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[CONTENTS]
[Canberra’s Entertainment Guide]
#496AUG/SEP
Say hi to your mum for me Mail: PO Box 713 Civic Square, ACT 2608
CAMP COPE
Publisher Radar Media Pty Ltd.
p. 28
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 Emma Robinson
PLACEBO
p. 20
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
p. 22
THE PREATURES
p. 23
AJJ
p. 34
MICHAEL MOSLEY
PUTTIN ON THE RITZ
Entertainment Guide Editor Nicola Sheville Social Media Manager Sharona Lin Columnists Cody Atkinson, Dan Bigna, Noni Doll, Leanne Duck, Cara Lennon, Sharona Lin, Joshua Martin, Josh Nixon, Peter O’Rourke, Alice Worley Contributors (This Issue) Jeremy Edwards, Jasper Hagan, Morgan Hain, John P. Harvey, Belinda Healy, Blake Howard, Sam Ingham, Pat Johnson, Gabby Marshall, Rory McCartney, Jarrod McGrath, Andrew Myers, Keren Nicholson, Patrick Ogisi, Geoff Page, Matt Parnell, Thomas Spillane, Claudia Tilley, Samuel Townsend, Indigo Trail, Kashmira Mohamed Zagor NEXT ISSUE #497 OUT Wednesday September 13 EDITORIAL DEADLINE Friday September 1 ADVERTISING DEADLINE Friday September 8 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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LITERATURE IN REVIEW ALBUM REVIEWS FILM REVIEWS THE WORD ON GIGS ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE
p. 42
CELEBRATE p. 52 GHIBLI
p. p. p. p. p.
53 56 66 68 72
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FROM THE BOSSMAN [CHEAT SHEET FOR APPEARING MORE INTELLIGENT THAN YOU ACTUALLY ARE] BY ALLAN SKO [ALLAN@BMAMAG.COM]
Hello sexy readers! Good to have you with us. That you’re reading these cobbled together words demonstrates at least a modicum of devotion to this ‘ere rag (and, he ventures with barely disguised egotism, to me myself). As a result, I believe you deserve a reward. And that reward is, the thing I wrote as the title for this column. (It’s just up there, look. Have a quick peek now. I’ll wait…) As a so-called writer, occasional editor, and definite magazine owner, I oft encounter in my daily life as a human a certain - shall we say – “caution” when interacting with my fellow human via social media or email.
Fine. It means everything is fine. It’s one of the wankiest words I know and – through its execution via your supple lips – instantly gives you 25 more IQ points than you actually have. “How was the weekend, Allan?” “Oh, y’know … Copacetic.” Instant genius. Tip #2 – Make up your own words that have a clever meaning. And if you can’t come up with them yourself, steal them from others. Good writers borrow; great writers steal after all.
Trust me; I am NOT Intelligent. My ex-wife can fill you in on the details there.
Par example (oh yes, Tip #2.5 … Throw in some random other language terms like French or Latin; that always makes you sound more intelligere) … The word “forelog”. We all know about going on holiday or having a sick day and having a backlog of work. The “forelog” is the tremendous amount of work you have to do BEFORE you go on holiday. Cute, no?
Now whilst I old fashionedly refuse to indulge in the Orwellian newspeak of modern texting (I will forever write ‘you’ instead of u, and ‘for’ instead of 4 … I get the advantages of abbreviation, I really do, but fuck that) as far as your SPG goes? I couldn’t give a toss. I am the very LAST person in a position to judge anyone. About anything.
There’s also this little beauty – we all know about making someone’s acquaintance. But if you’re “meeting” someone for the first time via email, then say it’s a pleasure to make their e-quaintance. E, get it? It’s equal parts twee, smartarse and funny, and will put you in good stead as the learned person you’re pretending to be.
This said, I do swim in the Scrooge McDuck style Money Bin of language and wordage as a job, and thus have collected a couple of little “life hacks” (as I believe the kids say) to make you sound more intelligent than you actually are. To whit…
Tip #3 – Your Mum jokes, the phrase “that’s what she said” and double entendres (there’s that French again) will forever be hilarious. Forever. (YOUR MUM’s hilarious … See? Priceless). Do not, however, utter one when meeting someone for the first time. They are to be reserved for people who know you for the lovable twat you are. For the first impression meet, avoid at all costs.
Y’see, people – perhaps due to my role – tend to get nervous about their words, spelling, grammar and punctuation around me, and tend to mistake me for some kind of Intelligent Person.
Tip #1 – Adopt the word ‘copacetic’ into your daily speech. Great word, that. Copacetic. Sounds like some kind of exotic health condition, or a scientific term for the structure of atoms, or even the name of a moon for one of the distant planets. Know what it actually means?
Alrightey then; that should keep you in good stead for now. I hope you’ve found this column copacetic whilst with a soupcon of bon vivre and … Well … Yer Mum.
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EDITOR’S BLAB [GOODBYE MY LOVER, GOODBYE MY FRIEND]
WITH ANDREW NARDI [EDITORIAL@BMAMAG.COM]
Yeesh. I didn’t think I’d actually reach the point where I’d be completely satisfied with all the work I’ve poured into this magazine, that I can comfortably walk away from it. They say you should strive to leave your job in a better state than you found it, and I feel confident that BMA is in a healthy place at the moment. Is it on track to becoming the next Beat or The Music? I mean, all we can do is try. Rolling Stone or NME, then? Woo, settle down there, pardner. But yes, in case you can’t infer it, this is my last issue at BMA. We had fun though, didn’t we? Like the time I printed that Tidbit on The Hard-Ons, trying to fit as many dick puns as I could into it, only to receive an angry call from the promoter the next day. Boy, did I miss the mark on that one. I mean, tough crowd, right? Yowza. In all seriousness, there’s been a fair number of changes made to the mag in recent months and I think Canberrans are actually starting to notice, and even, heaven forbid, care about their live music and arts scenes. On the frontlines, myself and many others have started to pick up on an increased number of attendees at gigs; punters are starting to buy pre-sale tickets early on and most shockingly of all, people have been picking up and reading this little mag in the highest numbers we’ve seen in ages. Sure, we’ve still got gigs and events drawing half as big a turnout as we’d hoped for or even expected, but it’s a slow process. Baby steps. Now that both our magazine and website have been given a facelift, the intention is to keep finding new ways to support live music, arts and entertainment in Canberra. And hey, we’re always looking for volunteers who want to help out; young or old, experienced or not.
If you feel like you can add something to your local street press, go ahead and contact me at editorial@bmamag.com. Well actually, I would like to say that you’ll be contacting me, but you’ll really be contacting my successor, Hayden Fritzlaff, who will be taking over that email address and all my other responsibilities for the foreseeable future. Yes, BMA goes through editors like Field Day punters go through a bag of pingers, but all things run their course and sometimes you just gotta know when to bow out and let someone else put their own spin on things. Know when to hold ‘em, fold ‘em, run, et cetera. Me? I’m off to Dublin, actually. I landed an internship there with a graphic design firm. Just a small thing though, I’ll be back. Wouldn’t want to miss our 500th issue (in December). Yeah, did you even know? The big five-oh-oh. And in the same year as BMA’s 25th birthday, too. Are you expecting some sort of party? Keep your ear to the ground, sucker. There’ll be details coming out soon, courtesy of this mob. This mob being, my dear boss and friend Allan Sko. He’s had a few rough patches here and there but he’s all right, and he’s got the wits to keep this ship sailing a steady course. I have faith in him, and Hayden as well, and also in our awesome team of writers and photographers, who continue to turn over some astoundingly good content every month. I’m grateful for you all, thanks a bunch for making this mag such a cool thing. I suck at goodbyes, so smell ya later. Enjoy this issue as well – some of my all-time favourite musicians are littered throughout. Peace.
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[TIDBITS]
UPCOMING GIGS
Bambounou / DJ Set / Fri Aug 18 / Mr Wolf Bambounou is one of the two French elements on Berlin-based label 50 Weapons, skillfully led by Modeselektor’s duet with whom he has worked with since 2012. At the age of only 24 and seven EPs and an album behind him, Bambounou has quickly risen as one of the major acts of the
French and European house and techno scenes. His productions, widely inspired by the Chicago, Detroit and London scenes, have already proven the extent of his talent. Support from Genie, Bob Crane and Kangaroo Life Saver. [10pm]
Sarah McLeod / Album Tour / Sun Aug 20 / Transit Bar It’s been 12 years since her first solo work. Now, ARIA Award winning, platinum-selling artist Sarah McLeod is set to release her highly anticipated forthcoming studio album Rocky’s Diner. The album marks a radical change of creative gears for Sarah. Following
her achievements as the front woman of South Australian rock-band The Superjesus, she made her first move as a solo artist in 2005 with her debut album Beauty Was A Tiger. Support from Alana Wilkinson. [6pm / $28.60 via Oztix]
Kuniko Kato / Workshop & Concert / Thu Aug 30– Fri Sep 1 / Groove Warehouse Kuniko Kato is a Japanese soloist and one of the most gifted percussionists in today’s contemporary and classical music scene. She is renowned for her flawless technique when playing both keyboard and percussion instruments, which blends seamlessly with her PAGE 16
profound musical intelligence. Her two-day residency at Groove Warehouse is part of her 2017 Australian national tour, and will include an intensive marimba Workshop as well as a concert. [$35-$50 via groovewarehouse. com.au]
Self Talk / EP Tour / Fri Aug 18 / The Phoenix Melbourne indie pop/rock quintet, Self Talk have just released their new EP titled Almost Everything. Wasting no time, the band has already hit the road to tour their new songs, co-headlining an Australian tour with Brief Habits. With a 90s influenced wistfulness, punk energy and dash of pop that
has become Self Talk’s signature sound, the band are inspiring through heartache and hindsight, nostalgia and new beginnings. With extra support from Slagatha Christie and Helena Pop. [8pm / $10 entry]
The Ocean Party / Album Tour / Mon Aug 21 / The Phoenix Melbourne by Wagga Wagga six-piece, The Ocean Party are pleased to announce the release of their seventh album, Beauty Point. To celebrate, they have announced an extensive Australian tour. Recorded in two parts, Beauty Point began to be realised in a week of sessions at
a house/studio in Stanwell Park, N.S.W. The beautiful cliffside location was contrasted by the album’s final sessions, which took place in the band’s inland hometown of Wagga Wagga. With support from Dog Name, Territory and Danger Beach. [8pm / $10 entry]
Tex, Don & Charlie / Album Tour / Wed Sep 6 / The Street Theatre Following the release of their third studio album You Don’t Know Lonely, Tex, Don & Charlie will hit the road en route to Canberra this September, visiting regional and metropolitan locations with their fiery brand of alt-country in tow. Tex, Don & Charlie are masters of evocative,
story-driven songwriting. You Don’t Know Lonely’ follows on from 2005’s Australian Music Prize nominee All Is Forgiven, and the 1995 Australian music classic Sad But True. Support from The Ahern Brothers. [7:30pm / $60 via thestreet.org.au]
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BMA BAND
PROFILE [LOCAL ACTS TO WATCH]
LOCALITY
[THE WORD ON LOCAL MUSIC] WITH NONI DOLL [NONIJDOLL@GMAIL.COM / @NONIDOLL]
VIDEO BREEZY Group members: James Roberson (vocals and guitar), Eadie Newman (lead guitar), Jonathan Corcoran (drums) Where did your band name come from? The name is a pun on the former DVD rental store. RIP. Describe your sound. Emo / Shoegaze. Who are your influences, musical or otherwise? We take influences from artists including American Football, King Krule, Explosions in the Sky, Cloud Nothings, Arrows, Sufjan Stevens, Smashing Pumpkins, Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. What’s the most memorable experience you’ve had while performing? We played a show to a crowd consisting mostly of the next band’s mums. The other band wasn’t even there. They were proud. Of what are you proudest of so far? See above.
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What are your plans for the future? We are currently recording our first EP, which we are hoping to release in the coming months. What makes you laugh? Truth or Dare. What pisses you off? People ragging on Canberra. What about the Canberra scene would you change? More crossover between different genres at shows. What are your upcoming gigs? To be announced, our Facebook.
check
Contact Info: Facebook: videobreezy
facebook.com/
If you’re feeling a bit down and out, The Phoenix will be marking the fact that sometimes no-one told you life would be this way. Maybe your life’s a joke, you’re broke, or your love life’s DOA? Or maybe you’re upset because nobody wants to be your friend when you’re constantly quoting 90s TV themes. Whatever the reason, head down to the Pheno on Wednesday August 23 from 8pm for Sad Old Bastard Night, where you’ll be able to drown your sorrows in the melancholy melodies of Tom Woodward, Evan Buckley and Jim Sharrock. Join in the depressed-fest, have a mid-week tipple or three, and you’re sure to be feeling better in no time. Feeling like something a little bit more upbeat that you can shake your booty to? Then the Friday Night Fiesta on Friday August 25 at The Phoenix is just what the doctor ordered. You’ll be treated to a set from Los Chavos, with plenty of other surprises right across the night. It kicks off at 9pm and goes as late as they can push it, which means the $10 that gets you in the door is going to stretch a long way! Jazz lovers have got some great little treats coming up for them at Smith’s Alternative. On Friday August 25, Zackerbilks will bring a little bit of Gatsby glamour to the cosy little venue, presenting their dixie jazz from 9:30pm, with an entry price of $15, or $10 for Canberra Musicians Club members. On Saturday August 26, it’ll be something with a little more blues folded in, with Key Grip taking the stage from 9:30pm, with entry again sitting at $15 and $10 for CMC members. For those who are fans of both ragtime and something a little bit outside the norm, The Parlour Social will be back turning a whole bunch of stuffy classical
favourites into jumpin’ tunes on Thursday August 17 from 7pm. Entry is once again $15, or $10 for CMC members. It’s been too long since we last heard from Glitoris, so it’s a delight to know that not only do they have new material in the works, they’re also playing their first ever all ages gig on Friday September 1 at the Pop-Up at ANU. Their support line-up is pretty bloody great too, consisting of Bleach It Clean and Slagatha Christie, with MILF Camp playing the roles of MC. The loud music, swears and “dangerous” political commentary starts at 8pm, but if you’re clever, you’ll be there when doors open at 7pm. Because of the fact that the gig is all ages, if you want to partake in an alcoholic beverage, you’ll need to bring +18 ID. Entry is $20, with $15 concessions, and you can grab your tickets at TryBooking, which is a particularly clever idea, given that Glitoris gigs have a pesky habit of selling out, so get on it! The Food Co-Op’s Acoustic Soup is a beautiful joining of music and a delicious hot meal. If that concept appeals, head along on Wednesday August 30 from 7pm, and for $12 you can grab a bowl of soup and enjoy sets from ALOÏSE, Dom Lavers, Sebastian Field and James Hamilton.
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JUST A LITTLE KICK OF THE FOOTY
BY CODY ATKINSON PHOTO BY MEGAN LEAHY
After over two decades of play in Melbourne, and recent expansion across the country, the RECLINK COMMUNITY CUP has finally landed in Canberra for the first time. Historically, the Community Cup has pitted members of the vibrant Melbourne community media scene (The Megahertz) against the local music that they talk and write about (The Rockdogs). The game, whose proceeds go to charity, features live music and entertainment throughout, including some of those who get on the park as well.
opportunities,” local Community Cup organiser Davey J (from 2XX’s The Big Gee Up) said. The Community Cup is one of
Reclink’s major fundraising events, raising more than $100,000 to help people get to a better place through sports and the arts. Reclink relies on the hard work of volunteers to get the Community Cup going, and to provide for those people who need it most. Whilst the game may (will) be fun, raising money to help others is the real purpose of the Community Cup. Several bands have been lined up to play on the day, including veteran local indie rockers, Waterford, local rocksteady and ska warriors The Kingstons, and the Mixtape Chorus, who will be
singing the current and future national anthems (‘Advance Australia Fair’ and the GoBetweens’ ‘Streets Of Your Town’ respectively). If you like music, footy or charity, make sure you pick a side and get down on the day. And make sure that side is the Noise. The first CANBERRA RECLINK COMMUNITY CUP will be played on Sunday September 10 at Jamison Oval. There will be food and drink stalls there on the day, and plenty of entertainment for the whole family. Entry is $10, or $5 for under 12s.
In Canberra, the formula is more or less the same, with the musos donning the red, yellow and black of the Lime Stones, and the wider media (including The Canberra Times, the ABC, The Conversation, 2XX and this fine publication) proudly wearing the red and white of the Noise. The Noise have even roped in a recently elected MLA, Mark Parton (formerly of 2CC). Parton even managed to win the raffle at the launch packed full of 2XX merch, which I guess we can now expect to see on the floor of the Assembly. As one potential Lime Stone, Waterford’s Glen Martin, told me, the Cup will be fought between the Lime Stones and “flailing hacks from failing organisations.” But while the day is ostensibly a footy match between two historically “rivalling” forces, there will be one clear winner regardless of what the scoreboard says at the end of four quarters. “Reclink Australia’s aim is to enhance the lives of people experiencing disadvantage or facing significant barriers to participation, through providing new and unique sports and arts facebook.com/bmamagazine
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PHOTO BY PAGE 20
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P L A C E B O 20 YEARS SURVIVING AND
OF THRIVING
BY JARROD MCGRATH
It’s great when major international acts decide to include Canberra on their tour schedule. Especially when it’s a milestone tour that’s dedicated to giving the fans what they most want. Fortunately for us this will be the case when London’s PLACEBO stops by to give us their 20 Years of Placebo tour. Bassist Stefan Olsdal gave me the lowdown on what fans can expect from such an epic tour.
endorsements we believed that what we’re doing is not shit.”
“The preparations began about a year ago,” says Olsdal. “We were faced with the fact that we had to go out on tour and play songs that we don’t like. Basically because it’s the 20th anniversary right, and it’s got a connotation of celebration, it became clear to us that this was probably the only time in history that we would have to bring out these songs that we had previously killed off. So the preparation was an attitude change, we had to approach the whole tour with an attitude of celebrating all things Placebo even if we didn’t personally like them, and to make the tour about the fans really, and play the songs that are the fans’ favourites; changing our attitudes to suit other people’s needs than our own. It took a few shows to get into it but now that we have toured it, it works, we’ve had some amazing experiences with the crowd, so that has made it all okay.”
“As musicians you can’t stop, it’s something that musicians are cursed with. You can’t really retire as a musician, y’know, there’s always something going on. It’s gotta mean something and be something you stand by 100 percent. The more albums you do the harder it becomes to fulfill all your own criteria for what constitutes a worthwhile album. In your 20s you’re kinda gung ho and as you get older you realise that you are mortal and you have to keep up the standard. It kind of becomes more work. It just means that it might take a little longer for an album to come out. We’re aware that we haven’t had a new album out since 2012, so for me it’s starting to feel like a long time.”
Given the band have now been around for 20 years I took the opportunity to get some relationship advice from Olsdal about how he and Brian Molko (singer/guitarist) reconcile any conflicts and keep the relationship going so long. “Counselling maybe,” suggests Olsdal. “I don’t know. I think all relationships need a bit of advice now and then. We survived it, we’re survivors eventually ‘cos there’s this thing called Placebo,
that we just kinda hold onto dear life sometimes. It’s the only thing that we know how to do. It’s crucial to our existence. So sometimes we just follow that blindly and we sacrifice our mental wellbeing just to keep it going. Essentially we’re bound by this desire to just keep the band alive. It’s basically what keeps us alive, so we can’t do without it.” The band has worked with some impressive names in the music and creative world over their career, from Brett Easton Ellis through to Michael Stipe. “I guess the most poignant one is the work we did with David Bowie, which has kinda become more poignant during this tour because we’ve been playing the track that we did together, and
They have released a new song, ‘Life’s What You Make It’, to celebrate the tour, so can we expect an album anytime soon? “I wouldn’t rule it out,” says Olsdal. “I tend to focus on the day and right now what we’ve got is this tour. I like to focus my energies on today because you don’t really know what’s gonna happen.
[Placebo is] basically what keeps us alive, so we can’t do without it when we do so we’re projecting images of Mr. Bowie himself. So it was very emotional to perform it because of his recent passing. It’s a reminder of how incredibly fortunate we are to have shared moments with him and have him sing on one of our tracks,” Olsdal reflects. “We’ve also shared stages with Robert Smith and Frank Black. Those are the moments when you realise what we are doing is okay, with these
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I didn’t realise this will actually be the group’s second time in our nation’s capital, and it seems our wintery ways will suit them. “We have, it was a long time ago. I think it was around the fourth album. We’re glad to be coming back on our own accord because the last few times to Australia, it has been to do the Soundwave festival and we just said that we cannot go to Australia and play in 45-degree celsius heat in direct
sunlight. It was some of the most uncomfortable experiences that we’ve had.” I think Canberrans have gotten better at buying presale tickets over the years (especially after we have had quite a few sellout shows in the last few years). Given my gratitude for such a major tour coming to us, and having previously had big shows being cancelled because of low sales, I was curious as to whether ticket sales are something the band get involved in at all. “Yeah, obviously we’re standing looking at the ticket sales every night on stage. It’s something that we get used to. Some places are more popular than others; it’s something we gauge accordingly. We’re used to playing in front of small audiences because we did it for years and years back in the 90s. So it’s a case of taking it for what it is. We’ll put on as kickin’ a show as we possibly can, it doesn’t matter how many people show up.” For some reason I decided to try out my first dodgy, creative type question to an artist, closing my interview with Olsdal by asking him, “If you are Placebo, what is The Cure?” “It’s one of the best bands around.” I kind of had an idea this may be his response, and it was in formulating the question that I realised the relationship between the band names. Had anyone else made the correlation? “We’ve had Robert Smith play on stage with us before so, ah yeah, we have.” Mmm, now to decide if I do those types of questions again. PLACEBO play with DEAF HAVANA at the AIS Arena on Thursday the September 14. Tickets start at $101.85 + bf, available through Ticketek.
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LIKE THE WAY QUEENS USED TO DO BY BLAKE HOWARD Before descending on Australia for a headlining gig at Splendour at the Grass (and several side shows), BMA got to chat to QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE bass player Michael Shuman about the band’s upcoming Mark Ronson (I didn’t stutter) produced VILLAINS, and joining the band coinciding with the band’s biggest record; 2013’s Like Clockwork (2013). Shuman, a Los Angeles native had no idea how his career was going to go and fully expected to live out of his van for the next decade. By chance his band/project Wires on Fire was produced by QOTSA touring regular and bassist Alain Johannes. “I made the Wires on Fire record with [Alain] and his wife. He was kinda filling because [QOTSA] didn’t have anyone for the tour, and they were looking for someone for real. He kinda mentioned me…” Getting the call from one of his favourite bands was “life changing,” in more ways than one. “I don’t know what my life would have been like without these dudes and the family that we have and that we’ve built. As much as you get to be in a rad band, play cool songs and tour the world it changes everything, every dynamic of your life.” At the release of 2013’s Like Clockwork, the creative force of QOTSA, Josh Homme revealed to listeners of Marc Maron’s podcast WTF that he had been pushing so hard for such a sustained time on a myriad of projects that he’d almost worked himself to death. His recovery had finally adjusted his unmatchable creative pace. PAGE 22
“When we were meant to go make Like Clockwork, and Josh says, ‘so I got this call from Jon Paul Jones and he wants to go do this band so I’m really sorry, we gotta postpone the record.” I was like good for you, you know, and years later I get this call, ‘Hey man, I got this call from Iggy Pop and ahhh, and he really wants to make this record’. As a friend you say, ‘You gotta go do it’.” Shuman says the “lyrically vulnerable” Like Clockwork fed off some “tough shit” the band was going through. “It was just a rough one, not only for Josh but for all of us, and losing Joey [Castillo – in the band from 2002–2012], it was a tough record to make, although we came out of it and there was light at the end of the tunnel.” If Like Clockwork fed off the personal and professional turmoil of the band, Villains is proof that the newly minted line-up has gelled and is, according to Shuman, “the strongest” the band has ever been. “The first song that we kind of discussed a couple of years ago, Josh played us a really stripped down version of ‘The Way You Used To Do’ – just that riff and the
claps – so that was kind of where our heads were at.” Villains, their latest album, somewhat controversially sees pop producer Mark Ronson presiding over the record. “I think bringing in Mark just helped us be a band and play and have someone, a sixth member to kind of oversee. We knew that he wasn’t gonna change our sound. He may have been a little nervous stepping into our dojo,” Shuman says. “He’s a fan, he gets it. He clicked immediately on a human level but also he’s got a vast knowledge of all types of music, kind of just like us – the glossary was all there.” Villains begins with Ronson taking you through an 80s/ John Carpenter synthetic portal into a series of epic throbbing rock tracks. Ronson brings the technical precision in the production. There’s not a missed note or beat; but it feels electrified. ‘Feet Don’t Fail Me’ explodes with the most chilling bass riffs I’ve heard this year. ‘The Way You Used To Do’ – the only pre-released track – is not out of place in a saloon; the toe tapping flanged guitars are dripping in bluesy cowboy cool. ‘Domestic Animals’ is a song crying out, being swallowed into the wilderness and it rolls and teeters unexpectedly one hiccup out of time but somehow never misses a beat. “Fortress” is the tent pole of the album – connecting this haunting arc but reducing the tempo. It’s a melodic, throbbing love letter where the synthetic notes are like additional strings to their unique set-ups.
of flamethrower energy. It’s the purest punk since QOTSA circa their self-titled (1998) or Rated R (2000). ‘Un-Reborn Again’ – the most Modest Mouse track title possible – it’s QOTSA signature percussive rock transposed with a misty psychedelia. ‘Hideaway’ is like the candy house in Hansel and Gretel, a honey tongued promise that ends in being consumed. ‘The Evil Has Landed’ is a vodka soaked seduction with a side of f-you; Josh in his falsetto, versus the steadily increasing heartbeat of the song and leans into this swinging flow. The chorus is like a tractor beam – the pulse just totally locks you in. ‘Here We Come’ triggers the unstoppable – come with us is the kindness; if you’re not in – we’re coming anyway. The final track ‘Villains of Circumstance’ is a proclamation; it’s a delicate epic, reverting in what you imagine is some kind of underground lair. “The songs are long, we didn’t expect that either, it goes to show you that anyone who thought, ‘Oh, Mark Ronson is gonna make them this pop band,’ I don’t think pop songs are six minutes long.” Villains is an epic and rowdy stoner rock album. What was Shuman’s goal; “to kinda play my balls off.” From that opening blazing bass funk in ‘Feet Don’t Fail Me’, it’s clear that he delivered. The new album from QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, Villains will be released Friday August 25 through Matador.
‘Head Like a Haunted House’ picks up the tempo, a re-injection @bmamag
GIRLHOOD AND IDENTITY BY CLAUDIA TILLEY “Survival,” is Izzi Manfredi’s reply when I ask her about the motivation for THE PREATURES’ second album, GIRLHOOD. The album explores the contradictions of being a modern woman, with each track representing a different stage of womanhood. It is an intensely personal record for Manfredi. One she felt an absolute necessity to write or else she felt she would not survive as an artist. “It was the first record that I learned about the craft of writing songs,” says Manfredi. “This record was about, ‘okay I’ve done that, now what do I really want to write about?’” Blue Planet Eyes was the first album released by The Preatures in 2014. It peeked at number 4 in Australia and saw the band nominated for an ARIA award. But a part of Manfredi has been put on hold. She described Blue Planet Eyes as only exercising one muscle in her body. “Girlhood was really about exploring the totalitarian of my identity.” The record was inspired by dreams Manfredi was having at the time of herself as a teenager when her parents were divorcing. “I don’t know, I had a really fucked-up adolescence,” Manfredi says openly to me. “I struggled a lot with mental illness and I was not in a good place.” The album opens with the title track and first single, ‘Girlhood’. Upbeat and messy, the song introduces the idea of the modern woman and the confusion surrounding it. The music video sees a young girl in her bedroom watching a confident Manfredi
perform on a small television, singing the lyrics, “What ever makes me a modern girl? Nothing makes me a modern girl.” The bold lyrics convey Manfredi’s battle with the external pressure to be confined to the stereotypes of being a woman. “This idea of feeling like you got to be this natural beauty,” she says. “Everything has to come easily and you got to live simply and live within your means.” Although Manfredi admits that she loves beauty and dressing up, she explores the notion deeper in Girlhood. Questioning the line between self-expression and narcissism. “I was really drawn to this concept with the record because I struggle with it on a daily basis,” she admits. “What part of this is me doing as I please and what part of is it sheer vanity?” The Preatures consists of Jack Moffitt (guitarist), Thomas Champion (bassist), Luke Davison (drums) and Manfredi. In March last year, Gideon Bensen, a key figure in the band, doubling as a vocalist and key guitarist, left to pursue a solo career. Mandfredi thought he would stay with The Preatures for the second album.
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“We were just going to smash out this record and then that didn’t happen,” she says. His departure left a big space to fill, but Manfredi was not afraid to step up. Being the only woman in the band, some artists would have found it hard to explore the theme of femininity. Not for Manfredi, who views gender as interchangeable. A relevant topic given Trump’s recent transgender ban in the military. She strongly believes each gender holds elements of masculinity and femininity. At times a male will find himself looking through a feminine gaze, and vice versa. It is important we acknowledge this as an inherently positive exchange of energies. The true creative process contains a genderless spirt. “Every time I listen to any of the songs they are a mix of feminine and masculine,” says Manfredi. “To me it is a truer representation of my identity and the band’s identity than anything I could have done as a purely feminine concept.” It is not just the concept in Girlhood that curates The Preatures’ identity but also Manfredi’s use of three different languages: English, Italian and the indigenous language of Sydney, Darug. Girlhood is the first album in history to feature songs sung in these three languages. ‘Yanada’ in Darug means “moon” and is the name of the third track on the album. The journey to use the Darug language was not easy, but one Manfredi felt extremely essential to pursue. “It’s incredible, the indigenous language is so vastly complex and full of synergy,” Mandredi
tells me. She also makes a sad point; we are brought up learning little to nothing about indigenous languages. “We only learnt rudimental, anthropological history of indigenous Australians and for us that wasn’t good enough.” The creation of ‘Yanada’ was a long process, it has been in the works since January last year. It began with Manfredi putting out calls to the indigenous community in Sydney. Through numerous phone calls that spanned a time of nine months the band began forming connections. It was Jacinta Tobin, a Darug elder, that taught Manfredi part of the language and gave permission to use Yanada. It’s undoubtedly rare to hear indigenous language in mainstream Australian music. The Preatures’ drive to understand the traditional identity of our country should encourage other Australian musicians to do similarly. “We were adamant we weren’t going to release the record unless the song was done right,” says Manfredi. It is clear Girlhood has not been an easy ride for Manfredi. The record has demanded her to confront a painful part of herself and expose it. Some may argue this is the key to a successful creative project. And it has certainly paid off for her. Manfredi has transcended The Preatures into a band that asks us to go deeper into the exploration of our own personal identities. Whether that be male, female or both. Girlhood, the long-awaited sophomore album from THE PREATURES is out now on Universal Music Australia.
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DANCE THE DROP [THE WORD ON DANCE MUSIC] WITH PETER ‘KAZUKI’ O’ROURKE [CONTACT@KAZUKI.COM.AU]
I’ve been listening to some old music lately. No, not returning to the same tried and true trance classics that Godskitchen or Ministry of Sound seem to release in a 3-CD special every three years (do we really need another copy of Tiësto’s ‘Suburban Train’?), but to older mixes that I’ve never heard before – some of the Global Underground sessions, or Fabric mix CDs. There are tracks that might have been played a bit the year they came out, but they were never really anthems, just good tunes. And I know that every era has its music of massive buildups and big drops, that’s not just a recent thing, but wow, music from 15 year ago was CHILLED.
EDM created – remove the hype, and boil it down to a repetitive monotonous beat. Well, I guess we’ll see…
As a DJ and producer, it’s really started to inform my sets, and my production. Having hypnotic, trippy music that you can get lost in and just sort of bubbles away is truly awesome (I guess it was called trance for a reason). If only we could return to some of that…
My crew Department of Late Nights has a few events coming up over the next couple of months. First up on Saturday September 2, Late Night Studies returns to the ANU pop-up venue, with Dragonfruit’s Jay Berry & Kyle Burchill coming down from Brisbane – tickets available online – while Friday September 15 has a new techno and house night, Agency, at Kyte. This one features Melbourne’s Steve Ward, which should be a treat! The night before, Kyte has a truly (bass) heavy booking with Israeli dubstep firestarter, Borgore on Thursday September 14 – tickets are selling fast, so get in quick. Cube has done some renovations too, so why not check it out at Hard Envy on Sunday September 24 with Sydney’s Khemist on headline duty. As always, more stuff is always popping up – keep your ears to the underground!
And then, I look at the number one selling tune on Beatport, and it’s not an EDM banger or techno weapon or remixed bassline house track – but a 27-year-old tune, Age of Love’s ‘Age of Love’, revamped by progressive techno DJ Solomun. It’s pretty similar to the original, now with a beefier bassline, and some trippy acid trance sounds – but basically the same song reproduced for a modern sound system. No buildup, no real drop, it just grooves away. What does this mean? Is that it, has dance music run out of ideas?
Speaking of repetitive beats (see what I did there?), Bambounou (Paris, France) is coming to play some spacey, trippy techno at Mr Wolf on Friday 18 August – a seriously cool booking, go check it out! Thursday August 24, The Basement has a charity gig with Sorry Mum, I’m Going Out And I May Be Some Time – expect reggae, house and assorted beats. On Friday August 25, Dom Dolla and Torren Foot come to Academy to spin some house.
No, I reckon the complete opposite. I reckon this is an attempt to bring it back to basics, bring it back to the actual trance on the dance floor. And I think DJs are relishing in it, excited to not only rehear a classic, but to torch the ground of what festival PAGE 24
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DANCE, CRY, CHANGE YOUR LIFE
BY HAYDEN FRITZLAFF & ANDREW NARDI
There aren’t many acts that possess both the pulling power and sense of humour necessary to bring out Tina Arena for a set at Splendour in the Grass. Actually, there’s only one: CLIENT LIAISON. “It so easily could have not happened,” says frontman Monte Morgan. “It could’ve been, ‘oh yeah, we played Splendour and that was that.’ But no, we brought her out and fleshed out our connection and collaboration and it’s been great. She’s now a close friend of ours. Never thought I could say a hero is a close friend of ours, you know. Now she is.” It’s the latest development in Client Liaison’s rise from retro, office-worshipping synth pop enthusiasts to festival drawcards and regulars on the international touring circuit. The band are all too aware of the image they put forward. “We like the idea that we create this absurdist Australia,” says Morgan. “There’s nothing conscious about us trying to capture Australia. I guess we’re more just viewing it and taking it in subconsciously. Canberra’s also a bit of an absurd place, which relates to us. Like my father always used to say, ‘we should shut down Canberra. It’s the biggest waste of taxpayer money going ‘round.’” But far from just being a front, Client Liaison’s mystical, cosmopolitan aura stems from the way Morgan and collaborator Harvey Miller approach music (and life in general). The two respond impassionedly, almost indignantly, to the suggestion that it could be any other way.
“We’ve got the video clips, we’ve got the kind of ongoing narrative, we’ve got us as characters.” “It’s also in the live show,” Miller chimes in. “Yeah in the live show, and some lyrics too, but it’s more so. If you listen to our music sonically without a video clip I think people are much less inclined to see the humour. So it is there, it’s supported by a lot of context. It’s one element.” It’s their steadfast loyalty to good vibes that’s earned Client Liaison such a devoted fanbase. Expect that to continue now that work has begun on the follow-up to their 2016 album Diplomatic Immunity. “We’ve been going to a few different settings,” says Morgan about how things are taking shape this time around. “About two months ago we went to Byron Bay. We tried to write a song a day. It was a beautiful location and we came out with kind of fun-loving songs. We’d all go off and create a beat. Our port of call before we start writing melody or lyrics is, ‘what is the real vibe?’” “We’re just trying to write the best songs we can,” says Miller. “We’re not trying to do some abstract kind of left-field thing and alienate our fans. We just want to make people dance.” “Dance or cry,” says Morgan. “That’s kind of our motto at the moment. Make people dance or cry.” CLIENT LIAISON return to UC Refectory on Saturday September 9 at 8pm. Tickets are $39.80 through Oztix.
“There’s lots of different facets to Client Liaison,” says Morgan. facebook.com/bmamagazine
YOUR NEW FAVOURITE OVERACHIEVER
BY SHARONA LIN
When I was 17, I was writing sad poetry. TKAY MAIDZA was releasing her debut single, ‘Brontosaurus’. There aren’t many people who look back on their teenage creative attempts with much excitement, but Tkay is something else. The first time I heard Tkay Maidza was in the Hottest 100/ Taylor Swift furore of 2014 – Tkay’s single ‘Switch Lanes’ made it in at number 100, with Triple J pointing out the upside of not letting Swift into the poll with the cheeky hashtag #TkayforHottest100. “I think that being in the Hottest 100 really helped,” Tkay muses. “Because a lot of people are listening to the first song, I think that was a thing that exposed me to a lot of people. I think I’m constantly doing a lot of things, but I think that was one thing.”
Her confidence comes through in all she does – her interviews, music and fashion. Tkay’s Instagram is impressive, and she is regarded as something of a style icon, with looks that most of us could only dream of. But how? “I don’t know! I kind of just dress how I feel. I do whatever feels right for me. I wanna have an Instagram that looks nice, that’s kind of like, goal. I guess everyone has that goal to make sure their Instagram is presentable. And that’s sort of like a bit about expressing yourself in different ways, a bit of a way to have fun. Like, colour, and wearing things I never thought I would wear. Just trying new things. I don’t like, try hard,” she qualifies. “I don’t sit there thinking of what will look the best, but it’s just like, I want to take a photo of this because I think it’s a cool photo.”
I don’t like, try hard What has she learned in the last few years making music, I ask her. And is it strange listening to music you made as a teenager? “I don’t know!” She takes a few moments to think about the question, thinking out loud: “I think that’s like for me, at the start, I learned a lot about music in general. Like it was just me doing what I felt like doing and how I thought it should sound. But over the years, you meet a lot of different people and adapt your sound from other people. My taste has narrowed a bit more, and it’s like quality control. So I just know if something’s bad. So compared to the start, and I’d be like, oh this is amazing! But now I can tell if it’s bad.”
Tkay will be performing at Snowtunes soon. I ask her if she’s going to be enjoying the snow – perhaps snowball fights? Skiing? “I’m excited to go snowboarding!” she says. “I played Snowtunes a couple of years back and I went snowboarding then as well, it was really fun.” Catch TKAY MAIDZA at Snowtunes alongside SAFIA, GANG OF YOUTHS, RUBY FIELDS and more, Friday– Saturday September 1–2. Single day passes from $99+bf through snowtunes.com.
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METALISE
[THE WORD ON METAL] WITH JOSH NIXON
NO SLEEP FOR THE WICKED
[DOOMTILDEATH@HOTMAIL.COM]
BY THOMAS SPILLANE
Rest doesn’t seem to be a concept that sits well with DZ DEATHRAYS. The Queensland punk rockers toured their sophomore effort, Black Rat (2014), extensively for close to two years. Following that they released two new singles in 2016, ‘Pollyanna’ and ‘Blood On My Leather’. Off the back of those tracks DZ Deathrays set out across Australia as well the rest of the western world. “We did a tour with Violent Soho and Dune Rats, and then we did the Groovin The Moo tour as well … and then we also went to South By Southwest,” says vocalist/guitarist, Shane Parsons. “Then we went to Europe with
Parsons claims the band gets bored if they don’t keep moving. Forming as a two-piece in 2008, DZ Deathrays have since added another guitarist to their line-up. The band’s sound has developed from brash, dark, punk rock in their early days, to danceinflected beats married with chunky riffs more recently. The expansion to a three-piece has apparently seen a change in the band’s writing and recording process. “We were trying to inject a bit of new spice into the band. We were only really a two-piece out of necessity,” says Parsons. “It’s just an evolution of the band. Gives us a bit more space in the
We were only really a two-piece out of necessity Dunies and then America and Canada with Dunies, and then did our own headline tour.” The band has since released a new single, ‘Shred For Summer’, earlier this month. DZ Deathrays have decided to take a step back this year and collect themselves, but the band’s concept of ‘chilling’ still seems to be unaligned with popular opinion. The boys have already recorded another album in their downtime that they are just sitting on. “We kinda thought, well let’s pull back a bit this year, and we’ve recorded another record so it’s ready to go. So we’re just keeping it pretty chill for a little bit,” says Parsons. “We’ve got one tour in UK/Europe … just waiting until the time is right to put out the new record. In the meantime we’re trying to write another record so that we have some extra material ready to go.”
music. It’s cool to have someone else to bounce off onstage and give parts to and create a bit more dynamics.” Despite relaxing as best as they can this year, DZ Deathrays are already planning big things for 2018. With another album under their belt and ready for release, the band are set to hit the ground running again next year. “You can expect [the new album] towards the end of the year. We haven’t set a firm date yet. We have a few things planned to roll out,” says Parsons. “The next album tour we’ll be making sure to hit Canberra … we’ll be back there, definitely.” DZ Deathrays plan to roll out their new album next year. DZ Deathrays are playing Snowtunes in Jindabyne on Fri–Sat September 1–2. Single day passes from $99+bf through snowtunes.com.
We had a good chat with King last issue and it’s timely to remind you all that there is an absolutely killer show at The Basement this weekend, but there’s a bit happening in Melbourne metal circles worth mentioning as well. So King Parrot dropped the first video from their forthcoming album Ugly Produce entitled ‘5 Pounds of Shit in a 10 Pound Bag’, which hit Rage and the interweb in the last couple of weeks. Featuring bassist and Australian metal’s best comedic actor Wayne ‘Slatts’ Slattery as the protagonist of a kinky visit to an S&M club, wearing a strap on dildo on his forehead throughout the clip, it’s some depraved shit. The album is out on Friday September 22 and you can pre-order now through Nerve Gas online. The guys then head off to tour the USA and Europe with Superjoint, nee Superjoint Ritual. Former Triple J host of The Racket, Andrew Haug and his brother Paul have been members of the band Contrive for the better part of 20 years. They had an extended hiatus following the death of their father a couple of years ago, but have used the experience as the catharsis that drove their new album Slow Dissolve due out on Friday September 1. As that door opens, another Melbourne journey is coming to an end in a few months’ time. The Brewtality festival was headlined by Blood Duster a couple of weeks ago and in the press leading up to it, Jason PC announced the end was nigh for Australia’s long serving grind rockers. This caused a bit of confusion in the social medias, with many reporting that the fest gig at the Tote was it. This is not the case. There will be one final show in early December as a farewell and I think that will likely be mental.
Blood Duster vocalist Tony Forde also fronts his new musical endeavour King. The show on Saturday August 19 is massive with nine bands in between the front and back rooms for a mere 20 bucks. The night will feature performances by Blackhelm, Black Jesus, Mytile Vey Lorth, Darkhorse, Claret Ash, Black Mountain, Somnium Nox and The Plague. That’s a big night of metal for 20 skins. In international news, the support for the Sydney show of thrash titans Kreator and Polish death metal lords Vader has gone to Daemon Pyre for the show at the Manning Bar on Saturday September 9. The Melvins have also announced a package tour with Redd Kross hitting the Factory Theatre in Marrickville on Thursday November 9. I’m still realllllllly keen to see The Melvins’ documentary The Colossus of Destiny, as I have heard wonderful things about it. They’re touring album #25 (!!!) entitled A Walk With Love & Death. Just want to drop a shout out to our departing editor Andrew Nardi to say thanks for putting up with my perpetually late backside and wish you all the best in your exciting new job. All the best pal.
This brings us full circle as PAGE 26
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REMEMBERING CHESTER BENNINGTON BY ANDREW MYERS Celebrity deaths are a cathartic subject. They are people we have never met but we have grown up with their presence, influence and as of the last number of years, a fly on the wall perspective into their lives through social media. This year alone we have lost John Hurt in January, Bill Paxton in February, Chuck Berry in March, Chris Cornell in May and Adam West in June, among others. On July 20th, we tragically lost the talented vocalist Chester Bennington of nu-metal band Linkin Park. He committed suicide at his house in Pals Verdes Estates, Los Angeles. He was forty-one years old. The band formed in 1996 under the name Xero as a rap-rock act. Three years later in 1999 under the new name of Linkin Park (not the actual Lincoln Park in Chicago, Illinois) they were signed to Warner Bros. Music and nothing would be the same again for rock in the early 2000s. In 2000 and 2001 the boys stormed the hard rock and heavy metal scene previously dominated by the likes of Korn, Disturbed, Limp Bizkit and Slipknot, respectively. Their hits included ‘One Step Closer’, ‘In The End’, ‘Papercut’, ‘Faint’, ‘Crawling’, ‘Numb’, ‘Breaking The Habit’ and ‘New
Divide’ from the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen soundtrack that reinvigorated their mark on the rock music. In 2004 the band collaborated with Jay-Z for the Collision Course EP that united both rock and hip-hop fans alike. Even if you were not a fan of the music you could recognise Chester from his signature flame tattooed forearms, lip ring, tipped/ dyed hair, or even his blink-andyou’ll-miss-it movie cameos, such as in Crank as a sketchy chemist customer or in Saw 3D as an ill-fated victim. The band’s latest album One More Light was released in May, and the sextet were in the midst of an American tour before the shocking tragedy struck … On the eve of Bennington’s dear friend and lead singer of Soundgarden Christ Cornell’s would-be birthday, he took his own life. Condolences from celebrities including Jimmy Kimmel, Justin Timberlake, Jared Leto and Channing Tatum have outpoured online. For some, Bennington was just
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another musician from another band. For others, he was the guiding light in a darkened existence where only music shone the way. Linkin Park’s songs dealt with isolation, selfdoubt, alcohol and substance abuse and failed relationships. Everyone remembers their first band obsession. I grew up in the height of Linkin Park’s popularity. They were my introduction to heavy metal and gave me the invaluable gift of self-expression through music and art. My first CD purchase was their multiplatinum debut album Hybrid Theory. I read the liner notes, lyrics and thank yous of the album booklet religiously. I engaged with friends in playground debates about favourite songs and when their latest music videos featured on weekend viewings of Rage and Video Hits. Hell, I remember when I was at least ten-yearsold blasting ‘In The End’ at Christmas, that’s how much I loved this band! I had a small shrine of articles cut out from those adolescent magazines of interviews and Wikipedia-grade biographies about the band. I owed multiple Linkin Park DVDs (some questionably bootlegged, some not). I wanted to dress like the band, I wanted to be Chester Bennington, I wanted to be Mike Shinoda.
I still remember receiving their second album Meteora for Christmas during one family gettogether. While my cousins were drooling over NSYNC, my brother and I were clambering over who got to rip open the wrapping paper first. When every relative shambled out the door in various degrees of alcoholism and food comas I snuck the disk onto the CD player in the corner to quietly listen to ‘Numb’ on repeat. Literally, that one single, over and over again until it was bedtime. Though years have passed and my music taste has shifted and morphed I still have a special place for the album that started it all for me. A deep fondness for a simpler time and when life didn’t seem so adult-y. This invisible disease has claimed another creative soul. A veil of sadness has once again shrouded the music community. Bennington left behind a wife, six children and a lifetime of memories for loved ones and fans worldwide. If you are ever having doubts about yourself or showing signs of depression, please, seek help from one of the provided numbers below. Beyondblue – 1300 22 4636 Lifeline – 13 11 14 Headspace – 1800 650 890
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I hope that people who come feel safe and supported and represented, that’s ultimately what we want. — Georgia Maq
PHOTO BY IAN LAIDLAW PAGE 28
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CAMP COPE KEEP TRUE, KEEP GROWING
BY ANDREW NARDI
Melbourne-based trio CAMP COPE have ridden a steady trajectory since they released their debut self-titled album in early 2016. Touting indie-punk ballads about everyday demons like mental illness and gender discrimination, the band have found recognition not only for their brutally honest storytelling and songwriting, but also as a social justice movement within the Australian music community. The band find themselves in the eye of the feminist storm that’s sweeping the punk scene and larger entertainment industry at the moment, and I’m interested to find out more about how they came to be there. I’m speaking with frontwoman Georgia ‘Maq’ McDonald just after she’s been tattooed. She’s dedicated the fresh ink to two bands she holds dear: a Tigers Jaw branding on her chest, and an Oasis tattoo – reading ‘Supersonic’, after the 1994 single – across her toes. It’s a song for another generation, but I can see why it resonates with Maq; peddling the importance of self-belief and self-expression, Gallagher sings, “You need to be yourself / You can’t be no one else” and “You need to find a way / For what you want to say”. “We have a platform and we’re able to help and so that’s what we’re doing.” Maq is confident in Camp Cope’s purpose; it’s not just an outlet for her creative expression, it’s also a stage for her and her bandmates – bassist Kelly-Dawn ‘Kelso’ Hellmrich and drummer Sarah ‘Thomo’ Thompson – to address social issues that are important to them. “I think that if you have the platform and don’t use it then you need to step down and make room for someone who can use it for good to help other people, to benefit others. I feel like if you’re climbing, you need to lift as you climb.”
At the forefront of Camp Cope’s achievements is #ItTakesOne, a movement taking aim at sexual harassment and violence in concert culture and advocating for safe, inclusive and respectful live music spaces. Taking off in September 2016, the hashtag went on to garner public support from artists and personalities in the music industry including Julia Jacklin, Courtney Barnett, Frenzal Rhomb, The Jezabels, triple j’s Dom Alessio and many others. Since then, Camp Cope have launched their own safe-space hotline to help fans report sexual harassment at their shows, and they’ve worked with St Jerome’s Laneway Festival to create an anti-harassment hotline for the touring music festival. That call for inclusivity and respect is understated in Maq’s dialogue with me. It’s clear that she’s mostly unfazed by her band’s success, rather it’s her fans and the space she creates for them in live music venues that she cares about. “I feel like it’s really easy [for bands] to talk about, it’s really easy to be like, ‘yeah, we want our shows to be safe spaces for everyone’ – but they’re not? So we’re really loud and we’re not afraid to call people out, ever. And I think that’s why our shows are …” she pauses, and comes back to me with something that feels heartfelt. “I dunno, I like our shows. I hope that people who come feel safe and supported and represented,
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that’s ultimately what we want. We want everyone to have a good time.” Our conversation shifts to mental health, a theme that features heavily in Camp Cope’s music. At the time of its release, the band’s debut album was recognised for its earnest lyrics, some of which deal with anxiety, depression and most poignantly, overcoming grief following the death of a loved one. On the closing track ‘Song For Charlie’, Maq sings, “Still hoping I’ll see him on the street / Or in the house he built around me, my sisters, and my brother / For the strongest woman I’ve ever known, my mother”. “I’m going to get deep with you, if you’re okay with this,” Maq begins. “What ‘Song For Charlie’ is about is, my mum’s partner killed himself. And he was my family, you know? And because he was brought up in a time – he was a tradie – and he was brought up in a time where, you don’t talk about your emotions. Like, you just don’t, that’s not manly, y’know, ‘man up, be a man’. And so that really made me think a lot.” I remark that ‘Song For Charlie’ has made me cry on more than one occasion. “I feel really strongly that men should be able to express emotions and cry and talk about their feelings, because it’s all part of the feminist paradigm,” Maq explains. “Men are raised to be disconnected from their feelings, and so, we need to teach young men and boys to be sensitive and be vulnerable and … human. Because we’re all human – we all bleed, we all cry.” The band are prepping to release a new album soon, and I’m wondering if we’re going to see them adopt a new direction. Maq’s answer reinforces a simple truth about Camp Cope: they do things on their own terms. “Musically, I don’t feel like we’ve
changed directions at all,” she says. “I feel like this album’s just gonna be exactly the same, production-wise, because that’s just how we are. We want the album to be a representation of what we sound like live, I don’t want to dress it up with anything, I just want it to sound like us.” There’s already whispers of a new, unrecorded song that the band have been playing at their more recent shows, including at the Sydney Opera House for Vivid LIVE, where it was met with cheers of agreement at the end of each lyric. Refusing to compromise their rightful place in the music scene, the song deals with gender discrimination in the industry as Maq sings unflinchingly, “It’s another man telling us we can’t fill up the room / it’s another man telling us to book a smaller venue.” “If you have a platform, you should support [bands] who are underrepresented in the punk scene, instead of just like, ‘four white men, four white men, four white men and then maybe like a female in the opening band, y’know, just to like, fill that quota, y’know’,” she relays to me, with just a little bit of sass. “I think that’s incredibly disappointing, it’s really obvious and I think that needs to change. That’s not the norm for a lot genres of music and a lot of venues. But in the punk scene it is the norm. Sometimes I feel like the punk scene exempts itself from real life, but it does mirror this patriarchal structure that we all live in, and we need to stop mirroring that and make it a safe, and inclusive, and representative space for everyone.” Preach. CAMP COPE play at The Basement on Thursday September 17 at 7pm. Support from WORRIERS (US) and THE LAST EXPOSURE. Tickets are $26.55 + bf via Oztix. If this story has brought up any issues that you need to talk about, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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too good to have a show here. Their attitude earned them a bit of a heckling. It was awkward.
PUNK & DISORDERLY [THE WORD ON PUNK] WITH ALICE WORLEY [ALICE.WORLEY@OUTLOOK.COM]
I am so proud to hear the way that out-of-town bands have been speaking to me about Canberra’s music scene. Cable Ties, The Last Exposure, Carb on Carb, and even the great Amanda Palmer, have all been speaking highly of our under-rated city. Nick Brown from Cable Ties approached me and a few friends at The Phoenix just to tell us about how special the scene felt from an outsider’s perspective and how lucky he felt to be amongst us. Nicole from Carb on Carb said at their gig at Transit last month that, though New Zealand is the greatest country in the world, Canberra is the greatest city. Chelsea and Hayley
of The Last Exposure were so elated by the crowd they drew and support they received for their gig at the Phoenix that they even spoke to me of a growing desire to move here! And punkcabaret goddess Amanda Palmer told her audience at the Canberra Theatre of the stern lecture she gave a Melbourne crowd that mocked our town and how very wrong they were to do so. Cheers, Amanda, we love you too! The only blatant exception I’ve experienced recently was seeing Joyce Manor at Transit, and I’m surprised it wasn’t written about in the review of that gig. I could only groan and roll my eyes at how obviously they felt they were
By the time this issue is printed, Destrends will have just been and gone, but I hope you all went to their show at Phoenix because I know it will have been mindblowing. Their new music video, ‘Lousy Lover’, is currently floating on the web and the album it spawned from is also something beautiful to behold. It reminds me so much of The Horrors’ album Strange House, which has been in regular circulation on my car speakers for years now. While you look up their new clip, I would also recommend listening to ‘My Friend’, ‘Skin’, and ‘Papa’. Amazing tracks, every one. Wet Lips played with Moaning Lisa and Violet Fahy at the Phoenix and I am so glad that they drew such a decent crowd considering how much there was going on that evening. It was one of those nights where there were just way too many things to pick from and it is simply too hard to decide what to go to. The Polish
Club, The Front, and LoBrow all had pretty huge gigs on with really, REALLY good bands/ soloists playing. Having seen Jenny McKechnie’s other band, Cable Ties, I decided I needed to see Wet Lips too. I spoke enough about Cable Ties in my review, so I’ll just talk about Wet Lips now. Their songs are short, sweet and full of pep, reminding me of my days listening to The Vines and how all their songs were about two-three mins long but still had all the impact and punch that they required. Definitely got an L7 kinda vibe from them, that 90s-style girl punk; the kind of band I imagine Daria and Jane listening to in their bedrooms. My legs were so hot and red from how hard I’d been slapping them to the beat of the drums. Come back any time, ladies! Canberra digs you!
The Punk Gig Guide Thu Aug 17 – Silver Linings EP Launch @ The Front Fri Aug 18 – Trent and Jaryd’s Birthday Bash @ The Basement Fri Aug 18 – Self Talk, Brief Habits, Helena Pop, Slagatha Christie @ The Phoenix Sat Aug 19 – Paper Thin, Speakeasy, Bleach It Clean, Elk Locker, Sleeping Døgs @ The Front Thu Aug 24 – Trash Boat (UK) @ Transit Bar Fri Aug 25 – Major Leagues, Moaning Lisa, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers @ Transit Bar Fri Aug 25 – School Damage, California Girls, Passive Smoke @ Lacklustre Records Sat Sep 2 – Plyers, Shoeb Ahmad, Sleeping Døgs @ LoBrow Gallery & Bar Thu Sep 17 – The Getaway Plan @ Transit Bar Thu Sep 17 – Camp Cope, Worriers (USA), The Last Exposure @ The Basement
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[Destrends @ The Phoenix, Friday August 11. Photo by Alice Worley.] @bmamag
NOT PART OF THE PLAN
BY SHARONA LIN
THE GETAWAY PLAN is the first band I ever saw live, way back in 2007 – and then again in 2008 for the original Other Voices, Other Rooms tour. I even have the t-shirt still. Almost a decade (and three albums and a hiatus) later, Other Voices, Other Rooms is back for a second run. “That was a long time ago,” Matthew Wright laughs. The Getaway Plan frontman has come a long way since those suburban Victorian days, through early successes supporting emo royalty My Chemical Romance and rockers Taking Back Sunday, to today. So have they changed much since then?
as musicians, and that’s been our goal since day one I guess, is to be the best band we can be. Nothing else really fucking matters to us.” While they have made a lot of great music since those times, there’s no denying that Other Voices, Other Rooms was a breakout album, especially in those heady days of very skinny jeans and excessive piercings. Matthew admits that reminiscing about that era can be a little weird. “It just sort of evokes emotions in you, maybe things that were happening around you at the time, or what certain songs are about.”
That’s been our goal since day one I guess, is to be the best band we can be. Nothing else really fucking matters to us “Hugely. So much. I think the biggest thing that changed us is when we broke up slash went on hiatus. That was a massive realisation for us all, as to what we had. And when we came back, we were able to see things a bit more clearly, and we’re way more grateful for things these days. Not that we weren’t appreciative of the success that we had before the breakup, but we sort of took a lot of things for granted that we don’t nowadays. We’ve also just learned to manage to balance the band and our personal lives a lot better.” So if I could somehow put the two Other Voices, Other Rooms gigs side by side, what changes would I see? “Apart from the lineup changes I think we’re better musicians these days. I’d hope so, given it’s been ten years!” Wright says. “I think that we’re way more proficient
The band are playing the album in full, but also another set of songs from other records. “Kind of for fans, sort of for us too,” Wright explains. “Because we really like a lot of songs that aren’t on Other Voices, Other Rooms. So it’s nice for us to be able to play those too.” And what of the future? Dark Horses has been out for two years already, I point out. “Yeah, we always try to get records out as soon as possible, but it just goes so quickly it’s hard to keep on top of it,” Matthew sighs. But they’re always writing music. “What we’re going to do with that I’m not really sure. But there’s always something that’s happening on the horizon with us.” THE GETAWAY PLAN, supported by ELK LOCKER and AUTUMN hit The Basement on Sunday September 17 from 8pm. Tickets $29.60 through Oztix.
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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 ponders on the drought of live music venues in Canberra and considers the Tuggeranong Arts Centre as a potential option. Stuck in Canberra’s growing peak hour traffic on an icy winter day, I consoled myself by turning up the volume on a first-rate Kinks compilation. When the instantly familiar chords of ‘Lola’ burst from the car speakers I recalled this song getting a regular spin on the ANU Bar jukebox back in the day. The jukebox itself is a cultural artefact of such importance that it should be on permanent display in the National Museum of Australia. Later that day I was reading a review of the recent Queens of the Stone Age show at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney and became somewhat annoyed that I had missed seeing them perform yet again because I couldn’t travel to Sydney in time. I wondered why Canberra had been left off the band’s touring schedule, in fact, why this talented, endlessly creative group had never played in Canberra (to my knowledge). Surely Queens would have sold out the Royal Theatre. The annoyance increased when I was driving past the Canberra Theatre and noticed a large banner advertising a forthcoming appearance by Tina Arena. Is this the best Canberra’s live music scene can offer? In years past I have seen the likes of Sonic Youth, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Nirvana, Mudhoney and Lou Reed at the ANU but now – Tina Arena! I’m expecting the University of Canberra and the Transit Bar to put on more shows now that the antique version of the ANU Bar is no more, and we can only hope that the brand new ANU Bar becomes a viable live music venue, considering that the total cost of the forecourt development has been reported at $220 million.
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Looking further afield than the inner city, I was pleasantly surprised earlier this year when checking out rockin’ blues stompers Backsliders at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre (TAC). A small ACT Government-funded art gallery with an even smaller theatre space allocated to live performance, the Tuggeranong Arts Centre is situated in the
dynamic history that travelled from the grungy early days of Sydney’s pub circuit to the grand splash of the 1990 Exxon oil protest in New York. With this in mind, I was happy to return to the TAC in early February to see The Backsliders, a band that includes Midnight Oil percussionist Rob Hirst who let loose great crashing sounds in the tiny TAC theatre. Afterwards, I wondered whether thought had been given to the TAC theatre becoming a regular live music space and asked TAC Chief Executive Officer Rauny Worm whether the TAC had a specific mission statement regarding the artistic ventures it promotes. “Yes, TAC has clear strategic objectives that focus on providing access to and developing a wide range of art forms,” she said. “We aim to attract a broad cross-section of
You would expect some effort from the relevant authorities to better promote popular cultural activities throughout Canberra greater town centre overlooking Lake Tuggeranong and provides a cultural haven in a precinct better known for the shopping mall, car repair workshops and KFC. A major asset is the comfortable and bohemian vibed bar area that should be bustling on balmy summer nights. Backsliders had previously performed at the TAC during the superb Midnight Oil exhibition held there in 2016. That exhibition had necessitated my first trip to Tuggeranong in many years even though I happen to live in Weston Creek. The show was a first-class historical overview of the Oils’
our community and we try to be as diverse and innovative as we can. Our program is influenced by budgetary considerations and the nature of the building we operate out of. Bringing in theatre productions and music performances is a tricky business with a small venue that doesn’t really provide a commercially viable performance space, yet is gorgeous and comfortable.”
live music space. “We have been programming music events since 2014 and are continuing this throughout 2017,” Ms Worm said. “We are always interested in other proposals; however there are operational and programming limitations that have to be considered. The team here has a good understanding of what will work to fill the seats.” Ms Worm added that, “benefitting financially from music gigs is always a challenge and every gig has different requirements and varying audience appeal to our region. Financial viability means we are able to cover our costs and also pay musicians and artists appropriately. That’s our goal and we remain committed to this.” The ACT Government is the core funding body of the Tuggeranong Arts Centre and you would therefore expect some effort from the relevant authorities to better promote popular cultural activities throughout Canberra. A mini attempt to bring The Rolling Stones to Canberra during their 2014 Australian tour was really not good enough. Bureaucratic speak like ‘operational and programming limitations’ can be regularly trotted out to disguise inaction. Meanwhile, the number of touring bands coming to Canberra continues to languish. DAN BIGNA
I agree with Ms Worm’s assessment that the TAC performance space is ‘gorgeous and comfortable’, so wanted to pursue the more specific notion of the TAC becoming a viable @bmamag
SWISS ARMY BAND BY THOMAS SPILLANE After almost fourteen years of writing music, MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA have never looked back. Through line-up changes and side projects, remaining original members, vocalist/guitarist Andy Hull and guitarist Robert McDowell have always moved forward. From their breakthrough sophomore effort, Mean Everything To Nothing (2008), to the progressive rock inspired Simple Math (2011), to their ode to punk rock, Cope (2014), Manchester Orchestra have always kept the wheel turning with a new style to inform their sound. This year’s A Black Mile To The Surface (2017) is yet another chapter in the band’s diverse catalogue. “I try and look at our records sort of like a filmography,” says Hull when asked about the band’s new record, “Cope was our ode to making a punk rock record … and it felt like the time to really dedicate ourselves to doing something like that. So [then] it really came down to how do we make a Manchester record we haven’t made before.” A Black Mile To The Surface is more cinematic compared to the band’s previous effort. Where Cope was filled with chunky guitar riffs and heavy drums, the new record features more space. Keyboards and strings are primarily used to delicately colour the record as opposed to painting the canvas with guitars. “We really just spent a ton of time focusing on getting the songs to a place where we were all very excited and inspired from them,” Hull says of recording A Black
Mile To The Surface. “It was basically everyday saying, ‘have we done that before? Oh, we have? Alright throw it away, let’s do something different.’” Hull and McDowell worked on a side project together before recording A Black Mile To The Surface, which had a great influence on their songwriting. The two musicians were approached by directing team Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (a.k.a. Daniels) to score their upcoming film, Swiss Army Man. The two directors had worked with Manchester Orchestra before, directing the music video for their single, ‘Simple Math’. Hull and McDowell sent Daniels a sample song (which ended up playing during the film’s credits) and it was all systems go from there. “That score [Swiss Army Man] taught us how to utilise really small bits of time and make fifteen seconds still punch you in the heart somehow,” Hull says. “The second thing it taught us was how to create atmosphere and sonic landscapes instead of just the song … there’s this whole other blanket or clothing you can put on a song. It really taught us a whole new set of tools.” After listening to the score for Swiss Army Man it becomes fairly
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clear how it informed A Black Mile To The Surface. The film revolves around a man (Paul Dano) finding himself marooned on a desert island. Dano’s character is mentally unstable and suicidal until a talking corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) washes ashore. The score does well to compliment the feeling of isolation felt by Dano’s character, as well as the peacefulness of the desert island. The majority of the tracks consist of only Hull’s vocals. Recorded and played back in various ways, Hull and McDowell use the former’s voice to create an ethereal space around the film. Orchestration and synthesisers are used at parts of the score but always sparingly. The techniques for creating spacious sonic landscapes exhibited by Hull and McDowell on Swiss Army Man have clearly been carried onto their new record. “There is something inside of me and Rob where a certain thing hits, and when we finally have found it we can both look at each other and go, ‘that is what we were talking about.’” Hull says of exploring new sounds, “I feel fortunate to have him and the rest of the guys in the band … being so dedicated to putting in the really, really tough time of figuring out how to make everything work.”
This has helped them explore new sounds within their indie rock style. “When people realise that they don’t want to [play in Manchester Orchestra], and then you have the ability to replace that person with somebody that really wants to do it, and who just so happens to bring another element of musicianship. That part of it has even been relatively easy,” Hull says. “For [A Black Mile To The Surface] in particular, our keyboard player had left the band and that basically allowed Robert and I full uncharted territory of getting as weird as we wanted to with every keyboard we could find. It allowed us to create another character for the album.” Despite the cinematic aspect of the new album, Manchester Orchestra have not found it too difficult to translate the songs to a live setting. Not comfortable playing with tracks, Hull says he would prefer to lose the “third keyboard part” of a song than sacrifice the rock show element of their concerts. Manchester Orchestra are currently touring North America, but are planning to hit Australian shores midway next year. A Black Mile To The Surface by Manchester Orchestra is out now on Lorna Vista Recordings.
Manchester Orchestra have gone through some line-up changes over the years. Hull and McDowell are the only original members left in the band, but a revolving set of musicians have seemed to help the band progress. The departure of members has forced Hull and McDowell to approach new areas of Manchester Orchestra. PAGE 33
HEROES MEETING THEIR HEROES BY JARROD MCGRATH “It’s hard to tour with bands if you’re a casual fan, or even if you’re a big fan. It can be kind of disheartening to reach out to them and get ignored so I don’t do that anymore.” I felt a bit the same when I found out I would be speaking to Sean Bonnette, vocalist/guitarist of AJJ (formerly Andrew Jackson Jihad) as he is one of my favourite lyricists. I think I contained my excitement just enough to get to ask him all the things I wanted to know about one of the most original bands returning to Canberra. The group were last here supporting the Smith Street Band at the now defunct Magpies Club, where they put on a show that garnered many new fans. “Oh hell yeah,” says Bonnette, recalling the show. “Canberra is like the political centre of Australia right, where the government is based? Oh yeah that club was weird and cool. I can see a place like that not lasting for very long. I think I had Nando’s for the first time and a really fun skate, and the show was cool.” What makes AJJ original is their mix of sounds from folk to punk to indie and many spaces in between. Their songwriting is unique, but their lyrics are especially incredible. “I love talking about that stuff,” says Bonnette. “I wrote my first song when I was like 17. I definitely wanted to write songs and music but it didn’t really click until then. I think that was because my first instrument was bass and I didn’t really have people to play music with. It was when I got an acoustic guitar and that was when I learnt how to play PAGE 34
cover songs and then I would just turn those cover songs into my own songs. That’s why every song I wrote sort of sounds like a Smashing Pumpkins song.” As to whether the lyrics or the melody comes first, “They usually come at the same time. The shape and sound of the word will generally influence the melody.” Their original, eclectic sound appears to draw upon a variety of influences. “Absolutely,” agrees Bonnette. “That is incredibly true. Different influences come and go, and come in with different people. Currently one of my big influences – because I was so late coming to the game – was David Lynch and I’m now playing catch up. It took me a very long time to appreciate the work of David Lynch because I brought a set of expectations that ruined the work for me and I didn’t really see what was going on. “Watching the new Twin Peaks has rekindled my interest to revisit his works and man, what a fucking badass. I read his book and he talks a lot about his
PHOTO BY NANCY WALTERS
process and I can see definite similarities between the ways that he makes something and the way that I do. His process is very exploratory. He gets ideas in his head and then uses film as a way to make those ideas happen and he chooses to make sense of it after the fact. He’s not really focussed on ‘I’m gonna make a movie about this.’” I particularly enjoy the themes of Bonnette’s songs. They often describe triumphs over life’s difficulties but in a somewhat quirky, creative way. One particular example that appeals to me, as a disability advocate, is their ongoing references to Temple Grandin (if you don’t know who she is, please go to her YouTube now, or take the cheat’s way out and go watch the Claire Danes movie about her). In ‘Temple Grandin’ AJJ reference her amongst Stevie Wonder and Helen Keller in a song about overcoming adversity. In ‘Temple Grandin Too’, they sing, “a hug without a human is alright.” So where did this fascination come from? “I first found out about Temple Grandin because I have a close family member who is on the spectrum,” Bonnette says. “Anyone who’s on the spectrum knows who Temple Grandin is because Temple Grandin is the one who is able to be such a great voice for those people and has been a major source of empathy for people with autism. I love that about her and she seems like a very cool, eccentric lady, a fellow person from the southwest. My favourite invention of hers is
the hugging machine that gives containment and comfort to cows and children.” The group have received a bit of press coverage recently when Aussie icons The Wiggles made a comment admiring the clothing style of the group in their film clip for ‘Goodbye, Oh Goodbye’. “God bless those guys,” says Bonnette. “Our friend is trying to get in touch with them for us. Were gonna try meet up with them when we’re there.” The film clip is actually a mock of clips by bands like OK Go, who do elaborate filmmaking and stunts often in one take. Given the clip’s humour and creativity I assumed it may have been the band’s idea. “As much as I wish it was our idea, it was the director’s.” This tour sees the group on a national headline tour that includes the Yours and Owls festival and their first time headlining at Transit Bar. Bonnette is obviously also enthusiastic about his skating and concluded our interview by asking, “Do you know if the skate park is nearby?” He was pleased with my local advice of the park’s proximity to Transit. “Fuck yeah, it’s on. I almost died at that park.” Catch AJJ at Transit for the show, or at the skate park afterwards. AJJ play Transit Bar on Saturday September 30 from 8pm. Tickets are $32.65 including booking fees through Oztix.
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WE CAN ALWAYS START AGAIN
BY KASHMIRA MOHAMED ZAGOR
The artistic process of writing and recording an album is unique to every musician. For Australian singer-songwriter KIM CHURCHILL, this process included scrapping the record he had spent 18 months working on and composing a collection of entirely new songs. The result is a piece inspired by honesty, simplicity and experimentation. “I called the album Weight_Falls because it really felt like an enormous amount of weight had fallen away and I was finally able to just speak and emote and express myself clearly through the music,” says Churchill. “I don’t think I hadn’t done that in the past, but it’s always a challenge, especially when you have a little bit of success and your ego kind of kicks in … that gets in the way.” In Churchill’s own words, throwing out an album can be a very dangerous move for a musician, but for him, it was very grounding. “In that moment I had this, I don’t know, oddly liberating moment of clarity. I think if you lie to yourself for long enough, when you finally come clean you have maybe this week or two of seeing the world with a really beautiful sense of clarity and understanding of how to be honest, because you’ve deprived yourself of it for so long, and that’s what I was chasing in the songwriting for this album: a certain level of honesty.” Due to the short timeframe he was left to work within, Churchill tells me he turned to GarageBand to help with the initial establishment of his new work. This allowed him to take his naturally acoustic sound and play around with it, cutting up parts and developing vocal harmonies. “I was really inspired by Portishead, you know, twenty years too late,” he laughs. “I think
I just sort of stumbled across a new sound.” As a multi-instrumentalist, the genesis of this sound came quite organically, as Churchill was able to create the parts himself. But for live shows, he tells me he will be playing with two other drummers, who will also provide the vocal harmonies. “The result has been kind of exciting, because now, rather than just me being onstage, I’ve got two drummers, a carousel of craziness.” Churchill is keen to represent all the intricacies of recordings in a live environment, and has found the best way to achieve this is by giving his band members agency to be playful and inventive.“I made the music in a very relaxed, not serious way. Although it took a lot of rehearsal to bring it to life, now it’s very much about fucking around with it, having fun.” Churchill mirrors this opinion when asked how he would categorise the Australian ‘sound’, and his role in its development.“I think there is a certain simplicity to what I do which is inherently Australian and I think that’s what we have to offer the world, in a sense.” This attitude, he believes, creates an encouraging climate for young, emerging artists. He applauds platforms – like triple j and triple j Unearthed – that give a place for new music to be explored in a supportive and accessible way. “I feel like seven or eight years ago it was a lot tougher. [Now] it’s nice to see bands being kind of lifted up and loved. It’s a good time for Australian music.” Weight_Falls will be available worldwide on August 25. KIM CHURCHILL brings the Weight_Falls Australian Album Tour to The Street Theatre on Saturday September 16 from 7:30pm. Tickets $35 + bf through thestreet.org.au.
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your average one hit wonder act on Triple J, this format would be a cinch. But Kuepper resides in a world of transformative creation far removed from mainstream mediocrity.
ED KUEPPER DOESN’T F*CK AROUND
BY DAN BIGNA
Ever evolving Australian musician ED KUEPPER is a regular visitor to Canberra and will be returning to the
Street Theatre later this month to reprise a themed ‘by request’ show, last performed here in 2013. If we were talking about
This consistently engaging artist has recorded an impressive 50 or so albums, stretching back to the raucous garage chords announcing opening cut ‘(I’m) Stranded’ on The Saints’ 1977 explosive rock ‘n’ roll debut album of the same name. The way forward was the post-punk reinvention of popular music as performed by Laughing Clowns that turned into a long and rewarding solo career comprising atmospheric, emotive tunefulness
with unexpected detours like the three albums Kuepper recorded with The Aints – a 1990s noise group equally influenced by The Stooges and John Coltrane. He explains that revisiting the request show provides an opportunity to perform in places that he doesn’t ordinarily get too, adding that the format, “adds an air of completely spontaneous interaction and keeps everyone on their toes.” So, we are dealing with an artist who cares enough about his work in a David Bowie kind of way to keep pushing the boundaries of self-expression. Kuepper is equally comfortable performing songs solo or in a band arrangement, and the overall feel of a solo show shaped by the request theme is largely dependent on how the audience responds to an artist transforming a large body of work into a unique event that might or might not come off. “Without going into individual songs, I tend to like and/or dislike each period pretty much equally depending on my mood,” he says. “But regardless of how I’m feeling, I’m a loyal person and stand by my creations right or wrong.” Dropping preconceptions is the key to arriving at a better place for artist and audience, and in a wide-ranging conversation I sense a recurring twinge of humorous cynicism that draws a fine line between everyday existence and a restless need to seek out something more. Later this year, Kuepper will revisit the wild mercurial sound of The Saints with the present day line-up of The Aints and I wondered about the decision to bring together two past incarnations. “2017 falls smack dab in the middle of the three 40th anniversaries we could celebrate for the first three Saints albums,” he says. “So it seems a good time to do it then. I took a bit of persuading, to be honest, because I wasn’t sure there’d be all that much interest after all this time. But the response has been terrific, which has been humbling and exciting at the same time. We’re all looking forward to it, it’s a great band.” A request for The Aints from The Street Theatre audience might happen as a suitable prelude for these forthcoming shows and as for firing up the guitars, Kuepper is suitably blunt. “The Aints don’t fuck around my friend.” ED KUEPPER will perform solo and by request at The Street Theatre on Thursday August 24 at 8pm. Tickets at thestreet.org.au.
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like old buildings and they get me imagining what kind of people once lived there and what their lives might have been like.”
SONGS BORN OF RURAL ROADTRIPS
BY RORY MCCARTNEY
Melbourne based singersongwriter and guitarist JED ROWE creates wonderful songs of elegance and emotion that traverse the blues, altcountry and folk boundaries. BMA caught up with Rowe, who also teaches guitar to primary aged students, as he was about to embark on a tour to promote his fourth long player A Foreign Country.
The track ‘Tailem Bend’ was inspired by an abandoned sandstone house, with rabbit holes and a collapsing roof. “I
Rowe finished his songwriting while touring in Germany. “I had all these half-finished song ideas I was kicking around,” he says. “So when I had downtime in hotels, I worked to finish off these songs. Touring in general frees up your perspective. If you are surrounded by your day-to-day all the time, it can be hard to see outside your own little world.” Rowe’s album was again laid down at the home studio of Jeff Lang, who also co-produced and
mixed the record. While he had considered going elsewhere for a change, Rowe found that he was ready to dive in and record while the songs were fresh in his mind, and Lang’s studio provided a ready-made, one stop solution. “I have a really good working relationship with Jeff. He’s always got really good ideas for supporting guitar parts and other instruments.” JED ROWE, supported by EMMA DRYDEN and WAYNE KELLY, plays at Smith’s Alternative at 9pm on Thursday August 31. Tickets a steal at $10 through smithsalternative.com.
Rowe’s earlier album The Ember and the Afterglow carried a bushman vibe, while his most recent release The Last Day of Winter embraced a broader range of styles. Asked how A Foreign Country compared with these stylistically Rowe said, “It is more of a solo oriented record. I was finding that at gigs people would ask which of my albums was closest to what they’ve just heard, performing with guitar and voice, and I didn’t really have that album. So, I set out to make that album, with a bit of storytelling, with some folk stuff, a country thread and some songs with an eastern musical flavor as well.” Rowe was inspired by listening to Indian music, and found that sound could be captured with the slide guitar, which enables the playing of the quarter tones and notes between notes that Indian music includes. “It’s a great sound, I love that stuff.” There was a hint of Americana in some terminology in the lyrics of his last record but, despite its title, A Foreign Country has an Australian focus. “I was doing a lot of touring in Australia between finishing the last record and writing this one, and a lot of the songs came about on long drives between gigs and States. Lots of little towns in South Australia and regional NSW pop up in the songs.” facebook.com/bmamagazine
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Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
THE HERO WE DESERVE
A TAPEWORM A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY
BY JOSHUA MARTIN Science communicator, diet innovator and BBC television producer DR. MICHAEL MOSELY has the curious energy of a prodigious young science graduate: clear speaking, hilarious and willing to put his body on the experimental line to extraordinary cringe-inducing lengths – all of which makes it so hard to believe that the man is sixty. From the very beginning, Mosley has been singularly motivated by “pure curiosity”. Having graduated from his A Levels in sciences, he decided to broaden his horizons and began studying politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford. Despite “hugely” enjoying his study, the world of finance was not quite the same sort of inquisitive environment, lamenting, “I could have been very rich if I stayed there I suppose.” Following his medical re-training, he found himself at the BBC in 1985, from where he has never left. Despite twenty years of directorial prowess, Mosley was housing an extraordinary presentation talent that only began to reveal itself in 2005. He quickly became known for his guinea pig approach to medical programming, exposing himself to tear gas, extreme sleep deprivation and magic mushrooms. Mosley is governed by a stringent philosophy to prevent the occasion of grievous bodily harm in the process of such activities. “I don’t mind doing things which are painful or unpleasant but I am reasonably confident are safe.” PAGE 38
The doctor has another doctor’s judgement to contend with however: “My wife, who’s a doctor, vetoes some of the more extreme things.” This came into play on one particularly revolting occasion: “The producer was quite keen that I inject myself with hookworm. It drills through your skin and goes into your lungs, and makes you cough a lot. I chose to go for tapeworm instead, although it sounds much nastier, it’s much less unpleasant. One of the agreements with the tapeworm experiment was that I would get rid of the tapeworm, before it grew to full maturity, because when it does, segments break off, and crawl out of your bottom and she [Mosley’s wife] wasn’t too keen on sharing the marital bed with tapeworm segments.” It is Dr. Mosley’s fascination with diet over the past five years however that has solidified him as the leading popular medical journalist in the world. Following his shock diabetes diagnosis in 2011, the health innovator rejected traditional advice in
favour of his own research, which astoundingly led to a diagnosis reversal and the formulation of his 5:2 diet; two days of heavily reduced calorie intake and five of unmoderated eating. The ofttouted Mediterranean diet forms the basis of this, but it’s not the one that turned up in your primary school food pyramid. “Full fat yoghurt, modest amounts of red meat, plenty of oily fish, vegetables, fruit, some dark chocolate, and a bit of red wine, particularly with the evening meal and wholegrains. It is a low-ish carbohydrate diet but not low. Quite a lot of fat but in the form of olive oil and fish. There is what we call the blue zone, which is the areas of the world where people tend to have very high life expectancy, there is an area up in the Bulgarian mountains where people live a surprisingly long time, and it seems to have to do with the fact that they consume an awful lot of yoghurt [laughs].” The growing veganism movement and its assertion of health dominance Mosley does not rave quite so much about. “I think morally I can understand vegetarianism. Veganism is much harder to sustain. You have to make sure that you are getting the right nutrients, which means you have to supplement, because they are not getting it from their diet. One of the biggest problems we have is iron deficiency, typically like twenty percent of young women are iron deficient and one of the best sources of bioavailable iron happens to be
red meat. If you’re eating red meat once or twice a week, your health risks and life expectancy are no different to that of a vegetarian or vegan.” Considering Mosley’s dual expertise in the fields of diet and finance, I saw no greater opportunity now to finally settle the interdisciplinary Australian debate of the relation between the millennial generation’s inability to enter the housing market and their predilection for exorbitantly priced smashed avocado. “I saw that, quite ridiculous [laughs]. I think the amount of money for a house, you would have to eat an awful lot of avocados. Avocados are very good though, full of very good fat. They fill you up too, and are full of nutrients.” While millionaire moguls are evidently still missing the point, Mosley offers breakfast alternatives for those wanting to avoid twenty-two dollar brunch dates. “I am a big fan of eggs, and they’re pretty cheap so it doesn’t have to be smashed avocado!” Dr. Mosley’s first trip to Canberra is a long time coming and cohosting what can only be a wildly entertaining evening is the ever brilliant Julia Zemiro, who will no doubt have Mosley spill both his metaphorical and likely his physical guts on stage come September. Catch MICHAEL MOSELY: LIVE ON STAGE! with co-host Julia Zemiro at Canberra Theatre Centre on Saturday September 9 from 7:30pm. Tickets $74.90-84.90 + bf through canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
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[Talks]
INSUFFICIENT INTENT BY MATT PARNELL “It’s the job of a satirist to point out the difference between the words and the reality,” says TITUS O’REILY, in our chat ahead of his stand-up tour. O’Reily, who made a name for himself with his written blog, is branching out into stand-up and hits the Street Theatre in September. “We’re doing six shows in six nights – we’re trying to do it all in the bye week, having to cram it in,” is how O’Reily approaches it – a fast paced tour that’s packed in to the one week before the AFL finals series starts. This is fitting, of course, as O’Reily’s self-titled blog is all about taking the piss out of the weekly goings on in the AFL.
footy fans say all the time when they’re watching sport. I found it was an ability to convey a fan’s view of how we all feel about the sport.” Being able to write as informally as he does benefits the writing, as he isn’t required to present a viewpoint that is at all times positive. “I do about an hour of stand-up, which is usually all AFL related, and then Sergio Paradise, who I do my podcast with, joins me for the last half hour and we talk about other sports as well, and we talk about the silliest stories of the year,” is how Titus outlines his show to me. Describing it as a script he writes up, vaguely memorises and then riffs on
A lot of what I say is what footy fans say all the time when they’re watching sport “I sort of occasionally talk about current affairs as it links to the AFL. I figured early on that people want to get away from that for a night, there’s only so much Donald Trump or parliament that people want to cover off. There’s links, I guess, but sometimes you want to give people a night off.” He seems to be aware of the fact that, particularly in Canberra, there’s a huge political focus and O’Reily uses his satire to give people a lens through which to see other things.
the night, it promises to be a fascinating show for people who are even vaguely interested in AFL. “My style of stuff is often just making fun of sport, the way it applies to the workplace and our general lives. It works with people who don’t have this sort of intense knowledge.” TITUS O’REILY hits The Street Theatre on Monday September 4, from 7:30pm. Tickets from $49.90 + bf through thestreet.org.au.
As in most satire, his writing has a slightly biting note and one of the most common recipients of his words are the AFL media and commentary. “Sports coverage is ex-players, and it’s a closed shop and they’re all mates and don’t like to criticise each other, or the media. A lot of what I say is what facebook.com/bmamagazine
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[Entertainment]
Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
THE REAL MONSTERS INC.
LAUGHS WITHOUT FEAR BY KEREN NICHOLSON PHOTO BY LISA TOMASETTI
Yaron Lifschitz, artistic director of Brisbane’s CIRCA, has built seven-strong, tight-knit circus troupes like no other – conquering danger, forging families and establishing contemporary circus. In 2017, Lifschitz returns to Canberra with his postindustrial LANDSCAPE WITH MONSTERS. Landscape is a world of tall metal structures, wooden boxes and a hard floor where audiences experience the connections between ourselves and a built landscape in decay. Intense hand-to-hand acrobatics collide with hard objects to expose all that is dark, humorous, brutal and beautiful. Performer Tim Fyffe has already travelled throughout Australia and Europe with CIRCA after he and his partner accepted an offer to join in 2016 when graduating from the National Circus School of Montreal. Originally from Melbourne, Fyffe now lives in Brisbane, working for CIRCA full-time, and while we talk he sits on scaffolding working on his house surrounded by three dogs playing. In Fyffe’s opinion, CIRCA is unique in its inception and creation of work. “They have a very involved process of creation with the artists,” he says. “Our opinion and input is valued. With Landscape we were told to improvise around sharp edges, we discussed it and jumped into it. All the artist’s ideas get thrown into the space. We go away to create on our own without the director, then he’ll return to work with us. It’s less choreographed and more organic in process.” While
Fyffe
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was
not
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at its inception, his troupe have remodelled Landscape, complementing the strengths of the current performers. Over time CIRCA’s small troupes become in sync and improvisation leads to a strong repertoire together. While cues remain and there is choreography, Landscape is a growing organism with the artists always alert and open to what can happen. Fyffe says, “I know my cue. But every night I choose my entrance to the stage. Every audience is a unique transaction. They deserve the best show that you can give.” Landscape with Monsters is one of CIRCA’s most dangerous works, Fyffe tells me. “It’s very challenging. I do mental prep side of stage. Near misses happen and we always need to connect as a group. While we’re performing the danger, it’s real for us. “Landscape pushes the boundaries with risk. There are lots of sharp hard edges. The projections and soundscape are heavy. Audiences can expect to feel the bold danger. It is delicate at the same time as powerful. Slow and dark at the beginning, but there are lighter moments and it can be quite comical,” he concludes. Landscape with Monsters is full of the thrills that are hallmarks of CIRCA – an Australian company stretching the practice and perceptions of circus, creating work that keeps audiences and critics enthralled. CIRCA brings LANDSCAPE WITH MONSTERS to The Playhouse, Wednesday-Saturday September 6-9. Tickets from $45 + bf through canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
BY SAMUEL TOWNSEND It goes without saying that there is nothing funny about domestic violence, which begs the question: how does a format like the FEARLESS COMEDY GALA, an event designed to raise money and awareness for those affected by domestic violence, prove so successful? “[The audience are] there for what laughing does. It makes you feel good! It can give you courage and it can make you physically feel stronger, and able to cope. It can give you hope.” That’s JEAN KITTSON talking about the transformative power of comedy. In a face-to-face interview with the comedy veteran best known for her work on The Big Gig and Let The Blood Run Free, I wonder how Kittson prepares for an evening like this. “That’s the most difficult part of doing a comedy night about any serious topic. How do you introduce it, what do you say about it, how do you make people feel good without trivialising it? Then trying to think of what I did last year and not doing the same thing!” Last year the initiative raised more than $30,000 for the Domestic Violence Crisis Service in the ACT, an organization that Kittson applauds for its efforts, “I love this Fearless Comedy night because the money goes to the DVCS, which is for both perpetrators and the subjects of domestic violence. If you find yourself doing something that you can’t believe you’ve done, they (DVCS) will also help you.” Juliet Moody, one half of SparrowFolk (‘Australia’s sirens of satire’) and family violence survivor, established the Fearless Initiative in an effort “to unite comedians against family violence.” Kittson unpacks this sensitive topic further.
“You’re introducing the topic of domestic violence, you’re reminding people that that’s what the night is about, but you want people to celebrate what each other are doing by raising awareness and celebrating the courage it takes for people to admit that its happening in their lives.” Does Kittson consider herself ‘fearless’? “No! I’m the worst. I almost have to ask people to support me onto the stage.” This confession may come as a surprise, especially since Australia first came to know Kittson as ‘Candida’, the Lyrca-clad new-age gym junkie who was usually found swinging from roman rings. “Every single performance I do I am really nervous beforehand. I’ve emceed three Mid-Winter Balls and I used to get heart palpitations. They wouldn’t even start ‘til ten o’clock and everyone was pissed and I’d be standing there going ‘holy f**k’, and I’d think I was going to have a heart attack before I went on. Now I have different techniques where I can keep a lid on it.” This year’s lineup has again attracted some of the biggest, brightest and most generous Australian comedians; Denise Scott, Susie Youssef, Catherine Deveny, Dane Simpson, Jordan Raskopoulos and Canberra export Kirsty Webeck. Kittson isn’t at all surprised that it draws such an impressive bunch, “It’s a great cause, and the other thing is, it’s in a fantastic venue, a beautiful venue and the perfect place to perform! It’s like a performer’s dream. It’s a privilege to be a part of the cause, and it’s a pleasure to do it.” The FEARLESS COMEDY GALA is on Thursday September 7 at 7:30pm. Tickets from $50 + bf through canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
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[Food & Drink]
FOOD JUNKY
[THE WORD ON LOCAL FOOD & DRINK] WITH SHARONA LIN [SHARONA@POPCULTURE-Y.COM]
Everyone knows I have a sweet tooth. When I moved out of home for the first time, I often ate cheesecake for breakfast. And when I started working at a chocolate shop, it was game over – I was drinking Belgian hot chocolates every day. These days I try to hold off on cheesecake until at least morning tea, and hot chocolates for when a coffee isn’t cutting it. Still, I think I’m a good person to give some dessert tips. Prepare yourself for a sugar rush. The chocolate shop I used to work at was Koko Black, and their desserts continue to be some of the most delicious, but
most deadly, I’ve eaten. Most people struggle to even finish a rich, creamy hot chocolate (hazelnut if you’re brave), but you should work your way up to a dessert degustation, because you’re worth it. We aren’t out of winter yet, but if you have a hankering for something cold, try out Frugii for some creative flavour creations as well as the classics, Via Dolce Pasticciera (which also has a delightful assortment of beautiful pastries and desserts) or Goodberry’s in Erindale or Belconnen, who do frozen custards with mix-ins, as well as a host of other desserts.
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I feel like I’ve talked about how much I love donuts, but I’ll mention it again. I definitely have expressed my love for Patissez’s donuts so I won’t rehash (I buy them five at a time), but it’s also worth taking a trip to the Capital Region Farmers Markets or Southside Farmers Markets for a donut from Bombolini – light, fluffy and filled with deliciousness. Ricardo’s in Jamison Plaza is also a must. And finally, if you’re lazy, there’s Sugar Deli. It’s not exactly cheap – the minimum four treats plus delivery generally works out to around the $40 mark, but hey, sometimes you need to treat yourself.
Sunday, 2–4pm, $39 per person. Bookings essential. If you’re after a nice Saturday lunch, who better to host than Parlour? Saturday August 19, you can chow down on tapas provided by Parlour, matched with wines from Beechworth Wine Estates. $75 + bf, book online. Eat Canberra is running a host of food tours, including the Braddon/City Walking Food Tour. $135 gets you all food and drinks and the tour guide – Saturday August 26 and Saturday September 2. And in keeping with our sweet theme, there’s even a Sweet Tooth tour on Saturday September 2, $80.
Now, some foodie events happening in the next month. Afternoon Tea in the Conservatory, National Arboretum. The Arboretum is one of my favourite places to visit in Canberra, and even better is getting to eat while I’m there. The afternoon tea menu is designed to showcase seasonal, regional produce. Every
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[Music & Dance]
Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
RITZ AND GLAMOUR BY INDIGO TRAIL ROB MILLS, Australian Idol finalist and musical theatre star, really loves celery. It’s a crisp morning in August, just before he’s due to go into rehearsals for the new concert show PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ, and Mills is making himself a stir-fry lunch.
era with open arms. “Dancing is so cool!” he says with so much energy the phone crackles. “Imagine being able to just walk up and go, ‘wanna have a dance?’ You’re instantly connecting with someone, with their hand and their body. It’s beautiful. It really is beautiful.”
music that comes in, and you sing that yourself. And on top of that, you have dance. It’s primal. It’s a way of communicating, it always has been, to celebrate things or tell stories. So when those three elements come together … you just feel more than you would’ve felt if it were just people talking.
“I’ve got broccoli, carrots and kale,” he says. “But I’m cutting up celery as we speak. And I’m also leaving the leaves in. There’s a tip – put ‘em in your cooking. They’re like spinach anyway. So good.”
Mills would know. He’s had a lucrative career in Australian musical theatre for over a decade, starring in productions of Grease and Wicked to name a few. But he’s particularly keen on this production, because, “when
“Yeah. Good musical theatre heightens the emotion at the same time as it heightens all your senses.” And of course, it’s all about the story being told too. “I managed to see [massive musical sensation] Hamilton in Chicago a few months ago. It was one of the best things I’ve ever seen. The music is brilliant, and new, but it’s also a really powerful, uplifting story. Rags to riches – but you gotta work hard. The American dream. Or the Australian dream, whatever you wanna call it.” He pauses again, grinning audibly. “Yeah. The dream.”
He’s on a no-sugar diet – “well, it’s day one. Ugh,” he interjects – in order to prepare for the rigorous demands of touring a singing, dancing extravaganza around Australia. Puttin’ On The Ritz is a show made up of dazzling golden age showbiz tunes. Mills got the call about coming on board a couple of months ago: “It’s so weird and exciting to get to a point in your career where someone asks you if you want to have a job. They called me up and asked, “Hey, Rob, we think you’re good enough to do this job. Would you like to do it?” And I’m there like, “Sorry, mate, what songs are they? Irving Berlin, Gershwin, Cole Porter? Yeah, I’m in. And with a dance troupe from the West End … I just couldn’t say no.” The opportunity to sing such iconic music has elated Mills. What is it about these great composers that he loves so much? “I’ve never been able to totally put my finger on what it is. The lyrics are timeless. They wrote love songs, obviously, but PAGE 42
they also wrote a lot of storytelling songs, and they wrote them all for a 70 to 30-piece orchestra. One of my favourites is,” he starts singing a few bars of ‘They Can’t Take That Away From Me’, a Gershwin classic. “Just golden.”
Imagine being able to just walk up and go, ‘wanna have a dance?’ You’re instantly connecting with someone, with their hand and their body Aside from the songs, Mills seems particularly thrilled about the dancing in the show. “From what I’ve seen from videos, the dancers in this show work very, very, very hard,” he says with a blend of awe and kid-like excitement. “The way the show is structured, it’s like: song, song, song, maybe a little bit of chatting, song, song, song. And in every song, there’s incredible dancing happening. Everyone gets their chance to shine.” Mills then seamlessly launches into a passionate campaign: he wants to bring back casual dancing. He won’t outlaw the “dirty nightclubs with a beat where you just go to sort of … bop,” but he’d welcome back classic moves into the modern
you’re doing a normal musical, you’re in the dance number. Most of the time, I’ve been up the front, so I don’t see any of it. I just see the spotlight and the dark crowd. But in this, because it’s set out more like a concert, I get to stand and turn around and look at the dancers. I’m going to experience watching that incredible movement at the same time as the audience.” I ask what he thinks it is about musical theatre that’s led not only to its longevity, but its everexpanding innovation. Mills is silent for a long moment. “For me, good musical theatre is quite possibly the best form of storytelling. Not only are you telling stories through words, but you have the amplified emotion of
Still, it’s not all dreams all the time. I mention that when a friend Googled the show, up popped a photoshopped image of the Russian President, riding bareback on a certain American cracker: Putin On The Ritz. “This is gold! That’s it, that should be the tour t-shirts for everybody.” Mills laughs, then pauses. “No. Wait. It’s the Australian tour, so it’s gotta be Putin on a Savoy. Done.” PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ is showing at the Canberra Theatre on Sunday September 3 at 7:30pm. Tickets from $81.90, available through canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
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Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
LIVING LIFE A QUARTER MILE AT A TIME
BY JASPER HAGAN DEBBIE EVANS is sitting in a hatchback disguised as a car seat, about to crash into a pile of cars dropped from a parking garage, alongside 48 other cars. Together, using skill and planning, they’ll create the effect of utter chaos caused by technology run amok. For this scene in FATE OF THE FURIOUS, the villain Cipher (Charlize Theron) has commandeered hundreds of cars via remote control and is smashing them into a diplomatic limo. Debbie Evans, a long-time stunt driver, is used to doubling for people, being Michelle Rodriguez’s stunt driver in this particular film, playing an empty car is a less common request. Though, with a career as long as Evans’, she’s heard everything. She’s been doing this a long time, since the early 70s, working on everything from soap operas (one of her first jobs was on The Young and the Restless) to big films. She tended to be used for motorcycle stunts, as she was on, for instance, The Dukes of Hazzard. She was, after all, an accomplished competitive rider, but she did everything, including doubling for things too dangerous to let a movie star do. In 1991, she was Linda Hamilton’s stunt double in the classic, Terminator 2. After dashing through simulated gunfire and real (albeit controlled) explosions in the Cyberdyne headquarters, James Cameron voiced his displeasure forcefully. She PAGE 44
politely asked what the problem was, and what she should do next time. From that point on, she had his respect and courtesy. She describes the infamously demanding ‘Jim’ as a fun guy. Through the 90s, she doubled for people as varied as Sandra Bullock (in Demolition Man) Cindy Crawford (in Fair Game) and even Pamela Anderson (in Barb Wire) but as the decade ended, there was a shift. CGI, pioneered ironically by James Cameron in a movie about humanity fighting against machines, was becoming ubiquitous, and there was a rush to see how much could be replaced. It even looked like car crashes might become computer-generated. The year 2000 found Evans working on What Lies Beneath, a fairly sedate paranormal thriller. She tells a story about pulling up in an SUV towing a boat on trailer, and having to hit a very specific mark. She struggled to do so since the director of photography was working with even smaller
margins of error than her. It would have been easy to wonder if this was where it was going for her now. Luckily, the following year, the real thing came roaring back. Evans worked on the first Fast and the Furious movie, doubling for Michelle Rodriguez, just as she does now. She performed the film’s best stunt, the one they made sure was front and centre in every trailer. Performing the first of many daring heists in the series, she swooped under a speeding truck’s trailer, barely fitting. It was a perfect epitome of the sort of work she’s best at, requiring skill, trust, coordination and nerves of steel. Two years later, she was in another film about humanity fighting machines. In 2003’s The Matrix Reloaded she doubled for Carrie Anne Moss in the massive car chase that dominates the film’s second act. Just as the Terminator, despite having great stunts, pioneered CGI, The Matrix, despite having groundbreaking CGI, restored real car crashes to their place of pride. In the same film where a CGI Keanu Reeves got a close up, hundreds of real cars were smashed up in glorious slow motion, shots that dared the audience to find the seam. There wasn’t one. It’s Evans’ favourite sequence of hers, a harmony of stunt work, filming, editing and score. Since then, she’s been working continuously. She’s worked on almost every Fast and the Furious, Wanted, Captain America 2 and the TV show Banshee,
among many, many others. She does less physical work now, but good drivers are back in high demand, especially in The Fast and the Furious. The series has done multiple massively elaborate sequences involving tanks and bank vaults for real, and continues to do so, the pile up being a perfect example. However, the hardest stunt, according to her, was a relatively simple one, as a fellow driver had to get alongside her as a road broadened right before flying through a hole in the wall. She could barely see her colleague, and had to trust him to hit his mark, unable to slow down herself. He hit it, and they performed the stunt looking like only one car, a photo finish. Fittingly, the latest film, the biggest and craziest, the climax of the series (at least until the next one) also features two relatively small-scale chases that are just skilled drivers and their machines. Evans drove a Corvette Stingray (her favourite car she’s gotten to drive), in one of them, weaving in and out of traffic, performing tight turns and balancing the car on its left two wheels in a classic, old school stunt, recalling classics like Bullit. It’s in the same movie as a 30-minute, explosion-filled chase across an ice field. For a driver like Evans, whose career has been full of amusing contradictions, the balance is perfect. FATE OF THE FURIOUS is available now on digital, Blu-ray and DVD.
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[Film]
IN REVIEW
LIGHTS! VESPAS! ACTION! BY RORY MCCARTNEY Sick of that burger and fries aftertaste from your movie diet? Why not try some shaved parmesan at the 2017 LAVAZZA ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL! 28 flicks selected by Festival Director Elysia Zeccola are hitting town soon at Palace Electric Cinemas and BMA spoke to her to get the highlights of this year’s lineup. Italians love their own cinema, with both the first and second biggest box office hits in 2016 being locally-made movies. As to what makes them special, Zeccola says, “When you see an Italian film, you don’t always know what you are going to get, or how it’s going to end. I love the non-formulaic, unpredictable way of watching films.” From the 12 films announced so far, there is a strong emphasis on comedy including the film Let Yourself Go. “We haven’t screened a screwball comedy in a while,” says Zeccola. “And I think this is really fun and will be a great opening night film. There are also fantastic dramas, with a really chilling film based on a true story called Sicilian Ghost Story. I think there’s a real balance between comedies and dramas.” The range also embraces social drama, romance, crime drama, and even a sci-fi comedy hybrid in Wife & Husband (Moglie e Marito). In this film, a botched experiment sees the male and female bodies irreversibly swapped, so they are forced to live as each other. How the famous Italian machismo deals with such a situation will be something to see!
Cumberbatch, may be for you. There is even a franchise film, with I Can Quit Whenever I Want 2: Masterclass as the second film of a trilogy, following the 2014 film I Can Quit Whenever I Want. Various regional differences are embraced by the range of films. “There are definitely dialects throughout the different films,” says Zeccola. “The standout film Indivisible, about conjoined twins with the parts played by real life twin sisters, is set in Napoli, and I definitely heard a lot of Neapolitan dialects in this film.” (Indivisible was also nominated by Zeccola as her pick of the Festival). There is an Australian connection to this year’s festival, as Greta Scacchi (who grew up in Perth) appears in the film Tenderness. Scacchi will also be traveling here to appear as the Festival Ambassador and will be doing Q&A sessions about her film. There will be special events too, including the opening night Let Yourself Go with pre-flick drinks and an after party with munchies and surprises from the sponsor. Mid-festival, there will be cocktails to celebrate the biopic Dalida about the ItalianEgyptian disco singer, and more drinks on closing night, marking the 20th anniversary of the film Life is Beautiful. The LAVAZZA ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2017 is on at Palace Electric Cinemas from Thursday September 14 to Sunday October 8. For details of films, sessions and prices see palacecinemas.com.au.
Don’t like reading subtitles? Then the war doco Naples ’44, narrated in English by Benedict facebook.com/bmamagazine
VOLVO SCANDINAVIAN FILM FESTIVAL PALACE ELECTRIC TUE JUL 18–WED AUG 2 As I write, the final few films of the Scandinavian Film Festival are enjoying additional screenings by popular demand. If you can make it to these, you won’t be disappointed. Scandinavian film characteristically are quirky. The storylines in recent Scandinavian films tend to be characterdriven, focusing more on the process of becoming more (or occasionally less) human rather than driving inexorably toward outcomes and resolutions. This imbues them with a rather quiet, introspective feel, and a lifelike unpredictability. But the strongest characteristic of the Scandinavian mode of filmmaking may be its understatedness: the absences and silences that the filmmakers allow to speak for themselves. Rather than give the listener an abundance of words from which to draw conclusions about the speaker’s inner life, the films from the cold north call upon our imaginations to draw the meaning of these silences and non-reactions. In that sense, they are more like novels than many other feature films are. An aspect that I’ve noticed repeatedly is a tendency toward cool rather than warm lighting, undoubtedly reflecting the commonest natural lighting conditions in that part of the world. Besides purely physical coolness, this suggests, interestingly, emotional coolness rather than warmth in the film’s characters too. Together with the silences, this can distance the viewer from the films’ characters’ inner lives. That’s not to suggest that the films’ quietness leaves them at all lacking. On the contrary, this year’s films offered some rich
pickings indeed. Let me try to convey the briefest snippet of four films. Little Wing portrays, through subtle acting, a 12-year-old girl who, taking responsibility first for her mother and then also, once she finds him, for her father, attains victories that reflect impressive competence in navigating decisions that matter. 4.5/5 Rosemari tells the story of Unn Tove and Rosemarie, whose lives intersect minutes after Rosemari’s birth and again sixteen years later, when they meet again and begin a moving and entertaining journey to find Rosemarie’s birth parents. Discovering more than they’d bargained for unfolds a reality infrequently considered in film. Beautiful acting reveals its effects on each of their lives and leaves us pondering acceptance, forgiveness, and the pain to which the love between parents and children can give rise. 4/5 One–Two–Three–Go!, though not without plot weaknesses, is a truthfully rendered character study of half a dozen very likeable people caught up in the female lead’s first and last love affair, in which she decides to live and appreciate the moments in her life. 4/5 Finally, The Man, again superbly acted, is a family drama offering up some mystery in the relationship between a successful artist and his mysteriously successful 30-something-yearold artist son whose mother he long ago abandoned. 3.5/5 But if you’ve missed everything this year, don’t fret; there’s always next year! JOHN P. HARVEY
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Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
ROCKIN’ THE GOLDFIELDS BY SAM INGHAM PHOTO BY ALDONA KMIEC
BMA asked director Moira Funicane what it was about Lola Montez, that made herself and creator Jackie Smith decide that Lola’s life story had to be brought back to a stage show 162 years later. “In 2012 we toured Caravan Burlesque around Australia,” says Funicane. “And when we performed in the goldfield towns people often said: ‘you’re the wildest thing to come through this town since Lola Montez!’ Well, we had to find out more about this fascinating woman, and Ballarat and Lola have a very special relationship; she even horsewhipped the editor of the Ballarat Times for giving her a bad review!” Whilst Funicane and Smith are well known for the way they redefine burlesque performance genres and expectation, this theatre production will present something else completely. “THE EXOTIC LIVES OF LOLA MONTEZ is a rollicking mix of storytelling, burlesque, dancing and song with fantastic sensibility,” says Funicane. “Very appropriate for Lola herself who ripped through the colonies with a variety show. Featuring stories and songs and mayhem, and of course the highlight of her repertoire was her notorious Spider Dance. The show is such a wild adventure – a swashbuckling cocktail of song, dance, story and dazzling costumes, and when we kick back in the Lola Lounge with our audience the party just keeps going!” When asked about the key performers, actor Caroline Lee and dancer Holly Durant, Funicane states, “Holly is a kind PAGE 46
of modern day avatar for Lola in this production. Lola introduces Holly as her natural heir apparent and yes, she does a couple of spectacular turns as well! Caroline Lee is a brilliant and commanding actor and has fully embraced the text and physical world of The Exotic Lives of Lola Montez. We have worked with her in previous productions – including Jackie Smith’s play The Flood which toured nationally and last year it was the first Australian Drama to be presented at the Shanghai International Theatre Festival. Thrillingly Caroline Lee is also a direct descendant of Lola herself!” After opening week in Melbourne, Finucane, Smith and cast are travelling to over 25 towns and cities in just ten weeks with a couple of major cities (including Canberra) being lucky to have the production presented in local art centres. “Our experience of travelling nationally has always been such a rewarding one,” says Funicane. “Every town is a new experience and every audience have their own stories to tell. Lola is an inspiration for so many people; an uninhibited, bawdy fierce woman who took on life with lusty passion. Her touring style might not have been sustainable in modern context; with near arrests and scandal following in her wake but like Lola, touring with passion for our show and our audiences, and with a sense of adventure and joy is paramount.” Canberra – get ready, THE EXOTIC LIVES OF LOLA MONTEZ will be in town at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre for one night only on Wednesday September 13 from 8pm. Tickets $40 through tuggeranongarts.com.
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[Burlesque]
IN REVIEW
and hilarious and the crowd loved it.
JAZIDA PRESENTS: HI BROW AT THE LOBROW #2
Lilith Von Dahlia (Newcastle) also performed twice; her gothic costuming, large black feathered neck pieces and sequinned gloves matched beautifully with the painted ram skull prop in her first routine. Her second routine in a giant organza ball gown was stunning and with lots of poised floor work, her routines were sultry and very pretty.
LOBROW GALLERY & BAR SATURDAY JULY 22 PHOTO BY DAVID MACKIE
The second of Jazida’s quarterly variety shows featured burlesque, belly dance, salsa, fan dancing and boylesque. 80 very happy patrons packed themselves into the sold-out small venue to settle in with their drinks and enjoy the two hours of performances. Emcee Jazida was elegant and chatty and looking utterly glamourous in her $12 “secondhand shopulence” black gown. The first set opened with Kokoloco Dance School presenting an American style cabaret showgirl group routine in a salsa styled Charleston that
was flirty and fun. They later performed a second routine full of bumps and shimmies and their almost perfect timing was a real pleasure to watch. 2017 Burlesque Idol winner and Canberra local Rainbow performed twice, starting with her well-known ‘cheap wine’ cold chisel routine and her second act as Patsy from Ab Fab was insanely funny and over the top. Pulling a cigarette and phone from her underwear, she ended the routine by pulling out one tit and doing this insane backbend to tassel twirl. It was spectacular
Local Chocolate E Claire performed three times; two routines featuring classical bump ‘n’ grind, striptease, boa work, bunny hops and a great amount of tassel twirl at the end. Her third performance was her hilarious ‘Under the Sea’ act, with hand-painted silk wings, and very clever costume gimmicks that included floating jellyfish fans, octopus that crawled over her body, hidden silk fans and a strategically placed oyster shell with a hidden pearl. Maple Rose (Melb) was a standout in all three of her performances; her clever costuming gimmicks, sassy facial expressions, crowd interaction and dance moves
This sold-out show by Miss Kitka’s House of Burlesque was themed on Grindhouse; the old-style American exploitation movies from the 1970s. 100+ attendees settled comfortably into group tables, whilst snippets of movies played on the projection screen to give those that didn’t know what they were about to see some idea of the theme. Emcee Garnet Martini (as Chesty Morgan) was very coy and witty. Introducing each act with a history for each performance, she also performed a hilarious scene from Deadly Weapons, using her 73-inch bust to kill the mobsters that murdered her boyfriend. Drugging the men she then smothered them to death with her ample bosom. The crowd’s hilarious reaction was fantastic. Other Grindhouse performances included a Tura Satana tribute from Faster Pussycat Kill Kill that morphed into a Cherry Darling Planet Terror sequence. With leather, chains, a shotgun fake leg and a zombie baby wielding a shot gun, it was in-your-face Kapow! and as sexy as Tura was. There was also a Barbarella routine with lots of silver spandex, lava lamp lighting, laser gun and
absolutely wowed the crowd. With large amounts of butt shimmying, tassel twirling, fan tossing, and classic strip tease – Maple Rose bought high class burlesque to the Canberra stage. My favourite routine was Canberra local Robbie. He performed a very simple but highly quirky undress routine; removing his three-piece suit in a naughty and camp style, he stripped completely nude using his briefcase for modesty and it then ‘accidentally’ falls open to reveal a sketched portrait of his genitals. The crowd roared their applause. Other performances included Jazida’s fan dancers and an emotional tribute song ‘Starry Starry Night’ sung by Tammy Paks whilst Jazida and Rainbow’s delicate fan dance brought emotional attention to the ongoing pain that suicide leaves us with. Thank you Jazida – myself and the crowd were very entertained and I think that was your best show yet. SAM INGHAM
IN REVIEW
MISS KITKA’S HOUSE OF BURLESQUE: GRINDHOUSE CANBERRA IRISH CLUB SATURDAY JUNE 24
PHOTO BY BRETT SARGEANT, D-EYE PHOTOGRAPHY
star pasties, and a gender queer strip performance to a spoken poem, ‘Two Loves’ by Lord Alfred Douglas. More performances included a flapper routine, a biker chick fight over a man featured a real Harley Davidson motorcycle as a prop, a flirty striptease behind a lace curtain, a fan dancer who
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morphed into a PVC-clad rock chick, a house wife bump ‘n’ grind routine that revealed a suitcase full of fetish sex toys, a Dita Von Teese lookalike that wore a strap on AK47 gun and an epic three-minute tassel twirling group routine with light up LED tassels and shimmying go-go dancers.
It was sassy, sexy, high impact and utterly brilliant. The crowd loved it and performers presented routines that were controversially oversexualised and wow this show did not disappoint! Excellent work Miss Kitka. SAM INGHAM PAGE 47
Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
Geoffrey Dunn [ARTIST PROFILE]
Describe your art practice. I am a photographer fascinated with all things visual. I strive to create images inviting a viewer to see something of what I saw when I created the picture. I achieve this through digital and film-based photography and post-processing techniques. When, how and why did you get into it? I have loved photography since I was a boy. I received my first Kodak Instamatic when I was about eight or nine and have enjoyed taking photographs ever since. Why did I get into it? Mostly because I like looking at pictures! I find photography an artistic medium in which I can express things that I am unable to express in words. What ideas do you explore through your art? I am a trained biological scientist and have a fascination for natural phenomena and much of my work and exhibition history reflects this. I have also spent 15 years as a semi-professional musician and so I enjoy capturing musicians
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and performing artists either during a performance or working with them to create promotional images or album covers … I love making album covers! My art documentation practice sees me working one-on-one with artists to create images of their work that inspires people to want to experience the original. I am increasingly drawn to portraiture and using an image of someone to allow a viewer to have even a glimpse into that person’s life and experience. My current solo exhibition Provenance explores the faces of eight Canberra artists with just this aim. Who/what influences you as an artist? Oh my goodness where to start? Light is probably the biggest single influence for me. The way it reflects and refracts and its ability to describe something or someone beyond words is crucial to how I see the world around me. Artist-wise I would have to list Richard Avendon and Robert Mapplethorpe as portrait photographers I admire greatly.
Of what are you proudest so far?
I would be outrageously famous!
What a question! I am perhaps proudest of the fact that I am still pursuing photography as an artistic expression as an entirely self-taught photographer … that I am continually improving my practice and that every piece is an improvement on the previous work. Working with my subjects and them telling me that I’ve made a positive change in their lives through my photography also makes me feel a sense of pride. Receiving my accreditation as a professional photographer with the Australian Institute of Professional Photographers was also pretty good.
I’m not sure I would change too much. The arts community is very supportive and there are a whole range of opportunities to showcase your work. There are lots of people willing to help out with projects and their unique skills and willingness to try something new is truly heartwarming.
What are your plans for the future? Keep producing better images and exhibiting! I would like to continue working with artists and musicians and promoting their endeavours by capturing their live performance or creating album art. I have a number of projects coming up including portraiture highlighting social justice issues and another working with dancers to capture movement and exquisite human forms. What about the local scene would you change?
What are your upcoming performances/exhibitions? My current show is called Provenance, on at the Huw Davies Gallery at the Manuka Arts Centre, Thursday August 17 until Sunday September 10. Provenance is an exploration of “Artists behind the Art” and features eight portraits of eight Canberra artists I admire and respect: Lori Cicchini, Paul Summerfield, Sarah Rice, Byrd, Thea Katauskas, Hanna Hoyne, Stephen Best & Duncan Lowe. I am also working on a project with a more documentary focus. I will be exploring a social justice issue that’s close to my heart and hope to raise awareness about it through my photography. Watch this space. Contact info: geoffreydunn.com.au Instagram: @geoffrey.dunn geoffrey@geoffreydunn.com.au
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[Canberra Artists]
Nicola Dickson [ARTIST PROFILE]
Describe your art practice. I am primarily a painter who paints onto the traditional support of linen stretched onto a wooden frame. I also make drawings and incorporate printmaking procedures like screenprinting into my paintings. However, I really enjoy ‘going offpiste’ when an opportunity arises to expand my usual practice by painting onto objects instead and developing unusual installations for my work. When, how and why did you get into it? Drawing and painting has been something I have enjoyed doing since I was a child. During my twenties, I did as many courses at TAFE or CIT as I could to develop my skills and began making more and more paintings. I was looking at paintings during a visit to the National Gallery and I was very aware in the gap between what I was doing at that stage and the works on the wall of the NGA.
I decided then that I wanted to make paintings that could ‘move me’ like many of the paintings I was looking at. Determined to learn how to make work that could communicate aesthetically motivated me to commit fully to an art practice and I began fulltime study at the ANU School of Art, completing a Bachelor of Visual Art in 2003. For me this was a great choice, studying there opened a door to a big, bright world of ideas that gave me a context for my work and a network of peers. What ideas do you explore through your art? Fundamentally I explore the sense of wonder that can be experienced when you look and think about animals, birds and plants. Wonder being a sensation experienced when you encounter something new – or perceive something familiar to you in a different way. Experiencing wonder lets me ‘see’ how odd, bizarre, beautiful or even repulsive
these living creatures are. I try to convey this in my paintings so others may have the pleasure of seeing or considering them differently too. Using painting to offer a fresh look at animals and plants allows me explore other ideas too. These include how our ideas about animals impacts on our own sense of what it is to be human and how the presence of native animals and plants is fundamental to our experience of ‘place’ and even national identity. I have been concentrating lately on conveying how the existence of plants, birds and animals endemic to Tasmania impacts greatly on the unique sense of place experienced in this location. Who/what influences you as an artist? Studying the historical illustrations and prints made during European voyages to Australia and the Pacific in the 18th and 19th centuries has been a big influence on my art making. The artists who made these images were seeing Australian plants and animals for the first time. They were amazed by what they saw and their images convey the wonder they felt. Their strange and often awkward images give me clues on how I can make paintings to do the same thing. Of what are you proudest so far? Tricky question! Every time I realise a solo exhibition after months of quietly working in my studio I am excited to see the works installed on the gallery wall. This is always the first time I get to see all the work together after imagining it for so long. What has given me the biggest buzz so far though must be a couple of years ago when I worked on the Enlighten Canberra festival. I designed several projections that incorporated paintings I had done. It was amazing to see them projected onto the National Library and the National Portrait gallery walls.
historical images available in archives for me to study are a rich treasure trove that I will be immersing myself in for a while. Excitingly, I’m off to Paris in October to undertake a three-month residency at the Cité Internationale after being awarded a residency with the Institut Français. I will be making work about the exchange of plants between Tasmania and the garden of the Empress Josephine at Malmaison around the beginning of the 19th century. Maybe this sounds dry but it opens up a dialogue with the concepts of the Enlightenment, colonialisation and the development of the natural sciences, concepts that I will try to convey in my paintings with lots of delicious, French decorative imagery. What about the local scene would you change? Mostly, I think the Canberra art scene is fantastic, populated with a supportive, varied bunch of artists with a range of opportunities on offer. The main thing that I would like to change would be to increase Government and public recognition of the value and richness of the local art scene to the quality of their lives. What are your upcoming performances/exhibitions? My next exhibition is called Voyagers’ Tales: Labillardiere and it will be at Beaver Galleries, Deakin starting Thursday August 10 and running until Sunday August 27. The paintings are the result of period of fieldwork in south eastern Tasmania supported by ArtsACT project funding. Contact info: Nicola Dickson is represented by Beaver Galleries, Canberra. For all enquiries, please contact the gallery on 02 62825294 or via email at mail@beavergalleries.com.au.
What are your plans for the future? I am still fascinated by the ideas I have been working on. The [‘Eastern Spinebill and Anigozantho rufa I’, acrylic and oil on linen, 46 x 38.5cm] facebook.com/bmamagazine
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Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
Akka Ballenger Constantin [ARTIST PROFILE]
Describe your art practice. I am an emerging artist with special interest in visual art and poetry. My current body of work has a minimalist approach whenever possible, eliminating superfluous details and focusing on the essential that is often unseen. I concentrate on the movement fluidity, transformation and use of colours through a synaesthetic process, employing various senses to enhance an artistic experience. My work is never unilateral; words and/or music complement images most often.
[Above: Permission to despair disappear]
I am also very grateful to be an Artist in Residence at Playing Field Studio next year. What are your plans for the future? Dream more, write more, make more images. Collaborate with other artists. My biggest dream at the moment is to publish a book with the Stories from my Grasslands poems and images.
When, how and why did you get into it?
I have started collaborating with a very talented composer, Harvey Welsh, and we are looking at having a CD out in the near future.
My father gave me my first camera when I was six: it was love at first sight. Later on, learning to write and draw, I found new ways of expression.
I am working on Permission to despair disappear – a project tackling estrangement as a result of feeling overwhelmed in a fast paced, changing world.
What ideas do you explore through your art?
I’d love to see this project commissioned, or in a future exhibition.
Several themes occurring in my explorings are: - Transience and the many ways we transform in a lifetime. - Temporality and connection (or disconnection) with our place. - Belonging versus feeling displaced. Who/what influences you as an artist? Nature. I need to be close to nature – trees especially – and explore that particular interaction, finding beauty in the mundane. Freddie Mercury has been a lifelong influence; I could possibly quote a song for any life situation or working mood. Of what are you proudest so far? Re-emerging in a new country, a new language and a new discipline. I am just finding my feet; therefore I remind myself to stay humble. Looking at what I achieved, I look instantly at ways of improving too. The most difficult project (most rewarding, too) involved writing and recording about 60 poems for Art Sound FM. It was delivered in four languages within a very
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short timeframe – just over two months.
What about the local scene would you change? I find other artists very supportive, but in terms of institutions, if I could change something, it would be providing more opportunities for ‘late bloomers’. There aren’t many options or opportunities for individuals emerging past a certain age. What are your upcoming performances/exhibitions? For the last two years I have been working on A Hat of Many Dreams – a contemporary collection of portraits and interviews aiming to document our moment in time for the future generations. The first stage of the project is an individual photography exhibition next year. I would love this to eventuate in a book, too. In a couple of months, I am going to be part of Anthology – a collective alternative photography exhibition at Belconnen Community Services (September 18 – 29). Contact info: planetakka.blogspot.com.au Instagram: @drommeren
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[Canberra Artists]
Heidi Lefebvre [ARTIST PROFILE]
Describe your art practice. When I can, I get the best quality paper I can afford and I take a breath and then I draw on it. I can draw things so they look like the object in front of you but I am more interested in drawing a little to the left of that. Sometimes I will experience something and it will get me outraged and I will draw about that. Sometimes I get frustrated, sometimes touched. Sometimes excited. Then I will look at my drawings and I go – ohhh, I see what I was trying to do there. Then I have to write proposals for exhibitions and try and articulate the ideas and process and make it appealing and sensible. So my art practice skids between wrestling it to the ground and chucking it up in the air. When, how and why did you get into it? It was inevitable. I first got into art when I was four and I made Christmas presents for my family. I remember I sewed three buttons onto a piece of shiny yellow satin for my sister and in that moment I realised I was having a great time. I grew up in a small country town on a little farm so I had to do something? So I made things – my best friend and I used to make satirical magazines and record the top 40 and then re-record it with us as DJs. Then I was a teenager and that was pretty bad. Then I went overseas and that was pretty good. Then I came to art school in Canberra. I worked really hard because I loved it. It was like sewing buttons onto shiny fabric but, everyday!
Who/what influences you as an artist? Every single thing in the whole wide world and time and space. But some specific artists who I really love are Marvin Gaye Chetwynd’s performances. Jockum Nordstrum’s collages. I really like Tony Albert’s assemblages, Glenn Barkley’s ceramics, Charlie Sofo’s videos, Kenny Pittock’s everythings, Noel McKenna’s paintings, Ali Jane Smith’s poetry, Oliver Smith’s silver smithing. I love Cathy Petocz and Patrick Larmours’ daring exploits and I also enjoy Katy B Plummer and Kuba Dorabialskis’ brave new worlds. There are lots more … I also really like old clothes. Especially jackets? Of what are you proudest so far? I am proud to still be making art. I am proud to be able to share ideas with people and talk about creativity and how important it is. This year I have had three shows and with each one I feel more pride. It’s gradual. What are your plans for the future? My plans for the future are to get a day job that pays me enough to provide safety and security for my family while also allowing me time to make art while listening to records. I have a few projects on the simmer that will potentially marry my love of day jobs and records, so watch out. Yes, I’m starting an art band. What about the local scene would you change?
What ideas do you explore through your art?
I would give everyone amnesia so we could start again.
I explore the idea that art is important. I try to look at the world around me and reflect my experiences. I try to make art that is about my thoughts and feelings, not expectation. I try to make art that challenges hypocrisy including my own and I try to make art that is a bit funny. Because really it is both funny and hypocritical to think that art is important? But it is important. Really!
I think we are doing okay. I think people with initiative will always find ways to operate and create interesting things. I think we should have free parking and everyone should have a safe place to live, healthcare and employment. Once you have that stuff sorted out you can have more energy to show initiative? What are your upcoming performances/exhibitions?
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I have been selected by The Curators Department and the University of Queensland Museum and Gallery to make a work for The National Artist Self Portrait Prize. I’m making a time machine so my children can meet their great grandparents. I’m also in a group show with local and interstate artists and writers exploring the idea of Confabulation through looking at old slides and the technology that supports them. This show will be exhibited in Feb 2018 at ANCA with a view to tour the works to Indonesia. Tributary Projects is also a great place where I have my studio, so I perform there most days. And the art band with Katy B Plummer is going to happen. Or maybe we will write a rock opera where the performers will wear shiny yellow button covered jackets. Full circle.
EXHIBITIONS AROUND TOWN
Next Generation: Solomon Islands After RAMSI by Sean Davey depicting daily life in Honiara at the end of RAMSI. PhotoAccess, Aug 17–Sep 10
Contact info: heidilefebvre.com Instagram: @heidilefebvre
Lines of Site: Finding the Sublime in Canberra. Curated by Grace Blakeley-Carroll. M16 Artspace, Gallery 1. Opening Aug 17. PAGE 51
[Pop Culture]
Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
IN REVIEW GAMMA.CON AIS ARENA SAT-SUN AUGUST 5-6 PHOTO BY CLIFF DORIAN
WHERE IMAGINATION BEGINS BY SHARONA LIN
I saw a Storm Trooper, Ash Ketchum, Crash Bandicoot, Heath Ledger’s The Joker, Rorschach of Watchmen, Spider-Man, an Ewok, Eleven of Stranger Things and five different Harley Quinns … No, I was not hallucinating after a sick night out at Civic. I was standing within GAMMA.CON, the ACT and Southern New South Wales region’s biggest pop culture event! Dozens and dozens of stalls set up selling merchandise of Rick and Morty, Deadpool, Nightmare On Elm Street, Star Wars, every Pop Vinyl figurine imaginable and even Battlestar Gallactica lunchboxes. GAMMA.CON was about inclusion, and it was hard to pass by a couple of cosplayers without overhearing an exchange of compliments, small talk of thread counts and how many sleepless nights it took them to create such lifelike costumes. A string of ancient video game consoles were set up in the free play area including Nintendo 64, Sega, Super Nintendo and GameCube for all who wanted to take a trip down 8-bit memory lane; or for the futurist gamers we were treated to VR headset displays. It is always sadistically fun watching kids jolt and jump in their seats as 3D sharks and monsters pounce at their lenses. The special guests included Spawn Point hosts Bajo, Rad and Goose who provided a lengthy Q&A session. Workshops were conducted by professional cosplayers Henchwench and A.K. Wirru, who have both won multiple awards for their elaborate costumes and dedication to their fictional idols. PAGE 52
A staggering amount of home grown comicbook writers, artist and illustrators attended including Matt Kyme (That Bulletproof Kid), Angie Spice (Courier: The Adventures of Geraldine Barker) and Darren Close (Killeroo) just to name a few. There were panels discussing video game movies and anime features of yesteryear, or if you just wanted to kick your feet up there were screenings of Rick and Morty season two, Venture Bros season six and numerous animated movies. GAMMA@Night provided the adult’s entertainment at 4:30pm onwards, kicking out all the younger patrons and allowing us over 18-ers to let loose. The entrée was the superb ACT Comedy Showcase, giving us a taste of young stand-up talent. The main course was the alluring performance of Nerdlesque – Canberra’s leading burlesque with a hint of nerdy outfits and routines. Can you really resist some Star Trek or DC Comicsinspired hip shaking and sultry winks? If you love all things gaming and ‘nerdy’, this is the place to be. ANDREW MYERS
Studio Ghibli is one of the most beloved animation studios in the world, second only perhaps to Disney. Works like My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away are iconic, while Ocean Waves has never been screened in Australia. This year for the first time, the entire Ghibli catalogue will be coming to Australia with CELEBRATE STUDIO GHIBLI. Tim Anderson is the founding father and Managing Director of Madman, who is bringing Celebrate Studio Ghibli to our screens. Understandably, he has a lot of strong feelings about Studio Ghibli, and why people love their movies. “They have a vision and talent that is uniquely their own. They’re a creative phenomenon, able to build worlds that feel timeless and strange, yet also warm, beautiful and filled with emotion.” They’re strongly rooted in Japanese culture, while eschewing many of the associated pop culture tropes. And of course, “there’s also the fact that the majority of their works are extremely well-refined and crafted.” Reason enough for a celebration of Studio Ghibli. It has also been two years since the last Ghibli film hit our shores – “the public have been pining for more ever since,” Anderson says. “We naturally started to talk about the possibility of maybe bringing older films back, or even another showcase. Then, I guess we just got excited by the idea and started adding more films until we had everything and it became more or less a small film festival.”
be available, what are the dark horses we should be booking tickets for, I ask Anderson. “Ocean Waves has never screened here before, so that’s very much one worth seeing for the Ghibli completist,” he says. He also lists many more: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Only Yesterday, The Cat Returns and Whisper of the Heart. “And anyone with an interest into how Studio Ghibli operates should absolutely see The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness.” The mini film festival will open with a classic: My Neighbour Totoro. “Totoro was a natural fit, as we picked him as our mascot/ icon for the festival. Who better to represent, really?” It will be preceded by short film Ghiblies: Episode 2 and music video On Your Mark. Both of these are a little more obscure, which will give the audience something new to see. And if that’s not enough, ticketholders will receive a print designed by Shaun Tan. “We’re really thrilled with what he’s come up with, and we’re sure those opening night ticket holders are going to leave the event very happy with their print. We can’t wait to reveal it to the public!” CELEBRATE STUDIO GHIBLI brings all 22 Studio Ghibli films to Canberra from Thursday August 24 to Wednesday September 20. Check out Dendy Canberra and Event Cinemas Manuka for ticketing.
There are some really popular Studio Ghibli films, and also other films that aren’t as well known. Given the whole collection will @bmamag
[Literature]
Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
LITERATURE IN REVIEW WITH CARA LENNON leaving you wondering how long it’s been in the room. The Town layers in surreal elements until the weirdest thing becomes the townspeople’s dogged rationalisation of the Alice in Wonderland shit that’s going down.
Draw Your Weapons Sarah Sentilles [The Text Publishing Company; 2017] “Critics insist pacifism results from an internal contradiction … how can you claim that life is an absolute good and then be unwilling to defend lives threatened by aggression?” Draw Your Weapons shines a light on the overlaps between art, violence, torture, pacifism and politics. It’s a book that was written over the course of a decade by Sentilles, a theologian who veered away from being ordained after seeing photographs of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. In part autobiographical, Draw Your Weapons asks why our species treats itself so badly, and documents Sentilles’s attempts to tease out an answer. “Advocates of pacifism point out that pacifism is no more contradictory than the idea that you must kill life to defend life.” Presented as a flow of vignettes, Sentilles probes the lives of a war veteran and a conscientious objector who are brought into her orbit through art. This is interspersed with snippets of art history and theory that address what photography does to make concealed atrocities visible, and whether our default responses to seeing outrageous violations – despair, anger, sympathy – are anything more than a mechanism to restore our own sense of wellbeing. Draw Your Weapons contains confronting descriptions of torture, and the equally confronting indifference of torturers, examining what disconnects ordinary people from the horror of what they’re doing and seeing. It’s easy to see the writing of this book was a very personal journey for Sentilles. There is a warm, accessible spirituality wound throughout that steers
well clear of proselytising. Sentilles appears to be someone to whom violence is so alien that the question of how anyone could perpetrate it presents an almost insurmountable stumbling block right from the get-go. The stop-start nature of the prose works intermittently. Often it’s a sharp and effective way of highlighting complicity, contrasting a victim’s degradation with some unconvincing governmental waffle, or with scenes of domestic life in the perpetrating nation. In other places however, it feels like there’s just too much going on. Sentilles’s experiences teaching art, interacting with the war veteran and the conscientious observer are strong enough to carry the book forward. Frequent cutaways to esoteric art theory or topics that seem only superficially related to the thrust of the chapter sometimes hurt the book’s coherence more than they help it. Finally, for a book that spends a lot of time describing images and asking us to analyse our reactions to them, it seems an odd choice not to include any photographs. Or to put it another way, Sentilles spends thousands of words arguing effectively that images argue effectively. On the whole though, these are niggling complaints about a sincere and intelligent read.
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The Town Shaun Prescott [Brow Books; 2017] If there’s such a thing in fiction as an ennui genre (‘gennui!’ I’m coining it!) The Town sits neatly within it. A commentary on shrinking regional NSW towns, The Town depicts jingoistic commitment to celebrating somewhere just because it exists. If you grew up in a town like this and got out at some point, parts of it will be eerily familiar. If you never got out, it might be depressingly familiar. It bears all the hallmarks of gennui (shut up it’s a real word now). Passages that sift through feelings of lingering unrest. A frustrated author as the protagonist. An environment so comically unremarkable our hero can’t help but be alienated. Characters selfescalating emotionally in the vacuum of sweet bugger-all actually happening. Writing about ennui is a tricky business. When your core subject is boredom, how do you avoid being boring? Something in the unremarkable world has to go weird, if only for a bit of relief. Have the hero shoot a random dude on the beach, turn into a giant cockroach, whatever.
It seems like such a brilliant idea. Where better to set a novel about ennui than Woolworths and the car park at McDonalds? Prescott points out in The Town how satisfying it is to read about locations you recognise, and he’s right. Imagine Nausea’s Antoine Roquentin trying to philosophise at the local pub-TAB, getting up the nose of Jenny the rough-as-guts bartender. However, while he may be consciously referencing classic ennui protagonists like Roquentin, Prescott has given us such a realistically bad writer for our main character that his internal monologue reads exactly like bad writing. He’s the kind of guy I imagine wears his fedora indoors, and the whole story is told through his firstperson narrative. So we’re stuck with his abuse of anachronistic, vaguely literary words, stilted dialogue and snobbery towards other people. It pervades most of the book, and it makes for pretty rough going. It’s a shame, because otherwise The Town is a creative effort, with quietly funny ideas and other characters whose faults are better balanced with their likeability. The Town. It’s an interesting experiment, but gird your loins for a hero who overuses the word ‘oneself’, throws around sentences like “I hoped she would feel unqualified to fathom my book” and refuses to use contractions like a normal human person. And don’t be surprised if you end up siding with Jenny the bartender.
Prescott does the kind of weird that sneaks in the side-door and is not immediately noticeable, PAGE 53
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POLITICALLY INCOHERENT [DRUGS, SEX & COUNTERCULTURE] WITH DONNIE DANKO As the years march on, I often is reiterated that intoxication compare life to the Harry Potter doesn’t equal justification, there films as with each one not will always be a percentage only do the plotlines become of people fumbling feebly for more tenebrous, but the colour an excuse. grading becomes increasingly Not even Harry Potter had to worry desaturated. This is particularly about an unconsenting finger noticeable with a side-by-side massaging his prostate while he comparison. I’m only reminded was waiting for his butterbeer at of this when I read survey results the Three Broomsticks. He was by the Australian Human Rights too busy calculating various ways Commission. More specifically, to defeat Voldemort. There was the recent statistics released no allowance for such nonsense. about the prevalence of sexual It shouldn’t be necessary, but if a assault on university campuses stranger offers to buy you a drink, within Australia. whether you’re a male, female or It revealed that fifty-one percent a sophisticated sex robot from of students were sexually the future, ensure that you’re harassed at least once in 2016, watching them constantly. This while one in four students was can be difficult in an environment sexually harassed in a university of strobing lights and various setting on at least one occasion appealing visuals but it pays to in the same year. A “university be cautious so you don’t end up setting” can be defined as on getting bummed in a back alley campus, travelling to and from with no memory of the incident. the university and off-campus I mean, different strokes for functions organised or endorsed different folks. If that type of by the institution itself. Out of 39 activity gets your engines roaring, universities that have released roam freely. Heck, date rape nail individual data, the figures varnish is set for release later associated with the Australian in 2017. Although it’s marketed National University were towards women, I know plenty significantly higher than those of guys who indulge in this recorded nationally. Although it fashion statement. must be noted that ANU had a I feel as if the word ‘consent’ very high participation rate for is used so often that it’s lost all the survey, of 1,477 students, one meaning in our society. People of the highest response rates in hear it and their eyes seem the nation. to glaze over. It needs to be ANU announced earlier in reinvented or supplemented August that students would with a new term to exemplify have access to a full-time the importance. Perhaps we on-campus specialist sexual should just employ the Ludovico assault counsellor, which is all Technique to re-educate the well and good. But what actual entire populace as it feels like preventative methods can be we’re living in a dystopian taken? Alcohol and university universe already. culture go hand in hand. It stupefies and enrages people if they’re not aware of their limitations. It can bring out the best and worst in the human race simultaneously, depending on the way your body processes booze. No matter how many times it PAGE 54
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
SLOP OF THE POPS WITH JOSHUA MARTIN
Exploring the murkiest, most absurd and experimental corners of music, that you’ve probably never heard of, and may never want to hear of again. Whenever perusing the ever so ambiguous ‘Indie Rock’ section of your local record store, one may find that perhaps the only definitive quality of the bands contained therein is their penchant for band names which have approximately nothing to do with the music they play. Queens of the Stone Age – that’s a bit of historical posturing isn’t it? If you’re like me, and are longing for some moniker-music equivalency, you can’t look past seminal Japanese harsh-noise group The Gerogerigegege; literal translation being “Vomitdiarrheackackack”. Their psychotic yet endearingly honest ‘music’ (in heavily inverted commas) is the closest auditory correspondent to simultaneous vomit and diarrhea. Founded by Juntaro Yamanouchi and Gero 30 in 1985, the pair were dishwashers in a Tokyo S&M club and decided that true performance obscenity was sadly fading into obscurity. They took it upon themselves to light up stages across gay clubs in Japan, and were an apparent success, selling a few thousand records. In a rare interview with a U.S. magazine from 1991, Yamanouchi delineated how many of their early performances occurred: “Gero 30 and I have eaten each other’s shit and the audience’s shit. The audience was watching us eat shit seriously and we were also serious. There was not any music playing while we were eating shit, and we could even hear their breathing.” It is also particularly noted that Gero 30’s apparent live signature was masturbation, providing assurance that you wouldn’t miss out: “Wherever we played, we always did masturbation.” This was not a modest display either; it was most often performed with the assistance of a vacuum cleaner, as can be viewed on the internet at your leisure. Their visual assault of nauseating obscenity was appropriately paired with an onslaught of dizzying industrial noise and (very) vaguely Ramones-inspired punk. Many early releases defy general decency, like 1989’s
Showa, a recording of a couple having sex to the Japanese National Anthem, supposedly commemorating the death of wartime Emperor Hirohito. (I think their heart is in the right place?) Worse still, the ‘Most Epic Bowel Movement Ever’ in which they provide a 1-2-3-4 count in to a man defecating for four minutes. The quintessential Gerogerigegege aural diarrhea however, and their most cohesive recording (a rather alarming thought), is 1990’s Tokyo Anal Dynamite, a 75-track mess of grindcore and muffled screams. Each song commences with Yamanouchi yelping a garbled track name, occasionally indistinguishably mirroring that of a classic rock song, followed by another screeched 1-2-3-4. Heinous frequencies twisting into howling industrial distortion over barely audible frenzied drumming ensued. The Gerogerigegege decided that their very existence still wasn’t lampooning music enough, and thus followed up with their ART IS OVER cassette. Except there was no cassette – inside was a severed octopus tentacle, and a lift-out reading “Fuck Compose, Fuck Melody, Dedicated to No One, Thanks to No One, ART IS OVER.” By 2001 however, the group had reached an apparent existential crossroads: continue to plow their salacious art for their small but dedicated shit-eating following, or kick the bucket. Many assumed following their puzzling disappearance that Gero 30 and Yamanouchi had finally been institutionalised. For fifteen years, The Gerogerigegege gestated in avant-garde memory, to inspire generations of performance artists that no bodily function is off limits. That is until last year, when astoundingly, The Gerogerigegege rose from the sewers to throw down a harrowing explosion of harsh noise, Moenai Hai. And so, the self-proclaimed “Japanese Ultra Shit Band” lives on to produce music that you can never claim they didn’t warn you about from the moment you spot their label in JB Hi-Fi.
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ARCADE FIRE EVERYTHING NOW [SONY]
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As far as salivating in anticipation with starry eyes and very anxious comportment goes, any new Arcade Fire release will always cause an excited and frenzied kerfuffle in the vegan cafés and indie bookstores around the world. After three and nine-twelfths years, Reflektor has a successor at last – a successor that stands in stark opposition with its stylistic differences. Thankfully (in my opinion and absolutely no one else’s, it seems), Arcade Fire have continued to move away from the indie mope and strum that they started out with on 2004’s critically beloved Funeral and continued to obambulate into the spherical confines of the pseudo electro, much like what you would hear with LCD Soundsystem with that dance punk crossover melange. This should be seen as an inevitable blossoming as James Murphy, the nucleus of that aforementioned group, helped produce the album prior to this and has no doubt araldited his influence onto this one too, albeit in a more surreptitious way. Everything Now is a title that has come from the perceived shift in the Matrix as observed by bandleader Win Butler towards a society that has continued to speed up in the way media is delivered these days (think Crunchyroll and Piratebay). Society has been on this path for some time, so I guess you could imagine the pace of life ramping up from Cheetah to African Swallow in the cosmic game of Sim City being played through the gaze of an already
frantic saccade. This whole concept is subtly alluded to throughout and alluded to with the subtlety of a tidal wave in a bathtub during ‘Infinite_Content’ and its very close relative on the album ‘Infinite Content’ and the former is totally a cover of the latter. That was not a typo. The title track also receives the same treatment, although thankfully without the misleading typos that were once so commonplace on Napster and Limewire. Punk goes pop? Old hat. Arcade Fire goes Arcade Fire? Innovation! I’ve always held the songs where Butler’s wife and fellow band member Régine Chassagne purloins the limelight up high, like a caryatid propping up an Ancient Greek temple in the Acropolis. That theme continues on this album. ‘Electric Blue’ is a high-pitched standout track. Along with other songs where she proudly stands front and centre like ‘Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)’ from The Suburbs, it makes me wonder, internally and out loud, why we’re yet to see a solo project from her. I have no doubt that it would be received with an intense level of mafficking and elation. The potential is huge. ‘Electric Blue’, along with the title track and also ‘Signs of Life,’ stick out in my mind as the shining stars. Perhaps also ‘Creature Comfort’ makes it onto the team too. This fresh batch of otic fruit that Arcade Fire has brought in from years of being tended to in the creative orchard does seem to be slightly modified in terms of the usual genetics. But the plump shape of sound remains in the same recognisably bulbous form. Being a little bit less ambitious than its predecessor, Everything Now acts as though it’s shuddering and stalling its way through its duration. As if it’s a train that keeps stopping and starting without really picking up any speed. Maybe it’ll grow on me, many albums do after varying periods of time. iTunes tells me I’ve listened to this in full seven times in the past few days. Maybe I’ll be more effusive with my praise once I get to fifteen listens. PATRICK OGISI
HAIM SOMETHING TO TELL YOU [POLYDOR]
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The Pointer Sisters Haim sisters are creating a future that I want to be a part of. The threepiece have returned with a sophomore effort after a three-year gap from their last album Days Are Gone which I think still reigns as their high watermark. Something To Tell You seems to me as if it was written by an ornate quill festooned with a peacock feather and also made of tightly compacted emotional pain and longing that weeps ink of the most stygian black. The recurring themes tend to be the rotting façades of doomed relationships and the forlorn feelings that such a lachrymose demise will ultimately bring with the subsequent fallout. If you listen closely, you can hear all kinds of random animal and machine sounds interspersed into various tracks on each song. Listen to ‘Want You Back’ a few times and you won’t even need noise-blocking Sennheisers to hear those bastard seagulls guffawing in the background. The funky choreography in the music video also needs to be seen to be believed. The random samples are kind of like what you get if you listen to Dark Side of The Moon, or that solo on Talking Heads’ ‘Born Under Punches’ that sounds like a dial-up tone in a concupiscent frenzy. And this is an eccentricity that, despite looking like it was picked up off a dinner plate and thrown at a wall, sounds like something that belongs. Something that had thought and effort put into it. If you’ve been recently scorned or something similar, this deviation into emotive songwriting will probably arrest your attention and keep it held firmly in place for the 42-minute duration. It’s a fairly consistent theme throughout. This may come across as overly soppy and schmaltzy to some, especially when compared to what has come before it, but I am content with Something To Tell You as a successor to their previous work. PATRICK OGISI
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EDITOR’S CHOICE ILUKA BLUE MY SOUL
[INDEPENDENT RELEASE]
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THE PREATURES GIRLHOOD
Iluka took a curious route in the development of her latest release, abandoning the busy, materialistic focus of our everyday world. Instead, she drew inspiration from far flung places including India, a Buddhist monastery and the empty silence of a desert in the USA. It was as though she cleared the air to get closer to physicality, nature and a purer form of emotion. True to the EP and track titles, the results see a move to a more soulful vibe. ‘Blue Jean Baby’ keeps a firm hold of the fast slapping beat of ‘Paper Doll’. It is a tale of two voices. In a sort of Jekyll and Hyde manoeuvre, Iluka drops her pitch, slipping easily from a little girl tone to a deeper, sultrier sound. ‘Visions of Cody’ adopts a more languorous mood, drawing out the words, with more shifts in the shading of her voice. In ‘Blue My Soul’ she mixes a tone approaching the fragility of Gossling with the fiery, emotional build-up of Melody Pool. Her soulful side comes out strongly in ‘The Fools’ with Iluka showing she is capable of Janis Joplin-like surges of power. The combination of thick, syrupy and floating vocals, plus the spoken word backdrop make closer ‘In the Heat’ her most atmospheric track. RORY MCCARTNEY
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For an indie, alt-rock band, The Preatures sure are ahead of their time. The four-piece rock group from Sydney have recently released their fourth album Girlhood, which is a more exciting and upbeat departure from their previous music. Upon first hearing the album there’s something different about this band. Standing out amongst other alt-rock bands and sounds, Girlhood has a very original take on altrock. Forget that dream-like state that most alt-rock or indie music provides. This is so much better. 70s glam rock vibes from the acoustic guitar over the top of electric guitars and rock and roll drumming, is quickly juxtaposed with a melody that sounds as though it was written at the peak of pop rock in the early 2000s. There’s something mellow and calming about this album. Not that it’s an easy listening album, it still has its moments as a rock album. One track by the name of ‘Yanada’ sounds like it was made in a totally different decade. The airy vocals float over the top of the twanging of an electric guitar. It is extremely reminiscent of 70s Australian rock music, surely claiming some new fans for the band. The simplicity of lyrics in ‘Girlhood’ linked with the Bowie-esque music has created an incredibly catchy track that one simply needs to listen to on repeat for days at a time. The clarity of sounds creates an upbeat and happy mood to blanket the album in. These happier melodies are juxtaposed with altrock stylings which has given The Preatures an upper hand in making an interesting sound that hasn’t really been heard before. MORGAN HAIN
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[POLYDOR]
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Sydney-based indie pop artist Iluka first hit the airwaves with the bouncy ‘Paper Doll’, with her squeaky vocals sounding not unlike Lanie Lane. This was followed up by the smoother ‘12th of July’, which gave just a hint of the wider range of tones of which her voice was capable. Her new EP Blue My Soul goes much further in showcasing the full extent of her singing.
LANA DEL REY LUST FOR LIFE [
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The queen of subliminal Daddy kink anthems and the self-proclaimed “gangster Nancy Sinatra” brings her fourth album to the table, Lust For Life (not a cover album of Iggy Pop, sorry). Lead single ‘Love’ is ethereal, carried by a palm-muted bassline and Del Rey’s signature sleepy vocal delivery. Second single ‘Lust for Life’ offers a cameo by The Weeknd, a throbbing synth and Del Rey’s best phone sex hotline impersonation during the chorus. Low points are ‘Summer Bummer’ accompanied by A$AP Rocky and Playboi Carti (for some unknown reason), wrapped around traptinged melodies, and ‘Groupie Love’ has A$SAP Rocky again. This might be the weakest and most out of place guest offering on the record. ‘God Bless America – And All The Beautiful Women In It’ is empowering with a flamencostyled guitar in the background. ‘Beautiful People Beautiful Problems’ features the Stevie Nicks with her now-matured velvety vocals. Melodramatic string sections and hip-hop drums are sprinkled throughout most tracks, often making them indistinguishable on first listen. Lust For Life follows the same formula and sound of her past two albums Ultraviolence and Honeymoon that, to some fans, came off as records filled with slow burning ballads of forbidden love, misplaced drugs, repeat. Not essentially a bad thing because, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Sadgirl diva Del Rey encapsulates the essence of vintage summer memories and doe-eyed fantasies and pulls it off well. If you are a diehard Lana fan you will love this seventy-one minute offering to listen to in your darkened bedroom on a rainy night after half a bottle of cheap whiskey. ANDREW MYERS
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FOUNTAINEER GREATER CITY, GREATER LOVE [1825 RECORDS]
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DIZZEE RASCAL RASKIT [ISLAND RECORDS]
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Started by brothers Anthony and Francis White, indie rockers Fountaineer formed in Bendigo in 2013 and won the 2015 Triple J Unearthed competition to open at Groovin the Moo. Events and lineup changes delayed recording, but the band has finally released its debut long player. Greater City, Greater Love is a concept album highlighting the good and bad sides of rural city life. While based on experiences in Bendigo, song themes are intended to reflect issues common to small towns across the land.
In a year where hip-hop has become arguably the world’s most listened-to genre, it is somewhat of a surprise that two of grime’s traditional dons have released albums after a mild exodus, but that’s exactly what’s happened with the release of Dizzee Rascal’s Raskit, along with the earlier release of Godfather, by Wiley. These two, who have formed a large part of the UK grime scene over the last 20 years, show us what grime has to offer that differs from hip-hop in these two albums.
Fountaineer projects a big sound, with bold vocals, fast beats and keys tumbling over themselves. The vocals are often veiled by effects creating something of an aura of mystery and hinting at small town secrets. The concept approach witnesses the appearance of names and key phrases in more than one track. While different in sound, the LP captures some of the melancholy air of Crystal Theatre by Belles Will Ring, another record with country town themes.
Raskit is the closest Dizzee Rascal has come to a self-titled album. Historically this has been a term he’s used to refer to himself, and could be seen as a nod to his earlier, Boy in da Corner-era work. It somewhat is – the production and delivery are closer to his work in that era than it has been for previous albums, particularly The Fifth. The biggest difference is that Raskit has Dizzee sounding more mature and less divisive, where his earliest work was the sonic equivalent of a Jackson Pollock painting – eye-catching, stylistically interesting, but all over the place.
The title of the track ‘Still Life’ speaks volumes about rural insularity and ‘Wide Awake Library’ deals with the anti-mosque rally held in Bendigo. Album highlights include the post-punk ‘The Cricketers’, a song which descends in an electronic wave with syncopated percussion and the deep vocals of Anthony White which have a tone reminiscent of The Dead Leaves’ Matt Gow. Another winner is ‘Lights Beyond the Edge of Town’, with its bright guitars stretching to the horizon and one phrase repeated over and over. With a combination of hypnotic beats, an arresting melody and swelling backing vocals to fill the gaps, it projects a flickering film noir image. The power of the repeated word is used again in the moody, poetic ‘Onomatopoeia’. RORY MCCARTNEY
The album suffers from monotony and length, and at 16 songs ranking in at just under an hour, the album is at times tedious to listen to. Dizzee has clearly taken some inspiration from American hip-hop and modern day grime, such as Stormzy, but the album muddles these modern influences with traditional acid house grime and gets lost in the middle somewhere. This is an album that comes across as confused and slightly watered down. There are high points, such as the high energy presented in the opening two tracks, but all in all the album doesn’t quite work out what it’s going for, and suffers resultantly. There’s a cohesive album somewhere here, it just isn’t what’s been presented.
AMINE GOOD FOR YOU [REPUBLIC RECORDS]
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Put bluntly, Amine’s recent album Good For You isn’t an album for people who need qualifiers to enjoy music. It’s uncomplicated, no holds barred, fun to listen to music, in short. It isn’t intellectual nor is it especially sophisticated, but at its core, Amine has made an album that is hedonistically pleasing before anything else. This in no way detracts from the quality of the album. From start to finish, Amine presents a polished, cohesive piece that is entirely aware of what it’s presenting to the listener. This is established from the get go – on the first track, Amine raps that he is “André’s prodigy”, a clear reference to iconic OutKast frontman André 3000, who is known for his music that is similarly innately pleasing to listen to. With this comparison laid out from the beginning, Amine has no choice but to continue to live up to the standard he’s set for himself. If you were to label it, the album is about Amine’s experience with women, with the infectious lead singles ‘Caroline’ and ‘Wedding Crashers’ among the best examples. With that being said, the album is at its best when it escapes categorisation – at times his lyricism is confusing, bordering on absurdist, but at all times keeping those fun notes. In this way, and with the criticism often attached to him, he’s in a group with artists like D.R.A.M and Lil Yachty – artists who are creating interesting, progressive, non-traditional hip-hop. Good For You is an album with something for everyone, with some of the tracks on the back end of the album managing to border on introspective while maintaining the loose fun that abides throughout it. With Good For You, Amine has created a unique album that is best enjoyed with no reservations, and imbues a sense of good times. Good for you, indeed. MATT PARNELL
MATT PARNELL
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UNDERGROUND LOVERS STARING AT YOU STARING AT ME [RUBBER RECORDS]
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Yes folks, ‘The Undies’ are still in business! Formed in Melbourne in 1989, indie band Underground Lovers released six LPs before going into a long hiatus in 2002. The drought broke with the outfit coming alive again in 2009, followed by the release of a new LP Weekend in 2013. Having gone through pop, experimental and atmospheric phases in their early LPs, the band drifted towards a more rock/electronic sound in Weekend but their latest release Staring At You Staring At Me is a pleasing mixture that samples the full range of their stylistic offerings. Though simple, with only a subtle metallic tapping for decoration, the bright indie pop tune of opener ‘St Kilda Regret’ creates a halo vibe, with the vocals of Philippa Nihill carrying an atmospheric echo in a song with a dash of local colour in its lyrics. Nihill, who left the band in 1996 but returned in time for Weekend, also adds a special touch to the dream pop ‘Seen it All’, her voice echoing out while the bass burbles along playfully underneath. ‘You Let Sunshine Pass You By’ comes with a light touch of shoegaze while in ‘The Rerun’, a deep, crunchy rumble, jousts with bright, prickly keys. The strong rhythm makes it a song to move to. The disk closes with the folk pop of ‘Unbearable’, its acoustic welcome and cheerful vocal hooks braced by bright electric guitar, to give it some heft. The experimental side is well represented by the epic firestorm of ‘Glamnesia’. Furious synths are supercharged by guitars, creating an increasingly thick curtain of sound, through which the lyrics must battle. The dominant angry hornet whine is invaded by vocal effects and jarring sounds, creating an impenetrable sonic web. RORY MCCARTNEY
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TYLER, THE CREATOR FLOWER BOY [COLUMBIA]
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Every Tyler, The Creator album is distinctively a Tyler, The Creator album. The Odd Future founder has a distinctive sound that can be traced from what makes up the beats to his unique, captivating, gravelly voice. Flower Boy is a Tyler album in the vein of his previous four releases. So where’s the plethora of praise for Flower Boy coming from, considering Tyler’s mile-long track record, including a ban from Australia and the United Kingdom? Make no mistake, previous criticism of Tyler and what he’s represented is warranted. Any Google search for his lyrics will make even the most seasoned rap listener cringe, and without going into any intricate detail, it’s the recurring – and graphic – violent lyrics that can be both sexually and ethically questionable, to the point where it makes the listener question whether or not they should be listening to it. Attempting to remove Tyler from his own controversy is futile, as it has been so instrumental to his success. The controversy brought the fans, the fans brought the success, and at that point it seemed like Tyler was struggling with attempting to strike a balance between making the music that dealt with his inner self and continuing with the controversy that brought him the success in the first place.
oft-recurring other personality Wolf Haley, which seems to be the persona used when delivering these particularly violent lyrics. Through these means, Tyler could address themes such as depression and mental instability in a way that still appealed to his target audience, though the choice of lyrics was always in question. Flower Boy is unquestionably about growth. It’s implicit in the album title, as well as devices used throughout the narrative to deliver the point to the listener in a way that is none too subtle. Flower Boy, in and of itself, is a title that paints Tyler as someone who has grown and blossomed. In addition to this, references to plants and gardens are littered throughout the album, with tracks ‘Droppin’ Seeds,’ which as a title is likely as much about Tyler creating a fan base, as well as ‘Garden Shed,’ which seems to be used metaphorically for a place to come out of. Additionally, Tyler uses frequent vehicles to reference going places, both literally and metaphorically. This is established early in the album, on the first track with, “How much drive can I have, until I run out of road? How much road can they pave until I run out of land?” This is the first indicator of Tyler looking at his personal growth, as in, he’s looking to see just how far he can go. This theme is constantly referenced throughout the album, most obviously on ‘Potholes’, which discusses the obstacles in Tyler’s life that he needs to swerve around. At other points on the album, Tyler uses the car motif to reference driving away from problems, almost crashing, and switching gears allegorically to represent his life. This album does show a new, improved and mature Tyler, The Creator. The key difference between his previous releases and Flower Boy is that on this album, he channels his significant creative ability in a positive, not controversial manner and ends up creating a stellar album. Towards the end of the album, he starts referencing the car breaking down, and the fact the album is titled Flower Boy gives the impression that Tyler might have finished growing, or reached his destination, whether he likes it or not. MATT PARNELL
Emotional openness has been a huge part of Tyler’s music since his debut 2009 release, Bastard. On the record, structured like an interaction with a psychiatrist, Tyler is open about his personal issues, and his bastard side, including the introduction of
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Regardless, when you are talking about a band this musically sublime, it seems pointless to select individual songs as highlights, because every song is a winner. Assessing musical progression is therefore the key, as Big Star refused to remain static. This collection opens with ‘In the Street’ from the debut masterpiece #1 Record recorded in 1972 at Ardent studio in Memphis, a classic rock album that only hit the shelves after each song had been painstakingly worked over by the group’s two principal songwriters, Chris Bell and Alex Chilton, both obsessed with getting the lush sounds in their heads onto tape. This song embodies some of Big Star’s most worthy characteristics – a tight, driving rock ‘n’ roll rhythm wrapped in transcendent melodics and intensely intimate vocal harmonies.
BIG STAR THE BEST OF BIG STAR [CONCORD]
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Big Star should have been as big as The Beatles but a lot of bad luck intervened. The outcome was ‘cult’ group status – generally defined as adoration from a small, devoted audience comprising music fans and astute critics. This is detailed to a sometimes painful degree in the superb 2013 documentary Nothing Can Hurt Me. A significant reappraisal of the band’s legacy did take place in the 1980s, resulting in a slight broadening of the fan-base but the ‘cult tag’ would prove difficult to shake. Not that record companies didn’t get the music out there when attention struck. Poor distribution deals plagued the band in those critical early days. But since then, the most substantial part of Big Star’s small body of work – comprising a mere three albums recorded between 1972 and 1978 – has been consistently repackaged, including a number of thoughtfully assembled compilations such as the thorough overview Keep an Eye on the Sky and Nothing Can Hurt Me documentary soundtrack. It is therefore worth considering whether the world needs another Big Star compilation. But as a concise primer for the uninitiated – with yet another remastering effort for the converted – this latest 16-track survey of those essential three albums will do nicely. The other selling point for the well versed Big Star fan is the inclusion of non-album versions that in some cases abbreviate song lengths – most noticeably on ‘O, My Soul’, the opening power-pop nugget on 1974 album Radio City – and don’t really contribute anything amazing other than offer a teaser for the true fanatic. PAGE 60
On that first album Bell and Chilton sang about teenage love and desire, redemption before God and hanging out with mates in cars wishing “we had / a joint so bad.” Great art was created right then and there. But Chris Bell, understandably baffled that the record didn’t sell, left the group shortly after and commenced a downward spiral that culminated in a tragically early death. Chilton kept on going and the second masterpiece Radio City appeared in 1974 – an outstanding collection of rich sounding power-pop. Two standouts featured here are ‘Back of a Car’ and ‘September Gurls’, both honeyed pop tunes evoking the tasty feeling of being young and in love. So good was this stuff, it is almost beyond belief that Radio City failed to ignite the charts. Disillusionment then set in, with the band all but finished. However, one final masterwork would emerge. Third/Sister Lovers was recorded in the mid-1970s but remained unreleased until 1978 when Chilton had relocated to New York. In a somewhat cynical move designed to blow off the mainstream record industry, he immersed himself in the burgeoning New York punk scene by recording a series of increasingly eccentric solo albums and producing sleazy retro-rockers The Cramps. Third/Sister Lovers, a solo Chilton album in all but name, further explored the succulent melodies of the preceding albums, but combined these with a stark melancholy and the four selections featured here succinctly illuminate its dramatic combination of light and shade. To fully savour the many musical delights of Big Star you really need to hear every song on every album, but this collection makes for a rewarding introduction.
RAMONES LEAVE HOME 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION [RHINO]
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It has been fourty years since the sophomore album Leave Home was released under Sire Records and three years since the last original Ramone, Tommy past away. The moody foursome influenced the likes of Black Flag, The Misfits, Metallica, The Offspring and Green Day and forever changed the face of punk music and what it meant to be a misunderstood teenager in the 1970s and 1980s. You cannot listen to the Ramones without conjuring up grainy images of the foursome, arms folded, matching DIY haircuts, acid wash jeans and leather jackets. A uniform for the forgotten, the anti-Vietnam-ers and the just plain different. Luckily, we now have the 40th anniversary of Leave Home spread across three discs, including two different mixes of the album, rare and previously unreleased material and a live show from 1977 in New York. In short, that is eighty fucking songs of original punk rock at its finest and most pure form. Leave Home featured the original lineup with angsty, fast paced classics delivered by Joey’s deadpan vocals, Johnny’s crunching guitars, Dee Dee’s count in and Tommy’s pummelling drums on classics like ‘Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment’, ‘I Remember You’, ‘Swallow Your Pride’, the infamously controversial ‘Carbona Not Glue’ and a cover of The Rivieras’ ‘California Sun’ (that riff is still iconic!). Known for the faster tempos and literary progression from their previous debut album, Leave Home was ranked in NME’s ‘Album of the Year’ list for 1977. Leave Home stills makes you want to break out the stained Converses, thick sunglasses and the leather jacket that’s two sizes too small and march around your room. ANDREW MYERS
DAN BIGNA
@bmamag
ALBUM IN
FOCUS
These days, much fuss is made when mono mixes from 1960s bands see the light of day, but this was a standard format for The Beach Boys as Brian Wilson had been hugely influenced by auteur producer/ songwriter Phil Spector and it was therefore inconceivable that the music could be presented in any other way.
BEACH HOUSE B-SIDES AND RARITIES [SUB POP]
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Beach House’s music has always been enveloping – regardless of the despair imbued in their words, there is an effortless and irresistible warmth in their sprawling synth plateau. The duo twirl the faded DNA of the Cocteau Twins into something wistful; dream pop for the millennial generation that will never quite have what they want. Their decision to release a collection of B-sides and rarities this year feels timely, after a prolific nine years. Across these fourteen lost tracks, the duo strip down their iconic synthesiser slowmo drones to reveal their stoic penchant for the dramatic is always meticulous. Vocalist Victoria Legrand’s lyrical frame throughout is panoramic; employing ambiguity as purposeful as it is beautiful. Legrand refuses to be flippant when singing of love; using the word sparingly, instead choosing to wallow in its deep shades and utter profundities (“The beast he comes to you, a hunter for a lonely heart”). Unreleased track ‘Chariot’ is a majestic introduction, splattered with cryptic lamentations upon marital rituals in shimmering minimalism. Ethereal number ‘I Do Not Care For the Winter Sun’ drives on Alex Scally’s wiry guitar as Legrand profoundly paints a despondent emotional canvas. ‘Saturn Song’ furthers this virtuosity, a tinkering of loneliness spinning through a dizzying celestial atmosphere. The galaxial background to this collection does however occasionally slip into a gear that almost feels automatic, as synth leads and drum machine shakers become irritatingly familiar. Some tracks scattered throughout don’t reach more than curiosities, as the tedious piano balladry of ‘The Arrangement’ and very literally sluggish Cough Syrup remix of ‘10 Mile Stereo’ are fatiguing. To many however, what is truly disappointing is that these rough spots are not truly rough. Rather, these are perfectionist throwaways – gorgeous in their own right, but firm in the Beach House mission statement: “your state of infinity.” JOSHUA MARTIN facebook.com/bmamagazine
for writing transcendent pop music never diminished, and shortly after Smile was shelved he reignited collaborative work with Beach Boys’ vocalist Mike Love that resulted in reworked Smile tracks for the album Smiley Smile and first rate rhythm and blues tunes on Wild Honey – many sessions from both appearing here.
THE BEACH BOYS 1967: SUNSHINE TOMORROW [CAPITOL]
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A decent amount of quality music was recorded in 1967, including The Beach Boys’ albums Wild Honey and Smiley Smile and this fertile year in the history of the band is the focus of this beautifully compiled two-disc set. But a number of recent stories in popular music magazines mentioned that The Beach Boys did not perform at the lauded counterculture Monterey music festival in what turned out to be a significant year for popular music innovation. The group was subsequently lumped in the perennially ‘uncool’ category, as on stage they seemed more interested in maintaining the striped shirt look and fun-in-the-sun pop tunes that had taken them to the top of the charts earlier that decade. Meanwhile, Brian Wilson sat at a piano planted in a sandbox in his living room and plotted some of the greatest music ever recorded. In retrospect, this falling out with the hippie counterculture is somewhat amusing, as by 1967 Brian Wilson had not only conceived and written sublime pop music masterpiece Pet Sounds but had also been working hard on the strange, psychedelic follow-up Smile that was ultimately abandoned when it became clear that certain other Beach Boys and the group’s record company Capitol were only happy if Wilson continued to churn out endless variations of ‘Surfin’ Safari’ and kept any greater creative ambitions to himself – never mind that The Beatles’ universally acclaimed Sgt Pepper was directly influenced by Pet Sounds. The general lack of support Wilson received for the Smile project contributed to his welldocumented breakdown, but his capacity
So, the selling point here is Wild Honey remastered in stereo which does illuminate musical details otherwise unheard and it still sounds great. The inclusion of previously unreleased sessions from this era are the icing on the cake and it would seem that despite the onset of personal difficulties, Brian Wilson remained on top of his game when it came to composition and arrangements. These had been elaborate when Smile was coming together – simple melodies with weird and wonderful harmonic flourishes – but Wild Honey marked a return to the rhythm and blues roots of the early days with tasty soundbites such as ‘Darlin’ and ‘I Was Made to Love Her’ that dropped psychedelic ultra-awareness in favour of short, sharp honey-coated pop bombs that sounded bang-on every time. The second disc includes unreleased Smiley Smile sessions that provide an insight into the harmonic complexity of what could have been the most musically creative album The Beach Boys ever recorded if only the progressive experiments conjured by Wilson and collaborator Van Dyke Parks had been allowed to develop. Nevertheless, what we find here is a group that at times allowed themselves to interact with a heightened melodic vision, and the alternative versions and backing tracks on offer reveal an openly creative playfulness that is often satisfying for committed listeners wanting that little bit more. The bonus live material is an added delight and had fate not intervened there is little doubt that The Beach Boys would have been applauded for creating the sound of a brave new world if only they had appeared alongside the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Who on the Monterey festival stage all those years ago. DAN BIGNA
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[ALBUM REVIEWS]
ALBUM IN
FOCUS
JAY-Z 4:44
[ROC NATION/UMG]
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This year, for the very first time, hip-hop has overtaken rock music as the biggest genre in the United States. This has many implications, all of which are exceedingly obvious to anybody who has paid attention to the industry over the last decade. “We the new rock stars,” is what Kanye West babbled in 2013, and surprisingly he wasn’t wrong. No longer a subculture struggling for breath in a whitewashed world, hip-hop is everything rock music was – glamourous and insolent, innovative and offensive, mysterious and socially passionate. Until we start hearing the phrase dad-rap, releases like Jay-Z’s 4:44 are the musical blockbusters of today. Jay-Z’s latest LP is only partly the apologetic reflection of Beyoncé’s Lemonade; it’s also the return to form that Jay-Z fans have been praying for. Gone is the lazy billionaire rap of 2013’s aspirationally-titled Magna Carta Holy Grail and in is a tight focus never seen before from the rapper. The record benefits hugely from its tight 36-minute running time, with many tracks burning less than three minutes. Jay has a subject agenda to run through and he kicks off ‘Kill Jay Z’ by ticking off his number one priority – himself. The self-examination is enhanced by its clarity; list off the guilt and kill the ego (“You can’t heal what you never reveal”). Briefly, but oh so tantalisingly, a strong hint is also given to his former brother in arms Kanye West (“‘Fuck wrong with everybody?’ is what you sayin’, But if everybody’s crazy, you’re the one that’s insane”).
touched on many more times throughout: in the reggae bounce of ‘Caught Their Eyes’, Frank Ocean’s chorus is likely the only mainstream reference to solipsism you’ll hear this year, while Jay-Z spits a keen awareness of the savagery of the business (“Round friends who kill they friends, then hug their friends’ mothers”). But that’s not to confuse Jay-Z’s full position on ego. The dancehall of ‘Bam’ bombastically reinforces that “Sometimes you need your ego, gotta remind these fools, who they effin’ with, and we got FN’s too.” What differs here is a confidence of identity, not arrogance. The beats on this record, produced solely by long-time collaborator No I.D. (an unusual choice in the era of production lists as long as Crime and Punishment) are superlative yet misshapen fragments of chipmunk soul, spinning choppy spoken word on race and adultery as contextual triggers. Highlight ‘The Story of O.J.’ plays off tangled ivories and a jagged Nina Simone sample while Jay-Z’s voice lilts and pauses: “O.J. like, ‘I’m not black, I’m O.J.’ … okay?” Drawing from this honest and unhurried flow, the title track and lyrical centrepiece is his apology to his loving but scorned wife, Beyoncé. Fascinatingly, ‘4:44’ dodges contrivity as Jay-Z drags himself through a field of broken glass, languishing in alleged infidelity and chronic underappreciation of his partner (“What good is a ménage à trois when you have a soulmate?”). The song carries rare and affecting nuance, traversing the most public relationship in the world with proverbial remorse (“Like the men before me, I cut off my nose to spite my face”). Where the record fails however is in its oldschool attitude toward a new generation of artists, patronising their approach to finance and racial identity. Taking potshots at the younger class as Jay does with great frequency on flailing cut ‘Family Feud’ isn’t flattering, and highlights the glass echo chamber in which the middle-aged rapper find himself. On 4:44, Jay-Z kills the ego to shock it back into life with new-found gratitude and relaxed consideration, but nevertheless maintaining his position as the man of his own affluent and grandiloquent dreams. JOSHUA MARTIN
LOCAL MUSIC
BRENDAN KELLER-TUBERG BRENDAN KELLER-TUBERG [INDEPENDENT RELEASE]
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The piano, bass, drums trio has a long and honourable place in jazz history. To judge from this new, eponymous CD by young local bassist Brendan Keller-Tuberg, its possibilities are far from exhausted. It features seven of Keller-Tuberg’s own compositions, written explicitly for this format – and plainly with musical companions, Tate Sheridan (piano) and Daniel Faber (drums) in mind. The bassist credits the Swedish trio EST, the Vijay Iyer trio and the Bad Plus trio as influences but it’s also easy to hear traces of Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett and perhaps some alt-rock influences. The dominant mood, however, is Scandinavian. Most of the pieces start with tentative, repeated figures that build through various iterations to powerful chordal sequences before fading to thoughtful endings which imply further possibilities. The dividing line between the written ‘head’ and solos is often hard to detect. The pieces evolve organically but always with a firm harmonic foundation. Keller-Tuberg’s soloing has many of the virtues of the late American master, Charlie Haden – big tone, not too many notes and a strong singing quality. Sheridan’s piano playing is intriguingly similar to, but also different from, that on his own two earlier CDs i.e. impressionistic, strong left hand and clear articulation. Faber’s drum solos, arguably influenced by alt-rock, are all taken in a vamp context and frequently provide the emotional climax to the piece. Each track has its own story to tell but two of the most memorable are ‘Sophomore’ and ‘6 Months’. The former nicely catches the jaunty, if sometimes misplaced, confidence of the second year university student. The latter traces recent formative musical experiences Keller-Tuberg had in Bloomington, Indiana. GEOFF PAGE
The egotistical conception of the self is
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@bmamag
THE PINK TILES #1 FAN
[INDEPENDENT RELEASE]
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Melbourne garage pop band The Pink Tiles first launched their signature sound with a selftitled LP in 2014, employing an appealing mix of a 60s pop vibe with a more contemporary edge (courtesy of fuzzy effects). The band has continued that image of sequins crossed with black rock attire in its sophomore album #1 Fan. Album themes range from the usual relationship issues, to events affecting the band, to technological overload via the internet. There are lots of winners in the track list, with the band exuding an infectious energy all the way. A playful buzz launches ‘Time for Love’, which grabs attention with its catchy tune and vocal harmonies. Take away the fuzz which shadows the singing, and it could be a 60s love song, but the effects present it firmly as a 21st century artwork. ‘Tell it to Her Straight’ appeals with its riffs and a great melody, with voices circling each other in the powerful chorus. There is a rockier edge to ‘Sammy’ (a band bio song) with licks pouring forth in a torrent, while ‘For the Road’ employs a shoegaze approach. ‘Writer’s Block’ comes across well with the floating melody in the vocals, dressed up with tinkling percussion highlights, while ‘Internet’ draws on the Sex Pistols for inspiration, with the song starting up with a nod to ‘Pretty Vacant’. The distorted vibe to the album is emphasised by ‘Expensive Hobby’, which sounds like a song on the radio, where the tuning is slightly off the exact station frequency. Closer ‘Weird and Strained’ lives up to its title, with slow, funereal keyboards announcing the passing of a relationship, with fuzzed-up electronic sounds as its death knell. RORY MCCARTNEY
SILVERSTEIN DEAD REFLECTION [RISE RECORDS]
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Silverstein, 17 years and eight full-length albums into their career are still going stronger than ever. The new record Dead Reflection is the painful story of the last year for singer Shane Told. This raw emotion and inability to hold back has created an album that is both lyrically and musically one of Silverstein’s best. This album is a perfect story of losing it all and still being around to tell the tale. Shane Told sums it up: “The record tells a story of self-destruction, and how I got my sanity and happiness back.” This album is relatable to everyone going through heartbreak and shows the light at the other side. The first release from the album, ‘Ghost’ is an excellent introduction into what the album is about. Vocally and lyrically, ‘Aquamarine’ is easily some of Told’s best work, delving into details of his breakup. When the band heard the lyrics for this track they are quoted as saying, “you won’t be making any friends with this.” ‘Mirror Box’ and ‘Secret’s Safe’ show how dark things got with lyrics like, “Old glass, new scene, same face / Bad blood, deep cut, same place / I just wanna be okay.” If you are looking for a catchy track you can’t go past ‘Afterglow’. This song has a more upbeat feel than the rest of the album. The pace is faster and the melodic guitar parts show what fans have come to expect from the new Silverstein. Dead Refelection is one of Silverstein’s most mature sounding records to date. The lyrics don’t hold anything back with Told pouring his soul out. Musically, this is one of the tightest and better put together albums they have recorded. Whether listening to the story of the entire album or as standalone tracks, Dead Reflection is set to be in my opinion the best post-hardcore album of 2017.
KINGS OF COUGH SYRUP KINGS OF COUGH SYRUP [RUBBER RECORDS]
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Melbourne musos Nick Batterham and Hamish Cowan travelled the well-trodden path of playing in bands various before deciding they would do better as a duo, having reignited an artistic bond which stretched back to their teens. Batterham is the inspiration behind the tunes while Cowan provides the vocals. In doing so, Hamish Cowan is returning to a role he played with the band Cordrazine, an outfit which began in the late 90s, faded away until a brief reappearance in the late noughties, before vanishing into the ether. This self-titled debut EP, under the moniker Kings of Cough Syrup, is an atmospheric piece of work. Cowan’s fuzzy vocals carry a beguiling tone, with a strong falsetto capability, while Batterham’s music is indie pop, with a prominent electro emphasis. Opener ‘You See in Me’ is really a brief whimsical intro, in which an assortment of gentle keys, pierced by sharp edged buzzes, accompanies sleepy vocals, telling tales of dreams. The soulful CD highlight ‘Brittle’ advances slowly on stalking keys and a burbling bass, until harsh metallic sounds and vibrations announce the death rattle of the relationship. Emotion rises with repeated despairing cries of “Your hollow love is so brittle.” In ‘Hey Man’, a rough buzz throbs away, advancing and retreating until it assumes an almost didgeridoo tone. Although exerting a brooding, menacing vibe, it is broadcasting a message of hope “Don’t you know that the sun will rise?” The EP springs to life in the rapid heartbeat rhythm of ‘Take Me Out’. Little electro hooks flash briefly, in a song containing the sweetest melody in the CD. The aura of the vocals and the inventive, finessed application of effects in the music mark this out as a special debut. RORY MCCARTNEY
GABBY MARSHALL
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PAGE 63
[ALBUM REVIEWS]
SINGLES IN
FOCUS WITH CODY ATKINSON
[
BEACHES ‘VOID’
]
Everyone should be extremely hyped for new Beaches. The Melbourne six-piece is back with another riff-laden dirge through rock, with touches of krautrock shining through as well. This is a sonic overload, a brilliant bit of noise that merits repeat listens. Get on it.
KELLIE LLOYD ‘SCENE OF THE CRIME’ [
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Kellie Lloyd, perhaps best known from her time in Brisbane rock stalwarts Screamfeeder, has released a couple of under-the-radar albums in recent years. ‘Scene Of The Crime’, the standout from the most recent of these, has elements that flash back to her earlier work, but still sounds relatively fresh. Also that damn guitar riff has been stuck in my head for days – a good bloody sign.
FOREVR ‘COLUMBUS’ [
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FOREVR, a four-piece from Brisbane, have found something interesting on ‘Columbus’. The track sits somewhere between pop, glitch, shoegaze and dance; sharing and stealing elements at will without committing to anything in full. The result is something that sounds expansive whilst containing relatively minimalist elements – an admirable feat, and an enjoyable one to listen to.
MACKLEMORE FEAT. SKYLAR GREEN ‘GLORIOUS’ [
]
Why? Why would anyone listen to this willingly? I know taste is subjective, and each to their own, but people know that there is so much better hip-hop out there than this, right? This is one of those seemingly bold-faced aspirational hip-hop songs, but it lacks any semblance of guts or determination. At least he didn’t rip off Le1f on this one.
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FLYNN EFFECT OBSIDIAN
[INDEPENDENT RELEASE]
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Due for release two days before their fourth birthday, Obsidian is the second full length release from Brisbane alt-rock quartet, Flynn Effect. They’ve chosen the perfect title for this album for a couple of reasons. A band can be considered ‘obsidian’ if they tread the line between rock and metal while throwing in some other non-related genres as well. As you listen through Obsidian you may find it difficult to pinpoint a genre for Flynn Effect. I’ve never really subscribed to sub-sub-sub-genre discussions so it’s great to be unable to easily pigeonhole a band’s sound. There’s the ever-present Rammsteinesque feel effectively coupled with Eastern melodies, Western slide – blues and symphonic orchestration. Guitarist Jesse Higginson provides solid riffs and some fine lead-work, strengthened by the sublime bass playing from Matt Cuff. The hard rock/metal drumming from James Laurie works symbiotically with orchestral string, piano and harpsichord parts. Then there are the powerfully dynamic and ethereal vocals from the indomitable Tomina Vincent to complete the Flynn Effect sound. The first single ‘Fade’ was released with a film clip in late June and the second single ‘Give In To Me’ was premiered on Andrew Haug Radio on July 17. The opening track ‘All For Love’ is an early standout as well as ‘Eastwood Blues’, but each of the ten songs are noteworthy from the first spin. Obsidian was recorded, mixed and mastered by guitarist Jesse Higginson at his home studio. In fact Flynn Effect do it all themselves: perform, record, produce, manage, promote, book, THE LOT! They know what they want, they know what they’re doing and nothing is stopping them.
LUCY ROSE SOMETHING’S CHANGING [COMMUNION RECORDS/CAROLINE]
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No relation to ‘Dolly’, English indie folk singersongwriter Lucy Rose Parton has released three studio LPs under the Lucy Rose moniker. The latest, Something’s Changing, was made after a Latin American tour which boosted her confidence and ability as a performer, to the point where she was able to lay down some tracks in just one take. Lucy Rose favours soft, relationship-focused songs with a gentle pace and minimalist arrangements which showcase her beguiling voice. At the end of a line of lyrics, her vocals can melt into thin air, vapours disappearing on a winter’s morning. ‘Intro’, with its elegant harp and big air gaps between notes, witnesses both the great wavering tone she can use to add feeling, and her ability to suddenly shoot up to a sustained, high note. ‘Is This Called Home’ uses an electric guitar as its core, with strings to add depth. ‘Floral Dresses’ employs only an acoustic guitar, with the vocals swelled by the female folkrock trio The Staves, while the piano-centred ‘Second Chance’ is a disk highlight with an alluring chorus melody. The soulful whine of a pedal/lap steel adds a subtle country undertone to ‘Love Song’ which ends, after a consistently sedate pace, with a sprightly tune which surprisingly bubbles up at the close. The soulful ‘No Good At All’, with its collage of keyboard sounds, is one of Lucy Rose’s more up-tempo tracks, while she saves her strongest delivery for closer ‘Can’t Change It All’, a song through which soft horns blow a warm breeze. Lucy Rose can express the deepest emotion with the softest touch, spinning songs with a quiet beauty. RORY MCCARTNEY
JEREMY EDWARDS
@bmamag
Questioning
?
Encores
with Cody Atkinson
[Maniacal cheering] Alright, this is going to be our last paragraph of sentences here, thanks for reading BMA so far. We’re going to finish up with a classic, you should know this one [Motions to writing team]. OK, thanks for reading, and if you want to grab some merch head towards the back after the show, and yeah I’ll be there selling stuff. Just over there, near the bar. [Paragraph finishes, non-existent crowd starts chanting for an encore]. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. [Turns around, looks at the remaining writers] Yeah, I think we have a few more pages for you! WOOOOOO! First up, Cody Atkinson with Questioning Encores, let’s keep the noise going! OK, what’s encores?
the
deal
with
You guys all know encores – a band pretends to finish up, they (either actually or metaphorically) go off stage and punters cheer until they come back on and play a couple more TUNEZ. The chant for the encore is nearly a ritualistic way to finish a gig, regardless of whether the encore is actually performed or not. Bands seem to love it because it is the raw expression of gratitude for what they pour their energy into, and fans love it because they feel like they are GETTING FREE MUSIC WHICH IS THE BEST THING. That sounds weird … Where do they originally come from? It’s a bit contested, but there’s a thought that it might trace back to ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt. I can practically imagine Socrates busting out a mad monologue before a local Athenian yelled out for him to philosopher another one. In a slightly, but not a whole lot more modern sense, encores date back to an operatic tradition where if a particular aria (song, not the music charts) was applauded enough they’d run it back right again, straight away. REPEAT! Yep, instead of waiting until the end of the show, they’d just go again like the rest of the show didn’t matter and the only important thing in the world was playing that same damn song again, right away. Then in the late-16th Century a freaking Austrian Emperor banned encores, due to too many people wanting to hear encores
during Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. Emperor Joseph II went all ‘mayor from the town in Footloose’ on the Austrian Empire, and there was nothing they could do. From that point on, encores became notorious, especially in the cutthroat world of opera and classical music. You gotta have a couple of more memorable encores that you can mention? Perhaps the most intriguing one, blending in the tradition of the encore and the modern adaptation, occurred when Kanye West and Jay Z’s Watch The Throne side project played in Paris back in 2012. During the tour, Watch The Throne had made a point to close the set with arguably the duo’s signature track ‘N****s in Paris’, in increasing quantities. For their final Paris show, they upped the ante by playing it a dozen times straight, over the course of about an hour. This harks somewhat back to the Austrian days of the encore, with a particular track getting played back over and over again. With one twist. What’s that? Well, according to ENCORE TRUTHERS the WTT encores aren’t really encores, because no one had requested them. There was no clear cheering for more of the same particular song, or any. They just decided to keep it playing, again and again and again. In fact, Kanye introduced the bit by saying: “Y’all have to remember this moment for the rest of your life. This will be the most times this song has been performed and the most times anybody ever
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performed a song at a concert, and y’all here tonight to be a part of it, Paris.” I mean the truthers might have a point? At best, it’s an evolved version of the encore, at worst it’s a blatant attempt to chase pointless records from someone who has form (Jay-Z held a record for most live shows in different cities in a 24-hour period). To encore aficionados, of which we are now some, this doesn’t really pass muster. So what’s the requirement then?
minimum
The band has to at least stop, and either go off stage or at least turn around. There has to be some break in the music. There also has to be a call for more songs, or some form of lengthy continuous applause. Otherwise it is just a continuous or second set. These aren’t hard and fast rules, if it feels in your heart like an encore then it probably is hey. Stop being so judgemental. OK, give me a memorable real encore then. Well I wasn’t there, but apparently for Robert Smith’s 54th birthday in 2013, The Cure dished up a long-ish 25-song set in Mexico City. Not bad. But they weren’t done. I guess they had a few more left in them, because they decided to come back for a three-song encore. And another three-song encore. Then a sevensong encore. And finally, one last eight-song, final call encore. One 25 song set, and 25 songs worth of encores. Smith & co. seemed to have an idea about this in advance, as they saved some of their best (‘Lovecats’, ‘10:15
Saturday Night’ and ‘Killing An Arab’) for last. How about the one that you remember the most? I remember seeing a Lou Barlow gig on a Sunday night in Brisbane, and he played so long that I missed the last train to my mate’s place where I was crashing. All the Sebadoh classics, and a couple of solo ones chucked in for good measure. It would have been about a $70-$100 taxi fare, so we just walked around the dead city, looking for any signs of life. It was Brisbane; there were few. But walking around a partially abandoned city isn’t something you get to do every day – and coupled with a set by someone as talented as Barlow it stands alone. But are encores really worth it? To be honest: maybe not. An encore is just an illusory end of a show; a fake ending to end them all. It is both performative on behalf of performer and crowd, a ritual set out ahead of time. Generally, a band/venue/sound curfew will decide if an encore can or will happen ahead of time, as demonstrated by Messers West and Z above. The key determiner is whether the crowd will care enough to chant for more, which often is a given for bigger, more expensive shows. So encores, hey? Well, you are basically getting free pages here. And don’t point out this is a free mag, THESE ARE BONUS PAGES FROM HERE ON OUT. Everyone is a winner people. Enjoy the freebies. BONUS PAGES FROM HERE ON OUT. Everyone is a winner people. Enjoy the freebies.
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[FILM REVIEWS]
LITTLE WING [
]
Selma Vilhunen’s debut feature film depicts twelve-year-old Varpu (Linnea Skog) as more emotionally mature than her mother, more capable of dealing with everyday life, and admirably steady in approaching life’s problems. Circumstances conspire to lead Varpu to decide to seek out the father who has been absent from her life since she was a baby. Her search has mixed and far-reaching results. Varpu’s winning responses to the challenges and disappointments of her lot – subtle facial expressions revealing the processes she chooses to keep inside – reflect acting talent that undoubtably will make Linnea Skog a star. Offering her mother the help and comfort a mother more usually offers her children, and responding with emotional insight to some of life’s most difficult realities, Varpu effectively takes some responsibility for both her parents and in so doing helps them and herself achieve changes at home, at school, and with her horseriding companions that, though small, mark her success in navigating unpredictable obstacles. The film’s pace is gentle, allowing the viewer to live Varpu’s days and nights with her, to feel the effort to maintain the everyday in her slightly chaotic home environment and at horseriding school. This small tale, shot with both vision and intimacy in several small settings in a small country, highlights a necessity to be the best we can be for our loved ones. Beautifully portrayed on the big screen, it’s a film you won’t regret seeing. JOHN P. HARVEY
ONE–TWO–THREE– GO! [
]
Jeppe and Cecilie meet on Cecilie’s first day at her new school and are instantly attracted. When Cecilie’s unwillingness to risk losing Jeppe’s love by revealing her life to him leads her to push him away, a combination of persistence, luck, and reflection is necessary for her to find the courage to take that risk. The film serves as an audiovisual novel, allowing the viewer to explore how the characters deal with serious life challenges, including the effect of teenagers’ transitions to adulthood on themselves and their concerned parents; and in that sense it offers a great deal to viewers without a great deal of life experience. Admittedly, its gloss over some practical realities in the cause of a good story will give viewers with more life experience pause; but this is a film less about solving life’s tougher problems than about appreciating its moments, living with and learning to accept the senseless, appreciating others, recognising their realities, and recognising opportunities to live well. This film’s clear target market is older teenagers and young adults, but in many senses it deserves a wider audience, not least because of the profound decency of its seven chief characters: basketball hopeful Jeppe and new student Cecilie, their respective parents, and Jeppe’s best friend, Jack, all honourable and likeable. As well, the soundtrack includes some beautiful songs; the cinematography is simply gorgeous; and the acting was very well executed. It amply repays viewing. JOHN P. HARVEY
ROSEMARI [
]
Having lived with her foster parents for the past ten years and known that she was found as a newborn in a hotel restroom, 16-year-old Rosemari (Ruby Dagnall) is keen to find her birth parents. Official documents identify the person who found her as television journalist Unn Tove (Tuva Novotny). When Rosemari makes contact with Unn Tove, the two join forces to search for Rosemari’s biological parents, aiming to use Unn Tove’s television programme to assist. Rosemari’s journey of discovery from there takes some odd twists and turns, forcing her to question the wisdom of the undertaking, and it illustrates how challenging it may be for adopted children to reconnect with their birth parents and discover their own beginnings. The journey is in fact life-changing for both Rosemari and Unn Tove, each having a chance to accept her past with grace and love. The variety in Dagnall’s understated facial expressions alone, marking turning points in her increasingly fraught journey, contrasted nicely with the casual way Unn Tove’s television producer, Hilde (Laila Goody), used Unn Tove as a foil for some very funny ribald jokes. Leaving aside some hand-held shots, representing Unn Tove’s camera work in documenting Rosemari’s journey, the cinematography helped the viewer feel how Rosemari (and, at times, Unn Tove) felt it its intimate depiction of the effects on them and others of their individual journeys. Paced well, entertaining, enlightening, and moving, Rosemari is a film worth watching.
THE MAN [
]
Simon is a successful visual artist whose income from his large works supports his employment of an entire team that assists in production and administration. He is also utterly self-absorbed and ungenerous in nature, even toward his longterm live-in girlfriend, Darling. And he demonstrates especially clearly his uncharitable attitude to others as soon as he meets the 30-something-year-old son, Casper, whose mother he abandoned many years earlier. Though this unprecedented visit comes as no surprise, Simon stays distant from him, failing to greet him or even offer him refreshment, and leaving to Darling the task of being making his son feel comfortable. And Simon increasingly questions his son’s motives in making the visit. As it turns out, Casper, whose motives remain unclear till the story’s climax, is something of an enigma. Amongst those of his own generation, he has cult status as an artist in his own right; and, rightly or wrongly, Simon soon feels his own status as a unique artist to be under challenge. Despite being billed as a drama/ comedy, The Man induces too few laughs to qualify it as comedy; and its cinematography is not particularly special. But the acting in it was superb, and, its drama being generally understated and somewhat ambiguous, the film makes an interesting study of relationships: its depiction of misinterpretation, misrepresentation, subterfuge, and betrayal in art and in relationships repays thought and is worthy of discussion. JOHN P. HARVEY
JOHN P. HARVEY
PAGE 66
@bmamag
THE BIG SICK [
You could be forgiven for thinking, “oh look, another quirky rom com” from the creative hub headed by Judd Apatow, when perusing the flyer for The Big Sick. But you’ll see it anyway because even the beige offerings from the Apatow hive are at least borderline entertaining. And then! You’ll be pleasantly surprised to find yourself watching a film that is neither predictable nor twee. Instead, you’ll be treated to the real life experience of Pakistani born Kumail negotiating obstacles around love, cultural identity and familial pressure. When Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani) meets Emily (Zoe Kazan) he swiftly falls in love with her. As with all love affairs there are things that get in the way of their happily ever after, namely, Kumail’s legitimate concern that his Muslim parents will not approve of their relationship. When Emily becomes catastrophically ill Kumail realises what he wants and needs, i.e. his family, his career as standup comedian and a ‘love’ marriage (not an arranged marriage), are all completely at odds with each other. There has been backlash against this film – many people have expected The Big Sick to be representative of a wider crosscultural experience. It’s not and it doesn’t need to be in order to be good. Instead it tells a semi autobiographical story of one man’s legitimate and interesting experience – a snapshot of a wider cultural experience. If for no other reason, see it because it is hilarious. EMMA ROBINSON
A GHOST STORY
]
[
]
You walk into this film fifteen minutes late, because, hell, you bought your ticket and you’re going to get your money’s worth. Clambering through dark and over patrons, you thunk down in your seat. Making yourself comfortable, you turn your attention to the screen. It’s the late afternoon, Rooney Mara is walking around a darkened kitchen. It’s a modest house; dusty windowsills, paint stains the edges of the glass. Dappled sunlight rests gently on the outdated plywood cabinets. Mara is silent as she approaches the dining table, picks up a note left next to – what is that? – a pie. She turns, grabs a knife from the drawer, and tentatively cuts herself a slice. Then she grabs a fork and suddenly plunges it into the middle of the pie, and helps herself to mouthful after mouthful of the dish. She takes it in her arms, steps backwards and slides down the counter behind her, bite after bite. She’s curled up in the corner of the kitchen, eating. You hear the clink of the fork against the porcelain. Bite. Fork. Carve out pie more with the fork. Bite. Your eyes stray to the empty hallway behind her. The dust hangs in the air, and time softly distorts. Rooney Mara is eating a pie on the floor of a darkened kitchen. She sniffs. There is a tear hanging from her nose as she eats. You are enraptured. PAT JOHNSON
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PAGE 67
[THE WORD ON GIGS]
I’m not much for clubs, so I hadn’t stepped foot inside Academy before Friday night. “It’s nicer than I imagined it”, I thought as I descended down the staircase into the main venue. There are little alcoves that enterprising gig-goers had already snapped up, while the back half of the room is a step up from the front, meaning those at the back have a surprisingly good view of the stage, even if you’re not the tallest. The night was ably kicked off by Lakyn, who played a mellow, vibey set for the earlycomers. It’s Thandi Phoenix who really got the party going though, with a wonderfully paced, vibrant set that had people cheering between songs. She and her band have a charming rapport going, and it’s a lot of fun to see her take over keys for a song, before taking her place back at the microphone.
to take the stage, to rapturous applause. A club seems like a strange choice for Vera Blue, but let’s be honest – she could play any venue, really.
VERA BLUE ACADEMY FRI JUL 28
She was completely magnetic – ethereal, charismatic and it’s impossible to take your eyes off her as she shows off her impressive vocal range, busting out enough songs to please old and new fans alike – particularly new single ‘Mended’, which the tour is in support of. As she performs, she gets lost in her own music, and it’s easy to follow suit. ‘Mended’, like many of her songs, is imbued with such intensity and passion that you can’t help but lose yourself. The sold out venue was packed to the brim with punters singing along, dancing and having a close-tospiritual experience. SHARONA LIN
The smoke machine kept pumping, the disco balls kept spinning, and the audience kept pressing as close in as possible until Vera Blue finally arrived
PHOTO BY DAN LUTON
“Not that it’s a competition or anything,” Tim Rogers made the call during You Am I’s set. With two classic Oz rock bands on the bill it was enticing to make comparisons over the evening. Rogers was again in fine form with his banter between songs enhancing the show and continuing to prove himself as one of our nation’s finest front people. “I bumped my head backstage on a prostitute and stole her heels,” was how he explained his choice to adorn golden heels. “I spilt my glass,” his explanation for swapping from a glass to a bottle as he swigged his white wine between songs, exchanging his Batmanshaped guitar with the roadie before launching into ‘Friends like You’.
HOODOO GURUS & YOU AM I
CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE FRI JUL 21 PHOTO BY JUDY SCHULZ
PAGE 68
Their set tonight contained a few lesser-known tunes but as a live act who aim to please they pulled out ‘Mr. Milk’, ‘Cathy’s Clown’ and ‘Berlin Chair’ in the second half (no ‘Purple Sneakers’ though). His shoutout to Smith’s Alternative and ANU’s Toad Hall ensured we got a locals show
too. It was great to see people up front of stage early as their set really did feel like you should have been in a pub getting beers spilt on you. This continued for the Hoodoo Gurus as the crowd front of stage and in the aisles grew like tall grass around the seated. The sludge rock continued but now with a surf tinge to it. The hits kept coming as the set went on and by the time they gave us ‘My Girl’ and ‘Come Anytime’ there wasn’t much room left front of stage. One front row fan’s passionate singalong to ‘Bittersweet’ demonstrated how much this band means to dedicated fans. Encore tunes ‘What’s My Scene’ and ‘Like Wow Wipeout’ ensured they had the majority of us out of our seats. Both groups, and the crowd, proved tonight may have been more suited to a less seated venue. In the end, great live rock was the winner. JARROD MCGRATH
@bmamag
The chilly nights of Canberra call for warm, cosy venues with warming drinks like red wine and whisky and, of course, music to jolt and warm the soul. Phia and Georgia Fields ticked all of these boxes, and while Smith’s Alternative was not the best fit for their music, they took it on with gusto and enormous smiles, and the small audience did the same. Melanie Horsnell kicked off the gig with some dark and broody tunes, her clever lyrics woven through sweet and sorrowful melodies. She was softly spoken but kept the dialogue going between songs. The story goes that she and Phia met in Europe in a ridesharing adventure, and made a promise to do some gigs together back on home soil. Phia and Georgia Fields also met in Europe and this tour was showcasing their collaborative sound, where they each added their distinctive sound to each other’s songs. It sounds complicated, given they are adding to existing material, but the result was unique, full of luscious layers of sound, harmonies and a journey in pop
PHOTO BY LEHAN ZHANG
GEORGIA FIELDS + PHIA SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE THU JUL 13 and folk with electronic twists. Their music is distinct largely because they both experiment with unusual instruments. Phia’s signature instrument is the African kalimba, a small wooden instrument with metal teeth which she had hooked up to a microphone. She made beats by tapping the wood and
then looping them to create the rhythms in her songs. Classically trained, her voice is akin to Alice Russell’s or Lenka’s, and simply joyous to the ears. Georgia Fields created her quirky sounds with several instruments, including the omnichord, which is a cross between casio and autoharp.
BELINDA HEALY couple now, and it’s disgustingly beautiful). It’s called ‘Good’, and it’s not good. It’s great. You could definitely feel something personal being imparted from the band to the crowd, particularly from Versegi. The only thing I wished for was for them to play ‘Time’, because it’s my absolute favourite and I haven’t seen them play it in forever. C’mon guys, it’s a masterpiece and I want it!
PHOTO BY MEGAN LEAHY
CABLE TIES THE PHOENIX SAT JUL 8
Cable Ties are the best band I’ve seen at The Phoenix since Destrends last visited us. This was proper punk, fuelled by fury and executed with a very pure passion. Jenny McKechnie’s energy was so ferocious and gripping. So happy to have been right up the front for this, and better yet, I was standing in between Hayley of Moaning Lisa
Highlights of the show included Field’s song ‘Open Orange (a dreamy song with lullaby sounds), Phia’s ‘Do You Ever’ (which was a pop-inspired song with catchy lyrics and beatboxing), and their fun finale, a cover of ‘Try Again’ by Aaliyah.
and Kate of Slagatha Christie who were just dancing their rock ‘n’ roll butts off with me after starting the night off with such a bang. Slagatha Christie have now acquired a beautiful new guitar (R.I.P. Spongebob), but now you can actually hear their songs being played how they were intended. Every time I see them
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someone says to me, “these guys are just getting better and better,” and it’s completely true. Shoutout to drummer Stephen Watson’s denim shorts! I don’t know how you got them on but it deserves recognition. Bravo! Moaning Lisa debuted a song that Charlie Versegi lovingly written about partner (yeah, they’re
new has her that
But back to Cable Ties. Jenny McKechnie is one of the most intense performers I’ve ever seen. Perfect amount of aggression and technicality in her vocals and every lyric just punched you right in the gut. We were all just picking our jaws up off the floor for the entire set, listening intently to the words being screamed at us and screaming back “Fuck yes!” as we were completely consumed. Listening to their album in my car takes me back to listening to The Slits, Siouxsie & The Banshees and X-Ray Spex albums enthusiastically plucked from my dad’s vinyl collection and spun to my tween self. Thank you for that sensation, Cable Ties. Your LP will never ever leave my car. ALICE WORLEY PAGE 69
[THE WORD ON GIGS]
Azreal (Gold Coast) performed for the first time in Canberra and if you love old school thrash metal you will like this band. Sounding like Rob Zombie and Pantera and L.O.G. combined, and they have just returned from touring The USA and their album Premonition has 12 epic tracks and is definitely worth the listen. I hope they come back to Canberra again.
PHOTO BY GABBY MARSHALL
TOXICON
THE BASEMENT SAT JUL 8 Presented by Shananigan’s Entertainment, six local and three interstate bands performed to an intimate crowd of 75 attendees. Primitive (Melb) performed first; they are a fresh new thrash metal band with their song ‘Carved In Stone’ available online. Influenced by L.O.G. and The night began, unlike almost any other gig review in these pages, with a panel discussion involving the three bands on the bill. Often panel discussions are merely the public reproductions of previously stated views, but this panel forged genuine conversation around the ideas of identity representation, community and the arts.
Machine Head, this was only their third gig and first interstate trip. Very energetic on stage, their dedicated groupies travelled from Melbourne and they all thrashed hard. Toxicon (Melb) are high up on my list of must-see progressive metalcore bands. Influenced
by Mastodon and Pantera, lead singer Wayne Clarris has a really professional and versatile vocal range. Their brand-new song ‘Circling’ already has a large number of views in just a few weeks and my favourite song ‘Wall of Mirrors’ was also a crowd favourite. Look them up on YouTube.
With support sets by locals Kid Presentable (hardcore punk), Finding Eve (alternative prog rock), Escape Syndrome (punk metal) Maris King (metalcore/ groove) Chud (black industrial) and Na Maza (metalcore), it was a great night of diverse original metal and it’s a real pity the majority of Canberra punters weren’t out to support their local bands. The best highlight for the night was Izza (Na Maza) thrashing so hard he split his pants and for those that are keen to see it you can check out their live feed Facebook post – time point 11:50, haha! SAM INGHAM
SHOEB AHMAD
PHOTO BY MEGAN LEAHY
AINSLIE ARTS CENTRE SAT JUL 8
Sydneysider Naif, formerly of Hannahband, was the first to hit the stage, armed with a guitar and drum machine. Naif’s set provided the tone for the night with personal, confessional, emotional takes on times past and present. With elements of folk and punk rising in the set, Naif’s voice provided the focal point, cutting through the surrounds of the theatre. After three-ish years of playing consistently around Canberra, Wives are slated to take their first extended break. They couldn’t have entered it in better style. The band, which has slowly shifted in size and sound over this time, has firmly become a must-see live band for those in the know around town. The trio PAGE 70
demonstrated their own brand of acerbic post-punk, with enough diversity in sound to keep it engaging. Shoeb Ahmad has played in a multitude of projects over the years, but watching the set in the confines of the theatre you couldn’t help but feel that this
was the most personal of them. Surrounded by a band composed of parts from other prominent local bands (Cracked Actor, Honey, Pocket Fox, Helana Pop), Ahmad embarked on a set of bold indie pop with plenty of melodic flourishes. Throughout the set Ahmad directed traffic from the front, and the band responded in
kind with an extremely cohesive display. On a night that often focused on identity, and the perceptions of it, Ahmad’s set was a display of someone who is not just comfortable in their own skin, but proud of the person that they are. CODY ATKINSON @bmamag
CLARE BOWEN
CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE WED JUL 5 PHOTOS BY JOHN P. HARVEY
Timothy Bowen’s appearance on the stage on the dot of 7:30pm was low key. This unassuming young man, brother of Clare Bowen, sang half a dozen songs, joined for the last several by his fiancée, Christina Mullany, who, while singing on tour with Timothy and his sister Clare and her five-piece backing band and studying for her medical degree (since completed), cared for Bowen and helped him overcome lymphoma diagnosed as terminal and now pleasingly in remission. Timothy Bowen introduced Christina Mullany to the audience, crediting her as his strongest support through this crucial period in his life. Amongst Bowen’s repertoire were some very personal songs that he had written to her. The songs were consistently heartfelt and really well played and sung, and Mullany’s singing harmony on some of them, brought a lovely poignancy to them. Following the interval, and the sounding by Clare Bowen’s band of a few chords and drum beats,
came Clare Bowen’s entrance to the stage. Throughout the evening, Clare Bowen told the tales behind her songs, including her brother’s story, just prior to welcoming him and Christina Mullany back on stage to perform with her at the end. Highlighting that their parents were in the audience, she spoke at length about the support and influence her parents had had in making her the person she is today, especially in relation to how they had enriched her life when, as a young child, she’d spent much time in hospital under treatment for cancer. She and her brother performed a moving piece written for their parents. Clare Bowen also performed a song she had written to one of her dearest friends since childhood, who was also in the audience, about her friend’s early struggles with heartbreak and consequent low self-esteem. The song was an affirmation of the worth of every person, a theme Clare Bowen returned to a number of times throughout the show.
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Clare Bowen connected well with the audience, and, when she performed a medley of some of the great country songs, she invited the audience to sing along. The audience obviously had fun joining in. Clare Bowen’s young-girl voice suits very well much of the material she writes and sings: it’s essentially country music, with simple themes and narratives, and she and her band put on a good performance, with two and three parts of harmony backing Bowen that was straightforward but accurate. Strangely, Clare Bowen herself sang out of tune much of the time. Since her live performances are usually immaculately in tune, this suggests that she wasn’t receiving adequate foldback, which, given the increasing imbalance in front-of-house sound as the instrumental volume steadily increased and gradually overwhelmed all the voices, seems likely. In fact, in certain songs, both Clare Bowen and Timothy Bowen were barely audible, and Christina Mullany
was utterly inaudible. Toward the end, the balance was, in a word, dreadful. Bowen’s entire band, despite the somewhat excessive volume, was utterly polished and professional and a pleasure to hear. Bowen’s fiancé, rhythm guitarist Brandon Robert Young, who penned some of the songs, had the most amazing voice and vocal range, and I was sorry that he sang lead on just one song. Disappointingly considering the quality of her voice and her evident musicianship, Christina Mullany sang lead on none. Visually, the band had a professional casual look to suit its playing. And the show’s lighting was done equally thoughtfully; though neither overly bright nor dramatic, it was brilliantly executed, adding to the feel of an evening well spent. JOHN P. HARVEY
PAGE 71
[ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE] WEDNESDAY AUGUST 16 ART EXHIBITIONS Empire Global Art Award Exhibition
LIVE MUSIC
Matt Dent
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
Woodface
ERINDALE TOWN CENTRE
Draw Life: Sip and Sketch
Free. 9pm–12am.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
WYLD Thursdays ft. ATLiens
Exhibition continues of animal themed works in the Empire Global Art Award. Free.
Atlanta trap duo ATLiens are set to head back to our shores this winter, with a run of 11 shows around Australia and New Zealand. $15. 9pm.
SAGA SAGA: Imagination Time Machine
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE
Artist Heidi Lefebvre explores optimism and her utopian vision where art is valued above all else. ANCA GALLERY
Voyagers’ Tales: Labillardière
Nicola Dickson explores the rich history of Australian flora and fauna through her exquisitely detailed paintings. Free entry. BEAVER GALLERIES
Wanderlust
Language, art, history and spirituality emerge within the contemporary ceramic forms of Avital Sheffer. Free entry. BEAVER GALLERIES
Imagine If…
Exhibition presented by the National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature and The Children’s Book Council of Australia. 10am – 2pm. CLIVE PRICE SUITE
Chances With Glass
An exhibition focusing on Neil Robert’s relationship with glass as object, medium and signifier. Opening 6pm. Entry by donation.
KYTE NIGHTCLUB
Waving the Red Flag: Chinese Posters 1949-1976
See the colourful propaganda posters that promoted the vision of a prosperous world led by a communist China. 10am-5pm daily. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
TALKS
By Evert Ploeg. Meet for conversations and sharing of ideas around selected portraits, facilitated by members of the National Portrait Gallery Access and Learning team. $7 (includes tea/coffee). Bookings essential. 1pm. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
THEATRE
Poem Every Day
Hedy Lamarr – Hollywood Inventor
Free entry. No booking required. 6pm. NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE
THEATRE Blue Love
Blue Love is a delightful infusion of intense physical theatre, film and dance. From a fantastic place where TV soap meets art-house film, the two characters take the audience on an expedition in search of the perfect relationship. 8pm. THE PLAYHOUSE
THURSDAY AUGUST 17 ART EXHIBITIONS M16 Exhibition Opening
Lines of Sight, Transit Lane, Al Munro. Free. Opening at 6pm. M16 ARTSPACE
Next Generation: Solomon Islands After RAMSI & Provenance Two exhibitions presented by PhotoAccess. Opening at 6pm. PHOTOACCESS
Self Talk
Canberra Roller Derby League
THE PHOENIX
SOUTHERN CROSS STADIUM
HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
With Brief Habits, Helena Pop, Slagatha Christie. 8pm. $10 on the door.
The Montgomery Brothers Free entry. 8pm.
HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
THEATRE Poem Every Day
Arresting new work shaped by the poetry of Canberra poet, Joshua Bell. 7pm. GORMAN ARTS CENTRE
SATURDAY AUGUST 19 ART EXHIBITIONS Chances With Glass
Tom Gleeson has added a second show in Canberra after tickets to his brand new hour of comedy were snapped up quickly by the nation’s capital. 8:45pm. CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
LIVE MUSIC Slim Fits
Blue Love
Underachiever / Capes / Antonia & The Lazy Susans
FRIDAY AUGUST 18
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Canberra’s Capes are teaming up with Newy boys underachiever for a couple of rowdy shows over the weekend! Being joined by Antonia & The Lazy Susans from the Blue Mountains for the Canberra Leg. $5 for students, $10 g/a.
Pete Murray
LIVE MUSIC Mitch Canas/Special K
King
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Nucleust
Trent & Jaryd’s B’day Bash. With Jay Whalley (Frenzal Rhomb), The Neptune Power Federation, Rick Dangerous and the Silkie Bantams, Wolfpack, Flangipanis, Sketch Method, Dropbear and Cockbelch. 7pm. $20 + bf via Moshtix. THE BASEMENT
WSTRN Live
Piss Weak Karaoke
ACADEMY
Arresting new work shaped by the poetry of Canberra poet, Joshua Bell. 7pm. GORMAN ARTS CENTRE
SUNDAY AUGUST 20 LIVE MUSIC Irish Jam Session
Traditional Irish musicians in the pub from late afternoon. Free. KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
With the Bundah Blues Band from Narrabundah College and closing with Leaving Reality from Goulburn. $3/$5. 2pm.
Matt Dent
Awesome Aussie roots music. 3pm. KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Elbury
Haunting Ground album launch. Support from Lavers. 7pm. Tickets $10/$7. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
WORKSHOPS Poetic Portraits: A Workshop with Sarah Rice
Join poet and scholar Sarah Rice for a special masterclass on poetry and portraiture. 10am. $75. Bookings essential at portrait.gov.au. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
MONDAY AUGUST 21 LIVE MUSIC The Ocean Party
With Danger Beach, Territory & Dog Name. $10. 8pm. THE PHOENIX
LOBROW GALLERY & BAR
Camacho tour. 7:30pm. $61.90 + bf via canberratheatrecentre.com.au. 7:30pm.
5pm/10pm. Free.
Poem Every Day
HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
Free. 10:30pm–12am
THE PLAYHOUSE
THEATRE
COMEDY
CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
GORMAN ARTS CENTRE
Blue Love is a delightful infusion of intense physical theatre, film and dance. From a fantastic place where TV soap meets art-house film, the two characters take the audience on an expedition in search of the perfect relationship. 8pm.
Double Header Bouts. 6pm. Info and tickets at www.crdl.com.au.
Canberra Blues Society Monthly Jam
Tom Gleeson: Cheer Up Canberra Youth Theatre’s (CYT) Company Ensemble presents an arresting new work shaped by the poetry of Canberra poet, Joshua Bell. Using physical theatre and drawing on the practices of Pina Bausch, Omar Naharin and Bertolt Brecht the work will be highly theatrical. 7pm.
POLIT BAR
An exhibition focusing on Neil Robert’s relationship with glass as object, medium and signifier. Gallery floor talk 2pm. Entry by donation.
THE STREET THEATRE
KARAOKE Karaoke at the Phoenix. 9pm.
Let loose your creative urge. Bring paper, pencils & creative urge – we provide the model. Check website to see who’s featured this time.
Sharp, young, rapid fire, accent slinging, with a hint of boyish-charm comic. Tickets $35.50 at thestreet.org.au. 8pm.
Samson and Delilah
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
Blues, rock and much more with weekly gigs. For more information visit harmonieclub.com.au. 8pm.
Friday Night Live
Neel Kolhatkar
FILM
NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE
Awesome Aussie roots music. 3pm.
Portrait Encounter: Derek Denton
CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
$14/12. Book online. 7pm.
AUG 16 – AUG 23
CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
Cold Winds Across Australia Tour 2017 with special guests Blackhelm, Somnium Nox, Claret Ash, Black Mountain. 8pm. $20 on the door.
TUESDAY AUGUST 22 TRIVIA Rick & Morty Trivia
With Chris Endrey. 6pm. THE PHOENIX
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 23
THE BASEMENT
The Gypsy Scholars
With Tate Sheridan & Aloise. $10. 8pm. THE PHOENIX
Matt Dent
Awesome Aussie roots music. 8:30pm. TOP PUB QUEANBEYAN
ART EXHIBITIONS Chances With Glass
An exhibition focusing on Neil Robert’s relationship with glass as object, medium and signifier. Entry by donation. CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
Presented by Academy & UMG Allstarz. 9pm. $21 + bf via Moshtix.
THE PHOENIX
PAGE 72
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[ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE] WEDNESDAY AUGUST 23 ART EXHIBITIONS Empire Global Art Award Exhibition
THEATRE Ranters Theatre: INTIMACY
Why is it sometimes easier to be honest with a total stranger than with someone we know? Tickets $29-$39. 7.30pm. THE STREET THEATRE
Exhibition continues of animal themed works in the Empire Global Art Award. Free. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE
M16 Exhibition Opening
Lines of Sight, Transit Lane, Al Munro. Free. Opening at 6pm.
KARAOKE Piss Weak Karaoke
Karaoke at the Phoenix. 9pm.
Next Generation: Solomon Islands After RAMSI & Provenance
LIVE MUSIC
PHOTOACCESS
Voyagers’ Tales: Labillardière
Nicola Dickson explores the rich history of Australian flora and fauna through her exquisitely detailed paintings. Free entry. BEAVER GALLERIES
Wanderlust
Language, art, history and spirituality emerge within the contemporary ceramic forms of Avital Sheffer. Free entry. BEAVER GALLERIES
We Collapse, We Build New Cities
An exhibition of work curated by Angus McGrath about the intersection of the human body with buildings. ANCA GALLERY
SAGA SAGA: Imagination Time Machine
THE PHOENIX
Trash Boat
After touring with New Found Glory, and playing Download Festival, Trash Boat, (hailing all the way from the UK) will make their maiden voyage to Australia this August. With Stand Atlantic, Sketch Method, Elk Locker. Free. 8pm. TRANSIT BAR
Ed Kuepper
Solo and By Request. 8pm. Tickets start at $45 via thestreet.org.au. 8pm. THE STREET THEATRE
Chicago Charles & Danger Dave 9pm. Free.
Crystal Clear: Talking Residencies
THE STREET THEATRE
FRIDAY AUGUST 25 LIVE MUSIC Dom Dolla & Torren Foot “Team Effort Tour”
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
Sad Old Bastard Night
With Tom Woodward, Evan Buckley & Jim Sharrock. 7:30pm. THE PHOENIX
Water Pushes Sand
In Water Pushes Sand, composer Erik Griswold and the Australian Art Orchestra fuse Sichuan melodies and rhythms with modern jazz improvisation, and video projections that evoke the vibrant landscape of the Chengdu Provence. $40-$45. At the door or online. 7:30pm. AINSLIE ARTS CENTRE
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THE PHOENIX
Two of the biggest house acts in Australia are heading to Academy for the first show of their tour ahead of their new Aria #1 ‘Be Randy’ and it is going to be massive! $16.50 + bf at Moshtix. 9pm. ACADEMY
Join us to celebrate the literary life of the National Library! Tickets available at canberrawritersfestival.com.au. 9am–9pm. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
THEATRE Ranters Theatre: INTIMACY
Why is it sometimes easier to be honest with a total stranger than with someone we know? Tickets $29-$39. 7.30pm. THE STREET THEATRE
SATURDAY AUGUST 26
Lostkeyz will be heading out on his first national tour to celebrate the release of his self-titled EP. The tour, presented by Wonder Thunder, Honeymoon and Good Stuff Co. will include special guests imbi the girl, Brad Michael and local supports Genesis Owusu, Kirklandd & The Wumpaz. $5 entry. 7pm. LOWBROW GALLERY & BAR
Napoleonic
Support from Betty Alto, Bleach It Clean, The Postmasters. 8pm. THE BASEMENT
Marlon Bando
With Needledick, Flight To Dubai, Sleeping Dogs, Dalmacia & Bo Loserr. 9pm. $10. THE PHOENIX
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
School Damage
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
Friday Night Live
Blues, rock and much more with weekly gigs. For more information visit harmonieclub.com.au. 8pm. HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
Guyy
With Richard Perso. Free. 8pm. HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE
LIVE MUSIC Matt Dent
Awesome Aussie roots music. 3pm. WALT & BURLEY
SOMETHING DIFFERENT Canberra Writers Festival: Power, Politics, Passion
Join us to celebrate the literary life of the National Library! Tickets available at canberrawritersfestival.com.au. 9am–9pm. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
Waving the Red Flag: Chinese Posters 1949-1976
See the colourful propaganda posters that promoted the vision of a prosperous world led by a communist China. 10am-5pm daily.
Drawn In: Carl St Jacques
Free. 10:30pm.
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
Exhibition continues of animal themed works in the Empire Global Art Award. Free.
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Folk/grunge duo. Tickets $15/$10 via smithsalternative.com. 7pm.
SUNDAY AUGUST 27
Empire Global Art Award Exhibition
5pm/10pm. Free.
Little Georgia
THE PLAYHOUSE
Canberra Writers Festival: Power, Politics, Passion
Matt Dent/Woodface
LACKLUSTRE HQ
One of the most-read and famous children’s books of all time, The Very Hungry Caterpillar emerges off the page in a masterful theatrical experience for the whole family. 10am, 12.30pm and 3pm.
ART EXHIBITIONS
Hard Cover
Join School Damage as they head to Canberra to launch their new LP with very special guests California Girls and Passive Smoke. 8pm.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
Ranters Theatre: INTIMACY
Karaoke SMACKdown
Be swept away in an imaginative take on the folk idiom as Newcastle’s experimental folk mainstays, Vanishing Shapes, appear in Canberra as part of a weekender mini tour. 4:30pm.
With Los Chavos. $10. 9pm.
CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
KARAOKE
Vanishing Shapes
Friday Fiesta
With Zoe Woods: Ausglass Artist in Residence. Entry by donation. Light refreshments will be provided. 4:30pm.
CLIVE PRICE SUITE
LIVE MUSIC
Awesome Aussie roots music. 8:30pm.
Lostkeyz Self Titled EP Tour
Why is it sometimes easier to be honest with a total stranger than with someone we know? Tickets $29-$39. 7.30pm.
POLIT BAR
Matt Dent
LIVE MUSIC
Imagine If…
Think you’re pretty hot with a mic? Try this for size. Not your average karaoke. It’s duelling duets with Braiden. (Yeah, okay you can do normal karaoke too if you insist…) Free entry.
TRANSIT BAR
TALKS
THEATRE
Exhibition presented by the National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature and The Children’s Book Council of Australia. 10am – 2pm.
With Moaning Lisa and Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers. 8pm. $15 + bf at Moshtix. 8pm.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Artist Heidi Lefebvre explores optimism and her utopian vision where art is valued above all else. ANCA GALLERY
Major Leagues
GOULBURN RAILWAY BOWLING CLUB
THURSDAY AUGUST 24
M16 ARTSPACE
Two exhibitions presented by PhotoAccess.
AUG 23 – 30
Canberra Writers Festival: Power, Politics, Passion
Join us to celebrate the literary life of the National Library! Tickets available at canberrawritersfestival.com.au. 9am–9pm. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
THEATRE Ranters Theatre: INTIMACY
Why is it sometimes easier to be honest with a total stranger than with someone we know? Tickets $29-$39. 7.30pm. THE STREET THEATRE
Draw while listening to music. All materials provided; for all ages and abilities. Free. 1pm. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
THEATRE Ranters Theatre: INTIMACY
Why is it sometimes easier to be honest with a total stranger than with someone we know? Tickets $29-$39. 4pm. THE STREET THEATRE
MONDAY AUGUST 28 LIVE MUSIC CIT Presents The Bootleg Sessions
With Short Wave Love Remedy, The Kaemans, Partly Cloudy & Bridgette Kutcher. Free entry. 8pm. THE PHOENIX
TUESDAY AUGUST 29 TRIVIA ANU Film Group Presents Movie Trivia. 6:30pm. THE PHOENIX
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 30 ART EXHIBITIONS Chances With Glass
An exhibition focusing on Neil Robert’s relationship with glass as object, medium and signifier. Entry by donation. CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
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[ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE] WEDNESDAY AUGUST 30 ART EXHIBITIONS M16 Exhibition Opening
AUG 30 – SEP 5
KARAOKE
ON THE TOWN
Piss Weak Karaoke
Run In
THE PHOENIX
ACADEMY
Karaoke at the Phoenix. 9pm.
Feat. Zeke Beats.
Lines of Sight, Transit Lane, Al Munro. Free. Opening at 6pm.
LIVE MUSIC
THEATRE
Jed Rowe
Next Generation: Solomon Islands After RAMSI & Provenance
A Foreign Country tour. Supported by Emma Dryden and Wayne Kelly. 9pm. Tickets a steal at $10 through smithsalternative.com.
Prada’s Priscillas
M16 ARTSPACE
Two exhibitions presented by PhotoAccess.
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
PHOTOACCESS
Special K Duo
We Collapse, We Build New Cities
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
An exhibition of work curated by Angus McGrath about the intersection of the human body with buildings. ANCA GALLERY
Imagine If…
Exhibition presented by the National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature and The Children’s Book Council of Australia. 10am – 2pm.
Free. 9pm.
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 1
Flanked by gorgeous men, Prada Clutch and her ‘girls’, take you on a journey from where it all began with Les Girls in the 60’s, across the Aussie outback with Priscilla Queen of the Desert in the 90’s, and into 2017 with a celebration of today’s music icons! 8pm. THE PLAYHOUSE
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 2
COMEDY
FILM
Rosie Waterland
2017 Alliance Française Classic Film Festival
COMEDY
In celebration of the enduring cinema of France, The Alliance Française Classic Film Festival is returning for its anticipated third edition. More info at afclassicfilmfestival.org.
Open Mic Comedy at The Phoenix
2017 Arab Film Festival Australia
CLIVE PRICE SUITE
Free entry. 8pm. THE PHOENIX
LIVE MUSIC Acoustic Soup
ALOÏSE, Dom Lavers, pop songwriter Sebastian Field and guitarist James Hamilton. Hot delicious soup included in the price, plus home-made chai and an assortment of desserts for sale. All vegan and gluten free. Doors open 7pm. Students and members $8 and general public $12. Free Admission through volunteering! ANU FOOD CO-OP
TALKS The Sustainable Wardrobe
A discussion about the environmental costs of the garment industry and slowing down in the era of fast fashion. 6pm. DRILL HALL GALLERY
TRIVIA Movie Trivia Night
To support the Canberra International Film Festival – a not-for-profit community event. Light supper, great prizes and fun for all. Drinks can be purchased at the bar. Plenty of raffle prizes too! $20 per person, or $150 for a table of 10 ($15 per person). 6.30pm. Tix at Eventbrite. AINSLIE FOOTBALL & SOCIAL CLUB
THURSDAY AUGUST 31
PALACE ELECTRIC
ANCA GALLERY
DANCE Puttin’ On The Ritz
The most famous songs of the Golden Age of Hollywood are recreated live on stage with award winning singers and dancers in glittering costume – with special guest Rob Mills. 7:30pm. Tickets from $81.90, available through canberratheatrecentre.com.au. CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
FILM 2017 Alliance Française Classic Film Festival In celebration of the enduring cinema of France, The Alliance Française Classic Film Festival is returning for its anticipated third edition. More info at afclassicfilmfestival.org. PALACE ELECTRIC
LIVE MUSIC Irish Jam Session
The Arab Film Festival Australia (AFFA) proudly presents its 14th edition from August to September, bringing together the best in contemporary Arab cinema to Australian audiences. Full program at arabfilmfestival.com.au.
Traditional Irish musicians in the pub from late afternoon. Free.
CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
LIVE MUSIC
THE BASEMENT
FILM
Mass in Blue & Misa Criolla
2017 Alliance Française Classic Film Festival In celebration of the enduring cinema of France, The Alliance Française Classic Film Festival is returning for its anticipated third edition. More info at afclassicfilmfestival.org. PALACE ELECTRIC
2017 Arab Film Festival Australia
The Arab Film Festival Australia (AFFA) proudly presents its 14th edition from August to September, bringing together the best in contemporary Arab cinema to Australian audiences. Full program at arabfilmfestival.com.au.
NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE
Each of the major pieces combines two very different musical traditions: in Will Todd’s Mass in Blue, the sung Mass meets the blues; and in Ariel Ramírez’ Misa Criolla, the Catholic Mass meets the rhythms and traditions of Hispanic America. 7:30pm. HUGHES BAPTIST CHURCH
Plyers ‘Clear’ LP Launch’
Plyers (Melbourne) return to Canberra once more for the launch of their long awaited LP Clear (TRAIT Records / Art As Catharsis). Joining them on the night are special guests Shoeb Ahmad, Sleeping Døgs and more TBA. $5. 8pm. LOWBROW GALLERY & BAR
Flowertruck
NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE
With Big White & Noir. $10/$5. 9pm.
LIVE MUSIC
4th Degree
Bill Olsen/Oscar 5pm/10pm. Free.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Coin Banks
Acclaimed Perth MC has announced a national tour kicking off in support of his Outside Looking In EP. Tickets $12 + bf at Moshtix. 8pm. TRANSIT BAR
2017 Alliance Française Classic Film Festival
Australia’s premier exponents of the Real Good Boogie. Free entry. 8pm.
PALACE ELECTRIC
An exhibition of work curated by Angus McGrath about the intersection of the human body with buildings.
After selling out the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and a national tour with her very first onewoman show last year, Rosie Waterland is back with her brand new offering, Crazy Lady “describing in detail, every lie I ever told”. 8:30pm. Tickets at canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
FILM
In celebration of the enduring cinema of France, The Alliance Française Classic Film Festival is returning for its anticipated third edition. More info at afclassicfilmfestival.org.
We Collapse, We Build New Cities
Cyril B Bunter Band
HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
Friday Night Live
Blues, rock and much more with weekly gigs. For more information visit harmonieclub.com.au. 8pm. HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
The King Hits
With DJ The Professor. $10/$5. 10pm. THE PHOENIX
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THE PHOENIX
Free. 10:30pm.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 3 ART EXHIBITIONS Chances With Glass
An exhibition focusing on Neil Robert’s relationship with glass as object, medium and signifier. Entry by donation. CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
M16 Exhibition Opening
Lines of Sight, Transit Lane, Al Munro. Free. Opening at 6pm.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Vices
I Am Responsible Tour. With guests Conveyer, Homesick, Snakepit and Brainfreeze. 8pm. Tickets $20 on the door.
THEATRE The History Boys
Everyman Theatre, producers of last year’s critically acclaimed production of The Normal Heart are back at Canberra Theatre Centre with another Tony Award winner – Alan Bennett’s The History Boys. Tickets and more info at canberratheatrecentre.com.au. THE COURTYARD STUDIO
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 4 COMEDY Titus O’Reily
Frontier Comedy are thrilled to announce a national tour of popular sport satirist Titus O’Reily’s new show Insufficient Intent. 7:30pm. Tickets $49.90 at thestreet.org.au. THE STREET THEATRE
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 5 WORKSHOPS It’s A Gin Thing
Masterclass: Liquid Learning & Laughs. Like to make some gin, just for you? Award winning Canberra Distillery founder and master distiller Tim Reardon will show you how. POLIT BAR
M16 ARTSPACE
Next Generation: Solomon Islands After RAMSI & Provenance Two exhibitions presented by PhotoAccess. PHOTOACCESS
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[ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE] WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 6 ART EXHIBITIONS Chances With Glass
An exhibition focusing on Neil Robert’s relationship with glass as object, medium and signifier. Entry by donation. CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
Next Generation: Solomon Islands After RAMSI & Provenance Two exhibitions presented by PhotoAccess. PHOTOACCESS
We Collapse, We Build New Cities
An exhibition of work curated by Angus McGrath about the intersection of the human body with buildings. ANCA GALLERY
LIVE MUSIC Direct Hit!
Milwaukee-based punk. With The Decline. 8pm. $23.50 via Oztix. 8pm. THE PHOENIX
THEATRE
ON THE TOWN
TALKS
Landscape With Monsters
Run In
Dr Michael Mosley
The fearless Circa ensemble have forged a new type of circus. There are no traditional circus acts, no trapezes and not a red nose in sight. Tickets and more info at canberratheatrecentre. com.au. THE PLAYHOUSE
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 8 ART EXHIBITIONS M16 Exhibition Opening
Internationalist, Tony Curran, Kerry Shepherdson. Free. M16 ARTSPACE
LIVE MUSIC Dana Hassall/Live Band 5pm/10pm. Free.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Hugo Race & Michelangelo Russo
THEATRE
THE COURTYARD STUDIO
Landscape With Monsters
The fearless Circa ensemble have forged a new type of circus. There are no traditional circus acts, no trapezes and not a red nose in sight. Tickets and more info at canberratheatrecentre. com.au.
Feat. Lude. ACADEMY
THEATRE Landscape With Monsters
The fearless Circa ensemble have forged a new type of circus. There are no traditional circus acts, no trapezes and not a red nose in sight. Tickets and more info at canberratheatrecentre. com.au. THE PLAYHOUSE
ART EXHIBITIONS
M16 Exhibition Opening
Animastructions Exhibition
Internationalist, Tony Curran, Kerry Shepherdson. Free.
Josh Wade
Internationalist, Tony Curran, Kerry Shepherdson. Free.
POLIT BAR
Shocking, crude, uncomfortable, but most of all – the truth. Tickets $34.90 at thestreet.org.au. 7:30 pm. THE STREET THEATRE
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
Lincoln le Fevre & The Insiders
ART EXHIBITIONS M16 Exhibition Opening
Internationalist, Tony Curran, Kerry Shepherdson. Free. Opening 6pm. M16 ARTSPACE
COMEDY Fearless Comedy Gala 2017
A night of hilarity for charity – The Fearless Comedy Gala returns in 2017 with a bigger line-up and the guarantee of an outrageously “feel-good” night of fun. 7:30pm. Tickets from $50 + bf through canberratheatrecentre.com.au. CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
Chase The Sun
Australian heavyweight champions of blues-rock shred. Tickets either presales: CBS $15/Gen $22 or at the door: CBS$20/Gen$25. 8pm.
Dos Locos
Blues, rock and much more with weekly gigs. For more information visit harmonieclub.com.au. 8pm.
PAGE 76
Client Liaison
Grieg and Beyond
HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
THE BASEMENT
UC REFECTORY
LIVE MUSIC Free. 9pm.
8pm. Tickets $13.30 via Oztix. Client Liaison are coming to Canberra as part of their ‘Foreign Affair World Tour’. Tickets $39.90. 8pm.
TRANSIT BAR
Friday Night Live
TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE
Chances With Glass
Troldhaugen
The Insiders are enjoying a warm reception to lead single ‘Undone’ – a gorgeous yet gritty singalong punctuated by le Fevre’s caramel vocals – which was recently added to rotation on Double J. The new album was lent some Aussie rock chops via producer Mike Deslandes but amongst the rock roots still boasts the warmest songwriting to emerge from south of the ‘Strait in years. With Suds, Keyring Jeans and Jim Dusty. 7pm.
ANU School of Art & Design Nature/ Culture Research Group presents Artworks by Students, Alumni, and Staff appropriating animals as metaphors for our relationship with the environment. Free.
A comedic collaboration between three of Australia’s hottest queer comedians, Lori Bell (Adelaide), Bobby Macumber (Melbourne) and Kirsty Webeck (Melbourne). Bloody funny content.
LIVE MUSIC
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 7
THE PLAYHOUSE
ART EXHIBITIONS
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
Landscape With Monsters
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 10
Dykeside
See the colourful propaganda posters that promoted the vision of a prosperous world led by a communist China. 10am-5pm daily.
THEATRE
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 9
THE STREET THEATRE
THE PLAYHOUSE
Waving the Red Flag: Chinese Posters 1949-1976
CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
A kaleidoscopic ride through states of semi-consciousness. Tickets $20-$65. 7pm.
COMEDY
Hugo Race (founding member of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds) and Michelangelo Russo are excited to be bringing their performance to Smith’s Alternative in Canberra. Their e-imagining of the music of John Lee Hooker is simultaneously blues, electronica, avant-garde and ambient, an homage to one of the greats of rock and roll prehistory. 9pm. $20/$15.
In his live show, Michael Mosley, the man behind the iconic 5:2 Diet, will take you on a journey exploring fascinating health myths and facts with exciting experiments and an interactive Q&A. 7:30pm. Tickets and more info at canberrathreatrecentre.com.au.
The fearless Circa ensemble have forged a new type of circus. There are no traditional circus acts, no trapezes and not a red nose in sight. Tickets and more info at canberratheatrecentre. com.au.
The Song Compnay: Dreamers of the Day
M16 ARTSPACE
The History Boys
Everyman Theatre, producers of last year’s critically acclaimed production of The Normal Heart are back at Canberra Theatre Centre with another Tony Award winner – Alan Bennett’s The History Boys. Tickets and more info at canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
SEP 6 – SEP 10
Kraggerud will join the ACO in September for a national tour – Grieg and Beyond – that celebrates the music of Norway’s most distinctive composer. New music by Australian composer Ross Edwards and Kraggerud himself will also feature in the program. 8pm. LLEWELLYN HALL
The Cool
Free. 10:30pm.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
SOMETHING DIFFERENT Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators: Level Up Conference Take your career to the next level. Tickets and info at scbwiact.com. ALIA HOUSE
An exhibition focusing on Neil Robert’s relationship with glass as object, medium and signifier. Entry by donation. CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
M16 Exhibition Opening M16 ARTSPACE
Next Generation: Solomon Islands After RAMSI & Provenance Two exhibitions presented by PhotoAccess. PHOTOACCESS
We Collapse, We Build New Cities
An exhibition of work curated by Angus McGrath about the intersection of the human body with buildings. ANCA GALLERY
DANCE Enter the Vortex
Founded and directed by one of Australia’s most esteemed creative directors Marko Panzic, The Dream Dance Company invites you to Enter the Vortex. 8pm. THE PLAYHOUSE
LIVE MUSIC Irish Jam Session
Traditional Irish musicians in the pub from late afternoon. Free. KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
SOMETHING DIFFERENT 3rd Australian Chopin Competition
This biennial competition will see entrants from all over the world come together to perform works by Chopin. 9am. ANU SCHOOL OF MUSIC
HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
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[ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE] SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 10 SOMETHING DIFFERENT Reclink Canberra Community Cup
Big day of entertainment, sport and fun. With bands, footy and more. Adults $10. Kids under 16 $5. Food and beverages on sale on site. JAMISON OVAL
THEATRE The History Boys
Everyman Theatre, producers of last year’s critically acclaimed production of The Normal Heart are back at Canberra Theatre Centre with another Tony Award winner – Alan Bennett’s The History Boys. Tickets and more info at canberratheatrecentre.com.au. THE COURTYARD STUDIO
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 11 ART EXHIBITIONS M16 Exhibition Opening
Internationalist, Tony Curran, Kerry Shepherdson. Free. M16 ARTSPACE
COMEDY Dykeside
A comedic collaboration between three of Australia’s hottest queer comedians, Lori Bell (Adelaide), Bobby Macumber (Melbourne) and Kirsty Webeck (Melbourne). Bloody funny content.
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 12 ART EXHIBITIONS M16 Exhibition Opening
Internationalist, Tony Curran, Kerry Shepherdson. Free. M16 ARTSPACE
COMEDY The Wharf Revue
From the highs to the lows, Canberra’s most trusted fake news source will proudly parade the year’s most memorable moments our nation’s political and cultural leaders would prefer to forget. Tickets and more info at canberratheatrecentre.com.au. THE PLAYHOUSE
SOMETHING DIFFERENT 3rd Australian Chopin Competition
This biennial competition will see entrants from all over the world come together to perform works by Chopin. 9am. ANU SCHOOL OF MUSIC
THEATRE Erth’s Prehistoric Aquarium
The team at Erth have spent years collecting playful prehistoric creatures of the deep in their giant aquarium. For the very first time, you are invited to dive in and meet these aquatic critters in person. 6pm. Tickets and info at canberratheatrecentre.com.au. CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
POLIT BAR
LIVE MUSIC
Jeff Rosenstock
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 13 ART EXHIBITIONS Animastructions Exhibition
ANU School of Art & Design Nature/ Culture Research Group presents Artworks by Students, Alumni, and Staff appropriating animals as metaphors for our relationship with the environment. Free. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE
No stranger to Australian shores, Jeff Rosenstock is bringing his full band back for what will be his sixth time to the country. Since last touring Australia in 2016, supporting The Smith Street Band’s Wil Wagner, Jeff Rosenstock has gained attention in places he never expected. His latest album WORRY., out through SideOneDummy Records, was called album of the year by USA Today. In addition to his own musical career, Jeff Rosenstock has produced the last two albums by The Smith Street Band. TRANSIT BAR
Chances With Glass
An exhibition focusing on Neil Robert’s relationship with glass as object, medium and signifier. Entry by donation. CANBERRA GLASSWORKS
Dreaming of Remembering
Curated by Grace Blakely Carroll this exhibition reflects on imagination, memory, tradition and nostalgia.
From the highs to the lows, Canberra’s most trusted fake news source will proudly parade the year’s most memorable moments our nation’s political and cultural leaders would prefer to forget. Tickets and more info at canberratheatrecentre.com.au. THE PLAYHOUSE
Erth’s Prehistoric Aquarium
The team at Erth have spent years collecting playful prehistoric creatures of the deep in their giant aquarium. For the very first time, you are invited to dive in and meet these aquatic critters in person. 6pm. Tickets and info at canberratheatrecentre.com.au. CANBERRA THEATRE CENTR
SOMETHING DIFFERENT 3rd Australian Chopin Competition
This biennial competition will see entrants from all over the world come together to perform works by Chopin. 9am. ANU SCHOOL OF MUSIC
THEATRE The History Boys
Everyman Theatre, producers of last year’s critically acclaimed production of The Normal Heart are back at Canberra Theatre Centre with another Tony Award winner – Alan Bennett’s The History Boys. Tickets and more info at canberratheatrecentre.com.au. THE COURTYARD STUDIO
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 15 FILM 18th Lavazza Italian Film Festival
Presented by Palace, the 18th Lavazza Italian Film Festival screens nationally in September presenting over 30 of the best films from cinema masters and ground breaking new talent from Italy. More info at italianfilmfestival.com.au. PALACE ELECTRIC
Canberra Short Film Festival
An evening of selected short films including the inaugural Indigenous filmmakers category. Tickets $15 online at tuggeranongarts.com or $20 at the door. 6pm. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE
LIVE MUSIC Floriade Twilight Concert
Featuring an open air musical performance by The David Bowie Tribute band supported by the Canberra Symphony Orchestra. Tickets available at floriadeaustralia.com. COMMONWEALTH PARK
Catfish Voodoo
Catfish Voodoo are one of Melbourne’s hot new electric blues party bands. Free. 8pm HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
Friday Night Live
Blues, rock and much more with weekly gigs. For more information visit harmonieclub.com.au. 8pm. HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
SOMETHING DIFFERENT Kath ‘n’ Kim
The Party with Drag Queen Extraordinaire Ms Tammy Paks. 8pm. $20 on the door. POLIT BAR
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 16 COMEDY Dykeside
A comedic collaboration between three of Australia’s hottest queer comedians, Lori Bell (Adelaide), Bobby Macumber (Melbourne) and Kirsty Webeck (Melbourne). Bloody funny content. POLIT BAR
FILM 18th Lavazza Italian Film Festival
Presented by Palace, the 18th Lavazza Italian Film Festival screens nationally in September presenting over 30 of the best films from cinema masters and ground breaking new talent from Italy. More info at italianfilmfestival.com.au. PALACE ELECTRIC
LIVE MUSIC Blind Man Death Stare
It’ll Grow On Ya album launch tour. THE BASEMENT
Kim Churchill
Intricate guitar work, intuitive vocal melodies, disarming lyrical honesty. Tickets $35-$40 at thestreet.org.au. 7:30pm. THE STREET THEATRE
M16 Exhibition Opening
Internationalist, Tony Curran, Kerry Shepherdson. Free. M16 ARTSPACE
COMEDY
3rd Australian Chopin Competition
The Exotic Lives of Lola Montez
ANU SCHOOL OF MUSIC
The Wharf Revue
ANCA GALLERY
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
This biennial competition will see entrants from all over the world come together to perform works by Chopin. 9am.
SEP 10 – SEP 16
From the creators of the smash hit Caravan Burlesque, Finucane & Smith, comes the story of the wildest showgirl of the nineteenth century, Lola Montez. 8pm. Tickets $35-$50 at tuggeranongarts.com.
Listings are a free community service. Email editorial@bmamag.com to have your events appear each issue.
For up-to-date listings, visit bmamag.com/gigguide.
TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE
NEXT ISSUE: #497
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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
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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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