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cooperblack
Genre: Pop, Electronic
Region: Ballarat, VIC
Members: Jeremy Conlon - voice, bass, guitar Simon Kormendy - keys Mega Jess - Drums
Sounds Like: we like Arcade fire, Bloc Party, DJ Shadow, Bowie, Gang of Four, Velvet Underground, the pixies, bowie, Cure
Influences: Eno, Kraftwerk, Bowie, Arcade Fire, The Furs,TV themes, the pixies, V.U, Go Betweens, Hugo Largo, Dizzee Rascal
Artist Website: www.cooperblack.net

Jeremy Conlon- Cooperblack "Acoustic Styles" at Bar Saloon Bar 59 Humffray Street North, Ballarat, Wednesday May 5 8.00pm sharp..Free entry............................................................................................ DOWNLOAD COOPERBLACK RELEASES, name your own price...

http://cooperblack.bandcamp.com/
Cooperblack film clip for 'Swim' at
http://www.youtube.com/user/cooperblacknsstudio

WE ARE ON THE MOVE...TO REGIONAL VICTORIA NEAR BALLARAT..MOVING HEADQUARTERS.......BYE BYE DARWIN

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Cooperblack will be missed

BEN LANGFORD

January 15th, 2010 NT News

Cooperblack's Kormendy, Davies, Conlon at Kitty's. Picture: DUANE PRESTON

ALL that is wrong and all that is right with the Darwin music scene was on show at a single performance last week.

It was just a little show but it was a big deal, the last for the trio I'd call Darwin's best band.

And it was one of their finest. Leaving aside how people seem to look better, sound better, once they say they're leaving, this was still a show of the highest quality.

Brilliant bandleader, singer and songwriter Jeremy Conlon has reinvented Cooperblack a few times now, and this incarnation has more guitar and more melody in the singing, where he leaves the audience guessing whether he's doing a falsetto or just singing nice and high, nice and loud.

It's a slightly more precise affair then the previous line-up, with Jess Davies' sharp drumming a little less heavy than the big German, Oliver Budack.

Simon "the Professor" Kormendy was nicely restrained on keys and theremin, and if you listen carefully you could hear how Conlon can make a song out of even the silliest little lyric (note the song Horny Tits Monkey).

Some influences were obvious, with the band's inheritance combing through the wreckage of Jane's Addiction, collecting a few pieces of Mercury Rev, a thin slice of Joy Division, a chorus as good as many Oasis have mustered and a couple of old bottles recovered from veteran Kiwi Chris Knox.

My mate reckoned he could hear the Blue Oyster Cult in there - but he says that about most bands he listens to, and there are not many of them, except for the Blue Oyster Cult.

Kitty O'Shea's must be applauded for showing some commitment to local music, a rare quality on Mitchell St. But the wet season blues affects every show, and it was a small crowd that whooped and danced - and kept the bar ticking over.

Conlon almost made it through two whole sets before the moment that has become almost inevitable in Darwin music, whenever original music is played in pubs. A drongo in a Broncos jersey, conditioned on what to expect from years of cover bands playing the same songs, called out for some AC/DC. Conlon didn't even joke about it. "We play original music, mate".

And he did. The Wally Lewis impersonator left.

A creator of fun for the ears, the heart and the brain, Conlon should do well in Victoria, where he's headed. But his collaboration with Kormendy, which is the heart of the band, will not be replaced easily. One suspects they might find a way to play it again.

Cooperblack's last Darwin show, Kitty O'Shea's, Thursday, January 8

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The latest CD from Cooperblack "Malaysia" is more like a sampler of influences, on the sleeve so to say.

Swim: A song about loving the sea and living in a place that you cannot swim as often as you like. Being based in Darwin, the tropical north most city of Australia, the seas are filled with all kinds of nasties. Crocodiles, stinger (jellyfish), sharks and large cod that could probably eat you if they were hungry enough, or at least have a good nibble!!!..so here is a song about that, as well as the other wishes that bring life to a creative completeness.


Jeremy Conlon is the main songwriter, voice and producer behind Cooperblack. Cooperblack started in the early 1990's, influenced mainly by art school sound projects, followed by classical music in the late 1990's whilst he was doing a degree in Composition, leading to electro beats whilst working with Australian DJ and producer DJ Tr!p. More recently this has culminated in a marriage of electro bass driven pop with Darwin musicians Oliver Budack, Simon Kormendy and Mega Jess............

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"Cooperblack certainly don't sound like your typical Darwin band. A blend of lounge, electronica, theramin and rock, it isn't what you'd normally associate with the ‘top ends' music scene. The bands lyrics are just as leftfield. A kaleidoscope of ideas and themes straight out of art school; songs about German catch phrases, owning too many books (and not reading any of them), birds flying into windows, pop corn and more. Not a blue sky mine to be found among it."

"That may have something to do with the group's background. Comprised of a Hungarian, German and Australian, Cooperblack draw from a wide net of inspiration. Everything from the Sex Pistols and David Bowie to contemporary acts like Bloc Party and Interpol. All these influences come together on Cooperblack's latest album, My Art is Bleeding. A more rocking, up-tempo affair than some of their past work, it features an array of synths, guitars and tracks that translate as Horny Tits Monkey."
"Pretty Cool Monkeys"
NT News Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
Ben Langford 30/05/08

..........................


"While countless media types have heaped praise on Cooperblack and stated that they'd be huge if they'd just up and move to Melbourne or Sydney, the band seem perfectly content up in Darwin. When they're not writing tunes about obscure German graphic design fonts they're providing soundtracks for video installations and driving as fast as they like on those dusty highways"


Mikolai, November 2008 - City Search web site

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