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issue 571 // 31 OCTOBER 2013 // next issue: 14 NOV

WHISPERS WHISPERS GEELONG GEELONG && EUREKA EUREKA HOTEL HOTEL PRESENT PRESENT

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COMING UP -SATURDAYSCOURTNEY MILLS ZOOLANDA WHO KILLED MICKEY JOEL FLETCHER YATCH CLUB DJS KATT NIALL

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A WORD FROM THE TEAM Another fortnight passes and that means we are another two weeks closer to the festival season. This week we have Oz hip hop sensation Pez, made famous by the Festival song (ironically enough) on our front cover to celebrate the upcoming Queenscliff music Festival. QMF is something very dear to our region, it has a long a successful history in engaging both out of towners and locals in all of its happenings. This year has proven to be one step bigger again, with arguably the festival's most comprehensive line up to date. Be sure to pick up next weeks issue as we have an exclusive 4 page event guide for those of you taking part in the festivities.

This issue we also had the absolute privileged and pleasure of talking to the Offspring ahead of their journey to Australia! We have The Ling End, Jordie lane and many more.

Enjoy the Melbourne Cup carnival and play safe!

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EUDOXUS ARTS PRESENTS

Swing Renée Geyer with her Big Band

One of Australia’s true musical treasures... celebrating 40 years in music - a tour de force not to be missed + special guest

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the HIGHLIGHTS

THE LATEST ON international & national news & tours

Dave Matthews & Gary Clark Jr

Alex Lloyd Out of the Wilderness

There are going to be a bucketload of Bluesfest sideshows taking place (so be sure to keep an eye out), but the #1 must-see for many will be the toogood double-header of Dave Matthews Band and Gary Clark Jr. Both artists released their latest efforts last year; The Dave Matthews Band released Away from the World while Gary Clark Jr released Blak and Blu. Myer Music Bowl – April 17.

It has been some time since Alex Lloyd graced the stages of Australia. Of course, he did move abroad in 2008 so we can cut him a little slack. There is good reason for the tour – other than saying hello to old friends – and that is his new album Urban Wilderness. The newie features Shane Nicholson and Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil). Wellers, Kangaroo Ground – November 28; The Kelvin Club – November 29; Thornbury Theatre – December 1.

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Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Roll Call The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Chic, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel, Hall & Oates, KISS, LL Cool J, The Meters, Nirvana, NWA, The Replacements, Linda Ronstadt, Cat Stevens, Link Wray, Yes and The Zombies have all made the shortlist for induction into America’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for 2014.

Artists are eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their debut album. Nirvana has been nominated at the first opportunity.

Moshcam Gets a Makeover

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Moshcam.com has been given a splash of paint and is looking better than ever. For those unfamiliar, Moshcam.com is ‘The Home of Live Music Video’.

Paul Hannigan, Chief of Product, Moshcam, says: “Our main focus is giving fans complete control over how they watch and listen to the music they love.

We now have a massive catalogue of more than 1300 full-length live music concert videos, artist interviews and more.”

New U2 Edges Closer

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According to bassist Adam Clayton, U2 are aiming to have their new album finished by November’s end. Speaking to Irish radio station 98FM about the release, Clayton said: “I think it’s a bit of a return to U2 of old, but with the maturity, if you like, of the U2 of the last 10 years. It’s a combination of those two things and it’s a really interesting hybrid.” The album will be the follow-up to 2009’s No Line on the Horizon.

One More Round for Cosmic Psychos

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Waka Flocka Flame Debuts

Sun Shines on Kylesa

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Those punk rockers and blokes you can trust the Cosmic Psychos have one more show lined up for 2013 until they take a breather to prepare for the Big Day Out. With a helping hand from the Spazzys and Sun God Replica, the band hits The Espy on November 1. If you can’t make it to the show, that’s cool, their DVD doco Blokes You Can Trust hits stores in December – Christmas present, anyone? .........................................................................

Seabellies Reach Fever Pitch

The Highlights: Where we move like cagey tigers. Coming up you have…

Waka Flocka Flame, or simply Waka Flocka, was born Juaquin Malphurs in New York before later settling with his family in Riverdale, Georgia. The name ‘Waka’ was given to him by his cousin after the Muppets character Fozzie Bear, while Flocka Flame was given to him by rapper Gucci Mane. Singles including ‘O Let’s Do It’, ‘Hard in da Paint’ and ‘No Hands’ helped build his name. Billboard – December 18.

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Time to Face the Music

Sweet Six for SXSW

The Grand Budapest Hotel Opening

New Cold Chisel DVD

Now in its sixth year, conference and music industry summit Face The Music has revealed its full program.

Latest additions to the speaker line-up include Ball Park Music’s Sam Cromack. Workshops with twotime ARIA Award-winning artist/producer M-Phazes, Tim Shiel (musician, Faux Pas, Gotye) and German musician Oval are among the highlights. Arts Centre – November 15 & 16. Check out the full goods through facethemusic.org.au.

When the announcements for South by Southwest (SXSW) roll out, a keen eye is cast on the Aussies who will be packing their bags and heading abroad in hope of making an impression. The opening 150 acts have been announced, with six Aussie acts feeling a little more excited (and anxious): The Chevelles, Vance Joy, Money for Rope, People of Letters, Josef Salvat and The Swiss. Some 30 more Aussies are expected to be announced.

Despite no one really knowing a great deal about what’s going on, it looks like the new Wes Anderson movie The Grand Budapest Hotel will be in cinemas in the first half of 2014. The film, Anderson’s first set in Europe, follows the mentor-protégé relationship between a concierge and a young lobby boy. The film’s cast includes Ralph Fiennes, Bill Murray, Jude Law, Jeff Goldblum, Saoirse Ronan and Tilda Swinton. A trailer is up and about now.

Aussie rock royalty Cold Chisel will release their first live CD/DVD in ten years next month. The release, titled The Live Tapes Vol. 1, features their April 18 show at the Hordern Pavilion last year. You may think the title suggests there is more to come and you’d be right, with the band hoping to release more live material in the future. The Live Tapes Vol. 1 is available from November 22 through various packages.

Hailing from Georgia, sludge metal outfit Kylesa are set to return to Australia for an end of year bash.

The band heads this way in support of their new album Ultraviolet, their sixth full-length effort. Kylesa employed theremin, synthesisers and a skateboard guitar for the recording. They have also been out this way before, appearing on the line-up for 2011’s Soundwave Festival. The Corner – December 8, The Barwon Club - December 9th & The Howler – December 10,

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Newcastle five-piece the Seabellies have a little something to show off, and that is their sophomore album Fever Belle. The new album comes a few years after their debut Limbo Lake. It has been in the making for some time, with the band beginning initial writing sessions back in 2010. Fever Belle was written and recorded in Melbourne, Sydney and Berlin. NSC – December 27.

The Kill Devil Hills’ Perfect 10

Bearing the Marks of Born Ruffians

It has been ten years since Perth’s The Kill Devil Hills started doing what they do, so how does a band celebrate the milestone? By releasing a live album, of course. The band made the announcement about Past and Future Ghosts last month but has since given us the goods on their tour and supports. The Curtin, November 9 with Maurice Flavel’s Intensive Care and Suze Stapleton.

It has been a few years since Canada’s indie rock supremos Born Ruffians last toured Australia but the wait is almost over for their return. The tour is on the back of their latest release Birthmarks, the followup to 2010’s Say It. The album, the band’s third, was written over a three-year period, during which time vocalist/guitarist Luke Lalonde released a solo album. NSC – December 30.

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Nobody Can Do It like Mix Master Mike

The Awakening of Kate Martin

Widely regarded as one of the best DJs of all time, ex-Beastie Boys scratch king Mix Master Mike has lined up a couple of Aussie shows next month. In 1994, after winning three consecutive DMC World Championships, Mix Master Mike became a judge for the competition the following year. 1994 was also the year he caught the attention of the Beastie Boys.

He is the master of his trade. The Espy – November 21.

“I don’t want to be limited by genre. I want to always remain diverse and spontaneous by running with whatever ideas inspire me at the time ... however, my signature will always be embedded in each of my tracks in some way, shape or form.” They are the words of Kate Martin, the young Melbourne songbird making a big impression in the music world. Her new single is ‘Awaken’. The Grace Darling – November 23.

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Spare a Thought for Made in Japan

Pataphysics Ready to Launch

November 1 sees the release of Tame All Those Thoughts, the sophomore EP from Sydney-based outfit Made in Japan. Singer and drummer James Cooney: “This album is the most honest and unique material we’ve ever produced. We really took our time crafting this one, and it shows.” The album was recorded and mixed in their home studio. The band also took on the UK’s Great Escape Festival earlier in the year. Grace Darling – November 21.

Pataphysics is a term coined by French writer Alfred Jarry. It has also been adopted by Melbourne MC, writer, producer, composer and poet Pat Marks as his stage name. Drawing on the bands of cultural backgrounds of Sri Lanka, El Salvador and Aotearoa, Pataphysics released his debut album, Subversive, last year. His new EP is IED (Improvised Explosive Device). The Workers Club – November 8.

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Steve Kilbey on the Road “Undefeated champion of RocKwiz, ARIA Hall of Famer, polymath and modern day renaissance man” – how is that for an introduction? I am talking about Steve Kilbey, the man who once led The Church.

At the beginning of the year Kilbey released The Idyllist, a collection of songs from a lazy summer written, composed, recorded and produced by the man himself. The Toff – November 3 & NSC – November 10. .........................................................................

Looking Down on Pretty City Melbourne shoegazers Pretty City released their debut single ‘Part of Your Crowd’ only a couple of months after their formation. Taking advantage of technology, the band recorded the track entirely on an iPhone 4. Their follow-up single ‘Ignoring My Friends’ gained the band wider attention, and now they’re thrilled to welcome their debut EP, Heights.

The Curtin – November 2 & Boney – November 30.

John Mayer Adds Shows With appearances at Bluesfest and the Deni Blues Festival locked in, John Mayer has taken it upon himself to spread the love a little more by announcing a handful of arena dates.

Mayer has been out of action for a few years due to a throat granuloma, meaning both his latest album, Paradise Valley, and his 2012 album, Born and Raised, are sure to get a work out as he makes up for lost time. Rod Laver Arena – April 22.

To the Moon with James Blunt That cheeky, warm and proper lad that told you “you’re beautiful” will return to Australia next year in support of new album Moon Landing.

It was in 2004 where we got to know James Blunt thanks to his whopping album Back to Bedlam. Album tracks ‘You’re Beautiful’ and ‘Goodbye my Lover’ certainly didn’t hurt his cause. Moon Landing is his fourth album and features the single ‘Bonfire Heart’. The Plenary – June 8.

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Loren Kate is Moving On With her new album Moving On now available for your listening pleasure, Adelaide Hills-based singer-songwriter Loren Kate thought it was time to share it in a live setting. The newie was funded through crowdfunding site Pozible, with the songbird getting a couple of hundred people on board. Paul McKercher (Augie March, Pete Murray) handled production duties. Thornbury Theatre – November 8 & Harvester Moon Café – November 9. .........................................................................

Sincerely, Grizzly Feeling Optimistic As Adelaide trio Sincerely, Grizzly gears up for the release of their debut album Halves early next year, they have dropped a little taste by way of single ‘Use; or Optimism’. Recorded with Jez Giddings, the album “is the band’s attempt to understand and reconcile musical, personal and philosophical dichotomies”. The band has had a decent year, playing both the BDO and Laneway. John Curtin Hotel – November 2.

More Vans Warped News

Meet the Team of Anchorman 2

Rather than unleash a Jets vs Sharks-type showdown between the Vans Warped and Stereosonic crowd, Vans Warped will now take place at Birrarung Marr on December 7 – following a little toing and froing. Also, a few more acts have been added to the line-up including Millencolin, Reel Big Fish, The Amity Affliction, Confession, Hands Like Houses, Buried in Verona and Hand of Mercy.

With Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues set for release December 19, the Global News Network team thought it would be a good idea to head Down Under to show why their news team is king. Stars Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and David Koechner, along with director Adam McKay, will be heading to Hoyts @ The Entertainment Quarter, Sydney on November 24 for the Australian premiere.

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CALENDAR & GIG GUIDE Thursday October 31st BARWON CLUB HOTEL: Stonefield, Lester The Fierce, The Grunes BAR PIZZA: Open Mic Night w/ Dave Dorman BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Mic Night w/ Dave Dorman, Masters Of Dartness 8:30pm, Parmi Night $11.90 BEAVS BAR: Dave Anderson BLACK HATT: Night in the Bar from 5pm till 7pm, Open Mic from 8pm with acoustic, bands, solos & duets EUREKA: Halloween Hoedown OK Nar & Frank, plus Simon One, Shorty J, Pinky, Max McKay, Dawson, Vickers, Steve Toppa and more

Matt & Beki (The Mavis’s)

Broderick Smith

LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT: Live band & DJs Main Room and Terrace, open from 9pm

CITY QUARTER: Perfect Sunday Sesh

TORQUAY HOTEL: Live music in The Sports bar from 9.30pm

MALDON FOLK FESTIVAL: Artists include Eric Bogle, Battlefield Band, Sugarpie Band, PAtt and Possum and many more!

THE LOFT (WARRNAMBOOL) (WARRNAMBOOL): The Harlots & Special Guests THE MAX HOTEL : Trojan OLD HEPBURN HOTEL: Open Mic Night THE CAPITAL THEATRE (BENDIGO): Marina Prior - The Encore Tour THEATRE ROYAL (Castlemaine): Charlie Parr (USA) live in concert THE SPHINX HOTEL: Retro Ago-Go WOOL EXCHANGE: Boy and Bear

CITY QUARTER BAR: 50% off Menu ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Asahi Seafood & Chips Night GATEWAY HOTEL: Halloween (Best dressed child wins a WII) GOLD DIGGERS ARMS: Bingo Its Bingo with Balls!

From 7.30pm Free Entry GPAC: Eric Bogle’s SMS Tour (Save My Superannuation!)

KAROVA LOUNGE: The Wise Guyz (Ukraine) THE CAPITAL THEATRE (BENDIGO): Harrison Craig - More Than A Dream THE MAX HOTEL: $12 Parmi All Day All Night, Inquizitive Trivia from 7.30pm THE SPHINX HOTEL: Night from $13

Friday November 1st AT THE HEADS: Live music from 5pm till 7pm (Barwon Heads)

BARKING DOG: Flashback Fridays with live band BARWON CLUB HOTEL: Dr Piffle and The Burlap Band, The Mightiest of Guns, The Bakers Digest, The Mud Peas BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Happy Hour 5- 7pm BEAVS BAR: Hayden Scott BLACK HATT: Drink Promos from 5-7,Wild Turkey Halloween Party THE BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE): Harry Howard & the NDE Twinkle Digitz CITY QUARTER BAR: Friday Unwind from 5pm. Live with live entertainment and DJ ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Thank Guinness It’s Friday EDGE GEELONG: Live entertainment plus DJ GPAC: Dusty Springfield & Tom Jones 50th Anniversary Celebration MALDON FOLK FESTIVAL: Artists include Eric Bogle, Battlefield Band, Sugarpie Band, PAtt and Possum and many more!

MARTIANS CAFE (DEANS MARSH): Kyle Taylor THE GROVEDALE HOTEL: The Regular Boys THE KAROVA LOUNGE:

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Saturday November 2nd BARWON CLUB HOTEL: The Glitter Gang

BEAVS BAR: Steve Pianto THE BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE): The Spoils W/ Blood Red Bird CITY QUARTER BAR: Live Entertainment and DJ BLACK HATT: Halloween Fright Fest with Fistful of Steel and Audemia ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Fig Jam EDGE: Live entertainment plus DJ TORQUAY HOTEL: Live music in The Sports bar from 9.30pm THE KAROVA LOUNGE: The Yard Apes THE LOFT: Stonefield & Aurora Jane THE GROVEDALE HOTEL: Cam Bryce HOME HOUSE: Upstairs: Madeleine (Tramp/Cloud Nine) vs Rimmy (Tramp/Cloud Nine), Downstairs: Scotty Lee (Billboard) Best RnB /Hip Hop DJ Crunk (Noizy Neighbours) LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT: Live Band & DJs Mainroom and Terrace. Open from 9pm MALDON FOLK FESTIVAL: Artists include Eric Bogle, Battlefield Band, Sugarpie Band, PAtt and Possum and many more!

LIGHTHOUSE THEATRE: Circus Oz - Cranked Up THE MAX HOTEL: Traffic Jam WHISPERS: DJ’s including from Matt Watkins, Slice n Dice, Lucille Croft, Frazr Adam, Jungle Jim, Butters, Courtney Mills, Zoolander, Who Killed Mickey, Joel Fletcher, Yatch Club DJs, Katt Nial

Sunday November 3rd BARWON CLUB HOTEL: Test Pilot Molly

BLACK HATT: Bergman and Ballandeers from 4pm THE BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE):

EDGE GEELONG: Live entertainment plus DJ

ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Des Camm + from 6pm Parmi Night 6 Great Parmis $20 GEELONG RSL: Bob Pattie’s Chicago 5 LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT: Student and Industry Night Free Entry OLD HEPBURN HOTEL: The Tiger and Me W/ The Bearded Gypsy Band, Daniel Champagne - Max Savage, In the Beer Garden (weather permitting) 2-7pm.

THE LIGHTHOUSE THEATRE: Harrison Craig “More than a Dream THE SPHINX HOTEL: Carvery from $17.00

Monday November 4th BARWON CLUB HOTEL: $10 Parmis

ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Steak & Drink night LORD NELSON HOTEL: / Parmi & Pot for $15 on presentation of student I.D MALDON FOLK FESTIVAL: Artists include Eric Bogle, Battlefield Band, Sugarpie Band, PAtt and Possum and many more!

THE CAPITAL THEATRE (BENDIGO): Morning Music 2013 - The Women of the 60’s THE SPHINX HOTEL: Meals for $11

Tuesday November 5th CAPITAL THEATRE (BENDIGO): Punch Travelling Medicine Show

BARWON CLUB HOTEL: Turbo Fruits (USA), Sugar Ghouls, Cosmic Trash ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Steak & Drink night GEELONG RSL:Steak Night $13 THE SPHINX HOTEL: Meals for $11, Poker Night (free)

Wednesday November 6th BARKING DOG: Parmi Night from $13.90

BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Trivia Night from 7:30pm BEAVS BAR: Dave Anderson, Karaoke, Open Mic THE BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE): Open Mic CITY QUARTER BAR: 50% off Menu ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Trivia Night. Great Prizes from 8pm GEELONG RSL: Parma

& Pot Night $13 THE SPHINX HOTEL: Steak Night from $16, Poker Night ($10 buy in)

Thursday November 7th

Friday November 8th AT THE HEADS: Live music from 5pm till 7pm (Barwon Heads)

LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT: Live Band & DJs Mainroom and Terrace. Open from 9pm

BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Open Mic Night w/ Dave Dorman, Masters of Dartness 8:30pm

BARKING DOG: Flashback Fridays with Live Band

BAR PIZZA : Open Mic Night w/ Dave Dorman

THE BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Happy Hour 5-7pm

BEAVS BAR: Jordie Lane plus Andy Forster Live BLACK HATT: Tradies Night in the Bar from 5pm till 7pm, Open Mic from 8pm with acoustic, bands, solos & duets THE BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE):Cyberne (Japan) W/ Dead EUREKA: Zoope Dooper Party with Stevie Mink, plus Simon One, Shorty J, Pinky, Max McKay, Dawson, Vickers, Steve Toppa and more CITY QUARTER BAR: 50% off Menu ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Asahi Seafood & Chips Night KAROVA LOUNGE: Bury the Fallen BEAVS BAR: Jordie Lane THE MAX HOTEL: Parmi All Day All Night $12, InnQUIZitive Trivia from 7.30pm till 10.30pm, amazing prizes, call to book your team’s spot THE SPHINX HOTEL: Schnitzel Night from $13

BARWON CLUB HOTEL: Teramaze, Harlot, Damnations Day, Naberus, Malakyte (QLD)

BEAVS BAR: Rosco Live BLACK HATT: Drink promos from 5pm till 7pm (free entry), Public Nuisance - Live THE BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE): Twin Beasts CITY QUARTER BAR: Friday Unwind with live music then DJ EDGE GEELONG: Live music plus DJ ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Thank Guinness It’s Friday PIPING HOT CHICKEN SHOP: Hetty Kate and the Irwell St Band

THE SPHINX HOTEL: Retro Ago-Go

HARVESTER MOON: Loren Kate

THEATRE ROYAL (Castlemaine): Jordie Lane live in concert.

Dinner 7pm, show 8pm

THE LOFT (WARRNAMBOOL): We The People & Major Tom & The Atoms

WOOL EXCHANGE: Dan Sultan

Saturday November 9th LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT: Live Band & DJs Mainroom and Terrace. Open from 9pm

BARWON CLUB HOTEL: RIVER ROCKS FESTIVAL, 20 Bands including: King Parrot, Hits, King of The North, Legends of Motorsport BEAVS BAR: Steve Pianto Live THE BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE) : The Pretty Littles W/ Special Guests CAPITAL THEATRE (BENDIGO): David Helfgott, Porcelain Punch Travelling Medicine Show

THE LOFT: Alister Turril THE GROVEDALE HOTEL: Trojan

CITY QUARTER BAR: live entertainment and DJ

MARTIANS CAFE (DEANS MARSH): Date Brothers

EDGE GEELONG: Live music and DJ

THE KAROVA LOUNGE: Stonefield

ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Mad Cow

LIGHTHOUSE THEATRE: Johnny Cash: The Concert

THE GROVEDALE HOTEL: Kenny Miller

TORQUAY HOTEL: Live music in The Sports bar from 9.30pm CAPITAL THEATRE (BENDIGO): Johnny Cash The Concert

THE MAX HOTEL: Frequency SPHINX HOTEL: Grass Hopper

COURTHOUSE ARTS: Deborah Conway 5pm artist, talk 7.30 concert

THE MAX HOTEL: Adventure Playground

THE KAROVA LOUNGE: The John Steel Singers

TORQUAY HOTEL: Live music in The Sports bar from 9.30pm HOME HOUSE: Upstairs: Girl Audio, Zac Depetro (Cloud Nine / Tramp) vs T White (TFU/ Tramp), Downstairs: Best RNB / Hip Hop DJ Surrender

Industry Night (Free entry all night) w/ Live band & DJs in the Mainroom and Terrace

(CASTLEMAINE): Open Mic

THE LIGHTHOUSE THEATRE: Troy Cassar-Daley & Adam Harvey - The Great Country Songbook in Concert

CITY QUARTER BAR: 50% off Menu

SPHINX HOTEL: Carvery from $17.00

WHISPERS: DJ’s including from Matt Watkins, Slice n Dice, Lucille Croft, Frazr Adam, Jungle Jim, Butters, Courtney Mills, Zoolander, Who Killed Mickey, Joel Fletcher, Yatch Club DJs, Katt Nial

Monday November 11th

THEATRE ROYAL (Castlemaine): Dan Sultan live in concert.

Dinner 7pm, show 8pm

ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Steak & Drink night

BARWON CLUB HOTEL: $10 Parmis

THE SPHINX HOTEL: 11 Meals for $11

Sunday November 10th Tuesday November 12th BARWON CLUB HOTEL: Good Faces For Radio CITY QUARTER: Perfect Sunday Sesh COURTHOUSE ARTS:A Conversation in the Key of…Shane Howard, Alister Turrill, Yirrmal Marika and Tim Neal 5pm HARVESTER MOON: Chris Wilson, Sarah Carroll and The Pirates of Beer – Headlining Feed Your Senses Festival 8 – 10 Nov 2013 EDGE GEELONG: Live music plus DJ ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Wendy Lee Taylor Quartet + from 6pm Parmi Night 6 Great Parmis $20 GEELONG RSL: Weary and Friends LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT: Student &

THE BRIDGE HOTEL: Trivia Night hosted by Lifon from 7.30pm, free event ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Steak & Drink night GEELONG RSL: Steak Night $13

THE SPHINX HOTEL: 11 Meals for $11, Poker Night (free)

Wednesday November 13th BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Trivia Night from 7:30pm

BEAVS BAR: Andy Forster, Karaoke and Open Mic THE BRIDGE HOTEL

THE LOFT: Jake Whittaker & The Sly Mavericks

ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Trivia Night from 8.30pm till 10.30pm GEELONG RSL: Parma & Pot Night $13 GPAC: Rhonda Burchmore Up Close and Personal THE MAX HOTEL: $12 Steak Night THE SPHINX HOTEL: Steak Night from $16, Poker Night ($10 buy in)

Thursday November 14th BAR PIZZA: Open Mic Night w/ Dave Dorman

BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Open Mic Night w/ Dave Dorman, Masters of Dartness BLACK HATT: Tradies Night in the Bar from 5pm till 7pm, Open Mic from 8pm with acoustic, bands, solos & duets CITY QUARTER BAR: 50% off Menu ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Asahi Seafood & Chips Night GATEWAY HOTEL: Ian Moss (solo and Acoustic) GPAC: Rhonda Burchmore Up Close and Personal THE KAROVA LOUNGE: The Bennies THE MAX HOTEL: Parmi All Day All Night $12, InnQUIZitive Trivia from 7.30pm till 10.30pm, amazing prizes, call to book your team’s spot THE SPHINX HOTEL: Schnitzel Night from $13

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pez

By Cameron Brogden

Pez is back – and it’s been a while since we heard a new release from the man who brought us 2008’s runaway hit ‘The Festival Song’. Despite illness, he has managed to keep his name in the mix, making guest appearances on tracks by some of hip hop’s biggest names, making his next album hotly anticipated (and often considered to be a myth).

I caught up with Pez to talk about his appearance at next month’s Queenscliff Music Festival.

I couldn’t help but open with the same question asked of him by Illy when the two collaborated on last year’s hit ‘Where Ya Been’: ‘Yo Pez, where you been?’

“I guess in hibernation almost,” Pez joked. “When my first album came out it was a bit of a surprise, I guess. It was kind of pretty crazy; a crazy year.

Everything took off kind of quickly. It was really awesome; a lot of highs, but also lows at the same point. I started getting sick at the same time. I’ve got this thyroid problem which was really pretty full on, and then after that really big year I lost the plot a little bit and actually had to address that sort of shit, which was just weird.

“I’ve got this hyperactive thyroid; it’s like you really can’t focus,” he explained. “Writing music and all that kind of became secondary. It was weird man.

It felt like a couple of years went by and I really hadn’t done any music. I hadn’t thought about it.

It was just slowly getting that back together and then it pretty much turned around.” Pez went on, “and everyone; fans and the label were like, ‘awesome, you must have an album pretty much ready to go, like when’s it gonna be done, let’s get it out’ and all that kind of shit. And I’m like, ‘oh man, I haven’t even written a song’. I sort of had to just slowly start getting back into it which took a while, I guess, because I probably put a lot of pressure on myself to just want to start writing good songs again.”

As we spoke, he revealed he was close to finally releasing his sophomore album. “The single will come out in November. We were gonna put out the album at the end of November, but I think it’s actually going to come out around Big Day Out now, so I’ll put another single out right with Big Day Out and the album will come out just after that,” he said. “It’s not too far away now, which is kind of exciting. We’ll just see how it goes I guess.”

I asked if we’d be getting a preview of the new album at QMF. “Yeah, definitely,” he said. “It’s a lot … bigger sonically; the stuff I’ve done in the past has always been more laid-back and chill, so it was kind of fun for me to start to do some things that are a bit bigger.

When&Where: Queenscliff Music Festival – November 24 “Playing sort of laid-back music is cool, but when you’re in that live setting, sometimes it’s so fun to have those big songs and big beats to play and stuff because it really translates well live.” I then asked if it was his first time at QMF. “Yeah, it is actually man. I’m actually pretty excited to come and check that shit out,” he said.

We went on to talk about whether he had spent much time in the Geelong/Bellarine Peninsula area. “Little bits, but not as much as I’d probably like,” he said. “All the times I’ve come down I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s always nice to head down that way to go down to the beach and stuff like that. And all the times I’ve been to Geelong for shows it’s always been a lot of fun. There seems to be a lot of love down there for hip hop, which is

really awesome. I’m kind of thinking of making a little holiday of it, which will be awesome.

“I reckon we might try and come down for the whole lot of it,” Pez said of the festival weekend.

“I’ve already had a whole bunch of friends hit me up saying, ‘can we get tickets, can we come down’. I think it might be cool to just come down with a whole crew of people and check the whole thing out and turn it in to a little holiday.”

Talk turned to the line-up and if there were any acts in particular Pez was looking forward to. “I guess a lot of people really,” he said. “Just making sure we put on a great performance is what I’m most worried about.”

Pez has collaborated with the likes of 360 and

Illy, and was a part of that massive Bliss n Eso track ‘Reservoir Dogs’. I asked if there was anyone left he wanted to work with. “I intended to do … I mean, I ended up doing that song with Drapht on the track with B n E and everyone, but we’ve always spoken about wanting to do a song together,” Pez said. “I really dig a lot of his stuff.

And Seth [Sentry] and I always intended to do a song with him on the album, but the one we were gonna do kind of didn’t make it. I think if the time’s right I really want to do a song with Seth that feels like something kind of special.”

Pez is playing the Sunday at Queenscliff Music Festival on the Lighthouse Stage at 12.45pm. The new album will be called Don’t Look Down and will be released in the summer.

Staff and Management of the EMC Group Geelong strongly enforce a no-drug policy. Enjoy great music & drinks whilst staying drug-free.

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The Offspring written By Natalie Rogers

Legendary OC punks The Offspring – who came to prominence in the 90s as part of the SoCal punk movement alongside bands like Bad Religion, Green Day and Rancid – are this year’s Vans Warped Tour’s not-so-secret weapon due to their immense following and multigenerational appeal. Recently I experienced a ‘pinch me’ moment while shooting the breeze with the band’s bassist, Greg K. We chatted about our mutual love for fellow Californians T.S.O.L, Greg’s favourite Aussie pastime, and why teenage angst anthem ‘Self Esteem’ is still his favourite song to play live.

“It’s hands down the one that goes off the most at any gig! I also like to play it because it’s driven by the bass line – that’s why it’s always a fun one for me to play. Bad Habit is another cool one because it’s more aggressive and again the bass line starts the song, so it’s personally a standout,” he chuckled.

“But really any song that gets the crowd going is awesome to play.

“We set out to entertain people and that’s our main goal. I think it’s important not to take yourself too seriously; we’re not here to change the world. When we started out we just did it because we thought it was fun and more of a hobby. The fact that we’ve been able to do it as a career and it’s lasted so long is something that we never thought would happen.

It’s amazing when we hear from people who say they’d been going through a bad or hard time or they were suicidal and that a certain song has helped

The Living End written by Tex Miller

One of the main reasons that we haven’t heard The Living End this year is that they have been playing and touring hectically throughout Europe. So, as the main headliner for the Friday night’s entertainment at this year’s Queenscliff Music Festival, it was a huge honour to sit down and chat with Andy from the band ahead of their performance.

Having just completed a circuit of the country in support of Ash Grunwald’s new disc Gargantua, Andy is just recuperating from the touring life as we sit down to chat. “We have just finished a European tour with TLE, and at the moment are just taking a little break from things. We are playing at the Caulfield Cup in the next week or so and everything is moving towards the preparation for the Queenscliff performance”.

Heading out on the road with Ash for a few dates earlier in the year was an organic process and spontaneous decision that developed from their gig at the Wool Exchange earlier in the year. That tour, as Andy relates, was a different but extremely fun experience to working normally with TLE. “We had a jam at that Geelong show and things just seemed to snowball from there. Ash was going to be in Melbourne at some point and booked some studio time to lay down a few tracks, and we ended up laying down a whole record in one day.

“Working with Ash is a completely different beast because in TLE we refine things and rehearse a lot

them or saved their life … Gone Away is a song we hear people connect with a lot.”

Armed with an arsenal of crowd pleasers, The Offspring are waiting with bated breath to get on stage and destroy any doubts that they are irrelevant: “Because it’s a punk rock tour, our setlist will be a little harder and a little heavier. We’ll pull out old songs – all the songs that people know – and play them aggressively and loud! We’re planning to have fun up there.”

Greg continued in good spirits, but was quick to dispel rumours about new material: “We won’t be playing anything brand new. We’ve been working on a couple of songs here and there but we don’t really know what we’re going to do with them yet.

We haven’t really thought about doing a full-scale album yet. That might come sometime next year, but right now we’re just doing individual songs.

“Bands that we look to for inspiration (and I still listen to today) are all the L.A. county punk bands, like T.S.O.L and Social Distortion. Those were the guys we were listening to when we started the band.

We kind of adopted their sound,” Greg admitted, “and it’s the kind of sound that we still write and play today.”

So watch this space for any album updates, and in the meantime get out in the sunshine and experience The Offspring in all their noise and glory. “We always have a good time in Australia. I think we play three shows then have four or five days off in between.

I definitely want to get in the water – I love your beaches. I don’t know where we’ll be, but if you’re around come by.”

When&Where: Vans Warped @ Birrarung Marr – December 7

and spend a lot of time making what we think is the perfect rock and roll tune, and we rehearse and play it like that on stage. With Ash it’s very ‘what happens on the night, happens’. It’s a different process but great nonetheless.”

For the first time ever TLE are headed to Queenscliff, and with six albums under their belt, the setlist is sure to be rocking – and one of the most memorable for this year’s festival. “We obviously haven’t written a setlist for the gig just yet – that will happen on the day – but you can be assured to be hearing your favourite Living End tracks. We are there to have a good time and make sure you do too. It’s our first time at Queenscliff, so you won’t be hearing obscure b-sides. We’re going to rock the joint and it’s gonna be fantastic. Also, it’s just down the road for me, so it’s great to not have to travel five hours to get to the festival site. I can’t wait.”

Over the years TLE has produced many hits throughout their back catalogue including ‘Prisoner of Society’, ‘White Noise’ and ‘All Torn Down’, and so one of the obvious questions for Andy was, ‘does the commercial success ever cross the band’s mind in the writing process?’ “We never really think about that when we sit down to create an album. I suppose that every song we write we hope our fans will like, and the object of the game is to write a great song.

If we like it, then I think that our audience will too.

Songs come in different waves of inspiration and shapes and sizes, and we are constantly trying to write great tunes.

“We haven’t sat down to talk about or write the next Living End record, but you can be assured that the train ain’t slowin’ down yet.”

When&Where: Queenscliff Music Festival – November 22 through 24

Coloured Stone written By Natalie Rogers

When Coloured Stone first formed in the mission settlement of Koonibba, South Australia some 36 years ago, not even leader and lead singer Bunna Lawrie could have predicted their success and longevity. “If I didn’t love music and I wasn’t so positive, I wouldn’t be here telling you my story,” Lawrie said matter-of-factly. “I’m a positive man.

I believe in never giving up, and I believe in my music.”

It’s this conviction that has led Bunna Lawrie and his Coloured Stone to win a plethora of awards and national recognition within the Australian music industry, including four ARIA Awards – even earning a place in the National Indigenous Music Awards Hall of Fame. (Last year Lawrie proudly accepted the National NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award.)

“It means a great deal to me; I appreciate all the awards I’ve received. Through the years, my dedication to the band and determination to bring music to my people has kept me going.

“Music is so important in the world today. It brings inspiration and hope. I love sharing stories of my tribe, my culture and my journey through the songs I write.

When I see people dancing to my music it gives me strength and joy. Just to see my music making people happy is the best reward.”

With this in mind, Coloured Stone will be a highlight at this year’s AWME (Australasian World Music Expo), and Lawrie revealed that they’re planning something special for the showcase: “It’s an honour to be playing

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at the expo, and it’s a time of celebration for us too.

We’re planning to launch our tenth album Dance to the Sun. It’s going to be big!

“Also, next year is the 35th anniversary of Coloured Stone winning our first award as a band. We won Best Band and Best Original Song for Dancin’ in the Moonlight at the National Aboriginal Country Music Festival in WA back in 1978! It’s amazing. I still enjoy it so much, and we play with our heart and soul.”

Although the Coloured Stone line-up has changed over the years, founding member Lawrie has remained steadfast in the role of lead vocals, rhythm guitar, didgeridoo and gong stone. “As a songman, making music is what I love to do.” Lawrie also promises an authentic Coloured Stone experience: “We’ll definitely play the old stuff that I‘m sure a lot of people will remember, like Dancin’ and Black Boy, our iconic songs that are well known and loved.”

At the expo showcase Lawrie will be joined by current members Selwyn Burns (lead guitar, vocals), Russell Pinkie (bass guitar), Peter Hood (drums) and Cee Cee Honeybee (backing vocals) along with special guests, Golden Guitar-winning singer-songwriter Warren H. Williams and critically acclaimed rock/soul band The Deans.

When&Where: AWME, Melbourne – November 14 through 17

TALK OF THE

TOWN!

Keepin' it Regional!

Shane Howard

Jordie Lane

blink

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TALK OF THE TOWN! Talk of the Town: Where we did it all for the glory of love. Coming up you have… .........................................................................

Metal as Anything

Geelong’s Barwon Club has a night of the heavy stuff lined up next month with Malakyte, Teramaze, Damnations Day, Naberus and Harlott your guests of honour. Brisbane’s Malakyte lead the charge here with their new album Human Resonance. The band started the year in fine fashion, with their name appearing on the Soundwave Festival bill alongside Anthrax, Municipal Waste, Alestorm and many more. It is a pretty fair support cast the band has assembled. Melbourne-based Teramaze has attracted a strong and loyal following thanks to their blend of progressive, melodic and thrash metal. Their debut album AnhedoniA was released last year to a string of golden reviews. Damnations Day will add a local heavy/power prog-metal flavour to the show.

Check out their debut full-length, Invisible, the Dead.

The Barwon Club, Geelong – November 8. .........................................................................

Circus Oz Cranks It Up

Cranked Up is the Circus Oz show that’s setting the world on fire – certainly our American mates dig it with the show enjoying a five-week season on 42nd Street before touring the States to standing ovations. “The daring feats on trapeze and poles and unlikely equipment keep your heart in your mouth while the mildly raunchy verbal byplay and failed card tricks hold the attention of the adults who actually buy the tickets” is how Metro summed it up.

The New York Post, meanwhile, wrote: “A blend of high energy acrobatics, juggling, magic, exuberant clowning and all around derring do, accompanied by a pounding rock score.” Inspired by a construction site, Cranked Up has jugglers, musicians, acrobats, riggers and aerialists all building a celebration of diversity. You’ll be laughing one moment and on the edge of your seat the next.

Lighthouse Theatre, Warrnambool – November 2. .........................................................................

Aurora Jane Waiting to Land

Next time you’re in a chatroom (people still do that, right?) ask the person you’re speaking to whether they have heard of Aurora Jane: with a fan base across North America, Europe and India, the funk-infused pop-rock band has many friends across the world. Their new album is Holding Pattern and the band describes it as being “inspired by the intricate inner world of dream imagery and our unconscious desires”. The band spent much of last year on the international touring circuit before spending a two-month stint between studios in Melbourne and Byron Bay on their newie. The album follows previous releases Deep End and Universal Language. If you read our interview with the band last month, you would also know about ‘Mojo Junction’, a creative lifestyle website the band is behind. Main Bar, Ballarat – November 1. * Note: Aurora Jane will warm up the crowds in support of Stonefield at The Loft, Warrnambool on November 2. .........................................................................

Nick Barker Packs a Bite

Like Paul Kelly, Nick Seymour and Dave Faulkner, Nick Barker comes with a long and rich musical history.

In the early 1980s he played in bands The Curse and Beachouse before making his way into the stellar line-up of The Wreckery, the rock-blues outfit that also featured Hugo Race. Barker left The Wreckery before the release of their 1988 album Laying Down Law (although he did perform on the album) to front Nick Barker & the Reptiles, releasing the band’s debut album, Goin’ to Pieces, in 1989. Nick Barker and co would tour the album extensively, racking up some 200 shows a year.

A second album, After the Show, would be released in 1991. Barker also has an extensive solo career dating back to 1996’s debut, Damn Mermaids. Sounding as good as he ever has, Nick will swing by the Piping Hot Chicken Shop on November 29. .........................................................................

Living Next Door to Smokie

‘Alice, Alice, who the Eff is Alice’: if nothing else, we all know that riffing line from the Smokie song ‘Living Next

Door to Alice’ all too well. Much like ‘No Way, Get Effed, Eff Off’ to The Angels’ ‘Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again’, it’s something that sticks in your head. Smokie performed their first gig way back in 1965, although at the stage they were called The Yen, one of the several names the band went through until settling on Smokie.

Although they have released several well-known songs including ‘If You Think You Know How to Love Me’ and ‘Lay Back in the Arms of Someone’, their most famous is without a doubt ‘Living Next Door to Alice’. Originally released by Aussie group New World, Smokie made it a worldwide hit. In 1995, Dutch band Gompie would release their version, including the now infamous ‘Who the Eff is Alice’ part. They continue to tour as if they have just begun. Deakin’s Costa Hall @ Deakin University – November 30. .........................................................................

Visnja & Shaka Baka

Singer-songwriter, harpist and pianist Visnja was born in Adelaide as the youngest of three children. Visnja (pronounced Vish-nya), meaning ‘Cherry’, was captivated by music from an early age, composing her first piece at the age of 11. Her teen years were spent dividing time between visual art and music, with the songbird later studying the Arts before her frustrations at university would lead her to leave behind structured studies for a more free-flowing musical education. Across her journey Visnja has some colourful times. She made her concert debut at 2002’s Carols by Candlelight, performing to a live audience of over 35,000 people, and in 2004 she continued to write and perform for special events, including a banquet for the Malaysian Royal Family.

Along with her new band Shaka Baka, Visnja will take in a show at Babushka Bar, Ballarat on November 1.

Spinning Half Presents Spin Cycle 2

Major Reminder: River Rocks The all-conquering, ass-kicking River Rocks Festival is almost here, playing host to a day of tunes so good that it puts just about everything else to shame. Lining up you have: King Parrot, HITS, The Roobs, Legends of Motorsport, Digger and the Pussycats, Jackson Firebird, King Of The North, Cyberne, DEAD, BATPISS, Pro Tools, Poppin’ Mommas, Bitter Sweet Kicks, The Kremlings, The Underhanded, Mock Turkey, The Dipsticks and Stormtide. The Barwon Club, Geelong – November 9. 1pm1am. Oh yeah!

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Roo Twilights Welcomes Renée Geyer

The Anglesea Gold Club continues its fine Roo Twilights form with a performance by Renée Geyer. Here are some fast facts to get you up to speed: Born in Melbourne, Geyer joined her first band, Dry Red, in 1970. She released her debut album, a self-titled effort, in 1972. She had a hit in 1981 with ‘Say I Love You’. During the 1980s and 1990s, Geyer performed with artists including Chaka Kan, Joe Cocker, Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne. In 2002 Renée released her autobiography Confessions of a Dangerous Woman. She is one of the few Australian artists who has had records in the Australian charts every decade since the 1970s. She was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2005. She has described herself as “a white Hungarian Jew from Australia sounding like a 65year-old black man from Alabama”. Her new album is Swing. Anglesea Golf Club – November 9. .........................................................................

The Beer Flows in Bendigo

Craft beer has become a big thing among those looking for something a little different in their brew, and at the end of November Bendigo jumps on the bandwagon. The inaugural Bendigo Craft Beer Festival will showcase the best craft beers and ciders in Victoria and beyond.

Over 25 breweries are expected to attend, with some 100 beers and ciders to choose from. Brewers include Boatrocker, Holgate Brewhouse, 3 Ravens, Quiet Deeds and Bendigo’s own True Brew Bendigo. What goes well with beer? More beer, that’s right, but some great tunes don’t hurt either. Enter Jackson Firebird, APES, The Well Hungarians, Dan Rolls and Talisa Jobe who will all perform throughout the day. Also, as with any good festival, there will be plenty for the kids as well. No beer though – not until they’re 14. Bendigo Racecourse – November 30. Hit bendigocraftbeerfestival.com.au for more.

Geelong’s music loving crowd saw out August with the inaugural Spin Cycle show, a multistage, multi-genre indoor event the Spinning Half team described as “an event to air your dirty laundry and combine your styles” when we spoke to them not too long ago. In the same interview, we asked whether the team was confident of success given the competitive industry. We were told: “I’m not worried about the competitive festival industry. Let’s build something as a community that is affordable for local punters and is a place for bands to combine together in their masses to show some unity, but more importantly have some fun.”

Well, fun was had, but the games have only just begun. Coming up at the end of November is Spin Cycle 2. And just who is joining us this time around? I am glad you asked. You have: The Jungle Giants, Lurch & Chief, We The People, Residual and Jordan Riddle. More is to be announced, but you gotta be happy with that start. Hopefully you have been singing along to The Jungle Giants’ Learn to Exist album which they released in August as that is sure to get a working. Don’t forget about their EPs The Jungle Giants and She’s a Riot either; they’re bound to get a going over as well. The Wool Exchange, Geelong – November 30.

The Rise of Pete Cornelius Short notice here folks, but if you’re in Ballarat with nothing to do tonight (that would be Thursday, October 31), you may wish to head to Babushka Bar for a little blues ‘n’ roots. Even if you have plans, they may be worth skipping out on for this one. Pete Cornelius may be a Tassie man, but his heart is in the Delta heartland.

At the age of six he was banging away on the family piano, and by nine he had discovered guitar. A couple of years later he became part of the Tasmanian Festival Wind Symphony, performing at shows across Tasmania and at The Wangaratta Jazz and Blues Festival. At the age of thirteen he released his first album.

Skip ahead a little and Pete is now a married man with a couple of rugrats. Groundswell is his latest release, a genre-skipping album featuring originals as well as covers of Rev. Al Green, Otis Rush and Ray LaMontagne.

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They Slice N Dice

That stage-diving masked duo that goes by the name of Slice N Dice continue their mission to destroy dance floors around the country with another run of shows including dates at Chinese Whispers @ Eureka, Geelong on November 2 and Universal Bar, Bendigo on December 14. The electro bounce favourites debuted at the #41 spot on the ITM Top 50 National DJ Awards in Australia in 2011, jumped up to #36 in 2012, before finding themselves sitting pretty at #13 in 2013.

Turbo Fruits Cooked in Butter Hailing from Nashville, garage-rock outfit Turbo Fruits was founded by Be Your Own Pet guitarist Jonas Stein. The band took a little time to settle on a line-up – at one point BYOP drummer John Eatherly was a member – but they managed to cough up their debut self-titled album in 2007. Two albums have followed: 2009’s Echo Kid and last year’s Butter. From their website: “Butter is the product of 200 days a year in the van, sleeping on floors, accumulating the kind of stories you would never, ever tell your grandkids … Butter is the product of busting their asses the way most bands pull bong rips. Butter is a wild, raw record for the kind of folks that aren’t ashamed to get loose, get sweaty and get down.” Enjoy a bowlful of Turbo Fruits today. The Barwon Club, Geelong – November 4.

Robert Ellis & Cory Chisel Two songmen with a little country in their hearts will arrive in Australia shortly. Robert Ellis made the move from Houston to Nashville late last year. In his younger days (admittedly, he is still only in his mid-20s) Ellis would perform at a local weekly country showcase called ‘Whiskey Wednesday’. Over the last couple of years, however, he has spent the better part of his time on the road, supporting for such acts as Alabama Shakes, Old Crow Medicine Show and Old 97’s. Earlier in the year he entered the studio to record his third album, telling Rolling Stone: “I don’t want people to think of this record as coming from classic country influence. Obviously it’s a part of who I am, but I want them to hear the other stuff.” The shift in sound sees Ellis drawing on RnB, bossa nova, fusion and free jazz. Cory Chisel is the leader of Americana cum folk-rock outfit Cory Chisel and The Wandering Sons. The son of a preacher, Chisel was raised on hymns and Johnny Cash.

Later an uncle introduced him to the music of Howlin’ Wolf, Robert Johnson and Sonny Boy Williamson – an introduction which would prove instrumental in the singer-songwriter’s musical path. Cory’s latest album is Old Believers. The Barwon Club, Geelong – November 17.

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It’s All in Kid Mac’s Head Head Noise is the new album from Sydney’s Kid Mac (aka Macario De Souza) and it’s only freshly on the shelves. The new album, which Mac describes as “a personal inward journey of the busy heart and mind”, was recorded with Ryan Enright in his Bondi Beach studio and features Perth-based UK beatbox whiz Sam Perry. The newie is the follow-up to No Man’s Land, an album which blew up and led to supports with Mickey Avalon, Brazil’s Marcelo D2, The Beautiful Girls, Bliss N Eso and The Game, as well as a personal request from RZA to join Wu Tang Clan’s Australian tour. Throw in the mix festival appearances around the country and a Best Urban Artist 2010 at the MusicOz Awards and 2012 Artist of the Year nod and you have the makings of an artist whose talent knows no bounds. Torquay Hotel, Torquay – November 29.

accurate. What was meant to be zone out music became some of my most infectious.” The Barwon Club, Geelong – November 21 & The Karova, Ballarat – November 23. Locally, Unfold Yourself is released November 15 and features a stack of instrumentals exclusive to Australia. .........................................................................

Star Bar Shines in November Bendigo Blues & Roots Music Festival Well, we’re on the home stretch and just over the hill and around the corner sits the Bendigo Blues & Roots Music Festival.

Returning for its third year in 2013, the festival brings together four days and over 100 acts. The festival is the brainchild of local muso and all-round good guy Colin Thompson. Starting a new festival is no small feat and seeing it enter a third year is even more impressive, so Colin and his team are to be commended for their massive efforts. Acts include Aaron Wales, Alanna & Alicia Egan, Alister Turrill, Anchor & the Butterfly, Andrea Marr Band, Andrew Higgs, The Bellwethers, Ben Walker, Black Aces, Carus Thompson, Cass, Claude Hay, Cold Snap, Collard Greens & Gravy, Doc White, Ella Spizzica, Genevieve Chadwick, Geoff Achison & The Souldiggers, Hailey Calvert, Jackson Firebird, Josh Owen, King Of The North, Lloyd Spiegel, Louise Adams, Meredith ‘Mez’ Whittle, Old World Sparrow and Sal Kimber and the Rollin’ Wheel. There is plenty more too! One of the major highlights of the festival is Saturday’s (November 9) family-friendly day out in Rosalind Park featuring 16 acts across two stages. The Bendigo Blues & Roots Music Festival takes place across various Bendigo venues from November 7 through 10. Hit bendigobluesandroots.com.au for further information.

Ian Ball Unfolds Before You

Earlier in the year Gomez’s Ben Ottewell toured Australia in solo mode; now it’s time for fellow Gomez player Ian Ball to do the same. These Gomez guys really dig Australia, and lord knows we love ’em too. Ball has released two solo albums: 2007’s Who Goes There, and the album that delivers him to us, Unfold Yourself. Discussing the album, Ball said: “Although I set out to record a mainly instrumental, electronic record, I couldn’t stop myself from playing acoustic guitar and writing songs over the top. What was originally supposed to be long and sprawling became concise and

November is sure to be a month to remember when it comes to Bendigo’s Star Bar with an absolutely massive month ahead. The Yacht Club DJs welcome the final month of spring, checking into the venue on November 1. Rising star Yahtzel hits the venue on November 8 as part of his bumper High With Me tour. ‘High With Me’ is killing it on SoundCloud, with over 200,000 plays at the time of writing. DJ and triple j golden gal Nina Las Vegas has a show locked in for November 15.

Touch Sensitive spread the joy on November 22.

Touch Sensitive released their debut single ‘Body Stop’ in 2004, one of the first tracks released on Future Classic. November 23 is reserved for Allday. Hailing from Blackwood, and now based in Melbourne, Allday is part of a new era of Aussie hip hop. Finally, L D R U, aka Drew Carmody, will get the job done on November 29. Told you it’s a massive month. .........................................................................

Back From the Wildeornes

Featuring a couple of ex-Downriver players, Wildeornes (pronounced ‘Wilderness’ for those playing at home) released their debut full-length album in August last year. Those ex-Downriver members in Damo and Richy had no real vision to form a new band, or make a record for that matter, but sometimes things just fall into place. Now a few years in, the band’s sludge/stoner/doom/whatever else sound will be heard on a second release. A message deep from the band’s heart: “Although this is only one of many gigs to attend this year, can you really look inside yourself and decide that it’s not worth going? (Although I know most of the people reading this couldn’t give a flying f**k at the moon about it). But if you DO attend, it will be great f**king fun – and at the end of it all, what more is there in this short and futile existence?”

The Karova, Ballarat – November 15. .........................................................................

ChillOut Festival 2014

There are a couple of early snippets of information out there regarding the 2014 ChillOut Festival.

First up is that Heather Peace will return to Australian following a series of sold out shows earlier this year and will perform at next year’s event. Peace made a name for herself though British soap opera Emmerdale, playing Anne Cullen. Although always interested in music, Peace made the decision to put music on hold and

focus on acting. In 2011, with her love for music reignited, Peace embarked on a sold-out UK tour.

In 2012 she released her full-length album, the jazzy Fairytales. The second bit of news is that the fabulous Dolly Diamond will host a comedy roast fundraiser for the festival on December 13 at the Daylesford Town Hall. ChillOut has grown to become the biggest and longest-running country queer pride event in regional Victoria. It takes place across the Labour Weekend. .........................................................................

A Second Home at Home House

Nightlife doesn’t get much better than it does at Geelong’s Home House. It is even better now that the warmer months are upon us. Open Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, the venue is arguably G-Town’s biggest and best nightclub. They’re even licensed until 7am – and anyone that has the stamina to keep things going until then is okay in my book. Check ’em out on Twitter to keep updated about the goods the venue serves up every week.

Local Venues Receive Recognition

The nominees for The Age Music Victoria Awards 2013 have been announced and categories for Best Regional Act and Best Regional Venue have been introduced, due recognition for the fantastic talent and work of the local scene.

Nominees for Best Regional Act are Gold Fields, Hunting Grounds, Quarry Mountain Dead Rats, Stonefield and Yacht Club DJs. The nominees for Best Regional Venue, meanwhile, are The Karova (Ballarat), Meeniyan Town Hall (Gippsland), Theatre Royal (Castlemaine), The Barwon Club (Geelong) and The Bridge (Castlemaine). We have seen some fantastic acts come through regional Victoria this year – and there is plenty left before the year is out. To the venues, keep doing what you’re doing. It is not an easy slog, but you’re doing some mighty fine work and we’re all better for it. Voting is open to the public until November 15. .........................................................................................

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Some Martians Café Treats

Martians Café has another solid month of tunes lined up for November, so sober up and make a note of the following: Kyle Taylor welcomes the month on November 1. The Date Brothers own the venue on November 8. Geoff Achison checks in on November 15. Geoff taught himself to play guitar in the isolation of rural Australia and is today considered one of Australia’s finest guitarists. In 2007 he was invited to the US, spending two years racking up thousands of clicks while performing in iconic venues across the country. Smokin’ Sam is lined up for November 23. And closing out the month you have Smokestack Rhino on November 30. .........................................................................

The Sphinx Hotel

Geelong’s Sphinx Hotel has a few treats coming up and the first one we’re going to look at is a ripper. Once upon a time, Geelong’s Sphinx Hotel was Caddies Disco. It was the place to be if you wanted to be seen. Next month The Sphinx will turn back the clock for a reunion where all the old crew are invited: ex-DJs, bands, bar staff, security and, of course, the patrons. If you were part of the ‘Caddies Family’ then you’re invited. Sorry, no kids allowed. That one takes place November 2.

On November 9 it’s another blast from the past with Grasshopper returning for the first time in 40 years. Reborn in 2013, the band may be sporting a different line-up but the tunes remain golden.

Coming up next month, meanwhile, you have a couple of ripper tribute acts with a Bee Gees tribute on December 7 and a Fleetwood Mac and Eurythmics tribute on December 14.

DANIEL CHAMPAGNE - MAX SAVAGE

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TALK OF THE TOWN! Inca Roads Music Festival

We’ll take a closer look at this one next issue, but for this issue we’ll get right to it. The Inca Roads music festival takes place at the end of November and it’s a ripper.

Seriously, it’s A RIPPER. Gold Fields, Northeast Party House, Willow Beats, The Woohoo Review, The Barons of Tang, Tully on Tully, Lurch & Chief, Bored Nothing, Andras Fox, Playwrite, Sex on Toast, Neighbourhood Youth, Albert Salt, Velma Groove, Echo Drama, Sleepy Dreamers, 8 Bit Love and That Gold Street Sound are among those set to perform. The Inca Roads festival is put together by a not-for-profit organisation. All proceeds raised from Inca Roads are injected back into the community. Plus, it’s all about local – local artists, local markets, local everything!

You gotta love that. Greater Ballarat Region – November 29 through December 1. Hit incaroads.com.au for further information. .........................................................................

John Waters Takes on Lennon

There are few musicians who have captivated quite the way John Lennon did and continues to do so, so taking on the task of paying homage to the man is no easy feat.

But in 1992 John Waters and Stewart D’Arrietta took to the small stage of the Tilbury Hotel in Woolloomooloo with the debut of their production, Looking Through a Glass Onion. Originally intended as a one-week run, the production would enjoy a six-week sold-out stint.

Fast-forward a little and John and Stewart performed a massive 137-date run across 2010, 2011 and 2012. The production is New York bound, but first comes a run of dates in early 2014. Lighthouse Theatre, Warrnambool – January 19; The Capital, Bendigo – February 9; WCPA, Ballarat – February 15; Drama Theatre @ GPAC, Geelong – February 16. .........................................................................

We The People Have Spoken

of some 1000 vintage model aeroplane engines, tether cars and die-cast models. Last year, the festival attracted the participation of the cars driven by Australia’s two F1 World Champions – Sir Jack Brabham’s 1966 Repco Brabham BT19 and Alan Jones’ 1980 Williams FW07.

Ballarat – November 5 through November 9. Further information is available through ballaratfestivalofmotoring. com.au. .........................................................................

Jordan Riddle Me This

Jordan Riddle is a young Geelong singer-songwriter making his mark on the music world. September saw the release of his debut EP Beyond the Pines, a release Riddle self-recorded and self-produced. In late September he opened for Bob Evans at his Beav’s Bar appearance, while November will see him perform at the Queenscliff Music Festival as part of the Foot-In-The-Door competition as well as the next Spin Cycle event. He also has a show at The Loft, Warrnambool on November 8 where he will be joined by fellow Geelong singer-songwriter Henschke. .........................................................................

Matthews & Musto Roadshow

Chris Matthews and Glenn Musto have decided two musical heads are better than one and have teamed up for a few shows. Chris Matthews combines folk, country, foot stompin’ rock ‘n’ roll and roots before adding guitar skills that will make your jaw drop. Armed with his sixstring and twelve-string guitars, banjo, lap steel and stomp box, Matthews delivers a show of pure passion. Musto has been described as having the pop sensibilities of Crowded House with a hint of local grit. He has been touring for 15 years and recently performed for Danish royalty (have you done that?). Babushka Bar, Ballarat – November 13. .........................................................................

BallaRatCat Delivers the Funny

Not too long ago Melbourne’s We The People released the single ‘Sweetheart’. The accompanying film clip begins with the band decked out in white as only the purists souls can be before being bombarded with waters balloons filled with paint and terrorised by a couple of cheeky gals.

It’s the kind of fun the band likes to bring to the stage as well (without the mess of the paint). Make sure you keep an eye out for their sophomore album, The Truth about Fables. The Loft, Warrnambool – November 9.

The next BallaRatCat comedy caper hits town tomorrow night, so if you’re in the mood for laughs, you know what to do. Cal Wilson (Channel 7’s SlideShow), Simon Rogers (ABC Radio), Elbowskin (musical comedy duo) and up-and-comer Laura Davis will be there. Doors open at 7pm. Entry is $20. The Lounge at The George, Ballarat is the place to be. There is not a better laugh to be had for miles and miles. * Note: Shows are also coming up on December 5 and December 12 so make sure you bookmark facebook.com/ballaratcatcomedy for updates.

Ballarat Festival of Motoring

Busy Times for Claude Hay

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The Ballarat Festival of Motoring is just around the corner. An exhibition of unique cars and motorcycles from days gone by to today will be on display, as will a collection

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Hailing from the Blues Mountains, songman Claude Hay has always done it his way. Not only has he built all his own instruments, but he also built his own dome house

The Murlocs in Space Earlier in the year The Murlocs lost a mixing session to a laptop thief. Luckily, a track called ‘Space Cadet’ was salvaged. Recorded with Stu McKenzie (King Gizzard), ‘Space Cadet’ is accompanied by a film clip shot on the edge of Lake Corangamite. Themusic.com.au: “The Murlocs are loud, abrasive and pretty much perfect. Ambrose contorts on stage with a wiry charisma, and even when he stops singing to play some surprisingly effective harmonica, he remains a captivating presence.” The Barwon Club, Geelong – November 22.

and recording studio from the ground up. When it comes to his tunes, Hay blends slide guitar, bass and drums in order to serve up an irresistible sound that jumps across stompin’ traditional blues, hard rock and body-shakin’ funk. Recently the one-man-band decided he wanted to make a live DVD and has jumped on the crowdfunding bandwagon to do so. If you check him out on Pozible you can throw in a few bucks to help with its recording.

Pledges begin at an easy $5; but remember, the more you bid the cooler the pay off. You got $1000 bucks to spare?

Throw it Hay’s way and he’ll play your house party. Gigs: The Blues Train, Queenscliff – November 1 & the Bendigo Blues & Roots Music Festival. .........................................................................

Maldon Folk Festival In 1974 a small group of local performers came together to give folk music to the people.

This small idea gave birth to the Maldon Folk Festival, which today welcomes up to 300 performers covering traditional folk, blues, gospel, a capella, bluegrass and contemporary. Here we are again in 2013 with the festival just about to kick off its 40th birthday. Performers include Eric Bogle, Rose Bygrave & Marcia Howard, Neil Murray, Tiffany Eckhardt & Dave Steel, The Ugly Uncles, Janette Geri, Appalachian Heaven String Band, Bruce Watson, Claymore, Danny Spooner, Nick Charles and Alawishus Jones.

International acts, meanwhile, include Battlefield Grave, Charlie Walden & Patt Plunkett and Sugar Pie Band. Other activities of note include musical theatre and theme presentations, spoken word, dancing, instrument workshops, singing and songwriting competitions and an instrument makers exhibition. A stack of children’s workshops and activities will keep the little tackers busy. The Maldon Folk Festival takes place this weekend from November 1 through November 4. There are a couple of options for tickets. The full weekend tickets are the best value, but if you just want to take in the Saturday or Sunday, there is an option for that as well. Do yourself a favour and hit maldonfolkfestival.com for a more extensive rundown. Or you can just chance your luck and head on across. It’s a safe bet.

More Reminders

You want reminders? We got reminders! The Bendigoat Music Fest takes place at The Newmarket Hotel, Bendigo on November 2. Adamus Exul, Order of Torment, Scar the Surface, Bronson and much more will perform. The Bridge, Castlemaine hosts Harry Howard & The NDE on November 1, The Spoils on November 2, Cyberne on November 7 and The New Christs and Grindhouse on November 9. Finally, the Music for Lovers, Villains and Fools show featuring The Bearded Gypsy Band, The Tiger and Me, Daniel Champagne, Max Savage and more checks into the Old Hepburn Hotel, Hepburn Springs on November 3.

Sounds of Joe Oppenheimer

Songman Joe Oppenheimer always had a wandering musical mind, but it wasn’t until he was 17 that he fell into guitar. Inspired in equal measures by the sonorous pop music of the ’90s and the CD collection of his parents, Joe would find his way to a place where folk meets electro. Joe takes to Babushka Bar, Ballarat on November 9 where he will perform three sets celebrating the fantastic work of UBlive students in 2013. Students have produced 100 artists over the course, with 30,000+ YouTube views for their hard work.

grew out of the absence of a punk and hardcore scene at that particular time. Through hanging out and skating together, it was a natural and organic progression, and inevitable the members would begin to play music together. “We all loved the same music when we started out, and like anyone began to play covers and our original repertoire developed from there. It all fell in to place quite quickly as the punk scene grew, and it snowballed from there really.”

Looking through the evolution of hardcore music over the years, Scott feels that in 2013 the music is quite removed from the origins and roots of the music genre. From just a quick Google search of ‘punk music’, two of the main bands that keep cropping up are Green Day and The Ramones. The originality of Toe to Toe’s music is something that makes Scott happy all these years later.

“Toe to Toe sounds like Toe to Toe, and I think that is an important thing. We are not a replica or a copy of someone else. Underground punk rock and hardcore bands that struggled to sell more than 1000 copies of their records are more of an influence on our music than the mainstream of Green Day and Blink 182. I didn’t get in to punk rock to listen to mainstream music,” Scott chuckles.

Toe to Toe written by Tex Miller

When you think of the Australian hardcore music scene, most times you would probably think of the likes of Parkway Drive, but recently I got the opportunity to sit down with Scott Mac from Toe to Toe, who have been together for a staggering 22 years and can be considered Australian pioneers of the genre. Over that time there have been some crazy performances, and ahead of their performance at the Barwon Club on the 29th

of November, I sat down with Scott to talk about the history of the band.

With a stack of EPs and full-length albums to their name, at the time of talking to Scott Toe to Toe are currently working on a vinyl EP release, which in a way is a return to the band’s earlier production methods. As expected, Scott is quite excited to return to the old school way. “We released the majority of our earlier EPs and albums on vinyl because that is what you did back in the day. CDs were just starting to come in to existence back then

and everyone was releasing on vinyl. There’s just a certain spark that you get when you put on a vinyl record. We wanted to recreate that feeling, plus we have just re-released Arturo Gatti, our 2010 album, on Red Vinyl,” Scott said.

The production and distribution over the time the band has been together has become simpler because Toe to Toe now run their own record label. Although it is hard at times, Scott feels that maintaining a sense of creative control over the music is good.

As the only original member of Toe to Toe, Scott feels that there is still an element of having past members on stage each night, due to past members’ children growing up on the band and now playing in the group. “It’s really cool to have the younger guys playing in the group. I have a picture of Deitzy (the drummer) as a thirteen-year-old with a Toe to Toe shirt on. He knew exactly what needed to be done and he knew exactly the style of music that we were playing and took it from there. In that sense, it’s because everybody is aware of what they have to do.”

Forming in the late eighties in Sydney, Toe to Toe

Throughout their illustrious career, the band has played some of the biggest rock festivals this country has to offer. From Homebake to Livid and the Vans Warped Tour, it’s fair to say that throughout of all of these experiences there must be some awesome tour stories. “A day in life of hitting the stage: Drive for hours, turn up, play, eat, sleep, get in the van and drive for hours again. It’s not as glamorous as people think. The Warped tour was cool because we got paid a little bit extra to get our own bus. You hang out, you meet cool people like Karl Alvarez, and hear some true old school punk rock stories.”

Toe to Toe are heading out on the road once again and are set to hit the Barwon Club on the 29 th of November. Having played numerous shows in Geelong before, this gig is set to be a highlight for both Scott and the band. “We’ve played some absolute crackers in Geelong and have some really good friends from down there. Hopefully everybody comes out, and I’m sure we are just going to rip it up. Years back we were joined on stage by the Poppin’ Mommas, and for anyone that has seen them live that’s one of the best rock and roll shows you can experience. Come on down and rock out with us. You won’t regret it.”

When&Where: The Barwon Club, Geelong – November 29

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FREE CLASSIFIEDS SEND YOUR INFO TO: editorial@fortemag.com.au or p.o. box 1388, geelong 3220 or fax 5229 0318 FOR INDIVIDUAL USE ONLY, NOT FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES.

19yo Male singer looking for funk/rock musicians: Want similar aged guys who like Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Beatles, and ANYTHING funky bass! i love ANY music prior to 1950s all the way back to classical and beyond! I also play trumpet, Contact Sam 0407 347 444 Lead Guitarist, Bass Player and Vocalist are looking for an experienced drummer to complete a Geelong based Blues/Rock outfit.

Influences include : Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Doors, Pink Floyd, John Lee Hooker, Van Morrison, Black Keys, Ash Grunwald, Stevie Ray Vaughan etc...

Also have originals to develop together as well. If interested contact - Craig: 0404 054 045 or email transform_pt@yahoo. com.au Screaming Vocalist wanted for metalcore band. Vocalist required between the ages of about 17 - 19. Live experience not necessary. Influences include Parkway Drive and August Burns Red. Email andyw14@live.com.au Wanted: Bass Player & Drummer. I’m a Singer/ Songwriter, who has written/ produced an album of original songs, looking to gig originals & covers.

Influences include U2, INXS, Oasis, The Verve, Snow Patrol. Looking for easy going/reliable muso’s who know their craft. Call Phil 0421 901 530 www. zeffamusic.com Vocalist Wanted.

Experienced 25 y.o. guitarist looking for female vocalist

to form acoustic duo to start playing cover gigs asap.

Would also be interested in writing together music if partnership works well.

Phone Curt 0412 166 393 Looking for a rock singer between the age 17-19. Main Influences are Green Day, Foo Fighters and Led Zeppelin. Band with Management and Label. Email and info at melodicmusic.com Looking for a drummer, not afraid to experiment. Male/ female. Age 35++ ono. All original. English/Australian influences without the radio play. Original to the extent of punk/pop sensibility 1978 to the not-so-now style.

Think of yourself as a patron of The Saints, Stiff Little Fingers, Radio Birdman, Buzzcocks, The Smiths, Psychedelic Furs, Iggy & The Stooges, Wedding Present, Happy Mondays etc etc, then forget you have to be. The usual... car, equipment, attitude, mental state (in an OK kind of...) punctual, earplugs accepted. Be prepared to apply yourself. Let us know on 0409 567 043. Please leave your details and we will hear you - Confirmation code: AKA 1963 Geelong rock band looking for lead vocalist. We are a Geelong based original band looking for a lead vocalist, have a lot of experience and heaps of great original music waiting to be sung. Influences: pearl jam, chili peppers, foo fighters, nirvana, led zep, sound garden. Contact Ben 0432049231.

DANDO’S: ICONS

Henschke

by Brendan Dando

The best way to describe our local music scene is that it’s a community of friends; friends who all get out to support each other’s gigs and have a great time in the process. It’s been this desire to support one another that has helped build Geelong’s scene to where it is today, and one of the most common faces you’ll find at local shows is that of Nath Henschke.

Known for his cheeky grin and loveable character, Henschke is popular man amongst Geelong musicians. His years as a guitarist for rock outfit Cast Iron Piñata saw him develop a contagious stage presence that could always make you smile. “I learnt so much from my time with those legends (CIP). From stage antics to tour planning, and pretty much just being prepared for the worst,” he explains. “All that you’d expect to learn from being in a band that had a fondness of touring.”

However, after several national tours and a tour of Europe last year, Henschke made the tough decision to leave the band to pursue a solo career as an acoustic folk artist, as he reveals: “To be honest, it’s been a fairly smooth transition overall and I’m having a load of fun with it.” Although, at times it does come with certain difficulties. “The hardest challenge really is just remembering my lyrics. I’ve got a couple of songs I wrote a while back that I’ve since changed, so I’ve been caught going back to the old lyrics a few times when performing live,” he says with a laugh.

Though now he hones his craft as one of Geelong’s most promising new talents, Henschke’s love of music began when he bought his first CD: Queen’s Greatest Hits. “I purchased it at Sanity when I was in Grade 2 with my first-ever $20 note – it was money very well spent in my opinion,” he explains. “Apart from that, driving around in the old Datsun Sunny listening to the likes of Zeppelin, Floyd, Clapton, The Who or Hendrix on cassette tape was a very good upbringing.”

Now a passionate follower of local music,

Henschke believes it’s extremely important for local musicians to get out and support their peers. “You learn from experiences on stage as well as off, so I try to get out whenever possible to go see some original acts,” he reveals. “I’ve really noticed more people have been coming out to gigs as of late, plus with summer coming up you’d hope the patron count continues to rise!”

It’s no surprise that people are beginning to turn out more frequently, with Geelong filled with a number of talented musicians, something Henschke agrees with: “We’re a little spoilt for talent in Geelong when it comes to all these awesome bands; it’s so hard to tell who the next break out star will be.” In saying that though, he does have some notable favourites in the local scene. “There’s a fun little love between Alister Turrill, RDZJB, Famous Will, Two Coloured Koi & the Murdena crew, who are usually at each other’s gigs and always end up making sure everyone has a good night.

“I also dig Jordan Riddle. I mean, I’ve only seen him play live once but he had the whole room at Beav’s in awe. I’m stoked to be fortunate enough to be playing with him Nov 8th at The Loft.

Should be a fun night!”

‘LIKE’ Henschke – facebook.com/henschkemusic When&Where: Odyssey Tavern, Mount Duneed – November 3 & The Loft, Warrnambool – November 8

Maldon Folk Festival: A message from the Festival Director written by Pam Lyons.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE FORTE NEWSLETTER AT FORTEMAG .COM.AU

We’ve made it to 40 years! Come help us celebrate from Friday 1st to Monday 4th of November.

The performers have been finalized - Eric Bogle, Battlefield Band (Scotland), Rose Bygrave & Marcia Howard, Charlie Walden and Patt Plunkett (USA), Sugar Pie Band (USA), Margaret & Bob Fagan (NSW), Danny Spooner (with Duncan Brown), Claymore, Bruce Watson, Lloyd Spiegel Duo, Neil Murray, Nick Charles, Phil Garland (NZ), Rory Faithfield (WA), Munro, O’Callaghan Titchener, The Junes (Suzannah Espie, Sarah Carroll, Gleny Rae, Dougie Bull, Chris Tabone), The Mae Trio, Tiffany Eckhardt & Dave Steel, Enda Kenny & Lindsay Martin and more - http://www. maldonfolkfestival.com/programme.htm and tickets are now available: http://www.maldonfolkfestival.com/ tickets.htm, people can also buy tickets from the festival office during the festival.

There will be a tribute to Michael Kennedy on Sat at 5.45pm in the Troubadour Wine Bar featuring Rose Bygrave & Marcia Howard, Enda Kenny, Maria Forde, Penny Larkins, Suzette Herft, Greg Waddell, Mandy Connell, Jenny Simpson, Jane Thompson & James Rigby, Helen Wright, Jeanette Gillespie and the Mae Trio.

For the 45th festival in 2018 we plan to produce a book of stories and pictures, so for the next four years we will be having a photographic exhibition in the Main Streets of Maldon, and then the book in 2018. Any photos or stories you have, particularly of the early days, are most welcome and the sources will be acknowledged.

At our unique festival you can enjoy four days of a wide variety of music including traditional folk, bluegrass, Celtic, contemporary and world, with performers from all over

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Australia and overseas. There will be instrument, song and dance workshops, bush poetry events, theatrical & themed presentations, song writing competitions and an Instrument Makers Exhibition plus dedicated children’s venues with music & craft activities. The Maldon Folk Festival has a unique friendly atmosphere that appeals to all ages. Something for everyone!

The National Trust Classified town of Maldon has a wealth of historic halls, churches, pubs and cafes – our venues are intimate and relaxed – plus the natural amphitheatre of Mount Tarrangower – home to the legendary Guinness Tent, the Troubadour Wine Bar and a small village of food stalls, kids’ marquee, Session Tent and our main outdoor stage – with adjacent bush camping.

We welcome back the Troubadour Wine Bar and the Victorian Goldfields Railway.

BENDIGO

by Darlene Taylor

While trawling YouTube one day, I happened upon a program that looked at Brisbane bands that had been born during an era in which the prevailing social mood was staid enough to demand a bold response from artists. The documentary, which was clearly filmed on a tiny budget, offers an important insight into a time and place that gave us significant acts such as The Saints.

With perhaps even fewer resources and living in a less populated place, I wondered whether it would be worth turning the camera lens on Bendigo’s music scene and establishing its past and present state. Thus began a project that remains untitled but has thus far resulted in interviews with several key figures, including Colin Thompson and Donovan Webb, who are respectively responsible for the Bendigo Blues & Roots Music Festival and Gigfest.

These two major events have offered platforms for many local performers of a high calibre, with one of them being Marc Leon, a blues musician who related engaging stories when talked to of being in bands years ago that supported, among others, The Kinks.

Webb’s Gigfest, which is next scheduled for January 2014 and is a selfdescribed “underground music festival”, has presented the likes of the much missed Grand Perceptor, a trio whose singular and stunning vision was unfortunately not enough to keep it together. One of its members, Old World Sparrow, continues to put his stamp on the scene with his solo efforts, including the novel ‘Is This a Warning’, a track which also features the quirky Miss Vex. Sparrow, another one of my documentary’s subjects, performed his gentle song ‘Streetlights’ under the yellowish lights at the War Memorial, and continued playing even when a bunch of tipsy young men decided they wanted in on the picture.

While it is hard to quantify, arguably events like Gigfest have a positive flowon effect to the scene in general as audience members get acquainted with acts that they were previously unaware of, and, hopefully, make an effort to see them at other times.

A musician such as Chris DeAraugo, who is known in this town for more than being related to a former Australian Idol winner, witnessed firsthand dance halls being replaced by pubs as the venues where live music is put on. This shift to hotels is not viewed favourably by some of my participants, with the excessive consumption of alcohol and aggressive behaviour mentioned as negatives.

With the aim of capturing the broader picture of Bendigo’s music scene, I have also had the pleasure of speaking to a couple of delightful country singers, one of whom yodelled for me in her backyard. Meanwhile, the diligent Nick Verdelet of Evil Intent, a devout fan of metal who plays at gigs as well as organising them, ended his interview for my project with words to the effect that if you want to support live music, get off your backsides and go see some.

Whether Bendigo’s attraction to blues, country and metal can be explained at all by its status as a regional town is something that requires further analysis.

The documentary is scheduled to be first screened in the early months of 2014 as a fundraiser for an organisation working in the mental health sector.

Rats in the Big Smoke PARt.4

By Daniel Lock

Finally another instalment of ‘Rats in the Big Smoke’, and fortunately just as pleasant as the previous one. The band: The Electric SunKings; The Venue: The Espy Basement; The Audience: some Melbournites, some Ballarattian loyalists and some other members of other bands.

Thursday night, October 17, I’d had a long afternoon of travel and arrived at The Espy around 5pm, two hours before TESK were due to arrive and threeand-a-half hours before they were to start. Fortunately, Thursday is burger night at The Espy, so I sampled the local cuisine at the cheap price of $12.50 – and I tell you now, it’s a good bargain! The Espy has various food-themed nights of the week – and they all looked pretty scrumptious.

The Basement hadn’t opened yet, and I had tried before and after food to get in to see what the setup was. Having only been in The Basement once before years ago (all gigs I’d attended since had been either The Front Bar or The Gershwin Room), I’d forgotten the amount of space on stage and how the acoustics of the room sounded.

I had to wait until TESK got to The Espy before I was allowed to see inside, and being friends with the band I put on my best roadie impersonation and helped them with the load-in.

There’s been a bit of a change in line-up since the band last played. The last gig they played in Ballarat they supported Jericco, and farewelled their lead guitarist Kobie Brown. Since then, they’ve been trying on some different support roles and it’s panned out that Barbs, the lead singer, has also picked up the lead guitar, primarily playing backing guitar under the previous lineup.

Finchy, the bassist, is also doing some backing vocals. Their previous drummer has been replaced with Dylan Jones (other bands include Kaamora and Girl Vs Ghost). And last, but not least, they’ve picked up Sean Bellingham on keys, giving us a very traditional 70s four-piece that suits their post-classic psychedelic rock sound very nicely.

After the band got their gear set up they did a quick soundcheck. Then Henry Brooks arrived. It turned out he’d expected he was playing first, and after a quick negotiation he did. He is a solo artist with many an amusing lyric and managed to get many chuckles out of the audience during his half hour set.

TESK got up after Henry Brooks and started within five minutes of Henry leaving the stage. They played a solid set which went for around 30 to 40 minutes. A highlight of the night for me was their new song ‘Zombie Town’, which I think every member of TESK would admit that they “NAILED IT” that night – with the audience in agreement.

After TESK played, Salad Days were up and then The Sweets closed out the night. Salad Days I’d describe as an indie band, sounding like the Arctic Monkeys early days and Cage The Elephant. The Sweets are an alternative rock band heavily invested in the current popular Melbourne sound.

The Espy Basement was a great venue for a rural band to play. Being three rooms to it, the bands have prime opportunity to network and check out each other’s sound before or after their own sets. Also, apart from the echo of the cymbals in that echoed room (which was rectified easily by alert drummers going a bit softer), The Basement doesn’t sound too bad and has a good atmosphere to it.

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Shane Howard written by zach broadhurst

It’s just over 30 years since Shane Howard released his truly iconic song ‘Solid Rock’ and in the process writing himself into Australian music folk law, but the inspiration behind the song began burning inside the musical veteran long before its 1982 release.

“I was picking grapes in Mildura in about 1975 and on the median strip in the main part of town there was these seats and there was a sign on the seats that said ‘Whites Only’ and it did my head in,” explains Howard.

“Because it was something I thought you’d see in the deep south of America or in South Africa, but to see it in Mildura was very confronting, and I guess I can draw a line from that with Solid Rock.”

The song would become an anthem for aboriginal rights and equality, but Howard insists in the beginning he thought it was nothing special. “At the time it’s just the next song that you write,” says Howard. “Later that year we started working the song into the set and it was being really well received and we knew it was kind of resinating with the audience.

“In September of 1981 we got a big break to tour with James Taylor. We were closing our sets with ‘Solid Rock’, so on the last show of the tour we finished the set with the song and we got a standing ovation at the Festival Theatre in Adelaide – that doesn’t really happen for opening acts. I guess I knew in that moment that it was really resinating for our generation and that there was something special at work.”

Now a respected journeyman of Australian music, Howard will be bringing his lifetime of musical knowledge to the Courthouse in Geelong on November 10th with his second appearance in the ‘A Conversation in the Key of…’ series, alongside Aboriginal singersongwriter Yirrmal Marika and Alister Turrill.

“It’s about talking about songs and talking about songwriting, or of a background behind songs and the impetus behind them; what drives you and what motivates you as a writer,” Howard says of the show.

“It very lovely to work with a couple of young emerging talents, and I do feel like the grandfather in that sense.

It’s that notion of the next generation keep coming through, and they take up the baton and carry the story on and carry music on, and music keeps going like a flowing river, and I feel like I just add my little bit of light to the sum of light.”

For those aspiring artists unable to get to the show and soak up Howard’s unique musical knowledge, he does have some words of encouragement free of charge: “It’s really hard in this country to survive as an artist if you’re not in the mainstream. In America – a population of 300 million people – you can be an obscure artist but still have a following that keeps you alive. In this country that is much harder to do just by sheer weight of numbers, so it’s not a level playing field.

“So one thing I encourage young artists to do is to see the world as their audience and take their music to the world, because the people who love your music here in Australia, there will be people like that in every country in the world.”

When&Where: Courthouse ARTS, Geelong – November 10

Digger and The Pussycats Two is all it takes for Digger and The Pussycats to belt out garage-thrash so noisy it would wake up the neighbours. Of course, the neighbours wouldn’t mind one bit. Even with a solid decade under their belts, there is still a lot of love between the pair.

First off, can you introduce yourself to readers who might not know of Digger and The Pussycats and give us a brief background?

Digger and The Pussycats are a two-piece band from Melbourne. We have been playing around the traps for 10 years now (wow time flies!) We play kinda trashy garage-punk music. It’s not super technical, but it’s lots of fun.

Take us back a little. You guys formed in 2003; how did the band come about?

We met at uni and had another band before Digger and The Pussycats. One summer the guy playing bass in that band went overseas and we decided that we wanted to keep playing, so we did a few gigs under the name Digger and The Pussycats just for laughs and a bit of beer money.

Brace yourself, here comes the genre question.

You are widely described as “garage thrash”. How does this sit with you, and how would you describe your style?

I guess I have always thought about the band having a real garage ethic. Like we don’t want to be polished and play super tight; we wanna be loud and raucous and have a party. When we started in 2003 there were no other garage bands in Melbourne, besides the Sailors and they were a different type of thing altogether. I can see why people would say its garage

thrash ’cause there is definitely an element of noise and punk in there.

What sort of bands are you guys listening to right now?

I can’t speak for Andy but I really like Reigning Sound, The Spits, The Hex Dispensers, Kids of Zoo … and lately I have been listening back to heaps of NY punk stuff like Richard Hell and the Voidoids and Television.

You guys have an extensive catalogue of music – too long to list as it would eat up our word limit. Are you working on anything ATM? Yeah, we just put out a single on a Brisbane label called ‘Mere Noise’ and we have a new song coming out on 7inch vinyl comp from a Belgium venue called ‘The Pits’. We are not really sure if we wanna make another full-length album just yet, but we have a lot of new songs. We are thinking about just putting out 5 or 6 new 45s instead.

Your music has seen you travel the world on more than one occasion – the list of places is incredible. Is there anywhere you find particularly fun – a home away from home perhaps?

When&Where: River Rocks @ The Barwon Club, Geelong – November 9

Okay, so now to Geelong. How many times have you been to the G-Funk and how much do you like it?

Geelong where this bloke invited us around to play in his “man-shed” for a party and after we finished playing he told us we should trash the place, so we started kicking in the walls and throwing stuff through the roof and basically pulling the place down. One bloke got the microphone stand and smashed in a few windows. It was pretty wild.

Yeah, we played at River Rocks a few years ago; it was a wild day and we had a great time – and been to the Barwon Club heaps. We even came down one time to see Magic Dirt, ’cause you ain’t seen the Dirt ’til you seen them in Geelong.

We have been to Geelong a lot of times over the years with different bands. Maybe we have played there 10 or 15 times. We played this amazing gig once in

Have you performed at the iconic Barwon Club before? Have you heard the wild stories about River Rocks?

Probably a heap of bad jokes, lots of swearing and gossip and maybe a song if you are lucky.

I think Berlin is a pretty special place for Digger and The Pussycats. We lived there for a while in 2005 and we have probably played there every year since then.

What can people expect when you guys hit the stage?

Aurora Jane written by zach broadhurst

Diversity is the name of the game when it comes to Aurora Jane. The Melbourne three-piece has toured the world during the past 10 years, building a diverse fan base which has seen their popularity grow in places like Canada, and strangely enough, India. They have created a diverse sound incorporating elements of psychedelia, funk and rock, and have developed and tinkered with their sound over their past four albums. “I think that by staying diverse it’s helped me stay in the industry for 10 plus years,” explains frontwoman Jane Hole.

Aurora Jane’s fourth album, Holding Patterns, which will be out November 1, is the band’s first release of new material in three years, with a much more raw and stripped back feel to it than their past works. “Our sound is ever-evolving,” explains Hole. “We have definitely stripped it back to more of an energised format, with a lot more improvisation in this material.

We enjoyed mixing in analogue and using lots of tape echo and keeping it as rich and ’70s as possible; it’s kind of got this rich retro ’70’s rock thing mixed with funk and psychedelia.

“I’d say there is more of an open, honest, emotional sensibility about this album. I think fans can expect a more energised sound and more honesty all around. I think it takes you on a journey in terms of the psychedelia, and I’ve tried to make it quite dreamscape-like in its expressiveness.

“This time it felt like I was getting back to my teens

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when I connected with just the raw energy of playing, so that’s the musical side of things. Lyrically I tried to be more honest and write more from the heart and less from the head than the last few records.”

Along with the release of their new album, Aurora Jane are also launching a website called ‘Mojo Junction’, a place where artist can more easily connect, sharing experiences and fan bases with each other. “It’s an interesting time in the world with the internet,” says Hole. “Sometimes I don’t feel that connected to the amazing people I’ve met out there on the road, so it’s an opportunity to create a community regardless of geography. It’s different to Facebook and the way we connect with that because you can create a little scene linking together artists that know each other from different countries, so we can all get exposed to each other’s audiences.”

Aurora Jane has an array of shows both in Melbourne and around Australia throughout November – the perfect chance for fans to get down and hear their new material in the flesh: “We will be playing a bunch of the new material which is exciting because we have been touring the Deep End album for the last three years here and overseas,” says Hole.

“It’s really cool to have some new stuff to play and there will be lots of energy and improvising, more so than on the record. As a trio we enjoy seeing where we can go in terms of taking a song to a new place. We are just looking forward to creating a really dynamic show this time.”

When&Where: The Evelyn, Melbourne – October 31; Main Bar, Ballarat – November 1; The Loft, Warrnambool – November 2

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Van Morrison – Moondance Another chance for me to yell at you for not already owning something. This is the classic album, remastered completely.

The deluxe version has four bonus discs of unreleased material. Buy it. Available now on Warner.

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Grinspoon – Five Album Set

Def Leppard – Viva! Hysteria!

Grinspoon fans can get a hold of five classic albums with this box set. It contains: Guide to Better Living, Easy, New Detention, Thrills, Kills and Sunday Pills and Alibis and Other Lies.

Available now on Universal.

The poster-children for 80s cockrock, Def Leppard have done a live recording of their biggest album, Hysteria, and released it as an album for your listening pleasure. Available now on Frontiers.

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Confession time: the first album I ever bought was TLC’s Crazy Sexy Cool. I was young; I was obsessed with ‘Waterfalls’ … and it wasn’t even on the album. That was the day I learned to read the back of an album before I bought it.

This is a greatest hits album, and yes, it does contain ‘Waterfalls’.

Available now on Epic.

Hugh Laurie – Live on the Queen Mary If you only know Hugh Laurie from House, shame on you. Go buy a Blackadder box set, or A Little Bit of Fry and Laurie. And then buy his blues albums. This is a live performance on the world’s most famous cruise liner. Available now on Eagle Vision.

Linkin Park – Recharged Linkin Park is at it again – they’ve ‘re-imagined’ their previous album … Looks like they’re just trying to get the most from the same set of songs. Available now on Warner.

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Katy Perry – Prism Can you believe Katy Perry has been around for four albums?

I never would have seen that coming. Available now on Island.

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Darren Middleton – Translation Another former Powderfinger member goes solo, and my hope for a reunion grows dimmer and dimmer. This album features guest spots by Amy Findlay of Stonefield, Nic Cester (formerly of Jet) and Darren’s former band mate, Bernard Fanning. Available tomorrow on Universal.

TOO HEAVY TO HUG PAUL S TAYLOR chris cruz

Happy Halloween, kiddies! Hope you find some lovely razorblades in your toffee apples this year – you know, so you can tie them to strings and have the coolest necklace on your block! And once you’ve done that, you can kick back and relax, read this column, and catch up on what’s been happening in the world of punk rock!

Oh, AFI; please let your new album Burials be a grower and not a shower, because so far it’s not showing much. While yes, it does steer the band back into darker territory after the rather shiny Crash Love, the songs just don’t seem to be there on the first few listens.

A-F Records band World’s Scariest Police Chases have a new single out. ‘Gay Jesus for President’ is taken from their forthcoming album NOFX...And Out Comes the Wolves Dookie. And no, I didn’t make ANY of that up! Really!

of second round announcements. Joy. Nevermind The Warp’d Tour is happening on the same day, anyways, at the Brunswick Hotel. Free entry, thirty of the hottest punk and ska bands from around the country over two stages, AND a sick skate ramp and all day/night BBQ. I know where I’ll be that day!

How awesome is this?

Illinois punk/rock/ pop powerhouse The Vindictives have just dropped a brand new Halloween-themed record that clocks in at 13 minutes and 13 seconds! JerkO-Lantern features 13 songs and was recorded on the most recent Friday the 13th. Love. It. Love everything about it!

Scottish punk rock dreamboats The Murderburgers have a new record out.

These Are Only Problems is killer, so let’s hope they tour!

Nirvana, KISS, Link Wray and The Replacements are among the acts Hmmm... Despite nominated for the Australian Vans induction into the Warped Tour being Rock and Roll Hall completely written of Fame this year. off by actual fans of punk rock music, two Very nice! Other acts bands have been nominated include added in what seems Deep Purple, hip hop/ like a futile attempt to gangster rap pioneers get back some punk NWA and 80s AOR street cred: Millencolin giants Hall & Oats. and Less Than Jake.

I hope the rumours These are bands that of Guttermouth tour Australia quite a frontman Marc Adkins bit, so it’s not terribly assaulting a woman exciting news. What at a show in Colorado the bill needed was earlier this month are some bands fans untrue. He allegedly would be excited to punched her in the see – like Rancid face before the or NOFX. Oh well, crowd turned on him.

Vans, better luck in Hmmm... the future! The Amity Affliction, Confession, Until next time, get off your backsides Hands Like Houses, and do something Buried In Verona that doesn’t involve and Hand Of Mercy round out the list Facebook or porn!

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ARIA recently published their list of ARIA Award nominees for 2013. This is great, because if you’re a sucker for punishment like me, then this forewarning of the mess that is the ARIA Awards will prepare you for when you watch it on the television on Sunday, December 1. … And the nominees for the Best Hard Rock/ Heavy Metal Album are: Airbourne, Karnivool, Northlane, The Amity Affliction and Thy Art is Murder. I don’t even know if that’s a decent list or if I’ve become desensitised to the ARIA Awards.

The comedy really begins with the public voted nominees. First of all, props to Karnivool for being nominated for Best Australian Live Act. Looking at their competition in this public voted category it looks like the lads might have trouble wrangling the award from the likes of Guy Sebastian, Matt Corby or Keith (un) Urban(e) because, you know, quality and substance never wins over flimsy, hollow, bullshit pop.

Speaking of flimsy, hollow, bullshit pop, the nominations for Song of the Year (public voted nominees) include the two usual suspects such as Guy Sebastian and Matt Corby, as well as “talent quest” host Timomatic and previous entrants to a “talent quest” TV show, Justice Crew. With all these TV “talent quest”-born “stars”, my question is: Where the f*ck is Shannon ‘Nollsy’ Nolls?!

Nothing could be more predictable and mundane than the list of Best International Artists as voted by the public. I’m not going to waste words by listing any of them because I’m mighty pissed off Satyricon wasn’t on the list. And if you’re not down with what the kids think is cool then let me

be the first to tell you that something called Flume has been nominated for a couple of awards.

I can assure you, dear reader, that a Flume isn’t actually a misspelling of the word Fluke because, unfortunately, unknown Fluckers never fluke awards.

On a completely different note, at the time of writing this it’s rumoured that Metallica will be playing a gig in Antarctica. Yeah, the place full of penguins and shit. This could be the “new frontier heading towards Metallica in December”, as quoted by Lars. Oh, and apparently it has something to do with Coke Zero. It’s good to know The Metallica Corporation has decided to partner with CocaCola.

In other news…

Wednesday 13 will appear at Billboard, The Venue on Friday, November 1.

The Enslaved show at The Hi-Fi has been moved to Friday, November 1.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club will be at Billboard on Friday, November 15.

Nile will play the Corner Hotel on Saturday, November 16.

The Vans Warped Tour will be held at a TBA venue in Melbourne on Saturday, December 7.

Notable acts on board include The Offspring, Hatebreed and Parkway Drive.

Steel Panther and Buckcherry will play the Myer Music Bowl on Sunday, December 8.

Mayhem and Watain will play The Hi-Fi on Friday, January 10.

Soundwave 2014 will be held at Flemington Racecourse on Friday, February 28.

If you have any news about local metal bands, shows or albums, let THTH know by emailing to tooheavytohug@ hotmail.com or get in touch via Twitter at @ TooHeavyToHug

Blank Thankless Air

By BLAIR HALL

Between Frenemies If I could enact one change regarding the socalled “artists” in Geelong, it would be to gag them and make them get to work. Nothing is going to come of taking for granted the material you’re working on and assuming that you deserve an audience all because you bothered to craft something that resembles art. They may hear it, but there won’t be anything to listen to in what’s being fashioned.

Just. Try. That’s all we want to hear. We don’t want to hear how great you are at resting on your laurels. You’re a one-of-a-kind filter. If you hear something, do the exact opposite to what you’re hearing. Maybe there’s something there. You never know, you might find a piece of yourself in there.

Geelong isn’t on the map for a reason. Old feelings and clichés are being recycled and turned out in to empty gestures. I can’t for the life of me bring myself to go to many gigs anymore. I’m subjected to too much banter and not enough actual music; or when the music starts, I might as well be in front of my stereo listening to something I know won’t disappoint me (even though I’ve heard it for the 100,000th time. Usually that means some 10cc, but that’s just me. If you think that it’s The Eagles, then I hate you).

Yes, this is the Music Industry, but we’re forgetting which word comes first. It is one thing to long to monetise a creative outlet, but it’s another thing to print your artwork long before you’ve even figured out what’s going to be on the disc.

Stop talking. No one cares. Just play. It may be a cliché but, for the love of god, please let the music speak for itself. The reason we’re going out and paying money is to be entertained, to forget for a fleeting second that we are all going to die completely alone and trapped inside ourselves, not to be lectured about your inexpensive therapy. I don’t want to hear about how you’ve experienced loss and you think it’s something we’ve all felt and you hope that maybe because we’ve both got the experience of loss in common that maybe I’ll like this song that you’re about to play that deals with the loss you’ve experienced. Just assume I don’t have any feelings, because I likely don’t have any for you.

If it isn’t really good, don’t show it. Don’t waste our time. Don’t lower your standards. We’re not all Cecil Taylor, but that’s okay. If you do one thing, make it count. I don’t want a demo. I don’t want an acoustic version. I want nothing but the work itself. Due to the democratisation of digital audio hardware everything already sounds like a demo anyway, so don’t make it worse, please.

But I’m not positing that I am in fact a “true” artist here. I think this notion is complete nonsense. I don’t have a creative bone in my body; all I have is the ability to react in a sympathetic manner to what is presented to me. Whether or not what I have to contribute is agreeable is not my call to make, but at least from this position here on the inside of all this bullshit I can make a well-informed assessment of the parasites feeding off it and what can be done to be rid of them.

Blink written by Tex Miller

Just announced as one of the keynote speakers at Face The Music 2013, Ian Jorgensen, aka Blink, is one of New Zealand’s most well-known booking agents and band managers. In addition to helping unknown bands play successful tours around Europe and America, Blink is also the founder of the Camp A Low Hum music festival and most recently Square Wave, which is debuting in five different cities this year. In the thick of all the organising, I sat down with Blink to find out a little about his successes over the last fifteen years and his new book entitled ‘D.I.Y. Touring the World’.

Covering all of the necessities of touring, Blink’s new book shows that touring the world as a musician isn’t as everyone thinks. Although everybody thinks that all of the travelling expenses and the accommodation, food, gear hire, etc. adds up and eventually blows out the budget, Blink has throughout his many years of tour promoting learned some valuable lessons, of which he is now teaching to you!

The digital version, which has been made as a payas-you-go scheme with no minimum (popular over the years since Radiohead released their album In Rainbows under the same idea), the book is a very worthwhile and useful resource for musicians, no matter of where in your career you are.

“The idea of putting the book together grew out of touring bands throughout New Zealand. We got sick of driving down the same highways, so I just decided that I wanted to go overseas. A few of my friends were signed to Carpark Records at the time and they had

Jordie Lane written by Tex Miller

On the back of his latest EP Not Built to Last, Jordie Lane is about to jet back from his home away from home in Los Angeles to tour around the country throughout November and December with fellow Canadian roots troubadour Old Man Luedecke. Playing a gig at Beav’s Bar on the 7th of November, Jordie recently sat down with Forte Magazine to have a chat ahead of the tour.

Surrounded by blue skies and 24 degrees every day it may seem that Jordie is living the true rock star lifestyle out in America; the reality is the complete opposite, as he relates. “At the moment the weather is really good and things are really busy. The North America and Canadian shows have all been fantastic, and I can’t wait to get back to Australia to show off the latest EP that I have been working on. It all seems a little surreal living out here under blue skies, and it’s kind of like I’m living a fabricated movie star life. It’s all been so fantastic though.”

Not Built to Last is the latest incarnation for Melbourne’s own folk star, and is the first release since his 2011 album Blood Thinner, which was recorded by Lane himself in a hotel room in the American desert. Working alongside critically acclaimed producer Skylar Wilson, whose credits include Wanda Jackson and Justin Townes Earle, the result on this new disc is a rollicking set of songs that showcases a true Nashville Americana/country sound.

“In some ways it is a precursor to a third LP, but then in others it isn’t. We had an album’s worth of

booking agents in Europe and America.

“We set aside six months to go out on the road, but the booking agents dropped the ball and out of all the time we had set aside, the first initial tour we only had six shows booked. I went ahead on the original flight dates and hulled myself away in an attic and booked 60 shows myself having never done it outside New Zealand. I was definitely dropped in the deep end, but being in a sink or swim situation was a great learning curve,” Blink reminisces.

As Blink relates in the book, having the guts to approach promoters and organising band nights is the way to organise a tour. Although approaching venue owners themselves seems to be the straightforward option, going straight to the music source of a venue is the best way forward for anyone.

Throughout his many years of touring and getting to know the European and American music scenes, there have undoubtedly been some crazy times and tour stories created. The craziest thing to happen on tour for Blink is the generosity and goodwill of venue owners and music lovers alike. “I think the worst I have ever been treated in Europe is the venue owner got angry because he couldn’t offer us a meal. Instead, he took us out for kebabs later on, which is weird because coming from New Zealand and Australia, where the most you’d get is a couple of beers, being treated like that is just out of this world,” Blink said.

For any musician trying to make a go in the music scene, be sure to check out this book because it is a necessity. If you’re heading to Face The Music, be sure to catch Blink’s informative talk on how touring the world is simpler than you may think.

When&Where: Face The Music @ The Arts Centre, Melbourne – November 15 & 16

material, but I decided to work with two different producers and this is the first instalment of those recording sessions. I’m going to have to wait and see whether the other stuff will come to light, but for the moment it is broken in to two parts.”

The majority of the tracks including ‘Lost in You’, ‘Here She Comes’ and ‘Dead of Light’ drew on a collaboration between Wilson and Lane which took shape in the studio, the process of which was entirely new to Jordie. “On this record I worked with a whole heap of people and that was a lot more fun I think rather than sitting around and writing songs by myself. The sound is different to that of my first two records, Sleeping Patterns and Blood Thinner as well. We were in a studio with a full live band and this time around it’s got a lot more of a richer slick feel to it.”

With shows all around the country in support of the new record, Lane can’t wait to get back out on the road and play these songs live. Along for the ride is Old Man Luedecke, a Juno (Canada’s answer to the ARIAs) award-winning folk musician who primarily plays the banjo and acoustic guitar. In solo mode for the upcoming Beav’s Bar date, I am assured by Jordie that the intimate environment of the band room will allow for an cosy and close-up snapshot of the two musicians.

“I met Old Man earlier this year and he has a really old-time folk sound to his music. We hatched a plan to tour Australia throughout November and December, and I’m touring with him in Canada next year. Come down to Beav’s to hear some old-time folk tunes and storytelling. See you there!”

When&Where: Beav’s Bar, Geelong – November 7 & Theatre Royal, Castlemaine – November 8

The John Steel Singers written By Natalie Rogers

“Now that we are getting older we just want to have a bunch of babes on tour with us,” joked Pete [keyboard player and ladies’ man] of The John Steel Singers when asked about their all-girl support band Go Violets. “They’re part of the up and coming Brisbane crowd, along with our mates [indie fourpiece] Major League. I’ve meet all the girls and they’re really lovely. Brisbane a small place and the odds are in my favour – two of the other guys are married now!”

With only seven sleeps till the official release of their sophomore album Everything’s A Thread [out Nov 8 through via Dew Process/Universal Music] and the start of their East Coast tour right around the corner, you would think they would be hard at it, right? Not these unconventional muso’s.

“Luke [guitar, keyboards] got married three weeks ago in the Sunshine Coast hinterland so he’s off on his honeymoon somewhere in Europe. We haven’t been doing much - missing our guitarist and all.

We have rehearsal tonight just with the four of us to make sure we can still play the songs! Luke gets back the day before we go on tour, so we’ll rehearse for a couple of hours and then jump on a plane to come down to you guys in Melbourne.

“We had a really good show last time we were in Victoria at the Northcote Social Club, we haven’t been there for a while and we love it there - it’s a great place. We’re looking forward to it.”

With four eps and two studio albums under their belt, The John Steel Singers have amassed a decent back

catalogue, but line-up changes have called for some minor adjustments. “We’ll play a bit of everything, although we’re definitely focusing on the new songs, because they’re a joy to play. The standout track so far is ‘MJ’s On Fire Again’, we’ve played it a few times live and it’s just groove town basically.”

Since becoming a five-piece one of TJSS original members Scott has been learning the bass parts on the older songs. “In my opinion we’re playing them a lot better than we ever have before,” Pete revealed, “especially on our classic hits like ‘Strawberry Wine’ and ‘Rainbow Kraut.’

“These shows are going to be so much fun. We’ve missed playing live, it’s been a long time between shows, and it’s been over a year and a half since we have properly toured in Australia. Sure we get exhausted, we get tired and sick of each other but we’ve been together for seven years, coming up to eight. In that time we have only had what you would call one real fight. We’re all really good friends; we all have the same weird sense of humour. The general census would be that I am the most annoying when we tour but I tend to think I’m hilarious, so I’m always happy being in my own company,” Pete laughed.

“There’s no ego clashes, I was I could talk more rock and roll bullshit - but basically we just hang out and talk rubbish, and try not to annoy our tour manager Adam too much!”

Come and join the fun! Catch them in Melbourne at The Ding Dong Lounge and The Karova Lounge in Ballarat this weekend.

when&where: Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne - November 8 & The Karova Lounge, Ballarat - November 9

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Industry Insight with Michael Parisi written by Phil Kearney, Photo by Andre Whiteford

Michael Parisi is Head of MPM (Michael Parisi Management) in Melbourne, which has under its umbrella a record company (Wunderkind – a joint venture with Michael Gudinski) Music Management and Consultancy Company.

Over his career he has worked at IMAGO Records, Warner Music and Mushroom Records, and has been responsible for breaking in bands such as MUSE, DrDre, Snoop Dogg, NIN and Marilyn Manson. More locally he has worked with and developed acts like Regurgitator, The Superjesus, Eskimo Joe and The Whitlams.

Michael was down in Geelong chatting with the Diploma of Music students at Oxygen College, and I got a chance to catch up with him and get his insight into a few areas of the current music industry.

MICHAEL PARISI on:Artists he is working with now “At the moment we are working with 3 artists. We’ve got Dan Sultan, who’s playing down here in Geelong at the end of the month. Prior to me getting involved with Dan, he was an independent artist, and he wanted to take his career to the next level. So we’re a year later, and we’re now at the point where he’s signed to Liberation, signed to Mushroom Publishing, went international and made a record, picked up the Bruce Springsteen tour, and is about to go out and do his own solo tour proceeding it. He’s also getting ready to launch his new album in April next year.

“We’re also working with Owl Eyes. We’ve been working with her for the last three years.She’s currently on tour.

She had a very successful record this year. Again, it’s been a long term artist development project, which we’ve done really well with and we’re excited with where it’s heading.

She’s only 21 years old, and we have a long way to go still, but we’re thrilled with how it’s come along so far.

“And we’re looking after a brand new act called ‘Way of the Eagle’; a producer called Jan Skubiszewski. Jan has made records for the Cat Empire, John Butler, Owl Eyes and the list goes on. He’s decided to make his own record with his favourite vocalists. His first single was actually with Dan Sultan, on a track called ‘Rattlesnake’ which has done really well on Triple J. His album comes out next year and is a really exciting project.”

Importance of Artist Development “It’s crucial. Most of the industry runs on the premise that you need to have a hit straight away to survive, and that’s all well and good for the ‘majors’ who have that kind of agenda. But there is a part of the industry, and a big part of the industry, that develop artists.The independent sector.

They’re all about developing acts from the ground up and creating long term careers, and to do that, you need to have a plan. So whetherits Owl Eyes, or Dan Sultan, or in the past I’ve worked with acts like Regurgitator, George, The Whitlams and The Superjesus; they were developed over a number of records. They weren’t just thrust out there into the limelight. It was carefully developed, planned and organised.

“The temptation sometimes, with someone like Owl Eyes, is we could have gone to radio from the get go, but we all felt really strongly about creating and maintaining a fanbase first, before trying to cross over into ‘Commercial Land’.‘Cause once you’re in ‘Commercial Land’ there’s no turning back and you’ve gotta have your shit together. So we’ve consciously kept it away from radio for that reason.

We want her to be ready for it when it does come. She’s only 21 years old. There’s no point in rushing her career.

She’s got a long career ahead of her. Our job is make sure that when we develop an act, it’s done correctly, but also give them enough space to grow and develop themselves.”

Importance of creating a Fan Base “Say, 12 years ago, when I was working with Regurgitator, Motorace and 28 Days, we would literally have people at their shows with clipboards getting names and addresses, before email was even that powerful. We would literally do it manually, and that was your bread and butter. These were the people you would call upon when you wanted to announce a tour, or you wanted to sell tickets. You would send a message to your fan base. We used to send it via envelope. A print out of the gig in an envelope to an

address.

“Now it’s like you communicate directly with them. The importance of creating a database; I can’t even stress how important it is to a band’s eventual success or not. You need to have a fan base in order to sustain a career. When you’re not putting out a record or you are between records, what do you do to keep your fan base happy? You may want to offer them a merchandise deal, or cheap tickets.

You’ve gotta constantly keep in touch with your fan base.

That’s your market. Your market is not the big wide world anymore. It’s become so niche because of technology.

Define your niche first and foremost, then sustain that market and keep them entertained, enthralled and keep them busy.”

We will continue our talk with Michael Parisi in next month’s edition of FORTE Magazine.

into a band Generator and filtered through hundreds of names until we found CRUM TOWN and we decided to add radio at the end for some flair”

“An album would be great, if we have the time for it we’d definitely do it, though we might test the waters with an EP first. The problem with us is that once we get into the studio, it’s hard to get us out again.”

CRUM TOWN RADIO:

The Station that Plays a Little of Everything. written By Phil Kearney, photo by Andrew Whiteford

The music world has always had a need to attach a label to the style of music that a band plays. It helps them identify with the band. Allows the punters to have an idea of whether they should have a listen or not.

Helps iTunes sort out the billions of songs it has at its disposal.

“We’ve jokingly coined the phrase “Op-Shop Rock” to try & describe our music” said Stevenson. “It’s a kind of vintage/modern vibe, which in itself is contradictory. I don’t think of us in genres because we approach each song a different way & each song is a different genre”

So here in lies the dilemma. What if a band does not fit any known genre? Do we throw them in with alternative rock just for fun? Do we create a label for them? Or are we just not trying hard enough to understand the psyche of this particular band.

O’Bree further explains, “All of our influences are quite varied, which is what makes us so different.

There are always going to be people we look up to who influence our individual sounds, but we are definitely aiming to be original. I think this is something we’ve achieved pretty well.”

I was faced with this very dilemma after hearing the band ‘Crum Town Radio’. I can tell you many specifics about the band. For starters, their music is quirky, fun, entertaining and theoretically impressive. They are made up of Guitar and Vocalist Tom Stevenson, Vocalist and Bass player Alicia O’Bree, Drummer Jake Pickering, and Guitarist and Namesake James Crum.

They are clearly a throwback to an era when real instruments are the focal point of the music. They seem to have influences from Jazz& Blues to Heavy metal, and every genre in-between. And they somehow make a 4 piece sound like there are 20 of them.

The 4 members met whilst studying a Diploma of Music at Oxygen College in Geelong, and were thrown in the deep end of the Music industry playing Kindred Studios in Melbourne, Anglesea Music Festival and just recently Live @ Turtlebend.

“The College has been really good” Says O’Bree.

“Challenging, but good. I think it has really pushed us all to experiment with different styles and to work with a whole heap of different people. You really find out what you do and don’t like. It helps a lot, especially when taking the future into consideration”

But I couldn’t come up with that singular identity for them.

I was curious about name, and it was Mr. Crum himself who offered up the explanation.

I caught up with them after their performance on the main stage at Anglesea Music Festival and figured who better to tell me what their music is about than them.

“Everyone at Oxygen has a fascination with my last name. There have been countless nicknames for me. Cruminator, Crumdiddles. Then we typed Crum

SONG WRITING TIPS FOR THE EMERGING ARTIST written by Chris Wheelwright

CONSIDER ALL ELEMENTS: The medium of ‘the song’ is a compound art form comprising elements of music and poetry, at times even imagery and performance. It is vital for all emerging songwriters to consider all of these aspects when they create a new work. The musical side alone involves rhythm, melody, harmony, form and texture, and ability. Any of these areas can involve many years of patient practice. It can even help to write these all down and, as you work on a new song, reflect on what innovation or point of interest you have in each aspect. A song does not have to fulfill all of these areas to be successful, but it’s helpful to look at your work from different viewpoints. What have you done with the beat? Are your melodies shaped and patterned in interesting ways? Does the chord progression have interest in itself? And how are your structural sections arranged? Each of these questions implies skills that may need to be worked on in order to further the cause of your songwriting.

A long-term goal is vital. Simple elements go into writing a song, but the possibilities for invention in how you combine them are endless.

BE OPEN TO INFLUENCE: Someone designing a new car does not start by reinventing the wheel.

Likewise, songs are made, largely, from borrowed material. It is very rare to have a truly original chord progression, or a beat that has never been heard before. Embrace the fact that ‘originality’ in songwriting is in how you blend things together, a surface film that defines the artist and their work in

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a unique light. Be open to all influences. Be eclectic.

Listen to all genres, even if your goal is to only write in one. In all areas of music there are good and bad works. Time spent listening to music is never wasted, even if it’s far removed from what you most love.Recognise this: everything you hear affects the way you hear everything.

THE FLEXIBILITY OF THE MEDIUM: Many songwriters achieve highly individual styles by emphasizing certain aspects over others. You may have a gift for the poetic phrase, in which case your lyrics should occupy the foreground. You may excel in strong and vivid guitar riffs, in which case these can punctuate and enliven your songs. The song is plastic and pliable. Mould it to fit you and your expressive goals. The song is the quintessential modern medium: short and simple, but branded to the individual. If you know what you want to say then it can be said through song.

Crum Town Radio are building up quite a following down Geelong way and having handled themselves quite well at the larger events, they are excited aboutsettling into the scene and carving out a long career for themselves. working in different studios, experimenting with sounds, textures and instrumentation, until the masterpiece was finally born, as we know it today.

THE SNAPSHOT OF A LIFELONG CRAFT: Keep in mind that songwriting is a craft that can be developed across an entire lifetime. Sometimes songs can hit a dead end. You’ve worked hard on it, tried to innovate, considered all aspects, but it’s still not quite there. Let it go. Move on. Write a new song, and know that your time was not wasted on the preceding ‘failure’. Creativity is a muscle and, like all muscles, performs best when it is used continually. An individual song is a fixed entity, but the craft of songwriting is something that can morph and develop throughout your whole life. Embrace this and you will be rewarded with a fascinating life. A life writing songs.

THE ARTIST AS CRITIC: The ability to be self-critical is the key to all successful songwriting. Listen to your works at every stage of development. Never fall into the trap of thinking that any aspect of your song is fixed and permanent.

Allow the song to grow through time. Occasionally there can be a flash of inspiration resulting in a good song that may have only taken minutes to create, but these moments are rare. The Beach Boys spent six months writing and recording ‘Good Vibrations’,

Chris Wheelwright is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and is a practicing guitarist, pianist and composer. He works as a teacher of the Oxygen College Diploma of Music course.

Stevenson continues, “Crum Town Radio are going to do their thing well into 2014 and beyond, we’re constantly writing and planning shows. The Crum Town Radio Show will be coming to you very soon.”

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ROHAN ROBINSON – 60 Days A Painting Project.

Rohan Robinson has been a finalist in several significant art prizes over the past few years. He has exhibited regularly in Melbourne and Geelong, most recently as one of the selected artist’s for The Geelong Regional Artist’s Exhibition held at the Gordon Gallery.

Where: Boom Gallery, 11 Rutland Street, Newtown, Geelong, VIC. WheN: Oct 17 – Nov 19.

PHONE: 0428 305 639.

INFO: www.boomgallery.com.au

ROBYN RANKIN – Recent Paintings

SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS

AIREYS INLET SCHOOL FAIR Vibrant, energetic, eclectic and iconic - a great school fair that offers yummy food, coffee and great activities and stalls to keep you entertained, engaged and just wanting more. Come along for the fun of it.

Where: Anderson Street, Aireys Inlet, VIC. WheN: Nov 2.

PHONE: Peter Stevens at School on 5289 7144.

Children playing beach cricket or on the swings, fishing or just hanging out with the dog, Robyn Rankin’s delightful paintings on show at Metropolis Gallery express a rich visual language filled with the joy and innocence of a simple life.

Medimime Productions Inc Queen Drucilla is obsessed by her beauty and asks her magic mirror “who is the fairest in the land?” When the mirror replies “Snow White,” she seeks to dispose of her competition once and for all. Lost and alone in the woods, Snow White is rescued by the Seven Dwarfs. The evil Queen Drucilla discovers Snow White is still alive and she disguises herself as an old crone and heads to the Seven Dwarfs’ cottage armed with a poison apple. Will the charming Prince Valentine arrive in time to save Snow White? Or will she be lost from the kingdom forever?

All proceeds from this years Medimime pantomime to go to the redevelopment of the Special Care Nursery at The Geelong Hospital. BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW! Where: GPAC. 50 Little Malop Street, Geelong, VIC. WheN: Nov 22 – 30.

PHONE: 5225 1200.

INFO: www.gpac.org.au

Where: Metropolis Gallery, 64 Ryrie Street, Geelong, VIC. WheN: Nov 2 – 16.

PHONE: 0428 305 639.

INFO: www.metropolisgallery.com.au

GEELONG PLEIN AIR PAINTERS (GPAP) Are you a plein air painter in the Geelong region? If so we would like to hear from you. We are forming a plein air painting group for weekly plein air painting sessions around Geelong, Bellarine Peninsula and Surf Coast. Everyone interested in painting landscape and seascape plein air is welcome regardless of experience. Looking to make this a regular group with a view to exhibiting, group shows etc. Geelong and the surrounding region has some great opportunities for plein air painting. So lets get out of the studio and start painting in the open air.

Where: various.

WheN: Friday mornings.

PHONE: Rod Moore 0404 970 689.

EMAIL: rodmooreart@gmail.com

FIRST ANNUAL HALLOWEEN CREEP SHOW ART EXHIBITION check this out, but be afraid!

Where: Wolveschildren Artspace. 81a Humffray Street North, Ballarat, VIC. WheN: Oct 31 – Nov 7.

PHONE: 0418 200 766.

INFO: www.facebook.com/wolveschildren

…and now for something completely different….

History Lives in Ballarat and in Wendouree Parade. Take a ride on one of the trams which are 90 or more years old and provided Ballarat’s public transport until 1971. The vintage tram ride covers 1.3km of original line through the beautiful Botanical Gardens by the western side of tranquil Lake Wendouree and takes about 20 minutes.

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Where: Wendouree Parade, Ballarat, VIC. WheN: Trams run every Saturday, Sunday, public holiday and during the Victorian school holidays between 12.30pm and 5pm in Wendouree Parade, throughout the year.

PHONE: 5334 1580.

EMAIL: info@btm.org.au INFO: www.btm.org.au

image: ‘Amanita muscaria’ watercolour

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BALLARAT TRAMWAY MUSEUM

There are over 70 works of art from botanical artists who are Friends of the Geelong Botanic Gardens. The Sogetsu Ikebana School in Geelong will display three dimensional designs pieces which have particular reference to the Geelong Botanic Gardens.

Where: art@wintergarden, Shop 5, 51 McKillop Street, Geelong VIC. WheN: Oct 4 – Nov 4. 10am-4pm daily.

PHONE: 0401 160 430.

INFO: www.artwintergarden.com.au

ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS HERE!

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INSPIRED BY NATURE 3 Botanical Art From The Friends Of The Geelong Botanical Gardens.

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arts news from around town – and beyond!

MODERN LOVE

WHERE: Bendigo Art Gallery, 42 View St, Bendigo WHEN: Oct 26- Feb 2, 2014 PHONE: 5434 6089 INFO: bendigoartgallery.com.au Follow Bendigo Art Gallery on Facebook & Twitter

Fashion visionaries from the FIDM Museum, LA

written by sue rawkins

About 60 of the world’s most influential designers from the past 40 years are featured in Modern Love. Works from Vivienne Westwood, Issey Miyake, Thierry Mugler, Christian Louboutin, John Galliano for Christian Dior, Jean Paul Gautier, Yohji Yamamoto and many more are on display. Sue Rawkins asks Leanne Fitzgibbon, Senior Curator Bendigo Art Gallery some questions about F-F-F-F-Fashion…..

• Can you tell us a little about the FIDM Museum, LA please?

The FIDM Museum was formally established in 1978, with its initial holdings enriched by a generous donation of French couture ensembles from Betsy Bloomingdale.

The collection currently numbers more than 15,000 objects, spanning a 250 year history. More than 1000 donors have contributed to the collection to date, which focuses on the strong design merits of high fashion. It was established to inspire and educate future generations of designers, and we’re thrilled to share its contents with an Australian audience.

• This exhibition displays fashion objects from the Museum’s collection/archives - were these chosen by the Museum, or did you have any choice in what should be displayed in Australia? If so, how did you chose what to display?

The exhibition was curated by Bendigo Art Gallery, so we did the entire selection. Of course, we drew on the expertise of the FIDM Museum staff, particularly their curator Kevin L. Jones to assist us in the process, as the collection is so extensive. Modern Love provides specific examples of designers and design houses who drove change and innovation at key times - influential designers who were collected by FIDM, and whose legacy will no doubt inspire future generations of design.

• What’s your personal style?! What music do you most identify with?

Tricky to define a personal style, but I do look back fondly on the whole 90s minimalism, and grunge too, and it’s been great to be able to select the music to play in the exhibition space - again, a fair bit of 90s reminiscing has been the focus, but 80s through to present day is included, especially New Order, The Stone Roses, Chilli Peppers, Nirvana, L7, plus Eurythmics, Daft Punk, The Prodigy, Nick Cave, David Bowie... it’s a long, diverse list!

• Music & fashion have always gone hand-in-hand.

For example, Punk - Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren; Madonna - the ‘80s and Jean-Paul Gautier; and even further back in time - the 50s and 60s - what you wore, your style, identified you to other members of your particular peer group, and more importantly, your rivals - eg Mods and Rockers. What you listened to and what you wore could cause fights and riots (especially in the UK). Music and fashion can also influence political opinions, for example the oversize white T-shirts with simple, punchy slogans in bold black type by Katherine Hamnett - No War, Save The World, and the infamous Choose Life - worn by Wham! in 1983 (a statement about the Aids epidemic then sweeping the world).

• Hamnett met with then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, wearing her own t-shirt with the slogan “58% DON’T WANT PERSHING”, a reference to polls showing public opposition in the United Kingdom against the basing of Pershing missiles in the country. Powerful stuff. Do you think that could ever happen again?

Definitely. Many designers have concerns/issues they focus on and through their work are able to reach people and spark debate. Vivienne Westwood is

left: Vivienne Westwood Readyto-Wear Collection, Fall/Wainter 1990. Courtesy of the FIDM Museum at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Los Angeles. Gift of Arnaud Associates. Photography by Michel Arnaud. ABOVE: John Galliano for Christian Dior, Blouse, Fall/Winter 2003. Courtesy of catwalking.com known to be very political, and an environmentalist.

Artists can have incredible influence and using your art to share a message or bring an issue to the fore is a terrific thing to do. Social media can make it all the more powerful.

clothing, it’s such a personal choice. If people knew where their ultra-cheap clothing was coming from, I think they probably would veer back to quality over quantity. In terms of who is leading the trends, I believe that street trends are all the more influential as a result of social media, and no-one can work in isolation, so designers are influenced by the creativity they are surrounded by. It’s global and it’s instant. While superficial trends come and go, true style is timeless, and innovation is always a leader.

• Does the rarified haute couture market still exist out there in today’s instant gratification, web-shopping world? Who is leading the trends now?

There’s always a place for couture I think, it’s just that in order to survive the couture houses have to be clever in terms of how they market, and what they market. Obviously ready-to-wear is the big area now.

Quality design is timeless, and that’s really evident in the Modern Love exhibition, people will always love beautiful objects - we all have a bit of a love affair with

• Where does the exhibition go next?

There is some discussion about the exhibition touring internationally, but I’m afraid I can’t say much more at this time. Bendigo will, however, be the only Australian venue.

Stacey Williams Courthouse ARTS Curator written by Tex Miller For the past year, if you have attended any of the Courthouse ARTS’ gallery exhibitions you will undoubtedly know of the hard work behind the scenes by gallery curator Stacey Williams. Her time is coming to an end as curator and thus they are looking for someone new to fill her shoes.

Before her tenure is up, I recently went down to the Courthouse to have a chat to Stacey about her time in the position.

When we sit down to chat Stacey is calm, but as expected, curating all of the exhibitions over the year has brought considerable stress. However, with only a few more exhibitions for the year, the light at the end of the tunnel is edging closer and closer. “The role is pretty stressful at times and the logistics of putting on an exhibition are enormous. That’s not to scare anyone out of the role, but time management is an essential part of being the curator. Whether or not the artist wants to sell their pieces or not is another hard aspect, because you have to price the artworks and, my gosh, that is also a really hard part to the position,” Stacey said.

“The new curator is going to be fantastic and I can’t wait to see which direction they take it in. I thank everybody at Courthouse ARTS for their support and look forward to seeing you at one of my exhibitions soon.”

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For any aspiring artists, this position (as is the case with Stacey) allows for a career in the arts to transition from being a dream to a reality, as Stacey relates: “The arts industry is very hard to get in to, especially for young people because there are confidence issues and people telling you that the arts don’t make money.

Over the past year there have been some fantastic exhibitions on show; the favourites of Stacey’s include Daniel Longo, Geelong Illustrators and Courtney Ward. Although it is sad that Stacey’s term as curator is finishing up next March, she remains positive that the arts industry is in a healthy state.

have an arts event or story?

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“The positives about this position are you get to talk to people about their craft about how they produce their work; where it’s come from, who their influences are. It’s an inspirational and rewarding role, but like anything stress does factor in to it as well.”

For myself, I find it hard to believe that someone would buy my artwork, but through giving people the opportunity to do what they want to do through being curator is fantastic. Not all of your experiments are going to pay off, but this does give you a lot of confidence for your own work.”

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One of the main aspects of the Courthouse is the AAP. Otherwise known as the Arts Advisory Panel, the role of the curator is to work alongside the AAP to produce a calendar of exciting and thoughtful exhibitions. As long as I have known Stacey, I can confidently say that she is one of the most passionate and hardworking people I know. Throughout her time in this role Stacey was also heavily involved with the AAP (it is two separate roles) and looking back retrospectively at her time, given the heavy workload, urges the new curator to take on the curator role solely: “I was in the AAP doing all the volunteer stuff and the graphics; organising stuff for them as well. But it just got too much, so I would probably suggest to the new curator to have a job and then do this position.

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INSIDE SPLINTERS:

On April 25th, 2002, the RNB and pop world lost one of its greatest stars. Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of the recordbreaking girl-group TLC was only 30 years old when a tragic car accident took her life and, subsequently, put a swift end to an incredibly phenomenal era of song.

Long before the branded ‘Girl Power’ of the Spice Girls (who themselves came on to the scene just in time; men had begun to saturate the charts once more via the medium of the boy band, and the arrival of the Spice Girls came just as fans were reeling over the Take That split), TLC were at the head of the game when it came to urban

melody. TLC were able to maintain their sexiness and femininity draped in baggy, tailored-tomen clothing – and ship millions of units of their music across the globe while doing so.

TLC emerged in 1991 and, although their debut single, the underrated ‘Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg’ wasn’t exactly the greatest advocate of female girl power, it was still done in a way that gave them all the power. TLC gave Urban America three sets of voices they could count on. Albums that would follow would sell in their millions across the globe and their headlining tours sold out in minutes and broke many standing tour records.

Provocative songs such as ‘Creep’ and ‘Red Light Special’ dealt with every kind of sex scandal one could possibly think of (with the latter permitting the man to moisten T-Boz’s innermost hinterlands if he “takes the southern route”), whilst the monumental 1995 cut ‘Waterfalls’ (their first truly massive hit in Australia) reached out via the medium of pop to those in the ghetto by serving up an unbelievably great hook.

Songs like ‘No Scrubs’ (I’m not sure about you, but didn’t it feel like that song was Number 1 for about 26 years?!), the beautiful ‘Unpretty’ (their most powerful, tender and feminine moment on record), to the undeniably heartbreaking and vulnerably honest ‘Dear Lie’, TLC were not just another brand of the pop game; these were poignant females that kept melody alive in their genre of choice.

The VH1 movie is spectacular too, shining a light on how disposable and ruthless this industry can be. Chase the movie down if you can and watch as the label and industry types eat away at their hard-earned money whilst they drive around in second-hand Toyota Rav4s given to them as a

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With the return of TLC in 2013, there seems to be some kind of silver-lining for the urban pop world.

For the first time in a long time urban music seems to finally be ready to submit itself over to the powers of strong, black women with a voice. Women like TLC were always ready to speak their mind, no matter the cost.

This seems to be quite a ‘Once upon a time’ thing.

Over the years that TLC have been absent, we have seen the music world as we know it change drastically. No longer are there many female empowerment anthems which come from the urban genre; instead we have misogynistic men telling us how they ‘smack’ their girls and use them as sex objects. Sure, the nice, danceable melody might still be there, but where is the power in these dire slicings of urban pop?

The power is with the men who are fronting these awful songs. The power is with rapey guys like Robin Thicke who are actually permitted to sing a song in 2013 about “blurred lines”. Why are there no women in the urban world taking charge and putting these men in their place?

With the return of TLC and a thunderous new album from them due in 2014, you may just be in luck ladies, because it’s starting to look like it’s your turn to, once more, dominate our airwaves with songs of hope and empowerment, not degradation and shame.

@jamievandekamp has no time for Mr Ex Miley Cyrus.

LADY GAGA ft. R-KELLY

The new single ‘Do What U Want’ is EXACTLY what we need from Gaga – and the triumphant return to pop all of us had been hoping she’d deliver. ARTPOP arrives in less than a week folks!!

THE VH1 TLC BIOPIC Movie of the Year!

TINA ARENA SETTING FIRE TO THE X-FACTOR … With her incredible pipes and MONUMENTAL single!

New album Reset is out now and is a strong contender for Record of the Year.

PRISM

Look, we were expecting Katy Perry’s new album to be a lot better than it is, put it that way.

We’ll get around to reviewing it when we can think of something constructive to say about it, but chances are by then we will probably really love it.

PEBBLES

Watch the TLC biopic and uncover a whole new level of hatred for somebody you may remember as a one hit wonder.

X FACTOR FOLK AND ‘ROAR’ KEEPING GAGS FROM #1

Seriously, who is STILL buying ‘Roar’!?!? And what about that X Factor bloke at number 1? Look, we understand this guy is from Geelong, but Gaga really needs that number one slot so cut it out you guys. Isn’t it bad enough we’ve re-embraced James Blunt in this country again?!

SHIT!

With the tragic passing of Left Eye, TLC have been considerably quiet over the last decade.

Finally breaking their silence via a recently aired VH1 biopic called TLC: CrazySexyCool, 2013 marks the return of the girl-group and, thanks to this movie, just like 10 years earlier, has everybody talking about TLC all over again.

The brilliant TV movie chronicles the early stages of their careers right through to the present day, which sees surviving members T-Boz and Chilli recording a new album as a two-piece. The record is due next year, with songwriting credentials from the likes of NeYo and Lady Gaga just a tip of the iceberg as to what we can expect from the duo in 2014.

gift from their manager – a gift they, hilariously, find out they actually paid for!

“ We don’t claim Ape Hemsworth here in Australia.”

HIT

TLC

STILL CRAZY, STILL SEXY, STILL COOL.

tweet of the week

The Tiger and Me written by Tex Miller

It is no doubt that 2013, has been the year of the tiger and if you’ve been following their social media journey, you will know exactly how busy The Tiger and Me have been. Recently I got the opportunity to sit down with Ade Vincent (lead vocalist and guitarist) from the group in his downtown before the next leg of the tour, this time with support from The Bearded Gypsy Band (who quite surprisingly have no facial hair at all!).

Armed with a strong cup of tea, Ade is recuperating from the busy couple of weeks for the band as we begin to talk about how 2013 has been the biggest year in the band’s history thus far.” We have been touring relentlessly, which is what we like to do. We’ve done the East Coast about three times and we’ve got another tour coming up. It’s been busy but a fantastic journey none the less.”

Award winning Australian novelist Tim Winton’s work The Turning was made into a feature film and released in September and The Tiger and Me were lucky enough to get their song on the trailer for the film. This without doubt tops the list of 2013 accomplishments and as Ade relates was quite a bit to do with luck. “We got approached by Robert Connolly, who was one of the 17 directors of the film, who was looking for some music for the trailer. Up until that point they were unsuccessful, but after our label manager listened to his catalogue of songs and suggested ours, the wheels were really put into motion.”

‘Other Friends Have Flown Before’, the featured track which closes out the band’s sophomore release The Drifters Dawn, was originally written for Ade’s other project and nearly didn’t make the cut for the album. Yet, through sheer persistence of the band members, has turned into one of the group’s more well known tracks.

“The line ‘Other Friends Have Flown Before’, comes from the Edgar Allen Poe poem ‘The Raven’ and I am currently setting that poem to music for another musical project of mine, but when that song came about, it sounded a lot more like The Tiger and Me than anything else. It was a last minute addition to the demo stage of the album but everyone agreed this had to make it. Sacrifices were made and tracks cut for others, but it all worked out in the end I think.”

Announced in the first line-up for Port Fairy Folk Festival next March as well as this upcoming tour, there are plenty of opportunities to see the band in full flight. Talking about Ade’s favourite album of the past 12 months eventually flows into a discussion about the new album and the future of the band. Big Scary’s new release ‘Not Art’ tops the bill of favourite albums and is most likely to inspire the new release that we are likely to hear sometime in 2014.

Steven Schram, who has previously worked with Little Birdy, The Cat Empire and San Cisco, as well as The Drifters Dawn is set to return in the producer role. “ I really like the evolution of music and would like for the new tunes to be a bit more electronic. It will be interesting to see what sound they take on and what the future holds for us. We would like to do some European tours in 2015/16 but for the moment, we’ll just keep plugging away touring and writing.”

You can catch the Tiger and me this coming Sunday in the Beer Garden with The Bearded Gypsy Band, Danile Champagne and max savage.

Tickets are availaible from the veunue so be sure to get along.

RELEASE: The Drifter’s Dawn is out now WHEN&WHERE: The Old Hepburn Hotel, Sunday Nov 3rd 2-7pm (in the Beer Garden weather permitting)

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whispers

whispers

whispers

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beav's bar

cq

home house

home house cq

home house

home house

grovedale hotel

geelong home house rsl

geelong rsl

home house

grovedale hotel

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gateway hotel

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gateway hotel

the max hotel

the max hotel

the max hotel

the barwon club

the barwon club

the barwon club

the barwon club

elephant and castle

black hatt

elephant and castle

black hatt

elephant and castle

lambys

lambys

black hatt

lambys

lambys

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FILM REVIEWS

by anthony morris

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

The Butler

Failed television chat host turned failing mid-morning radio host Alan Partridge is UK comic actor Steve Coogan’s towering achievement. Yet a string of TV scheduling blunders by Seven in the 90s (when Partridge’s three television series aired out here) means he’s all but unknown in Australia. Fortunately this film – in which Partridge’s Norwich radio station becomes the locale for a siege by a sacked fellow DJ (Colm Meaney) who’ll only negotiate through Alan, unaware that it was Alan’s backstabbing antics that had him fired in the first place – requires zero prior knowledge to get in on the joke. After 20 years of off-on appearances (finally released on DVD in Australia barely a week ago), Partridge is a fully-rounded and totally convincing fool, a perfectly hilarious blend of awkward conversations, offbeat obsessions, unjustified self-confidence and a strangely convincing competence when it comes to inane chat. The film’s small scale (more than half takes place inside his radio station) suits his petty nature and limited horizons – in contrast to his boundless ambition, as he ends up trying to drag the siege out once he realises it’s boosting his media profile. But the comedy is varied and consistently funny, building to a climax that’s dramatically satisfying without undercutting Partridge’s aura of failure. With so many jokes fired out the screen not all of them are going to work, but the hit ratio here is so high the few duds are hardly noticeable. If you know Partridge’s work you’ll have no complaints about this film: if this is your introduction to the man, you’re in for a treat.

Born the son of a sharecropper, then taken in by the lady of the house (Vanessa Redgrave) after seeing his father gunned down by the plantation owner right before his eyes and trained as a house servant, Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker) started life rough. But from dirt-poor beginnings he ended up serving eight US Presidents as a butler at the White House, seeing them at their best and their worst. Loosely based on a true story, director Lee Daniels has Gaines present at almost every major moment in Civil Rights, while his son Louis (David Oyelowo) grows up angry at the servitude of his father and leaves university to be a militant activist and member of the Black Panthers. That kind of dynamic suggests a dry history lesson playing off one side of history against the other, but Daniels (Precious, The Paperboy) gives this sweeping story a lively and deeply personal energy. Partly that’s thanks to the strong focus on Gaines’ home life with wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey, in a fiery performance) and the way the world (and fashions – there are a lot of very ugly clothes on display here) changed around them. And partly that’s thanks to the offbeat casting of the Presidents: John Cusack as Nixon, Alan Rickman as Reagan, and Liev Schreiber as a potty-mouthed potty-using LBJ are just three of the world leaders painted with a very broad brush here. But far from stunt casting, they shock history back to life in much the same way as a cartoon can sometimes get closer to the truth. It’s an uneven, not exactly subtle film, but The Butler demands – and deserves – to be taken seriously.

Machete Kills Machete (Danny Trejo) is back doing what he does best – unfortunately, it turns out that was he does best is star in a dull action movie that tries to hide just how dull it is by claiming to be a parody of dull action movies. News flash: either way you slice it, the end result still has “dull” in the description one too many times, which is surprising, because there certainly seems to be a lot going on here. When Machete’s partner (Jessica Alba) is killed by a mysterious masked man while they’re intercepting an illegal arms deal, Machete soon finds himself about to be hung by the local sheriff (William Sadler).

Then the President (Charlie Sheen, billed here as Carlos Estevez) calls: seems there’s a Mexico-based maniac with multiple personalities (Demián Bichir) who happens to have a warhead aimed right at the White House and only Machete can take him down. Machete gets in, Machete gets next to the maniac, Machete can’t kill him because the warhead is wired to his heart and it’ll launch if it stops beating, so Machete decides the only way to shut it down is by getting the bomb’s creator, arms dealer Voz (Mel Gibson), to defuse it. Easier said than done with half of Mexico out to kill you, including brothel madam Desdemona (Sofia Vergara) and her machinegun bra, and assassin of a thousand faces El Camaleón (Cuba Gooding Jr., Walton Goggins and Lady Gaga). The action is average at best, the jokes are worse than that, the cast are there for name value only (apart from Bichir, who’s manic personality swings actually add some life to proceedings) and Machete himself is (intentionally, which only makes it worse) too wooden to do anything more than dispense CGIenhanced death. Ironically, re-creating exploitation films only works if you have something new to add; Justin Bieber jokes just aren’t enough.

Captain Phillips

Patrick

Director Paul Greengrass made his name with the second and third Bourne movies, but with Captain Phillips he returns – to some extent at least – to the docudrama form he used so effectively with United 93. Based on the true story of the hijacking by Somali pirates of the cargo ship Maersk Alabama, it begins with a look at two very different men heading out to sea: Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) leaves suburban USA and his wife (a cameo by Catherine Keener) to fly halfway around the world to take command of a cargo ship heading down the east coast of Africa, while Somali pirate Muse (Barkhad Abdi) puts together a crew from the men of his village after he’s ordered out to sea by the local warlord. Phillips is fully aware of the risk from pirates, but Muse is no fool and despite Phillips’ best efforts – and repeated distress calls – eventually his ship is boarded. But with the crew in hiding and the ship unfamiliar to them, Muse and his crew have their work cut out securing their prize, and it soon becomes a more intimate hostage situation as US military forces make their way towards the scene of the crime.

This has the bare bones of an action thriller, and Greengrass milks it for all the tension it’s worth. Starting with the scenes fending off the pirates, to the hide-and-seek with the crew once they’re on board, to the increasingly grim hostage situation of the third act, this could easily stand alone as a white-knuckle drama. What makes this more than that is Greengrass’ awareness of the external pressures working on both sides; while Phillips is the hard-ass working his crew past their comfort level, Muse is himself forced onwards by the warlords who run his country and his village. The Somali pirates here are all individuals with their own motivations and reactions, and if anyone’s dehumanised here it’s the US Military forces who fit the role in the story of the good guys, but give off a chilly mechanical vibe that suggests something more like a remote and unstoppable force. As a thriller this will keep you on the edge of your seat, but it’s what it has to say about the way the world works – and the role of the West in it – that’ll stay with you.

Prisoners: It’s time for two hours of grey, rainy cinema as cop Jake Gyllenhaal and dad Hugh Jackman both try to track down a couple of missing kids in their own equally bleak ways.

It’s a good film, but not exactly one to watch if you’re in need of cheering up.

2 Guns: Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg are buddy

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cops on the Mexican border who end up using a lot more than just 2 guns as they try to figure out how they got a hold of $30 million of dodgy money – and how they can get rid of it without getting dead.

Diana: This look at Diana’s relationship with Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan would like you to think theirs was a love

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affair for the ages.

Unfortunately the movie itself is one that simply feels like it’s been going for ages.

About Time: A dorky British Dork uses his family’s secret ability to travel back in time (just to earlier points in their own lives – no killing Hitler) to catch the woman of his dreams. It’s a Richard Curtis film, so the accent is on “quirky

charm”, not “creepy time-stalking”.

Rush: The Formula One rivalry between Nikki Lauder and James Hunt was epic in the early 1970s, and Ron Howard’s film does a decent job of capturing their relative personality types – and an excellent job of capturing the thrill of racing at a time where one in ten drivers died on the track.

Horror films are a hit-and-miss prospect in Australia at the best of times, and when you combine that with local audiences’ general reluctance to check out local product … well, something like Patrick faces a pretty serious uphill climb.

Which is a shame, because judged on its merits, there’s a lot here to like here. A remake of the cult classic from 1978, director Mark Hartley (who celebrated ozploitation film with his documentary Not Quite Hollywood) sticks close to the original story-wise while adding a layer of gothic horror to the original’s more straightforward exploitation chills. Patrick (Jackson Gallagher) has been in a coma in an isolated mental hospital ever since he killed his mother and her lover. Now a new nurse, Kathy (Rachael Griffiths), is working on his ward, and while Patrick’s body remains as still as ever, his long-dormant psychic power is beginning to stir… A solid cast (including Charles Dance as the sinister hospital head) keep the creepy hijinks from spiralling too far into silliness, but at times this is more of a mood piece than a fright-fest, and though things do pick up as it goes along, it’s not really in the same ballpark as ruthless scare-machines like this year’s The Conjuring. That’s not to say it’s not worth your time: it’s a well-crafted little thriller with some memorable moments. But is it something you need to see on the big screen? Maybe not.

Blancanieves If the success of The Artist didn’t exactly open the floodgates to a revival of silent (and black & white) film, at least it cracked the door open a little. An offbeat twist on the Snow White tale set in the world of bull-fighting a century ago, Blancanieves takes full advantage of the emotional range available with silent film (where actions by necessity have to speak louder than words) to create a highly entertaining and often moving tale. Antonio (Daniel Giménez Cacho) was the greatest bullfighter in Spain until a pair of tragic accidents – his wife died in childbirth on the day a bull left him crippled – turned him in to a bitter recluse, his daughter Carmencita (Sofia Oria) left in the care of her grandmother. While a gold-digging nurse (Maribel Verdú) married Antonio and made him a virtual prisoner in his home, Carmencita grew up happy but always wishing she could spend time with – or even just see – her father. But when her grandmother dies she’s sent to live with her cruel stepmother in her mansion’s dingy basement – and it only gets worse from there. Bull-fighting plays a big part in the second half of the story – it turns out she’s a natural once she gets taken in by a group of bull-fighting dwarves – and while there’s not a whole lot of hidden depths to this fairytale, it’s so well told on every level (the wordless performances are uniformly excellent) it’s hard not to be carried away.

MUSIC REVIEWS

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Float Along – Fill Your Lungs Flightless Records I think it’s fair to say that we all remember when King Gizzard released their debut LP 12 Bar Bruise a few years back, and now they return with their sophomore release, Float Along – Fill Your Lungs. Opening with ‘Head On/Pill’, I am instantly reminded of the psychedelic period of the Beatles, and with fuzzed-out guitars jumping right in your face along with sitar, bass and drums, this album jumps out a lot more in terms of a first impression than their debut album did.

With only eight tracks, and clocking in at just less than 43 minutes, this is a fast psychedelic ride that presents an album as a journey, rather than just some individual tracks on a CD. If you like Pink Floyd and 60s psychedelia, and for some reason have been living under a rock and haven’t heard of King Gizzard, give this a spin.

In the liner notes, you are able to read the lyrics to the tunes, yet given each song has only a couple of verses, the extended rock jams really are what make this album shine. Clocking in at 16 minutes, ‘Head On/Pill’ makes this seem that this should really be a double album. The bass riff in ‘I’m Not a Man Unless I Have a Woman’ and phaser effect on the guitar is catchy.

Recorded in various homes, studios and sheds throughout the first part of 2013, the fuzzed-out lengthy tracks have a lot of instrumentation within them – and you should blast this to eleven to get the full feel of the record. It may at times seem that the tracks get a little dreary given their length, but there is definitely plenty of hidden gems to keep you satisfied, so don’t be tempted to change the track after 6 minutes or so; hear it out.

Stonefield

triple j

Human Nature

Haim

Stonefield

Like A Version Volume 9

The Christmas Album

Days Are Gone

Illusive/Wunderkind

ABC Music

Sony

Columbia

Stonefield have released their debut album, and let me just say: it’s about time. The sisters from Darraweit Guim in the Macedon Ranges won triple j Unearthed High in 2010, and since then they’ve released two EPs, toured the country, played Glasto and have been producing some of the best rock and roll in the world – all while anywhere up to three of them were studying in high school; the youngest Findlay sister, Holly, at age 14, is still there, and Sarah just graduated.

This review should be five words long: Something for Kate – ‘Sweet Nothing’. However, I have a word count to make, and it wouldn’t do the rest of the album justice to just ignore it.

Let’s get it out of the way. Yes, these guys spent most of the nineties as a boy band, producing pop hits like ‘Does He Ever Whisper Your Name?’ and ‘Tellin’ Everybody’. However, since then they’ve evolved in to a classic doo-wop vocal group. These boys have all the talent in the world, and they’ve found their niche ­– unlike their American counterparts, who revel in their irrelevance as nostalgia acts (see: NKOTBSB Tour; ‘N SYNC’s ‘Reunion’).

I’m going to preface this review by saying that as a live act Haim are brilliant. I wasn’t entirely sold on them until they absolutely rocked their set at Splendour this year.

These sisters know how to rock.

Unfortunately, that rock and roll attitude doesn’t always translate into the album.

Simply put, this album is the best rock album of the year. Forget Haim, ignore Pearl Jam and pretend Bon Jovi didn’t release that trash. The Findlay sisters rock like no others. This is chickrock in the tradition of Joan Jett, Suzi Q and Pat Benatar.

And removing sexism from the equation, this is heavy rock in the tradition of Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix.

Like A Version is consistently the best segment on radio, and every album release is fantastic. I’ll get it out of the way: Paul Dempsey nails Florence Welch’s vocal on ‘Sweet Nothing’. I’m not an actual music expert, but I’m pretty sure he does it in the same key.

However, we also have the lovely Emma Louise’s take on alt-J’s ‘Tessellate’, which blows the original out of the water. Admittedly, I’m not a fan of alt-J; Kingswood’s cover of First Aid Kit’s ‘Wolf’ is brilliant, showing off another side of the hard-rockers; Haim’s tribute to Sheryl Crow’s ‘Strong Enough’ complements (and compliments) the original perfectly; and San Cisco even takes a stab at Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ (and now that I’ve even mentioned that song, it’s stuck in your head).

I risk all my indie/rock/hip hop critic credit by saying this: I love Christmas songs; Carols by Candlelight on Christmas Eve trumps presents on Christmas Day. I don’t cringe at the constant carolling across the PA system in most shops; I sing along. It’s part of the season; we need to embrace it and throw away our cynicism for one time of the year.

All the favourites are here: ‘White Christmas’, ‘Baby Please Come Home’, ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’ and ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’. It’s a pretty standard line-up, because let’s face it, every Christmas album is a variation on the same fifty or so songs … Although I’m not sure when we decided ‘Amazing Grace’ was a Christmas song.

The success of this band is based around the singles, which are all a solid two steps above the album tracks in quality. They blend a kind of indie-rock with their pop sensibilities, and it has translated in to four very good, if not great tracks. ‘The Wire’ is the best track on the album; it has just enough of a rock hit in the drums on top of the Haim sisters’ sound to justify their rock chick image. Of course, those drums come from the forgotten member of the band, Dash Hutton, who is not included in any promotional material in order to maintain their sister-act gimmick.

All in all, worth buying. Get the double-disc version with a DVD to see footage of the recordings.

All in all, it’s nothing we haven’t heard, but if you’re going to buy a Christmas album, skip Michael Bublé’s sixtieth variation and buy local.

There is a lot of good on this album: ‘Forever’, ‘Falling’ and, of course, ‘Don’t Save Me’, are the standouts; whoever is selecting the singles is doing a fantastic job. Among the album tracks the only real standout is ‘My Song 5’ which starts out promising with heavy drums and vocals, but the chorus sounds a bit like Ginuwine’s ‘Pony’. I didn’t say it was a good standout. Buy this one for the singles.

By Cameron Brogden

By Cameron Brogden

By Cameron Brogden

By Cameron Brogden

Juan Alban

London Grammar

Mazzy Star

The Little Stevies

Dr Pelican on Holiday!

If You Wait

Seasons of Your Day

Diamonds for Your Tea

Dew Process

INgrooves Fontana

With the announcement of London Grammar coming out at the end of the year for The Falls and Southbound as well as some sideshows, I’m sure that most readers of Forte are now aware of their chilled out sounds. The main singles ‘Hey Now’, ‘Wasting My Young Years’ and ‘If You Wait’ are all highlights on this glistening album, and it will be a true spectacle to see these guys play live later in the year.

Seasons of Your Day, the first LP in seventeen years for Californian rockers Mazzy Star, is a welcome return to the music scene. Opening with ‘In the Kingdom’ and the countryesque slide guitar licks of David Roback and soulful vocals of Hope Sandoval, this album is an upbeat attempt at developing on their past three albums. I wouldn’t be surprised if this opening track was used over the end credits to a TV series or movie in the near future.

It’s hard to pick a high point; there is definitely not a low point.

Every track on this album drips with rock brilliance. Lead single ‘Put Your Curse on Me’ opens with a choir chanting before launching into a face-melting guitar riff. Amy Findlay’s vocal is purest rock and roll throughout the album. More than anything, this album gives me hope for Australian rock and roll. Buy it now.

Of course, on the flip side Seth Sentry’s version of Frenzal Rhomb’s ‘Punch in the Face’ proves that no matter how good an artist or original a song is, some covers just don’t work. Same goes for Chance Waters’ ‘Little Lion Man’.

These guys are bound for big things; check them out whilst it’s still cool to.

By Tex Miller

liV e re view

Kathy Griffin Live @ The Palais Theatre Thursday, October the 17th, 2013 Whatever you may think of the controversial redhead, Kathy Griffin is one of the most celebrated comedians of our time and, perhaps, one of the greatest comics since the debut of legends like Joan Rivers and our very own Judith Lucy.

But Ms Kathy isn’t like conventional comics and, quite famously, is more of a storyteller. And arguably one of the best. The brilliant thing with Kathy is that she tends to go on tangents, which lead to other tangents which can then lead to other tangents, before she eventually returns to her first tangent which, by the time she returns to it, you’d almost forgotten about. It’s a rather inspired way of keeping the audience on their toes, and although it actually seems like it is a very organic process for her, it’s incredibly endearing and simultaneously hilarious all the same. For her return to Melbourne, this time at St Kilda’s Palais Theatre, she did not disappoint – and was arguably at her most tangent-y.

Before entering into the world of Kanye and Kim, Justin Bieber’s urine or “Molly” Cyrus’ VMA foam finger, Griffin took the opportunity to list off a series of items that, during her current stay in Australia, she had learned were some of our favourite things – you know, as a nation: “Vegemite.

Pies. Wind. And bushfires.” If you are bothered by this then understand that is only a fraction of the controversy Kathy put on display for the night.

Australian politics were discussed, and with every possibility she – correctly – referred to Tony Abbott as a cunt. She even chatted to us about her gorgeous and nearing 90year-old mother’s current bowel movement issue, as well as sharing texts from her good friend, Music Icon and Twitter Queen Cher – all whilst impersonating Cher to a frightening similarity.

She made a few jokes about Luna Park basically being a death trap and fearing for the lives of anybody who would dare to hop into one of those rollercoaster carts. She also seemed to find it rather hysterical that this theatre was in the middle of nowhere; parked right next to a beach … All before implying that Hugh Jackman’s wife, Deborra-Lee Furness, was a lesbian by calling her “sturdy”.

Why? Because in a Kathy Griffin show nothing is off limits.

And that’s not only the beauty of it, but why we keep coming back for more.

Written by Adem with an E

Dr Pelican on Holiday! the debut album from Juan Alban, singer/songwriter of former Aus rockers Epicure, is seriously one enchantingly happy listen. From the pedal steel crooning guitar, to the summery crisp vocal melodies, this album is full of happy vibes, and after a few listens, I am confident in saying that Juan has been heavily listening to, or influenced by, the likes of Josh Pyke and Jeff Buckley.

Following on from his debut EP of a couple of years ago, Too Long in Flight, Dr Pelican on Holiday! develops the delicate and acoustic songwriting that is quite a bit more refrained from his previous releases.

‘Universes’ is one of my favourite tracks of this release, and reminds me vividly of a Josh Pyke track.

There are also quieter and more solemn moments on this record, one such being ‘A.M. Drunk’.

If you’re a lover of quiet folk acoustic, then this disc is for you.

Looking for some tunes to add to your chilled out Sunday afternoon playlist? Then look no further than Dr Pelican on Holiday!. In terms of liner notes, this album lacks the interesting detail that I thrive on in learning about how the artist went about recording the album.

Nonetheless, it is available at all your good retailers, so check it out.

If for some reason you have missed the boat and don’t know who I am talking about, London Grammar can best be described as a mixture of The xx, Chvrches and Haim, whose laid-back tunes have seen them tour around the UK and America over the past twelve months. The electronic vibes and vocals of Hannah Reid are a perfect mixture, and every time I have listened to this release has been when I needed to take a moment away from the world – and ‘If You Wait’ will definitely help destress you.

It will be interesting to see how these songs develop to the live show and what the next chapter in the Juan Alban solo story is; for now, we’ll just have to wait and see.

The reverb guitar lines in ‘Stay Awake’ remind me of a quieter moment on a Radiohead record, and the piano is reminiscent of something Coldplay may have produced back in the early 2000s.

If you were lucky enough to snap up tickets to their sideshow, you’re in for a good time. There are only a few months left for the year, and this is a stunning debut. Don’t be surprised if this makes Top 10 of the year lists in December.

By Tex Miller

By Tex Miller

‘California’ draws on the intimate acoustic and alt-rock sound the band has been working on for years and reminds me a lot of my favourite Mazzy Star tune, ‘Into Dust’. The acoustic drone and bongo drums show that this track was most probably recorded live in the studio with very little overdubs, giving it a raw and original vibe which showcases the true songwriting and beautifully haunting melodies of the band.

In sections, this album is dark and broody and throws up all the emotions and sounds that you would expect from a Mazzy Star record. We’ve had to wait 17 years for this release; hopefully next time it’s not too long between drinks.

Diamonds for Your Tea is the third release for The Little Stevies, and is a continuation of their classic sound. Speaking to Beth a few weeks ago ahead of their performance at the Anglesea Music Festival, it’s easy to hear exactly what she was talking about in terms that this set of songs is a lot more organic than their previous releases. From ‘I Hold My Breath’ to ‘Loving Man’, the personal songwriting element that the band is now somewhat renowned for is definitely present.

There seems to be a lot more piano in these songs than before, but the low cost minimal production element definitely shines through and works strongly with this album. From upbeat ditties to beautifully crafted guitar lines, DFYT is a record that made me smile within the first few tracks, and kept it there until the end.

They are heading out on the road over the next few months touring the record, so catch them if you can. For the meantime, get your hands on the most personal and intimate The Stevies have to offer.

By Tex Miller

By Tex Miller

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Grog Watch Remember when having a birthday meant getting a couple of cards, the occasional birthday phone call from close friends, maybe going out or having a party at the end of the day and that was the end of that? Don’t give me that look like I’m a thousand years old; this was well within living memory and no, I’m not talking about “life was simpler when I was a child” because hell no it wasn’t and anyone who says it was is a big ol’ liar.

Seriously? When you’re a kid all you do all day every day is be told what to do and where to go, and when you’re not being bossed around pretty much everything you want to do you can’t do anyway. I’m starting to get to the stage where people start to occasionally talk about how things were better when they were a kid and that’s fine for them – it just means I never want to

PULP. >>>>>> By Cameron Urquhart & Alastair McGibbon

Cameron: As I mentioned in the last column it is the spooky season called Halloween, so what better film to review than Halloween H20?

The answer of course is Prom Night, because I forgot I didn’t already own H20. At least I managed to keep the same actress involved; everyone’s favourite Scream Queen, Jamie Lee Curtis!

Prom Night is one of those classic slashers that sat on my to-do list but for one reason or another I never got around to crossing it off.

Finally I took the plunge and it turns out I’m an idiot for waiting this long. While released in 1980, this film has little to do with the ultratitillating and gore-soaked decade which followed, instead owing more to the slow burn tension of the decade before it.

To clarify just how much of a slow burn this film is, in the whole first hour no one dies. (The film makes up for it in the final act by offing pretty much everyone you’ve met.) Despite the disparity the pacing always feels like it makes sense. There is however one moment where it feels like the wheels have fallen off.

After successfully building tension for 58 minutes, and just before the bodies start dropping, there are five glorious minutes of a synchronised disco dancing from Jamie Lee Curtis and her beau. While this ruins all the effort the film put in to heightening the mood, I have never so enjoyed a film as I did in those moments. It is incredibly dumb and out of left field, but those kids with the big collars sure knew how to dance.

Alastair: Vertigo is the comic imprint that just keeps on giving. It’s given us Sandman, Preacher and a bunch of other top-notch titles, and I’ve picked up yet another: Sweet Tooth by Jeff Lemire.

You might know Lemire from his run on the New 52 Green Arrow and Justice League Dark series or a stack of other DC titles. Lemire handles both writing and artistic duties on this one, and does a bang-up job on both counts.

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talk to them ever again because really, if you can’t remember how much of childhood is spent in a prison camp with a bunch of pre-teen douchebags, I tend to doubt the accuracy of everything that comes out of your mouth.

It’s like when your friends start to have kids and suddenly it’s like they completely forget all the crap they used to get up to when they were kids.

Presumably they have to do this for the sake of their sanity, otherwise their heads would explode when they drop their kids off to kindergarten and suddenly they remember that time one of their classmates filled a slingshot with nails and tried to kill a bird, which might have been fine except that between the slingshot kid and the bird there were a bunch of other kids; and even that wasn’t as bad as the time a kid brought a crossbow to primary school for show and tell and just wandered around the yard with it for half an hour before a teacher even noticed or … well, you get the idea.

But then when the kids start hitting their teens and start becoming interested in a whole new range of frowned-upon activities, suddenly the parents act like they’ve been mind-wiped which is completely bizarre because if they remembered all the dubious hijinks they got up to when they were fifteen, well, presumably they’d have to give their kids up for adoption … Which might not be the worst thing in the world.

Sweet Tooth finished up with issue #40 earlier this year, and while it might not be as longrunning as some of its Vertigo compatriots (I’m looking at you, Fables!), it’s definitely up there in terms of creativity.

Sweet Tooth is essentially The Road-meetsBambi – a strange take on things, I know, but hear me out. After a plague wipes out the vast majority of humanity, there are two types of people living in the world: normal humans, who are still dying of the Affliction, and Hybrids, children born with animal features. The titular Sweet Tooth is Gus, a young boy with the features of a deer. Gus lives in deep in the forest with his dying father who claims the world outside their leafy home is filled with fire. After his father’s passing, Gus is attacked by hunters – hunters looking for kids like him. Saved by the mysterious and brutal Jeppard (who gives him his nickname after he devoured all of Jeppard’s candy), Gus chooses to leave his secluded home and explore the world.

Needless to say, Sweet Tooth can be a bit weird at times – after all, it’s a strange concept. Once you start to get a handle on the strange and treacherous world Lemire has crafted, it’s a series you won’t be able to put down. Get on it!

Meanwhile, back at my birthday my question is: when did birthdays become this endless series of social media-based chores? And it’s not like I’m one of these guys with 700 Facebook friends or anything: if I haven’t actually met you in real life or dealt with you a heck of a lot on the phone (or maybe email – I don’t entirely dwell in the 20th century), I’m not going to want to be your friend on social media. Why would I? It’s not like I’m trying to collect the set or anything.

Maybe if you’re someone important or really good at a job I’m interested in I might occasionally check in on some form of social media or other, but unless you can direct me to an actual bottle of alcohol that talks to people through Facebook I’m not all that interested. And even if the bottle could talk all I want to hear it say is “no no please don’t drink meee arrrgh!” before its empty carcass is smashed against the side of a primary school classroom.

So when I woke up on my birthday – yeah, thanks for forgetting again this year, by the way – I expected to find a couple of messages on my phone and be on my way because seriously, I’m just not that popular.

And so it came to pass that there were a handful of birthday greetings on my phone. I sent back cheery little “thanks!” messages; job done, time to get on with the business of crying over my lost youth and the inevitability of death like I do every year at this time. But the messages kept on coming; not a flood of them or anything, just one every half hour

or so, which was just enough to be annoying – especially as once I’d said “thanks!” to the first lot I couldn’t pretend not to have second and subsequent waves of well-wishes.

So every time a message came in I had to answer it, and while some of these people I could fob off with a simple “thanks!” there was the occasional one that – due to closeness or length of friendship – deserved something a bit more personal. And because social media is crap, everyone could see what I said to everyone else, which meant that not only did I have to come up with a warm and friendly yet personal message for one person, I had to come up with an equally warm and friendly yet personal message for everyone else – AND I had to make sure that when I came up with a really good one for a close-but-not-that-close friend I somehow had to do even better the next time an actual close friend wished me well.

Because once you start, you can’t take a break to plan this stuff out – people expect real-life replies that are heartfelt and considerate and truly representative of everything they mean to you, and aren’t just “You almost mean as much to me as a bottle of vodka”.

Next year I’m telling everyone my computer died in a fire.

Tony “Less of me to love” Montana

POrPe! cultu

By An th on

y Mor ri s

Two weeks in to Chris Lilley’s new show Ja’mie: Private School Girl, and what have we learnt?

Maybe that Lilley might like to consider working with some other writers for a change? Some other actors wouldn’t hurt either, though the non-professionals (all the teachers are played by actual teachers) aren’t all that bad. But the underlying problem with Lilley’s fourth series is the same as his third, Angry Boys: it’s just too much of the same old thing.

When Lilley first arrived on the comedy scene as part of the ensemble on Big Bite, he was a clear stand-out – which wasn’t that hard to do considering the quality of the rest of the show.

We Can Be Heroes, his first solo show, worked in large part because it kept up the pacing of his earlier sketch show material: six characters across six episodes meant that nobody really had time to wear out their welcome.

Summer Heights High remains the high point of his career to date, but it’s also where the rot set in: with only three characters spread across eight episodes, a number of episodes and storylines started to feel like filler as Lilley wandered off on tangents inspired more by his improv-heavy style of filming than scripted comedy. But Summer Heights High was a massive hit, thanks in large part to the schoolyard setting: kids and parents alike could watch it and feel that Lilley was making fun of something they knew about, in contrast to the niche targets of most Australian comedy.

So with his follow-up Angry Boys, Lilley pushed it even further and finally went too far: it wasn’t exactly a flop, but it failed to strike the chord his earlier work had done. So Ja’mie: Private School Girl is in some ways a retreat back to safer ground, with the schoolyard setting and the return of his most popular – if hardly his most complex – character. But if the first two weeks have taught us anything, it’s that Lilley could do with a few more jokes.

Having Ja’mie constantly talk about tits – her lack of them, the need for her enemies to grow some, questions about whether boys like them – might reflect the conversation of some teenage girls, but the novelty (and the humour) wears off pretty quickly. Overall it’s an odd mix of Lilley’s traditional obsessions: bad dancing, songs with insulting lyrics and scenes that feel almost documentary-like in the way they depict teen girls.

Documentaries aren’t always that funny though, and while in theory five minutes discussing the etiquette of receiving a dick pic – not to mention the size and shape of the dick in question – sounds like ripe subject matter for a comedy, watching it on the screen where it’s a forty-yearold man in drag surrounded by actual teen girls, doing so feels just a little creepy.

Plus, not all that much seems to have happened in two weeks: Lilley might have a bunch of twists up his sleeve, but he’s going to need to do more than flash his bra and talk about his “box gap” if he’s going to turn this one around.

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