Credit: Major Major

My Second week in Melbourne, and something of a frustrating one, a promising job interview and several house viewings all amounting to nothing, unyet an amazing week musically and socially.

The week began in mellow moods with Camera Obscura at Cloud City Warehouse (mentioned last week, but for the record: www.myspace.com/cloudcitywarehouse) along with a full bill of support acts. The rough but melodic genius of Flying Scribble (www.myspace.com/flyingscribble), the slick and brilliant Alt-Country of Institut Polaire (www.myspace.com/institutpolaire), The talented singer-songwriter but extraneous effects user Pikelet (www.myspace.com/ovalyn), the dull, uninspiring and presence-less Crayon Fields (www.myspace.com/thecrayonfields) and finally Camera Obscura, but they’re Scottish, so enough about them.

My Favourite place to scout out new talent has always been Open Mic nights, a vast majority of the time acts are, to be blunt, not very good, but occasionally you turn up some real gems, either way I love the shear enthusiasm and rawness, the nervousness in the air, the slight awkwardness everyone feels in facing a room of complete strangers. There are loads of Open Mic nights in Melbourne, I’m sure I will get through a vast majority of them in these columns, this week was the turn of the slightly grotty but delightful Spoon Bar (www.myspace.com/spoonpresents) and my gems of the evening were ‘TRS’ (www.myspace.com/trsmelbourne) a politically flavoured hip-hop collective who finally helped me understand what ‘Bogan’ actually meant through the power of song.

Next up was something more corporate, the Melbourne heat of MTV Australia’s ‘Kickstart your Rockstar career’, 5 bands get three songs each to prove that they deserve a place in the national final with a chance to win a whole host of prizes including $20,000, the stakes are high, the audience seem to just be enjoying copious amounts of beer and ignoring bands who aren’t their friends. First up are phoney electro rappers Gameboy / GameGirl (www.myspace.com/gameboygamegirl) and I’m still not completely sure if we were supposed to take them seriously. Next my personal favourites, Bachelors of Art ( www.myspace.com/bachelorsonline), All Girl Punkers There She Goes again (www.myspace.com/thereshegoesagainband) who despite a rocky start won the crowd over with a very professional and confident stage show, Fashionable Disco-Indie but typically boring and repetitive Dance with Voices (www.dancewithvoices.com) and finally a refreshing Indie band who exceeded all my expectations, Major Major (www.myspace.com/thisismajormajor). A night of bad band names and a mixed bag of music, so who do you think won? The best band? The band who received the greatest audience reaction? Of course not! I was privy to some insider information from one of the judges who informed me they picked the band who’d look best on MTV, so away Dance with Voices went to the National Finals.