Forte #576

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ballarat // bendigo // geelong // surfcoast // warrnambool // werribee

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kyle taylor

issue 576 // 19 DECEMBER 2013 // next issue: 9 Jan

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STONE TEMPLE PILOTS

ALICE IN CHAINS

A DAY TO REMEMBER ROB ZOMBIE MEGADETH MASTODON PLACEBO HIM AFI KORN ALTER BRIDGE TRIVIUM PENNYWISE JIMMY EAT WORLD DOWN DEVILDRIVER THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN GLASSJAW PANIC! AT THE DISCO EAGLES OF DEATH METAL LESS THAN JAKE MAYDAY PARADE ASKING ALEXANDRIA BIFFY CLYRO NEWSTED SEVENDUST ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT BARONESS SUICIDE SILENCE CLUTCH ALKALINE TRIO THE PORKERS (CROSSES) ZEBRAHEAD GOJIRA DESAPARECIDOS FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH SATYRICON AUGUST BURNS RED TESTAMENT ILL NIÑO LIVING COLOUR MUTEMATH BLACK VEIL BRIDES LETLIVE MOTIONLESS IN WHITE GWAR THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER MUSHROOMHEAD FINCH DREAM ON, DREAMER STIFF LITTLE FINGERS THY ART IS MURDER GRAVEYARD PULLED APART BY HORSES NANCY VANDAL BOWLING FOR SOUP TRASH TALK SKINDRED DIR EN GREY VOLBEAT AMON AMARTH TERROR WHITECHAPEL DEFILER TESSERACT DEEZ NUTS THE STORY SO FAR 10 YEARS INHEARTSWAKE BREATHE CAROLINA HARDCORE SUPERSTAR I CALL FIVES HACKTIVIST WALKING PAPERS OUR LAST NIGHT COLISEUM DEVIL YOU KNOW YOUR DEMISE SOIL HEAVEN’S BASEMENT THE BOSSHOSS NOSTALGHIA UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS REAL FRIENDS UPON A BURNING BODY

†††

...WITH MANY MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED!

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A WORD FROM THE TEAM

The next three weeks may include...

Eskys, Christmas shopping, sweaty band rooms, March flies, cider jugs, Meredith, cricket, bad presents, sunscreen, over-cooked sausages, empty salad bowls, banana lounges, Falls Festival, Santa Clause, Home Alone viewing, drunk aunties, The Barwon Club, BBQs, beach towels, hot car seats, board shorts, banana boat, holiday houses, drink lines, dance floors, mozzie repellent, sunburn, cool changes, Forte Mag, no work

(unless you’re in hospitality), Australian Open, beer, road trips, mates…

We say it every year, but it really is the best time of the year – it’s not up for debate!

Thanks for reading Forte Magazine for another year; without you the reader we are nothing. Enjoy the break – you deserve it.

See you in 2014 for another year of Forte fun!

FORTE mag is published by FORTE PUBLISHING p/l abn 64 054 589 641 pHONE: 03 5229 7969 fAX: 03 5229 0318 po box 1388 GEELONG VICTORIA 3220

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PUBLISHER...........................Anton Ballard general..............................enquiries@fortemag.com.au EDITOR/SALES MANAGER....Luke McNamara

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COVER DESIGN.....................James Dulce PRODUCTION........................James Dulce SCENE PHOTOGRAPHER.......Marianne Valitutti ADVERTISING

Anton Ballard

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Marc Wilkins

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CONTRIBUTORS...................

Anthony Morris, Adem Ali, Ben Schultz, Chris Cruz, Chris Lambie, Cyclone, Daniel Meagher, Lucas Skinner, Natalie Rogers, Nekita Roberts,

Win a double pass to see the funkoars at the barwon heads ON SUNDAY 12 JANUARY!

To win just email your name and mobile number to luke@ fortemag.com.au

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Nina Bertok, Ophelia Symons, Paul S Taylor, Phil Hickey, Renee Abbott, Sam Eckhardt, Sam Fell, Stephanie Zevenbergen, Tex Miller, Wylie Caird, and Tony Montana PRINTED BY.........................

RURAL PRESS PRINTING (VIC) BALLARAT 30-32 Grandlee Drive, Wendouree ADVERTISERS AND AGENTS ARE ADVISED THAT ALL ADVERTISING COPY IS THEIR RESPONSIBILITY UNDER THE TRADE PRACTICES ACT. ADVERTISEMENTS ARE PUBLISHED IN GOOD FAITH AND ON THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE CONTENT IS LEGITIMATE AND LAWFUL. ADVERTISERS AND OR AGENTS SUBMIT ADVERTISEMENTS AT THEIR OWN RISK. THE EDITOR AND CREATORS HOLD NO RESPONSIBILITY WHATSOEVER FOR THE CONTENT OF THE MAGAZINE IN THE CASE THAT IT MAY OFFEND. FORTE ACCEPTS NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ERRORS OR OMISSIONS. FORTE RESERVES THE RIGHT TO EDIT ALL ARTICLES AND LETTERS.

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the HIGHLIGHTS

THE LATEST ON international & national news & tours The Highlights: Where we’re looking out a dirty old window. Coming up you have… .........................................................................

Bastille’s Bad Blood Bastille (stylised as BΔSTILLE if you like that kind of thing) will return to our shores next year with their killer debut Bad Blood. Started as a solo project by singer-songwriter Dan Smith, the English outfit released their debut single ‘Overjoyed’ in 2012.

Towards the beginning of the year the band released their fourth single ‘Pompeii’, which took them to a new level. Festival Hall – June 15. .........................................................................

Diana Krall Returns Jazz songbird Diana Krall will return to Australian shores next year for a small number of special concerts featuring a 42-piece orchestra, with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra joining her at her Melbourne appearance. 20 years ago Krall released her debut independent Canadian release Stepping Out. She has since won three Grammys and eight Juno Awards. Hamer Hall – February 11. .........................................................................

Going at it Hammer & Tongs You know those lovely folk behind Boogie festival?

Well, they’re restless souls (and enthusiastic) and so they have out together a new festival early next year, Hammer and Tongs. Coming at you will be Cosmic Psychos, The Meanies, The Murlocs, Harmony, Straight Arrows, Batpiss, Bits of Shit, The Spinning Rooms, Ausmuteants and Yo Grito DJs. 1 Fennell Street, Port Melbourne – January 18. .........................................................................

Veronica Mars in March Once upon a time there was a TV show called Veronica Mars that had a hardcore group of devotees. One day the folk behind the TV show went to Kickstarter and said, ‘Hey, how does a Veronica Mars movie sound? If you, like, give us some money, we’ll get it going’. It was a massive success, boys and girls, and the movie now appears to be eyeing a March 2014 release. And they say fairytales aren’t true.

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The Power of Cat Power The delightful Chan Marshall, better known in music circles as Cat Power, is one of the stars of next year’s Sydney Festival. However, because we like her and she likes us and we’re all sitting in a tree, the singer-songwriter has tagged on some additional dates around the country. Thornbury Theatre – January 31 & February 1; Meeniyan Town Hall – February 2.

Her most recent album is 2012’s Sun.

BDO Refund Info Throwing a reminder your way that if you’re not keen on heading to the BDO anymore because Blur pulled out and you don’t dig the replacements, then getting your money back is as easy as A-B-C. Make sure you have your ticket handy – if someone else purchased your ticket for you they’ll need to handle things – then hit the BDO website and seek out the ‘News’ section. You have until January 6. .........................................................................

Fractures Back in Business Melbourne multi-instrumentalist Mark Zito, better known as Fractures, had an unfortunate case of life imitating his stage name when, yep, he fractured his next and was forced to cancel his debut gig. He is

Band of Horses Acoustic Treat The Ryman Auditorium (formerly the Grand Ole Opry) is a legendary Nashville venue that has played host to countless artists and featured in numerous films. Back in April folk-rock outfit Band of Horses set up shop, playing a couple of acoustic shows. In February next year the band will release Acoustic at the Ryman, a 10-track album featuring the best bits over the two nights. back in business now and not too long ago debuted his live show to a packed house at The Workers Club. More is to come next year where Fractures will be joined by fellow Melbournite, Yeo. The Toff – January 25. .........................................................................

The Reality of Sydonia Melbourne alt-prog-metallers Sydonia will welcome a new album early next year. Reality Kicks is the title and the best bit is it’s going to be a CD/DVD combo. A single and clip will be released in January as a teaser, with the album to follow in February.

Since their 1997 inception Sydonia has supported Korn, Lamb of God, Machine Head, Slip Knot and Stone Sour among others. Give it to your Valentine.

Neil Finn Adds Second Show With tickets being snapped up fast for his Melbourne performance at Hamer Hall on March 12, songman Neil Finn has added a second date at the same venue on March 13. The shows will shine the light on his third solo album Dizzy Heights, due for release early next year. Of course, you will hear plenty of older material as well as new stuff. Utah-based folkrock singer Joshua James lends support. .........................................................................

Southeastern Sounds of Jason Isbell Former Drive-By Truckers member Jason Isbell will be part of Boogie festivities next year but has added a few extra dates around the traps to spread the love a little more. The tour will take in his latest

album, this year’s Southeastern, his fourth studio album. The critically acclaimed album was recorded following a brief stint in rehab. NSC – April 16 & 17; Meeniyan Town Hall – April 19. .........................................................................

Time to Turn to Rentals Remember The Rentals? Perhaps best known best for their single ‘Friends of P’ back in the mid-’90s, the band is fronted by Matt Sharp, also known for his work in Weezer. Well, they recently signed with Polyvinyl and next year will release their first fulllength album since 1999’s Seven More Minutes.

The album will feature appearances from Patrick Carney of The Black Keys and Ryen Slegr of Ozma among others. .........................................................................

Transformers in the Super Bowl It is looking as though Transformers: Age of Extinction will tease fans with footage during next year’s Super Bowl, with the film itself eyeing a lateJune release. Little about the film is known at this stage, other than Shia LeBeouf is out and Mark Wahlberg is in. In an official post on MichaelBay. com, the director said: “I think the first piece comes out for the Super Bowl and a teaser right after that”. .........................................................................

House of Cards Season 2 The second season of House of Cards is set to debut on Netflix in February next year. Although not too much has been revealed about season two, we do know it will see Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) continue his power play, while Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara) continues to uncover his crimes. New cast members will include The Following’s Jayne Atkinson and Treme’s Derek Cecil. .........................................................................

Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Touch of Radiohead Following Radiohead’s tour of Australia last year, guitarist Jonny Greenwood spent time with the Australian Chamber Orchestra on a composition titled ‘Water’. As part of the popular Beethoven concerts led by Richard Tongetti the composition will receive its live debut in Australia next year. Hamer Hall – October 26 & 27. For bookings and further information follow the links through aco.com.au. .........................................................................

Skid Row & Ugly Kid Joe The mighty power of Skid Row and Ugly Kid Joe

will join forces to create one hell of a musical beast next year. They’ve just finished up a run of shows in Europe and the UK, and seeing as how it has been some two decades since Ugly Kid Joe last toured our shores, one could be forgiven for thinking we would be overlooked. But no; it’s happening, and may their glorious spirit shine down upon you all.

The Palace – April 25. .........................................................................

Triple J for Red Cross The good folk at triple j have found the spirit of the season and persuaded their many friends to help record a Christmas single to raise funds for Red Cross. Artists lending their voice include Phil Jamieson from Grinspoon, Elizabeth Rose, Thomas Rawle (Papa vs Pretty), Bertie Blackman, Tuka and Jeswon (Thundamentals), Joyride, Abbe May, Andy Bull and Laurence Pike (PVT). You can buy the single, ‘Christmas Number 1’, through iTunes.

Tomorrow Comes for Bombay Bicycle Club If there is something to be said about Bombay Bicycle Club it’s that they’re not slackers. In February next year the UK outfit will release their fourth album in five years, So Long, See You Tomorrow. The beginnings of the band stretch back to when (then 15-year-olds) Jack Steadman, Jamie MacColl and Suren de Saram began playing under the name The Canals. Ed Nash joined the team in 2006.

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Darren Hanlon Christmas Show Would it be Christmas without a Darren Hanlon Christmas show? Yeah, but it would be a little less joyous of one – like receiving a blue bike when you wanted a red one. The tradition has reached its eighth year and follows a fruitful 2013 which has seen Hanlon recording his new album in various cities of the American South. You will hear old songs, you will hear new songs and you will hear the herald angels sing. NSC – December 22. .........................................................................

Ja Rules Supreme In case you hadn’t heard, Ja Rule is heading to Australia early next year for a couple of shows. Born Jeffrey Atkins, Ja Rule hit it big in 2001 with his third album Pain is Love. The album spawned three top ten singles and has sold over 3.5 million copies. His latest release is 2012’s Pain is Love 2. He has been in the news for different reasons of late, but he is back to the music business in 2014. Trak Lounge – January 19. .........................................................................

Breaking Bad Writer Turns to Film The upcoming young adult novel The Red Queen, the first in a trilogy penned by Victoria Aveyard, is getting a great deal of buzz – so much so that it is being published in sixteen languages. Telling the story of a world divided by the colour of blood, the book – which has not even hit shelves yet – is already set to be adapted into a film, with Breaking Bad writer Gennifer Hutchinson at the helm.

Dan Sultan of Swing

Bag Raiders Homecoming

Songman Dan Sultan has a couple of dates with Bruce Springsteen next year, but he is also bringing his charms to the stage through a handful of headlining shows in support of his latest single, ‘Under Your Skin’. Dan is also expected to release a new album sometime around April, so the smart money says you will hear some new material as well as old favourites. The Corner – March 1.

Jack Glass and Chris Stracey, the two dancepop lovin’ dudes behind Bag Raiders, kicked off a run of Australian dates recently – their first in some time. Their 2010 self-titled debut was a big smash, with song ‘Shooting Stars’ popping up in a McDonald’s commercial. The guys have kept busy playing, writing, recording and living overseas, but we’re more interested in the here and now. The Espy – December 27.

FRI 20 DEC

REST

AURA N

TS – BARS – ENTER TA I N M

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Good Faces 4 Radio SAT 21 DEC

Tim Tonic Hulsman FRI 27 DEC

Figjam Friday night drink promos 5.30 til 6.30 and 9 til 10.30 Saturday night Bulmers and Carlton Draught promos

SAT 28 DEC

Dear Ivy

GROVEDALE HOTEL 236-258 SURFCOAST HIGHWAY PHONE: (03) 5243 2814 | GROVEDALEHOTEL.COM.AU

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CALENDAR & GIG GUIDE Thursday December 19th

BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Open Mic Night w/ Dave Dorman, Masters of Dartness 8:30pm BEAVS BAR: Andy Forster Live BIRD ROCK CAFE (Jan Juc): Live and Local, $13 Pizza night THE BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE): White Ants W/ Rath THE LOFT (WARRNAMBOOL): Jake Gellert & friends THE MAINBAR (BALLARAT): The Slurrymen THE KAROVA LOUNGE: Eyes wide open EUREKA: Katt Niall Christmas Party plus Simon One, Shorty J, Pinky, Max McKay, TVB Aybakez Michael Cameron Roger E and more. Free Entry before 11pm when using a guest list ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Asahi Seafood & Chips Night 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 THE BARWON CLUB: Darcee Fox, Sudden State, Burgworth

Friday December 20th

BARWON CLUB HOTEL: The Go Set Christmas Show, plus The The Stutterers, Mount Defiant BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Daryl Braithwaite LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT: Live Band Test Pilot Molly & DJs Mainroom and Terrace. Open from 9pm THE CARLTON HOTEL: Lani Schwaiger BAR PIZZA: Dean and Curruthers BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Daryl Braithwaite, Happy Hour 5-7pm BASEMENT LOUNGE & NIGHTCLUB: DCUP BIRD ROCK CAFE (Jan Juc): Locals Night, Spinning Vinyl from 4pm THE BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE): Bob Log III BEAVS BAR: Butters Live BLACK HATT: Drink promos from 5pm till 7pm (free entry), Cor Ten Live CITY QUARTER BAR: Friday Unwind with live music then DJ EDGE GEELONG: Live music with Levi and Cody Anderson ELEPHANT & CASTLE: DJ Brian Retro Party from 8pm awesome sunglasses and caps giveaways all night.

THE MAIN BAR (BALLARAT): Sam Lohs CD Launch MARTIAN CAFE (DEANS MARSH): Alister Turrill with support from Henschke THE GROVEDALE HOTEL: Good Faces for Radio THE MAX HOTEL: Trojan TORQUAY HOTEL: Imogen Brough from 9.30pm OLD HEPBURN HOTEL: Cam Kettle

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Saturday December 21st BARWON CLUB HOTEL: Veeped Jerks Squad Xmas.

Three stages of music

BARWON HEADS HOTEL: One of Them Nights Xmas party W/ Slice and Dice LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT: Live Band Stella & DJs Mainroom and Terrace. Open from 9pm THE CARLTON HOTEL: Rach Brennan & Drew Silaev BEAVS BAR: Steve Pianto Live GEELONG RSL: Legends of Ol’ 55. Frankie J Holden and Wilbur Wilde BASEMENT LOUNGE & NIGHTCLUB: Dylan Bauer, Boogs, Dunks, Ethan Winzer and more BIRD ROCK CAFE (Jan Juc): Retro Vinyl and live music from Noon, DJ from 8pm CITY QUARTER BAR: live entertainment and DJ EDGE GEELONG: Peter Chapman Duo and DJ KAROVA LOUNGE (BALLARAT): Neon Love THE MAIN BAR (Ballarat): Sam Boon Jazz Quartet THE GROVEDALE HOTEL: Tim Tonic Hulsman TORQUAY HOTEL: John Braka live in The Sports bar from 9.30pm, HOME HOUSE: Upstairs, DJs till late Downstairs Best RnB Hip Hop DJs THE MAX HOTEL: Hey Charger OLD HEPBURN HOTEL: Lukey Luke 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 December 22nd

BARWON CLUB HOTEL: Sunday Session on the deck from 2pm with Le Chook, Moluck, UNX, Funk See Funk Do, Johnny El Pajaro, DJ Mike later Test Pilot Molly BIRD ROCK CAFE (Jan Juc): SUNDAY SESH: Spining Vinyl from Noon, DJ RJ from 5pm BEAVS BAR: Rosco Live THE BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE) : Checkerboard CITY QUARTER: Perfect Sunday Sesh EDGE GEELONG: Good Faces for Radio and DJ ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Live jazz band + from 6pm Parmi Night 6 Great Parmis $20

Monday December 23rd BARWON CLUB HOTEL: $10 Parmis

ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Steak & Drink night THE SPHINX HOTEL: 11 Meals for $11 BEAVS BAR: Rosco Live

Tuesday December 24th ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Steak & Drink night

GEELONG RSL: Steak Night $13 THE BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE) : Xmas Eve Trivia BASEMENT LOUNGE & NIGHTCLUB: Mike Metro + Guests BEAVS BAR: Dave Anderson Live BARWON CLUB HOTEL: Moluck vs Le Chook Xmas Eve Craptacular in the front bar KAROVA LOUNGE (BALLARAT): Hunting Grounds WHISPERS: Timmy Trumpet, Jane Daffy, Fake Forward plus Simon One, Shorty J, Pinky, Max McKay, Aybakez, Vickers, YAS, Corey Ryan, Herbee Rogers, Metwally Paul E Moxon THE SPHINX HOTEL: 11 Meals for $11, Poker Night (free)

Wednesday December 25th

SANTA COMES! HO HO HO

Thursday December 26th

BARWON HEADS HOTEL: One of Them Days Boxing Dayze Party W/ Some Blonde DJ, Fabian Grey and HEAPS more!

BIRD ROCK CAFE (Jan Juc): Live and Local, $13 Pizza night BASEMENT LOUNGE & NIGHTCLUB: Baby Googles, D.M.T + Guests THE BARWON CLUB: The Boxing day Slam Featuring Bob Log III KAROVA LOUNGE: Traditional Boxing Day Bash feat. The Yard Apes

KAROVA LOUNGE (BALLARAT): The Dead Salesmen Duo

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

GEELONG RSL: New Orleans Night Owls

THE SPHINX HOTEL: Schnitzel Night from $13

LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT: Student & Industry Night (Free entry all night) w/ Live band Passion Fruit Pulp & DJs in the Mainroom and Terrace

ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Asahi Seafood & Chips Night

OLD HEPBURN HOTEL: Sarah Wilkinson PIPING HOT CHICKEN SHOP (OCEAN GROVE): Sarah’s Xmas Carrols BLACK HATT: Bergman & The Balladeers Free Entry from 4pm SPHINX HOTEL: Carvery from $17.00

TORQUAY HOTEL: James Fava Boxing Day Party BEAVS BAR: Dave Anderson Live EUREKA: John Course Boxing Day! plus Simon One, Shorty J, Pinky, Max McKay, Aybakez, Michael Cameron, Paul-E Rogers and more. Free Entry before 11pm when using a guest list THE MAIN BAR (Ballarat): Paige Duggan: Free Entry

Friday December 27th

AT THE HEADS: Live music from 5pm till 7pm (Barwon Heads) THE BARWON CLUB: Nunchukka Superfly plus Poppin Mommas and The Dipsticks TORQUAY HOTEL: Stonefield THE BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE) : Jape Squad BIRD ROCK CAFE (Jan Juc): Locals Night, Spinning Vinyl from 4pm THE CARLTON HOTEL: Lani Schwaiger BEAVS BAR: Hayden Scott Live BLACK HATT: Drink Promos from 5-7 Blackshaw’s Beat Live THE GROVEDALE HOTEL: Figjam CITY QUARTER BAR: Friday Unwind from 5pm. Live with live entertainment and DJ EDGE GEELONG: Levi and Cody Anderson LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT: Good Faces For Radio & DJs Main Room and Terrace, open from 9pm THE LOFT (WARRNAMBOOL) (WARRNAMBOOL): Ten Thousand & Special Guests THE MAX HOTEL : 3 On The Tree OLD HEPBURN HOTEL: Nat Allison THE SPHINX HOTEL: Marcus ‘Elvis’ Jackson

Saturday December 28th

ANGLESEA HOTEL: One of Them Nights W/ Holly J, Siobhan

Token + Guests

from Noon, DJ RJ from 5pm

BEAVS BAR: Steve Pianto Live

THE BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE) : Checkerboard

BIRD ROCK CAFE (Jan Juc): Retro Vinyl and live music from Noon, DJ from 8pm THE BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE) : The Tortskies THE CARLTON HOTEL: Dave Anderson

TORQUAY HOTEL: Kooyeh CITY QUARTER: Perfect Sunday Sesh EDGE GEELONG: Matt and Marcus and DJ

CITY QUARTER BAR: Live Entertainment and DJ

ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Lice Jazz band + from 6pm Parmi Night 6 Great Parmis $20

ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Live Band

GEELONG RSL: Bazza Jazz

KAROVA LOUNGE: Twinsy

LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT: Student & Industry Night (Free entry all night) w/ Live band Unlimited & DJs in the Mainroom and Terrace OLD HEPBURN HOTEL: Pugsly Buzzard

EDGE: Tom and tayla plus DJ THE GROVEDALE HOTEL: Dear Ivy HOME HOUSE: Upstairs, DJs till late Downstairs Best RnB Hip Hop DJs LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT: Stella & DJs Mainroom and Terrace. Open from 9pm OLD HEPBURN HOTEL: Cam kettle THE MAX HOTEL: Trojan WHISPERS: DJ’s including from Matt Watkins, Slice n Dice, Lucille Croft, Frazer Adam, Jungle Jim, Butters, Courtney Mills, Zoolander, Who Killed Mickey, Joel Fletcher, Yatch Club DJs, Katt Nial

Sunday December 29th

BARWON CLUB HOTEL: Sunday Session on the deck from 2pm with Le Chook, Yeh Nah, Eddie Example, DJ Bum Trip, Hakeem Cannons, Moluck, later Good Faces For Radio. Then Eathless (USA) and The Shrine (USA) plus The Dukes of Deliciousness, Allan Campbell and Fire Alive

THE BARWON CLUB: Dan Waters

BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Kingswood and Calling all Cars

BASEMENT LOUNGE & NIGHTCLUB: Dunks

BIRD ROCK CAFE (Jan Juc): SUNDAY SESH: Spining Vinyl

THE SPHINX HOTEL: Carvery from $17.00 BLACK HATT: Andy Pobjoy, Free Entry from 4pm

Monday December 30th ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Steak & Drink night

LORD NELSON HOTEL: / Parmi & Pot for $15 on presentation of student I.D THE SPHINX HOTEL: Meals for $11

Ryan, Paul-E, Rogers, TVB, Vickers, Metwally and Moxon.

BARWON HEADS HOTEL: DJ Eddy HOME HOUSE: Upstairs, DJs Sloice n Dice, Girls Audio, Shameless, Harry Mullins, till late Downstairs Best RnB Hip Hop DJs Deejay AK and Reque BASEMENT LOUNGE & NIGHTCLUB: Jackson Lever, Jarvid Forssman + Guests THE PIER GEELONG: Rob Pix, Stevie Mink, Acid jacks, Benson plus local DJs 8pm to 1am. Tix from $99 oztix, & venue.

ELEPHANT AND CASTLE: New Years Eve Mirror Ball Party.

Frequency, playing fave covers, DJ Brian Playing the best retro and commercial hits in the Beer Garden. Dining Room Bookings gives free entry to Party GEELONG RSL: New Years Eve Party with Grasshopper TORQUAY HOTEL: New Years Eve Party EDGE GEELONG: Live entertainment plus DJ LORNE HOTEL: Tommy Ohhhh, Dean Turnley LAMBYS: Rob Pix, 1 hour set, Stellar live and DJs Joe Joe and Joubin til 5am.

THE CARLTON HOTEL: New Years Party with Kirsty and Ben

TORQUAY HOTEL: Kingswood & Calling All Cars

THE SPHINX HOTEL: The Glittergang W/ Fist full of Steel

Tuesday December 31st

Wednesday January 1st

WHISPERS: New Year’s Eve Downstairs Kid Massive, (UK) & Jane daffet – Upstairs Silent Disco with 600 headsets RnB, Dance, Retro Party. Support from Simon One, Shorty J, Pinky, Max McKay, AybakezCorey

BEAVS BAR: Karaoke and Open Mic and Dave Anderson

Thursday

January 2ND

EUREKA: DJs Simon One, Shorty J, Pinky, Max McKay, TVB Aybakez Michael Cameron Roger E and more. Free Entry before 11pm when using a guest list 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 BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Dallas Frasca BEAVS BAR: Andy Forster Live

THE CARLTON HOTEL: Enquire Within HARVSTER MOON : Zeptepti BEAVS BAR: Steve Pianto Live LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT: Live Band & DJs Main Room and Terrace, open from 9pm

Sunday January 5th

BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Bonjah

Friday January 3Rd

TORQUAY HOTEL: Bonjah THE CARLTON HOTEL: Envy THE MAX HOTEL: Adventure Playground THE GROVEDALE HOTEL: Dear Ivy LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT: Live Band & DJs Main Room and Terrace, open from 9pm BEAVS BAR: Jack Harman Live

Saturday January 4th

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 ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Lice band MARTIANS CAFE (DEANS MARSH): Banjo and Bean THE GROVEDALE HOTEL: Cam Bryce Tranquility Fair, Ocean Grove: Geelong FReeZA run stage 10am+

TORQUAY HOTEL: Joe Camilleri & The Black Sorrows HARVSTER MOON : Ben Caplan LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT: Live Band & DJs Main Room and Terrace, open from 9pm ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Lice Jazz band + from 6pm Parmi Night 6 Great Parmis $20

Monday January 6th ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Steak & Drink night

Tuesday January 7th ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Steak & Drink night

Wednesday January 8th

BEAVS BAR: Karaoke and Open Mic and Dave Anderson

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PRESENTED BY ZEAL OPTICS

TOUR 2014

SUPPORTED BY

RYAN KEEN (UK)

FRIDAY 10th JANUARY SATURDAY 11th JANUARY

TORQUAY HOTEL, TORQUAY, VIC THE LOFT, WARNAMBOOL, VIC

W O N E L A S N O S T TICKE

NEW ALBUM

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FAREWELL FITZROY featuring “Get You Out Of Here” OUT NOW

ROOM FOR LIGHT DEBUT ALBUM OUT NOW

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KINGSWOOD written by Natalie Rogers

Melbourne four-piece Kingswood knows a thing or two about dreams coming true. In what seems like the blink of an eye, they’ve risen from the unknown to become one of Australia’s premier touring bands. Loved at home and away, Kingswood have recently found favour in the States playing shows in NYC before putting the final touches on their long-awaited debut album, Sucker Punch.

“We’re really happy to be home for the summer!” frontman Fergus Linacre enthused down the line. “We’ve been away in the US for such a long time.”

The reason behind the extended stay aboard was the chance to work with producer Vance Powell (known for his work with the Arctic Monkeys, Jack White and Kings of Leon, to name a few) at his studio in Nashville. “I admire Vance – he’s worked with music gods and yet he’s so grounded. We’ve done a lot of recording before, but he made it [Sucker Punch] the easiest recording we’d ever done. He was fearless and creative. He made us feel like we could do whatever we wanted – and

we did, and it was incredible!

“When we first sat down and listened to the songs all the way through, it was an amazing experience.

The impact of listening to our first album was phenomenal. No one said a word the whole time, which never happens!” Fergus laughed. “We all just sat there and listened to the whole thing. It’s not 100 per cent finished. There’s still some work to do and we need to organise the song order, which is a big one. We’re fighting over it! Other than that Sucker Punch is pretty much done.

Everything’s been leading towards this release, so we’re stoked it’s about to come out.”

Fergus tells me Sucker Punch is due for release late January/early February, although the first single of the same name is out now (kingswoodband.com to find it). So to celebrate the guys are planning a road trip, with good mates Calling All Cars, to some of the most beautiful spots on the east coast for the ‘Life’s a Beach’ tour.

“We thought it was a great idea when it came to us. What better way to spend summer than to travel around and play the beach towns?! It’ll be heaps of fun – but it wasn’t our idea to call it Life’s a Beach, so you can’t pin that on us.”

Fergus admitted it may be gruelling playing their explosive brand of rock ‘n’ roll night after night in the hot, sweaty pubs and clubs, but he says

he wouldn’t want it any other way: “To be honest, when we do these kinds of tours, the day we get home I want to do another show. We love being on the road. Don’t get me wrong, we like being in the studio, writing and rehearsing, but after being on the road anything in between is just wasting time.”

Kingswood are no strangers to the open road; they’ve played over 100 gigs around the country and have also been invited to play for the Australian troops over in Afghanistan no less than five times. Another career highlight was being asked to support mega-rockers Aerosmith on their national tour last year. “We’re not too fussed about celebrity, but the one person we’ve met that was a bit of a spin-out for me was Steven Tyler because I’d grown up listening to him – that was pretty amazing!”

The Reflektors, and I’ll tell you what – if you’re not an Arcade Fire fan now, when you see them you will be.”

“We’ve also got the great Australian band Tame Impala playing – I love those guys. I think this is going to be the best summer ... and hopefully I won’t spend too much time hanging out with Snoop Dogg!”

When&Where: Playing with Calling All Cars at the Barwon Heads Hotel, Barwon Heads – December 29 & Torquay Hotel, Torquay – December 30. You can also catch them at the Big Day Out 2014.

If you miss out on the ‘Life’s a Beach’ shows, remember you can always catch Fergus and the guys at Big Day Out 2014. “We’re really excited for the Big Day Out! It’s the kind of gig I dreamt of playing when I was a teenager. Now it’s come along and I have to keep reminding myself that it’s not a dream. It’s wild, it’s out of control!”

On that note I wondered what Fergus thought of the line-up this year. “I love it! Personally, Arcade Fire is one of my favourite bands. I got to see them when they did their secret show as

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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Heaven’s Basement written by Natalie Rogers

They’re part of the British invasion, alongside fellow countrymen Placebo and Biffy Clyro, at Soundwave 2014. The motherland is arguably the mecca of hard rock, and Heaven’s Basement can definitely hold their own. I sat down with lead guitarist Sid Glover on the eve of their first trip Down Under.

“It’s everybody’s first time to Australia, so it’s really exciting. Everyone I’ve spoken to speaks really highly of the tour. They say it’s one massive party! You’re surrounded by great people and everyone has a really good time. I can’t wait.”

Since the release of their debut album in September 2012, they’ve spent most of the time on the road, conquering the US and Europe. Learning from the best (they’ve supported the likes of The Darkness, Bon Jovi, Papa Roach, Seether and most recently, The Pretty Reckless), Heaven’s Basement are part of the new breed of English rockers.

“Over Christmas time and New Year will be the first bit of time off since recording the album. Soundwave will be our first shows back, so we’ll either be well-rested and fired up for the show, or we might go crazy and one of us will go missing or something!” Sid joked.

“February’s your summer, isn’t it? That’s going to be interesting, playing outside in Australia in the heat.

We’re all good English boys – we’re not used to that.

We’ll run out being incredibly enthusiastic and then after three songs be dead on stage!

“Seriously though, the line-up is great. It’s going

FreQ Nasty He is Darin McFadyen on his passport, but once on stage he is FreQ Nasty. Born in Fiji, he spent his childhood in New Zealand where his love of music was developed at an early age. He has also spent a healthy chunk of time in the UK, but these days he calls the US home. We caught up with the producer and social activist ahead of his appearance at Rainbow Serpent.

FreQ Nasty, thanks for taking the time to speak with Forte Magazine ahead of your journey Down Under for Rainbow Serpent! Where are you right now in the world?

I’m in London in the studio with Mike of Pitch Black making a track for my new down-tempo project Atmaspheric. I’m stoked as I’ve been a fan of Pitch Black for years and his new project Misled Convoy is dope too.

Going back to the beginning for a moment, what got you interested in music?

My Dad was in bands when he was a kid in Fiji and he was always playing the guitar and singing in the house. Both him and mum where into music – the blues, Beatles, ’60s stuff. I learned drums at school and then started getting into samplers and digital kit after that.

You started out in NZ, but you moved to the UK where you were part of the foundation of what we know as drum ‘n’ bass. What prompted your move from NZ to the UK at that early stage?

I was about at the Jungle DnB phase in London but didn’t really get properly started ’til breaks kicked off.

When&Where: Soundwave 2014 to be really cool to play with Biffy Clyro aboard because they’re working their way up to where they headline festivals in England. So to play with them at Soundwave is going to be really cool. They’re a great live band, and that’s something we pride ourselves on.”

Sid said it’s their love of playing live that inspired Heaven’s Basement while they were in the studio recording Filthy Empire, their first LP. “Our live show is so important to us. Everyone has to love the parts I wanted to get into electronic music and at that time in NZ there wasn’t so much going on. I loved hip hop and electronic stuff so I packed my bags and headed for the UK via the US to check out both scenes and see where I caught a vibe. Ended up being London where I could sign on, find a squat, and climb into the underground scene in ’90s UK. You have been deejaying the world over since ’91, so you have seen it all. In what ways has the festival and dance scene improved and in what ways is it not as good?

I didn’t start making tunes ’til the mid-’90s and deejaying ’til ’97 maybe, so I’m not quite as OG as that :). But yeah, I’ve seen the whole cycle of new scenes grow and peak and bust. Definitely gives me a more relaxed perspective on the music world knowing that the flux keeps fluxing and sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re not. I’ve learnt to be good with that.

Music now is more open, varied and nuanced than it has ever been, so I have to say I’m stoked on it. The only thing I think we could improve on is the idea that it is fine to download an artist’s music without their permission. I give away most of my music for free as well as making it available in the download stores so personally I don’t have a huge problem with that aspect of it, but not all artists feel the same way.

I believe the artist should sanction their music being downloaded and that it’s a shame that people think it’s fine to steal music from the artists they love, like they don’t respect them enough to support them for the beauty and passion they create for us all. Other than that, I think there is so much good music around now and we’re all so spoilt. [It’s] an amazing time for music lovers.

How would you describe your style if someone (like me) was to ask?

they’re playing live and really believe in it, so we won’t put anything on the album unless everyone has given it the thumbs up.”

In a stroke of genius, Sid and the guys chose legendary musician and notable producer John Feldman (frontman of Goldfinger, producer/songwriter for just about everyone) to work on their baby.

We’ve come from such different backgrounds, but that was the triumph! In the beginning we thought we’d just meet him for the day, hang out and get to know each other. It only took a few hours to know there was clearly chemistry between us. He was determined to do the album. He made it very clear and he fought for it. That kind of passion meant a lot to us.

“On paper people thought he was a weird choice because we’re a straight-up English rock band and he’d never really worked with anyone like that before.

“So we were thrown together, and we’re both kind of opinionated and outspoken. It made for a lot of fuel on the fire – and that fire produced Filthy Empire!”

Not sure. Bass music generally, but I cross a lot of boundaries. I always seem to have dub and funk in my sound. Grimey vibes but all with a positive dance floor energy In terms of creative process, how do you stay inspired after 25 years? Do you always look to push the boundaries with your ideas?

Well, it’s been more like 15 years since my first album, but I am always looking for something new whilst digging deeper into the history of the old music I love and try to keep that process of forwards/backwards going to create something new and interesting. I figure if I’m interested, someone else will be :) Technology is important in terms of the music you make. What toys are you currently playing with when working with samples?

I use Logic Pro and a bunch of native instruments stuff along with some UAD plugs and lotsa weird little bits that aren’t so well known. I just got my Roland 808 drum machine back from Om Unit in London and am stoked to dig into that again. It’s the only bit of collectible hardware I have left after selling all my hardware synths and studio when I left London.

Having seen all corners of the globe, where are some of the places you love to play?

Oz – really!! I have been coming back for years and I love the passion for the music Australians have and the broad tastes and depth of their knowledge. Same with NZ. Antipodeans appetite for music is almost endless :) Also London is dope. And the West Coast of the US – California especially is amaaazing right now.

You are all set to come down for Rainbow Serpent which is one of Australia’s most popular festivals.

Are you excited about the trip?

Yeah, very much so. I have been hearing about it

when&where: Rainbow Serpant Festival 2014, Lexton - January 24-27 for years so to finally get to be a part of it is pretty awesome.

How do you find the Australian crowd to party with?

Very knowledgeable, but without being nerds so they come and have a good time and also are willing to go anywhere musically. Super fun.

What have you got in store for those attending Rainbow?

A lot of new music from me as FreQ but also from the Atmaspheric project and my Dub Kirtan All stars band.

Lots of variety with dub, dancehall and funk/hip hop vibes blending with new underground sounds from the UK as well as the US where I live now.

Anything you would like to add?

I’m Reeeeeeeealy looking forward to it!!

Thanks! :) Thank you ... Come say hi if you are at the gig!

Bless.

Georgia Fair written by zach broadhurst

Georgia Fair’s new record Trapped Flame is an album that shows true growth and transition. The gentle acoustic sound we’ve come accustomed to in hit songs such as ‘Picture Frames’ and ‘Marianne’ are at points traded in for electric guitars and a much heavier sound, showing a whole new side to Georgia Fair.

“There is a bit more urgency this time around than the last record,” says Ben Riley, one half of the Melbourne-based duo. “I think it’s a little more hardhitting; there was a bit more focus on that this time around.”

The boys haven’t totally moved on from their gentle acoustic sounds either, and it is in songs like ‘Broken Wings’, one of Riley’s favourites on the record, that truly bring together the old and the new of the band: “I’m a big fan of ‘Broken Wings’, that’s probably my favourite,” says Riley. “Ever since we demoed the track it’s probably been my favourite. It really encapsulates what Jordan and I do.”

The album also has at times a true American influence to it, a by-product of American acts that inspire the boys and the fact the record was made in California. “We might end up going somewhere else next time, or we might even end up doing it here, but we love America,” says Riley. “The landscape of that place is beautiful and a lot of our musical heroes come from there. It’s a great place to visit.

We like to travel to record and get away from our usual everyday lives.”

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To promote the album’s release the boys had a packed out weekend, with a show in Melbourne on Friday the 29th of November before flying to Sydney for Saturday and Sunday shows. The two cities got different incarnations of the band however, with drummer Sophia Felton joining the boys for their Melbourne show. “We started this thing with Sophia and we have kind of been playing with her for 18months now,” explains Riley. “But obviously the way Jordan and I work, we can always just play with the two of us which is nice. It’s good to be able to change it up as we go along and keep it interesting.”

Felton will no doubt help the boys translate the slightly heavier songs off the new record, but Riley insists playing songs live exactly how they are recorded isn’t necessarily their number one priority: “If we look outside the box and just try and give the songs a live feel we are usually kind of quiet comfortable with it,” says Riley. “I think that’s the key. We don’t necessarily want to recreate the record, we just want to make it sound the way we want it to sound.”

As a busy year comes to an end for the boys there are already plans in the works for an upcoming music video and as much touring as possible, with the hope of taking their shows overseas. “We have a new single coming out with a video,” says Riley. “We are hoping to put a tour together in the early new year and just go from there. We will probably start here and do as many shows as we can and wait for those shows overseas to come and then go for it.”

release: Trapped Flame is out now

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TALK OF THE TOWN! Talk of the Town: Where we know a girl who’s tough but sweet. Coming up you have… .........................................................................

One Big Happy GigFest Bendigo’s bi-annual GigFest welcomes 2014 with a mighty bang across January 17, 18 & 19. In fact, it comes with such a bang you’ll be able to hear it across town. The awesome folk behind the festival have even made things sweeter in 2014, with three themes running over festivities. Friday, January 17 is ‘Metal Theme’ and welcomes Severity, Hazard Circle, Subterranean Drilling Machine, Eyes Wide Open and Path of Destruction. That one takes place from 8 p.m. to midnight. January 18 is ‘Rock Theme’ and welcomes a 12-hour slab of Artilah, My Left Boot, Grindhouse, El Montez, Left for Wolves, Child, We the Radio, Blackbird, Rabid Zulu, Berlin Postmark, The Trembles, Mightiest of Guns, The Dead Lurkers, The Baudelaires, Band of Cloud, Chase the Ace, The Electric SunKings and Neurotik Trendz. That one takes place from 12 p.m. to midnight. January 19 is ‘Roots Theme’ and welcomes Colonel Vipers Whipstick Band, Lee Rosser & Tim O’Conner, The Mockbells, Old Buzzard Medicine Show, CJ & JD, Anchor & The Butterfly and Andy Garlick.

That one takes place from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. The Friday and Sunday shows are both $10 a pop, with the Saturday costing a cool $20. A three-day pass will cost a bargain $30. So pick a day (or two or three) and head on down for some cool tunes. You may even meet someone nice.

Check out gigfest.com.au for more. .........................................................................

Riverboats Music Festival 2014 With this being our final issue for the year, we’re going to remind our lovely readers about a few things coming up next year. Taking place in the twin-towns of EchucaMoama, the Riverboats Festival is a bub in the world of festivals, but it has certainly made a big impression.

The Cat Empire, Tim Finn, Ian Moss, Paul Dempsey, Don Walker, The Basics, Dan Kelly’s Dream Band, Wagons, Thelma Plum, Tinpan Orange, Mojo Juju, Sweet Jean and Liz Stringer are all set to perform. Other highlights of the festival include Riverboats Deluxe, a two-hour Murray River cruise which includes music from Mojo Juju plus local catering. The Official Festival Breakfast on the Sunday of the festival is another treat. It all takes place from February 14 to 16 under towering red gums in a natural amphitheatre. Further information is available through riverboatsmusic.com.au.

was quick to build a solid reputation on the back of their live performances. Clawing the chest of folk metal like an animal, the band coughed up their third album, Forged in Flame, in September. The Karova, Ballarat – January 30. .........................................................................

A litte bit of the Little Stevies Fresh from recording one of their latest songs in their Melbourne bathroom, the Little Stevies are swinging into Queenscliff. The folk singer sisters will perform hits from their latest album Diamonds for your Tea, including Shattered Dreams which was recorded exploring “all the possibilities that a home studio provides”. They’ll be performing at Queenscliff Uniting Church on January 8.

Check out unitingqueenscliff.org.au for details. .........................................................................

DJ Sever’s Christmas Spirit Christopher Warren, the man behind DJ Sever, has had one big year in 2013. Cutting and blending party breaks, Sever’s electronic mash-ups make any night out on the town one to remember. In terms of releases, Sever dropped Futuristic Juice, a blend of TRAP, tech and hip hop that sampled a diverse range of some of 2013’s biggest artists. But he has a big heart and last month delivered four mixes to K-Rock 95.5: rock (including Queen, Papa Roach, Metallica and Guns N’ Roses), hip hop (including DMX, Flo Rida and 2 Chainz), party breaks (including Grand Master Flash and RHCP) and tech ‘n’ bass (including Major Lazer and Will Sparks). The first three spanned seven minutes, while the tech ‘n’ bass mix pumped out 14 minutes of gold. You can check ’em all out through his SoundCloud page. And you can check out the man himself through facebook.com/DJSEVER.

Fronted by Rosie Burgess and featuring Sam Lohs on stomp box drums and Tim Bennett on bass guitar, the Rosie Burgess Trio dances effortlessly from folk to blues to gypsy-roots and then back again. Their new album is Before I Set Sail. Burgess: “The album seemed to totally write itself. We made this album in a month! It’s unheard of in my world to do anything that quickly, but somehow everything just fit together perfectly and nothing went wrong. I was just unbelievably calm waters and smooth sailing the whole way through.” The Loft, Warrnambool – January 10. .........................................................................

Great Australian Beer Festival

Would you like some beer with your beer? Beer is everywhere early next year with both Ballarat and Geelong holding beer festivals. Providing the perfect mix of craft beer, gourmet good and music, the Ballarat Beer Festival is shaping up as one fine way to spend a summer’s day. The music line-up was recently announced and it is a ripper with Wagons, Little Bastard, SteelBirds, Sweet Jean, No Strings Attached, The Blue Souls and SoulTown set to perform. Would there be anyone cooler to share a beer with than Wagons? I doubt it. The Wagons crew recently released their limited edition 12 inch vinyl Upstairs at the United Volume 9. The Ballarat Beer Festival takes place at the City Oval on January 18.

Gates open at 11 a.m. For further information please hit ballaratbeerfestival.com.au.

Last year over 4000 people made their way through the gates for Geelong’s inaugural Great Australian Beer Festival. With numbers like those, it is little wonder the festival returns in 2014. You won’t find your typical brew here. Instead you will find over 150 craft beers and ciders.

If you have ever caught yourself thinking, ‘You know what they should do? A so-and-so flavoured beer’, the chances are you will find it. And if not, if you have the desire, you can craft it. At the GABF you will find more than a refreshing brew. You will also be treated to a day of gourmet food, music and cabaret. Owl Eyes, Kylie Auldist & the Glenroy Allstars, Tigertown, Murdena, The Evening Cast, The Kite Machine and Grim Fawkner will provide the tunes. The Great Australian Beer Festival takes place at the Geelong Racecourse on February 1. For everything you need to know hit gabfgeelong.com.au.

Melbourne and Perth will unite early next year in a metal union that will see Be’lakor and Claim the Throne enjoying a run of shows. Melodic death metal outfit Be’Lakor lend their name from the character ‘Be’lakor the Dark Master’ in the Warhammer Fantasy setting. Together since 2004, the band has released three albums, their most recent being 2012’s Of Breath and Bone. They toured Europe on the back of its release. In 2009 they were recognised by webzine Metal Storm, who named their 2009 album Stone’s Reach ‘Best Melodeath/Gothenburg Metal Album’ of the year. Claim the Throne formed in 2005 and

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Half Moon Run Come Full Circle Ballarat’s 2014 will kick off in stellar fashion with Canada’s Half Moon Run set to hit town as part of a handy little run of Australian shows. When your back is against the wall, you either succumb to the pressure or rise above it. For the three members of Half Moon Run, when faced with the hardships of time constraints and choking bank accounts, they rose above it, bonding in a way only a shared drive and passion can deliver. Effortlessly blending elements of indie, pop and folk, the band has in their short life made a significant splash. They have wowed audiences at SXSW and Canadian Music Week, while locally they have charmed music lovers at Peats Ridge and Woodford.

Last year saw the release of their debut album, Dark Eyes. The album features their single ‘Full Circle’, a track used on the ‘Horizon’ trailer for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. The Karova, Ballarat – January 18.

So Frenchy, So Chic returns to Werribee Mansion on January 12, bringing with it an indulgence of French music, food and wine.

2014 artists include Lou Doillon, Féfé, Lilly Wood & the Prick, Babylon Circus and Edward Deer. Deer became a name to watch with the release of his debut album About Monsters, a release which included covers of Tom Waits’ ‘Clap Hands’ and Miike Snow’s ‘Animal’. He has started working on his second album, but in his off-time lent his talents to Mélodie Française, a collection of Australian artists singing French songs. When it comes to food you will be spoilt for choice, with So Frenchy offering several grazing plates. There will be plenty for the sweet tooth as well. Games (croquet, pétanque), face painting and a photo booth will be on hand for the little ones. Hit up cartellmusic.com.au for further information.

Rosie Burgess Will Fill Your Soul

Tunes of the Ballarat Beer Festival

Be’lakor & Claim the Throne

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So Frenchy, So Chic

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state in its attempt to get the most people in the water at once – floating aboard giant inflatable Havaianas thongs, of course. Cottesloe took the honours this year, with 2093 filling the water. Bondi wasn’t too far behind at 2070. Torquay cracked the 1000 mark, coming in with the grand total of 1053. In all, 5664 people took to the water as part of the challenge, helping to raise over $55,000 for the SLSC Nippers. You don’t have to take part in the challenge to be part of the fun: hundreds of events took place in pools, rivers and dams around the country early this year. If you want to get involved then take some time out and have a look at havaianasthongchallenge.com.au for all the details. It’s a great day out for a good cause.

The Park – Geelong Indoor Skatepark.

Earthless to Charm Again

The Park, located in Geelong, is home to the largest indoor skatepark in Australia and boasts the largest indoor Vert ramp in the Southern Hemisphere. Inspired by competitions such as “Street League” The Park has been designed to be Australia’s mecca of skateboarding and action sports including BMX, scooters and inline and has attracted both national and international attention. Among the many highlights of this unique 2500 square meter park are 3 ft high mini ramp with pump hump, a 40ft wide mini ramp with pool coping, a 90ft Vert ramp with kickers and offsets, real street concrete skate course area plus the only indoor mini mega ramp in the country. There is a fully equipped retail shop and the Park also cater for all types of private functions and parties. Open 7 Days from 10am at 402 Thompson Road North Geelong. 03 5278 2633 www.theparkgeelong.com.au

They say third time’s a charm, but it’s fair to say that the previous two occasions Earthless have visited our shores have been wondrous events.

This third time is just going to keep the good times rolling. Hailing from San Diego, Earthless have been weaving their web of instrumental psychedelic rock since 2001. The band not too long ago released their third full-length album, From the Ages. Sputnik Music wrote: “Put simply, From the Ages is an exercise in taking the listener on a universal, musical journey, which is done in such a way as to make you hope that it will never end … If you choose to embark on Earthless’ latest trip around the universe, hold on to your heads, because it’s going to be a rather wild one.” To sweeten the deal the band has decided to bring along L.A. garage punksters and label-mates The Shrine for the ride. The Barwon Club, Geelong – December 30.

Red Hot Summer Tour

One-Man Power of Bob Log III

The Red Hot Summer Tour has become the perfect way for many music lovers to kick start their musical year, and bringing you the red hot tunes of summer next year will be Suzi Quatro, The Angels, Black Sorrows, Shannon Noll and Russell Morris. Quatro began her music career at the age of 14 with The Pleasure Seekers.

What followed is a career that opened the door for women to become major rock and roll players, with Joan Jett, Chrissie Hynde and Debbie Harry among those she influenced. She was recognised for her contribution to music in October when she received the Woman of Valor Award from the organization Musicians for Equal Opportunities for Women (MEOW).

You can expect to hear all the old favourites including ‘Can the Can’, ‘Devil Gate Drive’, ’48 Crash’ and ‘All Shook Up’. North Gardens, Ballarat – February 1.

Delta blues craftsman Bob Log III has endeared himself to Australia over the years.

We like him, he likes us; it’s a beautiful thing really. Well, once again he is set to take his old archtop guitar, kick drum and foot cymbal on the road. FasterLouder’s Liam Tracey checked out Alabama Shakes at The Forum in January where Bob Log got things underway in his own way. Liam wrote: “Bob Log III’s guitar had a life of its own, while the mystery man’s job was to keep the growing room amused with requests to kiss the sound man and an invitation for any willing ladies to come and sit on his knee. With one last defiant fist raised to the sky, and a quick walk through the crowd of punters, Bob Log III proved an unexpected, albeit amusingly welcome start to the evening.” The Bridge, Castlemaine – December 20 & The Barwon Club, Geelong – December 26.

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Havaianas Australian Day Thong Challenge When Australia Day rolls around next year the Havaianas Australian Day Thong Challenge comes with it. The chances are you have probably heard about this event by now – some of you may have even taken part in previous years – but we’re giving it a run because it’s a whole lot of fun, plus it’s for a good cause. Hitting beaches nationwide, the sun-filled event features a host of activities and entertainment. The most popular event is the Havaianas Challenge itself, which pits state against

Queens of Noize 2 When the first Queens of Noize showcases took place in Bendigo in June, the feedback was loud. Very frackin’ loud. Good times were had, friends were made and the message was clear: WE WANT MORE! Well, the second instalment has been put together and will take place at The Newmarket Hotel on February 14 & 15. Lining up on February 14 for a very special and musical Valentine’s Day bash will be The Divine Fluxus, The Androgyny, Strawberry Fist Cake and Chase the Ace; on February 15 duties you have The Heroines, Rabid Zulu, Horizon’s Edge and Neurotik Trendz. The Divine Fluxus hail from Melbourne, belting out a new flavour of “bi-polar rock”.

Victoria Dunbar, Ary Rejon and Sasha Campbell are the motley trio behind the band who have been serving up their psychedelic wah and dreamy vocals to Revolver Upstairs, The Workers Club and The Brunswick among others. How noisy can these ladies get? .........................................................................

The Gravelly Road of Pugsley Buzzard When your name is mentioned in the same breath as Fats Domino, Fats Waller, Dr. John, Jon Cleary and Tom Waits, you know you’re doing something very, very right.

Praise just doesn’t come much higher than that. Say hello to Pugsley Buzzard. From the jazz cellars of Berlin to downtown New Orleans, Pugsley has captivated audiences with his piano-driven boogie. SMH’s Bruce Elder wrote: “If there is a sure-fire formula for musical success, leading to lots of regular work and critical acclaim, it has to be New Orleans style piano playing mixed in with boogie and blues, that is both hot and cool, sensuous and intimate, raw and loads of fun. Think only of Fats Domino, Fats Waller, Dr. John, Jon Cleary, Tom Waits and our own home grown performer with the unforgettable name, Pugsley Buzzard.” Old Hepburn Hotel, Hepburn Springs – December 29. .........................................................................

D at Sea Finds his Land Legs Quick bite: Emerging artist D at Sea – known outside of the music game as Doyle Perez – has put together a pretty beefy tour for the early part of 2014. The young Brisbane songman, whose blend of acoustic hardcore is earning him a solid name, dropped his debut EP earlier this year. Although he came to our attention through his acoustic renditions of songs including Parkway Drive’s ‘Carrion’ (which has clocked up nearly one million YouTube views), the EP features five original tracks.

Barwon Club, Geelong – February 20. .........................................................................

Bonjah’s Black Heart New Zealand-born, Aussie-based fun lovin’ outfit Bonjah have been on the road since October where single ‘Blue Tone Black Heart’ has taken centre stage. It is not the first piece of magic the band has given us this year: their cover of Lorde’s ‘Royals’ is a sweet little number as well. The band recorded their version of their fellow New Zealander (yep, they may live here but they are still

Chinese gooseberries at heart) as part of triple j’s Like a Version. If you haven’t checked it out, hit up YouTube – it has racked up over 350,000 views. ‘Blue Tone Black Heart’, which itself is doing very nicely, is the second single to be lifted from the band’s third album, due for release in 2014. The band has performed in Japan, England and Germany and supported bands including The Who, Arrested Development and The Black Seeds.

Torquay Hotel, Torquay – January 3. .........................................................................

Jebediah Add Shows In October, alt-rock champions Jebediah announced a run of regional NSW shows. Now they have beefed up the tour with a few regional dates around Victoria. And anything NSW can do, we can do better. Think back to ’94 for a moment. (Some readers may have still been in nappies at that stage.) A young band won the National Campus Band Competition and received attention for their single ‘Jerks of Attention’. They released their debut, Slightly Odway, and within four months watched it go Gold. They would release a few more albums before going on hiatus, with frontman Kevin Mitchell keeping busy with various projects including his solo life as Bob Evans. The band would return in 2011 with album number 5, Kosciuszko. Barwon Heads Hotel, Barwon Heads – January 17; Whalers Hotel, Warrnambool – January 18; Torquay Hotel, Torquay – January 24. .........................................................................

Jessica Mauboy at the End of the Earth At the beginning of November songbird Jessica Mauboy kicked off a tour which will keep her busy until the end of January. The reason for the tour is new single ‘To the End of the Earth’, a track co-written by Mauboy and L.A. songwriters Jaden Michaels, Ben Berger and Ryan McMahon. Since her runner-up placing in the 2006 season of Australian Idol Jessica has released three albums. She has also earned praised for her acting chops, appearing in Bran Nue Dae and The Sapphires, for which she won an AACTA for ‘Best Supporting Actress’. In the lead up to the tour Jess said: “I am incredibly pumped to be getting out and performing again. It’s so exciting to be sharing all my new music and I can’t wait for everyone to hear it. I am going to take you on a whole other journey!”

WPAC, Wendouree – January 23 & The Geelong Arena, Geelong – January 24. .........................................................................

Audrey Auld’s Musical Heart Tasmanian-American singer-songwriter Audrey Auld has a heart steeped in country, Americana and folk. A fiercely independent artist, Auld’s songs have been heard on the Grand Old Opry and recorded by Nashville stars.

Those with a keen ear may have heard her songs on TV shows Justified, The Good Guys and Longmire. Her latest album is Tonk, an album inspired by her years in Nashville. She says: “I stood in the studio with this great band and knew that I had lived my whole life to get to this point. It was so much fun and such an honour to play with these great guys, the way country music should be

White Summer Feeling Fuzzy ‘Chugg Fuzz’ is a new track being road-tested by White Summer, and they hope you dig it as much as you do ‘Head in the Sand’. White Summer, whose clip for ‘Head in the Sand’ can be checked out online, is the latest band finding a lot of love from triple j Unearthed. Originally from Phillip Island, the now Melbourne-based blues rock trio has drawn comparisons to the likes of The Black Keys and Audioslave. Community-driven music blog Happy wrote: “There is a staggering guitar hook and a raw wondering bass line but above all there is ‘that’ chorus. It is seriously explosive, overwhelming and just so purely rock ‘n’ roll that you want to scream along with Stanfield’s growl and smash a guitar against a wall.” Music trivia of the day: The band takes their name from a Led Zeppelin song. It’s hard to go wrong with that. The Barwon Club, Geelong – January 14.

recorded. There’s not much I needed to say to them. I’d just play them the song and they’d fall right in the groove.”

The album has received some stellar reviews, but by all reports her music is even more gorgeous in a live setting.

Old Hepburn Hotel, Hepburn Springs – February 2. .........................................................................

Rainbow Serpent Festival 2014 Another reminder as we look ahead to the Rainbow Serpent Festival. Taking place in Lexton between January 24 and January 27, the festival will once again play host to a memorable celebration of music, dance, colour and expression. The international lineup includes Slamboree Soundsystem, The Orb, FreQ Nasty, Pan-Pot, King Unique, Phaxe, Dub Kirtan Allstars, Dousk and Meat Katie. The domestic line-up includes Flap!, Kingfisha, Mantra, Rapskallion, Opiuo, Phil K, Kodiak Kid, Mike Callander and The Woohoo Revue. Music aside, the festival will host a stack of workshops and various other activities. The Solar Cinema is a highlight of this, and is a solar-powered cinema that will show peculiar shorts, interviews, original films and animations. With so much happening, and so little room to cover it all, your best bet is to hit rainbowserpent.net for the full rundown.

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TALK OF THE TOWN! GPAC Sneak Peek

Livin’, Breathin’, Playin’ Rhys Crimmin

It has been another massive year for theatre at the GPAC in 2013, but just wait until 2014! The official theatre season will kick off in March with The Kitchen Sink, a new play from the Red Stitch Actors Theatre crew. A couple of classics are also lined up: a new adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 and Simon Stone’s reworking of Nikolai Gogol’s The Government Inspector. A highlight is the Victorian exclusive of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest starring theatre legend Nancye Hayes.

Season packages of four or more shows are currently available through gpac.org.au. And here is something special: if you purchase a season tickets package before December 31 you go in the draw to win a trip for two to London, complete with accommodation and a West End show thanks to Harvey World Travel. What a score that would be, and what a season you have in store.

Quick bite: In 2003, at the age of 17, Rhys Crimmin took second place in the Australian Busking Competition. He has since performed more gigs than he has had home-cooked meals. Armed with an array of guitars including 6-string and 12-string, didgeridoos, harmonicas and his voice, Crimmin’s genre-fusing style has played out at just about every festival around the country. From reggae to dirty foot stompin’ blues, the self-taught songman is always a welcome guest wherever he plays. The Loft, Warrnambool – January 17.

.........................................................................

Skate Park Upgrades As skaters would be well aware, there has been a little upgrading of skate parks in Winchelsea, Connewarre and Moriac. Special openings featuring music and a BBQ have been held (note: Winchelsea’s opening is today, December 19, from 5.30 p.m.) to welcome the improvements. The Connewarre skate park upgrades include a grind box and quarter pipe; the Winchelsea upgrades include an extended quarter pipe; and Moriac upgrades include a new fun box and grind rail. Winchelsea Ward Councillor Heather Wellington: “Council, with the support of the community and Victorian Government, has made some great investments in the skate parks across the shire, and these parks in our hinterland communities are really important places for our local young people to gather.” .........................................................................

Dragon – The Trilogy Concert Are they New Zealanders? Are they Australian? Does it matter? With a four-decade career there is enough of Dragon to go around and make everyone happy. Next year the iconic band will hit the road for a series of shows dubbed ‘The Trilogy Concert Tour’ in honour of their three distinct ages: ‘Young Years’ (1973-1979), the Glory Years (1982-1998) and the Phoenix Years (2006 onwards).

Founder and bass player Todd Hunter says that the band will check in on songs from the three periods as well as revisit more obscure tracks. “The Dragon Trilogy Tour is a way of honoring those eras through the songs and a way of making sense of everything that has happened in the last 40 years.” The current line-up for the band is Todd Hunter, Mark Williams, Pete Drummond and Bruce Reid. Lighthouse Theatre, Warrnambool – May 3; Drama Theatre @ GPAC – May 9; The Capital, Bendigo – May 10.

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Scar the Surface’s Ring of Fire Quick bite: Yo, if you don’t own a copy of Scar the Surface’s album From the Shadows to the Fire, you should get on it. The Melbourne heavy-hitters formed in 2006 and have since managed to rack up a pretty impressive support resume which includes The Haunted, Antagonist AD, Psycroptic and The Amity Affliction. From the Shadows to the Fire is the band’s first full-length album (they have also released a demo and a couple of EPs) and showcases a more solidified sound by the band. Your Break, Warrnambool – January 4 & The Karova, Ballarat – January 17. .........................................................................

Nothing Fake About Fake Forward Quick bite: Deep house, bass-heavy beats, bouncy shit and stripped back techno – and now you know a day (or night) in the life of Melbourne duo Nothing Fake. The duo started their life in fine fashion by being chosen to support Eats Everything in Sydney at their show. You may also know them for their production work which includes remixes of Carl Cox and Roger Sanchez. Or perhaps their debut single ‘Home Schooled’ is how you met the lads. Also the owners of Habitual Recordings, FF live and breathe what they do. Eureka, Geelong – December 24.

Motor City Music Festival Okay ladles and germs, listen up. The Motor City Music Festival, or the Geetroit Music Festival for you hip young things that don’t say such things as ‘hip young things’, is coming your way across the March long weekend. And it’s gonna be big.

Three days of music – kaboom; one open-air stage – pow; and four undercover stages – zap!

Okay, let’s take a look at who they’ve got lined up. Friday, March 7: Alister Turrill, Blue Eyes Cry, Chocolate Starfish, Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk, Claude Hay, Crown of Thorns, George Kamikawa & Noriko Tadano, Jimi Hocking’s Blues Machine, John McNamara, Lloyd Spiegel, Nick Barker and the Heartache State, oh sopHia, Palace of the King, Raw Brit, Spoonful, Tex Miller and Wayne Jury.

Saturday, March 8: Andrea Marr Band, Appetite for Destruction, Blues Mountain, Chris Wilson’s Chicken Walk, Claude Hay, Die Hard Dolls, Geoff Achison, Jimi Hocking with Bert Deivert, Sweet Felicia and the Honeytones, Pearl – The Janis Joplin show and Kisstroyer. Sunday, March 9 (Family Day): Blues Mountain, Boom Crash Opera, Glitter Gang, Daryl Braithwaite, Louis King and the Liars Club and The Chantoozies. There is a stack more music, but just not enough space.

There will also be plenty of gourmet food vans and well-stocked bars. The festival will even conclude with a fireworks display at 8.45 p.m. on the Sunday night. Keep in touch with developments through motorcitymusicfestival.com.au.

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A Karova Winsy with Twinsy Quick bite: Guy Chappell (Yacht Club DJs) and Michael Belsar (Hunting Grounds) are the pair behind Twinsy, a couple of lovable guys who create an orchestra of indie/dance rock. Incorporating driving drums and strong vocals with generous does of electronic elements and samples, Twinsy was the special guest of Robert DeLong earlier in this year. Their song ‘Waterbombs’, meanwhile, was one of triple j’s most played tracks of 2012. They’re a whole lotta fun, don’t ya know. The Karova, Ballarat – December 28

An Added Little New Year’s Eve Note Hey there readers, how goes it? I hope you’re all well.

New Year’s is approaching and I am sure many of you have plans. Some of you may be going out; others may keep the celebrations at home. Now, I don’t want to get all parental on you here, but I would like everyone to have a memorable time for the right reasons. So please; wherever you go, whatever you do, take care.

Don’t be a dick, okay. Have an awesome night and may your hangover be short-lived.

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NIGHTJAR MARKET - TORQUAY TORQUAY... The start of the Great Ocean Road, the Surf Coast and home of the spectacular NightJar..

The Nightjar festival is the baby of Kyla Vinton & Lyndelle Flintoft.

Both local Torquay residents they make a powerful duo that has seen the Nightjar become a integral part of the Surf Coast.

The NightJar now in its 4th year is the first of its kind within the Surf Coast Shire. fs a designer/ artisans market with a festival vibe. The event brings together emerging designers, local producers, fair-trade importers and contemporary artists from all over Australia. vibrant night festival has beautiful unique craft, fantastic local beer, multi cultural cuisine, amazing musicians to entertain you all night, buskers, art installations, a beautiful indian wedding tent where you can relax while sipping on a chai and much more. This season we will be serving you up tasty Prickly Moses beer from Otway Brewery over the unique driftwood bar. NightJar (named after a local owlet that resides on the land) is set by the ocean and nestled amongst the trees along Torquay fs Spring Creek. We encourage patrons to bring their own picnic rugs and commute via pedal or leg power, you can use the new bike racks! As the 10,000 strong crowds disperse on the NightJar they are welcomed into the festival by girls dressed in glorious outfits, while your beer will be served to you by bar attendants dressed in burlesque outfits there is also interactive art installations dotted throughout the market all of which add to the magical experience of THE NIGHTJAR. Lyndelle and Kyla spend all year working on bringing the Nightjar to you in January. The event has grown exponentially over the past 4 years, we are so happy and amazed at the popularity of the event. Nightjar is now viewed by the local shire and state government as a major event which is exciting but at the same time comes with its downfalls! The costs of running such an event are enormous and keeping the festival viable has been a major challenge to us this year. We thought carefully about the direction of the festival and decided the last thing that we wanted for Nightjar was to take on a major corporate sponsor we instead opted to charge a $5.00 entry fee for adults (children are free) so we can continue to be an independent and locally owned event which will insure the integrity, beauty and uniqueness of the Nightjar.

This year we have been busy working in conjunction with local Torquay environmental group SCEG (Surf Coast Environmental group) on a exciting new waste management program that we hope will lead the way in how rubbish is disposed of at major events throughout the region. We will also be introducing the new children’s area which will leave many little visitors enchanted.

The success of the Nightjar Festival hadn’t gone unnoticed by the Geelong Shire and in late 2013 when the previous event organisors of the Geelong Night Market decided not to continue the event into 2014 the Geelong Shire approached the Nightjar Team. In addition to Nightjar Torquay we will now be bringing to you Nightjar in the City to be held each Friday night in February.

So come to the Nightjar festivals for an hour or the whole night, shop for unique kids clothes, jewellery, ceramics, art, beautiful clothing and homewares. Be entertained have your toes tapping all night whilst spoiling your tastebuds with gourmet foods, coffee and wines. Relax with friends and family while soaking up the atmosphere.

These festivals are not to be missed you will be truly amazed by the calibre of the designers and the diversity of the entertainment as you wonder leisurely around the market. This is not just a festival but a celebration of many talented artisans, entertainers, designers and life.

Like us on Facebook and check out our website... https://www.facebook.com/pages/NightJar-Markettorquay/141479705903211 www.nightjarmarket.com.au

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Thursdays in January

, r a tj h ig N e th to in p Ste e f li te a r b le e c to l a iv st e af 086,& Ĕ $57,67 0$5.(7 Ĕ )22'

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John Waters Looking Through a Glass Onion written by Natalie Rogers / photo by tony mott

Veteran of the stage and screen John Waters sums up our fascination with John Lennon to a T: “He was fearless – he appeals to all of our rebellious streaks by rebelling himself and not conforming to what was expected of a pop star of the day. Back then they were just expected to answer questions like ‘What’s your favourite breakfast cereal?’ and then shut up again, he talked politically and irreverently. I think that’s what endears him to us.”

So it was no surprise when back in 1992 Waters – who’d often dreamed of writing and starring in his own show – stepped onto the tiny stage (which was really no more than a raised platform) at the Tilbury Hotel in Sydney and proceeded to take the small audience on the weird and wonderful journey into the mind of the man himself.

Looking Through a Glass Onion – a homage to the mystery, the music, the memory of John Lennon – is back, by overwhelmingly popular demand, in the new year. Together with celebrated musician Stewart D’Arrietta, Waters is returning with their “up close and personal” two-man show as a precursor to launching their much-loved production Off Broadway in New York. “I’m looking forward to another regional tour of Australia. That’s the life blood of this show, and we’re always happy to get out on the road again.

“Putting this show together I didn’t have a clue that it would evolve into such an institution. You only get one shot at something like this and it seems we got it right,” Waters said modestly. “It became something that people want to see again and again – like a favourite album that you pull off the shelf, put on the record player, sit back and listen to it all over again. That’s kind of what this show is like for people.”

Waters is also surprised by the show’s multigenerational appeal: “It’s very gratifying – we attract a new audience of younger people whenever we go out on tour. There are people that were born after John Lennon died, let alone after The Beatles’ era, they’re captivated by listening to the music in a new way, with a storytelling aspect as well. The show features classic Beatles’ tunes, but only from the pen of Lennon himself,” Waters explained, “even though both Lennon and McCartney were credited on the albums with writing the songs.

“That was a publishing deal they had when they were sixteen, but their songwriting is very different.

You’ve got Lennon singing ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’ (a song about heroin addiction) and you’ve got McCartney singing ‘Martha My Dear’, about his sheep dog. They were truly polar opposites.

DIVERSITAT TRAINING COMMUNITY SERVICES

CHC40312 Certificate IV in Disability Wednesday, 15 January at 3.00pm at The Pulse.

CHILDREN’S SERVICES

CHC30712 Certificate III in Children’s Services Monday, 13 January 2014 at 3.30pm - 5pm at Centrepoint Arcade.

CHC50908 Diploma of Children’s Services Thursday, 16 January 2014 at 3.30pm - 5pm at Centrepoint Arcade.

CHC41712 Certificate IV in Education Support Tuesday, 14 January 2014 at 10.00am-12.00pm at The Pulse

TRAINING AND ASSESSMENT TAE40110 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment Thursday, 16 January 2014 at 6pm at The Pulse.

CHC30212 Certificate III in Aged Care and CHC30312 Certificate III in Home and Community Care Tuesday, 14 January 2014 at 10am -11.30am and on Wednesday, 15 January 2014 at 5.30pm - 7pm at The Pulse.

HLT32512 Certificate III in Health Services Assistance Thursday, 9 January 2014 at 10am -11.30am at The Pulse.

CHC40608 Certificate IV in Leisure and Health Thursday, 16 January 2014 at 1pm - 2.30pm at The Pulse.

HAIRDRESSING AND BEAUTY

Info session on Wednesday, 22 January 2014 at 3.30pm at Centrepoint Arcade.

SIH20111 Certificate II in Hairdressing SIH30111 Certificate III in Hairdressing

www.diversitat.org.au/training

Geelong Ethnic Communities Council Inc. trading as Diversitat, RTO 5819. Training at Diversitat is delivered with Victorian and Commonwealth Government funding.

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Born and raised in London before coming to Australia in 1968 as a young man, Waters says that getting John’s distinctive Liverpudlian accent just right wasn’t a hard task at all – in fact, he grew up mimicking it. “It wasn’t really a stretch for me. It’s something I started to do back when I was a teenager in England when The Beatles’ first recordings came out. I listened to them on the radio and saw them on television. When I first heard their songs I thought they were a Motown group, or at least an American group, and I was sure there must have been a female singer in there because there was a higher voice in the songs [laughs] but then it turned out [starts to do the accent] they were four lads from Liverpool!

“One of the great achievements of The Beatles was breaking through the class barrier and the prejudice barrier against people who weren’t from the southeast of England. Suddenly there were these very literate, very witty lads from Liverpool, with quite thick Liverpool accents on the world stage.

“My generation grew up without that kind of prejudice. There was a big movement in the sixties in Britain and The Beatles were at the forefront of it. Lennon’s intelligence comes through in his songs. His gently smiling cynicism bubbles through all the lyrics of his songs. There’s nothing sweet and sentimental about his material and I think it’s something that has a very broad appeal.”

Looking Through a Glass Onion boasts over thirty Lennon songs, ranging from The Beatles’ era to his solo career right up to the star’s untimely death. “This show is one of the definitive projects of my career,” Waters said honestly. “Of course, there are a number of things that I’ve done that I’m proud of or that I look back on very fondly, and although I’m using someone else’s material, it was of my devising. The conceptualising of this show was the major achievement.”

Don’t miss this critically acclaimed show coming to a stage near you in 2014. Whether you’re a Beatles fan, a Lennon devotee, or just fancy a trip down memory lane set to a timeless soundtrack, Looking Through a Glass Onion is the show for you!

When&Where: GPAC – February 14 & 16

JANUARY 2014 INFO SESSIONS

AGED CARE AND HEALTH

Call 5224 2329

“Everybody’s tried to do a show about either the Beatles or John Lennon, but they’ve just thought in normal theatre terms or written plays with people playing the roles, whereas I just wanted to stand on the stage and have everything come from me – all the imagery and all the storytelling, with no actual impersonation. I mean the voice, yes, but I stand there dressed as myself. I don’t wear the little round glasses or anything. I channel him is the best way of putting it, and I think my decision to do it this way made the show what it is.”

SIB30110 Certificate III in Beauty Services SIB20210 Certificate II in Nail Technology SIB20110 Certificate II in Retail Make-Up and Skin Care CUF50107 Specialist Make-Up (Diploma of Screen and Media)

MUSIC, MEDIA AND SOUND

Info Session on Wednesday, 29 January 2014 at 4pm at The Pulse.

CUF20107 Certificate II in Creative Industries (Media) CUF30107 Certificate III in Media CUF40107 Certificate IV in Screen and Media CUF50107 Diploma of Screen and Media CUS30209 Certificate III in Technical Production CUS40209 Certificate IV in Sound Production

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Two Sugars Two Sugars is conveniently located on a busy corner of Highton Shopping precinct. It has quickly grown into one of Geelong’s most popular and talked about destinations, offering a warm rustic environment with a great casual vibe. You may have driven past Two sugars on a Saturday morning and noticed the huge number of relaxed diners enjoying the street front, having a coffee in the sunshine. The aromas of Vittoria coffee prepared from one of of their trained barristers fills the air as you first walk in. You can then spoil yourself and Friends as you browse over the large assortment of European Cakes and pastries. Two Sugars offers modern twists on both Breakfast and Lunch options, as well as the classics such as their famous club sandwich, by night, you can enjoy authentic Italian evening cuisine in a cozy local setting.

Two Sugars transforms into an authentic Italian atmosphere at night as a group may chat over a bottle of one our fine Italian wines while casually nibbling from wooden boards piled with an array of antipasti.

Sighs of bliss may be heard as diners take their first bite of an impossibly light, scrumptious slice of one of Two Sugars renowned pizzas. The perfect, slightly smoky flavoured bases are topped with inspired combinations of the best, freshest and most authentic Italian and locally sourced ingredients and then cooked in a traditional Italian wood-fire oven, which was imported from Naples, Italy. The delightful earthy scent of fresh pizza fills the room as our genuine pizzaiolo works hard manning the giant open pizza oven as friendly staff with Italian accents chat amiably with diners making them feel like they are in Italy.

While Two Sugars is well known for pizza, they also offer a delicious selection of pasta, risotto, meat, chicken, seafood, salads and delicious desserts that are made with the same meticulous care and dedication with which we make our pizza. We also offer specials daily.

So whether it’s a cafe Lunch, a coffee after a morning walk along the Barwon River or a restaurant experience at night with friends, Two Sugars caters for it all. Come in and meet the Charismatic and loveable Australian/ Italian staff and chefs who will go out of their way to accommodate your every need.

Join us for the coming summer months ahead with our extensive alfresco dining areas both front and rear of the building, or dine in our fully air-conditioned restaurant. Two Sugars is fully licensed with great Italian wines and cold beers to enjoy in the warmers months.

Convenient, easy access to ample rear car park is also available.

Two Sugars is located at shop 7/65 Barrabool Rd, Highton. Open 7 days a week from 7am and for dinner Tuesday to Sunday from 5pm.

Now Fully Licensed. Ph. 52445711 or checkout our website www. twosugarscafe.com

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INFO: 7/65 Barrabool Rd, Highto 52445711 twosugarscafe.com

The Yardz The Yardz is conveniently located on Church Street in Geelong West and has recently undergone an exciting transformation. When you walk in you will be struck by the cosy, no-nonsense environment and the owner Helen will treat you as if you are guests in her own living room. The Yardz is widely known for its great service and fabulous menu, and of coarse in summer, its extensive local wine list and cold beer.

With summer now officially here it is the perfect place to relax and enjoy the nice weather whist socialising with family and friends. During the festive season The Yardz are open Christmas Day lunch (bookings only) and are keeping their opening hours the same as usual, 10:30 am. ’til late. The doors will be shut on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. The beer garden is an absolute ripper. It is unique, spacious and colourful and put simply, it pulls of the perfect vibe. It is the perfect place to unwind in summer after a day at the beach. Its features include a flat screen TV, Fox Sports, music and plenty of area undercover if rain is predicted. If it is a function or staff party you are looking to have, The Yardz is the perfect spot. Out the back you will have your own bar to cater for guests, a great selection of platters and tunes to keep the party moving along.

When it comes to food The Yardz is known for its favourites such as great steak or the beef ribs in hickory sauce. January will see the start of a brilliant and exciting new summer menu – but don’t worry, the classics you have grown to love will still stay the same. There is also the famous Sunday Parmy Day to look forward to each week.

So now you know where to drop in this summer and have a pot and a meal with friends. Maybe you want to sit in the sun and watch the cricket in the beer garden with a group of mates? Maybe you want to head out with the whole family for a relaxed meal after a day at the beach? Whatever you are looking for, The Yardz is your perfect summer destination.

INFO: 77 Church Street, Geelong 5278 7257 theyardz.com.au

Keep a lookout for drink specials and promos throughout the summer months so you can save some money whilst drinking responsibly with friends. Also ‘like’ The Yardz’s Facebook page to keep up to date with all the other happenings.

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Cash Converters

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.

Cash Converters began 15 year ago in Geelong in order to offer the traditional services of a pawnbroker. The services on offer at Cash Converters include loans against your goods of value, buying unused or unwanted goods and a retail area selling quality second-hand items at prices below what you would expect from any other retail store.

The best way to know what a customer wants is to go straight to the source and over the past few years Cash Converters Geelong has listened to their customers and consequently changed several of their procedures to ensure that the customer is receiving the best possible products, the friendliest service and a great price to match. Changes you may have noticed include: • A worry-free warranty on a majority of their goods.

• A sale every month of the year on selected stock.

In the lead up to Christmas you will find Cash Converters Geelong well and truly in the festive spirit, offering some amazing specials with their annual sales. Bargains include up to 50 per cent off jewellery and 10 per cent off storewide sale. The best value for money is their half-price DVD sale – perfect for filling up the Christmas stockings.

money could be very handy come New Year’s celebrations.

Christmas shopping can be tricky, with even the best intentions sometimes falling short of the mark.

If you receive an unwanted Christmas gift (which will probably be from an aunt), you can take it down to the store and trade it in for cash. That little extra

With so much on offer, Christmas just became a little easier.

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

If money is a little tight, the personal finance team at Cash Converters Geelong will sit down with you and help you work out a cash loan.

50-52 Ryrie Street, Geelong Ph: 5221 0244

BENDIGO:

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 Lead Guitarist, Bass sensibility 1978 to the Player and Vocalist not-so-now style. Think are looking for an of yourself as a patron experienced drummer of The Saints, Stiff Little to complete a Geelong Fingers, Radio Birdman, based Blues/Rock outfit.

Buzzcocks, The Smiths, Influences include : Jimi Psychedelic Furs, Iggy & Hendrix, Cream, The The Stooges, Wedding Doors, Pink Floyd, John Present, Happy Mondays Lee Hooker, Van Morrison, etc etc, then forget you Black Keys, Ash Grunwald, have to be. The usual...

Stevie Ray Vaughan car, equipment, attitude, etc... Also have originals mental state (in an OK kind to develop together as of...) punctual, earplugs well. If interested contact accepted. Be prepared to - Craig: 0404 054 045 apply yourself. Let us know or email transform_pt@ on 0409 567 043. Please yahoo.com.au leave your details and we will hear you - Confirmation Screaming Vocalist wanted for metalcore code: AKA 1963

ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS HERE! CALL LUKE ON 0422 809 042

ballarat:

[LIVE REVIEW] Old Fire Station, Bendigo – December 7

by Darlene Taylor

[live review] The Karova, Ballarat Saturday, December 7 ’Tis the festive season, so why not crowd it with things other than the 2013-year-old son of a deity’s birthday? On Saturday the 7th of December party DJs Bad News Toilet had their first birthday at the Karova Lounge, and they had plenty of support to help them celebrate it.

One word that’s rarely, if ever, uttered about the scene is “experimental” – although perhaps that depends on the circles one moves in. Undue Noise, which presents music that falls under that category, has been a fairly constant presence this year. After missing earlier efforts due to previous commitments (e.g. going to blues or rock shows or being lazy) and fear (i.e. “arrrghh, I won’t understand it”), my unsophisticated self took in some music that has a reputation for inaccessibility.

For those of you naive to who Bad News Toilet are, they’re a Ballarat-based party DJ group who not only spin decks, they bring many other quirks to the dance floor: costumes, balloons, light shows, limbo sticks and more audience participation than your average riot. With the celebration of their first birthday they shared the stage with bands as well as other DJs.

The flyer for the event advised that Steve Marton and Vince Giles engage in “explorations of sax and bass through computer algorithms”, which resulted in a haunting and dynamic rendering of what appeared to be a train journey. The overall sound was both entrancing and threatening, and, of what I heard, the easiest to like.

At one point in the dark theatre, the dominant image was of the Apple logo glowing from one performer’s laptop. If the day’s proceedings were representative, computers and experimental music are inextricably linked. This demands an acceptance that a show can look like you’ve gone to the office and a colleague has discovered their computer makes lots of weird noises.

Klare Lanson and Damian Mason sat behind laptops; although Damian also played the guitar and offered a reading of a timetable with musical accompaniment.

Presumably the repeated times (e.g. “5.00, 5.00, 5.00”) related to the repetitious nature of the daily travel journey for many commuters. It was a tad inaccessible, although quirky in a sweet sort of way.

Scott Sanders’s contribution wasn’t upbeat – upbeat and experimental music are arguably largely mutually exclusive – but his piece had a melancholy that resonated beautifully throughout the small building.

Like most, but certainly not all of the artists on the bill, Sanders gave everything to the music and nothing to what’s usually expected from a live show (e.g. “Hello, Cleveland”). It was an interesting work from him.

Deano Stanton’s something of a legend around town

Bad News Toilet 1st Birthday Bash

By Daniel Lock

A limited vocabulary is common among people who talk about Bendigo’s musical culture. The terms bluesy, rocky and/or lazy are often mentioned, with the first two said with pride or contempt depending on the speaker and the last one aimed at those locals who think there’s nothing better than seeing a covers band whose setlist always contains the words ‘Khe Sanh’.

FORTEMAG.COM.AU

Guitarist & Keyboard Player Wanted for pop/rock originals band.

Looking for experienced musicians who can also sing harmonies, are easygoing and reliable.

Contact Phil 0421 901 530 www.zeffamusic.com

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

• A lay-by service available on all products in the store.

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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

30ish year old trumpet player, looking to form or play in jazz group.

Ballarat area. Contact Mel 0435360076

• Items are double-checked to ensure they are suitable for purchase.

Undue Noise

Lead Guitarist with Vocal Ability wanted for a 70’s/80’s Cover Band.

Age: 30 -35++. must be reliable. Gigs waiting.

Contact Phil: 0410465634 or 0352758691

Hailing from Melbourne was Third Earth, a fourpiece band three-piecing it on the night. They opened with some garage rock tunes containing some odd arrays of lyrics and ended up doing an outro with a guest backing vocalist in the shape of one extremely drunk punter who’d obviously started his night earlier than most.

for his many ventures, including his membership of the now defunct rock band Grand Perceptor, his children’s entertainment ventures and the work he does with young people who struggle in the mainstream education sector. Armed with a piece of hose and an ensemble of musicians who’d assembled just for this performance, Deano provided some levity and cheekiness with the debut of his Gilligan’s saxophone. It’s the musical instrument you create when you’re stuck on an island with not much else but a hose.

The trio who closed off the second set contained a guitarist named JJ Bull who oozed charisma. He slid across the stage with great grace, although he also seemed to have had a few sound problems with a slightly annoying tinny noise emanating from his guitar occasionally.

An interesting experience and one worth having a look at if you haven’t done so already.

Second on stage for the night were personal favourites The Electric SunKings. This is one band that has put in some hard yards and is definitely coming together as a well-oiled machine after several changes to their line-up and instrument assortments. Their psychedelic rock manages to pull off being both new and nostalgic and throughout their set they got many loud cheers between songs, with some patrons calling for an encore. Also, during their final song the lighting

technician for Bad News Toilet was unable to resist adding some further atmosphere to the psychedelic music by jumping on the house lighting desk and adding some colour and strobe to the boys’ finale.

Once the bands had finished, the DJs brought the decks out for some tunes, playing a solid set as a buffer in between preliminary bands.

The main act was Syd Fox. He got people’s feet moving to some well-known tunes and sealed in the mixing and meshing that would make up the rest of Karova’s night.

The headline act Bad News Toilet finally took to the stage after Syd Fox, bringing with them costumes, games and tunes. There have even been a few celebrity appearances – Humphrey B Bear has been seen at one of their shows; whether he was there on the weekend I cannot say. Often the music is emphasised with props also (such as Metallica being played as a huge Metallica banner is unveiled) and the light show itself is impressive with some cyclorama wash LEDs hung in the background and some multicoloured DJ lights for onstage effects.

Bad News Toilet absolutely packed the dance floor (which explains why my description is so vague – it was a battle just to see as much as I did) and the drinks and the merrymaking continued on with Scatterpillar playing out the night after Bad News Toilet were done.

Happy Birthday to the boys who make up Bad News Toilet and a big thanks to all parties involved that made for an awesome night: Third Earth, The Electric SunKings, Syd Fox and Scatterpillar.

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Kyle Taylor Written by Anton Ballard / Photo by Lucinda Goodwin

Kyle Taylor is an interesting guy. He’s one of those people that create their own weather; there’s always something going on when they are around. His new 12-track album Free illustrates he is also very good at creating poignant stories presented as songs, or perhaps they’re poignant songs presented as stories.

Either way you cut it, Free is a damn fine album.

There is an honesty about Free that pervades the lyrics, the recording and the sound. I suspect it’s an almost self-lacerating honesty. It’s just Kyle and a guitar or a piano. This recording format is the high-wire act without the safety net. “I just wanted to be a solo act and break away from performing in a band. So I tried to get my CD as raw as possible, I wanted to go back to basics and just be me and the guitar and the piano,” explained Kyle.

Kyle had been road testing the material on Free for a while prior to recording and believed capturing the essence of the song through performance was more important than going for a big produced studio sound.

“Each song was done with only three takes. It is basically like a live tracking of the whole CD. That’s the idea of the whole CD,” said Kyle. “I had all the songs and I have been playing a lot of gigs to warm up, and I played the songs so much, and people had heard them so often, that I thought putting a band to the songs would be silly.”

Putting a label on an artist’s sound is often difficult, and so it is with Kyle Taylor. He sheds some light on the matter: “I’m a musician that plays folk music and sings stories about myself and other people. I’m happy being part of a community but if the community doesn’t want me in it then I’m happy going along doing shows and building my fan base. I call my style indie-folk / country. Make your own choice about what you think I sound like.”

Paradoxically, all 12 songs on Free were written during the time when Kyle took some time off from music.

There would be many songwriters that would like to have 12 months off and write a CD’s worth of material and it appears that Free has been cathartic, creatively and professionally. “Some of the songs on Free were written after a relationship break up in 2011,” explained Kyle. “Free was an escape route to move the songs onto a CD and away from me and take this new energy and start to write new music.”

It is not unusual for artists to be guarded when asked about their creative process. No doubt that this reluctance is natural. Why analyse something and disturb a subconscious process? Or perhaps

in established artists it’s the sheer boredom from answering the same question repeatedly that gives rise to the aversion. Perhaps the creative process is a secret and should stay that way. Kyle at first reflected on what others have said on where original songs come from: “I listened to Xavier Rudd once and he was talking about how he writes music. He said in this interview [when asked] ‘How do you write music; how do you write your lyrics?’ And he was like, ‘It just happens. I just put it on paper,’” recalled Kyle.

“I am trying to write straight to the point songs. I don’t know, it’s a strange process,” Kyle paused before continuing. “I record them on my phone, then I try and perfect it and change it and save it on computer and put it away and then I go on to another song. Then two weeks later, it’s funny, I look at my phone and I’ve 30 or 40 recordings of one-minute things. Then you listen to the actual [final] product you create and you look back 30 takes earlier and you were writing about something totally different. And from that point to that point you don’t know how that happens,” said Kyle in genuine bemusement.

As to any external influences in the creation of Free Kyle said: “When I first started work on Free I was listening a lot to Jordie Lane’s Blood Thinner! I really liked that it sounded like he was in his lounge room.

And I’ve always liked listening to Damian Rice, and then it kind of came down to my own touch.”

Kyle has a refreshing contrarian take on current styles and influences. “It’s like you have the colours red, blue and yellow and everyone loves red, but I’ve got blue and yellow and I can make an awesome painting with those two colours. And all the people that like red might see it and say “I now like blue and yellow,” explained Kyle.

I’m not sure what colour ‘Jon Ronson’ is but it one of the best songs on Free. And we have Gotye to thank for it: “Funny enough I was on Facebook and Gotye put a status up that he’d read this book by Jon Ronson and I thought I’d read it. I read a few pages and that drew me into it, then I read his next book, and his next book, and then I’d read all of them.”

Kyle is keeping his options open for the future but in the meantime wants to further his musical career through honing his stagecraft and songwriting. “I am trying to test myself in lyric writing and get stronger with it because I’ve got lots to learn. I feel like I’m still at the apprenticeship stage and I’m still trying to get myself out there. The plan is this year I’ll do some more touring and release the CD and finish in April next year.

Then I’m going to go the UK. I’d love to have a team behind me one day, but I don’t want to force anything on people at this stage.”

There is a haunting timeless quality to Free. The lyrics word-paint and the evocative melodies set a lingering mood. This independent release is a mighty fine collection of songs by the mighty fine singersongwriter, Kyle Taylor.

when&where: Babushka Bar, Ballarat - Thursday January 16 with supports from Grim Fawkner and Laurence

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Deafheaven written by xavier fennel

These days it is not uncommon to find oneself trawling aimlessly through YouTube, wasting away the hours willy-nilly. Through this trawling, one might also find oneself browsing the comments section, enjoying the absurd phenomenon that is YouTube arguments – random strangers arguing over the internet as to whether that actually was footage of Bigfoot or how much they hate One Direction.

In the particular case of Deafheaven’s second album Sunbather, the comments seem to generally swing a favourable direction, described on many levels as melodic and engaging with serious focus towards the unique sound that Deafheaven have created. Now, six months after the release of Sunbather, Deafheaven are making their way our big ol’ island for the first time.

Lead singer George Clarke gave me a rundown of their excitement for the tour and how the band’s sound came about.

It’s always been said that as a band, one of the best things that music allows you to do is travel. Being able to play to fans in different countries and immersing oneself in a whole new culture for a couple weeks at a time definitely has a sense of positivity to it, and George only had positive things to say about the upcoming tour: “It’s going to be our first time there and we’ve been trying to get down for a while now. We’ll probably do the usual touristy things like hold a koala and visit the opera house.

“Anytime you get to travel somewhere you haven’t been before or even somewhere you have been, it’s always a nice escape from the usual for us and it’s great to see the way other people live.”

It seems fair to say that a lot of the discussion and popularity of Deafheaven comes from their unique sound, a sound that takes from varied influences used as undercurrents to their obviously strong black metal basis: post-pock and shoegaze sounds poke their heads up amidst the aggressive tearing of blast beats and machine gun guitar riffs. This pleasant contrast of musical tones comes through strongly in the band’s personal music taste. “I think we’ve all always liked those styles of music as well as the more aggressive stuff. Definitely Explosions in the Sky and My Bloody Valentine are pretty obviously a part of those influences, but when it came to putting it together we really liked the French and German black metal scenes. They’ve really good stuff before and we had our own take on it. I think it’s really great to see a lot of classic styles coming back into play in music.”

It generally goes without saying that San Francisco and the general Bay Area produces some pretty damn good music and boasts some of the strongest scenes in the world. The current metal scene of San Fran is as strong as ever, and it was easy for George to speak about the scenes that helped shaped metal in San Fran and around the world. “The Bay Area has a very rich history of metal music. There’s so many bands that you can talk about – you’ve got bands like Sleep and that whole influence, and then there’s like the thrash scene with bands like Slayer and Violence and all those guys.

“There’s tons of bands, and when you’ve lived in Northern California for most of your life like I have, those kind of bands are big staples for you.”

When&Where: The Corner – January 10

Asta written by Natalie Rogers

Ever since indie-pop princess Asta burst on the scene as the winner of triple j’s Unearthed High last year, she has single-handedly put the little town of Cygnet on the map. Tasmanian-born and bred, Asta has found herself with legions of fans across the country – and that’s only the beginning. “I’ve just wrapped up my first tour around Australia. It’s a massive stepping stone, something for me to tick off the list. It was such an amazing experience to actually connect with and meet so many of my fans.”

The affable songstress, who could be your sister or your best friend, transforms once she hits the stage.

Her ability to transfix an audience comes from within: “I just love to get in there and really flaunt it; to get up there and do my thing! I think a lot of people hold back, but I just love performing. I crave it all the time.”

Enjoying some rare downtime recently, Asta says she curbs her cravings by working on new material and enlisting the help of friends. “I’m at that stage now where I have time to breathe, finally, and work out exactly what I want to achieve. I want to find out what music means to me. I’ve been collaborating a lot this week with different, local artists which has been so much fun, recording at home and making demos. The creative juices are flowing at the moment. Sometime soon I hope we’ll be chatting about a full-length LP!” Thanks to break-out tracks like ‘My Heart Is On Fire’ and the irrepressibly catchy ‘I Need Answers’, Asta has been included in this year’s Falls Festival line-up – and due to a lucky twist of fate her name appears at

the top of the list. “The Falls line-up always appears in alphabetical order, so I’m at the top – thanks mum and dad!

“I’m incredibly privileged to be part of this event – there are so many great acts playing. I’ve heard MGMT are incredible live, and I also want to catch Neil Finn. I’m a big Crowded House fan. It’s going to be good checking out a lot of bands that I haven’t had the chance to explore yet.”

Stepping away from the electro sound we’ve come to expect, Asta plans to perform with a band – something she’s always been drawn to. “It’s been really invigorating. The band really brings the songs to life – it’s a much fuller sound than on the recordings. Also, for the first time I’m collaborating with a fashion designer. It’s very exciting to be working with someone on my stage costumes! I can’t wait to showcase my new look and my ridiculous big cape!” she laughed.

“When it comes to the setlist, we’re just going to smash it out! We’ve got about half an hour on stage.

It’s going to be a very high energy show and I’m looking forward to it.

“But at the moment it’s all about making the right choices. Right now I feel really comfortable and confident about things ahead of me. I keep saying this but it’s the beginning of a lot of things for me.”

When&Where: The Falls

Bonjah written by zach broadhurst

After almost three years without an album release, Melbourne-based Bonjah have tantalised fans with singles ‘Evolution’ and ‘Blue Tone Black Heart’ – and the good news is there is more to come very soon. “In terms of putting the singles out like we have, I guess it’s just about getting the people who come to the shows excited about the album and creating a little bit of suspense for when the album comes out,” explains Bonjah frontman Glenn Mossop.

“While we have released those two songs, we’ve still been writing and we just didn’t want to do it as one big hit. We wanted to give ourselves some time to create an album that’s going to mould together really nicely.

Also, it gives us the chance to try these songs live and see the reception before we make final decisions on these songs.”

Three years is a long time, and as you would expect the boys have grown and evolved their sound over that period – something Mossop thinks will be evident when their latest album is released early next year.

“It’s definitely a progression from the last album,” says Mossop. “It’s been three years, so a lot of things have changed and our music tastes have evolved. I’ve been picking up the electric guitar for the writing experience for this upcoming album; in the past I’ve stuck to the acoustic guitar a lot of the time, so it’s going to be more electric – a lot more bluesy, a bit of rock.”

The boys are in the middle of their ‘Blue Tone Black Heart’ tour, which has included a few all-ages shows.

The band’s consistent presence on triple j means they

When&Where: Torquay Hotel, Torquay – January 3 have a strong fan base of teens unable to go to regular shows, and so felt they needed to cater to those fans as well. “We started off the tour with warm-up shows and we did a whole bunch of FReeZA gigs which were all ages,” says Mossop. “It was fun and I would definitely like to do more underage shows. I think it’s important. They can’t get into venues, and we do have a large following that are under 18 as well, so I think it’s important for us to do those. It’s fun with the vibe and

normally they are during the day, so it’s cool.”

scene and we just wanted more opportunities.”

This current tour includes many Melbourne and Victorian shows, a place that Bonjah have carved out an impressive fan base since their move across from New Zealand in 2006. “I guess coming from New Zealand it’s a pretty small scene there and we knew we wanted to do music and pursue it,” says Mossop. “We wanted to start in Melbourne. What we had heard from other bands was that it was just such a bigger music

The move was a great one for the band, which has been well and truly embraced by Australian audiences – a trend Mossop hopes follows them next year when they plan to take their talents to Europe. “We want to get over to Europe,” he says. “That’s a goal of ours.

We will be back over there in May during their summer for a couple of months and hopefully we’ll get on a few festival bills.”

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MUSIC / ART / LIFESTYLE / PERFORMANCE / MARKET VILLAGE / WORKSHOPS / HEALING / CAMPING 42

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MUSIC

ARTS

LIFESTYLE

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Black Panties – R. Kelly I thought R. Kelly was just a punchline in a Macklemore song, but apparently he is still making music. Black Panties is his twelfth studio album.

Available now on RCA.

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White Light/White Heat 45th Anniversary Edition – The Velvet Underground Rock pioneers The Velvet Underground released this album in January of 1968, so this is actually closer to the 46th anniversary, but hey, we’ve got Christmas sales to think of here.

Available now on Polydor.

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Sydney. Available now on Communion.

Live on the Resolution Tour – Matt Corby I’m usually pretty tough on Matt Corby, but he’s really not that bad. Having said that, now we’ve got all his “Woaaaahs” and “Ooooohs” recorded for posterity in Melbourne and

Give Me Strength: The 1974/1975 Studio Recordings – Eric Clapton Old Slowhand’s best songwriting and recording year is all here for your listening pleasure. One of the greatest guitarists and songwriters of any era, Eric Clapton is timeless. Available now on Universal.

E

A

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug OST The Hobbit 2: Electric Boogaloo.

I’m still not convinced they had to turn this in to nine hours of film – considering they managed to do The of the Rings in twelve, and it’s at least five times longer than The Hobbit was in book form. You can’t really fault the soundtrack though. Available now on Decca Records.

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TOO HEAVY TO HUG PAUL S TAYLOR chris cruz

Yowsa, what a weekend that just went by: Friday, December 6 saw No One’s Home, Footsoldier, Beerfridge (WA) and The Unprettier (QLD) tear the Barwon Club apart in the lead up to the utterly amazing Nevermind the Warp’d Tour Festival at the Brunswick Hotel on Saturday, December 7th.

grab the souvenir program and compilation CD? It features tracks from all the bands involved and is awesome!

Teenage Bottlerocket is the very first band to be announced for the North American Vans Warped Tour taking place of the Northern summer 2014 – a promising start indeed. I hope So many amazing the rest of the first bands from around full announcement the country on two is as exciting, stages! Highlights although part of me of the day: too suspects the rest of many to mention. the bill will be emo/ Every single band screamocore bands. kicked serious arse, (UPDATE: Mixtapes, something you could For Today, Stray NOT say about from the Path the actual Vans and Air Dubai just Warped Tour stop announced.) that took place in The Geelong Prison Melbourne on the same day. For reals! Punk Rock Party If you missed it, you is taking place on the 1st of February missed one of the single greatest punk at the Old Geelong rock events Victoria Gaol, with a massive has ever witnessed. line-up that includes Footsoldier, The There was a real Half Pints, The Lost sense of community Cause, The Scam, spirit amongst the The Worst, and hundreds of punters many, many more. that attended Be there! throughout the day and night that added In news that most certainly DID blow to the atmosphere, my skirt up this making it seem like week (not that I wear one massive group skirts, it’s just an of mates having a expression – look rad time. Punk-Ait up!), The Rentals Billy touring truly (featuring former outdid themselves Weezer bassist and (yes, I know – I said that about Idiot fan favourite Matt Sharp) are looking at Fest too!) and I can honestly say a 2014 releasing their third album – their first return would be welcomed with open in over FOURTEEN arms – even if there YEARS, not IS no “real” Warped counting the Songs About Time boxtour show to run up against. If and when set that came out details come to light, in 2010, which was more of a Matt you’ll hear about it Sharp vanity project here first! than a proper If you WERE at Rentals album.

Nevermind the Super exciting news!

Warp’d tour, did you

After solidifying THTH’s top5 of 2013 last instalment and me thinking that that was that for this year and then finding out that actually that column wasn’t that for this year, let’s take this BONUS opportunity to see what happened in the last seven days.

leads into the game, then where does the album come into it? You can just go around tying some things together and some not. It’s no secret A7X are massive video game nerds; in the past they contributed two songs to Call of Duty – ‘Carry On’ and ‘Shepherd of The Metallica Corporation Fire’. The animated series began on Sunday, recently took their trip to Antarctica to become the December 15. first band/corporation in And the nominations for the world, ever, to play all the Grammy for Best seven continents in one Metal Performance are: year. The Antarctica set Anthrax with ‘TNT’, Black didn’t include ‘Ecstasy of Sabbath with ‘God is Gold’ nor did it include Dead?’, Dream Theater ‘Trapped Under Ice’ – but with ‘The Enemy Inside’, you know, it’s hard to fit Killswitch Engage with ‘In those two into a ten-track Due Time’ and Volbeat setlist. with ‘Room 24’. Black Speaking of corporations, Sabbath are also up for Best Rock Song and Best Avenged Sevenfold are Rock Album. It’s not all riding their Hail to the bad news, I guess, but it King wave on a giant would have been all bad longboard while milking the cash cow they called news had Black Sabbath not released anything in Hail to the King all the the past twelve months. way to the multi-media agencies … or marketing Thank god Halestorm agencies … or whatever aren’t nominated. they’re called to push for their world domination.

A7X worked with the dudes that helped create Metalocalypse to make their Hail to the King into a short animated series and mobile game. The animated series is the backstory to the mobile game Hail to the King: Deathbat. If you don’t know what a deathbat is then think of a skull with bat wings for ears that may very well end up being as annoying as a zubat.

The band recorded the music for the video game and in the video game you’ll be able to unlock and collect 16 pieces of previously unreleased album artwork like some kind of achievement. The details on the game are currently pretty sketchy but by the looks of things it’ll be some kind of predictable zombieesque shooting thing.

But what I’m wondering is, if the animation series

In other news…

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

Periphery will be at Billboard on Sunday, February 2.

Behemoth will release their new album The Satanist on Tuesday, February 4.

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

Start planning your trip to Europe to catch Avenged Sevenfold and Rob Zombie headline Download 2014, to be held on June 13.

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

D

E

Blank Thankless Air

By BLAIR HALL

The first incident was less than thrilling to witness, in fact was so plain as to be almost boring. The young child waiting outside body under car, head under tyre – while their parent dawdled inside the house, pushing the boundaries of their departure time to work ever tighter and closer to not being realistically able to make it on time. It was popular amongst the parents of Blumenschnoz Lane to spend this grey area time that they should have spent in traffic, avoiding which meant more traffic, and instead would develop small and unimaginative hobbies that would serve as a partial drain of the fluids at the base of their skull; fluids that symbolised stress and tension, but were actually a mysterious combination of lactic acid from entropy and brain fluids from their brains quite literally leaking out of their heads, rendering them ever more distant and unable to think for themselves as each day passed.

On this day and pertaining to this parent, the hobby in question was wine tasting. Dick, or Richard to his mother, was a confusing mix of an English accent he shouldn’t have had and a predilection towards shorts that traversed the seasons with gay abandon.

He’d gradually worked his way to the top of his parents dry cleaning business, often viewed by his contemporaries as so pointedly gradual that it was as though his family were intent on torturing him long before he could be free of them and run shop all on his own – a feature which satisfied his contemporaries to no end. But it had all worked out and Dick was now in charge.

Dick sat down with a 2007 Vietti Barolo Castiglione which he had purchased and carefully stored, arbitrarily marking off

this morning on his calendar as the day in which he would open and consume it (in 13 minutes flat, no less, with enough time to grab a coffee on the way in), pondering its tannin rich red that was so far maroon that it became next to impossible to make out the large dusty lamp on the other side of the glass he peered through, even with the clinical light of morning beaming through the nearby window. This was his ritual now. This was the way in which he would drive his body out of bed, into his simple sporty business-wear and over to his shop to deal with dead-eyed customers that had no idea how to get blood, semen, wine, coffee, cigarette ash, blood-stained saliva, fecal matter, black blood of the earth, soil, Indian food or maybe it’s just one of those microwavable curries that, while it resembles Indian cuisine in many ways, does not compare to the real deal in terms of flavour, texture or the slow, deep burn of the spices.

Now Dick was bright enough, but he was also so dumb as to not actually realise that everyone in the neighbourhood knew that he inebriated himself quite solidly every morning and was particularly vulnerable on his way to the car, and indeed to work. In the australian government’s “New Openness Initiative”, tidbits that were assumed to be completely secret were all of a sudden freely available online to the general public and were frequently used against others in order to instil a sense that no one had anything they could hide from one another anymore and we are all sinners, which is why Jesus had to die for us. Mira knew well, as she read on her father’s computer, that Dick could be skrewed hard.

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arts news from around town – and beyond!

DRYSDALE GLASS – Art Awards 2014

Entries are now being sought for the 2014 Festival of Glass, Drysdale Glass Art Awards.

There are two divisions - Junior and Open, and three categories - Wearable Glass Art, Non-wearable Glass Art and Photography.

Prizes for divisional winners in each category to the value of $100 each. Visit the website for more details and to download an entry form.

Where: Christian College Hall, Drysdale.

WheN: Feb 16 2014 – entries submitted by Feb 7, 2014.

INFO: www.festivalofglass.net.au

Jon Campbell ‘Pure Bewdy’ 2011 AFRICAN SAFARI Pen & Ink Drawings - Betty Collier

Betty Collier was born and bred in Ballarat and is an award winning artist in many mediums. She has pursued serious study of sculpture, painting and drawings for many years and travelled widely for inspiration for her artwork. More recently, Betty travelled to Galapagos Islands and went on an African safari which was the catalyst for these artworks for this exhibition.

Where: Gallery on Sturt. 421 Sturt Street, Ballarat.

WheN: To Jan 31, 2014.

PHONE: 5331 7011.

INFO: www.galleryonsturt.com.au

INFO: www.nwm.vic.gov.au

Where: Geelong Gallery. Little Malop Street, Geelong.

WheN: Dec 7-Feb 9, 2014.

INFO: www.geelonggallery.org.au

ETCH GALLERY AND STUDIOS

DIVINELY WICKED OR DEVILISHLY GOOD - Scarf Festival 2014.

Get creative!!!!!

Are you a craftivist who loves to knit? Are you a fledging fashionista or do textiles turn you on? Maybe you’re just a kid with a big idea.

Whatever you are, Scarf Festival 2014 is for you.

Let us tempt you to tell the world what’s good and bad, naughty and nice, where darkness meets the light and what it means when the lines blur and the balance is broken.

This year’s Scarf Festival theme is ‘Divinely wicked or devilishly good?’. Are you one or the other? Or a little bit of both? How will you say it in a scarf?

Entries accepted from Monday 24 February 2014, and entry forms are available soon.

An exhibition that reveals the quality and diversity of the Gallery’s acquisition program. Finely-detailed engravings of early 20th century British printmaker Robert Austin and the modernist linocuts of George Bell, to the abstract sculptural forms of Lenton Parr and contemporary artist Jon Campbell’s neon work celebrating the Australian vernacular (from which the exhibition title derives).

BOOM GALLERY CHRISTMAS SHOW

The Christmas Show brings together seven diverse artists from Geelong and Melbourne. It focuses on affordable, small format artworks. This year the participating artists are Shelley McKenzie, Steve Salo, Mark Cuthbertson, Elize Feely, Simon Benz, Sandra Eterovic and Idil Ersoy.

Where: Boom Gallery. 11 Rutland Street, Newtown, Geelong.

WheN: Dec 5-21.

INFO: www.boomgallery.com.au

METROPOLIS CHRISTMAS SHOW

The Metropolis Gallery Christmas Show is on right now with the focus on very affordable smaller prints, paintings and etchings, stunning art glass and unique designer jewellery. A large selection of quality paintings by indigenous artists is also available in association with major art centres including Papunya Tula Artists, and Tjala Arts, together with many painters and printmakers represented by Metropolis Gallery.

Where: Metropolis Gallery. 64 Ryrie Street, Geelong.

WheN: Until Dec 24.

PHONE: 5221 6505.

INFO: www.metropolisgallery.com.au

Etch Gallery and Studios is an artist-run enterprise that aims to support and promote contemporary art practices across a broad range of media. We strive to deliver a platform for new, emerging and established artists through affordable, flexible gallery space. We provide studio space for artists on a long and short term basis; encouraging individual artistic approach, innovation, artistic dialogue, support and critique amongst peers. Etch Gallery and Studios is a venue for artist-run workshops fostering personal and professional development.

- Currently calling for exhibition submissions for 2014.

- Currently running small life drawing sessions every Sunday in December.

Where: Etch Gallery and Studios. 215 Moorabool Street, Geelong.

PHONE: 0425 815 004.

INFO: www.etchgalleryandstudios.com

Forte freebies!

Win a double pass to see

the railWAY man starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman

To win just email your name and mobile number to luke@ fortemag.com.au

In cinemas Boxing Day December 26

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jetts With so many gyms around these days you might ask, ‘Why Jetts?’ The answer is because it’s easy and affordable, with everything you need in gym. With no contracts and 24/7 access, you can work out on your terms, at a time that suits you.

It’s the gym that works out better. Simple.

With three convenient local locations – Geelong West, Belmont and Torquay – Jetts is the perfect option for Geelong and surrounding areas.

All Jetts members have access to every club across Australia and New Zealand, so everywhere you go, Jetts is there! Jetts prides itself on a reputation of convenience for all of its members. If you are visiting friends, family, or working away from home, you will find one of Jetts’ 200+ clubs just around the corner.

Just about every week you will hear of a new Jetts club opening their doors. For a complete list of all club locations visit our website at jetts.com.au.

Jetts’ members get the best of both worlds: membership to a local club, coupled with the freedom and flexibility of reciprocal rights to hundreds of clubs across Australia and New Zealand.

Jetts offers reciprocal rights to its entire network of clubs to give additional flexibility and freedom to more than 190,000 members across over 200 locations in Australia and New Zealand. Business owner Boyd McLean is a member of Jetts Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Boyd’s business, doittour.com, is a last minute tour service, and running this style of business involves a lot of travel. On top of running his business, Boyd and his wife Renai are raising three young girls.

“I have to travel quite a bit to see what is on offer and what I can recommend to clients. I’m based on the Sunshine Coast but I regularly travel to Brisbane, Tassie, Melbourne and Perth,” Boyd says. Boyd has been a Jetts member for over 19 months now. He uses the Maroochydore club on weekdays as it’s close

to home. “When I travel I just jump on jetts.com. au to find out where the nearest club is, relevant to where I’m off to,” Boyd says.

love that the team are always friendly. Jetts is affordable, has great facilities and is always clean and tidy,” Boyd says.

Jetts suits Boyd’s busy lifestyle perfectly. In his spare time, Boyd enjoys the outdoor lifestyle the Sunshine Coast has to offer. He tends to head into Jetts Maroochydore in the afternoons. “I like getting out for a surf or a mountain bike ride. I

Jetts members have access to every club in the Australian and New Zealand network. Visit jetts. com.au/clubs to find the location of your nearest Jetts club.

So step inside one of Jetts Gyms today at one of the three local locations listed below: 63 Pakington Street, Geelong West. 5222 8945 Level 1, 155 High Street, Belmont. 5244 3510 Shop 8, Torquay Central, 41 Bristol Avenue, Torquay. 5261 5380

One of Geelong’s most trusted names in real estate, John Haygarth, delivers the right advice, every time.

Since returning to the industry just over a year ago, John has achieved outstanding results for clients by providing a responsive, great value service, utilising cost-effective marketing methods.

One of the benefits of listing with a boutique agency is greater control over marketing. John tailors the marketing of each property to suit the client, so there’s no one-size-fits-all approach.

Your property’s in the best hands with John Haygarth Real Estate.

Now open at 102 Pakington St, Geelong West

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The Soulenikoes written by Brendan Dando

Currently on tour playing a string of shows with The Nerve & King Of The North, The Soulenikoes have proven they can hang with the best. “The Nerve and KOTN really know how to throw a gig, that’s for sure,” says bassist Mitch Roberts. “It was awesome to meet the guys we used to go watch as teenagers, and to be sharing a stage with them has just been a great experience.”

It’s because of this respect for their peers and passion to improve themselves as musicians that has led to The Soulenikoes being considered one of the hottest local up-and-coming prog-rock bands today. However, as drummer Taylor Douglas reveals, they don’t see themselves in the same light. “We don’t see ourselves as a prog band, more just that we’re progressive, and there’s always room for that. I mean look at Karnivool, Tesseract & Periphery; they’re proof that if the music’s good, people will dig it.”

Coming off of the release of their EP Reborn in 2012, along with the stand-alone single ‘Recovery’ earlier this year and plans for new material in early 2014, it’s clear these boys are dedicated to their music.

“The Soulenikoes will always be our career,” explains Roberts. “We all have other jobs which is important, but the band is a long-term investment of time, money and effort so I think that defines it as a career.”

This is probably one of the key reasons why Geelong fans have welcomed the band with open arms and claimed them as their own, despite them being based in Werribee. “We don’t like labels because we’re a

Harvest ‘n’ Graze Food, music and wine is a triple combination worth travelling for, and at Harvest ‘n’ Graze they combine the three better than most. We were lucky enough to spend a little time with co-founder Darren recently in the lead up to 2014’s wonderful event.

Hello Darren, please introduce yourself to Forte readers and tell us about your position with Harvest ‘n’ Graze.

I’m co-founder of Harvest ‘n’ Graze. I have been in the music industry for near 30 years in both performing and management.

It is a busy time for you and the team at the moment. Is putting together a multi-date festival run a big task?

We have a fair few festivals under our belt now.

Nowadays it runs fairly smoothly, though that is in part due to a lot of trial and error.

Take us back to the start when H&G was born – I believe the first was in 2012. How did it come about?

We noticed at a lot of festivals where families were not adequately catered for. Apart from some community events, there wasn’t much in terms of being able to entertain your kids as well as having a great day yourself. We wanted to combine great food & beverages which you normally wouldn’t see at festivals with quality entertainment for the kids and the oldies.

band that goes everywhere! Although we love that Geelong has adopted us, kind of like the Australia/ New Zealand thing!” jokes Douglas.

“We want to achieve success all over Australia as well as internationally, so to confine ourselves to one geographic location is short-sighted. Music breaks down barriers; we don’t let our home town define us!”

However, don’t be confused by this serious approach towards their music – there’s still plenty of times for fun and games. “Our singer Simon seems to enjoy kicking Taylor’s kick mic over which always gives me a good laugh!” says Roberts. But Taylor has other moments in mind, such as his brother/guitarist Dougie forgetting to plug in his instrument. “I remember him checking everything else frantically whilst Mitch held up his lead. That was a personal favourite moment of mine. Oh, and Simon dropping the mic is always a classic too!” says Douglas with a laugh.

So it’s clear The Soulenikoes know exactly what they want and are determined to achieve each of their goals, something which Douglas sums up in all but a few words: “All we want is to write music we love, play to crowds who dig it and with bands we admire.

Then when we’re not doing that, just drive around in Lamborghinis.”

‘LIKE’ facebook.com/thesoulenikoes When&Where: The Barwon Club, Geelong – December 13

What does it aim to provide to the audience in attendance?

We are very family focused. We want to provide an atmosphere where you can pop down a picnic rug and let the kids run free whilst enjoying high quality food and drink in front of Australia’s best entertainers.

In essence, it is a great day out where all ages are covered for.

We all know about the Bellarine date in our region, but there are other locations too. How do you come to settle on what locations to use?

There are a lot of factors: Bellarine, for example, has great producers of wine, beer, cheese etc. as well as being a great destination for holidays. We try and mould our festival around the area we hold them in, so essentially our festival is as much about the region as anything else.

Forte covered last year’s event on Bellarine and we believe it went very well. Tell us about last year’s event.

The crowd was fantastic. We had two artists with flight delays so we had to push everything back an hour or two, but everyone was happy and just enjoyed the other aspects of the festival.

Tell us about the location on the Bellarine. We are led to believe the views are stunning.

Only way to go is to take the helicopter ride at the festival. I managed to sneak one in last time at the festival and will endeavour to sneak off again this time.

From the vineyard to the beach, it is pretty awesome.

What is in store for 2014? Are you guys doing anything different to last year?

What is the style and feel of Harvest ‘n’ Graze?

We have two very polarising festivals coming up:

Eyes Wide Open

of synth to your assembly. How do you guys utilise the synth when making hardcore. Does it lead to an original sound?

Six is the magic number when it comes to hard-hitting outfit Eyes Wide Open. Playing a blend of hardcore/ metal, the band is doing the Ballarat heavy scene proud.

With an EP out today and more good times on the way, we thought we should spend our last issue of the year getting to know the band a little better.

Eyes Wide Open, thanks for taking the time to catch up with Forte Magazine. Please introduce yourselves to Forte readers…

Hey guys; we are Adrian Sheppard (vocals), Dylan Fowkes (guitar), Jesse Horvath (guitar), James McDougall (drums), Josh Silvey (synth) and Cameron Lofts (bass). We are all from Ballarat and we have been playing with this current line-up for about 12 months.

You guys formed in 2010 and have since been making moves in the field of hardcore. Take us back to the band’s inception – how did Eyes Wide Open come to be?

I [Cameron] met Jesse and our original drummer Jason at a House Vs. Hurricane gig in Ballarat and after chatting the guys said they were looking for a new bass player, so I jumped in right away. Dylan joined a few weeks later and that was our line-up for quite some time. Silvey joined originally as a third guitarist, but soon moved to synth to try something different – and he has been smashing it since.

After some personal differences Jason left and we had an interim drummer for several months until we found James, and he has really filled the spot and brings a whole new energy to the table.

An early exit of your first drummer led to the addition

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one in a quaint little artists’ retreat that will be more rootsy and artistic and another we are trying out three headline acts. It’s sort of how the venue really dictates the feel and atmosphere of our events. Plus we will be going back to repeat venues that have already proven to be popular with our punters.

What about the line-up – who is performing?

We have Ross Wilson of Daddy Cool and Mondo Rock fame headlining. I saw him a few weeks back and his catalogue is as vast as anyone out there; so many iconic Australian hits that span through a few decades, so his set is pretty diverse. We have Kingston Crown who are favourites of ours – they have a great groove to them. Peter Chapman who is an excellent singersongwriter and his band, plus Where’s Joss? who are a young local band. Throughout the day we have the excellent DJ Malpractice and MC Senor Brown giving away plenty of prizes.

To anyone tossing up between the wonderful array of things to do over the next couple of months, why is H&G the festival to choose?

Harvest ‘n’ Graze is a relaxing day that is filled with amazing and diverse food, world class wine and beer.

It’s stress-free where you can lounge around all day, watch some great performers and bring the kids in for free and let them roam in the children’s section. I think we pretty much have all ages covered for what is going to be another great event.

Anything else you would like to add?

Tickets are $25 (kids free) at trybooking.com. Our website is harvestngraze.com When&Where: Bellarine Estate – January 18

Silvey adds a very unique vibe to our music and is a key voice in our writing process. He is also an excellent guitarist so he isn’t just playing synth; he gets very involved in all parts of the songwriting process. We feel it adds a whole new feel to our music and we couldn’t think of the band without him now.

You must be excited with the release of Limitless today (December 19). How are you feeling about the release; confident, excited, nervous?

We are just very keen to get something out there. It’s been a long time coming and it would be great to see what some new people think of our music. We just want to get as many people listening as we can.

As far as the show goes we are really pumped. We have some great support bands from around Vic playing so it should prove to be a pretty epic night.

How did you record the EP? Was it a slow grind, track by track, or did you pound it out in a session or two?

It has been a bit of a slow process as we have had a few line-up changes and our producer Callan Orr plays in Melbourne’s Dream On, Dreamer. He is touring quite a bit so it was hard to lock in a full recording schedule, but we have punched out the last few tracks over a few weekends and are very happy with the result.

What would you tell fans, and Forte is led to believe there are a few of them, to expect from Limitless?

When&Where: The Karova, Ballarat – Tonight (December 19) negatives. How do you find being a hardcore band from Ballarat?

From what we have seen it doesn’t seem to matter where you are from; if you have a great attitude and work hard you can make things happen. We have a great local backing and love all of our home supporters and we hope to spread out in the coming months and bring some great shows to other cities.

We all know with the advent of bands such as Parkway Drive and The Amity Affliction that hardcore is booming in Oz right now. How do you guys feel about the state of the genre? Do you feel the current climate is one in which you can aim for success?

A few old favourites for our local fans and some new material as well, but mainly just something to take home after a show and listen to again and again. We have put a lot of work into this EP and we hope it shows.

Absolutely! We feel the metal scene is massive at the moment and there are so many young bands coming through and so many talented musicians. There are so many opportunities for us and others to get out there and play some shows.

There is a lot said about being a band from regional Victoria, and it certainly has its positives and

We aren’t aiming for the big time. We just want to have some fun and meet as many new people as we can

along the way.

You guys have a show coming up at The Karova. Do the hometown fans always go nuts for you guys?

The Ballarat crowds always make you feel welcome and always have a great time. We have a lot of close friends that go nuts every time we play, and it’s great to see some new faces doing the same. This EP launch should be no exception.

What are the plans for Eyes Wide Open over the next 12 months?

We would like to push this recording out to as many people as we can and start playing more and more shows off the back of the release. We are currently writing more tracks and should have a debut album in the works over the next 12 months.

Anything you would like to add?

Jump on our Facebook page facebook.com/pages/ Eyes-Wide-Open/110206805698627 and swing us a ‘like’. Leave us some feedback and let us know what you think.

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Jackson Firebird | Lachy Doley Group King of the North | Davey Lane (you am I) The Ska Vendors with Pat Powell

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tweet of the week

T H E INSI D E SPLIN T E R S

Talbums O Pof220130 Written by Adem Ali

Two-thousand-and-thirteen truly was one of the most exciting years for the album, particularly in the pop field.

After a full twelve months of wrapping my ears around the best pop, dance, techno, rock, alternative, electro and urban records 2013 could throw at me, I have finally narrowed down my 2013 Albums of the Year list to a simple Top 20 format. This list has been collated with tender loving care and may be a good reference guide as to what CDs you should be stocking your loved ones’ stockings with this Christmas.

A truly magnificent campaign thus far; whether she’s a plethora of animals or pieces-of-art for the ‘Applause’ video, singing about seashell bikinis with The Muppets, walking the Berlin Wall in Paddlepop Lion Realness, arriving in London looking like the lead vocalist from iamamiwhoami or performing at the legendary ‘Jingle Ball’ dressed as a Christmas tree. The aesthetics this time around are cleaner-cut; still bonkers, but brilliantly so.

There is no ‘Born This Way’ alienation here, and ARTPOP really benefits from that.

Lady Gaga may not be your cup of tea but to deny her any artistic merit based purely on the circus that can often surround her career is a foolish move to make. The issue of longevity when it comes to Stefani Germanotta should no longer be up for question. She’s already embedded so many pop cultural hallmarks into our collective psyche over the last five years of her very colourful career that it’s fairly evident she’s not going anywhere, at least not for a while. ARTPOP manages to do what Born This Way possibly neglected to: it truly validates Gaga’s artistry, star power and talent but, perhaps most importantly, proves once and for all that not a single woman in the current pop market is recording, writing or producing material as thought-provoking and risky as Gaga has on ARTPOP.

01.

LADY GAGA ARTPOP (Pop/EDM)

02.

PET SHOP BOYS Electric

(Electro-Pop)

Key Tracks: Axis, Inside a Dream, Love is a Bourgeois Construct, Bolshy.

03.

ARCTIC MONKEYS AM

(Rock)

Key Tracks: Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?, Fireside, Do I Wanna Know?

FERREIRA 06. SKY Night Time, My Time (Indie-Pop/Rock)

Key Tracks: Omanko, Nobody Asked Me (If I Was Okay), Boys.

07.

MILEY CYRUS Bangerz

(Pop)

08.

Key Tracks: Lose Myself, You Set Fire to My Life, Out of the Blue.

Key Tracks: Headhunter, The Day Before You Came, A Little Respect.

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(Pop)

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PARRALOX Recovery

(Electro-Pop)

Geelong’s very own @Jake96Matthews brings up an incredibly valid point on Twitter last week.

(Electro-Pop)

Key Tracks: We Are Explorers, Footsteps, Meet Me in the House of Love, Take Me Higher.

CONTROL 11. CLOUD Dream Cave

(Alternative)

Key Tracks: The Smoke, The Feeling, Scar, Dojo Rising, Promises.

BIRCH 12. DIANE Speak a Little Louder

(Indie-Pop)

Key Tracks: Lighthouse, Frozen Over, Pretty in Pain, Love & War.

13. AGNETHA A (Pop)

Key Tracks: When You Really Love Someone, Dance Your Pain Away.

14. CIARA Ciara

(Urban Pop)

Key Tracks: Overdose, Body Party, Super Turnt Up.

15.

TEGAN & SARA Heartthrob (Pop)

Key Tracks: Shock to Your System, Drove Me Wild, Closer.

KRAVIZ 16. NINA Mr Jones

LADY GAGA’S ARTPOP Album of the Year!

NO DOUBT

New album being produced

by GREG KURSTIN. This will be BLOODY GREAT.

NILE RODGERS Chic’s Nile Rodgers blew Melbourne’s mind earlier this week.

(Minimal Techno)

Key Tracks: Mr Jones, Remember, Sheer.

17.

CHER Closer to the Truth (Pop)

18.

BLOOD ORANGE Cupid Deluxe (Pop)

19.

ECHOSMITH Talking Dreams (Alternative)

Key Tracks: Red, Favorite Scars, Lovers Forever.

Key Tracks: Time Will Tell, You’re Not Good Enough, Uncle ACE.

Key Tracks: Cool Kids, Talking Dreams.

KILLS 20. NATALIA Trouble (Pop)

Key Tracks: Boys Don’t Cry, Saturday Night, Watching You.

Key Tracks: SMS (Bangerz), Drive, Wrecking Ball, We Can’t Stop.

04.

TINA ARENA Reset

CUT COPY 10. Free Your Mind

(Pop)

Key Tracks: Double Bubble Trouble, Know It Ain’t Right, Bad Girls, Exodus.

Key Tracks: Crying in the Rain, Lonely is the Night, What Goes Around Comes Around.

“ Jaden Smith should just stop tweeting.”

Any glaring omissions? Never fear musichunters, you might get to see your fave next issue when we’ll run you through the Splinters Songs of 2013; plus the albums which didn’t quite make this album’s list.

Until then, Merry Christmas Everybody!! Don’t forget about Mariah Carey this season either folks – she relies on your hard-earned dollars at this time of year!

KATY PERRY’S PRISM Better luck next time Katy.

LEA MICHELE

Who is now releasing nonGlee-related singles. Fuck all of our lives.

LEA MICHELE AGAIN

I mean, just when you thought 2013 was virtually perfect music-wise, along comes Lea Michele to ruin Christmas for all of us.

SHIT!

Key Tracks: Venus, Do What U Want, Gypsy, Applause.

05.

M.I.A. Matangi

(Electro-Pop/Hi-NRG)

HIT

It should be of no surprise that Lady Gaga and her completely bonkers ARTPOP would be awarded Album of the Year by Splinters. It is the one record every household should have at least one copy of from 2013. Visually ARTPOP is her most on-point campaign to date as well. Gaga has always been quite reliant on the fusion of sound and vision when it comes to her body of work, but none of her previous attempts have been as bright, ambitious or as well-executed as they have been on ARTPOP.

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FILM REVIEWS

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty There’s a certain kind of earnest self-improvement story that only Americans can pull off. To baldly state “I’ve wasted my life – time to seize the day, turn this ship around, take my passion and make it happen, etc.” would just seem crass and silly in most other cultures. But not in America, which makes Walter Mitty – whatever its other flaws and strengths – easily the most American movie of 2013. It even has explosions!

Though those turn out to just be the daydreams of Mitty (Ben Stiller, who also directs) a man with a habit of zoning out and letting his imagination run wild, even in the middle of conversations.

Which is kind of a problem at the moment, because not only does he like his new co-worker Cheryl (Kristen Wiig), but he’s about to lose his job in the photo library at Life Magazine, which has been taken over, put in the hands of bearded, smirking buttheads led by Tec (Adam Scott) and is now being shut down.

So he needs to focus, especially when a legendary photographer (Sean Penn) sends in a roll of film with an awesome shot that will be the final issue’s cover for sure … if Mitty can find it because, whoops, he spaced yet again.

by anthony morris

Frozen His search proves fruitless and the pressure mounts; will he have the guts to go track down the photographer and find out what he’s missing? Will he even be able to do that with the few tiny clues on the rest of the roll of film? And so Mitty hits the road to live out his dreams and become a man worthy of Cheryl’s love, all of which sounds exactly as sappy as it turns out to be. But – and it’s a big but – Stiller has been a comedy legend for a long time now so he knows exactly how many laughs this kind of story needs to keep its feet on the ground while its heart soars.

So while this is hardly a laff riot, there are enough laughs here to let you know that it’s not taking itself quite as seriously as it looks. And it looks a lot like one of those expensive commercials for high-end technical products that the advertisers want to associate with emotions like “freedom” or “hope”, which turns out to be something of a plus because this really is a big screen version of one of those “inspiring” commercials – only with an actual heart beating inside its chest.

Disney animation has been going through something of a resurgence in recent years – in part due to Pixar breathing new life into the whole idea of big screen animation (of the computer-generated variety) and in part due to Disney buying Pixar and adopting many of their approaches to their more traditional fare. But until now there’s been one element from the golden age – well, the late ’80s and early ’90s golden age – of Disney animation they’ve been afraid to resurrect: musical numbers.

It wasn’t so much that musicals killed off Disney’s animation division in the late ’90s, but creating so many under-performing musicals didn’t help, and with Pixar firmly adopting a non-musical format for their films, it seemed like the way forward for animation didn’t involve a whole lot of show-stopping musical numbers. And judging by Frozen, it still doesn’t.

This isn’t a bad film by any stretch, but there are definite problems with it and the songs (as is so often the case with musicals) aren’t strong enough to save the rest of the film.

Loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale ‘The Snow Queen’, it’s the story of two royal sisters,

one of whom (Elsa, voiced by Idina Menzel) was born with magical snow powers that seem like a whole lot of fun until someone gets hurt. That someone being her younger sister Anna (Kristen Bell), and after a quick consultation with the Troll King it’s decided to erase all Anna’s memories of her sister’s snow powers and train Elsa to control them via repression and avoiding emotions. Which means the sisters grow up cut off from each other, and when their parents die, Elsa is forced to open the Castle gates and hold a gala post-coronation ball. Things do not go well. Elsa freezes the place and flees for the mountains, leaving behind a frozen kingdom in her wake. Can Anna warm her sister’s frozen heart?

Will she marry the perfect prince, or will she fall for the ice salesman (Jonathan Groff) who’s a little too close to his reindeer? And what’s up with that talking snowman (Josh Gad)?

The story is a little too muddled (there’s no clear villain for much of it), the musical numbers are only so-so, and while there are plenty of great moments on this emotional roller-coaster, there are just a few too many flat ones mixed in. It’s still fun, but a film called Frozen really needs to not be quite so stiff.

- F i l m W rap American Hustle

The Railway Man

Saving Mr. Banks

Philomena

Eric Lomax (Colin Firth) is your typical train spotter – apart from looking like Colin Firth – when he finds himself sitting across from Patricia (Nicole Kidman) on a train. Fortunately, being on a train enables him to talk about what he knows best (that’d be trains), a bond develops between them, he uses his train knowledge to catch up with her after almost letting her slip away, and before you know it they’re getting married. Which is right about the time that she discovers he’s got a lot of issues around his experiences during World War II as a prisoner of the Japanese who was forced to work on the Burma Railway.

It’s the early 1960s, and Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) is broke. She’s also stubborn, proud, and fiercely protective of her creation, but after twenty-odd years of pestering from Walt Disney (Tom Hanks with the charm turned up to eleven) about a movie version, her agent has managed to get a deal that’s almost kind of close to what she wants. So they fly her out to L.A., where she soon discovers that Disneyland is pretty much exactly what she expected – ghastly – and that Disney’s plans for Mary Poppins are exactly the kind of thing she was hoping to avoid.

Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) is a spin doctor for Tony Blair who’s just discovered there are some things you can’t spin your way out of. Newly jobless and mildly depressed, he’s half-heartedly thinking about writing a book on Russian history – which clearly isn’t going to help with the depression – when two things fall into his lap: he meets an editor at a party who’s on the lookout for “human interest” stories and a waitress tells him about her mother Philomena (Judi Dench), who’s just revealed that 50 years ago she was forced to give up her infant son by the nuns at an Irish workhouse.

But it’s not like she’s 100 per cent against the idea of a film, so long as it’s done right (no animation, no songs), so slowly Walt and his team work away on her, giving a little here, trying to win her over a little there… Meanwhile, through a series of flashbacks to her childhood in Queensland, we see her relationship with her fun-loving but erratic (read: often drunk) father (Colin Farrell) and what drove her to create a magical nanny that can fix any family’s problems.

It’s the perfect story: the nuns are clearly the baddies (after giving birth Philomena was expected to work for four years to pay off her debt, while babies were basically sold to wealthy American couples) and her quest for her missing son can only end in one of two ways – and both work as a human interest story. Neither character here has a particularly complex character arc: Sixsmith starts out thinking he’s too good for human interest stories while seeing Philomena as a bit of a yokel, while Philomena seems to be a fairly two-dimensional character to begin with but soon reveals hidden depths and a surprising worldliness. But director Stephen Frears – aided by a pair of excellent performers in the two main roles – delivers everything you could want from a human interest story in a polished and professional fashion.

These are not issues easily shrugged off, even if that is his chosen method of dealing with them, so when his old army buddy and fellow POW Finlay (Stellan Skarsgård) comes up with a newspaper clipping revealing that their chief tormentor is not only still alive but taking tours around the former base where they were tortured, it’s his big chance to confront his issues and – maybe – find a way to move on. Though whether that way involves murder or forgiveness remains to be seen.

Stirring performances animate what is otherwise a fairly straightforward tale, but the early scenes where Lomax first reveals the depths of his issues have a startling energy to them, and Kidman does especially well with an underwritten character. Firth does a first-rate job of playing a man brittle on the outside and crumbling on the inside, consistently peeling back layers as the story progresses to reveal the damaged core of a once innocent man pushed beyond endurance. T The shift between grey ’80s UK, the mud and sweat of Burma during his war years and the bright colours of his return gives this small, personal story some real scope. There are no big surprises here, but even when you can see the punches coming this still hits hard.

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This isn’t quite as cornball as it sounds, thanks in large part to an excellent performance from Thompson. Always enjoyably acidic, her bitter, proper rejoinders to L.A.’s more relaxed culture are a lot of fun (and often on the money as well), while everyone around her is kind-hearted and indulgent, in part because they work for Walt Disney and this is a Disney film and in part because they need to say on Travers’ side if they’re going to get the film made. So while this really is a self-mythologising story about how a large corporation got an old lady to give up her copyright and everyone got rich, there are just enough moments of real heart – especially in the flashback sequences, where a real sense of struggle, hardship and uncertainty come through – to keep this from becoming “a Disney movie”.

Plus the opening short film, in which ’30s-era Mickey and Minnie Mouse discover the third dimension, is the best thing Disney have done with their corporate emblem in decades.

There are enough twists to keep things fresh, enough comedy (of the mostly gentle kind) to keep things lively and the ending hits just the right note of heart-warming without being predictable or trite. Coogan is well within his wheelhouse here as a mildly frustrated, occasionally off-putting but generally decent guy, while Dench slowly reveals the steel beneath Philomena’s kindly, straightforward nature.

These kinds of films can often feel like they’re pandering to their audience; the message here is that just because people want simple, heartwarming stories, it doesn’t mean those stories can’t be told right.

What initially looks like a gritty ’70s tale of crime and blackmail soon turns out to be… well, the crime and blackmail is still there, but there’s plenty of laughs too as a pair of con artists are pushed by a slightly tooenthusiastic FBI agent into entrapping elected officials to boost his career.

Ender’s Game

To help defend against the return of the aliens that devastated Earth 50 years ago, the best and brightest kids are put through the toughest school on (or off) the planet. But is it all just a game?

Delivery Man

Vince Vaughn plays a guy who, thanks to a mix up at the sperm bank, now has 500 kids. Not quite as many laughs as you’d expect ensue, as this is a bit more of a heartwarming tale than you might have thought coming from Vaughn.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

This is basically a doover of the first film, only better. The love triangle works (well, now at least one of the guys seems worth it), the action is better staged, the behind-thescenes drama is more interesting and Jennifer Lawrence really comes into her own as the

emotionally shattered but still sharp heroine.

Carrie

Carrie’s back! But while this remake sticks close to the original movie version, it’s the little things that count and there are just enough changes here to defuse much of the tension – and the impact – of the original.

One Chance

This real-life story behind an amateur opera singer who won first prize on Britain’s Got Talent is surprisingly grim and gritty (and entertaining) for much of its running time… but hey, you know it’s going to have a happy ending.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 More food jokes! So many food jokes! But some of them are pretty funny food jokes, and the quest to an island of living food has a few surprises in store too.

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

Who knew that Johnny Knoxville dressing up as an old man and stirring up trouble could be so much fun?! Well, okay, it does sound like fun. But it’s really fun – and surprisingly sweet in parts for a film that involves a lot of corpse abuse and at least one attempt to mail a small child to another city.

MUSIC REVIEWS

liVe review

Meredith Music Festival Meredith, 13-15 December 2014

I can really only say good things about Meredith Music Festival, because it really is the greatest festival on earth and I don’t really care what you have to say about it.

Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite

What began as a small gathering of friends on a farm to catch up, drink beer and listen to some local bands has grown into a gathering of monsterously beautiful preportions. Every year in December - friends, family, acquaintances, international travellers, buddies, mates, chums and that one guy you met last year but can’t quite remember his name, pile all of their camping stuff and themselves into whatever vehicle they have available to them and make their way down the highway to modest country town of Meredith.

Catherine Traicos The Earth, The Sea, The Moon and The Sky

Get Up Stax

An Ocean Awaits Records

Ever since I first heard this album, I’ve always thought that this album would be blues album of 2013. Since it’s release it has been on high rotation on my ITunes and if you got the chance to see Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite in April at Bluesfest then you are incredibly lucky, because I don’t know whether this album collaboration was a one off or not.

Sydney singer-songwriter Catherine Traicos’ voice has been compared to the likes of Beth Orton and PJ Harvey. Having said that, it has developed over past albums into a one bearing the singer’s own stamp. In fact, the overall effect of her vocal meanderings is at the forefront taking the listener on a most welcoming journey. There are hints of the 60’s French chanteuse in her style and tone.

Tracks from the hypnotic and dreamlike to the strong first single ‘Light in The Dark’.

Demons are veiled in human apparel and examination of self is both cryptic and revealing. Traicos’ classical music training brings a crafted depth across the tracks.

Teaming up on this release ‘Get Up’, the slide guitar playing of Ben Harper and harmonica riffs that Charlie is throwing down throughout each of the ten tracks, is stellar. This is most present in track two ‘I’m In, I’m Out and I’m Gone’ and I guarantee that within a couple of minutes you will know what I’m talking about.

The sleek and polished feel of each of the tracks, takes on a look at many different genres including gospel and R and B. I’m sure that you’ve heard of Ben Harper, but you would be mad not to add this to your collection. A delight for any blues lover and my blues album of 2013, for sure.

The album was produced by multi-ARIA award winner Paul McKercher and recorded at the studio of Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil).

The Starry Night is Darren Nuttall on electric guitar, bassist Kasper Kiely and drummer Tim Day. They are a tight outfit delivering just right balance of moods to suit the singer and the material. The whole is elegant, touching, textured and built to grow with each listen.

Also available on limited release on vinyl.

Tex Miller

Chris Lambie

2013 in film

There are so many things that I would love to say about Meredith and everything that it has come to be for me, I could probably write a damn thesis on the thing. In the simplest way possible, amazing place, amazing people, amazing music.

The whole thing is just supernaturally amazing.

Here is my personal recount of a somewhat blurry, but no doubt memory filled weekend.

The morning began as it always does, wake up at a mates place in Geelong, it’s something like 6.30 and I haven’t been up that early in a seriously long time. A quick shower and eggs on toast made lovingly by the woman who I consider to be my second mother and we were in the car with the tarmac rolling smoothly beneath us. All convoy plans had been thrown out the window after someone forgot their ticket (happens every year) and new plans were made to meet at the proposed camping spot and hope that no one else got there first.

Tents were pitched, tarps were laid and hung, the first tinnies were cracked. It was only 11.00am but spirits were flying high. It seems that upon entering Meredith the people synchronise as one, everyone is on the same wavelength.

Bands, there were lots of bands. DJ’s too, but they came late at night, way past everyone’s bed time.

Now you have to remember that at a festival like Meredith things can get a little sidetracked and you might not catch all of the bands you were planning on seeing, these things happen.

Fortunately I made it to the stage in time for Deerhunter’s set and it was really great, they had some super nice jams and felt like a really great opener to the festival for me. 3 hours and some beers later it was time for the greatest band on earth to take the stage. The Brian Jonestown Massacre were probably everything I expected them to be and more, the memory is hazy but filled with glimpses of friends and smiling people dancing and enjoying the hell out of the music and the festival in general.

The rest of the night blurred into one as the festival rose in a cacophony of party vibes helped along by Clairey Brown and The Bangin’ Raquettes, Le1f and Dj’s that took the night into the wee hours of the morning.

The second day always start kinda slow for everyone, it’s always hard to drag yourself down to the community tucker tent, run by the good people of Meredith, for a bacon and egg sandwich, but when you do it’s worth it. As I strolled back my campsite bacon and eggs in one hand, fresh bag of ice in hand trying to feel optimistic about refilling the esky while my stomach told me I should sit the hell down and rest. And yet, once again the festival took hold, an amazing set by Mac Demarco featuring a 3 guitar string break and replacement mid set, followed by a crowd surf from stage to sound tent (a good 100 metres) was all it took for meredith to get me movin’ again.

Now, I’m basically out of words so ill leave it with this, Chic and Nile Rodgers, amazing, I could have listened to them play all night long and probably for the whole of sunday. The Meredith Gift, hilarious as always, anyone who takes part in that insane nudey run has more ‘balls’ than I ever will, I can’t really think of a better way to end a festival than to watch something like that.

‘Til next year Aunty Meredith, thank you.

Xavier Fennel

Movies! Hollywood keeps on churning them out whether you want to watch them or not. Fortunately, across the length of a year they occasionally manage to get something right – in fact, sometimes they manage to get entire categories right, which is why at least some of the entries in this year’s best (and worst) list are for genres rather than individual films. So this year must have been a bumper one if entire genres are getting the thumbs up, right? Well, just hang on a second there…

by anthony morris

2013’s

Best! in no particular order

Zero Dark Thirty

A smart thriller that let the audience make up its own mind about torture (seriously, if you need a movie to tell your torture is bad, you might want to take a bit of a look at yourself), this was knife-edge viewing from start to finish.

Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino’s take on the western was, like pretty much But if you were thinking 2013 was the dawn of some kind of new golden age of cinema after all that, rest assured the stench of complete crap continued to billow out of cinemas at a steady and rapid rate. Especially cinemas screening the following, for which it was a very bad year…

all his films, overlong and a little too in love with its own dialogue.

But some great performances and shocking moments helped hold it all together … and some of that dialogue was really good.

Upstream Color

Deeply moving and just as deeply confusing, this tale of love and piecing lives back together is probably best enjoyed by simply going along with it rather than trying to puzzle out the plot – a process made easier by writer/director/star Shane Carruth’s sometimes stunning visuals.

2013’s

Worst!

in no particular order

Romance

Silver Linings Playbook and I Give It a Year: Who doesn’t love love? You won’t after these two trite and clumsy attempts at freshening up the rom-com formula.

Young Adult Fiction Beautiful Creatures; Mortal Instruments: City of Bones; The Host; and Spring Breakers. All these films were pretty trashy in their own way, but if you think “trashy” equals “bad” you’re missing out on a whole lot of fun at the movies.

Mud

This adventure tale about a couple of kids who find a criminal hiding out in the swamp had the gutsy realism of the best young adult storytelling, so of course it was seen as too grown up for teens and too teenage for

Sequels

Oz the Great and Powerful; A Good Day to Die Hard; Hangover 3; and Monsters U. These were not films we wanted or needed, and presumably the filmmakers knew this on some level – otherwise the results wouldn’t have been so halfarsed.

Comedy

Identity Thief; We’re the Millers;

adults. Don’t make that mistake: this film is the best kind of engaging.

Frances Ha

Joyously full of life yet often surprisingly sad, this look at one woman’s search for herself in New York is about as much fun as movies get, with a point to it all that means all those smart hangout scenes aren’t empty calories.

Sequels

Fast & Furious 6; Before Midnight; G.I. Joe: Retaliation; and Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Sometimes telling the same story all

over again isn’t such a bad idea.

All of these films were at least as good (and in some cases, better) than the films that came before them

Arthouse Directors

The Bling Ring; Blue Jasmine; and Stories We Tell. This trio of films (by Sophia Coppola, Woody Allen and Sarah Polley respectively) may have had little in common subject-wise, but each showed that their directors were definitely forces to be reckoned with (in Allen’s case, put a “still” in there).

and Movie 43.

Well, maybe using the word “comedy” in this context is a little misleading.

But if these characters and situations weren’t meant to be funny, what was the point?

reason it’s really about someone having sex with an underage girl and then having her ask for him to forgive her for all the damage she did to the team.

Uh, no.

Blinder

Oblivion; After Earth; Pacific Rim; World War Z; and Star Trek Into Darkness. To be fair, none of these movies were

It’s a low-budget Australian film about an Australian Rules football team, only for some

Science Fiction

Musclebound Guys Pain & Gain; Riddick; The Last Stand; and Jack Reacher. Three of these were straight-up action films, three of these were funnier than you might have expected, and all of them were a great time at the movies.

Winner of 2013:

Gravity

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

Steve Coogan’s been playing hilariously inept broadcaster Partridge for twenty years now; his first big screen outing proved he’s lost none of his magic. actually bad; they just failed to be the kind of good they should have been.

Superhero Movies

Iron Man 3; Man of Steel; and Thor 2. Likewise, none of these movies were outright horrible – they were just firmly average, which is not a good thing for a big budget blockbuster to be.

Not the best movie I saw in 2013 (All is Lost and 12 Years a Slave are at least as good, but not out until 2014), but the best experience in a cinema, which, as home entertainment systems continue to improve, is going to be more and more important. Plus, having an effects-heavy story told almost entirely in visuals doesn’t hurt when you need to appeal to those non-English speaking audiences…

Horror Movies

The Conjuring & Insidious 2. These were pretty much the exact same film, which is a problem as this genre stopped being scary with the first Insidious … which was also the exact same film.

Action Blockbusters

R.I.P.D.; Machete Kills; and Hansel & Gretel. They’re

kind of funny (only not), they’re kind of action-packed (but not exciting), they showcase big movie stars (who stop being stars after they come out) … Why does Hollywood make these films again?

Diana

This attempt to turn the Princess of Hearts’ final years into some kind of glorious love story instead

mostly just managed to make Diana seem kind of dim.

Loser of 2013:

Last Vegas

I don’t usually award the Worst Film award to something that’s just been released, but as this time of year is usually when the worst film of the

year is released – Parental Guidance really should have won last year but came out too late, so consider it a co-winner this year because it really was amazingly awful – I’m making an exception. Even a great cast that are up for anything can’t hide the fact that this Hangover knock-off is witless and oh so very dull.

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New Year’s Eve: a joyous celebration for all or a hellish hell on Earth where the living shall envy the dead? The answer may surprise you! Mostly because it’s neither of those two options.

I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with NYE, mostly because it’s the one time of year where the general public tries to horn in on my act, what with the public drunkenness and staying up late and vomiting over everything – that’s right people, why don’t you go find your own ways of having fun and stop biting my moves. But in recent years my views of NYE have mellowed somewhat, mostly because in recent years I’ve had nothing but shithouse times on December 31st. And I’m not talking those wacky zany madcap “bad” times that make for compelling reading in the following fortnight’s column, oh no: gone forever are the

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

Alastair: If you’re as obsessed with comics as Cameron and I are, you pretty much read them all year round. No breaks. Ever. Not that it’s unhealthy or anything; we just really like comics. It’s not a problem. We swear! As we wind down for the year and get ready for the Christmas/New Year break, I figured I’d get festive and look for some Christmas-themed stuff to ramble on about because, hey, it’s Christmas, and you can’t NOT talk about Christmas. Nothing really stood out at first and I had a lot of trouble deciding what I was going to talk about. Then, I remembered that Batman: Noel – the perfect blend of Batman and Christmas – exists. Perfect!

Released back in 2011, Batman: Noel is written and illustrated by Lee Bermejo, best-known for his work with Brian Azzarello on Joker and the more recent Before Watchmen: Rorschach (the only Before Watchmen comic I bothered to read!). Primarily a DC writer/artist, Bermejo got his big break working as an intern for Jim Lee’s WildStorm Productions. Bermejo is given a (mostly) glowing review by Jim Lee himself, which is usually a good sign.

Batman: Noel is basically the DC version of the classic Dickens tale, A Christmas Carol.

DC has placed its characters in the roles of the original cast, and for the most part it works really well. Batman is Scrooge, all angry and pigheaded – of course, like the original tale, he reforms in the end. Catwoman makes for an interesting Ghost of Christmas Past; the long off-again-on-again romance serves as a great reminder of Batman’s history as a comic. What really interested me, however, was Bermejo’s portrayal of Superman as the Ghost of Christmas Present. In comparison to the everdark and brooding Batman, Superman literally glows with warmth. In such a cold, dreary world, this portrayal of the Man of Steel absolutely nails what he’s about.

Speaking of Bermejo’s art – wow. Just wow.

There has been criticism of Bermejo’s art (“the realistic style detracts from the comic feel” etc.)

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But oddly, as with each passing year my NYE parties become more pathetic and non-existent my love – okay, lack of hate – for NYE grows. And I say “oddly” because usually in my bitter, twisted, almost entirely hate-fuelled existence the crappier things get for me, the more I hate on anything that reminds me of it.

When my love life goes down the toilet yet again, I don’t suddenly sit around going, “aww, look at that young couple over there, their clear and obvious passion for each other is so cute and life-affirming”; I instead scoop up some dog shit with a shovel and fling it at them. And then realise I could have just changed the channel on my TV instead, because why the f**k was I even watching Home & Away in the first place?

So why am I suddenly cutting NYE some slack now when over the last few years I haven’t even been able to put together a night of even regular fun-tastic activities let alone a balls-out NYE boozy bash?

Honestly? It’s not because I’ve stopped hating NYE, oh no – it’s because I hate it so much more than ever.

but I have to disagree. The first few pages – featuring Gotham’s skyline and Batman running across the rooftops – are nothing short of spectacular, and Bermejo’s version is probably my favourite depiction of Gotham to date.

The story doesn’t change all that much from the original tale – the characters might be different, but there’s parallels everywhere. That’s not to say that Bermejo’s writing doesn’t add to the story, but it becomes so blended with the original story that it can be hard to distinguish anything original. The content is there, but I feel like it could stand out more. There’s interesting insight into the life of Joker’s goons, too – the Noel equivalent of Bob Cratchit shows what it’s like to be desperate, as well as showing just how terrifying the Bat can be when he wants to.

All up, Batman: Noel is the perfect comic to read this Christmas. While it might appear to be just a comic version of A Christmas Carol, this is an awesome take on the tale, and Batman in general. Do yourself a favour and pick it up.

Have yourselves an awesome Christmas!

Before, NYE was just annoying: I’d be out having my usual pissed time of things and having everyone else out and about doing the same just clogged up the streets and back alleys for those of us chundering on a professional basis. But now that I’m not getting out there amongst it, it’s so much easier to hate it. I hate the way it allows the riff-raff to get drunk and act like they own the place. I hate the way it allows families to stay up late to “watch the fireworks” – code for “complain about all the drunks scaring the kids” (as if drunks on NYE were a friggin’ surprise). I hate the way it encourages reflection on the past year (always a bad thing when you’re drinking your life away) and planning for the future (seriously, would I be drinking this much if I wanted to think about the future?). I hate the way it... well, you get the idea. Luckily for me, I love to hate. Hate gives my otherwise entirely drunken life meaning and purpose. Hate is truly the only thing that I do love in this world, and so with each passing day I find myself looking more and more forward to sitting at home giving New Year’s Eve the stinkeye.

Now, I’m a grown man, and I made my decision to be a complete loser with my eyes wide open. I could have gone out to a party and been all sociable, but where does that get you? Being rolled up in a plastic kitchen mat and left on the front lawn while they hose the spew off you if the last party I went to is any guide. And what’s the point of talking to people

anyway? Either they constantly expect you to talk back when your mouth is already busy sucking down booze or they act all offended when you booze burp in their face. And who wants to be a drunk at a party anyway when you can be a drunk in the comfort of your own home?

Being drunk at a party means you’re surrounded by strangers – any one of which could turn out to be one of those sober losers who don’t like you trying to eat their ears when you get hungry – plus you can’t just crash in front of the TV. Plus you’re expected to move around occasionally. Plus there’s other people wanting to go to the toilet when you’re in there spewing. Plus you just know everyone’s judging you and who the hell do they think they are that they’re so special just because they’re actually having fun talking to other people while you’re hunched over in the corner crying into a bottle of Grunters Wipeout because you’re just so very, very alone and there’s just this massive ache in your chest that won’t go away no matter how much alcohol your pour into it and what the hell are you looking at anyway, just piss off and leave me alone goddammit, can’t you see I’m trying to have a quiet drink over here.

I cannot wait for Valentine’s Day, let me tell you.

Tony “Putting the dry retch back into Xmas” Montana

Lizzy Caplan in Masters of Sex

Grog Watch

days where I walked through a closed glass door or woke up in the shower at 4 a.m. convinced I had to ride a pushbike to Melbourne. No, since around 2005 each NYE has proved itself to be nothing more than a painful ordeal featuring either drunken “friends” telling me how badly I’d screwed up my life (2005) or no drunken friends at all as I sit home alone reading a friggin’ book (2009).

POrPe! cultu

By An th on

y M or ri s

The problem with trying to predict the future in pop culture is that all the really exciting stuff comes as a surprise. Yes, there’s going to be another season of Game of Thrones around March and it’ll probably get a lot of people talking, but by now it’s a known quantity even if you haven’t read the books. The shows that’ll make a real impact next year are the ones we haven’t even heard of yet.

That said, there hasn’t really been a whole lot of break-out TV series in 2013: people might be talking up The Americans and Hannibal and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, but there’s nothing really out there that feels like it’s going to suddenly become a massive deal in the way that, say, Breaking Bad did in its last few seasons. And while Mad Men is still ticking along and Game of Thrones certainly has a large fan base – and let’s not forget The Walking Dead, which is a massive ratings hit without ever quite managing to break into the mainstream discussion – there doesn’t seem to be anything coming up behind those shows to take their place in the same way that we’ve always had one or two big television dramas since The Sopranos first set the scene.

Again, Masters of Sex has had some good buzz about it and there are people who’ll tell you The Blacklist is getting better every week, but neither show – let alone the dozens of also-rans on at the moment, from Under the Dome to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – has the feel of something that’s going to break out and become a massive deal in 2014.

So the real question for 2014 isn’t “what series is going to turn out to be the next break out hit?” but “what if there’s no new big television hit in 2014?” After all, things change: two decades ago the big deal in television was the sitcom thanks to The Simpsons, Seinfeld and Friends while drama was something you went to the movies to see; there weren’t a lot of people back then predicting that movies would take over the comedy mantle while drama would become a television staple.

That said, the internet has become a major focal point for television discuss, thanks to the popularity of recaps and discussing episodes on social media, so there’s a pretty good chance that if no new big show steps up to take the crown we’ll just see a range of not-quites and also-rans being promoted as the new show you’ve got to see. But will it work?

The rise of the internet came along at the same time as the rise of must-see drama, but that doesn’t mean the two are forever entwined. If TV drama goes from “must-see” to “whatever, I guess”, you’d expect people will find other things to talk about on the internet. Or could the demise of quality television drama take down social media?

It seems doubtful, but you’d have to think there’s a whole lot of bloggers and media outlets hoping that 2014 sees some new television that their readers just can’t live without.

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