Getting into Magic Dirt

I don’t mean some sparkly fairy dust, I mean the band, Magic Dirt. Since seeing Adalita and Bob Evans (Kevin Mitchell from Jebediah) in a show last year, I had only heard of some of Adalita’s solo work. I knew she was in a band called Magic Dirt and I’d heard the occasional song, but yesterday I ventured on finding more of their music. I don’t listen to much music fronted by females, but there’s always something different about them. In Magic Dirt, I must say it’s different in a good way. I’ve only listened to two of their albums and their songs really vary. I like musicians who aren’t afraid to dabble in different genres.

That said, I suppose I’ll end up liking Magic Dirt, not just because Adalita’s in it and because I saw her live. Magic Dirt probably won’t be coming out with any albums soon since their bassist Dean Turner passed away in 2009.

I find a lot of Australian music to be underrated, at least around the world. Really popular Australian music gets a fair bit of attention here, but somehow it’s all overshadowed by American music and it’s kind of sad. Bands like Powderfinger, Silverchair, Jebediah, Wolfmother, and Magic Dirt – aren’t so popular around the world and a lot of people outside of Australia probably wouldn’t have heard of them at all.

I sort of like that Australia is like this “land down under”, and it’s hilarious that people think we have pet kangaroos, and that we all talk with at “Aussie accent”, but I get really passionate about music and I often wish Australian music was more recognised. Then again, I kind of like this little niche, and I suppose I tend to like underground music and indie music. After all, Jebediah produced their latest album Kosciuszko themselves. Also the best album of 2011 in my opinion, so. ;)

Sometimes I get very excited when I talk to someone and realise we like the same bands, given that I don’t like many “popular” bands. When I find out that they know a lot about the band and are just as fanatic as I am, it makes me happy that we have something in common that we can chat about. Other times, I get annoyed, because I find that while this person is a fan, they don’t know as much about the band as I do.

A couple of years ago I realised that you honestly don’t need to know every single song by a band to be a fan of them. You don’t need to know all the band members’ names. You don’t need to know when the lead singer slept with his wife or that the guitarist used to be a toilet cleaner. Of course, it’s all trivial. I find that when I don’t know much about a band and meet someone who knows more, I learn from that person. Not everyone has the time to Wikipedia everything or the money to buy every record. Music, as always, should bring the people together. /pow

I return to work tomorrow, and here I go being busy again. I love my job though, and I’m looking forward to going back. Like years of schooling gone by, it’ll take some time to ease back into the routine. I’m planning to read some books on the train instead of just staring out the window and daydreaming. I have noticed a lot of people have resolutions this year to read. I plan to do the same. I have about 12 books in my bookshelf that remain unread, and they need some love. I also have a large number of e-books that I plan to read. I used to read so much, and used to read about three books a week in high school, but everyone knows that towards the end, study takes over.

I suppose I’ve never really minded my train rides, and they used to seem really, really long, but after three years of catching public transport, the time seems to go by quickly. But, relatively. Whenever I’m alone the time goes slower, and always faster when I catch a train with a friend. I hope to be able to squeeze in reading whenever I hop on the train.

The past couple of days I’ve been busy cleaning out my websites, particularly fanlistings. I’ve dropped six in the past six days. Currently at 47, my goal is 45, but I see myself going to 40. Thinking back in November I had 87… I think I’ve done well. :D

I also have a new layout at my photoblog, so check it out and let me know what you think. My other blog has a new layout as well. I’m happy to be cleaning out all this stuff. Also, the free layouts page has all the themes in the Treats Collection so feel free to browse. :)

Comments on this post

Nad. Thing is only the best make it out of here, like in other countries I guess. America has a lot more musicians that churn out stuff most people like hearing, which is why whatever drifts over here tends to overshadow local efforts. haha

Of course we all have an aussie accent mayte. dont be a fag. feed your roo! damn asians. etc

I like daydreaming and staring out the train window /um

(Y)

I completely agree with the paragraph about being a fan of a band, some people can be so anal about things like that! /ehh I’m the same as you in that aspect. /hehe Fans are fans, no matter how old they are or how long they’ve been a follower! ♥

I hope you have fun at work, it’s always strange returning after the holidays. /bash I like my tradin rides, too! 👏 /geek

Tradin rides? Hahaha was supposed to be *Train, oh fail! /ehh

You’re right, I haven’t heard such bands. Perhaps I’ll try soon though :) . There’s this guy in Youtube called AJ Rafael and I’m starting to like his songs. Mostly he does covers, but there are some videos of his original music that are pretty good. He’s Indonesian BTW :P .

I also feel very comfortable with my friends who know about bands or singers that aren’t very popular. I have a friend in my class who likes Owl City and mangas more than I do. I guess it’s nice to have a friend like that :) . Oh, and usually I don’t know anything about a band or a singer more than his/her/their songs. Even I’m not really updated. My sister is, though XD .

Good luck on your job and finishing your books then :) . I honestly don’t feel comfortable reading in my car because it gets me very dizzy. I don’t know about trains in Australia but for buses where you can tumble in every breaks, I guess not :X .

I miss my school too, even though, you know, I have problems recently…I’d rather be busy with homework than staring at my computer all day long :P .

I saw your new layouts! I love both Indecisively.me and Glassfields.net…they’re so simple yet…fascinating /bounce . I love simplicity LOL!

Oh, and aren’t you going to visit Indonesia in mid 2012? Are you going to Jakarta as well /bounce ? Oh, and yes, I love my phone /love . LOL but I don’t think David is a good name for it /bash .

Hi Georgina!

I’m into a few popular bands, but most of the really good ones aren’t really popular. :P

Anyways, kangaroos? Really? That’s a bit weird… >.>

There’s another Australian band that I thought you might enjoy listening to: Gotye. Their best song (IMHO) is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY

Beware, though, the music video is somewhat… lets say different. /um

-Michael

I actually haven’t heard of any of the Australian bands you mentioned. But I get what you mean by the stereotype of “pet kangaroos”. I’m from Norway so people always assume that we have snow all year around and that we live in either constant darkness or constant light, haha. Though Norway actually has some great bands and singers that are overshadowed by the main stream American music, and in some ways that annoys me. But lately more and more hits on the top10-20-etc lists have been Norwegian which is kind of cool. I love to hear people sing in my own language, my own accent.

I used to be so hung up in bands and learn everything about them, but lately I’ve been too lazy to search for them on Wikipedia. So I usually just listen to and enjoy their music and learn what others have to tell me about the bands. Though I have some friends who constantly update me on the up a coming artist, haha.

I used to read a lot earlier and then last autumn I got all into it again. I discovered goodreads.com and it is a great way to log what you have read, are reading or want to read. So yeah, I sort of got an addiction to reading and then updating everything on GR, haha :-) My resolution is to read 25 books this year, I don’t know if I’ll manage it but at least I’ll give it a try.

Happy New Year and good luck at work tomorrow.
xx Elena

I’ve never heard of Magic Dirt but I’ll probably check them out on YouTube. It’s true, a lot of music is dominated by American artists, and movies too. There are artists from the UK that do well around the world, a prime example being Adele, and there’s many more that come to mind, but it’s always this ‘epic’ thing when it happens, and is referred to as “breaking America”.

I agree, there are some singers and bands that I like and I haven’t even heard all their songs, etc. I guess the most important thing is those songs that you have heard, you like, or at least like most of them, to call yourself a fan. I feel like the idea of a fan these days is like a ‘Belieber’ or ‘Gleek’ etc, but you don’t have to be crazy obsessed to be a fan imo.

I don’t think I like public transport in general, haha, but I definitely prefer train rides to bus rides, it’s so much more peaceful, I think.

Mann I already posted my comment before I checked it out – but I am in love with the Glassfields layout! I love the transparency integrated and the elegance of it!

asdfgjkl;; I really like some WolfMother songs, they had a couple big one’s over here in the states! There’s this band that I’m just really getting into from Australia called Tonight Alive, such talented Pop Punk artists!!!

I feel super passionate about music, haha. It’s just my “thing”, haha. I get what you’re saying about American Music over shining a lot, but at the same time, Pop Culture is really our only export :(

I have never heard of any of those bands, so you may be right about them being very unknown in North America :P Though, it’s not generally a genre of music that I follow, so others here may know of those bands. I totally know what you mean though- I am a huge country music fan, and while I know there are many people in the USA who are fans, it’s hard to find people around me who are, especially who are my age. So I always get really excited when I do find someone who likes country music, though it’s usually just the main songs that get played on the radio that people like- where as I have a lot of their full albums on my computer & love the majority of the songs.

Good for you for sifting through and getting rid of some sites :) I can’t imagine running THAT many sites, so props to you haha. I sometimes struggle just with one, but if you’re dedicated to everything that you have a site about then it should all work out :) I want to try a Photo 365, and I meant to start in the new year but I forgot yesterday, oops.

I totally agree with your statement – Music, as always, should bring the people together. It is sad when people get killed because they listen to the wrong type of music. I will have to check out Magic Dirt on YouTube, and I would love it if you could recommend some other groups for me to check out. I am also planning on checking out Jeremiah. :)

I wish I was australian! But your dead on about americans never even hearing about these bands, im canadian but I havent heard of them either! Until now that is, I just searched them up on youtube, and its pretty good, I agree, music SHOULD bring people together, not spread them appart , Im finally getting back into webdesign again, so maybe we will become best blog friends again lol. I miss you jeorgina , even though im following you on twitter <3

I agree that Australian music is very underrated. I’ve never heard of any of these bands you’re mentioning. Magic Dirt, haha! American music is very ridiculous and overrated, at least the mainstream is. I don’t know any of the rock bands that you listen to such as Armor for Sleep because no one’s ever heard of it. I mean when I learned about Explosion in the Sky from you, not a single person I asked knew what it was. What the hell???

It’s ridiculous if people think you own kangaroos however I’m pretty sure you all talk with the Australian accent just like everyone here talks with the American accent. There’s no English-speaking place that has “no accent”.

Lmao @ the examples you gave about trivial band information! I usually know everyone’s names and know every single song. I just like going through albums for some reason. Back when I listened to American stuff I think I knew every single Simple Plan song.

Unfortunately I’m getting more and more annoyed with my train rides, the opposite of you. I used to do well with the time but now I feel sick if I try to read a book. Maybe it’s because I’m not taking care of myself as well because life’s been busy. Have fun dropping more fanlistings and keeping it that way, bahahahahahhaha. And great now I see several future layouts in your collection, so I don’t know which to go for first. XD

The ball drop, well it’s a colorful not entirely spherical ball around a pole and it descends during the countdown. People can see it much better on TV than live. I prefer the cold over the heat too but our winter is just too cold. I like spring and autumn weather. As for Mia, she’s like me she didn’t want to join us, haha. My mom would’ve let her though, she’s nice in that manner. But why would anyone wanna see the ball drop more than once?

I’m not sure if people really would listen no matter what. There are a lot of Americans that just don’t. It’s one of the reasons why some international students don’t like speaking and I don’t blame them. Even Mingyun has mentioned it to me that Americans at his school have become impatient with international students. I wish more people were willing like us. What’s so bad about explaining anyway?

Oh yeah I remember you said Brandon is always up until ungodly hours, haha. Oh that’s what you mean by accelerated? That’s a normal but great accomplishment. =) It’s not SO GOOD that it makes someone overrated like those 10 year olds in high school, but it’s good enough for you to be proud of him. =D

Hi Georgina. I first off just wanted to say that I ♥ your layouts! The treats collection is adorable they look so nice! I just wonder how you do all of them!? You have so many when it takes me like two weeks to make two. Also, thank you for the comment on my website :) . I wish my brother knew about the bathroom issue and would straighten up, but he is a boy so i guess other people’s items doesn’t matter to him /pow .
Also, i have heard once about the pet kangaroo thing! I think though it might have been koalas, I’m not completely sure but it was something. How stupid? I personally would LOVE to go to Australia. America never really does hear from Australian artists. I mean i really don’t hear from artists really anywhere else unless they moved to America and were produced by American producers. I was never really a band kind of person, i guess i never really heard many bands enough to know i like them or not. Maybe i will look up Magic *dirt and check them out /bounce .
I rode on a train once, in D.C and it was kind of gross. But i kind of liked it, it was quiet and gave my time to think. I just looked outside and sang to my self XD . I used to be a big reader too, like a month ago haha. But now school has gotten in the way and i never read anymore /bash , it kind of sucks. I love books too hmmm.

Anyways, have a nice day! ✌️
-Millie

Oh I never heard of that Band. But I must agree with the difference of a female from a male lead singer. I sometimes love to listen to male singers, but I prefer female singers. I guess the main reason is that I can relate more, well, because I’m a girl. Haha. Also I personally don’t have a fave band.. if you check my music list, you’ll see random singers. Sometimes I even download songs from singer on youtube. I like some of their covers, which sometimes sounds more appealing to me than the original one.

Thank you! I’m sure you had an amazing New Year as well even though you just stayed home. Take good care of you and your James. I think you two are together now for a very long time? Keep the fire burning!! :D True Love is hard to find. Lol. *Like I speak with wisdom* Hahahaha.

Happy New Year Georgina! Congrats for completing your themes!! They all look so good and unique. Great job. :D

I love discovering new bands and getting to listen to new songs but I’m trying to limit since I’m nearing my maximum space on my phone. Haha! It’s sad that local bands take a while to get known in farther places. Tho I love it when I stumble on an unknown great band and get to keep them for myself. Haha. ;) I like it when I have friends who like the same music I do, and boy they are hard to find. My taste in music is somewhat rare. Haha.

When I think of Australia, I always think of the time zone. It would be amazing to be ahead of everybody else haha! And as for the accent, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like it. :)

I checked out your other sites, seems like you had a lot going on right now. It amazes me that you keep up with all of those and still get to update each and everyone of them. You’re amazing! :) I love the new themes! And goodluck with the goals. I probably need someone to wake me up too. I don’t get out of bed when I don’t have work or anywhere to go to. Haha!

Happy new year Georgie! ♥

Ooo, magic dirt. Not bad either. You have similar tastes to me. I am sure MD comes from my home town if it is the band I am thinking of. I am an obsessive when it comes to bands. I need to know ALL their songs. I don’t care about their social lives, just the songs I will be listening to when I see them :-)

We don’t have an accent, everyone else does, I just saw a comment above about us having an accent /wave

Work, ah. Great you enjoy it :) Hows the 10 yr old stalker child I saw you tweet about. That’s a bit strange. ok a LOT strange.

I’m not Australian, so I haven’t heard of any of those bands. Well, I’m pretty uneducated in the music department and I haven’t even heard of a lot of popular American bands. I’m not much of a huge music fan. I mean, I love music, but I’m so picky about bands that I don’t do much research trying to find new bands to listen to and such. I love when I find someone else who likes the same bands as me or even the same type of music. It’s like an instant connection kind of thing, you know?

A funny story about the pet kangaroo thing– I know it’s totally false, but in my sixth grade geography textbook, the first page in the chapter about Australia showed a picture of a girl with her pet wallaby (that was the caption: “An Australian girl with her pet wallaby”) and everyone thought it was a pet kangaroo. I still remember that for some reason. Maybe people think that everyone has pet kangaroos because it’s what textbooks seem to be teaching?? xD

Ahh, you’re so talented at designing layouts! The fonts and colors are always so pretty and simple without looking really boring. I ~wish~ I was good at designing layouts, but…. eh, not so much. :P

i often find my nose pointing in the direction toward america, and i guess i’m not the only one in the world either. i often prefer the american films and the american artists, but not yet the american food even if it’s quite good, lol! it seems like people are becoming more and more american-friendly, and i don’t know yet wheter that’s a good nor bad thing.
most of the songs on my ipod are either sung by american or english bands and artists, and just a handful of songs are by a norwegian voice. my favourite norwegian musicians though, are marit larsen, maria mena and donkeyboy, but i guess none of them are really famous in the big world. it’s a bit sad, as there exists so many beautiful songs which are run over by the sound of autotune and ..american popularity.

your new themes are lovely!! the one on indecisively.me is my favourite!! :D and your treats collection has really started to grow!! beautiful work!

aww thank you!! <33 haha i prefer writing short blogs. i don't think my english vocabulary will be enough for writing a long meaningful post, lol! i'm still working on my english though!
yeah you're right, i would rather try and then fail, than not try at all, because the biggest failure is not trying.

Hey Georgina!
Happy new year! Hope you are well!
You like train rides? I love them. Ya i even I prefer reading “And” listening to music in the traincuz even I feel train rides can be really long! I don’t have much patience for e-books…which book are you reading currently??
And what’s your job about? You had 87 sites??? By sites do you mean your hostees?
Hey Btw I’ve got my new domain (finally) the link is above….Do visit it! take Care :D

I’m not reading a book at the moment, I’ve yet to pick one from my pile.

I work as a web designer for a web design company. When I said 87, no, I did not mean my hostees, I mean my fanlistings. They’re like small fansites, you can find out more about them at TheFanlistings.org. I only have about 45 now, and I plan to keep reducing that number.

I’ve watched a couple of your YouTube videos, and I think that you definitely do have an Aussie accent. The accent caught me by surprise a bit, but I guess that I should have expected it, since you’ve lived in Australia your whole life. Then again, you’d probably think I have a heavy, choppy American accent if you ever hear me speak. =P

In America, there is also a lot of music that nobody really knows about – the big names in America, such as Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, The Black-Eyed Peas, etc. tend to overshadow a lot of smaller, but equally good names. For example, have you heard of Rise Against or Vienna Teng? It’d be cool of all the small bands could magically be discovered, and that there would be more variety in what’s playing on the radio.

In all honesty I haven’t any of these bands names before. I’m sitting here in my living room very clueless haha.I might do some youtube research later on if I have time.
Just commenting to let you know that I’m back on the blogging scene, I feel like I have to look back at your old posts before I can comment on this one properly. I’ve missed reading your blog!!! Hopefully you remember who I am.

Oh girl of course I remember you! We used to exchange comments quite a bit and you were so busy with school and thinking of what you wanted to do in the future, I remember. Your blog comments aren’t working for me right now… but I just wanted to say that a lot of people can relate to lyrics in different ways and interpret them differently but I wouldn’t totally take it to heart. ♥

First off, I’d like to thank you for using a mobile theme :) There’s not good coverage where I am at the moment so it was great to see your blog load quickly!

Second, I agree with you about American music overshadowing other countries’ music. Honestly, I’m tired of hearing the same music on the radio and I wish we would expand more. I’ve taken to listening to music online since I much prefer it when it comes to variety. My music player has music in different languages, and I would love a radio station to actually play international selections!

People think you have pet kangaroos?! Hahaha. Fantastic. Though, it would be interesting… My friend & I went on a European tour a few years ago and one of our tour mates was Australian. He said to us: “Wow, you talk just like the actors on American shows!” Hahaha. Everyone definitely has their own ideas of life in other countries :P

I just started listening to some Jebediah songs after hearing you constantly recommending them, and I’m surprised to say that I’m really enjoying them. I guess that just oges to show that it pays to actually try new things. I’ve only listened to two songs thus far, but I like their sound.

I checked out your new layouts, and as always, they’re beautiful, the one at glassfields especially so. However, the body font on glassfields is displaying as Times New Roman for me, instead of whatever you specified, and on Indecisively, every font is Times New Roman. Not sure if that’s a problem for many, but I thought I’d let you know all the same. Hope you’re going well :)

Thanks for letting me know about that Sam! I actually noticed it in Internet Explorer before I decided not to care, but I checked it out in Firefox and it was displaying my default (Arial. Pretty! But not what I wanted.) – I didn’t bother doing browser checks because websites don’t have to look the same in every browser. Certainly, desirable, but I’ve learned that functionality is ultimately more important than aesthetics and I was positively sure I had my markup down pat. XD Anyway, I did manage to fix the problem. :P

There’s this one band from Australia that just signed to a label. They are called Hands Like Houses. I’ve only heard two songs from them and I got really excited when I found out that they’re finally signed! It’s true, though, that it’s all very trivial. Half of the bands I listen to I don’t even know the names of the members, haha. We love the band because of the music. Although physical attributes of the band member is just an added bonus, so to speak :P

I remember I think just a bit more than a year ago, I remember us exchanging comments and you saying that you’ve never gone to a concert; now you’ve already gone to so many! Good for you!

Filipinos have already developed some sort of colonial mentality throughout all the colonization we’d gone through before. There are popular Filipino bands and artists, but they’re definitely overshadowed by international music.

I don’t actually know of too many local artists that I like, partially because I don’t actually know too many, but there are some that are pretty good that I know deserve more success than they’re getting.

I used to read a lot too. School really does get in the way of reading though. I really wish I had more time for books.

Anyway, belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! :D