Lead vocals: Adam Gibson;
Guitar/bass/keyboard/backing vocals: Simon Holmes;
Drums (live band): Anthony (AJ) Johnsen;
Synths and things (live): Sean Kennedy;
Keyboards (live): Tim Byron;
Gut-string guitar/vocals (live): Lucy Lehmann;
Drums/guitar/Casio (on album): Simon Gibson;
Guitar (on album): Andy Meehan
Influences
Midnight Oil, Mick Thomas (Weddings Parties Anything), Paul Kelly, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, PJ Harvey, Robert Forster, Grant McLennan (Go Betweens), Billy Bragg, Liz Phair, Deborah Conway, Not Drowning Waving, MFTCC (David Bridie), The Waifs, Midnight Oil, Bruce Springsteen, Jack Kerouac, Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonen, Topper Headon, The Jam, The Pogues, Robert Drewe, Bob Dylan, Belle and Sebastian, The Triffids, The Lemonheads, The Sunnyboys, Darren Hanlon, Bob Gibson, Jerry O'Keefe. Plus Prague, Paris, Berlin, Krakow, Sumatra, the desert, Saigon, Hanoi, Bondi, Vancouver, New York as a child, Phoenix, Arizona with hand stuck in drink machine, Brisbane in the 70s, the Surfside Six Motel in Surfer's Paradise in 1979, among other things. And Midnight Oil.
Sounds Like
Some reviews: "Adam Gibson looks let to join the ranks of fine Australian musical storytellers such as Paul Kelly and Mick Thomas"
- Sunday Telegraph, Sydney
*ALBUM OF THE WEEK *
THE AERIAL MAPS - In The Blinding Sunlight
Occasionally an album resonates with you so strongly that its contents become almost addictive, and In The Blinding Sun Light – the debut full-length by Sydney outfi tThe Aerial Maps – falls squarely into that category. The brainchild of songwriter and poet Adam Gibson (formerly of Modern Giants), the record is a beguiling collection of literate, distinctly Australian narratives which effortlessly capture the true essence of our nation – all family holidays, steamy childhood summer nights, long drives and desolate, scorching landscapes.
Gibson’s laconic spoken word delivery is disconcerting atfi rst but soon puts you under a spell, the unforced wisdom of his evocative recollections and thought-provoking asides intoxicating in their candour and detail. The band’s music is understated but essential, giving the evocative wordscapes space to meander and expand. Highlights are many – ruminations on the passing of a father (‘On The Punt’), memories of childhood (‘Be Home Before The Streetlights Go On’), adolescent adventures (‘Everyone’s Eyes Are Always Much Smaller’) and the obligatory rite-of passage overseas jaunt (‘London Still Exists’) – but it works far better imbibed as a whole piece.
The fact that throughout the album the lyrics namecheck or allude to Paul Kelly, Weddings Parties Anything, The Triffids, Hunters & Collectors, Midnight Oil and The Go-Betweens is more than coincidental – The Aerial Maps fit perfectly into this pantheon of bands, acts who thrived on documenting Australian life and experiences with an objective detachment that transcends parochialism or the dreaded cultural cringe.Above all these songs serve to remind us that we live in an amazing country and it’s inspiring that someone’s willing to remind us just how fortunate we really are.
**** ½
- Steve Bell,
Time Off magazine, Brisbane, 22/10/08
Welcome to the Aerial Maps' MySpace page. We are pleased to have you here. It's been a big few months for the band since we released our debut album in October 2008 and things are shaping up well into the next few months. We've been getting great airplay around Australia, in particular on the ABC, and we'd like to say a big thanks for that. If you're new to the Maps, please have a listen and if you like, go ahead and buy and our album from Popboomerang Records. And don't forget to "befriend" us here on MySpace. In general ... watch this space!
Latest news:
26/5/09 ...
Two gigs approaching ... Thursday, June 4, at the Hopetoun Hotel, Surry Hills, Sydney, supporting Beachfield, 8pm + Sunday, June 7, playing with The Beautiful Few and Lobsterman at the Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills (again). Will be good and even better cos it's a public holiday the next day.
27/4/09 ...
As of March 2009, we are back in the rehearsal studio beginning work towards a new album. We are going to be concentrating on that process but also playing the odd gig here and there. Things remain exciting.
Other good recent news is that Adam has completed a spoken word vocal track to go with the music of a track by Mick Thomas and the Sure Thing. Called 'The Red Pirate', the music to the track was written by Mick Thomas and Squeezbox Wally on the island of Boracay in the Philipines as the pair were on their way back to Australia after playing a Weddings Parties Anything Show in London. Adam wrote the lyrics and then recorded them at Michael Carpenter's studio in Sydney, the track then being relayed to Mick and Craig Pilkington in Melbourne by means which remain mysterious to us.
Adam says he is honoured and excited to have been asked to write and record the track and we're all looking forward to its release on the upcoming Sure Thing album.
14/11/08 ... Hot off the press!
The "Blinding Sunlight" East Coast Tour!
Here's the dates:
The 'Blinding Sunlight' Tour
Wed, Nov 26 - Spectrum, Sydney, with the Millers Tale
Fri, Nov 28 - The Vanguard, Sydney, with Mick Thomas and The Sure Thing http://www.yourgigs.com.au/venue/?269724
Sat, Dec 13 - The Old Museum, Brisbane, with the Gin Club
Sat, Dec 20 - Melbourne, afternoon, Pure Pop instore
Sat, Dec 20 - Corner Hotel, Melbourne, evening, with Mick Thomas and the Sure Thing http://www.cornerhotel.com
Sun, Dec 21 - Retreat Hotel, Melbourne, headline show, 7.30pm.
22/10/08 ...The launch of our album was held at the Hopetoun Hotel in Surry Hill last Saturday. Did someone mention permanent liver damage? Maybe it was my doctor. Anyway, the night was massive, a near-sellout. Everyone left happy, or so it seemed.
1/10/08 ... The debut album is OUT NOW. It can be purchased at www.popboomerang.com !~
8/8/08 ... the new single "One of Those Nights" has been sent out to radio. Exciting. And the album is soon to go off to pressing, with scheduled release in late September. VERY exciting. We've added "One of Those Nights" on here for your listening pleasure.
1/7/08 Two new songs have been uploaded, and will be up there for just a brief time. One is a new version of an old recording called 'Everyone's Eyes Are Always Much Smaller in Real Life', while the other one is called 'The Building of the Breakwall' and both are from the upcoming debut album, In the Blinding Sunlight . Enjoy!
"Maps vocalist and songwriter Adam Gibson is poised to knock every other Australian songwriter of repute into a cocked hat. His literate gems contain beautiful turns and shifts within nearly every line - it's impossible to second guess the destination of his train of thought - managing unique and evocative wordscapes without pomp or artifice. His combo are none too shabby either, being largely cobbers from his previous combo, the under appreciated Modern Giant, and offer perfect and sympathetic accompaniment. Listening to Aerial Maps is like the feeling you got reading The Racketty Street Gang or Cloudstreet for the first time. There's a name for this feeling, but they just haven't named it yet." - ABC Radio
"Vocalist and songwriter Adam Gibson may well be the next great Australian storyteller, calling to mind Kelly, Forster/McLennan and David McComb. His evocative rendering of the lyric over smart guitar pop is as fresh as it is timeless, his attention to detail wonderfully observed. Production from Simon Holmes (Hummingbirds, Fragile) is seamless and the wait for their debut LP In The Blinding Sunlight will be difficult to endure." - Coodabeen Champions, ABC Local Radio
Moments, sounds, faces, voices ... the fragments of experience that stick in the mind for whatever reason, the things that are retained as memories from life's mess of movement, from passing through a small town without a set of traffic lights, from the person you met in the early hours of a coastal night at least a decade ago, from the mysteries heard about at some indeterminate point in London or maybe just dreamt of in Brisbane.
I remember everything
The basics:
The Aerial Maps are a Sydney band based around the vocals and lyrics of Adam Gibson, with Simon Holmes (ex Hummingbirds), Simon Gibson, Sean Kennedy, Tim Byron, AJ Johnsen and Lucy Lehmann on board in various musical capacities.
The band is influenced by the bright landscapes and long distances of Australia, of the like described by bands such as the Triffids, the Go-Betweens, Midnight Oil and MFTCC plus the sparser work of the likes of Not Drowning Waving and the Necks, and also, importantly, the folk sensibility of the lyrics of Mick Thomas.
The debut album, "In the Blinding Sunlight" (released by Melbourne's Popboomerang Records), is a collection of 12 songs covering a wide range of ideas, topics, places and time zones ... from Brisbane in the night, to Barcelona in the afternoon, from Berlin bus-stops to Bondi pubs.
The common linking thing is an honest sensibility that seeks to strip away pretense and speak as directly as possible about how things are or were or at least seem to have been when accessed through the haze of memory (or vodka).
Thus, it's a widescreen view of the world - as seen from an Australian standpoint - and we believe there's no better view available than that.
A bit about 'In The Blinding Sunlight'
Accompanied on the initial recording occasion by Simon Gibson, ex-Modern Giant compatriot Andy Meehan and all-round guru Simon Holmes, who produced the whole shebang, plus Australia's coolest "chanteuse" Lucy Lehmann, the Aerial Maps invite you to a place of long roads and empty towns, of forgotten cake shops and the loves you lost in the London night. It's hot or it's cold, it's crowded or it's empty ... but seen from above, seen from an aerial view, it all somehow makes a form of sense. Or actually, in fact, it may makes no sense at all.
The new Aerial Maps album is available NOW
The tunes on it include 'Be Home Before the Streetlights Go On', 'Some Other Dream', a story about London called 'London Still Exists', a little ditty called 'The Shark', plus 'And the River Swum Wild', 'One of Those Nights' (with a heavy nod towards Badly Drawn Boy), a song about Adam's father called 'On the Punt' and a broad brush stroke called 'The Great Australian Silence'.
For a look at Adam's 'Poem of the Week' project, conducted for almost two years, go here: http://blinding-sunlight.blogspot.com/
Meanwhile, below is a live recording of the song "The Great Australian Silence" recorded at the Sydney Mint Buildings at the Aerial Maps' stunningly successful debut gig as part of the Sydney Writers' Festival.
And then there's another song recorded on the night, "Everyone's Eyes are Always Much Smaller in Real Life".
And then there's the clip of Modern Giant's song 'The Band's Broken Up'. The Giant are the band Adam was in with brother Simon, Gynia Favot and Andy Meehan. This song, and album from which it was off, was produced by Simon Holmes.
thank ya kindly... gots plenty more songs, but in rough 'i just discovered this keyboard effect and went flippin crazy!' styles recordings. but perhaps i should throw them up... im still in love with yer angie hart song.
Wow. That's fantastic. I'm very touched. Mick Thomas got me onto you guys and I was really taken by it. I've also tracked down some of the straight verse (straight? Um... silent? POETRY WITHOUT THE INSTRUMENTS) which i find just as appealing, which is rare. A very special band in a world of not so special carbon copies. Love to org a show together. What you reckon?
Great gig at Pure Pop on Saturday gang..as my forehead reddened under the naked new born sun, I was transported away, across pink salt lakes at sunset and crackly am radio waves to my favourite tiled pub, glasses on the bar laid down to signal the end of your thirst, blue skies with a solitary puff of uber white cloud - I remember every lock and perfume of every girl merged together, a universal love of a universal girl, of family factors and lost childhood and of bloated roo carcas's along a dusty unmarked track...thanks so much for the journey!
You can download and/or stream my recent interviews with Adam Gibson from The Aerial Maps by going to the Interviews section of www. livinginthelandofoz. tk or the Interview Downloads blog on the MySpace page.
Hello hello :) I thought it was about time I left some appreciation here... so, many kudos to Adam for his success (in the footsteps of Cate Blanchett?) in actually making an australian accent sound eloquent haha. The songs are so precise but yet so messy... I love it guys, keep up the awesome work!
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