BMA Magazine 467 - 15 July 2015

COVER DYLAN MORAN: PLEASE SIR I WANT INSIDE: DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE RATATAT QL2 RECKLESS VALOUR RELOAD BAR

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ROCKWIZ

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KING O MALLEYS LEUKEMIA CAMPAIGN 1

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KING O MALLEYS LEUKEMIA CAMPAIGN 2

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SYDNEY COMEDY FESTIVAL

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DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE

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THE DICKSON TRADIES

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BEYOND FESTIVAL

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RELOAD BAR

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popping in to showcase some tunes as well.

BIRTHDAY PRESENTS TO WARM THOSE EARS

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 E: advertising@bmamag.com

Editor Jeremy Stevens T: (02) 6257 4456 E: editorial@bmamag.com

Accounts Manager Peter Macie T: (02) 6247 4816 E: accounts@bmamag.com

Sub-Editor & Social Media Manager Andrew Nardi Graphic Design Chris Halloran Film Editor Emma Robinson NEXT ISSUE 468 OUT July 29 EDITORIAL DEADLINE July 22 ADVERTISING DEADLINE July 23 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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All hellosQuare followers are getting 20% of all orders until the end of July. If there is a release you’ve been eyeing off, something you’re hoping to pre-order, or you’re craving something fresh, now’s your chance. All you have to do is enter the code ‘hbd’ when checking out with your order via their BandCamp page, and the 20% discount will apply.

If that isn’t enough: spend over $50 and get a free CD of your choice, spend over $100 and get a free LP of your choice, and spend over $150 and get one of both! Don’t forget to add a note at checkout to say which ones you’d like.

So if you’re looking at rugging up and throwing on some tunes this winter, tell Spotify to go stick it for a bit, support these beautiful DIY folk, and treat your ears to some local delicacies. With releases from Cracked Actor, Raus, Agency, Spartak, A Drone Coda, and tonnes more, you’ll be set. Head on over to hellosquare.bandcamp.com and wish hellosQuare a happy birthday. Here’s to many more!

HOLY MOLY In the lead-up to the release of their indie-rockin’ debut album, When The Storms Would Come (out July 24), Aussies Holy Holy have announced a tour throughout August and September, and they’re passing through our fine, frozen winter wonderland to share some tunes.

SCRATCHIN’ THAT ITCH Need to get your dancing shoes out of the closet? Getting a feeling for some sweet tunes, a competitive atmosphere, and some top notch ACT talent?

You’re in luck. The heats for the DMC World DJ Championships are returning to Canberra again following last year’s run.

This time the ACT heat will be at Transit Bar on Friday August 28. Last year’s winner, DJ Scully, will defend his title, but if you think you’ve got the skills to pay the bills (or even just win the competition), get yourself on over to dmcdjchamps.com and enter that thing.

Even if you aren’t a dab hand at scratchin’ the decks and working the room, head along and find out what our territory has to offer. Doors are at 9pm, and there’ll be a set from DJ Total Eclipse as well (US - ITF Champion/The X-Ecutioners).

Presale tickets are through moshtix.

SANCHOS X BURRITOS Remember The Chop Shop?

‘Course ya do. Well now one of the people behind it, Sancho of Sancho’s Dirty Laundry, is joining forces with Beach Burrito in Civic, with the Dirty Laundry moving upstairs into a beautiful part retail, part gallery, part mini-bar space.

If the idea of burritos, gallery exhibitions, events, and some of the best art around the ACT

The opening exhibition at The Burrito Gallery will be exhibiting and selling work from Luke Brown, Nathan Mollison, David Pang, and Dean Johnson; Ill Gato will be DJing; there’ll be performances from Jimmy Pike, Jedrbii, and Genesis Owusu; and chilli fries and nachos will be going for a tenner each. Told you it sounds good. Get down to 181 City Walk on Thursday July 23, from 6pm-11pm.

WINNERS’ CORNER You lot are a funny bunch, which is partly why we don’t mind sorting out free things to throw your way every now and then.

We recently gave away a double pass to Of Mice & Men at The Playhouse, and asked you what you would do if you woke up one day to find half of your body was a mouse? Lower or upper half, it was your pick.

If upper half (and tackle is still in working order), cover upper half with sheet and squeak to the wife that I’m in the mood for action.

If lower half (and hands are still in working order), check the phone for Facebook updates, then search online for the symptoms I’m experiencing.

Priorities: Facebook first, symptoms second.

I’m hoping to wake up with my lower body transformed into a mouse - then my new tail can secretly assail people. Like smacking them in the back of the head when they need it! (It is Friday remember...).

Pure utilitarian acceptance. We like it.

If that doesn’t get you excited, to sweeten the deal, Melbourne’s own Fractures will be touring with ‘em, bringing his own melancholy, dark, swelling beats along for the ride – plus Sydney’s The Lulu Raes will be

HOLY MOLY, DAT BEARD. MMHMM.

Got a trim the other day. It took 15 minutes and cost me $30. Welcome to the end times, people. # 4 6 7 J u l y 1 5

Canberra’s native champions of everything sonically wonderful and special, hellosQuare, are celebrating another birthday – and they’re the ones giving us the presents? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

They’re all playing at Transit Bar on Friday September 18, so mark it in your diaries (or your phone, whatever – just don’t forget, ya hear me?). It’ll be a corker.

doesn’t get you excited – well, first, you’re probably reading the wrong magazine, but also – you’d best go get your pulse checked.

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FROM THE BOSSMAN We consume media in such wildly different ways these days, and the jury is out on whether it’s for better or worse.

As a child, the place to be of a Friday night was the local video store. While waiting for your Greasy Joe dinner (where no order could escape the shop without a fistful of potato scallops thrown in) our family would wander over to the cinematic lending emporium in an attempt to score a hotly contested New Release, stacked on impossibly high and impossibly long shelves.

It was a joyous routine. Landing a copy of Jurassic Park made the weekend. If you were late, your dinosaur fix would be relegated to The Land Before Time again. It was high stakes stuff. You would often run into friends and schoolmates in an equal film filching fever. And convincing your parents you would absolutelydefinitely clean the house over the weekend thus justifying a bag of Maltesers as payment up front was always a fun challenge.

It was about the Shared Experience; the idea that you and a good portion of your neighbourhood were settling down that evening to watch the same film at roughly the same time. It’s a feeling that extended to TV. My brother and I would drive our film-collecting Dad nuts whenever we watched a movie on the pictocube. The scene would play out thus… He would wander into the room - ascertain within ten seconds what we were watching - and declare he had that film on DVD and scuttle off to get it, amid our protestations. “But then you don’t have adverts,” he would sensibly argue. And it was utterly true. Yet it just wasn’t the same as watching it “live” with “other people”.

Weekly shows were great. Pre millennium, you didn’t have your fangled torrentz and Netflickers; you couldn’t just download and watch something ad hoc. If you wanted to see the latest X-Files, you damn well tuned in to BBC2 of 9pm of a Monday night.

YOU PISSED ME OFF! 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.]

If you think that your funny for driving up to pedestrian crossings really fast, EVEN WHEN you can see someone’s about to cross, you need to get out a bit more because it’s the stupidest shit going.

We have zebra crossings for a reason and its so people can cross the road safely and have a right of way. That means that YOU have to watch out for US at those and show us a little courtesy. it’s pretty bloody simple, so there’s no point revving your engine up like it’s no one’s business and seeing how late you can leave it to slow down. Just use the brakes a bit earlier so we know that your actually aware of the road rules and have more than one brain cell bouncing around up there. No ones cares about how souped up you think your little shitty tin box is. Bit of common courtesy, tossers.

BROTHER BE

This led to a trend known as Water Cooler Moments, when a part of a show was so dramatic or hilarious that when you were crowding around the office water cooler for the first drink of the day, you would eagerly natter away about it. This is now called Trending and isn’t nearly as much fun.

Now the Shared Experience comes in the form of live blogs and social media. Where once you would have a night’s sleep to ponder what you had just watched before enthusing about it in person the following day, now we have our heads buried in smartphones live tweeting more than actually watching the damn thing we’re meant to be talking about. Thinkpieces on a latest episode explode within minutes as we strain to keep up in an attempt to avoid the minefield of spoilers that await us online. FOMO is like a fever. A live thread after the fact is a cold and barren thing. The moment is gone. You’re trading off attention for connection.

Things change, of course, but one can’t help being slightly nostalgic for the good old days. Yes, it’s more convenient to rent a film from the comfort of your own home and often cheaper for the same, but at least it forced you out of the house to interact with people.

Among all this change our desire for the Shared Experience remains strong. There is a strange comfort from knowing that as I watch Kevin Owens plant a perfect top rope suplex on John Cena, there are myriad other fanboys popping with excitement at the same time. Enjoyable banalities around the water cooler or video store have been replaced by online dissection, analysis, over-analysis and insults in the now. It’s up to you whether you think that’s a good or bad thing. It’s certainly a thing.

ALLAN SKO - allan@bmamag.com

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WHO: JOSHUA SEYMOUR WHAT: ALBUM TOUR WHEN: FRI JUL 24 WHERE: THE FRONT

Storyteller, interpreter and captivator of audiences, Joshua Seymour has just released his debut album Rope Tied Hope to critical acclaim. Recorded in Argyle, Texas, the LP sees Seymour put his own Australian spin on Americana. His distinctive, enigmatic vocal style and unique take on fingerpicking on both guitar and mandolin should see this burgeoning talent considered one of Australia’s most exciting songwriters. With an honesty and frankness to his songs, Seymour has all the feel of a classic, older, rural performer. Entry is just $10. The tunes will start at about 7pm.

WHO: LATHAM’S GRIP, BROTHER BE, THE NADDIKS WHAT: TOUR WHEN: FRI JUL 24 WHERE: TRANSIT BAR

With new material just around the corner, Latham’s Grip are gearing up for their east coast tour of Australia. Word is that this tour will feature a selection of new songs from their upcoming record, and so the tour is appropriately titled ‘It’s Time’. The stopover in Canberra will also be their first show of the tour – so it’s sure to hit the hardest. They’ll be supported by Brother Be and The Naddiks.

You can rock up as early as 8pm. And what in life is better than free admission? Very little, that’s what.

WHO: ROSHAMBO, SUAVESS, INDIGHOST, D’OPUS WHAT: CHECK YOUR HEAD! WHEN: WED JUL 29 WHERE: THE PHOENIX

‘Check Your Head!’ is a new monthly hip-hop/beats event starting at The Phoenix this month. On the last Wednesday of every month, The Phoenix will host local hip-hop artists, beatmakers, DJs and MCs keen to deliver new and interesting sounds to the public. With future plans including beatmaker nights, performer guests, up-andcoming artists, scratch DJ showcases and more. This night aims to cater to the creative side of hip-hop and beatmaking artists from around Australia. The first installment includes Roshambo, Suavess, Indighost and resident D’Opus.

WHO: LEPERS AND CROOKS WHAT: TOUR WHEN: THU JUL 30 WHERE: TRANSIT BAR

Five-piece rock outfit Lepers and Crooks just finished up their epic four-month, 60-date tour of Australia to support the release of their Her Kiss EP. Their big rock sound is heavily influenced by classic rock and psychedelic, but with a few mixed modern flavours. Now they’re on the road once again, this time for the ‘Through Gypsy Eyes’ tour, which will see the band testing out material from their upcoming debut album before going back into the studio to fire up the recording process. Tickets are $15 through Moshtix. Make sure you’re there by 8pm.

WHO: HAU WHAT: SINGLE TOUR WHEN: FRI JUL 31 WHERE: TRANSIT BAR

Best known as the frontman of the ARIA award-winning duo Koolism, Hau is hitting the road to tour his first single ‘KILL.I.AM’, taken off his debut solo album, The No End Theory. The single is inspired by the frontman of a certain multi-platinum selling quartet, and in a sense, his progression from an underground hip-hop head to a mega popstar. Would you dance with the devil in order to experience the taste of success? This is what Hau asks through lyrics delivered in an effortless, laid-back flow. Tickets are $15 through Moshtix. The doors will open at 8pm.

WHO: ALLDAY, TKAY MAIDZA,FORTAFY, SLUMBERJACK, PACES, PLUS MORE. WHAT: SNOWTUNES 2015 WHEN: SAT AUG 15 WHERE: LAKE JINDABYNE

Enhanced by the scenic backdrop of Lake Jindabyne, Snowtunes 2015 will feature an eclectic lineup of artists and DJs, a variety of bars, carnival rides and additional attractions. From awardwinning duo Hermitude, chart-topping rapper Allday, hip-hop darling Tkay Maidza, leading social media icon and rapper Fortafy, Perth outfit Slumberjack, MC Losty, Northie, Paces, Bad Decisions feat. Konvex and MTV Club Tour act Kronic, the inaugural music event is promised to be a bespoke Europeanstyle festival in the heart of the snowy wilderness. More information and ticketing details are available via snowtunes.com.au.

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KINNE

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ALLAN SKO You suspect beloved British comedy Black Books has a permanent place in the annals of Chuckledome. The first episode - which, shameless brag point, I was in the studio audience for - was broadcast at the turn of the millennium and 15 years on is still as funny and quotable as ever. It is a shining achievement, so it is no wonder co-creator, writer and star DYLAN MORAN seems forever attached to it. Even the promotional poster for his upcoming Off The Hook stand-up tour screams, “Black Books’ Dylan Moran!”.

filled with his usual acerbic wit and cheeky observations, his 2012 tour saw a somewhat miserable man adorn the stage, spending the first 15 minutes of the set brutally ripping into Canberra. The 2013 show - when you sensed repeat audience members were bracing themselves for the deluge - found him in a positively breezy mood, full of smiles and, dare I say it, impish Irish charm.

“I don’t remember how I was either time,” he admits. “It’s a very extraordinary relationship. I guess we’ll just have to see how Canberra and I get along when I’m there.”

But - 11 years since the final episode aired - does he wish people would move on?

With the regular stand-up cycle and numerous writing projects on the boil, I ask if the man has a set plan for the years ahead.

“You know what, Allan, I really don’t mind,” he says, in that charming drawly-Irish of his. “It’s not up to me; people remember whatever they remember. We made a good comedy and the world needs a good comedy. I think we want relief from the black rain of reality a lot of the time.”

“No, I don’t have that level of authorisation or organisation,” he dryly quips. “I just try to get through every day. I’ve never had a plan. I concentrate on what I enjoy and I want to make people laugh. Everyone likes laughing, including me, so reading funny stuff and writing funny stuff takes up my time. I don’t sit around just looking for funny things. It’s like building the Great Wall of China except it’s never done. You just keep adding on for no reason and then you’re dead. So why ask questions. It’s time to pick up more stones and glue them together.”

What about repeated requests to do another series? “Doesn’t really bother me,” he says. “I mean it’s not going to happen, obviously, because it was such a long time ago, but people forget that because they see me in front of their screen and go, ‘That was good... Are there any more?’ But yeah that’s not happening.

… we’ll just have to see how Canberra and I get along

“I don’t mind that,” he continues, when talking about fan interaction. “These people spend a lot of time in front of screens and get a slight surprise because you’re somebody from the screen on the street. I think what happens is they’ve seen someone on the screen, then they see someone on the street and that’s why they take out their phone - they have to take a picture because they need you back on the screen.”

On being back on screen, it seems we won’t have to wait too long.

“I’m working on a couple of pilots, a series, and I’ve also got some other longer term goals,” he says, unable to elaborate further at this stage.

But for now it’s back to Dylan’s bread and butter in stand-up. Much like Ross Noble or Bill Bailey, no two shows are the same. Whereas other comedians will have a rigid set, or “act” as Jerry Seinfeld likes to call it, Dylan often flies off the cuff.

“A show is like an album,” he says. “You try to play most of the songs, but I don’t know what order I’m going to do it in, I don’t know what’s going to come out, I don’t know how it’s going to go – I don’t do it the same way every night. If I did I would go crazy.

“You’ve got to react to where you are; there might have been news stories that caught your attention or maybe it’s the place itself, or somebody there, or something going on in your own life. Every day is different.”

Now in his mid-40s, Dylan casts aside the idea of being any kind of sage of the scene, be it on stage orin interviews.

“I’m still learning,” he admits. “I’m still trying to get it right. I don’t know what I’m doing. I never knew what I was doing. With interviews, sometimes you’ve got somebody asking you questions - you know what it’s like when people ask you questions, a lot of the time you haven’t thought about the answers. It puts you on the spot and demands you justify this and that. And of course you can’t. Because you just bluff your way through the day. That’s why politicians look uncomfortable most of the time. They haven’t thought about what they’re doing. They’re just hoping they get away with it. They’re in denial like the rest of us.

“That’s why they try to capitalise on each other’s shortcomings,” he continues. “Abbott was doing stuff because Bill Shorten didn’t tell the truth and Bill Shorten did that thing and so on and on it goes, every day. I don’t have to rely on anybody else so I can be completely honest with the fact that I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t have to apologise for that. I’m never going to know what I’m doing because if I did I’d get depressed. [If you don’t know what you’re doing] it means you’re winning.”

Dylan Moran’s Off The Hook Royal Theatre show is sold out, but there are still tickets available for his Friday August 14, 8pm appearance at the Canberra Theatre Centre. $79.90 - 89.90 from canberratheatrecentre.com.au/show/dylan-moran-off-the-hook

On reacting to where you are, I mention to the man that his last two Canberra shows were a tale of two Dylans. Whilst undoubtedly

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A STATE OF GRACE

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LOCALITY

Initially this fortnight looked quiet, but then BAM! Canberra’s music scene pounced, once again proving that even in the depths of winter, there are still plenty of hot local gigs and releases going around.

When it comes to supporting local music, The Phoenix is arguably one of the best venues in town, but this fortnight they’re really going above and beyond! It all starts on Monday July 20 at 8pm when the Bootleg Sessions fire up once again, with a line-up that includes Young Monks, Beneath Benetta, Jack Biilman and Tom Woodward, and you’ll be able to see them all without paying a cent.

Then on Thursday July 23 from 9pm, you’ll be able to catch The Gypsy Scholars and guests for a measly $5. Head back again on Monday July 27 for another Bootleg Sessions from 8pm, with Kevin

Windross Band, Mister Monday, Bleach It Clean and GreenPegs, again costing you absolutely zero dollars. Just when you think it’s all done and dusted, you’ll be able to wrap-up your fortnight (or start the next one) by heading along to their new monthly event, Check Your Head. It’s on Wednesday July 29 from 8pm, with $5 bringing you plenty of beats, rhymes and local music joy from the likes of D’Opus & Roshambo, Indighost vs. Suavess and plenty more surprise guests. It might not be an institution just yet, but it definitely looks like one to keep an eye out for in the months ahead!

Returning after a sizeable break, Moochers Inc. are warming up ahead of their video clip launch next month by playing Hippo Co on Wednesday July 15 from 8:30pm. There’s no word on cover charge, but it’s definitely worth swinging by for some cheeky tunes that will warm even the most frozen of Canberran hearts, setting your frostbitten toes tapping.

On Friday July 24, Brother Be will take to the Transit Bar stage, bringing along Latham’s Grip and The Naddiks to join in the fun. Entry is free, with the indie folk rock smorgasbord kicking off at 8:30pm.

So get there early to make sure you don’t miss a minute!

In recording news, there are a couple of Canberran names you may know who have dropped new recordings in the last couple of weeks. SAFIA have a new single out, which is sure to be blazing a trail through triple j’s playlists over the next little while.

‘Embracing Me’ opens with a smooth vocal and synth, filled out with some gorgeous harmonies before shifting into blippy, happy sounds that will have you bouncing around the room like popcorn in a cooker, before falling into a dreamy instrumental and back again. Hear the track for yourself at soundcloud.com/ safia-music/safia-embracing-me.

The capital’s queens of the mic, Coda Conduct have also got a new single, and I have to say that ‘Paint It Gold’ is possibly my favourite of their tunes so far. There’s a bit more of an Afro-sounding beat and the funk levels have really been cranked up, and it’s just goddamn magnificent.

Get it in your earholes by visiting triplejunearthed.com/artist/codaconduct. Finally, if you have a story or gig you’d like to see in here, drop me a line: nonijdoll@gmail.com.

NONI DOLL NONIJDOLL@GMAIL.COM / @ NONIJDOLL

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NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM MYSTERY

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It really feels like an inspired time for us

THE SOUND OF SETTLING IAN MCCARTHY DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE? More like Death Cab For Beauty – beautiful men, beautiful music and a beautiful interview. Arguably one of the most influential indie rock groups of the 2000’s, Death Cab have recently released their eighth full length studio album and are currently gearing up for a set at Splendour in the Grass and a subsequent Australian tour, which includes a show right here in Canberra. Bassist and founding member, Nick Harmer, took some time to talk with us about the making of their latest release, Kintsugi.

One of the most important pieces of information surrounding the recording of Kintsugi has to do with guitarist and longtime producer Chris Walla’s decision to leave the band in September 2014. On the subject of a post-Chris Cab, Harmer says, “You know, it’s been really fun. I don’t want to say that and make it sound like it wasn’t fun with Chris. Like, we’ve had good memories and good shows with Chris too, but I really love the guys [touring members Dave Depper and Zac Rae] that we’re playing with right now. They’re really talented musicians and they’re excited. We’re excited and it really feels like an inspired time for us.”

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Harmer also spoke on the subject of making a record for the first time without Walla as producer. “The thing that’s remarkable to me about making this record is that we used a producer that wasn’t in the band, and all the perspective and objectivity that [producer Rich Costey] brought to that process was absolutely necessary for us, and really helped sculpt and make this record what it is,” Harmer says. “In most bands, their guitarist is not the producer of the albums they make, so we’ve been living and working in a very odd relationship for the bulk of our career – having Chris in the band, and also being our producer.”

On the novelty and rarity of having worked with an in-band producer for so long, Harmer says, “It’s only now that we’re doing things the way a lot of other bands have done them – and we realise how odd and strange it was to have Chris play guitar, and then suddenly become the producer…”

Known for sometimes experimenting with different recording processes, Harmer also talked about some of the processes behind recording Kintsugi. “I think it was a little bit song-by-song on the new record… you know [Chris] not being the producer this time definitely freed him up to be more of an active musician,” he says. “So, we did a lot of tracking on Kintsugi with the four of us in the room, sitting around, all playing live and sorting stuff out.” Elaborating on later parts of the process, Harmer said, “Those days of us [live-tracking] were more about getting the foundation and the skeleton of the songs together, and then we would go off and overdub and throw bells and whistles at it and kind of make all of the other sorts of flourishes on top. So it was kind of a hybridized version of [the recording process].”

Death Cab For Cutie will be touring Australia through late July to early August.

They will be playing in Canberra at ANU Bar on Thursday July 30. Tickets are available through Ticketek.

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AUSSIE ROCK TRIBUTE NIGHT

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like more rappers are spitting pre-written and rehearsed verses.

Regardless of how you feel about the whole thing, cyphers featuring Kidd Kidd, K Camp, Tink, Raury, Goldlink, OG Maco, and Vince Staples are up and about on YouTube and are worth checking out.

THE REALNESS Love it or loathe it, it’s the time of year that sees the XXL Freshman Cypher come around with another attempt at introducing the world-at-large to a new crop of rap talent. While the magazine is sometimes criticised for championing new artists too late after their arrival (see Chance the Rappers’ inclusion in the 2014 version), the iconic magazine’s cypher is the ideal method of showcasing new talent, and for listeners it’s a quick and easy method to determine if it’s worth going out and downloading an artist’s earlier mixtapes.

Putting a bunch of largely new faces in a room to rap over a live beat would seem like a recipe for disaster, but in recent times it seems

Adding to the plethora of internet-streaming sites, Apple Music launched earlier this week. As part of the launch, Beats 1 Radio began broadcasting on July 4. For hip-hop fans, this could potentially add an exciting avenue for connecting with your favourite artists, as the platform will host shows from a variety of big names in the industry. Weekly shows from Run The Jewels, record label Soulection, Zane Lowe, Pharrell, Drake and Dr. Dre are all set to star. Depending on your perspective, this could be an easy way of locating new sources of musical inspiration, or a symptom of the lazy, spoon-fed nature of modern musical fandom, acting as an alternative to actually going out and having to look for new music yourself.

If you are actually into going out and finding new (or old) music and you’re a fan of the crate-digging and soul-sampling hip-hop tradition, The Old Canberra Inn has launched Vinyl Sessions, a new weekly event on Friday nights aimed at lovers of vinyl. Launched on June 12, Vinyl Sessions has only recently come to my attention and features a rotation of Canberra’s best vinyl DJs, such as JEMIST and D’Opus spinning rare and classic funk, soul, R&B, rockabilly, rock ‘n’ roll and reggae picks.

The rise in popularity of grime (an offshoot of jungle and garage) outside the UK in the past year is testament to both the historic and modern relationship between elements of hip-hop and dance music.

Increasingly, artists such as Skepta, JME and Stormzy have been gaining international recognition outside of the UK, building on the foundations established by those who have already achieved overseas success, like Dizzee Rascal. While making beats immersed in trap – rather than jungle and garage – the success of Aussie producer UV Boi is testament to the popular overlap between dance and hip-hop. UV Boi will be plying his trade at Mr Wolf on Friday July 17 in support of his recently released single, ‘LUV’ featuring Brisbane singer Fionn Richards. Having caught an extremely energetic performance from him a few months back as a support for Tkay Maidza in Sydney, I can vouch that this should be worth the price of admission.

BRADY MCMULLEN realness.bma@gmail.com

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TIME TO LEVEL UP GUS MCCUBBING Ravi Sharma and James Andrews met through The Barracks internet café and got to talking. They had realised that drinking and gaming with friends now go hand-in-hand, and wanted to start a place where people could do just that. That place now exists: RELOAD BAR. “No longer is video gaming the preserve of teenage boys,” Sharma begins. “There’s a whole range of ages that are interested in video gaming in its different forms. We thought there would be an appetite for it and when we opened, we realised there definitely is.”

The bar’s focus on eSports reflects its phenomenal rise in popularity across the globe.

“They like the atmosphere, they like the crowd here – it’s a really comfortable environment. Everyone is just here to have a good time. So we never have any trouble. They’ll play games, but a lot of them just come to mingle and hang out on Friday and Saturday nights.”

We knew it would be critical for us to be a strong bar

“Last year, the Dota 2 International went to $10 million, and it’s gonna be fifteen this year.

You win the US Masters and you don’t get that much money; you win the French Open and you don’t get that much money. But you get that for playing Dota 2…”

Andrews says that as gaming has become more accepted, it’s also become more professional.

“It’s funny thinking about the humble days – you see the photographs of the old LANs and the old computers with big CRT screens and a bunch of kids playing… and now it’s multi-million dollar events with sponsors and commentators called ‘shoutcasters’ – the whole kit and caboodle.”

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However, Reload Bar is by no means just a city refuge for Canberra’s hardcore gamers. For a lot of his customers, says Sharma, the “game-playing can be a bit secondary.”

“The troublemakers,” Sharma says with a wry smile, “the reasons why they go out… we just don’t have those things in here.”

Beyond the relaxed atmosphere, Reload Bar also offers its punters a mix of gaming-themed cocktails. These include the Falcon Punch, Chun-Li Iced Tea, Princess Peach, Sonic Shot, and the Los Santos Sunrise.

“We knew it would be critical for us to be a strong bar, not just a novelty bar with video games,” says Andrews. “So we pride ourselves on our drinks a lot. Our head bartender has created some amazing cocktails.”

What next for Reload Bar? Sharma and Andrews tell me that the big thing on their horizon now is a retro gaming season.

“We’ve got some original cabinets from 1979, 1982, 1983 – the likes of which some of our customers have never seen before. We’re gonna combine those old things with the new way: we’re gonna plug them into our HD screens and we’re gonna stream out the tournaments on to Twitch channels. We’re gonna mash 1979 and 1982 with 2015.”

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DANCE THE DROP

Well, Tim Galvin did warn me. After many years at the helm of this fine column, he’s moved on to greener pastures in Sydney (or at least more gridlocked ones, and some lockout laws). So, he’s passed Dance the Drop on to me, and I must say, I’m pretty stoked about it!

I moved to Canberra for uni in 2007, and promptly fell in love with the city, despite the cold, the grey buildings and the lack of dedicated techno nights. I myself spin some music from time to time; so being able to write about dance music in our city is a huge honour.

As is tradition, there’ll be a different rant about some aspect of dance music or clubbing culture in each issue, with mentions of tracks you should check out or gigs to go to.

But I can’t do this alone. This is your column, Canberra dance community. So, if you’re a DJ, a producer, a promoter or even just a punter – get in touch! Send me some music you’ve been digging, or a story about an epic gig you went to. I want to hear your thoughts about the local scene, both good and bad.

In the meantime, here’s some events to keep you warm.

Brisbane producer UV Boi will be hitting Canberra as part of his first national tour on Friday July 17, at Mr Wolf. His style is an eclectic mix of cut-up trap beats, IDM and dubby vibes. Recently profiled on triple j, UV Boi will be promoting his new single ‘LUV’. Support

by Mighty Morfin and Ventures. If you prefer your beats in 4x4, intergalactic and starting at 145 beats per minute, head down to Digress instead for Space Jam, featuring Dr Dom, Grendle, Dugga Doug, JBraham Lincoln and DrawWard, who’ll bring the psychedelic trance vibes. Dress up as an alien or other suitable creature from the galactic realm for free entry to future events! $10 on the door.

Also on the 17th, Yolanda Be Cool will grace Academy nightclub – they’ve spent a lot of time in Ibiza and Berlin recently, so hopefully they’ll bring some summer warmth! Supported by Megan Bones, Exposure and Thryve.

On Saturday July 18, Box Cutter and Sydney club Sidechains will join forces to bring you Lime In The Coconut: Part 5, with Recluse (VIC) and Pr!ntz. Keep your ears to the underground (or just check Facebook) to find details on this super secret gig.

Remember electro house duo Bag Raiders? They’re back with a new single ‘Vapour Trails’ (due to feature on a new album coming this summer), and will be appearing at Mr Wolf to celebrate on Friday July 24. Support from Veneris, Hudak and Skinny. If you’re up for something a bit more hectic, Academy will play host to Melbourne bounce standard-bearer Joel Fletcher, with support by Luke Jaimes, Menttis and Project M. Go and support your local scene – there’s heaps going on in this fine city of ours. Until next time, peace.

PETER ‘KAZUKI’ O’ROURKE contact@kazuki.com.au

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those marking the fridge calendar.

METALISE Buried in Verona have had a tumultuous couple of months after a big line-up change at the end of 2014 – something their press release described as being “deceived by those they trusted most and staring oblivion in the face”. Well obviously they stared it down, because they wrote and recorded a new album through UNFD entitled Vultures Above, Lions Below, which was mixed by Swedish mastermind Frederick Nordstrom. The band announced a national tour with Sydney’s Hand of Mercy and Polaris. They’re dropping by the Magpies in the city on September 20, which is a Sunday for

Purveyors of “true Scottish pirate metal” (sigh) Alestorm seem to like Australia. Late last year they released Sunset on the Golden Age, and they’re coming back for another round with Brisbane band Largerstein. The tour hits Manning Bar in Sydney on Saturday November 28. The tour is presented by Soundworks, under the moniker of Piratefest.

Thy Art Is Murder unleashed their controversial Holy Wars release in June, and have announced their national tour in support of it. We’re not getting one of the shows, but if any young mosh warriors are keen for a trip up to Sydney, the good news is their gig is licensed all ages.

It’s on at the Factory Theatre on Saturday October 17. The national supports are the very busy Colossvs, Feed Her To The Sharks and Aversions Crown.

Aussie melodic death dudes Orpheus Omega are just about to drop their third album Partum Vita Mortem on Kolony records, due on Friday July 24. They put a video together for their track Karma Favours the Weak, which you can suss out on YouTube. It demonstrates some tasty chops, varied vocal approaches and some brutal keytar application.

They bring all this and more to the Basement on Saturday August 8. Along for the good times are Immorium and Hadal Maw. Probably jot down Whoretopsy’s Tearing Australia Apart tour, which will come to the Basement with supports to be announced closer. Friday September 11 is the date.

Bolt Thrower isn’t far off now, with their Factory Theatre show selling quickly for Saturday December 26. Don’t be caught unprepared for battle!

Toxic Holocaust were supposed to play in Canberra with Iron Regan earlier in the year, however that fell through with some heat thrown the promoters way. In any case, if you were still keen, they’ve announced a smaller run of four shows with Bullet Belt from New Zealand, with the Sydney show landing at the Bald Faced Stag on Saturday October 10.

And why not hit the Hume two weeks in a row for something a little more classical metal, with the amazing power metal of Helloween hitting the Metro Theatre in Sydney on Friday October 16?

JOSH NIXON doomtildeath@hotmail.com

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GOOD FOR THE SOUL DAN BIGNA Given that innovation in popular music has now become a rarity, it is amazing that it only took the Beatles 12 months to travel from the bouncy pop harmonies on ‘Drive My Car’ – the opening song on the band’s 1965 album Rubber Soul – to the psychedelic mindblow on ‘Tomorrow Never Knows,’ which closes Revolver, an album that drastically expanded the musical experimentation begun the previous year. The effect was immediate with The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson declaring that Rubber Soul’s thematic cohesiveness was the inspiration for his own masterpiece Pet Sounds, which elevated pop music to the highest art.

You subconsciously learn a lot from performing these songs

This extraordinary music has also impacted on successive generations of Australian musicians, including indie rock band Kingswood, whose vocalist Fergus Linacre will be joining singer-songwriters Jordie Lane and Marlon Williams, as well as Melbourne band Husky’s vocalist Husky Gawenda, to recreate both Beatles albums back-to-back, on stage with a 17-piece band.

This undertaking – RUBBER SOUL REVOLVER – is harder than it looks, as The Beatles’ music can be deceptively complex in arrangement and chord structure. But Linacre expects that enthusiasm for the songs will overcome any limitations with technique. “Rubber Soul is a favourite Beatles record,” he says. “I love ballads like ‘Michelle’ and ‘Girl’. I also love all the big, crazy psychedelic sounds they went on to, but there’s something really pure about those little love songs that weren’t your basic standards. The arrangements can be quite strange and the harmonies quite complex, but that’s part of the fun.”

Although there is an inevitable element of wistful nostalgia that comes with revisiting classic albums from times past, there is nevertheless something fresh and new about this show. The organisers have taken a chance by bringing in younger Australian artists who have begun forging inroads with their own music, but Linacre says the rapport between the four main performers was evident from the start.

“When we first got together to do some rehearsals, we all got on really well and the pressure went away really quickly. We played through Rubber Soul and Revolver with two guitars and the four of us singing, and at first I was a bit concerned about what I was getting myself into, but then it just felt great.” Linacre is keen to point out that the group won’t simply be performing faithful renditions of these much beloved songs, but will be putting their own stamp on first-class music from which there is a lot to discover. “You subconsciously learn a lot from performing these songs,” he says. “Playing them on a stage with a 17-piece band is an experience that will stick with me. I think I’ll learn a lot from the other musicians and I’ll hopefully be able to bring some of that wisdom back to Kingswood. I’m also looking forward to having a lot of fun.”

Rubber Soul Revolver will come to Canberra Theatre on Thursday August 6.

The show will commence at 8pm. Tickets are available through Ticketek.

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venue, was “busted” by a team of ACT police officers for having eleven underage patrons on its premises during a performance by Hand of Mercy, a high-profile Australian hardcore band, on June 28.

This issue, I’d like to break the traditional format of this column to address an issue that I believe has a deep impact on a large part of the punk community. The issue has to do with the Magpies City Club, which has been frequently mentioned in this column, as it has been an increasingly prominent venue in the local punk and hardcore scenes over the past two years. The club, which has safely and successfully hosted countless licensed, all ages events since it’s conception as a live music

Now, before I continue this rant, it is important to note that the venue’s legitimacy as a licensed, all ages venue is a somewhat contentious grey area. That being said, in my frequent experience at the venue, there have always been multiple precautions put in place to ensure underage patrons were never served alcohol. On that point, I think it is also important to note that not a single one of the eleven underage patrons “caught” in the venue were found to have any alcohol in their system, which not only means that they were not served alcohol inside the venue, but also that they were responsible and respectful enough not to be under the influence upon entry.

The point is this, though the law may have been inadvertently broken, neither party had any malicious intent. The venue merely wanted to be as inclusive as possible and offer a chance for the youth of Canberra, who often miss out on the opportunity to take part in the live music scene, to see some good bands. The underage patrons merely wanted a chance to responsibly support some prominent local and Australian artists. For me, the most devastating part of this whole ordeal is the potential loss of a great all-ages venue in Canberra, and the fact that venue sanctions are making it so increasingly difficult for artists to reach what is often their most passionate and supportive demographic.

The club is continuing operations as a live music venue, however all scheduled events for the time being will be exclusively 18+. The venue’s promoter and booking agent, Joel Cabban, does wish to add, “While we can no longer advertise shows as ‘all ages’, we are looking into our options to carry on as a totally inclusive venue.”

I would like to take this opportunity to encourage anyone who can to show the venue as much love and support as possible over the coming weeks.

Magpies has quickly become a staple of the local punk scene and one thing is for sure: punks don’t go down without a good fight!

Anyway, apologies for the lack of gig tips in this issue’s column. If you’re looking for upcoming shows, you can still check out the BMA entertainment guide online, or in the back of this very magazine! I promise to return to the usual formatting next issue.

IAN McCARTHY

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STARBOUND RORY MCCARTNEY BEN SALTER is a busy bloke, involved in Giants of Science (rockers on the heavy side), The Gin Club (folk rock), The Wilson Pickets (country/ blues) and Young Liberals (drone/hardcore). He started out as a solo artist some 15 years ago, and it’s to a solo career that he has now returned.

Salter still maintains occasional band involvements. Asked how he splits his time, he says, “It’s just scheduling. I have to work out things three months in advance because that’s the way it goes. It’s a juggling act.” Those bands give free reign to the different aspects of Salter’s musical persona.

When asked which band was most influenced by his personal style however, he replies, “None of them really do, that’s why I do the solo stuff.”

But if it rains, we’re stuffed, because of the tin roof

Salter’s music crosses borders, lifting features of pop, rock, jazz and electronica. Five years after his debut album The Cat, he has recognised elements of growth in his material. “Since I made that album, I’ve matured rapidly in my singing. I made a conscious decision to make my voice more natural – closer to my speaking voice, with my vowels more Australian.”

The latest album – The Stars My Destination – was built on the output of a European visit, achieved with the help of the Australia Council. Apart from gigging, Salter used the experience to generate material for both an EP and his album. “I was able to do collaborations with people. It was fantastic, as I got 40 to 50 songs over about three months. I’m hoping to go back next year.” Of the songs, Salter knew five were certainties for the LP, with a pool of about 15 more to choose from. He used the input of the band during the recording process to select the winners. “The process was a bit organic and a little bit premeditated, I guess. Some songs, I had a clear idea of what I wanted; to sound just like that. But only about half the band had an input.”

The album was captured in an uninsulated building, at a remote property near Rockhampton. “The landscape, the feel of the place and the fact that it’s hard to get mobile reception did influence the recording process. The space was ours. The mood influences the technique and the technique influences the result,” he explains. “But if it rains, we’re stuffed, because of the tin roof.” The other competition came from animals. “At dusk, the birds in the tree next to the studio are loud and you can hear cows in the yard.”

Asked about his favourite song, Salter nominates the title track, written with Aaron Cupples. “I had this title but no idea musically how I wanted it to be, except the structure should be based on a Velvet Underground song. Three hours later we had this song, which keeps growing in depth for me.”

Ben Salter plays The Front at 8pm on Saturday July 25. Supported by Ben Lawless. Tickets are $20 at the door.

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BAZ RUDDICK Few bands can lay claim to the sort of self-directed success of RATATAT. With a visual live show that takes the audience into another world, and a revolutionary sound that combines infectious melodies and driving beats into an auditory experience, the New York duo have managed to maintain integrity despite their commercial success, while also honing their unique and complex sound. With no releases for five years, the pair have finally come out with their fifth album, Magnifique. I spoke to one half of the band – Evan Mast – about the process of recording, some of the songs on the new album, maintaining control of your output and the eternal pursuit for timelessness.

This pursuit of timelessness is exemplified with the album’s singular cover track – Springwater’s 1971 song ‘I Will Return’. “He has a great feel for melody,” Mast says. “He even does ‘Amazing Grace’ on that album. So these are melodies that would have been satisfying a hundred years ago and they are still satisfying now. I love that. I love that quality.”

It’s like looking at what those sounds could have been if they hadn’t died out

“That was a pain in the ass!” Mast tells me when I ask about the clip for Magnifique’s first single, ‘Abrasive’. The hand-drawn video features a technique called ‘rotoscoping’. “I remember the first day, I drew for five hours straight and made about half a second of video,” he tells me. “I thought, ‘there is no way I can do this’.

Somehow I got addicted and I couldn’t stop, and several months later I finished it!” Disappearing into a rotoscope wormhole seems to be symbolic for the way Ratatat do things – tirelessly, and to their own tune. From album covers, videos and stage visuals, Evan Mast and Mike Stroud are ultimately responsible.

Ratatat’s fifth original album, Magnifique, is the product of tireless ‘re-doings’. While their earlier records may have come more naturally, the duo took on a perfectionist approach to create an album that was timeless and melodically driven. “There were times when we would put together a song and be really excited about it, because it maybe had some interesting trick or sound in it. But when we came back to it a couple of months later, the songwriting wasn’t totally there,” Mast says. “A lot of times, we would discard tracks and re-do them a month later or something.

We were hard on ourselves.”

This process of ‘re-doing’ was in the pursuit of a timeless quality.

“The melodies had to feel classic and like they were going to stand the test of time,” Mast says. “Who knows if we will be around in fifty years or whatever, but that is kind of what we are aiming for. It has always been a goal of ours to have melody as our foundation.”

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The album’s first single, ‘Abrasive’, begins as a repetitive, methodical strumming of guitar and builds into a denseness that Mast describes as “guitars on steroids”. “Every section we wrote had to live up to the rest of the song; if it didn’t, we would scrap it and try something else. There were a lot of parts to that song that got deleted,” Mast says. “It has this retro, gritty, degraded sound in the beginning. As it progresses it sort of gets more and more hi-fi and fills in these frequencies.”

While Ratatat’s first two albums were primordial and beat-heavy, and their second two sonically experimental, the writing process shifted on Magnifique to a plateau of “whatever worked”. “There isn’t really a formula for us now. A lot of songs used to start out with a drum track,” Mast says. “[The title track] ‘Magnifique’ started with a string part, and then we added the beat over time.

You get different ideas when you do it in a different order like that.

If you start with the melody, then you usually end up with beats that are kind of simpler.”

Largely known for their electronic sounds, Magnifique saw Ratatat experimenting with acoustic methods of obtaining sound.

They decided to utilise lap steel guitars after witnessing the “insane lap steel virtuosos” of Pete Drake and Buddy Merrill on the Lawrence Welk show. “They are mindblowing and inspiring,” Mast states. “We wanted to get some of those sounds, but neither of us are that accomplished. We had to track down the same guitars and amps to figure out the sound and bring it into a contemporary style. It’s like looking at what those sounds could have been if they hadn’t died out.”

The slick, sublime sounds of Brooklyn-based instrumental masterminds Ratatat will come to life when Magnifique is released on Friday July 17.

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STRONGER THAN FICTION FESTIVAL

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E X H I B I T I O N I S T ARTS | ACT

QL2 RECKLESS VALOUR ZOE PLEASANTS Each year QL2 Dance, Canberra’s youth contemporary dance company, brings together choreographers, composers, film-makers and its Quantum Leap dancers in a collaborative process to produce an original program of work. I have seen the resulting productions from this ambitious process for the last few years, and it delivers some well-crafted and highly engaging contemporary dance. This year’s program, RECKLESS VALOUR, is a little different in that QL2 are reworking a production they originally developed ten years ago.

It is a tribute to young Australians at war. Being the centenary of the ANZAC’s Gallipoli landing, Ruth Osborne, QL2’s Artistic Director, thought it would be a good idea to rework Reckless Valour. I caught up with Osborne to talk about the production, which she regards as one of QL2’s most significant.

“We’ve never remounted anything,” said Osborne, and then she was quick to point out that it was more of a rework or re-visioning of the work. “We’re holding onto the shape of it and the concepts and some of the film, definitely the music, but really trying to make it a fresh thing for the people involved now. Make it feel like their show not something they’ve learnt off a video.”

Osborne originally developed the work with four other choreographers: Jodie Farrugia, Fiona Malone, Rowan Marchingo and Natalie Cursio. And all four have returned to contribute to this version.

“They were all happy to come back, which is amazing,” said Osborne.

“They’re all ten years on in their careers and they’re all very significant contributors. Jodie Farrugia is the Artistic Director of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, Natalie Cursio is a very significant contemporary choreographer in Melbourne, and Fiona Malone and Rowan Marchingo are from Sydney.” In addition Osborne has invited James Batchelor to choreograph a new section. QL2 collaborated with Batchelor last year on a work called Cinders, a compelling piece which they performed at the Commonwealth Youth Dance Festival ahead of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Batchelor was also the youngest dancer in the original production of Reckless Valour ten years ago.

Reckless Valour is a full-length program consisting of sections or episodes for which each choreographer is responsible. “It blends together, but it’s pretty clear when it passes into a new section: a different choreographer, a different style of work, a different composition,” said Osbourne. “The first half of the program concentrates on the War Memorial and the ideas behind the architecture and the concepts of memorial, of sacrifice and all of those things. It is respectful, looking backwards and being grateful for what we have and what was lost to make that happen,” said Osbourne.

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“The second half looks at the complexity of war, and asks what has war achieved over the last 100 years?” Batchelor’s new section considers people displaced by war; another section considers the faces of the enemy. “Who we were fighting in the First World War and Second World War, now we’re married to them or next door neighbours of them,” said Osbourne. “So it’s more about immigration and all the cultures that have settled into Australia.” Within this section, choreographer Marchingo provides some light relief by reflecting on Aussie culture and icons. The final part expresses anger as to why we keep having wars and the leaders who take us to war.

“There is a collection of speeches from heads of state, we kind of say, ‘This is your responsibility in the end’,” said Osbourne. Overall the work is “Saying there’s this side of war and there’s that side, and what’s right, what’s wrong, is up to everyone to make up their own mind, but look at the whole thing and see it for what it is,” said Osbourne.

For the last ten years QL2 have collaborated with Wild Bear Entertainment (originally called Bear Cage Productions) to include film in their productions. “That’s a story in itself,” said Osbourne, “of a huge commitment from a commercial organisation to support what we do.” For this production, QL2 are using some of the original film, particularly a beautiful section shot at the War Memorial at night, and are combining it with new film.

“The film is a huge value to the look of the production,” said Osbourne, “but also to the dancers’ understanding that we’ve completely surrounded them with professionals. Everybody here, choreographers, composers, all of us from QL2, all the staff at the Canberra Theatre, the lighting designer comes from Sydney, everybody else is a professional.” This results not only in a significant and polished production for the audience to enjoy, but also starts to develop the young dancers into artists. This is part of why Osborne thinks so many of her Quantum Leap dancers go on to study dance at university and become artists in their own right.

“They enter university already knowing how much they have to do, not just turn up to class and work hard, but knowing they need to learn how they collaborate, how they draw inspiration, how to form their opinions and how to make work themselves.” Osborne loves to see her alumni dancers on the national and international stage, but she also loves to stay connected with them. She tells them: “If you’re going to keep going in dance, yes, go away and do things! But come back [from time to time] and be a Canberran in your art form!”

QL2 Dance presents Reckless Valour at The Playhouse from Wednesday July 29–Saturday 1 August. See canberratheatrecentre.com.au for more details.

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Last week I went on a proper little retreat to the country – you know the type – limited Internet access and no changes to the pub menu… where the food is served to you with zero charm and you delight over it a bit too much to prove you’re down to earth. “Oh wow, you’ve just put the gravy all over everything? Yeah, nah, that’s how I like it, awesome.” I found myself barely looking through Facebook or Instagram, and the absence of people constantly updating the best bits of their life did wonders for my mental health.

It’s pretty well documented that people boast online, because why wouldn’t we? It works. I feel like we use the Internet like teenage boys who’ve just lost their virginities – it doesn’t matter how well the thing went, as long as heaps of people know about it. I’m not above it myself; I would rather tell one thousand of my acquaintances about my achievements than my very own parents. It’s way easier to accept a ‘like’ from an old work friend than the inevitable follow-up questions that parents are so good at asking.

There are many unhealthy side effects to our boastful online behaviour, and the damage it does to ourselves as well as others might not even be worth it. See, I have this theory that there is a small part of us that hopes that our online successes are seen by the myriad of people who have wronged us in the past. Even if you no longer care about their opinion, when you click ‘post’ a small part of your brain feels satisfied knowing that the information is in the public domain. I didn’t realise how true this was until I received a

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Facebook inbox from an old boyfriend who broke up with me and with whom I obsessed over for most of my teenage years. A lot has changed since then – he seems to be a full-time musician now, and his main income seems to be from busking in the streets with his guitar.

Not content with asking the public for money, he asked me if I would consider contributing to his crowdfunding project to raise money for the release of his first EP. Despite the fact that he was awful to me and broke my heart as a young girl, this request wouldn’t have been that crazy – I am, after all, a mature 26-year-old woman now and totally over him. My biggest issue was that when he messaged me, he wrote, “Hey Becky, how are you? How is university? Are you still enjoying law?” Now, I haven’t studied law for three-and-a-half years, which means that he hasn’t seen a single boastful status of mine. Nothing. Even if the stuff I put up wasn’t exclusively meant for him, it would have been nice for him to see that I have in fact won the imaginary contest that exists between people who break up.

So how much of our boasting is secretly aimed at one person, only to completely miss them and instead add to the already crushing despair of many of our acquaintances who feel like things aren’t going well for them? Probably more than you think. The best way to get through it is to remember that even though no one ever boasts about the time they slept in ‘til lunchtime and ate five slices of toast, it doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

BECKY LUCAS - Becky Lucas is a comedian and writer who performs stand-up nationally. She was a finalist in 2013 for the National RAW Comedy competition, has opened for Wil Anderson, and will be coming through Canberra as part of the Sydney Comedy Festival’s Showcase at the Canberra Theatre Centre on Friday August 21. See canberratheatrecentre.com.au for details.

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MS BURLESQUE

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GO NORTH EMMA ROBINSON Another day, another film festival! Palace Electric has it all – delicious Italian food and coffee, epic pours of locally sourced wine and, most importantly, the best international film festivals. I caught up with Elysia Zeccola-Hill, the co-producer and curator of this year’s SCANDINAVIAN FILM FESTIVAL, to get her perspective on how best to enjoy this unique region’s films.

THE SELFISH GIANT

Do you fancy a keen sense of aesthetics? According to ZeccolaHill, “Scandinavians have a very slick and sophisticated style when it comes to fashion, design and cinema. Their dramas can be very intense, clever and edge-of-your-seat gripping. The comedies are usually not laugh-out-loud, slapstick romances like the French and Italian comedies, but they are droll, often with a subtle deadpan humour,” she says. “The sheer high-quality of the films that have come out of this exciting region make this festival a must-see.”

For those of us unable to jet-set to Scandinavia and experience how the people there live, an affordable alternative is to buy a movie ticket and experience it on the silver screen. Thankfully, Zeccola-Hill says they’re bringing out some great films this year.

“Norwegian adoration of nature is an essential ingredient in the country’s national identity, and Out of Nature – which is written, directed by and starring the hugely talented Ole Giæver – captures this as his character embarks on a trek in the stunning Norwegian wilderness. Underdog highlights some interesting prejudices between the Swedes and Norwegians; but when talking about Scandinavian culture we have to mention the crime thriller genre brought into the cultural consciousness here by several strong TV series, and The Absent One screening this year is another intense example of Nordic noir.”

Bearing that in mind here are some of Zeccola-Hill’s highlights of this year’s festival that set it apart from the others: “Underdog is a terrific film about a 23-year-old woman who has fled mass unemployment in Sweden in search of more opportunities in Oslo, Norway, only to end up in the centre of a love triangle. Life in a Fishbowl is a moving drama that cleaned up at the Icelandic Academy awards. It tells three congruent tales of three people who have a lasting effect on one another; it’s an absorbing festival highlight.

Young Sophie Bell won best film at Stockholm Film Festival and follows two best friends as their dreams to move to Berlin after graduation are shattered. It’s a mesmerizing debut feature with a young attractive cast that I’m sure we will see more of. Rams was handpicked in Cannes this year where it won Un Certain Regard. It’s the story of two estranged brothers from remote Iceland who come together to save their prize-winning flock of sheep.”

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The Scandinavian Film Festival will be showing at Palace Electric Cinemas in New Acton from Tue–Sun July 14–26.

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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 is a smokescreen obscuring their often shaky premise, upon which teeters an officious house of cards.

You will doubtless have noted my prolonged absence from these tawdry pages and upped your methamphetamine intake to cope with the lack of insightful and erudite commentary to which you have become accustomed.

Lay down your crack pipe, temper your muddled ramblings and please do bathe, as I have returned from a fraught European expedition we shall speak no more about.

Despite the superior cuisine, tailoring, literature, entertainment, contraband and political discourse, I did note the odd similarity between the Old World and the New, one of which stood out markedly for its utter despicability – the craven surrender of proper language for fear of causing offense.

Imagine, then, my unbridled fury when I was encouraged to alter my own chosen delivery by an American. An American! And not any American – an animated paperclip with bulbous eyes who frequents my electrically powered typing fandangle, itself a distant cousin of Babbage’s ‘difference engine’.

This little bastard regularly tries to correct my spelling, my grammar, my tone. He has even gone so far as to propose alternate phrases with his contemptible jauntiness and carefree grin. He also wields an unhealthy obsession with the letter ‘z’, and I hate him more than women’s suffrage.

I can foresee the time when he and his ilk are granted the authority to propose bills, pass legislation and enforce laws by the left-leaning descriptive tyrants who will have seized power while the rest of us grapple with one-another in playful yet purposed, lubricated jest.

GIDEON FOXINGTON-SMYTHE

It appears as though droves of people, people who have surprisingly been in receipt of a modicum of education and invariably prop themselves on the left side of the political fence, have denounced particular words and their users as outdated and insulting.

My chief complaint with these people is that they are self-important wankers.

They have created a phenomenon that is forced to sustain itself with an ever-rolling replacement of ‘offensive’ terms, as those committee-defined and empowering substitutes will doubtless themselves be found offensive a few short months from their introduction.

The protagonists convince themselves that the ‘mot du jour’ alters the very meaning of that which it has replaced, and that they themselves occupy the vanguard of propriety with their endless flimflam condemning all those who fail to follow.

What they themselves fail to see is that their obsession with terminology and grating habit of arbitrarily redefining words used over many hundreds of years, itself provides a cumbersome and nebulous obstacle over which any participant must clamber to engage the real issue. I loathe these people and their highbrowed indignation.

Among the mass of glaring flaws present in most every Australian, one common trait shines through the Milo-caked grime – the ability to call a spade a spade. I implore you all not to let these nefarious pseudo intellectuals sway you from your chosen, albeit incredibly limited, vocabulary. That they choose to take offense where none is intended is no fault of ours – it

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

STRANGE ATTRACTOR: WHERE GOOD DANCERS TALK LUCY NELSON Inside Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres on Sunday June 28, a live performance went through the motions of an ending: dancers left the stage, an audience began their cautious applause and the lights faded up. Ordinarily, this is the moment punters shuffle in their seats and look impatiently toward the end of their row, willing the chattier members of the crowd to move along. Maybe the Nokia welcome tune can be heard because someone still hasn’t got an iPhone. Maybe someone is looking forward to getting into their car so they can roll their eyes in private, because contemporary dance will never, ever make sense to them.

But following last week’s strange attractor (a project of Ausdance ACT, supported by Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres and QL2 Dance), audiences were instead invited to stay put, make comments and ask questions. What didn’t they understand? What links, if any, did they make between this section and that? Audience Q&A sessions are nothing new. However, if you are one of the eye-rollers, the headscratchers, if you are someone who’s never understood what it is you’re supposed to learn from watching a body in a sack walk across a stage while squinting intently into an imaginary horizon, this Q&A may have been the one for you. The idea behind strange attractor is not only dance, but also talking about dance. It’s a step towards making more explicit the ways in which contemporary dance is conceived, developed and, importantly, understood.

Choreographers from around the country applied for a place in strange attractor with a view to developing a new idea over a weeklong residency. Five were selected – including locals Olivia Fyfe and Alison Plevey – and given space, time and conversation in which to explore. The project was affectionately billed as a choreographic laboratory and it’s easy to see why: the objective is research and experimentation rather than polished performance. “This,” said artistic curator and veritable earth mother Adelina Larsson, “is all about their needs.”

For some, this time “in the lab” produced some real surprises. Olivia Fyfe, for example, had planned to develop her first solo choreographic work. It is testament to the supportive, open-ended nature of a project like strange attractor, that what Fyfe discovered instead, is that solo performance is not for her – at least not yet. She got around this knotty realisation by making the pressures associated with solo work the very subject of her research. “How meta,” you might say. And you’d be right.

But Fyfe’s work was as fun as it was self-referential. She left questions and half-finished sentences relating to pressure, scribbled

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on bits of paper around the room. The audience were invited to step right onto the stage and further her enquiry by jotting down their own thoughts on the matter. Once I’d scrawled my offerings in orange texta, I sat on the side of the stage, watching as fellow audience members became dancers: squatting, scribbling, stepping carefully over one another in order to read what had been written on the walls. “It was more just an experiment,” said Fyfe. Although, given the audience’s positive response to her work, she is keen to use this seedling of an idea to stimulate something further.

Also from Canberra, choreographer Alison Plevey was asking all sorts of questions about the brain. “I’m fascinated by our thought processes,” she said. Plevey’s strange attractor experience was all about looking at how brain activity is mapped on a microcellular level, and finding external environments that copycat these patterns, such as transport networks and electricity grids. Do we consider these things natural extensions of ourselves? Talking about her work – with eyes wide and dancerly hands gesticulating – Plevey could be mistaken for a very coordinated mad scientist. Her end-of-week showing had dancers dressed in light suits behaving like neurons, dancers rattling off stream of consciousness monologues with torches illuminating only their faces. It’s fascinating stuff. And the beauty of a project like strange attractor is that audiences can help to shape the work from very early on.

So what is the benefit of welcoming audiences into the development phase? Perth-based dancer Laura Boynes says the value for her has been discovering whether her ideas are of interest to anyone besides herself. And, after a very lively audience Q&A, it seems they are. Boynes is very ambitiously attempting to make a live dance film.

In the Ralph Wilson Theatre, a giant silvery cube was suspended from the ceiling. As it spun, audiences walked around the structure, peering in at Boynes and her improvised movement through windows in the cube’s surface. The idea, Boynes tells me, is that audiences can effectively choose their own adventure. “You might not want to look at me; you might want to move around and follow my movement; you might simply want to follow the movement of a hand or a foot.”

From Melbourne, Amelia McQueen and Janine Proost were investigating the role of perpetrators in the cycle of violence and a healing phenomenon known as natural vision improvement, respectively.

If audience engagement is any measure – and it should be – then this approach to decoding contemporary dance appears to be making some headway. “I just hope someone’s encouraging you,” one audience member piped up during the second Q&A session on Sunday night, “I hope someone’s telling you how great this is, and to keep doing it.”

Lucy Nelson is the 2015 strange attractor Writer in Residence (WiR). The WiR program is a new initiative for strange attractor: the space in the middle funded by Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres.

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strange attractor 2015. Image: Lorna Sim

ARTS | ACT

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: Nathan Mollison

What do you do? Shoot photos of stuff like skateboarding, bands and people.

When, how and why did you get into it? In contrast to the seemingly usual story of parents handing their kid a new camera as they exited the womb, I just got a pretty crappy SLR-wannabe digital camera for my birthday in my mid-teens and started taking terrible photos of my friends skateboarding.

When I moved to Canberra in 2009, I was suddenly surrounded by skateboarders (and other photographers) on a higher level and this really pushed me to make something of it.

Who or what influences you as an artist? In terms of skateboarding, Steve Gourlay influenced me before I realised I was being influenced and also other, younger Aussie/NZ guys like Andrew Peters and Jake Mein and my friend Jason Morey. A favourite photographer of people is Gregory Heisler.

Of what are you proudest so far? Having photos published in the mags I read as a kid is pretty amazing – truly “if I told my younger

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self, I wouldn’t believe it” type stuff. But mostly I’m proudest of the images I’ve made with good friends and the feeling you get when everything comes together.

What are your plans for the future? I’m hopefully going to actually get a portrait series all the way to completion – I’m constantly coming up with ideas but the perfectionist in me keeps me from just settling on one thing at a time!

What makes you laugh? I like to find a laugh in most things – usually just the bizarre things that make up average human behaviour.

What pisses you off? Self-centred people.

What about the local scene would you change? At risk of being unoriginal, it seems hard to move across different ‘scenes’ in Canberra, especially if you’re not from here/didn’t go to art school here. I do think this is starting to change though thanks to a few hard-working people making an effort to include different people in shows, etc.

Upcoming exhibitions? I’ll be showing (and selling!) a few photos from a recent zine ‘Choccie’ + more at ‘Burrito Gallery’ at Beach Burrito in Civic on Thursday the 23rd of July.

Contact Info: nathanmollison.com, Instagram: @natedogphotog

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LITERATURE IN REVIEW World War Two in Secret Gavin Mortimer [Exisle Publishing; 2015]

In World War Two in Secret: The Hidden Conflict 1939 to 1945, award-winning author Gavin Mortimer exposes the role of subversive ingenuity and intrigue across the multiple fronts on which this war was fought.

Much has been written about WWII and this book economically summarises – but doesn’t glamorise – the bravery of those who gathered intelligence, coded it, decoded it, hid it and used it to gain an advantage.

The book is structured in four sections, which cover the beginning of the war, the fight back, the turning of the tide and the coming end. The people and their covert deeds are described to provide a glimpse of the rationale for doing what they did and how they did it, as either side sought to gain ground. Included is the story of our own forces including the intrepid Z Special Unit.

This book is an interesting read if you have an interest in spies and war history.

ALSEY ANN CONDIE

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Evil Games Angela Marsons [Bookouture; 2015] Evil Games is the second in The Detective Inspector Kim Stone series written by Angela Marsons. D.I. Stone is back in a pulsing story with a truly creepy female perpetrator at the centre of the action. I wasn’t intending to write up a review for this second offering from the English author, but the follow-on to Silent Scream warrants that I do.

D.I. Stone’s primary case involves discovering the identity of a shadowy observer to the shocking abuse of a young girl by her father. If this case isn’t enough, a convicted rapist is brutally murdered and D.I. Stone suspects the rape victim of the murder.

She senses that not all is as it seems and meets the rape victims’ psychoanalyst, Dr. Alexandra Thorne. The doctor confirms that the victim was struggling to hold her life together after her rapist was released from prison, but gave no indication that she would commit a revenge crime.

Dr. Thorne appears as a successful professional who goes the extra mile for those she treats. D.I. Stone, however – with her own issues bubbling under the surface – is convinced that there is something sinister about this case, as well as two more where the victims act out-of-character after being treated by none other than Dr. Thorne.

What transpires is a cat-and-mouse game, as D.I. Stone finds herself the object of fascination for the unravelling and dangerous Dr. Thorne. I like Marsons’ easy, descriptive style. She explains just enough so you don’t have to pick up a dictionary of psychological terms to get the gist of what is going on with the characters, which intersect with ease.

ALSEY ANN CONDIE

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bit PARTS Ellis Hutch’s ‘Lost Astronaut’

INNERSPACE WHAT: Art Exhibition WHEN: Fri Jul 10–Sat Aug 15 WHERE: Gorman Arts Centre For hundreds (if not thousands) of years, artists have looked to the heavens with a sense of awe and wonder but at Innerspace, the cosmos is simply at home. Innerspace presents the idea of deep space as a personal, domestic matter. Whether employing cosmic clichés, scientific research, observation or stories, for these artists the universe can be found in the kitchen, nursery, the studio or the backyard. Materials are modest, with cardboard boxes, toilet rolls, chocolate wrappers, postcards, wool, old newspapers, trash and breakfast cereal serving astrophysical concepts, minus the mystery.

The show opens at 6pm. Entry is free.

MISS BURLESQUE AUSTRALIA 2015 WHAT: ACT State Final WHEN: Sat Jul 18 WHERE: The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre Who puts the spring in Canberra? It’s the first ever Miss Burlesque Australia ACT state final! Ten local burlesque beauties will battle it out for the state title and the chance to compete in the grand final in Darwin. Each competitor will participate in a gown parade and perform three different burlesque routines, showing their knowledge of classic, modern and original burlesque. Six entertainment industry professionals will judge them on the night with input from the audience.

Rest assured, the feathers will fly, the Swarovski’s will sparkle and the props will shock and amaze. More information and tickets are available through canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

STRONGER THAN FICTION WHAT: Documentary Film Festival WHEN: Fri Jul 30–Sun Aug 2 WHERE: Palace Electric After a sell-out festival last year, 2015 will see the return of the only festival in the ACT dedicated to the art of documentary cinema. Of the films on show, the world premiere of Maratus on Sunday August 2 will follow self-described Canberra boofhead and garbage collector Stuart Harris who, after casually photographing a colourful spider, discovered it was unknown to science. His epic journey to then re-find the creature became a bigger story than anyone could imagine. It never ceases to amaze how often reality can truly be stronger than fictional storytelling! Tickets and further details, including a full programme, can be found at palacecinemas.com.au.

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM WHAT: Mystery WHEN: Sat Jul 31 WHERE: National Museum of Australia Things aren’t always what they seem after dark at the National Museum. Come and experience a night of mystery, art, DJs, bars, talks and the unexpected. Learn more about some of the mysterious objects and stories featured in the Museum’s collection, such as the stories of Granny Locke and the mystery of the Min Min lights, or the Tichborne claimant and the controversy over his identity. Be intrigued by the uncertainty around explorer Ludwig Leichhardt’s disappearance. The event will kick off at 6pm, for 18+ only. Tickets are just $10 and are available via nma.gov.au/nightmuseum.

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the word

on albums

long-time fans, and it’s fine – but there’s something emotionally harder about Simple Songs that makes the jokes seem less like jokes and more like the truth.

album of the issue JIM O’ROURKE SIMPLE SONGS [DRAG CITY] The last time we heard Jim O’Rourke’s sardonic, low-key voice on an album carrying his name was in 2001. Back then O’Rourke was a name to watch, moving from his post-rock experimental roots to something resembling the spotlight – as seen through his involvement as a production factor on Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born and later as a recording and touring member of Sonic Youth. O’Rourke’s stature as a writer and an arranger, coupled with his dash of good taste was, by the midoughts, unparalleled.

But many have craved his very particular songwriting and singing voice since that 2001 record – a stone-cold classic of ‘70s appropriation called Insignificance.

Simple Songs is a natural sequel to it – eight tracks that, on their surface, seem very much in the singer-songwriter mould of AM radio mainstays. But, as with all of O’Rourke’s works, there’s a lot going on under the surface.

More so than Insignificance, the (not entirely) jokey misanthropy that runs through the lyrics is borne out in the melodies and arrangements. Opening tune ‘Friends With Benefits’ begins with a familiarly O’Roukian kiss-off (“Nice to see you once again/been a long time my friends/since you crossed my mind at all”) and a pristine analogue sound, but stalls after the first verse, meanders and then returns. It’s another familiar trait to

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His arrangements are possibly the most interesting element of his writing, and certainly where his mastery of form is best revealed. A basic middle eight or a hooky chorus is always eschewed in favour of a plaintive drop, a brief meander and then a return to the verse.

The songs always hang together and the compositional skill is obvious.

But it can also feel like a bit of a “fuck you, listener”. “You like this verse? I’m gonna strip it from under your feet and give you 22 seconds of plucked acoustic that only vaguely relates to what came before it.” On the one hand, it can be read as what O’Rourke thinks is musically important. On another, it feels like a distancing agent. These are pieces of delectable 70s AM rock pie, but just before you take a second bite, your plate is removed and the second course is sea urchin wrapped in lemon curd, topped with Marmite. Interesting, but subject to taste.

Still, the balance is always on the right side of the ledger, though not as much as the magnificent Insignificance. This is not so much a criticism as an indicator of the work required in getting into this record. But for songs as gorgeous as ‘Hotel Blue’, as struttingly solid as ‘Half Life Crisis’, or as suitably epic as the closer, where O’Rourke sings, “all your love will never change me” – it’s worth the effort.

Sonically, you’re in a strange world of Genesis, Nilsson, Rundgren and Led Zep references – some McCartney circa Wings here, some Elton John via ‘Benny and the Jets’ there. Again, given O’Rourke’s position and pedigree, you wonder if some of this is irony. But the amount of care and skill on show implies that O’Rourke is less likely to prefer a hipster grade canon to some cheesy prog and west coast folk.

Easy to respect, tougher to love but loveable enough, Simple Songs is worthy and fascinating – again reminding the listener of just how gifted its creator is. 14 years is too long between records of this ilk. Don’t be a stranger, Jim. GLEN MARTIN

BONNIE ‘PRINCE’ BILLY SINGER’S GRAVE – A SEA OF TONGUES [SPUNK/PALACE RECORDS] Prolific US folk and alt-country singer Will Oldham has dashed out 18 long-players since his 1993 debut, There Is No-One What Will Take Care of You. Going under a string of names to keep the punters confused, he eventually settled on the stage name Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. Several tracks on the latest offering are re-runs from his 2011 release Wolfroy Goes to Town, some with new titles. Rather than indicating a man running short of ideas however, the repeats demonstrate how Oldham can show his old work in a totally new light. This transformation of plain denim to high-viz is amply demonstrated by the rebirth of ‘New Whaling’. This slow acoustic guitar-driven track, with phantom-backing vocals, has burst from its cocoon to become ‘So Far and Here We Are’; a song armed to the teeth with a twanging riff that’s so catchy, it’s a real earworm.

Oldham’s unusual voice dominates by way of its unobtrusive quality. Whispery in tone – like the speech of an older man – you have to listen carefully to make out some lyrics in the lead track. At times appearing sedate, tracks flare into sudden life, courtesy of a patch of bright guitar or the nitrous boost from the supporting vocals of the McCary Sisters. ‘Night Noises’ burns hotly through the powerful licks in the bridge, while ‘Old Match’ – emerging slowly with echo-edged notes and shifting strumming patterns – expands as its choir-like vocals grow in conviction and volume as the song progresses. The circular-plucked banjo pattern whisks up a sweet, swinging rhythm that makes ‘We Are Unhappy’ another winner. The Bonnie Prince has made music with a velvet core, entwined in optic fibres that pulse with light.

RORY MCCARTNEY

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PINS WILD NIGHTS [BELLA UNION]

NIGHT TRAIN MARK VI [SPE RECORDS]

SHAMIR RATCHET [XL RECORDINGS]

Manchester-based all-female four-piece band PINS managed to attract a fair bit of attention amongst the UK indie rock scene with their 2013 debut album Girls Like Us, and two years on, Wild Nights offers up its fairly anticipated follow-up.

When recording this second album, PINS decamped to Joshua Tree’s Rancho De La Luna studios and enlisted the production skills of Dave Catching (Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal), resulting in a satisfying rawness to these eleven songs that nicely suit their ragged-edged blend of indie and post-punk influences. The band refers to Wild Nights as “a diary, complete with confessions and secrets”, and there’s certainly directness to these songs, which is matched by the group’s increasing experience as a cohesive unit. There’s also a fair bit of stylistic territory being explored over this album, with everything from The Raincoats through to Bauhaus and Elastica cropping up as reference points.

Having undergone a name swap from Juggernaut 101, and many line-up changes including their lead singer, local rockers Night Train have been about since the early noughties. Probably best known for the song ‘Black Sally Lane’, their newest LP MkVI launched at ANU on April 11.

Shamir’s debut album, Ratchet, is the byproduct of growing up on the outskirts of Las Vegas. At just 20, Shamir Bailey brings a knowing perspective on the sleaze and grit of The Strip, dealt with a sense of humility.

If ‘Baby Bhangs’ opens things on a vaguely gothy tip that hints at PINS’ angular Manchester heritage, as tribal drums thump beneath Faith Holgate’s reverbtreated vocals and jagged minimalist guitar riffs, ‘Curse These Dreams’ sees far more of a shoegazer influence coming to the forefront, as delayed-out guitars ripple out against clattering drums and Holgate’s multi-tracked backing harmonies.

Elsewhere, ‘Oh Lord’ manages to deliver plenty of overdriven fuzzbox thunder, while ‘Dazed By You’ even sees traces of countryrock making an appearance as steely guitars twang against an almost skiffle-indebted drum backing. While there’s a lot to like about Wild Nights, sadly the lack of a real killer track means that a lot of this album just doesn’t really stand out.

CHRIS DOWNTON

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There’s a smoother sound to the band these days, with more body to the music in their latest recording. The opener ‘Wine Stained Shirt’ kicks off in a blaze of jagged riffage.

This overture lasts over a minute – either it’s building anticipation or overdoing it (probably the latter). Dedicated to the rock ‘n’ roll life – with a nod to Bon Scott – and loaded with reverb, this epic is pure garage rock in the tradition of Screaming Jets. More complex in its arrangement, the follower ‘Jesus With a Gun’ mixes up the pace and throws in some rumbling percussion. ‘Sweet Or Bitter’ starts like an acoustic ballad, but comes up-armoured with slabs of electric guitar, while ‘My Love’ features moments of elegance, still packing plenty of kick and throwing firework licks in the chorus. Final track ‘Bleed III’ starts like a whispering lurker, before building momentum to a hammering finale. While Night Train love to rock out, their best material lies in the mid-strength brew-style songs. There’s poise and balance in the construction of ‘One More Night’, and album highlight ‘Overwhelmed’ comes with lush harmonies, wrapped in a blanket of strings.

Mk-VI shows that the band’s strengths lie in the powerful vocals of Clint Bopping and the ability to execute appealing melodies and attention-grabbing rhythms. The spread of song formats show that the band is not a one-trick pony.

RORY MCCARTNEY

Shamir oozes charisma, which is what makes Ratchet such an easy listen. The energy of the album peaks high and early, and remains consistent right through. The house grooves might be chilled but Shamir’s pace is quick, as he flits between diva and swagger; thoughtful and playful.

An immediate comparison is to liken Shamir to Prince. His soulful voice is his instrument, uniquely androgynous and taking no particular gender role. He’s not afraid to make it soar, or bend it with the use of vocal effects. At home on the dance floor, Ratchet takes cues from disco, house, and RnB. As fat synths pump under the drum machines, Shamir’s bold pop sensibilities are unashamedly the key focus.

‘On The Regular’ is our formal introduction to Shamir. With his sing-speak delivery, he details his experiences of growing up different. His tongue is quick and attitude self-assured: “yes, yes, I’m the best, fuck what you heard.”

Ratchet defers from dance at various points, and a divine pop ballad is revealed on ‘Demon’. Shamir’s voice is stunning, combined with a beautifully simple melody, killer chorus, and stripped-back beats.

Ratchet can be taken as personal recollection of Shamir, displaying a level of earnestness with attitude to boot. But at its forefront, it’s about being yourself, not giving a fuck about what others think and having a damn good time while doing so.

MEGAN LEAHY

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ALISON FERRIER BE HERE NOW [MOUNTAIN KING MUSIC]

PATIENT LITTLE SISTER BIT BY BIT [INDEPENDENT]

HEIN COOPER THE ART OF ESCAPE [INDICA]

UK born Alison Ferrier kicked off her musical adventures in Melbourne, playing guitar and fiddle with country outfit The Wayward Fancies. Having played saloon tunes on tour with Sean MacMahon’s Western Union, she now performs with country/folk band Ravenswood. Be Here Now is the second solo LP for the singersongwriter, following her 2012 release Sugar Baby. While her debut – full of slow sombre songs – was largely a ‘girl with a guitar’ album, Be Here Now is her first long-player with the backing of a full band.

Patient Little Sister from Perth began with the pairing of James Rogers (from Harlequin League) and his sister Eliza (from Ruby Boots). The duo shared hunger for a pure acoustic and violin band. Later they added Matthew Mullin on bass and Alex Megaw (from The Volcanics) on the sticks, to beef up the sound. Bit By Bit is the band’s second EP following on from a 2013 self-titled debut.

Hein Cooper has had something of a blessed launch to his music career. He was spirited away from his native Milton (scene of unwashed surfies and retirees fighting over car parks) to Montreal (scene of chic Francophone babes). His debut release was conjured under the production guidance of Marcus Paquin (whose credits include Arcade Fire and The National).

Ferrier has two great things going for her: the variable tones of her vocals and her ability to craft songs with all the palpable atmosphere of movie scenes. Ferrier can turn a word into a phrase using vocal inflections, and the quality of the recording has perfectly captured her deep, honey tones. In a CD full of well-choreographed moods, ‘Made for Each Other’ stands out with its creepy, stalking vibe, so aptly expressed in the lyrics, “…a heavenly sign, they moved you to the office next to mine”.

Jeff Lang produced the record, but limited his musical contribution to ‘Damned If I Do’, with its strident beat and scrap iron guitars. At the other end of the scale, ‘I Can’t Count On You’ portrays the fairy floss pop popularised in the ‘50s and ‘60s by groups such as The Fleetwoods. In a collection of predominantly sedate tempos, ‘Why Did I Fall In Love With You’ stands out with its fast, rockabilly style, while the gong for best melody goes to album highlight ‘Rise Above’. Be Here Now, which could have been subtitled ‘Tales of a Woman Scorned’, has taken the portrayal of Ferrier’s songwriting to a new level.

RORY MCCARTNEY

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Patient Little Sister’s second release demonstrates more vigor and complexity than earlier compositions such as ‘Can I Take This Picture’. It takes the magic injected by the fiddle into their first-ever single ‘Priority Tree’, and builds on it. There’s a distinct rural tang to CD highlight ‘What a Fool I Am’, with its tricky, plucked acoustic line. Another example of brother-sister synchronicity (like Angus and Julia Stone), Eliza’s vocals complement her brother’s rougher tone.

Eliza’s voice is beguiling, but has enough angles on it to avoid being overly sweet. The EP draws its title from the song lyrics.

While it starts with a softly sighing violin, the duet ‘Burning Star’ soon sparks into life as a real woolshed dance stomper. Eliza shows the softer side of her delivery in the jaunty ‘Light My Way’. The track shines with woo-wooing vocal hooks, a sing-along chorus and the shimmer of the tambourine, which is a feature of this EP. The closer ‘You Are My Friend’ starts with a shimmying fiddle, gathering strength and volume as it goes on, with solid handclaps and a shoutout chorus. Folk, alt-country – call it what you will, there’s no denying the appeal of this perky, bright EP, which is full of catchy melodies.

RORY MCCARTNEY

The lead-in title track seems very alt-folk for most of its length, with an imaginative tale of running away from the world, unfolding to a gentle acoustic guitar, delivered in an alluring voice. Cooper’s singing has a whimsy, fragile quality, with a hint of Jeff Buckley in the higher pitch. The keys send an electronic cloud creeping over the latter half of the song, giving a hint of what’s to come in the following tracks. ‘The Real’ shows Cooper in his full glory, with a bouncy synth beat and electronic tick-tick percussion, all mixed up with a strange insectoid shudder, echoing phantoms and a synth blanket that comes and fades. It’s a real smoke and mirrors piece of art. ‘Luna Sky’ – at 90 seconds – is a bit of filler; a lazy, laid-back song with a casual delivery from Cooper. However, the disk closes with a bang. Remixed by Tora from Byron Bay, the title track is shown in a whole new light.

‘The Art of Escape’ is converted into a lucky dip of varied vocal and musical effects, courtesy of a sequence of shuffled, echoed, delayed and looped tricks. While this threeand-a-half-song EP is just a sampler menu of Cooper’s material, it demonstrates he holds considerable promise for those who follow artists such as Chet Faker and The Kite String Tangle.

RORY MCCARTNEY

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BY CODY ATKINSON ROYAL HEADACHE ‘HIGH’

LEFTFIELD ALTERNATIVE LIGHT SOURCE [INFECTIOUS]

MIDGE URE FRAGILE [HYPERTENSION]

In a year where it seems like all of dance music’s big names are suddenly on the move again (The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, erm – Dub Pistols), the arrival of a new album from Leftfield still manages to be big news. 2010’s reformation tour and its accompanying live album Tourism managed to prove that the band were still a force to be reckoned with in concert, but at the same time didn’t offer up any new material. All up, the highly anticipated third album from Leftfield (now slimmed down to just founder member Neil Barnes, after the departure of Paul Daley), Alternative Light Source arrives a full 16 years after the band’s preceding 1999 album Rhythm & Stealth. Given the style changes that have swept through dance music during those years though, for the most part the ten tracks collected here see Leftfield sticking to the aesthetic they’ve made their own, fusing dark dubby electronics with a widescreen sense of atmosphere.

Darling of the new wave set, Midge Ure was a major shifter in the movement as part of bands Ultravox and Visage in the early ‘80s. Ure had them all swooning with the shadowy, atmospheric projections of songs like ‘Vienna’ and ‘Fade to Grey’. His love for the subtle power and fluidity of synths has reached into his latest solo LP, Fragile.

The album is both a personal testament and a deeper, almost spiritual quest for something higher and more meaningful.

Opening track ‘Bad Radio’ introduces the moody nocturnal vibe that permeates throughout this album as Tunde Adebimpe’s vocals get eerily, digitally manipulated against a dark surging throb of overdriven synths and stripped back electro rhythms, before ‘Universal Everything’ takes things off into dark driving techno that sees robotic rhythms flexing against eerie DSP-treated samples. It’s Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods’ guest appearance on ‘Head & Shoulders’ that proves to be one of the biggest highlights here though, as his distinctive stream of consciousness rant locks in with a shimmering backdrop of spectral synth pads and swaggering dub bass to brilliant effect. All up, this is everything that you’d hope Leftfield’s comeback album would be.

Layers of time peel away, revealing an ‘80s landscape of music. ‘I Survived’ comes with fairy light keys, sunlit synths and an androgynous vibe to the high vocal tone. Its message has an autobiographical ring, with themes of thanks and a kind of surprise at having made it through. A metallic ringing comes crossed with a slammed, primal beat in ‘Are We Connected’. Links to the classic Ure sound are palpable in the unbroken phalanx of polished synths, accompanied by needlepoint highlights. Rippling layers of sound run in parallel levels in the airtight production of ‘Let It Rise’. ‘Become’ relies on a disco beat and buzzing electro-bounce to carry the song forward, while the elongated and warped vocals in ‘Star Crossed’ are the voice of a sleepy android. The LP comes with two straight instrumentals, which couldn’t be further apart in style. The wizardry of Moby helps out in ‘Dark, Dark Night’, while ‘Bridges’ is stilted in comparison, with a tenseness that retards the flow of the song.

There’s a similarly smothered feel to the closing title track, with the vocals floating on a thick, electric soup. The last two songs in the tracklist don’t detract from the vitality and artistry of this record, however.

RORY MCCARTNEY

This is an absolute corker of a return from Royal Headache – one that captures the magic of that fantastic first album. Shogun shows off his wide-ranging vocal chops early and often, but it’s that simplistic yet killer guitar line from Lawrence Hall that just ties everything together. A little burst of fury to break up the week.

BLANK REALM ‘RIVER OF LONGING’ Blank Realm have a knack for throwing out unrestrained oddball noise-pop gems, of which ‘River of Longing’ certainly is. Hook-filled from go-towoe, the track bumps and twists and turns throughout, but it never loses its drive. Some people may not like its rawness, but then again some people are wrong.

SLOW TURISMO ‘I SIT DOWN AS SOON AS I GET UP’ ‘I Sit Down As Soon As I Get Up’ is a nice cut of summery, guitar-driven indie pop that’s a sign of things to come for the Canberra boys. The breakdown in this song is fantastic – joyously over-the-top – but also knowing when to pull off the gas when the amount of horns nearly hits too many.

SILENTO ‘WATCH ME’’ WHAT EVEN THE FUCK IS THIS? HOW IS THIS A THING? IS HE JUST SAYING “BOP” AND “DUFF” OVER AND OVER? WHY THE FUCK IS THIS HAPPENING? NO I WILL NOT STOP SHOUTING, NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES YOU ASK. [Dies of stroke.]

CHRIS DOWNTON

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47

the word

on films

WITH EMMA ROBINSON

One of the best things about going to the movies in Canberra is the smorgasbord of international film festivals offered up to us all year round.

It’s very easy to dominate one’s scope of film viewing with movies mostly from the US and the UK, given where we live and what we are routinely offered. Luckily the Scandinavian Film Festival is upon us, and everyone should try and see at least one film during this festival. Also, keep an eye out for the Stronger Than Fiction Festival, starting June 30. Check out both at Palace Electric.

quote of the issue “We think of Norway as the retarded cousin who won the lottery.” – Bianca Kronlof (Dino), Underdog

48

LOVE & MERCY

INSIDE OUT

TED 2

Upon hearing classic Beach Boys hits such as ‘Good Vibrations’, one could be forgiven for believing that such melodies could only emanate from a source of genuine happiness. As with many other music success stories, you only have to scratch the surface to find the pain beneath. Love & Mercy tells the true story of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys: his musical genius and his struggle in overcoming the various forces controlling his life.

What if feelings had feelings?

Man-child John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) and his lifelong best friend, the bong-huffing, walking, talking teddy bear, Ted (voiced by Seth MacFarlane, also the writer and director of the film) team up with young lawyer Samantha Leslie Jackson (Sam L. Jackson, geddit? ! ? ! – played by Amanda Seyfried) to fight for Ted’s right to be considered a person and marry his girlfriend, Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth). On the way, they will cross paths again with the offputtingly weird Donny (Giovanni Ribisi), the Ted-obsessed villain from the first film.

In an impeccable casting coup, Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine) and John Cusack (High Fidelity) play past and future versions of Wilson, respectively. The seamless dual performance captures Wilson’s ongoing suffocating isolation, exacerbated by his improperly diagnosed mental illness and the unceasing remembrances of his abusive father. Providing a glimmer of hope, the kindhearted Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks) meets Wilson through a chance encounter.

Ledbetter senses trouble, and tries to extricate Wilson from his toxic relationship with Dr. Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti), a man who constantly subjects Wilson to psychological and emotional vampirism. As in acclaimed documentary Amy, we see how easily a person’s psychological and physical deterioration can be facilitated by those closest to them.

Love & Mercy’s most powerful moments are undoubtedly those within the studio, where Brian and his fellow musicians create music that is so exquisitely layered and harmonised – it’s intrinsically spiritual. A moving and ultimately triumphant biopic for music lovers.

MAJELLA CARMODY

It’s an abstract concept, but I was extremely relieved to see Pixar return to form following two uninspired cash grabs in the form of sequels (Monsters University and Cars 2) and a poorly judged creative misfire (Brave). Yet, Inside Out may be Pixar’s most daring gamble yet.

Not much happens plot-wise: an 11-year-old girl named Riley is upset and shaken by her family’s move to a new city, and she experiences a range of emotions as she attempts to cope with her new surroundings. Of course, inside her head there’s a lot more happening. Fear (Bill Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Anger (Lewis Black), Sadness (Phyllis Smith) and Joy (Amy Poehler) attempt to work together to look after Riley, and are led on an adventure spanning the contents of Riley’s mind.

This film is a success on multiple levels. The art design is colourful, the script is witty and imaginative, and the voice actors suit their roles perfectly.

But the thing that impresses me the most about this film is that it introduces young children to the often-confusing concepts of emotion, and most notably, it provides them with tools they could use to express what’s going on inside their heads to others around them.

Inside Out aims to do more than sell Happy Meals to your kids, and for that reason alone, it’s definitely worth the price of admission.

PATRICK JONHSON

With a ton of celebrity cameos and pop culture references, MacFarlane stays true to the form he displays in Family Guy, American Dad and his other works. Sam J. Jones a.k.a. Flash Gordon makes a welcome reappearance and Seyfried displays some unexpected comedy chops.

If you enjoyed 2012’s Ted (and many did) get ready for more of the same. It’s a great premise for a buddy comedy, and the first one pulled it off well.

MacFarlane writes a good joke, though his style of one-liners, cutaway gags and gross-outs is definitely not for everyone.

He also seems to struggle with plot, though Ted 2 does it better than Family Guy. While pretty predictable (I wonder what sort of hijinks will happen in a sperm bank storage room?) fans of the original and MacFarlane’s TV shows are in for some great laughs. For everyone else, maybe take it or leave it.

PATRICK BELL

@bmamag

TERMINATOR GENISYS

AMY

Okay, this wasn’t the Prometheus of the Terminator franchise. However, watching a rabid dog rolling in poo for two hours would be better than Prometheus, so that’s not saying much.

The demise of Amy Winehouse has been well (and not so well) documented since her death in July 2011. It would not be unreasonable for one to avoid seeing this film on that basis. After all, hasn’t her life and death already been thoroughly canvassed? Do we have to continue to murder her memory? Her pain was articulated beautifully though her music. The best way to honor her would be to put on one of her CDs, yes?

All your favourites are back in mediocre form. John Connor (Jason Clarke), the leader of the human resistance has brought humanity this close to total annihilation of Skynet. Now comes the bit we all remember: Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) must go back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke), the mother of the future. Oh, and Arnie’s there too. This time as the loveable version of the terminator a la Terminator 2: Judgement Day (incidentally one of the only two Terminator films anyone gives a shit about).

This film might’ve been somewhat okay if the trailer released a few months ago didn’t tell the whole story. No, John Connor being transformed into part-man, part-machine was not a minor twist revealed in the first 30 minutes, but a major “no Luke, I am your father” moment that we all knew was coming.

Instead of advancing the story, Genisys clumsily attempted to capture so much of the magic of the first two. Sarah’s relationship with Terminator pops just doesn’t compare to the gut wrenching “I know now why you cry, but it’s something I can never do” (no, I’m not crying.

YOU’RE CRYING!).

No more sequels that give the middle finger to my childhood.

Fortunately, this film is not an exercise in perverse voyeurism.

The audience is not treated to a chronological timeline of each tragic incident in Winehouse’s life. Rather, edited home videos and recordings of Winehouse from her teen years through to the end of her life – along with voiceovers from the people closest to her – tell the story of what happened to her.

I say ‘what happened to her’ rather than ‘how she died’ very deliberately. The media, her manager and even her family played significant roles in her demise. Talk show hosts that cosied up to her after the phenomenal success of her first album were among the first to gleefully point out how tragic she became. Her father showed up on her doorstep with a reality TV crew, when all she really wanted was a cup of tea and her dad.

She was talented, smart and funny. Her story is one that deserves to be told.

EMMA ROBINSON

EMMA ROBINSON

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49

the word on dvds

METRO MANILA [MADMAN]

EREBUS: OPERATION OVERDUE [MADMAN]

THE CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO [MADMAN]

The Philippines isn’t exactly a huge player in East Asian cinema. Though it has a healthy domestic industry, big budget films from its northern neighbours (Hong Kong, China, Japan and Korea) get all the attention. And to be fair, the only reason Metro Manila exists is because its director, Sean Ellis, couldn’t get the film produced in the UK so he had to look for creative alternatives.

Which is why he made the film in the Philippines using a consumer digital camera on a bare bones budget (about half a million dollars). It’s also worth noting Ellis had only visited the country once before as a tourist and decided to shoot the film in local Tagalog dialogue, even though all the actors could switch to English if they wanted.

All this gives Metro Manila a degree of authenticity it’s hard to fake, and one that’s needed to counterbalance the simple and recognisable plot arcs.

These days, when catastrophic events like plane crashes or natural disasters occur we get used to seeing trained rescue teams quickly assembled, kitted up and dropped into the impact zone with as much assistance as possible. But obviously, it wasn’t always the case. In 1979, an Air New Zealand plane on a sightseeing tour over Antarctica pummelled into the side of Mt Erebus killing 257 passengers and crew. Two questions immediately arose, how do you conduct a rescue operation in Antarctica and what caused the accident? The former would hopefully answer the latter. The task fell on local NZ coppers with the assistance of some mountain climbing experts. They were all dropped into harsh alien territory to look for survivors, and soon enough their own lives were put at risk.

Pegging out debris, bodies and body parts would be a large enough challenge but imagine doing it in Antarctica in civilian clothing, with next to no training and up the side of a frozen mountain in blizzard conditions.

Over the last six months there’s been plenty of rhapsodising about legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki.

For good cause. Almost every movie he has been involved in is near flawless, some crossing boundaries to be best films of all time lists: Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbour Totoro being the obvious ones. News that he was retiring and his studio (Ghibli) was downsizing was cause to look back over his career and applaud the man. But little time was given to his early output, especially this one – his debut as director – from 1979. Maybe because it’s not a Ghibli film, maybe because it’s considered light and breezy or maybe because it’s a touch unrefined in comparison to his latter works – whatever the reason, The Castle of Cagliostro is still a defiant calling card 36 years on.

Oscar and Mai Ramirez (Jake Macapagal and Althea Vega) are struggling to survive as poor rice farmers. With few options they leave the serene but dirt-poor rice paddies with two young children in their arms for the chaotic, noisy and dirty metropolis of Manila. Of course, as gullible rural folk they get scammed out of all their money within 24 hours and end up in a slum. So far, so grim. Their lives are upended when Oscar gets a job as an armoured van driver, a steady and dangerous income.

His partner, Ong (John Arcilla), is warm and welcoming but he’s playing a long, sinister game.

Metro Manila is about a man pushed to the limits, whose only motivation is family protection and a better life, all the way testing his own moral code.

This isn’t exactly fresh ground, but this film moves in ways few others do – neither dwelling on poverty porn nor ignoring it.

JUSTIN HOOK

50

Erebus: Operation Overdue tells that phenomenal story through vox pops with the police officers involved, archival photographs and footage, and re-enactments.

It’s a fine balance for a doco to take because the narrative tends to take jarring visual jumps, but it succeeds here.

The other big story to emerge from the accident recovery was culpability and it all came down to a little black book containing the flight plan found in amongst the debris. The airline quickly scrambled into damage control blaming pilot error. The records indicated something else completely different and implicated management in a horrendous cover up. In Greek mythology, Erebus is a deity representing darkness – somewhat fitting for the deceit surrounding this accident.

Erebus: Operation Overdue goes a long way to restore the light.

JUSTIN HOOK

Based on a manga series by Monkey Punch (Kazuhiko Katō) this film is a romp in the true sense. Arsene Lupin III and Daisuke Jigen are a couple of thieves, the former considered to be the best in the world and an anime icon. After robbing a casino in Monte Carlo they are quickly drawn into a world of treasure, assassins, villains, European high society and weddings. The action is fast, something Miyazaki’s pen has always been able to capture with depth and confidence. It also finds Miyazaki in a part of the world (Europe) where he displays as much comfort as his native Japan – think also the intricate production elements of Porco Rosso and Kiki’s Delivery Service. Everything that Miyazaki would become is right here, not necessarily on full display but unquestionably obvious. Like all films requiring an English language dub there are niggling inconsistences that fail to adequately capture what is really happening on screen, but when it looks as good as it does here – it’s a minor complaint.

JUSTIN HOOK

@bmamag

CODY ATKINSON Chuck D once implored us all not to believe the hype, but we didn’t listen. Hype is everywhere, and every music fan lives off it. New bands, new albums – all better than the last. Cody Atkinson gets jacked on hype in the following paragraphs.

What’s wrong with a little bit of hype?

Maybe a little bit of hype isn’t a bad thing. Getting a bit of publicity for something that’s good is, well, deserved. But it can descend into a circle jerk of false expectations.

How does hype even work?

Hype usually germinates from the opening lines of a press release, where the meek sheet of paper (or increasingly, email) claims that the record you are holding in your very hands is “the first real statement of the year”, or “the next big thing”, or the “most memorable album of the year so far”.

But if every presser says that, isn’t it easy just to block it out?

But it only takes one overworked blogger or street press writer – close to deadline and short on content – to barely re-word the release and for everything to snowball.

And if a few are lazy?

Then the hype machine will have well and truly kicked into gear. Suddenly a juggernaut has been created, and comparisons to The Beatles are being thrown out there.

I’m calling bullshit on that…

equation for it, but I’m too much of a lazy hack to bother with things like “evidence” and “facts”.

OK, other examples of power-hype megaphones?

NME has a habit of anointing a young British band as having the “greatest debut album since The Stone Roses’ debut album”, which is supported by quotes from either Noel Gallagher or Damon Albarn proclaiming their love or hatred of the band/artists. It can take weeks or even months before people catch on that the band in question are actually shit and we’ve all been had by a dose of mock-cockney pseudo-realism that sounds worse than a guy constantly blowing his nose right next to you on the bus to Civic.

Why all the NME hate? Surely ‘Pitchfork-endorsed’ bands are worse?

Only in the sense that a three-letter endorsement can carry more weight than nearly all other modern music criticism combined – in much of the alternative world, anyway. Indeed, if your band has a ‘BNM’ slammed next to one of their singles, you can be sure that it will be mentioned in every review and interview from now until the end-of-fucking-times. And a bad review can nigh on kill all momentum an artist has generated, down to the fraction of a rating point.

Suddenly a juggernaut has been created, and comparisons to The Beatles are being thrown out there.

OK – here’s one. Jet. Jet were called the next big thing, like a hybrid of AC/DC and Oasis, until people worked out that they weren’t that good. It took a couple of years, but in that time they sold 6.5 MILLION FUCKING ALBUMS! That’s just one example...

There are plenty of overwrought comparisons out there, for both good and bad bands alike. And of course, when you listen to the band in question, they actually sound closer to that static sound you get when trying to tune a radio, than the influence in question.

OK, other than the music media, how else is unreasonable hype driven?

The circular festival scene and the breathless word-of-mouth conjecture around it may be as good as any other form of hype, mainly for its consumer-driven nature.

Yeah? How does that even work?

Well, suddenly Splendour books a band from nowhere (but probably England) to be the third headliner on a Friday on the smaller stage. But before they play that show, they get booked to come back to the country to maybe play Falls or Meredith, and they’re suddenly in demand. People start talking about who the fuck this-band-that-they-have-never-heard-of is. So they look it up, probably pfind a positive review somewhere, and the cycle continues. The band comes back for a Groovin The Moo tour later in the year, and the hype cycle is complete. They are a big, shit-hot band now, even if they sound a bit shitty in actuality.

OK, that seems like a ‘perfect storm’-type scenario. And that movie sucked. So, how else can it happen?

That is so predictably... cynical...

Well, sometimes it only takes one influential publication or outlet to get behind something, for them to take off. Like if Triple J adds a band to high rotation; this often sets off a flurry of attention from all-comers, be it anywhere from the blogosphere to commercial radio. You know how they say one picture is worth a thousand words?

So if I’m meant to ignore the hype, how am I meant to find new music?

Yeah?

Well, a feature album on Triple J has the value of one thousand features on anonymous blogs.

One thousand?

Well, maybe 15 or 20 – quite a few, anyway. The point is that the weight and power of the voice sometimes matters when looking at the amount of hype generated. There’s probably a mathematical

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But in another sense, it is kinda beautiful.

Well, maybe “ignore” is a bit strong…

BUT THAT’S WHAT THE ENTIRE ARTICLE TO DATE HAS BEEN ABOUT! YOU CAN’T CHANGE YOUR MIND THIS LATE; IT’S IN THE RULES! Maybe everyone needs to be a bit more discerning over the hype. Perhaps we need to be a bit more open to the possibility that a good backstory doesn’t necessarily equal good music as a result – or even that your favourite music critics have a habit of liking shithouse artists every now and again. All of us can become susceptible to the glory of the moment and the scene of the day.

51

the word

on gigs

Ciggie Witch, Cool Sounds, California Girls The Phoenix Pub Thursday June 25 Over the last year or so, California Girls has found a nice little niche by taking a modern approach to New Order-ish electronica. That’s a good thing, and it more than resonated with the crowd on the night. The mix of live and looped guitar, plus a variety of pedals and electronics, created a well-balanced sound. What I saw was definitely impressive.

Cool Sounds are regular visitors to the Capital, having made a handful of trips over the last year. Like Ciggie Witch, they share a member or two (or more) with the Ocean Party, but Cool Sounds very much have their own sound and identity. Soft and smooth rock was their calling card, occasionally sounding like they were transported from Coastal California in the early 1980s. But where Yacht Rock was dripping in good times, Cool Sounds traded more on melancholy to balance everything out.

PHOTO BY MEGAN LEAHY

Make no mistake, Ciggie Witch were most definitely worth the effort on a cold winter’s night. Sometimes it’s just a joy to watch good honest songwriting without much pretension or pretence.

You know, ideas that are well formed and well delivered. I mean, that’s what going to a gig is about – listening to a good band in the company of a room full of strangers, at the end of a long day. Ciggie Witch delivered sounds that weren’t streets away from the jangle pop-rock of The Ocean Party, but they probably skewed a touch more to the country side of things. Rotating vocals throughout the members, ringing guitars held fort but were well balanced with tinges of slide and fair doses of keys.

CODY ATKINSON

the word

on gigs

Coda Conduct, Jimmy Pike, Jedbrii, Benjamin Reeve Zierholz at UC Saturday July 4 It was a cold Saturday night for the last leg of Coda Conduct’s Pool Room tour. A showcase of local hip-hop talent, the night started with a DJ set from Benjamin Reeve. While the tunes were good, playing to a dispersed crowd in a spacious venue with blasts of cold air every time a door opened meant Reeve had a tough time getting things warmed up.

The crowd gradually built. When Jedbrii hit the stage, he quipped that “we’ve got at least fifty people.” There were more than that but still not as many as expected, judging by the barriers set up to bring order to the queues at the bar, which never eventuated. This might indicate the difficulty involved in getting a crowd to an allCanberra line-up. But what the crowd lacked in size, it made up for in enthusiasm.

After another brief DJ set, Jimmy Pike gave us his raw, take-it-orleave-it-style hip-hop. The crowd (which included Erica and Sally from Coda Conduct) took it. The highlights for me from both of these sets were when Jedbrii and Jimmy Pike joined forces. Together they took it up a level.

PHOTO BY ZOE PLEASANTS

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Finally Coda Conduct got on stage. This is what I was here for and the girls did not disappoint. From their opening song ‘Watch This Space’, their amazing chemistry was apparent. Their enthusiasm was infectious as they delivered their high-energy, joyful hip-hop.

They are a tight unit and the crowd loved them. By the time they had played a couple of songs from their EP Butter Side Up – plus a new song they had saved for their hometown crowd – I was starting to feel warm.

ZOE PLEASANTS

@bmamag

HOLY HOLY

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53

the word

on gigs

Harts, Foreign Kings, Barren Spinsters Transit Bar Saturday July 4 Two-piece Barren Spinsters had their proud t-shirt-wearing groupies dancing away to their funky sound. The extra grooves came courtesy of the unusual keybass (like old-fashioned organ pedals) played by Brendon Houlahan. With both hands busy on the guitar, one foot on the keybass and one on another effects pedal, he demonstrated amazing coordination.

Foreign Kings just slayed the crowd with their full-on hard rock set.

Frontman Justin Croke had all the stage presence and howling voice to carry the punters with him, as he downed the proffered drinks and fielded the thrown undies. Definitely one of the top live local acts, this band has real potential with over-the-top energy, premium headbanging presence and irresistible riffage.

Darren Hart records his music solo, but brought along drummer Emmanuel Bourakis to the sold out show for some extra oomph.

There was some older electro-indie material early in the set list, with the complex sound created with aid of the Korg keys, plus various electronic toys. Packed down up-front, the crowd was moving well to the music, but everything went up another level when Harts switched to the new, heavier ‘When A Man’s A Fool’ from the latest EP, Breakthrough. A real showman, with more than a touch of Prince to his demeanor, Harts puts his whole body into playing guitar. The sensuous hand movements, the expression of ecstasy when crouching on the floor playing wildly – it all supercharged the incredible music. Throwing in a stunt, Harts played guitar blind, with the instrument held behind his head – and then he spun around so we could see the finger work. The encore included a slammin’ cover of ‘Purple Haze’ as tribute to Harts’ idol, Jimi Hendrix.

the word

on gigs

RORY MCCARTNEY

Spirit Bunny, Agency, P A R K S The Phoenix Pub Saturday 4 July With stumbling beats and woozy synths, P A R K S hit the stage early on to a smattering of people dressed like cashed-up wankers playing golf. This was a shame, because P A R K S showed that he was worthy of the crowd’s full attention. He floated between ambient and experimental, to more straight-up song structures. By the end of the set, he even had the burly bouncer coming in to check it out, because whatever he did, it was pretty damn good.

Agency sounded a bit like a post-hardcore band with a bit of ‘90s alt rock thrown in for good measure, not afraid to occasionally sacrifice melody for intent and vice versa. Everything that was on offer from them was just so dynamic. Impassioned screams alternate with sotto voce vocals; apocalyptic guitars alternately dominate and disappear behind chunky basslines. Agency have become one of those local bands that you should go out of your way to check out at least once.

PHOTO BY MEGAN LEAHY

54

After the jagged edges of Agency, Spirit Bunny sounded like refined white sugar. After a little acclimatisation, the realisation hits that there’s quite a bit of substance behind that initial sugar rush. Hammering hard on circuit bent electronics, Spirit Bunny live on a cloud of pop sensibilities, with split harmonies and brash enthusiasm filling the room. They were a balanced band, willing to not only rep their twee-ish aspects, but also distort them at the same time. A gig like this proves that good music is good music, regardless of any differences in genre or attitudes.

CODY ATKINSON

@bmamag

XAVIER RUDD

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55

ACT DMC CHAMPIONSHIPS FINALS

56

@bmamag

ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Wed July 15 - Thu July 16 Listings are a free community service. Email editorial@bmamag.com to have your events appear each issue.

WEDNESDAY JULY 15 ART EXHIBITIONS All That Fall

Capturing Inherent Patterns Yioryios. 10-4pm Tue-Sun. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

FILM

Sacrifice, life and loss in the First World War. 10am-5pm. Free.

Scandinavian Film Festival 2015

Victorians Stepping Up

PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

Ceramic Exhibition. 10-4pm Tue-Sun. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Red Dirt, Wild Places

Susan a’Beckett, Meg Brow and MaryAnn Marshall. 2 Jul-1 Aug TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Innerspace

Curated by David Broker. 10 Jul-15 Aug.

14-26 Jul.

LIVE MUSIC Bella Groove

Doors open 5pm. Kicks off 8:30pm.

Free.

HIPPO BAR

ON THE TOWN

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

“Here I give thanks...”

THE PHOENIX BAR

John R Walker. Landscapes. 12-5pm Wed-Sun. DRILL HALL GALLERY

Poetry. 8pm. Free.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

Archaeology, Excavation and the Arcane

Pixel Play, Pixel Fun Tile Workshop

CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

Glassworks exhibition. 17 Jun- 30 Aug

If I made you a mountain

By Shellaine Godbold. Until Aug 1. Mon - Fri 9am - 5:30pm Sat 9am - 1pm.

Free.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Surround/s

Art exhibition. 2-26 Jul. WATSON ARTS CENTRE

2Seasons

8 years+. 9:30-12:30pm.

Storytime: Stradbroke Dreaming by Oodgeroo Nu

$5 oer child. Bookings essential at 02 6102 7070 or bookings@npg.gov.au.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

Make Your Own Power House Tile Workshop 8 years+. 1-1:45pm.

CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

Ceramics from Northern Territory. 104pm Tue-Sun.

TRIVIA

Life and time: Portraits by Rod McNicol

Glamour & Song questions. 8pm. Book Online.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

10am-5pm. Free.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

Cross-Casting

Tranny Trivia

POLIT BAR & LOUNGE

THURSDAY JULY 16

Verney Burness/Charles Walker. 8-26 Jul. ANCA GALLERY

ART EXHIBITIONS

High Country Waterfalls

Doubt, my Candles Out

Phil Ryan. Acrylic and mixed media waterfall paintings. 2 Jul-1 Aug. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Australian Woodfire: Curator’s choice

Curated by Peter Haynes. 9 Jul-4 Aug. STRATHNAIRN HOMESTEAD GALLERY

Fred Olsen: A Profile

Curated by Peter Haynes. 9 July-2 Aug. STRATHNAIRN HOMESTEAD GALLERY

“In the falling light”

Kirsten Coelho. Porcelain. 12-5pm Wed-Sun. DRILL HALL GALLERY

Riley Beaumont

Inconsistent harmonies contradicted by a temporal existence. 9-19 Jul.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

Inconsistent

Riley Beaumont. Weds- Sun 11am5pm

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

Protean

Merryn Sommerville. 16 Jul-2 Aug. M16 ARTSPACE

...now you don’t

Dorte Conroy. 12-5pm daily.

M16 ARTSPACE

Underwater Landscapes Peter Fisher. 16 Jul-2 Aug. M16 ARTSPACE

Amelia Zaraftis

Recent Work. 12-5pm daily.

M16 ARTSPACE

on edge

Amelia Zaraftis. 16 Jul-2 Aug. M16 ARTSPACE

Chatter

Cat Mueller. 16 Jul-2 Aug. M16 ARTSPACE

COMEDY Naked Girls Reading

Naked girls read out loud comedy.

7:30pm. $15.

POLIT BAR & LOUNGE

Ceramics exhibition. Open daily. Free.

LIVE MUSIC

The printed surface

Beast & Flood

NISHI GALLERY

Ceramic artists whose practise includes print on clay techniques. 4-25 July.

Free.

With Primary Colors, P A R K S. 9pm. $5.

THE PHOENIX BAR

MEGALO PRINT STUDIO + GALLERY

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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Thu July 16 - Sun July 19 THURSDAY JULY 16 Beneath Benetta

Five-piece Canberra-based band.

7pm. $5.

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ

Chris Harland Blues Band Electric guitar blues. 7pm.

NATIONAL PRESS CLUB

ON THE TOWN Playtime

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

TREEHOUSE BAR

Chicago Charles & Dave 9-12pm. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

4Some Thursdays

Free Entry & $4 Drinks Specials.

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Alive Fridays

Red Dirt, Wild Places

COMEDY

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Sydney Comedy Festival Showcase

Presents Yolanda Be Cool. $10 before 11pm. All night.

UV Boi

Innerspace

MR WOLF

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Doors open 10pm. $10 before 11:30pm.

ON THE TOWN

TREEHOUSE BAR

Doubt, my Candles Out

9pm. Free.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT Pixel Play, Pixel Fun Tile Workshop 8 years+. 9:30-12:30pm.

CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

The Salt Room

Pixel Play, Pixel Fun Tile Workshop

taLKbLaK RADIO

distOrtion

8 to 12 year olds. $25 / $20 Circle of Friends. Bookings essential.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

Tarot Card Reading

Booking only 0404364820. 5-7pm.

POLIT BAR & LOUNGE

Circus Under My Bed

Australia’s world famous national youth circus. 6pm. $35.

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

GORMAN HOUSE ARTS CENTRE

speaking out for NAIDOC. 15-25 year olds. 5:30pm. Free.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Make Your Own Power House Tile Workshop 8 years+. 1-1:45pm.

CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

SATURDAY JULY 18

MEGALO PRINT STUDIO + GALLERY

Ceramic Exhibition. 10-4pm Tue-Sun. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Chatter

LIVE MUSIC

Cat Mueller. 16 Jul-2 Aug.

Wes Carr presents: Here comes the Sun

All That Fall

M16 ARTSPACE

Sacrifice, life and loss in the First World War. 10am-5pm. Free.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ

Capturing Inherent Patterns

Aussie Rock Tribute Night

Yioryios. 10-4pm Tue-Sun. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

THE BASEMENT

Something Like This

Australian Woodfire: Curator’s choice

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

STRATHNAIRN HOMESTEAD GALLERY

Live music. 10pm.

2Seasons

Ceramics from Northern Territory. 104pm Tue-Sun.

Curated by Peter Haynes. 9 Jul-4 Aug.

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

FILM Scandinavian Film Festival 2015 14-26 Jul.

PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA

LIVE MUSIC Evensong

Choral music. 4-4:30pm. Free.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

Rule of Thirds

...now you don’t

THE PHOENIX BAR

Dorte Conroy. 12-5pm daily.

With Wives, Bobby Kill. 9:30pm. $5.

M16 ARTSPACE

Damien Leith

Archaeology, Excavation and the Arcane

THE STREET THEATRE

Glassworks exhibition. 17 Jun- 30 Aug CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

If I made you a mountain

By Shellaine Godbold. Until Aug 1. Mon - Fri 9am - 5:30pm Sat 9am - 1pm.

Free.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

The Parting Glass- An Irish Journey.

8pm.

Confluence

Jazz music. Curated by Shoeb Ahmad and Thomas Fell. $15/$10.

AINSLIE ARTS CENTRE

4th Degree

10.30pm. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Art exhibition. 2-26 Jul.

Xmas in July with the Somedays

Free Spirit

IRON BAR

Surround/s

5 Course Xmas Degustation and live music. 6pm. $80.

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Headfest

Underwater Landscapes

Lineup tbc.

MAGPIES CITY CLUB

M16 ARTSPACE

ON THE TOWN

Peter Fisher. 16 Jul-2 Aug.

Life and time: Portraits by Rod McNicol 10am-5pm. Free.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

Amelia Zaraftis

Recent Work. 12-5pm daily.

M16 ARTSPACE

Cross-Casting

Sneaky: Lucrative 9PM . Free entry TREEHOUSE BAR

Love Saturdays $10 before 12am.

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Verney Burness/Charles Walker. 8-26 Jul.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

on edge

Amelia Zaraftis. 16 Jul-2 Aug.

Dinner, champagne, trivia night. $10.

7pm.

High Country Waterfalls

Miss Burlesque ACT 2015

ANCA GALLERY

M16 ARTSPACE

Phil Ryan. Acrylic and mixed media waterfall paintings. 2 Jul-1 Aug.

Bastille Day

ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE

7pm. $63.50.

THE PLAYHOUSE

Fred Olsen: A Profile

Make Your Own Power House Tile Workshop

STRATHNAIRN HOMESTEAD GALLERY

CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Curated by Peter Haynes. 9 July-2 Aug.

“In the falling light”

Kirsten Coelho. Porcelain. 12-5pm Wed-Sun. DRILL HALL GALLERY

Riley Beaumont

Inconsistent harmonies contradicted by a temporal existence. 9-19 Jul.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

Inconsistent

Riley Beaumont. Weds- Sun 11am5pm

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

Protean

Ceramics exhibition. Open daily. Free.

NISHI GALLERY

58

Various Comedians. Tickets $40.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Antoinette Karsten. 18 Jul- 8 Aug.

Victorians Stepping Up

8pm. $15/$20.

M16 ARTSPACE

The printed surface

CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

A Journey through the songs of George Harrison. 8pm.

Merryn Sommerville. 16 Jul-2 Aug.

WATSON ARTS CENTRE

Make Your Own Power House Tile Workshop

FRIDAY JULY 17

DRILL HALL GALLERY

ART EXHIBITIONS Ceramic artists whose practise includes print on clay techniques. 4-25 July.

Free.

8 years+. 1-1:45pm.

“Here I give thanks...”

NORM

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

Curated by David Broker. 10 Jul-15 Aug.

John R Walker. Landscapes. 12-5pm Wed-Sun.

Poetry night. $5 at the door.

8 years+. 9:30-12:30pm.

Susan a’Beckett, Meg Brow and MaryAnn Marshall. 2 Jul-1 Aug

8 years+. 1-1:45pm.

SUNDAY JULY 19 LIVE MUSIC Evensong

Choral music. 4-4:30pm. Free.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

Canberra Blues Society Monthy Jams

Chris Harland Blues Band. 2pm. $3/$5.

HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB

Irish Jam Session.

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

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Sun July 19 - Fri July 24 SUNDAY JULY 19 SOMETHING DIFFERENT Make Your Own Power House Tile Workshop

8 years+. 1-1:45pm.

CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

TALKS Ken Healey: In the Spotlight

Discussing classical music performance. 2-3pm. Free, bookings essential on 02 6102 7070.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

TUESDAY JULY 21

If I made you a mountain

By Shellaine Godbold. Until Aug 1. Mon - Fri 9am - 5:30pm Sat 9am - 1pm.

Free.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Surround/s

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Underwater Landscapes

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

M16 ARTSPACE

Burrito Gallery

Life and time: Portraits by Rod McNicol NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

4Some Thursdays

Presents Joel Fletcher. Doors open 9pm. Tickets from www.moshtix. com.au

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Bag Raiders

10am-5pm. Free.

Capturing Inherent Patterns

Free Entry & $4 Drinks Specials.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Recent Work. 12-5pm daily.

M16 ARTSPACE

Cross-Casting ANCA GALLERY

Amelia Zaraftis. 16 Jul-2 Aug. M16 ARTSPACE

High Country Waterfalls

Phil Ryan. Acrylic and mixed media waterfall paintings. 2 Jul-1 Aug. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Fred Olsen: A Profile

Curated by Peter Haynes. 9 July-2 Aug.

Chatter

DRILL HALL GALLERY

M16 ARTSPACE

Ceramic Exhibition. 10-4pm Tue-Sun.

“In the falling light”

Kirsten Coelho. Porcelain. 12-5pm Wed-Sun.

Cat Mueller. 16 Jul-2 Aug.

Victorians Stepping Up

All That Fall

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Australian Woodfire: Curator’s choice

Curated by Peter Haynes. 9 Jul-4 Aug. STRATHNAIRN HOMESTEAD GALLERY

Red Dirt, Wild Places

Susan a’Beckett, Meg Brow and MaryAnn Marshall. 2 Jul-1 Aug TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Innerspace

Curated by David Broker. 10 Jul-15 Aug.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

“Here I give thanks...”

John R Walker. Landscapes. 12-5pm Wed-Sun. DRILL HALL GALLERY

2Seasons

Ceramics from Northern Territory. 104pm Tue-Sun. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Doubt, my Candles Out

FILM

Doors open 10pm.

MR WOLF

Itchy Triggers

Stripy

The Eggscellent Adventures of an Emu chick! 11:45am. $24.90.

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

TALKS

10pm. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

SOMETHING DIFFERENT taLKbLaK RADIO

A literary portrait: Ransom by David Malouf

Discussion of Ransom by David Malouf.

6-7:30pm. Free, bookings essential on 02 6102 7070.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

speaking out for NAIDOC. 15-25 year olds. 5:30pm. Free.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

THEATRE Dylan Thomas

Return Journey. 7:30pm.

THEATRE

THE STREET THEATRE

Dylan Thomas

Return Journey. 7:30pm.

THE STREET THEATRE

STRATHNAIRN ARTS

SOMETHING DIFFERENT Retro Gaming Launch Night RELOAD BAR & GAMES

THEATRE Dylan Thomas

Return Journey. 7:30pm.

THE STREET THEATRE

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

Abridged. 22 Jul-2 Aug. Bookings www. honestpuck.com.au.

CANBERRA ACADEMY OF DRAMATIC ART

THURSDAY JULY 23 ART EXHIBITIONS Unmentionables

Glassworks exhibition. 17 Jun- 30 Aug

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA

...now you don’t

Archaeology, Excavation and the Arcane

Alive Fridays

14-26 Jul.

M16 ARTSPACE M16 ARTSPACE

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

IRON BAR

Scandinavian Film Festival 2015

Merryn Sommerville. 16 Jul-2 Aug. Dorte Conroy. 12-5pm daily.

With Marji Curran. 6pm. $10.

CITY WALK

Ceramic artists whose practise includes print on clay techniques. 4-25 July.

Free.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

James Southwell

Works for sale, live DJ and performances. 6pm.

STRATHNAIRN HOMESTEAD GALLERY

Sacrifice, life and loss in the First World War. 10am-5pm. Free.

TRANSIT BAR

Peter Fisher. 16 Jul-2 Aug.

on edge

MEGALO PRINT STUDIO + GALLERY

Brother Be

TREEHOUSE BAR

Dylan Thomas

The printed surface

The songs of Amy Winehouse. 8pm.

9pm. Free.

With Latha,’s Grip, The Naddiks.

8:30pm. Free.

THEATRE

ART EXHIBITIONS

We May Never Meet Again

Adam & Ash

Playtime

Antoinette Karsten. 18 Jul- 8 Aug.

Verney Burness/Charles Walker. 8-26 Jul.

WEDNESDAY JULY 22

LIVE MUSIC

ON THE TOWN

Amelia Zaraftis

THE STREET THEATRE

THE PHOENIX BAR

Free Spirit

Out to Lunch

Return Journey. 7:30pm.

With Guests. 9pm. $5.

THE STREET THEATRE

WATSON ARTS CENTRE

LIVE MUSIC

AINSLIE ARTS CENTRE

FRIDAY JULY 24

The Gypsy Scholars

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Art exhibition. 2-26 Jul.

Yioryios. 10-4pm Tue-Sun.

Lunchtime concerts from ANU Music Student’s Association. $5 on the door.

LIVE MUSIC

By Alycia Moffat and Claire Lenehan.

Weds- Sun 11am- 5pm. Free.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Sat July 25 - Wed July 29 SATURDAY JULY 25 ART EXHIBITIONS

Unmentionables

By Alycia Moffat and Claire Lenehan.

Weds- Sun 11am- 5pm. Free.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

The printed surface

Ceramic artists whose practise includes print on clay techniques. 4-25 July.

Free.

MEGALO PRINT STUDIO + GALLERY

Chatter

Underwater Landscapes

M16 ARTSPACE

Sacrifice, life and loss in the First World War. 10am-5pm. Free.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

Australian Woodfire: Curator’s choice

Curated by Peter Haynes. 9 Jul-4 Aug. STRATHNAIRN HOMESTEAD GALLERY

Red Dirt, Wild Places

Susan a’Beckett, Meg Brow and MaryAnn Marshall. 2 Jul-1 Aug TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

2Seasons

Ceramics from Northern Territory. 104pm Tue-Sun. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Curated by David Broker. 10 Jul-15 Aug.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

“Here I give thanks...”

John R Walker. Landscapes. 12-5pm Wed-Sun. DRILL HALL GALLERY

Doubt, my Candles Out

Merryn Sommerville. 16 Jul-2 Aug. M16 ARTSPACE

...now you don’t

Dorte Conroy. 12-5pm daily.

M16 ARTSPACE

Archaeology, Excavation and the Arcane

Glassworks exhibition. 17 Jun- 30 Aug CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

If I made you a mountain

By Shellaine Godbold. Until Aug 1. Mon - Fri 9am - 5:30pm Sat 9am - 1pm.

Free.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Life and time: Portraits by Rod McNicol

N64 Super Smash Cosplay with Dreddseppelin

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

RELOAD BAR & GAMES

M16 ARTSPACE

Recent Work. 12-5pm daily.

M16 ARTSPACE

Cross-Casting

Verney Burness/Charles Walker. 8-26 Jul. ANCA GALLERY

on edge

Amelia Zaraftis. 16 Jul-2 Aug. M16 ARTSPACE

High Country Waterfalls

Phil Ryan. Acrylic and mixed media waterfall paintings. 2 Jul-1 Aug. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Fred Olsen: A Profile

Curated by Peter Haynes. 9 July-2 Aug. STRATHNAIRN HOMESTEAD GALLERY

Innerspace

10:30pm. Free.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

Amelia Zaraftis

All That Fall

Oscar

Peter Fisher. 16 Jul-2 Aug.

10am-5pm. Free.

Cat Mueller. 16 Jul-2 Aug.

ON THE TOWN

Capturing Inherent Patterns Yioryios. 10-4pm Tue-Sun. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Tour de France

Bar open, trivia and prize. 7:30pm.

Free.

ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE

Drawing the Human

Experiment with drawing direct from a model, suitable for all ages. 1-4pm. $45. Bookings essential o NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

THEATRE

CANBERRA ACADEMY OF DRAMATIC ART

SUNDAY JULY 26

FILM

PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA

Scandinavian Film Festival 2015

LIVE MUSIC

PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA

LIVE MUSIC

Piano repertoire inspired by childhood and children’s songs from around the world. 5pm. $35/$20.

Matt Dent and THE STEEL CAPS

Irish Jam Session.

14-26 Jul.

Jovanni-Rey V. de Pedro

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

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

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Doors open 5pm. Kicks off 8:30pm.

Free.

WATSON ARTS CENTRE

Dumb Punts

LIVE MUSIC

THE PHOENIX BAR

CIT Presents The Bootleg Sessions

HIPPO BAR

Free Spirit

Antoinette Karsten. 18 Jul- 8 Aug. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

With Pow Pow Kids, BLT, Eadie and the doodles. 9pm. $5.

MONDAY JULY 27

Various Artists. 8pm. Free.

THE PHOENIX BAR

AD SPACE

TUESDAY JULY 28 LIVE MUSIC Out to Lunch

Lunchtime concerts from ANU Music Student’s Association. $5 on the door.

2Seasons

Ceramics from Northern Territory. 104pm Tue-Sun. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Red Dirt, Wild Places

Susan a’Beckett, Meg Brow and MaryAnn Marshall. 2 Jul-1 Aug TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Innerspace

Curated by David Broker. 10 Jul-15 Aug.

John R Walker. Landscapes. 12-5pm Wed-Sun.

Doubt, my Candles Out

Merryn Sommerville. 16 Jul-2 Aug. M16 ARTSPACE

...now you don’t

Dorte Conroy. 12-5pm daily.

Archaeology, Excavation and the Arcane

Glassworks exhibition. 17 Jun- 30 Aug CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

If I made you a mountain

By Shellaine Godbold. Until Aug 1. Mon - Fri 9am - 5:30pm Sat 9am - 1pm.

Free.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Free Spirit

Antoinette Karsten. 18 Jul- 8 Aug. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Unmentionables

By Alycia Moffat and Claire Lenehan.

Weds- Sun 11am- 5pm. Free.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

Underwater Landscapes Peter Fisher. 16 Jul-2 Aug. M16 ARTSPACE

Life and time: Portraits by Rod McNicol 10am-5pm. Free.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

Capturing Inherent Patterns Yioryios. 10-4pm Tue-Sun. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Victorians Stepping Up

Ceramic Exhibition. 10-4pm Tue-Sun. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Amelia Zaraftis

Recent Work. 12-5pm daily.

M16 ARTSPACE

on edge

AINSLIE ARTS CENTRE

Amelia Zaraftis. 16 Jul-2 Aug.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

High Country Waterfalls

M16 ARTSPACE

Book club

Phil Ryan. Acrylic and mixed media waterfall paintings. 2 Jul-1 Aug.

ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE

Fred Olsen: A Profile

TRIVIA

STRATHNAIRN HOMESTEAD GALLERY

Un pedigree. 12pm. Members free.

Nerd Trivia with Joel and Ali

Presented by Impact Records. 7:30pm.

THE PHOENIX BAR

60

STRATHNAIRN HOMESTEAD GALLERY

M16 ARTSPACE

Surround/s

Art exhibition. 2-26 Jul.

Curated by Peter Haynes. 9 Jul-4 Aug.

DRILL HALL GALLERY

Abridged. 22 Jul-2 Aug. Bookings www. honestpuck.com.au.

Scandinavian Film Festival 2015

Moochers Inc

Australian Woodfire: Curator’s choice

“Here I give thanks...”

DRILL HALL GALLERY

HELLENIC CLUB (WODEN)

M16 ARTSPACE

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

FILM

Awesome Aussie Roots Music. 9pm.

Cat Mueller. 16 Jul-2 Aug.

THE STREET THEATRE

“In the falling light”

14-26 Jul.

Chatter

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Return Journey. 7:30pm.

Ceramic Exhibition. 10-4pm Tue-Sun. Kirsten Coelho. Porcelain. 12-5pm Wed-Sun.

ART EXHIBITIONS

Dylan Thomas

Victorians Stepping Up BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

WEDNESDAY JULY 29

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Curated by Peter Haynes. 9 July-2 Aug.

“In the falling light”

Kirsten Coelho. Porcelain. 12-5pm Wed-Sun. DRILL HALL GALLERY

@bmamag

ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Wed July 29 -Sat Aug 1 WEDNESDAY JULY 29

ON THE TOWN Playtime

DANCE

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

TREEHOUSE BAR

Reckless Valour

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

THE PLAYHOUSE

Shaken & Stirred

29 Jul-1 Aug.

ON THE TOWN

Burlesque glamour. 7:30pm. $20.

CHECK YOUR HEAD

Shaken and Stirred

Your monthly dose of beats, rhymes and life. 8pm. $5.

THE PHOENIX BAR

SOMETHING DIFFERENT Mario Kart N64 Tournament RELOAD BAR & GAMES

POLIT BAR & LOUNGE

Burlesque and cabaret. 7:30pm. $20.

POLIT BAR & LOUNGE

THEATRE Gaslight

A Victorian Thriller. 30 July- 15 August.

CANBERRA REPERTORY SOCIETY

THEATRE

FRIDAY JULY 31

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

ART EXHIBITIONS

CANBERRA ACADEMY OF DRAMATIC ART

By Alycia Moffat and Claire Lenehan.

Weds- Sun 11am- 5pm. Free.

Abridged. 22 Jul-2 Aug. Bookings www. honestpuck.com.au.

THURSDAY JULY 30

Unmentionables

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

Victorians Stepping Up

SATURDAY AUGUST 1

Ceramic Exhibition. 10-4pm Tue-Sun. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

ART EXHIBITIONS

Amelia Zaraftis

Recent Work. 12-5pm daily.

“In the falling light”

M16 ARTSPACE

Kirsten Coelho. Porcelain. 12-5pm Wed-Sun.

on edge

Amelia Zaraftis. 16 Jul-2 Aug.

DRILL HALL GALLERY

M16 ARTSPACE

EASS 2015

High Country Waterfalls

Art graduate awards.

Phil Ryan. Acrylic and mixed media waterfall paintings. 2 Jul-1 Aug.

WATSON ARTS CENTRE

2Seasons

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Ceramics from Northern Territory. 104pm Tue-Sun.

Fred Olsen: A Profile

Curated by Peter Haynes. 9 July-2 Aug.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

STRATHNAIRN HOMESTEAD GALLERY

Chatter

Cat Mueller. 16 Jul-2 Aug.

DANCE

Australian Woodfire: Curator’s choice

Reckless Valour

M16 ARTSPACE

29 Jul-1 Aug.

Curated by Peter Haynes. 9 Jul-4 Aug.

THE PLAYHOUSE

Red Dirt, Wild Places

FILM

STRATHNAIRN HOMESTEAD GALLERY

Susan a’Beckett, Meg Brow and MaryAnn Marshall. 2 Jul-1 Aug

Stronger than Fiction

Innerspace

PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA

Documentary Film Festival. 30 Jul- 2 Aug.

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Curated by David Broker. 10 Jul-15 Aug.

DANCE

Reckless Valour

Reckless Valour

THE PLAYHOUSE

THE PLAYHOUSE

FILM

FILM

...now you don’t

Stronger than Fiction

Stronger than Fiction

M16 ARTSPACE

PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA

PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA

Glassworks exhibition. 17 Jun- 30 Aug

LIVE MUSIC

ON THE TOWN

A Night of Story in Song

Flava R&B

29 Jul-1 Aug.

Documentary Film Festival. 30 Jul- 2 Aug.

29 Jul-1 Aug.

Documentary Film Festival. 30 Jul- 2 Aug.

Aine Tyrrell and Mick Daley. Tickets via www.eclecticsounds.com.au, moshtix or the venue.

9pm. Free.

NIGEL & BETH’S PLACE

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

Death Cab For Cuties

taLKbLaK RADIO

Tickets via http://premier.ticketek. com.au/.

ANU BAR AND REFECTORY

Hetty Kate and the Dan Mclean Big Band Tickets at www.agac.com.au.

AINSLIE ARTS CENTRE

TREEHOUSE BAR

speaking out for NAIDOC. 15-25 year olds. 5:30pm. Free.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Night at the Museum: Mystery 6pm. 18+. $10.

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIA

LIVE MUSIC

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

DANCE

Moochers Inc. Video Launch

“Here I give thanks...”

With 5th Avenue. 9:30pm. $5.

John R Walker. Landscapes. 12-5pm Wed-Sun.

THE PHOENIX BAR

Double Trouble

DRILL HALL GALLERY

The music of Martin and Peter WesleySmith. Aug 1 7:30pm. Aug 2 3pm.

Dorte Conroy. 12-5pm daily.

THE STREET THEATRE

Archaeology, Excavation and the Arcane

THEATRE The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

Abridged. 22 Jul-2 Aug. Bookings www. honestpuck.com.au.

If I made you a mountain

By Shellaine Godbold. Until Aug 1. Mon - Fri 9am - 5:30pm Sat 9am - 1pm.

Free.

CANBERRA ACADEMY OF DRAMATIC ART

Gaslight

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

A Victorian Thriller. 30 July- 15 August.

CANBERRA REPERTORY SOCIETY

Free Spirit

Antoinette Karsten. 18 Jul- 8 Aug. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Underwater Landscapes Peter Fisher. 16 Jul-2 Aug. M16 ARTSPACE

Unmentionables

By Alycia Moffat and Claire Lenehan.

Weds- Sun 11am- 5pm. Free.

Mondecreen Single Launch

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

THE PHOENIX BAR

Capturing Inherent Patterns

With Guests. 9pm. $5.

Yioryios. 10-4pm Tue-Sun. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

OUT

JUN 17

ALLDAY CHUCK PALAHNIUK BEYOND FESTIVAL ...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

CALEB ARMSTRONG Where did your band name come from? My parents branded me when I was young.

Group members? I do vocals, guitar and rhythm.

Describe your sound: My sound can be described as contemporary folk.

Who are your influences, musical or otherwise? Some artists include Sam Cooke, Bill Withers and Marvin Gaye.

More recent artists would be The Griswolds, Bastille, Ed Sheeran and Jason Mraz.

What’s the most memorable experience you’ve had whilst performing? I study at a place called CIT and the program places you in an ensemble. Last month I had the pleasure of performing with five wonderful musicians, it was a great time.

Of what are you proudest so far? On June 30 my first single was published on iTunes. It’s called ‘Red’.

What are your plans for the future? To record and perform as much as possible and hopefully make a living from it.

What makes you laugh? Memes and llamas with hats.

What pisses you off? Racism.

What about the local scene would you change? I’d like there to be a greater culture of support among local artists. I think it would be pretty cool for Canberra to become the hub for music in our country.

What are your upcoming gigs? I’m playing at the Aviary Bar on Thursday July 16 and at the winter markets at Westside Acton Park on Sunday July 19.

Contact info: calebarmstrong9@gmail.com, facebook.com/ pages/Caleb-Armstrong-Music/1590078354586972

Australian Songwriters Association Keiran (02) 62310433 Back to the Eighties Ty Emerson 0418 544 014 Backbeat Drivers Steve 0422733974 backbeatdrivers.com Birds Love Fighting Gangbusters/DIY shows-bookings@ birdslovefighting.com Black Label Photography Kingsley 0438351007 blacklabelphotography.net

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 Morning After, The Covers band Anthony 0402500843 Mornings Jordan 0439907853 Obsessions 0450 960 750 obsessions@grapevine.com.au Painted Hearts, The Peter (02) 62486027 Polka Pigs Ian (02) 62315974

Bridge Between, The Cam 0431550005

Rafe Morris 0416322763

Chris Harland Blues Band, The Chris 0418 490 649 chrisharlandbluesband @gmail.com

Redletter Ben 0421414472

Cole Bennetts Photography 0415982662 Danny V Danny 0413502428 Dawn Theory Nathan 0402845132 Danny 0413502428

Redsun Rehearsal Studio Ralph 0404178996/ (02) 61621527 Rug, The Jol 0417273041 Sewer Sideshow Huck 0419630721

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

Simone & The Soothsayers Singing teacher Simone 62304828

Drumassault Dan 0406 375 997

Sorgonian Twins, The Mark 0428650549

Feldons, The 0407 213 701 Fire on the Hill Aaron 0410381306 Lachlan 0400038388

Soundcity Rehearsal Studio Andrew 0401588884

Fourth Degree Vic 0408477020

STonKA Jamie 0422764482 stonka2615@gmail.com

Gareth Dailey DJ/Electronica Gareth 0414215885

Strange Hour Events Dan 0411112075

Groovalicious Corporate/ weddings/private functions 0448995158 Guy The Sound Guy Live & Studio Sound Engineer 0400585369 guy@guythesoundguy.com Haunted Attics band@hauntedatticsmusic.com

Super Best Friends Greg greg@gunfever.com.au System Addict Jamie 0418398556 Tegan Northwood (Singing Teacher) 0410 769 144

In The Flesh Scott 0410475703

Top Shelf Colin 0408631514

Itchy Triggers Alex 0414838480

Undersided, The Baz 0408468041

Jenn Pacor Singer-songwriter avail. for originals/covers 0405618630

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Johnny Roadkill Paulie 0408287672 paulie_mcmillan@live.com.au

Zoopagoo zoopagoo@gmail.com

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