’d play a full-on show and then bundle my equipment into suitcases and run with them to make it to the last train home. The song revels in that feeling of being a sweaty mess, covered in fading makeup, bruises, a ridiculous costume and glitter. Being the weirdest person on a 2am train can give you the oddest feeling of invincibility.
The single comes with a video clip directed by VIS Productions that is probably the best video clip ever (see the poster image for a taste). I’ve also arm-wrestled some remixes out of some of my favourite Perth producers; Naik, Obscotch, Yarkhob, Able and KNO Agents. You’ll be able to get it as a “Pay With A Tweet” (or Facebook post) FREE DOWNLOAD from this website (which is about to be radically altered) from lunchtime on FRIDAY AUGUST 5 - the day before the launch. You can stream a tasty preview here:
I Feel Dirty (Single Mix) - Tomás Ford by tomasford
But I’m digressing. What you need to know from all this is that you are personally invited to come to my launch party on Saturday August 6 at Ya Ya’s In Northbridge. It just won’t be the same without you there. I implore you to cancel any of your other plans and join me.
Much love,
Tomás Ford
TOMÁS FORD’S I FEEL DIRTY SINGLE LAUNCH & KARAOKE THROWDOWN
8PM UNTIL THE VENUE CLOSES
SATURDAY AUGUST 6
YA YA’S, 147 James Street Northbridge
TICKETS $15 + BOOKING FEE FROM MOSHTIX.COM.AU
As a side note to this press release, this is a limited capacity gig and I would prefer if it was full of awesome people like you. So please book now at MOSHTIX.
It’s been a while since I did a music post on here - actually, it’s been a while since I posted; I’ve been hard at work on the I Feel Dirty single (announcement tomorrow about that, actually) and redesigning my online stuff and haven’t had time to use my typing muscles.
BUT, I scored a bunch of records from the second hand shop around the corner from my house today. All great Australian stuff; Peter Allen’s Taught By Experts, INXS’ Listen Like Thieves, The Triffids’ Born Sandy Devotional, Skyhooks’ Living In The 70’s and what a fairly obscure collection of late 80’s Kylie Minogue 12” mixes. I’m a big fan of extended club remixes from the late ’80s, the way some of those awful-tastic pop tunes sound when spread over five or more minutes is a beautiful thing.
LP Cover: Look! It’s Mandurah before the CUB’s!
Now that I’ve managed to pull myself away from Kylie, I’m getting deep into The Triffids. They’re a Perth band from the 80’s, if you’re from out of town - if you’re from here I’m probably stating the obvious. I’ve had (and grown to rather love) thier record Calenture for years, oddly enough after Kylie Minogue and Jimmy Little did a pretty great cover of Bury Me Deep In Love about a decade ago. For ages people have been telling me to get into their other stuff, but I underestimated how right they were. The songwriting and arrangements are perfect.
Sorry, I’m not being very articulate. I’ve been writing my own press releases all day and it’s messed up my ability to make accurate use of adjectives. But go get yourself a copy of this record. They had a kind of cult success that these days would be considered actual success, but nothing like what they deserved. This is the song everyone always talks about… I like it better in the context of a full album, but it’s rather splendid.
I think one of the things that gets me excited about this record is that it paints a picture of WA captured just prior to my starting to live here as a kid (I was born in Adelaide). I can already imagine the outlines of the geography the song lyrics are talking about anyway, and the songwriting fills in the gaps. Anyway, this platter is doing more flips on my record player than a disco gymnast, so I thought I’d get evangelical about it at you. Born Sandy Devotional by The Triffids. Go get it.
You may not want to take my advice though… if this album hadn’t been in the second hand shop, this could have just as easily been a piece of evangelism about Kylie’s Made In Heaven (Maid In Australia Mix)…
I’m putting on this spoken word show that I think you should come to if you live in Perth. It’s many of my own favourite local spoken word performers alongside the brilliant Randall Stephens from Victoria. I’ll be MC’ing, entry is free and… well… you have no excuse really. C’arn.
The Painkillers’ launch last night was a blast. They invited me to howl out their classic Love Cancer, as posted below. It looked and sounded something like this:
So, my collaboration with Malaysia’s Ze!, ‘Til Death Do Us Part, is still a free MP3 download at http://death.tomasford.com - go check it out! The video clip is being finished up at the moment and shouldn’t be too far away. She’s also just released a bit of a club electro-house bang0r, In The House which you can see the video for here. The outro is totally off the hook.
I’m sitting organising a whole pile of stuff for upcoming tour action - if you’re in Australia, I will be playing visits in a venue near you in August/September. Let me know if you live somewhere out of the way where you can think of an awesome place for me to play and I’ll come there.
Also, I’m playing at this show to the left next week, it’s the launch of The Painkillers’ new album. As regular live show catchers will know, I cover their tune Love Cancer in my live act (watch it below) and they’re one of my favourite bands. Also playing are 6’s & 7’s, who I’m currently doing a remix of (hopefully will finish that in time for the show).
…And here is The Painkillers’ superawesome original, in live form.
Had a bit of an afternoon of archival uploading today. So I thought I might share some really old stuff with you from aaaaaages ago.
This is my old two-man-band Descend Here performing our smash hit Domestic Utopia (which also appears on my 2006 LP Nobody Wants To Be You. The vid was directed by my then comedy collaborator Shane Adamczak - I don’t work with either of these guys much anymore but luckily I’m still pals with both of them. I actually danced the Christmas Macarena with both of these gentlemen on the weekend.
This is me, a year or so later, in a video for a Descend Here recording that also ended up on Nobody Wants To Be You and directed by VJ Zoo, who did VJ’ing at quite a few of my early shows.
You’ll note the upcoming shows sidebar is a bit off colour at the moment - there’ll probably be a few things like that at the moment. Without putting up an early ’90s-style “Under Construction” .gif, I’m in the midst of redeveloping this web thing. Should be up next month. Everything should still work here (let me know if it doesn’t) but a few things will have a mild case of not-keeping-with-the-current-theme.
