Brag#637

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ISSUE NO. 637 NOVEMBER 4, 2015

FREE Now picked up at over 1,600 places across Sydney and surrounds. thebrag.com

MUSIC, FILM, THEATRE + MORE

RE S

M L A C Y T I C DOWN

S TLES ON R THE OAD Plus

T HE D A R K NE S S PVT T HE T E A PA R T Y T IM A ND ER IC JA KE BUGG

F U T UR E I S L A ND S

S A R A H BL A SKO

YOU A M I

A NDR A S F OX

Keeping things fresh after a not-sodifficult second album.

How they took nearly ten years to become an overnight success.

The Sydney singer's splendid fifth album embraces pop in all its forms.

A joyous new record arrives after a fly-by-night recording process.

A ND MOR E

thebrag.com

BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15 :: 3

rock music news

the BRAG presents

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Tegan Reeves, Chris Martin and Gloria Brancatisano

MICHAEL P CULLEN Lazybones Lounge Thursday November 19

on the record WITH

The Last Record I Bought The last record I bought 2. was a couple weeks ago at

To Argue. I was in love with that ‘Zombie’ single at the time and had a huge crush on Dolores O’Riordan. I remember playing it over and over and over for months on end, imagining her singing to me. I still think ‘Ode To My Family’ is one of the most brilliantly melancholy songs ever despite it being turned into a ’90s radio cliché.

this little shop I frequent called Jacknife Records. The record was Neurovision by this ’80s French synthpop band, Telex. There’s this track on it called ‘My Time’ that I think is one of the sexiest slow jam songs ever. I’m a huge sucker for most of that coldwave, minimal synth and synthpop that came out in the late ’70s and early ’80s, so anything in that realm I’ll usually swoop compulsively. Telex is kind of on the brighter side of that dark world without disassociating themselves from it; they sort of cloak their subversive intentions under a thick layer of catchy hooks and sparkly production. The First Thing I Recorded I started recording my 3. own songs in freshman year in high school with an old Tascam Portastudio, mostly alone. It was a boarding school, so every minute

of the day was strictly regimented. I had to literally hide under the covers when I recorded so the proctors wouldn’t see me. I look back on those days very, very fondly. I think a lot of that creative clarity gets all fogged up when you start having to turn a passionate habit into a total hustle. I love writing music, just as I did then, but I despise everything about what gets lost when transitioning the music you make into a musicmaking industry. It’s sad. The Last Thing I Recorded Our latest record is called 4. The Great Pretenders. It’s sort of a buffet of modern pop, even though we recorded the whole thing in one of the oldest studios in LA. We’re a three-piece, so the live versions are much more raw and confrontational, without losing the etherealness from the record. I’m told people either totally love it or totally hate it, which I think is a good spot to be in.

Hordern Pavilion Tuesday January 5

The Record That Changed My Life 5. Probably Weezer’s Pinkerton. That

BLOC PARTY

basically made me want to write music. It changed everything for me. My whole perspective on what modern rock’n’roll was capable of portraying had flipped at that point. It also got me through high school, which says a lot. I’ll always have a deep admiration for what Rivers Cuomo accomplished on those first two records. I still blast The Blue Album and Pinkerton on the road when we tour the States; it’s a perfect mid-afternoon road record.

Enmore Theatre Thursday January 7

PARTY IN THE PADDOCK – ft. Violent Soho, Spiderbait, The Preatures and more Burns Creek, Tasmania Friday February 19 – Saturday February 20

STURGILL SIMPSON

What: The Great Pretenders out now through Capitol/Caroline Where: Goodgod Small Club When: Thursday November 12 And: Also supporting Tame Impala at the Forecourt, Sydney Opera House on Tuesday November 10 and Wednesday November 11

Metro Theatre Tuesday March 22

SHAKEY GRAVES The Basement Thursday March 31

Shakey Graves photo by Jarred Gastriech

The First Record I Bought The first tape I ever bought 1. was The Cranberries’ No Need

FOALS

TYLER PARKFORD FROM MINI MANSIONS

UNFUN AT THE FACTORY

MANAGING EDITOR: Chris Martin chris@thebrag.com 02 9212 4322 ONLINE EDITOR: Tyson Wray SUB-EDITOR: Sam Caldwell STAFF WRITERS: Adam Norris, Augustus Welby NEWS: Gloria Brancatisano, Eden Gillespie, Tegan Reeves ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant PHOTOGRAPHERS: Katrina Clarke, Ashley Mar ADVERTISING: Les White - 0405 581 125 / (02) 9212 4322 les@thebrag.com PUBLISHER: Furst Media MANAGING DIRECTOR, FURST MEDIA: Patrick Carr - patrick@furstmedia.com.au, (03) 9428 3600 / 0402 821 122 DIGITAL DIRECTOR/ADVERTISING: Kris Furst kris@furstmedia.com.au, (03) 9428 3600 GIG & CLUB GUIDE COORDINATOR: Sarah Bryant - gigguide@thebrag.com (rock); clubguide@thebrag.com (dance, hip hop & parties)

GOLDEN GRRRLS

Washington riot grrrl proponents Sleater-Kinney will bring the attitude to the Sydney Opera House for a headline date in March. The veteran rockers reformed in 2014 after an eight-year hiatus, and released their new record No Cities To Love in January this year – their first LP since 2005’s The Woods. Already booked in for the Golden Plains festival, Sleater-Kinney have now brought the good news to their Sydney fans. Their Opera House show will take place on Sunday March 6.

Jenn Grant

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Nat Amat, Prudence Clark, Tom Clift, Christie Eliezer, Patrick Emery, Tegan Jones, Lachlan Kanoniuk, Emily Meller, David Molloy, Annie Murney, Adam Norris, George Nott, Daniel Prior, Kate Robertson, Natalie Rogers, Erin Rooney, Spencer Scott, Natalie Salvo, Leonardo Silvestrini, Jade Smith, Lucy Watson, Rod Whitfield, Harry Windsor, Tyson Wray, Stephanie Yip, David James Young

EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher, editors or staff of the BRAG. ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Luke Forrester: accounts@furstmedia.com.au ph - (03) 9428 3600 fax - (03) 9428 3611 Furst Media, 3 Newton Street Richmond Victoria 3121

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SOUNDWAVE GETS DISTURBED

After the almost eternal drip feed, Soundwave has finally officially announced the full first round of acts for its 2016 incarnation. The 2016 festival will be headlined by Disturbed, who will be joined at the upper echelons of the bill by NOFX, The Prodigy, Deftones and Public Enemy, alongside the previously announced acts Bring Me The Horizon, Bullet For My Valentine and Refused. Rounding out the first announcement are Metal Allegiance, Hatebreed, Frenzal Rhomb, Failure, Lordi, Devil You Know, Moose Blood, Soulfly, Northlane, Dead Letter Circus, L7, Frnkiero and The Cellabration and Nothing But Thieves, with more still to be announced. Soundwave 2016 comes to Sydney Olympic Park on Sunday January 24.

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Disturbed

GRANTED, IT’S JENN

Canadian singer-songwriter Jenn Grant returns to Australia this November and December, touring her critically acclaimed album Compostela. This tour comes off the back of the release of a deluxe edition of the album that has since been nominated for five Music Nova Scotia Awards and three Canadian Folk Awards. Featured on this new release is a cover of Hunters & Collectors’ ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’, which was performed on Grant’s first-ever Australian tour. She will play Django Bar on Wednesday December 2 with support from Georgia Mooney, after appearing at the Australian Music Week conference on Thursday November 19 and Friday November 20.

Sydney’s own FBi Radio knows how to acronym, and the FBi SMAC awards are no exception. 2016 will see FBi gather together some of Sydney’s freshest and best musicians and artists to play at what will be the first-ever FBi SMACs: A Festival of Sydney Music Arts and Culture. To celebrate the eighth edition of the FBi SMAC awards, an expanded festival version of the event will be held on Sunday January 10 at Carriageworks. FBi’s taste is always on point, and the lineup for the SMACs is no exception, featuring such acts as Cosmo’s Midnight, Tuka, Dustin Tebbutt, Vallis Alps and many more (which you can see for yourself at thebrag.com). Highlights will include the FBi Click Rave Cave, live art and putt-putt in a riotously colourful mini-golf course envisioned by sculpture and installation artist Rosie Deacon. If all this isn’t enough to excite you, Donny Benet will be cooking an Italian barbecue, which he has entitled Molto Benet. Nominations for the 2015 FBi SMAC awards will be announced mid-November, with the awards ceremony itself being held on Tuesday January 12.

STIFFY FINGERS

Stiff Little Fingers will be heading to Australia for a run of shows this March and April. Formed in Belfast, Ireland in 1977, the outfit started out writing about their own lives growing up at the height of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, eventually rising to the forefront of the punk movement. In 1979, they became the first band ever to hit the UK Top 20 album charts on an independent label with their debut Inflammable Material. They released three more albums before splitting in 1983 and reforming in 1987. Since then, they’ve released another six records, playing with a consistently fluid lineup based around frontman

Jake Burns. Stiff Little Fingers will tear through the Metro Theatre on Friday April 1.

BEACHED HOUSE, BRO

Baltimore dream-pop masters Beach House will back up their Laneway Festival appearances with a special show at the Sydney Opera House in February. The band has released not one but two albums in recent months, with the surprise LP Thank Your Lucky Stars arriving less than two months after Depression Cherry. Now, Sydney fans will be thanking their lucky stars indeed for a headline date at Australia’s most famous venue. Beach House play the Sydney Opera House on Wednesday February 3.

RING AROUND THE HOUSE

Megan James and Corrin Riddick – together better known as Purity Ring – will make their way to Sydney’s iconic Opera House in early 2016. The Canadian electropoppers’ Laneway Festival appearances and Sydney sideshow will come off the back of a massive 2015, in which they dropped their second album Another Eternity and continued to build their reputation as an unmissable live act. Purity Ring will be at the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday February 9.

BATTLE IT OUT

Battles will play a Sydney headline show while they are in the country for Laneway Festival this February. The Brooklyn-based trio recently released their third album, La Di Da Di. Previous visits to our country have seen Battles grace many a festival stage, including Big Day Out on two occasions. This time around, they’re balancing out their main stage Laneway performances with more intimate headline shows, like the one at Manning Bar on Wednesday February 10. thebrag.com

Xxxx photo by xxxx

AWESOME INTERNS: Elias Kwiet, Tegan Reeves, Aaron Streatfeild, Eden Gillespie

Everyone knows how un-fun punks, emos and hardcore fans are – and UnFun Festival has dropped a lineup of some hugely influential outfits to celebrate just that. The third UnFun fest will be headlined by a band that led the charge of Aussie punk rock through the late ’80s and ’90s, HardOns. They’ll be joined by a stellar lineup including Grenadiers, Perspectives, Columbus and many more, and an acoustic busking stage that features the likes of Spencer Scott, Yvette Vials and Josh Arentz. Oh yeah, and a Mario Kart arena – better go check that out. It goes down Saturday November 28 at the Factory Theatre, check out the full lineup at thebrag.com.

GRAMMY AWARD WINNING

GRAMMY AND ACADEMY AWARD WINNER

“Musical magic.” LA.COM

“A wall of talent on stage.” DENVER WESTWORD

“Easily one of the best nights of live music.” LAS VEGAS INFORMER

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SIDESHOWS “The best effing voice I’ve ever heard.” MTV

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“Alabama’s next big success story”

ROBERT RANDOLPH JOHN MEDESKI AND NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS’ LUTHER DICKINSON & CODY DICKINSON

NASHVILLE SCENE

“He’s a cat that can do an Otis Redding.”

“genre-splicing instrumental dexterity” ROLLING STONE

AMERICANA MUSIC ASSOCIATION AWARDS

2015 Artist of the Year 2015 Song of the Year

KEITH RICHARDS

NASHVILLE SCENE COUNTRY MUSIC CRITICS POLL

WED MAR

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“2015’s next big thing”

“Nahko is quickly becoming one of the biggest, most relevant artists of our time. His lyrics are inspiring and life changing.”

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

DOVE LIDDLE 2015

MONDAY MARCH

GRAMMY AWARD WINNING SINGER FROM CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS

THEATRE 21 METRO “Each song burst with relentless energy... his guttural wails contrasting with the dreamy plucking of his guitar”

2014 Best Male Vocalist 2014 Best Songwriter “Simpson AMERICAN SONGWRITERS has Best Album of 2014 perfected THE PLAYLIST the trick of 2015 favourite distilling song classic of the year country from TUESDAY METRO many eras THEATRE and movingMARCH away from it at the same time.” NPR “you feel every sweaty note, a full-tilt, damn the torpedoes showcase”

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“A joyous rude-boy revue from an act as slick and brash as their shiny silver suits” NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY

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SONGHOY BLUES JACKSON BROWNE STEVE EARLE & THE DUKES THE WAILERS THE DECEMBERISTS thebrag.com

BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15 :: 5

live & local

free stuff

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Gloria Brancatisano, Eden Gillespie and Tegan Reeves

head to: thebrag.com/freeshit Rae Howell_Credit – Anne Skilbeck

he said she said WITH

BROOZER AND YANOMAMO

A

head of their joint Sydney show, Broozer’s Retch Bile chats with Yanomamo’s Anthony von Grimm about their bands and getting naked on the road. RB: Would you be interested in a game of nude beach volleyball with Broozer? AvG: Of course! However, Bruce Bogtrotter better be in a gold G-string, Dario would be suited to a pink tutu and Retch, you can just play plain naked. What reaction would you have when coming home and seeing me on your couch naked for a photoshoot? Broozer Yanomamo

RB: I’d be like, “Do you want a cup of tea or something?” You’d be surprised how often this sort of thing happens ... The name Yanomamo comes from a tribe of cannibals in the Amazon – if you guys were trapped on a desert island, who would you munch on first? AvG: Probably Jason. Hes a bigger dude but I’d leave the true Yanomamo to chop off his ding-a-ling and eat it. If you were to be reborn again, who/what would you come back as? RB: I’d like to come back as my dog. No pants, no wallet, no worries! Or Vanilla Ice – I’ve always wanted to have my own home improvement/renovation television

Ayla

show. You blokes have a few releases out already, so when’s the next Yanomamo baby due? AvG: Fuck knows, I just scream over what I’m given. We might release something next week just for the fuck of it. Nah, but hey, in all honesty, we write and put stuff out at whatever pace we are comfortable. We have enough shit going on in our lives that keep us alive, so the band is the last thing on our list of things to take care of. So, why do you choose to tour with Yanomamo? RB: We’ve shared many a stage with Yanomamo in the past, and it’s always a good time. Also, touring with an ugly band makes us look a lot more handsome, and we need all the help we can get. Yanomamo bring mega riffage, tuned low and played slow, which is something we like, and complements our tough technical stoner doom nicely, like a finger in a bun. With: The Dead Rats, Squawk! Where: Lewisham Hotel When: Friday November 6 And: Broozer also appearing alongside Comacozer, Whisky Smile, Summonus and Gvrlls at Frankie’s Pizza on Sunday November 8

MICHAEL P CULLEN

Michael P Cullen is a soulful, passionate performer who has made a name with his poetic lyrical content and glass-half-empty approach to storytelling. True Believer is the name of his new full-length album, co-produced by Tim Powles of The Church and mixed by Danton Supple. The record recalls the likes of Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave, and Cullen will perform its material for the first time to Sydney audiences this month with help from his band The Soul Searchers. They’ll take over Lazybones Lounge on Thursday November 19, presented by the BRAG. We’ve got two Michael P Cullen prize packs to give away, each including a double pass to the show and a copy of True Believer. Enter the draw at thebrag.com/freeshit.

VANTAGE POINTS

Melbourne art rock artist Tam Vantage is appearing in Sydney this week to launch his debut solo album, Life In High Definition. The record attempts to explore social perception and human interaction in the digital age, and its live iteration will feature support from The Newsletters and Twinrova. If the show is anything like the album itself, it should convince those present to leave their phones in their back pockets, which is no bad thing. Head to the Vic On The Park on Friday November 6 to get a taste.

I SAY, IT’S AYLA

Teenage rising star Ayla will launch her debut EP this Friday November 6 with a show at Brighton Up Bar. The self-titled collection is the next taste of Ayla’s talents, following her latest single ‘When The World Ends’ and her head-turning appearance at Bigsound’s triple j Unearthed stage earlier this year. She broke out with 2014 single ‘Wish I Was’, and there’ll be more radio favourites on the new set.

PLTS FLYING HIGH

Following the release of their brand new single ‘On & On’, PLTS (pronounced ‘Pilots’) have announced an east coast tour this November and December. The Byron Bay four-piece formed in 2012, releasing a debut EP the following year. Rejuvenated and armed with a stack of new material, PLTS returned to the studio earlier this year, working with producer JP Fung to create the brand new single. They’ll feature it at Brighton Up Bar on Thursday December 3.

POSITIVELY SHOCKING

KEVIN MITCHELL IN CONVERSATION

Jebediah’s Kevin Mitchell and The Doctor (Lindsay McDougall) are joining forces this week to bring a live interview and night of musical performance to Giant Dwarf. The event is the next edition of the Anthem 6 :: BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15

THE GOOD VIBES ARE BACK IN SYDNEY

Vibes On A Summer’s Day is set to return to Sydney next January after a 13-year absence. The midsummer music festival celebrates sunnier, lazier times and will bring acts such as Jazzie B, Faze Action, Kylie Auldist, Dr Packer, DJ Russ Dewbury and Beat Spacek to its return event on Sunday January 24 at Bondi Pavilion. Tickets are on sale now.

series, a unique set of interview-shows that give music-lovers an insight into one of a local artist’s biggest songs. Mitchell and McDougall are in conversation this Wednesday November 4.

HARTS BEATING THE DRUM

Harts has released the first taste of his forthcoming second album, and to celebrate he’ll be launching the single with a run of national shows in January. ‘All Rise (Play It Cool)’ will feature at three intimate headline shows in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne next year, and these following a busy 2015 for the artist. As well as rocking festivals including Splendour In The Grass, Groovin The Moo, The Hills Are Alive and Bigsound, Harts recently fi nished playing showcases in the US, including Culture Collide in LA and CMJ in New York. He will wrap up 2015 with performances at Falls Festival, NYE On The Hill and Queenscliff Music Festival. See him top the bill at Oxford Art Factory on Saturday January 16.

ONE DROP SUMMER FEST

One Drop Rankin Riddim will bring Jamaican reggae superstar Stranger Cole out to Australia this December as part of its 2015 Summer Fest. Cole was one of the foundation artists of reggae as we know it today, and after last gracing our shores in

Tonight Alive

NO LIMITS FOR TONIGHT ALIVE

Pop-punk festival favourites Tonight Alive have locked in the details of their third album alongside a run of east coast gigs. Entitled Limitless, the album was recorded and mixed at The House Of Loud in New Jersey and produced by the renowned David Bendeth (Breaking Benjamin, Paramore, Bring Me The Horizon). It’s set for release on Friday March 4 via Sony, but Sydney fans will get a preview at the Metro Theatre on Friday January 29.

thebrag.com

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New Zealand’s Shocking Pinks are heading to Surry Hills to perform their brand of noisy pop. Since bursting onto the scene in 2004, the Kiwis have gained a steady following, with fans appreciating their dark lyrical content and strange mix of dance and punk. Shocking Pinks will be bringing their beats and hosting other electronic experimenters in Mezko and Lovely Head on Saturday November 21 at The Gaelic Club.

2010 (wowing audiences at Melbourne Ska Orchestra’s sold-out Roots Or Rocksteady concert), he will be back in Australia for a one-night-only event alongside Sydney locals Club Ska, the Rankin Riddim Allstars collective (made up of members of King Tide and The Strides), The Rocksteady Boss and Wally Wally. One Drop Rankin Riddim’s 2015 Summer Fest will take place on Saturday December 5 at the Jam Gallery.

Tam Vantage

thebrag.com

BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15 :: 7

Industrial Strength Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer

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THINGS WE HEAR * Which festival idea was knocked back by tourism authorities? * Which long-retired singersongwriter is contemplating a comeback? * Which five Byron Bay venues are being investigated for breaches of trading conditions after an Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing sweep over the Labour day long weekend? * Which band was told by their new tour manager a night before their national tour that he’d lost his driver’s licence? * Phil Collins is returning to Australia as part of his comeback tour. “I don’t think I want a very long tour,� he said. “But I would like to play the stadiums in Australia and the Far East, and that’s the only way to do that.� * Aussie DJ Tommy Trash donated $30,000 to Little Kids Rock after playing a benefit concert for the US association,

which looks after under-served inner city students in Atlantic City and Philadelphia with music lessons. * Melbourne singer-songwriter Abbey Stone is playing a set on Saturday November 21 at the Outrigger Laguna Phuket Beach Resort in Thailand, helping the Phuket Has Been Good To Us charity to provide free English lessons for more than 1,000 underprivileged kids aged three to 18. * Tool’s Maynard James Keenan has clarified his statement that Tool fans are “insufferable retards�. He claimed he was only talking about the fanatics in their following. “Our core fan base aren’t fanatics. They’re music-lovers, artists and good people. It’s the fanatics that are insufferable.� * Confessions of Ed Sheeran: “Jay Z called me an alien and I’ve never heard a Radiohead album.� * From February, Jimi Hendrix fans in London can visit the Brook Street flat where he lived

from 1968-69. It belonged to his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham (about whom he wrote ‘The Wind Cries Mary’ and ‘Foxy Lady’, and now lives in Australia), and is now a Hendrix museum. * Chet Faker was on triple j to say that rumours about famous names being on his next album were over the top. After hook-ups with The Cactus Channel and Banks, names such as Rick Rubin, Norwegian producer Todd Terje (Faker just said he’d been talking to him backstage) and Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Ruban Nielson (they hung out together and wrote a song that’s not going to be used) were being bandied around. The New York City-based Faker also mentioned that he’s moved from Brooklyn and into the city in Manhattan. * While Slipknot were onstage in Portland, someone slipped backstage and stole Jim Root’s custom satin silver Fender. * A woman who sang “loudly and badly� through a UK performance of The Bodyguard

was ejected from the theatre after she became aggressive to people who told her to shut up. * The Long Jetty Hotel on the Central Coast has been purchased by the Laundy syndicate, which also owns hotels in four regional New South Wales towns. * One Australian act getting rave reviews at CMJ was Good Morning for ten shows over seven days from NME, Spin (“sun dazed guitar tones�), Slant (“ridiculously catchy, sleepy jams that sound at once classically vintage and refreshingly new�) and DIY (“gorgeous from start to finish�). Good Morning number Tyler, The Creator and Growlers among their fans. * Noel Gallagher took the tube to London’s O2 Arena where he joined U2 for ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ and The Beatles’ ‘All You Need Is Love’. * Dubbo’s Dream festival wrapped up with its Lantern Parade attracting more than 10,000 people, a figure that stunned organisers.

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REPORT: 2015 ‘TIPPING POINT’ FOR MUSIC SALES 2015 is the year that spending on digital music formats and services will overtake physical formats, say predictions from new research by global analyst firm Ovum. Report author Simon Dyson says digital spend will hit US$11.7b (compared to $10.3b for physical) and “reach US$15.7b in 2020�. Physical format sales will fall to just under $3b in 2020. Despite the rise of streaming, total spend on recorded music will remain the same until 2020. The Recorded Music Retail Sales Forecasts To 2020 report suggests the retail value of recorded music sales will contract in 2015 and 2016, before edging up 0.1% in 2017. But this rise will be short-lived and spending will fall in each of the three years to 2020 when it will be $3b lower than it was in 2010.

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Ovum also says record companies will benefit most from the rising consumer shift from ownership to access because of the lower manufacturing and distribution costs of streaming. With downloads there are no manufacturing costs and minimal distribution expenses.

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APRA PDA FINALISTS ANNOUNCED The eight winners of the 2015 APRA Professional Development Awards, held every two years to help rising songwriters with their careers, will be announced on Tuesday November 24. The 35 finalists – from popular contemporary, classical, jazz, film and television, country and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander genres – are in line to share a $120,000 cash prize. Names include Marlon Williams, L-Fresh The Lion, Briggs, Oscar Dawson and Timothy Carroll of Holy Holy, Thief, Ngaiire, Adam Eckersley, Dave Crowe, Jack Carty, Trials and Ruby Boots. The newly created Indigenous Music and Media Award of $12,000 arrives courtesy the Smugglers of Light, a foundation set up in memory of EDM producer Eli Westlake, who was killed on a Sydney street in 2008.

CHANGES AT SECRET SOUNDS TOURING Changes at Secret Sounds Touring include Marc Sousley moving from general manager to the senior role of promoter actively seeking international acts for Australian tours. Operations manager Sam Shaw becomes GM, while Blake Rayner joins in artist development to find emerging talent.

YASS COUNCIL ON DRAGON DREAMING Yass Valley Council has responded after New South Wales police said they’d push for the Dragon Dreaming festival not to be held in Wee Jasper next year. This was after the death of 23-year-old Sydney woman Anneke Vo at the festival and 78 drug busts, with three more individuals charged with supply. Yass Mayor Rowena Abbey said the festival’s application is reviewed annually and will take into account the reports from the police, coroner and event organisers. 2,500 people attended Dragon Dreaming’s seventh

instalment last month, and comments they made on social media said they enjoyed the music and felt safe there. Festival organisers posted a note of “sincerest condolences� to Vo’s family and friends. Ian and Helen Cathles, who own the land where the festival is held, also asked for the festival to continue, saying: “It is a music and lifestyle festival that has created its own community over many years, and it has been an absolute pleasure to host them on our land.�

PREATURES’ BENSEN SETS UP OWN LABEL The Preatures’ guitarist Gideon Bensen has set up his own label, Puncture Records (through Universal Music), to release his solo EP next year. Debut single ‘All New Low’ was unveiled on triple j last weekend and has Megan Washington on backing vocals, Preatures bandmate Jack Moffitt on guitar and Carlos Adura (The Tambourine Girls) on drums. Bensen says that during Preatures tours, he’d work on tracks at all hours and places: “It took everything out of me, I was obsessed.� He approached producer Tony Buchen with the idea of “an ’80s/’90s new wave/soul record�. During the recording, Bensen began exploring hip hop and beatmaking inspired by N.W.A, Bomb The Bass, Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus and D’Angelo. He plays Newtown Social Club on Saturday February 13.

BEST VENUE FINALISTS The Australian Hotels Association NSW’s Awards For Excellence are on Tuesday December 1 at The Star Event Centre. Finalists for Best Entertainment Venue include Cargo Bar, Ivy , Opera Bar, Stonewall Hotel and The Golden Sheaf, plus Plantation Hotel and Park Beach Hotel in Coffs Harbour, Stag And Hunter (Mayfield), Lakes Hotel (The Entrance) and Towradgi Beach Hotel.

123 AGENCY SETS UP CORPORATE DIVISION The 123 Agency – which represents Kingswood, The Veronicas, Guy Pearce, Stonefield and At Sunset – has set up a corporate division. It will provide entertainment for corporate events including gala dinners, awards, sporting events and product launches. Agency founder Damian Costin said his books included top DJs and cover bands, and that 123’s overseas networks could also provide international names. 123 has done some brand partnerships and festival programming for corporations in the past two-and-a-half years. Involved in 123 Agency Corporate with Costin are corporate entertainment booker Taylor James and event manager and DJ booker Bec Boseley.

ALBERTS INKS RUSSELL MORRIS Alberts has signed veteran singer-songwriter Russell Morris to a worldwide publishing agreement. Morris has enjoyed a renaissance of late with his blues-themed albums like the platinum ARIA-winning Sharkmouth, Van Diemen’s Land and his latest, Red Dirt Red Heart. The deal also includes his earlier hits like ‘Wings Of An Eagle’, ‘Sweet Sweet Love’ and ‘Mr. America’.

TICKETBOOTH LAUNCHES BOOSTEDTIX Australian and European ticketing company Ticketbooth has launched a new events promotion software, BoostedTix, to benefit promoters and punters who earn extra money selling tickets to their social contacts. Users can track their sales and earn commission and prizes through the service. To stand out from similar social media platforms run by rival companies, BoostedTix boasts features including teams and groups, where ticket sellers can join forces and promote events together; a URL tracking tag system to track sales from corporate groups, sponsors and in-store offerings; self signup for new sellers to sign up and get promoting instantly; and custom-branded festival logins for event promoters to integrate their brand across the service.

Lifelines Expecting: singer Kelly Clarkson and husband Brandon Blackstock revealed their second child will be a boy. Injured: French house producer DJ Snake, set for Stereosonic, cancelled some US shows after a car accident. Injured: Ruby Rose had to co-host the MTV European Video Awards in Milan limping and holding onto a cane after tearing her calf muscle on the set of action movie Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, while shooting in South Africa. In Court: Taylor Swift is countersuing US radio host David Mueller, who allegedly groped her during a 2013 meet-and-greet in Denver. Mueller sued Swift in September, saying he was fired and banned from her concerts after her “false allegations� that he slipped his hand up her skirt, blaming the incident on another radio exec. If Swift wins, she’ll donate the money to charities “dedicated to protecting women from similar acts of sexual assault and personal disregard�. Died: MTV executive Peter Dougherty, 59, who helped develop the hip hop show Yo! MTV Raps, of a heart attack. Died: Diane Charlemagne, 51, former singer with Brit acts Urban Cookie Collective and 52nd Street, of cancer. She also worked with Moby, Goldie and a reformed D:Ream. Died: Model and MTV host Sam Sarpong (Yo Momma) jumped to his death from a bridge in Pasadena, California.

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A LITTLE SLICE OF HOME BY ANNIE MURNEY

J

ack Bourke is sacrificing his lunch hour to take a few media interviews. He is also recovering from a persistent cold, which is perhaps the product of juggling his day job with a hectic tour schedule. In spite of this, he is upbeat, though modest, about the snowballing success of City Calm Down. The Melbourne experimental rockers have been creeping up in the music scene for some time now. Their calendar ahead includes slots at hotly anticipated summer festivals like Sugar Mountain and Falls. Adding to the momentum, three tracks have already been released from their forthcoming debut album, In A Restless House – ‘Son’, ‘Rabbit Run’ and ‘Wandering’. “The tour has been really good,” says Bourke, the group’s baritone frontman. He is particularly pleased about their recent sold-out show at Newtown Social Club, dubbing it “probably one of the best shows we’ve done”.

The four-piece has been developing its debut album for nearly three years. “We finished recording in May,” Bourke explains. “It’s funny looking back, because while it took a long time from start to finish, a lot of songs on the record came together in the last three or four months of 10 :: BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15

City Calm Down’s debut EP Movements arrived back in 2012. This synth-heavy handful of tracks was full of ghostly echoes and punchy drum beats, like Cut Copy with softer edges. In A Restless House features the same shimmering sounds with an extra layer of instrumentation. There are a range of new textures seeping onto this record – for instance, ‘Son’ opens like a church hymn, weaving together organ elements and choral backing. That said, Bourke and co. have retained a degree of dancefloor friendliness – the thrumming ‘Border On Control’ culminates in a killer chorus, while ‘Your Fix’ bursts forth as an ’80s pop banger, held together by steady guitar riffs. While City Calm Down are typically identified as an electronic quartet, this bold full-length debut brings with it some genre nuance. “We weren’t so much interested in making a dance record,” says Bourke. “We still wanted things to have groove and to make music that people can move to. We decided to focus less on 125 beats per minute and super bass, I guess. We also moved away from having synths fill every instrumental element outside of vocals. We introduced more guitar, horn sections and different sorts of keyboards. I think we’ve been trying to transform an electronically focused group into a band. We still like those electronic elements, but they play a more subtle role now.”

“I don’t necessarily think of music as applying a lyric to a melody or a melody to a lyric. At the end of the day, the struggle for any band is to make their music feel as if the words are one with the melody.” One of the more regular comparisons made about City Calm Down’s music is its similarity to New Order. From the ashes of Joy Division, the ’80s innovators became legendary for pushing post-punk into an emerging dance sensibility, making some groundbreaking pop music in the process. And the ‘new New Order’ tag isn’t necessarily a product of journalistic laziness. “Look, I would be lying if I said they weren’t a major influence,” Bourke says. “We listened to heaps of their stuff as a group, particularly when we were starting out. However, I don’t know if we’re super conscious of New Order when writing music. Some songs pay tribute to them in a big way, while others definitely don’t.”

When it came to stitching songs together for the album, Bourke finished many of his lyrics in the one sitting. “I was still writing lyrics when were in the studio actually,” he says. “In terms of process, I tend to write very loose lyrics and then once we have a clear structure or arrangement I will tighten them up. So everything came together around the same time. I don’t necessarily think of music as applying a lyric to a melody or a melody to a lyric. At the end of the day, the struggle for any band is to make their music feel as if the words are one with the melody.” In A Restless House certainly seems to have struck a balance between electronic and instrumental elements – there is a sense of sonic consistency underpinning the new suite of songs. However, Bourke maintains he wasn’t necessarily working within the framework of a single theme or mood. “I was trying to tap into how the songs felt and how the words interacted with the sounds. I have certain phrases that I’ve pulled out of the early development phase and then I use those phrases to construct everything else. I guess the phrase is kind of like the plot and then I write the song about what it represents to me.” As their schedule gets busier and busier, City Calm Down have been winning praise for their assured live performances, with some critics tipping them to be the next Australian band to attract international acclaim. This attention informed the album in its own way. “One of the things floating in the back of our minds is how songs will translate live,” says Bourke. “It almost

happens during the songwriting process, as opposed to after. We’re not trying to make an album full of live bangers, but it is important for there to be a transfer of energy when the audience sees us perform live. That said, there are a few songs on the album that probably aren’t suited to a live environment.” As the summer festival season draws near, Bourke remains level-headed about the looming engagements. City Calm Down will be playing alongside Hot Chip at Sugar Mountain and mixing with the likes of Bloc Party, The Wombats and Disclosure at Falls Festival. They also have Lost Paradise on the agenda, where they will be performing in close company with Angus & Julia Stone, Four Tet and Jamie xx. Will these be some of the biggest audiences the band has played to? “Yes, by a long shot,” says Bourke. “It’s sort of crept up on us, but hopefully people come and see us play. It’s really exciting to play alongside bands we have so much admiration and respect for.” What: Falls Festival 2015/16 With: Foals, Disclosure, Bloc Party, Django Django and many more Where: Lorne, Marion Bay and Byron Bay When: Monday December 28 – Sunday January 3 And: Also appearing at Lost Paradise 2015, Glenworth Valley, Tuesday December 29 – Friday December 31 More: In A Restless House out Friday November 6 through I Oh You thebrag.com

City Calm Down photo by McLean Stephenson

Indeed, the band’s first headline tour has been met with bundles of enthusiasm and legions of new fans. “We were kind of surprised people bought tickets,” Bourke says. “Playing to rooms full of people has been really exciting and rewarding. We’re really looking forward to getting the album out so we can keep doing it.”

writing. We had this exceptionally unproductive period before going into an exceptionally productive period. It doesn’t mean we wrote the album in three months, though. We probably wouldn’t have got there if we didn’t have the time beforehand.”

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Sarah Blasko Solace And Sociability By Adam Norris and finding myself enamoured with a sweep of songs, I note the opening line of first track, ‘I Am Ready’: “I never know what to say,” sings the Sydneysider. It seems like a portentous lyric, after years of critical and commercial acclaim, and could potentially shed some light across her musical ethos. Turns out I’ve missed the mark entirely. “That’s not the line!’ she laughs. “It’s ‘I’ll never know what you said’.” So much for my theory of hidden clues and secret insights. Also, my hearing. But then, obfuscation has never really been Blasko’s speciality. She has always been one to wear her heart on her sleeve, and with Eternal Return, this frankness has been invigorated. “It’s a fairly straight-speaking album,” she says. “I don’t think there are that many hidden meanings. The first song is probably the most obscure, but even then it isn’t really obscure in any real way. I think I’ve always been trying to write a really good pop album through all of my records, and this one I tried to be a bit stricter. I really wanted it to be quite relatable. Not in the sense that I was trying to work out what people wanted to hear, but I wanted it to be a tight pop album.

herself is as friendly and open as they come. But after listening to her splendid fifth album, Eternal Return,

The SDC project Blasko refers to was her commission to work on Rafael Bonachela’s production, Emergence. It was not the first time she had been asked to collaborate (also recently, she composed the music for Brendan Cowell’s film Ruben Guthrie), and although it is a process that conjures unique rewards, it is not without difficulties. Collaborations, especially with other musicians, can be quite a delicate give-and-take. “I think it’s really difficult, and I feel like a lot of times I just run away from it,” Blasko says. “It’s very revealing. You’ve got to put a lot of effort into communicating, and I would much rather just do everything myself in a room with the door closed. That’s how I started doing all this, just writing in my room. But I do think some of the best things I’ve done have been with other people. “Some of the songs on this album were co-written, and I think they’re stronger melodically for having done that. Working with someone who comes from another musical background is going to bring so much difference, even just the chords they most often use. It was really refreshing, since I’d started writing on the piano with the door closed, and it was getting kind of boring and depressing, to be honest. I thought, ‘This isn’t what I need right now. I need to be around other people, get out of myself.’ I needed to be musically social, and it had some

good results. It’s funny, I think I’ve written my best stuff both alone and with other people. They both seem to have their time and place.” In terms of balancing solace and sociability, it seems then that Blasko has found her fulcrum. Eternal Return is a strong release that catches her character well; that is, the public persona, at any rate. With a four-month-old baby demanding her attention, she has nonetheless continued to perform, and though she does indeed seem to celebrate times of creative solitude, she is also quick to joke about throwing tantrums and hurling pianos at people. The album captures this duality, and while some have heralded it as an ode to the ’80s, Blasko herself is more circumspect about such nostalgia. “A few people have commented that the album sounds really ’80s, but I didn’t really want it to sound like a retro album. Maybe when people have heard the whole record it will change how they feel about it. I hear it as having some nostalgic qualities, but I kind of think it’s hard to place in a certain era. “I think with each record there’s an instrument or something that informs the process. For this it was fiddling with a Prophet keyboard. I wrote quite a lot of the early stuff on that, so that is really what started the tone overall. After the last couple of records, I kind of rediscovered my interest in them – there’s so much you can do to the sound. I think you just have it in the back of your mind what you’d like to do, and wait for the right time to do it. It’s like a door suddenly opens to something new.” What: Eternal Return out Friday November 6 through EMI/Universal

You Am I Hot To Trot By David James Young

Y

ou Am I are a band that needs no introduction – however, this would be a much shorter article if it didn’t have one, so let’s recap for those who weren’t paying attention up the back. Formed in the late ’80s in the suburbs of Sydney, You Am I have evolved into an establishment of Australian rock in the quarter-century and change they’ve been around, scoring several number one albums, a cult international following and more sold-out shows across the country than most folk have had hot dinners. They’ve never glanced too long in the rear-view, either – after an acclaimed run of dates playing their classic LPs Hi Fi Way and Hourly, Daily in full, the band began work on what was to become a tenth studio album, Porridge & Hotsauce – a cycle that didn’t come as easily as it has in the past. “For a record that’s so joyous, it wasn’t necessarily an easy process,” begins lead vocalist, guitarist and founding member Tim Rogers. “We recorded at Daptone Studios in Brooklyn – there was a week free and we had connections with someone who worked there, so we put together a backline and made our way over. It’s the perfect kind of studio for us – it had the right kind of vibe and the right kind of sound. Having said that, you’re not exactly in the right mindset to record at your best when you’ve just flown 20 hours for the privilege.” At this point, Rogers stops and ponders his statement. There’s a pause – long enough to give off the impression that the line has dropped out, but short enough not to get the operator’s attention.

12 :: BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15

“Well, maybe you are,” he continues. “I don’t know… there were a few different things factoring into this album. We weren’t working with someone we knew intimately – we’ve recorded our last few albums with our old friend Greg Wales, and this time we were working with Wayne Gordon, who is the in-house producer at Daptone. He’s a very talented producer and songwriter, and he’s also the most handsome man I have ever seen in my life. I’m a heterosexual man, but bloody hell…” Rogers laughs, before once again losing track of his thoughts. “I guess the point I’m making is that we were all adamant about impressing him. It put us on edge, and it took a lot for us to relax – we’d have to go for fourhour lunches and bring cases of beer back to the studio. I think we impressed him, though – well, I hope we did.” Porridge & Hotsauce marks You Am I’s first album in just over fi ve years, following on from their ARIA-nominated eponymous LP of 2010. It’s an album that bounds out of the speakers with the devilmay-care attitude and energy of musicians less than half their age, as well as making notable use of the band’s wider palette. There are big rock’n’roll numbers, cut-throat punk numbers, slowand-sad numbers and even a couple that dare to mess with Mr. In Between. It’s refl ective of the fact that – according to Rogers – there was no game plan apart from celebrating You Am I for what they are.

Davey [Lane, guitar/vocals], Andy [Kent, bass/vocals] and Rusty [Hopkinson, drums] to write more,” he says. “I was looking to them more for the start of a song – something to build from and form into something fully formed. The record shows that I’ve been the one that has written most of the songs in the history of this band – I was worried that my direction was too much of an infl uence on the way that the rest of the band was playing; that maybe I was overshadowing them. I feel like the rest of the band deserves as much credit, if not more. That’s why I was encouraging them to put more in – and it absolutely worked.

“I think the main thing I wanted out of making this album was for

“Davey is prolifi c as hell – I brought in something like 40

songs, and he had 50! Andy and Rusty wrote a bunch of songs, too. The best part was that each song that everyone brought in was genuinely really great. I didn’t want it to just be me waving my arms and going, ‘Hey, look, it’s me – Tim Rogers! Australia’s 123rd best songwriter!’” It’s at this point one can’t help but enquire as to who takes out the 122nd spot on this alleged list, to which Rogers cackles: “Like fuck I’m telling you that!” You Am I are now officially in the double digits for both their lifespan and their discography, which leads to the question of what keeps the band going after all this time. “When we started, we didn’t have

an intent,” says Rogers. “We were just a bunch of clowns playing Aerosmith and Hard-Ons covers. It was just about the next show, the next tour, the next free drink. It’d be disingenuous of me to say that it’s the same motivation now – but in a way it kind of is. We didn’t take out a bank loan and go to New York to make an album for our profi le – we did it because it was just the next thing to do. We’re still just here to muck around, really.” What: Porridge & Hotsauce out Friday November 6 through You Am I Records/Inertia With: The Delta Riggs Where: Metro Theatre When: Wednesday December 2

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Xxx photo by xxx

T

hings aren’t off to a flying start with Sarah Blasko. The fault is entirely mine, given Blasko

“I’m not sure how that relates to the other things I’ve done in terms of dance or film or whatever. I suppose it seemed like a really fun pursuit after doing something like the Sydney Dance Company project or the film work of the last year. Those pieces can be longer, more meandering, you can just go off on a tangent. After that, it was really fun to write something that was disciplined in terms of

trying to write a good pop song, to focus more on really strong melodies, which isn’t really what I was trying to do with the SDC stuff. That was more about letting go and doing something that was quite experimental. It exercises a different muscle.”

STATE LIBRARY OF NSW PRESENTS

A FREE EXHIBITION UNTIL 7 FEBRUARY 2016 FREE EVENT: SOLID GOLD Author Jeff Apter (Tragedy: The Sad Ballad of the Gibb Brothers) & photographer Philip Morris (It’s a Long Way: From Acca-Dacca to Zappa) reflect on the 1960s–70s ‘golden era’ of Australian rock. Saturday 5 December 2015, 2–3 pm State Library of NSW Bookings required: bookings@sl.nsw.gov.au

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Drowning Horse Still Breathing By Tom Brand

D

rowning Horse have been in the critical spotlight lately for their crushingly evil sludge-doom release, Sheltering Sky. Even though the album was released this year, the band had most of the material planned out since 2013. The Horse have managed to overcome a series of obstacles for both the release and their upcoming tour, balancing their real lives and the relocation of one of their members to bring their punishing, lengthy tracks to stages across the country without having to change their lineup. While the Perth group’s dynamic has changed with drummer James Wills now living in Melbourne, guitarist Michael Larkins explains the band is still as unifi ed as ever.

“It doesn’t make it stale,” Larkins continues. “In some bands, if you’re playing the same songs over and over, it can get a little stale. If you’re trying to force songs over

Even before Wills headed across the country, the long process behind the release of Sheltering Sky indicated the band was more than comfortable to take its time and do things right. “We’re all grown-ups, so we all have jobs and things, other commitments, other bands – we’re juggling a lot,” says Larkins. “It took a long time based on the fact that a lot of the time spent on it could only be on weekends and things like that. We weren’t in a position where we could take a long time off work or spend a couple of weeks in the studio; it wouldn’t have worked out. We probably would have killed each other after that because of the lengths of the tracks.” Creation of new material across

long distances isn’t unheard of. In 2010, an album released by a US band named Orbs (featuring members of Between The Buried And Me along with Fear Before) was created as an online project, the members working together on sound fi les over the web. However, Larkins believes this approach couldn’t work for Drowning Horse.

rehearsal, when we first started, everything was very visual-based. We’d look at each other for cues and all that sort of stuff. We’re all playing completely different things from one another – it’s not as simple as writing a riff and sending it through to each other; we really need to be in the same space to work on the new material.

“It’s not something that we can do. We’re a band that really relies on collaborating with each other. In

“It’s unfortunate, because that means we haven’t really worked on anything new since 2013, but

because we haven’t performed or toured a lot, these songs are still fresh to us. We’re motivated to perform the songs as if they were brand new.” What: Sheltering Sky out now through FalseXIdol With: We Lost The Sea, Thorax, Jxckxlz Where: Newtown Social Club When: Sunday November 8

The Tea Party Close To The Edge By Peter Hodgson touring with Nick Cave or someone and he was in the Grand Bazaar looking at jewellery or something, and the stall owner comes up and says, ‘Are you a rock star?’ He says, ‘No, but I work with rock musicians.’ The guy says, ‘What kind of music?’ and our tech says, ‘I work for a band that blends world music and Led Zeppelin.’ And the guy says ‘Oh, like The Tea Party?’ and started singing ‘The Bazaar’!” Although the band is often compared to Zeppelin, Chatwood says the world music influences came via a slightly earlier source: “I guess it goes back to The Beatles, George Harrison. There’s the regular Beatles from The Cavern Club but then there was this whole other side to them. And then, yeah, Led Zeppelin and Robert Plant and Jimmy Page’s trips to Morocco. We just thought, ‘Nobody has really dived deeper into that stuff.’ Then Sepultura worked with tribes in the Brazilian rainforest. But nobody had been mixing it with the rock genre. And once the record came out, we started touring even more so and getting these excellent support slots like Page and Plant. Prior to that we’d get feedback from fans – and from the critics, who hated it! But then we’d hear from Trent Reznor, Lou Reed, Robert Plant, David Bowie, who heard our record and told us they liked it.

I

t’s difficult to describe the ripple that went through the Australian music community when The Tea Party hit in the ’90s. They were one of those “Dude, have you heard…” bands, passed around by word of mouth and muffled, hastily dubbed cassettes. Then the talk changed to: “Dude, have you seen The Tea Party? I saw them play at a tiny club.” By the end of the Canadians’ initial run they were playing theatres throughout the country. And that’s where they are again now they’ve reunited. Key to this progression was the 1995 album The Edges Of Twilight. The Tea Party’s second studio record became their first top ten album in Australia thanks to the support of music-lovers and triple j, with fan favourites such as ‘Sister Awake’, ‘The Bazaar’, ‘Fire In The Head’ and ‘Correspondences’. To commemorate the anniversary and re-release of the album, The Tea Party are performing the iconic record in its entirety around Australia in November (with a second set made up of 14 :: BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15

other classics), during their 15th tour of the country. When it came time to write The Edges Of Twilight all those years ago, the band had a clear agenda. “We had just come off Splendor Solis, our first record, and we were trying to broach the subject of world music and rock’n’roll, utilising our instruments in unique tunings,” bassist Stuart Chatwood explains. “For example, we couldn’t afford a sitar at the time, so we’d tune a 12-string guitar like a sitar to get some ringing sympathetic notes happening and that sort of thing. But for The Edges Of Twilight we got a record advance and we went through this mail order musical instrument catalogue and every single day a UPS truck would arrive with a different instrument! “We’d go to the world music stores to buy CDs … and this was prior to the internet, so you had to buy CDs and do research. We had The Harvard Dictionary Of Music. We’d

go to see world music concerts. Anything we could pick up. The idea was not to be masters of world music instruments, because each one of those instruments would take you 20 years to pick up; the idea was to bring new sounds into the process, expose people to different colours and aspects into that music and open peoples’ eyes.” Along the way there were detractors; critics who felt that three guys from North America raised on Led Zeppelin had no business dabbling in the traditional musical forms of distant cultures. “We were living in a safe world where we were disruptors saying, ‘You can’t just play guitar, drums and bass anymore,’” says Chatwood. “And that scared a lot of people. A lot of people accused us of co-opting the culture.” But a story recently shared on the Tea Party tour bus put it all into perspective. “Our Australian guitar tech was in Instanbul

“Our goal was always to write timeless music,” Chatwood adds. “And we’re excited about going in next year and writing new stuff. I think streaming is going to be good for a band like ourselves because we just don’t do well trying to cater to anyone else, whether it’s trying to get on Triple M, triple j, Triple R. We’re much better if we just sit down and try to write our favourite songs. If there’s a hook in there it’s for us to enjoy, not for radio play. And if you do have success and people come to you, then hopefully people will be discovering albums like Edges Of Twilight for 20, 30 years to come. “If you listen to some of the albums from the ’90s or especially the ’80s, some of the production is shocking now, almost kitschy. And some of the stuff from the ’90s with the ‘Aww-haww, yeah-heah’ singing that everybody copied, we never got into that. We just want to be true to ourselves.” What: The Edges Of Twilight Deluxe 20th Anniversary Edition out now through Universal Where: Enmore Theatre When: Saturday November 14

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Xxx photo by xxx

“We can’t do a lot with our drummer in Melbourne,” Larkins says. “We’re all an important part of the band; we can’t replace a member. It just means we don’t rehearse as much as we should, we don’t perform as often as we should, but I think the time apart is a blessing in disguise. It means we really appreciate the time we get when we get together to rehearse and perform and the like.

and over again, it’s not healthy. For a bit of time apart, even playing the songs, it’s still fresh and we really enjoy it when we can do it. It’s great. We’re not ending the band based on James being away – there’s lots of bands we look up to, like Neurosis, who all have families or projects like that, so when they form it’s a rare occurrence and it could have been a couple of years between writing albums. We always want to make sure what we’re writing is perfect, I suppose – we don’t just want to write songs for the sake of it.”

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The Darkness History Is Here To Stay By Daniel Prior

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hen The Darkness first exposed themselves to the world of rock’n’roll, anyone who saw their tight pants and heard their instruments’ climactic sounds couldn’t help but think they’d found the lost kings of rock. “I wasn’t surprised [about the band’s success], to be honest,” says frontman Justin Hawkins. “I kind of expected to be amazing and loved, just because I’m that kind of arsehole. We tell people what to expect. I was amazing them. I knew we’d have people worshipping us – not in the biblical sense, mind you, but close. Expect and ye shall receive.” For the past 15 years, Hawkins has been gyrating his hips onstage and driving fans wild with his group’s tongue-in-cheek brand of glam rock. It turns out the pants hold more than just his junk. “It’s a special trick we use in the studio. Whenever we’ve got to record a chorus I get a more generous cut, where if we’re working on a verse I pack everything in to get those high notes. It’s absolutely true. If you condense anything you get more out of it, so I do it for the music.” Even after all Hawkins’ time squeezing into those pants and hitting those notes, The Darkness continue to hold the world in their loving embrace. The Englishman believes the reason behind the band’s ongoing success is its own ambition. “The pressure is more from within the band. We’re all trying to be the best. That first album [2003’s Permission To Land] was our benchmark. It was such a strong album straight out of the gate. I mean, bands go their whole career

without churning out something that good. So we push ourselves to keep up at our own levels. I don’t think it’s in us just to churn out something that’s less than absolutely awesome. “When you get a little bit of success, it’s easy to keep going then. I mean, hell, I could be working at Starbucks or something, but instead I’m making incredible music. Success is our only propulsion. Our albums sell, people come to our shows, and with that success we get all the energy we need to keep doing it.” But 15 years is a long time, and to maintain the same passion and energy for music is one of the greatest challenges facing an artist. Hawkins believes that while you may not feel the same way you did when you first started making music, your levels of enthusiasm will always remain high. “It’s hard to remember how it used to feel. It’s still exciting, otherwise we wouldn’t be doing it. Whether it feels the same is hard to say. All sensations change, [but] something of the original must be there. I know I still get excited whenever we play – I don’t know if it’s the same excitement I felt at the beginning, but it’s still just as exciting.” The Darkness’ career has seen them release four studio albums and have awards hurled their way like panties from a devoted audience, yet all the while people in the background continue to argue that rock is dead. Hawkins still laughs at a review that once claimed The Darkness were just a big-time ’70s rock tribute band. “I think our sound keeps changing,” he says. “I wouldn’t say that our sound is a tribute to the ’70s, but

“Hell, I could be working at Starbucks or something, but instead I’m making incredible music. Success is our only propulsion.” more inspired by the rock of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, simply because music from that time was almost always brilliant. If we felt the same about more modern stuff we’d be inspired by that too, but I find the sound of the 2000s is shit – mostly because people are trying to find something new instead of something good.” While The Darkness have explored some new musical territory, the focus has been to keep things interesting – whatever that might entail. “We haven’t consciously changed anything. There’s a good cross section of rock within our sound. It’s been straightforward: two guitars, drums and bass. Other times it’s more exploring and adventuring rather than purposefully looking to change everything. I mean, I like synths; I think they’re an excellent instrument for rock’n’roll. But I find electronic music boring, and synths in that sense are boring too, which is why we’ve never branched out into other genres. If it isn’t interesting to us, why should we ever bother playing it?” With the band about to launch a new tour, performing in Adelaide,

Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, Hawkins looks forward to travelling across Australia once again. “It’s been long overdue. All of Australia is brilliant. Perth is beautiful; I remember doing a show there and being startled by the noise of the crowd shouting directly at me. You wouldn’t expect such an idyllic place to have such a mad group of people, and I say that with the utmost appreciation and admiration. A lot of people are saying that Melbourne’s where it’s at, but we’re just really excited to

get to Australia and get the tour going. It’s going to be brilliant.” While not wanting to spoil the surprise awaiting fans Down Under, Hawkins does have a message for those hungry for the return of The Darkness. “Put the kettle on love, I’m coming home. Get ready for a bit of mischief!” What: Last Of Our Kind out now through Kobalt Where: Enmore Theatre When: Friday November 13

PVT Love You Again By Augustus Welby

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his week, PVT kick off a quick run of dates in celebration of their tenth anniversary. The milestone specifically relates to the band’s debut LP, Make Me Love You. However, while the album is ten years old, brothers Richard and Laurence Pike founded PVT (originally Pivot) around the turn of the millennium. With a fluctuating cast of collaborators, the pair spent a handful of years developing the band’s sound, culminating in that breakthrough release. “We were kind of a jam band and everyone had other projects,” says multi-instrumentalist, electronics operator and vocalist Richard. “But personally I wanted to get more serious about songwriting and production and I really was heavily into computers at the time, when laptops weren’t as common. So I got a second-hand Apple beige G3 with probably one gigabyte memory on it and I started recording and learning how to do that. I made it a mission to figure out how to record and was very interested in mixing live performance and electronics and how to pull them all together.”

“I think when you make a record, things form before you,” says Richard. “Say you have a handful 16 :: BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15

These days PVT consists of the Pike brothers and electronic musician Dave Miller, who joined just after the release of Make Me Love You. The three members are scattered around various parts of the world and work separately, experimenting with different ways of generating songs and sending ideas back and forth via email. Interestingly, while the band all lived in Sydney during the construction of Make Me Love You, the process wasn’t much different. “It was bits and pieces,” Richard explains. “We’re still pretty much going by the same process, which is giving each other files and then pulling things together and jamming a bit and getting the bits we like from that and then eventually getting together and playing it in the same room with the electronics. There’s an idealised way that a band writes something and then gets in a room and plays it, but that hasn’t really happened that much since the ’60s when everyone was multi-tracking. If you read about The Rolling Stones making Exile On Main St, they went to a villa in the south of France and jammed for six months while partying, and then

eventually cut it all up into a record. I feel like, because we work with electronics, that’s pretty much how we operate too. Maybe with less drugs and wild parties.” Despite birthing songs through an isolated file sharing process, there is a wonderful looseness to each of PVT’s four albums. While they are finely manicured, there’s also an impulsive character. “It’s hard to do with electronics. The grid dictates what you’re supposed to do a lot, and you want to chop everything up and put it in a loop and put it on a grid, and I find it exciting when people use electronics less on the grid. It’s a constant question – how do you use computers and how do you make it more human? That’s

something we pride ourselves on. An album like Church With No Magic, what that record was about for us was taking the brakes off and doing something really livesounding. We just kind of let it go where it wanted to go and it ended up going to this pretty noir-ish place. But I have a lot of pride in that record because it’s hard to tell what’s live and what’s electronic.” PVT’s second album O Soundtrack My Heart was already a notable progression from Make Me Love You, moving into darker, more forceful territory. 2010’s Church With No Magic marked the first appearance of vocals on a PVT release, which continued on 2013’s Homosapien, perhaps their most accessible release to date. But despite the diversity, they’ll draw

songs from each of their releases on the upcoming tour. “It’s really nice to have four records to choose from, and we’re also going to play some new material,” says Richard. “It makes it easier to get a set together – when you’re a young band and you’ve only got one album, well you have no choice but to play that album and that album dictates the shape of your live set. But when you’ve got more to choose from, you can shape it into some kind of bigger thing. Having said that, we can’t exactly play heaps from Make Me Love You, but there will be a few.” With: Gold Class Where: Newtown Social Club When: Thursday November 5 thebrag.com

Xxx photo by xxx

A completely instrumental album, Make Me Love You contains a lot of textural elements without ever being excessive. Multi-tracks of live drums, guitar and bass meet up with glitch electronics, keys and various other effects. There are sections of rhythmic insistence and masterful instrumental interplay, as well as plenty of gentler, reflective moments.

of tracks that you think are strong enough to make the record, they kind of inform you of which direction to take the rest of it. When you have one track that gives you this or that mood, you kind of want the next track you write to contrast that or to follow on from that. [Make Me Love You] had this intuitive process of, ‘These sound great. What else does the album need?’ It took a really nice shape in that regard. I think it feels like it’s got a nice flow to it.”

MEDIA PARTNERS

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playing the internationally acclaimed album True Believer

Thursday 19th November Lazybones Lounge 294 Marrickville Rd, Marrickville

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BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15 :: 17

Fanny Lumsden Brave Heart, Big Songs By Adam Norris

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ife is looking rather swell for Fanny Lumsden and The Thrillseekers. As an in-demand live act, they have spent long enough on the road that it’s only a matter of time before a highway is named after them – and following the release of Lumsden’s debut album, Small Town Big Shot, the accolades continue to swell. With an expansive national tour underway – and with material for her next album already itching to be released – Lumsden looks back on the evolution of her sound, and explains exactly how she is connected to a female Elvis impersonator named Pelvis. “So far we’ve had such wonderful feedback,” Lumsden says. “I kind of feel with putting out a new album you’re just standing there naked saying, ‘Judge meeee!’ I’ve heard from people who don’t usually say anything, people who aren’t ones to blow hot air at you, and it’s been so positive. It’s still early days, but because we did a Pozible campaign people have received their packages already and they’ve been putting photos up, they’re writing these amazing messages. That community around the campaign and release has been really wonderful.” Indeed, it is not just the online community support that has buoyed Lumsden and her band during the course of writing and recording. From small town to big city, the country/folk performer has courted a vast array of infl uences, and now she’s settled in Sydney, the local music scene has exerted its own blend of inspirations and colour. While the folk world here has developed from strength to strength, it is by

no means the only genre whose tendrils have caught her ear. “I think here in Sydney it’s really supportive. A lot of people have told me I should move to Melbourne, but I like it here. I think it’s a great community, one that’s been through a lot of change. We first came up when we were playing this kind of ’50s folk thing, as you do; you go through your own different phases. And it is such a folky scene, but lately I think that alt-country/ Americana scene has started to get quite strong. “I think I’ve really only been recognised and pushed in the direction we’re going in the last couple of years. I grew up in the country, with country infl uences in both music and lifestyle. I listened to that music a lot, and my mum has a really strong classical background in my family, so that was really strong as well. I was quite devoid of pop culture, and as I got older I went away from country for a few years there, thinking that I hated it. Now I’ve kind of come full circle after fi ve years, and I think we’re really settled into who we are.” It is a journey that has served her well. While the songs on Small Town Big Shot are not your standard country fare, the connection to rural and regional Australia is unmistakable. It is a heritage of which Lumsden is justifi ably proud, coming from generations of family who have lived and died upon the land. The rhythms of country life also make for a fi tting corollary to the album; written over several years, the songs have changed a great deal as the seasons have shifted, growing in unexpected fashions

wed

with their roots deep in the soil of Lumsden’s life. “The opening track, ‘Bravest Of Hearts’, I think I wrote that around three years ago now. It was just after we’d released our EP, so that one has really grown through touring and performing. People probably know that one quite well already. There are a few like that. I’ve written the songs over a bit of time now; they’ve all had the chance to breathe and find their space. I find that’s a better creative process for me, since it means that each song is its own. I could probably go through all of my songs and I would know exactly why I wrote them, what was happening at that time or what inspired them. Real life influences most of the songs. The only real exception, in that

it’s more of a general account, is probably ‘Weatherman’ – but of course, everyone has had their heart broken before. But everything else tends to have been born from something specific.”

a bit confusing. But it’s funny; I think even when I thought I hated country, I was still writing country songs. I was just calling it something else. But now I feel really comfortable.

A colourful example of this is the track ‘Rattle & Your Role’, whose genesis lay in a production I truly hope one day makes its way to the stage.

“I think what I’m trying to say matches how we’re trying to say it. I also think age has a lot to do with that, and experience. I’m really glad it’s taken this long to put out the record, is what I’m trying to say, and I can be really proud of what I’m saying in it.”

“I wrote that while I was working on a play with the Tin Shed Theatre Company. It was called Pelvis, about a female Elvis impersonator who does the RSL clubs and hates her life. So that’s from the perspective of this girl who goes and sees this Pelvis show and gets really inspired. That’s the story behind it, which I don’t usually say because it’s

What: Small Town Big Shot out now through Social Family With: Sarah Humphreys, Kris Morris Where: St Stephen’s Hall When: Saturday November 14

thu

04 Nov

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

05 Nov

(8:00PM - 12:00AM)

fri

06 Nov 5:45PM  8:45PM

(10:00PM - 1:40AM)

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

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07 Nov

5:45PM  8:45PM

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

sun

08 Nov

(8:30PM - 12:00AM)

(10:00PM - 1:15AM)

mon

09 Nov

18 :: BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

tue

10 Nov

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

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Jake Bugg Acoustic Again By Adam Norris

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ext year Jake Bugg turns 22, and will be releasing his third studio album. For someone still at the onset of his career, it has been a dizzying road to success, and rather astonishingly you suspect that Bugg is still yet to hit his peak. The English singer-songwriter will be returning to Australia soon – his third visit – on Mumford & Sons’ Gentlemen Of The Road bill, and has new music appearing in the not-too-distant future. While there is genuine excitement in his voice when he speaks of these upcoming performances, there is also a touch of self-deprecating apprehension. “I haven’t played a show all year really. The performer in me is hidden away right now, so he really needs to get his shit together before he reaches Sydney,” Bugg chuckles. “When I get on that stage, I feel like … I don’t examine it too much, but my brain switches. Maybe it’s a selfdefence mechanism, I don’t know, but something switches to, ‘You’ve got to do this now, and you’ve got to nail it.’ Before I get onstage I’m jerking around and maybe uncertain. But the moment I get up there, everything changes.” While these aren’t especially uncertain times for Bugg – at least, not from the outside – he is currently in the midst of the aforementioned album number three, a record that has already changed greatly over the last few months. Early commentary on the direction of his music saw Bugg describe it as being a much darker undertaking, which, given his lyrical catalogue of violence, heartbreak, knife fights and loss, really makes you wonder if the man needs a hug. Yet his reflections on how the album stands today finds a strikingly different tone; he has begun shaping a much more positive release.

“I think when I said that, I didn’t have the songs I do now, and it’s not as dark as I thought it was going to be. The record now, it’s got some grooves on it, man, maybe even some tracks that people can actually dance to. There are one or two darker elements in the record, but it’s changed a lot. That said, all of that dark stuff I’ve saved, and I would like eventually to make a really dark album that nobody will probably ever care about. But right now is not the time. I wouldn’t call them B-sides – I like them, and I think they’re good songs, but I know that a lot of people wouldn’t be crazy about them because it doesn’t have that commercial side. The stuff I’m working on now, some of it evolved from darker stuff. But most of it is fresh.” Suffice to say, Bugg has come a long way from the 17-year-old playing Glastonbury in 2011. His music has grown a great deal since then, and his list of influences has deepened. While he still has an enduring fondness for the names that first set him on his musical path – singers such as Don McLean – these days he is more drawn to songs that stand on their own, regardless of the composer or the genre. “As a songwriter I think [McLean] still has some great songs, though I probably don’t listen to him that much now. But he hasn’t been left behind, and since then I’ve gone on and listened to a bunch of other stuff from him. I was always listening to different things to everyone else. That was really during my teenager years, where there were these terrible bands out at the time. Those are the ones I left behind. There was a lot of hip hop around then, and

then the complete opposite side of the spectrum, people listening to Slipknot and things like that. I mean, I like bits of both. If it’s good, it’s good, I don’t care what genre it is. Whether it’s a good song is the only thing that’s important.” This tour will mark something of a departure from how Sydney audiences have enjoyed Bugg in the past. He is stripping back to basics, primed to deliver an acoustic set that will act as a fine counterweight to Mumford & Sons’ much-discussed electric shift. Chatting with Mumford banjoist Winston Marshall recently, he spoke of the band members’ need to have taken time out from writing and

touring, to reorganise their thoughts and rekindle their passion. After nearly five years of the spotlight, I wonder if Bugg has found a similar need to hide away for a time. “Maybe as I get a bit older I’ll find that,” he says. “Right now it does feel like this continuous thing. Making a record, touring the record, and I know there are people who have been doing that their entire life. I don’t know. For me, that may be so, but right now I’m just concentrating on making this album. I care about what it looks like; I’m not doing it just for the sake of doing it. “You have to keep things fresh; you don’t want to sound just the

same as the first time. You want each album to be different, where you’re trying to create something new. I mean,” he laughs, “you don’t want to be too different, and scare off the fans I already have. But I don’t want to make something just because people are going to like it because it’s familiar. People don’t really know what they want until they hear it.” What: Gentlemen Of The Road With: Mumford & Sons, Future Islands, The Vaccines, The Jungle Giants, Meg Mac, Art Of Sleeping Where: The Domain When: Saturday November 14

Future Islands Veteran Newcomers By David James Young legendary performers are like behind the curtain. “We didn’t get a chance to meet either,” he says. “Still, that’s alright. You know what they say – sometimes it’s good to not meet your heroes.” It’s been roughly 18 months since the release of Singles, an album that – ironically, given its title – holds up remarkably well as a fulllength collection. Future Islands are incredibly proud of what they have been able to achieve with the record, with Welmers himself pointing to a change of pace as the key to its success – at least as far as the creative process was concerned.

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“We definitely try to give Sam his space,” says keyboardist Gerrit 20 :: BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15

Welmers. “I like to think of it as myself and William [Cashion, bass] being two pillars on either side of the stage, holding everything together. It’s our job to make everything run smoothly. Everyone is very assured in their own roles in the band, I think. We’ve all settled into our own grooves as far as that side of things is concerned. I think we all let it out in our own ways – think of it as dancing with our fingers.” Since the release of their fourth studio album, Singles, in the first quarter of last year, the Baltimore synthpoppers have been on a remarkable upward trajectory. The aforementioned ‘Seasons’ topped many critics’ lists as the best song of the year, while Future Islands’ live reputation has brought them

to such grand festival stages as Glastonbury, Splendour In The Grass and Pitchfork. In addition to sold-out headlining shows, the band has also been brought in to warm up the stage for some true icons. “We just played a show with Grace Jones at the Hollywood Bowl,” says Welmers, his deep baritone voice quivering with a touch of excitement just mentioning the experience. “It was really, really amazing – there was this lunar eclipse, so we were playing outdoors under this blood moon. We also got to open with Morrissey recently, which was something that we honestly never thought that we would ever get to do in our lives.” Unfortunately, Welmers has no stories to add about what the

November will see the band return to Australia for the third time in just over a year, this time attached to another big-scale opening slot: supporting former folk revivalists turned arena rockers Mumford & Sons. “It’s definitely a challenge,” Welmers admits. “That’s sort of why we accepted it – we’re two very different bands with two very different followings. We’re really excited to show people what we do [who] normally wouldn’t ever go and see us. A lot of people go and see a band and just expect the opener

Although a fair share of Future Islands’ audiences these days has discovered them in the time since that Late Show appearance and the release of Singles, it’s worth noting that they’ll celebrate a full decade of being a band next year. Their supposed overnight success took four albums and a considerable amount of effort put into mere survival. That being said, Welmers is far from bitter about having a new flock of believers in their proverbial church. As far as he’s concerned, the more the merrier. “There are so many bands out there that go from zero to 100 so quickly. They have no idea about what touring is like or how much work goes into making a band work. I think we laid down a pretty strong foundation for our band by playing for a long time and building an audience naturally. Having a strong fan base going into this that had already supported us made it a lot easier to adjust to playing those bigger shows and having more and more people know who the band is. I think it’s helped us to appreciate it a lot more, rather than be confused or upset by it. We wouldn’t change it for anything.” What: Gentlemen Of The Road With: Mumford & Sons, Jake Bugg, The Vaccines, The Jungle Giants, Meg Mac, Art Of Sleeping Where: The Domain When: Saturday November 14

thebrag.com

Future Islands photo by Tim Saccenti

mong the countless comments posted to the YouTube video of Future Islands busting out their breakthrough hit ‘Seasons (Waiting On You)’ on Late Show With David Letterman, one managed to summarise the band’s live dynamic better than any critic or reviewer ever could: “Imagine if your maths teacher and your science teacher started a band with your drama teacher,” it read. Indeed, the band’s frontman, Samuel T. Herring, is compelling and extroverted to the point where you can barely look at anything else. Some may view it as limelight-stealing, but Herring’s colleagues simply see their singer occupying his rightful place.

“We took a lot more time with it,” he says. “The time between [2010 second album] In Evening Air and [2011’s] On The Water was quite short – it wasn’t an extremely difficult process, but we definitely felt rushed. This time, we wanted to make sure that we had more than enough songs before we went in. It worked really well for us. I think that we’ll try and mirror that process for next time. We’re gonna start from scratch and see what happens.”

to sound exactly the same as them. I think the element of surprise is always great at a show like that – audiences really tend to enjoy it a lot more.”

BRAG’s guide to film, theatre, comedy and art about town

arts in focus

tim and eric

Amy photo by Alex Lake

primary colours

also inside:

WE ARE THE GHOSTS OF THE FUTURE / 20:21 / ARTS NEWS / ARTS REVIEWS / ARTS EXPOSED thebrag.com

BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15 :: 21

arts in focus

free stuff head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

arts news...what's goin' on around town... with Chris Martin, Eden Gillespie and Tegan Reeves

five minutes WITH

The Night Before

KRIS SPANN FROM GLEBE STREET FAIR

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There are three new components on the program. What can you tell us about them? Glebe’s business and local community have really come together over this event this year. The big kids on the block, Mirvac, are hosting two exciting activations – the Be You Block Party sponsored by Broadway Shopping Centre and the Tramsheds Showcase by the Harold Park Development. Glebe.com.au has brought together key community organisations such as Glebe Justice Centre, the Glebe Society and the Glebe Library to host interactive activities in the beautiful Foley Park. Did the planning for this year’s festival aim for a more inclusive and accessible event? This year we have tried to put the Glebe and the Street firmly into the Glebe Street Fair.

THE NIGHT BEFORE

This has meant an increased ownership of the event by major Glebe businesses and community organisations and aiming to increase the cultural relevance of the Fair within the Sydney event landscape. The fair is now in its 32nd year, so there is an expectation that it will be a familiar family day out with plenty of amazing stalls, delicious food options and a fantastic street fair feel. All of this remains, plus we’ve added a focus on including performers from marginalised backgrounds in our musical programming with Ngaiire, New Venusians and MC Miles Merrill bolstering the bill, and Loco Project have curated works from our best local artists in their shipping container art gallery exhibition. There will also be a very interesting discussion

panel in Foley Park at 11am with Love Parade founder Dr. Motte and local street event organisers discussing the past, present and future of utilising roads as community celebration venues. This will be followed by three hours of Glebe Talks with local people telling local stories about ideas and experiences that have shaped them.

The Night Before opens in cinemas on Thursday December 3, and we’ve got 15 in-season double passes to give away. To be in the running, head to thebrag. com/ freeshit.

What makes Glebe the best suburb in Sydney? Glebe is the place to be yourself, do your thing and be part of an authentic village community only one kilometre from the CBD. What: Glebe Street Fair 2015 Where: Glebe Point Road When: Sunday November 15 More: glebe.com.au/streetfair

Eyes Of A Thief

Shakespearealism

Boasting three buddy boys in Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anthony Mackie and a cameo by Miley Cyrus, The Night Before is a hilarious new film arriving on screens just in time for the silly season. The story follows a group of childhood friends on their reunion, which has become an annual night of debauchery, misfortune and fun. Now they’re entering adulthood and it’s time to grow up, but not before one last party.

The Night Before © 2015 CTMG. All Rights Reserved

he Glebe Street Fair is back for 2015 – just how much planning and preparation goes into the event each year? This year the Glebe Chamber of Commerce has paired up with event producers Mothership Events (Lost Paradise, Stereosonic, Smooth FM Choc Fest) to take the event to the next level. Mothership are awesome and have taken care of our licensing, road closures, logistics, crewing and event planning, which frees the Chamber up to add the colour, community and culture to the event. This partnership has seen us focusing our efforts on community involvement, securing sponsorship, programming cultural elements, booking market stalls and curating the marketing campaign. The event is a monster – 100,000 people, 250 market stalls, one kilometre of road closure and three stages of programming.

CREATIVE NON-FICTION FESTIVAL

Calling all creatives: the New South Wales Writers’ Centre is launching its second Creative Non-Fiction Festival, curated by Benjamin Law. The festival is targeted towards aspiring non-fiction writers who wish to develop their skills in a variety of categories including memoir and essay, criticism, profile and biography, science and medicine, opinions and columns, investigative journalism and travel writing. Jot the event down in your note pads, because there will also be helpful #ProTips and advice sessions such as How To Seduce An Editor on the day. Speakers will include Law, Richard Glover, Helen O’Neill, Lex Hirst, Eleanor Robertson, Amruta Slee, Jane McCredie and more. The festival will be held on Saturday November 7 at the NSW Writers’ Centre in Balmain.

NOVEMBER AT THE LAUGH STAND

SPORT FOR JOVE 2016 Sport For Jove is back with a bumper theatre program for 2016, kicking off with its popular outdoor season this December and January. Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest and William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost will take over Bella Vista Farm in Baulkham Hills and The Everglades Garden in Leura from Saturday December 12 – Monday January 25, with the latter being paired with Josh Lawson’s curtain-raiser Shakespearealism. From Friday March 4, Sport For Jove will return as the Seymour Centre’s resident theatre company with The Bard’s The Taming Of The Shrew, directed by Damien Ryan and also playing at Parramatta’s Riverside Theatres. Rounding out the 2016 program are Michael Gow’s Away, Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters and a new adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone. For more information and to book, visit sportforjove.com.au.

The Sydney Chamber Opera has announced a collaboration with Ensemble Offspring for An Index Of Metals by Italian composer Fausto Romitelli. The show has been described by its composer as akin to an “electric poem” that explodes the possibility of the art form. An Index Of Metals is largely based upon Romitelli’s poetry and is being directed by the awardwinning Kip Williams, featuring acclaimed soprano Jane Sheldon. The show will run from Monday November 16 – Thursday November 19 at Carriageworks. 22 :: BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15

The Palestinian Film Festival, set to arrive in Sydney this month, aims to move away from a depiction of Palestine in the nightly news stories, and offer a more intimate portrait of Palestinian culture. Festival director Naser Shakhtour says, “Palestine is a culturally rich part of the world. We want to share this knowledge and tell our stories, to enrich Australia’s understanding of Palestine beyond the news headlines.” The festival will feature a diverse range of films from psychological thrillers such as Eyes Of A Thief to The Wanted 18, a film that tells the story of a Palestinian committee that purchased a herd of cows to undermine Israeli control. The festival will be held at Palace Norton Street from Thursday November 19 – Sunday November 22. To see the full program, head to palestinianfilmfestival.com.au.

BIENNALE IS BACK

Next year’s 20th Biennale of Sydney is inspired by a quote from science-fi ction author William Gibson: “The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.” The Asia-Pacifi c’s largest contemporary arts event will take place throughout Sydney from Friday March 18 – Sunday June 5. The Biennale will this time around spread itself out over the city, concentrating on (but not limited to) seven ‘embassies for thought’ – Cockatoo Island (Embassy of the Real); the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Embassy of Spirits); Carriageworks (Embassy of Disappearance); Artspace (Embassy of Non-Participation); Museum of Contemporary Art (Embassy of Translation); and a bookshop (Embassy of Stanislaw Lem). For the first time, a former train station, Mortuary Station (Embassy of Transition) will also be a Biennale venue. A series of performances and site-specifi c installations will take place across the various embassies, featuring the likes of Boris Charmatz, Neha Choksi and Justene Williams with the Sydney Chamber Opera. These are just some of the names on the enormous program – for more information, visit 20bos.com.

Loco Project

LET’S GO LOCO

The Loco Project is an initiative that exhibits local art while creating networks for collaboration between artists and supporters. The latest Loco will take place in Glebe, showcasing artists from the inner city and Inner West in association with the Glebe Street Fair this November and December. Exhibited works will include paintings, photography, collages and digital illustration, plus live art each Saturday. Works will be available to purchase as prints, T-shirts, cards and skateboard decks. Each Wednesday at 6pm sees a new cohort of artists taking over the shipping container space, with Mountain Goat Beer, Brown Brothers and Burger 10 on hand to wet your whistle and satisfy your appetite. The Glebe Loco Project will run from Wednesday November 11 – Thursday December 24.

thebrag.com

Shakespearealism photo by Marnya Rothe

AN INDEX OF METALS

PALESTINIAN FILM FESTIVAL

The Laugh Stand over at Harold Park has again brought the goods, announcing its acts for this month’s schedule. Highlights will include performances from Chris North and Luke Joseph Ryan on Tuesday November 10, while Suren Jayemanne will headline on Tuesday November 17 with guest MC Mikey Robins. The monthly comedy gala will be held on Tuesday November 24, so instead of flicking through the seemingly endless profusion of well-off middle-aged couples renovating their homes on television, head down to the Harold Park Hotel. For only $15, the gala will feature Steve Hughes, Gen Fricker, David Boyle, JB, Matt Reddy and Brock Henry. See the rest of the program at thelaughstand.tumblr.com.

Tim And Eric [COMEDY] Awesome Show, Down Under By Lachlan Kanoniuk

I

n late 2012, the night after Tim And Eric’s run of two Melbourne performances, Tim Heidecker took to a swanky Melbourne haunt for a bumbling, chaotic and brilliant stand-up set. Assuming a wry caricature of a conservative comic, Tim mangled a routine in which he fantasised a scenario where his countryman Donald Trump gives Obama a trademark “You’re fired”, long before any genuine presidential aspirations from the billionaire. Speaking ahead of Tim And Eric’s live return Down Under, Tim answers the question: can Trump make America great again? “In a way, he already has. He’s elevated the discourse to such a respectable place. He’s made great people say great things,” the comedian deadpans. “He is a great man, and I’ll expect he’ll win. We’ll be saving a lot of money as a country – we won’t need a Vice President, that’s for sure. It’s all very positive.”

xx

Tim And Eric (the latter’s full name is Eric Wareheim) have kept busy since their groundbreaking Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! concluded its five-season run in 2010, pursuing a number of varying projects both together and solo. This year saw the duo become published self-help gurus with Zone Theory, a book that brims with cultish overtones. “Well the Zone Theory is an easy way for you to… I’m assuming you’re in bad shape; if you’re a guy writing for a free paper, things can’t be going too well,” Tim says (he’s right). “So this book provides you with seven easy steps to achieve the perfect life. In a matter of seconds, you’ll be able to fix all your

problems and become a perfect person. That’s the best pitch I can give. You can’t get better than that.” As for Tim’s solo pursuits, he had a recent star turn with a cameo in the recently released blockbuster Fantastic Four. “It’s funny, I came from our show Bedtime Stories, which aired in the States last year, then the next week I went to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to shoot a couple of scenes for this movie. And it was so similar; the scenes I was in were in a little house, in this little room. It would have been like something we would be shooting. Small crew, intimate, director is right there. It was kind of easy. It didn’t take a lot of readjusting or anything. I was just gonna say, to describe it as a blockbuster, I hope you’re being sarcastic. It was a big disaster. I don’t really care.” With a fruitful creative partnership that has lasted more than a decade and influenced a new generation of comedians, Tim And Eric’s bond is greater than ever. “I don’t know what it is that makes it work,” says Tim. “I think we both bring different skill sets, we’re both good at a bunch of different things. We’re amused by each other. It’s been nice to have a partner in all this to bounce off. The last thing you want in this business is to be alone and not know who to trust. We keep changing it up; we don’t get stuck in one certain style. We’re changing to make us stay interested in the work we’re doing.” As for projects on the horizon, that creative bond will continue to provide the goods – including another spin-off season for John C. Reilly’s Check It Out! With Dr. Steve Brule.

“I’m assuming you’re in bad shape; if you’re a guy writing for a free paper, things can’t be going too well. So this book provides you with seven easy steps to achieve the perfect life.” “We’ve just finished making these two half-hour episodes of Bedtime Stories – which was our big project of last year. It’s like Twilight Zone meets Black Mirror meets Tim And Eric. This year we just focused on these two half-hour stories, where both of them feel cinematic, dramatic in a horrifying way. We’ve spent a lot of time working on that, and just finishing up now. Hopefully it will come out later this year. We’re going back out there with Dr. Steve Brule

for another season – we’re writing that now to air next year.” With another trailer produced for their return to Australia and New Zealand – to say “hello one more time with our humour” – it appears Tim And Eric are excited to return. “I always suspected I would love Australia, and I did,” says Tim. “People were great, food was great. There seems to be a secret there

where your cities work really well. Maybe I didn’t spend enough time there to see the other side of it. It was clean, a very positive experience. I was humbled by how appreciative the audiences were that we came down there. I forget about the distance, and it was weird for people to comprehend that we made the trek down there. I appreciate it all.” Where: Enmore Theatre When: Friday December 11

the edges of twilight TH E ICON IC ALBU M – LIV E

SAT 14 NOVEMBER ENMORE THEATRE, SYDNEY BOOK YOUR TICKETS AT

www.teaparty.com BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15 :: 23

20:21 [DANCE] Ballet In The Shadows By Adam Norris

T

im Harbour has found himself in a rather impressive sandwich. After working with the company for 15 years, the Australian Ballet resident choreographer’s latest work is premiering as part of the contemporary triple bill, 20:21. In addition to having a wonderful name, Harbour’s Filigree And Shadow will find itself bookended by George Balanchine’s Symphony In Three Movements and Twyla Tharp’s In The Upper Room, both hugely celebrated pieces that have set the bar at a daunting height. Harbour, however, is more than ready to meet the challenge. He hopes.

Harbour worked for the better part of a year on preparing Filigree And Shadow, gradually developing the tone and movements on his own before unveiling them to the company

“I tried to have as few agendas as possible. ‘Oh, this particular manoeuvre will suit this particular dancer’ – I tried not to think like that. The vast majority was done way before I got the dancers. That wardrobe with those coats, I really only got access to it in the last few weeks before the show opens. I generated a huge amount of choreography on my own, and filmed myself as a very rough starting point. I built up all this material, and as I got closer and closer to that fourweek rehearsal period, I started to categorise certain phrases, worked out where things would fit together. And then you get into the studio with the dancers, all of whom are much younger and better than I, and they then can put a different spin on it. They can do it with more largesse, they’re quicker, so those phrases I’d worked on change as the dancers work with them, and I can start to assemble them in different ways.” While youthfulness and professional dancing do go somewhat hand-inhand, it is not like dancers slink off into the shadows after their stage career, never to be seen again. Many move into choreography or teaching (though as Harbour points out, some also move into stockbroking and real estate). Many also succumb to the intense physical demands of dance, though in Australia the tendency to continue

performing throughout injury seems significantly lesser than international companies (as the Royal Ballet’s podiatrist Peter Norman can attest). Young dancers pushing themselves beyond their capabilities is a real concern for Harbour, and one that has become more pronounced than ever before. “The idea of the dance star in popular culture has grown, especially because of the prevalence of dancers now on television. But even so, those people are pretty fleeting, aren’t they? They come and go. We might have a moment of considering whether we’re going to vote them off a certain show, but in terms of longterm fame it doesn’t really translate. I think they’ve impacted dance schools, for better or worse. I think there are a lot more kids getting into dance, and that’s a good thing. I

think some of the stuff the dancers do in those shows can sometimes be pushed on young kids too soon, before their bodies are ready, and it could lead to injury without rigorous training. I think some of those shows have led to some schools pushing certain choreography too soon.”

is a little incidental. I think everybody can relate to those ideas of anger and frustration, or even aggression as a form of being brave. That was the core idea, so all of the phrases, I conjured up this aggressive emotion inside myself, and that’s where the movement came from.

Filigree And Shadow promises to be a highly energetic, muscular performance, and while the dancers will no doubt be pushing the limits of how their bodies can move, there is nothing injurious to their performance. This is despite the underlying psychology of the piece, which as Harbour emphasises has its genesis in aggression.

“I think that’s visible onstage, and that was the information I gave the dancers: ‘I want this to be like a rock star smashing their guitar at the end of the concert – I want that kind of release.’ And they really grabbed hold of that and produced something fantastic.”

“Right from the very beginning, I wanted this work to be a release from aggression. Where that personal aggression comes from specifically

What: 20:21 Where: Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House When: Thursday November 5 – Saturday November 21

20:21 photo by Jeff Busby

“I knew In The Upper Room quite well since I’d done it myself as a dancer, and I was familiar with Balanchine. So I had an idea of what the program was going to look like, which mostly made me think, ‘Jesus, this has to be really, really good!’” he laughs. “These are two amazing works, two huge hits from master choreographers, you already know they’re going to work. Both have also had very powerful music, and so I commissioned this electronic duo, 48nord from Germany, knowing these were guys who could produce something that could hold its own between [respective composers] Philip Glass and Stravinsky. That’s no small call for any composer, but they’ve done it. So I had the idea of what I was going to be sandwiched between, and it was pretty intimidating, but it certainly spurred me on.”

dancers in order to evolve yet again. As resident choreographer, you suspect he is in a rather unique position to develop fresh phrasing given his access to the almost preternatural talent The Australian Ballet has to offer, with dancers like coats in a wardrobe he can don for a time to see what develops.

We Are The Ghosts Of The Future [THEATRE] Life In A Changing City By Tegan Jones together and we try to find things that you could never really write by yourself and ideas that benefit from multiple voices,” says Bell. “We really loved the idea of these little lives being played out in different rooms of a house and the audience being able to just meander. Some of the rooms will have monologues, some will have two or three people in it.” These different stories unfold separately but still fit together as a whole. Of course, this changes the execution as well as the audience experience from that of an ordinary play.

“The anniversary was an amazing coincidence,” says Hilary Bell, a member of the 7-On playwrights’ collaboration. “We started this show in a different incarnation some years ago, and when we applied to have 24 :: BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15

it on at The Rocks, we didn’t know we were going to get the date of the anniversary. “The inspiration for the show was an exhibition curated by Peter Doyle and the Justice and Police Museum called City Of Shadows. It mostly consisted of forensic photographs and mugshots in Sydney between the wars and we were just really moved by and excited by that.” Evidently, the pictures spoke a thousand words to Bell and her peers. “It was just so fascinating to see our city through these different eyes. Usually when you see photographs from that time everyone is wearing their best clothes and presenting themselves as they wanted to be

remembered, but these guys had no choice,” she says. “From there we created a show that at the time was going to be this huge piece that we wanted to put on at the old Darlinghurst Gaol. But it was too tricky for us to do, so we reconfigured it as a much more intimate piece to be set in the separate rooms of a terrace house.” One of the unique aspects of the writing process for We Are The Ghosts Of The Future was the collaborative method, where different parts were written by the seven different writers who make up 7-On. “7-On is a company of theatre playwrights, and we create shows

For a piece that began with mugshots and criminal profiles, it has certainly evolved and developed. “As we worked on it we moved further away from the crime aspect,” Bell explains. “In the last few years there’s been a lot of exposure with Underbelly so it felt like it was a little bit overdone. As we researched and wrote, we were drawn to the domestic crimes of necessity, like abortion, bigamy and single mothers having to be prostitutes to raise their kids; those sorts of things instead of more flashy razor gang kind of criminals.”

“When we put all the pieces together and read them as one, they were pretty dark and miserable,” says Bell. “We knew we had to brighten it up, so some of us went away and rewrote our sections to be much funnier, warmer and lighter, because you have to have that variety. We moved away from the tragedy but also towards the ordinary deprivations and compromises that people had to make then.” Ultimately, these smaller tales weave together to create a bigger picture and tell an even more compelling tale. “One of the reasons we wanted to do it in The Rocks was to speak to what’s going on at Millers Point and the selling off of public housing,” explains Bell. “Why we chose Kingsford Smith’s vanishing as the background metaphor was to do with the vanishing of Sydney and the fact that we all have this sort of arrogance that we’re the only ones who have ever lived here and will ever live here. “Of course, like those people from 80 years ago, all trace of us will be wiped out and the next generation will think they’re the only ones who have ever lived here. We wanted to give that larger and more philosophical perspective on life and time as well as the repetitiveness of this changing city that we’re living here.” What: We Are The Ghosts Of The Future Where: The Rocks Discovery Museum When: Friday November 13 – Saturday November 28 thebrag.com

We Are The Ghosts Of The Future by Phyllis Photography

W

e Are The Ghosts Of The Future is an immersive theatre production that takes freedom of experience to the next level. Set in a boarding house in 1935, it explores the lives of the lodgers on the day of Charles Kingsford Smith’s disappearance. The piece isn’t only centred around the pioneering Australian aviator, it will also be performed to mark the 80th anniversary of his being declared missing. But the date played no part in the inspiration for the show.

“We had gone through a lot of different possibilities on how to calibrate it,” says Bell. “We set a limit on how long each piece would be. We set an upper limit but no lower limit and said that each piece would be as long as it needs to be. We also wanted to give the audience complete freedom to roam around and create little things that they are bound to miss. Maybe if they get a sense of those things they’ll want to come back. Little things like a pair of glasses on a staircase or a milk bottle in the backyard that hint at a bigger story will be dotted around.”

Despite some of the heavy storylines that will be presented, it won’t all be blood and tragedy.

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

Danny Bhoy

■ Film

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE GHOST DIMENSION In cinemas now camera. It’s got extra parts – unexplained lenses, or something. Whatever the reason, it can see ghosts. In the same box are a bunch of VHS tapes, which Ryan and Mike watch one by one. There’s footage of a cultlike family filming one of their daughters as she has visions. There are some creepy moments to be had as the characters film themselves watching tapes the same camera filmed decades ago. The girl on the tape can ‘see’ them and the room they’re in. She says “bless you” when Leila sneezes. It’s a chilling concept – technology as a conduit for inter-timezone communication. A concept soon abandoned. The camera can see ghosts, or at least a floating ectoplasm that lingers round the house. It moves things; it grooms little Leila. The problem is, you can see it doing it. It’s right there, hanging in the air like a fart – down the hall, now by the door, now on the stairs.

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension It’s been six years since the original Paranormal Activity was released in Australia. This, the latest and last (supposedly), is the sixth film of the franchise. I’d really love to give it six stars to give this review a devilish opening paragraph, but I can’t. It’s a dud. Why? The answer’s right there on the billboards: “For the first time you will see the activity”. The set-up is swift and standard-issue.

Yet another young couple, Ryan (Chris J. Murray) and Emily (Brit Shaw), and their seven-year-old daughter Leila (Ivy George with the best performance in the movie), have moved into a big house. Emily’s newage hippy friend Skylar (Olivia Taylor Dudley) is staying with them for some reason, as is Ryan’s joker hipster brother Mike (Dan Gill), who has recently broken up with his girlfriend. Oh, and it’s Christmas.

Sure, things jump out of the screen accompanied by a really loud noise, but seeing the ghoul ruins the fun. The best moments of this franchise are when a bedsheet moves, a door slams or a chandelier swings for no reason. It’s the unknown and out-of-shot we’re most afraid of. When there’s a big blob making everything happen, it’s a lot less unnerving. CG-Why?

While looking for decorations, the characters come across an old camera. Not just any old

George Nott ■ Comedy

■ Theatre

Desdemona

DESDEMONA

DANNY BHOY

Reviewed at Roslyn Packer Theatre on Friday October 23

Reviewed at the State Theatre on Monday October 26 as part of Just For Laughs Sydney 2015

Shakespeare writes leading ladies with the utmost of respect. Refusing to conjure vague two-dimensional creations, he offers highly complicated and intelligent creatures, strong in nature and driven by their passions of love, revenge, power or otherwise.

Given the regal surrounds of the State Theatre, it’s easy to forget that tonight’s gig is part of Danny Bhoy’s ninth Australian tour. The Edinburgh native has become such a mainstay of our local comedy scene that he has formalised this association by becoming an Australian citizen.

Othello’s Desdemona is no exception. It is for this reason she claims such a strong hold as the title character in Toni Morrison’s reimagining of the play. Part monologue, part musical experience, this emotionally honest and female-heavy play gives voice to Shakespeare’s more silent, though no less important, characters – Desdemona and her African-American maid, Barbary – by adopting the female perspective. Inspired by the ‘Willow Song’ taught to Desdemona by Barbary and sung in the fourth act of Othello, Morrison’s interpretation upholds all the Bard’s vital themes and more, discussing love, friendship, powerplay, racism and the oppression of women through the dialogue of Desdemona (Tina Benko) and the song of Barbary (Rokia Traoré). Accompanied by two string musicians and two vocalists from Mali, they trace Desdemona’s life from being raised by Barbary and laying eyes on Othello to

The peculiarities of nationality and identity are central to proceedings as Bhoy opens the show by recalling a recent performance in Texas where locals were confounded by his mixed Scottish-Indian heritage. “To Americans, Scottish and Indian are two very separate characters on The Simpsons – you mustn’t confuse them,” he chirps. entering the afterlife, where she is forced to confront the racism that has been woven into her soul’s tapestry. Benko’s command of the stage is commendable; she not only carries Desdemona’s character in her bag of tricks, but also the lives and words of others (Othello, Emilia, her mother, Othello’s mother), adopting accents and gender-based movements to transition between each as dialogue is exchanged. It’s a feat she undertakes well, though at times it strains her, as Benko falls privy to some vocal confusion and inconsistencies during this performance.

But despite its strong sense of dialogue, Desdemona’s beauty lies not in its story, but in its musical accompaniment. Sung for the most part in the native Malian language, Traoré’s mesmerising vocals bring beauty and spirit to the show. Burned with a sense of sorrow and warning, they sing like a folk tale, spilling out messages and retellings of lore and drawing one’s mind to quiet, as the ghosts of past and future whistle through in an eerie reminder of the oppression and racism that still plagues our world today. Stephanie Yip

Arts Exposed What's in our diary...

Newtown Festival 2015 Desdemona photo by Jim Lee

Camperdown Memorial Rest Park, Sunday November 8 Newtopia is coming to Sydney. The 2015 edition of the Newtown Festival brings food, music, art and activity to the local scene under the Newtopia theme, and it won’t just be for artsy children and grown-ups to enjoy – there’ll also be a dog show going down, so don’t forget to enter your pups. The rest of the program features a writers’ tent, comedy shows and a live art hub, as well as a killer lineup of local musicians such as Jinja Safari, Coda Conduct, Okenyo and The Cops. Entry is free. For the full program, visit newtownfestival.org.

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Tonight’s show, Please Uncheck This Box, speaks to the likeable comic’s fluid style and delivers a witty manifesto on the importance of keeping things simple. He riffs effortlessly on such diverse topics as David Cameron and the referendum in Scotland, the perils of long division, his disdain for street food and a particularly funny story about catching someone defacing one of his festival posters. These all provide ample ammunition for Bhoy’s sharp wit and trademark observational humour. Speaking to the BRAG recently about difficult gigs, Bhoy noted, “It’s when those things go wrong, if you like, that things start to go right.” Tonight is a case in point. After one rowdy punter is ejected for heckling midway, Bhoy artfully manages to weave the patron’s strange ramblings into his punchlines. The show seems to gain momentum rather than lose it in the face of the unwelcome intervention. Jumping off on a tangent, he delivers one of the highlights of the night recalling the absurdity of completing a questionnaire prior to a recent hair appointment. Bhoy once again shows himself to be a talented performer who freely builds rapport with the audience. His measured performance is fitting of such grand surrounds. Tim Armitage

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BARS BRAG

– Fri noon-midnight; Sat 5pm-midnight A Work In Progress 50 King St, Sydney CBD (02) 9240 3000 Mon – Fri noon-2am Ash St Cellar 1 Ash St, Sydney CBD (02) 9240 3000 Mon – Fri 8.30am-11pm The Attic 275 Pitt St, Sydney CBD (02) 9284 1200 Mon – Fri 11am-1am; Saturday 5pm-1am Assembly 488 Kent St, Sydney CBD (02) 9283 8808 Mon – Tue 5-11pm; Wed

The Australian Heritage Hotel 100 Cumberland St, The Rocks (02) 9247 2229 Mon – Sun 10.30am-midnight Balcony Bar 46 Erskine St, Sydney CBD (02) 9299 3526 Mon 5pm - late; Tue – Fri noon-midnight; Sat 5pm-midnight BAR100 100 George St, The Rocks (02) 8070 9311 Mon – Thu noon-late; Fri – Sat noon-3am; Sun noon-midnight

Bar Eleven Lvl 11, 161 Sussex St, Sydney CBD (02) 9290 4712 Thu 4-9pm; Fri – Sat 4-11pm The Barber Shop 89 York St, Sydney CBD (02) 9299 9699 Mon – Wed, Sat 4pm-midnight; Thurs – Fri 3pm-midnight Basement 33 Basement, 27-33 Goulburn St, Sydney CBD (02) 8970 5813 Mon – Thu 5pm-late The Baxter Inn Basement 152-156 Clarence St, Sydney CBD

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Gilt Lounge 49 Market St, Sydney CBD (02) 8262 0000 Wed 6pm-midnight; Thu & Sat 6pm-2am; Fri 5pm-2am The Glenmore 96 Cumberland St, The Rocks (02) 9247 4794 Mon – Thu, Sun 11am-midnight; Fri – Sat 11am-1am Goodgod Small Club 53-55 Liverpool St, Sydney CBD (02) 8084 0587 Wed 5pm-11pm; Thu 5pm-1am; Fri 5pm-3am; Sat 6pm-3am Grain Bar 199 George St, Sydney CBD (02) 9250 3118 Mon – Sun noon-late Grandma’s Basement 275 Clarence St, Sydney CBD (02) 9264 3004 Mon – Fri 3pm-late; Sat

OF

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Mon – Fri noon-3am; Sat – Sun 4pm-3am

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Tell us about your bar: At Mr Falcon’s, we like to think of ourselves as more of an ‘adult community centre’. Yes, we love serving alcohol, but we also offer our patrons a wide variety of activities, including but not limited to live music, dance classes, burlesque, poetry nights, art exhibitions and storytelling nights. And although some of the activities being offered by our partners are ticketed, the live entertainment at the bar is always free. Yep, apart from Christmas Day – the only day we’re closed – Mr Falcon’s has something for everyone! What’s on the menu? Drop in for a delicious ovenfired pizza, a meat and cheese board with our range of local and international produce, grilled gourmet sandwiches, oven fresh garlic bread, and other bar snacks.

Care for a drink? We’re known far and wide for our scrumptious hot mulled cider, which we serve all year round. We also have a summer version, a deliciously refreshing alcoholic slushie, which is great for the hotter months – yes, summer is coming! We’re always stocked up on a great range of local and international craft beers, and update our cocktail list regularly, which is full of our twist on the classics and more original concoctions. Sounds? Our Under The Bike sessions are on every night of the week, except for the first Sunday of the month, when Mr Falcon’s Presents Burlesque (hosted by Memphis Mae) takes over the bar. All our weekly gigs are listed in the BRAG’s gig guide, so check that out for daily performers, but we host everything from gypsy jazz to blues and roots, rock and pop, and a couple of monthly DJ residencies.

Every Tuesday, Live and Originals brings three great musical acts to Mr Falcon’s, and our Singer-Songwriter Sundays (last Sunday of the month) are proving popular as well. We like to offer a strong mix of local and visiting international acts to our patrons. Highlights: Mr Falcon’s really is much more than a bar, whether you want to check out some live music, devour a delicious pizza, dance, sip on a cocktail, take in some art, or just chill out in our sunny beer garden with a cleansing ale. We’re a great venue to hold your next function, too, and have rooms/ spaces to suit any sized party. Next time you’re in the neighbourhood, make sure you drop in to Glebe’s comfiest bar, Mr Falcon’s! The bill comes to: A pizza and garlic bread, with a free schooner of tap beer, comes to $21 (before 7:30pm)!

Palmer & Co. Abercrombie Ln, Sydney CBD (02) 9240 3000 Mon – Wed 5pm-late; Thu – Fri 3pm-late; Sat – Sun 5pm-late Papa Gede’s Bar Laneway at the end of 348 Kent St, Sydney CBD Mon – Sat 5pm-12am Ramblin’ Rascal Tavern Basement, 60 Park St, Sydney CBD Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 6pm-10pm Rockpool Bar & Grill 66 Hunter St, Sydney CBD (02) 8078 1900 Mon – Sat lunch & dinner The Rook Level 7, 56-58 York St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 2505 Mon, Sat 4pm-midnight; Tue – Fri noon-midnight The SG 32 York St, Sydney CBD 0402 813 035 Tues – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 6pm-midnight Shirt Bar 7 Sussex Ln, Sydney CBD (02) 8068 8222 Mon –Wed 8am-8pm; Thu – Fri 8am-10pm Since I Left You 338 Kent St, Sydney CBD

26 :: BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15

(02) 9262 4986 Mon – Wed 5pm-10pm; Thu – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat 6pm-midnight Small Bar 48 Erskine St, Sydney CBD (02) 9279 0782 Mon – Fri noon-midnight; Sat 5pm-midnight The Smoking Panda 5-7 Park St, Sydney CBD (02) 9264 4618 Wed – Sat 4pm-late Stitch Bar 61 York St, Sydney CBD (02) 9279 0380 Mon – Wed 4pm-midnight; Thu – Fri noon-2am; Sat 4pm-2am The Swinging Cat 44 King St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 3696 Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight Tapa Vino 6 Bulletin Place, Circular Quay (02) 9247 3221 Mon – Fri noon-11.30pm Uncle Ming’s 55 York St, Sydney CBD Mon – Fri noon-midnight; Sat 5pm-midnight York Lane 56 Clarence St, Sydney CBD (02) 9299 1676 Mon – Wed 6.30am-10pm; Thu – Fri 6.30pm-midnight; Sat 6pm-midnight

121BC 4/50 Holt St, Surry Hills (02) 9699 1582 Tue – Sat 5pm-midnight Absinthe Salon 87 Albion St, Surry Hills (02) 9211 6632 Wed – Sat 4-10pm Arcadia Liquors 7 Cope St, Redfern (02) 8068 4470 Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm

– Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 5pm-10pm Central Hotel 42-50 Chalmers St, Surry Hills (02) 9212 3814 Mon – Sat 10am-2am; Sun 10am-10pm Ching-a-Lings 1/133 Oxford St, Darlinghurst (02) 9360 3333 Tue – Wed 6pm-11pm; Fri – Sat 6pm-1am; Sun 5pm-10pm The Cliff Dive 16-18 Oxford Square, Darlinghurst Wed – Sat 6pm-4am The Commons 32 Burton St, Darlinghurst (02) 9358 1487 Tue – Wed 6pm-late; Thu – Fri 12pm-late; Sat – Sun 6pm-late The Darlie Laundromatic 304 Palmer St, Darlinghurst Mon – Sat 5pm-11pm Darlo Bar 306 Liverpool St, Darlinghurst (02) 9331 3672 Mon – Sun 10am-midnight Dead Ringer 413 Bourke St, Surry Hills (02) 9331 3560 Mon – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm Eau De Vie 229 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst 0422 263 226 Mon – Sat 6pm-1am; Sun 6pm-midnight The Forresters 336 Riley St, Surry Hills (02) 9212 3035 Mon – Wed noonmidnight; Thu – Sat noon1am; Sun noon-10pm Gardel’s Bar 358 Cleveland St, Surry Hills (02) 8399 1440 Tue – Sat 6pm-midnight

Bar Cleveland Cnr Bourke & Cleveland St, Redfern (02) 9698 1908 Mon – Thu 10am-2am; Fri – Sat 10am-4am

Gazebo 2 Elizabeth Bay Rd, Elizabeth Bay (02) 9357 5333 Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat – Sun noon-midnight

Bar H 80 Campbell St, Surry Hills (02) 9280 1980 Mon – Sat 6pm-late; Sun 11am-3pm

Golden Age Cinema & Bar 80 Commonwealth St, Surry Hills (02) 9211 1556 Mon - Sun 11am-9pm

Bellini Lounge 2 Kellett St, Potts Point 0432 241 556 Thu – Sun 6pm-late

Goros 84-86 Mary St, Surry Hills (02) 9212 0214 Mon – Wed 11:30am-midnight; Thu 11:30am-1am: Fri 11:30am-3am; Sat 4pm-3am

The Beresford 354 Bourke St, Surry Hills (02) 8313 5000 Mon – Sun noon-1am Black Penny 648 Bourke St, Surry Hills (02) 9319 5061 Mon – Sat 7am-midnight; Sun 7am-10pm Button Bar 65 Foveaux St, Surry Hills (02) 9211 1544 Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight Café Lounge 277 Goulburn St, Surry Hills (02) 9016 3951 Mon – Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sunday 4-10pm Casoni Italian Bar & Eatery 371-373 Bourke St, Darlinghurst Tue – Thu 5pm-11pm; Fri

The Hazy Rose 1/83 Stanley St, Darlinghurst (02) 9357 5036 Wed – Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 3pm-midnight; Sun 3-10pm Hello Sailor 96 Oxford St, Darlinghurst (02) 9332 2442 Tue – Sun 5pm-3am Hinky Dinks 185 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst (02) 8084 6379 Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 1-10pm Hollywood Hotel 2 Foster St, Surry Hills (02) 9281 2765 Mon – Wed thebrag.com

COCKTAIL OF THE WEEK

Tue – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm

(02) 8020 6698 Tue – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 3pm-10pm

Pour it in your mouth-hole... (responsibly).

Rosie Campbell’s 320 Crown St, Surry Hills (02) 8356 9120 Mon 5pm-midnight: Tue – Sun 4pm-midnight

Fat Ruperts 249 Bondi Rd, Bondi (02) 9130 1033 Tue – Fri 6pm-late; Sat – Sun 2pm-late

Shady Pines Saloon Shop 4, 256 Crown St, Darlinghurst Mon – Sun 4pm-midnight

Mr Moustache 75-79 Hall St, Bondi Beach (02) 9300 8892 Mon – Fri 5pm-11pm; Sat noon-11pm; Sun noon10pm

The Soda Factory 16 Wentworth Ave, Surry Hills (02) 8096 9120 Mon – Fri 5pm-3am; Sat – Sun 6pm-3am Surly’s 182 Campbell St, Surry Hills (02) 9331 3705 Tue – Sun noon-midnight Sweethearts Rooftop 33/37 Darlinghurst Rd, Potts Point (02) 8070 2424 Mon – Thu 2pm-11.30pm; Fri – Sun noon-11.30pm This Must Be The Place 239 Oxford St, Darlinghurst (02) 9331 8063 Mon – Sun 3pm-midnight Tio’s Cerveceria 4/14 Foster St, Surry Hills Mon – Sun 5pm-midnight

CAFÉ DEL MARTINI @ CAFÉ DEL MAR SYDNEY, 35 WHEAT ROAD, ROOFTOP TERRACE, COCKLE BAY WHARF Ingredients: • three basil leaves • 15ml lime juice • 60ml Coco Ciroc • 30ml pineapple reduction

Origins: This delightful little number pays homage to its home in Ibiza with fresh pineapple juice reduction, handpicked basil slapped with infusions of coconut and citrus to tantalise the taste buds. You’ll be soaking up the sun and getting the party started with this cocktail.

Glass: Champagne coupe

Method: Combine all ingredients into a shaker and shake well. Single strain into glass and garnish with coconut basil boat.

Garnish: One basil leaf, toasted coconut

Best drunk with: Friends During: Sunsets and fiestas While wearing: Camilla kaftans And listening to: Deep sexy house

More: cafedelmar. com.au

10am-midnight; Thu – Sat 10am-3am Hustle & Flow Bar 105 Regent St, Redfern (02) 9310 5593 Tue – Sat 5pm-midnight Li’l Darlin Darlinghurst 235 Victoria St, Darlinghurst (02) 8084 6100 Mon – Sun 4pm-late Li’l Darlin Surry Hills 420 Elizabeth St, Surry Hills (02) 9698 5488 Mon – Fri noon-late; Sat 4pm-late LL Wine and Dine 42 Llankelly Place Potts Point (02) 9356 8393 Mon – Thu 5pm-11pm; Fri – Sat noon-late; Sun 11am-10pm The Local Taphouse 122 Flinders St, Darlinghurst (02) 9360 0088 Mon – Wed noonmidnight; Thu – Sat noonmidnight; Sun noon-11pm Love, Tilly Devine

91 Crown Ln, Darlinghurst (02) 9326 9297 Mon – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 4-10pm Low 302 302 Crown St, Surry Hills (02) 9368 1548 Mon – Sun 6pm-2am Mr Fox 557 Crown St, Surry Hills 0410 470 250 Tue – Wed 5pm-late; Sat 10am-midnight; Sun 10am-10pm The Norfolk 305 Cleveland St, Surry Hills (02) 9699 3177 Mon – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm Old Growler 218 William St, Woolloomooloo 0422 911 650 Tue – Sat 5pm - midnight The Passage 231A Victoria St, Darlinghurst (02) 9358 6116 Mon – Sat 5pm-late Peekaboo 120 Bourke St, Woolloomooloo 0403 747 788 Mon – Thu 4pm-10pm; Fri

– Sat 4pm – 12am Play Bar 72 Campbell St, Surry Hills (02) 9280 0885 Tues – Sat 5pm-midnight Pocket Bar 13 Burton St, Darlinghurst (02) 9380 7002 Mon – Wed 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 4pm-1am; Sun 4pm-midnight The Powder Keg 7 Kellett St, Potts Point (02) 8354 0980 Wed 5pm-1am; Thu 5pm-2am; Fri – Sat 4pm-2.30am; Sun 1pm-midnight

Vasco 421 Cleveland St, Redfern 0406 775 436 Tue – Sat 5pm-midnight The Village Inn 9-11 Glenmore Rd, Paddington (02) 9331 0911 Mon – Sun 12pm-late The White Horse Hotel 381-385 Crown Street, Surry Hills 1300 976 683 Mon – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm The Wild Rover 75 Campbell St, Surry Hills (02) 9280 2235 Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun noon-10pm The Winery 285A Crown St, Surry Hills (02) 9331 0833 Mon – Sun noon-midnight

Anchor Bar 8 Campbell Pde, Bondi (02) 8084 3145 Tue – Fri 4.30pm-late; Sat – Sun 12.30pm-late Bat Country. 32 St Pauls St in Randwick (@ The Spot) (02) 9398 6694 Mon – Sat 7am-midnight; Sun 7am-10pm Beach Road Hotel 71 Beach Rd, Bondi Beach (02) 9130 7247 Mon – Sat noon-1am; Sun 11am-10pm

The Print Room 11 Glenmore Rd, Paddington 0424 034 020 Wed – Fri 3pm-late; Sat 12pm-11pm, Sun 12pm-10pm

Bondi Hardware 39 Hall St, Bondi (02) 9365 7176 Mon – Wed 5pm-late; Fri noon-midnight; Sat 9am-midnight; Sun 9am-10pm

Queenie’s Upstairs 336 Riley St, Surry Hills (02) 9212 3035 Tue – Sat 6pm-late & Fri noon-3pm

The Bucket List Shop 1, Bondi Pavilion, Queen Elizabeth Drive (02) 9365 4122 Mon – Tue 11am-5pm; Wed – Sun 11am-late

Roosevelt 32 Orwell St, Potts Point 0423 203 119

The Corner House 281 Bondi Rd, Bondi

The Phoenix Hotel 1 Moncur street Woollahra (02) 9363 2608 Wed – Thu 4pm-11pm; Fri – Sat noon-11pm; Sun noon-10pm The Robin Hood Hotel 203 Bronte Rd, Waverley (02) 9389 3477 Mon - Sat 10am-3am; Sun 10am-10pm Speakeasy 83 Curlewis St, Bondi (02) 9130 2020 Mon – Sat 5pm-11pm; Sat – Sun 4pm-10pm Spring Street Social (and Jam Gallery) Underground 195 Oxford St, Bondi Junction (02) 9389 2485 Tues – Sat 4pm-3am Stuffed Beaver 271 Bondi Rd, Bondi (02) 9130 3002 Mon – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm

The Angry Pirate 125 Redfern St Redfern (02) 9698 9140 Tue – Thur 5pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 3pm-midnight Bar-racuda 105 Enmore Rd, Newtown (02) 9519 1121 Mon – Sat 6pm-midnight The Bearded Tit 183 Regent St, Redfern (02) 8283 4082 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sat noon - midnight; Sun noon - 10pm Blacksheep 256 King St, Newtown (02) 8033 3455 Mon – Fri 4pm-11pm; Sat 2pm-11pm; Sun 2pm-10pm Bloodwood 416 King St, Newtown (02) 9557 7699 Tue – Wed 6pm-late; Thu – Sun 5pm-late Calaveras 324 King St, Newtown 0451 541 712 Wed – Sat 6pm-midnight The Chip Off The Old Block 3 Little Queen Street, Chippendale (02) 9318 0815 Tue – Sat 4pm-11pm Cornerstone Bar & Food 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh (02) 8571 9004 Sun – Wed 10am-5pm; Thu – Sat 10am-late Corridor 153A King St, Newtown 0405 671 002 Tue – Fri 3pm-midnight; Sat 1pm-midnight; Sun 1pm-10pm Cottage Bar & Kitchen 342 Darling St, Balmain (02) 8084 8185 Mon – Wed 5pm-midnight; Thu – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-

10pm Different Drummer 185 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9552 3406 Mon – Sat 4.30pm-late Doris & Beryl’s Bridge Club and Tea House 530 King St, Newtown Mon – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat – Sun 5.30pm-midnight Earl’s Juke Joint 407 King St, Newtown Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4-10pm Freda’s 109 Regent St, Chippendale (02) 8971 7336 Tues – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4pm-10pm The Hideaway Bar 156 Enmore Rd, Enmore (02) 8021 8451 Tue– Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sat noon-1am; Sun noon-10pm Hive Bar 93 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville (02) 9519 9911 Mon – Fri noon-midnight; Sat 11am-midnight; Sun 11am-10pm Kelly’s On King 285 King St, Newtown (02) 9565 2288 Mon – Fri 10am-2.30am; Sat 10am-3.30am; Sun 11am-11.30pm Knox Street Bar 21 Shepherd St, Chippendale Tue – Thu 4pm-l0pm; Fri – Sat 4pm-11pm

Raven’s Eye 127 King St, Newtown (02) 9557 6429 Mon – Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 11.30am-midnight; Sun 11:30am-10pm The Record Crate 34 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9660 1075 Tue – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm The Royal 156 Norton St, Leichhardt (02) 9569 2638 Mon – Thu 10am-1am; Fri – Sat 10am-3am; Sun 10am-midnight Secret Garden Bar 134a Enmore Rd, Enmore 0403 621 585 Mon – Sun 1am-11pm Soho In Balmain 358 Darling St, Balmain 0407 525 208 Tue – Sun 5pm-midnight

Your bar’s not here? Email: chris@thebrag. com (02) 9976 3030 Mon – Sat 8am-midnight; Sun 8am-10pm Honey Rider 230 Military Rd, Neutral Bay (02) 9953 8880 Tue – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4pm-10pm InSitu 1/18 Sydney Rd, Manly (02) 9977 0669 Tue – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat 9am-midnight; Sun 9am-10pm The Hunter 5 Myahgah Rd, Mosman 0409 100 339 Mon – Tue 5pm-midnight; Wed – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm

Temperance Society 122 Smith St, Summer Hill (02) 8068 5680 Mon – Thu 4pm-11pm; Fri – Sat: noon-midnight; Sun: noon-10pm

Jah Bar Shop 7, 9-15 Central Ave, Manly (02) 9977 4449 Mon – Fri 4pm-late; Sat 9am-late; Sun 9am-10pm

Thievery 91 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 8283 1329 Tue – Thu 6pm-11pm; Fri 6pm-midnight. Sat 11pm-3pm & 6pm-midnight

The Local Bar 6/8 Young Ln, Neutral Bay (02) 9953 0027 Tue – Fri 11.30am-midnight; Sat 7am-midnight; Sun 7am-10pm

Timbah 375 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9571 7005 Tue – Thu 4pm-10pm; Fri noon-11pm; Sat 3pm-11pm; Sun 4pm-8pm

Los Vida 419 Pacific Hwy, Crows Nest (02) 9439 8323 Mon – Wed 5pm-midnight; Thu – Sat 11.30am-midnight; Sun 11.30am-10pm

Kuleto’s 157 King St, Newtown (02) 9519 6369 Mon – Sat 4pm-late; Thu – Sat 4pm-3am

Wilhelmina’s Liquid and Larder 332 Darling St Balmain (02) 8068 8762 Tues – Fri 5pm - late; Sat – Sun 8am - late

The Little Guy 87 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 8084 0758 Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 1pm-midnight; Sun 3pm-10pm

The Workers Lvl 1, 292 Darling St, Balmain (02) 9555 8410 Thu – Sat 5pm-3am; Sun 2pm-late

The Mayor 400 Military Rd, Cremorne (02) 8969 6060 Tue – Wed 5pm-late; Thu – Sat noon-late; Sun noon-10pm

Mary’s 6 Mary St, Newtown (02) 4995 9550 Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm

ZanziBar 323 King St, Newtown (02) 9519 1511 Mon – Sat 10am-4am; Sun 10am-12am

Miami Cuba 47 North Steyne, Manly (02 99775186 Tue – Thu 8am-10pm; Fri – Sat 8am-1am; Sunday 8am-4pm

The Midnight Special 44 Enmore Road, Newtown (02) 9516 2345 Tues – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 5pm-10pm Miss Peaches 201 Missenden Rd, Newtown (02) 9557 7280 Wed – Sun 5pm-midnight The Moose Newtown 530 King St, Newtown (02) 9557 0072 Wed – Sat 6pm-midnight Mr Falcon’s 92 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9029 6626 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri 3pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun 2pm-10pm Newtown Social Club 387 King St, Newtown (02) 9550 3974 Mon 9am-6pm; Tues – Fri 9am-8pm; Sat 10am-8pm The Oxford Tavern 1 New Canterbury Rd, Petersham (02) 8019 9351 Mon – Thu noon-10pm; Fri – Sat noon-11pm; Sun noon-9pm

Zigi’s Wine And Cheese Bar 86 Abercrombie St, Chippendale (02) 9699 4222 Tue 4pm-10pm; Wed – Sat 2pm-late

Alberts Bar 100 Mount St, North Sydney (02) 9955 9097 Mon – Wed 11.30am-10pm; Thu 11.30am-11pm; Fri 11.30am-midnight Firefly 24 Young St, Neutral Bay (02) 9909 0193 Mon – Thu 5-11.30pm; Fri 4-11.30pm; Sat noon11pm; Sun noon-10pm The Foxtrot 28 Falcon St, Crows Nest Tue – Wed 5pm-midnight; Thu 5pm-1am; Fri – Sat 5pm-2am; Sun 4pm-10pm The Hayberry Bar & Diner 97 Willoughby Road, Crows Nest (02) 8084 0816 Tue – Thu 4pm-12am; Fri & Sat noon-midnight Sun noon-10pm Hemingway’s 48 North Steyne, Manly

Manly Wine 8-13 South Steyne, Manly (02) 8966 9000 Mon – Sun 6.30am-late

Moonshine Lvl 2, Hotel Steyne, 75 The Corso, Manly (02) 9977 4977 Thu 5pm-2am; Fri 1pm-2am; Sat noon-2am; Sun noon-midnight The Pickled Possum 254 Military Rd, Neutral Bay (02) 9909 2091 Thu – Sat 9pm-1am SoCal 1 Young St, Neutral Bay (02) 9904 5691 Mon – Tue 4pm-late: Wed – Thu noon-1am; Fri – Sat noon- 2am; Sun noon-midnight The Stoned Crow 39 Willoughby Rd, Crows Nest (02) 9439 5477 Mon – Sun noon-late The Treehouse Hotel 60 Miller St, North Sydney (02) 8458 8980 Mon – Fri 7am-late; Sat 2pm-late Wilcox Cammeray 463 Miller St, Cammeray (02) 9460 0807 Tue – Thu 4pm-10pm; Fri – Sat 2pm-11pm; Sun 2pm-10pm BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15 :: 27

out & about Queer(ish) matters with Lucy Watson

H

ip hop has always been a genre pioneered by marginalised groups in society. It has its origins in providing a voice for disenfranchised black youth, giving them an outlet to vent about the realities and hardships of their lives.

Hip hop has hardly been known for its intersectionality, though (that is, while it might focus on the struggles of young black men, it often does so to the detriment of other marginalised groups). Tyler, The Creator has almost single-handedly furthered hip hop’s anti-feminist, homophobic cause, but while he might be the loudest (and the most loudly protested), he’s not alone.

RHYTHM HUNTERS SATURDAY 21st NOVEMBER 2015

JENOLAN CAVES GRAND ARCH + SPECIAL GUESTS SI MULLUMBY (WILD MARMALADE) NICKY BOMBA (MELBOURNE SKA ORCHESTRA) TIX ON SALE NOW THROUGH MOSHTIX CAMPING AVAILABLE FOR MORE INFO CALL 0410 470 474

In spite of this hostile environment, intersectional hip hop has emerged, proving that the genre can still be for the marginalised and not just Kanye “I Am A God” West (someone hurry up with his damn croissants). Consider this your guide to some of the best queer hip hop out there (and no, I’m definitely not talking about Macklemore – Frank Ocean is closer, but still too obvious). Le1f Le1f is developing a pretty huge following as far as niches go. He’s sassy, can vogue like nothing else, and loves Australia, having been here at least three times in the last two years. He’s coming back in January in support of his new album, Riot Boi, out next Friday November 13. Le1f is unashamedly queer – his latest hit, ‘Koi’, (which has over 250,000 hits on YouTube) is about basic boys who are far inferior to his swag approaching him in nightclubs. He also sits on the lap of a greased-up guy wearing a Pikachu mask in the video for his breakout hit, ‘Wut’. Le1f

www.therhythmhunters.com

Mykki Blanco Mykki Blanco also loves Australia, rejects gender norms, and is a proud activist (and writer) as well as a rapper. She performs in boxing shorts and girly wigs, boxer shorts and flower crowns, or whatever she damn well feels like. Proudly and openly HIV positive, Blanco was arrested in Portugal last year, apparently for “being gay”. Donchristian DonChristian Jones is a proudly queer member of the hip hop collective Camp and Street, alongside Le1f. His songs are slick and smooth, and all available for free download. Angel Haze I stumbled across Angel Haze in 2013, when I went to a festival with Haze on the bill as well as Azealia Banks. Banks cancelled, while Haze’s flight was delayed so late they ended up having to get a plane from the airport direct to the stage, “And I’m still fuckin’ here!” Haze ended up picking a girl out of the crowd, bringing her onstage, and at the end of the show, leading her backstage. Smooth. Haze is openly pansexual and agender, and raps in explicit detail about an abusive past – don’t listen to ‘Cleaning Out My Closet’ if you’re squeamish. Cakes Da Killa Cakes Da Killa, like Le1f and Mykki in particular, isn’t afraid to call out homophobia, which seems incredibly brave in an industry that essentially uses ‘faggot’ as a verbal crutch. Cakes has been to Australia a few times, in support of Le1f and on his own. Like others in the genre, he’s questioned the necessity of ‘queer hip hop’ being separated from regular hip hop, saying: “I came out in the third grade. This is just me being me.” House Of Ladosha The House Of Ladosha collective came to Sydney in 2013 in support of Le1f with Cakes Da Killa, and headlined the Goodgod Minceteria as part of Vivid earlier this year. Slotting perfectly into the Sydney queer scene (alongside fabulous queens Slé), they helped provide the perfect antidote to the stifling vanilla flavour that Vivid has started to leave in the mouths of Sydneysiders.

I M A G I N E B E I N G M A D E TO

Junglepussy Junglepussy released her first mixtape last year, and her debut album was announced in August this year (a release date hasn’t been announced). The clip from the first single ‘Now Or Later’ features her, only slightly ironically, lovingly stroking some kale.

F EEL LIKE CRAP J U ST FOR

Bucking (or fucking) the misogynist trend of hip hop, these artists are queering rap, and reigniting interest in it as a result.

this week…

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

28 :: BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15

STOP t THINK t RESPECT

Speaking of rap, this Thursday November 5 you can get your fill of glitter rap at Brighton Up Bar with Simo Soo, also featuring Zsa Zsa LaFine, Marky Vaw, B00bjob, Flexmami and Moonsign. Don’t know what glitter rap is? Neither do I, but apparently it sounds like if The Powerpuff Girls were into black metal. Saturday November 7 is when the next big marriage equality rally takes place in Sydney, starting at Sydney Town Hall at 1pm. New PM, new fight; head along and

Simo Soo tell Turnbull a plebiscite is bullshit. After that, head to the Chippendale Hotel for a summer psych-out soiree from the House Of Mince, featuring Jake Blood, Hysteric, Annabelle

Gaspar and others. Sunday November 8 is the annual Newtown Festival. Expect lesbians, dogs, and lesbians with dogs.

thebrag.com

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

ALBUM OF THE WEEK YACHT

I Thought The Future Would Be Cooler Downtown / Create/Control

It would be a mistake to think of Yacht as just another electropop band. While their pop beats and disco rhythms may lull you into a false belief that this record is just a good listen and nothing else, their message of a digital world in which we all find ourselves trapped comes sneaking through.

Californian dance comes with an injection of dystopian doomsday warnings.

PLAYWRITE Cathedrals Independent

It isn’t unusual for tragedies to inspire art. Much of Playwrite’s debut album Cathedrals deals with the death of guitarist Patrick Holcombe’s parents during the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. With such a powerful origin, it’s no wonder the album they’ve delivered is an incredibly powerful listen. From beginning to the, the record resembles the feel of a mind in chaos. Psychedelic sounds push and pull the music in different directions all at once, before dropping away for moments of intense clarity as Jordan White’s vocals cut through, true and clear. This works to startling effect on songs like ‘Driver’s Seat’, ‘Whittaker’ and ‘Rivers’. The difficulty with this album is that the raw emotion can be too much for some. You can’t casually listen to these songs else their beauty escapes you. Even if you listen to Cathedrals without having any knowledge of Playwrite, the record is so tragic and real and serious that the enjoyment is sapped out of it somewhat, in the same way you wouldn’t watch a documentary on Auschwitz unless you were in a serious mood. But while Cathedrals may not be a casual listen, it is an immensely enjoyable one that captures the beauty that can come from a personal tragedy. Daniel Prior

From the album’s first song ‘Miles & Miles’, it’s not difficult to feel like you’re listening to prophets of the digital age. An eight-minute song, the opener begins with a simple beat and Claire Evans’ mystical vocals. Two minutes later, it explodes in electrifying blasts of

guitar and synths, and in the final minute, turns into a full-on rave. This energy and message persists throughout the album, allowing the band to cover such topics as police brutality, media exploitation and the shackles of the technology we thought would make our lives better. However, the record doesn’t feel preachy, as the addictive pop sounds soften the message and keep it a pleasurable experience. Taken as a whole, I Thought The Future Would Be Cooler is a Trojan horse of an album, with an irresistible sound to lure you close and drop your guard, while the lyrics work their way into your mind and get you thinking seriously as you lose yourself to dance. Daniel Prior

RAURY

CHRIS ISAAK

Talk Tight Ivy League

All We Need Sony

First Comes The Night Universal

Most of us, at one time or another, have wanted to take off across some dusty plain with nothing but a faithful old heeler on the passenger seat, one sunburned arm hanging out the driver’s window and maybe a couple of cartons of brews in the back. Melbourne quintet Rolling Blackouts might have made just the EP for such a trip: Talk Tight is a five-track effort of guitar pop with so many links to the McLennan-Forster songbook of 1988 that it could almost be a period piece.

A smooth blend of eclectic influences, Raury’s All We Need is not bound by mere genre or category. This album is rich with elements from all over the musical spectrum and mature lyrical content well beyond his years, and a solid full-length attempt, despite an appearance of quantity over quality.

Chris Isaak is never going to reinvent the wheel, but he has made a solid career out of giving Roy Orbison’s Cadillac a new coat of paint. From earning David Lynch’s applause in the 1980s, to the bad boy throwback crooner of the ’90s, Isaak’s consistency and integrity hasn’t waned in the face of ever-changing fashions and trends. First Comes The Night is a full-length record of pure Isaak, centred on his charming wit, smooth vocals and traditional rock’n’roll backing.

ROLLING BLACKOUTS

A compliment so heady shouldn’t be handed out willy-nilly, of course, but in this case it’s deserved; the young band’s jangly guitar sound is some seriously top-drawer Australiana. It’s pretty laid-back for the most part, though, so it’s a ride we’re all welcome on. Opener ‘Wither With You’ gets the motor started and wheels rolling with plenty of guitar hooks, before ‘Wide Eyes’ cleans out the cobwebs of its fuzzy opening with an all-guns-blazing alt-country climax. ‘Heard You’re Moving’ is a straightforward and charming guitarpop number that cleverly takes a minute before the vocals kick in, while ‘Clean Slate’ gets all garage-jam massive before breaking back down, and ‘Tender Is The Neck’ closes the deal with unexpectied sentimentality.

The world music flavours of ‘God’s Whisper’, the breakthrough track for which Raury is renowned, appear intermittently throughout. ‘Revolution’, like the single ‘Devil’s Whisper’, revels in tribal ceremony with percussionheavy rhythms and gospel chants. Progressing from the Atlanta musician’s name-making EP Indigo Child, All We Need provides a more diverse tracklisting, exploring the possibilities of experimental hip hop with tracks like ‘Forbidden Knowledge’ and ‘Peace Prevail’. The only issue is there is just too much filler. Still, songs like ‘Her’ manage to progress to a pay-off with polyrhythmic drums and swirling electronics, all neatly assembled and uniform. All We Need spends a fair amount of time in a dreamlike state, off with the pixies. Otherwise, the album contains carefully executed arrangements and luscious compositions thriving with musical diversity.

If you like your indie rock freewheeling and chock-full of charm, these boys have you covered.

From lyrically abrasive hip hop to deep chill folk, All We Need is an ideal introduction to a master of conglomeration.

While this record doesn’t uncover any new ground, the fact Isaak’s career has remained successful for longer than many of those he has been accused of imitating speaks volumes.

Paul McBride

Aaron Streatfeild

Joe Hansen

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK Spacejunk’s second full-length album Bite Your Tongue was recorded by Graveyard Train’s Matt Duffy on top of a bar in North Melbourne and mastered by Mikey Young of Eddy Current Suppression Ring, so it was guaranteed we were in for a treat.

SPACEJUNK Bite Your Tongue High Kick

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Recorded primarily in Nashville, the record takes on a distinctive Southern flavour, with the ghosts of country legends resonating throughout. After the classic rock’n’roll warm-up of the title track, the record takes a darker turn with ‘Please Don’t Call’; a pleading ballad of vanquished romance. The groove returns on ‘Down In Flames’, a toast to Isaak’s prediction he’ll spend eternity burning in damnation for his lifetime of sins. The country influence becomes fully realised on four-to-the-floor stomper ‘Dry Your Eyes’, full of twang and attitude. It’s clear that Isaak’s early focus on hit singles has fallen by the wayside in favour of solid narratives.

The Melbourne four-piece embodies the heart and soul of old-school Aussie rock – the sound, the edge, the talent and even the rock star pseudonyms. Spacejunk established a loyal following in the local bar scene and made clear their intentions to deliver fuzzed-out guitar-driven rock with their self-titled debut last year. However, with the release of Bite Your Tongue, it seems Spacejunk are determined to discover new frontiers in their collective psyche.

The fast and firm drumming in the opening bars of ‘Raised By Snakes’ sets the tempo before frontman Mark E. Moon’s seasoned vocals take the spotlight. His frantic pleas make ‘Something I Know I Don’t Know’ a haunting favourite. ‘Warning’ kicks off the second half with a distinctly psychedelic vibe that leads into an allout grunge assault, but the essence of the album arrives in the chorus of penultimate track ‘Time Of My Life’. In this quintessential punk anthem, Moon unleashes the beast, repeating the lines, “Sorry I got so wasted / Sorry I got so high / Sorry I crashed your party / I had the time of my life”. And didn’t we all?

JEMMA AND THE CLIFTON HILLBILLIES Jemma And The Clifton Hillbillies Independent/Bandcamp In 2013, Melbourne’s Jemma Rowlands released an EP under the name Jemma and Her Wise Young Ambitious Men. Fast-forward two years, and following a name change, Jemma and The Clifton Hillbillies’ self-titled debut album is upon us – and it was well worth the wait. Jemma and The Clifton Hillbillies is a refreshing country album with plenty of highlights. It begins with the single ‘April’s Fool’, its appealing melody and emotion-charged lyrics setting the tone for what’s to follow. The best track on the collection, though, is the catchy ‘Crying Room’, while other highlights include ‘Song Itself’, ‘Fightin’ Mad’ and ‘Killing Time’. Fiddle, pedal steel and banjo feature prominently, delivered by Rowland’s peers: guitarists Sean McMahon and Ben Mastwyk, bass player Cal Walker, drummer Josh Duiker, pedal steel man Ben Franz and fiddler Jason Bunn. Despite the album’s relatively short length of just under half an hour, all its songs flow seamlessly. Whether you’re a long-time country music fan or a new convert, this record is thoroughly enjoyable, suggesting a bright future ahead for Jemma and The Clifton Hillbillies. Ali Birnie

OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week... JAMIE XX - In Colour THE HOLLOWAYS - No Smoke, No Mirrors THE CURE - Disintegration

BOY & BEAR - Limit Of Love BLACK SABBATH - Vol. 4

Natalie Rogers BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15 :: 29

snap sn ap live reviews

VIEW FULL GALLERIES AT

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up all night out all week . . .

What we've been out to see...

MESA COSA, HEDGE FUND, HORRORWOOD MANNEQUINS Frankie’s Pizza Saturday October 31 Of all the revellers at Frankie’s Halloween Party, the one who seemed to be enjoying the proceedings the most was none other than Michael Myers himself. Flanked by Ryan Gosling from Drive and a short man who could have either been Charles Manson or a Rastafarian, he head-banged along to the music, shuffling about the mosh pit in his stained overalls. But though he was the most visibly enthusiastic, the general mood was uniformly high across the night. There was a kind of decadent euphoria to the evening, as three strong bands played three strong sets. Hedge Fund kicked things off, belting out their new single ‘Boyfriend’ with style and energy. Bucking and gyrating around the stage like the unholy lovechild of Ian Curtis and David Lee Roth, the band’s frontman William Colvin proved to be legitimately hypnotic, and the music combined frenetic riffs with arch, incisive lyrics.

the rubens

PICS :: AM

Horrorwood Mannequins took over next. Prowling the space like hyenas, the band’s bassist Spud and guitarist Steeden were enjoyably intimidating, and even a drunken

mid-set tumble failed to unsettle lead singer Audri Medicate’s slick and sick demeanour. Last to the stage were Mesa Cosa, deliriously raucous rockers from Melbourne. The most unhinged performers of the night, they invited an audience member up onstage to drink beer from a boot; sang from atop speaker piles; used a variety of fourletter words to introduce a song inspired by Sydney’s lockout laws; and dedicated their final number to Satan. But it wasn’t a case of style over substance, and more interesting than the onstage antics was the music itself. Though the Halloweenappropriate slow-motion sludge of ‘Day Of The Dead’ was a set highlight, the entirety of the 40-minute show impressed, with each surf- and garage-rock-indebted tune feeling more fresh and inventive than the last. By the end of the evening, Harley Quinn was dancing with a vampire. A staff member dressed as a beer bottle was picking up empty beer bottles. Sub-Zero was lifting up his mask in order to down a pint of Blackula, the delicious specialist dark ale put on tap especially for the occasion. And, amidst it all, there was Michael Myers, raising his fist in grim solidarity as Mesa Cosa brought the night to its crashing end. Joseph Earp

KE PHOTOGRAPHER :: KATRINA CLAR

31:10:15 :: Enmore Theatre :: 118-132 Enmore Rd Newtown 9550 3666

OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER

S :: KATRINA CLARKE :: ASHLEY

MAR ::

songwriters’ secrets WITH SUZANNAH new album Mother’s Not Feeling Herself Today a couple of months back; it’s called ‘I’m Sorry’ and features 13 of my female singersongwriter friends on backing vocals. The song was inspired by a talk given by writer/historian Clare Wright about the moment she admitted she was not well and finally asked for help. The words “I’m sorry, I’ve failed” rang in my head; I knew I had to try to write a song out of it. Songwriting Secrets There’s no secret – it’s a skill 3. set like anything else, a craft that

1.

The First Song I Wrote I remember my first fully formed song being written when I was 14. It was heavily influenced by Sam Brown – remember her? I played it on the piano. I have no idea if I could still play it; I must try

30 :: BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15

one day. It was full of teenage angst and die-hard romance. The teenage angst has gone but the die-hard romantic lives on. Last Song I Released I released a single from my 2. The

is honed. I do think that my music has become more interesting over time, though, because I am getting closer to finding my own voice; being less influenced by what I think my music should be. Speak your truth, especially if you are a woman. We need more women’s stories.

ESPIE

The Song That Makes Me Proud 4. I am generally most proud of my

The Song That Changed My Life 5. I remember hearing ‘Revelator’ by

newest baby, what I have done more recently – I always marvel at the fact that something that didn’t exist suddenly does! I have just released an album of new songs; it’s a concept album of sorts about my experience of motherhood. It’s pretty dark at times and reveals some gritty truths about me and my experiences. I was a little scared (an understatement) about how it would be received – whether people would find it too controversial, too negative, too raw – but it seems many people have connected to it; I have received some pretty amazing messages from people saying the lyrics speak to secrets they have kept, some for years and years, so I am really proud that I’ve had this effect on folks. I didn’t expect it!

Gillian Welch for the first time and literally stopping and just leaning against a wall. I felt a mixture of awe and love for the song but also a deep sense of despair because I felt so completely outclassed! One of those ‘Why do I bother?’ moments. But I learned so much from her about the power of simplicity in song and matching melody with meaning.

What: Mother’s Not Feeling Herself Today out now through Vitamin With: Lucie Thorne Where: Django Bar When: Thursday November 12

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C.W. STONEKING, PETER BIBBY Manning Bar Friday October 30

The first time Peter Bibby performed in Sydney, he had his bottles of confidence (AKA his band) with him and had ciggies and dollarydoos thrown at him. To now see him solo on the stage with a guitar and an intimate connection with the crowd speaks of his maturing as an artist, though he still feels like he’s one note away from calling everyone up to take swigs from a goon bag. At least a quarter of the crowd has come out just to see Bibby’s support set and laugh as his voice bubbles and squeaks its

way through ‘Friends’. ‘Hates My Boozin’’ gets the sing-along treatment, turning it into an anthem for alcoholics. Even Bibby has to give it a disclaimer: “That song is not an invitation to go be a drunken dickhead.” He plays a few more from Butcher / Hairstylist / Beautician, and has everyone calling for more after he takes a bow. With the stage empty the curtains are drawn and when they open again, C.W. Stoneking stands in his white outfit, buttons done all the way to the top. His accent is so drenched in his Darwin-crossLouisiana style that punters are constantly asking each other what he just said. But no-one cares

when he belts out opener ‘How Long’ with his guitar wailing along. ‘Get On The Floor’ has everyone jumping while ‘The Thing I Done’ casts a haunting sway over Manning Bar. Songs like ‘The Love Me Or Die’ and ‘I Heard The Marching Of The Drum’ feel somewhat underwhelming due to the lack of a horn accompaniment, but Stoneking fills the void with electric blues that carry on the groove. At one point he snaps a string and entertains the crowd with a ‘conversation’ while he tunes a new one; it’s a change from his usual shy and composed presence. He immediately gets everyone back boogying along with ‘Jungle Blues’.

The crowd sways in time with ‘Jungle Lullaby’, most arm in arm, before the band leaves Stoneking with his blues guitar and everyone is treated to a yodelalong of ‘Talkin’ Lion Blues’, the crowd hitting the high notes when Stoneking’s voice falters and ends up sounding like Mickey Mouse.

THIS THAT 2015

“They have a funny custom down South,” he says between songs. “You can say anything you want about a person, just so long as you cap it off with, ‘Bless their heart.’” But after a show like this, no-one could have a bad thing to say about C.W. Stoneking (bless his heart).

True to its name, there was a strong sense of duality at the festival – the sets were fairly short between the main two stages with the This stage pleasing electronic fans while the That stage catered to indie rock fans. It meant that in its first year running, This That was still trying to work out what it was going for. The biggest problem throughout the day was the sound mixing – while often it was perfect for acts like Baauer, it was a real issue for Sticky Fingers and Birds Of Tokyo, where the performances could have been more powerful with a louder, clearer sound.

Daniel Prior

Newcastle Foreshore Saturday October 31 Newcastle’s inaugural This That festival on the foreshore threw together a fun mix of mostly local acts for a taster of the latest talent on the Aussie music scene.

That said, there were certainly some quirky highlights that gave the festival its own flavour: a stage where you could grab an instrument and play with your new festival friends; the Other stage (a tiny stage for a quick dance party); and some cute spots with beds to just hang out.

ROBBIE WILLIAMS Allphones Arena Tuesday October 27

“My name is Robbie Fucking Williams,” he begins… and you know the rest. The UK megastar is on yet another arena tour of his antipodean home-away-from-home, and he’s still using the same banter as the last four times he visited. He’s still flirting with women as they catch his eye; he’s still interrupting ‘Supreme’ with the rap verse from that other hit, ‘Rock DJ’. He’s still doing the same crowd participation bit (“One hand in the air! Two hands in the air!”) he used on 375,000 people at Knebworth in 2003, and it’s on the same song he opened with there as well. Yes, Robbie Williams would have you believe that nothing has changed since the days when he was the biggest solo star on the planet – as long as you don’t ask America – and to be fair, when the fans wilfully lap up your recycled quips time after time, even those become part of the whole showbiz experience. Something would be wrong if he wasn’t using them. The Let Me Entertain You tour’s first Sydney show starts like any other Robbie Williams concert has for the last ten years (excluding his forays into Sinatra-era swing), and there’s no reason to hold that against him. ‘Let Me Entertain You’, ‘Monsoon’, ‘Come Undone’ and ‘Rock DJ’ have the energy pumping, even if the 41-yearold former boy band heartthrob now lets his four backing vocalists do

most of the singing on the latter. He postures, he poses, he grins a cheeky grin for any camera that comes near him. The problem is, where Williams’ self-deprecating egotism once charmed the masses into believing, now it all feels like one big in-joke for only those who’ve stuck with him this whole time. And that becomes clear when Williams starts diverting from the established path. Maybe he’s just trying to be adventurous, but filling the rest of the set with covers like ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’, ‘Wonderwall’, ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and the ‘My Way’ finale seems entirely self-indulgent. Not to mention the thoroughly bizarre ‘Royals’/‘99 Problems’ mashup that wrecks one of Williams’ own namemaking hits, ‘Millennium’. Already, the eight-piece band and modest (though dazzling) light show seems an understated production, at least by Williams’ former stadium-filling standards. His career was always built on some fundamentally solid pop songs (many of which, like ‘Strong’, ‘No Regrets’ and ‘Let Love Be Your Energy’, don’t get an airing tonight), and it may be that this is the start of Williams’ transition to smaller venues. But can anything less than an arena hold his once irresistible, now borderline obstructive ego? Time will surely tell. Chris Martin

Favourites on the local festival scene such as rising star Tkay Maidza and The Jungle Giants didn’t disappoint, keeping things upbeat, while Sticky Fingers were all but drowned out by the loving singing of their audience. Kilter was an electronic highlight on the This stage with fun collaborations, including Snakadaktal’s Phoebe Cockburn who leant her vocals to his remix of ‘Fall Underneath’. Kilter is clearly a talented percussionist with unstoppable energy that meant his set was polished from start to finish. Later in the evening, Birds Of Tokyo pleased the audience as one of the few alternative rock acts, performing big with a stunning light show. In general, the acts were well planned in terms of style to give the festival some shape – while bands like Sticky Fingers and The Jungle Giants were relaxing in the evening, Sydney electro duo Carmada (joined onstage at one point by Asta) and American producer Baauer fired up the party that went into the night. Indeed, Baauer was a pleasant surprise as the token international act – he read the Newcastle audience well, mixing up his beats when needed, and proving he wasn’t just a one-hit wonder for ‘Harlem Shake’ by keeping the crowd alive for the duration of his set. His tunes gradually drew an audience from all over the festival until the tent was overflowing with people dancing unashamedly in the areas surrounding. RÜFÜS provided a calmer alternative on the That stage for those wanting to wind down. This That was nicely capped off with fireworks on the foreshore at the end, and from the excited chattering and gasps of awe from festivalgoers leaving the venue, the day proved itself a success. Erin Rooney

KE PHOTOGRAPHER :: KATRINA CLAR

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

pick of the week AC/DC

Froyo The Loft (UTS), Ultimo. 5pm. Free. Mark Travers Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. Free. Muso’s Club Jam Night Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt. 8pm. Free. Thatcher The Vanguard, Newtown. 6:30pm. $13.80.

Mia Dyson

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Hammerhead Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. Free. Jane Bunnett And Maqueque Foundry 616, Sydney. 8:30pm. $49.

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 4

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

ANZ Stadium

AC/DC + The Hives + Kingswood

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 4 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Sandi Thom

Fiona Joy & The Blue Dream Ensemble Foundry616, Ultimo. 8:30pm. $30. Thursdays In Jam - feat: El Moro + DJ Av El Cubano Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 9pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

5:30pm. $100.93. Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7pm. $23. The Waifs + Mia Dyson Civic Theatre Newcastle, Newcastle. 7pm. $57.65. Welcome Stranger The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $5.

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 5

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Paddington. 8pm. Free. Dirty Deeds - The AC/DC Show The Brewery, Sydney Olympic Park. 5pm. Free. Last Drinks The Loft End Of Semester Party feat: S.Kape + X & Hype + Vigilantes +

AC/DC ANZ Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park. 5:30pm. $100.93. Anatomy Class Captain Cook Hotel,

Bob Log III + Bones Jones & The Skeletones The Vanguard, Newtown. 7pm. $23.80. Katie Noonan + Mko Brass Monkey, Cronulla. 6pm. $44.90. Mojo Juju Small Ballroom,

Newcastle. 8pm. $24. Muso’s Club Jam Night Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill. 8pm. Free. Pills + Suiix + Nightmaze + Tees + Yung Pliny Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $11.80. PVT Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $25. Slide McBride Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. Free. The Paper Kites Lizotte’s, Newcastle. 8pm. $30.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Pugsley Buzzard Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 9pm. $10. ACO Underground Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8:30pm. $37.50. Bandquest - feat: Tommy Pickett + Mass + The Set + Red Whiskey + Binalong Road Ruby L’otel, Rozelle. 7:30pm. Free. Ben Ely + Alyx Dennison Django Bar @

Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 7pm. $15. Live At The Sly - feat: Swords + Swamp Fat Jangles + Renetta Joy Slyfox, Enmore. 7:30pm. Free. The Waifs + Mia Dyson Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 7pm. $63.11.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 6 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Baby Lips & The Silhouettes Factory Floor, Marrickville. 8pm. $9. Late Night AfroJazz Jam + Cuba’s Maqueque Foundry616, Ultimo. 1pm. $5.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS 10cc Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8pm. $69.90.

Ayla Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $15. Broozer + Yanomamo + Squawk + Mish + The Dead Rats Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham. 8pm. $15. Brutale Manning Bar, Camperdown. 9pm. $80. Chet Faker Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 6pm. $99. Day Ravies + Unity Floors + Miners Roxbury Hotel, Glebe. 8pm. $11.80. Diesel + Charlie A’Court Brass Monkey, Cronulla. 7pm. $54.10. Kingswood Towradgi Beach Hotel, Towradgi. 6:30pm. $24.50. Krisna Jones Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 5:45pm. Free. One World Ruby L’otel, Rozelle. 7pm. Free. Reckless Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 10pm. Free. Tam Vantage Vic On The Park, Marrickville. 8pm. Free. The Audreys The Vanguard, Newtown. 7:30pm. $33.80. The Caravansary - feat: Direwolf + Colin Jones + Ainsley Farrell + Liam Gale & The Ponytails + Maia Jelavic + Dusty Yellow Sunbeams The Gaelic Club, Surry Hills. 6pm. $15. The Lulu Raes Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $15. The Murlocs Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $23. The Paper Kites Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $25.49. The Superjesus Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm.

speed date WITH

ARNE UTIGER FROM BIN JUICE Your Profile We kind of sound like Funkadelic, but not 1. really. We all generally go for what feels good in regards to the music we make. We formed in high school then expanded to the five we are now.

library cafeteria. Sooo stale. Last week at the Lord Gladstone was also great fun. We played with King Colour and Gypsys Of Pangea and the floorboards were actually flexing with all the people jumping. There would have been some dusty beers below at the bar I think [laughs].

Keeping Busy Current Playlist Bin Juice have been pretty busy lately. We 4. We listen to a lot of different stuff. 2. haven’t put out any music in nearly a year so we Recently it’s been Kamasi Washington (RIP thought it might be time. We’ve been hovering around Ben Worsey’s (who is a legend) Everland Studios recording some songs for a future EP. However, in more immediate news, this month we are releasing an EP we recorded at our drummer’s house in July. We’ve got a nice string of shows to support it in Sydney, Newy and Wollongong too, which makes us happy. We plan to release an episodic set of six EPs in the style of the Star Wars saga (four, five, six, one, et cetera). Best Gig Ever 3. The best gig we ever played would have to be five years ago when we played at Tegan Wickenden’s place with all our friends in Newport. We played a cover of ‘Yertle The Turtle’ which I remember being particularly funny. The worst gig we’ve ever done was at a venue in Dee Why which has since closed but it was like playing in Mrs. McGonagall’s Oxfordshire 32 :: BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15

Sydney show), Kendrick, Captain Beefheart, Drake, Herbie Hancock, Zeahorse, Dilla, Winston Surfshirt, Funkadelic, the Pixies (all the time), BadBadNotGood, Black Sabbath, OutKast and Michael Jackson. The last show we saw as a band was Hiatus Kaiyote at the Metro a couple months back. It was seriously good. Your Ultimate Rider Our ultimate rider would include heaps 5. of ginger beer and a chess board. We’d also probably have some sort of meat platter (and feta cheese) and a Nintendo 64 with 1080° Snowboarding and Super Smash. A beer or two would be good. With: Bad Valley, Phantastic Ferniture Where: Brighton Up Bar When: Saturday November 21

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g g guide gig g

g g picks gig p

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com

Montaigne

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 8 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

$40. They Might Be Giants Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $79.42.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Liza Ohlbach Band + Bonnie Kay & The Bonafides + Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. $15. Mick Thomas Petersham Bowling Club, Petersham. 7pm. $22.44.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK The New Delhi Llamas Royal Exchange, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Dave Stringer Paddington Uniting Church, Paddington. 7pm. $42.50. John & Yuki Well Co. Cafe And Wine Bar, Leichhardt. 8pm. Free. Kristin Berardi + Sean Foran + Rafael Karlen Foundry616, Ultimo. 8:30pm. $35. Šako Polumenta Max Watt’s, Moore Park. 8pm. $56. Sol3 Mio City Recital Hall, Sydney. 6:30pm. $20. Yeshe & Kurai Hotel Gearin, Katoomba. 8:30pm. $19.90.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS I Know Leopard Moonshine Cider & Rum Bar, Manly. 7pm. Free. AC/DC ANZ Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park. 5:30pm. $100.93. Chet Faker Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 6pm. $99. Crayon Fields Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $15. Diesel + Charlie A’Court

Brass Monkey, Cronulla. 7pm. $54.10. Dirty Deeds - The AC/DC Show The Brewery, Sydney Olympic Park. 5pm. Free. Elevate Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 10pm. Free. Jimmy Bear Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 5:45pm. Free. Mojo Juju The Basement, Circular Quay. 7:30pm. $24.30. Montaigne Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $17.50. Parramatta Day - feat: Wendy Matthews + The Pigs + Inland Navigators + Jacinta Tobins Experiment Farm, Parramatta. 12pm. Free. Paul Hayward And His Sidekicks Town And Country Hotel, Sydney. 4pm. Free. Peter Black Black Wire Records, Annandale. 7pm. Free. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody Show Paddington RSL, Paddington. 8pm. $30. Royal Chant + Wasters + Bruise Pristine Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington. 9pm. Free. Run Squirrel + Bofolk & Friends + Spencer Scott Stag And Hunter, Newcastle. 8:30pm. Free. Spy Vs Spy + Urban Guerillas Dundas Sports Club, Dundas. 8pm. Free. Tenderfoot Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $12. The Dirty Earth + Fox Company + Black Heart Breakers Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. $15.

James Muller & Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra The Basement, Circular Quay. 7pm. $32.50. Peter Dasent Colbourne Avenue, Sydney. 6pm. $20.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Songsonstage - feat: Stuart Jammin + Pauline Sparkle + Guests Harlequin Inn, Pyrmont. 3pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Becky & The Pussycats Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 6:30pm. Free. Bin Juice + Winston Surfshirt + Salvador Dali Llama Town Hall Hotel, Newtown. 7pm. Free. Broozer + Grvlls + Summonus + Wiskey Smile + Comacozer Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 4pm. Free. Drowning Horse + We Lost The Sea + Thorax + Jxckxlz Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 6pm. $15. Erik Sondhy The Basement, Circular Quay. 6:30pm. $28.80. Newtown Festival 2015 - feat: Jinja Safari + The Laurels + The Cops + The Walking Who + Steve Smyth + True Vibenation + Gordi + Spookyland + The Strides + Coda Conduct + Okenyo Camperdown Memorial Rest Park, Newtown. 9am. Free. Open Mic Epping Hotel, Epping. 5pm. Free. Open Mic Night Nag’s Head Hotel, Glebe. 5:30pm. Free. Peter Byrne Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm. Free. Sye McRitchie + DJ Muzmarinator The Bearded Tit,

up all night out all week...

Redfern. 4pm. Free. White Bros Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 4:30pm. Free.

ACO Underground

MONDAY NOVEMBER 9 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Sonic Mayhem Orchestra Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Gadjo Guitars 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. Neil Diamond Allphones Arena, Sydney Olympic Park. 8pm. $59.90.

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 10 INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Bucket Lounge Presents – Live & Originals Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 7pm. Free. Co Pilot Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. Free. Open Mic The Bourbon, Potts Point. 7pm. Free. Tame Impala + Mini Mansions Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 6pm. $89.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Acronym Orchestra Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. Free. Ellen Kirkwood’s Mieville Project Foundry616, Ultimo. 8:30pm. $25.

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 5 ACO Underground Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8:30pm. $37.50. Live At The Sly - Feat: Swords + Swamp Fat Jangles + Renetta Joy Slyfox, Enmore. 7:30pm. Free. Pills + Suiix + Nightmaze + Tees + Yung Pliny Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $11.80. PVT Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $25. The Waifs + Mia Dyson Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 7pm. $63.11.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 6 Brutale Manning Bar, Camperdown. 9pm. $80. Chet Faker Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 6pm. $99. Day Ravies + Unity Floors + Miners Roxbury Hotel, Glebe. 8pm. $11.80. Diesel + Charlie A’Court Brass Monkey, Cronulla. 7pm. $54.10. The Audreys The Vanguard, Newtown. 7:30pm. $33.80. The Caravansary - Feat: Direwolf + Colin Jones + Ainsley Farrell + Liam Gale & The Ponytails + Maia Jelavic + Dusty Yellow Sunbeams The Gaelic Club, Surry Hills. 6pm. $15. The Lulu Raes Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $15. The Murlocs Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $23. The Paper Kites Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $25.49. The Superjesus

Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $40. They Might Be Giants Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $79.42.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7 Chet Faker Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 6pm. $99. Crayon Fields Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $15. Montaigne Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $17.50. Royal Chant + Wasters + Bruise Pristine Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington. 9pm. Free. Šako Polumenta Max Watt’s, Moore Park. 8pm. $56.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 8 Broozer + Grvlls + Summonus + Wiskey Smile + Comacozer Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 4pm. Free. Newtown Festival 2015 - Feat: Jinja Safari + The Laurels + The Cops + The Walking Who + Steve Smyth + True Vibenation + Gordi + Spookyland + The Strides + Coda Conduct + Okenyo Camperdown Memorial Rest Park, Newtown. 9am. Free.

MONDAY NOVEMBER 9 Neil Diamond Allphones Arena, Sydney Olympic Park. 8pm. $59.90.

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 10 Tame Impala + Mini Mansions Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 6pm. $89. Tame Impala

Jinja Safari xxx

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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, Eden Gillespie and Tegan Reeves

he said she said

Romare

MARK DYNAMIX

WITH

RBMA FEAT. ROMARE

Ninja Tune’s Romare is the latest name to lead a Red Bull Music Academy tour of Australia. The UK youngster will headline RBMA’s November program off the back of releasing his debut album, Projections, earlier this year. Romare is a musician’s musician, having learned the crafts of drumming and guitar before moving into the electronic world following his move to that city of culture, Paris. Benji B, Gilles Peterson, Huw Stephens, Bonobo and Tiga are bona fide fans, and plenty of Sydneysiders will join them when Romare plays Goodgod Small Club on Saturday November 14.

W

hat’s the concept behind your upcoming Jack The House party? It really came about because I’d recently been shuffling through my vinyl archive, pulling out gems that I hadn’t heard for over 15 years. A couple of months ago, I heard Paul Holden play a couple of hiphouse tunes at a rave reunion party and I thought it would be a great idea to revisit these sounds for a full night, incorporating some of the original Chicago house classics alongside acid house. These three genres were the basis of the dance music explosion from 1988-1992, which I would consider the ‘golden period’ of electronic music. How much of the influence of those acid house days can be heard in electronic music today? Roland’s Bassline machine – the 303 – which creates that signature acid bassline is currently having its third full resurgence in house and techno today; there are plenty of new records out which use the 303 and pay homage to the originals. The acid house movement

Hot Dub Time Machine

was uplifting but serious (musically) at the same time. Underground music today seems to be heading in this same direction, creating a good balance for the dancefloor. Where were the main venues for these club nights in the 1988-1992 period? How did they compare to venues in 2015? In Sydney, the main venue was the Hordern Pavilion which held numerous events such as the RAT Parties, F.U.N, Bacchanalia, Zoo, Pride, Sweatbox… but weekly clubs such as Ziggurats, Blackmarket, Metropolis and The Front played everything from the slower hip hop grooves like Monie Love and the Jungle Brothers, through to house classics like Inner City and Marshall Jefferson, and then on to the acid house craze with artists like 808 State and Phuture. In 2015, the whole scene feels much more sanitised and safe (musically); it’s rare to hear DJs taking a risk with their track selection, which stifles new music. Although there is definitely an underground culture being reignited

EARS HAVE EARS LIVE

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If there were one record to define the period, what would it be? Wow, that’s not easy – maybe ‘Turn Up The Bass’ by Tyree, because it incorporates hiphouse, Chicago and acid house elements, but everyone’s going to have their own favourite depending on which genre they prefer. Personally, it could be ‘Get Real’ by Paul Rutherford? Is there anything about the acid house heyday that’s better left in the past after all? Smiley face logos have been done to death. I can’t think of much I’d leave behind apart from some of the ghastly costumes, but I can definitely think of plenty of things I’d like to bring back from the acid house period. Red Mitsis spring to mind… What: Jack The House With: John Ferris, Paul Holden Where: Slyfox When: Friday November 13

will be performing his first-ever solo Sydney show alongside Tasmanianborn electronic musician Matthew Brown and Sydney duo Clocks & Clouds (Kraig Grady and Terumi Narushima), who make acoustic music featuring vibraphone and pump organ. Also performing will be Laura Altman, Romy Caen, Prue Fuller, Mel Herbert and Andrew Fedorovitch – the Sydney quintet best known for their improv work. Wrap your ears around this eclectic night of music on Friday November 6 at 107 Projects.

NEW NIGHTMINDS COME TOGETHER

Nightminds have become the king of parties at Bondi’s Jam Gallery, and they aren’t being dethroned anytime soon, releasing two lineups for forthcoming events. The first party on

Friday November 6 includes a lineup of triple j host Linda Marigliano, Made In Paris, Steph Lusk and more techno treats to be revealed on the night. The second lineup is just as exciting, with techno outfit Indian Summer set to headline the party on Friday December 4.

Ben Pearce

Lost Paradise, the boutique glamping festival taking place over the New Year’s period on the Central Coast, has added a bunch more electronic names to its 2015 lineup. The festival had already confirmed its return for a second year with a program headed by the likes of Angus & Julia Stone, Jamie xx, Jon Hopkins and The Jungle Giants. Now, a host of new DJs are on board. The second round lineup includes Hot Dub Time Machine, Hayden James (live), Daniel Avery, Sampa The Great, World Champion, Motorik Vibe Council, A.D.K.O.B, Carlos Zarate, James Fazzolari, Tech No More, Persian Rug and Jimmy Walker, and that’s not even the half of it. For the full list, head to thebrag.com. Lost Paradise 2015 takes over the Glenworth Valley from Tuesday December 29 – Thursday December 31.

KEEP THE FAITH PEARCE THE SURFACE

Underground DJ Ben Pearce first made his mark on the production scene in 2012 with ‘What I Might Do’, his accidental anthem that went platinum in Europe and dominated dancefloors worldwide. However, the UK house upstart still thinks of the club as his natural environment, not the studio, and he’s set to prove it on a visit Down Under this weekend. Pearce is the creative director at record label Purp & Soul and an in-demand remixer, but he’ll be nowhere but the booth at Chinese Laundry this Saturday November 7.

Eats Everything

Tru Thoughts Recordings’ Jonny Faith will be preaching the good news at Play Bar this weekend as he launches his debut album. The Melbourne-based Edinburgh export will bring a brand of instrumental hip hop to the Surry Hills floor, laced with intricate percussion and organic sounds. Sundial is the name of the record, and Roleo, Mase Boogie and Benny Hinn are the names of the supports this Friday November 6.

C.U THURSDAY, TOO

The party minds behind Civic Underground are extending their Saturday lineup to a one-off Thursday event. If you’re hungry from some electronic tunes head to the CBD den to catch UK electronic act Eats Everything, supported by Sydney veterans Murat Kilic and Kato. The venue is currently undergoing a makeover and this event is one of the initiatives with which it hopes to revitalise Sydney’s clubbing scene. The special edition of C.U Thursday will be held on Thursday November 19. xx

Ears Have Ears, FBi Radio’s awardwinning experimental music program, is set to host a night of electroacoustic, instrumental and electronic music called Unexplored Territories In Sound, featuring musicians from Sydney and beyond. Headlining the night will be Melbourne-based electroacoustic performer Joe Talia, best known for his work with reel tape machines and analogue devices. Talia

by the oppressive lockout laws pushing everyone back into warehouses in the Inner West and South Sydney.

LOST PARADISE LINEUP GROWS

thebrag.com

Andras Fox Good Vibrations By Augustus Welby

T

he name Andras Fox sounds at once futuristic and oldfashioned, elegant yet cartoon-like. It’s a fitting moniker, then, for the electronic exploits of Melbourne’s Andy Wilson. You might know Wilson from his collaborations with fellow Melburnian innovators Oscar Key Sung (as Andras & Oscar) and Becky Sui Zhen (under the similarly straightforward nom de plume Fox + Sui). However, over the past five years, Wilson has predominantly focused on his solo project. The latest Andras release, Vibrate On Silent, exemplifies his knack for utilising vintage drum machines and synthesisers to create simply textured, somewhat dated-sounding tracks that have an addictive, alien vibration. Wilson is renowned as a prolific creator, but he’s spent the majority of 2015 on the road. After touring nationally behind Andras & Oscar’s debut LP, Café Romantica, he embarked on a three-and-a-halfmonth European tour. Kicking off in June, the first couple of months were also devoted to Andras & Oscar, before Wilson continued with a series of solo DJ gigs. His experience with solo live performance is actually fairly limited at this stage, but at this month’s At First Sight festival, he’ll be trialling a new live set. “[I’ll mainly play] stuff that I’ve been working on the last year,” he says. “I don’t think I’ll really do much of the old stuff. I’m moving towards a thing where I just want to improvise the whole thing. I’ve been writing some demos but I wanted to just try and remember parts of them and program the drums and stuff. Everything’s kind of blank, so I just make drum patterns and make loops and just see where it goes.”

Gear-wise, Wilson has experimented with a range of different set-ups over the past few years, and the improvised performance approach demands another modification. “There’s a really good loop pedal that I bought just before the tour called a Boomerang, which is a really good name for a looper,” he says. “It lets me make loops and then turn them off. You can build up a track quite easily just using that.” The plan is to sync the loop pedal with a couple of drum machines and a synth. Like a lot of people in his field, Wilson is on a seemingly endless search for the ultimate synth. He thinks he may recently have tracked it down. “I’m always looking for a small enough synth that I can travel with in a suitcase, and I think I finally found my dream one in Italy about two months ago. An Italian muso showed me his in Paris. It was like a Danoz Direct ad – he was like, ‘But wait, there’s more!’ It’s kind of like a Casio and it has nice preset sounds and it’s very familiar in that respect, but it’s just set up in a way that’s really playable and it’s really small – it’s only two-and-a-half octaves. It’s built for performance. It’s called an OMB 5, and the OMB stands for One Man Band, so it’s obviously perfectly tailored to doing what I need to do with it.” Not only did the synth satisfy his desires, but it also came at a ludicrously cheap price. “It was about a hundred bucks. I bought it on the equivalent of Gumtree in Italy – the Italian postal service is notoriously bad so I arranged for it to be sent to the promoter who I was going to be playing for in about two weeks’ time. So, via Google Translate and stuff, I paid for the

synth and got it shipped to the gig and when I arrived at the gig in Reggio Emilia I picked up the synth.” However, dreams don’t become reality quite so smoothly, and Wilson faced some challenges getting his new synth to cooperate. “I was really happy and took it back to the hotel and plugged it in and went to reach for a cable and turned around and the room was full of smoke, as if someone had been using the smoke machine for ten minutes. Some very large section of the synth had fried and caught fire and melted. If I left Italy with the synth I wouldn’t be able to get it repaired, because it’s a peculiar Italian one and I figured

only people in Italy would know how to fix it. “So my friend took it with her back to Turin and she and this old strange man fixed it for me. Then I made a really on-a-whim decision just before I came home to book a really expensive flight to Milan and then take a bus for three hours to Turin in the middle of the night, basically just to pick up a synth that was worth a hundred dollars.” It sounds like an ordeal, alright, but the synth is now in prime working order and ready to blitz Sydney audiences. “It sounds like a fridge – it’s got all these fans inside when

Off The Record

What: At First Sight 2015 With: My Disco, Lost Animal, Acid Baby Jesus, Richard Cartwright and more Where: Carriageworks When: Saturday November 14 And: Vibrate On Silent out now through Mexican Summer

RECOMMENDED FRIDAY NOVEMBER 6

Dance and Electronica with Tyson Wray Dr. Dunks

you turn it on and it whirrs up to speed. It’s functional and clunky and probably has cost me like eight times as much as the actual synth was worth. So hopefully the new set will be this clunky but small synth and one or two drum machines and a little looper and a little mixer.”

Kangding Ray

Dr. Dunks TBA

Awesome Tapes From Africa Goodgod Small Club

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 8 Otologic Café del Mar

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 12

Maribou State Oxford Art Factory

A

ww yeah, one of my all-time favourite DJs will be in town this weekend. Eric Duncan AKA Dr. Dunks is the undisputed disco edit king of New York. Case in point: his phenomenal How We Do In NYC mix from 2009 still holds up as one of the greatest ever. Aside from that, for the past 20 years he’s been slinging his ridiculously good C.O.M.B.i. edit series, worked alongside Thomas Bullock as Rub N Tug, and also produces house records as one half of Still Going. Don’t miss him on Friday November 6 for his first Australian visit in five years. The venue is TBA at the time of writing, but follow Picnic’s Facebook page for more details. If disco ain’t your thang, there’s one hell of a good party down at Goodgod Small Club this weekend. Taking a break from his support duties alongside Chet Faker, Brian Shimkovitz AKA Awesome Tapes From Africa has locked in a headline show. If any of you caught his last set at Goodgod on dual tape players then you’ll know this

is a party not to be missed. He’ll be joined this Friday November 6 by the London native Jamie Tiller (who recently relocated to Berlin from Amsterdam to run the Music From Memory label), with local support from Jimmy Caution, Dusty Fingers and Smokey La Beef. Boom! Sydney is finally going to see the live debut of Secret Circuit. When he’s not releasing records on the likes of B.I.S, RVNG, Emotional Response and ESP Institute, or working alongside Lovefingers, Willie Burns, Torn Hawk and DJ Harvey, the prolific producer has been touring the globe with his revered analogue approach to the dancefloor. Don’t miss your chance to see one of the finest live acts in the electronic game. It’s going down at the Oxford Hotel on Friday November 13. Two of the biggest names in the Melbourne electronic scene are set for a Sydney throwdown. Tom Moore and Nick Murray AKA Otologic ran the infamous C Grade

parties for several years alongside Tornado Wallace (where they’d go back-to-back all night to around 10am), and are also responsible for monthly Animals Dancing shows (alongside Wallace and Andee Frost). Their closing set at Meredith 2012 was one of the all-time greats; give it a spin on their SoundCloud to get you into the mood. They’ll be joined by fellow Melburnian Noise In My Head, plus locals Mike Witcombe and Steven Sullivan, on Sunday November 8 at Café del Mar.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 13

Chinese Laundry Mathew Jonson, Cobblestone Jazz, Palms Trax Marrickville Bowling Club Patrice Scott Burdekin Hotel

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 27 Eric Cloutier, Peter Van Hoesen Marrickville Bowling Club

Rødhåd Oxford Art Factory

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 28

Oliver Shigeto, Lapalux Huntemann Max Watt’s Oxford Art Factory Max Cooper Burdekin Hotel Secret Circuit Oxford Hotel

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 14

Nina Kraviz Greenwood Hotel

Tour rumours: we’ll be seeing some Detroit royalty early next year in Jeff Mills and Derrick May. Oh, and Rick Wade will also be stopping by before the year is out.

Romare Goodgod Small Club

Best releases this week: Kangding Ray has just dropped his latest full-length Cory Arcane (Raster Noton) and it’s straight fi -yah. You can currently stream it on Resident Advisor. Other highlights include the latest Ostgut Ton compilation and Recondite’s Placid (Acid Test).

Bicep Oxford Art Factory

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 21 Justin Martin

THURSDAY DECEMBER 3

Gilles Peterson Oxford Art Factory

FRIDAY DECEMBER 4 – SUNDAY DECEMBER 6 Subsonic Music Festival: KiNK, Dop, Rick Wade, Roman Flügel + more Riverwood Downs Mountain Valley Resort, Barrington Tops

Got any tip-offs, hate mail, praise or cat photos? Email hey@tysonwray.com or contact me via carrier pigeon. thebrag.com

BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15 :: 35

club guide g

club picks p up all night out all week...

send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com

club pick of the week The Ashton Shuffle

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 6 Civic Underground

The Ashton Shuffle Xxx

9pm. $23.50. WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 4 CLUB NIGHTS Bamboo Boogie feat: Harry Sounds + Daniel Lupica + Karim Middle Bar, Darlinghurst. 5pm. Free. Salsa Wednesdays - feat: DJ Miro + Special Guests The Argyle, The Rocks. 8:30pm. Free. The Wall The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. Free.

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 5 CLUB NIGHTS DJ Dara Gill The Bearded Tit, Redfern. 7:30pm. Free. Kicks The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. Free. Pilgrims Launch Night - feat: Amastro + Tsuki + Squeef + Jara Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst. 9pm. $10. Space Jam ’99 - feat: Simo Soo + Marky Vaw + Zsa Zsa Lafine Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $10. The Midnight Swim Sessions - feat: Thomas Studdy Goros, Surry Hills. 8pm. Free.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 6 HIP HOP & R&B El’ Jistos

Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10.

CLUB NIGHTS Absolute Botanik - feat: Stolen Records Botanik House, Centennial Park. 6pm. Free. Bassic - feat: Habstrakt + Hydraulix + Oski + Phaseone + Chenzo + Blackjack + Stalker + Lennon + Sippy Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $32.80. Blvd Fridays - feat: Andy Murphy Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $13.40. Derriere - feat: Rotating DJs Goros, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free. DJ Somatik Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 8pm. Free. Ears Have Ears Presents - feat: Oe Talia + Matthew Brown + Ears Have Ears DJs + Clocks & Clouds + Laura Altman + Romy Caen + Prue Fuller + Mel Herbert & Andrew Fedorovitch 107 Projects, Redfern. 8pm. $10. El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 9pm. Free. Feel Good Fridays Bar100, The Rocks. 5pm. Free. Friday Frothers feat: DJ Babysham + DJ Jesse Sewell Side Bar, Sydney. 9pm. Free. Friday Lite - feat: Victoria Kim Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 10pm. Free.

36 :: BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15

Harbour Club - feat: Resident DJs The Watershed Hotel, Sydney. 6pm. Free. Jam Fridays Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 9:30pm. Free. Loco Friday - feat: DJs On Rotation The Slip Inn, Sydney. 5pm. Free. Scubar Fridays - feat: DJs On Rotation Scubar, Sydney. 8pm. Free. The Aston Shuffle Civic Underground, Sydney. 9pm. $23.50. V Movement & Undr Ctrl Presents - feat: Roland Tings (DJ Set) + CC:Disco + Kato + Special Guest The Island Bar, Cockatoo Island. 6pm. $58.65.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7 HIP HOP & R&B Big Village Records 5th Birthday - feat: True Vibenation + Loose Change + Mathas + Ellesquire + Suburban Dark + P.Smurf + Soul Benefits + Rapaport + Tenth Dan + Billie Rose + DJs Roleo & 26th Letter Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $15. Boathouse Saturdays - feat: Resident DJs The Watershed Hotel, Sydney. 9pm. $20. Nofuss Russ +

Leeroy Brown + Benny Hinn Play Bar, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free. X Uncovered PreParty - feat: Leon Vice + Bambino + Kolejay + Anthony Vega The X Studio, Kings Cross. 9pm. $15.

CLUB NIGHTS Murray Lake + Brenny B Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 6pm. Free. Absolute Botanik feat: Housing Corp Botanik House, Centennial Park. 6pm. Free. Argyle Saturdays feat: Brody Jenner The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. $49. Dirty South Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $28.80. DJ Oktane Dirt The Bearded Tit, Redfern. 7:30pm. Free. El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 9pm. Free. Establishment Saturdays The Establishment, Sydney. 9pm. $20. Frankie’s Pizza Saturdays - feat: DJs Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 9pm. Free. Frat Saturdays feat: DJ Jonski Side Bar, Sydney. 7:30pm. Free. Le Fruit DJs Goros, Surry Hills. 8pm. Free. Lndry - feat: Ben Pearce + Low Steppa + Robbie Lowe + Marley Sherman + Matt Nugent + Groove Terminator + Jeff Drake + Discofool + Jade Le Flay + King

Lee + DJ Just 1 Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $38. Masif Saturdays Space, Sydney. 10pm. $25. My Place Saturdays - feat: DJs On Rotation Bar100, The Rocks. 8pm. Free. Pacha - feat: Dom Dolla + Benson + Terace + Lo’99 Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 6:30pm. $38. Reloaded - feat: The Upskirts + Burn Antares + Salvador Dali Llama Factory Floor, Marrickville. 6pm. $15. Scubar Saturdays - feat: DJs On Rotation Scubar, Sydney. 8:30pm. Free. Something Else First Birthday - feat: Simon Caldwell + MSG + Shivers + Persian Rug + Nick Reverse + James Petrou + Eliot Mireylees B2B Sook Yen Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst. 9pm. $15.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 8 CLUB NIGHTS Absolute Botanik - feat: One Day Botanik House, Centennial Park. 2:30pm. Free. Marco Polo - feat: Touch Sensitive Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 1pm. $17.50. Nad And Murray Lake Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 4pm. Free. S.A.S.H By Day Feat: Dale Howard + Uone + Kerry Wallace + Simon Brayford Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney. 1pm. $15. S.A.S.H By Night - Feat: Matt Weir + Jac Frier + Jake Hough + Dan Zina + Harry Buisman Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 8pm. $15. Straight Up Sundays - feat: Cool Hand Luke Middle Bar, Darlinghurst. 5pm. Free.

MONDAY NOVEMBER 9

Roland Tings

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 5 Pilgrims Launch Night Feat: Amastro + Tsuki + Squeef + Jara Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst. 9pm. $10. Space Jam ’99 - Feat: Simo Soo + Marky Vaw + Zsa Zsa Lafine Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $10.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 6 Bassic - Feat: Habstrakt + Hydraulix + Oski + Phaseone + Chenzo + Blackjack + Stalker + Lennon + Sippy Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $32.80. Blvd Fridays - Feat: Andy Murphy Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $13.40. Ears Have Ears Presents - Feat: Oe Talia + Matthew Brown + Ears Have Ears DJs + Clocks & Clouds + Laura Altman + Romy Caen + Prue Fuller + Mel Herbert & Andrew Fedorovitch 107 Projects, Redfern. 8pm. $10. Jonny Faith + Roleo + Mase Boogie + Benny Hinn Play Bar, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free. V Movement & Undr Ctrl Presents - Feat: Roland Tings (DJ Set) + CC:Disco + Kato + Special Guest The Island Bar, Cockatoo Island. 6pm. $58.65.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7 Big Village Records 5th

Birthday - Feat: True Vibenation + Loose Change + Mathas + Ellesquire + Suburban Dark + P.Smurf + Soul Benefits + Rapaport + Tenth Dan + Billie Rose + DJs Roleo & 26th Letter Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $15. Lndry - Feat: Ben Pearce + Low Steppa + Robbie Lowe + Marley Sherman + Matt Nugent + Groove Terminator + Jeff Drake + Discofool + Jade Le Flay + King Lee + DJ Just 1 Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $38. Nofuss Russ + Leeroy Brown + Benny Hinn Play Bar, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free. Pacha - Feat: Dom Dolla + Benson + Terace + Lo’99 Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 6:30pm. $38. Something Else First Birthday - Feat: Simon Caldwell + MSG + Shivers + Persian Rug + Nick Reverse + James Petrou + Eliot Mireylees B2B Sook Yen Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst. 9pm. $15.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 8 Absolute Botanik - Feat: One Day Botanik House, Centennial Park. 2:30pm. Free. Marco Polo - Feat: Touch Sensitive Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 1pm. $17.50. S.A.S.H By Day - Feat: Dale Howard + Uone + Kerry Wallace + Simon Brayford Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney. 1pm. $15.

CLUB NIGHTS Mashup Monday - feat: Resident DJs + DJ Thieves + Recess + Otg + Chivalry + More Side Bar, Sydney. 8pm. Free.

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

True Vibenation

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& presents

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 22 POOLSIDE (USA) SUNDAY DECEMBER 13 WOLF + LAMB (USA) RECKLESSREPUBLIC.COM thebrag.com

BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15 :: 37

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VIEW FULL GALLERIES AT

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up all night out all week . . .

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

YOUNG FRANCO, ELIZABETH ROSE, MONOKO, DJ SPORTS Newtown Social Club Friday October 30 It would be fair to assume that with RÜFÜS playing a sold-out show close by at the Enmore Theatre, the amount of dance-ready revellers would be down on the usual count for a Friday night in Newtown. Not the case for Brisbane boy Young Franco AKA Joey Da Rin, whose capacity crowd was well and truly grooving before he hit the decks. Touring across the country for his first headline tour in support of single ‘Don’t U Want Me’ (feat. Blair de Milo), Da Rin cherry-picked a bill of local acts from each city with DJ Sports, Monoko and ‘secret special guest’ Elizabeth Rose as Sydney’s selection. DJ Sports and Monoko set the groove with deep house beats before Rose took the bass up and BPM down. Closing with floor-fillers courtesy of the early noughties, including Madison Avenue’s ‘Don’t Call Me Baby’ and The Supermen Lovers’ ‘Starlight’, Rose successfully filled her duties of warming the crowd up.

c.u. saturday

That didn’t seem to bother most though, with a combination of dance classics from Crystal Waters, Mylo and Daft Punk being enough for the audience to take things to the stage and join the incredulous man of the hour. He triumphantly took it all out with a climax of heavyweights Disclosure and his own originals ‘Don’t U Want Me’, ‘Close 2 U’ and his remix of Safi a’s ‘Paranoia, Ghosts & Other Sounds’. It took much of the set to get there, but Young Franco impressed and showed what his party-making abilities are capable of. Emily Gibb

PICS :: KC

It was, however, Da Rin’s night and he confi dently took the reins, pulling

everyone in to the front and declaring, “Let’s make this a party!” From there, the crowd was under his control. The standard big percussive bass drops and mixed tempos were there but many didn’t know what to do with themselves when the pace changed, awkwardly spacing out until things kicked back in again. To Da Rin’s credit, he kept things consistent but with much of the set fi lled by tunes and remixes not his own, it left more to be desired from his own repertoire.

31:10:15 :: Civic Underground :: 388 Pitt Street Sydney 8080 7000

BY DAY

BY NIGHT

Sunday 8th November TERRACE

TERRACE

Dale Howard

W-beeza Jesse Rose Dave Stuart

Uone Kerry Wallace Simon Brayford

THE DEN Matt weir Jac Frier Jake Hough

MAZE Dan Zina Harry Buisman

1pm to 9pm - $15

HOME NIGHTCLUB 8pm to 4am $15 till 10pm / $20 after $15 all night with SASH by day stamp

s.a.s.h by day

PICS :: AM

GREENWOOD HOTEL

01:11:15 :: Greenwood Hotel :: 36 Blue Street North Sydney 9964 9477

www.sash.net.au

OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER

38 :: BRAG :: 637 :: 04:11:15

S :: KATRINA CLARKE :: ASHLEY

MAR

thebrag.com

BILLY JOE

GIBSON RRP $5999

SALE PRICE

$3599

CLEARANCE ITEM!

LPM ETUNE VS

GIBSON RRP $1749

LP STANDARD

GIBSON

SALE PRICE

$1049

RRP $6999

SALE PRICE

$4199

CLEARANCE ITEM!

SHOP WORN CLEARANCE DON'T MISS OUT!

SG SPECIAL

GIBSON RRP $1849

SALE PRICE

$1109

SHOP WORN CLEARANCE DON'T MISS OUT!

FIREBIRD

GIBSON RRP $1999

ZENITH BASS

EPIPHONE RRP $1599

CLEARANCE ITEM!

$1199

CLEARANCE ITEM!

SALE PRICE

$799

SALE PRICE

TOM DELONGE

EPIPHONE RRP $1099

SALE PRICE

$825

CLEARANCE ITEM!

ILABLE GIBSON 1958 LP BOURBONBURST BIGSBY – $8999 RRP SALE PRICE $4799 ALSO AVA

More GREAT GUITAR deals available in-store!

ANNANDALE 55 Parramatta Rd

9517 1901

The RRP is the recommended retail price as set by the Australian distributor of the product. While stocks last. Products pictured are for illustration purpose only.

www.gallinsmps.com.au

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