ISSUE NO. 603 MARCH 11, 2015
FREE Now picked up at over 1,600 places across Sydney and surrounds. thebrag.com
MUSIC, FILM, THEATRE + MORE
INSIDE This Week
SEVENTH SON
Ben Barnes lives out his fantasies in the new Sergei Bodrov film.
MAVIS STAPLES
Paying tribute to her late father after 50 years in the game.
U P C LO S E W I T H
GHOSTPOET
The chameleonic Brit drops a new record with a vintage sound.
BALKAN BEAT BOX
A life lived in danger leads to exultant grooves.
Plus
CHARLES BRADLEY CHRIS ROBINSON PAUL FOOT
& T H E U N I T E D N AT I O N S 11th March
DJ MK (
Roots Manua Dizzee Rascal DJ
(
+ Bad // Dreems + Spacie
Sunday 24th May // Revesby Workers NSW // (02) 9772 2100
Sat 23rd May // Anita’s Theatre, Thirroul NSW // TICKETMASTER 136 100
Friday 22nd May // Enmore Theatre NSW // TICKETEK 132 849
Wednesday 20th May // Eatons Hill Hotel QLD // TICKETEK 132 849
Sun 17th May // Barossa Arts & Con. Centre SA // TICKETMASTER 136 100
Saturday 16th May // Thebarton Theatre SA // TICKETMASTER 136 100
Friday 15th May // Palais Theatre VIC // TICKETMASTER 136 100
Tuesday 12th May // Regal Theatre WA // TICKETEK 132 849
MOJO IL ON SUNDAY UK // ‘FLAWLESS’ ‘MIND BOGGLING ACCURACY’ - MA
R BEATLES SHOW FROM THE UK // THE WORLD’S PREMIE ROY ORTUSO PRESENTS // DIRECT
TRIPLE J, THE MUSIC, SELECT MUSIC, CHANNEL V AND PEDESTRIAN PRESENT
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GRACETOWN WITH SPECIAL GUESTS
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A L S O A P P E A R I N G AT G R O OV I N T H E M O O N AT I O N A L LY !
A L B U M O U T N OW
BRAG :: 603 :: 11:03:15 :: 3
rock music news
the BRAG presents
welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Chris Martin, Spencer Scott and Lauren Gill
BALKAN BEAT BOX Oxford Art Factory Wednesday March 11
songwriters’ secrets WITH
2.
1.
Enmore Theatre Tuesday March 31
KATIE NOONAN
how fear could make people say truly awful and ignorant things. I was about 18 and trying to find my feet in the world as a young, feminist woman.
The First Song I Wrote The first proper song I wrote was a song called ‘Homebrew’ – it was a song reflecting on an uneasy feeling I was having around the time Pauline Hanson was elected into Federal Parliament. I have always been a pretty leftish, one-love-style hippie, and this was one of the first times I realised there were a lot of people who didn’t think similarly to me. It was interesting to observe
PAOLO NUTINI
The Last Song I Released I have been busy working away on my new album and am very excited about the direction it is going in. It has been empowering to return to that organic band sound I started with George and then later with The Captains but in a new way, with a more cinematic and some electronic influence. My new EP Peace Is My Drug [includes] a song I wrote with Michael Leunig, one of my very favourite Australian poets and artists. The lyrics reflect a little on humanity’s constant and long search for internal peace.
Songwriting Secrets Every song is different! For 3. me it is about setting definite time
aside for songwriting as, too often the ‘to do’ lists of life get in the way and seem more pressing. Usually the melody comes first for me. I am also scribbling lyric and chordal ideas all the time, and then I just try to make them all work together somehow. The muse will visit when you least expect, so I think it’s important to keep yourself open to it at all times.
4.
The Song That Makes Me Proud I guess the song ‘Special Ones’ is a significant song for me as I have had a lot of women come up to me and tell me it has empowered them to get away from an abusive relationship. So that is so totally amazing to be a small part of that woman’s journey into her power and I feel deeply honoured. Other people have used ‘Breathe In Now’ at weddings and quite a few people have given birth to the Elixir album!
GEORGE CLINTON & PARLIAMENT FUNKADELIC
The Song That Changed My Life 5. The first album I ever bought was
Enmore Theatre Wednesday April 1
Crowded House’s debut self-titled record and it absolutely changed my life. I was eight years old and I had never heard anything like it. It blew my mind and opened me up to the wonderful possibilities of a great pop song and a killer band. From the opening lyric “She came all the way from America / She had a blind date with destiny / And the sound of Te Awamutu…” I was just transfixed.
DAVID GRAY State Theatre Wednesday April 1 and Tuesday April 2
JOHN MAYALL Factory Theatre Thursday April 2
G. LOVE & SPECIAL SAUCE The Basement Sunday April 5
What: Peace Is My Drug out now independently With: Sahara Beck Where: Newtown Social Club When: Thursday March 19 And: Also appearing at Lizotte’s Dee Why on Wednesday March 18, The Brass Monkey on Saturday March 21 and Lizotte’s Newcastle on Sunday March 22
THE GIPSY KINGS Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House Tuesday April 7 and Wednesday April 8
JIMMY CLIFF Metro Theatre Thursday April 9
Bonjah
MANAGING EDITOR: Chris Martin chris@thebrag.com 02 9212 4322 ONLINE EDITOR: Tyson Wray SUB-EDITOR: Sam Caldwell STAFF WRITERS: Adam Norris, Augustus Welby NEWS: Lauren Gill, Nicholas Hartman, Spencer Scott ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant PHOTOGRAPHERS: Katrina Clarke, Ashley Mar ADVERTISING: Georgina Pengelly - 0416 972 081 / (02) 9212 4322 georgina@thebrag.com ADVERTISING: Les White - 0405 581 125 / (02) 9212 4322 les@thebrag.com PUBLISHER: Furst Media MANAGING DIRECTOR, FURST MEDIA: Patrick Carr - patrick@furstmedia.com.au, (03) 9428 3600 / 0402 821 122 DIGITAL DIRECTOR/ADVERTISING: Kris Furst kris@furstmedia.com.au, (03) 9428 3600 GIG & CLUB GUIDE COORDINATORS: Nicholas Hartman, Emily Meller, Spencer Scott gigguide@thebrag.com (rock); clubguide@thebrag. com (dance, hip hop & parties) AWESOME INTERNS: Lachlan Mackenzie, Spencer Scott, Nicholas Hartman REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Nat Amat, Ian Barr, Prudence Clark, Tom Clift, Keiron Costello, Christie Eliezer, Fergus Halliday, Cameron James, Tegan Jones, Lachlan Kanoniuk, Mina Kitsos, Emily Meller, Annie Murney, Adam Norris, Kate Robertson, Erin Rooney, Raf Seneviratne, Leonardo Silvestrini, Krissi Weiss, Rod Whitfield, Harry Windsor, Tyson Wray, Stephanie Yip, David James Young Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this NEW address 100 Albion Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 ph - (02) 9212 4322 fax - (02) 9319 2227
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Soul-rock outfit Bonjah have dropped a brand new single, ‘Burn’, and they’re hitting the road for a six-date national tour to celebrate. In their nine years together, Bonjah have sold tens of thousands of records independently, toured around the world and picked up multiple award nominations. The latest tour sees them play Newtown Social Club on Friday April 3.
MARMALADE SKIES RESCHEDULES
After the sad news last year that the Marmalade Skies Festival was postponed indefinitely after bushfire concerns, the festival organisers have announced that they are proudly back in action, with the event to take place in April. The crowd-funded festival happening in Goulburn was originally cancelled at the last minute due to safety advice from the local council, having been planned to go ahead in mid-December last year. Almost the entire original lineup from the festival is still playing, with the bill including Lepers And Crooks, Olympic Ayres and Airling, as well as a partnership between Marmalade Skies and record label Etcetc, which will be presenting a showcase of artists including Kilter, Luke Million and Accadamy among others. Punters who have already bought tickets have been emailed with details on how to attend the rescheduled festival, and additional tickets are now on sale. Marmalade Skies Festival takes place in Goulburn from Friday April 10 – Sunday April 12.
SPECTRUM PLAYGROUND
The Spectrum Now festival’s Spectrum Playground kicks off a run of live music gigs this week. Spectrum Playground is working in conjunction with Mushroom Music to present lineups focused on revealing some of Australia’s best hidden talent, with an assortment of sounds and artists representing a variety of genres. Headlining the Spectrum Playground stage in The Domain on the opening night this Wednesday March 11 are the up-and-coming nine-piece soul band Saskwatch. Acts also
playing the outdoor stage throughout the festival are Frank Yamma and Steve Smyth (Thursday March 12), Spookyland (Sunday March 15) and Richard In Your Mind (Tuesday March 17). For the full program, visit spectrumnow. com.au.
CAN WE PRINT THAT?
Jackasses across Australia, rejoice: Bam Margera has announced an Australian tour with his band, the creatively titled Fuckface Unstoppable. The star of Jackass, Viva La Bam and professional skateboarder Margera will be in the country in May. Margera has been to our shores before, with his last tour promoter describing the experience as a “dramatic, drugfuelled, punk rock road trip that was possibly the best experience I’ve ever fucking had”. Margera will be joined by his band, which features members of ’90s skate punk band Guttermouth and alt-metal act CKY. Margera and Fuckface Unstoppable play Manning Bar on Thursday
Peaches
Enigmatic performer and 2014 X Factor Australia runner-up Dean Ray has announced a headline date in Sydney. Ray has already proven himself a prolific artist so far, landing in the top 200 on the ARIA charts with 13 of his tracks, and his debut album shooting into the top five in its first week. Now, Ray is set to play Oxford Art Factory on Saturday April 18.
May 7, Newcastle’s Small Ballroom on Saturday May 9, Mona Vale Hotel on Sunday May 10 and The Entrance Leagues Club on Wednesday May 13.
OH BOY, OPETH
Swedish progressive metal legends Opeth have announced a national tour in support of their latest album, Pale Communion. With nearly 25 years behind them and 11 albums to choose from, fans can expect everything from their early death metal to their later symphonic prog rock. The tour will mark Opeth’s first trip back to our shores since their hugely successful Heritage tour in 2013. They’ll hit the Enmore Theatre on Sunday May 3.
PEACHES KEEN
Peaches has locked in a Sydney headline show to accompany her appearances at Groovin The Moo. 15 years since she first burst upon the scene with her single ‘Fuck The Pain Away’, the inimitable Canadian dance-punk has just completed her first studio album in over five years, Rub, which will be released later this year. In the meantime, catch her on Friday May 8 at The Hi-Fi.
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EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher, editors or staff of the BRAG.
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BRAG :: 603 :: 11:03:15 :: 5
live & local welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Chris Martin, Lauren Gill and Nicholas Hartman
five things WITH
The Tango Saloon
BIG SANDY The Music You Make I started out as strictly 4. a rockabilly performer in the
Growing Up I had the great fortune 1. of growing up in a home
point in my life was The Sun Sessions by Elvis Presley, which was released by RCA in the mid-’70s. I had heard and loved Elvis’ hit records before that, but hearing the music that he recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis for the first time really blew my mind. That album set me on the rockabilly path that I continue on today.
filled with music. Neither of my parents were musicians, but they had a great passion for music and for records in particular. While other neighbourhood kids were outdoors playing, I would sit in my room for hours listening to my parents’ doo-wop, rock’n’roll and country 45s. As an adult, collecting and listening to vintage vinyl continues to be my favourite hobby and inspires my own music.
3.
Your Band I record and perform with my band as Big Sandy and his Fly-Rite Boys. We first formed in 1988 as a group of friends from several different Southern California rockabilly bands, with the goal of developing a more authentic vintage sound. On this particular Australian tour I am performing as a guest vocalist with Los Straitjackets, a primarily instrumental outfit from Nashville, Tennessee.
Inspirations I grew up listening to 2. the music of many different obscure mid-century artists within many different genres of music. Because of that, it would be very difficult to pick out even a handful of favourite musicians. But one album that I look back to as a turning
ON SALE NOW
Music, Right Here, Right Now 5. I find the music scene back home in the States to be pretty exciting. It seems to me that there is a greater awareness and appreciation for music from the last century and a lot of younger musicians are finding inspiration in these older sounds and creating their own music out of that. This will only be my second visit to Sydney, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the current music scene compares to what I’ve been experiencing lately in the US. Who: Big Sandy with Los Straitjackets What: Sydney Rock ‘N’ Roll & Alternative Market Where: Manning Bar When: Sunday March 15
TWO TO TANGO
Julian Curwin’s tango/Western project The Tango Saloon are releasing a collaborative album with Elana Stone called Suspicion this Thursday March 12, and holding a launch gig the same night. The tireless Stone appears on nine of the record’s 14 tracks, and will perform at the gig alongside special guest Brian Campeau. The album launch, marking The Tango Saloon’s fourth full-length release, is at The Basement.
NEW VENUE NEWS
The City of Sydney has announced the opening of Glebe Town Hall to live music as part of the council’s efforts to rejuvenate the local live music scene. The historic venue will host nine concerts this year, with the implementation of the Live Music and Performance Action Plan aiming to support creative performers around central Sydney. As the plan continues to unfold, musicians will get free access to community venues and other city buildings to develop and perform their work. The Glebe Town Hall gigs kick off with the Hinterlandt Ensemble on Sunday March 22, and continue monthly until November. Highlights on the calendar include David Bridie and Fred Smith on Saturday May 16 and The Crooked Fiddle Band on Sunday October 18.
TICKETS & INFO AT BLUESFESTTOURING.COM.AU FULL BLUESFEST LINE-UP AT BLUESFEST.COM.AU
DO IS GOOD, AND WE’DAN D ARS FOR A GIG THELI YE E’, N VE LIN SE IN D ‘TH ITE ’, TY WA WE KNEW’, ‘HIGH FID E ROUTINE AND CLOSE LY ON U YO ‘IF ... AIN IT AG DANC W IN A FULL BAND’ AN YOU HAVE IS THE ‘FREEDOM’. THRO‘W T’S GOLDEN D WHAT HA TH WI HT NIG E TH EOUT PERFECT GIG. TIM
ALSO TOURING
The Peep Tempel
: ALABAMA SHAKES : ANGELIQUE KIDJO : JAKE SHIMABUKURO : MAVIS STAPLES :
...ENIGMATIC “SINGER, CAPTIVATING PERFORMANCE. ” LOCAL BOZO
“
”
IS ONE THING YOU “DOIFINTHERE THIS LIFE: SEE MICHAEL FRANTI SCENESTR ”
2 TONE SKA LEGENDS
SPELLBINDING OVERFLOWING WITH TALENT
- AS THE “LIKESTIMELESS OF CAT STEVENS, VAN MORRISON AND BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN ” PETER VINCENT,
“
UT! ! OLD OG S ST 1 D E W LIN FA L E S 2 THU
RHYTHMS 2014 TOUR REVIEW
SMH
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HER SELL-OUT GIG WILL NOW BE MY MEASURING STICK FOR ALL MUSICAL PERFORMANCES THAT FOLLOW.
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A MASTERFUL “PERFORMANCE. ” OXFORD AMERICAN
#45 OF THE UK TELEGRAPH’S 100 ALL TIME BEST GLASTONBURY PERFORMANCES EVER
FEATURING A 12 STRONG NZ CAST
“
TO EVEN THE MOST JADED OF CONCERT GOERS, FLY MY PRETTIES ARE UNIQUE, FOR WHAT IS HAPPENING ON STAGE IS CLOSE TO MIRACULOUS. THE DOMINION POST
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thebrag.com
Big Sandy with Los Straitjackets photo by Greg Allen
early ’80s, but over the years I’ve grown to include R&B, jazz, honky-tonk, Western swing and even a touch of Jamaican rocksteady in the mix. On this tour with Los Straitjackets, I’ll be singing ’60s-inspired rock’n’roll. Our shows together are pretty hard-rocking and soulful, something like a garage R&B show in Mexico City in 1965.
free stuff head to: thebrag.com/freeshit
NEW ORLEANS MARDI GRAS
JEFF MARTIN
Hound
Australia’s favourite adopted Canadian is back again. Following last year’s reunion of The Tea Party and his collaborative tour with Sarah McLeod, Jeff Martin is hitting the road this month for his Returning From The Ocean At The End Tour. It’s another change of pace from the Tea Party frontman, who’ll strip things back and perform in solo acoustic mode. The tour is named after The Tea Party’s comeback release of last year, The Ocean At The End, and fans can expect a mix of songs from that record, some classics and a surprise or two thrown in. Martin is playing a slew of dates including The Basement on Wednesday March 25, The Brass Monkey on Tuesday March 31 and Wednesday April 1, and Newtown Social Club on Saturday April 4. We’ve got two double passes to give away to the show of your choice – to be in the running, head to thebrag.com/freeshit and tell us your favourite Tea Party song.
Sydney’s Mardi Gras might have come and gone – and what a party it was – but Kings Cross is set to get a taste of another of the world’s most famous Mardi Gras events. The Bourbon is hosting its own New Orleans Mardi Gras until Sunday March 15, with the closing evening party featuring street party band The Brassholes. That means dancefloor action and irresistible rhythm, carried along by those epic horns. Party on.
DALLAS DOING GOOD
It’s been a big week for riff rock trio Dallas Frasca. They’ve just announced the release date of their third album, Love Army, signed a record deal with Australian independent label Social Family Records and will cap it all off with an extensive national tour. Love Army, which follows five international tours in two years, is due for release on Friday April 17. They’ll give fans a taste of the album live when they head out on a huge national tour across May and June. Catch Dallas Frasca at Goodgod Small Club on Saturday May 23.
PAPA DON’T PREACH
Papa Pilko and The Binrats are set to head out on a tour of the east coast of Australia, with 11 dates planned. The self-styled “voodoo soul and slicked back rock’n’roll
HOUNDED OUT
Brisbane punk outfit Hound will hit the road in support of their new single, ‘God Is Calling’. The track is taken from their soon-to-be-released debut album, Dying In The Sun. Since bursting onto the scene in June 2013, the four-piece has become known for a cutting combination of ’80s post punk and ’90s alternative. Catch Hound at Oxford Art Factory on Friday March 20.
A PEEP SHOW
Following up their shortlist nomination for the Coopers AMP (and a hilariously deadpan speech at the awards night itself), The Peep Tempel are stepping out on their Gettin’ On By Tour. The Melbourne rock’n’rollers won the attentions of critics and fans with their second album, Tales, released last year. Their latest tour dates will take them all the way from Tallarook to Darwin, but they’ll stop in at Newtown Social Club on Saturday May 2.
band” will play a few dates around town off the back of the release of their single ‘How Long’, taken from their upcoming, self-titled debut album. The band will rock out at The Steyne Hotel in Manly on Thursday April 30; The Stag & Hunter in Newcastle on Saturday May 1; Bondi Bowling Club on Thursday May 7; Brighton Up Bar on Saturday May 30; and The Junkyard in Maitland on Sunday May 31, where they will end the tour.
THE MURLOCS
Melbourne boys The Murlocs will tour the nation to celebrate the release of their new single, ‘Adolescence’. The announcement comes at the end of a big summer for the five-piece, spent playing with Ty Segall, touring with Mac DeMarco and recording their sophomore album. ‘Adolescence’ is the first single from the album, which is due for release in June 2015. Catch up with The Murlocs at Newtown Social Club on Thursday April 9.
CHARLES BRADLEY & HIS EXTRAORDINAIRES : DISPATCH : HOZIER SOLD OUT : THE GIPSY KINGS FEAT NICOLAS REYES & TONINO BALIARDO GRAMMY NOMINEE
THE
SUPERSTAR “REGGAE’S 1ST GLOBAL ” ROLLING STONE
ROCK “VIBEA VINTAGE THAT’S AT ONCE
WITH GUESTS, FROM THE USA
US ROLLING STONE
MANY RIVERS TO CROSS’ ‘‘YOU CAN GET IT IF YOU REALLY WANT’ ‘THE HARDER THEY COME’
REBELUTION
QUIRKY, TRIPPY, SOULFUL AND DOWNRIGHT MAGNETIC.
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THE ORIGINAL LINE-UP RETURN FOR THEIR
2015 A TALENTED PEOPLE’S SINGER AND CHOICE EVEN BETTER AWARD MUSICIAN WINNER MCALL
WWWWW
WAS ABOUT AS LIVE AND “ELECTRIFYING A PERFORMANCE
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20TH ATOUR! NNIVERSARY
AS I HAVE EVER BEEN FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO WITNESS, A WILD AND JOYOUS GROOVE MIASMA THAT STILL SOUNDS LIKE A DISPATCH FROM THE FUTURE.
TELEGRAPH UK
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FAST! G N I L L SE
80 TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR
SHORTY
& ORLEANS AVENUE
HE’S A GENUINE “LIVING LEGEND ”
EVERY MUSICIAN ON “STAGE SHOWS OFF THEIR BRILLIANCE IN ALMOST EVERY SONG. ” THE AU REVIEW
D
AVE & PHIL
ALVIN THE GUILTY ONES
WITH
T
ROMBONE
TOURING SONGS BY THE BLASTERS & THEIR FIRST ALBUM TOGETHER AFTER 30 YEARS; COMMON GROUND - THE SONGS OF BIG BILL BROONZY.
JSHIMABUKURO KEB’MO’ AKE
EVERYTHING “YOUFORGET KNOW ABOUT THE UKULELE ” TIME MAGAZINE
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TIME OUT
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BRAG :: 603 :: 11:03:15 :: 7
Industrial Strength Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer
THINGS WE HEAR * Which are the 40 tech companies currently being investigated by the Australian Tax Office? * Which team member of a management company is saying she heard about the ousting of a band member from social media? * Will Whitesnake tour with KISS in October, asks Noise 11? * Future Music Asia has been cancelled for 2015 after the Singaporean Government refused to give it a permit this weekend, fearing drug abuse by the crowd. * London Grammar’s tour through Secret Sounds has sold out. * So too has the Maitland stop (Saturday May 9) for Groovin The Moo, as has the Bendigo,
Victoria show on Saturday May 2. * Just before One Direction took to the stage at Subiaco Oval, security found a man hiding under the stage. He claimed he was with the pyrotechnics crew but got turfed out when he couldn’t produce any ID. * Dubbo City is considering introducing a Cultural Person of the Year award as part of Australia Day celebrations from 2016. * A member of a rising US metal band boasted on social media that he had defaced the grave of ‘Dimebag’ Darrell Abbott, spitting on it, stealing a pair of cowboy boots and attaching a piece of paper with the message “fag”. Pantera said, “We are absolutely disgusted,” and have informed the authorities. * Drake has matched The Beatles’ record of having 14 US Billboard Hot 100 songs simultaneously. The Fab Four
ONE OF ONE PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON WOMEN IN MUSIC One Of One is a new site spotlighting women in the Australian music industry. Its features and discussions profile those doing kick-arse jobs, with the hope it inspires others to follow. The site was founded by Sarah Hamilton and Vader Fame (Ditto Music) and Joanna Cameron (AIR). “We wanted to find out more about how they operate, their advice and experiences, and how they got to where they are,” Hamilton explained. Oneofone.com. au launched last week with interviews from Gerry Bull (triple j), Maya Janeska (UNFD), Bec Young (Artist Voice), Hazel Savage (Pandora), Hannah Shepherd (Airling), Kirsty Brown (Music NSW), Sophie Kirov (Future Classic), Poppy Reid (The Music Network) and Linda Bosidis (Mushroom Music Publishing).
THICKE, PHARRELL EACH MADE $5M FROM ‘BLURRED LINES’ One of the pieces of info that emerged from the California court case involving ‘Blurred Lines’ is that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams each made US$5 million from the smash hit. In total, the song made a profit of US$16.6 million. The late Marvin Gaye’s family initiated action over the song’s similarity to ‘Got To Give It Up’ and demanded US$40 million in damages. The figure was made up of 50 per cent of its earnings – compensation for the fact the Gaye song has less chance to be licensed, and a share of Thicke’s touring income. The family claims US$11 million of the money Thicke made on the road came because of the success of ‘Blurred Lines’.
FINALISTS FOR WORLD ELECTRONIC MUSIC CONTEST The 15 finalists from the 100 producers who applied for the World Electronic Music Contest have been announced. They are AJC, Arrowhead, Beacon, Cygnet, Divise, Dominik Dale, GUDU, K Bolt, Leon Mobbs, Lycus, Manbat, Mark Maxwell, Shibbi, Shuriken and Visual Lies. Each must submit a 20-minute mix, with the winner announced on Tuesday March
managed the feat first in 1964. * Speaking at a Perth conference, the WA head of Southern Cross Austereo Linda Wayman admitted (with tongue in cheek) that with 35% of her staff on maternity leave or filling in, “We do have a big jar of condoms at work.” * Multi-platinum Swiss band 77 Bombay Street are in Sydney until mid-April, recording their next album at Linear Recording Studios in Leichhardt. Four of the members were seen on the Seven Network winning the South Australian Country Music Awards in 2003 as part of a Von Trapp-style family group. They returned to live in the idyllic Swiss mountains and later formed this band. * The World Health Organisation has warned that 28 seconds at a rock concert could damage hearing, and recommended that people should use earphones for just an hour a day. The WHO
17. The prize includes a set at Pacha Sydney or Chinese Laundry, a headline gig at Skygarden in Bali, a world release through Ministry of Sound, studio equipment and technology from Native Instruments, and mentoring from label pros and studio experts.
NOVA, WARNER LAUNCH FRESH DISCOVERY Nova Entertainment, Warner Music Australia and David Caplice of Caplice Management have teamed up to launch Nova’s Fresh Discovery competition to find the next big thing in Aussie music. It’s open to singersongwriters, solo acts, DJs, producers and bands. The prize includes a Warner record deal and mentoring from a major Warner act. Auditions begin from March 18; apply at freshdiscovery.com.au. The winner will be announced during Smallzy’s Surgery on Friday March 27.
TWO NEW SIGNINGS AT UMBRELLA Umbrella has signed Andy Bull and Winterbourne to its roster, which already includes Cloud Control, Jane Tyrrell, Fishing, Left and Eleanor Dunlop. Bull is doing a national tour with Cub Sport, while Winterbourne’s March/April tour behind ‘Steady My Bones’ is sold out in Sydney and close to doing the same in Melbourne.
BOOKING A GREAT GIG What are the promotional, financial, legal and technical aspects of booking a gig in Sydney? MusicNSW and APRA are putting on a free seminar called Gig Guide with input from venue operators and booking agents Keita Tarlinton, Maggie Collins, Dom O’Connor, Rob G, Rebecca Young and Chris Sheppard. It’s on Thursday March 26 from 4-6pm at The Standard Bowl. For more info, see musicnsw.com or contact Jake Stone at jake@musicnsw.com or 02 9953 5279.
AC/DC THE FIFTH BIGGEST SELLING ACT OF 2014 AC/DC were the fifth biggest sellers in the
Available at JB Hifi (Log 8 :: BRAG :: 603 :: 11:03:15
believes 1.1 billion people are at risk of suffering permanent ear problems through their listening habits, and that more than 43 million people between 12 and 35 are already living with hearing loss. * When Taylor Swift heard a four-year-old fan, Jalene Salinas of San Antonio, Texas, was suffering from terminal brain cancer, and her dying wish was to dance with Swift to ‘Shake It Off’, Swift did a 20-minute Skype-type call. She told her, “You look beautiful tonight, you really do,” and condoled with her mum. Swift also donated US$50,000 to a New York school, as promised. * Blur’s next album will have a song called ‘There Are Too Many Of Us’, written about the siege at Sydney’s Lindt Cafe in Martin Place. It was penned by Damon Albarn, whose solo gig that night at the Sydney Opera House was postponed as a result.
world last year according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The biggest was Taylor Swift, whose album 1989 sold four million copies in the US alone. ‘Shake It Off’ was a top five hit in 20 countries and its video scored 350 million YouTube views. The other big three acts were One Direction, Ed Sheeran and Coldplay. After AC/DC came Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd, Sam Smith, Katy Perry and Beyoncé.
DEUTSCH DUKE JOINS NICHE EDM/R&B artist/producer Deustch Duke has joined the Niche agency. He’s worked with Elizabeth Rose, Gypsy And The Cat, Cassian, and most recently Flight Facilities. Duke has since released a new single, ‘Battleground’, and his new EP will be mixed by the ARIA-winning Eric J Dubowsky.
GUVERA HITS 5.5 MILLION MEMBERS The move by Australian music streaming service Guvera into India has proven a huge success. CEO and co-founder Darren Herft told BRW that 2.5 million people signed up in India within a few months, bringing its global number to 5.5 million. After focusing on emerging markets in South-East Asia and Latin America, Guvera moved into the UK. It has signed such corporate partners as Contiki, Bose, HarleyDavidson, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Cornetto. “We’re moving into a position now where revenue [is] starting to flow; it was pretty much non-existent before November,” Herft said. “It will definitely be a bigger focus in 2015.”
MADONNA SETS NEW CHART RECORD IN UK Madonna has set a new chart record in the UK. ‘Living For Love’ entered at number 26, extending her own record for most Top 40 hits by a woman. She embarks on a world tour in America from mid-year, and Live Nation is expected to announce Australian shows for 2016 later this month.
Lifelines Born: son Isaiah Michael Fisher to singer Carrie Underwood and professional ice hockey player husband Mike Fisher. Dumped: singer Chris Brown by his girlfriend via Twitter after claims he had fathered a child with another woman. Married: Laura Viglino (EP of WSFM’s breakfast show) and former 2Day FM producer turned Matt & Bruno: The Probe host, Bruno Bouchet. Recovering: San Cisco bassist Nick Gardner, who accidentally shot himself in the foot on a farm, will rejoin the band later this month for European dates. In Court: Bob Marley’s children won a landmark case against merchandisers who used the reggae icon’s likeness on merchandise sold in major retail stores without permission. The main merchandiser tried a defence of right to publicity but that was thrown out and it got stuck with a huge bill. In Court: Village People singer-songwriter Victor Willis (the first cop) won his case that he should get 50 per cent of the royalties for writing hits such as ‘Y.M.C.A.’ with Jacques Morali. His publishers had claimed the songs were adapted from French songs written by Henri Belolo, and that Belolo should also get royalties, bringing Willis’ share down to 33%. Suing: Hall & Oates are taking action against New York “artisanal granola” company Early Bird, which named one of its brands Haulin’ Oats. Arrested: a 31-year-old Philadelphia man Pierce Boykin, charged with the stabbing murder of Nicki Minaj’s tour manager in a bar, was already facing an attempted murder charge, police said. Sued: Korn, by former drummer David Silveria who left (temporarily, he says) in 2006 and was then told not to return. Silveria says Korn should not be playing their current shows, performing their 1994 self-titled debut in its entirety. Died: Charmayne ‘Maxee’ Maxwell, of ’90s R&B girl group Maxwell (‘If You Love Me’ was a hit here in 1995), 46, after a freak accident when she cut her neck on a wine glass. Police do not suspect foul play.
and all good record stores. thebrag.com
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THE PHANTOM LIMB
BY ADAM NORRIS
XAVIER RUDD & THE UNITED NATIONS A
musician’s aspirations are as varied as leaves. While one might dream of stadium rapture and spotlights, another may find a quiet evening set in a café all the reward they need. Having your material covered by other artists, however, is an honour of its own, and one that folk/blues songwriter Xavier Rudd must enjoy frequently these days. The instant I heard ‘The Reasons We Were Blessed’ performed at a small coastal market years back, I was hooked on Rudd’s evocative, stirring lyrics. As he explains it, like most of his material that song emerged with a life of its own. All Rudd had to do was not get in the way. “It all happens pretty fast,” he explains. “Most songs present themselves, and the only rule I have is to try not to involve my ego and just let them be. Feel it, let it come through. That song, for example, I was out driving around fairly fast and that song started to match it. There was a speed to it, and that’s how I want them to be. Those are the keepers, you know? I don’t usually write things down. If a song happens and if it doesn’t stay, then it wasn’t meant to be. When a powerful one comes, it comes thick and fast. I just try not to let my mind get caught up in it, let it be something on its own. I respect that. I’m just there to guide it, not take ownership of it.”
“WE ALL HAVE ACTIVE SPRITS AROUND US THAT GUIDE US, AND THEY PRESENT TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE IN DIFFERENT WAYS. AND FOR ME, THAT’S ALWAYS BEEN MUSIC.”
Even prior to his 2002 debut, To Let, Rudd’s belief in the autonomy of music had been long-seeded. Growing up in Victoria between the ocean and the bush, his sense of each song possessing a unique essence – in much the same way that the natural world around him was brimming with history and spirituality – was perhaps inevitable. It is a connection that has served him well throughout a career that spans eight albums with this week’s release of Nanna. Indeed, it is difficult to tell who is the real shepherd here – the performer or the performed. “It’s a lot like my music is a few steps ahead of me on my journey. I’ll reflect on what a song meant to me or what inspired it much, much later. See, I understand we all have active sprits around us that guide us, and they present to different people in different ways. And for me, that’s always been music. It’s pretty clear for me, that distinction between something being a personal, emotional reflection, or whether it’s coming from somewhere else, some kind of spirit that’s coming through me. I’ve grown to understand that more as I’ve got older, but it’s been happening all my life. I respect it, and just try to humbly take that tradition that I have and stay strong, and try to be the best vessel I can for it.” It is a fascinating concept; that any artistic creation exists almost in potentia, laying the
scene for your eventual arrival. It implies an acknowledgement of an interventionist spiritual life form – a concept that can be difficult to embrace for cynics. What does seem certain, though, is the deeply personal, reciprocal exchange Rudd finds between his music and his faith. Not that a sustainable career in music was ever a certainty for him. “I was always writing songs. I was always singing little melodies about what was happening around me, which is essentially the same thing that I’m doing now. That was always part of my DNA, and I can’t really imagine that part of me not being there. It’s like a limb. I didn’t…” Rudd trails off for a time, and when he continues he sounds unexpectedly reluctant. It is as though the balance of his creativity is so intangible he would rather not draw too great a focus to it; to not, as he says, let his mind get caught up in it. “I guess I had a feeling I was going to be doing something in music. In saying that, I always wrote songs, but it was always like a secret game, like a little meditation. It wasn’t something I ever shared. I never thought – well, I never panicked about what I was going to do; I somehow knew that everything was going to be cool. But I wasn’t set on it, had no backup or anything. I always enjoyed being outside and always enjoyed making music. For example, I worked on a golf course. I’d be riding around on the mower on the golf
course, and that worked for me for a while because I wrote a lot while I was doing that.” He chuckles. “One of the first EPs I ever had had a picture of a Toro mower on the front. And then I had a little boy real young; that was unexpected. So life got real pretty quick, and I was blessed. “I started to play music for people, and they really reacted to it. It boosted my confidence, and that journey was pretty smooth and fast. There was nothing tedious. Yeah, it’s been long and it’s been tiring at times, and it’s hard work, but it was an incline to being able to open up my music to people. And that’s been constant now for the last 15 years.” To give Rudd credit, “hard work” is something of an understatement. On the back of 2012’s Spirit Bird, he toured across the world for 30 months. That he was able to assemble an entirely new band, The United Nations, and record an album while doing this is nothing short of incredible – the man’s stamina would put Samson to shame. As the band’s debut performance at Bluesfest draws closer, Rudd is at pains to emphasise that his own coordination is but one small part of the endeavour. The true credit, he insists, goes to his bandmates’ astonishing spirits and stories stretching across continents, bringing them all together – their United Nations.
making for a while. It’s a pumping band, and that’s what I called in. It needed to be right. Musically, spiritually, physically. All of these things needed to line up, and it was the right time. It’s a greater force than just me. “I really feel like I said the right prayers and put the right karma out there, and it’s like all of the ancestors of all of these fabulous people with all of these powerful stories came together, had a cup of tea and decided, ‘Alright, we need to put this crew together.’ That’s not such a surprise, because I’ve understood that kind of spiritual activity in the past. But it’s a massive thing. There’s no doubt people are going to dig it, the album is groovy as hell. This whole journey is very, very powerful, and I’m very humbled by it – very grateful, and I try to just hold faith in the strongest way I can; to honour it in every way.” What: Nanna out Friday March 13 through Salt X/Universal With: Yeshe Where: Metro Theatre When: Saturday March 21 And: Also appearing alongside The Black Keys, Zac Brown Band, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals and many more at Bluesfest 2015, Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, Thursday April 2 – Monday April 6
“I’m just excited to get it out; it’s been in the
xxx
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Beth Hart Tales Of Survival By Adam Norris hurdles of bipolar disorder are told with campfire ease, as though she is excitedly speaking of them for the first time. She and her band are coming back to Australia for Bluesfest, and this storytelling virtue will serve her well; as Hart has found in the past, each performance needs a character of its own. “I love the internet,” the Californian laughs, her accent touched with a slight huskiness. “Cause when you’re coming to their town, people can really let you know what songs they want to hear. And that’s why I have my band learn so many songs. I have a new drummer that I’m breaking in, he’s learned 54 songs for the road! But I do very much cater the show to each town. There are certain songs that I’ll have in each show, but every show is going to be tailored to the territory. Like in France, I know they like more jazz. They also love rock’n’roll, which are two genres so far apart, but that’s what they like and I play it while I’m there. That’s what I love about touring so much – you really get an awareness of where you are and what they like. It makes it fun, but it also makes it challenging for us as a band, because you have to stay on top of all the material. It never makes for the same day twice, and that’s what I just love about it.”
F
or someone who has been living the beguiling life of a muso for over 20 years now – with all the usual rewards and several of the
particular lows – Beth Hart is one of the most open and enthusiastic speakers you can imagine. Her reflections on her career and the
Hart’s debut, Beth Hart And The Ocean Of Souls, was released back in 1993, but it wasn’t until her 1999 ‘LA Song (Out Of This Town)’ that she found her breakthrough. A song that charted a dark and distressing time in Hart’s life, it has remained a fixture in her set over the years, yet its power has not diminished for her audiences, or for Hart herself.
“I never have to tap into a song. I think it’s because when I write this stuff, I’m so emotional at the time. I can’t write when I’m light-hearted or in some middle ground where things are just drifting along. I don’t like when I’m in that place. But if I’m really emotional, I need to get something out – and it could be being emotional over something that’s joyous or funny, or something that’s more of a struggle. And when I do that, it just gets cemented into my memory and forges some connection straight to my heart. ‘LA Song’, when I play it live, it’s like I just wrote it. It’s kind of like when you’re a kid and you go through traumatic events – even though you get through them, those ghosts never go away. They’re still set in your heart, and it’s hard to let go. Now I’m starting to think it isn’t even about letting go. It’s more about making friends with it, with having compassion and finding the lesson in it. The strength you’ll get from going through it.” There are ghosts that can never be exorcised, whose presence in our lives is the shade we can never quite escape. As Hart suggests, learning to live with these memories can be one of the most difficult and despairing tasks a person finds themselves faced with, though the understanding that comes with survival is profound. For Hart the dangers were never just emotional, but a genuine mortal threat. “Drug addiction wasn’t just affecting my music. It was destroying my body, my soul. It was ripping apart my relationships. I was around 12 when I started. I was what you’d call periodic. I’d go months without touching anything, and then I’d go on a bender
for three or four days – which is seriously dangerous, but it seemed to be working for me at the time. I seemed to be able to keep going, get my career happening, find a manager, putting bands together, writing music, all that stuff. But then, when I was around 26, on my second record I had a hit. And when that happened, it made my bipolar go out of control, because I’d never felt such overwhelming anxiety and panic, and I just wasn’t right. I started drinking every day. And then I was taking pills. “Life is so much better now, but I still have my struggles. Back then I was skin and bone, my hair was falling out. I was so far gone I wasn’t making good decisions. But one of the most beautiful things that happened – and this is why I disclose my drug addiction and my bipolar – is though it’s not a good thing to experience, I found the gratitude in it. And the gratitude was that I had to reach out for help, and want, more than anything, to change my life. So I’m really grateful for everything I’ve been through, for those times I’ve survived. I get to be alive today. I’m 43 years old, and it was stacked against me that I’d ever make it past 30. Here I am, and I’m so thankful for that.” What: Bluesfest 2015 With: The Black Keys, Zac Brown Band, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Alabama Shakes, Train and more Where: Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm When: Thursday April 2 – Monday April 6 And: Also appearing at the Metro Theatre on Tuesday March 31
Balkan Beat Box FightingOn OnThe TheHome HomeFront Front By ByKrissi KrissiWeiss Weiss Fighting
“I
t’s a beautiful, sunny day. We’ve all been able to come back out after a terrorist attack and some bombings, so I’m really glad we didn’t miss such a gorgeous sky.” These are the opening words from Tamir Muskat, founding member of gypsy punk/electronica outfit Balkan Beat Box, from his home in Tel Aviv. It’s a stockstandard interview opener – “What are you doing today?” – but his response is as unique as his group’s music. We shouldn’t be surprised, though; the reality of life in Israel has always been the lyrical focus of BBB’s tracks. Their lives may have deviated temporarily through the heady streets of Brooklyn for what Muskat describes as a “musical and life education”, but their home permeates everything they do.
While some of their audience might confuse their infectious beats and gypsy melodies for cultural appropriation, Balkan Beat Box are the real deal, and their connections to their musical influences are deeply ingrained. “They say that people that love in hard places are happier. I don’t know, but maybe,” Muskat says with a laugh. “When this [turmoil] surrounds you, it’s like it increases life. You see how fragile everything is. But really, nothing makes sense about it. Nothing makes sense to what it sounds like when I tell you about my day.”
“The main thing that always influences the music is how we were raised and where,” says Muskat. “The three of us were brought up here, but then ran out for obvious reasons. So we’ve had this detour in our lives. I spent 15 years in New York and then I realised home is home, and so came back. 80 per cent of the lyrics are talking about this weird life we were brought into, the conflicts and the politics – these things are in the DNA of us as people. We could write a love song if we wanted to, once in a while, but how and where we grew up is always penetrating the lyrics. We don’t think about things genre-wise – we don’t care about these things.” The collision of culture also permeates Balkan Beat Box’s music on a melodic level. “We don’t have a filter, so whatever music is surrounding us is more than welcome to come in,” Muskat says. “Walking down a street in Tel Aviv, you’ll hear folk music in one street and M.I.A. in another pumping out some speakers, and that is what we’re surrounded by. Death is always there as well, so that is always finding its way into our music as well – not to be too heavy.” Since returning to Tel Aviv, Muskat has been working hard at developing local artists. He’s taken on the role of mentor, opening up a studio – Vibromonk East – where
he produces artists, both local and from around the world, and acting as an ambassador for Israeli talent. It would be ignorant to assume the group would simply want to stay in America forever, but of course to an outsider, Israel seems quite scary at times. “Each member would tell a different story as to why they came back home, but for me, New York was like a university with all of its art and music and of course much less conflict. After a while though, our families are here and it’s really sunny and the food is great and you think, ‘Fuck it, I’m going to commit to dealing with where I’m from
somehow.’ It’s not an easy task. Even after six years, I still love this place and I hate it. When you run as far as you can from a place that bugs you, it’s still in you. It’s in your blood, it’s in your accent, it’s in the food and the weather you like, so you find peace with it. Balkan Beat Box started when we were free from the war zone in New York, and while we could’ve done love songs, we chose to use it to deal with where we were from. Now we are back here. It felt very natural to be here and do what we wanted to out of here.” Balkan Beat Box are prolific tourers and constantly working on side projects, but Muskat says they have
some new music coming together as well. “As a band, we’re constantly touring and constantly recording as well,” he says. “Israel is a great playground for experimenting with our music, which has been great. We do have three people who constantly have other side projects, so we are very busy, but that is what holds us together. This is our main baby and whatever else we work on always affects what we do here – we bring those influences into this space.” With: Dubmarine, Kinsky Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Wednesday March 11
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Balkan Beat Box are all back in Israel now, having left the US some time ago. Muskat, a drummer with a punk background, and fellow founding member Ori Kaplan (from more classically trained beginnings) bonded quickly as teenage migrants in Brooklyn, finding their feet in a foreign city while still haunted by the reality of the life they’d left behind. Their music is deceptively joyful and
full of explosive energy that masks the stories they tell. Despite an evergrowing fan base, the now threepiece (with the permanent addition of Tomer Yosef) once appealed to a dedicated but somewhat niche crowd. Things changed in 2013 when Mac Miller sampled ‘Bulgarian Chicks’ on his Diplo-produced track, ‘Goosebumpz’, and Jason Derulo sampled ‘Hermetico’ on his massive hit, ‘Talk Dirty’.
Charles Bradley Taste The Flavour By Augustus Welby
W
hile we’ve been lapping up the generous summer sun, much of the Northern Hemisphere has been reeling at the hands of a savage winter. The US East Coast was struck by a lengthy stretch of frightfully low temperatures and stultifying blizzards, causing climate experts to underline impending devastation, while self-styled commentators pronounced it the roughest winter since time began. New York local and funk-soul renaissance man Charles Bradley was there, living through this bitterly cold season. But at 66 years old, Bradley’s a fighter, who’s not prone to fits of despair. “They tell you on the news, ‘If you don’t have to go out, don’t go out,’” he says. “But you know, I have too many chores that I have to do, cold or no cold. I can’t control nature. That is just how it is, and this planet don’t have to do what I want it to do. I just got to learn how to deal with it and live with it. It could be worse.’” Fortitude has long been Bradley’s greatest ally. The good-natured soul man endured a long road of struggle and setbacks before his otherworldly voice finally showed up on an album. As depicted in the 2012 documentary Soul Of America, Bradley was born in Florida and had an unstable childhood, moving around the US to live with various family members, before leaving home at 14 to fend for himself.
my goal now at my age. I have no time to waste. I want to be able to give out the quality that I always want to give out, and the only way I can give it out is as deep as I need. I’ve been through trials and tribulations, so the deeper my music will come out. “You might say right now, ‘Charles Bradley, I want a T-bone steak.’ And I would say, ‘No, I’m going to cut you a piece of rump, and I’m going to put all the flavour that you want on it.’ You’re not getting a T-bone steak; what you’re getting is a rump with my beautiful flavour and all of the things you like on it, so it’s not going to be what you really asking for. I want to give you the best, OK? You give me this and I put the flavour to it, you’ll like it, it tastes good. But I want to give you better.” What: Bluesfest 2015 With: The Black Keys, Zac Brown Band, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Alabama Shakes, Train and more Where: Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm When: Thursday April 2 – Monday April 6 And: Also supporting Alabama Shakes at the Enmore Theatre on Thursday April 2
“I think back to the days that I was living in the streets – living out in the snow and going all through the changes – and I survived all of that,” he says. “I think that the snow that we having nowadays is nothing compared to back in the ’60s. I remember when the snow used to be right up to my waist. You got to learn to survive in the snow and how to get through. And that’s what I learned about life; I learned how to survive.” It’s been a hard-knock journey alright, but Bradley’s love of music has always been secure. However, it was several decades before his undeniable vocal talent began reaping concrete benefits. Things started to take shape in the late ’90s, when Bradley scored a regular gig impersonating James Brown (a role he pulls off with preeminent ease). Then in the early years of this millennium, he made himself known to Gabriel Roth at Daptone Records, who soon offered him a contract.
“I wanted to be able to reach everybody. This is my goal now at my age. I have no time to waste.” “It always has been my dream,” Bradley says. “I just never closed my dreams. I always prayed and asked God for a chance. Now that I’m out here and I’m meeting a lot of people, it’s making me open up to people. I’d closed up; I’d been through so much I just didn’t trust nobody.” Once he’d recognised the magnitude of Bradley’s talent, Roth introduced the singer to guitarist and producer Tom Brenneck (The Budos Band, The Menahan Street Band). Over the course of the noughties, Bradley and Brenneck cooked up a series of singles, which culminated in the release of Bradley’s debut album No Time For Dreaming in 2011. “Me and Tom write together and Tommy has his ways and I have my ways,” he says. “Some things we don’t agree with, some things we do agree with, and sometimes I just have to say, ‘OK, I’ll do it the way he wants.’ So I just go his way and try to find the emphasis and deepness of me to give it to him the way he want it.” In spite of these slight sacrifices, Bradley’s union with Brenneck remains strong. In fact, they’re currently at work on album number three. This time around, Bradley is looking to push his artistic capacity further than before. “I want to create my own style,” he says. “I’m getting it now, don’t get me wrong; I’m getting some of the things that I want. But my dynamics – I want a bass that can rock my soul, I want a lead that can steal me totally. I want you to be able to get into it too.” Bradley’s long road to the top has clearly filled him with a pronounced determination, which has nothing to do with gaining celebrity or selling records. Rather, having been granted the opportunity to express himself in front of a mass audience, he endeavours to exercise the full breadth of his emotive propensity.
NEW ALBUM OUT MARCH 13 FEATURING
‘WRONG DIRECTION’ + ‘SUDDENLY’
TOURING APRIL & MAY
BRITISHINDIA.COM.AU
“I wanted to be able to reach everybody,” he says. “I want to leave a little touch to everybody. This is thebrag.com
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Mavis Staples In Pops’ Memory By Bob Gordon
W
hen Mavis Staples wrapped up touring in support of her 2007 album, the Ry Cooder-produced We’ll Never Turn Back – a collection of American civil rights songs – she was at a loss for what to do next. Enter Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, who would produce her 2010 album, You Are Not Alone, and its followup, One True Vine, in 2013. “After doing We’ll Never Turn Back, I really had no idea what direction I was going in,” Staples recalls down the line from her home in Chicago. “People were asking me, ‘What are you going to do now?’ I didn’t have a clue. I was so grateful to Jeff Tweedy; he had the answer. He gave me these songs to listen to and they are what we chose the album from.”
The Chris Robinson Brotherhood
In a career that has spanned half a century and began with her beloved father Pops (Roebuck) Staples as part of The Staples Singers, Mavis Staples has become a legend in R&B/gospel music and a bona fi de musical force in the American Civil Rights Movement. “Some people say that things are different now, but to me it looks just the same,” she says with some resignation. “Nothing has changed – the Civil Rights Movement, the struggle, lives on. There are songs that still need to be heard. And the songs on those albums are to inspire the people from the struggle. So I’m still doing what I’ve been singing about all my life.” You Are Not Alone and One True Vine featured songs written by Tweedy, John Fogerty, Allen Toussaint, Nick Lowe and George Clinton. Looking back on the 2010 release, Randy Newman’s ‘Losing You’ has proven especially moving for Staples. “That song, in my mind, went straight to my father,” she says of Pops, who died in 2000. “I’ll never get over losing my father. I can get over losing my pet; I can get over losing my husband or my car. But my father, who I sang with for over 50 years? I’ll never get over that. And that is how I sing that song. For my father.” It was Tweedy who encouraged the singer to re-record some of Pops’ material from his fi nal recording sessions in 1999, culminating in this year’s posthumous Pops Staples release Don’t Lose This. Clearly, Mavis is not merely singing those songs, but reaching out to her father. “I said, ‘Tweedy, you would be doing the best thing you could do for me if you let me sing some of my father’s songs,’” she explains. The album is named after the phrase Pops uttered to Mavis about the recordings before his death – “Don’t lose this” – so it’s another dream come true. Staples recently wrote on her website: “I would just break into tears anytime I heard Pops’ voice on these records. There never was a point that we didn’t want to release them; it was
Flying The Coop By Rod Whitfield
“W
e have the grooviest sound for the apocalypse!”
just the timing. I knew that the record needed tweaking, so I said, who else to help me with this but my friend Jeff Tweedy?” Outside music, Staples has been a passionate supporter of US President Barack Obama. Times, of course, continue to be tough, in light of the obstacles thrown at him by his detractors and the civil rights issues that continue to dog the US to this day. As a civil rights singer and activist, Staples remains as she has been her whole life: hopeful. “I still have hope,” Staples says. “We just have to pray that Obama will have strength, that the Lord will give him strength, to continue pushing on. But I still feel that he’s going to be just fi ne. As many who have pulled against him, there are triple that many that are still for him. I still feel that there’s hope and that everything’s gonna be alright.” What: Bluesfest 2015 With: The Black Keys, Zac Brown Band, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Alabama Shakes, Train and many more Where: Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm When: Thursday April 2 – Monday April 6 And: Also appearing alongside Angélique Kidjo at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday April 12 and headlining Lizotte’s Newcastle on Friday April 10 More: Don’t Lose This by Pops Staples out now through Anti-/Warner
Chris Robinson, former lead singer of the legendary Black Crowes and ex-husband of Hollywood starlet Kate Hudson, is bringing his current project, The Chris Robinson Brotherhood, out to Australia for the first time in early April. He joins us from on the road – “13 degrees below zero on Long Island” – to chat about the band and its outlook on life. “All the metal bands and dark bands say that the end should be all dark and destructive, but can’t we all just groove our way into the inevitable sun?” Robinson quips. He and the band will play two sets at Bluesfest, plus two more shows of their own in Melbourne and Sydney. He seems just a little surprised that this Australian tour has come about in a relatively short time after their inception in 2011 – despite the fact the Brotherhood have already released three studio albums. “We’re super excited,” he says. “I don’t think that, when we were driving around in the van in California, thinking if this band was going to work, that [we knew] we would be coming to play Byron Bay Blues Festival, or playing our own shows and stuff. I’m just one of those people who is weird enough that I still really enjoy the adventure and I still really enjoy playing music. This band, and what we’re doing, and how we’re trying to do it, allows me the benefit of where it all can sort of collide.” It was his love of playing music that inspired Robinson to start his new project, and put his own name to it, after The Black Crowes called it a day – or at least announced they were going on indefinite hiatus – in 2013. “The Black Crowes were starting to become something else, and that’s fine too; that’s an organic thing as well. For me, as I’m getting older – I’m 48, so I’m getting close to 50 and stuff – it’s funny; I’m more interested in music now than I’ve ever been. Which is pretty hardcore!”
In a live sense at least, Robinson makes it very clear that the new band is a very different beast to his former act, which was all bluesy raunch, crunchy guitars and slamming drums. The Brotherhood will have something else to offer onstage, but one thing that remains is his crooning yet powerful voice. “The Black Crowes were a loud, blues-based performance/energy thing. Our energy, it’s a high energy but a different kind of high energy, if you will. Our ceiling is the vocals. I think when the vocals are placed where they are – the significance of them in this band, and how they interplay in our expression – then your image and your lyric, that becomes something else as well. “When we set up our instruments, we want to create something that we feel is beautiful and fun and dynamic. And expressive. And if you can do all that and still call it rock’n’roll, that’s like the best thing you’ll ever have.” With The Black Crowes very much on the backburner, it seems The Chris Robinson Brotherhood are very much the frontman’s primary focus for the foreseeable future. And he concurs. “The Black Crowes were a sweet vintage,” he says. “But it’s a band that has been bottled, corked, consumed and is now just a memory. But what a fine vintage it was.” What: Bluesfest 2015 With: The Black Keys, Zac Brown Band, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Alabama Shakes, Train and many more Where: Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm When: Thursday April 2 – Monday April 6 And: Also appearing at the Metro Theatre on Monday April 6 More: Phosphorescent Harvest out now through Silver Arrow
Markandeya Alternative Reality By Adam Norris
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14 :: BRAG :: 603 :: 11:03:15
arcus Berg has finally found a cafe with Wi-Fi where he can sit and chat in relative peace (though the dim susurrus of cutlery and table service is constant). He has been a busy man of late. He has only recently touched down in Bali ahead of Markandeya’s Australian tour, which includes an appearance at the Byron Spirit Festival and a date in Sydney. Afterwards, he’ll return to Indonesia for its counterpart, the Bali Spirit Festival, and several other local gigs. Berg has found himself in a fitting environment there; the teachings of the original Markandeya, the Hindu sage, remain very active in Indonesian culture. His own association with the rishi proves equally suited.
“I’m also very inspired by [mythologist] Joseph Campbell and the different ways of reading those stories. And that’s one thing that has inspired me to be in Bali. Here, they are very much alive. They’re not just stories, people see the symbolic nature behind those stories and relate to them in daily life.”
“The Markandeya name is actually quite significant here in Bali. Markandeya was the sage who brought the Vedic tradition to Bali, or so they say. For me, it was the name given to me by one of my teachers. It kind of makes sense to have a name that was given this way. At that time I was trying to find the intention, the direction I wanted to take my music. For me, it had to be something meaningful, something aiming for a spiritual way of looking at life. So it was given to me, and yes, he is this mythological, religious character, and so I try to see this as a symbol in life and to navigate by.
“I always knew that I was going to sing, that it would be part of my journey. When I started playing professionally, I went to a man who works with voices in a therapeutic sense. It’s more like making sounds and breathing, connecting with the music. I think in doing that process I had some confidence to develop my own style of singing, which I knew was there but I had to find in a certain way. It had to be different than going through a normal vocal teacher and learning how to sing in a certain style. So I think my focus has always been to find my own unique expression and my own way of relating to the
Establishing a spiritual communication within music is something that Berg has been drawn to from the earliest days of his artistic journey. While he knew that reggae and ska would be fundamental to his style, it took some time to uncover a sound and essence that was uniquely his own.
music. It’s an essential part of how I look at it.” The result is his two-part Mirror Of Words project, of which he is now touring the second. Here, the spiritual base of his music continues to surge. “The core is all about the vibe, the intention. From that you can spring to so many levels of communicating and playing, performing and producing the music. But that spark has to be sincere. I find it’s really important, it has to be authentic. And then you can do whatever music you do, sing however you like. You can sing about world peace or you can sing about your cat, it doesn’t matter. But it has to mean something to you. That’s what affects me when I see certain artists. I see something that is real for them and for the people you are playing to. I’m very receptive towards that.” What: One Spirit Tribe With: Dustin Thomas, Chad Wilkins, Rob Weber, Vaani and more Where: Paddington Uniting Church When: Saturday March 14 And: Mirror Of Words: Part Two out now independently
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Winterbourne The Sound Of The Streets By Adam Norris
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he New South Wales Central Coast is, rather unexpectedly, shaping up to be our own version of 1920s Paris. The music and art that has started to emerge from our northern neighbours has struck a chord not just within Sydney – where the gregarious folk duo Winterbourne can often be found busking around Pitt Street – but across Australia. There’s clearly something in the surf up there granting them preternatural talent. Or, you know, perhaps it’s just a more inspiring way of life. “I’m not sure why it’s taking off like it is,” muses Winterbourne’s James Draper. “There’s plenty of great music happening here now. I’d say it’s defi nitely something to do with the lifestyle, though it wouldn’t be on the same chilled-out level as somewhere like Byron. I think that’s probably a good thing though, sitting somewhere in the middle. We’re relaxed but not too relaxed. We don’t want to start putting anyone to sleep.” Since Winterbourne’s intrepid beginnings as the band Everything After (“We stole the name from Counting Crows”), it’s become increasingly unlikely they’ll lull audiences to sleep. Not only has their performance ethos seen them support a variety of other artists – Patrick James and Little May among them – but it has also led the duo, completed by Jordan Brady, to develop a firm affection for busking. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the skills developed by needing to capture the attention of total strangers can come quite in handy for an emerging band. “Busking is such a strange thing,” says Draper. “We haven’t done it for a couple of months, though we used to do it all the time. I think when we were first starting out, that’s what gave us confi dence. We realised that all these random people are really enjoying what we’re doing, which is probably a good sign that we should keep doing it. And once we did have that confi dence, we were able to convert that to the stage. I think a lot of times when we perform we still feel that need to really grab everyone’s attention. When you’re playing in, say, Pitt Street Mall and you’re trying to get everyone to listen, it’s a very
different thing to fi nding yourself with people having paid to see you. But we keep coming back to it because it’s really so much fun. To set up on a Saturday afternoon and all of a sudden there’s a hundred people in a circle watching your music – obviously sometimes it’s going to be a terrible experience; it might be freezing or you won’t sell anything. But that’s busking, I guess. Usually it’s a pretty nice feeling.” The potential to make new fans is certainly one of the great benefi ts of public performance, but the stagecraft Draper and Brady have found themselves adopting translates almost directly into the style of show they hope to provide to crowds they have already won over. After all, there’s nothing worse than catching a gig from one of your favourite bands, only to walk away unenthused. “Busking encourages you to really connect with the audience. When I see a show, I love that feeling of coming away knowing I’ve really engaged with that performer, they’ve made me laugh or I’ve been really moved by the songs. I don’t want to just go see a band play through a set that sounds exactly like their record and then you’re out of there. So we try really hard to make sure we bring a good show and keep the audience involved. That’s important.” Promoting All But The Sun will see Winterbourne strike out across the country on their first headlining gigs. Although they have been honing their craft for years now, this release marks their first EP – a kind of ‘best of, so far’. The timeframe for an album release, though, is still uncertain. “We’re really not sure!” Draper laughs. “We have this conversation all the time. We’ve always wanted to build up to an album, but we’ve wanted to make sure that when we do, there should be enough momentum that it’s going to go out in a style that we like. So until we’re confi dent that can happen, then we’ll probably keep trying to build our fan base and make sure our writing is at the stage we want it to be.
“We don’t want to just make an album and throw it out there and then wish we’d waited for the right time. Our dream has always been to do it though, so I don’t think it’s too far away.” Before we release Draper back into the wild, conversation turns to the origins of the band’s name. The word ‘winterbourne’ means a river that only fl ows after wet weather, which seems odd inspiration. As it turns out, the original roots are more familial. “Winterbourne is actually my aunty’s surname. I had to ring them up and ask them if we could use it for the band. My little cousin back in England, he told his mum the other day that he’s having trouble at school because he told all his friends that he knew
this band. Not that we’re very big over there in the UK, but still, nobody believed him. So he’s now requested a signed CD with a little personalised message proving he’s my cousin.” He laughs. “So I guess that means we’re famous now, right?” What: All But The Sun out now through Island/ Universal With: Gordi Where: Newtown Social Club / The Lair, Metro Theatre When: Saturday March 21 / Sunday March 22 And: Also appearing at Moonshine, Manly on Thursday March 19 and Lizotte’s Newcastle on Thursday March 26
PHIL JAMIESON – 9pm Thursday April 2 – Grinspoon front man and singer songwriter performs an intimate acoustic session. Support act: Tyne-James Organ from 8pm
No Cover LEVEL 1, 80 PYRMONT STREET, PYRMONT STAR.COM.AU/ROCKLILY
/ROCKLILY.LIVE
The Star practises the responsible service of alcohol. Guests must be over 18. Think! About your choices. Call Gambling Help 1800 858 858 www.gamblinghelp.nsw.gov.au thebrag.com
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arts in focus
arts news...what's goin' on around town... with Chris Martin, Lachlan Mackenzie and Nicholas Hartman
five minutes WITH DAVID
MISCH FROM FUNNY: THE LECTURE
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For audiences who aren’t familiar with you, can you offer a background of your work? Wait, there are people in Sydney who don’t know who I am? Incredible! For those 12 people… I’m a screenwriter (Mork & Mindy, The Muppets Take Manhattan, Saturday Night
BLACK IS THE NEW BLACK
Live), teacher (my own comedy course at the University of Southern California), and author (Funny: The Book). I also wrote for Duckman and Police Squad!, which you don’t know, but are cool. We’re constantly exposed to comedy on TV – are we in a golden era of television laughs at the moment? Yes! The amount of terrific sitcoms, satirical shows and comedians right now is amazing. (Movies a bit less so.) How does the broader comedy scene today differ to when you started out? It’s a profession. When I started, it was extremely unusual to set out for a career in comedy; now there
The Marriage Of Figaro
MAMBO EXHIBIT
Surfwear company Mambo is set to celebrate its 30th anniversary with an exhibit of its iconic artwork and designs. Renowned around Australia for its instantly recognisable laconic and visual style, this is the work that drove the Mambo brand into the hearts of all Australians – the farting dog and the surfing Jesus especially. The exhibition originally opened in Melbourne and broke records for patronage at the Ian Potter Centre in the National Gallery of Victoria, where it was held. Mambo: 30 Years Of Shelf Indulgence will be held at the Ambush Gallery in Waterloo from Wednesday March 11 – Sunday April 26.
THE ONE DAY OF THE YEAR ENTER THE NOSH PIT
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SALVOS’ FASHION MAKEOVER
The second-hand bargain emporium, Salvos, has announced its first-ever Salvos Street Boutique at its Darlinghurst store this week, encouraging local shoppers to discover affordable fashion while also helping the community and environment. TV fashion commentator Faye De Lanty has partnered with Salvos to create the Street Boutique, which originally launched in New York to a huge reception. The event launches at the Salvos Darlinghurst store on Thursday March 12. 16 :: BRAG :: 603 :: 11:03:15
What: Funny: The Lecture Where: The Laugh Stand, Harold Park Hotel When: Wednesday March 11
OPERA AT THE PUB
Have you ever thought about what might happen if those mechanical fighting robots built by nerdy science-gamers for Robot Wars grew up and took over the world? This might be the answer. Neill Blomkamp’s new film Chappie follows a robot of the same name, created by Deon (Dev Patel), who’s kidnapped and grown into one of the many fighting machines charged with maintaining order in a futuristic Johannesburg. Except, of course, there are evil forces at play – including the envious Vincent (Hugh Jackman). Will the gifted Chappie be able to avoid turning away from his roots? And can the city survive if he doesn’t? Chappie opens in cinemas this Thursday March 12, and we want you to see it on the biggest of big screens at IMAX. We’ve got two double passes to give away – to be in the running, visit thebrag.com/freeshit and tell us what special powers you’d give your robot for good or evil.
Dev Patel in Chappie
Matt Okine
Ahead of the 100-year anniversary of the Gallipoli landing, Christine Harris and HIT Productions are presenting a fresh take on the Australian classic The One Day Of The Year. The controversial 1960s production was written by Alan Seymour, and during the play’s firstever production, not only did Seymour receive multiple death threats, but policemen were stationed at the stage door to ward off the angry public. The play looks at the national legend of ANZAC Day through the eyes of generation,
COOGEE FORESHORE FESTIVAL
class and character. It’s a challenging and poignant work that holds as much significance today as it did 50 years ago. The One Day Of The Year runs at Riverside Theatres from Tuesday March 24 – Saturday March 28 and Casula Powerhouse on Tuesday March 31 and Wednesday April 1.
THREDBO WINE AND CHEESE FEST
The first ever High Country Wine and Cheese Festival will be coming to Thredbo for one weekend this month, allowing cheese and wine lovers from around the country to indulge themselves, all while taking in some of the most picturesque landscapes in Australia. Just some of the products being showcased at the festival will be a collection of Yalumba Wines, one of the country’s oldest and more renowned familyowned wineries, and King Island Dairy cheeses. There will also be the Thredbo Cheese Rolling Competition, which will see people of all ages pitted against each other as they chase a wheel of cheese down a retired ski run. The inaugural High Country Wine and Cheese Festival takes place on Saturday March 14 and Sunday March 15.
RAW COMEDY FINALS
Triple j breakfast host and former Raw Comedy finalist Matt Okine will MC this year’s New South Wales State Final of the event that uncovers the best comedic talent in the nation. After ten heats and two semi-finals, NSW’s most promising young comedians will make their way to Moore Park for a two-hour extravaganza. The winner will be announced at the end of the show and go on to compete in the National Grand Final, at which top prize includes a trip to perform at the famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The NSW final takes place at The Comedy Store on Tuesday March 17.
Coogee Pavilion
The Coogee Foreshore Festival, featuring music, fun and food, will take over the beachside suburb this weekend. Part of the wider March Into Merivale program, the Coogee Foreshore Festival is a family-friendly field day of all sorts of cultural pursuits. There’ll be a marketplace dedicated to provoking taste buds, with offerings from Vinnie’s Pizzeria and Papi Chulo, among others. A few select music performances will also take place, with artists like The Lulu Raes and Lolo Lovina. This bazaar will also be a bit bizarre, with stilt-walkers, fire-breathers and jugglers all preparing for their impressive feats. Coogee Foreshore Festival will take place at the Coogee Pavilion on Sunday March 15.
The Marriage Of Figaro photo by Gavin Little
Sydney’s new Spectrum Now festival hits the city this month, and organisers have announced they’ll be bringing together some of best local chefs to create the Nosh Pit – a haven for the hungry; an Eden for ingesting, if you will. The Spectrum Playground (located in The Domain) will play host to gourmet food trucks and restaurant favourites including Gelato Messina, Mary’s, Black Star Pastry and N2 Extreme Gelato. If that’s not enough to get you drooling at your desk, food truck legends Nighthawk are teaming up with Golden Age Cinema to create some fantastical foodstuffs to match the latter’s Hollywood Nights program, featuring films like Singing In The Rain, Rebel Without A Cause and Reality Bites. The Nosh Pit will open at the Spectrum Playground from Wednesday March 11 – Sunday March 22.
Much like music and the arts, some people say analysing comedy takes all the fun out of it. How do you analyse comedy whilst maintaining its spirit? This is one of my pet peeves. How do you kill a joke if you tell it first? Does studying Beethoven kill the Ninth Symphony cause you know what notes are coming? To me, learning how comedy is put together gives you even more appreciation for the precision, ingenuity and skill it takes to create it.
NOT A HAPPY CHAPPIE
Opera Bites, a boutique opera outfit based in Sydney, is picking up boundaries and breaking them over its knee: the company is set to put on an opera show in a pub. The show will be a condensed 45-minute version of Mozart’s The Marriage Of Figaro that’ll penetrate the lager-filled air with eardrum-shattering singing. It will be a legit, fully costumed opera performance, only set in unfamiliar surrounds. Part of the ticket package includes a main meal and a free glass of wine or beer. Opera In The Pub will take place at the Dove & Olive on Sunday March 15.
Dylan Moran, the star and co-writer of Black Books, has announced an Australian tour. A regular performer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Just For Laughs Montreal, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Kilkenny Comedy Festival, Moran is constantly voted as one of the greatest stand-ups in the world, and has also been involved in films such as Shaun Of The Dead, Run Fatboy Run and Good Vibrations. His upcoming tour will see him bring his latest show, Off The Hook, to Australian shores. Moran will perform at the State Theatre on Saturday July 18. Dylan Moran
are college courses in it (like mine).
head to: thebrag.com/freeshit
Chappie still © Columbia Pictures
ou’re coming to Sydney to present Funny: The Lecture. Can anyone be taught to be funny? No, but luckily I’m not doing that. My presentation shows how comedy works, using lots of clips and personal lessons learned. The idea is that understanding comedy will help you do it better and/or appreciate it more. Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
free stuff
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Seventh Son
Ben Barnes in Seventh Son
[FILM] The Master’s Apprentice By Kylie Thompson
F
ive minutes before we speak, Ben Barnes posts a photo online showcasing the glamour of press junkets. He stands alone in a room, pouring himself a soft drink. He’s spent the day talking about his latest movie, Seventh Son. For someone who jokingly tells me, “You’re number 522,000 of the day,” Barnes is a veritable ball of energy, passionate about his work and the work of those around him. He’s quick to brush aside his own growing presence in an industry he loves to focus on the joy of working with his idols. “I am constantly surprised by the kind of people they allow me to share a screen with,” he laughs. Co-star Jeff Bridges was the main reason Barnes auditioned for the role. “That was the main draw, to work with ‘The Dude’, and one of The Fabulous Baker Boys – I’d be lying if I said that one of the main draws wasn’t to work with a couple of my heroes.” Bridges plays Master Gregory, the mentor to Barnes’ character, Tom Ward, and a man on a mission. “He has a week to try and train me to be his apprentice,” says Barnes. It’s the time of the rare blood moon, “which means that Mother Malkin – played by the very glamorous Julianne Moore – and her evil sidekicks, including warlocks and witches, their power is growing”.
Though on the surface it sounds like standard fantasy fare, Seventh Son takes the typical hero/villain dynamic and turns it on its head. The heroes aren’t purely good, the villains not without sympathy. There’s something very human about these fantastical beings battling for their own ideas of a safe, free world. A veteran of fantasy films, including Stardust and the Chronicles Of Narnia franchise, Barnes is also a big fan of the genre. “I think fantasy is so representative of everything else,” he says. “I think that the human story, the mentor/apprentice story, the love story can be set anywhere, in space or in a desert or anywhere. But I think the themes of destiny and good and evil between people work particularly well in a fantasy setting. That, balanced with the escapist nature of it, the kind of humdrum life of a pig farmer versus this kind of adventure and the adrenaline of fighting for innocence and justice over the dark side – I think it’s just a great setting for metaphor, really.” Seventh Son is an action-heavy movie, and Barnes did many of his own stunts, including a water battle with a boggart. It’s a change from the shape-shifting boggarts of the Harry Potter universe. In the world of The Spook’s
Apprentice (the book by Joseph Delaney on which Seventh Son is based), boggarts are giant creatures, blind and aggressive, and the scene in which Master Gregory and Tom run into one of the creatures quickly became Barnes’ favourite to film. “They built this huge mechanical gimbal which would serve as the boggart’s arm, so essentially I could just get very angry at machinery rather than anything real,” he says. “We had some fun; a couple of my favourite little lines were in that sequence, which I shouted at Jeff’s character. It was definitely a lot of fun to shoot.”
With his next projects including the musical flick Jackie & Ryan, co-starring Katherine Heigl, and Sons Of Liberty, a miniseries on the History Channel, one thing is certain – we’re going to be seeing a lot more of Ben Barnes in 2015. “My world has a lot of fantasy,” he admits, “but not a lot of spare time – I’ll always take what I can get and try and pick the most interesting stories.” What: Seventh Son (dir. Sergei Bodrov) Where: In cinemas now
Paul Foot [COMEDY] The Weird Way Round By Christine Lan
B
ritish comedian Paul Foot is one of comedy’s most unique and wonderfully unusual voices. It’s apparent that he’s always had a vast, incredible imagination. “When I was a little child, I used to invent space rockets all the time and I was always living in a sort of fantasy world,” he recalls. “Often, people would ask my mother, ‘Is your son alright?’
Doug Anthony Allstars [COMEDY] Free To Be Three By Augustus Welby
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he Doug Anthony Allstars are back… again! To be more exact, they’re still here. Last year, DAAS lynchpins Tim Ferguson and Paul McDermott reunited after 20 years apart. During their initial decade together, the musical comedy troupe was rounded out by guitarist Richard Fidler. However, Fidler’s unavailability meant the reunion tour was conducted with Paul Livingston (AKA Flacco) in his place. Livingston is now a fully fledged band member, and the Doug Anthonys’ return to the stage was so successful that they’re back for another run of shows this month. “Unfortunately [McDermott and I] tend to think the same about our purpose in the universe,” Ferguson says. “You know what it’s like; you haven’t seen somebody for a long time and they’re a close friend – when you get back together, there’s no getting-to-know-you phase. We just hit the ground running – or in my case, hit the ground wheeling – so we didn’t have to get our bearings creatively.” DAAS started out the mid-’80s as three Canberrabased eccentrics who became a celebrated staple of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival by the decade’s end. In the early ’90s, their UK breakthrough was echoed in Australia – they appeared regularly on ABC comedy show The Big Gig before developing their own series DAAS Kapital. In all contexts, a bold embrace of taboo subject matter has been their trademark.
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“The theme is death,” he continues. “We were young men the first time around, we didn’t care about death. But now we’re all ancient, death is a good topic because it’s what our original audience is starting to worry about. People are starting to realise that clock on the wall is actually ticking and it means something. Everything is gearing towards this theme of death, darkness, oblivion. And of course, sex and war we always throw in.”
Long ago, Foot realised he wasn’t interested in a normal life. “I did my first ever gig when I was 19 at university – I only did it because I thought, ‘I’ll just do one and see what it’s like,’” he says. “I had never planned to do any other show. I just thought it was going to be a one-off thing and I was probably going to be an accountant or something. But as soon as I did that first show, it was sort of like a road to Damascus moment. So I knew I wasn’t going to have a normal life then. As for the actual comedy, I suppose – like any artist – I never planned to be unusual or different; I just did the comedy that seemed obvious to me and the sort of thing I wanted to do. It was a gradually dawning realisation from quite early on, actually, that I was not like a normal comedian.” Foot’s new comedy festival show, Hovercraft Symphony In Gammon # Major, is one of his most unusual to date. “It’s certainly pushing the envelope a little bit more than the previous shows,” he says. “I’m excited about it. There’s a
Foot has a cult following named The Guild of Connoisseurs, who give him nice gifts and pictures of himself, but that’s certainly not all that he’s given. “It’s always lovely to meet the Connoisseurs,” he says. “Some people who have met each other through being Connoisseurs actually get married, and then some people even make baby Connoisseurs for me – well I suppose they’re not actually for me; I guess it’s for themselves, really, or for the world, but it’s always nice when they make baby Connoisseurs.” Like the best of comics, Foot aims to provide audiences with a unique perspective on art and life. “People laugh in their real life all the time at all sorts of things – no-one laughs more than when a member of their family trips over a chair and all the soup goes all over the floor. So why do people go to see comedy? Because comedians make them think about things in a different way. They sort of change, in some ways, people’s view – so a comedy show must be funny, but it must also, in some ways, make people think differently and be calibrating their brains.” What: Hovercraft Symphony In Gammon # Major as part of Sydney Comedy Festival 2015 Where: Factory Theatre / The Comedy Store When: Thursday April 23 – Saturday April 25 / Sunday April 26
These days, Ferguson spends a lot of time handing out advice to aspiring comedy writers. In 2010, he released the comedy writing compendium The Cheeky Monkey and he also hosts courses on this same topic. He offers a quick rundown of the DAAS formula for sparking hilarity. “Laughter occurs when people are surprised by something that’s figured,” he says. “Even if you’re laughing because you’re baffled, you’ve reached a point at the end of the story or at the end of the description where you’re baffled, and of course you should’ve seen that coming. For us, it’s always been about finding that point of surprise.” Where: Seymour Centre When: Wednesday March 11 – Friday March 13
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“It’s always been about having a different perspective on things that people, whether they’re conservative or liberal, have assumed are fixed,” Ferguson says. “There are songs we did like ‘(I Wanna Be) A Mexican Hitler’, which on the surface are just incredibly stupid songs juxtaposing Mexican imagery with Hitler and Nazis, and hopefully tearing Nazis down in the process. But of course there’s a deeper point to it and a deeper purpose than just making comfortable comedy audiences have a giggle.”
Since rebooting, Ferguson and McDermott have left their existing repertoire of comedy originals alone. Instead, with Livingstone’s help, they’ve composed a whole batch of new material. “It’s grown on the last tour into something entirely new and very surprising for us,” Ferguson says. “The first time around, DAAS were running around, trying to get noticed, trying to provoke a reaction from people. We didn’t really mind what it was and we gave the impression we didn’t care. Now that we’re old men, we actually genuinely do not care what anybody says about us; we don’t care what feathers we ruffle. I think it’s the most excited I’ve been about any creative endeavour.
“I would be in one little corner of the room pretending to be in some sort of strange, fantasy world. And my mother would say, ‘Oh, he’s fine – he just invents his own things,’ so I’ve always invented silly things like that. And now I have a whole life of coming up with silly ideas all the time, which is a nice sort of job to do, really.”
piece about a woman struggling to live with snakes. There’s a vegetable-based tragedy involving the death of a beautiful cauliflower. And there’s a lot of other strange and ridiculous things in the show. My new show is very different to any previous show, really, and it’s pretty weird.”
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Theatre Reviews Hits and misses on the bareboards around town xxx
■ Theatre
■ Theatre
THRILLER LIVE Playing at the Sydney Lyric until Monday March 16 A medley of the King Of Pop’s hits can’t help but get the faithful on their feet, and they were out in force at Thriller Live’s opening night at the Lyric. As a theatrical experience, a Michael Jackson tribute show is a recipe for both guaranteed success as well as inevitable disappointment. The great man’s moves are as well known as his music, and even when they’re wheeled out in a slick, talentpacked show like this, it feels as secondhand as it is. Which is, of course, unfair. That a covers show isn’t a bastion of originality is hardly cause to hold the front page. And the choreography and outfits of Jackson’s videos are so indelibly associated with his songs that no doubt the fans would feel shortchanged if either were jettisoned. So Thriller Live is strictly canonical; we get the red jacket of the titular hit single, the ‘Smooth Criminal’ prohibition threads, and a succession of gravity-defying leans, moonwalks and pelvic thrusts. It’s a YouTube deep dive come to life.
Playing at the Seymour Centre until Saturday March 21 Thriller Live throughout, and proceedings only get bogged down with a late injection of worthiness. A montage of JFK, MLK and, er, deforestation is projected behind the performers, while we’re told that Michael believed in human betterment, world peace, loving one another and we should too, et cetera, et cetera. Beauty pageant moral exhortations aside, however, this show moves. It might be formless as all hell, but Jackson’s songs are irresistible. The performers onstage – a hodgepodge of Brits, Americans and Aussies – work their hearts out, but Jackson’s stature is such that impersonation precludes interpretation. There’s something old and ageless here, but nothing new. Harry Windsor
■ Theatre
POPE HEAD – THE SECRET LIFE OF FRANCIS BACON Played at the Old Fitz Theatre until Friday March 6 British actor Garry Roost stars as Francis Bacon in this one-man show at the Old Fitz Theatre. He saunters around a triptych painting for most of the performance, bringing out Bacon’s closeted campness with a trace of an East Ender accent mixed with intellectual sass. Of course, Bacon is one of the big icons of 20th century art. His violent paintings induce a physical reaction, arousing both curiosity and repulsion. This is very much how Roost inhabits the artist – he is charming and then suddenly aggressive. At various points, he clutches his face in mimicry of the distorted heads Bacon became well known for.
Pope Head Germany and the “sordid and sexual gravitas” offered by Berlin. He picks up men in public urinals, confessing his paternal fantasies and taste for macho men. Roost also assumes a handful of other characters – buyers of Bacon’s work, his friends and various lovers.
He may be a ripe 50 years old, but Man Of La Mancha looks to be in the pink of his health. The musical that first graced the stages of Broadway half a century ago has taken the stage of the Reginald Theatre at the Seymour Centre. The only question is: why the Reginald and not the main York Theatre? With a full house on opening night and half the season already sold out to date, it’d be a crime that anyone should have to miss Squabbalogic Independent Music Theatre’s brilliant rendition of the beloved musical. Yes, brilliant.
burn and a poet’s tongue at the ready, Cervantes convinces the ‘judge’ that he deserves a fair hearing and proceeds to state his case in the only way he knows how: through story.
monster, an inn becomes a castle where he may be dubbed (or “drubbed”, as Sancho calls it) a knight, and a town whore becomes the most beautiful and virginal maiden, Dulcinea.
We start with a darkened stage and a cast of ten? – 12? – no, 13 vagabond characters hidden in the shadows of a prison cell, though they’re instantly awakened by the appearance of Miguel de Cervantes and his manservant. Cervantes is here to be trialled with foreclosing on a monastery – but while he awaits his hearing, this pack decides to assume the role of justicebearers instead.
Armed with his trunk of costumes and props, he proceeds to dress each of the prisoners, coaching them on their roles in an elaborate tale about Alonso Quijana – an elderly man destined to uphold chivalry by entertaining the notion that he is the aspiring knight Don Quixote de la Mancha – and his loyal squire, Sancho. Together they embark on the most Monty Python-esque of adventures, seeing the world not as it is, but as it should be.
It’s comedy and farce done right, drawing the audience in with its hilarity, and leaving with them that undeniable belief in righteousness, determination and purity of heart that Cervantes/Quixote (Tony Sheldon) so richly upholds. The vocals are impeccable, as is the 17-strong cast; each a vital chess piece in this game of justice, morality, dreams and love. Who will win? Only the judge will know.
With a manuscript/package that he’s loath to see his peer
To Quixote, a windmill becomes a four-armed
Stephanie Yip
MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL PRESENTS
As much as this play presents a different portrait of Bacon, it is also a different portrait of late Modernism. Obsessed with chaos, Bacon seems captivated by the darker side of human nature. He plumbs his own pain and searches for a new way of making art after the horrors of war.
Whether intentional or not, Roost seems to parody the idea of the tortured genius; the Modernist trailblazer who is both selfindulgent and self-deprecating. Some of the most satisfying and humorous moments come from the artist rebutting his critics – “Not sufficiently Surrealist? I’m the fucking impersonation of Surrealism!”
As part of the Mardi Gras program, this play will likely be celebrated for Roost’s portrayal of Bacon as irrepressibly homosexual. And then there are his optimistic parting words. It’s an impressive script and committed performance. Roost fleshes out what we know about Francis Bacon and injects it with wit and vitality.
As Bacon comes to terms with his sexuality, he speaks about Weimar
Annie Murney
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Arts Exposed
MC MATT
What's in our diary...
Taste Of Sydney Centennial Park, Thursday March 12 – Sunday March 15 Taste Of Sydney
Sydney, get your taste buds at the ready: Taste Of Sydney returns to Centennial Park this weekend. Big names on the local dining scene like MoVida, Bentley Restaurant and Bar, Biota Dining, Otto Ristorante and more will show off their recipes in a more inclusive setting than usual, meaning it’s all very family-friendly and ready to take in under the autumn sunshine. Apart from the tastes of food and drink, there’ll be live music and a series of masterclasses. General entry starts at $25.49. For more info and tickets, head to tasteofsydney.com.au.
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OKINE
NSW STATE FINAL
TUESDAY 17 MARCH, 8PM
Doors 7.30pm Comedy Store Building 207/122 Lang Road, Moore Park MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL
RAWCOMEDY.COM.AU
PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY
COMEDY
FESTIVAL 25 MAR – 19 APR 2015 COMEDYFESTIVAL.COM.AU
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Man Of La Mancha photo by Michael Francis
The show is mercifully fleet with the biographical stitching, narrated
Man Of La Mancha
MAN OF LA MANCHA
THE BRAG’S GUIDE TO
They say it ain’t easy being green – but come this Tuesday March 17, there’ll be no other way to be. It’s St. Patrick’s Day, of course, and let’s be honest; when you’re getting right into the spirit of things, there comes a time when you start to need a little help to turn yourself around and point yourself in the right direction. Or maybe you’re looking for a great venue to kick off your Irish celebrations, not only on the day itself, but throughout the week. Either way, we’ve picked out some of Sydney’s greenest pastures for your St. Patrick’s Day 2015.
THE ORIENT’S ST. PAT’S FESTIVAL
It’s called: The Orient’s St. Pat’s Festival It sounds like: The best Irish-flavoured bands in Sydney: yum! Acts: Live bands on Tuesday March 17: Blarney Boys (10am); U2 Elevation (1:30pm); The Moonshiners (4:30pm); Dublin Up (7pm); Lonesome Train (11pm). Sell it to us: The Orient’s St. Pat’s celebrations are legendary: a whole verylong-weekend starting on Friday March 13 with our awesome live band lineup and coming to a foamy great Guinness-head of excitement on Tuesday March 17. St. Pat’s Day starts with our traditional Irish mixed
grill from 11am plus live bands from 10am till closing. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: Pat-tastic live music for five straight days. The munchies: The heart-stopping traditional Irish mixed grill: order at any bar. Crowd specs: 18 and up with a deep desire for fun times. Wallet damage: Frrreeee before 10pm Where: 89 George Street, The Rocks When: Friday March 13 – Tuesday March 17
24/7 SPORTS BAR AT THE STAR
Venue: 24/7 Sports Bar at The Star
you’ll find yourself coming back for more.
It sounds like: An Irish pub, but on a grand scale!
The munchies: March Monthly special: Guinness schooners – $7.50 St. Patrick’s Day special (Tuesday March 17): Beef and Guinness pie with colcannon mash + Guinness schooner – $18.00
Acts: No acts on the day, but why not make it a week-long celebration with DJs every Friday and Saturday night?
The specs: Bigger than an Irish pub. Sell it to us: Celebrate all things Irish this month at 24/7 Sports Bar with great food and drink specials, plus enjoy watching some live sports on our mega screen! The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: Our Guinness schooner special is available for the whole month of March. Pair it with our fantastic Fuel menu full of pub classics, and
Wallet damage: Very minimal! Where: 24/7 Sports Bar at The Star – Level 1, 80 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont When: Throughout the month of March Website: star.com.au/247sportsbar
BEST OF THE REST: Five Other Paddy’s Hotspots Palace Hotel
P.J. O’Brien’s
730-742 George St, Haymarket Sunday March 15 is the date for this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Sydney, and the Palace is marking the occasion with $5.50 schooners of Guinness all day, plus live music from 1pm. The ‘black stuff’ will be flowing and the jokes a-rollin’, so get amongst it.
57 King St, Sydney The fun kicks off early at P.J. O’Brien’s, located within the Grace Hotel complex in the CBD, this St. Paddy’s Day. Doors open 8am on Tuesday March 17 for breakfast, so you can fill up on delicacies like Irish pork sausage and black pudding – and wash it down, of course, with a pint o’ Guinness. Traditional Irish dancers will be in house all day long.
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The Mercantile Hotel 25 George St, The Rocks Australia’s longest running Irish pub can certainly claim a genuine heritage – U2 knew what was up when they rolled in to hold a press conference at the venue on their Rattle And Hum tour. It hasn’t gotten any less Irish since; hey, even the outside walls of the pub are green.
The Porterhouse
Scruffy Murphy’s
233 Riley St, Surry Hills Tucked away in the quieter Surry Hills, the Porterhouse is always a friendly destination for an Irish brew, and doubles as one of Sydney’s finest sports bars. They’ll do you a Guinness, a Kilkenny or a Magners cider, if that’s your thing. Mmm-hmm.
43-49 Goulburn St, Sydney Ah yes, Scruffy Murphy’s. One of inner-city Sydney’s favourite party destinations is firing up across the St. Patrick’s Day weekend and continuing into the day itself, with the party rolling over three floors and five whole nights. With all that action going on, we couldn’t blame you for ending up a bit of a Scruffy Murphy yourself. BRAG :: 603 :: 11:03:15 :: 19
Album Reviews What's been crossing our ears this week...
ALBUM OF THE WEEK DARREN HANLON
generations, whereas ‘The Chattanooga Shoot Shoot’ is a Bob-Dylan-meets-Courtney-Barnett stream-ofconsciousness tale with a country twinge. Likewise, the long and winding ‘Halley’s Comet, 1986’ feels like a tale passed down from grandfather to grandson, given new life by Hanlon’s voice.
Where Did You Come From? Flippin’ Yeah
Gympie-born singer-songwriter Darren Hanlon is somewhat of an Australian institution. While upcoming indie/roots artists may come and go, it seems Hanlon will always be around releasing records. His fifth full-length has arrived in the form of Where Did You Come From?, an album recorded at five different studios across the United States, where he spent several months travelling solo. The Queensland troubadour holds court for an intimate musical conversation.
THEE GOLD BLOOMS Thee Gold Blooms Pavement/Shock
The late Tom Hafey was adamant that Aussie Rules football was, at its beating heart, a simple game: get ball, kick ball, chase ball. It’s doubtful Hafey paid as much attention to the choice between style and simplicity in rock’n’roll; if he had, he’d probably reckon Thee Gold Blooms have got the balance just right. Thee Gold Blooms’ quest isn’t to change the world, and what’s wrong with that? The songs on the band’s debut album are the ubiquitous fare of adolescence – romantic attraction, sexual tension, unrequited love and the emotional weight of indecision. Musically, Thee Gold Blooms have found themselves half a dozen chords and, in the greatest rock’n’roll tradition, that’s all that matters.
Musically, this is a new direction for Hanlon. The session musicians he worked with in the US give each track a unique feel. ‘There’s Nothing On My Mind’ and ‘Salvation Army’ feel like traditional songs, passed down through
Hanlon’s music shines through best when it’s intimate. His vocal style excels in songs such as ‘When You Go’ and ‘My Love Is An Ocean Away’, which each feel deeply personal and honest, like he’s performing to an audience of one. Hanlon remains an artist who plays to the beat of his own drum, responsible for some of the finest songs Australia has to offer. Spencer Scott
JIM LAWRIE
NICK HILL
SOKO
STORM THE SKY
Eons Barely Dressed/Remote Control
Rut Yes Please/Remote Control
My Dreams Dictate My Reality Because/Warner
Permanence UNFD
Former Eagle and The Worm drummer Jim Lawrie has released his second album, Eons, expanding on his previous effort with larger instrumentation, broader scope and deeper themes.
The three-track EP Rut comes to us as the debut of Sydney-based producer/songwriter Nick Hill, who first appeared last year with the track ‘Know This’.
Stéphanie ‘Soko’ Sokolinski is a selfconfessed witch, vampire and alien. She often sounds like she’s lived a lifetime of melodrama, yet she’s just 29. Her second studio album is an open-book account of the above and includes a cameo from Ariel Pink. The self-taught French musician originally built a reputation on lo-fi, indie folk tunes. On her latest record, ‘Keaton’s Song’ is the only track to resemble her earlier work.
The melodic metalcore scene seems to go from strength to strength, both in Australia and internationally. Now, this country has just thrown up yet another contender to the posthardcore throne.
The album opens with the anthemic ‘Falling Stars’, which builds up with drums, guitars, keys and synths, as well as the introduction of Lawrie’s distinctive vocals. They sit in a higher register than most, giving proceedings an ethereal feel. There’s also a tasteful use of horns throughout the album, always adding but never stealing the attention from the songwriting.
The release is pretty short and simple, offering you just a taste of the artist – and it works well to show off Hill’s strengths as well as a little of his range. Hill’s influences and sounds come from all sorts of places, particularly a soulful indie/ electronic presence.
The vocals are really the centrepiece of these tunes. The rest of the music is very bassoriented, synth-heavy and smooth. There’s an interesting use of household items as percussion on the title track to mix things up. Likewise, the guitar on the track ‘Silk’ provides some effective variation.
Love, heartbreak and loss are big themes on this album. It’s no surprise that Soko’s favourite artists are Robert Smith and Morrissey, with many album tracks resembling The Cure’s dark sound. Ross Robinson (The Cure) produced this record and Soko used a baritone guitar, just like Smith. Soko’s music is not particularly original, but what it lacks in creativity it makes up for in attitude, like in the broody and mischievous ‘Ocean Of Tears’. There’s also the sunny-sounding gay rights anthem, ‘Who Wears The Pants??’, before ‘Peter Pan Syndrome’ makes us realise how insecure and frightened of commitment Soko is, despite being steadfast in refusing to conform.
Eons is defined by its instrumentation, turning solo singer-songwriter Grizzly Jim Lawrie into the fully fledged artist Jim Lawrie.
Rut is a solid EP from a producer with a good voice and a few interesting ideas, although similar talent can be found by listening to triple j Unearthed for a few hours.
Soko’s second album is raw, retro-sounding and personal. It may not be groundbreaking, but this is definitely emotional enough in laying one gothic soul to bare.
File these guys alongside Northlane, The Amity Affliction and that ever-growing bunch of bands: world-class Aussie metalcore acts who have international profile written all over them.
Spencer Scott
Spencer Scott
Natalie Salvo
Rod Whitfi eld
Listen closely, and you can hear The Everly Brothers in a Tacoma garage in ‘Katie-Sue’; ‘Natalie’ is the best song The Black Lips haven’t recorded. ‘Do You Really Want Me’ is The Beatles via Painters and Dockers’ ‘Nude School’, and ‘Please Wake Me’ is the end of the night, when the booze has run drum, your girl has run off with that dickwit from the local footy team and life is a festering pile of shit.
Lawrie switches between swelling build-ups, catchy indie rock and alt-country tunes with ease, melding all three together with his particular songwriting style. Eons feels like an album where everyone who listens to it will come away with their own favourite song. Each track has its own feel that will appeal to different audiences, from the uptempo alt-country-inspired tracks such as ‘Just Like Normal’ to the slower ballads like ‘Living The Dream’.
But you’ve still got rock’n’roll, so that’s good enough – and if you’ve got Thee Gold Blooms on the stereo, things are looking on the up. Patrick Emery
There is a strong Alt-J vibe, but artists like Chet Faker, David Gray and Phil Collins can all be heard behind the songs. You would find Hill sitting comfortably in the afternoon spot of your favourite boutique music festival.
INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK The emergence of Afrobeat in the ’70s contracted many styles into a moving art form that spoke out against political corruption while getting your feet moving. Slapping together Fela’s Afrobeat, tasty funk and jazz elements, The Seven Ups propagate this vibe with their gritty self-titled LP.
THE SEVEN UPS The Seven Ups Independent
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Permanence is Melbourne-based sixpiece Storm The Sky’s debut album, and while it doesn’t really break any new ground in this musical space (an extremely difficult thing to achieve), it displays remarkable self-assurance. Everything is in place; everything is perfectly engineered to help ensure its success. There’s a blend of clean melodic vocals and aggressive screams/growls, the guitars roar with fury and the drums pound like thunder. While its overall effect is highly aggressive, there’s almost a pop sensibility going on, especially in some of the choruses. Check out ‘Dead Giveaway’, with its pop-punkstyle melodies leading into a bonecrunching, heavy breakdown.
Swirling horns, tightly plucked guitar and a rolling rhythm section effortlessly throw out a variety of grooves throughout ten tracks. Brooding numbers like ‘The Boss’ and ‘Not Afraid Of Dying’ showcase the dark side of the funk, and slower old-school funk sounds are pushed out in ‘Senora Doll’, reminiscent of The Fabulous Three. However, the punch comes from their well-composed Afrofunk and notable horn solos that feature on tracks like ‘The Trial’ and ‘No
Compromise’. Special mention must be given to chief songwriter and guitarist Trent Sterling, whose relentless and layered riffs drive the album. The production on the album is blisteringly hot, with the band enlisting Tristan Ludowyk (Bombay Royale, Cactus Channel, Public Opinion Afro Orchestra) as co-producer. Notable career highlights for this seven-piece thus far include opening for Charles Bradley, Babylon Circus, The Bamboos, and recently playing with The Budos Band. If this independent release is anything to go by, The Seven Ups won’t be a support act for much longer.
Lyrically, it’s apparently a concept piece, and cuts quite deep, taking on dark and existential themes – the futility of life and the realisation of our tiny place in the universe. These guys are not pissing around with frivolities.
OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week... R.E.M. - Automatic For The People DICK DIVER - Melbourne, Florida M.I.A. - Arular
LL COOL J - Authentic THE KILLS - Blood Pressures
Willem Cray thebrag.com
live reviews
education profile
What we've been out to see...
WITH MOGWAI Sydney Opera House Monday March 2 “The earplugs are here!” It’s minutes before Mogwai take to the stage at the Sydney Opera House’s iconic Concert Hall for the first time ever, and the ushers are frantically pointing to the foam plugs laid out on a table near the entrance for everyone who walks through. It’s almost a higher priority than checking the tickets. Some brave adventurers walk past entirely, but they will pay the ultimate price some 30 minutes later, when the ultimate piano-forte contrast happens as the band shifts from murmuring guitar to fully fledged noise explosion within a second. Some leap out of their seats at the transition, others let the sheer power of the performance wash over them. It’s one of many moments throughout the near two-hour set spanning 15 songs and nine separate releases that hits the exact right spot in the emotional spectrum, electrifying the senses and leaving one to simply marvel at what the soft-spoken Glaswegians can empirically build up and then disintegrate in an instant. ‘Take Me Somewhere Nice’ – one of the few tracks to feature vocals – is crystallised, quivering beauty; ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’ burns slowly but ever so brightly; and newer cut ‘Remurdered’
SHARON VAN ETTEN, JACK LADDER, TINY RUINS, HEATHER WOODS BRODERICK Factory Theatre Sunday March 1 When Sharon Van Etten does a headline show in Sydney, she likes to squeeze in as many of her musical friends as possible, as was evident at her show-turned-mini-music festival at the Factory Theatre. The first of the three supports was fellow band member, Heather Woods Broderick. Striking a balance between dreamy and smoky, Broderick dutifully played a few songs from her new record (coming out in July) as well as a stunning cover of Kath Bloom/Bill Callahan’s ‘The Breeze/My Baby Cries’. Tiny Ruins and their mellifluous melodies then took to the stage for a six-song set that was the perfect auditory aperitif for the night. A natural with between-song audience chatter, bandleader Hollie Fullbrook told the crowd the childhood story behind ‘The Ballad Of The Hanging Parcel’, and Tiny Ruins’ whole set floated flawlessly by. Fresh from a Secret Garden appearance over the weekend, Jack Ladder appeared without his Dreamlanders and instead with pedal steel magician Jason Walker. Ladder was regularly self-assured during a stripped-
GRUFF RHYS, JEP AND DEP, COMMUNITY RADIO Newtown Social Club Friday March 6 Taking cues from the more muscular end of Big Star’s catalogue, Community Radio are a low-key but accomplished jangle pop outfit with just enough light and shade in their work to balance out their generally sunny sound. Kicking off with the rough around the edges but tuneful ‘Real Transformation’, they’re easy to like, and even B-sides like the chugging ‘Wildflower’ are catchy enough to lodge themselves in your head. The country noir of Jep And Dep is a real change of mood; the duo’s sombre and sardonic country seems descended from the great Johnny and June Carter Cash duets. While they appear irked at times by people talking, the deliciously dark likes of ‘Wake Up Call’ and ‘Granted’ start winning people over, and by their final (and best) song ‘Tears In The Rain’, the kind of heartbroken country that Lee Hazlewood might have covered, they are playing to an appreciative silence. Gruff Rhys’ American Interior is an unusually engrossing concept album, based on John Evans, Rhys’ 18th century ancestor who made an ill-fated trek to the United
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mixes a propulsive, incessant beat with explorative electronic undercurrents. Each is substantially different, but it’s a reflection on the versatility of the band members, who are often swapping instruments and including a sixth member, violinist/guitarist/ percussionist Luke Sutherland, to further flesh out each song’s arrangements. Very little is said by anyone, apart from the occasional “cheers” or “thank you” from guitarist Stuart Braithwaite. It’s understandable – this has always been a band that has let its actions speak far louder than words. There is a point toward the end of the set, however, when the grand nature of performing on such a stage becomes too great for Braithwaite, who expresses a world of gratitude for being able to play here – as well as the practically full room for attending. It’s a brief peek behind the curtain, a lapse in which the stone-faced band lets its collective guard down for all of one moment, and it’s incredibly memorable on account of it. 2015 marks the 20th year of Mogwai. Their influence and appeal has transcended and traversed genre and generations. Better yet, they show vital signs of life in tonight’s performance. This is a story, however long and winding, that is far from finished. David James Young
back set that allowed his unmistakable baritone to take centre stage. By the time Van Etten came onstage, the crowd had significantly thickened. With a full band, she played songs from her most recent release Are We There and a few from her 2012 Tramp. Sharon (or ‘Shazza’, as she admitted to being called in England and Australia) commanded the crowd’s attention from start to finish with her masterfully controlled vocals and piercing eyes. Despite deeply personal subject matter, the Brooklyn singer-songwriter was warm, making dry, witty asides between songs. She played some new songs from her impending seven-inch, including her latest release ‘I Don’t Want To Let You Down’ and an unrecorded, unnamed song. But the set highlight was easily the last song before the encore, ‘Your Love Is Killing Me’, when Van Etten’s voice filled every corner of the room with almost physically uplifting emotional sounds. Hit single ‘Our Love’ wasn’t played – instead, after being lured out from behind the stage by “Shazza” chants, she opted for ‘Serpents’ to close, leaving not one slippery soul disappointed. Katie Davern
States to track down a mythical Welshspeaking Indian tribe. It’s a tragicomic marvel of a record that would have made for a perfectly arresting set played on an acoustic without any embellishment; instead the live show is more a multimedia extravaganza than a straight presentation of the songs. Not only does Rhys introduce the show with a deadpan ‘safety video’, he offers a hilariously straight-faced commentary on slides that show a John Evans puppet on various stages of his journey from Wales to the most remote areas of America’s river system. From the gorgeous looped pop of ‘American Interior’ to the earworm ‘Iolo’ and the genuine melancholy of ‘The Last Conquistador’, the songs flesh out the tale, making potentially esoteric subject matter emotionally involving. As Rhys plays along with seven-inch records and metronomes and enlists audience members to recreate a particularly tense episode in Evans’ adventure, it’s hard not to get wrapped up in the whole thing. One of the many eccentric touches involves him holding up signs with instructions. Not only is the “PROLONGED APPLAUSE” sign well deserved, but there is a collective sigh when Rhys finally raises a card reading “THE END”. Daniel Herborn
AFTRS
AFTRS BA Screen students
C
ourses on offer: AFTRS currently offers a range of programs for a variety of levels, including all new introductory, 100 per cent online courses in radio and film; and diplomas and advanced diplomas in the specialist areas of film, television and radio (which are a combination of online and intensive workshops). AFTRS also offers a world class BA in Screen and masters programs. What makes us different: AFTRS is Australia’s national screen art and broadcast school, and was established in 1973 by the Australian Government. The school has consistently been rated by industry bible The Hollywood Reporter as one of the top film schools in the world since 2012 for the calibre of its alumni, its impressive stateof-the-art facilities and its rigorous and highly regarded courses. AFTRS constantly adapts its courses
to stay at the forefront of technology and content. Take the next step: Graduates of AFTRS include Academy Award winners and nominees such as Jane Campion (The Piano), Andrew Lesnie (The Lord Of The Rings, King Kong), Dion Beebe (Memoirs Of A Geisha, Chicago) and Alex Proyas (I, Robot, Gods Of Egypt), to name just a few, as well as some of Australia’s most highly regarded screen practitioners working at the top of their fields in film and television. In the past decade three AFTRS student films have been nominated for Academy Awards and one for a Student Academy Award. AFTRS is all about opportunity, connections and is highly aligned with industry. What else you need to know: With a whole raft of new, accessible, part-time courses now offered at the diploma and advanced diploma
level, AFTRS is providing ever more opportunities for creative people from all over Australia to study at the school and the new specialist courses that combine online learning and workshops. Entry into most AFTRS courses is by merit selection. Enrolment dates: The midyear intake for Semester 2 introductory courses, diplomas and advanced diplomas opens on April 15. The BA in Screen courses open for applications on May 30. Open Day: AFTRS will be hosting an Information Day on Saturday May 30, which will also be interactive and online. See aftrs.edu.au/opendays. Address: Building 130, Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park Phone: 1300 13 14 61 Email: study@aftrs.edu.au Website: aftrs.edu.au
five things WITH
DUSTIN THOMAS
Growing Up I spent a lot of time on 1. the farm as a kid, hearing lots of hymns and Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton. I think where I grew up is a huge part of who I am as a musician. Everyone was so supportive of me learning and growing, and when you really care about the people around you, you find yourself inspired to sing about everything. Inspirations Nahko Bear, Xavier 2. Rudd. They’re the brothers who inspire me to be a better musician. My favourite sounds are those of nature. My favourite songs are those of the heart. There’s a lot of that power and passion and meditative energy in their music. It’s nice to be surrounded by passionate songwriters. It keeps the pen sharp and the heart strong. Your Band I always just show up 3. with a guitar and if the right players are around we can make a band on the spot. I love spontaneity and keeping it fresh. The Music You Make I’ve been blessed to 4. be surrounded by lots of amazing artists. I’ve been hanging out with Byron’s rising star Ziggy Alberts heaps and last year I played
Spirit Fest out in Bali with Xavier Rudd – we were able to raise over $20,000 for Project Clean Uluwatu. Other than that, I’ve been touring with Nahko Bear for the last couple of years and that’s been such an inspiring adventure. This year is all about recording. I recorded a record with some great Australian musicians, Bobby Alu and Shannon Green (Kingfisha) at the beginning of the year, and eventually will come through Oz with a band and rock some rootsreggae action to get the people moving. This tour is all about the sing-along. Just my voice, a guitar and beatbox. It’s gonna be a party. Music, Right Here, Right Now 5. The music scene is golden from where I see it. There are a lot of progressive and
conscious roots musicians out there right now. Lots of amazing collaborations and bands all over are raising the bar to make more honest and genuine music. I love it. Byron has an amazing music scene right now with some of the best singer-songwriters out there. I saw Ziggy Alberts and Kyle Lionheart the other weekend and I cried it was so beautiful. There’s a folk revival happening and the best place to see it is out there in the shire. What: One Spirit Tribe With: Markandeya, Chad Wilkins, Rob Weber, Vaani and more Where: Paddington Uniting Church When: Saturday March 14
BRAG :: 603 :: 11:03:15 :: 21
snap sn ap up all night out all week . . .
SOUNDWAVE FESTIVAL 2015 Sydney Olympic Park Saturday February 28 – Sunday March 1 Rock music, and particularly metal, is a very tricky subject. For many people, it’s nothing more than noise that attracts an unaccountably large following of weirdos, immature passive-aggressive types, angry young men, wanton outcasts, sociopaths, or all five. There’s a kernel of truth to this when it comes to Soundwave, but nothing more. This year’s edition of the festival witnessed a huge range of punters: middle-aged couples; fans in corpse paint; old boys attending by themselves; groups of casually dressed teenagers; goths taking the chance to fully deck out; people dressed as Pokémon, superheroes and Sesame Street characters; girls in bikinis, short shorts and thongs; and of course, a few lads in their Slipknot jumpsuits and matching masks. Only Soundwave’s unrivalled ability to book the world’s biggest bands could result in such an eclectic crowd and the continual growth of Australia’s premier rock festival. One band that has reaped the benefits of nabbing a spot on the bill is Melbourne-based ska punks The Bennies. Handpicked to open the show for their hometown audience at last year’s festival, this time the lovable larrikins found themselves sharing the stage with childhood heroes The Aquabats as part of the official lineup. Over on one of the three smaller stages, UK prog rockers Monuments lit things up, not necessarily through their brand of music, but through their audience interaction. Frontman Chris Barretto’s charisma and ability to work the crowd resulted in irresistible fun,
the highlight of which was him asking the crowd to raise their metal horns and quickly adding, “Do it for Spock!”, encouraging the punters to make Vulcan salutes in tribute to the late Leonard Nimoy. Leopard-print-clad rockers Steel Panther were on a mission to prove boobs are the new black, shamelessly encouraging lady fans to bare all before inviting the scantilydressed punters onstage to cap off their cracking set. The Panther’s satirical take on glam metal bands was an absolute riot – there’s nothing quite as good as hearing “So come on pretty baby / Suck my balls all night” as a chorus. The band engaged in some funny banter (a rare trait in Americans) and stage antics (blowing Lexxi’s hair with leaf blowers was a good one) and, ahem, made certain requests from members of the audience. By early evening, Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd had the ever-expanding crowd eating out of his hand during their hourlong performance. Consummate professionals, appearing fresh and relaxed, it was easy to see why this enduring band has enjoyed a 25-plus-year career. Decked in all white, surrounded by pots of flowers all around and throughout the stage, Faith No More waltzed out to remind us what gloriousness sounds like. Opening with new song ‘Motherfucker’, they took us hand in hand through a catalogue of their hits, before closing their main set with another one of their new songs, ‘Superhero’, a nice sign of things to come from the newly awakened giants of the music world. The highlight was the customary cover within the bridge of ‘Midlife Crisis’: last time it was ‘The Popcorn Song’; this time the chorus of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ was
inserted, complete with singer Mike Patton going “a weee awimbabay”. Absolutely brilliant. Bleary-eyed but with a renewed sense of vigour and optimism, droves of sweaty spectators braved the 35-degree temperatures keen for day two. Canadian hardcore punkers Fucked Up masterfully worked the crowd much like Monuments did almost 24 hours before them. Potbellied frontman Damian Abraham jumped into the mosh, took selfies with people mid-song, wore their hats and shoved the mic into fans’ faces to let them sing. He’d get so lost in the crowd that often the only sign of him was the mic cord being held aloft by a security guard. The fact that the bouncer couldn’t help but beam a smile confirmed this band’s contagious sense of fun. As the weather turned and the heavens opened on the Main Stage, the steam rising from the shoulders of hardcore rock fans filled the stadium. Unfazed, they stood side by side in a musky mist. Alas, All Time Low were forced to unplug when their gear was damaged in the downpour, but they finished their night on a high with a rousing a capella rendition of their hit ‘Weightless’. Judas Priest blitzed with their speed metal for a 90-minute set. The overcast, drizzly and windy weather reminiscent of their homeland greeted the British Steelers, giving them more reason to warm the crowd up with some of their electrifying riffs. On a poorer note, Rob Halford, the 63-yearold singer, didn’t manage much in the way of stage presence, though he still impressively pulled all the vocal moves. Despite the weather, Soundwave soldiered on to the unmistakable sound of the Pale Emperor himself, Marilyn Manson. Manson was at
his best once again, bleeding for his art in a crescendo of songs leading to his seminal hit ‘The Beautiful People’ – and the beautiful people of Sydney ate up every single second of it. After the disappointing Guns N’ Roses tribute that was Slash’s set, Slipknot emerged from their very busy and probably very expensive backdrop. The tastelessness never ends with this band. They opened with the face-palminglytitled ‘Sarcastrophe’, before going through a slew of their more famous radio hits, as well as a sprinkling of their new songs. The set never really seemed to catch fire – indeed, a lot of Corey Taylor’s crowd interactions seem like the well-rehearsed matador’s trick of reminding the diehards of their social alienation, yet celebrating the band’s ‘mainstream’ success (their Grammy win is brought up in almost every show). Rather than seeming like a genuine revolt against the establishment, this particular schtick resembles a carefully crafted commercial and marketing operation, especially given the articulation and worldliness Taylor expresses in interviews. Nonetheless, soon after came the moment that sent shockwaves throughout the music world and forced Twitter into meltdown – Manson crashed The Smashing Pumpkins’ set to join Billy Corgan in an encore of ‘Ava Adore’. Does it get any better than that? The perfect end to another summer festival season. In 2015, Soundwave is a slick, sophisticated operation – a far cry from the crude set-up offered to punters at its Sydney debut almost a decade ago. Natalie Rogers and Nicholas Hartman
PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR
“Eleanor Rigby, picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been” 22 :: BRAG :: 603 :: 11:03:15
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send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Ultimo. 8pm. $15.
WEDNESDAY MARCH 11
THURSDAY MARCH 12
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC
ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
Phil Stack + Elana Stone Venue 505, Surry Hills. 8pm. $19.
Happy Hippies Ettamogah Hotel, Rouse Hill. 6:30pm. Free. Muso’s Club Jam Night Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt. 8pm. Free. Richard Thompson City Recital Hall, Sydney. 7:30pm. $45. Tony Joe White The Basement, Circular Quay. 8pm. $50.
Chich And The Soul Messengers Foundry616, Ultimo. 6:30pm. $22. Michael Duchesne Band Golden Sheaf Hotel, Double Bay. 9pm. Free. Muso’s Club Jam Night Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill. 8pm. Free. Songsonstage - feat: Mick Hambly + Chris Brookes Ruby L’otel, Rozelle. 7:30pm. Free. Symposium - feat: Larissa Mckay The Chippendale Hotel, Chippendale. 7:30pm. Free.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
Fat Bubba’s Chicken Wednesdays Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 5pm. Free. First Aid Kit Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $69. Ingrid Michaelson + Jack Carty Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7pm. $65. Mark Travers Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. Free. Saskwatch + Harts Spectrum Playground, Sydney. 6:45pm. Free. Songsonstage - feat: CJ Fairleight + Guests Olympic Hotel, Paddington. 8pm. Free. Songwriting Society Of Australia Showcase - feat: Taos + Ryan & Fi + Brynn Luker + Pete Scully + Gavin Fitzgerald + Paul Mcgowan Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomoo. 6:30pm. Free. The Thingos + The Hoo Has The Gasoline Pony, Sydney. 7pm. Free. Vibrations At Valve Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel,
Anthems Of Oz Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. Free. Blake Tailor Panthers, Penrith. 6:30pm. Free. Doug Anthony Allstars Seymour Centre, Chippendale. 8pm. $65. Family Fold + Maia Jelavic The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 3:15pm. Free. London Grammar + Wet + Until The Ribbon Breaks Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park. 7:30pm. $69.50. Melinda Schneider + Beccy Cole Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8pm. $49.90. Songsonstage - feat: Silent Garden + Xater Bay + Lorias James + Andrew Kidd + Merilyn Steele + Robert Nash Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8pm. Free. The Bloody Mummers - feat: Ride For Rain + Mesmeriser + Balko Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10. The Late Night Soda Social Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 5pm.
SHARED OFFICE SPACE AVAILABLE DOUBLE BAY WITH ROCK CIRCUIT HARRY DELLA
FULLY FURNISHED /MULTIPLE WORK STATIONS INTERNET ACCESS/SEPARATE SECTION/ BALCONY/KITCHEN/AIR CON/TOILET/ SHORT WALK TO EDGECLIFF STATION MIDDLE OF DOUBLE BAY CLOSE TO ALL BANKS/SHOPS CLOSE TO SERCURED AND PUBLIC PARKING NOTHING NEEDED, MOVE IN AN INSTANT
CALL HARRY 0415 414 655 harry@rcp.com.au
Free. Why We Run Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 6pm. $5.
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC
4 Kings The Annandale Hotel, Annandale. 8:30pm. Free. David Ryan Harris + Fatai Venue 505, Surry Hills. 6pm. $29. Frank Yamma + Steve Smyth Spectrum Playground, Sydney. 7pm. Free. The Tango Saloon The Basement, Circular Quay. 7pm. $15.
FRIDAY MARCH 13 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC
On The Stoop Superband Venue 505, Surry Hills. 6pm. $16. Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club + Omara Portuondo + Guajiro Mirabal + Barbarito Torres + Jesus ‘Aguaje’ Ramos State Theatre, Sydney. 7pm. $90.60. Pearl - The Janis Joplin Story - feat: Liza Ohlback + Jeremy Edwards + Rick Melick Lizotte’s, Dee Why. 7:30pm. $35. Spyglass Gypsies Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 9pm. $20. The Underscore Orkestra The Annandale Hotel, Annandale. 8:30pm. Free. Yuki Kumagai + John Mackie Winston Gardens Chinese Restaurant, Winston Hills. 7:30pm. Free.
ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
Flamin’ Beauties Royal Hotel, Bondi. 9:15pm. Free. Larissa Mckay Mr Tipply’s, Sydney. 5pm. Free. Rob Henry Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale. 9:30pm. Free. The April Maze Hotel Steyne, Manly. 8pm. Free. Tony Joe White Brass Monkey, Cronulla. 8pm. $56.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
AM 2 PM Berowra Village Tavern, Berowra Heights. 8:30pm. Free. Armchair Travellers Duo St George Leagues Club, Kogarah. 9pm. Free. Backlash Penrith Gaels, Kingswood. 8pm. Free. Bandsonstage - feat: Mass + Hawk-Kestrel + July Morning Ruby L’otel, Rozelle. 8pm. Free. Bellusira + Stellar Addiction + Surrender The Sun + Hawkmoth The Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt. 8pm. $15. Bort + War Of Attrition + Passive Resistance Spectrum, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $12. Carla Maree Rooty Hill RSL Club, Rooty Hill. 10:30am. Free. Cath & Him Kurnell Recreation Club, Kurnell. 7:30pm. Free. Courtyard Sessions - feat:
pick of the week The Cat Empire
SATURDAY MARCH 14 North Sydney Oval
Party In The Park The Cat Empire + The Jezabels + Husky + Little May + Sons Of The East
4:30pm. $79. Flowertruck Seymour Centre, Chippendale. 6pm. Free. Dan Sultan Taronga Zoo, Mosman. 7pm. $70.95. Dee Donavan Rooty Hill RSL Club, Rooty Hill. 10:30am. Free. Dollshay Quakers Inn, Quakers Hill. 8pm. Free. Doug Anthony Allstars Seymour Centre, Chippendale. 8pm. $65. Drew Duo Heritage Hotel, Wilberforce. 7:30pm. Free. Endless Summer Beach Party Club Cronulla, Cronulla. 8:30pm. Free. Grooveworks Rooty Hill RSL Club, Rooty Hill. 10:30am. Free. Hits & Pieces Camden RSL, Camden. 8pm. Free. Ivan Drago - feat: Dividers + The Great Awake + Postscript Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10. Jessie J + Tim Omaji Big Top Sydney, Milsons Point. 8pm. $71.50. JJ Duo Courthouse Hotel, Darlinghurst. 10pm. Free. Jonathan Jones Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 4:30pm. Free. Krishna Jones Club Liverpool, Liverpool. 5:30pm. Free. Marty Stewart Coogee Legion Ex-service Club, 7:30pm. Free. Melody Rhymes The Crest Hotel Sylvania, Sylvania. 7:30pm. Free. Muddy Feet Windsor Leagues Club, Windsor South. 9pm. Free.
Peter Kaye Rooty Hill RSL Club, Rooty Hill. 10:30am. Free. Rebecca Johnson Band Colonial Hotel, Werrington. 8:30pm. Free. Reckless Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9:30pm. Free. Ribongia + Mammals + Youngs Spectrum Playground, Sydney. 7pm. Free. Rose Carleo The Oriental Hotel, Springwood. 8pm. Free. Ryan Enright The Henry Sports Club, Werrington County. 7:30pm. Free. Ryan Thomas Parramatta Leagues Club, Parramatta. 5pm. Free. Sarah Paton Town Hall Hotel, Balmain. 5pm. Free. Smooth Jive Consultants Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8:30pm. Free. Songsonstage - feat: CJ Fairleight Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham. 8:30pm. $15. Sound City Town Hall Hotel, Balmain. 8pm. Free. Soundproofed Engadine Tavern, Engadine. 9pm. Free. Tezza & The Twistops Penrith RSL, Penrith. 9pm. Free. The Dead Love + She Rex + Bonez Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $12. The Orient’s St Patrick’s Day Festival - feat: Jonathan Jones + Reckless + Stringy Bark + The Blarney Boys + U2 Elevation + UK Anthems + Rob Henry + The Moonshiners + Dublin Up +
Lonesome Train Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 4:30pm. Free. The Tombstone Ramblers feat: Minor Surgery + Tom Stone & The Soldiers Of Fortune Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 9pm. $10. Time Machine Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci. 7:30pm. Free. VIP Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 8pm. Free.
SATURDAY MARCH 14 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC
Cass Eager Avalon Beach RSL Club, Avalon. 5pm. $60. Dutty Dancing - feat: Sk Simeon + 101 Doll Squad + Shantan Wantan Ichiban + Nick Toth + Basslines Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 11pm. $10. Inga Liljestrom - feat: Evan Mannell + Zoe Hauptmann + Haydn Walker + Michael Bridges Venue 505, Surry Hills. 6pm. $26. One Spirit Tribe - feat: Dustin Thomas + Markandeya + Chad Wilkins + Rob Weber + Vanni + Keith Al’La + Vieux Cissokho + Rendra Freestone Paddington Uniting Church, Paddington. 7:30pm. $55. The Necks The Basement, Circular Quay. 7:30pm. $32. Yuki Kumagai + John Mackie
“What would you think if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me?” thebrag.com
BRAG :: 603 :: 11:03:15 :: 23
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five things WITH
MANIK MAYADUNNE FROM FRANCISCO’S FORTUNE sound and managed to find the right balance between pop sensibilities that can be appreciated by Joe Bloggs on the street, and more creative musical details that musicians can appreciate on a more technical level. Your Band While Francisco’s Fortune is 3. a solo project, I have been lucky
Growing Up I was always doing something 1. musical as a child. Even today my family brings up my early ‘stardom’ when, as a toddler, I sang a Sri Lankan song on the SBS Sinhalese community program. I’m surprised I didn’t hang up the boots then, at the peak of my career! Neither of my parents formally played any music Winston Gardens Chinese Restaurant, Winston Hills. 7:30pm. Free.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
Back To Bacharach - feat: Casey Donovan + Doug Williams + Darren Mapes + Hayley Jensen The Concourse, Chatswood. 8pm. $60. Battleships + Lurch & Chief + Ngaiire + Slum Sociable Spectrum Playground, Sydney. 1pm. Free. Beatnix - Beatles Show Pittwater RSL, Mona Vale. 8pm. $21. Big Way Out Ivanhoe Hotel, Manly. 10pm. Free. Bird Yard Big Band Penrith RSL, Penrith. 2pm. Free. Client Liaison Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 9pm. $23.80. Dirty Deeds - The AC/DC Show Avalon Beach RSL Club, Avalon. 8pm. $20. Elevation - U2 Tribute South Hurstville RSL Club, South Hurstville. 9pm. Free. Get The Party Started P!Nk Tribute Show Taren Point Bowling Club, Taren Point. 8:45pm. Free. Hits & Pieces Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8:30pm. Free. Hooray For Everything Mittagong RSL, Mittagong. 8pm. Free. JJ Duo - feat: Hooray For Everything Club Central Menai, Menai. 9:30pm. Free. Kingswood + Lurch And Chief + The Belligerents Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7:30pm. $31.81. Kirsty Belle Strattons Hotel, Sydney. 8pm. Free. Little Earthquake + The Indians + Vanderaa Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $8. Macson Duo The Henry Sports Club, Werrington County. 7:30pm. Free. Marty Stewart Padstow RSL Club, Padstow. 6:30pm. Free. Matchbox Band 24 :: BRAG :: 603 :: 11:03:15
but my mother was reportedly quite the singer when she was younger, so some of those genes must have made their way down.
enough to have a rotating group of great musicians and good friends play with me in the studio and onstage. The two main musicians who joined me in the studio were Gana Aruneswaran on the bass guitar and Billy Cordiner on the drums. Both are amazing musos and great guys who have been a pleasure to make music with. My studio recordings were produced by Lachlan Mitchell, who has produced extensively with The Jezabels (whose music I love!). He was amazing to work with, being a laidback, flexible, constructive, honest and hardworking gentleman with a real talent for creating and capturing music.
Inspirations My biggest influences are 2. The Music You Make Coldplay, The Script and the Red Hot I always struggle with giving my 4. Chili Peppers. I love the way that each music a genre, and every time I’m of them has carved out their own
Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci. 7:30pm. Free. Melody Rhymes Rooty Hill RSL Club, Rooty Hill. 6pm. Free. One Hit Wonders Penrith RSL, Penrith. 9pm. Free. Panorama Plough & Harrow, Camden. 8:30pm. Free. Party In The Park - feat: The Cat Empire + The Jezabels + Little May + Husky + Sons Of The East North Sydney Oval, North Sydney. 4:30pm. $79. Penny Lane The Crest Hotel Sylvania, Sylvania. 7pm. Free. Rapture Penrith Gaels, Kingswood. 7pm. Free. Red Alert Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 10pm. Free. Rock Solid Duo Ingleburn RSL, Ingleburn. 9pm. Free. Rod Mitchell Huskisson Hotel, Huskisson. 8pm. Free. Russell Nelson Sir Joseph Banks Hotel, Botany. 8pm. Free. Ryan Thomas - feat: Russell Nelson Brewhouse Marayong, Kings Park. 8pm. Free. Sirens Of Sydney - feat: Domino + Enter Reality + Pulse Mavens + Eat Your Heart Out + Brumby + Rainbow Death Ray + Red Zora + Bruise Pristine + Necrostalgia Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 4pm. $15. Skyscraper Stan And The Commission Flats Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 7pm. Free. Soul Tattoo Kelly’s On King, Newtown. 9:30pm. Free. Stringy Bark Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 4:30pm. Free. Sunnyboys + Riptides + The New Christs Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 7pm. $73. The Blarney Boys Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9:30pm. Free. The Matchbox Tribute Show Oatley Hotel, Oatley. 8pm. Free. The Orient’s St Patrick’s Day Festival - feat: Jonathan Jones + Reckless + Stringy
surprised that there isn’t a neat little
Bark + The Blarney Boys + U2 Elevation + UK Anthems + Rob Henry + The Moonshiners + Dublin Up + Lonesome Train Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 4:30pm. Free. The Tribe The Mercantile Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm. Free. Toxic Dolls St Marys Rugby Leagues Club, St Marys. 9pm. Free. Zoltan Town Hall Hotel, Balmain. 9:30pm. Free.
label to attach to it. The most accurate description would be ‘alternative poprock’. There are bits of jazz, bits of blues, bits of folk and bits of classical in there for good measure. With every song I try to do a few things: to make musicians think, to give teenyboppers a good hook, and to create a unique feel. I recorded my debut EP with Lachlan Mitchell at Jungle Studios in Sydney, and I can’t wait for you to hear it. My live show is usually with a four-piece band. Music, Right Here, Right Now Listeners are spoiled for choice 5. with music these days. Digital music has made distribution of songs so much easier, meaning that if you have music, people can access it. However the new challenge is that people are getting flooded with songs, making it difficult to stand out in the torrential musical deluge. Like any field, though, if you have a good tune, it will find an audience if you take the intelligent avenues. The many community radio stations around are fantastic for promoting local talent. Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Thursday March 19
5pm. $5. Songsonstage - feat: Stuart Jammin + Guests Harlequin Inn, Pyrmont. 3pm. Free.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK &
COVERS
Elevation - U2 Tribute Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 4:30pm. Free. Hard-Ons + Bare Bones + Don Fernando + Daggerz + Hy-Test + Rick Dangerous & The Silky Bantams Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 6pm.
Free. John Vella Duo The Annandale Hotel, Annandale. 3pm. Free. Krishna Jones Ambarvale Tavern, Ambarvale. 2pm. Free. Marty Stewart Vikings Sports Club, Dundas Valley. 6:30pm. Free. Melody Rhymes The Henry Sports Club, Werrington County. 1pm. Free. Mick Aquilina Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci. 2pm. Free. Raoul Graf Waverley Bowling Club, Waverley. 3pm. Free. Rough Stock Penrith RSL, Penrith. 2pm. Free. Satellite Shady Pines, Darlinghurst. 6pm. Free. Signs Of Escape - feat: Drowning Atlantis + Ghost And The Darkness + Atlantis Of The Sky + Vendetta Of The Fallen + Amodeus + When Autumn Follows + Okami + Heartsick + Shatter The Crown + Series + Exist Within + Hammer Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 1pm. $15. Spookyland + Tiny Little Houses + Cabins Spectrum Playground, Sydney. 1pm. Free. Steve Tonge Plough & Harrow, Camden. 3pm. Free. The Orient’s St Patrick’s Day Festival - feat: Jonathan Jones + Reckless + Stringy Bark + The Blarney Boys + U2 Elevation + UK Anthems + Rob Henry + The Moonshiners + Dublin Up + Lonesome Train Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 4:30pm. Free.
ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
AJ Harbourview Hotel, The Rocks. 8pm. Free. Emma Swift + Owd + Devotional The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $5. Paul Hayward And Friends Town And Country Hotel, St. Peters. 4pm. Free. Songsonstage - feat: Andrew Denniston + Guests Petersham Inn, Petersham. 8pm. Free. Tony Joe White Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL Club, Hurlstone Park. 8pm. $50.
SUNDAY MARCH 15 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC
wed
11 Mar
(9:00PM - 12:00AM)
(9:00PM - 12:00AM)
fri
13 Mar
(4:30PM - 7:30PM)
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
(9:30PM - 1:30AM)
mon
16 Mar
sat
(9:00PM - 12:00AM)
(4:30PM - 7:30PM)
14 Mar
Blarney Boys 10:00AM - 1:00AM
The Brassholes The Bourbon, Potts Point. 4pm. Free.
U2 Elevation
(9:30PM - 1:15AM)
ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
Gretta Ziller + Matt Henry + Not Good With Horses Petersham Bowling Club, Petersham. 6pm. $7. Jack Bloak Minstrel Show - feat: Russell Neal + Jack Bloak Jug Scullers + Lawrence Osborn + Veronica Wagner + John Chesher Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 6:30pm. Free. Key To The Highway The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville.
thu
12 Mar
SUNDAY AFTERNOON
tue 1:30PM - 4:00PM
17 Mar
The Moonshiners 4:30PM - 6:30PM
sun
15 Mar
(4:30PM - 7:30PM) (8:30PM - 12:00AM)
Dublin Up 7:00PM - 9:45PM
Lonesome Train 10:15PM - 12:00AM
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send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com
MONDAY MARCH 16 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Songsonstage - feat: Stuart Jammin + Chris Brookes + Guests Kelly’s On King, Newtown. 8pm. Free.
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC
Ross Ainslie And Jarlath Henderson The Gaelic Club, Sydney. 4:30pm. $18.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
All Our Exes Live In Texas + Jack Carty Spectrum Playground, Sydney. 6:45pm. Free. Angus & Julia Stone St Stephens Church, Newtown. 7:30pm. Free. Rob Henry Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. Free. The Orient’s St Patrick’s Day Festival - feat: Jonathan Jones + Reckless + Stringy Bark + The Blarney Boys + U2 Elevation + UK Anthems + Rob Henry + The Moonshiners + Dublin Up + Lonesome Train Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 4:30pm. Free.
thebrag.com
TUESDAY MARCH 17 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC
Burn The Floor - feat: Kelly Ann Doll + R-Jay The Arthouse, Sydney. 6:30pm. $22.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
Adam Cohen The Basement, Circular Quay. 7pm. $55. Cath & Him Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 5pm. Free. Live And Originals @ Mr Falcons - Feat: Oliver Downes + Well Done Sexy Band + Brian Campeau + Katherine Vavahea Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 7:30pm. Free. Mr Jamie Ray Strattons Hotel, Sydney. 8pm. Free. Richard In Your Mind + Gordi Spectrum Playground, Sydney. 6:45pm. Free. The Orient’s St Patrick’s Day Festival - Feat: Jonathan Jones + Reckless + Stringy Bark + The Blarney Boys + U2 Elevation + UK Anthems + Rob Henry + The Moonshiners + Dublin Up + Lonesome Train Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 10am. Free.
gig picks
up all night out all week...
WEDNESDAY MARCH 11
Silky Bantams Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 6pm. Free.
First Aid Kit
First Aid Kit Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $69.
MONDAY MARCH 16
Ingrid Michaelson + Jack Carty Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7pm. $65.
All Our Exes Live In Texas + Jack Carty Spectrum Playground, Sydney. 6:45pm. Free.
Saskwatch + Harts Spectrum Playground, Sydney. 6:45pm. Free.
FRIDAY MARCH 13 Courtyard Sessions Feat: Flowertruck Seymour Centre, Chippendale. 6pm. Free. Dan Sultan Taronga Zoo, Mosman. 7pm. $70.95. Jessie J + Tim Omaji Big Top Sydney, Milsons Point. 8pm. $71.50.
TUESDAY MARCH 17 SATURDAY MARCH 14 Client Liaison Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 9pm. $23.80. Kingswood + Lurch And Chief + The Belligerents Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7:30pm. $31.81.
Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club + Omara Portuondo + Guajiro Mirabal + Barbarito Torres + Jesus ‘Aguaje’ Ramos State Theatre, Sydney. 7pm. $90.60.
One Spirit Tribe - Feat: Dustin Thomas + Markandeya + Chad Wilkins + Rob Weber + Vanni + Keith Al’La + Vieux Cissokho + Rendra Freestone Paddington Uniting Church, Paddington. 7:30pm. $55.
The Dead Love + She Rex + Bonez Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $12.
Sunnyboys + Riptides + The New Christs Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 7pm. $73.
The Necks The Basement, Circular Quay. 7:30pm. $32.
SUNDAY MARCH 15 Hard-Ons + Bare Bones + Don Fernando + Daggerz + Hy-Test + Rick Dangerous & The
Adam Cohen The Basement, Circular Quay. 7pm. $55. The Orient’s St Patrick’s Day Festival - Feat: Jonathan Jones + Reckless + Stringy Bark + The Blarney Boys + U2 Elevation + UK Anthems + Rob Henry + The Moonshiners + Dublin Up + Lonesome Train Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 10am. Free. All Our Exes Live In Texas
BRAG :: 603 :: 11:03:15 :: 25
brag beats
BRAG’s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture
dance music news club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Martin, Nicholas Hartman and Spencer Scott
five things WITH
Fritz Kalkbrenner
ERNIE GARLAND FROM KINSKY
PUTTIN’ ON THE FRITZ
Growing Up My parents are 1. not musical at all. My Scottish grandfather was a natural musician, a multiinstrumentalist. Maybe it skips a generation. When I was about ten, at the urging of a teacher I auditioned for a scholarship in a well-known choir in Sydney. That’s where it started for me.
as myself and bass player Dave Murray. We both have a deep love for reggae and Jamaican music generally. We got the songs together for the first album (Sunset On The Good Fight) and went to a converted farmhouse studio in the Catalan region of Spain to record it. The live band is currently at nine pieces.
Inspirations 4. Bob Marley. Great 2. songwriter. Go to any far-flung corner of the globe and there he is with his message of peace and positive vibrations blaring out of whatever sound system that’s going. Beautiful. And Nina Simone. I caught a doco of her on the ABC when I was young and I thought, ‘Who is this feisty, amazing woman?’ That was it for me. Her voice has so much power that the world stops when I listen to her. Crew Kinsky started out 3. Your
A BIRTHDAY PICNIC
The Music You Make And Play I listen to a lot of different genres and draw from them accordingly when writing songs. I could pick out a part in one of my songs and say, ‘That was inspired by a part in a track by Miles Davis from his All-Star period.’ Or, ‘This middle eight horn part was inspired by an OutKast track, but keeping it in a reggae/ soul style.’ My house is made entirely of wood, so for the new EP, which will come out later in the year, I wanted to record the drums in my living room. I got Terepai Richmond (The Whitlams, DiG) over on
The party people behind Picnic are going to give on their birthday instead of taking – just like hobbits do – by hosting a big club night. Picnic Touring & Events is set to celebrate its
Taylor McFerrin
drums and set up the mixing console in my neighbour’s living room a few doors down and tracked the drums. Once the recording’s all done I’ll head back to the farmhouse in Catalunya to mix it. Music, Right Here, Right Now 5. The scene’s way better than it was. It was really bleak a few years back with hardly anywhere to play. There’s a lot more venues these days. Camelot in Marrickville is my favourite venue at the moment. Not so long ago I saw the Sirens Big Band play to a full house. They’re an all-female, 18-piece brass band with some awesome Middle Eastern and African influences in their works. They’re off the hook. Where: Supporting Balkan Beat Box at Oxford Art Factory When: Wednesday March 11
84 months – which is roughly 336 weekends – of running the non-stop allegorical train journey to looseness. Highlights along the way have included hosting one-night stands with FBi super house maestro Simon Caldwell and
Soul vocalist and producer Fritz Kalkbrenner will make his return to Australian shores next month. The Berliner is familiar to audiences worldwide for his collaborations to recordings by his brother Paul and best friend Sascha Funke. However, he’s long been stepping out on his own as a producer, working his way towards 2010 debut album Here Today Gone Tomorrow. Kalkbrenner’s warm house, rave and soul sound will take over the dancefloor at The Spice Cellar for its closing Easter weekend extravaganza on Thursday April 2.
making Danny Wang do a chicken dance, while hopping all around Sydney town with shows in heaps of venues. For the big night, there’ll be a 14-name-long DJ lineup, headed by Adi Toohey, Andy Webb, Ben Fester, Cassette and D&D. Kali, Marc Jarvin, Mike Witcombe, Preacha, Rimbombo, Slow Blow and Valerie Yum are among the rest of the list. Picnic’s seventh birthday celebration will take place at the Imperial Hotel, Erskineville on Saturday March 28.
JAPANESE WALLPAPER
17-year-old producer Japanese Wallpaper has announced a one-off Sydney show this month, bringing along his impressive live visual show. Making a name for himself by winning triple j’s Unearthed High competition, as well as landing a nice little spot on the 2014 Hottest 100 Countdown, Japanese Wallpaper has been taking Australia by storm recently. Joining him will be Sydney producer Anatole, who will also be presenting a live visual show along with some impressive remixes. Japanese Wallpaper plays Newtown Hotel on Thursday March 26.
TIGA DAY RAVE
Chinese Laundry will rightly be going off about 1pm this Saturday March 14 when it hosts its courtyard Day Rave starring the one and only Tiga. This one’s been put together by the Motorik and Soapbox teams, which means you can count on catchy beats and sunny vibes. Helping those vibes along will be Motorik Vibe Council, The Finger Prince, Avon Stringer and Marks & Oz. Alison Wonderland
TIMMY TRUMPET + KRONIC
Australia’s busiest DJ, Timmy Trumpet, is bringing his beats (and his horn) to Pacha Sydney this weekend. The jazz musician turned DJing star is averaging more than 200 shows a year these days, so he’s obviously chosen the right musical path to follow. He’ll be joined at Ivy on Saturday March 14 by up-andcoming electro house producer and DJ Kronic,
RBMA FEAT. TAYLOR MCFERRIN
ALISON WONDERLAND ALBUM LAUNCH
Undoubtedly the new hot young thing on the Australian dance scene – thanks in part to a mountain of triple j airplay – Alison Wonderland is set to launch her debut album with a run of launch parties around the country. Run is due out next Friday March 20, and features the first taste of Wonderland’s own vocals. Her latest single ‘U Don’t Know’ features Flaming Lips maestro Wayne Coyne and has earwormed its way into fans’ minds everywhere. Wonderland’s Sydney album launch is at Potts Point’s The Club on Wednesday March 18, and for first-inbest-dressed entry you’ll need to show up with proof of purchase of the album.
xxx
Red Bull Music Academy has announced that US producer Taylor McFerrin will be stopping on our shores for an Australian tour, passing through Sydney to tear the roof off. Having released his critically acclaimed debut album Early Riser on Flying Lotus’ label Brainfeeder, McFerrin has been touring around the world, playing major festivals such as Lollapalooza and Glastonbury, as well as briefly dropping into Australia to play the inaugural Red Bull Music Academy x Boiler Room Chronicles Broadcast. McFerrin’s sets combine aspects of early soul music, modern hip hop, and even free-form jazz and electronic music. McFerrin plays Goodgod Small Club on Saturday March 21. For entry, RSVP at Dash Tickets.
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alongside Jay Karama, A-Tonez, Spenda C, Ben Morris, Matt Nugent, Deckhead, Nanna Does, Thomas Lisse, Just 1, Dylan Sanders, Mike Hyper, Skoob, DLE, Nad and Danny Lang.
five things WITH
FELIX BRUNHUBER AND FLORIAN FELLIER FROM WILD CULTURE
Growing Up We both grew up in 1. the Austrian mountains, surrounded by inspiring nature and wilderness in the deep forest. We both are studying and working besides making music.
2.
Inspirations Nature, people, culture – the Wild Culture lifestyle.
3.
Your Crew We have a great crew: management, booking agencies, PR agency. Furthermore, we have a huge pool of professional musicians and fancy cooperations with different kinds of indie/
pop bands. We can’t wait to show some really fresh, new and huge vibes to the crowd this year. The Music You Make And Play 4. Everything from emotiondriven, melodic deep house to ground-shaking, bassline-driven technoid sounds inspired by complex grooves and simple melodies. We try to keep focused on sublime sonic quality in our productions, and capture as many emotions as possible in our tracks. A huge inspiration, therefore, is the Austrian nature – mountains, animals, et cetera.
Ghostpoet Spirited Rhymes By Augustus Welby
Music, Right Here, Right Now 5. The music scene around electronic music is growing relentlessly. It’s almost impossible to keep track of every new subgenre nowadays, and it’s good to have such a strong community which creates and shares new sounds and titles every minute. What: Rabbits Eat Lettuce 2015 With: Aeroplane, Berg, Opiuo, Zomboy and more Where: Woodfordia, Queensland When: Friday April 3 – Monday April 6
I
t’s hard to pin down the style of music that London’s Obaro Ejimiwe releases under the Ghostpoet moniker. Is it rap? Trip hop? Grime? Spoken word? Urban folk? Or a hybrid of all of the above? It’s a conundrum made all the more difficult by Ghostpoet’s new LP, Shedding Skin. For this, his third record, Ejimiwe steers away from the murky electronics that dominated 2011’s Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam and 2013’s Some Say I So I Say Light. Instead, on Shedding Skin, Ghostpoet’s plainspoken storytelling is backed by live instrumentation. So while the title Shedding Skin is taken from the record’s fourth track, it also has a strong symbolic resonance. “In some ways I feel like I’m starting again,” Ejimiwe says. “I’ve decided to take another path, and in this world I’ve got to prove myself. But at the same time, I don’t feel like that. I feel like I’m enjoying making music and this is what I’ve chosen to make.” When you observe a few key factors, the rerouting of Ghostpoet’s stylistic journey isn’t as radical as it first appears. Firstly, Ejimiwe had already flirted with a guitar-driven sound on tracks such as ‘Plastic Bag Brain’ from Some Say I. Secondly, the musicians who appear on Shedding Skin – guitarist Joe Newman, drummer John Blease and bassist/ co-producer John Calvert – have been a central feature of the Ghostpoet live show for the past couple of years. “I’ve always played with a band,” says Ejimiwe. “But I never was in a situation where I could work with a full set of musicians over a period of time. I hadn’t really built up a relationship with anyone to that level. So the timing was just right, more than anything else. “I’ve always loved guitar music,” he adds. “For a while, all I was doing was listening to guitar music and that was influencing my thinking.” In spite of his deadpan spoken delivery, a key distinction of Ghostpoet’s body of work is his knack for penning memorable, almost mantra-like chorus refrains. Once again, the majority of Shedding Skin’s tracks are likely to stick in your head, yet none of them come across as overtly engineered singles. To attain this quality, Ejimiwe looked towards some dependable guides. “I was listening to a lot of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, a lot of Interpol, Massive Attack, TV On The Radio,” he says. “I was listening to their music and thinking, ‘What is it about their stuff that they have commercial appeal?’ It’s the balance – it’s still creative, but it appeals to a mass audience. I connect with those kinds of artists. So for me, that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to reach that world, I’m not trying to reach a glossy pop world.” Although Ejimiwe is very open about his influences, Shedding Skin doesn’t get lost
in referencing past artists. Conversely, even with the restyled backdrop, the record affirms Ghostpoet’s distinct creative personality. “As much as it’s a band record, I’m not in a band,” Ejimiwe says. “I’m still very much a solo artist and it was important that there was that distinction. I think as long as people can have that connection, which is me and my vocals and my lyrics, I don’t think it matters to people so much. “I feel like I’m a Marmite – or Vegemite – artist. You either like me or you don’t, and that’s fine. I think it’s good that art can divide opinions and evoke discussion. I’m at a point now, with it being the third record, where I’ve established my name enough for people to realise that I kind of just make what I want. But at the same time, it’s always going to be a level of quality and that’s what’s important. I’m trying to make music that potentially will last in people’s existences for a long period of time.” Another prominent feature of Ghostpoet’s back catalogue is his tendency to veer towards darker lyrical themes. Some Say I was a particularly grim affair, steeped in heartbreak and despair – a reflection of Ejimiwe’s personal situation at the time. “The last record was a very insular record,” he agrees. “I was very much looking inwards and being down, being depressed, going through negative stuff personally, and realising I just have to write through it, rather than abandon music.” Shedding Skin, meanwhile, comprises a series of socially alert character studies, encompassing homelessness, domestic abuse and relationship disparity. All the while, it’s held together by a narratorial emphasis on overcoming one’s demons. “I can only talk with some kind of authority on London, and the UK to a certain extent, because I live here,” Ejimiwe says. “Things aren’t great. There’s high unemployment, there’s massive homeless issues and social issues. And this isn’t from a political standpoint; it’s just sticking my head up and looking around and taking in the scenes of the people around me. I thought I had to write from that perspective. At the same time, as much as there’s things that aren’t great, there are amazing things happening here in all different aspects of life. So it was a combination of the two things. “I don’t like sugar-coating anything in life or lyrically or musically. If I’m talking about something, I want to say what I see, rather than try to romanticise it or put it through an Instagram filter. I want it to be what it is.” What: Shedding Skin out now through [PIAS] BRAG :: 603 :: 11:03:15 :: 27
club guide g send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com
club pick of the week Horrorshow
MONDAY MARCH 16
El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 10pm. Free. Furnace And The Fundamentals Kings Cross Hotel, Kings Cross. 8:30pm. Free. Havana Brown Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $28.60. Infamous Saturdays - feat: Live DJs Scubar, Sydney. 7pm. Free. Lndry - feat: Henry Saiz (Natura Sonoris) + A-Tonez + Natnoiz + Matt Meler + Tigerstyle + King Lee + DJ Just 1 + DJ C-Bu + Sidechains DJs + Marley Sherman Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $53. Pacha Sydney - feat: Timmy Trumpet + Kronic + Jay Karama + A-Tonez + Spenda C + Ben Morris + Matt Nugent + Deckhead + Nanna Does + Thomas Lisse + Just 1 + Dylan Sanders + Mike Hyper + Skoob + Dle + Nad + Danny Lang Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 6:30pm. $38. Sienna Saturdays - feat: Resident DJs The Establishment, Sydney. 9pm. Free. Something Else Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst. 9pm. $20. Spice - feat: Madmotormiquel + Soukie & Windish + Mike Witcombe + Gabby + Steven Sullivan + Onn
The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 9pm. $25. The House Of Who feat. Rotating DJs + Levins + The House Of Who + Nacho Pop + Kato’s Wig Shop Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. Free. Tiga + Motorik Vibe Council + The Finger Prince + Avon Stringer + Marks & Oz Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 1pm. $58.40. Tim Boffa - feat: Super C Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 6pm. Free.
HIP HOP & R&B
Horrorshow - feat: Tuka + Tom Thum Giant Dwarf, Redfern. 7:30pm. $43.39.
SUNDAY MARCH 15 CLUB NIGHTS
Johnny Rad - feat: Graham M Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 5pm. Free. La Fiesta - feat: Samantha Fox + Agee Ortiz + Av El Cubano + Resident DJ Willie Sabor The Establishment, Sydney. 8pm. Free. Reggae Sundays Kings Cross Hotel, Kings Cross. 5pm. Free. Reign Sundays Marquee, Pyrmont. 9pm. $18.40.
S.A.S.H Sundays Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 2pm. $10. Sunday Sessions - feat: Cadell + Tom Kelly + Ocky Goldfish, Kings Cross. 4pm. Free. Sundays In The City - feat: Various DJs The Slip Inn, Sydney. 12pm. Free.
HIP HOP & R&B
Horrorshow - feat: Tuka + Tom Thum Giant Dwarf, Redfern. 7:30pm. $43.39.
MONDAY MARCH 16 CLUB NIGHTS
Mashup Monday - feat: Resident DJs Side Bar, Sydney. 8pm. Free.
HIP HOP & R&B
Horrorshow - feat: Tuka + Tom Thum Giant Dwarf, Redfern. 7:30pm. $43.39.
TUESDAY MARCH 17 CLUB NIGHTS
Chu The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. Free.
Giant Dwarf
Horrorshow
up all night out all week...
Tuka + Tom Thum
7.30pm $43.39 WEDNESDAY MARCH 11 CLUB NIGHTS
DJ Mk + Bad//Dreems + Big White Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. Free. DJ Tom Kelly Goldfish, Kings Cross. 9pm. Free. The Prodigy Big Top Sydney (Luna Park), Milsons Point. 7:30pm. $75. The Wall The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. $5.
HIP HOP & R&B Balkan Beat Box + Dubmarine + Kinsky Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 7pm. $44.
THURSDAY MARCH 12 CLUB NIGHTS
Late Night Shopping - feat: Andy Webb + Ben Ashton + Adam Proctor The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 9pm. Free. Pool Club Thursdays - feat: Resident DJs Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 5pm. Free. The World Bar Thursdays The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. Free.
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FRIDAY MARCH 13 CLUB NIGHTS
Argyle Fridays - feat: Resident DJs The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. Free. Bassic - feat: Calyx & Teebee + Spenda C + Daschwood + Kyphosis + Open-Eye + Monako + Samrai + Intheory + Rack A Mack Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 10pm. $23. Brenny B Side Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 8pm. Free. Brooklyn Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $18.40. Champain Lyf - feat: Garage Fingers + Lupr + Champin Lyfstyle Coaches Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 11pm. $10. DJ Marty Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 9pm. Free. El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 10pm. Free. Factory Fridays - feat: Resident DJs Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 7pm. Free. Feel Good Fridays Bar100, The Rocks. 5pm. Free. HTRK + Mika Vaino Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 7:30pm. $25. Loco Friday - feat: Various Live Bands And DJs The Slip Inn, Sydney. 5pm.
Free. Mum - feat: Aywy + The Cherry Dolls + Holy Shakes The World Bar, Kings Cross. 8pm. Free. Sidechains Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross. 9pm. $10. Soul Control - feat: Max Gosford + Ben Fester + Preacha The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 10pm. Free.
HIP HOP & R&B
Hustler Fridays - feat: Mc Shaba Hustle & Flow, Redfern. 7pm. Free. Sydney Cypher Supremo III - Feat: Normski + Makoto + Benny Hinn Play Bar, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free.
SATURDAY MARCH 14 CLUB NIGHTS
Black Gold - feat: Whitecat + Space Junk + Antoine Vice + Aboutjack The Imperial Hotel, Erskineville. 9pm. $15. Cakes - feat: 4 Rooms Of Live Music + DJs And International Guests The World Bar, Kings Cross. 8pm. $10. Corrosion - feat: DJ Voodoo + DJ Xersorkitte Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 9pm. $10. DJ Marty Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 9pm. Free.
The Prodigy
WEDNESDAY MARCH 11
HTRK + Mika Vaino Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 7:30pm. $25.
Balkan Beat Box + Dubmarine + Kinsky Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 7pm. $44
Sydney Cypher Supremo III - Feat: Normski + Makoto + Benny Hinn Play Bar, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free.
The Prodigy Big Top Sydney (Luna Park), Milsons Point. 7:30pm. $75.
SATURDAY MARCH 14
FRIDAY MARCH 13
Havana Brown Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $28.60.
Bassic - Feat: Calyx & Teebee + Spenda C + Daschwood + Kyphosis + Open-Eye + Monako + Samrai + Intheory + Rack A Mack Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 10pm. $23.
Tiga + Motorik Vibe Council + The Finger Prince + Avon Stringer + Marks & Oz Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 1pm. $58.40. Pacha Sydney - Feat: Timmy Trumpet +
Kronic + Jay Karama + A-Tonez + Spenda C + Ben Morris + Matt Nugent + Deckhead + Nanna Does + Thomas Lisse + Just 1 + Dylan Sanders + Mike Hyper + Skoob + Dle + Nad + Danny Lang Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 6:30pm. $38. Spice - Feat: Madmotormiquel + Soukie & Windish + Mike Witcombe + Gabby + Steven Sullivan + Onn The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 9pm. $25.
SUNDAY MARCH 15 S.A.S.H. Sundays Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 2pm. $10.
thebrag.com
Off The Record Julio Bashmore photo by Elle Sheriff
Dance and Electronica with Tyson Wray
I MAG I N E BE I NG MAD E TO
H
old the goddamn phone. The lords behind Something Else and Charades are joining forces for a truly monumental party – a showcase of the standout record label of 2015, Giegling. The night will feature performances from three of the imprint’s stalwarts, including Kettenkarussell (the duo responsible for my number one album of last year, Easy Listening), Leafar Legov and Konstantin. Just saying, this is huge. As if the deal needed any sweetening, they’ll be joined by a killer local lineup featuring Adam Stromstedt, Benji & Statz, Dave Stuart and James Atack. It all goes down at the Burdekin Hotel on Saturday March 28. Cannot. Recommend. Enough. Speaking of Something Else, they’re also teaming up with Tigerstyle to host two heavyweight internationals early next month. Guy J of Bedrock and Lost & Found will headline the evening alongside Eelke Kleijn of Outside The Box, and both will be playing for three hours each. Melbourne DJ and head honcho of Funf Touring (Jeff Mills, Tiga, Moby, Matthew Dear, Sasha) Darius Bassiray will also be jumping behind the decks for a rare Sydney show alongside locals James Petrou, Garth Linton, Dave Stuart, Whitecat, Swampy and Mesan. It’s happening on Saturday April 4 at the Burdekin Hotel. Those champs over at Red Bull Music Academy have announced the headliner of their next shindig, none other than Taylor McFerrin. Part of the illustrious Brainfeeder family, McFerrin counts the likes of Prince, Pharrell Williams, Erykah Badu, Ahmir, Questlove, Common and DJ Jazzy Jeff in his fan base, and has recently performed at festivals such as Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, The Big Chill and Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Festival. It goes down on Saturday March 21 at Goodgod Small Club. As always, entry is free with an early RSVP. A resident DJ at the revered Berlin club Grounded Theory, goddamn Milton Bradley is coming to Sydney. A master of experimental techno and dark, deep industrial, Bradley has released on the likes of Prologue and Zooloft, and also runs the labels Do Not Resist The
FEEL L IKE CRAP JUST FOR
Julio Bashmore Beat and sister imprint, The End Of All Existence. He’ll be supported on the night by a special back-to-back set by Jordan Peters and Asger Jorn. Saturday April 11 at the Burdekin Hotel. Tour rumour: I’d be willing to place 100 clams that we’ll be seeing a return visit of bass-heavy house luminary Julio Bashmore next month. Lulz: Guess who’s gracing the cover of DJ Mag Italia this month? Paris Hilton. Ugh. There goes the slightest bit of credibility that rag had left. Best releases this week: ol’ mate Linkwood continues to prove that he can do no wrong with his latest release Expressions (on Firecracker), while other highlights include Lohhof’s Woodwork 001 (Woodwork), AL-90’s CODE-915913 (Fuselab), Palmbomen II’s Palmbomen II (Beats In Space) and Herva’s HTMYO (All City).
Guy J
BEING
LEFT
H A N D E D.
Okay, that’s hard to imagine? But being gay, lesbian, bi, trans or intersex is no different to being born left handed, it’s just who you are. So stop and think because the things we say are likely to cause depression and anxiety. And that really is pretty crap. GO TO LEFTHAND.ORG.AU TO WATCH THE VIDEO
STOP t THINK t RESPECT
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RECOMMENDED SATURDAY MARCH 14
SATURDAY MARCH 28
Guy J, Eelke Kleijn Burdekin Hotel
SATURDAY MARCH 21
THURSDAY APRIL 2
Developer The Sly Fox
Dro Carey Marrickville Bowling Club
Dixon, Ă‚me AGWA Yacht Club Taylor McFerrin Goodgod Small Club Guti Burdekin Hotel Delano Smith The Spice Cellar
Dixon, Ă‚me AGWA Yacht Club
Voices From The Lake, Mr. Ties Marrickville Bowling Club Fritz Kalkbrenner The Spice Cellar
SATURDAY APRIL 4
Audiofly, Martin Buttrich, Blond:ish Greenwood Hotel
SATURDAY APRIL 11 Milton Bradley Burdekin Hotel
SATURDAY APRIL 18 James Zabiela Chinese Laundry
FRIDAY MAY 29 Carmada Oxford Art Factory
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Got any tip-offs, hate mail, praise or cat photos? Email hey@tysonwray.com or contact me via carrier pigeon. thebrag.com
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up all night out all week . . .
live review What we've been out to see... THUNDAMENTALS Manning Bar Thursday March 5 It’s a good time to catch Aussie hip hop heavyweights Thundamentals. The Blue Mountaineers are currently riding a massive high, coming off a meaty 2014 that included key spots at Falls Festival, Groovin The Moo and on the Hilltop Hoods tour, and even after that Virgin incident, their equipment still appears to be in prime condition. Coming off all this, their own national tour, which kicked off at Manning Bar, is a natural progression for their now well-versed live set. The tour is a kind of victory lap for their album So We Can Remember (which they dropped almost exactly one year ago), translating the hit record into an explosive show. The thing about hip hop in general – and this is what Thundamentals do so damn well – is that it invites you into a conversation. There’s a theatrical element that other forms of music can’t really compete with. Tuka and Jeswon have such a slapstick, affable presence that regardless of how you feel about
their music, it’s impossible not to enjoy their antics. Whether they were heavy metal head-banging, conducting group participation in imaginary spliff-rolling, or tugging at various at political strings, the pair opened the doors far and wide into ‘Quit Your Job’, ‘Got Love’ and ‘Paint The Town Red’. Combine this with hilarious and well-cut video footage (a recurrent image of Tuka looking like a blood-splattered Christian Bale in American Psycho was pretty eerie) and the high level of musicianship from the entire crew – including a live trumpeter – and Thundamentals came dangerously close to having a flawless set. It’s when they ventured away from this formula that the show sagged a notch or two. Versatility costs energy, and the heavier, trap-based tracks like ‘Elephant In The Room’ and ‘The Groundhog Song’ slightly weighed the project down. However, strictly promising no encore, the duo wrapped things up on a bright note with a jubilant ‘Something I Said’ and the offer of free hugs at the merch desk. You can’t get much more intimate than that. Nic Liney
s.a.s.h sundays
KE S :: ASHLEY MAR :: KATRINA CLAR
PICS :: KC
OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER
sydney gay and lesbian mardi gras 2015
PICS :: AM
08:03:15 :: Home :: 101/1-5 Wheat Rd Darling Harbour 9266 0600
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As You Like It BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE DIRECTOR PETER EVANS
Villains. Heroes. Wrestling. Cross dressing. And love at first sight. What’s not to love about As You Like It?
21 FEB – 28 MAR
SYDNEYOPERAHOUSE.COM
#AsYouLikeIt2015 *Valid Sunday – Wednesday performances only. Subject to availability. Transaction fees apply.
Free rehearsal space music to your ears? City of Sydney has a bunch of rehearsal spaces all around the city free for students and school groups. Search ‘rehearsal space’ on cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au