The Australian Music Prize (The Amp) returns in 2008 to encourage, reward and promote Australian music of excellence.

Now in its fourth year, The Amp is calling for all Australian artists across every musical genre to submit original album-length works (released in 2008) to go into the running to win the cash prize, which this year has increased to $30,000.

Prize Director of The Amp 2008, Tracey Grimson, says: “The Amp is thrilled to offer an increased cash prize to its winner this year, thanks to the ongoing support of one of our principal partners, PPCA. PPCA has been with us since the word go. It’s a happy marriage and we’re grateful for their continued support.”

Stephen Peach, Chief Executive of PPCA, says all Australian artists can benefit by becoming a PPCA member: “PPCA collects licence fees from commercial users of recorded music like radio, TV, retail stores, bars and nightclubs. We then distribute the net income we’ve collected direct to registered Australian artists and to their record labels.” He adds that PPCA, which is a non-profit organisation, shares The Amp’s commitment to the promotion of Australian recordings: “We’re delighted to be continuing our partnership with The Amp in 2008.”

Last year’s winner of the Australian Music Prize was The Mess Hall, awarded the esteemed prize for the album ‘Devils Elbow’. The prize money has been a “blessing”, according to the band. “We’ve used the bulk of it on touring and we’ve also gotten ourselves a permanent space where we can record and rehearse,” says the band’s drummer Cec Condon. “It’s enabled us to have a bit of financial breathing space before we start the recording process again.” But The Amp is not only about the prize money.

In the short years since its birth, The Amp has become Australia’s most prestigious music award, renowned for its objectivity and its integrity. Like the UK’s Mercury Music Prize, The Amp is intended to encourage excellence and to attract the broadest spectrum of entrants.

“Every Australian artist who released an original album in 2008 should enter the Australian Music Prize,” says Tracey Grimson. “The judging panel is comprised of some of the best sets of ears in the country – whether artists, music media or retailers. These judges are huge music fans who are open to listening to every style of music. And they’re unbiased in their approach to judging the award.”

The winner and finalists (known as the Shortlist) will share in widespread media and retail exposure thanks to their association with The Amp 2008. And along with the Australian Music Prize itself, The Amp also awards an encouragement prize (supported by Red Bull), as well as including a public vote component.

More details of the Red Bull Prize will be announced very soon, along with a couple of exciting developments which will make The Amp 2008 the biggest and best yet. Artists intending to enter should note there is an early bird entry fee of only $55 applicable from 1st to 31st October. Entries received after that date will attract a $95 fee. Final entries close on 21st November 2008, no exceptions.

To enter (from 1st October, 2008), go to:

Australian Music Prize Official Website

2005 SHORTLIST:

Ben Lee – Awake Is The New Sleep
Devastations – Coal
The Drones – Wait Long By the River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By
The Go-Betweens – Oceans Apart
The Mess Hall – Notes From A Ceiling
Tex, Don And Charlie – All Is Forgiven
TZU – Smiling At Strangers
Wolfmother – Wolfmother

2005 WINNER

The Drones – Wait Long By the River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By

2006 SHORTLIST

Augie March – Moo, You Bloody Choir
Bob Evans – Suburban Songbook
The Drones – Gala Mill
Gotye – Hearts A Mess
The Grates – Gravity Won’t Get You High
Howling Bells – Howling Bells
Jackie Marshall – Fight ‘n’ Flight
Lisa Gerrard – The Silver Tree
Sarah Blasko – What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have

2006 WINNER

Augie March – Moo, You Bloody Choir

2007 SHORTLIST

Architecture In Helsinki – Places Like This
Bluejuice – Problems
Dardanelles – Mirror Mirror
Devastations – Yes, U
Lisa Miller – Morning In The Bowl Of Night
The Mess Hall – Devils Elbow
Midnight Juggernauts – Dystopia
New Buffalo – Somewhere, Anywhere
Perry Keyes – Last Ghost Train Home
Urthboy – The Signal

2007 WINNER

The Mess Hall – Devils Elbow

Augie March and The Aliens are on tour together! They happen to be two of my favorite bands at the moment, and at some point I want to go out and see them play live. Currently they’re playing shows from the east coast to the west coast in the US and Canada. Tonight they’re in Washington DC.

I’ve mentioned before how much I like The Aliens’ song, “Robot Man”. Augie March’s “One Crowded Hour” is also a brilliant track. It’s one of those songs that when I listen to it, I get that feeling in my stomach…that’s hard to explain. A rush of adrenaline? Basically, it’s a good feeling and it’s because of the tone of Glenn Richards‘ voice, the choice of chords they’re using as well as the melodic happenings within the song. Lovely.

Watch Augie March – “One Crowded Hour” video:

Augie March hail from Australia. Band members are: Glenn Richards (Vocals/Guitar/Songwriter), David Williams (Drums), Edmondo Ammendola (Bass), Kiernan Box (Keyboard) and Adam Donovan (Guitar).

Augie March is set to release their latest album, ‘Moo, You Bloody Choir’ on October 8th, 2007 in the UK.

The digital single “One Crowded Hour” is set for release in the UK on October 1st 2007.

The Aliens and Augie March 2007 tour dates:

Dates could be added or changed! Go to Augie March and The Aliens’ Official websites for the latest tour dates and information.

Friday September 21 (9:30 PM) Washington, DC, Rock and Roll Hotel
Saturday September 22 (10 PM) Toronto, ONT, Lee’s Palace
Monday September 24 (9 PM) Detroit, MI, Magic Stick
Tuesday September 25 (9 PM) Chicago, IL, Schubas Tavern
Wednesday September 26 (8 PM) Minneapolis, MN, Varsity Theater
Friday September 28 (10 PM) Denver, CO, Larimer Lounge
Monday October 1 (9 PM) Vancouver, BC, Richard’s On Richards Cabaret
Tuesday October 2 (9:30 PM) Seattle, WA, Crocodile Cafe
Wednesday October 3 (9 PM) Portland, OR, Doug Fir Lounge
Friday October 5 (9 PM) San Francisco, CA, Slim’s

Augie March Official Website
Augie March on Myspace
“One Crowded Hour” YouTube video link

The Aliens Official Website
The Aliens on Myspace

By: Jenny May

See, in a world gone mad with window-dressing, Augie March actually make stuff. Their albums are leather bound volumes on a shelf groaning with tatty magazines. They’re the old family roast joint across the street from the plastic strip mall takeaway. And singer-songwriter Glenn Richards is a real live poet with a six-stringed loom. The guy doesn’t even dance.

“Poems used to be called songs,” he says, by way of describing his general motivation. “I’m very keen on the idea of bringing that full circle. I love the way words can move together and I guess I find music a natural vehicle for that.”

“One Crowded Hour”, the song that sets the scene is a typically loaded invitation into Augie March’s world. It spins from a gentle finger-picked waltz into an epic melodrama piled high with layers of fleeting joy and dashed hope, all gathering spin under some drunken mirror ball.

Who are those silver-spoon boys and green-eyed harpies? The longer you stare, the more familiar they seem. “Victoria’s Secrets” unravels in a similar fashion, not like a magic eye gimmick in a magazine, but like an old painting in a public building that questions ancient characters under 21st century light.

“Thin Captain Crackers”? “The Baron of Sentiment”? Are they Dickensian caricatures, dry biscuits or some half-imagined pub in Carlton? “Bolte and Dunstan” are covered in ancient pigeon poop, but they’re still talking in murmurs to suited commuters rushing the streets of Melbourne.

“I wrote quite a lot of these songs when I was living in East Melbourne, that old money area,” says Glenn. “Thin Captain Crackers” was literally looking from the window of my bedsit onto the main street, then imagining Ned Kelly riding up the street.

“Bolte and Dunstan Talk Youth” is the walk up Hotham Street where I used to live, through the gardens, into the State Library, past the statues of the premiers…” and the local late opener, the Exford Hotel? “Actually the album was gonna be called The Exford Dregs…”

As the prospect of a mooing choir might suggest, not everything is what it seems or how it sounds on this extraordinary record. The soft, opiated groove of “Stranger Strange” throws a disturbing light on the junkie kids begging “shrapnel and smokes” on the banks of the Yarra. The jaunty feel of “Cold Acre” is an odd choice for a song that plays in death’s revolving door.

That’ll be the suitably oblique interpretive skills of Edmondo Ammendola (bass), Adam Donovan (guitars, keys), Kiernan Box (keyboards, string and horn arrangements) and David Williams (drums, percussion). Between them lies the languorous, Gershwin-esque swing of “The Honey Month”; the driven, distorted rock of “Just Passing Through”; the Dylanesque folk of “Bottle Baby” and the country lilt of “Mother Greer”.

‘Moo, You Bloody Choir’ was recorded in Melbourne, San Francisco and the band’s own Second World studio in Nagambie in country Victoria. It was variously produced by Australian studio legend Paul McKercher, by Captain Beefheart / PJ Harvey alumnus Eric Drew Feldman, and by Augie March, and was mixed by Mark Howard (Time Out Of Mind – Bob Dylan ).

Its inspiration spanned from St Kilda (“Clockwork”) to Hobart (“Mt. Wellington Reverie”), but possibly not during the millennium you’re standing in, and not in any way that an expensive video shoot will render obvious.

“I guess I could be guilty of being anachronistic with the kinda themes of some of these songs,” Glenn admits, “but a general idea is to tie a notion of the historical to the contemporary: ‘Why do we have this society that we have right now?’ That idea interests me somehow.

“As usual there’s nothing you can directly glean,” he says with an almost apologetic laugh, “because I’m not a very literal songwriter. I’m just hoping that imagery will suffice.” The album’s climactic, string-woven epic, “Clockwork”, perhaps puts that another way:

“O but I didn’t write this song with a machine, And I don’t know how to stop it from its accidental purpose.”

If that kind of imagery doesn’t suffice, well, there’s always those nonsense bars with their nowhere music…

“FAR FROM THESE NONSENSE BARS AND THEIR NOWHERE MUSIC,
It’s making me sick and I know it’s making you sick,
There’s nothing there it’s like eating air, It’s like drinking gin with nothing else in…”

Moo, You Bloody Choir Track Listing:

1 – One Crowded Hour
2 – Victoria’s Secrets
3 – Cold Acre
4 – Stranger Strange
5 – Mother Greer
6 – The Honey Month
7 – Just Passing Through
8 – Thin Captain Crackers
9 – Bottle Baby
10 – Mt Wellington Reverie
11 – The Baron Of Sentiment
12 – Bolte And Dunstan Talk Youth
13 – Clockwork
14 – Vernoona

AUGIE MARCH – ‘Moo, You Bloody Choir’
UK Release date: October 8th 2007

Digital single – “One Crowded Hour”: UK Release date October 1st 2007

Augie March Official Website
Augie March on Myspace

Related: Augie March and The Aliens on tour + One Crowded Hour video

“We love to share the stage with other Australian acts,” comments frontman Dan Rosen. “Maybe I’m biased, but I think we know how to put on a good show.”

Second Dan got their start in Australia when their EP ‘Running Out of Feelings,’ achieved award-winning airplay on Triple J’s “Unearthed,” a known rocket boom for a number of Australian acts such as the Grates, Silverchair and Jet. ‘Running Out of Feelings,’ along with the follow-up single, “Everything Is Good” were both in heavy rotation for over two months with regular national radio play. The band toured the country on festival bills with The White Stripes, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Vines.

The band, now based in NYC, spent the past year plotting steps toward breaking the world’s biggest music market. They returned to the studio to record their first full-length album, ‘Bringing Down Goliath.’ They also built a passionate following in the region as the live stage is Second Dan’s first home. They have been regularly playing headlining shows at Mercury Lounge and Arlene’s Grocery along with supporting bills at venues like Irving Plaza.

‘Bringing Down Goliath’ will be released this fall via Rola Pola Records and Organic Entertainment. For more information please visit Second Dan: www.seconddan.com and/or Second Dan on Myspace: www.myspace.com/seconddan.