"Lady Bird" cover I sang

Farmdog barks into iphone mic!!!! This is one of my fav songs by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood. It came out in 1968 and topped the pops.

you can listen to it thru this link only if you feel like it doe

<3💓♡☆

Bye :) xo

Lady Bird cover

<333333333333333333333

Passin' The Time with Cloud Ice 9

Good Friday, 2024.

ONE THOUSAND, NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY SIX YEARS AGO TODAY, Jesus was crucified on the cross. His last words to his apostles, according to the bible, were “make sure Farmdog gets that fresh ass Cloud Ice 9 interview”. And so I did…. for on a selection of various colourful chairs, on a lovely kempt front lawn somewhere in smellbourne, sits 3/5th’s (guitarist Reese, drummer Miles, and singer Jordan) of Cloud Ice 9. I hand them a sad Foodworks easter bunny, as the big guy in the sky would have wanted. In return, I am proffered a quick tour of their vast backyard. I see a pool, and hear of future plans to procure a ball pit for a party - but it’s time to get to get down to business. Under the shade of a friendly tree, we undertake a search for the theistic truth about toxoplasmosis, vegetables and artistic authenticity.

Listening to this band’s repertoire is like walking down a sticky dark alley, only to trip over cow bells, drum machines, a clarinet and a some devious licks of sax. Amidst the freaky   music videos, as well as their poignant and objectively beautiful album artworks, Cloud Ice 9 have cultivated something entirely original and free from any kind of constraint of genre… fresh out of a parallel universe. Distinct personalities don’t crash here, they collide - and in turn rip new black holes into the milky way of the Melbourne scene. It’s light-hearted and leaves one in a “general disorientation”, but is still wholly fuelled by a resolute purpose - to churn out a body of work that’s raw, refined and uncompromising. 

And pesticide-free.

~

FARMDOG: If you could describe your life as a subreddit forum, what would it be?

REESE: r/thingstodoinmelbourne. Just like, Luna Park.

FD: I’ve never been to Luna Park. I’ve been to Sydney’s Luna Park…

R: The one on the harbour? We went there…

MILES: If I’m honest with you, it’s like, r/whatdidtheymeanwhentheysaid? r/whatdoyoudowhentheydontreply?

FD: Yeah. Let’s lay it all on the table.

M: Thats a bit vulnerable… It’s like getting relationship advice from the internet, but then it being real bad.

JORDAN: Do you ever talk to chat GPT as a therapist? Its actually pretty good. It really lays it out for you. Real objective, sensible, robot advice. 

MILES THE ROBOT: “Communicate clearly and respect everybody’s emotions involved” 

R: AI is the daddy we never had.

FD: I used it to write a cover letter, but thats about it. I should treat it more like a human though.

J: Thats what they want though… 

R: What was your answer again?

FD: Mine? Oh. r/profusesweating. 

J: So you’re known for your sweating? That’s like your main thing?

FD: Maybe in my own head, yeah. 

*laughs*

R: Brain sweat! I can feel a few beads dropping right now… 

FD: This ones a bit silly. Is it just me or does everyone in Melbourne have a Schnauzer?

R: There’s a lot of Germans in Melbourne that have bred them like, hectically. Big German Schnauzer community. 

J: There’s a lot of like, rescue greyhounds and stuff. I haven’t seen heaps of Schnauzers. I wish I’d seen more. They’ve got like a kind of regal attitude for how ridiculous they are. Are they the ones that look like the end of the broomstick ran away from its duties?

FD: Yeah! With legs… and a tail.

R: I reckon its got something to do with how many Nazis fled after WWII. Maybe they relocated here, started breeding Schnauzers. 

FD: OK! I like the album title Hocus Pocus - it’s cool - what kind of spell does the band want to cast upon those who listen to it?

*Collective hmmmmm*

M: It’s a funny question, coz it might be different for all three of us - which is part of why the bands fresh - everyone has a different vibe, a different energy and a different spell.

J: All five of our individual spells combine into a very confusing spell…general disorientation. 

M: I think its like an invitation into a world… it’s a portal - You get kind of caught in a trance, and some of the songs are composed in that way, wheres it’s the same musical motif over and over again… A lot of the music is playing with dynamics - getting quiet and then loud - the composition is quite the same every time… the trance is like, “come in and get immersed in it”… 

J: It’s like, really bad hypnosis… “come! Join us!” Then they’re like “mmm I don’t really want to” - “Please!” - then they’re like “All right, I guess. Coz you’re trying so very hard”… It’s like the lion the witch and the wardrobe. We build a big door, it creaks open a bit and a tentacle pops out…

R: Because we made that record in such strange iterations - it’s like a compilation of voice memos of us playing together, it does kind of feel like a portal to a different time, a different place and a different group of people playing on different instruments. I think it is, at least for me, very transportive to a specific time and place each song.

J: … The easiest way to make a record out of it, was to construct this soundtrack to some really bad sci-fi movie. Yeah, it is kind of transportive in that sense - the theme songs for a sci-fi movie that should never get made.

M: On a more realistic level, all of the recordings… are literally just us hanging out - just being silly and having fun… a lot of the album is just that… its like straight improvisation. I didn’t even think this was gonna be an album. Have you heard the other album? It's like, very much ~ an album ~.

FD: Yeah - well thats my next question kinda, both of them are quite outwardly different… but do you think theres any underlying currents that connect them? Like a feeling or an emotion? 

J: I think they are their own episodes in the greater Cloud Ice 9 universe… the first two records are their own studio, more clinical kind of meticulously constructed things - and then collectively we wanted to do something like Hocus Pocus, because we did have material with so many different people. I guess we’ve been told the records are chaotic as they cross a lot of different genres - maybe the connection is how disconnected and broad it is…

M: They’re part of the same world, but one’s just more raw. Hocus Pocus is just us kickin’ it not thinking about it. The others are a lot of Jordan’s writing that we’ve really perfected to play. It’s refinement, and then its rawness.

FD: Good - that’s straightforward! Chat GPT would fuck with that answer. 

R: When you listen to the record do you think theres a connection? Can you hear that its the same people? 

FD: Yeah, I can kinda hear it’s the same people… They’re all kind of trance like in their own regard. But maybe in the last one it’s more amped up. I was listening to it last night - just floatin’ - floatin’ away.

J: Ha, that’s nice. Yeah they’re all kind of different - but we’re all really different as we were talking about before. We don’t wanna do anything that’s too constrictive… we wanna keep it as broad as possible. 

FD: Beautiful! All right, so you’re all very different, but who is the best looking member of Cloud Ice 9? 

R: Well, Joe kind of looks like Clark Kent…

*They all laugh*

R: He’s definitely like our Frodo - he’s like our main protagonist - the main character syndrome.

FD: Is he saving the world right now? That's why he’s not here?

J: Yeah thats probably it. He makes some time for us, but we’re probably just NPCs in his superman world. 

FD: Weird is kinda similar to cringe sometimes, so I was gonna ask you, do you think it’s punk to be cringe?

R: Depends on what you think of as cringe.

FD: I would say cringe is not really giving a shit, and doing what you wanna do.

M:… I would say cringe is when someone sparks some kind of traumatic response in yourself based on your past. Like, you think something is ehhh coz of something that’s happened to you.

J: Both craaaazy definitions of cringe! If something is cringe, it’s like uncomfortable or awkward because someones doing something thats daggy, or a bit inauthentic. I think sometimes people really nail it - that tongue in cheek really ironic shit can be cringey, but then theres also a level of not really giving a fuck that really works. It’s like a celebration of dagginess. I feel like a lot of cringe feeling comes from copying something that already exists… if you really don’t give a fuck, then you kind of get away with it… Punk can be cringe. Cringe can be punk.

FD: Cringe has a deeper meaning than I had first realised!

M: I do some cringe shit, that I’m just gonna keep doing. I know what you mean - I think inherently I’m pretty corny. 

FD: It’s a beautiful thing. I’m thinking like, falling over the bus in front of everyone. Is that just embarrassment?

*laughs* sooooo cringey. 

R: I feel like in order to get to a place of authenticity in whatever art you’re making, you have to let go of a lot of self… ideas of your social standing or what you think the way people perceive you is. You have to work through the cringe - you have to be cringey to get to authenticity. 

Brief interval as Jordan is gifted a tiny miniature cat by his friend. It has a phat ass. He happily accepts, and vows to add it to the collection of toy cats in his room

FD: It’s cute. Does it have a name?

J: Uhhhhh - Little Larry.

FD: Is everyone a cat person or a dog person?

J: … By the powers above me I’m forced to be a cat person. Toxoplasmosis has me brainwashed to be obsessed with my cat.

R: Have you heard about toxoplasmosis?

FD: No…

R: It’s a type of fungus that grows in cat poo that makes people aggressive and obsessed with cats. 

J: Aggressive???? 

FD: Fuuarrrrrk!

R: Yeah. It makes people statistically more aggressive.

FD: Dream retirement home location?

J: Ooh. I love these questions. 

M: Cuba or some shit like dat. Our friend the other day said that people just unsolicitedly just make out with each other out on the street, for no reason. 

J: You wanna retire in Cuba coz you wanna randomly make out with people on the street?

M: Yeah.

FD: Just doing loads of Cuban coke in your retirement.

M: No.

FD: *laughs* True. Just making out then. A more natural rush?

M: Yeah, natty rush. And cold plunges. 

FD: Shit. Album title? 

R: Natty Rush and Cold Plunges!

J: … Probably the coast. I’d like to be close to the crabs, and the ants… Out of town. Not as wild as Cuba, but somewhere down beach ways… I’m gonna need a very cold body of water to constantly flail in, in order to feel awake. What about you Reese?

R: Somewhere in Australia, somewhere cold. Tassie maybe. 

J: Where would you retire?

FD: I really like the South Coast of NSW, like Pambula…

M: I’m going there next week! It’s so beautiful, like rainforests on the beach. 

FD: watch out for ticks. My mum had one in her head.

R: I’ve gotta bounce.

The others collectively reprimand Reese for rightfully wanting to leave my very professional and insightful interview (he has another band practice)

J: Reese has a flighty vibe… He needs like, a smoke bomb… 

FD: Where do the characters in your songs come from? For EG, Officer John… 

J: I guess just like, real life. They’re just all metaphors and symbols for real dudes… I feel like we’ve all encountered an officer John once or several times. It’s a lot of fiction tied in to represent things in real life… It’s the only way I really operate actually - I can only write a fictitious story to represent an idea that represents things in real life. I like a lot of word play… Like Crabifornia is just a kind of dumb spin-off of that OC song… I was like “Crabifornia here we claw - that’s funny” - and then just from that, [i’ll] write a whole crustacean post-apocalyptic world take over kind of story. 

R: Making the personal impersonal. That’s the trick.

FD: Damn. We got a philosopher sitting over here… smokin’ his darts. The Silent Philosopher - with no time for interviews.

*laughter* 

J: I do find it funny with songwriting… the minute you use metaphors and similes and all that stuff - it allows you to make a connection. 

"The people in our generation don’t have many strong links to a cultural identity. We’re all from all over the world and grew up in an internet age. If you listen to really great folk singers, your Paul Kellys and Kev Carmodys, that are writing about their lives that are so entrenched into a specific culture - that’s not as relatable to us. As much as we appreciate it… we’ve created our own culture"

R: The people in our generation don’t have many strong links to a cultural identity. We’re all from all over the world and grew up in an internet age. If you listen to really great folk singers, your Paul Kellys and Kev Carmodys that are writing about their lives that are so entrenched into a specific culture - that’s not as relatable to us. As much as we appreciate it… we’ve created our own culture. 

M: It’s not like African American music like jazz, where it’s born out of a struggle.

J: Yeah - like not really having a culture, feeling like an alien - it’s a different kind of deal.

FD: You’ve gotta look elsewhere for your inspiration. Do you find it hard to be authentic in your music? 

R: Authenticity… is like the idea of potential. You know it exists but you can't grasp it - I think to even play a guitar you have to concede a small amount of authenticity - because you are standing on the shoulders of giants… 

J: It depends on what you’re doin’ it for though. I never feel like I struggle being authentic, coz I make music for myself and nothing else - if I was making music for some other gain, that’s when you start dipping your toes into inauthenticity…

M: That’s the other thing… This comes up a lot. It would be easier to make a song not about Officer John, or whatever, and it would maybe make some money… It’s like nah - we wont do that. We’ll make a video clip thats about two aliens that have popped out of a fridge. Every fork in the road we talk about, it goes more towards what feels more fun and interesting, rather than what might help us progress. I don’t know if that speaks to authenticity - but I don’t think it would be as fulfilling if we weren’t doing that. 

J: It’s also about ones idea of progress - and about the commodification of art. Progress to me, is making different kinds of art that yeah, has connections to a cultural dialogue, but is kind of offering something a little different or nuanced… I don’t really see a sense of progress in doing things that are more marketable - in order to gain some sort of capital. 

M: Yeah - it is a money thing as well because we do this shit for free. We do this because we want to. We just get together and do this because we fuck with it.

J: We all have real jobs, so this might as well be the most uncompromising and free world of expression that we can make it - which I think is authentic! 

FD: Last question. Whats everyones' favourite vegetable? 

M: Tomatoes… I like capsicum, the red one… crispy. Sharp. Can eat it raw.

J: Potato. It’s solid, it makes sense. It’s simple. Gets the job done. Versatile. It rolls real good. A jacket potato? In tin foil? Straight out of the fire? Are you kidding me? Get some corn kernels up in there… 

(a jacket potato?)

FD: With tuna?

J: You could, yeah…

FD: You could, or you should… 

J: Well you can…

FD: Well you should. 

(corn)

J: Sounds like you would!

FD: If only I could!

R:… barbecued corn. It’s everything… 

J: You could survive solely on corn - it has all of the necessary nutrients.

FD: Really? Damn. I came out of this interview with more than I bargained for. 

J: That’s facts and that’s true. 

(capsicum)

R: … Corn is crazy. 

https://cloudicenine.bandcamp.com/