Latest news with #SteelyDan
The Age
5 days ago
- Business
- The Age
The surprising NSW tree-change towns where house prices rose most
Home buyers looking for a bargain are having to hunt harder across the state, as regional NSW house prices accelerate skywards to hit a record median of $800,000. After clocking up house price growth of 5.3 per cent over the year to June – the biggest jump in about three years and overtaking Sydney's 4.2 per cent annual house price rise – buyers are having to look even further afield for affordable regional options, the latest Domain House Price Report, released on Thursday, reveals. As a result, the five areas where housing prices have jumped the most because of a surge in demand all have median house prices at the comparatively inexpensive sweet spot between $560,000 and almost $670,000. 'These areas are now proving attractive to home buyers and metropolitan investors because they are the most affordable locations,' said Domain's chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell. 'We're seeing a clear acceleration in price in the NSW regions with a 2.6 per cent rise in the last quarter alone, which is the same as in Sydney. Interest rate cuts are giving people more confidence and boosting the housing market everywhere.' It means some of our most overlooked regional areas are now winning fresh attention. Fifty years ago, for instance, the NSW Upper Hunter coal town of Muswellbrook grabbed global headlines when it was referenced by American rock band Steely Dan in their hit song Black Friday as somewhere to go to get lost forever. Today, however, it has recorded the biggest house price growth of all the regions in the state, adding 18.2 per cent over the past year to a median of $585,000. 'For a long time Muswellbrook suffered from a cringe factor from the cities and metropolitan areas,' said local First National agent Tony McTaggart. 'As a result it's always been undervalued.
Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
The surprising NSW tree-change towns where house prices rose most
Home buyers looking for a bargain are having to hunt harder across the state, as regional NSW house prices accelerate skywards to hit a record median of $800,000. After clocking up house price growth of 5.3 per cent over the year to June – the biggest jump in about three years and overtaking Sydney's 4.2 per cent annual house price rise – buyers are having to look even further afield for affordable regional options, the latest Domain House Price Report, released on Thursday, reveals. As a result, the five areas where housing prices have jumped the most because of a surge in demand all have median house prices at the comparatively inexpensive sweet spot between $560,000 and almost $670,000. 'These areas are now proving attractive to home buyers and metropolitan investors because they are the most affordable locations,' said Domain's chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell. 'We're seeing a clear acceleration in price in the NSW regions with a 2.6 per cent rise in the last quarter alone, which is the same as in Sydney. Interest rate cuts are giving people more confidence and boosting the housing market everywhere.' It means some of our most overlooked regional areas are now winning fresh attention. Fifty years ago, for instance, the NSW Upper Hunter coal town of Muswellbrook grabbed global headlines when it was referenced by American rock band Steely Dan in their hit song Black Friday as somewhere to go to get lost forever. Today, however, it has recorded the biggest house price growth of all the regions in the state, adding 18.2 per cent over the past year to a median of $585,000. 'For a long time Muswellbrook suffered from a cringe factor from the cities and metropolitan areas,' said local First National agent Tony McTaggart. 'As a result it's always been undervalued.
Irish Times
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Four music books chart unconventional lives in the industry
Musicians in the pre-punk period of the mid-'70s 'aspired to artistic status ... and rock in general had a renewed sense of ambition', according to 1975: The Year the World Forgot , by Dylan Jones (Constable, £25). This generation of music acts, which included the likes of Genesis, Steely Dan, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell and Queen, was who punk rock would fight against. It aimed to replace their mature, erudite music with pared-back, stripped-down, revved-up pop songs. Jones, a prolific chronicler of pop music and the people who created it, is refuting the perception of pre-1976 being the preserve of prog rock bands such as Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. 1975 was the paragon of adult pop, he writes. A year rich with masterpieces such as Blood on the Tracks (Bob Dylan), Young Americans (David Bowie), Horses (Patti Smith), The Köln Concert (Keith Jarrett), Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen), Another Green World (Brian Eno), and The Hissing of Summer Lawns (Joni Mitchell). Across 21 albums, Jones smartly covers the songs and music as well as the geocultural milieu that nurtured and enveloped them. An excellent book that, thoughtfully, closes with a '75 from '75' playlist you can listen to on Spotify. READ MORE Eamon Carr: 'I found the cumulative effect of the horror stories I was reporting on from the North difficult to shake off.' Photograph: Eric Luke Pure Gold: Memorable Conversations with Remarkable People , by Eamon Carr (Merrion Press, €16.99), contains recollections of a different but no less important time, when journalists could interview people without the presence of PRs and their clipboards. Pure Gold gathers a series of interviews (culled from an assortment of mislaid cassette tapes) that Carr, a former member of Horslips and a long-established journalist, conducted in the late 1980s and early 1990s with a motley crew of people. The list is as impressive as it is eclectic: Eartha Kitt, JP Dunleavy, Josephine Hart, Brenda Fricker, Shane MacGowan, Rudolf Nureyev, Jack Charlton, 'Mad' Frankie Fraser, John Mortimer and more. The collection is much more than a conversation between two people or, God forbid, a set of predictable questions that too often receive rote responses. As well as insightfully deconstructing the interview process, Carr has a knack for going off-piste, judging the mood of the interviewee and burrowing down as far as possible. Earnest indie rock bands, he writes, answered questions with quotes that 'were homogenous, interchangeable'. Not so the interviewees here, who pounced on Carr's puckish, innate curiosity with a speed that less engaged inquisitors can only dream of. Keith Donald has played with The Pogues, Van Morrison and Ronnie Drew. There is enough of a life story in Music and Mayhem , by Keith Donald (Lilliput Press, €18.95) to fill in many hours of questions and answers, but the meat, so to speak, is in the reading. The career musician, now in his 80s, is best known, perhaps, for being a member of the groundbreaking ensemble group, Moving Hearts. Donald's peaks and troughs in life are documented with assured pragmatism. 'My days are numbered' is the kind of first chapter opening sentence that sets the scene for what follows (spoiler: it isn't pretty). From trusted boundaries being broken to grasping an instinctive love of music, from being diagnosed with lifelong PTSD to embarking on, writes Donald, 'a thirty-year internal battle between attraction and revulsion, emotionally up when the drink kicked in, down when it wasn't available, the rollercoaster of addiction'. Music courses through the book, needless to say, but the 'mayhem' of the title runs it a close second, and often the two are locked in a battle for supremacy. Stitched into the fabric of each is a distinctive history of Ireland's fledgling music industry. It is one populated by showbands ('human gramophones that rehearsed and learned three new songs every week'), Moving Hearts ('unlike any band I'd played with') and shoals of business sharks and redemption. A life lived? You bet. One could say the same for US rapper Tupac Shakur (1971-1996), who is regarded not only as one of hip-hop's most influential figures but also, through his music and activism, a torchbearer for highlighting political injustice and the marginalisation of African Americans. Late rapper Tupac Shakur was shot aged 25 in 1996 in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. Photograph: Al Pereira/MichaelWith the primary motivation of presenting hip-hop's most noted nonconformist, Words for My Comrades: A Political History of Tupac Shakur , by Dean Van Nguyen (White Rabbit, £25), maintains a firm balance between placing Shakur within the context of the Black Panther movement (both of his parents were party members) and avoiding the usual biographical cliches of hero worship or downgrading unsavoury aspects of the subject's life (including a conviction in 1994 for sexual abuse). There is also much to admire about Van Nguyen's industrious, thought-provoking research, oral histories and thorough critical analysis of Shakur's significance. Those looking for a strictly linear approach will be disappointed, but anyone (Shakur fans or not) interested in hip-hop history and Black radical political ideology will, with some justification, love it. Dean Van Nguyen places Tupac Shakur within the context of the Black Panther movement. Photograph: Daragh Soden Another unconventional life is outlined in The Absence: The Memoirs of a Banshee Drummer, by Budgie, aka Peter Clarke (White Rabbit, £25). Merseyside-born Budgie studied art in nearby Liverpool, where in the mid-1970s he joined fledgling punk bands the Spitfire Boys and Big in Japan. He is best known, however, as the drummer in Siouxsie and the Banshees, which he joined in 1979 until their dissolution in 1996. Afterwards, he and Siouxsie (with whom he was romantically attached) formed The Creatures. Following their divorce in 2007, Budgie continued in music. His most recent work was a 2023 collaborative album with former Cure drummer Lol Tolhurst and Irish musician/producer Jacknife Lee. English Punk and New Wave musicians Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie feature in the Creatures' Right Now music video. Photograph:The Absence, however, is anything but an orderly trawl through back pages. Rather, it is an evocative, lyrical memoir of boyhood; from 'on the walk back to the guesthouse along the Golden Mile, my dad and I would stop to buy a takeaway of fish and chips' to remembering after-show hangers-on 'Siouxsie might play along… almost as a game, but most times she would get irritated, snap, and tell them to f*** off'. He also reflects on a doomed marriage: 'Our intense love was real, as was our intense anger and disgust'. A bold, bracing retelling of Goth beginnings and unhappy endings.
Vogue
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue
Yacht-Rock Style Isn't as Smooth as Its Sound—and Therein Lies Its Sex Appeal
Yacht Rock style as worn by George Benson, Pablo Cruise, Kenny Loggins, and Jim Messina The heart wants what it wants. Mine seems to be wholly immune to the indie-sleaze and Y2K revival—been there, done that—but strangely drawn to the tight jeans and hairy appeal of the yacht-rock set. Let's just say I watched last year's HBO's self-described 'dockumentary' on the subject and was hooked. Originating in California in the 1970s, yacht rock is a genre of soft, mellow music that was post-named in 2005 in conjunction with a video series. The moniker plays on the tranquil take-me-away mood of Christopher Cross's song 'Sailing.' It's a sound and mood that contrasts with the more energetic pop of the clean-cut Beach Boys, who emerged a decade earlier. Heading to Getty Images I expected to find a low-key, surfy, Cali style, but what I discovered was that while yacht rock is sonically associated with smoothness, yacht-rock fashion is, in contrast, choppy, a grab-and-go mix of jeans and tees. And it's really hirsute. What unites the look of bands like the Doobie Brothers or Steely Dan is hair: chest hair, long hair, exaggerated sideburns, and beards befitting storybook sea captains.
Japan Today
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Today
Virtuosic guitarist Ty Segall finds a new sweet spot on his laid-back 'Possession'
By KRYSTA FAURIA Much of the virtuosic guitarist Ty Segall's prolific career has been characterized by a sludgy, almost primal, intensity. But his 16th LP crystalizes a new, less-aggressive era for the indie rocker, as he trades in his additive synths for strings and horns — all while maintaining his singular garage-psych. 'Possession' isn't Segall's first album to reel in his trademark heaviness. Following the release of his 2021 record 'Harmonizer' — the apex of a Black Sabbath-inspired, electronics-assisted sound he had for years — the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has mellowed out and gone more analog in the myriad solo projects he's released since. There was his 2022 mostly acoustic album, 'Hello, Hi,' as well as his instrumental 'Love Rudiments,' an avant-garde, percussion-focused record, which he dropped less than a year ago. But with 'Possession,' Segall seems to have found a kind of sweet spot that balances force with restraint in this new phase of his discography. His signature psychedelic sound and distorted guitar solos are still there, like in 'Shining' and the album's title track. But the songs are also subdued and refined, with a surprising arrangement of strings and horns on songs like 'Skirts of Heaven' and 'Shoplifter.' Despite that addition of new instruments, there's a kind of back-to-basics sound to the record, bringing to mind the soulful, easy-listening rock bands of the '70s like Cheap Trick and Steely Dan. This album also marks a lyrical shift, thanks in part to the fact that he co-wrote it with his longtime friend, documentary filmmaker Matt Yoka. He brings a clear narrative framework to Segall's poetic, sometimes opaque, writing style. 'Neighbors' daughter sentenced dead / her toes directed downward / The washer woman a victim too / the village's obsession,' Segall croons of witch trials on 'Possession,' the only song on the album which Yoka wrote solo. That emphasis on storytelling also brings a kind of depth to the songs, which often wade into poignant themes like, mortality and success, topics not often overtly broached on Segall's previous records. 'What you gonna do when the money's gone / And everyone you know is dead,' Segall sings on 'Fantastic Tomb.' 'When you're standing naked on the lawn / You think about the life you led.' And while he brings in highbrow instruments like cellos, pianos and trumpets, there is plenty of discordance. It matches the existential dread of songs like 'Buildings' and 'Alive.' And yet, the album maintains a kind of laid-back sensibility in comparison to much of Segall's earlier work. Last year while promoting his 14th solo LP, 'Three Bells,' Segall told The Associated Press that he was trying to be less prolific. He's since recorded an album under a new band with Color Green's Corey Madden, Freckle, as well as two more solo LP's, including 'Possession.' Segall's failed resolution is to the benefit of his fans, even as he pushes himself into creative directions he's yet to go before. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
