See Hear

Musicians, artists, actors and authors (and any other creatives I haven’t nominated) have long taken pseudonyms. Maybe a more exciting name will sell an image, maybe it’s to have some semblance of privacy, maybe it’s to separate themselves from their past, …any number of reasons. Avant garde art collective The Residents took things beyond name change – they maintained complete anonymity. Welcome t...

Most working people have that day gig – accountant, engineer, admin, hospitality. The job pays the bills and puts food on the table. We don’t tend to think of being a musician as a day job category. Welcome to episode 110 of See Hear Podcast. Through the 20th century, there was always some group of musicians who had that “day job” status – playing for corporate functions, teaching people to instru...

There was a time when the rock and roll star appearance in a film ostensibly as themselves (or a variant) was a given. Think of the films of Elvis Presley or Cliff Richard. Before the Warholian expression of 15 minutes of fame became a thing, the pop music film was a way to make the most of the latest populist puppet’s time in the sun – script be damned, musician’s longevity be damned. “Let’s just...

Disco music had been a thing from the early 70s on, but not so much in the mainstream. Parts of the African-American, Latino and gay communities had been cherishing the music as an event - going out to dance in discotheques was the thing. There's are books that go through the history of disco music and what put that music underground. Some of the music became top forty success stories, but disco r...

To some people, Ornette Coleman represents the adventurous spirit of jazz. To others, Kenny G is as exciting as it gets. This episode is more dedicated to the former..... Welcome to episode 107 of See Hear Podcast. This month, Tim has selected the film under discussion. It's a documentary filmed in a jazz club in Budapest called “Free The Jazz”. Released in 2014, but seemingly filmed in 2007, its...

The history of cinema is loaded with films about siblings and the problems that go with loving and competing with your flesh and blood: The Godfather, A Simple Plan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Eat Drink Man Woman.....and Hilary & Jackie. Welcome to episode 106 of See Hear Podcast. Classical music history records that among the greatest of cellists was Jacqueline du Pre'. Her interpretations of the ce...

Do you remember when you were a kid and you liked to make percussive sounds on biscuit tins, cushions, the neighbour's fence, or your own stomach? Of course you do!!!! No matter whether you took up an instrument or not, percussion is always fun......until nasty neighbours tell you to shut up because you're making noise and disturbing their peaceful afternoon listening passively to Kenny G!!!!! Wel...

We've all seen 'em....films about people with a “dream”. They start out poorly, but triumph by the third act. Usually, they're comedic with a serious lesson to be learned. Then there's Tapeheads. Welcome to episode 104 of See Hear Podcast. John Cusack and Tim Robbins star as a pair of underqualified entrepeneurs (especially Cusack) in the music video field. The film was made during the late 80s du...

Biopics about contemporary musicians have been a very common thing in cinema, particularly over the last 40 to 50 years. As we've often discussed on the show, they often follow a familiar pattern – a grocery list, if you will, with all the known high and low points of the subject's life story the audience expects. However, before there was a glutton of such movies, there were a few that had no rul...

After a hiatus of several months, See Hear podcast is back to fill your earholes with discussion of music-centric films and interviews with directors of such films. For episode 102, the focus is on Tender Mercies, the 1983 film starring Robert Duvall about an ex country singer who's trying to find some semblance of normality after an existence of alcoholism, music industry ego and domestic violenc...

I'm lucky to live in a town with a great music scene. Notwithstanding the tough times that both bands and venue operators are facing in the wake of the pandemic (and the rip-off merchants who believe that their bottom line is more important than paying musicians a living wage), Melbourne has always had a healthy music culture as do many cities around the world. I'm talking about cities where music...

Back in January 2014, Wendi Freeman, Tim Merrill and myself started a monthly podcast to look at the world of films about music and musicians (or any tenuous link to that world). Occasionally, we would talk about musicals that weren't actually about music, cos rules were meant to be broken. From episode 2, fellow music and film fan, Bernard Stickwell joined the team, an See Hear was on its way. Th...

We're so used to the idea of art being hung in museums or on our walls, that we forget that we have may have hundreds or thousands of pieces of art hiding in plain sight – on shelves in our record or CD collections.   Welcome to episode 99 of See Hear Podcast.   Anytime you go exploring through your local record or CD store, before you even hear the music, the potential to draw you to an album you...

When you were a kid, did your parents ever ask you to do your Wiggler practice? How about getting to your room and playing your Vibrowheels? Surely there were repercussions if you didn't practice your Melocipede????   Welcome to episode 98 of See Hear Podcast.   Neil Feather is a creator of musical instruments (such as the ones listed above), and a firm believer in playing experimental music. He d...

The story of Brian Wilson has been heavily documented through literature and film. There are a couple of perspectives that continuously get focus: Brian's brilliance as songwriter and harmony arranger. His troubled life and mental breakdown through the abuse of his jealous father Murry Wilson, the smothering treatment of status seeking psychiatrist Eugene Landy, and the questioning of his musical...

The 1980s were headed into frightening times politically. The threat of war and potential nuclear conflict was pervasive. So naturally music would reflect the times, right? Sure thing....Bette Davis Eyes, Nine To Five (Morning Train), This Ole' House, You Weren't In Love With Me, and Just The Two Of Us were what people were buying – they reflect the times, right? Welcome to episode 96 of See Hear...

In the year 1969, Richard Nixon became president of the United States, James Earl Ray plead guilty to the murder of Dr Martin Luther King, multiple planes are hijacked to Cuba, the Stonewall Rebellion took place, and the war in Vietnam raged on. ….but there was an incredible music festival that took place for the third time in Mt Morris Park in Harlem, that for years no one recalled. Welcome to Se...

Texas has given the world some great songwriters: Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, and Kinky Friedman (yes indeed!!!) among may others. When you discuss one of the most revered Texan songsmiths, (who lived much of his life in Nashville), you really have to discuss two others as well. Welcome to episode 94 of See Hear Podcast. Tim and I were rapt to welcome to the show author and film maker Tamara Savia...

Would you be tempted to watch a film where aliens travel around in a space ship in the shape of a Flying V looking for the source of rock and roll in the universe? How about if it involved a high school romance, a battle of the bands, escaped mental patients armed to the teeth, and a polluted lake? Tim, Bernie, Maurice and friend of the show Paul Ryan have done just that.....and had a conversation...

Change is difficult. Some embrace it, some resist it. It might seem obvious, but change is inevitable. Welcome to episode 92 of See Hear Podcast. Jazz is an art form that never remained stagnant. Through creativity or financial necessity, post-war jazz moved from the big swing orchestras to smaller ensembles and bebop became the dominant form. In the late 50s, some jazz musicians decided that, as...

What happened to heavy metal in the eighties? It bred Dokken, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, W.A.S.P., Motley Crue and many other hair metal bands. Meanwhile in Richmond ,Virginia, an art student and punk musician connected while part of an art collective to form a metal band that combined theatre, chops, a sense of humour, and plenty of bodily fluids. Welcome to episode 91 of See Hear Podcast. Scott Barb...

Music must change. It always has and always will. The common story (probably part truth and myth) is that punk emerged in the UK as a reaction to the so-called “dinosaur” bands...the ones that had been around for a whole 10 or so years (we'd laugh at that notion now....). Bands that were bloated on their success and measured that success on excess...the supposed antithesis of the early days of pop...

Say you're in a band, and you're struggling to get your songs performed because the self-appointed leader is a narcissistic arsehole. Then along comes an aging mega rock star who offers you a gig to sing for him so he can summon a demon from another dimension... It's a common showbiz tale.... Welcome to episode 89 of See Hear. Tim, Bernie and Maurice sit at the virtual round table to talk about th...

So, let's say you're a working songwriter and musician. Life is hard enough as it is (and we're talking pre-Covid) without a couple of divorces, management of a singer with an inferiority complex, keeping an agent inline who's trying to cheat you, and a publisher is HAS cheated you to worry about. Unless you're Doc Jenkins..... Welcome to episode 88 of See Hear. Bernie, Tim and Maurice gather arou...

With the ubiquity of fanzines, blogs and podcasts in the 21st century, anyone can publish their critiques on any form of the arts (including your humble hosts of this very show). For better or worse, we don't have to limit ourselves to the opinions of those who claim to “know better”. There was a time, though, where we'd have to rely on information and analysis about music from the writers at publ...