MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: CARCLEW YOUTH ARTS

South Australia’s aspiring bands and musicians will be getting up Off The Couch in the coming weeks - and not just for the Big Day Out, although this may be where some of them find themselves playing one day.

Carclew Youth Arts’ 2010 Off The Couch program – featuring some of South Australia’s top emerging musicians and bands - kicks off on Friday, February 12 at Fowler’s Live with Hard Heavy Loud 5.

Off The Couch has helped many South Australian bands and musicians springboard into the music industry during the past 14 years, including western suburbs hip-hop outfit Poetikool Justice, which has landed the headline slot on the Hot Produce Stage at this year’s Adelaide Big Day Out.

“We found out just before Christmas that we’d been included in the 2010 Big Day Out line-up - it was certainly the best Christmas present we could have asked for and we’re now putting all of our energy into bringing the best show we’ve ever done,” said Poetikool Justice’s lead lyricist Steve Dedrick.

Since taking part in Off The Couch four years ago the funk-fusion band has been named as one of the best live bands in South Australia and voted Best Hip Hop group in the SA Music Industry Awards.

“Off The Couch certainly helped us get to where we are today. After going through the program we toured regionally with Carclew and then the program put us forward for the Fuse Festival showcase,” Steve said.

“The program gave us the kick start we needed and we played in some excellent shows - some of our favourites.

“The ongoing support we receive from Carclew is second-to-none and we’d certainly encourage young up-and-coming groups to get involved and make use of opportunities like this that are available to them.”

For those looking to hear bands like Poetikool Justice - before they make it to the Big Day Out - a range of up-and-coming from across South Australia will perform at the six Off The Couch gigs. The line-up for the first show – titled Heavy Hard Loud 5 – includes hard and heavy bands Convict Anatomy, Wasted Elegance, Zelorage and Erosion.

The 2010 schedule of Off the Couch events is:

Friday February 12: Fowlers Live – hard heavy Loud 5
Friday March 19: Jive - rock
Saturday March 20: My Music Culture Festival, Light Square – multi-genre
Friday March 26: Promethean - acoustic
Friday April 9: Jive - indie
Wednesday April 14: Week Event, Rundle Mall – multi-genre

Off The Couch is a program that is run by young people for young people with the assistance of industry professionals. It was developed to address the lack of performance opportunities for young musicians in South Australia and expanded to provide opportunities for young people to learn hands-on about the performance industry through sound engineering, marketing, promotions, stage management and much more.

Poetikool Justice has just announced they will support New Zealand’s Kora on their tour of Australia in February. The group will also play at Fringe Fest in Light Square on February 25 as well as at the Rock the Bay Festival in Melbourne.