The nice folks at Australian Music Biz brought this review of Doomsday Piano to our attention:

“This seems to me to be a recording an entirely new mode; neither jolly juke box collection, nor warts and all confessional. Here we have an autobiographical ant farm, or a house sawn in half to reveal kooky domestic tableaux: but the whole is produced with the deliberate intent and artistry of a painting as opposed to the pretence at real emotion and humanity that a lot of recorded music presupposes as a condition of its existence, not understanding that ‘real’ can be as much of a mask as any other performance persona. “Doomsday Piano” is a vivid personal artifact and Steve Appel’s singing is fantastic.”

And in which august periodical may one peruse this perceptive review? Why, it can be found in the in-flight magazine “Jetstar”. God Bless “JetStar” magazine, and all those who sail in her.

I was warned once by someone who knows never to read a good review because it will mean one day you’ll have to read a bad one. Well, I’ve yet to see a ‘bad’ review of King Curly but God knows I’ve seen some badly written ones (although once, in the midst of an otherwise laudatory review, the obviously tone-deaf reviewer outrageously claimed that my voice was “flat” – I charitably assumed the reviewer was demented).

This one is noteable because it isn’t poorly written. Sadly we can’t openly make fun of some very sorry reviews we’ve seen lest we snap at the hand that doesn’t yet feed us.

I’m a proud father of 3 which means I have some insight into the strengths and weaknesses of children’s books.

I can tell you for instance that the best ones are The Lorax, The Digging-est Dog and GO Dog Go – in that order.

On the other hand, I’ve learnt the hard way that there are a lot of bad ones. On many occasions the kids and I have accidentally found ourselves in the wet hands of a moral preacher or even worse – A story where nothing happens!

At such times I have been forced to make up stories myself to fill the void and that’s how Mr Handman came to be.

These are the adventures of my own talking hand.

The 4 stories which made it onto paper have been road tested and I can happily say the kids love them – especially ‘Mr Handman and the hole at the end of the garden’. Which is more than I can say for a few parents of the kids who love them. My little niece told me the other day that her mum threw her set of Mr Handman books away because Mr Handman is nothing but a liar. Well.

This one is unusual in that there is not so much lying in it. It does have a chicken with a guilty secret, if that counts. Click the arrows to read the story….

I find it difficult sometimes to know where to focus after making a record.

Suddenly a vacuum opens up (in which there can be a tendency to get down) after months of obsessing.

So, in the interests of keeping the process enjoyable I’ve been trying my hand at different things. Recently, I announced a courageous new venture whereby I would write a song for Shannon Noll. I promise this is underway but I confess I’m finding it hard to get past the first line (don’t ask) – as I have to also deal with the troubling thought of Shannon singing it as I go. I will eventually succeed but I mustn’t wear myself out.

Another exciting new King Curly project is also underway. It is to provide a soundtrack to an animation entitled “Dog” currently being animated by my good friend and co-writer on Doomsday Piano, Mr Creighton.

I must not give too much away except to say that it will follow the deliciously worthless tradition of violent dog cartoons featuring a line-up of GOOD Australian rock musicians handling the dialogue – which incidentally amounts to nothing but animal grunts and inflexions. How could this not succeed.