TV stuff

I’m really enjoying the SBS series Great Australian Albums on Saturday nights. It’s kind of an Aussie version of the British Classic Albums series — both take the artists back to the studios to play us snippets from the master tapes, while explaining how the albums came about: the context for the band, the writing, recording, production, marketing, touring and reception. Nice to see popular music treated with this level of seriousness.

Especially for albums I’m very familiar with (Saturday’s was Crowded House‘s Woodface) it’s really fascinating. Loved some of the stories, such as them wondering why on earth the American label decided “Chocolate Cake” would be a good first single, given it’s a piss-take of American pop culture. And they confirmed my suspicion that “Four Seasons In One Day” was inspired by Melbourne’s weather.

Torchwood has been moved, if you were wondering on Monday night where it disappeared to. Channel 10 have sent it through the rift to midnight Tuesday nights at midnight. It’s worth the effort to catch/tape next week’s episode “Random Shoes” — I thought it was really quite clever; probably the most enjoyable of the lot.