Brag#623

ISSUE NO. 623 JULY 29, 2015

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MUSIC, FILM, THEATRE + MORE

INSIDE This Week

DEF L EPPA R D

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

THE

ACCABEES MMACCABEES MAKING THEIR MARK

S OL O

Sophie Lowe on the challenges of living a double life.

A DV EN T UR E S IN T HE SK IN T R A DE

An unfinished masterpiece.

JO SH P Y K E

Sharing secrets on what makes his songwriting happen.

Plus

JON SPENCER W IL L I A M B A S IN S K I T HE BEL L R AY S

JULY 29

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rock music news welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Gloria Brancatisano, Elias Kwiet and Jade Smith

songwriters’ secrets WITH The First Song I Wrote 1.

The first song I ever wrote was a track called ‘My Baby Don’t Love Me Anymore’. It was a 12-bar blues number, mainly, but not exclusively, about my ‘baby’ not loving me anymore. I was about 13 years old and playing in my first band. It didn’t show an enormous amount of promise, and was more or less a B.B. King rip-off. In truth, I had no ‘baby’, and would not have a ‘baby’ for many years to come.

The Last Song I Released 2.

‘Hollering Hearts’ is the first official single from my fi fth album, But For All These Shrinking Hearts. It’s a

JOSH PYKE

song about hope and fear and following the thing that makes you feel the most inspired and joyful. I recorded half of it at home, and then John Castle and I recorded various other bits at Alberts Studios and Sony Studios in Sydney, and then mixed it in Melbourne at John’s studio. I always want to be able to stand by the songs I’ve released in 20 years’ time, and I wouldn’t bother releasing something if I felt that wouldn’t be the case, so I love it!

Songwriting Secrets 3.

Songwriting is still a great mystery to me. I can sit down and write a song anytime, but

to write a song that I truly love and believe in needs to happen via some kind of lightning strike of creativity. I try and facilitate the right environment for that strike to happen by having a studio at home, by working away at music every day, by reading, writing and looking at art, et cetera, but at the end of the day I’m still waiting for the really special songs to emerge from somewhere I can’t access at will. It’s become a numbers game for me. If I write 50 songs a year, I know about seven of them will be really great and deserve to be on an album.

4.

The Song That Makes Me Proud The songs of mine that

have always been my favourites are rarely the singles. I love all my songs and am proud that any of them were able to forge a career for me, but my favourites are generally the album tracks. Songs like ‘Even In Corners’, ‘Stories That Get Told’ and ‘New Years Song’ are lyrically some of my favourites, and encapsulate the way I see the world pretty well.

They’re like little diaries for me to look back on moments of my life.

The Song That Changed My Life 5.

I reckon the song that actually changed my relationship with music was ‘The House At Pooh Corner’. It was a version done by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and my folks

had the record and played it when I was about four.

I remember sitting on the stairs and crying at the lyrics, and feeling so sad, but so happy and excited at the same time. I remember vividly not being able to explain what had upset me, and also being really drawn to that feeling that the song was eliciting.

From then on, I always wanted to feel songs.

I wanted to chase that feeling of overwhelming emotion that comes with a great storytelling song. I still chase that, and most recently have loved getting that feeling from Sufjan Stevens’ new record.

What: But For All These Shrinking Hearts out Friday July 31 through Wonderlick/Sony

UB HIFI

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Summer’s newest outdoor event will mix a stellar lineup of local talent with international guests UB40. HiFi Days is a brand new all ages summer festival, coming to Cronulla this November. Set before the picturesque backdrop of the Port Hacking River, there’s no better way to relax and celebrate a sunfi lled day fi lled with live music, fantastic food and experiences for family and friends.

Oh yeah, and the lineup features the likes of The Bamboos, Phil Jamieson, The Snowdroppers, Caravãna Sun and Fripps & Fripps. HiFi Days takes over Gunnamutta Park on Sunday November 22.

Charged with the task of fi lling Newcastle’s festival void, This That is set to be a great new music, food and culture experience for the Novacastrians and their Hunter

Blind Melon

AWESOME INTERNS: Vanessa Papastavros, Elias Kwiet, Jade Smith, Bridget Lutherborrow

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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BLIND MELON OZ DEBUT

Three is still the magic number for Blind Melon, who have announced three shows for their first ever Australian tour. 2015 has been a big year for the US alt-rockers, best remembered for their 1993 single ‘No Rain’ – it marks 25 years since their formation, and 20 years since the tragic death of original frontman Shannon Hoon and his final album with the band, Soup. It would take Blind Melon over a decade to reform with a new vocalist, which they did in 2006 with Travis Warren (of Rain Fur Rent) to release For My Friends in 2008. Since returning from another brief hiatus in 2009/10, they’ve been playing the world over, including North America, South America, Asia and Europe. They’ll be stopping off in Sydney to play Max Watt’s on Friday October 23.

ARCHI-BANGERS

The Art Gallery Of New South Wales has announced a bumper lineup of live music acts to coincide with this year’s Archibald Prize exhibition. In honour of Australia’s top prize for portraiture, Live Music: Faces From The Crowd will feature a weird and wonderful member of Sydney’s everdiverse music community every Wednesday throughout August. The program features Alex Cameron (Wednesday August 5), then Shining Bird (Wednesday August 12) and Mike Noga (Wednesday August 19), concluding with Donny Benet on Wednesday August 26.

MARK NADLER IN TOWN

NYC singer and comedic pianist Mark Nadler will make his Sydney debut this August. He’ll be performing his show, Let’s Misbehave – A Cole Porter Soiree for dates here and in Melbourne. Throughout the show, he will explore the wit, romance and the life of one of the greatest American songwriters in Porter. See Nadler at Camelot Lounge on Thursday August 20.

DRONING ON AGAIN

Legendary Aussie rockers The Drones have added a Sydney stopover to their latest round of national tour dates. The band’s tenth anniversary tour for seminal album Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By initially kicked off at the Sydney Opera House during Vivid LIVE. On the back of that date, Gareth Liddiard and co. announced a national run of dates – and now Sydney is getting a second bite at the cherry. They’ll be joined by Melbourne doom punk outfi t Batpiss. All this at the Factory Theatre on Thursday August 27.

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The Drones

After an already impressive lineup announcement earlier this month, Volumes 2015 has revealed its second wave of bands and DJs. Spoiler alert – it’s pretty sweet.

As the first run of Sydney’s very own take on South By Southwest, Volumes will span four stages at venues within Oxford Square including Oxford Art Factory, The Cliff Dive and Brighton Up Bar. Now added to join headliners Jack Ladder and The Dreamlanders, The Laurels and Canyons are Blank Realm, Friendships, Methyl Ethel, Pelvis, Holy Balm, Low Lux, Den, Jon Dory and Palms DJs. Check it out on Saturday August 29.

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neighbours. Proudly claiming that the days of overpriced and unsatisfying premixed festival drinks are over, This That will feature small batch craft brew beer, wine, cider and fresh spirits, as well as local culinary delights in place of the old Dagwood Dog festival monopoly. Across its two stages will be an eclectic mix of great local and internationals.

It’s happening at Newcastle’s Foreshore (for sure!) on Saturday October 31.

VOLUMES OF VOLUMES

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FLORENCE + THE FORECOURT

Splendour headliners Florence + The Machine have locked in a pair of Forecourt performances at the Sydney Opera House later this year. The lady with the golden pipes, Florence Welch, is in town at the moment on the back of her new album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. Her outdoor shows at the iconic Opera House won’t be her first time at the venue, with Florence + The Machine playing a triumphant Vivid LIVE performance in the Concert Hall back in 2012. See them take over the Forecourt on Friday November 13 and Saturday November 14.

THIS ’N’ THAT

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live & local

free stuff

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Chris Martin and Bridget Lutherborrow

speed date WITH

head to: thebrag.com/freeshit Holy Holy

LELAND FOSTER FROM LATHAM’S GRIP

Current Playlist At the moment we’re loving The 4.

Bennies, Jeremy Neale, Caribou, King

2.

Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, the new Alpine, and the new Modest Mouse.

Keeping Busy We’ve just finished recording our new, as-yet-untitled record last month, at Gigpiglet studios in Redfern. Ben Moore from Harvest Recordings produced it and we had such a sweet time! Can’t recommend those guys enough; the studio’s awesome, especially if you dig some pig aesthetics.

Now we’re keen for the rest of 2015, and excited to be touring the east half of Australia again this August.

Best Gig Ever Tough call, but I guess we would go 3. with playing with The Smith Street Band, Your Profile We sound like a sloppy-dressed 1. cowboy drew his piece at dawn, fired

Jamie Hutchings

our friends! The worst gig ever was our first one, no brainer. We were underprepared, had a pretty sizeable turnout and the power cut out onstage two songs into the set. It wasn’t the easiest introduction to the whole live music thang for our (then) brand new frontman, Jesse.

a warning shot into the Senate, and announced that Eden-Monaro is God’s country. Or you could just call it alt-rock. We enjoy spending quality time with each other, which is slightly harder for us than some bands cause we’re spread four hours across the New South Wales coast. We also like playing tennis, touring as much as possible, plus a bit of political discussion here and there.

Pup, Great Cynics and Apart From This in our hometown of Batemans Bay back in February. That was a special one, being part of such a great lineup and partying with all

Your Ultimate Rider Depending on how broad your 5. parameters are, and keeping in mind that we consider ourselves lucky to be given anything at all, our ultimate rider is three chilled beers and one Long Island iced tea, served atop an electoral ballot box by Christopher Pyne, wearing nothing but a manic smile. Although there was that time when our bassist Kai thought he’d scored himself a nice bottle of pinot, but we’re pretty sure we accidently thieved the Sticky Fingers stash.

Where: Frankie’s Pizza When: Sunday August 2

HOLY HOLY

The Holy Holy goodness just keeps on coming, doesn’t it? Fresh from releasing their debut album, When The Storms Would Come, the Aussie folk songwriting and production pair will set out on a national tour to launch it. All this is happening in the afterglow of a fine performance at Splendour In The Grass, helped along by substantial airplay for tracks including their latest, ‘Sentimental And Monday’. Holy Holy will play Lizotte’s, Newcastle on Saturday September 12 and Oxford Art Factory on Saturday September 19.

We’ve got the holiest of Holy Holy prize packs to give away, with a double pass to the Sydney show, plus the chance for the boys to sign your very own copy of the album after the gig. To enter, visit thebrag. com/freeshit.

Wednesday July 29, and The Dandelion in support. Come Friday July 31, the schedule of artists at The Filth continues with Playwrite, an artful Melbourne act on the cusp of great things. Finally, Sons Of The East take stage on Saturday August 1, promising plenty of raucous action with support from Manjun Bu. Boo-yah.

FLYYING HIGH

HUTCHINGS IN THE HOUSE

Jamie Hutchings has announced a special August solo show at Camelot Lounge. After packing out the house for the final date of his Careering Through The Wilderness 1995-2015 tour in Sydney, Hutchings is returning to the local stage with his little sister Sophie Hutchings playing support.

Jamie has been steadfast in the Sydney music scene since the ’90s with bands Bluebottle Kiss and more recently Infinity Broke. See the Hutchingses on Thursday August 27.

SOMEWHERE EAST OF HERE

The home of live music in Sydney’s east, Bondi’s Beach Road Hotel, has you covered for the Splendour comedown this week. It’ll be guitars aplenty, starting with Los Tones filling the headline slot at Sosueme this

Flyying Colours, the hotly tipped shoegazers from down south in Melbourne, are winding their way back to New South Wales this August, having recently wrapped a supporting tour for indie rock icon Johnny Marr. The latest successes come on the back of the band’s debut EP release in the UK and Europe, and a subsequent European tour that saw Flyying Colours sell out London shows and play festival slots at The Great Escape at Primavera Sound.

They’ll be back in more familiar surrounds to launch their ‘Running Late’ single at the Beach Road Hotel on Wednesday August 5 and Waywards on Friday August 7.

FRANKIE’S VINYL FAIR EXPANDS

After the success of its first two Vinyl Fair events, Sydney rock’n’roll den Frankie’s Pizza has revealed plans for an expanded third instalment on Sunday August 16. This time around, the Vinyl Fair wares will stretch out to feature merch, comics, jewellery, clothing, zines and anything else that comes to mind – and prospective vendors have been invited to apply. Get in touch with jordan@ frankiespizzabytheslice.com to be part of this bizarre bazaar.

Mar Haze

MAR HAZE EP LAUNCH

Genre-bending foursome Mar Haze are all set to release their self-titled EP this Friday July 31 after three years of toiling away. The band’s blend of dub, rock, reggae and jazz made producer Ian Pritchett (The Beautiful Girls, Angus & Julia Stone) the perfect choice to record the EP, with the band members themselves saying it’s inspired their best work so far.

Mar Haze’s run of launch dates sees them play Frankie’s Pizza on Wednesday July 29, Mona Vale Hotel on Thursday July 30, the Captain Cook Hotel on Friday July 31 and Newcastle’s Lass O’Gowrie Hotel on Saturday August 1.

Tiny Little Houses The Meanies

Melbourne pub-punk maestros The Meanies are roaring back into view with their first new album in 21 years. That’s but the first piece of good news for Meanies fans, with It’s Not Me, It’s You due out Friday September 25. ‘There’s A Gap’, at two minutes and nine seconds in duration, is about as hefty a first dose of the comeback album as you’d expect. ‘Mean’-while [groans], a three-date launch tour will hit the east coast come October, including a show at Newtown Social Club on Saturday October 3. Get around it.

6 :: BRAG :: 623 :: 29:07:15

A SMALL PLACE TO LIVE

The current real estate climate has Sydneysiders up in arms about having to pay a pile of money for tiny little houses. But Tiny Little Houses for free in Newtown this weekend? Now that’s an idea we can get behind. The Melbourne foursome of that name has a new track to share – it’s called ‘Easy’, and it’s the soundtrack to a break-up that takes place midway through a date at Luna Park. What a heartbreaker. Tiny Little Houses play Waywards this Friday July 31.

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Jamie Hutchings photo by Hadassa Haack

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Industrial Strength Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer

THINGS WE HEAR * Which male UK journalist was spotted wandering around the Splendour In The Grass site in eye-raising silver wellies two inches too small due to a mix-up on Aussie/UK and male/female sizes? * Which festival promoter refused to employ a publicist because she had another festival as a client? * Why did Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah threaten to set Action Bronson’s beard on fire? * Our boys fighting abroad: Tame Impala’s Currents entered the UK chart at number three and at number one in Australia (the latter which Kevin Parker found out about minutes before going on at Splendour) … Vance Joy’s ‘Riptide’ video is up for a gong at the MTV Awards … 5 Seconds Of Summer took Best Fandom

in the second Alternative Press Music Awards in the US. * Mark Ronson was furious when a Perth club advertised that he was playing there on Saturday night (he was at Splendour), and took to Twitter to say it “was BS”. * Eminem’s people are denying reports that he’s fronting a reunited N.W.A for shows to promote their new biopic. * Florence + The Machine did an acoustic ‘secret’ gig at Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair last Friday, overlooking the Harbour Bridge before 500 people. Getting the treatment were some of her new songs, including ‘What Kind Of Man’ and ‘Queen Of Peace’, before she went on to perform ‘Shake It Out’ and ‘Dog Days Are Over’ and wrapped up with ‘Mother’. Unfortunately, a passing tour bus interrupted one of the songs with its horn! * 2,500 people have made submissions to the Senate

IMPERIAL HOTEL LOSES SPICE CELLAR AND MEANWHILE Both the Saturday night house and techno club The Spice Cellar and Friday night’s Meanwhile have pulled out of Erskineville’s Imperial Hotel, where they operated in its basement. The news came as the Imperial was hit over the weekend with its second 72-hour shut down notice in fi ve weeks, allegedly over instances of patrons snorting from a spoon attached to a punter’s necklace and one guy licking a spilt drink from the fl oor while a Responsible Service of Alcohol marshal watched and laughed, The Daily Telegraph reported. The future of the venue itself is now unclear.

In a statement, The Spice Cellar, which

inquiry into Arts Minister George Brandis’ arts funding cuts. * An Earl Sweatshirt fan who climbed onstage in Sydney to give him a hug got a couple of punches from the startled rapper, while Garrett Stevenson from Trash Talk gave him a boot up the arse as he was thrown off. * After 40 years, Port Macquarie’s Down Under nightclub has closed. Owner Rod Bell put it on the market after long-term licencee Max Gunsberger retired in early July. “I don’t know how to run a nightclub, nor do I want to,” said Bell. * A free all ages dance festival last Friday at the ACT’s Woden Youth Centre was organised by 11-year-old entrepreneur Ethan Hart, who started his own fashion label Yo Funky at age nine. * The Black Eyed Peas’ new video for ‘Yesterday’ features them browsing classic hip hop LPs in a record store, as each

moved to the Imperial from the CBD three months ago, said: “The current climate for late night entertainment in Sydney has been put under extreme duress. The misconception and lack of understanding towards late night culture, combined with the introduction of 1:30am lockout laws, has seen many venues close over the past year, putting a grave future in place for Sydney’s late night entertainment industry.

Small business owners lack infl uence and do not have a voice.”

Meanwhile blamed its move on “a continued vendetta carried out by OLGR [liquor licensing] and the local police” and emphasised that it’s “far from the end” for the club night. This Friday’s Meeting Tree event is expected to go ahead elsewhere.

cover comes alive with the Peas filling in for the original artists. It hasn’t impressed Erykah Badu: it uses the same concept as her 2007 video for ‘Honey’, and even some of the same albums that inspired her too. * ’80s Sydney ska band The Allniters (‘Montego Bay’) have released a documentary of their careers called A Rude Awakening. Grab a copy at Red Eye Records. * After a three-year hiatus, The Lovetones are working on their sixth album and doing a one-off show at Newtown Social Club this Friday July 31. * Speaking of hiatuses, Coda will release a new album this year.

Their label Undercover Music included a couple of tracks in the latest edition of UCM Radio.

Coda’s Nick Wales recently released the Emergence album with Sarah Blasko, and Jared Underwood writes and performs as Batterie.

FIRST CONTEMPORARY MUSIC ROUNDTABLE Around 40 music industry heavyweights representing over 20 associations from across the entire spectrum will discuss industry issues at the first Contemporary Music Roundtable. It’s happening on Thursday August 6 at Erskineville Town Hall and is hosted by Music: Count Us In, with a keynote address from APRA CEO Brett Cottle.

Among the groups involved are ARIA, AIR, Live Performance Australia, Association of Artist Managers, Australian Music Association and Australian Music Industry Network. The conference has five core strategies: increase public respect for Australian music; ensure a vibrant national live music scene; strengthen Australia’s terms of cultural trade in music; improve remuneration and employment for creators and performers; and optimise a skilled music workforce.

FRONTIER RANKED NUMBER ONE AUSSIE AND INDIE PROMOTER Frontier Touring has been ranked the most successful Australian and the most successful independent promoter in the world for the period between November 2014 and June 2015. Billboard magazine’s mid-year touring report put Frontier third in the world overall, behind massive promoters Live Nation and AEG Live. In this period, Frontier toured Foo Fighters, Ed Sheeran, Eagles, Drake, Kylie Minogue, Rod Stewart, Chet Faker, Billy Idol and Alt-J. Australia’s Dainty Group came in at seventh, with a gross of US$45.5 million, and Nine Lives (One Direction, Ricky Martin) tenth with US$26 million. Frontier head Michael Gudinski said being an independent promoter was tough, but added Frontier has “never been so busy and our team has never worked as hard”.

REVIEW: GUDINSKI BOOK During his 50 years in the spotlight, Michael Gudinski has kept turning down lucrative offers to publish his biography. Stuart Coupe gave up asking and started writing one anyway, after which he got a call from the Mushroom Records founder, grumpily saying he’d cooperate. Gudinski: The Godfather Of Australian Rock’N’Roll, out this week though Hachette, is well researched, with Coupe getting to many past associates who dished the dirt. It is compelling reading, with chapters covering negotiations (including the failed bid to sign Silverchair), the multi-million dollar loss of Mushroom UK, the dramas behind the Murdoch buy-out of Mushroom and the PR nightmare of the The Rolling Stones’ tour cancellation, retold in a brutally honest way.

BLACK WIRE HITS TARGET Annandale’s Black Wire Records has discovered the size of the reputation it’s built up in the past five years as a great indie store.

Hit by rising rent, it took to gofundme.com to cover the costs. Within just two days, the campaign reached the $10,000 target, $9,000 of which came within the first 24 hours.

BLUES FESTIVAL MAKES $2K PROFIT According to an outcomes report and audited financial settlements presented to a Goulburn Mulwaree Council meeting on Tuesday July 28, the 2015 Australian Blues Music Festival made a profit of $2,374. The council pays 8 :: BRAG :: 623 :: 29:07:15

Lifelines Engaged: musician/actor Jaime Robbie Reyne and model Louise van der Vorst, who once dated Daniel Johns.

Born: Pseudo Echo’s Brian Canham is now a grandfather after the arrival of Phoenix, Noise11 reported.

Ill: Sinéad O’Connor has cancelled all her summer tour dates for “exhaustion due to an existing, not resolved medical situation” concerning her son.

Charged: former Australian Idol winner Kate DeAraugo with driving under the influence of drugs. She faces court this Friday.

In Court: a woman who broke into Wollongong’s Questions nightclub and stole $16,000 worth of stuff, including DJ gear, has lost her appeal against a six-month jail sentence.

Died: Doug Rowe, the co-founder, guitarist and main songwriter with Sydney-based ’60s country rock band The Flying Circus, who later relocated to Canada. Rowe ran a recording studio in Toronto before returning to Australia to join Grand Junction.

Died: Josh Greenberg, 28, co-founder of the now-defunct streaming service Grooveshark.

His girlfriend found him dead in his bed.

Died: US songwriter Wayne Carson, 72. Among his hits were ‘The Letter’ (Box Tops, Joe Cocker) and ‘Always On My Mind’ (Willie Nelson).

Died: Dave Black, guitarist for UK band Goldie, struck by a train in England.

Died: influential German electronica pioneer Dieter Moebius, 71, of Krautrock bands Cluster and Harmonia.

Died: Eddie Hardin, who replaced Steve Winwood on keyboards in the ’60s British band Spencer Davis Group, of a heart attack, 66.

Laing Entertainment $20,000 to manage and market the festival, which celebrates its 20th anniversary next February. In the report, Goulburn Mulwaree marketing and events manager Sarah Ruberto said it was difficult to ascertain the festival’s total attendance since it was free, with 27 acts playing across ten performance spaces.

ECCA VANDAL LANDS AUSSIE AND UK DEALS Rising urban riot grrrl Ecca Vandal has landed two record deals: with Dew Process for Australia and New Zealand, and with Island in the UK. Vandal, who played Splendour In The Grass on the weekend, has been a social media and community radio hit with singles ‘White Flag’ and ‘Battle Royal’. She’s currently recording her debut album for a 2016 release.

John Mullen, head of A&R at Dew Process, said: “Hearing ‘White Flag’ for the first time was one of those stop-you-in-your-tracks moments … before I knew it, I was on a plane to Melbourne to see her rip it up live.”

SYDNEY ALL AGES SHOWS EXPAND Following its launch event on July 12, the organisers behind Future Is Now have realised there’s a demand for all ages gigs. MusicNSW and Indent have come on board to help promote these Sunday events and support the growth of all ages shows. They’re held at the Bald Faced Stag, and on the schedule over the next few months are the likes of Tony Lovato from Mehst, King Parrot, Ocean Alley and D At Sea.

FESTIVALS PHOTO BOOK Sydney music photographer Nic Bezzina is readying a book of 100 photos taken at 11 festivals in five countries. Release The Crowd is due in November, with a Kickstarter campaign running at releasethecrowd.com. With a week to go, it’s hit well over half of its $15,000 target.

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THEY SAY NOISE. WE SAY MUSIC.

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elix White, guitarist for British indie rockers The Maccabees, is nervous when talking about future plans to tour Australia on the back of their new album Marks To Prove It. Having travelled here in 2012 for Groovin The Moo and a few sideshows after the release of third album Given To The Wild, it’s about time they headed back to our shores once again. Perhaps they can be added to the rumour mill for a possible appearance at the Falls or Southbound festivals, then?

“You will definitely be seeing us at the end of the year,” White says. “I just got an email from our manager saying that ‘Something Like Happiness’ was getting a few spins on triple j, which is great considering we haven’t even released the record yet, but I know that the rest of the band is really keen to get some sunshine and play to the Australian audiences. It’s such a fun time. I can’t confirm or deny whether we are playing any summer festivals, because I got in trouble in the past.

I was chatting to a journalist six months ago and accidently leaked that we were playing Glastonbury before it was announced, [but] we will see you at the end of 2015, 2016 for sure.”

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“That was pretty great, man, to be honest with you. I wish I was still there. There is nowhere like Glastonbury anywhere in the world.

It’s our country’s heritage, really. It’s culturally significant and there is so much pressure put on Glastonbury shows and you really need to perform when you hit the stage. I think Marks To Prove It translates well onstage and everyone seemed to be getting into it. I can’t wait to play there again, it’s such an experience.”

One of the first tracks to be aired from the new record was ‘Spit It Out’, and right from the beginning of the song, you can tell it is quite a change of direction for the band.

Throughout the album, there remain elements of the poppier and guitardriven classic Maccabees style, but on ‘Spit It Out’, they branch into a more Radiohead-like sound, with piano at the front of the mix. The album has been two-and-a-half years in the making, with ‘Spit It Out’ taking the best part of 12 months, but White says it’s been worth the wait.

“That song was the one that saved

the album. We had a year and a half where nothing was happening and we were unsure of what we were doing and where it was going. It was on this track that we defined the hallmark sound of what we were trying to achieve.”

Looking back on that prolonged period of inactivity, White admits there was no back-up plan if the creative process didn’t work out, and he retains a constant fear that one day the music may just stop.

“That’s the thing about being in a band – what if one day we just can’t write great pop songs?” he says.

“We went through that process a few times. There was no collective goals and it felt for a while there that each

week we were going to throw it away.

We have our own studio where we did everything from rehearsing to writing and recording, and it became like Groundhog Day.” Even in the digital age, when cherrypicking songs from albums has replaced the old habit of listening to records from start to finish, the album’s sonic journey was something The Maccabees really thought about during the recording sessions. They took inspiration from some Britpop guitar rock legends when it came to mapping out the record. “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?

by Oasis is the first record that I bought, and over the years I have zoned in and out of it,” says White.

“What I really love about that album is Liam [Gallagher]’s singing. The softer singing on ‘Champagne Supernova’ and ‘Wonderwall’ is quite angelic and really touching. He doesn’t really get enough credit for it.

Noel Gallagher is a genius top line melody songwriter and I am grateful to Oasis on many levels for turning me onto music and making me want to turn music into a career.”

Produced by Laurie Latham, who has worked with Ian Dury and The Blockheads and Echo and The Bunnymen, Marks To Prove It is an impressive album from beginning to end and is sure to thrust The

“When we were sceptical about this record, we realised that we needed someone outside the creative process to be involved and in the room whilst we were working,” he says. “When you get someone in that you don’t really know that well, you are on your best behaviour.

Working with him was awesome; he really spurred us on and was there when ‘Spit It Out’ evolved. It was his presence that was really empowering, and I love his work on Bring On The Dancing Horses by Echo and The Bunnymen. He was quite a zen character and a great person to be around.”

Few could dream of the success that has followed The Maccabees over their career, yet White always had a feeling in his gut that something big was going to come.

“I think if you ask the boys all separately, they will probably all give you different answers,” he says. “Right from the start, I knew that what we had felt special and we were onto a winning formula. I think that this album is going to be great for our growth as a band and I can’t wait to tour around the world on the back of it.”

What: Marks To Prove It out Friday July 31 through Caroline/ Fiction

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Marks To Prove It is a welcome comeback for The Maccabees, who were thrust into the limelight on the back of their debut album, 2007’s Colour It In. Singles such as ‘X-Ray’ and ‘First Love’ led to commercial airplay and high billing on some of Europe’s biggest summer festivals

such as Leeds and Reading and T In The Park. The band’s recent return to the stage at Glastonbury and surprise appearance by Jamie T is a highlight that White speaks quite fondly about.

Maccabees into the musical spotlight once again. Having the opportunity to work alongside such rock royalty as Latham on the latest record was quite the surreal experience for White.

Def Leppard The Kids Aren’t Alright By Adam Norris when it all became about image and the MTV culture. It changed, and I don’t think it’s ever going to be like it was. That period was unique, and now it’s just another thing.

“I think it was a lot more important in people’s lives then, and now a lot of music is just a backdrop to other stuff. It’s a backdrop to, ‘Hey, aren’t I sexy!’ The whole Kim Kardashian, Beyoncé thing. There’s a lot going on there, but it’s not really related to the art anymore. It’s all of these other things, it’s all image. But I suppose that’s just the new generation, and that’s all a reflection of it.”

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“They were trying to do something a little different,” he recalls in a measured, Hackney/Californian hybrid. “What always happens – and this is something you can take to any genre of music, any art form, any movie, any book, anything that has even a slight modicum of success – is you get copies. What I liked about the guys from Def Leppard, even from the first album,

was they were trying to attempt something a little different to all the others. I find nothing as boring as when everyone is just trying to make the same thing, so there was a spark there that I liked.

“But I especially think being openminded was important then.

Particularly around [1987 release] Hysteria, which sort of fused and blended pop and rock in a new way.

Run-D.M.C. were also fusing sounds then, there were all of these really exciting music blends on the radio, and so we thought, ‘Why not see where that leads?’”

Collen joined the group in the midst of recording their third album, Pyromania, and while Def Leppard were already a band on the rise, it was this release that would topple all expectations. Within a year, they

would be rated as a favoured rock band over other seminal acts like The Rolling Stones and AC/DC, and were on their way to securing the first of two diamond certifications.

The early ’80s was a vibrant time for stadium bands, and while there was inevitably great excess and darkness that accompanied many groups’ trajectories, Def Leppard carved out longevity through a work ethic and appreciation for the art that Collen finds quite rare in music today.

“There was great music being made then,” he says. “That time period was really quite symbolic, when the art form turned into a business.

After that, we lost a lot of the art.

There were, and still are, a lot of great artists out there doing their thing, but it’s different. But we were right on the cusp of things changing,

“We put so much effort into [the band]. I mean, if we’d put that work in and hadn’t succeeded, we’d have been really pissed off!” he laughs.

“But it’s all about the work. For me, it was also a tool of expression. I learnt to play guitar and to write songs. There’s a great thing about painting or poetry, music, whatever, just creating something when you’re young. You lack the communication skills with other people then – with your parents, other people – and it allows you to let off steam like a valve. I never had much teenage angst because I was able to do that with the music. Some kids can do that with sport, and then they get old

and can’t quite do it anymore and so they don’t have that release.

“But the reward for me has stayed the same thing. I still get this amazing, monumental buzz out of creating something. I can still bring myself to tears writing something, coming up with some story and pulling it together like a jigsaw puzzle. It’s all about expressing yourself artistically – that is the reward. Everything else was gravy.

You ask a lot of kids what do they want from it, and they go, ‘I want people to pay attention to me.’ And that’s an interesting thing. Whether that’s parental or the culture right now, I don’t know, but it looks nasty to me. We’re in a pretty weird place.”

With: Live, Baby Animals Where: Qantas Credit Union Arena When: Tuesday November 17

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ef Leppard have sold more than 100 million albums now, and releases like Hysteria and Pyromania are consistently listed among the best records – ever. Not bad for an act that not only still remains successful, but after nearly 40 years, is performing stronger than ever. Guitarist Phil Collen talks to the BRAG about what first attracted him to the fledgling heavy metal outfit in 1982.

If there is cynicism to Collen’s words, it isn’t entirely unfounded.

For many performers today, image and self-promotion do indeed come at the expense of the music, though Collen himself would be the first to acknowledge there are exceptions to the rule. However, he is adamant that the motivation behind the music is key, and if you are not working tirelessly at your art for the sake of expression alone, then you are in the game for the wrong reasons.

“We were right on the cusp of things changing, when it all became about image and the MTV culture. It changed, and I don’t think it’s ever going to be like it was.”

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The BellRays Feats Of Endurance By Adam Norris

W

e have some breaking news to share with you all here at the BRAG. One of our erstwhile writers – indeed, this very one – has been welcomed as the newest official band member in American rock/soul outfit, The BellRays! Or at least, when the possibility is raised, frontwoman Lisa Kekaula doesn’t say no. She just laughs, which we’re taking as a positive sign. It begins auspiciously, when my predictions for what will feature in their Rockpocaylpse tour – flaming guitars, exploding drum kits, sacrificial saxophone – land right on the money.

“Oh my God! You’ve nailed everything that’s actually going to happen!” Kekaula is thrilled, so I cut to the chase and graciously accept the fresh position, because subtext.

But as she elaborates, there is more to these upcoming gigs than apocalyptic spectacle alone.

“The thing that to me is more incredible each year is that we still know how to play, write songs and actually be in a band,” she says.

“The more we stick around, the more incredible that becomes. It just seems to be one of those things where people these days always want to reinvent or do something different. We’re not about that. We’re about getting out there and being what we can be at face value in the most kick-ass way. People can expect what they want to expect, but if they want to just be fucking blown away by people who know what they’re doing, come to this show!”

There is no hyperbole to this claim – The BellRays have been surging across the musical landscape for 25 years now, with a remarkable 14

albums under their belt (and more gigs than you can count). Anyone who has caught them live before can testify to the energy of the band, buoyed in no small measure by Kekaula’s soaring, soulful growl.

While there are decades of history to their name, The BellRays remain an act that has evolved organically; there has never been a desire to jump tracks and wear a stranger’s skin.

“It’s not a clear evolution, but I do connect with it,” Kekaula says. “If it were clear, I wouldn’t be that interested in being involved in it. It’s one of those things where the mystery of where you’re heading keeps you sharp. We’re looking to be shocked. Not in a harsh, negative way, but wanting to be intrigued, to have been doing this for so long now and then be surprised by what we’ve just done. The trick, though it’s not really a trick, is to respect it. You don’t base what you’re doing on a pipe dream, which goes on a lot in the music industry but also in life.

When you’re new, you have managers and labels telling you that everything is going to be going up and up and up. And sure, it does, but so does everything else – the costs, the work.

“You need to work out what it is you want your life to be, and find the way to do it. If you love what you do, that’s priceless. There’s tonnes of people out there working for heaps of money doing shit they hate. I would never want to be that person.”

With so many recordings under her belt now (including 2014’s Lisa and The Lips release), you imagine Kekaula’s work ethic must be rather intense. Many bands that have been

together for decades find their members scattered across the globe, furiously pursuing project after project and only ever engaging with bandmates in times of touring, recording and rehearsals. But such a lifestyle seems to be the absolute antithesis of what makes The BellRays so enduring.

“There’s always time to live. That’s one of the reasons why we’re able to keep going and doing what we want to do. For me, anytime someone starts to say, ‘Oh, life is just too fast,’ I don’t know what planet they’re on.

That’s all a state of mind. That’s stuff you got to get a hold on yourself.

When you live out of a suitcase, you learn how to be flexible, fast. Both mentally and physically. You have to say, ‘OK, things might not always go the way I want them to go,’ but you have to have time to have a good time. You have to regroup and say, ‘Let’s start it over.’”

While burning the band to the ground and starting from scratch seems fairly unlikely these days, there is certainly truth to Kekaula’s words.

Witnessing The BellRays move forward, continuing to tour and record, seems an endless, astounding surprise to her.

“My mind is open, and I’m always thinking it’s about to end anyway.

Every time we do something else, there’s that sense of, ‘Oh cool, we get to do this now, how about that?’

I’m never sure that we’re going to finish the next record, and it gets done and you think, ‘Hey, that’s awesome.’ For me, that’s the best way to just keep going forward. If you don’t, you’re judging yourself against the ridiculousness that’s out there right now. That’s what I tell my

daughter. Just do what you want to do. You don’t need to put blinders on, but just know that there’s another world out there, and it’s going to do what it wants to do, and you don’t need to fucking worry about it.”

With: Dallas Frasca Where: The Small Ballroom, Newcastle / Newtown Social Club When: Saturday August 8 / Sunday August 9 Xxx

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Take Back The City By David James Young “The reasons that I moved to this city are gone, mostly,” he says. “I’ve seen a lot of landmarks, bands, musicians, dive bars, the whole deal – I’ve seen it all come and go.

They still hold an important place in my heart, though – there’s a connection made in my memory that means it will never really go away. I think that I’ve changed just as much as this city, too. I arrived here in my 20s. The things I get up to now, the things that I’m involved with in New York, it’s all very different now that I’m an older man.

This city has grown with me.”

It was roughly a decade ago that Spencer and The Blues Explosion released a song called ‘Hot Gossip’, the second single from their 2004 album Damage. Not only was it one of their more dramatic stylistic shifts to date (featuring a guest verse from Public Enemy’s Chuck D), it was also one of their most politically charged works; a clear and targeted attack on George W. Bush. It’s brought up here in the context of another Bush – Jeb – entering the political picture as the 2016 US election looms. This opens up a discussion on the political climate of the country – something the vocalist is still greatly dissatisfied with, albeit for different reasons than in 2004.

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cross ten albums and over 20 years in the game, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion have cemented a reputation as one of the loudest, coolest and most perennially badass rock’n’roll outfits on the planet. Never once changing their lineup, nor their core raison d’être of the blues being number one, theirs is a sharply dressed, down-anddirty take on electric blues that has tackled everything from bell-bottoms to the Bush administration. Most recently, the band paid tribute to its beloved New York City across its tenth LP, the excellently titled Freedom Tower – No Wave Dance

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Party 2015. The album’s central theme revealed itself as somewhat of a happy accident.

“That’s certainly how the record ended up, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the record that we set out to make in the first place,” says Jon Spencer, the figurehead and frontman of the group. “At some point, it became clear that these songs kept coming back to our home, and that made the sequencing of this record a lot easier. When we recorded, we actually recorded and mixed more songs than we would need for an album. I found myself drawn to the

songs that found themselves closer to the theme of life in New York City – it really made the record come together.”

Of course, the Blues Explosion’s link to NYC is inextricable at this point – no matter where in the world they are playing, Spencer will be quick to remind the audience that what they’re hearing is “comin’ straight outta New York City”. When queried on his relationship with the Big Apple – a city he has called home for over half his life – Spencer says it’s a place that’s in a constant state of evolution.

This, surprisingly, suits him just fine.

“First off, I honestly don’t even think that Jeb Bush will make it past nominations at this point,” Spencer begins. “The Presidential election is still a ways off – I think there’s a lot more things happening right now that are worth me getting pissed off about, both as a musician and a citizen. There was a shooting just recently in Carolina – how many times are we, as Americans, going to have to go through this? There’s so many things wrong with this. We don’t need guns. We certainly don’t need automatic weapons. We don’t need a consensus on flying the Confederate flag. It’s been a very

hard year. This is something of great concern to me.”

August sees The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion return to Australia for the first time since Freedom Tower’s release, taking in several east coast shows and an appearance at the Supersense Festival at the Melbourne Arts Centre. The band has been to Australia several times over the years, but perhaps its most infamous moment remains a 1997 appearance on the ABC’s thenflagship Saturday morning music program, Recovery.

“My main memory of it was meeting Tony Cohen,” recalls Spencer. “He’s an incredible Australian producer, and he was engineering the sound outside in a mobile truck. This is a guy that I was aware of because of his work with The Birthday Party, who I was a big fan of. As far as the rest of it, my memory is sort of blurred with a YouTube clip. I wonder how much the video supplants the memory. Australia is a place that has always been nice to us, and I think that is one of the days where it was the nicest. I mean, you guys let us completely freak out on national television!”

The legend behind the performance goes that the band had been out for the entire night and kicked on directly to the ABC studios that morning.

“I… I think we’d been to bed?” says Spencer. “At least, we would have for a couple of hours, I think. Then again, we could have just wandered right in off the street.”

What: Freedom Tower – No Wave Dance Party 2015 out now through Rocket Where: Manning Bar When: Friday August 7

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Sat 19 Sep Oxford Art Factory Sydney

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Kid Radio The Dark Side Of Pop By Tex Miller Ross and Smith encountered some severe personal issues, which threatened to overthrow the album entirely.

“Dylan’s father passed away and I was going through a really bad break-up,” Ross says. “He nearly moved back to New Zealand and was considering throwing in the towel on music altogether. I think that there is definitely a therapeutic power in music, and despite all this crazy stuff going on in our lives, we channelled those emotions into song, and you can hear that on tracks like ‘My Universe’ and ‘Young Heart’.”

Kid Radio’s tracks usually begin with ideas Ross and Smith compose on acoustic guitar and piano. They then gradually transpose the songs onto synthesisers and electric guitars. It’s a method Ross adopted after taking inspiration from Justin Timberlake, of all people.

I

n a relative sense, Kid Radio are on top of the world. They’ve just released their long-awaited debut record and are set to head out on tour for the biggest shows of their career. Speaking down a phone line from an inner city street, guitarist and synth player Marcus Ross is both excited and nervous to share the self-titled album with fans around the country, starting with a hometown gig at Melbourne’s Shebeen.

“I’ve never played at Shebeen before, so I am definitely

looking forward to that,” he says. “It’s a bit of a pinch yourself moment that I get to go from being a punter to being the artist up onstage. Being a studio band and not having too many live shows under our belt thus far, we have been really busy trying to get an awesome visual show happening. I think this show at Shebeen is going to be off the scale.”

Following a familiar narrative, Kid Radio formed after the dissolution of Ross and

vocalist Dylan Smith’s former band Direct Influence. Ross reminisces fondly about the pair’s early musical creations after meeting in high school and the bond they’ve developed over the last ten years.

“Dylan moved over here from New Zealand when he was around 14,” Ross says. “He was never trained in music or anything, but at that time I was playing in numerous bands. He got up as a rapper

with us once in one of my teen projects and I spotted his talent and musicality straight away.

From there we formed Direct Influence and played both here and internationally. We got a bit sick of the reggae rock stuff though, and that’s when we turned to the dark side of synths and drum pads.”

Teaming up with Count Bounce of Australian hip hop crew TZU, Kid Radio spent the best part of two years crafting their debut record. Along the way, both

“You can easily create a song with large amount of equipment and effects, though unless you can pick up a guitar or play it on a piano and it still sounds good, it isn’t going to be a good song,” Ross says. “I think that’s a real test of a song – if it strips back well to just the acoustic guitar. JT made that statement of making an album with Pharrell, I think.”

What: Kid Radio out now independently Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Saturday August 22

Oxjam Party Against Poverty By Adam Norris says. “It doesn’t matter how big or small it is, we’re here to help. There are top tips from experts that we send out, and [participants] also get a gigmaker guide when they sign up. So there’s a lot of support from us, but there’s also a lot of support from industry people and our partners.

Places like I Oh You, Goodgod, One Dayers, UNDR ctrl – those guys are providing us with tips on how to throw parties and do these events on a limited budget, whether you’re doing it from a big venue or from your home.

And we’re really encouraging people in rural areas to get involved, because it’s all about bringing communities together.

Set Mo

I

t’s hard to imagine many folk today who are unfamiliar with Oxfam. The global charity has been alleviating poverty and hunger since 1942, and has been active in Australia under various monikers for decades. Oxjam, however, is something new: a month of parties and performances to encourage support for the myriad causes to which Oxfam is committed, and capped with a massive Sydney launch event. Between tweaking the UK model on which the Australian event is based and putting the finishing touches on an outstanding launch lineup, fundraising coordinator Nadia Watson can barely contain her anticipation.

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“It’s getting so exciting! All the activities are underway now, all the big and the small,” she says. “We’d been looking at doing this for a few years now, but the time hadn’t been right for a number of reasons. But we’ve got such awesome teams working with us now in Sydney and in Melbourne, and we’re all such music lovers. Most of our teams are musicians as well, and it just came together at the right time. The theme also seemed to fit in Australia at the right time, too … it’s almost like this push for people to unplug their instruments and come back to this local level. Just jamming, playing with friends, and that’s what we wanted to tap into. So the timing feels perfect.”

Oxjam has been operating in England for close to ten years now, and every early indication suggests our Australian version is set to follow the same level of success. The ethos is simple; over the month of August, the opportunity to host or participate in DIY gigs in support of Oxfam’s work will be offered to one and all. No matter where or who you are – from major cities to small regional towns – and whatever your level of experience, the chance to party against poverty is there.

“We have an awesome team working here who have been doing events for a long time, and absolutely anyone can sign up to be involved,” Watson

“The great thing about this concept is that music, no matter what genre you’re into, is something that everybody loves and that brings people together. It creates a sense of belonging. In many regional areas, the communities are quite strong but they’re much smaller. Everybody knows each other, so that’s a great way for rural areas to get involved and connect to this global environment, and genuinely help out people who aren’t that well off. The whole idea is that people are connecting with Oxfam’s work overseas by communicating and celebrating locally.”

Spearheading the Sydney festivities is Oxjam’s official launch at the MTV headquarters, with a stellar lineup including Yolanda Be Cool, Set Mo and Nicky Night Time, and DJ sets from both Cosmo’s Midnight and Elizabeth Rose. Watson’s excitement over the gig is well-justified; the launch is gearing up to be a standout event in the city’s calendar. However, it is still not too late to stage an event yourself.

Better still, you’ll be contributing to ending one of the greatest calamities the world has ever known.

“We’re working with the likes of MTV Dance and MTV Music, FBi Radio, to throw this massive launch event at the beginning of August that stretches throughout the month, and also for the closing party,” says Watson. “It’s going to cover a wide genre of music, from electronica to punk to folk. We’ve really tried to make it our own, and we’re looking at some big-name Australian artists on the lineup.

“But we’re also asking people to run their own events then and dig into the buzz that will be generated around the launch. While they’ve got until the start of August to register a gig, we encourage [people] to get involved early to really benefit from the advice they can get from us. It can really just be as simple as getting your mates together and doing a little DJ set. You could even be a week out and register something that just involves inviting everyone around to get their instruments out and have a great time.

“And if it turns out that for whatever reason you’re busy during August – we have one band who are really keen but are touring then – you can still host something in early September. We’re happy to be flexible with the dates if it encourages more people to get involved and get connected with a genuinely good cause.”

What: Oxjam Launch Party With: Yolanda Be Cool, Set Mo, Nicky Night Time, Cosmo’s Midnight (DJ set), Elizabeth Rose (DJ set) Where: MTV Studios When: Thursday July 30 And: For a full list of Oxjam events for the month of August, visit oxjam.org.au

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The Soldier’s Wife Songs Of Memory By Adam Norris

T

here is but a small percentage of the population that will encounter the violence, tragedy and, yes, occasional necessity of war – but for each combatant, there are families. There are friends and loved ones who must build lives around the impact war has wrought on their returned family members; there are many who must reconstruct lives around their fatal absence.

In The Soldier’s Wife, Deb Suckling is helming a cadre of musicians who are shaping the stories of women affected by war into songs of posterity, with performers including Sahara Beck, Leah Flanagan and Bertie Page. So far, it has proved a long and inspiring road.

“Obviously we’re dealing with a very sensitive topic,” Suckling says. “In Brisbane, which is where the songwriters are based, Legacy have what’s called The Laurel Club. It’s held every week, and it’s a group of women aged from around 70 to 104. We went and spoke to them about the project, gauged how they’d feel about talking to us. There was obviously a lot of reluctance at first, especially with the older women. It’s keeping private.

“So we went in, played piano, we took guitars, and talked about day-to-day stuff. Their families, our own families. Slowly we built a trust. They started sharing with us, and then people started bringing in photos, telling the whole story, and it was just amazing to watch how that progressed. Seeing these women recognise we weren’t just there to get a story out of them, but that we respected them and would do the right thing in making their stories public.”

The stories of women whose everyday experiences have been touched by the shadow of war and grief are largely unheard. It can be a deeply private wound, and not readily exposed. Yet while there is no accurate measure of how many people have found their lives affected in this way, the number is surely signifi cant. From World War II widows to young wives whose husbands are even now serving overseas, the individual stories are legion.

“In the beginning I didn’t have too great expectations,” laughs Suckling. “I don’t come from a military background at all, but I do know they can be quite closed groups. And there we were, this group of creatives and songwriters! It’s very difficult to expect people to share their innermost thoughts with you about things they haven’t deliberately spoken about previously. What we found defi nitely exceeded our expectations.

sadness and celebration that, for too long, remained buried.

“We’ve only just started, but just in the last 12 months we’ve seen so many stories,” Suckling says. “We’ve only just touched the surface. It’s not just the stories, it’s the emotional benefit it has for these women. Being able to share with a bunch of strangers who will then turn around and write a song about their experiences, record them, and maybe catch some of those things that they just weren’t able to talk about before.

That’s the essence of the whole project.

Putting stories into song, and then giving back something that might not be so painful to share, something they can say, ‘This is my story, here in this song.’

They can then play it for their friends rather than reliving it. It makes it that bit easier to share.”

What: The Soldier’s Wife Where: Studio, Sydney Opera House When: Friday August 7

WILDFIRE AGENCY PRESENTS

THE DRONES

“But I guess the other thing that came out of it wasn’t just learning about their stories, but getting young women to spend time with older women. Theirs are stories of life and history, and it’s an amazing thing for younger women to learn. I’ve certainly fallen in love with spending time with these older women and getting their expertise on the world.”

While Suckling has never feared her project bit off more than it could chew, the scale of its vision and the incremental support from participants has been extraordinary. The songs that have emerged are evocative insights and recollections that form a vital part of Australia’s cultural and military heritage.

Suckling’s own addition, ‘Sofa Down The Hall’, is outstanding (this and several others can be heard on The Soldier’s Wife’s SoundCloud profi le). Yet while the project has met great support and encouragement, it is a far cry from Suckling’s ordinary life.

“I run an indie record label, I look after young artists in that world. To go from touring those artists, working with triple j, doing festivals, into a project like this, is huge. We use the artists who are on the label, but also other friends and songwriters who I really respect, and for us to be playing at the Opera House, it’s just…” She trails off, lost for words.

“It’s incredible. Even for the songwriters – from their perspective, it’s such a benefi t to their own writing. Of course, we make sure that the songs we write based on these stories meet these women’s approval long before they go anywhere near the public. It’s a really consultative project, especially since it’s our privilege to have them share these stories at all. We take that really seriously.”

Nor will the project wrap anytime soon. So far, The Soldier’s Wife has only glanced across the innumerable stories that are waiting out there – future efforts will likely see the collective spread across regional Australia, and potentially abroad. But parallel to the cultural and historical value of these collaborations is the therapeutic element of women sharing memories; of expressing thebrag.com

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THURSDAY 27 AUGUST THE FACTORY

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Live & learn

THE BRAG EDUCATION SPECIAL

Y

Courses on offer: For 2016, AFTRS is accepting applications for the Bachelor of Arts (Screen) and a swag of practical, industry-focused Diplomas and Advanced Diplomas in the specialist craft areas of film, television and radio.

What makes us different: AFTRS is literally the national screen and broadcast school of Australia, set up by the Australian Government over 40 years ago. The facilities and gear at AFTRS are unrivalled by any other university or college in Australia, which has seen AFTRS rated by The Hollywood Reporter in 2012 and again in 2014 as one of the top film schools in the world.

All lecturers at AFTRS are working industry professionals and the connections between the school and industry are deep. Many highachieving alumni return to the school to give masterclasses to current students, the most

recent being Alex Proyas (I Robot, The Crow, Knowing Gods Of Egypt) and Jane Campion (Top Of The Lake, Bright Star, The Piano, An Angel At My Table).

Take the next step: AFTRS graduates are working in Australia and around the world across the entire spectrum of the screen and broadcast industries in feature film, television (drama and factual) and radio. A large number of AFTRS graduates have made it to the highest levels of their craft, which has seen them win Academy Awards, BAFTAs and Emmys for their work.

Each year there are hundreds of nominations at the local level for the

work of AFTRS alumni and also for AFTRS student productions at festivals and guild awards.

What else you need to know: Entry into most AFTRS award courses, such as the Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, Diplomas and Advanced Diplomas, is by merit selection and is competitive. Required tasks and examples of creative work are often part of the application process.

Enrolment dates: The AFTRS online application portal where you register and submit applications to study at AFTRS will open on Tuesday September 1. All the information required by prospective students is available now on the website: Bachelor of Arts (Screen) – aftrs.edu.au/ degrees; Diplomas and Advanced Diplomas – aftrs.edu.au/specialise.

WHERE: Building 130 (inside the Entertainment Quarter, next to Hoyts), Lang Rd, Moore Park EMAIL: study@aftrs.edu.au WEB: aftrs.edu.au/opendays

What makes us different: At Bradfield Senior College we help you tailor the HSC to work with your strengths and abilities. We sit down with each student and work out a plan that will fit you now and prepare you for your future. We offer you an adult learning environment where you will feel supported by our team of dedicated educators. At Bradfield it’s about who you are and where you want to go.

Take the next step: Our graduates have become performers, artists, doctors, business owners, managers, lawyers, musicians, 16 :: BRAG :: 622 :: 22:06:15

accountants and engineers. Although you may have seen several Bradfield alumni on or behind the camera, our vocational and academic courses are perfect for you if you want to go onto further university study.

What else you need to know: Don’t just read about us, come and see what we are about. We have Open Days on August 6 and September 3. Ask questions, take a tour of our facilities, meet your teachers and talk to current Bradfield students about their experiences.

Enrolment dates: October 2015 – Year 12

for those students who have completed Year 11 and want to complete Year 12 at Bradfield.

January 2016 for Year 11 students.

Open Day: Thursday August 6, Thursday September 3 WHERE: Building A, 213 Pacific Highway, St Leonards PHONE: 02 9942 0399 EMAIL: ask@bradfieldcollege. info WEB: bradfieldseniorcollege. com.au

WHERE: Head office (relocating in 2016) – 114 Victoria Road, Rozelle; 255 Broadway, Glebe; Unit 4/8591, O’Riordan St, Alexandria PHONE: 02 9555 1666 EMAIL: admissions@ampa. edu.au WEB: ampa.edu.au

Courses on offer: Bachelor of Music (Performance) – six trimesters, two years. Masters of Music (Performance) – four trimesters, 1.3 years. Bachelor of Dance – six trimesters, two years. FEE-HELP and part-time available.

What makes us different: The Academy of Music and Performing Arts (AMPA) is an innovative independent institution, leading the way for tertiary education in performing arts in Australia.

AMPA’s supportive and collaborative community encourages excellence in its students and ultimately equips talented performers with the skills essential to succeeding in today’s highly competitive performing arts industry.

Open Day: Saturday September 5, 10am-3pm

Take the next step: With performancebased study and individual study designs, AMPA equips talented artists with the skills essential to succeed as professionals. Graduates

go on to become session musicians, independent dance artists, composers, producers, choreographers and professionals in arts councils. Additionally, graduates are qualified to undertake postgraduate studies in a range of areas including teaching in secondary schools, colleges, arts management, creative industries or further music and dance studies.

What else you need to know: Entry is based on audition, interview and written assessment. No ATAR required. Special consideration may be given by the academic board for life and professional experience.

As a central hub for students, staff and visitors, a campus is an integral part of any higher education institution, and especially so for a community immersed in music and the performing arts. AMPA is pleased to announce that three new sites have been secured to house AMPA in 2016.

Visit our website to see the full details.

Enrolment dates: AMPA has three intakes per year (January, May, September), with auditions held all year round. Applications are still open for Intake Three 2015 and 2016. Head over to ampa.edu.au/ applynow to book your audition.

Open Day: Friday November 6

SHILLINGTON COLLEGE [HSC]

BRADFIELD SENIOR COLLEGE

AMPA

What makes us different: Our innovative approach to design education means students achieve amazing results in a seriously short amount of time. Study graphic design in three months full-time or nine months part-time and graduate with a polished portfolio and website showcasing your best work. We believe designers should teach design. We only employ practising designers who teach in a learning environment that is run like a real design studio – not a stuffy classroom. You’ll learn in varied ways, through engaging deliveries, dynamic presentations, hands-on presentations and group workshops.

Take the next step: At Shillington, you’ll graduate with more than a Certificate IV in Graphic Design and a bunch of good ideas.

You’ll graduate with a top-notch portfolio, a working website, and the confidence to back yourself. One success story is Sinead Murphy, owner of Lovelock Studio and winner of the 2014 Desktop Create Award.

What else you need to know: Join us for an info session on August 7.

Meet teachers, chat to graduates and view student work. We’ll share our mission, walk you through an actual classroom brief and share graduate success stories. We promise the

presentation will last less than an hour and we’ll leave plenty of time for Q&A. It’s the perfect opportunity to get all your questions answered.

Spots are filling fast for our next intakes in September and February.

Enrol now!

[GRAPHIC DESIGN]

AFTRS

[FILM AND BROADCASTING]

EDUCATION SPECIAL

[MUSIC AND PERFORMING ARTS]

ou live, you learn. Or at least, that’s how the saying goes – as if life is a series of lessons to be learnt, from how to tie your laces and shine your shoes to how to chat up that pretty young thing in the corner of the bar. Some lessons you’ll learn along the way will be less useful than others, of course… and that’s where a proper education comes in. As we move into the second half of 2015, now’s your chance to learn from some of Sydney’s finest education providers. Who knows – it could be the first step in the direction of the rest of your life. W e asked some local institutions about all they have to of fer.

Enrolment dates: Three months full-time: September intake 2015 – classes start September 14. February intake 2016 – classes start February 15.

Nine months part-time: February intake 2016 – Monday and Tuesday course or Wednesday and Thursday course.

Classes start week of February 15.

Open Day: Our info session is on Friday August 7, starting 6pm sharp WHERE: L3, 50 Margaret St, Sydney EMAIL: info@ shillingtoncollege. com.au WEB: shillingtoncollege. com.au

thebrag.com

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What makes us different: Investment in facility upgrades and new technology is a key priority. Our longstanding relationships with reputable industry suppliers have enabled us to honour our continual facilities upgrade commitment.

Curriculum-wise, the higher education programs offered at JMC Academy are unique in combining essential critical thinking and theoretical principles, with the productionbased work and practical experience critical to the industry.

Students are guided through their studies by a network of committed academic professionals.

Our lecturers are highly experienced, well-connected, accomplished and above all passionate about equipping their students with everything they need for success.

Staged at popular venues, music and audio students gain experience by playing, performing, mixing and recording to live audiences. Film, animation and game design students, in turn, enjoy the opportunity to exhibit their work in both private and public spaces.

Entertainment business students are responsible for the marketing and coordination of many of these opportunities.

Students are able to access a range of effective support systems including orientation, mentoring, counselling and academic assistance programs. Accessibility to lecturers and equipment is essential for an optimum learning experience.

Class sizes rarely exceed 25 students to ensure every student receives the attention and learning outcomes expected. In practical classes, however, the ratio could be as low as four students to one teacher.

Take the next step: Beyond the stream of real and exciting work opportunities that often arise throughout the course of study, all students graduate with a professional portfolio of their work suitable for future employment interviews.

What else you need to know: Our unique program enables students from all departments to work together on collaborative projects, providing them with a diverse opportunity in which to apply their skills.

Enrolment dates: September 2015 and February 2016 Open Day: Saturday August 29, 10:30am-2pm

LIVE THE

THE BRAG EDUCATION SPECIAL

SAE INSTITUTE Courses on offer: SAE Creative Media Institute offers governmentaccredited degrees, diplomas and certificates in audio, film, animation, games, design, and web and mobile.

Our courses are designed to give students the best advantage in their creative career through hands-on learning, industry internships, interdisciplinary projects and practice-based course delivery.

What makes us different: At SAE we know creative media students benefit from practical, hands-on teaching and learning.

We recognised this back in 1976; that’s why we pioneered our projectbased, industry-focused and tailored curriculum, and employed the most qualified and experienced staff to teach our students.

With 53 campuses in 27 countries, SAE is now a melting pot of students and teachers who create a unique, diverse and global creative community.

SAE is equipped with industry-standard equipment and facilities that prepare students of the real world, from digital and analogue recording studios,

premium industry consoles, green screens studios and film theatres to Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets for 3D gaming and cuttingedge design/animation equipment, including Wacom graphic tablets.

Take the next step: SAE is bursting with success stories, including Grammy, BAFTA and Bollywood award winners.

In the past year, our alumni have achieved incredible success, securing jobs with leading game developers and animation companies, nominating for major screen awards, securing government funding for documentaries, producing chart-topping albums overseas and taking out the Eurovision Song Contest.

WHERE: Level 1, 11 York St, Sydney PHONE: 02 8241 5200 EMAIL: sydney@sae.edu.au WEB: sae.edu.au Our graduates go on to work as audio engineers, film and documentarymakers, producers, game developers, technical directors, graphic designers, 3D artists – the list goes on.

[CREATIVE MEDIA]

WHERE: 561 Harris St, Ultimo PHONE: 02 8241 8899 WEB: jmcacademy.edu.au

[MUSIC, FILM AND DESIGN]

JMC ACADEMY

What else you need to know: Our new Sydney campus opened in 2014 and features cutting-edge facilities for teaching and learning.

SAE offers accredited and fasttracked learning pathways, so you can be industry-ready with a bachelor degree in just two years. We take applications up to 12 months prior to commencing, and many of our diploma programs are run on campus in the evenings – so you can keep working while you study. Some of our diploma program are delivered online.

Enrolment dates: Our next intake commences Monday September 21. Our 2016 intake dates are February 15, June 6 and September 21.

Open Day: We’re opening the doors to our brand new, state-of-the-art Sydney campus on Saturday August 8. We’re still buzzing after our 2014 upgrade, so if you haven’t yet had a chance to tour the new campus and world-class facilities, now is the time! Open Day runs from 11am-3pm.

FILM TV RADIO

CREATIVE

LIFE

aftrs.edu.au/opendays

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thebrag.com

MYLES SHARPE & PAUL MCKIE ARE DIRECTORS OF THE AUTUMN CO.

No two days are the same Myles and Paul run The Autumn Co, a Brisbane-based studio specialising in print, design, web and sign. They studied at Shillington part-time and since graduating have worked with the likes of Google and Semi-Permanent.

“Having built up the credibility to work with these amazing brands has been the biggest thrill for us—there’s days when we still have to pinch ourselves.

There’s no other course that delivers the full-on practical skills that Shillington provides you with—and in such a compact and timely manner Being taught by working professionals gives you such a unique insight into life outside of college and prepares you for the challenges that the industry presents. Just do it!”

INFO SESSION—FRIDAY 7 AUGUST. DETAILS AT SHILLINGTONCOLLEGE.COM.AU College of graphic design shillingtoncollege.com.au F shillington.fb T @shillington_ SYDNEY • MELBOURNE • BRISBANE NEW YORK • LONDON • MANCHESTER

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arts in focus

free stuff head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

arts news...what's goin' on around town... with Jade Smith, Elias Kwiet and Vanessa Papastavros

five minutes WITH

YALIN OZUCELIK FROM SHELLSHOCK

the true story of a tortoise that had been taken from the shores of Gallipoli and is now 100 years old, making it the oldest known survivor of that campaign. Justin has written a funny, poignant play about family, hope and renewal based on that premise.

There’ll also be puppetry!

T

ell us about the story behind Shellshock.

Wayne Harrison, the director, approached the playwright Justin Fleming with

How much resonance does the ANZAC story have a century down the track?

I think it continues to resonate strongly today. The large numbers of audiences that have been attracted to the nation’s numerous creative responses to the Gallipoli Centenary, and record crowds at the dawn service this year, all point to this.

It’s not your first involvement with the ANZAC story, after your appearance in television’s

Gallipoli. How do the two interpretations compare?

Gallipoli was about the horror of the war and the pain and the suffering. It threw you into the thick of it. In contrast, Shellshock explores some of the themes of the war without being about soldiers and fighting and death.

It also has a Turkish narrator and that lends the play a different perspective.

Is it a bad thing that the history of ANZAC has become shorthand for what it means to be ‘Australian’?

The choice to invade another country had disastrous consequences. Many Australians were touched by the horror of the First World War, either directly or indirectly. It certainly had an effect on the psyche of the country, particularly in

the decades that followed.

Consequently, the ANZAC story holds a special place in the history of this nation and is an important one to tell. But what constitutes nationhood is a complex question with no single answer. I don’t think there is a shorthand for what it means to be Australian in 2015.

What’s next on the agenda for your stage and screen career?

I’m fi nally performing in my first Chekhov play! Ivanov at Belvoir, adapted and directed by Eamon Flack, starring Ewen Leslie in September/October. That role may also have a Turkish fl avour.

What: Shellshock Where: Riverside Theatres When: Thursday July 30 – Saturday August 8

RUSSELL BRAND

Sydney, your time has come.

Arguably the most famous name in world comedy, Russell Brand, is bringing his Trew World Order show to our shores later this year. Apart from having one of the most impressive heads of hair in showbiz, Brand is an outspoken and sometimes controversial character – only last week he found himself in hot water for calling the Queen a “Kraut Nazi”, and he recently had a fi lm focusing on his hijinks screen at Sydney Film Festival. Brand is coming our way to headline the 2015 Just For Laughs festival at the Sydney Opera House on Friday October 23, as well as play a massive arena show at Qantas Credit Union Arena on Saturday October 24.

We’ve got a double pass to give away to Brand’s arena date. To be in the running to win, visit thebrag.com/ freeshit.

Comedian Ronny Chieng is bringing his latest show back to Sydney this September. Currently playing the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, and heading next to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, You Don’t Know What You’re Talking About is a satirical jab at general idiocy and our inability to say “I don’t know.” In just four years the Malaysian-born Chinese comedian has gone from making studymates laugh in their rooms at Melbourne Uni to supporting Dave Chappelle and gracing the Sydney Opera House stage.

Last year Chieng took out the Sydney Comedy Festival’s Best Show award, was nominated for an ARIA Award for his debut release, The Ron Way, and has since been selected to support Bill Burr on his upcoming Australian and New Zealand tour. Don’t miss Chieng at the Enmore Theatre on Friday September 25 and The Concourse in Chatswood on Friday October 30.

Ronny Chieng

A LITTLE MORE ESTHER

Fresh-faced LA comic sensation Little Esther, AKA Esther Povitsky, is bringing her stage show to Australian shores this year. Aussie audiences will recognise Esther from her podcast Weird Adults With Little Esther and television appearances on New Girl, Parks And Recreation, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and more. Esther is a quirky comedic talent made for the 21st century, just as comfortable on YouTube as onstage, and you can see her doing the latter on Saturday September 26 at Giant Dwarf.

and observed. As the audience watches the workers, the observer begins to question their role and what it means to employ someone

as part of an artwork. Artwork will run at Carriageworks from Wednesday August 5 – Saturday August 8.

Great Island

RIGHT OUT OF LINE

In a remarkable collaboration of more than 30 young people with and without disabilities, the new production Out Of Line is set to explore the themes of rules, behaviour, bullying and resilience. Set in a futuristic school-scape where self-expression is disallowed, Out Of Line is a poignant exploration of what it means for young people to navigate the concept of ‘socially acceptable’ forms of behaviour. Out Of Line will play at the Australian Theatre For Young People (ATYP) on Thursday August 27 and Friday August 28.

Golden Age Cinema is screening some of Alfred Hitchcock’s finest work in a retrospective of the director’s extensive career. The dagger plunging through the shower curtain, a raven circling ominously in the sky, a pair of binoculars peering through a window – we all know the cult classic scenes created by the master of suspense himself, but how many Hitchcock films have you actually watched? This winter, Golden Age will screen some of the director’s very best, from 1948’s Rope through to 1959’s North By Northwest. Films will screen during Saturday and Sunday matinee sessions at 3pm, before a 9pm Friday Fright screening of Psycho on Friday August 28 and a Saturday Date Night double of To Catch A Thief and Vertigo on Saturday August 29 in the final week of the winter program. For full listings and tickets, visit ourgoldenage.com.au.

A GREAT ISLAND GETAWAY

Ever fantasised about killing your boss to the soundtrack of a rumba beat? Didn’t think so. But the new play, Great Island, might teach you a thing or two about things you never thought you’d need to know. Directed by Pierce Wilcox, it’s the first production from Sydney’s Beside Ourselves collective and its world premiere is set for this week. Expect Heart Of Darkness/Lord Of The Flies-type darkness, subversion and class warfare topped off by a fruity and eclectic cast, including Anna Chase, Rob Johnson and Harrison Milas, among others. Catch the play from Wednesday July 29 – Sunday August 9 at 107 Projects.

More than 75 artists, including two artist collectives, are uniting for the inaugural Sydney edition of The Other Art Fair.

Branching off from the UK’s original event, the new artist-led fair will witness a milieu of mediums, spanning installation, sculpture, mixed media, printmaking, painting, video works and photography. The immersive program will be held at the aMBUSH Project Space at Central Park, a creative hub located within Chippendale’s burgeoning arts precinct.

The Other Art Fair’s debut edition promises a unique visitor experience, with some of the exhibition highlights including 2015 Archibald finalist and Sydney-based painter Kim Leutwyler, Wollongong-based artist Sarika Gupta and emerging Korean artist collective Reissue Korea. The Other Art Fair will take place from Thursday September 10 – Sunday September 13. thebrag.com

xxx

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GOLDEN AGE HITCHCOCK RETROSPECTIVE

THE OTHER ART FAIR IS HERE

JOBSEEKERS STAR IN ARTWORK

Created by the boundary-pushing Branch Nebula, Artwork is a highly charged artistic experiment that will source its performers from online classifieds. That’s right – this new piece will feature people simply looking for work and who have no prior performing experience.

Taking centre stage, these ‘actors’ will be asked to undertake a series of tasks including interviews and other routines abstracted from typical workplace activities. To heighten the experience, live sound and video will be used to amplify the sense of being closely watched

Alfred Hitchcock

Festival of Dangerous Ideas by Prudence Upton 113

RONNY RETURNS

What Is The Matter With Mary Jane?

[THEATRE] Fighting Back By Adam Norris

S

What Is The Matter With Mary Jane? photo by Jodie Hutchinson

ancia Robinson has a story to tell, but the circumstances of how she came to share it are both distressing and all too common.

At the age of 16, Robinson began watching what she ate. As her weight slipped away, it made her feel for the first time that she had assumed some level of autonomy in her life.

Of course, this is what makes eating disorders so insidious – the illusion of control. Ahead of the August season of What Is The Matter With Mary Jane?, co-written with Wendy Harmer, Robinson reflects on the 12-year struggle the production explores.

“I realised I had a problem…” she begins, and pauses. “I was on a diet and had a lot of positive reinforcement over it. I was never chubby, I was just a normal kid, but when I lost weight everyone was telling me I looked great.

I had a lot of other problems in my life, but this was coming from the outside world, people telling me that it was a good thing. I just felt this incredible control – it was the first time I’d ever felt in control of anything in my entire life. And I had an anxiety disorder as well, so it was a part of that. It was a really dysfunctional way to deal with anxiety, but in the short term it seemed to work. And then honestly, I swear to God, it felt like something clicked in my brain. I suddenly knew that I was underweight and I really needed to stop this.”

Robinson laughs, which at first seems a strange response to such a serious malady. But her laughter does not come from anything inherently amusing in eating disorders; rather, with years of distance from her teenage self, the actions of young Sancia seem so preposterous to her.

“I also really just wanted to do simple things like start eating cake again! I remember being at my brother’s birthday and I went to eat some cake,

and my arm just wouldn’t move. I wanted to tell my mum that something was happening to me, but I knew that she would then rob me of my dieting, my control, and I didn’t want to lose that. Sometimes it’s funny, looking back at ridiculous decisions you’ve made. But laughing at yourself can be a key to getting well.”

The play balances humour very carefully with its subject matter, not least of all because it has emerged as a touchstone text for young students who may themselves be suffering from eating disorders, and for those who engage, however simply or unthinkingly, in the body shaming of others.

“Around 25 per cent of young people present, but it may well be higher,” explains Robinson. “There’s a stigma around it. Eating disorders are one of those things that you don’t tell anyone, because surely you can fix it by yourself. You think, ‘I just need to find the right diet, I just need to lose that last bit of weight and all of this will just go away.’ The nature of the illness causes isolation as well. Your family will start seeing things that you don’t necessarily see yourself. They see you isolating, they see you not coping around the dinner table, changing your personality. It’s so hard for friends and family to have someone go through an eating disorder.

“For me, it was like having a virus in my brain telling me, ‘I don’t need help, I’m fine, they’ll just want to make you fat instead, don’t tell anyone.’ It’s still really shameful to come forward and say you have a mental illness and you don’t know what to do.”

Struggling with body image is by no means a demon of youth, with anorexia in nursing homes another face of the illness that is often forgotten, or euphemistically referred to

as people ‘going off their food’. But it is in early life that the scars are most deeply inflicted, and as Robinson well understands, the emotional fallout is something that must be battled for life.

“Early intervention is key. For me, I will always be an addict around exercise, body image and food. I accept that, and one day at a time I live my life. I never take it for granted. I will always be conscious of what I’m eating. I have to keep to a food plan now. It’s easier for me that way. I saw a specialist and I can never diet again, but they told me exactly what I need to eat. That’s what I do every day. It was really frightening at first, not being able to choose. But I think I surrendered my right to choose by doing it so badly for so long.”

Robinson laughs again – at the memory of the girl she once was; at the virus in her head that will never move away; in relief that she is a survivor at all, and can share her struggle with others.

“That’s why places like The Butterfly Foundation are good,” she says. “If you feel there’s something wrong you can get in, get support. Families, too, go get the support, and get the language, because it’s not up to you to cure them. You didn’t cause it, you can’t control it. People want you to just stop doing it, but you can’t of, course. That’s the hardest thing for others – to lose that character from their lives.”

If you or someone you know needs help with an eating disorder, contact The Butterfly Foundation at 1800 33 4673 or thebutterflyfoundation.org.au What: What Is The Matter With Mary Jane?

Where: Seymour Centre When: Tuesday August 4 – Saturday August 8

Adventures In The Skin Trade [THEATRE] Unfinished Business By Adam Norris undertaking an incomplete story speaks very loudly of the strength of her craft.

“There was certainly a lot of hard work,” she says. “I very carefully read a lot of biographies as well as Dylan Thomas’ actual work, so I could feel like I really got inside his mind.

From there I started to unpick the work, and as I’m a writer myself, that was my point of view, as a carpenter might look to understand how somebody else made a certain table. To find repeated rhythms, things that might suggest how this could all end, because of course he never finished it. So I was trying to find a pattern. But also I came across a letter where he was talking to someone about writing this, saying how he planned to end it.

That was extremely useful, and some of that letter itself is now in the play.”

While there will inevitably be certain overlaps between this and Thomas’ better-known works, Adventures In The Skin Trade remains rather unique. It is unfinished, yes, but also portrays the author at his reflective best, conjuring memories of adolescence and confusion, yet presented with streaks of humour and fantasy.

I

n 2012, the Sydney Opera House was home to a breathtaking production. It enraptured the ear with bewitching prose and luscious voices, with simple props and a sprawling, stunning cast. That production was Under Milk Wood, Dylan Thomas’ revered ‘play for voices’.

Now, the Opera House is once again inviting the lyrical delight of Thomas beneath the sails with his unfinished bildungsroman, Adventures In The Skin Trade. It has been adapted by the delightful playwright Lucy Gough, whose commitment to staging the spirit of Thomas is paramount. thebrag.com

“Well, [director] Kevin Lewis and I had spoken about doing it, but then having read it a few times, I started to get quite worried,” Gough chuckles. “It’s bonkers, actually, and it’s also very much an interior monologue. When I first read it, I thought, ‘Fantastic, it jumps off the page!’ But when I actually started to get into it, I suddenly wasn’t all that sure how to articulate this interior voice without it being one long monologue, which can be good, but can also be really, really tedious. But then I came up with the idea of these sort of harpy figures, who articulate thoughts and inhabit

the world. They aren’t in the book, but I think they are very much in the spirit of the book.

It’s not my job to change what’s there, but to give it new life in a different form.”

Though familiarity with the Welsh author is in no way necessary to fully engage with the play, those who have read Thomas before are primed to expect some of the most poetic, engrossing language of the last hundred years. Thomas was a master of voice, and the fact that Gough has been able to reach a level of creative and emotional comfort in

“It certainly stands upon its own,” says Gough.

“It’s an early work, and what I love about it is this difference to his other writing. It’s very much about being a young man, about trying to grow up and make your first steps into the world. It’s also wonderfully surreal but very truthful. It captures that transition into adulthood in such a remarkable way. It’s joyfully bonkers and funny, but also at moments so very touching. I’ve been very careful to keep a true narrative, though. I think you’ll connect no matter what your familiarity with Dylan Thomas is – his craftsmanship was so poetic. It will certainly make you want to read more.”

What: Adventures In The Skin Trade Where: Studio, Sydney Opera House When: Friday July 31 – Sunday August 2 BRAG :: 623 :: 29:07:15 :: 21

Film & Theatre Reviews Hits and misses on the silver screen and bareboards around town

■ Theatre

LOVE AND INFORMATION Playing at Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company until Saturday August 15 The Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Caryl Churchill’s Love And Information is the perfect fit for a Sydney theatrical culture in which the director is considered at least partial auteur. That spirit of collaboration verging on dual authorship is built into the DNA of Churchill’s text, which is made up of lines assigned to nobody in particular.

Churchill doesn’t specify gender, either, or even how many characters there are.

Productions of this play in London and New York featured twice as many actors as Kip Williams’ production at Wharf 1, which has eight – Glenn Hazeldine, Anita Heigh, Marco Chiappi, Anthony Taufa, Alison Whyte, Ursula Yovich, Harry Greenwood and Zahra Newman. Churchill’s seven ‘sections’ feature seven scenes each, and there are some extra scenes without category. Each section must run in a specified order but the scenes can run in any order the director wishes.

None of this background is evident, of course, to an audience watching the play itself, which makes finding meaning in its unconventional, create-your-own-adventure form more than a little misleading. This iteration of Love And Information feels formless but satisfyingly cohesive; one in which design, lighting and music are unusually central in attaching meaning to the words themselves. David Fleischer’s set is stark but fluid: a white, flat space on which rectangular blocks are repositioned by the cast to create what context there is for each scene. These transitions are highly choreographed, almost dance-like; bolstered

by The Sweats’ propulsive, haunting score.

The scenes themselves last no more than a few minutes, and some are as short as a few seconds. This is the closest we’ll ever get to Roy Andersson onstage – short vignettes (interestingly, both Love And Information and Andersson’s latest film, A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Refl ecting On Existence, illustrate the ridiculousness of modern life with tableaus of people gawking at stuffed exhibits in museums), which are often individually hilarious but taken together somehow amount to something haunting.

■ Comedy

DYLAN MORAN

■ Film

Reviewed at the State Theatre on Saturday July 18

In cinemas now

The Gallows

THE GALLOWS

More comedians than you’d rightly expect have made their careers off a single routine, impersonation or one-liner. Dylan Moran has his own career-defining role, the madcap bookshop owner Bernard Black of Black Books. But if you thought Moran was squeezing a living out of his drunken alter ego’s half-dozen or so best lines, you’d be wrong; there are a million more throwaway quips where those came from, and his live show features – no exaggeration here – another 200 of them.

Moran is the comedic equivalent of Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Flight Of The Bumblebee’. His jokes come along at relentless pace and sting afresh each time, yet he’s not shouty about them, for that would interrupt the cleverness of his wordplay. Off The Hook, a show that’s about to set off on a massive lap of Australia, is 90 minutes or so of Moran discussing topics that his television followers mightn’t be used to – there are sections on politics, religion, family and health, with little to tie them together besides Moran’s distinctive delivery.

He’s a master of syntax and a king of simile, and it all allows his absurdist mind to run free. At one point, he fires in the direction of his Irish countrymen suspicious of Eastern European immigrants (sound familiar?) – such people were refugees, not assailants; “All they had was half a cabbage and a horse with a cough.” Elsewhere, there’s the occasional anecdote – one highlight explains the array of family pets introduced into the Moran household, more useful to teach his children about the inevitability of death than the joy of love.

What is there to say about The Gallows that hasn’t been said about every film out of the Blumhouse Productions stable? If you like stupid, despicable onenote characters doing stupid and despicable things then getting stupidly and despicably killed, then this is the film for you.

20 years ago, student Charlie Grimille was killed onstage in front of a packed auditorium during a performance of medieval play The Gallows. Now, the students are restaging the production in an effort to recover from the school’s darkest moment. But when three students break into the school at night, they discover that Charlie’s not done with Beatrice High…

There’s a tendency for slasher flicks to make us actively dislike many of their central characters, in an effort to make their inevitable deaths more ‘entertaining’ than harrowing. (Or perhaps to make us reflect on the fact that no-one deserves a horrifi c death?) Without providing either kind of catharsis, The Gallows follows this model like gospel, not even putting in enough effort to give the

There’s a little bit of Black left inside Moran, certainly – isn’t there a little Bernard in all of us? – yet while the grumpy shopkeeper once attempted to write children’s stories, Moran instead tries his hand at blockbuster erotica. The audience, needless to say, is well and truly along for the ride. And then, as quickly as each joke has landed, Moran is gone, his thoughts left scattered across the stage in his wake.

characters their own names – which they will inevitably excuse as part and parcel of the found footage genre.

Few protagonists have been as utterly despicable as Reese (Reese Mishler), the class clown from the football team who’s been roped in (pun intended) to work on The Gallows. Reese’s jocksversus-nerds mentality and cheerleader girlfriend are now so clichéd as to be wholly repellent. Best mate Ryan (Ryan Shoos), cheerleader Cassidy (Cassidy Gifford) and theatre nerd Pfeifer (Pfeifer Brown) are a similar mess of uninventive stock high schoolers with pitifully drawn arcs.

Worst is the grind of the film, which despite its 81-minute runtime feels like a marathon. Every oogeda-

boogeda jump scare is so loudly announced by the silence preceding it that you can actually count down to the point where something spooky happens. It also fails to hold up to its own internal logic – Reese uses the zoom on his camera only moments after making a point of switching to his phone.

With its paper-thin plot, uninteresting characters, obvious and tired excuse for a villain, poorly executed found footage style and genuine lack of entertainment, buying a ticket to The Gallows is the cinemagoing equivalent of necking yourself. Please don’t encourage this kind of filmmaking anymore – it’s ruining it for the rest of us.

David Molloy

Chris Martin Dylan Moran

The whole thing peters out – there’s no traditional sense of a climax – but the absence of anything traditional is what makes Churchill’s work, and this fine interpretation of it, so arresting.

Harry Windsor

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Arts Exposed What's in our diary...

Kino #98 107 Projects, Monday August 3 There is something special about first-time filmmakers, local favourites and seasoned pros coming together to premiere their new short films. If you’re keen for Kino, kick August off with the 98th screening, chock-full of colourful, sometimes gonzo and always inventive cinema. Never heard of this delightful global movement? Kino Sydney is part of a broader international network born in Montreal in 1999, which now spans across Canada, the US, France, Kino Germany, the UK, South Africa and Australia. Kino’s ‘open mic’ film night promises to exhibit a short film regardless of its genre or level of expertise, so expect to see the unexpected. What can be expected is live music, pizza, audience giveaways and filmmaker Q&As to spice the evening up. Support local talent and enjoy an interesting evening of short screenings.

Tickets are $10, and can be purchased online or at the door. Visit 107projects.org for details.

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Love And Information photo © Pia Johnson

Love And Information

out & about Queer(ish) matters with Lucy Watson

RuPaul’s Drag Race

he evolution of RuPaul’s Drag Race across its seven seasons serves as a pretty decent reflection of the evolution of drag over the last several years. From the increased quality of the sets, to the quadrupling in prizemoney since season one, RPDR has moved from fringe entertainment to an almost mainstream, or at the very least cult, popularity.

T

The same goes for drag. While drag has been a staple on queer circuits for decades, RPDR has brought drag queens to a broader (read: straight) audience, as well as encouraged the rise of the international drag superstar – the touring queen who travels thousands of kilometres to lip sync in gay bars.

The format is now so well known, the scene so pervasive. Yet it hasn’t stagnated.

As well as documenting the increased popularity of drag, RPDR has also served to document the evolution of drag style, politics and performance. Where once queens were criticised for having stubble, in season seven a whole challenge was devoted to bearded queens.

In season one, during a rendition of Whitney Houston’s ‘Greatest Love Of All’, one queen, Shannel, lost her wig just before the crescendo. It was a dramatic moment. There were cuts to the horrified judges’ faces, dramatic drum beats and slow-mo as the wig fell, before the footage returned to normal speed as Shannel caught it, raw, her male head exposed, bursting into “The greeeaatttest love of alllll” with her arms stretched wide. The judges gave her a standing ovation. It was a true moment of ‘the show must go on’.

Now, it is so common for queens to strip during their lip syncs and reveal their male bodies that no-one blinks an eyelid.

It seems that drag is no longer a performance of exaggerated femininity.

We’ve reached a point in our genderpolitical landscape that to camp up femininity as a man is no longer enough

to push the boundaries required. The idea of the gender binary has been so worn down that an aspect of fluidity in drag performance is now almost expected.

This, to me, is far more interesting than a man in a dress. Drag has always been about questioning the nature of masculinity and femininity, so it stands to reason that these lines should remain firmly blurred.

I don’t want to see how well a man can tuck his junk and contour his face; I want his masculinity on show, alongside her femininity.

As our society’s gender politics develop, controversies around drag queens and the role of drag alongside our trans community continue, with the most recent spate manifesting in the ban of drag queens from Glasgow’s alternative pride events.

I’m not in a position to comment on these issues with any real authority, but the very fact that these conversations are being had suggests a lot has changed since RPDR first aired. That we are now able to publicly debate the right of groups to claim certain words, or to access certain performances, is an indication of how much our political landscape has developed in recent years.

And drag develops alongside it, continually pushing those boundaries.

616 HARRIS ST ULTIMO

WINTER’S BEST LIVE MUSIC

Where we’re headed next for a subversive performance style such as drag is always almost impossible to say. But having recently seen both mermaid drag and dog drag, I’d like to think the blurring between gender, human and beast is the Next Big Thing.

this week…

If you’re into rock music, girl band Bandintexas are tearing up The Sly Fox this Thursday July 30. It’s free, and probably your best chance this week to pick up a girl in plaid.

F O U N D R Y616 – S Y D N E Y ’ S F I N E S T J A Z Z C L U B

Bandintexas

The Underbelly Arts Festival is happening this weekend at Cockatoo Island.

As with all arts and performance festivals, the best bits about it are queer, with appearances from the likes of Bhenji Ra and a whole host of amazing artists.

Also this Saturday August 1 is round three of the Sydney Roller Derby League. So I completely take back what I said earlier about Bandintexas being your only chance to pick up a plaid-clad girl. If that’s your thing, get down to Luna Park and cheer for Team Lumberjack.

Sunday August 2 sees the return of Poida’s Pavlova Bar. A tribute to Berlin’s Panorama, this House Of Mince daytime party will feature Phil Smart, Annabelle Gaspar and Jon Watts at the Lord Gladstone from 2pm.

F R I DAY 7 AU G

ONE ROM ANTIC NIGHT

COMING UP @ JULY POP PSYCH JAZZ N RNB WED 29

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EM’IELLE - NOUVEAU VINTAGE THU 30 JOE CHINDAMO TRIO (MELBOURNE) FRI 31

AUGUST FRANCES MADDEN & HER BAND SAT 1

SANDIE WHITE’S SUNDAY JAZZ SALON (LUNCHTIME GIG) SUN 2 JAZZGROOVE PRESENTS @ FOUNDRY616: SAM GILL & SIMON BARKER / ANDREW GIOIA TRIO TUE 4 MIKE KENNY’S LAB BAND THU 6 LEONIE COHEN TRIO WITH NICKY CRAYSON SAT 8 Check website for full program.

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Album Reviews What's been crossing our ears this week...

ALBUM OF THE WEEK ALBERT HAMMOND JR.

xxx

Momentary Masters Vagrant/Liberator

Coming from the guitarist for legendary band The Strokes, you could safely assume that Albert Hammond Jr.’s latest album Momentary Masters was always going to be a solid album. And when you first play it through, you may not even be surprised to find that it’s actually a hell of a good listen. In fact, you won’t be surprised by anything about this album, except how much you will enjoy it.

The Strokes’ guitarist takes another big step in his solo career.

DUCKTAILS St. Catherine Domino/EMI

A beautiful set of electric pop-rock, the record captures a fantastic sense of dance and ’90s magic without the grandeur often falsely attributed by other artists.

Hammond’s guitar skills are on point with every track; tight, punchy and possessing the same groove and confi dence of Hammond’s fashion choices, pulling off more than you thought possible.

Momentary Masters is an album that is playfully unassuming, excellent in execution, and impossible not to enjoy. And that’s the only surprise you’d ever wish for.

Daniel Prior

RATATAT

JOSH PYKE

GENA ROSE BRUCE

TIRED LION

Magnifi que XL/Remote Control

But For All These Shrinking Hearts Wonderlick/Sony

Mad Love Independent

Figurine Title Track

Gena Rose Bruce sounds completely at ease on the four tracks that make up her new EP, Mad Love. While neither the songs nor the way they’re presented break any new ground, the results are certainly pleasing.

Although just 22 years old, Bruce is a very confident songwriter, and with a voice pristine and powerful, she broods, aches and glides over the EP’s emotional terrain.

With famous rock stars consistently professing that ‘rock is dead’ and rap music is the only music the young kids like nowadays, it’s great to have bands like Tired Lion arrive to prove they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. Figurine is a big rock album condensed into an EP, and it’s a release that celebrates a huge year and a half for the band that included a national tour and a recent appearance at Splendour In The Grass.

Ducktails is what happens when you let Matt Mondanile of Real Estate push their characteristic summer jams into eerie, experimental territory.

The most conventionally structured of his side project’s albums, St. Catherine loses the melodic intrigue that distinguished the band’s earlier psychedelic pop in favour of lush sound production. While the synths are still hazy and the vocals are prettily nostalgic, their moments do little to encourage more than ennui.

US duo Ratatat, best known for their instrumental fusions of hip hop, rock and electronica, have snapped shut their laptops and plugged in their axes for Magnifique, their latest album after five years in the wilderness. Guitar takes centre stage (as well as the supporting roles, scenery and chorus) on nearly every track. ‘Abrasive’ sounds like the biggest single The Strokes never released, while ‘Pricks Of Brightness’ channels Weezer at their ‘Buddy Holly’ best.

It’s an album that builds on the legacy that Mondanile started when he was first recording tracks in his basement.

He has fine-tuned the rawness of previous albums with much cleaner, trickling guitar loops and softer drums.

For songs like ‘Headbanging In The Mirror’ it helps to add a fullness to Ducktails’ signature sound, and shows off the complex arrangements that they play around with.

But that’s not to say the pair have gone completely garage. Elsewhere, the guitar sounds are dramatic and sophisticated: multi-layered into wailing walls of sound, squeezed through antique amplifiers and tweaked and treated to breaking point. They channel the tones of Queen guitarist Brian May and Discovery-era Daft Punk throughout, with indie-flavoured tracks sitting alongside gritty club thumpers like ‘Nightclub Amnesia’ and ‘Cream On Chrome’. Meanwhile, ‘Drift’, ‘Supreme’ and ‘I Will Return’ (Ratatat’s first cover, a 1971 UK hit by Springwater) are blissfully laid-back, using Hawaiiansounding lap steel guitars to send listeners into a dribbling semi-slumber.

Other times, not so much. Tracks like the lacklustre ‘Heaven’s Room’ are as avoidable as the songs’ desperate protagonist because there’s no energy behind the words. The chords have been neutered, which means the potentially heartfelt tracks will be forgotten along with the rest of this lukewarm pop.

Hammond’s high and sweet vocals cry out to you in album opener ‘Born Slippy’. Throughout the album, his influences make themselves felt. A very Kaiser Chiefsesque punchy pop sound is present on ‘Caught By My Shadow’, and there are phantoms of The Strokes playing right alongside Hammond, especially on ‘Razors Edge’.

Josh Pyke’s fifth studio album pushes the boundaries of creativity and experiments with new songwriting techniques, leading to a significantly different sounding record to his past few.

One of the most distinguishing features on Pyke’s previous albums was his focus on vivid storytelling through lyrics, yet this time his lyrics often lean towards abstraction. While this technique is poetic in its own right, it forces the listener to connect with the song in a more unconventional way, which can be alienating at times.

Nevertheless, there are some stunning lyrics on this record, such as the beautiful storm metaphors in ‘Some Big Deal’. Meanwhile, ‘There’s A Line’ has perhaps the catchiest melody of the lot and is a gorgeous composition that keeps the album interesting.

Pyke also experiments with co-writers, as we can hear bits of Dustin Tebbutt coming through in the guitar fills of ‘Momentary Glow’ and Marcus Azon’s influence in the jangly melody of ‘Songlines’.

St. Catherine is clearly a more evolved piece of production, but it leaves you wanting something with a bit more soul.

As per the Ratatat manifesto, the album is lyric-free, but nevertheless full of memorable overblown baroque melodies. A mixed bag of indie, electro and chill-out where the guitar is king.

While the songwriting takes a new angle, the typical Pyke sound that’s known and loved can still be heard here – a wonderful credit to his versatility as a musician.

James Ross

George Nott

Erin Rooney

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK What has our fair city of Sydney been up to lately? Not too much, really – just churning out choice local tunes without pause for breath. A prime example of this comes from three-piece Yeevs, who, after their first single in 2014 and a couple more awesome tunes later, have released their debut EP of shiny new songs in How To Harken Back.

YEEVS How To Harken Back Independent

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While the new EP doesn’t contain their previous singles – the rocking standalone tracks ‘Speakin’ Some Sense’, ‘Chunk’ and ‘Lazy’ – this seems to work in their favour. The EP is a small step away from the more pronounced garage tendencies of these tracks, with things being a little more polished while still remaining delightfully noisy.

There’s a subtle and almost delicate nature to How To Harken Back – The Smashing Pumpkins are definitely in there somewhere – but this merely flanks a bright sprawling mess of mid-song noise.

Without being boring, many of the tracks follow this pattern and it totally works, with an underlying warmth sustained beneath the soft reflection, the controlled chaos, and Bradley Cork’s gut-wrenchingly affecting vocals.

Yeevs have a quiet urgency about them; there’s a sense that something special is going on here that can only keep growing and thriving. It’ll be a fun ride watching that happen.

Mad Love was recorded live with producer Steven Schram, who augments the tracks with doubletracked vocals, heavy reverb and a little tambourine here and there.

The production suits the material very well, giving a distinct nod to the 1960s. However, the fact this feels like it was made in a day with little embellishment means that all the tracks sound quite similar to one another. Watching Bruce and band live, their gentle urgency would no doubt maintain your attention, but the same can’t be said for the recorded listening experience.

‘Good Thing’, the single, is a nice song if not overly memorable.

But the title track is the real gem; a powerful, sultry ballad, which Bruce imbues with so much feeling it sounds as if she’s about to take off towards the end.

Sitting at well under 20 minutes, the five-track EP stands as a great piece of grunge-influenced powerpop; think Violent Soho meets Garbage. It would be easy to draw a comparison between Tired Lion and Silverchair, not only because of their youthful attitude and heavy ’90s influences, but also for their fiery delivery and passion.

Frontwoman Sophie Hopes delivers big hooks all across the EP, from the fuzzy ‘Figurine’ to the undeniably catchy opener ‘Pretend’. There are sing-along moments on every track, backed up by big guitars, interesting lead parts, and a thorough understanding of the quiet/loud/quiet dynamic. Every song explodes into the chorus and draws you in.

It’s a great song and a terrific performance, which signals a promising future for Bruce.

It’s Tired Lion’s second release but feels a lot more like a debut – energetic, catchy and passionate.

Alex Watts

Spencer Scott

OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week...

BLUR - Blur FLORENCE + THE MACHINE - Lungs EARL SWEATSHIRT - Doris

AUDIOSLAVE - Audioslave NORTHLANE - Node

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live reviews What we've been out to see...

JOHNNY MARR Enmore Theatre Monday July 20 Johnny Marr takes the stage in a sharply cut mod rocker’s shirt and blazer.

Suffice to say, it’s an outfit he’s grown into over the years – not physically, that is; the iconic guitarist’s frame is as lithe and slender as it ever was. It’s the role of the rock star that sits well upon his shoulders now, more so than at any point in his 33-year career. Once upon a time, Marr was the pale boy looking sheepish to the side of The Smiths’ publicity photos.

These days, he walks out to strobe lights and wails from his signature Fender Jaguar guitar.

It’s still that guitar that commands the most power over a Johnny Marr concert, despite the fact his vocals are out front on his growing volume of solo material. These cuts from The Messenger and Playland are lyrically and melodically decent enough, but the six-string flourishes remain the highlight moments, starting with the EBow he plays on opener ‘Playland’.

Otherwise, ‘New Town Velocity’ shows off a rather pleasant lower register in Marr’s voice, but the pressing feeling remains of a performer ever so slightly limited – and while the Enmore Theatre crowd is satisfied to nod along politely with the efforts from Marr and his three accompanists, that’s about all the

PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR

RYAN ADAMS Sydney Opera House Tuesday July 21 At a 2002 gig, Ryan Adams famously paid one rowdy punter to leave after the spectator had requested he play Bryan Adams’ classic hit ‘Summer Of ’69’. More than a decade on, the former has mellowed, and his clever quips to members of tonight’s crowd hint at the maturation of one of contemporary music’s most compelling, if often maligned songwriters.

Free of his Shining cohort and playing a solo acoustic gig in the regal surrounds of the cavernous Sydney Opera House may seem like an unorthodox choice for the enigmatic Adams, but almost from the first note, it’s a comfortable fit.

The understated stage with minimal lighting sets the tone for the night, accentuating a man, his two guitars, a harmonica, piano and a rich songbook of sheet music, through which Adams thumbs gingerly between tracks. The gig has the feeling of an intimate recital as the songwriter sidles up to the piano on the heartbreaking ‘Sylvia Plath’.

wolf alice

PICS :: AM

For the most part, the setlist reads like a roll call of Adams’ most popular tracks, spanning a prolific 14-record back catalogue that occasionally deviates along the way. As he murmurs

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action that happens beyond the front few rows for some time.

Even the unfalteringly polite Marr seems perturbed at the end of ‘Back In The Box’ – “That was intense!”, he shouts sarcastically – and to be fair, the yet-tobe-recorded ‘Spiral Cities’ may turn out to be a latter highlight of his songwriting career. But Marr knows what it’ll take to get the audience moving, and so it proves with an increasing population of classics in the setlist. The Smiths’ ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ is a turning point, Electronic’s ‘Getting Away With It’ maintains the mood, and encores including ‘Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want’ and ‘How Soon Is Now?’ inspire smiles and tears in all the right places. It’s difficult to imagine a certain ex-bandmate leading a lengthy crowd-pleasing sing-along to ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ in the same obliging manner as Marr.

While his manipulative powers have inspired a generation of guitarists, credit is due to his sidemen here for their interpretations of the songs that made him great. With Marr in their number, this is a much better band than the one trailing old mate Morrissey around at the moment – they only lack the frontman.

Forgive us, but we’ll ask it one more time: wouldn’t they make a fine pair?

Chris Martin

midway through: “If you all came to sit through two hours of sad songs, then you must be interested in me going deeper.”

The marauding ‘English Girls Approximately’ is a highlight. Adams’ interest in the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe is prevalent in many of tonight’s tracks, which are often dark tales of longing and fraying relationships – but importantly, are equally defiant, resolute and affirming. Adams is a troubadour who meets at the intersection of country, rock and folk – a performer who has clearly been shaped by his environment even if it hasn’t always been good to him.

Adams’ vocal range tonight is outstanding, and coupled with the easy rapport he has with his audience and the acoustics of the Opera House, there’s a lot to like, including an interesting cover of Foo Fighters’ ‘Times Like These’ which feels as though Adams has applied a fresh coat of paint to the song.

The emphasis on a litany of slower songs doesn’t always maintain the momentum as the gig wears on, and at times you wonder if Adams can break free of these self-imposed constraints.

However, this matters little on what is a rewarding night.

Tim Armitage

ryan adams + jenny lewis

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23:07:15 :: Enmore Theatre :: 118-132 Enmore Rd Newtown 9550 3666 thebrag.com

BLUR, JAMIE T Qantas Credit Union Arena Saturday July 25 Blur have always disliked the term ‘Britpop’. The word is a media fabrication, they argue, and it groups them in with a bunch of bands that had very little to do with them, apart from being coinhabitants of a particular era in English guitar music.

Just don’t tell the news to Jamie T, who’s one of a growing class of contemporary indie acts to have taken enormous influence from the band that first gave Britpop its Englishness.

Jamie T and his collaborators play a haphazard set to open the first stop on Blur’s triumphant return to Australia, but it’s without doubt a whole lot of fun.

The man born Jamie Alexander Treays speak-sings his lines at scattergun pace into a microphone that he swivels around on its boom stand in alternate verses and choruses, from left to right and back again. ‘Sticks ’N’ Stones’ and recent single ‘Zombie’ have a buzzed-up crowd doing its darndest to keep up.

Blur’s first Sydney show for some 18 years begins with ‘Go Out’, one of six songs from comeback album The Magic Whip that get an airing tonight. The strength of that record has put them in a near infallible position when it comes to ordering a setlist – the fans aren’t here for the classics alone, and as if to prove it, they’ve nearly filled a venue five times the size of the room Blur played on their last visit here.

That doesn’t mean the most famous songs are neglected. Those careermaking statements on modern English society arrive in due time, but first it’s an ode to the hangover (this time more applicable to jetlag, Damon Albarn says) in ‘Badhead’ and a rousingly magnificent refrain on ‘Beetlebum’, which only builds into the Graham Coxon-led avalanche of sound that is its coda. Alex James and Dave Rowntree work impressively hard in the rhythm section, as do the respective backing vocalists, percussionist and horn players, but it’s the interplay between the reunited Albarn and Coxon that makes for the finest moments, including the customary sing-along on ‘Tender’. This Sydney crowd has barely witnessed a love-in like it.

Love doesn’t make the rock’n’roll world go round, though – not nearly as much as adolescent posturing. Like Jamie T, Blur still have enough of that to offer, too, with Albarn moving around maniacally on ‘Parklife’ before the entire audience joins in on ‘Song 2’.

From there on in, it’s anthem after festival anthem – ‘To The End’ and ‘This Is A Low’, then ‘For Tomorrow’ and encore closer ‘The Universal’. Blur have always been more than a knees-updown-the-pub band, and while they’re masters at that craft in itself, there’s an irresistible depth in everything else they do. Welcome back, lads.

Chris Martin

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PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR

wed MS MR Metro Theatre Saturday July 25 Short answer? Lizzie Plapinger and Max Hershenow have really got this whole live music thing figured out.

Ms Mr’s appearance at the Metro is the second Splendour sideshow they have undertaken here in Sydney – the first being back in 2013 – and although I didn’t catch their debut back then, surely the writing was on the wall. After all, skip forward two years and they’ve already been invited back, this time touring sophomore LP How Does It Feel.

The BRAG had interviewed Plapinger a few weeks earlier, and while both the new album and their first, Secondhand Rapture, are high-energy releases, they are markedly different; the reason, she explained then, was discovering her comfort moving before a crowd.

“I think I love being onstage more than anything now, and I only really discovered that about myself through touring the last record.”

It shows; there aren’t that many musicians out there whose sheer enthusiasm for performing is so pronounced. It’s particularly endearing given her dancing is slightly awkward, with one foot firmly in the pinwheeling-limbed ’80s. Nor is she alone; for a guy stuck behind a keyboard, Hershenow is a smiling, sweat-sodden mess by the gig’s close, and a burstingat-the-seams Metro matches them every

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step of the way.

It’s difficult to identify a highlight in this consistently colourful, busy gig. ‘Salty Sweet’ and ‘Head Is Not My Home’ are both standouts from their first album, and translate brilliantly live. Plapinger infuses certain numbers with something almost mythic; studded with grand gestures and roaring vocals, it is as though she is barely keeping these songs chained to the stage. It would seem grandiloquent were it not so entertaining and, one suspects, sincere.

From the new album, both the title track and ‘Leave Me Alone’ are strong, but a song which Plapinger had not expected audiences to originally connect with, ‘Tripolar’, simply soars. You can certainly trace the band’s lineage across these tracks – from early Florence + The Machine influences to a more Chvrches sound – but seen live, Ms Mr emerge idiosyncratic and fresh. The sound of the audience’s approval is actually kind of intense; Plapinger’s beaming, repeated thanks to the crowd are mostly lost in a flood of cheering.

And man, these guys are sexy as hell.

Although the pair are joined by drums and bass/synth, I’m not sure anyone at the Metro actually sees them. All eyes are fixed on the New York duo, and we only turn away in reluctance, resigned to wait another two years until we might get to experience such an exceptional gig again.

thu

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SATURDAY AFTERNOON

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Aug

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(8:30PM - 12:00AM)

(9:30PM - 1:15AM)

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03 Aug

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Adam Norris

BRAG :: 623 :: 29:06:15 :: 27

g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com

pick of the week

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

Death Cab For Cutie

SUNDAY AUGUST 2 Enmore Theatre Enm

Death Cab For Cutie 7pm. $73.30.

WEDNESDAY JULY 29 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Country And Inner Western - feat: Green Mohair Suits + Caitlin Harnett + William Crighton The Basement, Circular Quay.

7pm. $13.90.

Gadjo Guitars Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 7pm. Free.

Gurrumul Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

8pm. $100.93.

Muso’s Club Jam Night Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt. 8pm. Free.

New Orleans Beats Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

28 :: BRAG :: 623 :: 29:07:15

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Baby Lips & The Silhouettes + Renetta Joy & Levingstone Foundry616, Ultimo. 7pm. $10.

Smash In Concert - feat: Melody Beck + Lloyd Bowden The Vanguard, Newtown.

6:30pm. $18.80.

THURSDAY JULY 30 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Huknee Puknee Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 8:30pm.

Free.

Matt Ross + PJ O’Brien Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. $10.

Mick Hambly + Chris Brookes + Saffire Rose Garry Owen Hotel, Rozelle.

7:30pm. Free.

Zack Martin + David Levell Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville. 7pm. Free.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Don Hopkins’ Good Rockin’ Band The Golden Sheaf, Double

Bay. 9pm. Free.

Em’Ielle Foundry616, Ultimo. 8pm. $16.50.

Global Sounds - feat: Arabesk + Fat Yahoozah The Basement, Circular Quay.

7pm. $14.90.

Lisa Crouch Penrith RSL, Penrith. 11am. $8.

Thursdays In Jam - feat: El Moro + DJ Av El Cubano Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction.

9pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Chico Seeds + General Disarray + The Hollerin Sluggers The Vanguard, Newtown.

7pm. $13.80.

Dave White Duo Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm.

Free.

Ella Thompson + Okenyo Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $18.

Glenn Esmond Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale. 7pm. Free.

Greg Hooper + Dee Donavon Penrith RSL, Penrith. 11am.

Free.

Hot Damn! - feat: As Silence Breaks + Your Weight In Gold + Skyon + Planet Terror + Hot Damn DJs The Bristol Arms Hotel, Sydney. 8pm. $20.

Jackie Brown Jr + Dog The Duke + Lonely Empire Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington. 8pm. Free.

Live, Loud & Local - feat: The Lulu Raes + Mar Haze Mona Vale Hotel, Mona Vale.

9pm. Free.

FRIDAY JULY 31 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Cameron James Henderson Band + Dog The Duke + A Girl’s A Gun Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham.

8pm. $13.13.

Harry Brus Band + Bonnie Kay & The Bonafides + Empire Park Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8pm. $15.

Romi Town Hall Hotel, Balmain.

7pm. Free.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Baz The Sound Lounge, Sydney.

8:30pm. $20.

Big Vibes - feat: The Liberators + Baby Lips

& The Silhouettes + The Protesters + Renetta Joy + DJ Marley Sherman The Record Crate, Glebe.

7pm. $15.

Darren Percival + Mark Moroney The Basement, Circular Quay.

7:30pm. $34.50.

Life Of The Party Fundraiser Night - feat: Special Guests Harold Park Hotel, Glebe.

7:30pm. $12.

Sexy Sunday Jam Bellini Lounge, Potts Point.

7pm. Free.

Soul Tattoo Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor. 8pm.

Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

After Party Band Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8:30pm. Free.

Alfredo Malabello The Push Bar, The Rocks.

7:30pm. Free.

Banquet - feat: All My Alien Sex Friends + Adaptors + Pirra + DJs Zuri Akoko + Goonz + Astrix Little + Vwls The World Bar, Kings Cross.

8pm. $10.

Bin Juice + King Colour + Wild Honey Moonshine Cider & Rum Bar, Manly. 8pm. Free.

Blake Tailor Duo Quakers Inn, Quakers Hill.

8pm. Free.

Blue Bloods Black Wire Records, Annandale. 7pm. Free.

Floyd Vincent And The Temple Dogs Grand Junction, Maitland.

8:30pm. Free.

Gena Rose Bruce Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst.

8pm. $12.

Geoffrey O’Connor Golden Age Cinema, Surry Hills. 10:45pm. Free.

Glenn Esmond

Kings Park Tavern, Kings Park. 7pm. Free.

Imogen Clark Rooty Hill RSL Club, Rooty Hill. 5:30pm. Free.

Jinja Safari + Sea Legs Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $28.70.

Mar Haze Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington. 8pm. Free.

Matchbox Band Penrith RSL, Penrith. 8pm.

Free.

Pat O’Grady Chatswood RSL, Chatswood.

5pm. Free.

Penny Lane The Crest Hotel Sylvania, Sylvania. 7pm. Free.

Rare Finds #4 - feat: Solo + Grrl Pal + Aviva + DJ Stonedog Millionaire Standard Bowl, Surry Hills.

7pm. Free.

Reckless Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

9:30pm. Free.

Rob Eastwood Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill.

8:30pm. Free.

Royal Headache + The Rangoons + Nervous Habit + Abigail & Daisy Goodgod Small Club, Sydney.

9:30pm. $17.

Russell Morris Terrey Hills Tavern, Terrey Hills. 9pm. $28.60.

Stephanie Lea The Oriental Hotel, Springwood. 8pm. Free.

Steve Crocker The Forbes Hotel, Sydney.

5pm. Free.

Temtris + Black Reign + Til Rapture+ By The Horns Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt. 7pm. $15.

The Angels Bridge Hotel, Rozelle. 8:30pm. $40.78.

The Blue Bloods (NZ) Black Wire Records, Annandale. 7pm. Free.

The Catholics Venue 505, Surry Hills.

8:30pm. $20.

The Filth - feat: Playwrite Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. Free.

The Lovetones + The Dandelion + Aleesha Dibbs Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $18.

Urban Scream Colonial Hotel, Werrington.

9pm. Free.

Vanessa Heinitz Panania Diggers, Panania.

8pm. Free.

SATURDAY AUGUST 1 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Gurrumul

Evie Dean Wallacia Hotel, Wallacia. 8pm.

Free.

Floyd Vincent & The Temple Dogs + Lapsis Sky + Mama Schultz Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8pm. $15. thebrag.com

Gurrumul photo by Nic Walker

Bec & Ben + Ali E + Mar Haze + The Ruiins + Sons Of The Morning Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney.

8:30pm. Free.

Ed Kuepper Factory Theatre, Marrickville.

8pm. $25.

Josh Pyke Soda Factory, Surry Hills.

6pm. Free.

Lego Hearts + The Gunn Show + We Take The Night + Hey Reckless + Ride For Rain Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 7pm. $10.

Penny Lane Optus Centre, Macquarie Park. 12pm. Free.

Sarah Belkner + Ed Wells

The Newsagency, Marrickville.

7:30pm. $16.50.

Sosueme - feat: Los Tones + The Dandelion + Terace Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. Free.

Make Like A Tree + Brendon Moon + Jacob Pearson + Nic Cassey + Maia J Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10.

Mr Blonde + Anatomy Class + Blackbreaks (Insurge) Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney.

10pm. Free.

Sydney Reclink Community Cup Fundraising Gig - feat: Lisa Caruso + The Holy Soul Vic On The Park, Marrickville.

7pm. Free.

Vanessa Heinitz Fortune Of War, The Rocks.

7pm. Free.

Video Games Live feat: Tommy Tallarico & Symphony Orchestra Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

7:30pm. $67.80.

g g guide gig g

g g picks gig p

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com International Blues Music Day - feat: The Mighty Reapers + The Shane Pacey Trio + Sweet Lil’ Rider + Special Guests The Basement, Circular Quay. 6pm. $29.20.

Mojo House Band - feat: Jesse & James Mojo Record Bar, Sydney.

7pm. Free.

One Vibration - feat: Kooii + Bobby Alu Paddington Uniting Church, Sydney. 7pm. $25.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Charlie Heart + Towera Smith Golden Age Cinema, Surry Hills. 5pm. Free.

Janet Seidel Quartet Penrith RSL, Penrith. 2pm.

Free.

Mark Isaacs Trio The Sound Lounge, Sydney.

8:30pm. $20.

Sexy Sunday Jam Bellini Lounge, Potts Point.

7pm. Free.

Soul Tattoo Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 10pm.

Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Agent 69 Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8:30pm. Free.

Bad Pony + Reika + Bly + East Of Here Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $11.50.

Blake Tailor Plough & Harrow, Camden.

8pm. Free.

Blue Venom Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill. 8pm. Free.

Death Cab For Cutie Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 8pm. $59.

Endangered Species Overlander Hotel, Cambridge Park. 8pm. Free.

Front End Loader + Drawn

By Horses + Flaccid Mohawk Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham.

8pm. $15.30.

Green Manalishi + The Lightning Experience Ruby L’otel, Rozelle. 8pm.

Free.

Jimmy Bear Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

4:30pm. Free.

Kirk Burgess Picton Hotel, Picton. 8pm.

Free.

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis + Big Smoke Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $54.50.

Klinger + The Suits + Introverse + The Girl Fridas Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $15.

Mark Seymour & The Undertow Factory Theatre, Marrickville.

8pm. $61.27.

Melody Rhymes Top Ryde City Shopping Centre, Ryde. 6pm. Free.

Penny Lane Novotel, Rooty Hill. 6:30pm.

Free.

Rebecca Johnson Band Town Hall Hotel, Balmain.

10pm. Free.

Red Alert Penrith Panthers, Penrith.

9pm. Free.

Rob Eastwood The Push Bar, The Rocks.

7:30pm. Free.

Rock Monster Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown. 9pm. Free.

Rohan Cannon The Crest Hotel Sylvania, Sylvania. 9pm. Free.

Saturday Night Divas South Sydney Junior Rugby League Club, Kingsford.

thebrag.com

7:30pm. Free.

Shady Nasty + Magnus + Uncle Axel Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington. 8pm. Free.

Smaal Cats + The Dinlows + Little Coyote Hotel Steyne Manly, Manly.

9pm. Free.

Soundproofed St Marys Rugby Leagues Club, St Marys. 8pm. Free.

Steve Crocker The Belvedere Hotel, Sydney.

7:30pm. Free.

Ted Nash Fortune Of War, The Rocks.

8pm. Free.

The Angels Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

8:30pm. $40.78.

The Blue Bloods + Friendsters + Housewives + Rangoons Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 9pm. Free.

The Frocks Penrith RSL, Penrith. 9pm.

Free.

They Call Me Bruce The Henry Sports Club, Werrington County. 7:30pm.

Free.

We Lost The Sea + Hope Drone + Serious Beak + Lo! + Tanned Christ + Owl Mountain Factory Theatre, Marrickville.

5:30pm. $20.

Wild Catz Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

9:30pm. Free.

SUNDAY AUGUST 2 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Ich Bin Ein Belinda And These Things Take Wine feat: Belinda Hanne Reid + Natasha York The Vanguard, Newtown.

7pm. $34.80.

Recovery Unit Trio + DJs Husky And Alex Mac Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly.

3pm. Free.

Run The Red Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 6:30pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Death Cab For Cutie Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

7pm. $73.30.

Fundraiser For Darren + Unknown To God + Golden Syrup + Death Church Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 4pm. $10.

Funk Star Trio Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

8:30pm. Free.

Gypsy Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 12pm. $10.

Jared Baca Ingleburn Hotel, Ingleburn.

1pm. Free.

Kurt Williams Kings Park Tavern, Kings Park. 12:30pm. Free.

LJ Strawberry Hills Hotel, Surry Hills. 2pm. Free.

Lonesome Train Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

4:30pm. Free.

Michael Fryar The Rivo Hotel, Riverstone.

1pm. Free.

Open Mic Night Nag’s Head Hotel, Glebe.

5:30pm. Free.

Pat O’Grady The Mill Hotel, Milperra.

12pm. Free.

Riley Beech Picton Hotel, Picton. 1pm.

Free.

Rock Shots + Bobby Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 4pm. $10.

Sabbath Sessions - feat:

up all night out all week...

Bones Atlas + Latham’s Grip + Shaky Hands + Wasters + Legs Electric Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 4pm.

Free.

Sam Newton Panania Diggers, Panania.

12pm. Free.

Sidebar Sundays - feat: Dave White Side Bar, Sydney. 9pm. Free.

Swinging Sixties Penrith RSL, Penrith. 2pm.

Free.

Vanessa Heinitz Fortune Of War, The Rocks.

6pm. Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Merilyn Steele + Andrew Denniston + David Levell + Russell Neal Red Lion Hotel, Rozelle.

2pm. Free.

Joshua Seymour Shady Pines, Darlinghurst.

6pm. Free.

Rob Eastwood Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown. 2pm. Free.

Stuart Jammin + Guests Harlequin Inn, Pyrmont. 3pm.

Free.

MONDAY AUGUST 3 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Sonic Mayhem Orchestra Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK John Maddox Duo Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 7pm.

Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Frankie’s World Famous House Band Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 9pm.

Free.

Mick Hambly Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

9pm. Free.

TUESDAY AUGUST 4 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Live & Originals @ Mr Falcon’s - feat: Dave Decosta + Luke Cleland & Stu West + Jarryn Phegan With Zach Biggin Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 7:30pm.

Free.

Steve Mckenna Trio Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. Free.

Swing Tuesdays Week 1 feat: The Finer Cuts The Basement, Circular Quay. 6pm. $6.

Ali E

WEDNESDAY JULY 29

Sarah Belkner

Bec & Ben + Ali E + Mar Haze + The Ruiins + Sons Of The Morning Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney.

8:30pm. Free.

Ed Kuepper Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $25.

Gurrumul Enmore Theatre, Newtown.

8pm. $100.93.

Sarah Belkner + Ed Wells The Newsagency, Marrickville. 7:30pm. $16.50.

Sosueme - Feat: Los Tones + The Dandelion + Terace Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. Free.

THURSDAY JULY 30 Ella Thompson + Okenyo Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $18.

Hot Damn! - Feat: As Silence Breaks + Your Weight In Gold + Skyon + Planet Terror + Hot Damn DJs The Bristol Arms Hotel, Sydney. 8pm. $20.

FRIDAY JULY 31 Bin Juice + King Colour + Wild Honey Moonshine Cider & Rum Bar, Manly. 8pm. Free.

Cameron James Henderson Band + Dog The Duke + A Girl’s A Gun Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham. 8pm. $13.13.

Darren Percival + Mark Moroney The Basement, Circular Quay. 7:30pm. $34.50.

+ East Of Here Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $11.50.

Gena Rose Bruce Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $12.

Front End Loader + Drawn By Horses + Flaccid Mohawk Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham. 8pm. $15.30.

Jinja Safari + Sea Legs Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $28.70.

Rare Finds #4 - Feat: Solo + Grrl Pal + Aviva + DJ Stonedog Millionaire Standard Bowl, Surry Hills.

7pm. Free.

Royal Headache + The Rangoons + Nervous Habit + Abigail & Daisy Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 9:30pm. $17.

The Angels Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

8:30pm. $40.78.

The Filth - Feat: Playwrite Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. Free.

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis + Big Smoke Metro Theatre, Sydney.

8pm. $54.50.

Klinger + The Suits + Introverse + The Girl Fridas Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $15.

Mark Seymour & The Undertow Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $61.27.

One Vibration - Feat: Kooii + Bobby Alu Paddington Uniting Church, Sydney. 7pm. $25.

The Lovetones + The Dandelion + Aleesha Dibbs Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $18.

SUNDAY AUGUST 2

SATURDAY AUGUST 1

Sabbath Sessions Feat: Bones Atlas + Latham’s Grip + Shaky Hands + Wasters + Legs Electric Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney.

4pm. Free.

Bad Pony + Reika + Bly

Playwrite

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Co Pilot Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

9pm. Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Bucket Lounge Presents Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 7pm.

Free.

BRAG :: 623 :: 29:07:15 :: 29

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 and Elias Kwiet

WITH

UNDR ctrl photo by Oliver Minnett @ Voena

five things

UNDR ctrl

JENSEN INTERCEPTOR

Growing Up My first music 1. memories came from my parents. My dad listened to lots of Creedence, The Doobie Brothers and Beach Boys and my mum would always be listening to Fleetwood Mac, Boney M. and ABBA. Inspirations Gucci 2.

Mane, Kraftwerk, Joy Division, Dopplereffekt, Juan Atkins, Drexciya, Jeff Mills, Afrika Bambaataa, Depeche Mode, The Hacker and Radio Slave.

IT’S ALL UNDR CTRL

3.

Your Crew Mona. S, Assembler Code, Mikron, Jon Convex, VennQ, Hightimezz. I quit my day job a few years ago to focus on music full-time.

The Music You Make And Play 4.

Aside from the obvious electro and electroclash stuff, I have been getting into a lot more house and techno lately. I’m playing lots of stuff from Lobster Theremin, 50 Weapons, Rekids, Nonplus, Soma and R&S. Music, Right Here, Right 5.

Now

Sydney beats collective UNDR ctrl is turning one – how time flies – and marking the occasion with a first birthday party at Oxford Art Factory on Saturday August 1. Now, organisers have locked in a theme for the evening: ‘It’ll Be All White On The Night’. Keeping things clean is a massive lineup of artists including Bag Raiders playing a DJ set, Set Mo feat. Deutsch Duke, Shantan Wantan Ichiban with a new live show, Ariane and FBi Radio’s Adi Toohey. The party doubles as a fundraiser event under the Oxjam banner, the month of gigs and events in support of Oxfam.

There are lots of talented producers coming out of Oz right now, however I don’t think there is much of a platform to support them. My favourite Oz artists right now are Mikron, Tame Impala, Dro Carey, Jagwar Ma, Daze, Mona. S, Light Year, Kirin J Callinan, Assembler Code, Kris Baha, Tornado Wallace, Seekae and Dreems.

What: Oxjam presents UNDR ctrl 1st Birthday With: Adi Toohey, Bag Raiders (DJ set), Motorik Vibe Council, Olympic Ayres DJs, Set Mo feat. Deutsch Duke, Wordlife and more Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Saturday August 1

Ejeca

Raine Supreme

VINTAGE HIP HOP NIGHT

EJECA IN AUGUST

Northern Irish house and techno purveyor Ejeca is taking the long flight down to Australia in August. The Belfast boy has been working at his craft for years – he’s no flash-in-the-pan producer relying on modern trickery, having plugged away for more than a decade before receiving his breakthrough moment in 2012, when Pete Tong named two of his tracks ‘Essential Tune of the Week’ on BBC Radio 1. Ejeca hasn’t looked back since, recording an eclectic podcast for XLR8R in 2013 and more recently unveiling his own label, Exploris. Ejeca’s global DJ tour brings him to Chinese Laundry on Saturday August 15.

ELECTRO CIRCUS LINEUP GROWS The Prodigy

It’s been a good year for fans of The Prodigy. Following their headline set at Future Music Festival in March, and the release of new album The Day Is My Enemy (wasn’t ‘Nasty’ a hell of a track?), they’re back once more with a new EP release. The Night Is My Friend, as the name suggests, is something of a counterpunch to the album that became The Prodigy’s sixth consecutive number one record. The EP is due out this Friday July 31, with songs including album cuts ‘Get Your Fight On’ and ‘Rhythm Bomb’, plus two remixes and the previously unreleased ‘AWOL’.

30 :: BRAG :: 623 :: 29:07:15

The crew at The Cliff Dive are celebrating this Bank Holiday weekend with a hefty dose of lovin’.

It’s happening under the banner of Love Potion 69, and punters can look forward to disco, house and “outer body explorations”. The dancefloor doyens on the night will be Love Bombs, Heavenly and Spin The Bottle, and Sailor Jerry is on booze duty. It all goes down this Sunday August 2. OK, so it’s only a bank holiday Monday, but that’s hardly an excuse, is it?

KISS MY TIGERLILY

Pacha Sydney has something big in the pipeline for this week’s party at Ivy on Saturday August 1 – namely, the latest edition of Tigerlily’s residency,

waving the flag for Kiss My Tigerlily.

The highlight is a collaboration between the eponymous DJ and The Squared Division, a production team that’s putting on a show of laser cats, unicorns and ‘sextronauts’ like nothing you’ve ever seen or dreamed of before. The sprawling bill includes Glover, Terace, Gemellini, Kormak, Jeff Drake, Offtapia, Nanna Does, DJ Moto, Samrai, Fingers, Devola, Mike Hyper, Lavida, Elly K and PW. Oh boy. thebrag.com

The Prodigy photo by Paul Dugdale

NEW FROM THE PRODIGY

Trap fans will be licking their chops now that Electro Circus has announced the full lineup for its trap-dedicated Trapeze Stage. The new festival’s added stage will be headlined by Gladiator, joined by Dotcom, Sikdope, Torro Torro and local legends Spenda C, Nemo, Vengeance and Destroy The Machines for an audiovisual extravaganza carefully tailored to best exploit all the senses. These trap lords will join the already stellar Electro Circus lineup, which includes Carmada, Joel Fletcher and Tigerlily among many more. Electro Circus takes over Rosehill Gardens on Saturday September 5.

IT MUST BE LOVE

OG hip hop is the name of the game in Surry Hills this weekend, as Play Bar hosts a party to kick off August with a bang. Expect a mix of rare old-school rap and classic party re-edits when Raine Supreme and Benny Hinn take charge this Saturday August 1.

Raine Supreme has carved a constant presence on the Sydney scene with his hip hop, soul and funk selections, and if you get the chance to catch him after his set, he’ll tell you all about the smallest details from each track he plays.

They don’t call him Mr. Encyclopaedia of Music for nuthin’. Meanwhile, Benny Hinn has been spinning vinyl for some 14 years now, and co-owns Play Bar – you can bet he’s up for a good time.

William Basinski Cascading Sounds By Tyson Wray or so absolutely infatuated with a single piece of music. I suppose in a way that’s depressing, but in another it’s rather wonderful. I choose to pay attention to the latter – the fact that someone can feel so emotionally astonished by some goddamn MP3 files. I wouldn’t dare try to deconstruct or explain the connection I feel with the music. The ideology of unknowing is what makes life beautiful.

Earlier this year, Basinski released his latest record, Cascade – a 40-minute piece in which he manipulates a single piano tape loop recorded in 1982.

William Basinski photo by Peter J. Kierzkowski

“Cascade starts with just one repeating piano tape loop, one from my early days in Brooklyn when I was making all my loops,” he explains from his home in Los Angeles. He’s smoking a cigarette and nursing a beer, while a police siren wails in the background before gradually fading out. Hauntingly apt.

I

was eight years old when I witnessed my aunt – struck down by cancer following a lifetime of heavy smoking – pass away. To this day it remains the most hauntingly vivid epiphany I’ve ever had. Over the many millennia of human history, only one thing has been constant: death.

Death is inevitable. Everyone you know and love will one day turn to dust. When you’re on your own deathbed, you’ll be forced to reflect on the life you lived, the people you loved, the people you fucked over and those you never gave the time of day. You’ll think about the mistakes you made, the regrets you foster and the moments

you’d give anything to be given a second chance at. You’ll also reflect fondly on what shaped the person you became – the influences, the people, the art and the societal constructs around you.

William Basinski’s 2002 album The Disintegration Loops – the five-hour aural documentation of his own music physically decaying, which unintentionally became an elegy to the 2,977 victims who died during the 9/11 attacks – will be something that crosses my mind just before I pass. At least I hope it will be. I’ve never felt so influenced, so impassioned

“It’s from one of my earliest piano compositions.

The composition wasn’t working, so I cut it up and made a bunch of loops. This was one that I always liked but had never done anything with.

It’s really just the loop repeating, and it does it in a really beautiful way. It’s got a very strange rhythm. It’s very wilting and it kind of just carries you.”

To create this deeply melancholic and forlorn piece, the loop is swirled within a whirlwind of tessellating currents that deteriorate in a ghostly fashion. It’s a harrowing work; a piece that weaves its way through the deepest and darkest corners of your mind. As the loop begins to die, the brute emotional force comes from what music isn’t heard – it’s sound in its most physical and pure form; a minimalist documentation on the frailty of life.

“It should have been a really easy record to make, but it was torture getting Cascade the way I wanted it,” says Basinski. “I almost threw it out several times. As with all of the original recordings that I used to make, it wasn’t very good. There was some crunchiness that I was having a horrible time dealing with. After so many attempts, I finally got it to sound like a jewel. Like an organic plasma spaceship or something, I don’t know. I’m very happy with the way it turned out. I was so relieved when I got it to be perfect.”

As part of the Australian record label Room40’s event Open Frame, a two-day festival to celebrate its 15th anniversary, Basinski will bring Cascade to life in Sydney.

“I created a live version of Cascade which I call The Deluge,” he explains. “It’s quite simple.

I have two rather small ’70s-style Uher Report Monitor reel-to-reel decks. I’ll have several different reels with me that contain different parts of the piece. I also have my laptop, which contains the processing for the main body of the work. I sit there and listen to the space and decide how long certain sections of the piece should go for. I just kind of let it happen. The loop starts, and repeats, and then I send it through a bunch of feedback loops, which pick up lots of different harmonics and create a lot of tension. Behind me there’ll be this beautiful sparkling video that was made by my partner James Elaine, that works really well with the piece. That’s it. It’s simple.”

What: Open Frame Where: Carriageworks With: Makino Takashi, Jim O’Rourke, Chris Abrahams, Louise Curham and more When: Thursday July 30 – Friday July 31

Solo The Double Life By Augustus Welby

M

ore often than not, when actors transition into music they’re confronted by a wave of media and public opposition.

Perhaps put it down to tall poppy syndrome, but it’s not uncommon for someone involved in multiple artistic mediums to be accused of cashing in on their fame in order to gain more ego-stroking plaudits.

Sydneysider Sophie Lowe is a recognised film and television actor.

She’s perhaps best known for her stunning portrayal of the title character in Rachel Ward’s twisted Australian drama Beautiful Kate from 2009. More recently she played a key role in ABC TV’s The Slap and the psychological thriller After The Dark. Lowe is also a hard-working electropop performer who released her debut EP under the Solo moniker in late 2013. But contrary to the trend, Lowe hasn’t faced harsh scrutiny for engaging in dual pursuits.

“I thought it could be a possibility because people like to label you as only one thing,” she says.

“I feel blessed with the appreciation I am getting for my music. I think whatever you are doing, as long as you do it with honesty, people will recognise that.”

Solo’s debut release – simply titled EP – was produced by Sydneybased musician/songwriter/producer Neal Sutherland. Sutherland picked up an ARIA for his work on Bertie Blackman’s Secrets And Lies, and he’s currently a member of Jack Ladder’s band The Dreamlanders.

Lowe has actually been writing songs for over ten years, but combining with Sutherland gave her the necessary push to bring EP to life.

“Neal has been a big influence,” she says. “I’m so lucky to be able to work with him. My songs are so personal to me and Neal makes me feel so comfortable. He doesn’t make me feel self-conscious about my vulnerability.

James McComb co-wrote ‘Dreaming’ and ‘Please’ from my first EP. He is

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an amazing guitarist; I loved working with him, too. James is currently in the band White Dog.”

Along with giving Lowe the confidence to deliver her songs with expressive candour, Sutherland played a key role in refining the songs and nailing down the finished versions.

“Some songs needed more shaping than others,” says Lowe.

“I usually go to him with a strong idea or feeling for each song I have written. We always have the best time in the studio. The way we work is I write songs with Logic on my computer and then would take them to Neal whenever I’m back in Sydney. Together we work on the songs to make them sound bigger and better. Neal really helps me believe in myself. He always has great suggestions and I think the EP wouldn’t have been the same without him.”

Upon its release, EP’s lead single ‘Dreaming’ gained airplay on triple j and community radio. In March this year, Solo returned with the single ‘Understand’, taken from her forthcoming follow-up, EP2. The positive recording dynamic established on the first EP encouraged Lowe to team up with Sutherland again. “He knows how I like to work and I love working with him,” she says.

In contrast to the moody minimalism of Solo’s debut, ‘Understand’ contains immersive electronic textures, and it’s a pretty good indication of what’s to come. “There is a lot more going on in my new EP – bigger sounds, and I took more risks this time I think,” Lowe says. “Every song touches on a different side of my personality. I’m very excited for people to hear my new songs.”

The stylistic update can partially be attributed to the new sounds Lowe has been absorbing. In particular, the

music of FKA Twigs gave her plenty of ideas for where she could take her sound. “I loved hearing the simple and very effective rhythm that FKA Twigs has,” she says. “I mean, there is a lot going on in the songs, but it all flows so well. Hearing that gave me some more confidence in what I was writing.”

When it comes to more formative influences, Lowe names Nancy Sinatra and Fiona Apple as two artists who pushed her towards writing music. “Fiona Apple’s vulnerable lyrics and amazing songwriting skills and Nancy Sinatra’s classic sound – love them,” she says.

While the release of EP2 is still pending, audiences will get a chance to taste some new material when Solo headlines Rare Finds #4 at The Standard Bowl this Friday.

Her recordings feature electronic production and plenty of synths, as well as guitar and other acoustic

instrumentation, so she’ll need some help executing it all live.

“Neal plays live with me, which is always an instant comfort,” Lowe says. “Neal will be playing synth this time and we will have a live drummer.

James McComb will join us for the song ‘Dreaming’, which will be really fun.”

Looking ahead, Lowe doesn’t plan to reduce her commitment to either acting or music. However, balancing the two vocations can make for a somewhat unpredictable lifestyle. “I am proud of my work,” she says. “[But] it is hard to know what will come next in my life, acting-wise or music-wise.”

What: Rare Finds #4 With: Grrl Pal, Aviva, DJ Stonedog Millionaire Where: The Standard Bowl When: Friday July 31

BRAG :: 623 :: 29:07:15 :: 31

club guide g send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com

club pick of the week

CLUB NIGHTS

Baro

THURSDAY JULY 30

Goodgod Small Club

Baro + Gill Bates + Marcus

Xxx

SATURDAY AUGUST 1

8pm. $18.40.

WEDNESDAY JULY 29 CLUB NIGHTS Mø + Elliphant Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $49.90.

Salsa Wednesdays - feat: DJ Miro + Special Guests The Argyle, The Rocks. 8:30pm. Free.

Side Bar Wednesdays - feat: Bangers & Mash Side Bar, Sydney.

9pm. Free.

The Wall The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. Free.

HIP HOP & R&B

Froyo + Dewis The Loft (UTS), Ultimo. 5pm. Free.

THURSDAY JULY 30 CLUB NIGHTS Discotheque 71 - feat: Pedrecal + Astronafrica + Venex + Vlad Ching-a-lings, Darlinghurst. 7pm.

Free.

Duan And Only + DJ Somatik Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 3pm. Free.

Five Dollar Thursdays - feat: DJs Steve Zappa + Skinny Scubar, Sydney.

8:30pm. Free.

Full Moon Start

Of Session Party - feat: Jawz + Go Freek + DJ Oscar Wuts + Where It’s Att + Adam Camilleri + Spenni UNSW Roundhouse, Kensington. 8pm. $20.

Kicks The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. Free.

Open Frame - Feat: William Basinski + Grouper & Paul Clipson + Lawrence English + Austin Buckett & Robbie Avenaim + Jim O’Rourke + Makino Takashi + Chris Abrahams & Louise Curham Carriageworks, Eveleigh. 7:30pm. $35.

The Midnight Swim Sessions - feat: Thomas Studdy Goros, Surry Hills.

8pm. Free.

HIP HOP & R&B

Baro + Gill Bates + Marcus Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $18.40.

FRIDAY JULY 31 CLUB NIGHTS Banquet - feat: DJs Zuri Akoko + Goonz + Astrix Little + Vwls + All My Alien Sex Friends + Adaptors + Pirra The World Bar, Kings Cross. 8pm. $10.

Bassic - feat: Dodge & Fuski

32 :: BRAG :: 623 :: 29:07:15

+ Barely Alive + Astronaut + Nemo + Blackmale + Gold Brixx + Gradz + Eddie Shaggz + Killy + Beatslingerz Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $17.50.

Derriere - feat: Rotating DJs Goros, Surry Hills.

6pm. Free.

DJ Somatik Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 8pm. Free.

Switchback + Reload + Seb Slice + Junior + Vision + Pitch Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10.

El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 10pm.

Free.

Feel Good Fridays feat: DJs Bar100, The Rocks.

5pm. Free.

Friday Lite Hosted

By Cache One feat: Marky Vaw & Boobjob + Gcoo X Matka + Radge + The Rudy + Lil Queefy X Cache One Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 10pm. Free.

Fridays Frothers feat: Babysham + Jesse Sewell Side Bar, Sydney.

9pm. Free.

Jam Fridays Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 9:30pm.

Free.

Open Frame - Feat: William Basinski + Grouper & Paul Clipson + Lawrence English + Austin Buckett & Robbie Avenaim + Jim O’Rourke + Makino

Takashi + Chris Abrahams & Louise Curham Carriageworks, Eveleigh. 7:30pm. $35.

Scubar Fridays - feat: DJs On Rotation Scubar, Sydney.

8pm. Free.

Sydney Reclink Community Cup Fundraising Gig Finale - feat: DJ Anthony Albanese MP Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. Free.

Trash 8th Birthday Miind Nightclub, Darlinghurst. 8:30pm.

Free.

Wedidit - feat: Shlohmo + Purple + D33j + Nick Melons Metro Theatre, Sydney. 9pm. $44.05.

HIP HOP & R&B

Adverse + Makoto + Spook + Benny Hinn Play Bar, Surry Hills.

6pm. Free.

Dope Rappers Presents 10k Member Industry Jam - feat: Sub & Creep + L.F.M. + Sarah Connor + Hustle Hard TV + Vito + Harjot + Big Red Cap + Saz + Animal Child + Crooked Rookie + DJ Intense + Engn - Ear + DJ Jimmy New + Korza + Benny Deeks + Tiny Tonez Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 9pm. $10.

Deep Seeded - feat: Moopie + Jon Watts + Gareth Psaltis + Fake + T.Morimoto + Patches + Phile The Sly Fox, Enmore. 10pm. $10.

Disco Inferno - feat: Super C + Graham M Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 6pm. Free.

El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 10pm.

Free.

Frankie’s Pizza Saturdays - feat: DJs Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 9pm. Free.

Frat Saturdays - feat: Jonksi + Guests Side Bar, Sydney.

7:30pm. Free.

Halfway Crooks feat: DJ Levins + Captain Franco + Mike Who + G Coo + Batesy + Mckinley Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 10pm. $10.

Homemade - feat: Royaal Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour.

9pm. Free.

Le Fruit DJs Goros, Surry Hills.

8pm. Free.

Lndry - feat: Christian Martin + Linda Marigliano + Friendless + Huggy Boiz + Propaganda + Elijah Scadden + Offtapia + Rouss + King Lee + Just One + DJ Eko Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $17.50.

My Place Saturdays Bar100, The Rocks.

8pm. Free.

Oxjam Presents Undr Ctrl 1st Birthday - feat: Bag Raiders (DJ Set) + Adi Toohey + Ariane And Ara Koufax + Set Mo + Parkside DJs + Olympic Ayres DJs + Jawz + Luen + Tear Council + World Champion + Shantan Wantan Ichiban + Motorik Vibe Council + Jensen Interceptor + Wordlife Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 9pm. $14.60.

Pacha - feat: Tigerlily + Glover + Terace + Gemellini + Kormak + Jeff Drake + Offtapia + Nanna Does + DJ Moto + Samrai + Fingers + Devola + Mike Hyper + Lavida + Elly K + Pw Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 6:30pm. $38.

Project (Bass) feat: DJ Thera + Relapse + UKTM Manning Bar, Camperdown. 5pm. $56.10.

Resident DJ The Kent Bar & Grill, Hamilton. 9:30pm.

Free.

Scubar Saturdays feat: Live DJs Scubar, Sydney.

8:30pm. Free.

Super C And Graham M Manly Wharf Hotel,

Manly. 6pm. Free.

HIP HOP & R&B

Communications Records Presents Still Life 006 - feat: Forrest Ensemble Live + Loft Life + 28 Underground + Sekwensa + Spinifex Knox Street Bar, Chippendale. 6pm.

Free.

Hau + Yum Yum & The Goods + DJs Krytel Diola + Kas3one Oxford Hotel, Darlinghurst. 7:30pm. $10.

O.T. Genasis Max Watt’s, Moore Park. 8:30pm. $39.70.

Raine Supreme + Benny Hinn Play Bar, Surry Hills.

6pm. Free.

Xs.If Mr Falcon’s, Glebe.

9:30pm. Free.

SUNDAY AUGUST 2

CLUB NIGHTS Love Potion 69 feat: Heavenly + Love Bombs + Spin The Bottle Cliff Dive, Darlinghurst. 9pm.

Free.

S.A.S.H Sundays feat: Chopstick & Johnjon + LeOCh + Ben Booth + Mike Hagley + Venda + Kerry Wallace + Bass To Pain Converter + Zigmon + Doppel Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour.

3pm. $10.

Sunday Sessions - feat: DJs Husky And Alex Mac Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 5pm. Free.

MONDAY AUGUST 3 CLUB NIGHTS Mashup Monday - feat: Resident DJs + DJ Thieves + Recess + Otg + Chivalry + More Side Bar, Sydney.

8pm. Free.

TUESDAY AUGUST 4 CLUB NIGHTS Coyote Tuesdays The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. $10.

up all night out all week...

THURSDAY JULY 30 Mø + Elliphant Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $49.90.

Open Frame - Feat: William Basinski + Grouper & Paul Clipson + Lawrence English + Austin Buckett & Robbie Avenaim + Jim O’Rourke + Makino Takashi + Chris Abrahams & Louise Curham Carriageworks, Eveleigh.

7:30pm. $35.

FRIDAY JULY 31 Bassic - Feat: Dodge & Fuski + Barely Alive + Astronaut + Nemo + Blackmale + Gold Brixx + Gradz + Eddie Shaggz + Killy + Beatslingerz Chinese Laundry, Sydney.

9pm. $17.50.

Sydney Reclink Community Cup Fundraising Gig Finale - Feat: DJ Anthony Albanese MP Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. Free.

Wedidit - Feat: Shlohmo + Purple + D33j + Nick Melons Metro Theatre, Sydney.

9pm. $44.05.

SATURDAY AUGUST 1 Deep Seeded - Feat: Moopie + Jon Watts + Gareth Psaltis + Fake + T.Morimoto + Patches + Phile The Sly Fox, Enmore.

10pm. $10.

Halfway Crooks - Feat: DJ Levins + Captain Franco + Mike Who + G Coo + Batesy + Mckinley Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 10pm. $10.

Hau + Yum Yum & The Goods + DJs Krytel Diola + Kas3one Oxford Hotel, Darlinghurst.

7:30pm. $10.

Lndry - Feat: Christian Martin + Linda Marigliano + Friendless + Huggy Boiz + Propaganda + Elijah Scadden + Offtapia + Rouss + King Lee + Just One + DJ Eko Chinese Laundry, Sydney.

9pm. $17.50.

O.T. Genasis Max Watt’s, Moore Park.

8:30pm. $39.70.

Oxjam Presents Undr Ctrl 1st Birthday - Feat: Bag Raiders (DJ Set) + Adi Toohey + Ariane And Ara Koufax + Set Mo + Parkside DJs + Olympic Ayres DJs + Jawz + Luen + Tear Council + World Champion + Shantan Wantan Ichiban + Motorik Vibe Council + Jensen Interceptor + Wordlife Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 9pm. $14.60.

Project (Bass) - Feat: DJ Thera + Relapse + UKTM Manning Bar, Camperdown.

5pm. $56.10.

SUNDAY AUGUST 2 S.A.S.H Sundays - Feat: Chopstick & Johnjon + LeOCh + Ben Booth + Mike Hagley + Venda + Kerry Wallace + Bass To Pain Converter + Zigmon + Doppel Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 3pm. $10.

thebrag.com

Off The Record Dance and Electronica with Tyson Wray

Four Tet

F

or fuck’s sake. Our absolutely idiotic and completely backwards lockout laws have claimed another victim: the local dance institution that is The Spice Cellar, which joins the ever-growing list of venues that have closed in recent times, including Backroom, The Exchange, The Flinders, La Cita, Trademark Hotel and Soho. The Spice organisers took to Facebook on Friday night to announce their closure, just weeks after their venue the Imperial Hotel was first shut down for a weekend due to a drug bust, and only four months after Spice relocated from the CBD to Erskineville.

Coinciding with the closure of Spice, a communal group called Stop The Music has been formed in an attempt to create a space to give these owners a voice, and to try and save the music, freedom, art and culture in Sydney before it’s too late. Join them at facebook.com/ stopthemusicdotorg. The fact the New South Wales State Government is so blatantly ignoring the evidence that these types of laws do not deter violence is becoming critically dangerous for our city.

It’s now or never.

Y’know how last week I mentioned murmurs of a tour from Ejeca? Lock that shit in, son! It’s been confirmed that the Belfast lad is returning Down Under. The DJ and producer has released on the likes of Last Night On Earth, Tusk Wax, 2020 Vision, Needwant and even our own Future Classic. A definitive DJ’s DJ, Erol Alkan, Jackmaster, Will Saul and Sasha all list Ejeca in their favourites list. And yeah, as I mentioned last week, his track ‘X Girl’ from the 2012 EP Tusk Wax Five is all-time. Give it a rinse before you get down with the

man himself on Saturday August 15 at Chinese Laundry.

I wouldn’t usually talk about an overseas festival, but the exception to that rule is the goddamn Amsterdam Dance Event.

The world’s leading electronic event will celebrate its 20th anniversary with 2,200 artists at 300 events spread over 100 venues and five days. The biggest club festival in the world has just announced its first round lineup and it features just about every damn DJ and producer on the planet.

No exaggeration. Alongside performances, the festival also features exhibitions, in-store showcases, tech workshops, popup stores and film screenings. Basically, it’s heaven for electronic music lovers. Get looking at flights and make the pilgrimage that more than 350,000 others will – it’s going down from Wednesday October 14 – Sunday October 18.

ON SALE NOW - SECRET-SOUNDS.COM.AU

Tour rumours: we’ll be getting a visit from goddamn Four Tet within the next six months. Oh, same goes for Thundercat.

You best believe it.

Best releases this week: it’s a bit of a slow release week with Acre & Filter Dread’s Interference (on Pan x Codes [Visionist]) really being the only record piquing my interest. I’ve also just discovered Dennis Bovell & Golden Teacher’s Golden Teacher Meets Dennis Bovell At The Green Door (Optimo Music) and it is straight-up fire. I absolutely have no idea what the hell is happening with Donato Dozzy’s mind but something is definitely up because his latest album Cassandra was recorded using mouth harps and the samples are impossible to take seriously. Can someone please confiscate that man’s equipment?

I MAG I N E BE I NG MAD E TO

RECOMMENDED SATURDAY AUGUST 1

Roman Flügel

Moopie The Sly Fox

FEEL LIKE CRAP JUST FOR

SATURDAY AUGUST 8

The Black Madonna Marrickville Bowling Club Dean Benson Oxford Hotel

SATURDAY AUGUST 15 Ejeca Chinese Laundry

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 19

SATURDAY AUGUST 22

Kangding Ray Bridge Hotel

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 12

Lapalux Chinese Laundry

Borrowed Identity Bridge Hotel

Pan-Pot TBA

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 20 FRIDAY NOVEMBER 27

Marrickville Bowling Club

FRIDAY DECEMBER 4 – SUNDAY DECEMBER 6

Subsonic Music Festival: KiNK, Dop, Rick Wade, Roman Flügel + more Riverwood Downs Mountain Valley Resort, Barrington Tops

Eric Cloutier

Got any tip-offs, hate mail, praise or cat photos?

Email hey@tysonwray.com or contact me via carrier pigeon. thebrag.com

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

BRAG :: 623 :: 29:07:15 :: 33

snap

VIEW FULL GALLERIES AT

up all night out all week . . .

thebrag.com/snaps

live review What we've been out to see...

EARL SWEATSHIRT, MOONBASE COMMANDER Max Watt’s Saturday July 25 Arriving at Moore Park venue Max Watt’s (née The Hi-Fi) for Earl Sweatshirt’s Splendour In The Grass sideshow on Saturday night, there is a notably heavy police and sniffer dog presence outside. It feels like a bitter reflection of the tight grip on New South Wales’ live music scene, similarly highlighted by a large police contingent at Splendour. “They must be searching for antidepressants,” laughs the guy behind me, as my chaperone returns from needlessly being frisked after catching a pooch’s attention.

Warming the crowd is Sydney producer Nick Luke AKA Moonbase Commander. His tightly crafted heavy trap beats compel those entering the room to move instantly.

He loves his time onstage, despite not receiving the amount of energy and movement from the crowd he deserves.

PICS :: AM

s.a.s.h sundays

After letting his own DJ try and hype the crowd for 15 trap-heavy minutes of the hour-total set – he gets a similar response to that of the Commander – Earl

Sweatshirt appears to a screaming crowd. The fans have indeed saved their energy for him, and it doesn’t die for the rest of the night. He leads with ‘Burgundy’, and by second song ‘Pre’, joints have been sparked, the room is jumping and every lyric is being sung along to – thankfully mitigating the too-quiet vocals.

Mainly playing songs from Doris and I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside, Sweatshirt dedicates his final few minutes to some unreleased tracks that have been doing the rounds on YouTube over the past few months – ‘Quest/Power’ and an unnamed song performed over A$AP Rocky’s ‘Brand New Guy’ instrumental (which is aired a second time as the encore).

The undying love from the audience seems to have an effect on Sweatshirt – a large segment of the young, hipster-meets-hiphop crowd is also decked out in Supreme gear – and his initial lack of chatter has, by the night’s conclusion, transformed into wild dancing and a beaming smile… the exception being Sweatshirt punching a guy who tries to hug him from behind.

Good grief.

Sam Caldwell

the chop ft. prolifik the gifted

PICS :: AM

26:07:15 :: Home Nightclub :: 101/1-5 Wheat Rd Darling Harbour 9266 0600

24:07:15 :: Play Bar :: 72 Campbell St Surry Hills 9280 0885 OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER

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CLARKE :: ASHLEY MAR

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