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edgemag.com.au | September 2009

We write songs that we like, that turn us on. Keith Strickland of the B52s Touring Australia Nov/Dec 09

DIESEL JAMIE T TOM JORDAN METRONOMY JUSTIN NOZUKA JESSICA MAUBOY GIN WIGMORE KATY STEELE GRIZZLY BEAR PHIL JAMIESON ANDREW STOCKDALE BROOKS WAKERMAN MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS

JIMMY BARNES

Rhythm and the blues gets the Barnes treatment

September 2009 | edgemag.com.au

Jessica Mauboy talks with Denning Isles about her life and the music industry

VANDA AND YOUNG SONGWRITING COMPETITION

Wrap Bad boy Robbie is back to entertain us; you can write a song and win big; Aussie music history on DVD and five great prizes for the big and bigger screens.

ROBBIE WILLIAMS TO PERFORM AT THE 2009 ARIA AWARDS Williams set to return to Australia to celebrate release of new album “Reality Killed the Video Star” Music fans will be able to witness the only live Australian TV performance of Robbie’s new single “Bodies” via the Nine Network’s telecast of the 2009 ARIA Awards on the evening of 26th November, followed by an encore screening on MTV Networks Australia. ARIA Chairman, and President and CEO of Warner Music Australasia, Mr Ed St John, said today, “With Robbie Williams confirmed as the first live performer at this year’s ARIA Awards, we are set for an absolutely stellar live event. He is a true superstar and someone that Australian music lovers have warmly embraced over the last twelve years. We are thrilled that Robbie is able to join us to perform his new single, and look forward to delivering one truly memorable music event”. Nine Network’s Director of Sales & Marketing, Mr Peter Wiltshire, echoed this sentiment, saying “We are thrilled that Robbie Williams is this year’s international guest performer at the ARIA Awards. Coupled with our local talent,

WIN Looking For Eric in season cinima double pass (ICON Film Distribution), a copy of Mahler DVD (Shock), a copy of Andy Warhol’s Factory People DVD, a copy of Women In Love DVD of copy of Bottle Shock DVD

we will be delivering a hugely entertaining TV event.” Robbie Williams returns to Australia for a three day promotional tour beginning on Tuesday 24th November and culminating in his ARIA Awards performance. Robbie’s Australian visit will follow the 6th November release of his new album “Reality Killed the Video Star”. The first single from the album, “Bodies”, will be released digitally on 18th September. Both the single and album were produced by Trevor Horn and were recorded and mixed in London. During his 12 year solo career, Robbie Williams’ global album sales have reached in excess of 55 million. In Australia, album sales are over 2.5 million and Rob has reached the #1 spot on the ARIA album chart three times.

Get your entries in now to secure your chance to win a $50,000 boost to your music career! The Vanda and Young Song Competition is offering you a helping hand, to the tune of $50,000, plus performance & mentorship opportunities that money just can’t buy! The competition is open to all songwriters – published and unpublished, professional and amateur, local and international – across all genres. Don’t miss the chance to have your songs heard and appraised by industry leaders, and be in the running an amazing prize package. • Return business class airfare to US and UK + 5 days accomm. in both countries courtesy of Showtravel (valued at AUD $10,000 incl. GST) • $20,000 cash courtesy of Albert Music • Songwriter Mentorship with iconic US songwriter, Paul Williams • Producer mentorship at Kensaltown Studios London; either with Martin Terefe (KT Tunstall, James Morrison, Yusuf Islam) or Sacha Skarbeck (James Blunt, Jason Mraz) • Production crew for video, including director of photography, cameraman, soundman courtesy of XYZ Networks • Les Paul Gibson Guitar courtesy of Gibson Guitars • Studio time and engineering at Studios 301 in either Sydney, Byron Bay, Stockholm or Cologne • Live gig to perform the winning song at Song Summit 2010, Darling Harbour, 19-21 June, 2010 • 3 day FREE pass to attend Song Summit 2010 • 2 tickets to attend 2010 APRA Music Awards, Monday 21 June 2010 (following Song Summit) • $1500 cash for travel expenses courtesy of PPCA (Phonographic Performance Company of Australia Ltd) Named after iconic Australian songwriters, Harry Vanda and George Young; the competition is proudly presented by APRA|AMCOS in support of music therapy charity, Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Australia. Full proceeds of the AUD $50 /USD $40 per song entry fee will go directly to support this activities of the charity in using music’s interactive and participatory nature as an agent for change and healing. Entries close Wednesday, 30 September 2009 Winner will be announced Monday, 30 November 2009. Go to www. VandaYoungSongComp.com

Lucy Vader Louisa Andrews Denning Isles Anna Bolton Kate Leaver Lachlan Colquoun Barry Bissell Andrew G Jono Coleman Ian (Dano) Rogerson Sam Balzac Stacey Ryan for musicfeeds.com.au Daniel Clarke Michael Carr Photo Credits Peter Collie (Jimmy Barnes shoot) www.petercollie.com Tom Hines (Grizzly Bear) Tony Mott (Little Birdy) Pieter M. van Hatterm (Keith Strickland) Anna Bolton (Katy Steele) Design & Layout Leigh Harris Contact Leigh Harris Tel: 02 8006 7755 leigh@edgemag.com.au PO Box 476 Darlinghurst NSW 1300 Distributed exclusively via the Leading Edge Music retail network, Australia’s independent music retail experts.

Denning Isles: So congratulations on your incredible success. Did you ever think that your songs would have been received so well? Jessica Mauboy: I guess with the whole project I was thinking ‘will it work? Will people believe in it?’ So with the whole urban thing in Australia it’s a bit tough. But I thought ‘I will just go with it and find out how it goes in the end. ’But I never expected it to have worked this fast and have people just freak out with the songs and them sounding international. DI: Flo Rider actually sought you out and was stunned by your voice and songs. That comes across as a huge compliment coming from someone who has worked with the best of the best and seen it all. What was that like for you, and how did that make you feel? JM: I think as a new fresh artist coming out in the music industry it’s quite overwhelming to have someone who is up there and all over the world. He has been so supportive and willing to help and that the kind of feeling from him and working with him has been great. And I’m a big fan of his too. DI: Have you had much overseas success with that? JM: Yeah, especially with ‘Running Back’, definitely.

The unprecidented fund raising ‘Sound Relief’ concerts held on Saturday 14th of March in Melbourne and Sydney are being released as a 4 DVD set through Liberation Music on 9th October.. There’s nine hours of footage featuring highlights from every artist who performed in Sydney and Melbourne that day. ‘Sound Relief’ was organized by Australia’s music community in order to raise funds for those affected by the Victorian bushfires and Queensland floods. ‘Sound Relief’ raised over $8 million dollars for The Red Cross. Just some of the artists who performed on the historic day included Kings Of Leon, Augie March, Little Birdy, Split Enz, Josh Pyke, Paul Kelly, Hoodoo Gurus, Coldplay, Midnight Oil, Kylie Minogue, Jet, Gabriella Cilmi and The Presets. This is a must have DVD!

General public ticket sales available and on sale through Ticketek in October

Contributors:

Sound Relief DVD out Oct. 9th

2009 ARIA Awards, Acer Arena, Sydney Olympic Park, Homebush Bay, Thursday, 26 November, 2009.

Publisher/Editor Leigh Harris

To win any of these great prizes just email or write to us and in 25 words or less, tell us why you deserve to win. Every entry must include the name of the Leading Edge Music store where you picked up your copy of THE EDGE, your full name, address, telephone number and which prize you want (ie: #1 Looking For Eric in season cinima double pass, #2 Mahler DVD #3 Andy Warhol’s Factory People DVD #4 Women In Love DVD, #5 Bottle Shock DVD). Entries close 7th October 2009. Email: win@edgemag.com.au or mail to THE EDGE PO Box 476 Darlinghurst NSW 1300

DI: So I’m sure your sick of Idol questions, so I’ll keep it to one. How do you feel your life would have changed if you had won? JM: I think it would have been the same. Seeing some of the downfalls and some of them not even doing anything musically. I have no regrets at all. It’s just such a great feeling to have so much passion and go at and be in control and do what you feel is right. I guess it just depends on how much you want it. And I really wanted it. DI: Do you feel that there is a stereotype put on you for being on that show? JM: I don’t feel like that at all. I feel that it gave me a lot of confidence to go independent and I really think about the music direction that I wanted to go in, so definitely not. DI: That was two Idol questions, sorry. I had only planned to do one. JM: (Laughs). DI: So you must have worked pretty hard since then. What sort of stuff have you been doing? JM: I’ve been in the studio, doing a lot of writing and I’ve just really gotten into the whole writing thing and I’ve never really believed in it before, so I’m glad that I’m taking it up and taking it all on board. That’s pretty much it, and just kind of travelling and exploring Australia and doing different things. Being a muso, a lot of doors open and people are much more here and there. DI: You mentioned writing. What’s writing for you?

JM: I guess I’ve found that when I write I can really go deep with a whole lot of different experiences. I’m kind of more into the whole love/relationship things. I don’t know if I could write a really happy song… (Laughs) That’s kind of how it goes. I’m really loving it, I’m really getting into it, every day I’m at my macbook and just going with whatever. But I really love writing, I really do. DI: Now that you have made such a huge name for your self and are ridiculously famous, are there any perks that you have had? JM: (Laughs). It’s so funny because I’ve realised that a lot of people want to give me things. But I’ve noticed that I’m getting a lot of freebies and I’m taking so many things back home and mum and dad are like ‘there’s nowhere to put it!’ So that’s one of them. DI: Do you get recognised on the street? JM: Yeah, quite a bit. It’s kind of overwhelming having people know who you are and staring. It’s like ‘whoa, man. I’m just normal like you.’ But sometimes it can be difficult when you want to just do your own thing, but I guess it just comes with it. People want to use the soap that your wearing, the toothpaste that your using and all that kind of stuff. It’s kind of freaky, but funny at the same time. DI: You mentioned home before, that’s Darwin right? What’s life in Darwin? What was growing up for you like? JM: Oh, pretty average. Normal, you know, hanging out with friends. I guess it’s a pretty small place so we have one shopping complex and everyone hangs out there and goes to the movies and enjoys roller skating and bowling. Just really down-to-earth things like that. That was the kind of stuff that I grew up with. And I had four other sisters so I was never bored. DI: I love the fact that Idol discovers people from all over the country and even places like Darwin where you originated, and the fact that you are of Indigenous heritage. Do you feel like a role model to people in similar situations? JM: Yeah. Absolutely I do. Especially back in my community and the Indigenous community. I’ve done a couple of workshops back at home. I do a lot of work there. It gives me a broader range of looking at life. But defiantly I love being a role model. I guess it shows that no matter where you come from, no matter what race you are, you really can make it. DI: Cool. Sounds like that kind of stuff keeps you really grounded. JM: Yeah. (Laughs). When I go home I’m going to be grounded. DI: Well I hope they’re not to harsh on you. Thank you so much for your time. JM: Thank you.

September 2009 | edgemag.com.au

edgemag.com.au | September 2009

HOODOO GURUS MARS NEEDS GUITARS! (1985) Many people cite the Hoodoo Gurus debut album, Stoneage Romeos, as the band’s best, but, for me, it’s hard to go past their second album, 1985’s Mars Needs Guitars! As the title suggests, the album features a killer guitar sound – props to producer Charles Fisher. And new drummer Mark Kingsmill slotted in without missing a beat. Then there are the songs – Bittersweet, Like Wow – Wipeout!, Poison Pen, Death Defying … the energy is infectious. This is one of the great party albums. Showing their love of pop culture, the band dedicated the album to Jonathan Harrison, the actor who played Dr Zachary Smith in Lost In Space (and the album’s title was a reference to the 1967 sci-fi film Mars Needs Women). Mars Needs Guitars! was the Gurus’ American breakthrough, reaching number 140 on the Billboard charts in 1986. At home, it peaked at number three, a great result for a band that was still seen as an “alternative” act. The great news is that the Gurus have signed a big new deal with Sony, who have re-released Mars Needs Guitars! – with five bonus tracks. And a brand new Gurus album will be out early 2010.

A Cosmic Rebirth With a new album on the way, Wolfmother’s Andrew Stockdale took the time to chat about life, the universe and all things Cosmic Egg with Anna Bolton. It’s been another busy month for The Jono & Dano Show and as usual there have been plenty of laughs only the way. We got to catch up with a host of comedy legends including Stephen Fry, Ricky Gervais, and duo Hale and Pace. We also heard some incredible ‘Gimmy Jimmy’ performances. A ‘Gimmy Jimmy’ is where we challenge musicians to perform a Barnesy or Chisel track. Dragon stepped up to the challenge with a great version of Choir Girl, Barnesy’s brother-in-law Diesel chose the track Still Got A Long Way To Go, and Elvis impersonator Max Pellicano gyrated his way through Rising Sun. There’s still plenty of big name guests, acoustic performances and huge prizes to come, so don’t forget to tune into The Jono & Dano Show weekday afternoons from 4-7pm across Australia or check out our website jonoanddano.com.au

G'day, Andrew G with this month's Take 40 update. So much exciting stuff going on at Take 40 HQ at the moment - our web boffins are having a field day! Evermore performed in the Take 40 Live Lounge recently and you can check it all out at take40.com now of course - plus stay tuned to the website for news on a very special new live event coming your way very soon! We've had plenty of international stars on the Take 40 mic lately including Rob Thomas, Pixie Lott, Mika, Will.I.Am and Vanessa Hudgens - get all of it at take40.com AND while you're on the inter-web make sure you follow Take 40 on Twitter at www.twitter. com/take40 and become a fan of us on Facebook! Don't forget to check us out counting down the biggest 40 songs in the country - on a radio station near you every weekend!

After the band split in 2008, Stockdale went into a hiatus and recruited new members and the new Wolfmother has hit the road. Getting back into the swing of things with a tour of Europe and supporting The Killers in the United States, the band prepares for the October release of Cosmic Egg and a national Australian tour. “It’s like becoming reacquainted with an old friend.” Andrew muses, “I think there’s a newfound excitement within the band and this kind of determination to really do some great shows. There’s a good energy onstage. “I thought for a while maybe a new approach, maybe change things, but I also think that if I focus on playing well, that’s interesting as well. It’s the essence of where everything starts from. “We did some acoustic shows in New York, and for some reason I feel that stripping back to that kinda reminded me that just the music in it’s true form is interesting. That’s what the strength of it is, of what I do.” The band has had some high points and some dramatic lows, but it’s clear that Andrew has a drive to keep making music because it’s what he loves. He emphasises the importance of creating songs that he likes, rather than songs that the masses will like. “If you honestly like it, then someone else is going to relate to it as well. And if you’re making music, you can’t really lie to yourself and do something that you don’t enjoy. “Some songs are within you, and they’re something that you need to express, something you need to identify. “If there’s something within me that other people can relate to, or I can relate to experiences people have, then that’s the common thread, so that people can appreciate the song or they can relate to it.” While the old Wolfmother is now a thing of the past, new members Dave Atkins, Ian Peres and Aidan Nemeth are stepping up to the plate to keep the band alive. “I’ve had to, in some ways, forget about the past and move forward,” says Andrew. “But I’ve also had to explain a few things about the past, about how things sound and are created. So it was an interesting situation to be

in for the band, who are playing songs from the past. They’re learning the first record and also making the second record with a new band, so it’s a really unusual combination of things that have to be done. I thought they took on the challenge really well. They’ve had to fill other people’s shoes and also define themselves, and that takes a lot of courage.” While Stockdale remains the sole remaining member of the original lineup, the name Wolfmother has stuck. “It’s bizarre! At the start of this year I did a few shows as White Feather, and all of the reviews just referred to the band as Wolfmother, and even on the radio they were like, ‘Wolfmother’s back!’ I felt like people have given me a title, and I guess that title means something. Maybe down the track I’ll try something else, maybe I will try another title. It’s the kind of music that was going to sound like Wolfmother, so to call it something else would have been…” he trails off. “Well, it’s still Wolfmother!” he laughs. And Wolfmother it is. Cosmic Egg retains the cracking, pulsating rock roots that drew in so many. But it’s also fresh, offering a new energy and exciting, heavy new rock expression. “It’s honest, manic, it’s expressive, it’s introverted, extroverted, internal, demanding, commanding… it’s euphoric, it’s melancholic. There are a few words I could use to describe it! “I wanted it to sound like you could hear people praying, you know? I wanted to hear the strings bending and the drums getting hit and the vocals singing. I wanted to hear expression of every instrument. I didn’t want it to be covered up with too much studio work. I wanted it to be a really expressive record. “It’s like snapshots of different times over the last two or three years. Like life experiences, and observations, and I guess all those things kind of threaded together with the music. I guess it would be definitely like a time capsule of the last two years, things that I’ve experienced.” The name of this new record- Cosmic Eggcarries with it connotations of a greater space, of rebirth, but Stockdale assures me that its origins are far closer to earth. “I went to a yoga class.

Not that I go to yoga very often, but I just went to this class and there was this one stretch, and the instructor was like, ‘You are now in your cosmic egg.’ And I thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty wild, cosmic egg.’ I went off to the studios later on that day and came up with that song [Cosmic Egg] that day. Then I told the label that I had an idea for the title of the album, Cosmic Egg, and they loved it. The more I looked into it, it’s kind of relevant to the band, you know- new beginnings and things like that. Somehow I guess it is relevant to the record. I didn’t consciously think of it, the name just flew in front of me and we used it.” Cosmic Egg, due to be released in October, is already getting people talking. After Wolfmother’s huge success previously, there are high expectations for this new record. “I think it’s good if on an album, every song is unique,” says Andrew. “The albums that I don’t really listen to are where there’s a big single and there’s five different versions of the same single. That’s where an album doesn’t really hold your interest. A good album has a lot of different sides of the band or artist and you’re taken somewhere. It has a beginning, middle and end.” The band’s New Moon Rising tour kicks off in Brisbane in September, and will also see them play in Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Frankston. They will also be supporting ACDC on their Black Ice tour at the beginning of next year.

Wolfmother Cosmic Egg Universal Out Now

Tom Jordan is a teen with talent By Lucy Vader

Little Birdy Takes Flight Singer Katy Steele talks to Kate Leaver about spontaneous music, travelling with the boys and her solo career. The band Little Birdy has been going from strength to strength with their catchy, soulful music. Katy Steele, whose voice is quite unlike any other, has started hitting the stage solo. She has worked as closely as ever with fellow band members Simon Leach on guitar, Scott O’Donoghue on the bass and Matt Chequer on the drums to produce their latest album but has decided to appear on her own for some gigs too. “I find it liberating, actually, to be in charge of my own performance,” said Katy, “if I want to play a chord longer than usual I can or if I want to change things on stage I can. At first it was really scary, though.” Katy recently took part in Victorian musical initiative Naked in the Woods, which is a mentoring program that this year showcases new and exciting female vocalists. The first time Katy played solo was on tour with Paul Kelly, who she collaborated with on the first track of Little Birdy’s new album Confetti. The haunting but jaunty song called ‘Brother’ features Kelly on the harmonica and on vocals, which Katy says was a very last minute decision. “We did the song and thought ‘Oh, we need harmonica!’ so we asked Paul and when I brought out the lyrics he just got in there and did it in five minutes. That’s kind of how I think music should be made, it’s

meant to be done quickly, with character and spontaneity.” The secret to Little Birdy’s sound seems to be the organic way they go about making it. Just as they appeared in their latest film clip, their rehearsals and recordings are done with all four of them in a room, playing. “It can be so much more powerful to just have four people in a room - we really want to get that across in our music. We’re just a band, plugging away, wanting to make better and better music each time, that’s the whole point of music isn’t it?” said Katy, whose faith in her band is clear and endearing. The band are set to tour with Sydney band Red Riders and The Hungry Kids of Hungary this month. “It’s a really interesting line-up...” says Katy, “lots of dudes!”. She giggles. She may be the only female musician on this tour but somehow I don’t think this will phase her. Katy Steele, musically brilliant and disarming, is also a down-to-earth, genuine and intelligent woman who could probably hold her own in most situations. Little Birdy and their awesome support acts will perform in theatres across Australia, which is something Katy has always dreamed of. The Forum Theatre in melbourne for example is somewhere Katy has long imagined playing. “I think

the songs from this album are meant to be played in a venue like that, it’s meant to be grand and classic, where you’d normally see a soul singer.” Katy has her sights set on conquering New York one day but knows she has to find the right time and negotiate with the boys so they can all make it over there. “I’ve always believed the lyrics I write are universal, so I don’t think there’s anything stopping us from heading overseas. At the moment we’re promoting our album in Australia, but there’s a big old world out there.” Little Birdy. Big World.

Little Birdy Confetti Eleven/Universal Out now

Tom Jordan is a fifteen-year-old musician from Sydney’s northern beaches whose humbleness belies his enormous talent. His career to date is impressive: picking up the guitar at the age of nine, inspired by Angus Young, he went on to busk on Manly’s promenade, tearing out songs like Born to be Wild and Stairway To Heaven. At age ten he won the National Busking Competiton, competing against highly talented adults, and won Music and Arts Talent Search Teen Writers competition at age eleven. Couple this with his eduction at the highly regarded performing arts school Macdonald College, and his role as school-kid musician on Disney’s series called As The Bell Rings, and you have a consummate performer. At Surry Hill’s funky Kawa café, Tom met me to talk about his new single, Someone Somewhere. “It’s about anonymous love,” he said from beneath a swatch of dishevelled blond locks. “About when you love someone, but they never realise it, that you’re right there, that vaguely frustrating anonimity.” For a prolific early-starting performer like Jordan, you tend to think he must be from a family who are all-singing, allacting, all-strumming musos. But no. “I have absolutely no idea where my inspiration comes from. My parents like good music, but that’s as far as it goes. But ever since a touched the guitar I have had to make music. I love writing songs and singing. I don’t know… Put it this way, I can’t imagine not making music. I will do it all my life.” New-comer Tom Jordan is set to steal your heart and ears with his new single, Someone, Somewhere. A mix of John Mayer and Jason Mraz, this single sets the mood for the release of his album later this year.

Tom Jordan Someone Somewhere Universal Out now

September 2009 | edgemag.com.au

Barnes does it with style

edgemag.com.au | September 2009

Jimmy Barnes The Rhythm And The Blues Liberation

By Lucy Vader

Photos : Peter Collie The rhythm and the blues; a.k.a R&B. Ask the young folk these days what music they listen to and some invariably say, “R&B”. Not wanting to sound like an old fuddy duddy finger-wagging so-andso, but what they consider R & B to be today (hip hop, ska, funk, soul, etc) is the product of decades of musical convoluting from the origins of the real rhythm and blues: the blues, jazz, swing, soul, jump, boogie woogie and gospel of the 1940s to the 1960s. Australian rock and soul legend Jimmy Barnes has taken his lead from his smash 1991 album Soul Deep and returned likewise to the source of the rhythm and blues, an era when the styles were merging and mingling concurrently, reviving what made R&B so great in the first place. His imaginatively named new album, The Rhythm and the Blues (ahem), covers artists from the R&B-rock n’ roll deity Bo Diddley to the soulful rumblings of Nina Simone, all renewed with Barnes’s vigour and voice. Unlike his trademark gravelly sound, Barnes sings with an unexpected purity and grace (for somebody who generally can scream with the best of them). I met Jimmy Barnes in his spectacular private studio space to talk about this new album. Surrounded by the remnants of his daughter’s baby shower tea party (scores of cups and saucers and teapots everywhere – I thought maybe he just had a bit of a thing for floral teacups) – Barnes perched at the end of his impossibly long dining table and fixed me with his charismatic grey-blue eyes. “I wanted to go back to where it all started,” he said with his light Scottish inflection, “for me and for the music. It was such bloody good music and I think we all need to get back to it sometimes and remember what it’s all about.”

Recorded in the U.S. – the perfect location to trace back the true rhythm and blues – Barnes used American musicians of the finest quality. Throughout the album, brilliant shining moments of playing can be picked out. Pianist Mike Thompson of the Eagles seems to have fingers made of liquorice straps as he flutters out sweet and sticky saloon honky tonk. The guitarist Johnny Lee Schell is of Lucinda Williams and BB King vintage, while bassist Reggie McBride boasts and top shelf line-up of Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and James Brown in his credits. Barnes says, “I was in awe of those men. They are the most amazing musicians to play with, just a whole other stratosphere – a lot of the time I just sat and watched these men in action. The drummer, I’ll tell you, his name is James Gadson and he is one of my musical heroes. He is seventy years old, has recorded more times than any drummer in history, with icons like Quincy Jones, BB King, Bill Withers… And in the studio, when he finishes his drumming set, he’ll leap up to the mixing desk keen to do something else, to be involved. He has so much passion and musicality, I hold him in the highest esteem. “I was very fortunate to have musicians of this calibre perform for my album. I think it shows in the final product.” And it does. The Rhythm and the Blues is loaded with gems that will have it in your favourites pile from the first play. The songs are the up-beat variety that put you in a good mood whatever the weather, such as Rockin’ Pneumonia (and the boogie woogie flu), Hallelujah (the R&B original with swinging piano) and a magnificent rendition of Johnny Adams’ classic love song Reconsider Me in which Barnes’s falsetto is pure and traffic-stopping. Of course, Jimmy Barnes the over-achiever is not only bringing out this prequel to his Soul Deep excursion. Another rock album is on the way, and he is continuing his tv series My First Gig on music channel MAX, in which Australian music legends, such as Peter Garret, Richard Clapton and Marcia Hines, are invited into Barnes’s

home to talk comfortably, legend to legend, about their initial tendencies towards music. “I like doing My First Gig because when they come to my place and talk they can really relax,” said Barnes. “We’ve been through similar experiences and whoever it is can let their hair down and tell me things they might not normally feel comfortable to say. I remember when Peter Garret came over to shoot his First Gig recollection. He’s an old mate of mine, and he came in wearing his politician’s suit, dropped his briefcase and slipped out of his jacket. It was like he was removing a skin and I could see him visibly relax and slowly begin to talk comfortably.” Barnes contemplated his old rock mate a moment before continuing. “Peter Garret cops a lot of flack for his position in politics, getting accused of selling out and all that crap. But you know what? He’s doing the best he can in the dirty game of politics and is trying to choose the best avenues to make the most effective difference. We can all criticise from the sidelines, or join activist groups that fight to achieve minimal results. Garret has chosen to be involved at the toughest level and make the toughest decisions, often predicated by decisions made by pledges committed before his arrival. If he wasn’t in there making the final call on things like a new uranium mine, you can guarantee there wouldn’t have been the stringent environmental conditions he has negotiated for. He’s a good bloke, very likeable, with an immovable morality.” Barnes’s staying power in the Aussie music market is well deserved. Over the course of his career he has countered obstacles and setbacks and popped back up fists in the air. Beyond the character and quality of his musical output, Barnes the “working class man” works hard and gives back to the greater community of Australia with a generousness and sincerity that is undeniable. His charity efforts are lengthy and genuine. His Live at The Enmore fundraising initiative for the Victorian bushfires was industrious,

utilising iTunes to pass on the album at a crowd-pleasing price of $3.39, selling thousands and passing every cent on to the appeal. Barnes has worked extensively with the inspiring Choir of Hard Knocks, and continues his involvement. In fact, Jimmy couldn’t attend one of the Hard Knocks concerts due to needing emergency heart surgery (fairly good excuse, I suppose), so he had a live video link sent to the concert so he could send his good will from his hospital bed. Was open-heart surgery a terrifying concept? “No. Well, yes it should have been. But the doctor said I needed it straight away so there was no time for any fear. People have it all the time, and the doctors are really great. Do you want to see my scar?” And with that he tore open his checked shirt and showed off a nice long scar down the centre of his chest. At the young age of the shady side of fifty, Barnes is in fit condition, despite the heart setback. Having left his wild rock star habits behind him, the healed and healthy Barnes seems poised to bring Australia ever more of the benefits of his sturdy and unique approach to music and community. But despite his legendary success in the Australian music industry, Barnes might not have always been going to be our own stage man. On the fortieth anniversary of the moon landing, Barnes confesses, “I wanted to be an astronaut. I remember the whole thing when I was a kid. But a while ago I went to NASA in Houston and had a look at the actual shuttle – it looks bloody homemade. You wouldn’t get me up there in one of those things. Those guys, Buzz and Neil, they were cowboys. Imagine O. H. and S. getting involved with a space program today. It was a wild time back then.” And hopefully we’ll have more wild (and some mild) times with the lovely Jimmy Barnes for decades to come, thankfully a rock soul R&B legend, and not an astronaut.

September 2009 | edgemag.com.au

edgemag.com.au | September 2009

ALBUM REVIEWS

My father was a management genius. But what I really wanted was a dad. Michael Jackson Speach at Oxford Union on the subject of child welfare.

charts

albums

album of the month

top albums 1

TIME VARIOUS ARTISTS Universal Music Australia

FUNHOUSE PINK Sony Music Australia

THE E.N.D. BLACK EYED PEAS Universal Music Australia

WONDER LISA MITCHEL Warner Music Australia

STATE OF THE ART HILLTOP HOODS Universal Music Australia

ESSENTIAL MICHAEL JACKSON MICHAEL JACKSON Sony Music Australia

AS NIGHT FOLLOWS DAY SARAH BLASKO Universal Music Australia

CRADLESONG ROB THOMAS WARNER Music Australia

CLASS SLIM DUSTY EMI

STACK IS THE NEW BLACK SHORT STACK Universal Music Australia

top singles 1

GUY SEBASTIAN LIKE IT LIKE THAT Sony Music Australia

DON’T MISS YOU RICKI LEE SHK

THE LAST DAY ON EARTH KATE MILLER-HEIDKE Sony Music Australia

I GOTTA FEELING BLACK EYED PEAS Universal Music Australia

I KNOW YOU WANT ME PITBULL Universal Music Australia

top dvds 1

THE DVD PARKWAY DRIVE SHK

WALKING DOWN THE STREET CARL BARON BEY

HOT AUGUST NIGHT NYC NEIL DIAMOND Sony Music Australia

# 1’S MICHAEL JACKSON Sony Music Australia

DANGEROUS TOUR MICHAEL JACKSON Sony Music Australia

Gun Street Girls The Way Of The Gun Matterhorm/MGM

Katy Perry, ‘One of The Boys’ Australian Tour Edition. EMI

Demi Lovarto. Here we go Again. Hollywood/Universal

Gin Wigmore Holy Smoke Island Records/Universal

Xavier Rudd Live In Brussels Universal

Melbourne three-piece band Gun Street Girls have brought their raw swampy rock to the wider population with their new self-titled debut album. Unfussed by the slick and fancy recording methods currently polishing other more self-conscious bands’ output, Gun Street Girls is unabashed muggy rock n roll recorded without tricks and conceits, just presented as nature intended. And from these three boys nature intended it to come full-ball, arresting the stereo with a lover’s clinch, laying out songs like slutty truck drivers doing donuts on the Hume Highway. Renowned for the hair-curling live gigs, which have all ready achieved mythical status, Gun Street Girls have a dedicated following not only here but also in Europe, from which they returned from touring in 2008. Having had their music featured on the TV hit Underbelly, and finding they are increasingly making their mark in the land of live performances, band members Dave Larkin, Dave Butterworth and Callum John Barter accepted their cue to take their gritty lyrics and pared back old school rock to the record stores in this authentic new album. Lucy Vader

There is little doubt that anyone in the western world hasn’t heard of Katy Perry, or at least recognise one of her songs. But from the girl who has recently hit our shores with her Hello Katy tour, comes the release of ‘One of The Boys’ Australian Tour Edition. It features all her hits, including I kissed a Girl, Thinking of You and Waking up in Vegas, along with a second bonus disk with acoustic versions and remixes. Along with some clever covers of Electric Feel by MGMT and Black and Gold by Sam Sparrow. This is a well balanced, well crafted album. The bonus disk complements it well. The combination of songs vary well, from the heart-wrenching to the laugh out loud funny, evident with such lyrics as ‘I hope you hang yourself with your H and M scarf, while j@#&ing off listening to Mozart”. Katy Perry has caused a lot of controversy in her short career with her sassy image and provocative lyrics, but her music and talent definitely make up for the doubt that some might have simply because this is a pop record. But rest assured there is a lot more to the girl the meets the ear. Denning Isles

From the very start it’s hard to look at Demi Lovarto in a positive light, knowing that the mighty Mickey Mouse empire has made her what she is. She is instantly comparable to the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry and Avril Laverigne physically and musically Demi plays pop music that would suit top 40 radio quite well. I find it hard to believe any “sixteen year old” is all grown up and mature, especially when they sing about it their own songs. To be honest, this is a well produced, well written album for a pop record. A good variety of songs that include a variety of style seem to draw inspiration from artists such as The Police, Harry Connick Jr and The Veronicas. It’s catchy, edgy and interesting enough to be an enjoyable listen, but to like this would simply shatter my credibility and/or remaining shreds of masculinity. So for now I’ll leave it up to the twilight twittering tweens to decide the fate of this pop princess, which anyone over the age of 18 would have seen before. So ... here we go again. Denning Isles

Extraordinary Kiwi-comeAussie Gin Wigmore definitely won’t disappoint with this, her debut album. She has a truly astounding voice that carries through each track, with a resonating richness that penetrates the soul. Track after track from this emotionallyloaded album can’t help but keep your attention. The fresh-faced talent won the exclusive International Song Contest when she was just 17, being the youngest, and only unsigned artist, to ever win- giving some indication to this girl’s amazing talent. From there, she’s absolutely flourished, releasing highly acclaimed single Oh My from this album. There’s an intensity in this album, which, combined with the engaging mesh of pop, soul, blues and rock, should surely be a winner. She may be young, but I see big things for this girl, and I’m glad she now calls Australia home, if that means we’re going to get to hear more in the future. Anna Bolton

This record reveals the true beauty of Xavier Rudd’s music. Highlights from his past 4 albums, recorded live during his European tour in December 2008, merge together to form one legendary album. His expressive didgeridoo playing remains a focus point of the album, while a myriad of other instruments collaborate to take you on an exotic, pulsating journey. Xavier Rudd manages to unite contemporary pop/rock with ‘world music’, hugely successfully, providing a fresh new approach to music. There’s something alluring about the assertive, energetic combination of percussion, didgeridoo and his husky vocals. While the tracks are long, ranging from seven to almost ten minutes each in length, they capture Rudd’s eccentricity and the electric atmosphere of the live performances. Definitely one to look out for, particularly if you’ve previously been bitten by the Xavier Bug. Anna Bolton

SATURDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 2009 Gosford Showgrounds, Gosford, NSW

Grafton Primary

Eskimo Joe

Once in a blue moon an album comes out so special it stays on repeat in your car, your house, your head and each time you listen to it you find a new reason to like it. Little Birdy’s ‘Confetti’ is that special. Katy Steele’s rich, soulful voice carries the band’s folksy new tunes beautifully and some of the instrumental music is sublime. This isn’t the soundtrack to your next party, it’s not something you put on while you’re getting ready for a night out - leave that to Beyonce and Gaga. If you like a little whimsy, a little soul and an echoing sincerity to your music then this could very well be the soundtrack to your life, for a while. Look out especially for tracks ‘Brother’ and ‘Dark of Night’. You’ve probably already heard the single ‘Hairdo’. After your first love affair with this CD, play it sparingly so you can make the magic last. Little Birdy, you’ve done well. Very well. Kate Leaver

Tom Ugly Tom Ugly EP Shock Winner of the Triple J Unearthed High Competition, Tom Ugly, is a naughty young bloke who has had the temerity to be some kind of drumming, singing electronic musical whiz since the age of twelve (now seventeen). He is Australia’s answer to artists like Beck and Radiohead, whose new single Cult Romance is a mixture of “bangs, buzzes, babbles and booms” to which Ugly accompanies in his false falsetto and instantly likeable loose exhaling singing. At the age of nine, Ugly saw Roger Waters and received early influence from Waters and Pink Floyd. He had the Tupperware out in the kitchen at the age of four, bashing out drum solos. And it’s unconfirmed but he may actually have written his first song while still in the womb. This said, he composes, plays, sings and records his music all himself in the studio and, on the basis of this gentrified electro-garage rock single Cult Romance, the EP is well worth a listen. Lucy Vader

Bob Evans. Goodnight Bull Creek. EMI

Lisa Gerrard Balibo Soundtrack ABC/Universal

Bob Evans has returned. Rising up from the ashes of the career of his old band, Jebediah, comes as soulful, acoustic, almost country album, that only an underground aussie musician could deliver. This two disk release features songs such as ‘Someone So Much’ and ‘Hand Me Down’ that show case his recording capabilities, along with the live CD, that proves his authenticity as a musician. Its easy listening but, I fear, is a little too country for some people to really enjoy. If you’re a fan of Bob Evans then you have hit the jackpot, as his music has evolved and matured since his garage days in the late 90’s. To the newcomer there is little to get excited about. Nevertheless I don’t think he’ll be saying Goodnight to Bull Creek any time soon. Denning Isles

The soundtrack to the Robert Connolly film Balibo is out now and features music composed by the much sought after Lisa Gerrad (contributor to such films as Gladiator, Mission: Impossible 2, Ali, Whale Rider and Black Hawk Dawn). This film is about the true story of one man’s search for truth, as five Australian journalists go missing in East Timor in 1975. The soundtrack does an incredible job of relaying the story. From its hauntingly beautiful orchestrations, to the wonderfully imperfect traditional Tebe chorus’. We are transported to a world that is very different from our own but, in many ways, not so far away. To further illustrate the story, some songs feature samples of dialogue from the film itself. Despite this, the music is something that can stand alone without relying on flashy images or excessive advertisements. Even without watching the film, this is a moving and impacting experience. Truly a diamond in the rough. Denning Isles.

Stick ‘n Stones is the soundtrack to my youth, 20 years late. It’s also the soundtrack to Jamie T’s. Well it should be, he wrote it. By Stacey Ryan

Van She Winter’s officially finished so its time to get back out in the sunshine and head out to the Gosford Showgrounds for Coaster to get amongst a day of live music featuring the hottest bands Australia and the world have to offer. From local heavyweights Eskimo Joe to LA rockers The Bronx, the hip/hop legend GZA/Genius,electro punks out of the UK, Does It Offend You, Yeah? the crew at Coaster have spent countless hours picking acts that you will be talking about long after the last note has been played. If you haven’t got your tickets yet, what are you waiting for? The first allocation of tickets to Coaster sold out in record time and the second allocation of Coaster tickets are long gone. The final allocation of tickets to Coaster are almost gone and it’s looking like another sellout for 2009.

Bilss N Eso

Little Birdy Confetti Eleven/Universal

Gin Wigmore

Featuring the cream of Australia’s musical crop including ESKIMO JOE, BLISS N ESO, DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH? (UK), THE BRONX (US), BRITISH INDIA, GZA/GENIUS (WU TANG CLAN), VAN SHE, GRAFTON PRIMARY, CHILDREN COLLIDE THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT (US), THE AMITY AFFLICTION, THE FUMES, GIN WIGMORE, PEZ, AJAX, THE JOHN STEEL SINGERS, THE SCARE, SLOW DOWN HONEY,YACHT CLUB DJS, DJ/ JG (JAKE GRIGG), DZ, YOUNG HERETICS, FIFTY SIX, ERNEST ELLIS, CABINS, MODERN JOY, ONE JONATHON and introducing OLD MUSIC FOR OLD PEOPLE (CENTRAL COAST’S OWN SUPER GROUP)

The Scare All online tickets are available through www. coasterfestival.com.au or through Oztix online: http:// coaster.oztix.com.au Tickets are also available at these Oztix outlets; Macron Music – Erina & Tuggerah, Leading Edge – Gosford, East Gosford Music – Gosford, Beaumont Street Beat – Newcastle, Newcastle Rock Shop – Newcastle, Mojo Music – Sydney, Repressed Records, Newtown. Tickets available from all Ticketmaster outlets, 136 100 or www.ticketmaster.com.au

Mr T’s second album has been two years in the making, making fans (like us) twitchy with anticipation. Panic Prevention, his first, was just that good. Kings and Queens was well worth the wait. He did not just spend those two years hanging out in cool bars in Williamsburg. With over 20 tracks to choose from Jamie T chose an unusual and democratic method of creating the track list. He let his friends pick. Good friends they are, and if there is a theme running through any of T’s music it would be about friends, friendship, and the trouble the bastards can get you into (and you them). Jamie gives his singing chops free reign in Kings and Queens as well, he still

Kings and Queens. Out now EMI

impresses with the astute samples and perfect pacing, but the signing is sterling. A natural progression from the beautiful, Calm Down Dearest, Jilly Armean, sweetly describes an unrequited love. The fullness of sound and diversity of instrumentals belies the fact that all was created by Jamie and friend/co-producer/coconspirator Ben Bones. First single off the album is Sticks n Stones, and as the perfectionist Jamie is proving to be the video clip is perfectly matched, 1 part youthful exuberance 3 parts cheeky little fuckers, three fingers down two up. Chaka Demus (google him) is next. Jamie T is 23 now, and he’s in it for the long haul. Looking like an undrainable well of

awesome, we look forward to decades more ‘soundtracks’. He’s touring Kings and Queens in September, we suggest you get yourself to a gig. We’ve watched in awe as he soloed his way through Panic Prevention and wowed with his merry band of fellows The Pacemakers. This time round he’s got his Pacemaker with him. We can’t wait. Sept. 17 The Metro Sydney Sept. 20 HI FI Melbourne Sept. 23 HI FI Brisbane Sept. 24 The Gov. Adelaide Sept. 25 Fly By Night Perth Sept. 26 Wave Rock WA Ticketing and info at www.lovepolice.com.au

Muse - The Resistance Warner Music Released: September 12th The last record from English experimental rockers Muse was an epic exploration of scale and bombast that unfolded over several listens. It wasn’t instantly accessible, and had some die-hard fans offside from the get go, but most were eventually convinced that Black Holes and Revelations marked an important evolutionary step in the development of the band and their sound. It’s not easy, then, for me to try and write a review of their new album, The Resistance, after only listening to the record the whole way through once. It is a dense work, with so many diverse elements and influences that just aren’t that clear at first glance. There’s definitely a lot to take in. Muse are stretching the boundaries of, if not their own unique brand of alternative rock, then popular music in general. Like it or not, they’ve taken their classical, operatic influences and run with them. Tracks like I Belong To You and Unnatural Selection are far more classical in structure and style than anything on their earlier records. These are meandering symphonies that build themselves up, collapse and slowly draw back together again. Bellamy is looking to take the listener on an epic journey, extracting every instrument from the arrangements and taking them each for a walk. This is not a record for those with a short attention span to be sure. There’s still some similarity to their earlier releases like

Black Holes, most notably on the first two tracks Uprising (which features a Dr. Who-style theremin) and Resistance, but the allusion to that record, and the general aesthetic of these two rockier tracks, might leave some screaming that The Resistance is just Black Holes ‘without the balls.’ Muse have shunned that ‘balls out’ approach for something more restrained and deliberate. The Resistance still rocks out sometimes, but Bellamy and co have made their intentions clear – bigger, even more grandiose arrangements; string sections and distorted synths that, at points, replace the chunky guitar riffs and fuzzed-out bass that were so characteristic of the Muse sound. I’m still not sure how enamoured I am with The Resistance, but I can say that I definitely want to spend another couple of hours at least peeling back the layers and really getting inside these songs. It’s a grand evolution for a band that was never really content with re-hashing the same material. Listeners might be expecting an album full of Queen-esque rhapsodies like the lead single, United States of Eurasia, but there are some quite unexpected departures and aural sidesteps on the rest of the album; they’re not just trying to rip off Freddy Mercury. Undisclosed Desires puts Bellamy’s subtle wail to a backdrop of synthed-out drums and an arpeggiated string section that I truly didn’t see coming. I couldn’t help but be reminded of the Jay-Z track ‘99 Problems’ when I heard the interesting choice of accompaniment on this one. The Resistance sounds perhaps like what ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’ would sound like if it were played by members of Queen, Devo and Placebo, directed by Mozart while orbiting on the International Space Station. Each song is a story in itself. Review by Daniel Clarke @ www.musicfeeds.com.au

September 2009 | edgemag.com.au

edgemag.com.au | September 2009

A thing for Metronomy A hot new face for Australia.

Justin Nozuka Holly Liberation Out now

Anna Bolton talks with Gin Wigmore

The hottest new thing to come out of New Zealand lately has to be Gin Wigmore. And now this talented young songstress calls Australia home. Her powerful voice and musical prowess projected her into the spotlight after she became the youngest and only unsigned artist to win the US-based International Songwriting Contest when she was just seventeen years old. Now, aged twenty three, she’s releasing her debut album, Holy Smoke. “It’s a real mixture that will take you on a real adventure,” she says. “ You’ll go through sadness and grief, and you can fly away at times, you can have good old rock n roll tunes, you’ve got dance… it’s a real mixed bag,” the quirky, down to earth Kiwi says. Gin says here aim was for every song on the album to have its own identity, and to deliver ten real songs, “not five songs and a few fillers.” She also praised band, the Cardinals, who made a real contribution to the sound. “There’s a big band sound that sounds really full,” says Gin. “It’s got loads more instruments, it was recorded in a beautiful studio at Capital and had a great producer so it’s got a really nice, polished kind of sound that’s still got that home-grownness of the EP [Extended Play, released in 2007], I think. It’s got the natural honesty of the songs, which is cool. It’s got a lot of Gin in there.” Songwriting for her, she says, is a natural process, “like writing a journal every day.” “It’s like writing a journal every day- it’s a way of explaining what’s going on in your day, or your life. It’s a cool record of time.” The album was recorded in Hollywood with the help of renowned producer Mike Elizondo (Eminem, Regina Spektor, Nelly Furtardo, Maroon 5 to name a few), an opportunity that Gin says was far too good to pass up. “I was just given the opportunity of a lifetime, to work with this amazing producer, amazing mixer, The Cardinals, and work at Capitol. It’s like everything I could ever dream of being a musician, so there’s no way I was going to pass that up. It’s something that you’ve just got to do before you die, a record like that.” For influences, Gin says she loves “all the old music.” “I listened to a lot of Simon and Garfunkel, Joe Cocker, soundtracks to Les Miserables, Phantom Of The Opera and all those loser things. I don’t think my music collection goes past the seventies.” Gin’s musical career began far from the star-studded studios of Hollywood, however. “It started off as a bit of a hobby, really. When I was about twelve or thirteen, I started fiddling around on the guitar that my dad had left gathering dust in the garage. It was a real hobby, I never really thought about it full-time as a career but eventually I had this thing constantly put in my face, so finally at twenty I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll give this a go.’” Look our for Holy Smoke from September 25.

Diesel Project Blues: Saturday Suffering Fools Liberation Out now

Diesel puts the b in the blues writes Lucy Vader Diesel is back with a new blues album - Project Blues: Saturday Suffering Fools - that harks back to bluesman Buddy Guy and Diesel’s own Short Cool Ones. This is perhaps Diesel’s best musical genre and one in which his guitar skills flourish and his soul is best revealed. With a line-up featuring family and long-term band members, the album is an expression of what the blues means to Diesel – or shall we call him Mark Lizotte, since that’s his real name? Nah. Let’s stick with Diesel for a while. Diesel was gentlemanly enough to get on the blower to talk to me about Project Blues: Saturday Suffering Fools, and describe to his experiences in making the album, his guitar-purchasing compulsions, and life in the unpredictable world of musical notoriety. “Putting the songs together for the album was, I suppose, an exercise in producing a portrait of my blues self; displaying the range of my influences, and a mix of my own songs,” he said. “ Playing the blues is like putting on your favourite pair of jeans. Of course, I love all sorts of musical genres, and am guilty of giving almost anything a whirl, but the blues is something deep in me. It’s not over the top or something to over analyse, it’s just a deep feeling.” Diesel tends to title his albums with a little lyricism and this one is no exception, with the instantly evocative words, Saturday Suffering Fools, which suggests an essence of the blues. “The title is an extract from one of the album tracks, Walking

The Antlers Hotspice Frenchkiss/Inertia

Gin Wigmore Holy Smoke Island Records/ Universal

Attracting enormous critical acclaim the world over, The Antlers’ new album ‘Hospice’ will be released in Australia this 3rd October on Frenchkiss (Passion Pit, The Dodos) through Inertia. Recognised by review aggregator

the Blues [a brilliant banjo blues item], which goes something like ‘They say that Saturday night was made for suffering fools / and, Sunday morning comes like a kick from a mule’. I had a kind of character in mind when I wrote that song.” And does Diesel find himself kicked like a mule on Sunday mornings any more? “Actually not so much. There was a time when I thought I needed a few drinks to help me calm my nerves relax into the music on stage. Maybe I’ve matured or something, but I find these days it’s the music itself that relaxes me – even intoxicates me.” Diesel has matured also beyond the image of the classic rocker. He has developed in his approach to musical choices and industry ethics. No longer too self-conscious about how he is publicly perceived, he is making more authentic directions in musical output, having learnt via the burnt-fingers method. “One thing I know is never to rest on your laurels and think this all going to be great forever – because everything will suddenly change before you can say ‘record contract’.” Now independent, Diesel is proving himself with principles of hard work and self-sufficiency, working consecutive spectacular live shows and loving it. Diesel is well respected for his guitar playing, which has been referred to as transcendental. It’s easy to suspect he might have a penchant for buying an absurd quantity of guitars. Pressed on this, Diesel admitted, “I think I have thirty guitars. My rarest is my 1965 Gibson Country and Western acoustic, or

the 1930 National Steel. A favourite is a Gretschstyle Black Penguin made for me by Piers Crocker. And Jackson Guitars on Parramatta Rd is a bit of a candy store for me. Rare guitars are rocketing out of control these days, price-wise. Some vintage guitars are well over a hundred thousand bucks, but I was lucky to get in early and I’ve got a few beauties. My absolute favourite guitar that always serves me well is one I found in London. We were doing a long and pretty boring sound check so I wandered out and found a little guitar shop and this instrument somehow chose me. I knew from the instant I picked it up I had to have it, it was the perfect acoustic guitar and I bought it immediately. When I got back to the sound check the band thought I was nuts, out of their sight for fifteen minutes and I reappear with a new guitar. But I still have it and it’s my best acoustic.” Diesel has a strong rapport with his fans, and has a strong following. So have there been any weird fan moments? “Yes... At an album signing someone walked up to me with a Kleenex, swabbed my face before I knew what happened and shoved the tissue in a snaplock bag and left. It occurred so quickly and was such an odd thing to do I was shocked. That was definitely a weird moment.” Project Blues: Saturday Suffering Fools is a superfine overview of Diesel’s blues inspirations, and is evidence of Diesel’s flourishing depth and soul. Try to catch him touring, its definitely well worth it.

Metacritic as being the #4 most universallyapplauded release of the year, ‘Hospice’ is a breathtaking album with a sound that’s as ambitious as its concept. “Hospice came from the idea of caring for a terminal patient who’s mentally abusive to you,” says Peter Silberman, the string-pulling founder of The Antlers. “You don’t have the right to argue with them, either, because they’re the one who’s dying here; they’re the one that’s been dealt a wrong hand. So you take it, but you can only take so much. Eventually, you realize that this person is just destroying you.” Appropriately enough, ‘Hospice’s ten distinct chapters resonate on debilitating sonic and lyrical levels, from the hypnotic harp and tensionratcheting build of “Two” to the sing-or-sink choruses of “Bear” and the speaker-rattling peaks of “Sylvia”; easily one of the year’s most immediate epics. “We were going for something that’d be dense

but not too complicated,” explains Silberman. “I hate the word ‘lush,’ but I guess that’s the best way of describing it. The structures are like pop songs—verse/chorus, verse/chorus—but the sound is a little more shoegaze-y or post-rocky.” Beginning three years ago as a singersongwriting project for Silberman, The Antlers have since expanded into a full three-piece, including powerhouse drummer Michael Lerner and the layer-lathering, multi-instrumentalist, Darby Cicci. “Hospice was the clear indication that this isn’t a singer-songwriter thing at all,” says Silberman. “Whatever we record next is going to define the three of us as a ‘band.’ Already garnering comparisons to classic works from Bon Iver (‘For Emma, Forever Ago’), The Arcade Fire (‘Funeral’) and Neutral Milk Hotel (‘In The Aeroplane Over The Sea’) in terms of its emotional potency and conceptual depth, The Antler’s ‘Hospice’ is one of 2009’s true indie masterpieces.

Justin Nozuka has ‘it’ writes Lucy Vader When I met Justin Nozuka at Mushroom Records to talk about his album, Holly, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The Canada-based, New York born, twenty-one-year-old has a massive international following, particularly in Paris; has had a very unorthodox upbringing in a family loaded with talented entertainers; and had rejected a recording contract from Universal at the age of eighteen, presciently preferring to go his own independent creative way. It was a wise decision. His album is instantly addictive, depicting a musician with depth, grit, serious melodic capacity, and a stand-out singing voice and musical instinct that captivates from the get go. The fact that Nozuka produced the album free from record executive constraints allows his work a greater intensity of honesty, and recognition of the advanced calibre of soul/folk/blues/whatever that Nozuka brings to the musical table. Nozuka’s half-Japanese features are handsome, and he broods beside me on Mushroom’s studio sofa, exuding creative complexity. Spending his childhood on Long Island, New York, and then in Canada, his mother single-handedly raised him and his six siblings, who are all themselves creative explosions. The album is named after his mother, Holly Sedgwick, and when he talks of her there is an implicit adoration going on. “My mother left my father and moved us to Canada, north of Toronto. She is a strong

woman, and an artsy woman too – very outthere. She’s passionate, she follows her heart a lot, you know. She has this way of living life that has provided a really good balance for me. She’s really in there with the art, and I feel I’ve been blessed that I might have been given some of that. I’ve received a lot of that through her, contributing greatly to the way that I live my life.” For his relative youth, Nozuka casts the picture of a true artist – a truly talented artist: a little opinionated, wise beyond his years, and in possession of what some call… It. Whatever It is. Having distaste for the game that radio stations play to effect song popularity, Nozuka has somehow utilised the Internet to multimillion fan fame (he has nearly ten million fans on myspace). “The Internet has been a really amazing thing for us. On it we can put up our songs… I used to write blogs, I haven’t really done that recently, but it’s really worked in our favour so far as getting our music out there, bringing people to our live shows. Most places out there, we don’t have much radio support. The whole radio world is so strange to me. It seems so strange to me, the radio world, I’d rather not focus on it and depend on it, you know? I think it’s better to deal with that live audience, and with people who are checking up on what we’re doing on line.” Almost all the tracks, with some additional also-brilliant exceptions, in Holly

are compound melodic masterworks strung around the concept of love. Not exactly a new concept in the world of song writing, but somehow when Nozuka describes what his inspiration is, and his soulful eyes light and his broad smile wraps across his face, the theme of love seems newer than ever before. It seems genuine. “At first, just making the music was my inspiration. I loved to sing and it was a way for me to just cry, it really seemed to come from the same place. I sang all the time, and I would be singing melodies, things that I’d be making up, that was the first step. Then when I fell in love for the first time it opened this other thing. That was a big drive in my music, this uh… love. That’s what got me in it, writing a song out of that feeling, out of that real honest feeling of love or sadness. So from that moment I’ve been writing whenever I get in those places.’ The feeling of love is implacably felt in many of Nozuka’s raw acoustic tracks, which are often recorded simply in one take, sometimes layered in the studio. Nozuka is a spectacular artistic talent, and his album Holly is one of the best melodic folk-soul ones around.

Stereosonic 2009; the line-up. It’s amazing!

From Canadian Mouse and all-round live festival favourite Deadmau5, to Sweden's seminal hit machine Axwell, Stereosonic this year presents its biggest lineup to date. Holland's Fedde Le Grand returns after a massive 40,000 people headline performance at Sensation to launch his new album ‘Output’ and new show, whilst Axwell's fellow Swede John Dahlbäck finally makes it to Australia after years of topping club charts with remixes and dancefloor anthems. From Italy, the kings of modern dance-punk and nu-rave The Bloody Beetroots return to Oz for a killer new show after a national sell-out ‘Outrage’ tour in June this year. Fellow Ferrari fans The Crookers return to Stereosonic for their second year running, showing the nation why they are one of the buzz acts of 2009. Miss Kittin & The Hacker who’s new album ‘Two’ has been already hailed a classic, hits Stereosonic for their first live shows in years in Australia. Minimal master Marco Carola makes his eagerly awaited return to Australia showcasing

British electro-pop outfit Metronomy are gearing up to play at Sydney’s Parklife Festival later this year. Louisa Andrews caught up with front man Joseph on his way to Heathrow Airport to have a chat about the band’s latest album and upcoming Australian show. The newest release, Nights Out, signifies the beginning of a new Metronomy; not only does primary song-writer Joe take the microphone for the first time, but the act takes on a group persona – with Metronomy being a live band rather than a solo project. “I imagined there were two ways of doing it,” explains Joe, “the first would be to have a laptop, but that would make me look like a bit of a dickhead on stage, or make it into a band. The thing is, I’ve played in bands since I was really young, so it felt unnatural to do anything else; to perform on my own. It happened quite naturally, really, that we became a group rather than a solo project, but having said that, I’m still doing the writing and recording, so it’s sort of half-half.” On singing for the first time, Joe says “what you hear on the record is the fifth or sixth recording, so by the time it was finished, I was quite confident with it. It made me quite nervous and took me quite a while to feel comfortable listening to myself sing – it builds confidence, I suppose, it’s good.” Nights Out was originally intended to be more of a concept album – “It was intended to be more out there, but you can guess what it’s about.” However, for a record that describes a night out, not all the songs are as positive as one would think; the song Heartbreaker (which has heavily circulated around Sydney’s club scene recently), according to Joe, is about “when I’ve hassled my friends about relationship problems and stuff, and I’d realised what I’d been doing had been really pissing them off. It’s a friendship song; like a buddy song.” The new live line-up has caused Joe to seek inspiration from some of his early influences. “I guess when I first got a computer, I was mainly influenced by electronic music, but when I started playing in bands, there were people like The Beatles and Nirvana and Blur. I decided I’d go back to the earliest, trying to make more pop sounds than niche-sounding songs.” With their performance at Parklife fast approaching, Australian fans are definitely in store for an amazing live show, highlighting the band’s new faces and sounds, however, for Metronomy, being on tour means more than just performing – “Every time we go away, we take every opportunity we can get and want to pretend we’re on holidays. Last time we were here I didn’t get to go swimming, so this time we’ll just see what happens.” As for what acts Joe would really like to play alongside? “I heard the Black –Eyed Peas are going to be in Australia, so me and Fergie? Who knows?” Go to www.parklife.com.au

his amazing sounds and technical brilliance that has made him a festival favourite the world over. France brings us wonderkid Surkin, one of the youngest kids in the business whilst London's Chicane who's massive hits ‘Saltwater’ and ‘No Ordinary Morning’ perform on the main-stage. With a classic album ‘Polyfolk Dance’ on the UK's legendary electronic/ indie label Warp Records, Hudson Mohawke cuts it up and shows us exactly what all the fuss is about... German horror movie fan and electro wizard Zombie Nation presents his latest material including delights from his already cult classic ‘Zombielicious’ album that has been getting a hammering from the likes of Sven Vath, Luciano, Richie Hawtin and more. For the first time in Australia Stereosonic is proud to announce the performance of one of Germany’s best exports: Alter Ego, that have been making techno and electronic dancefloor monsters for almost 15 years and who's live shows need to be seen to be believed. Slovenia's Umek joins the bill whilst Stereosonic debuts Australian performances

for buzz acts Drop The Lime and Renaissance Man. Juan Kidd who’s current hit ‘Now You’re Gone’ stormed the charts recently showed he's a force to be reckoned with worldwide. Australia’s Cut Copy programs the band stage with supports from Tim Sweeney from the UKs cult DFA outfit, Grafton Primary, the UK’s uber group Kidda, Canyons, Knightlife and Bag Raiders, with more to come. Local onelove faves Grant Smilie, Acid Jacks and the loving Andy Murphy return nationally to rock the socks for the locals, alongside further acts to be revealed over the coming months, so stay tuned. Go to www.stereosonic.com.au for full ticketing and DJ Line -Ups. Sydney 28 Nov.ember Perth 29 Nov.ember Adelaide 5 December Melbourne 5 December Brisbane 6 December

September 2009 | edgemag.com.au

edgemag.com.au | September 2009

watch these on dvd...

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Bottle Shock Roadshow Entertainment For connoisseur Steven Spurrier (Rickman), there’s no finer art than French wine, despite rumors that the new California wine country holds the future of the vine. Positive the small Napa wineries are no match for established French vintages, Spurrier challenges the Americans to a blind tasting. But when he finds the valley full of ambitious – and talented – novice vintners like Jim Barrett (Pullman) and his son Bo (Pine), he realizes his publicity stunt may change the history of wine forever. Premiering at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Bottle Shock has won the hearts of critics and audiences alike. Praised as “Rocky for wine aficionados” (The Hollywood Reporter), Bottle Shock follows novice vintner Jim Barrett who, against all odds and expectations, defeated the heavily favored French varietals at the 1976 blind taste challenge called “The Judgment of Paris.” An unforeseen victory by any standards, this central event established California and Napa Valley’s reputation as one of the world’s top wine producing regions. Shot on location in the breathtakingly beautiful Northern California wine country and using the real-life Chateau Montelena winery in many scenes, Bottle Shock celebrates the splendor of California wine country which forever changed the face of the winemaking industry.

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This is the story of the 60’s Silver Factory that Andy Warhol founded in 1964 in an abandoned hat factory on East 47th Street in New York City. The best part of this particular portrait, is the multitude of contemporary interviews with those involved, such as Gerard Malanga, Billy Name, Taylor Mead, Ultra Violet, Danny Fields, actress Mary Woronov, Bibbe Hansen, as well as Velvet Undergrounders Lou Reed, plus some archival interviews with Nico, to name just a few. I’ve seen the PBS series about Warhol, and while that was an exhaustively thorough examination of all aspects of Warhol’s life, I enjoyed this particular one even more so. It was more personal. From all the first hand accounts, I really came away with a better sense of what it was really like to hang out there, and to be a part of that scene. Sure there were lonely, alienated hangers-on that were just there as incidental props, but there was also a core group of brilliant, visionary artists and intellectuals that helped Andy make the Factory a such a vibrant arts scene. The numerous interviews made with those involved at the time, make this documentary a real gem, and I would highly recommend it.

Martin Shaw has long moved on from playing pretty boy Doyle in The Professionals and these days brings a certain gravitas to whatever role he takes on. Gently is an intensely moral detective who, despite having his own troubles, is refreshingly not a “lone maverick” but a textbook book example of traditional policing based on teamwork. Lee Ingleby (Place of Execution, Harry Potter and the Prison of Azkaban) as the cocky but sometimes slightly stupid Sergeant Bacchus makes a terrific foil for Gently. Bacchus strives to be a good cop but while not totally corrupt, is not averse to bending the rules by dating female suspects or taking a backhander. There’s a father-son type relationship between Bacchus and Gently, who frequently gives his sergeant metaphorical clips round the ear. George Gently excels in several areas. The scripts are strong – the BBC aired these on a Sunday night but the plots are more complex and demanding than traditional Sundaynight viewing yet not as hard work as other recent retro cop shows such as Red Riding Trilogy. The dialogue is terrific – natural, believable and razor sharp. It’s great to hear South Shields accents, too, instead of the usual generic “northern” (a nasty blend of Yorks/Lancs that doesn’t sound like any genuine northern vernacular). The series also stands out for the amazing attention to period detail, from the clothes and haircuts to the cars, furnishings and overall styling.

The Oscar winning film Women in Love (1969) is Ken Russell’s interpretation of D. H. Lawrence’s famous novel of the same name. Set in the hedonistic world of 1920s England, Russell delights in contrasting the vulgar poor with the really vulgar rich in a work which is considered the iconic director’s “signature film”. The film is based on romance, love and the power of nature, and is both beautiful and subtly terrifying as ambiguous relationships strive for prominence. The story provides an interesting examination of love itself. Males come across as brooding sulky philanderers and philosophers, in constant doubt of love, while women appear akin to prostitutes, and urgently in need of love. Says protagonist Ursula: “I always think I’m going to be loved. And then I’m let down.” The famous scene of two men wrestling naked might be a reference to the tedium men put on romantic love, preferring the vigour and physicality of a wrestling match to any contact with women. As one man says after the wrestle: “Fighting makes us sane.” The men in the film seem to find platonic love for their fellow man far easier to access than the romantic love the women seek to extract from them. Exquisitely cast, acted, and shot, Women in Love is a modern classic that is thought-provoking and a fine essay on human relations, and has been newly remastered for DVD.

Avant garde director Ken Russell’s film on the great composer Gustav Mahler is a fanciful and outrageously camp interpretation of the life of a Jewish composer who flippantly converted to Catholicism for career purposes. Russell’s directing strings his portrait of Mahler in true facts, while indulging in ludicrous metaphors and some pretty bawdy moments. Made in the early 1970s, the film was a box office hit, with Mahler himself being played to great effect by actor Robert Powell, and Mahler’s under-appreciated wife Alma played by Georgina Hale, who takes risks with more than her underwear. Set in a train set for Vienna, with Mahler in ailing health, Russell takes us in and out of dream sequences and memories, patching a full formation of Mahler by imagining experience that depict not just Mahler’s life, but his notion of an eternal spirit and his psychological formation. Considered to be one of Russell’s finest works, Mahler is not for the fainthearted, with its often ridiculous Nazi and sexualised references, but it is a highly entertaining and unorthodox telling of the life of an icon. Now released on DVD, Mahler is a valuable addition to an arthouse film collection.

Andy Warhol’s Factory People Shock

Sam Balzac

George Gently ACORN

Women In Love Shock

Mahler Shock

Lucy Vader

Lucy Vader SamBalzac

Sam Balzac

Film reviews with Lucy Vader

$9.99

Subdivision

Pixar’s new animation Up is an unconventional fantasy that will literally pick you up and carry you away – perhaps using one thousand helium balloons attached to your house. This tenth film by the Pixar master storytellers was the opening feature for the 2009 Cannes Film Festival – but that doesn’t mean it’s all smarty intellectual film festival stuff. The story follows Carl Fredricksen, with a quick overview of his life as an aircraft enthusiast and his one true love, childhood sweetheart and eventual wife Ellie. The rest of the film is Fredricksen as a grumpy old curmudgeon in the old-man-uniform of mission brown trousers and a cardigan. This alone – to have the protagonist as an aging man facing the void of inevitable death – is a radical new step in the sophistication of story telling and concepts for children, and it is done without undue dread, more with a love of realism. Up is an animation that children and adults alike can drift away with. Modern dilemmas like old age homes and civil law suits finger-joint with hedonistic fantasy of having a house at the top of a Gargantuan waterfall in South America, complete with talking super-dogs who have certain weaknesses.

In Tatia Rosenthal’s stop-motion animated feature film, for only one cent less then $10, you can find out the meaning of life. “Have you ever wondered ‘What’s the meaning of life? Why do we exist?’ The answer to this vexing question in now within your reach! You’ll find it in a small yet amazing booklet, which will explain, in easy-to-follow, simple terms your reason for being! The booklet, printed on the finest paper, contains illuminating, exquisite colour pictures, and could be yours for a mere $9.99.” This is the ad’s claim that Dave Peck, an unemployed young bloke who lives with his dad, is taken right in by and goes on to impress his discovery on anyone he meets – who are less than interested as they hunt for their own meanings to life. The extraordinary characters share their lives in one apartment block, and we alternately dip into their apartments and worlds, finding a lonely old man grateful for the company of a bitter and jaded Guardian Angel; a debt-laden magician; Dave’s brother who has a way with the ladies but a discovers a model (“like a girl, only prettier”) who likes her men “smooth”… Other characters dwell and battle micro life questions in this sophisticated animated world. Rosenthal’s painterly stop-motion figures are spectacular – if you can get past the trout lips on all characters – a little too much collagen filler maybe? But faces are modelled with sympathy and pathos and the detail in the modelled architecture is impressive. Dialogue is unexpected, amusing and philosophical and the artistic, beautiful animation is amazing.

A flim based on the ubiquitous Aussie battler, the new Australian film Subdivision is set around Harvey Bay, Queensland, and centres on two carpenter builders, Digger (Gary Sweet) and his son Jack (Ashley Bradnam) Kelly. They are making a living building houses, when a highflying Victorian developer (Brooke Satchwell) comes to town to turn their lives and livelihoods upside down. With a star Australian cast and Aussie humour flying left and right, this film is a family-pleaser that doesn’t upset any applecarts, and tells a story close to hard working family’s hearts. The fabulous Bruce Spence plays a supporting role as Digger’s man-of-few-words mate, and is always a delight to view with his indescribable elongated physical frame, and his dour laconic expressions. Division is a theme through the film, with cracks occurring within local footy teams, old friendships and business alliances, between family members and of course, within the land break-ups that developers and builders alike are vying for. How divisions are sealed is a challenge to overcome. Ashley Bradnam does a sterling performance as Jack, the irresistible larrikin, utterly flawed and hopeless, yet lovable. His strained relationship with his father is fodder for much humour and heartache and his unspeakable ambition over the welfare of his sister leaves the audience flabbergasted and amused. Subdivison is a classic Aussie movie that, if a little trite, is good entertainment.

Disney Pixar

ICON Film Distribution

Infrequent Coarse coarse language language

September 2009 | edgemag.com.au

At the good alter of Bad Religion

edgemag.com.au | September 2009

Midnight Juggernauts play with some New Technology

Denning Isles talks with Brooks Wackermen from Bad Religion. Denning Isles : So, what’s been happening lately? Brooks Wackerman: We’re on the warped tour, we have a day off in Montana of all places, and we’ve been out here for about two months. We have a week left of this tour and then we’re headed down to Australia until September. DI: Have you been down her before? BW: Yeah, we’ve been down there numerous times. We love Australia, first time we toured down there was with Infectious Groove in 1995, we had a great time down there and we can’t wait to get back. DI: How does it compare to other places you’ve been to? BW: Some of the nicest people are in your country. So that alone makes it worth it. I don’t think I have ever met a mean Australian in my life, so the fact that everyone is cool is defiantly a plus. DI: I’ve met so mean ones, don’t worry, there out there (Mitchell Man and Jenifer from Boost). BW: I was going to say, if I lived there I’m sure I would have met some, but I guess I’m just really lucky. We have had some amazing tours down there, and it always seems to flow nicely. It’s defiantly a market that we try to hit up every year. DI: So what are you promoting at the moment? BW: We just released a deluxe version of ‘New Maps of Hell’ that come out this year and we’re touring with NOFX. So I think those two things are defiantly going to take off, were happy about that. DI: So you’re on the road doing shows, do you ever get star struck when meeting people? BW: Yeah sure, here and there. Not too often though, but I defiantly have met a few people in my life and just went ‘wow’, I really admire this person. It’s scarce, but it’s happened a couple of times. DI: What was your experience before Bad Religion? BW: Prior to joining Bad Religion I played with the band Suicidal Tendencies. When I was part of that band we toured for about

To celebrate the release of their upcoming single, ‘This New Technology’, Midnight Juggernauts are back with their first tour since March 2008! The first taste of Midnight Juggernauts’ eagerly anticipated second album, ‘This New Technology’ was self-produced, recorded at Melbourne’s Sing Sing Studios by Christopher Moore (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, Liars) and mixed by Andy Baldwin. The single will hit the airwaves in late September and sees the band play single launches across Perth, Newcastle, Sydney, Wollongong, Melbourne, Frankston, Brisbane, Canberra, and Adelaide during October and November. It’s more than a year and a half since the Melbourne band last played their own headline shows, and this time around, they’re offering a sneak preview of new album tracks in up close and personal settings. Supporting Midnight Juggernauts nationally will be New Zealand pop quintet Cut Off Your Hands playing new material in their first Australian gigs for 2009, along with repeat appearances by buzz bands Seekae and Rat Vs Possum. Tickets for all shows go on sale this Friday 4 September. Following a blistering performance at this year’s Splendour in the Grass, and recent shows with the almighty Flaming Lips, Midnight Juggernauts have also just accepted an invitation to play the CMJ Music Festival in New York. The band will play several shows including a headlining performance at the URB party, and play alongside international acts such as We Are Wolves, Phenomenal Handclap Band, and Golden Filter. Since the 2007 release of their debut album, Dystopia, Midnight Juggernauts have built a rock-solid live reputation at home and abroad playing some of the world’s finest festivals including Glastonbury (UK), Coachella (USA), Fuji Rock (Japan), Primavera (Spain), Meredith and the Big Day Out. The trio has recently been busy putting the finishing touches on its self-produced second album, recorded at Melbourne’s Sing Sing Studios with assistance from Christopher Moore (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, Liars). Known for creating expansive sound-scapes with hypnotic vocals, expect the most thrilling journey

seven years. I still played for the Vandals, and before that I was in Infectious Grooves. I also did random sessions here and there, where producers hired me to play on different records. DI: Do you have any influences that would shock us as fans? BW: It’s pretty broad with me; I grew up being exposed to a lot of different styles of music because of my background and family, with everything from Jazz to heavy metal. I don’t really cancel out any styles, but I’m a huge fan of bands like Radiohead, Tool, The Killers, Kings of Leon, Rubbermouth and The Sex Pistols. My iPod probably has fifty thousand songs on it, so I have a lot to choose from. And I also like seeing new bands, you know, younger kids out there doing it and that’s inspiring too. It revitalises me and reminds me why I’m doing what I’m doing. DI: How do you feel about the quality of new talent out there? BW: Well, with technology and auto tune you can chop things up and make it perfect. I think bands can become lazy and dependent on using technology like that and not spend the time practicing their craft. But there are still musicians that I have seen that practice and are real musicians, those are the people that I listen to. But there are defiantly a lot of bands that depending on technology, which is a shame. DI: If you weren’t doing music what do you think you would be doing? BW: That’s a hard question because I’ve been so immersed in the music my whole life. I’d definitely be doing something with music. But I love going to museums, so maybe I would be a painter of some sort, I don’t know. Or a male escort, maybe. Bad Religion tours nationally with NOFX from September 23rd in Melbourne through to October. See www.bluemurder.com.au for dates and ticketing info.

Musical Bears

“Not so much jamming really, I had gotten into a couple of really nerdy discussions with Johnny about laptop music and what sort of programs we were using, trading ideas and stuff, but there was never a proper jam session,” he explains, a hint of regret immediately apparent in his quavering voice. However Thom and the poms aren’t the only heroes the band have had the chance to work with, having been specifically invited by Paul Simon to play with him for five nights as part of his month long residency at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music. “It was really interesting taking his music and kind of completely reinterpreting it in what we do,” he tells me, sounding like a little kid on the end of the line. “It was also really interesting to get his take

on it and to hear what other people did with his music. “I think we actually changed it the most out of everyone, the other covers were fairly true to the original song but we pretty much completely revamped Graceland and Mother & Child Reunion. I find those types of projects really fun. Taking a song, especially those songs because I’ve had a relationship with them since childhood, especially Graceland, to take them and then to be able to sort of put our own spin on it was really cool, especially because it’s with the man who wrote the song.” It’s not hard to understand why the band attract so much attention from artists as varied as Radiohead and Paul Simon, as every album,

especially Veckatimest, has a timeless and hypnotic quality that is so rare in popular music. It’s no surprise then to discover that, after playing with an orchestra, the band have decided that certain songs will only ever be played live with orchestral accompaniment. “What was cool about playing with the orchestra was that we were able to do things we weren’t able to do before. We were doing things that were more true to what was done on the album as a lot of the time we sort of have to reinterpret what goes on with our live arrangements.” One such occasion was when the band collaborated with Vincent Moon for one of his famous Take Away Shows, where the boys were placed in a bathroom and asked to play one of their songs acoustically. “It was very interesting, that was like one of the first shoots he did. We happened to be in Paris and one of the guys from the label we were with got a call in the middle of the day when we were out doing the tourist thing, and he was like ‘are you guys down to do some acoustic things at so and so’s apartment?’ We were like, ‘we don’t know we don’t really have it together,’ but somehow his sort of, spirit and character really pulled some interesting creative ideas out of us you know. He brought a bunch of beer and wine and a bunch of cute French girls, and yeah, it all worked out!” With that venture also yielding an a‘capella performance of Knife as the band walked the street of gay Paris it would seem Moon’s formula of booze + women + band = great creative ideas, should be embraced worldwide. With the band having already embraced France as well as many other countries, it would seem as though the time may indeed have come to venture to our fair shores. “Yes, yes indeed,” Christopher answers excitedly. “I think as of right now there’s sort of talk of sometime in the winter, well winter for us which would be perfect, it gets really bleak in New York around that time.” All the better for us. Grizzly Bear’s third album Veckatimest is out now on Warped through Inertia.

‘This New Technology’ National Tour Special Guests Cut Off Your Hands (NZ) Saturday 31 October The Capitol, Perth, With French Rockets Tickets: $27.50 + BF Presale / $35 Door Thursday 5 November Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle With Seekae Tickets: $27.50 + BF Presale / $35 Door Friday 6 November The Metro Theatre, Sydney With Seekae + DJs Golden Ron & Smart Casual Lic/All ages Saturday 7 November Waves, Wollongong, With Seekae Tickets: $27.50 + BF Presale / $35 Door Friday 13 November Billboard, Melbourne, With Rat Vs Possum + DJs Nile Delta & Golden Ron Tickets: $27.50 + BF Presale / $35 Door Saturday 14 November Pier Live, Frankston, With Rat Vs Possum Tickets: $27.50 + BF Presale / $35 Door Friday 20 November Hi Fi, Brisbane, With DZ Tickets: $27.50 + BF Presale / $35 Door Saturday 21 November Trackside, Canberra Friday 27 November The Gov, Adelaide With Lady Strangelove, Lic/All ages Tickets: $27.50 + BF Presale / $35 Door Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday 4 September. Stay tuned for more news on ‘This New Technology’ Visit Midnight Juggernauts online: http://www.midnightjuggernauts.com/ http://www.myspace.com/midnightjuggernauts

Store Locator – 1300 367 376 www.leadingedgemusic.com.au

Grizzly Bear’s Christopher Bear talks with Michael Carr of musicfeeds.com.au “We haven’t really gotten underway yet,” Grizzly Bear singer and drummer Christopher Bear tells me. “We did one show in the UK last week, but pretty much we don’t get started for about another week.” Having just recently released their latest album Veckatimest, the band are currently gearing up for their next tour. “It does feel a little bit like we’re training actually,” he tells me in response to my question about the band’s physical fitness regime. “We’re still a pretty DIY sort of operation, so we’re trying to write arrangements and re-arrange the songs in our own little way. But we’re very busy bees.” With nine releases in 5 years, including three studio albums, as well as touring with TV On The Radio and Radiohead, playing shows with Paul Simon and appearing at such festivals as Coachella, Sasquatch, Roskilde and Pitchfork, they’re not just busy bees, these guys are almost German. But the band’s Teutonic work ethic aside, Grizzly Bear’s music is a delicate mix of layering and production applied to acoustic guitar and vocal harmonies. If you imagine the Beach Boys and Nick Drake on acid (ok more acid), and add in a little Death Cab For Cutie on acid (for good measure) you’ll have some idea of what the band sound like. Veckatimest, the bands third album, has been eagerly awaited by fans and critics alike for some time now and it sees the band embrace a more organic and natural sound. “I think we really enjoy natural sounds and I think on this one we were sort of able to capture more natural sounds and just maybe not layer so many things on top of things and leave it sounding very simple and natural. There are parts that are definitely very built up and lush but I guess we sort of went through both extremes this time, like having a lot of really dense moments and then having very stripped down and natural moments as well.” Having long been fans of collaborations and working with other artists, when they were offered the support slot for the second leg of Radiohead’s American tour the band pounced on the opportunity like, well, like a Grizzly Bear. “The Radiohead thing was like a dream,” Chris tells me, his voice going up in pitch with excitement. “They’ve been a favourite band of mine for a really long time. They put on an amazing show every night and we were all just super grateful to be able to play with them and share music with them and also just hang out with them, they’re all really sweet dudes.

yet from Midnight Juggernauts when their new album drops early 2010.

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