Chris Ross collaborated with Jim Dead…

Chris Ross - Jim Dead Publicity Shot

It has come to my attention that Chris Ross has done some collaborative work with Australian musician Jim Dead, aka James Misbrener, along with Myles Heskett and a bunch of other musicians to form the backing band “The Army of Shadows”.

Chris Ross has provided vocals on the self-titled album, and Myles provides drums. The album itself had it’s celebratory launch on December 3rd at St Petersburg Warehouse Studios in Sydney
There isn’t much more information about the collaboration available at this point until I get my hands on the album.

However, on the myspace page, there is a blog post that goes into detail of each Army of Shadows Bio, this is what it has to say about Chris Ross:

Jim met Chris Ross ten years ago through Myles Heskett, when Myles and Chris shared a house in Surry Hills in Sydney’s inner-East. A talented singer, bass player and an amazing keyboardist, Chris and Jim Dead have also spent a lot of time making music together, writing and recording around 10 songs over the last couple of years.

Chris has become one of contemporary rock’s much-loved keyboardists, much due to his work in Wolfmother, of which he was also a founding member. Along with bandmate Myles Heskett he has moved on to other ‘prog rock’/psychedelic music projects, including Palace of Fire and more recently, The Slew.

You can check out the myspace here (www.myspace.com/jimdeadarmyofshadows) and you can purchase the album here (www.cdbaby.com/cd/jdataos).

I’ll try and keep you guys informed when I get ahold of the album, if you already have it, drop in a comment and let us know what song(s) Chris Ross collaborated with Jim Dead with.

The Slew’s “100%” Now Available in Australian Stores

The Slew’s album “100%” is now available in Australian stores through Ninja Tune.

The Slew was formed by Kid Koala and Dynamite D when film maker Jay Rowlands was making a film based on the life of Jack Slew, with his short-lived music career he invested money won at a racing derby into a home studio where he recorded his album, music labels rejected him, and he gave up his musician dream. For the documentary, his master Tapes were given to Kid Koala and Dynamite D to remix. When Jack pulled out of his participation on the documentary, The Slew’s remixes remained unheard of except for the limited 50 copies of “Dust Commander” which contained the songs.

When Kid Koala got together Chris Ross and Myles Heskett, he played the songs to the ex-Wolfmother boys and they were so impressed by it they wanted the rest of the world to hear the music, so Kid Koala teamed up with Ross and Heskett to re-create those remixes, and performed a tour around the USA and Canada, where copies of the recreated songs were only sold at the concerts on an album called “100%”. However, they had no idea how popular they would be and decided to get it distributed through a record label internationally.

Now the album has hit Australian stores, in the formats of CD and a 2xLP Vinyl.
You can purchase the album at JB Hi-Fi – Buy the CD – Buy the Vinyl

Palace of CHRIS ROSS Redux!

Greetings fans of Chris Ross, hopefully, if you’re reading this you still love Chris Ross, and spend your waking hours updating this site!

Sorry it has been so long! Computer break downs followed by work and other lifestyle problems got in the way, but we’re back baby, to keep you up-to-date with anything and everything Chris Ross related! And boy has there been news since I last posted here!

Last time I posted about a project with Chris Ross and Myles Heskett called Doom Buggy, well Doom Buggy is the buried and forgotten, and now lies the heart and soul that is Palace of Fire!

Palace of Fire first debut performance was at Boogie Rock Festival, in April earlier this year (photo’s and review available here and here, respectively). Consisting of Chris Ross, Myles Heskett and new face to the tribe, Matt Blackman (Tucker B’s, Charge Group). Word is that the new trio combine the toughness and versatility of Wolfmother with the more refined, cinematic approach of Charge Group and Blackman’s former band Purplene.
Palace of Fire’s MySpace account has this to say about the band:

Palace of Fire is a brand-new sonic beast sired by three men. It is both a dynamic shot in the arm and a cinematic exploration around the perimeter of the human condition. A primal blend of dark invocations and ceremonious, melodic, heavy rock.

PoF have played very few gigs during the year, mostly around Sydney and NSW areas, supporting Battles at the Sydney Opera House in May for the Luminous Festival (photos), playing at The Metro, Sydney on June 28th for the “Save FBi Radio” fundraiser, sharing the stage with the likes of Muscles, Dappled Cities, Decoder Ring, Midnight Juggernauts and others. Palace supported Decoder Ring, also, on September 12th at Baroque Bar in Katoomba.

Recordings aren’t available to listen to as of yet, but current news is that they are working on either an EP or a Double A-Side single, with 3 or 4 songs in the works. From their Twitter account they’re nearly done recording and that it “sounds ENORMOUS”. Stay tuned for more info as it comes!

But if you thought Chris had been putting all his eggs into one basket with Palace of Fire, you would be mistaken, around August, Chris and Myles teamed up with Kid Koala to recreate the soundtrack of a documentary Kid Koala worked with Dynamite D in making, however the film part failed and the soundtrack was left to gather hard drive dust until KK played it to the Aussie duo, inspired by the music, they teamed up together to recreate the music and let it see the light of day, by doing a USA and Canada tour entitled “The Slew: Live”.

Exclaim.ca:
The press release promises that the tour will be “brash, loud and defiantly turned up to 11,” with live drums, bass, keys and six turntables all pumping out 70 minutes of epic, hip-hop-influenced psych rock goodness.

The Slew recorded the album and sold it at the shows in the form of CD or 2xLP vinyl, however also offered the entire album as a free download off of their website with the intention of letting people hear their music before they see them live, to enjoy the performance more.

Tracklisting:
1 ) 100%
2 ) IT’S ALL OVER
3 ) PROBLEM CHILD
4 ) YOU TURN ME COLD
5 ) WRONG SIDE OF THE TRACKS
6 ) ROBBING BANKS (DOIN’ TIME)
7 ) THE GRINDER
8 ) SHACKLED SOUL
9 ) SOUTHEAST SOLILOQUY
10 ) BATTLE OF HEAVEN & HELL

The album got alot of positive responses from the Wolfmother forums, some even stating it to be one of their favourite albums of 2009, combating the recent release of Wolfmother’s newest album “Cosmic Egg”.
But the link to download the album for free will be taken down November 1st due to some very exciting news! “100%” will be getting released through Ninja Tune on November 24th due to heavy demand for the album during the tour.

There have also been rumours that their will be more Slew tours and material in the future, but for now, it’s just the cool sounds of 100%.

So that has been the last 13 months of Chris Ross news summarised into one news post! Expect alot more updates in the future, in the mean time, check these cool sites for all things relating to Chris Ross.

• Palace of Fire (MySpace)
• Palace of Fire (Twitter)
• The Slew (Official Site)
• The Slew (MySpace)

Doom Buggy

If someone was to do a vigorous look into Chris and Myles’ musical resume, they would find a very minor inclusion in their history, other than Wolfmother.

Supporting Tucker B’s in August 2007 was an experimental electro rock band named Doom Buggy, comprised of Myles Heskett and Chris Ross.
There is a crappy quality video of the band performing

Here’s a review of a gig they performed @ Hopetoun Hotel, Sydney
(31/8/2007)

FasterLouder.com.au
Doom Buggy’s lineup is essentially Wolfmother, without frontman Andrew Stockdale. One gets the sense that Doom Buggy is a much-needed creative outlet for bassist/keyboardist Chris Ross and drummer/vocalist Myles Heskett – Doom Buggy played a set that was seems to have been brewing secretly for months, with a handful of well developed and fully-formed songs forming their roughly half-hour set. These songs are a significant departure from Wolfmother – The music is largely electronic instrumental, with clear krautrock and IDM influences. Perhaps the closest comparison that can be made is to their Sydney contemporaries Pivot, but Doom Buggy’s set was unique, surprising and innovative. Whether any band that forms as an offshoot to a backlash-attracting band like Wolfmother can be taken seriously by the music community as an independent entity remains to be seen, but tonight Doom Buggy showed that they have arrived, and they demand your ears.

Could we be seeing more of Doom Buggy in the future? In the band’s statement, it did imply Chris and Myles had been working on a musical project together that they wished to focus on, but will it be Doom Buggy or do they have something new to give to us, if anything at all?

Chris and Myles officially left the Wolf pack

An email from the band

(August 7, 2008 @ 6.05pm AEST)
Grammy Award winning rock band Wolfmother has announced the resignation of bass/keyboard player Chris Ross and drummer Myles Heskett effective immediately.

Singer/guitarist Andrew Stockdale now plans to find other musicians over coming months and to then begin making a new Wolfmother album.

Wolfmother toured the world virtually non-stop through 2006 and early 2007 on the back of their acclaimed self titled debut album. Longstanding frictions within the group then lead them to take an extended break during the second half of 2007 to consider their future.

In early 2008 they regrouped and worked on new material. Initially encouraged by those sessions, they committed to a handful of live shows to ‘road test’ the new songs and to try to find a way forward.

Those dates concluded with a headlining slot last Sunday at the Splendour In The Grass Festival in Australia’s Byron Bay where rumours circulated about possible lineup changes.

Following that show Chris Ross decided to announce that he was leaving the band due to irreconcilable personal and musical differences. Myles Heskett has also decided to leave the band rather than continuing as part of a changed lineup. The pair has been working together on songs for some time and they plan to focus their energies on that new project in the future.

Wolfmother’s self titled debut album is one of the most successful Australian rock releases this century. It has sold over 1.3 million copies and received multiple ARIA Awards and a Grammy – making them the first Aussie band to receive such an award in 25 years. Other highlights for the group have included appearances at just about every major music festival in the world, sharing stages with Pearl Jam, The Who and The Strokes, and a special performance inducting the legendary Led Zeppelin into the UK’s Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame.

Andrew Stockdale, Myles Heskett and Chris Ross will make no public statements at this time except to say that they are each really looking forward to making their new music over the years ahead.

In the meantime they simply ask all Wolfmother fans to please understand that in spite of their best efforts over a long period of time, they just could not find a harmonious way to work together and that has lead to the decisions announced today.