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flying colours
the world's end
ballarat // bendigo // geelong // surfcoast // warrnambool // werribee
j heasy
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LINE AT OUT ON
rebecca barnard
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OOD ARTS F C I S MU re business cultu
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issue 565 // 8 AUGUST 2013 // next issue: 22 aug
C0MING UP
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A WORD FROM THE TEAM Another political election is upon us, and yes, we here at Forte acknowledge how tiresome the domestic political realm has become lately; a characterless puppet show divided between one guy who can’t string a sentence together and the other side who are controlled by “Faceless Men”, which sounds like the bad guys in a horror movie. We understand it is very easy to switch off to all this nonsense. We understand that both sides of the fence look remarkably similar and it’s hard to find any meaningful differentiation between left and right. We hear on the streets and in the office, “Who f***in’ cares about the election?” or “Politics is s**t, I’m not even going to vote this time.” Just remember that whilst it is easy to take our political system for granted, and casually dismiss politics as having no impact on your life, there are people all over the world who would give their life for political freedom and the right to vote. There are people who have in the past sacrificed everything for the right to vote. And there are people all over the world who are currently oppressed and not afforded the same rights that we so casually take for granted. So, short of joining the Young Liberals at university or setting off for the Kimberley to protest the mining of Uranium, how about you take half an hour to read over the policies being spruiked by the local candidate in your electorate, find something on offer that means something to you and get down to the ballot box, hungover or not (is it just me or is everyone always hungover on voting day?), and take pride in casting the vote so many others around the world will never have the chance to do. Peeeeace!
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the HIGHLIGHTS
THE LATEST ON international & national news & tours
stages, CherryFest is a balls-out street rock and roll party for those who don’t mind keeping their neighbours up with their music. Garage-rock soulsters The BellRays will be the guests of honour, returning to Australia for the second time this year following a brief outing in June. It all takes place on November 24. .........................................................................
The Eternal Circle of Light
It is a big year for melodic death/doom outfit The Eternal. Not only does the band clock up their ten-year anniversary in 2013, but they are also releasing a new album at the end of the month titled When the Circle of Light Begins to Fade. Formed out of Melbourne in 2003, the band has left a metal imprint on Spain, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Hungary, Japan, Canada and the US. The Evelyn – September 20. .........................................................................
Michael Bublé Down Under
The Other Side of Tonight Alive
Michael Bublé is set to charm the pants off audiences next year when he heads to Australia for a run of shows. Promoter Danity: “I’ve been fortunate to work with some of the greats and I can honestly say that Michael is one of my favourite artists of all time. He’s an absolute delight to work with and he always delivers live.” Considering Australia was Bublé’s first success outside of Canada, many it seems would agree. Rod Laver Arena – April 30 & May 1.
Sydney pop-punksters Tonight Alive will release their new EP The Other Side in September. The album is the follow-up to What Are You So Scared Of?, which was recorded in L.A. with Mark Trombino. Their sophomore effort saw the band team up with Dave Petrovic. You may have heard ‘The Ocean’ doing the rounds, but if you want more you can check them out at The Hi-Fi on September 11 (U18) and Billboard on September 13. .........................................................................
One Day Electric Festival
A New Volume of HELM The wait is over: HELM has released their new album, Vol 3...Panthalassa. Earlier in the year the band offered an excited teaser on their website, saying: “To say we are stoked with what is happening would be an understatement, we can’t wait for you all to hear it, feel it and live it with us.” A quick search on the ‘net shows this release is generating some major buzz, so you know what to do. Evelyn Hotel – September 7.
The Highlights: We’re hot, sticky sweet; from our head to our feet. Coming up you have… .........................................................................
A Mighty Big Day Out Well, the line-up is in. After years of rumours, Pearl Jam has finally signed on the dotted line to perform at the festival. The BDO run will be their only Aussie shows. Blur will also perform, as will Arcade Fire and Snoop. There is a bucketload more including The Lumineers, Mudhoney, Flume, The Naked and Famous and Major Lazer. Everything you need to know is at bigdayout.com.
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Blood Bare Their Fangs Bloods is Dirk, MC and Sweetie. They’re three highly lovable music souls with a love for belting out garagepunk-pop. They’re mighty good at it as well, especially considering that Dirk, the drummer, is actually a guitarist, MC, the guitarist, is actually a bass player and Sweetie, the bassist, is actually a classically trained violinist. But it works. Their new EP is Golden Fang and it packs a serious, ahem, bite. Workers Club – August 30. .........................................................................
CherryFest 2013 14 acts will invade AC/DC Lane and Cherry Bar this November for CherryFest 2013. Played out across two
Jimmy Barnes, The Angels (with Dave Gleeson), James Reyne, The Black Sorrows, Ross Wilson and Boom Crash Opera will line up for the One Day Electric Festival 2013. The idea for the festival comes from Regional Touring promoter Duane McDonald who put on a show with Barnesy at Werribee Park a few years back. The aim is to make this an annual event, so let’s welcome it with style. Werribee Park – November 24. .........................................................................
Mark McGuire Returns
When the name Mark McGuire pops up, the addition of minimalist guitar master is often not too far behind. McGuire was a founding member of Emeralds, a band that tripped out on ambient and minimal music. He has since carved out a solo career which sees him tour regularly across Europe, Asia and Australia, as well as his native North America. His new album is Along the Way. The Gasometer – September 7. .........................................................................
Russell Simmons Does YouTube
Russell Simmons has teamed up with YouTube and Universal Records to create the YouTube-focused label, All Def Music. We all know what a powerful platform YouTube can be (that Justin Bieber kid, that Gangnam guy, violinst Lindsey Stirling), and ADM will dedicate itself to signing, developing and promoting musicians on the video service. It’s a YouTube world, my friends.
Laura Imbruglia Residency Fresh from a handful of shows in support of her new album What a Treat, Laura Imbruglia has banished her band to the backroom as she steps up to the stage of The Spotted Mallard for a solo residency this month. She has already performed one date with three to follow: August 13 with Alyx Dennison (ex-kyü), August 20 with Ben Mason (ex-Smallgoods) and August 27 with Bob Harrow (Immigrant Union).
The Growl on the Prowl
NYE on the Hill
‘Douse the Lamps’ is the new single from WA’s The Growl and they’re taking it on a little excursion. According to the presser, “frontman Cameron Avery hides the track’s subtle sexual core beneath layers of hand claps and raw percussion.” Lifted from the band’s debut album What Would Christ Do??, the single, the album’s third, will be released digitally August 16. NSC – September 3.
There are many who love nothing more than spending New Year’s Eve with like-minded music souls in a festival setting. This year we see a new event enter the NYE festival family, NYE on the Hill. From the team behind Hills Are Alive, NYE on the Hill is a boutique festival which takes place December 30-January 1 on ‘The Farm’, roughly 90mins from Melbourne. The first line-up is announced August 11. Hit nyeonthehill.com. au for more.
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Presentation Night Take 2 The thought of music icon Paul Kelly and AFL champ Bob Murphy chewing the fat proved too irresistible, with the inaugural Presentation Night selling out. Are we ready for round 2? I hope so, because former Richmond legend and nice guy Matthew Richardson will join muso and footballer-at-heart Tim Rogers at The Corner on August 15 for Presentation Night 2. Francis Leach will once again join the discussion of their respective obsessions. .........................................................................
I, a Man Sneak Peek Daniel Moss and Ash Hunter had known each other for years, and like any two people who had known each other for years, they decided to start a band. They knew a couple of gents named Erik Rene and Sumner Fish, and so I, a Man was formed. The Melbourne genre-fusing band is gearing up for the release of their debut full-length album by offering a teaser of its first single, ‘Less Travelled’. The Tote – August 16. .........................................................................
The Hardened Pikelet
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Kvelertak Lay the Choke Blending elements of metal, punk and hardcore rock, Norwegian six-piece Kvelertak will hit our shores next month. Kvelertak, Norwegian for stranglehold or chokehold, formed in 2007. They released their debut self-titled album in 2010 and in 2011 scored two Spellemann Awards, an award similar to a Grammy, for Best Newcomer and Best Rock Band. Earlier in the year they released their second album, Meir. The Corner – September 17.
The Other Side of Tumbleweed It’s a good time to be a Tumbleweed fan with the band set to drop a new album and take it on the road. Okay, the album. It is titled Sounds from the Other Side and it is out September 27. The album will be a nice little mix of older, unreleased tracks from the band and newer material. It has been fifteen years since the original line-up released anything so get on it. Okay, the tour. The Espy – September 21.
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It’s a Shame about All the Colours Melbourne-based progressive vintage-pop outfit All the Colours introduce themselves as “The soundtrack to a Tarantino movie that has yet to be made.” That’s got to make you a little curious. Next month the band will release their self-titled debut album. The release includes singles ‘Love like This’, ‘Second to None’ and their latest, ‘Shame’. To tie you over until its release, you can catch them at The Workers Club on August 24. .........................................................................
Louis London: Creatures of the Night
Exploratory synth-pop outfit Pikelet will release their third album on August 16. Titled Calluses, the album is the follow-up to their 2010 acclaimed album, Stem. Recorded with John Lee (Lost Animal, Mountains in the Sky), the album is described as: “Bold, ambitious and layered, a record that rewards repeated listens with subtle details and hypnotic depths.” Curtin Bandroom – October 5.
A big sound and melodic vocals is a winning formula when it comes to Sydney five-piece Louis London. Formed in 2010, the band has built an impressive following through packed-out shows and support spots alongside Bag Raiders, Hunting Grounds and Trial Kennedy. Last year saw the release of the band’s debut EP, Hardly Hear You. A sophomore effort is on the way and ‘This Night Time’ is a taste. AFTR DARK @ John Curtin – September 5.
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When Björk met David Attenborough
Adept at Silencing the World
What we have here is a curious creature. Native to Iceland, this pint-sized wonder is bright, colourful and has a remarkable voice. One would be wise not to underestimate her size either. It would seem Björk has teamed up with David Attenborough for the documentary Attenborough and Björk: The Nature of Music. The documentary, about the intersection of music, art, the environment and technology, aired in the UK late last month.
Australia is in store for a dose of one of Sweden’s favourites with Adept set to punish our country this September. The band formed in 2004 and released a demo and EP in 2004/5 – both financed out of pocket. With their following growing stronger, the band released their debut full-length, Another Year of Disaster, in 2009. Silence the World is their latest. Bendigo Hotel – October 17 & Wrangler Studios – October 18.
30 Years of Beasts of Bourbon
Neck Deep in Bad Decisions
You have to love what you do or love who you’re with to stick it out for 30 years. But in 2013 one of the country’s finest, the Beasts of Bourbon, will clock up the big 3-0. Yep, way back in 1983 the band was formed with James Baker on drums, Spencer P. Jones and Kim Salmon on guitar, Boris Sujdovic on bass and Tex Perkins out front. In September they will released the appropriately titled 30 Years of Borrowed Time. The Memo – August 29, 30 & 31.
Once they wrap up their Vans Warped ’13 tour alongside Enter Shikari, Rise Against, Anberlin and Billy Talent, Manchester pop-punk outfit Neck Deep will swing by our shores for their first tour Down Under. Formed in mid-2012, the band made a solid impact with the release of their debut EP, A History of Bad Decisions. They are currently working on their debut album. Next! – November 28 & Wrangler Studios – November 29 (AA).
Century Fox Theme Park
Dreaming Away with Tully on Tully
Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. have a tight grip on the Theme Park world, but now it looks as though Century Fox is entering the game. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Malaysia will be home to a new theme park by 2016. Not a great deal is known at this stage but it is suggested that Alien, Life of Pi, Ice Age, Rio and Night at the Museum will all be featured in one way or another.
Melbourne’s Tully on Tully have a special knack for creating dream-weaving indie pop. The band has compiled a healthy list of supports, warming the crowds up for artists including Whitley, The Temper Trap, Neon Trees and Nada Surf. They also recently completed a tour of South-East Asia. The best of the best has now come with the band welcoming their debut EP, Weightless. The Toff – September 7.
FRI 9 AUG
Trojan REST
ENT AURA N TS – BARS – ENTER TA I N M
SAT 10 AUG
Mark Hughes FRI 16 AUG
Good Faces 4 Radio Friday night drink promos 5.30 til 6.30 and 9 til 10.30 Saturday night Bulmers and Carlton Dry promos
SAT 17 AUG
Peta Evans
GROVEDALE HOTEL 236-258 SURFCOAST HIGHWAY PHONE: (03) 5243 2814 | GROVEDALEHOTEL.COM.AU
FACEBOOK.COM/GROVEDALEHOTEL
TWITTER.COM/GROVEDALEHOTEL
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THE
FORT-NIGHTLY CALENDAR & GIG GUIDE Entry from 9.30pm
LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT:
BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTEMAINE):
Live Band & DJs Mainroom and
Palace of the King
Terrace. Open from 9pm
OLD HEPBURN HOTEL: Nat Allison
Sunday August 11th
(70’s-00’s accoustic rock covers) BARKING DOG: Flashback Fridays with live band Juke Box Hero
ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Shandelle Cook
BEAVS BAR: Jesse Reid
BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE):
ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Thank Guinness It’s Friday
OLD HEPBURN HOTEL: Tank Dilemma
LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT:
THE COURTHOUSE: 4x4 Play
Live band & DJs Main Room and
Readings 3pm – 4pm
Terrace, open from 9pm
THE CAPITAL (Bendigo): The
AT THE HEADS: Live music from
Bendigo Writers Festival
5pm till 7pm (Barwon Heads)
SPHINX HOTEL: Carvery from $11.00
Saturday August 10th
BARWON CLUB HOTEL: Test Pilot
BLACK HATT: Paul Woseen (Screaming
BLACK HATT: Loretta Dawes - Homegrown
Jets) plus Audemia. Free before 9.30pm ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Live Bands
j heasy saturday august 10 at chinese whispers, geelong
9:30- Midnight - with Regular Boys live THE KAROVA LOUNGE:
Friday August 9th
THE MAX HOTEL: $12 Parmi All Day All Night, Inquizitive Trivia from 7.30pm ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Asahi Seafood & Chips Night THE COURTHOUSE: Battle of the Bands (FReeZA) 6pm – 9pm BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Open Mic Night w/ Dave Dorman THE KAROVA LOUNGE: The King of the North GOLD DIGGERS ARMS: Bogan Bingo Its Bingo with Balls! From 7.30pm Free Entry BEAVS BAR: Andy Forster BLACK HATT: Tradies Night in the Bar from 5pm till 7pm, Open Mic from 8pm with acoustic, bands, solos & duets CITY QUARTER BAR: Unplugged Heat 2 THE SPHINX HOTEL: Schnitzel Night from $13 EUREKA HOTEL: Silent Disco with RnB Simon One, Shorty & PInky, Dance Dawson and Max Mckay, Retro Party
CITY QUARTER BAR: Friday Unwind from
Steve Toppa and Bri Bri PJ Party
Molly, Front bar. The Kite Machine Mountain Goat Winter Sessions. Sunday sesh’ with free Entry from 6pm GEELONG RSL: Maryborough Trad Jazz Ensemble – Jazz EDGE GEELONG: Live
BusJam Feat Royston Vasie DIGGERS HOTEL: live music BARWON CLUB HOTEL: Dirt
Thursday August 8th
Broderick Smith
Farmer, Pons, Sugar Gouls
entertainment plus DJ THEATRE ROYAL (Castlemaine): Cosmic Psychos: Blokes You Can Trust (M) 6pm LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT: Student
THE BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE): Immigrant Union BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Kenny Miller
& Industry Night (Free entry all night) w/ Live band & DJs in the Mainroom and Terrace
rmouth and King of the North
Monday August 12th
THE GROVEDALE HOTEL: Mark Hughes
BARWON CLUB HOTEL: $10 Parmis
OLD HEPBURN HOTEL:
SPHINX HOTEL: 11 Meals for $11
Untapped (70’s-00’s covers)
ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20
THE CAPITAL (Bendigo): The
Steak & Drink night
Bendigo Writers Festival
LORD NELSON HOTEL: Steak/Parmi &
HOME HOUSE: Djs upstairs and
Pot for $15 on presentation of student I.D
Downstairs open til late
THEATRE ROYAL (Castlemaine): Cosmic
THEATRE ROYAL (Castlemaine)
Psychos: Blokes You Can Trust (M) 6pm
80’s Disco feat DJ John Hunter (Cystic CHINESE WHISPERS: Slice N Dice
Tuesday August 13th
& Zoolanda & Heasy & Katt Niall
ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20
THE MAX: Frequency
Steak & Drink night
EDGE: Live entertainment plus DJ
THE SPHINX HOTEL: 11 Meals
Bendigo Writers Festival
GEELONG RSL: Horizon
for $11, Poker Night (free)
THE LOFT: Imigrant Union
Free Entry from 8pm
GEELONG RSL: Steak Night $13
GPAC: Bernard Fanning Departures
CITY QUARTER BAR: Tom
LIGHTHOUSE THEATRE
Tour, Frank - A Life in Song
and Tayla and DJ
(WARRNAMBOOL): The Complete Works
BLACK HATT: Cor Ten Free
BEAVS BAR: Steve Pianto
of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
5pm. Live with live entertainment and DJ THE GROVEDALE HOTEL: Trojan The KAROVA LOUNGE: Dirt Farmer LIGHTHOUSE THEATRE (WARRNAMBOOL): Emmanual Collage: An evening of inspiration SPHINX: Retro Ago-Go EDGE GEELONG: Live entertainment plus DJ THE BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Craig Sayer THE MAX: Adventure Playground BARWON CLUB HOTEL: King of The North, Dukes of Deliciousness, The Underhanded THE CAPITAL (Bendigo): The
THE LOFT: Gutt
Fibrosis fundraiser) 8pm to 1am
Geelong Laser Tattoo Removal tattoo removal & fading free consultation
18 James St Geelong 3220 5221 4174 0478 616 905
www.geelonglasertattooremoval.com.au 16
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Wednesday August 14th
The Kremlings, Mock Turkey
THE GATEWAY HOTEL: Amber
Metro & Benson & Jane Daffy & Dawson
THE SPHINX HOTEL:
Lawrence and Jason owen
HOME HOUSE: Upstairs: Kalus.
Schnitzel Night from $13
CITY QUARTER BAR: Friday
Downstairs: DJ Halfcuts (RnB & Hip Hop)
THE MAX HOTEL: Parmi All Day All
Unwind with live music then DJ
EDGE GEELONG: Live music and DJ
Night $12, InnQUIZitive Trivia from
EDGE GEELONG: Live music plus DJ
OLD HEPBURN HOTEL: Michelle
7.30pm till 10.30pm, amazing prizes,
ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Thank
Parsons (60’s-00’s COVERS)
call to book your team’s spot
Guinness It’s Friday
BEAVS BAR: Dave Anderson
THEATRE ROYAL (Castlemaine): Cosmic
Friday August 16th
BLACK HATT: Drink promos from 5pm
Psychos: Blokes You Can Trust (M) 6pm
BEAVS BAR: Hayden
LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT:
BEAVS BAR: Karoke Open Mic with Andy Forster BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Trivia Night from 7:30pm CITY QUARTER BAR: Industry Night GPAC: UP - By Eddie Perfect
THE KAROVA LOUNGE: Atilla ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Trivia Night – great prizes from 8.30pm till 10.30pm THE SPHINX HOTEL: Steak Night from $16, Poker Night ($10 buy in)
SPHINX: Retro Ago-Go THE GROVEDALE HOTEL: Good Faces for Radio BARKING DOG: Flashback Fridays with live band Juke Box Hero
till 7pm (free entry) Live Band Mr Hyde performing live free entry from 9.30pm DJs Joe Joe Mainroom & Joubin in theTerrace plus live band AT THE HEADS: Live music from 5pm till 7pm (Barwon Heads)
GEELONG RSL: Parma & Pot Night $13
THE COURTHOUSE: ALTER
Thursday August 15th
exhibition by Daniel Longo 6 – 8pm
Saturday August 17th
KAROVA LOUNGE: Guttermouth
SPHINX HOTEL: Fistful of Steel
EUREKA HOTEL: Scribble Party Feat
PIPING HOT CHICKEN SHOP: “Viva
THE GROVEDALE HOTEL: Peta Evans
Las Chicken” -Elvis Tribute night
THE MAX: Live Band
THE BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE):
THE BARWON CLUB HOTEL: Don
OHMS w/ Loveless
Fernado, Allan Cmpbell, Falonio, As A Rival
THE BARWON CLUB: New Centre of The
THE BARWON HEADS
Universe Vol 2. Bits of Shit, Straight Arrows,
HOTEL: Dave Johns
Tiny Migrants, Cobwebbs, The Nugs,, The
THE KAROVA LOUNGE: Hollow Everdayze
Girl Audio with Simon One, Shorty J & PInky, Dawson and Max Mckay, Toppa, Abaykez, That Speney and James Rogers ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Asahi Seafood & Chips Night City Quarter Bar: Unplugged Heat 3
ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Live music with Mr Hyde - 9.30 till midnight CITY QUARTER BAR: live music and DJ LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT: Live band with DJs Mainroom & Terrace open from 9pm
Sunday August 18th ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Des Cam Jazz Band BARWON CLUB HOTEL: Kansas City Faggots. Front bar Good Faces for Radio with DJ Bodz BLACK HATT: Sunday Hown Grown Session Merle to Earl Free Entry from 6pm. BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE): Broderick Smith THE COURTHOUSE: A Conversation
Towellheads, Turtleneck, The Sulphur
BEAVS BAR: Jack Harmen
BRIDGE HOTEL (CASTLEMAINE)
Lights, Wonderboy, Councellor of Aging
KAROVA LOUNGE: Jericco
: King Stone
THE BARWON HEADS HOTEL:
DIGGERS HOTEL: Live music
GPAC: Kinship Bangarra Dance Theatre
Dave Fezza (accousitc Set)
GPAC: Kinship Bangarra Dance
By Stephen Page, UP - By Eddie Perfect
GPAC: Kinship Bangarra Dance
Theatre By Stephen Page
OLD HEPBURN HOTEL: Dog Trumpet
BLACK HATT: Tradies Night in the Bar
Theatre By Stephen Page
MARTIANS CAFE: John Luke Shelley
LAMBY’S BAR & RESTAURANT:
from 5pm till 7pm, Open Mic from 8pm
THE LOFT: Dirt Farmer
LIGHTHOUSE THEATRE
Live band & Djs in the Mainroom
with acoustic, bands, solos & duets
OLD HEPBURN HOTEL: Michael
(WARRNAMBOOL): Amber
& the Terrace open from 9pm
THE BARWON CLUB: Guttermouth,
Sunjack (Record Launch)
Lawrence and Jason owen
GEELONG RSL: Moonee ValleyJazz Band
Misfits Stunt Crew, Japan For,
THE MAX: 3 On The Tree
CHINESE WHISPERS: Stevie Mink & Mike
EDGE GEELONG: Live music plus DJ
in the Key of… Rebecca Barnard and Annie Rose Maloney SPHINX HOTEL: Carvery from $11.00
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THE FORTE VENUE GUIDE! THE BARKING DOG
chinese whispers
126 Pakington St. Geelong West
Cnr. Shorts Place. Geelong
50 Barwon Heads .................................... Rd. Belmont
bar pizza
Cunningham Pier, Geelong
....................................
137 Pakington St. Geelong
....................................
BARWON CLUB 509 Moorabool St. South Geelong
CITY QUARTER
....................................
....................................
23 The Esplanade. Torquay
CLOUD 9
96 Pakington St. Geelong West
....................................
....................................
Club TITANIUM
BARWON HEADS HOTEL
....................................
1 Bridge Rd. Barwon Heads
....................................
THE BASEMENT 159 159 Moorabool St. Geelong
....................................
BEAVS BAR 77 Little Malop St. Geelong
....................................
black hatt 54 Little Myers St. Geelong
GEELONG RSL
99 Ryrie St, Geelong
eastern station
81 Humffray St Nth. Ballarat
....................................
THE EDGE
1/6-8 Eastern Beach Rd. Geelong
....................................
GROWLERS ....................................
HOME HOUSE
....................................
IRISH MURPHY'S 30 Aberdeen St. Geelong
....................................
JACK AND JILL 247 Moorabool St. Geelong
....................................
LAMBYS Cnr of Moorabool & Brougham St. Geelong
ELEPHANT AND CASTLE ....................................
2 Gheringhap St. Geelong
THE MAX hotel ....................................
....................................
THE EUREKA
THE BLUESTONE
98 Little Malop St. Geelong
103 Marr St. Ballarat
....................................
MRS. HYDE
THE gateway HOTEL
....................................
....................................
Bridge hotel castlemaine
218-230 Princess Hwy. Corio
....................................
THE GROVEDALE HOTEL
11 Malop St. Geelong
331 Mair St. Ballarat
....................................
RUMORS SLATE Pool Lounge 50 Little Ryrie St. Geelong
....................................
THE SPHINX 2 Thompson Rd. North Geelong
....................................
TOAST 114 Moorabool St. Geelong
....................................
TORQUAY HOTEL 36 Bell St. Torquay
....................................
the wool exchange ENTERTAINMENT COMPLEX 44 Corio St. Geelong
the unicorn
THE CARLTON HOTEL
The Gateway Hotel
21 Malop St. Geelong
218-230 Princess Hwy. Corio
236 Main Rd. Hepburn Springs
....................................
Peter Lalor Hotel
611 Surfcoast Hwy. Mt Duneed
....................................
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odyssey
236-258 Surfcoast Hwy
21 Walker St. Castlemaine
15 James St. Geelong
5 James St. Geelong 40-42 Moorabool St. Geelong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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158 McKillop St. Geelong
OPIUM BAR
Old Hepburn Hotel
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127 Sturt St. Ballart
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the yarra hotel 120 Lydiard St. Ballarat
A CONVERSATION IN THE KEY OF...
REBECCA BARNARD
SUNDAY AUGUST 18 at courthouse arts, geelong
Monday August 19th BARWON CLUB HOTEL: $10 Parmis ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Steak & Drink night SPHINX HOTEL: 11 Meals for $11 LORD NELSON HOTEL: Steak/Parmi &
KAROVA LOUNGE: Ego .BEAVS BAR: Karoke, Open Mic and Dave Anderson THE SPHINX HOTEL: Steak Night from $16, Poker Night ($10 buy in) GEELONG RSL: Parma & Pot Night $13
Tuesday August 20th
Thursday August 22nd
BRIDGE HOTEL: Trivia Night hosted by
BARWON HEADS HOTEL: Open
GPAC: Bethany Films - On Air THE CAPITAL (Bendigo): Melbourne Symphony Orchestra: Tom Woods conductor Antoinette Halloran soprano ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20
Mic Night w/ Dave Dorman EUREKA HOTEL: Theme Parties and Headline acts ope til late. GPAC: Australian Youth Classic Music Competition BLACK HATT: Tradies Night in the Bar
Steak & Drink night
from 5pm till 7pm, Open Mic from 8pm
THE SPHINX HOTEL: 11 Meals
with acoustic, bands, solos & duets
for $11, Poker Night (free)
Hard Rock Triple Header Audemia.
GEELONG RSL: Steak Night $13
Hail Mary (WA) The Deep End
Wednesday August 21st FORTEMAG.COM.AU
CITY QUARTER BAR: Industry Night
Pot for $15 on presentation of student I.D
Lifon Uranus from 7.30pm, free event
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Trivia Night from 7:30pm
ELEPHANT & CASTLE: $20 Asahi Seafood & Chips Night LIGHTHOUSE THEATRE
ELEPHANT & CASTLE: Trivia
(WARRNAMBOOL): Everything Must Go
Night from 8.30pm till 10.30pm
GOLD DIGGERS ARMS: Bogan Bingo Its
BARWON HEADS HOTEL:
Bingo with Balls! From 7.30pm Free Entry
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The Go Set By Tex Miller
For many years they have been the soundtrack to our drunken Saturday night escapades around the Geelong scene, and now The Go Set are finally celebrating ten years together as a band. Justin Keenan as the lead singer and energetic frontman gives off this primal energy that comes across in their energetic performances. Sitting down with Justin for the second time within a few months (the last time before they played St Patrick’s Day at the Barwon Club), it’s fantastic to find out what one of the Australia’s hardest working bands has been up to recently. From the bagpipes to the Celtic rock influences, The Go Set has the ability to get everyone up
dancing and singing within a matter of songs, and the upcoming performance at the Barwon Club on the first of September with The Real McKenzies is sure to be a loose affair. Having just got back from a highly successful European tour in the last two weeks, talking about the notion of being a band for ten years is still quite surprising to Justin. “It’s quite ironic I think, because before The Go Set came about, Mark Moran, one of the original members, and I were both in a band that were striving for commercial success. We were hungry for media attention and to be involved with the consumerist approach to music. When TGS came about, we resigned to the fact that we wouldn’t sell any records but we were going to make music that was fun. The music came naturally and we were just planning on doing one EP. Ten years and close to a thousand shows later it still baffles me. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think we would make it this far.”
With the resurgence of teenagers delving into their parent’s record collections and discovering classic albums that were around the best part of fifty years ago, Justin feels that every musician in one part or another of their musical career turns back to their musical roots. “Synth-pop has been making a remarkable comedown over the past few years, and there are even blokes in their thirties going back to the music that you listen to as a child. I think that there is almost something comforting about creating that sound. My parents were hippies and listened to protest songs. My family heritage is Irish, and so my childhood was filled with Bob Dylan records together with The Dubliners,” Justin said. The recent European tour, of which Justin is in heavy recuperation when we speak, took in dates in Denmark, the Czech Republic and Germany, and saw the band play a whole stack of summer music festivals to hundreds if not thousands of new fans. The best festival experience on this trip was Mighty Sounds, which is held in the town of Tábor in the Czech Republic. “That festival was nuts,” Justin said. “To play alongside Suicidal Tendencies, Anti-Flag, The Subways was great because they are some of the biggest punk rock bands going around. For some reason or another we have a really big name in Europe and not so much in Australia. There is a big difference between the audiences, and the Australian crowds are really stiff until they get drunk. Europe, however, is crazy from the very first note of the set.” In addition to European audiences being more receptive to the explosive live show The Go Set unleash night after night, record sales and radio
play are greater in Europe as well. “The latest album achieved hardly any radio play here, yet upon its release in Europe we got played on 50 stations within the first couple of weeks. It’s a strange concept to think about, but that’s how it is,” Justin said. The guitar career of Justin Keenan started out from watching Billy Joe Armstrong of Green Day fame play guitar at one of their Australian concerts in 1995; Justin knew that the guitar was the instrument for him. At first his brother thought he was crazy and laughed in his face like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard, but Justin was out to prove them all wrong. “I went out the next day and bought a guitar and started to teach myself to play it. However it took me two weeks to realise that I was playing it upside down because I’m left-handed. A lot of my early bands were ska bands because the upstroke was a lot easier than the down, but once I got my hands on a left-handed guitar, I never looked back,” Justin revealed about the early days of his musical career. Playing with The Real McKenzies on their national tour, which takes in dates in Adelaide, Hobart, Warrnambool and Brisbane to name just a few, no doubt there is set to be some shenanigans and good times to be had. Off to the US and Europe later in the year, be sure to catch one of Australia’s greatest pub rock Celtic bands at the top of their game. “We’ve been together and on the road for ten years. The next ten promise to be just as exciting.” When&Where: The Loft, Warrnambool – August 28 & The Barwon Club, Geelong, September 1
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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Underground Lovers By Natalie Rogers
“It’s ace, you know? It’s quite delightful. It’s nothing but fun and good times,” the lovely Philippa Nihill from Melbourne’s Underground Lovers told Forte about the release of their long-awaited new record, Weekend. “We’re having a release party for our second single ‘Haunted’ at the Northcote Social Club at the end of the month.” This follows the success of the first single ‘Au Pair’, and the overwhelmingly positive response from critics and fans alike for their latest release. “The thing that struck us when we were back in the room together and started playing music, was that everything else just fell into place. We just picked up where we left off, and though our lives have changed a lot since we were in our twenties, this experience is so much richer. “Really, everything we’ve done with this album is more about pleasing ourselves, and just doing stuff we want to do,” Philippa confided. “I love all the tracks on this record. I really love Vincent’s lyrics [Vincent Giarrusso, band co-founder and songwriter]. He makes me laugh – well, he makes everyone laugh. His beautiful songs always bring a smile to my face. I must admit that when we first got the copies of the record, my partner and I were up every night doing a lot of crazy bad air guitar in the kitchen, and that didn’t stop for at least two months!” Philippa laughed. In keeping with the band’s reputation for innovation and originality, ‘Haunted’ will be released as part of a limited spilt 7-inch single, together with Chinese noise-
pop duo Dear Eloise. “They’re a very cool husband and wife team from Shanghai. They make beautiful music, but they’re very shy and don’t like to perform live or do any press,” Philippa explained. “We were introduced to them by a friend of ours, Ricky Maymi from the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and together we came up with this idea of doing split singles. We just thought it would be fun to take the opportunity to share our space and show something new. They’re really incredible and the artwork for the single is amazing.” The single’s artwork features graphic design from
Midnight Juggernauts
well. We’re really happy with the end result. All three of us brought different things to the table to make it happen, and it’s kind of like having a child, and finishing it is like bringing that third child into the world!” Andy laughed. “We’re very proud!”
By Natalie Rogers
These days the guys are extremely busy, working on side-projects and spending time overseas. “Uncanny Valley was recorded all over the place; in Sydney and Melbourne, quite a lot of it in France, and we were in Russia for a while too, so the experience of making it was a lot of fun. More fun than any other record we’ve made.”
We’ve come a long way baby! – In the world of CGI that is, as displayed in Midnight Juggernauts new clip for ‘Memorium’. The video documents the evolution of computer-generated imagery, a theme that’s followed through from the title of the album, ‘Uncanny Valley’, meaning a feeling of unease created by a robot or robotic device that appears to be, but is not quite, human. Though the album has been out for a short time already (through their own label Siberia Records), the innovative three-piece will be touring it nationally throughout August and September for the first time in Australia. When Forte caught up with one third of the band, Andy Szekeres, he was a little worse for wear, having just arrived back in the country after an unrelenting tour across Europe and South America. “We’re back, we got back yesterday. I’m actually feeling pretty weird right now,” Andy admitted. “I woke up at 4 o’clock this morning – I’m all out of whack! I’m going through the hell of jetlag.” There’s no rest for the wicked, with the Australian tour due to kick off next week in Newcastle before heading to the Karova Lounge in Ballarat on Friday the 23rd. “The European tour was the first time we got to play the new songs live, so we’ve become re-energised. After we finish working on something I stop listening to it for a while,” Andy admitted. “So it’s been good to get reunited with the songs and be enthusiastic about them again. “We spent quite a long time making the record – two or three years, in between working on other projects as
the acclaimed Other Rooms from Bath, UK, and silkscreened covers produced by Idle Beats in Shanghai. Philippa said they plan to release only 250 copies of the single in Australia, with limited copies of the 7-inch vinyl available to buy at the Northcote Social Club gig, for lucky punters who get in early. For the unlucky few who miss this on-off show, never fear – Philippa assures me they’ll continue to play throughout the year with a spot on the bill at the one and only Queenscliff Music Festival. Philippa also revealed that they’re planning to get back in the studio
for some serious recording time next year. Head to undergroundlovers.com.au to check out the video clip for ‘Au Pair’ because, as Philippa says, “it’s a corker!” The clip for the new single ‘Haunted’ can be seen on YouTube. For this thought-provoking clip they collaborated with Adelaide artist Jason Sweeney. You will not be disappointed! When&Where: Northcote Social Club – August 31
While in Russia they released a music video anonymously under the guise of a Soviet pop band from the early ‘80s. “It was pretty surreal, I suppose,” Andy recalled. “We were dressed up like soviet army officers and we filmed all through the streets of Moscow. We were doing interpretive dance in silence, so everyone around us thought we were completely insane! We had to be very careful not to be offensive though; we were told we might be arrested!” It’s clear that Andy, Vin and Dan have an affinity with the cities they’ve visited, so I wondered if they have plans to relocate permanently. Andy assured me that Australia will always be their home, however they’re thinking of spending more time in Berlin when they start recording again. Back at home, Andy said they’re planning a few surprises for their upcoming shows. “We’ll be playing most of the new record and we’ve been working on the stage show itself. It’ll be exciting because we’ve rearranged our setup and we have new equipment. We’re really inspired at the moment and there’ll be a lot of energy put into the shows. This Australian tour should be a really big one for us, so it’ll be a lot of fun! Our supports are Kirin J Callinan, who’s also on our label, and Fascinator [Children Collide frontman Johnny MacKay’s new project]. Those guys are touring pretty much the whole country with us. We can’t wait!”
When&Where: The Karova, Ballarat – August 23
Vydamo By Tex Miller
Whilst on dialysis waiting for a kidney transplant, Vydamo, AKA Jim Finn from Art vs. Science, wrote an album, Becoming Human, which was eighteenmonths in the pipeline from writing to recording to release. Sitting down with Jim on the day of release he couldn’t be happier with the finished product, as he relates. “This project has taken quite a while so to see it actually physically in my hand is amazing. I have a few friends and family overseas, and for them to finally hear what I have been working on for the best part of two years is fantastic.” The band have already played some shows in support of the album in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne throughout April, and you may have heard the single ‘Hurricane’ doing the rounds on triple j and commercial radio. Medical procedures of this nature to most people (myself included) would be a scary ordeal, yet you have to stay positive throughout these tough times. “There was nothing I could really do about the operation. It had to be done. I would have been touring around Europe with Art vs. Science, but because I was sitting around with very little to do, I was writing songs and they were very positive and optimistic, and being to write was a therapeutic process I believe. Through these times you realise how much love you have in your life through your family and friends,” Jim said. The upbeat piano riffs and production to the album make it one enjoyable listen. From ‘Gonna Make It’, which tells the story of Jim making it home for breakfast,
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to ‘Hurricane’, some of these tunes are a little older, written on downtime on the road with Art vs. Science. Talking about the influences behind the songs, this release is a definite return to Jim’s music roots, which include 60s rock legends The Beach Boys and The Beatles. Although throughout the first listen you are able to immediately pick up on some of the inspiration, there are others classic and modern influences throughout the thirteen tracks. “The synth lines in ‘Living in the Sunshine’ are definitely inspired by Mötley Crüe and Van Halen. More contemporary bands like Tame Impala, Foster the People and Grouplove can also be heard. Although the songwriting may not be that complex or outlandish it is fun, and I wanted to create a feeling of reminiscing on hearing a song and being able to sing along with the words. It’s an experience I got as a child and I wanted to recreate that with Becoming Human.” As one of the songwriters in Art vs. Science, over the past few years Jim has helped pen ‘Flippers’, ‘Parlez Vous Francais?’ and ‘Magic Fountain’ to name just a few, which are some of their biggest hits. Therefore, does the commercial success play any part in the writing process? “I think the key to a successful song is a good beat. The vocals are important, but if you can get people up dancing then the majority of the hard work is already done for you. If you’re writing a song, and it has that sort of commercial sound to it, you should follow and develop it as much as possible, because if you’re onto a winner, it most probably will become a hit.”
WHEN&WHERE: vydamo.com
TALK OF THE
TOWN!
Keepin' it Regional!
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BY POPULAR DEMAND
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“ There’s always something crazy going on up on stage, and often off the stage!” - the shanghai times
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TALK OF THE TOWN! Talk of the Town: We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let’s start giving. Coming up you have… .........................................................................
Queenscliff Music Festival: Round 2 San Cisco, PEZ, Dallas Frasca, Baby et Lulu, The Ray Mann Three, Microwave Jenny, Lachy Doley, Twin Beasts (formerly The Toot Toot Toots), Tom Thum, Hussy Hicks, Jack Carty, Melody Pool, The Murlocs, Siskin River, Fraser A Gorman & Big Harvest, Genevieve Chadwick, Sweethearts, Imogen Brough, Murdena, The Kite Machine and The Tiny Giants have decided to join the Queenscliff Music Festival party. When you consider they join acts including The Living End, John Butler Trio, The Grates, Spiderbait and Blue King Brown, it’s hard to know where there is going to be room to fit them all in. And yet there is more to be announced! The 17th annual Queenscliff Music Festival takes place across November 22, 23 & 24. For a full rundown of everything that is taking place, please hit up qmf.net.au. .........................................................................
Ego Is Not a Dirty Word Sydney-based Ego is a DJ and videographer whose fusion of technology and entertainment has made him a hot ticket in town. He has produced videos for acts including The Presets, Ta-ku, Lancelot and Clubfeet, while his multi-sensory live show has led him to the stages of Splendour in the Grass and Field Day. As for the tour, it’s all about his new mixtape, A Trip with Ego. The mixtape features the highly-praised video, ‘The Tropics’. Ego: “I’ll be bringing in lots of surreal elements as well as getting tropical, bringing some world bass and global sounds to the club on this tour. And sampling everything from cinema classics to forgotten footage, old magazines, 70s home movies, 80s beauty pageants, 90s infomercials and today’s YouTube sensations!” The Karova, Ballarat – August 21 & Eureka Hotel, Geelong – August 22. .........................................................................
Porcelain Punch Travelling Medicine Show “Experience amazing acts, fantastic feats, exquisite oddities and old fashioned integrity as you partake in the phenomenon of Porcelain Punch Miracle Cure – the extraordinary elixir of Immortality. Curer of incurable conditions, bestower of beauty and extender of the under-endowed.” Now, if that intro isn’t enough to pique your interest, then you must have a stone cold heart beating inside your deathly chest. The Porcelain Punch Travelling Medicine Show is a salute to the infamous travelling medicine shows of old which travelled the lands offering programs of comedy, music, theatre and circus. The rollicking fun show made its debut at Melbourne Fringe in 2010 before taking it to all corners of Australia. Step right up and discover the healing properties of their circus, physical theatre, clowning and musical theatre. Main Stage, COPACC – October 18. .........................................................................
Give me a Leonard Cohen Afterworld Geelong is set for a real treat with legendary songman Leonard Cohen set for a return as part of A Day on the Green. Cohen performed five ADOTG shows in 2009. The shows, his first on our shores in 25 years, are widely regarded as some of the finest to have graced the ADOTG stages. Such was the overwhelming response, the great return the following year for another string of shows, including a performance at Hanging Rock. When he returns late this year, he will have an outstanding ninepiece band in tow. Lou Reed calls him “without question one of the most important and influential songwriters of our time, a figure whose body of work achieve greater mystery and depth as time goes on.” Leonard Cohen plays The Hill Winery, Geelong on December 7. Ticket information is available through Ticketmaster, but be warned: tickets won’t hang around for long.
Come Share in Regurgitator’s Fantasy Have you been looking at your CD collection lately (or iTunes, or whatever – I am not judging), and thought, ‘I could really do with something new’. Well, perhaps the Regurgitator lads can help you out with their new album, Dirty Pop Fantasy. The newie, their eighth effort and follow-up to 2011’s SuperHappyFunTimesFriends is out and proud on September 11, but in what will be a busy second half of the year for the band, Tu-Plang (you know, the one with ‘I Sucked a Lot of Cock to Get Where I Am’ and ‘Kong Foo Sing’) and Unit (you know, the one with ‘Polyester Girl’ and ‘I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff’) are both set for vinyl reissue before the year is out. And now, a word from the Brisbane bandits: “Always ingest with the spirit of fun... Welcome to another universe in the Regurgitator saga. What started scaling the high-rises of Hong Kong, back-flipped through the streets of Melbourne, then after some much rewarded van time ended up freefalling back through those neon towers to slam back down to presence … and just like some Dirty Pop Fantasy we have album #8 readymade for reality.” The ‘Gurge welcome the newie at Theatre Royal, Castlemaine on September 27.
ballarat / bendigo / geelong / surfcoast / warrnambool / werribee Immigrant Union Tough it Out
Anna Smyrk’s Healthy Appetite
There is no shortage of songs with a female name in the title. There are indeed hundreds of them, and joining the club is Melbourne-based psych-folk / country outfit Immigrant Union with their newie, ‘Alison’. According to press, the song is about “...a person trying to get out of a shitty situation ... a dude feeling overwhelmed by the whole deal.” The new single is a taste of the band’s hotly awaited new album Anyway, which is due for an early 2014 release and is the follow-up to their 2012 self-titled effort. For those who may be unfamiliar with the band, Immigrant Union is what happens when Brent DeBoer of The Dandy Warhols fame and Bob Harrow of The Lazy Sons fame get together with four like-minded music souls. The band was formed after a chance meeting at Melbourne’s Cherry Bar – such is the power of the music venue. The Loft, Warrnambool – August 9.
We all know how battle of the band-type competitions can give aspiring artists and bands a leg up. For Anna Smyrk and the Appetites, they discovered this after taking out the Queenscliff Music Festival Foot-in-the-Door competition in 2009. Performances at Port Fairy Folk Festival followed, while frontwoman Anna has received one-on-one songwriting mentorship from Jeff Lang and Abbie Dobson (Leonardo’s Bride). At the beginning of 2012 the band delivered their debut EP, Belly of Winter, an EP recorded with ARIA award-winning producer Craig Pilkington. With a little help from Arts Victoria, Anna and her musical cohorts entered the studio in April to begin work on their debut full-length effort. Their new single is ‘Apocalypse’. The band plays folk-pop music, singing stories about gardens, changing seasons and the demise of human civilization. The Loft, Warrnambool – August 30 & Martians Café, Deans Marsh – August 31.
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The Capital Theatre, Bendigo It has been another big year for Bendigo’s Capital Theatre but the treats are far from over in 2013. August is another bumper month so let’s take a look at a few things on offer. As part of their Morning Music sessions, Anne Phelan (Winners & Losers), Francis Greenslade (Mad as Hell) and Joel Farnis will take you through an era before television on August 15: Tune in Tomorrow is a time when radio was king. August 20 welcomes the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra taking on the work of Tchaikovsky. Conductor Tom Woods and soprano Antoinette Halloran feature. And on August 31 the manic Umbilical Brothers present their new show, A KiDs ShoW – which, by the way, is so not suitable for kids. Keep up to speed through thecapital.com.au. *Special note: the Bendigo Writers Festival takes place from August 9 through August 11. .........................................................................
How Do You Feel About The Preatures? Tomorrow (August 9) sees the release of Is This How You Feel?, the new five-track EP from Sydney crew The Preatures. This is EP number three from the “Gothic soul and rock and roll” band and follows their 2012 effort, Shaking Hands. The EP features the titular single which has been doing all sorts of good including getting a remix from Classixx, not to mention a whole lotta airplay. In its accompanying video clip, director Alex Ryan has the band channeling their inner 70s rock star. Described as The Velvet Underground crashing into Motown, the band is looking like killing it over the next couple of years. International shows await the band a little later in the year but before they board their plane they’ll be taking the new EP around the country. The Karova, Ballarat – September 14. You can check out the video for Is This How You Feel? online now.
Bob Evans Goes Regional The Curse of Stonefield The story of the Findlay sisters is one that is well-known. Amy, Hannah, Sarah and Holly, they who comprise Stonefield, have gone from a small rural town north of Melbourne to playing the Glastonbury Festival. It all started when the sisters scored a drum kit from their parents. From there, inspired by their parent’s record collection, the sisters four would bash away at the instrument in their shed. Amy, also Stonefield’s lead vocalist, took the biggest shine to the instrument while her sisters soon found their own calling. The psych-rockers released their debut EP Through the Clover in 2010 before following it up with Bad Reality last year. The best is yet to come with Stonefield gearing up for the release of their debut fulllength album. ‘Put Your Curse on Me’ is the first taste. The Karova, Ballarat – September 6.
One could never accuse Bob Evans, the alterego of Kevin Mitchell, of taking shortcuts. The songman has been walking a music journey for a long time now but he has not lost sight of the beginning. In true troubadour fashion, Evans will shortly step out for a string of shows as part of his Welcome Stranger tour. This is one man, driving from town to town, sharing songs and perhaps a few jokes and stories. It has been another busy year for the singer-songwriter with a fair bit of touring and the release of his latest album, Familiar Stranger. The album is a bit of a departure from the acoustic sounds of his previous efforts. What we discover this time around is a more lush and layered album. With four albums under the Evans moniker, there is a lot of music to choose from. Something for everyone you may say. The Karova, Ballarat – August 22; Torquay Hotel, Torquay – August 23; Beav’s Bar, Geelong – September 26; The Loft, Warrnambool – September 27.
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Gotta Be Quick Around Bears With Guns Originally from Parkes, Bears With Guns made the move to the brighter lights of Sydney in 2010 in order to make a good crack at the music game. Armed with a folk-rock sound and a bevy of instruments including cajon, djembe, mandolin and ukulele, the band built a name through busking. As word spread, and the band attracted bigger and bigger crowds, they entered the studio to record their debut, Taken for a Fool. Now, a year later, they welcome their sophomore effort, Only the Quick and the Hungry. Recorded with Wayne Connolly, the EP has proven the big move in 2010 was well worth it. From their website: “A great deal of the joy in our lives is derived from the creation of music and the experiences that come with it. Simply put, happiness is better when shared.” University of Ballarat – August 30 & Babushka, Ballarat – August 31.
Scouting for Hungry Kids of Hungary
Ed Kuepper by Request There is something about the stage that must give Ed Kuepper renewed energy. With his touring duty for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds over, Ed has announced a string of solo dates where he will be taking audience requests. Which is cool, because anyone who has been to any concert ever would have heard someone shout out a request. Now there is a chance you’ll hear it! It should be one cracker of a tour as well, for not only will audiences hear material from The Saints, Laughing Clowns, The Aints as well as his solo material (which alone is over twenty albums worth), but there is a mighty strong chance you may hear some material from his as yet unfinished new album. The newie will be his first of all new material since 2007’s Jean Lee and the Yellow Dog. Theatre Royal, Castlemaine – August 24.
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When it came time to record their sophomore album You’re a Shadow, Hungry Kids of Hungary entrusted Wayne Connolly, a man whose extensive credits include Silverchair, You Am I and The Vines. It would prove an invaluable move with Connolly working with the band with a songwriter’s mind. Gone were the days when the band would spend hours layering the songs; in place, there stood a band focused on the core of what really mattered: songwriting. The album was released towards the beginning of the year and continues to do swimmingly, with the band just releasing their new single, ‘Do or Die’. The single, the album’s fourth, is accompanied by a video shot by Liz Murphy during their recent UK tour. Hungry Kids of Hungary have teamed up with Little Scott for a handy run of shows which kick off at the end of the month. Little Scout, too, will have new material to show off with their new album, Are You Life, due for release in September. Self-produced and recorded at various locations in their hometown of Brisbane, the album features familiar single ‘Go Quietly’. Are You Life is the follow-up to their 2011 critically acclaimed debut, Take Your Light. The Barwon Club, Geelong – September 5 & The Karova, Ballarat – September 7.
Wrap Your Fingers Around Liz Frencham For Liz Frencham, music has been a part of her life for a very long time. It was as if her fate as a musician was sealed the day she was born. Her website is filled with memories from childhood. There is the one where she discovered George Harrison’s descending chords of ‘Something’ when she was about nine; there is the one about her first big solo in her primary school production of ‘Sam the Samaritan’. And that is just for starters. After Frencham finished school she trained as a nurse. That is until her boyfriend conned her into playing a double bass for a band. There was something about the instrument, and soon, little by little, bit by bit, Frencham found her double bass groove. Together with Fred Smith, Liz is working towards a host of new music which will hopefully see light before the year is out. Lucky Strike Lounge, Clunes – August 17. .........................................................................
John-Luke Shelley Brings the Blues Hailing from Geelong, John-Luke Shelley, together with his A-grade band High Speed Steel, has been stoking the blues fire for several years now. The band was born a decade ago. Originally a trio, the band, which also features John-Luke’s old man, found new life when father and son moved to Geelong in 2006. Although they’re best known around Geelong and Melbourne, the band is no stranger to interstate gigs and music festivals. John-Luke is only in his mid 20s but can play one hell of a mean guitar. In fact, he has been described as “having a great feel for the work of Jimmy Hendrix, Carlos Santana and Stevie Ray Vaughan”. Last year they took part in the Melbourne Blues Appreciation Society’s Blues Performer of the Year Competition where they came in at a highly-respectable second place. (The Andrea Marr Band took out top honours.) Martians Café, Deans Marsh – August 17. .........................................................................
Kinship Makes Fire The Bangarra Dance Theatre is thrilled to present Kinship, a wonderful theatrical production hitting GPAC this month. Kinship opens with traditional Aboriginal dance, Fire (the meaning of Bangarra is ‘to make fire’ in Wiradjuri language), before the audience is treated to a fusion of traditional and contemporary music and dance. The idea of Kinship is to create a theatrical experience that connects the spirit of traditional culture with contemporary lives. The Bangarra Dance Theatre is Australia’s leading Indigenous performing arts organisation. It was founded in 1989 by Carole Johnson and performed its first full-length show, Praying Mantis Dreaming, in 1992. The company, which presents over 100 performances a year, also played a significant role in the closing ceremony of the 2000 Olympics. Playhouse Theatre – August 15-17. Bookings through gpac.org.au.
Udays Tiger Demand Attention Udays Tiger will join The Stiffys as very special guests on their Champagne tour. The Melbourne-based punk/ grunge/noise duo is the combined talents of Devin de Araujo (guitar, vocals) and Nathan Morris (drums, vocals). Originally from Brisbane, the lads moved to Melbourne in 2011, releasing their debut EP Sinners the same year. Recorded and produced by Neil Coombe (The John Steel Singers, DZ Deathrays, The Go-Betweens), the EP was met with strong reviews. The AU Review: “Sinners is an accomplished debut that shows an abundance of promise from a young band on the rise. Udays Tiger make music that is honest, thrilling and fun. Jump on board now before this duo explode across the blogosphere.” Dead Attention is their newie. Beav’s Bar, Geelong – August 29 & Music Man Megastore, Bendigo – August 30.
Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music There is a buzz around Bendigo with the regional city set to host the inaugural International Festival of Exploratory Music next month. Their mission: “To give the citizens of and visitors to our city access to the most innovative and virtuosic concert music from all around the world.” Okay, here is the dealio. Music from 15 different countries (including Italy, Argentina, Germany, Switzerland and Costa Rica) will be on show across three recitals, eight concerts, two talks, a lecture, a workshop and a vernissage (a preview of an arts exhibition). Of these events, five are free and nine will cost you around the price
of a cinema ticket. The opening concert takes place on Thursday, September 12 and features Argonaut Ensemble, a local and flexible roster of virtuosi who will perform as the festival’s core ensemble. Festival Director David Chisholm: “Really it’s not about whether the music is exploratory or not, it’s whether the audience are explorers. This is very much a festival for Bendigo. It’s the perfect setting for a festival like this.” ABC Classic FM will be broadcasting live from the event. BIFEM takes place at various locations around Bendigo including The Capital and the Bendigo Art Gallery from September 12 through 15. A full program can be found through BIFEM.com.au.
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TALK OF THE TOWN! Wrong Crowd Burlesque The Geelong Club will host Wrong Crowd Burlesque on August 23. Hosted by the irrepressible Elena Gabrielle, the night will feature some of Melbourne’s finest burlesque performers including Becky Lou, Honey B. Goode and Adelaide Everheart. Two shows will be performed on the night. The first is a classic burlesque show – sweet and just a little naughty. That one gets underway at 8pm. The second is a little darker, a little sexier, a little more risqué and a little more experimental. That one gets underway at 11pm. Can’t decide which one? Then, to paraphrase a young girl who is frighteningly the smartest person in her entire village: ‘why not both?’ From the organisers: “We’re not exactly back in business, but for those who miss The Wrong Crowd and love burlesque, here is a chance to see a great show in a fantastic venue that is rarely available to the public. It has a great bar. It will be a great night.” Again, that is The Geelong Club on August 23. .........................................................................
The Skinny of Trigger Jackets Perth rockers Trigger Jackets have made the flight across to our neck of the woods in support of their debut album, Skinny. The band spent a few years honing their skills around WA before releasing their debut EP, Eleven Eleven, in 2009. The release featured single ‘Sugarcoat’ which scored national airplay and led to shows with bands including Gyroscope, Grinspoon, Jebediah and Dead Letter Circus. The times were good so the band decided to channel the good vibes into a new EP. Hitting the studio with Andy Lawson (Young Revelry, Basement Birds), the result was Hurricane. Their debut full-length has followed the path of their EPs. Peddling a brand of fierce rolling stoner rock, Trigger Jackets is influenced by bands including Queens of the Stone Age and Foo Fighters. The Karova, Ballarat – August 10. *First time playing east coast shows. .........................................................................
Love Lorne Festival of Performing Arts Following a resounding success in 2012, the Love Lorne Festival of Performing Arts returns for a third run next month. Taking place along a gorgeous stretch of the Great Ocean Road from September 6 through September 8, the festival includes music, cabaret, dance, circus, comedy, street performance and much more. Oh, there will be plenty of stuff for the little ones as well. Hosted by Love Lorne, and running under the banner Culture by the Sea, featured performers including Mikelangelo, Captain Frodo (Circus Oz, La Soiree),
Tom Flanagan (Circus Oz, Tom Tom Crew), Cosmo Cosmolino, The Three Pairs, The Nymphs, The Tiger & Me, Christa Hughes and Anna Lumb. Norwegian-born, Australian-based Captain Frodo, also known as ‘The Incredible Rubberman’, is a Guinness World Recordbreaking contortionist. The son of a great Norwegian magician, Captain Frodo has been performing since he was eight. Later in life he worked as a street performer before joining the cast of The Kamikaze Freakshow in the late 90s. In 2000 he started the Australian freak show, The Happy Sideshow. He has performed the world over including New York, Montreal, London and Paris. One of his most well-known talents is the Tennis Racket routine which you can find through YouTube. For further information please check out lovelorne.com. .........................................................................
The Influence of Wolf Mail Canadian-born guitarist Wolf Mail may have moved to Australia in 2006, but he has spent a large chunk of his time since touring much of the world including Russia, Western Europe and China. Beginning the guitar at 10, Wolf Mail would perform his first gig at the age of 14, and by the time he was 17 he had left home to tour with his band. At the age of 19 he relocated from New York to L.A. where he spent the next ten years. His guitar chops are recognised the world over, particularly in Australia with MusicOz Australia giving the guitar slinger a Top Ten International Performer of the Year award last year. He has already spent a little time on the road this year but is hitting the touring path again in support of his new album, About the Influence. The Bridge, Castlemaine – October 11 & Music Man Megastore, Bendigo – October 12. .........................................................................
Babushka Bar, Ballarat There are a few gigs taking place at Ballarat’s Babushka Bar over the coming weeks which will take you nicely through to the end of winter. Local lad David Grimson has been playing in various bands covering various genres for a decade. He will check into the venue on August 9 for an EP launch. On August 16 Sarah Carnegie will perform. The Melbourne-based singer-songwriter has been in the music game for some time now where her mixture of soul, folk and pop has seen her support a slew of artists including Jason Mraz, Katie Noonan and Tina Arena. Next up you have James Hazelden on August 17. His show is on the back of his new album Low Season, a collection of “dark, funny, dangerous little folk/pop songs.” Also coming up you have: The Beef Angels on August 22, Virginia Slims (Andrew Fry) on August 23 and Midnight Scavengers and Matt Malone on August 24.
Wash Out Your Guttermouth
Music Man Loves Rock N’ Roll
At the time of writing, tickets for Guttermouth still remained for their local shows. Look, times are tough financially and extra cash is hard to come by, but this is their FAREWELL tour. There will be none of this, ‘oh, we just couldn’t help ourselves’ tour 12 months down the track. And while I don’t know this for sure, it is not a risk you should take. The Huntington Beach crew is one of the heavyweights of the punk rock game and deserves a fitting send off. If you are heading to the show (or possibly need further persuading), here are the supports: Cruntburgers, King of the North and Max Goes to Hollywood join them at The Loft, Warrnambool on August 10; The Kremlings, Japan For and Mock Turkey join them at The Barwon Club, Geelong on August 15; and Clowns, The Kremlings and Lizard Punch join them at The Karova, Ballarat on August 16. Misfits Stunt Crew will also perform at all shows.
Bendigo’s Music Man Megastore will host one big gig on August 24 with Palace of the King, Hailmary, Rabid Zulu, Angels of Gung Ho and Chase the Ace in attendance. Hailing from Melbourne, Palace of the King is a blues and soul-infused band who released their self-titled debut EP earlier in the year. You can check out the sweet little five-track EP through their Bandcamp page. Inspired by international heavyweights including Foo Fighters, as well as locals including Baby Animals, The Living End, and AC/DC, Rabid Zulu is fronted by Bek Taylor. The Bendigobred alternative-rock four-piece has been winning friends all over with their debut EP, Feed the Creature. From cover band to fullthrottle rockers, Bendigo’s Chase the Ace plays music that is loud and proud. *Note: Palace of the King also plays The Bridge, Castlemaine on August 9.
Gimme, Gimme, Gimme the Goods Last month Australia received the joyous news that Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies would be dropping in on our country for a handful of shows that will make you feel pretty darn good about yourself. The punk rock-supergroup-cum-covers-outfit formed in the mid 90s, naming themselves after a children’s book by Gerald G. Jampolsky and Diane V. Cirincione. Since then no genre has been off limits with the band jumping around from showtunes to R&B, ‘50s and ‘60s classics to country, and everything else in between. And, god bless their little punk rock hearts, they have also endeared themselves to Australia with the 2011 release of Go Down Under. The five-track EP featured the band’s take on INXS’s ‘Never Tear Us Apart’, Air Supply’s ‘All Out of Love’, The Easybeats’ ‘Friday on My Mind’, Olivia Newton-John’s ‘Have You Never Been Mellow’ and Rick Springfield’s ‘I’ve Done Everything for You’. Their latest release, also in 2011, was an album featuring covers of Japanese artists. Seeing as how
the band hasn’t toured here since the release of the Go Down Under, it would be a safe bet that the band may provide a little Australiana flavour to their set. It’s sure to be one hell of a feel-good party. The Barwon Club, Geelong – October 9. .........................................................................
Sounds like Metallica Quick bite: If you’re itching for a fix of Metallica then you will want to get your little metal butts down to The Newmarket, Bendigo on August 31 for The Australian Metallica Show – Kill ‘Em All. Everything about this band is dedicated to the Metallica way of life. They have the guitars. They have the outfits. They have the stage setup. They also have the goods to back it up with the band taking out top honours in 2012’s ‘Calling all Cover Bands’ competition. Their repertoire consists of songs from Kill ‘Em All, Ride The Lightning, Master Of Puppets, …And Justice For All, Metallica (The Black Album) and Garage Inc.
food story:
Pizza Bar By Dani Shaw
In the heart of Pakington Street, amidst an array of modern and notable eateries, sits a reasonably young but nevertheless iconic Geelong establishment, Pizza Bar. In 2010 Pizza Bar opened, offering Geelong simple but up-market pizzas made with standout ingredients by qualified chefs and served in a modern, lively atmosphere. In 2011 Bar Pizza was unveiled next door, doubling the size of the venue and boasting a slick bar with a range of cocktails and huge variety of beers. In addition to the extra 50-60 seats came a small but quirky space for live entertainment. The sound travelled well, and the punters came for the music with Bar Pizza offering some great acts including Carus Thompson and Geelong’s own People’s Poets. But due to an earlyending licence, the music was short-lived. Now owners Luke and Anthony are excited to welcome it back with a later licence.
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“Live music makes a difference in the bar. It keeps people around, keeps them interested, but it was a false economy before we got the 1am licence. That 11 o’clock cut off was when everyone was warming up. It was disappointing. Now we can trade later,” says coowner Luke Mirabile. The 1am licence runs from Wednesday to Saturday nights and has allowed for an Open Mic night on Thursdays that normally sees six acts play a half hour set each. This follows Bar Pizza’s Wednesday Night Roulette Wheel that spins every half hour from 7pm and selects a type of drink, be it beer, wine or cocktail to offer half price or sell on special. Pizza Bar’s menu has undergone changes also with the introduction of 7-inch lunch pizzas ranging from $9 to $13.50. Luke and Anthony have been using the specials board to trial new pizzas, entrees and desserts, with a recent pulled pork pizza with apple chutney, bocconcini, braised fennel and rocket outselling the favourite braised lamb. It’s now a permanent on the dinner menu. To book a table or small function at Bar Pizza call 5229 5394 or visit pizzabargeelong.com.au. For more information on upcoming acts or how to get involved in an Open Mic night, visit Pizza Bar’s Facebook page.
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BY POPULAR DEMAND you asked for it, we go it!
demos at home for the first time! I recorded the guitar, the vocals and the drums! It was such a rewarding and liberating experience. It was a lot of fun for me ... and the neighbours!
The Shanghai Times
You first release came out sometime last year. How have you gone about following up from that? Have you got something else in the works? We do! There is at least 50 demos floating around the band circle at the moment. We really want to work the songs hard this time and try a few things with them throughout the year, giving the songs enough time to grow, and having decent demos recorded as a foundation is a great start. The new songs are still a work in progress and we’re uploading a new track every month on my SoundCloud so that people can get a sneaky listen in and also share their feedback with us. How do you guys find being a band from Geelong? How do you feel about the state of the live music scene? The tour was a real eye-opener for us. People really do want to hear new bands all around this country, but more work needs to be done at a commercial level to support upcoming bands. I know a lot of people are working hard behind the scenes in Geelong to contribute (promoters, local radio etc.). This is promising for the future of Geelong music. Do you guys do many local shows? Where is the best place to rock out ATM? Yes! We’ve just finished a national debut album tour including a couple of rockin’ local shows at the Barwon Club, which has always been an important venue for Geelong bands and punters. Who are some other local bands you are enjoying currently? We had the pleasure of supporting Aussie bands EMPRA and Hailmary on the recent tour. These guys seriously rock! In Geelong I’ve always liked The Go Set, Cast Iron Pinata and ODD. The Louds are cool guys too! What are the plans for the band over the next year or so?
Can you please introduce each band member and tell us a bit about The Shanghai Times?
because I feel like it’s kind of slowing me down from writing new stuff.” Covering David Bowie’s comeback song, ‘Where Are We Now?’, was one way of getting back into music without putting something out of his own that wasn’t up to his standard. “I felt like I wasn’t doing anything,” he says, “and I wanted to do something immediately and I didn’t just want to record one of my own songs poorly.” While Sparrow could never be described as one of those musicians who only churn out covers, he also began a recent live set with Portishead’s deliciously gender subversive ‘Glory Box’.
Old World Sparrow As part of his online ventures, Old World Sparrow (henceforth known as Sparrow) borrows some of the content from the Wikipedia page for the bird whose name he’s adopted to describe himself. While the usage is surely whimsical, portraying himself as “a small lightweight creature found searching through discarded material or hopping between vantage points” suits the quirky acoustic/improvisational/rock artist. The 28-year-old Bendigonian doesn’t recall why he started playing guitar; however he does remember wanting to emulate particular noises that were heard when his parents played recordings by artists such as Tracy Chapman and Black Sabbath. “After I started playing guitar, I realised there (were) sounds I wanted to make,” he says. A prolific writer who’s nonetheless given to dragging his feet, Sparrow’s got about a hundred songs he wants to release so he can move on to fresh work. “I have tons of material that I have had for years,” he says, “and I’m tired of having it and I want to get it out
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Sparrow’s unique talent was witnessed when his former group Grand Perceptor played Groovin’ the Moo in 2012 and released some dazzling tracks including ‘Monsters’ and ‘We Are The Future’. The video clip for the latter song, which can be watched on YouTube, features him jumping around like a frantic tramp at the railway station in the dead of night. The self-described purveyors of “terror rock” imploded for reasons undiscussed, and Sparrow’s now concentrating on flying solo, although he doesn’t rule out the option of playing in another band. The solo work makes sense when you consider that he doesn’t think you need the whole kit and caboodle to produce intense music, and he cites Martha Wainwright’s ‘Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole’ to prove his point. “Having a strong delivery of passion ... feels heavier,” he says. “I feel like you can play nylon string guitar and make it really passionate if you’ve got a crazy singing thing,” he adds. His unaccompanied efforts have thus far resulted in improvisation, appearances at open mic nights and the elegant and evocative ‘Streetlights’. With a clip assembled by a friend using Adobe After Effects, ‘Streetlights’, which reflects on the failure of the sun to return, is evidence of Sparrow’s belief in infinite possibilities. “I am not somebody who rules that there’s anything that’s impossible,” he says, “I have a very strong belief that anything is possible, that anything can happen and is happening.” Sparrow’s planning to release some of those old tracks on the Internet to gauge the reaction of his audience. Meanwhile, his website tells us that he’s “the alien animal”. Well, as Sparrow would argue, nothing’s impossible. oldworldsparrow.com.
How would you describe you style? Rock
How would you describe your live show?
What has been going on with you guys recently?
Fun and interactive. There’s always something crazy going on up on stage, and often off the stage!
Everyone has been keeping busy musically. Jake has a side-project called Culzean which he recorded with some friends in Melbourne following the Shanghai tour, and I’ve been recording Shanghai
Anything else you would like to add? Thanks again Luke! theshanghaitimes.com
What’s On in The Rat: Until August 17
Thursday, August 15 has Jericco finally back on stage at Karova. On tour for their CD launch, Jericco have an eastern-style sound they bring to the progressive rock genre. Always wide-eyed and smiling brightly into the stage lights, their music and stage presence always promises to deliver a powerful show that’s a feast for the ears and energy for the soul. Following them from Melbourne to support is Marlow, and representing our own awesome local original live music scene is Ballarat’s own The Electric SunKings. Entry $12.
G’day Live Music Lovers. Daniel here to give you a rundown on what’s happening in B-Rat town over the next week or so. Thursday, August 8 carries over a rocky music theme from the previous week (APES and Them 9’s last Friday) for Karova with King of the North taking the stage playing their two-piece brand of four-piece music. Support TBC. Entry $10. Friday, August 9. The Karova will change it up with some soft vocal pop from Dirt Farmer with support from Second Hand Heart and Dark Arts. Entry $10.
Thursday, The Babushka Bar will be hosting local acoustic act Fusionite for the people looking for something a little more relaxed and peaceful. Entry TBA.
The Babushka Bar will be hosting an EP release from local musician David Grimson, also on Friday the 9th. Entry TBC.
Friday, August 16 has Guttermouth playing for the audience at Karova for what they’re calling their “Farewell” tour (John Farnham ruined the use of prefixes: last, farewell or final before “tour” when he neglected to add “annual” also). The punk rockers have been journeying Down Under for some time now despite their controversial media coverage, and are set to spend their first time for the last time in an Australian winter. Tix $35.
Saturday, August 10 a collection of artists take to the stage of Karova in what they’ve titled BusJam (in which I am ignorant of and have run out of time to research!) But that doesn’t deduct from the impressive list of artists they’ve got playing the stage: Royston Vasie, Bad News Toilet & Scatterpillar, John Georgiou & The Blowouts and the Trigger Jackets are all on that list. To know more about this gig check out Karova’s webpage – and follow more leads than I did and you can have my job here deservingly. Entry $10.
Friday, The Babushka Bar will be hosting the opposite end of the musical scale with Sarah Carnegie playing her folk/pop tunes for the patrons. Saturday, August 17 will see Karova’s loud week outro with some peaceful tunes presented by Hollow Everdaze. Supporting them will be Contrast. Tix $8.
Saturday at The Babushka Bar, James Harrison will be playing with Michael Plater & Acoustic Foxx. Entry $5.
Saturday will have James Hazelden bringing his upbeat acoustic songs to The Babushka Bar with Floyd Thursby supporting in what looks to be a night of detox for the winter blues. Entry $7 or FREE with purchase of a CD.
Wednesday, August 14 will be a metal night at Karova with USA act Attila playing with Hellions as support. Tix $26.
al
By Daniel Lock
Read me next time, bye.
ly o w n e d
nt
erce 100 p
d
Things have moved along nicely since our debut album release in November. We’ve completed a national tour, received commercial radio play and performed at a couple of festivals and on a couple of TV shows!
Darren – vocals; Kya – bass; Ash – lead guitar; Steve – drums; Jake – rhythm guitar.
an
te
Thank you for taking the time to talk to Forte. How does it feel to be one of Regional Vic’s most popular bands?
Thanks for having us again Forte! We know how hard it is for bands out there right now, and it’s amazing to have people from all over the world enjoy your music. We truly appreciate that opportunity.
loc
Formed in 2009 by Darren Hardy and Steve Watts following the dissolution of their previous band, The Shanghai Times took to the stage in early 2010. The band got busy in 2012, releasing a three-part single and debut album as they continued to build a solid profile. Are you ready to get a little more familiar with this issue’s By Popular Demand band? Then read on…
We are planning a bunch of fresh new releases in 2014. It’s really exciting. It’s going to be something completely new and different for us ... I can’t say anymore right now, sorry! Haha. So far the demos still need some work from the band; we are going for faster, harder and bigger!
d oper
a
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Rebecca Barnard By Cameron Brogden
Right up in the north-west of South Australia, a few hours drive south-east of Alice Springs, is a tiny Indigenous community called Umuwa. It serves as an administrative centre for the surrounding Indigenous communities. They have a medical centre, a solar power station, a police station and a multimedia broadcast station. They also have a half-hour time difference to us, which is very important to remember when you’re calling a pop star first thing in the morning. The second time I called Rebecca Barnard, it was ten o’clock locally. “I forget there’s a time difference here.” She assured me “time doesn’t really mean much here.” Naturally, I wondered what Rebecca could be doing in such a remote part of Australia. “I’m songwriting with Aboriginal women,” she explained. “We’re in this place called Umuwa, and there’s a lot of communities around here. There’s a studio here, so we’re writing and recording to make an album. But the women are singing in language, so it’s really hard for me. I’m
finding it really challenging, but it’s an amazing place. It’s absolutely amazing. We’re right out in the desert, there’s big boulders; it’s incredible. I’m here for two weeks and then pretty much the minute I get home I’m heading down to Geelong.” Rebecca will be in town August 18 for the third session of Courthouse ARTS’ “Conversations in the Key of…” series. As an artist she is perhaps best-known for her work with her band Rebecca’s Empire who were indie darlings of the nineties with tracks such as ‘Atomic Electric’ and ‘Empty’. So with a career spanning decades, from Rebecca’s Empire in the nineties to her solo work since, this is hardly her first time in Geelong. “Yeah, [I’ve been] heaps of times. Not recently though. I’ve done lots of gigs around the coast, but not so much in Geelong, in town, of late anyway. But I have a very strong connection with Geelong. Family, lots of family live there and stuff. Hopefully they all come to the gig. They’d better,” she laughed. Being such a new idea, I asked Rebecca about the “Conversations…” series, and to explain just what fans
could expect. “I think it’s quite an interactive thing,” she said. “I maybe play with whoever the emerging artist is on the same day as me, and Tim [Neal] and I play some tunes, and you talk. He’s doing a bit of a Michael Parkinson I think. You have a chat about your musical career, your inspirations, your life; all that stuff. So it’s sort of a chat and performance thing, I know that much.” I then ran through the list of past and upcoming performers in the “Conversations…” series to point out what good company she was in, from Guy Pearce through to Dave Graney. “Tim’s got all these connections in the music world because he’s such an admired musician. He’s been playing for a while, and he knows a lot of people he can call on,” Rebecca explained. “And it’s good for us too. It’s interesting. It’s more interesting than just doing a straight gig.” With a career spanning four albums, a couple of EPs and countless songs, I thought it would be hard for her to pinpoint a favourite, but she managed to do so straight away, and it’s easy to see why. “I think the one I’m most proud of at the moment is actually called
‘Everlasting’. The song’s called ‘Everlasting’, and it’s off my last album, which was called Everlasting,” she told me. “It’s a song I wrote about my dad while he was in palliative care, and I was with him when he died. And I wrote this song which just came out of me spontaneously. I didn’t have to over-think it. I didn’t even think about it. I just started playing these chords and singing these words. When you experience something like that, that makes you pretty raw. “It was easy to write because I didn’t even think about it. It was just an outpouring of emotion that I didn’t censor, or try to make clever. I just let it do what it was doing. It was like I was channeling,” she continued. “And the Rebecca’s Empire songs, I’m proud of all of them because it was a great band, and they were really good songs. I just didn’t realise, while we were riding the wave, that we were riding the wave. In hindsight, if I could go back, I would have liked to appreciate the popularity that we had more than I did,” she finished. Three years on from her last album and Rebecca’s back in the studio again. “I’m recording now,” she said. “It’ll be out early next year. I seem to do an album every four years. That’s my time, for some reason. I’m not the sort of person who can force it.” And anyone who heads along to this show should get a sneak peek of that album. “Definitely. I’m going to play a couple of new songs there for sure. Hopefully with Tim.” So head down to the Courthouse to hear some classic tunes, and some new ones from one of Australia’s best artists, as well as hear some stories to get some insight into Rebecca Barnard. When&Where: Courthouse ARTS – August 18
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down to business:
Geelong Laser Tattoo Removal By Dani Shaw
Jacqui Norton-Bee was a university administrator before she and her husband decided to embark on their own business venture and open a laser tattoo removal studio in Geelong. “I’ve got a tattoo myself that I got in my twenties and I don’t like anymore and want gone. I guess that’s what started the whole thought process behind the business as I thought there’d be plenty of people in the same boat as me,” says Jacqui. A year of study at various institutions including The Sydney College of Skincare and Melbourne’s Fleming Institute equipped Jacqui with the skills to operate the business, and four weeks ago, after finalising her studies, undertaking relevant research, and liaising with several tattooists around Geelong, the couple opened Geelong Laser Tattoo Removal in James Street. Business has begun steadily. “We’ve only been open four weeks but we’re getting a lot of enquiries. It’s building. Each week we’re doing more treatments and certainly getting more enquiries. A lot are generated from our website and our Facebook page,” says Jacqui. Geelong Laser Tattoo Removal use a Medlite C6 Q-Switch Laser, regarded as one of the best on the market and providing the safest and most efficient treatment. “There are a lot of cheaper lasers on the market that could be dangerous. Our laser is top of the range,” says Jacqui. Jacqui describes the procedure, saying: “the laser shoots out really intense light into the skin and that
light hits the tattoo ink pigments and shatters them, and the body’s immune system can dispose of the tattoo’s shattered ink particles. It’s quite a quick procedure.” The Medlite C6 Laser can shoot up to ten times per second with a beam that can stretch up to 8 millimetres in diameter, enabling a large area of skin to be covered. No surrounding skin is damaged due to the precise beam, and different parts of a tattoo can be removed without affecting the remaining ink. Jacqui explains that although it can take a number of treatments for ink to be removed (generally 8- to 12- for a professional, coloured tattoo), the Medlite C6 Laser
has an outstanding success rate with most procedures resulting in entire removal. The treatments take from as little as less than a minute, depending on the size, and are spaced six weeks apart. The length and number of required treatments differ depending on the client’s skin type, the location of the tattoo and the colour. “There’s not as much ink in an amateur tattoo, and it’s probably not as deep in the skin, so amateur ones are much easier to remove,” explains Jacqui, adding that the easiest tattoos to remove are black. In addition to tattoo removal, Jacqui’s studio offers tattoo fading that takes 2, 3 or 4 sessions at most.
“A large part of what we do is tattoo fading for people that might not like a certain tattoo anymore and want it faded to get a cover up. We’re happy to consult with their tattoo artist and make sure that they’re happy with what we’re doing and everyone gets a good result,” says Jacqui. The studio is located at 18 James Street in Geelong’s City Centre and opens Fridays from 9.30am until 2.30pm and Saturdays from 9.30am until 12.30pm. Appointments can be made outside of regular hours by phoning 5221 4174, or visiting geelonglasertattooremoval.com.au
Geelong Laser Tattoo Removal Geelong’s only clinic specialising in tattoo removal & fading. 18 James Street Geelong 5221 4174 0478 616 905
info@geelonglasertattooremoval.com.au
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DANDO’S: ICONS
KEL O’CONNOR
by Brendan Dando
fighter George Sotiropoulos. Things went haywire when I not only forgot which division he fought in, but I mispronounced his name! I simply froze. Luckily my cohost Bodey was able to steer things back on track. George was really good about it though. We all had a good laugh in the end.” Although he may now be loving life as a famous radio announcer in the making, it wasn’t always the dream career growing up for this Gippsland-born funny-man. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to be an archaeologist as a kid, but believe me I’ve definitely found my calling with my radio work.” O’Connor also hosts a third show called ‘Noyz Radio’, which is a rock music-based comedy show that air 11:30pm Friday nights. “The late night slot allows me to, let’s say, push the boundaries a little more,” he says with a cheeky grin.
There are many different music scenes in Geelong. Whether it’s the likes of rock, folk or metal, they all serve their purpose in the community. However one that quite often tends to be forgotten about is the Celtic music scene, but thankfully it’s getting some much appreciated love from local radio volunteer, Mr. Kel O’Connor. With a weekly show that airs Fridays at 6pm on 94.7 The Pulse called ‘The Celtic Hour’, O’Connor believes it’s important that the Celtic musicians of Geelong get some exposure. “It’s great because I get to have Irish artists in the studio to chat and perform each week. It’s something that really means a lot to me,” he explains. O’Connor began his stint as a volunteer for Pulse FM just over 12 months ago, originally only co-hosting the Tuesday drive show. It was here that he experienced one of the more embarrassing moments of his short career. “For my second interview I had the chance to speak with UFC
The amount of time spent preparing these programs is a clear indication of O’Connor’s passion for helping support local musicians, but comedy is also one of his main priorities, as he reveals: “Probably the highlight of my radio career so far was when I had the chance to interview Bill Oddie from The Goodies. It was one of those conversations you wish would never end!” he says. “Another great experience was getting to interview over 30 comedians at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival.” Through hours of dedication and persistence, Kel is quickly earning the respect of many in the local radio industry. Even though he technically can’t call radio a “job” per se, he believes there’s more to it than money. “I may not earn an income from what I do on the radio, but it gives me the chance to seize opportunities I never thought possible. It’s simply a passion that hopefully will one day become a much-loved career.” Tune into Kel on 94.7 The Pulse for Tuesday Drive (4-6pm), The Celtic Hour (Fridays 6-7pm) and Noyz Radio (Fridays 11:30pm-12:30am).
PULP.
Hold on to your hats, guys – I’m actually going to talk about something other than comics. Ok, so I kinda lied; it’s kinda related to comics. Or, rather, based on one. As an added bonus, I’m
Screaming Vocalist wanted for metalcore band. Vocalist required between the ages of about 17 - 19. Live experience not necessary. Influences include Parkway Drive and August Burns Red. Email andyw14@live. com.au
Original to the extent of punk/pop sensibility 1978 to the not-sonow style. Think of yourself as a patron of The Saints, Stiff Little Fingers, Radio Birdman, Buzzcocks, The Smiths, Psychedelic Furs, Iggy & The Stooges, Wedding Present, Happy Mondays etc etc, then forget Wanted: Bass Player you have to be. The & Drummer. I’m a usual...car, equipment, Singer/Songwriter, who attitude, mental state has written/produced an (in an OK kind of...) album of original songs, punctual, earplugs looking to gig originals accepted. Be prepared & covers. Influences to apply yourself. Let include U2, INXS, Oasis, us know on 0409 567 The Verve, Snow Patrol. 043. Please leave your Looking for easy going/ details and we will hear reliable muso’s who know you - Confirmation code: their craft. Call Phil 0421 AKA 1963 901 530 www.zeffamusic. Geelong rock band com looking for lead Vocalist Wanted. vocalist. We are a Experienced 25 y.o. Geelong based original guitarist looking for band looking for a female vocalist to form lead vocalist, have a acoustic duo to start lot of experience and playing cover gigs asap. heaps of great original Would also be interested music waiting to be in writing together music sung. Influences: pearl if partnership works jam, chili peppers, foo well. Phone Curt 0412 fighters, nirvana, led zep, 166 393 sound garden. Contact Ben 0432049231. Looking for a rock singer between Experienced Lead the age 17-19. Main Guitarist Wanted. Top Influences are Green 40 Coverband. 70s 80s Day, Foo Fighters and 90s and current. Based Led Zeppelin. Band in Geelong. Must have with Management and commitment. Please Call Label. Email and info at Mark on 0438836469 melodicmusic.com or email at pudge_ gypsy33@hotmail.com Looking for a drummer, not afraid Singer wanted for to experiment. Male/ acoustic covers female. Age 35++ ono. duo. Must like 90’s All original. English/ British bands and not Australian influences into songs your “normal” without the radio play. covers bands play.
Band Members Wanted: Looking for band members between the ages of 16-19 years of age for pop group. Looking for bass guitar, electric guitar, vocals and synth player. If interested, please contact 0417575237. Hard Rock Covers Band with experienced, solid, bass player and drummer team requires guitarist with skill, awesome sound, and decent equipment. We have full rehearsal live
Wanted: Male Vocalist, Two Guitarists Lead/ Rythm, Keyboard, Drummer to form an Original Hard Rock/ Heavy Metal Band,Kevin Phone 0352757689, Email linnums@ optusnet.com.au Vocalist Wanted: Rock/ alternative band, currently consisting of guitar, bass, drums. In search of a clean vocalist preferably with experience. Influences: Tool, A Perfect Circle, Karnivool, 12 stones, Godsmack, etc. Contact Dean 0431067758
cultu
Cameron:
Alastair:
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.
room, pro gear, and all recording equipment. Project will involve gigging, recording, and working on original material as well as edgy covers. Age no barrier, but must be directable team player and have own transport. Carlos: 0409493521
POrPe!
>>>>>> By Cameron Urquhart & Alastair McGibbon
Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy is one of my all time favourite franchises. As a huge fan of franchise horror this is a pretty big call for me, rating it above other beloved horror series such as Nightmare on Elm Street, Child’s Play and Scream. Now, whenever reboots are mentioned the fans of a particular film tend to work themselves into a bit of a tizzy. The Elm Street fans were worried about Platinum Dunes rebooting their franchise, and rightly so as that film was an incredible pile of ass. Ft13th fans were worried when Platinum Dunes (again) took to their franchise, though in that case they weren’t treated too badly. Having been one of the worked up fans it took some serious introspection before I realised it was a pretty kick ass movie. When it was announced that the 1981 classic The Evil Dead was being re-imagined, I was cautiously optimistic; after all, it had the blessing of Sam Raimi, the man behind the spectacular original trilogy. After seeing a few trailers and reading a few early previews I was in a veritable frenzy of excitement and could not wait to see it and talk with friends about how great it (probably was) – and now that time has finally arrived! So how does this new installment stack against what came before?!? It’s okay, I guess. I love the original trilogy because of its over the top violence and campy comedy, and this new film captures half the spirit. There is a dramatic shift in tone for this new film, veering heavily towards grit; the few comedic moments feeling rather tacked on and out of place. The violence is still over the top, but when we’ve been through the age of torture porn, is this really enough? No. No it isn’t. Evil Dead is the backup dancer of the series and hits all the right cues for a modern horror, but like a backup dancer it does so without really drawing any interest.
FREE CLASSIFIEDS
Think Oasis, Morrissey & The Smiths, Libertines, Pulp, Blur, Verve, and similar Aussie & American groups. Nothing serious to start with but possible gigging if we sound great! Age no barrier and male / female encouraged to contact. Contact Liam: britpopcovers@gmail. com or 0430904407
By An th on
talking about an adaptation of an older comic that doesn’t actually suck in any way! The movie I’m talking about here is 2012’s Dredd starring Karl Urban (who you might know from Star Trek into Darkness and The Lord of the Rings, to name a couple). Forget Sly Stallone’s appalling 1995 take on the character – this shit’s the real deal. Urban’s Dredd is spot on: the legendary helmet is never removed, and he scowls hard enough to kill a man. His character has been written perfectly, and the gravelly rasp that is his voice fits the character so well it’s ridiculous. Urban’s Dredd even has the seal of approval from Judge Dredd creator John Wagner! Take that, Stallone! The setting of Dredd is fairly minimalist – the entire story takes place in a 200-storey tower block, which means lots of close quarters, fierce and utterly brutal combat. Gore is aplenty, so if you’re a bit squeamish, watch with caution. Dredd is by no means a movie for those interested in all things intellectual, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth your time. It perfectly captures the dark, gritty 2000 AD universe, and with a 2000 AD-backed petition to film a sequel underway, hopefully we’ll see more in the near future. One final note – an Evil Dead movie without Bruce Campbell might as well not be a movie at all. Just sayin. ’
y M orr is
Underbelly: Squizzy feels like the last gasp of the long-running franchise, and if the show itself doesn’t get that message across the commercials for Nine’s upcoming look at the Packer family’s media empire certainly do: they’ve found a new seam of nostalgia to mine, and compared to drooling over the achievements of their former owner, a bunch of petty crims just doesn’t stack up. After an extremely impressive start, the Underbelly formula – larger-than-life criminals, lots of female nudity, crime sequences that increasingly lack drama or suspense – has been well and truly run into the ground of late. But even with the decline well and truly on the cards, this feels like less of a last hurrah and more of a “can we go now?” As has been the case with the last few series, part of the problem is that those behind the series struggle to turn someone’s life into drama: rather than building any real sense of drama or escalating threat, much of the series feels like crossing off items on a checklist. And what doesn’t is the usual Underbelly formula since day one: rival gangs slicing each other up. Presumably the idea of a crime series set during the long stretches of Australian criminal history where the criminals were in cahoots with (or run by) the police and so largely stuck to killing regular folks rather than each other just doesn’t have the same appeal. At least the show knows it has a formula, which is why it tries to keep it fresh by setting roughly the same events
in different cities and different time periods – but that’s the big disappointment with Squizzy, as time and time again it fails to establish the backdrop as anything more than the blandest of settings. It’s not entirely the show’s fault, of course. Budgets are tight, historical locations are hard to come by, and even in the Golden Age of Australian historical drama (that’d be the 1980s) most of the historical dramas tended to take place out in the bush where it was fairly easily to pretend it was a hundred years ago without having to shoot around a lot of modern buildings. But even with that in mind, all we get here is a couple of laneway shots, a few exteriors that seem to have all been shot on the same couple of streets, one passing tram – which was historically all wrong anyway (Melbourne had “toaster” cable trams back then, like the ones they have in San Francisco now) – and a lot of dull looking interiors where it seems like sticking a fern in the corner was enough to make a setting Edwardian. Squizzy’s Melbourne back then was an overcrowded slum, and set-dressing a North Melbourne or Carlton street (where the old tiny houses still exist) would go a long way towards making the locations feel more than just generic “olden days”. If you’re going to tell the same old story the same old way, you need a flashy setting to distract the audience. This just feels like one last lap before bowing out for good.
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J Heasy By Natalie Rogers
Local lad J Heasy is everywhere at the moment. Whether you’re partying at Werribee’s Mynt Lounge, planning a schoolies trip, or ringing in the weekend at Geelong’s Chinese Whispers, chances are you’ll encounter this lovable party boy. “It’s awesome! Although it’s still not at the point where I walk down the street and have people yelling out my name,” he laughed, “my face is out there!” He didn’t choose music, music chose him, and he was unable to escape the urge to perform at a young age. “It’s quite a funny story actually. I remember back in primary school I was in a Five tribute band. For every talent show that came up me and four other guys dressed up as the members from Five and did dance moves and sang to all their songs. Whatever music I’ve been into, I’ve always tried to find a way to perform, and once I started listening to dance music it just all fell into place for me.” Besides enjoying his residency at Mynt Lounge Thursdays and Can’t Say, and playing sets at some of dance music’s biggest festivals including Future Music and Summadayze, J Heasy still finds time to work his day job as a Promotions Coordinator/Crew Ambassador at Love That Music. “I’m lucky enough to work full-time with Love That Music [a music and events collective]. We run Mynt Lounge on Thursdays, Pow! on Fridays and Boombox on Saturdays, as well as Chinese
Flyying Colours For a long time, whenever I thought of shoegaze I would see images of the dancing teenagers in the Homerpalooza episode of The Simpsons: indifferent and emotionless, those kids would sway and rock. That probably wasn’t the most accurate image to have for shoegaze, but who cares. In more recent years my eyes and ears have been opened to what shoegaze really is. Melbourne shoegaze/psych band Flyying Colours seem to embody everything that their predecessors pioneered. Layered, solid walls of distortion and delay scream their songs strongly into oblivion. Playing at the upcoming Kennedys Creek Festival, Flyying Colours will be sure to give punters a colourfully loud performance that may even leave some swaying and rocking like those teenagers from The Simpsons. I caught up with soft-spoken frontman Brodie Brümmer about their influences and upcoming shows. For many bands, their live performances enable them to unleash the true potential of their music. A Flyying Colours’ live performance is an intense experience; frontman Brodie’s movements with the music verge on the point of self-destruction, often crashing into bassist Josh, but at the same time creating a visual that is symbiotic with the intense wall of noise that is crashing over the audience. “Live performance is what it is. If there’s a particular feeling or vibe that kinda comes out, there’s no contrived effort to do something in a certain way every time. Josh and I do smash into each other a lot, but now that Gemma is back with us performing hopefully we won’t cause her any harm.” As if their bone-breaking stage presence wasn’t
Buck Jr Nico Ellerby is the driving force behind Buck Jr. In another life Ellerby breathed hip hop – something he had been doing since 2000 – but upon picking up the guitar he discovered his inner singersongwriter. With an earthy sound and picturesque lyrical style, Ellerby and his musical cohorts are for a hometown album launch later this month. Thanks for taking the time to talk to Forte Magazine. Please introduce Buck Jr and its members. Buck Jr is Rael Lovell on the drums, Callum Darke on electric guitar, Sunni Haynes on bass and myself on acoustic guitar and vocals. You guys reside in Daylesford. Tell us what it’s like being a band from Daylesford. We all reside in Daylesford except for Cal – he lives in Ballarat. Putting a band together in a small regional town is great in the respect that if you’re a muso you generally know most of the other musos. This helps finding band members, getting shows and building networks. On the other hand, you can’t play frequently or you struggle pulling crowds. Once you’ve played around for long enough it’s hard to find new networks and it makes it really hard to break into the scene anywhere bigger. It’s challenging to go from being able to approach a venue and just get a gig to approach a lot of bookers and only have a small percentage get back. How long have you been together as Buck Jr? Buck Jr was a name I came up with around 3 years ago. I was just starting to write this style of music and had just taught myself enough chords to write serious songs. I had several songs, one of which I wrote for my
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Whispers in Geelong,” J Heasy explained. “We also run the annual Game Over National Schoolies Tour which travels to Elsewhere Nightclub [Gold Coast], La La Land [Byron Bay], Cuda Bar [Lorne] and Bali. “We also run an artist management label.” On their books are Rob Pix (Ministry of Sound), James Fava, Yasumo, Swisher, Combo!, Play, Kolors, Matt Black and Boot Action, and they’ve recently acquired Hey Sam, Torren Foot and Lesware. “It’s great to do what I’m really passionate about, and I get to work with some really awesome people.” Check out lovethatmusic.com.au for more details, and while you’re there listen to J Heasy’s latest mixtape, Myntcast Volume 1. “I made this one on the plane ride home from Bali earlier this year. I went with Rob Pix, who’s a really good friend of mine. We play at Mynt together every week. He had a gig there so we networked and met lots of amazing people, and now I’m heading back in September for a gig of my own.” In the meantime J Heasy is keeping it local. “I’m really looking forward to getting out to Chinese Whispers on August 10. They’re expanding to the top level at the Eureka Hotel, so that’s going to be fun. It’s an indescribable feeling when I’m playing and everything is going right,” J Heasy smiled. “I love to feed off the vibe of the crowd, dance and enjoy myself. I love to party as much as anyone and continue to live the dream!”
When&Where: chinese whispers, geelong - august 10
invigorating enough, Flyying Colours have been able to collaborate with visual artists and friends at Astral Projections, bringing together visuals and audio that often go hand in hand where psychedelic music is concerned. “Tom is a really good friend of ours. I love his work, and he’s done work with other artists too. It’s a performance for him as well. Everything he does is live, and what he does goes well with various genres. He’s worked with Chet Faker and artists of that calibre.” With the recent release of My Bloody Valentine’s 3rd LP MBV (2013), and the obvious influences on the music of Flyying Colours, I wanted to know if Brodie took the same drawn out approach towards writing and releasing music. Kevin Shields took 20 years between the release of Loveless and MBV. I wondered how long it would be before the next Flyying Colours release, to follow Wavygravy. “I don’t ever want to put 20 years between releases. It’s taken a while for us to release our music because it took us a while to work out how we wanted to do it. We’re finally getting our EP ready for launch now. I don’t really know what went on with Kevin Shields and the 20 years it took to get the new album out. We’re influenced by My Bloody Valentine, but certainly not to that extreme [laughs].” With the release of an EP forthcoming, many bands hope for some approval or kind words from the mouths of those in the reportage of the music industry. Flyying Colours have managed to secure the approval and slight obsession of controversial Poncho.tv host, Nick Clarke. Known for his opinionated and somewhat cutting views on all aspects of life, Flyying Colours have done well to secure the praise of Clarke. “He’s so flattering. It’s cool and I really enjoy the shows that he does. The feeling is mutual,” laughs Brodie with genuine appreciation in his voice.
when&where: Kennedys Creek Music Festival – October 26 & 27. Hit facebook.com/kennedyscreekmusicfestival for further information.
grandfather whose nickname was Buck and wanted to record them. Just under 2 years ago I started recording in a small studio in Daylesford and as the tracks progressed, I asked friends to come and help out. I’d never met Callum before, but since the first night he came in to the studio he’s been part of Buck Jr. Rael, Sunni and I have been playing together for years in an acoustically-driven funk/hip-hop outfit so it made sense that we played together. That was before I could play an instrument; Sunni played guitar and Noel Beare (Wendy and The Rockets) played bass. Noel was unable to commit so Sunni stepped in on bass around 6 months ago. How would you describe your style to a potential listener? Haha, every time this discussion comes up I discover more and more ‘sub genres’! When I play solo I guess I fall under the folk banner, but as a band we’re definitely more leaning towards blues-rock. You guys are about to launch your next album. Tell us a bit about it. This album was exciting to work on. For the last album I went into the studio planning to just record guitar and vocals, eventually having it become a full band production. For this album we really come together as a band. We rewrote some of my earliest songs, but I found myself writing new songs with space for the band as well. What are some of your influences as a band? Our backgrounds are quite diverse. Rael drummed in a metal band for years, Sunni plays a lot of pop-rock, Cal plays Tommy Emmanuel (amongst many other styles) and I love everything from The Rat Pack to Frenzal Rhomb, Ween to the Beastie Boys. Cal and Rael share an interest in math metal and Sunni and I share a love for tunes from the 90s. What are the plans for Buck Jr in the longer term? Are you intent on building the band’s profile, or is
it just a bit of fun? I think with what all of us bring to the band as individuals, it’ll always be something we do for fun regardless of where we end up. In saying that, we’re working harder than ever to increase our profile and would love to push our music as hard and as far as we can. I think you have to believe in what you promote, and I believe we have something worth listening to. How would you describe your live show? Our live show is all about making sure everyone has a good time – the punters, the band, the bar staff. We have some nice ambient tunes that we like to create an atmosphere for where everyone can just sink back and be immersed in our sounds, but we also can get loud and energetic, playful and intense, all the while making sure the story of a song is never lost or mislead. And no two shows are ever the same. You have a live show coming up at the Old Hepburn. What’s in store for punters there? That’ll be our first hometown show of the tour! Punters who travel to that show will see us play to a crowd of people who want to
be there not just to see us play, but to see the band that has grown in front of their eyes and ears for years. It’ll be our comfort show. The sets will be longer and we’ll try a few new numbers out. It could determine the set lists for the rest of the tour. It’s a great, intimate, friendly venue that we haven’t performed at since last year. It’ll be exciting. Anything you would like to add? We will be playing a bunch of shows through August, September and October around Melbourne and regional Victoria. We frequently update info on shows on our Facebook page so jump on board and we’d love to see you in the crowd somewhere! You can join the mailing list at buckjrmusic@me.com where you can keep in touch and informed with the band members themselves. We love a chat. See you at the shows!
When&Where: Old Hepburn Hotel, Hepburn Springs – August 23
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The Stiffys By Xavier Fennell
In search of all the glory that the music industry has to offer, there approaches a band of explosive talent and integrity. Melbourne punk rock duo The Stiffys are taking the world by storm with their explosive talent, uncontrollable erections and an inconceivable ability to have a good time. Popping champagne bottles on the regular and scoring chicks while bashing out violent and hilarious punk boogie board-inspired songs constitutes daily life for The Stiffys. Bassist Jason Leigh managed to slow down long enough to talk about their upcoming tour and their phallic influences. As it happens, The Stiffys career began in much the same way as it has continued. Obviously notorious for their adventurous attitude towards having a good time, longtime friends Adam and Jason were asked to play a warehouse party before they were even established as a band. “Me and Adam have been best friends for ages, and we were always skateboarding and boogieboarding and doing fun stuff together and drinking. And then one day a manager said, ‘hey why don’t you guys get into the music industry and make lots of money’, and we said yes.” The Stiffys are constant advocates for having a good time, and this lust for life shines through as it appears The Stiffys really love what their music is about. (Some of their music is slightly more phallic than would be considered healthy.) According to Jason, everything they do is in good fun. “As really serious artists that need to constantly express ourselves and try to impress ladies, we just sing about really cool guy topics like
boogie boarding, kickflips and having a nice time – and sometimes erections. We’re basically just poets and we write about stuff that’s around us. We’re basically the next Kanye West.” Being the ladies men that they are, The Stiffys must uphold a high trend image. Often the boys can be seen wearing small sailor suits, indicative of their navallike discipline. “As a couple of ladies-men, we felt the need to dress up and look sharp and snazzy. It’s an image-based profession. We’ve tried no less than four times to get anchor tatts and been rejected three out of the four. Then our manager didn’t let us the 4th time because it was a backyard job and she didn’t want us to get hepatitis.” August brings with it the start of The Stiffys first ever tour, The Champagne Single tour. A follow-up to the release of their self-titled album The Stiffys (2012), which runs for a staggering 13 minutes, the new single ‘Champagne’ is the perfect reason for The Stiffys to have a good time all over Australia. “The thing about The Stiffys is we’re a band built on musical integrity, so for the first album we wanted to get all the songs done and get them out, and we recorded it in a warehouse and we were gonna do more songs but then had a few drinks and got a bit tired of it … And also we don’t really care about musical integrity, we just want money. We’re starting the Champagne tour in Tasmania. Our main focus for live shows is just having a really nice time, and people like bringing boogie boards to our shows because of our hit song ‘Boogie-board’. We really like when people are part of The Stiffys.” When&Where: Beav’s Bar, Geelong – August 29 & Music Man Megastore, Bendigo – August 30. Bring your Boogie Boards and believe in yourself.
AnGy KoRe By Natalie Rogers
Once upon a time, in a little nightclub in a small Italian province, a young Angelo del Core dreamed of one day playing his music for people all around the world. Today AnGy KoRe is living his dream with over 65-thousand followers from across the globe, and soon he’ll be in Australia flying the flag for Italy at Earthcore’s 20th Anniversary. “I’m very excited!” the cheery AnGy told Forte. “The Earthcore festival is a global event that everyone’s talking about, and I’m very happy to have been asked to contribute!” It’s no secret that the highly anticipated return of this world class event is creating excitement all throughout the music universe, and to be invited along is a coup for any artist. “I’ll give it my best!”AnGy promised. “I’m planning to produce an explosion of energy on the dance floor. Earthcore is known as one of the best places in the world where you can show your skills, and Australian people are amazing. How could I say no?” AnGy has always had a strong desire to try new things and to see the world, a passion that led to his decision to leave his homeland at the tender age of nineteen and set sail to unknown destinations as the resident DJ on numerous Italian cruise ships. AnGy attributes those experiences to the artistic birth of AnGy KoRe and the beginning of his unique fusion of diverse hard techno and minimal dark sound. “I would not change my path into music. It’s why my sound has evolved. I’ve experienced many changes in my career, but they’ve all led to where I am now.”
No stranger to our fair shores, AnGy was most recently here as part of Summer Beats Sound System’s New Year’s Day party this year. “I’ve been to Australia several times. Last year in Melbourne was amazing – it’s among my favorite countries. Every time I land here, I take advantage of every free minute to visit new places, and when I go away I can’t wait to come back. “Everywhere I go people celebrate differently, and of all the places I’ve been to I think Australians are the most charged up. They have the most energy, and they never want to go home and I love that! For the upcoming New Year’s Eve, I’ve had a lot of offers. I’ll probably be in Europe, Germany I think, but before that I want to say a big hello to all the Forte Magazine readers and I’ll see you at Earthcore!!” Earthcore is back after a five-year hiatus, and this time around the three day event has expanded the roster to include everything from drum & bass, glitch, minimal and breaks, together with progressive, techno, trance, psychedelic and chill out zones. And no festival would be complete without nightly lightshows, performance art, markets showcasing local clothing designers, food and drink stalls, camping facilities and workshops. This year Earthcore has well and truly got all bases covered! when&where: Earthcore: November 29 – December 1. Hit earthcore.com.au for further information.
Fluent Form By Natalie Rogers
Flu Season is upon us! Though only officially released last week, through Melbourne’s hip hop label Crate Cartel, Fluent Form’s third offering has been quietly creating a stir amongst people in the know for months now. Forte chatted to Flu ahead of its release. “It’s a relief for me to finally have Flu Season out, so all my hard work will be out there for people to hear. I feel more positive about this album than I have about any of my previous works [The Furnace (2009) and Word Merchant (2011)]. I’ve done this twice before, and I’d forgotten all the feelings of excitement and anticipation. It’s been two years, and my view on the world and the future isn’t as bleak as it once was,” Flu admitted. “I’m in a much better headspace now. I’m enjoying life and making good music. I appreciate every single person who takes the time to listen to my stuff, especially these days with so much music out – it seems like people are saturated and bombarded by it.” The eleven tracks on Flu Season are an accumulation of over two years. “I’m constantly writing, making beats, searching for ideas or samples to use. I wanted to make music that really reflects and represents who I am now as a person, as opposed to who I was two years ago. As I grow as a man, my music grows with me.” Music has always been important to Flu. “I loved music even as a little kid. I’ve always been attracted to it. I remember when I first heard hip hop I was
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pretty young, around ten. Every Thursday I’d visit my grandparents after school and there was a kid who lived across the road who was a bit older, probably thirteen or fourteen. Anyway, he let me borrow his copy of a Naughty by Nature CD. I think it was the one that has OPP on it, though I admit I wasn’t really old enough to understand exactly what they were talking about,” he laughed. “I was drawn to the rhythmic way they’d rap over the beats. I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I loved the hip hop vibe and I was automatically hooked. Once I heard that, I became addicted to that formula and I’ve never stopped listening to it.” Armed with his Naughty by Nature CD, Flu started high school and set to work on the lyrical skills he’s become known for. “I was only ever interested in English at school. I was always right into it writing stories and poems – I enjoyed everything about it. English was the only thing that kept me going through high school.” For years Fluent Form has been the benchmark that other up-and-coming emcee/producers have measured themselves upon, and over the next few months we’ll be spoilt for choice on places to see him live. “I’ll be on the road as part of The Alliance Tour with a bunch of other talented artists all through August and September and, together with The Crate Cartel, I’ll be at both Sprung Festivals in Brisbane and Melbourne. It’s pretty huge for us to get on that bill, and it’s an awesome chance for us to get our music out there to a crowd that may not have heard us before.”
When&Where: The Evelyn, Melbourne – September 6
WHAT'S NEW!? Little Planes Land – YouTube Channel
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Ball Park Music member Jennifer Boyce’s solo project, entitled Little Planes Land, is slowly getting a reputation for pleasant, ukuleleaccompanied indie pop songs. Jen recently launched a YouTube channel to put up videos of her covering songs, including Lana Del Rey’s ‘Young and Beautiful’. A
As far as side-projects go, they don’t get much bigger than Karnivool (unless Dave Grohl is involved). Ian Kenny’s “other” band released their fourth album a couple of weeks ago, and it went straight to number one, giving Ian Kenny the honour of being the only Australian to have two albums go to number one from two different bands in one year (the other being Birds of Tokyo’s March Fires album). Available now on Sony.
The Naked and Famous – In Rolling Waves New Zealand outfit The Naked and Famous have announced they’ll be releasing a new album in a couple of months. The first single, ‘Hearts Like Ours’, debuted on triple j a couple of weeks ago. The album is produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen, who has worked with the likes of M83 and Nine Inch Nails. Available September 13 on Universal.
Karnivool – Asymmetry
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20 Years of triple j’s Hottest 100 If you’ve listened to triple j at all the past few weeks, you’ve heard The Doctor schilling this one. You voted for them, and it’s probably the best countdown they’ve ever had. Available now from ABC.
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Snakadaktal – Sleep in the Water triple j Unearthed High Winners Snakadaktal are releasing their debut album. This band’s star is seriously on the rise. Since their win, they’ve been booked on festivals across the country. Available now on I OH YOU Records.
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John Mayer – Paradise Valley The king of wooing women with terrible lyrics is back with a new album. Paradise Valley is his sixth studio album. Available August 23 on Sony.
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Pond – Hobo Rocket Tame Impala’s side-project (if it shares three members, is it still a side project?) Pond are releasing their fifth album. Available now on Modular.
Avenged Sevenfold – Hail to the King Californian metal band Avenged Sevenfold are releasing their sixth album, Hail to the King. Available August 23 on Warner.
TOO HEAVY TO HUG PAUL S TAYLOR chris cruz
Kid Dynamite is calling it quits – for good this time. A European tour is in the works for the band for next year, and will be their last ever. Ska veterans Mustard Plug have announced a slew of US shows in the lead up to Halloween. Avenged Sevenfold, love ‘em or hate ‘em, are about to hit the road for a North American headlining tour with special guests Deftones and Ghost BC. Waking the Fallen was a masterpiece and a half, so I can’t really hate on them too hard! Their brand new single, ‘Hail to the King’, is available to download now. Details of this year’s IDIOT FEST have finally come to light, and it’s going to be a doozy, featuring punk, rock and ska bands from all over the country. It’ll be taking place on Saturday, October 26 at the Barleycorn Hotel in Collingwood, just down from The Tote. Confirmed to be taking part so far are Strawberry Fist Cake, Admiral Ackbar’s Dishonourable Discharge, Flangipanis, Fatty Esther, Lace & Whiskey, The Cruntburgers, The Shadow League, Nursing Home Stalkers, Hey! Santiago, The Kujo Kings, Hopes Abandoned, Jason Lives, Where’s Grover?, All We Need and Foley. Second round of announcements coming very soon – stay tuned for more. The brand new single from AFI, ‘I Hope You Suffer’, has finally hit the interwebs to a pretty poor reception from
fans. And I can see why: it’s slow, slightly goth-grungy and features woeful lyrics. It sounds like a b-side or outtake at best and has no business being the band’s long-awaited, highly anticipated comeback single. Oh well. The band will soon hit the road in the US in support of their soon to be released album Burials with special guests Touché Amore and Coming. New Found Glory are about to issue their first ever live album in the lead up to their stint on the Australian Vans Warped Tour. The disc will also feature three brand new studio songs to hold fans over until the next studio album. Nice! There’s a trailer online for a fake, live action Daria movie. The writing isn’t as sharp as the animated MTV show, but I’d still sell a kidney to see a fulllength movie! Another band calling it a day is Streetlight Manifesto. Their last album, The Hands That Thieve, now serves as the group’s swansong. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are heading into Forte territory for a huge show at The Barwon Club on the 9th of October. Tickets are most likely sold out by now, but hit up the venue or Oztix just in case it’s your lucky day... Uh-oh! Just when you thought it was safe to turn on the radio, Panic At The Disco release a new single! It’s called ‘Miss Jackson’ and it’s more of what you have come to expect from them. Still prefer them to Fall Out Boy for some reason though. Go figure!
For THTH’s 150th extravaganza, here are a bunch of quotes from interviews I’ve done over the past almost six years... DragonForce’s Vadim Pruzhanov on playing his band’s track, ‘Through Fire and Flames’, on the previously hugely popular Guitar Hero in 2008: “The song, Through Fire and Flames, fits where it is in Guitar Hero coz it’s really hard to play. I was amazed. Some of the YouTube stuff and some of the stuff I’ve seen online, you know, some of the kids manage to pull it off, and lately this one guy finished it on expert (the hardest level to finish the game on) with one hundred percent accuracy and got into the Guinness Book of Records or something.” Rammstein’s Paul Landers speaking about having sex on camera in 2009: “What we found out was the whole thing had nothing to do with love or good sex. It was like the reduction to the mechanical aspects of sex, and especially with men the mechanical aspect has to be activated there because women can always do it, basically.” Dave Mustaine’s response to my pointing out the thin irony we were talking on September 11, 2009: “I’m sorry if I can’t share your sentiment, like, looking at this so open-minded, you know, our nation was attacked and we don’t know who did it. We don’t know if it was an inside job or if it was really the perpetrators that they had suggested that they were.” Amon Amarth’s Olavi Mikkonen on not taking life too seriously in 2009: “We’re not taking ourself too seriously. I mean, at this point we
haven’t really made a song that people can actually laugh about when they hear it, but maybe that’s something we might do. But as I said, we don’t really take ourselves too seriously. But of course it’s gotta be serious as well, but I mean, there’s a lot of Viking stories are very humorous, they are almost like a comic.” Cradle of Filth’s Dani Filth and I talking about The Ashes in 2010 ahead of the band’s Australian tour. (Totally fitting for now, too.): “I’d like to think we’ll retain them (The Ashes). It’s ironic, really, because my mum was actually the first British female umpire for cricket. She was in the Guinness Book of Records for that at one point or another, so I do have some ties to cricket.” And lastly, a quote from the man who doesn’t play metal but has an attitude more metal than most, Kevin Bloody Wilson, on his Oz and NZ tour in 2009: “Being in New Zealand at the moment there’s a lot of New Zealand content obviously. I tell ‘em they’re mad for f*ckin’ sheep, come to Australia and try a kangaroo. You know, once you’ve tried a kangaroo you’ll never go back to sheep. It’s true, you get a good kangaroo and hang on for the first 500 yards, they make it worthwhile for you. Plus you reach around the front you got somewhere to put your fags and your f*ckin’ beer cans. Very handy.” If you WANT TO SEND ME FREE STUFF FOR BEING AWESOME AND TO CELEBRATE MY 150THTH COLUMN, have any news about local metal bands, shows or albums, let THTH know by emailing to tooheavytohug@ hotmail.com or get in touch via Twitter at @ TooHeavyToHug
Blank Thankless Air By BLAIR HALL
Not giving anything, ever. The main issue being that there wasn’t anything to give in the first place, as that there was no capacity with which to accept it for what it is. So now the only option is to remove all feeling inherent to the situation and no longer live for one’s self. Thank-you’s become meaningless as there is no understanding of what the benefit to one’s self could be. Hello becomes a comma, being that there is no perceivable beginning or end to any transaction that takes place. Goodbye becomes ironic, or whatever. Easily the worst part of giving anything at all is that the only sane way to go about it is to assume you’re never going to see it or them ever again. Be it death, ostracising, alienation or perhaps (self-imposed?) exile, one is presented with a smorgasbord of outcomes in which one becomes permanent. Then there’s that fun little incident in which one gets left inside their own mind for keepsies. Being that you’ve been forced by the cruel hand of fate or maybe just your intellectual capacity to have to let something go that took you so very lot to make, you’re then knocked deep into an ocean of conflicting streams of thought which you will never be able to survive off and forever be knocked about inside. Eventually you just assume that you’ve already cleaned out everything you had, removed all the trace evidence by wiping down the interior walls of smudges and finger prints, and then leaving a gleaming surface where once there resided substance. There’s only so many times in which you can fill up that space before the interior starts rejecting the new inhabiting material. Maybe it’s ideologically incompatible, or it could be that it simply isn’t substantial enough to take up all the room that had been widened out
from previous experiments in self-worth and development. It knocks around like a wooden spoon in a brass pot, ringing deep and letting everyone know that you’ve inadequately occupied regions reserved for all-enveloping warmth. Eventually a reaction takes place where all you’re doing is referencing the things you’ve done before and making an attempt at recreating the feeling from when you came close to a sense of value. But then the real issue comes to the fore: what at all makes you assume that what you crafted perfectly to give to one can be accepted by another even in a revised form in which you have tailored the minor details to this new recipient? Can revenge be done? Pressurise the gift and then at the last second it explodes in the recipient’s face like the pressurised salt acid of The Mummy’s booby-trapped sarcophagus. Mould it so that it has an expiration date, and once it’s been passed on to the vessel of the other, over time it sours and infects and eventually rejects them as a host, forcing them to suffer in unspeakable agony while you sit there with that big old hole ringing loudly; as what you very inadequately placed in there does nothing but ring and ring and ring the more you begin to panic and shake at the suffering you’ve forced them to endure, suffering which you cannot intervene and stop. And so I’m not giving anything, ever, even in the posthumously released material. It’ll be spring-loaded, sour-tasting and probably set to the tune of Jack Nitzsche’s ‘The Lonely Surfer’.
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HIT OR SHIT!
INSIDE SPLINTERS
GOLDFRAPP
We’ve Only Just Begun:
New album Tales of Us is their most inspired record since Supernature.
HIT
KATY PERRY’S 18WHEELER GOLDEN PROMO TRUCK
New album Prism released in August has its own enormous, golden 18wheeler cruising around the Americas to promote the record’s release. Pure genius.
LADY GAGA
It’s only a matter of time before ARTPOP’s first single ‘Applause’ is heard by us all, and right now the imagery for the album campaign has been on the mark. How long until she spoils it all and hauls out the Jo Calderone outfit?
A guide to Pop for the rest of 2013.
Beyoncé PRE-SALES
JUSTIN BIEBER
Spitting on your fans? You flaming galah. Get off the bongs Biebus and start focusing!
SHIT!
How many pre-sales does Beyoncé need to have for her shows exactly? Four?! Jesus Wept, no wonder nobody could get any tickets!
BIG BROTHER Oh Shit.
tweet of the week
Need we talk too much about Lady Gaga’s ARTPOP, due on shopping shelves November the 11th? The album has been produced by mixingdesk royalty Dallas Austin and has tracks she’s worked on with RedOne, Fernando Garibay, DJ White Shadow and Zedd. Seeing as we’ll be talking about it enough once the album actually hits, we’ll just leave you with that information and swiftly divert your attention to news of the Kelly Clarkson’s Christmas album.
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It’s been a great year already in terms of pop music releases, with CDs by the Pet Shop Boys and ABBA’s Agnetha Fältskog being just a tiny portion of the highlights, but with excellent new albums set to take over release dates across the remains of 2013 the coveted Album of the Year is still anyone’s.
debut Felt Mountain, you’ll be pleased to hear Tales of Us treads through similar musical territory. Another interesting thing about this album is that the duo have confessed it is somewhat inspired by the movies of David Lynch, and once you hear it you’ll know exactly what they mean. We’ll post a full review a little closer to the release date.
In recent weeks stellar new albums from Selena Gomez, Ciara and Demi Lovato have proven excellent additions to the CD rack; in particular Ciara’s whose self-titled new LP is only 10 tracks in length (BRILLIANT) and manages to make the last two Beyoncé albums completely irrelevant. The great thing about Ciara’s new record is that, thanks to its length, it’s guaranteed to be all killer with no filler. Check the record out to see how RnB and urban-pop should be done in 2013.
‘I Kissed a Girl’ popstrel Katy Perry has the excitingly titled Prism hitting shelves on October the 22nd. The artist has said in interviews she had no intention of creating a sound-a-like sequel to her 2010 smashalbum Teenage Dream, claiming the sound for Number 3 would be much darker than anything we’ve heard from her yet. Collaborations with the likes of Diplo, Australia’s own Sia, Max Martin, Dr. Luke and Bonnie McKee assure this is going to be nothing short of a pop music triumph in 2013 and right through into 2014. First single? It’s called ‘Roar’.
Goldfrapp have the stunning Tales of Us dropping on September the 9th, another 10-track monster that proves the theory of less definitely being more. The pattern with album releases in 2013 is that the ones with no more than 12-13 tracks on it have been the ones which have really delivered. Tales of Us is no exception, having heard the beautiful record in full earlier this evening I can report it is the best album Goldfrapp have released in a long time. If you were a big fan of the subtle sounds of their 2010
Britney Spears is currently hard at work on album number eight, which she has confirmed will be released before year’s end. The former X Factor judge has also confirmed the sound will be a return to the more urban-centred pop from her stunning 2007 LP Blackout – much to the fans delight. At this rate we’ll get Britney’s new album before Beyonce’s – Mrs. Carter has just recently scrapped basically every single song she’s worked on and is starting from scratch! Diplo being one of the producers whose songs with Bey have been shelved. Ouch!
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Er, yup. Kelly Clarkson’s Christmas album. Actually, perhaps there’s really not that much to say about this one. Hopefully Kelly will go to Christmas Queen Mariah Carey for tips on how to make a successful holiday record – though she may not have time to pick up the phone seeing as she herself is working on her latest album. Mariah’s record was already supposed to be out by now but she took to social media and expressed she wasn’t completely happy with the finished product and wants more time, hence it is now due to hit our iPods by year’s end. New releases from POP ICONS Cher, Celine Dion, Blondie and Miley Cyrus are also launching in the remaining months of 2013, with every single one of those no doubt being EXPLOSIVELY GOOD. Cher’s in particular will be a GODSEND to finally have since it’s been in creation for what feels like ALL OF BLOODY TIME. And the reported Lady Gaga duet has been canned, FYI, with Cher dismissing the removal of the song from the record as Gaga’s choice and not hers. Cher, Queen of Twitter, then took to the social media platform to backhandedly compliment Gags on the decision. What a legend!! May your countdown to the Kelly Clarkson Christmas album be a merry one! Until next fortnight... Written by Adem with an E.
“ Beyoncé would have skydived with no parachute and landed on her feet, posing. Stop comparing her to Aaliyah.” Well! Let this tweet be a warning to you Casual Beysus fans going to her tour of Australia later this year: Twitter’s @BeyTomce is a small snippet of what you’ll be up against if you’re anywhere near the Beyhive. Good luck!
KINSHIP Bangarra Dance Theatre
Internationally acclaimed Bangarra Dance Theatre has created a breathtaking theatrical experience in Kinship, choreographed by their award-winning Artistic Director, Stephen Page. Sue Rawkins was intrigued to find out a little more about him, how he creates his iconic pieces and the collaborative processes involved. Stephen Page is a descendant of the Nunukul people and the Munaldjali clan of the Yugambeh tribe from southeast Queensland. He studied at NAISDA (National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association) in NSW. After graduating in 1983 he began his professional dancing career with Sydney Dance Company, and in 1991 was appointed Artistic Director of Bangarra Dance Theatre. Amongst his many, many accolades he was named Australian Of The Year in 2008 in recognition of his efforts to bring cultures together through the performing arts, and his commitment to developing the next generation of Indigenous storytellers by mentoring emerging artists. He has also created the choreography for the feature films, Bran Nue Dae and The Sapphires. In the process of creating a new work, Stephen will re-connect with old, traditional stories, rekindling language, listening to tales and observing personal relationships. His early works were dominated by the generosity of the traditional influence of the people of North-East Arnhem Land. He told their stories through movement and dance and feels the gutteral instinct of stories. He will “yarn” back and forth with his brother, the musician David Page, and they will be quite honest with each other about what inspires them. Gradually the idea evolves and then it is up to the organic collaboration between dancers and choreographer to start to tell the story. As Stephen says, “We [Bangarra] shape movement”. Stephen is schooled in the traditional Classical dance ritual and discipline, but as Contemporary dance has evolved he has embraced modern forms, and shapes movements from within – a process he describes as “rolling like a rabbit”. The fourteen members of the Bangarra dance ensemble attend classical classes, contemporary classes, intense pilates and yoga every week to enable their bodies to create the organic patterns and shapes that describe the story – whether abstract or narrative, traditional or modern.
Photo by Jeff Busby
Kinship brings together two of Bangarra’s most loved pieces – Brolga, originally presented as part of the iconic Bangarra production Corroboree; and ID, originally performed in the acclaimed production, Belong. Brolga is a creation story inspired by the totemic systems in Aboriginal culture, where every person is assigned a creature totem related to their clan. Set in North-East Arnhem Land, a young girl ventures out before sunset and finds herself on a Brolga (Australian Crane) feeding ground. As she is challenged by her totemic temptation, she takes us on a journey of exploring relationships between humans and creatures, reflecting on the intrinsic spirituality of the natural world. It is a Dreamtime story made contemporary. ID investigates what it means to be Aboriginal in the 21st century, asking important questions of identity. In a series of dramatic and humorous observations, Stephen Page contemplates human nature in modern society, where skin colour can drive perceptions rather than embracing differences. This bold dance work celebrates the resilience of Australian Aboriginal culture in both its
KINSHIP - Part of GPAC’s 2013 Deakin University Theatre Season. Choreography: Stephen Page.
Set Design: Jacob Nash .
Music: David Page & Steve Francis.
Lighting Design: Brolga by Joe Mercurio, ID by Matt Cox .
Costume Design: Brolga by Jennifer Irwin, ID by Emma Howell. Cultural Consultant: Djakapurra Munyarryun.
traditional and contemporary forms. The music for Brolga, created by David Page and Steve Francis, is inspired by traditional songs and dances from North-East Arnhem Land; for ID, it is a more abstract and pure sound as the piece is current. Stephen says the dramatic costumes, makeup, set and lighting, “all add to the theatrical experience, connecting to Aboriginal heritage. They create a strong potency of spiritual consciousness.” Bangarra creates a truly Australian theatrical experience that connects the spirit of traditional
Where: GPAC. The Playhouse Theatre. Little Malop St, Geelong.
When: 15-17 August. Info: www.gpac.org.au Phone: 5225 1200
culture with our contemporary lives. Opening in Geelong on August 15 as part of GPAC’s 2013 Deakin University Theatre Season, these performances mark the beginning of a Victorian and Tasmanian tour of Australian regional communities with whom Bangarra has developed strong relationships that continue to inform the integrity of Bangarra’s work. Stephen Page hopes that the audiences having experienced this work will come away from the experience “awakened”.
Diversitat Training
OPEN DAY Sunday 11 August 2013
11am - 3pm The Pulse, 68-70 Lt Ryrie St, Geelong s Come & meet the trainers & plan for your 2014 career! s Live music featuring the KRock Band Competition Winner ‘Murdena’ (proudly sponsored by Diversitat Training) s Diversitat Wholefoods Cafe is also open 2 Baylie Place, Geelong come for coffee and cake, experience Diversitat Arts!
Start your new career today by calling us on 5224 2329 Geelong Ethnic Communities Council Inc. trading as Diversitat, RTO 5819. Training at Diversitat is delivered with Victorian and Commonwealth Government funding.
GET NATIONALLY ACCREDITED TRAINING IN: s Aged Care s Business s Children’s Services s Community Services s Hair & Beauty s Health Services s Hospitality s Youth Programs s Media, Music or Sound Production s VET Programs s Conservation and Land Management s English Language Programs We also offer customised industry training, traineeships and short courses. Diversitat Training is Geelong’s largest, communitybased Registered Training Organisation.
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MEREDITH HARVEST FARMERS AND CRAFT MARKET A farmers and craft market, with quality produce, artisan wares, gourmet foods, fresh flowers and plants, live music, kids activities and of course, the obligatory sausage sizzle. Take a leisurely stroll around the stalls and come home with some locally produced yummy stuff. WHERE: Meredith Memorial Hall, Corner Staughton & Wilson Streets, Meredith, VIC. WHEN: August 31. 9-2. PHONE: 0417 287 118 EMAIL: meredithharvestmarket@hotmail.com
GEELONG BOOK FAIR The Geelong Regional Library Corporation is pleased to support the Rotary Club of Geelong West Book Fair 2013 running 16, 17 & 18 August. Each year, as part of ongoing collection management, books are withdrawn to make way for new items ensuring the libraries have collections that are current and appealing to members. This year the withdrawn books will be available for purchase at the Geelong Book Fair in the Geelong West Town Hall, contributing to the
fundraising efforts of the Geelong West Rotary Club. Now in its 7th year the Geelong Book Fair raises monies that allow for substantial donations to be made to worthy causes both locally and internationally through the Rotary Foundation and Donations in Kind. Admission is a gold coin donation. Where: Geelong West Town Hall, Pakington Street, Geelong. WheN: August 16-18. Fri 10-5, Sat 9-5, Sun 10-2. PHONE: 0427 211 273. INFO: www. geelongwestrotary.org.au EMAIL: rcgeelongwest@ gmail.com
A Collective Vision:
Prints from the Castlemaine Art Gallery Permanent Collection 1970–2013 Curated by printmakers Dick Turner and Su Mitton, this extensive exhibition covers a diverse range of original printmaking techniques from many different Australian artists. The subjects will surprise and delight as many works have not been exhibited in the gallery before. The exhibition will also acknowledge the many donors who have supported the galleries’ Australian printmaking collection. Supported by a Museums Australia (Victoria) Exhibition Grant. Where: Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum, 14 Lyttleton Street, Castlemaine, Vic 3450. WheN: August 3 – September 15. PHONE: 5472 2292 INFO: www.castlemainegallery.com PICTURED: Jupiter being transited by an aeroplane, 2000. Colour etching 40.8 x 40.0cm (plate) Gift of the Artist, 2009
FRIDAY NIGHT SKATE
Running for over 20 years, Friday Night Skate takes place at Barwon Valley Activity Centre, every 2nd Friday, 7-10pm during the school term and offers indoor skating, roller blading and skateboarding. Skateboards, Scooters and Rollerblades welcome. This event is not suitable for Bikes/ BMX. Ramps and rails will be set up however, your own skate equipment is necessary.
All sessions fully supervised by accredited City of Greater Geelong employees. Helmets and safety equipment must be worn at all times. $5 entry and drinks are sold for $1. WHERE: Barwon Valley Activity Centre, 1 Barwon Heads Rd, Belmont, 3216. WHEN: August 9 and Aug 23. 7-10pm. PHONE: Dylan Connell - 5272 4639. 0417 566 811. INFO: www. geelongaustralia.com.au/ community/youth
All Holden Day For all you Classic Car enthusiasts, Central Victoria’s fifth All Holden Day is being held on the 18th August at the Bendigo Jockey Club. The event is sponsored by the Bendigo Sandhurst Holden Club Inc.
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SENSORIAL LOOP: 1st Tamworth Textile Triennial A Victorian style mourning dress stained with a fugitive dye; pictures made of buttons detailing a migrant experience; hand printed resist style patterned cloth and machine knitted metal sculptural forms. These are some of the textile works included in the 1st Tamworth Textile Triennial exhibition titled Sensorial Loop. There are 22 creative textile artists representing a cross section of demographics from many states and one territory in Australia. Specific textile skills covered in this exhibition range from resist printed textiles to hand embroidered cross-stitch, from metal wire knitted on a machine to cloth woven on a jacquard loom. Sensorial Loop showcases the changing ideas and professional craftsmanship associated with contemporary textile practice in Australia. The use of traditional and machine technologies, the collaboration and inter-disciplinary profiles of practitioners, the trend of slow making and sustainable practice is challenging the perception of the discipline of textiles. There is blurring within the definition of creative practice and Sensorial Loop aims to capture that shift in this exhibition. This exhibition has been developed and toured by Tamworth Regional Gallery. Where: Ararat Regional Art Gallery. Town Hall, Vincent Street & Western Highway, Ararat, VIC. WHEN: August 15 – September 29. Mon-Fri 104.30; Sat & Sun, 10-4. PHONE: 5352 2836 INFO: www.pgav.org.au/member-galleries/post/ ararat-regional-art-gallery PICTURED: Michelle Elliot, ‘hemispheres: drawn to you’, materials: cotton thread, paper, 2,000 hand-made wooden pins, 300 H x 180 W (variable).
Get along and check out these dreams on wheels. Who doesn’t want a car with venetian blinds? Trophy presentation at approximately 3.30pm and all vehicles will be expected to remain until 4pm. Gold coin donation to Bendigo Hospital Children’s Ward.
Where: Bendigo Jockey Club, Heinz Street, White Hills, Bendigo, Victoria WheN: Sun August 18. 9:303:30pm. PHONE: Dianne: 03 5442 1715. Bruce: 0403 161 715. INFO: www.bendigosandhurst. wordpress.com
LOCAL – Glen Smith Local is a new exhibition by artist Glen Smith. Grungy street art inspired urban environments and skylines captured in their full illuminated glory. Artworks that are specific in their Geelong locations, yet captured in a glimpsing manner allowing for both familiarity for the locals with their intimacy of the physical locations, while also creating broader associations of inner city environments for a wider audience
base through the use of common urban symbology, architecture and constructs. Through portraits of places, street scenes, fleeting snapshots and panoramas, Local captures the very nature of the inner city of Geelong when living in a contemporary cityscape. Physically the work borrows its aesthetics heavily from the streets that it aims to capture, with urban/ street art traits and techniques inspiring and informing the paintings through stencilling, spray
Bethany Arthouse Film Festival presents
On Air
Directed by Pierre Pinaud Starring: Karin Viard, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Nadia Barentin Melina, 40, is the most famous voice in French radio. On her evening show, she solves her listeners’ emotional and sexual problems using cheek and humour. But, in her everyday life, she is obnoxious, cannot stand being touched, and lives an old maid existence in chic districts of Paris. When looking for a mother she never knew, she finds out she lives with her large family in the suburbs. Deciding to finally meet her, she gets in touch with the members of her mothers family without disclosing who she really is ... The Bethany Arthouse Film Festival is Bethany’s major fundraiser for the year and a popular event on Geelong film buffs’ calendars. Enjoy a mix of fabulous films from across the globe, screening in the comfort of your local theatre. Where: GPAC. Playhouse Theatre, 50 Little Malop Street, Geelong. WheN: Tues Aug 20 at 8pm. PHONE: 5225 1200 INFO: www.gpac.org.au
painting and various contemporary print techniques. Metaphorically, the artworks are psychogeographic, mapping the artist’s personal environment and his day-to-day travels instilled with memories, associations and experiences. On a philosophical level, the works geotag Smith’s daily life while depicting the beauty of his urban travels and views about the beauty inherent in the entropy of his environment, all captured at street level.
Local can refer to familiar places or a state of mind. It can be a positive or a negative. It may mean home to some while others see it as an anaesthetic. However you view local, be it favourably or otherwise we are all locals somewhere. Where: Boom Gallery, 11 Rutland Street, Newtown, Geelong. WheN: July 25-Aug 17. Weds-Sat, 9.30-4. PHONE: 0417555101 / 0428305639 INFO: www. boomgallery.com.au EMAIL: info@ boomgallery.com.au
arts news from around town – and beyond! BALLARAT INTERNATIONAL FOTO BIENNALE The BIFB has blazed a trail for a global approach to photography, seeking out extremely talented artists who are less well known outside their own domain, or in the case of Australian artists, those worthy of, but yet to be recognised as photographic superstars of the future From the Festival’s inception as the Daylesford Foto Biennale in 2005, the Ballarat International Foto Biennale has grown in scale, status and critical acclaim. The Festival is the only internationally significant photographic event in regional Victoria. In the course of just four festivals BIFB has grown from 55 events over 28 venues, with an estimated audience of around 10,000 visitors, to 206 events staged at 73 venues throughout Ballarat and nearby Creswick. Ballarat International Foto Biennale 2013 will feature an exhibition program of over 200 artists encompassing a Core exhibition program of selected leading Australian and international photographers alongside an open entry Fringe exhibition program. These exhibitions are complemented by an extensive festival program designed to encourage the active participation of the general public as well as photographic practitioners of all levels, including workshops, seminars, audio visual projections, master-classes, artist floor-talks, portfolio reviews, education program and photographic competitions and prizes. Where: Selected venues all around Ballarat. WheN: August 17-Sept 15. DOWNLOAD: ballaratfoto.org/content/blogs.dir/1/ files/2013/03/bifb13_core_special_guide.pdf INFO: www.ballaratfoto.org
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Veterans Association, the Corio Bay Camera Club and the Osborne Park group. Within the old stables building you find the Maritime Museum which tells of the long association between the Navy and Geelong. One of the most exciting aspects of the current day Osborne House is the farmers, produce and art and craft market which has been in operation since July 2012. Although on a shoestring budget, the market committee relies heavily on stallholder fees and runs every third Sunday of the month. “Over the past year we have had a lot of interest from people all around the community about the market. That said, the evolution of the market has been a steady process, with more and more stalls as the months go on. The promotion of the market is primarily through social media given it pays bigger dividends and attracts a lot more people than print media. The local community has been very supportive of the market,” Susan said about the origins of the market.
ART VICTORIA’S CHEAP ARTS GUIDE Made with love, this fantastic little book provides the scoop on hundreds of free and budget-friendly things to see or do in the arts in Melbourne - and around Victoria. Great galleries, amazing theatre, hidden creative spaces, loads of live music, festivals, kids activities, regional roadtrips, and plenty of ideas to get your arts off the couch - from dance and drawing classes to zine-making and glee clubs. Plus best insider tips on how to access cheaper tickets and special offers. Collect your copy from cafés and venues around Melbourne, read on online or download the free pdf. Enjoy reading the guide and exploring all the great art and entertainment Victoria has to offer for under $25. Bargain! DOWNLOAD & INFO: www.arts.vic.gov.au/ Arts_in_Victoria/Cheap_Arts_Guide
Osborne House By Tex Miller
Located on the picturesque waterfront in North Geelong is Osborne House. Driving into the entrance of the east wing you are greeted with the prestige and beauty of the old architecture, as well as the newly renovated function centre. I recently went out to find out a bit about one of Geelong’s most historic buildings, which has previously been the cornerstone to the trade industry. I got the opportunity to sit down with Susan, who runs the produce and craft market. Built in 1858, the rich history behind the building is quite simply remarkable. Throughout the world wars Osborne House was home to a naval training college as well as a Naval convalescent hospital. In 1937 the building was purchased by the Shire of Corio for use as municipal offices and was used up until the amalgamation of the City of Greater Geelong Council in 1993. Since then the building has for the main part remained empty expect for the use of community groups such as Vietnam
Run by a group of volunteers, the market offers some of the finest produce including olives, jams and chutney to gourmet vegetarian options as well. From 9am to mid-afternoon there are several opportunities to pick up a gift for someone special. With 130 Facebook ‘likes’, the market is quickly becoming one of the most renowned around the region, and from looking at just some of the products on offer, you’d be mad to pass up the opportunity to check this one out. With a sausage sizzle as well as astounding scenery you’d be mad to not check this one out. Osborne House has been around for 150 years and the next 150 promises to be just as exciting. There are big plans for celebrations as well as development into the future, so be sure to keep your eyes and ears peeled for more news in the not too distant future. If you want to get involved with the market be sure to check them out at facebook.com/OsborneHouseMarket
Bradley Cannan–Cole, photographer/art director Lachlan Taylor, model Digital Photography Class Advanced Diploma of Graphic Design
thegordon.edu.au
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ArtS Profile introduces:
Daniel Longo Please make feel welcome our Artist Profile guest for this issue, Daniel Longo. Like any true artist, he prefers to let his work do the talking. However, he was kind enough to spend a little time with us to share what he is about, what he does and where he is heading. Please introduce yourself to Forte readers and tell us a bit about your background. Welly welly welly. Well my name is Daniel Longo and I was born on planet earth. My studies include Bachelor of Fine Arts at RMIT and Diploma in Graphic Design. To speak about my background and myself isn’t something I’m so good at through the use of words. This is perhaps one of the reasons I express my experience through images. Where is it you reside? How has living in that area shaped the art you have come to produce? I reside in Geelong and living here has obviously shaped myself as it would anyone. Your surroundings and way of life through the cultures of anyone’s life in specific locations is always going to affect the way you grow, whether you’re aware of it or not. If I grew up in a less fortunate or poorer country I wouldn’t be able to see how lucky we are and would therefore create differently. It’s not a matter of loving or disliking where I’ve grown up either, but a matter of choice. And I choose to experience living in many different areas in time to come or I would be limiting my vision as an “artist”. I believe so anyway. What is it you do? Are you a painter, sculptor, photographer? You could call me a photographer to put it in simplest terms, although I don’t truly consider myself a photographer. It is just the best tool I have come across that I work with to reflect my experiences and the way I see. I engage with other mediums, but with photography it is the instant reality that can be mirrored I connect with the most. I mean, if I could paint like Caravaggio maybe I would have gone down that path. But in saying that, my thoughts and the way I feel towards my works change so quickly; painting is something you can only manipulate and change so many times before original meanings are lost. Through photography, there is a sense of immortality, as the images will last longer than I physically will. Every photograph you take is to contribute in another person’s impermanence. To allow me to truly photograph you (or even a thing) is a great gift to me
Small ® Business card size
Letterhead & comp slip size
A4 Brochures
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because it’s a very vulnerable situation. I suppose that’s the difference between some intimate photo shoots in comparison to commercial shoots where it becomes reliant on your technical ability. How did you get into this art form? What has been your inspiration to continue to pursue this art form? Inspiration is absolutely everywhere – the definitions of beautiful and ugly. Just watch a person sitting by themselves on a train gazing outside the window. That is inspiration and something fragile in itself. Music, other artists and their practices. A cup of coffee. It never ends, and can keep you up all night. But sometimes that’s when some of your best ideas come out. If you were listening to someone describe your work, how would you like it to be described? That’s a hard question. I would like to be recognised for my approach to photography, but more importantly for my work to be interpreted and felt differently to each individual viewer. That’s the real power. There is no right or wrong answer. There is only your answer, your interpretation.
WHEN&WHERE: Daniel’s exhibition, ALT-ER, opens at Courthouse ART’s Meraki Gallery on August 16, 6 - 8pm. Please RSVP for catering purposes. This is a free event. Refer to the websites above for more info. Have you taken part in many exhibitions, displays, shows? I’ve been involved in a few but this is my first solo exhibition so I’m very grateful and hope people enjoy the showing, or not. Either way will be interesting. What has been your greatest achievement as an artist to date? That I lost my egotistical intentions earlier, rather than later. It’s allowed me to create more purely. Where can people go to check out your stuff?
I have a website that’s currently getting reconstructed as it’s very out-dated so bare with me, but that’s daniellongo.com. My always up-to-date online folio is at facebook.com/daniellongophotography I am in the middle of making more books with my work and writings, which I hope to do as a regular thing throughout my life. This is still to come though. Anything you would like to add? Thank you for the interview, appreciate the opportunity.
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the barwon club
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chinese whispers
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FILM REVIEWS
by anthony morris
The World’s End
Now You See Me There are movies that are about magic, and then there are movies that want to work like a magic trick. If you’re The Prestige, you can do both; Now You See Me, which is enjoyable enough as it goes along but is in no way comparable to The Prestige, puts itself firmly in the second camp. Originally it seems to be about four street-level magicians: large-scale illusionist J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), escape artist Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), slightof-hand expert Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), and mentalist Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), who are brought together by a mysterious benefactor and a year later hit one of the biggest stages in Vegas as “The Four Horsemen”. Their act seems nothing special, until they bring a Frenchman on stage and somehow manage to send him to his bank’s vault – in France – then steal a seven-figure amount of Euros from there. This raises the attention of FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), whose story this really is; as magic is obviously not real, they can’t hold the Four Horsemen for the theft, and once free they announce their plans for their next, even bigger performance. What does their financier (Michael Caine) have to do with all this? And what about the professional debunker (Morgan Freeman) who starts taking an interest in their antics? The “magic” here might as well be superpowers, as most of the largescale stuff is done with (not all that convincing) CGI and the small-scale stuff (especially Merritt’s mindreading) just somehow happens. But this film’s real appeal is the larger mystery of what’s actually going on with the Horsemen’s scheme, and for the most part that works. Largely that’s because Ruffalo is a charming lead and the Four Horsemen are a solid crime crew whose bickering is of the enjoyable comedy kind rather than the “just shut up already” type. The ending is more about the illusion of a satisfactory twist ending than actually having one that holds up in any way: this is a thrown together mess that swerves between the obvious and the ridiculous, but it’s hard not to enjoy the style and the performances while you’re in front of it.
In 1990, Gary King was the king of the world. Girls wanted to shag him, guys wanted to be him, he had mates he could trust and his future looked bright. The only black mark on his record was the fact they never completed The Golden Mile, a pub crawl through twelve pubs in their hometown of Newton Haven. Twenty odd years later, and Gary (Simon Pegg) is living firmly in the past. Determined to finally complete The Golden Mile, he deploys a combination of lies and pleading to get the gang back together: car salesman Peter (Eddie Marsan), real estate agent Oliver (Martin Freeman), architect Steven (Paddy Considine) and accountant Andrew (Nick Frost). After a bumpy start they’re (mostly) glad to be back together and they set out on a night largely based around humouring Gary with a few drinks on the side. Pegg and Front, together with director Edgar Wright, keep things small-scale for a while, focusing on the characters and the way their lives have changed over the years. While it’s unlikely they’d ever go all the way into character comedy – having built up a fan base with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, people want wacky genre comedy from them – it’s telling that the early, non-genre stuff here is probably the strongest material in the film. And then, a few pubs in, things take a turn for the strange. It’s well-handled, and there’s a solid effort made to explain why the guys feel they have to continue on their pub crawl even though they now have pretty much the world’s best reason for getting the hell out of town. Trouble is it never quite feels natural that they really would continue on; in any other film they’d be trying to find ways to get out of it. At least the characters remain strong thanks to solid performances all around, and even playing a little against type Frost (who’s the grumpy one here) and Pegg (playing a fairly abrasive jerk) remain one of the more reliable double-acts in comedy today. It’s a lot closer to Hot Fuzz than Shaun qualitywise, but that’s hardly a bad thing. Uneven this might be, but there’s still plenty to like.
The Way, Way Back Fourteen-year-old Duncan (Liam James) is not exactly thrilled to be spending his summer vacation with his mum’s new boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell) at Trent’s beach house. Not only is Trent a jerk and a bit of a bully, but Duncan’s mum Pam (Toni Collette) is too intent on making the relationship work to pay much attention to his gripes. While avoiding the claustrophobic world of Trent’s friends and the vapid beach culture of their kids, Duncan ends up working part-time at the Water Wizz fun park, a fun but slightly shabby establishment run by charismatic man-child Owen (Sam Rockwell). Yes, once again we’re faced with the Summer Where Everything Changed. This coming-ofage tale from writer / directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (who also appear on-screen as Wizz employees Roddy and Lewis) is not all that special story-wise; 2009’s Adventureland was pretty much the same story. But while Duncan is a bit of a cipher, the supporting cast are sharply drawn and have enough flaws that their feel-good moments feel earned. Rockwell blasts out the charm here; he hasn’t been this much fun in years. The story isn’t much, but it’s the great performances (Carell is especially chilling as a two-faced bastard) that make this worth checking out.
Behind the Candelabra
The Wolverine First off, don’t worry if you don’t remember what happened to Wolverine in his previous films because no-one does. The sole reason this film was even made is because Hugh Jackman – Mr Charisma himself – carried the last two of his four main outings as Wolverine all by himself. Fortunately, this film is pretty much self-contained. Well, the ghost of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) is haunting Logan, AKA Wolverine, as he lives in a Canadian cave hiding from his past, but it’s clear that a): he loved her and b): he killed her, so you can put down the copy of X-Men: The Last Stand where all that happened. Logan’s just about to break his vow not to get involved with people (for “get involved” read “kill”) when he’s interrupted by Yukio (Rila Fukushima). Turns out the film’s opening scene, where Logan was captive in a well in a POW camp at Nagasaki when the atomic bomb was dropped wasn’t only there to show us exactly how much damage he can take and live: the Japanese officer Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi) he saved is dying, and he wants Logan to have his sword. Oh, and to say thanks for it in person. The Japan that Logan arrives in is full of 1980s-style corporate intrigue, which is hardly a shock as this is based on the Chris Claremont / Frank Miller comic series from 1982. Yashida has a son, Shingen (Hiroyuki Sanada), who takes an instant dislike to Logan, and also a granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto), who has pretty much the opposite reaction to him. Various twists and turns involving ninjas, the Yakuza, Wolverine’s healing factor and a giant silver robot follow: The Wolverine is pleasingly old-fashioned in its commitment to having an actual story. The fights are solid rather than impressive (one knife battle atop a speeding bullet train excepted; that’s the film’s best sequence), and presumably all the gushing blood and sliced-off limbs you’d expect from a samurai movie takes place just off-camera to preserve the family-friendly rating. As shirtless as humanly possible, Jackman effortlessly carries this film, making the dramatic stuff feel real so the story has something at stake, and balancing his superhero angst with enough comedy self-awareness to make him seem like someone you’d actually want to spend time with. Which, when you look back over this year’s superhero films, explains why this is a stand-out. Before Midnight: The third instalment in director Richard Linklater’s look at a young couple (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) in love, this focuses on what happens after happily ever after. So you know you’re in for a bumpy ride. Pacific Rim: Giant monsters! Giant robots! Look, they’re fighting! And as long as you keep your expectations to roughly that level, you’ll have a lot of fun with this one.
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This is the End: When the Rapture strikes, a bunch of self-centred Hollywood comedians are left behind to fend for themselves. Hilarity ensues in one of the best comedies of the year. The Conjuring: Pretty much a greatest hits of scary movie moments from the last decade, this is more of a wellmade film than a truly scary one. Unless this is the first ever horror
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film you’ve ever seen, in hero works more often which case you’re never than it doesn’t. And if that doesn’t sound like going to sleep again. a ringing endorsement, Man of Steel: it’s not. Superman’s back! And The Heat: A moderately he’s wrecking up the funny and fairly basic place in this pummelbuddy cop movie, heavy but occasionally moving take on both his except for one thing: the origins and his ability to cops are both women, which shouldn’t seem trash an entire city by edgy or outlandish, until accident. you look at just how The Lone Ranger: One few movies there are big fun mess, this revival starring women out at of the cornball western the moment.
Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Scott Thorson, director Stephen Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra is the best kind of film biopic – one that keeps the focus tight on one aspect of its subject’s life rather than trying to cram it all in. Here the star is Liberace (played by Michael Douglas), and the focus is his relationship with Thorson in the late 70s and 80s. Then again, Liberace’s love life as a closeted gay man seems to have been a series of these relationships; even if this was the closest is up for debate, though Thorson obviously believes so. What’s clear is that, after a backstage meeting arranged by a mutual friend (Scott Bakula), Thorson (Matt Damon) found himself pursued by the charismatic Vegas entertainer. At the time Thorson was barely out of his teens, living with his adoptive parents and working as an animal handler, but he found himself won over by Liberace’s charm and vulnerability. The star’s vulnerability was clearly coming from a place of strength: occasionally scathing about the loveless mother he supported, predatory in his sexual habits and demands, and happy to force Thorson into plastic surgery to make him look more like him; Liberace was camp on stage but no stereotypical queen at home. Much of the film is a fairly straightforward story about a married couple, only they couldn’t officially get married. The secrecy ate away what they had; there’s some early talk of Liberace adopting Thorson in an attempt to make what they had legal. But that’s hardly the only reason why things went rocky: Thorson starts an all-speed diet to lose weight, then sells his jewellery for drugs. Their relationship arc isn’t all that surprising, but the performances here are what make everything. Douglas is completely likable and massively charismatic, while Damon is his equal as a nice guy who becomes more grasping and needy as he slides into a relationship he thought he could handle. It’d be easy for them to become caricatures – he’s a bitchy old queen, he’s a dumb blonde – but they go much deeper than that, and make this otherwise fairly basic story one to watch.
100 Bloody Acres Horror-comedy is, despite what a lot of horror fans would have you believe, a tricky thing to get right. You can throw a few jokes into the middle of a splatter-fest and sure, people will laugh, but all you’re doing there is lowering the tension – which is exactly what you don’t want to do when you’re making a horror film. 100 Bloody Acres works because it takes the opposite tack; despite looking like a horror film, it’s really a (fairly lightweight) comedy that just happens to have the form of a horror film. Reg (Damon Herriman) is driving his truck down a country road enjoying the country hits of the 70s when he spots a wrecked van. Of course he gets out to see what he can do, but when he realises the driver’s dead he decides to drag the corpse over to the truck and throw it inside. See, Reg runs an organic fertilizer business with his brother Lindsay (Angus Sampson), and they’ve figured out that dead bodies are a great source of potassium. But when a trio of people (led by Anna McGahan) on their way to a music festival wave Reg down, he starts to get some ideas about ways to boost production. While the set-up seems pure horror – and when Lindsay turns out to be a much nastier piece of work than his brother things definitely take a turn for the worse for the trio – this is more concerned with character comedy than with chopping off limbs and dropping people into grinders (though there’s plenty of that too). It’s more fun than laugh-out-loud funny, but it keeps the twists and character development coming right through to the end in a fashion that ensures the film remains constantly entertaining. You’ll never look at blood and bone the same way again.
MUSIC REVIEWS liVe re vi e w
Alt-J Festival Hall, Melbourne Tuesday, July 30 As the mystery band that played at the recent Splendour in the Grass, fans in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne were graced recently with Alt-J’s indie sounds. Their debut record of last year, An Awesome Wave, won the Mercury prize in the UK for album of the year, and so their live show was certainly always going to be as highly anticipated. Heading along to Festival Hall for the first time ever (gee, where have I been living?), I was immediately immersed in the pop sounds of Melbourne’s own Snakadaktal. Releasing their debut album Sleep in the Water last week, they are set to play at the Wool Exchange on the 23 rd. Unearthed by triple j a few years ago they are definitely worth checking out if you haven’t already. Finally the time came for Alt-J to take the stage and the crowd was whipped into a singing frenzy as the band played the majority of tracks off their album. One of the surprise packets from their set was their cover of Kylie Minogue’s ‘Slow’. Highlights for me included ‘Tessellate’, ‘Breezeblocks’ and ‘Dissolve Me’. If you missed out on snapping up tickets this time around, be quicker next time! By Tex Miller
Dead Letter Circus
Josh Pyke
Pluto Jonze
The Catalyst Fire
The Beginning and the End of Everything
Eject
UNFD The Catalyst Fire, the second offering from Brisbane’s Dead Letter Circus follows on from their highly successful debut This is the Warning, which was voted as one of the greatest Australian albums of all time by Triple J. Following on from such an accolade must be a hard task, but DLC have nailed it on this release. Thundering drum and bass lines are present throughout all of these tracks, which focuses on the signature sound the band has made over the past couple of years. The band has played in Geelong, three times before and with the release of this record is heading back to town to play at the Wool Exchange on August 30. The single ‘Lodestar’ has been doing the rounds on Triple J for a few months now and I think that if you’ve been waiting patiently for this release, you won’t be disappointed. Highlights for me include ‘Say Your Prayers’, ‘The Cure’ and ‘Lost Your Leaders’, and if you’re after a polished and powerful disc, you’d be hard to look past The Catalyst Fire. This album definitely helps shake the cobwebs out and having been produced by the legendary Forrester Savell, I can’t wait to see what the next chapter of DLC brings, but until then, head to the Wool Exchange to see one of the Brissy’s hardest working rock bands. By Tex Miller
Stop Start
Ivy League Records Josh Pyke sits in that unfortunate spot between real mainstream success and indie favourite. He’s too popular to be ‘cool’, but not popular enough to be ok with that. He’s no-one’s favourite artist, despite being incredibly talented, and always seems to fall between the cracks. Everyone likes him, but they like someone else just a little bit more. It’s unfortunate, as he has some fantastic tracks such as ‘Sew My Name’, ‘The World Is a Picture’ and, of course, ‘Middle of the Hill’. He has an uncanny ability to write these great pop songs; he just never seems to take off. Unfortunately, The Beginning and the End of Everything isn’t going to change that. The great lyrics are there, the pop hooks are there; it’s just all kind of the same. Not in an AC/DC ‘they have twelve albums that sound exactly the same’ way, more in the way that he has his style, his comfort zone, and everything is within that zone. There’s enough variety that we don’t get sick of him. It’s a solid outing by Pyke; the highlights are the title track, ‘Leeward Side’ and ‘Feet of Clay’. Unfortunately, I don’t really hear anything that grabs me quite the way that ‘Middle of the Hill’ did, and that really hurts this album. However, there is enough good here that I suggest you buy the album, if not the singles.
Barring the title track, I was lucky enough to see all these songs live before hearing the studio versions. I didn’t really know who Pluto Jonze was; he was just the support act for They Might Be Giants, but I was quite impressed. I just had to get a hold of the album, and I was not let down. Fortyfive minutes of synth-laden, theremin-featuring pop-rock fun, without doubt the high point of the album is ‘Hispedangongonajelanguiro (Capiche?)’, which has potential as the new generation’s ‘Supe rcalifragilisticexpialidocious’. You can dance to it, you can sing along to it, eventually, and it’s just so absurd that it’s fun. Another high point is the title track, ‘Eject’, which you’ve probably heard on the radio. It’s the one where most of the vocals are done by a computergenerated voice. However, it has a good beat and the chorus is ridiculously catchy. There are shades of Imogen Heap’s ‘Hide and Seek’ in the over autotuned opening to ‘Erasure (Let Your Love Go)’, and the beat is pure nineties. It doesn’t quite work; the low point in what is otherwise a fantastic debut for the Redfern-based Lachlan Nicolson. Buy it if you like pop music – the good kind, not the terrible kind. By Cameron Brogden
By Cameron Brogden
The World’s End by Anthony Morris
It’s safe to say that, if you’re of a certain mindset, The World’s End is the most highly anticipated movie of 2013. The long-awaited third instalment of the “Cornetto Trilogy” from writer / director Edgar Wright and writer / actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, it sees the trio returning to the distinctly UK style of genre-based comedy that had them riffing on zombies with Shaun of the Dead and taking on action clichés and creepy country villages in Hot Fuzz. This time around the story involves a group of old friends brought back together by Gary (Pegg) to re-attempt a pub crawl that defeated them as teens – only this time there’s something more sinister than extreme drunkenness threatening to bring their night to a premature end… According to Wright, the idea for The World’s End had been brewing for some time. “It started when I was last in Australia six years ago. We were flying from New Zealand to Australia. I had the germ of the idea on the plane and started talking to Simon about it at the baggage carousel in Sydney. I had written this script when I was 21 about going on this pub crawl when I was a teenager, and it was very silly and glorifying the pub crawl, and when I started to think about it again I thought it might be better if it was about adults trying to recreate their glory days. “So we talked about it, and we both had the bittersweet experience of going back to our home towns and feeling – deliberate pun – alienated. I’m glad we didn’t write it six years ago because in that gap of going away and making separate films and coming back together again we reunited the same way that the friends in the film reunite – over that six years we had amassed a lot more material for our characters.” Gary is a bit of an unusual lead in that he’s not exactly someone you’d want to emulate, or even spend time with, but according to Wright that ambiguity helped with the comedy. “I think that some of the comedy in the movie comes from the fact we’re never black and white with the themes, we’re sort of in this grey area where you can agree or disagree with the goodies and the baddies. We tried to present both sides of the
when&where: The World’s End is in cinemas now argument where Gary King, Simon’s character, is like this walking car crash of a man yet when it comes down to it you’re going to be on his side.” Adds Pegg: “It’s all about freedom, and the price of freedom – the fact is the threat in the film is one of harmony and peace, it just comes at the expense of control, and whether or not we sympathise with Gary because he’s claiming the right for Earth to be a fuckup [laughs].” It wouldn’t be a pub crawl without a pub brawl, and Wright’s recent experience filming Scott Pilgrim vs The World shines through in the almost but not quite over the top fight scenes. For Frost, doing the fights was a chance to re-team up with Melbourne-born stunt coordinator Brad Adams. “I worked with Brad with a film we did just before World’s End called Cuban Fury, and there was some wire work he was trying to get me to do but I never really liked doing it. “I never really committed to it, and I think he could see I wasn’t into it, and on the day when I was meant to do it on set I pulled loads of neck muscles so I couldn’t do
it, and he gave me this odd look that said, ‘I see you’re that kind of guy’. And I wasn’t. I wanted to do it, so when I got the chance to make amends with this and show him I did want to do it, it was a great opportunity. It’s not just punching things. It’s working with Brad and Edgar to create these long, beautiful, balletic fights.” Hollywood is increasingly moving towards franchises and spin-offs, but all three agree their films are designed to stand alone and on their own. Says Pegg: “Sequels are often, you know, just an exercise in money making. A lot of films that have reiterations of themselves are simply trying to capture what the first one did for monetary reasons. I won’t name any names, but there are plenty of examples that spring to mind right away. “There was no point making a Shaun of the Dead sequel because that story ended, and to continue it wouldn’t have had any artistic merit. And I think the point of Hot Fuzz, it’s a film about those guys getting to that point where they become those cops; making a film about them being those cops would be less interesting. So both those films, for us, didn’t merit sequels, and it was far more interesting for us to make
tonal sequels or thematic sequels than it was just to do the same thing again. Of course people will go see sequels. They want to see what they’ve seen before. Familiarity is very easy to grasp, but I think audiences should be challenged.” The night before this interview the trio had been at Melbourne’s Astor Theatre hosting a screening of Shaun of the Dead in front of a sell-out crowd. For Wright, getting to make a film that people still want to see almost a decade after it first hit cinemas is a humbling experience. “I think we feel fortunate that the movies that we’ve made, people still want to see them on a big screen with a crowd. There are some films that are hugely successful, but once they leave cinemas they’re never seen on a big screen again. They just burn out on general release. It’s very nice that over the years with the films, they keep playing in rep and people keep showing up. Like last night there was what, over eight hundred people in that place? For a film that’s nine years old, that’s fantastic.”
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grogwatch Usually when I want to be horrified by just how rubbish television can be I tune into some locally-produced drama series because … well … if I get started on that we’ll be here all week, but over the last month or so I’ve found myself seeing large chunks of Under the Dome, and excuse the bad language but holy moly guacamole. Aren’t we currently living through what’s been termed a Golden Age of American television drama? And don’t answer that because yes we are, and yet even when shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men and Game of Thrones and Justified and Hannibal and, oh I don’t know, every other show on television is pretty much kicking goals all day every day, the biggest ratings smash hit of the American television year involves a bunch of dipsticks running around under a giant fishbowl. Where’s the drama in that? “Oh bugger, we’re all stuck together in this small town … just like every single other television show ever being made. You don’t see Walter White off Breaking Bad suddenly smack himself in the forehead and go ‘of course – pack our bags honey, we’re moving to Canada’, even though if he did that then that would literally solve every single one of his current problems. Seriously, we’re talking here about a television show where its big dramatic hook that’s meant to bring you back week after week is that the cast can’t leave the show. What’s next, a blockbuster television series based around the idea that the people on it are made-up characters that are being played by actors? Yeah, obviously there’s more to it than that: having everyone trapped under a giant impenetrable dome means that it’s impossible to introduce new characters once the old ones start getting played out. I’m not sure if it’s possible to express in print just how sarcastic I’m being with this next line, so
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enough brain damage that you actually forget you read the book in the first place.
just imagine it’s being delivered by me while I’m rolling me eyes and sighing heavily: that’s a real plus, you guys. Oh sure, they’ll find ways to introduce new characters by season three or four – considering the show’s been doing so well in the US they’ve already renewed it for a second season; it’s safe to assume this sucker is going to run at least as long as Lost did – but unlike every other show on television where new people can just, you know, turn up, here they’re either going to have to make a massive and therefore lame bit about how they managed to arrive (did the Dome shut off? Are they ghosts? Psychic projections? Evolved from a science project that was left unattended?) or give some totally hilarious explanation along the lines of “oh hi Uncle Jeb, I’m really surprised we never mentioned you over the last two years but you’ve been in the background all along, obviously”. Even Lost never managed to pull that one off – they were constantly adding new outsider characters rather than developing any of the passengers they had wandering around in the background after the original crash because even they knew suddenly focusing on background characters is both dumb and way less exciting than having mysterious newcomers turn up. Only here they can’t turn up because the whole point of the show is THEY’RE CUT OFF FROM A REGULAR SUPPLY OF MYSTERIOUS NEWCOMERS. Before I go any further, I should fill you in on a little secret: I’ve read the book. Okay, I haven’t actually “read the book”, but I did flip to the end while looking at the book in a store – screw you internet, you can’t skip to the end of books on Amazon – because when you’re talking about pretty much everything Stephen King’s written since, oh, let’s say It, you’re talking about 800 pages worth of time-suck that more often than not leads directly to an ending that’ll make you throw the book at the wall as hard as humanly possible in the desperate hope that it’ll bounce directly back at you, belt you in the head and cause
See, I’d heard Under the Dome was actually pretty good, despite having the exact same plot as The Simpsons Movie, and I’ve always had a soft spot for Stephen King – right up until I found out he’d written all the books of his I liked while he was so off his nut on drugs he can’t even remember writing them, which kinda means I was actually a fan of the drugs rather than him, and now I really wish cocaine would hurry up and write a sequel to Pet Sematary – so I figured It’d give it a shot once I made sure that the ending wouldn’t, well, you know… And then it turned out that the ending (which I won’t spoil because if I told you how it ended you really would not believe me) was pretty much the stupidest thing I’ve read up to, and including the stuff, I’ve written myself. Yeah yeah yeah, I know the whole point of the book is the characters and how the drama plays out and the whole idea of a community being under pressure rather than the Dome itself, but come on: if you wrote a book about a giant magical invisible dome that covers an entire small town, it is pretty much part of your job description to come up with a decent reason as to why the Dome turned up in the first place. It doesn’t have to be an awesome reason either, just so long as it kind of makes sense and is moderately plausible because, you know, the Dome isn’t the point of the story, right? Apart from the book being called Under the Dome, and the Dome being this huge giant mystery and the whole point of the book and everything, of course. So anyway, you know the guys making the television version are kind of struggling because the show has already become this runaway hit so obviously nothing big or dramatic can happen because they’ve got to stretch this sucker out for a whole bunch of seasons. This isn’t automatically a bad thing either – remember, the story’s about the characters – so settling in to get to know the cast would be a top-notch idea right about … what’s that? You’d rather make every single episode about some massive drama that causes everyone under the Dome to act like nutcases? I mean one week it was “oh no, they’re going to fire a massive missile at The Dome, we’re all going to DIEEEEE” – even though nothing else had managed to make even a scratch on the Dome so you’d kinda think running around like total lunatics was a bit premature – then the next week it’s “oh no, all the water has
been contaminated and now we’re going to DIEEEEE”, even though someone was actually drowning in a basement from a burst water pipe a few weeks back which would seem to suggest that there’s at least a basement full of water out there somewhere they could maybe drink. And then it started raining inside the Dome, which seems to suggest they’re basically in a giant greenhouse so we should all look forward to everyone stifling in the heat and humidity a few episodes from now. But then of course there’d be some magic resolution of that as well by the end of the episode too. not saying I want to the show to descend into cannibalism, though obviously that’d be awesome and also totally logical. What I am saying is I want the show to stop messing around with lame developments that make no sense and having the townsfolk act exactly like the townsfolk from The Simpsons – clearly the solution to every problem or issue on both shows involves a city-wide riot – and start coming up with cool developments that make no sense. Why not have the Dome sink to the centre of the Earth and get attacked by Mole people? Why not have some kind of horrible global catastrophe happen that wipes out all life on Earth apart from the people under the Dome, and suddenly the series becomes about trying to find a way to keep the Dome going? Why not have the Dome suddenly take off with the townspeople inside and turn into some kind of spaceship exploring the galaxy, but no-one ever mentions it or makes a big deal about it because they still can’t leave the Dome, so you still have the same old boring crappy plots about psychic kids and mysterious loners and nutcases and that guy from Breaking Bad walking around going “oh man, this really is going to be the show they remember me for, isn’t it?”, only far off in the background of all these boring scenes we occasionally see all these amazing and weird and psychedelic backdrops as the Dome travels across the galaxy? Or just have some guy let off a massive fart and everyone else suffocates. It’d still make more sense than the ending in the book. Tony “The people outside the Dome should totally just cover it with dirt and forget about it” Montana
QUESTION:
If you were to have a beer, what would be your beer of choice?
Fluent Form
Mark Hunter
Andy Szekeres
J Heasy
(Melbourne Hiphop Artist)
(Chimaira)
(Midnight Juggernaut)
(Chinese Whisperer)
Corona
A local beer out of Cleveland called ‘Great Lakes Christmas Ale’
I’m obsessed with beer! My go to drink is Coopers Red or a Belgium beer Leffe Blonde.
Carlton Draught, without a doubt!
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS
CUB SCOUTS & OKENYO _______________ THURSDAY 26 SEPTEMBER
BARWON CLUB, GEELONG _______________
SATURDAY 28 SEPTEMBER
KAROVA, BALLARAT _______________
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