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www.gallinsmps.com.au 31/07/2015 3:15 pm
presents
Wednesdays
NEW: WEDNESDAY NIGHT MUSIC
Sat 22 August 5pm
THE BLACKEYED
SUSANS
The legendary Susans return for their annual winter residency at the Union, playing four majestic gigs of countrified alt-rock.
Sat 22 August 9pm
LArGE NUMBEr 12S
THE SUGARCANES Saturday 22nd August
The Largies return, playing great rock, great melodies, great rhythms and great noise.
Sun 23 August 3.30pm
IAN CoLLArD Awesome harmonica and swampy Delta blues.
Sun 23 August, 5pm
JEMMA &THE
CLIfToN HILLBILLIES Ripper alt-country act led by Jemma Rowlands
9.30pm
LIVE BAND DOUBLE SET B a r & k i t c h e n o p e n u n t i l 1 a m - 7 d ay s Globe Alley - Melbourne 3000 - (03) 9663 4041 - belleville-melbourne.com
MINI MELTDOWN PRESENTS
Song Writing Sundays SUNDAYS IN AUGUST BLUES, SOUL, COUNTRY & JAZZ
DRINKS SPECIALS ALL NIGHT
f o r m o r e i n f o a s k i n s t o r e - 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 th 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 PH 9036 1456 | 80 LYGON ST BRUNSWICK EAST | THEB-EAST.COM
with Sean McMahon, Ben Mastwyk, Cal Walker, Josh Duiker and Jason Bunn.
Tuesdays:
TrIVIA
With mysterious Mr. Drew, phone to book your table of up to 6
2 DAYS RECORDING AT SING SING | FILM CLIP BY OH YEAH WOW ALBUM ARTWORK & 500 CDS | SONG FEATURED IN A BANK OF MELBOURNE AD PUBLICIST, RADIO PLUGGER, MANAGER, BOOKING AGENT & MENTOR If you’re serious about a career in music, enter the competition that’s serious about getting you there. Submit your track by August 23rd at bankofmelbourne.com.au/melbmusicbank. CREATED by
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for details of the application process & the full terms and conditions please visit bankofmelbourne.com.au/melbmusicbank © 2015 bank of melbourne - A division of Westpac Banking Corporation ABN 33 007 457 141 AFSL and Australian credit licence 233714
BOM 0216 MMB_Full_Page_Beat_FINAL.indd 1
15/07/2015 9:26 am
JOIN THE F E D E R AT I O N G E N E R AT I O N Open Day, Sunday 30 August Ballarat & Gippsland campuses
federation.edu.au/openday 1800 333 864
CRICOS Provider No. 00103D | RTO Code 4909 FEDR0008
Glyn Kilpatrick Biomedical Science Student
IN THIS ISSUE
16
HOT TALK / FREE SHIT
20
TOURING
22
THE DRONES
24
ORRY KELLY: DRESSING HOLLYWOOD
26
ART OF THE CITY
27
SDS1 THEATRE REVIEW
28
OUT OF THE CLOSET BEAT EATS
29
BEATS
30
THE BOMBAY ROYALE TIMBERWOLF PAPA G AND THE STARCATS
32
MOONSHIFTER ALITHIA KOLLAPS
33
NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB’S 10TH ANNIVERSARY
34
TIMBERWOLF page 30
TUMBLEWEED A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
A PL ACE TO BURY STRANGERS page 34
THE BOHICAS 35
CORE/CRUNCH
36
MUSIC NEWS
40
LIVE
42
ALBUM OF THE WEEK / SINGLES / CHARTS
43
ALBUMS
44
GIG GUIDE / GIG BITS / ALL AGES
TUMBLEWEED page 34 3 NEWTON STREET, RICHMOND, VIC312 1 PHONE: (03) 9428 3600 FAX: (03) 9428 3611 INFO@BEAT.COM.AU 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
ALITHIA page 32
48
BACKSTAGE / LOCAL
50
INDUSTRIAL
THE BOHICAS page 34
ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE & EDITORIAL COORDINATORS: Tegan Louise, Thom Parry SUB EDITOR: Augustus Welby EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Michael Clark, Cassie Hedger, Lauren Gill, Gloria Brancatisano, Kelsey Berry, Thomas Brand. PUZZLE MASTER: Thom Parry MANAGING DIRECTOR, FURST MEDIA: Patrick Carr BEAT PRODUCTION MANAGER: Michael Cusack GRAPHIC DESIGNERS: Michael Cusack, Jenna Barlow, Lizzie Dynon. COVER DESIGN: Michael Cusack COVER PHOTO: Tajette O’Halloran ADVERTISING: Cara Williams (Music: Bands/Tours/Record Labels) cara@beat.com.au Keats Mulligan (Backstage/Musical Equipment) mixdown@beat.com.au Thom Parry (Hospitality/Bars) thom@beat.com.au Tegan Louise (Indie Bands/Beat Eats) tegan@beat.com.au CLASSIFIEDS: classifieds@beat.com.au GIG GUIDE SUBMISSIONS: online at beat.com.au or bands email gigguide@beat.com.au
ONLINE & SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR: Tyson Wray: tyson@beat.com.au ACCOUNTANT: accountant@furstmedia.com.au OFFICE MANAGER: Lizzie Dynon: lizzie@furstmedia.com.au ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Luke Forester: accounts@furstmedia.com.au RECEPTION: reception@furstmedia.com.au DISTRIBUTION: distribution@beat.com.au Free every Wednesday to over 2,000 places including convenience stores, newsagents, ticket outlets, shopping centres, community youth & welfare outlets, clubs, hotels, venues, record, music and video shops, boutiques, retailers, bars, restaurants, cafes, bookstores, hairdressers, recording studios, cinemas, theatres, galleries, universities and colleges. Wanna get Beat? Email distribution@beat.com.au CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: Mary Boukouvalas, Anna Kanci, Richard Sharman, Tony Proudfoot, Laura May Grogan, David Harris, Emily Day. SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR: Patrick Emery SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER: Ian Laidlaw COLUMNISTS: Emily Kelly, Peter Hodgson, Lachlan Kanoniuk, Christie Eliezer BEAT TV/WATT’S ON PRESENTER: Dan Watt
CONTRIBUTORS: Kelsey Berry, Graham Blackley, Gloria Brancatisano, Chris Bright, Avrille Bylock-Collard, Alexander Crowden, Liza Dezfouli, Jules Douglas, Alexandra Duguid, Alasdair Duncan, Jack Franklin, Emma Gawd, Chris Girdler, Joe Hansen, Chris Harms, Nick Hilton, Peter Hodgson, Lachlan Kanoniuk, Cassandra Kiely, Billy Killing, Joshua Kloke, Nick Mason, Denver Maxx, Krystal Maynard, Paul McBride, Miki Mclay, Rhys McRae, James Nicoli, Adam Norris, Jack Parsons, Leigh Salter, Sisqo Taras, Tamara Vogl, Dan Watt, Krissi Weiss, Augustus Welby, Garry Westmore, Rod Whitfield, Jen Wilson, Thomas Brand, Alex Watts, Tyson Wray, David James Young, Simone Ziada, Bronius Zumeris, Anna Whitelaw. DEADLINES Editorial copy accepted no later than 5pm Thursday before publication for club listings, arts, gig guide etc. Advertising copy accepted no later than 12pm Monday before publication. Print ready art by 2pm Monday. Deadlines are strictly adhered to. © 2015 Furst Media Pty Ltd. No part may be reproduced without the consent of the copyright holder.
heat #2
27-29 Tattersalls Lane
sunday 23rd AUGUST 4pm - 11pm
the operatives BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 14
vs
100% fat
WIN THE PRIZE THAT COULD LAUNCH YOUR MUSIC CAREER - Head to bankofmelbourne.com.au/melbmusicbank to win!
Goat
FREE $HIT HOLY HOLY
CHUNK! NO, CAPTAIN CHUNK! TO TOUR
M E R E D I T H M U S I C F E S T I VA L ANNOUNCES LINEUP
Start cracking those tinnies. The 2015 Meredith Music Festival lineup is finally here. Last year’s event was an absolute blast. Featuring plenty of nudity, the beautiful atmosphere of the Meredith Natural Amphitheatre, wind turbines, sing-alongs, hung-over couch potatoes and of course, a cracker of a lineup, this year’s event will continue the tradition of creating an experience that you’ll remember. The 2015 incarnation of Meredith will feature performances from Big Daddy Kane, Bully, Father John Misty, Floating Points, Fatback Band, GL, Goat, Harvey Sutherland, Jessica Pratt, Julia Holter, Levins, Lucy Cliche, The Peep Tempel, Master Khalil Gudaz, MC Jane Clifton, Mighty Duke and The Lords, Briggs, Moon Duo, Neon Indian, Optimo, Pearls, Power, Ratatat, Shellac, Steve Miller Band, The Thurston Moore Band, Tkay Maidza, Totally Mild, Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Meredith 2015 will take place from Friday December 11 - Sunday December 13. Hit their website for more information
J A M E S B AY ANNOUNCES AUSTRALIAN TOUR
James Bay has announced he’ll return to Australia for a national tour this summer. The singer behind hits like Let It Go and Hold Back the River will hit five capital cities this January and February, showcasing tracks from his debut album Chaos and the Calm. He’ll play Festival Hall along with his full band on Wednesday February 3. Tickets go on sale Thursday August 20 from 10am through Ticketmaster.
ANGIE ALBUM L AUNCH AT THE CURTIN
Rice is Nice alumni Angie will launch her forthcoming LP, Free Agent, at the John Curtin this September. The songwriting process for Free Agent began with a song in Paris, but it was in Brazil where the album really came together. Now, she comes back to Melbourne to launch the LP, with the support of Miss Destiny and Teuton, plus a few more special guests to be announced. Angie launches Free Agent at the John Curtin on Saturday September 12. Head to the Curtin website for booking details.
Previously playing to Melbourne audiences at Soundwave Festival back in 2013, French pop punks Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! are returning to our shores this October, taking their headline tour to fans in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Their third studio album, Get Lost, Find Yourself was released back in May to critical acclaim. Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! play in Melbourne at Max Watt’s on Saturday October 3. Grab your tickets now through Oztix.
AINSLIE WILLS ANNOUNCES NEW SINGLE AND EAST COAST TOUR
The ever charming singer/songwriter Ainslie Wills has unveiled her latest single Constellations, lifted from her forthcoming EP Oh The Gold due in September, along with an east coast tour announcement. Constellations is the third single released from the EP so far, following the success of Drive and Hawaii, and chronicles a nostalgic look back on childhood drenched with bold arrangements and lush production. To support the release of Constellations, Ainslie Wills is heading along the east coast this October, kicking things off in Melbourne on Friday October 23 at Howler. Tickets are on sale now through Moshtix.
Holy shit! Holy Holy’s Howler gig sold out so fast after announcing their When The Storms Would Come album tour the guys needed to add a second Melbourne date. Lucky us. Before those tickets fly off the shelf yet again, we nabbed a few double passes just for you guys. Thoughtful fuckers, aren’t we? Click on beat.com.au/freeshit if you want in to the show.
150 BUCKS OF BURGERS If that title doesn’t grab you by the balls, get a load of this. The nice folks at Dandenong Pavilion are giving you and three mates $150 to spend on their secret burger menu. The dream. Well, they might give it to you, but you gotta head to beat.com.au/freeshit and tell us: If you could create a burger, what would it be called and what would be in it?
SOL NATION TO RELEASE ALBUM, TOUR THE NATION
Melbourne seven-piece Sol Nation have hopped in a van and hit the road, touring the nation across August and September to promote the release of their debut album, Melting Pot. Sol Nation combine reggae, samba, funk, salsa, East Timorese folksong and African dance music influences into an unforgettable live performance with charisma, high energy and a strong global conscience. Already playing at Garma Festival in NT earlier this month, Sol Nation will make appearances in Rye, Castlemaine and Ballarat, before playing Brunswick’s Rubix Warehouse on Saturday September 12.
BENNETTS LANE TO REOPEN
HANDS LIKE HOUSES LOCK IN WORLDWIDE TOUR
Australian rock act Hands Like Houses have announced their upcoming third studio album Dissonants, due for a release this spring, and are performing a series of shows across the country before heading off to the U.S. and the UK. The band are once again teaming up with producer James Paul Wisner (Paramore, Underoath) who helped the band record their 2013 breakthrough album, Unimagine. General admission tickets have recently gone online for their Australian shows, including a set at the Northcote Social Club on Friday October 9. Head over to the band’s webpage for more details. BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 16
Like a phoenix from the ashes, Melbourne jazz institution Bennetts Lane will make its second coming after closing in June this year. With a history stretching back over 24 years, Bennetts Lane played host to numerous jazz greats and local legends. Long-time manager Megg Evans will continue to work with the club alongside owner and entrepreneur David Marriner, who acquired Bennetts in early July. Freshly announced gigs to break in the new Bennetts’ stage include performances from Sugarfoot Ramblers, Fem Belling, The Furbelows, Andrew Hagger, The Largerphones and Yvette Johansson. Bennetts Lane will open its doors once again on Thursday August 27, with a rumoured Brunswick location. Stay tuned to the Beat website for more details.
GORILLA BISCUITS RETURN FOR AUSTRALIAN TOUR
The ever influential and possibly most quintessential band of the late ‘80s New York hardcore punk scene Gorilla Biscuits are returning to Australia in 2015. This round of shows will see the band tearing up the country on a national tour, including a show at The Reverence in October. Gorilla Biscuits became highly influential in the space of just one album (1989’s Start Today) and EP (1988’s Gorilla Biscuits). With the group disbanding in 1992, Gorilla Biscuits briefly reunited in 1997 for a benefit at CBGB’s, and played another show there on in 2005 as a benefit to save the club from financial problems. Touring Australia for the first time since their national debut in 2008, Gorilla Biscuits return to Melbourne on Thursday October 1. Tickets are on sale now from the Reverence’s website.
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74 JOHNSTON ST FITZROY 9417 4155
theoldbar.com.au OPEN 4Pm - 3am mON-FRI 2Pm - 3am SaT-SuN FREE WI FI mon - Fri Til 7Pm - $6 PinTs mondays - $15 Jugs mT goaT sundays - $10 Jugs unicorn lager $5 cans every day/nigHT
Wednesday 19TH augusT
THe Bennies summer Blood WeT Pensioner sWeeT gold
8Pm $15
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8Pm $8
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band bookings: bandbookings@theoldbar.com.au
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TOURING
WHO'S ON TOUR, WHERE AND WHEN
For all the latest tour dates check out beat.com.au
INTERNATIONAL YOB Max Watt’s August 21 GINUWINE Trak Lounge Friday 21 MARK NADLER Melbourne Recital Centre August 22 THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN Prince Bandroom August 28 A SKYLIT DRIVE The Corner Hotel August 28 HELLYEAH Corner Hotel August 29 MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK 170 Russell August 30 A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS The Corner Hotel September 4 MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER Palais Theatre September 4 SELF DEFENSE FAMILY Viva Hate September 7 JOSHUA RADIN Corner Hotel September 9 SCOTT BRADLEE’S POST MODERN JUKEBOX The Forum September 9 THE STORY SO FAR Max Watts September 11 LOWER CLASS BRATS Bendigo Hotel September 12 ANGIE The Curtin September 12 DEATH DEALER The Hi-Fi September 13 LUNA Northcote Social Club September 17 CIRCA SURVIVE 170 Russell September 20, September 21 (AA) SLEEPING WITH SIRENS 170 Russell September 22 BILAL Prince Bandroom September 24 CANCER BATS The Bendigo Hotel September 24 THE GARDEN The John Curtin Hotel September 24 JOAN BAEZ Arts Centre Hammer Hall September 24 BIG K.R.I.T Max Watt’s September 24 STORMZY 524 Flinders September 25 SEBASTIAN BACH The Forum September 25 DEVIN THE DUDE Laundry Bar September 25 LISTEN OUT FESTIVAL Catani Gardens September 26 MAROON 5 Rod Laver Arena September 26 PENNYWISE 170 Russell September 28 BAHAMAS Howler September 30 WHITE FANG The Curtin October 1 GORILLA BISCUITS The Reverence Hotel October 1 REEL BIG FISH + LESS THAN JAKE Prince Bandroom October 1 AS IT IS The Evelyn Hotel October 1 (AA), October 2 CHUNK! NO, CAPTAIN CHUNK! Max Watt’s October 3 JJ GREY & MOFRO Northcote Social Club October 7 SILENT KNIGHT The Bendigo October 8 KISS Rod Laver Arena October 8, October 10 JAAKKO EINO KALEVI National Gallery of Victoria October 9 SICK OF IT ALL Corner Hotel October 9 KIASMOS Foxtel Festival Hub, Melbourne Festival October 9 CLINT MANSELL Melbourne Recital Centre October 10, 11 BABYLON CIRCUS Foxtel Festival Hub, Melbourne Festival October 10 HAMMERFALL 170 Russell October 13 LIFEHOUSE The Forum October 15 HELLOWEEN Metro Theatre October 16 COLM MAC CON IOMAIRE Foxtel Festival Hub, Melbourne Festival October 16, 17 BRANDT BRAUER FRICK Foxtel Festival Hub, Melbourne Festival October 17 OUT ON THE WEEKEND Seaworks, Williamstown October 17 SNOT Corner Hotel October 17 BIGBANG Rod Laver Arena October 21 THE EXPERIMENT Merlyn Theatre October 21-24 JAI WOLF Howler October 22 ROBBIE WILLIAMS Rod Laver Arena October 22 – 24 AINSLIE WILLS Howler October 23 ELDER AND EARTHLESS The Corner October 23 THOUSAND FOOT KRUTCH Max Watt’s October 23 THE RIPTIDE MOVEMENT Max Watt’s October 24 THE FIELD Foxtel Festival Hub, Melbourne Festival October 23 THE FALL Foxtel Festival Hub, Melbourne Festival October 23 – 25 DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT 170 Russell October 25 SOULFEST Sidney Myer Music Bowl October 25 DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT 170 Russell October 25, 26 NEIL DIAMOND Rod Laver Arena October 27 CANNED HEAT Corner Hotel October 29 ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK Palais Theatre October 29 10CC The Palms at Crown October 30 HOZIER Palais Theatre October 30 AT THE GATES Friday October 30 PULLED APART BY HORSES Ding Dong Lounge October 30, 31 ANATHEMA Corner Hotel October 31 AUDRA MCDONALD Hamer Hall October 31 DAY OF THE DEAD TBA October 31 HIGHLANDS FESTIVAL Yea October 31 – November 2 DAVID GUETTA Hisense Arena November 2 FLEETWOOD MAC Rod Laver Arena November 2, 4, Mt Dundeed Estate November 7 THE RUBBERBANDITS Max Watt’s November 6 NAUGHTY BY NATURE Trak Lounge November 6 THE DARKNESS Forum Theatre November 7 BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 20
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS Forum Theatre November 7 FLORENCE + THE MACHINE Sidney Myer Music Bowl November 10, 11 AUSTRALASIAN WORLD MUSIC EXPO Various Venues November 12 – 15 MUMFORD & SONS Sidney Myer Music Bowl November 13 POKÉMON SYMPHONIC EVOLUTIONS Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre November 13 HAUSCHKA Melbourne Recital Centre November 17 DEF LEPPARD Rod Laver Arena November 18 THE BEACH BOYS Palais Theatre November 18 LIVE The Forum November 19 HANK MARVIN MEMO Music Hall November 21, 22 NILE Corner Hotel November 21 UB40 The Forum November 24 CALIFORNIA HONEYDROPS Caravan Music Club November 25, Northcote Social Club November 26 EARTHCORE Pyalong, Victoria November 26 – 30 MARLON WILLIAMS Prince Bandroom November 27 RON SEXSMITH MEMO Music Hall November 27, Northcote Social Club November 28 RISE AGAINST Margaret Court Arena December 2 CHRIS CORNELL The Palais December 4 THE CORONAS Corner Hotel December 4 ED SHEERAN AAMI Park December 5 STEREOSONIC Melbourne Showgrounds December 5 MERCURY REV Max Watt’s December 8 SAM SMITH Rod Laver Arena December 8 HALESTORM 170 Russell December 8 YELAWOLF Max Watt’s December 9 THE MISFITS Max Watt’s December 11 TAYLOR SWIFT AAMI Park December 11 MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre December 11-13 ELTON JOHN Rod Laver Arena December 11, Mt Duneed Estate December 12 FALLS FESTIVAL Lorne December 28 – January 1 NIGHTWISH The Forum Monday January 11 THE 1975 Festival Hall January 20 SOUNDWAVE 2016 TBA January 26 JAMES BAY Festival Hall February 3 MADONNA Rod Laver Arena March 12, 13 JOSH GROBAN Palais Theatre April 25
NATIONAL WAY OF THE EAGLE Howler August 20 DRUNK MUMS Ding Dong Lounge August 21 DIZZ1 Boney August 21 MOSES GUNN Shebeen August 21 TUMBLEWEED Corner Hotel August 21 LITTLE NOBODY My Aeon August 21 STORM THE SKY The Gasometer August 21, 22 (AA) MIAMI HORROR 170 Russell August 21 MUSTERED COURAGE Northcote Social Club August 21 SAFIA Corner Hotel August 22 BORN LION Bendigo Hotel August 22 HURST The Penny Black August 22 TIMBERWOLF Northcote Social Club August 22 OH MERCY Howler August 22 JACK CARTY & JORDAN MILLAR Grace Darling August 22 UPSKIRTS Shebeen Bandroom August 22 PEEL SLOWLY & SEE: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND TRIBUTE The Flying Saucer Club August 22 GLOW WINTER ARTS FESTIVAL Stonnington August 23 MUSICIANS FOR HEARING The Gasometer Hotel August 23 GANG OF YOUTHS The Corner Hotel August 26 LYALL MALONEY Shebeen Bandroom August 27 HELLIONS Arrow August 26 (AA), Ding Dong Lounge August 27 SHADOW ELECTRIC PRESENTS VISIONS Estonian House August 28-30 THE DEMON PARADE Yah Yah’s August 28 GRENADIERS Ding Dong Lounge August 28 MUSCLES Shebeen Bandroom August 28 NORTHEAST PARTY HOUSE 170 Russell August 28 MEGAN WASHINGTON Northcote Social Club August 28 NICO GHOST Can’t Say August 28 TEETH & TONGUE Estonian House Brunswick August 28 RAT & CO Estonian House Brunswick August 29 JUICE RAP NEWS Estonian House Brunswick August 30 LOWTIDE Northcote Social Club August 29 ALITHIA + CHAOS DIVINE The Evelyn Hotel August 29 ANIMAUX The Gasometer Hotel August 29 THE BOMBAY ROYALE Estonian House Brunswick August 30 TIM WHEATLEY Grace Darling August 30 SETH SENTRY The Forum September 4 REGURGITATOR The Prince Bandroom September 4 METHYL ETHEL Shebeen September 4 POISON CITY WEEKENDER 170 Russell, Public Bar September 4, Corner Hotel, The Old Bar September 5, Reverence Hotel, Corner Hotel September 6 HOLY HOLY Howler September 5
PROUDLY PRESENTS
AUG 28
JAN 11
SHADOW ELECTRIC PRESENTS VISIONS - RAT & CO
Estonian House, Brunswick
NIGHTWISH
The Forum
GATHERER/GUARDS OF MAY Toff In Town September 5 THE DRONES The Forum September 5 SHIR MADNESS MELBOURNE Classic Cinema, Gordon St, Kadimah Hall September 6 THE WHITLAMS The Corner September 10, 11 URBAN SPREAD 5 Plaza Tavern September 10, Chelsea Heights Hotel September 11, The Village Green September 12 THE CACTUS CHANNEL Shebeen Bandroom September 11 ACOUSTICANA MEMO Music Hall September 11 PERCH CREEK Howler September 12 THE JUNGLE GIANTS The Corner September 12 SOL NATION Rubix Warehouse September 12 HELEN RYDER The Toff In Town September 13 THIRSTY MERC Caravan Club September 14, MEMO Music Hall September 16 COSMIC PSYCHOS 170 Russell September 18 TIJUANA CARTEL Max Watt’s September 18 RAE HOWELL MEMO Music Hall September 18 DUSTIN TEBBUTT The Corner September 18 THE SNOWDROPPERS Northcote Social Club September 19 SLUM SOCIABLE Shebeen September 19 THE SMITH STREET BAND The Corner September 19, 20 BIG STRONG BRUTE The Evelyn Hotel September 20 A STATE OF GRACE: THE MUSIC OF TIM AND JEFF BUCKLEY Melbourne Recital Centre September 23, 29 LITTLE MAY The Corner September 24 HAVE/HOLD Public Bar September 26 PARKWAY DRIVE Festival Hall September 26 JESS RIBEIRO Northcote Social Club September 26 MEG MAC The Corner September 27 DOGAPALOOZA Burnley Park, Richmond September 27 THE STIFFYS The Tote October 1 LAST DINOSAURS The Corner October 1 MAT MCHUGH The Corner October 2 THE MEANIES The Tote October 2 THE PEEP TEMPLE + BATPISS Yah Yah’s October 2, Cherry Bar October 3 CITY CALM DOWN Howler October 3 TKAY MAIDZA Wrangler Studios (U18), Corner Hotel October 3 BODYJAR Northcote Social Club October 3 BEN LEE The Corner October 7 THE BEARDS The Corner October 8 HANDS LIKE HOUSES Northcote Social Club October 9 ÁINE TYRRELL Shadow Electric October 9 PORT FAIRY SPRING MUSIC FESTIVAL Port Fairy October 9 - 11 THE RUBENS The Forum October 9 KISSCHASY The Corner October 10 VALLIS ALPS Northcote Social Club October 10 KIRIN J CALLINAN Foxtel Festival Hub, Melbourne Festival October 11 2015 SEED FUNDRAISER CONCERT Athenaeum Theatre October 12 THE BASICS Foxtel Festival Hub, Melbourne Festival October 13, 14 THE BOMBAY ROYALE Foxtel Festival Hub, Melbourne Festival October 15 GRAND DIVISIONS Arts Centre October 15 – 17 PETE MURRAY Trak Lounge Bar October 16 THY ART IS MURDER The Corner October 16 LIOR The Athenaeum Theatre October 16
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OCT 24
DRUNK MUMS
Howler
FLIGHT FACILITIES & THE MSO Sidney Myer Music Bowl October 17 KATIE NOONAN’S VANGUARD Foxtel Festival Hub, Melbourne Festival October 17, 18 LAURA MARLING Hamer Hall October 19 GEORGE MAPLE Foxtel Festival Hub, Melbourne Festival October 20 RHYE Foxtel Festival Hub, Melbourne Festival October 21, 22 2015 CARLTON DRY INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARDS Meat Market North Melbourne October 22 DAREBIN MUSIC FEAST Various Venues October 23 – November 1 THE PAPER KITES 170 Russell October 23 RÜFÜS The Forum October 23 CUT COPY DJS Foxtel Festival Hub, Melbourne Festival October 24 BAD//DREEMS Northcote Social Club October 24 THE WAIFS Palais Theatre October 24 DRUNK MUMS Howler October 24 SWAGGER MUSIC FESTIVAL Wandiligong October 24 – 25 LOVE STREET MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL Howler October 25 PONY FACE Darebin Arts & Entertainment Centre October 28 CHET FAKER Sidney Myer Music Bowl October 30 MY FRIEND THE CHOCOLATE CAKE Melbourne Recital Centre October 31 JAMES REYNE The Corner November 2 TUKA The Corner November 6 NORTHLANE 170 Russell November 6, 7 (U18) CW STONEKING Thornbury Theatre November 6, Corner Hotel November 7 MSO BACK TO THE FUTURE LIVE The Plenary November 6, 7 COLD CHISEL Hanging Rock Reserve November 21 BETWEEN THE HILLS FESTIVAL Riverview, Tatong, November 20-22 BRITISH INDIA The Forum November 27 ROBERT FORSTER Thornbury Theatre November 27 PARADISE MUSIC FESTIVAL Lake Mountain Alpine Resort, November 27-29 HERMITUDE Festival Hall November 28 QUEENSCLIFF MUSIC FESTIVAL Queenscliff November 27 - 29 AC/DC Etihad Stadium December 6 PAUL KELLY PRESENTS THE MERRI SOUL SESSIONS A Day On The Green December 6 LUCINDA WILLIAMS A Day On The Green December 7 XMAS EVEN The Evelyn Hotel December 19 – 20 NYE ON THE HILL December 31 – January 1 MSO PRESENT HITCHCOCK AND HERRMANN Hamer Hall February 5, 6 XMAS EVEN The Evelyn Hotel December 19 – 20 NYE ON THE HILL December 31 – January 1 COURTNEY BARNETT Palais Theatre January 22 MSO PRESENT HITCHCOCK AND HERRMANN Hamer Hall February 5, 6
IRON MAIDEN, PAVEMENT, JOSS STONE = NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS
THE DRONES FLOAt ing On A DEc ADE L At ER By Augustus Welby
In April this year, The Drones’ seminal second LP, Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By, celebrated its tenth birthday. We’re so aware of how old records are because of the year that’s printed on the back cover. But aside from the date of recording, age doesn’t seem like a valid concept to apply to songs. There’s been a lot of significant global change since 2005, and The Drones have subsequently created a hefty amount of music. However, for frontman Gareth Liddiard, performing songs from that album live feels just as vital as it did ten years ago.
“They were designed to explode,” Liddard says. “They’re meant to get ya. There’s an anarchic quality ± all the nuts and bolts are shaking loose and we’re picking up speed as we’re going downhill. But then it’s also it’s depressing, and it’s wilfully depressing and it’s sort of nihilistic. Bringing the shit vibes, the depressing vibes to a bunch of Saturday nighters, it’s kind of funny. It’s shoving people’s nose in it and it’s funny.” The Drones will celebrate the ten year anniversary with a national retrospective tour, starting this weekend. Though, the shows won’t exclusively be a Wait Long By The River re-tread. Back in May, the band debuted one new song at the Sydney Opera House, and Liddiard promises more new material at the upcoming Victorian shows. “[The new album] is all finished. It’s mastered and it’s ready to go,” he says. “We’re just trying to shop it overseas ± trying to find someone either dumb enough or smart enough to put it out. It might come out at the end of the year or the beginning of next year, just depending on what the Northern Hemisphere does about it.” Over the last decade, the lineup of The Drones has undergone a series of alterations. Not long after Wait Long By The River, drummer Chris Strybosch and guitarist Rui Pereira were replaced by Mike Noga and Dan Luscombe, respectively; ahead of 2013’s I See Seaweed, long time contributor, keyboardist Steve Hesketh acquired full member status; and in the lead up to the forthcoming LP, Strybosch re-joined. Adapting to personnel changes is always challenging, but Liddiard’s never feared the band would stop feeling like The Drones. “With Chris coming back in the band, he was already a Drone, so yeah. Otherwise, everybody else… their contributions are huge, but it’s when you take me out of the picture, it wouldn’t sound like that anymore. So as long as I’m doing it, it’s going to sound that way. “We’ve been around for 15 years and that’s been useful to a degree that those changes have come and gone. The climate overall is the same, but the internal weather has changed and that’s cool because each album is different, so it’s made it interesting. Otherwise we would be like AC/DC or the Ramones, where it’s just the same shit over and over.” It’s hard to deny that Liddiard’s presence is what secures the band’s identity. In light of this, there’s a lot riding on his application to songwriting. But, although the band’s sitting on the cusp of album number seven ± and he’s also responsible for the 2010 solo LP Strange Tourist ± songwriting hasn’t become a straightforward endeavour. “What you’re doing is… there’s nothing there,” he says. “There’s silence and a blank page and you’ve got to change that, and it’s a big job. It’s like the big bang at the start of the universe: how the fuck do you make that happen, and what makes it happen? But after it’s happened you’ve suddenly got all the material you need BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 22
to finish it off.” “I’m forever going, ‘Fuck. This is shit.’ But you’ve just got to keep doing it. Your self-esteem gets a hammering, because everything starts out as a piece of crap and you’ve desperately got to fix that. It’s horrible. Being a musician is a problem-solving thing always, because basically the music you’re generating is shit and you’ve got to solve that problem. Your ego takes a beating, because you are basing your sense of self on it. And if you’re not, you’re probably not that good at it.” The fact that writing songs is so closely entwined with his sense of self is a major factor that drives Liddiard to keep working hard. “You’re putting yourself on the line and it’s the way you feel. You’re putting your personality out there ± a little clone of yourself almost ± s o you do care that it’s received reasonably well. That is what will make it good too, because if the stakes were
BEING A MUSICIAN IS A PROBlEM-SOlvING THING, BECAUSE BASICAlly THE MUSIC yOU’RE GENERATING IS SHIT AND yOU’vE GOT TO SOlvE THAT PROBlEM. yOUR EGO TAkES A BEATING, BECAUSE yOU ARE BASING yOUR SENSE Of SElf ON IT. AND If yOU’RE NOT, yOU’RE PROBABly NOT THAT GOOD AT IT.” lower ± if it was just about money or getting laid ± it wouldn’t push you that hard. But when your sense of self is at stake you tend to work pretty hard.” Since the very beginning, Liddiard’s go-to songwriting accomplice has been the guitar. To be expected, his relationship with the instrument is fairly volatile. “Certain aspects of it I come to hate as years go on. If you just get an open E-chord and go [makes strumming sound], it just fucking annoys me, because it’s just so hackneyed, it’s so clichéd, it’s been done to death. And fair enough, that’s what happens. Everyone has their day ± Stravinsky had his day, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis…” Indeed, the downfall of the ‘guitar band era’ has been widely anticipated for a number of years. This prophecy could be a major concern for a songwriter that relies so heavily on guitars. However, Liddiard understands you’ve got to keep pushing the boundaries and finding new ways to manipulate the instrument. “You can always find something else to do with a guitar,” he says. “With our new album, it’s covered in guitars but you’d never know. You’d be like, ‘Wow is
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that a guitar? That’s amazing.’ It’s pretty out there. Dan was feeling the same, like ‘Guitars are just old hat.’ So we had to reinvent them, and it’s doable.” Meanwhile, Liddiard’s not oblivious to the innumerable contemporary guitar wielders who’re doing very little to advance the form. “Imagine walking into a fucking taxidermist shop and thinking you’re in the jungle. That’s kind of what bands these days are like. They don’t realise that once upon a time someone like Jimi Hendrix or Mark E. Smith± people were actually making this shit up. Say the ‘80s is back and everyone loves the ‘80s, well if you like Joy Division and PiL and all that shit, the thing to do is not copy them, because they weren’t copying anybody. If you copy them you couldn’t be further away from what they are.” These might sound like the words of a jaded old rocker, lamenting the extinction of truly interesting artistic innovators. But rest assured, Liddiard’s not stuck in a nostalgic bubble. “There’s cool bands, like Deerhoof,” he says. “There’s good electronic shit. Hip hop is just off the hook. That’s in a golden period. Everyone says it was the Public Enemy years, but it’s still fucking peaking. It’s amazing. There’s stuff like Madvillain and Sensational. Even really popular shit, like that guy that sounds weirdly like James Brown [Kendrick Lamar] ± that’s amazing and that’s taking so much from the past. It’s a huge James Brown rip off, but he’s doing the right thing. He gets what’s going on.” Liddiard is evidently a fierce opponent of lazy reprisal ± an indulgence that’s symptomatic of complacency ± which brings us back to the upcoming retrospective tour. Did he have any scruples it’d seem like a nostalgic victory lap? “The Wait Long thing was serendipity. We got all the licenses back from all of our records ± coincidentally all at once in the last year, from all different labels ± so we had to reissue everything. Wait Long had never come out on vinyl, so it was obvious that we should do that. Then Chris came back into the band and he plays on Wait Long, so that made sense. Then the tour that’s booked was going to be our new album tour, but we’re still shopping it overseas, so we thought ‘Let’s do this.’ “It’s going to be really fresh. Because we have been sitting around in a recording studio scratching our heads with all sorts of weird gear, it’s actually really nice to plug some guitars into some amps and just go ‘boing’. When we started rehearsing for that Sydney Opera House thing it was like ‘Thank fuck. This is actually really fun’.”
THE DRONES celebrate ten years of Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By on Saturday September 5 at The Forum Melbourne and Sunday September 6 at Theatre Royal, Castlemaine.
This Week:
Melbourne Writers Festival are celebrating their three decade milestone in a huge way, with their biggest program ever. The first of 531 events features best-selling novelist Louis de Bernieres (Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Red Dog). On the eve of his latest novel, The Dust That Falls From Dreams, he will retrace his journey as a writer. He will be followed by Rob Thomas, the creator of TV cult classics Veronica Mars and Party Down. British novelist and journalist Will Self will have closing night address honours. He will reflect on the love/ hate relationship he has built over 30 years with Australia and the repression and denial he sees at its heart. Other program highlights include activist Naomi Klein leading one of a series of discussions about climate change and the war capitalism is waging on our planet, while Nobel Prize winner Prof Brian Schmidt and astrophysicist Katie Mack present a multimedia Guide To The Universe. Lifestyle leaders Leo Babauta (Zen Habits) and Sarah Wilson (I Quit Sugar) team up to share visions for what a good life looks like in Health & Happiness Dot Com and New Yorks hottest and hippest literary ticket The Moth Mainstage comes to Melbourne, as storytellers weave stories around the theme of ‘between worlds’ in this live theatrical production. Melbourne Writers Festival will take place around the city from Thursday August 20 until Sunday August 30. Melbourne Theatre Company will present Conor McPherson’s award-winning play The Weir. Led by MTC Associate Artistic Director Sam Strong, celebrated actors Nadine Garner, Greg Stone, Ian Meadows, Robert Menzies and Peter Kowitz present this modern classic that has mesmerised audiences from the West End to Broadway and back again, and is now on stage in Melbourne for the first time. The Weir takes audiences to a small rural pub in the west of Ireland, the old regulars and their host fall into swapping ghost stories, the sort of local legends and anecdotes that over the years get stretched in the telling. It’s not their usual entertainment for a week night. They’re just showing off, as fellas do, throwing around a little blarney for the benefit of an attractive stranger in their midst. And Valerie, who has just moved from Dublin into town seems to be enjoying the stories. What’s the harm in it? Who could know how deeply these stories strike home and that the most moving story is waiting to be told? The Weir will come to Arts Centre Melbourne from Thursday August 20 until Saturday September 26. Malthouse will be bringing Sophocles’ Greek tragedy back to contemporary stages with their production Antigone. The reimagining, written by scholar and artist Jane Montgomery Griffiths and directed by Adena Jacobs, paints the portrait of a woman denied her right to mourn. Faced with the prospect of unresolved grief, Antigone rebels and incurs the wrath of her powerful elders. Her fate is sealed: fall in line or be outcast forever. Antigone will run at Malthouse Theatre from Friday August 21 until Sunday September 13.
pick of the week
Soccer becomes theatre in this live performance by creator, performer and former soccer player Ahilan Ratnamohan. SDS1 is the third football related performance piece created by Ratnamohan. After a career as a professional soccer player, Ratnamohan now has performed throughout Australia, South Africa and Europe, creating physical performance inspired by sport. SDS1 is a solo dance-inspired work based on the surreal, visceral yet poetic experience of a football match. In addition to SDS1, Ratnamohan will present several workshops for soccer players within the North Melbourne community. SDS1 will be performed from Wednesday August 19 to Saturday August 22 at Arts House.
BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 24
With Tyson Wray. Got thoughts, news, gossip, complaints or cat photos? Email tyson@beat.com.au or send by carrier pigeon before Friday 12pm. Gypsy
Les Girls
Some Like It Hot
Orry-Kelly: Dressing Hollywood By Liza Dezfouli More Australians should know who Orry-Kelly was and thanks to Dressing Hollywood, an exhibition of his film costumes and memorabilia at ACMI, and a documentary, The Women He’s Undressed by Gillian Armstrong, they soon will. In the golden age of Hollywood in the ‘30s and ‘40s, a boy from small-town NSW who went by the name of Orry-Kelly became one of the world’s most successful costume designers. Orry-Kelly was also an openly gay man and the lover of screen legend Carey Grant whose homosexuality was then a closely guarded secret, as was the norm. Beat chats to ACMI curator Ulanda Blair about what surely must be her dream job. “It is really fun, I must say,” she says. “If nothing else, it’s a really different way of curating. It’s like being a detective, putting together an exhibition about someone who’s not alive.” (OrryKelly died in 1964). “We’re piecing together his life with objects that illustrate his history. He was so prolific and successful but there is so little known about him and very little previous research in Australia.” Given that there is only one remaining family member, the process of tracking Orry- Kelly’s life hasn’t been easy, Blair reckons. “Janet Fowler unwittingly became the guardian of Orry-Kelly’s memoir,” she explains. “When her mother, who was Orry’s niece, died, she said to Janet ‘please don’t let this manuscript out of your sight.’ The manuscript was in a pillowcase and remained in a cupboard until Gillian Armstrong was making her film. A friend heard Gillian interviewed on Radio National and mentioned it to Janet who didn’t know where she had squirreled his memoir.” The publication of said memoir by Random House fits nicely with the exhibition (supported by the United States Consulate General Melbourne) and the release of Armstrong’s documentary which will be screened at ACMI to complement the exhibition. Orry George Kelly came from the small NSW coastal
town of Kiama, moved to Sydney then New York and went on to design costumes for a massive 285 films, three of which won him Oscars ± a record unbroken until Catherine Martin overtook him in 2014. “This is the first time his Oscars have been exhibited,” notes Blair. Orry-Kelly won Academy Awards for An American in Paris (1951), Les Girls (1957) and Some Like it Hot (1959). He designed gowns for such famous movies as 42nd Street (1933), Jezebel (1938), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), Auntie Mame (1958), Gypsy (1962), amongst many others. He dressed Ginger Rogers, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Errol Flynn, Katharine Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, to mention just a few of the legendary names he was associated with. “Costume exhibitions are really tricky things in terms of conservation,” says Blair. “The costumes are fragile and expensive to conserve ± we are working with a textiles conservator and with someone who is dressing the mannequins. The exhibition is a broad overlook showing Orry’s versatility and diversity, and we are being sensitive to his aesthetic and his fabulous use of colour.” The exhibition is designed to reference the different styles and influences during the years Orry-Kelly worked in Hollywood and features five different segments, as Blair
explains: “The first section is autobiographical; it traces his journey from Kiama to Sydney where he worked in a bank. It’s more of a traditional ‘museological’ type of display in duck egg blue and gray, with black and white photos of Kiama and paintings of Sydney in the 1920s. Orry-Kelly was determined to be an actor and started hanging out with the Sydney underworld, with pimps and prostitutes and pickpockets, and got in trouble. So he took that leap and got on a boat and ended up in Hollywood where he became both a set designer and costume designer.” “We have an art deco area, we have a sparkly staircase from that golden age of Hollywood, faux columns, all the tropes from films of that era,” notes Blair. “There’s the Bette Davis segment, more of an intimate moment with a beautiful costume and a chandelier. They had a long collaboration and did over 40 films together. Bette Davis relied on him for her amazing character transformations; they were two fiery passionate personalities but they had a lot of mutual respect. The gowns, the staircase, it’s a beautiful scene like a painting. Orry spent 30 years in Hollywood. His aesthetic and sense of fashion changed quite a bit in that time and we reference that, we have bits and pieces from each period. The show stopper gown is The Mascara Dress worn by Betty Grable, a cream crepe strapless dress hand painted and hand sequinned with eyeballs. That dress is playful, dramatic and fun. Hand-painting on fabric was one of Orry’s signatures as a designer, even before he became a costume designer he painted on neckties and silk shawls, that was an extra skill that he refined. His costumes are so diverse, he was such a versatile designer. We have ten original costumes including the dresses worn by Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot. There’s an overlap between fashion and costume design ± Warner Brothers put out a line of clothing designed by him, and they promoted him as someone who could provide fashion advice.” Blair has even been able to unearth some old sewing patterns from that very range. Blair says she’s had a wonderful time seeing the old films again. “I haven’t been able to go to LA so I’ve been living that part of it vicariously.” Orry-Kelly: Dressing Hollywood is a free exhibition at ACMI which is open now until Sunday January 17.
G i V e AwAY RUSSELL BRAND
One of the biggest comedians in the world will return to Australian shores later this year. Having first shot to fame when he was seen in the Judd Apatow produced comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall, over the course of his career Brand has starred in Arthur, Get Him To The Greek and Rock Of Ages, written many books
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including The New York Times best-seller My Booky Wook: A Memoir of Sex, and recently posted the 300th episode of his YouTube web series called The Trews. He’ll hit Rod Laver Arena on Saturday October 17. We have some double passes to give away. Head to beat.com.au to win.
tHE COMIC StRIP
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davId SEdaRIS
Coming Up Confusion For Three
Wednesday August 26 - Sunday August 30 Arts House
20:21
Thursday August 27 - Saturday September 5 Arts Centre Melbourne, State Theatre
Bad Jews
Thursday August 27 - Sunday September 13 Alex Theatre
Detroit
Friday August 28 - Sunday September 26 Red Stitch Actors Theatre
Betrayal
Saturday August 29 - Saturday September 19 Southbank Theatre, The Sumner
All Ears
Thursday September 3 - Sunday September 6 Arts House
Dance of the Bee
Friday September 11 - Sunday September 13 Arts House
Melbourne Fringe Festival
Wednesday September 16 - Sunday October 4 Various Venues
Melbourne Festival
Thursday October 8 - Sunday October 25 Various Venues
MSO: Back To The Future Live In Concert Friday November 6 - Saturday November 7 The Plenary
The Sleeping Beauty The world’s most extravagant ballet, The Sleeping Beauty, will reawaken when it make its world premiere in Melbourne next month. Re-imagined by The Australian Ballet’s Artistic Director David McAllister, the production will stay true to the spirit of the traditional Beauty while adding a modern twist. Set amongst a royal palace, fairytale gardens and a masked ball, the retelling will also feature lavish costumes and Marius Petipa’s signature choreography. See it for yourself from Tuesday September 15 to Saturday September 26 at Arts Centre Melbourne, State Theatre.
Acland Street Projection Festival
Acland Street Projection Festival have announced their inaugural program, aiming to highlight the architecture and atmosphere of this iconic St Kilda street across a nine day event this September. Open from dusk until midnight each day, art will be screened onto buildings, laneways and landscapes in and around the Acland Street precinct. Acland Street Projection Festival will feature established local and national projection artists, as well as artists from diverse practices, including Zoe Ali, Christos Tsolkias, Ash Keating, Ben McKeown, Dave Jones and A.K. Morgan. There will also be a mobile friendly website, designed for smart phones, to help navigate the festival. Acland Street Projection Festival will take place from Friday September 11 until Sunday September 20.
Environmental Film Festival
The Environmental Film Festival has unveiled the program for its 2015 incarnation. For the first time ever, the festival will go expand to the national stage, with events also taking place in Canberra and Hobart. The Melbourne edition will launch on Thursday September 3 with the world premiere of Black Hole, a film about the Australian coal mining industry, along with a discussion with the filmmaker followed by an after-party with live music, drinks and canapes. Other program highlights include a screening of Good Things Await, a film examining biodynamic farming, complete expert panellists, local food appreciators and best of all, tastings of biodynamic food. The festival will keep rolling with a screening of immersive film Sensory Environments at Loop Bar and will close out with Landfill Harmonic, featuring a special address from Greens MP Adam Bandt, a surprise performance, festival award announcements and a closing night party. The 2015 Environmental Film Festival will run from Thursday September 3 to Thursday September 10.
ASRC Life Drawing Fundraiser
Sharpen those pencils, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre is hosting an all day life drawing event later this month. Hosted by life model Megan Crowley and teacher/artist Erika Gofton, the event will bring together 12 models and teachers for a day for a day of learning and drawing for every skill level. Best of all, all money raised will go directly to the ASRC. Along with a keen eye, attendees are asked to bring items to donate to The Welcome West Wagon for their winter hampers. Local businesses will also get involved with the donations, providing free morning tea and refreshments throughout the day. The ASRC is a communityled, not-for-profit organisation that provides aid, legal and health services to people seeking asylum in Australia. Help ‘em out on Saturday August 29 at The Art Room at the Cotton Mills in Footscray. There are three sessions throughout the day, so book n now at the-artroom.com.au.
Muppets, Music and Magic: Jim Henson’s Legacy Next month ACMI will host Muppets, Music and Magic: Jim Henson’s Legacy to commemorate the 25th year since Henson’s passing. The program charts a course through Henson’s wonderful experimental films, TV commercials, animations and, of course, his work on probably the most famous and influential of all television programs - Sesame Street. These brandnew package of works come from deep within the Henson Foundation’s vaults. It all also feature guest speaker Martin Baker, who worked with Henson for over two decades. ACMI will host Muppets, Music and Magic: Jim Henson’s Legacy from Monday September 21 - Sunday October 11. CHECK OUT ALL THE LATEST NEWS, REVIEWS AND FREE SHIT AT BEAT.COM.AU
Comedian and bestselling author David Sedaris has announced his third tour to Oz in January 2016. The quick-witted American will be reading from a selection of new and unpublished diary entries and essays in what will be a rare and entertaining experience from the satirist known for such books as Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Holidays On Ice and his most recent effort Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls. With his trademark sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, Sedaris has garnered a reputation for cutting through cultural euphemisms and political correctness in satirical ways, and his social commentary regularly features in The New Yorker and on the likes of BBC and ABC radio. Catch him at Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall on Thursday January 21 or Friday January 22.
tIM & ERIC Eric Wareheim and Tim Heidecker will return to Australian shores later this year. Masters of the twisted and peculiar, the duo first rose to fame with the animated series Tom Goes to the Mayor. Since then, they have gone on to unleash five seasons of the deeply and profoundly odd television sketch comedy series’ for Adult Swim, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Most recently they released their first book, Tim & Eric’s Zone Theory: 7 Easy Steps to Achieve a Perfect Life. Catch them at Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall on Wednesday December 16.
tHuRSday COMEdy Dave O’Neil (Spicks and Specks, Hughesy, Kate and Dave) headlines at the European Bier Cafe this Thursday. Plus Tony Martin (The Late Show, Martin/Molloy, Get This!) is dropping in for a spot. What a combo. Plus there’s a great interstate support lineup in the shape of Damien Power, Michael Workman and Fabien Clark. Get down early, check out the meals and drink specials, and get a good seat. It’s all happening this Thursday August 20 at 8.30pm, 120 Exhibition Street (upstairs), CBD, all for only $13.
COMEdy at tHE WILdE Tuesdays at The Wilde some of Melbourne’s best young comedians join with ‘sign up on the night’ open mic acts for one of the loosest nights in town. 2015 Barry award nominee Damien Power joins Kate Dehnert, Timothy Clark and more this week for another big, fun night of comedy. It’s this Tuesday August 25 at 153 Gertrude St, Fitzroy, at 8pm. And, it’s totally free.
COMEdy at SPLEEN Monday comedy has been taken care of in the city by Comedy At Spleen for over seven years now. And there’s a reason why it’s full every week: great lineups. This week is no different. There’s Ben Lomas, Oliver Clark, Steele Saunders, Demi Lardner, Miles Milson, Liam Ryan, Nat Harris and heaps more. It’s this Monday August 24, at 41 Bourke Street, CBD, at 8.30pm. It’s free to get in, but they appreciate a good gold coin donation at the door.
Miss Burlesque
Now in its sixth year, Miss Burlesque will see 12 of the city’s best burlesque performers duke it out for a chance at the state title. Miss Burlesque is the first competition in Australia to combine all elements of burlesque performance and personality to compete for a major prize and ultimately, an international title. Each competitor will participate in a gown parade followed by three routines, demonstrating a knowledge of classic, modern and original burlesque. The night will be judged by six industry professionals as well as by gauging audience involvement. As an added bonus, the semi-finals will also play host to the state finals of Mr. Boylesque, with the winner going straight through to the national championships in Darwin. The semi-final goes down at Howler on Sunday August 30. BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 26
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SDS1
By Liza Dezfouli
Soccer is soccer and dance is dance, right? Not now, not since performer Ahilan Ratnamohan has been creating work for theatre which fuses the two. After graduating from Film Studies at the University of Technology Sydney in 2005, Ratnamohan attempted a professional football (soccer) career in the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany ± and is now using his experience to create works for theatre exploring the experience of the athlete and that of the spectator. Beat talks to him about his third football-inspired show, a solo show he performs called SDS1, coming up this week at Arts House. Presented by Arts House and Mobile States, SDS1 is described as a kind of ‘football dance theatre’± ‘physically charged, stripped back, extracted, frozen, repeated and abstracted’ and which is ‘beautiful and ugly at once.’“SDS1 began as a bit of
a side project,” says Ratnamohan, who has performed throughout Australia, South Africa and Europe. “The previous two shows (Michael Essien I want to play as you... and The Football Diaries) were driven by text and I really wanted to make a piece that didn’t revolve around stories, I wanted to use movement. Football hasn’t been used that much in theatre and I want to keep pushing
Film Review: Irrational Man
From its high-profile cast ( Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone) and its high dialogue-to-action ratio, right down to its tortured, however brilliant protagonist, Woody Allen’s silver screen offering for 2015 has all the markings of his signature films. Like we would have expected anything less. In typical Allen fashion, the cast is short and sweet. It encompasses the star-crossed oddball couple, Abe and Jill, and their attached family and friends. Jill (Stone) is a philosophy major who quickly befriends her professor, Abe (Phoenix), after he compliments her on her forward-thinking paper. A ravenous fascination with him ensues. It’s built on his sorrow, his alcohol abuse, his history, his knowledge, and finally, the possibility that she can ‘fix him’. But despite her advances, Abe is determined to keep their relationship plutonic, reiterating friendship at every twist and turn. Inevitably, it isn’t Jill who turns Abe’s frown upside down, but the possibility of redemption through an existential criminal act. Entertaining a Strangers On A Train scenario, Abe secretly devises a plan to commit a murder,
that concept. I’m getting footballers to be inspired by dance rather than getting dancers or dance audiences to be inspired by football. My first piece (The Football Diaries) was about my about my short-lived career as a footballer and the second one (Michael Essien I want to play as you…) was about the experiences of African footballers in Europe who see football as a career to get them out of Africa and out of poverty. Some make it but what about the ones who don’t? I toured South Africa with this show and discovered hundreds of African migrants who had travelled to South Africa to play football professionally. I used that as inspiration. What happens to the ones who don’t make that far?” SDS1 (the name comes from the working title for the show ‘solo soccer dance’, which stuck), which Ratnamohan calls ‘soccer as theatre’, uses movement to explore the language of athleticism while inspiring audiences, seated in the round as though they’re at a game, with the ‘poetic experience of the match.’ “I’m exploring a physical, theatrical and psychological language of movement,” Ratnamohan says. “I want to transcend the game; I am pushing the choreographic side of the physical nature of football; it has its own movement vocabulary. This is theatre to draw a new audience. SDS1 is about the effect on the audience overall: I want people to ponder the machine that is football, on an emotional as well as on a physical level. Is it dance or is it sport? Sport, on the social level is a spectacle where the money is so inflated and the stakes are so high; it is quite ludicrous and surreal at the same time. The ath-
letes are vulnerable warriors, they are headstrong, the footballer is a ‘vulnerable warrior’ He is loved and hated, he fails or triumphs but he only exists because of the crowd. But deep down he is like you or I. SDS1 looks at football from all sides ± the game, the crowds, the participation, and it looks at what we push people to do in crowds. It only happens because the crowds turn up.” While he’s in Australia to tie in with the performances of SDS1, Ratnamohan has been conducting workshops fusing dance theatre and soccer training, to great success, especially with overly energetic school kids. “I’ve already done a bunch of workshops around the country, athletic and choreographic workshops using new concepts. There’s been an amazing response. There was one dance class in south Perth where the kids didn’t want to be there. But they picked up the stuff. Their teacher was amazed to see those students who were normally disruptive enjoy the class like that ± it was really special.” In Melbourne he will present several workshops for soccer players within the North Melbourne community, as wel as from local sports groups, high schools and the asylum seeker community. Ratnamohan is now based in Antwerp in Belgium, a fertile environment for exploring dance in particular. “It’s not the easiest place to break into the arts scene but it’s a great place to be. I’ve been fortunate. In Belgium an artist can make a living.” SDS1 will be performed from Wednesday August 19 to Saturday August 22 at Arts House.
which in turn would relieve the suffering of another tortured soul. It’s his newfound ravenous fascination in the ability to pull off this perfect crime that gives him a new lease of life; a will to live, as he would have it. But the question is: does taking a life to save another truly redemption? Phoenix plays Abe remarkably. He is subtle, understated and quietly likeable. His relentless refusal against Jill’s persistence is admirable as he allows Abe to stay true and honest to himself. All commendation must be made to Stone as well, who captures the energy of Jill and throws it back into the mix with effortless ease. While there are times where it feels as though her character is childish and insipid, it’s never long until she throws another thought-provoking or feminist wile our way and we are taken. Cleverly written and executed with just enough raw humour to dampen the philosophical blow that Allen loves to deploy, Irrational Man is as enjoyable as it is thought-provoking. BY STEPHANIE YIP
David Bowie is ready for his close-up 20 August – 20 September From a big-screen performer to a cultural consumer and influencer, this season celebrates David Bowie’s cinema presence. Films screening include The Hunger, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Only Lovers Left Alive. Book online at acmi.net.au
The Hunger, 1983. Publicity still of David Bowie & Susan Sarandon © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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T H E B O M B AY R O YA L E
FLAMBOYANT ELECTRICIT Y By Augustus Welby Melbourne’s overtly theatrical, Bollywood-inspired 11-piece, The Bombay Royale have been around for nearly half a decade. While the band doesn’t rely on gimmickry, there’s an obvious novelty element to what they do. By virtue of this, when they first appeared it was easy to doubt their longevity. But last year they released their second LP, The Island of Dr. Electrico, and don’t plan on disappearing anytime soon. “It’s a double edged sword,” says saxophonist and band founder Andy Williamson. “We wear costumes, and it’s a very fine line between how you portray yourself. It can be very easy to put yourself into some sort of realm of cabaret or even just taking the piss out of the whole thing. But if you look at the original inspiration for the band, the music is really flamboyant and we just couldn’t have got up there in jeans and t-shirts and played. It just wouldn’t have had the impact.” Theatrical considerations aside, when Williamson conceived the band his chief motivation was to introduce the masses to the strength of ‘60s/‘70s Bollywood songwriting. “It was just such an awesome pool of inspiration, musically,” he says. “There wasn’t anyone live tapping into that ± not that many musicians were even aware there was this awesome pool of stuff. However flamboyant or however you take the stage
part of it, musically it was something I was very serious about. We all were. “The songs we write are actually not particularly comedic. There is flamboyance in the delivery, but we do put a lot of care into the way we write the tunes. It’s not flippant.” Indeed, following on from their 2012 debut, You Me Bullets Love, the diversity on The Island of Dr. Electrico is quite staggering. The band channel their undeniable technical prowess into a stylistically intrepid collection of songs. “We’re really happy with how that came out,” Williamson says. “We had to follow up the first one, which was a good record, but it was a development and there’s more co-writing going on. 80-90 per cent of [Dr Electrico] is live. We did as much as we could live, so there’s warts on it as well.”
TIMBERWOLF
Given the specificity of the band’s founding inspiration, it’s important for them to honour and respect the past. However, purely nostalgic tributes are often either superfluous or dull. But, in spite of paying homage to the likes of R. D. Burman and Kalyanji-Anandji, Williamson was always confident The Bombay Royale could bring something new to this style of music. “The thing that got the ball rolling was I did arrangements of 25-30 tunes and then went hunting for musicians,” he says. “Some people were friends I’d played with for years, other people I had to really hunt for. By the time we got to the first proper record, there were only two covers on that record anyway. We’re using those guys as an inspiration, but what we’re producing doesn’t sound like that either exactly. An Indian audience will hear the reference, but at the same time if you put it alongside the old material it doesn’t sound like that either.” While they’ve long since moved beyond cover band territory, The Bombay Royale are generally thought
to exist separately from much of the live music in Melbourne. However, Williamson feels an affinity with the local scene. “I don’t know whether we’re shooting at the same things other people are shooting at, but we are all from that scene. All I’ve done for the last 20 years is play live, so I do feel like I’m part of it. I guess what we’re shooting for might be a bit different from some bands. We’re obviously not really going for top 40. It’s a different thing. In a sense, we’ve made a niche for ourselves ± a small one. But I see us as part of the music scene.”
While his style will inevitably continue to evolve, the Timberwolf you experience today is as close to the real thing as you can hope for. “Don’t get me wrong, there are parts of my personality that I keep to myself that won’t ever find their way into songwriting,” Panousakis says. “But what I do share, there’s no part of me that worries about what others are going to think. I don’t like the idea of painting a picture that … let’s say someone listened to a song, and really connected to it. It took them on some emotional journey, or eased them out of a rough time, even if it just helped make a road trip that bit better. I like the idea that if they were to meet me in person, or if they
ever read this interview, then there would be no gaps. No holes in the story. “Of course, some songs allow you to express yourself more than others. But that’s the game. You’re trying to recreate something you felt quite honestly. That always has been and hopefully always will be the driving force behind what I do.”
is an incredibly difficult task,” Papa G says. “It’s so hard to get everyone in the same room to rehearse at any given time, at any one point, we’ve only had the whole band there for half the rehearsals we’ve had over the past two years.” Nevertheless, when it comes to stylistic direction, they’re a united force. “I grew up with a lot of rock’n’roll influences and then slowly moved into soul and James Brown kind of stuff,” Papa G says. “A lot of the other guys didn’t get into that ± into the soul and the jazz and the funk. I introduced it to a lot of people.” With their debut music video on the way for debatably the band’s sexiest song, Smooth Lovin’, Papa G is thankful for the help they’ve had around the traps. “The director, Logan Davies and his incredible team from Swinburne, I just want to say thank you to those guys.
The music video’s turned out really great.” They’re also looking forward to a second release; a live album. “We’re really hoping this live album catches how we are. Studio albums, they’re great, and we loved going into the studio and recording, but we think the live album is really going to capture what we are as a band right now.”
THE BOMBAY ROYALE play Lorne Arts Festival, which runs Friday August 28 ± Sunday August 30 in Lorne, Victoria. They’re also playing Estonian House, Brunswick, for the Shadow Electric Visions series on Sunday August 30. Plus, they’ll play the Foxtel Festival Hub on Thursday October 15, which is part of Melbourne Festival 2015.
A LIFE IN FLux By Adam Norris
Everyone has their guilty pleasure. Music, literature, some terrifying bedroom perversion; having unconquerable peccadillos is part of what makes us tick. But for Chris Panousakis, AKA Adelaide singer/songwriter Timberwolf, his pleasure really ain’t that guilty. He is a man so enamoured by music that even touring has taken on properties beyond simply moving from place to place. Grappling with what it means to be a musician is a philosophical task as much as it is creative, and where the two intersect is where you’ll find Panousakis at his most sincere. “Well, if I’ve had enough wine and if it’s late enough in the evening, my guilty pleasures come out,” he says. “I’ve definitely been guilty of playing more than a few Johnny Cash covers. I only realised this the other day, but whenever I’m a little tipsy, I’m at a party and somebody hands me a guitar, I’ll instantly start playing Georgia On My Mind by Ray Charles. It’s a beautiful song so I have no regrets about it, but I never realised before that it’s my go-to. I’m so drawn to those jazz chords, they’re just so pretty, and it has such beautiful lyrics.” It’s a fine image ± Timberwolf perched in a bustling kitchen, spilling wine and strumming tunes ± and doesn’t seem all that dissimilar to the figure he presents onstage. He appears quite open, someone who confidently wears his heart on his sleeve, and while this version of Panousakis is a genuine figure, it is by no
stretch the complete man. “My friend was saying how different I seemed onstage to the guy he’d have coffee with, and, well, of course,” he says. “The version of me that you see onstage would be the same guy who is having a heartfelt, emotional chat with his girlfriend. It’s the part that’s able to be reflective and passionate and probably tiringly emotional [laughs]. I love to be relaxed with my friends and have strange philosophical conversations, to sit by the beach and drink an easy coffee. But it’s the heightened part of me that’s onstage, and it’s something that I just can’t be all the time. I’d be completely drained.” Sincerity and striking an emotional, creative balance seem to be at the forefront of Panousakis’ mind these days. His love of touring has seen him careen across the country many times, and his latest EP, Flux, represents the unexpected journey of this sentiment and sound.
TIMBERWOLF plays Northcote Social Club on Saturday August 22 with Stonefox and Edward R. Flux is out now independently.
PA PA G A N D T H E S TA R C AT S
SMOOTH LOVERS By Navarone Farrell
“In Melbourne there is a soul revival going on, especially with nights like the Soul Night at Cherry Bar,” says Giorgio Theodoropoulos, AKA Papa G from Papa G and The Starcats. Papa G and The Starcats are the latest in a slew of funk, soul and big-band performance acts to hit the stage around the country, and they know how to get it on. The grooves are old school funk, things you’ll have heard in ‘70s pornos (if you’re into that kind of thing), and not too dissimilar from the tunes emanating out of Melbourne’s booming neo-soul scene. Citing influences like The Cactus Channel, Saskwatch and The Bamboos, the sound of the nine-piece (who’re soon to expand into a ten-piece with the addition of another keyboard player) smacks of what’s next in Australian music. “A lot of people want to come and dance,” says Papa G. “People don’t want to mosh anymore, they want to boogie. I’ve found that we’ve taken a lot of influence from The Cat Empire in the way that they do party music ± they’re a party band kind of thing. We’ve made it all about the performance. When we’re on stage, BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 30
everyone’s having a good time. We do the James Brown dance ± the one-step, two-step groove. It’s really good for interacting with the audience. I think we put on a really good show. “We want people to come and see us and have a good time. Of course the music is important to us, but you’ve got to be able to put on a good live show. If you can’t put on a good live show, and people aren’t dancing…” With a solid background in musical education, plus an obvious flair for theatricality, it’s easy to see why Papa G and The Starcats are wowing punters and causing panties to drop on the Melbourne club circuit. “All ten of us ± or all nine of us ± are studying music at Monash,” Papa G says. “We’re all studying jazz, most of us have grown up playing types of jazz or some kind of classical music.” Given their extensive personnel, organising band practise isn’t the easiest thing in the world. “Rehearsing
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PAPA G AND THE STARCATS will be getting down and dirty at The Gasometer Hotel on Saturday August 22 to record their live album, and drop the Smooth Lovin’ music video. The four track Smooth Lovin’ EP is available now through iTunes, or if you ask really nicely at shows, and it’ll blow your socks off.
PEEL SLOWLy AND SEE
A T r i b U T e T o T h e V e lV e T U N d e r g r o U N d
By Patrick Emery The story goes like this: in 1967, New York band The Velvet Underground released their debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico. Featuring cover art by the band’s early patron (and alleged producer of the album), pop artist Andy Warhol, the songs exposed the seedy underbelly of American culture, taking in drug use, sadomasochism and prostitution. The Velvet Underground & Nico was like nothing else. The band’s junk-addled principal songwriter, Lou Reed, had refined his craft as a pop songwriter at Pickwick Records; Welsh-born, classically trained viola player John Cale brought an avant-garde sensibility from his tenure working with Aaron Copland, John Cage and Le Mont Young; Sterling Morrison’s guitar playing added a touch of blues, while Maureen ‘Mo’ Tucker’s minimalist drumming style was punk rock before the concept existed. Upon Warhol’s suggestion, Nordic chanteuse Nico also joined the band. Her tenure was ultimately short-lived, but her icy vocals defined tracks such as Femme Fatale, I’ll Be Your Mirror and All Tomorrow’s Parties. Commercially, popular lore would have us believe the album sank without a trace: British musician Brian Eno is said to have claimed that only 300 people bought the album but every one of them started a band. But in his book White Light/White Heat, musicologist Richie Unterberger calculated that the debut album sold close to 60,000 copies in the ’60s. “That’s not such a bad showing for an underground album,” says Chris Hollow, bass player in the Sand Pebbles, and a fan of the The Velvet Underground since a former girlfriend gave him copies of the second and third Velvet Underground records. Spoils guitarist and singer Sean Simmons remembers being given a cassette copy of The Velvet Underground’s first record by a high school teacher. “I’d started playing guitar and was listening to certain types of music,” says Simmons. “I think he’d worked out that I was gravitating toward the roots of rock’n’roll rather than the music of the day. He dubbed me a cassette that had The Velvet Underground & Nico on one side, and on the other, Television’s Marquee Moon. I’ve been hooked ever since.” Simmons concedes that his appreciation of the dark lyrical themes didn’t come until later. Initially, it was the Velvets’ unique musical style that grabbed his attention. “While those songs are pretty simple, chord-wise, with both that first album and the second album, when the band was really pumping, there are all these really weird frequencies that aren’t really apparent when you first listen to it,” he says. For Hollow, it was the deceptive simplicity of the music that was most intriguing. “I loved the romance and the sadness and the intelligence of the lyrics,” he says. “But most of all, I loved how the band sounded. Super quiet or poppy or totally abandoned, it sounded amazing to me. The sound was full of possibilities. To my ears they were always only playing one chord. Turns out, they weren’t, but that’s what I wanted to do ± boil things down to one chord and come up with ways to make it move.” The artistic and platonic tension between Reed and Cale was central to the power of The Velvet Underground. “Lou was writing about stuff that was all around him,” Simmons says. “Cale’s influence was more experimental ± he brought in drones, got them to start de-tuning instruments, he did whacky stuff like putting mandolin strings on his viola, mixed up all the tunings. Lou was writing the melodies, but Cale was bringing all these atmospherics.” Hollow also pays tribute to Tucker and Morrison’s oftneglected contributions to the band. “It helped that Moe Tucker’s limitations were her strength,” he says. “But out of all the Velvets, Sterling Morrison is the one I most wanted to meet. Apparently he was great company, an incredible storyteller. If you’re ever stuck for ideas on a song, it’s always good to ask, ‘What would Sterling Morrison do?’ I’m even starting to come ‘round to his moustache.” On the subject of Maureen Tucker ± most recently seen publicly stating her support for the conservative Tea Party in the US ± Hollow says Sand Pebbles drummer Wes Holland bought a toy from her eBay site, just so he could make contact with her ± now, that’s dedication to the cause. By the time White Light/White Heat came out in 1968, tensions within the group had began to mount. Cale was kicked out in 1969, while Reed himself left in 1970, leaving Doug Yule (who’d replaced Cale) to assume lead vocal duties. Morrison left in 1971, and Tucker also briefly left to have a baby, before returning for the band’s oft-maligned final album, Squeeze. By 1972 the Velvet Underground was no more, but their influence was already significant. On Saturday August 22, The Spoils and the recently reformed Sand Pebbles take to the stage at the Flying Saucer Club to celebrate The Velvet Underground legacy. The Spoils will play The Velvet Underground & Nico, while the Sand Pebbles take on White Light/ White Heat. For The Spoils it’s a reprise of their performance at Pure Pop Records last year; for the recently reformed Sand Pebbles, it’s an opportunity to choose between the countless versions of Velvets opus Sister Ray. “I paid $45 at Greville for the Sweet Sister Ray bootleg with John Cale from La Cave, 1968. I have to like that one,” Hollow laughs.
5 Piercings
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ALL STORES, 10th-30th AUGUST
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Peel SloWlY ANd See: A TribUTe To The VelVeT UNdergroUNd happens on Saturday August 22 at the Flying Saucer Club. WATCH INTERVIEWS, CHATS & AWKWARD SILENCES..... WWW.BEAT.COM.AU/TV
BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 31
ALITHIA
SACRIFICE OF PRIDE By Rod Whitf ield Melbourne’s self-described astral space core five-piece Alithia like to do things differently to most bands. Their music is several large steps to the left of centre, and they prefer to travel to faraway, exotic places to record. Their last album, 2014’s To the Edge of Time, was recorded in Budapest, Hungary, and they’re planning to record their next record on the other side of the world as well. “I’m putting in a funding application to do our new record,” says bass player Tibor Gede. “The Labor government brought back music grants, which the Liberal government took away. So that’s really good, hopefully we’ll get to do that, because if we get it, we’ll go over to Istanbul, Turkey and do our next record there.” So what’s the thinking behind journeying to far-flung places for the sake of recording? Could it be the band like to immerse themselves in the local culture and music, to further inspire their creativity? “There’s a few things behind it,” Gede says. “The first one just happened because I was living in Budapest at the time. I was away from the band for quite a while, and the guys said, ‘Can we come over and do some gigs?’ and I said, ‘Sure I’ll organise a tour’. And we thought we might as well do the album while we’re there. So the whole band was there for two months, living in my apartment.”
But there are also creative benefits that come from recording like this. “A lot of people, what they say about Alithia, is that we’re prog in a way,” Gede says. “But we don’t sound like an Aussie prog band. We are European sounding, we do stand out in a different way, and I think being over there is inspiring for us. “Plus we’ve got guest artists,” he continues. “We’ve got a Bulgarian gaida player ± the gaida being an ancient, traditional Bulgarian instrument. We also have another couple of Hungarian guest artists: a violin player and a guy that does really deadly, deathly screams, a couple of other vocalists and a New York rapper. So I think it really transformed and impacted our sound.” The band recently went out on a limb and made a short film to reflect their weird, wild and wonderful music. Entitled Sacrifice, they’re launching it with two shows, in Melbourne and Sydney, later this month. “Basically, I think the best way to describe it is that it’s a dark comedy, mockumentary, social commentary,”
KOLLAPS
DEADLY RH Y T HMS By Dan Watt Melbourne noise-punk act Kollaps do not make you feel good: cacophonous brutality is their currency. Band member Wade Black succinctly captures the mood of Kollaps when describing his role in the band: “I do vocals and use a guitar to make experimental noise,” he says. The omission of the verb ‘play’ is intentional, because Kollaps are committed to pushing the boundaries of the traditional concept of a ‘band’. But, in spite of their inherent anti-homogeny, Kollaps actually formed in a not-uncommon setting. “This band started with two acoustic guitars down on a beach,” Black says. “That was four years ago.” Despite their familiar origin, the band took a left turn when choosing their name. “We were not really interested that much in experimental music, but I had just listened to the Kollaps album by Einstürzende Neubauten, a German industrial band, and we wanted the band to be called a one word name, so we just used Kollaps. But we still weren’t planning on doing anything experimental, but after a while we just got really into noise.” Fast-forward 18 months and this Saturday night Kollaps ± completed by Millar Teratoma on percussion and Robin W. Marsh on drums and programming ± are launching their debut EP, Heartworm. The EP title comes from the first single, Heartworm, which is a
dense forest of industrial tones accompanied by Black’s half-spoken lyrics about sickness and disease. “The way we write songs is noise-related,” Black says. “That is, we will find a sound that has interesting textures and we will just build a song a from there. Very often it starts from percussion, a beat. The starting point for Heartworm is that we were actually trying to write something really fun, something really fast and energetic. I was telling Robin, ‘I want something really fast and energetic,’ so he came in with that beat and we just built it up from there. And I was just rambling lyrics over it until we just built up this wall of enormous ear-shredding sound.” A memorable section from Black’s ramblings is the line, “All the good things in life/ They go out the window when you’re sick.” Black expands on the origins of this particularly dark statement. “It is very much in context to physical health: I had a friend that was really sick for a very long time and she lived with me. She said to me, ‘It’s crazy how many
Gede laughs. “It takes Spinal Tap and puts it with David Lynch. We had cameras following us around for 48 hours, and we’re playing heightened versions of ourselves. “So it’s not a documentary, it’s a mockumentary. So we’ve put ourselves in a fictional context. The context is that we’re a local band, we’ve hired a publicist to help us get some more likes, more reach on social media, try to get us out there desperately, sell more tickets and so on. We’re in that pay-to-play process of selling tickets to our friends and family, but the gimmick of the show is that it’s the singer’s last ever show, because after the show he will be dead.”
The film is designed to make a statement about local band culture, exposing how tough it is to be a struggling local band that’s yet to make a name for itself, especially with regards to getting people to attend your shows. “It puts a spotlight on the fact that, unless people have a deep interest in supporting the local culture ± most people don’t, they’re not even aware of it ± they don’t even know what venues and bands exist.” ALITHIA play The Evelyn Hotel on Saturday August 29 with support from Perth’s Chaos Divine. To the Edge of Time is out now.
things you want and all these desires that you have as a healthy person that, as soon as you lose your health, the only thing that you want back is your health.’ So that’s where I got that line from.” The music video that accompanies the single was filmed during a rehearsal session in the St Kilda vault and blended with a performance at a Melbourne squat. The St Kilda rehearsal space is one of the south side’s bestkept secrets, and Black was shown this guerrilla studio by someone indirectly vital in the evolution of Kollaps. “The first ever recording was done in an abandoned jewel vault in St Kilda by a guy called Ash Wednesday, who is actually in the band Einsturzende Neubauten. So it was a massive honour to be able to record with him.” The outcome of these recording sessions can be heard on the Heartworm EP, which is now available for purchase on cassette tape. A lot of independent bands are releasing music on this archaic medium these days. It’s a format that perfectly suits Kollaps’ aberrant edge. “It’s a fuck you to people who expect everything to be really easy,” Black says. “Putting out a CD is really, really easy; putting out something on tape is [a little bit harder], as well as paying homage to post-punk and noise outfits like Left Over Crack.”
KOLLAPS are launching the Heartworm EP at The Lyrebird Lounge this Saturday August 22 alongside Spacecho.
MOONSHIFTER
SHINY HAPP Y PEOPLE By Rod Whitf ield
Finding a good band name can be a painstaking. But band names can come from any number of sources, such as mistaken or misheard pieces of conversation. Such is the case with Melbourne five-piece rock act Moonshifter, as guitarist and co-founder Mark Cambruzzi remembers. “Andy [Baker, bass] had been in a metal band called Embodied,” he says. “He wanted to do something different. He wanted to create some good vibes; we wanted to change people’s moods, we’re trying to make them happy. Lachlan [Cross, vocals] came up with an idea and said ‘We should call it Mood Shifter’. I just misheard him, and said ‘Moonshifter?’, and then we were like, ‘Wow that’s way better’. So we just started getting all philosophical about it, and it stuck from there.” That fun, good times vibe can be clearly heard on the band’s new single Glad That You Came. “It’s a good, melodic catchy pop rock song,” Cambruzzi says. “It’s pretty straightforward, it’s catchy, it makes you feel good and we’re really happy with the way it came out.” Due to circumstances within the band at the moment, they’re not able to play a single launch show just yet. But Cambruzzi assures us they’ll be back on stage before the end of the year. BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 32
“Our singer Lachlan is in South America until October,” he says. “It was a bit of bad timing, but I guess the good thing was that it got our butts into gear to get the recording done. We had a real motivated few months there, so I suppose there’s always a positive out of a negative. “He’s coming back in October and we’re in the process of booking gigs at the moment, so no doubt we’ll have some sort of launch, maybe in late October.” Lyrically, the song has a double meaning, with one side being quite deep and the other a little more risqué. “There’s always someone in the back of everyone’s mind,” Cambruzzi says. “People come and go, but there’s always that special someone that no matter what happens on your travels, there’s always that person that you come back to. So there’s a good message there, but there’s also a bit of that cheeky double-entendre there in the chorus, which I like. The band’s always had a bit of a cheeky side to the lyrics.” The release of a single usually means there’s an album or
EP release on the horizon. Although it’s not finalised at this stage, for Moonshifter this is no exception. “We’re not sure yet if it’s going to be an EP or a fully-fledged album. We’ve got enough songs to put an album together. We’ve put a few of the pre-production demos online too, so people can hear those so we can get a bit of feedback as to what sort of direction we can go with. We’ve pencilled in late October when Lach gets back to get the next one down. So I think that by early next year we’d hope to have a four or five track EP out, at a minimum.” In the meantime, Cambruzzi is quietly confident Glad
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That You Came will give the band’s public profile a big boost. “We see this single as a real beginning, even though we’ve been going for a few years,” he says. “We feel like we’ve been reborn, and we’re looking at big things. We’re really confident in our abilities and our sound, and we think we’ve got what it takes to get to the next level.” MOONSHIFTER’s new single Glad That You Came is out now. Head to www.moonshifter.com to grab a free download.
NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB 10TH ANNIVERSARY SERIES By Thomas Brand The Northcote Social Club has played host to some massive acts over the past decade, gaining respect from national and international bands alike. The likes of Gotye, Augie March, Courtney Barnett and even Midnight Oil have graced its stage, and the venue has become renowned for its harmonious relationship with artists. So much so that The Pixies chose the venue for a sold-out secret show on their 2007 reunion tour, which resulted in a frenzy of people scaling the beer garden fence to cop a glimpse. Fostering such a relationship has had great benefits for the Northcote Social Club, and owner Andrew Mansfield’s approach seems fair and equitable. “That is the combination of an awful lot of people pulling in the same direction,” he says. “That’s the evolution from the Punters Club to the Corner, from the Corner to the Social Club. Applying the same sort of artist liaison relationship at a Corner level, saying, ‘You know what? We’re just going to do it apples for apples’, not making any artist judgement regardless of if it’s a Monday Night Mass band or a touring international band. The relationship between booking to logistics, marketing ± when it gets to show night doesn’t change. Art is art. My job isn’t to judge the validity of the art; my job is to promote art’s ability to connect to people. “Without banging on about it, I think that ideology or philosophy is something that filters out. If you’re on a national tour and you’re playing in 300 [capacity] band rooms across Australia, whether you start at Northcote Social Club or end at Northcote Social Club, you want to remember Northcote Social Club.” Mansfield has spent ten years operating the Northcote Social Club, after previously managing fellow immortal pub venue The Corner Hotel. It’s no coincidence the two locations are among Melbourne’s most loved live music venues. However, despite owning the two pubs, Mansfield’s focus hasn’t been on the music side of things. “The booking isn’t handled by me. I know beer. I know beer and people,” he says. “That’s my job, I’m the hospitality side of it. I enjoy the logistics of doing what we do, and the human element of what we do. “The ability to either interpret art, pick what art has the most traction at any given time, or be able to put together weeks and months of programming where you’re being mindful of offering the difference of things we do ± that’s one of the great parts of what we do, the lack of sameness. For example, as much as I love heavy music, I don’t know if I’d ever want to keep playing heavy music.” Over time, Mansfield’s business has subtly but surely benefitted from the brand image stations such as triple j indirectly promote on a regular basis. Recordings for their Live At The Wireless shows, as well as tour announcements, often come with the Club’s name appended, which has helped establish the venue’s name on a national level. “Any ability to connect to the market place is critical,” he says. “For us, things such as triple j nationally and
Triple R/PBS locally, the support we’ve had through those music-committed stations have been huge for us. When you are the ‘corner pub in the suburbs’ in Northcote, if you’ve got people in Canberra or in Perth streaming on the net hearing the Club’s name and being name-checked and having the booking guys leverage the space, it can be very self-fulfilling.” With the Northcote Social Club’s ten year anniversary just around the corner and the pub refurbishments in full swing, Mansfield has teed up a cracking series of shows to celebrate. Jebediah, Regurgitator and Adalita will take to the stage during the month. “There’s a full ten year anniversary sequence of shows, strung out over the better part of a month,” he says. “It’s a big group of iconic artists we’ve had relationships with over the years. It gives us the opportunity to host a bunch of big parties really. It’ll be fun and [the anniversary] just feels worth marking, really.” Despite a full-scale re-development temporarily closing the pub’s doors, the Social Club’s friendly atmosphere will be maintained. In fact, the community vibe will be enhanced ± the ceilings have been raised to show off the bare brickwork, which proudly displays the suburb’s name etched in mortar. The Social Club has become an integral fixture of High Street, Northcote, and Mansfield has no intention of risking its reputation. “There’s a few ways you can approach the renovations,” he says. “You’re either doing it to build it up and create a commercial place that has a broader appeal or [you’re] doing what I’m choosing: reinventing for the future. Doing the thing that we love. For me there’s an obligation to show and take people on the journey with the venue ± and you have to re-invent. It’s great to not be starting at point one again. You’re working with an existing brand again. The place sells itself really.”
NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB’S 10TH ANNIVERSARY SERIES kicks off on Wednesday September 2 with Jebediah. Over the course of the month Regurgitator, Adalita, Hiatus Kaiyote, The Bamboos, Clare Bowditch and Andy Bull will all take part. Hit northcotesocialclub.com for full details. WATCH INTERVIEWS, CHATS & AWKWARD SILENCES..... WWW.BEAT.COM.AU/TV
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TUMBlEWEED
G A L A C TA P H O N I C R E S O N A N C E By Natalie Rogers Tumbleweed frontman Richie Lewis is in a good mood about the forthcoming national tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary re-release of the band’s sophomore album Galactaphonic. “We’ll have to dust off our old wah-wah pedals again,” he says. “It’ll be a challenge recreating the sound of the record live, but it’s been 20 years in the making so we can’t wait.” The highly anticipated reissue of the iconic 1995 album ± the 20th Anniversary SuperGalactaphonic Edition ± features the 13 original songs, as well as five cassette demos (including alternate versions of Hang Around, Gyroscope and Round The Bend, alongside two neverbefore-released songs, Salamander Sam and Paddy The Pram Man), nine B-sides and EP tracks, and seven previously unreleased live recordings from triple j’s Live At the Wireless. “It was amazing to rediscover Galactaphonic again, because honestly, since we recorded it all those years ago, we hadn’t listened to it much ± so listening to it with fresh ears was fantastic,” says Lewis. “One thing I was surprised by was how much distortion was used on the vocals, but I love how short, sweet, vibrant, fast and punchy that album is.” Not only does this release have Tumbleweed fans around the world reminiscing about the golden era of ‘90s rock, it’s led the Wollongong band on a welcome
trip down memory lane. “We’ve had to relearn a lot of the songs and spend time together rehearsing them. Of course songs like Hang Around and Nothin’ To Do With The Weather have always been part of our set, but others like This’ll Be The End Of Me, Medicine, Feed The River and Jupiter we had to get together and learn again.” Lewis says the process of unearthing old live recordings, demos, B-sides and rarities was a unique form of therapy in the wake of the unexpected passing of founding bassist Jason ‘Jay’ Curley in August last year. “While it was cool going through all the old tapes that Steve [O’Brien, drums] had collected over the years, it was something we had to ease into, because after Jay died we weren’t really sure what we wanted to do next, as far as the band goes. But it was something we’d talked about since the reissue of The Waterfront Years [a compilation album released in 2010], so we spoke to Universal Records about the possibility of putting something together and they were all for it ± so from
there the idea grew wings and started to fly. “It was definitely a nice way to dip our toes back into the water, so now we’re really looking forward to getting out on the road again ± and I think the fact that we aren’t simply doing a ‘best of Tumbleweed’ tour, like we’ve done before, we’re doing something that’s really direct, and it’ll be purely Galactaphonic from beginning to end.” In the days following Curley’s death, with the resolve that something good should come from the tragedy, Tumbleweed released the single Drop In The Ocean. Along with honouring the memory of their departed band mate, they packaged their tribute with a clip to raise awareness for the non-profit conservation organisation Sea Shepherd Australia. “One thing that has been on my mind a lot since Jay died
is that life is short,” says Lewis. “You’re on this planet for a finite amount of time and you’ve got the choice of how you’re going to spend your time. So together we made a conscious decision that if we’re going to do something, give it a reason and use whatever platform we’ve built to do it. “Sea Shepherd do great work in our oceans, protecting and conserving it ± it’s for the future of the planet, the future of humanity, you know? I support everything they do. You’ve got to do what you can to try and make the world a better place.” TUMBLEWEED play the Corner Hotel on Friday August 21. Galactaphonic (20th Anniversary SuperGalactaphonic Edition) is out now through Universal.
A PlACE TO BUry STrANGErS
A NOISE FOR NOW By Thomas Brand
Brooklyn’s A Place To Bury Strangers have managed to refine sonic punishment into an art form. As they’ve carved their way through both post-punk and noise rock circles, the group have earned the title of “the loudest band in New York” ± and for good reason. Their energetic live shows are deafening to the point they leave attendees physically stunned. This year’s Australian tour sees A Place To Bury Strangers playing only three shows along the east coast. Though, they’ve performed over 150 shows already this year, which is no small feat. “Sometimes it gets pretty crazy, you’re so tired you can’t even bear to go on,” says frontman Oliver Ackermann says. “Other times you’re so excited to be in these places. It sort of goes up and down. As you would imagine, it’s very physically demanding to be doing this stuff, and as you get older you start asking, ‘Fuck, I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to do this,’ but you’re going to keep on trying. When the show starts, you feel like you could break a pick on the world. So as long as we keep playing shows, we’ll be all right.” Ackermann takes a hands-on approach to the band’s sonic special effects, which constitute a large part of their identity. As the founder of the Brooklyn-based
company, Death By Audio, Ackermann has made effects pedals for bands such as Lightning Bolt, Wilco, Nine Inch Nails and U2 ± along with his own band, of course. “We make tons of stuff, and it totally makes all this [band success] possible,” he says. “Stuff like building drum effects, the lights, making videos, all sorts of stuff ± as much as we possibly can. It’s fun to do all of this stuff, so why not? Then you can really be in control of what you want to do. It makes you think of other ideas for songs and for a really interactive show. It’s the way that the world should work ± if you can bring something cool and interesting to share for other people to see, I think that’s an awesome thing.” Initially, there was a specific pathway that drove Ackermann to experiment with noise. “I saw tons of crazy shows when I was younger, growing up out at
Providence, Rhode Island back around the time when Lightning Bolt, Black Dice, Forcefield were around and playing. I saw bands like Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. Even just getting a guitar and an amplifier, hearing how awesome it sounded to turn it up and hear these great noises you can make ± all of these things influenced you to keep those feelings alive. “As time goes onwards with drugs and experiences and all sorts of stuff, your memories get hazy. You’re going on with what you remember of these ultimate shows and ultimate experiences you experienced, and build on those ideas. You bring upon a dream world on other people. It’s hard to even tell if it translates. I can’t go to one of our shows. You just do what you can to make a crazy experience that moves you, I suppose. You’re just … challenging yourself to do things you think warp space and time.” Prior to his involvement in A Place To Bury Strangers,
Ackermann played bass in post-punk act Skywave; a band cut from similar cloth. The formation of each group was very different, however, with location being a major factor. “Being in Skywave, I was in a band with my closest friends from Virginia,” he says. “We grew up discovering music together, we were on exactly on the same page when we were writing. So when you come to New York it’s a whole different thing. Everyone comes from so many different places that you get this patchwork quilt of people coming together. It’s learning, growing ± it creates things differently for better or for worse. There’s nothing else I could imagine now, though.”
bubbling atmosphere of live music or anything. “When we started hanging out and playing together, there wasn’t any other bands or musicians at school. If there were kids playing instruments, they were just going through the motions on the violin or something. They weren’t enjoying it. It seemed like we were the only ones having fun with our instruments.” After honing their own brand of edgy indie rock over a number of years, The Bohicas were signed to Domino Records in 2013. Just last year their label mate Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys made an audacious speech proclaiming, “Rock’n’roll will never die.” McGuinness can’t help but agree. “As long as you record it and write in a way that’s still new and fresh, there’s no reason why it dies. To keep it alive, you have to make sure you revamp. It’s easy to replicate an old sound. It’s about pushing rock as an influence rather than pulling from it. There’s no tricks
here.” The Bohicas’ debut full length, The Making Of, is out this week. While rock is the order of the day, the record contains more subtle moments too. “What’s unexplored on the singles is the more midtempo melodic thing,” says McGuinness. “There’s a lot more vocal harmonies and softness than people might be anticipating. The way I write, I’ll do these guitar things, rock band stuff, but that’s only one part to it. There are other influences that we can’t deny ourselves. A lot of the writing and recording is centred around trusting instinct and going with your innate natural way, rather than trying too hard to steer it in another direction.”
A Place To Bury Strangers play the Corner Hotel on Friday September 4 with Flyying Colours and Luna Ghost. The band’s latest LP Transfixiation is out now via Dead Oceans.
THE BOHICAS
GRAB YOUR ANkLES By George Nott
The Bohicas. To the unaware it sounds like the name of a Hawaiian-themed bar or a sickly sweet cocktail served with a tiny umbrella. Actually, it’s an acronym ± BOHICA, which stands for Bend Over, Here It Comes Again. “I think it’s funny,” says The Bohicas frontman Dominic McGuinness. “It’s kind of naughty. I like it. I think my favourite word in there is ‘again’.” What’s coming again, according to the English fourpiece, is some gritty and immediate rock’n’roll, picking up where the early albums by The Strokes, Kings Of Leon and The White Stripes left off. Rock rejuvenated for a new generation. “It’s a self-aware title for ourselves,” says McGuinness. “It’s a world full of rock bands where there’s always new bands cropping up and getting this hype and build-up. All this stuff happens when the next favourite band comes along. Well, here it is again; here’s another rock band.” A slew of singles over the past 18 months has left hounds of indie rock bent over, metaphorically at least, in anticipation of The Bohicas’ debut album. Released in early 2014, XXX has an ominous riff that never stops. “We wanted to write a song using just one chord. It’s actually two chords ± we compromised,” says McGuinness. Follow up singles, Swarm, To Die For and BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 34
Where You At, are similarly riff-driven. “All the songs have that edginess, the gutsy guitar and gutsy drums,” he says. Indeed, these songs might’ve been pulled from a time capsule buried during the early-’00s guitar band revival. “We met when we were 12 or so, and that was the time of all those great albums, where there’s a dead solid identity of four or five guys just playing simple, down the line rock’n’roll. But they re-energised and reinvented the genre. It got kids picking up guitars again.” McGuinness and his band mates ± drummer Brendan Heaney, guitarist Dom John and bassist Ady Acolatse ± met at school on the eastern outskirts of London. It’s a place where the city meets the suburbs of the neighbouring county of Essex; a culturally barren area (unless being the setting of TV show The Only Way Is Essex counts) with no ‘scene’ to speak of. “It’s pretty plain,” says McGuinness. “It’s like any other suburban place I’ve been, full of families and pubs and high streets. It’s nothing remarkable. There was no
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THE BOHICAS debut LP The Making Of out is out Friday August 21 through Domino/EMI.
The band with undoubtedly the shittest name of all time Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! have announced an Australian tour on the back of their very good recent release Get Lost, Find Yourself. Max Watt’s will host their headline show on Saturday October 3. Tickets are on sale now. Don’t forget that despite most of Weekender-related festivities being sold out, there are still opportunities to see the international drawcards Iron Chic, Sidekicks and Modern Baseball on Monday September 7 at Northcote Social Club. Get tickets now, ‘cos this will be your last chance to catch these much-hyped Americans. Northlane have added an extra Melbourne show to their Node tour after selling out their big album launch date on Friday November 6. A new show has been put on sale for Sunday November 8, with tickets available now. Make sure you head down to The Old Bar this weekend to catch Clowns before they take off to the USA again. Their Saturday night show promptly and unsurprisingly sold the fuck out, but tickets to Friday’s Old Bar show with Spermaids, Uncle Geezer, Cracked Tapes and Substance Abuse are still up for grabs (for now). Hands Like Houses will release their third studio album Dissonants through Rise Records in November, but before then they’ve scheduled an Australian tour with Lower Than Atlantis and Far Away Stables. Northcote Social Club will host the Friday October 9 show in Melbourne. You can get your hands on a VIP ticket bundle now, which includes an album pre-order. Motion City Soundtrack will throw excellent local bands Ceres and Strickland on stage before them at their upcoming Melbourne show at 170 Russell. The Commit This To Memory show will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the super popular emo pop album. Tickets are still available. Melbourne hardcore powerhouse Earth Caller will tour the East Coast next month to launch their new single Shadow Dancer from their Degenerate album. See their set at The Workers Club on September 19. Tickets can be purchased right now.
CORE GIG GUIDE WEDnEsDay aUGUst 19:
• Summer Blood, Wet Pensioner, Sweet Gold at The Old Bar
thURsDay aUGUst 20:
• Belle Haven, Spectral Fires, Fail The Abstract at Next
FRIDay aUGUst 21:
• Tumbleweed at Corner Hotel • Clowns, Spermaids, Uncle Geezer, Cracked Tapes, Substance Abuse at The Old Bar • Yob, Whitehorse, Inverloch at Max Watt’s • Storm The Sky, Harbours at Gasometer • Renegade Armada, Chasing Everest, Grave Markings, Rejuvenate at The Reverence Hotel • Born Lion at The Worker’s Club, Geelong
satURDay aUGUst 22:
• Storm The Sky, Harbours at The Gasometer • Born Lion at Bendigo Hotel • White Walls, Love Of Diagrams, The Stevens, Whipper at The Tote • Born Lion, Captives, Brittle Bones, Rich Dangerous + The Silkie Bantams, Grindhouse, Hammers, The Workinghorse Irons, Pagan at The Bendigo • Clowns, Dr Colossus, Flour, Freakwave, Tankerville at The Old Bar • Stockades, Feverteeth, Midwife, Employment at The Reverence • Plini, The Helix Nebula, I Built The Sky, Branch Arterial, Caution Thieves at The Workers Club • 50 Lions, The Evercold, Disasters at Bang • Atlantic, Drive To The Verge, Evolution Of Self, The Nuremberg Code, Legerity at The Reverence
sUnDay aUGUst 23:
• Andrew McMahon, Mike Waters at 170 Russell • Postblue, Maybe, Platinum Rat at Grace Darling Hotel
HADAL MAW AT THE BENDIGO
With Départe vocalist Sam Dishington filling in when Hadal Maw’s vocalist departed, it only made sense to team the two bands up once things returned to normal. With The Ophidian Ascension vocalist Jake Milne now at the helm, Hadal Maw will be headlining the show and no doubt proving that the lineup hiccup hasn’t slowed them down. Despite not having a full length out yet, Tassie’s Départe are one of the latest signings to the illustrious Season of Mist Records, and have already toured Europe alongside Ulcerate and Wormed. Combining elements of black metal, drone, noise, doom and everything else atmospheric, Départe are equal parts crushing and mesmerising live. Catch them at The Bendigo Hotel in Collingwood this Friday August 21. Adamus Exul will bring some misanthropic black metal to the night, Arbrynth some forest metal, and Flesh of the Earth will open things on a brutal note. Doors open at 7.30pm and entry is $15.
NEW BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE OUT NOW
Bullet For My Valentine’s new album Venom is out now. Check out the video for their new song Army of Noise on YouTube.
ORSOME WELLES SINGLE LAUNCH
After gracing The Forum with South African altrockers Seether, trailblazing Australia with Caligula’s Horse and supporting German prog juggernaughts The Ocean, Melbourne’s Orsome Welles will return to The Workers Club to launch their new single Swim on Friday September 11. Swim showcases an exciting new musical direction and condenses every part of the band’s journey so far. Recording Swim has invigorated Orsome Welles in every sense and the group is ever determined to give fans, old and new, an experience like no other. Courtesy of Wild Thing Presents, Orsome Welles will be joined by Sydney’s ambient-prog act Glass Ocean, the heavy melodic Arakeye and ‘jaunt rockers’ Tux. Tickets are on sale via wildthingpresents. com, Oztix and the venue.
TRIVIUM ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM
Trivium have recorded a new album in secret away from the persistent gaze of social media and only announced it after the whole shebang was wrapped up. Produced by Michael ‘Elvis’ Baskette (Slash, Alter Bridge, The Amity Affliction) and mixed by Josh
Wilbur (Gojira, Lamb of God), Silence in the Snow is available for pre-order now, and there’s a video on YouTube for the title track. It finds Trivium further exploring the more melodic aspects of their sound as heard on previous album Vengeance Falls.
SHINEDOWN UNVEIL THREAT TO SURVIVAL
Shinedown have announced the release of their muchanticipated new album, Threat To Survival. It’s the US multi-platinum certified rock band’s first new album in three years and it arrives everywhere on September 18. The album includes the #1 US rock radio smash, Cut The Cord, and is available for pre-order now. “Threat To Survival refers to that primal instinct in all of us that determines how we respond to crisis and conflict – the idea of ‘fight or flight’ and the choices we make in any given situation,” says Shinedown frontman Brent Smith. “This album represents those deciding moments for us as a band. It’s a collection of scenarios that made us who we are, and is, by far, the most autobiographical album we’ve created to date.”
SILVERSUN PICKUPS ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM
Silversun Pickups will herald their much-anticipated fourth studio album with an array of high profile activity. Better Nature will be released September 25 via the band’s own New Machine Recordings. Better Nature is preceded by new single Nightlight, accompanied by a hallucinatory music film, written and directed by filmmaker Mark Pellington (Foo Fighters, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam). The extended video – produced by Braxton Pope (Passion Pit, MGMT) and featuring Meg Steedle (Boardwalk Empire, The Mysteries of Laura) – builds upon the track’s resonant emotional and sonic core to explore the darker recesses of one young woman’s subconscious, a fever dream of guilt, desire, and identity. Nightlight is now available to watch at silversunpickups.com and YouTube.
JON STEVENS RELEASES NEW SINGLE
Jon Stevens has just released his new single, Woman, the lead and title track from his forthcoming solo album which is slated for release on Friday September 18. The new single is also free to download via Jon Stevens’ Facebook page for two weeks.
night of the Living shred q&a with
bORn lIOn If you could no longer be a musician, what would you be doing? No idea. I never thought past playing in a band, and as a result, I’ve had plenty of Joe jobs, am 33 years old with no qualifications and a dead end job doing shit I hate killing time between tours. If you could play any instrument in the world, what would be it? Piano. It’s the fundamental for just about every composition ever put down. If you had to play a completely different genre of music to what you do now, what would it be? Why? Rap music. The amount of content you can fit into one song is huge, and it has such a great legacy I’d love to tap into. Is there anything you would change about the music industry? I play bass in a weird angular punk rock band. I knew what I signed up for getting into this. Being bitter about the music industry is fucking stupid. If you don’t like something about it, go and do it a way you feel is better. Would you rather be able to speak every language in the world fluently, or play every instrument in the world naturally? Every language. Who gives a shit if you can play most musical instruments? Not me. That guy who busts out the acoustic guitar at the party is always
the biggest cunt there and he’s trying to fuck your girlfriend with his terrible rendition of Your Body Is a Wonderland. If you can speak more than one language though, that rules, you can probably even get a job that pays real money out of that. Would you continue to play music if there was absolutely no money in it? There is absolutely no money in it. If your music was going to be used as a soundtrack to a film, who would you want directing that film? Michael Bay. I’d want him to blow as much money on the biggest piece of shit possible and pay us in the process. How do you prepare for a show? Any weird routines? If there’s room, listen to Kanye and do push ups. Talk me through your first ever live show. Playing some party in high school. All we did was RATM, Blink 182 and Grinspoon covers. We were naturally, terrible. But we owned the “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” part of Killing in the Name Of. BORN LION appear at NIGHT OF THE LIVING SHRED on Saturday August 22 at The Bendigo Hotel, alongside Captives, Brittle Bones, Rick Dangerous & The Silkie Bantams and more.
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MUSIC NEWS
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YOUR COMPREHENSIVE LOCAL GUIDE
For all the latest news check out beat.com.au WEDNESDAY AUGUST 19
supports include Spacejunk and Hobo Magic. Free entry, doors open at 8pm.
Borrachero
What’s your name then? We are Borrachero (Bor-rah-chair-ro). And what do you do? We bring an onslaught of delay-ridden waves of sound and fuzzed out grooves, while throwing hundreds-and-thousands in your ear holes. When did you start doing that? We started in 2012 jamming out in an old ballroom in the backstreets of Ripponlea just for shits and giggles, until we started getting heaps of noise complaints and decided, “We might have something here”. If you weren’t doing that, what would you be doing? We would probably be playing as a chamber quintet called Bowlajello. What makes you the happiest about what your doing? Sharing the stage with other sick Melbourne bands like Merchant, Olmeg, Motherslug, The Hunted Crows and Greenthief. What makes you unhappiest about what your doing? Having to play as a chamber quintet. What can people expect from your live show? Imagine walking into a party and Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Kyuss and Isis (the band, not the terrorist organisation) are playing twister. BORRACHERO have two more shows left as part of their Yah Yah's Thursday night residency with Greenthief. They're also supporting their good mates, alternative blues/psych rockers Winter Moon on Friday August 29 at Cherry Bar.
TWO HEADED DOG BENDIGO HOTEL
TEQUILA MOCKINGBYRD CHERRY BAR
Every Wednesday in August, in support of OXFAM, you’ll get yourself a hardarse shot of Tequila Mockingbyrd with the ‘Mockingbomb’ night, featuring guests Atomic Riot and Ablaze $5 entry from 8pm this Wednesday August 19. Bands start at 9pm.
BABY BLUE
THE JOHN CURTIN
Most often known for hosting intimate events under the guise of Graceland Presents, Baby Blue, aka Rhea Caldwell, is now turning the tables and playing music herself. Simple songs for sad folk, and sad songs for simple folk is how she describes her music. Catch Baby Blue’s last residency show at The John Curtin, this Wednesday August 19 from 7.30pm onwards. Entry is free.
A BASKET OF MAMMOTHS THE BENDIGO HOTEL
Radical psych/stoners A Basket Of Mammoths are playing every Wednesday in August for their first ever residency at The Bendigo Hotel. There are some killer bands on the bill so come down and have some absolute ripper times this Wednesday August 19. Tonight’s
SCOOT MOLLY
T H E R E T R E AT H O T E L
Scoot Molly are a five-piece band from Melbourne playing a sharp blend of indie pop with alt rock influence, and just a dash of psychedelic goodness for flavouring. With a killer live show and massive stage presence, Scoot Molly are not ones to disappoint when it comes to giving your ears a treat ± so treat yourself. Get down to The Retreat this Wednesday August 19 from 7.30pm and enjoy a free show. You’ve earned it. THURSDAY AUGUST 20
JEFF VADER
W H O L E L O T TA L O V E B A R
Imagine you’re lying flat on your back in your favourite pub, feeling the carpetbeer soak serenely into your shirt. You begin to think you can hear some music sliding out from the crack around the trapdoor leading down to the cellar. You are not quite sure if it’s melodic, discordant, witty, poignant or if you are about to throw up again. That’s the effect Jeff Vader may, or may not, have on you. Decide for yourself this Thursday August 20 at Whole Lotta Love Bar. Supports from Bad Uncle and The Deja Vus. Doors open 7pm with free entry.
To celebrate Nick and Rusty’s birthdays, the folks at the Bendigo Hotel are putting on a party for everyone to join on Thursday August 20. Good boys Two Headed Dog are gonna be there barking up a storm ± ruff riffs and tall tails. Retriever beer too, don’t wanna be left bone dry for this one. Time to get loose. Free entry. Get in from 8pm onwards.
BORRACHERO YA H YA H ’ S
Melbourne’s sludge space rockers Borrachero will be playing every Thursday throughout August as part of a joint residency with Greenthief at Yah Yah’s in Fitzroy. Since 2012, Borrachero have been taking audiences on a journey through a vortex of fuzzed up delay lined with walls of noise, and Greenthief crashed the indie scenester party with their unique take on rock’n’roll. Sound good enough for your Thursday? Hit Yah Yah’s on Thursday August 20 from 6pm onwards to catch the noise. Free Entry.
HOLLYWOOD TALL BAR 303
Five acts are on offer this Thursday night at 303. Hollywood Tall is the #1 creator of wank-hop. Filthy Lui is the mysterious masked man spreading a message of dirt and grime. Frame is a self-declared “lame” rapper/singer that
writes songs about girls. The Atomic Cockroach is a purveyor of “futuristic electro word stuff ”. Reasonable Renelophus Penson and Strawberry Shortcut lead the live hip hop mash-up band Something Secret. By their powers combined, they are a show not to be missed. This Thursday August 20 at 303, doors open at 7pm with $5 entry.
OXJAM RESIDENCY
THE REVERENCE HOTEL
This week, the Justin Yap Band, The Splitters, Alan Wardon Band and Elise Queenie Music will be coming together to raise awareness and some much needed funds in support of Oxfam Australia’s campaigns around the world as part of a month long Thursday night residency at the Reverance Hotel in Footscray. Featuring a selection of bands across the genres of rock’n’roll, punk rock, blues, soul and heavy metal, each Thursday will a showcase of some of the most entertaining bands in Melbourne. It’s gonna be filled with good vibes, great music and good people who’d love for you to join in on mobilising the power of people against poverty. The next event in the series kicks off this Thursday August 20 at 8pm, entry to these residency shows is by a minimum donation of $10. FRIDAY AUGUST 21
KERRI SIMPSON
THE POST OFFICE HOTEL
Renowned for her ability to effortlessly own whatever genre she cares to, Kerri Simpson has released highly acclaimed albums with a stellar line up of musicians in blues and roots, gospel, country, rock, dance and world genres. She’s been nominated for an Aria Award, won
AUS. 2015
VICTORIA Semi-Final & Boylesque Final Sun 30th August Howler 7-11 Dawson St, Brunswick Doors 6:30pm
Miss Burlesque State Final Fri 18th September The Forum II 154 Flinders St, Melbourne Door 7:00pm
TICKETS ON SALE NOW missburlesqueinternational.com
For more information visit missburlesqueinternational.com
BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 36
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For all the latest news check out beat.com.au Rhythm’s Album of the Year, supported Kylie, and has been invited to perform at some of the world’s most prestigious festivals. This is your chance to catch one of Australia’s best songwriters in the intimate setting of The Post Office Hotel stage, this Friday August 21. Simpson performs two free entry sets from 9.30pm.
hit them doors from 5pm onwards and grab a bite at the Meet Wagon kitchen while you’re at it. Tickets to the upstairs show are $10.
every major ukulele festival in Australia, and made a memorable appearance at the Recycled Roots Festival. She returns to the Wesley Anne this Friday August 21 to launch her debut album, The Mercy of the Tide. It all goes down from 8pm in the Wesley’s band room. Tickets are $10.
BIG SMOKE
YOB
M A X WAT T ’ S
If you know your doom metal, then you should be well familiar with Yob by now. Their Clearing the Path to Ascend LP, released in 2014, topped Rolling Stone’s list of best metal albums of the year and received accolades from every publication from Pitchfork to The New York Times. Almost two decades into their existence and Yob have personified doom, with earth shaking post-metal, old school sorrow, and everything in between on show in Clearing the Path to Ascend. Catch Yob’s debut Australian performance, 8pm this Friday at Max Watt’s. Grab your $50 tickets through OzTix.
UNLUCKY YA H YA H ’ S
Alternative rap rock is setting up camp at Yah Yah’s this Friday August 21 as Unlucky take the stage. They’ll be backed by Phatquad, Old Souls and Cherry Pool all in the brand new upstairs main band room on the night,
JANE CAMERON
THE WESLE Y ANNE
Ukulele champ Jane Cameron has supported celebrated cigar box guitarist Justin Johnson, performed at almost
Uncle Rudey
CONRAD KEELY
THE JOHN CURTIN
It’s been a happening year for Melbourne country-rock’n’rollers Big Smoke. With a sold out single launch, east coast university tour and a national support tour with Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, the band is building its reputation as a group of serious players with serious songs. Their latest EP, Lately, cuts an adventurous trail through rock, country, soul, folk and pop all underpinned with the band’s signature groove and melody. Big Smoke launch Lately on limited edition 12” vinyl at The Curtin this Friday August 21 with Jim Lawrie and Backyard. Doors open at 8pm, entry is $12.
be spinning some ska, reggae and soul tunes in the front bar at The Reverence this Friday August 21. Entry is free and it kicks off at 9pm.
THE WORKERS CLUB
JOSHUA SEYMOUR
THE DRUNKEN POET
Joshua Seymour is a storyteller, an interpreter, and someone who can hold a captive audience in any situation. Having spent the last few years as co-songwriter in Melbourne based alt-country band, Cherrywood, Seymour has come out swinging with a fantastic set of his own songs. His debut LP, Rope Tied Hope, sees him put his own Australian spin on Americana. Seymour plays The Drunken Poet on Friday August 21 and Friday August 28 from 8.30pm. Free entry.
STEVEN MONTGOMERY THE REVERENCE HOTEL
Steven Montgomery of legendary Melbourne ska band Ska Vendors will
Conrad Keely, founding member of … And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, will be performing solo at the Worker’s Club on Friday August 21, off the back of his band’s Australian tour. After 20 years with Trail of Dead, Keely has just mastered his first solo record and will be playing songs off the new album for the first time anywhere in the world. Expect to also hear some rare Trail of Dead songs and surprising covers. Keely will be supported by punk and country journeyman Lincoln Le Fevre and sonic storyteller Single Twin. Tickets are $12, doors at 8.30pm. SATURDAY AUGUST 22
SUDDEN STATE
W H O L E L O T TA L O V E B A R
It’s a hard rock metal party this Saturday night at Whole Lotta Love, with Sudden State and Warbirds coheadlining the night. Opening the night with a bang are new boys on the block Vulgar Born. If they don’t melt your face off then Darcee Fox are next up to blow your mullets back with straight up hard
So then, what’s the band name and what do you ‘do’ in the band? Uncle Rudey and I ( James) play bass and sing. My bro Davo sings half the songs and plays guitar, Chicken’s on lead guitar and Joey’s on the drums. What do you reckon people will say you sound like? Aussie pub rock with a blues tinge. What do you love about making music? The best thing we love is when a new hook is created and the energy it gives. What do you hate about the music industry? We hate all the shiny manufactured pop. If you could travel back in time and show one of your musical heroes your stuff, who would it be and why? If we could go back in time we would show Jimi Hendrix our stuff because he was the coolest man to ever walk the earth. If you could assassinate one person or band from popular music, who would it and why? If we could assassinate one person from popular music it would be Chris Martin. His whiney vocals and cheesy lyrics are very lame. What can a punter expect from your live show? A punter can expect a high energy and fun show. Love playing live. What’ve you got to sell CD-wise? We have our Amsterdam Shuffle EP to sell. Anything else to add? Beer is good. Music is good. Get involved. UNCLE RUDEY will launch their EP at the Brunswick Hotel on Friday August 21 alongside Deadly Are The Naked, Battlesick, Ziah Ziam, and Channel Beero.
COMING UP THURSDAY 27TH AUGUST
SUZETTE HERFT
TUESDAYS IN AUGUST
FACT HUNT TRIVIA $5 TACOS + $16 JUGS OF THUNDER RD
Hosted by RRR’s Tristen Harris, this is a comfortably dumb trivia for music fans and couch potatoes, no sport, no politics and no book-learnin’. QUIZ FROM 8PM - RESERVATIONS - SAMANDA@SPOTTEDMALLARD.COM. NO COVER
WEDNESDAY 19TH AUGUST
COTTON CLUB
FT. JULES BOULT & THE REDEEMERS
WITH PATRICK WILLIAMS & PETE FIDLER (ALBUM LAUNCH) $10 FROM 6PM
FRIDAY 28TH AUGUST
CHOOK RACE
+ STEVE MILLER BAND + BJ MORRISZONKLE + DJ MERMAID SHOWTIME 8.30PM / NO COVER
SHOWTIME 8:30PM, NO COVER
BEGINNER BLUES DANCE LESSONS FROM 7:30PM - $15
FRIDAY 21ST AUGUST
NAKED BODIES + THE SHABBAB + THE HONDAS $5 ENTRY FROM 8:30PM
SATURDAY 22ND AUGUST
GRAND WAZOO – KINGS OF SOUL $8 Pints Craft Beer DOORS/DINNER 6PM, SHOWTIME 9PM PRE SALE $25 + BF
SUNDAY 23RD AUGUST
THE BAND WHO KNEW TOO MUCH PERFORMING 2 X SETS
SHOWTIME 4:30PM / NO COVER / KITCHEN SERVING SUNDAY ROAST AND LATER:
LILITH LANE PERFORMING 2 X ACOUSTIC SETS SHOWTIME 7:30PM / NO COVER
4pm-6pm Daily
KITCHEN HOURS WINTER MENU
Tues-Fri 4pm till you’re full Sat & Sun 2pm till you’re full
TICKETS
For ticket sales visit www.spottedmallard.com 314 Sydney Rd, Brunswick
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MUSIC NEWS
Q&A
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For all the latest news check out beat.com.au pumping rock. It’s on, and you can get it from 8pm for a mere $10 entry. Do yourself a favour and slink into Whole Lotta Love Bar this Saturday August 22.
Latham’s Grip
So then, what’s the band name and what do you ‘do’ in the band? The band’s called Latham’s Grip, LG, or Lengthy Grope, whichever you prefer. I do the guitar and make the dad jokes. What do you reckon people will say you sound like? We quite often get either Modest Mouse or The Clash. We’re hoping to one day have someone say Death Grips, but that’s pie-in-the-sky stuff really. What do you love about making music? The moment of closure when you can finally call a track finished, and knowing you’ve bottled whatever you were brewing at the time. What do you hate about the music industry? That no-one’s ever properly rocked the senate. I want to see old Tony get himself in there with a six string and smash out some Dune Rats. If you could travel back in time and show one of your musical heroes your stuff, who would it be and why? I’d go down to the docks and sit next to Otis, and share the moment with him and his awesomely photogenic head. If you could assassinate one person or band from popular music, who would it and why? I’ll have to go with The Offspring. Judging by their bassist’s soulless face in their recent clips, he’s fully up for it. What’ve you got to sell CD-wise? We have two EPs, Jesusaurus Rex and Hey Senorita. You can find them online too. There’s also a third release on the way. LATHAM’S GRIP play Saturday August 22 at The Brunswick Hotel with Rockenspiele, Jurassic Nark, Neon Queen and Mild Manic.
Q&A
The New Pollution
What’s the band name and what do you do in the band? The New Pollution, I play drunk guitar. What do you reckon people will say you sound like? Probably that we sound like a really loud bong with a phaser on it with a bubbly ‘pop’ edge. What do you love about making music? Guitar solos and ballads. What do you hate about the music industry? I hate the way that the music industry is geared so that Prince is just so out of reach. Look down and love me oh purple one. If you could travel back in time and show one of your musical heroes your stuff, who would it be and why? Not sure if this accurately answers the question at all, but I’d probably crawl into the time portal to find Audrey Horne from Twin Peaks and show her everything I’d written and tell her, “I did it for you, baby”. If you could assassinate one person or band from popular music, who would it be and why? Not too worried about having anyone assassinated. If someone needs sorting out, Noel Gallagher will more than likely call them a twat or something. What can a punter expect from your live show? Sweet pouty mouths and good crotch orientated dance grooves. What have you got to sell CD-wise? We have a CD called Solar Power that has an album on it that we did last year. THE NEW POLLUTION play The Workers Club on Thursday August 20 with Going Swimming, LIES INC., Crimsonettes and James Seedy. BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 38
Andy “Hillbilly” Scott on double bass, and Sharky Ramos on drums, the boys are heading to The Post Office Hotel this Saturday August 22, belting out two sets of tunes from 9.30pm. Entry is free as a bird.
HAMILTON WILDLIFE SHELTER FUNDRAISER W H O L E L O T TA L O V E
This Friday August 21, Whole Lotta Love will play host to a punk rock fundraiser for the Hamilton Wildlife Shelter. With all door sales going to the shelter, there’ll also be rad raffles with mad merch and bad-arse bands. First on the bill is Georgia Maq, who’ll be getting her emo folk acoustic on, followed by super sensitive romantics The Cruntburgers, the always depressed Joe Guiton of the Suicide Tuesdays and skate folk punkers FOLEY!, all before headliners Laura Palmer. $10. Do it for the animals. Doors from 7pm.
DRUNK MUMS
DING DONG LOUNGE
Melbourne garage rockers Drunk Mums recently announced a national tour in support of their sophomore album, Gone Troppo. Due out on September 4 via Pissfart Records, Drunk Mums have already given fans a taste of the album with its freshly released lead single Pub On My Own. Gone Troppo, which was recorded at Brunswick’s Smooch Records and a Reservoir truck stop, will mark the first full length from the band since their 2012 self-titled debut. Get a sneak peek of things to come at their album preview this Friday August 21 at Ding Dong Lounge. Tickets are $15 at the door, doors open at 9pm. Get on it.
THE OPHIDIAN ASCENSION
THE BENDIGO HOTEL
With Départe vocalist Sam Dishington filling in during Hadal Maw’s vocalistless stage, it only made sense to team the two bands up once things returned to normal. With The Ophidian Ascension, vocalist Jake Milne now at the helm, Hadal Maw will be headlining the show during a string of dates that will no doubt prove that the lineup hiccup hasn’t slowed them down. Despite not having a full length out yet, Tassie’s Départe are one of the latest signings to the illustrious Season of Mist Records, have already toured Europe alongside Ulcerate and Wormed, and scored international supports locally. Rounding out the night, Adamus Exul will bring some misanthropic black metal to the stage, Arbrynth some “forest metal”, and Flesh of the Earth will open things on a brutal note. Doors open at 7.30pm, entry is $15.
HUGO RACE AND THE TRUE SPIRIT T H E F LY I N G S AU C E R C L U B
Ex-Bad Seed and founder of The Wreckery, Hugo Race and long time collaborators The True Spirit have released The Spirit, their twelfth studio album and first in seven years. The Spirit represents Hugo’s return to his roots of psychedelic rock, or ‘industrial trance blues’ as some have called it. Hugo Race and The True Spirit will celebrate the release with a very special performance on Friday August 21 at the Flying Saucer Club, where they will play The Spirit live in its entirety. Doors open 8pm with $20 tickets on the door.
THE FLAMING MONGRELS
T H E R E T R E AT H O T E L
The Flaming Mongrels features luminaries of the Melbourne country and blues scene. If you’re in the mood for some outlaw country or some downhome blues, The Flaming Mongrels are the band to see. Catch them down at The Retreat Hotel this Saturday August 22. Doors open at 5pm with free entry.
CONVICT FEST
T H E GRACE DARLI NG
HURST
T H E P ENNY BLACK
Alt-rock act Hurst have recently teamed up with Ryan Miller (The Delta Riggs, Nova And The Experience) for their new single Tom. The group have enjoyed steady success since early 2014, their feisty live antics leading them to support shows with Glass Towers, The Love Junkies, Dallas Frasca, My Echo and Kingswood. They’ll be playing a show on Saturday August 22 at The Penny Black. Catch them from 9pm.
ROCKABILLY RAGE
OH MERCY
THE LUWOW
HOWLER
Oh Mercy will hit up Howler for their When We Talk About Love album tour. With the album’s release well and truly underway, Oh Mercy invites you to get down to Howler this Saturday August 22 and catch some of their most personal songs to date. Doors open at 8pm. Tickets will set you back $23.
EVOLUTION OF SELF
THE REVERENCE HOTEL
After a solid year of playing live, working hard and fine tuning their craft, Evolution Of Self are ready to release their debut self-titled EP, this week at The Rev. All their work has led the crew to a diverse, in your face style of metalcore that’s represented through six strong tracks that’ll get your bros moshing down like stampeding horses. Five band lineup for a cheap as hell $10 bucks. Get down to The Reverence from 7pm onwards.
BORN LION
THE BENDIGO HOTEL
Born Lion have announced they’ll be taking their new debut LP Final Words on the road from August through til October, with two Melbourne shows penned in the books. Battering eardrums with furious punk’n’roll. They’ll play a show at The Bendigo Hotel on Saturday August 22. Tickets are $17, doors open at 4pm.
THE HARLOTS YA H YA H ’ S
The Harlots are hitting the Yah Yah’s stage this Saturday August 22, bringing with them a wave of indie alternative soul finely aged since 2010. Support on the night comes from Red Eagle and Yoko Bono, and if that’s enough to suit your musical needs feel free to hit up Meet Wagon’s quality friend kitchen for those pertaining to your stomach. Upstairs entry will set you back $13. Doors from 8pm.
LOONEE TUNES SOOKI LOUNGE
BEASTWARS CHERRY BAR
Close to being the very best hard rock act on the planet, Beastwars are flying across from New Zealand just to play at Cherry Bar this week before heading back to the land of small flightless birds. Heavy fuzz-doom rockers Hydromedusa are also joining in on the action. Smash that in your earholes at Cherry Bar on Saturday August 22.
ROADHOUSE ROMEOS
THE POST OFFICE HOTEL
Formed by veteran guitarist Peter Baylor to showcase his eclectic guitar and singing style, The Roadhouse Romeos have been delivering some of the finest rockabilly, country blues, honky tonk and western swing to the bars and dancehalls of Australia for over ten years. With Rick Dempster on steel guitar and harmonica,
This Saturday marks the first ever Convict Fest, for all old school lovers of garage, punk and vinyl, going down at The Grace Darling. The Darling has handpicked a stack of the best garage bands who have released their music on vinyl, so they can rock out on stage while punters peruse the record market where you can purchase those vinyl releases. What bands you might ask? Midnight Woolf, Going Swimming, The Shabbab, Brat Farrar, The Reprobettes, Grindhouse, Ross de Chene Hurricanes, The Yard Apes, Damn The Torpedoes, Department and Kit Convict & Thee Terrible Two. Catch Convict Fest at The Grace Darling, this Saturday August 22 from 5pm. Entry is $15.
The Loonee Tunes sound mixes ska, pop and mod influences, while their stage presentation is filled with energy and humour. At the band’s last Sooki gig on Anzac Day, punters came in their multitudes and definitely got their money’s worth - the dance floor was packed throughout both sets. Saturday August 22 will see the Loonees return to the Sooki Lounge stage. Get down to Sooki Lounge from 9pm to get in on the action. Entry is $10 on the door.
DIGGER AND THE PUSSYCATS
T H E R E T R E AT H O T E L
Garage punk legends Digger and The Pussycats are taking up residency every Saturday evening in August at The Retreat. For the uninitiated, Digger and The Pussycats have garnered a worldwide cult following in their ten plus years of hard touring and excessive recorded output, playing their brand of noisy, unstructured garage punk. After taking a well deserved year off, the band is ready to get noisy again. Doors open at 8pm, entry is free as always.
Gear yourself up for a mega double header at LuWOW on Saturday August 22 when Rumblin’ Wolf and The Infernos take over the venue in one night of rockabilly mayhem. The Rumblin’ Wolf clan will be launching their debut CD Howlin’, while The Infernos will play a whole new set, showing off their neo-rockabilly sound. Entry is a steal at $10. Get on down.
PEEL SLOWLY AND SEE - A TRIBUTE TO THE VELVET UNDERGROUND
T H E F LY I N G S AU C E R C L U B
50 years on from The Velvet Underground’s first paid gig, two of Melbourne’s finest are pairing up to pay tribute. The Spoils will be playing the groups’ iconic debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, in full for one night only. They’ll be joined by psychedelic rockers Sand Pebbles, who will play the Velvet’s second album, White Light White Heat, track-by-track. Having toured with the likes of The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Drones and Catpower, The Spoils have released three studio albums. Sand Pebbles hold members spanning five generations and now hold several albums to their name. It all goes down at the Flying Saucer Club on Saturday August 22. Doors open at 8pm, general admission tickets are $25.
CABLE TIES
THE JOHN CURTIN HOTEL
The DIY-style New Lease series continues at The Curtin this Saturday arvo with three hot bands on the bill. Garage punks Cable Ties are headlining this one, with surfer bros Vista Point and Anika rounding out the lineup. Come down and chill at The Curtin, from 3pm this Saturday August 22. Entry won’t cost you a cent.
DESTRENDS
DING DONG LOUNGE
Destrends are a Melbourne based postpunk/art-rock three-piece, producing an angular bass-driven sound that is modern, yet eerily reminiscent of the new wave sound of the late ‘70s and ‘80s. The ingredients of deep and compelling vocals, raw accompaniment and a theatrical live performance define what is Destrends. Having just returned from a national tour supporting Stonefield, Destrends are set to hit Ding Dong Lounge to launch their second single,
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For all the latest news check out beat.com.au Skin, which the guys have just released as part of a limited edition double A side vinyl. Now, they’re giving fans a chance to hear a slice of this sweet post-punkin’ pie on Saturday August 22. Doors open at 9pm, entry is $12.
LATHAM’S GRIP
THE BRUNSWICK HOTEL
South coast alt rockers Latham’s Grip have been touring the nation since July, sending out good vibes everywhere from Canberra and Sydney to Wollongong and Adelaide. Since forming, Latham’s Grip has already shared stages with big name Aussie acts like British India, The Smith Street Band and The Bennies. Touring to support the release of their forthcoming EP, Melbourne audiences can get onto Latham’s Grip this weekend when they hit up The Brunny on Saturday August 22, along with supports Mild Manic, Jurassic Narc, Rockepiele and The Gunslingers. Doors open 9pm with free entry. SUNDAY AUGUST 23
SOUL SUNDAYS T H E R E T R E AT
Clap your hands, Brunswick’s iconic Soul Sundays keep returning to The Retreat every Sunday night. Presented by Thunder Road, Melbourne’s best soul acts and DJs electrify the dance floor with the best down and dirty soul, funk, and vintage RnB. Every Sunday at The
Retreat Hotel, with bands from 7.30pm and DJs til 1am. At the low, low cost of free entry, it’s the best fun you’ll have for nuthin’.
MELBOURNE CITY SOUL REVIEW THE DRUNKEN POET
What started out as a protest band, a vehicle to voice their concerns with the global political climate, took an interesting twist when they approached former Pornland frontman and vocalist Slatty D, who pointed out “The people don’t want to hear about our disillusionment with the inadequacies of government, local or otherwise. What they really need is soul.” The Melbourne City Soul Review was born. Catch them live at The Drunken Poet on Sunday August 23 from 4pm. Free entry.
The Handsome Bastards are a local act spawned by Rick Plant, Shane O’Mara, Dan Lethbridge and Ralf Rehak. Conceived in O’Mara’s Yarraville lounge room in 2012, the band ventures out once in a while to show their favourite dark and twisted country songs to the world. They’ve played with everyone, come see them play with themselves, this Sunday August 23 at The Post Office Hotel. The Handsome Bastards play two free entry sets from 4.30pm, with support from Jethro Pickett. MONDAY AUGUST 24
Griya, together with the Grace Darling Hotel, have put together four Sunday residency nights jam packed with Melbourne talent. Griya, hailing from the eastern hills of Melbourne, draws inspiration from folklore tales and gunslinger love. With Alexandra Isobella at the helm, her dark raspy tones lead the siege of gentlemen behind her into the depths of a dreamy, war scape of sound. Griya will leave you with a mixture of nostalgia, wistfulness and ambivalence. Get down this Sunday August 23, with support from Open Swimmer and Toby Robinson. Doors open at 6.30pm with $7 entry.
HANDSOME BASTARDS
THE POST OFFICE HOTEL
TUESDAY AUGUST 25
TASTE OF INDIE COLLECTIVE
PRINCE BUBLIC BAR
GRIYA
T H E GRACE DARLI NG HOTEL
to play a setful of duets, preceded by a solo set from each. This free entry show is a chance to see the cream of the Melbourne scene in one-off, one-ofa-kind performances, in the clubhouse environment of The Retreat Hotel front bar. Tonight’s guests are Amarina Waters and Loni Rae. Take two and swallow with The Mutual Appreciation Society at The Retreat Hotel, this Monday August 24 from 7pm.
THE SCRIMSHAW FOUR THE WORKERS CLUB
The Scrimshaw Four have decided to throw a party just for you every Monday night in August, getting down at The Workers Club to have a good ol’ boogie. Each week will feature a new theme sporting costumes and dress ups, and there’ll be a new setlist every week as well. Might as well head to them all. Supports this week come from Uncle Bobby and Senivoda. Get down from 7pm, $3 entry to the venue.
THE MUTUAL APPRECIATION SOCIETY T H E R E T R E AT H O T E L
Every Monday night, two established artists are randomly thrown together
The Taste of Indie Tuesday is back again this week at the Prince Public Bar, this week hosting Duo Trio night. Catch the songwriting and musical collaborations of some of Melbourne’s finest original artists. This week on stage, the Taste of Indie Collective presents Temple Of Tunes, Bad Hobbits and Priestessa & Dash. Original songwriting, fantastic vocals and brilliant instrumentation it’s all here at the Prince Public Bar. The shows start from 7.30pm onwards with free entry.
BUSY KINGDOM CHERRY BAR
Cherry Bar are setting up your Tuesdays with a residency of rock. Busy Kingdom, off the tail of releasing their new EP Woman, are taking over for the month of August with special guests at each show. This week features support from Going Swimming and The Dead Heir. Be sure to catch them when they hit Cherry Bar this Tuesday August 25. Doors open at 7pm, entry is free.
Hurst
Define your genre in five words or less: Alternative rock. So, someone is walking past as you guys are playing, they then go get a beer and tell their friend about you... what do they say? “Sick vibes. I didn’t know a person could flail their limbs and rock out so hard like that. Wtf.” How long have you been gigging and writing? Gigging for a year and a half, but we were in deep hiding writing our tunes for over a year before our debut. What has been your favourite gig you’ve played to date? Our Sydney show for our current tour was absolutely tops. We did a cover of Stacy’s Mom and our drummer Nick sang lead on it. Everyone lost their minds. What has influenced your music the most? We take a lot of influence from Led Zeppelin, The Who and recently Band of Skulls and The Dead Weather. A few months back, My Echo (a local Melbourne act) played in my town and we were blown away by them. We bought their EP and it influenced a lot of the tracks we wrote at the end of 2014. Do you have any record releases to date? What? Where can I get it? We just released our single Tom, which is available for purchases on iTunes. You can also stream it for free on our SoundCloud. Why should everyone come and see your band? Because we’re far better seen than heard. I love to jump around and often run into shit because I’m not paying attention to what’s around me. You can catch HURST at The Penny Black on Saturday August 22 with Spiral Arm and King Puppy & The Carnivore.
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BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 39
LIVE
REPORTS FROM THE FRONT ROW
For more reviews go to beat.com.au/reviews SUPER BEST FRIENDS The Reverence Hotel, Friday August 14
THE BELLRAYS Ding Dong Lounge, Saturday August 15 Dallas Frasca’s fast rock’n’roll and throaty blues vocals were a logical choice to open the show at Ding Dong Lounge tonight. Having been performing for the better part of a decade, the Melbourne three-piece know what they’re doing and they did their best to prepare the stage for the main act, with the set’s final song All My Love a particular standout. From the moment The BellRays took the stage it became apparent they’re a highly original unit who can effortlessly pack an enormous sonic punch, but also that they were holding something back. The fellas in the band put their heads down and went to work, with the bassist immediately inciting those up the front by moving to the front of the stage and rocking out, while guitarist Bob Vennum pulled some Pete Townshendesque jumps to accentuate the big chords. Although they sounded terrific, there was a definite vibe missing; an energy that should have flowed from the band to the crowd and back again was not connecting, and this was clearly frustrating frontwoman Lisa Kekaula. She didn’t exactly blame the audience so much as attempt to hype them up by reminding them that, “This is Saturday night people.” But she was obviously exasperated at the lack of energy in the room, and was further thrown off by some technical issues. “I know you think this is the time for talking, but it’s not,” scolded Kekaula. “I’m giving you everything and that is a rare thing.”
Soon, however, came a moment of revelatory cohesion, when the band started to fire on all cylinders. This was especially true during Black Lightning, when Kekaula turned and smiled at husband Vennum as if it to say “We got this”. Power to Burn was followed by a BellRays-ified cover of Whole Lotta Love, which had heads nodding in appreciation, while Anymore proved the band are just as capable at smouldering soul as high octane rock. The drummer was solid and energetic, while the simple, often repetitive guitar and bass riffs provided a bed for Kekaula’s huge voice, generating a sound akin to the MC5 fronted by Tina Turner. Dallas Frasca returned to the stage to help with the encore, a furious duet of Stevie Wonder’s Living For the City, that showed even on an off night The BellRays are an incredible band. BY ALEX WATTS LOVED: The BellRays. In a general and platonic sense. HATED: The bouncer wouldn’t let me stand on that step next to the bar. DRANK: One pint of the cheapest please.
HIATUS KAIYOTE Howler, Saturday August 15 Make no mistake, future-soul juggernauts Hiatus Kaiyote are a world class band. From collaborating with Q-Tip, picking up a Grammy nomination and releasing their latest critically acclaimed album Choose Your Weapon, the group are an explosion of virtuosity and imagination. Tonight, they made their long awaited hometown return to kick off their national album tour. A masterclass in labyrinthine grooves, visceral improvisation and focused segments, this was a gig to remember. Jaala kicked off the evening with a hard hitting set that got Howler bubbling with excitement. Jazz collided with punk and garage, as Nicolas Lam’s dextrous lead guitar burst forth from the tightly wound rhythm section. As the band weaved through fragmented time signatures, frontwoman Cosima Jaala displayed her impressive range and elastic vocal style, moving from smooth melodies to raucous squeals. Following Jaala were testosterone-fuelled smooth talkers Sex On Toast. Decked out in all black, the local ten-piece brought new material alongside crowd favourites to fire up the room. Bandleader Angus Leslie has never sounded better, with his expressive vocal runs taking full flight. The amount of fun Sex On Toast had playing their music was infectious, leading crowd surfing and a serious amount of boogying to take place. By now, Howler was heaving with punters who welcomed Hiatus Kaiyote to the stage with a round of rapturous applause. Right from the first note, it was clear we were in for a treat. Their latest album is nothing short of a sonic journey, moving through ambient
Photo by Ian Laidlaw
soundscapes and dense future-soul. Amazingly, the depth and complexity of Choose Your Weapon wasn’t just thoroughly recreated live, but expanded upon and pushed to new heights. Latest single Breathing Underwater came to life with rich atmospherics and lush harmonies before the band dipped into a liquid outro. Moving between grooves, Nai Palm made her way to the keyboard for a stunning rendition of Jekyll, complete with a monstrous synth solo from Simon Mavin. Palm sung the band’s breakthrough track Nakamarra with heartfelt sincerity, and had no trouble getting the crowd to join in on the chorus. To cap it off, Shaolin Monk Motherfunk swung hard and fast, with their melting pot of influences coming together seamlessly. At this stage in their career, Hiatus Kaiyote are operating as a well oiled machine. While Palm confidently takes the reigns, the phenomenal ability of rhythm section Paul Bender, Perrin Moss and Simon Mavin can’t be understated. However, it’s their chemistry and connection as a group that gives Hiatus Kaiyote that magic quality that is so often imitated but rarely matched. BY JAMES DI FABRIZIO LOVED: The happiness that Nakammara brought both the crowd and the band. HATED: Absolutely nothing. DRANK: All of the beers.
highlights of the performance included the breezy back and forth guitar play found in All My Friends Are Leaving Town, and a memorable rendition of The Man Song; a scathing critique of masculinity in today’s Australia. “You’re a male, so just be white and dumb/ In Australia the best you can aspire to is cracking a couple of cold ones,” recited lead singer and guitarist Johnny Barrington, before wrapping up the set and presumably cracking a couple of cold ones himself. Who would’ve thought there was an audience for intellectual Aussie garage? Thankfully, these guys did.
In town for their aptly titled All My Friends Are Leaving Town tour, Canberra’s Super Best Friends headlined a massive five-act bill at The Reverence Hotel. They came out sounding like the third in an unholy trio of Aussie pub rock slackers, a circle completed by locals Drunk Mums and The Smith Street Band. Super Best Friends walk the same path of tongue-in-cheek embracement of Australian culture, probably even more so than the others, and took more than a few digs at it during their tight 40 minute set. Grunge-laden ballads and kickarse bass fills aside, they had me bouncing round the band room like a teen who’d snuck into Revolver. But what stayed with me afterwards was the surprisingly profound lyrical content. My super best friends and I were jamming all night to tracks like Out Tonight and Gentrified. It was just so shocking that three ocker looking blokes playing pub rock at the Rev could bust out some hard hitting social commentary, especially after describing themselves as ‘flannel-punk’ only minutes earlier. Touching on every hot political issue, from mandatory conscription to our treatment of asylum seekers,
BY MICHAEL CLARK
LOVED: The Man Song. HATED: My goon sack breaking. DRANK: Goon till the sack broke.
CUNTZ The Old Bar, Thursday August 13 To cut straight to the point, Cuntz show at The Old Bar was really bloody great. Drug Sweat kicked things off with an addictive lattice of noise, a sort of garage synth punk concoction that teetered on the edge of excess, but never became too much because it all just seemed so natural. It was hard to discern what genre they fit into until it dawned on you that it didn’t actually matter. The addictive sound erupted into your stomach, drummed into your ears and gradually thumped and whined into your brain. They were followed by Tommy T & The Classical Mishaps, who had an abundance of dark electronic punk sass, but unfortunately a bunch of mystifying stuff happened and they were cut short. Then came Cuntz, who were playing their last show before heading off on a tour of the USA. The performance was mantra-like; their sound and stance balancing precariously between who-gives-a-fuck and mind-sucking intensity. The most forceful element was the frontman’s furrowed gaze that bore through the crowd. He skulked about the stage in a lizard-like way, always talking at you, never with you, over chant-like
beats and delicious cries of synth. The mosh brewed and spread and there were lots of flashings of beer belly. They were raw, but nothing was clichéd about the postpunk sweat-fest. Cuntz maintained easy composure, seeming like old masters of the sport rather than a bunch of youngish guys under the red light and pale disco ball of The Old Bar stage. BY ERIN MCCONCHIE
LOVED: The beautiful smatterings of mullets. HATED: Nil. DRANK: Soda water. Has anyone else ever been to Old Bar during an alcohol and ciggie-free month? It’s as disturbing as it sounds.
MUTTON The Old Bar, Friday August 14 The intimate size of The Old Bar creates a grungy, organic atmosphere, which can easily play to a bands strengths or weaknesses. But Melbourne noise rock outfit Mutton could not have chosen a better venue for the launch of their 7”, Flyblown. Those wise enough to show up early were treated to a mind-blowing set from the relatively new threepiece Tankerville. These guys nailed it ± raw, guttural vocals and plenty of chug propelled them through an immaculate set, leaving punters salivating for more. Hilarious onstage banter about beer and hangovers set the mood for what was going to be ripper of a show. Next up, A.D Skinner barrelled through their performance with high-energy that was matched by the steadily growing crowd. Though, one would expect nothing less from the established punk outfit. Geelong locals The Kremlings adhered to their insane, face-punching reputation with a fast and intense set. Vocalist Andre Merino screeched through songs, leaving those watching quivering in their boots, in the best kind of way. By the time Mutton took the stage, the buzzing and now sizeable crowd had consumed ample beers. Anticipation for their set was amplified by suitably grim décor, consisting of ornamental lamb skulls scattered BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 40
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about the stage. Heavy riffs with plenty of fuzz, paired with growling vocals from frontman Max Ducker, had the swarming crowd locked in from the start. On tracks like Cocoon, Ducker recalled Nick Cave’s grimy vocal style in The Birthday Party, while Trough showed an even harder side to Mutton, perhaps more akin to genre-blurring hardcore acts like Sabretooth Zombie. In venues the size of The Old Bar it can be difficult to get the sound right, especially for heavier acts. Mutton had no problems, with grungy distortion encouraging the ecstatic punters to jump right into the chaos. Their planned set couldn’t satisfy the sweat-drenched crowd, who begged for one more song. Shows like this are a testament to the kind of talent Melbourne fosters across all music genres. If you haven’t already, get yourself a copy of Mutton’s Flyblown. Your life will be changed for the better. BY BEL RYAN LOVED: Tankerville HATED: $11 pints DRANK: Coopers Green
ALBUM
OF THE
WEEK
TOP TENS
PBS FM TOP TEN
1. Kill It Yourself JESS RIBEIRO 2. Saint Jude II SAINT JUDE 3. Live at Melbourne Recital Centre STELLA ANGELICO 4. Billy Tea To Burgers ORIGAMI 5. Pale Blue ANDREI EREMIN 6. Pain DEAF WISH 7. It’s The On And Ons Calling THE ON AND ONS 8. Till The End Of The Road PAPA PILKO AND THE BINRATS 9. White Lies & Melodies MUSTERED COURAGE 10. Seedy Jeezus SEEDY JEEZUS
HEARTLAND RECORDS TOP TEN
1. Placebo LP PLACEBO 2. Live At The Marquee LP/DVD ROLLING STONES 3. Great White Dope LP/CD SUN & SAIL CLUB 4. I Declare Nothing LP ANTON NEWCOMBE 5. EP1 12” SWANS 6. Gravitron LP ATOMIC BITCH WAX 7. Complete Spin Concert 2LP HUSKER DU 8. Scaffolds Of The Sky LP MIRROR QUEEN 9. Boston Tea Party 2LP TALKING HEADS 10. Eaten Alive 2LP RAMONES
DREAM IN COLOUR KIDZ D.I.C.K (Independent)
Placing the bloody gaping jaws of a great white shark beneath D.I.C.K in giant bold letters on the cover of your debut album is a sure way to grab people’s attention – and that’s exactly the plan for Melbourne indie surf-punks Dream In Colour Kidz. They’ve worked damn hard on this self-titled LP, so if chucking some eye-popping titbits on the cover is what it takes to reel listeners in, then so be it. D.I.C.K was self-recorded, mixed and mastered by the band, but it’s no amateur bedroom LP. From the sizzling guitar solo on Bubbling to the raspy shouted chorus of Da Wishka, everything fits snugly into the mix. It’s got that whole crusty punk thing going on, and nothing sounds too polished or tinkered with. Sea Devil emerges slowly from the depths with ambient guitar before bursting into a surf-rock extravaganza. It subsides and makes way for With You, a standout track bristling with washed-out, summery melodies
and noodling guitar. Like Wavves but less blazed, the chorus will stick to you like sand on the beach. Bubbling maintains the frantic pace with a searing solo pushing things to boiling point. Elsewhere, Pain and Icecream’s sickly sweet refrain of “I’m melting away” is layered over an upbeat acoustic jam; its second half channelling the blissed-out good times of Blind Melon’s ’93 classic, No Rain. Driving in the Car With Mum is a jazzy acoustic interlude with an unexpected conclusion, while Golden Oak, the last track on the album, rounds things out with a driving rhythm and hazy vibes. Dream In Colour Kidz have come up with a debut record that rocks with the might of Poseidon. A gnarly surf-punk smorgasbord, this LP serves up plenty to sink your teeth into. BY JACK PILVEN
SINGLES
BY LACHLAN
Dialogue in Macbeth was confusing, especially how Macbeth and Macduff were both referred to as “Oi Macca”. I blame the Australian JOANNA NEWSOM Sapokanikan (Drag City) The hunger pangs for new Joanna Newsom material came with increasing frequency in the past few years, and just as it almost became unbearable, the announcement of new album Divers arrives, along with it, new single Sapokanikan. The track is a sprawling wonder, a little more stripped back than the arrangements on 2010’s Have One On Me. A winding path, strewn with blossoming melodies, it’s such a pleasure to lose yourself in this. LANA DEL REY High By The Beach (Universal) Full props for High By The Beach doing exactly what it says on the tin. LDR sings, “All I wanna do is get high by the beach,” with undeniable conviction, leading a strange, subdued mood of droning organ and mellow hip hop production. It’s a tractor beam of effortless cool, near the point of self-parody. Or even, well beyond the point of self-parody.
S
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WWA Straight Outta Chicago (Independent) A supergroup of some of ChiTown’s finest – Katie Got Bandz, Sasha Go Hard, Lucci Vee and Chella H – team up for a flip of the classic Straight Outta Compton, going in hard from Katie Got Bandz’ opening verse, through to every script-changing string-laden beat breakdown. Each second is loaded with power. FKA TWIGS In Time (Young Turks/Remote Control) The level of artistry FKA Twigs is currently operating on is, quite frankly, scary. EP3, breaking established naming convention with the title M3LL155X, dropped with scant warning, along with a video accompaniment. There’s triumph, there’s cyborgaugmented anguish, and Twigs is in control with each acceleration. We’re witnessing genius.
O
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DESTINY Orange Blossom (Independent) Princess Nokia brainchild Destiny serves up one of the year’s most feelgood jams with Orange Blossom; a cruisey romp that will most definitely take command of your hipbones. It’s a dream, and an incredibly sexy one at that. Who needs new Franky Ocean when we have this? HAIM ‘Cause I’m A Man (Universal) Taking Tame Impala’s single for a spaced out remix, HAIM add some fairly ridiculous trap elements that bring Kevin Parker’s pop sensibilities into a more articulated modernity, with his fragile vocal substituted for HAIM’s soaring, flawless rendition. Is this better than the original? I think so. It’s definitely bigger, and the pristine melody is still in tact. Maybe overcooked in parts, but that’s part of the fun.
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ECCA VANDAL Father Hu$$la (Dew Process) Ecca Vandal’s latest single Father Hu$$la operates like 20 songs at once, all of them good, and somehow forging together for a cohesive package that shifts from minimal electronica to blown-out hip hop into a full prog rock freakout in the course of a few minutes. It’s hard to keep up, but there’s reward if you do. Same goes for Ecca Vandal’s live show, too, as Splendour found out.
BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 42
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COLLECTORS CORNER MISSING LINK TOP TEN
1. When Sharpies Ruled CD VARIOUS 2. Nevermind LP NIRVANA 3. Living In A Shadow CD VARIOUS 4. I Want To Kill You / Monster 7” BLACK FACE 5. A Date With Elvis CD THE CRAMPS 6. Of Fracture And Failure CD ULCERATE 7. Juvenilia CD THE VERLAINES 8. Direblaze CD DIREBLAZE 9. White Bird / Burn The Sky LP/CD PALACE OF THE KING 10. Shogun Assassin Soundtrack LP VARIOUS
AIR TOP TEN ALBUMS
1. The Gospel Album GURRUMUL 2. 1000 Forms Of Fear SIA 3. Dark Night Sweet Light HERMITUDE 4. Strange New Past SETH SENTRY 5. Down To Earth FLIGHT FACILITIES 6. Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit COURTNEY BARNETT 7. Gracetown SAN CISCO 8. Gurrumul GURRUMUL 9. Throw Me In The River THE SMITH STREET BAND 10. Caress Your Soul STICKY FINGERS
BEAT’S TOP TEN SONGS FOR YOUR ENEMIES
1. Bring The Noise PUBLIC ENEMY 2. The Day Is My Enemy THE PRODIGY 4. Enemy ANGEL OLSEN 5. Your Own Worst Enemy BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN 6. No Enemy REMI 7. Enemy Fire RYAN ADAMS 8. Love Thine Enemy CASS MCCOMBS 9. Know Your Enemy RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE 10. My Own Worst Enemy LIT
ALBUMS New music in review this week - For more reviews go to beat.com.au/reviews
THE RUBENS
BAD//DREEMS
Hoops
VERTICOLI
Dogs at Bay
(Ivy League)
Punching Bag
(Ivy League)
If The Rubens self-titled debut record, released in 2012, pricked up the ears of the Australian public, then Hoops should cement them as a top-tier modern Australian rock band. Hoops draws on some completely different textures and sounds to their debut, but it’s not a reinvention of The Rubens sound. Distorted, indie rock guitars and electro drum beats shine across the face of this incredibly addictive record. It opens with Hallelujah, a-mid tempo rock track that’ll be in shortlists for the Hottest 100 later in the year. Bitter End opens with a James Blakeesque vocal line and incorporates elements of electronic production. This is initially surprising, due to the blistering indie guitar pop the band is known for. But, heading for the unexpected on the follow up to a successful debut is a very smart move, and it works well for the band. David Kahne, who has worked with the likes of Lana Del Ray and The Strokes, produced the album, and his influence shines through on each track. The drums are heavier, the electric guitars ring out in the mix and frontman Sam Margin’s vocals soar on the likes of Battles and The Night Is On My Side. Hoops is a record that fans of the band will get behind, and it also serves as a perfect introduction for those who’re late to the party.
Bad//Dreems are one of those bands defined by their imperfections ± hell, their band name is an intentional misspelling. They make sunburnt, scraggly and scrawny pub-rock that’s spoiling for a fight just as often as it’s lamenting over the past into its drink. In their brief time in the public eye, the Adelaide foursome have already made quite the impression as a band to watch, leading us to their all-important debut album. There’s payoff for long-time fans on Dogs at Bay ± the re-recorded versions of early singles Dumb Ideas and My Only Friend add some extra kick; while live favourite Bogan Pride is all urgent guitar and colossal build-up, putting forward a pretty solid case for being the band’s best track. There’s also a nod to the homegrown balladry of The Triffids and The Church on Hume and closer Sacred Ground, revealing a degree of versatility previously unheard from the Adelaide natives. Not every track is on point ± perhaps one or two numbers toward the back could have been cut. Still, as far as debut efforts go, there’s considerable weight to Dogs at Bay.
(Independent)
Verticoli are a four-piece rock outfit from Tassie, and while they wear their influences boldly on their collective sleeve, they do so with class. On their debut long player Punching Bag, those influences are drawn from a number of different sources. You can hear echoes of ‘90s grunge and alternative rock, the ‘70s classic rock of Zeppelin and Sabbath, some hard Aussie pub rock, and some more bluesy influences. They throw it all in a big bubbling pot over a roaring fire, stir it ‘round, and serve up a damn fine ± a nd damn fun ± r ock album. The songs are exceptionally strong, sticking in your mind for a long time afterwards; the riffs are huge; the grooves are fat as fuck, and you get the sense this stuff would rock the hell out of small, sweaty live venue. Verticoli have only been around for a few years, but Punching Bag is a very mature, developed release, which subjects the listener to a pleasant pummelling for 40 minutes. By ROD WHITFIELD
By DAVID JAMES yOUNG
By TEX MILLER
MAC DEMARCO
Another One (Spunk)
THE MACCABEES
THE ON AND ONS
Marks To Prove It
(Caroline Australia/Fiction)
It’s The On and Ons Calling (Citadel Records)
Mac DeMarco’s latest offering is exactly what you’d expect from the wistful Canadian goofball, and it’s bang on. Another One picks up where Salad Days left off, with the same jangly guitars, tight riffs, whacked-out synths and lazy vocal delivery. Similarly, DeMarco’s lyrics continue to lament issues of the heart Ð in fact the whole mini-LP revolves around love and heartache, but that’s OK. It starts with The Way You’d Love Her, which finds DeMarco ruminating, “The river keeps on rolling/ Knowing all the time she’ll never understand just what it means to love her/ The way you’d love her.” This is just some of the dulcet poetry DeMarco unfurls across the release. Throughout Another One, there’s a nod towards the dream-pop stylings of Beach House and the like. Take for instance the first single and title track, which is loosely arranged and very easy listening. Given his laid back demeanour, it’s no wonder so many people recently turned up to DeMarco’s New York house for coffee. (For those who missed the story a few weeks ago: final track My House by the Water contains details of DeMarco’s address, and in the lead up to album’s release he invited anyone who listened all the way to the end over for a cuppa.) Without Me is a touch different for DeMarco; plodding synths create an unruly ethereality, making it sound like something you might waltz to at a sci-fi themed ‘80s wedding. Another One is DeMarco’s fourth album in as many years. It might only contain eight songs, but as well as filling the gap between full-length releases, it’s further proof of his musical genius. By NAVARONE FARRELL
Since their 2007 debut, Colour It In, UK outfit The Maccabees have earned plenty of respect in the indie rock scene with their signature driving rhythms and catchy-as-hell choruses. The first single and title track from the band’s fourth album, Marks To Prove It, doesn’t stray from this winning formula and it’s a definite highlight among the 11 new tracks. But if you’re looking for the same energetic peaks from the rest of the album, you may be disappointed. While it’s a fair point that bands should demonstrate progression with each new album, it’s a shame Marks To Prove It skimps on the utterly irresistible toe-tappers these London lads have spent the last three albums sculpting into a fine art. The majority of songs are down-tempo and, but there are some genuinely touching moments, such as melancholic numbers Silence and Slow Sun. The exploration of new territory may catch listeners off guard, and could potentially polarise their current fan-base. But Marks To Prove It is certainly a grower, so it shouldn’t be instantly dismissed. After a few listens, appreciation builds for the textured sounds and female backing vocals of Pioneering Systems, the defiant lyrics of WW1 Portraits, and the evocative trumpet of Dawn Chorus. On one hand, it could be easy to throw The Maccabees to the lions and stubbornly refuse to accept their onward trajectory. On the other, the volume button on your stereo is just itching to get turned clockwise. And regardless of the pace, there are some ruddy good lyrics to tune into. By JEN WILSON
Is there anything better than a good power pop record? Yes, there probably is, but that’s beside the point. The fact is you can listen to an album like It’s The On and Ons Calling and realise that, whatever the mind numbingly boring, tedious and annoying crap that suffocates your day, a dose of sparkling power pop can take you to a different place where everything sparkles and shimmers. The On and Ons has elements of the supergroup concept: Glenn Morris played with the latter-era Screaming Tribesmen, Clyde Bramley was the Hoodoo Gurus’ original bass player and Richard Lane cut his teeth with The Stems. And when the opening riff of All Over Heavenly (You’re My Everything) kicks in, you know this is a band that knows its Raspberries from its Orange Humble Band. Goodbye My Love is The Church via Big Star and Long Ride is that coastal ride you always wanted to take with The Someloves blaring on the radio. Before Our Eyes is all bashful grins, teenage excitement and Dave Edmunds licks; Rockin’ With the Beat packs a punch the Trilobites would respect; and Don’t Tear Me Down nods in the direction of The Plimsouls and The Who’s The Kids Are Alright. Two Things On My Mind is spiced with adolescent passion; Better Not Give Me Grief is awash with the attitude of Paul Collins (whom The On and Ons backed on a recent Australian tour); and Not A Friend in Sight is a testament to John Lennon’s observation that the saddest events can make the best pop songs. Stupid Girl is a tongue-incheek garage rocker in the best tradition; Hard to Say Goodbye is a fitting finale to an album that you hope never ends. By PATRICK EMERy
CHECK OUT ALL THE LATEST NEWS, REVIEWS AND FREE SHIT AT BEAT.COM.AU
BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 43
GIG GUIDE
WHAT'S ON AROUND MELBOURNE THIS WEEK
For all the latest gigs check out beat.com.au
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 19
ACOUSTIC/COUNTRY/BLUES/FOLK
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
• alexandra pye + tali + keven murphy Open
• a basket of mammoths + long holiday +
• cotton club + jules boult & the redeemers
field Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm.
• armour group + trichotillomania +
roman nails + precious blood djs Tote Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm.
• broke and wasted - feat: dumb punts +
girl crazy + the marquis Tote Hotel, Collingwood.
8:00pm.
• modern tribe + gilligan smiles + bristol
cairo Toff In Town, Melbourne Cbd. 7:30pm. $10.00.
• open mic Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East. 7:00pm.
• scoot molly + connor black-harry Retreat Hotel, Brunswick. 7:30pm.
• tequila mockingbyrd + atomic riot + ablaze Cherry Bar, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. $5.00.
• the bennies + summer blood + wet
pensioner + sweet gold Old Bar, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $15.00.
• the creeping bam + van nostrum + sylas
palms Public Bar, North Melbourne. 7:30pm. $6.00. • the doodads Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm. • the rollercanes + zombitches Workers Club,
GIG OF THE WEEK!
Studio, Northcote. 7:15pm.
Spotted Mallard, Brunswick. 8:30pm.
• jack evan johnson + the weeping willows Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford. 8:30pm.
• josh cashman Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Cbd. 9:00pm.
• melbourne ukulele kollective beginner’s
class Edinburgh Castle, Brunswick. 6:00pm.
• open mic Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbottsford. 7:30pm. • open mic Yacht Club Hotel, Williamstown. 7:30pm.
• open mic night Ascot Vale Hotel, Ascot Vale. 8:00pm. • open mic night Purple Emerald, Northcote. 8:00pm.
• wine whiskey women - feat: cass + suzanne
YOB
Doom metal militia Yob have been grinding around for twenty years now, and they’ve never toured Australia. Thanks for the snub, ya bunch of Yobs. Their debut Aussie performance goes down this Friday August 21, so head over to Max Watt’s if you’re down with doom.
petersen Drunken Poet, West Melbourne. 8:00pm.
THURSDAY AUGUST 20
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC • solquemia flamenco duo Vamos, Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm. $8.00.
• carl lockett & michel benebig Paris Cat Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. $25.00.
• sell out - feat: bellusira (acoustic set)
+ the naysayers Corner Hotel, Richmond. 7:30pm.
$15.00.
• showcase nights Purple Emerald, Northcote. 8:00pm. • speaker tv- citizens of the street - feat:
horace bones + the sand dollars + wise child + pretty city djs The Shadow Electric,
Fitzroy. 7:00pm. $5.00.
• cello sonatas - feat: julian smiles Melbourne
Hotel, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $6.00.
• elise brennan + jack earle Ruby’s Music Room,
• stella collapse + pussy juice + thos Tote
• john montesante dectet + olivia chindamo
• the burley griffin + canary + the button
• uncle bobby + meals + akroyd smart Evelyn
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC • bopstretch Uptown Jazz Cafe, Fitzroy. 8:00pm.
Recital Centre, Southbank. 6:00pm. $38.00.
Melbourne Cbd. 8:30pm. $25.00.
Paris Cat Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 6:00pm. $30.00.
Abbotsford. 7:00pm. $10.00.
Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm.
collective Public Bar, North Melbourne. 7:30pm. $8.00.
• dizzy’s big band with peter hearne Dizzy’s Jazz
• melbourne improvisers collective Uptown
• the dead heir + submarines + hownowmer
• ella Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd. 6:00pm. $10.00.
• midnight express - feat: prequel + edd
• the new pollution + going swimming +
Club, Richmond. 8:00pm. $14.00.
Jazz Cafe, Fitzroy. 8:00pm.
Tote Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm.
• susie park Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank. 6:00pm.
fisher Toff In Town, Melbourne Cbd. 10:00pm. • rachmaninov 3 - feat: sir andrew davis + kirill gerstein Hamer Hall, Southbank. 8:00pm.
• the new bohjass 303, Northcote. 8:00pm.
• southern stars big band Dizzy’s Jazz Club,
• the ugly kings + two headed dog Bendigo Hotel,
• steinway piano series - feat: chai jie low
• whole lotta indie rock - feat: jeff vader
• merle street jazz band Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd. 7:30pm. $17.50. $30.00.
• tom vincent trio Paris Cat Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. $20.00.
Q&A
$25.00.
Richmond. 8:00pm. $10.00.
Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd. 6:00pm. $12.50.
• sweethearts (heart & soul launch) + vince
peach + pierre baroni Cherry Bar, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. $10.00.
• the good egg thursdays - feat: henry who
+ tigerfunk + lewis cancut Lucky Coq, Windsor.
7:00pm.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS • byo vinyl night Nevermind Bar, Hawthorn. 7:30pm.
• cinema 6 + the cockles + lloyd bosch Retreat
Hannah Cameron
Define your genre in five words or less: Alternative folk. So, someone is walking past as you guys are playing, they then go get a beer and tell their friend about you... what do they say? “That sax player sounds like an angel.” How long have you been gigging and writing? I’ve been writing for around 11 years and gigging for six years. What has been your favourite gig you’ve played to date? A few years ago my bass player James Gilligan and I played a house concert in Bern, Switzerland. It was held in this incredible old apartment overlooking the Zytglogge (a beautiful medieval clock tower) and the Old Town to an audience of around 20. There was something a bit magic about that one. Which band would you most like to have a battle/ showdown with? Barbarian. We would definitely lose but there would be pyrotechnics involved so… What do you think a band has to do to succeed? It depends on how you measure success I suppose. All of the bands that I love have stuck to their guns from day one and never bent their musical morals to cater to the masses. To me that’s success, but it doesn’t necessarily pay the bills. Do you have any record releases to date? I have just released the first single from my forthcoming debut album. It’s called This Thing and you can get it on Bandcamp or iTunes (or for free on triple j Unearthed). HANNAH CAMERON’s launching her new single at The Workers Club on Wednesday August 26. CLIO and Yuko Kono are supporting. Tickets are available online through OzTix. BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 44
Hotel, Brunswick. 8:30pm.
• citrus jam Charles Weston Hotel, Brunswick. 6:30pm.
• dead dingo + sadults + morning maniacs +
lovejoy Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick. 8:00pm. • death of art + sergey onichevski + dandellion wine + terra Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbottsford. 8:00pm.
• gods + tooth & tusk + frank society Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy. 8:30pm. $12.00.
• greenthief & barrachero + the hunted
crows + dj mermaid Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy. 6:00pm.
• lehmann b smith + the ocean party +
mallee songs Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm. $12.00.
crimsonettes + james seedy Workers Club,
Fitzroy. 7:00pm. $5.00.
• the over easys Claypots Evening Star, South Melbourne. 8:00pm.
Collingwood. 8:00pm.
+ bad uncle + the deja vus Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East. 8:00pm.
• willow darling + masco sound system +
sugar teeth Old Bar, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $8.00.
Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm. $10.00.
• next - feat: havoc + to hell with honour +
owed to damnation Colonial Hotel, Melbourne Cbd.
7:00pm. $20.00.
• one velvet evening (the songs of lee &
nancy) - feat: tex perkins + justine clarke Thornbury Theatre, Thornbury. 7:00pm. $40.00.
• panacea - feat: river yarra + jimma + liluzu Ferdydurke, Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm.
• platinum rat + chimper kimblay + the
tropes + shrimpwitch Grace Darling Hotel,
Collingwood. 8:30pm. $6.00.
Northcote. 8:00pm.
• baby blue + jemma nicole John Curtin Hotel, Carlton. 8:00pm.
• backstage blues night - feat: southbound
snake chalmers + dj barry maxwell + the shake shack boogie house band Musicland,
Fawkner. 7:00pm.
• justin yap band + the splitters + alan
wardon band + elise queen music Reverence Hotel, Footscray. 8:00pm. $10.00.
• millar jukes & the bandits + mightiest of
guns Shebeen, Melbourne Cbd. 7:30pm. $9.00.
• open mic Station 59, Richmond. 8:00pm.
• open mic nite Inkerman Hotel, Balaclava. 7:30pm.
• peny bohan duo Wesley Anne, Northcote. 6:00pm. • sean mcmahon & the moonmen + kate
alexander + giles warren Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford.
8:00pm.
• the chops Sooki Lounge, Belgrave. 8:30pm.
lawrence + aleyce simmonds + christie lamb Barwon Club Hotel, Geelong. 8:30pm. • the glorious Drunken Poet, West Melbourne. 8:00pm. • the gumbo club - feat: the blues bash Ding
9:00pm. $16.00.
• noria letts Paris Cat Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. $20.00.
• rachmaninov 3 - feat: sir andrew davis +
kirill gerstein Hamer Hall, Southbank. 8:00pm. $25.00.
• reimagining burt bacharach - feat: nicola
watson + nathan liow Paris Cat Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 6:00pm. $25.00.
• southside soul - feat: dj s lady soul & big
daddy warbucks + johnny crates & jeremy (the kid) robertson Kingston City Hall, Moorabbin. 8:00pm. $5.00.
Footscray. 8:30pm.
• traditional irish music session Drunken Poet, West Melbourne. 6:00pm.
• tripataka Cross Street , East Brunswick. 8:30pm.
• what the funk fridays Purple Emerald, Northcote. 9:00pm.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS • ben salter Basement Discs, Melbourne Cbd. 12:45pm. • big smoke (lately launch) + jim lawrie +
backyard John Curtin Hotel, Carlton. 8:30pm. $10.00.
• borrowed identity Hugs & Kisses, Melbourne. 10:00pm. $20.00.
• captain spalding Customs House Hotel, Williamstown. 9:30pm.
• captives + three quarter beast Pier Live, Frankston. 8:30pm. $10.00.
• clowns + spermaids + uncle geezer +
cracked tapes + substance abuse Old Bar,
Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $15.00.
• conrad keely + lincoln le fevre + single
twin Workers Club, Fitzroy. 8:30pm. $12.00.
• detonators Black Hatt, Geelong. 9:30pm.
• dirty eyes (acdc tribute) + black pink Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbottsford. 7:30pm.
• drunk mums Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Cbd. 9:00pm. $10.00.
Fitzroy North. 8:30pm.
• ezra lee & the havoc band Big Huey’s Diner, South
• the railway gang string band Railway Hotel, • the spoils Post Office Hotel, Coburg. 8:00pm.
• tingy celestino Yacht Club Hotel, Williamstown. 8:00pm.
FRIDAY AUGUST 21
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC • craig simon trio + james sherlock Uptown Jazz Cafe, Fitzroy. 8:00pm.
• scraps + kt spit + geryon + wet kiss + dj
• dj soul loco Littlefoot Bar, Footscray. 8:00pm.
$10.00.
$30.00.
• michel benebig band Dizzy’s Jazz Club, Richmond.
• einsteins toyboys (woodstock) Musicland,
• dana czarski Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd.
brooke powers Toff In Town, Melbourne Cbd. 7:30pm.
liaison Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank. 7:00pm.
Dong Lounge, Melbourne Cbd. 5:30pm.
• safia + boo seeka Karova Lounge, Ballarat. 8:30pm. $20.00.
Melbourne Cbd. 9:00pm. $25.00.
• mahler’s 4th & anam - feat: ensemble
• the royal jellies Open Studio, Northcote. 8:30pm.
• the girls of country tour - feat: amber
• mollusc + vacuum + karli white + subjects
+ enzo ruberto + james gilligan + julian banks + salvatore greco Paris Cat Jazz Club,
• alison ainsworth & jessica fairlie Carters Bar,
• michelle nicolle + frank disario + paul Brunswick. 8:30pm.
$20.00.
• la nuit blanche - feat: raleigh williams
• steven montgomery dj set Reverence Hotel,
• tara walsh trio Open Studio, Northcote. 8:30pm.
williamson + the revellers Brunswick Green,
major delay + roots radikals + rebel bass + hawk i + jesse i Loop, Melbourne Cbd. 10:00pm. • huanchaco Vamos, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. $10.00. • kylie auldist Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh. 8:00pm.
ACOUSTIC/COUNTRY/BLUES/FOLK
• melt + fabels + smoke bellow Catfish, Fitzroy. 7:00pm. $5.00.
• escape to st croix - feat: operator andy +
6:00pm. $10.00.
• elise brennan + jack earle Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd. 8:30pm. $25.00.
WATCH INTERVIEWS, CHATS & AWKWARD SILENCES... BEAT.COM.AU/TV
Fawkner. 7:30pm. $10.00. Melbourne. 8:00pm.
• fabels Victoria Hotel, Brunswick. 9:00pm.
• girl crazy + sheek stain & the creep +
chelsea bleach Bar Open, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $8.00.
• gladstone + laser brains + rick dangerous
+ the silkie bantams 303, Northcote. 8:00pm.
• hadal maw + departe + adamus exul +
arbrynth + flesh of the earth Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood. 7:30pm. $15.00.
• hey hey it’s friday - feat: astro boys Royal Hotel, Essendon. 10:00pm.
• hugo race & the true spirit Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick. 8:40pm. $18.00.
• hydromedusa + power + miss destiny Cherry Bar, Melbourne Cbd. 5:00pm. $13.00.
• hygiene + grotto + trench sisters + heavy
breather Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood. 9:00pm.
$8.00.
lawrence + aleyce simmonds + christie lamb Revolver Upstairs, Prahran. 8:00pm. $15.00. • zerafina zara & the alleged associates Smokehouse 101, Maidstone. 7:00pm.
SATURDAY AUGUST 22
• jane cameron + matt alford + kevin
murphy Wesley Anne, Northcote. 8:00pm. $10.00. • kinematic Baha Tacos & Tapas Bar, Rye. 8:00pm. $10.00. • kings & queens + lung + phantom panda + formiles + tooze & bruce + overdoze + tar and feather Prince Bandroom, St Kilda. 8:00pm. $14.00. • la danse macabre - feat: brunswick massive resident djs Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy. 9:00pm.
• megan washington Karova Lounge, Ballarat. 8:30pm. $25.00.
• miami horror + joy + young franco +
cleopold 170 Russell, Melbourne Cbd. 8:30pm. $25.00. • middle street Inkerman Hotel, Balaclava. 8:00pm. • moses gunn collective Shebeen, Melbourne Cbd. 7:30pm. $10.00.
• mustered courage + ayleen o’hanlon +
matthew alford Northcote Social Club, Northcote. 8:30pm. $20.00.
• naked bodies + the shabbab + the hondas Spotted Mallard, Brunswick. 8:30pm. $5.00.
• one velvet evening (the songs of lee &
nancy) - feat: tex perkins + justine clarke Thornbury Theatre, Thornbury. 7:00pm. $40.00.
• patches + big winter + the western stars Penny Black, Brunswick. 9:00pm.
• punk wildlife fundraiser - feat: laura
palmer + foley + joe guiton + the cruntburgers + georgia maq Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East. 8:00pm. $10.00.
• renegade armada + chasing everest + grave
markings + rejunvinate Reverence Hotel, Footscray. 8:00pm. $15.00.
• rock solid - feat: engine three seven + the
charge + hammers + entropy + high side driver Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $20.00. • shit sex + nun of the tongue Retreat Hotel, Brunswick. 9:30pm.
• sonic road Ascot Vale Hotel, Ascot Vale. 8:00pm.
• spencer p jones (friday knock-off) Cherry Bar, Melbourne Cbd. 5:30pm.
• spider goat canyon + drooling mystics Public Bar, North Melbourne. 4:00pm.
• storm the sky + harbours + who invited
the wolf? Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm. $15.00.
• the escargo-go’s (final show) + les
détritus de l’espace + cosa nostra + mel burns Public Bar, North Melbourne. 8:00pm. $10.00. • the perfections (farewell for now) + the tarantinos The Luwow, Fitzroy. 9:00pm. • the shug monkeys The B.east, Brunswick East. 9:30pm.
• the yard apes + doubleblack + sarge and
the nuked The Eastern, Ballarat East. 8:00pm. $10.00. • tumbleweed + hoss + batpiss Corner Hotel, Richmond. 8:30pm. $25.00.
• uncle rudey + ziah ziam + deadly are the
naked + battlesick + channel beero Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick. 9:00pm.
• unlucky + phatquad + old souls + cherry
pool Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $10.00.
• watt’s on presents Prince Public Bar, St Kilda . 8:30pm.
• yob + whitehorse + inverloch Max Watt’s, Melbourne. 8:00pm. $44.00.
ACOUSTIC/COUNTRY/BLUES/FOLK • jack carty & jordan millar Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm. $22.00.
• andy mcgarvie Wesley Anne, Northcote. 6:00pm. • chris wilson Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy. 5:30pm.
• daveys fridays - feat: rob & tarquin +
superfly djs Daveys Bar & Restaurant, Frankston.
9:00pm. $10.00.
• friday live music - feat: wired featuring
jimmy cupples Ferntree Gully Hotel, Ferntree Gully.
8:00pm.
• gary eastwood Carters Bar, Northcote. 9:00pm.
• john delord & the rascals Sooki Lounge, Belgrave. 9:30pm.
• joshua seymour Drunken Poet, West Melbourne. 8:30pm.
• kerri simpson Post Office Hotel, Coburg. 9:30pm.
• mick daley & the corporate raiders Lomond
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS • alex taylor experience + faqs + carol
williams band Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbottsford. 8:00pm.
• atlantic + driven to the verge + evolution
of self + the nuremberg code + legerity Reverence Hotel, Footscray. 7:00pm. $10.00.
• bang - feat: glorified + day break + beneath
the lies Royal Melbourne Hotel, Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm. $25.00.
• beastwars + hydromedusa + holy serpent +
dj mermaid Cherry Bar, Melbourne Cbd. 5:00pm. $20.00. • brunga’s band + bristol cairo + balter vada Workers Club, Fitzroy. 1:00pm. $7.00.
• cable ties + vista point + anika John Curtin Hotel, Carlton. 3:00pm.
• central rain Charles Weston Hotel, Brunswick. 6:00pm. • clowns + dr colossus + flour + freakwave
+ tankerville Old Bar, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $15.00. • convict fest - feat: midnight woolf + the shabbab + going swimming + brat farrar + grindhouse + the reprobettes + the yard apes + ross de chene hurricanes + damn the torpedoes + kit convict and thee terrible two Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood. 5:00pm. $15.00.
• crosstrack + elasticalpaca + jordan
bailey Black Hatt, Geelong. 9:00pm. $5.00.
• destrends Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Cbd. 9:00pm. $8.00.
• dozeys + the marlenes + maverick +
randolph’s party Public Bar, North Melbourne.
8:30pm. $8.00.
• elvis presley tribute night - feat: various
artists Piping Hot Chicken & Burger Grill, Ocean Grove.
8:00pm. $30.00.
Hotel, Essendon. 10:00pm.
• secret headliner + the flaming mongrels
+ the stoneage hearts + digger & the pussycats + dj jeff leppard Retreat Hotel, Brunswick. 5:00pm.
• starr gun + indigo children + western
stars 303, Northcote. 8:00pm. • stockades + feverteeth + midwife + employment Reverence Hotel, Footscray. 8:00pm. $5.00. • storm the sky + harbours + blklst Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood. 1:00pm. $15.00.
• sudden state + warbirds + darcee fox +
vulgar born Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East.
• general men + savage men + wise child +
rides Bar Open, Fitzroy. 11:50pm.
• greeves + pentacoastal + millar jukes Catfish, Fitzroy. 8:30pm. $10.00.
• half high + mob + ill winds + lucid
castration + kangaroo skull + video ezy Tote Hotel, Collingwood. 7:00pm. $10.00.
• hurst + spiral arm + king puppy & the
carnivore Penny Black, Brunswick. 9:00pm. • jimmy chang + cl pleasure + hot action + figurehead John Curtin Hotel, Carlton. 8:30pm. $6.00. • john kendall & the shot glasses Inkerman Hotel, Balaclava. 8:00pm.
• large number 12s Union Hotel, Brunswick. 9:00pm. • latham’s grip + the gunslingers + mild
manic + jurassic narc + rockepiele Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick. 9:00pm.
• madre monte + amura tribe + alwa nuna
+ saca la mois dj Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy. 8:30pm. $15.00. • massive + dean williams + smoke stack rhino Pier Live, Frankston. 8:30pm. • melbourne city ska collective Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East. 3:00pm.
• miss destiny + dry finish + dumb punts Tote Hotel, Collingwood. 4:00pm.
Did you know that Ginuwine is the spokesman for a drink called Adult Chocolate Milk? Literally just chocolate milk and vodka. Living the dream, Ginuwine, living the dream. Catch him at Trak Lounge this Friday August 21. • loonee tunes + the melbourne city ska
collective Sooki Lounge, Belgrave. 9:00pm.
• mel searle + craig smith quintet Paris Cat Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. $20.00.
• michelle nicolle quartet + geoff hughes +
tom lee + ronny ferella Uptown Jazz Cafe, Fitzroy.
8:30pm.
• phila para Prince Public Bar, St Kilda . 6:00pm.
• rachel camerino & gentlemen of jazz Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd. 6:00pm. $15.00.
• rachmaninov 3 - feat: sir andrew davis
+ kirill gerstein Hamer Hall, Southbank. 8:00pm.
$25.00.
• sol nation + marty williams expirement Baha Tacos & Tapas Bar, Rye. 8:00pm. $10.00.
• the glass moon Dizzy’s Jazz Club, Richmond. 9:00pm.
shaw Wesley Anne, Northcote. 8:00pm. $5.00.
• the marvellous miz demeanours Ruby’s Music
Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $13.00.
• the upstanding members + the jills Open
• the burly griffin + baby blue + jonathan • the harlots + red eagle + yoko bono Yah Yah’s, • three kings Labour In Vain, Fitzroy. 7:00pm. • toga rock Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford. 8:30pm.
Eastern, Ballarat East. 8:00pm. $10.00.
GINUWINE
8:00pm. $10.00.
• from oslo Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy. 2:00am. $7.00.
Social Club, Northcote. 8:30pm. $12.00.
• upskirts Shebeen, Melbourne Cbd. 7:30pm. $12.00.
• veeped lives - feat: drunk mums + sun god
replica + luke legs & the midnight specials + the underhanded + more Barwon Club Hotel,
Geelong. 5:00pm. $20.00.
• white walls (afterthoughts in limbo
launch) + love of diagrams + the stevens + whipper Tote Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm. • woodstock returns - feat: thunderstruck + made in purple + neal johns + brian cadd Musicland, Fawkner. 7:30pm. $20.00.
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC • alinta & the jazz emperors Paris Cat Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 9:00pm. $25.00.
• george golla & jacki cooper Uptown Jazz Cafe,
$16.00.
Room, Melbourne Cbd. 8:30pm. $25.00.
Studio, Northcote. 8:30pm.
ACOUSTIC/COUNTRY/BLUES/FOLK • blackeyed susans Union Hotel, Brunswick. 5:00pm. • hello satellites + paddock Open Studio, Northcote. 5:00pm.
• john dowlers vanity project Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East. 9:30pm.
• jules boult trio Drunken Poet, West Melbourne. 9:00pm.
• karaoke with zoe Customs House Hotel, Williamstown. 9:00pm.
• lost ragas The B.east, Brunswick East. 9:30pm. • matt borg trio Catfish, Fitzroy. 5:00pm.
• slim pickers Littlefoot Bar, Footscray. 8:00pm.
• the roadhouse romeos Post Office Hotel, Coburg. 9:30pm.
• tim durkin Wesley Anne, Northcote. 6:00pm.
• tim maxwell + ben stewart Old Bar, Fitzroy. 3:00pm.
• tommy castles Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy. 9:30pm.
SUNDAY AUGUST 23
Fitzroy. 6:00pm.
• grand wazoo Spotted Mallard, Brunswick. 6:00pm.
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC
• jazz collective Vamos, Melbourne Cbd. 8:30pm.
• big band frequency Wesley Anne, Northcote. 2:00pm.
• julie bailey Paris Cat Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd.
• blackwood ensemble Melbourne Recital Centre,
• let’s misbehave (a cole porter soirée)
• brahms 3 & mozart sinfonia concertante
$25.00.
$10.00.
6:00pm. $25.00.
- feat: mark nadler Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank. 4:00pm& 6:00pm. $45.00.
• night mooves Ascot Vale Hotel, Ascot Vale. 8:30pm.
$5.00.
Southbank. 7:00pm. $15.00.
- feat: richard tognetti + christopher moore Hamer Hall, Southbank. 2:30pm. $40.00.
• night of the living shred - feat: born lion +
captives + brittle bones + rick dangerous & the silkie bantams + grindhouse + hammers + the workinghorse irons + pagan Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood. 4:00pm. $15.00. • oh mercy (when we talk about love tour) + totally mild + crepes Howler, Brunswick. 8:00pm. $20.00.
• papa g & the starcats (live recording)
+ better than the wizards + karate boogaloo Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm. $8.00. • peel slowly & see (the velvet underground) - feat: the spoils + the sand pebbles Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick. 6:00pm. $23.00. • phonetic + k!ngs + altitude Black Hatt, Geelong. 9:00pm.
Ferntree Gully Hotel, Ferntree Gully. 11:00am. $17.00.
• rockabilly rage - feat: the infernos +
• the girls of country tour - feat: amber
Richmond. 8:30pm.
• saturdays r covered - feat: radio star Royal
• timberwolf + stonefox + edward r Northcote
• plini/thn + i built the sky + branch arterial
• steve lucas Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbottsford. 5:00pm.
Back in ’95, Tumbleweed released their epic Galactaphonic album; twenty years on and they’re reissuing it on tour as the deluxe edition SuperGalactaphonic. Hit them up at the Corner this Friday August 21, but if you miss the gig, you could always wait another twenty years for their SuperUltraMegaGalactaphonic tour.
• fierce mild + fabels + ebonivory + avora The
Hotel, Brunswick East. 9:30pm.
• morning melodies - feat: rick charles
TUMBLEWEED
+ caution thieves Workers Club, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. rumbling wolf The Luwow, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $10.00.
• safia + boo seeka + owen rabbit Corner Hotel,
CHECK OUT ALL THE LATEST NEWS, REVIEWS AND FREE SHIT AT BEAT.COM.AU
BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 45
GIG GUIDE
WHAT'S ON AROUND MELBOURNE THIS WEEK
THE PUSH PRESENT
ACCESS ALL AGES
For all the latest gigs check out beat.com.au • melbourne city soul review Drunken Poet, West Melbourne. 4:00pm.
• musical theatre open mic night Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm.
• oscar jimenez Vamos, Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm. $8.00. • sarah mckenzie Paris Cat Jazz Club, Melbourne Cbd. 6:00pm. $25.00.
• shol quintet Open Studio, Northcote. 5:00pm.
• soul sundays - feat: deep street soul + the
pale green dream + dj manchild Retreat Hotel,
Brunswick. 7:30pm.
• sunday soultrain - feat: zevon & the
werewolves of melbourne Daveys Bar &
Restaurant, Frankston. 2:30pm.
• the band who knew too much Spotted Mallard, Brunswick. 4:30pm.
• the melbourne jazz co-op presents
barney mcall Uptown Jazz Cafe, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS • a blonde moment Ascot Vale Hotel, Ascot Vale. 8:00pm.
• andrew mcmahon in the wilderness + mike
Darling Hotel, Collingwood. 6:30pm. $7.00.
7:00pm.
• sae band night - feat: easy browns
truckstop chicken jam band + tough uncle + state of silence + the locals Evelyn Hotel,
Fitzroy. 7:00pm. $2.00.
• safia + boo seeka + owen rabbit Corner Hotel, Richmond. 7:30pm.
• slugfest 2015 - feat: beastwars + my
left boot + the dukes of deliciousness + crossbone carnival + cherry djs Cherry Bar,
Melbourne Cbd. 7:00pm. $10.00.
• smile + full ugly Tote Hotel, Collingwood. 5:00pm.
• the subprimes Cross Street , East Brunswick. 9:00pm.
seasons + morth + benj axwel + ellen rose + the hunter express... Elephant & Wheelbarrow, St
Kilda. 1:00pm. $30.00.
8:00pm.
• pb (100 reprise launch) - feat: the jangle
band + central rain + the killjoys trio Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford. 2:00pm. $5.00.
• benny & the blues revue Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy.
• cherrywood + the stragglers + grace
lawry Reverence Hotel, Footscray. 3:00pm.
• cold irons bound Wesley Anne, Northcote. 6:00pm. • good gosh Littlefoot Bar, Footscray. 6:00pm.
• hugh mcginlay Standard Hotel, Fitzroy. 7:00pm. • ian collard Union Hotel, Brunswick. 3:30pm. Brunswick. 5:00pm.
• ken maher + al wright + tony hargreaves
allana deutrom Workers Club, Fitzroy. 1:00pm. $15.00. • josh kelly + joel trigg duo Cross Street , East
• koko Carters Bar, Northcote. 5:00pm.
• little miss remembering + eris bel + faded
• lucie thorne & hamish stuart + matt
5:30pm.
• mike oliphant + alex formosa-baudo +
michael doyle Big Huey’s Diner, South Melbourne.
Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East. 9:00pm.
• lillith lane Spotted Mallard, Brunswick. 7:30pm.
walker Northcote Social Club, Northcote. 1:30pm. $15.00.
senivoda Workers Club, Fitzroy. 7:00pm. $3.00. JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC • brahms 3 & mozart sinfonia concertante
6:00pm. $10.00.
Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm. $20.00.
• european horizons - feat: firebird trio Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank. 7:00pm. $50.00.
• jazz party Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood. 8:00pm.
TUESDAY AUGUST 25
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC • bernadeta & scott griffiths Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd. 8:30pm. $12.50.
• make it up club - feat: judith hamann + tim
catlin + michael mcnab + wölfetone aka keith clancy Bar Open, Fitzroy. 8:30pm. $5.00. • peter voglis Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd. 6:00pm. $10.00.
• the divine - feat: kegelstatt ensemble Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank. 6:00pm. $38.00.
• busy kingdom + going swimming + the dead
Vain, Fitzroy. 5:00pm.
• open mic sunday Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy. 6:30pm.
heir Cherry Bar, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm.
• cinema 6 + amber isles + cabbages and • dangerbirdz + morpheme Retreat Hotel, Brunswick.
• phil para unplugged Baha Tacos & Tapas Bar, Rye.
• jamie lawson + harry hookey Northcote Social
• pugwashe Open Studio, Northcote. 8:30pm.
• kraken rum night - feat: velvet bow + sauce
4:00pm.
• sunday sessions - feat: various artists
BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 46
• the scrimshaw four + uncle bobby +
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
Williamstown. 3:00pm.
Tramway Hotel, North Fitzroy. 3:30pm.
RIDDlES WhAT WORD BECOMES ShORTER WhEN YOU ADD TWO lETTERS TO IT?
amarina waters + loni rae Retreat Hotel,
Brunswick. 7:00pm.
• mick daley & the corporate raiders Labour In • mitchell a power & dr alford country
TUITION SONGWRITING ClASSES starting soon by Australian Songwriter of the Year 2013 Award Winner & music publisher. In 20 sessions learn all about writing marketable songs & the business side (collaboration, publishing, agreements, copyright, etc.) You’ll complete the course with a record-like song & get published. More info: www.magesongs.com Ph: 0417 585 767. Email: admin@magesongs.com
Richmond. 7:30pm.
• the mutual appreciation society - feat:
• michelle gardiner Customs House Hotel,
• miss whiskey Drunken Poet, West Melbourne. 6:30pm.
WANTED ACTS WANTED FOR SUNDAY ROCK ShOWS contact: mark@gunnmusic.com.au BANDS/DUOS/SOlO ACTS WANTED for Acoustic/Indie Fest - contact: mark@gunnmusic.com.au FEMAlE BACKING VOCAlIST WANTED for daytime recording session at Newmarket Studios in North Melbourne. Will pay cash. 0434 300 959 METAl GUITARIST WANTED. Phn: 0433 726 449 ROCK/METAl ACTS WANTED for local rock shows - contact: mark@gunnmusic.com.au
• safia + boo seeka + owen rabbit Corner Hotel,
• ella’s live swing quartet Ruby’s Music Room,
• jaded cats Inkerman Hotel, Balaclava. 4:00pm.
revolution + doggerel Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood.
• refraction 303, Northcote. 8:15pm.
5:30pm.
• brent parlane band Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East.
• kash nexus + heidi everett 303, Northcote. 3:00pm.
Brunswick. 8:00pm.
Die hard fans of The Velvet Underground take note; Peel Slowly & See is a one night only event with acts The Spoils and recently reformed Sand Pebbles belting out classic albums The Velvet Underground & Nico and White Light/White Heat, track by track in their entirety. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of The Velvet’s first paid gig, catch the tribute this Saturday August 22 at The Flying Saucer Club.
Melbourne Cbd. 3:00pm. $5.00.
• black & blue + dj max crawdaddy Cherry Bar,
• jemma & the clifton hillbillies Union Hotel,
• jeanie + dan flynn & the state of things +
PEEL SLOWLY & SEE: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND TRIBUTE
- feat: richard tognetti + christopher moore Hamer Hall, Southbank. 8:00pm. $40.00. • dana czarski Ruby’s Music Room, Melbourne Cbd.
4:00pm.
• handsome bastards + jethro pickett Post Office Hotel, Coburg. 4:30pm.
FRIDAY AUGUST 21 • FReeZA Push Start Battle of the Bands Warrnambool heat at Lighthouse Theatre, Warrnambool, contact Ken Radley on 5559 4867, AA • FReeZA Push Start Battle of the Bands Mornington Peninsula heat w/ competing bands at Peninsula Community Theatre, Cnr Wilsons Rd and Nepean Highway, 6pm-11pm, $10, www.facebook.com/ impaktfreeza, AA • Glow Block Party w/ Mona Gene, Ortal Israel, DJ Sensation at Functions on Chapel, 255A Chapel St, Prahran, 7pm-10.30pm, $10 presale or $15 door, www.glowfestival. com.au/2015-program/glowblockparty, AA
alford country Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East.
• ezra lee & the havoc band Gem Bar, Collingwood.
army Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick. 8:00pm. • citrus jam + terra Retreat Hotel, Brunswick. 5:00pm. • disco multiverse - feat: rod cooper & michael famularo + faith aversion + charles ives singers + barisal-guns + egors mtn Tote Hotel, Collingwood. 6:00pm. • empra + ten thousand + the lifelike project Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick. 4:00pm. • faculty + the dead peasants + northwood + chris butler Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbottsford. 8:00pm. • griya + open swimmer + toby robinson Grace
Club, Northcote. 7:30pm.
Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood. 6:00pm. $15.00.
• roaring girl band + mark howard + mr
• beersoaked sundays - feat: los dominados
• calamity lane + the lovelies + oliver’s
ALL AGES GIG GUIDE
gorman + alta + lanks + dj sam perry
ACOUSTIC/COUNTRY/BLUES/FOLK
+ 100 acre woods + sons of lee marvin Old
7:30pm.
• musicians for hearing - feat: fraser a.
• band wars grand final Musicland, Fawkner. 6:30pm.
Bar, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $6.00.
kings Public Bar, North Melbourne. 7:30pm. $6.00.
4:00pm.
• uberfest winter tour - feat: sisters doll +
$10.00.
We’re looking for someone to write this column. Here at The Push office in Brunswick we’re looking for a new volunteer Gig Guide Coordinator to come in one day per week and compile the gig guide, update our website and write this very column in Beat that you’re reading. If you’re aged 16-25 years and have a passion for writing, all ages events, a sharp eye for details and getting published, then jump onto www.thepush.com.au, check out the PD and apply by August 24. The Push is also looking for three young people aged 18-25 years to join the YAC committee. The YAC comprises young people from a diverse range of musical interests and backgrounds, with experience in music events or activities like festivals, and FReeZA committees. It involves monthly meetings at our Brunswick office, free food, running a few projects (like BIGSOUND scholarships, Face The Music) and having a say in what The Push does. The application form is on our site, send it to push@thepush.com.au by August 24. Songwriters listen up ± applications are open for the innovative, free songwriting mentoring program Push Songs, which kicks off again in September. Successful applicants will take part in three, one on one songwriting workshops with Kevin Mitchell, Gossling, Monique Brumby and Ben Salter alongside program co-ordinator Charles Jenkins. Plus you’ll be invited to join the Tuesday Night Song Club to meet and share ideas and live performance opportunities with fellow song writers. This Brunswick-based program is open to anyone of any age from all around Victoria, and workshops will be held in the afternoon/ evening to make it more accessible for students and workers. Applications close today. Go to www. surveymonkey.com/r/PSR3-2015 Port Phillip’s Youth Services are looking for young people aged 12-25 to join their new FReeZA committee. You’ll get hands-on experience in planning and running free music and cultural events for other young people that are drug, alcohol and smoke-free. If you live in the City of Port Phillip, love music or would like to learn more about managing events or the music industry, then contact Jill Wilson, Youth Leadership and Participation Officer on 0403 854 677 or email jfwilson@portphillip.vic.gov.au. Applications are now open to work at Falls Festival 2015. They’re looking for people (18+) to join the team as paid staff and volunteers. You must be available from December 27 - January 1, and be available to work a minimum of 15-20 hours over the duration of the festival (which may include morning, afternoon, evening or night shift). Perks include access to the arena and entertainment, free camping, free car parking, access to volunteer and staff facilities, meals when working, attending the staff and volunteer celebration on January 1, work experience and a certificate of appreciation. There’s a bunch of roles available from ticketing, gates, green team, info booths, tokens, vehicle inspections, and pre-event site crew. Applications for staff and volunteers close August 21, applications for bar staff close September 18. Go to www.lorne.fallsfestival. com.au/event-info/work-at-falls
rain + horse macgyver Public Bar, North Melbourne.
waters 170 Russell, Melbourne Cbd. 7:30pm. $49.00. • at the dakota + the china blue experiment + running young + julz evans Workers Club, Fitzroy. 7:00pm. $10.00.
WITH RUTH MIHELCIC
4:00pm.
• minimum wage - feat: m.o.b. + subterranean
Lucky Coq, Windsor. 4:00pm.
• the brothers jones + david fuller duo Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy. 2:00pm. $10.00.
sauce sauce + little shock Old Bar, Fitzroy.
8:00pm. $6.00.
• richmond music academy + roger clark
quartet Dizzy’s Jazz Club, Richmond. 6:30pm. $9.00.
• the gravy tram + the lost jackets Bar Open,
• safia + boo seeka + owen rabbit Corner Hotel,
• the large number 12s Royal Oak Hotel, Fitzroy
• taste of indie tuesday Prince Public Bar, St Kilda .
• time for three Northcote Social Club, Northcote.
• the burnt sausages + the real hot bitches
Fitzroy. 7:30pm.
North. 5:00pm.
7:30pm. $30.00.
MONDAY AUGUST 24
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS • cherry jam Cherry Bar, Melbourne Cbd. 8:00pm.
• diamonds of neptune + mirando + sweets Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $7.00.
• monday night mass - feat: gloss + bcbg + kt
spit Northcote Social Club, Northcote. 8:00pm. • mundane mondays - feat: surprise act + dicey’s pizza house band + the tropes Old
Richmond. 7:30pm. 8:00pm.
+ luis from lessons with luis + the steaming jeans Workers Club, Fitzroy. 7:00pm. $7.00. • tuesdays are fridays - feat: dj leopard head Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood. 4:00pm. ACOUSTIC/COUNTRY/BLUES/FOLK • irish session Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East. 8:00pm. • james fahy + burnt letters Open Studio, Northcote. 8:30pm.
• tago mago open mic Tago Mago, Thornbury. 7:00pm.
Bar, Fitzroy. 8:00pm. $5.00.
• pines + kaku + the faculty Public Bar, North Melbourne. 7:30pm. $6.00.
WATCH INTERVIEWS, CHATS & AWKWARD SILENCES... BEAT.COM.AU/TV
SUNDAY AUGUST 23 • FReeZA Push Start Battle of the Bands - Ballarat Heat 2 w/ Falling Infinant, Jesse Barlow, Winfield, Pizza Crusaders, Manipulator at Karova Lounge, 3pm6pm, $10 or $15 for all 3 Heats, www. youthservicesballarat.com.au, AA
Wed 19th August
W I N E , W H I S K EY, W O M E N 8pm: Suzanne Petersen 9pm: Cass Thurs 20th August
8pm:
The Glorious Fri 21st August
6pm: Traditional Irish Session 8:30pm:
Joshua Seymour Saturday 22nd August 9pm: Jules Boult Trio Sunday 23rd August 4pm: Melbourne City Soul Review 6.30pm:
Miss Whiskey Tuesdays
weekly trivia The Drunken Poet, 65 Peel Street (directly opposite Queen Vic Market), Phone: 03 9348 9797. www.thedrunkenpoet.com.au
WEDNESDAY 19TH 7PM
MELLOW DIAS THUMP FEAT.
CAZEAUX O.S.L.O & GUESTS THURSDAY 20TH 5PM
PANCEA FEAT.
RIVER YARRA JIMMA LILUZU FRIDAY 21ST 7PM
EZ-WORLD WITH
B-WISE UNFETTERED WAEL X SATURDAY 22ND 7PM
CALYPSO OF HOUSE SUNDAY 23RD 16TH - 1AM
THE OCCASIONAL FEEL GOOD PARTY FEAT. LUKE BRUIN VS SNAKEFLOSS
KIndRED STuDIOS 13 REHearsal ROOMS $65 FLAT RATE* *$65 ex. deluxe rooms
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IN YARRAVILLE
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kindredstudios.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
03 9687 0233
INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH
MUSIC INDUSTRY NEWS & GOSSIP
With Christie Eliezer * Stuff for this column to be emailed to <celiezer@netspace.net.au> by Friday 5pm
AUSSIES PROVE AVID LIVE MUSIC SUPPORTERS
Australians proved to be avid supporters of live music, according to the Live Music Office’s Economic & Cultural Value Of Live Music report. The live music sector contributes a total of $15.7 billion to the country in economic, social and cultural terms. Ticket sales, estimated at $958.1 million, are just 19.2% of total live music expenditure. Food and drink are 29.3%, followed by travel at 17.6% and accommodation at 12.4%. The report suggests that adding all this up, individuals directly spent $5 billion on live music. NSW was the largest music market, followed by Victoria, then QLD, WA, TAS, ACT and NT. See the report at livemusicoffice.com.au and more details at beat.com. au.
WANGARATTA JAZZ FEST MEETS WITH ARTS MINISTER
Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues chairman Paul Squires might be breathing easier. The festival was concerned over its funding future after the budget cuts to the Australia Council so that Federal arts minister George Brandis could set up his alternate arts funding initiative, the National Program for Excellence in the Arts. Liberal candidate for Indi, Sophie Mirabella, invited reps from the festival board to meet with her in Canberra and arranged a meeting with Senator Brandis. Squires said, he had “very positive feedback” from the minister, “that there would be greater recognition and capacity for rural and regional projects, which included the potential to quarantine funds for regional areas. We were also informed of proposals to double the funding available within the budget pool to festivals”.
PALACE THEATRE UPDATE
Ahead of the September 25 VCAT hearing involving the Palace Theatre, two developments have arisen. After Amendment C240 to the Building & Planning Scheme was passed, the Palace Theatre’s developer is to send in an amended application for a 40 metre building. But a heritage counter-action amendment proposes to recognise the Palace Theatre as a place of local heritage significance by making three changes to the Melbourne Planning Scheme. It covers Clause 43.01 (Heritage Overlay) to insert a new entry for the Palace Theatre, which ticks the ‘External Paint Controls Apply?’ box, amending Clause 22.04 – Heritage Places within the Capital City Zone by
adding a reference to the Palace Theatre and amending the incorporated document, Central City (Hoddle Grid) Heritage Review: Statements of Significance June 2013, by including the Statement of Significance for 20-30 Bourke Street, Melbourne at page 91.
HOPESTREET LAUNCHES WYALL STYLE IMPRINT
Melbourne funk and soul label HopeStreet Recordings has launched its first imprint, Wyall Style Records. It is the brainchild of a collective of musicians, filmmakers and artists (www.wyallstyle.com) based in a house Wyall St, West Brunswick. Many of the musicians are key members of cinematic soul group The Cactus Channel as well as indie-pop band Frida. The new label’s first signing is Frida, who issue their debut Slowly in mid-Sept. The collective say, “Wyall Style aims to bring you music with just as much heart and groove as its parent label, but seen through a different set of glasses. Sometimes warped, sometimes crystal clear, they put out rough and delectable pop, electronic backyard BBQ beats and everything in between.”
RDIO, HARVEY NORMAN STRIKE DEAL
As a way to bring streaming into the mainstream, Rdio Australia is in a promotion deal with Harvey Norman. Anyone who buys a compatible connected-home audio system from any of Harvey Norman’s 186 stores will receive three months complimentary access to Rdio’s Unlimited offering. Harvey Norman customers can access its Rdio profile housing playlists and stations curated by the retailer.
NEARLY HALF OF UK CLUBS CLOSED SINCE 2005
Nearly half of UK nightclubs have closed since 2005, says a new report. Venues organisation the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR) says their number dropped from 3,144 to 1,733 since 2005. ALMR CEO Kate Nicholls blames planning and licensing rules, and noise complaints from new residents. Another is that the under-35s are stretched for cash and going to clubs is no longer a weekly priority but something done once or twice a year. Dance music is considered too mainstream, and Tinder gets them meeting new partners.
Q&A
Damian Costin: 123 Agency
THINGS WE HEAR
Melbourne’s The Strain, who played their last show in 2009, are back in action, with a new guitarist and new set of tunes. Their comeback show is on November 13 at The Brunswick Hotel with Mojo Pin, Slyder and The Milky Bishops.
NEW SIGNINGS #1: WILDING AT HALF A COW
Melbourne singer songwriter Wilding (aka Justin Wilding Stokes) signed with Sydney’s Half A Cow for the release this week of his second album Molecules To Moons through MGM. Apparently generations ago, one of his UK ancestors won a fortune on a horse called Wilding and all the men in the family have had the name since. The launch is on August 28 at the Grace Darling, Collingwood with The Royal Jellies, Darling James, Royal Commission and DJ Harry Rag.
Melbourne G-House producer Torren Foot is now with the Onelove label. New single 1, 2 Step is a club version of the Ciara ft. Missy Elliot hit, and he’s about to tour after recently signing to Select Music agency for live bookings.
You’ll be the booking agent for the super lucky winner of Melbourne Music Bank’s competition; can you elaborate a little on this part of the prize? 123 Agency will assist the winner in planning a live schedule and provide insights on how to successfully tour nationally. We’ll provide support across the different facets of the live spectrum and offer opportunities to further their careers in partnership with the other judges. Why do you think people should enter their original songs in to the Melbourne Music Bank? Original music is the key to carving your own stone in the industry. Having individuality and a point of difference is the key to standing out from the crowd. Why is a strong presence in the live music scene extremely desirable for undiscovered musicians? Firstly, it’s a great way to sustain a career. Also, it’s a great way to see the world by playing and being paid to make/play music. And it’s a great way to meet other artists that inspire you as well. BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 50
Can you give hopefuls a bit of advice on what it’ll take to ace the live performance portion of the contest? I’ve witnessed some of the biggest acts in the world in the smallest of venues with only a guitar and their voice. If you bring authenticity and natural flare you’ll rise to the top. What are some venues that you hope to secure for the future winner? If we can find a national tour for the right winner we’ll be happy to put them on the right path. Where that is in Australia – it’ll depend on the genre/type of winner, but they’ll be in safe hands and all our venues owners will look after them! Who are some of the artist on the 123 Agency roster? We look after artists like Kingswood, The Veronicas, Ngaiire and Pierce Brothers. A huge range of internationally famous, local superstars and everything in between. Act Fast. The MELBOURNE MUSIC BANK competition closes Sunday August 23. Visit Bank of Melbourne's website for more info.
Expecting: Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley and wife Cassie’s baby is due in February. Born: daughter Della Rose to Billy Joel and wife Alexis. Romancing: Ariana Grande and her backup dancer Ricky Alvarez confirmed they’re together. They were both nabbed licking doughnuts at a store without buying them. Divorcing: Daryl Hall and Amanda Aspinall, after six years. The daughter of Brit zoo and gambling mogul John Aspinall, did the filing. Ill: Meghan Trainor cancelled more shows after she haemorrhaged her vocal chord for a second time. Ill: Nickelback axed their world tour starting on September 30 as singer Chad Kroeger has failed to recover from surgery he had on his voice box in June. Jailed: one of John Mellencamp’s sons, Speck, for four days for his part in kicking a 19-year old that he and brother Hud thought had hit Speck. But the judge said he could serve the sentence in 12-hour stints because the 20-year-old suffers from a panic disorder. Arrested: two men for allegedly shooting and killing on air Brazilian radio DJ Gleydson Carvalho, a critic of the government. In Court: Lisanne Beck and Simon Murphy of Swansea were convicted in a London court for indulging in oral sex at a Paloma Faith concert. Beck claimed she was merely trying to wake up Murphy who’d dozed off. Died: influential New York rapper Sean Price of Heltah Skeltah, 43, in his sleep. Run The Jewels, DJ Premier and De La Soul were among those tweeting condolences. Died: Tasmanian-born US-based country singer Audrey Auld-Mezera, 51, in California from cancer. Died: John Gammon, one time Katrina & The Waves and Kingmaker manager turned UK correspondent for Pollstar, from cancer.
THE STRAIN RETURN
NEW SIGNINGS #2: ONE LOVE FOR TORREN FOOT
Hey, who am I talking to and what’s your role in the music industry? My name is Damian Costin, director of 123 Agency, agent to our collective artist roster.
LIFELINES
• Which (non-music) awards were such a mess that one winner was told to return his trophy because the wrong name was sent to the engraver? During the night, the wrong winners’ videos were flashed and incorrect names tweeted from the official account? • Why are some music retailers getting anxious about a supplier and late payments? Once bitten twice shy? • Is Universal Pictures paying for extra security at American theatres when screening Straight Outta Compton, the biopic of seminal gangsta-rap act NWA? The LAPD has sent its anti-gang division to keep an eye on attendees. • At a NOFX gig in Nova Scotia, singer Fat Mike spotted a hipster in the front row sporting a tie-dye shirt and beard and offered him $100 to leave, saying “You have no business being here.” • After the cancellation of Tyler The Creator’s spring tour, activist group Collective Shout will target other acts that objectify women, its campaigns manager Caitlin Roper told the Sydney Morning Herald. “(He) was not the first artist we targeted and he will not be the last.” • Meg Mac’s expanded Never Be Australian tour has completely sold out, with a fourth and final show at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel swiftly filled out. The single is on triple j and entered the ARIA Top 40. In the US where she’s been for most of 2015, including a just-finished tour with D’Angelo & The Vanguard, Roll Up Your Sleeves cracked the Billboard Adult Alternative Top 30. • Delta Goodrem’s stint as The Voice judge helped her get a #1 single with Wings after an eight-year break. It is her 9th chart topping single. She previewed it rather dynamically on the show before 1.4 million viewers. • Former mates Skrillex and Deadmau5 are trading disses on social media. • Leonardo DiCaprio won a lawsuit against French magazine that claimed Rihanna was having his baby.
NEW SIGNINGS #3: PLINI HOPS ON NEW WORLD
Sydney 23-year old guitar virtuoso and composer Plini now has his live bookings through New World Artists. Having already played Japan and the UK (and made a fan out of Joe Satriani’s drummer Marco Minnemann), Plini is currently on a headlining tour, with Sydney and Mebourne dates sold out.
SUNBURY SITE ON SALE
The last piece of the site of the iconic Sunbury festivals is up for sale for $675,000, The Australian reported. The three day festival ran for four years, between 1972 and 1975. It is considered the birthplace of radical youth politics and Oz-rock, popularised by the likes of Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, Spectrum, Max Meritt & The Meteors, Chain, Healing Force and La De Das. It was held on the Duncan family’s 620-acre farm between Sunbury and Diggers Rest, attracting up to 45,000. It was promoted by Odessa Promotions, set up by a group of television execs, including John Fowler and Jim McKay, from GTV 9. The 1972 edition drew 35,000 who paid $6 each, and yielded three live albums and a TV documentary. The Henry Bolte government of the day tried to stop it, including warnings of death by bushfire (which fell silent after summer rains in the area). Nevertheless there were scuffles between cops and patrons heading to the love-in. The festival ended its run four years later when only 16,000 turned up due to bad weather and the hippie dream seemed over.
NEW CHAIR FOR MELBOURNE FRINGE
Chunky Moves founder, director and choreographer Gideon Obarzanek, is the new chair of Melbourne Fringe. He will work closely with creative director and CEO Simon Abrahams. This year’s Fringe runs from September 16 to October 4, with Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley emphasising it was the largest in its 32-year history. The 2015 program will feature 401 events and around 6,000 artists performing in 174 venues across Melbourne.
NINE MINUTE VIDEO FROM LOWTIDE
Melbourne outfit Lowtide’s new video for their double-A single Julia and Spring, due August 28, runs for nine minutes. It was shot in Iran and Melbourne, following a dude’s nighttime wander through the city and an arcade full of shop-front mannequins circa mid-‘80s, before he stumbles into a smoke-filled nightclub where Lowtide appear in a hazy narcosis. The band told us, “Jamieson Moore who directed the clip had a trip planned to Iran and we thought it would be an interesting idea for her to shoot some footage there. The street scenes and signage are so vivid and vibrant and Jamieson was particularly enamoured by the mannequins, which became the basis for the clip and artwork.”
GRASSHOLE EP HITS US RADIO CHARTS
Week two into a CMJ college radio campaign in the US, Melbourne act Grasshole’s second EP The Unification Proclamation debuted at #1 on core station KFSR Fresno. It also entered the Top 30 on five other stations and is getting airplay on 23 others. Grasshole will play more Aussie shows before heading to the US for the CMJ Conference in New York in October.
WIN THE PRIZE THAT COULD LAUNCH YOUR MUSIC CAREER - Head to bankofmelbourne.com.au/melbmusicbank to win!