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[CONTENTS]
[Canberra’s Entertainment Guide]
#494JUN/JUL
Good quality words for good quality nerds Mail: PO Box 713 Civic Square, ACT 2608
AKIRA KUROSAWA
Publisher Radar Media Pty Ltd.
p. 40
General Manager Allan Sko T: (02) 6257 4360 E: advertising@bmamag.com Editor Andrew Nardi E: editorial@bmamag.com Accounts Manager Ashish Doshi T: (02) 6247 4816 E: accounts@bmamag.com Sub-Editor Hayden Fritzlaff Graphic Designer Andrew Nardi Film Editor Majella Carmody
YOU-DO GURUS
p. 18
DRAGONFORCE
p. 25
MERE WOMEN
p. 27
BENJAMIN BOOKER
p. 29
ROCKWIZ
CAL WILSON
Entertainment Guide Editor Nicola Sheville Social Media Manager Sharona Lin Columnists Cody Atkinson, Dan Bigna, Noni Doll, Leanne Duck, Cara Lennon, Sharona Lin, Josh Nixon, Peter O’Rourke, Alice Worley Contributors (This Issue) Rebecca Adams, Clare Brunsdon, Travis Cragg, Jonathan Dolezal, Morgan Hain, Huckleberry Hastings, Belinda Healy, Sam Ingham, Pat Johnson, Joshua Martin, Ian McCarthy, Rory McCartney, Jarrod McGrath, Alex Morris, Andrew Myers, Matt Parnell, Zoe Pleasants, Emma Robinson, Thomas Spillane, Indigo Trail, Kashmira Mohamed Zagor NEXT ISSUE #495 OUT Wednesday July 12 EDITORIAL DEADLINE Friday June 30 ADVERTISING DEADLINE Friday July 7 ABN 76 097 301 730 BMA Magazine is independently owned and published. Opinions expressed in BMA Magazine are not necessarily those of the editor, publisher or staff.
ES 199 T 2
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p. 34
LITERATURE IN REVIEW ALBUM REVIEWS FILM REVIEWS THE WORD ON GIGS ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE
p. 36
UMBILICAL p. 38 BROTHERS
p. 51 p. 54 p. 64 p. 66 p. 73 @bmamag
FROM THE BOSSMAN [THE HALF-YEAR HALF-COCKED LOOKING BACK TO GO FORWARD REVIEW] BY ALLAN SKO
EDITOR’S BLAB
[BMA IS NOT A MEDICAL JOURNAL] WITH ANDREW NARDI [EDITORIAL@BMAMAG.COM]
[ALLAN@BMAMAG.COM]
Well shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiit. Who made it to June already?
Steely Dan was the name of the movie Terminator.
We arrive in January; filled with promise, pith and vinegar and alcohol-tinged resolutions. A few blinks, and it’s suddenly June. Thus, hurtling through life at the terrifying speed that we are, I shall attempt at this midway juncture to slow things down by taking up stock.
• A bird in the hand may be as good as two in the bush, but in reality you’re still holding a dead bird. And the police will ask you a loooooooooooot of questions.
It’s been a very educational year. Much has been learned, some unlearned, and at other times said “learning” has been fantastically wrong (and thus a potent form of understanding, should you allow it to be). So, I have spent time retroreflecting on the the top things I’ve learnt, or attempted to learn, this year thus far. Enjoy? Half Year Review, in C Major* • In my quest to be both a feminist and an activist, I have discovered I am woefully ill-equipped at both. There’s such a thing as trying too hard, and being wrong. This is OK. Listen. Learn. Be prepared to change. Keep going. • Men’s Rights. It’s not a thing. Stop trying to make Men’s Rights a thing. You know the beginning of time, right? THAT’S when Men’s Rights started. My fellow blokes, it’s time to woman up. • By comparison, don’t make standing up for people – be it on grounds of gender, race or religion – all about you. It’s very easy to do this. Just listen to people. • Whilst my struggle to be a Better Person has had its inevitable peaks and troughs, I must at least be doing something right. When people wave at me now, they use all their fingers. • The difference between infatuation and falling in love is easy to define with time. Hurt though you may, you never truly fall out of love. •
My
grandma
thought
ME: [doing something to deserve this] I’ve done nothing to deserve this. • I’d rather let someone see me naked than parallel park. That said, I’d rather let someone see me naked than eat food, so that’s not exactly the best benchmark. • When you accusingly point a finger at someone, there are three fingers pointing back at you.
I received a very strange email recently from a researcher cataloguing articles about what he called “medical Australiana”, which includes material on HIV. He had an issue of BMA dated February 1992, and wanted to know what exactly BMA stands for so he could categorise it correctly. Why BMA is being catalogued into a medical articles database is anyone’s guess – I have half a mind to email him back and tell him he’s making a horrible mistake – but it reinforced a very simple reality to me that not many people actually know what BMA stands for. I can’t imagine it’s keeping you
up at night but if you’ve been longing for an answer or you found yourself reading this and now you’re a little curious, you’re about to find out: it stands for ‘Bands, Music, Action’. That was coined when Lisa Howdin and Peter Spicer created BMA Mag in February 1992 – the same month Nirvana played at ANU Bar. I was less than a year old at that point but it’s still nice to know that this magazine has such a long history. Despite a mostly dysfunctional website and some incorrect dates printed here and there, we can only hope that BMA continues to do its part for Canberra’s arts scene and medical community well into the future.
• Podcasts are the best. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to submerge myself into this medium of entertainment and information. Top Picks – The Dollop, Dumb People Town, Stuff You Should Know, Freakonomics, Radio Lab, Cracked. • The best film of the year to date is Logan. The best album is Com Truise. The best thing to do with arts is Art, Not Apart. • My gardening game has really hit new heights these past months. Although all these damn tomatoes keep getting in the way of my beautiful weed arrangement. • The best way to complain is to make things. • I think I am a better person than I actually am. But the act of knowing this means there’s hope to change for the better; to grow and be the person my family, friends, work colleagues, and poor, poor unfortunate future dates deserve me to be. Take a look back at your own six months. Draw strength from them. And a kickarse six months to be shall be ours to enjoy. * Where the C stands for Cu… (REDACTED)
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YOU PISSED ME OFF! [ENTRIES CONTAIN ORIGINAL SPELLINGS] SEE YOUR HATE SPREAD TO THOUSANDS. EMAIL EDITORIAL@BMAMAG.COM.
To the loser who has taken to smoking their tyres in and around O’Loghlen St, Latham (& tyre smokers everywhere, for that matter), thanks for filling the houses around the area with the stench of burnt rubber. You continue to piss me, and no doubt, others, off. I hope you are pleased with your puerile sense of humour. It clearly shows your flagrant lack of courtesy, responsibility and pea sized intellect, although comparing you to animals who do have a pea sized brain is insulting to the other animals. In case you are too stupid to know, laying rubber on a public road is dangerous, in particular
to motorcycle riders who use the road, especially when it rains. A motorcycle rider who may come undone because of your stupidity may even be one of your friends. Would you feel any remorse if one of your mates ended up in hospital, or worse, in a body bag because of your puerile sense of what constitutes entertainment? I hope you wrap yourself around a telegraph pole, or better yet, have your car impounded and crushed, as you are clearly too stupid to drive. And be warned: next time I see anyone pull that stunt, anywhere, any time, I have my camera ready to take a video and give it to the police. PAGE 13
[TIDBITS]
UPCOMING GIGS
Melvyn Tan & Haydn’s Paris / Concert / Thu June 29 / The Albert Hall One of the world’s most experienced interpreters of Mozart on the fortepiano, Melvyn Tan, will join the Australian Haydn Ensemble to dazzle audiences in Canberra. Considered to be one of the world’s finest fortepianists, Tan continues to cast fresh light on music conceived for
the original keyboards of the time of Mozart and Haydn. The Australian Haydn Ensemble, one of Australia’s leading period instrument orchestras, presents a program inspired by the beauty and romance of classical Paris. [7:30pm / $35-$60 via australianhaydn.com.au]
Jazz At The RUC / Gig / Tue Jul 11 / The RUC Newsflash! Your favourite monthly jazz event has upgraded to a new venue. What was once Jazz At The Gods is now Jazz At The RUC! To celebrate, they’re bringing in Sydney’s Sandy Evans & Friends for one night only. With Emma Stephenson on piano, Melissa Mony on alto
sax, Jessica Dunn on bass, Ali Foster on drums, and of course Sandy Evans on saxophone, it’s almost certain that you’ll get the spirit of jazz inside you. The RUC is at 54 McCaughey Street, Turner. Bookings are essential. [7:30pm / $22/$15 via gpage40@bigpond.net.au]
KLP / Tour / Fri Jul 28 / Mr Wolf Whether it’s through hosting triple j’s House Party each Saturday night, her own solo music or co-writing for numerous other artists, chances are you’ve listened to a KLP track before. Recently KLP released her new single ‘Changes’, a house, funk driven dance number that you PAGE 14
can’t help but get stuck in your head. KLP is also back on the road touring with her new tour ‘Mix Match’. This tour will bring KLP’s signature house party to Canberra, incorporating her live vocals into a party DJ set. Support from Mia Sørlie, Genie and Indigo. [10pm / Cost TBA]
Cables Ties / Album Tour / Sat Jul 8 / The Phoenix Melbourne punk-based trio Cable Ties have released their already acclaimed selftitled debut LP via Poison City Records. Formed in Melbourne in mid 2015, they stepped into an icy warehouse in the dead of winter last year to record their debut. The result is 44 minutes
of tense, smouldering punk rock that sits you down, shuts you up and forces you to listen. Cable Ties will celebrate the release of their debut with a Canberra appearence alongside our very own Moaning Lisa and more TBA. [8pm / Cost TBA]
Georgia Fields & Phia / Tour / Thu Jul 13 / Smith’s Alternative Two of Melbourne’s brightest independent singer-songwriters are joining forces. Indie-pop chameleon Georgia Fields and live-looping wunderkind Phia present a very special evening of musical dexterity, as they share the stage and each other’s songs – accompanying
one another on everything from kalimba to casio, electric guitar to tambourine. Expect luscious harmonies, world-class songcraft, and impromptu audience participation. Support from Melanie Horsnell. [9pm / $15 via smithsalternative.com]
Vera Blue / Single Tour / Fri Jul 28 / Academy Following the release of ‘Private’, incandescent singer-songwriter Vera Blue released an arresting new single called ‘Mended’. The nakedly honest ballad sees the 23-year-old expressing a raw emotion in her music which now comes naturally. It’s got big notes, to be sure, but it comes
from an even bigger heart. From its sparse opening, it blossoms into a gorgeous torch ballad well overdue for such a powerful and unique voice. ‘Mended’ will be supported with a national tour with special guests TBA. [8pm / $43 via Moshtix]
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BMA BAND
PROFILE [LOCAL ACTS TO WATCH]
LOCALITY
[THE WORD ON LOCAL MUSIC] WITH NONI DOLL [NONIJDOLL@GMAIL.COM / @NONIDOLL]
TEEM Group members: Michael Bones and Miller Rouse Where did your band name come from? The verb ‘teem’ means to be full of or swarming with, and reflects how we think about music. Describe your sound. Our sound is built by tangling guitar riffs and atmospheric loops over hip-hop beats, synths and choral vocals. It’s part pop, part not.
Of what are you proudest so far? Releasing our debut single, ‘Kronk’. It’s a great feeling to pull a song out of your head and into the world. What are your the future?
plans
for
We’re finishing off our album, organising a tour and making an animated video for ‘Kronk’ with Canberra artist, Mei Wilkinson, which we’re really excited about. What makes you laugh?
Who are your influences, musical or otherwise?
Eric Andre, Tim Donald Trump.
Our influences for this project are any band that writes harmonised guitar lines – Queen, Television, The Strokes, Ratatat – and hiphop artists like Jonwayne, Earl Sweatshirt and Brock Berrigan.
What pisses you off?
What’s the most memorable experience you’ve had while performing?
The temperature. A few more venues.
and
Eric,
President Donald Trump. What about the Canberra scene would you change?
What are your upcoming gigs?
Playing a TEEM live show is like tap dancing on a knife. Between the two of us we run six-channels of guitars loops, Ableton Push, synths and we sing.
Smiths Alternative on Sunday July 9. It’s the day after Bones’ birthday, so could be the sloppiest set yet.
Our last gig was at Transit with Borneo. We got through our set with minimal stuff ups and didn’t embarrass ourselves. We were stoked.
teemtheband@gmail.com teem.bandcamp.com facebook.com/teemtunes twitter.com/teemtunes soundcloud.com/teemtunes
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Contact info:
Have you seen the local line-up at The Phoenix this month? It’s nuts! On Saturday June 10, The Wrst launch their debut album. They’ll be joined by The Ians, The Kaemans and Cable, who are making their Phoenix debut, a true milestone for any Canberra musician. It starts at 8:30pm and entry is $10. Head back on Friday June 16 at 9pm for Mikelangelo, returning to his hometown with The National Capital Allstars, a collection of Canberra’s best local musos. Entry for that is a measly $10. The Bootlegs this month are also chockers with great local talent: on Monday June 19, you can catch Slagatha Christie, Dalmacia, Semen & Garfuckel and Boots Byers, with Monday June 26 offering up Massive Sherlock, House Of Strangers, Paul & Kirsten and Sara Turner. Both nights are free (but save some cash for the collection when it goes around) and start at 8pm. On Friday June 23 from 9pm, The Fuelers will fill the pub with glorious rockabilly, and that will set you back $10, and then on Friday June 30, there’s Los Chavos for the Friday Fiesta from 9pm, with a door charge of $10. Not bad at all. Meanwhile, Smith’s Alternative has some killer local shows of their own. On Wednesday June 7, Smith’s Varietal will be taken over by Coolio Desgracias, hosting sets from Sebastian Field, Reuben Ingall, Suparatzii, Nick Delatovic, GhostNoises and Fossil Rabbit. Entry is $15 and it kicks off at 9:30pm. On Saturday June 10, Soundscapes #11 provides your ears with unique experiments in modern music, care of Happy Axe, Guyy and Kid of Harith from 9:30pm, for $10. There’s two opportunities to catch some rising stars over the coming weeks, with the bands from Rock Academy performing their end of term concert on Friday June
23 from 5pm, with free entry. Then on Sunday June 25, the Bec Taylor School of Music End of Term Gig kicks off from 11am, with students celebrating their musical successes and experiencing the opportunity to perform on stage. There may even be a special performance from the school’s teachers, Bec Taylor, Beth Monzo, Stephen Watson and James Kelly. Entry is $10. On Friday June 23, you can catch East Row Rabble as they launch their new film clip, ‘Aliens in My Brain’. Starting at 9:30pm with support Cherie Kotek, entry is $15. Finally, Coolio Desgracias and Housemouse will preview their new album on Saturday June 24 from 9:30pm. Add support from Babyfreeze to the mix, and you’ve got one hell of a good time. It starts at 9:30pm and will set you back $15. Finally, the title of biggest local gig of June/July goes to PROM: Graduation. These champions of the New Romantic Time Warp High School Dance genre will be back for one last sashay around the dancefloor on Saturday June 17 at the Ralph Wilson Theatre at the Gorman Arts Centre. Put on your best high school formal rags and catch them before they grow up, starting at 8pm and supported by Dead DJ Joke. There’s a range of ticket options, so look up the Facebook event for more details.
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NO ONE-LINE STATEMENTS BY HAYDEN FRITZLAFF Jess Green’s career thus far has been a bit all over the place. Dragon Year is her debut EP under the PHENO moniker, and sees her stepping out with a bent for jagged afrobeat and St. Vincent art pop. Add to this her fouryear-old daughter and the son she’s expecting in the coming months and Jess Green suddenly seems like the face of a different, more real side of the music industry. We’re catching up, on her way from The Street Theatre to the School of Music, in the brief window she has before her students arrive. Naturally, she has a guitar strapped to her back. “At 38, I just want to play,” she tells me. “The different stage name was a way of giving myself an injection of ‘be whoever you want to be’. But also, because I play so much different music, it’s very confusing. It’s things like doing an experimental free improv score to a play, or getting up and playing in an afrobeat band or the Catholics and playing jazz. It’s like, ‘who are you, I don’t know!’ So I did really want to draw a little line around this project and go, ‘this is going to sound pretty much like this’.” Throughout Dragon Year, Green contemplates connection – between mother and child, between ourselves, our ancestors and the world around us. It’s a sub-20 minute ray of hope in a year that’s seen a decided lack of compassion when it comes to how we connect with one-another. The elephant in the room is the ANU Bar Finale. It’s the show to which Pheno, along with
local female-fronted bands House of Strangers and Betty Alto, have recently been added. Their additions come after the event promoter’s not at all measured response to questions over gender imbalance on the initial line-up. The fallout saw hate speech dividing Canberra’s music community, the withdrawal of headline acts and a callout from the ANU Union for non-male artists.
shared by many of the artists that act to circumvent the norm in a male-dominated industry. “For a young girl growing up, what she sees, she can do,” Green says. “So I think, me being on a stage is a really powerful thing. I did used to hang out at the refectory because this was when they had the underage gigs and I’d go see Tumbleweed and You Am I and it was all guys on stage. And it was definitely not as embracing for me as a young musician as it would have been if I were meeting lots of girls. And I do think the ANU Bar belongs to everyone. “I sort of think a bigger question is how to make music sustainable as a life to choose. Apart from feeling brave enough to be a part of a male-dominated world, the next big hurdle for me is navigating motherhood and still wanting to pursue a career and still being able to pay rent
For a young girl growing up, what she sees, she can do “I admire Regurgitator and Slow Turismo for pulling out of the show,” says Green. “My sister, who is management queen of the universe, emailed me. She managed to spot that the ANU Union was looking for female acts. She’s like, ‘you’ve got to write to them’. From one point of view I’m a professional musician. I need a gig. And if I worried about the commitment to diversity from every promoter for every gig I’ve ever done, I would’ve done zero.” It’s a somewhat bleak but realistic view, and one that’s
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and that sort of thing. There’s no maternity leave, there’s no carers leave, there’s no sick leave. For men or women, for parents trying to be artists.” It’s a sentiment shared by Beth Monzo from local mainstays BETTY ALTO. Monzo and her bandmates have been a part of the scene in various guises for years and they understand as well as anyone how unwelcoming the industry can be. “The lack of female representation on stage must discourage some women from
taking that step from amateur to professional musician,” says Monzo. “They might think, what’s the point in working your butt off in an industry that’s super competitive, without a steady income when you’re statistically less likely to get a gig because you’re a woman? “What some people might not realise is that whenever gender in live music is a hot topic and incidents play out publicly like this one did, it’s always female and non-binary musos that suffer most in the long run.” But in the end, the ANU Bar will shut its doors this June and other venues will pick up where it leaves off. Whether you see a black cloud over the finale or not, those involved are out to celebrate a room held in reverence by a city so often overlooked by passing headliners. “I’m so excited to play the ANU Finale gig,” says Monzo. “And that’s my overarching feeling about it all. Excitement!” And there’s reason to be optimistic. No single event will undermine the work being done by promoters elsewhere in the city to foster diversity, armed with the understanding that respect and encouragement sow the seeds for great things. “I don’t really feel the need to have a one-line statement,” says Jess Green. “It’s got to be a conversation.” PHENO, BETTY ALTO, HOUSE OF STRANGERS and many more play the ANU Bar Finale on Saturday June 17 from 1pm. Tickets $25 + bf through Moshtix.
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TWENTY-FIVE YEAR TOUR DE FORCE BY JOSHUA MARTIN Ahead of the You-Do Gurus Oz-rock extravaganza, YOU AM I bassist Andy Kent can’t seem to recall the particulars of his first rock and roll moment. “Fuck it, the fact I can’t remember probably says everything … One minute you’re young thinking something is rock and roll, and the next you’re cleaning up six ARIA awards and Nina Cherry wants to have sex with you.” If there’s one thing I learnt in our conversation, it’s that “fuck it” is Kent’s favourite mode of digression. You Am I are a black and bloodied Australian gem of devilishly clever alt-rock that, over an illustrious twenty-five year career, have gone from dreaming of being The Who to playing alongside them. Fronted by the indelibly charismatic Tim Rogers, the trio-turned-quartet hold the singular achievement of being the first Australian band to smash three successive number one albums out of the park (Hi Fi Way, Hourly Daily and #4 Record if you’re yet to be acquainted). Yet, when pressed on a defining achievement, Kent is just proud they’ve all remained friends. “You hear so many horror stories of so many bands, they find it really difficult to do simple things like travel and play music … Probably it’d only be about three arguments and that’d be it but … why throw something away you spent so much time and worked so hard to get right?” It’s a little harder to explain exactly how they have remained so close. “It’s kinda like still playing football after you’ve played for years except you don’t need to be PAGE 18
as competitive … actually that’s a shit analogy, but you know what I mean?” As Rogers once crooned, You Am I talk a lot about football and, whatever its significance, they
and then we toured with those guys and learnt that if you started a tour, you just didn’t stop.” You Am I’s famously exhaustive tour scheduling has led them to “plenty of places we’d rather not play than Canberra” (New ACT number plate slogan, anyone?) alongside some of rock and roll’s crusty fingered founding fathers (The Rolling Stones), indie heavyweights (Sonic Youth) and gargantuan rock luminaries (Oasis). It’s an astonishing résumé, and one that reminds you of the throat-scraping anthemic power of You Am I’s music to attract these groups’ attention. Kent emphasises a balance between this kind of superstar support and more grounded tourmates.
It’s kinda like still playing football after you’ve played for years except you don’t need to be as competitive … actually that’s a shit analogy have more than earned a place at the lager-stained table of Australian rock royalty alongside tourmates Hoodoo Gurus. In 1992 however, their first tour supporting the Gurus wasn’t quite so cruisy.
“It’s great to play with those guys and learn from them when you know their records back to front. We’ve done crazy-stupid things too, like toured the south of the States with Reverend Norton Heat and Europe with Rocket from the Crypt.”
“We were just starting out and so it was very much a case of the young boys having a crack … There was only three of us in the touring party, and the rule back in those days was that as the support band, you had to provide two PAs to load in and two to load out. One person was both loading in and out during the show,” Kent laughs. “We had that idea of playing Sydney and Melbourne every now and again to party on
You Am I clearly have a deep affection for the “kooky fuckin’ place” that is the United States, having recorded in the monolithic urban sprawls of New York and LA numerous times (“why not?” was the reply when asked why). US rockers and “like minded idiots” The Strokes seemed to take a leaf out of You Am I’s book in their own meteoric rise which, funnily enough, began with a tour in Australia.
“The Strokes were pretty fresh when they came out here … Their UK agent was like ‘look, I think it would be a good move for you guys to tour with this band [You Am I] in Australia’. And so we did the appropriate thing and paid them $200 or something crazy like that,” he laughs. “That’s what you used to get paid in America for some of those tours! But they didn’t give a fuck ‘cause the record label just funded the whole thing … a guy with a gold-plated Amex card hung around.” The men with the mystical Amex cards are a much rarer sight in the music industry two decades on, but Kent claims we’re better off for it. “Back then you were very reliant on the distribution gatekeepers as it were, and you had to get it in with them to get it out to people, but these days you don’t have to do that.” Kent is assured in the strengths of bizarro Melbourne psych rockers King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard in particular, whose own Flightless record label enabled their output of nine albums in five years. The spiritual mark of You Am I’s attitude haunts the continual mining of the Australian rock tradition here and elsewhere. Songs like ‘Purple Sneakers’, and ‘Heavy Heart’ will be sacred texts long after the group is a waterlogged ball that nobody wants to kick around anymore. Catch YOU AM I alongside HOODOO GURUS on the You-Do Gurus tour at Canberra Theatre Centre, Friday July 21 from 8pm. Tickets $59-79 + bf through Oztix.
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WORLD-WISE GURUS BY JARROD MCGRATH I felt like I could chat to HOODOO GURUS’ Dave Faulkner for hours. We both have a similar passion and energy for music that crosses various aspects of the art form (during the interview I discovered he is also a music journalist). The more questions I asked the more I discovered, and his energy for it all was contagious. My initial questioning was around the energy and passion Faulkner and his band have for live performances; the group have been to Canberra twice in the past year already. “To be honest I don’t think we play that often. But maybe we’ve been lucky to play Canberra a couple of times recently because normally it’s been few and far between.” You Am I (or Tim Rogers in particular) seem to have a similar ethic for regular live shows. I thought this might have been a commonality that both bands drew upon for their upcoming joint tour and was curious about how it all came about. “Certainly I think You Am I are road dogs like us but I don’t actually know,” says Faulkner. “Someone came up with the idea and asked if we were into it and of course we said yes. We haven’t played with You Am I for, like, ever. We did a show over in WA about five years ago but the last time we really did anything serious together was back on their first album and we were on like our fourth or something. It was a tour with You Am I,
Redd Kross and us. We go well together I think.” As the Gurus are a bit before my time I had to do some research before this interview and was surprised to discover how popular the group is overseas, particularly in Brazil and the US.
sort of got to be the curators of our own festival bringing out The Sonics, Redd Kross again, and The Sunnyboys. The worst part about it was that we had to play last! It would have been good to play first and get loose and enjoy the day. Normally I don’t like to stand side stage and enjoy the bands because it kind of drains your energy and you’re sort of too busy enjoying the show to focus on your own show. I tend to keep my head down but for those shows I had no choice, I had to enjoy it and charge around like a punter. There will probably be a bit of that going on with You Am I too.”
We’re freaks for music and there’s nothing more fun that getting together and making a racket “Brazil’s another place that’s been crying out for us to come back. Right throughout our career we were hearing rumblings of it. It was just through the fans really. We didn’t have promoters ringing us up telling us to come,” he explains. “Of course when we got there it was insane. It was the surfers, really. They’d connect with the Aussies on the surfing tours, they’d take our music back to Brazil and it got spread from person to person that way.” I also found out that the group had previously organised their own music festival, Dig It Up. “It was a pretty ambitious thing – it was a lot of fun to do and we
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For Hoodoo Gurus, a passion for performance and boundless energy are the things that keep them on the road. It’s an intense work ethic for a band with so much success behind them already. I ask Faulkner if he’s worried about how that translates to the fans. “We were born in the wrong time,” he says. “We had hit singles and it was not cool to have hit singles. That excluded you from being underground at that point. It wasn’t until Nirvana had ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ that it was okay to have a huge hit and still be a cool band. But when we were doing it, it was like ‘they’ve sold out’. But you just do
what you do, you don’t write the songs with any purpose. Its all about good music and whether it succeeds or fails commercially is irrelevant.” But even in the midst of preparations for a national tour, Faulkner doesn’t let the creative spark die out. “I’m also a music reviewer,” he says. “I write for the Saturday paper and review albums every few weeks. I’m also part of the Australian Music Prize, I’m on the panel for that which started over ten years ago so there’s a lot of great stuff out there that I get to hear.” He explains that the key to keeping one’s band alive is to always be working through new material. “Theoretically I’m writing at this moment; I’ve put aside these next few weeks to do some songwriting. We will see what comes out of it. We just want to have some fun really. We love music. We’re kinda addicts I suppose. We’re freaks for music and there’s nothing more fun that getting together and making a racket.” With two high-energy, passionate rock acts, this tour is sure to be one hell of a party. “We might even see if we can come up with a song that we can play with You Am I.” Don’t miss HOODOO GURUS and YOU AM I on the You-Do Gurus tour at Canberra Theatre Centre, Friday July 21 from 8pm. Tickets from $59-79 + bf through Oztix.
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A WAY WITH WORDS BY JARROD MCGRATH BLISS N ESO are the full package! An amazing live show with brilliant VJing, incredible rapping skills, familiar beats, great melodies, hooks and passionate lyrics. I was a bit of a slow learner, and only realised this when I first saw the group a couple of years back at Summernats of all places. I would now tout them as one of Australia’s premier hip hop, and live, acts. A lot’s been happening for the group of late with the release of their sixth album Off The Grid, overseas touring and the death of stuntman Johan Ofner on the set of their ‘Friend Like Me’ clip. In chatting to MC Bliss (Jonathan Notley) I was keen to find out how all these things will come together when they bring their show to ANU Bar two days before the final ever concert there. “We really opened up on this new record,” says Bliss. “Talked about some things we’ve never really talked about before. At the end of the day we just hope people kinda connect with it and get something out of it. We really delved deep. Myself and Eso have been through some adversities; giving up alcohol myself, and talk about these things in tracks like ‘Devil on my Shoulder’ and ‘Dopamine’.” It’s the group’s passionate and philosophical lyrics that have drawn me in, so I was curious to know where they draw inspiration from and how early on they knew they enjoyed writing. “Yeah we did that at school, creative writing in class. I’m mildly dyslexic so I battle a little bit with the English language, words and spelling and PAGE 20
stuff. Definitely it’s interesting to think that my career path uses words as its medium. “There’s inspiration everywhere. We worked with an amazing artist Billelis, who did the front cover for us. That was just someone we found on Instagram that we approached,” Bliss explains. “These days we listen to Spotify Discover Weekly, which is pretty cool as you hear a lot of different underground artists that you might not have heard of before.” There’s a lot of collaboration involved in Bliss n Eso, so I ask Bliss how that comes about. “Sometimes we go after certain artists,” he says. “Like Lee Fields for example; we were playing a show at The House of Blues in Chicago and when we heard his voice we knew we wanted to work with him. Somewhere along the way we had the song ‘Friend Like You’ that we thought would work and we sent it to him. He loved it luckily and he pressed it with his vocals,” he recalls. “Some collaborations kind of fall in our lap, like Gavin James’ collab on ‘Moments’. That was a case of him hearing the track without us even realising it was sent to him through someone at
PHOTO BY DEAN HAMMER
the label and him approaching us saying, ‘hey I love this song, can I sing it?’ and we didn’t actually know who he was at the time and he was an amazing singer so we were like, ‘yeah’.” Aussie hip hop can be a somewhat divisive topic in music, and I was wondering about the duo’s reactions from US audiences. “When we go and tour the States, we get a vibe from the crowd after the show like how refreshing our subject matter and lyrics are. American hip hop is very inundated with ‘bitches, hoes, money, guns, drugs,’ all that kind of stuff, and I guess we’re quite down to earth in terms of the things we talk about and it’s quite relatable. To get that feedback from the crowd is awesome,” Bliss explains. “We grew up with hip hop. Having a DJ in the crew and beat boxing. So many records released just put on beats from their phone and don’t have a DJ. We were always getting comments from the crowd like ‘you guys are the Run DMC of Australia’, coz we have those old-school elements.” The group were in the mainstream media earlier this year after the death of Johan Ofner, who died on the set of their music video, ‘Friend Like Me’. I asked about their reaction to this tragedy. “The main thing for us was that, it was a super massive tragedy that rocked all of our worlds pretty heavily and for us, we just wanted to reach out to the family and let them know that we were there for them. We were lucky enough to hold a benefit concert and raise some money for his
daughter and have a bit of closure that way.” Having supported a few causes over their career (such as donating profits from ‘Bullet and a Target’ to The Oaktree Foundation and performing at Sound Relief) I checked in to see if they had anything on the horizon and whether they actively seek out causes. After explaining that these things mostly just happen through scheduling and that the group really just like to help where they can, MC Bliss elaborated further and made me realise Bliss n Eso serve a greater cause. “The main way we help is by making powerful music that connects with people, and touches them. We get e-mails and comments from fans everyday about how our music has helped them through some tough times, which is really the most fulfilling thing about making music. It’s really cool to see when we can connect with people and hopefully make positive change in their lives.” The passion and energy of Bliss n Eso will be a top way to farewell the ANU Refectory. “We’ve played there a few times. First time was supporting Cypris Hill back in the day.” Bliss wasn’t aware of the venue’s closure so once informed I told him to put on an extra special show for us. “Oh you know it, you know it. Now that I know that we will.” BLISS N ESO play the ANU Bar on Thursday June 15. Tickets are $69.90 through Moshtix.
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DANCE THE DROP [THE WORD ON DANCE MUSIC] WITH PETER ‘KAZUKI’ O’ROURKE [CONTACT@KAZUKI.COM.AU]
I don’t usually like to have a rant, but you’re going to get one this time. Last month, there was a small outdoor mini-festival that was meant to take place on a rural property in the deep south of the ACT. Catering for around a thousand people, it was a well publicised, properly run and professional event. Insurance, OH&S, security, first aid, and paperwork completed with the ACT government and relevant authorities – everything was above board. Yet in the eleventh hour, it was shut down by the ACT police. The promoters were threatened with legal action if they weren’t compliant with some very obscure and petty requirements. While I won’t go into them, being told at 4pm on a Friday afternoon with no prior discussion that your event can’t go ahead or the promoters, staff and landholders would all be charged, is very poor form. Yet the organisers had to cooperate, and were forced to cancel the festival then and there. This is despite tens of thousands of dollars worth of production being set up, stall holders with food to feed hundreds of people, and artists and festival goers travelling from as far as Queensland to attend. What purpose does it serve to work against one of the most professional crews in the country, bankrupting them in the process? Why do some sections of the police have such a hatred of electronic music culture and will do anything in their power to stop people from dancing to music with their mates for a weekend? It’s a truly fucked situation and I’m sick of it. This crew was trying to do the right thing and run an event safely and legally, and were punished for it. It’s the same shitty, adversarial attitude that has infected NSW with the lockouts and raids on nightclubs – I’d be very sad if that PAGE 22
virus of contempt for our dance music community has made it to the ACT. Luckily for us, we do still get to party most of the time. For those not going to Psyland on the Fri–Mon June 9–12 long weekend (and you really should be if you love your psytrance, techno, DnB and live bands – don’t mind the cold) there’s plenty happening in the city. On Friday, Dom Dolla and Torren Foot will be laying down the house beats at Mr Wolf, while GANZ and Fossa Beats will be spinning future beats at Academy. Also that night, Salmon Pink Sessions at Kyte presents Romania’s Cristi Cons with some minimal and tech-house sounds. Hard Envy closes off the weekend at Cube with hard dance favourites X-Dream and The Strangers on Sunday night, June 11. Later that next week, Multiple Man are touring on the back of their recent LP courtesy of Pickle at the Polish Club on Thursday June 15. Soul Crane are calling it a day, saying sayonara with their last gig ever at Knightsbridge the following night! Techno fans should check out Loco & Jam at Kyte on Saturday June 17, while grime/garage/DnB fans should head to Soul Jazz’s night at La De Da the following weekend on Saturday June 24. The DnB goes to Lobrow the following weekend, with some local selectors from Headz Are Rolling on Friday June 23, while Poseiden, Doppel and other Canberra favourites head to La De Da for Magnetic, techno crew Connekts’ latest endeavour. Trance favourite Marlo will be at Academy on Friday June 30, while AMIT (UK) is coming to play a Headz Are Rolling DnB party on Thursday July 13 – tickets only $15! Finally, Pendulum perform a special set at Academy on Wednesday July 26 (get your tickets now). @bmamag
then (although Denim is in first year engineering at uni). This is a pretty cool situation for anyone to find themselves in, but Shaw finds it more than just pretty cool. “Dem and I were talking just before about how we’re always just celebrating life, and happy to be alive. It’s so great, it’s the most fun thing ever.” She’s easy to talk to, and we cover a lot of ground, from her previous trips to Canberra – not for gigs but for a Grade 7 excursion, and a charity fundraising prize (“the prize was to go to Parliament House and meet Julia Gillard, so that was pretty fun”) – to tour mums. “Ruben [Styles, of Peking Duk]’s mum and Denim’s mum are both called Lisa and they were both born in the same year, 1968, and they haven’t met but they’re destined to meet. It’s so cute.”
AHEAD IN THE RAT RACE
BY SHARONA LIN
Ten minutes after she wraps up her energetic support set for Peking Duk, MALLRAT meets me outside the green room for our interview. All of 5’2”, and seeming even smaller and younger in a heavy jacket with Freaks and Geeks vibes, she greets me with a huge hug. With her is Denim, her DJ, who is more reserved, but just as friendly. The original plan was to chat over vegan food at Sweetbones and go op-shopping (two things Mallrat – also known as Grace Shaw – does when she’s in a new city), but circumstances mean we’re now sitting outside UC Refectory as Ivan Ooze plays inside. She’s still psyched from her set. “The audience was so, so lovely,” she enthuses, although one gets the feeling that she says that about most audiences – not in a false or disingenuous way, but just in the sense that she seems boundlessly cheerful.
I bring this up – her Twitter is similarly cheery and odd, with more than a few references to not feeling quite human at times (although her songs are often the most human of human). “Grace is part alien, part robot,” Denim laughs. “She’s a robot but she’s capable of feelings.” “I think maybe I’m an alien,” Shaw agrees. “Fingers crossed. It would make sense.” Denim and Shaw graduated high school only a couple of years back, and they’ve been making music pretty much full-time since
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The Canberra gig is the secondlast on the Peking Duk tour, and after this, the duo have some breathing room. “So I’ll hang out at home and play with my dogs.” But of course, she isn’t sitting still for long – and why would she, when there are so many songs to write and collaborations to work on? The list of artists Shaw is working with (and is friends with) is dizzying.
couple of songs with Oh Boy and then Golden Vessel, which are coming out soon. “Then there’s this song, ‘Better’, with Connie (of the Belligerents, a Brisbane indie/dance outfit) that we’ve been working on for about a year, and it’s my favourite song ever, but it’s also been the hardest to finish. I think it’s because we like it so much. But we finally got the perfect mix today, so I think that’ll be out very, very soon.” “I’ve got so much music! I can’t wait to put it all out,” she says, bright-eyed. And she’s not stopping: “My dream collaboration is Kanye. I won’t stop making music until I’m good enough to work with Kanye and he agrees.” If Mallrat’s music seems eclectic, that’s because it is. But Grace has stopped caring about that. “I used to worry about that because I’d take it song by song, and at the end of the day I’d have all these songs and they didn’t really sound alike, but then I realised it’s not really an issue because my vocals are the carrying theme anyway. And also no one really cares about genre anymore. Like none of my friends do, their playlists just have everything.” In fact, the music scene right now is as good as it’s ever been, as
We’re always just celebrating life, and happy to be alive. It’s so great, it’s the most fun thing ever She features on several of Allday’s tracks. “Allday and I are besties, we have matching tattoos, and also his DJ and his DJ’s girlfriend have it too. It’s like a cute little family,” and there’s a track with LANKS in the works. “I’m so excited to put out the LANKS thing, we worked on the beat together and it’s so stunning, I can’t even deal with it. It’s so good. And Cub Sport are my good friends, and we’re mucking around and working on some things.” She also works with “a lot of random people from the internet,” she says. “That’s how I like to go about things.”
far as Mallrat is concerned. “The only thing I can’t wait for is to see more female producers come through. That would be really, really cool. It’s a pretty exciting time to watch the tides turn, it’s super cool. And it’s cool to get messages from younger girls. Like sometimes you can’t see yourself doing a job or making something until you see someone like you doing it? For me that was Tkay and Allday. And I think there have been a few people message me that I’m that for them as well, which is really sweet.”
She’s finishing up a song with BJ Burton, who worked on the new Bon Iver album and some Chance the Rapper stuff, and a PAGE 23
TOTALLY ORSOME
METALISE
[THE WORD ON METAL] WITH JOSH NIXON [DOOMTILDEATH@HOTMAIL.COM]
Local doom lords Law Of The Tongue have been quiet of late, but return to shatter the silence with a couple of Melbourne bands including Bog who are launching their new album at The Basement on Friday July 14. Also on the bill are Wrong and Panic Burst.
Melbourne act King feature Tony Forde of Blood Duster, Dave Haley of Psycroptic and Dave Hill of Fuck…I’m Dead and put out a killer album last year called Reclaim The Darkness with a hot take on Scandinavian influenced, blackened melodic death metal. They were supposed to come to Canberra on their first tour with Inquisition last August but that fell through. Fast forward a year and they’re coming to The Basement on Saturday August 19 with Blackhelm as a part of national tour.
Also announcing an Australian tour last month is Thy Art Is Murder. Having triumphantly reunited with vocalist CJ McMahon at the last UNFY Gathering, the band followed up with the ‘No Absolution’ track in January. The Death Sentence tendate tour was announced in May including Alpha Wolf, Cursed Earth and Deadlights. Canberra will received the sentence on Wednesday August 2 at The Basement. Pallbearer released one of this year’s best albums to date with the Heartless record and they’re in Sydney on Tuesday July 4 at the Manning Bar. Supports yet to PAGE 24
be announced but I’m keen as to see that show.
BY RORY MCCARTNEY
Speaking of great records, I have been flogging the new album from Wino’s reborn high school band The Obsessed. The 90s’ Lunar Womb, The Lunar Womb and Incarnate were all great to epic records, but from the first ominous notes of the Sacred (Relapse Records) album you know Wino is back and in fine form. I have mentioned this record recently a couple of times, but I really have to stress how killer it is.
About to visit Canberra as part of its promotional tour for the new EP Rise, metal group ORSOME WELLES is returning to its favourite local stomping ground The Basement, where the band has supported such illustrious acts as Voyager and Caligula’s Horse. BMA spoke to Orsome Welles’ frontman Michael Stowers about his musical history and the band’s musical evolution.
For something a bit different, Brutalcoustic is a night of combining metal and acoustic folk in a ‘celebration on the alternative fringe’ happening at The Basement on Friday June 16. Featuring Stu Tyrell, playing songs from his Celtic Roots album, Silentia, Tundrel, Johnathan Devoy and Georgia Davis, you should head along and try something that won’t trouble the db meter or leave your ears ringing.
As a vocalist for a heavy rock band, Stowers had quite a unique preparation, having been a member of the National Boys Choir and having sung with orchestras before age 10. “I’ve had a classical background which I’ve transferred into the rock and metal world I’m in now. Orsome Welles is the first band I have been with which has
While on acoustic shows at The Basement, Lulo Reinhardt, distant relative of gypsy jazz great Django is also at The Basement on Tuesday July 11 with Bart Stenhouse. He was fantastic last time round so get along for some variety in your musical diet. Guitarists in particular should enjoy his show. Melbourne’s Orsome Welles dropped their new EP last month by the name of Rise and they’re embarking on a national tour this month in support of it. At The Basement on Saturday July 1. Tundrel and Hence The Testbed will also be there to celebrate the release and pre-sales are available through Oztix for $15.30. Aversions Crown are making a welcome return to The Basement in Belconnen on Saturday July 15 with Boris The Blade and Alpha Wolf.
more representative of what they do live. The results were achieved through putting more effort into pre-production, demoing songs first in their raw form to see how they could be improved when it came time to record. “We listen to the songs together as a band and reflect on what parts we want to focus on. The final song on the EP, ‘Rise Again’, was written during that process, and that was a response to understanding how we write and how that transfers into a recorded song. Little things can make a big difference to the overall atmosphere of the song.” The band is keen to have everything it releases to be of quality and a step up from what it has done in the past. Extra time is invested to ensure the band can be proud of the results.
Every time we perform, we try to do something unique we haven’t done before recorded, toured and made music videos.” Asked about the band’s style, which has been variously described as metal, experimental, and prog rock, Stowers sees their sound as heavy, with elements of groove and funk. “We definitely experiment all the time to see what our next creative process and project is going to be. We always try to push the envelope to see what we can achieve every time we write or record. Every time we perform, we try to do something unique we haven’t done before.” The band is pretty chuffed with Rise, seeing it as an advance from its debut EP Erth News Bulletin, and achieving a bigger, more well-rounded sound that is
Talking of their live shows, Stowers says, “It’s an amazing feeling to have the force of the band, with big heavy riffs, the power and trying to blend the vocals in with that. We have a theatrical sound to how we perform. I like to take on a bit of a persona on stage that the other guys can respond to. We try to make it visually as well as aurally interesting.” ORSOME WELLES, supported by TUNDREL and HENCE THE TESTBED, play The Basement in Belconnen on Saturday July 1. Doors at 8PM. Tickets $15.30 available through Oztix.
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MAY THE (DRAGON) FORCE BE WITH YOU! BY RORY MCCARTNEY Well known for their super fast playing, fantasy song themes and links to the world of video games, British metal stars DRAGONFORCE are invading our shores in support of their seventh long player Reaching Into Infinity. With the band coming to Canberra soon, BMA had a Q&A with band bassist and guitarist Frédéric Leclercq to find out about the latest release and the direction it’s taking the band. Why was the track Reaching Into Infinity chosen as the album’s masthead? We feel that people need escapism; today more than ever, the world is crazy. Music can bring escapism, and its power is infinite. That’s what the title is about: forget what’s around you and let our music take you somewhere else. I thought it would be nice to have the first track, which is a short instrumental, called ‘Reaching Into Infinity’. It’s a departure, an introduction, a sort of ‘let the journey begin’. Recording of the new LP was difficult due to the frequent moves to and from the studio and live gigs. How did the band retain focus during this fragmented process? I’m not sure how we did it, but we did! In a way, it’s also a good thing to break the routine of staying in the same studio room for days. Looking back at it, maybe it helped us to remain fresh. You have used producer Jens Bogren on the last two albums. What do you like most about
working with him? Jens is a great guy, and we have most of the time the same vision about music, so to me it’s very comfortable to work with him. He is very talented and knows how to get the best performance, the best sound.
traditional heavy metal, prog. So you can get touches of these styles here and there. Also we worked on Marc [Hudson]’s vocals and interpretation, and I think he improved a lot compared to the previous two albums. How have the introductions of Hudson on lead vocals in 2011 and Gee Anzalone on drums in 2014 affected the band’s music? It’s hard to pinpoint one thing in particular. But of course it has an impact on the way you write music. Everything more or less has an impact. The way you feel, movies you watch, music you listen to. So having two new members makes us write music differently, to match their abilities, like ‘ha, he can reach that note, he is more comfortable
Music can bring escapism, and its power is infinite You commented that the LP was intended to bring more diversity to the band’s music. Was this aim achieved and what are the main differences between this and previous albums? Personally I think yes. One of the main differences between Reaching Into Infinity and the other albums is that I wrote most of the material. That alone means it has to sound different. Still, every musician has a strong sonic identity so at the end of the day, it still sounds like DragonForce, but I don’t listen to power metal, I’m more into thrash, death,
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in that range, he knows how to play this pattern on double bass’, that sort of thing. Does the band use the same person for the artwork on consecutive albums and do band members have a big input into the final shape of the album cover? Yes, it’s the same person; Caio Caldas from Brazil. I think I’m the one who found him back in 2014 when we were looking for someone to do the artwork for Maximum Overload. As for the band input, well, for Reaching Into Infinity I had the concept, the
main ideas, and then Herman and Caio took it from there, and we ended up with what we have now. You need to let the artist express himself, so we let him work, and change only few small details. What is your favourite song on the new record, and why? It’s hard to tell. And it changes from an interview to another. Right now I’d say ‘Our Final Stand’. I’m very happy with the way it sounds, and I like the middle section. It reminds me of 1992 when Fear of the Dark came out. It’s not my favourite Maiden album, but it has a particular atmosphere, and I was 14 back then, and, I don’t know, it’s hard to explain, but to me it has the same vibe. Have the notable links between past albums and video games continued with the new LP or has a move away from fantasyfocused lyrics changed this relationship? The song ‘Curse of Darkness’ is about Castlevania, which is my favourite video game series. I wrote ‘Symphony of the Night’ on the previous album which was also about Castlevania. We love video games. Indeed we are moving away from fantasy-focused lyrics … ‘Ashes of the Dawn’ talks about becoming a better person, ‘Silence’ is about suicide. It’s more diverse in that sense. We still like to write fantasy lyrics, but not every song has to be that way. DRAGONFORCE, supported by local talent IMMORIUM, play The Basement on Thursday June 22. Doors at 8pm. Tickets $69.05 through Oztix.
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GET YOUR BRAIN IN GEAR BY MATT PARNELL
PUNK & DISORDERLY [THE WORD ON PUNK] WITH ALICE WORLEY [ALICE.WORLEY@OUTLOOK.COM]
Hi there, Canberra. So this is my jam now. I am your new go-to punk fixer. I hope that you will trust me to guide you to the best gigs and bands that Canberra’s punk community has to offer. It actually has quite the smorgasbord for you. I hope this is not news to you. Please tell me you are already well aware of how fucking fantastic the scene is here. As well as all the no-brainer, goto gigs at Phoenix and Transit Bar that are organised by CMC, 2XX and all those peeps, I want you to get in on all that Mulgara and Stand Your Grounds has to offer, because these guys know their shit. I recently went to one of the most kickass house shows organised by Mulgara. Headlining were Subsumer, a punk band all the
PUNK GIG GUIDE Wed June 7 – Carb on Carb @ The Phoenix Thu June 8 – Carb on Carb @ Macleay Farm Thu June 8 – Autumn, Panic Burst, Kid Presentable, Lefty @ The Front Fri June 9 – Ploughshare, Monoceros, Yoko Oh No, A.B.X Orbitt @ The Basement Sat June 10 – PUNK ‘N’ ROCK @ The Basement Mon June 12 – Skinpin, Sketch Method, Needledick, Fight Milk @ The Crossroads Sat June 17 – Mulgara Presents: Act For Peace Ration Challenge Fundraiser @ Dave’s Place Mon June 19 – Bootlegs feat. Slagatha Christie, Dalmacia, Semen & Garfuckel, Boots Byers @ The Phoenix Thu June 22 – Mere Women (Album Launch) w/ Wives & Little Lunch @ Transit Bar Sat July 8 – Cable Ties w/ Moaning Lisa @ The Phoenix PAGE 26
way from Seattle (this is already cool as hell, right?). Supporting were Hallucinatoriam, Naif, and Warm Death. Super casual gettogether, huge bowl of booze with plastic cups on the side greeting you as you come in, and I was proud as punch to know that this line-up was 50% bands with trans members. (This is where I’d like to rant about the ANU Finale line-up and how fucked that all was, but I’ll restrain myself). Stand You Grounds brought us an impressive international act as well. Rotten Mind, a Swedish punk band, played with local acts Agency, Yoko Oh No and Sleeping Døgs at LoBrow Bar & Gallery. It was a wonderful night to revel in the universal language of punk, and I highly recommend checking out all the locals that supported (especially Yoko Oh No, you guys kick so much ass). I also want to shout out to these underage punk bands that keep filling up Phoenix and Transit. I’m speaking, of course, of both Marlon Bando and Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers. Particularly you, Marlon Bando. I was in awe of you when I first saw you play at Transit earlier this year and that you literally played until you bled. You guys are amazing and I bow before you in Wayne’s World fashion. We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy! *Weeps into new Disparo! shirt* Also, Earache, how have I only discovered you this month? These guys played their beautiful, post-punk, ‘80s vibe set for myself and a packed Phoenix with Thunderbolt and New Age Group, and me and my gigging buddies were totally enraptured. Through this print, I blow you kisses. To end my first column, I would like to say a brief, public goodbye to Cinnamon Records. You were a wonderful part of the Canberra music scene and we thank you for your influence over the past five years.
“Canberra is always the best – literally always been pretty much the favourite show,” said Den David, from Adelaide duo THE HARD ACHES. If you can’t tell, he’s already pretty amped about the local leg of their Brain Drain tour. The Hard Aches are bringing their unique vibe to Transit Bar on June 11, a venue David describes as the “sweatiest and funnest” CBR has to offer. It’s nice to hear interstate artists looking forward to coming to Canberra, and David reckoned it had something to do with the air down here that breeds great people with great attitudes. Their sound is best described as a general punk vibe, rather than being boxed in by typical genre constraints. As much as anything else, it was influenced by spending time around musically oriented friends, and comes out sounding infectious and innately enjoyable. While the sound veers towards the current Australian storytelling trend, they tend to play whatever comes out, using punk as an overarching vibe rather than in the traditional genre formula. He seemed pretty big on his vibes, which is exciting for the band going forward, as they’re not looking to constrict themselves – they’re looking to make whatever comes out, and are becoming more and more true to themselves now that the band has shrunk to a two-piece.
the band throws themselves wholeheartedly in to their raw brand of storytelling – tracks like ‘I Get Like This’ and the titular track are the best examples. The opening lines of the title track provide excellent insight into the mind of the writer, with “the sun is shining and I’m inside, trying to find some words that go with pheromones” being particularly descriptive, and the entire track is a raw onslaught of emotions. Latest single, and the song the tour is named after, ‘Brain Drain’ shows off a different side to the band than the album does, with more stripped-back sound and focus on the lyrics contrasting to the more rounded sound provided by the album. In addition, the Adelaide duo are bringing friends – a handpicked line-up consisting of “people they love”; i.e. local faves Moaning Lisa, Melbourne folkpunk group The Football Club and Exeter-based three-piece Muncie Girls. Despite all playing similar sounding music, the selections weren’t for the sake of having incredibly complementary bands. As David said it, it was best to have bands that fit together, but are still able to do their own thing. If this gig unfolds with any of the passion that my chat with David did, it’s going to be absolutely unmissable. THE HARD ACHES fly through Transit Bar on Saturday June 11 from 8pm, supported by THE FOOTBALL CLUB, MOANING LISA and MUNCIE GIRLS. Tickets $19.40 + bf through Oztix.
2015’s Pheromones and 2017’s ‘Brain Drain’, show off the development in the band’s sound nicely, with the band still looking at progressing further, as Ben touched on this during our interview. Standout tracks on Pheromones, for me, come when @bmamag
YOU BETTER GET A DOG BY ANDREW NARDI The third album from Sydney post-punk band MERE WOMEN, titled Big Skies, is a true development in the band’s traditionally abrasive sonic palette. This is the result of a key line-up change, but it’s also due to the weight that the album presses into its core feminist theme. Broadly, Big Skies delves into women’s experiences across generations. But its most distinct focus is on women living in regional Australia – a group rarely acknowledged in any art or media. I caught frontwoman Amy Wilson on her work break to discuss more. “A little while ago I was living out in far west New South Wales where I was working for a not-for-profit, and I spent a lot of time travelling around to different communities,” she tells me. “Through that I met a lot of women who were going through hard times because of the drought, but also a lot of women who loved that lifestyle of living in regional areas.” Wilson’s experience in regional Australia inspired several songs on Big Skies. It ultimately drove her to dedicate the album to women living on the land, with whom she shares family history. “I just feel like I owed it to them. I felt inspired by those people,” she explains. “Living in that community myself, I really felt that sense of freedom, but also isolation – being alone, being in a place where you’re not comfortable sometimes, but also where there’s a really warm and welcoming community as well.” The title track is a striking representation of Wilson’s experience in a regional centre. Synths and bass hurry with a
sense of urgency, cramming wide-open paddocks into a claustrophobic headspace as Wilson howls hauntingly, “you don’t belong here”, “you better lock your doors”, and notably, “you better get a dog, girl”. “That lyric came from something that someone actually said to me.
PHOTO BY SHELLEY HORAN
with being chained to family responsibilities and unable to break away from tradition. Musically it’s also a surprising direction for Mere Women, stripping down the band’s sound to Wilson’s old, echoing keys while she muses simple observations like, “look out, it’s going to rain”. “I had this whole house, I had no furniture, and I had my music room, which was just a keyboard and a chair. So that was written, with me, in that room, drinking wine, feeling pretty … lonely,” she admits. I remark that it’s at our most vulnerable when the honest self can come out in our writing. “Yeah, absolutely. It does. When I’m recording the lyrics on the album, I want them to sound like that moment when they first popped into my head. It’s really important to train your mind to be able to jump back to those experiences in a genuine way.”
Living in that [regional] community myself, I really felt that sense of freedom, but also isolation Initially I was quite frightened by that, I felt like I should be afraid,” Wilson reflects. “But then, as my time went on there, I realised that it’s just a different way of living and a different way of thinking about things. Even though, to me, it seemed initially quite menacing – y’know, there’s actually some good common sense in there!” The following track on the album ‘Curse’ is a short interlude, but it’s a powerful, introspective view into Wilson’s loneliness during this time as she empathises
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Wilson agrees that, overall, she and her bandmates have grown as musicians having written and recorded Big Skies. The album shows off a band that is willing to take risks in favour of a diversified and more cohesive sound that also expands what their music is capable of. This is owed in part to Trisch Roberts, who became Mere Women’s bassist in 2016. “It’s the first time that we’ve released an album with bass. That really allowed us all to broaden and change the way that we write.” Following such a
drastic shift in instrumentation, I ask Wilson where she now sees her band’s sound compared to the early days. “When we first started out, it was actually just Flyn [McKinnirey] and I, and a drum machine. And then [Kat Byrne] added the drums in and we played that way for five years. And I think, adding the bass to it has made it less … abrasive. We never wanted to do things the way that people thought that they should be done, so I think sometimes our music was a little bit confusing for people – it sort of jumps all over the place, it can be a bit unpredictable,” Wilson reflects. “Whereas I think it’s been a really refreshing thing to add that bass in; it gives it more drive and consistency, and of course, sonically, way more depth. Trisch has even managed to go back through some of our older songs that we still play in the set and she’s placed bass in there. She’s found this space in there that we never knew existed and it’s been beneficial even for our old songs.” Mere Women will flaunt that live set when they play Transit Bar later this month, supported by Canberra’s very own Wives. “We love Wives. We’ve played with them before, they’re a fantastic band. We think that they fit really well on this bill,” Wilson says. “Every time we come to Canberra, we have to stop ourselves from asking Wives to play because we love them so much. And then we just end up asking them!” MERE WOMEN kick off their Big Skies album tour at Transit Bar on Thursday June 22 at 8pm, supported by WIVES and LITTLE LUNCH. Tickets $15 through Mosthix.
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PLANET OF SOUND Planet of Sound is our column celebrating the wide history of music. In this month’s entry, Dan Bigna looks back on the life of the late Chris Cornell, best known as frontman of the pioneering grunge act Soundgarden. I was a tad surprised when Soundgarden called it quits back in 1997. The previous year the band had released a first-rate album Down on the Upside, followed by a powerful performance at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney. But not long after that show they called it a day, due in part to internal strife that is commonplace in most groups, but also because the grunge scene with which Soundgarden had been closely associated – with the band having made its mark on the Seattle music scene well before ‘grunge’ became a household term – had begun to lose the limelight status accorded by the mainstream press and larger record companies always on the lookout for the shiny new thing. The band’s day in the sun did arrive when the superb 1994 album Superunknown went multiplatinum and emotive power ballads like ‘Black Hole Sun’ were all over commercial radio alongside the usual chart dross. This was a high tide moment, not only for Soundgarden, but for the grunge movement generally – but it would never be that good again. Not that Chris Cornell had too much to worry about when the inevitable comedown happened. He had already sealed his fate as a rock god of the indie world early on with draping, curled locks of hair, an intense gaze and potent voice as can be seen on the video clip to ‘Loud Love,’ which arrived just before the grunge tidal wave washed ashore. At that point, many confused music critics and record company PR people referred to the band’s music as heavy metal, suggesting they didn’t know what they were talking about. Cornell was a doc marten boot wearing Robert Plant for the post-punk generation and at times sounded uncannily PAGE 28
like the Led Zeppelin vocalist. Kurt Cobain always looked like he needed his hair washed and finger nails scrubbed while Cornell could have stepped straight out of a Mario Testino supermodel photo shoot. He had also proven himself as a solo performer with the atmospheric acoustic ballad ‘Seasons’ on the Singles soundtrack and would go on to record six solo albums.
been done during the ‘grunge’ hype years and it is unlikely that a major achievement like Superunknown could be repeated. But it felt good to know they were around. When the band reformed I went back to the earlier work including their finest moment ‘Jesus Christ Pose’ – fourth track on the 1991 breakout album Badmotorfinger – and one of the more powerful and enduring grunge statements. On this song the guitars are tight, loud and heavy. The textures are dense and dark and the mid-section approximates down-tuned Sabbath filtered through a generation of
Chris Cornell had sealed his fate as a rock god of the indie world with draping, curled locks of hair, an intense gaze and potent voice To keep the momentum going he hooked up with alternative ‘supergroup’ Audioslave for three generally well received albums, although Soundgarden was where he belonged and it made sense for the band to reform, which they did in 2010 to the relief of those music fans tiring of watered down – and often outright dull – electro-pop masquerading as the latest indie sensation. This was similar to Soundgarden emerging from the music underground in the late 1980s with two well received EPs on the fledgling Sub Pop label for music fans grown weary of comical hair metal groups, and Madonna. It would seem that smartly crafted hard rock will always outlive the latest musical trend and Soundgarden were ready for an eventful second coming, although this is not to suggest the band was set to record a succession of masterpieces. The best work had
post-punk sonic mayhem. It climaxes with a hail of guitar feedback and the combined effect is opaque psychedelia cleansed of peace and love. Cornell channels feelings of contempt for those who prefer blaming others over self-responsibility through the striking dynamic range of his voice that didn’t sound like anyone else except,
well, Robert Plant. This song is simply magnificent and a crowning achievement in the grunge canon. Every time I heard it the memory came flooding back of a great throng of people preparing to leave the Sydney showground when Soundgarden, headlining the Big Day Out, had finished playing what everyone thought was the final song in the encore. But the band reappeared on stage and tore through a blistering version of ‘Jesus Christ Pose’, causing the great throng to suddenly turn back. This song didn’t make the set list of Cornell’s solo performance at Canberra’s Llewellyn Hall last December but a good many from his solo career and a smattering from Soundgarden did, including the sombre ‘Fell on Black Days’ from Superunknown. Cornell was in good humour throughout the performance, mentioning how he had overcome past troubles and was hanging out with his young son throughout the tour. It was an enjoyable show and I felt pretty good after it. Then last month, Cornell took his own life in a Detroit hotel room shortly after a Soundgarden show – what a terrible waste of talent. DAN BIGNA
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then a bunch of Nigerian funk like William Onyeabor. Wow so, a pretty wide breadth of stuff then. Yeah that was the fun part of it I think, was trying to get all of these influences together without it sounding crazy. Like ‘Witness’, I was listening to A Tribe Called Quest and I was like, ‘maybe we can do like an ode to 90s hip hop with this beat’, and then I was listening to a Pastor T.L. Barrett and thinking of doing a choir like that over it. So every song was a real collage of my favourite things.
BEAR WITNESS TO THE TRUTH
BY ALEX MORRIS
Sporting a mix of garage-punk, gospel blues and soul, New Orleans musician BENJAMIN BOOKER quickly rose to prominence with the release of his self-titled debut album in 2014, earning him festival appearances, tour dates supporting Jack White, and performances on Jools Holland, Letterman and Conan. BMA caught up with Booker to discuss his new album Witness, his musical influences, and a spontaneous trip Booker made to Mexico City amid growing political and racial tensions in the US. I want to talk to you a little bit about your fantastic new album. It’s a little bit different to your last album – it leans more on the garage rock and the gospel than the blues. Did you have a conscious vision going into this album of what you wanted it to sound like or was it just how it came out? We had a good idea of what we wanted it to sound like, going into it. Sam Cohen, the producer,
is pretty big on ‘reference points’ so we went in with six or seven albums that we were like, ‘okay, this is the only things we’re listening to right now. Our favourite things’. There was a Sly & The Family Stone album called Fresh that I liked a lot. There was a Can album – the one with the green beans on the front I don’t remember the name of [Ege Bamyasi], a Pops Staples album that came out a couple years ago that we were really into, and
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I wanted to ask you about the lineage of your music, because you and Alabama Shakes are the first people I’ve heard in a long time making this kind of gospel blues, soul type music, who are African American and making this music in a very popular way. People in the genre who have previously been big, like Jack White and Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, and even going back to Eric Clapton – for a long, long time this has unfortunately been a white genre. Do you feel any sense of a revival of African American gospel blues, soul music like that?
Under’ and ‘Witness’, about the violence in America right now. How does it feel coming back to a Trump presidency and the rising white supremacy of the US? Well, it doesn’t feel great. But I think we can kind of take care of ourselves, even if we have this piece of shit in office. I think that if we’re doing our best to contribute to our community and the people around us and we take care of each other, then it doesn’t matter what’s going on over there. I try to be more involved and go to marches, volunteer as much as I can. Keep reading and stay up to date on what’s happening, I think that those sorts of things have been a way for me to feel better about what’s happening and feel that I’m contributing. I think that there’s a lot of people out there who are trying to work for the cause of good. So I feel optimistic about the whole situation. Do your feel your music is a catalyst for political change, or is it more like something to take solace in, in a personal way, away from politics? I think the album, I don’t see it as being really political. Talking about ‘Witness’, I think that,
People made fun of me all the time, they would say, ‘black people don’t play guitar,’ and I was just like, ‘I know that that’s not true!’ I mean it does seem like there’s a lot of it that’s coming out and that excites me. It’s nice to see black people with guitars. When I was a kid playing guitar, people made fun of me all the time, they would say, ‘black people don’t play guitar,’ and I was just like, ‘I know that that’s not true!’ From Robert Johnson to Jimi Hendrix, I think that the people doing it now are people that know black history. All this music comes from us, so I think that we’re just interested in drawing from something other than what’s happening right now. You’ve talked about in the lead up to this album, travelling to Mexico and being alone and away from everything happening in the US at the minute. And I think a lot of this album reflects that, especially songs like ‘The Slow Drag
for me, that’s more of a personal song, I’m not talking about laws that need to be changed or anything like that, I’m just talking about, ‘hey look, the people around me are dying, there’s people really struggling, what can I do about it?’ Just a feeling of hopelessness. I don’t really see it as being political as much as it’s just being human beings, so that’s the only song that could really be taken as a direct political statement on the album. I think the rest of the album is about something else. The rest of the album is just sort of about finding the kind of person you want to be, about self-reflection and I guess the process of learning to love yourself and open yourself up to love from somebody else. BENJAMIN BOOKER’s sophomore album Witness is available now through Rough Trade Records.
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COMPANY POLICIES BY HUCKLEBERRY HASTINGS In the lead up to his tour for his latest record Alone in Bad Company, revered singersongwriter and multi-instrumentalist JEFF LANG took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to give me a little insight into the process of his latest record and how it’s creation came about. I usually like to start off by asking a bit of a fun question, which is: if you were a cake, what kind of cake would you be and why? Chocolate so rich.
cake.
‘Cause
I’m
Wonderful. I did a little poking around, and you have said that in the lead up to conceiving an album it begins with a restlessness and a desire to create something that you haven’t heard in other records. Is there a specific moment that you achieve or touch on that sound? It’s not so much specifically that I’m looking for this sound, I just sort of get … itchy, you know? You feel like it’s getting due or something and I’m ready to drop. I don’t really believe in demoing songs too much, you know? If you put too much effort into demoing a song, when it comes time to record it “properly” you just end up chasing your tail trying to recapture what you had on a demo. It’s no good doing it half baked. I just kind of believe in recording stuff. I felt like doing something, and I had new songs, so I started recording the song ‘Palmera Lad’, PAGE 30
which is the fourth song on there. I started out just putting down the acoustic guitar, and sort of doing the song straight up, but when I got to the end of the song I got this flash of, “you should just keep going on this one chord as if there is a band playing around you”.
That build-up at the end of ‘Palmera Lad’ was a notable highlight for me, and I particularly liked its placement quite early on the record. I’m interested to know how you go about deciding on the structure of a record in terms of track listing? It’s the same approach each time, just look at what you’ve got and see what sits there and makes sense. It’s the mood, how the songs flow from one to another. The songs will all stand up individually but if someone were to listen to it all the way through, will it transition well, will things sit in a way that make sense.
I had to pack up to get out of the room, there were leads and wires trapping me in like a spider’s nest I just got into a trance. Then I got excited. I quickly put that guitar down and started plugging in amplifiers and running microphones over the piano, and as I’d finish each bit I’d rush over to a little amp and play a guitar part, and then I’d add a piano, and then a bass. By the end of the day there were leads and mic stands all over the place, I’d almost boxed myself into a corner next to the recording gear. I had to pack up to get out of the room, there were leads and wires trapping me in like a spider’s nest. ‘Palmera Lad’ is one of the most fleshed out songs on the album and it really sets the tone. It’s where I got that kick and the charge of like, “okay, I’m doing something”.
It leads into the song ‘Take Me Over’, which is quite a reflective piece. Could you tell me a bit about that? I’d seen that movie Amy, about Amy Winehouse, and it’s not about Amy Winehouse so much, but about imagining what it would be like to be in the headspace of someone who wanted to be subsumed by their partner. Throughout the album there are a bunch of instrumentals that weave it all together. My personal favourite being ‘Falling Down An Infinite Staircase’. How do you come up with the title of an interlude? That was a fun one, that. I was looking at an Escher painting, I
thought, “hey, that’s pretty cool, imagine if you fell down that. You’d be falling forever”. It was just a funny title. You can name an instrumental whatever you like. There was a lot of recording for this record and I was keen on including some of those instrumental snippets, and it just had to sit in the right spot. They were fun to make. Did working alone on the record give you any insight to your own process? Just in a general sense, it’s all about staying engaged. Whatever it is at the time, whether its playing with different people, or playing in a different studio, it’s just whatever feels like an approach that you are interested in at the time is the way to go. In terms of playing live, how do you keep old material relevant? Is it a matter of picking old work that continues to remain relevant to you – how do you go about that process? Well I escape one sound trap there by not particularly writing much stuff that’s autobiographical, so I don’t really have to feel like, ‘this isn’t my life anymore, I can’t sing this’, they’re stories and you create a mood. Something that really helps the old material is having new songs. You bounce the old material off the new songs in the set – you have a fresh focus. You are energized by the new. JEFF LANG plays at The Street Theatre on Friday June 16 at 8pm. Tickets $39 + bf through thestreet.org.au.
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DIRECTORS OF INNER CINEMA
BY JOSHUA MARTIN PHOTO BY CAMILLE WALSH
When THE NECKS play you their drone-inflected, free improvisation mania they’d prefer you don’t expect to be impressed. Double bassist Lloyd Swanton tells me the ideal audience for The Necks is the already converted. In my own humble opinion however, all you need is a simple piece of information: no single Necks performance is ever planned or recreated. 31 years ago, the group hit upon this magic formula, and their bonkers dynamic has allowed the trio to endure.
that there isn’t overlap Swanton contends, but that they firmly reside under the umbrella of the latter. Their live performance captures the sound of the room that they occupy, as difficult as that is to quantify. “It’s a bit like starting a fire, we get something started and see where it’s working.” In the employment of such a performance convention, the question of whether that fire ever burns out is an interesting one.
It’s a bit like starting a fire, we get something started and see where it’s working “The modus operandi hasn’t changed at all, which is what has been really amazing,” says Swanton. “I don’t know why we hit on it of all people, we’re not Einstein, but it worked really well, and now 31 years later we’re generating fairly different music, with the same three guys making it.” After hearing the suggestion that their music often revolves around beating a musical figure to a pulp, Lloyd chuckles. “My recollection is that I wanted the process to be unhurried. I guess we wanted to take principles of free improvisation, which we were all familiar with, but set it onto a very different time frame. There was plenty of free improvisation that went for an hour before we came along, but they were a lot more data rich, that was what separated us. If that upsets the ‘true’ improvisers, so be it!” The Necks are a key reminder of the distinction between free jazz and free improvisation; not
“Only a few months ago, we played in Knoxville, Tennessee … We did our customary two sets and our first set was one of the best things any of us had done in a long time. We then proceeded to play one of the strangest pieces we’ve heard ourselves play! It was never bad but it was never good … it was our method at its most vulnerable.” Trying to get categorical about the resulting music is not something they do, Swanton says. However, the word “cinematic” is one that often gets attached by others. “I don’t think our music is always appropriate for cinematic use because it has its own pacing and internal logic that will not be beholden to the narrative arc … Having said that, a lot of people describe our music as cinematic and I know exactly what they mean, it’s just the cinema inside their heads.” Experience THE NECKS at The Street Theatre on Sunday June 18 from 6pm. Tickets $35-45 + bf through thestreet.org.au.
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BRAND NEW OPPORTUNITY
BY RORY MCCARTNEY PETE MURRAY is touring in support of his sixth long player Camacho, visiting a whopping 33 towns including Canberra. A long way from the more conventional sound of Blue Sky Blue, Murray intends the latest album to represent a new direction for his work. Listening to the record, it has the cool vibe that Murray was very keen to capture. The sound is very smooth, with more depth to the music and a thicker sonic vibe, partly due to greater synth involvement. BMA caught up with Murray in advance of his tour, to find out if the singer-songwriter had achieved his goals. It had been five years since Murray’s last LP, partly due to the fact that he had to wait 12 months for the mixer he really wanted (Eric J. Dubowsky) to be available to mix Camacho for him. There were other reasons for the time gap too. “A new record does not come easily when you want to change your sound, to find songs with a different flavour. It took a bit of time as you cannot just jump in and record another album in a year or two, as it will sound just like what you have done before.” Murray also finds that being a dad to two boys keeps him busy, and he places great importance on finding time for them, rather than being on the road too much. The new album also took longer to record than the four to six weeks Murray has sometimes spent in the studio. As to how PAGE 32
long Camacho needed, Murray says, “It’s hard to say as it was done in bits and pieces. I did stuff in my studio for the first few years, with half the album done without my really knowing it.” Murray then collaborated with a number of producers to achieve the new sound he desired. Using advice from producers Daniel Rankine (a.k.a. Trials) and Andrew Burford (a.k.a. One Above), whose expertise are in hip hop, was a key move in achieving the new sound. Their involvement helped achieve a stronger emphasis on percussion, with Murray making use of programmed beats instead or real drums on a number of songs (the end split was 5050, real skins vs. electronic percussion).
live shows. “I wanted to be able to play every single song off the album,” he says. The results are everything Murray had hoped for, including the incorporation of some really “phat” beats and in achieving an outstanding mix. “The album sounds huge; epic and anthemic with big choruses. You can turn it up so it gets punchy, and you could play it at parties. Some of the other albums I’ve had have not achieved that sound.” When people play Camacho, Murray wants them to be able appreciate the cool vibe and the deep grooves it holds. The song writing process took a new form for the album too. Previously using the guitar as the core songwriting tool, Murray looked for opportunities to make deeper use of grooves, drawing on Motown for inspiration in some cases. He also placed a new emphasis on loops, with the flexibility and depth they provide. While Murray drew on the expertise of hip hop producers for his phat beats, he was self-taught in his experimentation with loops.
Epic and anthemic with big choruses, you can turn it up so it gets punchy, and you could play it at parties Murray had a number of goals in mind for his new release: making it something that he was very happy with, that other people would talk about and one which would translate well to
He acquired an old synth and played around in his Byron Bay studio with old friend Benjamin McCarthy there to help out on the keyboard. Later on, there was a full band to assist in trying out
the songs, with Murray’s desire to “just let the groove take over”. While input was obtained from various others, this was largely a self-produced record. “While I drew on other guys to help me achieve my goals, I had to be the guy to put it all together and make sure it sounded like one whole album, and not a mixture done by different producers.” Murray was happy that the end results sounded like one body of work. For song themes, Murray drew largely on the life events that had occurred since the last long player was released, looking at what has happened with his boys, the marriages that have occurred in recent years etc. Being a man with a young family, there was probably a lot of material to work with. The theme of the album’s single ‘Take Me Down’ relates to not knowing how much time is left in a relationship and being in the moment, perhaps revealing in Murray the greater appreciation of the preciousness of the “here and now” that comes with life experience. Asked for his favourites, Murray nominates the title track (done in just one take) because of its cool vibe, and ‘Long Ride’ because of its solid groove, with a sound people tell him is like J.J. Cale. PETE MURRAY sings at The Canberra Theatre Centre on Saturday August 19 at 7:30pm. Supported by BEN WRIGHT SMITH. Tickets $61.90 + bf through canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
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[Music]
Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
THE HERO WE DESERVE
THE ROCKWIZARDS OF OZ BY MORGAN HAIN Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves for a night of fun, laughter, and rock and roll history. ROCKWIZ LIVE! TWENTYSEVENTEEN is coming to Canberra this June with the show’s hosts BRIAN NANKERVIS and JULIA ZEMIRO, along with the rest of the cast. Starting out as a television show in 2005, RocKwiz has grown to national success over the years, gaining traction with multiple national tours. The hosts of the show have put their massive success down to Australia’s love of live music. “No one else really does live music on television at the moment, and I think that’s what makes it really exciting,” Nankervis exclaims. “I think also it’s that we provide a mixture of household names, as well as more obscure and upand-coming artists, and people like discovering new music.” Zemiro adds to this, saying “RocKwiz is unique in that we have a full band, and more than one artist and more than one song that’s played during each episode, compared to maybe the one song you see on the Tonight Show, or on Rove Live.” Agreeing with Nankervis’ statement, Zemiro examined the fact that people love to hear live music. “When I was about 15, you were able to see live shows like Countdown, and go to the taping of it. Of course when you got a bit older you’d go to the pub and there would be a band playing. A PAGE 34
lot of music shows disappeared after that.” Even after being on air for over ten years, they still manage to pull a massive crowd, keeping their content fresh and new. “Its not easy,” Nankervis says, laughing. “I have friends who help me write the content. I’m constantly planning and plotting to work out new ways to make it work. The show has been tweaked and fiddled with, but the format has stayed much the same as when we first went on air in 2005.”
and structural bits that we keep the same for each show, but the script is changed every night.” Nankervis notes. Adding to this, Zemiro comments, “It always feels new and exciting because every night there’s four new people behind the desks from the audience. That’s what makes it magic.” Travelling around with the RocKwiz cast are talented musicians who appear on stage as the special guests. Nankervis explained how they go about getting the guests that tour with them, noting that having local artists from each area can make rehearsals sometimes difficult. “A few years back we did a tour where the artists were local to the area where we were, but we noticed that audiences usually want to see artists that they don’t normally see.”
Agreeing, Zemiro also says that the band help out a lot. “They keep a look out for new ideas and new music to help us out with the show.”
RocKwiz started out as something that was aimed at those people who grew up watching live music, mainly baby boomers. The cast soon realised that the demographics that they were aiming at spanned much further than that. “We found that really young people are watching the show, so we try to cover all the bases. For example we might put a question about Chuck Berry next to a question about Daft Punk,” explains Nankervis.
On the road they stick to the same principals: rotating questions and coming up with new ones to keep the energy and excitement up. “We have a few set pieces
Along with this, Zemiro adds that they do the same thing with guests. “We try to match an older performer with a new performer. This way it introduces new music
to the older generation, and teaches younger audiences about music before their time.” As for the future of RocKwiz, it seems as though it’s going to be continuing for many years to come. “We’re like a big family,” both Zemiro and Nankervis exclaim. Judging from the longevity of the show you most certainly would be able to see that. “In the future I think RocKwiz will take over the world!” says Zemiro, jokingly. “In all seriousness though, it would be great if we could take the show overseas.” The duo seemed disappointed about their show not being on our screens this year, but both are excited to have a comeback in 2018. “We’re hopeful that we keep making our TV show,” states Nankervis. “Unfortunately we haven’t been able to make a new series this year, but we hope that we’ll be back in 2018.” The live show is set to be a winner, with both Zemiro and Nankervis agreeing the tour will be just as great as what we see at home on television. “The curtains, the buzzers, the atmosphere, and the chandelier are there,” both exclaim. “The difference with the live version is that it has more space to improvise because we’re not filming for TV,” Zemiro adds, saying, “We can be more cheeky if we want.” The ROCKWIZ LIVE! TWENTYSEVENTEEN tour comes to Canberra Theatre Centre on Thursday June 22. Tickets are $89 + bf via canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
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Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
CAL IT WHAT YOU WANT BY LEANNE DUCK Ladies and gentlefolk, it’s a mouthful to say and a mouthful of cachinnation, tongue-tied together in a delectable package presented by CAL WILSON. You know, that pixiefaced red-headed lady we usurped from New Zealand. The MELBOURNE I N T E R N AT I O N A L COMEDY FESTIVAL ROADSHOW (MICFR) brings together some of the most talented local and international comedic superstars from this year’s festival and will be heading to over 80 destinations across the country, including a pitstop at the nation’s capital – it is guaranteed to be a memorable evening of uncapped humour. Wilson gave us an insight into what it’s like standing at the helm of Roadshow. Does every night follow the same formula? We tend to stick with the same line-up. The Roadshow goes for about two months with two teams of comedians so people swap in and out all the time, but once you’ve got your lineup that line-up will stay … the team that you guys are given are all great, I love them all and I’m very excited. Damien Power, Dane Simpson, Daniel Connell and Sam Taunton. They all have really different perspectives on things and they’re all really funny, which is lovely. How did you end up landing the gig as one of the MCs? I guess I’ve been doing it for a while. I emceed this Roadshow in 2001, I think. So it’s a big PAGE 36
jigsaw puzzle for the organisers … they sort people out and try to get international acts and things like comedians who have come over to do the festival but they go home to America or wherever, they try to get some of those on as well. They just ring you up and ask when you’re available. There’s always lots of interesting experiences to be had on Roadshows, everyone’s always dying to do [them] so if they ring you up for it, you jump at the experience. Which headliner do you highly recommend and why? I love them all. They’re all so different, Damien Power is a real thinker. I watch him and I think that I never would’ve thought of that in a million years. He has really interesting thoughts. Daniel Connell is really great and can be quite unexpected. Dane Simpson has a wealth of stories about his dad, who is hilarious. Sam Taunton is … in his mid-twenties, so he’s got like a kind of ‘young guy’ perspective. He’s literally twenty years younger than me so I like hearing his perspectives on stuff. They’re all really great guys. If you don’t like one, you’ll like another one. There’ll still be something for everyone. Do you have any favourite memories of backstage antics
or on the road hijinks that come to mind? This week … we were at a pool in Darwin and they had loads of pool noodles and we put them all together and were leaping on them and trying to work out what to do with them. Then when we left Darwin we went to Kununurra and so we stopped off at the Toy World on the way to the hotel and bought 28 pool noodles. So we’ve been filming pool noodle challenges. Yeah, I mean travelling with comedians is just as mature as you’d expect. And we just try and find every tourist attraction that we can to go and see … I’ve always wanted to go to Cockington Green outside Canberra, that’s my aim, because I’ve seen brochures for it. The two big things about Roadshow are the fact that you spend months doing your own show, so you talk for an hour by yourself and know your material backwards. So you get to be on Roadshow, you get to watch other comedians and listen to their material, which is great if you haven’t heard it and you get to go to ridiculous tourist attractions. You’ve been in the comedy game for a while now, are you still prone to getting the willies? Assuming you were ever nervous in the first place. It’s changed a bit. I don’t get as terrified as I used to. You still get nervous before you go on stage, but I think you have to be nervous otherwise you’re not doing your best work. Like, you have to want to please the audience, entertain them. Like if you walk on stage and you don’t give a
shit there’s not really a show. But I don’t get that terrible dread that I used to because I’ve been doing it for long enough now. And the other thing that’s really great about Roadshow is that if you’re on the road for a while you start to gather material from the places you’ve been. It adds an extra element if you’re trying it out on the audience about the places they live. It can be kind of exhilarating to express the things you think about their town. Being a prominent female comedian on the Australian and New Zealand scene, do you have any advice for other funny fannies wanting to break into the industry? You’ve just gotta keep doing it, that’s all … I think the more young women see other women being funny the more [they] view it as an option. It’s definitely changed a lot since I started out years ago. There could always be more of us. The woman I’m touring with at the moment, Danielle Walker, who I think is 24, her show is hilarious and dark … she’s just so great and I’m really excited to get to see her work. Getting to watch her do a whole set and just keep the audience enthralled … and very happy. It’s great. The question isn’t ‘why aren’t women funny?’ it’s ‘why don’t you find women funny?’ … The dinosaurs are dying out, it’s definitely changing. CAL WILSON and her gaggle of gagfilled followers perform at Canberra Theatre Centre on Saturday June 24 at 7pm. Tickets are $46.90 + bf at canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
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[Comedy] end was very satisfying and kind of validating.”
STACKS OF LAUGHS BY IAN MCCARTHY There are few certainties in life, but one thing you can count on is that every year, without fail, the month-long Melbourne International Comedy Festival blows through the Victorian Capital like a cyclone, but like the fun kind of cyclone that’s safe enough for you to sit and watch from your living room. And if you’re a FOMO-prone Canberran, you can also count on seeing some of the best acts from the festival right here in the ACT when they stop through as part of the MELBOURNE I N T E R N AT I O N A L COMEDY FESTIVAL ROADSHOW.
SAM TAUNTON is one of Australia’s hardest working and fastest rising comedians. Now in his second year of the roadshow, Taunton is still riding the comedy festival high. “I’ve been on the roadshow for about five weeks now. The festival finished on a Sunday and then on the Tuesday I flew out to Tassie … so I haven’t really had a break.” Taunton’s debut solo show Taunts Down for What received widespread praise throughout MICF, resulting in a Best Newcomer nomination. “I was really excited about my run but it ended up going so well and to get a newcomer nomination at the
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DANIEL CONNELL is another one of Australia’s rising comedy stars who’s also performing in the Comedy Roadshow. Connell has been working hard in the Melbourne comedy scene for years and enjoys a day job as a writer on The Project. However, you’re most likely to recognise Connell from his appearance on the Melbourne Comedy Festival’s Oxfam Gala in March, an opportunity which Connell says was unexpected. “It was ridiculous! Getting asked to do it was quite a surprise. I definitely didn’t expect to be asked that at this stage, but then in the three weeks leading up, after I found out it was just a lot of thoughts about what set I was going to do … but then you just do your set and you’ve got to try and hope that they put it up.”
and The Civic Pub, it’s cool to go back and do that big theatre. I remember watching shows there and thinking it would be awesome to perform in that theatre. So yeah, it’s pretty cool. I’ll be able to get some family there and show them that I’m not wasting my time.” Connell won’t be the only Roadshow performer with familiar faces in the audience. Having grown up nearby on the Central Coast, Taunton has some Canberra ties as well. “Yeah, I grew up in Nowra and my dad grew up in Canberra so I’ve got a bunch of family up in Canberra, so I’ll be excited to go back and hang out.” The MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL ROADSHOW comes to Canberra Theatre Centre on Saturday June 24 at 7pm. Tickets are $46.90 + bf at canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
Performing in the Canberra leg of the roadshow is a particularly big deal for Connell as it’s where he first started performing comedy. “Having started in Canberra doing The Front and Phoenix Bar
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[Comedy]
Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
SPEEDING DOWNTOWN AND UPSIDE DOWN BY NONI DOLL When I asked David Collins of THE UMBILICAL BROTHERS the reason why they’re reviving their classic show Speedmouse for their upcoming tour, it seemed like a simple question. “We’ve got five 90-minute theatre shows that we tour around the world, and this is the one we get asked to do the most,” he says. But Collins confesses there’s actually a second reason. “We haven’t invented a new show, which we were meant to do by … actually, this month. We had put this month down to do a new show … Has the month finished yet? Or have we just begun? Oh no, we’ve gone past that month!” But when you consider what Collins and co-Umbilical Shane Dundas have been up to over the last few months, it’s no surprise they’ve been too busy to keep track of the date. Five weeks of off-Broadway shows and performing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: they’ve been working their socks off to get back into the mainstream US market after a while away. “We spent all of 1999 in America. We’d gone back a few times, but we had done theatres that were subscription-based, so not promoted to the public, so when we went back this time it was like starting again. No one remembered us,” Collins reflects. That said, they weren’t complete unknowns. “We’re most known there for our kids show, The Upside Down Show. When Shane and I walk down PAGE 38
the street, it’s not, ‘hey, it’s The Umbilical Brothers!’ It’s, ‘hey, it’s the Upside Down boys!’ So we had to start again. It really was a very humbling experience for us, because we just had to build an audience, like we had to do 25 years ago, like we’d had to do in 1999 when we were there for a year.”
Even if you’ve seen Speedmouse on DVD, you’re not going to be seeing the same show in the theatre. “We’ve done it so many times now that it’s different from the DVD. The DVD was so popular that we actually had to change the gags, because … comedians aren’t really like a rock band, where people like to see the same band [play] the same songs over and over. All the [middle] fingers are completely different,” he reveals, alluding to one of the most iconic routines in the show. “There’s a whole lot of stuff we’ve modified to update and keep ourselves interested more than anything else!” While the Umbilical Brothers are the stars of the show, there are two other characters who are key to the success of Speedmouse.
They’re now the centre of the comedy universe because of Trump and they’ve created themselves an alternative universe Collins goes on to mention the inevitable: the effect the new POTUS has had on comedy in the States. “It’s a very, very weird time over there with the political situation, but because of that, as I was telling them, they’re now the centre of the comedy universe because of Trump and they’ve created themselves an alternative universe that we can all watch from the outside and laugh at,” he remarks. “So it was nice to be in the centre of the comedy universe and perform comedy.”
“The Roadie of the show, the most popular character in the show, really hasn’t been available. He had a couple of kids, but now he would like to get out of the house! His kids are old enough [for him] to go, ‘Get me out!’” Collins jests, before going on to explain that his relationship with the Roadie is … a little strained. “I’m not sure why we have a roadie,” he says. “Shane would contest that. He thinks it’s integral, but none of our other shows have a Roadie and we seem to get by …
But luckily we’ve got Tina, our tech who does light and sound and puts the show together, and she’s awesome. As long as she’s around, I think I’ll be okay.” Before we wrap up, I ask Collins if he has any Canberra stories he’d like to share. His response is definitely unexpected. “What the hell am I talking to you for! Yeah, I have a Canberra connection: it’s fucking Shane!” he says, with mock indignation. “What the hell! Are you kidding me? They got you to call me?! And not only that, he’s much better at interviews than me!” But that’s not all. “Our manager is from Canberra as well! And I’m pretty sure the Roadie’s from bloody Canberra!” Collins pauses, seemingly to catch his breath, before going on to share an interesting tidbit for anyone considering heading along to the show. “He lives in Sydney now, but the Roadie is going down to Canberra and he said he’s going to bring his freakin’ son on the stage with him!” It’s not hard to tell that this idea seriously tickles Collins. “Only people who’ve seen Speedmouse will know how exciting that will be.” THE UMBILICAL BROTHERS bring Speedmouse to the Canberra Theatre Centre on Saturday July 8 at 8pm. Tickets are $49.90 + bf and can be purchased at canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
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[Kurosawa] was a great technical director [and] the stories he told were universal. Humanism is at the core of all Kurosawa films – he was a great humanist. — David Stratton
SEVEN SAMURAI, 1954 PAGE 40
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[Film]
Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
AKIRA KUROSAWA
STRATTON PRESENTS AT THE NFSA BY MAJELLA CARMODY This June, the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) will play host to the work of acclaimed Japanese film director, AKIRA KUROSAWA. This retrospective features Kurosawa films that were carefully chosen by the godfather of Australian cinema, DAVID STRATTON. The line-up includes Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Kagemusha, Rashomon, Ran (based on Shakespeare’s King Lear), Throne of Blood (based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth) and neo-noir, High and Low.
film I put on the program, [and] it was maybe the second film I screened. It was a small town and I’m not sure they were ready for it then!”
BMA caught up with Stratton to find out more about the enduring influence and work of Kurosawa.
While Kurosawa is largely associated with epic samurai films, he was also a master of exploring existential questions through everyday human drama. Kurosawa’s 1963 film, High and Low is an intimate, playlike piece about a businessman whose family is targeted by a merciless kidnapper. The film stars charismatic actor Toshiro Mifune, with whom Kurosawa collaborated in 16 films (and five of the seven films showing at the retrospective). “I think [High and Low is] maybe my favourite Kurosawa film. It’s hard to choose one out of all of them! I really like High and Low because if you read the book [King’s Ransom by American author, Ed McBain], it’s really interesting to see how [Kurosawa] transposes that very American story and turns it into what seems like such a Japanese film. The film is also known by the title Heaven and Hell … The way that Kurosawa shifts your sympathies is very typical of the kind of power he had to make us see that everything is not quite black and white.”
“Kurosawa is unquestionably one of the great directors,” Stratton says. “[Kurosawa] had a very distinctive way, a very physical way, of getting the audience into the action of the scene. It doesn’t actually have to be an action movie to achieve that sort of thing. The way he uses the wide screen is so dynamic, the angles he uses, the cutting he employs – it really is quite startling in its visual skill. He was a great technical director [and] the stories he told were universal. Humanism is at the core of all Kurosawa films – he was a great humanist.” Kurosawa had a mutually influential relationship with American film, and was drawn to Western culture (including Shakespeare). “I think the reason that Kurosawa’s films were the first Japanese films to be screened reasonably widely in the West, was because [Kurosawa] was a great fan of Hollywood,” Stratton explains. “He loved American films and he loved Westerns … And he was a particular admirer of the films of John Ford. So he used his love of Westerns to infuse the way he made his samurai films, and they, in turn, influenced Hollywood. Of course, The Magnificent Seven
(1960) was an official remake of [Kurosawa’s] Seven Samurai.” Seven Samurai was the first Kurosawa film, and the first Japanese film, Stratton ever saw. “I was probably 17 or 18 when I [first] saw [Seven Samurai]. I had never seen a film like that before … So I didn’t know what to expect,” Stratton recalls. To make the film length more ‘palatable’ for international audiences the film was cut by nearly an hour, Stratton explains. “So nobody in those days saw the full impact of [Seven Samurai]. It was only later when Kurosawa became really established that the original version of the film was made available in the West. Even so, [Seven Samurai] made an enormous impact, and being a fan of Hollywood Westerns, I really appreciated the action scenes in the film, especially the great Battle in the Rain, which is an amazing scene. But also the beauty of the story: these mercenaries who really give their lives for these peasants because they come to realise how the peasants have no other way to defend themselves, and how they are human beings who deserve some kind of support.” “I first saw [Seven Samurai] at a film society and then [a year or so later] I started my own film society in my hometown. [Seven Samurai] was the first
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Stratton also went on to curate a Kurosawa retrospective as Director of the Sydney Film Festival in 1971, and attended the World Premiere of Ran which was held in Tokyo in 1985. “[The premiere of Ran] was a great opportunity [for me] to meet [Kurosawa] … He was a lovely man, with a beguiling smile and a very gentle character.”
creative decision is driven by purpose. “I think High and Low, from a visual point of view, is one of his most powerful films,” says Stratton. “The dynamism, of this filming, his framing and his editing and the deep humanism that he imbues in all his films, all his characters, good or bad … Everyone has their reasons. Everyone has their motives and [Kurosawa] tends not to condemn people.” Kurosawa was plagued by illhealth, depression and later attempted suicide. “For such a great director, such an admired director, right through the 1950s and 1960s, it’s sad … to think that for two decades [1970s and 1980s], this great director was only able to make four films, and three of those were only made with the help of foreign money … It’s interesting that arguably Japan’s greatest director couldn’t get the money in Japan to make films after 1970 [or] until very much later, when he was making much smaller films just before he died.” Stratton hopes that audiences will embrace and enjoy the Kurosawa retrospective. “Seeing films like Seven Samurai or Yojimbo or High and Low on a big cinema screen, I think is an experience not to be missed if you’re at all interested in cinema.” ESSENTIAL KUROSAWA: SELECTED BY DAVID STRATTON will be held at the National Film and Sound Archive, Arc Cinema, from Wed–Fri June 14–30. Tickets $12-$14 or season pass $75-$80. For more information, visit nfsa.gov.au.
Kurosawa is arguably unmatched as an auteur: he was very precise with the use of movement in his films (both with the use of the camera and movement within the frame) to evoke certain emotions, action, or character traits. There is never a wasted moment: each
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[Theatre]
Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
CYRANO’S NOSE KNOWS BY SHARONA LIN Damien Ryan has spent many years in theatre, particularly with Shakespeare’s works. So it isn’t a surprise that he is so eloquent regarding CYRANO DE BERGERAC. The 2013 version he wrote and directed was a huge hit, and his theatre company Sport For Jove are now taking it on the road – only this time Ryan will also star in the production. Cyrano isn’t Shakespeare, but captured Ryan’s imagination and has continued to do so. The classic love story featuring a man who eschews love because of his outrageous nose, and the love of his life, Roxane, is in Ryan’s opinion, one of theatre’s greatest ever plays. “I really mean that. I mean that from the perspective that it is such a complete experience, for actors and for audiences. It’s one of the funniest plays to ever take the stage, it’s one of the most moving plays, it fulfils all the dimensions and depths of tragedy while also giving a glorious, comic, romantic plot. And he always subverts that romanticism with a great kind of cynical reality – it’s just a very, very complete portrait of people,” Ryan says. “And even its Frenchness is enchanting, it’s an extremely passionate exploration of love, of poetic love, that goes further than poetic love – by the end of it you realise it’s actually mocking poetic love, it’s saying that there is a love that goes deeper than anything that can be expressed in words, and I think that’s the PAGE 42
play’s great irony. The play’s about a poet, a war poet, an incredible soldier, but a soldier who has the soul of a poet, and who writes poetry, and yet in the end, his poetry is not worth the paper it’s written on compared to the real experience of loving that he denies himself for his entire life, out of fear because of his large nose,” Ryan enthuses. “It’s just a play that I’ve always loved, and so sitting down to write a new version of it a few years ago was such a wonderful challenge
book look that I’ve often seen in theatres with Cyrano de Bergerac, and I’m kind of more interested in the idea of a Wilfred Owen-like figure, rather than the crusading, almost comic book cartoon musketeer type of swordsman. I thought it would be wonderful for the audience to look at a very gritty, real, modern 20th century war poet with ink-stained fingers writing in the trenches of World War One and producing some of the most extraordinary poetry of the century.” The character of Roxane is also updated – in this version she is a suffragette-type figure, encouraging idealism, freedom and enfranchisement for women. “So I guess there were these things in the early part of the 20th century that I found could open up new avenues for the play that are really rich and wonderful, and not keep it quite as remote from us as the 1640s.
By the end of it you realise it’s actually mocking poetic love … and I think that’s the play’s great irony and it took a long time and I loved working on it. But again and again, when Cyrano hits the stage, it tends to work because it’s just such a beautifully written piece.” Inspired partially by Romeo and Juliet, the original by Edmond Rostand was set in 16th century France. Ryan’s adaptation makes several changes, but the most notable is moving it forward in time. “It’s almost a picture
“Also, there have been a lot of Cyranos, and people are very familiar with the play. So just to nudge it – not so contemporary that it pulls them out of the great history lesson of this play, but far enough forward that it just wakes every character up a little, and wakes the play up a little for people I suppose.” Starring in the show (the original Cyrano from the 2013 season was offered an “incredible” role
in England) is both exciting and challenging for Ryan. While he’s no stranger to a “big role” – he’s played Macbeth, Iago, and many other Shakespearean roles in the past – it adds another dimension to the play he’s written and directed. “It’s definitely a challenge and I’m biting off more than I can chew – and chewing like hell, that’s for sure.” Luckily, he is backed up by an experienced, talented cast, almost all of whom are returning from the previous season. “Their depth of knowledge about it now, it’s reached their DNA a little bit, it’s in their bone structure somewhere now. So coming back to it now, they’re bringing depth to every moment of it. “You sort of know when a play feels like it will work because the cast has a synergy together, and this one feels that way. I think it’s a very intelligent group, a very strongly articulate group. It’s a real pleasure working with them. And it’s a very large cast; there’s 16 people and that’s a wonderful strength to have. “Theatre has a real paucity these days, of actors in shows, it’s all about diminishing the number of actors for economic reasons. But Cyrano is about excess, Cyrano is a really theatrical experience, so everywhere you look, there’s an actor, you know, and that’s kind of wonderful.” Damien Ryan brings CYRANO DE BERGERAC to The Playhouse from Wednesday June 28 to Saturday July 1. Tickets from $25 + bf through canberratheatreentre.com.au.
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[Film] It’s almost like internet culture to say something’s gay or, you know, to throw hate towards queer people online. And that makes me quite disappointed and upset every time I see that in the comments section somewhere.”
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE BY ZOE PLEASANTS At the end of last year, YouTube hosted a one-day workshop at the Australian Film Television and Radio School in Sydney. It brought together over 100 social media influencers, artists, content creators and activists from all over Australia to discuss how to combat online hate speech. This workshop was called Share Some Good. At the end of it, YouTube challenged participants to pitch ideas for short films that it would fund, with the aim of making these films part of a bigger campaign. Former Canberran OLIVER LEVI-MALOUF was at this workshop and the idea he pitched to YouTube was selected.
The film he made, DEAR FUTURE ME explores the aspirations of five young LGBT people, and launched on his YouTube channel at the end of May. “I knew I wanted to make something about the LGBT community,” Levi-Malouf tells me. “Because, being gay myself, it’s always been a big issue where, online, there’s so much hate thrown towards our community.
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For his film Levi-Malouf approached five intelligent and passionate LGBT youths and asked them to write letters to their future selves. “I then took those letters, which were just beautiful and heart-wrenching to read, and turned each [one] into a metaphorical, visual representation using surrealism and magic realism and beautiful poetic imagery,” explains LeviMalouf. “We created a beautiful dreamscape of each letter and in the final version of the film, those dreamscapes are kind of mixed with shots of people writing their letters and a voiceover from each person reading their letters out.”
It’s almost like internet culture to say something’s gay or, you know, to throw hate towards queer people online
For Levi-Malouf, he hopes that his future self gets to tell stories. “I don’t particularly mind if that’s through film, through theatre, through art or performance … but film will always be my passion. So, when I leave film school, hopefully I’ll start making films,” he says. Originally from Canberra, Levi-Malouf would love to make a film here. “I miss the outdoor aspect of Canberra. In Sydney, I’m always fighting to go off somewhere for a bush location or just an outdoor park with trees. There have been so many times when I’ve been looking for a location in Sydney and I’m like, it would almost be easier to drive back to Canberra for the weekend and shoot it there because I know the perfect place in Canberra!” But for the immediate future, Levi-Malouf hopes his film Dear Future Me will help counter online hate speech aimed at LGBT people, and help celebrate what it means to grow up as a young queer person in Australia today. You can watch Oliver Levi-Malouf’s film, DEAR FUTURE ME on his YouTube channel.
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Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT After a brief intermission the show returned with Heidi Treasure, in long flowing robes she stripped them off to reveal pasties and peacock bustle tail that she lifted up behind her in a gorgeous tail display.
IN REVIEW
Esmeralda Delight performed as a Woodstock lovechild, deliriously floating about and stripping to morph into the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. With the theme of the “eat me, drink me” hallucination segment it worked really well.
GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS! AND A BOY TEATRO VIVALDI FRI APR 28
PHOTO BY BRETT SARGEANT, D-EYE PHOTOGRAPHY
Holly J’aDoll (Sydney) emceed this sold-out show presented by Miss Kitka’s House of Burlesque. With a history of performing with some of the troupe, J’aDoll had some fond memories to share on the night as well. Major Cry debuted in a dress suit with long tails. After a sexy strip routine on a chair with a great stocking peel she finished by drinking a glass of whiskey and sashaying off stage. Cherry Sunday performed a cabaret number from Chicago, doing the Charleston in a sequinned dress, she stripped
with a fantastic solo breast tassel twirl and lots of kicks. It was high impact and fun. Rusty Blaze performed a balloon pop strut routine in a full bustle skirt and corset. Popping balloons with a large feather, she stripped to tassel twirl and popped a balloon overhead that was full of glitter and feathers. Domino Envy performed a punk-styled routine where she appeared out of a delivery box dressed in black PVC. She bopped around the stage and, luring a man into her box, she sealed their fate.
Poppy Avalon performed a sassy routine dressed in a business power suit. Dancing in a contemporary style she stripped out of the suit to reveal blue sequinned hot pants and a fringed bra. Sparklemuffin performed wearing a Roman-styled suit of armour covered in empty pill packets. Stalking the stage and holding a stave club covered in LED lights, they stripped to reveal band aid pasties and a nude G-string that suggested vulnerability. They turned around to reveal text on their back saying, “I am not my
illness”. It was a brilliant way to draw attention to the battle of living with mental illness. Mandy Bandersnatch performed her Captain America routine, dressed like a cheerleader in the colours of red white and blue she marched on the spot and then stripped to perform an epic tassel twirl. The final routine by Possum Galore, The Feral Tease drew howls of laughter and massive applause from the crowd. Dressed as a giant cockroach she mourned the death of her partner cockroach and, once stripped, she fan danced to ‘I Will Always Love You’. Then, in the style of Romeo and Juliet, she sprayed herself with insect spray to die and join them. With a bunch of group routines spread through the night featuring go-go dancing, audience lap dancing and a gangster-styled striptease, boylesque performer Johnny Pash debuted in a show that was sultry, sexy, significant and a lot of fun. The crowd seemed to really enjoy it. SAM INGHAM amps galore and, of course, an impressive set of tubular bells.
IN REVIEW
Aidan Roberts and Daniel Holdsworth began stage left and right, each surrounded by their own island of instruments, looking away from their playing only briefly to make eye contact for cues. By the end of the first set they were dodging around each other and swapping instruments in the midst of their self-imposed logistical nightmare.
TUBULAR BELLS FOR TWO THE STREET THEATRE FRI MAY 5
PHOTO BY JONATHAN DOLEZAL
I first heard about Tubular Bells For Two five years ago when my father-in-law saw the show. It seemed to rekindle the spirit of ‘73 in him. He asked me to return the copy of the original I had pilfered from his record collection and I have since caught him air PAGE 44
guitaring and air conducting along with the record a few times. The concept is simple enough: two musicians use loop pedals to perform Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. The implementation is complicated, athletic, funny and equally impressive and fun to watch.
From the darkly lit and hazy stage emerged two men and over twenty instruments; including three electric guitars, two electric pianos, a bass guitar, Spanish guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, glockenspiel, synth, drum kit, an organ, a couple of kazoos,
They were also very funny. Holdsworth found time for a relaxing glass of wine during some looped downtime for himself, while Roberts continued furiously plugging away. Compromise is expected when loop pedals replace musicians, especially since these guys don’t use any pre-recorded material! However any small compromises to the composition was well covered by their showmanship and the great sounds they were pulling. Highly recommended. JONATHAN DOLEZAL @bmamag
[Reviews] With a wave of events in Canberra recently focussing on the strength and sisterhood of girl power and feminism, this sold-out event showcased some wonderful and amazing routines that both pleased and shocked. It was controversial yet fantastic. Belle Bleu emceed the show with a strong verbal theme of “hashtag consent”. Grrrlesque brought a fierce range of performances to the stage, focusing on all the main issues that are managed daily including repression, sexuality, beauty standards, financial equality and politics. Performances included Fi Bionnachi performing a punk stomp routine to No Doubt’s ‘I’m Just A Girl’; a very 70s-styled cactus peyote seduction routine was performed by Lady Bird Blue (Melb); and Sparklemuffin performed their excellent butch road worker routine; Sparkles performed two food fetish routines – a hamburger routine where she pulled the ingredients out from all sorts of places and a fairy bread routine that involved smearing margarine all over her
body before smothering herself in sprinkles. Ursula Wolfe performed a controversial routine about beauty standards and plastic surgery. Whilst empowering yourself to “F” the standards, she proceeded to perform surgery on herself and shame the beauty industry. Bunni Lambada & Clint Beastwood (Syd) performed a high impact 70s-styled duo fan dance routine, then Belle Bleu and Ivy Ambrosia came out, derobed and played and sung two songs on their ukuleles in all their naked glory. After a good intermission, Inkbits opened the second set and sung and stripped to ‘Beautiful’ by Christina Aguilera in her gritty alternative style that we all love to watch. With the words “Bitch Dyke Fat Ugly Intense Mysogynist” written across her front torso, the highlighted letters spelt “Beauty” down her middle. Ivy Ambrosia then performed a type of Barbie girl routine where she cut off her body stocking and mask to reveal her inner self, and Belle Bleu returned to sing Conchita’s ‘Rise Like A Phoenix’.
A tightly-packed circle of believers. Their faces turned up to a flat disk of infinite depth, floating in a burning sky. Time started up again, the dome was filled with a terrible enveloping sound – part shriek, part rumble. That moment, when you wake from within total submergence of a gig, like from an intense dream.
IN REVIEW
GRRRLESQUE TEATRO VIVALDI SAT APR 22
PHOTO BY NATHAN J LESTER
Abel Fox stomped all over the stage hip hop style. Smearing avocado all over herself, she was clearly stating we will have our avocado any way we want too. Then Lady Blue Bird returned to perform dressed as a giant vagina, proceeded to masturbate herself and then pulled out a ginormous tampon that was dripping with fake blood, she splattered it all over herself and then drank the blood. Shockingly, the crowd roared their applause. For the finale, Bunni Lambada came out wearing a suit and Trump mask, covered in balloons
with political words written on them, she danced and popped the balloons, then ripping it all off she recited a long political piece about injustice, sexism and ignorance. It was heavy, poignant but significant, and the entire room was dead quiet as they listened intently. As I left I couldn’t help wondering though – does growing out your armpit hair and wearing combat boots instead of heels for a show make you a feminist? Thanks Sass and Tease. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire show. SAM INGHAM
IN REVIEW
Benjamin Drury’s ten-minute composition, commissioned by the Canberra International Music Festival, was written for double bass and voice, to be performed in the James Turrell Skyspace during sunset. I turned up early to find the dome empty except for the sound of trickling water. Gradually the audience arrived in small, hushed groups. The space had a reverence, like we were sitting in a church of art waiting for a sermon. The faithful masses were spilling out around the dome by the time Rohan Dasika was in place for the sunset performance. The piece started gently, Dasika bowing a long and low note, pausing … and then repeating
WITHIN WITHOUT: LONTANANZA JAMES TURRELL SKYSPACE MON-FRI MAY 1–5 PHOTO BY JONATHAN DOLEZAL
the same long, low note. He began singing meditative wordless “arrs” in unison with the bass drones.
We sat looking up at the changing sky, the composition unfolding around us. I forgot about the music. The universe was one.
Gradually, Dasika’s voice broke free from the persistent bass drones to sing a slow, sparse melody, the pauses filled with the sound of the domes trickling water.
Suddenly, the cogs of the cosmos began grinding, a new big bang, the bass exploded into screeching, beautiful, terrible awesomeness!
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And then the calm of a small high melody told us “it’s okay, everything is okay”. JONATHAN DOLEZAL
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Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
Jo Victoria [ARTIST PROFILE]
Describe your artmaking practice. Extreme porcelain! Working with nature, using nature in porcelain and experimenting with what’s left in the porcelain clay body after the organic material has burnt out in the firing process. When, how and why did you get into it? I remember as a child seeing potters at Cuppacumalong near Tharwa in the ‘70s throw clay on the wheel and make it into a pot. It was transformative. I have always been a tactile person and was always in trouble touching things in galleries. Good art has always moved me, and as an emerging artist, I aspire to make art that creates reactions, encourages deep thinking and seeks to find beauty in small, every day things, especially the natural world. What ideas do you explore through your art? I am a big picture person,
and I think deeply about the precariousness of life of on earth, for people and for the natural environment. I try to create works that speak to the smallness of humans in the grand scheme of things. Who/what influences you as an artist? I studied anthropology when I left school because I was fascinated by what motivated people to do what they do. I loved studying different cultures. I was also interested in cultural landscapes, archaeological debris and evidence left in the landscape by cultural and natural processes. Sculptor Andy Goldsworthy is my main artistic influence. He works in and with nature and his works are usually temporary and subject to natural forces which ultimately destroy the works that he makes. This idea is particularly challenging in ceramics. Of what are you proudest so far?
in my 50s following a career working as an anthropologist, as well as emerging from what seems like rather a long time in motherhood. (Naturally I am proud of my amazing children and that we all survived the process of growing up.) I am also very proud that I have been invited back to Denmark as a fully funded visiting artist, where I recently completed an artist residency. Danish design and aesthetics and Scandinavian social and environmental policies have been of particular interest to me. What are the future?
your
plans
for
I have some exhibitions coming up to develop work for, including opportunities overseas which are both exciting and terrifying. I am also interested in developing a sculptural sustainable lighting range and collaborating with other creatives on some immersive installation projects. I would also like to develop a porcelain tableware range when I get time.
I am really proud that I am being recognised as an emerging artist
What about the local scene would you change? Canberra is a beautiful and safe environment, which at times seems to lack passion, urgency and vibrance. We have an amazing wealth of diverse, creative talent here. People come to Canberra from everywhere and that eclectic mix makes for a melting pot of creative ideas. I guess I would encourage people to get out and support local artists and designers. It would be great to see more local businesses supporting local designers. What are your upcoming performances/exhibitions? I am currently in Emerging Contemporaries at Craft ACT: Craft + Design Centre. I have a solo show at the end of the year at Suki and Huge in Bungendore and an exhibition to develop work for in Denmark in 2018 as well as a number of other opportunities that I am working on. Lots happening! Contact info: jovictoria@bigpond.com jovictoria.com.au Instagram: jo_victoria_mud
[Precarious, 2017, photo by Brenton McGeachie] PAGE 46
@bmamag
[Canberra Artists]
Wayne Creaser [ARTIST PROFILE]
Describe your artmaking practice. My artmaking practice predominantly involves designing and making unique functional furniture, preferably showcasing Australian grown timbers. When, how and why did you get into it? I have always been interested in making and I initially got into furniture making while building built-in wardrobes, cupboards, bookshelves and a desk in our first house. About 15 years ago I decided I wanted to make finer and better quality furniture than I had been and enrolled in the Visual Arts Access program of evening courses run through the ANU School of Art. These classes provided me with an excellent grounding in furniture making techniques. In 2014 I was fortunate enough to be able to retire from my public service job to undertake a Bachelor of Design Arts in Furniture through the ANU. What ideas do you explore through your art? I am attracted to forms that outwardly appear quite clean but
which have underlying or internal structural elements with an architectural quality that belies that apparent simplicity. I am also interested in the sophistication of Chinese and Japanese joinery compared with the Western equivalent. Elements of both of these appear in my work. As part of my current Honours studies I am looking at the theory around the aesthetics of complexity, and the different cultural approach to aesthetics in Asia compared with the West. Who/what influences you as an artist? My craft is influenced by Asian furniture design, particularly from the Ming and early Q’ing dynasties in China as well as traditional Japanese and Korean furniture. I am also interested in how these styles have influenced western furniture designers and makers such as Edward Godwin, Charles and Henry Greene, Hans Wegner and others. Of what are you proudest so far? There are two pieces that I am particularly fond of. The first is the coffee table/side table ‘Tsugime’
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based on a Japanese scarf joint used for joining timbers, in the Craft ACT Emerging Contemporaries exhibition. The other is my ‘Reuleaux stool’ made in the second year of my course, inspired by a traditional Chinese design and using the Reuleaux triangle (a roundedsided triangle) as the key design element. What are the future?
your
plans
for
I am currently working part time for a furniture restorer which I am enjoying and from which I am learning a lot about traditional making techniques and the types of joinery and making techniques that stand the test of time (and the ones that don’t). It is also exposing me to the work of a wide range of Australian furniture makers and designers that we don’t often hear about. I am also currently undertaking my Honours at the ANU to complete my degree. Over time I would like to build up my own practice focusing on commissions and small production runs of my own designs. I am also interested in making musical instruments such as acoustic guitars and mandolins, an interest that has grown considerably after
undertaking a guitar building course in 2016. What about the local scene would you change? I would like more people to understand and value the amount of work that goes into making well-crafted, unique functional works and look to acquiring good-quality pieces that will last because they are both welldesigned and well-constructed, rather than following trends and buying cheap, poorly constructed pieces that will be consigned to the waste stream in a relatively short period of time. What are your upcoming performances/exhibitions? Along with the current Craft ACT: Craft + Design Centre Emerging Contemporaries exhibition, I will be exhibiting the ‘Reuleaux Stool’ and possibly some cutlery (made in a gold and silver-smithing elective course during my degree) at the Random exhibition at the ANU School of Art Gallery in July. There will also possibly be work included in the ANU School of Art Furniture Workshop Exhibition at the end of the year. Contact info: creaserw@gmail.com Phone: 0406 376 774
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[Canberra Artists]
Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
Catherine Newton [ARTIST PROFILE]
Describe your artmaking practice. I am a person who loves to make, try out new ideas, push boundaries and experiment. This has led me to some fascinating failures but also great results, for example using a 3D printer to print a glass object. I believe art can make a difference and be thought-provoking. An area I have taken my current body of work is to highlight the important role of the mother, focusing on the relationship between mother and child, this is also close to my heart. When, how and why did you get into it? I became interested in glass when the Dale Chihuly exhibition Masterworks in Glass was at the National Gallery of Australia in 1999. I went there with my mother and one-year-old daughter and my mother said, “you could do that”. The work was spectacular
and I was enthralled by the colours, transparency and fluidity of the glass. This inspired me to take some classes at the ANU Glass Workshop in Canberra after which I was heard to say on many occasions, “when I grow up I’m going to go to ANU School of Art and study glass”. The dream became a reality in 2013 when I began my visual arts degree majoring in glass. What ideas do you explore through your art? My current practice investigates the phenomenology of glass and how this medium can embody a sense of maternal love and intimacy. Scrutinising the materiality of glass, delving into its formal and metaphorical potential to convey the connection between mother and child through ideas of touch informed by the psychological and theories of ‘nature versus nurture’.
Who/what influences you as an artist? My influences are many, for example work made by other artists, research papers written about mothering, my parents, mother-in-law and family are all significant in my work as well as being an important rung in the growing of children. I admire artists such as Mary Kelly, Louise Bourgeois and Denise Ferris and my supervisor from ANU School of Art, Nadège Desgenétez is also a key influence. Of what are you proudest so far? Apart from being proud of my four children and 1.75 grandchildren my proudest moment was graduating from the ANU. I received the EASS Peter and Lena Karmel Anniversary Award for best graduating student from the ANU School of Art in the presence of my mother, father, husband, children and family. I also felt the award was not only for me but my supervisor Nadège Desgenétez and the glass school and I felt proud that my achievements continue to enhance the worldwide reputation of the glass workshop and ANU School of Art. What are your plans for the future? My plans are to continue making work and build my artistic practice. I aim to achieve this by applying for residencies in the various glass centres around the world continuing with the theme of Mum’s hugs. I plan to make Mum’s hugs with mothers in the local community, capturing their breath in the hug of their child. This work is to highlight the importance of mothers and through community participation, raise awareness of mothering. It is also a way to expose people to the wonders of glass and the arts community. What about the local scene would you change?
produced art and the artists in our community that produce it. Creative practice can only survive in the community if there is support from the community. I have found the Canberra Arts scene to be supportive and caring with organisations working dedicatedly to support and promote artists in the Canberra community. On a more personal note the way established artists and the ANU SOA support emerging artists, their peers and students is to be truly admired. What are your upcoming performances/exhibitions? I am fortunate to have a number of upcoming exhibitions and events this year and can hardly believe this is happening to me. My work is currently on exhibition in Emerging Contemporaries at the Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre. The 2nd of June will see my work being exhibited as part of the CAPO Curatorial Internship Award at Belconnen Arts Centre. This show runs from Sat–Sun June 3–25. I have been selected as a finalist in the Canberra Glassworks Hindmarsh Prize, which is a juried show promoting glass artists living and working in Canberra. This show runs from Sat–Sun June 10–18. In July I am in the EASS Belconnen Arts Centre Exhibition Award Recipients show for an award I received at graduation last year. This show runs from Sat Jul 29–Sun Aug 20. I am currently in America at the Pilchuck Glass School where I am participating in the summer program. This school was birthed by Dale Chihuly in the 1980s. Only yesterday, May 24, I found out I am being supported by artsACT to travel to France on the 1st of July to assist New Zealand artist Evelyn Dunstan with classes at Centre Européen de Recherches et de Formation aux Arts Verriers in Vannes le Châtel. Contact info: damnewcat@iinet.net.au 0439 429 550 facebook.com/Mumshuggs
I would like to see the broader Canberra population exposed to and made aware of the locally PAGE 48
@bmamag
[Food & Drink]
Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT can drink! I love The Hamlet.
FOOD JUNKY
[THE WORD ON LOCAL FOOD & DRINK] WITH SHARONA LIN [SHARONA@POPCULTURE-Y.COM]
When I was eleven, all I wanted for dinner was pizza. My friend from swimming class had a “junk food night” every Friday night, and that’s all I wanted too. Sadly, my parents stuck to cooking at home, so pizza was a rare treat. When I moved out of home and next to Lygon Street in Melbourne, famed for its abundance of Italian food, my appreciation of pizza was sharpened again – despite my Milanese housemates telling me that it wasn’t “real” Italian (because “real” Italian was Milanese, not Sicilian). Still, my favourite place knew me by name, and would shout me a beer while I waited for my pizza to bake.
I still haven’t found a Canberran pizza place I love quite as much as that place, but in my relatively short time here, I’ve managed to eat my share of pizza. And in the interests of ensuring that you don’t suffer from the same fate I did for 18 years of junk food-less Friday nights, I’ve rounded them up for you. When I first arrived in Canberra, many of my Friday nights were spent on Lonsdale Street, so I can tell you that 10” Custom Pizzeria is one of my favourite pizza places around. The woodfire pizzas are topped with fresh ingredients, and have a great crust – it helps that you never have to wait too long, and if you’re waiting, you
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Just down the road you’ll find Pizza Gusto, which is similarly efficient and also offers woodfire pizzas that are fresh and crispy. I’ve eaten my share of the classic margheritas; a pizza I feel can tell you what you need to know about a pizza place. If they can nail a margherita, they’ve got my vote. And Pizza Gusto nails their margheritas. You can eat outside on some benches, but their pizzas are made for taking away. A little further south is Briscola Pizzeria, which is more of a sitdown restaurant. It’s nice having a restaurant where pizzas aren’t seen as the inferior option, and Briscola does it right. I’ll also shout out Debacle (two for one pizzas on Monday nights), Da Bronx in Gungahlin (passable New York style pizzas, as long as you don’t mind your pizzas relatively plain) and Mills and Grills and Pot Belly in Belconnen.
in conjunction with Capital Brewing Co. A six-course meal, canapés, and all beer included? Count me in. Friday June 16, $170 + bf. Polit Bar has hump day cocktails and karaoke with cocktail specials and two for one selected drinks with every pizza shared. Wednesday June 7, free entry. And if you’re not one for karaoke, the new Diplomatico range is launching at the Highball Express. Drink some rum (including a cocktail on arrival) and some charcuterie. Bookings are essential. Wednesday June 7, $30.
And a few foodie events coming up this month: I absolutely want to hit up the annual Beer Degustation at The Boathouse,
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Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
BY THE FIRESIDE By The Fireside is our column for local creative writers to publish an original work. This month’s entry is by Sophia Mackay, a lifetime student, artist, DJ and selfproclaimed semi-professional wanker/wordologist. 2501am At these latitudes the west rock coast faces seas that sweep and wrack and tear about our whole globe from the east shore of our rocky pedestal only to crush against rocks and cliffs sometimes too deep for toes and ever so lofty in reach they leave senses reeling vertiginous: Stretched across km’s of wave wracked rock – beneath as above. But as a traveller from the ‘motherland’ of yours reels yarn after yarn about west coast surfing and his rudderless travelling; Cliff edged beaches hidden between the rocks and not another single soul trawling the secret surfs and reaches. A long thread of words and all you’ll remember is your growing anger. For the dull drawl drags like an undertow – meaningless words dive straight through cross-currents and swirls from his world into you. Struck click of irritation. This story rambles and self-valuates his ego in concentric circles. Spark sticks – around this rage that shocks your mind – you’ll remember this spiel forever. You’ve ready-made space for it already in every dream deep enough to cut through to the fears lurking in pocked lines and ever deepening wells we’ve dug to survive and hide from – running from impossible waves and implacably rising tides, never seeming to turn and sucking backwards, subside. Drown in fears, frantic scramble to rescue self and scattered belongings from innnundation. From further suck that would claim all your means into their quiet breast like a final lover – even if it could not take you along as well. But now your dream bears footprints of another – unwitting bother. Tracks of past and present words weave and sluice the rocks askew. Marked by anothers unwitting glimpse into the depths of you. Stuck fast together, your deep dream with another’s superficial remininscence; realities, vagueries and tremors. The dream, recurring; you’ve had it all through your admitedly short forever; and the image have come together. You wonder if what haunts you is the call of your heart home. The waves of your childhood enticing you to catch them once more – before the monstrous swells they’ve become break, on far shores – where they have come again, with final sigh and die. They sing for you to find their bones buried in cliff faces where they were flung and all the traces of you lost in them will come back to you, again; sirens serenading you to savour them as they pass. As they end on opposite coastal edges of the land we’ve found, in a quiet truth writ and etched deeply into our bones, is home. You know someday you’ll be with or within them. Again. As they return and end – all the way around the world from where long ago your gladly dipped toe sent ripples - flung beyond hesitation by thrash of limbs and torso. Displaced waiting waters. Start to end a long journey all the way around the world. They whisper in our ears again as they end. In a voice that rumbles low with the groan of the tide as it sucks at salted shores and rocks. Hungry it ripples in our ears and tells tales of dark suggestive things. Before they die, fall silent and cease to leave us for a little while in peace. Until the dark dreams invade our mind with these fears and sneak up, seek to taunt us again. At these latitudes the west rocky coast lies. Faces sharp roaring seas PAGE 50
that sweep and wrack and tear about our globe from the eastern shore of our rocky pedestal to the far west only to crush against rocky cliffs, oft too deep for toes and ever so lofty in reach they leave senses reeling vertiginous: Stretching across km’s of wave wracked rock – beneath as above. But as this traveller from the ‘motherland’ of yours reels his long spiel; yarn after yarn about west coast surfing and his rudderless travelling; Cliff edged beaches hidden between the rocks and not another single soul trawling the secret surfs and reaches. A long thread of words and all you’ll remember is your growing anger. His dull drawl drags like a fierce undertow – meaningless words dive straight through cross-currents and eddies between his world, into you. Struck click of irritation. This story rambles and self-valuates his ego in concentric circles. Spark sticks - around this rage that shocks your mind – you’ll remember this spiel forever. You’ve ready-made space for it in every dream deep enough to cut through to the fears lurking in pocked lines accross the surface of your mind, into ever deepening wells we’ve dug to survive and hide from impossible waves and implacably rising tides. Never seeming to turn, suck backwards, subside. Drown in fears’ frantic scramble to rescue self and scattered belongings from innnundation. Rising lick of tidal suck that would claim all your means into their quiet breast like a final lover – even if it could not take you along as well. But now your dream bears, footprints of another – unwitting bother. Tracks of past and present words weave and sluice the rocks askew. Marked by anothers unwitting glimpse into the depths of you. Stuck fast together, your deep dream with another’s superficial remininscence; realities, vagueries and tremors. The dream, recurring; you’ve had it all through your admitedly short forever; and this unwanted loudly spun image have come together. You wonder if what haunts you is the call of your heart home. The waves of your childhood enticing you to catch them once more – before the monstrous swells they’ve become break, on far shores – where they have come again, with final longing choral sigh to die. Singing for you to find their bones buried in cliff faces where they were flung and all the traces of you lost in them will come back to you, again; sirens serenading you to savour them as they pass. As they end on opposite coastal edges of our land. The continental rock of land we’ve found, in a quiet truth writ and etched deeply into our bones, is home. As they return and end - all the way around the world from where long ago your gladly dipped toe sent ripples and displaced waiting waters – flung by our careless touch beyond hesitation by thrash of limbs and torso. Start to end a long journey all the way around the world. They whisper in our ears again in a voice that rumbles low as the groaning tide as it sucks at salted riddled shores and rocks. Hungry it ripples in our ears and tells tales of dark suggestive things. passionate wantings we’ve denied and other querelous things: Mocking us before they die. Vile sirens briefly fall silent and cease. Leave us for a little while in peace. Until the dark dreams invade our mind with these fears and creeping; sneak up, seek to taunt us again. @bmamag
[Literature]
LITERATURE IN REVIEW WITH CARA LENNON I’d Die For You & Other Lost Stories F. Scott Fitzgerald [Scribner; 2017] It can pay to be wary of offerings that appear in a puff of posthumous magic, bearing adjectives like “lost” or “previously unpublished/ unreleased”. Often this material fell down the back of the sofa for a reason. Once the thrill of having an impossible new release from an artist that’s joined the choir invisible has worn off, it’s fairly obvious why the work was left unloved so long amongst the lint, crumbs and fingernails. There is, however, a class of creatives so revered that their most cringe-inducing failures hold fascination for those of us that get to view them in the context of a whole life’s work. F. Scott Fitzgerald of Great Gatsby fame is such a one. I’d Die For You... is a collection of unfinished drafts, movie pitches and short stories rejected or uncollected. The quality of the work is patchy and the book made more patchwork still by the mishmash of formats – single chapters of stories that weren’t developed, multiple drafts of the same story, plots for slapstick comedies that mercifully never made the screen. People looking to crack Fitzgerald’s short stories for the first time are probably better off tracking down a copy of Babylon Revisited or Flappers and Philosophers. But if you’ve already been sucked in by Fitzgerald’s trademark glitter over melancholy, worldending parties propped over a yawning abyss by unfinished people and vacuous love, I’d Die For You... is a welcome tug back into the vortex. And the kudos goes not to Fitzgerald but to editor Anne Margaret Daniel, who introduces each story with scene-setting information about
Fitzgerald’s turbulent career, complex relationships and state of mind. The stories might be half-finished but nestled amongst photos, excerpts from rejection letters and scribbled-on manuscript pages they become part of the larger narrative of Fitzgerald’s life. I’d Die For You reads as much like a biography as a collection of short stories. In it we see Fitzgerald grappling with Hollywood, the grim emotionally abusive spouse that he circled back to when money was tight. We see the gauntlet of doctors and mental health clinics he and Zelda Fitzgerald weathered reflected in fictional quacks and farcical rest homes. And we see Fitzgerald trying desperately to break free of the boy-meetsbeauty corner he wrote himself into during his early career. This results in a few truly odd stories that begin down the garden path of young love before an abrupt pivot into the lesser-known grove of burning school children and visceral torture. It’s a pretty sad story, all told. But fans of Fitzgerald are bound to be fans of the tragic, and here we have one more piece to the puzzle of a man who will forever be a little unfinished.
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☺ LY WARNING: SEXUALT. EN NT CO T ICI EXPL N READER DISCRETIO IS ADVISED.
POLITICALLY INCOHERENT WITH LOUANNE DANK
Politically Incoherent is our column all about parties, drugs, sex, general misconduct and counterculture. This month’s entry is Team Building Exercises: The Horizontal Mambo Edition.
Allow me to set the scene. Seizure-inducing strobe lights flashing. Feet rooted to the questionably sticky floor. A plume of distinctive scented fog is released into the sexually charged atmosphere. A 65-year-old man wearing a schoolgirl costume is getting jiggy in the corner. Tunes blasting. Eardrums bursting. The venue before you is Cube Nightclub. I’m sober as a high-functioning alcoholic priest. Sway to the left. Sway to the right. Shake those fertility goddess hips from side to side. As Doc Brown would say, it’s time for the weekly rhythmic ceremonial ritual. If you think about it, the clubbing scene is essentially the mating grounds for the human race. When the naughty water is consumed, people lose all inhibitions and sometimes become arseholes. Testosterone production seems to increase tenfold and the dick swinging and clit flicking games begin. It may be technically poisoning yourself, but I love to disengage from reality by getting thoroughly wankered into the next dimension and sometimes it can pave the way for intriguing tales of misconduct. My boy toy has a tendency for fanciful displays on the stripper poles. Upon entry, the shirt is banished from his bodice and off he goes to meander down the river of debauchery. I would classify this as a peacocking tactic, which is common amongst male folk. If only he had said “Grease me up, woman!” I could’ve amplified his pole performance with oil sourced from a teenager’s face like the innovative figure of Lunch Lady Doris. A slippery slide of human flesh. The fishing rod had been cast PAGE 52
and this performance piqued the interest of a cute li’l lady and a previous acquaintance no less. She could see that the pair of us were fraternising physically and teetered on the edge of making a move. We found ourselves in the bathroom together, also known as the designated bonding zone for women. The details are somewhat foggy, but banter took place and I convinced her to do the tri-tango. After some tonsil tennis, I led her back onto the dancefloor. A lamb to the slaughter, as the platitude goes. Following the induction session, she became sandwiched inbetween us as we undulated from side to side. Look at that, another cafeteria reference – I must be famished. The scene was reminiscent of three metal balls in a Newton’s cradle, gyrating against each other rhythmically and probably residing on Sigmund Freud’s desk as he attempted to ‘cure’ female hysteria with a power tool to the fanny features. Swing your partners round and round until limbs are scattered everywhere like the Metrojet Flight 9268 crash site circa 2016. Impossible to recognise, aside from our dental records. As a sidenote, it’s never okay to photograph or film people being intimate without their express permission. Anyone with a differing opinion is a
complete fuckwit who deserves to be launched into deep space to become the human equivalent of beef jerky. No, your planet doesn’t need you. Not that our display was very explicit, but revenge porn seems to be the flavour of the month in terms of the news bulletins. Bottom line is, don’t be a jackarse and you won’t lose your anal virginity in a prison environment. Unfortunately there’s no spray on hymen equivalent that can replace that. Three’s a crowd, right? So we ferried this third party home in a taxi, the driver being Charon as we traversed down the rippling bitumen reminiscent of the river Styx. There’s a canine companion who lives across the hallway from our apartment named Cheeseball. He can be the understudy for Cerberus, the dragon-tailed dog. It’s funny because he’s the most unthreatening soul in this galaxy. The three of us found ourselves in my abode and quickly shifted into my room. In these situations, I tend to put on my marshalling helmet and slip into the role of co-ordinator because no one really knows what the fuck is going on. There’s no way to put this delicately, but I fumbled around with my strap-on. Due to my level of intoxication, I found it difficult to adjust the harnesses but we got there in the end. All the while the other two were going at it in the background, copulating like Catholic rabbits. I stepped onto the scene, blue dildo winking in the lamp light and we essentially spit roasted the newcomer. If you don’t know what that is, I suggest you look it up on Urban Dictionary. Speaking of new terminology, we later found out that she identified sexually as a ‘little’, which basically entails a
submissive partner who roleplays as an age younger than they are. They like being called names such as ‘baby girl’ and ‘princess’. Upon reflection, she was acting somewhat childish. Throughout the entire performance, she was also offputtingly vocal to the point where I was stuffing socks in her mouth and my housemate was woken up by her screeching during the two-hour session. It was really quite comical. The morning after the hullabaloo, we formed a three-person spoon train. The etiquette surrounding this was really interesting to flesh out since the third person stayed the night. But how do you politely ask them to leave? I took the firm hand approach. She requested a morning session, but I could see the two of us were exhausted so I basically said, “You know, whenever you try to recreate an event it’s never as good as the first time.” Brutal truth nugget. Eventually when the morning began to drag on, I laid down the law (you betrayed the LOOOOOAAAW): “I’m gonna call it, it’s time for the team to break,” like it was some kind of sporting event. We all sluggishly returned to a state of dress and escorted her to the pick-up zone with a mere hug goodbye. It was very G rated considering the intimate relations we’d had a few hours prior. I’m not sure if the art of a threesome can ever truly be mastered, even with plentiful experience. The more needs you have to cater for the more draining it is, but it’s definitely something I personally endorse. Particularly if you’re a pairing so secure or even just comfortable in your arrangement that you want to explore the boundaries.
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SLOWDIVE SLOWDIVE [DEAD OCEANS]
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Picking up where dreamily ambient 1993 album Souvlaki left off, Slowdive get the wistful, psychedelic trip happening again on opening track ‘slomo’ that instantly brought me back to seeing Creation label mates Ride at the long gone Phoenician club in Sydney. A momentary glance at the girl languorously spinning in front of me was all it took to confirm she felt exactly the same as I did. The great thing about the indie shoegaze movement that Slowdive quickly became associated with was that it encouraged a counterculture vibe freed from the intense emotional heaviness emanating from US guitar bands then in the process of taking over the world. Shoegaze was initially described as music that was overly introspective but this wasn’t necessarily true as the music brought on a total immersive experience between band and audience regardless of individual sensitivities or substances consumed. Some of these bands (Ride, My Bloody Valentine) induced psychedelic happiness through maximum volume – a sound and colour synaesthesia that opened up the senses no matter the amount of romantic misery in the lyrics and with vocals often buried in the intoxicating mixes. Slowdive mostly kept away from sonic overload with the striking harmonic interplay of Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell’s vocals creating maximum impact instead. This continues on the new album from which a line of continuity can be traced to earlier work with the beatless abstractions on 1995 album Pygmalion as
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a notable exception. Lyrics integrate with the music to create a tender emotional expression. The words might float by but the vocal harmonies are beautifully blended and work their magic just as they did in the early days. On the aforementioned song ‘slomo’ all the good bits are in place to instantly transport listeners to an exciting and unique pre-Britpop music scene – chiming, meticulously produced instrumentation locking in with ethereal, melancholy tinged harmonies that conjure an otherworldly musical pleasure. An added dimension is the echo of dance music past better suited to the club ‘chillout’ space. The unhurried opening track takes me right there but all eight songs make for a satisfying trip. Second track ‘star roving’ ups the pace a tad with emotive atmospherics of the kind more suited to an evocative soundtrack to a semi-decent indie movie. With this in mind, the languid droplets of piano and voice on closing track ‘falling ashes’ would have found a welcoming home on the soundtrack to Lost in Translation. Ghostly traces of significant musical influences also appear such as The Cocteau Twins – who pretty much invented this kind of music – on ‘don’t know why’ that colour a pastel hued melody, also evoking Pink Floyd in their post Syd Barrett glacial phase. This music unfolds and envelops at a leisurely pace and once you are drawn in to the encompassing wholeness of the Slowdive soundworld you don’t want to leave as it’s so much nicer there. I soon figured out that vibrant tonal shifts as on fifth track ‘everyone knows’ would go well with some of that good stuff in the bedroom. Whereas the overtly erotic swoon found on My Bloody Valentine records better represents the post climax comedown, the peaking vapour trails saturating Slowdive’s music are more about prolonging the sensual act itself and we all know this is a good place to be. There is much to enjoy on this album and it would seem that, along with My Bloody Valentine and the recently reformed Ride, Slowdive are about to spearhead a shoegaze revival. Sometime before this new album hit the shelves I happened to wonder aloud in Landspeed Records that 90s indie music might be lost to younger people without the opportunity to hear about it. But I was quickly informed that perceptive music fans had been going in and asking about 90s bands, Slowdive in particular, for some time. This new album should therefore encourage those with a healthy curiosity to delve ever deeper.
ROYAL BLOOD HOW DID WE GET SO DARK? [IMPERIAL GALACTIC]
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Royal Blood’s highly anticipated sophomore effort is finally here … and it’s a bloody ripper. Hailing from Brighton in the UK, the duo released their first album, Royal Blood (2014), to widespread acclaim. Showing off groovy and chunky riffs, as well as bombastic drum beats, they have already been touted the saviours of rock ‘n’ roll. Upon listening to their sound, it is almost impossible to believe Royal Blood are made up of only bass guitar and drums, and How Did We Get So Dark? continues to amaze. The creative riffs and infectious melodies of their debut are far from lost, but they’re a little different. Royal Blood have refined their songwriting, learning to take their ideas further. Where there was once disarray, there is now chaos, where there was once movement, there is now stone cold groove. The first single from How Did We Get So Dark, ‘Lights Out’, is a thumping track that marches along with equal parts menace and temptation before opening up into an explosive chorus and funky breakdown. ‘Hook, Line & Sinker’ flies out of the speakers like a swarm of wasps hungry for some form of redemption. Swinging to-and-fro like a drunken elephant, the absolutely massive track sees vocalist, Mike Kerr, more seductive than ever. ‘Don’t Tell’ marries late night longing with a ferociousness accomplished only by Royal Blood. Royal Blood had a near impossible job on their hands with following up their debut album. Somehow, through some divine intervention, they’ve accomplished it and more. Through hard hitting riffs and an unmatched energy, Royal Blood are the evolution of hard rock. THOMAS SPILLANE
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EDITOR’S CHOICE LONDON GRAMMAR TRUTH IS A BEAUTIFUL THING [MINISTRY OF SOUND]
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KASABIAN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD [
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Leicester born and bred quartet Kasabian have been performing since 1997 and though their new album For Crying Out Loud is their sixth release, the band have lost none of their pumped up appeal. The album immediately received positive feedback from the public, jumping to the top of the UK charts within a week of release and receiving rave reviews all round.
Led, as previously, by the astonishing vocal power of singer Hannah Reid, this new album uses subtlety and staying power to create something crisply hymnal. It’s not so much a break from their distinctive sound as it is a burst of new colours, with more defined lines and deeper shades at every turn. The opening track, ‘Rooting For You’, is transcendent: the entire first half rests almost exclusively on Reid’s vocal prowess, and she moves through the difficult low notes at the beginning to a staggering high with velveteen ease.
Fans of Kasabian’s past work will see similarities between this album and older work such as Empire and Velociraptor! The lead vocals of Tom Meighan and Serge Pizzorno are always recognisable and their use of warped electric guitar and various synthesised sound effects is familiar territory. While these elements provide the album with a comforting and effective base, new elements and ideas crop up throughout various tracks giving it a fresh and developed sound. The use of whistling at the beginning of ‘Sixteen Blocks’ is a welcome addition and the subtle use of brass at the end of ‘Are You Looking for Action?’ is a nice little surprise for anyone listening carefully enough to hear it.
INDIGO TRAIL
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[OWSLA]
[SONY]
The sophomore album from English band London Grammar, Truth is a Beautiful Thing, has been a long time coming. Their first new music since 2013’s If I Wait, this album is fresher, retaining the same languorous, melancholic sound while infusing these dreamy synth beats with something newly mesmerising. It feels in every way like a triumphant emergence from hibernation.
“Where did she go? / Truth left us long ago,” Reid sings mournfully, asking the album’s central question. Though permeated with much the same distinctive gloom – not a bad thing when it’s this well-crafted – this album’s anger and anxiety seems to have its roots in something deeper than a breakup. Now, newfound maturity in hand, London Grammar are using relationship breakdowns not as inspiration, but as groundwork, building on those emotions until they reach soaring heights. Middle tracks ‘Bones of Ribbon’ and ‘Who Am I’ especially seem to utilise a more focused brand of wrath, one that seems distinctly political, setting the belly of the record aflame. It burns right up until the eponymous closing track, which only proves the album’s thesis: this truth London Grammar have found, flexed and refined is absolutely a beautiful thing.
HUNDRED WATERS CURRENCY
While some may say For Crying Out Loud is nothing new and the band are merely producing more of what they’re comfortable with, for those more faithful fans it can be seen as the next logical step in Kasabian’s progression as a group. The album adheres to elements and sounds that already work while subtly bringing in some more mature and experimental devices. Tracks like ‘Wasted’ and ‘The Party Never Ends’ give a nice sombre touch while the album maintains the energetic and drug-fuelled vibe the band relish in. If you’re keen to hear some cheeky, boppy and all-round dandy English alternative-rock then make this album your next purchase; you will not be disappointed. CLARE BRUNSDON
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Currency came first as a surprise, and then as a slight disappointment. This American ‘digital folk’ band released the EP ahead of their third album in order to incite excitement. Instead, Currency abandons originality to appeal to a more party-centred vibe. It’s been three years since Hundred Waters released their second studio album, The Moon Rang Like A Bell. Unfortunately, Currency shines less brightly, too often falling prey to easy composition. Having since signed with Skrillex’s label, there has been a tangible shift in the band’s sound; whilst sound should continually evolve, there is something bland about Hundred Waters’ shift towards more generic electro-pop. The subtlety and understated genius of their sound has been compromised, but lyrically the band remains sharp and consistently elusive enough to garner intrigue: “Softer now, your touch, think I’m losing my mind and doubting conversation.” There is a pleasing juxtaposition between the lyrical content and the fast production of sound. Of the five tracks on the EP, ‘Everywhere’ is the softest and most cleverly structured, paced similarly to their previous two albums. Here, the band avoids over-gratuitous synthesisers and drum machine-generated beats which are rampant in their other pieces. Summer is approaching in the Northern Hemisphere and the subsequent festival season is looming on the horizon. Currency successfully provides hype around an upcoming album that will no doubt blend without a fuss into the background with the rest of the season. For what it is, the EP is fine. What is disappointing is the knowledge that Hundred Waters can do so much better. KASHMIRA MOHAMED ZAGOR
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[ALBUM REVIEWS]
ÁSGEIR AFTERGLOW [POD / INERTIA]
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JENN GRANT PARADISE
[STAR HOUSE COLLECTIVE]
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Sometimes you hear a song or an album playing in a café and think: “This is interesting, I want to hear more.” Such is the case with Ásgeir’s newest release, Afterglow. The 24-year-old Icelandic singer seems to have grown in confidence since his last album, In the Silence (2014); tonally and lyrically, the album feels fuller and definitively more personal than anything he has produced before. The quivering cadences in his vocals can be likened to Bon Iver’s, whilst the electronic undertone echoes fellow European, James Blake. That being said, Ásgeir is still distinguishable amongst the crowd; the album displays a modesty that is hard to come by in an often commercial music industry. It is this modesty that makes the album so likeable, as only a couple tracks fall prey to a more conventional format. Ásgeir is earnest in his compositions; ‘Unbound’ is rhythmically upbeat and unique, whilst ‘Dreaming’ is smooth and understated as he sings: “Leaving all I know behind, now I know I’m dreaming.” On ‘Nothing’, he is gentle, melancholic and touching. The shortest track on an ambitiously long album, this track is the most powerful. Afterglow is a diverse record; each song manages to be surprising and refreshing. By using multiple instruments – guitar, strings, piano – he creates distinct tonal variants. Alternating pace makes song differentiation easy. Little feels stale or overdone. However, at times, Ásgeir seemingly panders lyrically and musically to a more mainstream audience, rather than expressing genuine sentiments. There is something disappointing about this lapse of authenticity, breaking the overall spell of his ambient venture. Afterglow could just fly under the radar of a less attentive listener. For those with a little patience and curiosity, this is a tender album, with lots to give if allowed the time to do so.
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Followers of Canadian folk-pop artist Jenn Grant will be surprised and maybe a bit dismayed by her latest release, unless they are prepared to embrace Grant’s music in another form. While the 2014 LP Compostela was firmly in the folk-pop camp, the new album, captured in a studio by Lake Echo in Nova Scotia (a very appropriate location given the vibe in the disk), is indie pop with a heavy use of synths and drum programming. The folk/alt-country irest is not totally absent, but it is well hidden and soul influences feature more keenly. A lot of studio manipulation is apparent, with clever work by producer Daniel Ledwell using effects and inventive song arrangements to give some tracks an unusual character. Grant’s voice has taken on a range of new tonal textures, which give it great presence and allure. Little twists in delivery can add so much to a song. The unusual bridge in the opening title track, comprising accelerated vocals, makes a standout track even more tempting. Single ‘Galaxies’ comes in with a chunky stop-start rhythm, which segues into a streamlined chorus. Little vocal hooks build appeal and the effects employed on Grant’s vocals make words run together with a fluid quality. The acoustic led ‘Lion With Me’ possesses the strongest folk vibe, spinning a shiny web of slightly echo-affected vocals. While there is a highly electro feel to the LP, subtle clarinet hooks appear in ‘I Am a River’ and a swirling saxophone closes the last track. ‘Rocket’ launches bright parabolas of lyrics, enhanced by vocal overlaps, into a dark space. Paradise represents a new and possibly brave change in sound for the Canadian songbird. RORY MCCARTNEY
ALEX THE ASTRONAUT TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN [MINKOWSKI RECORDS]
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Doing uni studies, in the heavy realms of mathematics and science, while undertaking a US-based soccer scholarship and making your own music is a challenging mix. However, it is business as usual for Sydney’s Alexandra Lynn, a.k.a. Alex the Astronaut. She makes indie pop with a light electro edge about topics that deliberately avoid the more commonplace song writing fodder. To Whom It May Concern, her debut EP, has a homemade touch in its production, with countdowns to song starts and, in one track, the odd little sounds you might get at the end of a recording tape, included for the listener’s benefit. Alex’s voice captures some of the brightness of Missy Higgins, with the wispy quality of Lisa Mitchell. However, the actual song content, filled with observations about everyday life, is closer to Courtney Barnett in its quirky approach. Possessing a mind in overdrive, her words spill out at a frantic pace; she has so much to say. Opener ‘Already Home’ lists the little annoyances that appear as speed bumps in life. The song skips along with a simple rhythm, decorated with rippling heatwave keys and a catchy chorus. The bubbly ‘Rockstar City’ is a more complex construction, complete with its pinprick piano and whipcrack hooks. ‘Holes in the Story’ carries more effects, with slightly fuzzed vocals, strings and funny little squeaks and taps. Closer ‘I Believe in Music’ could be the artist’s personal manifesto. Using a minimalist acoustic approach, it is delivered in a style that is half a song, half a chat, including some very personal touches abut sickness in her family. Alex the Astronaut’s debut offering is fresh and fun, with a welcome squirt of eccentricity. RORY MCCARTNEY
KASHMIRA MOHAMED ZAGOR PAGE 56
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ALBUM IN
FOCUS
So the album. On one hand, it’s album nine. You know what Frenzal do. Short, sharp, melodic blasts of Australian melodic punk rock. Song titles like ‘Don’t Cast Aspergers On Me’, ‘I’m Shelving Stacks (As I’m Stacking Shelves)’ or ‘Storage Unit Pill Press’ are not benchmarks in highbrow political song writing statements like say Propagandhi, whom also have recorded at the same studio on many occasions.
PETE MURRAY CAMACHO [SONY]
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Pete Murray’s sixth long player Camacho, sees a new direction for the singer-songwriter, best known for songs such as ‘Opportunity’ and ‘So Beautiful’. There was a five-year gap between the new LP and Murray’s last release Blue Sky Blue, as the artist was keen to create something quite different from his previous material. Murray’s largely selfproduced record saw him collaborate with hip hop producers ‘One Above’ and ‘Trials’ to introduce programmed beats which replaced conventional drums on half the tracks. Murray also experimented with loops more than ever before. His new style is immediately evident in opener ‘Only One’. The groove runs strongly, with prominent beats, shadowy vocals and a touch of reverb in the guitars. Tripping out keys add a special touch. ‘Sold’, which positively glows with its catchy tune and warm vocals, sees an acoustic element which is rare in this CD. ‘Heartbeats’ captures the big choruses which Murray sees as a key feature in this record while ‘Give Me Your Love’, one of the most gentle tracks on the CD, runs smoothly on well-oiled synths, with trumpet highlights to add sparkle. A lot of thought went into arrangements, weaving complex components to achieve a great result in songs such as the standout title track. ‘Camacho’ has a blues skeleton, fleshed out with softly delivered lyrics, the warm hum of heritage keys, a subtle sax grunt, electronic sparkles which blossom and rapidly fade, and sudden angry guitar snarls. The western twang at the start of ‘Long Ride’ is swiftly overtaken by programmed beats, vocal overlaps and a clever, intertwined guitar melody. Combined with Murray’s seductive singing, the new approach has achieved a sound that is very smooth, with a greater depth to the music. RORY MCCARTNEY
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The effort in getting back into playing shape, getting some shows in and getting back to Fort Collins gives the album an air of triumph and comes through in the whole band’s energy on the recorded performances. Gordy tracked 23 songs in only 7 hours. That is a phenomenal achievement.
It’s not meant to be.
FRENZAL RHOMB HI-VIS HIGH TEA [FAT WRECK RECORDS]
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Album number nine for Frenzal Rhomb comes six years after the band last visited the punk rock holy ground of The Blasting Room studios in Fort Collins CA, USA with the indomitable Bill Stevenson at the desk. The same personnel and location were chosen for Hi-Vis High Tea, but it was planned a lot sooner. In true Frenzal fashion, even the significant challenges they faced in bringing the 20 songs on offer here came with the comedic stylings that have been infused in their DNA since the beginning in the early 90s. Jay Walley’s infamous exposure to a pigworm larvae makes an appearance in song at track 13, but the bigger impact on this production came off the back of drummer Gordy Foreman attempting to teach a punter how to stage dive in Western Australia, only weeks before the band were due to record in Autumn 2015. The social media shared of Gordy lying on stage with a morphine whistle and an extra elbow halfway up his left arm, the YouTube footage of Jay’s deadpan warning and commentary on the breakage don’t document just how hard the next year would be on one of Australia’s premiere drummers.
What it is, is infectiously catchy, expertly delivered and wit so dry as to think you’re eating Weet-Bix sans milk. Gordy’s work is top draw, but for me the MVP on the record is Tom Crease, who absolutely shreds dynamic basslines around Lindsay McDougall’s energetic guitar performance. Tom also supplies a broad melodic foundation to the vocal lines, and gives added melodic emphasis to Jay’s lyrics and lines. The production is an improvement on Smoko for me, the guitars dialling back the gain a little and sounding fuller as a result. It’s a fantastic, fun 35 minutes that should see them losing their sixth ARIA award for having too much fun, thereby confusing the award givers who are going to have to nominate it for its quality, but unable to appreciate that they’re more likely the targets of Jay’s ire in the verses of ‘School Reunion’. I’d give it an ARIA for the song ‘Ray Ahn Is My Spirit Animal’ alone, but, that sort recognition is thoroughly unnecessary. Album number ten will roll around in shorter order than it took for number nine, it will also be hilarious, and played by a band that has a seriously good time being silly. Killer. JOSH NIXON
In short, it was really tough. Hours upon hours of physio and rebuilding strength in the arm that had at least 12 pins in it and a scar from elbow to shoulder that you can see from the x-rays was about as serious as it gets.
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VARIOUS ARTISTS SINGLES – DELUXE EDITION [EPIC / SONY]
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Here we can re-live the 1990s alternative music scene when intense post-punk bands released albums that went straight to the top of the charts and everyone was walking around in flannel shirts and doc marten boots, including supermodels on the catwalks of Milan and Paris. For a while the US Pacific Northwest became the cultural centre of the universe and Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was the anthem for an entire generation of kids who were disenchanted with the prevailing social order. But the kinda absurd ‘grunge’ hype was always destined to be short lived as MTV and the record companies began searching for something more palatable. The prevailing Seattle underground bands understood this, so it comes as no surprise to hear Mudhoney Mark Arm’s overt cynicism on the opening words to ‘Overblown’ – “Everybody loves us/ everybody loves our town/that’s why I’m thinking lately/the time for leaving is now.” This little nugget of disillusioned sincerity arrives at midpoint on the Singles soundtrack. The movie is a somewhat forgettable romantic comedy from 1992, directed by Cameron Crowe, whose main selling point was that it happened to be set in Seattle – for a time the most talked about city in the world – and featured cameo appearances from key artists such as Alice in Chains, Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell and members of Pearl Jam. But the soundtrack is outstanding and the music on it has long outlived the catwalk supermodels in their designer ripped jeans and ‘boutique’ flannies. PAGE 58
Alice in Chains kick off proceedings in full rage mode with ‘Would?’, also the final track on harrowing 1992 album Dirt, a minor masterpiece that documented the misery of addiction with some of the heaviest music from the Seattle scene. They appear here alongside major players including Pearl Jam, the short-lived Mother Love Bone and Soundgarden who turn in the highly charged ‘Birth Ritual’, exclusive to the soundtrack. Chris Cornell also appears as a solo artist, contributing the evocative acoustic ballad ‘Seasons’. A major standout is ‘Nearly Lost You’ from The Screaming Trees. This song was lifted from the band’s biggest selling album Sweet Oblivion that also happened to be the finest document from the grunge era as its ragged vibe, hard rock leanings and raw emotional expression beautifully encapsulated what this particular period of American alternative music was all about. Mark Lanegan’s vocals are world weary and vulnerable, but also powerful – defiance in the face of adversity. Although the Sub Pop label initially promoted grunge as the entry point to an exclusive subculture, it didn’t take long for most of the bands on this soundtrack to sign with major labels and also reveal classic rock influences that might have made the indie rock fan club squirm a bit. With this in mind, Paul Westerberg’s upbeat power-pop does initially sit somewhat awkwardly next to heavyweights like Alice in Chains but Westerberg’s former band The Replacements is a significant link for combining infectious melodies with unclean guitars – a familiar trait in the music underground. The appearance of Jimi Hendrix also makes sense as a tribute to a former Seattle native and the inclusion of ‘May This Be Love’ from the sensational 1967 album Are You Experienced recalls an earlier era when unfamiliar sounds had also raced up the charts. The soundtrack closes on a high with the eight minute ‘Drown’ from Smashing Pumpkins (not grunge and not from Seattle). The band goes all out with a quiet to loud dynamic and the extended psychedelic coda is almost worth the price of admission alone. The bonus material is not quite revelatory but a few tracks are keepers, in particular previously unreleased Chris Cornell demos including a creepy minimalist blues titled ‘Nowhere but You’. It is, however, the original album that listeners will keep returning to, now in flash remastered form and the many fantastic songs from that era will endure.
TIM ROGERS AN ACTOR REPAIRS [FOURIFOUR, ABC MUSIC]
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Best known as the exuberant frontman of rockers You Am I, Tim Rogers has undertaken a wide variety of projects with other bands, solo releases and other artistic media. His latest effort is a concept album, based on the musings of an actor looking back over his long, but fading career. Like a play, it was useful to understand the plot (provided by the PR blurb) before listening, to be able to interpret the song meanings intended by Rogers. In a style best described as ‘adult contemporary’, songs unroll the actor’s musings from when he was first smitten by the stage (in ‘The Bug’), through various reflections on his career, through to his still having hopes for the future (in ‘The Possibilities’) and showing a distinct reluctance to give it all up (‘Cars and Girls’). A keen observer of human behaviour, Rogers loves words, and lyrics pour forth in rapid steams of thought. He is not one to use clichéd, commonplace wordage. There is a nice touch of Australiana in ‘The Umpire’s Son’, with the references to sausage rolls and Old Fitzroy. Some tracks are complex works, including the opener with its random single plucks, electronic wails, a dash of scruffy percussion and the female vocal hooks that exude the soft glow of the footlights. Ever the storyteller, there is a confiding, sharing vibe to the conversational style of the sleepy blues track ‘Time to be Lonely’. Disk highlights include the bouncy ‘Round the Bend’, with its ragged, wriggling sax, the male/female duet of ‘One More Late Night Phone Conversation’ and the nostalgic tide of ‘Forgiveness’. Overall, you cannot appreciate all the details and musical nuances in just one listen, as there is a complete meal in every song. RORY MCCARTNEY
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ANGELO BADALAMENTI SOUNDTRACK FROM TWIN PEAKS [WARNER BROS.]
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Menace and beauty intersect on a tightrope of ecstatic fear in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. The 1990 TV series was both a harrowing tragedy of abuse, fractured through dreams and an absurdist small town surveyance. Twin Peaks blurred lines between spirituality and humanity in a grand cryptic screw-you to narrative and atmospheric norms. The show dominated particularly in an understanding of mood, and composer Angelo Badalamenti is its master interpreter, able to engage both sombre and terrifying ambiance alongside the incongruous, buzzing saxophone of the subconscious. Be it nightmarish hums, the ethereal pop of vocalist Julee Cruise, or propulsive bizarro jazz, the collection has an otherworldly aesthetic. It incorporates a distant reverence of the 1950’s into something that still manages to sound different today, despite being nearly thirty years old. Most lovable of all is the instantly recognisable titular theme tune, both gorgeous and comforting, and perhaps the most original ever written for TV. Badalamenti pushes his electric keyboard to extraordinary depths in ‘Laura Palmer’s Theme’, an exemplary Lynchian manipulation of mood. It wallows in funereal despondency, reaching a climax of naive optimism and beauty only to collapse back into morbidity and despair quickly afterward. ‘Nightlife in Twin Peaks’ is an underappreciated slice of brooding and animalistic free jazz. Its pastiche of blaring sax over a hefty string drone evokes the macabre feeling of the imaginary town’s psychosis. As Twin Peaks has already begun to flicker across our screens again, Badalamenti returns to reprise old themes amongst new, and if they’re anything like this, they will be both wonderful and strange. JOSHUA MARTIN
CABLES TIES CABLE TIES
[POISON CITY RECORDS]
[
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Australia continues to churn out meaningful, no-nonsense and hard-hitting post-punk with the release of Cable Ties’ self-titled debut. This is an album that sits comfortably next to other canonical Aussie punk releases like labelmates Camp Cope’s 2016 debut, Royal Headache’s High and Bad//Dreems’ Gutful. Cable Ties distinguish themselves from those bands with ease however, leaning on their own politically and socially charged rage to punch out messages against “creeps, capitalist propaganda and music industry tastemakers”. Jenny McKechnie’s ferocious voice rivals that of our own Glitoris, especially on opener ‘The Producer’. Fed up with all-male line-ups and sexist labelheads, the band’s experience in the music industry is highlighted as McKechnie pushes herself to the front and sings the catchy refrain, “you gotta make it, make it on your own”. Sharp guitar riffs, boiling bass undercurrents and immense drumming make this an ideal song for crawling into Cable Ties’ headspace. The most striking track is unarguably ‘Say What You Mean’. On this intense, six-minute gut puncher, McKechnie stops listeners dead in their tracks as she monologues and takes aim at the cracks tearing up our capitalist society, throwing the disadvantaged down into helpless depths. There’s a blinding force behind the words she shouts with unparalleled fury, “I am not a production unit, I am a human being,” it sends shivers down my spine on every listen. Carried along by Brown’s rolling bass and Boyle’s powerful drums, this is a killer track – perfectly representative of the confusing political times we find ourselves in. While those are the most notable songs, the rest of Cable Ties’ debut is similarly hardened and aggressively down to earth. This will be an exciting band to watch going forward.
PERFUME GENIUS NO SHAPE [MATADOR RECORDS]
[
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One of the main beliefs of Hindu philosophy is that there is an inner-self; something that makes you essentially ‘you’ over time. This is a rather comforting thought, and one that wistfully rings throughout Matt Hadreas’, a.k.a. Perfume Genius’s assertion of identity on his fourth record No Shape. Hadreas is following the explosive success of his 2014 release Too Bright, with a dazzling display of glam pop and immense personality. He carries a musical aesthetic that does not steal from Bowie or Prince, but pays due tribute by developing his own stylistic ingenuity and brand of queer pride and charm. No Shape’s two sides are roughly distinct, the first being a paroxysm of acceptance and perfumed optimism (intentionality of pun ambiguous). The second is conversely a naked exploration of spirituality, and connectedness, culminating in an intimate dedication to his partner, ‘Alan’, who is omnipresent throughout the record. Hadreas sings from a position of strength and confidence, as even if he hasn’t closed the door on the questions he ruminates upon, he refuses to let them beat him. Much credit must go to Blake Mills’ production of the LP, which allows its music to ascend to heavenly heights. Little doubt can hold up to lead single ‘Slip Away’, with its pulsing catharsis of colossal sound and spine-tingling power. Its rapturous chorus of “They’ll never break the shape we take,” in conjunction with the transcendental aspirations of ‘Wreath’ focus on the idea of body and gender as semantic shackles upon relationships and dreams. Perfume Genius has painted a viscerally beautiful glam portrait of devotional love and spirituality, one that pounds you in the chest to leave you yearning. JOSHUA MARTIN
ANDREW NARDI facebook.com/bmamagazine
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[ALBUM REVIEWS]
LOCAL MUSIC AT THE DRIVE-IN IN•TER A•LI•A
[RISE RECORDS / COOKING VINYL]
[
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The former heroes of post-hardcore revival At the Drive-In have returned after 17 years with an atrocity of alt-rock blandness littered with insipid emo vocal tropes. This is a far cry from the group’s 2000 release Relationship of Command, which shattered the crass rapmetal paradigm that guitar music occupied, erupting with savage emotion and lyrical esoterica. It was an unforgettable flash in the pan, and in•ter a•li•a is an attempt to rediscover the magic. Unfortunately, this record is the product of studio sanitisation and middle-aged conceit. The production is sickeningly crisp, where Bixler-Zavala’s vocal inflections often avoid ATDI’s trademark rhythmic shouting in favour of the melodic yelp found in The Mars Volta. Songs like ‘Pendulum in a Peasant Dress’ skirt miserable pop punk, and it almost seems as if Rodriguez-Lopez is aware of this, sporadically inserting discordant guitar interludes as if to assure you they aren’t losing their edge. Bixler-Zavala has not matured lyrically either, providing a poor impression of his former psychobabble. The worst offender, ‘Hostage Stamps’ proves Bixler-Zavala could beat you in any game of Boggle, spluttering “The anachronism enacts the indigenous / Prolonged exposure to combustible nativism”. Previously BixlerZavala’s paranoid balderdash had an ominous mystique set to Rodriguez Lopez’s avantcacophony, but as the group now resembles a Fall Out Boy reunion from 2035, it’s unfortunately laughable. Time has stood still for At The Drive-In, letting stylistic progression pass them by in a glitzy pastiche of their most immature songwriting tendencies.
JP PART 2
[INDEPENDENT RELEASE]
[
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Not content with his involvement with various bands, Melbourne drummer-turnedsongwriter jp (known to his family as John Milton) made his solo debut with the 2015 EP Part 1. Now he is back with a further EP, produced by Prasheen Narran (Karnivool, Dead Letter Circus and Illy). Jp played most of the instruments himself and drew on some brass support from the Moreland City Band. Track numbers begin at ‘v’, indicating jp sees the EP as a strict continuation of his debut, and the style and tone carry on the puckish and imaginative vibe which prevailed in Part 1. Jp’s style is indie pop with a folk influence and comparisons can be drawn with the idiosyncratic, wistful songs of Canberra’s own Pocket Fox. A siren’s wail helps build the sense of alarm in opener ‘I Need to Breathe’ about relationship pressures varying from panic about commitment to the fear that the relationship is doomed. A hint of reggae in the rhythm precedes vocals whose high-toned pitch gives them a curiously androgynous feel. Medical monitor-like beeps intrude and the track ends with the consistent beep you get when the patient has flatlined. The confusion over jp’s vocals disappears in the male/female interplay in ‘All This Time’ about the eternal element of jealousy. Quirky elements include the phone message delivery of Scarlet Daly’s vocals and snoring effects. Highlight ‘Goodbye’ uses a catchy acoustic melody, with a trumpet sounding the final salute to a fading love, and ‘Eleanor’ has a long, eccentric intro with vocal clip-clop sounds and a tinkling piano. More clever touches are appreciated with repeated listens to jp’s monument to romantic disaster. RORY MCCARTNEY
UNDERMINES TENZEROEIGHT
[INDEPENDENT RELEASE]
[
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Local band Undermines formed in 2015 and honed their craft for a couple of years before launching their debut LP TenZeroEight. There are some interesting pedigrees in band members, with guitarists Dylan Webster and Jason Sharples having previously collaborated in The Fools. Recorded locally at Infidel Studios in Queanbeyan, the music is garage rock with a fondness for the ‘70s, with all the rawness and vitality that era espoused. The Undermines are a simple guitar, bass and drums combo, with a little guest appearance of the Hammond organ, used subtly. When tasting wine, you look for various scents. Applying this technique to the Undermines’ album, spicy aromas of Hoodoo Gurus can be detected, with a taste of The Sunnyboys in the palate. Unadorned by any effects, the music is honest and forceful, with most tracks being fast movers, overloaded with energy. Opener ‘Get Down (or Lay Down)’ builds momentum with rolling drums and churning guitars, with lyrics delivered belligerently with the half sung, half yelled style favoured by vocalist Michael Preiss. In ‘Self Sabotage’ bright guitar licks flash by like white lines on the road, before the song comes to a screaming stop, with no time or patience for any fade out. ‘Hard Time’ from whose lyrics the CD title is drawn, contains a slow passage with a low, bot boiler bass burble, before arcing up again to the band’s usual frantic pace. ‘Ghost’ comes with a choppy tune and vocal hooks which provide the atmosphere appropriate to the track title. Disk highlights come in ‘Girt’ with its drawling, in your face declaration of desire, and ‘Caged and Broken’ with its irestarter licks and aggressive rhythm. RORY MCCARTNEY
JOSHUA MARTIN
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SINGLES IN
FOCUS WITH CODY ATKINSON
THE NEWSLETTERS ‘TUESDAY’ [
THOMAS WYNN AND THE BELIEVERS WADE WAIST DEEP [MASCOT RECORDS]
[
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How do you get to be voted both best rock band and best country/folk band in one city? Such diversity requires an eclectic repertoire, and Thomas Wynn and the Believers achieved both titles in their hometown of Orlando, Florida. Frontman Thomas and his sister Olivia (who provides the other half of the male/ female combo which is an essential part of the band’s sound) came from a church music background. This has been carried forward into the gospel feel of some tracks, and also into the essence of hope and belief behind track themes. There is no frivolity here, with some lyrics asking deep questions about life. The album is more rock than country, with the best songs being hard hitters, constructed around wailing guitars and a surging Hammond organ. The opener ‘Man Out of Time’ leaps directly into the band’s heavier side, striking through with Olivia Wynn’s vocal assault and the sledgehammer beat that drives through it. Nods to other genres come in the alt-country title track, the soulful ‘My Eyes Won’t Be Open’ and the blues-gospel powerhouse ‘I Don’t Regret’. The song follows a favoured format of the band, starting softly before coming on strong with a burst of emotion and sound (Joe Cocker style). Notable tracks fall into the second half of the disk, beginning with the super hip-grinding ‘You Can’t Hurt Me’, with its abrasive guitars, vocal overload and keys punching through space. ‘Mountain Fog’ starts off acoustic, building in force as it travels with chant-like vocals and lacerating guitars. Psychedelica paints a purple path in ‘Burn As One’ while the LP wraps up impressively with the ‘70s prog rock flavoured ‘Turn It Into Gold’. RORY MCCARTNEY
DAN AUERBACH WAITING ON A SONG [EASY EYE SOUND]
[
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Dan Auerbach has become one of modern music’s most prolific songwriters for over a decade. First gaining recognition as frontman and guitarist for blues-rock duo, The Black Keys, Auerbach has since had a hand in shaping many modern bands through producing and playing. A man with timeless tastes, Auerbach’s signature style is renowned for taking influences from the blues, and popular music of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and giving them a modern spin. Waiting On A Song is Auerbach’s second solo effort and sees a stylistic change from his solo debut. Where Keep It Hid (2009) was heavily influenced by rootsy-folk vibes and stomping blues, Waiting On A Song channels Nashville country-rock sensibilities and ‘70s soul. Each track is beautiful in their simplicity yet expertly crafted. Auerbach uses acoustic and electric guitars interchangeably with horn sections, string sections and a variety of percussion, all as different colours used to paint a picture. The title track, and first single from the record, sets a Nashville-inspired scene for the entire record, drawing comparisons to Creedence Clearwater Revival. The tasty twang of Auerbach’s guitar lines continues further into the album on ‘Stand By My Girl’ and standout track, ‘Cherrybomb’. Other cuts, such as ‘Shine On Me’, rely on perfectly constructed harmonies reminiscent of The Beatles, while ‘Malibu Man’ features an organ and string section lifted straight from a blaxploitation soundtrack. More focused than his last solo effort, Waiting On A Song shows just how versatile Auerbach is as a songwriter. The Black Keys’ frontman has constructed a nostalgic record that sounds equal parts modern as it does timeless.
]
Fronted by Conor Hutchison (ex-Cat Cat), The Newsletters have been building towards something like this for a while. ‘Tuesday’ combines elements of classic guitar pop with bits of crunching indie rock, but does it in a way that makes it seem cohesive. The track nods at the Postcard Records scene of the past, but still sounds of the here and now.
DEPUTY CHIEF WARDEN ‘INVITED TO PARTIES’ [
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Occasionally a new face hits the scene and produces something really unexpected, but really good. At just 15 years old, Deptuy Chief Warden has put out the best, scuzzy garage rock track I’ve heard this year, out of practically nowhere. ‘Invited To Parties’ kicks arse, takes names and sets DCW up for the long haul.
BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE ‘SKYLINE’ [
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The “it” Canadian indie rock supergroup, for those unacquainted, Broken Social Scene has always been built around big rock hooks, occasional experimentation and euphoric choruses, expanding and contracting at the speed of sound. Although they’ve had half a dozen years off, ‘Skyline’ shows that they’ve lost little momentum along the way, with a radio ready slice of goodness on the way.
DJ KHALED ‘I’M THE ONE’ [
]
DJ Khaled is an #Instagram #Influencer who parleyed a radio gig into a near constant string of guest spots and featuring gigs. He also live-insta’d the birth of his own child. I am unsure what he actually does though, other than be active on social media. I mean four people guest on the vocals, and nine people wrote this. And it still is really, really, really, really, really boring and long.
THOMAS SPILLANE
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PAGE 61
?
Questioning Dancing
with Cody Atkinson
I’ve been looking into a new hobby and I’ve heard about this new trend that all the kids seem to be doing. Until now I’ve just quietly nodded my head in the shadowy corner of the room sort-of-near the beat hoping no-one would notice me. But maybe I’m ready for the big time. Maybe I’m ready to bust a move? Maybe I can, you know, move? But where do I start? Arms? Legs? Torso? Eyebrows? Do I need to watch Footloose, or perhaps another Kevin Bacon movie? Hey editor, does Apollo 13 or Mystic River have any dancing? Surely dancing in zero gravity would be easier, right? Who KNOWS? Maybe Cody Atkinson, but probably not hey, he has no rhythm whatsoever. So what is dancing? Ah come on. Really? (checks an unblemished set of encyclopaedias because that’s where the budget for this column goes, like all of it, on old Funk and Wagnalls reference material, including Encarta). Apparently, dancing is to move your feet, body or both rhythmically in a pattern often to music. That’s dancing? Yeah, give or take, moving your body to music. Without having lecherous masses jeer at you from the sidelines. Wait, isn’t that what Dancing With The Stars is? Nah, that’s a piece of shit, a waste of time for almost everyone involved that added nothing to the cultural framework of the nation except to humanise unnamed right wing politicians and prepare their return to the public spotlight. Which isn’t a great result, to be fair. Oh, sorry, my fault. No problems. Dancing isn’t always a good thing. I guess. Like when? Oh, after say a trillion pints dancing is probably a bad idea. Or before a trillion pints. Not much of a dancer are you? I mean occasionally the vibe might strike, if the music fits the mood and I am well out of sight of cameras or recording devices. Then maybe. But probably not hey, because it’s hard to be pretentious and let go at the same time… PAGE 62
So what do most people like to dance to? Music mostly. Duh. Different studies over the past 30 years have shown that people can move to grooves anywhere between 94 and 176 beats per minute (bpm), however most prefer tempos in the 100 to 130 beats per minute range. That’s about two beats per second, give or take a few milliseconds here or there. But beyond that it’s a bit different strokes for different folks. How so? Well it turns out that the taller you are, the slower your preferred dancing tempo will be. A pair of academic studies in the USA and Germany put a drum machine set to a variable tempo, and asked a variety of participants to set it to the tempo they would dance to. The study showed that the best predictors for a person’s favourite tempo was leg length and overall height, although the effect wasn’t huge. Well why is there always a tall dude like right in front of me at the hardcore show? Beats me. Maybe they are three kids stacked up on each other’s shoulders? They do that these days, with an overcoat and the like. BACK IN MY DAY KIDS JUST USED TO USE FAKE IDS AND SNEAK IN THROUGH BACK DOORS TO GET INTO VEUNES… Yeah maybe… And it turns out age may also be a factor, although some of the
research is slightly conflicting. It is generally believed that over time a person’s preferred tempo for dancing slllllloooowwwwwssss ddddooowwwwnnn. Ah, that’s why I always get stuck behind old people on the dancefloor… And they refuse to get over to the slow part of the dance floor. How can I overtake if there’s people everywhere on it, constantly moving? It’s all the boomers fault anyway. (Eats avo smash, complains about house prices, pretends to read hardcopy newspaper while scrolling the BMA Facebook page.) Well what about the beat itself? Is there a preferred type of beat that encourages “the boogie”? Yes! Kind of. Maybe. Researchers from Oxford and Aarhus found that people preferred drum breaks that weren’t too complex or too simple – the ‘Goldilocks’ zone of beats. Most people, in an absolutely shock finding that wasn’t a waste of anyone’s time and money at all, find it quite hard to dance to improvisational jazz type drum breaks, due to its complex and unpredictable nature. Just when people think they’ve found the beat, it really isn’t the beat and it turns out they look a bit stupid. But how about really simple beats? Isn’t that what modern dance pop is built on?
rhyme. If it’s too simple, people won’t even bother to remember it. For example the study cites ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ as a song that people struggle to dance to, which is why democracy is flawed because that shit is a CERTIFIED BANGER!!! Well, is there a greater point to dancing? A greater point? Like, greater than enjoying the human experience a little more and being able to get through each day as it comes? Yeah? Well, a study in Seattle demonstrated that experience in hip hop dance can lead to better sociocognitive skills in certain areas, which may lead to supplement teaching in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields of study. Which are words that I’d never thought I’d read, let alone type. You and me both. But more importantly, dance and the expression of movement has been passed down through time through various different cultures and geographic regions, often providing ties to an overarching identity. Dancing is more than just cutting loose at Cube or Moose after 3am; it’s often a representation of a history greater than their own. And you can’t get that at 3am? Damn…
Well, kind of, but a straight drum break with no complexity doesn’t generally excite people either. Think less Ke$ha, more nursery @bmamag
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PAGE 63
[FILM REVIEWS]
THE WORD ON
FILMS with Majella Carmody With the 2017 Cannes Film Festival wrapping up last month, special mention must go to American indie director, Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides), who became only the second woman (alongside Russian director, Yuliya Solntseva, who won in 1961 for her film Chronicle of Flaming Years) to win Best Director at the festival in 71 years for her film The Beguiled. There are thankfully a few more female directors who seem to be getting a guernsey with current or upcoming releases: Wonder Woman directed by Patty Jenkins is in cinemas; Reed Morano is set to direct sci-fi adaptation I Think We Are Alone Now and several episodes of the Hulu’s gritty Margaret Atwood adaptation, The Handmaid’s Tale; and Dee Rees’s Sundance fave, Mudbound. Keep ‘em coming, please. QUOTE OF THE ISSUE “DO YOU WANT A WAR, OR DO YOU JUST WANT TO GIVE ME A GUN?” – JOHN WICK (KEANU REEVES), JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2
WATCH OUT FOR... Lady Macbeth (2017): Directed by William Oldroyd. Chilling Victorian noir thriller based on 1865 novel Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov. Released Thu Jun 8. Una (2017): Based on the play Blackbird by David Harrower. A young woman confronts a man from her past. Starring Rooney Mara, Ben Mendelsohn and Riz Ahmed. Released Thu Jun 8. Best Foreign Language Film Festival, ANU Film Group: Showcasing seven foreign film Oscar submissions. Every Friday, 7:30pm, Jun 2 – Jul 14, ANU Film Group, cnr Garran and Fellows Roads, Acton. PAGE 64
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2 [
]
Man, this film’s a hoot. John Wick: Chapter 2 capitalises on the ‘cool’ elements of the original 2014 sleeper hit: the slick stunt choreography, highly stylised violence and campy villains to create a ridiculously enjoyable B-movie revenge-action-thriller. Ruthless ex-assassin John Wick is pretty keen to settle into a civilised, bad-guyfree retirement with his new nameless canine companion (please, let’s not relive the fate of his previous puppy). However, an irritating pretty-boy Italian gangster Santino D’Antonio (with eyelashes guaranteed to be the envy of all Maybelline models) enters the scene, issuing Wick with an (not Bourne) ultimatum: to kill D’Antonio’s ruthless sister, or face his wrath (as per some mad assassin accord, or whatever). As the titular John Wick, Keanu Reeves (at his most deadpan) means business (again). He rocks a kind of Tom-Hanks-circa2006-Da-Vinci-Code-hairstyle and dresses to the nines in what looks like a sharp, bulletproof, Johnny Cash-inspired Tom Fordlooking turtleneck suit. But rest assured, all of this makes for a show of some serious badassery: Wick even gets his own Spielberg-esque slow-reveal character introduction. My only real gripe with the film is that Wick’s motivations are not as clearly defined as in the original, resulting in a mass of random expendables. I lost count of how many baddies bit the dust, but I guess I’ll just wait for the inevitable YouTube compilation of Wickian head-shots. Nevertheless, of all the ‘action Js’ (Jason Bourne, James Bond, Jack Reacher), John Wick is arguably the most badass.
NERUDA [
]
Biopics are a varied genre of filmmaking, and the very action of making one is a grand undertaking. To start from the very start, and wind one’s way to the very end is a fool’s errand in storytelling. Pablo Larraín’s Neruda concerns itself with a single year in the eponymous poet and communist senator’s life: his exile in Chile in 1948 due to President Gonzalez Videla’s order to outlaw communism, right up to his escape from Chile into Argentina via a treacherous journey through the Andes. Neruda’s own life reads like one of John Le Carre’s novels, and Larraín’s tribute to the poet through his choice of plot and setting is pitch perfect. In fact, a lot is pitch perfect in this film; the traditional orchestral score (a clear homage to those of film noir); the dappled, intimate cinematography; as well as the measured performances of Luis Gnecco as Neruda, Gael García Bernal as a detective playing cat and mouse with Neruda, and Mercedes Morán as Neruda’s lover Delia del Carril. The script itself is inspired by Neruda’s work; dialogue is savoured, and symbolism is gently drawn from scriptwriter Guillermo Calderón’s empathy for Neruda and the people in his life. Neruda is thrilling, humorous, and stunning, showing Pablo Larraín’s talent as a storyteller. To extrapolate such beauty from history is an artwork in its own right. PAT JOHNSON
20TH CENTURY WOMEN [
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“Whatever you think your life is going to be like, just know, it’s not gonna be anything like that.” So says Abbie (Greta Gerwig) in one scene of 20th Century Women. I think this encapsulates the storytelling style of writerdirector Mike Mills (Beginners), with an exquisite narrative that just meanders around at its own pace, no priority given at all to setup-conflict-resolution narrative structures. The film revolves around single mother Dorothea (Annette Bening), who is trying to complete the direct nurturing role she has for her teenage son Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), before he becomes a fully-fledged adult ready to tackle the world of 1979 Santa Barbara and beyond. She coerces her two boarders, Abbie and William (Billy Crudup), and next-door neighbour/Jamie’s best friend Julie (Elle Fanning), to assist her in the areas she can’t quite get to. The two elements that combine for me to make this movie so eloquently beautiful are the Oscar-nominated script, and the central performance from Bening. The former manages to avoid clichés whilst still hitting us in the hearts and minds (just not with a sledgehammer). The latter … well, suffice it to say that I think the category for Best Actress at this year’s Oscar ceremony had valid reason to be expanded to at least eight nominations, given how spoilt for choice they were for fantastic female performances, and Bening would have certainly been one of the acclaimed. American independent cinema at its very best. TRAVIS CRAGG
MAJELLA CARMODY @bmamag
A QUIET PASSION [
The latest film by Terence Davies manages to deliver a story that departs slightly from both what people expect from his films, and how poetry fans traditionally think of Emily Dickinson. I have to confess right here that I am not an expert by any means on either subject. But a) my experience of the movies I have seen of his (The House Of Mirth, The Deep Blue Sea and Sunset Song) leads me to regard Davies as a creator of visually stunning but gloomy films, and b) my research and limited exposure to the works of Dickinson informs me that she is generally regarded as a recluse and a mystery. Neither preconception is supported in the opening half of A Quiet Passion, because Davies presents us with a humorous, sensitive and sharp Dickinson (Cynthia Nixon), as she engages with the world along with her sister (Jennifer Ehle) and friend (Catherine Bailey). As family pressures and the norms of society increase her isolation, the movie still holds Dickinson and her decisions in reverence for sticking to what she believes. As mentioned earlier, I am no expert on Dickinson, but this film made me believe that I have known her work somewhere. That may be true (maybe in a fleeting encounter during secondary schooling) but, even if it isn’t, the feeling is a testament to the delights of the script and the performance of Nixon. TRAVIS CRAGG
ALIEN: COVENANT
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[
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“One wrong note can destroy an entire symphony.” Quite an apt description for what the prequels are doing to the Alien franchise. These words were spoken by Michael Fassbender playing an evil android (where have we seen that before?), doing his level best to turn Alien: Covenant into a worthwhile … prequel? Sequel to a prequel? A film trying to tell a compelling story about the origins of humanity but instead is a series of obvious and clichéd plot devices? The film opens (in a visually stunning way, gotta give it that) on a spacecraft filled with people journeying to a planet that promises to be paradise and perfect for colonisation. Unfortunately, a neutrino (or whatever) bursts and the colonists are jolted from stasis, people die, and they are forced to land on a planet that will be familiar to anyone who watched Prometheus. Alien: Covenant makes all the same blunders its predecessor did: the plot ‘twists’ are obvious and predictable, the actions of the characters are illogical and unbelievable, and the exploration of a core concept in sci-fi – who are we and where did we come from – is clumsy. No one is going to walk out of this film and have a rousing debate because all the answers were handed to them. Biggest aggravation? The android claiming to be superior to humanity speaking only in famous phrases created by humans. Alien: Covenant, unlike Alien, conveys nothing worth watching. EMMA ROBINSON
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[THE WORD ON GIGS]
GROOVIN THE MOO UNIVERSITY OF CANBERRA SUN MAY 7
PHOTOS (THIS PAGE) BY MARK TURNER
PAGE 66
@bmamag
PHOTOS (THIS PAGE) BY MATT SANDFORD
The headlines from the Canberra edition of Groovin the Moo have been mostly about the lack of pants on show (not on show?) during the day. Let’s get that out of the way first. Yes, there was a lot of lingerie on display at UC – sometimes underneath sheer, lacy skirts and tops, sometimes without. It was markedly different from last year, when flannel shirts were all the rage at GTM. I’m no fashion guru, so I won’t comment on the relative merits of either style, but I will say this: it was an exceptionally chilly Canberra Sunday, so cold that a lot of people actually left when the sun went down, well before heavy-hitters like The Wombats and The Darkness came onstage. So no matter what your opinions are on not wearing pants, we can all agree that it’s not particularly practical once the mercury drops to zero. This year, for the first time, Canberra’s leg of Groovin the Moo sold out, meaning long lines of people at bag check, as well as plenty of people loitering
around outside, eager to snap up any last minute tickets for resale. And the music kicked off early, with the excellent Bec Sandridge starting at 10:55am. However, most people arrived after midday, many no doubt having pregamed. There’s just something great about enjoying music outdoors, whether it’s listening to The Smith Street Band while drinking on a hill, dancing to PNAU in a huge crowd, or accidentally finding yourself in a circle pit under the stars during Violent Soho’s headline set. A complaint my friend made, which I shared, was that because the line-up this year was so great, there was very little downtime. Yes, Groovin the Moo was so good this year. The only thing I can complain about is that there were no artists that I could just skip. No, it was straight from K.Flay to Against Me! to Montaigne (which meant we missed Northeast Party House, which is a shame – I heard they were great).
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However, the curse of too much good music was made easier by the fact that GTM is a boutique experience, with two of the three main stages beside each other, and the third only a minute’s walk over the hill. You don’t know how painful it is having two of your favourite bands at a festival until you’re sprinting from one stage to the next in the full summer sun (happened to me at Big Day Out, 0/10, do not recommend). The eclectic nature of the line-up also made the day much more fun for me. This opinion was not shared by the guys standing near me during The Darkness’ set, judging by the loud conversation they had about who exactly the fuck The Darkness were, and why they couldn’t just get off the stage so The Wombats could perform. Folks: sometimes you just have to take one for the team, and dance to a band you’ve never heard of. I’m looking at you, weird dude in a hoodie who stood, motionless, through PNAU’s whole electrifying, flawless set.
Marks down to GTM in Canberra are for things largely out of its control – like the food truck running out of chips and burgers which was disappointing, and the afterparty at La De Da, which was uninspiring, despite the efforts of the excellent Moaning Lisa to save it. All in all, Groovin the Moo raised the bar this year. Next year, get your tickets early, lest you be one of those guys who embarrass themselves trying to jump the fence. SHARONA LIN
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[THE WORD ON GIGS]
PHOTO BY DAVE MCCARTHY
POLISH CLUB TRANSIT BAR THU JUN 1
I was pleasantly surprised to discover Moaning Lisa were supporting tonight. They were a nice lead up to our next two acts with their mix of melody and rock. I last saw Maddy Jane when she played a drizzly night at Enlighten last year. There weren’t too many
JOYCE MANOR TRANSIT BAR WED MAY 31 The Canberra streets around Transit were pretty dead (winter, or a footy game maybe), making me think tonight might be a quiet one, but as two-piece Carb On Carb started their sound check, a steady flow of punters came through the door. Their sound was very Camp Cope-like, and their talent very evident. I look forward to seeing what their future holds. Oslow’s melodic punk sound was a fine prelude to our US headliners. The small size and raw vibe of Transit suited again tonight as we watched Joyce Manor do their sound check and began to huddle around the stage. By the time ‘Fake ID’ came three songs in, the group were well warmed up and the crowd slowly followed suit. Tonight’s audience did indicate that the group are maybe more indie than punk these days, as there wasn’t the PAGE 68
people there that time, so it was great to watch her perform to a sold-out Transit, and most people appeared engaged and interested. Her latest single ‘No Other Way’ proves she is only getting better with each song, and between that, ‘People’ and ‘Drown It Out’, she already has
quite a few known rockers for people to get into.
mosh I expected but more head bopping, knee shaking and lyric miming (a la Weezer’s ‘Buddy Holly’ clip – a group I liken Joyce to since they covered them last time in Canberra and are also from California).
PIERCE BROTHERS
The excellent drumming was more exposed in their live show and became evident as a major strength of their sound. There was some fun banter between songs. After commenting on currently supporting Smith Street Band, one audience member proclaimed, “Wil Wagner is a knob”, and the group responding with, “we will talk to you later.” Their set got better as it went on with ‘18’, ‘Schley’, ‘Constant Headache’ and ‘Heart Tattoo’ taking us towards the finale. After closer ‘5 Year Plan’ they returned quickly to the stage to give us a little encore with ‘Xmas Card.’ Thanks for taking the detour from your support shows to give Canberra a piece of the action Joyce! JARROD MCGRATH
this solid musicianship combined with a certain reckless abandon where you feel they could also fall out of sync any minute that makes their live show so exciting. Their jam mid-set highlighted this and had a bit of a Kings of Leon vibe about it. Unfortunately, the crowd didn’t seem to want to match this reckless energy in the form of dance, but there was still plenty of enjoyment. They provided some fun banter over the night with comments to us locals about Laurie Daley, Peking Duk and confusing our latenight shopping day with NSW. With their debut album out now, there was a steady flow of ‘hits’ throughout the set but it was still great to get the oldies like ‘Able’. ‘Beeping’ and ‘Come Party’ were other obvious highlights. JARROD MCGRATH
Finally, we get Polish Club back in town; it’s been way too long! With this being their first time as headliners, they did appear to have a bit more confidence or presence on stage. Their sound is damn tight, but it’s the mix of
ACADEMY THU MAY 25 Jack Biilmann was the local support tonight and represented our awesome local scene well. He showcased his exceptional skills, tapping and beating his guitar before telling us this would be his last show before going back to “full band mode” (giving us more to look forward to). Kiwi Reuben Stone suffered a little from Kanye West Spectrum Disorder (I’m sure his ego can handle that comment). His reggae, roots-inspired looping and trombone skills were overshadowed by his egotistical banter in between songs (including ridiculing his sound guy mid-set). This only enhanced how genuine the Pierce Brothers are once they graced their stage with that booming energy, huge smiles and immediate expression of gratitude. Pat Pierce immediately bounced around hitting his brothers’ guitar ferociously with his sticks
during opener ‘It’s My Fault’. Their energy and enthusiasm was infectious and the crowd were immediately bouncing in delight. “Fuck the fold back, how are you?” screamed Pat mid-song, once again indicating their delight to have us all there. They had done their research on the venue proclaiming “we have to get through this set before everyone turns up to take pingers,” (and I have to admit it is awesome to have a venue with awesome acoustics and early finishing times for mid-week gigs). Their new songs ‘The Records Were Ours’ (with a middle-fingers-inthe-air crowd waltz-along) and ‘Take Me Out’ proved that the songwriting skills of the duo are getting better, paving the way for a very big future. As they pulled out the didge and belted their drums for an epic closing, everyone in the room realised we had been part of something that will be talked about for years to come. I think this feeling will only increase with each show, so don’t miss them next time. JARROD MCGRATH @bmamag
ANGIE
AINSLIE ARTS CENTRE SAT MAY 27
PHOTO BY MEGAN LEAHY
This was the night when I had to make the very difficult toss-up between this gig and the monster line-up that went with Toe to Toe at the Phoenix. I’m happy with my decision. As soon as I opened the door I was slapped in the face with a wall of sound (I came a few songs into Fight Milk’s set, I am so pissed I didn’t catch the whole thing). I’ve heard whispers of Fight Milk for a while now, but this was my first experience as a member of the crowd. They were all I’d hoped for. Knowing a couple of the members from their other bands, I had every confidence in them to melt my face off. Cheers, fellas. As Masochist starting setting up their gear, I already knew this was going to be badass just from the look of the frontwoman. I have to give major props to this girl for her persistence in finishing a full set. It was clear that she wasn’t well; her throat sounded very unhappy, but she just said, “fuck it, let’s do it,” and carried on, much to my appreciation. You are rock ‘n’ roll.
Disparo! transformed as they took up their microphones, guitars and drumsticks, from sweet-faced, polite lads, to high-energy maniacs insistent on making our ears bleed as we took on the g-force from their presence. The front man was a captivating and unique vocalist, the bassist had a leg stance
Riding up to the Ainslie Arts Centre, Spike Vincent cuts through the cold night air, with the stage lights glowing out. Spike Vincent came in as a little bit of an unknown quantity, but his set delivered in spades. Vincent stood and delivered laidback guitar pop, a little catchy, a little aloof.
back in the day. Thunderbolt have added a member since their year off but they certainly haven’t lost pace. During their set, Thunderbolt combined retro rock touches with deft delivery. Although the old school hall doesn’t generally lean to out of school rock, Thunderbolt managed to pull it off nonetheless.
Since Purple Skies, Toxic River and its associated tours TV Colours’ shows have been infrequent at best. This set, performed solo as TVCR, eschewed Purple Skies and instead focused on newer material, although many in the crowd will have heard some of the tracks before. The basic appeal of TVCR remains – layers of riffs sounding transported from decades ago, the constant drum machine glow and Bobby Kill’s distinctive vocal delivery. It feels like he is working towards something good, but still working.
Most of Angie’s previous work has been “electric”, but her latest solo work takes a different tact. Seated behind a grand piano off stage, Angie took control, starting slowly but building a grain of sound. These weren’t grand flights of classical fancy, but instead engaging tunes that sat somewhere in the ether between the worlds of indie, pop and rock. In conjunction with the projected images, the sounds created a near hypnotic vibe throughout the set. This might have been a sit down set, but it wasn’t a boring one by any stretch of the imagination – instead one of the more compelling sets in Canberra this year.
Frontman Carey Paterson paused during the Thunderbolt set, and stated that the gig is a bit like being in a school play. It’s not far from the mark – Ainslie Arts Centre was a school possibly more impressive than that of any of The Ramones, and the drummer was just a blur as his arms moved at superhuman speed and he swung his hair in such a way that I thought his head might fly out the window. My pick of the night was definitely Masochist. Fucking bad arse. As soon as they finished
CODY ATKINSON
their set and said they had shirts and EPs for sale, I threw my wallet at them. Bonus tip: If you are going to frequent gigs like this, don’t be me. Bring ear plugs. Take the edge off. I am suffering for it today. Rock wisely, my friends. ALICE WORLEY
DISPARO! THE FRONT SAT MAY 2O
PHOTO BY ALICE WORLEY
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PAGE 69
[THE WORD ON GIGS]
HELLIONS
THE BASEMENT FRI MAY 19
PHOTOS BY MATT SANDFORD
Hellions have sold out four out of eight shows of their latest tour promoting their third and arguably most powerful album to date titled Opera Oblivia. The band are staples of the UNFD company family, among the home born talents of The Amity Affliction, Northlane, In Hearts Wake and Tonight Alive and many more internationally. Hellions are arguably my favourite band under that company’s banner with their emotional, politically charged and chaotic live shows, and lyrical content that often shows the silver lining and optimism to most situations. Lead single ‘Quality of Life’ demonstrates that with the line “you could be happy, if you wanted to be”. The metal scene needs more bands like Hellions that preach this mindset. Admittedly, it is cathartic to mesh such positive views with moshing, but at the end of the day that is what music is – a release. Tonight’s stomping ground was The Basement in Belconnen, a staple for rock and metal shows, and one of the last establishments PAGE 70
in Canberra that predominantly offer heavier bands a place to call home. Opening the show were Newcastle-based triple j Unearthed alternative rock newcomers Introvert, and Brisbane metalcore outfit The Brave. The latter drew in a steady crowd, pulling in the patrons who were just idly huddled by the pool tables and bar – either arms folded, bobbing their heads or rolling a ciggie (it was torrential outside, good luck with that). Endless Heights controlled the crowd with their energetic poppunk/hardcore songs. Each time I have seen them live the band give it their all and put the crowd’s interaction first – mic grabs, crowdsurfing, the works. Endless Heights were the hook, line and sinker; the appetiser, for the main course that were goddamn Hellions! Hellions rose from the darkness of the stage, smashing into Opera Oblivia’s anthemic opener ‘24’, complete with a full crowd chant of the final clap-along lyrics: “we are born and raised as cattle to
be the same, but we are not the same, we have to change and if we don’t we’ll suffocate, won’t we?” Fan favourite ‘Nottingham’ was another sing-along spectacular and mic drop-a-thon. The setlist stepped back to their killer debut Die Young with the single ‘The Penultimate Year’, an absolutely fun mosh song. Unfortunately, that was pretty much the only song from Die Young we were treated to (really, no ‘Infamita’?). The self-titled single ‘Hellions’ from Indian Summer brought out the crowd’s inner rap artists with the JJ Peters and Real Bad from Deez Nuts cameo section. ‘He Without Sin i) Hallation’ was an emotional scene, a song pressing on injustices within the Catholic church, and hate crimes.
song made the show – there’s just something so grungey and upbeat about it. But much like the circle pits, spin kicks and mosh pits, it all must come to an end. We were treated to the encore of the bouncy, thrashing single from Opera Oblivia, ‘Quality of Life’. Once the crowd dispersed the few stragglers were able to pose with members for Instagramworthy selfies, get t-shirts, posters and setlists signed. The catharsis had ended, but not the rain or the ringing in my ears. I clutched my newfound prizes to my chest (signed setlist and cassette) and legged it home, still humming, “You could be happy, if you wanted to be”. Thank you, Hellions. ANDREW MYERS
Second single from Opera Oblivia ‘Thresher’ brought us all back down to melodic town, plus any chance for a good sing-along with the universally relatable lyrics, “I hate the radio” and “fuck you for not being strong enough, for letting me bare the weight of both of us”; it was like musical heroin. For me, this @bmamag
NORTHLANE ACADEMY WED MAY 17
PHOTOS BY GABBY MARSHALL
A cool, crisp night fell upon the hour of the Canberra leg of Northlane’s Intuition tour. It was their first Canberra show since Groovin The Moo in 2015 and, most likely, many Canberrean fans’ introduction to latest vocalist Marcus Bridge. Academy is not the usual battleground for a metalcore show, amongst the stairs and flashbacks of Thursday happy hour drinks. Witnessing a concert at the establishment and not stumbling around was a sobering feeling (no pun intended). Canberra’s very own Whitefall opened the night, drawing in the first few spectators. They offered a taste of what was to come and made the most of the limited stage with their alternative metalcore sound. It was not long until post-hardcore favourites Hands Like Houses, another Canberra-born band, stormed the stage. Fan favourite track ‘Colourblind’ stirred the crowd into a frenzy of sing-alongs, a sea of bouncing heads and fist pumping. The lead singer Trenton Woodley spun and danced with
the microphone, controlling the audience with every bounce and breakdown. ‘Division Symbols’ was a drum-heavy thumper. Old-school classic ‘Introduced Species’ caught the audience in a collection of hips and headbanging. We were treated to a taste of an unreleased song titled ‘Drift’ – the girls next to me erupted with “holy shit” and “oh my god” to this announcement. The lads closed their lively performance with breakthrough single ‘I Am’, leaving the audience wanting more as the band slipped behind the smoke machines and strobe lights. Darkness shrouded the stage, mechanical and synth-heavy whirring rang like an air raid siren, a minimalistic neon backdrop appeared – here was Northlane! The dizzying smack that is ‘Paragon’ pushed the crowd into an impromtu circle pit. The five-piece all donned matching disheveled outfits (think less Devo and more postapocalyptic/steampunk … Mad Max with drop tuning?). Their latest album Mesmer had
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only been available since late March but every crowdsurfer, headbanger and slight foot tapper knew every single word to every new song being played for their first time. The latest single ‘Citizen’ was great to see live (the music video is a fever dream of silhouettes). Lead singer Marcus Bridge thrusted the microphone into fans’ faces to join in mid song, a highlight for any fan close enough to shout along. They played my favourite track ‘Leech’; a drum-pattering, distorted guitar cacophony. Admittedly I sang along like a suburban mother at a Celine Dion tribute show: “Follooww meee underrr waterrr”. The fivesome mixed in some gems from sophomore disc Singularity like ‘Dream Awake’, but once the material like ‘Dispossession’ from the untouchable debut album Discoveries hit, the mosh pit turned in to a tornado. Even I could barely contain myself, turning from sophisticated wannabe journalist to mosher.
Despite how many times I had watched the band live over the years, this song still conjured up my inner metal kid. Lead single from Mesmer ‘Intuition’ was another crowd titilater. “Question everything you know!” the crowd chanted back right before the end breakdown. Show closer was the classic ‘Quantum Flux’, a song that broadened Northlane’s fan base back in 2013. The end was nigh – the lights darkened and the band dispersed. The crowd chanted “encore, encore, encore!” until we got exactly that in the form of the guitar chugging single ‘Obelisk’. The fans shouted out the lyrics, “I will show you fear in a handful of dust!” before stirring one last circle pit. A fitting end to a spectacular show as the crowd shuffled out of the venue and up those same old tiresome stairs. Not many rock ‘n’ roll shows occur at Academy but this was surely one for the archives. ANDREW MYERS
PAGE 71
[THE WORD ON GIGS]
Featuring six Canberra bands and one burlesque performance, this show focusing on local rock bands was run in the back room at the Basement to a good turnout of 80 attendees that braved going out in the cold. Newly formed band Blissphorus opened the show. With a funky pub rock sound, they had the crowd bopping along nicely and singer Jeanie wowed the patrons that arrived early enough to catch a great set of original songs with her strong and powerful voice. Betty Alto is a heavy pop band and their previous experience in the music industry was clear by their skill and ease in their performance. They are quickly become well known in the Canberra scene and have several gigs coming up in the next few weeks.
LIVE, LOCAL & LOUD!! THE BASEMENT SAT MAY 16
PHOTO BY SAM INGHAM
Unless you’ve been living in a cave with your fingers in your ears, you’ll have noticed that Moaning Lisa is all up in your grill right now. Now they’re taking their show on the road, with this night being the kick off of The Sweetest Little Tour, supported by Oranges and Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers. It was a night for ladies to rock, and rock they did. Oranges were a very loveable band to jump into the night with. The vocalists harmonised beautifully with one another and their songs were really grabbing the crowd, particularly ‘Hot at Night’. The only thing that stopped me being completely taken over by them was a stiffness that kept creeping over the set, and occasionally they would fall out of sync, but they have that kick-arse girl band factor that will keep people’s attention. Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers are fast becoming one of our go-to punk girl bands. I wish I was as sick as these ladies when I was 16. Yep, they’re 16. Girls, PAGE 72
I’m hooked, I’m coming to all your gigs. And a special shout out to the drummer – thank you for proving that we ladies can keep a beat just as well as the fellas. You are our Patty Schemel, and I thank you. By the time our beloved Moaning Lisa took to the stage there was
Finding Eve are an alternative prog rock band and presented great energy on stage with a fresh, tidy set where several crowd supporters moshed hard up the front of the stage.
hardly room to move. I was pretty concerned for the film crew (oh yeah, a bunch of students from Macquarie University are making a documentary about Moaning Lisa and it’s going to be great). As well as playing all their original bangers, they indulged us in Wolf Alice and Pixies covers. Needless to say, we all went nuts.
Sultry burlesque performer Seker Pare performed a bump and grind striptease to Black Label Society’s ‘Fire it Up’. Strutting and shimmying, she grinded out of her costume to tassel twirl and the crowd enjoyed this performance very much. Hence The Testbed are one of the long term, well-known local bands who belt out really funky rock tunes. Pleasing to watch, their regular supporters sung and danced along to every song in their well-rehearsed set. Johnny Roadkill also had the crowd rocking along to their tunes; presenting material from their album Dead In the Head and their recent new song ‘Whisky Shot’, it was a wellexecuted performance. Escape Syndrome closed the evening with their heavy punk rock style. The front of the stage was lined with warmed up head bangers rocking out to their set. SAM INGHAM
Our girls are so ready to strut their stuff on this tour, but I do hope they hurry back before the withdrawals set in. Party on, girls. ALICE WORLEY
PHOTO BY ALICE WORLEY
MOANING LISA THE PHOENIX SAT MAY 6
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[ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE] WEDNESDAY JUNE 7 ART EXHIBITIONS 4 M16 Artspace Exhibitions
New exhibitions by James Rowell, Louisa Giffard, Janet Angus and Fairlie Pearce, and Sholto Morton. Open daily Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE
The Colour of Eucalyptus
An exhibition by Sally Blake featuring colours extracted from over 200 species of eucalypts. Free. Until Sunday June 25. AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS
Kirstie Rea: The Land, a 20 Year Survey
JUN 7 – JUN 11
LIVE MUSIC
ON THE TOWN
LIVE MUSIC
Tomás Ford - Things Are Gonna Get Weird
Crap Music Rave Party
Katie Noonan and Karin Schaupp
Notorious crooner presents a multimedia cabaret of dark, twisted fun imbued with the spirit of punk. 9:30pm. $20. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
Electric, Cabaret, Pop & Chase! THE POLISH WHITE EAGLE CLUB
SATURDAY JUNE 10
Special K Duo
ART EXHIBITIONS
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Nicole Ayliffe: Studio Glass
Sarah Blasko
BEAVER GALLERIES
9pm. Free.
Support from Cameron Avery. 8pm. $56.50 + bf via canberratheatrecentre. com.au. THE PLAYHOUSE
Autumn
May 13 – Aug 20.
Thu–Sun Jun 8–25.
The Colour of Eucalyptus
An exhibition by Sally Blake featuring colours extracted from over 200 species of eucalypts. Free. Until Sunday June 25.
Kirstie Rea: The Land, a 20 Year Survey
CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
CANBERRA MUSEUM AND GALLERY
Displayed until Mon Jun 12.
May 13 – Aug 20.
Outdoor Sculpture Festival
The Hindmarsh Prize 2017
Info at cgsalumni.org.au. Until Sun Jun 18.
CANBERRA GRAMMAR SCHOOL GALLERY
Hoods
Nicole Breedon, Sean Davey, Rowan Kane and Paul Williams. Opens 6pm. ANCA GALLERY
LIVE MUSIC Sally & George
Vintage rock ’n’ roll and Americana from Nashville. 7pm. $20/$15 CMC. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
Live Jazz @ Hippo Co
Different bands every week. HIPPO BAR
Smith’s Varietal
Entry by donation. Jun 10–18. An all Canberra local lineup at The Front Gallery! Come down and have a cry or punch your friends, drink heaps of beers, hang with the boiz ‘n’ the chix, smoke a full pack of Winny Blues, and listen to some of the best bands Canberra has spat out over the last couple of years. With Panic Burst, Kid Presentable, Lefty. 7:30pm. $5. THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ
WORKSHOPS Smith’s Scribblers
Lunchtime life drawing. 12:30pm. $15/$10. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
9.30pm. $10.
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
Carb on Carb
FRIDAY JUNE 9 LIVE MUSIC Katie Noonan and Karin Schaupp
After a too-long time between Australian tours, Carb on Carb are back, and are bringing their favourite NZ band, Prizegiving, along with them. They’re celebrating the release of the new Carb on Carb 7” on Black Wire Records and Prizegiving’s first journey across the ditch. With support from Passive Smoke & Video Breezy. $10. 8:30pm. THE PHOENIX BAR
THURSDAY JUNE 8 ART EXHIBITIONS Rose-Mary Faulkner
Talk with the artist, 4:30pm. Displayed until Mon Jun 12. CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
KARAOKE Kegs n Karaoke 9pm.
THE STREET THEATRE
The Cool
10pm. Free.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Bill Chambers-Keller Sessions
8pm. Gen $20 / CMC & CBS members $15 + online booking fee. HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
The Wrst
AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS
Rose-Mary Faulkner
CANBERRA MUSEUM AND GALLERY
Tickets $45 + bf at thestreet.org.au or 6247 1223. 7:30pm.
CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
Rose-Mary Faulkner Displayed until Jun 12.
CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
The Chandelier Show
Curator: Jane Cush. Entry by donation. Until Aug 7. CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
4 M16 Artspace Exhibitions
New exhibitions by James Rowell, Louisa Giffard, Janet Angus and Fairlie Pearce, and Sholto Morton. Open daily Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE
Bruno Leti, ‘The painterly print’ Thu–Sun Jun 8–25. BEAVER GALLERIES
Outdoor Sculpture Festival
Info at cgsalumni.org.au. Until Sun Jun 18.
CANBERRA GRAMMAR SCHOOL GALLERY
Hoods
Nicole Breedon, Sean Davey, Rowan Kane and Paul Williams.
Canberra band The Wrst are launching their debut album and to help them get it off the ground, they’re throwing a party with The Ians, The Kaemans, and for the first time performing at a bar, Cable. Expect a mix of heavy alternative rock, shoegaze and a high-energy live show. 8:30pm. THE PHOENIX BAR
SUNDAY JUNE 11 LIVE MUSIC The Bootleg Sessions 8pm. Free entry.
THE PHOENIX BAR
Irish Jam Session
Traditional Irish musicians in the pub from late afternoon. Free. KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Apia Good Times Tour
With The Black Sorrows with Vika + Linda Bull, Colin Hay and more. 7:30pm. Tickets $94.30 + bf via apiagoodtimes.com.au.
Tickets $45 + bf at thestreet.org.au or 6247 1223. 7:30pm.
ANCA GALLERY
CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
THE STREET THEATRE
DANCE
Jason Hart / Woodface
Ruido Indie Flamenco
Awesome Aussie roots music. 11.30pm.
5pm/10pm. Free.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Matt Dent
Info at the Hellenic Club. HELLENIC CLUB (WODEN)
Contemporary flamenco with a unique twist: these musicians dance, and the dancers sing and play! 7pm. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
Matt Dent
THE GEORGE HARCOURT INN
The Hard Aches
With Muncie Girls, The Football Club. 8pm. Tickets at Oztix. TRANSIT BAR
Los Tones
FILM
ON THE TOWN
THE PHOENIX BAR
Julius Caesar
CJ Bowerbird - Downfall of the Main Character
With Bad Bags & Crocodylus.
Ploughshare
Info at palacecinemas.com.au.
With Monoceros, Yoko Oh No & A.B.X Obitt. 8pm. $10.
PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA
THE BASEMENT
ON THE TOWN
Punk ‘n’ Rock
Vamp Alternative Club Night
With Bleach It Clean, CHUD, Cockbelch, Wesley and The Crushers. 8pm. $10. THE BASEMENT
Rock Or Be Rocked
Classic rock and blues. 8pm. Free. More information at bandmix.com.au/ mac11943/ ROSE COTTAGE
Dom Dolla + Torren Foot
Double headline show. Support from Indigo and Nada. 10pm. MR WOLF
THE PHOENIX BAR
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7pm. $5.
CJ Bowerbird and the Downfall Choir tell a day-in-the-life story through sound and verse. 4:30pm. $15/$10 CMC members. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
LOBROW GALLERY & BAR
TALKS
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
Kim Mahood: Position Doubtful
Soundscapes #11
Unique musical experiments in electronica and improvisation from Happy Axe, Guyy and Kid of Harith.
See some of her work and hear her in conversation with Louise Maher. MUSE: FOOD, WINE, BOOKS
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
World Gin Day Dinner
6.30-10pm, $150 for four-course dinner and … gin! MUSE: FOOD, WINE, BOOKS
PAGE 73
[ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE] MONDAY JUNE 12 LIVE MUSIC Old Timey Tuesday
The Chandelier Show
Curator: Jane Cush. Entry by donation. Until Aug 7. CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
4 M16 Artspace Exhibitions
JUN 12 – JUN 18 WORKSHOPS Smith’s Scribblers
Lunchtime life drawing. 12:30pm. $15/$10.
New exhibitions by James Rowell, Louisa Giffard, Janet Angus and Fairlie Pearce, and Sholto Morton. Open daily Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free.
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
The old time/folk/acoustic open jam where we party like it’s 1899. 7pm. Free.
Smith’s Poetry Jam
Bruno Leti, ‘The painterly print’
ART EXHIBITIONS
BEAVER GALLERIES
Alter Egos
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
Non-competitive open mic and writing workshop rolled into one. 7pm. Free. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
ON THE TOWN Lunchulele
Doctor Procter’s Monday lunchtime ukulele singalong for absolute beginners. 12pm. Free. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
TUESDAY JUNE 13
M16 ARTSPACE
Thu–Sun Jun 8–25.
Outdoor Sculpture Festival
Info at cgsalumni.org.au. Until Sun Jun 18.
CANBERRA GRAMMAR SCHOOL GALLERY
COMEDY Hump Nite Comedy
Ellie Windred, Danny Bensley, Anthony Tomic, Humph James and Tom Gibson with Vanessa Conlin as MC. 7pm. $15.
FRIDAY JUNE 16
All female show exhibiting the art practice of women who live alternative lives. Opens Jun 16 @ 6pm. THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ
SATURDAY JUNE 17 ART EXHIBITIONS Hoods
Nicole Breedon, Sean Davey, Rowan Kane and Paul Williams. ANCA GALLERY
Nicole Ayliffe: Studio Glass Thu–Sun Jun 8–25. BEAVER GALLERIES
The Colour of Eucalyptus
An exhibition by Sally Blake featuring colours extracted from over 200 species of eucalypts. Free. Until Sunday June 25.
LIVE MUSIC
AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS
Jeff Lang
Kirstie Rea: The Land, a 20 Year Survey
Tickets at thestreet.org.au. THE STREET THEATRE
May 13 – Aug 20.
Horrorshow
CANBERRA MUSEUM AND GALLERY
ANU BAR
Entry by donation. Jun 10–18.
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
With David Dallas & Turquoise Prince.
The Hindmarsh Prize 2017
ART EXHIBITIONS
FILM
Brutalcoustic
CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
Alter Egos
Jumpcuts
All female show exhibiting the Art Practice of women who live alternative lives. Opens Jun 16 @ 6pm. THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ
LIVE MUSIC Old Timey Tuesday
The old time/folk/acoustic open jam where we party like it’s 1899. 7pm. Free. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
SOMETHING DIFFERENT Lunch Time Sing Fling
Local independent short films. 7:30pm. Free. THE PHOENIX BAR
LIVE MUSIC Live Jazz @ Hippo Co
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
TRIVIA Twin Peaks Trivia With Travis and Bob. THE PHOENIX BAR
ART EXHIBITIONS Hoods
Nicole Breedon, Sean Davey, Rowan Kane and Paul Williams.
AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS
Kirstie Rea: The Land, a 20 Year Survey
THE PLAYHOUSE
THURSDAY JUNE 15 KARAOKE Kegs n Karaoke 9pm.
THE PHOENIX BAR
LIVE MUSIC
After the success of Sex on Toast’s sophomore release Ready and following Never Mind The Moog tour, the raucous ten-man Melbourne synth-funk/blue eyed soul outfit are primed to debut their latest offering to increasingly impatient crowds in Canberra. ‘4U’ is the first release from Sex on Toast’s forthcoming Rough EP, a dark and introspective ballad. Expect surprises. With Mondecreen. 8pm. $22.95 at Oztix.
Classic rock and blues. 8pm. Free. More information at bandmix.com.au/ mac11943/ FRASER FAMILY INN
PROM: Graduation
PROM will play their final glam-soaked gig at the event they were born to play: Graduation. $15. GORMAN HOUSE ARTS CENTRE
Hoon
With The Gaps, Bleach It Clean & Kid Presentable. LOBROW GALLERY & BAR
TRANSIT BAR
4th Degree
Warm vocals, lyrical magic and dancing acoustics from this international singer songwriter. 9:30pm.
Dana Hassall / Oscar
10:30pm. Free.
5pm/10pm. Free.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
The Last Exposure
Bliss n Eso
Stu Tyrrell
At Brutalcoustic.
With Slagatha Christie, Earache, Heti & Sleeping Dogs.
Mikelangelo
Jo Jo Smith
Nick Saxon
Tickets are $69.90 through Moshtix. ANU BAR
Matt Dent
Awesome Aussie roots music. THE DICKSON TRADIES
Dreamboogie
HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
9pm. Free.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Aversions Crown
THE BASEMENT
With Lucie Thorne and Hamish Stuart.
THE PHOENIX BAR
THE POLISH WHITE EAGLE CLUB
Beth Orton
ON THE TOWN
Support from The Lowlands. 8pm. Tickets $65–$85 + bf at qtix.com.au. CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
Mi Goreng
Megan Bones + Mia Sørlie. Support from Genie, Indigo. Disco, house and techno. 10pm. MR WOLF
ON THE TOWN
Matt Dent
A classic Jazida Production.
THE BASEMENT
Awesome Aussie roots music.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
THE PHOENIX BAR
With The National Capital Allstars.
With Boris The Blade and Alpha Wolf. 8pm. $24.50 via Oztix.
The Hindmarsh Prize 2017 CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
Outdoor Sculpture Festival
Rock Or Be Rocked
THE DICKSON TRADIES
Entry by donation. Jun 10–18.
BEAVER GALLERIES
Info at canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
May 13 – Aug 20.
CANBERRA MUSEUM AND GALLERY
Sex On Toast
Coranderrk
Dos Locos
An exhibition by Sally Blake featuring colours extracted from over 200 species of eucalypts. Free. Until Sunday June 25.
Thu–Sun Jun 8–25.
LIVE MUSIC
The Colour of Eucalyptus
BEAVER GALLERIES
Bruno Leti, ‘The painterly print’
HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
CANBERRA GRAMMAR SCHOOL GALLERY
Thu–Sun Jun 8–25.
Nicole Ayliffe: Studio Glass
8pm Free Entry.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
A night to remember with Dreamboogie – an entertaining, engaging, impassioned live performance with
ANCA GALLERY
CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
Curator: Jane Cush. Entry by donation. Until Aug 7.
HIPPO BAR
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
WEDNESDAY JUNE 14
Beats Workin’
THE BASEMENT
Info at cgsalumni.org.au. Until Sun Jun 18.
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
The Politics of Paradise in Papua New Guinea. Author Stella Coram’s observations and critical reflections from her time in PNG. Nibbles provided. 5:30pm. Free.
The Chandelier Show
Different bands every week.
12pm, $10.
Book Launch: Ruff and Ritual
Heavy metal and acoustic folk combine. 8pm. $15 entry.
The Pin Ups Party POLIT BAR & LOUNGE
Winter Glass Market 2017
Info at canberraglassworks.com/ winterglassmarket. CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
SUNDAY JUNE 18 LIVE MUSIC Irish Jam Session
Traditional Irish musicians in the pub from late afternoon. Free. KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Coranderrk
Info at canberratheatrecentre.com.au. THE PLAYHOUSE
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[ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE] SUNDAY JUNE 18
WEDNESDAY JUNE 21
JUN 18 – JUN 24 SOMETHING DIFFERENT
The Davidson Brothers
RocKwiz Live! TWENTYSEVENTEEN
HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
LIVE MUSIC
ART EXHIBITIONS
Blues on Tap host CBS Blues Jam
Hoods
As seen on TV. 8pm. $89 + bf via canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
ANCA GALLERY
TALKS
2pm Gen $5/CBS $3/kids under 12 Free Entry. HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
SOMETHING DIFFERENT Endrey’s Musical Singalong Hour
Come and sing along to your favourite show tunes, karaoke style. 7pm. $10. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
MONDAY JUNE 19 ART EXHIBITIONS Alter Egos
Nicole Breedon, Sean Davey, Rowan Kane and Paul Williams.
Nicole Ayliffe: Studio Glass Thu–Sun Jun 8–25. BEAVER GALLERIES
Alter Egos
All female show exhibiting the Art Practice of women who live alternative lives. Opens Jun 16 @ 6pm.
CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
The Long Table: Yassmin AbdelMagied 12–1.30pm; $75 includes two course lunch and copy of Yassmin’s Story. MUSE: FOOD, WINE, BOOKS
WORKSHOPS
The Colour of Eucalyptus
Smith’s Scribblers
AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS
Lunchtime life drawing. 12:30pm. $15/$10. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
FRIDAY JUNE 23
Kirstie Rea: The Land, a 20 Year Survey
ART EXHIBITIONS
THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ
CANBERRA MUSEUM AND GALLERY
Alter Egos
LIVE MUSIC
Curator: Jane Cush. Entry by donation. Until Aug 7.
All female show exhibiting the Art Practice of women who live alternative lives. Opens Jun 16 @ 6pm.
The Bootleg Sessions 8pm. Free entry.
THE PHOENIX BAR
ON THE TOWN Lunchulele
Doctor Procter’s Monday lunchtime ukulele singalong for absolute beginners. 12pm. Free. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
TUESDAY JUNE 20 ON THE TOWN
May 13 – Aug 20.
The Chandelier Show CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
Bruno Leti, ‘The painterly print’ Thu–Sun Jun 8–25. BEAVER GALLERIES
LIVE MUSIC Live Jazz @ Hippo Co
Different bands every week.
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
SOMETHING DIFFERENT Lunch Time Sing Fling 12pm, $10.
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
TALKS Collection Talk: Indigenous Lives
Discover first contact between Indigenous people and the Europeans they adopted. 6pm. $20.
Poetry slam. 7:30pm. THE PHOENIX BAR
THURSDAY JUNE 22 DANCE Rohallah
Rohallah is a dance theatre piece that tells the story of a young man seeking refuge in Australia. $12 + bf via canberratheatrecentre.com.au. THE COURTYARD STUDIO
WORKSHOPS Building Your Story
Exploring plot and structure. Keynote by author Stephanie Owen Reeder. 6pm. ALIA HOUSE
Mere Women
With Wives and Little Lunch. 8pm. $15 at Moshtix. TRANSIT BAR
Dragonforce
Tickets at tickets.destroyalllines.com. THE BASEMENT
ON THE TOWN Chicago Charles & Danger Dave 9pm. Free.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Bruno Leti, ‘The painterly print’
Thu–Sun Jun 8–25. BEAVER GALLERIES
Hoods
Nicole Breedon, Sean Davey, Rowan Kane and Paul Williams. ANCA GALLERY
Nicole Ayliffe: Studio Glass Thu–Sun Jun 8–25. BEAVER GALLERIES
The Colour of Eucalyptus
An exhibition by Sally Blake featuring colours extracted from over 200 species of eucalypts. Free. Until Sunday June 25. AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS
The Chandelier Show
Curator: Jane Cush. Entry by donation. Until Aug 7. CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
COMEDY
CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
POLIT BAR & LOUNGE
Hosted by Cal Wilson. 7pm. Tickets $46.90 + bf via canberratheatrecentre. com.au.
DANCE Rohallah
9pm. $10/$5.
Rohallah is a dance theatre piece that tells the story of a young man seeking refuge in Australia. $12 + bf via canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
THE PHOENIX BAR
THE COURTYARD STUDIO
Rock Academy
LIVE MUSIC
LIVE MUSIC The Fuelers
Music for Canberra’s Rock Academy bands perform their end of term concert. 5pm. Free.
Rock Or Be Rocked
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
Classic rock covers. 8pm start.
East Row Rabble
Daniel Champagne
GUNDAROO COLONIAL INN
Info and tickets at bit.ly/2jOZpjN. THE POLISH WHITE EAGLE CLUB
Ayla
Info at transitbar.com.au. TRANSIT BAR
Hoodlum Shouts // Agency Winter Visits
THE PHOENIX BAR
LOBROW GALLERY & BAR
ART EXHIBITIONS
Power Pussies #2
9pm.
With My Official Failure and more TBA.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Kegs n Karaoke
LIVE MUSIC
5pm/10pm. Free.
Rohallah is a dance theatre piece that tells the story of a young man seeking refuge in Australia. $12 + bf via canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
KARAOKE
TRIVIA
THE PHOENIX BAR
Rohallah
Melbourne’s Sophie deLightful presents. 8pm. $25.
Elm Tree Circle
With Morgy.
DANCE
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
Rock n Roll Trivia
THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ
THE COURTYARD STUDIO
Bing!! Bang!! Beng!! Bong!! Bung!!
Five local musicians test new material in a series of short sets, before a full special guest set. 7pm. $5.
All female show exhibiting the Art Practice of women who live alternative lives. Opens Jun 16 @ 6pm.
HIPPO BAR
BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!
Max O’Sullivan/ Code Red
SATURDAY JUNE 24
THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ
An exhibition by Sally Blake featuring colours extracted from over 200 species of eucalypts. Free. Until Sunday June 25.
8pm. Free.
With Marlon Bando & Petre Out. 8pm. Local favourite East Row Rabble are launching a music video for their 2016 single, ‘Aliens in My Brain’, which addresses mental illness through a rollercoaster of sci-fi pop culture references. The film clip perfectly captures the essence of the song through a 3D generated space landscape, a pair of freaky alien backup dancers, and some ridiculous antics by the band members. We can’t advise enough that you get amongst the Rabble. With special guest, Cherie Kotek. 9:30pm. Entry is $15.
LOBROW GALLERY & BAR
Hard Cover 9pm. Free.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
La Bastard
Info at labastard.com.
THE POLISH WHITE EAGLE CLUB
facebook.com/bmamagazine
PAGE 75
[ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE] SATURDAY JUNE 24 SOMETHING DIFFERENT
Canberra Roller Derby League
SOMETHING DIFFERENT Stephanie Smee: No Place to Lay One’s Head Meet the translator of No Place to Lay One’s Head. In association with l’alliance francaise. MUSE: FOOD, WINE, BOOKS
MONDAY JUNE 26 ART EXHIBITIONS Alter Egos
The Black ‘n’ Blue Belles are matching off against the Red Bellied Black Hearts in game four of Canberra Roller Derby League. These bouts are action packed and great value. Whether it’s for a home season game or watching CRDL’s representative team the Vice City Rollers take on interstate visitors, you are guaranteed to see teams showcasing their strength, speed, agility and style as they do battle on the flat track. Doors are at 6pm. More info and tickets can be found at crdl.com.au. SOUTHERN CROSS STADIUM
SUNDAY JUNE 25 LIVE MUSIC Irish Jam Session
Traditional Irish musicians in the pub from late afternoon. Free. KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Matt Dent
Awesome Aussie roots music. 6.30pm. WALT & BURLEY
JUN 24 – JUL 1
All female show exhibiting the Art Practice of women who live alternative lives. Opens Jun 16 @ 6pm.
TUESDAY JUNE 27 LIVE MUSIC Old Timey Tuesday
The old time/folk/acoustic open jam where we party like it’s 1899. 7pm. Free. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
SOMETHING DIFFERENT Lunch Time Sing Fling
THEATRE Cyrano de Bergerac
8pm. Ticket prices at canberratheatrecentre.com.au THE PLAYHOUSE
WORKSHOPS Smith’s Scribblers
Lunchtime life drawing. 12:30pm. $15/$10. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
12pm, $10.
FRIDAY JUNE 30
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
TRIVIA
FILM
LIVE MUSIC
ANU Film Group Presents Movie Trivia
Essential Kurosawa: Selected By Stratton
Capital Club
THE PHOENIX BAR
THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ
An open band rehearsal full fun party vibes! 9:30pm. Free.
With Henry & Adam.
WEDNESDAY JUNE 28
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
Smith’s Poetry Jam
David Stratton will be attending our closing night screening of the 4K restoration of Rashomon. $12-$14 or season pass $75-$80. For more information, visit nfsa.gov.au.
NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE
Non-competitive open mic and writing workshop rolled into one. 7pm. Free.
ART EXHIBITIONS
The Bootleg Sessions
Opens 6pm Jun 28 until Jul 9.
Ryan David / Special K
THE PHOENIX BAR
The Chandelier Show
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
Classic rock and blues. 8pm. Free. More information at bandmix.com.au/ mac11943/
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
PIN 7
LIVE MUSIC 5pm/10pm. Free.
8pm. Free entry.
ANCA GALLERY
ON THE TOWN
Curator: Jane Cush. Entry by donation. Until Aug 7.
Rock Or Be Rocked
COMEDY
MAGPIES SPORTS CLUB
Lunchulele
Doctor Procter’s Monday lunchtime ukulele singalong for absolute beginners. 12pm. Free. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
Open Mic Comedy at The Phoenix 8pm.
THE PHOENIX BAR
LIVE MUSIC Classical Capers
An open mic for classical musicians, with an extended special guest set. 7pm. Free.
Friday Night Fiesta 9pm. $10.
THE PHOENIX BAR
Bluegrass Parkway
Bluegrass music 1940s style, strong & 4 part harmonies as well as some pretty fancy footwork! 8pm. Free. HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
Trent Bell
Hold On Australia Tour. 7pm. Tickets $25 + bf via Moshtix.
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
THE BASEMENT
Live Jazz @ Hippo Co
ON THE TOWN
HIPPO BAR
Ab Fab - The Party
Different bands every week.
THEATRE
With Tammy Paks.
Cyrano de Bergerac
THEATRE
8pm. Ticket prices at canberratheatrecentre.com.au THE PLAYHOUSE
THURSDAY JUNE 29
POLIT BAR & LOUNGE
Cyrano de Bergerac
8pm. Ticket prices at canberratheatrecentre.com.au THE PLAYHOUSE
SATURDAY JULY 1
KARAOKE Kegs n Karaoke
9pm.
THE PHOENIX BAR
LIVE MUSIC Bay City Rollers
Info at cscc.com.au.
ART EXHIBITIONS The Chandelier Show
Curator: Jane Cush. Entry by donation. Until Aug 7. CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
PIN 7
CANBERRA SOUTHERN CROSS CLUB (WODEN)
Opens 6pm Jun 28 until Jul 9.
Melvyn Tan & Haydn’s Paris
FILM
$35-$60. australianhaydn.com.au/ events/2017/6/29/melvyn-tan-haydnsparis. ALBERT HALL
Woodface Duo 9pm. Free.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
ANCA GALLERY
Antony and Cleopatra
Info at palacecinemas.com.au. PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA
LIVE MUSIC The Mighty Yak 10:30pm. Free.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
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@bmamag
[ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE] SATURDAY JULY 1 LIVE MUSIC The Ivory Elephant
WEDNESDAY JULY 5 ART EXHIBITIONS PIN 7
Wesley & The Crushers and An Inconvenient Groove.
Opens 6pm Jun 28 until Jul 9.
Matt Dent
Curator: Jane Cush. Entry by donation. Until Aug 7.
THE PHOENIX BAR
Awesome Aussie roots music. 9pm. THE DURHAM
Orsome Welles
With Tundrel and Hence The Testbed. 8pm. $15.30 at Oztix. THE BASEMENT
THEATRE Cyrano de Bergerac
2pm and 8pm. Ticket prices at canberratheatrecentre.com.au THE PLAYHOUSE
MONDAY JULY 3
ANCA GALLERY
The Chandelier Show CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
FILM Jumpcuts
Local independent short films. 7:30pm. Free. THE PHOENIX BAR
Irish Jam Session
Traditional Irish musicians in the pub from late afternoon. Free. KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
The Bootleg Sessions 8pm. Free entry.
THE PHOENIX BAR
ON THE TOWN Lunchulele
Doctor Procter’s Monday lunchtime ukulele singalong for absolute beginners. 12pm. Free. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
Clare Bowen
With guest Timothy James Bowen. 7:30pm. Tickets $79 + bf at canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
Oliver Downes
Intricate piano, with hummable melodies and thought-provoking lyrics. Support from Pocket Fox. 7pm.
Just A Gent MR WOLF
Jesse Valach presents Blues Mountain
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Steve Edmonds Band
HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
Fiery blues/soul infused, reggae/roots inspired music. 8pm Free Entry.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT The Salt Room 7.30pm. $10/$5.
GORMAN HOUSE ARTS CENTRE
SATURDAY JULY 8 ART EXHIBITIONS PIN 7
Opens 6pm Jun 28 until Jul 9. ANCA GALLERY
The Chandelier Show
Book launch for Clancy’s Hat
6pm. Alienated by city life Tim walks into the Australian Alps, where he discovers the Dreaming and the myths of Australia. Free (bookings required). NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
THURSDAY JULY 6
9pm. Free.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Jane Irving and Kevin Hailey
Thursday night jazz: cheery, feel-good music with scat crooning. 7pm. $15/$10 CMC members. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
8pm. $49.90 + bf via canberratheatrecentre.com.au. CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
LIVE MUSIC The Surrogates 10.30pm. Free.
Variety Concert
A gathering of local singers, musicians and dancers perform Indian folk songs and Bollywood dance. 1pm. Free. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
Gabby Williams and John McCarthy $10. 7pm.
THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ
Wavevom
With more TBA.
LOBROW GALLERY & BAR
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
TALKS
Shoeb Ahmad – “mask-ed” Single Launch
TRIVIA Trivia with Chris Endrey 6.30pm.
12.30pm.
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
It’s a Gin Thing Masterclass
Like to make some gin, just for you? Award winning Canberra Distillery founder & master distiller Tim Reardon will show you how. POLIT BAR & LOUNGE
Lunchulele
Doctor Procter’s Monday lunchtime ukulele singalong for absolute beginners. 12pm. Free. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
TUESDAY JULY 11 LIVE MUSIC Bookings at 6247 7838 or gpage40@ bigpond.net.au. $22/$15.
Lulo Reinhardt and Bart Stenhouse
Gypsy Swing and Latin Fusion. 7pm. $37.50 via bartstenhouse.com. THE BASEMENT
SOMETHING DIFFERENT Lunch Time Sing Fling 12pm, $10.
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
$10/$15. Tix at the door.
GORMAN HOUSE ARTS CENTRE
FRIDAY JULY 28 SOMETHING DIFFERENT
BadBoys
The BadBoys are back for Christmas in July and they’re bringing their naughty list to The Woden Tradies for one unmissable night on Friday 28 July 2017! The BadBoys promise an incredible night of giggles and crowd interaction; perfect for Hens parties, birthdays, or just a fun night out! Doors open at 7pm and tickets are on sale now for just $35 each. Call 02 6285 1995 to book! THE WODEN TRADIES
WORKSHOPS Smith’s Scribblers
Lunchtime life drawing. 12:30pm. $15/$10. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
THE PHOENIX BAR
WORKSHOPS
ON THE TOWN
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
NAIDOC Collection Talk: Our Voice
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
MONDAY JULY 10
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
TALKS
12.30pm.
A juicy stew of Blues, Funk, Jazz & Rock. 3pm Gen $20/ CBS $15.
The Umbilical Brothers – Speedmouse
CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
12pm, $10.
NAIDOC Week Event: Our Languages Matter
Irish Jam Session
Traditional Irish musicians in the pub from late afternoon. Free.
Info at mrwolfclub.com.au.
THE RUC (TURNER)
Natalie Prevedello Duo
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
LIVE MUSIC
COMEDY
HIPPO BAR
TABLA Bellydance
Lunch Time Sing Fling
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Different bands every week.
Live Jazz @ Hippo Co
LIVE MUSIC
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
5pm/10pm. Free.
SUNDAY JULY 9
Sandy Evans & Friends
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
DANCE
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
Betty Altenburg/ Oscar
Curator: Jane Cush. Entry by donation. Until Aug 7.
TUESDAY JULY 4
Enjoy energetic original choreographies and cheeky improvisations to recorded and live music. 7pm. $10.
LIVE MUSIC
LIVE MUSIC
CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
LIVE MUSIC
JUL 1 – JUL 28
FRIDAY JULY 7 DANCE Eclipse
Illusion and dance spectacular by master illusionist Anthony Street. 7.30pm. $64.90 + bf via canberratheatrecentre.com.au. CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
Listings are a free community service. Email editorial@bmamag.com to have your events appear each issue.
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FIRST CONTACT Aaron Peacey 0410381306 band.afternoon.shift@ gmail.com.au Adam Hole 0421023226 Afternoon Shift 0402055314 Amphibian Sound PA Clare 0410308288 Annie & The Armadillos Annie (02) 61611078/ 0422076313
Cole Bennetts Photography 0415982662 Danny V Danny 0413502428 Dawn Theory Nathan 0402845132 Danny 0413502428 Dorothy Jane Band, The Dorothy Jane 0411065189 dorothy-jane@dorothyjane.com Drumassault Dan 0406 375 997
Johnny Roadkill Paulie 0408287672 paulie_mcmillan@live.com.au Kayo Marbilus facebook.com/kayomarbilus1 Kurt’s Metalworx (PA) 0417025792 Los Chavos Latin/ska/reggae Rafa 0406647296 Andy 0401572150
Rock Doctor Industries musical amplification/sound reinforcement/public address/ hi-fi/DJ equipment rockdoctorindustries@gmail.com 0432 675 934 Rug, The Jol 0417273041 Sewer Sideshow Huck 0419630721 Simone & The Soothsayers Singing teacher Simone 62304828
Feldons, The 0407 213 701
Merloc - Recording Studio, Watson. Sam King: 0430484363. sam@merlocrecords.com
Fire on the Hill Aaron 0410381306 Lachlan 0400038388
Missing Zero Hadrian 0424721907 hadrian.brand@live.com.au
Fourth Degree Vic 0408477020 Gareth Dailey DJ/Electronica Gareth 0414215885
Morning After, The Covers band Anthony 0402500843
Groovalicious Corporate/ weddings/private functions 0448995158
Mornings Jordan 0439907853
Strange Hour Events Dan 0411112075
Birds Love Fighting Gangbusters/DIY shows-bookings@ birdslovefighting.com
Obsessions 0450 960 750 obsessions@grapevine.com.au
Super Best Friends Greg greg@gunfever.com.au
Guy The Sound Guy Live & Studio Sound Engineer 0400585369 guy@guythesoundguy.com
Painted Hearts, The Peter (02) 62486027
System Addict Jamie 0418398556
Polka Pigs Ian (02) 62315974
Black Label Photography Kingsley 0438351007 blacklabelphotography.net
Haunted Attics band@hauntedatticsmusic.com
Rafe Morris 0416322763
Tegan Northwood (Singing Teacher) 0410 769 144
Aria Stone sax/flute/lute/ harmonica, singer-songwriter Aria 0411803343 Australian Songwriters Association Keiran (02) 62310433 Back to the Eighties Ty Emerson 0418 544 014 Backbeat Drivers Steve 0422733974 backbeatdrivers.com
Bridge Between, The Cam 0431550005 Chris Harland Blues Band, The Chris 0418 490 649 chrisharlandbluesband @gmail.com
PAGE 78
In The Flesh Scott 0410475703 Itchy Triggers Alex 0414838480 Jenn Pacor Singer-songwriter avail. for originals/covers 0405618630
Redletter Ben 0421414472 Redsun Rehearsal Studio Ralph 0404178996/ (02) 61621527
Sorgonian Twins, The Mark 0428650549 Soundcity Rehearsal Studio Andrew 0401588884 STonKA Jamie 0422764482 stonka2615@gmail.com
Top Shelf Colin 0408631514 Undersided, The Baz 0408468041 Zoopagoo zoopagoo@gmail.com
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