New
website:
For the latest info on Ben Rogers' Instrumental Asylum, check out our new website: www.benrogers.com.au
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For the latest info on Ben Rogers' Instrumental Asylum, check out our new website: www.benrogers.com.au |
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News & Web Changes
Sorry for the big gap in Blazz news here - a new website is on its way! Big news at the moment is "Instromania" next week. Instromania is music for instrumental music fans. a whole night of axe-wielding heaven with four bands for your listening/watching pleasure: Martin Cilia (The Atlantics), Ben Rogers' Instrumental Asylum, The Futuras and Harry's Web. This event is taking place Saturday night 12th June at The Chandelier Room (91 Cochranes Rd, Moorabbin). Check out www.instromania.com.au for all details. Other news centres around promotion for this event including an appearance by Martin Cilia (accompanied by John hall of Harry's web and Nikki Scarlett of Instrumental Asylum) on Richard Stubbs ABC radio programme 4th June 1.30pm. In case you missed it you can listen here: http://dld.bz/f7Bt - includes a live rendition of The Atlantics' classic hit "Bombora". Ben Rogers will be appearing on Wednesday night on the Krome Plated Yabby Show (6-8pm, 99.3Mhz 3NRG-FM). Speaking of all things Ben Rogers, he's also featured in this month's edition of Rhythms magazine - available from newsagents throughout Australia and via on-line subscription at www.rhythms.com.au Hope to see you at "Instromania"! 4 June 2010 Professional photographer, Jason Lindsey, based in Illinois, USA, has used Instrumental Asylum's "Incident at Docklands" as the soundtrack for a behind-the-scenes video of one of his commercial photo shoots. Check it out here! "Southern Right Surfer" is getting a bit of notice and was honoured as the 37th "Most Viewed Australian Musician" for Tuesday 29th September (not quite up to Eddie's standard though - he made 20th, and he's a dog...). 30 September 2009
Following a recent brief dash up the coast, Instrumental Asylum has been inspired by the antics of a group of surfers and whales off Logan's Beach in Warrnambool. The resulting new tune ("Southern Right Surfer") and video is now available on Youtube. 28 September 2009
Time to give the poor, neglected website a bit of a birthday! Instrumental Asylum has had a fun few gigs recently along with some serious recording time on the "difficult third album". As too much recording is not enough, Vipers Dream is also hitting the studio to record a debut album of eclectic jazzy original tunes. Shadoz was fun again this year and featured the combined jazz prowess of IA with The Atlantics' Martin Cilia along with the usual rowdy IA stuff. We also met the fabulous Futuras there and have teed up a double bill with them at the Town Hall Hotel later this month (see the Gig Guide for details). Check out the new photos in the Rogue's Gallery while you're here. 1 July 2009 What can you say? The first "news" of 2009 should just be a general "happy new year" greeting but the Victorian bushfires of February 7 have left everyone reeling and wondering how can we help. One way is the Kustom Lane Gallery benefit on Sunday March 1st. Kustom Lane Gallery is unique in its dedication to "kustom kulture" including Tiki Art, Lowbrow Art, Monster Art, Car and Pinstriping Art, and Kustom Artwork. The gallery will be holding a barbecue and donating all profits from sale of art and other merchandise to the bushfire appeal. Bands including Instrumental Asylum will be appearing and Royal Crown Barbers will be cutting hair for donations. If you're an artist and would like to donate work for auction or sale on the day contact the gallery directly (http://www.kustomlane.com/). If you can't make it there perhaps you can spare a few bucks for the Red Cross (http://www.redcross.org.au/) for general assistance or Healesville Sanctuary (http://www.zoo.org.au/Healesville/News/Save_Injured_Wildlife) who are helping all the little beasties who need a hand.
22 November 2008 Christmas greetings from Blazz HQ! Our Eddie, the singing dog, has made his Youtube debut (here) and was astonished to find himself honoured as the 20th "Most Viewed Australian Musician" for Saturday 20th December. At last, someone in the family is a star! Keep safe and have fun - oh, and come see us at Moonlight on the Mountains on 27th December (Instrumental Asylum that is, not Eddie...)
22 November 2008 Vale Tim Hancock. Tim Hancock from "The Hancock Band" (amongst
others including Reg Ansett and The Hangars!) died suddenly and unexpectedly on
the 17th October 2008. His friends and colleagues are still trying to make
sense of the sudden loss. His traditional Sunday session at Bethanga pub
was held in his honour the week after his funeral. Friends of Tim's
gathered and did what Tim did best - made music and had a good time (photos
here). The following Wednesday (12th
November) the regular Clifton Hill session was turned over to his friends to
blow the lid off the place and send our boy home in style. 22 November 2008 Gig guide updated and archived (06/07 gigs here). Special gig on 12th July at the Tiki Bar featuring guest drummer Al Kash from the USA. Al was recently heard on Instrumental Asylum's Reverb Rehab revisiting his drumming on "Seasons of Change". Al played on the original '70s version on Blackfeather's At the Mountains of Madness album. (See the New York diary for details on the Al Kash connection). Note: The "Denis Close Fan Club" need not despair - the ever reliable Denis will also be in attendance at the Tiki bar so we'll have rhythm aplenty! 22 June 2008 Gig guide updated. Had a great time in Mildura - blast from the past for Ben with plenty of opportunity for catching up with old friends. Also had a ball on the Bobby Flynn gigs - what a nice bunch of people. Hope the rest of their tour was a success and that Slugger and the Crew kept everyone in line & on time! Thanks to all for looking after us and making us welcome.More news and rants soon! 19 April
2008 New reviews of Reverb Rehab in The Sunday Age (Melbourne) and Nova Magazine and a listing in Rhythms Magazine's "Best of 2007"! Bunch of gigs for Ben Rogers' Instrumental Asylum supporting Bobby Flynn and an Easter visit to Mildura. Check "Gig Guide" for details. 15 Febuary 2008 Latest review of Reverb Rehab from the USA in Music Web Express (www.mwe3.com - scroll down page to CD reviews). This one is accompanied by an interview with Ben Rogers. 15 January 2008 Happy New Year from all of us at Blazz HQ. Hope your festive season was silly but safe. We've had a coupla great Christmas presents with a great review in "Big Beat of the 50s" and Billy Pinnell (Roots Reviewer for JB Mag) listing Reverb Rehab as his top release of 2007! We've also updated the Instrumental Asylum profile and added details of a new Blazz project: Vipers Dream 12 January 2008 More reviews from Pipeline Magazine (UK) and 2Good4Words (Australia) here. How exciting! 5 December 2007 Had an fabbo time at Queenscliff Music Festival today. Beautiful weather, great vibe, good crowd just looking to enjoy music - who could ask for anything more? Our merchandise manager, Jack Rogers, took some photos from his vantage point on the stage. Check them out here. Congrats to the organisers and those who made it easy for us to be in the right place at the right time. 25 November 2007 CD launch was fab! We had an absolute ball and hopefully so did all you punters who made it such fun for us. You certainly looked and sounded happy (so happy you could hardly stand up - you know who you are!) We have a little bit of footage from the night (here) - humungous thanks to David Barker for a mighty effort in jollying it up for us and Peter Geermans for recording it on the night. Reviews for reverb rehab are starting to appear. So far we've had very favourable write-ups in JB Mag (Australia), dB Magazine (Adelaide, Australia), New Gandy Dancer (UK), Reverb Central (Santa Cruz, CA, USA). Check them out here. 19 November 2007 CD launch for reverb rehab announced. The launch wil take place at the Lomond Hotel, 225 Nicholson St, Brunswick East at 9pm on Saturday 27th October. Special guests on the night will include sonic siren Jaz from the Dice Age. 10 October 2007 reverb rehab (the "difficult second album" from Ben Rogers' Instrumental Asylum) is now ready for release! Check out a few tracks and buy it direct here. 13 August 2007 Another review for Welcome to the Instrumental Asylum from Phil Dirt of Reverb Central. Most exciting news is that the second album is ready to press and is scheduled for release in October! Get ready for 17 tracks of Reverb Rehab. Had a hoot back in March playing 3 gigs at the Apollo Bay Music Festival - thanks to the organisers and venues involved. Blazz discovers the world of MySpace and hooks up with all types of surf/spy/garage inhabitants from around the globe. For example check out Gulag Tunes from Moscow, Maremotos from Brazil and The Twinkle Arrows from Japan (but only after you've visited us of course, http://www.myspace.com/benrogers39instrumentalasylum) 23 July 2007 Happy New year from all of us here at Blazz HQ. We've been very busy over the festive season but in between champagnes have begun recording the "difficult second album" for the Ben Rogers' Instrumental Asylum. The Asylum has also commissioned some images by photographer and artist, Maciej Karolczak. These can be viewed via the Rogue's Gallery or directly here. Keep an eye out for this man's work in the future - we think he's great! In a further bid for fame and fortune we've put Kangaroux - the movie up on www.youtube.com. Tell 100 of your close personal friends! 7 January 2007 Another new review for Welcome to the Instrumental Asylum in the "20th Century Guitar" (New York, USA). 31 October 2006 New review for Welcome to the Instrumental Asylum in the "Big Beat of the 50s" (Australia). 14 September 2006 NY road diary posted. 6 September 2006 26 August 2006
On Sat 31 July 2006 Ben Rogers' Instrumental Asylum entertained the punters in the front bar of the Greyhound Hotel in St Kilda. This is one of the remaining true Australian inner suburban pubs - no stage for the band, pool tables, a regular clientele and a great atmosphere. In a break from tradition the band featured a guest vocalist - Jaz (from the Dice Age), belting out some Big Momma Thornton, Wanda Jackson and even a Detroit Cobras cover.
Press Releases18th January 2006 -- CD Launch Poster 23th November 2005 -- Welcome to the Instrumental Asylum |
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