Beat Magazine #1451 by Furst Media

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IN THIS ISSUE

HOT TALK

TOURING

COLD WAR KIDS

WHATS ON, CHINA UP CLOSE

ART OF THE CITY, THE COMIC STRIP

YANG FUDONG: FILMSCAPES, I LOVE GREEN GUIDE LETTERS

HEY FRANKIE page 41

KÖLSCH

BEAT EATS

TV ON THE RADIO

JIMMY CLIFF

AINSLIE WILLS, COLLARBONES

T V ON THE RADIO page 36

THE WILLIE WAGTAILS

BENJAMIN BOOKER

HOUSE OF LAURENCE, HEY FRANKIE, LOONEE TUNES

SLEEPWAVE, GERARD WAY

CORE/CRUNCH

MUSIC NEWS

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BENJAMIN BOOKER page 40

3 NEWTON STREET RICHMOND, VICTORIA 3121 Phone: (03) 9428 3600 Fax: (03) 9428 3611 email: info@beat.com.au www.beat.com.au BEAT MAGAZINE EMAIL ADDRESSES: (no large attachments please): Gig Guide: online at beat.com.au email gigguide@beat.com.au - it’s free! Club Listings: online at beat.com.au email clubguide@beat.com.au - it’s free! Music News Items: music@beat.com.au Artwork: art@beat.com.au Beat Classifieds 33c a word: classifieds@beat.com.au PUBLISHER: Furst Media Pty Ltd. MUSIC EDITOR: Cara Williams ARTS EDITOR / ASSOCIATE MUSIC EDITOR: Tyson Wray

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HIP HOP KARAOKE NUMBER 3 Anywhere’ Single Launch with special MAGIC BONES ‘Anytime, guests PRETTY CITY and FOOD COURT with ALBRECHT LA’BROOY and CITIPOWER djs HEANEY & SAM ‘BBE’ Tour with COCOA NOIRE (Live), DJS KUYA, BENNY INKSWELL BADGE, RAAGHE

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HOT TALK

THE BIGGEST IN INTERNATIONAL & NATIONAL NEWS

For all the latest news check out beat.com.au BOOKA SHADE Already announced as part of Stereosonic, Booka Shade have announced their only festival sideshow will be in Melbourne this December. The Berlin-based duo have been pioneering the electronic dance scene over the past decade, with the release of five studio albums. They will be returning to Australia in support of their soon-to-be-released EP Line Of Fire as part of Stereosonic, and will also be making a pit stop in Melbourne for their only headline show. Booka Shade will take over the Prince Bandroom on Saturday December 6. Tickets are available through the venue.

CATFISH AND THE BOTTLEMEN Welsh indie rockers Catfish and The Bottlemen have announced headline shows in Melbourne around their national tour supporting The Kooks. With their latest single Cocoon currently on high rotation on triple j, they’ve also had several of their singles premiered on Zane Lowe’s iconic 'Hottest Record In The World' segment, and garnered play listing on Radio 1. Check out Catfish and The Bottlemen when they headline The Hi-Fi in Melbourne on Sunday January 25. Tickets on sale through Oztix.

SUPERMENSCH: THE LEGEND OF SHEP GORDON

SINEAD O’CONNOR Already announced for Port Fairy Folk Festival, Irish superstar Sinead O’Connor has added a Melbourne show to next year’s Australian tour. Best known for her hit Nothing Compares 2 U, the notoriously outspoken singer released her tenth studio album, I’m Not Bossy I’m The Boss earlier this year. She’ll be backed by a five-piece band as she performs songs from both her new album and extensive catalogue. Sinead O’Connor will play at Hamer Hall on Wednesday March 4. Tickets through artscentremelbourne.com.au

FIREBALLS As the crazy new century rolls on with no remorse, what better way to flip the calendars than seeing Australia’s premier psychobillies the mighty Fireballs rock up and trash the Bendigo Hotel? Fireballs will be joined by sharpie band City Sharps and the new project from the Manic Pistoleros rhythm section, Trauma Boys alongside Run the Reds. It all goes down at the Bendigo Hotel on Wednesday, December 31 from 8pm. Tickets are $20+BF available through Oztix.

The 2013 documentary, Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon, is coming to ACMI. Directed by Mike Myers, the film follows Gordon’s illustrious career as a talent manager, featuring interviews with the likes of Alice Cooper, Michael Douglas, Willie Nelson and Sylvester Stallone. Supermensch has screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival and won the audience award for best documentary at the 2014 Sarasota Film Festival. It will screen at ACMI from Saturday December 27 to Tuesday January 13.

SOUNDWAVE Soundwave have come out all guns blazing with a huge second lineup announcement. The festival has added an avalanche of new acts to the 2015 bill – including Animals As Leaders, Bayside, The Devil Wears Prada, Dragonforce, Evergreen Terrace, Fucked Up, He Is Legend, Killer Be Killed, Le Butcherettes, Lower Than Atlantis, Nonpoint, One Ok Rock, Sleepwave, Twin Atlantic and The Wonder Years. Furthermore, it has been revealed that there will be a third announcement before Christmas. Soundwave 2015 will take place in Melbourne on Saturday February 21 and Sunday February 22 at the Flemington Racecourse.

Q&A

BaR

FRANK YAMMA AND ARCHIE ROACH (PICTURED) ARE JUST TWO OF THE ARTISTS PERFORMING AT RIVERS TO RECOGNITION.

WedneSdAy 3 deCember

Open Mic

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christOpher sprake Band Carolyn oates and Siberian banana Co. fridAy 5 deCember

Happy Hour from 4 till 7

Brendan FOrward (Solo blueS) tHen:

rOY MackMOnkeY with Junior danger, Stone revival and two Headed dog SAturdAy 6 deCember

karlY Jewell & Band motor man & little House Godz SundAy 7 deCember

winter sun

death of art and hollow drums After Work HAppy Hour from 4pm, $5 drinkS, WedneSdAy, tHurSdAy, fridAy

160 Hoddle St AbbotSford BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 18

Rivers To Recognition

With Mayor of Hobsons Bay Cr Colleen Gates Please tell readers about Rivers to Recognition how did the concept form and what are the aims of the concert? It began when a group of local residents, through GetUp OutWest, thought about the concept of a Rock for Recognition concert for the western suburbs and Hobsons Bay. We had some initial conversations but actually resourcing and delivering the concert was always going to be difficult without partnerships and other help. A conversation was started and a number of other councils became interested. The aim of the concert is simple: to celebrate good music, to celebrate culture, and to celebrate the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples as the First Australians. You’ve got an incredible lineup for the show, which features Archie Roach, Frank Yamma, Radical Son and more. Why the choice to make the concerts free? The lineup is indeed incredible and thanks should go to Jill Shelton, Roach’s manager. Shelton’s been extremely helpful in securing some of the best contemporary artists in Australia. By collaborating, we’ve been able to share the costs and make it free

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because we want as many people down there as possible. It’s about making music accessible to everyone. It’s also about the richness of Indigenous culture and it’s about bringing the recognition of Aboriginal Australians to the forefront of our minds. Music is such a great way to do that. How have you worked with Reconciliation Victoria and other City Councils for this event? When we first got together we talked about a concert and a few other opportunities - but as they say, from little thing big things grow. Now, we’re planning community forums and educational events as part of the Rivers to Recognition initiative. Originally the main theme was constitutional reform but we soon realised that it was much more than that. That’s what we mean by Rivers to Recognition. It’s about the confluence of several rivers – a confluence of culture, ideas, people and good music. The free RIVERS TO RECOGNITION concert takes place this Sunday December 7 at Commonwealth Reserve, Williamstown from 1pm to 6pm.

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FREE SHIT AUSSIE DISPOSALS

Summer’s coming which means it’s officially festival season. Meredith, Falls, Beyond The Valley, NYE on the Hill, Golden Plains, the list goes on. If you’re spending all of your hardearned cash on tickets, mosquito repellent, food and grog, then you might need a hand with camping supplies. Luckily for you, we’ve teamed up with Aussie Disposals to give away some of their killer four-piece budget festival packages. Featuring a Hi-Country Bourke dome tent, eco-friendly single velour air bed, Hi-Country resort chair and a Hi Country Ranger sleeping bag, we’ll have you camping in style (and on the cheap). All you need to do to is let us know what you’ll be spending your extra festival dollars on if you win one. Head to beat.com.au/freeshit to win. You may receive marketing material from Aussie Disposals by entering this competition.

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BEN HOWARD Alongside his Bluesfest duties, Ben Howard will journey down to Melbourne when he visits Australia next year. Most recently here for Splendour In The Grass and a run of sideshows, the Mercurynominated English singer/songwriter has just sold out two performances at London’s iconic Alexander Palace. He’s currently touring on the back of his sophomore record I Forget Where We Were. Catch him at Margaret Court Arena on Tuesday March 31. Tickets through Bluesfest.

THE HARPOONS

Charles Bradley will be bringing funk, soul and his remarkable story to The Corner Hotel on Wednesday April 1 2015. Along for the ride will be his all-star band, comprising of members of The Dap Kings, The Menahan St Band, Budos Band and others. Bradley returns to Australia in 2015 as part of the celebration of the release of his second album Victim of Love: an offering of gratitude to his fans and supporters, packed with joy and broader musical scope, including experiments with psychedelic soul The Temptations explored in the early ‘70s. Tickets available through The Corner Hotel.

GOODLIFE

After an incredible year for Melbourne legends The Harpoons, the band has announced some final shows to close out 2014. The band will be performing a headline show at Hugs & Kisses on Thursday December 18 with support from Totally Mild, Queen Magic & DJs Martin King and Rainbow Connection. Once they’ve wrapped up the year with this Chrissy gift, the band will be performing at Meredith Music Festival and having a big one at Camp Nong on New Years Eve and New Years Eve at Bruzzy’s Farm on NYD.

CHARLES BRADLEY

COUNTING CROWS Counting Crows have announced they'll return to Australia for a run of headline dates around the country. As well as tracks from their recently released seventh album, the band will also play hits from throughout their 21-year career. Counting Crows will take over the Palais Theatre on Saturday April 4. Tickets are on sale now through Ticketmaster.

BOXING DAY AT THE TOTE Bone Soup and The Tote are putting on a killer Boxing Day BBQ featuring Tonstartssbandht, Mangelwurzel, Baptism Of Uzi and Premium Fantasy, along with snags, (vego & meat), fritters, bread, smiles and, of course, beer. It all goes down Friday, December 26 at The Tote. $20 entry from 6pm.

The world’s largest under 18s festival, Goodlife, is back for 2015. The massive lineup includes Avicii, Bliss N Eso, Martin Garrix, Afrojack, Will Sparks v Timmy Trumpet v Joel Fletcher, Havana Brown, BlasterJaxx, Allday, Carnage, Frontliner, Tigerlily as well as Some Blonde DJ, Slice n Dice, Uberjak’d and more. There’ll be a meet & greet photo booth, providing punters access to Mark Salling (Glee), Charlotte Crosby (Geordie Shore), Tyler Blackburn (Pretty Little Liars), and Ray Meagher (Home & Away). There’s also a theme park, sports zone, an outdoor cinema and more. It all goes down Monday March 9 at Flemington Racecourse. The event is strictly 13-17yrs.

LIKE US THEESPYSTKILDA

04 DEC FRI

05 DEC SAT

06 DEC

SUN

07 DEC

LITTLE BASTARD Little Bastard will hit the road this summer for a run of headline shows in support of their new single and video clip, Desert Roller. The single is taken from their critically acclaimed self-titled debut, which also picked up a nomination at the 2014 AIR Awards for Best Independent Blues & Roots Album. The upcoming tour will mark their last jaunt before they head back into the studio to work on their next record. Catch ‘em on Thursday February 19 at Northcote Social Club. Grab tickets from the Northcote Social Club’s website.

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SHED ZEPPELIN, SPOONFUL + PHIL PARA FROM 6PM.

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CHRONIXX

F R I 1 9 D EC

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F R I 2 6 D EC ( B OX I N G DAY )

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MITCH POWER & THE SOUL ASSASINS

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J U ST A N N O U N C E D

FRI 23 JAN

NOISECONTROLLERS SUN 25 JAN

CATFISH & THE BOTTLEMAN FRI 6 FEB

SHAKE THE DUST FEAT. DESERT DWELLERS + MORE

KYNETON MUSIC FESTIVAL

AUGIE MARCH

Indie rock favourites Augie March have announced a special show for next year at the Melbourne Recital Centre. The nearly two-and-a-half hour show will see the five-piece treat fans to songs from across their 17-year career as well as their new album, Havens Dumb. Released in October, the LP marked the band’s fifth studio album, featuring lead single After The Crack Up. Augie March will play in the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall at the Melbourne Recital Centre on Friday April 15. Tickets are available from the venue.

THU 19 MAR

DAVID ELLEFSEN OF MEGADEATH

The third annual Kyneton Music Festival is set to return Friday 20 and Saturday 21 February 2015, blending its relaxed country town setting with an amazingly talented and diverse lineup of artists, recently announced acts include Harmony, Laura Jean, Money for Rope, Little Bastard, Tully on Tully and Cherrywood. The full lineup so far is available online. A full festival weekend pass is only $70, plus day passes and youth passes are also available. Children under 12 are free. The Kyneton Music Festival is one jam packed fun weekend of music. For tickets and more information please visit www.kynetonmusicfestival.com.au

NAS

PANTHA DU PRINCE CO M I N G S O O N WED 10 DEC

JAMES HOLDEN

THU 11 DEC

THE WAR ON DRUGS SOLD OUT

SAT 13 DEC

THU 22 JAN 18+ & U18

B-BOY CHAMP TOUR

SAT 24 JAN U18 & 18+ SHOWS

KERSER

THY ART IS MURDER

FRI 30 JAN

FRI 19 DEC

TUE 03 FEB

KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD SAT 20 DEC

DEAD LETTER CIRCUS MON 5 JAN

COLD WAR KIDS TUE 6 JAN

THE BLACK LIPS THU 08 JAN

TYCHO

SAT 10 JAN

GLASS ANIMALS THU 15 JAN

BLUE KING BROWN FRI 16 JAN

MARDUK

EYEHATEGOD MAC DEMARCO WED 04 FEB

MAC DEMARCO SOLD OUT

THU 05 FEB

BEN FROST THU 12 FEB

The legendary Nas has announced a one-night-only sideshow alongside his appearance at Sugar Mountain. As with every performance on his five-date Australian tour, the New York MC will perform 1994’s Illmatic in full. 20 years after its release, the album is largely considered to be one of the greatest hip hop LPs of all time. Even more, this year’s widely acclaimed documentary, Time Is Illmatic, will be released in Australia to coincide with the tour. Nas will hit The Forum on Sunday January 25. Tickets on sale through Ticketmaster.

MATT ANDERSON Canadian blues guitarist and singer/ songwriter Matt Anderson has announced a run of headline shows alongside his appearance at Woodford Folk Festival. He’ll return to Australia with his new album, Weightless, which was released earlier this year. Andersen’s six-date tour will see him play Woodford Folk Festival over New Year’s before he makes his way down the east coast. He’ll be joined by Frank Sultana. Catch Matt Andersen at the Flying Saucer Club on Saturday January 10 and the Thornbury Theatre on Sunday January 11.

WOMADELAIDE 2015 WOMADelaide has revealed its final instalment for the 2015 festival of music, art and dance. Architects of Air present their extraordinary luminarium Exxopolis; A dazzling maze of winding paths and soaring ten metre domes lit with dancing hues and saturated colours throughout. Also joining the festival is Artonik’s, Colour of Time; an interactive homage to India’s traditional Holi festival. Australia’s acclaimed reggae, hip hop and dance hall producer Mista Savona will take to the stage, joined by his full band plus Jamaican root signers, Prince Alla & Randy Valentine as well as Sydney’s nine-piece brass ensemble HiTops Brass Band Featuring Shazza T, DJ Spooky, Invisible Cities, Theo Parrish, Brokers, How Green, Sebastian Vivian, Urtekk and VJ Levon Hudon. Finishing off the 2015 program is Taste the World, a celebration of the delicious food and fascinating culture of WOMADelaide’s artists. WOMADelaide will be held from Friday March 6 to Monday March 9 in Adelaide’s Botanic Park. For tickets and event information visit Womadelaide.com.au.

OBLIVIANS In their 21 years of existence, Oblivians have never made a trip to our shores, but all of that is about to change when they make their maiden voyage Down Under next March. The garage punk legends will play headline shows in Sydney, Brisbane, Geelong, Hobart, and three nights in Melbourne. They’ll also make an appearance at Golden Plains, in which Aunty Meredith herself declared them as “the holy grail of modern day garage punk.” Oblivians will hit The Tote on Wednesday March 11, Thursday March 12 and Friday March 13. A season pass for all three shows is available for $90, which includes a bonus one-off exclusive Oblivians desgin screenprinted on your choice of a poster or t-shirt. Tickets are on sale now at oztix.com. RaRa

MODE SELEKTOR FRI 20 FEB

TINASHE

STEP

FRI 27 FEB

The Society of Tastemakers & Elegant People (STEP) have announced their first event for 2015, aptly titled ‘The Artist’. After a successful run of industry focused events, ‘The Artist’ will take on the more personal elements of being a musician, like songwriting and inspirations, as well as tackling the logistics, such as touring and getting heard. Moderated by Nick Clarke, the panel consists of some of the most exciting new voices in Australian music – Chela, Oscar Key Sung, Banoffee and Remi and his collaborator Sensible J. Performing on the night will be RaRa and friendships. It all goes down at The Toff in Town on Wednesday January 21. Tickets are $10 online and $15 on the door if still available. Doors at 7.30pm. Panel from 8pm. Performances from 9pm.

DELTRON 3030 TUE 03 MAR

SHARON VAN ETTEN FRI 06 MAR

PARQUET COURTS

TUE 20 JAN

JAH PRAYZAH TIX + INFO THEHIFI.COM.AU 125 SWANSTON ST, MELBOURNE

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 20

Like Junk

How would you describe your music? We’ve been called all sorts of things over the years - some good, some bad. A reviewer recently described us as “experimental noise punk.” That works for me. Where did you record your LP, The Creatures Voice? In North Perth at Cellar Sessions with Mr Max Ducker. We were one of the last bands to record with him in Perth before he relocated Cellar Sessions to Melbourne.

THIS WEEK

THU 04 DEC

Time Out With

KINGSWOOD Kingswood will hit the road for a huge national tour this summer. The extensive tour will see the rock’n’rollers play capital cities, regional taverns and an all ages show as part of the Mordialloc Food Wine & Music Festival. Kingswood released their widely praised debut album, Microscopic Wars, earlier this year. They’ll hit The Forum on Friday March 13. Tickets through Ticketmaster.

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You’ve got Boris Sujdovic from Beasts of Bourbon on your new EP, how did you manage to tee that up? Boris was at one of our shows the last time we played in Melbourne. After the show he laughed and said he wanted to “nick” my band, so when we supported The Scientists for their reunion show later in the year, we nicked him instead. What’s the music scene like in Perth at the moment? Too much neo-psych. Nah, kidding. Lots of great bands, not enough venues. My favourite newish acts are Rag n’ Bone, Yokohomos and Dust. Apart from your three gigs this weekend, have you got anything else planned while you’re in Melbourne? We’re going to do a few days recording at Cellar Sessions. Not sure yet whether we’ll do a couple of singles or get started on a new album. Catch LIKE JUNK at The Tote Hotel this Thursday December 4, from 8pm, tickets are $7 on the door. They are also playing The Grace Darling on Friday December 5, $10 on the door, and The Public Bar at 2am with free entry. Limited editions of their EP No Silence will be available to purchase at all gigs.

NEW YEARS EVIE New Year’s Evie have locked in a killer lineup to let’cha hair down with. The 2014/2015 incarnation of the festival will include performances from Chela, Civic Civil, Gruntbucket, The Babe Rainbow, The Reprobettes, The Galaxy Folk, Jasmin Kaset, The Harpoons, Teeth & Tongue, Fraser A. Gorman and Hexham Vox plus DJs Manchild, Mermaid, Etta & Tilly, Sabatino, The Banger Sisters, Born Slippy and Larry Colonic Snr. It goes down from Wednesday December 31 – Friday January 2. Hit their website for more details.

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DAILY HAPPY HOUR

5.30pm - 7.30pm $10 JUGS AND FREE TAPAS

GRAVEYARD Nordic metal longhairs Graveyard will return to Australia in March 2015 for Golden Plains Festival as well as a headline show in Melbourne. Catch Graveyard at Ding Dong Lounge in Melbourne on Saturday March 7. Tickets on sale through the venue. Ruth Moody

WED 3 DEC

CONTEX

DREAM FATIGUE THE HEEBEE JEEBIES THE MIDNIGHT SOL 8.00pm / FREE

THU 4 DEC

TAM VANTAGE BAD FAMILY SEESAW 8.30pm

FRI 5 DEC

IVAN OOZE

PORT FAIRY FOLK FESTIVAL

After a gargantuan couple of months and a huge December on the cards, supporting the likes of Cypress Hill and Ice Cube and bringing in the New Year at Beyond the Valley, indie rap sensation Ivan Ooze has announced his first headline show for 2015. He’ll hit up Shebeen Band Room on Friday January 30 carting his fresh new single Trippin’. Tickets are on sale now via the venue.

Next year’s 39th Port Fairy Folk Festival has gotten even bigger. Organisers have announced nine more acts from around the globe, including Nashville’s Tom Mason and the Blues Buccaneers, Alasdair Fraser, Ajak Kwai, Ruth Moody, Perch Creek, Zeptepi, Michael Fix, Roesy and Chris Tamwoy. They’ll join the likes of Sinead O’Connor, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Richard Thompson, John Butler Trio, Charlie Musselwhite and many more. The Port Fairy Folk Festival will take place from Friday March 6 to Monday March 9. Grab tickets at portfairyfolkfestival.com

BEAUTIFUL NOISE Beautiful Noise, a tribute to the short-lived but hugely influential scene that was shoegaze, will make its Australian premiere at ACMI this January and February. Evolving from the hypnotic and moody sounds of bands like Joy Division and The Cure, the shoegaze scene developed and eventually evolved into the monstrous Brit pop movement, epitomised by Blur and Oasis. Shoegaze took the mood of the post-punk sounds and the layer-upon-layer approach of psychedelia to create a fusion of guitars, synth and heavy beats. For a decade straddling the 1980s and 1990s, and primarily centred in the UK, the period produced a range of outstanding records and musicians with the sound remaining fresh and inspiring today. Records such as The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psychocandy, Ride’s Nowhere and My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless defining the time. Beautiful Noise is screening at ACMI from Saturday January 31 until Sunday February 8.

SHOVELS & ROPE AND SHAKEY GRAVES Shovels & Rope and Shakey Graves will bring their Americana tunes to Australia next year for a co-headline tour. The tour will mark the first trip to Australia for both headliners. Shovels & Rope is made up of husband and wife duo Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent, who met when they were pursuing solo careers. The pair released their sophomore album Swimmin’ Time last year. Joining Shovels & Rope will be Shakey Graves – the stage name of Alejandro Rose-Garcia. Rose-Garcia will bring his unique blend of ‘anti-folk’ to Australia, showcasing his latest album And the War Came – due out in February. Catch Shovels & Rope and Shakey Graves at the Corner Hotel on Wednesday March 4. Tickets on sale Thursday December 4 through Live Nation.

MR SPEAKER & THE PARTY PEOPLE

PAPA G & THE STAR CATS 10.00pm

SAT 6 DEC

JUDGE PINO & THE RULING MOTIONS LOS KUMBIA KILLERS 10.00pm

SUN 7 DEC

BEN PANUCCI

LEAH SENIOR HANNAH CAMERON 7.30pm

MON 8 DEC FILM CLUB

SCREEN SECT “ALL ABOUT EVE”

(JOSEPH L. MANCEWICS, 1950) 7.00pm

TUE 9 DEC

MAKE IT UP CLUB 8.30pm

COMING SOON JIMI: ALL IS BY MY SIDE ACMI will screen the Jimi Hendrix biopic, Jimi: All Is By My Side, this summer. Starring Outkast’s Andre 3000 as Hendrix, the film details the guitarist’s milestone year in the United Kingdom three years prior to his death. Under the direction of John Ridley, Oscar-winning screenwriter of 12 Years A Slave, the film takes the audience from the lounge rooms to the recording studios of the London hipster scene. Jimi: All Is By My Side was screened at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival and South by Southwest before its UK release in August. Jimi: All Is By My Side will screen at ACMI from Saturday December 27 to Tuesday January 13.

SAT 13 DEC: THE BAND WHO KNEW TOO MUCH FRI 19 DEC: COOKIN’ ON 3 BURNERS W/ KYLIE AULDIST 317 BRUNSWICK STREET FITZROY PH: 03 9415 9601 BAROPEN.COM.AU BOOKINGS: FANTAPANTS@BAROPEN.COM.AU

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BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 21

TOURING

WHO'S ON TOUR, WHERE AND WHEN

For all the latest tour dates check out beat.com.au

INTERNATIONAL THE DATSUNS Ding Dong Lounge December 5 BOOKA SHADE Prince Bandroom December 6 SLEEP Corner Hotel December 6, 7, Meredith Musical Festival December 12 SASHA GREY Anyway December 6 STEREOSONIC MUSIC FESTIVAL Melbourne Showgrounds December 6-7 ICE CUBE The Forum December 6, 9 JOAN ARMATRADING Melbourne Recital Centre December 8, Comedy Theatre December 15 THE LEMONHEADS Corner Hotel December 9, 10 JAMES HOLDEN The Hi-Fi December 10 UB40 Palais Theatre December 11 FACTORY FLOOR Howler December 11 CLOUD NOTHINGS Corner Hotel December 11 CYPRESS HILL The Forum December 11 JOHN LEGEND The Plenary December 12, Rochford Wines, Yarra Valley December 13 DAMON ALBARN Palais Theatre December 12 PHOSPHORESCENT Corner Hotel December 12 DE LA SOUL 170 Russell December 12 BLACKSTREET Trak December 12 MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre December 12 – 14 THE WAR ON DRUGS 170 Russell December 8, 16, The Hi-Fi December 11 T.I. AND DMX Festival Hall December 12 TY SEGALL Corner Hotel December 14, 15 THE SKATALITES Caravan Club December 17, Corner Hotel December 18 GHOSTFACE KILLAH The Espy December 19 SCOTT RUSSO AND PHIL JAMIESON Corner Hotel December 19 THE RED JUMPSUIT APPARATUS The Evelyn December 19, Arrow on Swanston December 20 (AA) BEN FOLDS Hamer Hall December 20 PHAROAHE MONCH The Espy December 26 TONSTARTSSBANDHT The Tote December 26 SALT N PEPA The Forum December 27 FALLS MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL Various locations December 28 – January 2 BIG FREEDIA Howler December 30 BEYOND THE VALLEY Phillip Island Circuit December 30 – January 1 SADAR BAHAR The Toff In Town December 31 GREG WILSON Little & Olver December 31 DERRICK CARTER New Guernica January 1 VIOLENT FEMMES MONA January 1 PENINSULA SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL Various Venues, Mornington Peninsula January 1 – 11 GRANDMASTER FLASH The Espy January 3

DANNY BROWN Corner Hotel January 4 COLD WAR KIDS The Hi-Fi January 5 THE TEMPER TRAP 170 Russell January 5 JULIAN CASABLANCAS & THE VOIDZ The Forum January 6 THE BLACK LIPS The Hi-Fi January 6 MILKY CHANCE 170 Russell January 6 JOHN SMITH Bella Union January 7 SBTRKT The Forum January 7 GEORGE EZRA Corner Hotel January 7 ASGEIR The Forum January 9 MATT ANDERSON Flying Saucer Club January 10, Thornbury Theatre January 11 WYE OAK Gasometer Hotel January 10 GLASS ANIMALS The Hi-Fi January 10 SPOON The Forum January 11 TIM HECKER Howler January 14 MARDUK AND INQUISITION Northcote Social Club January 14, The Hi-Fi January 16 SLOW CLUB Northcote Social Club January 15 JESUS JONES Corner Hotel January 15 2CELLOS Palais Theatre January 15 THE 1975 Festival Hall January 15 NELLY Sidney Myer Music Bowl January 16 THE COATHANGERS January 16 EVERYTIME I DIE Corner Hotel January 16 XYLOURIS WHITE Howler January 17 OMAR SOULEYMAN Corner Hotel January 19 SWANS Corner Hotel January 20 CAMILLIE O’SULLIVAN Melbourne Arts Center January 20 – 24 THE CLEAN Corner Hotel January 22 ICEAGE Ding Dong Lounge January 23 FAT FREDDY’S DROP Palais Theatre January 23 JAMIE T The Forum January 24 SUGAR MOUNTAIN January 24 THE KOOKS Sidney Myer Music Bowl January 24 CATFISH AND THE BOTTLEMEN The Hi-Fi January 25 NAS The Forum January 25 MEWITHOUTYOU 170 Russell January 25 ODESZA Howler January 25 FKA TWIGS 170 Russell January 28 RUSTIE Howler January 29 LYKKE LI Forum Theatre January 29 PERFECT PUSSY Corner Hotel January 29 SOHN Corner Hotel January 30 EYEHATEGOD The Hi-Fi January 30 JOHNNY MARR The Forum January 31 CHIODOS Corner Hotel January 31 BELLE & SEBASTIAN Palais Theatre February 1 LITTLE DRAGON 170 Russell February 2 THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM The Forum February 3 RAURY Howler February 3

ANGEL OLSEN Howler February 4 MAC DEMARCO The Hi-Fi February 4 JUNGLE 170 Russell February 4 HIGHASAKITE Corner Hotel February 4 CONNAN MOCKASIN Howler February 5 VIC MENSA Corner Hotel February 5 BENJAMIN BOOKER Northcote Social Club February 5 CARIBOU The Forum February 5 SUZI QUATRO Melbourne Arts Centre February 5, 6, 7 RATKING Ding Dong Lounge February 6 LANEWAY FESTIVAL Footscray Community Arts Centre February 7 STING AND PAUL SIMON A Day on the Green February 7, Rod Laver Arena February 10 SARAH MCLAUGHLAN Melbourne Recital Centre February 9 J MASCIS Melbourne Recital Centre February 13 THE ANTLERS Melbourne Recital Centre February 14 LAMB The Forum February 14 DANIEL ROSSEN Northcote Social Club February 15 PERFUME GENIUS Corner Hotel February 15 G-EAZY Howler February 16 TINASHE The Hi-Fi February 20 ROXETTE Rod Laver Arena February 20, Rochford Wines Yarra Valley February 21 PETER HOOK AND THE LIGHT Corner Hotel February 21 SOUNDWAVE FESTIVAL Flemington Racecourse February 21, 22 THE EAGLES Rod Laver Arena February 22, Hanging Rock Macedon February 28 REAL ESTATE Corner Hotel February 25 DRAKE Rod Laver Arena February 27 STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS Melbourne Zoo February 27 DELTRON 3030 The Hi-Fi February 27 FOO FIGHTERS Etihad Stadium February 28 MOGWAI Hamer Hall March 1 SHARON VAN ETTEN The Hi-Fi March 3 SHOVELS & ROPE AND SHAKEY GRAVES Corner Hotel March 4 SINEAD O’CONNOR Hamer Hall March 4 RUFUS WAINWRIGHT Palais Theatre March 4 GRUFF RHYS Northcote Social Club March 5 NENEH CHERRY Hamer Hall March 6 FIRST AID KIT Palais Theatre March 6 PARQUET COURTS The Hi-Fi March 6 MAITREYA FESTIVAL Sea Lake, Victoria March 6 – 9 WOMADELAIDE Botanic Park, Adelaide March 6 – 9 SINEAD O CONNOR Port Fairy Folk Festival March 6 – 9 GRAVEYARD Ding Dong Lounge March 7 WAYNE ‘THE TRAIN’ HANCOCK Ding Dong Lounge March 6, Caravan Club March 7 MACY GRAY Palais Theatre March 7 THE POP GROUP Corner Hotel March 7 FUTURE MUSIC FESTIVAL Flemington Racecourse March 8 65DAYSOFSTATIC Northcote Social Club March 8, 9 GOODLIFE Flemington Racecourse March 9 OBLIVIANS The Tote March 11, 12, 13 BALKAN BEAT BOX Prince Bandroom March 12 MAE Corner Hotel March 14 FOREST SWORDS Howler March 14 BILLY IDOL Margaret Court Arena March 24, A Day On The Green March 21 BEN HOWARD Margaret Court Arena March 31 KEB’ MO’ Melbourne Recital Centre March 31 CHARLES BRADLEY Corner Hotel April 1 JURASSIC 5 Festival Hall April 1 PAOLO NUTINI Palais Theatre April 1 SERENA RYDER Northcote Social Club April 2 MICHAEL FRANTI Festival Hall April 2 BETH HART Melbourne Recital Centre April 2 REBELUTION Corner Hotel April 3 GEORGE CLINTON & PARLIAMENT FUNKADELIC 170 Russell April 3 BAND OF SKULLS Bluesfest, Byron Bay April 3, Rochford Wines April 5, Corner Hotel April 7 COUNTING CROWS Palais Theatre April 4 G. LOVE AND SPECIAL SAUCE Thornbury Theatre April 4 THE CHRIS ROBINSON BROTHERHOOD Corner Hotel April 4 BIG SKY BLUES & ROOTS FESTIVAL Deniliquin, NSW April 4 – 5 THE BLACK KEYS Rolling Green April 5, Margaret Court Arena April 7 TROMBONE SHORTY AND ORLEANS AVENUE Corner Hotel April 6 RODRIGO Y GABRIELA Palais Theatre April 7 GARY CLARK JR. 170 Russell April 8 JIMMY CLIFF Corner Hotel April 8 DAVE & PHIL ALVIN Northcote Social Club April 9 THE GIPSY KINGS Palais Theatre April 10 FRANK TURNER Corner Hotel April 12 ARCHITECTS 170 Russell April 12 ATILLA Arrow On Swanston April 15 (AA), Corner Hotel April 16 (18+) THE DICKIES The Evelyn April 16 DEMI LOVATO Margaret Court Arena April 24 SAM SMITH Margaret Court Arena April 30 PALOMA FAITH Palais Theatre May 5 ANASTACIA Palais Theatre May 7 SUFFOCATION & DECAPITATED Corner Hotel May 9 ALT-J Rod Laver Arena May 10 NICKELBACK Rod Laver Arena May 15 YELLOWCARD Margaret Court Arena July 11 NEIL DIAMOND Rod Laver Arena October 27 AUDRA MCDONALD Hamer Hall October 31

NATIONAL BALLY ON HIGH FESTIVAL Northcote Town Hall December 3 – December 7 MAPPING MELBOURNE 2014 Various venues December 3 – 6 AARDVARK Flying Saucer Club December 4

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 22

WATCH INTERVIEWS, CHATS & AWKWARD SILENCES... BEAT.COM.AU/TV

PROUDLY PRESENTS Harmony

MAR

20-21

KYNETON MUSIC FESTIVAL Kyneton Mechanics Institute

DEC

19-20

XMAS EVEN Gasometer Hotel

EMMA DONOVAN Northcote Social Club December 4 AINSLIE WILLS Kew Court House December 5 ECCA VANDAL John Curtain Hotel December 5 THE BLACKEYED SUSANS The Spotted Mallard December 5, Caravan Club December 6 JANE TYRRELL Northcote Social Club December 6 GRACE Workers Club December 6 KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD Howler December 6 MARLON WILLIAMS Yarra Hotel December 6 THE SMITH STREET BAND Reverence Hotel December 6 (U18) ANDRAS & OSCAR Shadow Electric December 6 JANE TYRRELL Northcote Social Club December 6, The Forum January 9 SEMPLESIZE BLOCK PARTY - Banoffee, Milwaukee Banks and more, Howler December 7 ORSOME WELLES Workers Club December 12 JIMMY JUNK HEART Prince Public Bar December 12 DALLAS FRASCA Yah Yah’s December 12 VIOLENT SWELLS Prince Public Bar December 12 GYROSCOPE Corner Hotel December 13 JIMMY BARNES December 13, 20 NUMBER STATION St Kilda Bowls Club December 14 THE HARPOONS Hugs & Kisses December 18 NICK CAVE The Plenary December 16, 17,18 TWERPS John Curtain Hotel December 18 THE GOOCH PALMS Grace Darling December 18 XMAS EVEN Gasometer Hotel December 19, 20 DAN KELLY Shadow Electric December 20 TIM SWEENEY The Toff In Town December 20 DEAD LETTER CIRCUS The Hi-Fi Bar December 20 FIREBALLS Bendigo Hotel December 31 NEW YEARS EVE IN THE WEST FEST Yarraville Live, December 31 FRENCH FEST, FRENCH ISLAND MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL, Paradise Island December 30- January 1 NEW YEARS EVIE Tallarook, Victoria December 31 – January 2 SEA LEGS Shebeen January 9 GROUNDSWELL MUSIC FESTIVAL Lake Tyers Beach, East Gippsland January 10 SUMMER OF SOUL Mossvale Park January 10 UNIFY FESTIVAL South Gippsland January 10 – 11 LUNATICS ON POGOSTICKS Shebeen January 17 STEP The Toff In Town January 21 ALI BARTER Workers Club January 24 BEECHWORTH MUSIC FESTIVAL Madman’s Gully Amphitheatre, Beechworth January 24 BALLARAT BEER FESTIVAL City Oval, Ballarat January 24 CALIGULA’S HORSE The Evelyn Hotel, January 25 BEN FROST The Hi-Fi February 5 RIVERBOATS MUSIC FESTIVAL, Echuca-Moama February 13 – 15 KIM CHURCHILL Corner Hotel January 15 MEGAN WASHINGTON 170 Russell February 13 LITTLE BASTARD Northcote Social Club February 19 KYNETON MUSIC FESTIVAL Kyneton Mechanics Institute February 20 – 21 ANGUS AND JULIA STONE Margaret Court Arena February 27 BETWEEN THE BAYS FESTIVAL Penbank School, Moorooduc February 28 RUTH MOODY Bella Union March 4, Caravan Club March 5 PORT FAIRY FOLK FESTIVAL Port Fairy, Victoria March 6 – 9 VANCE JOY Palais Theatre March 12, 13 KINGSWOOD The Forum March 13 KYLIE MINOGUE Rod Laver Arena March 18 WHOLE LOTTA LOVE Palais Theatre March 21 ROLLING GREEN FESTIVAL Rochford Wines Yarra Valley April 5 AUGIE MARCH Melbourne Recital Centre April 15 DARREN COGGAN The Palms July 3

RUMOURS: AC/DC, ANGELS AND AIRWAVES, DOT HACKER = NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS

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EXHIBITION — 16 July – 1 November 2015 ACMI Federation Square

acmi.net.au Image: Album cover shoot for Aladdin Sane, 1973. Photograph by Brian Duff y. Photo Duff y © Duff y Archive & The David Bowie Archive.

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COLD WAR KIDS f u rt H e r f ro M H o M e By Keats Mulligan

In the decade since their formation, Cold War Kids have come a long way. Their first record saw quite a lot of success, even though it contrasted so heavily with the popular sound of the time. While sonically it seemed unusually buoyant, lyrically it was a rather probing examination of some of the darker elements of humanity. From alcoholism to incarceration to vehicular manslaughter and theft, each song from their 2006 debut, robbers and Cowards, felt like an apathetic account of a life in disrepair. It was a single dark entity floating in a sea of pastel-coloured, new wave-inspired electro-pop music.

The release of their latest album, Hold My Home, marks a shift in songwriting for the group. It’s something of a deliberate regression; an attempt to get back to basics and reconnect with the ideas and attitudes that culminated in their early releases. Rather than persevering with the extensive and laborious process of writing and recording an album as a successful band in this day and age, they’ve opted to take to songwriting as they would’ve earlier on in their careers. It’s rather hard to imagine. History’s littered with instances of these unique musical undertakings. Sounds that spring up in environments that most would think are too hostile for them to possibly flourish in. Musical lineage is ordinarily traceable. A sound is spawned from one genre, and informed by another. Sonic elements are exchanged and fused in a suitable setting. So it’s strange when you consider the insular world that Cold War Kids was born in. “We just had this big group of mutual friends in the LA area that were a bunch of artists or musicians. It was a big old group. It was good actually, because it meant you had about a hundred people that would come to your shows,” vocalist and pianist Nathan Willet recalls. “I don’t know if the scene was thriving, because it was the only scene I’ve ever really been a part of. We weren’t in LA proper, we were kinda’ in the Long Beach area, so it felt like we were maybe a little left of centre,” he says. “We didn’t feel like we were trying to be aware of anything in any mainstream kind of way. We just kinda’ had labels and booking agents come in a really organic way, which in hindsight is pretty shocking, but at the time that was just the way it happened, and looking back, I think we were insanely lucky.” Artists that make such a formidable mark on the musical landscape with their debut release are destined to be remembered for their initial impact. When such a bold impression is made, finding a way to further yourself and maintain your audience’s interest is a task perhaps harder than making breaking through in the first place. “The first record, as so often is the case with bands, is filled with songs that you’ve been playing live for a long time, for two years or so before you ever get a chance to record them,” says Willet. “So when you do go to record them, you record them quickly and it’s fun. Then beyond that, you start to learn how to make better use of your time in the studio.” Still, with growth comes growing pains, and while their inception into the world of popular music might have been organic, their development, at least at times, has been considered and purposeful. “It’s funny. You get to a point where you think, ‘Do we make changes?’, and if we do are they forced? Or BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 24

false? Or do we just get in there and start writing the songs we write and not think too hard about it?” he contemplates. “We knew who we were pretty early on, so you think, ‘How do we keep the sound this group and continue to write songs and also expand and play with the space that we’ve got?”

“ART IS A STRANGE THING, IN THAT yOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO DO IT fOR A LIvING, BUT yOU DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT IT PROfESSIONALLy, yOU DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT MAKING MONEy. IT’S NOT LIKE REAL ESTATE WHERE THE GOAL IS TO MAKE THE MOST MONEy.”

There are plenty of us that sit on the outside looking in, envious of the opportunities afforded to successful musicians without considering the responsibility that goes with it, but there are inevitable and unavoidable difficulties that come with trying to turn your passion into a professional pursuit. “From the very first record, and none of us would have anticipated this, but it has been a full time job,” says Millet. “Art is a strange thing, in that you want to be able to do it for a living, but you don’t want to think about it professionally, you don’t want to think about making money. It’s not like real estate where the goal is to make the most money.” So with some ten years experience in performing his balancing act, growing and developing their sound, Cold War Kids’ latest release, Hold My Home, has seen the group come full circle, blending the attitude that spawned their debut album with the benefits they’ve garnered from their previous successes to put together an album that attempts to build a unique contemporary sound on a foundation of traditional instrumentation. “Inevitably, the record is going to be compared to the first one because it is probably the most direct and to the point record in many ways,” he reflects. “The last record only really came out a year and half ago or so, and we wanted to get this one out quickly and embrace all the advantages of having our own studio. I think it’s part of the modern age of being in a band. You don’t wait around in between records, because with the

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technology available you don’t need labour of it in the way that you might have had to in the past. So there’s an immediacy, lyrically and musically, that’s the way we approached it, we didn’t want it to sound or feel laboured over.” Hold My Home certainly doesn’t feel laboured over; it seems a little more fluid than their other albums. The overall tone is less polished and the melodies are a little fuller and a touch less predictable. Polish has been forgone in order for the record to retain its initial character. After all, when you scrutinise every single element of a song, or an album, you run the risk of washing out or undermining the very elements that make it bold and interesting. It shares some fairly striking similarities with Robbers and Cowards and also, to a slightly lesser extent, their sophomore release Loyalty to Loyalty. There’s a strong poetic element to the lyricism present on all three records. It’s never tenuous or exhausting. It’s self reflexive, and entirely believable. Willet’s never been one to shy away from flexing his linguistic muscle. The subject matter of their music has always been one of their strengths, and in Hold My Home, it shines through once again, perhaps more than it has in other recent releases. The earnestness present in their more solemn tracks is something that can’t be manufactured: it’s the bi-product of genuine introspection; something Willet reveals is plaguing him in the time between keeping busy with music. “These are the times, between finishing a record and beginning a tour that you think about it most. They’re also the times I try not to think about it,” he says. “You get too introspective and think, ‘Who am I? What am I doing with my life?’ I have spent my whole adulthood on tour, and does that mean I’m a child developmentally because I’m not in the same workplace structure that most of my adult friends are? Do I have too much freedom? Do I not use it well enough? Should I be trying to write a book? Or spend more time feeding the homeless? Or do more good in general? Or just work harder in general? It’s hard to not ask yourself too many questions that just stunt you and prevent you from doing anything at all. So how does that affect my life? I guess sometimes my cup runneth over and I’m so stuck that it’s impossible to do anything, and other times I’m up and I’m doing all I can do with everything I’ve been given. I’m usually somewhere between those two places.” Catch COLD WAR KIDS when they play the Falls Festivals over the New Years and The Hi-Fi on Monday January 5. Falls is sold out but tickets are still available for The Hi-Fi through the venue. Hold My Home is out now on Downtown Records.

S U M M E R S A LT O U T D O O R A RT S F E S T I VA L P R E S E N T S

S U M M E R S O U N D S & C I RC U S B Y S TA R L I G H T

KID CONGO & THE PINK MONKEY BIRDS

$45 Sat 23 Jan, gates from 5pm Kid Congo Powers (of The Bad Seeds and The Gun Club) makes his first trip to Australia with long-term cohorts The Pink Monkey Birds for a night of raw, sonic ambrosia featuring a heady mix of fuzz guitars, New Orleans drum beats and bass lines dripping with soul.

SCOTCH & SODA

$30 Evenings, 11-15 Feb Leading us into the realm of vaudeville with their grimy charm and breathtaking acrobatics are four of Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most experienced and respected circus performers. Add the big brass gyp-hop/funk fusion stylings of the Crusty Suitcase Band, led by renowned percussionist and composer Ben Walsh; and things are going to get spectacularly messy.

Photo: Mark McNulty

PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT

$45 Fri 20 Feb, gates from 5pm Peter Hook takes over Testing Grounds with his new band The Light for an exclusive evening of hits from the two iconic bands he helped found: JOY DIVISION and NEW ORDER. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss dancing under the stars to the legendary bass sound that launched a thousand parties in the 1980s.

LAKE STREET DIVE

$45 Sat 21 Feb, gates from 5pm Pulling in familiar elements and irreverently scrambling and recombining them, Lake Street Dive is at once jazzschooled, DIY-motivated, and classically pop-obsessed. Occupying the gap between Motown soul, Sixties pop zip, and British Invasion swagger, Lake Street Dive was named one of the best bands of 2014 by Rolling Stone.

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THIS WEEK: ON SCREEN Look to the skies! This weekend Rooftop Cinema will return for their ninth cinema. Kicking things off on Saturday December 6 with David Fincher’s Gone Girl, this week will also see screenings of Guardians of the Galaxy and Hook. Their 2014/2015 program also includes a slew of special event screenings, including tributes to Robin Williams and Rik Mayall; WINONA Foma, an ode to Winona Ryder; a takeover from Collingwood VHS haven Deja-View and a double bill of Jennifer Lawrence. Head to rooftopcinema.com.au for tickets and more information.

With Tyson Wray. Got thoughts, news, gossip, complaints or cat photos? Email tyson@beat.com.au or send by carrier pigeon before Friday 12pm. China, that’s not possible. There are some docos, some Art House films, some epic narrative, some historical films… ACMI houses the Chinese Embassy’s collection of films, which means for some there will be an element of nostalgia in seeing some of the old films.” One of the featured artists is famous activist Ai Weiwei: the 2012 documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry will follow The Art of Dissent, one of four talk and film events exploring topical themes of contemporary China. China experts will examine conceptual art as an expression of freedom and discuss the way artists such as Ai Weiwei have become commentators on significant issues of modern Chinese identity. Recalling the interventions staged by the Chinese government when the Melbourne International Film Festival screened The 10 Conditions of Love in 2009, were the organisers of China up Close afraid of causing any offence? Simondsen believes informed conversation is the key to dealing with sensitive topics such as censorship and environmental issues. “We make sure the conversation is balanced,” she says. “We do address those issues and it’s important to do that in context. The activist artist Ai Weiwei- doesn’t represent all Chinese artists.” Another important artist is filmmaker Yang Fudong. All five of his films will be screened, including a special one-off screening of the artist’s acclaimed Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest (2003 – 2007). This event marks the first-ever presentation of all five films in a cinema. Matheson is especially looking forward to a screening of the work of China’s greatest film export, Jang Yimou, he of Raise the Red Lantern (1991). “His new film, Coming Home, is wonderful,” she says. “He’s still making films; he’s a powerhouse.”

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

ON STAGE The Butterfly Club will play host to the premiere of The Misadventures of Miss Bouzy Rouge this week. Featuring a sultry French burlesque chanteuse, the show will feature comical anecdotes, jazz songs, musical theatre numbers and original compositions. The Misadventures of Miss Bouzy Rouge will run from Wednesday December 3 to Sunday December 7 at the Butterfly Club.

ON DISPL AY Mambo, one of Australia’s most irreverent brands, has turned 30 years old. To celebrate this milestone, the National Gallery of Victoria will be hosting Mambo: 30 years of shelf-indulgence, an exhibition that will house the largest collection of Mambo works ever assembled and present all the ideas, key elements and oddities that have made it one of Australia’s most memorable brands. Mambo: 30 years of shelf-indulgence will open at the the National Gallery of Victoria on Saturday December 6.

PICK Of THE WEEK

CHINA UP CLOSE By Liza Dezfouli

ACMI are set to present Australia’s largest career survey of works by internationally renowned Chinese artist Yang Fudong. As part of ACMI’s special summer season, China Up Close, this world-first exhibition will showcase three seminal works by Fudong, Ye Jiang/The Nightman Cometh (2011), The Fifth Night (2010) and East of Que Village (2007). It will also feature a brand new work co-commissioned by ACMI and the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki (Auckland Art Gallery), titled New Women II. Fudong’s works explore the psychology of a new generation searching for meaning in the modern world. He addresses China-specific cultural and social issues, as well as universal themes of anxiety and disillusion in our contemporary, globalised society. Born in Beijing and based in Shanghai, Fudong was trained as a painter before emerging onto the international arts scene in the early 1990s when he began working with multichannel video installations, single-channel films and photography. His film installations draw on Asian and Western Cinema, particularly film noir and French avant-garde. Yang Fudong: Filmscapes exhibition will open as part of their China Up Close series on Thursday December 4.

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Chinese President Chinese president Xi Jinping commented during his recent visit to this country that there needs to be more imagination and ambition in the bilateral relationship between China and Australia. China Up Close, the nicely timed ACMI initiative focussing on China, could almost be considered as a response to the Chinese President’s observation. “We were in pre-production well before Xi Jinping’s visit in November!” notes Helen Simondsen, ACMI’s Public Programs Manager. “China Up Close is a great opportunity for people to look at complex issues to do with the extraordinary rise of China, of its middle class and its economy, through moving image art.” Running until March 2015, China Up Close includes a variety of specially curated programmes and events including film, screenings, panel discussion and art exhibitions for attendees to experience, and more importantly, discuss and explore contemporary Chinese culture. “The focus is on mainland China and Hong Kong. Obviously we can’t cover everything,” says Simondsen. “China’s rise is extraordinary, with the rise of the middle class and urban growth. We’re looking at important things like the extreme demographical shifts, from rural to urban life, and the effect of that on culture. Chinese culture is so complex and extraordinary; it’s amazing. The films and moving image art have been selected to provide as broad a look as possible at China now within the context of where we, in Australia, are in relation to China.” Perspectives On China Now will screen films from accomplished contemporary Chinese artists and filmmakers, Yang Fudong, Jia Zhang and Wong Karwei. “The films and the talks feed off each other,” explains Kristy Matheson, Senior Film Programmer at ACMI. “The idea is that you see the films and engage with the issues. It’s not a film festival,” she adds. “It’s a

series of films paired with talks. The selection of films is broad, from documentary to grand epic narrative cinema, to historical films, martial arts films, all with the intent to shine a light on various aspects of contemporary Chinese life. They reflect the diversity of Chinese cinema, of the various cinematic styles that have come out of there. The films look at different aspects of modern China, not just the political, and we’re not just screening documentary. For instance we haven’t done a series of martial arts before and that’s a big part of Chinese culture.” How did the programmers know where to begin when it came to choosing the films? “China has been making films since cinema began so there’s no way we can condense something that big,” replies Matheson. “We chose films that allowed us to have discussions; we’ve taken a broad approach. The country is so huge and diverse so we’re not trying to offer a snapshot of

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Luring the Tiger from the Mountain is a platform for local industry to explore the development of ChineseAustralian co-production. Featuring experts and film industry practitioners from China and Australia, the discussion focuses on the importance of the Chinese film industry in a global context. As well, the China Up Close symposium will examine contemporary video art and culture in China, and ways to deepen AustraliaChina cultural engagement. “Culture is not a separate entity from business,” observes Simondsen. “We look at how culture intersects with business in China; it’s a different perspective than the western one.” As well, China Up Close will consider the Chinese-Australian artistic experience. “People like Tony Ayers, Benjamin Law and Alice Pung are involved,” adds Simondsen. But China Up Close is not all important films and serious discussion about significant issues. On a more playful note, you can get an Augmented Manicure from Metaverse Makeovers where futuristic technology enables bling on your fingernails to interact with a phone app to do some surprisingly musical things. China Up Close will feature at ACMI from Wednesday December 3 until March, 2015. Visit acmi.net.au for more details.

PORT FAIRY

FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL 2015 PRESENTS

Sinéad O’Connor Buffy Sainte-Marie Richard Thompson • John Butler Trio Charlie Musselwhite Sharon Shannon Band • Ash & Bloom • Lake Street Dive Christine Anu • Mark Seymour & The Undertow Ami Williamson • Steve Poltz • The Black Sorrows WITH

Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas • Davidson Brothers Fiona Boyes & The Fortune Tellers • Perch Creek Frankie J Holden & Wilbur Wilde • Ruth Moody • Wagons Gordie MacKeeman & His Rhythm Boys • Shane Howard Tom Mason & the Blue Buccaneers • Whitetop Mountaineers Ajak Kwai • Chris Tamwoy • Jo Jo Smith Band • Jodi Martin Band Kamerunga • Kieran O’Connell & Shanakee • Lucy Wise Trio Lamine Sonko & The African Intelligence • Michael Fix Microwave Jenny • Sky Scraper Stan & The Commission Flats Steve Smyth • Sweethearts • The Baker Suite • The Company Tracy McNeil & The Goodlife • Trouble In The Kitchen • Zeptepi AND

All Our Exes Live In Texas • Bobby & The Pins • Catherine Britt Chris While & Julie Matthews • Hat Fitz & Cara Robinson • Himmerland Jan Preston’s Boogie Circus • Jeff Lang • Jordie Lane • Marlon Williams Maru Tarang • Roesy • The Chipolatas • The Orbweavers The Yearlings • We Two Thieves • & MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED

BOOKINGS

WWW.PORTFAIRYFOLKFESTIVAL.COM 03 5568 2227

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THE COMIC STRIP RUSSELL PETERS

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One of the biggest comedians on the planet will return to Australia early next year. In 2013, on his Notorious tour, Russell Peters set attendance records around the world. It took him to 26 countries with over 200 performances and over 300,000 fans attending his shows globally. His upcoming Almost Famous tour promises all new material and Peters’ lightning fast improv with the audience. Catch him at Rod Laver Arena on Thursday March 26.

RAW COMEDY

BAND OF MAGICIANS

CAMEO OUTDOOR CINEMA

Cameo Outdoor Cinema have announced the films that will be gracing the screen for their 2014/2015 season. The program features cult classics such as The Blues Brothers, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Pulp Fiction and E.T, as well as new release arthouse, family and blockbuster titles, including The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, Fifty Shades of Grey and Chappie. The Cameo Outdoor Cinema season will run from Thursday December 18 to Sunday April 5.

GRRL FEST

Applications to be a part of Grrl Fest 2015 are now open. Entering its third year, Grrl Fest is an event designed to celebrate and encourage women-identified artists, musicians and communities. While all genders are welcome on and off stage, ladies take the limelight. The all day and night multi-platform arts and music festival is now accepting applications for musical and cabaret performers, stall holders, food vendors and artists. Grrl Fest will take place in mid-February at a secret warehouse location. To apply, visit grrlfest.com.

Band Of Magicians, the world’s first magic supergroup, have announced they are returning to Australia this January. After scoring rave reviews at their world premiere at the 2014 Sydney Festival the foursome, made up of Justin Willman, Nate Staniforth, Justin Flom and Australia’s own James Galea, are now heading to Melbourne. Collectively the group’s members have appeared on Ellen DeGeneres, have millions of views on YouTube, have performed in more than 26 countries, been featured on TV’s 50 Greatest Magic Tricks, hosted two television shows, written a book and received a standing ovation from President Obama. Be amazed by Band Of Magicians at The Palms at Crown from Wednesday January 7 until Saturday January 17.

Tobias Manderson-Galvin

MIDSUMMA FESTIVAL

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DENISE SCOTT & FIONA O’LOUGHLIN

Denise Scott and Fiona O’Loughlin are teaming up for one hell of a Christmas show this December. Denise Scott won this year’s Barry Award for the best show at April’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival and is currently performing five sold out shows at the Sydney Opera House. Fiona O’Loughlin has won almost every award Australian comedy has to offer and once sold out six Sydney Opera House shows. Now they are getting together for one night in Melbourne. The 2014 Christmas Cracker featuring Denise Scott, Fiona O’Loughlin and MC Jeff Green will take over The Yarraville Club on Saturday December 13.

FIVE BOROUGHS COMEDY

BEYOND

Australian modern circus ensemble Circa will bring their exciting new show Beyond to Melbourne this summer. Created by Yaron Lifschitz with the Circa ensemble, Beyond comes to life on multiple stages within stages, blending circus arts like trapeze and Chinese pole with giant fluffy rabbit head costumes, Rubik’s cubes and blindfolds. The show features seven performers and a mix of showtunes, ballads and electronica. Since their formation in 2006, Brisbane-based Circa has toured 30 countries across six continents. In 2013, they performed over 420 performances to over 150,000 audience members locally, nationally and internationally. Beyond has already toured across six continents, including this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival to critical acclaim. Beyond by Circa will run at Arts Centre Melbourne from Tuesday January 13 to Saturday January 17.

Midsumma Festival, Melbourne’s premier queer arts and culture festival, has unveiled the program for its 27th incarnation. Running for three weeks in January and February, the festival will feature 141 events across 100 venues spanning exhibitions, performing arts, live music, film, literature and community events. 2015 will also mark the 20th anniversary of the Pride March. “The Pride March 20th anniversary will be a historic milestone and we are working together with the community to make it an amazing celebration,” said Midsumma Chair Aaron Hockly. Other highlights on the program include the Australian Same Sex Dancesport Championships, Midsumma Carnival, Miss Gay and Miss Transexual Australia and the Team Melbourne Sports Day. The 2015 Midsumma Festival has also announced two new festival champions: Former Australian Medical Association president and human rights speaker Professor Kerryn Phelps and 2014 Australia of the Year in Victoria, John Caldwell. Midsumma Festival attracts over 200,000 people, bringing visitors from regional Victoria, interstate and internationally. The 2015 Midsumma Festival will run from Sunday January 18 to Sunday February 8.

Registrations for Australia’s largest open mic comedy competition, RAW Comedy, are now open. A group of comedy’s most audacious experts are set to scour pubs, clubs, theatres, backyards and everywhere in between to uncover the funniest folks, judging each heat to decide who will go through to the RAW Comedy Grand Final as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April. Five minutes of new, original comedy material is all it takes - stand up, sketch, double and triple acts, musical comedy are all welcome. Registrations for Australia’s largest comedy competition open today, with heats to be held in eight states and territories across the country between January and March 2015.To register head to RAW Comedy’s website.

WHAT THE DICKENS!

Jenny Lovell and Anna Renzenbrink are joining forces for a Charles Dickens infused Christmas Show this December. What the Dickens! is improvised theatre carefully balancing cheeky audience participation, carol singing and story-telling to celebrate the classic themes of Dickens’ novels and stories - moral dilemmas, lost fortunes, found love and orphans. Anna Renzenbrink and Jenny Lovell worked together in the Impro Melbourne Ensemble for over ten years before creating Bonnet Productions. Drawn together by their mutual passion for period romance and BBC bonnet dramas, over the last three years they have successfully performed In the Parlour in various festivals including Short & Sweet, Melbourne International Comedy Festival and most the recently New Zealand Improv Festival. What The Dickens! will come to The Butterfly Club from Wednesday December 17 until Sunday December 21.

PUBLIC BAR COMEDY Tonight at the Public Bar the red hot lineups continue. They’ve got one of Australia’s legit funniest acts Harley Breen in the headline spot, “The Bloke” Chris Franklin hosting and Nova’s Nath Valvo jumping up at the Public Bar for the first time. Add in spots from Daniel Connell, Steele Saunders and Tim Clark and you’ve got one hell of a night of comedy for just $5. Show kicks off at 8.30pm sharp.

COMEDY AT SPLEEN There’s another big lineup at Comedy At Spleen this Monday. It’s always completely packed, and you can see why with another awesome bunch of comics this week. This week Rhys Nicholson hosts, plus there’s heaps of guests including Karl Chandler, Jim Brewsky, David Tulk, Gerard McCulloch and more. It’s this Monday December 1, at 41 Bourke St, CBD, at 8.30pm. It’s free to get in, but they appreciate a good gold coin donation at the door.

CYBEC ELECTRIC

Four new works from a selection of Australia’s most promising playwrights will come together for the next installment of MTC’s Cybec Electric this February. The plays by Dan Lee, Tobias MandersonGalvin, Melissa Reeves and Michele Lee will each have public, semi-staged readings by professional actors, with the assistance of directors and cover themes from Broome to a murder mystery, simulated war games and the sex-lives of Asian Australians. Cybec Electric opens with Frogs Cry Wolf, the debut play from Dan Lee inspired by his time living and working in the Kimberley. MKA’s Tobias MandersonGalvin excavates one of Australia’s most famous unsolved crimes in The Unknown Man on Somerton Beach. From Melissa Reeves comes Archimedes’ War, a black comedy about a boy playing too many video games. Closing the series is Moths by Michele Lee, a play of riotous truths, furious invention and fearless honesty, giving audiences unfettered access to the sex lives of Asian Australian 20-somethings. Cybec Electric comes to Southbank Theatre, The Lawler and VCA Art Courtyard from Monday February 9 until Saturday February 21.

Charlie Pickering (The Project) headlines Five Boroughs Comedy this Thursday night. Plus there’s also Brendon Burns (winner of Best Comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe). It’s a double headline night. It’s all happening this Thursday December 4 at 8.30pm, at Five Boroughs Comedy, 68 Hardware Lane, CBD, all for only $12. Get in early.

PEACE TRAIN THE CAT STEVENS STORY

Due to overwhelming demand, Darren Coggan will return for national encore performances of his critically acclaimed portrait of Cat Stevens in Peace Train The Cat Stevens Story, touring the country from January to August. Back in the ‘70s, Cat Stevens was the ultimate rock star. He sold more than 60 million albums, earned enough money to last several lifetimes, and enjoyed all the trappings of fame. But he wanted more out of life. So at the height of his career he shocked the world by taking his last bow. Darren Coggan takes the audience on a ride of discovery in a celebration of the life of one of the most prolific singer/songwriters of our time. Peace Train The Cat Stevens Story will come to The Palms At Crown on Friday July 3.

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I LOVE GREEN GUIDE LETTERS 150TH EPISODE SPECTACUL AR I Love Green Guide Letters, one of Australia’s most popular comedy podcasts is celebrating 150 episodes with a giant live show. With Ed Kavalee, Fiona O’Loughlin, Rhys Nicholson, Oliver Clarke, Ash Williams and Ronny Chieng already confirmed this is set to be must see show for any Melbourne comedy fan. Plus with previous surprise guests like Ryan Maloney, Livinia Nixon and Derryn Hinch who knows who else will appear? It all goes down 3.30pm on Saturday December 6 at The Last Laugh Comedy Club. For tickets and to hear previous episodes click on ilovegreenguideletters.com.

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YANG FUDONG: FILMSCAPES By Augustus Welby

From Thursday December 4 to Sunday March 15, ACMI presents Yang Fudong: Filmscapes. For the first time in Australia, the exhibition provides a comprehensive look at the work of contemporary Chinese moving image artist, Yang Fudong. “He’s a pretty extraordinary artist,” says exhibition curator Ulanda Blair. “He’s not only one of the world’s most extraordinary moving image artists, but he’s actually one of the world’s most extraordinary artists full stop, in my humble opinion.” For the duration of the exhibition, ACMI will host three of Fudong’s revered video installations, which have been brought over from ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai. The featured works are East of Que Village from 2007, The Fifth Night from 2010 and Yejiang / The Nightman Cometh from 2011. The six-channel installation, East of Que Village is the one that triggered Blair’s fascination with Fudong’s work. “I saw it at the Sydney Biennale in 2010,” she says. “It’s quite different for his work. It’s a very hard hitting, raw documentary style film installation, which was shot in a little rural village up in northern China. It basically features a pack of wild dogs mauling each other and scavenging and eating each other in this fight for survival. “It had a very lasting impact on me,” she adds. “I think it shows a different side to the story of China that we’re used to seeing in the media. It’s a reflection on those who are missing out – the victims of the current situation in China.” In contrast to this rather brutal, traumatic work, the other installations are more indicative Fudong’s signature style, which is rooted in a very beautiful 1930s noir sensibility. French avant-garde filmmakers

influence much of Fudong’s work – something of an anomaly in Chinese video art. “He started studying film at art school,” says Blair, “but he had very limited access to Western film and arthouse film, so he was reading a lot about the French avant-garde and Fellini. He talks about how he had a very vivid image of [Fellini’s] 8 ½ in his mind for many, many years before he ever watched the film – and that it was really informing his art-making and his imagery before he actually ever accessed the film.” The interpretation of this influence is particularly patent in Ye Jiang (The Nightman Cometh), which is the exhibition’s only single channel work. Meanwhile, the installation that Blair’s most excited about is The Fifth Night. “It’s a seven channel work,” she says, “which will run right down the left hand side of the gallery and basically take up half the gallery. Each screen is three metres wide. They’re really immersive, expansive works.” As well as the three seminal pieces, Filmscapes features one completely new artwork from Fudong. A fivechannel work, The Coloured Sky: New Women II was commissioned specifically for this event. “It’s a part of this new series that Yang started last

year, which is investigating the role of women and how idealised images of women in film, advertising and popular culture over the ages have been harnessed to promote particular ideas about China itself.” The first work in the New Women series was created last year and looked at the Shanghai woman of the 1930s, a sort of idealised femme fatale figure. New Women II turns the focus towards contemporary women. “I think this work is looking at the sexualisation and commodification of women in the commercial realm,” says Blair. “There’s three girls teetering on the brink of womanhood that are self-consciously preening behind these technicoloured shards of glass. Like a lot of Yang’s work, in having the glass shards the act of spectatorship becomes a very self-conscious thing. It’s a work about the politics of spectatorship and the cultivation of male fantasy. “It’s got this lurid technicolour palette,” she continues. “It’s been shot on high definition video, which is very rare for Yang. He usually shoots in 35m black and white. His choice of high definition colour video really taps into the aesthetics of advertising.” As if all of this weren’t enough, on Sunday December 14 ACMI will facilitate the first ever beginning-to-end screening of Fudong’s famed five part, five hour film epic, Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest. “We’re hoping that people will come and go,” Blair says. “You don’t have to stay for all five hours. It’s slow

cinema, it’s absolutely beautiful cinema. It’s a really rare and special opportunity to see a really famous artwork.” Evidently, a lot of Fudong’s work contains a social and politically relevant subtext. But that’s not to say the artworks are pointedly political. “He talks about not being particularly interested in confronting politics head on,” Blair explains. “He doesn’t feel that’s the place for art. He feels that art should speak to much more universal concerns. “His art is very much about his own experience and his peers’ experience growing up in this crossfire of old and new worlds. The personal is political, so it is about the inner struggles and the estrangement and disenchantment that the cultured youth feel in growing up during this time.” Beyond the political implications of Fudong’s moving image art, what chiefly recommended his work to ACMI is its reflexive and critical relationship to cinema. “His work really deconstructs what film-making is and the way that cinema toys with our emotions and creates relationships and characters. He really is a very clever, astute artist.” As part of their China Up Close series, Yang Fudong: Filmscapes will open on Thursday December 4 at ACMI. Visit acmi.net.au for more details.

I LOVE GREEN GUIDE LETTERS By Peter Hodgson

Even in these social media-driven times, the letters section of The Age’s Green Guide is a barometer of the extremes of public opinion about what’s on our TV screens and radios. It’s a reflex to pick up a smartphone and reel off a sarcastic tweet about a show or a star; it takes real, sustained pissed-offedness to write in to the paper to voice your displeasure. Comedian Steele Saunders’ podcast, I Love Green Guide Letters, is inspired by this bizarre offshoot of pop culture criticism. Every week Saunders and his cat Jerry are joined by two comedians in a discussion around that week’s complaint letters in the Green Guide (and they’ll even dip into historic complaints from days gone by). He’s about to celebrate the show’s 150th episode with a live event on Saturday December 6 but before we get to that, hey Steele, why this? “I was in a food court on a Thursday,” Saunders explains. “I love podcasting and I was trying to think of something to do. I didn’t want to just have a couple of guys just talking because that would just get lost in the scene, so I realised I needed a good hook: something a bit different that I could build a theme around. And I’ve always loved complaints, like in the local paper where they have the ‘Thumbs Up’ and ‘Thumbs Down.’ What drives people to complain? So I was reading the Green Guide in this food court and one of the letters was so petty and I was like, ‘What drove you to write this? I don’t know what your television situation is like but you must have other channels. Watch one of

those during that hour!’ And I looked around the food court to see if anyone else was reading the Green Guide because I wanted to go up to them and say, ‘Hey did you read this one?’ And noone was. Then I realised I could get my comedian friends around to talk about them and it’d be a starting point to get some comedy out of it.” So, delving into the particular quirks of Green Guide letters every week, is there a pattern? “I do know that the ones that are actually posted in are the craziest ones,” Saunders says. “From guys that work at the Green Guide, the ones that are posted in are often unpublishable for their intensity!” Recent guests have included

Jane Kennedy, Santo Cilauro, Costa Georgiadis from Gardening Australia (“That was great because he was so complained-about when he became host of the show), Justin Hamilton, Lehmo, Will Anderson, Lawrence Mooney, Ryan Maloney (Toadfish from Neighbours)… then there was a recent episode from the LA Podcast Festival. “That was amazing because for three days I didn’t have to explain what a podcast was,” Saunders jokes. “That was a real utopia for me. Explaining what my podcast was about as a bit more difficult… but it was very inspiring. Podcast fans are very dedicated and they make fan art, so it’s cool to go to three days of that. The podcasting scene is a lot bigger in America so it was very interesting to see that, and a lot of talk about sponsorships and all these ad rates and stuff. It’s interesting to see it becoming a legitimate media, because at the moment it’s such a free media. There’s no regulation, it’s just up to you to find podcasts you enjoy. Whatever your interest is, type it into iTunes and you’ll find a podcast about it and you can listen to it

CHECK OUT ALL THE LATEST NEWS, REVIEWS AND FREE SHIT AT BEAT.COM.AU

whenever you want. I listen to podcasts constantly. I’ve had to take a break from podcast-listening to do this interview!” For the live-on-stage I Love Green Guide Letters 150th episode show, Saunders will be joined by over a dozen friends including Fiona O’Loughlin, Ed Kavalee, Ronny Chieng and a number of surprises guests - but you’ll just have to wait and see who they’ll be. “They’re people you’ll definitely know from the world of television and radio. We don’t mess about. We’ve had a pretty good run of guests. It’ll just be super fun. Whether you’re a subscriber to the podcast or you’ve never even heard of podcasts before, the live shows are just raw comedy.” I Love Green Guide Letters celebrates its 150th episode with a live show on Saturday December 6 at Last Laugh Comedy Club at The AthenaeumTheatre Tickets are $20 and must be booked via ilovegreenguideletters.com (limited seats).

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 29

UPCOMING

DECEMBER

on tour PANTHA DU PRINCE [GER] Thursday December 4, The Hi-Fi BOOKA SHADE [GER] Saturday December 6, Prince Bandroom STEREOSONIC: CALVIN HARRIS [UK], TIESTO [NED], DIPLO [USA] + MORE Saturday December 6 - Sunday December 7, TBA ICE CUBE [USA] Tuesday December 9, The Forum JAMES HOLDEN [UK] Wednesday December 10, The Hi-Fi CYPRESS HILL [USA] Thursday December 11, The Forum BLACKSTREET [USA] Friday December 12, Trak DE LA SOUL [USA] Friday December 12, 170 Russell MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL: VAKULA [UKR], GHOSTFACE KILLAH [USA] + MORE Friday December 12 - Sunday December 14, Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre GHOSTFACE KILLAH [USA] Friday December 19, The Espy LIDO [NOR], SOPHIE [UK] + MORE Friday December 19, 170 Russell TIM SWEENEY [USA] Saturday December 20, The Toff In Town FLORIAN KUPFER [GER] Sunday December 21, Lounge PHARAOHE MONCH [USA] Saturday December 26, The Espy BADBADNOTGOOD [USA] Saturday December 27, Laundry Bar SALT N PEPA [USA] Saturday December 27, The Forum ANDY C [UK] Sunday December 28, Brown Alley FALLS FESTIVAL: TODD TERJE [NOR], TENSNAKE [GER], TYCHO [USA] + MORE Monday December 29 - Thursday January 1, Byron Bay BEYOND THE VALLEY: CLAPTONE [GER], ALUNAGEORGE [UK] + MORE Tuesday December 30 - Thursday January 1, Phillip Island Circuit BIG FREEDIA [USA] Tuesday December 30, Howler SADAR BAHAR [USA] Wednesday December 31, The Toff In Town GREG WILSON [UK] Wednesday December 31, Little& Olver DJ ALFREDO [ARG], MAXMILLION DUNBAR [USA], PENDER STREET STEPPERS [CAN], SCOTT FRASER [SCO] Thursday January 1, TBA ABOVE & BEYOND [UK] Thursday January 1, Sidney Myer Music Bowl DERRICK CARTER [USA] Thursday January 1, New Guerica LET THEM EAT CAKE: CARL CRAIG [USA], TODD TERJE [NOR], CASHMERE CAT [NOR] + MORE Thursday January 1, Werribee Mansion OLIVER $ [GER], CRAZY P [UK] Thursday January 1, Shed 14 GRANDMASTER FLASH [USA] Saturday January 3, The Espy DANNY BROWN [USA] Sunday January 4, Corner Hotel SBTRKT [UK] Wednesday January 7, The Forum TYCHO [USA] Thursday January 8, The Hi-Fi JOEY BADA$$ [USA], RUN THE JEWELS [USA] Thursday January 8, The Forum OMAR S [USA], DANIEL AVERY [UK] Friday January 9, Brown Alley SPACE DIMENSION CONTROLLER [UK] Sunday January 11, Lounge TIM HECKER [CAN] Wednesday January 14, Howler NELLY [USA] Friday January 16, Sidney Myer Music Bowl MISTER SATURDAY NIGHT [USA] Saturday January 17, TBA

tour rumours

Juan Atkins, Hieroglyphic Being, Vatican Shadow, Shackleton, Container, The Bug, Evian Christ, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Addison Groove, Netsky, Moodymann

news tours club snaps + more

electronic + urban + club life It’s always the music and the show. It seems a lot of DJs get a lot of superstardom, which isn’t really theirs. Essentially we’re all just playing other people’s records.” To coincide with his return to Australia, Melbourne’s Balance Music asked Kölsch to put together an 80-minute DJ mix. Balance Presents Kölsch is a journey through the maestro’s diverse taste, featuring the likes of Galaxy 2 Galaxy, Radiohead and Caribou. Shortly before the mix concludes, it unexpectedly detours into a remix of Coldplay’s A Sky Full Of Stars, which Kölsch transforms into a minimal, melancholic creeper. This sort of genre-bending is indicative of Kölsch’s attitude towards DJing. “I think it’s important that when you DJ you use the tools that you have to actually create something that is going somewhere, that is constantly moving and that has different dynamics at different times. It’s all about balance. I think it’s important for a DJ to manipulate the moods, and something has to happen. “I need the vocals, I need the melodies, I need the moods and the different intensities. Singing is super important. You get that feeling that something’s happening. My ambition is to bring that back to the table. I think it’s been lacking for a while.” Kölsch spent a fair chunk of time preparing the Balance mix, but when he’s in front of a live audience, he stays attuned to the whims of the moment. “It’s all about the vibe of the people and what feels right in that second, and nothing else,” he says. “That’s the purity and that’s the beauty of a DJ set. You can actually be flexible to accommodate what the situation demands of you and of the crowd. I think it’s so important that people indulge in the moment and let that moment be now and nothing else. That’s the beauty of life, and for me, that’s the beauty of DJing as well.”

kölsch

wo rd s / a ug u st u s we lby

Over the last 20 years, Danish DJ and producer Rune Reilly Kölsch has gone about his business using a stack of different monikers. Since stepping out from Artificial Funk – the production duo founded with his half-brother, Johannes Torpe – the Copenhagen native has varyingly gone by Rune RK, Rune, Enur and Ink & Needle. Recently, he’s been experimenting with sprightly, melodic techno, which resulted in last year’s 1977 LP, credited to Kölsch. In addition to his production pursuits, Kölsch spends his weekends crossing borders for the purpose of DJing. No matter what name he’s wearing, when Kölsch gets behind the decks he knows what to do. “It’s supposed to be a party, it’s supposed to be fun and it’s supposed to be an emotional experience as well,” he says. “I think it’s extremely boring to listen to a DJ set for two hours

that is similar or the same.” Kölsch heads our way this week for the Stereosonic festival tour. Stereosonic features acts from all across the spectrum, including contemporary electronic stars Skrillex and Calvin Harris, as well as underground crossover success stories Booka Shade and Markus Schulz. Kölsch is something of an underground mainstay, but he’s certainly not an unknown. In the early 2000s, Rune’s single Calabria was a hit on the European and US charts, while Kölsch’s notoriety as a DJ led to a sold-out Australian club tour this May. Despite these achievements, Kölsch has never been hellbent on celebrity. “For me it’s all about what feels right and what’s the right thing to do,” he says. “I completely understand why DJs are so popular, but I think it’s not really the DJ that is the star.

Catch Kölsch at Stereosonic with Tiesto, Scuba, Duke Dumont, Skrillex, Alesso, Steve Aoki and many more on Saturday December 6 and Sunday December 7 at the Melbourne Showgrounds. Balance Presents Kölsch is out now through Balance.

party profile: little & olver’s opening party feat. tornado wallace When is it? Saturday December 6 from 9pm - 5am. Where is it? Fitzroy’s newest social club and speakeasy Little & Olver, which rises from the ashes of the old First Floor nightclub at 393 Brunswick St. The name of the venue comes from the grocery store that was there in the 1890s. We’ll also be hosting Greg Wilson this NYE. Who’s playing? Tornado Wallace, aka Lewie Day the Melbourne producer, DJ and party starter extraordinaire who is back from his European tour. He is joined by a solid lineup of disco and house DJs from some of the best parties around including Simon TK, from Waxo Paradiso and XOXO at Hugs & Kisses; 6am At The Garage, the DJ duo behind the blog/podcast and the Innocuous Parties (including their massive MMW laneway party); and James Smithers, disco DJ from Sydney. What sort of shit will they be playing? Disco and house – from old school Nile Rodgers era and obscure vinyl goodness through to nu-disco and deep house made yesterday from the best producers in Australia and beyond.

news

- head to beat .com.au for more

new year’s beats

off the record w i t h

What’s the crowd going to be like? A melting pot of club kids, disco lovers, Fitzroyalty and northside locals of all ages and persuasions. What will we remember in the AM? Dancing your arse off to disco tunes amidst a heaving crowd of fellow lovers of discerning dance music. What’s the wallet damage? Our opening party is free entry – because we’re feeling generous and Christmas-y. Give us one final reason why we should party here. The disco kids behind Melbourne disco party Warehaus have helped revamp the tired old First Floor and turned into a late night watering hole and social club for Northsiders looking for somewhere to party. With one of the only 5am licenses in Fitzroy, Little & Olver will serve locally brewed beer and cider, wines by the glass, cocktails and excellent tunes till late. Whether you want a nightcap or a den of debauchery to take you through to Revolver-o’clock, you won’t have to leave the hood again. And the best reason to come to the opening party – apart from the DJ lineup – its free!

t yson

w ray

Without a doubt ‘Plucka duck memes’ is the most important Facebook page to exist.

emoji boys Rapper and producer showcase Emoji Boys will return to Laundry Bar for its third instalment next month. On the bill for round three are Sydney hip hop outfit Staunch Nation; Melbourne-based producer Deer; Maatzi, of Sydney hip hop group Old Men of Moss Mountain; Perth producer Catlips; and the American-born, Australian-raised HTMLflowers. Emoji Boys 3 takes place on Sunday December 6 at Laundry Bar.

booka shade Already announced as part of Stereosonic, Booka Shade have announced their only festival sideshow will be in Melbourne this December. The Berlin-based duo have been pioneering the electronic dance scene over the past decade, with the release of five studio albums. They will be returning to Australia in support of their soon-to-be-released EP Line Of Fire as part of Stereosonic, and will also be making a pit stop in Melbourne for their only headline show. Booka Shade will take over the Prince Bandroom on Saturday December 6.

nas The legendary Nas has announced a one-night-only sideshow alongside his appearance at Sugar Mountain. As with every performance on his five-date Australian tour, the New York MC will perform 1994’s Illmatic in full. 20 years after its release, the album is largely considered to be one of the greatest hip hop LPs of all time. Even more, this year’s widely acclaimed documentary, Time Is Illmatic, will be released in Australia to coincide with the tour. Nas will hit the Forum Theatre on Sunday January 25.

the magnificent jazzy jeff & madskills The Magnificent Jazzy Jeff and Madskills will be heading to Melbourne this week. Since kicking things off in 1985, Jazzy has proved that he is a force to be reckoned with. With achievements including a DMC Championship and multiple Grammy and American Music Awards and nominations, as well as the notable success of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince with partner Will Smith and his production company A Touch of Jazz, and his continuing solo projects, collaborations, mixtapes and live shows, he shows no sign of slowing down. The Magnificent Jazzy Jeff and Madskills will take over Prince Bandroom on Friday December 5.

electronic - urban - club life

Once again New Year’s Beats is back at Prince Bandroom to help you welcome the new year in style. They have assembled a crew of some of the best established and up and coming hip hop acts in the country including Funkoars, Briggs, Vents, Joelistics, K21, Daily Meds and Mathas. New Year’s Beats will bring in 2015 at Prince Bandroom on Wednesday December 31.

little & olver This week Fitzroy’s newest speakeasy and social club Little & Olver will open on Brunswick Street. Taking over and transforming the former First Floor nightclub, Little & Olver restores the old fashioned charm of the building and brings a new kind of bar, live music venue and nightspot to the street. Licensed till 5am, Little & Olver will serve a seasonal selection of locally brewed beers and craft cider on tap and in bottles, Australian wines by the glass, classic cocktails and aperitifs. Initially open Thursdays to Saturdays, Little & Olver will be a multi-purpose bar and live music venue playing host to an ever-changing roster of regular parties, local and international DJs, live bands and performances. To celebrate the opening, Little & Olver will throw a free opening night party on Saturday December 6 with Melbourne producer Tornado Wallace, Waxo Paradiso’s Simon TK and more. On New Year’s Eve, Little & Olver will also host Warehaus’ NYE gig with legendary UK disco DJ Greg Wilson, a veteran of 30 years who comes from touring festivals from Glastonbury to Garden Festival in Croatia. Head to littleandolver.com.au for more details.

Plus Local DJs

INCLUDES 10 DRINKS & FINGER FOOD (BASIC SPIRITS, BEER, CIDER, WINE + SOFT DRINK)

TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM OZTIX.COM.AU + THE PIER GEELONG (9AM-5PM, MON-SAT). OFFICIAL AFTER PARTY & PRIORITY ENTRY INTO LAMBYS. DRESS TO IMPRESS. NO SINGLETS, SHORTS OR THONGS.

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 31

club guide wednesday dec 3

snaps anyway

BOOTY WORK Laundry Bar, Fitzroy. 7:00pm. CURIOUS TALES - FEAT: DJ WHO + TIGERFUNK + TOM SHOWTIME + FLAGRANT Bimbo Deluxe, Fitzroy. 7:30pm. EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUT THE WEATHER - FEAT: ROBIN FOX + OREN AMBARCHI + MARCO FUSINATO Corner Hotel, Richmond. 8:00pm. $12.00. MELLOW-DIAS THUMP - FEAT: CAZEAUX O.S.L.O + GEEZY Ferdydurke, Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm. PURE POP @ EXCHANGE Exchange Bar, South Yarra. 6:00pm.

thursday dec 4

circus sundays

3181 THURSDAYS - FEAT: HANS DC + MAFIA + FOR YOUR EARS DJS + FAKE FORWARD + RIFFE + DOM DOLLA VS BOOT ACTION + JACK LOVE + BENSON VS MIKE METRO Revolver Upstairs, Prahran. 6:00pm. CQ SESSIONS Cq, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. DINNER BEATS - FEAT: JORDAN Thornbury Local, Thornbury. 8:00pm. DJ MANTOOTH Penny Black, Brunswick. 7:00pm. ESCAPE SESSIONS Loop, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. FLANAGANS THURSDAYS FEAT: DJ ONTIME + COLONEL Pier Live, Frankston. 8:00pm. GOOD EVENING Toff In Town, Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm. LOVE STORY - FEAT: TRANTER + SLEEVES + MEGAWUOTI + SUPREMES + MICKEY P Toff In Town, Melbourne Cbd. 11:30pm. LOVE STORY Boney, Melbourne Cbd. 11:30pm. MIDNIGHT EXPRESS - FEAT: PREQUEL + EDD FISHER Toff In Town, Melbourne Cbd. 11:00pm. NIGHT FLIGHT + CKD + BEVIN CAMPBELL + HUSSEY Ferdydurke, Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm. PANTHA DU PRINCE + LUCIANBLOMKAMP The Hi-fi, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. $40.50. RARE CANDY Carlton Club, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. THE BEAT RAFFLE - FEAT: POSTIE P & DJ BUICK Grumpy’s Green, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. THE RITZ - FEAT: KEN WALKER + ANDO + JOSHUA GILLILAND Trak Lounge Bar, Toorak. 10:00pm. $20.00. VARSITY - FEAT: KITI + FOOFARAW Bimbo Deluxe, Fitzroy. 6:00pm. XS DISCO - FEAT: VARIOUS ARTISTS Onesixone, Prahran. 8:00pm.

friday dec 5 HIJACK + KODIAK KID + B-TWO Penny Black, Brunswick. 7:00pm. #EATDRINKPLAY - FEAT: ANDY MURPHY + MGMC + DJ JORJ + CAM WOODARD The Emerson, South Yarra. 10:00pm. $20.00. #MASHTAG - FEAT: MALPRACTICE + AGENT 86 + BENZO + ANDRE LE VOGUE + SILVERFOX + AHAB + OLLIE Bimbo Deluxe, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. BITCAT Loop, Melbourne Cbd. 9:00pm. BREAD & BUTTER FRIDAYS Cushion, St Kilda. 8:00pm. CAN’T SAY Platform One,

Melbourne. 9:00pm. CATLIPS + CHEAP PRESENT + WET KISS + DYLAN MICHEL Ferdydurke, Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm. CQ FRIDAYS Cq, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. DAVID KENO + MIKE CALLANDER + KATIE DROVER + SAFARI + OLIBUSTA Revolver Upstairs, Prahran. 7:00pm. DJ JAZZY JEFF & MADSKILLZ Prince Bandroom, St Kilda. 8:30pm. $28.60. FABULOUS FRIDAYS Co., Southbank. 8:00pm. FAKE TITS - FEAT: BOOGS + SPACEY SPACE + SUNSHINE + SAMMY LA MARCA + BUTTERS + ADAM BARTAS + JUNGLE JIM Tramp, Melbourne Cbd. 10:00pm. $15.00. FREQUENCY FRIDAYS Fusion, Southbank. 10:00pm. $20.00. FRIDAY NIGHT @ THE CARLTON Carlton Club, Melbourne Cbd. 6:00pm. FRIDAYS @ ONESIXONE - FEAT: JEN TUTTY + LUKE MCD + LEWIE DAY + PREQUEL + KATIE DROVER + MITCH KURZ + MIC NEWMAN + TOM EVANS + JOEL ALPHA + LIAM WALLER + AARON TROTTMAN + NICK JONES + JESSE YOUNG + ANDRAS FOX + JAC OSCAR WILKINS Onesixone, Prahran. 8:00pm. GRUMP & GRIME Grumpy’s Green, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. I <3 DANCE HALL - FEAT: KING RU + APPRENTICE + FACEIZZ + BURN CITY QUEENZ + VIVIEN ENOUGH + SISTA ITATIONS Brown Alley, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. JUMBO Great Britain Hotel, Richmond. 7:00pm. LA DANSE MACABRE Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy. 9:00pm. LUCK TRUCK FRIDAYS DOWNSTAIRS Lucky Coq, Windsor. 9:00pm. OMG FRIDAYS Seven Nightclub, South Melbourne. 10:00pm. $20.00. PANORAMA FRIDAYS UPSTAIRS - FEAT: PHATO A MANO + MR.GEORGE + MATT RADD + ASH-LEE Lucky Coq, Windsor. 9:00pm. POPROCKS Toff In Town, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. PSYBERSPACE - FEAT: TRIPPA + PERFECT MOTION + NEOCORTEX + STAVROCK Loop, Melbourne Cbd. 10:00pm. UNDERGROUND DJ’S Great Britain Hotel, Richmond. 11:00pm. WORLD’S END PRESS + SPEED PAINTERS Howler, Brunswick. 8:30pm. $15.00.

saturday dec 6 ANDRAS FOX & OSCAR KEY SUNG The Shadow Electric, Abbotsford. 8:00pm. $18.00. ANYWAY - FEAT: SASHA GREY Bottom End, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. AUDIOPORN SATURDAYS - FEAT: DR. ZOK + JAMES WARE + GREG SARA + JACOB MALMO + TOM EVANS + ROWIE Onesixone, Prahran. 9:00pm. $15.00. BIG MOUTH SATURDAYS FEAT: DJ ROWIE + ANDYCAN + NACKERS Big Mouth, St Kilda. 9:00pm. BIG RED BUS - FEAT: GUS TILL + ZIBELL + LOOSE OUTFIT + LANI G + A CHARGED PARTICLE + ANDYCAN My Aeon, Brunswick.

10:00pm. $10.00. BONEY SATURDAYS - FEAT: SIMON TK + BRODIE + PAUL LEWIS + BABY BJORN Boney, Melbourne Cbd. 11:30pm. CLIQUES Revolver Upstairs, Prahran. 7:00pm. CUSHION SATURDAYS Cushion, St Kilda. 9:00pm. DJ APPLEJACK Victoria Hotel, Brunswick. 9:00pm. DJ CRISPI Retreat Hotel, Brunswick. 2:00pm. DJ SHUTTERSOUND. Thornbury Local, Thornbury. 4:00pm. DO YOU WANNA SPANK - FEAT: DJ MADMAN La Di Da, Melbourne Cbd. 9:30pm. FAMILIAR STRANGERS The Emerson, South Yarra. 10:00pm. $20.00. GARDEN BEATS - FEAT: DJ MARCUS HOLDER + AARON ARTHUR + DUNCAN FUNK The Fitzroy Beer Garden, Fitzroy. 7:00pm. HOT STEP - FEAT: ADAM ASKEW + GRAYSKULL + KELTEC + MYLES MAC + PETER BAKER + REV. THORN + SAM MCEWIN + SHANE COPAL + TOM EVANS Bimbo Deluxe, Fitzroy. 6:00pm. INKSWELL + COCOA NOIRE + DJS KUYA + BENNY BADGE + RAAGHIE Boney, Melbourne Cbd. 9:00pm. $10.00. MIDNIGHT RUN Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Cbd. 11:30pm. $7.00. NAM + D’FRO Penny Black, Brunswick. 7:00pm. RAZZMATAZZ INDIE DISCOTHEQUE - FEAT: CAITY K + TED C Exford Hotel, Melbourne Cbd. 9:30pm. $5.00. ROSE SATURDAYS Trak Lounge Bar, Toorak. 9:00pm. RUBIX & GUTTERHYPE RECORDS 2ND BDAY - FEAT: THE MOLLUSK + OKULI + KODIAK KID + GRIFF + THE CHIEF + ABLE 8 + DICE FX + SHIFTEQ + C4 + PWD + ELLIE B + JORDAN Rubix Warehouse, Brunswick. 4:00pm. $10.00. LITTLE & OLIVER OPENING PARTY - FEAT: TORNADO WALLACE + SIMON TK + 6AM AT THE GARAGE + JAMES SMITHERS Little & Oliver, Fitzroy. 9:00pm. SATURDAY MORNING - FEAT: SUNSHINE Revolver Upstairs, Prahran. 7:00am. SEVEN SATURDAY DISCOTHEQUE Seven Nightclub, South Melbourne. 10:00pm. $20.00. SOUL A-GO-GO - FEAT: DJ VINCE PEACH + MISS GOLDIE + DJ MANCHILD + RICHIE 1250 + ALESSIA PEGOLI + ANDREW YOUNG Shebeen, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. $15.00. SPIN CLUB - FEAT: TORNADO WALLACE Ferdydurke, Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm. STEREOSONIC - FEAT: SKRILLEX + ALESSO + STEVE AOKI SHOWTEK + DASH BERLIN + CARL COX + CALVIN HARRIS + TIËSTO DIPLO + DISCLOSURE + DISCLOSURE Melbourne Showgrounds, Ascot Vale. 12:00pm. $209.95. STREETX MELBOURNE LAUNCH PARTY - FEAT: CANVAS Laundry Bar, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $10.00. TEXTILE SATURDAYS - FEAT: KODIAK KID + D’FRO + JENS BEAMIN Lucky Coq, Windsor. 9:00pm.

THE HOUSE DEFROST - FEAT: ANDY FROST Toff In Town, Melbourne Cbd. 11:00pm. $35.00. THERAPY SATURDAYS - FEAT: BOMBS AWAY + TATE STRAUSS + ED COLMAN + MATTY G Fusion, Southbank. 10:00pm. $20.00. TRAMP SATURDAYS Tramp, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. VAULT SATURDAYS Platform One, Melbourne. 9:00pm. WILDLIFE Grumpy’s Green, Fitzroy. 8:00pm.

IN BETWEEN SOUNDS - FEAT: SIETTA + JOELISTICS Shebeen, Melbourne Cbd. 7:30pm. $15.00. MVP - FEAT: BURN CIRCUIT + DJS ARKS + LOW-KEY + THADDEUS DOE Boney, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm.

thursday dec 4

CULTURE OF HIP HOP SHOWCASE Musicland, Fawkner. 7:00pm. $20.00. HIP HOP KARAOKE Boney, Melbourne Cbd. 9:00pm. $5.00. JELLO DOWNSTAIRS - FEAT: SILENTJAY + VERSAJ Boney, Melbourne Cbd. 6:00pm.

friday dec 5

BUMP FRIDAYS - FEAT: DJ KAHLUA Chaise Lounge, Melbourne Cbd. 9:00pm. $10.00. FAKTORY FRIDAYS - FEAT: DAMION DE SILVA + K DEE + DURMY Khokolat Bar, Melbourne Cbd. 9:30pm.

MATA & MUST Revolver Upstairs, Prahran. 9:00pm. $10.00. PARTY & BULLSHIT - FEAT: JUZZY B + KAYZ Laundry Bar, Fitzroy. 9:00pm. RATES Laundry Bar, Fitzroy. 9:00pm. $10.00. THE NEW ORDER - FEAT: STITCHBRIDE + SKINNY + MISERYS MALICE + ANARKI + LOUIS + ERIS The Mercat, Melbourne. 10:00pm. $10.00. YUNG Brown Alley, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. $22.50.

saturday dec 6

BIG DANCING Laundry Bar, Fitzroy. 9:00pm. DJ SWAMP THIN 24 Moons, Northcote. 8:00pm. EMOJI BOYS 3 Laundry Bar, Fitzroy. 9:00pm. $10.00. ICE CUBE Forum Theatre, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. KHOKOLAT KOATED SATURDAYS - FEAT: DAMION DE SILVA + K DEE + DURMY + TIMOS Khokolat Bar, Melbourne Cbd. 9:30pm.

electronic - urban - club life

khokolat koated

sunday dec 7 ANDRAS FOX & OSCAR KEY SUNG The Shadow Electric, Abbotsford. 8:00pm. $18.00. BOP ART - FEAT: HAWAII + WHO + TIGERFUNK + MATT RADOVICH + LEWIS CANCUT Bimbo Deluxe, Fitzroy. 6:00pm. EARLY MORNING CREW - FEAT: HOOPS + BRAD SASSMAN + JOSH PAOLA + JESSE YOUNG + OLLIE HOLMES + DEAN SPANOS Onesixone, Prahran. 1:00am. EASY NOW - FEAT: AGENT 86 + TOM SHOWTIME + DJ MAARS Penny Black, Brunswick. 5:00pm. ENCORE - FEAT: DAN SLATER + ADAM LOVE The Emerson, South Yarra. 9:00pm. JUNGLE - FEAT: HANDS DOWN + ZAC DEPETRO + PETE LASKIS + TRAVLOS + JOHN DOE Tramp, Melbourne Cbd. 6:00am. $15.00. OPEN DECKS Thornbury Local, Thornbury. 7:00pm. PUBLIC WORKS - FEAT: SUNSET Ferdydurke, Melbourne Cbd. 6:00pm. REVOLVER SUNDAYS - FEAT: BOOGS + SPACEY SPACE + T-REK + RADIATOR & DAMON WALSH + SILVERSIX Revolver Upstairs, Prahran. 7:00pm. SEMPLESIZE (BLOCK PARTY) FEAT: BANOFEE + MILWAUKEE BANKS + HOUSE OF LAURENCE Howler, Brunswick. 1:00am. $25.00. SPITROAST SUNDAYS Cushion, St Kilda. 10:00pm. SPITROAST SUNDAYS Cushion, St Kilda. 10:00pm. STEREOSONIC - FEAT: SKRILLEX + ALESSO + STEVE AOKI SHOWTEK + DASH BERLIN + CARL COX + CALVIN HARRIS + TIËSTO DIPLO + DISCLOSURE + DISCLOSURE Melbourne Showgrounds, Ascot Vale. 12:00pm. $209.95. SUMMER SERIES #5 Revolver Upstairs, Prahran. 8:00pm. THE SUNDAY SET - FEAT: DJ ANDYBLACK & HAGGIS Toff In Town, Melbourne Cbd. 4:00pm. WAX ON WAX OFF Lucky Coq, Windsor. 7:00pm.

be. at co.

monday dec 8 CALL IT IN - FEAT: JAMES TOM & DYLAN MICHEL Toff In Town, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. MONDAY STRUGGLE - FEAT: TIGER FUNK Lucky Coq, Windsor. 6:00pm.

tuesday dec 9 CUSHION TUESDAYS Cushion, St Kilda. 8:00pm. GIGGLE TUESDAY - FEAT: WHO + JAKE JUDD Lucky Coq, Windsor. 8:30pm. TRAMP TUESDAYS Tramp, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm.

urban club guide wednesday dec 3

snaps

RE UP - FEAT: BOOTYQUEST + STEPHELLES + STEEZUS + TRANTER + LOW-KEY + SALAMI The Mercat, Melbourne. 10:00pm. $10.00. RHYTHM NATION SATURDAYS - FEAT: DJ BIG SAAD + DJ KAHLUA & ANDY PALA Chaise Lounge, Melbourne Cbd. 9:00pm. $10.00.

sunday dec 7

AUSTRALIAN BEATBOXING CHAMPIONSHIP - FEAT: THOM THUM + MONKIE + JAY-DUB Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $10.00. BE. SUNDAYS Co., Southbank. 10:00pm. $15.00. ICE CUBE + CITIZEN KAY + IVAN OOZE 170 Russell, Melbourne Cbd. 7:30pm. $79.00.

tuesday dec 9

ICE CUBE Forum Theatre, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm.

faktory

Welcome! There’s been a lot of talk about holidays recently, so with that in mind and with a mere four weeks to go until the end of 2014, we’ve decided this will be the final issue of Beat Eats for the year. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about some of Melbourne’s best eateries as we’ve had researching them and digesting every morsel (tough life, eh?). We very much look forward to making your mouths water in 2015. Happy holidays, very happy eating and see you in the New Year. As a parting gift, we leave you with some wise words to live by, courtesy of Louis CK: “I don’t stop eating when I’m full. The meal isn’t over when I’m full. It’s over when I hate myself.” SOPH GOULOPOULOS

The Wilde www.thewilde.com.au / ph. (03) 9416 4116

Traditional English fare

153 Gertrude St Fitzroy

Tues – Thurs 4pm to 1am Fri – Sat 12pm to 1am

= TAKES BOOKINGS

= FREE WI-FI

= LICENSED

= VEG. OPTIONS

= OUTDOOR SEATING

= GLUTEN FREE OPTIONS

Sun 12pm – 11pm

Chances are you’ve already been to The Wilde. It might’ve been an engagement party or an endof-year work function. For me, it was a 21st birthday party. Like me, chances are you probably didn’t know it was called The Wilde. Regardless, you’ll probably remember the quaint, charming décor, the friendly staff and the wonderful food. The interior, which we’re informed is circa 1850s, has been subtly renovated so as to neaten it, but still it maintains as many original fittings as possible. It’s a pretty little Victorian corner block located at the Brunswick Street end of Gertrude, this classy, yet understated

little establishment is without pretention. The menu is mostly traditionally British, think Cumberland sausages, a Scotch egg with HP sauce, homemade terrine, and ‘sexy’ chips with cheese and gravy, there’s a great selection of English draft beers, and each wine is available by the glass. But when it boils down to it, frankly anything with a charcuterie on the menu has my heart. Even writing about it is making me uncomfortably hungry. There’s a real focus on what produce is available seasonally so the menu is changing all the time, but there are steadfast weekly specials including their coveted $15 steak night every Wednesday and their impeccable Sunday roast with all the trimmings. SOPH GOULOPOULOS

DIY Recipes Pretzel Cakes

PHOTOGRAPHY AND RECIPE BY Tabatha Turner

Vanilla Layer 1 cup cashews 1 ½ cup coconut milk 1 vanilla bean 3 tbsp rice bran syrup

Sugar And Spice

PHOTOGRAPHY AND RECIPE BY Tabatha Turner

Blueberry layer 1 cup cashews 2 cups blueberries 1 cup coconut milk 3 tbsp rice bran syrup Topping 100% peanut butter whipped with coconut milk Pretzels

Blueberry, Peanut Butter and Pretzel layer cake (It’s healthy, I swear). INGREDIENTS Base 2 cups pretzels ½ cup almonds 3 tbsp coconut oil 3 tbsp Honey

METHOD In a blender, blitz pretzels and almonds until they form a fine crumb, add wet ingredients and continue to process. 2. Press mixture into the bottom of a long (lined in cling wrap) cake tin and freeze while making next layer. 3. Clean blender, add cashews and blitz until a buttery consistency is formed. Add coconut milk, vanilla, and rice bran syrup and blitz. 4. Pour onto base layer and freeze for 45mins-1 hour. 5. Clean blender, add cashews and blitz until a buttery consistency is formed. Add blueberries, coconut milk, and rice bran syrup and blend until smooth. 6. Pour on top of vanilla layer and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. 7. Cut cake into equal sized log pieces. 8. Spoon or pipe peanut butter mixture and top with whole pretzels.

The weather is warming up, so impress your mates with this killer, zesty duo of chilli, lime and lychee spritzer and sticky, spicy popcorn. INGREDIENTS For the spritzer: 2 limes 2 red chillies (seeds removed) 1 can tinned lychees 1 litre sparkling water 1 bunch mint Ice Vodka (optional (is it though?))

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For the popcorn: 1 bag microwave popcorn or 3/4 cup loose popcorn kernels 1 cup sugar 2 tbsp butter Sea salt Cayenne pepper or chilli powder Lime zest METHOD To make the spritzer: 1. Slice limes. Squeeze juice from the end pieces into a large jug. 2. Place a good handful of ice in the jug. 3. Add one sliced red chilli, mint leaves, sliced limes and half of the lychee can juice. 4. Add ice and repeat above. Using a large spoon or rolling pin, give the contents of the jug a bash around to combine. 5. Add sparkling water and vodka. 6. Gently drop in 8-10 lychees and stir. 7. Top with mint and garnish jug with chilli and lime. To make the popcorn: 1. Pop the popcorn. 2. In a large saucepan add sugar and 1/4 cup water. Place over a medium heat. DO NOT STIR. 3. Once caramel is golden brown add the butter (caramel will foam up). 4. Place popcorn on a baking tray and drizzle with caramel. Allow all popcorn to be covered. 5. Wait for caramel to cool and harden then sprinkle with zest and pepper/chilli powder.

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 33

"The majority of what I serve is sourced as local as I can get it."

The Post Office Hotel www.thepostofficehotel.com.au / ph. (03) 9386 5300

Cool, casual Coburg cuisine

229-231 Sydney Road Coburg

TUES 11am - 11pm WED-THU 11am - 12am FRI 11am - Late SAT 9am - Late SUN 9am - 10pm

The Post Office Hotel, a revamped and renovated pub on Sydney Road in Coburg, successfully delivers an expertly crafted fine dining experience within the friendly character and atmosphere of the corner pub. Rising above the stuffiness and inaccessibility of a typical restaurant of this calibre, The Post Office Hotel’s casual nature and locally sourced menu is a welcome and original newcomer in the pub circuit. Head chef Taylor Mrsich’s approach to crafting his seasonal menu is decidedly simple, sourcing all his ingredients from local contacts and paying as much attention to seasonal variation and availability as possible: “I keep in strong contact with my veg supplier, my fish supplier and my meat

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 34

supplier”, Mrsich explains. “The majority of what I serve is sourced as local as I can get it. I lived in the Yarra Valley for five years and knew a lot of people out there who would just be the guy who owned the berry farm, the orchard or raised cattle. I still source as much produce I can from these contacts I’ve built up over the years.” While serving a full menu of vegan, vegetarian and meat options, Mrsich’s approach to his most recent menu has been embracing the abundance of fresh

vegetables at his disposal. “My previous menu was very meat orientated, but for this season I’ve decided to focus more on the vegetarian side of it, with the benefit of many of these dishes easily becoming vegan with the removal or substitution of the dairy components. You can notice that the use of non-meat items like vegetables and nuts can give countless variations in texture.” While some dishes on the menu may appear complex on paper, Mrsich’s use of heavy combinations of meat, cheeses, vegetables, fruit and nuts all serve specific purposes for taste and textural qualities. “As a chef, when you get to a certain level in your career you can either continue just doing what you’ve been taught, or things can start to click and you can realise that this can go with this, or this can dish can transition into the next one. But overall, I just like food,” he says. Discussing the overall ambition and vision for the

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pub and the menu, Mrsich simply explains: “I just want it to be a nice casual kind of bistro that can be accessible to anyone, but feel like people can go out for a nice meal that they are never going to make at home, and also to showcase what can be done with locally-sourced produce.” JOEY JOE JOE HANSEN

#COBURGNIGHTMARKET14 #CNM14 /COBURGNIGHTMARKET LIKE US ON FACEBOOK! - COBURG NIGHT MARKET

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BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 35

TV ON THE RADIO

By Augustus Welby

Seeds, the newly-released fifth album from TV On The Radio, comes three-and-a-half years after the band’s last effort, Nine Types Of Light. Close followers of the Brooklyn group will most likely be aware bass player Gerard Smith succumbed to lung cancer just days after that album’s release. Smith’s death didn’t nullify the band’s immediate live commitments, but after the remaining four members wrapped up the Nine Types Of Light touring campaign, the likelihood of another TV On The Radio record was in doubt. A promising development came in mid-2013, with the release of back-to-back singles Mercy and Million Miles. But hopes were silenced somewhat by an accompanying announcement, which explained these tracks weren’t attached to an LP. However, regrouping without having to face the imposing task of making a whole record was effective in reviving the band’s collaborative zeal. Hence, the development of Seeds proceeded almost immediately. The album has been in the hands of TV On The Radio’s many hungry adherents for a couple of weeks now, and frontman Tunde Adebimpe isn’t afraid to voice his excitement. “When we were making it and when it was finished, we knew that it impressed us,” he says. “It’s a nice thing to listen to a record and almost feel like you didn’t make it because you like listening to it so much.” TV On The Radio began as a project for Adebimpe and guitarist/producer Dave Sitek back in 2002. The band’s major breakthrough – creatively, critically and commercially – was its second LP, 2006’s Return To Cookie Mountain, which was also the first recording to feature the complete five-piece lineup. Since that time, there’s been no decided bandleader; multiple members receive songwriting credits on each album and the exact role of the separate individuals isn’t easily defined (for instance, drummer Jaleel Bunton is just as likely to contribute guitar to recordings as guitarists Sitek and Kyp Malone), and it’s deliberate. “Whoever tries to be the leader of the band would find themselves alone very, very quickly,” Adebimpe explains. “During the recording and writing process,

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 36

everybody throws in what they can. Whatever sticks makes it in and whatever everyone decides, ‘That’s just not really working,’ gets tossed away.” Stepping forward without one-fifth of their established personnel could’ve potentially upset TV On The Radio’s fruitful dynamic. But during the development of Seeds, the mutually contributive format prevailed. “When you’re doing something for so long, you recognise dynamics within the band,” Adebimpe says. “Whenever I’m writing a demo, very rarely will I write a song that’s completely fleshed out and just say, ‘OK, you play this, you play that.’ That’s not utilising our connection between each other. I’ll leave spaces that I know that Kyp’s going to put something there. I don’t know exactly what he’s going to put there, but that’s his zone and he’ll round that out. And Jaleel will do this and Dave will do that and everyone kind of knows that without me saying anything. “Collaborating with anybody on anything is going to have its moments,” he adds. “You’re not the same person. That’s the thing that makes it so great – you can bounce things off of each other and it ends up being this thing that’s representative of all of you, hopefully.” Looking through TV On The Radio’s back catalogue, on each record they’ve generated an unmistakable sonic presence, while continuing to uncover compositional variations. Something that’s been conducive to this achievement is the band members’ commitment to spurring each other on. “We always call each other out for not pushing stuff far enough,” Adebimpe says. “If somebody makes

something and you know it can be better and they want to leave it the way it is, that’s when it gets a little like, ‘What are you doing?’ That’s when it gets a little big brother and little brother-ish, where you try to bully someone into being better than they’re letting themselves be.” When trying to simplify what distinguishes Seeds from its predecessors, descriptors such as ‘immediate’, ‘streamlined’ and ‘aerated’ jump out. To be more specific, the record comprises tracks like Could You, which features a jangly, Eastern-inflected guitar line and a positively infectious power-pop chorus. Speaking during a pre-release US tour, Adebimpe reported the new songs were going over really well live, causing audience members to “sing along to something they’d never heard before, which was an awesome feeling.” This immediate embrace is an indication of the melodically incisive character of several of the album’s

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tracks. As for whether the band felt nervous about satisfying external expectations with Seeds, that’s never a pressing concern. “It’s not that we don’t care what anyone else thinks,” Adebimpe says, “but it doesn’t really have a bearing on what we think about what we’ve done. Just the fact that we can still do it and want to do it, we’re already miles ahead of any sort of expectations that might come from the outside. “That’s not to say I hope people don’t like it. I’m really excited to share this record and to play it live. I’m really excited for people to hear the whole record – we just like the entire thing.”

TV ON THE RADIO’s Seeds is out now through EMI.

JIMMY CLIFF By Meg Crawford It’s not every day you get to speak to a genuine living legend, but Jimmy Cliff rightfully bears the title. Where to start? In no particular order: he’s the bloke who brought reggae to the world before Bob Marley hit his straps (partly through his lead role in The Harder They Come in 1972 and with tracks like Vietnam and You Can Get It If You Really Want), he’s a Grammy winner, he’s been inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame, he’s sung with everyone from Bowie through to the Rolling Stones and in 2012 (in a Johnny Cash/ Rick Rubin style later life reinvention) he released Rebirth, produced by Rancid’s Tim Armstrong, which came in at Number 12 on Rolling Stone’s Top 50 Albums of the Year (also a Grammy nominee). That he’s a loved and internationally recognised icon undoubtedly has something to do with the fact he’s a lovely, warm dude with a laugh you could bottle, but it probably has just as much to do with his grit. Take this as an example: when Cliff was 14 years old, disheartened by label knock backs, he wrote a song called Dear Beverley and marched into the local icecream parlour/record store of the same name and told the owners that they should record him. Leslie Kong, one of the guys Cliff bailed up, took him seriously and went on to manage Cliff until his death in 1971. That’s some serious strategic thought for a 14-year-old (not to mention the balls). “Let’s put it this way, when you want something, really want it, you’re going to find the means and the ways to go for it,” Cliff chuckles. It’s an understatement to say Cliff ’s had a remarkable career, but when you press him, his favourite moments are not the flashiest. “My first favourite moment had to be when I first heard myself on the radio in Jamaica – that blew my mind,” he laughs. “Then when I got my first number one in Jamaica – there are quite a few favourite moments.” Cliff ’s outspoken in his belief that reggae has had a powerful and positive influence on the world (over and above weed and reggae’s groove). “The most important effects, like most popular music in different parts of the world, is that it reflects the society,” he muses. “Sometimes, like in our case, it directs, not just reflects, but directs society and which way to go. We find a lot of times in Jamaica, politicians listen to what we’re

saying and follow.” We wish that happened here. Cliff has also had a long standing interest in matters less worldly. Cliff was raised by his dad and nan in a pretty strict Christian environment. In fact, his dad wasn’t so keen on him playing the devil’s music, but, thankfully, his nan backed him. After being a dedicated Christian for donkey’s years, he devoted himself to Islam, but in later years science has won out – so how and why did he make that transition from the sacred to the profane? “That was just a search to know, ‘who am I?’,” Cliff explains. “Whether it be Christianity or Islam or Judaism, they don’t tell me anything about myself as an African. First of all, when you look at the heroes in The Bible, they’re all Europeans, so where do I come? The transition to Islam was another search, but there was nothing new there, it was the same thing. So, I had to go to my roots in Africa, to understand who am I.” His desire to understand his roots also inspires Cliff to ken where other people are coming from, particularly musically. So whenever he’s visiting somewhere new, he makes a concerted effort to dig out the country’s relevant roots music. In fact, he’s listened to a lot of our indigenous music. “I’ve always thought that one day, maybe there would be an opportunity to blend some of it with reggae,” he says. “The opportunity hasn’t arisen yet, but I am still hopeful.” Pushing 70, Cliff ’s not content to rest on his laurels; he’s got a couple of hefty developments in the works. “My first love was as an actor, that’s what I loved to

do, so I want to fulfill that yearning,” he reflects. “I’m also working on new music, writing new songs for the purpose of a soundtrack for a new movie, which is a sequel to The Harder They Come and I may make an album before the movie comes out. The album’s about relationships and about social and political consciousness in the world. It’s based around those things. Maybe I’m touching a lot more on relationships at this point in my life than I have done in the past. I’m writing a lot. “In the movie, I’m playing the lead role, I’m writing the music and I’m writing part of the storyline. We

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hope to go into production next year, may be after the Australian tour. This time next year, we should be in deep production.” We love that he describes these as his most immediate plans – the dude’s still got more up his sleeve. Cliff has very few regrets in life, but at least one stands out – he was once wearing a particularly tight pair of strides that split on stage. “I was dancing away and they busted,” he chortles. “I was quite embarrassed.” JIMMY CLIFF will play Bluesfest in Byron Bay from Thursday April 2 to Monday April 6, then The

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AINSLIE WILLS

By Rod Whitfield

Ainslie Wills is the type of artist you could term to be a ‘young veteran.’ While still youthful in terms of years, the Melbourne-based singer, songwriter and musician has more than a decade in the business, a music degree, and of course, much live and recording experience behind her. So she has that rare combination; that of the exuberance of youth and the wisdom and street-suss of experience, on her side as she boldly takes herself and her music out into the world. “My professional career began when I left home, which was Albury in New South Wales” she begins from her home in Melbourne’s inner-North, “I’d been obsessed with music all through high school, and learned to play the piano by ear. I was obsessed with Tori Amos and Jeff Buckley. “I decided to keep on going with music,” she continues. “I studied music at the Victoria College of the Arts in 2003, and I suppose that really opened my eyes and ears to new compositional techniques: to be able to ‘paint,’ and create a song through harmony and melody rather than just the lyrical content. So that was a real eyeopener.” As is often the case, learning the theory in a classroom gave her an excellent grounding for writing her own music, but it wasn’t until she met and bonded with other like-minded musicians at school did she have true musical and songwriting awakening. “That led to knowing and playing with a whole bunch of really amazing musicians,” she explains. “One of which was Lawrence Folvig, who I now create and play music with live. So I was doing voice as my principle instrument, and he did guitar. Over that time we did a lot of improvisation, and performed a lot of jazz music, and after we left uni we decided to keep playing together. “That just kept growing and growing, and we then started playing with a drummer as a trio.” That three-piece recorded an EP in 2010, however, the dreaded lineup changes started to kick in at that point. “We released the EP, but then our drummer pissed off to Berlin to play with The Dukes of Windsor,” she recalls, “so that started the process of building up to a five piece.” Much gigging and touring ensued, and 2013 saw the release of her debut album, You Go Your Way, I’ll Go Mine. Doing a full album, as opposed to opting for the quicker, easier EP format was a gutsy decision, and went against some of the advice they’d received.

“Releasing a debut album was quite a big deal at that time,” Wills states, “because a lot of people had said, ‘Just do an EP, don’t worry about doing a full length, because no one will hear it, you’re still accruing followers.’ “But we kinda’ just stuck to our guns, because that’s what we’d set our mind to. And although we didn’t sell thousands of copies of the album, it still did something, and I think it’s a very good beginning of what’s going to come next.” Exactly what that is will become clear in the next year or so. In the meantime, Wills and her band have one final show for the year coming up in Melbourne. It happens on Friday December 5 at The Kew Courthouse, which has recently been transformed into a music and arts venue by the Kew Historical Society. “I’m feeling really good,” she enthuses. “I’ve just done a show last week with a string quartet, and I had a flu leading up to that show, so I was wondering whether I was actually going to be able to sing or not. Luckily it all came together. “But this show coming up at The Kew is an opportunity for me to play piano, which is my first instrument. I rarely get to play piano live anymore, because my keyboard player/singer takes care of that side of things live, which is great, but there’s still something I just feel connected to, since I learnt music on the piano.” This final performance for the year will give Wills the opportunity to do something a little interesting and different with this show. “I’ll be doing one set of solo piano and voice songs,” she reveals. “Playing stuff from my 2010 EP through to the album, plus some new material that hasn’t been released or recorded yet. “And then the second set will be a duo set with Lawrence,” she goes on. “We’ll try to create some kind of contrast between the sets, and just to deliver some interest. So when he comes on for the second set, there’s a little bit more of that rocky element, and

a little bit more texture. I’m really looking forward to it, and also, [the Kew Courthouse] is supposed to be a very intimate, theatre-type venue, so it might require people to listen in a little bit more. Plus there’s a babygrand piano there, so I jumped at the chance.” That’s to be it for 2014 for Wills, and she and her band are off to record their next album in Brisbane early next

year, so 2015 looks to be just as busy, if not more so for this talented Melbourne artist.

“We’ve been doing [it this way] longer than most bands in the scene have been doing it in person,” he says. “It’s as normal to us as getting up in the morning and eating breakfast. With Collarbones, it’s great because it means that Travis or I can really hone in on a bunch of stuff when we’re working on it [individually] and not have to um and ah.” Similar to previous Collarbones releases, Return comprises an off-centre and very-21st century take on R&B and pop music. Songwriters have to be wary of the influence passing fads have on their work, but it’s not always easy to detect when something that’s grabbing your interest is destined for fleeting existence. Collarbones’ unique songwriting arrangement is

helpful in this regard. “We both have to develop a collective sense for what will work,” says Whale. “That collective sense is even more valuable than actual musical input. “With this album, we took a while and a bunch of the songs are fairly old, but they’re the ones that sixto-12 months down the track we felt like they still held resonance and relevance to us.”

COLLARBONES

Catch AINSLIE WILLS and her band at The Kew Courthouse this Friday December 5. You Go Your Way, I’ll Go Mine is out now.

By Augustus Welby

Bands form for any number of reasons. In addition to making music, the excuse to drink beer with friends, behave like a maniac in public and increase one’s sex appeal all rank high on the list. When vocalist Marcus Whale and producer Travis Cook initiated electronic R&B project Collarbones, it was purely based on a music-centric collaborative chemistry. In 2007, the Sydney-based Whale, and Adelaidenative Cook started sharing ideas via the Internet. Fast forward to the present day and Collarbones have just released their third album, Return. The pair’s creative bond remains the core impetus for their joint activities. “It’s something that comes quite natural,” Whale says. “In life, it’s about finding chemistry with people, and Travis and I have a really good chemistry. It’s just granted that we’ll work on some music.” After joining forces seven years ago, Whale and Cook knocked out a bunch of demos, singles and mixtapes, which led to 2011’s debut LP, Iconography. Defying any limitations imposed by their long-distance working arrangement, 2012 saw the release of Collarbones’ highly lauded second album, Die Young. Return’s construction process lasted longer than either of its predecessors. As Whale explains, they weren’t going to make another record simply for the sake of it. “We’ve gotten to a point with Collarbones where we have to have a reason for doing it. It’s three albums in and there has to be a good reason for making a song. You can’t just be like, ‘Oh, I was just playing with this and it sounds kind of OK.’ We have to have an idea and it’s got to be realised well. That requires time.” We’re forever hearing hoo-ha about the death of the album. The commercial demand for long-playing releases has certainly dropped, but in reality, there’s no lack of artists making quality records. Similarly, listening habits might’ve changed, but the notion that albums are now utterly neglected is something of fiction. Still, Whale can’t help but rue how the tides have turned in recent years. “The way that people interact with music these days, it’s kind of like the album’s almost an afterthought,” he says. “That annoys me a bit because I really love the album format; I think it’s really great and I wish it had more value these days. BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 38

“I’m really happy when things happen like when Beyoncé put out her album and it was only available as an entire package, for about a week,” he adds. “These people are in positions of power, where they have huge hoards of fans who want as much as they can get. It speaks to me that it’s still important to people that they can sit down and listen to something for an hour.” It’s plain to see Collarbones are romantic believers in the album format, which is something distinct from just a collection of songs. Thus, with Return they set out to craft an entire body of work. “We wanted it to be a journey and we wanted it to be something that sustained itself over the 40-something minutes and felt complete,” Whale says. “It’s an interesting process. Towards the end, it gets really fun because you’re like, ‘All right we’ve got six or seven [songs] that we really like, now we can work a throughline in it and make some songs that fit nicely in there.’ Then it feels like you’re really writing an album, rather than just working on tracks. So songs like Flush and the intro song [100 Nights] were ones we did really late in the process to give it real dimension.” The album’s bigger picture mightn’t have become apparent until after an extensive writing period, but Return’s lyrical framework was established early on. “The first song that I wrote for the album – which we never released – I wrote immediately after being dumped by a guy,” Whale explains. “It follows that the entire album was about that period of time and on that theme. On that level it was prescribed from the beginning.” Despite what the duo’s release history might suggest, Whale and Cook have remained geographically separate since Collarbones’ inception. The interstate divide has clearly never been a productivity killer. More to the point, Whale believes it’s an optimal working arrangement.

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COLLARBONES will be playing Beyond the Valley festival over the New Years, final release tickets are available on the festival’s website. Return is out now on Two Bright Lakes/ Remote Control.

THE WILLIE WAGTAILS

By Meg Crawford

Punk goes with just about everything – ska, country, Irish folk music and, in the case of The Willie Wagtails, bush/gypsy/jazz. It’s a corker of a combination – think Dropkick Murphys with a uniquely Aussie twang.

“Our trumpet player, Jeremiah Aaron Rose, tall, skinny, ugly fellow, actually disciplines people in the band, gives us smacks if we slip into a Nashville twang,” laughs Simon Burns, the band’s bassist. “There’s a lot of punk vibes in the band, we like the side of losing your shit and bouncing around on stage, but there are members of the band who enjoy a good ‘bush whack’ and have ideas about that being an authentic thing to do.” The Willy Wagtails are a Melbourne-based five-piece who’ve been kicking about together since 2012, although Burns and Rose met about six years ago at a protest. “He had his trumpet and I had my guitar,” Burns recalls. “I play bass, but that’s not very practical at a protest. We just connected and ended up playing together for the whole day – eight hours in the rain, in front of police lines. Out of that came various things and one day we cooked up the idea to start the band.” In terms of the band’s sound, there’s a direct lineage to some of Melbourne’s finest purveyors of jazz and punk. “If Frenzal Rhomb and the Band Who Knew Too Much had an ugly, ugly lovechild, we would want them to be in our band or at least come to our shows,” Burns chuckles. “For me, in terms of Melbourne, it all started with the Band Who Knew Too Much and Flap! That’s shared throughout the band. I deeply love those bands, that’s where I draw most of my musical inspiration and that’s what gets me dancing and makes life good in Melbourne.” There’s a strong New Orleans’ style jazz thread in the band too, and Burns has some pretty cogent observations about why jazz and punk sit together so comfortably. “There is a very distinct take on that type of jazz going on in Melbourne and there has been for a long time, going back to bands like the Red Onion Jazz Band in the ‘60s/‘70s,” Burns explains. “It’s just a music that carries so much melancholy and joy and at the same time so much unbelievable raw energy in a solo or in one of those long build up sections that can take you from the floor to the ceiling in a couple of minutes where the whole room ends up shouting and dancing – there’s incredible musicianship and it’s improvised. It combines all of the raw energy of punk, which is what I grew up on with the likes of Frenzal Rhomb, but it also has that ‘don’t give a fuck, music is an escape’ attitude. It combines that with hookiness – music that hooks into your heart and guts.”

“There’s a lot of punk vibes in the band, we like the side of losing your shit and bouncing around on stage, but there are members of the band who enjoy a good ‘bush whack’ and have ideas about that being an authentic thing to do.” Burns is mindful of the fact that some of the musical traditions they’re tapping into can be pretty highbrow, which is something the band aims to avoid. “One of the original things around which the band cohered was Cold Chisel covers,” explains Burns. “We stole an idea directly from the Whodangers, who were covering Khe Sanh and we had a lot of fun doing that for a while. That encapsulates a lot of it – ‘Play some fucking Chisel,’ and you bring out this jazz cover.” It makes sense, especially because some of the band’s members have some pretty serious musical backgrounds and use The Willie Wagtails as a form of conservatorium recovery. “They’ve come from this highbrow, high pressure world and taken that and gone, ‘This is what the fuck I want to do with it, thank you very much’,” Burns observes. As befitting the punk ethos, the band’s up for a bit of anarchy. Burns describes them as a street band fundamentally, who cut their teeth busking. “We recently played at the Guildford Banjo Jamboree, of all places, and that was fantastic, but after our gig we went out into the street and there were people around, so we had a jam,” recalls Burns. “There were people milling around with and without instruments, watching, dancing. Then we got pushed into the beer garden, where we played an impromptu set for another 45 minutes.” THE WILLIE WAGTAILS will play the Coburg Night Market on Friday December 12. WATCH INTERVIEWS, CHATS & AWKWARD SILENCES..... WWW.BEAT.COM.AU/TV

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 39

BENJIMAN BOOKER

By Augustus Welby

There are plenty of great musicians whose earliest work isn’t exactly a slick statement of technical accomplishment. Look at Talking Heads and The Velvet Underground; both bands are responsible for major refurbishments in the field of Western popular music, paving the way for generations of unique artists to come. Their earliest releases – The Velvet Underground & Nico and Talking Heads’ 77 – feature fairly thin production, and signs the musicians were really just giving things a go, but that hasn’t prevented the records from being some of the most popular and cherished entries in the popular music canon. Benjamin Booker’s music has some strong roots. He’s based in New Orleans, a city with a tremendous music history stretching from early jazz through to rock’n’roll, funk and hip hop. His voice recalls the hardened defiance of the early bluesmen. Similarly, his guitar work re-states classic blues riffs and soul-indebted chord changes with more than a touch of rock’n’roll firepower. Perhaps more significantly, Booker’s debut self-titled album is catapulted by a bounty of energy and curiosity – undeniable facets of youth. As a result, at first glance Benjamin Booker could be seen as a collection of fairly rudimentary tunes, but a closer looks reveals Booker’s unkempt rock’n’roll to be thrilling all over. To record the album, Booker plunged in headfirst, sparing any pretension in favour of honest excitement. “There’s a ton of first takes on the record and I’m fine with that,” he says. “The majority of all the songs were recorded live in the studio. I had six days to record the record and two days to mix it. It was just, ‘Get in there and press play and play the best song the best way that you can play there.’ “I recorded it analogue for that reason,” he continues, “because you can’t really mess around as much as when you record digital. I had been in the studio before and recorded digitally and it’s kind of overwhelming – just the possibilities. Every word, you miss one note, you can go back and fix things one note at a time. Stuff like that would’ve just driven me crazy. But recording analogue and just having to play the songs [and then] that’s it, it took a lot of the pressure off.” Booker’s still fairly new to this music caper. Not long after his earliest public performances, he got swept into a position of focus – earning a deal with ATO Records and promptly entering the studio to record Benjamin Booker. “I played my first show in May 2012,” he says. “Then I really didn’t start playing [lots of ] live shows until last summer. It was very new. I felt pretty comfortable going in [to the studio], but now when I look back on it, I think we’ve improved so much more since then.” A lot of this improvement stems from the fact that – backed by drummer Max Norton and bass player Alex Spoto – Booker’s spent the majority of 2014 on tour. Touring alongside the likes of Jack White and Courtney Barnett, it’s been a massive learning curve for the young New Orleanian. “We’ve basically been on the road since February playing shows,” he says, “so it feels like a tight show. We know how it goes down – what everybody’s doing. I’ve definitely gotten more comfortable doing the whole performing thing and hopefully better at playing guitar. “Every song is a little bit different [live] than it was when it was recorded,” he adds. “It just comes with touring and being on the road every day – you get more experience and you get better at what you do. I think the show overall is way better than it was at the beginning of the year. I wasn’t a natural performer; it was really tough at the beginning to get up on stage and play in front of people. It’s definitely gotten easier. I enjoy it more now than I used to.” With any artist, as their abilities develop and creative outlook evolves, attempting to re-apply the naivety effective in their career’s nascent period would be a complete sham – artificial scrappiness doesn’t come over so well. When it comes time for Booker’s sophomore release, he’ll inevitably be influenced by the truckload of experience he’s gathered this year, but he’s not looking to overhaul his approach. “Hopefully the next record I’ll reach farther with the singing and farther with the guitar playing,” he says. “The record probably won’t be similar at all, but the process, I think, will be similar. I don’t think I’ll ever spend more than a couple of weeks in a studio and it will probably be analogue and probably mostly recorded live again. That works for me, so I think I’ll try it again next time.” Booker’s whirlwind 12 months continues into the New Year, when he’ll head our way for the Laneway Festival tour. This is but one in an ever-expanding list of incidents from the last year that make him somewhat incredulous. “Everything that’s happened this year is like, way more than I expected to happen,” he says. “I would’ve been happy just playing my record out. If nobody really bought it I would still have my own record on vinyl. That would’ve been awesome for me.” You can catch BENJAMIN BOOKER at his St Jerome’s Laneway Festival sideshow at the Northcote Social Club on Thursday February 5 if you already have tickets (it’s sold out), or see him at St Jerome’s Laneway Festival on Saturday February 7. His selftitled album is out now through Rough Trade. BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 40

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HOUSE OF LAURENCE

By Augustus Welby

A wise man once said: there’s no better day to party than Sunday. This Sunday, the Semplesize Block Party takes over Howler and it’s certain to be an almighty Sabbath day session. Beyond simply providing an excuse to get out and get loose on a Sunday afternoon, the event features a stack of excellent local acts. Along with the likes Banoffee and Milwaukee Banks, Melbourne psych-rock enthusiasts House of Laurence are on board to remove the idea of Monday morning from your consciousness. Dissolving the concept of time is something House of Laurence specialise in. Next February, the fourpiece will release their debut LP Awake. According to frontman Christopher Laurence, the record’s packed full of convention-thwarting compositions. “The average track comes in at about six or seven minutes,” he says. “The songs have real narratives, a real sense of journey, and a real start, middle and a finish to them.” House of Laurence began a little over two years ago, initially as a solo recording outlet for Laurence. After putting together a bunch demos, a few of Laurence’s friends expressed interest in project. It didn’t hurt these friends – guitarist Kristian Laemmle-Ruff, bassist Sam Teskey and drummer Liam Gough – were pretty handy musicians themselves. “They were like, ‘Shit man we really dig it – let’s start a band,’ and I was like, ‘Alright, sure.’ Then I was like,

‘Well these dudes are so fucking talented, they’ve got so much to give.’ We would’ve really been cutting ourselves short by just leaving it up to one person.” Since evolving into a four-pronged entity, House of Laurence have released a self-titled EP and the standalone singles, Just Don’t Move Me and Let’s Go and Play. None of this material will surface on Awake, as the record was entirely generated during a songwriting and recording getaway the band embarked on through August. “[We decided to] lock ourselves in a house for four weeks and live there, work there, eat there, play there, record there – at a house out in the Hills,” Laurence explains. “We walked into the process and didn’t have any material. We just plugged everything in, set up, we hit record and just jammed. “It was such a lovely thing to do,” he continues, “to just go, ‘Yeah let’s all go by feeling and intuition.’ It all

just came out – the riffs, the vocals, the melodies, the rhythms – on the spot. Nothing was pre-conceived, which makes it super exciting because you can maintain so much of that glow that you get when you create. We’re very, very proud of where it’s come from, because it’s incredibly honest to who are and how our friendships all relate to each other.” In addition to representing the musical and personal relationships shared by the four band members, House of Laurence’s forthcoming debut owes a thing or two to some indefatigable artistic forebears. “It’s fair to say my musical influence is directly correlated to what I was lucky enough to be exposed to as a little fella,” says Laurence. “[My parents’ record collection] had everything from Aretha Franklin to Pink Floyd to Muddy Waters to Glenn Miller big band kind of stuff. Pop sensibilities don’t really have any influence, it’s always just about exploring and creating in the most pure honest place you can. That for us is the

biggest influence.” As it stands, the material from Awake is yet to be played live. The record’s not due until February, but the band will be giving away plenty of spoilers on Sunday afternoon. “We’re looking forward to setting off on a journey and seeing where it goes on stage,” Laurence says. “We just get lost in it. Once you can break down those conscious barriers and really sink into something wholeheartedly, all of a sudden all these restraints and rules disappear. That’s what we strive for every show that we do.”

the video for Werewolf – a Quentin Tarantino-worthy bloodfest from the eyes of a misunderstood werewolf family. Next year, the band plan to head out on the road to bring their music to wider corners of the globe. “Touring is definitely on the horizon,” says Marks. “Our focus next year will be playing more shows and building the Frankie fan base – or the Frankie Family as we call them.” Hey Frankie’s sound is hard to pinpoint – it’s part neo soul, part jazz, with touches of funk and electronica. “One guy in New York said it’s like Digable Planets and Erykah Badu had a baby,” laughs Marks. “The music that we write, you can’t really categorise it. It’s kind of a bizarre mix in a sense.” That bizarre mix has garnered the attention of many fans, including Sam Johnson – the man behind the

Love Your Sister charity. “He actually came to our EP launch show, which was a pleasant surprise,” explains Marks. “He asked us if we would play at a charity ball for them and then from that if we would make our music available to use in the TV doco. It was just incredible and beautiful to be part of such an amazing cause. I mean Sam Johnson rode a unicycle around Australia to raise money for his sister who was dying of breast cancer. We were just delighted to be able to help out.”

very much alive and well, and the band are kicking off summer this year in fine style, with an excellent ska show at The Espy this month, also featuring The Allniters and No Nonsense. “We know [it’s] a really good cross-section of what ska is today in Melbourne,” he enthuses. “It’s going to be, frankly, a rockin’ good time. We’re going to go along with the idea that we’re going to really enjoy the night ourselves, aside from the fact that we get to play.” There is also, finally, a brand new Loonee Tunes album on the way. It’s their first for many years, and should see the light of day sometime next year.

“We’re working on new material at the moment,” he reveals, “I’ve written a bunch of songs, Adam’s [Timms, the band’s singer] written a bunch of songs, so we’ve got a whole bunch of jams coming through. I’m really just enjoying writing new stuff with these people. This has made me feel young again.”

HOUSE OF LAURENCE are playing at the Semplesize Block Party this Sunday December 7 from 1pm at Howler. Tickets are available through Moshtix. Their EPs are available to purchase via their Bandcamp.

HEY FRANKIE

By Kelsey Berry

The first year of a band’s life can see many milestones – the first gig, the first EP, the first overseas fan. For Melbourne band Hey Frankie, year one brought milestones above and beyond anyone’s expectations. Now onto their second year, the band aren’t yet ready to slow down, having just released their second EP. The EP, titled Guess Who, caps off a whirlwind year for the band, who formed in August last year. Since then, Hey Frankie have performed at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, sent two of their members across the Tasman to open for Matt Corby in New Zealand, released their debut music video, had their music featured in a documentary, and of course, recorded their second EP. The band, which consists of singer Jess Palmer, keyboardist Nick Marks, guitarist Ryan Lim, bassist Matt Hayes and drummer Daniel Berry, met while studying music together at Monash University. “Four of us were playing together – not including Nick – for about a year before Hey Frankie, in a band that was under my name,” explains Palmer. “When we were preparing to record the I See You EP we got Nick on board as a keyboard player. One day we got stuck on the arrangement of a song and we started jamming together. That jam session was when Hey Frankie was born, although we didn’t really know it at the time.”

It was during the recording of I See You that Hey Frankie was officially launched. “I didn’t really like the idea that this EP was going to be just under my name, when we took such a collaborative approach to arranging the music,” says Palmer. “I decided that I wanted to release it under a band name, so I put the idea to the boys and everyone agreed.” Since then, Hey Frankie have taken a far more collaborative perspective to recording, with the band’s second EP born out of a combined effort from all members of the band. “The whole process was completely different the second time round,” says Marks. “With the first EP all the songs had been written by Jess and it was originally recorded as Jess’ band. With Guess Who, from the getgo, it was all of us together in the room starting from zero. All of the songs on that EP originated with us and it all came together.” To compliment the release of the new EP, the band enlisted the help of Marks’ filmmaker brother to shoot

Catch HEY FRANKIE at Boney on Friday December 12 for their EP launch show. Guess Who is out now.

LOONEE TUNES

By Rod Whitfeild

You can trace the origins of ska music right back to the ‘50s, and since then its popularity has ebbed and flowed to quite a strong extent, possibly more so than many other genres and sub-genres of music. Adam Dennis, guitar player for one of Australia’s finest exponents of the style, Loonee Tunes, has an interesting metaphor to describe its rise and fall from prominence over its journey. “Once upon a time you had skateboards, and you had the skateboard fad,” he explains. “They’d be around for a year and then they’d go away, and then they’d come back some years later. Ska used to be a bit like that too.” That said, it must be stated the genre has never actually gone away completely. “Ska is now similar to roots music, or blues music,” he states. “It is a genre, it’s not a fad; it kinda’ sticks around.” His own band formed in the early ‘80s, had a brief but spectacular run for four to five years before going into what turned out to be a very lengthy hibernation. “1982, the band started to get themselves to a point where they could actually play, just,” he exclaims. “They started playing, and they were pretty much unstoppable. By about ‘84, they had really stepped up, they played Earl’s Court, the venue, down in St Kilda. I think they played a late Wednesday night residency there for at

least a year. That type of baptism by fire, where you just played and played and played. “By late 1986, the band kind of exploded and didn’t play anymore. And that also coincided with the waning of the second wave of ska.” It wasn’t until the so-called ‘third wave’ of ska came along that they emerged from that extended hiatus. “Then the third wave came along, epitomised by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones,” he continues. “That was global, and we all found ourselves dancing to third wave stuff, and going, ‘Man, this is good, isn’t it?’ “It was about 2009, we’d been thinking about for some years, we got the band back together and it really rocked because by now, we were professionals, so we actually knew how to make music, and arrange music and write music, and have a really good time doing it.” Today, the ska scene in Melbourne and Australia is

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LOONEE TUNES play the Espy in St Kilda on Friday December 12 with special guests The Allnites and No Nonsense. BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 41

SLEEPWAVE

By Gloria Brancatisano

For ten years, Spencer Chamberlain stood at the helm of one of the biggest metalcore bands in the world. He’d helped create four albums, two of which went on to become gold certified, scored two Grammy nominations and amassed a legion of fans around the world. But at the end of 2013 all that came to an end, and suddenly Chamberlain was left starting again. Three years after he took the stage at Soundwave as the frontman of Underoath, Spencer Chamberlain will make his return to Australia, this time with his new project, Sleepwave, and a fresh look on music. “To gain it all, you have to risk everything and a lot of times you don’t have to lose it all but I definitely did,” Chamberlain explains. “For ten years I’d put all my chips in one basket and I had to taste dirt before I could stand up again. It’s very humbling and it teaches you a lot about who you are, learning how to start from the bottom again.” It was a long way to fall from grace, but Chamberlain learnt just how quickly everything can disappear. One moment that highlights his downfall is the night, while sitting at his dining room table with his two gold records hanging on the wall, Chamberlain had to empty out his piggy bank to buy a 99-cent burger, the first time he’d eaten in two days. “Being in the position that I was in all the way to being homeless and flat broke, being a literally starving musician, makes you really appreciate the things that are to come and have already come to me at the beginning of Sleepwave,” he says. Sleepwave’s not only a new musical project for Chamberlain, it’s a clean slate to launch off. The project began while he was still a part of Underoath, as a way to let of steam and creativity between tours. But what started out as a bit of fun between friends, soon grew into a serious venture. “I’ve always written music, since I was a little kid. I just started writing songs with my friend Stephen Bowman [other half of Sleepwave], and I’d do it when I came home from tour just for fun, we’d just pick up guitars and just make noise. “Then when we learnt that Underoath was sadly going to call it quits, I remember getting on the phone with him and being like, ‘So you know those ideas we had? Let’s shape them up into songs,’ so I came into it with

a different mentality and we sat down together in a different light.” One listen to Sleepwave’s debut album, Broken Compass and it’s hard to imagine the album was written by the same person who fronted a successful metal band. Chamberlain understands there’ll be fans who disagree with his new direction, but it’s something he accepted before he began this new venture. “Underoath was a good ground to jump off of because people are going to listen to what I have to say now if they liked what I used to say. But after spending ten years doing the same thing, why would I do it all over again? “There are going to be haters because it’s not metal or hardcore or whatever you want to call Underoath but why would I do Underoath: Part Two with a new group of guys? That would just feel wrong to me. If I’m going to play Underoath’s style of music, I’m going to play that with the Underoath guys.” Having already played two Soundwave Festivals and countless Australian tours over the last decade, next year’s Soundwave Festival marks a return to Australian stages for Chamberlain. While he understands things are going to start of slow for Sleepwave, he has every hope things will take off soon. “I remember looking at the lineup and going, ‘Damn I wish we were on that.’ As far as Underoath goes, they were some of my favourite tours we ever did. Australia has always been so good to me so I’m hoping that it will continue with Sleepwave and us continuing to come back to Australia. “Outside of America, Australia was the absolute hands-down best country for Underoath to tour. I just can’t wait to start a new chapter with Sleepwave. It’s the start so it’ll be a little smaller at first but after coming back a couple of times I’m sure we’ll be great.” Once a chapter has closed, it’s easy to look back on the past and pick out all your mistakes. After a decade

in Underoath, touring the world, and then watching the rug pulled from underneath you, having a chance at a fresh start is the only way to move forward. For Chamberlain, Sleepwave is his new start, and even if he has to get used to being at the bottom for a while he’s ready to make up for lost chances. “If I could go back and meet myself I would tell him to try to get out more and appreciate things a little bit more because you’re touring so much you get comfortable, I

felt like I had no time. I would tell myself to make sure I get up and go and look at some of the beautiful places that are right in front of my face.”

Recent sets, including festival appearances at Reading and Leeds, have strictly focused on Hesitant Alien, with material from My Chemical Romance nowhere to be seen, and don’t expect that to change by the time Soundwave rolls into Australia next year. “It would have to be some time passing, it would have to be years, to the point where I truly miss the songs and they mean something to me again,” he considers. “When the band ended, I was at a point where the songs still meant something to me. But if I were to go one minute more they would stop. To play them again, firstly, I would

need to reimagine them completely into whatever I’m doing at the time, even if it’s freeform jazz. On top of that, I need to have a strong desire to do them. The desire just doesn’t exist. It might take years.”

SLEEPWAVE have just been announced to play Soundwave over Saturday February 21 and Sunday February 22. Broken Compass is out now via Epitaph.

GERARD WAY

By Lachlan Kanoniuk

It came as a righteous shock when My Chemical Romance, a band riding high with an undiminished, ever-fervent, fan base, announced their sudden split in March 2013. After the band bowed out on a high, there were no sure answers as to what was next for frontman and renowned comic author, Gerard Way. The answer came relatively swift, however, with the announcement of Way’s first solo LP, Hesitant Alien. Speaking from his makeshift art studio in LA, Way details his transformation into fully-fledged solo artist. “It took me quite a while to get to the point where I realised there was going to be a solo album,” he explains. “The initial plan was to run as far away as I could, erase my identity and change states, play guitar and sing and not talk to the audience in a small fuzz-rock band. But time passed, the songs started to feel more ambitious. I didn’t even know I was making an album until around six songs in. I was just making music for the sake of making music, which is something I had not done in a long time. While he initially suggests he felt he didn’t have anything to prove with this new project or with what he’d achieved with My Chemical Romance; that feeling still tends to persist. “There’s an invisible, imaginary resistance you can create for yourself by feeling there’s something you need to prove, even if you’re fighting against yourself,” he admits. “It’s a crutch you can fall on. But if you don’t have that, you’re not angry about anything. I was out to share. When you’re out to prove something, it becomes calculated, you use your art as a weapon. I wasn’t trying to do that, I was simply trying to share, pieces of me that I’ve never shared, sonically, before.” In creating a solo album, Way wasn’t so much emboldened by freedom, but guided by a maturity within his own constraints: “Anyone can put themselves in a prison pretty easy, is what I’ve learned,” he says. “One of the biggest points of maturity for me in this whole process was truly understanding that I was my own jailer. My Chem’ wasn’t a prison, it was maybe part of the problem and maybe what was suffocating me creatively. But you put yourself in that jail. I could have easily done it again with this album, and put myself in a prison again. I had to face that. Freedom was always up to me, and I came to realise that. That’s when I began

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 42

to have fun.” The final two My Chemical Romance albums were defined by sprawling, character-rich, conceptual narratives. Though the title Hesitant Alien might invoke sci-fi visions, the album presents itself as a grounded rock manifesto. “It was super challenging,” Way states. “There was no concept, there were no strong characters – the character ended up being myself. The only thing I felt like a created was a visual language for this record; I don’t think I created a character. Or in the end, I created myself. I put pieces together to make myself. Not having a story, not having a title long before the album was finished, not having any of that stuff in mind was extremely challenging. And that’s what I wanted. I was challenging myself sonically, trying one vocal track instead of quadruple harmonising. I was very resistant to harmonies on this record.” The foremost influences found on Hesitant Alien pertain to strains of early ‘90s alternative rock, venturing into vivid Brit pop territory at times, which are signifiers not exactly present in the My Chemical Romance back catalogue. “They were always on my mind, I was always listening, and every now and again they would pop into My Chem’ songs,” he says. “I had a tremendous understanding and respect for what we did in My Chem’, that I was always fully aware that this is our sound. I’m not gonna’ resent it, I’ll bend it to a certain point, but I’m not going to break it past that. Even if I had a strong desire to write a Brit pop song, it was never going to be that. So this was always in my repertoire. Stuff you listen to when you’re 12 years old, stuff you listen to in your formative years. Luckily it was a sophisticated type of music, Brit pop is extremely complex, so it stuck with me, even when I’m nearing my 40s.”

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GERARD WAY will be performing at Soundwave on Sunday February 22 at Flemington Racecourse. Hesitant Alien is out now on Reprise Records/ Warner.

CORE

PUNK, SKA, HARDCORE NEWS, REVIEWS & GOSSIP

By Emily Kelly: ek1984@gmail.com Listen up folks. I have a personal public service announcement. I’ve organised a glorious gig THIS FRIDAY at John Curtin Hotel featuring High Tension, Clowns, The Peep Tempel, TNNLCNTS and new chick on the block, Ecca Vandal. Huxtaburger will be dishing out the burgery goodness and there’s a photobooth for maximum fun times. Tickets are available for pre-purchase or on the door. After much speculation and anticipation, Soundwave has revealed some more bands to join their festival of fun in 2015. You can now see Animals As Laders, The Devil Wears Prada, Dragonforce, Evergren Terrace, Fucked Up, He Is legend, Killer Be Killed, Le Butcherettes, Lower Than Atlantis, One Ok Rock, Sleepwave and Twin Atlantic when the festival comes to Melbourne on Saturday February 21 and Sunday February 22. Don’t forget headliners Slipknot, Slash, Marilyn Manson, Fall Out Boy, Judas Priest, Godsmack, Papa Roach and more have already been confirmed. Chaos continues to encircle legendary metal band Megadeth with half their band quitting late last week. Their drummer Shawn Drover and guitarist Chris Broderick both departed citing very civil musical differences as the reasons behind their departure. Post-hardcore gurus From Autumn To Ashes will reform and perform again in 2015. After six long years the band have promptly been added to Canadian music festival Amnesia Rockfest. They’ve also said there will be some more shows to come. Australia Day is always a bonza time to chuck a celebration and PLASTIC knows this, having dished out one hell of a lineup for their dual venue party on Sunday January 25. See I Killed The Prom Queen, Ever Rest, Sentinel, Hideaway at Next AND/ OR Twelve Foot Ninja, Ten Thousand, Internal Nightmare, Beneath The Waters at Bang. Either way, BANG for your buck (pun intended) and a guaranteed good time.

CRUNCH

METAL, HEAVY ROCK. CLASSIC ROCK LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL GOOD SHIT

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CORE GIG GUIDE THURSDAY DECEMBER 4: Counterparts, Vices at The Evelyn Hotel Sage Francis, Fait Accompli at Corner Hotel Prepared Like A Bride, Ever Rest, Evacuate The Fallen at Next FRIDAY DECEMBER 5: The Peep Tempel, Clowns, High Tension, TNNLCNTS, Ecca Vandal at The John Curtin Counterparts, Vices at Wrangler Studios Athena’s Wake, Griever, Havoc, Evolution Of Self, Deadweight at The Reverence Mindsnare, Rort, Internal Rot, Shackles, Lion Fight at Bendigo Hotel Chinese Burns Unit, Amateur Drunks, Freak Wave, Flour at The Rev Havoc at The Reverence Gay Paris, Don Fernando, The Dukes Of Deliciousness at Cherry Bar Take Your Own, Japan For, Tired Breeds, Dead Joe, No! Not The Bees at 303 Northcote Legs Electric at Whole Lotta Love SATURDAY DECEMBER 6: The Smith Street Band, The Bennies, Fear Like Us, Rockenspiele at The Reverence (U18) Maricopa Wells, Empra, Dead Joe, Sans, Wolf Whistler at The Reverence Apes, Teen Sensations, Reptiles at The Toff In Town Chinese Burns Unit, Laura Palmer, Foxtrot, Angry Seas, Judas Springsteen at The Old Bar Palace Of The King, Legs Electric at Cherry Bar Kissychasy, Brighter At Night, Harbours at Bang Sleep, Horsehunter, Bonnie Mercer at Corner Hotel Kisschasy, Brighter At Night, Harbours at Bang King Fate, bastardizer, Ak 11 at The Reverence SUNDAY DECEMBER 7: Sleep, Mammoth Mammoth, Hotel Wrecking City Raders at Corner Hotel

THE RETURN OF VENOM

CALIGULA’S HORSE TO TOUR

Venom, the hugely influential British heavy metal trio widely revered for driving and shaping many aspects of the music industry, including black and thrash metal, plus their instinctive blending of metallic power and punk spirit – have confirmed the release of their new studio album, From The Very Depths, in January 2015 via Spinefarm Records/Caroline Australia. The band is led by vocalist/bassist and original Venom titan, Cronos. “This album is perfect, all three members are totally over-the-top confident with the new songs and the production,” he says. “We had a great atmosphere in the studio while we were recording, Dante created pure thunder from his drums, while Rage tears the flesh off your face with his riffs, making everything fall into place so well… It’s a strong release and really shows the band maturing into an unstoppable force of pure Black Metal. We can’t wait to play the new songs live for the Legions… Hell Yeah.”

Fresh off a wildly successful Australia-wide tour with Perth trailblazers Voyager, support for Canadian prog phenomenon Protest The Hero and a showcase at the prestigious Bigsound music conference, Brisbane based progressive alternative tour-de-force Caligula’s Horse once again hit the road to promote their brand new video from their critically acclaimed sophomore release The Tide, The Thief & River’s End, the epic opening track A Gift To Afterthought. Alongside the video track and all of their fan-favourites, the band will also be unveiling some new and never-performed material on the tour. You can catch them at The Evelyn in Fitzroy for an Australia Day Eve extravaganza on Sunday January 25. Joining them will be AlithiA, Orsome Welles and Kettlespider.

BLUES BAND

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Mindsnare’s The Death, Resist are re-pressing the bands fourth album on coloured vinyl. Head along to The Bendigo Hotel in Collingwood on Friday December 5 for a rare and surely kickass show, also featuring Shackles, Rort, Internal Rot and Lion Fight.

SARACENO’S

NEW

Guitar great Blues Saraceno has got a new project called Courtesy Flush and they have a killer new song online called Pure Evil you’ve just gotta’ hear. It’s like dark blues-rock with an undercurrent of ‘70s metal of the Black Sabbath variety. Check it out at https:// soundcloud.com/rustymassive/pure-evil.

CATCH MYRIDIAN ON A BREAK FROM THE STUDIO

Despite being hard at work on the follow-up to their 2012 debut Under the Fading Light, Myridian are taking a break from the studio to headline this show of atmospheric metal with their European-influenced style of melodic death/doom. Making the trip down from Sydney for the first time in far too long are The Veil, launching their new album Impermanence. Also on this Saturday’s show at The Bendigo is Aquilis and one of my favourite local bands, Catacombs.

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MINDSNARE AT THE BENDIGO

KILLER BE KILLED ADDED TO SOUNDWAVE

Killer Be Killed, the supergroup comprised of Max Cavalera (Soulfly, Ex-Sepultura), Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan), Troy Sanders (Mastodon) and Dave Elitch (Ex-The Mars Volta, Antemasque), will make its live debut as part of next year’s edition of Soundwave 2015 festival, set to take place Saturday February 21 - 22 at Bonython Park in Adelaide and Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, and February 28 - March 1 at Olympic Park in Sydney and Brisbane Showgrounds in Brisbane. The band recently released their critically-acclaimed, self-titled debut album, and its highest chart position in the world was in Australia. It’s great we get to see their very first shows ever.

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 43

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Q&A

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 3

THE BLACK SHEEP

After the fun they had last time, The Black Sheep return to the front bar of the Retreat Hotel. Chris Wilson and Alison Ferrier will play every Wednesday in December, except NYE. The inimitable Chris Wilson has been described as a “gospel cyber punk, singing and playing harp with such venom and power it’s impossible to ignore him.” Alison Ferrier offers an original mix of country, folk and blues. Her debut album Sugar Baby has been described as containing “Mighty and tender, harrowing and beautiful songs, superbly performed." Be there or be square, as it kicks off 7pm at the Retreat Hotel, Wednesday December 3.

Obserd

Define your genre in five words or less: Hard, fast, raw, punk rock. Describe the best gig you have ever played. It was just the other night actually, it was a 40th birthday party we played of our lead guitarist’s friend, there were some really rad bands playing on the lineup, the vibe of the day was great, the stage was awesome and the band just gelled together with ease. Tell us about the last song you wrote. The last song I wrote, is called Get Me Out. It’s addressing the issue of depression, and the isolation felt by the sufferer. The first two verses are spoken from the sufferers point of view and finishes with a guiding voice notifying that one doesn’t have to endure the disease alone. Where would you like to be in five years? We have set ourselves the goal of playing Rebellion Festival in Blackpool, England by 2017, which is three years away so were really not thinking five years into the future just yet. Do you have a pre-gig ritual? If so, what is it? Try to stay away from the bar, [laughs]. There’s a bit of warm up an hour or so before the show usually on my acoustic, we have a little bit of a group pep talk, usually ends in us making really bad jokes but helps lighten nerves.

MELALUKA

Melaluka have combined R&B roots, soul-inspired vibes and the powerful vocals of Alyson Murray to release their first single On My Way. They are excited to be introducing a funky new horn section to the mix, making their first appearance at their single launch at the Gasometer Hotel. Supporting is the very talented Lanks and Echo Drama. Wednesday, December 3 from 8pm.

THE BRASS RING

The Beasts of Bourbon are the last of a breed of Australian rock band. Hairy, sweaty, noisy, rude. Daunting and powerful, very much a part of the ugly 80s/90s zeitgeist. Several years in the making, Robert Brokenmouth (historian and author of the book on Nick Cave’s early years with the Birthday Party) was determined to return to his roots of

OBSERD play the Nevermind the Warp’d Tour sideshow at The Dancing Dog in Footscray from 8pm.

sticky carpet, unmentionable substances, untrustworthy women and tinnitis. The Brass Ring is an essential, definitive, revealing, dirty polaroid of the Beasts’ lives. It is screening at the Thornbury Theatre this Wednesday, December 3 from 6pm. Tickets are $16.

WOMAN OR HORSE Way too mysterious for social media, Woman or Horse are a bunch of babes who translate your favourite pop canons into three part harmony lo-fi country gems. Their repertoire is peppered with heartbreaking works of staggering genius and some self penned fancies. They hit the stage Wednesday, December 3 from 8pm at the Drunken Poet. THURSDAY DECEMBER 4

TOGETHER APART

THE CASANOVAS Remember how much you loved The Casanovas? Well, they’re back to play their first show in several years as a part of Rubber Records 25th Anniversary. After spending the last two years writing and recording their third album with producer Jimi Maroudas (Tim Rogers, The Living End, Kimbra), Terra Casanova is set for release in 2015. The band will celebrate by performing a greatest hits set and previewing tracks from the forthcoming release at Northcote Social Club tonight, December 3. Special guests will be The Affected – Melbourne’s original pop punks whose last release (on Rubber, of course!) was in 1994 and who after years of cajoling will finally take the stage again, one last time. Kicks off from 7.30pm.

Together Apart are an electro-dreampop band from Melbourne who combine elements of shoegaze, trip hop, lo-fi, electronica, pop, and industrial, with a strong DIY aesthetic. Formed in 2013, the band have just released an independent EP When We Were which they produced, recorded, and mixed themselves. They play the Bendigo Hotel Thursday, December 4 and are joined by The May Rivers and Headlopper. $5 entry, doors open 8pm.

JACK CARTY Time flies, and increasingly, so does Jack Carty. It may have been four years since his debut EP Wine & Consequence and his unassuming arrival on the Australian music scene, but that’s certainly not

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BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 44

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time misspent. Two full length albums – 2011’s One Thousand Origami Birds and 2012’s Break Your Own Heart – quickly followed, as did a collaborative EP with Sydney based man-of-mystery Casual Psychotic titled The Predictable Crisis Of Modern Life, showcasing a darker and more experimental side to Carty’s writing away from his indie-folk roots. Now, following three solid years of travel, tours and no fixed address, Carty has finished a new album, grounded in ideas of process and time while sounding like an artist who knows exactly what he wants. He’ll hit the stage at Howler on Thursday, December 4. Tickets are $15, available at Moshtix.

BRIDGEWATER

Bridgewater have just enjoyed a successful run with their video Saviour being screened at the Beneath The Waves Film Festival, a global series of ocean awareness events. Lifted from their self-titled album, Saviour is an epic journey of self discovery and accurately reflected by the film clip shot by Tom Lowe and Polygraph productions. The band members share a strong connection to the ocean, teaming up with the Australian Marine Conservation Society to help spread the word about ocean awareness and preservation. Catch them at the Retreat Hotel, December 4 supported by Greg Steps and Julia Jackson from 8.30pm.

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For all the latest news check out beat.com.au JULIA JACKLIN Julia Jacklin is a singer/songwriter from the Blue Mountains who will be bringing her brand of haunting introspective lo-fi folk to Melbourne for the first time this December. Jacklin launched her debut EP Santafel in August of this year, which received support from both FBi and triple j radio. Having just returned from a solo sojourn to the States, she will be bringing new songs and stories to The Retreat stage on Thursday December 4, 8.30pm.

FIVE MILE SNIPER Melbourne rock outfit Five Mile Sniper are set to round out the year with a show at The Espy on Thursday, December 4. It’s been a busy year for the boys, who have been recording their debut album The Sound of Trees due for release early 2015. Anyone who has seen any of their previous bands in action (Motor Ace, Prettymess, Icecream Hands) knows this will be a special evening and a sonically powerful show. Along for the ride are Mammals, The Starks and Columbia. Free entry.

DALECAÑA FLAMENCO

DaLeCAÑA is an epic soundscape adventure through the sounds of Spain, Cuba and India. With passionate and virtuosic playing, dance, beauty, mystery and energy, they invite you into their world of creation, improvisation, and connection to the Duende of flamenco. One of Australia’s most celebrated musicians, flamenco guitarist Gerard Mapstone is joined by Alejandro Florez, El Brujo de Madrid, Senes and Raju

Sharna. With gypsy songs from the campfires of Andalucia to the concert halls of Madrid, their music will move and excite you. Tickets are $10, $5 concession. They perform at Open Studio on Thursday December 4 from 8.30pm. Olé.

ROM DING DONG

Get ready for an experience like no other. Rom Ding Dong will span the psychedelic rock and jungle big beats of the Cambodian Space Project; all the glitz and glamour of the Siem Reap Lady Boy Show who will be performing for the very first time in Australia. Supported by three-piece local girl group Empat Lima who mix the sounds of traditional Japanese epics to dreamy Indonesian pop and Osaka neon, this exposition of culture, music and colour is sure to make for an unforgettable night. Get your presale tickets for $15+BF. Doors open at 9pm at the Ding Dong Lounge on Thursday December 4.

Q&A COCO LOCO CHRISTMAS JAMBOREE Join Jaspora for their Tropicool Mauritian Island Jamboree at The LuWow on Friday, December 5. With Jumpin’ Josh playing calypso, soca and Afro treats in the Forbidden Temple with the Gogo Goddesses keeping da rhythm and Fez Puskas spinning original ska, rocksteady and reggae 45s in the Island Village, it’s a Coco Loco Christmas party for sure. Come early for tiki cocktails and home-cooked Vietnamese street food. Entry is free before 8.30pm, $5 afterwards.

BEN SALTER

Ben Salter will be serenading the beer garden at the Vic every Thursday night in the lead up to Xmas. Expect laughter, tears, a lot of torch songs and maybe some jokes. Catch him this Thursday, December 4 at the Victoria Hotel in Brunswick from 8pm. FRIDAY DECEMBER 5

GAY PARIS

Kick off the last month of the year with a huge night at Cherry Bar. Gay Paris will be launching their new album with support from Don Fernando & Dukes of Deliciousness. It’s all happening Friday, December 5 at Cherry Bar. Doors from 8pm, tickets are just $15.

THE DATSUNS The Datsuns are heading to Australia with a string of shows to celebrate their latest release, Deep Sleep. The record that sprang from an experiment in space and time: The geographical ‘space’ between the four band members who all live in different parts of the world, and the short pocket of ‘time’ they had together in the same country to put something to tape. The Datsuns will perform at Ding Dong Lounge on Friday December 5, joined. Presale tickets $25+BF or $30 on the door if still available. Doors open 9pm.

THE HORNS

Melbourne duo The Horns have announced the release of their debut single Play With Fire. Led by Daniel J.C.’s incredibly powerful vocals and the inventive musical patterns of Roy Amar, The Horns will mark the release by playing a headline show at the Railway Hotel in the heart of Brunswick, this Friday 5 December at 8pm. Supports from The Colour Code & My Elephant Ride. Tickets are $10 at the door.

MINDSNARE

On Friday December 5 at the Bendigo, Mindsnare will celebrate the tenth anniversary of their fourth album, with a repressing of The Death on coloured vinyl. Mindsnare shows are rare, so get there early. Supported by Shackles, Rort, Internal Rot and Lion Fight. Get on it, you know you wanna. The night begins at 8pm and tickets are $15 at the door.

THE MEANIES

After wowing crowds in the major centres around the country, The Meanies continue their Silver Jubilee Tour with a string of shows in regional Victoria. The Meanies with special guests Batpiss, hit Castlemaine’s Bridge Hotel on Friday, December 5 and Ballarat’s Karova Lounge on Saturday, December 6. Tickets for both shows available through Oztix.

CHECK OUT ALL THE LATEST NEWS, REVIEWS AND FREE SHIT AT BEAT.COM.AU

Stevie and the Sleepers

Describe frontwoman Stevie Joy in five words. Beautiful, talented singer. Likes cats. How did you all get together? Stevie and Jason began writing songs in late 2011 but the band was not formed until early 2012. We’ve all been friends for a long time and mostly met through music courses around Melbourne. With so many members, is it hard to find time to all rehearse together? Organising eight people can be a bit of a headache sometimes, but with Facebook, we’re able to all write our availabilities in our private band group page. It makes life so easy. Your Happy Days video launch is happening this week, what can we expect from it? The idea behind the clip is to show people doing whatever makes them happy. You’ll also be raising money to help your album along, set for release in 2015. How far along in the songwriting are you? We have about 15 songs written then we will pick ten of the strongest songs from that. We’re always writing new songs so I am sure there will be more added to the list. STEVIE AND THE SLEEPERS will launch the video for Happy Days, this Saturday December 6 at Yah Yah’s to cap off 2014. Doors from 8pm, $13. Get on down.

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MUSIC NEWS

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For all the latest news check out beat.com.au LEGS ELECTRIC

Perth all-girl rock‘n’roll band Legs Electric are coming to town with their blend of contemporary hard rock and the guitar based heavy blues of the ‘70s. Since forming in late 2012, Legs Electric have quickly gained a reputation as one of Perth’s must-see bands thanks to their ferocious live shows. The band is touring behind the release of their self-titled debut EP, which is available at digital outlets including iTunes and Spotify. Catch them Friday, December 5 at Whole Lotta Love Bar or Saturday, December 6 at Cherry Bar.

DJ JAZZY

Since 1985, DJ Jazzy Jeff has wowed us with his flawless turntable skills, innovative production and musical versatility. From the success of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince with partner Will Smith, to the critical acclaim of his production company A Touch of Jazz, Jeff proved time and time again that he would always be a force to be reckoned with. Catch him at the Prince Bandroom Friday, December 5. Tickets are available through the venue’s website.

CIVIL CIVIC Despite working relentlessly on their second album; the follow up to the highly praised debut LP Rules, Civil Civic are making space for some select club shows in Australia this December. The Melodic post-punkers are returning to their home soil to play The Workers Club this Friday, December 5 with Kirin J Callinan, M R S P K R (The Queen’s Head) and Jess Cornelius (Teeth & Tongue). Tickets available through the venue.

CHINESE BURNS UNIT

THE BLACKEYED SUSANS

Chinese Burns Unit rarely get to practice, let alone play in Melbourne, but that doesn’t mean they're noise polluters. Collectively, they have been around a while in many bands and musical projects and know how to fake a practiced performance 95 per cent of the time. It also helps that the songs are brilliant and sound unreal even when they are played drunk or unrehearsed (or both). Come celebrate the launch of their 7” release Reptilian Overlords at the Reverence Hotel, Friday December 5 at 8pm. Tickets are $10 on door.

The Blackeyed Susans make their Christmas debut at The Spotted Mallard on Friday December 5 and return to the Caravan Club on Saturday December 6 for their annual Christmas shows. Formed in Perth in 1989, The Blackeyed Susans have built a reputation for their moody romanticism and op-shop stylings, playing with the likes of Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen. They've released countless albums, singles, vinyl and CDs of strange and beautiful music. Amid the tinsel and the lights, The Susans will play a hand-picked set featuring the best of their extensive back catalogue and some choice Christmas classics too. Come celebrate the birth of little baby Jesus in style with The Blackeyed Susans this December. Tickets are $25+BF, or $30 at the door.

SEVEN DAYS FALLING

MIDNIGHT WOOLF It’s the season of cheer and madness, and wall-eyed families trying to run you down as you make your way towards the mince pie section at the supermarket, or crashing into you at the parking lot, wrestling their way toward the toy shop. If you wanna just to have a few bevies and tap your feet or shake your head right off instead, then come along at 8pm on Friday December 5 to the mighty Tote Hotel for the Off The Hip Records Christmas Bash. Featuring the wild fuzz-drenched tones of Midnight Woolf, Loose Pills, Brat Farrar, The Reprobettes and Kit Convict & Thee Terrible Two. Now that’s a great lineup worth losing your shit over for just $15.

It’s been a long time coming but the boys from Seven Days Falling are back to blow the roof off The Brunny to celebrate the release of their debut self titled short play album which is officially released on December 6. Come down and celebrate with the boys and enjoy some kick ass music from some epic special guests Firing Line, Cicadastone and Guilt Free. It all goes down at the Brunswick Hotel from 9pm til late.

ZOMBITCHES

This Friday, December 5 at the Old Bar catch local rockers Zombitches with My Piranha, The Burning Roaches, Late Nights and Heels On Decks DJ’s spinnin tracks into the night. It kicks off at 8.30pm. Entry is $10.

FOOD COURT Sydney-based garage fuzz dudes Food Court are back with a new seven-track EP entitled Big Weak, which is out now. To launch the EP, the band will be hitting up Boney this Friday, December 5 and Minimum Wage Sunday, December 7. Things are definitely on the rise for Food Court with the EP’s first single 14 Years Young being added to high rotation on triple j, plus recently supporting the likes of Dune Rats, Palms and Bad// Dreems. Kicks off at Boney from 8pm. SATURDAY DECEMBER 6

MISS LIZZY & THE NIGHT OWLS

The best of blue-eyed soul, British and Aussie ‘60s beat and maximum mod dance tunes played on original vinyl by Barbara Blaze. Featuring Miss Lizzy & The Night Owls bringing a touch of classy soul, soaring Hammond organ, electrifying guitar and topped off with Miss Lizzy’s commanding female vocals. You’ll be doing the watusi, the fly, the twist, the monkey, the mess around and the boogaloo before you know it. Let loose at The LuWow on Saturday, December 6. Entry is free before 8.30pm, $5 thereafter.

seconds with

Sarge & the Nuked

Define your genre in five words or less: Not worth paying to see. Bearing the terrible clichéd nature of this question, what do you reckon people will say you sound like? Music played over a saloon brawl that involves Carl Perkins and his mates fighting against Bad Brains and their fans. Describe the best gig you have ever played. That’s hard to say because we love playing so much. For now, let’s say Karova Lounge in Ballarat with O.D. Tommy Dogs, Spacejunk and Swhat. It was a privilege to meet new people both on and off stage while also catching up with old friends and family, as we used to live in that direction. Not to mention we had fun misbehaving at a weird motor inn. Tell us about the last song you wrote. It was probably The Call of Pazuzu. With this we aimed at going real dark as well as keeping it fast like our others. It’s very interesting as well I think, because it changes a lot throughout it and has a very good blend of the genres we like listening to. Do you have a pre-gig ritual? If so, what is it? Eat some sort of junk food, regret it, set our instruments up, wish we’d spent more time doing that, have a Jager-bomb (yum), then trip over when first getting up on stage. If your music was a chocolate bar, which one would it be, and why? It’d have to be Peppermint Crisp, because after the experience, you are left feeling ‘cool.’ Catch SARGE & THE NUKED at the massive Nevermind the Warp’d Tour at The Brunswick Hotel, this Saturday December 6. BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 46

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MUSIC NEWS

YOUR COMPREHENSIVE LOCAL GUIDE

For all the latest news check out beat.com.au MYRIDIAN Despite being hard at work on the follow-up to their 2012 debut Under the Fading Light, Myridian are taking a break from the studio to headline this show of atmospheric metal with their European-influenced style of melodic death/doom. Making the trip down from Sydney for the first time in far too long is The Veil, launching their new album Impermanence. This is definitely a gig worth seeing for all fans of death and doom. Doors open at 8pm at the Bendigo Hotel, entry is $15. It all goes down Saturday, December 6.

SHAKY STILLS

Shaky Stills show and annual Xmas drinks are happening at Some Velvet Morning in Clifton Hill this Saturday December 6, bringing their alt-country good times tunes to you, live and local, with lots of harmonies. Forever Son will be kicking the night off from 8pm, it’s free entry so feel free to come along.

PAUL KIDNEY EXPERIENCE

Paul Kidney Experience formed five years ago in response to a booker’s request for a band to fill their prized late night spot on Melbourne Cup Eve – the ‘band’ haven’t managed to stop since. Paul Kidney Experience launches their debut vinyl release Acousma in Melbourne on Saturday, December 6, at the Grace Darling. Catch this bloody ripper at 9pm, tickets $12 at the door.

MOJO JUJU

Mojo Juju is 5’3” of wise-cracking, sass-mouthing, jump-jiving attitude wrapped up in a Zoot suit and propped up on a Cuban heel. Combining a love of blues, R&B, soul and funk with an uncontrollable urge to “fuck with the form”, this is an artist who is unafraid to challenge the boundaries of genre & style. With her full band in tow and a handful of brand new songs from the forthcoming album (due early 2015), Juju will be taking the stage at the Gasometer Hotel on December 6, for the third and final show in Melbourne for 2014. Joining them for the night will be Hailey Cramer and Tanzer. Tickets are $20+BF. Doors at 8pm.

GOATPISS GASOLINE

Tasmanian songwriting machine Ramblin Van Walker joins forces with Mailtand guitar prodigy Hank Elwood Green and Adelaide’s Dave ‘Suit’ Watkins in Melbourne’s Goatpiss Gasoline. The bastard brothers of such acts as Three Kings and Chris Russell’s

Chicken Walk, houserockin’ electrified blues boogie with no bass and plenty of vinegar. Combining the irresistible killer slide of Elmore James and down home toothless stomp of Jimmy Reed, Goatpiss Gasoline are natural good time music who flirt with a wine stained shirt and understand simplicity is a virtue. Get down to the Drunken Poet at 9pm, Saturday December 6.

JANE TYRRELL

Jane Tyrell will be taking to the stage in Melbourne in support of her debut album, Echoes in the Avery. Playing out like a series of intricate vignettes, Echoes in the Aviary ventures deep into the juncture where indie and electronic meet the warmer soulful tones of Tyrrell’s timbre. Jane’s evocative vocal delivery and utterly compelling presence has seen her perform with the likes of Firekites, Claire Bowditch, Missy Higgins, Paul Kelly, The Herd and more. Catch her at Northcote Social Club Saturday December 6 with a full band in tow or Friday January 9 at The Forum supporting Asgeir. Tickets on sale now.

off the year with a bang with local and interstate talent gracing the stage. Bring the kids, bring your Nan, it’s all ages at the Coburg RSL. The Band Night series is kindly supported by the club in its efforts to survive without pokies revenue. Surf pop duo Heart Beach are headlining, alongside Claire Birchall & The Phantom Hitchhikers, MelonMelonMelon, Bad Guys and The Delvenes. Check out this unique lineup of bands, not to be seen anywhere else . but Coburg. It kicks off at 7pm, tickets are $5 at the door.

PALACE OF THE KING

Rock fans have readily embraced Palace Of The King’s riff-heavy brand of psychblues rock’n’roll. From three minute funk-infused rockers through to seven minutes Sabbath-esque crushers, Palace Of The King deliver some of the hookiest rock tracks you’ll come across, honed by playing more than 170 live shows over the last 18 months. Following the success of their first ‘Song a Month’ single launch at Ding Dong for radio track No Chance In Hell, Palace Of The King returns to Cherry Bar December 7 at 8pm to promote Leave Me Behind, the second track from their forthcoming debut album due for release in April 2015. Tickets are $15 at the door.

THE SMITH STREET BAND Road weary warriors, The Smith Street Band, have just wrapped up a huge national sold-out tour around their Throw Me in The River album and now they are treating Melbourne underage fans to a show on Saturday December 6 at the Reverence Hotel. But wait, it gets even better – for this show only, they will be joined by longtime best buds and Aussie ska-punk legends The Bennies, Poison City folkpunk favourites Fear Like Us and garage/ bubble punk-rockers Rockenspiele. Kicks off at 12pm.

BURNT LETTERS

Burnt Letters are a Melbourne-based alt-country and blues outfit influenced by old-timey tunes, crushing heartbreak, and the full moon wreathed in red. Come along to a show and cry while you’re dancing. The Weeping Willows, Andrew Wrigglesworth and Laura Coates, are a couple of old souls, steeped in bluegrass tradition and draped in gothic Americana imagery. They regale their audience with stories of sunshine and romance, God and The Devil, murder and decay. Real music. Free entry at the Retreat Hotel Saturday, December 6.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 7

THE BAND WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

The Band Who Knew Too Much are playing a special Xmas show at the Spotted Mallard. Anybody who has experienced the magic of the sky and stained-glass lit venue on a sunny Sunday afternoon will testify to its charm and attraction. TBWKTM are back for more following a packed month of Sunday’s midyear, which saw the dance floor full of smiling faces both young and old. There will be special guests, dance prizes, and of course the big Xmas-hamper raffle. The event kick starts Sunday December 7 at 5pm, free entry.

FOOTY One of Melbourne’s most distinctive bands Footy launch their second LP Record at the Tote on Saturday, December 6. Footy is the electric piano duo of Lewis Mulvey and Paddy Gordon. Their music, largely instrumental, has been described as experimental, pensive, chaotic and shamanic, but is peppered with affability, warm and alluring. Join Footy as they launch Record with guests Sky Needle (Bris), The Icypoles, School Girl Report (Batemans Bay) and Guy & Marcus Blackman Experimentation Project. Doors open 8pm, $10 entry.

HEART BEACH

The not-for-profit venue Coburg RSL will celebrate its Band Night on Saturday, December 6. They’re finishing

Sundays are a day for family. But instead of driving out to the ‘burbs this December, why not bring your folks to Old Bar? The Sugarcanes are filling the venue with some soulful rock’n’roll. So tell your mum to put on her dancing shoes and come have a boogie. Check them out on Dec 7, 14 and 21. Entry is $8, bands from 8pm.

WIL WAGNER

Wil Wagner is back for another residency this December to wrap up a huge year for The Smith Street Band who have toured Australia, Europe and the US a few times over in the past 12 months. Recently releasing a new album titled Throw Me In The River which is in the top 20 in the Aria charts. Come along to The Reverence every Sunday in December to see Wil play his heartfelt, poetic and frantic punk songs along with some of his mates. It’s free entry and doors are at 3pm. MONDAY DECEMBER 8

RUBY’S LIVE MUSIC AFTER DARK: PIANO TE

EMILY GRANT Turning Around is the latest EP from Emily Grant; the formidable duo of ivory pounding pianist Emily Coyle and rock loving guitarist Grant Staines. Having returned from a 2014 summer tour of New York, Paris and Berlin, Emily Grant are launching their EP in Australia, with a premier concert at the Paris Cat Jazz Club at 6pm on Sunday, December 7. Tickets are $15 available through www.pariscat.com.au.

Hosted by Sam Appapoulay with Chuck Probert featuring as a drop in musician. From the tropical islands of Mauritius, Sam is a musical genius who has the ability to re-originate any song he plays. A deep understanding of music and his piano stem from over ten years of professional work and experience playing jazz and all types of commercial music. Doors open at 7pm, $10 entry at Ruby’s Music Room Monday, December 8. TUESDAY DECEMBER 9

KIRA PURU

Before embarking on a three-month, national album tour for Paul Kelly’s Merri Soul Sessions in 2015, Kira Puru is doing away with bells, whistles and bullshit for a series of rare solo shows at The Workers Club every Sunday in December. The Misery Residency will see Puru stepping away from the comfort of collaboration to deliver intimate renditions of singles from her upcoming debut solo EP, due for release in 2015. Catch Kira Puru Sundays in December at The Worker’s Club. December 7 she will be supported by Townhouses and D.A Calf (The Book of Ships).

NEVER MIND THE WARP'D TOUR

It appears the Warped Tour couldn't not make it back to Australian shores after the lack of attendance at last years festivals. But don’t fret, because due to much demand, the Nevermind the Warp’d Tour Festival is returning to the Brunswick Hotel Saturday, December 6. Those “Nobodies” over at Knoodle Promotions and Punk-A-Billy Touring have been hard at work putting together another stellar lineup that’s going to wow your pretty little faces right off. This year’s lineup includes interstate acts Rather be Dead (NSW), Kill The Apprentice (QLD), Obserd (QLD) Bottlecock (QLD) and the long awaited return of the legendary Dream Killers (QLD). Two stages, 31 bands, 13 hours of music, BBQs throughout the day and best of all it’s free entry. Support your scene and get down to the Brunswick Hotel December 6, doors at 11am, bands from 12pm, BBQ at 1pm.

THE SUGARCANES

BJ MORRISZONKLE The one man mad-man band BJ Morriszonkle is happy to tell ya that you can go see him for free every bloody Tuesday night in December at the Retreat Hotel front bar. That’s community service, folks. After spending the second half of the year locked in a car port studio recording a stack of new shit, he will drive you bonkers and tickle you pink each week with very special music and very special guests. December is full of demented cartoon, fake metal, dumb clown, flea circus, exploding bi-polar nonsense music in Brunswick. Music will be from 7.30pm, free entry.

THE BLACK SORROWS

SEMPLESIZE

On Sunday December 7, rising stars of the Australian music blog scene, Melbourne’s own SEMPLESIZE are poised to throw a New York-style Block Party at Howler, Brunswick that promises to be the Sunday Sesh of the season. Kicking off at 1pm, SEMPLESIZE Block Party will boast an extensive lineup of music and select cultural activities that the gang are choosing to remain tight-lipped about until closer to the date. They have however revealed that the music stylings of one of 2014’s chief It Girls, Banoffee, front-runners of the new guard of Aussie hip hop Milwaukee Banks and indie stalwarts House of Laurence will feature on the day. Tickets are $25 available through Moshtix.

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It’s no secret Joe Camilleri is one of Australia’s hardest working musicians, celebrating 50 years in music, alongside the 30 years since The Black Sorrows formed back in 1984. To honour the milestone, The Sorrows released album no. 17 Certified Blue, crossing Joe’s favourite genres blues, jazz, country, roots, R&B, rockabilly and Americana. To keep the momentum rolling on what’s been a busy 2014, The Black Sorrows will perform two very special Cajun Christmas Dinner Shows at Melbourne’s Ding Dong Lounge on Tuesday 9 and Wednesday 10 December. Tickets are on sale now through the venue.

DEXTER’S ASIAN CONNECTION

Hosted by Dexter Pradi and his band of talented musicians; Dexter’s Asian Connection is all about bridging the gap between music genres and adding a unique touch to the music they play. Playing a range of jazz standards and also some contemporary songs with a twist, it goes down at Ruby’s this Tuesday, December 9. Like Ruby’s Music Room & Check in on Facebook for $10 entry. Doors open at 7pm.

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 47

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For more reviews go to beat.com.au/reviews THE SMITH STREET BAND The Corner Hotel, Friday November 28 Photo by Ian Laidlaw

QUEENSCLIFF MUSIC FESTIVAL Queenscliff, Friday November 28 to Sunday 30 Stonefield

The Smith Street Band are Melbourne’s favourite sons, intimately dealing with themes that any young Aussie can relate too; drinking too much, heartbreak, all set in familiar locations with red brick fences and terrace houses. Wagner truly speaks to the masses in the most endearing way. But first, the supports: Foxtrot opened the evening with some heartfelt post-hardcore. The guys smacked of old scene players that grew up, grew beards, and made some music that is more likely to stand the test of time. In the same vein as Hot Water Music but with some raucous and overtly Australian vocals, their performance was sensational. Apologies, I Have None from London followed shortly after, with a high-energy performance and some cracking tracks, (Clapton Pond, 60 Miles). These post-hardcore rockers appear to be leitmotif in the music community, and I expect big things from them in the future. The Front Bottoms promptly arrived on stage; a unique and multi-instrumental mix lead by the incredibly talented Brian Sella. Sella’s narrative style and dry wit smack of that guy you come across at parties, hilariously inebriated in someone’s bedroom, playing acoustic guitar, and spouting tongue-in-cheek commentary, then you stagger out and he’s never to be seen again. Hailing from New Jersey, the keys and trumpet smack of Hellogoodbye and early to mid-2000s pop-punk. Several songs in, Sella, assimilating well into Australian culture, cracked a can of Mountain Goat, poured it into, and skolled it from his shoe; commonly referred to by the kids as, “Chucking a shoey,” which was received with great delight from the crowd, and executed with the panache and gusto of someone new to such a novelty. Amidst cheers and premature crowd surfing, The Smith Street Band opened with a cracking quadruple header, Something I Can Hold In My Hands, leading into Surrender, Sunshine & Technology, and Sigourney Weaver. Wagner and the crew rolled out the orchestral section from the album for Calgary Girls, thickening their sound and shedding a few tears. For the finale, I Love Life, the support bands tore out on stage – even the guy with the trumpet from The Front Bottoms – followed by an unabashedly quick pause and lengthy encore of My New Dress Up Shoes, When I Was A Boy I Thought I Was A Fish, and of course, Young Drunk – which I proceeded to get after the show, because hey, it’s not often I have a Friday night off. Wagner, as always, was demure and honest in his stage presence, thanking The Corner Hotel, security, and ultimately the fans for their attendance. Although their tour is almost over, The Smith Street Band will be back, cementing their songs in hearts nationwide. LOVED: Sigourney Weaver. HATED: Saturday morning. NAVARONE FARRELL DRANK: 62 shoeys.

Skyscraper Stan & The Commission Flats kick-started our wild weekend with smokin’ lead guitar and a highenergy performance that featured unexpected and deeply satisfying bursts of chaotic guitar action, delivered by a shape-throwing axe-man sporting expertly slicked hair. Dan Sultan, who was greeted by a wave of enthusiastic cheers, raised a triumphant fist, introduced his band and proceeded to pump out a set of molten soul-rock that whipped the audience into a fever. After delivering a particularly velvet-clad vocal performance, Sultan was rewarded with a large and surprisingly aerodynamic bra which was thrown on stage by an overheated and appreciative punter. The storytelling skills, comedic delivery and relaxed humour of Charles Jenkins beautifully complemented his hook-laden melodies. With lyrics that covered everything from the Melbourne Eye, and a history of Brisbane, to the dying words of Shelley Winters, Jenkins’ songs were both entertaining and spellbinding. The honey-voiced Marlon Williams displayed impressive vocal prowess as he enchanted his way through an eclectic acoustic set. There was a haunting and aching beauty to stark numbers such as The State Hospital. The expansive sound of Dyson Stringer Cloher conjured images of big skies and open-roads. One of the many highlights of their sparkling set was the quietly intense Save Me From What I Want, which featured beautiful three-part vocal harmonies and a liquid guitar solo that positively shimmered. As always, Stonefield was a thundering force to be reckoned with. It must be deeply frightening to have to follow this life-affirming proto-metal juggernaut. The rhythm section pulverised my internal organs (which has to be a good thing) and the band’s shuddering cover of Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love activated one of those ‘goosebump moments’ every music lover seeks but rarely finds. Tijuana Cartel proved to be a tight and rhythmic tour-de-force that got the audience moving with a genre-bustin’ mix of the electronic and the organic that was not only clever but a hell of a lot of fun. The Bombay Royale’s wild and trippin’ combo of Bollywood soundtrack music and ‘60s and ‘70s-tinged lounge psych was so damn ecstatic and zesty it was impossible to resist. The band kindly taught the audience how to do a spot of Bollywood dancing and even encouraged an outbreak of mass “shimmying” and the very important “shakin’ of booty.” There seemed to be hundreds of masked and costumed vibe masters on stage (but I suspect the band had transported me into a hypnotic and hallucinatory vortex). Xavier Rudd, who attracted one of the biggest crowds of the weekend, displayed a striking ability to connect with the audience while pumping out some very addictive and funky rhythms. Highlights of his storming set included the buoyant Let Me Be and a smooth reggae reinterpretation of Cindy Lauper’s Time After Time. Rudd’s uplifting and feel-good performance was the ideal way to bring another LOVED: The eclectic mix of artists. fabulous Queenscliff Music Festival to a fitting close. Roll HATED: That the festival had to end. on 2015. DRANK: Dogbolter Dark Lager and Mussel GRAHAM BLACKLEY PHOTOS BY TONY PROUDFOOT Dan Sultan

BROODS The Forum, Wednesday November 26 Photo by Mark Stanjo

As Sydneysiders were enduring commercially-cloned performances by commercially-cloned boy bands at the 2014 ARIA Awards, Melbournians were being treated to an intimate gig from one of New Zealand’s most promising acts. Excited to be playing “The biggest show we’ve ever done as a headliner,” the adorable duo created a mix of bass-thumping party anthems and as lead vocalist Georgia Nott put it best, “Happy songs that sound a bit sad.” With a live drummer behind them, Never Gonna Change, Everytime and Killing You had the eager crowd jumping from the start. It was obvious most had memorised their songs word-for-word, and sang along the whole time. Evergreen, which is also the name of their debut album, was one of the highlights. At one point, Nott sang in complete darkness, letting her incredible vocals do all the work. The siblings proved to be multi-talented, with older brother Caleb shifting from behind his decks to play acoustic guitar on Taking You There, and Nott played keys for a few songs, including Sleep Baby Sleep and her acoustic solo Four Walls. With the first bar of Bridges came a deafening noise of female (and male) high-pitched screaming but instead of hands going up to dance, the room filled with the light of a hundred mobile screens to record the moment. Highlights came in the form of Sober and an aggressive new track that hasn’t been released, which Nott said: “Makes me picture I’m a hot girl shooting guns in a film like Transformers.” Pretty Thing showcased their impressive male/female vocal dynamic, while L.A.F. revealed their love for playing to a live crowd – encouraging everyone to dance along. They finished the set with Coattails, but didn’t leave us waiting long before reappearing for a two-song encore, with Superstar LOVED: Georgia Nott. It’s hard not to fall for her. and Mother & Father. HATED: Not being able to see over mobile phone CHRIS BRIGHT BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 48

Marlon Williams

screens. DRANK: Mountain Goat.

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Stout.

LIVE

REPORTS FROM THE FRONT ROW

For more reviews go to beat.com.au/reviews PARADISE Lake Mountain Alpine Resort, Friday November 28 to Sunday 30

Photo by Emily Day

Photo by Jethro Fox

Just before sundown on Friday, I finished setting up my two-man tent – a cheap little blue bastard, outliving its life expectancy by at least three music festivals by my count – standing on my tip-toes, stretching out in front of temporary home, looking toward the curving ocean of wooden skeletons, stripped bare by profound devastation, and felt a feeling like love. The setting for Paradise, now in its second year, is beautiful. It’s easy to forget Australia can be beautiful, and it’s nice to be reminded. The alpine air was thin, or at least that’s what I told myself while losing breath hiking up the natural incline of the main stage amphitheatre, but it felt fresh and wholesome. The mood of Paradise was overwhelmingly positive, its framework perfect, almost like logistical fantasy. The sound was impeccable throughout – at the both the outdoor stage and the indoor, all-nighter club. All amenities were superb, offering supreme comfort and bountiful potato cakes within the natural splendour. Beers were cheap at the bar, if BYO wasn’t enough, and the coffee was highly drinkable. Paradise is easy. No conceit, no overt branding. Two nights weren’t enough, yet sating just the same, indicating that the measure was just right. The music was solid throughout, primarily a cross-section of Young Electronic Australia 2014, plus a side-serving of guitar-centric acts throughout the sun-drenched Saturday, most of them incidentally breezy, firing up with Drunk Mums and their shout-along Plastic. There was a sense of transitional minute epochs, relatively established, or establishing, R&B-leaning electronica acts shifting towards something more danceable, still retaining a lingering worship for Jeremih’s Fuck You All The Time – Oscar Key Sung was at his best at his most playful, especially in the euphoric All I Can Do, labelmate Banoffee opening with a cover of Drake’s Marvins Room, technical difficulties denying the premiere of a new track, rounding out her set with Let’s Go To The Beach, the most dancefloor-ready track of her repertoire. While rising producers explored the boundaries of house with emotive wont, either through composition (UV Boi was a highlight), or inhibition-free vocals (Darcy Baylis, also a highlight). Kirin J Callinan, the weekend’s topbilled artist, always entertaining, featured a gaudy-futurist air-drum contraption, half theremin, half Wii; a not too unwelcome gimmick, but provided little compensation for a dearth of new material, the set truncated by a tardy running time, making way for the full-band groove of Total Giovanni, opening with Human Animal. Moonlight savings were in effect for the attic club schedule, to great effect, sustaining dancefloor energy – one you’d expect from the most conducive CBD spots, here at a high-altitude crown – well into sunrise. 8am Sunday I walked downstairs, into the cool mountain air towards my tent. I looked at the countless white tree husks and thought about a recent history, not too long ago, the fury that stripped the mountainside bare, and took so much more. Sometimes music can feel bigger than life, sometimes it can remind you how big life is. Music is LOVED: The serenity. good like that. HATED: Nothing at all. LACHLAN KANONIUK

ILLY The Forum Theatre, Saturday November 29

For a number of years now, Melbourne MC Illy’s been regarded by his peers as being one of the hardest working rappers in the game. However, even by his lofty standards, this past year has been massive. Since releasing his fourth studio album Cinematic – the first album off his own record label OneTwo – at the end of 2013, he has spent more time on the road than Danny Ricciardo, smashing out gigs seemingly every second day. The hometown show is always the big one, and the fact that he was able to pack out the iconic Forum Theatre speaks volumes for just how far this Frankston local has come over these past five years. Illy rewarded both old fans and new, busting out tracks from his entire discography, as well as a few newbies. Fittingly, he hit the stage with the opening track from Cinematic, Opening Night, launching into a pumped up, fist-banging 90 minute set. Young Bloods, also off Cinematic, had the house absolutely bouncing, before he slowed it up a little with older tracks Pictures, Cigarette, and the more recent I Am Yours, a tribute to his mother, a cancer survivor. You could hear the emotion in his voice after this song as he paid tribute to his friends and family in the house for his hometown show, before kicking back into some of his more banging tunes. The highlight of the night was the reviving of his Like A Version for triple j’s Aus Music Month earlier this year: a medley of Silverchair, Hilltop Hoods, Paul Kelly, and Flume. It sent everyone in the Forum batshit crazy. Illy’s always been one of the more likeable characters in the local scene, and over the past couple of years he has certainly become more self-assured in his live shows. While this current run of dates marks the end to a year spent under the lights, by no means is Illy slowing down. In the encore he gave us a preview of one of his Friday Flips, a series of popular songs collaborated upon by Illy and music producer M-Phazes. This flip of High by Peking LOVED: Pretty much everything about this gig. Duk’s reason enough to add this guy on Facebook and HATED: The dude nearby who kept getting his tune in each Friday for the next release. You won’t regret grope on, and would then retreat to stand next to it. me as if we were mates. EBEN ROJTER

DRANK: Mountain Goat Summer Ale.

DRANK: It all in.

BL ACK CAB Howler, Saturday November 29 A record launch is the chance for a band to shine as all eyes and ears are focused on their wares. The teeming throng at Howler paid homage to Black Cab in just this way. Once everything was just right, the band were reverentially welcomed and their loud, pulsating, electro-frenzy drone was eagerly consumed. The new album was given a solid airing with songs such as Victorious, Combat Boots and Go Slow,, clicking over the beats per minute and raising the pulse rate. Then Sexy Polizei boomed as a gentle sway enveloped the audience. Various images flickered as a backdrop to the band and there were athletes, scientists, tablets and the Olympic rings. The incessant barrage of visuals combined with a gargantuan intent and commentary on substance abuse and sport. Stronger, faster, longer indeed. As images of swimmers gave way to flesh being pierced by needles it all made sense. Black Cab could easily have been content with the appreciation they received by these elements of the show. But in true Batman KAPOW! BANG! style, they increased the satisfaction quota by covering Dream Baby Dream by Suicide and 586 by New Order. Influences were worn on the sleeve but a distinct Black Cab flavour was added to these songs. In a live context, Black Cab are more brutal than their latest release suggests. They’re also thoroughly composed and stir intrigue into all their music. They deliver this with an otherworldly approach that manages to sound both as old and comforting as the cacophonous cadence of the first Kraftwerk recordings as new as 2015. They seem hermetically sealed from accepting wistful convention and bubble away in their own creative pool lending it both currency and timelessness with equal measure. Defying the stereotypical clunking electronic band, Black Cab present eccentricity, innovation and weirdness that was eye opening for many music lovers who’ve grown up expecting more from their aural pleasures than has been actually delivered. On a night as LOVED: Any chance to hear a Suicide song live. usually mundane as the State election, this was one for HATED: A full venue but punters failing to the ages. appreciate the concept of personal space. BRONIUS ZUMERIS

DRANK: A little Melbourne, a little China.

CHECK OUT ALL THE LATEST NEWS, REVIEWS AND FREE SHIT AT BEAT.COM.AU

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 49

ALBUM OF THE WEEK MESA COSA

WEEKLY TRIVIA PRIZES & GIVEAWAYS! STARTS AT 8PM. CONTACT THE VENUE FOR TABLE BOOKINGS!

DJ MANTOOTH

PLAYING ALL VINYL INSIDE AND OUT FROM 7PM. MANTOOTH HAS NO REAL TURNTABLE “SKILLZ” BUT HAS GREAT TASTE IN MUSIC SO PEOPLE KEEP ASKING HIM BACK TO PLAY RECORDS. FRIDAY 5 DECEMBER MAIN BAR

THE NEW SAVAGES 9.30PM

& DJ’S

7PM B-TWO / 9PM KODIAK KID / 11PM HIJACK SATURDAY 6 DECEMBER MAIN BAR

RUSTY JAMES & THE HELL FIRE FLAMES 9.30PM

Mesa Cosa make balls-out, garage-y punk rock. YaYa Brouhaha – the band’s long-playing debut – is a filthy piece of work. The Melbournians assume a total disregard for finesse, but that doesn’t mean there’s a skills deficiency. Each of YaYa Brouhaha’s ten tracks comes out fast and hits hard, but lean in a little closer and you’ll discover it’s lined with clever chord runs and a bounty of memorable gang vocals. The record’s opening number Why Yo sets the stage, shoving bottles down the gullet and diving into a fit of accelerated mania. As the album progresses, this unruly pulse continues gathering intensity to the point of explosion. It’s very quickly made clear Mesa Cosa aren’t the types to pause a recording just because one of their several string-slingers falls out of tune or someone misses a rhythmic accent. The band’s frontman Pablo Alvarado is a Mexico City transplant and he doesn’t keep his heritage a secret. Take for instance tracks such as Satanas, which in many respects is a rampaging Cramps-meets-Minor Threat number. Only it’s spiked with more than a touch of cocaine-addled Latino flavour. The same goes for Bruja, where Alvarado’s frenzied vocals verge on psychotic. The relatively mild-mannered, yet ecstatic, YaYaYaYa comes next, demanding idleness be pushed aside and everyone jump into the mess. Towards its conclusion, YaYa Brouhaha pulls a major left turn in the form of freakish six-minute episode, Bad Blood. It’s a frightful embodiment of a hangover from hell, snarling into view and planting a knife into your brains tender bits. There’s no comfort here, only a fiendish indictment for reinless indiscretion. Such dynamic contrasts and aesthetic-splicing push this LP well beyond being a mere lark. YaYa Brouha-

AND THE LIZARD WIZARD 2. Pom Pom ARIEL PINK 3. The Best Day THURSTON MOORE 4. Legalise Everything THE FROWNING CLOUDS 5. Biker EXHAUSTION 6. Soft Focus THE OCEAN PARTY 7. Coming Apart BODY/HEAD 8. Cafe Romantica ANDRAS AND OSCAR 9. Time Keeping THE METRONOMES 10. Throw Me In The River THE SMITH STREET BAND ha is captivating and unpredictable, akin to the brain scramble induced by throwing back another shot after already having one shot too many. Other than on the amusing and rivalry-perpetuating Sydney, the lyrics (sung in both English and Spanish) aren’t easily discernible. This isn’t a big deal, however, as the band’s attitude is what’s centrally significant. Look out, here come Mesa Cosa ready to whip you in the face, grin deliriously and furnish your belly with towers of beer. AUGUSTUS WELBY BEST TRACK: Bad Blood. IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU’LL LIKE THESE: MINOR THREAT, REBEL’D PUNK, PISSED JEANS. IN A WORD: Unrighteous.

AFTERNOONS ON THE GREEN

SINGLES

3PM: BRONTE. 4PM: JULIA JACKLIN

For all the latest singles check out beat.com.au

ROYAL BEER GARDEN

LIVE MUSIC IN THE BEER GARDEN SUNDAY 7 DECEMBER MAIN BAR

RUN RABBIT RUN 5PM

ROYAL BEER GARDEN

AFTERNOONS ON THE GREEN

LIVE MUSIC IN THE BEER GARDEN

EASY NOW - SUNDAY REGGAE BEATS

FEAT. AGENT 86, TOM SHOWTIME, DJ MAARS & CIDER SPECIALS. 5PM MONDAY 8 DECEMBER

FREE POOL FREECALL WORKSHOPS VENUE FOR DETAILS. $10 LONGNECKS & $4 PIZZA.

TUESDAY 10 DECEMBER

FREE MOVIE NIGHT LA BAMBA – 8:30PM

WEEKLY FOOD SPECIALS $4 PIZZAS MONDAY - THURSDAY ALL DAY & NIGHT, FRIDAY 12PM TO 5PM WEDNESDAY: $12 STEAKS FROM 5PM THURSDAY: $12 BURGERS FROM 5PM

Just checked bom dot gov dot au and the forecast for the weekend is huge tunes and quality times at stereo sonic, see ya there everyone cheers from Lacho ‘loose unit’ Kanoniuk ;)

JEREMY NEALE

The News (Dot Dash/Remote Control) QLDer Jeremy Neale has a knack for power chord progression that results in pop rock that Feels Good Man, here on a ‘80s pop-rock throwback, at its best reminiscent of The Carsshades of Liam Finn without the daring within the bridge, and in the chorus, Luke Steele impulse. The good ideas are mitigated by the middling overreach, its safe brand of indulgence yielding little reward.

IVAN OOZE

Trippin’ (Independent) Ivan Ooze’s upcoming Cypress Hill support makes a lotta’ sense, with the sharp, cutting delivery on Trippin’ sounding a little like a ‘Strayan B-Real. The flow is fairly decent in the verse, but the rapped hook doesn’t really service the playful beat, or I dunno, maybe the line, “She say I ain’t gonna make it/My mumma be trippin’,” might strictly be for those currently on schoolies, the out of touch slang not played for lols as far as I can tell. The sentiment of braggadocio and determination is more tell than show, with the track devoid of any magic moments, particularly in terms of lyrical bombs. The switch-flick to the Clammy Clams style coda beat is a bit of a head-scratcher, a flash of modernity (well, modern as in 2012 trend) after a bout of classic hip hop meditation.

HOME TRAVEL

Death Threats (Independent) Bewitching with rhythmic assonance, Death Threats is almost cute in its bluntness; the cry of, “I’m sending a death threat to you,” is both childlike and unnerving. Whirling keys give way to a surprisingly polished bounce of synth, Home Travel providing a track as playful as it is dangerous. BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 50

1. Muswell Hillbillies 2LP THE KINKS

2. Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime) 10” DAVID BOWIE 3. Hear My Music 2LP JIMI HENDRIX 4. Hold Your Head Up 7” MOTHER LOVE BONE 5. Game of Thrones Soundtrack LP RAMIN DJAWADI 6. Prestige 10” Collection Vol 1 BOX SET MILES DAVIS 7. America 10” FIRST AID KIT 8. Under the Tide 12” EP CHVRCHES RAMONE

BY LACHLAN

10. The Motherload 12” PICTURE DISC MASTODON

SYN SWEET TEN

1. Big Time BACK BACK FORWARD

AC/DC

Rock Or Bust (Sony) A sick fuckin’ riff, a fuckin’ rock song about rock, a huge fuckin’ shout-a-long chorus repeating the title of the fuckin’ song, AN-GUS busting out a sweet fuckin’ solo. AC/DC are fuckin’ unstoppable. In rock we trust. It really is rock or bust for the greatest fuckin’ band to ever exist, and in spite of it all, they still choose rock, and don’t do it half-arsed. All hail.

TAYLOR SWIFT

Blank Space (Big Machine) I kinda’ slept on Blank Space due to my 1989 listening habits being something like: skip to Shake It Off then the bassline on following track I Wish You Would reminds me of Queen’s Invisible Man so I play that track instead, but that’s my bad because Blank Space is goddamn perfect, its pop brilliance not immediate, but that bridge and chorus are monsters. Just may be the best mainstream pop moment of 2014. Luv u, Taytay.

PUNCH 2. Running (feat. Cleopold) CASSIAN 3. Inside Out CHIEFS & NICK ACQUROFF 4. Ain’t Horrible CREPES 5. Circles GRMM 6. Skyman NEW GODS 7. Distance RAINY DAY WOMEN 8. Chess WILLOW BEATS 9. Banjo CLARK 10. Wanna Party FUTURE BROWN

COLLECTOR’S CORNER MISSING LINK TOP TEN 1. Motherfucker 7” FAITH NO MORE

2. A Day In My Mind’s Eye LP VARIOUS 3. Fade Into You 7” J. MASCIS 4. M.E.A.T. 7” TOMAHAWK 5. Planet Rock 12 AFRIKA BAMBAATAA 6. Morrissey Curates The Ramones LP RAMONES 7. Looking For Johnny soundtrack LP JOHNNY THUNDERS 8. Boa/Cold 12” BUG vs. EARTH 9. Sunbathing Animal 7” PARQUET COURTS 10. Prestige Collection 10” box MILES DAVIS

BEAT’S TOP TEN SONGS ABOUT THE BERLIN WALL

HANNAH DIAMOND

Every Night (PC Music) I dig most of PC Music’s prolific output, but this Hannah Diamond cut is a bit borezo, each plastic hook doesn’t really hit the mark and the condensed rave banger beat is a reduction past the point of impact. I can’t be arsed going into PC Music’s dissection of identity, I just wanna listen to good music. The QT project does what Every Night does better, but who knows, it’s probably

HEARTLAND RECORDS TOP TEN

9. Christmas Spirit In My House 10” JOEY

DJ’S

7PM D’FRO / 9PM NAM / 11PM NAM

RECORD PARADISE TOP TEN

1. I’m In Your Mind Fuzz KING GIZZARD

YaYa Brouhaha (Off The Hip)

THURSDAY 4 DECEMBER

TOP TENS:

1. Heroes DAVID BOWIE 2. Berlin LOU REED

3. Dancing On The Berlin Wall RATIONAL

SINGLE OF THE WEEK ALDOUS HARDING

No Peace At All (Spunk) Crafting folk with a bleak, haunting restraint, Kiwi Aldous Harding is beyond powerful as each syllable is stretched out with slight tremolo on No Peace, a hopeless ballad rich with heartache. An uncompromising landscape is invoked with pastoral tone, a universal and timeless burden, contentment burrowed within malcontent, a profound statement of resignation.

WATCH INTERVIEWS, CHATS & AWKWARD SILENCES... BEAT.COM.AU/TV

YOUTH 4. The Passenger IGGY POP 5. Berlin By Night PVC 6. Holidays In the Sun THE SEX PISTOLS 7. Bear Cage THE STRANGLERS 8. 99 Luftballons NENA 9. Looking For Freedom DAVID HASSELHOFF 10. Nikita ELTON JOHN

ALBUMS

NEW MUSIC IN REVIEW THIS WEEK

For more reviews go to beat.com.au/reviews

BLACK CAB

Games Of The XXI Olympiad (Inertia/Remote Control) Melbourne’s own Germanophiles, Black Cab, are no longer achtung babies. The trio are in their tenth year and this is their fourth and most polished release since they formed. Lee, Coates and Holland give their Krautrock fascination full realisation with Underground Lover Richard Andrew assisting along with several other well known names. An expansive project that takes as its basis the exploration of the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games, these games are now renowned for skagged to the gills East German athletes collecting gold medals for fun. The 13 tracks on this record are linked by a golden thread, and therefore, should be listened to as a whole. It all makes for a magical listen that at times straddles the periphery of the Bermuda triangle of rhythm and melody: close to being lost but always found. Consumed as a whole, this record makes for an unbreakable force. The music is firmly electronic drone and repetition, but it’s nonetheless organised, akin to Stasi precision with the use of keyboards, sequencers and the like. Fans will already be familiar with Sexy Polizei and Combat Boots which have been around for several years. But the likes of Supermädchen, Kornelia Ender and Performance Center Obertauern are simply breathtaking. Sticking to the margins, this record has gestated for a long time and engaged several producers. This has not had an adverse effect on the overall finished product. Tackling such a specific project may have been a torrid career move and resulted in a work that staggers around like a wastrel sniffing under dust bin lids looking for BEST TRACK: Sexy Polizei. ideas. To their credit, Black Cab come through with IF YOU LIKE THESE, YOU’LL LIKE THIS: a gold medal result. NEU, KRAFKWERK, DECODER RING, UNDERGROUND LOVERS, GALAXIE 500. BRONIUS ZUMERIS IN A WORD: Monolithic.

KLO

Cusp (Dot Dash/Remote Control) One thing’s for certain: Melbourne’s almost suspicious ability to stir up welldefined electro/future-soul outfits at the blink of an eye. KLO, the new-coming duo formed by cousins Chloe Kaul and Simon Lam (from I’lls), paired after a good nudging from their mothers to try linking up musically, and thankfully so. The pair are surely heading places aboard the never boring contrast of Kaul’s soft, airy vocals and Lam’s fast-paced experimental production. The five-track record opens with its most well-received single Make Me Wonder; its more tamed instrumental leaves pauses in all the right places and shares a silky simplicity that’ll leave you floating. But it’s songs like Under Lie and False Calls that’ll win new listeners. Kaul’s sensual tone makes quirky twists in a sort of Nora-meets-NaiPalm type of way and Lam’s new-aged beat making seems perfectly tailored to coil these vocals, while managing to stand out among these tracks. KLO’s Cusp is fun yet serene, and definitely worth spending some time with. My only wonder is how the pair will continue a fresh angle BEST TRACK: False Calls. with such a precise, seemingly pinpointed sound. IF YOU LIKE THESE, YOU’LL LIKE THIS: JAMES Time will tell. BLAKE, FKA TWIGS. IN A WORD: Blissful. JESSICA ANKOMAH

THE OCCUPANTS

Hindsight EP (A&R /Pavement Records) Do you ever feel like you are the start of something potentially really special? That’s what we have here. The Gower brothers; two thirds of the on-extendedhiatus Cog, have picked themselves up, dusted themselves off after more than a decade in that alternative rock institution, recruited a couple of ridiculously talented players (including Leigh Davies from Melbourne’s sadly departed Sleep Parade), and formed a new band called The Occupants. And damn, if it doesn’t show as much promise as Cog did in their early days. They’ve periodically released three standalone songs over the last year and a half or so, added a fourth track now (Hindsight), and have finally released them as a complete EP. With Flynn Gower’s voice, and their general songwriting style, obviously this band brings back to mind the music of Cog in a very vivid manner. But at the same time, this band is no Cog-minus-one-member band; it’s truly an entity unto itself. The four tracks are highly varied, electronically augmented progressive/alternative rock songs, from the propulsive momentum of the very groovy, industrial-sounding I’ve Been Thinking, to the more twisty-turny, horns and pianoenhanced title track, to the quieter, more ambient and reflective but ultimately grandiose Streets, to the highly dynamic, banjo infused Wonderland. The brothers of Cog were never going to go away altogether, and although they’re doing things very much at their own pace, the BEST TRACK: I’ve Been Thinking. first signs displayed on this EP are seriously showing IF YOU LIKE THESE, YOU’LL LIKE THIS:COG, the potential for more greatness. SLEEP PARADE, DEAD LETTER CIRCUS. IN A WORD: Seminal. ROD WHITFIELD

GIGS

4Th

ThE DEAD hEiR

wED DEC

The Shabbab, The Lovely Days + Hideous Towns

10Th

Fri DEC

DEAThPROOf PR XMAS PARTY

THU DEC

5Th

SaT DEC

6Th

SUn DEC

7Th

THE pEEp TEmpEL + HiGH TEnSion + TnnL CnTS (oz roCk CovErS) + CLownS + ECCa vanDaL

11Th Fri DEC

LEAKS

12Th

VELVET ARChES

THU DEC

‘JaUnT’ Ep LaUnCH + Queen magic + Surf Dad DJ’s +GUESTS

18Th

T-PAIN

T-Pain presents Happy Hour: The Greatest Hits (Sony) It was only a matter of weeks ago that Faheem Rasheed Najm – better known as T-Pain – shocked an unsuspecting audience at NPR by performing without his infamous AutoTune at a Tiny Desk Concert. More than that, he sounded good. Damn good. Not only did it give listeners a chance to hear the voice behind the mountainous production, it also came in close proximity to the release of Happy Hour, his first greatest-hits compilation. This gave us a chance to reconsider and revisit the work of a man who was, if only for a time, one of the most hated men in music. An immediate realisation follows: all the time we spent bemoaning the alleged death of quote-unquote “real” music, we could have spent having fun with tracks like Freeze, Buy U A Drank and Jamie Foxx collab, Blame It. It’s shiny, unabashedly commercial and often ludicrous (there’s a song called I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper) for God’s sake). What’s revealed, however, is how dedicated T-Pain has been to the format; and how he still manages to make it work in BEST TRACK: Blame. his favour. Points off for shunning the anthemic Take IF YOU LIKE THESE, YOU’LL LIKE THIS: NE-YO, Your Shirt Off, though. LIL WAYNE, JASON DERULO. IN A WORD: Shawty. DAVID JAMES YOUNG

PEAKING LIGHTS

Cosmic Logic (Domino/EMI) Peaking Lights’ breakout album 936 cast a spell over listeners with the drift of their largely electronic psychedelic textures. Cosmic Logic, a collection of short, spacey but not spaced-out psychedelic pop songs marks a significant change in direction for the Californian-based husband/wife duo. Indra Dunis, with her detached and somewhat flat vocals, concentrates on delivering icy cool attitude and sly robopop star glamour. The odd, disconnected delivery of simple and somewhat clichéd lyrics such as, “In the night we are gonna have fun,” or “Telephone call from outer space calling all the human race,” sounds like a softer take on Nicola Kuperus. Dunis opens up on the disco groove of New Grrls, where she celebrates female heroes like Kim Gordon and Yoko Ono, understanding she’s no longer a riot girl, confronted by the mundane reality of being a worker, lover, mother and wife. Meanwhile, husband Aaron Coyes offers bright, bubbling synths and easy grooves that find the duo placing a more definite emphasis on beats through this album. Their intention isn’t dance floor domination but you get the impression they’d be pleased if they inspired listeners to sashay about their living rooms. Much of this album features a light tropical, subtly Caribbean vibe that brings to mind The Knife’s earlier work on Deep Cuts. Peaking Lights’ approach synth pop on their own indietronic terms to deal some fresh perspectives on the genre. Although each tune is just three or four minutes long, the duo demonstrate some serious focus as they stuff each song with melodic hooks and apply BEST TRACK: Breakdown. a lustrous veneer of production that makes these IF YOU LIKE THESE, YOU’LL LIKE THIS: THE nuggets sparkle. KNIFE, ARIEL PINK, ZOLA JESUS. IN A WORD: Lively. THE SIDEMAN

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS

Monuments To An Elegy (Martha’s Music/BMG Music/Cooking Vinyl Australia) “I will bang this drum to my dying day,” sings Billy Corgan on The Smashing Pumpkins’ latest album Monuments To An Elegy. With Monuments marking the band’s tenth studio album, released years after the departure of all other original band members, few would doubt Corgan’s persistence by this point in time. Like many of The Pumpkins more recent ventures, none of the songs on Monuments To An Elegy pack quite the same punch as their ‘90s favourites. The opening number, Tiberius, comes close, with its grinding guitars and drums. One and All, another guitar-heavy track, is also memorable, as is the final track Anti-Hero. Unfortunately, a large majority of the tracks on the album are fairly repetitive and easily forgotten. Corgan’s lyrics are far less poetic these days and generally just feature a couple of main lines sung on repeat. Run2Me sounds like a bad attempt at an uplifting ‘80s ballad, with chiming synths and lines such as “Run to me, where the sun never leaves/Run to me, my special one, run to me.” What’s lacking from the latest release, much to the relief of many fans, are the long, drawn-out tracks seen on the band’s previous release, Oceania. Tracks on Monuments To An Elegy are kept short and sweet, with the longest track clocking in at just over four minutes. A new Smashing Pumpkins album in 2014 may seem irrelevant and redundant to many fans, with many giving up hope for the band years ago. Monuments To An Elegy does offer a couple of memorable tracks but regardless of what fans, critics, BEST TRACK: Tiberius. fellow band members or anyone else thinks, Corgan IF YOU LIKE THESE, YOU’LL LIKE THIS: will continue to beat the drum that is The Smashing SOUNDGARDEN, SILVERCHAIR, NIRVANA, Pumpkins for as long as he deems fit. HOLE. IN A WORD: Angsty. KELSEY BERRY

EVERYDAY

CURTIN

$13 JUGS

6PM

ThE ShAKES + GUESTS

LOCK ThE GATE fUNDRAiSER SUGar FED LEoparDS, Ek TEk EnSEmbLE + Yana aLana

hADAL MAW

whoretopsy, orchestrating the Damned

TWERPS +GUESTS

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20/12 ShERiff - LiVE iN ThE fRONT BAR - fREE ShOW 24/12 JAZZ PARTY XMAS EVE SPECiAL 25/12 JUST ANNOUNCED: JAMES BROWN XMAS PARTY W NORThSiDE RECORDS DJ’S + LiVE BANDS 27/12 ThE MAViS’S REUNiON ShOW www.johncurtinhotel.com / facebook.com/thecurtin

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BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 51

GIG GUIDE

WHAT'S ON AROUND MELBOURNE THIS WEEK

For all the latest gigs check out beat.com.au

WEDNESDAY 3 DEC INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

7:30pm. $5.00.

••COUNTERPARTS + VICES Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $25.00.

••STONE REVIVAL VERSUS TWO HEADED DOG Cherry

••DEAR STALKER + THE DIVINE FLUXUS + LONG

••ALI E + LOOBS + LOOSE TOOTH Old Bar, Fitzroy.

••DEFRYME Pelly Bar, Frankston. 8:00pm.

Bar, Melbourne Cbd. 9:00pm. $5.00. 8:30pm. $8.00.

••BAT COUNTRY + QUANTAM MILKSHAKE + MARCOS

VILLALTA Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm.

$10.00.

••CONTEX + DREAM FATIGUE + THE HEEBEE JEEBIES

+ THE MIDNIGHT SOL Bar Open, Fitzroy. 8:00pm.

••COQ ROQ WEDNESDAYS - FEAT: VARIOUS DJS Lucky Coq, Windsor. 7:00pm.

••JASON MRAZ + RAINING JANE Palais Theatre, St Kilda. 8:00pm.

••MELALUKA + ECHO DRAMA + LANKS Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm. $8.00.

••MISCHIEVOUS THOM + THE SHABBAB + BEC

GORRING Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood. 8:30pm. $10.00.

••PIKELET + LEAFY SUBURBS + ALYX DENNISON Catfish, Fitzroy. 8:00pm.

••SAM BRITTAIN + AMISTAT + BERNIE CARSON Toff In Town, Melbourne Cbd. 3:30pm. $10.00.

••THE BAUDELAIRES + THE CITRADELS + HEART

BEACH Workers Club, Fitzroy. 7:30pm. $10.00.

••THE RUBBER RECORDS 25TH ANNIVERSARY -

FEAT: THE CASANOVAS + THE AFFECTED Northcote Social Club, Northcote. 7:30pm. $20.00.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC ••ULTRA FOX The Everleigh, Fitzroy. 9:30pm. ••B FOR CHICKEN 303, Northcote. 8:00pm.

••BIG EASY SOUL SESSIONS Carlton Club, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm.

••BOPSTRETCH Uptown Jazz Cafe, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. ••CHANNELLING BACH (THE GOLDBERG

INVENTIONS) - FEAT: JOE CHINDAMO + ZOË BLACK Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank. 6:00pm.

$38.00.

••DAVID RYAN HARRIS Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. $28.00.

••MO SOUL - FEAT: DJ VINCE PEACH Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Cbd. 6:00pm.

••PETER HEARNE & DIZZY’S BIG BAND WITH

CELESTE COULSON Dizzy’s Jazz Club, Richmond. 8:00pm. $14.00.

••RUBY’S LIVE JAZZ AFTER DARK - FEAT: GYPSY

JAZZ DUO Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm.

$15.00.

••SHANTY TOWN Open Studio, Northcote. 8:30pm.

••THAT GOLD STREET SOUND Laundry Bar, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $15.00.

••THE JOE CHINDAMO TRIO Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 8:30pm. $18.00.

••THE NEW IMPROMPTU QUARTET Paris Cat Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 9:00pm. $20.00.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK ••OPEN MIC Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbottsford. 7:30pm.

HOLIDAY + BAD UNCLE Espy, St Kilda. 8:30pm.

••DIAMOND BLOW Reverence Hotel, Footscray. 8:00pm. $5.00.

••ELECTRIC MARY & DEFRYME + ELECTRIC MARY +

DEFRYME Pier Live, Frankston. 8:00pm. $25.00. ••EMMA DONOVAN & THE PUTTBACKS - FEAT: LANKS + DJ MISS GOLDIE + EMMA DONOVAN & THE PUTTBACKS Northcote Social Club, Northcote. 7:30pm. $15.00.

••FIVE MILE SNIPER + MAMMALS + THE STARKS +

••JACK CARTY (ESK LAUNCH) + LUKE THOMPSON +

PLAYWRITE Howler, Brunswick. 8:00pm. $15.00.

••JUMP STREET LAUNCH PARTY Laundry Bar, Fitzroy. 9:00pm. $10.00.

••JUNIOR DANGER + QLAYEFACE + GRASSHOLE +

BELGIAN JUPITER Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick. 8:00pm. ••KATY PERRY (PRISMATIC TOUR) Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne. 7:30pm. $109.00.

••KUTCHA EDWARDS + SHIRALEE HOOD Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine. 8:30pm. $20.00.

••LIKE JUNK + STRANGERS FROM NOW ON +

HOARSE + WORM CROWN Tote Hotel, Collingwood.

8:00pm.

••MOSMAN ALDER (THE HUMDRUM STAR TOUR) + I

A MAN + LITTLE DESERT Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood.

8:00pm. $10.00.

••NEXT - FEAT: PREPARED LIKE A BRIDE + EVER

REST + EVACUATE THE FALLEN Colonial Hotel, Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm.

••PLUTO JONZE + SWIM SEASON + PETA & THE

WOLVES Shebeen, Melbourne Cbd. 7:30pm. $12.00. ••ROM DING DING + CAMBODIAN SPACE PROJECT Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Cbd. 9:00pm. $15.00.

••SAGE FRANCIS + BRIGGS + FAIT ACCOMPLI + MOSE

+ THE FMLY + COSSI Corner Hotel, Richmond. 8:00pm. $40.00.

••SCOTTISH KISS Carters Bar, Northcote. 8:00pm.

••THE BLACK SHEEP Retreat Hotel, Brunswick. 7:30pm. ••THE BRUNSWICK HOTEL’S OPEN MIC Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick. 7:00pm.

••THE HAMMOND ORGAN NIGHTS Musicland, Fawkner. 7:00pm.

••THE WINIFRED KINGS + TIJUANNA PEANUT Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford. 8:00pm.

••WINE WHISKEY WOMEN - FEAT: FEE BROWN +

WOMAN OR HORSE Drunken Poet, West Melbourne.

8:00pm.

THURSDAY 4 DEC

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS ••ALL WE NEED + CHARM + DIAMOND BONES +

••THE AARDVARK SESSIONS (DREAM PLACE

LAUNCH) Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick. 7:30pm. $22.00. ••THE BEARDED GYPSY BAND Spotted Mallard, Brunswick. 8:30pm.

••THE CROOKEDS + THE CHERRY DOLLS + DEAR

THIEVES + DJ SWAMP THING 24 Moons, Northcote.

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 52

BARONI Cherry Bar, Melbourne Cbd. 10:00pm. $10.00. ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK ••ALEX LASHLIE, EMILY SOUTH, MARY WEBB + ALEX

LASHLIE + EMILY SOUTH + MARY WEBB Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford. 8:00pm.

••ARI WENIG Revolver Upstairs, Prahran. 8:30pm.

••BEN SALTER Victoria Hotel, Brunswick. 8:30pm.

••BRIDGEWATER + GREG STEPS + JULIA JACKSON Retreat Hotel, Brunswick. 8:30pm.

••CHRIS WILSON Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East. 8:00pm.

••EVA MCGOWAN Great Britain Hotel, Richmond. 8:00pm. ••FAT COUSIN SKINNY Wesley Anne, Northcote. 6:00pm. ••OPEN MIC Drunken Poet, West Melbourne. 8:00pm.

••THE WEEPING WILLOWS + NIGEL WEARNE Post Office Hotel, Coburg. 8:00pm.

••TIM CHAISSON Thornbury Theatre, Thornbury. 7:30pm. $18.00.

FRIDAY 5 DEC

FLYING SO HIGH-OS Northcote Social Club, Northcote.

8:30pm. $12.00.

••ANIMAUX + FIVE MILE TOWN + ALBERT SALT Shebeen, Melbourne Cbd. 8:30pm. $12.00.

••ATHENAS WAKE + GRIEVER + HAVOC + EVOLUTION

OF SELF + DEADWEIGHT Reverence Hotel, Footscray. 7:30pm. $10.00.

WAVE + AMATEUR DRUNKS Reverence Hotel, Footscray.

8:00pm. $10.00.

••JOHN KENNEDY’S 68 COMEBACK SPECIAL Post Office Hotel, Coburg. 9:30pm.

••LEGS ELECTRIC + LONG HOLIDAY + SNAKE VALLEY

+ DUKES VEDA Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East. 8:00pm.

$10.00.

••LIKE JUNK + WHITEWASH + MUTTON + ANGRY

MULES Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood. 8:30pm. $10.00.

••MAGIC BONES + FOOD COURT + PRETTY CITY Boney, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. $10.00.

••MINDSNARE + SHACKLES + INTERNAL ROT + RORT

+ LION FIGHT Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm.

••NATESTOCK - FEAT: DOWNRIVER + SWHAT + 23RD

OF ELVIS + PAN Public Bar, North Melbourne. 8:30pm. $10.00.

••NEW GODS + PETER BIBBY The Shadow Electric, Abbotsford. 8:00pm. $10.00.

••OFF THE HIP CHRISTMAS BASH - FEAT: MIDNIGHT

WOOLF + LOOSE PILLS + BRAT FARRAR + THE REPROBETTES + KIT CONVICT & THEE TERRIBLE TWO Tote Hotel, Collingwood. 8:30pm. ••ROBOT CHILD + TOXICON + SONIC STRAIGHTJACKET + WAKING EDEN + TRAGIC EARTH + SIENNA WILD Espy, St Kilda. 8:00pm. $15.00. ••ROY MACKMONKEY + JUNIOR DANGER + STONE REVIVAL + TWO HEADED DOG Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbottsford. 8:00pm.

••SEVEN DAYS FALLING + GUILT FREE +

CICADASTONE + THE FIRING LINE Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick. 9:00pm.

••SINGLE INCOME Pier Live, Frankston. 8:00pm.

••SPENCER P JONES Cherry Bar, Melbourne Cbd. 5:30pm. ••TAKE YOUR OWN + JAPAN FOR + TIRED BREEDS +

DEAD JOE + NO! NOT THE BEES 303, Northcote. 8:00pm.

DAYS + HIDEOUS TOWNS John Curtin Hotel, Carlton.

••CHERRY BOMB European Bier Cafe, Melbourne Cbd.

••TENDER BONES + WET LIPS + MADBOOTS + FOXY/

••CHRIS WILSON Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy. 5:30pm.

••THE BLACKEYED SUSANS + JILL BIRT & ALSY

••THE DEAD HEIR + THE SHABBAB + THE LOVELY 8:00pm.

••THE DUKES OF DELICIOUSNESS + MACONDO

Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm.

BLINDNESS Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood. 8:30pm.

$7.00.

••WILLOW BEATS + OISIMA + LIESURE SUITE Toff In Town, Melbourne Cbd. 7:30pm. $20.00.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC ••8 FOOT FELIX Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East. 8:30pm. ••BENJAMIN OPIE & PETER DE JAGER Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank. 6:00pm. $38.00.

••COOKIN’ ON 3 BURNERS 303, Northcote. 8:00pm.

••DALECAÑA FLAMENCO Open Studio, Northcote. 8:30pm. $10.00.

••FREE RANGE FUNK - FEAT: JAKE JUDD +

TIGERFUNK + LEWIS CANCUT Lucky Coq, Windsor.

7:00pm.

••JOHN FRANCIS CARROLL Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd. 6:00pm. $15.00.

••MAIN STREET Dizzy’s Jazz Club, Richmond. 8:00pm. $14.00.

THURSDAY DUO Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd.

SIBERIAN BANANA CO Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbottsford.

Fitzroy. 8:00pm.

••THE SWEETHEARTS + DJ VINCE PEACH & PIERRE

••INFINITE VOID + CHINESE BURNS UNIT + FREAK

••BLACK NIGHT CRASH Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne

••CENTRE & THE SOUTH Laundry Bar, Fitzroy. 8:30pm. $5.00.

••THE STEPHEN MAGNUSSON TRIO Uptown Jazz Cafe,

FLESH OF THE EARTH & RUM RUNNERS Yah Yah’s,

Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $13.00.

8:00pm.

••MOVEMENT 9 Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd.

••CHRISTOPHER SPRAKE BAND + CAROLYN OATES +

Uptown Jazz Cafe, Fitzroy. 8:00pm.

••A SLEEPLESS MELODY + KARL CHRISTOPH + THE

Fitzroy. 8:30pm. $5.00.

AVENUES Public Bar, North Melbourne. 8:30pm. $7.00. ••CANARY + DAN & AMY + LONI RAE Old Bar, Fitzroy. 8:30pm. $8.00.

••THE MELBOURNE IMPROVISERS COLLECTIVE

••TAM VANTAGE + BAD FAMILY + SEESAW Bar Open,

••WASP + LALIC + THE GALAXY FOLK + L THE SUN

Revolver Upstairs, Prahran. 6:30pm.

Melbourne Cbd. 9:00pm. $15.00.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

7:30pm.

••OPEN MIC/JAM Musicland, Fawkner. 7:00pm.

SINGALONG Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh. 7:30pm. $15.00. ••THE ACOUSTIC SESSIONS - FEAT: CHRIS WATTS

••THE JACK PANTAZIS GROUP Paris Cat Jazz Club,

••SUGAR GHOULS + DEPARTMENT Workers Club, Fitzroy.

BLOWOUT + THE VENDETTAS Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. ••TOGETHER APART + MAY RIVERS + HEADLOPPER

••REBECCA BARNARD & BILLY MILLER”S

JOAN ARMATRADING

After a career spanning over 42 years, singer/songwriter Joan Armatrading has embarked on her last major tour. Her credits include the release of 20 albums, three Grammy nominations, two Brit nominations, a coveted Ivor Novello Award, and a Gold Badge Award. Need we say more? Don’t miss your last chance to see Joan Armatrading when she performs at the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Monday December 8 and the Melbourne Comedy Theatre, Monday December 15.

COLUMBIA Espy, St Kilda. 8:00pm.

••GOOD MORNING Catfish, Fitzroy. 8:00pm.

••OPEN MIC Thornbury Local, Thornbury. 8:00pm.

••OPEN MIC Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East. 8:00pm.

GIG OF THE WEEK!

8:30pm. $20.00.

••RUBY’S LIVE JAZZ AFTER DARK - FEAT: THE 7:00pm. $15.00.

••SAMANTHA MORLEY & THE JOHN MONTESANTE

QUINTET The Commune, East Melbourne. 6:00pm.

Cbd. 11:30pm. 9:30pm.

••CIVIL CIVIC + TEETH & TONGUE + DANNY GRIFFITH

+ KIRIN J CALLINAN Workers Club, Fitzroy. 7:30pm.

$18.00.

••COCO LOCO CHRISTMAS JAMBOREE - FEAT:

JASPORA + JUMPIN JOSH DJ + GOGO GODDESSES + FEZ PUSKAS DJ The Luwow, Fitzroy. 8:30pm. $5.00. ••DANIEL REEVES Thornbury Local, Thornbury. 10:00pm. ••DEAD CITY RUINS + DESTROY SHE SAID + HELL CRAB CITY + POWERFUL SNEAKERS Espy, St Kilda. 8:30pm.

$10.00.

MORON Tote Hotel, Collingwood. 9:00pm. $10.00.

MACDONALD + AMAYA LAUCIRICA Spotted Mallard, Brunswick. 8:30pm. $25.00.

••THE DATSUNS Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Cbd. 9:00pm. $25.00.

••THE GIN CLUB (DANCING WITH THE GHOST TOUR)

+ SKYSCRAPER STAN & THE COMMISION FLATS + JIM LAWRIE Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm. $15.00.

••THE MEANIES + BATPISS Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine. 8:30pm. $25.00.

••DEATHPROOF PR XMAS PARTY - FEAT: THE PEEP

••THE NEW SAVAGES Penny Black, Brunswick. 9:30pm.

TEMPLE + HIGH TENSION + TNNL CNTS + CLOWNS + ECCA VANDAL John Curtin Hotel, Carlton. 8:00pm. ••DEFRYME Burvale Hotel, Nunawading. 8:00pm. ••EINSTEIN TOYBOYS + ROOM 16 Musicland, Fawkner.

••WATT’S ON - FEAT: VARIOUS ARTISTS Prince Public

7:30pm. $10.00.

••FLANAGAN FRIDAYS - FEAT: VARIOUS COVER

••THE OUTFIT + KILL THE APPRENTICE + NOW YOU

DIE + COFFIN WOLF Espy, St Kilda. 9:00pm.

Bar, St Kilda . 8:30pm.

••ZOMBITCHES + MY PIRANHA + THE BURNING

ROACHES + LATE NIGHTS + HEELS ON DECKS DJ’S Old Bar, Fitzroy. 8:30pm. $10.00.

ARTISTS Pier Live, Frankston. 8:00pm. ••GAMI GAMI DEVILS + RUSTY TERMINALS Carters Bar,

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

••GAY PARIS + DON FERNANDO + THE DUKES OF

••CLAVEMANIA Paris Cat Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 9:30pm.

Northcote. 8:00pm.

DELICIOUSNESS + DJ PHIL DATSUN Cherry Bar, Melbourne Cbd. 11:00pm. $10.00.

••HANNAH ROSA + HANNAH ROSA + DJ MIKE

GURRIERI + LUNA DEVILLE 24 Moons, Northcote. 8:00pm.

••HIATUS KAIYOTE + REMI + KIRKIS + SILENT JAY &

JACE XL Corner Hotel, Richmond. 8:30pm. $30.00. ••HYBRID NIGHTMARES + ARBITER + HEADLESS +

WATCH INTERVIEWS, CHATS & AWKWARD SILENCES... BEAT.COM.AU/TV

$25.00.

••COOKIN’ ON 3 BURNERS Basement Discs, Melbourne Cbd. 12:45pm.

••CRAIG SCHNEIDER TRIO Dizzy’s Jazz Club, Richmond. 9:00pm. $20.00.

••GRAND WAZOO Thornbury Theatre, Thornbury. 8:00pm. $25.00.

••HARRY EDWARDS TRIO Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East. 9:30pm.

••JC & THE PO’ BOYS Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh. 8:00pm. $35.00.

••KATIE NOONAN + SAHARA BECK Bennetts Lane Jazz

Banoffee

Club, Melbourne Cbd. 6:30pm. $35.00.

••KATIE NOONAN + SAHARA BECK Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 9:30pm. $35.00.

••KATTIMONI Catfish, Fitzroy. 9:00pm.

••MANINS AND GOULD - FEAT: MANINS AND GOULD

WITH RILEY LEE Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank. 7:00pm. $45.00.

••MR SPEAKER & THE PARTY PEOPLE + PAPA G &

THE STRAY CATS Bar Open, Fitzroy. 10:00pm. $5.00. ••SHOL QUINTET Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm. $15.00.

••THE BEARDED GYPSIES Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 8:30pm. $20.00.

••TRIPLE TREAT - FEAT: FEM BELLING + MICHELLE

NICOLLE + BRIDGETTE ALLAN Paris Cat Jazz Club,

Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm. $25.00.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK ••AINSLIE WILLS Kew Court House, Kew. 8:00pm.

••BRENDAN FORWARD Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbottsford. 4:00pm.

••JOHNNY GIBSON & THE HANGOVERS + JOHNNY

GIBSON & THE HANGOVERS + OLD MARRIED COUPLE Victoria Hotel, Brunswick. 9:00pm. ••KING WOLF + DD & THE DAMAGED GOODS + DJ MERMAID Retreat Hotel, Brunswick. 9:30pm. ••MARLON WILLIAMS & THE YARRA BENDERS + ALDOUS HARDING + TIM MOORE + DJ STICKMAN Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford. 8:30pm.

••RATHER BE DEAD + THE SUICIDE TUESDAYS +

CRAIG Vinyl Bar, Moonee Ponds. 8:00pm. ••SEAN MCMAHON Drunken Poet, West Melbourne. 8:30pm.

••SONGWRITERS IN THE ROUND - FEAT: BEN

ABRAHAM + TANYA BATT + SIMON PHILLIPS + GABRIEL LYNCH + ELLA FENCE + DAVY SIMONY Wesley Anne, Northcote. 8:00pm. $8.00.

••THE AL JAMES BLUES ASSEMBLY Open Studio, Northcote. 8:00pm.

••THE MUSIC OF JAMES TAYLOR - FEAT: SUN ON

THE MOON Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick. 6:00pm.

$25.00.

••TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC SESSION - FEAT: DAN

BOURKE Drunken Poet, West Melbourne. 6:00pm.

SATURDAY 6 DEC

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS ••PAUL KIDNEY EXPERIENCE + LITTLE DESERT

+ THE ELECTRIC GUITARS + FRAUDBAND Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood. 8:30pm. $12.00.

••ADALITA + TEETH & TONGUE Thornbury Theatre, Thornbury. 8:30pm. $25.00.

••ANGRY SEAS + CHINESE BURNS UNIT + LAURA

PALMER + FOXTROT + JUDAS SPRINGSTEEN + DJ LOU MANCHU Old Bar, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $10.00. ••ANIMAL HANDS + TWO HEADED DOG + VILLAINETTES + CLARKE & WHITE Revolver Upstairs, Prahran. 8:00pm. $12.00.

SEMPLESIZE BLOCK PARTY

Thinking of heading down to your local pub for a Sunday sesh? Think again because old mates over at Semplesize are throwing a Sunday sesh like no other. This New York-style block party features less covers of Wonderwall and more performances from indie ‘it girl’ Banoffee, hip hop up-andcomers Milwaukee Banks, indie stalwarts House of Laurence and many more. Get down to a Sunday sesh like no other. It all goes down at Howler this Sunday, December 7 from 1pm. ••KATY PERRY (PRISMATIC TOUR) Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne. 7:30pm. $109.00.

••KING FATE + BASTARDIZER + AK11 Reverence Hotel, Footscray. 8:00pm. $15.00.

••KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD + THE BABE

RAINBOW Howler, Brunswick. 8:00pm. $25.00.

••LEAKS (JAUNT LAUNCH) + QUEEN MAGIC + SURF

DAD DJ’S John Curtin Hotel, Carlton. 8:00pm.

••LOOSE PILLS + THE CANTS + THE BAREBONES Railway Hotel, Brunswick. 8:00pm.

••MADDIE DUKE + THE FINKS Old Bar, Fitzroy. 3:00pm. ••MARICOPA WELLS + EMPRA + DEAD JOE + SANS

+ WOLF WHISTLER Reverence Hotel, Footscray. 8:00pm.

$10.00.

••MOJO JUJU + HAILEY CRAMER + TANZER Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm. $20.00.

••MOJO PIN + THE SWEETS The B.east, Brunswick East. 8:30pm.

••MYRIDIAN + THE VEIL + AQUILUS + CATACOMBS Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm.

••NEVERMIND THE WARP’D TOUR! - FEAT:

DREAMKILLERS + KILL THE APPRENTICE + OBSERD + BOTTLECOCK + RATHER BE DEAD + ADMIRAL ACKBARS DISHONOURABLE DISCHARGE + AGENT 37 + AUSTRALIAN KINGSWOOD FACTORY + ALL WE NEED + BOMBS ARE FALLING + BOTTLECAPS + DIRTY HARRIET & THE HANGMEN + HALF PINTS + JAY WARS & THE HOWARD YOUTH + LIQUOR SNATCH + MAKESHIFT BELIEVERS + NEW AGE + POISON FISH + POST SCRIPT + SARGE & THE NUKED + STONED TO DEATH + STRAWBERRY FIST CAKE + THE BALLS + THE CRUNTBURGERS + THE LEGIONNAIRES + THE MANTELOPES + THE RESIGNATORS + THE SOLICITORS + VENDETTA + VADGE DAGGAR + WHERE’S GROVER? Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick.

••APES + TEEN SENSATIONS + REPTILES Toff In Town, ••BAND NIGHT - FEAT: HEART BEACH + CLAIRE

••ROCK N ROLL CHRISTMAS - FEAT: SILUS LULIC

BIRCHALL & THE PHANTOM HITCHHIKERS + BAD GUYS + MELONMELONMELON + THE DELVENES Coburg Rsl, Coburg. 6:00pm. $5.00.

TRANSITIONS Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East. 8:00pm.

••SLEEP + HORSEHUNTER + BONNIE MERCER Corner

••STRANGERS FROM NOW ON + WARMTH CRASHES

GIRL REPORT + GUY & MARCUS BLCKMAN EXPERIMENTATION PROJECT Tote Hotel, Collingwood. 8:30pm.

••GIRLS TO THE FRONT ART SHOW - FEAT: LOOBS

+ ROSEMARY & THE LITTLE LAMBS + WET MEAL Tote Hotel, Collingwood. 6:00pm. $10.00.

••GRACE + BILLY FOX + BOATS Workers Club, Fitzroy. 8:30pm. $12.00.

••HOLY MOSES HEARTACHE Catfish, Fitzroy. 9:00pm.

••INTOXICA + BRUCE LE MOOSE + DJ XANDER Retreat Hotel, Brunswick. 8:00pm.

••JACK ON FIRE Post Office Hotel, Coburg. 9:30pm.

••JANE TYRRELL + ELANA STONE + GORDI Northcote Social Club, Northcote. 8:30pm. $20.00.

••GARY WAITLING Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd. 6:00pm. $10.00.

••GOOD MUSIC - FEAT: ETHAN MCLAREN Prince Public Bar, St Kilda . 8:00pm.

••JOE RUBERTO TRIO + RUBY PAGE & BOB VENIER Dizzy’s Jazz Club, Richmond. 9:00pm. $20.00.

••LEIGH BARKER & THE NEW SHEIKS Paris Cat Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 7:30pm. $20.00.

••MANINS AND GOULD - FEAT: MANINS AND GOULD

WITH RILEY LEE Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank. 7:00pm. $45.00.

••NOËL! NOËL! (AUSTRALIAN BRANDENBURG

ORCHESTRA) - FEAT: AUSTRALIAN BRANDENBURG ORCHESTRA Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank.

5:00pm. $65.00.

••REFRACTION Wesley Anne, Northcote. 6:00pm.

••SAM THE PIANO MAN Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne

Hotel, Richmond. 8:30pm.

DEATH SQUAD Espy, St Kilda. 9:00pm. $10.00. ••DRAWCARD + GLASS EMPIRE + AFTER THE CURFEW + GLADSTONE + THESE CITY LIGHTS Espy, ••FOOTY + SKY NEEDLE + THE ICYPOLES + SCHOOL

••BEN PANUCCI + LISA SALVO 303, Northcote. 8:00pm.

Frankston. 8:00pm.

••STEVIE & THE SLEEPERS + THE LOVELIES + JOE

9:00pm. $20.00.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Richmond. 8:00pm.

••CREPES Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood. 9:00pm. $8.00.

St Kilda. 8:00pm. $15.00.

+ SHAKING HELL Public Bar, North Melbourne. 8:30pm.

$10.00.

Black, Brunswick. 9:30pm.

••SHENANIGANS - FEAT: RADIO CHOAS Pier Live,

••ELLA HOOPER Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Cbd.

Castlemaine. 8:30pm. $10.00.

••WORM CROWN + BEAST & FLOOD + TANGRAMS

Musicland, Fawkner. 7:30pm. $15.00.

Royal Melbourne Hotel, Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm. $20.00.

••DIREBLAZE + ABRAXXAS + DARK EARTH + ATOMIC

8:00pm.

••WAYWARD BREED + DIRTBIRD Bridge Hotel,

••RUSTY JAMES & THE HELL FIRE FLAMES Penny

••BANG - FEAT: KISSCHASY + BRIGHTER AT NIGHT

$10.00.

••THREEZACROWD The Beveridge Tavern, Beveridge.

ELECTRIC Cherry Bar, Melbourne Cbd. 11:00pm. $13.00.

••S.L.A.P + THE BLACK ALLEYS Great Britain Hotel,

••CRACKWHORE + COUNTER ATTACK +

The weekend is a good time to relax and as God said on the Sabbath; let there be doom. This Saturday and Sunday night, Melbourne will be induced into a state of sleep like no other as Californian stoner rock band and masters of doom, Sleep, take over The Corner Hotel. Catch them on Saturday December 6 with the legends from Horsehunter and Bonnie Mercer and Sunday, December 7 with Mammoth Mammoth and Hotel Wrecking City Traders.

11:00am.

••PALACE OF THE KING + WHITE SUMMER + LEGS

Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. $12.00.

SLEEP

CONROY Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $13.00.

IN + MASSIMO JONES Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy. 8:30pm.

••SUN ON THE MOON (THE MUSIC OF JAMES

TAYLOR) - FEAT: DON CONWAY’S ALL STAR BAND Thornbury Theatre, Thornbury. 8:00pm. $22.00.

••THE ACE 60S MOD DANCE CLUB - FEAT: MISS

LIZZY & THE NIGHT OWLS The Luwow, Fitzroy. 8:30pm. $5.00.

••THE BLACKEYED SUSANS CHRISTMAS SHOW +

JILL BIRT + ALSY MACDONALD Caravan Music Club,

Oakleigh. 8:00pm. $23.00.

••THE DOORS SHOW + SHED ZEPPELIN + SPOONFUL

+ PHIL PARA Espy, St Kilda. 6:00pm.

••THE KARLY JEWELL BAND + MOTOR MAN + LITTLE

HOUSE GODZ Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbottsford. 7:30pm.

$10.00.

••THE RULING MOTIONS + LOS KUMBIA KILLERS Bar Open, Fitzroy. 10:00pm.

••THE SMITH STREET BAND + THE BENNIES + FEAR

LIKE US + ROCKENSPIELE Reverence Hotel, Footscray. 12:00pm. $15.00.

CHECK OUT ALL THE LATEST NEWS, REVIEWS AND FREE SHIT AT BEAT.COM.AU

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 53

GIG GUIDE

WHAT'S ON AROUND MELBOURNE THIS WEEK

For all the latest gigs check out beat.com.au

••NIC TATE Thornbury Local, Thornbury. 4:00pm.

••RUN RABBIT RUN + BOB HUTCHISON Penny Black, Brunswick. 3:00pm.

••SUMMER BENEFIT FOR THE LOST DOGS HOME

- FEAT: MACJAK + DAVE OLIVIERI + THE JIM DOWLING BAND Ascot Vale Hotel, Ascot Vale. 4:00pm. ••SUNDAY SESSIONS - FEAT: VARIOUS ARTISTS

Cbd. 8:30pm. $10.00.

••KATY PERRY (PRISMATIC TOUR) Rod Laver Arena,

Melbourne Cbd. 9:30pm. $20.00.

••KIRA PURU + TOWNHOUSES + D.A CALF Workers

••THE BITTER SWEETHEARTS Retreat Hotel, Brunswick.

Cbd. 8:30pm. $25.00.

••LIKE JUNK Public Bar, North Melbourne. 2:00am.

••THE SIDESHOW BRIDES Standard Hotel, Fitzroy. 7:00pm.

••THE CRAIG SMITH QUINTET Paris Cat Jazz Club, ••THE MELTDOWN Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, Melbourne ••THE SAM KEEVERS QUINTET PLAYS BERNIE

MCGANN Uptown Jazz Cafe, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. ••THE WIKIMEN Open Studio, Northcote. 8:00pm. ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK ••BAKEHOUSE TUESDAY Ascot Vale Hotel, Ascot Vale. 8:30pm.

••CHRIS CAVILL & THE PROSPECTORS Rainbow Hotel,

Melbourne. 7:30pm. $109.00.

Club, Fitzroy. 7:30pm. $7.00.

••MACHINE TRANSLATIONS + TIM GUY Retreat Hotel, Brunswick. 7:30pm.

••MIN WAGE - FEAT: FOOD COURT + ROSS DE CHENE

HURRICANES Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood. 6:00pm. ••MR BLACK & BLUES Catfish, Fitzroy. 5:00pm. ••PALM SPRINGS + TOTALLY MILD + MOON RITUALS Tote Hotel, Collingwood. 4:00pm.

Fitzroy. 9:30pm.

••SLEEP + HORSEHUNTER + BONNIE MERCER Corner

Saucer Club, Elsternwick. 8:40pm. $20.00.

••STAR GUNN + MANGIAR Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood.

9:00pm.

••TEX PERKINS & CHARLIE OWEN Post Office Hotel,

••CHRIS WILSON & BAND + IAN COLLARD Flying ••GOATPISS GASOLINE Drunken Poet, West Melbourne. ••HOUNDLINGS Labour In Vain, Fitzroy. 5:00pm.

••JOHN KENNEDYS’ 68 SPECIAL Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East. 9:30pm.

••JULIA JACKLIN + BRONTE Penny Black, Brunswick. 3:00pm.

••MARLON WILLIAMS & THE YARRA BENDERS +

ALDOUS HARDING + TIM MOORE + DJ STICKMAN Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford. 8:30pm.

••PETER BAYLOR Spotted Mallard, Brunswick. 9:00pm.

••THE BEARDED GYPSY BAND Sooki Lounge, Belgrave. 9:00pm. $10.00.

••THE BURNT LETTERS + THE WEEPING WILLOWS Retreat Hotel, Brunswick. 5:00pm.

••THOMAS DYLAN + ELLERY COHEN + JOSIAH +

RICHY MARKS Wesley Anne, Northcote. 8:00pm.

SUNDAY 7 DEC

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS ••VELVET ARCHES John Curtin Hotel, Carlton. 8:00pm.

••ALBERT’S BASEMENT FESTIVAL - FEAT: CHARLES

IVES SINGERS DUO + THE ETHER + GIRL MOUNTAIN + BEARDD IRIS + INEVITABLE ORBIT + ENCOUNTER GROUP Tote Hotel, Collingwood. 4:00pm. ••AUSTRALIAN WOMEN IN PUNK CALENDAR LAUNCH - FEAT: STRAIGHT JACKET NATION + CONSTANT MONGREL + THE UV RACE + MASSES + MISS DESTINY + TOMMY T & THE MISHAPS Tote Hotel, Collingwood. 4:00pm. $10.00.

••BEN PANUCCI + LEAH SENIOR + HANNAH

CAMERON Bar Open, Fitzroy. 7:30pm. ••BODIES + DIECUT + THE LOVELESS + GEORGIA MAQ Public Bar, North Melbourne. 3:00pm. ••BROOKLYN HOOKERS + DIAMOND BLOW + ZENITH EMPIRE Cherry Bar, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. ••CARL RUSSO Old Bar, Fitzroy. 3:00pm. ••CASTLECOMER Northcote Social Club, Northcote. 7:30pm. $12.00.

••COACH BOMBAY + NUSSY Boney, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. $8.00.

••DAN WATERS + JEMMA NICOLE + BROOKE RUSSE Northcote Social Club, Northcote. 2:00pm. $15.00.

••ELECTRIC MARY Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Cbd. 9:00pm. $15.00.

••HAWK MOTH XMAS PARTY - FEAT: SAINT JUDE

+ EMPIRE OF POETS Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood.

5:00pm.

••HORNS OF LEROY The B.east, Brunswick East. 5:00pm. ••INFERNO’S Great Britain Hotel, Richmond. 8:00pm.

Hotel, Richmond. 7:30pm. $49.00.

8:00pm.

Coburg. 5:00pm.

••THE BAND WHO KNEW TOO MUCH Spotted Mallard, Brunswick. 5:00pm.

••THE GLORIOUS NORTH + MARICOPA WELLS +

D.ROGERS Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick. 5:00pm.

••THE PRAYER BABIES Royal Oak Hotel, Fitzroy North. 4:00pm.

••THE SECRET CITY + PORCELAIN PILL + MIRANDO Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy. 2:00pm. $10.00.

••THE SUNDAY SOCIAL - FEAT: KING GEORGE + THE

SHIFTERS + CRADLE + HIGH NIGHTS + MIDNIGHT SHIFTER + LOKI + NEUMARK + ELEANOR + TWINSPEAK + BOY WONDER + ALICE IVY Prince

Bandroom, St Kilda. 2:00pm. $14.30.

••THUNDERSTRUCK & LEGENDS OF OZ ROCK

Melbourne Cbd. 2:00pm. $5.00.

••TRIO AGOGO Wesley Anne, Northcote. 5:00pm.

••WINTER SUN + DEATH OF ART + HOLLOW DRUMS Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbottsford. 5:00pm. $5.00.

MONDAY 8 DEC

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS ••BENT + MAD NANNA + SCHOOL DAMAGE + THE

SHIFTERS Public Bar, North Melbourne. 7:00pm. $5.00.

••CHERRY JAM Cherry Bar, Melbourne Cbd. 6:00pm. ••JOAN ARMATRADING Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank. 7:30pm. $65.00.

••MONDAY NIGHT MASS - FEAT: THE PRIMARY +

HABITS + CLAWS & ORGANS + SCHLARGER MUSIC Northcote Social Club, Northcote. 6:00pm.

••MUNDANE MONDAYS - FEAT: HOLLOW HOUNDS

+ PLURAL + GENERAL MEN Old Bar, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $5.00.

••THE VILLAINETEES + NEW POLLUTION + SPECIAL

GUESTS Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy. 8:30pm. $6.00.

••THE WAR ON DRUGS 170 Russell, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

••KELLER, MURPHY & BROWNE TRIO + KELLER +

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC ••BRAZILIAN JAZZ - FEAT: TAMIL ROGEON + DOUG

DE VRIES + AL KERR The Everleigh, Fitzroy. 9:30pm.

••CLUNK ORCHESTRA 303, Northcote. 7:30pm.

••DANA’S MUSIC NETWORK CONCERT Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd. 10:00am. $10.00.

••EMILY GRANT Paris Cat Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 6:00pm. $15.00.

••JAZZ HAPPY HOUR - FEAT: CONNIE LANSBERG

QUARTET Mardo’s, Port Melbourne. 2:00pm.

••JAZZHEAD SUNDAYS Lady Grange, St Kilda. 3:00pm.

••LAZERCATZ 2000 + SURFACE Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 8:30pm. $18.00.

••LET’S DANCE BIG BAND Mentone Rsl, Mentone. 1:00pm. $15.00.

••MELBOURNE UNCLAIMED - FEAT: ELLIOTT CLINE

+ THE LOST FRIDAYS + AARTI JADU Wesley Anne, Northcote. 7:00pm. $10.00.

••RICOCHET Open Studio, Northcote. 7:00pm.

••SUNDAY SERENADES - FEAT: SOPHIE’S VOICE

COMMUNITY CHOIR Palace Cinema (Westgarth),

6:00pm.

MURPHY & BROWNE TRIO Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 8:30pm. $18.00.

••RUBY’S LIVE JAZZ AFTER DARK - FEAT: PIANO TÉ

••THE SUGARCANES + BIG SMOKE + JULIA JACKLIN Old Bar, Fitzroy. 7:30pm. $8.00.

••WIKIMEN Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine. 8:30pm. $12.00.

••TINALLEY QUARTET Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank. 7:00pm. $50.00.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK ••THE DOODADS Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford. 8:00pm.

••THE MUTUAL APPRECIATION SOCIETY - FEAT:

LACHLAN BRYAN + ALEYCE SIMMONDS Retreat

Hotel, Brunswick. 7:30pm.

TUESDAY 9 DEC

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS ••ALMA KALORAMA + JACKSON PHELAN 303, Northcote. 8:00pm.

••CAJUN CHRISTMAS - FEAT: JOE CAMILLERI & THE

BLACK SORROWS Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Cbd. 6:30pm. $40.00.

Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $6.00.

GO AWAY Workers Club, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $6.00.

••LEMONHEADS + JEN CLOHER Corner Hotel, Richmond. 8:00pm.

••THE BRUNSWICK HOTEL DISCOVERY NIGHT -

FEAT: ANIMUS Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick. 8:00pm.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

••THE RESIGNATORS + MENAGE-A-SKA Cherry Bar,

••SPENCER P JONES Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine. 2:00pm.

••THE SHIFTIES + PHOEBE DAICOS & THE SIMMER

Lotta Love, Brunswick East. 5:00pm.

••DAN WARNERS RRR BBQ Brunswick East. 5:30pm.

BAND Lomond Hotel,

••DAREBIN SONGWRITERS GUILD 303, Northcote. 3:30pm.

••GEOFF ACHISON - FEAT: DIREBLAZE + STAND &

DELIVER + SUPER SOUNDS MIXTAPE Espy, St Kilda.

6:00pm. $10.00.

••JAM SUNDAYS Musicland, Fawkner. 6:00pm.

••JOHN KENNEDY’S 68 COMEBACK SPECIAL - FEAT:

MARLON WILLIAMS & THE YARRA BENDERS Yarra

Hotel, Abbotsford. 4:00pm.

••KRAKEN FOLK SESSIONS - FEAT: GALLIE Drunken Poet, West Melbourne. 4:00pm.

Melbourne Cbd. 6:00pm.

DOWNS + BRENDAN LLOYD Public Bar, North

Melbourne. 7:00pm. $5.00.

••THE STIFFYS The B.east, Brunswick East. 9:00pm.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC ••FREQUENCY Dizzy’s Jazz Club, Richmond. 8:00pm. $14.00. ••JESSE WITNEY Open Studio, Northcote. 8:00pm.

••KELLIE SANTIN Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 8:30pm. $25.00.

••NAT BARTSCH TRIO Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 8:30pm. $18.00.

••RUBY’S LIVE JAZZ AFTER DARK - FEAT: DEXTER’S

ASIAN CONNECTION Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm. $15.00.

••TABLE 9 Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd. 6:00pm. $10.00.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

••LARGE NUMBER 12S Labour In Vain, Fitzroy. 5:00pm.

••BJ MORRISZONKLE + SARA RETALLICK Retreat

••MARTY KELLY & THE WEEKENDERS Lomond Hotel,

••IRISH SESSIONS Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East. 8:00pm.

••LOVESICK BLUES Victoria Hotel, Brunswick. 5:00pm. Brunswick East. 9:00pm.

The festive season’s upon us, which means finishing up those assignments you left until the last minute, sitting end of year exams, balmy nights and even hotter days, dealing with shopping centre crowds, and figuring out how you’re going to spend the holidays before it all starts again next year. It’s pretty hectic. In terms of end of year events, as you can see by the gig guide below – everything is happening. The good news is most events are either FREE or just a few bucks, so you’ll still have some dosh left over for prezzies/more gigs. The variety of events is awesome too, there’s everything from dances, pool parties, skate comps and festivals. There are a few good opportunities to report on this week. Firstly the innovative song writing mentoring program Push Songs is back next year and applications have just opened for the February and March round. You’ll get one on one song writing workshops with the likes of Charles Jenkins, Mark Seymour, Adalita, Greg Walker (Machine Translations) and Liz Stringer. The program is based at our Brunswick office and open to AA in Victoria. Apply by Friday January 30 at www. surveymonkey.com/s/PS2015R1. Secondly, if you’re a young Victorian aged 18 and 25 and are interested in establishing yourself in any area of the music industry (performing artists, composer, producer, sound engineer, event manager, booking agent, publicist, journalists, rock photographers, etc) then check out the FReeZA Mentoring Program. Applications are open for the 2015 program, which will see participants matched up, one-on-one, with a supportive mentor who is already established within the industry. Positions are limited, so apply ASAP at www.surveymonkey.com/s/FREEZAMentoring15. Wanna write this column? We’re looking for our next intern Gig Guide Coordinator. Jump onto www.thepush.com.au to check out the position description and how to apply, applications close Wednesday December 10.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 5 • DJ Dance w/ DJ Rod Marshall, Anglican Church Hall, High St, Echuca, 4 - 10pm, $5, contact Rhonda Marshall / 5482 2517, U18 • Portland BreakFest 2014 w/ SCNDL, Who Killed Mickey, Tyler Smith, and Nathan Jennings, Portland Drill Hall, Bentinck St, Portland, 7:30pm - 12am, $15 presale or $20 door, contact Hayley Dunning / 5522 2137, AA • Summer Nights Block Party w/ Sensation, plus DJs, Phoenix Park Community Centre Hall, 22 Rob Roy Rd, Malvern East, 7-10:30pm, $10 presale or $15 door, contact Holly Marriott / 8290 7030, AA • Summer Pool Party w/ Bungy Run, balloon artist, DJ, Hamilton Olympic Swimming Pool, 5-7pm, Free, www.wdhs.net, AA • Breakout - Additional Needs Dance Party w/ DJ Ben Eley, Wyndham Youth Resource Centre, 86 Derrimut Rd, Hoppers Crossing, 6-10pm, $5 / carers free, www.youth.wyndham.vic.gov.au, 1425YRS • Shove It Skate Comp, Timboon Skate Park, 3:30– 7pm, Free, www.corangamite.vic.gov.au, AA • FReeZA Dance Party 2014, Galvin Hall, Wodonga Senior Secondary College, 69 Woodland St, Wodonga, 7-10pm, $5 presale or $10 door, www. thecubewodonga.com.au/tickets, U18 • Monster Dance Party (All Abilities) w/ DJ Riley, DJ Anth, Macleod YMCA, 157 Wungun St, Macleod, 6:30-9pm, Free, www.banyuleyouth. com/jets, AA • FReeZA Push Start Battle of the Bands Regional Final - Southern Metro w/ Beneath the Lies, Valleys of Vermont, The Evercold, Manor, Melanie Grace, Stridor, The Moody Spooks, Bloomfield, Cranbourne Public Hall, Cnr South Gippsland Hwy and Clarendon St, Cranbourne, 6:1511:15pm, $10 with a pass or $12 without, www. casey.vic.gov.au/youth, AA • Pop Up Christmas Party w/ Open Mic, DJs and bands, Bourke Park (opposite Pakenham Train Station), Station St, Pakenham, 4-7pm, Free, www. cardinia.vic.gov.au/youth, AA • South Port UnitingCare, South Melbourne Middle Years Youth Festival, Sol Green Reserve, Corner Coventry and Montague St, South Melbourne, 4-8pm, Free, contact Jill Wilson / 9209 6167, AA

••GREGOR/BLOXHAM + DAVE O’CONNOR + LALIC +

$10.00.

WITH RUTH MIHELCIC

Cbd. 7:00pm. $15.00.

Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. $35.00.

••THE FURBELOWS Grumpy’s Green, Fitzroy. 7:00pm.

ACCESS ALL AGES

ALL AGES TIMETABLE

••GOATPISS GASOLINE + TYRANNAMEN Old Bar,

••THE EMMA PASK BAND Bennetts Lane Jazz Club,

PRESENT

Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm.

••STUDENT NIGHT Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, Melbourne

Northcote. 6:00pm.

••BLOODY SUNDAYS - FEAT: MARK HOWARD Whole

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 54

Music Club, Oakleigh. 3:00pm. $30.00.

••THREE KINGS + DJ MAX CRAWDADDY Cherry Bar,

3:00pm.

••8 BALL AITKEN Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy. 4:00pm.

MISCELLANEOUS WANTED: One bread roll. I found a sausage on the floor and some tomato sauce smeared on my steering wheel. Please help me find the missing piece to this delicious puzzle. offensive&disgusting@capnshmooze.com.au

••THINGS OF STONE AND WOOD + PHILEMON Caravan

••JAZZ FUSHION Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd.

3:00pm.

SERVICES SOUNDPARK REHEARSALS NORTHCOTE. From $50. Great rooms/p.a’s. Parking/Storage/Hire. Phone Andrew 0425 706 382. Soundparkstudios.com.au

5:00pm.

Musicland, Fawkner. 2:30pm.

••WIL WAGNER + JAMIE HAY Reverence Hotel, Footscray.

••4TH AVENUE BAND Hardiman’s Hotel, Kensington.

MUSICIANS WANTED WANTED: Bands/Acts wanted for Espy Shows. Shoot an email through to mark@gunnmusic.com.au for more details

Lucky Coq, Windsor. 4:00pm.

THE PUSH

Hotel, Brunswick. 7:30pm.

••OPEN MIC Prince Public Bar, St Kilda . 8:00pm.

WATCH INTERVIEWS, CHATS & AWKWARD SILENCES... BEAT.COM.AU/TV

SATURDAY DECEMBER 6 • Jets End Of Year Celebration w/ New Hope, Freak & The Fat Cats, Jets Studios, 2/24 The Concord, Bundoora, 6:30-8:30pm, Free, www.facebook. com/JetsFReeZA, AA SUNDAY DECEMBER 7 • 2 The XTreme Youth Festival w/ Massive Choir, Massive Choir, Burn Squad, The Collective, and DJ, Castlemaine Skate Park, 10am-4pm, Free, www.mountalexander.vic.gov.au, AA

Thurs 4th @ 8.30 pm

8 FOOT FELIX (Chunky soul cats)

Friday 5th @ 9.30pm

SATURDAY 6TH DECEMBER

HOUNDLINGS (SOUL/BLUES) FROM 5PM SUNDAY 7TH DECEMBER

LARGE NO 12’S (XMAS SHOW) FROM 5PM

FOOD AT THE LABOUR DOUGY & WESTON BBQ ON THE ROOF TOP EVERY FRIDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY ALL SUMMER LONG...

HARRY EDWARDS TRIO (TAS) (New gypsy swing)

Saturday 6th @ 9.30 pm

JOHN KENNEDYS’ 68 SPECIAL (NSW) (Trans-urban roots)

Sunday 7th @ 5.30pm

DAN WARNERS RRR BBQ BAND (Sizzlin’ Barbie dolls)

@ 9.00 pm

MARTY KELLY & THE WEEKENDERS (Acoustic roots)

Tuesday 9th @ 8.00pm

IRISH SESSION (Fancy fiddlin’)

ALL GIGS ARE FREE

EXCELLENT RESTAURANT AND BAR MEALS

LOMOND HOTEL 225 NICHOLSON STREET BRUNSWICK EAST, VIC 3057 9380 1752

Wed 3rd December

‘Wine, Whiskey, Women’ 8pm: Woman Or Horse 9pm:

Fee Brown

Thurs 4th December

8pm: OPEN MIC

Fri 5th December 6pm: Traditional Irish Music Session with Dan Bourke & Friends

8.30pm: Sean

McMahon

Sat 6th December

9pm: Goatpiss

Gasoline

Sun 7th December

4pm: Gallie 6.30pm: Kraken Folk

Sessions

Tues 9th december

8pm: Weekly Trivia The Drunken Poet, 65 Peel Street (directly opposite Queen Vic Market), Phone: 03 9348 9797. www.thedrunkenpoet.com.au

TUESDAYS

TRIVIA

@ 7pm - $6 CHILLI DOGS ALL NIGHT

Wednesday 3RD DECEMBER

SITuATIon Comedy ALbum LAuNCH

TRIVIA NIGHT R O CK A N D P O P C U LT U R E

E V E RY T U E S D A Y T r i v i a s t a rt s a t 8 p m Table bookings essential

feATurING breNDAN burNS @ 7pm

It’s a

Thursday 4TH DECEMBER

The BeAT RAffle

wITH pOSTIe p & DJ buICk @ 7pm - fuNk/SOuL/pArTy JAmS

$15 JUGS & $1 WinGS all niGht. Drink DrinkS, hear beatS, Win StUff.

Friday 5TH DECEMBER

GRumP & GRIme

ONe puf Crew - GrIme/bASSLINe/4x4 @8pm

Saturday 6th DECEMBER

WIldlIfe

buICk AND frIeNDS - JuNGLe/DNb @ 8pm.

Sunday 7th DECEMBER

The fuRBeloWS

LIve 5 pIeCe JAZZ SwING bAND @ 7pm

ALL free eNTry

Grumpy HOur $6 pINTS AND $5 bASICS tues-fri from 4-7pm.125 Smith Street, fitzroy.

www.GrumpySGreeN.COm.Au

7PM

WI NngG Th i

$10

a basket of 6

every wednesday Th

LIVE N’ COOKIN SESSIONs

E V E RY T H U RS D AY B U R G E R S P E C I A LS AND BANDS FROM 7PM for more info ask instore f a c e b o o k . c o m / t h e b e a s t b u rge r s i n s t a gr a m T H E B E A S T B U RGE R S - w w w . t h e b - e a s t . c o m P H 9 0 3 6 1 4 5 6 | 8 0 LYG O N ST B R U N S W I C K E A ST | T H E B - E A ST. CO M

CHECK OUT ALL THE LATEST NEWS, REVIEWS AND FREE SHIT AT BEAT.COM.AU

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 55

BACKSTAGE For more information or ad bookings call Aleksei on 9428 3600

STUDIO PROFILE:

KINDRED STUDIOS

Location: 212A Whitehall Street, Yarraville, 3012. Hours of operation: Monday - Friday: 8am - midnight. Saturday and Sunday: 9am - 6pm. Events and Gigs: 6pm -1am (check website for details). Tell us about the history of your studio. Many of our regular bands will recall coming in to jam in an empty warehouse shell just a few years back. You could literally drive your car into the warehouse and choose a studio to rehearse in. Since then, the spaces have seriously transformed into a multi-purpose creative hub that is so desperately needed in Melbourne’s inner west. The owner, Simon Hodgson, has attracted great tenants into the building, and we also have a café and licensed live music venue, so there’s so much more here for bands now, well beyond just a bunch of rooms to rock out in. Rooms and facilities: We offer ten standard rooms with Behringer mixers, Eurolive speakers, Sennheiser mics, air con and carpet. We have two deluxe rooms with a Quest Stereo power amp (2 x 1100W @ 4 Ohms), two RCF active speakers, two Quest fold-back monitors, five Shure SM58 mics, Allen and Heath 16 Channel Mix Wizard, with 16 outs so you can record straight out of the desk into your interface. These rooms have temperature control, carpet and park views. You can also record your session with a Zoom H1 and alongside this we have a backline for hire. Included within the facility is storage for your equipment and there is free parking directly beside the studios. Need to get those tracks up online quick or simply access emails? We have an NBN internet connection that has you covered. How about grabbing a beer and a bite to eat? We also have a licensed bar and café for dinner.

heads, instrument cables, guitar tuners, audio cables, batteries, ear plugs and guitar straps. Parking and loading available? All day parking on Harris Street, with easy access to a loading bay. Extras worth mentioning: We have a video studio, photographic studio and dance / Yoga studios too for artists and people looking for spaces to get creative. Every Thursday we host ‘Go Get ‘Em Tiger’ open mic night at our live music venue, the Bar Of Bengal from 6-9pm. It’s a great opportunity for aspiring musicians to show off their songs with the backline and sound tech provided. You simply bring your talent and your mates. It starts up again in Feb 2015, so check our website for more details. We also have a coworking office and shared studio spaces for lease to individuals, bands and creative freelancers needing a place to work from on both a short or long term basis. Kindred Studios also hosts a range of industry events and businesses including; Telstra Road to Discovery (Music Competition produced by Mushroom Music), Melbourne WebFest (web based video competition and festival), Victoria University Sound and Music Production courses, Translator Records, The X-Gene video agency, Jigsaw Post editing agency, JDA Photography and Chemical Media filmmakers.

Backline inventory for hire: 2 x Marshall Valvestate combo guitar amps, Ashdown 330-Touring, 2x12 bass combo amp, 2 x Pearl five piece drum kits complete with cymbals and stands, a Hammond organ and 2 x Roland Sound Canvas. Do you have any music gear for sale, for example if I break a string? Yes, we stock an extensive range of miscellaneous parts to keep you jamming if a string or stick breaks including; Ernie Ball guitar (electric, acoustic and bass) strings, Pro Mark drum sticks, Evans drum

Look. We Made a Crossword. Movies In Emojis.

ACROSS

1 9

(5, 4, 8)

(5)

(9, 3)

(3, 9, 4) (6)

(3, 6)

(4, 6, 2, 3)

26 27

(6, 12)

(11)

9 10 11 14 15

(6, 2, 4)

16 17

(5)

(4, 6)

(7, 2, 3, 5)

23 24

(9, 7)

(6, 2, 1, 5) (7)

21 (4, 3)

(5, 6)

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 56

14 15

(4)

(4, 5)

11 13

(6, 4, 6)

(3, 5, 2, 5)

10 12

(8, 6)

16 20

(7, 6, 5, 7)

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(6, 4)

(7, 2, 3, 4)

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12 (10)

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DOWN

(9)

PHONE: (03) 9687 0233 WEBSITE: WWW.KINDREDSTUDIOS.COM.AU E-MAIL: INFO@KINDREDSTUDIOS.COM.AU

(3, 3)

Across

1 (octopus) (cat) (9) WATCH INTERVIEWS, CHATS AWKWARD BEAT.COM.AU/TV 7 &(alarm clock)SILENCES... (memo) (orange) (5, 6) 9

(two men holding hands) (mount fuji) (5, 4, 8) 12 (alarm clock)(calendar)(alarm

2 3 4 5 6

Down (frowning face)x12 (6, 5, 3) (runner) (chocolate bar) (fried shrimp) (7, 4) (fist) (ox) (6, 4) (turtle)(turtle)(turtle)(turtle)(rat) (7, 6, 5, 7) (new moon with face) (cow face) (boy) (8, 6)

BACKSTAGE Q&A with GUILT FREE How did you guys get together? The original bass player and I formed the band using a network of friends and the Internet. We went through a long, drawn out audition process securing members over a two year period. We’ve been lucky enough to only have the one lineup change since 2010. What sort of music do you make? Best described as a hard rock outfit. Heavily influenced by Tool, Rage and Led Zeppelin; we’re mostly metal heads at heart. You could say we write what we like to listen to. What’s it been like getting your debut album together?

We’re in the middle of post-production. We had four days to record 11 songs at Mixmasters Studio to remain within budget, not a lot of time, so there’s a little extra recording and some other bits and pieces to do. We’re working with a highly regarded mixing engineer based in Hong Kong whose results so far have been amazing. The album’s due for release early next year. The stylistic scope is broad, so placement will be crucial to the overall impact it’s an album designed to be listened to from start to finish. You sold out your first EP, pretty impressive. How did that feel? Pretty good actually. Selling music isn’t easy these days, telling all my mates they couldn’t burn it

probably helped. A recent reprint means we’ll have some available at Friday’s shows along with our new single, Hindsight. So you’ve got two gigs in one night, how are you going to pace yourselves? An unexpected double booking, but we’ll be right ± r ock’n’roll. GUILT FREE are playing two gigs on Friday December 5. They’re playing Bandroom680 in Hawthorn, doors at 7pm. They’re then playing the late slot at The Brunswick Hotel at 11.30pm. Get down.

Vintage, New & Second Hand Amps, Effects Pedals & Rigs

Huge Selection – All major Brands

Guitars and Amps wanted Top CA$H Paid

Expert Guitar & Amp Repairs Mods & Restoration Fast Turnaround Affordable Rates Technicians on site 1131 Burke Rd KEW 3101 Phone: 03 9817 7000 www.eastgatemusic.com.au

v s

KIndRED STuDIOS 13 REHearsal ROOMS $65 FLAT RATE* *$65 ex. deluxe rooms

THIS SPACE COULD BE YOURS. FOR MORE INFORMATION OR AD BOOKINGS CALL ALEKSEI ON 9428 3600

IN YARRAVILLE

FULLY EQUIPPED LICENsed Live Venue BACKLINE for Hire STORAGE AVAILABLE

Booked bands drink at HAPPY HR PRICES

kindredstudios.com.au

03 9687 0233

CHECK OUT ALL THE LATEST NEWS, REVIEWS AND FREE SHIT AT BEAT.COM.AU

PA HIRE Comprehensive PA systems delivered, set up and operated with crew. Compact, easy, sound systems you can pickup and assemble yourself.Components such as microphones, speakers and effects are also available separately. Lights also available. For details phone Mark Barry on 03 9889 1999 or 0419 993 966

www.bssound.com.au bssound@bigpond.com

BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 57

INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH

MUSIC INDUSTRY NEWS & GOSSIP

With Christie Eliezer * Stuff for this column to be emailed to <celiezer@netspace.net.au> by Friday 5pm

A NEW ERA FOR VICTORIA’S MUSIC UNDER NEW LABOR GOVT?

Under the new Labor State Government, the contemporary music sector has greater opportunities. Its $22.2 million Music Works package promises more funding, quick response grants, a commitment to sparking regional live music action, a hub for creative collaborations, and continued funding for peak music association Music Victoria. It also supports the Agent of Change law, and the need to keep assisting live music venues. The Victoria Rock hub is to put in the same building music, arts, technology and business firms to identify opportunities, particularly for investment, innovation and export. Tex Perkins and The Basics Rock’n’Roll Party’s tilt as independent candidates got, respectively, 3.59 per cent for Albert Park, and a 1.43 per cent vote in the Northern Metropolitan Region. Perkins sole issue was funding for The Palais: he was successful even before polling began when Labor got the message and committed (“up to $13.4 million”). The Basics posted on Facebook, “We managed to dislodge one of Smaug’s (the dragon in Tolkien's The Hobbit) many hardened scales, and perhaps have contributed in some small way to the promise of a fairer Victoria, and ultimately Australia.” They added, “Do not get complacent. The battle for Australia’s soul is only just beginning.”

Orlando, Florida. They’re about to tour the US for six weeks with four dancers, a DJ and a live rhythm section. A new single Taking Over has just been released online, mixed by Lu Diaz (Usher, Puff Daddy, Pitbull).

AUSSIE CERTIFICATIONS

This week, Hilltop Hoods’ Cosby Sweater hit platinum (70,000 units) while Peking Duk ft. SAFIA is gold. Of albums, Human Nature’s Jukebox went platinum and The Veronicas’ self-titled album went gold after it debuted on the ARIA chart at #2 and marked their return to the chart after seven years.

I HEARD THEY EAT CIGARETTES RECORDS LAUNCHES

I Heard They Eat Cigarettes Records is a new label offshoot for the posse which grew from the cult Melbourne street wear and nightlife scene. It offers a platform for progressive and experimental artists. First release is World Wild (aka Jarrad Lee Jackson)’s Coast to Coast a ‘80s funk/synth tribute to the '80s Californian skate and surf scene, launching at Yah Yah’s on Friday December 26.

BIGPOND MUSIC, MUSIC HUB CLOSING

The Australian digital space is shrinking, with Telstra’s BigPond Music and Samsung’s Music Hub service both closing this month. BigPond clicks off on Friday December 12, while Music Hub goes dark after a three year presence. Both say the services will be replaced but gave no further information.

DIGITAL RADIO FOR UNSIGNED AUSSIE ACTS

A new digital radio station has launched called Unsigned Bands to showcase new Australian music. It’s the initiative of major Australian Radio Network and an association called Unsigned Bands Australia which provides a platform for local acts to feature their music, videos, photos and news for free. It also holds a weekly Unsigned Session at The Sly Fox in Enmore, and Battle of the Bands Australia Festival which offers a $10,000 grant and recording sessions.

MTV LAUNCHES MTV STYLES SITE

MTV Australia set up a local MTV Style site after a 74 per cent increase in monthly unique visitors to mtv. com.au this year with celeb and fashion styles driving much of the traffic. The site is managed by its digital editor Leni Andronicos.

RECORD LABELS GLOBALLY INVEST $4.3B IN A&R AND MARKETING

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and indie labels’ WIN (Worldwide Independent Network) claim in a new report that record companies invest more in A&R and marketing than any other sector in the music industry. The Investing in Music report stated that globally, labels spend US$4.3 billion a year in A&R and marketing. There was a total spend of US$20 billion in the last 20 years. In the past two years, investment in these sectors grew from 26 per cent of their revenue to 27 per cent. It showed that labels, despite the perception, still play an instrumental role in creating music. More than 7,500 artists were signed to major labels in 2013, with tens of thousands more on indie labels. One in five artists on rosters is a new signing.

OVERSEAS DEALS FOR JAKUBI

With new single Couch Potato topping half a million SoundCloud streams and shows selling out on a US tour, the world is taking notice of Melbourne funk/ hip hop/rock collective Jakubi. They’ve struck a comanagement deal with Denver-based 7s Management (The Dandy Warhols, Dinosaur Jr, American Authors, Xavier Rudd, Rodrigo y Gabriela) and joined UK's Coda Agency for European bookings. In mid-December they kick off a VIC, NSW and QLD Life’s A Beach tour of 11 waterfront towns.

MELBOURNE’S DRIESSEN CREATE WAVES IN THE US

Another Melbourne act making waves in the US are R&B/ hip hop duo Driessen, who were formerly in boy band C&C. Cameron and Clayton Driessen have been in the US for the past six months and signed with Richard Compton’s Metropolis Productions in BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 58

ALL STAR CAST FOR KINGSWOOD SHORT FILM

Kingswood enlisted an all-star cast for a short film featuring new single Micro Wars and album track Eye Of The Storm. The film; a “tale of love, loss and revenge” includes Ian Moss, Freddy Crabs (Sticky Fingers), Sam Margin, Zac Margin, Scott Baldwin & Will Zeglis (The Rubens), Thomas Champion (The Preatures), Jake Stone (Bluejuice), Tkay Maidza and actress Liana Cornell. It was directed by guitarist Alex Laska and Jason Von Drayco. Set in the Sydney underworld, Laksa calls it “the second installment of our endeavours in making grind house styled cinema but with much more of an Australian twist; Animal Kingdom was a big influence.”

THINGS WE HEAR

• Which radio person is shivering over the collapse of his family’s business? • Is Beyoncé set to sign a new record deal with Apple? • With plans ablaze for January’s Tamworth Country Music Festival, is there a worry for the 2016 edition with Tamworth’s dire state of water supplies? • Hilltop Hoods are “uncomfortable” with having a hit with Cosby Sweater when its inspiration, US comic Bill Cosby, was accused of several incidences of sexual assault. • Mushroom head honcho Michael Gudinski who grew a beard after the Rolling Stones got postponed, shaved it off just before the ARIAs, as he promised after the tour finished. The shave raised $46,000 for the beyondblue depression support group, the Herald Sun said, which included a hefty donation from another of Gudinski’s touring acts, Ed Sheeran. • In America, Eminem’s new Shady Records compilation, Shady XV, has been launched with a Detroit-inspired ice cream flavour. • Horsham’s first radio ratings in six years showed ACE Radio’s MIXX FM at Number 1 with a 35.2 per cent market share. ABC Local Radio followed with 25.6 per cent. ACE Radio 3WM had 23.2 per cent of listeners. • Katy Perry dubs herself an honorary Aussie. “No longer will I use straws in my chocolate milk. I’ll use Tim Tams. No longer will I put butter on bread, I’ll use Vegemite. No longer will I eat chicken, I’ll eat kangaroo. Actually that’s disgusting. Why do guys you eat something that’s on your national emblem?” • As part of Swedish film series Experiment Ensam (Experiment Alone), in which one person experiences a normally communal activity, Bob Dylan and band played a show at Philadelphia’s Academy Of Music to just one person, superfan Fredrik Wikingsson.

• When The Preatures opened for The Stones in Hunter Valley, Mick Jagger told singer Isabella Manfredi they were “great” and hugged her while drummer Luke Davison and Charlie Watts talked drum skins. • The five outtakes from the zebra crossing photo shoot for The Beatles’ Abbey Road album sold at a London auction for £180,000 (A$331,130). • Now recovered from a broken jaw received on a Sydney street, Steve Smyth has resumed his Exits album tour and set to announce more dates. • Kurt Cobain’s daughter Frances Bean is producing a documentary on him. • Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo has launched a crowd-funding campaign for his upcoming doco on legendary jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius.

MUSIC RANKS #4 IN AUSSIES’ DIGITAL EXPERIENCE

Music ranks #4 as the best digital experience by Australians, according to Ernst & Young’s State of the Nation Report 2014. Top of their list were films and TV, say 26 per cent of the 1500 surveyed. Entertainment was 25 per cent, travel 24 per cent and music 23 per cent. (3 per cent ranked music as the worst digital experience). Of other best experiences, video games were chosen by 20 per cent and sports at 16 per cent. Mobile units are the most used to access the internet (78 per cent) with portable laptops and notebooks at 72 per cent. Facebook is the most popular destination with a huge 81 per cent. Following are Google (18 per cent), Instagram (11 per cent), Twitter (9 per cent), Tumblr (3 per cent) and MySpace (1 per cent). See digitalaustralia.ey.com. Australia is one of the most digitally connected places in the world, with 81 per cent of households with internet access and 77 per cent (13 and above) owning a smart phone. 69 per cent of us check our phones as soon as we awake. The report said Australians have definite ideas on what they will put up with regarding digital experiences. Australia is now ranked at #49 for affordability for digital access. 40 per cent of consumers and 67 per cent of ‘digital thought’ leaders believe Australia runs the risk of being left behind in the digital economy due to government policy.

PREMIER GUITARS LAUNCHES

Premier Guitars is a new company which specialises in sales and storage of high quality acoustic and electric guitars, basses and other stringed instruments and amps on a consignment basis. It also provides a broking service for guitar owners to offer their instruments for sale to a database of potential buyers. They charge 20 per cent of sales price as commission. Founder John Spence is at sales@premierguitars.com.au.

MAJOR NAMES SING FOR REFUGEE CHILDREN

30 major names as Bryan Brown, Ita Buttorse, Ian Chappell, Thomas Keneally, Deborah Mailman, Rebecca Gibney, academics, human rights activists, religious figures and others joined Glenn Shorrock, Mahlia Barnes and John Williamson to record a song We’re Better Than This Australia. It’s part of a campaign to release over 700 children held in detention camps on the mainland and offshore. The track was cut in Sydney produced by Darren Percival from The Voice. Buttrose said, “When you lock a child up, you lock up their imagination, and when you do that, you destroy their childhood.”

LIFELINES Together: Kasey Chambers and Gippsland singer/songwriter Harry Hookey made their relationship official by stepping out together at the ARIAs. Ill: 5 Seconds of Summer drummer Ashton Irwin cancelled a TV show after falling ill again a month after being hospitalised with appendicitis. Ill: Powerman 5000 suffered from smoke inhalation. They were chilling in their hotel room before a gig when its air conditioning burst into flames. Divorcing: troubled Creed singer Scott Stapp’s wife Jaclyn has filed action citing his heavy drugs use, attempted suicides and paranoid texts. In Court: sisters Jahan and Yasmine Yousaf of EDM act Krewella countersuing founder Kris Trindl’s $5 million claim he was forced out of the group. Charged: San Diego rapper Tiny Doo for violent lyrics on new mixtape No Safety “willfully promotes, furthers, or assists in any felonious criminal conduct” of a local gang charged with a series of shootings. His lawyers say the raps are about life on the street, similar to movies like Scarface.

123 AGENCY SIGNS SARAH HOWELLS

Sarah Howells, presenter of triple j’s Roots And All, and owner of Sajana Designs is expending her club DJ work and signed with Melbourne’s 123 Agency. “2015, you’re gonna be killah [sic],” she tweeted about her future plans. She’s just landed a Sunday afternoon residency at Brisbane’s Triffid club.

RAILWAY HOTEL “NOT CLOSING” TO LIVE MUSIC

A statement from the operators of the newly opened Railway Hotel in Brunswick said that despite some cancellations last week, it is hosting a number of shows this week. “After making a big investment in sound and lights and fixing the venue up the owners are working out the direction to take the whole hotel forward,” they said.

AWARDS #1: ARIA RATINGS SLIGHTLY UP

ARIA’s bringing back its awards to Ten with a battery of big name celebs saw a slight rise in viewers. 574,000 tuned in, while the red carpet bit had 602,000. Last when it was on Nine’s digital Go channel, it was watched by 337,000. Spotify’s predictions based on streaming didn’t account for Sia’s wins. It expected Iggy Azalea to get three and Chet Faker to also snare Best Album. Sia responded criticism on social media for not being there in person by offering her trophies to the first four people to tweet evidence of a good deed.

AWARDS #2: FESTIVALS AT NSW TOURISM

The Tamworth Country Music Festival took gold at the NSW Tourism Awards in the Major Festivals & Events. Bluesfest took silver, and Vivid Sydney bronze. Deni Ute Muster got bronze in Festivals & Events.

CHANGES AT PETROL GROUP

INXS manager CM Murphy made changes at Murphy Petrol Group, which includes Petrol Records, Murphy Rights Management (MRM) and Murphy Music Academy. Paul Paoliello becomes International CEO / COO. Rebecca Moore is Creative and Marketing Executive. Melissa Barrett of Hummingbird PR will drive synch ops as Creative Consultant, and media campaigns for MRM. Samantha Evans, as International Development Executive, will continue to oversee the group’s international licensing activities.

MUSOS PUSHING FOR TOUGHER COPYRIGHT PENALTIES

Josh Pyke, INXS, Tina Arena, Birds of Tokyo and The Potbelleez are among 600 who submitted proposals as the Australian Government asks the public for comments on how to tackle online piracy. The musos explained how it financially hit them, devalued their work and was frustrating to find their work online without their approval, they want tougher laws against illegal downloading and for ISPs to be forced to block activity on their networks.

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LUCKY STIFFS

Monty Python’s Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life is the most popular song played at funerals in Britain, a new poll has discovered. It was conducted by Cooperative Funeralcare of 30,000 funerals it conducted. Only nine of the Top 20 were hymns or classical pieces. TV songs (Last Of The Summer Wine, Match Of The Day, Coronation Street) are getting popular along with rock hits as Robbie Williams’ Angels, Celine Dion’s The Heart Does Go On, Gerry & The Pacemakers’ You’ll Never Walk Alone, Booker T & the MG’s Soul Limbo and Westlife’s You Raise Me Up.