BMA Magazine 456 - 28 January 2015

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TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE: VOLUNTEER TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Stupid sexy Flanders # 4 5 6 J a n 2 8 Fax: (02) 6257 4361 Mail: PO Box 713 Civic Square, ACT 2608 Publisher Scott Layne Allan Sko General Manager Allan Sko T: (02) 6257 4360

Volunteers form the heart and soul of Mental Illness Education ACT (MIEACT) - a dynamic, local not-for-profit organisation that works with young people and the community to reduce stigma around getting help for mental health problems.

Early each year MIEACT recruits volunteers who have had firsthand experience with mental illness - either their own, or someone they have cared for - to give education presentations in schools and community settings. All MIEACT Volunteer Educators work from lived experience, which means sharing personal stories to promote understanding of what it is like to live with and recover from mental illness. Storytelling is a powerful way to break down stigma, and it places a ‘person’ into the context of ‘mental

health issues’ - it is information outside of a textbook, outside of a ‘diagnostic label’ or ‘method of therapy’ and as such is uniquely valuable. All MIEACT Volunteers are reimbursed for their time, work in pairs and have ongoing support from MIEACT staff. Want to Volunteer with MIEACT? You can get in touch withMIEACT via their website mieact.org.au or phone 6257 1195.

WEEKEND WARRIORS: A BETTER bikie CLICHÉ THAN assuming you’re all in GANGS To celebrate the arrival of the Harley-Davidson Street 500, the brand’s first all-new motorcycle platform in 14 years, Canberra based HarleyDavidson dealership, Robbo’s Harley-Davidson, will be hosting a special, one-off Street Party on Saturday January 31. The free-to-attend event welcomes local motorcycle riders and enthusiasts to experience the Street 500, taking to the road to be amongst the first

in Australia to open the new model’s throttle. The new model – which is the brand’s first Learner Approved Motorcycle Scheme (LAMS) - also offers the chance for Learner License holders to experience the thrill of riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle for the first time.

The event kicks off from 9am at Robbo’s, 281 Canberra Avenue Fyshwick.

LIGHT RAIL: SEXIER THAN IT SOUNDS Feedback from the early light rail design process wasn’t just around the official rules on how much eye contact with strangers is acceptable on public transport, but also to check that the design is “on track” (their joke not mine).

Community feedback is where it’s at, and is your only excuse to whinge if the track doesn’t go by your house. Head to haveyoursay.capitalmetro. act.gov.au or tweet @ capitalmetroact to suggest some better puns.

E: advertising@bmamag.com

Editor Tatjana Clancy T: (02) 6257 4456 E: editorial@bmamag.com

Accounts Manager Julie Ruttle T: (02) 6247 4816 E: accounts@bmamag.com

Sub-Editor & Social Media Manager Chiara Grassia Graphic Design Chris Halloran Film Editor Melissa Wellham NEXT ISSUE 457 OUT Feb 11 EDITORIAL DEADLINE Feb 4 ADVERTISING DEADLINE Feb 5

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I want what they’re having

Published by Radar Media Pty Ltd 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.

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YOU PISSED ME OFF!

FROM THE BOSSMAN As we enter into National Decency Month* I would like to take this opportunity to talk about everyday politeness, in particular the art of Holding the Door Open for Someone.

Care to immortalise your hatred in print? Send an email to editorial@bmamag.com and see your malicious bile circulated to thousands. [All entries contain original spellings.]

I go through life trying to be A Good Person. I fail on a daily basis, but I’m trying (I’ve been told by many that I’m very trying). But one area I excel in is everyday politeness.

Recently I found myself at my favourite Civic café eating a delectable haloumi burger which oozes aioli sauce. As I surrendered to its taste my fingers surrendered to its flow. Then came the moment when I knew that action must be taken to stem this tasty tide before the inevitable dry cleaning solution arrived.But where are the serviettes? Not on the table. Not with the plate..Rationing is back, and only a single serviette is afforded each customer. And that serviette is a complicated affair, wrapped around the cutlery and stuck fast in place, seemingly with craft glue. With my last two fingers, I desperately tried to solve this cunning kitchen trap. I fail, leaving torn ribbons of paper like a kitten at play. And I imagine how this may have been avoided if I was the imaginary person who actually eats their burger with a knife and fork. But I am not. And as my clothes take the place of the serviette I hear the howl of a smiling dry cleaner. All because of the false economy of café serviette rationing You insulted me with your arrogance.

It’s a little daily pleasure when given the chance to hold a door open for someone. You get to make that person’s life just a smidgen more pleasurable and at the same time ever-so-slightly restore faith in the goodness of humanity in another stranger.

Unless, of course, the fucker doesn’t say thank you.

Do these people not understand the years of training you’ve gone through? To judge exactly how far away you were so that it wasn’t awkward to leave the door open? We’ve all had bad ones… We see someone 15 metres behind us and hold the door but the distance is too long. It becomes weird. You’re holding it open and now they are having to shuffle with speed because they realise they are holding YOU up and it’s getting strange and now they’re rushing to not put you out thereby completely undoing the initial gesture.

It’s like spotting someone you’re meeting at the end of a long escalator. The initial excitement of spying the person at the top soon disintegrates into awkwardness as you affix a manic grin on your face and maintain eye contact for an agonising slow ascent to the top of the Dendy Civic stairs. Looking away is death; it’s like you’re snubbing the person, meaning the only option is to stare maniacally at your friend until the horrible ordeal is over.

You stained me with your sauce.

You pissed me off.

These things matter, and they take all kinds of emotional intelligence training to get right (and for the record, ten metres - or about five seconds - is the acceptable door opening time; we debated this long at the International Decency Summit**).

It’s for all of this angst that a ‘thanks’ to a Door Open is vital. We all know that people who don’t at the very least nod quickly in acknowledgment when you open the door for them are worse like Hitler. No wait... They’re worse than TWO Hitlers.

But… Are they? Maybe we, the effusive polite seekers are the scum? Because if the only reason you’re holding the door open for someone is to get off on the expected ‘thank you’ in return, does that not make us the selfish bastards?

I confess I love the warm glow given to me by my fellow human stranger person as they offer me a cheery ‘thanks’ as they glide through a pre-opened door. How very cloying of me.

In conclusion (wait, this is a high school essay now?) saying thanks when someone leaves a door open for you is matching the nice gesture they have just made. You could argue if - in a karma-style nice gesture balance - it’s only about weighing it out it ruins the point of the original gesture. A good turn is its own reward, as is said by people I don’t know.

But this is the same argument made against Americans saying, “Have a nice day” being mechanical. It may indeed be mechanical, but it’s still a nice gesture. It’s a friendly connection between two complete strangers, where out of the madness, strife and stress of the working day you share five precious seconds of being a little bit decent and respectful to each other.

So happy Decency Month* all, and remember... Next time someone leaves a door open for you, be sure to say thank you, you twat.*** ALLAN SKO - allan@bmamag.com *not a thing **also not a thing facebook.com/bmamagazine ***were the Decency Committe a thing, my ass would be banned

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WHO: LEPERS & CROOKS WHAT: EP LAUNCH WHEN: FRI JAN 30 WHERE: TRANSIT BAR

Having just released their new EP, Her Kiss, Sydney’s Lepers & Crooks are heading out on a startlingly ambitious 50+ date tour around the country. Their sound is a perfectly executed collaboration of cohesive vocal harmonies, rock riffs, funk rhythms and commanding drumming.

If you have a hot minute, hop onto the ‘Tube to check out the brand new video for the title track, which features manga art by acclaimed artist Eldo Yoshimizu. With a solid reputation for their energetic live shows, catch Lepers & Crooks when they play Transit Bar with Bears with Guns. 8pm. $15 from moshtix.

WHO: SHELLEY SHORT WHAT: SINGER-SONGWRITER WHEN: SUN FEB 1 WHERE: THE FRONT

Not a stranger to our city, Shelley Short is back in town with a whole swag of new tunes. Hailing from Portland, Oregon in the US, the singer-songwriter has previously toured with Darren Hanlon and Holly Throsby and most recently played shows with The Ocean Party and Dick Diver. She’s charmed audiences and listeners worldwide with her warm, sweet voice and musical blend of country, folk and pop. For a perfect way to finish your weekend, catch Short at The Front on Sunday February 1. Kicks off at 6pm. Just $10 at the door.

WHO: THE SOUTH AFRICAN PROJECT WHAT: JAZZ WHEN: TUE FEB 3 WHERE: THE GODS, ANU

WHO: GOOGFEST WHAT: LIVE MUSIC WHEN: SAT FEB 7 WHERE: BELTANA PARK

WHO: JOEL HAVEA WHAT: EP LAUNCH WHEN: WED FEB 11 WHERE: THE FRONT

WHO: SHAMEEM WHAT: ALBUM LAUNCH WHEN: FRI FEB 20 WHERE: THE BASEMENT

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Catch Sydney’s The South African Project performing the music of the great South African jazz composers including Abdullah Ibrahim / Dollar Brand, Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Bheki Mseleku and the like. Featuring Mark Ginsburg (saxophones), Eamon Dilworth (trumpet / flugelhorn), Judy Campbell (vocals), Ryan Grogan (piano), Brendan Clark Jr (bass) and Dave Goodman (drums). The Gods is located at ANU Arts Centre, diagonally across the quadrangle from the Student Union near Sullivans Creek. Seating is limited to 80.

Music kicks off at 7.30pm. Tickets $22, $15 concession. Booking is essential, call (02) 6248 5538.

The inaugural Googfest boasts a family-friendly festival, with free music live music under the stars in the picturesque Beltana Park.

Grab the fam, a picnic (or peruse the food stalls) and a rug and settle in. Lineup includes X Factor winner Dami Im, Lavers, Mary Ann van Der Horst and Big Boss Groove. A free shuttle bus service is operating on the day, picking up from Queanbeyan and Woden Interchanges after 4pm and departing Googong at 9.30pm. 5pm.

Free! For more info, hit up googong.net.

Tongan born and Melbourne raised, Joel Havea is a singersongwriter and guitarist with a rootsy pop sound – think old Ben Harper and pre-country John Mayer and you’re on the right track.

Having spent the last six years living in Hamburg, Germany, Havea is back in the country to tour his new EP, 2014’s Strings Wood.

He’ll be joined by his brother Dave (My Private Dinosaur). They’ll be playing Canberra for the first time on Wednesday February 11, bringing their chilled vibes to The Front. Time TBC. Just $5 at the door.

Drawing comparisons to Alicia Keys, Perth singer Shameem fuses 90s rnb influences with 70s soul and a hint of jazz. New single ‘Under One Sun’, from her second album The Second City, is a catchy soul number with a socially conscious core. “I want people to think about why it is that we treat some people differently to others,” says Shameem about the song. “When they are all equally our human brothers and sisters, no matter where they come from, what colour they are or what they believe.” Catch her neo-soul stylings at The Basement, 9pm. $15 +bf /$12 +bf from trybooking. com/GLNV

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zoe pleasants The CANBERRA MULTICULTURAL FRINGE will be putting up its tent outside The Phoenix Pub on Friday February 13 and camping there for the weekend. It’s a great spot. With easy access to the delicious food on offer at the National Multicultural Festival – also on that weekend – and refreshing beverages from The Phoenix, festival patrons will be well catered for. While organisers are hoping proximity to food and drink will draw more people to the festival, they are planning to keep them there with an outstanding program of diverse music, dance and frivolity. Fringe has a new Artistic Director at its helm, Chenoeh Miller, who has assembled a stellar team to help her raise the bar and show Canberra what its Fringe festival is capable of being. I caught up with Miller and her team for a lively discussion about all things Fringe.

Since its inception it is probably fair to say that Canberra’s Fringe festival has struggled to find its identity. It has been passed between the National Multicultural Festival and the National Folk Festival, frequently moved locations and more than once attracted controversy and the censure of conservative politicians.

“It’s been back and forth, it’s had lots of switches in identity. While the National Multicultural Festival is very strong in the minds of the public, we know what that is, the Fringe is not. People may have heard of it but they don’t really know what it is,” says Miller.

“We’ve got the Olabisi African Dance troupe, Salsabor troupe and Project Beats doing something … [They] are all from Canberra and it just shows the strength and diversity of dance practice happening here,” says Plevey. There will also be ensembles of dancers performing on podiums throughout the festival. “We’ve got six podiums throughout the space, they’ve been purpose built by Boyandgirlco, who make furniture out of pallets. They’ve actually made all the furniture for Fringe which is really cool,” Miller says.

The festival’s music program is also strong. Saturday night sees the likes of the Sanjiva de silva, Thelma Plum and L Fresh the Lion performing. Anna Wallace, the festival’s Event and Artist Logistics Coordinator is super excited about bringing Australian hip hop artist L-Fresh the Lion to Canberra. “He’s amazing – you see him live and you really buy into it, you really get it. He was born in Western Sydney to Indian parents so his music is uniquely Australian but also heavily influenced by the Sikh and Punjabi cultures that his parents came from.” Wallace is also chuffed to have young Indigenous artist, Thelma Plum playing.

“She’s brilliant live – really beautiful, her music is incredible.”

People may have heard of it but they don’t really know what it is

But Miller wants to change all that and show the community just “what interesting, quality, risk-taking arts can be. And we’re just touching on it in this program. We’re not going to go too far leftof-field – we want to ease people into the crazy!” she laughs. “It’s a curated event, so from 4 o’clock each day it’s a show. I’m a theatre director so there’s no way I’m going to put on an act and then have a twenty minute break to set-up for the next one. It’s a beautiful show and everything is back-to-back. That’s why I need [this team] to pull it off.”

The festival will be launched on Friday night at 8pm with a dance piece choreographed by Alison Plevey, the festival’s Dance Programmer. The piece, entitled Refugee, will be performed by an ensemble comprising school kids from Stromlo High, professional dancers and some elderly dances. Miller is deliberately including more dance this year in the Fringe program than previously.

“Up until now the Fringe festival has been really heavy in music, which is fantastic, but I wanted to bring in much more of a dance element,” says Miller. “Obviously dance, like music, is a medium that varies so much from culture to culture.”

To that end, Plevey has organised for professional dance troupes to ‘Hit the floor for Refugees’ and perform short dance pieces throughout the festival. During these performances the audience will be asked to donate money to the Refugee Council of Australia.

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Miller is particularly pleased with the efforts of local musician Alice Cottee to get her band No Hausfrau into the Fringe program. “No Hausfrau is not necessarily culturally diverse,” explained Miller, “but [Cottee] was like ‘well my grandmother is Cornish and Cornish is a dead language, so we might create some songs from the Cornish language specifically for Fringe.’ I was like, ‘yes you will!’” says Miller.

The program also includes spoken word performances by Omar Musa, a writers breakfast on Sunday morning, comedy on Sunday afternoon and slam poetry. Miller is also excited about a photographic exhibition A Song for Country by Liz Thompson, which is on at the Nishi Gallery as part of Fringe. And for those of you wondering where the burlesque is, there is a ticketed event at Smiths Alternative at 7pm on Saturday.

Given the controversy that has surrounded burlesque events in previous years, ArtsACT insisted that burlesque at this year’s Fringe be ticketed. Miller has no problem with this, but she does have an issue with the reaction by some to that burlesque event last year. “I don’t think it was fair on those artists. It’s burlesque, it should be political,” she says. “And in the end, artists across Canberra deserve to have a platform where they can take risks.

It’s certainly the ideal of a Fringe festival.” So grab some meat-ona-stick from the Multicultural Festival, head down to Fringe and support talented, original artists taking risks.

Canberra Multicultural Fringe is on Fri–Sun Feb13–15, outside The Phoenix Pub. #CMFringe

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LOCALITY

One month down already! It seems there’s no time to waste, so let’s get straight into the Canberran music news and such, shall we?

Cub Callaway Band will be launching their new album, The Fall of the Empire, at Smith’s Alternative on Saturday January 31 from 8pm.

Catch some new tunes from a veteran of the Canberra music scene, with support from fellow locals The Feldons and After Hollywood.

Entry is just $10. Canberra Musicians Club is offering up even more local goodness with four of their flagship events on this fortnight.

Bang! Bang! Bang! returns for 2015, ready to expose you to new and blossoming local talent on Thursday January 29 from 7.30pm, with six up-and-comers trying out new stuff in a cosy and friendly environment, with a special guest set from Nick Delatovich. It’ll set you back $5 entry, but a night at of music on Nigel and Beth’s back porch is absolutely priceless, so it’s certainly a good investment. On Monday February 2, CMC will take over The Phoenix for The Bootleg Sessions, with the bill including Matt Lord, Songmen, Alex and Joel and Disco Puppets, all for free (save the donation you’ll chuck in as the hat comes around), kicking off at 8pm. Then on Wednesday January 28, the Smith’s Alternative stage will be full of ladies (and a gent or two), with performances from Fiona Bolton, Night Cafe, Alice Cottee and Emma Dryden from 7.30pm. Entry for that one is $10. Rounding out the fortnight is the Backyard Backanalia on Saturday February 7 from 7pm, also at Nigel and Beth’s Place. That night will feature sets from Kristabelle and the Southern Jubilee Ringers, Julia Johnson, Dylan Hekimian and Autogeist. For more information, including the address for Bang! Bang! Bang! and the Backyard Backanalia, visit canberramusiciansclub.org.au/comingevents. If you’re looking for a little something extra to go with your serve of ACT tunes, get along to RAW: natural born artists on Friday January 30 from 7.30pm. It’s on at the Belconnen Arts Centre and as well as music from Ivory Lights, GhostNoises and Michael Wheatley, you’ll be able to soak up offerings from a range of visual and performing artists from the territory and further afield. Tickets are $20 at the door.

Easily the most interesting Canberra music story of the last few weeks has come from Sophie Chapman, who you may know from various local bands including Glitoris and Brass Knuckle Brass Band. She’s compiled a list of over 200 Canberran acts and analysed the gender breakdown to see how women are represented in our scene, complete with pie charts. There are some pretty stark statistics in there, for example: 67% of Canberra bands and solo artists are entirely dudes. All-female acts only make up 6% of the list, with the remaining 27% being mixed. The main post is incredibly informative, both in terms of numbers and in the way it describes the experience of a female muso in Canberra, with more updates promised. Take a look for yourself on Sophie’s blog: sophieemmachapman.tumblr.com. Finally, remember you can drop me a line with your local gigs and anytime, because we all know Facebook’s algorithm hates us getting in touch: nonijdoll@gmail.

NONI DOLL NONIJDOLL@GMAIL.COM / @NONIJDOLLw

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tatjana clancy It’s 1978. In a sprawling concrete jungle that depicted Manchester’s burgeoning industrial revolution, four young lads start a band called Warsaw after seeing a Sex Pistols gig. They finally settled on the name Joy Division, release just two albums and charge the equivalent of two Australian dollars on the door to perform at a grimy venue near you. Tragedy struck when lead singer Ian Curtis committed suicide the night before they were due to go on their first American tour. The remaining members reemerged as New Order, and 35 years later founding member and bassist PETER HOOK is on the other end of the phone at the end of a long interview train. He must be pretty tired?

where the band had never been. “That’s exactly what Ian would have wanted, he loved the whole rock cliché, travelling troubadour thing, so for me to go to Mexico and The Light play Joy Division live in places he never made it, he would have loved it.” The diversity of his fans also surprises him. “I expected a bunch of fat old blokes like me, but some of the audience were younger than my own children, everyone just goes mental.”

“You’re the sixth person I’ve talked to this morning,” chuckles Hook.

“But I’m okay,truly.” It could go either way, really. He could be bored and recalcitrant or wired and talkative. Luckily BMA got the latter.

Hook’s 21 year-old son Jack plays bass in the band, following an eerily similar timeline to his famous dad. “I do get some really freaky moments, he looks and plays just like me! Hearing my son playing the songs, he’s the same age as when I was playing those records. He’s quite funny when I say ‘you’re playing that wrong son’ and he says ‘No Dad, I’m not’, reminds me of me at that age, when you know everything – the arrogance of youth is fantastic.”

Hook is acutely aware of the indelible mark both his bands have left on the history of modern music; in the case of Joy Division all the more meaningful when you consider the brevity of their career.

“We existed as Joy Division for such a short time, we were only a professional band for six months, if you can call earning 15 pound a week professional. You never really got your proper bite at the cherry.”

Hook makes countless barbs towards ex-bandmate and New Order frontman Bernard Sumner, with an ongoing battle over copyright after the split clearly taking its toll. “These legal proceedings, I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, it’s so stressful and time consuming but I’m not of the ilk that if someone kicks me up the arse I turn the other cheek. I’m fighting for something I believe in.”

Curtis’ death has been highly mythologised over the years, his introspective lyrics resonating with fans in a post-punk era where ‘no future’ was no longer a catchphrase, it now reflected the inner hopelessness being felt by the idle youth in Thatcher’s Britain.

Hook still feels it. “It’s still very much a part of my life, I think of it most days; I actually drove past the cemetery on my way to my daughter’s school this morning.”

Sumner’s autobiography hasn’t impressed him either. ”Harry Potter was more factual on New Order than Bernard’s book was on New Order.

It’s left it wide open for me to write a real book on the band.” At least his name is cited regularly in the index right? “Definitely, I take it as a compliment.”

You can’t teach them what it’s like to deal with a pissed up drug dealer on the dancefloor

DJ, nightclub owner and producer, Hook has worn a number of hats over the years. After an acrimonious split with New Order in 2006, Hook formed PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT, a band that would give him a platform to recreate his earlier work. “I was playing with the band Freebass and that just didn’t work, too many chiefs. I wanted to start a band where the group does what I say, the name came from me finally ‘seeing the light’ and it’s gone from there.”

Mindful of the pitfalls of becoming his own tribute band, Hook’s desire to stay true to the way his music was recorded stems from remembering the hard graft he’d put into them at such a young age. “We worked so hard on those original records; we loved the format of long player. I have the remastered Led Zeppelin 1 on the stereo at the moment, I love turning it over half way through. We played the albums so very little the first time around, 30 years on it’s fucking mad that I didn’t get to play them more.

“It became my gimmick really, celebrating the records and to celebrate the production on them. Joy Division live were very different to the records.”

Hook set out to faithfully recreate the albums on stage, excited to be playing Closer and Unknown Pleasures to captive audiences

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As The Light prepare to tour early New Order records Low Life and Brotherhood, what sort of memories does that invoke? “It was hard watching that joker (Sumner) slaughter my basslines after I left, I feel like I can now do them justice. It was like getting the kids for the weekend in a nasty divorce.”

Currently Hook also acts as a mentor in a music industry course; after witnessing students come through his studio (Suite 16) lacking the practical knowledge to promote a band. “These kids used to come along with a Masters diploma but didn’t have the experience. You can’t teach them what it’s like to deal with a pissed up drug dealer on the dancefloor at one in the morning in a classroom, you can’t show them what it’s like dragging a girl out of a toilet, sort out a guy at the door. I thought, hey I have a club (FAC 51) and a group, let’s throw the kids in at midnight when everyone’s off their trolley and see how they go.”

Did he play the part of the drug dealer?

“There are plenty of drug dealers unfortunately who can play their own bloody part.

“I’ll be tucked up in bed with my two dogs to guard me.”

Peter Hook and The Light play Sydney’s Metro Theatre on Feb 17. $70 via Ticketek.com

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cody atkinson A couple of months ago Questioning looked at Cat Hip Hop. Somehow, this article is more pointless. Read at your own risk.

So about that Taylor Swift for Hottest 100 thing...

Is that what we’re doing this week? Hasn’t it already happened?

Yeah, but people are so interested...

Which is why everyone else has already written about it. Surely the greater debate doesn’t need 1,000 more ill-thought out words from some hack in Canberra?

Nope, turns out that anyone with a keyboard, a vague interest in music and an access to column inches must write about #tayforhottest100.

Played out? It was a genius troll...

Oh what internet japes! It’s been done before. Many times before.

Remember Salmon Hater, the joke band inspired by Adam and Wil on JJJ Breakfast, which lobbed up to number 26 on the count? Or the time that Chris and Craig on TodayToday tried to get the Media Watch theme to a top ten spot (and got it voted to number seven)?

This is a less successful version of those things. Congratulations.

But those were inside jobs. This time they were targeting the hipsters who say they are too good for Taylor.

How many hipsters actually listen to triple j?

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK. So those Taylor Swift fans, hey?

But how about those hilarious BuzzFeed guys who started the campaign? Good on them. They’ve subverted the traditional media cycle to get press for a played out idea.

How many hipsters actually listen to triple j?

Can’t I talk about how Peking Duk, a Canberra band, reached number one in the Hottest 100? (Note: this column was submitted before the Hottest 100, but published after) A Canberra band getting respect from the rest of the country, with a song (‘High’) sung solely by a young female singer (Nicole Millar)?

Nah, this is about Taylor Swift... Or that they had another track in the top five, featuring another very talented Canberra band (SAFIA)? Can’t I talk about the fact that the listeners of triple j nationwide recognised the efforts of independent Canberran music, with strong female (and male) voices?

Speaking of female voices, Taylor Swift is one of those!

YOU ARE FACTUALLY CORRECT! But why are we talking about one female voice when we can talk about the systematic problem with female representation in the entire industry? From the grass roots to community radio to public radio to commercial radio to the charts, to the managerial make up of big and small record labels to even music critics, females are grossly under-represented in the music industry.

Community radio tends to be a bit more pro-active than triple j, which tends to do better than commercial radio, but the differences are pretty marginal at times. But when only 32% of performers of live music in Australia are female, it is very hard to right that inherent bias. triple j does appear to make an effort, at least at the top end of their rotation and plays a wide variety of music played by female musicians across a wide range of genres. I mean, triple j was the first Australian pop/rock station to even hire female voices to be on air. But they (even as they admit) could still do better.

So playing Taylor Swift will surely help that? One song by a female singer (that was co-written, performed and produced by two dudes) being played once on air isn’t going to change decades of gender bias in the industry. Working out how to keep more young women encouraged in the music scene (the gap appears to occur in involvement in music post-schooling) is a far more important thing to worry about.

Fuckloads I’d guess. All wearing flanno shirts and oversized glasses and riding fixies, brah.

BREAKING: The most successful areas for triple j are in rural and regional Australia and economically depressed metropolitan areas.

The major hipster hotspots, Sydney and Melbourne, have significantly lower listenership levels. Hipsters don’t give a fuck about triple j – they’re either listening to community radio or Spotify (note: generalisation). This isn’t teaching hipsters a lesson, because most of them don’t care about triple j. They’re just telling kids who vote that their taste in music is shit. Again, congratulations.

But the Hottest 100 is for all Australians... Stop. The Hottest 100 is a poll of triple j listeners of their favourite songs of the year. Only about 150,000 people vote, a fraction of the triple j audience. If you don’t listen to triple j, why the fuck are you voting in the Hottest 100?

I don’t listen to 4ZZZ anymore, so I don’t vote in the Hot 100. I’m a Vego, so I don’t vote for the Great Aussie Meat Pie. But why wasn’t Taylor played on triple j anyway? triple j was established to be a radio station for young people with an alternative, Australian focus. It brought countless new and emerging genres of music to Australia, from dub to hip hop to grunge. At the start staff were told to provide an alternative to the mainstream and it largely mined songs not deemed fit for play on commercial radio during the Catholic radio monopoly of the time.

Otherwise, there would have been no reason for its establishment.

Since then, triple j has broken new and emerging talent, largely Australian talent. Some of these artists have become commercially successful, but triple j shouldn’t be forced to stop playing artists that it helped expose. That would be akin to penalising the music directors for being too good at their jobs. Playing a song by Taylor Swift won’t change that mission, but it also won’t help them achieve it.

So what about the potential impact of #tayforhottest100? If ‘Shake It Off’ does make the list, it won’t be the end of triple j as we know it. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t mean that no-one cares about her.

She still sold 350,000 odd copies of ‘Shake It Off’, which is more than double the number of people who even voted in the Hottest 100.

Ultimately, who the fuck cares?

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ALLAN SKO Ignoring that questionable Sooty-referencing headline is easy when you have a man of EDDIE IZZARD’s immeasurable and varied talent to talk about. Responsible for giving us some of comedy’s great moments (Cake or Death, Engelbert Humperdinck Dead or Not, British Movies vs American Movies), working alongside the world’s great thespians in film and TV, the man is now frankly showing off by releasing a comedy DVD in a different language.

“I was in Paris for the premiere of [new show] Force Majeure (which, translated, means Using Force With Margarine*) tout en français,” he chirps, in that o-so familiar voice of his. “I released my DVD in French on the Tuesday morning so I was very proud of that. It was very terrifying in the beginning. But my confidence is ridiculously high now.”

Over the years I have developed a better sense and now I’m really happy… I knew before I started I shouldn’t do “ACTING!” I knew that was wrong. Jack Lemmon had been told by Billy Wilder, “do less, do less, do less” and I’ve seen the first film he did and he’s definitely “ACTING!” his socks off. So I knew not to do that. The first five projects I did are not good. I was doing nothing. I wasn’t over-the-top, I wasn’t flexing my comedy muscles. But I wasn’t doing anything. I was reading the lines with no intention. No backstory. I was more like a wet fish.

“Normally people that go to the top of the comedy mountain and stay at the top become “comedic” actors. But some people jump across. Pete Sellers and Bill Murray have been successful at doing that. Bill should have been Oscar nominated for Hyde Park on Hudson, but people didn’t quite get it. So you have to win the critics from the drama side and so that’s why I’m very pleased.

Critics [like The Daily Mail and The Guardian] have said this is good work so it’s slowly, slowly catching on.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly - considering Izzard is the thinking person’s comedian - he has a philosophical approach to recording comedy in other languages. “Doing it in French and touring in French is good business sense,” he says. “I’m developing I thought I was a whole country I play in. But it’s also a wonderful thing. To tour in France, in French, pretty damn good it’s beautiful. And now French performers at table football. are performing in English. We used to kill But he beat me! So each other. And now we’re performing in I need a rematch each other’s languages. And the Germans with George are doing it, the Russians are doing it, the Italians are doing it… The third millennium Clooney. has arrived.

“I have a theory that there is no difference in what people laugh at in different countries,” he continues. “There is no British, Australian, French, German or Russian sense of humour. But there are mainstream comedians in every country, and more alternative, progressive comedians. The mainstream ones will reference sport stars, people on the telly, politicians and standardised jokes. The alternatives are on a second level so that you really have to know your comedy; like alternative musicians, they’re not doing standard and melodic progressions. So when I play to that audience in Canberra, Sydney, Boston, Istanbul they all get it because they’re all progressive audiences, they’re open-minded. “[For example], I started talking about human sacrifices being close to fascism where someone back then said, “Hey the crops have failed, the weather’s pretty bad, the Gods must hate us, let’s kill Steve, that’ll fix it.” Why kill Steve? Surely the Gods are going to be pissed off that you killed Steve. But we did centuries of murdering because some fucker invented it years ago. But the Gods never did – because, well, I don’t think there are any - and I don’t think they would want to kill Steve. So I find that fascinating.”

Izzard will be bringing his unique brand of stand-up to Canberra on February 7, which will mark his 53rd birthday. But with a hobby of seeing how many careers he can fit into one lifetime, Izzard has made significant inroads into his acting along the way.

“It’s wonderful sparring with these great actors,” he says, of working on TV series Hannibal and the Oceans films. “I wanted to do dramatic work, but didn’t know what I was doing back then.

With Izzard humbly saying he’s “doing better work” I ask who of the acting world he would most like to work with.

“Oh, I’d love to work with Cate Blanchett,” he says without missing a beat. “The ‘well known French actress’ as I call her. But she probably doesn’t even know I exist.

“I want to work with great people,” he continues. “People who push back against you and you’re sparring with. Working on the Oceans movies was great; a lot of people there are very good at their craft... George Clooney is who people would most like to know about; is he like he seems he is. And he is! He’s a really decent guy. He’s also annoyingly good at table football. I thought I was pretty damn good at table football. But he beat me! So I need a rematch with George Clooney.”

Not content with swimming in all this success and achievement, Izzard is set to turn his manicured hand to the world of politics, running as a Labour candidate in the UK in 2020.

“The key, though, is to get voted in the second time,” he says. “I can see people going, “Hey this will be fun, he does some comedy stuff!” If you get voted in a second time with a decent vote then it will be, “Oh, well he has done some proper work,” and that’s the most important part.”

Back in 2009 Izzard completed an astonishing 43 marathons in 51 days. With his Force Majeure tour he’s going for a marathon record of another nature.

“By the time I get to New Zealand I’d have been to 27 countries. I’m trying for the world record. But I’ve played Canberra once before and I remember the audience! They were a really positive crowd.”

Eddie Izzard and his Force Majeure tour hits Llewellyn Hall on Saturday February 7. Tix are selling fast (they all say that, but they really are, I checked) and cost $91.65 from Ticketek. *no, it doesn’t, but this an article on a respected comedian so it needs at least one aside

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the year. Head on down to Transit Bar on Saturday February 14 to snatch at the air and grab yourself some walking around money.

DANCE THE DROP

The outpouring of positive commentary following the demise of a person or place is almost part of the humanitarian zeitgeist – we do it just because that’s what we do. When Johnny dies, we don’t post about that time he defecated on a homeless man, or how he had a sneakily disguised ISIS flag tattooed on his left buttock, we remember him as a ‘hero’ and a ‘great man’. It is just what we do.

Similarly when a hospitalised venue has its plug pulled from the wall, we instantly scan our mental rolodex for memories of the few perfect nights we spent inside it – and let’s be honest, for most of us it was barely a handful. Over the past few months we have lost some of our biggest night clubs, most recently Meche and the reportedly soon to follow Trinity Bar.

I’ve always been a big fan of Dutchman Funkerman and his latest sample-heavy release ‘Coming Home’ is another winner. The man with the best moustache and shoes in Sydney, Danny T has just dropped his Let Me Go EP which, ironically, I won’t be letting go for some time because it’s really great. If you love a good banger, FTAMPA and Felguk’s ‘Slap’ is going to cause a tingle in your junk region. triple j’s hottest 100 voting is well underway and there have been some stellar dance releases this year. Love it or hate it you have to admit that Peking Duk’s ‘High’ deserves to feature very ‘high’ up the list. Let’s show these Canberra natives some love and swing a vote their way, eh?

TIM GALVIN tim.galvin@live.com.au

The feeling we get when we stroll past these places, past the boarded up windows and silent walls covered in real estate agents mobile phone numbers is one of sadness and loss – but we have no right to feel that way.

Where were we when these venues were still alive, still grasping for punters like a Hungry Hungry Hippo or strip club bouncer. We stayed away.

Clubs need money to survive, that means turning up and supporting them. Where were we when they really needed us? The ‘She’ll be right mate’ mentality doesn’t exist in a capitalist business model – if you enjoy something, help to keep it breathing.

We are all tasked with becoming promoters for our favourite venues, get your friends amped up, make it a regular spot for your weekly self-medication. Posthumous grief does little more than highlight the hypocrisy of the problem. We only have a few options left for quality night time tunes, let’s not lose another one shall we?

The Trinity Bar news means that the Hard Envy gig scheduled for Saturday January 31 will need to be moved, so keep your eyes stapled to their Facebook page for more details.

I like to think that Dom Dolla got his name at a strip club. I can imagine him walking into a titty bar with a pillowcase full of lowest denomination American currency and making it rain over anyone who gave him the slightest sideways glance – but I can only speculate. The Melburnian house maker is headlining Thank You Ma’am’s first show of

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carrie gibson While Australians were preparing for umbrella drinks, Christmas hams and the annual blood bath at the mall, EXODUS wrapped up a string of shows on the west coast during December 2014 and have been taking advantage of sweet, sweet home life right before they tear up the road once again with their latest release Blood In, Blood Out. The album marks the tenth studio release by the Bay Area legends featuring a rather rapid return of former vocalist Steve Souza.

They’ve been added to the Soundwave lineup and the general consensus on Exodus’ announcement for the festival has been the transformation of grown men to fourteen year old fan girls – and rightly so. As I caught up with Souza amidst his Christmas holiday break we discussed his whirlwind return, the superiority of weed in San Francisco and the three stages of a metalheads’ career.

“We’re glad everyone is excited to see us at Soundwave because we are very excited to play,” Souza exclaims. “The last time Exodus were in Australia I wasn’t back in the band, so I can confirm that the band will be playing a lot of the old catalogue and have it sound exactly like they were written and recorded. It will be a bevy of Exodus!”

Blood In, Blood Out is your first record back with the band after a ten year hiatus, how does it feel to be back?

each other. If you look at it, we’re all intertwined with one another, check out the time lines. Our history is very solid.”

Like many thrash bands, Exodus have a large demographic of fans spanning over several generations which is a massive feat in itself.

Where would you place Exodus in the metal history books?

“You have to put Exodus and thrash bands alike into the thrash legends category, it was described to us like this; there are three categories – rock stars, has beens, legends. So we’ve done the rock star, we’ve done the ‘has been’ and now we’re legends,” Souza laughs.

Having left Exodus in 2004, what was catalyst behind your decision to return and was it easy enough for you to fall back into your groove?

“Well, the timing was right. Back in 2004 I had a little kid, I was trying to support a family – now I don’t have any ties, my kids are grown, I’m no longer married, I have no distractions anymore. I had to put my family first. Right now I have an amazing girlfriend who supports me and loves the business, so having a great support system is essential. I’m already grooving. It’s Exodus, I know the MO, I know the drill.”

So we’ve done the rock star, we’ve done the ‘has been’ and now we’re legends

“It is exciting,” says Souza. “Everything is getting right back into form.”

Reviewers are eating the album up and have locked themselves on Souza’s return. Immeasurable is the word that comes to mind when describing Souza’s zeal to hit the studio. That and rapid – very, very rapid.

Gary Holt has had a large role in Slayer for the past few years – are you able to comment if that has had any effect on Exodus at all?

“I think if anything it has helped the band, Slayer creates a whole other audience for us.”

It’s not uncommon to head to a Slayer concert and 50% of fans are there to see Gary Holt alone – I’ll admit it, I’ve done it.

“It all happened so quick,” he says. “I didn’t have much time to think about it. I joined the band on a Friday, the world found out on the Sunday and by Wednesday I was in the studio recording Blood In, Blood Out so I had no time to relish in it at all. I had to learn lyrics, learn songs, it was intense. I had a good time though, I like recording, creating a final product is the ultimate satisfaction for a musician.”

“That wouldn’t surprise me. He is an amazing guitar player – I don’t think Jeff Hanneman [Slayer] would have picked him personally if he wasn’t the real deal. I’ve known Gary Holt on and off for the past 30 years and I can guarantee that he is the real fucking deal.”

The Bay Area Thrash scene is the longest running consecutive genre in metal what has it been that has kept it so strong for so long?

“After Australia we go everywhere. We had a band meeting today with management and it’s just going to be...” he exhales loudly...

“I dunno. Is it the water?” says Souza.

“It must be in the water… And in the weed. I’m going to blame it on the weed. We have some of the best weed – it just helps you focus, which sounds good to me. Seriously though, all the bands that represent this genre are all still hungry for this and they’re all still bringing out fantastic music and we have always supported

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In regards to touring, I know you mentioned you’ve just wrapped one up but what are plans to further promote Blood In, Blood Out?

“Everywhere. Japan, Europe, the States... Heading back to South America also, somewhere in there, so there is a lot coming and a lot going on. Soundwave is going to be brilliant and we are so keen to get back down there in Aussie land!” He says, in the worst Australian accent.

Exodus is hitting up day two of the Soundwave festival on Sunday March 1 at Sydney’s Olympic Park. $188 +bf for weekend pass or $132 +bf for a day pass via soundwavefestival.com/tickets.

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METALISE Psycroptic had a relatively, by their standards, quiet 2014 but are not intending on repeating that in 2015. The band are undertaking a 12 show national tour with New Orleans’ black metal kings Goatwhore coming out for their third visit to Australia and for the whole tour to boot. Depending on what region of the country the tour hits you’ll also be treated to Australian supports like Aversions Crown and Earthrot but here in Canberra you can catch Whoretopsy and Ouroboros. Yes, you read it right – no travelling to Sydney required for this one, you need only get yourself to the Basement in Belconnen on Wednesday March 25 to experience an evening of world class extreme sounds.

This Saturday, Goatwhores’ fellow NOLA icons Eyehategod are at the Manning Bar Saturday January 31 with locals I Exist and Sydney siders Lo! Since they last visited Australia, the band went into the studio and recorded their fifth studio album with a number of engineers including Billy Anderson and Philip H Anselmo. Following a tour of Europe, the band suffered a deeply heavy blow with the death of founding member, drummer Joey Lacaze, who suddenly passed away in late 2013 from respiratory failure at only 42 years of age. They appeared on the acclaimed New Orleans set TV series Treme and the self-titled album was released in May of last year.

The album made its way onto a great deal of 2014’s top ten lists and received rave reviews. A typical quote came from Canberra metal

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blogger Andrew Dykes of Cacophemisms, “Fantastic comeback considering their loss. Never released a bad album.” Following a disappointing failure to launch tour at the beginning of last year, it’s awesome to have the band back for four dates including two shows in a day in Melbourne on Friday January 30. A must see live experience for fans of sludgey doom metal.

[Editor’s note: bad news, metal fans – eyehategod have cancelled their tour due to health reasons].

Saturday February 7 sees Melbourne doom metal legends Inverloch coming to town for a show at the Transit Bar in the city with four great supports including Okera, The Veil, Los Hombres Del Diablo and Tranquil Deception. Inverloch may not ring any bells for you, but they’re formed from the members half of Melbourne’s legendary dISEMBOWELLMENT and are overtly carrying that torch of that legacy through the music of Inverloch. Their debut mini LP d.USK… Subside (check it on bandcamp) should indicate to long time “.d” fans of the obvious connective tissue between the two bands. The original incarnation never played live and this version of the band that formed in around 2010 under the name .dUSK and evolved to carve its own identity into the legacy whilst maintaining the elements that made the original act so magical. It’s going to be a great show.

While on the subject of Melbourne metal icons, Blood Duster are suspending their semi-retirement with a show at the Factory Theatre in Sydney on Friday February 6. Thrash metal band Bastardizer who put a great record a year back entitled Enforcers of Evil, doomsters Summonus and fellow grindcore folks and fantastically named Fat Guy Wears Mystic Wolf. 20 bucks for the show.

JOSH NIXON doomtildeath@hotmail.com

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Colours, New Age Group and Thunderbolt City. Tickets for this one will be just $10 on the door.

Sydney’s Oslow and Brisbane’s Seahorse Divorce are headed out on an East Coast tour in February which includes a stop by The Phoenix on Monday February 9 with support from Sydney’s Agency and Canberra’s very own Oxen.

Hey, how’ve you been? I hope you had a good Australia Day. How about that Taylor Swift though? Isn’t she great/disgusting? Yeah, I totally agree. Anyway, here are some punk shows.

On Friday February 6 you can catch Celtic punk act The Rumjacks at Transit Bar. They’ll be supported by local acts Revellers and The Crossbones. Tickets are set at $12+bf and are available through Moshtix.

Newcastle’s The Gooch Palms are headed back through Canberra on Saturday February 7. They’ll be at The Phoenix with support from TV

If you’re in the mood for something edgier you can check out Newcastle hardcore bands Disparo and Deathframes at the Magpies City Club, also on Monday February 9 with support from Foreign Kings and Fight Milk, all for just $8 on the door.

On Wednesday February 11, punk legend CJ Ramone will be stopping by Transit Bar as part of his Australian tour, playing some compulsory Ramones hits along with work from his own new album Last Chance to Dance. He’ll be supported by The Hardons and locals No Assumption. Tickets for this one are set at $34.70 through Oztix.

If you missed Melbourne’s The Smith Street Band last November, you can catch up on Sunday February 15 when they stop by the Magpies City Club as part of their ‘Get High, See Everyone Tour.’

They’ll be joined by Canada’s PUP, The UK’s Great Cynics and Melbourne pals Apart From This.

This will be The Smith Street Band’s first ever all ages show in Canberra and you can grab tickets for $34.70 through Oztix.

If you’re not folk-punked out by the Smith Street Band, then you can catch Melbourne’s Maricopa Wells along with Lucy Wilson & The Sugarcanes at The Phoenix on Thursday February 19. They’ll be supported by Swoon Queen and Bo Loserr. The show will cost you just $5 on the door.

Melbourne’s Clowns are headed to Transit Bar on Monday February 26 as part of their ‘Bad Blood Tour.’ They’ll be supported by the USA’s American Sharks and a local act TBA. On Monday February 26 you can also catch Sydney’s Zeahorse at The Phoenix along with locals Primary Colours and Sydney’s Agency.

And as always, Haircuts & T-shirts is on Punk Rock Radio with a new show airing at different times throughout the week giving you the best mix of local and international punk/hardcore music and news. For more info, head to punkrockradio.net.

Anyway, yeah. Great. Good chat. I guess I’ll see you around

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IAN McCARTHY / PUNK.BMA@ GMAIL.COM

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carrie gibson “Two marriages, three kids, three records, a book six years in the making, a couple thousand miles on my motorbike and touring anywhere that’ll have me,” was the answer C.J. RAMONE spewed out of his life since The Ramones.

The Ramones left an everlasting footprint on decades of young aspiring rebels – a voice of a generation, the birth of punk, an institution. I could go on and on. However in light of all this the retirement of The Ramones also opened the door to a lot of negative press according to former bass player CJ – books and movies depicted the band in a less than decent light.

CJ’s mission after the retirement of The Ramones was to shift the negative and refocus everyone’s attention on the facts that made his band one of the best out there.

so people would understand where I came from and why am the way I am. Hell of a lot more interesting than other shit slinging slanderous tripe about what bad guys the rest of the band was.”

CJ anticipates the memoir to be finalised and published by the end of 2015 if not early 2016.

CJ’s latest release Last Chance to Dance is a culmination of, well, every culmination he had on stage throughout his career.

I don’t think I’m difficult to work with, but I don’t take any shit either

““Last chance to dance!’ I would always say it before the last song of the set each night.”

Like all his projects CJ holds honesty and hard work as the fundamentals for making a great album – values he also hopes to instil and use to inspire young kids to get back to the roots of punk rock and (in his own words) kick off a new punk rock revolution.

“Originally my mission was to remind everyone of what made The Ramones great,” he says. “Now I’m just trying to keep the legacy alive by doing my own records which of course carries the spirit of The Ramones.”

Although his solo debut Reconquista reflected a dark time for CJ, Last Chance To Dance was written while happy in his element: whilst on tour.

CJ had been part of several projects after the end of The Ramones and when we got to discussing the catalyst behind going solo, he explains that it was difficult to hold onto band members.

“One thing I’ve learned from being a Ramones fan and playing in the band is that there is room for all the emotions on a record.

It doesn’t have to be all angry, all happy, all romantic, or all melancholy,” he says.

“I tried to do bands, but it just never worked out,” he says. “So eventually I just went to the solo thing. I don’t think I’m difficult to work with, but I don’t take any shit either.”

Punk is certainly a sub breed of what it once was. Some saying that punk rock died with The Ramones – these major changes have not gone unnoticed by those who helped create the movement.

“The most important thing I noticed is a complete lack of emotional depth,” CJ says with conviction. “It’s hard to write something that means anything if you haven’t suffered at some point in your life. I know for my kids, suffering is if they don’t have Wi-Fi on their phones and they can’t text their friends every two seconds. At 17, my son is much less experienced in the world than I was. I think he’s pretty typical of most kids these days. That’s what’s really missing from music now. We’ve traded hard learned lessons and wisdom for being clever. Cleverness is boring.”

I understand you are writing a memoir? “I have been working on it for six years now – I’m a horrible self editor and work very slowly but it is my entire life up until The Ramones retirement,” says CJ. “Everything from my childhood all the way through to the last Ramones show. I thought it was important to put it all in just

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“So I guess at the root of it all, it is the entire emotional spectrum.

I try to be honest in what I say, how I say it and how I play it.”

CJ has forty years of influential music under his belt and to this day still carries the torch for the old classics the highest.

“My musical tastes have probably broadened a bit, but I still listen to all the stuff I listen to as a kid and then some.”

Honesty is always the best policy and CJ advises we can expect a rock solid show when CJ hits Australia, with a bunch of favourites from The Ramones included in his set list.

“I don’t care if it’s 20, 200, 2000 or 20,000 people we give the same energy in each show every night,” he says.

“I’ve got Steve Soto and Dan Root from the Adolescents coming out with me, as well as Pete Sosa from the Street Dogs so you can expect a decent show. I’ve got nothing but good memories from Australia and I expect there’ll be a few more before I leave.”

Grab the safety pins and catch CJ Ramone at Transit Bar on Wednesday 11 February. Support from Hard-Ons and No Assumption. $34.70 from oztix.

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E X H I B I T I O N I S T Image by Peter Gannushkin

ARTS | ACT

SOUND AS EVER BAZ RUDDICK As Canberrans return to their beloved land after a heat driven exodus, Richard Johnson is hard at work curating and setting up for the annual SOUNDOUT festival. Showcasing the best free jazz and improv musicians from at home and abroad, Johnson has selected a diverse and interesting array of improv and free jazz musicians in an effort to give punters an unexpected and unusual musical landscape.

Taking place in ANU’s Drill Hall, SoundOut will move musical mountains to shape and engage your auditory soul.

Relying on artsACT funding, the very nature of SoundOut has been touch and go. Not knowing if he was actually receiving a grant until December 19, the scale of SoundOut had a big fat question mark next to it for a longer period of time than was comfortable. Luckily for the cultural landscape of the ACT, the grant came through.

A jazz musician himself, part of Johnson’s purpose in creating SoundOut was to expand the notions of what is possible in the world of improv and collaboration amongst musicians. “My approach is to broaden people’s perceptions as to what is possible in all the forms of the genre,” says Johnson. “I wanted to bring people together to make them realise that their collaborative base is much bigger than they think. The dialogue between people coming together from different areas and trying to produce something new in the process is a very special thing.”

A platform for free jazz and improvisation, a festival like SoundOut might initially scare off your average festival attendee with the threat of being pretentious and exclusive. However, with a price tag of $35, SoundOut welcomes anyone with an open mind and a desire to see something new.

From a huge bill of musicians, Johnson highlights a few who he recommends festival goers pay special attention to. Hailing from Norway, Frode Gjerstad forms a trio with drummer’s drummer, Paal Nilssen-Love and world accomplished bassist Jon Rune Strome, to showcase free jazz at its finest. Minimal electro acoustics will be ‘deconstructed’ for our listening pleasure by Austrian man, Klaus

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Filip as he processes minute sinus-waves piece by piece. From New Zealand, Avant-garde pianist Hermione Johnson improvs with an energy that has been describes as ‘tonal whirlwinds’, while Swiss writer/musician, Jason Kahn tests perceptions of music through percussive improv and the electronic interpretation of ‘graphical scores’. Minimal outfit, Great Waitress trio – featuring Meredith Maloney on piano, Laura Altman on clarinet and Monika Brooks on accordion – play with a subtlety and delicacy that evokes ideas about the amplification and physicality of instruments. Featuring among the plethora of great performers will be Johnson’s very own wind trio, Psithurism, featuring John Porter and Rhys Butler.

Johnson assures he doesn’t curate his musical festival for ‘palatability’, but rather for the various ways he can challenge his musicians into getting the most unique and unusual sounds from their show. “I tend to focus more on how I can challenge the musicians I am curating together before the musical aesthetics – how they will play together and what that may or may not produce,” he says. “I try and give as much diversity in that regards and then I think of the festival in other ways. Ultimately I need to have aesthetics in mind when I am producing something in an artistic sort of way, so I guess it is all encompassing.”

Playing in four separate sessions and totaling sixteen hours over two days, Johnson doesn’t go easy on his musicians. “We have made it relatively intense in terms of time,” he says. “It has to do with the economy of time and the economy of finances, mainly.” Inadvertently this ‘intensity’ yields interesting results amongst his musicians.

“It has pros and cons. It can be wearing on musicians and the work-a-day ethic approach, but overall it forces musicians to push themselves in ways they may not naturally go.

The four sessions of SoundOut will take place on Saturday January 31 and Sunday February 1 at ANU’s Drill Hall. Tickets $35 can be purchased at the door.

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IN REVIEW Dancing for the Gods The Playhouse Thursday January 15

Dancing for the Gods has a second title, Devánjali: Ritual—Rites— Reflection, and it is this alternative title, the thread of spiritual sophistication, that underlies and makes sense of the order of the performance pieces in the entire work, progressing from dance ritual to dance rites to dance in reflection. Appreciation of dance arises, I suppose, partly from knowledge of its meaning; partly from appreciation of the athleticism, precision, and coordination of the movements; partly from the purely aesthetic effect arising from all of these things in combination with suppleness, grace, creative choreography, the music, and the set.

Though offstage introductions helped us understand the work’s general direction — the final dances, for instance, expressing the possibility of simultaneously mourning loss and celebrating life — the meaning of the dancing and drumming was not otherwise apparent; so the performance did depend heavily on its purely aesthetic appeal. Due largely to the way in which intelligent programming had the work progress from the quietest, most straightforward of the dances to the most intense, challenging, and intricate, the company had me engaged from the work’s third piece. And the lighting and stage props gradually increased the programme’s drama as the work progressed. The pieces toward the

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end were illuminated to rich perfection, with beautifully highlighted dancing shapes standing out against a background of a blackness I’ve never before encountered in the theatre; and the flames and dramatic lights made of that blackness a jungle dark against which richly costumed bodies used rhythmic movement to speak to gods, life, and themselves. All in all, the performance, emphasising our tribal heritage and the larger planetary dance we forget we’re part of, was a photographer’s dream. Perfecting this visual feast were a consistent control of space — between the drummers, and between the dancers — even with their backs turned to one another; and the dancers’ uncanny synchronicity.

There were many, many moments in which to appreciate the visual balance of shapes, of light and dark. As well, the drumming pieces had a rhythmic complexity beyond anything I’ve heard in the western musical canon. Sometimes, it was a slow three-beat time signature; frequently, though, without uncertainty or unintentional looseness, the time signature was beyond all reckoning. The four drummers’ notes, frequently syncopated, rarely mistimed even in the least, were generally perfect despite the unpredictability to this western listener of notes that paused or leapt by small fractions of what to my ear was a beat. To attend was to undergo sudden immersion in a culture of gods, morals, and connections, something like an unprepared holiday in an entirely new land in which communication had to be other than by common culture. The immersion experience was as educational and as enriching as such immersions generally are. All I lack are the photographs to document it. john p. harvey

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A R T | C O M E DY | D A N C E | L I T E R AT U R E | T H E AT R E

it’s sweaty and there are usually tears. It’s also time consuming and it ain’t cheap. Studio hire, materials, production costs, gallery fees and an enormous HECs/HELP debt are just a few financial obstacles waiting to be tackled.

NEW BLOOD SAMUEL TOWNSEND I remember a friend, who was a second year Arts Law student at the time, rolling his eyes at me as I submitted an essay, which I had labored over for weeks. To him, my studies at the School of Art were self-indulgent and nonsensical. To me, they were just indulgent.

My friend, like many before and since, had a romanticized vision of the ‘artist’; a solo creator bathed in the dappled light of a studio, ruminating on ideas at a leisurely pace whilst twisting the top off another boutique brew. Bollocks. Mostly.

The art world is about as romantic as coming into contact with a wayward Band-Aid at your local pool. It can be harsh, cruel and relentlessly unkind. And that’s for the few artists who are already established and making a living from their practice. Remember, you are only as good as your last show and your 15 minutes starts now!

Like a swan gliding across glassy waters, (most) artists are working tirelessly behind the scenes to get things happening. It’s bloody and

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In 2014, M16 Artspace generously initiated a valuable opportunity for local artists and curators, named the EMERGING EXHIBITION PRIZE (EEP!). EEP! Is now in its second year and the team at M16 are again looking for emerging artists and curators who are keen to develop and present exhibitions in 2015. This prize adds to the already extensive support that M16 provides to emerging artists in Canberra. The winners of the prize will receive broad program marketing, mentoring, professional development and networking opportunities with M16 staff, exhibitors and studio artists within the M16 Artspace community. Last year’s winners included curator Ellen V Wignell, whose exhibition, In Translation, featured the work of Kelly Hayes, Yasmin Masri and Jemima Parker. In Gallery 2, installation artist Oscar Capezio’s debuted his video piece, WORKING TITLE. This January will see Kelly Hayes returning with her solo exhibition, Beauty in Motion, featuring new paintings that are designed around the study of nature, botanical paintings and drawings – evidence of a working relationship that was no doubt fostered during last year’s EEP! experience. So, when EEP! officially opens on Thursday May 28 and you’re scanning the catalogue for prices, don’t roll your eyes and choke on your Camembert and cracker. Instead, think of the swan and appreciate the blood, sweat and tears. And before you turn to your buddies studying Arts Law and remark, “I could have done that!” just remember, you didn’t. But you could…

Applications for EEP! are due by Monday February 9, with winners notified on Monday February 16. For further details, head to m16artspace.com.au

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brother doesn’t read a thing.” To which the other twin said, “But NOONE reads.”

UNINHIBITED It’s one of modern life’s big traps, isn’t it? Finding yourself on the couch with an iPad in your lap and clicking from this to that to some other thing. What is it we’re looking for when we’re stuck in this internet rut? A kind of gold? Wisdom? Recently, despite it sounding like the name you’d give to a second-tier sci-fi character, or the nickname of a particularly nerdy private-school friend, I’ve found – or lost – myself in the company of folk who seem to want to share every single detail of their lives with the world via YouTube: vloggers.

I’ve watched one young guy talk about how he takes fifteen minutes to shower “which includes a poop”. I’ve watched another bloke as he played “practical jokes” on his mate. And then I numbly stumbled on twin American brothers while they put their father on speakerphone and proceeded to bawl their way through their dual comingout. To be fair it was pretty moving, but it was also emotionally gratuitous – it was no different to those couples who have a barny at the bus-stop.

Who were these brothers? Soon I was watching the pair’s first video, during which they informed their viewers that were shifting from one city to another and this would be the adventure of their lives and they just had to share it with “you all”. By way of introducing themselves, one brother said, “We are twins, but there are differences. I like chilling out on the couch with a book, but my

And that was enough for me. I clicked out of YouTube and threw the iPad in the top of the cupboard in the spare room. For a start, statistics reveal that in Australia one in every two adults is a regular reader of fiction. Yes, we could take a glass-half-empty approach to this, but let’s stay positive. Further, I can’t imagine my life without fiction. I love my CD collection and I adore my groaning shelf of records. Music gives me great joy and, sometimes, okay often, delicious misery. But in a world where we are bombarded with information 24/7, with much of it being bollocks to the extreme, there’s nothing more productive than spending hours in the company of a master storyteller/wordsmith.

But what, you say, is the point when we have the magic of movies and video-game immersion? The point is that reading, especially reading fiction, is about stillness and expansion. It gives us the opportunity to spend time within the skin of other people, potentially in other countries and in other times, in situations we could never ourselves imagine. A good reading experience rearranges us, probably at the atomic level. When we read a novel like the Man Booker Prize-winning The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Tasmania’s Richard Flanagan, we become a different person and a better person. We’re taken out of ourselves, we’re sent on an unholy experience. It’s an extraordinary activity, miraculous, unfathomable even.

As to the vacuous vloggers? Well, they can do their thing; they’re not hurting anyone (probably). But I know what I’d rather be doing.

So I’m off to dive into the nearest novel.

I will be some time.

NIGEL FEATHERSTONE

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A R T | C O M E DY | D A N C E | L I T E R AT U R E | T H E AT R E

ARTISTPROFILE: byrd and Hoon

What do you do? Hoon is a sculptor and performance artist. byrd is a sculptor, graffiti muralist and painter both exhibiting nationally and abroad. Together we focus on collaborations and Canberra as our live-and-show-in art-space.

When, how and why did you get into it? Too long to tell. Hoon: previously Euro/Asia centric; b’s previous disdain for art centres manifested in collecting road-kill along rural highways (not really objects for a gallery) – but both now feeling the local. Both have always been makers with pretty different pathways, but have always managed to have a practice next to other commitments.

Who or what influences you as an artist? Ethical behaviour, human foibles, historied spaces, otherness, where-is-centre-where-isperiphery in the art world, playing-improvisation-recycling as a practice, collaborations, thinkers, tinkers and tramps. Western canon 1960s/70s conceptual artists, Contemporary Australian Indigenous artists, the global evolving grafitti-scene and postgrafitti political performance art activists (like Akay). Postcolonial thinkers around the world From Frantz Fanon to Edward Said to Gayatri Spivak and Geeta Kapur; also Occupy’s Noam Chompsky and many others. Essays in The Monthly.

What are your plans for the future? Byrd: I’m working on a series of collaborative murals for The Front Café’s (Lyneham) laneway throughout this year. It’s exciting because some of my collaborators will be scaling down their usual output and some scaling up to work with me. Hannah wants to build a self-sustaining collaborative studio that out works on many varied public projects, tentatively named The Field.

What makes you laugh? Kids, art wank pretension What pisses you off? All sorts of politics from local to global.

What about the local scene would you change? For young artists to believe in Canberra as a worthy centre – come back after a few years of flying the coop to enrich our culture here.

Upcoming exhibitions? ? B: I’ve got a collaboration with both GrafickPaints and StylizedImpact at the National Museum of Australia happening in May which should be worth a look. And I’m curating the ongoing ‘artbattles’ on the walls of the PorkBelly, a new wall happens each month!

H: looking forward to continuing collaborative costume/ performance works with Amelia Zaraftis, Heike Qualitz, byrd, John Reid, Amanda Stuart and if I’m lucky Anna Simic from Melbourne.

Got some big sculpture public art commissions in the pipeline.

Hoping for a Berlin residency.

Contact Info: instagram.com/byrdeined

Of what are you proudest so far? Got two young babes plus two older boys. Got an incredible community of artists, young and old.

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LITERATURE IN REVIEW To Love a Sunburnt Country Jackie French [Angus & Robertson; 2014]

There is only one word I can find to adequately describe To Love a Sunburnt Country by Jackie French and that is, extraordinary. Jackie French is one of Australia’s most respected and admired authors.

As the current Australian Children’s Laureate, her theme for the laureateship is ‘share a story’ and what a story this is.

In 1942, sixteen year old Nancy Clancy is sent by her family to Malaya to bring home her brother’s wife and infant son. The war against an advancing Japanese army is the backdrop for a story that follows Nancy, her English sister-in-law Moira and baby Gavin from a plantation in Malaya to the horrors of a small Japanese Internment Camp.

With Australian resources stretched supporting the mother country in Europe, belief that Singapore will never fall and Moira’s reticence to leave her husband, their delayed departure from Malaya places them in grave danger. The journey from the north to Kuala Lumpur and then on to Singapore is arduous and dangerous. When the ship evacuating them from Singapore is bombed and sunk, Nancy, Moira and her baby survive and land on a small island. They are ultimately handed over to the Japanese by the locals who are kindly but have much to lose by hiding the women.

Waiting for Nancy at home is Michael. Frustrated and helpless, but convinced Nancy is still alive, he clings to the hope that one day they will be together.

The events of the war in the Pacific and the ill-treatment by the Japanese captors of prisoners of war and those in internment camps is well-documented. The story is based on the recollections and real experiences of people who lived through it and this gives it a confronting authenticity. The author acknowledges the strength of those on both sides to pass on their stories ‘so that we can learn and understand’.

What I really love, are the deeply emotional layers that are infused in every chapter. Love for family, home and country, fear and loss, hope, courage and determination to survive that is fuelled by deep and abiding longing for home are skilfully expressed. I felt heartsick for the characters and their individual situations. I challenge any reader to not be moved by the way the characters feelings laid bare.

The author has acknowledged in interviews that this was the hardest book she has ever had to write. This isn’t a one dimensional story about families living through the horror of war. It is a clever, insightful and sensitively expressed snapshot of how individuals felt and how families and communities functioned and behaved during that period.

Poignant and brutally honest, this story will stay with you long after you finish reading it. I highly recommend it.

ALSEY ANN CONDIE

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A R T | C O M E DY | D A N C E | L I T E R AT U R E | T H E AT R E by egoists who would rather gaze upon their own stupid face than a crystalline alpine lake, to thrash at passersby so that they either vacate the frame or bow in dumbstruck adoration at the stickwielding, narcissistic maniac.

I would lay a sizeable wager that you are the sort of person to pronounce ‘negotiate’ as ‘ne-go-see-ate.’ I would part with several thousand sovereigns on the speculation that, for you, a ‘day-boo’ constitutes the premiere performance of some entertainer or other, rather than the descriptor for a confused spectre with poor timekeeping, as your thick-headed diction would suggest.

This is the calibre of audience with which I am forced to contend.

The proper application of the spoken word is paramount when confirming one’s place as a communicator of note – and I do not speak of the lamentable ‘Communications Professional’, half of whom spend their time convincing themselves that repeating ill-thought-out abominations somehow warrants payment, let alone existence.

Linking the mispronunciation of everyday words with the creation of strange and terrible societal norms may seem like a narrative leap, but this is my column and you will sit their quietly ingesting what I have to impart or you will leave.

I believe that there is a direct corollary between those who would, through ignorance or rebellion, abuse our native language and those who would happily constrain us all in bondage to fulfil their every sordid whim.

You should rightly thank me for alerting you to this new menace in our midst, although your own nascent ego was doubtless on the cusp of this noteworthy revelation. But I have provided this service gratis, as you would have prolly forgot to ask. gideon foxington-smythe

I am fully conscious that I have tramped this path before (the correct employment of the Queen’s English and the righteous defence of hundreds of years of evolution; evolution rightly castrated in 1852), but continual tinkering with the mother tongue can produce anomalies that will one day destroy us all. By way of example, I proffer the ‘selfie’.

The recently-exposed immorally flexible Oxford English Dictionary describes the ‘self’ as ‘a person’s essential being that distinguishes them from others’; and ‘selfish’ as ‘lacking consideration for other people; concerned chiefly with one’s own profit or pleasure.’

It is not inconceivable that the ‘selfie’ (‘a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website’) can rightly be framed as a practice constituent of these two parts – distinguishing oneself from others by showing a distinct lack of consideration for them.

It is a strange dichotomy, therefore, when the incessant recording of one’s own ridiculous face is simultaneously a practice both dripping with conceit and a desperate plea for validation from those otherwise wilfully ignored.

Have you selfie-takers ever considered me when embarking on your narcissistic documentation? How your loathsome self-interest bristles the luxuriant plumage of my peerless moustache?

Unlikely.

I note more recently the advent of the ‘selfie stick’ – a weapon no less, used

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bit PARTS STEPS TO INDUCTION WHAT: Glassworks WHEN: Now WHERE: Canberra Glassworks Since opening in 2007, the Canberra Glassworks has offered a range of courses and workshops in the art of glassmaking. Now it’s offering a new program, Steps To Induction, to allow regular workshop participants to make the most of the world-class facilities of Canberra Glassworks by allowing them to hire and use the facility. “This program offers clear pathways for those in the community working with glass to become fully inducted artist hirers at the Glassworks,” says program developer Kirstie Rea. For more details, visit canberraglassworks.com.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE TRIVIA WHAT: Trivia WHEN: Every Tue WHERE: Knightsbridge Use your noggin’ to win a bar tab (or at least cover your drinks for the night) at Knightsbridge trivia, on every Tuesday night. Consists of three rounds of questions, with categories ranging from politics, geography, spirit tasting, song-listening - you name it! Includes bonus round of three questions - if answered correctly, you score the cash prize (which grows $50 per week). First prize is $100 bar tab, with second prize $50 bar tab and a no t too shabby $20 bar tab for third prize. Minimum team of two. 8pm-10pm every Tuesday night. Free.

SYNERGENESIS WHAT: Photography WHEN: Tue–Mon Feb 10–23 WHERE: The Front Gallery & Cafe Canberra photographer Nathan J Lester’s latest is exhibiting his latest collection at The Front Gallery & Cafe for two weeks. Synergenesis is a collection of black and white images exploring the harmony in form between flowers and the human body. Lester has worked with traditional darkroom techniques to combine the images into new melded works exploring the curves, lines and unique features of both subjects. Official opening Thursday February 12 at 6pm. Free.

BEYOND WHAT: Theatre WHEN: Wed–Sat Feb 25–28 WHERE: Canberra Theatre Having toured internationally, Circa’s new show Beyond is finally touring around the country. Blending dynamic circus acts like trapeze and Chinese pole with cheeky feats of strength and multiple bunny heads, set to a bewitching mix of show tunes, ballads and electronica, this creation delights and enchants. Beyond is set on multiple stages within stages – small red-curtained worlds that offer a glimpse of this rich and empathetic world. Show starts 7:30pm each night with a 1:30pm Saturday matinee. Tickets $38.30 - $58.30 available from canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

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the word

on albums

albums of the issue The Decemberists What a Terrible World, What a Wonderful World [Capitol/EMI] Belle and Sebastian Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance [Matador] Another year, same old cultural narratives. As the first few months of 2015 progress we’ll keep check of the new works from the names we know, hoping for a new thing that will enthral and excite us (and become a future name we know). The old timers get the build-up buzz and frequently suffer the deflation of the balloon soon after, as there is no more thankless task in the cultural world than the mid-late career act spruiking a new work. The knives are out. A tour performing your ‘classic’ early work will sell out far faster than a tour of new material. And maybe you’d have been better off to quit and wait the requisite five years before launching a reunion tour. Who needs another new album when your best work is behind you?

The (many) members of both Belle and Sebastian and The Decemberists may take issue with that last sentence. After more than 15 years in existence, both bands are releasing albums which serve as a career F5 and, fortunately, both are independently satisfying.

From the off, lead Decemberist Colin Meloy is playing both with and against type. In ‘The Singer Addresses His Audience’ Meloy notes his bands current

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situation, as a known entity that “has to change some”. The question is, have they? Of course its irony that infuses lines like “you cut your hair in the style that our drummer wore”, but the tone and timing is a little off. There’s a bunch of almost but not quite missteps throughout this LP. On the one hand we have ‘Make You Better’, their finest pop single since ‘16 Military Wives’ and a perfect summation of all their powers. On the other, tunes like ‘Cavalry Captain’ and ‘Mistral’ are close but not quite there. It hints at being a classic but pans out to be a very good album. That’s not a bad return.

The importance of Girls... in the Belle & Sebastian canon is greater, thanks to the diminished return of their previous set Write About Love. Indeed, for a band whose greatness mostly rests on their first two albums (made an age ago by what sounds like a very, very different band), the relevance of the Glaswegian eight piece is very much in question.

And yet, from the off we have a rebirth.

For those of us who have craved an extension of their stonking indieelectro take on ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (the still glorious ‘Your Cover’s Blown’), the first trills of synthesised arpeggio of ‘Nobody’s Empire’ are thrilling.

Ringleader Stuart Murdoch offers a lyric from before the band began, laid up with chronic fatigue, brought out of the darkness by music and kindness.

A simple melody, a gospel choir and an unexpected octave shift late in the game start as GIPWTD means to carry on.

The bedsit disco permeates the whole album. Single ‘The Party Line’ is a fabulous low-key dancefloor filler, while ‘Enter Sylvia Plath’ is ecstatic.

Carrying none of the downer vibes its title subject might infer, it’s a perfect Scottish take on a Donna Summer/ Moroder style sequinned 70s/80s electro.

The best essence of Belle & Sebastian is entirely intact (kitchen sink melodrama, clever and playful narratives from the perspective of the quiet girl looking out the window of the 38 bus from Glasgow town centre to the Royal Infirmary), but the sound is updated, both fresh yet familiar. It’s a marvellous record, their best in ages. glen martin

Usurper Of Modern Medicine Omniliberation [MGM] Since they formed in 2010, Perth-based trio Usurper Of Modern Medicine have kept powering along, releasing two EPs over the four ensuing years, while providing live support to the likes of Lightning Bolt and Holy Fuck and touring both Japan and New Zealand. As the preceding reference points suggest, UOMM deal in vast, layered and free-flowing psyche-rock excursions and indeed there is a palpable kinship occasionally present here with the likes of fellow WA travellers Tame Impala. Whatever the case, the sheer breadth and scope of sound that UOMM manage to generate as a three-piece is pretty staggering, with skyscraping layers of electronics, guitars, drums and vocals coalescing into a spectacular wall of textures. Two years on from their impressive Turbo Handshake EP, this debut album Omniliberation finally gives UOMM the chance to work with a broader canvas and they don’t disappoint.

Opening track ‘Motorolla Borealis’ kicks things straight off into spiralling prog/ psychedelic rock territory. Frontman Steven Hughes’s repeated lyrical hook “I’ve been saving myself for too long” rings out the delay against a kaleidoscopic wash of keyboards and trailing guitars that suddenly locks down into a fuzzed out garage-rock midsection that’s more Creation Records circa 1994 than anything else. ‘Above Or Beyond’ gets deep and dark as Hughes’ treated falsetto arcs and weaves around vast cold walls of synths, shuffling off-beat drums and the eerie sparse click of a drum machine tom. The background instrumentation builds into a vast cathedral of sound in what’s easily this album’s most spooky space-rock excursion.

The presence of an occasionally murky mix aside, Omniliberation is an ambitious and impressive debut album from UOMM. CHRIS DOWNTON

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The Datsuns Deep Sleep [Hellsquad/Valve]

July Talk July Talk [EMI]

Dan Sultan Dirty Ground [Liberation]

Who remembers Datsuns? Well, they were what Nissans were called before they changed the brand name to Nissan.

Another user of the moniker is a group of four Kiwi lads. Formed in 2000, The Datsuns roll out an uncompromisingly heavy rock that, like their band name, reflects styles of years gone by. They had an auspicious beginning, with big festival/support gigs and music awards, but their early notoriety faded quickly. In spite of this, the band has retained high productivity, spitting out a new LP every two years, as regular as clockwork.

Although they only formed during 2012, Toronto-based five piece July Talk have had a pretty rapid ascent in their home country, with a packed festival schedule and a nomination for best breakthrough group at this year’s Juno Awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys). If this impressive self-titled debut album is any indication of what July Talk are like live, then it’s certainly not hard to see how this situation has eventuated. Part of the appeal is the way in which July Talk take familiar influences – old time blues, scuzzy garage rock and New Wave-y post-punk and then mash them together in unpredictable ways (think Joy Division goes to Nashville). Then there’s the contrasting presences of dual vocalists Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay.

Dan Sultan hit pay dirt with his magic LP Blackbird early in 2014. The album showed him in a new light, with the simple, country rock replaced by more complex works which covered a broader range of musical styles.

He has swiftly followed that release with an EP consisting of songs and out takes which did not make it onto the album.

If you liked their last release, Death Rattle Boogie, then Deep Sleep will also appeal.

It’s more of the same, but heavier, with more stoner influences and less garage.

70s hard rock has its share of imitators like Wolfmother and Stonefield. With The Datsuns, there’s less emphasis on pop influences such as catchy melodies and lyrics, but a hell of a lot of emphasis on just blazing away with the axes. ‘Caught in the Silver’ is an album highlight, launching a kaleidoscopic ice storm, with reckless psychedelica and vocals echoing up from the underworld. ‘Bad Taste’ employs indulgently heavy riffage with licks that spiral and swirl, inviting Wolfmother comparisons. After the galloping rhythms of ‘Claw Machine’, ‘Shaky Mirrors’ lays down some of the most berserk guitars of the album, before the pace drops below freezing in the deep, heaviness of ‘500 Eyes’, a torpid song with languid vocals. Only in the final pair of ‘Sun in My Eyes’ and the title track does the pace slow to a more melodic approach.

The Datsuns may not produce music that’s very memorable, but they do provide a wild exuberance that’s all about being in the moment and relishing every lick.

RORY McCARTNEY

If Fay’s clear, delicate delivery suggests Patsy Cline’s twangy harmonics, then Dreimanis spends this record coming across as the unhinged bull in the china shop, his raspy barfly growl almost sounding like the wolf that’s about to devour her at points.

Elsewhere, ‘The Garden’ kicks things off with a swaggering wander through countrified guitar riffs, but it isn’t long before a house-y snare beat locks in to disrupt proceedings, as the guitars explode into a Jesus & Mary Chain-esque burst of noise against the alternately gentle and ferocious vocals.

‘Guns & Ammunition’ takes things off into angular New Wave funk territory that calls to mind a dark take on Talking Heads’ muscular grooves, before ‘Headsick’ offers up an arena-friendly rock-out that while being one of the more ‘conventionally indie’ directions here, doesn’t lose any of its deft attack. At just 36 minutes in running length, this is pretty much all killer and no filler. chris downton

Any thoughts that this might be an attempt to cash in on the album’s success by throwing together a grab bag of b-sides should be abandoned. The EP is a very different beast from Blackbird. The LP’s electric production, full of big, bold sounds, is gone.

Dirty Ground sees Sultan naked under the lights, with a minimalist, acoustic presentation that allows his outstanding vocals to shine out even more. There’s a strong autobiographical vibe to the songs, with lyrics often revolving around themes of loneliness. The messages may come straight from the blues, but the chosen medium of delivery is country-folk. Sultan uses simple plucked melodies and gentle strumming to create a warm atmosphere.

Together with his hesitant, confessional singing style, they create ideal conditions for the sharing of personal secrets.

One thing the EP does have in common with Blackbird is the level of emotion the artist has invested in the songs. If anything, the pared-back format makes the delivery sound even more passionate. Two songs from the album – an acoustic arrangement of ‘The Same Man’ and a copy of the piano driven ‘Gullible Few’ – have found their way onto the EP. While the former is a complete departure from the raucous delivery of the album, the latter was probably repeated as it fits in so well with the uncluttered style of the rest of the tracks.

RORY McCARTNEY

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Step-Panther Strange But Nice [Hub]

Yo La Tengo Extra Painful [Matador]

These New Puritans Expanded (Live At The Barbican) [Infectious]

Created in 2009 and having proudly fathered four releases since then, Sydney indie rock trio Step-Panther has done well with its latest progeny. Compared with previous work, Strange But Nice has less of the surf rock sound that featured in ‘Fight Like a Knight’ and less 60s retro influence than ‘Superpowerz’ from the band’s past records. One thing that hasn’t changed though is Step-Panther’s fondness for song themes that have escaped straight out of adventure hero comics or gamer culture.

Yo La Tengo’s ability to let rip on a droning organ with guitars squeezing out a maximum three chords is a turn on. There is always room for a personal warmth quite unlike the emotional iciness from touchstones like The Velvet Underground in their early days and contemporaries like Sonic Youth. There was a dynamic breadth to Yo La Tengo’s best music that becomes clear right through the two versions of ‘Big Day Coming’ on this suitably remastered 1993 effort, now titled Extra Painful to reflect the many worthwhile bonus tracks on offer. Version one which opens the album is presented as an atmospheric ballad that would’ve been a good fit for the Velvets’ stately third album, while the same song appears elsewhere as an urgent, minimalist drone with Ira Kaplan deadpanning rather than harmonising the vocals.

Upon its release in 2013, These New Puritans’ critically acclaimed third album Field Of Reeds saw the UK trio morphing into something closer to a neoclassical ensemble. Their accompanying tour behind the album followed a similarly ambitious path and saw the core trio of twin brothers Jack and George Barnett and Thomas Hein joined by a full strings, brass and percussion section, as well as Synergy Vocals and fado singer Elisa Rodrigues, all of whom also contributed to the original album itself. Expanded captures the band’s live performance of Field Of Reeds in its entirety at London’s Barbican Theatre in April 2014 and in this case the title is certainly an appropriate one.

The short intro title track, with its scratchy vocals and squeaky guitar, gives a hint of the lo-fi character of the LP. However, the mood swiftly leaps from woosie to wild in ‘Nowhere’, a high impact song in which vocalist Steve’s cries of “storm the citadel” and “take out the sword of retribution” are dramatised by heavy guitar strums. There’s an indie-pop vibe to the movie monster themed ‘It Came From The Heart’ while ‘Namor’, in honour of the Marvel Comics character, uses a villainous narrated introduction and a hailstorm of guitars to get its theatrical message across. ‘Up and Go’ casts a net of catchy chords, seasoned with bright licks. Traces of the band’s surf rock credentials surface briefly in the sweet licks of the cruisy ‘Parallel’. Despite its title and a theme of endless summers, there’s nothing surfy about the boisterous riffage and extensive guitar play of ‘Zombie Summer’.

The band is equally at home with grunge, fuzzed up guitars or pop sensibilities and their fifth release maintains Step-Panther’s reputation for eccentricity. Bold tales are told, accompanied by catchy tunes or beguiling heavy chords, in songs littered with hairy guitars which go off, just because they can.

Both versions represent a freedom of exploration that lies at the heart of the indie rock ethos – all of this accomplished without bullshit pretence and with the intention to form an intimate connection with the listener. One key factor is simplicity without making a big deal about that. ‘From a Motel 6’ is a stripped back two chord rocker with swooning guitars intervening at the right moments – less My Bloody Valentine sensory overload and more about wanting the indie kids to briefly forget their troubles in some unassuming New Jersey watering hole. Painful was Yo La Tengo’s sixth album and represented a transitional moment for the band when a growing mastery of their sound meant they had worked out when to let loose and when to pull back. This superb Extra Painful reissue is a telling reminder of that.

DAN BIGNA

As well as referring to the much larger number of people on stage, pretty much all of the tracks taken from the album are rendered in much more epic and cinematic form here, with many of them now stretching to the seven minute mark.

For the most part, the emphasis here falls upon dark, heavily orchestrated majesty.

After a thunderclap-like opening, ‘Fragment Two’ sees the original version’s jangling piano refrain joined by gloriously sweeping forlorn strings and massed choir vocals. ‘The Light In Your Name’ gets more introspective and sinister, as Jack Barnett’s clear vocals wander out through ominous horns, with Elisa Rodrigues’ backing harmonies melding in as the tension winds up. Elsewhere, ‘Organ Eternal’ sees the electronics making a rare shift to the foreground as live percussion locks in against the arpeggiated synths, before ‘Nothing Else But This’ offers up a slowburning nine minute journey straight into this performance’s dark heart. Eerie and spectacular in equal doses.

CHRIS DOWNTON

RORY McCARTNEY

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singles in focus by cody atkinson Toro Y Moi ‘Empty Nesters’

Catfish and the Bottlemen The Balcony [Island]

Josef Salvat In Your Prime [Liberation]

Named after a random busker, Catfish and the Bottlemen may be based in Wales, but its members all came from other places, with its frontman Van McCann being an expatriate Australian.

I recall seeing Josef Salvat as a supporting act for a Canberra Musicians’ Club gig, held at the fondly remembered McGregor Hall.

Punters huddled shoulder to shoulder on the floor, or had a quick burner outside, near the open fire which blazed in the freezing night. Salvat cut a colourful figure, standing at his keyboard in a vaguely Napoleonic shirt with frilly sleeves. Now the ex-Sydneysider with the eye for a fashion statement has set up shop in London. Salvat has made his mark both through songs of his own which have spawned numerous remixes and by covering the material of ‘A List’ pop stars, such as Rhianna’s ‘Diamonds’, in which he sounds heaps better than Rhianna’s overly electronic product.

Their debut album of fast paced indie-rock is pretty impressive in its own way. Snippets of the delivery invite comparisons with The Strokes. The track list has a consistent appeal, with no filler; it’s all very quick, catchy, loud and proud about it. There are plenty of good hooks and the songs are full of appealing rhythms, entertaining from go to whoa. The guitars are furious, with intense bursts of sound in the choruses. Yet there is something less than satisfying in its effervescence. While songs are varied, you’ve got the feeling that you’ve heard a lot of material a lot like it before, just not done quite the same.

In some ways, there’s more creativity in their funny, naughty album art than in the actual music. Instead, the biting lyrics are the album’s strongest feature, with McCann snarling ‘I pissed you off again’ and yelling ‘Let’s get drunk in your bedroom’. In such vignettes, the band has captured the crazy, headlong rush of youth in a snow globe of sound. McCann’s vocals sound hot and his streetwise lyrics will resonate well with punters, holding the promise of shout out sing-alongs in songs like ‘Cocoon’. Stand out tracks, with enough character in their makeup to make them memorable, include the opener ‘Homesick’, ‘Business’ and ‘26’. If you like the LP equivalent of the sweet, quick buzz of a White Moscato (and many will), then this is for you. However, those hoping for Shiraz quality will find The Balcony a bit light on.

RORY McCARTNEY

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A true EP at just four tracks, the music is a mix of pop and electronica, with snippets of low-key dance and a little soul. Lead track ‘Open Season’ comes with a thump-thump beat, seductive rhythm and suave synths.

In the bright ‘This Life’, the hooks come courtesy of electronic card shuffling in the mix. Salvat adopts a conversational vocal style, before coming in strong in the chorus, boosted by multi-vocal tricks and overlaps.

In ‘Shoot and Run’, synths crawl on millipede legs to booming percussion. While the songs don’t quite match up to the artist’s most impressive release ‘Hustler’ (a steamy piece of work with its striking keys and finger snapping clicks), ‘Every Night’ comes close. This album highlight, which replaced ‘Diamonds’ in this version of the CD at least, mixes crooning with soaring vocals, showing off Salvat’s impressive vocal range which brings to mind that of Mike Hadreas (aka Perfume Genius). Either song is equally welcome, showing Salvat off at his soulful best.

RORY McCARTNEY

Toro Y Moi is a perfect example why people shouldn’t pigeon-hole artists – the former chillwave darling ever moving away from the heady times of the early 2010s. ‘Empty Nesters’ is a bright piece of funky guitar pop, leaning more to Animal Collective than Washed Out. The synth sweeps aren’t totally gone, but the moderation have made them more important.

Primary Colours ‘Compact Disc’ Raw and honest, ‘Compact Disc’ doesn’t hide behind any smoke or mirrors. The bass chugs along. The drums crash in and out of the foreground. The slightly disjointed vocals strain at the tension between each other. Canberra lads Primary Colours have a good one on their hands here.

Manglewurzel ‘My House’ This be some twisted pop rock right here.

Manglewuzel throw everything but the kitchen sink at ‘My House’ and it seems to work. The breakdown on ‘My House’ is like the eye of a storm, a temporary lull until the horns and distorted guitar attack again. Sometimes being under attack is a good thing.

AronChupa ‘I’m An Albatraoz’ If you like electro house mixes of naughty nursery rhymes this will be right down your alley. There’s not much, well any, substance here and AronChupa makes no attempt to hide it. This is what it is and only barely that. Utterly forgettable.

41

the word

on films

WITH MELISSA WELLHAM

It’s Oscars season, baby!

(And the Golden Globes.

But who cares. Been there, done that, over now.) The year’s nominations caused controversy, due to a distinct lack of women and people of colour nominated across most categories. Selma – which chronicles part of Martin Luther King’s campaign to secure equal voting rights and is released in Australia in February – was particularly snubbed. At least we can all be glad Daniel Day-Lewis didn’t make a film this year, so there will be some mystery as to who will win the Best Actor category.

quote of the issue

“If you think that this war isn’t changing you you’re wrong. You can only circle the flames so long.” – Taya (Sienna Miller), American Sniper

Mr Turner

Dumb and Dumber To

Unbroken

Director Mike Leigh has certainly not made a conventional biopic with Mr Turner.

Most times it pays off to go into a movie like this with low expectations. Unfortunately this time there was no pay off.

It is a difficult film in many ways. The story is meandering, almost plotless. The tone is not inspiring, or challenging, or depressing, or easy to categorise. The main character – the great, eccentric British painter J.M.W Turner, played by Timothy Spall – is impossibly contradictory.

The sequel to 1994’s comedy pseudo-classic, Dumb and Dumber To (intentionally misspelled) picks up 20 years on from the original. Man-children Harry (Jeff Daniels) and Lloyd (Jim Carey) set out to road trip across the country in search of Harry’s previously unknown daughter, as well as love and a new kidney. Wacky hijinks ensue, with the boys bringing down a peg such tall poppies as the blind, the elderly, people with Aspergers, foetal alcohol syndrome, AIDS and Stephen Hawking.

Angelina Jolie tries her hand at directing (again) and delivers a competent and predictable film. Unbroken takes a snapshot of the remarkable life of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini (Jack O’Connell). Zamperini was wrenched from his life of athletic glory and forced along with millions of other young men to fight in WW2.

What follows is stranger than fiction – survival for over six weeks at sea fighting off sharks and bomber jets before being ‘rescued’ and held captive in a Japanese POW camp.

He is entirely unlikeable, yet sometimes sympathetic. He is clever, droll and witty in one scene, yet repulsive in the next.

He behaves kindly towards a woman he loves, then sexually exploits his housekeeper.

Despite the film’s difficulties – and in some cases because of them – Mr Turner is also an accomplished film. It feels less like a movie and more like an artwork.

Leigh may not tell a conventional story, per se, complete with a trigger, a choice, a climax and a resolution – but he does transport the audience to the last quarter-century of Turner’s life in 1851. You feel as if you are next to Turner. You are next to him as he stretches his canvases and mixes his paints.

You are next to him as he visits the brothel to sketch women.

You are next to him as he both celebrated and reviled for his artwork.

The success of the film is owed, in large part, to Spall’s performance. He does not shy away from the portrayal of this multifaceted character and inhabits the part completely.

MELISSA WELLHAM

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Perhaps I have fond memories of the original since I was smack-bang in the middle of its target age demographic (i.e. ten years old) when it debuted.

Perhaps my taste in films has grown more sophisticated over the years and fart jokes no longer elicit the same mirth as they once did. The sad truth, I suspect, is that this movie just isn’t very funny. I love a good fart joke as much as the next former ten year old and you don’t go to a Farrelley Brothers movie expecting fine cinema – but you should at least be able to bank on some quality lowbrow jokes. Laughs are few, cringes are many and people of undefined Asian decent mixing up L’s and R’s was not funny even in 1994.

PATRICK BELL

This film feeds the audience what it wants to see – an attractive and charismatic young man (who despite being punched in the face by over 40 men maintained his chiseled good looks) overcoming insurmountable odds. WW2 is a fertile story telling ground, however that doesn’t guarantee that a film set during this time is automatically going to be good. The one thought that kept coming back to me while I watched this film was, ‘I’ve seen this before’.

Louis Zamperini suffered from considerable post-traumatic stress and alcoholism after the war, which got a brief mention at the conclusion of the film. I wondered why the film didn’t focus on those aspects of Zamperini’s life more and felt that it was probably because it would put a dampener on the whole ‘triumphing over evil’ theme.

Nevertheless, it’s a story that deserves to be told. However, I suspect the book is better, they usually are.

EMMA ROBINSON

@bmamag

American Sniper American Sniper follows Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) through four tours of duty where he earned the nickname ‘The Legend’ for becoming the deadliest marksman in U.S. military history.

American war films have moved past the jingoism of American Sniper and Eastwood’s film is a fossil. Three Kings, The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty and Lone Survivor all pushed the boundaries in their scrutiny of modern warfare. There is no cross-examination of patriotism, sacrifice or the addiction of combat in American Sniper – it shoots first and then shoots again later.

As Kyle snipes men, women and children on the streets of Iraq, there is a sense of the horrors of war but Eastwood is too quick to celebrate the bloodshed. There is nobility in serving your country, without a doubt, but it’s nowhere to be found in American Sniper.

There’s even a disconnect with the carnage as Eastwood uses digital blood to create an uncanny valley of violence, completely at odds with the hardboiled staging of the battle sequences.

Cooper excels at sticking out his jaw and projecting like there’s a wad of chewing tobacco in his mouth in his portrayal on Kyle.

Cooper’s post-war Kyle is one of the most intriguing elements of the performance but it’s swamped in an overbearing pathos. How did we get to a point where the prospect of a new Clint Eastwood film is met with groans? American Sniper is the answer. cameron williams

Advance Australian Film The past twelve months have not been easy for the Australian film industry. Despite a slew of critically acclaimed films being released – including Charlie’s Country, The Babadook, Predestination, The Mule, The Rover, Tracks and All This Mayhem – only four titles (The Water Diviner, The Railway Man, Wolf Creek 2 and Tracks) topped the $1 million mark in 2014.

But why is the Australian film industry struggling so much?

And what can we do about it?

Those are the questions posed by independent documentary filmmaker Courtney Dawson in Advance Australian Film, now available on Digital and DVD. Dawson has managed to pick the brains of some formidable talent. Her interview subjects include movie critic David Stratton, The King’s Speech producer Emile Sherman and Red Dog director Kriv Stenders, as well as red carpet interviews with Russell Crowe, Baz Luhrmann, Joel Edgerton and Richard Roxburgh.

The bad news is, nobody seems to agree on what will save the Australian film industry. The internet? New distribution methods? Financial backing from philanthropic investors?

Or do Australians need to start telling better stories? The good news is, Dawson’s documentary shows that there are other options – and not just because her own film was crowd-funded.

There are options out there – the industry needs to find the one that works. Well may we say God save the Australian film industry, because nothing will save us from Hollywood.

MELISSA WELLHAM

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43

the word on dvds

44

Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome [Universal Sony] Ten years ago the rebooted Battlestar Galactica made its debut. A two part mini-series had preceded it 18 months earlier and convinced a niche cable station (Sci Fi Channel/ SyFy) to commit to a full run of episodes. But even the most confident executive could not have predicted the success or impact of the new series, which turned out to be a philosophical/religious space epic over the top of some really bloody great action, intelligent scripting and universally great performances. Except the finale which sucked ass. An attempt to tell the back story of how the villainous Cylons came to be (Caprica) wasn’t so great.

This next origin story attempt tries to keep the universe afloat by telling the story of the First Cylon War and a young William Adama (Luke Pasqualino) role in it. The problem for Blood and Chrome is that anything with the Battlestar Galactica name attached to it comes with extraordinary baggage The millennial reboot remains one of the great shows of the last quarter century, but it was a long haul show.

Character arcs and storylines lasted for seasons and the allegorical approach to addressing topical matters (war, torture, colonisation) and moral quandaries required time – something this release simply does not have. Blood and Chrome originally aired as a series of short (12 minutes) webisodes, so there’s little capacity to pull get down and dirty with hard topics. Basically all you get is a few space battle scenes and a mission taking cocky young Adama deep into Cylon territory. Visually it’s nowhere near as gritty or dazzling as the original, and on occasion the CGI looks half-finished and fuzzy around the edges. Ultimately Blood and Chrome doesn’t really amount to anything and though it doesn’t tarnish the brand it struggles to even meet the original halfway.

JUSTIN HOOK

20,000 Days on Earth [MADMAN]

The Trip to Italy [MADMAN

If anyone is ripe for the extensive music doco treatment, it’s Nick Cave.

There is over four decades worth of Cave to deal with – multiple bands, scores of collaborators, dozens of band mates, countless controversies, reams of quips and limitless opinions. If anything you could argue you’d need a series and even then you’d only scratch the surface. Fortunately 20,000 Days on Earth employs another tactic. Instead of collating all the information and trying to make some linear or logic out of it, filmmakers Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth have constructed a hypothetical 24 hour time period in Nick Cave’s life. And though it may not be a ‘real’ day in the life – it certainly isn’t artificial.

The first journey Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan took on behalf of a newspaper to review food in England’s north was an acquired taste. Two and half hours of two middle-aged comedians swanning about Lancashire, downing fancy grub, bickering and engaging in Michael Caine impressionoffs is a challenge, but if you get it – and the reality is they were both playing extended versions of themselves – it was manna form heaven. But for all the improvisation and faux indignation one caused to the other it did get a tedious.

After a while the scenery was nice, but not exactly enthralling. And The Trip was a weird competitive travelogue type show, so it matters.

Transporting the pair to Italy this time is an immediate victory.

The structure is as chaotic as it is simple. Cave drives around Brighton. Cave is recording Push the Sky Away in France.

Cave visits the archivist and reminisces about old photos.

Cave sits on his therapist’s (actual Freudian psychoanalyst Darin Leader) lounge talking about himself, family, the band and the creative process.

He tells stories about a Nina Simone gig. Bandmate Warren Ellis tells a story about a Jerry Lee Lewis gig. Through it all he is immaculate, choosing each word with precision and only allowing enough out. Obviously, it’s scripted. It’s not the sort of doco where anyone addresses the camera directly; instead it lingers in the background and alongside the players. At times it feels like a superbly manufactured but candid fever dream – especially when Ray Winstone, Blixa Bargeld and Kylie Minogue appear in his posh Jaguar, like they are internal dialogue. Arguably you learn more about Nick Cave through these fragments than a formulaic doco would allow and when he talks about the creative experience, especially the live show, being one of transformation you get a sense you are starting to understand Nick Cave. If that’s at all possible.

JUSTIN HOOK

Using the Grand Tour as their launching pad and following Shelley and Byron’s ancient path across Italy, Brydon and Coogan are a couple of years older but none the wiser.

Although Coogan isn’t drinking, which is quite a big deal for a man well known for his lifestyle preferences. There is a real sense of the life passing them by in this series. They mourn the fact that females pay no attention to them anymore.

Oblivious old white men – they do it well. Coogan is more contemplative, trying to be a decent father after years of absenteeism. Brydon plays the prick this time around.

When the impressions dry up and they don’t want to talk to each other – the camera pans out and captures a glistening Mediterranean blue horizon or an idyllic village piazza scene or a winding cliff top highway.

The scenery is so stunning and hi def it hurts. Having watched both the six part series and the movie – the latter an edit of the former – it makes more sense to do the entire thing. As these two idiots prove every time the cameras roll, there’s no point in half measures.

JUSTIN HOOK

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45

the word

on gigs

Kim Churchill, Pepa Knight, Boo Seeka The Abbey Friday January 16 Brand new band Boo Seeka were the surprise of the night. The (unnamed) singer kicked off with a couple of acoustic songs, his smoky vocals coming across like a slow burning cigarette, before going electric and being joined by band mate Sam on MPC. ‘Deception Bay’, with its heavier electronic thrust, was a highlight of their set and they had the vocal skills to carry off a great cover of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’. The duo showed lots of un-hyped promise and they had phenomenal CD sales after their set.

Jinja Safari’s Pepa Knight was up next with a solo spot, looking very John Lennon with garlands round his neck and mic stands. His songs, written after travels in India, were rich with meaning and he is a brilliant multi-instrumentalist, playing more gear than the Canberra Symphony Orchestra. However, his high and floating style was more like background music and failed to engage the audience well. Only his closing song, played with a Chinese lute, had real spark to it.

PHOTO by MARK TURNER

Ex-Canberran Kim Churchill was the complete package: powerful vocals, strong rhythms, striking lyrics and a good way of engaging the crowd. All this plus his amazing one man band style of musicianship. His electric harmonica set-up enabled Churchill to put come real echoes and wails into the mix and there was some unusual two handed guitar plucking during a song about his grandfather. He was joined a couple of times by two blokes on percussion, putting more impact into songs such as ‘Don’t Leave Your Life Too Long’.

Churchill’s gig generated the nearest thing I’ve see to a mosh pit at The Abbey and his main set closed with a wild Led Zeppelin cover.

RORY McCARTNEY

the word

on gigs

Cool Sounds, Melon Melon Melon, California Girls The Phoenix Thursday January 15 It’s time to check out California Girls if you haven’t already. If you have any sort of leaning to the Madchester sound, or earnest postpunk, Cali Girls should be on your listening and watching shortlist. It feels like Gus McGrath is in every other band, but this might just be his best outlet right now. Hopping between guitars and synths – with the brief assist from Jordan Rodger on cowbell and sax – McGrath’s real strength is in his vocals and the passion of his delivery.

Melon Melon Melon (or Melon Cubed for those who are mathematically minded) impressed right out the gate. Brilliant riffs pierced The Phoenix, with gritty guitar pop taking the night a new way. Alternating male/female vocals played perfectly and everything was catchy without being too sterile. They had a tape for sale on the night and I hope they have a lot more in the future.

Cool Sounds are, well, cool sounding. Yacht Rock for the internet generation. Smooth, but with some serious substance. Cool Sounds number seven on stage, with bodies all over and around the small stage. The focal point visually was Snowy Nasdaq’s shining sax, but there was much more to their sound than that. Guitars hitting, basses churning, vocals floating and everything blending. At the high points, this was 2015 Melbourne pop in its highest order, even if it didn’t stay there for the whole set.

CODY ATKINSON

PHOTO BY MEGAN LEAHY

46

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47

the word

on gigs

Swans, Oren Ambarchi Manning Bar, Sydney Thursday January 22 “Are you ok? You look different.”

“Mummy just went to a Swans gig darling, she had a lovely time.”

I actually attended a live tantric sex workshop run by a maniacal evangelist with the precision and timing of a heart surgeon.

The house lights were kept up (“I want to see you all feel the music”) as one by one they appeared, warming up their instruments of unrelenting torture. Formidable frontman Michael Gira was mesmerising, alternating bilingual proclamations with howling chants. Off mic he looked to be speaking in tongues, his hands often busy giving feverish hand signals to his five bandmates. When he turned his Faster! Louder! attention to them individually, his henchmen thrived, each preaching from an individual testament; their naked desire to reach a cohesive climax resulting in my seeing the sex face of every goddamn member. Highlights included the shirtless viking who alternated between a giant gong, drums and a guitar neck played like a violin and a very inebriated fan who walked up on stage to kiss Gira mid set (this wasn’t me, I promise).

The three hour set flew by, only giving pause half a dozen times, each long form song crafted using elements of their latest release To Be Kind but with improvisation so insistently intense, the reverb often felt like the roar of a jet engine. The finale saw the band bowing gracefully, as Gira thanked us, his “little buttercups.”

My fellow disciples and I were all rendered speechless afterwards.

I saw one guy crying at the merch table (prices notwithstanding) as Gira humbly accepted profuse, heartfelt gratitude by much of the audience. I even got a post-coital cuddle (see self-indulgent picture).

Mummy needs a cigarette.

TATJANA CLANCY Despite a near-unbearable reputation for being a near-unbearable listen, sexagenarian gentlemen of experimental rock Swans are far more generous than self-important. The grooves on their latest, To Be Kind, arrive from nowhere and go on forever, shot through with the eccentric vocal hoopla of Cruel Summer or tUnE-yArDs’ debut.

Live, the endless instrumental guest-list is absent, and instead the focus is on focus, ecstatic rather than mind-numbing, with enough volume and repetition to send reviewers scrambling for analogies of Ginsbergian long-windedness. Or maybe that’s just youthful cynicism.

The opener Oren Ambarchi equalled the widescreen hellishness of the six-piece headliner seated with his Fender. Not a huge achievement, given his computer desk filled with wire and buttons, but his shuddering feedback and elastic arpeggios rode a familiar rise-and-fall character arc with suitable bliss and messiness. Just home-alone bedroom-doodling, guitar hardware, and historical context, he seemed unconcerned with audience but didn’t reject the applause. Or maybe that’s just his middle-age cynicism.

PHOTOS BY DAN ANDREWS

48

Over the next three or so hours of new and officially unavailable material, the guitars, welded to a succession of pre-rock’n’roll blues loops that kept the plot moving, were the attraction. Describing ecstasy is tedious, so I’ll note that with only the most casual of stage invasions leavening the sperm-count, the gauntlet of emotions run were limited by the heavyweight emphasis on crescendo and barbarity. And the builds and drops were dulled by the necessary ear protection. Still – I can’t remember being bored once, remarkably, given the run time and the AAA song structures. And the final piece, blood and all, took proceedings over the top.

ALBERT SHIRT

@bmamag

ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Wed Jan 28 - Sat Jan 31

Listings are a free community service. Email editorial@bmamag.com to have your events appear each issue. wednesday january 28

Art Exhibitions Beauty Through Motion

By Kelly Hayes. 22 Jan - 8 Feb. Wed-Sun. 12-5pm. Opening 22 Jan. 6pm. Free.

M16 ARTSPACE

Bubble ’n’ Squeak

By Michele England, Dash Kossmann & Fran Meatheringham. 22 Jan - 8 Feb. Wed-Sun, 12-5pm. Opening 22 M16 ARTSPACE

Theatre Horrible Histories

Barmy Britain. $50/$55.

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Workshops Jam It

Jam with young musicians and professional musicians. Tues-Fri. 9am4pm. Multicultural festival gig 1 AINSLIE ARTS CENTRE

thursday january 29

Pulse: Reflections on the Body

Art Exhibitions

CANBERRA MUSEUM AND GALLERY

On film: PhotoAccess members’ exhibition

27 Aussie artists exploring shifts in understanding of what it is to be human. Until Feb 22.

A Pinch of Salt

By Kerry Shepherdson. 22 Jan - 8 Feb. Wed-Sun, 12-5pm. Opening 22 Jan. 6pm. Free.

M16 ARTSPACE

Square Eyes

Variety of artwork. 29 Jan- 22 Feb. Opening Thursday 29th Jan at 6pm.

Free.

PHOTOACCESS MANUKA

Live Music

By Josh Owen, Julian Rouch, Kai Wasikowski. 22 Jan - 8 Feb. Wed-Sun. 12-5pm. Opening 22 Jan. 6pm. Fr

The Advocates

Imaginarium

Rock. 8pm. Free.

M16 ARTSPACE

Art exhibition. 23 Jan - 15 Feb. Meet the artists 24 Jan. 2pm.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Karaoke Don’t Stop Believing Karaoke From 9.30pm.

DURHAM CASTLE ARMS

Live Music Timothy D

With Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran and Tracey Benson. 6pm 5th December, continues until February. Tues-F

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

On The Town $10 Express Lunch

Pizza & soft drink $10. 12pm-2pm.

Mon-Sat.

Live music. 9pm. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Glass Ocean TRANSIT BAR

The Ocean Party

With Totally Mild, Black Springs & Eadie & The Doodles. 9pm. $5.

THE PHOENIX BAR

On The Town 4some Thursdays

Free entry. $4 drink specials.

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Playtime

Top 40, Dance, RnB. 10pm. Free entry.

TREEHOUSE BAR

Workshops Jam It

Jam with young musicians and professional musicians. Tues-Fri. 9am4pm. Multicultural festival gig 1 AINSLIE ARTS CENTRE

TRANSIT BAR

Hump Day

Get over the hump with drink specials after 5pm.

TRANSIT BAR

friday january 30 None Ben & Jerry’s Openair Cinemas With live music every Saturday and Sunday. 18th Jan - 22nd Feb. Tickets at openaircinemas.com.au.

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA

Art Exhibitions RAW

Monthly showcase for emerging artists from Aus, USA, Canada & UK. $16.50 pre-sale. $20 at door. 7.30 BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Live Music Jay Patterson/Heuristic

Saturday january 31 Art Exhibitions Beauty Through Motion

By Kelly Hayes. 22 Jan - 8 Feb. Wed-Sun. 12-5pm. Opening 22 Jan. 6pm. Free.

M16 ARTSPACE

Pulse: Reflections on the Body 27 Aussie artists exploring shifts in understanding of what it is to be human. Until Feb 22.

CANBERRA MUSEUM AND GALLERY

A Pinch of Salt

By Kerry Shepherdson. 22 Jan - 8 Feb. Wed-Sun, 12-5pm. Opening 22 Jan. 6pm. Free.

M16 ARTSPACE

Square Eyes

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

By Josh Owen, Julian Rouch, Kai Wasikowski. 22 Jan - 8 Feb. Wed-Sun. 12-5pm. Opening 22 Jan. 6pm. Fr

Trick Winter & Positive Feedback Loop

Imaginarium

5pm afternoon session/10:00pm band.

Free.

8pm. $10.

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

Back Stage Opening Night

With Casters, Capes, Fricker, Jack Livingston & more.

MAGPIES CITY CLUB

Lepers & Crooks

Launch their ‘Her Kiss’ EP, supported by Sea Legs. 8pm. Presale via Moshtix.

TRANSIT BAR

On The Town Flava R’n’B Event

Lucrative, DJ Adam, DJ Sir Remix & MC Nate taking over with the R’n’B Flava.

9pm. Free.

TREEHOUSE BAR

Alive Fridays

Presents Zac Waters & Vanilla Ace. $10 all night.

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

M16 ARTSPACE

Art exhibition. 23 Jan - 15 Feb. Meet the artists 24 Jan. 2pm.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Live Music Thando

The Voice star brings her full live band show to Canberra. 8pm. Presale via Moshtix.

TRANSIT BAR

4th Degree

Live music. 10.30pm. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Tom Hathaway

Sneaky Saturdays. Sneaking in the city’s finest DJs. $10 Cocktails before Midnight. 9pm. Free.

TREEHOUSE BAR

Timothy D

With Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran and Tracey Benson. 6pm 5th December, continues until February. Tues-F

Workshops

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Jam It

Wallflower

Jam with young musicians and professional musicians. Tues-Fri. 9am4pm. Multicultural festival gig 1 AINSLIE ARTS CENTRE

With guests. 9.30pm. $5.

THE PHOENIX BAR

Cub Callaway, The Feldons & After Hollywood Live music. 8pm.

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

SoundOut 2015

Jazz and Experimental music. Jan 31 - Feb 1. Information at soundout2015. blogspot.com.

VARIOUS LOCATIONS

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49

ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Sat Jan 31 - Thurs Feb 5 On The Town $10 Express Lunch

wednesday february 4

Pizza & soft drink $10. 12pm-2pm.

Mon-Sat.

Art Exhibitions

Love Saturdays

With Exposure. $10 before midnight. $15 after.

By Kelly Hayes. 22 Jan - 8 Feb. Wed-Sun. 12-5pm. Opening 22 Jan. 6pm. Free.

Free Pool at Transit

Bubble ’n’ Squeak

TRANSIT BAR

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Beauty Through Motion

M16 ARTSPACE

Retro Night

By Michele England, Dash Kossmann & Fran Meatheringham. 22 Jan - 8 Feb. Wed-Sun, 12-5pm. Opening 22

MAGPIES CITY CLUB

On film: PhotoAccess members’ exhibition

Free pool tables. From 2pm.

TRANSIT BAR

70’s, 80’s & 90’s Alternative & Mainstream.

sunday february 1 Live Music Irish Jam Session

Traditional Irish musicians in the pub from late afternoon. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Super Raelene Bros

Album launch. 3pm. $10 entry + copy of the album.

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

SoundOut 2015

Jazz and Experimental music. Jan 31 - Feb 1. Information at soundout2015. blogspot.com.

VARIOUS LOCATIONS

Shelley Short

Live music. 6pm. $10.

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ

On The Town

M16 ARTSPACE

Variety of artwork. 29 Jan- 22 Feb. Opening Thursday 29th Jan at 6pm.

Free.

PHOTOACCESS MANUKA

Pulse: Reflections on the Body

27 Aussie artists exploring shifts in understanding of what it is to be human. Until Feb 22.

CANBERRA MUSEUM AND GALLERY

A Pinch of Salt

By Kerry Shepherdson. 22 Jan - 8 Feb. Wed-Sun, 12-5pm. Opening 22 Jan. 6pm. Free.

M16 ARTSPACE

Square Eyes

By Josh Owen, Julian Rouch, Kai Wasikowski. 22 Jan - 8 Feb. Wed-Sun. 12-5pm. Opening 22 Jan. 6pm. Fr M16 ARTSPACE

Imaginarium

Art exhibition. 23 Jan - 15 Feb. Meet the artists 24 Jan. 2pm.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Free Pool at Transit

On The Town

TRANSIT BAR

$10 Express Lunch

Free pool tables. From 2pm.

monday february 2

Pizza & soft drink $10. 12pm-2pm.

Mon-Sat. TRANSIT BAR

Live Music

Hump Day

CMC Presents The Bootleg Sessions

TRANSIT BAR

With Disco Puppets, Alex and Joel, Songmen & Matt Lord. 8pm. Free.

THE PHOENIX BAR

tuesday february 3

Get over the hump with drink specials after 5pm.

Something Different Perception Deception Exhibition Hands-on exhibits to surprise your senses and challenge your mind. 9am5pm. Until May 2015. Admissio

Karaoke

QUESTACON

Karaoke Love

Theatre

TRANSIT BAR

Mother & Son

Karaoke. 9pm. Free entry.

Live Music Mark Ginsburg: South African Project

6pm dinner. 7.30pm music. Tickets $15/$22 at thegodscafe@gmail.com or on 02 6248 5538.

THE GODS CAFE

From the hit TV Series, brand new stage comedy. $75.90/$99.90. 4-11 Feb. CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Thursday february 5 Live Music Dos Locos

Trivia

Live music. 9-12pm. Free.

Knightsbridge Trivia

Brass Knuckle Brass Band

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

THE PHOENIX BAR

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Win cash prizes & bar tabs. 8pm.

With The King Hits. 9pm. $5.

Andrew and Shannon’s Pub Trivia

Trick Winter

THE PHOENIX BAR

TRANSIT BAR

Pub trivia night. 7.30pm.

Supported by Ivory Lights. 8pm. Free entry.

Aaron Jessup

Live music. 8pm.

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ

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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Thurs Feb 5 - Sun Feb 8 On The Town 4some Thursdays

Free entry. $4 drink specials.

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Playtime

Top 40, Dance, RnB. 10pm. Free entry.

TREEHOUSE BAR

friday february 6 Live Music Chad Croker/Oscar

5pm afternoon session/10pm Band.

Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Vendetta

Live music.

ROSE COTTAGE

Academy Club presents 3LAU $15 pre-sale tickets from Moshtix.

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Rumjacks

With The Revellers and The Crossbones.

8pm. Presale via Moshtix.

TRANSIT BAR

On The Town Surgin aka Steve Lising

He’s a house DJ, but the remixes he finds of other genres will blow your mind! 9pm. Free.

TREEHOUSE BAR

saturday february 7 None Ben & Jerry’s Openair Cinemas

With live music every Saturday and Sunday. 18th Jan - 22nd Feb. Tickets at openaircinemas.com.au.

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA

Art Exhibitions Imaginarium

Art exhibition. 23 Jan - 15 Feb. Meet the artists 24 Jan. 2pm.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Beauty Through Motion

By Kelly Hayes. 22 Jan - 8 Feb. Wed-Sun. 12-5pm. Opening 22 Jan. 6pm. Free.

M16 ARTSPACE

Bubble ’n’ Squeak

By Michele England, Dash Kossmann & Fran Meatheringham. 22 Jan - 8 Feb. Wed-Sun, 12-5pm. Opening 22 M16 ARTSPACE

On film: PhotoAccess members’ exhibition Variety of artwork. 29 Jan- 22 Feb. Opening Thursday 29th Jan at 6pm.

Free.

PHOTOACCESS MANUKA

Pulse: Reflections on the Body 27 Aussie artists exploring shifts in understanding of what it is to be human. Until Feb 22.

CANBERRA MUSEUM AND GALLERY

A Pinch of Salt

By Kerry Shepherdson. 22 Jan - 8 Feb. Wed-Sun, 12-5pm. Opening 22 Jan. 6pm. Free.

M16 ARTSPACE

The Bald Archie Prize 2015

Chrome

WATSON ARTS CENTRE

DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

Art competition. 6th Feb - 9th March.

10am-4pm. Entry $5.

Resident DJs playing industrial, EBM, alternative, dark electronic. $10/$5.

Square Eyes

Sneaky: Tom Hathaway

M16 ARTSPACE

TREEHOUSE BAR

By Josh Owen, Julian Rouch, Kai Wasikowski. 22 Jan - 8 Feb. Wed-Sun. 12-5pm. Opening 22 Jan. 6pm. Fr

Sneaking in the city’s finest DJs. $10 Cocktails before Midnight. 9pm. Free entry.

Live Music

Something Different

The Mighty Yak

Fash N’ Treasure

Live music. 10.30pm. Free.

Love Saturdays

10am - 3pm. 7 Feb, 21 Mar, 11 Apr, 9 May, 13 June, 8 Aug, 5 Sep & 7 Nov. Entry $3.

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Theatre

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

With The Projektz. $10 before Midnight. $15 after.

The Gooch Palms

With TV Colours, New Age Group & Thunderbolt City. 9.30pm. $10.

THE PHOENIX BAR

Googfest

Music festival. With Dami Im, Lavers, Mary Ann van Der Horst & Big Boss Groove. 5pm. Free.

BELTANA PARK, GOOGONG

With Heavy Heart II

Canberra’s own doom festival. Live music. $25 via Moshtix or $30 at the door.

TRANSIT BAR

Headfest

Fundraiser. With Autumn, Lifes Ill, Mindshank, Opressor, Staunch & More.

EXHIBITION PARK IN CANBERRA (EPIC)

Mother & Son

From the hit TV Series, brand new stage comedy. $75.90/$99.90. 4-11 Feb. CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

sunday february 8 Live Music Irish Jam Session

Traditional Irish musicians in the pub from late afternoon. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

On The Town

MAGPIES CITY CLUB

Free Pool at Transit

On The Town

TRANSIT BAR

Free pool tables. From 2pm.

$10 Express Lunch

Pizza & soft drink $10. 12pm-2pm.

Mon-Sat. TRANSIT BAR

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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Sun Feb 8 - Sat Feb 14 Something Different

Live Music

On The Town

Light Years

CJ Ramone

Playtime

Artists in conversation with Claire Capel-Stanley. 2pm. Free.

PHOTOACCESS MANUKA

Album launch. Supported by Hard Ons & No Assumption. 8pm. Tickets $34.70 from oztix.

TRANSIT BAR

monday february 9

Acoustic Soup

Line up TBC. $10.

Live Music

ANU FOOD CO-OP

Disparo

Live music. $5.

With Deathframes.

MAGPIES CITY CLUB

The Bootleg Sessions: Oslow/ Seahorse Divorce With Agency & Oxen. 8pm.

THE PHOENIX BAR

tuesday february 10 Karaoke Karaoke Love

Karaoke. 9pm. Free entry.

TRANSIT BAR

Trivia

Joel Havea

Top 40, Dance, RnB. 10pm. Free entry.

12 Feb - 1 March. Wed-Sun, 12-5pm.

Opening 12 Feb at 6pm. Free.

Theatre

On film: PhotoAccess members’ exhibition

TREEHOUSE BAR

Sweet Charity

Award winning musical. Info & tickets: canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ

friday february 13

On The Town $10 Express Lunch

Live Music

Pizza & soft drink $10. 12pm-2pm.

Mon-Sat.

Battle of the Bands Heat #1

Hump Day

TRANSIT BAR

TRANSIT BAR

Get over the hump with drink specials after 5pm.

TRANSIT BAR

The first heat of Transit Bar’s latest band comp. 8pm. Free entry.

Break Even

Endless Heights, Post Blue, Hopeless & more.

TREEHOUSE BAR

On The Town

Trivia and Orienteers with Bondy and Kiers

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

100 Seats Nights to Remember: Fred Smith

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

On film: PhotoAccess members’ exhibition Variety of artwork. 29 Jan- 22 Feb. Opening Thursday 29th Jan at 6pm.

Free.

PHOTOACCESS MANUKA

Pulse: Reflections on the Body

27 Aussie artists exploring shifts in understanding of what it is to be human. Until Feb 22.

CANBERRA MUSEUM AND GALLERY

The Bald Archie Prize 2015

Art competition. 6th Feb - 9th March.

10am-4pm. Entry $5.

WATSON ARTS CENTRE

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CANBERRA MUSEUM AND GALLERY

Contemporary Visions of Aboriginal Art

Warlpiri Artists curated by Catherine Jaktman. 12 Feb - 1 March. Wed-Sun. 12-5pm. Opening 12 Feb at M16 ARTSPACE

The Bald Archie Prize 2015

Art competition. 6th Feb - 9th March.

10am-4pm. Entry $5.

M16 ARTSPACE

Award winning musical. Info & tickets: canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

Art exhibition. 23 Jan - 15 Feb. Meet the artists 24 Jan. 2pm.

27 Aussie artists exploring shifts in understanding of what it is to be human. Until Feb 22.

WATSON ARTS CENTRE

Sweet Charity

Imaginarium

Pulse: Reflections on the Body

Variety of music genres. 9pm. Free Entry.

From the hit TV Series, brand new stage comedy. $75.90/$99.90. 4-11 Feb.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

Art Exhibitions

PHOTOACCESS MANUKA

Mother & Son

S.A.M.

Win cash prizes & bar tabs. 8pm.

wednesday february 11

Variety of artwork. 29 Jan- 22 Feb. Opening Thursday 29th Jan at 6pm.

Free.

MAGPIES CITY CLUB

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

THE PHOENIX BAR

M16 ARTSPACE

Theatre

Knightsbridge Trivia

Trivia 7.30pm.

Alchemists’ Paradise: Tommy Balogh

Only 100 seats available. 6.30pm.

Bookings $35 at 6248 2000.

The Other Side: Her Riot

12 Feb - 1 March. Wed-Sun. 12-5pm.

Opening 12 Feb at 6pm. Free.

Live Music Love Live Music

NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVES

With Mondecreen, Bruges, and more.

8pm. Free.

Art Exhibitions

Theatre

Harms Way

Alchemists’ Paradise: Tommy Balogh

Sweet Charity

thursday february 12

12 Feb - 1 March. Wed-Sun, 12-5pm.

Opening 12 Feb at 6pm. Free.

Award winning musical. Info & tickets: canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

M16 ARTSPACE

saturday february 14

Contemporary Visions of Aboriginal Art

Warlpiri Artists curated by Catherine Jaktman. 12 Feb - 1 March. Wed-Sun. 12-5pm. Opening 12 Feb at M16 ARTSPACE

The Other Side: Her Riot

12 Feb - 1 March. Wed-Sun. 12-5pm.

Opening 12 Feb at 6pm. Free.

M16 ARTSPACE

Live Music Mondecreen

With Fricker. 9pm. $5.

THE PHOENIX BAR

None Ben & Jerry’s Openair Cinemas

With live music every Saturday and Sunday. 18th Jan - 22nd Feb. Tickets at openaircinemas.com.au.

TRANSIT BAR

Legions, Forever Haggard, Higiene & Urge to Kill.

MAGPIES CITY CLUB

Thank You MA’AM

Presents Dom Dolla. 9pm. $10 before 11pm.

TREEHOUSE BAR

On The Town $10 Express Lunch

Pizza & soft drink $10. 12pm-2pm.

Mon-Sat. TRANSIT BAR

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA

Theatre

Art Exhibitions

Sweet Charity

Imaginarium

Art exhibition. 23 Jan - 15 Feb. Meet the artists 24 Jan. 2pm.

Award winning musical. Info & tickets: canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTR E

@bmamag

ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Sun Feb 15 - Tues Feb 24 sunday february 15 Live Music

On film: PhotoAccess members’ exhibition

Pulse: Reflections on the Body

friday february 20

27 Aussie artists exploring shifts in understanding of what it is to be human. Until Feb 22.

Variety of artwork. 29 Jan- 22 Feb. Opening Thursday 29th Jan at 6pm.

Free.

Live Music

Pulse: ` Reflections on the Body

Album launch. 9pm. $12/$15. Tickets at trybooking.com/GLNV.

Shameem

CANBERRA MUSEUM AND GALLERY

THE BASEMENT

We Go Home Tour. $44. 6.30pm.

27 Aussie artists exploring shifts in understanding of what it is to be human. Until Feb 22.

Warlpiri Artists curated by Catherine Jaktman. 12 Feb - 1 March. Wed-Sun. 12-5pm. Opening 12 Feb at

Something Different

Contemporary Visions of Aboriginal Art

MAGPIES CITY CLUB

The Smith Street Band

All Ages. With Pup, Great Cynics & Apart From This.

MAGPIES CITY CLUB

Adam Cohen THE ABBEY

Canberra Blues Society Jam

Hosted by The PJ O’Brien Band. 2pm. $3/$5.

HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB

Workshops Jam It

Jam with young musicians and professional musicians. Tues-Fri. 9am4pm. Multicultural festival gig 1 AINSLIE ARTS CENTRE

tuesday february 17

PHOTOACCESS MANUKA

CANBERRA MUSEUM AND GALLERY

Warlpiri Artists curated by Catherine Jaktman. 12 Feb - 1 March. Wed-Sun. 12-5pm. Opening 12 Feb at M16 ARTSPACE

Award winning musical. Info & tickets: canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

TRANSIT BAR

WATSON ARTS CENTRE

Groovin The ANU

Live Music

Hump Day

TREEHOUSE BAR

Get over the hump with drink specials after 5pm.

TRANSIT BAR

Award winning musical. Info & tickets: canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

thursday february 19 Live Music Barefoot Alley & Bonez

With Barren Spinsters. 8pm. Free entry.

Knightsbridge Trivia

On The Town

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

Art competition. 6th Feb - 9th March.

10am-4pm. Entry $5.

Lucrative

Trivia Win cash prizes & bar tabs. 8pm.

8pm. Free entry.

On The Town

Karaoke Love

Sweet Charity

The Bald Archie Prize 2015

Battle of the Bands Heat #2

On The Town

Sweet Charity

Theatre

M16 ARTSPACE

WATSON ARTS CENTRE

Karaoke

TRANSIT BAR

When Giants Sleep, Elegist, Failure, Traces & Honest Crooks.

The Bald Archie Prize 2015

Theatre

Karaoke. 9pm. Free entry.

Hand of Mercy

With The Feldons, Loud So Clear, Kitten Hurricane & Capes. 8pm. Free.

Art competition. 6th Feb - 9th March.

10am-4pm. Entry $5.

TRANSIT BAR

Playtime

Live music.

DURHAM CASTLE ARMS

The Gaps

DJ music. 9pm. Free Entry

With Midnight Cinderella and The Huskeys. 8pm. Free entry.

Theatre

On The Town

Sweet Charity

Sneaky: Surgin aka Steve Lising

TRANSIT BAR

Award winning musical. Info & tickets: canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

TREEHOUSE BAR

saturday february 21

Theatre

None

Sweet Charity

With live music every Saturday and Sunday. 18th Jan - 22nd Feb. Tickets at openaircinemas.com.au.

Something Different

The Other Side: Her Riot

The Other Side: Her Riot

Sweet Charity

M16 ARTSPACE

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

12 Feb - 1 March. Wed-Sun, 12-5pm.

Opening 12 Feb at 6pm. Free.

sunday february 22

Art Exhibitions

Art Exhibitions

Alchemists’ Paradise: Tommy Balogh

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA

Alchemists’ Paradise: Tommy Balogh

Award winning musical. Info & tickets: canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

Award winning musical. Info & tickets: canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

Ben & Jerry’s Openair Cinemas

Theatre

12 Feb - 1 March. Wed-Sun. 12-5pm.

Opening 12 Feb at 6pm. Free.

Sneaky Saturdays. Sneaking in the city’s finest DJs. $10 Cocktails before Midnight. 9pm. Free Entry.

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

12 Feb - 1 March. Wed-Sun. 12-5pm.

Opening 12 Feb at 6pm. Free.

TREEHOUSE BAR

Vendetta

ANU BAR AND REFECTORY

Top 40, Dance, RnB. 10pm. Free entry.

wednesday february 18

Contemporary Visions of Aboriginal Art

Light Years

Story share with Rip Publishing. 2pm.

Free.

M16 ARTSPACE

PHOTOACCESS MANUKA

tuesday february 24

12 Feb - 1 March. Wed-Sun, 12-5pm.

Opening 12 Feb at 6pm. Free.

M16 ARTSPACE

On film: PhotoAccess members’ exhibition Variety of artwork. 29 Jan- 22 Feb. Opening Thursday 29th Jan at 6pm.

Free.

Karaoke Karaoke Love

Karaoke. 9pm. Free entry.

TRANSIT BAR

PHOTOACCESS MANUKA

M16 ARTSPACE

OUT

feb 11

o week shenanigans clowns soundwave ...and more!

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FIRST CONTACT SIDE A: BMA band profile

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 Aria Stone sax/flute/lute/ harmonica, singer-songwriter Aria 0411803343

The Cross Bones Where did your band name come from? From a skull and crossbones ring our bass player wears. We just like skulls and crossbones! They go with the rockabilly/psychobilly scene.

Group members? George Jakovceski (guitar and vocals), Frank Piccolo (drums and backing vocals), James Newhouse (double bass and backing vocals).

Describe your sound: Full-Throttle Rockabilly.

Who are your influences, musical or otherwise? The Reverend Horton Heat, Gene Vincent, Stray Cats, Surf Instrumental music, Jazz, classic cars and motorcycles.

What’s the most memorable experience you’ve had whilst performing? Doing a soundcheck and filling the dance floor.

Of what are you proudest so far? Releasing our all original debut album Deadman’s Curve. Having people say they enjoy the album both here and overseas.

What are your plans for the future? Record our second album and travel to Melbourne to play some shows and play some rockabilly festivals.

What makes you laugh? Some of our song lyrics are pretty funny.

Australian Songwriters Association Keiran (02) 62310433 Back to the Eighties Ty Emerson 0418 544 014 Backbeat Drivers Steve 0422733974 backbeatdrivers.com Bat Country Communion, The Mel 0400405537 Birds Love Fighting Gangbusters/DIY shows-bookings@ birdslovefighting.com Black Label Photography Kingsley 0438351007 blacklabelphotography.net Bridge Between, The Cam 0431550005 Capital Dub Style Reggae/dub events Rafa 0406647296 Chris Harland Blues Band, The Chris 0418 490 649 chrisharlandbluesband @gmail.com Cole Bennetts Photography 0415982662 Danny V Danny 0413502428

What pisses you off? Not much, we are pretty laid back guys except when it comes to rocking out.

Dawn Theory Nathan 0402845132 Danny 0413502428

What about the local scene would you change? More venues like the Chop Shop.

Dorothy Jane Band, The Dorothy Jane 0411065189 dorothy-jane@dorothyjane.com

What are your upcoming gigs? Friday February 6 at Transit Bar supporting The Rumjacks and Friday February 13at the Canberra Multicultural Fringe festival.

Contact info: thecrossbones.com.au, facebook.com/ thecrossbones

Drumassault Dan 0406 375 997 Feldons, The 0407 213 701 FeralBlu Danny 0413502428 Fire on the Hill Aaron 0410381306 Lachlan 0400038388 Fourth Degree Vic 0408477020 Gareth Dailey DJ/Electronica Gareth 0414215885 Groovalicious Corporate/ weddings/private functions 0448995158

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In The Flesh Scott 0410475703 Itchy Triggers Alex 0414838480 Jenn Pacor Singer-songwriter avail. for originals/covers 0405618630 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 Missing Zero Hadrian 0424721907 hadrian.brand@live.com.au Moots Huck 0419630721 Morning After, The Covers band Anthony 0402500843 Mornings Jordan 0439907853 MuShu Jack 0414292567 mushu_band@hotmail.com Obsessions 0450 960 750 obsessions@grapevine.com.au Painted Hearts, The Peter (02) 62486027 Polka Pigs Ian (02) 62315974 Rafe Morris 0416322763 Redletter Ben 0421414472 Redsun Rehearsal Studio Ralph 0404178996/ (02) 61621527 Rug, The Jol 0417273041 Sewer Sideshow Huck 0419630721 Simone & The Soothsayers Singing teacher Simone 62304828 Sorgonian Twins, The Mark 0428650549 Soundcity Rehearsal Studio Andrew 0401588884 STonKA Jamie 0422764482 stonka2615@gmail.com Strange Hour Events Dan 0411112075 Super Best Friends greg greg@gunfever.com.au System Addict Jamie 0418398556 Tegan Northwood (Singing Teacher) 0410 769 144

Guy The Sound Guy Live & Studio Sound Engineer 0400585369 guy@guythesoundguy.com

Top Shelf Colin 0408631514

Haunted Attics band@hauntedatticsmusic.com

Zoopagoo zoopagoo@gmail.com

Undersided, The Baz 0408468041

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