BMA Magazine 393 April 25 2012

CANBERRA’S NO.1 ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE # 3 9 3APRIL 25

IN THE KITCHEN WITH CHUCK d & PUBLIC ENEMY

The Darkness+Katalyst+Andrew WK The Mountain Goats+Star Wars Burlesque www.bmamag.com

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Canberra Centenary Community Planting Day

The times they are a-changin’ is a bit lame for a tagline.

#393APRIL25 Fax: 02 6257 4361 Mail: PO Box 713 Civic Square, ACT 2608 Publisher Scott Layne General Manager Allan Sko T: 6257 4360 E: advertising@bmamag.com Advertising Manager Paul Foley T: 6257 4360 E: sales@bmamag.com

Editor Julia Winterflood T: 02 6257 4456 E: editorial@bmamag.com Accounts Manager Yu Xie T: 02 6247 4816 E: accounts@bmamag.com Super Sub-Editor Ashley Thomson Graphic Design Chris O’Hallaran NEXT ISSUE 394 OUT MAY 09 EDITORIAL DEADLINE APRIL 30 ADVERTISING DEADLINE MAY 03 Published by Radar Media Pty Ltd ABN 76 097 301 730 BMA is independently owned and published. Opinions expressed in BMA are not necessarily those of the editor, publisher or staff.

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Did you know that our native plants can be used to make food, tools, medicine and art?

Plant a tree at the Centenary of Canberra and Greening Australia community planting day and learn from Yurung Dhaura trainees some of the traditional Aboriginal uses for the trees, shrubs and grasses being planted as part of the Lower Cotter rehabilitation project. Plant a tree, listen to the talks, and be entertained with live music from Love Sick Caravan, Canberra’s newest dixie-land band who will bring a touch of yesteryear to the Cotter. Featuring the ever delightful Rafe Morris, fresh from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and members of the New Orleans funk styled Brass Knuckle Brass Band, you’ll have smiles with your shovels and brass with your banksias. Top it off with a free BBQ lunch and you’ve got yourself one glorious Sunday morning. It kicks off at 9.30am on Sunday May 6 at the Lower Cotter Catchment on Bullock Paddock Road. There will be a free bus available and plenty of parking on the day.

RSVP is essential, phone 6253 3035 or email admin@ act.greeningaustralia.org. au. Visit canberra100.com. au for all the info.

Entering the new year of 2012 with nothing but a sense of adventure and a quest for festivities, four men came together to form a group called Yosh. Aiming to spread their own overwhelming love for music with their Canberra community, Yosh headed straight for the clubs to share what they felt life was all about; good company and great times.

Drawing inspiration from musical experiences such as those produced by party label DIM MAK, from A State of Trance, and from the umpteenth number of festivals the four had attended, the lads took it upon themselves to create an atmosphere in which everybody could enjoy themselves. Yosh has an event at Digress on Friday May 11 so all house, electro and techno lovers should definitely head along. It kicks off at 9pm and is free.

BMA Magazine is seeking an All Ages Columnist After two years as our All Ages columnist, it is with a heavy heart that the BMA Mag fam bids a fond farewell to Naomi Frost as she sets her sights on foreign lands. Naomi did work experience at BMA HQ in 2010 and impressed us with her sharp writing skills, local music knowledge and sartorial sass so much we couldn’t bear to say goodbye, so we asked her to climb aboard the good ship BMA as our AA columnist and we’ve never looked back since.

All good things must come to an end though and this issue is *sniffle* Naomi’s last, so she’s going to need someone to fill her boots. If you’re part of Canberra’s all ages scene and fancy yourself as a scribe, email editorial@bmamag.com telling us about yourself, what the last gig you went to was, and attach a sample of your work. Best of luck chilluns! the cashews entertain last year’s tree huggers

New Event Promoters Yosh

lame

FROM THE BOSSMAN “I feel like the last survivor at an old folks’ home; one by one I’m watching my friends die.”

This overly dramatic sentence was uttered by yours truly last week. In a twist of fate, BMA Mag is losing Graphic Designer Cole Bennetts, Advertising Manager Paul Foley and Editor Julia Winterflood all within a month. A twist of fate that has nothing to do with Bossman foot odour, a need to sing back everything that’s said, or a penchant for pulse-pounding drum ‘n’ bass that at best could generously be described as “patience testing”.

Sydney, Tasmania and Alice Springs respectively will be richer places for their arrival, and my heart forever emptier. <sings> Did you ever know that you’re my heeeerrrrroooooes...

But unfurrow that brow, dear reader (I’ve stopped singing now, by the way). We’ll soon have a snappy new Ed by the name of Ashley Thomson with a wit as sharp as his suit (he turned up to the interview wearing a designer potato sack, so make of that what you will) and a quaint little beard that - at the risk of coming across all Peter Slipper - you just want to lovingly muss up. I will not, of course, be doing this. He can also, rather handily, command the shit out of a magazine.

My dear lady wife, so often mentioned here, shall be sharing the Advertising role with yours truly, and so she has taken it upon herself to make sure the office space is looking spick and span in preparation for her official start, which means the past week has been a maelstrom of moving, sorting, filing and general tidying.

As with many marriages, the wife and I lovingly differ on some key matters, cleaning being one of them. I fall into the classic Man category of filing, which is to leave stuff in miscellaneous piles left scattered around the room like little poos, lovingly sorted by chronological convenience ie older stuff on the bottom, newer stuff on the top. It’s a system uncomplicated by the alphabet or any laws of sense, and has served me well these past 30 years. My wife, as you have likely surmised, has more of an Agent Orange approach. If it’s of no practical use or hasn’t been touched in the past year then it’s - to borrow an old Micallef-ism - “into the bin!” <whip crack>.

YOU PISSED ME OFF! Has someone yanked yer chain recently? Well send an email to editorial@bmamag.com and have your sweet vengeance.

And for the love of God, keep it brief! [All entries contain original spellings] If someone comments on the colour of the leaves in this town one more time I’m going to tie them to the very tree they’re captivated by and beat them with a baseball bat until their flesh turns that very same yellow they’re so enamoured with. Then I’m going to break a branch off that tree and set it alight and hold it to their flesh until those deep, autumnal reds come weeping out. Then I might take a shit on their feet just to get those nice, earthy browns in the picture. Autumn, you piss me off. Lovers of the four seasons, you piss me off. I fucking hate the cold, as much in anticipation of it as in its really happening. It’s just a half-arsed preview of winter and it pisses me off!

To all those people who chime in during a heated conversation about gay marriage in Australia, you’re gobshites who suck curry turd out of tube socks. I don’t give a fucking shit about gay marriage because it’s not important to me but I know what it means to the LGBT community and I also know it’s SIMPLE EQUALITY so I got online and voted for gay marriage rights in Australia because I want to GET IT OUT OF THE FUCKING WAY so important shit can occupy the national conscience like it’s SUPPOSED TO! This is a no-fucking-brainer. GET IT DONE! FUCKWITS!

Of course you need to hold onto some important items - if we didn’t keep some stuff, we wouldn’t have museums - it’s arguing over the definition of ‘important’ that’s the fun part. To blokes, our ‘stuff’ is like a personal museum. Seeming bits of crap carry a wealth of memories. This leads to a trap where nearly everything is important. A 1999 Glastonbury Festival program is a wonderful keepsake and a beautiful reminder of a largely unmemorable time out.* A Snickers wrapper from the same year, however, should probably embrace the bottom of a bin.

My wife is a stiffly efficient sorter-outer. Should she unearth the original copy of the bible, signed by every disciple no less (“Don’t stop believin’!” Love John) it would probably find itself as landfill by the time the day is out. Long ago she ‘sorted’ aforementioned Glastonbury guide into non-existence, thus spiriting away my memory, youth and sense of hope with it. There’s marginally more space in that box now, I’ll give her that, especially since my collection of Snickers wrappers has gone too. However, it keeps a clean house. Somewhere between the extreme purging and borderline hoarding lies a normal human being. Which is what a good marriage/workplace is after all.

Speaking of which, I wish a happy future work union to my beloved BMA-ers. There’s a soppy ‘n’ sentimental column (with gags, natch) to follow next ish. ALLAN SKO - allan@bmamag.com *unmemorable not because it was bland, you understand, but because it was, how you say, a little too mind expanding, if you catch my smokey-cloud drift...

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WHO: MikelangelO and tHe tin Star WHat: nO Sign Of a PiPeline tOur WHen: fri May 11 WHere: anu Bar

Anyone who has seen Mikelangelo perform in any guise knows that this will be an unforgettable show, and the surf and western rock action of the Tin Star seals the deal. The group is celebrating the release of the first official film clip from their debut album The Surf ‘n’ Western Sounds Of…. The clip is for the smokin’ instrumental surf number No Sign Of A Pipeline and was shot by underground Canberra legend Konrad Lenz. The towering Lenz will join the Tin Star as a special guest on the night, along with the alluring and angel voiced Alice Cottee (No Hausfrau), irresistible pop maestros Fun Machine and surf-garage slumlords The King Hits. Doors at 7.30pm.

WHO: HalfWay WHat: CO-Headline tOur WitH We all Want tO WHen: Sat aPril 28 WHere: tHe PHOenix

Halfway are already a beloved name around the country. 2011 saw Halfway play Big Day Out and receive AIR and Q Music award nominations for Best Album for their last release An Outpost of Promise. The band was formed by John Busby, Chris Dale and Elwin Hawtin who originally hail from Rockhampton, Central Queensland.

Based on a mutual love of Dylan, Springsteen, Big Star and The Replacements, they left Rockie and headed south to put together a band with the finishing touches to the line-up being added in Brissie to round them off as an eight-piece. Halfway are doing a run of shows with label mates We All Want To. Catch ‘em at Phoenix. Free.

WHO: lil JOn WHat: Bringing tHe Crunk tO CanBerra WHen: tHurS aPril 26 WHere: uC refeCtOry

Hip hop heavyweight Lil Jon is set to take the Canberra party scene on an epic ride when he hits the UC Refectory, playing his first ever show in Canberra as part of his 2012 Australian tour. This outrageous performance will be brought to you by UC Live! and Pang! with full media support from BMA Magazine. Lil Jon is best known for his role in creating and popularising the southern movement and lifestyle known as Crunk. Widely known for his platinum-selling production, Lil Jon has crafted groundbreaking hits for a diverse array of artists such as Usher, Ice Cube and many more. Lil Jon will be joined by local legends DJ Rawson and Offtapia. Tix through Moshtix.

WHO: JaCk Carty WHat: alBuM launCH WHen: Sat May 5 WHere: tHe frOnt

Fresh from standout sets at this year’s Woodford Folk Festival, and with his debut album One Thousand Origami Birds being named in a slew of Best of 2011 lists, Jack Carty is on the verge of releasing his newest album Break Your Own Heart through Gigpiglet Recordings/ Inertia. His second album is already being dubbed his most ambitious, eloquent, moving and accomplished release to date.

Supported by Patrick James, a young Sydney troubadour inspired by lyrically-driven guitar-based music and akin to Bright Eyes and Bob Dylan, Patrick joins us off the back of a successful national tour with Boy & Bear’s Tim Hart. 8pm, $15.

WHO: CHiCkS WHO lOve gunS WHat: rauCOuS SHenaniganS WHen: tHurS aPril 26 WHere: tHe PHOenix

Chicks Who Love Guns, who have built a reputation for their ferocious live shows, spent 2011 playing with acts such as Regular John, Die! Die! Die!, The Scare, Hunting Grounds and Grinspoon and recently prompted one reviewer to hail them as the “… long awaited shot in the arm indie rock needs!” (the dwarf.com.au).

Headline shows have seen dancefloors erupt into mosh pits and band members jump into the crowd to join in on the raucous shenanigans. Their highly anticipated second EP Stutter was released in Oct 2011 with rave reviews from press and tastemakers including triple j play and inclusion on the Sydney BDO line-up. 8pm.

WHO: daniel MerriWeatHer WHat: One Of tHe leaderS Of tHe SOul revival MOveMent WHen: tHurS May 3 WHere: ZierHOlZ @ uC

Currently based in NY, Daniel took the world by storm with the release of his Mark Ronson-produced debut LP Love & War in ‘09. The album went platinum in the UK and earned him an ARIA Award, as well as a reputation as one of the leaders of the soul revival movement, appearing on Letterman and Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Hard at work on his highly-anticipated sophomore LP, Daniel returns home to join Kimbra on her national tour in May. He’ll be getting get up-close and personal during some special sideshows, and you can catch him in the warm and enticing surrounds of the new Zierholz @ UC bar. Tix through Moshtix.

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FEAR OF A FLAVor’D PLANET Peter Krbavac “The kitchen is a mess.” It’s a metaphor that Chuck D continues to return to over the course of our conversation. The frontman of legendary hip hop group PUBLIC ENEMY is right in the midst of finishing up two new records with the group: Most of My Heroes Still Don’t Appear on No Stamp, which will be released in June, and its follow-up, The Evil Empire of Everything, due out in September. “People are sitting in the dining room or in the living room or whatever and the kitchen is a mess. The kitchen is a storm, man,” he says, with a deep chuckle. “It’s a disaster – and it’s a good one too. Great smells are coming out of there and you can see what’s forming to be complete, but it ain’t complete now.”

It’s not what’s up with us, it’s what’s up with the world As Chuck explains, the two records are gradually being assembled in studios across the country, and the band’s scattered membership are communicating by phone, email and text. The albums will then be released on Public Enemy’s own label, SLAMjamz. This mode of operation is a far cry from the group’s early days recording their groundbreaking 1987 debut Yo! Bum Rush the Show, an album which married The Bomb Squad’s abrasive, hard-edged production with Chuck D and Flavor Flav’s righteously indignant rhyming and introduced the group to the world.

“Back then, you had to get a purchase order to go into a studio – you just couldn’t just go into a studio and record,” Chuck remembers. “A clock was always running. Then when you finally had [the album], it was actually a physical product that was out of your hands. It was usually out of your hands because retail, warehousing, shipping, manufacturing were all these elements that everybody else took care of and then told you what your percentage rate was going to be. From the studio to the end result you were totally dependent and being totally dependent on a structure like that really kept a lot of people out, so you were competing against a selected few.

“Today,” he continues, “the method of putting together a record and making it slide into the world, I’m not going to say it’s no big deal, but the thing about it is something has to be unique about you – different than what the next band can do. I think that

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what Public Enemy did here is not so much about what’s within, but really the technique of what we dared to do: releasing two albums two months from each other in the time when people flash through records, songs, albums so fast. We wanted to be able to slow down the listening.”

So are these two albums almost a reaction to modern listening habits? “Exactly,” Chuck affirms. “You’re the first one that got it; it is a reaction to listening habits today. People’s access is quicker, their tolerance is less and the time that they have to soak in anything is short. That’s the reality and you adapt and adjust to it. The presentation [of the music] is an event, as much as what is within,” he reemphasises. “I didn’t want to do anything ordinary.”

When it comes to subject matter for the twin LPs, Chuck is certainly not short of inspiration. “Somebody was talking to me earlier,” he says, “like, ‘Where are you guys coming from?

What’s up with you guys?’ and I’m like, ‘Well, it’s not what’s up with us, it’s what’s up with the world.’ That’s the statement that I’m trying to make: ‘What’s up with the world?’ Watch the throne, but who’s going to catch the thrown?” Chuck says, referencing the collaborative LP Jay-Z and Kanye West released last year.

“So there’s a [song] title called Catch the Thrown – and thrown is T-H-R-O-W-N. It’s not a direct attack [on Jay-Z and Kanye], it’s a question. As we’re watching the throne, who’s going to catch The Thrown?” – the people that are, as Chuck puts it, “Thrown at, thrown under, thrown to the side, thrown down.

“It’s that question: questioning the elite, which we’ve always been able to do,” he concludes. “Being able to bring a world conversation into the picture.”

The challenge now, Chuck says, is how Public Enemy incorporate this wealth of new material into its live shows. While the group is no heritage act dependent on rehashing past glories, as a music fan Chuck is more than aware of striking that delicate balance between the new stuff and the classics.

“I wouldn’t necessarily want to go and see The Rolling Stones if they didn’t want to do Satisfaction and Brown Sugar and all those cuts,” he admits. “I’d be like, ‘I’m a fan, I bought the new album but I don’t want to hear all of it.’ You don’t want to leave [the new album] alone, you want to actually draw from it and fit it within your set so people say, ‘Wow, if they did want to do their whole album they would have smashed it just like they did.’ There’s always got to be some nice shit up in there that you can do, but also know what brought you there.”

Public Enemy play Groovin the Moo at The Meadows, University of Canberra on Sunday May 13 alongside Hilltop Hoods, City and Colour, Digitalism, Kimbra, Parkway Drive, Kaiser Chiefs, Wavves, 360 and many more. Tickets are $99.90 from Moshtix.

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ALL AGES With enough exciting events coming up to suit all tastes, you are left with no excuse to be glued to the patch of floor in front of your heater as the cold weather sets in. Get out there and move!

Before touring the country with Simple Plan and We The Kings later in the year, Sydney pop-punk five-piece The Never Ever are embarking on their very own national tour, Remember to Breathe.

We Canberrans will have the delight of sampling their newest material live at the Woden Youth Centre on Friday April 27. Tickets cost just $16.60 + bf and can be bought on the door on the night or through any Moshtix outlet.

On Friday May 4 you are being presented with a rare opportunity to bear witness to the musical skill of one of the world’s finest electrohouse artists, French DJ and producer David Guetta. Local masters Timomatic, Bombs Away, Jared De Veer and Rawson will join the legend on Stage 88 in Commonwealth Park for a spectacular night of tunes in the appropriately chilled autumn air. The music starts at 7pm. First round tickets have already sold out, however the second release tickets, though selling extremely fast, can still be bought through Moshtix for $79.95 + bf. Get ready to dance your hearts out!

It’s not often that we get an opportunity to see an internationally recognised DJ play a licensed all ages event.

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It’s coming up quickly so don’t forget to buy your tickets for Groovin the Moo. This day-long entertainment extravaganza will feature a mind-blowing line-up of local and international artists including Purple Sneakers DJs, Bluejuice, Public Enemy (USA), City and Colour (Canada), The Getaway Plan, Parkway Drive, Kaiser Chiefs (UK), Hilltop Hoods and Adrian Lux, to name just a few. For the full line-up visit www.gtm.net.au. The action will take place at The Meadows of the University of Canberra on Sunday May 13. The music begins at 10.30am and goes late into the night. Tickets cost $99.90 + bf through the Groovin the Moo website or any Moshtix or Ticketek outlet. This is one of the most highly anticipated all ages events of the year, so get your tickets before they all disappear.

Prized Sydney six-piece Buried In Verona are to be shaking down the capital on The Notorious Tour. Supporting their launch across the country will be The Plot In You from the US and In Hearts Wake and Silent Screams from the UK. It’s a fair way off but this event at the Tuggeranong Youth Centre on Wednesday June 20 is worth booking ahead for. Tickets are available through Moshtix outlets for just $20 + bf. Doors open at 6pm.

I am also sad to announce that this issue of the All Ages column will be the last I will have the joy of writing. I trust that this column will continue to bring good news to the all ages scene. Thank you, eager readers. It has been a great couple of years and a real pleasure writing this column. I wish you all a fun and entertainment filled 2012.

All the best! (All the best to you too Naomi dear. You’re a real treasure and BMA Mag’s favourite work experience kid of all time! Much love from Julz and Al - Ed.) NAOMI FROST allagescolumn@gmail.com

LOCALITY

Traditional regalia and gaudy plastic vines adorn the walls of the restaurant, which churns out adorably named and delicious pierogie, Polish dumplings, at a cracking rate while Żywiec, the ridiculously cheap and tasty pilsner that comes in a hefty 500ml bottle flies from the fridge. On the far right of the bar sits a faded football team photo plaque; all the men are magnificently moustachioed and have hard to pronounce surnames. To the left of the bar a cabinet proffers a bemusing collection of cosmetics, presumably for sale.

Behind the bar you’ll always find Barbara Alwast, the President of the Polish Club. She is, like the name of the soft white dumplings, adorable, but unlike pierogie, can be quite firm.

Barbara Alwast won’t stand to be slapped with a fine if someone is caught by police with a beer out front in the unlicensed area of her establishment, and regularly does her rounds to check we’re all sticking to the rule. “Oh you’re all so good!” she said in her thick Polish accent, smiling up at us late last Saturday night, well after Cracked Actor, whose EP launch it was, had concluded their set. I wanted to give her a hug.

That’s the kind of warm and homely feel the Polish Club radiates; it’s a friendly, unassuming place, and after the death of MacGregor Hall has become the new heartland of the CMC. Sure it’s a bit daggy (it was built in ’73 after all), but it’s good daggy, and a fair few hundred punters can pack snugly into its hall, and have done so often in the past couple of years.

Local master lensman Martin Ollman (check his photos of the night on page 48) told me over a Żywiec however he’d seen a band play the Polish a good 20 years ago, so it’s certainly not a recent addition to Canberra’s music scene. It’s also nicely located. Being a bit out of Civic you’ve got to go that one extra mile, meaning everyone there for a gig genuinely wants to be there. No one’s there to get sozzled and heckle.

I can guarantee everyone who was there late last Saturday night genuinely wanted to be there. While Nigel McCrae of the CMC led the pack down effort, a handful of heartily liquored lazybones continued to drink in the bar. One by one our eyes were glued to the large wall mounted flatscreen. A completely starkers couple ran through a field in the rain and adorned each other’s naughty bits with daisies! What was this, flower power porn!?*

Every time we got a full frontal we whooped and cheered like school children; we were all in absolute hysterics. Here we were at the Polish, knocking back Żywiec, watching Age of Aquarius porn until Barbara, chuckling along with us behind the bar, hit the remote. Tears of laughter streamed down our cheeks.

Only in Canberra, I thought. Only in our beloved ‘Berra.

JULIA WINTERFLOOD julia@bmamag.com @jwinterflood

*The SBS website revealed what we were cackling over was Pascale Ferran’s 2006 film Lady Chatterley. Late night SBS wins again.

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DANCE THE DROP

I think someone needs to create an online DJ gimmick generator.

First, you decide what music you like. Wait, first you decide what music the public would like, then you learn to mix the music together using a computer program that does most of the work for you. Then you type your DJ name into the gimmick generator and BAM!, you have a useless signature to set you apart from the crowd.

Recent successes include Steve Aoki (stage-diving and throwing birthday cakes), DJ Bl3nd (wearing a Chucky mask) and Havana Brown (make up and breasts). I am willing to sink at least $10 of my own money into this exciting online start up venture. PM for details.

Have you ever been clubbed with a Blunt Instrument? If not, you can be sure to have your head pummelled by forward-thinking glitch on Friday May 4 at The Clubhouse. The aforementioned Brissie duo will be backed up by ultra-violent cohorts Buick, Sidesteppa, Tmo, DFP and Womplestiltskin, who plan to get all Clockwork Orange on your most sensitive areas… in a good way. Sticking with The Clubhouse, Eargasm also have Blaze Tripp appearing on Friday May 11. Blaze is one of my personal faves so get off your arse and see him!

Academy has just announced that they will be bringing Estonian dyslexic Mord Fustang to the main room on Friday May 18. The young producer has been one of the most impressive newcomers in 2012 after his track We Are Now Connected was championed by artists like Pete Tong, Swedish House Mafia and Tommy Trash. I highly recommend going along to see ‘The next Avicii’ before he becomes too in-demand!

Many of you switched-on youngsters may have already discerned that there will be no Winter Warehouse Music Festival in 2012. A lot of people have speculated over the decision to remove the yearly gala extravaganza from our calendar, although I thought it would be prudent to ask the Director of Kicks Entertainment, Ryan Phillips, why we would be missing out this year.

“Kicks strives to bring different and unique events to Canberra,” he said. “When the opportunity to produce the David Guetta concert came up Kicks decided to focus on this event in 2012 and look forward to bringing Warehouse and other Stage 88 events back in the future.” The Guetta spectacular launches this Friday May 4 in Commonwealth Park and it seems that the Kicks coffers have been opened wide to make the inaugural Stage 88 show a memorable experience for punters. “His show brings together unique lighting and pyrotechnics and crowd experience, from a performer who knows exactly what the crowd wants from their night,” said Phillips.

“There is a reason he is the world’s most sought-after DJ.” With only a small corner left, I don’t have the space to give you a long list of hot records for May but I can tell you to look out for new bangers from Foamo, E-Skeemo and Mark Knight. Enjoy!

TIM GALVIN tim.galvin@live.com.au

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kinda went, ‘Well, we’re enjoying this!’ So we decided to make some new material. Otherwise we’d just have got bored.

IF HALLEY’S COMET WAS A BAND

Morgan Richards

British dance titans ORBITAL are back with a rip-snorter of a new album, Wonky. Despite it being their first in eight years, the legendary duo still have the magic. Consisting of brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll, Orbital are somewhat of an institution. Formed in the late ‘80s, the two are often linked to the rave and acid house scenes of ‘90s Britain. “Although,” elaborates Paul, “to be fair, we actually never played at any huge illegal raves. Not being funny or anything but I’ll be buggered if I’m taking my entire recording studio into some illegal rave that might get downed by the police. Not to mention risk having my beer confiscated. By that stage of things, we were playing at larger festivals like Glastonbury anyway.”

It was in 2005 at Glastonbury, in fact, that the brothers finally called it a day. But they reformed in 2009 for a show commemorating 20 years since their monumental early single, Chime. “We were supposed to do a summer of gigs,” says Paul. “But people kept asking us to play and it turned into two years of touring. At some point we

I like to shape the plot of the music. It’s hard to explain, but that’s my skill

“That’s how Wonky was born. We had a very clear agenda; we sat down and started writing some stuff that we basically thought would be brilliant to play live.” Indeed, Orbital are famed for their energetic live show and ability to engage with audiences – something that live electronic musicians often find difficult. So how exactly do the duo manage it so well? “Basically, we improvise. We jam all our arrangements. We know what songs we’re going to play and what order we’re going to play them in, but that’s as far as planning goes.

We kinda feed off the audience. If they really enjoy a track, it goes on longer. And if they don’t, well, it gets a bit shorter.

“That’s how we connect, by just playing along with the audience.

We’re all in it together; that’s the impression I get playing live. We’re leading and we’re being led at the same time. Because I’m doing the arranging and Phil’s doing the mixing, we’re free to do what we want without actually communicating that much on stage. Mostly, we instinctively know what the other is gonna do.

“That’s how I like to play live. We were playing at a festival, not long after we’d got back together, and I remember thinking, ‘Yeah, this is right. This is where I’m supposed to be’. I don’t like to play instruments live on stage; instead I like to be thinking about the arrangements. I like to shape the plot of the music. It’s hard to explain, but that’s my skill. That’s what I love to do.”

Unfortunately Orbital don’t have a Canberra show but you can catch them at The Metro Theatre, Sydney, Saturday May 5 at 11pm. Tickets are $67.30 + bf through Ticketek.

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E X H I B I T I O N I S T

To encourage this Jade decided to set her dance piece to music with an unusual seven beat time signature. So instead of ‘—and five, six, seven, eight’, Jade’s dancers only get ‘—and five, six, seven’, which undoubtedly catches them off guard at times. And that’s the point.

YOUTH, INTERRUPTED ZOE PLEASANTS ME RIGHT NOW is the latest production by Canberra’s QL2 contemporary dance company. It promises to be a physical, visceral show, full of highly skilled athleticism complemented with sensitivity, artistry and poetry. It’s about young people in the present, not where they’ve come from or where they’re going to, but what they’re doing right now. The audience will be taken on a journey through the lives of the dancers and on this journey the show will investigate the kind of tales we’re telling young people today and how these tales affect the way young people construct their identity, protect themselves and survive in this world.

It is an ambitious production, setting original choreography to bespoke music against a backdrop of film images. At its core are the collaborations between QL2’s Quantum Leap dancers and choreographers Lina Limosani, Jade Dewi Tyas-Tunggal and Matt Cornell. In turn, these choreographers have each been collaborating with the composer Adam Ventoura and working with film company Bearcage Productions.

I caught up with Jade Dewi Tyas-Tunggal to talk about the show. She told me that what is really celebrated in a production like this is that “you can’t know the outcome till you’ve gone through the process— and I really enjoy that.” Embrace the chaos! When we chatted, Jade was six days into a ten-day intensive rehearsal period with her group of 11 dancers. And although the creative process for this production stretches back as far as May last year, when QL2’s Artistic Director, Ruth Osborne, first spoke to the choreographers about being involved, these ten days will be the only time Jade will spend with the dancers. The other choreographers have had similar ten-day sessions over the summer.

“I arrived with this messy chaos of ideas, images and movement sequences,” Jade explains, “and in these last few days it’s starting to be crafted together and find order… it’s alchemy—a bit of magic.”

With so much do to in such a tight timeframe you might think that Jade would opt for some shortcuts to make things easier for her and the dancers. But you don’t usually get spectacular by keeping things comfortable. In Jade’s case, spectacular involves bringing about an alert, heightened performance state within her dancers in order to give the audience a multidimensional experience, something real, something with a pulse.

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Jade is interested in subverting the dancer’s habitual ways and getting them concentrating on what they’re doing in each moment.

Sounds tough? Well add to this that Jade is working with a group of dancers ranging in age from 13 to 22, and ranging in experience from beginner to university graduate, and that the music has continued to evolve through the rehearsal period as Jade works with the composer to get it just right, and you start to get some idea of the complexity of this production. “I’m working the dancers really hard mentally, physically, personally and as a group. I’m asking a lot of them. But it’s extraordinary to watch them grow in such a short amount of time,” Jade tells me.

Me Right Now comprises four dance pieces: three by the guest choreographers— with a group of male and female dancers in Lina’s piece, a group of male dancers in Matt’s piece and a group of female dancers in Jade’s piece— and a finale involving all the dancers. But rather than being four separate pieces, they combine together to form a single journey. Jade describes the music accompanying this journey as “electronica, bass, ambient sounds, rhythms and distorted nursery rhymes.” And then the film adds another layer to it, “bringing images and metaphors into the dance pieces. It is another element that adds accent or shading,” Jade explains.

Although each of the dance pieces has come out of an improvised, collaborative process, the final show will present very much as a slick choreographed production featuring “formal configurations, geometry and harmonies,” Jade says. The collaboration and improvisation helps to craft the piece. Jade describes the “beauty of working with dancers, who are living, breathing, organic and strongwilled beings” and the richness of engaging with them rather than trying to control them through pre-determined choreography.

“The more the dancers invest in the creative process the more they respond with active participation; the feedback is enriching,” she explains. And by going through this process the show becomes a complex, crafted piece. “[You] throw everything into the studio and see what happens. It’s a living, breathing creative process,” and, admits Jade, “it’s a bit edgy and nerve wracking; it could all fall apart!”

Towards the end of our conversation Jade tells me a little about herself. She started ballet lessons at age five and went to high school at the Newtown High School of Performing Arts. You’d think with that amount of nurturing Jade’s career as contemporary dancer and performer would be assured. But she did ‘well enough’ at school to get into law at university. It took a massive leap of faith and the support of her family for her to turn her back on a more conventional path and enter the arts. So I wonder how many other lawyers out there, or any other professionals for that matter, are just not brave enough to take this leap of faith and embrace the chaos?

Me Right Now is running for five shows at The Playhouse, Wed-Sat May 9-12, 7pm each night and a 2pm matinee on Saturday. Tickets are $17-$28, available through Canberra Ticketing (www.canberraticketing.com.au) or call (02) 6275 2700.

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A SILVER EULOGY MELISSA WELLHAM In 2007, the otherworldly dancer and choreographer Tanja Liedtke had just been announced as the new Artistic Director of the Sydney Dance Company. She was only 29 years old. This appointment came after a lot of hard work and recent international acclaim for her pieces. She was being touted as one of the most promising artistic talents to come out of Australia in any field for many years.

And then, late one night, she was hit by a truck on the streets of Sydney and killed.

LIFE IN MOVEMENT is an eloquent elegy and tribute to the dancer, co-directed and written by Sophie Hyde and Bryan Mason, who knew Tanja personally. The film follows a circle of her closest collaborators as they embark on a world tour showcasing her works, a mere 18 months after her death. Hyde and Mason interview the performers, including her partner and producer Sol Ulbrich, who she had planned to marry. The film weaves together this interview footage with the new performances, tapes of her full length works Twelfth Floor and construct, footage from rehearsals, and self-shot videos of Tanja, illustrating her creative process.

The film will be showing in Canberra at the National Film and Sound Archive, and Cynthia Piromalli (assistant cinema programmer at the NFSA) thinks Life in Movement is a poignant and compelling film, which deserves to be screened in our small city. “At the NFSA, we’re able to show documentaries and films that might not get a release in Canberra otherwise. We wanted to screen this particular film because it really does reflect the arts as a whole. All the issues that are identified in regards to dance are issues across all artistic mediums. And here in Canberra we have a very strong arts community who will really relate – whether they are in dance, or other performance arts, or visual art, or filmmakers – to the film.”

Life in Movement is disarmingly frank for a film made so soon after Tanja’s death. It tells the story of a gifted artist who struggled with being a perfectionist while being simultaneously plagued with self-doubt. Cynthia thinks part of what makes the film so watchable is its human element. “It shows the coping mechanisms that people have when someone passes away. I particularly found her partner Sol quite interesting. For him, is this work denial, or is it a coping mechanism, or a way to delay the inevitable grief?”

Life in Movement is a dance film, a documentary, an elegy and a profoundly moving and human story. It’s a multilayered film—as Cynthia says, just as “Canberra is a very multilayered place. It will be interesting to see who comes to watch the film.” And if this closing sentence can sway you at all: I highly recommend it.

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Life in Movement’s final screenings at the National Film and Sound Archive are Thursday April 26, 2pm and Sunday April 29, 4.30pm. Tickets are $5-$15.

See their website (www.nfsa.gov.au) or call (02) 6248 2000 for bookings.

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R2 DOUBLE D2

THE THINGS THEY LEFT BEHIND

Morgan Richards

CHLOE MANDRYK

What’s sexy about Star Wars? Not a whole lot, you’d probably think.

Unless you have a fur fetish, are into brother-on-sister action or have some sort of weird thing for Stormtrooper outfits, there’s really not much there. In fact, there’s a complete dearth (or should that be Darth?) of erotica in the Star Wars universe. But all that has changed. Ready to have your mind blown? How’s this: STAR WARS BURLESQUE. Excellently titled The Empire Strips Back, this strange and beautiful creation blends erotic striptease with intergalactic adventure. I caught up with Russall Beattie to talk about how exactly one treads a line between X-wings and X-rated.

WHEN WISHING STILL WORKED is a new exhibition of painting, sculpture and installation by Helen Braund, Tiffany Cole and Shellaine Godbold. Witches, shut-ins, wives, virgins and whores are absent from the exhibition. Instead it is dotted with the items this host of characters might have left behind: painted doilies, a Wiccan crystalised flower, lurid chocolate cake, crow pie, gold stitching and moody matriarchal portraits. As a whole, the works bring to mind Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, but these objects are drawn from an imagined history.

“I confess, I’m a total Star Wars geek,” says Beattie. “I have this joke: I’m a geek and a pervert, so this is pretty much the perfect show for me to create.” So was it hard theming a burlesque show around a franchise with such a large and devoted following? “When you choose to take on something like Star Wars, you have a duty of care.

Think about it. It’s not even really owned by George Lucas anymore.

It’s owned by everybody. We do have our critics,” admits Beattie.

“When you take on something like Star Wars, it’s impossible to please everyone. When putting it together, we tried to keep in mind that some people aren’t huge Star Wars fans, and others have never been to a burlesque show. So we definitely try to find a balance.”

I talked to dancer Kael Murray, who agreed that some of the more hardcore fans miss the point a little. “I think some of them come expecting something else. It’s like, ‘Whoa, the Stormtroopers took their tops off! That didn’t happen in the movie.’ C’mon, it’s a burlesque show. What were you thinking would happen?” Another challenge presented to the show was the costumes. Traditional burlesque costumes are, well, minimal. So is it difficult for the dancers to get down in battle armour and a space helmet? “Very much so,” says Beattie. “The dancers all have to be very well rehearsed. A lot of the costume helmets have visors made of resins when the light hits them they flare out and you can’t see a thing.”

Kael, who performs as a lightsaber-wielding Jedi and the robot C-3PO, says it was interesting adapting to the costumes. “I was a bit limited for my C-3PO performance, because the costume is made of hard plastic and it’s quite hard to take on and off in a hurry. I couldn’t really strip off, so I had to make it interesting in other ways. There’s some popping and locking, done in a sexy robotic fashion, of course.

But in general, I went for a quirky, cute approach. I don’t think fans generally think of C-3PO in a sexual way. Not until they’ve seen the show, anyway!”

Get a good look at how Han Solo made the Millennium Falcon fly on Friday May 4, 8pm in The Playhouse. Tickets are $68.50 + bf, available through the Canberra Theatre Centre website (www.canberratheatrecentre.com.au) or call (02) 6275 2700.

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The food we could not eat by Helen Braund is a feast fit for no one with jelly, cake and pie made from plastics and clay. While looking delectable we can imagine what decay over time will do to it. Helen likes that we can pause and witness “a freezing of time like a scene from a storybook, memorialising a moment.” We are all in on the joke; this sculpture is intended to suggest rot but is inedible. This is the same sticking point when we read a fairy tale; we know it’s a story but we still buy into the idea or the moral.

Tiffany Cole’s larger-than-life paintings of two swans hint at someone’s collection of porcelain figurines. Tiffany says, “conceptually, I am interested in the way that, when you come from a suburban upbringing, your ideas about the natural world can be heavily informed by the books, and objects that reside in the domestic sphere.” With oil painting, a venerated technique, she can elevate the meaning of the common objects she depicts. “I use the labour-intensive method of oil painting to invest a sense of value into the subjects I paint.”

Shellaine Godbold creates a chandelier of paper cut-out profiles of women strung up by their hair. The light shines through the paper making two complete shadows of the work on the facing walls. This kind of portraiture is an old technique and it is argued that to draw from a shadow is the genesis of art itself. The commercial application of having your silhouette constructed boomed in 18th and 19th century Europe and America and with the advent of photography it waned. It has experienced resurgence in contemporary art, particularly because it communicates nostalgia.

The work brings to mind Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s portrait of Isabella Blow at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Like Blow, Noble and Webster, Shellaine says she is “trying to make sense of the world and how I fit into it. I think it has to do with getting older and not fitting the role that is sometimes expected from society or the role we think we should be playing.”

The pieces inhabit a forest of pine trees installed at CCAS, Gorman House Arts Centre until Saturday May 12. The exhibition is open Tuesday-Friday 11am-5pm and Saturday 10am-4pm. Entry is free.

IN REVIEW

Doubt: A Parable The Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre Friday-Sunday April 13-29 It’s a simple story, and through that clarity Doubt is complex. In 1960s USA the conservative and seemingly uncaring principal of St. Nicholas Church School, Sister Aloysius, suspects a member of her staff, Father Flynn, of repeatedly seducing altar boys. An anomaly arrives: a young Latino boy in a school full of Italian and Caucasian students. Bullied, isolated, and needing a role model, he makes the perfect target for Flynn. It’s a matter of catching the Father definitively, and when this doesn’t happen, conviction is left to the unease of faith and doubt in Sister Aloysius and her counterpart Sister James.

Directed by Cate Clelland, Free Rain Theatre’s take on this powerful and open-ended parable is clever, understated, and consequently engrossing. While the script could have translated easily to say, a Melbourne schoolyard of the same era, the cast held their accents well. Though a cast of four, it is the dialogue-thick script relayed seamlessly between characters that holds the audience captive.

Between the seemingly cold Sister Aloysius (Naoné Carrel) and charming Father Flynn (Jarrad West), we watch the young Sister James (Hannah McCann) deflowered from a teacher whose passion for education sprouts from almost naïve enthusiasm, to a girl clouded by the weight of knowing Father Flynn’s possible crimes.

Throughout, the altar boy remained invisible. His absence is enough to serve catalyst, though, and it’s within these directorial maneuvers that the wonderful simplicity of Free Rain’s Doubt lies. An uncomplicated soundtrack featuring bird noises during courtyard

scenes, or an excerpt from a Bach cello suite are beautifully complimented by smart set design. The stage is divided into halves; a central wall divides a courtyard and Sister Aloysius’ office, with a moveable pew for the deliverance of Father Flynn’s sermons.

By stripping the performance down to a modest set, the audience isn’t overwhelmed by both a complicated setup and overwhelming script; there is space for thought. Space for subtleties, too. We begin to appreciate small character details; the audience is privy to the diegetic of Sister Aloysius as she listens to a radio programme through confiscated earphones. And how telling the audio is!

Despite her outwardly staunch disposition, she listens to a show about ensuring the wellbeing of students.

Naoné Carrel’s portrayal of this sharp female lead is truly convincing. Her command of the stage is as humble and firm as the command of Sister Aloysius over St. Nicholas’. Hannah McCann plays an excellent wide-eyed, Disney-esque Sister James, though the dramatics aren’t overbearing, compensating for moments in which we are shown the characters’ nature through mannerisms or quiet, revealing actions. Though rare, acts as subtle as making a cup of tea or wrapping roses against frost add to the reality of an austere schoolyardworld. Most enjoyably, these simple bodily moments counter the heated and convicting conversations that bury the audience deep in the human politics of pursuit, trust, and doubt.

ROSANNA stevens

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ARTISTPROFILE: Ian Robertson

What do you do? I’m a painter of the Australian landscape.

When did you get into it? Since early childhood in the bush around Sydney but more seriously since completing an honours degree in visual art at ANU in 2006.

Who or what influences you as an artist? The varying light of vast Australian skies and the way it changes the look of the land. I’m also influenced by the way land is represented so differently by Australian artists from Indigenous artists to modern painters like the Tasmanian, Philip Wolfhagen.

What’s your biggest achievement/proudest moment so far? As an artist it would be winning two emerging artist awards at the end of the honours year or winning a commission for art work in the New Acton Apartments. As a person it’s achieving forty two years of married life with Kate, my wife and main supporter/critic/ advertising agent.

What are your plans for the future? Keep painting the wild palaces of Australia as long as I can travel to them, hold a paintbrush and translate them into art that satisfies me.

What makes you laugh? Witty words, jokes well told, visual gags that are surprising and the ridiculous. I love to listen to Billy Connelly although now I smile every time I hear a Glasgow accent. I always get a laugh from the satirical reviews of Shortis and Simpson.

What pisses you off? People who dismiss contemporary art as ‘all crap’, and the tailing off of the public art program in Canberra.

What’s your opinion of the local scene? It’s diverse and gives you the opportunity to experience masterpieces across the ages in the NGA and NPG as well as see cutting-edge contemporary work in CCAS, Drill Hall and ANCA. What are your upcoming performances/exhibitions? With a fellow M16 artist we have an exhibition running now at M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Cres, Griffith. It’s elements experienced in extremes or times of change. The collection’s open Wednesday to Sunday, 12pm-5pm. In June I’ll be exhibiting larger works at SoArt gallery in Narooma.

Contact info: Ph: 0413599794, email: ianrobertson3@bigpond.com Website: www.openairart.com.au

CAUTION: ART INSTALLATION UNSTABLE chloe mandryk Paint might seem like a means to an end in art but in KARL WIEBKE: 1994-2012 paint is the protagonist. It’s interesting to see Wiebke’s work (spanning almost 20 years) collected, not only because the relationship between the artist and paint itself is crystalised, but because his commitment to his process is commendable.

Some works like Untitled J/04, enamel on wood, are made up of dripped paint that has been lacing the surface progressively for a number of years, gradually building waves of stippled paint. The picture is three-dimensional and wonderfully the heavy synthetic paint looks organic, like neat rows of moss or fungi on a tree log, and not dissimilar to the ripples of a sand dune.

He paints on objects, in this case tall wooden sticks that lean in succession against a long wall. In Sticks he suggests a painting can be composed of space without being a sculpture, the empty space between the sticks and behind the sticks could be foreground or background, it’s up to you. By leaning a stick against a wall the artist also invites the audience’s caution. You don’t expect a painting to fall off its hooks but you definitely could unbalance this five-metre row of plywood sticks. So our idea of a painting as “safe” or “lasting” is endangered.

This goes for Pirates too, which are paintings done on hoops that tower over the audience. These works lean against the wall and are painted with lashings of bright opaque colour. It feels like they could roll away, suggesting that painting can be kinetic. With these hoops the space of where the work exists is curious. Is the artwork only on the hoop proper, or is the empty space in the centre part of the work? How would this change if the hoop was somewhere else? And if it was hanging or flat on the floor how does the composition then change?

31-04 blue on white, acrylic on enamel on linen uses line to create depth, the surface of this painting looks like fine gauze that has fallen gently into folds. Another work that uses line to create an impression of a real-world object is A/6, a slab of horizontal lines which have been applied to the surface to appear blurred and end up looking like a ream of felt. Paint here is fat, molten, moving, bright and you want to touch it. As Wiebke has said, “I am a painter reducing my means to the ground, the paint and the instrument.”

Karl Wiebke: 1994-2012 is on now at The Drill Hall Gallery, running until Friday May 20. The exhibition is open Wednesday-Sunday 12pm-5pm. Entry is free.

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bit PARTS WHO: Sidekicks WHAT: Independent comic’s first issue launch WHEN: Thurs May 3, 8pm WHERE: Knightsbridge Penthouse Sidekicks is an independently published, zine style comic book written by Christian White and drawn by Alice Carroll. After being rejected by several major comic book publishers, Christian penned the first issue of Sidekicks, wherein the central character, Jeff, struggles with the rejection of his own comic book idea, a Punisher/Sopranos crossover. This black comedy follows the lives of three people who frequent a comic book store. Along with Jeff there’s Maggie, who is stuck in a bad relationship with a hipster, and Patrick, a high-functioning autistic man who seems to alienate everyone he meets. After a successful launch in Melbourne, Sidekicks #1 is currently selling in several stores across the city.

But now it’s Canberra’s turn. Also for sale will be prints of panels from the comic and other artwork by both Christian and Alice.

WHO: Local comedian Jay Sullivan WHAT: I Am the Drunk Monk WHEN: Tues-Weds May 1-2 WHERE: Upstairs at Civic Pub Jay Sullivan is a bald semi-Buddhist and, by his own admission, “has no sex or possessions”. Sounds like a monk to us. Not for the faint hearted but with wisdom to impart, Jay’s new show I Am the Drunk Monk proves why he is not only Canberra’s favourite son, but also one of the most unique comic voices in Australia today. Two kinds of people are willing to try and answer life’s big questions: drunks and monks. Green Faces Winner and RAW National Finalist Jay Sullivan knows lots about both. It’s spiritual, but with a full shelf of spirits, and charts his journey from fundamentalist Christianity to pseudo monk with plenty of laughs along the way. The drunk monk will be performing over two nights and will feature supporting sets from local comedians. Tickets $10 from www.comedyact.com.au .

WHO: Phoenix Players WHAT: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying WHEN: May 11-26, Mad Men themed dress up night May 12 WHERE: ANU Arts Centre First-time Director Richard Block brings one of the funniest and most-loved musicals of all time to the Canberra stage. New York window washer J. Pierpont Finch believes he can be a business success with just his wits and his trusty self help book How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Pierpont enjoys a quick and riotous climb up the corporate ladder as his chief rival, Bud Frump, plots his downfall. Phoenix achieve a Canberra theatre first – an app complete with backstage scenes and competitions – to give you a theatrical experience like none you’ve ever had before. Come dressed in your 1960s Mad Men best on Saturday May 12 to win great prizes. Tickets available from www.canberrarep.org.au .

WHO: Les Ballets Eloelle WHAT: Men in Pink Tights WHEN: May 4-5 WHERE: Canberra Theatre Centre

WHO: Spiro Miralis WHAT: Exhibition animal WHEN: Sat May 5 – Sun June 3 WHERE: The Photography Room “I felt disgusted with myself and what I was doing. I felt disgusted with photography.” Spiro Miralis shies away from calling himself a photographer. If any definition of him (as an artist) is required, he will give in to that of being an auteur. “The photography just happens.

I have no control over that. It’s a time and a place and an experience.

Where photography really starts for me, is in the process of editing; that is where the work really comes together.” animal, a series of 24 large format colour photographs, was made mostly in the artist’s apartment. Showing his friends and lovers, soiled sheets and that canary-yellow shower curtain, Miralis’ photographs transcend their subjects and reveal themselves as serious studies of colour, shape and form. www.thephotographyroom.com.au .

From the thrilling pirouettes of the male dancers (in male and female costumes) with brilliant choreography to the side splitting humour, Les Ballets Eloelle’s new show Men In Pink Tights is designed for young and old. The greatest troupe of its kind around the globe; Les Ballets Elolle features over 50 ballets in its repertoire and an array of the best international professional male ballet dancers from 13 nations. Combining magnificent dance proficiency, bantering and clamorous wittiness with affected mannerisms, dance misadventures and naturally outrageous hissy fits, Men in Pink Tights produces bang-up amusement and laugh out loud family entertainment for all. Tickets through the venue.

WHO: Paul Summerfield WHAT: Exhibition Sky Aquarium WHEN: Weds May 2 – Mon May 21 WHERE: The Front In this refreshing body of work, rising Canberra artist Paul Summerfield has used his unique digital painting style to create fantastical landscapes that evoke glimmers of other worlds, past and future. All are welcome at the exhibition’s official opening at 6pm on Thursday May 3, which will include a performance

by Canberra band Cracked Actor. The new collection shows the continued evolution of Summerfield’s work and includes the first hanging of The Moad, which was spectacularly projected onto Old Parliament House during the recent Enlighten Festival. For more of Paul Summerfield’s work, visit www.ageofwonder.com.au .

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LESS TUMNUS, MORE DIABLO FROGRESSIVE FOLK Morgan richards

sophia mcdonald

John Darnielle, aka THE MOUNTAIN GOATS, is an oreamnos americanus in more than just his name. He’s stubborn, obstinate and often finds himself locked in bitter arguments with his fans. But there’s also a sort of calm, lofty wisdom to the man, the kind that can come only from living at high altitudes and feeding on grass and shrubs. He’s also prone to rambling. A good deal of our phone interview was spent discussing babies, the Bible and the merits of Norwegian doom metal (of which Darnielle is a “huge fan”). I eventually had to put my foot down and insist he answer at least a couple of questions.

FROGFEST was spawned in 2011 by Sydney muso David Carr and has grown from a tadpole of an event last year to amphibious splendour in 2012. If you’re wondering, FrogFest sprung from an amalgamation of the musical terms ‘progressive’ and ‘folk’. David explains that he chose the label ‘progressive folk’ to describe his own band (David Carr’s Fabulous Contraption) and then realised it was flexible enough to describe a range of Australian musical acts who, in David’s opinion, “tend to be the ones who are making music that is genuinely interesting and [who] stand out in a really positive way.”

It’s a record about insanity and Satan.

Doesn’t that just make you want to go out and buy a copy?

I asked Darnielle why he so often finds himself arguing with fans.

“It’s weird, but I think some people actually want me to keep making the same stuff forever. I can’t think of many bands that do that, and I don’t like any of them. Except Motörhead , of course. But seriously, I don’t know any hardcore, old school Mountain Goats fans who don’t take at least some pleasure in the new stuff. It’s the same creative impulse, just expressed a little differently.” A lot of the arguing consists of lo-fi nerds complaining they miss the tape hiss and crackly distortion of early recordings.

Darnielle agrees that his studio set-up was pretty basic: “I used to record on a boombox, it’s true. Sometimes people ask me if I still have my four-track. I say, ‘Four-track? What are you even talking about?’ A four-track would have been luxury!”

Looking through his back-catalogue, it’s also extraordinary just how much music Darnielle put out. There was often a kind of manic urgency to his work that seems somewhat muted in his most recent, studio-recorded albums. “With my older stuff,” says Darnielle, “it was literally like: get a good chord progression, scrawl down two verses and a chorus, and hit record. While it was great, it wasn’t nearly as satisfying as it is when I write a song now. When I’m done with it I can look at a song and say to myself, ‘That means something’, instead of just, ‘You’ve done something’. I feel like somewhere there was a turning point where I learnt to make songs that had a little more blood and sinew to them.”

And blood and sinew is what we’ve come to expect. The last Mountain Goats album, All Eternals Deck, wowed critics and fans alike with its powerful songwriting and musical maturity. So what does Darnielle’s forthcoming release, Transcendental Youth, have in store for us? “It’s a record about depression, mental illness and feeling psychotic. It’s about the devil. You need that radical dark presence in your life that opposes all things that are supposed to be good. You either embrace it or it destroys you. So yeah. It’s a record about insanity and Satan. Doesn’t that just make you want to go out and buy a copy?”

The Mountain Goats are playing The Metro in Sydney, Sunday May 6 at 7pm, supported by Catherine Traicos & The Starry Night. Tickets are $46.70 + bf through Ticketek.

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As he explains, genre categories at awards nights and musical festivals can marginalise and exclude certain projects whose sound and vision go beyond conventions. “Take The Crooked Fiddle Band, for instance. They often get labelled as a gypsy band but that is such a small part of what they do. They are breaking new ground, creating something really fresh and exciting, and I feel disappointed that a lot of bands who are similarly creating something unique are left out of the mix… The need to share these bands with the world was quite clear.”

The need to share these bands with the world was clear

The genre of folk might be clear enough to most but ‘progressive’ is still a bit of an ambiguously applied term. David’s interpretation of the term is open-minded and inclusive. “It suggests that the music is new or different in some way [or] doesn’t fit neatly into the standard genres [and] usually applies to experimental music or music with ambitious structures.”

FrogFest is bringing shows to seven towns and cities in NSW and Victoria and includes acts such as The Crooked Fiddle Band, The Rhythm Hunters and Chaika as well as Canberra locals Cracked Actor and Mr Fibby. Of his curation of the event, David said, “All the bands in the line-up have strong elements of progressive and folk styles, even though they often have elements from other styles. The nature of the genre is that the music is extremely varied, and I think that makes the event that much more exciting.” By attending live shows and scoping out support acts who shared progressive folk characteristics, David found a coherent and diverse line-up.

What can audience members expect to gain from hopping along to FrogFest? “Hopefully, seeing bands who are following their inspiration, doing something different and not merely subscribing to trends will inspire others to likewise.” In Canberra we’re lucky to be graced by funk prodigies The Woohoo Revue. David aims to continue the event annually, expanding its locations across Australia and supporting the continuing development of progressive folk projects.

FrogFest hops into Canberra Friday May 4 from 6pm at The White Eagle Club, O’Connor. Tickets are $15 + bf through Moshtix or $20 on the door.

You can think of partying in any way you want, just do it as hard as you can

PLUCKED FROM OBSCURITY... AGAIN

Justin Hook

ANDREW WK released his debut album (I Get Wet) in November 2001, mere months after The Strokes’ debut, in an age where studied nonchalance and designer apathy prevailed. In amongst the derivative homage to television and cynical posturing was a man with a bloodied nose, a never-changing skanky white jeans/ tee combo and an attitude that screamed – both figuratively and literally – party! Accuracy would demand bold capitals and ten exclamation marks, but humility won the day.

Andrew WK’s over-the-top brand of loud, pop-metal bravado was so sincere, so free of irony that he must have been taking the piss.

Needless to say he didn’t quite fit the mood of the decade. He became a TV host and motivational speaker, as well as releasing a J-pop cover album. It seemed there was little market for delirious odes to positivity set to grinding sheets of layered guitars and keyboards. Other than the one in Japan, obviously.

Ten years later WK is back – touring the album to the biggest audiences he’s ever played. How is this happening? The singersongwriter explains from London, hours before that biggest show is about to start. “Honestly, I didn’t even realise ten years had gone by.

[I Get Wet] is like a magical tool. It had a power and ability to make people feel very good and it seems like it hasn’t stopped doing that; just like a hammer will always drive a nail where you want to drive a nail. “It feels like every gig is the most fun you’ve ever had and then it happens again! So yeah, we’re on fire and never been more grateful and realise how lucky we are to be doing this. And to think that it’s still growing... [It’s] humbling and inspiring and mind blowing. I really didn’t expect this.”

Despite the bravado, WK does sound genuinely humbled by bigger stages and more crowded venues. His persona is built around the power of positivity and partying – which is a vaguer notion than you might imagine. “It was the easiest word that I could think of. The most popular and well-understood word to express an indescribable level of joy. It’s a feeling I wanted for myself and I wanted for other people. You can think of partying in any way you want, just do it as hard as you can. It could be the end of the week, or a birthday because you’re excited about being born and glad you’re not dead.

You can party every day.”

Ten years on, WK’s positivity sounds just as out of place in our hipster-ironic age as it did back then. Which is unfortunate. Andrew WK is trying to achieve something very simple – to have fun and enjoy life. We’d do well to pay attention to the loud man who parties.

Andrew WK is playing the V Stage at Groovin the Moo on Sunday May 13, not long before Hilltop Hoods, Parkway Drive and Kaiser Chiefs do the same. The event’s going down on The Meadows at University of Canberra and tickets are $99.90 through Moshtix.

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year after year trying to create something bigger and better.

FESTIVAL-FLAVOURED GUM BANKRUPTS WONKA Baz Ruddick Can you imagine starting your own music festival? Eight years ago, Matt Johnston turned his dream into a reality. THE GUM BALL was born in the front yard of his parents’ property at Belford in the beautiful Hunter Valley. This started off an eight-year adventure,

It’s love that keeps it all going

Matt is part of a dying breed, a true hard worker who believes in creating a festival that genuinely stands for good music and good times. For ten months a year, whilst maintaining full time employment, Matt personally organises and co-ordinates the festival. You can’t help respecting what he does. It hasn’t been an easy eight years for Matt. At constant war with the local council’s bureaucracy, the weather and the social ‘fun police’, he has persisted.

With stubbornness and stoicism he has fought every piece of adversity and made it work. This year, Gum Ball is set to be bigger and better than ever.

Whilst many people will never have heard of Gum Ball, the festival has experienced a humble growth. Matt explains, “It’s all about word of mouth, really. We have the advertising campaigns and that but really it’s not until someone has a mate who says it’s good that people will come. We do attract a few people from the whole BYO thing and camping in the bush but it’s all about attracting friends of friends.”

While Gum Ball’s main selling point is being a BYO camping event in a beautiful natural surrounding with great up-andcoming bands, it’s not this that has kept the festival going. It’s the support of a diehard group of people who believe in what he is doing. “The attitude of family and friends has been a massive asset,” says Matt. “A lot of people are the backbone of it all. You know, there are a group of fanatical people who love Gum Ball and come year after year. It’s that love that keeps it all going. I wouldn’t have it otherwise.”

Matt explains the difficulty of constructing a quality line-up of musicians: “After all those years of trying to convince people it was worth it and proving that it was a quality stage, it’s got to the point now where we have artists pretty interested in coming along and we don’t have to try so hard. That’s probably the hardest bit of all: trying to build a line-up that is going to please lots of people.” This year The Gum Ball is a two-day camping event hosting such acts as Custard, Jinja Safari, Ash Grunwald featuring Vika and Linda Bull, Wagons, Sietta, The Tongue and many more.

Get off your arse, pack the car and head to the beautiful Hunter Valley Fri-Sat April 27-28 for a shitload of fun. Tix are $30-$165 + bf through Oztix. Check www.thegumball.com. au for details.

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in England,” Liz says.

“The band was kind of pop-rock. It was a bit rough. It’s all part of the process and what you draw from. I’m sure it influenced me and gave me a different perspective.”

A STRING WELL-STRUNG Marissa Paine LIZ STRINGER never meant to be a musician. Although she grew up surrounded by it, she thought her career would go in a different direction. “I always expected to be a teacher or do something with languages,” she says. “That would be my main job and music would be in my life personally.” Although her first album was just “something she was doing on the side”, it soon became apparent that touring and recording was Liz’s main job. The transition from casual to career “happened by surprise,” with Liz going on to say that it was an “organic, gradual progression” rather than something she felt she had to do.

To explain why this was fortunate for her, Liz tells a story of learning to play the cello as a kid, and resenting it because it was something she felt she had to do. Fortunately for anyone who has heard her soulful, gutsy tunes, music isn’t something she resents at all. Speaking about experiences that have shaped her as an artist, she cites time spent living overseas, which allowed her to hone her skills as a songwriter. “I did solo stuff in Germany and was in a band

I don’t take what Guy Pearce says particularly seriously

Another influence on Liz has been Eric Bibb, who she toured with extensively in 2009. “We talked a lot about singing and how to get the best out of your voice when it’s amplified,” she remembers. “He was a really great, lovely man – we had lots of good chats.”

On the subject of other musicians, I ask her if it’s hard to stand out when everywhere you look there’s another talented female songwriter. “Not really,” I’m told. “You just do your thing and don’t worry about what other people are doing, except to enjoy that there’s so much good stuff around. I think it’s a positive thing. It’s a really good thing as a songwriter to have people to aspire to.”

Liz is set to stop by Canberra with her band in May. Of the trip, she says they are “really looking forward to being on the road with the new songs. We haven’t been together as a band in a while, so we’re itching to get into it.” Just before we hang up, I tell Liz about the recent spate of Canberra-bashing in the media. “No,” she answers, when I ask her if she’ll take any of that on board ahead of the trip. “I don’t take what Guy Pearce says particularly seriously.” Sounds like a smart way to live.

Liz Stringer will play the ANU Bar Thursday May 3 with support from Van Walker and locals Julia and the Deep Sea Sirens. Doors open at 8pm and tickets are $15 on the door.

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THE REALNESS I was pretty excited when new albums from Quakers and Chasm found their way into my hands. Both Chasm and Katalyst are among my fave producers in Australia. Both stay true to a classic hip hop aesthetic but aren’t afraid to take chances and showcase their love for music outside the genre. Chasm’s third album, This Is How We Never Die, again exemplifies his rich and soulful sound.

Taking in boom-bap, reggae, funk and blunted soul, Chasm manages to fuse his varied sounds to formulate a cohesive and enjoyable album. Vocally the album is blessed by a brilliant line-up of local and overseas talent: AG, Guilty Simpson, Vast Aire, Fashawn, Blak Twang, Dave Dalls, Solo, Hau, Dazastah, The Tongue, Mdudu, Lazy Grey, Delta, Brad Strut and Dialectrix. Peep the Ill Posse cut at the end too! Another great achievement from Chasm.

ashley thomson

I was sure from talking to Katalyst last year about his Quakers project that I would love it. A 42-track collaboration between Katalyst, Geoff Barrow (Portishead) and 7-Stu-7, the record shifts and moves quickly through dusty instrumentals and rapid-fire verses from an array of talent: Guilty Simpson, Jonwayne, MED, Synato Watts, Emilio Rojas, Buff-1, Diverse, Krondon, Raydar Ellis, Phat Kat, Prince Po, Booty Brown, Aloe Blacc, Akil, Dead Prez and more. Out now on Stones Throw, it’s the complete package, repaying repeated listens. The album comes complete with a bonus disk of the instrumentals too. So, so good. Get it now.

Speaking of dope beats, check out the new album from Tom Showtime entitled The Jam Thief, out now through Obese Distro.

Citing such inspirations as DJ Shadow, Mr Scruff, Quantic and Bonobo, you know you’re in for a fresh ride as Tom lays out bossy grooves, jazz, funk and more of that nice ol’ dusty soul.

“It took a lot of time, a lot of building and collapsing,” State told me, a pot of green tea sitting ignored at his elbow. “From early teens to being in my mid-20s. It sounds like a long time but it’s part of a movement.” The length of the process has led to a debut carried by an intelligent, unbroken flow. State’s vision for each Money’s never been a of his songs also reaches He’s engaged strong motive and it through. themes—mortality, selfbe never will worth—and opened them up like a professional. “There’re something like 15 storylines in movies that are possible,” said State.

“In music it’s the same. It may have been said before but there may be somebody in your audience who needed to hear what you said when you said it. To them, that’s the moment that defines it.”

Brisbane’s Rainman is set to drop his second album, Bigger Pictures, on Born Fresh. Stepping on the scene as a youngster, Rainman is now one of Brisbane’s veterans and best-loved talents.

His new record features production from Sammsonite (of The Optimen), Count Bounce, Bonez, Mangohig, Chasm, Cam Bluff and Calski. Guests on duty are Muph, Tommy Illfigga, Yuin Huzami, Seven, 4th, Laneous, Kel on Earth and Youka. The album is out Friday May 4.

Having never heard of him, I told State I took this interview because the EP impressed me—unexpectedly so. It seemed he hadn’t expected that response from anyone, let alone triple j. “It’s hard to even know how to handle it. You still gotta have a life and a job.”

The EP is still free from four websites too. State had a simple explanation: “I’m a fan, first and always. I wouldn’t buy something unless I’d heard it before. And I’m never going to make back the money that I’ve invested into this.” I laughed at the honesty. “Y’know, there’s a pretty small pile of Australian hip hop artists who actually make money, let alone enough to survive,” he went on. “Money’s never been a motive and it never will be. If you make a hundred CDs and you give them away there’ll be a hundred people who’ll hear your music. That’s gotta be worth more than recouping the cost.” When the bottom is falling out of the over-the-counter CD market, this approach is refreshingly intelligent. The critical validation in its wake has meant a lot. “I needed to see what the response was to justify what I was gonna do next.”

I’ve always thought Obie Trice was quite underrated. He’s unleashed his share of banger tunes in his day. He’s been quiet lately so it’s nice to see a new album from him. Bottoms Up is out now on Black Market (never heard of this label) and features Eminem, Adriana Rezza, Drey Skonie and MC Breed. Beats come from Dr. Dre, Statik Selektah, Phonix, Witt & Pep and more. Hopefully it’s solid.

Modeselektor’s 50 Weapons label is on a hot streak at the moment following dope albums from Damage + Daneeka and Addison Groove. Word on the street is that they’ve got two more full lengths coming up. Phon.O’s Black Boulder will drop first on Friday May 25 and continue his explorations of razor-sharp techno-infused garage.

It features vocal contributions from Pantasz and Tunde Olaniran.

Following Black Boulder, Shed will unveil his third album, The Killer, in July. His latest single defied genre classificsation, so time will tell what Mr Shed has cooked up for us!

To hear music from all these releases and more, tune to The Antidote on 2XX 98.3FM every Tuesday night from 9.30pm. Stream at www.2xxfm.com.au .

ROSHAMBO AKA CED NADA - roshambizzle@yahoo.com.au

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CAPITAL STATE OF MIND Hip hop in Canberra is a mangy thing. It grows one year, starves the next. It’s been growing for two decades but it’s still a landmark event for a Canberra MC, STATEOVMIND, to take out the latest triple j Unearthed. Stateovmind won on the strength of his debut EP, Something For Nothing, the first tangible product of over a decade of MCing, and earned a slot at the Canberra leg of Groovin the Moo.

With a firm belief in putting on a show, State’s bringing Canberrans Podbotiks, Legit, Faux Real and Paryce along to his set. I asked him if he’d consider himself a seasoned performer. “No,” he laughed.

“I’d be preheated, maybe?” I laughed too, but what I saw during my interview was talent, common sense and modesty. “If you spend too much time waiting for other people, sometimes you can wait for ten years,” said Stateovmind. I for one am glad he’s done waiting.

The Something For Nothing EP is available in Landspeed Records or is free to download. Find the links on www.facebook.com/stateovmind.

Stateovmind will be first up on the triple j stage at Groovin the Moo, Sunday May 13, playing alongside 360, Public Enemy and many more. Tix are $99.90 + bf through Moshtix.

e h t G N I K A H S .

S N O I T A D N U FO Allan Sko

The next one?

I have always been fascinated with origin stories of large enterprises; how one simple occurrence can set in motion a chain of events that, years later, create something magnanimous. In the world of hip hop it doesn’t get more so than with QUAKERS; three revered producers in Fuzzface (Geoff Barrow of Portishead), KATALYST (Ashley Anderson) and 7stu7 (Stuart Matthews, Portishead’s engineer) gathering together 32 MCs for a truly international 41 track album. And it doesn’t get more simple than a chance meet 14 years ago.

“Stones Throw have signed us for a few albums, so there will be at least one more,” Ashley confirms. “We’d definitely want Diamond District on the next, we tried for them on this one, they’d chosen the beats, done the raps, but didn’t quite make deadline. A few on the first record have expressed interest in being on further productions. We’ll get cracking on that as the year progresses.”

“We met out here [in Sydney] at the end of ‘98 when Geoff was taking a break from music,” Ashley says. “Geoff hooked up with a mutual friend of mine and she put us in touch because she thought we had a bit in common and would get along. I expected him to be a bit of a rock ‘n’ roll star, an arrogant ‘I’m the man’ type of dude which is what, at that time, I expected of all famous people. But we went to Bondi and I thought ‘jeez, he’s a good guy’ and we became good friends; he came out every year for about five years every summer.”

We could have done four records, ten tracks each, but that just wasn’t the point

The friendship blossomed along with the seasons and on one fateful day, upon the undulating streets of Bristol, Geoff decided to take their relationship... Professional.

“Three years ago we were sitting around his loungeroom and he said ‘I’ve got this idea’,” Ashley tells. “He’d heard a couple of beats I’d written that fitted the bill; we spent a lot of time thinking about MCs with reputations that we liked that suited the record and went about contacting them. Geoff thought it would be good to get me and Stu involved and as we were both writing some quality beats and he was less in that world than he was a few years ago, and to undertake the mammoth project we needed the energy of all three to make it work along with the other things we had going Space Invadas, Beak, Portishead...”

Like all good things in life, the mantra for Quakers was simplicity itself - write some really good beats for some really good rappers.

“We’ve all been fans of hip hop for years and thought it would be nice to make a little mark on that music before we became too old to be relevant,” Ashley jests. “There wasn’t some lofty charge like ‘let’s write the heaviest beats we can come up with’. The initial goal was to get 30 MCs. We ended up with 32; we could have had 40, but we had a deadline. A few people couldn’t get their shit together for whatever financial or time management reasons.

Most of those people regret not being on it, but we’ve spoken to them about being on the next one.”

There are many axioms in life about a surfeit of creators; two’s company three’s a crowd, too many cooks... Did Quakers cause creative rumblings?

“We all played a major role with a record of this size. We could have made four records; there’s not a beat on there that couldn’t be pushed more,” says Ashley. “We all wrote beats, got together and had ideas about little things - ‘turn the snare up on that one’, ‘try a different snare’, ‘does it need to go to that other section or can it just end there?’, stuff like that. We’d come up with the nucleus of a track, present it to each other, and if we were feeling it and it got the greenlight we’d finetune it along the way. I took charge of putting it together, a lot of the mixing was done here and a lot of referencing done in Bristol. I did the fiddly spoken word stuff over the top of all their tracks coz I kinda like doing that shit anyway.”

The end result has brought joy to critics, punters, and most of all the Quakers crew themselves.

“It is a pretty epic record,” Ashley agrees. “One of my reviewer friends said they were a bit disappointed at how short the tracks were. We could have made all of the songs three and a half minutes - they were all strong enough to be at least that long - but that just wasn’t the point. The point was to do something different and try and keep it moving so we didn’t get bored with it ourselves,” he laughs.

“There’s been a lot of feedback. A lot of people are feeling Tone Tank’s What Chew Want. Him and Coin [Locker Kid] get mentioned the most in the press, but the public have a lot of love for Dead Prez’s track Soul Power, Fitta Happier, and War Drums with Guilty Simpson and Fat Cat. Russia With Love has been a hype track from the moment we recorded it. [Space Invadas partner] Steve Spacek was like ‘Man, that’s the tune right there’ which is when I thought we’d tapped into something special. Steve’s a hip hop fan from way back but also loves his experimental music, so people like him believe in that song. It’s a record you need to digest.”

It’s wonderful to ponder - in 1998 a mutual friend introduced Geoff Barrow and Ashley Anderson, and now 14 years later we have Quakers. “Yeah, strange huh?” Ashley muses. “That’s how life works. They say everything happens for a reason; maybe Quakers was the reason.”

Katalyst will be dropping past Transit Bar on Saturday May 5. Tix are a thrifty $15 inc bf and are available from Moshtix.

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Wednesday May 25 to Hermann’s Bar for a show billed as their The Ocean side-projects show (War from a Harlots Mouth, Mozek Motors and Geld et Nelt) and DJ sets. Also appearing are Nuclear Summer.

METALISE A bunch of dates are getting announced around the traps for upcoming tours and, refreshingly, there are even a few stopping in our neck of the woods. Get ready for a cold, brutal winter.

Rosetta also announced another run of Australian shows last week and Bar 32 will host their Canberra Show on Wednesday August 1. Bastardfest is also expanding their touring schedule this year and while the line-up hasn’t been announced yet, The Basement in Belconnen has two dates. Fri-Sat November 9-10 will host Australia’s largest touring spectacle of heavy home-grown music so bung it in your calendar.

The Ocean are making a welcome visit to Australia through May and there’s ample opportunity to catch material from their five studio albums in the last two weeks of May. They are playing here at the ANU Bar on the Sunday May 22 with Sydneysiders Lo! For fans of the band, you might also be interested in heading up to Sydney on

Locals Law of the Tongue recently played their first show at the Pot Belly out in Belco. They’re gearing up with their now-completed demo ready for circulation. They’re gonna have a launch at The Phoenix on Sunday May 27. This is for fans of sludgy delights such as Iron Monkey. Check it.

Macabre’s second Aussie jaunt isn’t too far away and to add to the tantalising Sydney show on Friday June 29 at The Bald Faced Stag on Parramatta Rd, the initial line-up for the Melbourne show has just been announced. It’s the return of the High Voltage Festival and its happening at the Corner Hotel on Saturday June 30 with Macabre, Hobbs’ Angel of Death, Blood Duster, Depression, Earth and Captain Cleanoff. Well worth a trip to Melbourne.

Let’s Mosh has undoubtedly the heaviest playlist on Australian radio waves. The hosts Geoff and Mark have been smashing it on 2XX for years now. Geoff has recently launched a website for those wanting to listen to archives of the show, as well as tell his tales from the shows he’s been to over the years, which includes the last four Maryland Death Fests in a row, among a bunch of other amusing stories. Here’s the webpage (www.mendicant. com) so make sure you get along and check it out.

Unkle K’s Band of the Week: Vom: www.cvltnation.com/ ancient-cosmic-horror-cvltnation-streams-zom-demo.

It’s old school-sounding black/death from Ireland in the vein of Necrovore, Beherit, etc.

JOSH NIXON doomtildeath@hotmail.com

36

THE HEART S S E N K R A D e h t OF ALLAN SKO Many a BMA Magazine print deadline has been punctuated by the piercing falsetto of Justin Hawkins. There’s something about the rollicking rock riffs and lascivious life lyrics of THE DARKNESS that ensures a balled fist of frustration is soon thrust triumphantly skywards in a celebratory salute to all things rock.

Many an ear drum has been shattered by attempts at hitting the “fuuuuuuuuuuu-KA!” high note of Get Your Hands Off My Woman; the track that gleefully announced the band to the world back in 2003. Two albums and three years later skin-tight leotards were laddered in lamentation with news that the band had broken up.

Now in 2012, we have a third album, an Australian tour, and an ANU Bar show to look forward to. Whilst the widely publicised split was often blamed on Hawkins’ drug use (some sources claim tooting to the tune of £150,000 over three years) the 9am interview slot would suggest the man is on the straight and narrow.

I’ve never experienced anything in the way of embarrassment or doubt

“Well, maybe. Yeah, I guess so. Sorry, I’m not actually awake; I completely forget we were doing an interview, and I’ve just realised there’s nine in a row...

Brilliant!” Justin says with droll British irony.

I decide to let the poor man warm up with a gentle opening question; what got the band back together?

“The cheesy side of me wants to say ‘the universe’, but I suppose it would be me and [brother] Dan rather than a physical omnipresent mega-being,” he laughs. “It seemed like the right thing for everybody. Me and Dan went to see each other’s bands play; we started writing together about three years ago and... I dunno, I guess we had these songs and needed to play them. It could have been a Darkness thing or it could have been a new thing, so it just seemed to make sense to do it under the guise of the thing that we’re known for, y’know?”

Eloquently put. It would be fair to say that the 20 tracks The Darkness offered the world pre split carried a common sound. One surmises that fans hope against a Yoko Ono style shift of musical direction for album number three.

“No, no, same theory same sound,” Justin confirms with a laugh, steadying the nerves of many a Darkness devotee with that toothy chuckle. “We’ve always done a combination of old school and luxurious rock, and I don’t think anyone is really walking that line at the moment, so somebody’s gotta do it. “[What we’ve written about has] always been very random,” he continues. “It certainly won’t be a concept album. I think we’ll

leave that for number six or seven. There’ll be songs about my relationship to the stage, the usual love songs - you’ve always gotta have love songs - small town despair songs... And of course, ones on having a good time!”

Having a good time has permeated much of Justin’s early lyrics and lifestyle, fuelling songsheets and nasal passages with equal fervour. “You’ve got to be honest when you’re writing, don’t you?” he says. “If you don’t believe in the lyrics they’re not going to resonate. I’ve never experienced anything in the way of embarrassment or doubt I don’t think... Once you’ve written it as a song, made that decision, and sung it once, it’s never embarrassing again.”

The gaudy lyrics happily match the very deliberate Queen-esque stadium rock aesthetic the band has always worn on their sleeves.

“When we did [One Way Ticket] we worked with Roy Thomas Baker, the man whose brain we wanted to pick,” Justin says. “He did Queen back in the old days so we learnt a lot from him on how to rock. He’s done a lot of stuff we admired... Queen, The Cars and that kind of stuff. Some of his work is really stripped down and some of it is really really lavish, but it all just sounds right, so we wanted to find out how to be able to switch it on when you need to, to get that variety in our work... And he’s the guy.”

If Justin and co had their way, they would keep not only the sound the same, but the mode of delivery for the third outing. The information age dictates otherwise. “In this day and age what is an album?” Justin ponders. “What we want is a ten or 11 track album but that format isn’t relevant to the market any more. A very very small percentage of people will buy it in the format we want them to; they’ll get a full gatefold artwork and ten songs hand picked and carefully arranged so it’s a journey and all that stuff. But then everyone else will buy it off iTunes and get 14 tracks with bonuses and B-sides coming through the intraweb and they’ll make their own tracklist. I suppose it happens like that nowadays doesn’t it?”

I concur that the delivery system has changed, but approaching the album writing process with a physical record in mind is important. “I do as well, that’s how we approached it, but we’ve been told fans are going to want all 14 songs in that session even though it would be nice for us to pick the ten we want people to listen to in a row and put the B-sides and rarities afterwards.”

At least the boys will have the power to determine their set list, and by all reports they’re raring to have us squealing like little girls of a deadline all over again.

“It’s been really enjoyable since we reformed. We’re really focused, I appreciate the routine of it, we get to see the world... Who could ask for more? And it’s good to hear it’s made you squeal like little girls; that’s a good sign.”

The Darkness hit the ANU Bar on Thursday May 10, with locals Fun Machine in support. Tickets are $72 + bf from Ticketek. New single Nothin’s Gonna Stop Us is out now.

37

SURVIVE THIS DRIVE Marissa Payne “Dave Grohl is a definite rock god,” says Haydn Ing, frontman of punk rock group CALLING ALL CARS. He should know. They lived out the dream when they supported Foo Fighters last year. Of being invited on stage to perform with the band, Haydn says, “It was scary – I never would have thought it would happen.”

Maybe he thought it would never happen but sharing the stage with a band like Foo Fighters seems like a natural progression for the Melbourne-based lads. 2010’s Dancing With a Dead Man was met with praise and heavy rotation, securing the boys some huge support slots – AC/DC and Queens of The Stone Age, to name a couple. That was the year that Calling All Cars really cemented themselves as a band with big things on the horizon.

Everyone loves drunk girls

ANU BarGig guide May

THE CITY SHAKEUp [FRI 27 Apr] LIz STrIngEr [THURS 3 May] THE DArKnESS [THURS 10 May] mIKELAngELo & THE TIn STAr [FRI 11 May] brIAn jonESTown mASSACrE [FRI 18 May]

ANU Bar, ANU Union Building 20, Acton Canberra (02) 6125 3660 www.anuunion.com.au For more gig listings go to our website. Tickets through Ticketek and at the door on the night. Photo: Omar Rodriguez by FasterLouder.

38

What’s the secret to following up a highly successful album? “Aim for bigger and better,” says Ing. “You’re always trying to outdo yourselves, so this time we’re going to write the best songs we’ve ever written.” The problem of where to go from there finds its solution in a writing trip. “It’s a little cliché, I’m told,” says Ing. “We’re going away and spending a few weeks in the middle of nowhere to keep our minds on things and not get distracted.” You’d be forgiven for assuming Haydn Ing would want to take a step back from the life of a musician, after a Big Day Out incident which left him unconscious after an over-zealous fan elbowed him in the jaw. However, this did nothing deter him, with the frontman uttering the phrase “practise makes perfect” to concerned family members, who assumed he’d learnt the hard way and would never do it again.

After an experience like that, what do you do? Apparently, release a cover of LCD Soundsystem’s Drunk Girls. Rather than harping on about James Murphy, I ask him what inspired this choice. “We’re fans of LCD,” Haydn says. “We thought it was a good idea, so we went in the studio with no intentions of making anything happen – we just wanted to see what it would sound like.” We may get to hear the cover when the band drops by Transit in May, but Haydn remains coy.

“It’s a possibility,” he says, quipping “everyone loves drunk girls.

“Last time we came it was fucking energetic,” Ing tells me. “This time we’ll play a few new songs and our longest set,” which should be enough to entice punters to the show. Apparently Haydn doesn’t engage in any pre-show rituals, beyond walking around and scoping out the venue. However, he talks excitedly about how Dave Grohl jogs on the spot before he plays, to “get the blood going.” So if you make it to the Transit gig and see Haydn jogging on the spot, just smile and nod. After all, Dave does it, so it must be cool.

Calling All Cars’ Delirium Tour hits Transit Bar Thursday May 3 at 8pm, supported by Strangers and Arts Martial. Tix are $23.50 +bf through Oztix.

39

the word

on albums

album of the issue

The Brian Jonestown Massacre Aufheben [A Recordings]

There are certainly very few bands currently operating who have a discography the size and depth of The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s. This latest offering, Aufheben, represents the band’s 15th studio album since forming in the early ‘90s in San Francisco.

It’s easily arguable that a band in this position doesn’t really have anything left to prove, with this latest collection seeing TBJM frontman Anton Newcombe and his ever-shifting cast of musicians gliding along in seemingly effortless fashion.

While there’s apparently an underlying 2012 apocalyptic theme at play here, reflected in both the Voyager plate sleeve art and the title, a German word with multiple meanings including ‘abolish’, it isn’t something that’s immediately apparent in the lyrics. There’s a noticeable Krautrock influence at play on tracks such as opener Panic In Babylon, which grafts Middle Eastern instrumentation onto a stiff rhythmic groove that calls to mind Can’s Vitamin C.

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Viholliseni Maalla meanwhile calls to mind Stereolab’s dreamy Euro-exotica. As Eliza Karmasalo’s Finnish vocals glide against chiming guitars and shuffling jazz snares, massed background vocals bleed through the mix. And the propulsive Waking Up To Hand Grenades sees dance rhythms locking into place beneath a buoyant bass groove that’s half punk-funk, half Happy Mondays-style rave-up.

As is customary by now with TBJM, there’s a sense of a band wandering through their extensive record collections and using the contents as a jumping off point for inspiration and real creativity rather than simple homage. If aliens ever actually find this album and trace it to the Voyager plate (see the next issue’s accompanying interview), they’re certainly going to be offered the perfect overview of the last 40 year’s developments in rock/pop.

Another characteristically strong album from The BJM; think of the 11 songs here as the perfect appetiser for the band’s forthcoming Australian tour.

CHRIS DOWNTON

Last Dinosaurs In A Million Years [Dew Process/Universal]

Jack Blades Rock ‘n’ Roll Ride Frontiers]

Brisbanites the Casey brothers and their mates have hopped aboard the current pop craze with a summer vibe in this captivating debut. Rich and vibrant, the songs travelled all the way from pre-production on a Central Coast farm to being mixed at the famous Abbey Road studios.

The former Nightranger/Damn Yankees protagonist enjoys such a mighty renaissance it’s tempting to call him Da Vinci.

Really, that’s not overstating the case. Despite reaching an age where most superannuated stadium rockers are happy to place their bony buttocks on some convenient laurels and reflect on glories long since evaporated into sepia-tinged memory, Blades has come up with something of a minor hard rock masterpiece with Back in the Game.

There’s a lot of deep and meaningful stuff behind the lyrics (why are we here and how do we want to be remembered?), but you have to listen hard as it’s swamped by the super catchy melodies that sweep all before them.

These danceable beats are artfully constructed, showing an imagination that casts off common notions of pop as something clean and simple in its construction. The boys use a layered approach, where vocals and instruments come through with varying levels of clarity, adding pizzazz and depth to the sound. Zoom, the opening track and album single, is riddled with infectious riffage. It pays homage to past technology, with a beginning and end like the start and stop of a blurry cassette tape.

The love of lo-fi comes across in all tracks, including I Can’t Help You, with its jumbled sounds and an inclination for fuzziness.

Sunday Night is a tropical cocktail of a song with Hawaiian shirt overtones, while Andy is as bright as a Jamaican tin drum.

You can be sure every gig is a dance party.

RORY MCCARTNEY

The title track Rock ‘n’ Roll Ride and Back in the Game are good enough for starters, but by track three, the utterly gobsmacking arena rock of Born for This, Blades has worked up such a head of steam he makes the Flying Scotsman look like the little red engine that could.

This truly is a delirious return to the man’s mid-’80s best, but he ain’t done there, topping even that piece of excellence with the lighters-in-the-air hysteriastoker that is Hardest Word to Say. Throw in a bit of Beatles pastiche (Blades has always fancied himself as a bit fab, and Anything for You is one of his better Liverpudlian homages, albeit in a sort of Traveling Wilburys kinda way) and the Survivor-ish Love Life, and what you have truly is Blades back at his polished, stadium-levelling best, and if you love a bit of retro hard rock every now and then you will not – that’s NOT – hear better this year. scott adams

Hilltop Hoods Drinking From the Sun [Golden Era Records]

BADBADNOTGOOD BBNG2 [Independent]

Alabama Shakes Boys & Girls [ATO]

Dr John Locked Down [Nonesuch]

Hilltop Hoods have this amazing ability to produce an album that relies less on the strength of singular tracks and more on the album as a whole. Their sixth album, Drinking From the Sun, is no exception.

From their hasty band name to their just post-teen ages to their wacky videos to their genre-busting sounds, BADBADNOTGOOD are making a name for themselves in the global music scene and scored Coachella band-in-residence.

The band consists of Matt Tavares (piano), Chester Stone Hansen (bass), and Alex Sowinski (drums), who found some common musical ground at college in Toronto, Canada.

These three guys seem to enjoy smashing together hip hop and jazz in a way that sounds as fresh as the fact that no one over 21 was involved in the making of the record.

There are many female artists who’ve made inroads into my playlists recently, most notably Sharon Van Etten, Feist and Julianna Barwick. Alabama Shakes are a four-piece band, three of whom are men, but their lead singer Brittany Howard is what counts them among that group.

In the ‘70s, New Orleans native Mac Rebennack reinvented himself as Dr John Creux and immediately cornered the voodoo psychedelic jazz-rock swamp-boogie funk market.

Over time his otherworldly outlook tamed into adult jazz with all its muzak implications and only the slightest hint of edge, but the flooding of his hometown in ‘05 and the political response to Hurricane Katrina set something off in the Night Tripper. Focus made a welcome return.

The 14-track epic is stitched together brilliantly with three interludes. As soon as the first track, The Thirst Part One, begins, you know you are in for an epic treat. A slow vocal introduction, building to an epic crescendo that finally erupts into the album’s title track.

The album is the culmination of 18 months of blood sweet and tears on the Hoods’ behalf.

Working with more session musicians and guests than ever before, the Hoods manage to create a sound that transcends the hip hop genre, making it a thoroughly enjoyable listen for anyone.

Guest musicians, including Charlie Tuna, Sia, Black Thought, Classified, Lotek and Solo, give the album a diverse sound, complementing the infectious chorus lines and elaborate rhymes of Pressure and Suffa, all the while backed up by the incredibly tight production of DJ Debris.

The album sounds huge. You can hear every tiny piece of hard work and effort that has gone into its creation. Drinking From the Sun is a beautifully balanced tour de force which already has the makings of a classic, best enjoyed in its entirety from start to finish. baz ruddick

BBNG2 album includes several original tracks, which are moody, bold and energetic, combining bluesy solos, progressions, brutal improvisation and some serious behind-the-beat swagger.

In Vices, Sowinski drops his ambitious beats over some attitudinal bass lines from Hansen. Rotten Decay rolls from a slippery, sloth-like state to a kind of jazz-doped euphoria. It’s very, very good.

CHSTR, UWM (with silvery sax from Leland Whitty) and DMZ signal the band’s contemporary influences such as producers J Dilla and Tyler, the Creator, but still feature BBNG’s unique, jazz-informed interjections.

With success, BBNG reinvent the likes of Gucci Mane, Kanye West and My Bloody Valentine.

BBNG-does-James-Blake-doesFeist is infectious and the fat synths on CMYK add a new groove to the track. BBNG2 is like no other. sophia mcdonald

Alabama Shakes have been touring in a van since they formed in high school, thumping out their crackling garage blues-rock along the way. Boys & Girls, their debut, is an earthy statement of purpose and has secured them the supporting slot on Jack White’s upcoming world tour. There are plenty of crashing cymbals and invigorating guitar riffs but Howard’s voice is the guiding light. Some bastard amalgam of Ella Fitzgerald’s soulful croon and Janis Joplin’s violent rasp, it takes their brawling blues -rock and gives it the body and soul one in a thousand singers can.

The songs cover familiar lyrical and sonic territory. Blessed souls, letting somebody love you and getting to the Promised Land all get mentions. Some of the songs are so familiar you could swear you’d heard them before on. What shines through is that you haven’t heard them done this well. Unfortunately, the best renditions of some are actually the ones on YouTube.

Watching Howard belt these songs out live is watching this thing done proper. You can only blame the studio for the occasionally lacklustre mixing—that and buy a ticket if they come to Oz. ASHLEY THOMSON

With Locked Down the renaissance is well and truly complete. The LP, a collaboration with The Black Keys’ Dan Auebach who also produced, is easily his best in decades and a career highlight for the 72-year-old. Every track oozes loose-limped jive as you’d expect, but Auebach’s piercing, scratchy and well-placed riffing adds a dimension and sense of purpose not seen since Dr John’s collaborations with The Meters (Right Place, Right Time). Instead of the keys being front and centre as is the norm, they’re buried amongst horns, thumbing bass, occasional spurts of Fela Kuti (Ice Age) and street-band woozy (Big Shot).

Hopefully the name recognition of Auebach will open Dr John to a wider and younger audience, because the veteran deserves as much attention as possible. There’s a sense of daring and accomplishment on this LP elevating it above the competition – of which there is none.

JUSTIN HOOK

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the word

on films

WITH MELISSA WELLHAM

If there’s anything the films reviewed this month prove, it’s that just because a film is based on an interesting and true story, it does not mean that the film itself will be interesting or honest. Case in point: A Dangerous Method, which is dangerously boring.

Conversely, films that are based on a complete and utter incomprehensible mess, can be turned into something very interesting. See: Margin Call.

And then there are films like Battleship. We aren’t going to talk about Battleship. (Er, aside from the 235-word review to your right.)

quote of the issue “There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter, or cheat.” John Tuld (Jeremy Irons), Margin Call

A Dangerous Method

Margin Call

Battleship

Based on true events, A Dangerous Method follows a young Dr Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) as he takes on a new patient: the beautiful but unstable Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley), who through years of beatings at the hand of her father has been reduced to a twitchy neurotic mess.

Regardless, the two commence an affair, despite Jung being married. Simultaneously, the film follows Jung’s professional relationship and friendship – and eventual falling out – with Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen), a man whose strict views on psychoanalysis (ie everything is about sex) soon begins to trouble Jung.

Margin Call is a smart and suspenseful film that turns the complicated and convoluted financial meltdown of recent years into not only an explanation that us mere humans, who aren’t Wall Street sharks, can understand, but a very human drama.

Ostensibly based on a board game, Transformers 4 – oh, sorry, I mean Battleship – is another film about aliens, in Transformer-like suits, making Transformer-like noises, with big Transformer-like explosions.

Except less subtle.

A Dangerous Method features some fine performances.

Fassbender and Mortensen are both, as per usual, pretty fantastic. Knightley has been widely panned for her arguably over-the-top performance, but she brings some great physicality to the role.

What’s most surprising about A Dangerous Method is that a film about sex and psychoanalysis could be so boring. It’s never clear what the real point of the film is and the plot is meandering and repetitious, merely moving around in circles. For a film about psychoanalysis, where one might assume that the most interesting revelations would be made through dialogue, the script is strangely sparse and comprised mostly of its characters looking pensively into the middle-distance.

Don’t see A Dangerous Method, for the sake of your own mental health.

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Melissa Wellham

Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), an entry-level analyst for a big firm on Wall Street, discovers that his firm has over invested in unreliable assets, and is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. What follows is really a thriller, as the financial advisers and executives of the firm must wrestle with the ethics of whether or not they sell their unreliable assets and destroy the market to save themselves. Given that we’ve lived through the financial crisis, I think you can guess what happens.

Zachary Quinto turns in a believable performance as a naïve guy who just happens to work on Wall Street – and that takes some acting skills, as I don’t believe for a second that anyone there, even the street vendors selling hotdogs, could be that unassuming. The rest of the cast, however, is also exceptional. Stanley Tucci, Paul Bettany, Kevin Spacey, Simon Baker, Jeremy Irons – even Penn Badgley from Gossip Girl – are an interesting blend of ‘good person’ and ‘product of their pretty corrupt environment.’

It’s a film that is as much a meltdown of morals and humanity, as finances.

Melissa Wellham

With the action set in the seas and the skies, Battleship follows a small group of naval ships and their crew that become disconnected from the rest of the world’s forces, by a mysterious force field that appears over Hawaii when aliens crash-land in the ocean.

It’s up to bad-boy Lt. Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) and his brother Commanding Officer Stone Hopper (Alexander Skarsgard, definitely my highlight of the film), along with their rag tag crew (including Rhianna as your stereotypical sassy black woman) to save the day.

Aside from the ridiculous premise, there were one or two moments where I began to feel myself being sucked into the film – but every time, a new twist would occur that was so patently ridiculous that I was able to stop myself from drowning in this whirlpool of stupidity. Highlight: a troupe of elderly, retired naval officers appearing out of nowhere to save the day – walking in slow motion, no less. Most of the audience in my cinema couldn’t contain their laughter.

Battleship wants to be a ridiculous romp, but misses its target entirely. It’s ridiculous sure – but far too farcical to be fun.

MELISSA WELLHAM

the word on dvds

great expectations [roadshow]

Shameless – s1 [Warner Home Video]

Gillian Anderson walks through this adaptation of Dickens’ classic like a frightened, calcified spider with a case of severe lip-burn. Miss Havisham, the vengeful jilted bride who lives in a dilapidated mansion surrounded by reminders of the day her soon-to-be-husband left her at the altar, is a meaty role.

The entire premise of Great Expectations hangs around her frail shoulders. Problem is, Anderson ambles onto the screen like she’s channelling a cut-rate Helena Bonham-Carter (who co-incidentally is playing this exact role in a forthcoming feature film) and so is more comic than pitiful. It’s one of the few niggling distractions in this three-hour BBC telemovie.

In the mid 2000s the UK Shameless was essential viewing. The council-estate dwelling Gallagher clan were in a constant fight for survival.

Frank, the unemployed alcoholic father, provided no guidance or financial support to his kids, mainly because he was propping up the local bar, brawling, or passing out in various locations around Manchester. It was a grim, hyper-real, offensive representation of an underclass rarely seen on TV, underscored with a strong sense of no bullshit morality dished out by the ever-suffering, eldest sibling Fiona, without whom it all would’ve fallen apart.

Charles Dickens’ classic story is about a young lad who, through the largesse of a mystery benefactor, is ‘rescued’ from a life in the blacksmith’s forge.

Along the way he falls in love and learns all about arrogance, the viciousness of class structure and the NSW farming industry circa 1865. It’s a ripping yarn dominated by a few great characters.

As with any Dickens adaptation there’re going to be things left on the cutting room floor.

The final third of the film feels rushed and the intricate subplots barely hang together in parts, sacrificed for TV-induced brevity. Conversely the first third of the film plods and struggles to settle on a tone and utilising production design that echoes Wallander isn’t particularly useful. Yes, it’s a modern look and relief from the stuffy mannerisms of pro forma period-drama but it’s out of place. Ray Winstone, David Suchet, Paul Ritter and a couple of Game of Thrones alum – Mark Addy and Harry Lloyd (an actual Dickens descendant) all shine, balancing out Anderson’s insect antics.

JUSTIN HOOK

Fast forward half a decade and Shameless creator Paul Abbott has adapted his baby for HBO. From the title onwards, you’ll notice many similarities between the two versions. Frank (William H. Macy) is still an alcoholic family-dodging loser prone to stream-of-consciousness rants about the government, the price of cigarettes, his children, shopping trolleys, anything. Fiona (the rakish Emmy Rossum) is still the glue that binds. Even episode plots are recycled wholesale. But it doesn’t matter, because this cast bring another dimension to Shameless. For an American version to work they needed a recession to remind everyone of the thin line between wealth and poverty. That’s exactly what they got in 2008 and it’s why this version works. The goal posts have moved and America is not the land of opportunity as promised. The cracks are now gaping holes, which is where you’ll find the Gallagher family, as always, fighting for survival and against each other.

Despite it being unbearably grim in places, this is not poverty porn – it’s just another version of family life with all its imperfections and triumphs.

JUSTIN HOOK

The Odd, The Bad and The Godly [Roadshow] The best Louis Theroux docos are the ones where he squares off against a formidable opponent and his calm and persistent brand of nonanswering gets under their skin. He’s a skilled interviewer and knows the right question to ask and usually when to ask it, but he excels at playing the naive fool. And so, it’s when he spends time with an abrasive protagonist unable to keep their ego in check that Louis Theroux the annoying British guy becomes Louis Theroux the clever inquisitor. In this collection there’s a mix of the two and the ones that succeed are some of his best ever.

In the first, Theroux revisits the Westboro Baptist Church of ‘God Hates Fags’ infamy. Five years ago the Phelps family/ cult opened their doors to the filmmaker knowing full well he’d make them look like the fools they are. To their credit they let him do the same again a few years later. While they came across like a pack of pricks, Theroux wasn’t trying to poke fun at easy targets but understand them as humans.

An impossible task given the subjects, but he neither shies away from challenging church members nor digs the boot in.

The other high point is the time Theroux spends with militant ultra-Zionist Jewish settlers in the West Bank who are acquiring Palestinian properties through fair means and otherwise. The blatant dehumanisation of Palestinians by some of the interview subjects is shocking – but as usual Theroux plays an even hand refraining from demagoguery and provides plenty of rope. The remainder is good (especially the unnerving Lagos episode) but they fail to reach truly great heights.

Illuminating is enjoyable enough but Theroux is potentially much better than that.

JUSTIN HOOK

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the word

BLACKBOX

on games

Iron Brigade Developer: Double Fine Platform: Xbox360 Length: 8 hrs Verdict: Buy it Double Fine recently completed what has been a wildly successful crowdsourced fundraising round for their ambitious but as yet unnamed adventure game, raising $3.3m in the course of the fundraising on the Kickstarter.com website. Given the head of Double Fine is Tim Schafer, responsible for classics such as Psychonauts and Grim Fandango, this game is definitely one to watch.

In preparation for the release of what is hopefully going to be a fantastic addition to the adventure genre, I’ll be having a look at one of Double Fine’s previous games, the hybrid action/tower-defence game Iron Brigade.

Iron Brigade is set in a hyper-macho 1950s universe where men light cigars by shooting a pistol at the unlit end (holding the other end in their mouths as they do) and mechanical problems are fixed by giving the machine a good kicking. You play as one of a number of rugged but unconventional hard men, charged with defending humanity from the threat of the ‘Tubes’, a race of television-based monsters created by an evil Russian. These Tubes have been created in order to spread the ‘broadcast’, a signal that’s never heard in the game but presumably sounds like Rebecca Black’s Friday, given the military mobilisation in place to destroy it.

To defend humanity you are given the use of a set of ‘Mobile Trenches’, essentially downsized Mechwarriors with the additional capability to lay down automated sentry turrets. Your Trench represents the game’s two key genres: action and tower defense, forcing you to make strategic decisions on what you want your Trench to have. A heavy Trench with improved weapons capability but poor turret capacity will allow you to lumber across the battlefield dealing death to any Tubes unlucky enough to get in your way, but will only allow you to be effective in one location. Choosing a light Trench with minimal weapons but excellent turrets will reduce your Trench’s ability to deal damage but allow you to rely on your turrets to keep you out of trouble.

One of my favourite parts of Mechwarrior was the customisation of my Mech, and Double Fine have thankfully kept customisation as a key part of Iron Brigade, allowing you to purchase and loot new weapons, modifications and turrets for your Trench. Thankfully the customisation process is a straightforward one, and the focus is on shooting things, not on squeezing the last drop of performance out of your Trench.

What Double Fine has done is take the tower defense genre, meld it with Mechwarrior, pretty it up a whole lot and finally add a dash of Tim Schafer brilliance. For $15 you’re getting a great deal. peter davis

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The magnificent Sons of Anarchy (One, Wed Apr 25, 9.30pm) returns this week with the free to air debut of season three. Chez Blackbox will be tuning in, not just because the goings-on in the SAMCRO clubhouse make for riveting viewing but because it’s wellwritten, big budget episodic drama accessible to everyone. SCTEN, SBS and good old Auntie are making sure some of the HBO-style drama gets aired either after the pay channels are done or (in the case of Mad Men and Big Love) before. Join Blackbox in supporting them. There’s something great about watching TV drama the way it was intended – with anticipation and an enquiring mind, wondering who shot JR or killed Laura Palmer and re-watching last week’s episode for clues.

Also new and worth the investment are sci-fi drama Touch (SCTEN, Sun Apr 29, 8.30pm), new episodes of Person of Interest (WIN, Mon Apr 30, 10pm), Andrew Denton’s long-awaited game show Randling (ABC1, Wed May 2, 8.30pm), British legal drama Silks (ABC1, Thu Apr 26, 8.30pm) and a new series of Laid (ABC1, Wed May 2, 9pm).

Prophets of Science Fiction (SBS, Sun Apr 29, 8.30pm) got off to a great start last week with Jules Verne and his steam punk motif.

With H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick to come, it’s already made the Blackbox must watch list.

Ever notice that the world’s philosophers and thinkers usually come from cold places? Winter is coming and with it a feast of thoughtprovoking documentaries like Deliver us From Evil (ABC2, Sun May 6, 8.30pm), the story of the Catholic Church’s most notorious paedophile. Also Mark Zuckerberg: Inside Facebook (ABC 2, Thu May 10, 9.30pm), Steve Jobs: Billion Dollar Hippy (ABC1, Thu May 3, 9.30pm), Sarah Palin: You Betcha (ABC2, Sun Apr 29, 8.30pm), Wildest India (SBS1, Wed Apr 25, 7.30pm), a five-parter that looks at wildlife and landscape, Long March to Freedom (SBS1, Fri Apr 27, 9.30pm), a three-parter looking at the Red Army’s advance to Germany in 1945, Machu Picchu Decoded (SBS1, Sun May 6, 7.30pm), and Extreme Frontiers: Canada (SBS1, Wed May 9, 8.30pm), a new Charley Boorman four-parter. Amazing the sort of career you can build from being Ewan McGregor’s riding buddy.

Two on the Great Divide (ABC1, Sun Apr 29, 7.30pm) come to our neighbourhood this week, climbing Mt Kosciuszko and explaining the vagaries of Lake George. The WIN folks are moving shows around so much that unless you’re tuned in to them 24/7 you’d never know when anything was on. This time it’s 2Broke Girls (WIN, Sun Apr 29, 6.30pm). Do you have it or know someone who does?

Computer Game Addiction on Catalyst (ABC1, Thu Apr 26, 8pm).

Loving Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (ABC1, Fri 8.30pm) and her wardrobe. Not your usual drab period drama.

This fortnight’s movies include The Thomas Crown Affair (ABC2, Sat Apr 28, 8.30pm), Wayne’s World 2 (7Mate, Sun Apr 29, 7pm), the 1966 Dr Who flick, Daleks – Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (GEM, Sat May 5, 9.30am), Every Which Way You Can (WIN, Sat May 5, 12am), 1972 romp Dracula A.D. (WIN, Sat May 5, 2.10am), and Alien (One, Fri May 4, 8.30pm). Good to see TMZ (Go!, Mon-Fri, 12am) return to a slightly friendlier timeslot.

TRACY HEFFERNAN tracyherrernan@bigpond.com @ChezBlackbox

the word

The National Folk Festival Exhibition Park In Canberra Thu-Mon April 5-9

on gigs

I hope you’ve all recovered from another soul-recharging National Folk Festival! The usual run of happy stories flows from conversation to conversation. The Sessions Bar was packed with reeling trade-folksmen, the younger jammers enjoyed their self-imposed exile out by the fire and the buskers at the Busk Stops were more reliable than Action buses. The Majestic soared, of course, populated by too much local talent to name, and some inspired tie-ins from interstate like piano-gypsies The Tiger and Me. There was even some drama: as the rumour mill had it, the Rapskallion crew had too much Sliwowicz side-stage and heckled the famously gentlemanly Mikelangelo until his patience was severely frayed. Long story short, competing gypsy-cred claims led to a fiery showdown when the two groups shared the stage for The Majestic midnight cabaret. We are pleased to report that no blood was shed.

The Festival suffered some other problems, and on two of its biggest stages. Southern Cross Ten’s Budawang stage collapsed under the feet of a fairly sedate Celtic act, somehow leaving the Nash litigation-free as the players and instruments mercifully escaped injury. More pervasive was the missing Troubadour stage, a venue famous for daringly mixing up-and-comers in among the big names. Many a career has been jump-started by The Troubadour’s friendly curation; this year, sadly, it was not to be. Apparently, a stoush erupted between The Troubadour’s long-time organiser and the Nash’s Grand Honcho over the supply of wine. Historically, the various stages of the Nash have supplied the same wine panfestival and The Troubadour’s edge has come, in part, from the provision of wines grown on the family vineyard. When the forces of standardisation were marshalled and the battle for the Wine Cup was going in the Nash’s favour, The Troubadour threw up its arms in defeat and deprived festivalgoers of their favourite venue.

Never to fear: there were more than enough highlights to go around and the word on the street has been overwhelmingly positive. Newcomers like Adelaide’s Bearded Gypsy Band and the re-branded Territorians of the Brass Knuckle Brass Band found a fitting welcome at The Scrumpy. The Scrumpy punched well above its weight by sporting overflow late shows that would have fit happily into The Majestic, as well as my personal highlight, Peter Combe. Sure he’s a legacy act but there’s no criticising a shoulderto-shoulder crowd bursting at the seams with honest joy. The sing-along was unironically heartfelt. The rising star that is Bearded Gypsy Band continues to grow into incandescence—you can see their instrumental mastery honing its edge. It’s a no-brainer to flag them as an act to watch, but who’s going to stop me?

Ultimately though, the Nash appears to be in a bind. The declining focus on world music has wounded the program and the end of ACT Government funding for The Majestic and the loss of The Troubadour could be exceedingly damaging for next year.

Photos: adam thomas

An image that will stick with me was watching an old couple, reputedly festival veterans of more than a decade, leave the ticket counter crying because rising ticket prices were sending them packing without making it onto the grounds. Scaring off the faithful crowd with pricing issues and hurting the curiosity ticket with programming issues looks like a pretty powerful one-two punch for the festival, particularly in the year of the Centenary. The Artistic Program Manager position has been advertised, with the by-line, “Do you have what it takes to program the NFF?” I hope they’ve got what it takes to get it back on track.

JAMES FAHY

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the word

KRS-One/Def Wish Cast/Kokyprik Records Canberra Southern Cross Club Friday April 13

on gigs

The Canberra Southern Cross Club is an atrocious venue for anything, the telling exception being business functions and wedding receptions complete with cover bands. How can a highceilinged function room with a carpeted floor and movable walls hope to have atmosphere?

Walking into the gig I was greeted by the sight of the KP Records crew giving it their best. I won’t deny there’s talent there but it flows in the wrong direction. While Australian hip hop evolves and defines itself there are still a brand of Australian rappers who attempt to appropriate American hip hop tropes for Australian contexts.

For instance, the idea that hailing from a certain area is worth mentioning, or that being a criminal is the same as being a gangsta.

Thankfully a pair of islander MCs brought some understated skill to the stage soon after.

Def Wish Cast took over, their DJ Murda One showing some awesome skill mixing and splicing before the MCs took to the stage.

DWC often credit themselves as being the founders of Aussie hip hop. Wearing matching Puma sweats and rapping aggressively they bounced around the stage spitting at phenomenal pace.

Australian hip hop has come a long way since DWC were the be-all, which contributed to a sense of their being a bit dated. Maybe it’s that Def Wish was wearing a doorag and Jesus chain. Australian gangsta rap necessitates that there be such a thing as an Australian gangsta, but for their raw skill and energy DWC can’t be faulted.

Thank fuck for KRS-One. In room that could have held 600, the smattering of 200 who stood loosely in front of the stage were never going to be easy to psyche up, least of all with only one DJ and one MC, but when that MC is KRS-One it was always going to work.

The Teacha did everything right. First, he recognised he was working a crowd with low energy and little intimate knowledge of his work.

A classic move is to leave open your memorable lines for a crowd to complete. When he saw that only 20 or so people were throwing the lines back at him he stalled the beat to work the crowd.

He used every track he had, hip hop classics like I’m Still #1 and Sound Of Da Police, and made sure to freestyle when he was feeling it, including an unforgettable set of rhymes over Vivaldi’s Spring.

Second, he read the room. He heaped commands on the sound techies until they pumped the volume. A sense of atmosphere came jolting up through the crowd as the bass thickened enough to fill the enormous room. Every time he heard them letting it creep down he pushed it back up.

Lastly, at the end of the show he came striding offstage. At well over six feet tall, KRS has a commanding physical presence. He used it to make anyone he could feel welcome. His huge smile and open expression is now the treasure of at least 50 fans he stopped to take photos with.

photos: martin ollman

Watching him sling an arm around a blind fan and talk to him for a minute in a thronging crowd of 100 was a surreal highlight, probably for the fan far more than me. “This is the best kind of show to end my tour,” he told the crowd, and I couldn’t help feel it was because it was a challenge. He deserves every scrap of respect there is for rising to it.

ASHLEY THOMSON

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the word

Cracked Actor EP Launch The White Eagle Polish Club Friday April 20

on gigs

The stage of The White Eagle Polish Club looked like a giant pillow fort, or a stage erected by kids for a backyard production of a play.

Draped with mismatching fabrics, dominated by a tangle of power cords and looking out over a sea of old plastic chairs and sofas rescued from footpaths, it gave off an air of effortless comfort; a wonderful accident. Not so for the bands and performers assembled for the launch of Cracked Actor’s EP Solar Driftwood. The carefully selected line-up included solo acts Chris Finnigan and Rueben Ingall, as well as bands Elisha Bones and Mornings (who share a guitarist with Cracked Actor).

Those who arrived early watched Chris Finnigan standing alone on the whimsical stage, meticulously looping and layering the simple sounds of his guitar into something close to the sublime. It was a quiet, slow set that left everyone smiling. It was a hard act for fellow soloist Rueben Ingall to follow. His style, louder and somewhat discordant, was not well received by the then small crowd.

Next, Elisha Bones. Their set was a strange mix of sounds: eerie prog-rock contrasted with folk-like tempos. When the band played as a four-piece the sound was particularly heavy and bass-driven, but they gave their set an interesting twist with a guest appearance from American singer Sharleen Chidiac. She and guitarist/singer Michael Bones performed a haunting duet called Family Man that single-handedly silenced the now crowded venue.

Mornings began their set with an announcement. Lead man Jordan Rodgers awkwardly faced the audience and, as quietly as one can into a microphone, muttered: “Um, we don’t usually talk. But some nice man told us to introduce ourselves, so—” Without further ado they launched into a mostly instrumental set, the band rocking back and forth as one. They played like clockwork, each song perfectly timed and refined to produce an energetic sound. Their final song ended with a mathematically precise swell of pure sound. The few attempts to provide accompanying vocals would have been best abandoned in favour of concentrating on this formidable instrumental strength.

When at last Cracked Actor took to the stage it was as though the audience had collectively experienced a revelation of the intricacies of the evening’s structure. From the first quiet notes struck by Chris Finnigan to the final wave of Morning’s sound to hit the back wall, everything had been building towards this moment.

Cracked Actor were worth the wait, to say the least. Their polished sound is clearly the product of careful thought and hard work, and the final product is more artwork than album. The bass line was moving but not overwhelming, and lead singer Sebastian Field’s unearthly vocals rose above the rest of the band. Their set was accompanied by a video clip: an unending loop of psychedelic colours, remixed footage of men standing awkwardly in hedge mazes, women feeding ducks, trees made out of broccoli and segments of an old US Air Force H-Bomb warning reel. The songs were interspersed with dated recordings of newsreader announcements.

photos: martin ollman

Field’s lyrics, as out-of-this-world as his voice, mirrored these apocalyptic themes. He sang of alien invasions and worlds ending.

High-speed images of nuclear warheads bounced around the screen (the same image that graces the cover of Solar Driftwood) as the night drew to a close. The crowd swarmed around the stage, pockets of people spontaneously bursting into fits of interpretive dance. It really did seem like the end of the world.

LAUREN STRICKLAND

47

GIG GUIDE April 25 - April 27 wednesday april 25

thursday april 26

Arts

Arts

Exhibition - Tell them I said something...

Exhibition - Spirit of Lake Eyre

By Roh Singh. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - 15

Wouter Van de Voorde creates brooding photographic narratives of the Australian landscape.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY ROOM

Exhibition - Karl Wiebke Painting

“My work explores what it means to paint” – Karl Wiebke. Till May 20.

DRILL HALL GALLERY, ANU

Exhibition - Grow

By Matthew Day Perez. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - When Wishing Still Worked

By Sister Wives. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

Val Johnson creates paintings and drawings which capture the lake’s rhythmic patterns. Till May 13.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Doubt: a parable

Roesy

UC REFECTORY

Exhibition - 15

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

Wouter Van de Voorde creates brooding photographic narratives of the Australian landscape.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY ROOM

Exhibition - Energy Selves

Small observed landscapes by M16 based artists Ian Robertson and Marje Seymour. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

“My work explores what it means to paint” – Karl Wiebke. Till May 20.

Tix through Moshtix.

Charles and Dave Live Music

In the garden from 5pm.

MINT GARDEN BAR

Super Best Friends

Launch their new EP. 8pm, $10 entry.

TRANSIT BAR

Something Different Karaoke Night

1st place wins cash prize with plenty of bar vouchers to be won. 8pm P J O’REILLY’S, TUGGERANONG

Exhibition - Grow

By Matthew Day Perez. Running until May 12.

Live

Exhibition - Stitches in the Night

Organic textiles and photography by Turkish born Perth artist Zuhal KuvanMills. Till May 6.

friday april 27 Arts Exhibition - Spirit of Lake Eyre

Exhibition - When Wishing Still Worked

COURTYARD STUDIO, CTC

Something Different

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

Transit Trivia

Flex your noggin. Table bookings essential. 7.30pm start.

TRANSIT BAR

Karaoke

From 10pm.

THE DURHAM

Exhibition - Remains of Fire

The impact of the fire by Perth artist Adriana Fernandes-Goncalves. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

Dance Cube Thursdays

9pm ‘til 5am with DJ Pete. Two for one drinks ‘til 11pm plus free pool all night long.

CUBE NIGHTCLUB

48

Exhibition - Stitches in the Night

M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition - Energy Selves

Small observed landscapes by M16 based artists Ian Robertson and Marje Seymour. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition - Karl Wiebke Painting

“My work explores what it means to paint” – Karl Wiebke. Till May 20.

DRILL HALL GALLERY, ANU

Poetry Slam 7.30pm, free.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Exhibition - Grow

By Matthew Day Perez. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - When Wishing Still Worked

By Sister Wives. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - Remains of Fire

The impact of the fire by Perth artist Adriana Fernandes-Goncalves. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

Two new shows added! Bookings 6275 2700.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

M16 ARTSPACE

By Sister Wives. Running until May 12.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY ROOM

Comedy

All musicians/artists welcome. Backline instruments provided. 8pm till late.

P J O’REILLY’S, TUGGERANONG

Wouter Van de Voorde creates brooding photographic narratives of the Australian landscape.

Val Johnson creates paintings and drawings which capture the lake’s rhythmic patterns. Till May 13.

Doubt: a parable

Muso Jam Night

Exhibition - 15

Organic textiles and photography by Turkish born Perth artist Zuhal KuvanMills. Till May 6.

Live

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

Dance performance night. From 9pm.

HIPPO LOUNGE

THE CLUBHOUSE

Lil Jon

By Roh Singh. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

Hippo Live

9pm.

Exhibition - Tell them I said something...

DRILL HALL GALLERY, ANU

MONKEY BAR

Open Decks – No Genres Barred

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

COURTYARD STUDIO, CTC

Latino Wednesdays

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

COURTYARD STUDIO, CTC

Exhibition - Karl Wiebke Painting

Dance

The new kid on the block. From 8-10pm.

Acclaimed Irish singer-songwriter Roesy brings a canon of instant classics. With James Fahy. $10.

Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Presented by Free Rain.

Doubt: a parable

Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Presented by Free Rain.

Nathan Kleyn

Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Presented by Free Rain.

Exhibition - Maria Crinigan’s Tragedy

Wainwright’s sculptures and Malins’ large-scale drawings explore the life of the local pioneer.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition - Tell them I said something...

By Roh Singh. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

Ross Noble: Nonsensory Overload CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Dance Cheese & Hazan HIPPO LOUNGE

Shockone

Presented by True Jungle Souljahs. With Buick, Riske, Delux, Tidy and more.

THE CLUBHOUSE

REV

Indie DJs from 10 ‘til late. $5 before midnight.

BAR 32

Princi

Straight out of hipsterville, yo.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

49

GIG GUIDE April 27 - April 29 friday april 27 dance Ministry of Sound Electro House Sessions

With The Only.

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Havana Nights

Presents DJ Trent Richardson from 9pm.

MONKEY BAR

Purple Sneakers

Late late late night indie disco disco.

8pm, free entry.

TRANSIT BAR

Live

Something Different Love Vintage Show

Unique fashion, jewellery and homewares. Fashion parades, live band, masterclasses and more.

EXHIBITION PARK

Jumptown Swing Dancing Social $10, 8pm.

DIGRESS

saturday april 28 Arts Exhibition - Spirit of Lake Eyre

Top Shelf

Val Johnson creates paintings and drawings which capture the lake’s rhythmic patterns. Till May 13.

Freyja’s Rain

Doubt: a parable

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

5-8pm.

CHARLIE BLACKS

The City Shake Up Tix through Ticketek.

ANU BAR AND REFECTORY

Friday Party Night

Feat. Second Culture performing from 8pm till 10pm, followed by resident DJ. P J O’REILLY’S, TUGGERANONG

Light Blue Yvie

Jazz covers band. 6pm.

DIGRESS

Heuristic

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Presented by Free Rain.

COURTYARD STUDIO, CTC

Exhibition - Maria Crinigan’s Tragedy

Wainwright’s sculptures and Malins’ large-scale drawings explore the life of the local pioneer.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition - Tell them I said something...

By Roh Singh. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - 15

Wouter Van de Voorde creates brooding photographic narratives of the Australian landscape.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY ROOM

Exhibition - Stitches in the Night

Organic textiles and photography by Turkish born Perth artist Zuhal KuvanMills. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition - Energy Selves

Small observed landscapes by M16 based artists Ian Robertson and Marje Seymour. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition - Karl Wiebke Painting

“My work explores what it means to paint” – Karl Wiebke. Till May 20.

DRILL HALL GALLERY, ANU

Exhibition - Grow

You Used to be Funny single launch tour, with Halfway. Free.

THE PHOENIX PUB

music, coffee

Bass, violin, looped vocals and a morning coffee. 10 – noon.

MOCAN AND GREEN GROUT, NEWACTON

Oscar

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

Big Bang Saturday

Los Chavos, DJ Alex Carder, DJ Rafa Chango. From 9pm.

DIGRESS

Something Different

By Matthew Day Perez. Running until May 12.

Love Vintage Show

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

Unique fashion, jewellery and homewares. Fashion parades, live band, masterclasses and more.

Exhibition - When Wishing Still Worked

EXHIBITION PARK

Karaoke

By Sister Wives. Running until May 12.

P J O’REILLY’S, CIVIC

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

sunday april 29

Exhibition - Remains of Fire

The impact of the fire by Perth artist Adriana Fernandes-Goncalves. Till May 6.

Arts

Comedy

Val Johnson creates paintings and drawings which capture the lake’s rhythmic patterns. Till May 13.

M16 ARTSPACE

Ross Noble: Nonsensory Overload

Two new shows added! Bookings 6275 2700.

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Dance Karton

Presented by Eargasm. 10.30pm.

THE CLUBHOUSE

Booty Bar

Featuring DJ Lenno and Spawnbreezie (NZ). 10pm.

MONKEY BAR

Princi & Celebrity Sex Tape HIPPO LOUNGE

Spawbreezie

Dear Billy tour. Special guest DJ Lenno, DJs Karma, Rush, Joey Joe. MONKEY BAR

Krafty Kuts

$25 before 10pm.

TRINITY BAR

Exhibition - Spirit of Lake Eyre

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Doubt: a parable

Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Presented by Free Rain.

COURTYARD STUDIO, CTC

Exhibition - Maria Crinigan’s Tragedy

Wainwright’s sculptures and Malins’ large-scale drawings explore the life of the local pioneer.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition - Tell them I said something...

By Roh Singh. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - 15

Wouter Van de Voorde creates brooding photographic narratives of the Australian landscape.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY ROOM

Exhibition - Stitches in the Night

Deep blue cheese. Hazardous content.

Organic textiles and photography by Turkish born Perth artist Zuhal KuvanMills. Till May 6.

Cube Saturdays

Exhibition - Energy Selves

CUBE NIGHTCLUB

M16 ARTSPACE

Jemist

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

10pm ‘til 5am with DJs Matt & Pete.

Two for one drinks and free entry until 11pm.

M16 ARTSPACE

Small observed landscapes by M16 based artists Ian Robertson and Marje Seymour. Till May 6.

9pm.

Exhibition - Karl Wiebke Painting

Live

DRILL HALL GALLERY, ANU

DJ Fergus HELLENIC CLUB IN THE CITY

Effigy Presents Synthesis

Feat. Electrocado, Will Marshall, Logman & Pstump and more. 8pm, $15 presale.

TRANSIT BAR

Southside Sessions

Feat. Knights of the Spatchcock, Johnny Roadkill, Critical Monkey, The Experience. 8.30pm till late.

P J O’REILLY’S, TUGGERANONG -

50

We Wall Want To

“My work explores what it means to paint” – Karl Wiebke. Till May 20.

Poetry in the Pub THE PHOENIX PUB

Exhibition - Grow

By Matthew Day Perez. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - When Wishing Still Worked

By Sister Wives. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

GIG GUIDE April 29 - May 02 sunday april 29

Exhibition - Karl Wiebke Painting

Arts

“My work explores what it means to paint” – Karl Wiebke. Till May 20.

Exhibition - Remains of Fire

Exhibition - Grow

The impact of the fire by Perth artist Adriana Fernandes-Goncalves. Till May 6.

DRILL HALL GALLERY, ANU

By Matthew Day Perez. Running until May 12.

M16 ARTSPACE

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Dance

Dance

Hospitality Sundays

Biscuits

10pm ‘til late with DJ TJ. Free entry, free pool and discounted drinks.

CUBE NIGHTCLUB

Post-weekend sounds from Ryz, Peekz, Kimosabi, Steve On Weekends and more. 9pm, free.

TRANSIT BAR

Live The Bridge Between 1-4pm.

THE GEORGE HARCOURT INN

The Bennies Foxtrot, 8pm.

THE PHOENIX PUB

Irish Jam

Love Vintage Show

Unique fashion, jewellery and homewares. Fashion parades, live band, masterclasses and more.

EXHIBITION PARK

Sunday Arvo Trivia From 2.30pm.

THE DURHAM

monday april 30 Arts Exhibition - When Wishing Still Worked

By Sister Wives. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - Remains of Fire

The impact of the fire by Perth artist Adriana Fernandes-Goncalves. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition - Spirit of Lake Eyre Val Johnson creates paintings and drawings which capture the lake’s rhythmic patterns. Till May 13.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition - Maria Crinigan’s Tragedy

Wainwright’s sculptures and Malins’ large-scale drawings explore the life of the local pioneer.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

CIT Presents The Bootleg Sessions

Zoopagoo, Kish for Kash, Kirrah Amosa with Greg Stott, Hidden Desire. 8pm.

tuesday may 01 Arts

Exhibition - Energy Selves

Small observed landscapes by M16 based artists Ian Robertson and Marje Seymour. Till May 6.

7.30pm.

DIGRESS

Fame Trivia From 7.30pm.

THE DURHAM

Trivia Tuesday

1st place cash prize with bar and kitchen vouchers to be won. 7pm.

P J O’REILLY’S, TUGGERANONG

Trivia Night Karaoke Love

Croon and wail your heart out on the Transit stage. 9pm start.

TRANSIT BAR

wednesday may 02 Arts Exhibition - When Wishing Still Worked

By Sister Wives. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - Remains of Fire

By Sister Wives. Running until May 12.

Exhibition - Remains of Fire

The impact of the fire by Perth artist Adriana Fernandes-Goncalves. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition - Spirit of Lake Eyre

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

The impact of the fire by Perth artist Adriana Fernandes-Goncalves. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition - Spirit of Lake Eyre Val Johnson creates paintings and drawings which capture the lake’s rhythmic patterns. Till May 13.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition - Maria Crinigan’s Tragedy

Wainwright’s sculptures and Malins’ large-scale drawings explore the life of the local pioneer.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition - Tell them I said something...

By Roh Singh. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - Stitches in the Night

Organic textiles and photography by Turkish born Perth artist Zuhal KuvanMills. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition - Energy Selves

Small observed landscapes by M16 based artists Ian Robertson and Marje Seymour. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition - In My Eyes

Featuring the work of 25 current ANU Art School students. Till May 16.

THEO NOTARAS MULTICULTURAL CENTRE

Exhibition - Karl Wiebke Painting

“My work explores what it means to paint” – Karl Wiebke. Till May 20.

DRILL HALL GALLERY, ANU

Exhibition - Grow

By Matthew Day Perez. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Val Johnson creates paintings and drawings which capture the lake’s rhythmic patterns. Till May 13.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition - Maria Crinigan’s Tragedy

Wainwright’s sculptures and Malins’ large-scale drawings explore the life of the local pioneer.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition - Tell them I said something...

By Roh Singh. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - Stitches in the Night

Organic textiles and photography by Turkish born Perth artist Zuhal KuvanMills. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition - Energy Selves

Exhibition - Karl Wiebke Painting

M16 ARTSPACE

Fame Trivia

Exhibition - When Wishing Still Worked

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Organic textiles and photography by Turkish born Perth artist Zuhal KuvanMills. Till May 6.

NEWACTON COURTYARD

THE PHOENIX PUB

Small observed landscapes by M16 based artists Ian Robertson and Marje Seymour. Till May 6.

Exhibition - Stitches in the Night

You choose a deckchair, they’ll choose a movie. Drink and pizza specials by Bicicletta Cafe.

THE PHOENIX PUB

Exhibition - Tell them I said something...

By Roh Singh. Running until May 12.

Tuesday Movie Night

7.30pm.

Live

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

Something Different

Something Different

M16 ARTSPACE

“My work explores what it means to paint” – Karl Wiebke. Till May 20.

DRILL HALL GALLERY, ANU

Exhibition - Grow

By Matthew Day Perez. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

M16 ARTSPACE

51

GIG GUIDE May 02 - May 05 wednesday may 02

Exhibition - Energy Selves

Exhibition - animal

M16 ARTSPACE

THE PHOTOGRAPHY ROOM

Arts

Small observed landscapes by M16 based artists Ian Robertson and Marje Seymour. Till May 6.

Exhibition - animal

Exhibition - In My Eyes

Fleshy and bold photographs by Spiro Miralis document his friends and lovers in his own space.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY ROOM

Comedy Shane Dundas: Believe

An Umbilical Brother goes solo.

COURTYARD STUDIO, CTC

Dance

Featuring the work of 25 current ANU Art School students. Till May 16.

THEO NOTARAS MULTICULTURAL CENTRE

Exhibition - Karl Wiebke Painting

“My work explores what it means to paint” – Karl Wiebke. Till May 20.

DRILL HALL GALLERY, ANU

Exhibition - Grow

By Matthew Day Perez. Running until May 12.

Latino Wednesdays

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

MONKEY BAR

Live

Live

Liz Stringer

Dance performance night. From 9pm.

Muso’s Jam Night

All you need to bring is your instruments and friends.

P J O’REILLY’S, TUGGERANONG

Something Different Transit Trivia

Flex your noggin. Table bookings essential. 7.30pm start.

TRANSIT BAR

Karaoke

From 10pm.

THE DURHAM

thursday may 03 Arts

THE PHOTOGRAPHY ROOM

Paul Summerfield Gallery Opening 6pm.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Exhibition - When Wishing Still Worked

ANU BAR AND REFECTORY

Daniel Merriweather

Fresh from a standout set at Woodford.

Tix through Moshtix.

ZIERHOLZ @ UC

The Skronks

Space Party, Peking Sheers. 9pm.

THE PHOENIX PUB

Calling All Cars: Delirium Tour

Ska-reggae-latin infused sounds, supported by New Orleans funk stylings of Brass Knuckle Brass Band.

CIT MUSIC INDUSTRY CENTRE

friday may 04 Arts Exhibition - Grow

By Matthew Day Perez. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

M16 ARTSPACE

The impact of the fire by Perth artist Adriana Fernandes-Goncalves. Till May 6.

By Sister Wives. Running until May 12.

Exhibition - Remains of Fire

M16 ARTSPACE

Val Johnson creates paintings and drawings which capture the lake’s rhythmic patterns. Till May 13.

Exhibition - Spirit of Lake Eyre

Exhibition - Maria Crinigan’s Tragedy

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Wainwright’s sculptures and Malins’ large-scale drawings explore the life of the local pioneer.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition - Tell them I said something...

Val Johnson creates paintings and drawings which capture the lake’s rhythmic patterns. Till May 13.

Canberra Rep Presents Speaking in Tongues

Adapted as the Australian award winning film Lantana. By Andrew Bovell.

Directed by Ross McGregor.

THEATRE 3

By Roh Singh. Running until May 12.

Exhibition - Maria Crinigan’s Tragedy

Exhibition - Stitches in the Night

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Organic textiles and photography by Turkish born Perth artist Zuhal KuvanMills. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

52

Small observed landscapes by M16 based artists Ian Robertson and Marje Seymour. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition - In My Eyes

Featuring the work of 25 current ANU Art School students. Till May 16.

Exhibition - Karl Wiebke Painting

“My work explores what it means to paint” – Karl Wiebke. Till May 20.

Wainwright’s sculptures and Malins’ large-scale drawings explore the life of the local pioneer.

Exhibition - Tell them I said something...

By Roh Singh. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - When Wishing Still Worked

By Sister Wives. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - Remains of Fire

The impact of the fire by Perth artist Adriana Fernandes-Goncalves. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition - Spirit of Lake Eyre Val Johnson creates paintings and drawings which capture the lake’s rhythmic patterns. Till May 13.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Canberra Rep Presents Speaking in Tongues

Adapted as the Australian award winning film Lantana. By Andrew Bovell.

Directed by Ross McGregor.

THEATRE 3

Exhibition - Maria Crinigan’s Tragedy

Star Wars Burlesque

Wainwright’s sculptures and Malins’ large-scale drawings explore the life of the local pioneer.

THE PLAYHOUSE

Exhibition - Tell them I said something...

DRILL HALL GALLERY, ANU

The Empire Strips Back. A burlesque parody. Tix through the venue.

Comedy Shane Dundas: Believe

An Umbilical Brother goes solo.

COURTYARD STUDIO, CTC

Mixed Bag feat. Blunt Instrument

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition - Energy Selves

MIC Night feat. Los Chavos

Exhibition - Remains of Fire

Exhibition - Spirit of Lake Eyre

M16 ARTSPACE

Dance

TRANSIT BAR

By Sister Wives. Running until May 12.

The impact of the fire by Perth artist Adriana Fernandes-Goncalves. Till May 6.

Organic textiles and photography by Turkish born Perth artist Zuhal KuvanMills. Till May 6.

With The Strangers and Arts Marital.

8pm, presale from Moshtix.

Exhibition - When Wishing Still Worked

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - Stitches in the Night

THEO NOTARAS MULTICULTURAL CENTRE

Warm in the Darkness tour. With Van Walker and Julia and the Deep Sea Sirens. 8pm, $15.

Exhibition - animal

Fleshy and bold photographs by Spiro Miralis document his friends and lovers in his own space.

Fleshy and bold photographs by Spiro Miralis document his friends and lovers in his own space.

10pm.

THE CLUBHOUSE

Alex Carder HIPPO LOUNGE

REV

Indie DJs from 10 ‘til late. $5 before midnight.

BAR 32

Soul. Be In It

Buick and crew get down on it. 8pm, free entry.

TRANSIT BAR

Jemist

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

By Roh Singh. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - animal

Fleshy and bold photographs by Spiro Miralis document his friends and lovers in his own space.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY ROOM

Exhibition - Stitches in the Night

Organic textiles and photography by Turkish born Perth artist Zuhal KuvanMills. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition - Energy Selves

Small observed landscapes by M16 based artists Ian Robertson and Marje Seymour. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition - In My Eyes

Featuring the work of 25 current ANU Art School students. Till May 16.

THEO NOTARAS MULTICULTURAL CENTRE

Exhibition - Karl Wiebke Painting

“My work explores what it means to paint” – Karl Wiebke. Till May 20.

Live Steve Smyth

DRILL HALL GALLERY, ANU

Smyth’s had forays into punk, folk and rock. With Emily Barker and The Burly Griffin. 8pm.

Star Wars Burlesque

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

THE PLAYHOUSE

Something Like This KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

Comedy

Soiree

Shane Dundas: Believe

CASINO CANBERRA

Friday Party Night

Feat. Second Avenue from 8pm-10 followed by resident DJs. P J O’REILLY’S, TUGGERANONG

Live @ BAC

Unwind on the first Friday of each month to local acoustic music. Check the website for more.

BELCONNEN THEATRE

saturday may 05 Arts Exhibition - Grow

By Matthew Day Perez. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

The Empire Strips Back. A burlesque parody. Tix through the venue.

An Umbilical Brother goes solo.

COURTYARD STUDIO, CTC

Dance B-tham

Fresh tech grooves all night.

KREMLIN BAR

Nathan Frost

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

Urban Playground

Feat. Karma, Joeyjoe, Hypnotic from 10pm.

MONKEY BAR

Lazy Rich & Vengeance

Presented by Feel the Noize. 9.30pm.

THE CLUBHOUSE

Mario Gordon HIPPO LOUNGE

GIG GUIDE May 05 - May 10 Cube Saturdays

10pm ‘til 5am with DJs Matt & Pete.

Two for one drinks and free entry until 11pm.

CUBE NIGHTCLUB

Live Jack Carty Album Launch

Fresh from standout sets at this year’s Woodford Folk Festival. With Patrick James. 8pm, $15.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

Killing the Sound

KING O’MALLEY’S, CIVIC

Exhibition - Energy Selves

Small observed landscapes by M16 based artists Ian Robertson and Marje Seymour. Till May 6.

Exhibition - In My Eyes

THEO NOTARAS MULTICULTURAL CENTRE

Live

Featuring the work of 25 current ANU Art School students. Till May 16.

Exhibition - Karl Wiebke Painting

“My work explores what it means to paint” – Karl Wiebke. Till May 20.

DRILL HALL GALLERY, ANU

Comedy

THE PHOENIX PUB

Shane Dundas: Believe

Katalyst

The man behind Quakers and Invada Records. With Faux Real, Jayo, Tone Def and Jemist. 8pm. Moshtix.

TRANSIT BAR

Something Different Fash ‘n’ Treasure

Recycled, vintage, designer fashion, records, books, food, music. 10-3pm.

Free.entry. 10-3pm.

OLD BUS DEPOT BUILDINGS

Karaoke

P J O’REILLY’S, CIVIC

sunday may 06 Arts Exhibition - Grow

By Matthew Day Perez. Running until May 12.

Canberra Rep Presents Speaking in Tongues

Adapted as the Australian award winning film Lantana. By Andrew Bovell.

Directed by Ross McGregor.

THEATRE 3

Exhibition - Maria Crinigan’s Tragedy

Wainwright’s sculptures and Malins’ large-scale drawings explore the life of the local pioneer.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition - Tell them I said something...

By Roh Singh. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - animal

Fleshy and bold photographs by Spiro Miralis document his friends and lovers in his own space.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY ROOM

Exhibition - Stitches in the Night

Organic textiles and photography by Turkish born Perth artist Zuhal KuvanMills. Till May 6.

M16 ARTSPACE

9pm.

MONKEY BAR

Live Muso’s Jam Night

All you need to bring is your instruments and friends.

By Matthew Day Perez. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Live

By Sister Wives. Running until May 12.

CUBE NIGHTCLUB

Hashemoto Sunday Double

Two sets! One at 2pm and one at 7.30pm. Twice the acoustic appeal!

2pm by donation, 7.30pm-$10/$15.

THE FRONT CAFE AND GALLERY

No Idea

THE GEORGE HARCOURT INN

Sick of it All

With Agnostic Front and Toe to Toe. Tix through Moshtix.

ZIERHOLZ @ UC

Exhibition - When Wishing Still Worked

Canberra Rep Presents Speaking in Tongues

Adapted as the Australian award winning film Lantana. By Andrew Bovell.

Directed by Ross McGregor.

THEATRE 3

THE DURHAM

Transit Trivia

Flex your noggin. Table bookings essential. 7.30pm start.

Something Different

Arts

thursday may 10

THEATRE 3

Exhibition - In My Eyes

Tuesday Movie Night

You choose a deckchair, they’ll choose a movie. Drink and pizza specials by Bicicletta Cafe.

7.30pm.

Canberra Rep Presents Speaking in Tongues

From 10pm.

TRANSIT BAR

THE DURHAM

Arts

Something Different

Adapted as the Australian award winning film Lantana. By Andrew Bovell.

Directed by Ross McGregor.

NEWACTON COURTYARD

monday may 07

P J O’REILLY’S, TUGGERANONG

Karaoke

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Sunday Arvo Trivia

Exhibition - Remains of Fire

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Latino Wednesdays

10pm ‘til late with DJ TJ. Free entry, free pool and discounted drinks.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Val Johnson creates paintings and drawings which capture the lake’s rhythmic patterns. Till May 13.

Dance

tuesday may 08

Exhibition - Grow

From 2.30pm.

Exhibition - Spirit of Lake Eyre

THEATRE 3

THE PHOENIX PUB

Dance

Exhibition - When Wishing Still Worked

M16 ARTSPACE

Adapted as the Australian award winning film Lantana. By Andrew Bovell.

Directed by Ross McGregor.

Los Chavos, No Hausfrau, Dan Musil.

8pm.

Arts

Something Different

The impact of the fire by Perth artist Adriana Fernandes-Goncalves. Till May 6.

Canberra Rep Presents Speaking in Tongues

CMC Presents The Bootleg Sessions

COURTYARD STUDIO, CTC

Hospitality Sundays

Arts

TRANSIT BAR

An Umbilical Brother goes solo.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

By Sister Wives. Running until May 12.

wednesday may 09

Biscuits

Post-weekend sounds from Ryz, Peekz, Kimosabi, Steve On Weekends and more. 9pm, free.

M16 ARTSPACE

Owen Campbell 9.30pm.

Dance

Fame Trivia

Featuring the work of 25 current ANU Art School students. Till May 16.

THEO NOTARAS MULTICULTURAL CENTRE

Exhibition - Karl Wiebke Painting

“My work explores what it means to paint” – Karl Wiebke. Till May 20.

DIGRESS

Karaoke Love

DRILL HALL GALLERY, ANU

TRANSIT BAR

Fame Trivia

QL2 presents Quantum Leap in Me Right Now. Loose limbed, fast and furious dancing.

THE DURHAM

Exhibition - Grow

Croon and wail your heart out on the Transit stage. 9pm start.

Me Right Now

From 7.30pm.

THE PLAYHOUSE

Trivia Night

By Matthew Day Perez. Running until May 12.

7.30pm.

THE PHOENIX PUB

Exhibition - Maria Crinigan’s Tragedy

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - When Wishing Still Worked

Wainwright’s sculptures and Malins’ large-scale drawings explore the life of the local pioneer.

By Sister Wives. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE GORMAN HOUSE

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition - Tell them I said something...

By Roh Singh. Running until May 12.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE - GORMAN HOUSE

Exhibition - animal

Fleshy and bold photographs by Spiro Miralis document his friends and lovers in his own space.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY ROOM

Exhibition - In My Eyes

Featuring the work of 25 current ANU Art School students. Till May 16.

THEO NOTARAS MULTICULTURAL CENTRE

Exhibition - Karl Wiebke Painting

“My work explores what it means to paint” – Karl Wiebke. Till May 20.

DRILL HALL GALLERY, ANU

OUT

may09

THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE NATIONAL INDIGENOUS ART TRIENNIAL parkway drive JULIA’S LAST ISSUE! ...and more!

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FIRST CONTACT

SIDE A: BMA band profile

Law of the Tongue Where did your band name come from?

It comes from the killers of Eden.

Killer whales from Eden who would work with a family of fishermen in the area to hunt. The orcas would trap the prey in the bay, with their reward being the lips and tongue of the whales the fishermen caught.

Group members: Brad – drums, Ben – vocals, DD – bass, Kim – guitar.

Describe your sound: Stoner sludge doom.

Who are your influences, musical or otherwise? We’re all into different stuff… but I guess common influences would be bands like Sleep, Eyehategod, Yob, Electric Wizard, Black Sabbath, Bongzilla, Iron Monkey, Saint Vitus, BuzzOv-en, The Melvins, etc. etc.

What’s the weirdest experience you’ve had whilst performing? Personally… having my ears unblocked because we were playing so loud. (I wasn’t aware they were blocked in the first place.)

What’s your biggest achievement/proudest moment so far? Writing songs that we love to play… and playing them really fuckin’ loud.

What are your plans for the future? To finish recording our demo and play heaps of shows.

What makes you laugh? Scene kids.

What pisses you off? People who are disrespectful or rude for no reason. Racists. Elitists.

What’s your opinion of the local scene? Canberra has always had a great local scene. Seems to me the people who always complain about it are usually the ones that don’t bother going to see local bands.

What are your upcoming gigs? We have a few shows booked in for Melbourne and Sydney in June/July. We’ll definitely be doing some local gigs too. Keep an eye out!

Contact info: Ben 0425634869, www.facebook.com/ lawofthetongue

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Aaron Peacey Aaron 0410 381 306 Activate Jetpack activatejetpack@ hotmail.com Adam Hole Adam 0421 023 226 Afternoon Shift Adam 0402 055 314 After Close Scotty 0412 742 682, afterclose@hotmail.com Alcove Mark 0410 112 522 Alice 0423 100 792 Allies ACT (Oxfam Group) alliesact@hotmail.com/ myspace.com/alliesact Amphibian Sound PA Clare 0410 308 288 Amplif5’d Classic rock covers band Joy 0407 200 428, joybarac-heath@hotmail.com Annie & the Armadillos Annie 6161 1078/0422 076 313 The Ashburys Dan Craddock 0419 626 903 Aria Stone, sax & flute, singer/ songwriter (guitar) Aria 0411 803 343 Australian Songwriters Association (Keiran Roberts) 6231 0433 Arythmia: Ben 0423 408 767/ arythmiamusic@gmail.com Backbeat Drivers Steve 0422 733 974, www.backbeatdrivers.com Big Boss Groove Andrew 0404 455 834, www.bigbossgroove.com.au Birds Love Fighting Gangbusters/DIY shows - bookings@birdslovefighting.com Black Label Photography Kingsley 0438 351 007 Blister Bug Stu 0408 617 791 Bridge Between, The Rachel 0412 598 138, thebridgebetween.com.au Bruce Stage mgr/consultant 6254 9857 Caution Horses Nigel 0417 211 580 Chris Harland Blues Band 0418 490 640 chrisharlandbluesband@yahoo.com.au Clear Vision Films rehearsals/film clips/stunts - 0438 647 281 wcoulton.clearvisionfilms.com Cole Bennetts Photography 0415 982 662 /colebennetts.com Cris Clucas Cris 6262 5652 Crooked Dave 0421 508 467 Danny V Danny 6238 1673/0413 502 428 Dawn Theory Nathan 0402 845 132 D’Opus & Roshambo hifidelitystyles@yahoo.com DJs Madrid and Gordon 0417 433 971 DJ Latino Rogelio 0401 274 208 DJ Moises (RnB/Latin) 0402 497 835 or moises_lopez@hotmail DNA Vic 0408 477 020 Drumassault Kate 0414 236 323 Easy Mode Daz 0404 156 482, easymodeband@gmail.com Entity Chris 0412 027 894 Epic Flagon band@epicflagon.com Fighting Mongooses, The Adam 0402 055 314 Final Warning Brendan 0422 809 552 Fire on the Hill Aaron 0410 381 306/ Lachlan 0400 038 388 4dead Peter 0401 006 551 Freeloaders, The Steve 0412 653 597 Friend or Enemy 6238 0083, www.myspace.com/friendorenemy Gareth Hailey DJ & Electronica 0414 215 885 GiLF Kelly 0410 588 747, gilf.mail@gmail.com Groovalicious Corporate/Weddings/ Private functions 0448 995 158 groovalicious@y7mail.com Guy The Sound Guy live & studio sound engineer, 0400 585 369, guy@ guythesoundguy.com HalfPast Chris 0412 115 594 Hancock Basement Tom 6257 5375, hancockbasement@hotmail.com Happy Hour Wendy 0406 375 096 Haunted Attics band@hauntedatticsmusic.com Hitherto Paul 0408 425 636 In The Flesh Scott 0410 475 703 Inside the Exterior Nathan 0401 072 650 Itchy Triggers Andrew 0401 588 884

Jacqui Seczawa 0428 428 722 JDY Clothing 0405 648 288/ www.jdyclothing.com Jenn Pacor singer/songwriter avail. for originals & covers, 0405 618 630 Jim Boots 0417 211 580 Johnny Roadkill Paulie 0408 287 672, paulie_mcmillan@live.com.au Karismakatz DJ Gosper 0411 065 189/ dj@karismakatz.com Kayo Marbilus myspace.com/kayomarbilus Kurt’s Metalworx (PA) 0417 025 792 Little Smoke Sam 0411 112 075 Los Chavos Andy 0401 572 150 los.chavos@yahoo.com.au Manilla Green Herms 0404 848 462, contactus@manillagreen.com, Mario Brujo Gordon world/latin/ reggae/percussionist and DJ. 0405 820 895 Martin Bailey Audio Engineer 0423 566 093 Words for You: writer/publicity/events Megan ph 6154 0927, megan@wordsforyou.com.au Mercury Switch Lab Studios mercuryswitch@internode.on.net Missing Zero Hadrian Brand 0424 721 907 hadrian.brand@live.com.au Moots aspwinch@grapevine.com.au Huck 0419 630 721 MuShu Jack 0414 292 567, mushu_band@hotmail.com MyOnus myonusmusic@hotmail.com/ www.myspace.com/myonus No Retreat Simon 0411 155 680 Ocean Moses Nigel 0417 211 580 OneWayFare Chris 0418 496 448 Painted Hearts, The Peter 6248 6027 Phathom Chris 0422 888 700 The Pigs The Colonel 0422 412 752 Polka Pigs Ian 6231 5974 Premier Audio Simon 0412 331 876, premier_audio@hotmail.com Rafe Morris 0416 322 763 Redletter Ben 0421 414 472 Redsun Rehearsal Studio Ralph 0404 178 996/6162 1527 Rhythm Party, The Ross 0416 010 680 Rob Mac Project, The Melinda 0400 405 537 Rug, The Jol 0417 273 041 Samsara Samahdi 0431 083 776 Sansutra J-Ma 0403 476 350 Simone Penkethman (Simone & The Soothsayers, Singing Teacher) 6230 4828 Soundcity Rehearsal Studio Andrew 0401 588 884 Solid Gold Peter 0421 131 887/ solid.gold@live.com.au Super Best Friends Matt 0438 228 748 Surrender Jordan 0439 907 853 Switch 3 Mick 0410 698 479 System Addict Jamie 0418 398 556 The Morning After (covers band) Anthony 0402 500 843/ myspace.com/themorningaftercovers Tiger Bones & The Ferabul-Zers Danny feralbul@aapt.net.au Tim James Lucia 6282 3740, LUCIAMURDOCH@hotmail.com Top Shelf Colin 0408 631 514 Transmission Nowhere Emilie 0421 953 519/myspace.com/ transmissionnowhere Udo 0412 086 158 Undersided, The Baz 0408 468 041 Using Three Words Dan 0416 123 020, usingthreewords@hotmail.com Voodoo Doll Mark 0428 650 549 William Blakely Will 0414 910 014 Zero Degrees and Falling Louis 0423 918 793 Zwish 0411 022 907

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