TOURING NATIONALLY W/ THE AWKWARDSTRA JULY / AUGUST!
Hear BP on Melbourne's 3RRR every Monday night from 7pm. New sketch radio show 'Lime Champions.' 102.7FM or stream it at rrr.org.au.
Winner! Director's Choice award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for 'Songs From The 86 Tram.'
Breaking news! My arm. I crashed my bike into a car door and broke my humerus. Comedy gold. I’ll reprise the 86 tram show later in the year. Thanks shitloads for your well wishes.
CLICK HERE TO BUY NEW STUDIO ALBUM 'BROWN & ORANGE' FROM iTUNES! (Though with a 16 page colour booklet you'd do well to go old school and buy the CD.)
BROWN & ORANGE INTERVIEW
FOR THE LOVE I HAVE FOR YOU (LIVE)
REVIEWS JUST IN FOR 'BROWN & ORANGE'
“There is a fine line between madness and genius, separated only by the thinnest of margins of subjective taste. From the opening lines of Strange Piece of Music, you are immediately introduced to the core elements of Brown & Orange. The shaky vocal delivery, self-referential lyrics and schizophrenic musical arrangements that move through folkish verses and flute solos only to end in a psychedelic sitar-driven outro. It's a confronting introduction, and one that will deter as many listeners as it will entice to persevere further. But for the brave souls that weather the seven-minute introduction piece, there is a treasure trove of gems that unfold over the course of the album.
From the rollickingly jaunty Party In My Head and What Am I supposed To Be Doing? To the introspective For The Love I Have For You, Brown & Orange traverses a broad palette of styles, melting them down into a fine soup of entertaining and predominantly poppy moments. And sure enough, there are some fantastic lyrical moments, as evidenced from Jesus On Big Brother and the melancholy Circus Bear. But the highlight of the album comes with the penultimate track, YouTube “hit” Wow Wow's Song. Over a verse progression that sounds eerily similar to Coldplay's God Put A Smile On Your Face, The Philosopher adopts a Cookie Monster voice, only for it all to break down in the most ridiculously catchy chorus this century has produced. Six minutes chock full of sublime gimmick pop.
Brown & Orange is a dense, multi-layered affair documenting, at least for the moment, The Bedroom Philosopher's unique perspective on the world around him. It's a lavish production and a thrillingly entertaining and equally exhausting listening experience. And while comedy concept records are few and far between in today's marketplace, The Bedroom Philosopher may just be the dapper dresser to start a whole new fashion.”
Symon JJ Rock, Inpress.
"The Bedroom Philosopher, aka Justin Heazlewood, revealed himself as an hallucinogenic hybrid of Tripod and Syd Barrett on his 2005 cult hit I’m So Postmodern, inevitably putting him in danger of becoming a one-novelty-hit wonder. The BP’s second album Brown & Orange is less explicitly bizarre than the tune that brought him (sort of) fame, placing his eccentric streams of consciousness and oddball stories amidst an apparently earnest style of folk-rock and gentle experimentation (such as placing a taped ‘70s monologue alongside hypnotic Phillip Glass-style repetition).
The swelling orchestral ballad For The Love I Have For You sounds like a straight, serious song, but closer investigation reveals Heazlewood cramming lots of syllables into tiny song spaces, at one point blurting out "Okay, granted, that’s not a very romantic lyric". Tongue still wedged in cheek, then. The spoken-word short story Jesus On Big Brother is fun as well ("More people watched Jesus than The Simpsons and the news and the CSIs combined"). The record is less successful when he goes deliberately ‘wacky’, such as the "comedy" Muppet vocals in Wow Wow’s Song (La La La). But the record’s charm is revealed in the almost Dylan-esque rant Party In My Head and the laid-back country-rock strum of What Am I Supposed To Be Doing?"
Matt Thrower, Rave.
“It is (like the man himself) entirely enjoyable, entirely likeable, and entirely odd. Only The Bedroom Philosopher would try and make brown and orange chic, only he would write the lyrics “I want a Missy Higgins film clip (for Christmas)/I want a long term relationship with an Irish optometrist”, and only Heazlewood would tell us all that “La, La, La, can only take you so far” (there are a lot more great lines, probably better than the ones here – just go and get the album to find your own favourites). Henceforth he proves that he is a master at word-smithing and clearly can’t get enough of being different. The surprise, highlight and almost religious experiences on the album are the tracks (Brown and (Orange), where The Bedroom Philosopher has sampled a recorded letter and joke, respectively, over simple music, and by doing so, the one and only, the wonder kid, The Bedroom Philosopher, has made Brown and Orange chic.”
Timothy Bocquet, BMA.
"The fact that The Bedroom Philosopher is a talented musician with a highly polished production is obvious from the first few bars. A folk-guitar style, the sound of fingers slipping from chord to chord along the strings throughout a ballad with seventies-style jazz flute (a double flute solo, no less) makes me want to weave daisy-chains and skip through the nearest field. The music jumps from song to song between seventies styles, raw old-school Brit pop, folk guitar chords, and psychedelic sounds created by the Philosopher and his Awkwardstra. I laugh out loud on at least four occasions during the first song (Strange Piece of Music) alone. I’m won over by the lyrics –one of a few songs on the album to employ story-teller narration, backed up with beautiful guitar.
The Bedroom Philosopher is a particularly talented and funny writer. As a listener I identify with every single word – which is the hook. But the usual brash take-the-piss Aussie comedy-music style is replaced by the gently hilarious musings of a poet. I almost fall in love. The original 1970’s home-recordings (apparently discovered by the Bedroom Philosopher in a Canberra Op Shop) peppered between a few songs make for some compelling listening. Really, really odd, and really funny.”
Emma Johnston, Artshub.
His Awkwardstra are:
Andy "Nature Boy" Hazel - Bass
Hugh "Mad Dog" Rabinovici - Drums
Michael "Flutes McGee" O'Connor - Flute
Jamie "Hits Rodriguez" Power - Percussion
Gordon "Suavey Shankar" Blake - Sitar
Management:
The Bedroom Philosopher with an American accent.
Wow Wow's Song film clip by Charlotte George (Director) & Leigh Ryan (Animation).
Beck. Eels. Baterz. King Missile. Dave Eggers. Bonzo Dog Band. Edward Lear. Guru Josh. Gary Numan. Donovan. Aimee Mann. John Lennon. Ted Egan. Graham Garden. Radiohead. Ken Heazlewood.
Sounds Like
Wow Wow's Song (La La La):
“Complete genius or utterly terrifying.”
(Inpress)
"Wow Wow is basically a depressed, mildly retarted, reasonably hip version of the Cookie Monster. It's the novelty rock equivalent of burping the alphabet, with sexy accompaniment. All very jolly and hilarious." (Beat)
“The Bedroom Philosopher has dealt up a deliciously enjoyable slice of childlike eccentricity.” (Rave)
The Happiest Boy:
"It's woozy/cute combination of deadpanned witticisms and a sublime flute breakdown make it one of the better indie pop songs of recent memory."
(Inpress)
"...a grassroots hit..."
(Rave)
The Bedroom Philosopher:
"Endearingly sweet, hilarious and occasionally heartbreakingly sad in a glitteringly beautiful way." (DB Magazine)
“If Bob Dylan had spent his time growing up in Berwick he might have more in common with the Bedroom Philosopher…one of the few artists making a genuine attempt to explore the oddness of our age.” (The Age)
"Something Different." (Nan & Pop)
LA LINEA - AS FEATURED IN "GENERATION ABC" THE ORIGINAL METAPHOR FOR LIFE
SUBSCRIBE TO THE OFFICIAL EZINE 'LAPTOPPING'
BROWN & ORANGE NATIONAL TOUR 2009
SYDNEY July 1 @ Bar Me, Kings Cross.
CANBERRA July 2 @ ANU Bar.
NEWCASTLE July 3 @ Lassogowrie.
BRISBANE July 5 @ The Troubadour.
MELBOURNE July 9 @ Toff In Town.
HOBART July 12 @ The Republic.
BURNIE (solo) July 16 @ Stagedoor Cafe.
ADELAIDE (solo) August 5 @ Grace Emily.
PERTH/FREMANTLE (solo) August 9 @ Mojo's.
All shows feature Josh Earl except Hobart (Charles Du Cane), Adelaide (Guillaume Soloacoustic) and Perth (Tomas Ford, The Whistling Dogs).
Melbourne also features Merri-May Gill (Brisbane).
All shows 8pm except Perth 5pm.
All shows $12 except Adelaide/Perth ($10) Newcastle ($0)
Folk-comedy maverick The Bedroom Philosopher (nee Justin Heazlewood) is packing the van with drums, percussion, flute, sitar, guitar and bass for a national tour to launch his critically acclaimed difficult second album Brown & Orange in a live venue just near your house.
Ably backed by a puzzlingly gorgeous five-piece The Awkwardstra, often described as the rock eisteddfod for home schooled children, this tour promises sitar/flute fusion and three piece suited theatrics not seen since 1972. Riding shotgun is best friend, indie wizard and librarian Josh Earl who will be bringing sexy back, in alphabetical order.
Brown & Orange was released in February and made with the help of musical allies Tripod (super mega stars), Harry Angus (Cat Empire) and producer Chris Scallen (Cut Copy, Avalanches). The album is laced with musical interludes lifted directly from a series of home-made audio cassettes documenting the life of a young man in the '70s in London and discovered by our trusty Bedroom Philosopher at an op-shop in Canberra. The tracks 'Brown', 'Orange' and 'Social life in the psychiatric unit 30/10/77' are all snippets from these recordings. What the Bedroom Philosopher was doing purchasing cassettes from the op-shop, rather than adding to his collection of over 300 ties from the 70s, is anyone's guess.
The Bedroom Philosopher has had a rather full music and comedy dance card of late. Comedically speaking, after breaking his humerus in an unfortunate biking accident, the Bedroom Philosopher was forced to cancel the final week of his Melbourne comedy festival show Songs From The 86 Tram which went on to win the Directors Choice Award. Isn't it ironic, dontchya think?
Media junkies may have spotted The Bedroom Philosopher cleverly disguised as a break dancer on Lawrence Leung's ABC show Choose Your Own Adventure. If literature is more your thing, you might have read his witty prose in Frankie Magazine, The Big Issue, BMA Canberra or JMAG. If your kicks are aural you've likely heard his dulcet tones wafting on a Monday evening from 7pm on Triple R as part of the Lime Champions team of tricksters.
REVIEWS FOR BROWN & ORANGE
“It's a lavish production and a thrillingly entertaining and equally exhausting listening experience.”
Symon JJ Rock, Inpress.
“It is (like the man himself) entirely enjoyable, entirely likeable, and entirely odd.”
Timothy Bocquet, BMA, Canberra – Album of the Week.
“…ample music invention flavours his dreams of alien abduction, caged bears and Jesus on Big Brother, and unlike the accidentally funny troubadours out there, he knows every joke should have a point.”
Michael Dwyer, The Age.
It's been a while. How are You? We shall have to meet up sometime... When will you be playing in Melbourne again... is it August or September? Look after yourself... Cheers, Sean : )
Listening to Brown & Orange at the library. Could identify with "What am I supposed to be doing?" Looks like you are doing quite a bit according to the myspace...Peter
Has anyone ever told you that you look like elliot from rollercoster - it's an abc show that presents cartoons.. He is suspiciously over enthusiastic about everything (even for a kids show host) .. just thought you should know
Hey :) I was at the Yarrawonga roadshow show thing on Wednesday, and you were rather AWESOME!! (i wasn't the person the yelled out in the audience, but i should have been :P) And then, after the show, You and Felicity Ward were out with the guy who was selling merchandise and I am now SO regretting not running up and giving you a hug. I really think i should have. what do you reckon? (haha, my mum even knew who you were before the show :P) Just shows my awesome taste in comedy :)
Hello BP. Didn't I see your distinguished mug on an episode of Lawrence Leung recently? Also, where can I get the song Megan the Vegan? My friend has moved in with a vegan called Megan in Melbourne (don't think it's the same one) but she needs to hear the song!
hey justin! just wanted to firstly wish you the speediest of recoveries... i went to see your show (of which i have heard nothing but great reviews) last night, only to discover that you'd injured yourself
i really hope you can do one or two more shows after you've healed to give us poor suckers who missed out a chance to see it who said equal opportunity shouldn't exist?
Hey man, It's Sean here. I was the heckler lastnight lol... The show was amazing, you're characterisation was incredible and the music was great! It was really cool to meet you after the show too. You are so friendly and easy going. I have added you on msn. Hope to see you perform again soon! Keep up the brilliant and original work! Cheers, Sean
Your comedy festival show was fantastic! Well done. Not only was it hilarious, but it very nearly gave me a renewed appreciation of the characters you meet on public transport. Ah yes, skipping to the station afterwards, I was brimming with love for this fine city and the fascinating stories within...
Then a guy on the train home was throwing up all over the door. Nothing brings you back down to earth quite like a vomiting stranger. Maybe he can feature in the sequel, Songs From The Belgrave Line...
Congratulations on the fantastic reviews :] Well deserved, of course. Except for the part about Wow Wow being too wacky...I think he's just wacky enough, frankly.
Hey Jus, Just downloaded Brown & Orange from iTunes. Love it. It's so clever. You're so clever. Hope it takes off and there's a tour with the Awkwardstra in the middle of the year! Loved lap-topping too. Always a great read! Cheers, KC x
