13 August ‘14
free
ASH GRUNWALD Grunwald’s gargantuan year continues issue #012
MUSIC
Joe Camilleri Monique Brumby Salvadarlings Baltimore Gun Club Spiderbait
FOOD
Harvest Moon Piccolo Pop Taco
MUSIC
Calan Mai Delta Riggs Ella Fence Splendour wrap
LIFESTYLE
Tognetti’s ripsnorter Gangster’s Ball Nia Snapper Surfriders’ 50th
ENVIRO
Economy: interrupted Eastern curlews Ibis
THURSDAY 28TH - SUNDAY
31ST AUGUST 2014
AUSTRALIAN REGIONAL MEDIA
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#012 13 AUGUST 2014 Editor: Samantha Morris Design: Chloe Popa Music Coordinator: Mella Bunker Distribution: Melanie Brennan Advertising: Amanda Gorman and Melanie Brennan Enivronment Editor: Mic Smith Illustrator: Kemii Maguire Design support: Odette Bettany Contributors: Marj Osborne, Terry “Tappa� Teece, Sly Steve, Jake Wilton, Catherine Coburn, Genghis Tuan, Bob Westerman, Mic Smith, Kyle Butcher, Gina Martin, Christie Ots, Anthony Gebhardt, Nev Pearce, Melanie Brennan, Lisa Silverstone
Acknowledgement of Country We show our respect and sincerely acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this Land and their Elders past and present. Commitment to Climate Reality Climate change puts the wellbeing of people of all nations at risk. We acknowledge that humans are having a significant impact on our climate and we are committed to reducing our own impact as well as educating other people about theirs. The time for climate action is now. Editorial: news@blankgc.com.au Advertising: advertising@blankgc.com.au Blank GC is an independently owned and published magazine, with all of our writers contributing their time pro-bono to boosting the cultural scene on the Gold Coast. Founded in 2013 with the goal of busting those boring stereotypes which have surrounded the Gold Coast for decades, we rely on advertising to keep us in the fray. Opinions expressed herein, are not necessarily those of the Editor, Publishers or of the writing team.
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point blank Cat Empire
senoritas, cheap llello. Or maybe Mexico is just a state of mind? Transvaal Diamond Syndicate will help clear that up with the release of their new single Mexico last week, the third track off Estranged Blues released earlier in the year. No strangers to the highways of Australia, these Queensland blues-rockers often clock up more than 60,000km a year. They’re about to add to those miles with a three-month long tour. They hit The Cooly Hotel on Friday 29 August along with The Royal Artillery, Baltimore Gun Club, Eiston Gunnn and Chesta Hedron. Wrecking Ball
Hit the stage with Cat Empire When The Cat Empire take to the road in September and October this year, they’ll have at least one musician from each state join them on stage. The band is accepting audition videos for musicians across the country - with at least one from each state joining their troupe of trumpets, trombones, drums and percussion at the show closest to the winner’s home. Each winner will be provided with their own backstage pass, plus an additional backstage pass for a friend. The performer will attend sound check on show day to meet the band and to rehearse the chosen song. There are plenty of other terms and considerations so you should visit thecatempire.com/for all the details. Entries close Friday 5 September. The Cat Empire land at Miami Marketta on Sunday 12 October and play two shoes in Brisbane prior. Real Talks on the Otherside Otherside is the brainchild of Blank’s Kyle Butcher. It’s a new, two-montly event that will showcase local talent, launching next month. The inaugural show features local giants Real Talks alongside Hushka, Jackson James-Smith and Katie Who. It all goes down at Currumbin Creek Tavern, 19 September with doors at 8.00pm. You can get tickets on the door for $10.00 and that includes a free compilation CD on arrival. Transvaal Diamond Syndicate
Northerners head to Mexico Heading down to Mexico to get away from something is a common theme in the blues. The beach, cold beer, hot 4
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chocolate crackles? See you at the Fair, 6 September. Car Boots open at Ashmore While on the topic of schools, let’s talk about Ashmore. Our Editor has a special affinity for the suburban school – it’s her alma mater (can you even say that about a primary school)? Anyway, they’ve got a car boot sale happening on Saturday 30 August rom 6.00am to midday and it’s only $10.00 to head along and sell your wares. More information from Ron Odle, P&C President on 0422 798 458. The Tour de Valley Seeing cyclists hit Currumbin Valley is nothing new, but on Sunday 12 October, a special event will see more than usual make the trek. The Tour De Valley offers a 36km Solo Time Trial – replicating the Commonwealth Games course – as well as Teams Challenges for 72km or 36k. There are Club and Corporate sections and a cyclocross event – a 2km circuit where riders tackle obstacles. Now in its third year, The Tour de Valley is about promoting cycling in the community. More info attourdevalley.com.au. Bake off at Bonogin Fancy yourself a baker or know someone who is? The annual Bake Off at the Bonogin Valley Spring Fair is a great way for amateur bakers to test their skills in cupcake making. Judged by Stephen Panitz, owner/baker of the Mudgeeraba Bakery all cupcakes will be sold off at the end of the judging with profits going towards Assist A Sista. The Fair takes place at Davenport Park on Saturday 21 September from 10.00am. More from bonoginvalley@gmail.com.
Wrecking Ball: one eulogy you’ll kill to see Hannah Montana is dead. The postmortem is inconclusive. Natural causes? Or hot-mess murder gone platinum? Childhood friend Miley returns home to Nashville for the wake. Forget the funeral, it’s the party she’s come for, and this is one eulogy you’ll kill to see. It’s Wrecking Ball, hailing from the creators of the critically acclaimed Rumour Has It: Sixty Minutes Inside Adele and is the ultimate coming of age party, starring Naomi Price. Wrecking Ball hits the Art Centre’s Basement on Saturday 23 August with doors at 7.00pm. More at theartscentregc.com.au. Winter jazz in Broadbeach 20,000 people are expected to descend on Broadbeach when its three day jazz program comes to life this weekend. Entertainment will beat throughout outdoor stages and indoor venues around the precinct. It’s the third in Broadbeach’s winter festival season – after a successful Blues on Broadbeach and Broadbeach Country Music Festival in May and July. Rhonda Burchmore, Grace Knight, Galapagos Duck, Ingrid James, The Simontologist, Tatu Rei and The Royal Jellies are all on the bill. It’s the festival’s sixth year. Details at broadbeachjazz.com. Miami State School Fair, 6 September It’s been ten years since Miami State School brought its community together or a good ol’ fashioned fair, but that’s exactly what they’re doing next month. Featuring Blair from My Kitchen Rules doing a cooking demo (he’s a Miami Primary dad), there’ll also be live music and entertainment, rides, stalls and food. Is it too early to put a request in for
Arts Centre’s pop September OK, it’s not all pop at the Arts Centre in September, but it’s a fairly solid effort. The cultural heart of the Gold Coast will be beating extra strong when Boy and Bear take to the stage on 12 September and Angus and Julia Stone follow closely behind on 21 September. But to tide you over between, there’s a special visit by the Sydney Comedy Festival on 13 September. If you haven’t checked out what’s going on at Arts Centre Gold Coast lately, now might be a good time – theartscentregc.com.au. GC Folk Music Festival The lush hinterland venue known as Paradise Country Parklands in Nerang hosts two free days of folk, blues, bluegrass, singer songwriters, workshops, open mic and jam sessions for the 2015 Gold Coast Folk Music Festival. Feature artists include Wes Carr, Round Mountain Girls and Old Man Friday. The festival takes place 20 – 21 September and all the details are at coastacoustics.com.au. Cabaret kept short and sweet There’s only a few days left of the 2014 Short+Sweet Cabaret Festival, comprising 13 acts aiming to tease and delight. Featuring local cabaret artists and a new intake of scripts, any night could turn from drama to dance from side splitting comedy to enchanting song. It rungs through Sunday 17 August and more information is available at theartscentregc.com.au.
GRUNWALD HAS GARGANTUAN YEAR Ash Grunwald is a busy man. Not only is he an accomplished musician – having side projects with Kram (Spiderbait), touring internationally with Xavier Rudd and locally with Andy and Scott from the Living End and collaborating with both those guys and Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst – he surfs, has a young family and finds time for a little environmental activism on the side. Ash’s first mainstream hit was a funky, grooving cover of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy, which is included on his LP Gargantua. This track spread like wildfire throughout Australia, filling household speakers with the glorious guitar work Grunwald is well known for. But the understated Grunwald expressed genuine surprise at the response the song received. “I knew it’d go well playing with The Living End boys, not only their playing but their reputations as rock legends in Australia, so it was really sick. I’ve never had something playlisted on Triple M and I never thought I’d get a song on Triple M, it’s a pretty mainstream station, but I did, and it was played all around Australia. It’s awesome,” Ash said. Scott from The Living End had toured with Ash previously when he played Falls Festival, and both Scott and Andy recorded the cover of Crazy with Ash. So it’s no surprise he had both involved on the back of that track’s success when he recorded his full album. Ash says that they had a lot of input into the recording process which was completed very quickly. “They recorded their tracks in about two days and then I came in and layered a gazillion guitar tracks over it, that kind of thing,” Ash said.
“It was a longer thing for me obviously. In the mixing stage they were really involved and something I respected was Andy’s response when I said near enough was good enough. Andy said he wanted it perfect since he was involved in the album so he got everything into action, they remixed this, changed that and had things to say about mastering and all the different stages which I really appreciate and I learnt a lot from him too, because we do things different ways and they do things that were different, like recording high end and spending a lot of time and money whereas I was used to recording albums quickly.” The idea to write and record an album wasn’t on the cards for the three-piece initially. The cover of Crazy was recorded with no clear plan in mind and everything developed from there. “Once our Crazy cover got playlisted, it was like ‘wow well, why don’t we just do an album quickly, bang that out’. The creativity came from rerecording these songs in a rock band format and they are really different. If you listen to Walking, the version we recorded on Gargantua, its mega fast and hard and what you would expect The Living End would bring to it. I did chuck two new songs on it, one was Acting Cool which is sort of heavy and the other was one about coal seam gas mining called The Last Stand, a bit of an anti-coal seam gas mining pub rock track with anthemic flavours.” The album artwork is extremely vibrant, featuring three massive gorilla heads on a star studded background that is almost circus-like. The artwork is attention grabbing and Ash says he was extremely pleased with the final result. “I wanted to have a King Kong, playing with those boys it was monstrous and an aural assault,” Ash said.
“For me I had never really played with other musicians so powerful and I wanted to represent that so the original idea was to have a King Kong like a 20s or 30s styled image. I ended up picking the final artwork when I said to the artist ‘Grab that big mouthed gorilla head, like me being big mouthed in the middle and these other two hardcore, bad MF dudes in the background.’ It was like a three piece rock group and it just represented what we were doing. I’m really happy with it.” Grunwald’s connection with Xavier Rudd is long-standing. The two are close friends and Ash has been supporting Rudd on his tour throughout the USA. He also ended the tour by landing a sweet record deal with Agency Group, a label that Xavier Rudd is also signed to. “It was amazing touring with Xavier Rudd over in America. Having an international hookup is great but when it’s your mate it’s awesome, I stayed on the bus with them, hung out with them and when we had days off we went off on adventures and it was just really, really fun,” he said “I had just said to myself, ‘Fuck it, it’s about time I just give the US a crack. Bluesy stuff is really taking off there now with Gary Clark Jr and The Black Keys playing arenas around the country, so why don’t I just give it a try?’ It was the right time in America because the audience got where I was coming from and I wasn’t sure beforehand whether it would be the case or not, so I’m stoked.” Grunwald’s year just keeps getting better, too. As well as a string of gushing reviews for the blues man as he toured the USA, he also last week took out the LA Music Critics Award for Best International Act.
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Ash has a large list of collaborations and touring artist friends that he’s worked with. You may not know that he collaborated in a new outfit with Kram from Spiderbait and he told Blank what the experience was like being in a band with the singer/drummer.
SPIDERBAIT DROP FALLS FESTIVAL HINTS
“He had a lot of other commitments and it was a shame but it was really good there for a bit. It was kind of like he was the leader of the band and I was doing a lot of soloing on the guitar but I was accompanying him and he was leading a lot of the time until I’d take over for a bit. It just had a great vibe. It was great for me to have a chance to not be entertaining people the whole time, I could be a bit more aloof with the audience and just focus on the music and it was about as far into shoegazing as I’d ever go and that was really refreshing. I love side projects; I wish I could do more of them. When you’re at my level, which is not the super-stardom level where you can just kill it and sell a million albums and sit for a bit and casually do a few side projects … it’s a bit hard to do side projects since I tour my ass off.” Of course, Grunwald’s other collaborations include Rob Hirst, best known for his role as drummer with Midnight Oil. “I’ve got to say I haven’t been a big fan of Midnight Oil. I’m a big fan of what they stand for and I like their music but I have never really listened to it much. I’m probably the only person in Australia who hasn’t,” Ash said. “Rob Hirst was a great guy to work with and an inspiration. When I played Falls Festival and a lot of the New Year’s stuff it was Rob, Scott from The Living End and I. It was sick talking to him. Rob was Scott’s hero and he had a Midnight Oil tattoo on his arm and he kept covering up the whole time until the last morning when we were in the airport and he’s gone over and showed Rob and that was funny. He’s the loudest drummer I’ve ever played with on stage by far, still so physically fit and he’s just an inspiration.” So, how do you follow up a blistering tour of the USA, killer reviews and coming home with a new LA Music Critics Award under the belt? You tour Australia, of course. Grunwald hits the road this week, starting in Townsville on Friday 15 August and taking in a whopping 21 towns. The tour also includes an appearance at BigSound 2014. And as usual, Ash is taking a special guest with him. “Ian Collard is a big hero of mine and I am stoked to have him out on the road with me” Ash said. “I’d say he is probably Australia’s best blues player … a world renowned harmonica player and he plays on one of my live albums, Live on the Corner. I’ll get him to jam with me on the shows too.” Ash Grunwald plays Springwood Hotel on Saturday 16 August, Bigsound 2014 on 10 – 11 September and Soundlounge Currumbin on Friday 12 September. Get all the details at ashgrunwald.com. Kyle Butcher 6
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Spiderbait’s energetic and talented singer / drummer Kram had spent the previous weeks overseas watching the Soccer World Cup, reporting back to Triple J’s Doctor on the scores as well as the Aussie spirit over in Brazil. When Kyle Butcher got on the phone to him, he was directing a cabdriver after making a few wrong turns and spoke of how awesome the world cup was. “It was amazing. Brazil was amazing. I got back a week or two ago, I didn’t stay for the final so I wasn’t there when Brazil got completely smashed by Germany,” he said. But he was back in the country to play music. First stop Splendour, before a string of capital city shows throughout August. Kram talked about his excitement at playing Splendour with Spiderbait, and for good reason. Kram lives close to Splendour now, a few suburbs away and speaks fondly of the festival that is basically in his backyard. “Splendour is kind of our home festival even though most of the band comes from Melbourne. It’s a festival we’ve played so many times over the years and Jess Ducrou, the owner of Splendour is such a great friend of ours and a supporter of the band, so we’ve played pretty much every two years at Splendour,” he said. This love of Splendour is definitely seen in their live performances - after seeing them live on the first night of 2012’s Splendour in the Grass, I can attest to that. The conversation soon turns to Spiderbait’s seventh studio album, the first in over eight years. “We recorded some of it in Melbourne, some of it in Byron and some of it in LA. We took it around with our producer Franc Tétaz. Franc was brilliant to work with and we really liked his work he did with Bertie Blackman,” Kram said.
“He brought the best out of us, and we really had a great time recording the album, it was the best fun and we were really happy with the quality. I think the album has a retrospective quality to it, some of the stuff we wanted to sound kind of old, but other songs like Supersonic is very almost futuristic for us. We wanted to use all of our different attributes, sounds and voices all on the one record. In a way it’s the record of our whole career but it’s all new material.” “There’s three ways we write music. I probably wrote most of this record. When Janet and I write we tend to write pop stuff and when Whit and I write, we tend to write jammy stuff. Those two halves come together and that’s what makes us who we are, and that’s how the band works.” Our chat slowly moved to the future of Spiderbait after their upcoming tour supporting Spiderbait, and Kram had some special news to share with Blank readers. “I think there’s talk of doing Falls festival and we’ll do some other festivals in the summer but we’re happy where things are at the moment and we’re happy to be in this band,” he told Blank GC.
CALAN MAI: HE HAS THE LOVE Gold Coast local Calan Mai caught up with Christie Ots about his latest international success, creating his EP and how homework resulted in We’ve Got Love. Jordan Lawrence, otherwise known as Calan Mai, has been on the local music scene for a few years; however it wasn’t until he teamed up with his label Canvas Sounds that he sat down to record. Thank God he did too. The first single off his upcoming EP Days On The Rock Face, is We’ve Got Love and it’s amazing. A beautiful mix of rawness and upbeat melodies. Jordan explains how the song was birthed. “The way I wrote We’ve Got Love is Adam my manager was trying to help me with my song writing. I had this tendency to write really long songs with seven verses and no chorus; Bob Dylan style.” “He said that he wanted me to go home and write a song with a short chorus with a hook. I went home and wrote We’ve Got Love in about 45 minutes,” Jordan laughs and shakes his head as he continues, “I find the songs that seem to almost spew out are the best and the ones that I labour over are kind of boring. From the get go there was no question that this song would be the first single.” The song has garnered a lot of attention internationally, on radio and in print, as well as earning the much sought after red drum from Triple J. “It’s been a complete surprise to me, I didn’t think anything like this would happen, so I’m trying not to get too excited and spoil my luck.” Jordan said. “My label has done a really great job getting everything organised. “ Despite being a regular on the local music scene, this was Jordan’s first time sitting down to record his music. “It was my first time seriously recording, and was really comfortable. We were recording in my manager’s teenage bedroom, which has half been turned into a studio, but still maintains the ‘best friends forever’ collages,” Jordan explains
while laughing, “We recorded it on weekends, over a few months last year, which ultimately lead to me creating the EP.” With dark lyrics that expose the realities of life when dealing with love, family and all things in between, Jordan manages to temper his words with melodies that blend everything together into a wave of sound that is heart wrenchingly beautiful. In juxtaposition, the film clip for We’ve Got Love is playful and fun, with plenty of costumes and silliness. “James Haigh directed the film clip and it was mostly his concept; it was thrown together in two days. The day we showed up none of us knew what was going on. I remember thinking we weren’t going to get it all done in one take, but I’m really glad that we pushed through and got it finished. Lyrically We’ve Got Love is quite serious, but I didn’t want to transfer those lyrics literally into the film clip, so we went for a rag tag feel that matches the chords.” With the EP being released 22 August, Jordan was originally planning an EP launch at his home-away-from-home The Loft, but the venue has been hit with sound restrictions and many artists are having to find other locations for their shows or turn them into acoustic sets. “The Loft has given me the bulk of my gigs on the coast and is a second home. It’s really sad, but hopefully they manage to work it out so that we don’t have to play the whole set acoustic.” Having shaped and whittled down the EP Jordan is looking forward to its worldwide release on iTunes. The album has what Jordan calls ‘an overarching theme’ but the thing that really stands out is the rich Australian tone that Jordan sings in. With that being quite rare in Australian musicians, Calan Mai could be the return of the honest Aussie sound and we’re glad it’s back. www.blankgc.com.au
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The drunken tale of Shut Up and the album’s closer Zone are my two favourite tracks from Soft Opening, which has quickly and unexpectedly made it into my top five albums of 2014 so far.
SALVADARLINGS
THE DOORS
The Doors, 1971
Posse
In the last couple of weeks I’ve been so drawn to the comfort of familiar sounds. It might be the change of weather that has altered my musical pallet of late, I don’t know. What I do know is that these albums have been on constant rotation and are warming up these cold winter nights
POSSE
Soft Opening, 2014 This is a new and most welcome addition my record family. I had never heard of Posse until stumbling upon a list online of overlooked albums of 2014. There was a link to one of their tracks in the list and within hearing the first minute I was searching online where to find it. A three-piece straight out of Seattle, Posse formed in 2010 when Paul Wittman-Todd and Sacha Maxim met. Shortly after they added Maxim’s previous band mate on drums, Jon Salzman and have since released 2 full-length albums, Soft Opening the sophomore. Posse has this almost eerie lo-fi sound that is so brilliantly minimal it fills you up. Taking turns on lead vocals Wittman-Todd and Maxim never seem to harmonise however they have this lack of projecting that works wonders with the dazed twang of the guitar. The opening track Interesting Thing No. 2 introduces the general gist of the album, a mundane, wasted youth, as Maxim sings ‘I can see from the desperate look in your eyes. You turn 25 so many things you haven’t tried.’ The album flows on through the ups and downs of growing up and wandering aimlessly through life and all its disappointments. 8
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I have such fond memories of cranking The Doors at parties in my teenage years. There were several parties with an endless number of brooms in the closest and each of us would occupy one. We’d all be screaming the words into our brooms and just grooving along. Those were some of the best times. The Doors is the debut album by the Californian 4-piece released in 1967 on Elektra Records. Their sound was pretty darn different from the rest of what was going on in California in the late 1960s with the hippie movement in full swing. With their long organ and guitar solos and Morrison’s eerie spoken word breaks they were probably more suited to what was going on in New York at the time. This album has so many songs The Doors are well known for including their first commercial hit, Light My Fire. In fact, if you were to create a Best Of The Doors I think 100% of this album would make it on. This is a must in any collection.
MOJAVE 3
Out of Tune, 1998 This has been my go-to album since about March this year. I just can’t stop playing it. I couldn’t find it in any stores but was able to get a re-issue online, thankfully. After the famed shoegaze band Slowdive were dropped from Creation Records three members, Neil Halstead, Rachel Goswell and Ian McCutcheon formed a new band, Mojave 3. Different from the fuzzy sounds of Slowdive we all know and love, Mojave 3 has this really cool country kind of twang, but they don’t play country music. The vocals are sweet and clear and when the opening track, Who Do You Love, starts to play I just feel so warm. It has this trumpet solo in the middle that is really soft and loving. One of the things I love most about Mojave 3 and Out Of Tune in particular is their ability to show constraint. The builds in this album could not be more perfect and when a song falls away it does so gracefully. Gina Martin
Sitting in what is essentially an outdoor living room Gina Martin caught up with Gold Coast band Salvadarlings about conceptions, misconceptions and perceptions.
Like many bands before them Salvadarlings began with jam sessions in a garage. Experimenting with music lead to the development of their cool psych-garage sound that landed them their first gig. Lead singer Ash Goodall offered to complete the band with her vocals and the band performed under the name Wet Dogs. Ryley laughs, “We thought if we called ourselves Wet Dogs we would be allowed to stink on stage”. While the band has only been on the scene for a year you wouldn’t guess it, with their resume reading like they’ve been around for far longer. Having supported Wolfmother and GOVS, signing to label Strange Yonder, releasing their debut EP Primary Feels and touring; there is only one thing they want to set the record straight on. “We never supported The Growlers,” Ashley says emphatically, “There have been articles saying we did and it never happened.” However what did happen is possibly more amazing! “They came to our rehearsal space to play,” Ashley explains, “They sounded really cool, even in our crappy shed. We were all really nervous because they’re one of our favourite bands, but they were really lovely so it was a great afternoon!” Something else that happened in that crappy shed is the magic that infuses Primary Feels, which was recorded with George Carpenter at his home studio – a learning curve for the band. “We write all of the music and name the songs, then Ash creates the lyrics and melodies from the name of the song,” Joel said.
DELTA RIGGS’ RECORD’S FLAWED When I spoke to Alex Markwell he’d just completed some crazy-arse travel. The day before he’d flown in and out of Perth from Melbourne, where he lives. That in itself is a crazy flight. But then, he and the rest of The Delta Riggs got in a car and drove to Adelaide. Straight from the Melbourne Airport. “It could be worse,” he laughed. “It could be the Melbourne to Brisbane trip. We’ve done that before.” The band is on the road supporting Kasabian and their support slot was only announced a week or two out from the tour.
Image Image courtesy courtesy of of Gina Gina Martin Martin “It’s our current creative process, who knows how that will alter though.” The band tries to create a marriage of light and dark with their songs, even pairing them when approaching the track list to reflect this. Having just completed their tour for the EP Ashley describes how the experience was a novelty for them. “It was our first time travelling all together; and playing in different cities to different people was amazing,” she said. “Our favourite city was Melbourne, the Old Bar in Fitzroy in particular. It was an old dive bar with a ladies knitting circle earlier in the evening and a bunch of guys watching a sci-fi/ western when we arrived.” Making sure to keep their live shows full of variety the band makes sure they change up the set list for each show, and having seen them live I can attest to the fact that they are entrancing. Something about the eerie lows with the ephemeral highs captivates the audience and pulls them into a world of the surreal. One song in particular that embodies this is Deadman, which has an almost nightmarish carnival quality to it. “We weren’t aiming for that in particular no,” laughs Ashley, “some songs end up dark and others light, this song just grew that way.” With a second EP in the works, we’re expecting more magic from Salvadarlings real soon. In the meantime, stay tuned to Blank for announcements.
“We tried to theorise why,” he said, of such short notice. “Maybe negotiations. I leave that sort of stuff up to the management side of things.” It’s not the first time the lads have interacted with the Leicester rock outfit. Alex tells me that their bassist Monte (Michael Tramonte) took the Kasabian bass player and tour manager for a little road trip along Great Ocean Road last time they were in the country. He doesn’t really know how the support slot came to be, but he speaks very highly of Kasabian and their crew. “Thus far, it’s been great. The crew are really nice. We pulled the van up and we were like – where do we put all the stuff – and by the time we got back their crew had taken all our guitars and stuff,” he said. “They have a whole semi-trailer full of gear and we have a 12-seater hi-ace. They’re running semis, Sam,” he laughs. But Kasabian have very kindly offered to transport The Delta Riggs gear with their own, so while the lads were flying and drive from Perth to Adelaide via Melbourne, their guitars were coming by road. Alex laughs readily as we speak about the band meeting Jimmy Page in the UK (“I kept it short and classy”) about air hostesses turning the volume up to drown out the noisy band during safety presentations (“nothing to do with the rider”), about the hectic touring schedule they’re in the middle of (“next week is the last gig in Brisbane”). But Alex is most effusive when it comes to a certain mechanical bull that he’ll meet shortly. “I’m quite accident prone,” he said. “If someone’s going to get turfed off a really low-to-the-ground mechanical bull going like one kilometer an hour, it’s probably me.” Of course, he’s talking about the bull which featured at
Yellowood Festival last year. 2014 will be the second year running The Delta Riggs have played the festival, and as well as the bull, Alex raves about the event itself. “DJ and co who put on the festival are all legends. A nice bunch of people who turn up, good music. It’s just a great festival, a really good vibe.” And then there’s the bull! Before we wrap up we talk quickly about the band’s new release The Record’s Flawed. It’s the second single off the upcoming album Dipz Zebazios. “It’s always nice when you make music that you like and then other people like it, and it’s like YES! It’s not the end game, of course, but it’s always nice.” “National radio play does help in certain areas to spread the word and the name,” he said, speaking of Triple J picking up both this song and its predecessor Supersonic Casualties for radio play. And the rest of the album? “It’s a pretty eclectic sort of mix. It all ties together in our approach to instrumentation and the groove and stuff,” Alex said. “Lots of groove-based tunes and some slower tempo darker ones and some upbeat party ones.” It truly sounds like something for everyone. But Alex needs to leave me to do what he calls “some guitar prep” for the show tomorrow. I’ve caught him on a night off between shows. I ask about the guitar prep though. “I broke a string last night in the third song – on pretty much new strings. So I have to restring that guy and break it in. Yeah, new strings on the same day as a show – there’s just something about playing them in a bit that I like.” “There’s nothing ritualistic,” he laughed. “Although I was thinking of maybe sacrificing a sheep as well.” LOL. See you at the mechanical bull, Alex Samantha Morris You can catch The Delta Riggs, alongside a stellar local lineup at Yellowood on 30 August, just 30 minutes up the road from the GC, at Alberton. www.blankgc.com.au
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“Even though the songs seem like they’re about me, they also tell stories about other people’s lives.” “In This Game, track four is my favourite on the album. It’s a soundtrack kind of song in my mind. Long, lost highways, very reflective. It’s about not being afraid to live your life with truth.” “For me, right now, this album is about being truthful about who I am. There were lots of times in my 20s where I hid my sexuality and who I really was, and that wasn’t very helpful for me.” It seems she’s come along way in the 20 years since her first album was recorded, but she still laughs about the early days. “The first press release in 1995, promoting my first single talked about me busking on the docks in Hobart,” she said. “You have no idea how many times that was quoted,” she laughed. “I felt like a fishmonger or something.”
MATILDAS’ LOSS, MUSIC’S GAIN It’s been 17 years since Monique Brumby released her first album and there have been five studio releases in that time. Her self-titled album, released earlier this year, was three years in the making. There’s no reason why there’s such a gap between albums, other than life itself. “I just get really busy,” Monique said. She spoke to me from Melbourne, in the middle of a national tour. Yep. It’s been a busy year. A quick look at the Monique Brumby website and her touring history is testament to that. And as she tells me about her passions outside of songwriting, recording and performing, that busyness becomes more and more evident. “I run a program in Melbourne for young people with chronic illness,” she said. “It’s a music program. It balances my life really well.” The program is run by Aardvark Worldwide, where Brumby is Creative Director. They aim to bring young people together with professional musicians and music therapists to write, record and perform original music. And Monique isn’t the only big name to be involved. Wally De Backer (Gotye) is the program’s ambassador and musicians such as Paul Dempsey, The Living End and Missy Higgins have also given their time. “Look, it’s really incredible,” Brumby said of the organisation’s impact on young people. “I’ve seen young people that through the program, develop skills in communication, self-belief, self-awareness. It’s very healing. So they’re able to write songs that connect them to something really innate, that they may have lost through their illness.” Brumby is passionate about the work but admits it can sometimes be hard to juggle commitments, including everyday jobs like finding carers for pets while she and her wife / graphic designer / guitarist are on the road. Anyone 10
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“I think there’s only so much you know about someone, and whenever someone interviews me and says they just googled me, I cringe. You’ve probably seen a video clip I did 20 years ago, maybe some badly written press releases.” It seems this new album though, is getting plenty of traction in regional Australia, and obviously not because people think she’s come from being a busker by the docks. Monique says she’s done around 100 interviews on regional radio. With a heap of ABC coverage too.
who travels for work knows that it takes its toll and usually on family the most. Monique revealed that her dad has just been diagnosed with cancer and is due to have surgery, something that plays on her mind when on the road.
“Community radio has been really supportive across Australia. I’ve also been on the Channel 7 Morning Show.” And she has an appearance scheduled for the Mangrook Footy Show on 14 August.
“We’re very, very close,” she says of her parents. “I moved out of home at 18, but the relationship with my parents is a mutually supportive one. It’s been a tough year … travelling and dealing with this worry about him,” she says of her dad.
Actually football is something dear to Monique’s heart. Football as in soccer. She represented Australian in the under 19’s team and was on track to train at the Institute of Sport.
“Family is just so important.”
“I was going to be a soccer player. And that first year I was off to the Australian Institute of Sport there was a plane strike in Tassie, so I didn’t go.”
And that importance, of family to Monique, also becomes obvious. Particularly her relationship with her gradmother, who she says is quite possibly her number one fan. “My granny just turned 90,” she said. “And I went to Tasmania to spend time with her. She really worries about me. Because she sees that my lifestyle isn’t your average life. And I didn’t really realise that until I was in my thirties.” Monique turns 40 this year and from our conversation it seems like the last ten years have been a time of selfdiscovery, or maybe self-truth is a better way to describe it. “I didn’t feel there was a lot of fulfillment in going around and promoting myself. It seemed a bit narcissistic to me – a shallow existence. So I took on traits of my parents – like this shouldn’t be about me – but it kind of went to the extreme. And I realise now that as an artist I do have stuff to say and my music can inspire other people – I can balance my life and do things like inspire young people.” “That’s why I work with young people. I know what it feels like to have all of those mixed emotions – as you go through life and have different challenges.” On the surface, it seems the songs on Monique’s new album reflect that time, and act as a kind of biographical snapshot to that process of self-realisation. But she says they’re more semi-biographical.
“Next year I was chosen again. There was a squad of 24 players nationally and I started training again – wearing lead weights - I was a slight thing,” she said. “About three weeks before going to the Institute of Sport to train with the Matildas squad I got a phone call to say they dropped two players nationally and I was one of the players.” “It was a shame. I’d been training so hard – I was the fittest I’d ever been. My skills were getting fantastic. I was a striker on the wing and could run all day. They had a lot of those players in that position. If I’d been a back player or something, I might have been able to go.” “But I’m a musician now,” she said. Yeah. There’s no denying that. I guess the Matildas’ loss was music’s gain. Read our review of Monique’s show in this edition of Blank or visit our website for a longer interview | blankgc.com.au. Samantha Morris
CERTIFIED BLUE AT YELLOWOOD Joe Camilleri is no stranger to performing and when Samantha Morris spoke to him just a few days ago he was multi-tasking: doing an interview from Melbourne while handling UN-style negotiations with his young daughter on the other end. Joe Camilleri would have to be one of the most prolific, hard-working musicians in Australia: starting his career in the mid 60s, working with the longest list of musicians you could imagine, recording solo and with bands, producing other people’s records and being inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2007. But he won’t call it a journey – he hates that word. Joe says it was around 1960 when radio just took him ‘somewhere’. “Radio was king,” he said. “And everyone was just drawn to radio and sing-songs. I left school really early – by the time I was working at thirteen, the radio sort of became more interesting to me, and music became more interesting. I wasn’t thinking I’d be a musician – I just liked the songs on the radio.” “Today you can go to the internet and they’ll just show you how to play a song. It’s different when you’re listening intently to a record that you’re wearing out,” he said of that time where he’d literally work out the chords by listening to a single over and over and over again. And all of a sudden, it becomes addictive,” he said. “I would study the rolling stones right down to their boots. I would try to stand like that / dance like that / pretend to be something like that,” he said. “You get rid of those barnacles as you get older and find different things that are interesting.” We’re briefly interrupted by Joe’s daughter Aurora. “No, you can’t have them,” he says. “Because they’re CDs and you’ll crack them.” CDs, yeah, sounds old-school, like Joe himself. “I have this beautiful girl … it changes you. I’m an old man with a young child. When I was younger, I was too headstrong,” he said (he has five children in total, three who are adults). “Now, I don’t have plenty of time, but I seem to be able to make all the time in the world for her.” But Joe quickly takes up where he left off. He says it was when he met a few other people who also just wanted to make music that things started to change. “That was pretty much the Falcons,” he said. “And the Pelaco Brothers. That only lasted a year. But all of a sudden, the ten years prior started coming into play. Because you realise that what you did have was the ability to entertain an audience under extreme conditions.” Joe’s classic 1976 – 1981 group Joe Joe Zep and The Falcons actually reformed in 2001 and played a one off gig. But they also released Ricochet in 2003, an album of new work and it was as a member of this outfit that Joe was inducted to the ARIA Hall of Fame a few years later. Of course, his work with the Black Sorrows has achieved the greatest success – if you call record sales and airplay success. Which it seems Joe wouldn’t. “I don’t have any interest in the business of smoke and mirrors. I don’t care about that shit. I don’t care about the popularity. I do care about being as good as I can. I haven’t been blessed with the perfect pitch. I have tenacity maybe, I’ve got a bit of that,” he said. “I just love being in it. But it’s not about fame.”
And it seems old saxophonists never lay down. Joe Camilleri and The Black Sorrows released Certified Blue in April this year. And he says he’s already got a new album of tracks ready for release next year. “I’m having a good run, really,” he says about his career. And with such a diverse career with an enormous back catalogue of songs, what exactly should we expect from his Yellowood set at the end of the month? “I don’t want to be a heritage act,” he said. “I don’t want that. I want to feel relevant as an artist. I’ve still got something to say.” But if you’re a diehard Camilleri fan, don’t fret, it sounds like there’ll be something in Joe’s set for everyone. “It won’t be any different to what I usually do,” he said. “I want to do the things I’m famous for. Of course you want to embrace your past – those songs were new once and I still get a kick out of them.” You can catch Joe Camilleri and The Black Sorrows at Yellowood on Saturday 30 August at Alberton – just 30 minutes from Gold Coast.
HANGING 5 WITH BALTIMORE GUN CLUB What impact do noise complaints (like those at The Loft) have on emerging acts? Noise complaints seem to be responsible for a myriad of venues shutting down across the country. It definitely makes it hard for independent bands who are starting out to get gigs, when local venues are being forced to shut their doors. What’s so special about the Loft for grassroots GC musicians? The Loft was instrumental in supporting original live music on the Gold Coast for many years. They had an 89dB sound limit which could cater for electrified acts. Unfortunately now due to noise complaints, they’ve had to scale back the performances on offer to acoustic acts only. This means that a great deal of touring acts aren’t stopping on the coast anymore. 89dB is not loud. I hope the people who have made these complaints also complain about that fucking police helicopter. Which causes more noise pollution than any thing else on the Gold Coast. I love your video for Aisle #2 – what’s the creative process like for putting together video to go with your music? Thanks, we had a lot of fun making it. It started as a concept our bass player HRYMA and I had about shooting it in a toy store where the puppets come to life after closing and rock out with us. It’s a pretty big process from recording the song to story boarding, location scouting, shooting and editing. We couldn’t have done it at all without the guidance of local film maker Scott Dickson. Did you actually film it in a toy store? Yeah we did! We were lucky enough to shut down Hurley Burley Toys at the Brickworks on the Coast for two nights. We got all our friends to bring their kids, pumped them up on sugar and let them run wild. What do you love most about playing in front of a hometown audience? We don’t have to travel so far! hahaha.. No, it’s great to see that live music still has a place in your home town and its great to catch up with friends and see what other local acts are coming through. Catch Baltimore Gun Club when they support Transvaal Diamond Syndicate at The Cooly on Friday 29 August. www.blankgc.com.au
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Image courtesy of Leisen Standen, Lamp Photography
works full-time. “I’d work from 8.30am to 5.00pm,” she said “and then have an hour and then have 6.00 – 11.00pm rehearsals. But I didn’t have to travel anywhere,” she laughed. Performing in the chorus for a production like that isn’t something that pays and Ella chalks it up as experience which contributes to her own stage presence, as minimal as it is. “I had never really workshopped my stage presence with anyone … and then this opportunity came along and smacked me in the face and I was like ‘maybe I should try out for this thing’,” she said. “In retrospect it was such perfect timing to want to work on my stage presence. And then work on this massive show where there’s no choice.”
ELLA’S NO FENCE-SITTER
As accomplished as Ella is, there’s one thing she’s never done, and that’s record professionally. Although she’s quick to say that she knows her way around a recording studio because of the wonderful facilities at the Conservatorium. And that’s exactly what she’s off to the UK for a Six week trip which includes two sessions with fellow creative types, time in a studio, and a few gigs thrown in the mix. That’s the plan, anyway.
“I leave next Wednesday. It’s all becoming a bit real now.”
“I start in the UK and stay in Liverpool, but my first stop musically is Brighton,” she said. “I go into the studio and we’re in there for five days.”
Gold Coast songstress Ella Fence is about to leave for a six week trip to the UK. And she’s just a little bit excited. We’re sitting down to breakfast at Rabbit+Cocoon, chasing a little sun on a chilly winter’s morning.
It’s there, at Brighton Electric that she’ll be joined by Dan Swift and Mike Lord (who has worked with Stonefield) to work creatively and play all the parts on a bunch of tracks she’s hoping to come home with.
Ella’s just come out the end of a short season of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Arts Centre, one of 20 odd members of the chorus.
“I’ve got a two week break after that to reflect on the music and let it all sit, and then we’ll go back with fresh ears after that and keep recording and working.”
“I’m a singer / songwriter and normally just play my guitar, it’s kind of minimal,” she said. “So to go from that to a massive stage, a big production, a cast of 40, full band and just all these amazing artist directors and a producer was just really crazy. The experience was so phenomenal, just learning from people like that.”
As well as a gig in London, Ella will head up to Glasgow and then also visit Paris to work with Ken Stringfellow (Posies, REM). She met Stringfellow while on tour in Hobart earlier this year.
She studied at the Conservatorium so working in a performance environment isn’t an entirely foreign experience to her, but Ella says it’s a different kind of learning. “You pick up a lot from seeing what other people are doing, and working with actors and other professional musicians,” she said. Of course, getting to rehearsals was easy, with the production being housed at the Arts Centre where she also 12
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Ella’s trip to Hobart was something else. Eleven shows in ten days, a heap of radio interest, and then of course, meeting Ken. “I’d never been to Hobart before,” she explained. “The people were so awesome and the environment was so great to play in.” “I was playing at The Homestead and had finished my set and the owner came up and said Ken was playing on Saturday – and that he’s looking for a female singer to sing one of his tracks live – because he has a female singer in the recorded version. And would you be interested in learning the song and coming along on Saturday night?”
And it just so happened that that Saturday night was the one night Ella hadn’t locked in a gig yet. She played Salamanca, MONA and then performed for Edge Radio during the day and then waited nervously to be called to the stage by Stringfellow later that night. “I was so nervous,” Ella said. “I hadn’t performed a lot of music and it was not a long time to learn it.” “I’d said to him on the night – so, what time do you want me to get up to play and he’s like ‘I don’t know, I’ll just feel when it’s a good time and will let you know’ and his set was so long … and I was so nervous,” she laughed. Still, she says the fact that it took the control away from her and put her in this challenging performance space was a good thing. “And this was all prior to Jesus Christ Superstar,” she’s quick to add. “So we actually hung out a little bit when I was in Hobart and he blogs as well and he’d said I was like firey and feral – but feral as in wild. Australian’s have a connotation of the word feral but he’s Parasian so it means something different to him. At least I’m hoping,” she said. “Then he was playing at Bluesfest and he contacted me and asked I wanted to go to and it was on my birthday and I was like ‘yes I want to go to Bluesfest’.” From there, Ella drove Stringfellow back to the Gold Coast and the plan was set – an invitation to record with him in Paris, which he assured her was only a hop skip and jump away from Brighton. “I feel grateful every day,” Ella says. “Working at the Arts Centre is such a beautiful environment, the people are amazing. I get to work in promoting the arts, gaining specific knowledge on how to promote live music so I can apply that to my own stuff.” So six weeks in the UK and then what? I pose the question to Ella. “I’m hoping, if I release it all together, that it’s going to be a mini-album,” she says of the tracks she’s wanting to lay down in Brighton and Paris. “Around six tracks,” she adds. “As long as I’m not trying to push too hard to get too many things at the one time – I’m looking at doing a release probably early next year. I haven’t thought strategically about the structure of the release yet. But I’ll come back with a product, basically – an unmastered version,” Ella says. We’ll be following Ella’s journey to London, Brighton, Glasgow and then Paris. And we’ll be the first to let you know when her mini-album is available for your listening pleasure. Samantha Morris
KING BUZZO
This Machine Kills Artists “I have no interest in sounding like a crappy version of James Taylor or a half assed version of Woody Guthrie. Which is what happens when almost every rock and roller straps on an acoustic guitar. No thanks...This Machine Kills Artists is a different kind of animal.” King Buzzo. The impressively affro-ed Roger ‘Buzz’ Osborne, aka King Buzzo, has spent over 30 years channeling his noisier tendencies via the primordial sludge of noise-rock behemoth The Melvins. Wildly eclectic and experimental at the heavier end of the musical spectrum, the band that a young Kurt Cobain once roadied for were initially pegged as merely brontosaurus-riffing grunge protagonists. And while their influence on the 90’s Seattle scene cannot be underestimated, Osborne and his rag-tag bunch have diversified far and wide over the preceding years, touching upon everything from straight up Sabbath worship and Kiss homages to fuzzed out sound experiments, performing with two drummers and...ahem...noise rock nirvana. Osborne carries the blueprint of his ‘day job’ well and truly into this solo sojourn. And while Woodie Guthrie’s machine killed fascists, King Buzzo’s machine is truly far from storytelling troubadour with unplugged guitar fare. The album is however 100% bona fide acoustic - no amplifiers, direct boxes or electric instrumentation to be found anywhere in this artist slaying machine. In many ways the record is actually not too dissimilar to Buzz’s
main act, which makes sense when one learns that many Melvins tracks are actually written on acoustic guitar and simply transferred to electric! The acerbic, sarcastic, gonzoid vibe which characterises much of The Melvin’s best work is still in evidence here, it’s simply delivered in a vastly stripped back format. Song titles such as Blithering Idiot, How I Became Offensive and The Vulgar Joke also give the game away somewhat. Think Melvins performing their more ‘song’ based fare unplugged and you might be getting close...
For those wishing to catch the man himself in the flesh performing King Buzzo tracks in stripped back mode, be sure to get yourself along to Black Bear Lodge in Fortitude Valley on Sunday, 24 August. As an added bonus, legendary Hard Ons guitarist Peter ‘Blackie’ Black will also be playing a rare solo show as support! You know where to be then...
Individual album highlights are hard to pinpoint, the album is an exercise in uniform tone and mood that sits together impressively over the course of it’s 17 tracks. The acoustic strumming employed is dark, insistent and heavy, locking into ominous, mantra-channeling, tough as nails grooves, sounding sometimes not too dissimilar to a bummed out version of one man New York wrecking machine Ed Hammell, aka Hamell On Trial. Weird yet melodically catchy hooks regularly bubble to the surface, especially evident in opening number Dark Brown Teeth, and the wonderfully named Useless King of the Punks. And the whole shebang is held together by the presence of Osborne’s unmistakable vocals, howling, cajoling, a darkly paranoid buzz and croon. This Machine is a minor key, off kilter blues-folk burner with a heart of gunk...get on board!
Visit 4deadin5seconds.bigcartel.com to grab a copy and keep an eye out for upcoming tour dates.
Mass Sky Raid will release a new single and music / lyric video titled Oceans on 29 August following the critically acclaimed debut EP Courage Under Fire. The band will also announce an upcoming tour in support of the release so keep an eye on their official website massskyraid.com or follow on facebook and twitter. The Oceans single will also be available at digital retailers. The massive Progfest tour has announced the lineup for the Brisbane show Saturday 23 August at The Zoo. On the bill are Closure In Moscow, Helm, Le Suits, Magenta Voyeur and Weightless In Orbit. Tickets from Oztix. Swedish melo-death metallers Scar Symmetry are set to release their new album and successor to 2011’s highly acclaimed masterpiece The Unseen Empire in coming months. The new creation called The Singularity (Phase 1 – Neohumanity) will be out 3 October via Nuclear Blast and is the first part of a trilogy. US metal favourites Prong will tour Australia for the first time ever this coming November playing classic tracks from their 28-year long career including their killer new album Ruining Lives. They hit HiFi Brisbane on Thursday 20 November. Tickets from hifi.com.au.
Slipknot have just released the first taste of their upcoming and yet to be titled new album. The single The Negative One was dropped at the start of this month and sent the internet into a frenzy trying to figure out who is now drumming for them since original member Joey Jordison left the band before recording commenced. At this time it is a total mystery who is behind the kit but all will be revealed in the not too distant future before the album is released. Exciting stuff! Commemorating the 25th anniversary since the recording of their first EP, Sweden’s extreme tech metal masters Meshuggah will unleash a new live DVD / 2-CD worldwide this spring titled The Ophidian Trek. The release will feature visual footage shot in the US and Europe during ‘The Ophidian Trek’ tour and festival footage from Wacken Open Air 2013 in Germany.
After a successful run on this year’s Soundwave Festival tour, local industrial metal maniacs Darkc3ll will release their single Hollywood Scars 22 August and have booked a run of shows in support of it. Catch them at The Coolangatta Hotel, 12 September with Azreal, Hammers and Dethrone The King. Tickets through Oztix and more tour dates at darkc3ll.com. Got some metal news we should know about? Email rabidnoiseradio@hotmail.com. And get the latest metal tracks and interviews with Rabid Noise every Wednesday night from 9.00 pm live on rabbitradio.com.au.
Gold Coast tech death legends 4 Dead in 5 Seconds have just released their second outing Bestiary: The Book of Beasts. Recording for the EP saw the band travel to Tilburg in The Netherlands to work with Bart Hennephof from Textures and we thinkis one of the best releases to come out of Queensland this year in my opinion. 4deadin5seconds www.blankgc.com.au
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Gold Coast gig guide AUGUST Wednesday 13 August Open mic night, The Loft Chevron Island Songwriters in the Jungle, Swingin’ Safari Thursday 14 August Kav Temperley (Eskimo Joe), Soundlounge Currumbin Alex Crook “Acoustic”, Being Jane Lane “Acoustic”, Jemma Lee, Steve Dorrington, The Loft Chevron Island Friday 15 August Jimmy The Saint and the Sinners, Dead Books, Elsewhere Surfers Paradise Dinkum Bohos, Pizza Paradiso Suffolk Park Tim Freedman does Nilsson, Soundlounge Currumbin Bree De Rome single launch, Miami Marketta Mar Haze, Central Street, Kit Lightning and The Revelators, Wolf Up, Jesse Pumphrey, Currumbin Creek Tavern Armitage, Burleigh Brewery Saturday 16 August 11 years of Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise Alvin & Jambutu, Miami Marketta Ash Grunwald, Springwood Hotel Songwriters Circle: Ashleigh Mannix, Chris Sheehy, Kim Sheehy, Evan Manttari, The Loft Chevron Island Kip Casper, Tokyo Beef, Flannelette, Luke Houselander, Steve Dorrington, Currumbin Creek Tavern Sunday 17 August Sarah Frank, The Bluff Café Burleigh Heads Matthew Armitage and Swanny, Bread n Butter Kirra (6.30pm) Dinkum Bohos, Yum Yum Tree Café New Brighton Gavin Doniger, North Kirra SLSC (2.00pm) Monday 18 August Open mic night, Surfers RSL Wednesday 20 August Open mic night, The Loft Chevron Island Courney Love, Eatons Hill Hotel Songwriters in the Jungle, Swingin’ Safari Thursday 21 August The Storytellers, Junkyard Express “Acoustic”, Salt & Steel, Kobrakai “Acoustic”, Casey Duque, The Loft Chevron Island Friday 22 August Christine Anu, RSL Southport Andy Jans Brown, Cozmics, Miami Marketta Ed Kuepper, Soundlounge Currumbin Dinkum Bohos, Genki Café Palm Beach Michelle Xen, Selahphonic, Aquila Young, Currumbin Creek Tavern Mason Rack Band, Southport Sharks Nyssa Berger, Lady Grey, Jake Whittaker, The Loft Chevron Island Selahphonic, Michelle Xen, Sons Of The Morning, Aquila Young, James D’Khan, Currumbin Creek Tavern LILT004 featuring Basenji, Tincture, Yuma, Audun and Rhys Bynon, Elsewhere Surfers Paradise Ben Amor, Burleigh Brewery
Saturday 23 August Coast Acoustics featuring Dan Hannaford, Country Paradise Parklands Nerang Pig Day Out: Bob Evans, The Orchard, Lane-Harry x Ike Campbell, Clashing Colours, Double Lined Minority, Jake Fox, Jackson James Smith, Goodbye Joker, Aquila Young, Sharp Minds, Tommy Sheehan, First Down, Neil Macleod Blues Corp, Miami Marketta Dan Hannaford (+ open mic), Country Paradise Nerang Gavin Doniger, Kirra Hotel Shadows On Blue, Leopold’s Treat, Benny D Williams, Lani, The Loft Chevron Island Kingsmoor, Shattering the Veil, Frayed and The Fallen, Lavidius, Larry Leadfoot, Currumbin Creek Tavern Blues Corp, Miami Marketta Yasmin Rajah Benefit Concert featuring Frazer Goodman and the Underground Collective, Burleigh Underground Drummers Sunday 24 August Justin and Lance, Bread n Butter Kirra (6.30pm) Mscalito Blues, Bearded Dragon Tamborine Mountain (1.00pm) Monday 25 August Open mic night, Surfers RSL Wednesday 27 August Open mic night, The Loft Chevron Island Escalate teen rock band showcase, Helensvale Cultural Centre (all ages) Songwriters in the Jungle, Swingin’ Safari Mescalito Blues, Chinderah Tavern Thursday 28 August Neem “Acoustic”, Matt Scully, Andrea Kaden, Amera Tabet, Steve Wyatt, The Loft Chevron Island Alternator Poetry Slam, Dust Temple Currumbin Friday 29 August Busby Marou, Darren Middleton and Karl S Williams, Soundlounge Currumbin Sarah Frank, Genki Café Palm Beach Transvaal Diamond Syndicate, The Royal Artillery, Baltimore Gun Club, Elston Gunn, Chesta Hedron, Cooly Hotel Calan Mai “EP Launch”, The Altais, Rhea Robertson, The Loft Chevron Island LSPhilosophy, Brother Norton, Essie, Fettler, Mason Chase, Currumbin Creek Tavern Zombie Nation, Motorik, Elsewhere Surfers Paradise Saturday 30 August Yellowood Festival: The Black Sorrows, The Delta Riggs, The High Grade, Tuesday’s Good, Jimmy the Saint and the Sinners, The Bobkats, 60’s Sarah and more, The Gem Hotel Alberton Velociraptor, Blood and Skeggs, Cooly Hotel Carl Wockner, Grant Carruthers, Emily Hosking, Cadence, The Loft Chevron Island Architraves, Eastwood, The Purple Patch, Slacksmiths, Kaleidoscope, Currumbin Creek Tavern Joe Tee and Afrodisa Band, Miami Marketta Andrew Baxter Band with Special Guests
Friday 5 September Harry Manx, Soundlounge Currumbin You me at Six, Eatons Hill Hotel Benny D Williams, Burleigh Brewery Saturday 6 September Kiara Jack & The Jills, YHA Yamba (NSW) Escalate rock band showcase, Shark Bar Miami Sisters Doll (Melb), The Molotov, Bad Virtue, Odins Ravens, Currumbin Creek Tavern The Rectifiers, Miami Marketta King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, The Murlocs, Soundlounge Currumbin Monday 8 September Open mic night, Surfers RSL Wednesday 10 September Songwriters in the Jungle, Swingin’ Safari Open mic night, The Loft Chevron Island Thursday 11 September I Killed the Prom Queen, The Ghost Inside, In Hearts Wake, Bury Tomorrow, Hellions, Coolangatta Hotel Friday 12 September Boy and Bear, Arts Centre Gold Coast Ash Grunwald, Soundlounge Currumbin Burn Antares, Miami Marketta Kenny Slide, Burleigh Brewery Darkc3ll, Azreal, Hammers, Dethrone The King, Cooly Hotel Saturday 13 September Coochiemudlo Island Festival: Ed Kuepper, The Basement Hustle, The Twine, Bare White Knuckles and more, Laurie Burns Recreation Reserve Coochiemudlo Andrew Baxter Band, Miami Marketta Tuesday’s Good, Burleigh Underground Drummers Sunday 14 September Sticky Fingers, Miami Marketta Monday 15 September Todd Sibbin, The Loft Chevron Island Open mic night, Surfers RSL Wednesday 17 September Songwriters in the Jungle, Swingin’ Safari Open mic night, The Loft Chevron Island Friday 19 September The Night Beats, Elsewhere Surfers Paradise Luke Houselander, Burleigh Brewery Friday 19 – Sunday 21 September Mitchell Creek Rock N Roll Blues Fest: Stonefield, Dallas Frasca, Sandi Thom, The Hillbilly Goats, Lloyd Spiegel, Hat Fitz & Cara, Lani & Lecia and more, Kandanga
Sunday 31 August Sarah Frank, Bambu BarMusicFood Palm Beach Felicity Lawless, Bread n Butter Kirra (6.30pm)
Saturday 20 – Sunday 21 September Gold Coast Folk Music Festival: Wes Carr, John Schuman, Hat Fitz and Cara, Quatro, Round Mountain Girls, Fuglissimo, Frank Stoove, Old Man Friday, Coolgrass, Owl Valley Bluegrass and more. Country Paradise Parklands
SEPTEMBER
Saturday 20 September The Lyrical, Miami Marketta
Monday 1 September Open mic night, Surfers RSL
Monday 22 September Open mic night, Surfers RSL
Wednesday 3 September Open mic night, The Loft Chevron Island Songwriters in the Jungle, Swingin’ Safari Send your gigs to news@blankgc.com.au
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SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS Byron Bay Parklands, Yelgun Friday 25 – Sunday 27 July Image courtesy of Stephen Booth
Image courtesy of Justinma
I have to say that after last year’s mud-filled and poorly executed Splendour In The Grass I was almost ready to write off what is commonly referred to as Australia’s version of Glastonbury. Thank God I didn’t, as this year’s festival was everything I’d hoped! Thursday saw the sun shining as tens of thousands of people arrived at the Byron Bay site. With new environmentally friendly amenities and plenty of drainage the organisers earned massive ticks from the eager punters – Christie Ots Another welcome addition this year, was distance markers from the outlying carparks to the entrance gates. Admittedly, we could park a lot closer to the gates for Falls than Splendour but when I begrudgingly set out for the long trek to the festival grounds from the car and saw the first distance marker at less than 1.5 kilometres, I realised how lame I was being and just got on with the walk. The queues for drink tickets were so long for the first half of that first day, I actually never bothered getting any. There’s an alcohol reduction policy in action right there – Samantha Morris
Friday 25 July
Image courtesy of Lachlan Johnston
Image courtesy of ACatt
Image courtesy of Lachlan Johnston
The real festivities kicked off on Friday, with campers and visitors alike flooding into the festival grounds. With many tried and tested musical acts showcasing their talent on the first day, cough Outkast cough, the first real showstopper of the day for me was Asgeir. Packing out the GW Mclennan tent, his cover of Nirvana’s Heart Shaped Box set the crowd alight. As the audience stood as his music peaked and crashed around them, his almost otherworldly sound captivated hundreds. Closing with his two most commercially successful songs Stolen Dance and King And Cross he sent punters streaming from the GW tent in a good mood – Christie Ots Frontwomen were in total force at this year’s Splendour and to usher them in with style was the Preatures’ banging Friday afternoon set. The band’s leader, Isabella Manfredi, had style, charisma and was just downright sexy as she grooved and jived through the group’s catalogue of Aussie rock classics. Still without an album– expect it before the year is out – the Melbourne group hold so much confidence and attitude in their young career. Kicking off their mid-afternoon set with their latest single, Two Tone Melody was perhaps a bold move, but proved invaluable as the remainder of the performance held many surprises. They paid a fitting tribute to Doc Neeson and the late, great Chrissy Amphlett by dropping the festival’s first cover, Am I Ever Going to See Your Face Again? The crowd ate it up - The Preatures were born for stages like these. Coming to the closure of their set, Isabella then ripped into the Hottest 100 hit Is This How You Feel. Festival goers sprinted down the amphitheatre’s steep hill in order to boogie with their fellow Splendour patrons – Jake Wilton
With one of the most devastating set clashes of the night I had to abandon Interpol in favour of The Hoodoo Gurus. Time has not taken anything away from these veteran rockers, as they smashed out songs like My Girl, with lead singer Dave Faulkner joking that if the song had been written five years ago he probably would have been ripped apart for being desperate and trying to write a commercial hit. In a great tribute to the band’s beginnings former members James Baker and Clyde Bramley joined the band in the final song, creating double drums and bass – Christie Ots Missing the twenty thousand strong army that was headed towards the Amphitheatre for Outkast, I stayed at the GW and prepared to see Angus and Julia Stone. As a long time fan that stumbled when their latest album was released I wasn’t sure what to expect from this set. Opening with new song A Heartbreak they instantly drew me into their world of beautiful melodies and stunning vocals. After a long hiatus from their duo work to spend time working on their individual projects, you can hear the difference in the opening chords of a primarily Angus song to a Julia song, however their new material is more intertwined than their previous releases as a duo. Paying homage to their history and fans they played For You and Big Jet Plane before Julia launched into her incomparable cover of The One That I Want – Christie Ots With an internationally famed hip-hop group like Outkast about the take the stage, the amphitheatre is lit up and has zero wiggle room. Speculation was high following the group’s somewhat flat comeback show at this year’s Coachella Festival. Yet out comes Big Boi and Andre 3000 launching into B.O.B and suddenly, we were in the presence of royalty. Over the next 100 minutes, Outkast swaggered and sassed through their hits – and boy do they have them! First, let’s talk fashion; Andre wearing a jumpsuit with ‘thinking deeply about shallow shit’ written on it. Big Boi green and orange, pocket-plenty rain jacket and sunglasses. The set was bookended with both members on stage and each had their respective solo performances of Speakboxxx/ The Love Below songs. Then comes the moment the entire festival was yearning for, Hey Ya voted the world’s best pop song on countless music polls, this was an experience to never forget. Andre brings 10-odd girls from the audience to be his posse and sing the song of their lifetime. Of course it was the radio-friendly hits that made the Splendour crowd move but it was their stage personas and back-and-forth made for a truly entertaining hip-hop show. It may have been excitement-turned-worriment when Outkast announced their 20th anniversary run around the world, but the group still stand as one of the world’s finest. So fresh, so clean – Jake Wilton www.blankgc.com.au
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Image courtesy of Stephen Booth
Preatures
Saturday 26 July
Saturday brought with it the cloud cover, and as the wind picked up I made my way to the Amphitheatre for Sticky Fingers. Playing an acoustic start to Caress Your Soul they were eventually joined on stage by DMA’s Tommy O’Dell for a new track from their upcoming album. As they wound up their high energy set confetti cannons went off, showering the audience in an array of glitter that soared as high as the crowd who watched them – Christie Ots Pop stars come and go but few are as exciting and honest in their delivery as Sky Ferriera. Greasy black hair, reflective sunglasses and dressed in leather, this isn’t your everyday pop star. Beaming straight into 24 Hours, there’s an instant mix of vulnerability and “F you” sensibility in the tent. Sky put her heart on the line when bashing out these pop hits and it truly showed. Yet her oozing sex appeal and dominatrix personality shone through bright. Although modern pop stars operate like clockwork when it comes to performance, Sky chose to pour all her emotions into the set. Singles like You’re Not the One and I Blame Myself ripped through the audience as did Sky – Jake Wilton Sure, we all know the video from Letterman, but what I wasn’t prepared for was the most physical and enjoyable set from this year’s festival. Future Islands reckon they’re too pussy to be labelled as punk music (according to their Twitter description), but beside the straight up jolt-punk from Parquet Courts or crushing mosh-friendly rock of Violent Soho, Future Islands are easily the most punk band 16
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on the bill. While their music strays back and forth from melodic synth-dance to indie rock, the group, especially frontman, Sam Herring are incredibly punk. Like the infamous Letterman performance, Sam was a motivating force of ‘70s prowess in his dance moves and stage acrobatics. Body rolls, crotch grabs and Ian Curtis-like thrusting and striding, Sam’s moves were utterly captivating. While it seemed like all the energy was drawn from Sam’s pulsating dance moves, the rest of the band were extremely tight. The set consisted of many new tracks from the group’s breakout new record, Singles, with a few oldies thrown into the mix for the fans. Seasons (Waiting on You) was thankfully welcomed with Sam’s powerful screams and provided the festival with another monster singalong moment. If you weren’t moved, both emotionally and physically, by that set you are a heartless robot – Jake Wilton No matter what mood I may be in, the Jezabels put me in a good one. It was an emotional night for lead woman Hayley Mary – the group have been away for some time playing shows to worldwide acclaim. Now with one comeback show at Australia’s largest music festival, an easy ten thousand plus crowd welcomed Hayley and the rest of the band. Just like the Preatures’ Isabella Manfredi and Sky Ferriera, who had performed early in the festival, Hayley was eccentric and bursting with confidence. She possesses one of Australia’s largest and most daring voices of this generation. Give her an amphitheatre and a Splendour in the Grass festival crowd and Hayley is born for this stage. The first appearance of rain for the weekend drops from the clouds during the Jezabels’ set. Something inside Hayley puts two-and-two together and she begins making waterworks of her own. She tells the crowd she’s having trouble singing due to being overemotional from the very special moment. Ending with earlier hit Hurt Me, the Jezabels just prove how truly distinctive they are to Australian music – Jake Wilton In contrast to the absolutely body slamming set Violent Soho provided (see our I OH YOU story), headliners for the night City & Colour were like a cold glass of water on a hot day. While others may disagree, I found that the lull in highenergy sets was welcome. Dallas Green’s voice is flawless and floated over the audience and straight into your soul. Opening his set with Thirst he managed to hold his own in the Amphitheatre and created a picnic blanket and star gazing kind of atmosphere – Christie Ots
Image courtesy of Justinma
Sky Ferriera
Image courtesy of Stephen Booth
City and Colour
Sunday 27 July
The third and final day of Splendour dawned and it was a scorcher. Making the midday trek to the Amphitheatre I witnessed my surprise favourite of the festival, Skaters. These New York locals released their debut album Manhattan earlier this year and with songs like Schemers they had the dance floor moving. With a great punk rock sound it was just the kick-start to the Sunday that many punters were looking for – Christie Ots Sticking around to watch Kingswood we were joined by the Nayor of Splendour. In the middle of singing recent release Ohio the band paused, and lead singer Fergus Linacre shouted, “Let’s do this song Sticky Fingers style!” before the band launched into a reggae riff version of their song. Watching the band perform their current hit I Can Feel That You Don’t Love Me I feel it is safe to say that the Aussie rock scene is in solid hands at the moment as these guys absolutely blasted audiences away – Christie Ots
I OH YOU’S WINNING FORMULA: DMA’s, DZ Deathrays and Violent Soho bring their A-game to Splendour When I joined eager punters at DMA’s festival-opener at the GW McLennan stage for Splendour day one, I was expecting a five-song set. Their debut EP is five tracks long and to be honest, I just never thought about the fact that they might have other songs. D’oh. I also expected three guys on stage. That’s how many are on the EP cover. There were six. D’oh squared. The audience built quickly from what was a chilled-out group enjoying the fresh grass (oh first day festival joy) to a throbbing mass passing around spliffs. I assume they were spliffs, because surely no-one in this day and age still smokes cigarettes, right? Are they worth the hype? Well let’s face it, there’d be no hype if magazines like ours stopped referring to it, but since exploding onto the live music scene (they were signed before they’d ever performed a show), these guys have pricked ears and sold out venues. They’re still quite understated on stage. One of them kinda hides behind his guitar. The tent was packed ten minutes into their set and the chatter was minimal. And they did play ‘those’ five tracks, but they had some new songs as well as songs which must have pre-dated the EP. And they did make for the first festival singalong when they played Delete. And maybe it’s my age, but when I see a festival opener at 1.00pm and they have oodles more energy than the audience, it just doesn’t work. But DMA’s brought that audience with them through the 45 minute set and I can honestly say I was sorry to have to move on. DMA’s (don’t get me started on that apostrophe) are the darling boys of label I OH YOU right now. But truth be told, it feels like the label’s Johann Ponniah can do no wrong as far as hand-picked Aussie finery is concerned. DMA’s were one of four label appearances at Splendour. Yes, four (Bleeding Knees Club played a DJ set)! That may not sound like a lot but when you consider the label’s humble beginnings (basically throwing some house parties to pay the bills), and the fact that it’s only been a short five years since launching, I OH YOU is onto something good. And then some. When asked about advice to new musicians, Johann has previously said “write good songs, be good dudes.” And maybe that’s his secret, because with his signings now including Bleeding Knees Club, City Calm Down, DZ Deathrays, Snakadaktal and Violent Soho, that formula of good songs // good dudes, seems to be working. But back to Splendour … While DMA’s were charming the pants off one side of the festival, fellow I OH YOU label mates DZ Deathrays were ripping shirts off at the amphitheatre stage. Splendour in the Grass is done right if you open up your
morning with crash hot party-thrash like this. The crowd slowly built with their feet shuffling and moshing (the ‘Splendour in the Dust’ jokes began to rise). Crashing straight into No Sleep followed by Cops Capacity, arguably two of the heaviest songs in the groups repertoire, this was the way to begin a three day camping festival. Sweat, and lots of it. Well played, boys. Circle pits are the norm at a DZ Deathrays show, but few are as brutal as the pits that emerged at this performance. Moshing showdowns between dudes dressed as the Pope and Batman. Also a crowd surfing Gumby thrown into the mix. A healthy blend of old and new found a place in DZ’s set and both were equally digested by the punters. Newies like Ocean Exploder turned the ampitheatre into a dust bowl and shoegaze slow-burner Northern Lights was a welcome addition to help sort out those out of breath.
Images courtesy of Stephen Booth
DMA’s
DZ Deathrays are an important asset to Australia’s festival scene. Whether tearing down a heaving tent or being dwarfed by the incredibly over sized stage at the amphitheatre, DZ put on one hell of a rock show. Which brings me to Violent Soho. And with the number of people sporting Soho shirts around the Splendour grounds, I shouldn’t be surprised that the amphitheatre was packed for their set. With, by far, the most energetic moshpit at Splendour 2014, one punter summed it up perfectly, saying ‘Violent Soho? More like Violent So Good!”
Violent Soho
Storming the stage with their heavy riffs and catchy lyrics the band reminded audiences that the Australian rock scene isn’t just alive and well it is flourishing. Smashing out most of the songs from their 2013 album Hungry Ghosts the guys finished with a bang, singing their massive hit Covered In Chrome. The entire audience was on their feet, screaming out the famous “Hell F**K Yeah” to the heavens as the sun set on the Violent Soho set. With 20,000 people shouting out your lyrics you could be overwhelmed, but the band took the crowd’s energy and channeled it into flailing limbs, head banging and overall greatness. With the crowds so raring to get closer to the band, they broke down the security gate protecting the mosh pit, this is definitely a Splendour set to remember. Violent Soho wrapped up Covered in Chrome by jamming a guitar into a speaker and with Luke Henery hoisting his toddler son onto his shoulders after the lad had been standing first at the side of the stage, and then front and centre as the boys finished their epic set. So, yeah, I OH YOU, whatever the formula is, keep chipping away, because if DMA’s, DZs and Violent Soho are anything to go by, rock and roll is far from dead and we over here are crying out for more, more, more. Samantha Morris, Jake Wilton, Christie Ots
Violent Soho www.blankgc.com.au
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gig reviews INTERPOL + FUTURE ISLANDS + BURAKA SOM SISTEMA + DMA’S + ART VS. SCIENCE (DJ SET) + TKAY MAIDZA + FISHING DJS Northern Hotel, Byron Bay | 24 July A Splendour Pre-Show party in a tiny pub room with Interpol headlining and you just know that it’s going to be something special. It was. Of the 500 people attending there were many familiar faces - Matt and Alex from Triple J, countless other radio DJs and music channel hosts, and other faces you wouldn’t recognise but whose professional photography work you probably would. Tkay Maidza took the stage early and romped her way around getting the crowd psyched for the night (and the weekend) ahead. Tkay engaged the crowd as she rapped with experience beyond her years and closed the set with her hit Brontosaurus. DMA’s came out in a blaze of influences spanning continents and pulled off their show effortlessly on stage, no doubt convincing some of the crowd to check them out when they played again at the festival the very next day. Future Islands were intense, and that is the best way to explain it. Lead singer Sam was a sight to behold on stage and worked the stage to his favour, successfully throwing the crowd into a frenzy to tracks like Seasons and Before the Bridge. Anticipation built as Interpol’s set came closer and closer, until the tiny room went black and the crowd went wild. Interpol worked new tracks like hit single All the Rage Back Home around tracks like Not Even Jail, Evil and Slow Hands. Interpol did not fail to impress, vocalist Paul Banks was pitch perfect and emotive on every note. It seemed as if they loved playing such a small capacity room, something they might have lost after the massive success of Antics and their later albums. Fingers crossed next year the Splendour Pre-Show makes a return. Kyle Butcher
Monique Brumby @ Soundlounge
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MONIQUE BRUMBY + NICOLE BROPHY Soundlounge, Currumbin | 25 July It was always going to be a tough gig, playing the Soundlounge when Splendour was going down just 40 minutes away, but there was a lovely vibe going on when Nicole Brophy took to the stage. A friend of Monique’s, and previous vocalist for Dirty Lucy it wasn’t her first time at the venue and she was comfortable on stage at one point pulling out a classy, metallic baby-blue electric guitar. It felt a little like a set with a personality disorder though, as Nicole switched from her folky ballads to her rock-chick songs. She was quick to point out that although she was alone on stage she was accompanied with a rather large amp, much larger than Monique’s. It was building up to be a bit of a pissing competition between the two friends.
from the mention of Blank, which could well be the first time an artist has ever done that on stage). Firstly, she played her newest single Silent War twice. Well known now to be a song about marriage equality, I’d never seen anyone do that before. But it was a smart move. When hearing it the second time you can’t help but think ‘oh man, I love this song, I know this song.’ And then there was the rendition of Suzanne Vega’s Luka. Of course, the song itself evokes all kinds of thoughts given the weighty topic. But Monique’s version was haunting, touching. Just awesome. It’s always a shame for someone of Monique’s talent to play in front of such a modest crowd, but I can say one thing with confidence. There wasn’t a person in that audience who wasn’t won over on Monique’s charms by the night’s end. Melanie Brennan
There’s no question the small but passionate crowd were keen for Monique Brumby though. And when she took to the stage with her band there was that usual tickle of anticipation.
You can purchase Monique’s newest self-titled album through her website moniquebrumby.com or via itunes.
I’ve seen Monique before and there’s no question in my mind that the lady excels on stage – something that rarely transfers across to CD. During her hour and a half set she told stories about living with a gay man (and his smelly stuff), being pissed off at the government and even expressed a bit of tribute to Dolly Parton. As mentioned elsewhere here in Blank, she’s mad about her grandma and she got a mention too. She also threw in this crazy little yodel every now and then that brought a smile to my dial.
KARL S WILLIAMS + FRANKIE +THE FAMILY JORDAN
Daisy Chain was the perfect song to really bring the four guitars on stage to life. And Monique’s vocals at the end of As Sweet as Your Are were phenomenal. I couldn’t help but think of her as a musical athlete, giving herself the biggest run-up before doing something really impressive.
Rabbit + Cocoon, Miami | 1 August Tonight we bear witness to a spectacular celebration of music and mood, the occasion being the detonation of Karl S William’s Timebomb (of love) upon the majestically adorned surrounds of Rabbit and Cocoon at Miami.
There were a couple of stand-out moments of the show (apart
First up sees a special solo performance by Jordan Rochfort of Brisbane cult country outfit The Family Jordan. Rochfort peddles an impressively authentic line in lonesome cowboy troubadourism, delivering his dusty vignettes with laid back swagger to the steadily swelling crowd. The ghost of Townes Van Zandt rides with much of his work, and this is a righteous thing. He’s hardly a one trick pony though, with the final track of his impressive set touching upon a dose of 60’s inflected pastoral psych - Syd Barrett via a stripped back Anton Newcombe if you will. From the vibe of this bare-bones performance a rendezvous with The Family Jordan in full
Karl S Williams @ Rabbit + Cocoon
Switchkraft @ Swingin’ Safari
Monique also demonstrated several times her inability to dance. Both on-stage and in the crowd, she kind of showed that being a talented musician doesn’t necessarily transfer over to the twinkle-toes department.
band mode entices. Next up on tonight’s eclectic bill sees local chanteuse Frankie, aka Fiona Franklin, strap on her guitar and deliver an engaging set of indie inflected pop-rock. Backed by just a drummer, Frankie’s charisma, stage presence and ear for a catchy, crowd pleasing melody ably carry her set all the way through, with tracks such as the sassy and instantly memorable Broken Heart enticing plenty down the front to get up and dance. The electricity in the air is palpable by the time tonight’s headliner, the venerable Karl S Williams enters the fray, resplendent as usual in sparkling sequined black and silver jacket and signature hat. With a newly inked deal with Warner affiliate Footstomp Music and overseas shows on the cards for later in the year, this is a man whose star is in rapid ascension. Throughout the course of his set Karl flits seamlessly between his signature instruments of keyboard, guitar and banjo. But he is not alone this evening, with his onstage support ensemble consisting of a hand picked backing band, who over the course of the set flesh out and shed a new dimension on a suite of songs already strong enough to stand unadorned on their own two feet. Karl and his impressive support cast lock into their mojo from the get-go, blowing off the cobwebs early with the unveiling of brand new single Timebomb, before regaling us with well loved numbers Is This Love, Chief Running Water Sings The Blues and Be’elzebub. A mystical mid-set interlude materialises in the form of a solo spoken word poem-piece with ethereal keyboard accompaniment. A self indulgent momentum crusher in the hands of lesser mortals rises above in the hands of our musical conjurer. And the surprises aren’t yet complete, with Karl’s delightful lady Yanina stepping forth onto the stage later in the set in a stunning, flowing 60’s style dress to deliver tasteful backing vocal accompaniment to latter set tracks such as Leadbelly’s dusty blues standard Death Letter, as well as impressive new numbers Golden Tears and Ring Around The Moon. Penultimate track is the ever wonderful, banjo driven White Hotel, the crowd stomping and hollering along in appreciation. But somehow we’re taken yet higher still, with a jaw dropping moment of a capella magic as Karl, alone on
the stage at the end, launches into spiritual torch song What Wondrous Love with every fibre of his being. The spellbound crowd stand mesmerised, transported via the power of one man and his voice alone. A better ending to an already electrifying show could not be envisaged... Anthony Gebhardt
SWITCHKRAFT
Swingin’ Safari | 1 August How good it is to be living in a glitzy city and on the cusp of all the craziness that is Surfers Paradise? I find myself reunited with a dear old venue that has always supported local and emerging bands, The Swingin’ Safari. Tonight owner Neil Beattie once again allowed the underground music community of the Gold Coast to take over his funky little venue, demonstrating why this is a place not to be forgotten about (now conveniently next to a tram stop).
believe we are blessed to have the Gold Coast’s very own Switch Hop Beastie Boys right in our midst. Genghis Tuan
WINTERNIGHT: These Four Walls + Smoking Martha + Mass Sky Raid + Versus Fate + Pharaoh’s Playground The Coolangatta Hotel | 2 August Winternight boasted a solid lineup of local acts that have decade’s worth of experience between them. Rockers Pharaoh’s Playground took the stage again after playing Gold Coast and Brisbane stages for a stint in the 90’s, and their experience as band has showed quite clearly at Winternight.
New Gold Coast three-piece electronic band, Switchkraft fresh from their support of NZ reggae legends, Katchafire, took over the Swingin’ Safari with their mangled cacophony of electronic symphony and dance grooves.
Pharaoh’s Playground has previously toured with The Divinyls and Skunkhour and their position as support acts with such high profile bands has given them the exposure and experience that warrants the reception this band had. The band ripped through the air with their distorted riffs and tight live performance only to give way to Versus Fate.
Glitch Buchanan (Carey O’Sullivan of Tijuana Cartel) and the Plastic Surgeon (Freddy Flyfingaz) shared their long time music connection by laying down some fat, dark, dirty beats while MC, Son of Sam (Regan Hoskins of 3illa) took the vocal rhyme wheel and drove the crowd up and down and cutting hard out shapes on the dance floor.
Versus Fate had only just recently formed yet when they took the stage and jumped around, no-one would think twice if you told them they had been together for years. New lead singer Dylan De Proysn soaked up the stage and threw out infective vibes which the crowd just lapped up as they played their own brand of hard rock.
There was this crazy balance of musical funk that saw the fusion of a keytar squelch machine and vinyl scratch battle. It was hilarious to watch, especially with Glitch Buchanan looking like a cowboy priest shredding the keytar and the Plastic Surgeon donning a space cop outfit behind the decks.
Mass Sky Raid jumped up soon afterwards and unleashed their Cog-esque rock onto the punters and an impressive display of guitar soloing was made by Alex Kewley. Mass Sky Raid was impressive from start to finish and their tracks were some of the catchiest played at Winternight.
Their music is synced to some really funny videos, all cut by themselves. It was a shame the visuals could not be clearly seen due to space restrictions, but the homemade huge rustic truck exhaust looking smoke machine and rather large vinyl, spinning the band logo behind them were very quirky. Switchkraft call their style of music Switch Hop, and I truly
Smoking Martha was the second last band to occupy the Coolie Hotel stage but the crowd wasn’t tired and seemed riveted as the band trawled through their solid list of songs all while lead singer Natasha Doherty connected with the crowd. There’s no doubt she is used to winning over punters in her tight leather-look pants and her amazing vocal ability. What a front woman! These Four Walls finally took the stage and the energy these impressive rockers had was incredible. Originally hailing from Auckland but now situated on the Gold Coast, the experience this band has had playing with internationally famous acts like Nickelback and Disturbed has only helped feed the stage presence this four piece creates. Steve Gibb powered through vocal melodies all while ripping around stage playing tracks that got the crowd moving from set start to finish. All in all the night was incredible and massive congrats to Deb Gann and her team at Reservoir for putting on such a tight show. Kyle Butcher
These Four Walls @ Cooly Hotel
Smoking Martha @ Cooly Hotel
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album reviews
DIE! DIE! DIE!
LUNATICS ON POGOSTICKS
New Zealand trio, Die! Die! Die! have been bringing the noise since 2005 but have been relatively quiet since their last critically acclaimed record Form in 2010. Despite their name, the band have always balanced melody and song structure alongside sheer punk thrash. Swim sees this balance tipping in favour of the former with brilliant results.
Ever since that much deserved triple j play, Lunatics on Pogosticks have been tightening those screws and relaxing those shoulders.
Slug cat and snail dog
Swim
#1 DADS About Face
How Tom Iansek found the time to produce another round of heart-piercing soft-rock tunes is beyond me. Busy fronting his main project Big Scary and receiving worldwide acclaim from their most recent effort, Not Art, Iansek’s marvellous ability to crawl under your skin and remain there returns on About Face. Comparisons are futile. #1 Dads should be appreciated without falling into Big Scary’s shadow. Although the music may have its similarities to Big Scary influences, Iansek has cast a whole new light over this project. About Face plays more like a Courtney Barnett record – journal-penned lyrics, graceful persistence on dolewave (look it up) melodies and an incredible feeling of homesickness. Iansek embraces mundanity and expresses interest in the little things that have come across his day-to-day life. In Camberwell, he’s able to make poetry of a simple supermarket trip, “Walk down to the supermarket / Milk and bread in my basket / Chocolate on the shelf and my mind on the docket / I’m a slave to the change that’s in my pocket.” There’s of course the interesting interplay between Jeff Buckley style vocal work and classic musical structure to the music which we’ve come to know from Big Scary’s pieces. Iansek plays this safe formula with lead single Return To which features Tom Snowden. Nominal runs on a pounding beat akin to a New Dorp. New York style SBTRKT song which derives from #1 Dads’ outlandish formula. From heartbroken ballads to tales of the humdrum, About Face is a fresh testament to Iansek’s talent. Jake Wilton
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Opening with the title track, coming from the internet acronym Someone Who Isn’t Me, gets things rolling with short, sharp guitars and pounding drums. The pace is kept up for Out of Mind with an almost sing-along chorus. Things are taken down a notch for Crystal, which brings lead singer and guitarist Andrew Wilson’s lyrics to the fore. Swim features water-tight (accidental pun) production from Chris Townsend (Portishead, Violent Femmes) and additional assistance from Rory Atwell (Yuck, Palma Violets and The Vaccines), setting a solid tone across the 12 tracks. Comparisons can be made to fellow New Zealanders The Mint Chicks (RIP) or perhaps an angsty Les Savy Fav, but a closer musical relative would be Sydney outfit Love of Diagrams with Wilson’s higher octave vocals and penchant for lyrical word play (see She’s Clear). Side B launches into the catchy Angel filled with fuzzed out guitars and topped with pop ‘oooohs’ harmonising the chorus. She’s Clear and Trigger lead the charge back to more standard punk fare before the 2:30 lo-fi punk of Sister. Wilson describes the album as one of survival and any group still rocking after almost ten years whilst being true to their sound has to be respected. The trio have never broken new ground but come from a strong lineage of much loved but always underground alternative bands from across the ditch. This scribe remembers seeing the band for the first time on the Goldie play to a room of 15; three of those were bar staff. Years later Die! Die! Die! are not only surviving but producing quality records which deserve your attention. Sly Steve
Think, for a moment, of the blink-182 discography; scratchy and vulnerable punk at the beginning of the band’s life but quickly finding their fidelity and positioning with releases like Dammit and Josie just a year later. Finding similar qualities by following in that vein, Lunatics on Pogosticks have quite simply, landed upon their sound of piercing riff lines and quick-paced punk aesthetics. At LOP’s gigs, you may be able to hear their medley of some of the best garage rock songs from their favourite artists in the game. Ty Segall, the Orwells, Thee Oh Sees and many others - all thrown into a brief yet succinct roundup of covers that the LOP boys take real inspiration from. Thankfully those groups previously mentioned make a heartened appearance on the EP through the band’s memorable collection of riffs. Do You Think I’m a Taco Bell Kinda Guy, perhaps one of life’s more puzzling questions turned song title, facets a division on the band’s sound and growing fandom. Singer Calum Newton poses some interesting and brutal vocal work on this track which, with enough persistence, could be a fathomable lead for the group’s progression. While it could be seen to divide some fans and break away from the LOP formula, and the rest of the EP, Taco Bell is the band’s most defining point. Irony and the band’s crisp form of humour break into the other songs like Picasso’s Saddest Love, Breakfast at Jeremy’s – and result in some all age-friendly house party garage punk. Rock bands aren’t burning out, they’re not fading away. They’re fresh faced, out of high school and looking to the past for their musical musings. Jake Wilton
BROADWATER’S MIGRATORY WADERS: INTERNATIONAL VISITORS COME TO GC Within a month, about 300 avian summer visitors, looking for our sunshine and fed-up with family life around the North Pole will soon be here. Some of the advance party have already arrived. These 20 or so eastern curlews are occupying the roost in the centre of the Broadwater. This will increase to 60 or more by the end of the month. By the end of September they will be joined by whimbrels, bar-tailed godwits, common terns, little terns and a host of other species making a temporary stay here on their way south. At the same time the couble-banded plovers who have spent the winter here will be crossing the ditch back to New Zealand.
Image courtesy of Bob Westerman
The Gold Coast Broadwater plays a part in one of the great natural events of the world. Each year a million shorebirds known as migratory waders leave Australia in March or April and fly 8000 to 12,000 kilometres across vast oceans to the tundra lands of Northern Asia and Alaska. The path they follow is known as the Eastern Flyway. Some do the journey in as little as ten days but most take a few weeks. These birds are not swimmers so it is a risky journey. The northern polar summer is their breeding time. The majority of waders we see on the Broadwater are eastern curlews, whimbrels and bar-tailed godwits. The best place to see them is from the shore near the Grand Hotel. If you scan the sandbars with a good pair of binoculars or telescope, you may be surprised at what you are able to find. There are three realms of birds – the birds of the land, the birds of the shorelines and the birds of the sea. Most of us have contact with the birds of the land, very few Australians know pelagic birds (the birds of the sea) and a small number of us know about shorebirds or waders as they are sometimes called. A million migratory shorebirds visit the Australian coastline each summer but they stay well out of contact with people so their presence is largely unnoticed. Even in a busy place like the Gold Coast Broadwater their presence is unrecognised, yet they are among some of the world’s most remarkable creatures. The eastern curlew is the world’s largest shorebird and the bar-tailed godwit holds the record for the longest non-stop journey of any creature. They fly direct and non-stop from New Zealand to Alaska and they do it in eight to ten days. Waders have special needs. They do not have webbed feet or waterproof wings so they need a secure dry place above high tide mark. This is called a roost. In the centre of the Broadwater we have a magnificent roost but it takes a terrible thrashing. People walk through the middle of roosting birds, jet boats buzz the roost and people think it is a great place to let their dogs loose. Of course progress is on its way – the Cruise Ship Terminal will take up half their feeding areas and impact heavily on the roost. If this happens they will be probably be gone from here within a matter of a few years. Human ignorance is most certainly the greatest threat to their long term survival. Bob Westerman broadwaterbirds@gmail.com
BURLEIGH HEADS 28 - 31 AUGUST 2014
Get ready for a long weekend of music, food and laughter as the Groove and Food Train rolls into Burleigh Heads. Join us for a celebration of our local food and music talent with cool bands in Memorial Park, the truly fun and gastronomically pleasing progressive degustation, BBQ cooking demonstration, blues at the Burleigh Underground Drummers and more. It’s all happening so make sure you’re part of it!
Family fun and cool sounds in the park Burleigh Brewing Up Late Progressive degustation Four cool Burleigh restaurants and bars
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ECONOMY: INTERRUPTED
have to imagine the global food supply falling part, weather crises developing everywhere, countries going to war over water and we’ll sit back and say ‘oh, that’s a shame’?” “That’s just not how we do things, we tend to wait, then we tend to respond,” he said. And this is where the optimism comes in.
Paul Gilding was the global CEO for Greenpeace when he was just 33. A lifetime ago for the fast-talking activist who now consults to corporations on climate change and their business.
“When the shit hits the fan, which it’s doing already, if we’re ready for it, then we can respond quickly. The later you leave the response the faster and more dramatic the economic transformation must be.” “It’s going to hurt, it’s going to painful, it’s going to be messy, but we’re going to sort it out,” he told Blank. And it’s quite likely that food will be the catalyst. Gilding reinforces, not for the last time, that there will probably be a very significant food crisis and that there will be conflict over food.
He has grandkids now, as well as young children and he laughs readily about the heady activist days of the 80s and 90s. But now his ‘thing’ is the disruption to our economy that he says has already started because of climate change. Samantha Morris caught up with Paul at Splendour in the Grass of all places, where he was headlining speaker at The Forum. Talk to any busted arse greenie and they’ll most likely roll their eyes about Paul Gilding’s views on climate change and the economy. They think he’s an optimist. But the weird thing is, anyone not deeply ingrained in the climate change ‘movement’ will feel just the opposite – that he’s the harbinger of doom. Gilding believes that billions of people will die as a result of climate change. That we’ll experience massive disruptions to our global food system – including conflict over both food and water and that our economic system as we know it will collapse. But he also believes we will see massive levels of mobilisation. “You can’t imagine it until it’s done,” he says, quoting Mandela. “In the banking crisis of 2007/08 – can you imagine George Bush, the raving free market lunatic suddenly nationalising insurance companies and banks?” Gilding asks. “No, but he did it. We can change rules overnight if we want to.” “If you look at Germany … phasing out nuclear power has had a catastrophic impact on the value of nuclear power companies in Germany. But no one’s doing anything about it because the public supports it.” “We’re kind of hoodwinked into this idea that the economy is king – that it must trump all else but that’s not true. It’s our choice. We decide how that works.” Gilding says our economies will stop growing because they won’t be able to grow. We’re effectively going to run out of stuff. And population has very little to do with it. 22
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“You can’t imagine not hitting the wall in terms of the food system. Our whole food supply system is built around the idea of – we grow food here, we have silos there, trainlines there, storage facilities over here. So if you suddenly change the climate, even in a short time – say ten years – you have to rearrange the whole supply chain, and that’s not going to happen easily.” “And that, I think is the most likely trigger,” he said. “It’s not just about climate change, food kind of synthesises all of those issues: water supply, depleting aquifers, changing climate, conflict.” “Let’s get this one numerically sorted out,” he said. “Population is not the issue. Any more. If we could have stayed at 3 billion, that would have been very helpful. 4 or 5, very helfpful. We’re now at seven. Some argue 8, some argue 9.” “Let’s assume the worst case, that we increase the population by 30% by 2050, which is at the high end of the forecast. In that timeframe, with a growth economy, we have an increase of per capita consumption by 300%.” “So, consumption is going to multiply by 3 versus 0.3 for the population so it’s just not a comparison.” Consumption, Gilding told Blank, has a far greater impact than population. “So an African, for example, consumes one twenty-fifth of what an American consumes. Having an extra African born has a negative impact on consumption, where as having an extra American born?” In his book The Great Disruption, he talks about our response to climate change being a war-like scenario. That when we have our backs against the wall in that situation we will prove ourselves to be extraordinary – that our response will be proportionally dramatic. “We need to eliminate the coal, oil and gas industries from the economy in 20 years,” he explains. “That’s what you need to do. It’s impossible to imagine that level of economic change. That can only happen in a war-like mobilisation. It’s not only likely, it’s inevitable.” “Otherwise you have to imagine if we do nothing. So you
“Recovering from this is a 50 – 100 year process but I think it gets a lot uglier before it gets better. We’re going to see dramatic action happen in the next ten years and we’re going to see some ramping up of response but it’s going to take a few decades to work through the systems,” Gilding said. I ask him what he thinks some of those ‘ugly’ things might be. How exactly does it get uglier? The picture Gilding paints isn’t pretty. And again, he’s talking food. “I think we’ll see a global food crisis, I think we’re going to see a lot of backlash in the system around food – food shortages, food price spikes because of that,” he told Blank. “I do think we’re going to see some extreme weather impacts accelerate and some record hot years - I think that’s going to happen this year, actually.” “People who are deeply enmeshed in climate change see my view as positive, because they’re in a catastrophe and they see it coming, and it is coming. And therefore they see the negativity around it. Fair enough. And therefore they see me as optimistic,” Gilding said. “If you’re back here somewhere,” he says, sweeping his hand around the Splendour surrounds, “then it’s the harbinger of doom. Which shows how far we have to go. And people respond to my stuff in much different ways – some very positively and they go ‘this is great’, we’re going to get through this, we’re going to be OK, and some very negatively like ‘I didn’t know it was going to be so bad’.” Read Paul Gilding’s blog at paulgilding.com Paul’s book The Great Disruption is available at most good
GC’S BELOVED IBIS “UNK UNK TAW AW” The sex life of birds can be very interesting, migratory bird expert Bob Westerman says. For example the jacana bird female has lots of boyfriends. She mates with one male after another and dumps the kids on them. It’s the males who build the nests and rear the young while she goes on her bonking spree. Swan males get a herd of females, but the wives go off in the middle of the night to find young attractive guys. Wrens mate for life but have flings all over the place and rear the young no matter where they come from. Unlike these birds, the average Gold Coast ibis has no fascinating tales of infidelity. The very successful sexual union between two consenting ibis once or twice a year is just a dull temporary arrangement to produce three spotty eggs. The Australian white ibis were uncommon on the Gold Coast 20 years ago, but since they arrived they’ve been very successful breeders, Mr Westerman says. A little grubby and slightly foul smelling but successful breeders. A possible reason for the breeding success is this omnipresent GC bird with the bald black head and long drooping beak is a real Rudolf Valentino. The male ponces around tips and swamps between cavorting around the city raiding bins and café tables. A bit of a bogan romantic.
Around February to April he attracts the female’s attention by sitting in a high branch of a tree and being noisy and showing aggression to other males, the birdsinbackyards website says.
waterbirds in the area, and in 2005, less than 10, a 2007 document from the Department of Environment and Climate Change NSW says.
Then he turns on the sophistication when the female comes over by bowing to her and offering her a twig to share.
Drought and water extraction for agriculture impacted the ibis’s wetlands, the report says, forcing ibis and some other species of waterbirds to seek an alternative place to breed.
He goes a bit gooey when they start preening each other, then they fly off to build a nest together. The honeymoon is a communal affair with lots of unking and taw-awing, among other ibis and various waterbirds in a nesting colony often at a wetlands. Ibis are historically rare in urban areas but numbers on the Gold Coast and elsewhere have increased because of climate events like droughts since the 1970s. A 2007 ABC report Ibis invasion says, “Their real homes are the massive inland waterways of NSW and Queensland such as the Macquarie Marshes, where they breed in thousands.” However studies show the ibis had completely abandoned breeding in the Macquarie Marshes in 2000, compared to 11,000 nests surveyed in 1998 only two years earlier. The wetlands had shrunk massively as a result of low rainfall and this is about when Bob Westerman noticed ibis increasing around urban Gold Coast areas. Aerial surveys of the marshes in 2004 recorded less than 20
Their urban migration signalled a huge change in their lifecycle, because ‘til then ibis instinctively returned to where they were born to breed. Ibis have been recorded travelling from Victoria to Papua New Guinea, and newly fledged ibis have been recorded flying over 3000km, so they have a lot more potential than just jumping up onto bins like a lot of people think. “I think birds talk to one another and they decide to do things differently,” Mr Westerman says. For instance he says, “Nowadays kookaburras steal steak off barbies but they never used to do that.” He says ibis have long beaks to probe marshes and grass for invertebrates such as worms, crayfish and mussels, but it wasn’t a huge shift for them to eat scraps like bits of bread and meat. “Birds will make an adaption to change to suit their eating habits. They’ve discovered they can get food off tips.” They get filthy in colour from rummaging in garbage and may not be in optimal health because of the scraps they eat, but the Australian white ibis is a lovely bird, the bird expert says. Michael Pyne is the head vet at the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital. He has treated hundreds of ibis over the years and about 20-30 so far this year. Dr Pyne sees less ibis compared to other species because they are “smart and tough”. He only sees them when they are very badly injured, eg hit by cars, but they enjoy high recovery rates. “Ibis are a pretty smart animal - they keep themselves out of trouble and they are tough – they can cope without being 100 percent and they can just about outsmart anyone trying to catch them. “They get a bad name because of their intelligence. They know where the food is and they adapt. “This is the reason they do so well around people because they adapt so well to people leaving food around.” Their toughness and intelligence explain why they are here in the first place. When their traditional ibis habitat stopped providing their needs they searched for a place with plenty of food where they could breed and found the Gold Coast They are a bird with many contradictions because their survival in their traditional wetlands is incredibly vulnerable, but their success in the city has made them a pest. Mic Smith is the co-creator of a blog about ibis. Mozart and Coltrane: Dirty Ibis www.blankgc.com.au
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POPTACO 4/42 Currumbin Creek Road, Currumbin Waters
Sydneysiders may be tiring of the Mexican wave, but it’s really only hit the Gold Coast this year. Let’s face it, who even knew what a taqueria was until recently? Yet in the last few months we’ve seen the opening of a handful of taquerias, a trend which looks set to continue! We’re not talking Mexican as we’ve known it until now; not refried beans and dodgy mince, packet corn chips and tomato rice smothered in melted cheese. No! This is smarter, with fresh light flavours, more suited to the modern palate. Beginning as a mobile honeymoon camper, PopTaco has morphed into a dual personality: a travelling taqueria as well as a permanent popup operating from an industrial warehouse space with dining in the carpark. That’s where we’re dining tonight, at simple picnic tables overlooked by a radiant Virgin of Guadeloupe and assorted pots of succulents. There’s honesty to such an unpretentious venue which brings it closer to Mexican street food, just as its owner, Kristal Smith, intended. After spending the best part of four years in Mexico, Kristal returned to Australia as Mexican cuisine was about to take off. So is this typical of Mexican food? I pose the question. “This is a fair representation of the tacquerias of Mexico City and Central Mexico, but Mexican food is so diverse...this is just one aspect of it. It ranges from street food to fine dining in really upmarket restaurants.” It’s a cool night as we dine at PopTaco, but the welcome is warm and the food tasty and well-priced. We start with Totopos, tortilla chips with house guacamole, Frijoles Refritos (refried beans) and Pico de Gallo. Translated Heat of the Rooster this is a mildly spicy salsa of tomato, jalapeno, lime and onion. As the name implies, tacos are one of the main menu items. Not the hard crunchy variety, these are soft double tortillas loaded up with fresh tasty ingredients: Carnitas (beef with chipotle salsa), Picadillo Pollo (chicken cooked in tomatillo
PopTaco @ Currumbin Waters
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with olives, sultanas and red slaw), Hongos (spicy mushrooms with corn salsa) and Cochinita Verde (pulled pork with pineapple salsa and salsa verde). It’s labour intensive, slow-cooked interesting food. Running through the dishes are chilli, coriander and lime, flavours familiar to us through Thai cuisine, yet they’re balanced by more complex spices, some less familiar and more exciting to us (such as smoky chipotle chilli, the gooseberry flavours of green tomatillo, and the complexity of tamarind). But let’s not stop at tortillas! Special of the night is chargrilled corn on the cob sprinkled with chilli spices, queso fresco (freshly made cheese) with a squeeze of the ubiquitous lime, or grilled quesadilla, and that’s just the start... Kristal has plans to diversify her menu even further! The food’s bursting with freshness and flavour, yet not too spicy. It flows from our mouths over our fingers, each drip licked up to catch the flavours. There’s murmuring from table to table, some chatter about the flavours, but mostly we’re just tucking in, hands reaching in, sharing and enjoying this great street food. Mexican food is fun! It ticks all our casual dining boxes: shared plates, big on flavour, tasty, fresh and healthy yet filling food. It’s also gluten-free! If your budget’s a bit tight, this is some of the best value food you’ll find, plus BYO! This is just the beginning of the Mexican wave. Bring on the tamales and molé, guys! Judging by other states, we’re likely to see a lot more development in this cuisine in the near future! Marj Osborne Read more of Marj’s reviews at foodgoldcoast.com.au
HARVEST MOON Central Arcade, 30 James St., Burleigh Heads Known as ‘The Other James Street’, James Street Burleigh is an area of burgeoning talent hot enough to lure Brisbane foodies out for the day! It’s well worth taking a wander off the main street and down the arcades to find hidden treasure! In the laneway behind Globe Coffee, Harvest Moon stretches out where From Earth and Water used to be. Owner Jon
PopTaco @ Currumbin Waters
Holden has extended and revamped the space to make a two-roomed, dual personality venue bound together by arcade space. By day, Harvest is a café with a country cottage façade, a feel good earthy spot with welcoming staff and a whole food menu. For our late weekend breakfast, there’s a plethora of all-day choices: burgers (the house favourite featuring a grass-fed free-range beef patty with options of a GF or bunless version), sandwiches or autumn salads ($8 - $14). The ‘Celebrate Freedom’ option throughout the menu carries added extras, the chance to make each dish your own. We settle on the Big Breakfast, house-smoked bacon and beans, free-range Tuscan pork sausages and cage-free barn-laid eggs for him, the Huevos Rancheros (house black beans, capsicum and onion with chorizo and a baked egg, served with a side of chipotle sauce and organic multigrain bread) for me. They’re generous serves of rustic food, our late brekkie easily covering two meals! The coffee’s one of our favourites, the Daily Grind from Byron boutique roasters Marvell St; lightly roasted, smooth, nutty and sweet. Just to round off the goodness, I order a Green Dream cold-pressed juice chaser, full of anti-oxidant cleanser in a jar. At $5, it’s a cute, freshly-made, vibrant and tangy steal – one of the best value juices on the coast! No wonder they’re racing out the door! Come sunset, fairy lights twinkle in the arcade as the Moon Bar opens. Chameleon-like, Moon is the dusky sister of Harvest, cosy tapas come cocktail bar, a secretive nook to get away for a quiet tête-à-tête. Based on traditional bars near Bath, Jon’s hometown, there’s a classic feel to the Moon Bar which is in sharp contrast to the cottage feel of Harvest where the food is prepared. Completing a lot of the reno with friends, Jon has used recycled wood from the Burleigh Bowling Alley and country salvage yards to make tables and benches, the space flowing out into the arcade through sliding timber doors. Warm in winter and cool in summer, there’s comfortable seating on couches inside, high and low seating in the alley and plenty of nooks and crannies for couples and groups to find their own space. It’s elegant and sultry date territory with candlelight and flowers, the music’s bluesy tones echoing I lose myself in you. Time for a cocktail!
Harvest Moon @ Burleigh Heads
Of course there are coffee-infused cocktails for the allnighters as well, a Marvell St Manhattan, Espresso Martini or Don Facundo iced coffee, named after the founder of Bacardi. I cast my eyes over the well-chosen boutique wine list (Australian and international), sparkling wines and champagne, a good choice of Japanese and UK ciders and English boutique beer. With Kolsh and Pale Ale on tap, the Main Squeeze is set up. I go straight to second base with a Daisy de Santiago, a cocktail about which renowned cocktail writer Charles H. Baker Jr. notes in The Gentleman’s Companion “...along with the immortal Daiquiri, this is the best Bacardi drink on record.” With its origins in the prohibition era, it’s a mighty fine drink, probably at least as fine as the woman after which it was named! Feelin’ Good is playing, so I lean on barman Jake for a second. It’s a Spiced Gin and Aperol Sour, the slightly bitter herbal Aperol infused with chilli and mellowed with a topper of creamy eggwhite. Just delicious! Who needs food? But we’ve ordered anyway, a Poco tasting plank of cheeses, cold meats, homemade terrine and labna ($15) and a trio of tapas: Albondigas (meatballs), Salmon Rillette and Coquetas ($18). With a Basque chef in tow, the tapas and house-made extras are a real treat. Packed with the flavours of the French countryside, they’re moreish and excellent value. There’s a ton to commend in Harvest Moon: its wholefood organic concept, the elegant secluded cocktail/tapas bar by night, the mystique of candle glow denoting the promise of love... Somehow, though, we feel that this is just the beginning for this venue; that it will evolve even further as its clientele builds. It’s certainly a space to watch! Marj Osborne Read more of Marj’s reviews at foodgoldcoast.com.au
PICCOLO Corner Marine Parade + Hythe St, Miami In the shadow of Miami Hill, tucked away under Miami Surf Club with possibly one of the best views on the Gold Coast sits the popular Piccolo Espresso, the perfect place to grab a coffee and a bite to eat after a swim, surf or walk along the beach. In the morning the sun shines down on Piccolo, which is built around two beautiful Norfolk Pines. It is an established favourite with the locals and is the preferred café for a post-ride coffee by Gold Coast’s cyclists both professional and amateur. Everything about this place is easy going. Coffees are made with a house blend of Merlo beans on a black Wega machine, which is situated at the rear of the café, along with a small kitchen and a cabinet bearing sweet treats, sandwiches and salads. A large array of seating spreads out through the café, but often it is difficult to find a seat due to Piccolo’s immense local fame.
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Our coffee journey starts with, what else, but a piccolo. A sweet caramel scent follows through to a pleasant caramel flavour with an enjoyable kick of acidity; buttery notes of the coffee are enhanced by the warm milk. The mezzo is a stronger, sturdier version of the piccolo once again with a smooth caramel flavour, making it difficult to choose a favourite. A short black is always sure to get the heart racing and Piccolo’s has an intoxicating aroma of chocolate and leather to entice the coffee lover. An initial sharp, yet pleasant tannin smooths out to a strong salted caramel taste. The long black was milder and sweeter with more chocolate notes to the overall caramel flavour. An added bonus of having a coffee at Piccolo is undoubtedly the opportunity for people watching. This spectator sport can be indulged whilst looking over the much utilised Esplanade path towards the ocean.
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Moon’s drink menu is themed to the phases of the moon, an indication of how the night could progress: Crescent – crisp aperitifs, sangria and champagne cocktails; 1st Quarter – sharper sweet and sour citrus-driven drinks (Tom Collins, Daiquiris and Margaritas); Gibbous Moon fruit-driven Mojitos, Mules and Brambles (Cosmopolitans); and the Waning Moon – short, bold, stirred and savoured phase for the late night warriors; premium spirits over ice.
Open Monday to Sunday 6.30am to 2.00pm come for the coffee and stay for the view and the sweet sea breeze. Catherine Coburn
Independent food reviews of the Gold Coast Bringing you news and behind the scenes information about Gold Coast restaurants and providores
Piccolo @ Miami
Piccolo @ Miami
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UNLOCKING THE NIA SECRET Nia’s love your body mindset provides the opportunity to constantly reinvigorate your relationship with body, mind and spirit. Its lifeblood is joy and its invitation is to be yourself. Nia provides a new way of exercising that offers an alternative to the yang style weight loss and boot camp fitness regimes that are ever present here on the Gold Coast. Instead Nia is about honouring the body you are in and moving with pleasure. A key element that Nia brings, where other fitness practices may fall short, is awareness. It says that your body has an innate wisdom and when you are aware of what you feel, want and sense you are able to create a workout that aligns with your body’s current fitness needs and desires, whatever they may be. Every class leaves me feeling centred, calm and more connected to who I am. It’s as if all the worries, stresses and tension in my life are dialled down and I am able to think and feel more clearly. My body gets to move, sweat, tone, stretch, breathe, express and have FUN. This is one of my favourite things, I never knew that I could work out and have fun at the same time until I experienced Nia.
this might help to clarify. Yes Nia is a practice that lifts the spirit, quiets the mind and eases the emotions. It is also a practice that is about moving your body, thus moving your body in alignment with the science of the body’s design is a central focus of any Nia experience. Nia was the first fusion fitness practice to blend martial arts, dance and relaxation modalities into the one form. It draws inspiration from nine forms in total, including Tai Chi, Aikido, Tae Kwon Do, Jazz, Modern Dance, Yoga, Feldenkrais and The Alexander Technique. A general one-hour class experience combines these forms as you are guided through a whole body warm up, then it’s time to get your body moving. A diverse range of music inspires your body to move a little faster, get your heart rate up, condition, tone, strengthen and increase your flexibility. You are then guided through some of Nia’s 52 classic moves as you experience an energised, whole body workout before allowing your body to gently cool down, stretch and relax.
If you are at the point now where you are fascinated about what Nia is, but are still a little confused as to the ‘how’, then
Nia is for everybody. It is for busy working men and women needing to let go of the tensions of the day, for mums who need a bit of time for themselves, for athletes who want to add variety to their training, for mature bodies wanting to build and maintain strength and flexibility, it’s for anybody wanting to experience more joy in their fitness practice, and it
Image courtesy of Ron Perrot
Image courtesy of ASP
is for those who desire a deeper sense of connection, pleasure, strength and awareness. Yes Nia is truly for anybody and everybody!! If your mind and body are saying ‘YES” to what Nia has to offer, then it must be time to find out what the secret of Nia is all about. Lisa Silverstone is a Gold Coast Nia teacher and student To find your local classes check out Gold Coast Nia at www.nianow.com/niasite/gold-coast . To mark the mammoth occasion the club has a wave (see what we did there) of events planned across a weekend of revelry and reunion. These include a sportsperson’s lunch and auction called the Snapper 50 Rocks Luncheon, with all proceeds to Snapper’s junior surf development program. The three course luncheon will be held on Friday 29 August at Rainbow Bay Surf Club, and all are welcome to attend. There will also be a past and present members beach fun day for Snapper’s extended family on Saturday 30 August: a great get together for those young and old. Then that night, Saturday 30 August will be the big party. It will be a retro-themed night of celebration at the 50th Reunion and Anniversary from 4.00pm at Rainbow Bay Surf Club.
SNAPPER’S HALF CENTURY 50 years is a great achievement for anyone, let alone a boardriders club. Right across the worldwide surfing community, the official call is going out to locate members of the famous and proud, Snapper Rocks Surfriders. On the weekend of the Friday 29 and Saturday 30 August, members and supporters of the great Gold Coast surfing club from eras past and present will gather for an almighty reunion. One of the most decorated board riding clubs in Australian surfing history, Snapper Rocks Surfriders Club, will be celebrating its 50th nniversary. Snapper has had more world champions than any club could hope for. Starting with the first ever Women’s World Champion, Phyllis O’Donnell in their formation year of 1964, to dual Women’s and Men’s World Champions in 2012 with Stephanie Gilmore and Joel Parkinson (pictured). In between this: 1976 World 26
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Champion Peter Townend, 1978 World Champion Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew, plus multiple junior, amateur, and grommet World Champions. Graeme Merrin was the first President from 1964-1973, and the first year the club had 209 pounds, 15 shillings and 9 pence in the bank. To list all the legendary members of this club I would need an encyclopedia, legendary presidents include Terry “Ween” Baker, Wayne Deane, Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew, Bruce Lee, and today’s Jay Phillips. The club has an enormous history and much lauded participation in the sport of surfing, and have three members still on the World Tour to this day. Snapper Rocks Surfriders truly set the bar of achievement for all boardriding clubs to follow, and boy are they going to celebrate this for their 50th birthday!
Snapper Rocks Surfriders Club is also on the hunt for archival images or video footage from Snapper club events or competitions to compile a slideshow that will be screened over the weekend’s festivities, and is calling on past members and the wider community to send in any contributions. It is looking like a massive weekend of surfing, fun and memories, with all wishing the Snapper Rocks Surfriders well. Terry “Tappa” Teece To book tickets for Friday’s luncheon and auction contact Rainbow Bay Surf Club on 07 5536 6390. Tickets for the Saturday evening 50th Reunion and Anniversary can be purchased at Cafe D’Bar, Rainbow Bay Surf Club, Volcom Surf Shop as well as online at snapper50th. eventbrite.com.au. Images can be emailed to: snapperrockssc@gmail.com
SPRING INTO SPORT AND CULTURE If spring gives you the overwhelming urge to get outdoors, then we’ve got a bunch of fives for you. Bring on Spring: 6 September – 12 October Broadwater Parklands hosts five weeks of fun with a feast of family friendly activities including the Flourish Family Arts Festival, Dragon Boat racing, health and wellbeing expo, Farmyard Fun Day, Spring Fever Skate and more. Visit gcparks.com.au.
REPORTS TIVOLI THEATRE OVER-RUN BY GANGSTERS The Tivoli will turn into Brisbane’s biggest fancy dress party next month when the Gangsters’ Ball comes to town for its sixth year. While it’s pitched as a show, it’s something entirely different, with all those entering the venue taken back to a faithful recreation of a 1930’s style Speakeasy Club. Graham Coupland who first launched the concept seven years ago in Sydney says walking into the Tivoli and seeing 1000 people dressed for the occasion is something else. “They go crazy,” he said. “Every single attendee is in fancy dress. If you’re not, I’ll refund your ticket price at the door.” There’s flappers, molls, mobsters, Hollywood glamour, gangsters, burlesque dancers and more. We’re talking about an era where men wore three-piece suits with fedora hats and silk ties. And of course for the ladies, there were feathers, furs and pill-box hats.
Gold Coast Multicultural Festival: 6 - 14 September 29% of the GC population was born overseas. This free festival unites and celebrates the diverse range of cultures living in the city with a week of celebrations at Evandale and beyond. More at goldcoastculturalfestival.org. Swell Sculpture Festival: 12 – 21 September Open all hours, you can enjoy twilight walks, informative artist talks, discover new perspectives, wander through the Swell Smalls Gallery or participate in artist master classes and children’s’ workshops. All along Currumbin Beach. More at swellsculpture.com.au. Celebrate Gold Coast: 28 September Celebrate everything quintessentially Gold Coast - our heritage, culture, lifestyle, flavours, future and fun at Queen Elizabeth Park in Coolangatta. A focus on beach lifestyle and a wide range of surf and sand themed activities, like sand sculpting, beach volleyball and barbecue cookery. More at cityofgoldcoast.com.au/events. Opera in the Park – A night on Broadway: 4 October Spread your blanket and kick back to the fabulous music of Opera and Broadway under the stars in Kurrawa Park, Broadbeach with classics from hit Broadway shows such as Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera and Cats. More at broadbeachgc.com.
“It’s probably the biggest fancy dress party in Australia,” Graham said.
TOGNETTI AND OSBORNE: A CLASSICAL RIPSNORTER
It seems like a far cry from where Graham started – booking burlesque acts to entertain the crowd between the sets his swing band The Velvet Set were playing in Sydney. Before long he was selling out smaller club rooms and so the Gangsters Ball was born.
It’s not very often that you hear classical music reviews describing a ‘ripsnorter of a performance’, but that’s exactly how Scottish pianist Steven Osborne’s recent concerts with the Australian Chamber Orchestra have been reported.
Last year saw the three-city event sell out. And this year looks the same with 700 of the 1000 tickets already gone. “If anyone’s thinking of coming, they better pull their finger out and snap up a ticket pronto,” Graham told Blank GC. The Gangsters Ball takes place at The Tivoli, Saturday 20 September. Tickets through Ticketmast
Book www.theartscentregc.com.au | (07) 5588 4000
No surprises then when the Orchestra’s director and lead violin Richard Tognetti chose him to partner in a rare and intimate recital about to hit the Gold Coast. The two will perform three violin sonatas, Prokofiev’s virtuosic and lyrical showpiece, Debussy’s powerful last ever completed work and the final and most reflective of Beethoven’s violin sonatas. The recital will take place on Friday 22 August from 7.30pm. Various ticket prices are available, but the VIP table of four for $195 which includes a bottle of wine, cheese platter and wait service sounds like a great way to soak up some culture. Get tickets and more information at theartscentregc.com.au.
Image courtesy of Pierre
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