BMA Magazine 412 February 25 2013 by BMA Magazine

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For a photo of a man standing next to Australia’s largest pair of testicles, turn to page 60. #412F E B R UA RY 2 7 Fax: (02) 6257 4361 Mail: PO Box 713 Civic Square, ACT 2608 Publisher Scott Layne Allan Sko General Manager Allan Sko

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Sub-Editor & Social Media Manager Greta Kite-Gilmour Graphic Design Marley Film Editor Melissa Wellham NEXT ISSUE 413 OUT MARCH 13 EDITORIAL DEADLINE MARCH 4 ADVERTISING DEADLINE MARCH 7 Published by Radar Media Pty Ltd ABN 76 097 301 730 BMA is independently owned and published. Opinions expressed in BMA are not necessarily those of the editor, publisher or staff.

Since the launch of their first issue in March 2012, Us Folk have continued to promote emerging young artists, photographers, designers and writers from Canberra and the surrounding region. BMA can, without a hint of shame, declare untold admiration for Us Folk’s consistently magnificent style and content. Within only one year of their first issue they are soon to release their fourth, coinciding somewhat perfectly with their one-year anniversary. Their fourth issue upholds their ethos of supporting home-grown talent, featuring illustrations, articles and photography from a range of volunteers who have given their time and energy – all for the love of contributing to a local Canberran publication. They will be launching their fourth issue at La De Da on Friday March 15 from 7pm, so get along to grab a copy and wish them happy birthday. For more info, visit us-folk.com.

Coca Cola Behaves like an Arse-Plate Right now, a group of beverage industry giants led by Coca Cola are taking the Northern Territory Government to court for starting the territory’s first ever ‘Cash for Containers’ recycling scheme. For those of you who’ve never looked closely at the side of a soft drink bottle, Cash for Containers is a scheme offering a small recycling incentive which has been running in South Australia for over 30 years. By offering a 10 cent per container deposit refund for consumers, recycling rates there are now double those across the rest of the country. But Coca Cola wants none of it – even though enormous amounts of research show this is the best possible way to curb the wastage from the 14 billion plastic containers used by Australians every year, and 80 percent of Australians support a national Cash for Containers scheme. Coke’s solution, by the way, is to put more bins out, for which they

The Front’s Centenary Exhibition calls for Submissions As part of the Centenary of Canberra celebrations The Front will be curating a special exhibition and invite you to contribute a work for this collaborative collection. The exhibition will coincide with the Centenary of Canberra Lyneham Party at the Shops event on Friday March 15, which will include an outdoors stage, bands, spoken work and poetry, artist paste-ups and live works and market stalls. To express interest to participate in this collaborative exhibition reply to front.gallery@gmail.com email with: your name and contact details; a short description of your work; the dimensions of the work you would like to contribute; a photo (if possible); and, if you intend to have your work for sale, include the price. Works will need to be dropped off at The Front on Mon/Tue March 4/5 to be hung that week. The official opening of the exhibition will be on Friday March 15 but will be open to the public from Sunday March 10 until Sunday March 17. Limited places are still available at the market stalls at the Party at the Shops event. If you are interested in having a space

to sell your work outdoors contact Karen Radford at glossywords@gmail.com to discuss.

Belconnen Arts Centre to hold United Nations International Women’s Day Forum The United Nations International Women’s Day theme for 2013 is The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum, and focuses on the status of women internationally and improvements – paradigm shifts – made in arenas globally. To mark IWD 2013, Belconnen Arts Centre presents Paradigm Shifts, a public forum bringing together three Canberra-based women to provide insight into the paradigm shifts in their own working worlds and areas of interest. The program, moderated by Genevieve Jacobs, Mornings Presenter, ABC 666 Radio, will present Fran Raymond (National Board Member of UN Women Australia), Melissa Clarke (federal political reporter for ABC News 24) and Dr Louise Hamby (Adjunct Fellow at the Australian National University) in a public forum in which each woman will discuss the major changes and challenges in their own professional arenas. The talks will take place at Belconnen Arts Centre on Wednesday March 6, 5:307pm. For more info, call (02) 6173 3300 or email info@ belconnenartscentre.com.au. Tickets are $10; to book, visit paradigmshifts. eventbrite.com.au.

Not to be confused with ‘them folk’, who are cunts.

Us Folk Magazine Celebrates 1st Birthday

will not foot the bill. Anyway, if you can be bothered, visit greenpeace.org.au/ action/?cid=35&src=EMAA to sign a petition destined for politicians’ desks which supports a push for a national Cash for Containers scheme.

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FROM THE BOSSMAN American spring has the groundhog. The football World Cup had Paul the Octopus. And now - to determine the future of the Australian leadership battle - we have a simulated WWE wrestling match (currently sitting on 100% accuracy). It’s good to have you with us, let’s get on with the show... ‘Ladies and gentleman, welcome back to SmackDown in the Capital, we are coming to you live from the ACT Megadome. I am your host and commentator Allan Sko calling all the action for both this sold out capacity crowd and the millions watching from home. And now it’s finally arrived! The four-way Ladder Match for the ultimate prize... The Prime Minister Championship. ‘As we cross live to the centre we can see the belt suspended some 10ft off the ground in the middle of the ring, gleaming under these hot lights. To recap, whichever competitor is first to scale the ladder and successfully unhook the belt will be crowned the next Prime Minister. The four main competitors all have a history for wanting the strap; we have two former champions and two key contenders and based on the fiery promos we’ve been seeing in the months leading up, we’re in for one hell of a hard-hitting contest. ‘And here comes the first contender; potential challenger for the Liberal leadership Malcolm Turnbull sporting neon blue tights. His entrance music of the Jaws theme is seeing a good portion of this capacity crowd up on their feet and animated. Turnbull is the undeniable underdog here - he’s been adamant about his support of Tony Abbott in the build up - but will he assist Abbott for the win? Or go for it himself? Only time will tell...

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.] Dear dog owners who continuously walk past my workplace every day with your giant dogs – its not ok for you stop and let your dogs sniff our posts etc then allow them to left a leg and piss on everything, OR proceed to squat and take a massive crap on our lawns. Whilst the looks on people faces as they walk past and smell the fresh turds is hilariously amusing, its really gross that you don’t respect out beautiful institution and make the effort to cross the path that is 1 metre wide and get them to crap on the nature strip. It pisses me off because I also have to walk past and smell that stinking giant turd every day!!!!

‘And now the Goo Goo Dolls’ I’m Still Here erupts through the Megadome and that can only mean one thing... It’s K-Rudd! As always he’s wearing both his trademark moth-eaten Kevin ‘07 T-shirt and that o-so-familiar smug-git grin. A former PM Champion - known by many as PM Punk’d - K-Rudd was shockingly dismissed by a lowblow three years ago and the tension has been bubbling ever since. He’s had several title shots since but hasn’t managed to win back the gold and many are putting their money on this being his final chance before disappearing down to the midcard. ‘Now comes what many call the major threat for tonight, although you wouldn’t think it based on the hostile crowd reaction; Tony Abbott strides down to the ring with wide shoulders and that cocksure strut to the sounds of The Boys Are Back In Town. And one can only assume what the song refers to... He’s decked out in those trademark budgie smugglers that leave very little to the imagination and as he steps into the ring I’m venturing this to be a smart move by the challenger; Turnbull and K-Rudd are inching away from the sight, and such uncomfort in his opponents has gotta give him an advantage. ‘Finally, the reigning champ’s music hits and about 27% of the crowd are going wild! As the familiar strains of D:Ream’s 1994 hit Things Will Only Get Better play, out steps Julia Gillard and she’s wearing a grim but determined face. With no less than three big names vying for her title, the odds are definitely stacked against her. But she’s accompanied to the ring by her faction, The Faceless Men, adorned in their familiar Jason Voorhees masks and many are wondering what role, if any, they will play here. ‘DING-DING-DING... And there’s the bell! We’re under way! As each competitor circles each other the crowd knows it won’t be long before we discover who will come out on top...’ Tune in next issue for the result of this climactic battle... ALLAN SKO - allan@bmamag.com

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WHO: Takadimi WHAT: National Tour WHEN: Thu Feb 28 WHERE: The Front Gallery and Café

After the successful launch of their debut album, New Common Sense, Takadimi return to the stage in 2013 with a string of dates taking them around Australia. With a world of styles at their disposal, inspired by the possibilities of a well integrated, multi-cultural society in Australia today, this world/contemporary instrumental quintet exerts a genuine obsession for the possibilities within genres and their indefinite boundaries. The group bring you into their worlds through improvisations, exploring and fusing elements of jazz, folk, Irish, gypsy, Latin and Afro beats. Prepare to be transported into an eclectic realm. 7:30pm doors. $10 adults (students by donation).

WHO: Spartak WHAT: Single Launch WHEN: Fri Mar 1 WHERE: Smiths alternative Bookshop

Canberra experimentalists Spartak have been going through a period of change since Nippon, a collection of live improvisations from a Japanese tour, was released in October 2011. Since then, they have hunkered down in their studio, Brick Lane, and are set to debut the first fruits of their labour, Catch/Control. Supported by post-punkers A Drone Coda and beatsmith Deaf Cat, this single anticipates Shoeb Ahmad and Evan Dorrian’s upcoming EP, Possessions, their first release with new member Matt Lustri, and displays their collective foray into rhythmic grooves and indie songcraft amongst the usual electronic manipulations and tension in their music. 8pm. $5 door.

WHO: ACO’s The Reef WHAT: Classical Music and Visual Projection WHEN: Sat Mar 2 WHERE: Llewellyn Hall, ANU

In May 2012, the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Artistic Director Richard Tognetti took a crew of surfers, musicians and filmmakers to the rugged surf coast and desert landscape of northern Western Australia to create a new performance piece. His aim: to explore musical realms at the intersection of music and nature. Over two weeks, Tognetti and this collection of artists spent their time surfing, making music and filming around the remote Ningaloo Reef. The result is The Reef, which combines a mesmerising mix of classics and new music with original footage projected behind the performance. 8pm. Tickets $45-$102 + bf through: aco.com.au.

WHO: Sound From Earth WHAT: EP Launch WHEN: Tue Mar 5 WHERE: The Front Gallery and Café

From their base in Nashville, Tennessee, come indie folk rock duo Sound From Earth with their debut self-titled EP. Having played in Canberra last year alongside Microwave Jenny, the husband-wife duo are excited to hit The Front with their unique sound, which has been described as ‘organic folk rock with an undercurrent of punk, romance and ‘70s electronica’. The passionate environmentalists often travel to protest camps and perform in support of the cause, most recently lending their talents to ﬁght against Coal Seam Gas in Australia. Their music will make you feel like you too are going somewhere. Supported by Maddy Hay. 7:30pm. $10 door.

WHO: The Tallest Man on Earth WHAT: International Tour WHEN: Wed Mar 6 WHERE: Zierholz @ UC

After a string of sold out shows in 2010, Swedish songwriter Kristian Matsson (aka The Tallest Man on Earth) is making his first ever appearance in Canberra. The talented 29-year-old first made himself known back in 2006 after a tour of the USA with Bon Iver. He remained one of those ‘talked about’ artists who kept himself a little under the radar, completely DIY, yet touring and building his fan base. In 2010 he signed with US label Dead Oceans and has since released his sophomore album, The Wild Hunt, and a fantastic EP. (Check the review on bmamag.com.) The Tallest Man is a magnetic presence on stage, even if he’s only 5’8”. 8pm. $45 + bf through Moshtix.

WHO: Oddisee & Olivier Daysoul WHAT: Album Tour WHEN: Thu Mar 14 WHERE: Transit Bar

The debut album from Sudanese-American Amir Mohamed (aka Oddisee), People Hear What They See, is a culmination of the duality of life experiences, from DC internal politics to third world struggles, the line between love and selfishness, and the personal conflict between self-sabotage and progress, set to a backdrop of intricate drums, lush instrumentation, and soul-stirring harmonies. Joining Oddisee is long-time collaborator Olivier Daysoul, who featured as a vocalist and guitarist throughout People Hear and has collaborated with a stream of artists, including Hudson Mohawke and Mike Slott. 8pm. $20 + bf through Moshtix.

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LAUREN STRICKLAND For two people responsible for starting a comedy festival, Tim Duck and Jay Sullivan are very serious people. They inspire hyphenated adjectives such as ‘business-like’ and ‘no-nonsense’. Their conversation is peppered with boardroom phrases like ‘personal development’ and they say things like ‘going forward’ un-ironically. Maybe this is a side-effect of bringing the laughs to the seat of parliament – or maybe they just take their comedy really seriously.

skip over the capital. ‘Stephen K. Amos has never been here; he’s an internationally recognised performer, he’s well respected in the industry and, you know, big tick in the box, he’s never been here. Akmal [Saleh] hasn’t been here for three years, [and] this will be the first time he’s done his full-blown proper theatre show in Canberra. And that’s what it basically came down to: looking at quality performers who we knew Canberra would be hungry to see ‘cos they weren’t here five minutes ago.’

Their favourite word, when it comes to talking about the inaugural CANBERRA COMEDY FESTIVAL, launched in the middle of the centenary celebrations, is curated. Duck, the festival director, says it with conviction: ‘We are curated,’ he says, ‘and we are going to stick to keeping it curated.’ As artistic director, Sullivan utters it in more hushed, reverent tones. ‘It’s the only curated comedy festival in Australia,’ he says, quietly proud.

For every out-of-towner act in the inaugural Canberra Comedy Festival – from Tripod to Stephen K. Amos – there is an equal and opposite local support act. ‘It’s one of the things I’m probably happiest with in terms of my artistic direction for the festival,’ Sullivan says. ‘Every show has got a local supporter – even the local shows have had to go and find someone else who’s not doing a show.’ The local emphasis benefits the audience as well as the performers, Sullivan argues. ‘It happens with me all the time; because I’m based here, and I actually live here, I don’t write the usual Canberra jokes about roundabouts and fireworks and Fyshwick and whatever. I write jokes about actual, specific Canberra things that you have to be a local to get.’

We don’t want to be that big, massive monster; we just want to have a quality festival

It doesn’t sound like much, but Sullivan’s carefully selected line-up is something of a revolution in how Australian comedy festivals are run. Both men are critical of how other festivals – like the Melbourne International Comedy Festival – make it harder for new acts to break into the international circuit. ‘I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the Melbourne one,’ says Duck, ‘but it is massive. And it is cool, but also there’s like 150 shows a night, and there are pros and cons that come with having something that size. We don’t ever want to be that thing. We don’t want to be that big, massive monster; we just want to have a quality festival that puts on a good amount of shows for the size of our community.’ Sullivan agrees, saying the boutique nature of the Canberra Comedy Festival will give local acts an opportunity to see how festivals work. ‘They’re not just going to Melbourne and just losing heaps of money. Because that’s a reality for a Canberra comedian. “Oh yeah, go down to Melbourne and do a show where nobody knows who you are, where you’ve got to pay money to get into the festival in the first place, where you’re away from your home for four weeks so you’ve got accommodation and all the expenses that go along with that.” Just to chance your arm as a comedian down there, you’re competing against hundreds of other shows. So with our festival the audiences are better off because the quality is there; the comedians are better off because they’re not competing with every man and his dog that’s putting on a show.’ Purposefully slotting their festival in between the Adelaide Fringe and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the guys hope future festivals will attract some of the bigger names that often

Both Duck and Sullivan are passionate defenders of the Canberra comedy scene, which they know firsthand – Duck has been running the Comedy Club at the Civic Pub for three years, having been hooked into doing sound for them nearly six years ago by Canberra-based stand-up Sullivan – to be a thriving one. Tickets to the opening night gala sold out in under a fortnight. ‘The hardest thing has been just getting people to believe that we’re serious about what we’re doing and that we know what we’re doing,’ says Sullivan. Duck and Sullivan’s curation of the festival has been carefully calculated, and drawing on their industry expertise and contacts, they’ve endeavoured to create a festival good enough to guarantee it will become an annual event. ‘There’s definitely an audience for comedy in Canberra, there’s definitely the need to have a comedy festival here; but I figured that people wouldn’t just come and if they got burnt, and it was an awful show, then they might not come back, so we had to make sure we had quality acts.’ Ultimately, Sullivan just wants to make sure that ‘Canberra knows we’re not going anywhere.’ The Canberra Comedy Festival 2013 runs Tue-Sat March 19-23 across various venues. Tickets and more info can be found at canberracomedyfestival.com.au.

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a better idea of what The Life of Pi is about, and now have the immediate urge to see it on Saturday March 2 at the Australian National Botanic Gardens. To purchase tickets (before 4pm on the day) visit Moshtix.

ALL AGES Have you ever wondered why no one has ever bothered to put a restaurant on the moon? It probably wouldn’t be successful, due to the lack of atmosphere. Greetings humanoids and welcome to my outer space-themed column, where you can feel that pang of sadness when you realise that a) your travel is limited to that of this world, and b) that earthly travel is so expensive, but then feel happy when you remember that at least living on earth includes one free annual trip around the sun. Q: Why did Mickey Mouse go to outer space? A: He was looking for Pluto. Now imagine that you’re Mickey Mouse, but instead of looking for Pluto, you’re stranded on a boat with a vicious tiger looking for strategies to survive. Thanks to that analogy, you probably have

We all know that David Bowie thought that ‘planet Earth is blue, and there’s nothing I can do’ but we all also know that all Mr Bowie really needed to do was shower the earth in cotton candy and other assorted delights to cheer it up. If the fact that gravity exists gets you down, no fear, head to the Charny Carny on Saturday March 16. You can find it at the Canberra Christian Life Centre Community Oval between 12pm to 6pm. For more information visit charnycarnival.org.au/carnival. Q: Where do astronauts leave their spaceships? A: At parking meteors. If meteors take your fancy, come along to Skyfire to watch some pretty manmade meteors explode on Saturday March 16 at Lake Burley Griffin. The festivities begin at 6pm with a free concert held at the Regatta Point Stage and the fireworks display starting at 8:30pm. Q: How do you know that Saturn has married more than once? A: Because he has lots of rings. That’s something that Saturn probably wanted me to keep on the down low. You know what else usually stays on the down low? The annual You Are Here festival. Never heard of it? That doesn’t surprise me, because You Are Here is an arts festival devoted to Canberra’s underground culture and alternative arts scene. From poetry slams to live music to dance, there’s something for everyone. The festival runs from Thu-Sun March 14-24 and you can find an online programme at youareherecanberra.com.au. Q: Why did the cow go in the spaceship? A: It wanted to jump over the moon! Speaking of cows, did you know that Groovin’ The Moo is back this year on Sunday April 28 at The University of Canberra? With a line-up like this, you won’t want to miss it: Alison Wonderland, Alpine, The Amity Affliction, The Bronx (USA), Dz Deathrays, Example (UK), Flume, Frightened Rabbit (UK), Hungry Kids of Hungary, The Kooks (UK), Last Dinosaurs, Matt and Kim (USA), Midnight Juggernauts, Pez, Regurgitator, Seth Sentry, Shockone, Tame Impala, Tegan and Sara (CAN), The Temper Trap, They Might Be Giants (USA), Tuka with Ellesquire, Urthboy, Dj Woody’s Big Phat 90’s Mixtape (UK), Yacht (USA), Yolanda Be Cool. Tickets are available from Moshtix for $99.90 + bf. Cheers, ANDIE EGAN allagescolumn@gmail.com

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LOCALITY

YOU MADE MY DAY!

If you haven’t been to the ANU Food Co-op lunches yet, it’s likely you’ll be murdered. For $6 you can take part in an organic vegetarian feast from midday to 2pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays each week. Take a piece of tyre rubber and a lighter so you can set it ablaze and ‘Hyah!’ hippies away with the smoke, but otherwise enjoy yourself.

Email editorial@bmamag.com to send a message of gratitude, warmth and generosity to the world at large. AWWW.

Thursday February 28 sees an aging family man-cum-wannabe MC doing battle for no one’s attention with a group of pubes who spent some of their retardedly large salaries on electric instruments. That’s right, you can find our ex-columnist Ced Nada on the decks at Hippo Bar from 9pm, and over at The Phoenix Bar, Waterford are headlining a night with The Burley Griffin and A Drone Coda. If you want to see people whose sperm hasn’t begun to swim in circles, head to Smiths Alternative Bookshop on Friday March 1 at 8pm. $5 will get you into the launch of local indie electro group Spartak’s new single, Catch/ Control, which sports local producer Deaf Cat and others in support.

where are the people to protect us to stop these companys starting up a internet selling business Office of Fair Trading have allready banned him before

The Enlighten festival launches that same day, although where exactly is hard to say. Much like The Centenary, their program seems to have done a ‘Blob’ and absorbed a whole slew of unrelated shit. How, exactly, Bell Shakespeare’s Henry 4 is part of Enlighten baffles me, but regardless, there are many parts of the Enlighten program that are fantastic. Visit enlightencanberra.com or turn to page 47 for our rundown of the highlights. It ends Saturday March 9. A week earlier, Saturday March 2, Transit Bar will host Playwrite with locals Safia from 8pm. If you’ve been hearing any of this stuff on the radio where big buzzy electronic tones and plink-plonking pianos kinda smash around while some white guy sings falsetto and it didn’t make you want to bury the steering wheel in your fucking head then head along. It’s free if that makes a difference.

guys thankyou to these three sites who helped so many when the govt bodies ACCC /ASIC did not help

bought suitcases 26/10/2012 from sam the scam (dealboard) the company was entered into External Administration 13/01/2013 every body lost the money hundreds of people lost thousands but these three sites kept everyone informed telling us what to do which was make a claim at paypal but there policy is only up to 45 days but may extend to 180 which they did i was one of the lucky ones got my money refunded thankyou paypal so guys these sites need a pat on the back for helping the little people ozbargain / productreview / whirlpool

The Tallest Man on Earth isn’t local – he’s about the furthest thing from it – but it’s worth mentioning that he’s appearing in Canberra for the first time ever on Wednesday March 6 at Zierholz @ UC. If his moniker doesn’t mean anything to you then just think of your favourite singer-songwriter and take my word he’s as good if not much, much better than whoever you’re thinking of – and I’m thinking of every singer-songwriter I know and that includes the one you’re thinking of and a lot of others you’ve never even heard of fuck you let’s fight. The show starts at 8pm and advance tickets are $45 + bf through Moshtix. On Friday March 8, the ten-day period allowed for filmmaking is up in the Lights! Canberra! Action! competition and the awful results will be smeared onto a screen at Old Parliament House from 7pm. And the same night at Palace Electric Cinema in NewActon (which, I’ve discovered, is really just a part of Acton that has decided it deserves its own name, which is dumb) the Alliance Française French Film Festival begins. The festival (acronym ‘AFFFF’, which just rolls off the tongue) runs until Tuesday March 26 and you can find full details at affrenchfilmfestival.org. And that’s everything local I care about. ASHLEY THOMSON - editorial@bmamag.com

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ESSENTIAL CANBERRA: VOL. 1 vanessa wright Everyone has a mixtape story. Everyone has made a mixtape. You made one for the boy you liked at school. Even better, he made one for you. Over the course of three very painful weeks, you helped your friend, with whom you were (secretly) completely in love, obsessively make the best mixtape ever for the girl with whom he was completely in love. Just me? Okay, ss cla rldwo has ra ber Can let’s get bands with world-class back on songs. We’re looking track then.

to express that in the quickest possible fashion

This year You Are Here festival is taking the stress out of choosing the perfect track order and the best opening song by doing it all for you. Live. Yep, You Are Here is making you a mixtape while you watch. MIXTAPE FROM CANBERRA will feature ten of Canberra’s best bands, on one stage, playing one song each, all in one hour. Mixtape from Canberra is the brainchild of noted genius/lunatic and You Are Here co-producer Nick Delatovic. And for him the aim of the event is simple: ‘Canberra has world-class bands with world-class songs. That’s the message, and we’re looking to express it in the quickest possible fashion.’ Making mixtapes is such a huge part of adolescence and this is true for Delatovic as well. ‘When I was 14, I used to listen to the radio with my finger poised over the record button of my tape-deck... I’ve just dated myself very badly, haven’t I? These days, songs old and new are available to all at the tip of a finger and my homemade mixtapes have become homemade playlists, but the principle is the same: I still get a kick out of putting a bunch of tracks together with a specific audience in mind.’ This event is a chance to catch some of Canberra’s best bands all together, all playing the same gig. Kind of like a music festival but without the long toilet lines, and you can be home in time for Lateline. The gig will feature the outrageous, vivacious and thoroughly enjoyable Fun Machine to get you dancing. You’ll be wooed by the indie folk tunes of Julia & the Deep Sea Sirens, then rock out to the punk styling of garage band Crash the Curb. Plus Cracked Actor, Waterford, The Ellis Collective and more! As Delatovic says, ‘The ACT music scene isn’t dominated by any one genre. The bands playing Mixtape are repping for punk, folk, rock, pop, indie and various spectra in between. The common denominator, the thing that makes it a story, is that all of these bands are working their arses off in pursuit of their art, and are driven first and foremost by great songwriting.’ Mixtape from Canberra will be a snapshot of Canberra’s diverse local music scene in the form of a live mixtape, made just for you. Head along to celebrate Canberra music, hear your favourite bands and maybe discover a few new favourites.

Mixtape from Canberra is on Friday March 15, 8pm–9pm at Ainslie Place (in front of the Canberra Centre fountain). Free entry. You Are Here festival is happening across the Canberra CBD from Thu-Sun March 14-24. Details at youareherecanberra.com.au.

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When I have my guitar, it feels like a safety blanket. I admire stand-up comedians… completely exposed and vulnerable

says that he is still single and has no idea what he wants in the future yet. ‘I am not taking on serious music projects, just as a side hobby. My next step is to plan an overseas trip, I want to visit the picturesque castles in Europe and see friends in Paris,’ said Garth.

KILLING THE IGNITION Cassidy brown After deciding to call it quits in December last year, indie rock band 78 SAAB is making a return to where they first started in Canberra. Formed at the Australian National University in 1995, the band is returning to their grassroots for a birthday celebration at Canberra Rocks on Monday March 11. The event, to be held at Regatta Point, will be the last time that 78 Saab will be playing live.

Whatever direction is next, you can be certain Garth will follow it with passion. ‘When I started, I was a bit irresponsible and immature. Ambition is not always arrogance, and ambition is key. To a degree, you need drive to do well in the music industry.’ From first living in a share house, the band has come a long way since the starting days at ANU. For those who have the same dream, Garth can only make one suggestion: ‘Persistence is the best advice that I can offer.’ At Canberra Rocks, 78 Saab is going to do a full-circle, by finishing in the same place where they started: ‘This will be our last full stop!’ 78 Saab will play at Canberra Rocks on Monday March 11, 5:45pm-6:15pm at Regatta Point Stage. Free entry. Visit oneverybigday.com.au for details.

Bass player Garth Tregillgas said in an interview with BMA that the decision to end the band was mutual. ‘We have all reached a point in our career where we couldn’t go further and are ready to move on to new projects,’ said Garth. With four successful albums, the band is finishing up on a high note. When asked about stage fright, Garth’s professionalism is apparent. ‘I never had moments of self-doubt. When I have my guitar in my hand, it feels like a safety blanket. I have always admired stand-up comedians because they have no props; completely exposed and vulnerable.’ Passionate about music since his early 20s, he owns three guitars but his favourite is his Epiphone Jack Casady Bass Guitar. He also plays drums and banjo. ‘Being out of your comfort zone is the best way to advance, I view it more as an enjoyable challenge,’ said Garth. To Garth, music is not about being self-indulgent. ‘Every band has to deal with having played their songs hundreds of times before the audience even hears them. But the main goal is to give the listener what they want.’ So for the setlist in Canberra’s upcoming celebrations of music, you can expect a range of songs that will sum up 78 Saab’s sound. For the rest of the band, after this final performance they are moving on to starting families and other personal aspirations. For Garth, he

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People are always gonna be ready to stand on your head as soon as you step out of bounds. That’s just like anything else in life

THIS GUY CRAY justin hook There are few genres so beholden to the abstract notion of ‘authenticity’ as the blues. It has to have an ineffable realness to it to be accepted by the establishment. It’s more than just pain and loss and it’s not strictly gritty tone and seventh chords. Whatever it is, you know when it isn’t there. For most of his career, ROBERT CRAY has been playing his own brand of blues music with high levels of commercial and creative fulfilment. But despite praise amongst his peers (Albert King and Eric Clapton are fans and collaborators) the establishment has struggled to accept him – he’s too clean, too smooth, too commercial, won too many Grammys (five!). None of this has kept the incredibly humble and soft-spoken Robert Cray awake at night. ‘People are always gonna be ready to stand on your head as soon as you step out of bounds. That’s just like anything else in life; there’s always someone ready to pounce. ‘I don’t give it much thought because I know there’s not going to be another Howlin’ Wolf or Muddy Waters or Robert Johnson. I know all that. But at the same time, music has to go forward. We used to

catch grief because we incorporated R&B and rock ‘n’ roll into our blues. And now I see more bands doing that. You’ve got someone like Gary Clark Jr who can front a serous blues band, but at the same time the music is progressing because he’s incorporating a style of music that’s part of his generation. That’s how it goes forward. We were knocked for doing the same thing. But that’s just the way it is.’

For the second half of the ‘80s, Cray capitalised on years of hard graft in dive bars and made a name for himself in the mainstream. In the musically confused decade that was the ‘80s there was something about Cray that stood out; a precision and tone about his music unique amongst his peers. ‘That sound came about because I was originally playing a Gibson I switched over to a Fender Stratocaster so it had a bright sound. It stuck. That high piercing shrilly sound.’ But as any hack three-chord basher will know full well, the best hardware can only get you so far. There has to be something deeper. ‘In my younger days I had a code: touch, tone and phrasing. Those were things I was looking to accomplish. And my heroes were people like BB King. He could say it all with one note. That was his way of communicating. One note. And he said it with authority.’ Cray is back in Australia to play the Bryon Bay Blues Festival and a run of solo shows and he’s noticeably excited about the festival. ‘It’s always fun. The whole atmosphere is great. There’s no room for big heads. You can do that at your own private shows.’ Robert Cray will be performing at Byron Bay Blues Festival, running Thu Mar 28-Mon Apr 1. See bluesfest.com.au for ticket details. He will also play Enmore Theatre in Sydney on Saturday March 23, 7pm. Tickets are $96.20$118.80 +bf through Ticketek.

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We still don’t even own our own instruments, and we certainly don’t know what we are doing

SOMETHING FROM NOTHING peter krbavac In the last year, BORED NOTHING’s avenues for music distribution have become infinitely more professional. These days, there’s a record label to worry about getting copies of the group’s self-titled album out into the world, but before all that, the band’s mastermind Fergus Miller was fond of leaving handmade CDs of his songs lying around in pubs and record stores, waiting to be discovered by unsuspecting punters. He rarely got any feedback from the people who had picked up his packages, which is how he preferred it anyway. ‘It wasn’t necessarily all about the music,’ Fergus explains. ‘It was just as fun for me to be making things with my hands and thinking about how much I love finding shit like that myself. I’ve always collected zines and CD-Rs and tapes and stuff.’

out what we could actually play,’ Fergus remembers. ‘I don’t know chords or anything so I’m not even sure if we play half the stuff from the recordings right.’ Besides, recreating the original songs would require far more than the four of them. ‘I tend to get a bit carried away with guitar when I’m recording, so we’ve ended up with a few songs that would necessitate at least four guitarists to pull off live,’ he says, ‘which isn’t exactly practical…at the moment, anyway.’ And although Bored Nothing was born out of, well, boredom, and has evolved into a touring band with a record deal, Fergus is clear that all this activity will not change the essence of the project. ‘Not much has changed really,’ he points out. ‘It’s not like I’ve suddenly got a job and sense of direction just because a few more people have heard my little recordings. Most of my time is still spent in very much the same way it’s always been: watching sitcoms and drinking homebrew.’ Bored Nothing play at The Phoenix Bar on Saturday March 9 with Spunk Records labelmates Bearhug and Popstrangers. 8pm. Entry is free.

Bored Nothing is the latest in a string of projects for the young Melbourne musician. His personal Bandcamp page charts his musical whims, from gentle folk tunes to drones and manipulated electronics to mangled voice-andpercussion jams under banners such as Splintered Oar, Mexico and Red Sludge. With Bored Nothing, he channels the scrappy melodicism of ‘90s indie rockers like Eric’s Trip, Sebadoh and, with his whispered vocal layering, Elliott Smith. The album cribs the best tracks from a year’s worth of home recordings, most of them made on a dusty old four-track cassette recorder with Fergus playing all the instruments. Though Bored Nothing is undoubtedly his vision, Fergus is far from some exacting, perfectionist bandleader. When other players were required for live shows, he roped in his brother and a couple of friends and the group bashed away at approximations of the recorded tunes. ‘We still don’t even own our own instruments and we certainly don’t know what we are doing, so a lot of our early jams were just spent figuring

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Rory McCartney We are constantly bombarded with reminders that this is Canberra’s BIG year, with a lot of the major events happening around the city and Parliamentary Triangle. Lovers of local music can salivate at the thought of a major extravaganza on Monday March 11. However, anyone stumbling along to their neighbourhood shops later that week to return that overdue DVD or buy that forgotten ingredient for the ten-step Masterchef recipe might be in for a shock. Acting on the basis that too much entertainment is barely enough, the Canberra Centenary program will spread the joy into deepest, darkest Canberra. BMA spoke to Amy of Devil Moon, producer of the major PARTIES AT THE SHOPS event, to get the good oil on suburban festivities.

Musicians have been selected on the basis that they come from the area near the party at which they will be playing. Examples of the line-up include the Brass Knuckle Brass Band in O’Connor, Pete Akhurst at Yarralumla, The Cashews at Scullin and Dubba Rukki may even suspend their retirement to appear. Poncho Circus will appear at Lyneham and the Warehouse Circus in Chifley.

Apart from circuses, the public needs its bread, so what about that all important party ingredient food, I hear you ask? The answer is: ‘It all depends on where your party is.’ The Yarralumla Residents’ Association is hosting a ‘long dinner’; punters pre-purchasing tickets can dine on a banquet catered by local restaurants – or you can bring a picnic and still enjoy the fun. The food available will differ markedly from centre to centre. ‘Watson is having The Centenary is all about those special features of Canberra a community banquet, where people are encouraged to bring which give it its special charm. One such characteristic is the something to share. Where they existence of many small can, ingredients will be sourced shopping centres which form a hub of community activity. This is one of Robyn Archer’s pet from local home gardens in the area.’ In others, catering will come Over the years, different projects and I’m lucky enough from local shops or community centres have developed it. ring ive del son per to be the association barbeques. So their own characters. While Robyn sees its shops as a unique what about alcohol (that other some are still post-modern important party ingredient)? industrial, others enjoy part of the Canberra landscape ‘Most of the parties will be BYO, lavish public art works. These but people should check the include Curtin’s mosaics, Centenary website and the Parties at the Shops Facebook page to Ainslie’s metal wildlife and the Kambah Village sheep. Normally, check whether their local do is BYO or not.’ Canberra’s urbanites visit briefly for shopping or coffee, but the party idea seeks to promote community bonds through a shared Most of the action is in March on Tuesday March 12, Friday March enjoyment of entertainment and food. As Amy states, ‘This is 15 and Saturday March 16 (although Manuka fashionistas will one of Robyn Archer’s pet projects and I’m lucky enough to be the need to wait until October for their party as part of ‘Manuka person delivering it. Robyn sees its shops as a unique part of the Celebrates’). As these are mid-week business days, this leads to Canberra landscape. They need to be signposted because they are the assumption that it’s all happening in the evening. However, hidden away in the middle of suburbs.’ event timings vary between suburbs. Amy has been working with community associations, residents’ ‘We’ve chosen the times based on the shops in each suburb. For groups, artists and business groups to organise the event at an example, at Waramanga, where most shops close by the evening, impressive 25 sites, stretching from Hall to Isabella Plains. In there will be a morning tea for the local retirement village some cases the artists are putting together events at particular residents. Dickson also hosts events during the day, while most locations, in others the shops are the driving force for the event. of the others have events after school or in the evening.’ The ‘There are groupings of people who are interested in seeing great festivities will generally occur in courtyards or open space areas, things happen in their suburb.’ leaving car parks free for punters. The event will involve all types of art and creative expression, The idea is to revitalise local shops and meet your neighbours. from choirs to jazz, indie bands to poetry, dance, burlesque and ‘Scullin shops has suffered from recent store closures, but the visual arts, such as sculpture installations and pasted-up remaining businesses are excited about the thought of bringing work. ‘There will even be circus performers at a couple of venues. people back.’ There will be less emphasis on stalls selling stuff and Plus, the pedal powered cinema which was used at Corinbank will the usual not for profit info stands. It’s more about being proud feature at the party at O’Connor, showing short films.’ There will of your community, showcasing local creative talent, connecting be different themes for different shops. Capital Chemist staff will communities and celebrating the cool people and cool things in dress up in period costume for the day. The Front Gallery and Café your suburb. at Lyneham will use the party to launch a week-long exhibition The Parties at the Shops event will provide free entertainment and the good people of the local IGA have allowed their long wall at a shopping centre near you soon. Times, dates and event to be used for paste-up art. ‘This has been an exciting project to details vary from suburb to suburb. Details can be found at the work on, with people coming up with really great ideas.’ The event Centenary Calendar website and at canberra100.com.au/ centres on small suburban centres so bad luck to the Westfields, programs/parties-at-the-shops. Hyperdome and Cooleman Court – you dip out!

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CARNARTIC QUEEN

WINGS SPREAD LIKE WILDFIRE

julia winterflood

mel cerato

You can travel the world over four days at WOMADelaide. This is what I felt when I was there in 2010, wandering from Turkey to Japan, Ethiopia to Venezuela, Taiwan to Hungary to Azerbaijan. Music is one of the best ways to learn about a country and SUDHA RAGUNATHAN, currently India’s most celebrated Carnatic music singer, who is performing at this year’s WOMAD, agrees. ‘The fabric of our way of life is reflected in the music,’ she told me from her home in Chennai. ‘We sing about the country, about the patriotic feeling you need to have for your country, the glory of the country, the beauty of the country. We sing about the leaders, about Gandhiji. But it is mostly the call for the divine.’

Everyone knows who BIRDS OF TOKYO are. Made up of band members from Perth bands Tragic Delicate and Karnivool, Birds of Tokyo has become one of the highest selling Aussie bands in recent history and is a staple act on many music festival line ups.

Carnatic music encapsulates the classical music of Southern India. Unlike the classical music of Northern India (think Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan – sitars, sarods and tabla), it focuses on vocal music; absolutely mind-boggling vocal music with bursts of unbelievably vigorous vibrato and immensely sustained notes that make you shake your head in wonder. How does she do that! ? Sudha Ragunathan is one of the greats. She’s a top ranking artist on All India Radio and Doordharshan, a leading Indian TV network, and has received hundreds of awards, including the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award presented by the Indian Government. Her country adores her.

The fabric of our way of life is reflected in the music

Carnatic music dates back to the 16th Century and, naturally with such an ancient tradition, there are rules. ‘In classical music there is a grammar in it – there’s a certain boundary or territory you have to adhere to each time you sing something,’ explained Sudha. ‘Like when you go to a temple you remove your slippers outside and you dress in a certain way, and then you go to the sanctum sanctorum and you pray to the divine, you do it in a certain way, and so too in Carnatic music. There is a certain way that you approach the composition, the melody line or the structure of the composition. You cannot change it completely; you cannot dilute or make it easy for anyone to listen.’ To Western ears with no knowledge of Carnatic music the experience could indeed be challenging. Sudha believes, ‘That is a conundrum that can be answered only by the audience. You have to take a step forward to say, “Yes! I’m going into this auditorium to listen to Carnatic music!” And it probably just goes above your head because it can awe you, it can bog you down, it can make you feel “Ai! I don’t understand a single note. Am I doing the right thing by sitting here?”’ I assured her WOMAD audiences would most definitely feel they were ‘doing the right thing’. ‘Yes, yes,’ she said warmly. ‘The boundaries are shrinking and audiences worldwide are opening up to take in any form of music.’ Sudha Ragunathan will perform at WOMADelaide on Saturday March 9 at 9pm on the Moreton Bay stage. WOMADelaide runs Fri-Mon March 8-11 in Botanic Park in Adelaide. Ticket prices vary – visit womadelaide.com.au for more info.

They are about to drop their fourth album, March Fires, on, funnily enough, Friday March 1. After experimenting with a different musical direction, Adam They told us it was going drummer Weston believes gs dru , to be about sex that the new and all the cocaine… It’s album will getting up brutally early shake up any and not leaving the jam expectations room til really late anyone has of BoT and provide a perfect excuse to tour the country and show off their new attitude. Starting late February, the March Fires tour will see BoT criss-cross the country with their friends Regular John and they’ve just added a few more shows to the schedule due to high demand. Adam is ready to get out of the studio and start the tour, despite the obvious exhaustion in his voice. ‘We normally say that [we’re busy] all the time, but we are even more so. The new album is pending, we’ve just jumped into rehearsals for the tour, getting bits and pieces of promo, and we’re still trying to find the time to actually hang out together as a band and get writing done. They originally told us it was going to be about sex and drugs and all the cocaine in the world, but at the moment it’s getting up brutally early and not leaving the jam room til really late at night, so really it’s like 14-hour days,’ he laughs. This upcoming album is a different sound for BoT, Adam says, and it’s something they are excited about. The whole creative process was shaken up and the boys even went to the USA and France to help with their album writing. Adam says that although the process was fairly intense and many an argument was had, the album benefited from the change of pace. ‘On this record, we tried to create a dialogue and get along with each other in a way that was different than before. Rather than just treat the band as a job, we all examined why we are doing this and why we want to do this. No one is forcing us to do it and we are really fortunate to be in the position we are in now. With this record, it is a sound that the band had always kinda strived towards but maybe missed the mark with the previous couple of records, and a lot of that comes down to experience and getting better as writers,’ he says. ‘There was a very conscious decision to not make an aggressive or harder-edged record as far as angular guitars and right-up-in-yourface vocals. This time we played around with a lot of writing and production techniques which helped us avoid going in a circle again and just delivering a batch of pop rock songs.’ Birds of Tokyo play alongside Super Best Friends and Regular John at UC Refectory on Tuesday March 12, 8pm. Tickets are $45.90 + bf through Oztix.

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DANCE THE DROP

Now that the Swedish House Mafia is no more, who is best placed to commandeer the gilded throne atop Dance Mountain? While the slick trio have retired to the quiet life, swimming in a pool of euros, laughing at how simple a task it was to rise to the absolute pinnacle of mega stardom without so much as a sweaty brow, we are left to ponder on a suitable replacement. It can’t be Skrillex, who is pissing off loyal fans by making real music rather than simply farting into a microphone. Not David Guetta, who still requires inverted commas whenever he is referred to as a ‘DJ’. Avicii maybe? Negative; he recently admitted to being hospitalised for partying too hard while on tour and a prospective king requires more resolve. It’s time to step up, Daft Punk. No more resting on your robotic laurels. To death with your amazing back catalogue. Hurry up and deliver this new album you have been promising us for years and prove once and for all that you are still worthy. The Ministry of Sound Clubbers Guide to 2013 tour docks at Academy on Friday March 15 with South Australian roof-lifter Uberjakd at the helm. This young lad always has a few surprises up his sleeve, so if sonic sleight of hand is your thing, this is definitely not one to miss. If you are under the age of 18 and don’t possess a fake Hawaiian driver’s licence, fear not, as the Wikid Summer Jam underage dance party is back at the Albert Hall on Friday March 15. Keep an eye out for more info on tickets soon. ‘Who the hell are Sonic Animation?’…said no one ever. This iconic outfit have been lauded as pioneers of Australian electronic music and they have just announced plans to release a new full-length album in March, their first since 2006. You can help them celebrate in the flesh on Saturday March 23 at The Clubhouse with Raw FM monarch Chris Fraser threw us a musical bone this week; well, five of them to be exact! Strap yourself in for another exclusive Drop Top 5: Benoit & Sergio – $100 Bill [Hot Creations] – HC are without doubt one of the buzz labels of 2012/2013 and this is why. Oliver – MYB [Fools Gold] – Always been a big Oliver fan and this newie proves there’s still life in Daft Punk-inspired nu disco yet. SCNDL – Gypsy [Hussle] – We recently signed this Melbourne trio and they’re really coming good. TJR, Will Sparks, etc. are all screaming for their new stuff and this one’s getting supported all over the shop by Porter Robinson. Who would have thought what’s basically just slowed-down hard house would be a thing in 2013. Gigamesh – Enjoy [Nurvous Records] – This guy never disappoints; I don’t think I’ve ever not liked anything he’s done. Perfect ‘80s-inspired nu disco. Sam La More feat. Gary Go – Adrenaline [TBA] – This won’t be out for a little while, but being the first solo SLM single in years it’s a momentous occasion. It’s a really big and anthemic record that manages to avoid obvious clichés. There’s a ridonkulous remix package in the works too. Will be huge. TIM GALVIN tim.galvin@live.com.au

AND NOW, A LESSON IN... RORY McCARTNEY SONICANIMATION are back from the dead! The dance-techno pioneers, with core members Rupert Keiller and Adrian Cartwright, called it quits in 2006 after 11 years together. This period saw them collect a swag of awards and left us with such classics as Love Lies Bleeding, I’m a DJ and Theophilus Thistler (impossible to say after four vodkas). They have reformed and have a tour and album on the way. BMA spoke to Rupert on a day he had spent rehearsing and planning the budget for the tour in support of their new album, Once More from the Bottom.

I went overseas for a few months, which turned into not coming back for seven years

The band’s long hiatus resulted from a simple need to do something different after the long period together. Rupert was keen to travel. ‘I went overseas for a few months, which turned into not coming back for seven years.’ Intending to write music independently, he ended up doing not much of anything during those years and regrets the lost opportunity. Meanwhile, Adrian continued writing at home, doing remixes and getting a day job. Rupert finally broke out of his slump. ‘I got really motivated, particularly through Sexton Blake who I co-wrote with, and realised the passion was still there more than ever.’ Rupert, prompted by a suggestion from their ex-lighting guy, suggested to Adrian that they reform. The Wiggles were not the only ones to rev up the crowd using dancing, cartoon-like characters. Videographer Morgan Evans came up with an idea for a sonicanimation video. ‘Morgan visualized characters with street cred, who do graffiti and drive fast cars. We bought the material and cut the heads out of foam.’ So the technotubby furry suits (named Robert Roley and Theophilus Thistler) were born! The suits are worn on stage by fans, selected by the band. Song themes in Once More from the Bottom are darker than those usually associated with sonicanimation. ‘While we are remembered for off the wall tracks like Theophilus Thistler, our older records did contain dark themes. For me at a personal level, the hiatus period spawned dark feelings about relationships and discovering different things about yourself. These come out in the new album, but we still have quirky songs too.’ The 2012 gig at Homebake saw the band’s triumphant return. ‘It was weird. Halfway through the first song, I felt totally comfortable and it was as though we had never been away.’ Things have not always gone so smoothly though. At one festival appearance they had to stop the show due to the crush and wrestle with the audience, who were trying the drag the furry suits off stage. As to the future, sonicanimation are confident of support from hardcore fans and keen to see during the tour how they go with the current generation of punters. Sonicanimation will hit The Clubhouse on Saturday March 23. Doors from 7pm. Tickets are $23.50 through Oztix.

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Rory McCartney Since they first emerged in the mid-‘90s on the seminal Ninja Tune label, London-based duo Jake Wherry and Ollie Teeba (aka THE HERBALISER) have cast a distinctive presence amongst the UK’s leftfield hip hop and downbeat scenes, outliving many of their early peers in the process. With a brand new album out on their own label (the aptly titled There Were Seven) and an imminent Australian DJing tour, Canberra fans will soon have the chance to get Herbalised all over again when the duo hit the intimate surroundings of Transit Bar. When I catch up with one half of the duo, Jake Wherry, he’s cooking breakfast in his kitchen (with the clearly audible sounds of eggs frying).

back then as What What, and I think a lot of those other “trip hop” things just stayed instrumental and didn’t really get beyond being just blunted beats.’ I suggest at this point that one of the things that always marks out Herbaliser albums seems to be a constant search for new vocal collaborators, something Jake concurs with. ‘Jean Grae is a star now, but at the time she was unknown. And likewise Roots Manuva. The most famous person we worked with at the time was Bahamadia, who you don’t hear a lot from anymore, but at the time she was quite high-profile. We never really felt like we wanted to have a vocalist on our records who was going to overshadow us. We always wanted the person to buy the record as a Herbaliser album regardless of who the featured vocalist is.

Once we’d done it and toured it with the singers and, you know, dealt with singers’ egos we thought “Fuck that”, really. “Let’s move on and do something different”

Were there any particular reasons for waiting until now to go independent with the release of There Were Seven on their own Department H label? ‘I was into the idea quite a long time ago, but Ollie took a bit of persuasion,’ replies Jake. ‘We’d come to the end of our contract with Ninja Tune when we finished Take London and they were interested in the Same As It Never Was album, but it was quite a bit of a change in direction for us and we found that Ninja Tune was equally changing in a different direction and getting a lot more electronic, so we thought we’d try a different option. ‘We didn’t want people to go, “Oh, here’s the fifth Herbaliser album, same thing as it always was” because it was actually very different – we were working with a vocalist. So we spoke to some labels and !K7 were very enthusiastic. But once we’d done it and toured it with the singers and, you know, dealt with singers’ egos we thought “Fuck that”, really. “Let’s move on and do something different”. We had it in mind that we wanted to make a darker record, something moody. In retrospect, looking back at Same As It Never Was, it was a bit too poppy.’ While many artists have acrimonious splits with labels, as Jake explains, in this instance it was more a case of Ninja Tune and one of its former flagship acts slowly growing apart. ‘When we signed to Ninja, there was the guy from 9Lazy9 (who became Funki Porcini) but it was otherwise all abstract instrumental hip hop,’ he explains. ‘DJ Vadim came in soon afterwards, but the general vibe was that it was this jazzy instrumental hip hop thing. Afterwards, we looked at it and felt that it had all gone a bit too electronic for our tastes. We didn’t think that Ninja Tune really represented where our sound was at.

‘We just look for good rappers. I mean the guy on the new album is a guy called Ghettosocks from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and he’s involved with two projects, Team Burger and Twin Peaks, both of which feature on the album. He’s an absolutely amazing rapper, so he’ll go on to do bigger and better things. The important thing is to find talented rappers that aren’t going to overshadow you as an artist, but a lot of them go on to be incredibly famous,’ he laughs. ‘I think it’s easier for people to recognise vocal talent rather than what me and Ollie do, which is basically a backroom thing, production and, y’know, we’re pretty faceless when it comes to being pop stars. We’ve also never really been “mainstream” hip hop, we’ve always been more underground.’ Lastly, I ask Jake what to expect from the Canberra date of the Herbaliser’s upcoming DJ tour, confessing that I’ve always secretly wished he and Ollie would drag their full band down to these parts. ‘Funnily enough, when we DJ we actually play very little of the Herbaliser music,’ he replies. ‘We play more party hip hop, breaks, stuff that’s influenced us. The reason is, well, we’ve got a band to play the Herbaliser material. You know, a lot of electronic artists that don’t have a nine-piece band, they tend to play a lot of their own material when they DJ. I’m actually going to try to put together a little Herbaliser section for this tour though. We’ve played at the Montreal Jazz Festival six times [with the full band] and we’re going back for more this year. We’d love to bring the whole band out to Australia, but at this stage we don’t have the record sales there to justify it.’

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‘And there was this dirty word that was being used, which was “trip hop”,’ Jake continues. ‘I think it was a valid term for certain sorts of music, but I don’t think we ever really fitted into it because our music was basically very layered hip hop-inspired music that didn’t have any rapping on it originally. Sure enough, by the time we did our second album we’d hooked up with Jean Grae, who was known

The Herbaliser duo will hit Transit Bar on Sunday March 10 at 6pm. Tickets are $15 + bf through Moshtix and Landspeed Records. Supported by Too Terrorble Tablists (Buick & Paypercutts), DJ Soup, Goldfinger, Crooked Sound System, DFP, Timber, Tone Def, Faux Real and Degg.

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hand on the boards and also features guest appearance from some of the best MCs currently in the game.

THE REALNESS [Ed: Due to overwhelming internal and external demand, BMA has contracted a permanent replacement for the position of hip hop columnist. The Realness (a hip hop-based column) will alternate with Quite Exciting, This Computer Magic (a bass/prog techno column) each issue. Welcome to Bert Pole and Morgan Richards -- BMA Magazine’s two newest columnists.] As an avid reader of The Realness column, it gives me great pleasure to be able to continue in the footsteps of my predecessor Roshambo. I’m excited about having the opportunity to share my love of hip hop and hope you all enjoy the direction in which I take The Realness column. Transit Bar will be playing host to West London’s The Herbaliser on Sunday March 10. They will be touring their seventh studio album There Were Seven. Also, don’t miss Washington DC’s finest MC/ Producer Oddisee featuring the soulful Olivier Daysoul at Transit Bar, Thursday March 14. The pair will be touring last year’s People Hear What They See album, which featured on many Top Five lists for 2012. Might need to book yourself a room at the YHA above Transit Bar as the fun doesn’t stop there. Sydney wordsmith Dialectrix will be in town to launch his Satellite EP, Saturday March 16. The five-track EP features five overseas producers laying down a track each for Dialectrix to flow over. The EP is a limited vinyl-only release and features the amazing cover art of the April 77 Creative. Make sure you head to the gig to pick yourself up a copy before they’re all gone.

Stones Throw Records has served up another tasty treat that will have connoisseurs salivating at the mouth. MED & BLU over Madlib beats equals The Burgundy EP, released Tuesday February 19. The EP contains half vocal tracks and half a capellas and instrumentals. From what I’ve heard, I can’t wait for a full release! It’s disappointing to close off my first column with the recent news of two unfortunate deaths within the music community. Jazz great Donald Byrd passed away at 80 years of age. His solo albums and group the BlackByrds have been very influential in many a producer’s record crate. Also, many would have been shocked with the sudden passing of Bronx MC Tim Dog following a seizure from diabetes at the age of 46. The former Ultramagnetic MC’s member is most renowned for his 1991 track Fuck Compton, which many say lit the flame on the whole East vs. West coast rivalry. Check either the Okayplayer or Egotrip website for comprehensive DJ mixes and news articles for both artists. BERT POLE - bertpole@hotmail.com

There has been a plethora of great releases in the past couple of weeks. Instrumental heads and beatmakers alike will be excited with Palm Springs native DJ Day and his latest offering Land of 1000 Chances which was released Wednesday February 6. While on instrumental albums, K-Def will be releasing his latest project, One Man Band, on Tuesday March 5. This album will be released via the always consistent Redefinition Records and showcases another great album cover by artist Joe Buck. On more of a boom-bap tip, I’m excited about the Czarface project which dropped on Tuesday February 19. Czarface sees Esoteric, DJ 7L and the Wu’s Inspectah Deck back together again after their 1999 collaboration. DJ Premier lends a

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METALISE Well, I nearly bogged myself this week when I heard Heathen Skulls had been posting about a tour with all-time great doom band Saint Vitus being slated for this July. I got in touch with promoter Robert McManus and the deal is even sweeter with French doom lords Monarch also putting their hands up for the tour. That’s the kind of package that makes for a warmer winter and hopefully the confirmation and dates will be available for the next-ish of this fine periodical. Don’t forget that Black Breath are playing a show here on Sunday April 7 at The Basement in Belconnen with locals I Exist. Tickets are a door deal for this one so make sure you rock up early to avoid missing one of the great acts from the Southern Lord label. Further to the Kvelertak news and clip I talked about last time, the band have been signed by Roadrunner worldwide which is a big deal for a metal band that don’t have any English lyrics. Sick. So many of you are way too young to remember when the movie Stone came out. Hell, I am too old to remember when it came out and I’m, like, nearly dirt. The good news is that in the States, filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino love that movie and it resulted in a lot of bands in the States becoming interested in playing the Stone Music Festival inspired by the film. The list of bands announced thus far are more in your hard rock ilk for the festival due to hit the ANZ Stadium on Sat & Sun April 20 & 21. Van Halen, including David

Lee Roth, is exciting, joining Buckcherry (not so exciting), Lifehouse, Richie Ramone, Illumination Road, ex-Guns ‘n’ Roses alumni Kings of Chaos and Australian bands like The Living End, Baby Animals and The Superjesus. Interestingly, rival promoter Andrew McManus who is bringing Kiss, Guns ‘n’ Roses and The Darkness tours out this year thinks that the whole festival is bogus and to ‘stand by for the 60 Minutes exposé next weekend.’ Interesting times but there you go! Sydney doom merchants Cruciform are reforming for nostalgia and another crack. Good on ‘em. King Parrot has hit an impressive 41K views on YouTube, for the superbly acted and utterly hilarious Shit on the Liver film clip. This has resulted in two things: a) the band being offered a number of overseas tours off the interest in the clip and the Bite Your Head Off! album, and b) it has meant that former Blood Duster skinslayer Matt Rizzo has been forced to leave the band due to other commitments. Replacing Matt is the also superbly seasoned Matty Skitz of Damaged for a few gigs while the band finds a more permanent solution. I hope it didn’t wreck a good day… Well done to locals Rev. Jesse Custer for scoring a spot on April’s Obscene Extreme line-up in Melbourne. Just another reason for fans of the fast and brutal to get on down to Melbourne early on Friday April 12. The full line-up is Abhorrent Analkholic, Birdflesh, Blood Duster, Captain Cleanoff, Deathcage, Debacle, Extortion, Festering Drippage, Filth, Flatus, Fuck...I’m Dead, Headless Death, Intense Hammer Rage, Internal Rot, King Parrot, Kromosom, Michael Crafter, Nuclear Death Terror, Rotten Sound, Sete Star Sept, Split Teeth, Super Fun Happy Slide, The Day Everything Became Nothing, The Kill, The Mung and Wolfe. JOSH NIXON - doomtildeath@hotmail.com

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Without sounding too retrospective, it was a peak golden time for Australian music

REVENGE OF THE PUNKS sinead o’connell The institution CANBERRA PUNK AND BEYOND dates back to the mid-‘70s and each year a collaborative effort is made between bands, producers and general punk lovers to champion the lure and depths of the punk genre. The result is an event, Renegades Revenge, held at ANU Bar, which sees men and women from all over the country share and indulge in a common passion – Canberra, between 1977 and 1992. This year, Chris Shakallis, founder and organiser of the institution (and also member of original psych punk-rock-once-Canberra-now-Sydney band The Young Docteurs), channels the event to express the love for a genre and a city that supported punk in it’s ultimate heyday. ‘The scene back then was…healthy. We played three nights a week and managed to get a decent crowd. You can’t really get that kind of commitment now. We used to see about 16 bands a week! Without sounding too retrospective, it was a peak golden time for Australian music.’ Last year’s CPB event Rock Against Boredom Revisited was about ‘rekindling the vibe’, that is, advocating the style of punk that Canberra

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once offered; a vibe we can expect from this year’s gig. The genesis of the theme ‘renegades revenge’ came from ‘an outlaw spaghetti western scene meets psychedelic’ – an apt theme if one was showcasing, as Chris says, the ‘very diverse style of punk. From The Pistols to The Ramones to Siouxsie and The Banshees, it is a broad place from varying styles. Nowadays people associate punk with a few particular couple of branches – but I think it was, and still is, pretty diverse. The rulebook was never completely written. You could be individually creative and explore. Even bands like The Residents or Snake Finger who adopted the more avant-garde style, really they were just extending the boundaries.’

Also working on a collaborative book about the Canberra punk scene between ‘77 and ‘92, as well as recording a new album with the Young Docteurs, Shakallis’s intention is to ‘let the greater public know there was a wider, vital scene going on in Canberra that was quite unknown.’ Continuing on, Shakallis points out, ‘a lot of Canberra musicians that ended up in different cities in Australia or around the world had a huge influence on the music industry. In part, it’s about recapping, to inform people about the time and who played a role in it.’ In talking of revival, ‘Well…maybe in Asia or Russia…’ he decides. Performances we can look forward to on the night include Young Docterus, Stand Alone, Capital Punishment, Little Mac & The Monster Men and, of course, Canberra’s best burlesque trio, The Velvet Vixens (would it be a proper punk show without them?). Not to mention a lightshow by Eyesaw Productions betted to thoroughly test one’s hand-eye coordination threshold. Renegade’s Revenge is on at ANU Bar, Saturday March 9 at 8pm. $20 door.

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

THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE PARANG JULIA WINTERFLOOD The sweet fragrance of coconut milk, kaffir lime and lemongrass; the flash of fire as spicy meat hits the tongue; the soft scratch of bonewhite coral and brush of palm fronds; the eerie pre-dawn call to prayer and incessant rooster crow; faces of men weathered as driftwood and a woman who’ll never lose the light in her eyes: OMAR MUSA is a sensualist. In Parang, his new collection of poems, we run with him ‘over wind-lashed seas and treetops’, taste his ‘thin-boned soup’, and share the ‘furious beauty’ of a gold red dusk – such is the immersive power of his sparing, sensual words. Sounds pretty different to My Generation, doesn’t it? Queanbeyan born, Canberra pilfered, Malaysian-Australian Omar Musa truly needs no introduction in these pages, but for those new-to-town readers he’s our bastion of spoken word and a principal hip hop MC. He won the national slam title in ‘08, released his first book of poems The Clocks in ‘09 and his debut LP World Goes to Pieces in 2010, which he toured in France, the UK, China and India before supporting the late, great Gil Scott-Heron. He’s performed at countless local and national events from artsACT forums to major festivals, and in 2011 was on Q&A. It’s fair to say almost every arts-loving Canberran knows Omar’s cheeky smile, big dark eyes always looking to the sky, graceful gesticulation and deft delivery of often political – but never preachy – poems. What they may not know, however, is his poems on the page can, in no more than a few lines, tell a lifetime of stories. Parang is a three-sectioned collection of poems penned over the past four years. The first section, Parang, comprises new pieces inspired by a recent return to Malaysia. There he met and collaborated with artists, hunted a deeper understanding of its history and rapid development, and reconnected with family. Of the 14 poems, ten are no longer than a page. They are simple and sparse, yet extraordinarily evocative. They warmly embrace and fearlessly tackle topics spanning the necessity to cherish one’s ancestry, the interminable search for belonging, environmental destruction, migration, and humanity’s tendency to idealise the past. They are monumental subjects, but Omar’s pen, wielded like a parang, never wastes words. ‘The parang is the Malay machete, and as I try to establish really early on, it can be used, just like words, in many different ways. It can be constructive or destructive,’ said Omar on a sunny Saturday arvo in Garema Place. The final poem of the first section, The Parang and the Keris, is a self-portrait of sorts. ‘The keris,’ he explained, ‘is a very

ornate and mystical weapon. The really famous ones have a wavy blade. It’s a long dagger, and the hilt is carved. It’s sort of like a samurai sword where they fold the metal countless times. So there’re many different stories about how they were forged, and then there are stories of famous kerises used by heroes that have been forged from meteoric iron, so it’s like they’ve been heaven-sent. ‘My whole thing is that as a poet I try to use simple language and use it effectively, so a parang is my approach to poetry; something that is swift, efficient, strong, but not ornamental,’ he added. ‘I do put allusions of all sorts in my poetry but I’m not trying to be an overly academic, complex person who’s trying to trick the reader or show off how erudite I am, and so that’s why I used that image of the parang.’ The book’s cover is equally striking. Beneath a blackened sky a herd of water buffalo – big-horned beasts and their calves – strain to keep their heads above water, doleful eyes locked on ours. They are not in a river but an ocean, surrounded by stripy bags – those ubiquitous stripy bags. The image is taken from the triptych A Rousing Account of Migration in the Language of the Sea (2010) by Yee I-Lann. Enthused Omar, ‘She’s one of my favourite Malaysian artists, and she’s got a similar background to me. She’s half from Sabah in Borneo, and half Kiwi. I met her when I did my first ever Kuala Lumpur show a few years ago and it was in the space where she had her exhibition, and I loved it. It’s all about migration. The water buffalos signify migration, and obviously those bags as well. She just let me have it, which is amazing.’ What’s also amazing is it’s only taken Omar two and a half months to get his book on the shelves. ‘I only decided to do this whole thing on my birthday this year in January. I looked on my computer and thought, “Jesus I’ve got quite a lot of poems”. The key to why Parang could be released in a lightning flash? ‘I’m self-publishing it,’ he continued. ‘I like to be really hands on with it all. Not much poetry gets published in Australia. It takes a lot of time because they have to get funding – it’s not exactly the most lucrative thing – and also I don’t really see the point with poetry. Maybe with novels you need a publisher, but with poetry, doing it yourself is the best way. I like to put something out every year, and yeah, I’ve got a lot of poems, and they cover a lot of territory.’ The second section of Parang, Lost Planet, encompasses poems about ‘the realm of dreams, in-between places and travel,’ while in

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the third section, Dark Streets, they’re set in a ‘more urban, gritty Australian environment.’ It’s in this section My Generation appears, which he performed on Q&A. I mentioned my favourite line: ‘While the traditional custodians of the land/ sweated in the concrete gizzards of govvo flats,/ left wing activists sipped red wine/ and talked of reform.’ He shifted in his seat and said, ‘I’ve had criticism for that line after Q&A. People saying, “but it’s left wing people who have fought for Aboriginal rights”. But that line was also pointing the finger at myself. I think we have to be brave enough to do that. Instead of me railing against power structures – I mean I’m kind of a left wing activist red wine-sipper – that’s why I was talking about it. Because often I think the left can be so complacent and so smug, and I hate that. ‘I try to do that in a lot of my poetry, so it’s not just me pointing the finger, because what’s the point of that? It’s easy to do that. But when you can look at yourself as culpable then hopefully you can resolve some of those issues and work to be a bit better, or maybe if you are trying to instigate change of some sort – instead of just talking about it – maybe just act. Because I hate that smug bullshit,’ he said forcefully. ‘It annoys me when people from the left rail against the right. I’m just like, “Well what are you doing?” I think it’s a real sort of sickness, that smugness.’ A similar sentiment is expressed achingly beautifully in the poem FELDA, the acronym for Federal Land Development Authority. According to Parang’s glossary, it’s ‘a Malaysian government agency handling resettlement of rural poor into newly developed areas. It focuses on opening smallholder farms growing cash crops.’ Most of the world has woken to the immense destruction caused by palm oil plantations, with countless campaigns emblazoned with wide-eyed orangutan. palmoilaction.com.au states the majority of palm oil is produced in Borneo, which is where Omar’s father is from. While Xavier Rudd and the Vice-President of the Young Libs bickered about mining on Hack the day before our interview, Omar, in FELDA, has penned the perfect stanza: ‘So here’s a riddle the size of a seed:/ Poor man employed/ Empty plate filled/ Rainforest destroyed.’ ‘It’s a real conundrum,’ he mused. ‘My family came from the deepest poverty you can imagine, and I’ve been really lucky with how I’ve grown up. My dad was the black sheep of the family by moving to Australia and living a good life. Two generations back every member of my family would have been living in a shanty – incredibly impoverished.

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And then you’ve got things like FELDA, which is hugely destructive and completely ruining that land, but what are the rural poor going to do? Of course they’re going to take a job. As I said in my poem, now three of my cousins have gone to university. That would have been completely unfeasible two generations back. To us Westerners it’s horrific, but many Malaysians think those are just monkeys in trees that white people care about, and they need to be moved. But many Malaysians themselves also feel this loss, really deeply, but at the same time they’re really proud that Malaysia has become so modern. I think it just needs to get to a point where you can take the best of both.’ After a solemn pause he added, ‘It is possible.’ Yes, you knew I’d go there: it seems anything is possible for Omar Musa right now. ‘I’m an ambitious guy,’ he said with gleaming eyes. ‘I want Parang to reach a lot of people. I think it’s something original in terms of poetry in this country. To be completely honest, I want it in every bloody school in Australia and studied in universities. I feel like there’s a new generation of poets coming through and I’d like to be recognised as one of them. There are a hell of a lot of good poets in Australia, but it’s still seen as the domain of the old white man. I’m hoping that a book like this will encourage other people of different backgrounds to say “oh wow, my story is important and it should be told”. ‘It’s a really exciting time,’ he continued spiritedly. ‘I feel confident and stronger than ever before. Especially with those poems in Parang. I feel a lot more control. I think I used to have a scattershot approach to it – I think I had a talent for words but I kind of just sprayed it everywhere. I sort of didn’t mind that, though, I think there’s value in that. A lot of my albums and some of the poems – like My Generation – I wrote straight out, no editing, because I feel there’s a truth in that spontaneity. But now what I’m aiming for is to try and get that essence, but combine it with sculpture. I’m really excited about Parang. I’ve been given a lot of really good opportunities and I’d be a fool not to take them by the horns and make something special.’ With a verse novel published by Penguin later this year and a Street Theatre-commissioned play in the works, we can be certain Omar Musa will be wielding his parang for a very long time to come. Parang will be launched at Electric Shadows Bookshop (40 Mort St, Braddon) on Wednesday March 13 from 6pm until 7:30pm. Omar will perform for half an hour and sign books at the end.

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slightly embarrassing in their quaintness. With I am Australian, here at last we had a song to take this country into the 21st century. ‘I am/ You are/ We are Australian.’ How can you top the simple brilliance of a song which simultaneously establishes that we are not, in fact, Japanese or Bolivian, while also teaching children how to conjugate the verb ‘to be’? Australia is known as the lucky country for our abundance of natural riches. And sure, we have a lot of gas, iron ore and gold. But we are even richer still in human spirit. I measure Australia’s human spirit using, of course, the traditional unit of the number of national songs. For a young country, we have a bustling abundance of such songs and we can take great pride in that. Our national songs say more about us than anything else; more than our movies, more than our internet dating profiles. Our songs define us on a subconscious level. They know us better than we know ourselves. Waltzing Maltida, Advance Australia Fair, Song of Australia, I Still Call Australia Home, Great Southern Land, Khe Sanh… Who among us can truly say that we do not wake in the morning and fall asleep at night with one or more of these songs on our lips? Such beautiful music and such wisdom, some of it well ahead of its time. We all know the immortal and sweetly poetic lyric from our national anthem: ‘Our home is girt by sea.’ But how many people know that ‘girt’ is an Old English word which means ‘increasingly attacked by’? And thus our anthem, penned way back in 1878, contained a coded warning about climate change. But just as developments in technology ceaselessly bring progress, so too do developments in national song crafting. In 1987, a ballad written by Bruce Woodley set a new standard for Australian patriotic songs, instantly rendering all previous songs obsolete and

I would argue that while the song can probably never be bettered, its utility could be increased by tailoring it to specific situations. When (legitimate) aspirational Australians land on our shores for the first time, we should slip a modified lyric sheet into their hopeful fingers, crafted for their young immigrant dreams: ‘I will be/ You will be/ We will be Australian.’ A future tense for a future Australian. Is there anything more beautiful? And we could even use the song to teach the Past Conditional Progressive tense to the residents of our illegal immigration centres: ‘I would have been/ You would have been/ We would have been Australian.’ They’ll be the best educated non-Australians in the world! But it’s this verse that brings a chill to my spine: ‘I’m a teller of stories, I’m a singer of songs/ I am Albert Namatjira, I paint the ghostly gums/ I am Clancy on his horse, I’m Ned Kelly on the run/ I’m the one who waltzed Matilda, I am Australian.’ It goes so far beyond the original theme of Australianess/grammar that its power is terrifying to behold. The way it digs into the past and unifies all that has come before is darkly magical. Truly, it is one song to rule them all, one song to mine them, one song to bring them all and, in the sunshine, bind them – into a cheery melody we can all enjoy! I have to stop typing now. I cannot see for tears of pride. NICK SMITH - Nick Smith, Edwina Nelson, Chris Ryan and Ben Crispin will be performing their show, Canberra: the First Billion Years, at Canberra Comedy Festival, 9:30pm on Wed & Thu March 20 & 21. Tickets/info through canberracomedyfestival.com.au.

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Sometime in the last 150 years, there has been a juddering shift in the way of things. A moral modification of such violence that I know not whether to issue a stern letter to The Times, or to randomly thrash at passersby until reason is restored. The inviolate authority of the Gentleman is under threat. Society’s pecking order has been so graphically distorted that I am led to believe there may even be some women permitted to read this without supervision. Pomposity, condescension, thinly-veiled misogyny – these are the cornerstones of a functioning society I find so openly challenged. Not only has the battle of the sexes been utterly abandoned, but members of the animal kingdom appear intent on grappling the last remnants of dignity from the grasp of Man. ‘Animal Rights’ now appear to extend beyond those of ‘the right to constitute kindling’. By way of example, while unsuccessfully bartering for snuff at my local marketplace, my eye lit upon a ‘pet store’ which sufficiently piqued the curiosity to warrant further investigation. Naturally, I expected to find a range of fine smoked meats on offer, the best in cat-fur balaclavas, perhaps a gerbil croquet set. Upon entry, so dumbstruck was I to find tailored clothing, stuffed toys, all manner of grooming articles, that I barely had the wherewithal to plant my landing foot before kicking a nearby spaniel across the room. But of course this instinctive, rational act gave offense. Sufficient to drag puppy-pandering merchants from their fawning submission and accuse me of cruelty. Me! I’m not the one lying to dogs. I would argue that to dissuade a dog of the established certainty it will be immediately entered into the nearest back alley blood sport the second they leave the shop is the greater cruelty. At least that spaniel felt the exhilaration of the wind rushing through its fur as it sailed across the room. It was also just inches from the soft embrace of a cushioned landing, but the parrot moved. The topsy-turvy nature of this new social order was too much to bear. My sanity slipping from its moorings, having been accused of brutality by the duplicitous dog swindler, I retired to the nearest tavern in search of reason. In walks a young ‘lady’ (it was hard to tell – she possessed neither bonnet nor gentlemanly escort), strapped to her breast a satchel containing an obviously malnourished canine. Well, that was more than I could take. An enfeebled dog enslaving a woman in mobile servitude? There was nothing more for me to do than stagger from the premises, careful to randomly thrash at anything that came within reach. GIDEON FOXINGTON-sMYTHE

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CEN-TENT-ARY FUN BEN HERMANN Since the late 19th century, spiegeltents have travelled throughout Europe and the world, used as travelling venues for everything from food and wine tasting, to dance halls, to comedy festivals, to theatre, circus and cabaret performances. Built of a frame of wood and elaborately decorated with mirrors, canvas, leaded glass, velvet and brocade, the tents themselves have become as much of an attraction as the performers and festivals they host. One of the most infamous, and certainly the most elaborately designed spiegeltents, is the aptly-titled THE FAMOUS SPIEGELTENT, built in Belgium in 1920 and currently owned and operated by ex-Canberrans David Bates and his wife Michele d’Arbela, who will be bringing it to the ACT for the first time this March as part of the Centenary of Canberra celebrations. ‘We both went to high school in Canberra and Canberra is where we both became interested in music and theatre,’ says Bates, who prior to his departure from Canberra in 1989 owned and operated the P.I.T.S. (Pie in the Sky) Theatre and Bar at the Canberra Rex. ‘We’ve had a desire to bring the Spiegeltent to Canberra for a long time, and finally decided that if there was ever a good occasion, this [the Centenary of Canberra] was it.’ The tent is usually surrounded by an outdoor area – the Spiegel Garden – where people can sit, drink, eat, relax, and sometimes enjoy smaller performances prior to or after the main performances within the tent. ‘I’m a big believer that a show doesn’t begin when the curtain goes up, but when a person walks in the door, or even when they buy the ticket,’ Bates says. ‘I believe the Spiegel Garden epitomises that experience.’ Although the tents can theoretically host anything, The Famous Spiegeltent, under Bates’ curatorship, has focused on music, new circus, burlesque, vaudeville and cabaret. The artists performing during each season at a particular location is decided purely by Bates – ‘It’s just got to do with my own personal tastes. It’s very nepotistic, to tell the truth’ – however, he usually tries to choose a number of local artists who are an appropriate artistic fit for the tent. For the tent’s Canberra debut this March, Bates has collected a number of infamous Canberran and exCanberran acts, including Paul McDermott, Mikelangelo & The Black Sea Gentlemen, The Gadflys, The Naughty Rhythms, and Cell Block 69. ‘Usually though, the word of mouth and the tent’s reputation is what brings people in,’ Bates explains. ‘People might not know the artists, but they trust the reputation of the tent and they know the types of acts it will host.’

The Famous Spiegel Tent and Garden will be in the Senate Rose Garden from Fri-Sun March 1-24. Tickets for individual events vary, visit spiegeltent.net or canberra100.com.au for more information.

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ARTISTPROFILE: Naomi Somerville What do you do? Enjoy my family and friends; manage Maintenance of Public Artworks at the ANU; make art any chance I get – glass, draw and paint mostly. When, how and why did you get into it? Family and friends are my rock; work is fun and I get to meet really interesting people. I have always loved to create, however, learning how to sculpt bronze and glass at the ANU really ignited my ‘making’ spark. Who or what influences you as an artist? The connection between people and/or the environment. Of what are you proudest so far? The Space Between My Kiss And Her Neck – a piece made from the negative space between myself and my baby daughter. What are your plans for the future? To make more. What makes you laugh? More often than not, myself. What pisses you off? Disrespect for people and environment. What about the local scene would you change? Incorporate it more into work functions somehow. Upcoming exhibitions? At Belconnen Arts Centre my work will be part of 100 from Friday April 19 to Wednesday May 5. Contact Info: naomi.somerville@ yahoo.com.au

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IN REVIEW

The Secret River The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre Thu-Sun February 14-17 In the last scene of Act 1 of Sydney Theatre Company’s The Secret River, the freed English convict William Thornhill sits with his family and white settler acquaintances on the banks of the Hawkesbury River, solemnly gazing into the distant wilderness as they sing, with ambivalent nostalgia, a folk song from their native England. As they sit, the Dharug Aboriginal people, on whose land they have chosen to settle, enter the stage as a group and walk slowly around them, themselves singing their own sombre folk song, equally as oblivious of the Thornhill as he is of them. It is the most gripping, most powerful scene of the production, portraying with such great simplicity the tragic confrontation that will inevitably befall Thornhill’s group and the Dharug people: two communities, two cultures, and two histories, all of which reflect so many shared values but which, although briefly acknowledged, are ultimately overpowered by fear, ignorance, and irreconcilable principles of land ownership. This portrayal of the perspectives of both Thornhill (and through him, the English settlers), as well as the Dharug people, is perhaps the most apparent change that writer Andrew Bovell (When the Rain Stops Falling, Speaking in Tongues) and director Neil Armfield (Summer of the Seventeenth Doll) made when adapting Kate Grenville’s 2005 award-winning work of historical fiction. The production was the first to be commissioned by Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton upon their taking up the post of co-artistic directors at STC, and has been the company’s largest and most ambitious project during their tenure. Both believed Grenville’s exploration of race relations between English settlers (mainly ex-convicts) and the Aboriginal people of the Hawkesbury River in the early 19th century was an important and compelling story to be adapted for theatre. Yet to tell story only from Thornhill’s perspective (as Grenville’s novel does) would be, in Upton’s words, ‘a waste of the broader narrative scope of the theatrical form’.

Indeed, Armfield and Bovell have explored the narrative scope of the theatrical form to a degree that is not commonly possible. At their disposal was a creative team which included, among a large host of others, Artistic Associate Stephen Page (current Artistic Director of Bangarra Dance Theatre), Set Designer Stephen Curtis, and music director Iain Grandage, together with a 19-strong cast including Nathaniel Dean, Anita Hegh, Ursula Yovich (Australia, The Sapphires), Daniel Henshall (Snowtown), Trevor Jamieson, (Namitjira, Ngaparti-ngaparti), Judith McGrath (All Saints), Colin Moody, and Bruce Spence.

Through increasingly regular contact with the Dharug people – encouraged by friendship between each group’s unprejudiced children – Thornhill begins to appreciate the closeness of his own values and those of the Dharug: family, friendship, humour. Even the fidgety, anxious Sal befriends two of the Dharug women – played mischievously and entertainingly by Miranda Tapsell and Ethel-Anne Gundy. Unfortunately, Thornhill also appreciates their shared sense of belonging to a piece of land. As it becomes apparent that neither side has any intention of ‘moving on’, he and the other settlers face the realisation that things cannot continue as they are. Each cast member gives an outstanding performance – in particular Sims’ fiendish Smasher Sullivan, whose mere presence on stage quickly becomes menacingly unnerving – however it is Yovich’s gentle narration, Grandages’ haunting cello and piano, and the set’s rudimentary, canvas-draped expanse of smoke, ash, and eucalypt branches, that starkly evoke the allure, the danger, the infiniteness, and the beauty of the Australian wilderness. The audience is transported to and immersed in a Hawkesbury which is truly on the frontier. As the violence, depravation and desperation of Thornhill’s past rises to the surface, we are presented with someone who – like the landscape around him – can be both generous and caring, and harshly unforgiving. While the ensuing moral failing by Thornhill and the violence against the Dharug is foreshadowed from the play’s beginning, it is the circumstances that lead to it which are portrayed so memorably: the dreams of people unjustly rejected by their own country; the struggle by the Aboriginal people to understand and cope with ruthless settlers; the attempts by each side to understand and accommodate the other; and, most tragically, the sense that things could have easily turned out differently and that the fact that they didn’t has impacted damningly upon Australian society until the current time. Productions of such a scale, such ambition, and such great talent as The Secret River are rarely undertaken. That STC chose to do so for a story that encapsulates so many aspects – both good and bad – of our history and our national psyche, will no doubt prove a muchcelebrated highlight of not only the Upton-Blanchett years at STC, but Australian theatre as a whole, for many years to come. BEN HERMANN

The play begins in the early, rough days of the colony of NSW, with a newly-freed Thornhill (Dean) persuading his wife Sal (Anita Hegh) to agree to his dream of settling and farming (and therefore owning) a patch of land on a bend in the Hawkesbury River – ‘the shape of my thumb’, he describes proudly – which he came across when working for Thomas Blackwood (Colin Moody). Thornhill is already aware of the ‘natives’ in the area, but seeks to assuage Sal’s fear by explaining that they are an explorative, nomadic people who will ‘move on’ soon enough. As the family settles their camp, clears land and plant crops, we are introduced to the area’s motley crew of eccentric settlers: the quiet Blackwood, who seeks peaceful rapprochement with the Dharug people and advises Thornhill he needs to ‘give a little, take a little’; the drab, dry spinster Mrs Herring (McGrath); and the sadistic, hostile Smasher Sullivan (Jeremy Sims), who sees the Aboriginal people as no better than any animal.

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LITERATURE IN REVIEW The Night Circus Erin Morgenstern [Doubleday; 2011]

Two magicians enter into a wager to pit their young protégés against one another in a battle of magical skill. The arena is the Le Cirque des Reves; a dreamlike travelling circus, all in black and white, open only between nightfall and dawn. But the contest becomes something more, and the circus takes on a life of its own. And while neither of the young players are sure they wish to continue, the lives of too many people hang in the balance for them to back out. The Night Circus is fantastically atmospheric, dreamlike and evocative. The descriptions are lush and intensely visual. The circus is a character in itself, whimsical and coy. It’s just a shame the damn plot is so boring. There are few things as frustrating to the discerning reader as a book that fails to live up to its potential, and The Night Circus has magnificent potential. The early part of the book is tense, the set-up for the plot is masterful. There are whole, beautiful chapters devoted to the creation of the circus, its component parts, the driving aesthetic and collaboration behind it. And then nothing happens, and nothing continues to happen for hundreds of pages. The promised battle between protagonists Celia and Marco never materialises. Instead, the two spend years politely adding novelties to the circus and ignoring one another, before falling inexplicably in love. This changes nothing about their behaviour, except that now they make novelties as gifts for one another instead. Additionally, neither the players nor the readers entirely know the rules of the game they are playing, or the stakes, or how a winner is determined. Rather than evoking a sense of mystery, this robs the book of any dramatic tension and the reader is left waiting for anything to happen. Anything at all. Far more interesting are the side characters: the unassuming architect who helped create the circus, who very carefully doesn’t ask too many questions; the twins born on the night the circus opened, who grew up in the strange black-and-white world, training kittens to jump through hoops; the brilliant clockmaker who follows the show around the globe, obsessed with the dreamlike displays, the mesmerising magic acts; the fortune-teller; the contortionist; the little boy who sneaks in during the daytime. Celia and Marco’s doomed romance falls rather flat in comparison with these little stories, so much easier to relate to, so much more human and tangible. The Night Circus has a great deal of style, a great deal too little substance. Fantastic worldbuilding, deeply disappointing plot. EMMA GRIST

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My argument is simple – YAH is the best of Canberra. It’s the pure distillation of a growing city, a city filling out, shedding its baby fat and becoming an awkward but compelling beauty.

UNINHIBITED I’ve written several columns for these pages on the You Are Here festival. I’ve done so because I think it’s the most important, vibrant and successful event this city has to its name. Though my parameters of success might be different to yours. They’re certainly different to those hosting the main Centenary of Canberra festival, something so coddled by confused messaging and key performance indicators as to be in danger of disappearing up its own fundament. Whereas You Are Here is something I think a festival should be: a mess of ideas, flung about the city, in turn redefining the place it seeks to enhance and reflect. So here are a few notes on You Are Here 2013; what to look out for and how to go about it.

Our city is the most interesting in our country because it’s the most unresolved. We lack the baggage of long history and the infrastructure created by it. The citizens have a greater chance of writing their version of an ideal place because we’re still building it. You Are Here reflects this in a bold, light-hearted and hopeful way. It throws ideas to the wall. It is not careful. It strides into the future unafraid. And most importantly of all – it has the good sense to recognise things happening here that don’t happen elsewhere. It celebrates difference and suggests that this city can be much more than what it is. But it also suggests that this city is doing alright. Enjoy. GLEN MARTIN glenpetermartin@gmail.com

You’re a music fan? See some theatre. You’re an art nerd? Go to one of the dance sessions. You Are Here excels in testing our ideas of what forms do. Form may not actually be that interesting within the YAH context – the idea and its executions take precedence. That may be why you get events like gRage, or Pancakes and Poker, or the Christmas Party. Lose that thematic preciousness, daddy-o. Do not expect everything to work. YAH is not slick. It is not market-driven or focus-grouped. It does not seek to cover all bases. Why should it? You don’t like seeing gigs at lunchtime? Interactive spoken word about nail salons in a nail salon? Pub theatre? 20 DJs battling each other? Okay. If you don’t like these things, I feel bad for you, son. I don’t dig Summernats. Or WOMADelaide. But I’m happy they exist for those who do. If you pick it up, shake it, sniff it and still can’t figure out, let go. There’s a good chance it’ll change your life. Or at least give you a good chuckle. That’s the other thing about YAH – its sense of humour. It’s why, for me, the criticism of it being a po-faced tight-panted hipster fest: balls. It is a festival underscored by decency, with a great sense of absurdity. It challenges you to laugh at it and at yourself.

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CLASSICS IN REVIEW Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy [First published: 1877]

There seems to be something of a revival underway within the arts: a revival of both classical and modern literature through adaption to the silver screen. In the past 12 months we have seen Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights make yet another appearance on film, soon followed by Kerouac’s beat classic On the Road, while the famed Les Misérables of Victor Hugo has proved to be an enduring text in both the francophone and anglophone worlds.

COMING OF ICE AGE JULIA WINTERFLOOD In late July 2008 the Australia Council posted a message on its site expressing its sadness at the passing of Jan Warrzynczak. It listed his positions in Canberra’s arts community and beyond: Coordinator of Belconnen Community Arts Centre, GM of Canberra Youth Theatre, Chair of the Multicultural Arts Alliance… It concluded with, ‘His legacy will live on wherever communities across Australia are involved in defining their own cultural development.’ Five years later these words ring true, as You Are Here festival presents ICE AGE, a program of 20 theatre works which conclude the trilogy started by Jan in 2007. First came The WET Season, then The Hunting Season. Ice Age was the third, but tragedy shook our arts community and the nation’s too; Jan died in hospital on July 5, 2008, after a motorbike accident seven weeks before. Said You Are Here Producer David Finnigan, ‘He was an interesting one. He lived in a sort of new age commune thing in Tasmania in the ‘80s. He worked as the lighting designer for IHOS, a well regarded indie experimental opera company. They’d go into communities on the Tasmanian coast and do these huge scale operas. There was an opera they did in a giant lumber yard. They got all the local wood workers and lumberjacks to do choreographed chainsaw exhibitions with pyrotechnics. He was the lighting designer for that. And then he came to Canberra and worked in youth theatre and at Belconnen Theatre. He hired me and I was a really shit employee – we spent all our time sitting around talking about theatre and not doing anything useful.’ Somehow they found time to start an experimental theatre movement. They waived fees and opened up Belconnen Theatre to amateur groups from ACT colleges and the wider community. Explained David, ‘We put a program together called The WET Season – fucking Wave Edge Theory Season – we never agreed on names.’ (Wiki it. It’s cool.) ‘Jan’s whole idea with Wave Edge Theory was there was going to be a massive failure rate. We’re inviting all these people to experiment and most of it’s going to fantastically bomb. If you’ve only got five new shows coming out every year, and every show has a one in five chance, you might have one good show. So you need to have 20-odd shows and then you’re going to start having significant numbers.’ One of these shows was by The Landlords, who are concluding their You Are Here trilogy as part of Ice Age. ‘[After Jan’s death] a few people asked whether we were going to do anything with the proposed Ice Age but we weren’t in the right head space, so we let it sit. But this year seemed like the right year. We finally have enough experience and opportunity to try and do it justice.’ For the full article, which includes interviews with three artists performing under the Ice Age banner, head to bmamag.com. You Are Here runs from Thu-Sun March 14-24 in various spaces around Canberra. Head to youareherecanberra.com for all festival info.

Most recently we have been given sneak peaks of the cinema adaptations of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina; the tragic, epic tale of love and loss set against the equally dramatic landscape that is late-19th century Tsarist Russia. For bookworms, this trend toward cinematic portrayals of classic texts surely signifies the dawning of a golden age of book-to-film adaptations. More broadly, this pattern perhaps represents a popularly felt thirst for something which these stories exude in their portrayal of a time now lost to us. Never has nostalgia been a more pervasive cultural trait. In Karenina, Tolstoy paints a portrait of the beautiful Anna Arkadyevna Karenina, an elegant young woman of the aristocracy who finds herself trapped in an unresolvable struggle between the imperatives of family – as commanded by her cold and calculating husband Count Alexis Karenin and cemented by her young son Serezha – and the demands of her impulsive suitor Alexis Kirilich Vronsky, who brings to light in Anna her profound unhappiness. The drama surrounding Anna and Vronsky’s romance is set against the equally compelling relationship between the decent agriculturalist Constantine Levin and the young Princess Catherine Alaxandranov Sherbatsky, or ‘Kitty’, to whose heart Levin has long been bound. These two entwining tales, involving some 140 characters (none of whom have their humanity diluted in the overwhelming drama of Tolstoy’s epic romances and landscapes), pose the present-day reader some pertinent questions. In a world perhaps increasingly disjointed by the rapid advance in digital technologies, increasingly commercialised by an expansive popular culture, increasingly divorced from the past worlds from which our own was born, and a world so unconnected to the natural forces which once commanded our lives, Karenina serves to remind us of the things which we are unwittingly casting aside in the mad pursuit of modernity: the beauty of the spoken word; an intimate connection to the natural world; the social glues which bind us to the communal life; the value of art and aesthetics; a healthier relationship to time, distance and history; the intimacy of family life; the serendipity of romance; the chance that is at the heart of any adventure. In sum: magic – and these are the gems which shine so brightly to the present-day reader of Anna Karenina. Tolstoy, writing some 140 years ago, had already seen the erosion of such magic in his own urban social set, and his consciousness of this loss can be found in the undercurrents of the sweeping panorama that is Anna Karenina. TIMOTHY GINTY

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bit PARTS ENLIGHTEN FESTIVAL WHAT: Parliamentary Triangle & Surrounds WHEN: Fri-Sat March 1-9 WHERE: Night Time Light & Entertainment Festival It’s certainly a great year to be a Canberran. The Enlighten program, which runs Fri-Sat March 1-9, leads into Canberra’s 100th birthday celebrations over the March long weekend. Enlighten will see Canberra’s Parliamentary Triangle transformed as stunning architectural projections shine a light on some of Australia’s most iconic attractions, including the National Library of Australia, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery and Questacon. See inside Questacon in a new light (or dark, as it were) on the night of Saturday March 2, where you can go head over heels on a 360-degree swing, free fall down a six-metre slide or dive into the mysterious Deep Oceans. Not to be missed on Friday March 8 is Lights! Canberra! Action! Sit back on the Senate Rose Garden lawns and enjoy the results of this fun festival that gives budding filmmakers ten days to write, shoot, edit and produce a sevenminute short film around a theme and ten specific items. On Fri & Sat March 8 & 9, all the action, adrenalin, sweat and cardboard of a real life battle scene will descend on the tranquil parklands of the Parliamentary Triangle when Box Wars summon the greatest of Canberra’s cardboard warriors to fight to the pulp! Register your interest with Enlighten 2013. Over the same two nights, get ready for a hairdressing revolution that will literally make your hair stand on end. Fresh from the uber chic streets of Barcelona comes Sienta la Cabeza, an eccentric hairdressing show featuring a DJ and two hairdressers who will create head sculptures live on stage. Meanwhile, every Friday and Saturday night of the festival, the fiercest and most stunning four-metre anglerfish that Canberra’s ever seen will swim their way around the Parliamentary Triangle for Follow the Current. Featured on the same dates will be Snake the Planet, where you can see the all-time classic arcade game Snake pixelate beyond the screen, taking over entire buildings in the Parliamentary Triangle. Canberra’s much-loved Balloon Spectacular will light up the final night of Enlighten on Saturday March 9 with a spectacular balloon glow in John Dunmore Lang Place. To fuel you throughout the events, the Entertainment Hub will flourish every night of the festival with a rich array of delicious foods and tempting beverages alongside vibrant music and surprising performances. Individual event ticketing via Ticketek. All festival information can be found at enlightencanberra.com.au.

DESIGN STUDIO WHAT: Theatre Design Workshop WHEN: Tuesdays, Tue Feb 26-Tue Jun 4 WHERE: Canberra Youth Theatre Canberra Youth Theatre is proud to present Design Studio, the first in a new series of independent artist studio programs. The threemonth workshop program will explore the principles of costume and set design and the role of design in the communication of a play. Participants will be introduced to principles of design: period, line, colour, texture, research and reference gathering in the design process and learn about the collaborative process of working with a director. Participants will create a design portfolio through the program, to be presented at course end. 5-7pm. $345 (incl. design kit). Enrolments: cytc.net, (02) 6248 5057. DREAMING WHAT: Environmental Art, Sculpture & Installation WHEN: Sat Mar 2-Sun Mar 31 WHERE: Tuggeranong Arts Centre Working with used, industrial, organic, discarded, pre-loved and discontinued materials, Sydney artist Tracey Deep presents her original environmental art exhibition. Based on her obsession with dream-inspired patterns, textures and forms, Tracey’s sculptures evidence a practice rich in recycling and sustainability and her unique aesthetic demonstrates an affinity with the natural world. Working as a floral sculptor for the last 20 years, Tracey’s art practice has evolved from its basis in organic materials to its current form – a playful exploration of line, repetition and texture realised through weaving and construction. Opening Saturday March 2, 2pm. Free. DENDY’S CLASSICS PROGRAM 2013 WHAT: Cult Classic Film Program WHEN: Mondays, beginning Mon Mar 4 WHERE: Dendy Cinema Due to the popularity of Dendy’s Classics Program in 2012, the program will return this year showcasing some of the best cult classic films over the last 40 years. Season one will be themed by director and will include some of the best films from Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino. The season will kick off on Monday March 4 with Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, followed closely by The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II. Dendy will also bring some of Tarantino’s best films back to the big screen, including Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. Daily sessions at 10am & 6pm. $12/$10 Dendy members. See dendy.com.au for info/tix. THIS IS ART MARKET WHAT: Local Art Market WHEN: Sat & Sun April 13 & 14 WHERE: Yarralumla Woolshed Local artists (et al.) are coming together this April with one mission: to share their work with the community. The market is about giving local artists the opportunity to sell their art and giving the community access to it in an affordable way. With an aim to steer people away from buying department store prints and creating a space to sell one of a kind art pieces, buyers and sellers both can benefit from what the day has to offer. The market will also have some incredible food and drink stalls, plus local performers. If you’ve got something to share, email info@thisisartmarket.com or visit thisisartmarket.com. Saturday at 1pm, Sunday at 5pm. Free.

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the word

on albums

mama kin The magician’s daughter [independent]

album of the issue

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS PUSH THE SKY AWAY [BAD SEED MUSIC]

After the first spin of Push the Sky Away I was dreading this review. Because I’m a fan, and wondered if I was able to effectively transmit my disappointment. Reviewing records mimics the way many take music in now – quickly. We spin records once and wonder if we should spin it again. We make snap judgements. If the thing doesn’t connect immediately, who has the time? This record does not track by that schedule. The first listen, where the record seemed too much like poetry sloppily placed over the atmospheric sounds of Cave’s soundtrack work, was troubling. Yet it was rectified by the second listen, where the record seemed to creep up on me, get under the skin. After four or five further spins, what was revealed was another masterpiece in the Cave canon. The sloppiness is actually expansiveness. The clue is in the title – space is created once that sky is pushed away. The mantra of the title track

sums up the philosophy of the approach; the sky, the limit, is inevitable. All we can do is try to create more room between us and it. These songs lope and meander and their effect is stronger for it. The space allows the loops of Warren Ellis to loll, while Cave riffs on his usual subjects (death and despair, plus Miley Cyrus) through a modern lens. The brilliant Jubilee Street tracks a dead prostitute and those who judge her. We Know Who U R tackles the reductive simplicity of life in the iPhone age. Higgs Bosen Blues is astonishing. It’s the kind of song that seems effortless, but can only be produced by an artist working at an inconceivable level. I wonder where it would sit for a listener new to Cave; the themes have been there since his first Bad Seeds set in 1984, but the sounds have mutated. This is a record far greater than a man this far into a checkered career has any right to make. GLEN MARTIN

From Fremantle on the far side of the rabbit proof fence comes Danielle Caruana, aka Mama Kin, with her second long-player. The songwriting is simple, but lyrics draw extra strength from repetition. Themes focus on the more extreme emotions of loss through tragedy, relentless desire or a relationship ruined by the bottle. In more than one track, Danielle draws on the image of the destructive power of nature, through water, as a metaphor for life’s trials. Despite this, song melodies are lively and uplifting, aided by the injection of the bright, cheerful chimes of the marimba in several tracks. Though strongly roots-based, the album displays an attractive variety, and the closer I’ll Be Ready is a terrific pop tune with its swooping, layered vocals and alluring melody. Other highlights are One Too Many, rich and mellow with an underlying reggae rhythm, and The Fire with its dramatically struck keys, hinting at danger. Was It Worth It makes a challenging statement in a blues/pop crossover track. The album was produced by Jan Stubiszewski of Owl Eyes and The Cat Empire fame and John Butler contributed his not unknown talents with the guitar on two songs. Mama Kin’s powerful and versatile voice, varying from soulful and gentle in Bosom Of Our Bed to teasing with a bedroom-eyes vibe in Give Me A Reason, draws the listener in like a siren’s call to a sailor – so come and get wrecked! rory mccartney

bored nothing bored nothing [spunk] Bored Nothing’s self-titled debut album is essentially a collection of demos recorded by young Melburnian Fergus Miller and friends over the last few years. While the idea of an album created from a collection of demos is a brave and noble concept, I can’t help but feel that it is the territory of more accomplished artists. This is a formula with which we are familiar: lonesome singer-songwriter producing stripped-back, lo-fi songs in the recording tradition of Sebadoh or, more recently, the first Tame Impala EP. It can be refreshing to hear something stripped back and honest but in this case it just sounds a little hollow. The songs are easy listening but inconsistent. Occasionally, a guitar line or melody jumps out, but for the most part the album piddles, drones and moans along without anything significant happening. Had someone been more selective about which tracks were good enough to release, this might have made a fairly tight EP. In this DIY age of the music industry, we have lost the quality buffer that labels, producers and heavy tour-schedules once provided. Sure, they are the evil conglomerates that rape good artists of their hard-earned rewards, but quite often it forced bands to work harder, produce something better and challenge themselves. There are thousands of singersongwriters like Fergus Miller; his project is unexceptional. Ultimately, the album is nice enough but unmemorable. JEFF ANTON THEYS

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wooden wand Blood Oaths of the New Blues [fire records] For a while there was all this talk that electronic music was going to kill off singersongwriters. In other words, why write a song when a sequencer can do it for you? Kind of absurd when keeping in mind that the blues, for instance, has been around from year dot and always will be. With that sorted, let’s move to this latest album from James Jackson Toth aka Wand/ Wooden Wand. Toth employed a totally minimal approach on earlier albums – ragged tales of desperation on a battered acoustic with no-fi production; a little bit like early Palace albums with less of Will Oldham’s barely disguised erotica. But a restless spirit is always in play and Blood Oaths of the New Blues brings out a deeply personal creative expression, melancholy and reflective, that works on the senses in the best possible way. This is probably the richest-sounding album of Toth’s career so far. It features a well honed band on a bunch of instruments, but the sound levels have been turned down a notch to allow a more elaborate vibe to break through. This music is, however, very intimate and the playing superb. The blues is given a dramatic makeover like Nick Cave used to do when he was at the peak of his musical powers. And the standout factor is Toth’s voice; world weary but belonging to a survivor nonetheless. ‘Outsider blues with little to lose,’ he sings. You know it. dan bigna

Sleep Decade Into Spinning Lights [Independent]

unknown mortal orchestra II [jagjaguwar]

Two years of work from Melbourne/Geelong band Sleep Decade has gifted the music-appreciating portion of the public their evocatively titled debut, Into Spinning Lights. The band’s name gives a strong clue to a musical style that is gentle, deep and floating in the vain of slowcore pop. The quartet lives by the maxim that less is more, with simple tunes and subdued instrumentation which is deliberately crafted so as to not overwhelm the voice of frontman Casey Hartnett. After my first listen, I thought I may need to reach for the defibrillator to get myself going again. However, after a second concentrated effort, I started to ‘get it’. This album is a contemplative effort which demands attention to be appreciated. The opening track, A Car at Night, wakes slowly, like fighting your way out of a deep slumber. Casey’s tentative lyrics are the focus of an atmosphere of stillness, which fades at the end into a fuzzy twilight. Mexico brings a bolder rhythm section and a warmth from the soft harmonies which swell in support. Both Spilt Ink (an album highlight) and Monster benefit from an unidentified female backing vocal. Sleep Decade’s songs of loving and longing, bound up in a hesitant happiness, are easy to relate to and Casey’s tentative singing style holds a strange attraction. The sound retains a consistent feel until the closer Fourth Floor Longing, which brings a more purposeful guitar mixed with strident percussion and a floating synth.

Thankfully there are still a few weeks of summer left in which to enjoy II, Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s confident follow-up to their self-titled debut. This stripped back psychedelic three-piece has delivered a snappy album of sharp, catchy songs overlaid with cool, syrupy melodies. The tenacity and experience of former Mint Chicks guitarist/vocalist Ruban Nielson coupled with his Portland-based comrades finally seems to have paid off. This is a real testament to what a three-piece can achieve without overstretching. They have maintained a seductively sparse and static production that tingles and crackles from each track to the next. There is a hint of inebriation and a melancholic hungover feel. Track three, So Good at Being in Trouble, is an absolute delight, with laidback instrumentation and a blissful light melody floating above it that tends to stick with you for days afterwards. Monki, the longest song on the album, plods along in beautiful simplicity. Minimal, flickering guitar licks and happily bubbling bass lines tease us with the suggestion of building to a climax that never quite arrives. Not all songs are memorable, and you will find a good dose of groovy jams and splashes of cosmic droning such as Dawn. For those familiar with the first album, do not expect a huge amount of variation. If anything, the album is more understated, as if the band had reclined a few inches deeper into the sofa.

rory mccartney

JEFF ANTON THEYS

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detal wanderlust [independent] Canberra continues to carve a deeper notch in the EDM world. We all know about The Aston Shuffle’s stadium fillers; expats Rachel Haircut get better with each release; triple j Unearthed contender E A V E S has been dropping sweet sounds, and now we have this six-track debut EP from Daniel ‘Detal’ Tallos. And it’s worth getting excited about. Smashing tenaciously into the spectrum of bass music, Detal has turned in an accomplished and assured debut, clearly the result of eagerly absorbing sounds. The range is broad and confidently delivered. Bout My Business opens with a gangster strut replete with slowed down vocals; The Heart Will Lay Claim To melds vocal snippets and complex drum patterns a la Machinedrum; standout track Wanderlust is a bouncy number that could stand up to any of the greats; Watchez, Chainz returns to gangster strut this time with Dragon Ball Z sampling; Remember is a beautiful ambient number akin to William Orbit’s Hello Waveforms; and Sold Your Soul continues the downtempo finish. The final two spacey tracks, whilst good, see the EP end on a bit of a whimper and the ‘slowed down vocal’ becomes overused. But even so, it is used effectively, and anything following the accomplished Wanderlust was going to be hard to top. This is an assured and exciting debut from Detal, bravely tackling various styles and pulling them off with the deftness of a longtime producer. allan sko

the word

on films

WITH MELISSA WELLHAM

I have a question for you, dear readers: why do people hate Keira Knightley so much? What is it about her that inspires such loathing and derision from the everyday cinemagoer? I am actually quite fond of Knightley. I think she’s a more than competent actress, I don’t think she pouts too much (that’s just her face!) and I even liked the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice – which is basically sacrilegious for an English major to admit. So why do people hate her? If you have an explanation, tweet me at @melissawellham.

quote of the issue Anna Karenina (Keira Knightley): If you have any thought for me you will give me back my peace! Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson): There can be no peace for us, only misery, and the greatest happiness. – Anna Karenina

flight Robert Zemeckis, whose most recent films have been mostly animated – Mars Needs Mums, Real Steel and Beowulf – returns to live action with a film that is most definitely about real people. Denzel Washington is Whip Whitaker, an airline pilot who miraculously lands a plane after an engine failure, saving nearly every soul on board. But then it is revealed that Whip had alcohol in his bloodstream at the time of the crash, and his future and freedom is called into question. Whip is a high-functioning alcoholic and his affliction is depicted straightforwardly, with neither sensationalism nor an uncomfortable level of sympathy. Alcoholics in films are so often abusive stepfathers, or deadbeat mothers, or drugaddled off-the-rails siblings. Whip is none of those. He’s basically white-collar. Denzel Washington’s Oscar-nominated performance is powerful, and his natural charm and sobriety (for want of a better word) lend the character credibility. Unfortunately, the film begins on a high – but descends into a hangover of more standard Hollywood fare from there. As the film progresses, it becomes increasingly heavy-handed. By the last 15 minutes, I was left wondering whether test audiences had decreed an earlier version of the film too depressing, so the current cliché-riddled and eye rollworthy monologue featuring some father-son bonding was tacked on at the end. For the most part, Flight is a soaring drama, grounded by powerful performances – but the ending is a bit of a disaster. MELISSA WELLHAM

hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters In this latest grim fairytale film, the Hansel and Gretel myth is twisted and reborn as a feisty action flick where the siblings grow up to be hot, and spend their days kicking ass and taking names. If ‘taking names’ involves stabbing/beheading/ shooting/burning witches while wearing skintight leather clothing. After being taken hostage by a witch as children, Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) grow up into witch bounty hunters – travelling the countryside ridding towns of pesky, children-snatching witches. It’s all very predictable and the overarching plot is laughably weak, but the film delivers on the action sequences – and isn’t this type of premise really just an excuse for some imaginative witch deaths and crazylooking weapons? At a refreshingly appropriate 88 minutes, my main gripe would be the ol’ ‘these two have too much sexual chemistry to be related’ dilemma, but maybe that’s just because I have this weird thing for Renner (and now Gemma Arterton). Arterton and Renner are definitely the main drawcards here – all the other supports are pretty forgettable, and even the most well constructed action sequence falls flat without some charismatic leads.

anna karenina Directed by Joe Wright and written by Oscar-winner Tom Stoppard, Anna Karenina is a bold and theatrical adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s tragic love story. Anna (Keira Knightley) is married to senior Russian official Aleksei Karenin (Jude Law), but starts an affair with the young, bold and brash Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) – with predictably wretched consequences. Wright has always been a very competent director of period dramas, but last year’s arthouse-action flick Hanna, while flawed, showed that he was willing to take risks and be different. In Anna, Wright is clearly trying to create something distinctive: not just another period drama, and certainly not just another film that will be described as ‘Joe Wright is directing Keira Knightley again’. This atypical Anna is staged on a, well, stage. The film’s different settings are turned into adjacent sets and the camera moves seamlessly between scenes: swooping from an abandoned attic housed in the rafters of the theatre; to a waltz that literally takes centre stage; to a horse race that features powerful, live animals surging through the spaces in-between theatre seats. If my description sounds odd instead of out-of-the-ordinary, then trust me – I haven’t done the direction justice.

I’m likely giving it too much credit, but I found Hansel and Gretel to be enjoyable and engaging, unapologetically delivering a dark and fun take on the Hansel and Gretel story.

There are flaws in this film too. Sometimes it meanders, sometimes it becomes almost motionless – but ultimately the film is both fascinating and beautiful, like its central character. Bravo on showing a little bravura, Wright.

MEGAN McKEOUGH

MELISSA WELLHAM

@bmamag

the word on dvds

Argo [Warner Home Video] There are many good things about Argo. For starters, it’s a ripping story: whisking six US diplomats from revolutionary Iran by pretending to be a fake movie crew, for a fake movie, produced by a fake production company, with fake posters in Variety all organised by the very real CIA and Hollywood special effects guy. The diplomats, separated from their colleagues, are hiding out in the Canadian Embassy where safety is a relative concept; public hangings, gun battles and an overrun US Embassy are not exactly ‘good things’ for stranded US citizens. The casting is also brilliant; Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Bryan Cranston are compelling. The production design pulls off that tricky task of making the late ‘70s look authentic, but not tacky or cardboard cut-out. The real life events are so fantastical, so unbelievable that it has Hollywood written all over it. At one point a security briefing is plonked on someone’s desk in Washington with the bold capital letters THE HOLLYWOOD OPTION. Yes, we get it. But all the Hollywood insidery stuff, used effectively to counterbalance the despair in Tehran, also gives off a faint whiff of industry backslapping. You get the feeling Ben Affleck wants Hollywood to feel better about itself, which makes it all the more galling that its direction is merely solid. More worryingly, the ratcheting up of fake tension, especially in the final act, is totally unnecessary and Affleck’s decision to alter key facts (NZ and the UK never turned them away, for example, and the market scene never happened) is dishonest and perplexing. Argo is still a very good political/espionage thriller but one marred by inconsistency with truth and narrative. Affleck is to be applauded for reviving the genre, but really, with source material like this you’d be hard pressed to screw it up. JUSTIN HOOK

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Parks and Recreation – Season 4 [Universal Sony Pictures] Because most of us spend our pitiful existences chained to desks in airless cubicles far away from the sun and civilisation at large, there’s always a market for the workbased comedies. On one level we recognise the wacky one, the overbearing boss, the insolent accounts payable manager or the all-day internet-surfer. But on another level, it makes us feel better to think about our lives – and our annoying colleagues – as something that belongs on TV. It’s escapism and reality in one awkward bundle. For three seasons Parks and Recreation has thrown together a bunch of disparate characters in an office and let the sparks fly. Amy Poehler’s Lesley Knope is the well-intentioned, busybody ringmaster of a Parks Department in a non-descript regional town (Pawnee). Unlike the shows with which it shared DNA and its timeslot (The Office, Community or 30 Rock), it wasn’t overly meta or mean and the stakes were generally low; a recurring gag about zoning an empty lot gives an idea of how low. It was still a very funny show, and arguably one of the best on network TV, but the small town limitations became obvious in recent episodes. So the decision to take Knope out of the office space and make her run for public office on the local council is necessary and inspired. Not only is Knope’s path to small town power the best use of Poehler’s whirling kinetic energy to date but it gives the show an opportunity to broaden its scope and match Knope/ Poehler up against some new challenges in Paul Rudd as her political opponent and Kathryn Hahn as his campaign manager. Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) remains the gruff Zen-like ying to Knope’s yang, but like all office relationships you can only push it so far. It’s good that Parks and Recreation is exploring ‘other opportunities’. JUSTIN HOOK

Game Change [Warner Home Video] A few weeks ago, Fox News announced they were severing their relationship with Sarah Palin. As a conservative, when Fox decide you’re beyond the pale you’d think a period of introspection would follow. But the ex-Governor of Alaska, ex-Vice Presidential candidate did what she does best. Palin went straight into attack mode, played the victim and said she’d outgrown Fox. This neveradorable streak of chaos, hubris and maverickness has worn very thin over the years, even amongst her base. Game Change is the story behind the birth of Sarah Palin: The Public Figure. Based on John Heilemann and Mark Halperpin’s gossipy but well-sourced book of the same name, Game Change is both fun and terrifying. Hoping to disrupt the 2008 race and rattle a confident Obama campaign, McCain’s team choose Palin knowing full well she was a loose cannon and underprepared. That was the selling point. Their fatal error was assuming Palin would overcome her inadequacies through hard work, collaboration and dedication to the GOP cause. But Palin answered to no one, least of all the people who had chosen her to run. Palin’s rapid ascent to conservative pin-up and great white hope was in direct correlation with her disinterest in sticking to any sort of devised plan or strategy. She captured plenty of attention but it was only ever harnessed for her personal gain. Palin contests some details in Game Change but her distrust and defiance of the McCain campaign is public record. This HBO production is largely true. Ed Harris doesn’t quite get McCain’s abrupt rigidity but Woody Harrelson and Julianne Moore as Steve Schmidt (campaign director) and Palin respectively are outstanding. Moore doesn’t play Palin for laughs or derision; this alone makes Game Change absorbing and uncomfortable viewing. JUSTIN HOOK

the word

BLACKBOX

on games

Real Racers 3 Platform: iOS Developer: Firemonkeys Length: 10 hrs+ Verdict: Must have In recent years the gaming giants, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, have had it harder than usual. For example, the WiiU is currently the lowestselling console, care of a rather lacklustre launch lineup. Likewise, the handheld market continues to be eaten up by Apple. If Valve CEO-cum-Nostradamus Gabe Newell is right, it’s possible Apple could also start to eat into the console market. Just try playing one of your favourite iOS games via AirPlay and you’ll realise how good they can look when TV-sized. As a hardcore gamer, this idea scares me. While I’m a big fan of iOS games, it disappoints me that the AppStore offers very few big production games. Case in point, Infinity Blade is possibly the largest iOS game production and even that still offers a casual, i.e. shallow, gaming experience. However, there’s a glimmer of hope and it comes in the form of Real Racing 3. Developed by Melbourne-based company Firemonkeys, Real Racing 3 is a must-have title for any racing fan. Unlike the other watereddown race offerings that feature low-detail courses, arcade-style handling or passable graphics, this game rivals the likes of Gran Turismo. The graphics are superb, particularly when viewed on a TV – unfortunately, the AirPlay lag makes it difficult to play it in this manner. The sexy 3D visuals are matched by a slick interface that’s worthy of a Dirt title. The gameplay is also top notch. The handling feels realistic and is therefore challenging. To aid beginners, the game features assisted driving that tends to overcorrect, making it necessary to discard if you really want to excel. The game punishes kamikaze driving by having the incurred damage greatly degrade your car’s performance. The subsequent fixes require several real hours (or in-game credits) to repair. The game also provides a nice amount of variation through the inclusion of 40+ cars, a dozen tracks and half a dozen game modes. While the game offers nothing beyond track racing, the inclusion of Mount Panorama and a fictional Melbourne track help to give it a V8/Australian feel. The only real thing to complain about is the AI. Your fellow drivers ruthlessly hold their line, making it rather tricky to weave your way through 21 other cars without doing yourself some damage. Some might also criticise the game for its in-game currency. However, as the game is both free and of such a high quality, I wasn’t averse to shelling over 10 bucks to purchase a car pack – which also helps to negate the repair periods. If you like your racing games, this is a must-have. It’s not a casual game, so expect it to take some time to master. However, once you do, there are hours of fun to be had here. torben sko

The self-deprecating comedy of Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation’s Gen Y captain Josh Thomas now has its own sitcom. Please Like Me (ABC2, Thu Mar 7, 9:30pm) is a perfect vehicle for Josh; part drama, part comedy, with him grappling with 101 things, constantly digressing and usually not really coping very well. If you like Josh’s particular brand of comedy (and Blackbox does) and aren’t offended by two boys making out or vomit from an overdose of Panadol, you’ll be back. Canberra gets a guernsey for its birthday with Canberra Confidential (ABC1, Thu Mar 14, 8:30pm) where Annabel Crabb rummages through our secrets and scandals (mostly political, of course). Other new shows to look out for include Shaun Micalleff and Kat Stewart in Mr & Mrs Murder (SC10, Wed, 8:30pm) and The Chaser team’s look at consumer affairs, The Checkout (ABC1, Thu Mar 21, 8pm) – yes, Wil Anderson, they got there first. Docos to check out include: Meet the Young Americans (ABC2, Mon Mar 4, 8:35pm), which takes the Stacey Dooley style of immersion reporting to a boot camp prison for girls, young Mexican border runners and controversial gay conversion therapy; My Tattoo Addiction (ABC2, Wed Mar 6, 9:30pm), with access to two of the UK’s top tattooists and their clients; Dig 1940 (ABC2, Sun Mar 3, 6pm) that follows an archaeological dig examining World War II evidence from 1940; David Attenborough’s Galapagos (ABC1, Sun Mar 17, 7:30pm) and Wildest Arctic (SBS1, Wed Mar 13, 7:30pm). The US version of Rake has made it to pilot stage – Blackbox is dying to see the results. The question is: acerbic rant or pleasant surprise? The new Dr Who (ABC, TBC) season kicks off in the UK on Saturday March 30. With a bit of luck, Auntie will make it available on iView directly after. New eps of Up All Night (Prime, Thu Feb 28, 11:45pm) which include a guest spot from Stevie Nicks may be some of the last you’ll see, with news Christina Applegate has left the show. There’s also new Revenge (Prime, Mon, 8:45pm), How I Met Your Mother (Prime, Mon, 9:45pm), Supernatural (11, Mon, 8:30pm), American Horror Story (11, Mon, 9:30pm) and CSI (WIN, Sun, 9:30pm). There’s an eclectic round of movies this fortnight, including The Great Train Robbery (GEM, Sun Mar 3, 4pm) starring Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland; ‘60s spy drama The Double Man (GEM, Sun Mar 3, 1:50pm) with Yul Brynner and Britt Ekland; Sliding Doors (GEM, Fri Mar 8, 20:30); Australia’s own ‘70s sex romp Alvin Purple (GEM, Sat Mar 9, 11:30pm); Pretty Woman (Prime, Fri Mar 1, 9pm); Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Go, Sat Mar 2, 6:30pm); 10 (WIN, Sat Mar 9, 11:30pm) starring Dudley Moore and Bo Derek; Harry Brown (SBS1, Sat Mar 9, 9:30pm), a gritty critique on British society starring Michael Caine; Bonfire of the Vanities (WIN, Sun Mar 3, 12:25am); Million Dollar Baby (Go, Fri Mar 1, 9:40pm); Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (Go, Tue Mar 5, 8:30pm) and Inception (Go, Sun Mar 3, 8:30pm). And for something incredibly camp, catch 1964’s Wonderful Life (GEM, Sun Mar 3, 10am) starring Cliff Richard and The Shadows as a band stranded on the Canary Islands making a musical version of a veteran director’s comeback. Cure your Saturday afternoon hangover with a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (11, Sat, from 12pm) marathon. Don’t miss reruns of classic ‘80s Aussie sketch comedy Fast Forward (One, Thu, 9:30pm). Now if Auntie would just drag The Late Show out of the archives... TRACY HEFFERNAN tracyherrernan@bigpond.com @ChezBlackbox

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the word

on gigs

SoundOut 2013 Theatre 3 Sat-Sun February 2-3 SoundOut has rapidly become a world-class improvised music event and Canberra is fortunate to be its host. Organiser Richard Johnson puts in the hard yards throughout the year to bring together performers who reflect current movements in improvised music across the globe and the line-up this year was superb. For the past two years, SoundOut has taken place in the intimate confines of Theatre 3 tucked away behind the ANU School of Art and I have increasingly found it a comfortable and stimulating environment. Inside the theatre you can settle into a space with good acoustics and focus on the music free from distraction. Outside, you can sit in a pleasant courtyard with a cold beer and interact with audience members and performers alike. This is the kind of thing that draws me to improvised music. It is creative democracy in action; a free exchange of sounds, ideas and concepts that happen in the blink of an eye. Such exchanges stimulated the senses at SoundOut 2013. The music on offer across the two days of the festival was mostly outstanding and I will note some of the highlights here. However, I will firstly mention that the audience should have been larger. For those who easily tire of the same old crap like I know I do, there was really no excuse for not checking out bursts of absorbing musical creativity erupting from small and large groupings from diverse cultural backgrounds. One highlight in this respect was the Brazilian Abaetetuba Collective, which utilised percussion, bass, guitar and the plucked stringed instrument Shamisen. This group conjured crystallised freeform tonalities that hit cacophonous peaks when the sounds began to heat up. Abaetetuba were fantastic, but only one part of the story. It was great to see percussionist Tony Buck paired up with pianists Magda Mayas and Hermione Johnson for two Saturday sets. Buck likes to decorate his kit with an assortment of objects, which, when struck, stroked or rubbed in the right way, produce shimmering washes of sound, metallic sparks or splintering polyrhythms. Buck is a master of his chosen instrument and in combination with two brilliant, highly energetic pianists, the results were right on. But there are two performances in particular that deserve mention for giving Canberra something unique. On the Saturday evening, composer and violinist Jon Rose brought out a loosely structured score for 27 performers where every instrument involved was given a starring role. The music washed over the audience in great waves with smaller fragments darting from the stage in myriad directions. Indicative of a healthy creative democracy, all performers slotted in with each other to ensure that the sounds ebbed, flowed and, at times, exploded according to a strangely conceivable logic. This was comprised of three parts universal consciousness and one part subtle conducting from Rose, who guided a series of movements through to their conclusion. When combined with abstract visuals from Louise Curham and cubist dance movements from Canberran Alison Plevey, this performance was magical to watch.

PHOTOS BY VICKY SHRUKUROGLUO

This could also be said of the raucous, roof-raising set on Sunday afternoon, which featured Jon Rose leading a smaller ensemble made up of sax, electronics, violin, guitar and bass. At times, the sound approached the ear shattering levels of John Zornâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s earliest Naked City recordings and there was something very downtown New York about this intensely frenetic performance. The louder it got, the better it sounded, and when the crashing sheets of noise came to an abrupt halt I was going to quietly ask them to do it all again. DAN BIGNA

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the word

Feelings, Bruges Transit Bar Saturday February 9

on gigs

A few years ago, I never noticed teenage girls. Now, suddenly, they’re everywhere. They gang together like little lemmings, all coiffed quiffs and combat boots and misplaced ‘90s nostalgia. Worst of all, they’ve discovered Transit Bar. When we entered Transit to see local boys Bruges and Simon Berkfinger’s new project, Feelings, there they were, congregating in corners with their perfect hair and unmoving expressions, reminding us that it is too late, our time has passed, and we never learnt the secret of cool. Fortunately, it turns out even the stoniest teen queen can be transformed into a dancing dickhead by some sweet, sweet beats. Canberra band Bruges kickstarted the night with their potent mix of indie pop and grunge rock. Formed in early 2012, Bruges have already made a name for themselves as a local name to watch. Comprised of former members of Activate Jetpack, The Magic Hands and Clay Pigeons, Bruges is a band with experience and without pretension; they create great sounding pop rock and genuinely enjoy doing it. Their upbeat energy (helped along by the happy cheers of their posse) was contagious and, before long, the pretty little things of Transit Bar shook away a few inhibitions. Slowly but surely, feet began to shuffle. Bruges left the stage to be replaced by Feelings, and the horde of teen dreams promptly lost their shit over a miniature, middle-aged man with a moustache and a mic. The brainchild of moustachioed former Philadelphia Grand Jury frontman, Simon Berkfinger, Feelings is a high-octane band with rabid pop sensibilities. Following the demise of the short-lived but brilliant Philly Jays, Berkfinger began producing records for bands such as Velociraptor, Dune Rats and Deep Sea Arcade. Thankfully, the man is back to making music, returning to Australian shores with a new all-star band and the same old hyperactive charm. While the exact circumstances behind the breakup of the Philly Jays remain mired in secrecy, it’s been suggested that the split was a traumatic one. Fortunately, Berkfinger has used the implosion as a platform for developing sound that is more intensely idiosyncratic and eccentric than his prior work. Clear, concise and full-blooded, Berkfinger’s latest offering plays with the ideas of survival, the end of the world, and the ridiculous affection human beings insist on lavishing upon inanimate objects. With the aid of his bandmates and compadres (Art vs. Science’s Dan Sweat and Dappled Cities’ Dave Rennick), Berkfinger created the ultimate party environment within seconds of taking the stage. Although Feelings hooked the crowd by throwing in a couple of Philly Jay hits, including a dance-crazed rendition of Going to the Casino (Tomorrow Night), the trio effortlessly kept Transit’s attention with their new material. Of particular note was the closing rendition of their current single, One in a Million, which saw Berkfinger step from the stage to wiggle through the thronging mess of wild kids, pushing his mic stand before him like a whipping stick. Surprising and solid, Feelings are an incredible live act. If you get the chance to see them, do it.

PHOTOS BY PAOLO RUIZ

Shit got a bit wild after that. We played pool with two toothless teenagers, got girl crushes on an Asian cowgirl and danced to Kendrick Lamar with a flame-bearded colonial woodcutter. And possibly broke into a pool. Long live the teen scene. I’m going to sleep for a week. TEDI BILLS

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the word

on gigs

Thee Oh Sees, The Fighting League, TV Colours Transit Bar Monday February 11 Canberra was lucky to score a sideshow from garage rockers Thee Oh Sees while they were in the country for an appearance at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival. Due to a late change in the line-up, two Canberran acts had the honour of warming up proceedings on what is usually, being a Monday, a quiet night for gigs. All the bands had rocked up early, spilling drums and instrument cases into the pool room space. Local four-piece TV Colours kicked off with The Kids Are All Grown Up, very fast and very short. Crossing the rock/indie pop divide, they showed off some great tunes boosted by their multi-vocal delivery. They closed with Heavy Metal Sleeve Skins, fast-paced with a sustained jam session and a strong shouted chorus. The set was great but the punters were still getting the beers in and the band could only get one bloke up and dancing. TV Colours guitarist/vocalist Carey stayed on stage to play with The Fighting League, whose popularity was demonstrated as the floor by the stage quickly filled. Frontman Dominic Death, Canberra’s own Johnny Rotten, wowed them all. He managed to project an attitude of remaining coolly detached from it all, while still immersing himself in his onstage persona as he postured, spat and tweaked his nipples. His commentary, with a liberal dose of current events, was as entertaining as the songs which were delivered with The Fighting League’s characteristic quirkiness. Songs included What a Way early in the set and Guys Who Want to Be as the closer. Thee Oh Sees were returning to Canberra after their previous triumphant appearance at a packed-to-the-rafters Phoenix Bar. Frontman John Dwyer looked very rock ‘n’ roll, with hair like a toupee on backwards and covered in tatts that projected themselves through his spit-through shirt. Not bothering with a setlist, the band relied on Dwyer to call each following song. The set included a good sprinkling from the band’s fertile discology, including a taste of the new album Floating Coffin due out this April. The gig was everything the crowd could have hoped for, blistering and crazy from the opener The Dream. Guitars rejoiced in sounds varying from a melting pot of riveting licks and psychedelica, to unrestrained buzz-saw. Each song contained its own maze of melodies but instead of anarchic it all sounded so orchestrated and bizarrely catchy. Dwyer’s high-pitched vocals covered everything from piercing yips to croaks. I had hoped to see his famed gig trick of singing with the mic partly thrust into his mouth, but I didn’t catch it (perhaps the eager punters obscured the trick as the mosh pit turned into a seething, throbbing mass). One song was just an excuse for a long solo from drummer Mike Shoun. Peter Dammit’s bass that is not a bass (he uses secret electronic wizardry to make an ordinary guitar produce bass sounds) sent out pulses of jungle rhythms, clashing with the screeching guitar of Dwyer. All this energy was ramped up by an undercurrent of hypnotic keyboard patterns from Brigid Dawson. Meanwhile, the crowd had been infected by the frenzied performance, elevating a lone crowd surfer who sent a Transit antique-style lamp swinging. The band ended with a ten-minute burst of schizophrenic punk energy.

PHOTOS BY STELLA-RAE ZELNICK

To play such long, wildly varying songs elegantly required an astonishing tightness between the musicians. Enthralled, the punters yelled for an encore. Nice try, but no banana! RORY McCARTNEY

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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Wed Feb 27 - Thu Feb 28 wednesday february 27 Arts Exhibition - I Heart Threads

Kieran Stopp’s unique t-shirt designs on display for the first time. Free. THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ

Exhibition – A Wheel Turns

In celebration of Transport Week and the history of our city. 9am-4:30pm. Free. GALLERY@BCS

Exhibition – Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the MR 10am-5pm (7pm Fri/Sat). Tickets $6-$25. See nga.gov.au for more. Exhibition closes Tue Apr 2. NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA

Exhibition – Women with Clever Hands

Establishes the characteristics of the Gapuwiyak style as a group. 10am-5pm (12-4pm Sat). CRAFT ACT CRAFT & DESIGN CENTRE

Exhibition - An Unguarded Moment

A series of paintings of people in their ‘unguarded moment’ by Jess Annetts. 9am-5pm. Free. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition – The Creative Power of Women

Material Translations, A Fusion of Two Elements, and Portrait of the Woman Next Door. 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition – John Young: The Bridge...

A survey exhibition. 12-5pm. Free. DRILL HALL GALLERY

Exhibition – Whimsical Oddities Portraits of animals in suits, hearts and oddities by Caiti Stevens. 8am-9pm (-4pm Sun). Free. ILIOS GALLERY

Comedy Jay Sullivan

Canberra comedian. Funny. 7:30pm. Free.

Theatre Our Lady By The Beach Over The Sea

Shadow House Pits presents their new experimental work. 8pm. Tix thru Canberra Theatre Centre. THE COURTYARD STUDIO

Calendar Girls

Based on the motion picture based on a true story. Bookings/info (02) 6257 1950/canberrarep.org.au. CANBERRA REPERTORY SOCIETY

Trivia Fame Trivia

Great prizes. Bookings essential. 6pm. Free entry. P J O’REILLY’S (CIVIC)

thursday february 28 Art Exhibition – Whimsical Oddities Portraits of animals in suits, hearts and oddities by Caiti Stevens. 8am-9pm (-4pm Sun). Free. ILIOS GALLERY

Exhibition - I Heart Threads

Kieran Stopp’s unique t-shirt designs on display for the first time. Free. THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ

Exhibition – A Wheel Turns

In celebration of Transport Week and the history of our city. 9am-4:30pm. Free. GALLERY@BCS

Exhibition – Women with Clever Hands

Establishes the characteristics of the Gapuwiyak style as a group. 10am-5pm (12-4pm Sat). CRAFT ACT CRAFT & DESIGN CENTRE

Exhibition – The Creative Power of Women

Material Translations, A Fusion of Two Elements, and Portrait of the Woman Next Door. 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ

Exhibition – John Young: The Bridge...

Karaoke

DRILL HALL GALLERY

Karaoke Wednesdays

Film

DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

Ingeborg Holm (U/C18+)

9pm.

Live Music John Sharkey III

With The Fighting League, Sex Noises. 9pm. Free. THE PHOENIX BAR

A survey exhibition. 12-5pm. Free.

7:30pm. See nfsa.gov.au/arc for info/tix. ARC CINEMA

Live Music Ced Nada

Gentle and firm. 9pm.

On The Town

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

Latino Wednesdays

With The Burley Griffin, A Drone Coda. 9pm.

9pm.

Waterford

MONKEYBAR

THE PHOENIX BAR

Something Different

7:30pm. Free.

Organic Lunch at the Co-op

All welcome for a delicious vegetarian feast. $5 students, $6 everyone else. Midday-2pm. ANU FOOD CO-OP

Live Jazz

DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

Chad Croker 9pm. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Mitcharelli

1/2 Architects DJs goes not-unplugged. 9pm. Free. HELLENIC CLUB (CIVIC)

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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Thu Feb 28 - Sat Mar 2

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

Something Different Organic Lunch at the Co-op

All welcome for a delicious vegetarian feast. $5 students, $6 everyone else. Midday-2pm. ANU FOOD CO-OP

Theatre Our Lady By The Beach Over The Sea

Shadow House Pits presents their new experimental work. 8pm. Tix thru Canberra Theatre Centre. THE COURTYARD STUDIO

Calendar Girls

Based on the motion picture based on a true story. Bookings/info (02) 6257 1950/canberrarep.org.au. CANBERRA REPERTORY SOCIETY

friday march 1

Exhibition – The Creative Power of Women

Material Translations, A Fusion of Two Elements, and Portrait of the Woman Next Door. 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition – John Young: The Bridge...

A survey exhibition. 12-5pm. Free. DRILL HALL GALLERY

Live Music

Such a sweet guy. 9pm.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Festival in Your Lounge Room With DJ Les Toth, Dead in a Second, The Arsonist and heaps more. 8pm. $15.30 + bf thru Oztix. THE BASEMENT

Funkin’ Gonutz

Shadow House Pits presents their new experimental work. 8pm. Tix thru Canberra Theatre Centre.

Calendar Girls

CANBERRA REPERTORY SOCIETY

saturday march 2 Art Exhibition – Whimsical Oddities

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

Exhibition – Rhyme and Reason

Exhibition – A Wheel Turns

King Kong

In celebration of Transport Week and the history of our city. 9am-4:30pm. Free. GALLERY@BCS

Exhibition Opening – The Play of Light

Kathryn Scott looks at the delicate nature of light. 6pm. Free. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Live music. 8pm.

P J O’REILLY’S (CIVIC)

Covering Foo Fighters, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam. Doors 7pm. Tix at the door/ Moshtix $20 + bf.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE PENTHOUSE

The Surrogates 10:30pm. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Playwrite & SAFIA

Future classics where pop and electronica frolic. 8pm. Free. TRANSIT BAR

Kathryn Scott looks at the delicate nature of light. 10am-5pm. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Works by basket makers and weavers from around Australia. 10am-5pm. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition – Women with Clever Hands

Blame it on the Boogie Weekends

DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

Something Different Enlighten

See Canberra in a whole new light. Events every day and other days too. See enlightencanberra.com. OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE

Theatre Our Lady By The Beach Over The Sea

CRAFT ACT CRAFT & DESIGN CENTRE

Exhibition – The Creative Power of Women

THE COURTYARD STUDIO

SMITHS ALTERNATIVE BOOKSHOP

Calendar Girls

M16 ARTSPACE

CANBERRA REPERTORY SOCIETY

Catch/Control single launch. With A Drone Coda and Deaf Cat. 8pm. $5.

Blame it on the Boogie Weekends

CRAFT ACT CRAFT & DESIGN CENTRE

Hip shakin’ ko-ko-lo-ko rockin’. 9pm.

Shadow House Pits presents their new experimental work. 8pm. Tix thru Canberra Theatre Centre.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Establishes the characteristics of the Gapuwiyak style as a group. 10am-5pm (12-4pm Sat).

Mario Gordon

Spartak

THE BASEMENT

On The Town

Exhibition – Women with Clever Hands

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Establishes the characteristics of the Gapuwiyak style as a group. 10am-5pm (12-4pm Sat).

Exhibition – Rhyme and Reason Works by basket makers and weavers from around Australia. 10am-5pm.

With Ashley Feraude. 9pm.

Disco, motown, ‘80s and ‘90s. 10pm onwards. Free.

Art by Luke Chiswell. 11am-5pm.

Elska

THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ

Love Saturdays

Exhibition – Face Facing

ILIOS GALLERY

Kieran Stopp’s unique t-shirt designs on display for the first time. Free.

Exhibition - I Heart Threads

TRANSIT BAR

THE PHOENIX BAR

On The Town

Exhibition – The Play of Light

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

With No Hausfrau. 9:30pm.

Portraits of animals in suits, hearts and oddities by Caiti Stevens. 8am-9pm (-4pm Sun). Free.

Buick and crew head up some funk/ hip hop and party jams for the night. 8pm. Free.

Art by Luke Chiswell. 6pm.

P J O’REILLY’S (CIVIC)

Grandmaster Monk

Live acoustic musicians. 5pm onwards. Free.

5pm/10pm. Free.

From 9:30pm.

Live Music

Live Fridays

DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

Carry On Karaoke

Our Lady By The Beach Over The Sea

Based on the motion picture based on a true story. Bookings/info (02) 6257 1950/canberrarep.org.au.

Princi

Karaoke

Theatre

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

With The Stafford Brothers. 9pm.

Exhibition – Whimsical Oddities

Exhibition Opening – Face Facing

OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE

THE COURTYARD STUDIO

Natalie Prevedelo Duo/Killing the Sound

ILIOS GALLERY

See Canberra in a whole new light. Events every day and other days too. See enlightencanberra.com.

Academy’s 9th Birthday Party

Art Portraits of animals in suits, hearts and oddities by Caiti Stevens. 8am-9pm (-4pm Sun). Free.

Enlighten

Disco, motown, ‘80s and ‘90s. 10pm onwards. Free. DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

Material Translations, A Fusion of Two Elements, and Portrait of the Woman Next Door. 12-5pm. Free.

Exhibition – John Young: The Bridge...

A survey exhibition. 12-5pm. Free. DRILL HALL GALLERY

Something Different

Film

Ladies Night

Quo Vadis (U/C18+)

A night of shirtless breakdancing males. Disgusting. Tickets on sale at digress.com.au. DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

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Based on the motion picture based on a true story. Bookings/info (02) 6257 1950/canberrarep.org.au.

At the outdoor cinema. 7:30pm. See nfsa.gov.au/arc for info/tix. ARC CINEMA

ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Sun Mar 3 - Tue Mar 5 sunday march 3 Art

The Bootleg Sessions

CMC presents The Bodies, Buck et Al., Yes/No, Hayley Shone. 8pm. Free. THE PHOENIX BAR

Exhibition – Whimsical Oddities Portraits of animals in suits, hearts and oddities by Caiti Stevens. 8am-9pm (-4pm Sun). Free. ILIOS GALLERY

Deerhoof (USA)

Yep. Fucken’ DEERHOOF. Supported by Golden Blonde and TV Colours. 7pm. Presale from Moshtix. TRANSIT BAR

Exhibition – Face Facing

Something Different

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

Enlighten

Art by Luke Chiswell. 11am-5pm.

Exhibition – The Play of Light Kathryn Scott looks at the delicate nature of light. 10am-5pm.

See Canberra in a whole new light. Events every day and other days too. See enlightencanberra.com. OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

tuesday march 5

Exhibition – Rhyme and Reason Works by basket makers and weavers from around Australia. 10am-5pm. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition – The Creative Power of Women

Material Translations, A Fusion of Two Elements, and Portrait of the Woman Next Door. 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition – John Young: The Bridge...

A survey exhibition. 12-5pm. Free. DRILL HALL GALLERY

Live Music Irish Jam Session

Free traditional Irish music in the pub from late afternoon on into the night. Free. KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Art Exhibition – Whimsical Oddities

Portraits of animals in suits, hearts and oddities by Caiti Stevens. 8am-9pm (-4pm Sun). Free. ILIOS GALLERY

Exhibition – A Wheel Turns

In celebration of Transport Week and the history of our city. 9am-4:30pm. Free. GALLERY@BCS

Exhibition – Women with Clever Hands 10am-5pm (12-4pm Sat).

CRAFT ACT CRAFT & DESIGN CENTRE

Exhibition – The Play of Light 10am-5pm.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Sunday Cider Sessions

Exhibition – Rhyme and Reason

Live music in the beer garden while the weather shines. 4pm. Free.

Works by basket makers and weavers from around Australia. 10am-5pm.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Sunday Best @ A Bite to Eat

Film

A BITE TO EAT CAFE

DW Griffith and the American Movie (U/C18+)

Chad Croker/Ashley Feraude

ARC CINEMA

Matt Dent: Aussie folk rock that’d make Paul Kelly swoon. Tapas + happy hour from 5-7pm. Free. Live music/DJ set from 3pm/6pm.

7pm. See nfsa.gov.au/arc for info/tix.

THE DUXTON

Karaoke

On The Town

Karaoke Love

Free Pool Tables

Does exactly what it says on the packet. From 2pm.

Croon and wail your heart out on the Transit stage. 9pm. Free. TRANSIT BAR

TRANSIT BAR

Live Music

Something Different

The Phoenix Quiz

Enlighten

See Canberra in a whole new light. Events every day and other days too. See enlightencanberra.com. OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE

monday march 4 Art Exhibition – A Wheel Turns

In celebration of Transport Week and the history of our city. 9am-4:30pm. Free. GALLERY@BCS

Live Music Biscuits

Post-weekend sounds from Ryz, Peekz, Kimosabi and more! Free pool. 9pm. Free. TRANSIT BAR

7:30pm. Free.

THE PHOENIX BAR

Irish Jam Session

Free traditional Irish music in the pub from late afternoon on into the night. Free. KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Something Different Enlighten

See Canberra in a whole new light. Events every day and other days too. See enlightencanberra.com. OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE

Organic Lunch at the Co-op

All welcome for a delicious vegetarian feast. $5 students, $6 everyone else. Midday-2pm. ANU FOOD CO-OP

Trivia Trivia Tuesdays

First prize $75 cocktail party. 7:30pm. Free. DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

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wednesday march 6 Art Exhibition – Whimsical Oddities Portraits of animals in suits, hearts and oddities by Caiti Stevens. 8am-9pm (-4pm Sun). Free.

Karaoke Karaoke Wednesdays

Live Music

Exhibition – John Young: The Bridge...

Film

DRILL HALL GALLERY

7pm. See nfsa.gov.au/arc for info/tix.

The Tallest Man on Earth

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

‘A Taste of Africa’ Charity Dinner

Exhibition – A Wheel Turns

In celebration of Transport Week and the history of our city. 9am-4:30pm. Free. GALLERY@BCS

Exhibition – Women with Clever Hands

Establishes the characteristics of the Gapuwiyak style as a group. 10am-5pm (12-4pm Sat). CRAFT ACT CRAFT & DESIGN CENTRE

Exhibition – The Play of Light Kathryn Scott looks at the delicate nature of light. 10am-5pm. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition – Rhyme and Reason Works by basket makers and weavers from around Australia. 10am-5pm.

ZIERHOLZ @ UC

Moroccan banquet, glass of wine and live music by Zambezi Sounds. 7pm. $50 thru trybooking.com/chok. MECCA BAH

Something Different Enlighten

See Canberra in a whole new light. Events every day and other days too. See enlightencanberra.com. OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE

Organic Lunch at the Co-op

All welcome for a delicious vegetarian feast. $5 students, $6 everyone else. Midday-2pm. ANU FOOD CO-OP

The Mysterious X

Exhibition – Whimsical Oddities

ARC CINEMA

ILIOS GALLERY

Films ongoing until March 26. See afrenchfilmfestival.org for info/tickets.

Portraits of animals in suits, hearts and oddities by Caiti Stevens. 8am-9pm (-4pm Sun). Free.

Alliance Francaise French Film Festival

Exhibition – Face Facing

PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

Live Music

Art by Luke Chiswell. 11am-5pm.

Exhibition – A Wheel Turns

7:30pm. Free.

GALLERY@BCS

9pm. Free.

Exhibition – Women with Clever Hands

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

The Second Hand Salmon

DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

Chicago Charles & Dave

Establishes the characteristics of the Gapuwiyak style as a group. 10am-5pm (12-4pm Sat).

With Cannery Row, Josh Veneris. 9pm.

Exhibition – The Play of Light

Enlighten

CRAFT ACT CRAFT & DESIGN CENTRE

Exhibition – John Young: The Bridge...

Paradigm Shifts

Exhibition – Rhyme and Reason

DRILL HALL GALLERY

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

A survey exhibition. 12-5pm. Free.

Live Jazz

In celebration of Transport Week and the history of our city. 9am-4:30pm. Free.

Talks Artists Forum for International Women’s Day. 5:30–7:30pm. $5.

M16 ARTSPACE

A survey exhibition. 12-5pm. Free.

Kathryn Scott looks at the delicate nature of light. 10am-5pm.

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Celebrating the unexpected pleasures of the capital. 12-5pm. Free.

Art

DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

Exhibition – Face Facing

Art by Luke Chiswell. 11am-5pm.

Exhibition – Canberra

9pm.

The Swedish songwriting genius, touring his latest album. 8pm.

ILIOS GALLERY

thursday march 7

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Works by basket makers and weavers from around Australia. 10am-5pm.

THE PHOENIX BAR

Something Different See Canberra in a whole new light. Events every day and other days too. See enlightencanberra.com. OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE

Organic Lunch at the Co-op

All welcome for a delicious vegetarian feast. $5 students, $6 everyone else. Midday-2pm. ANU FOOD CO-OP

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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Fri Mar 8 - Sat Mar 9 friday march 8 Art Exhibition – Canberra

Celebrating the unexpected pleasures of the capital. 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition – John Young: The Bridge...

A survey exhibition. 12-5pm. Free. DRILL HALL GALLERY

Exhibition – Whimsical Oddities Portraits of animals in suits, hearts and oddities by Caiti Stevens. 8am-9pm (-4pm Sun). Free. ILIOS GALLERY

Exhibition – Women with Clever Hands

Live Music

On The Town

Establishes the characteristics of the Gapuwiyak style as a group. 10am-5pm (12-4pm Sat).

Alive Fridays

Blame it on the Boogie Weekends

Exhibition – The Play of Light

Live acoustic musicians. 5pm onwards. Free.

CRAFT ACT CRAFT & DESIGN CENTRE

Kathryn Scott looks at the delicate nature of light. 10am-5pm. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition – Rhyme and Reason Works by basket makers and weavers from around Australia. 10am-5pm. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

Something Different

Special K/Something Like This 5pm/10pm. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

The Angels

Charles Chatain

Exhibition – A Wheel Turns

GALLERY@BCS

Disco, motown, ‘80s and ‘90s. 10pm onwards. Free.

Lights! Canberra! Action!

Alliance Francaise French Film Festival

In celebration of Transport Week and the history of our city. 9am-4:30pm. Free.

Live Fridays

The Damage Presents the Take it to the Streets tour. Tickets from (02) 6121 2131.

The best local short films in a fight to the ugly death. 7pm. Free.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Film

Art by Luke Chiswell. 11am-5pm.

Exhibition – Face Facing

With Andy Moor. 9pm.

OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE

Films ongoing until March 26. See afrenchfilmfestival.org for info/tickets. PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA

THE AUDITORIUM (THE VIKINGS CLUB)

Live music. From 8pm. P J O’REILLY’S (CIVIC)

Hancock Basement x REV

Two Canberra classics combine for the long weekend. 8pm. $10.

DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

Enlighten

See Canberra in a whole new light. Events every day and other days too. See enlightencanberra.com. OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE

Talks UN Women Australia Int’l Women’s Day Lunch

12-2pm. Tickets from unwomen.org.au. ROYAL THEATRE

saturday march 9

TRANSIT BAR

Bronson

With Na Maza, Beneath The Tides, Eyes To The Sky. Doors 8pm. $15. THE BASEMENT

Art Exhibition – John Young: The Bridge...

A survey exhibition. 12-5pm. Free. DRILL HALL GALLERY

Exhibition – Whimsical Oddities Portraits of animals in suits, hearts and oddities by Caiti Stevens. 8am-9pm (-4pm Sun). Free. ILIOS GALLERY

Exhibition – Face Facing

Art by Luke Chiswell. 11am-5pm. CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

Exhibition – Women with Clever Hands

Establishes the characteristics of the Gapuwiyak style as a group. 10am-5pm (12-4pm Sat). CRAFT ACT CRAFT & DESIGN CENTRE

Exhibition – The Play of Light Kathryn Scott looks at the delicate nature of light. 10am-5pm. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition – Rhyme and Reason Works by basket makers and weavers from around Australia. 10am-5pm. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Dance Kick Up Your Heels

Roaring ‘20s Jazz Band Ball with The Lounge Bar Lotharios. 6pm-late. $80 thru Event Brite. ALBERT HALL

Film 2001: A Space Odyssey (G)

The classic. 7:30pm. See nfsa.gov.au/ arc for info/tix. ARC CINEMA

Alliance Francaise French Film Festival

Films ongoing until March 26. See afrenchfilmfestival.org for info/tickets. PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA

Karaoke Carry On Karaoke From 9:30pm.

P J O’REILLY’S (CIVIC)

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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Sat Mar 10 - Thu Mar 14 Live Music

Film

Exhibition – Rhyme and Reason

Love Saturdays

Alliance Francaise French Film Festival

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

With Runamark. 9pm. ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Chrome

DJs Salem, Stealth.Elf and datacipher playing goth/industrial/dark electronic. 9pm. $10. HELLENIC CLUB (CIVIC)

Awesome Source 10:30pm. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Super Raelene Bros

Films ongoing until March 26. See afrenchfilmfestival.org for info/tickets. PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA

Imagining the Capital: Canberra on Film

Canberra’s most unusual movie event. See nfsa.gov.au/arc for info. 7:30pm. $15 door. ARC CINEMA

Street melody soars over stripped down backbeats. 7pm. Door price TBA.

Live Music

Popstrangers

Free traditional Irish music in the pub from late afternoon on into the night. Free.

THE POLISH WHITE EAGLE CLUB

With Bored Nothing, Bearhug. 9:30pm. THE PHOENIX BAR

Spew Kiss

Doors 8pm. Door price TBA. THE BASEMENT

Renegades Revenge

Canberra Punk & Beyond presents Young Docteurs, Capital Punishment and more. 8pm. $20. ANU BAR AND REFECTORY

Jaap Blonk

With renowned violinist Jon Rose and wind instrumentalist Richard Johnson. $15/$10 door. 7pm. SMITHS ALTERNATIVE BOOKSHOP

Irish Jam Session

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Sunday Cider Sessions

Live music in the beer garden while the weather shines. 4pm. Free. KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Sunday Best @ A Bite to Eat

Party Gravy: jazz-tinged sounds of New Orleans. Tapas + happy hour from 5-7pm. Free. A BITE TO EAT CAFE

The Herbaliser DJs (UK)

Ninja Tune faves with Too Terrorble Tablists, DJ Soup, DFP and more. 6pm. Presale from Moshtix.

On The Town

TRANSIT BAR

Blame it on the Boogie Weekends

Live music/DJ set from 3pm/6pm.

Chicago Charles/ Ashley Feraude

Disco, motown, ‘80s and ‘90s. 10pm onwards. Free.

THE DUXTON

DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

Workshops

Something Different

Kite Making Masterclass

Enlighten

See Canberra in a whole new light. Events every day and other days too. See enlightencanberra.com.

Kite Making workshop in the lead-up to Canberra Day Kite Festival. 2–5pm. Free. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

monday march 11

Fash ‘n’ Treasure

EXHIBITION PARK IN CANBERRA (EPIC)

sunday march 10

Film Alliance Francaise French Film Festival

Films ongoing until March 26. See afrenchfilmfestival.org for info/tickets.

Art

PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA

Exhibition – Canberra

Live Music

Celebrating the unexpected pleasures of the capital. 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE

Exhibition – John Young: The Bridge...

A survey exhibition. 12-5pm. Free. DRILL HALL GALLERY

Exhibition – Whimsical Oddities Portraits of animals in suits, hearts and oddities by Caiti Stevens. 8am-9pm (-4pm Sun). Free.

Biscuits

Post-weekend sounds from Ryz, Peekz, Kimosabi and more! Free pool. 9pm. Free. TRANSIT BAR

The Bootleg Sessions

tuesday march 12 Art

Exhibition – The Play of Light

Exhibition – Whimsical Oddities

Kathryn Scott looks at the delicate nature of light. 10am-5pm. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition – Rhyme and Reason Works by basket makers and weavers from around Australia. 10am-5pm. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition – Whimsical Oddities

Film

Portraits of animals in suits, hearts and oddities by Caiti Stevens. 8am-9pm (-4pm Sun). Free.

Alliance Francaise French Film Festival

ILIOS GALLERY

Films ongoing until March 26. See afrenchfilmfestival.org for info/tickets.

Film

PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA

Alliance Francaise French Film Festival

Karaoke

Films ongoing until March 26. See afrenchfilmfestival.org for info/tickets.

Karaoke Love

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

PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA

TRANSIT BAR

Karaoke

Live Music

Karaoke Wednesdays 9pm.

The Phoenix Quiz

DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

7:30pm. Free.

THE PHOENIX BAR

Something Different

Birds of Tokyo

Organic Lunch at the Co-op

Supported by Regular John. 8pm. Tickets $45.90 + bf through Oztix.

All welcome for a delicious vegetarian feast. $5 students, $6 everyone else. Midday-2pm.

UC REFECTORY

Irish Jam Session

ANU FOOD CO-OP

Free traditional Irish music in the pub from late afternoon on into the night. Free.

thursday march 14

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Something Different

Film

Organic Lunch at the Co-op

Alliance Francaise French Film Festival

All welcome for a delicious vegetarian feast. $5 students, $6 everyone else. Midday-2pm.

Films ongoing until March 26. See afrenchfilmfestival.org for info/tickets.

ANU FOOD CO-OP

PALACE ELECTRIC CINEMA

Trivia

Live Music

Trivia Tuesdays

Live Jazz

7:30pm. Free.

First prize $75 cocktail party. 7:30pm. Free.

DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

The Arachnids

With Mind The Gap, The Skronks. 9pm. THE PHOENIX BAR

wednesday march 13

Oddisee & Olivier Daysoul

Underground hip hop and soul. With Raw City Rukus, Nix and more. 8pm. Presale from Moshtix.

Art Exhibition – The Play of Light

TRANSIT BAR

Kathryn Scott looks at the delicate nature of light. 10am-5pm.

Something Different

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition – Rhyme and Reason Works by basket makers and weavers from around Australia. 10am-5pm. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition – Canberra

Organic Lunch at the Co-op

All welcome for a delicious vegetarian feast. $5 students, $6 everyone else. Midday-2pm. ANU FOOD CO-OP

Celebrating the unexpected pleasures of the capital. 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE

THE PHOENIX BAR

Art by Luke Chiswell. 11am-5pm. CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

DRILL HALL GALLERY

2XX Local n Live present The Bus Vipers, Vintage Vulva. 8pm. Free.

ILIOS GALLERY

Exhibition – Face Facing

Exhibition – John Young: The Bridge...

A survey exhibition. 12-5pm. Free.

DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE

For all your new and retro clothing wants. 10am-3pm. $3 entry.

Works by basket makers and weavers from around Australia. 10am-5pm.

Portraits of animals in suits, hearts and oddities by Caiti Stevens. 8am-9pm (-4pm Sun). Free. ILIOS GALLERY

OUT

MAR13

you are here grinspoon yacht danny bhoy

Exhibition – The Play of Light

they might be giants

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

...and more!

Kathryn Scott looks at the delicate nature of light. 10am-5pm.

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FIRST CONTACT SIDE A: BMA band profile

Aaron Peacey 0410381306

In The Flesh Scott 0410475703

Adam Hole 0421023226

Itchy Triggers Alex 0414838480

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

Yoko Oh No Where did your band name come from? Guess. Group members? Ivan, Pete and Aaron. Describe your sound: Punk and kind of thrashy. Similar to Propagandhi but not as good.

Australian Songwriters Association Keiran (02) 62310433 Backbeat Drivers Steve 0422733974 backbeatdrivers.com Bat Country Communion, The Mel 0400405537

Who are your influences, musical or otherwise? Queanbeyan, billies and beers.

Birds Love Fighting Gangbusters/DIY shows-bookings@ birdslovefighting.com

What’s the most memorable experience you’ve had whilst performing? A fight broke out when we were playing in Sydney once. That sucked.

Black Label Photography Kingsley 0438351007 blacklabelphotography.net

Of what are you proudest so far? Releasing an album, playing with Propagandhi and Frenzal Rhomb. What are your plans for the future? We’re going to do a 7-inch. We might do a split if we find a band that we like enough. What makes you laugh? Not Dane Cook, that’s for sure. What pisses you off? I really hate going to places like Bunnings and Magnet Mart because everywhere you go you’re surrounded by tools. What about the local scene would you change? More venues that are closer to the city. What are your upcoming gigs? Nothing really at the moment but keep Thursday April 4 free because there might be a show on then. Who knows? Contact info: yokoohnoband@gmail.com; facebook.com/yokoohnopunk.

Johnny Roadkill Paulie 0408287672 paulie_mcmillan@live.com.au Kayo Marbilus myspace.com/kayomarbilus Kurt’s Metalworx (PA) 0417025792 Los Chavos Latin/ska/reggae Rafa 0406647296 Andy 0401572150 Missing Zero Hadrian 0424721907 Hadrian.brand@live.com.au Moots Huck 0419630721 aspwinch@grapevine.com.au Morning After, The Covers band Anthony 0402500843 Mornings Jordan 0439907853

Bridge Between, The Cam 0431550005

MuShu Jack 0414292567 mushu_band@hotmail.com

Capital Dub Style Reggae/dub events Rafa 0406647296

Painted Hearts, The Peter (02) 62486027

Cole Bennetts Photography 0415982662 Danny V Danny 0413502428

Polka Pigs Ian (02) 62315974 Rafe Morris 0416322763 Redletter Ben 0421414472

Dawn Theory Nathan 0402845132 Danny 0413502428

Redsun Rehearsal Studio Ralph 0404178996/ (02) 61621527

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

Rug, The Jol 0417273041

Drumassault Kate 0414236323

Simone & The Soothsayers Singing teacher Simone 62304828

FeralBlu Danny 0413502428 Fighting Mongooses, The Adam 0402055314 Fire on the Hill Aaron 0410381306 Lachlan 0400038388 Fourth Degree Vic 0408477020 Gareth Dailey DJ/Electronica Gareth 0414215885 Groovalicious Corporate/ weddings/private functions 0448995158

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

Sewer Sideshow Huck 0419630721

Sorgonian Twins, The Mark 0428650549 Soundcity Rehearsal Studio Andrew 0401588884 STonKA Jamie 0422764482 stonka2615@gmail.com Strange Hour Events Dan 0411112075 Super Best Friends Matt 0438228748

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

System Addict Jamie 0418398556

Haunted Attics band@hauntedatticsmusic.com

Undersided, The Baz 0408468041

Top Shelf Colin 0408631514

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