Busby Marou

Today I'm going to learn about the musical group, Busby Marou.

I love their song "Biding My Time", and I have several of their songs on my Aussie spotify list.

The first time I heard Busby Marou was on the ABC show Q and A.  They performed at the end of one of the episodes. I want to say they sang "Biding My Time", but I could be wrong.

I used "Biding My Time" in my video montage of our time in St. Kilda and our visit to the Melbourne CBD.

I just watched the video. It really makes me miss Australia!!

You know what's crazy. I have twelve Busby Marou songs on my Spotify list. But with looking at the titles, I only know what three of them are. And one's a cover of a Crowded House song ("Better Be Home Soon"), so that's probably why I know what it is.

There's a good chance I'd recognize the other songs if I heard them. I often listen to my Spotify lists, and I don't look to see the title of the song or the artist. I've been trying to be better at that—pay more attention. Obviously, I haven't improved that much yet.

Now I'm going to see what Lord Wiki has to say about Busby Marou.

I was hoping he'd explain the meaning of their name to me. And Lord Wiki has fulfilled my wish. He says it's the duo's last name. The two guys in the group are Thomas Busby and Jeremy Marou. I think Marou is Aboriginal or a Pacific Islander person.

I might be wrong, but I think Busby does the singing. Marou plays an instrument. If I was smart about music, I could know what instrument by listening to the song.

I'm listening to "Biding My Time" again and really paying attention. I still don't know. I'll be really embarrassed if it's something really obvious like a guitar.

Shit. I think it is a guitar. I just looked at Lord Wiki's entry again and he says the duo is known for their guitar riffs.

Here we go. Lord Wiki has information about Marou's heritage. He's a Torres Strait Islander. What's Busby's heritage? I don't think Lord Wiki knows.

Lord Wiki says that in 2012 Busby Marou won an award—Best Blues and Roots Work of the Year. This was from something called the Australasian Performing Rights Association.

There's a list here of Busby Marou albums. There's three: The Blue Road, Busby Marou, and Farewell Fitzroy. My Aussie Spotify list has no songs from the latter. I wonder why. Did I miss them? Or does Spotify not have them yet? I shall go check.

Well....it looks like they don't have them yet. Maybe I can hear the songs elsewhere. though, like on YouTube or some type of listening site.

Maybe Busby Marou has their own website.

Yes! They have a website. Cool.

One of the videos they have featured on their site is for a song called "Luck". I'm going to watch that.

I really love how they sound.

I like the scene starting at 1:13— the long open road.

I think the video is about a road trip.

Like MY video featuring a Busby Marou song, this one too is making me want to go to Australia.

Maybe Tourism Australia should use Busby Marou in their next advertising campaign!

Here's another featured video on their site. It's for a song called "My Second Mistake". The video has a Muppet-like man in it.  Oh...and also a Muppet-woman.

The Muppet-Man turns green and then he dies. Or at least he collapsed. I think Busby and Marou are going to save him.  Or steal his pocket change.

I think they saved him. Now they're all at a pub.

Busby and Marou saved Muppet-man from a violent bully which makes me feel guilty for thinking they might have been trying to steal his pocket money.

Now Muppet-man is about to get lucky with an attractive human female.

I love Busby Marou...or what I know of them so far. But I do have a complaint. The front page of their website is a bit confusing too me—way too busy and overwhelming.

I'll move onto other parts of their site.

Here's their touring information.  There's not anything right now. Maybe they're recording?  Taking a break?

On October 17, they'll be at the Beach Brake Bar in Agnes Water Queensland. Where's that? I don't think Iv'e heard of it.

I found it on Google Maps. It's about two hours north of Bundaberg.

Busby Marou will be in Queensland for a few days; then they're moving down to New South Wales.

On October 24 and 25, they'll be performing at festivals. The first is the Kidgeeridge Music Festival, and the second is the Sydney Blues and Roots Festival.

The Kidgeeridge festival is a small intimate thing. There's only going to be five hundred guests allowed. It's expensive; $295 per person.  Although, I don't often go to musical events. I'm pretty ignorant about the typical price.

Now I'm looking at the tickets for the Sydney Blues and Roots Festival.  It's $149 for a three day pass. But if you were interested in only seeing Busby Marou, you could get a Saturday day pass for $119. And it wouldn't just be Busby Marou you'd be seeing. I'm sure there's going to be many other performances that day. I'm just saying if your main purpose was seeing Busby Marou, and you want to save some money, skip the three day pass.

In November, Busby Marou will be at the Unbridled Festival in Canberra.

It's a horse thing! I bet Claire McLeod (RIP) would have loved this festival.

This festival is a family event, and you can get tickets for two adults and two kids for $105.  And that's two kids over the age of 12. If you have tykes younger than 12, they're free.

It sounds like a fun event...especially for horse fans. Or if you're a fan of McLeod's Daughters, you'll probably like it.

After Canberra, Busby Marou will be in Victoria for a week or so. Then they're off to Western Australia. The last place on their list is Adelaide. But I'm sure more places will be added later.

Busby Marou's site has a video page. You know...I don't know if I've ever seen the video for "Biding My Time". I might have turned it on as a way to listen to it. But a lot of times I listen to music with YouTube, and I don't actually watch the video. I'm going to do that now.

I think the video is about song-writing.

I like my video better. Just because I know the people in it.

But I do like looking at Busby and Marou. They're sort of adorable.

Here's a video called Meet Busby Marou. I''m guessing it's more biographical and/or promotional than musical.

Not only does Busby do the singing; it looks like he also does the talking. Marou is very quiet.

Ah! Now Marou is talking. And he has a very nice smile. You know what his smile reminds me of...Jonah Hill's. I don't know why.

They're now singing "Biding My Time", and Marou IS singing. He just sings quietly.

I feel so stupid about not knowing that their instruments were guitars.

What's wrong with me?

Busby tells the story of when they were invited to contribute to the Neil Finn tribute album. Their cover of "Better Be Home Soon" is quite lovely. Actually, that's an understatement. What I really think is that it's extremely fantastic.

Here's the biography page of the Busby Marou site.

It's more about their music life than their life in general.

Really. It's more of a description of their music. I don't think it's very biographical

Busby Marou's site has a link to their Instagram and Twitter. I'll look at both of those.

I'm going to start with Twitter.

Their most recent Tweet is from twenty hours ago, and it's a Retweet of a Tweet by Double J. Is that related to Triple J?

Yes! It is. Here's their website.  They frequently Tweet with names of songs and a link. Are these the songs they're playing on the radio?

I think it is. I followed one of the links. It gives the name of the artist and a list of the times their song were played on Double J.

So...in September, Double J has played a total of three Busby Marou songs. The most recent song was "Get You Out of Here" on September 14 at 1:30 pm.  Personally, I think they should play Busby Marou songs much more often.

Busby Marou has a few posts in which they're conversational—responding to another person's Tweet. But for the most part, it looks like they use Twitter to Retweet promotional stuff about themselves.  That's not my favorite kind of account, but they're not too awful.

They do respond kindly to some fans who ask why they're not taking their tour to their town. That's nice of them.

There's nothing I can see, though, that's not about their music. It's a very promotional account, which I personally feel can get annoying.

I like when people are able to talk about other things besides their work. Alyssa Milano and JK Rowling do a good job with this.

Here's the Busby Marou Instagram account.

Their most recent picture is of their touring poster.

Their next several posts are concert photos. These guys seem very career focused. I think that's fine...to a point. And I also understand that some artists want to keep their private life private.  But you can talk about things outside your job without revealing deep private stuff. Like you can reveal you're a fan of Star Wars. Or you can admit you love Stephen King books.  You can talk about music that you love that's not your own.

Here's a photo that's not musical related. It's a gross fish head.  Maybe Busby Marou should do a cover of the "Fish Heads" song.

Ah! Now I see there are many fishing photos. I think that must be the thing that Busby likes besides his music. I say Busby, because I don't see Marou in the fishing photos.

Wait. Here's one. But Marou is not fishing. He's shaking hands with someone who is a master at fishing. Or maybe I'm reading the caption wrong. Maybe Marou is the fishing master.

Oh! Okay. I think it's a celebrity. It's the guy from that show River Monsters.

I like this photo of people hanging out in the water. The water looks so inviting.  Beautiful.....

The water is in a place called Groote Eyelandt. It's way up north in Australia—an island off of the Northern Territory.

Here's a bowling photo.  And there are others. So they do have a life outside their music—fishing, bowling, wading in beautiful water, etc.

And they change tires.

They visited the Twelve Apostles.

They got ice-cream from an ice-cream truck...or at least took a photo of someone else buying ice-cream.

I think I'm done with Instagram for now.

I was about to be done with this post in general, but then I remembered I wanted to find some info about their Q and A performance. But I can't find anything.  Maybe I dreamed the whole thing.

I found it. I was Googling Busby Marou and Q and A (using the symbol for "and", which I don't use on my blog because it messes up formatting). That didn't help, but then I added Tony Jones, the host of the show, to the mix.  That worked. Here's an article about it.

They actually sat on the panel and did talking stuff. I didn't know that. I mean I must have known it. Because I saw it. But I forgot.

Or actually it was just Marou on the panel. He says he was very nervous. I'd be terrified.

Marou is the great nephew of Eddie Mabo. That's pretty exciting.

There's some personal info here.

Marou is the eldest of five siblings.  Busby is the youngest of eight.  Big families.

Marou says when they first started playing their music at a pub, no one would be there to listen. That makes me feel a little bit better about hardly anyone buying my books. Or sometimes I write a blog post, and very few people ever visit it.  AND I have other blogs that get close to zero visits.

They played in Texas! I'm sorry I missed them. Although I miss a lot of music people. I really don't do concerts. Maybe one day I will.

I'm going to look at the Q and A archives and see if I can find the episode. I want to know whether or not they sang "Biding My Time".

The episode was called "Live From Toowoomba" 

I'm reading some of the transcript and watching some of the video. They ask Marou's opinion about foreign investing in Australian mines. If I understand him correctly (and remember I'm the person who didn't know what a guitar sounds like), he supports it.

At one point Marou says, Well, I guess the advantage and we're so lucky we get to sit around here and talk about foreign investors coming over and investing in our land. Unfortunately 200 years ago the Aboriginal Indigenous people didn't get to have this conversation and it happened anyhow.

I think that's a good point.

And he says, It’s all. No, no, it’s definitely not. Look, I think if the land is not being used for anything specifically now, which is what land we're talking about, why not get foreign investors to come over. If they're going to build - you know, they’re going to provide infrastructure and jobs in regional Queensland the for me it’s a no brainer as long as it is leased. I don’t think we should be - as long as it’s leased. 

Right now I'm totally in support of foreign investors mining in Australia....because of the infrastructure and jobs Marou mentions.  But five minutes later I'd likely change my mind when another smart person comes along and shares the opposite opinion. That's what I don't like about politics. I'm way too wishy-washy.

The conversation leaves mining and goes onto marriage equality. Someone expresses concern that after we all accept gay marriage, we'll be pressured to accept child marriage, polygamy, incest, etc.

Tony Jones asks Marou to respond and he says, Can I just say - can I just say that is the most weirdest question I’ve ever heard and I’m handing it straight over to Simon.

That response is a good example of hyperbole and avoidance.

Though I'm not sure I'd know how to respond.

Maybe I'd just respond with Tony Jones' famous line. I'll take that as a comment.

That's what it really is. It's a scare tactic. You might be okay with two men getting married to each other, but what if your acceptance leads to mothers marrying their sons? Or twelve-year-olds marrying each other?

Maybe the same thing was said years ago by people who were against interracial marriage. If we let a white woman marry an Asian man, what if that leads to a woman, one day wanting to marry a donkey? It starts with interracial and then moves to interspecies.

I just skimmed through the rest of the transcript, and at the end I see Busby Marou DID sing "Biding My Time". Cool!

Well, I think I'm going to end this here.

Adios!










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