WHEN it comes to punk music, there's nobody more important than Iggy Pop. James Osterberg Jr is the "Godfather of Punk" after all. So when Newcastle band Jones The Cat discovered that Pop had played their single Timewaster on his BBC 6 radio show they were ecstatic.
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"A guy complained to us that he couldn't find our music on Spotify because Iggy Pop played us on his radio show," Jones The Cat frontman Jack Watterson said. "It also highlighted to us that Iggy Pop played us on the radio and forgot to turn the mike off. I have this wonderful audio grab of Iggy Pop singing along to our song, which is pretty cool."
Timewaster and five other tracks appear on Jones The Cat's EP, Control, out on Friday worldwide through Canadian independent label Dine Alone Records. The tracks were recorded a year ago but due to a lack of finances the four-piece have been frustratingly waiting to unleash the EP. A video for I Want You Still was released on Tuesday and another single Stay Perfect will follow.
"Mostly the songs are about things I've said on a topic," Watterson said. "Like Stay Perfect is about how ridiculous standards are on women and me taking a swing at that and Timewaster is about how annoying it is to be in a band at times."
Jones The Cat launch Control on Saturday with an all-ages show at the Croatian Wickham Sports Club.
STARS REALIGNED
TRAVELLING music festival Under The Southern Stars has added Newcastle Foreshore to its itinerary.
In the past Under The Southern Stars has competed with other festivals in the crowded summer market, but next year's festival schedule will be entirely held in April. Newcastle will be the final stop in the 11-date tour on Sunday, April 19. The line-up will be revealed on Monday. Hoodoo Gurus, You Am I, Eskimo Joe performed at this year's edition.
FRITZ ON TOUR
NEWCASTLE singer-songwriter Tilly Murphy, aka Fritz, has already enjoyed the biggest year of her budding music career after performing at Groovin' The Moo and South By South West in Texas and releasing the singles Ghost Poke and Jan 1.
Next week Fritiz will kick-off her Jan 1 tour at BigSound in Brisbane before working her away around the country in a series of gigs and festivals, including Canberra's Stonefest (October 19), Fairgrounds Festival (December 6) in Berry and Festival Of The Sun (December 13-14) in Port Macquarie. The Cambridge Hotel will host Fritz's Jan 1 tour on September 13.
IGNITION POINT
THE music industry loves a talk fest, as seen by the popularity of Brisbane's BigSound and Cronulla's Australian Music Week Conference. Newcastle is getting aboard by launching the Ignite Music Conference at The Creative Art Space in Beaumont Street, Hamilton on September 26.
The conference is open to the public and will cover producing, recording and mixing, touring, festival and events, public relations, promotion, management and songwriting and offers the opportunity to network with industry figures.
Ex-Screaming Jets guitarist, Grant Walmsley, and Mothership Events director, Justin Nyker, will be among the Ignite panelists.
