Listen up!

Firstly, 12th Avenue have released a new single - "Taking My Heart With You", featuring the vocal talents of our guitarist, Bjorn Faree! Listen to it on the SoundCloud player below:

Taking My Heart With You by 12thAvenue

In other news,  I hosted a drum workshop last night, with the help of Mark Haze and Brian Lee, where we discussed playing in studio, preparing for recording, different styles used on our albums, and drumming in general. It was very well received. A big thank you to Paul Bothner Music, our sponsors, who arranged the event. I'm looking forward to doing something like this again.

Mark heads up to Johannesburg soon to continue his journey on Idols South Africa. The Top 100 round will be aired this Sunday at 17:30 CAT on M-Net - DSTV Channel 101 & 170 (HD). Check it out, as you might just see Mark perform a few more songs. Keep following his progress on Idols and check out his website - www.markhaze.com

Do not fear, as 12th Avenue, will still be alive and kicking when he's away. Even though we won't be touring during this time, the rest of us are still going to be meeting up regularly to rehearse and write new material. So once Mark's back from dominating on Idols, we'll be able to play a few shows for all of you. Hooray! :)

That's all for now. I'm going to check out Transformers 3 next week. Will let you know what I thought and maybe talk a bit of nonsense about movies, since I haven't done that in a while.

Still alive....

I have literally 5 minutes to blog here, so I'll keep it short.

I'm still alive, even though it's been over a week since my last post.

I would've blogged tonight, but Nix won tickets to an awesome Jazz Big Band show in Cape Town tonight, so we are going to that. I'm really excited. Haven't been to that sort of show in a loooooooong time.

12th Avenue have an acoustic show on Friday at Berties Moorings in Gordon's Bay. I hope everyone that reads it comes, because it's the last show of our current tour.

On  29 June at Paul Bothner Music, Plumstead, we're hosting a workshop around recording for their Drum Month. This means that most of the talk revolves around drumming on a record. This means that I have to do most of the talking. Wish me luck...

Okay, that's my 5 minutes up. Adios!

Friday Fun!

This has to be one of the funniest flash games I've seen in a long time. Enjoy!

http://armorgames.com/play/11498/reimagine-the-game

Who knew that faceless people and pop-culture parodies could be this much fun?

Keep no secrets, tell no lies

"There are some people who say you shouldn't mix politics and music, sports and politics. Well... I think that's kinda bull****!"

- Adam Clayton, U2.  [Just prior to Star Spangled Banner/Bullet the Blue Sky - U2 - "Rattle and Hum" - The Movie]

I'm not really into politics, but I'm very much into freedom of speech and freedom of media. I'm also very much against greed, corruption and dishonest or unethical practice.

I feel that as a musician, who intends on having my music, and therefore my views, heard by the public; it's my responsibility to get involved where I can in speaking out against injustice. I'm not trying to be a political musician, but as the opening quote states, I'd just be BSing myself and everyone else, if I didn't get involved.

That's why I've signed the petition against South Africa's secrecy bill on Avaaz.org and I think you should too. If you value freedom of speech and transparency within government, then I urge you to sign up too. 

As Rage Against the Machine said, "Take the power back!"

Stand up for your rights and sign the petition here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/south_africa_stop_the_secrecy_bill/

Mark Haze on Idols South Africa

Check out this clip of my brother, and 12th Avenue's lead singer's audition on Idols South Africa. He's through to the next round at Sun City!

http://www.dstv.com/mnet/idolsSA/Video/Play.aspx?vid=3365&AdCategoryId=53

Follow his progress on M-Net (DSTV Channel 101), M-Net HD (170) and Idols Extra (199).