Sydney/Melbourne scenes

In Melbourne: record store - synaesthesia. clubs - revolver

there are probably heaps of others but heck, I'm an indie boy so I'm not likely to be any help to you other than that

anything elctronic/dance in sydney head to oxford street - try central station, and a couple of others...

redeye records is in the city - they are overrated and expensive but have a large range, you'd be better off looking for waht you want at www.rockinghorse.net

clubs wise, can't say as I have sociophobia, but you could probably get a good idea of things via the two street papers Revolver and...shit, I forgot what the dance one is called, sorry...the music stores will stock them anyway.

galleries - well, i would recommend the museum of contemporary art down near circular quay, but i went there today and it kinda sucks...the powerhouse museum at darling harbour is good in an exploratoy hands on thing, the big aquarium is there as well...again, check out the street papers - they'll give you an idea of what is on...

In Melbourne I'd imagine Gaslight records, if they are stilla round, would interest you - they are in the mainm all, up towards the parliament house end, and melbourne also has a street paper called the beat, i think...

Yep, Beat Magazine in Melbourne is your going-out bible. Despite the fact that it's pissing me off at the moment but that's for bitter personal reasons. It will tell you pretty much everything you need to know.

record shops: missing link, au go go, polyester, sister ray, collector's corner... even try gaslight records if you're in the area. jim: i don't believe i know this synaesthesia place... where is it? as for clubs: yes, go to revolver. also try...

in the city: *honky tonks in duckboard place, a lane just off flinder's lane. i have not been there for a long time, but i remember the toilets being quite nifty. music played: "electro to deep disco"

*cherry bar, which is just around the corner... there is played a fun, dance-able mix of old funk/hip-hop/whathaveyou records.(when my "smug" english friend simon heard 'mas que nada' blasted out the doorway, he remarked that cherry sounds like camden 5 years ago. but i like it.) generally a good, friendly crowd.

*double 0 in sniders lane, off lonsdale st... breaks, house and garage

*laundry in johnston st., fitzroy (the website is... well you'll see what i mean. but it may be worth signing up for emails to get an idea of what they're about) is good for hip hop, among other things.

if you're interested in drum n bass, all the dnb/jungle nights in melbourne are listed at this website.

Cherry Bar is ace. Definitely pay it a visit.

Synaesthesia is heaven for Melbourne's IDM-heads. Its address is Level one, 28 block place, melbourne. Block place is an alleyway off little Collins Street in between Elizabeth and Swanston streets. The store itself is quite hard to find. I got a whole stack of cheap V/Vm stuff there a little while back.

Cherry Bar has some interesting history. It's owned by a member of the Cosmic Psychos (Bill something?), and was allegedly paid for using royalties earned through The Prodigy covering an L7 song that this Psychos guy co-wrote. So you can thank The Prodigy for Cherry Bar.

Check out Frigid @ the Houptoun Sunday nights for chilled IDM-ish stuff, minus elitism. I think Marrickville Bowling Club also does irregular nights featuring the Elefant Trax/ Clan Analogue/ Creative Vibes clique. 2SER 107.3 (during the week) is the IDM-kids station, tune in esp. for AudioDaze on a Thursday morning for minimalist stuff. Plus Caleb from the show has run Experimental Audio nights, and the semi annual What Is Music? festival. Most nightclubs are crap (according to my limited knowledge), with a lot of closures lately, due to exorbitant rents. There's also the comic store down in Chinatown, but that looked pretty shite (admittedly, I'm not hugely into comics) last time I was there.

Synaesthesia is certainly the store you're looking for in Melbourne. It's quite hard to find---in the Block Arcade (which you'll find on the corner of Lt. Collins and Elizabeth Streets in the city) you'll need to walk past a few cafes and the like, then walk up some stairs (above which is a small, hardly visible Synaesthesia sign) where you'll find it.

Also good is Missing Link, which, while frequently more orientated at the punk end of the spectrum has some surprisingly off-beat stock. It's located on Flinders Lane, again in the city, off Elizabeth Street.)

If you're going to head out that way, which you probably should, Greville Records on Greville Street in Prahran is also pretty good.

This is all useful since I'm going to try to at least get to Sydney for a couple of days during my NZ trip...

Ned! You are *so* coming to Melbourne!

(In NZ, if you're in Christchurch, the best place to buy records is Galaxy in High Street, I believe. Import records tend to be exorbitantly expensive, ie. $NZ60 for UK jungle CDs, etc. but the range is pretty good.)

Supermarket was (is?)the best club in Melbourne... I haven't been home in ages but I'm guessing it's moved on from Carlton and goes by a different name.

It's now called Weekender and is at the 9th Ward in the city. But calling it 'the best club in Melbourne' would be rather generous to say the least. Plus it's UK indie + You Am I + The Strokes and pretty much nothing else. Good for a lark every now and then I guess

Weekender/Flipside, etc. just tends to be full of indie babes and skinny shy boys who listen to Pulp and twee Japanese pop exclusively (!) I have friends who swear by it as a place to meet girls, but, er, the music is pretty terrible on the whole and the scene in general just a bit boring and pretentious in my albeit limited experience.

I have friends who swear by it as a place to meet girls,

Errr... maybe now isn't the best time to point out that I met my girlfriend there..

Is my Britpop Bar article still available on Freaky Trigger? That was about Flipside.

Ned! You are *so* coming to Melbourne!

I am? Okay then. But we need to talk about this so I can figure out more details and travelling and all that. Or can I fly directly into Melbourne from Auckland?

And wait, weren't you in Sydney? Or are you saying you're willing to trek out to Melbourne, which is a good thing. :-)

i have read somewhere that supermarket is actually on again... at Dream? not to get anyone's hopes up.

weekender is good for a perve, but once it hits 1:30 the music turns to shit. besides, all the hot people are far too cool to talk to anyone

There are hot people at Weekender? I must start going again.