Brag#642 take3

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ISSUE NO. 642 DECEMBER 9, 2015

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

MUSIC, FILM, THEATRE + MORE

INSIDE This Week

N AT H A NIEL R AT E L IF F A ND T HE NIGH T S W E AT S Somebody give him a goddamn drink.

BLOC PARTY

JIMM Y C A R R

If you're going to heckle him, it better be a good one.

JENN Y L EE

Warpaint's bassist steps out with her fi rst solo release.

L E1F

The new record that chronicles 20 years of inaction.

BE A CH SL A NG

Philadelphia's late bloomers play music that appeals across generations.

Plus

FA IL UR E L IME C OR DI A L E T HE P OR K E R S T HE GR IS W OL D S A ND MUCH MOR E

I N D I E R O C K ' S U N L I K E LY S U R V I V O R S

GRAMMY AWARD WINNING GRAMMY AND

ACADEMY AWARD

WINNER

2 2

MONDAY SATURDAY S ATURDAFACTORY Y APRTHEATRE IL APRIL APRIL SUPERGROUP FEAT

ROBERT RANDOLPH

“genre-splicing instrumental dexterity” ROLLING STONE

LUTHER DICKINSON AND CODY DICKINSON OF BLACK CROWES AND NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS PLUS JOHN MEDESKI OF MEDESKI MARTIN & WOOD BACK TOGETHER FOR THEIR FIRST TOUR IN 15 YEARS

“Musical magic.” LA.COM “A wall of talent on stage.” DENVER WESTWORD

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

WED MARCH

23

ENMORE THEATRE

TUESDAY MARCH

BLUESFEST

SIDESHOWS

22

ENMORE THEATRE

TICKETS: BLUESFESTTOURING.COM.AU 02 6685 8310 & THE VENUES MORE INFO FROM BLUESFESTTOURING.COM.AU

SUNDAY MARCH

27

FACTORY THEATRE

ON SALE NOW!

GRAMMY AWARD WINNING SINGER FROM CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS

FIRST AUSTRALIAN TOUR “Stax of glorious noise.” DAILY MAIL UK

“If you believe in soul... if you believe in rock n roll... if you believe in performing your guts out... Enjoy the band on our show tonight.”

2015 CONTEMPORARY BLUES FEMALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR ( 5TH WIN ) 25 BLUES MUSIC AWARD NOMINATIONS AND SEVEN WINS 2ND EVER FEMALE TO WIN THE BLUES MUSIC AWARD FOR B.B. KING ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR

“2015’s next big thing” THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

MONDAY MARCH

21 FACTORY THEATRE

WEDNESDAY MARCH

FIRST AUSTRALIAN TOUR “far smarter and more sophisticated than casual observers may realize... (an) amalgamation of hearty Southern rock, alt-country and deep soul is equally suited for roadhouses or arenas.” THE NEW ORLEANS TIMESPICAYUNE

WED MAR

23

THE BASEMENT

JIMMY FALLON

30 THE BASEMENT “Sturgill Simpson is the Radiohead of country music.”

THURSDAY MARCH

31 METRO THEATRE

“you feel every sweaty note, a full-tilt, damn the torpedoes showcase” STAR TELEGRAPH

MARISSA R. MOSS SALON.COM

FIRST AUSTRALIAN TOUR - COWBOY HIPPY SURF ROCK AMERICANA MUSIC ASSOCIATION AWARDS

2015 Artist of the Year 2015 Song of the Year NASHVILLE SCENE COUNTRY MUSIC CRITICS POLL

2014 Best Male Vocalist 2014 Best Songwriter “Simpson AMERICAN SONGWRITERS has Best Album of 2014 perfected THE PLAYLIST the trick of 2015 favourite song of the year distilling classic country from many eras and moving away from it at the same time.” NPR

TUESDAY MARCH

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METRO THEATRE

MONDAY MARCH

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BRAG :: 642 :: 09:12:15 :: 3

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FULL LINEUP ANNOUNCED ON TUESDAY 5TH JANUARY SYDNEY.PIKNICELECTRONIK.COM thebrag.com

BRAG :: 642 :: 09:12:15 :: 5

rock music news

the BRAG presents

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

he said she said WITH

SHELLEY SEGAL

ou’ve just returned from a 40-date tour in the US to play another 11 dates on home soil. What is it about the touring lifestyle that you love? I love being in that rhythm. Playing every night, connecting with people, working out different variables, getting the chance to work on your craft and improving all the time.

Y

For anyone who hasn’t heard your music, how do you describe your sound? Spirited singer, songwriter and storyteller. Folky guitar and reflective lyrics. Flirting with

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, James Di Fabrizio, Joseph Earp, Eden Gillespie ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant COVER PHOTOGRAPHER: Rachael Wright PHOTOGRAPHERS: Katrina Clarke, Ashley Mar ADVERTISING: Les White - 0405 581 125 / (02) 9212 4322 les@thebrag.com Tony Pecotic - (02) 9212 4322 tony@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) AWESOME INTERNS: Elias Kwiet, Eden Gillespie, Joseph Earp REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Nat Amat, Prudence Clark, Tom Clift, Christie Eliezer, Tegan Jones, Lachlan Kanoniuk, Emily Meller, David Molloy, Annie Murney, Adam Norris, George Nott, Daniel Prior, Tegan Reeves, 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 Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this NEW address 100 Albion Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 ph - (02) 9212 4322 fax - (02) 9319 2227

Maitland’s AutumnFest has announced that legendary Australian ska band The Porkers will rock the stage at its ‘Karz and Kulture’-themed event next year. With frontman Peter Cooper also celebrating his 50th birthday at the fest, organisers have warned that “the Porkers are set to kick Friday night in the pants and run around with its underwear on its heads”. Grab your mates and head to AutumnFest at Maitland Showground on Friday May 6 – Sunday May 8.

MORE BLUESFEST NAMES

Following the announcement of the first group of artists and cultural leaders in the Boomerang program that will feature at Bluesfest next year, the festival has announced yet another crop of artists for its main lineup. Another ten acts have joined the bill, bringing the total artists announced so far to 62, with more surprises yet to come. Leading the latest new announcements are The Original Blues Brothers Band, who will have the honour of closing the event on one of the main stages. Also on the new lineup are Don McLean, The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Jeff Martin, The Mastersons, Russell Morris, Archie Roach, Tex Perkins and The Ape, Hussy Hicks and East Journey. The program is already chock-full of artists including Kendrick Lamar, The National, Brian Wilson, Tom Jones, Joe Bonamassa and Tedeschi Trucks Band. Make your way to Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm from Thursday March 24 – Monday March 28.

GET FOLKED IN THE CAPITAL

As the schedule for the National Folk Festival gradually expands, prepare to get yourself folked up. New acts for the 2016 event include The

Alvvays

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 DEADLINES: Editorial: Friday 12pm (no extensions) Ad bookings: Friday 5pm (no extensions) Fishished art: No later than 2pm Monday Ad cancellations: Friday 4pm Deadlines are strictly adhered to. Published by Furst Media P/L ACN 1112480045 All content copyrighted to Cartrage P/L / Furst Media P/L 2003-2014 DISTRIBUTION: Wanna get the BRAG? Email distribution@ furstmedia.com.au or phone 03 9428 3600 PRINTED BY SPOTPRESS: spotpress.com.au 24 – 26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville NSW 2204 follow us:

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ALWAYS ALVVAYS

Alvvays have announced their first-ever Australian tour to take place next March. The Toronto pop outfit have been riding a wave of success since the release of their self-titled debut album in 2014. Since then, they have toured with indie peers including Belle And Sebastian, Real Estate and The Decemberists, and performed at festivals like Glastonbury, FYF, and Reading and Leeds. The fivepiece will bring tunes from their debut album as well as new material to stages in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. See them at Goodgod Small Club – though by that stage it will be called Plan B Small Club – on Friday March 4.

Is it a difficult song to perform each night, given the subject matter? I love playing my songs over and over again. It gives me the chance to explore the song further each time. Hearing the varied responses from audiences to the song and letting that reshape my own meaning of it. Sometimes it can be cathartic to express strong emotions, even difficult ones. Immersing yourself regularly in a spectrum of emotions allows you to reflect on what is an internal experience, externally. Both transcendent and empowering. Where: The Newsagency When: Saturday December 12

BOOG BRINGS THE BOOGIE

BLOC PARTY

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

GLEN MATLOCK, EARL SLICK & SLIM JIM PHANTOM Newtown Social Club Sunday February 28

STURGILL SIMPSON

Metro Theatre Tuesday March 22

LORD HURON

Oxford Art Factory Wednesday March 23

SHAKEY GRAVES

The Basement Thursday March 31

J Boog

Hawaii-based reggae master J Boog will return to our shores early in the New Year. For those uninitiated to the ways of the Boog, his Metro Theatre show will be nothing if not eye-opening; the man’s signature blend of R&B, rock and reggae styles combines the best of a number of worlds, and is filled with an effortless variety of genre creativity. A veritable star in Hawaii – he even briefly had his own sponsored clothing line back in 2011 – Boog is a charismatic live performer. Tickets are still available for the Sunday February 21 show, but those curious should jump in quick: they won’t remain so for long. Jerry Cans, an act from northern Canada who have been described as the Inuit answer to The Pogues. Combining throat singing, accordion mashing and frenetic bass work, the group uses traditional instruments to play a distinctly modern brand of folk, creating an anachronistic mash-up of styles that works perhaps better than one might expect. Also joining the roster are Melbourne’s Perch Creek and the entrancing Loren Kate, just two of the many Australian acts filling out a roster brimming with diverse local talents. The 50th National Folk Festival will take place from Thursday March 24 – Monday March 28 at Exhibition Park in Canberra.

an exhaustive tour and written a bevy of new material. Don’t expect simple navel-gazing or extended bouts of eulogising, then. By all accounts, time has done little to dampen the fire and fury in Ramone’s belly, and punters should come ready to experience punk rock at its most raw and ravaged when he plays Newtown Social Club on Saturday April 30.

GOODBYE TO GOODGOD

Beloved Sydney music venue Goodgod Small Club will undergo a name and management change on Sunday December 13, becoming Plan B Small Club. Though the news hits hard, particularly for those who have flooded to the determinedly independent venue over the years, Goodgod is going out in the best possible way. Gigs will be going ahead as usual over the club’s final weekend, with a special Goodgod and Goodbye Dance booked to send the place off in style on Saturday December 12. Every one of the venue’s remaining shows promises to be a stunner, with the performance of rising star Gordi on Thursday December 10 inspiring particular anticipation. A GG Hall of Fame show, featuring such luminaries as Twerps and Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys, will take place this Wednesday December 9. Lovers of live music need not despair, though. Management has made it clear the venue will still be a home for live music even after the name change. So, in that case: Goodgod Small Club is dead. Long live Plan B Small Club!

HEY, HO, IT’S RICHIE RAMONE

The one-time Ramones drummer and veritable living legend Richie Ramone will hit our shores in April next year, providing Sydneysiders with the unique opportunity to experience the music that launched a thousand T-shirts. At this stage, Ramone’s legacy is assured – luminaries like Steve Albini, Joe Strummer and Johnny Rotten have all paid tribute to Richie and his ‘Bruddas’ at one point or another – but rather than rest upon his laurels, he has announced

Noel Gallagher

NOEL’S FLYING HIGH

As well as a headline performance at next year’s Bluesfest in Byron Bay, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds will play a string of capital city shows next March. The principal songwriter, lead guitarist and vocalist for the multiplatinum, award-winning mega-band Oasis, Gallagher started making music with his High Flying Birds project in 2011. Alongside tracks from the group’s self-titled album and this year’s Chasing Yesterday, recent UK setlists have also included Oasis classics such as ‘Champagne Supernova’, ‘The Masterplan’, ‘Whatever’ and ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds were last on our shores headlining 2012’s Big Day Out, where they also played a run of sold-out sideshows. See them in Sydney this time around at the Hordern Pavilion on Saturday March 26.

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Sunn O))) photo by Peter Beste

AUTUMNFEST LIGHTS UP

How did you come to write your new single, ‘Background Noises’? The song was inspired after a friend’s divorce. It made me reflect on a different aspect of letting go of a relationship – the spaces and times in our life that disappear when we go through drastic change.

Hordern Pavilion Tuesday January 5

Shakey Graves photo by Jarred Gastriech

You must have had some experiences on those American dates – were there any particularly memorable moments? There were some hectic times! We had to drive through a historic flooding in South Carolina to get to our shows. A gig in a candy shop, sing-alongs with fans after gigs, a house concert in New Hampshire on a riverbed over sunset, adapting to driving on the wrong side of the road, altitude sickness in Colorado and Wyoming, the best podcasts ever. And my road manager joined the Satanic Temple.

influences from jazz to blues, klezmer and reggae to pop.

FOALS

DECEMBER 11TH—13TH 2015 FRI 10AM—8PM SAT 10AM—6PM SUN 11AM—5PM 537 CROWN STREET, SURRY HILLS 2010 @NIQUECLOTHING

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FB.COM/NIQUE.MELBOURNE

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WWW.NIQUE.COM.AU

BRAG :: 642 :: 09:12:15 :: 7

live & local

free stuff

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

WITH

SHELLEY SEGAL

CHRIS PUGMIRE FROM NEW WAR in our band would, I think.

The worst is a void that thinks it’s clever.

Inspirations 2. One of my favourite singers The Music You Make is Bim Sherman, who I first heard 4. We’re essentially a rock via the New Age Steppers covers band without being tied to a lazy with Ari Up (which are spinetingling). Shortly after I heard his voice, about 15 years ago or so, and that was it. It’s like Nina Simone or Jimmy Scott – the second that tone hits your ears, your eyes well up. I read as much as I can, even though it’s my job. My favourite authors at the moment are Elena Ferrante, Hilton Als, Karl Ove Knausgård and B. Traven.

Growing Up 1. One of my first musical memories was being moved by Christmas carols – the spiritual ones like ‘Carol Of The Bells’ and ‘Silent Night’. I’m not religious but the feeling they give is grounding, like there’s a balance between history and whatever’s now –

chaos. My family is musical but I never felt it in me growing up. I never thought of myself a singer until about ten years ago someone told me they had a vision of me singing as an old person. I wanted to live up to that. I wouldn’t be playing music if I’d had the childhood I was ‘meant’ to – no-one

Your Band 3. The band is Mel, Steve, Jesse and I. We all met through Mel, who had the initial idea of what we became. We were/are very interested in rhythm, repetition and balance on the musical end, and pretentious ideas on the lyrical end, because pretence is better than having no ideas. Being dumb is good too – dumb is elemental.

definition of what that means. Our last record came out a couple years ago and the next one will be out next year. People who want to see us live can expect to be entertained.

5.

Music, Right Here, Right Now Music now is just like always – there’s a few great things happening and a lot of muddled shit that’ll be forgotten. The obstacle most musicians have to overcome is to not be distracted. What: Lo-Fi // Sci-Fi With: Au.Ra, Miles Brown, DCM, Buzz Kull, Noise In My Head, Sex Tourists Where: Chippendale Hotel When: Saturday December 19

Shelley Segal has announced a Sydney show off the back of the release of her new single, ‘Background Noises’. The single is fl irtatious yet simple with keys, guitar and horns all painting a picture behind Segal’s vocals. Segal has just returned from a massive 40-date American tour and is looking forward to a warm welcome from her loyal Aussie fans. The Melbourne-based artist will be in Sydney on Saturday December 12 at The Newsagency, and we’re giving away two double passes to celebrate. To be in the running, make your way to thebrag.com/freeshit.

LO-FI // SCI-FI

Psych up. New War are set to headline a trippy, intergalactic event tagged Lo-Fi // Sci-Fi this month, and it’s all happening just in time for Christmas. With two stages and a cosmic lineup, the event will be nothing less than otherworldly. Artists on the bill also include Au.Ra, Miles Brown, DCM, Buzz Kull, Noise In My Head and Sex Tourists. The event takes over the Chippendale Hotel on Saturday December 19, and we’re offering a double pass to one lucky BRAG reader. Visit thebrag.com/ freeshit to enter the draw.

THIRD WORLD SOUNDS

They might be one of the world’s longest-running reggae bands, but time has done little to slow Third World down. The band has released a staggering 21 albums over the course of its career, and will be bringing that massive back catalogue to the Factory Theatre in February. Combining R&B, funk, pop, rock, dancehall and rap, Third World’s boppy and energised music totally lends itself to the live experience. Though they’re at an age where they could be forgiven for slinking off into retirement, they have instead committed themselves to the art of performance and to their fans. They’ll prove it at the Factory on Sunday February 14.

Lucy Wilson

THE BANDS ARE BREAKING UP

Lucy Wilson and Jen Buxton will headline the brand new The Bands Are Breaking Up event, a one-day showcase of live music that will hit Newcastle in January next year. Though a cynic might question whether or not the east coast needs another smaller-scale festival, The Bands Are Breaking Up already appears unique enough to inspire some very real anticipation. With a focus on singer-songwriters, the event will feature a diverse range of talents – some local, some international – with lo-fi provocateur Buxton rubbing shoulders with the likes of Rachel Maria Cox, a musician whose work veers closer to the territory of pop. The festival boasts not one but two stages, and given that it will kick off at two in the afternoon, promises to be a perfect sunlit combination of music and mood. Another lineup announcement is incoming some time over the next few weeks, so those with piqued interests should keep their ear to the ground. Count us in. The Bands Are Breaking Up will take place Sunday January 17 at the Hamilton Station Hotel.

GOODBYE TO GRIFFIN

Five-piece jazz groovers The Michael Griffin Quintet are dusting off their horns and saxes for one last Sydney gig before Griffin packs his bags for the US. A regular on the Sydney jazz scene, Griffin has performed at the iconic Manly Jazz Festival and is known for brightening the days of commuters passing through Central Station. Say au revoir at Foundry616 on Saturday January 9.

Die! Die! Die!

A TIME TO DIE

With the release of their latest EP What Did You Expect comes the news that Die! Die! Die! will be making their way down the east coast for a string of shows in January. The EP follows up the band’s fifth full-length album Swim, which came out late last year. It was recorded and mixed at the floating Lightship 95 studio in East London and mastered at Elysian Masters in Los Angeles. The Dunedin punk three-piece will play six shows across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, including at Newtown’s Waywards on Friday January 22.

THE HOODS GO ORCHESTRAL

8 :: BRAG :: 642 :: 09:12:15

While preparing to release their debut album, Stay In, Do Nothing this January, Horror My Friend have announced a national run of shows. The tour’s 11 dates will see the band traverse the country from January until the start of April, playing both major city and regional venues. The headline shows follow slots alongside the likes of Violent Soho, Tigers Jaw, Swervedriver and The Peep Tempel. Horror My Friend will arrive at Black Wire Records on Friday February 12.

Hilltop Hoods

Hilltop Hoods’ special recording project, Drinking From The Sun, Walking Under Stars Restrung, will hit stores early next year. The surprise announcement was accompanied by the new track ‘Higher’ featuring James Chatburn. The project ties together the group’s two previous albums, Walking Under Stars and Drinking From The Sun, restructuring a bunch of tracks with the 32-piece Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the 20-piece Adelaide Chamber Singers Choir. To celebrate, the Hoods will take it on the road with a series of orchestra shows next April. See them on Saturday April 2 at Allphones Arena with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Chamber Choir and Maverick Sabre.

DEEP FRIED DELIGHTS

WHEN EVERYWHERE FEELS LIKE HOME

Stormcellar’s new album, Everywhere Feels Like Home, will be brought into the world this week. The band is already promising the launch will be a multi-sensory experience, with visuals provided throughout that will allow the songs to expand and alter in distinctly interesting ways, while still keeping them connected to the international environments in which they were recorded. It’ll be mind-bending stuff, with the entire record being performed beginning to end. The show takes over Lazybones Lounge on Thursday December 10.

A REAL HORROR SHOW

Tempura Nights

Tempura Nights will close out the year with an east coast tour to celebrate their latest single, ‘Studville’. The Brisbane jangle-pop four-piece will open the tour with a hometown support slot for Bully, before playing four shows across Melbourne and Sydney. Since getting together as a joke to blow off steam from their other bands including Go Violets, Major Leagues and The Good Sports, the members of Tempura Nights have been churning out the tunes and are now preparing to drop a new EP next year. In the meantime, they’ll play Tokyo Sing Song on Saturday December 19 and Newtown Social Club on Monday December 21.

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Rae Howell_Credit – Anne Skilbeck

five things

head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

As part of Parramatta’s massive all-day Australia Day celebrations, we’re throwing a party in honour of triple j’s Hottest 100 countdown! Hottest 100 party Aussie bands, DJs & MCs Summer vibes

Outdoor bar Rides & backyard games The Big BBQ

HOTTEST 100 STAGE LINE-UP ANNOUNCED 16 DECEMBER

www.ausdayparramatta.com.au 6 A M T O 9 PLINE-UP M , 2 6 J AANNOUNCED N U A R Y 2 0 116 6 DECEMBER. - PA R R A M AT TA PA R K

www.ausdayparramatta.com.au #ausdayparra

AERIAL z HOTTEST 100 z CARNIVALE z THE BIG BBQ z THE CRESCENT z FIREWORKS

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BRAG :: 642 :: 09:12:15 :: 9

Industrial Strength Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer

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THINGS WE HEAR * Will Adele save Australian music retailers? A quick ring-around found that customers coming in to buy her new album, 25, purchase other records as well. Retailers say they haven’t seen this excitement since the first Guy Sebastian album in 2003. * Some butts were kicked after media outlets reported that two women who died after an Ed Sheeran concert in Queensland were Nova or Channel [V] competition winners. At the time, police had not even released their names. * In an ABC Radio Capricornia interview, Lanie Lane revealed she now calls herself Mala and has moved from Victoria to Yeppoon in Queensland, where her new partner, musician Tom Hearn, lives. “I seriously could not believe I was in paradise,� said Lane, who retired for a time after being burned out by the music industry and has now re-found her confidence to turn her attention to visual art forms, such as drawing and

painting. She’s selling her artwork on her current tour dates. * Late Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman’s guitar collection has been bought by Jeremy Wagner, axeman with US deathcore band Broken Hope. A seriously massive Slayer fan, Wagner said “riffs are just flowing out of me� as a result. * At the federal by-election in North Sydney over the weekend, the Arts Party’s Lou Pollard got 1.9 per cent of votes. * Bono bought Eagles Of Death Metal new phones to replace ones lost in the Paris terror attacks. In the meantime, former US President George Bush says he thought Bono was “married to Cher� when they first met, confusing the U2 singer with the late American singer-turnedpolitician, Sonny Bono. * Just before their sets at Vanfest in Forbes, Peking Duk and Stacie Todd were taken on a joyride in the Red Bull stunt plane, which entertained the crowd with flips, corkscrews and tricks in the sky. Peking Duk were still talking about their fan David Spargo, who gatecrashed their gig

AUSSIES UP FOR GLOBAL BUSINESS AWARD

VENUES #2: NEW SYDNEY THEATRE SPACE

Two high-flying Aussies – Jaddan Comerford, founder of the indie empire Unified, and YouTube’s Jake O’Leary – have been shortlisted in the top 15 for the inaugural MBW (Music Business Worldwide) Young Executive Award. The 31-year-old Comerford is now based in New York, where aside from being Unified’s CEO, he also manages the likes of Vance Joy, The Amity Affliction, The Kite String Tangle, Northlane and Nina Las Vegas. O’Leary, 26, has moved to San Francisco, where he is lead marketing manager for YouTube. He created the new YouTube Music app on Android and iOS, which got 591 million impressions in 12 hours.

Kings Cross Hotel, home to band showcases, has set up part of its second floor as a theatre space. Kings Cross Theatre will be curated by bAKEHOUSE Theatre Company. Hotel licensee Lloyd Boolkin said, “Collaborating with people who are really passionate about what they do, who have a love of theatre and art, is hugely exciting ‌ We want to be inner Sydney’s destination of choice when it comes to culture, entertainment, live music, drinking, dining and theatre – all under the same roof.â€?

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Luke Girgis is the new label director/head of music at Shock Records. He’ll continue to manage Little Sea and Chance Waters while he focuses on Shock duties, signing new acts and revitalising heavy music imprint Halfcut Records. Girgis replaces Mick Tarbuk, who’s now the Australian country manager for global digital distributor and label services provider Believe Digital.

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Around this time of the year, Spotify releases lists from each country with artists it thinks will break through in 2016. The lists are based on picks from in-house playlisters, analyses of data on what people have been listening to, and artists bubbling up in Spotify’s Viral chart. The Australian/New Zealand list is: Meg Mac, Kita Alexander, Safia, Eves The Behavior, Vallis Alps, Client Liaison, Cloves, Felix Riebl, DMA’s, Koi Child, Golden Features, Wafia, Joy., Thomston and Vancouver Sleep Clinic. Perth’s Troye Sivan somehow ended up on the US list. 21-year-old Swedish pop singersongwriter LĂŠon is the biggest tip globally, followed by Irish troubadour Gavin James, singer Parson James – who appeared on Kygo’s ‘Stole The Show’ – and Norwegian DJ Matoma.

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in Melbourne by fooling security guards. He edited the duo’s Wikipedia page to add himself as a family member and was let into the launch party for Heineken’s James Bond tie-in. Peking Duk had drinks with him after, with Adam Hyde explaining it was “the most genius, mastermind move that I’ve ever witnessed�. * All shows on Leon Bridges’ first Aussie tour have sold out. * 20,000 people signed a petition to remove Adam Lambert from a Singapore New Year concert because of his homosexuality and pro-LGBT rights stance. * During the trial over the death of Canberra punk identity Nicholas Sofer-Schreiber, the accused Christopher Navin pleaded not guilty to murder by way of mental impairment. SoferSchreiber was stabbed 73 times. Navin’s psychiatrist Anthony Barker said he suffers a schizophreniatype illness, managed by medication. * 1,000 Kanye West fans signed a petition to rename the UK train station Canterbury West after the rapper.

A number of music-showcasing venues took wins at the New South Wales edition of the Australian Hotel Association’s awards for excellence. The Sheaf in Double Bay was awarded Best Entertainment Venue. Establishment was Hotel of the Year, while Doron Whaite of Hemmesphere was named the Industry Rising Star. Ivy’s Matthew Wills was named Apprentice of the Year. Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel earned the Best Social Media Activity award, while Coogee Bay Hotel, 3 Weeds, The Fiddler and Blues Point Hotel won gongs for their dining. The big hit of the awards was Newcastle’s The Lucky Hotel, a great supporter of live music, with five wins.

VENUES #3: GOODGOD REMAINS MUSIC VENUE Goodgod Small Club has changed hands three months after Jimmy Sing and Hana Shimada put the Chinatown basement on the market. New owners Esperance Hotel Group will keep it going as a music club under the name Plan B Small Club.

VENUES #4: 16 SYDNEY PUBS EXEMPT FROM LOCKOUTS Several Sydney venues such as V Bar in World Square, The Criterion on Pitt Street, Scruffy Murphy’s on Goulburn Street and Kings Cross’ The Bourbon and Vegas Hotel are among the 16 bars that have been made exempt from the city’s controversial lockout laws. But the tradeoff, reports the Sydney Morning Herald, is stricter rules, including no alcohol after 1:30am and only two drinks per customer between 1am and 1:30am. No live entertainment is allowed during the lockout period except for patrons who want to play poker machines or listen to background music.

BOOMERANG LAUNCHES CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN The indigenous artist Boomerang Festival has launched a crowdfunding campaign at igg.me/at/boomerangfestival to return as a standalone event. It started in 2013 as an initiative of Bluesfest founder Peter Noble. He said, “The Boomerang precinct at Bluesfest is all about cherishing culture and ending the disparity between Aboriginal and nonAboriginal Australia.� Australia Council research has shown that 92 per cent of Australians agree indigenous arts are an important part of Australian culture and 64 per cent are interested in it, but only 24 per cent attend their events. The Boomerang program at Bluesfest 2016, overseen by Rhoda Roberts, covers music, dances, talks and ideas and healing. See boomerangfestival.com.au for full details.

OPENLIVE WINS INNOVATION AWARD OpenLIVE, the Australian company that allows bands to record their gigs in high resolution, has won a major innovation award. Its cloud technology is installed in venues in Australia,

Lifelines Dating: former One Direction member Zayn Malik and model Gigi Hadid were snapped on a date in matching clothes. Born: a son for Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, shared with her 53.5 million Instagram followers and on her website, which crashed due to traffic. Injured: It Bites keyboardist John Beck is out of action for six weeks after breaking his arm when he tripped outside his hotel. Ill: Every Time I Die frontman Keith Buckley quit their North American tour after his wife “developed a rare and lifethreatening complicationâ€? in her pregnancy. Recovering: doctors say Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell’s pioneering cancer treatment is working. The drug Pembrolizumab is shrinking the tumours. Charged: a 25-year-old Sydney man for drug supply relating to the death of pharmacist Sylvia Choi, 25, at the Stereosonic festival last month. Charged: a 25-year-old South Australian man for trafficking after being allegedly caught with 500g of methamphetamine just before Stereosonic Adelaide. Jailed: a man who shot into Lil Wayne’s tour buses on a Georgia highway in April got ten years. Arrested: an obsessed Lana Del Rey fan after camping in the singer’s garage. Suing: former New Order bassist Peter Hook has taken action against his ex-bandmates. He says that after they set up a company to handle their royalties in 2011, he’s lost ÂŁ2.3 million. Bernard Sumner and Stephen and Gillian Morris argue Hook has been treated fairly. In Court: one of two men charged with assaulting Sydney transgender musician Stephanie McCarthy at Newtown’s Town Hall Hotel in June has been given 150 hours of community service. McCarthy claimed Alexis Ozanne and Nicholas Wells pulled her ponytail and then punched her five times. But the men claimed someone else had pulled her ponytail and the brawl began when McCarthy charged at them with a plastic schooner glass. Wells remains before the court. Died: the troubled yet charismatic Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver died in his sleep on his tour bus in Bloomington, Minnesota while on tour with his band The Wildabouts. Weiland’s low vocal register was a major factor behind Stone Temple Pilots’ success, but his bipolar personality and battles with drugs and alcohol made him a liability. The band posted, “We know amidst the good and the bad you struggled, time and time again. It’s what made you who you were. You were gifted beyond words, Scott. Part of that gift was part of your curse.â€? He was 48. Died: Stefan Woodward, 19, from a suspected drug overdose at Stereosonic Adelaide.

the UK and New York, and can make the recordings available for download at artists’ request. The technology is called MasterBuilder, and took out Innovation of the Year at the 2016 Sound+Image Awards, which cover design, manufacture and installation of audio and home entertainment equipment. MasterBuilder was invented by OpenLIVE founders Richard Powell and Simon Tait.

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“SANCHEZ’S SCORE FUNCTIONS IN THE WAY THAT THE BEST FILM MUSIC DOES… IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO IMAGINE THE WORK WITHOUT IT” JAZZ TIMES

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PREACHING TO THE CONVERTED BY AUGUSTUS WELBY

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loc Party are improbable survivors of the 2000s indie rock resurgence. In late January next year, the Londoners will release their fifth LP, Hymns, but despite their longevity, Bloc Party have been walking on thin ice for a number of years. With the four founding members dabbling in various extracurricular projects – most notably frontman Kele Okereke, who last year released his second solo album, Trick – there’s been speculation about the band’s impending break-up since at least 2008. These forecasts looked to have come true when original drummer Matt Tong and bass player Gordon Moakes left the band in 2013. However, Okereke and co-founder/ guitarist Russell Lissack remain. And with the addition of former Menomena bassist Justin Harris and 21-year-old drummer Louise Bartle, Bloc Party will bring in the New Year in Australia. “I think the closest I ever got to believing Bloc Party wasn’t going to carry on was when we were touring the States at the start of 2013,” says Okereke. “It just felt we really weren’t communicating very well as a unit, and I was feeling that there probably wasn’t going to be any point in us carrying on as a band if this was what it was going to be like the whole time.” Okereke wasn’t the only one feeling a touch dismayed. The intra-band frigidity catalysed Tong’s exit midway through the tour. Despite being an integral member for nearly 15 years, however, the drummer’s departure proved rather fortuitous.

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Evidently, the persistent rumours concerning Bloc Party’s shaky constitution have been more than just hearsay. After touring behind 2008’s Intimacy, a cloud of internal mugginess led to an extended hiatus. During this time, Okereke released his first solo album, The Boxer – a record entrenched in the world of dance-pop and house music. Despite the musical disparity, it was a reinvigorating experience, and Bloc Party soon reconvened to work on 2012’s Four. Similarly, while Okereke’s enthusiasm surged during the latter part of the 2013 tour, immediately afterwards he returned to his solo project. “I knew that I was going to be making a solo record regardless of what was happening with the Bloc Party situation,” he says. “It was kind of a separate entity. It was lucky for me, because it meant that we didn’t have to deal with what was going on immediately and it meant that I could focus on doing what I wanted to do and then have some kind of space.” Four marked Bloc Party’s return to guitar-centric songwriting and live, organic recording practices, following the electronic coordinates of Intimacy. In some ways, Hymns straddles the line between these two records,

while also recalling some of Trick’s pleasing sensuality. “Every record that you make is somehow connected to where you’ve been before, immediately,” says Okereke. “Four was a very abrasive, kind of confrontational-sounding record, which was what we wanted to make. I knew making Trick that I wanted the record to sound a lot more sensual, and just a lot more comforting. I feel that that attitude then carried on [into] Hymns. I don’t think that there’s any distortion at all on Hymns. I was adamant that the sounds had to be clean and to be spacious. I just didn’t want it to at all resemble Four.” The title of the band’s fifth record doesn’t necessarily foreshadow songs of praise, but Okereke grew up in a religious family. While he’s not a practising Christian, the marrow of the new record is openly spiritual. “The idea for Hymns was to present music that had a certain atmosphere or reverence to it,” he says. “I knew that the title of the album was going to be Hymns as soon as we started writing, and it was a challenge to me to make a record that has that kind of ambience that I experienced when first listening to hymns, or first singing hymns when I was at school. To have that kind of awe and celebration in the music was something I wanted to try and recapture.” Okereke’s songwriting has always possessed an underlying earnestness. Likewise, despite the

accessibility of his career output, he hasn’t refrained from painting himself in a vulnerable light. However, his creative process isn’t one of pointed introspection. “That’s something that I never intentionally do, but there are obviously going to be aspects of how you see the world in the music. I wasn’t really thinking about myself, I was thinking about, ‘How do I depict something that feels sacred?’” Upon the announcement of Hymns, Okereke described the album as unlike any other music currently being made. It’s a bold claim, no doubt, but regardless of whether the record’s an utter original, he certainly wasn’t interested in appeasing demands for more of the same. “From our first album [2005’s Silent Alarm], we were battling expectations of what people thought we were going to be about. People had only heard ‘Banquet’ and the songs that were on the Banquet EP, and the term ‘post-punk revival’ kept being bandied about. So we were adamant when we were recording our first record that we needed to show more colours instead of just monochrome – it needed to be a fully rounded record. I think with every record we’ve made, we’ve tried to step away from where we were as a band.” Indeed, each Bloc Party album has conspicuously deviated from its predecessor; the cause of much consternation among conservative members of the band’s listenership. However, Bloc Party’s high billing

on this year’s Falls Festival lineup indicates the extent of their prevailing popularity. “If I’m completely honest, I don’t really put any thought into what the fans are going to be thinking,” Okereke says. “I think at this stage in our career, anyone that has followed us from the beginning will see that our music has taken lots of different U-turns. I think people now are coming to expect that, which is a blessing in one sense, because it means we are allowed to explore what we want to explore without feeling hemmed in. “Every time you put out a record, it feels like someone is saying it doesn’t sound like what they want us to [sound like]. But I think that’s a good thing, and I think that’s always going to happen. So people need to stop minding or they need to go somewhere else. “When we made Silent Alarm, our first record, nobody was telling us what to do. We were doing what we wanted, and that hasn’t changed. With every record that we’ve ever made, it’s been an exploration of where we were at as artists and as human beings. That isn’t really going to change. I’ve never listened to what other people say and I’m not going to start now.” What: Falls Festival 2015/16 With: Foals, Disclosure, The Wombats, Courtney Barnett and many more Where: Lorne, Marion Bay and Byron Bay When: Monday December 28 – Sunday January 3 And: Also appearing at the Enmore Theatre on Thursday January 7 More: Hymns out Friday January 29 through Infectious / Create/ Control

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“A friend of mine from London [Sarah Jones of Hot Chip] came out to play drums for us,” says Okereke. “I think it was when Sarah came out to drum with us that I started having fun again, to be honest. I started realising that actually touring could

be fun if you had people around you that you liked and that you got on with. It was at that point I realised that I didn’t want to just throw away what we had. I wanted to make another record because I was enjoying it again, really.”

Rolling Stone, Tiny Monster & Select Music Present

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Corner Hotel Fri 29 Jan

The Triffid Sat 30 Jan

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“One of the standout albums to be released this year….Almost perfect.” The Telegraph

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Failure Magnified Again By Matthew Tomich but the album is capped with the five-track, 25-minute closing section, including the aforementioned ‘The Nurse Who Loved Me’, the astral earworm of ‘Another Space Song’, and the closing medley of ‘Stuck On You’, ‘Heliotropic’ and ‘Daylight’. In another universe, those five tracks might have made Failure one of the biggest bands of the late ’90s. “I just think it’s an entertaining record,” Edwards says of Fantastic Planet’s enduring appeal. “It was an entertaining record to make, and it felt like, even though we didn’t set out to make a concept record and we didn’t set out to make a record with some sort of narrative thread, it just kind of ended up having [one] loosely, or at least impressionistically. As you listen to it, the emotional feeling you get is that there is a story, there is something holding it together.

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f you fi nd someone who’s heard of Failure, chances are they’re young. Not juvenile young, but young enough to have only discovered the Californians in the intervening years between their disbandment in 1997 and their reunion in 2013. Though they enjoyed modest success in their initial run, releasing three underappreciated albums in a four-year span, Failure barely made a blip on the critical or commercial radars at the time.

Perhaps that was owing to the oddity of their sound – not quite space rock and not quite grunge, Failure utilised muddied guitars, swampy bass riffs, surreal lyricism and fl ourishes of sprawling, Pink Floyd-esque ambition, all infused with an

off-kilter pop sensibility. Drug problems brought the band to a halt after moderately successful Lollapalooza appearances, and that was it. But as with so many of their contemporaries, the internet – along with bands like A Perfect Circle and Paramore covering their songs – allowed a new generation to discover Failure’s music. “I hear that so much,” says Greg Edwards, bassist and founding member alongside Ken Andrews. “I just met two 20-year-olds yesterday before the show, and one of them had gotten turned on via A Perfect Circle and loved ‘The Nurse Who Loved Me’ from the time he was seven. And then when he was in his late teens, he realised that it was actually written and originally performed

by another band, and that’s how he found out about us. So I hear that story a lot, you know. I have to thank Maynard [James Keenan] for kidnapping the song, ultimately.” Though those covers played a significant role in introducing Failure to a larger audience, the band’s legacy lies in the enduring appeal of its magnum opus, 1996’s Fantastic Planet. Taking its name from a surrealist French animation, Fantastic Planet remains one of the most ambitious and sprawling musical oddities of the ’90s. Just like its namesake, Failure’s album was expansive and brilliant, impenetrably dense but curiously inviting all the same. Those grungey flourishes still shine through on tracks like ‘Pillowhead’,

“I think that’s one part of it – just there’s some sense of a selfcontained world in the record that you’re visiting every time you listen to it, and it’s populated by characters and strange emotions. I think that’s what I responded to as we were working on it, and when I listened to the finished sequence the first few times, I remember thinking that we really had something larger, a network that held together better than any of us had intended existed. I think that’s part of it, and I think there’s also just a lot of good pop songs in the midst of all that.” When Failure got back together two years ago, the first question was the same any reuniting band asks itself: who still cares? Judging by the sold-out shows and subsequent tours with old roadmates Tool, the answer was lots and lots of people, and in June this year, Failure finally released

the follow-up to Fantastic Planet some 18 years later: The Heart Is A Monster. Surprisingly, when Edwards thinks about this new record, he’s more inclined to compare it to Failure’s second effort – 1994’s dense, bass-heavy and quirky Magnifi ed. “My main goal beyond good songs and anything else, is just, emotionally, it has a unique stamp. It’s a body of water you can kind of step into and, you know, it feels unlike any other pool. All my favourite records when I was growing up, and still when I happen to discover a new record that becomes my favourite, they always have that in common. It’s just an ineffable, hard-to-describe quality, but it keeps pulling you back in, and it’s something beyond just the quality of the songs or you like the singer’s voice or there’s something else going on. “I think a lot of that, I don’t think we did that on [debut album] Comfort at all. I think Comfort was a disappointment. That was a learning experience, our first record. But I think with Magnifi ed, we definitely did that and in Fantastic Planet even more so. Ken and I were talking about this the other day. The Heart Is A Monster is almost like Magnifi ed Part Two, or Magnifi ed 2.0. In a way, it feels more like Magnifi ed and like maybe there’d be a Fantastic Planet to follow, you know, this new Magnifi ed.” What: Soundwave Festival 2016 With: Disturbed, Bring Me The Horizon, The Prodigy, Deftones and more Where: Sydney Olympic Park When: Sunday January 24 And: The Heart Is A Monster out now through Kartel/Shock

Jesse Davidson Across The Oceans By Dimitra Koriozos are collaborations with the likes of Japanese Wallpaper and Luke Million, local appearances at Laneway Festival and Groovin The Moo, and even a jaunt overseas to showcase at The Great Escape festival. Davidson was recently signed to US bookers The Windish Agency (Alt-J, Chvrches, Courtney Barnett) before releasing his second EP Lizard Boy in the same month. “It feels pretty steady, it doesn’t feel too intense,” he says. “It seems like a fairly normal progression, I guess, rather than some overnight success.”

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ince being shortlisted as a triple j Unearthed High finalist in 2012, Jesse Davidson’s foray into music has roused the kind of praise that could render a young musician terrified to misstep. Granted, it’s not unusual for the

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music industry to lap up young blood and bestow newcomers with wunderkind status straight off the bat, but as far as this Adelaide youngster is concerned, it’s near impossible not to get at least a little excited about his talent.

Beguiling baritone vocals that belie his youth and a knack for understated lyricism have seen Davidson enjoy an eventful year following the release of his debut EP Ocean in 2014. Included in his impressive list of achievements

The studio Davidson refers to is Lightship 95, a 550-tonne ship-turned-studio permanently moored at Trinity Buoy Wharf in East London, where he and the Australian-born producer Jake Miller set to work on the fi ve-track EP. While the nautical setting mightn’t have triggered a lastminute decision to throw in a sea

Overall, however, Davidson says his environment doesn’t have a great deal of infl uence on his writing process – and writing on the road is ruled out entirely. “I don’t really write when I’m touring, I’m not all that focused,” he says. “I pick up an instrument at home, I demo over it, record it at home and once I’ve got something going I send it to Jake Miller and ask what he thinks. I’ll sit on it for ages, eventually record it and see how it sounds with the full recording and all.” According to Davidson, the decision to work alongside Miller was an easy one. Lizard Boy isn’t the first coming together of the two, with Miller having worked on the Ocean EP from across the pond. “When I was 17 and did Unearthed High he was trawling the internet and being a nerd generally and that’s how he found my music,” says Davidson. “He ended up being like, ‘Hey man, do you wanna record a song? You should come to Brisbane and we’ll record something.’ That’s when we recorded the song ‘Ocean’.” What: Lizard Boy out now through Create/Control Where: The World Bar When: Friday December 18

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This gradual ascent into prominence has been accompanied by an ever-maturing approach to his craft; something Davidson believes to be evident in his latest offering. “I feel like [Ocean] was a bit ramshackle,” he admits. “I recorded half the songs myself, whereas Lizard Boy feels a little more proper. I feel like it’s more fl eshed out. I went to a nice studio and all, and it just feels a little more consistent. Maybe not completely consistent, but a little more than the first one.”

shanty (“It was really cool, but I don’t think it changed the songs or anything,” Davidson says), it does seem a rather fi tting birthplace for the lulling, cruisy selection of tracks that made it to the EP.

Nathaniel Rateliff And The Night Sweats Lazy In Love By Adam Norris

“I

forgot I had to do an interview,” Nathaniel Rateliff chuckles, “so I’m in a bar.”

It’s hard to imagine a more fitting environment to speak with the Missouri man of the moment. Over ten years he has earned the enjoyment of fans and respect of his peers the old-fashioned way; shoulderto-the-grind touring and a restless artistic temperament, always looking ahead while keeping one foot in the blues/rock/soul tradition. But with his debut album with The Night Sweats, his career suddenly found itself riding a massive wave. ‘S.O.B.’ has become the raucous anthem of the year, and with its lyrics beseeching somebody to buy him a goddamn drink, a rowdy bar seems almost divinely ordained to chat about success, touring, and writing bridal songs on the toilet. “In the past, with all the other records I’ve put out, you have people surrounding you in the industry saying, ‘Oh, this is going to be such a big deal, it’s going to be huge, people are going to love this fucking song,’” Rateliff says. “So you bust your ass getting the record out, pouring your heart into it, and nobody gives a shit about it, and neither does the label. And that’s horribly, utterly discouraging. “You’re out touring, sacrificing your family and relationship times, you’re doing it all out of pocket. So you’re pushing really hard, but at the same time the people who are telling you the record’s going to be huge are the same ones who already have a house and a salary, while the musicians are living in a van somewhere, crying because they can’t remember when they last saw their wives. But now it’s started to work out. [‘S.O.B.’]’s definitely not my favourite song, but what the fuck are you going to do?”

He laughs, while in the background the muddied sounds of live music swell and a crowd starts cheering. If at first Rateliff seems to be mired in doom and gloom about the industry, he is at pains to insist he is not a pessimist. Indeed, even when conversation touches on the harsher side of life and touring, he still sounds jovial about the strange road a musician wanders. In the past he has been described as a pensive songwriter, and while there are certainly moments of sombre reflection in his work, the scale of his output is much more varied. “I think of myself as a lot of different things. At times I’ve been pensive and introspective, and then I’m also a bit of a dickweed and crazy, with a wild hair up my ass. I make different records at different times to fulfil those different parts of me. I always feel the need to personally challenge myself, in a very lazy way. I’m not a very ambitious person, so when I say ‘challenge’, I mean in the laziest way possible. Lazy and self-loathing. And kind of horny. You combine those things – there’s the secret to writing songs. ‘You know, I’m pretty horny, but I haaate myself. Ah, fuck it, I’ll write a song.’” These different sides to Rateliff are expressed rather brilliantly on he and The Night Sweats’ eponymous debut. It is like a brief, intense overview of the sounds and styles that have influenced him over the years, although any strict meaning or insight into their composition is something he would prefer to remain ephemeral. “I’m always a little reluctant to give information on what songs are about. I think the thing about art that’s most interesting is people’s own interpretations, versus giving away some kind of secret. I might have

written a song that somebody got married to, and I probably wrote it on the shitter; I might have been having a real bad day. The thing about music is that the listener’s interpretation is often more important than the artist’s. I think it’s kind of nice to keep it a bit of a mystery. I’d love to know what Leonard Cohen thinks about his songs, but I’d also rather never know.” He makes a fair (if colourful) point, and one that many listeners struggle to fully appreciate; that the song you’ve connected with, that means so very much to you, has a vastly different history for the composer. Listening to the new record conjures many different impressions, thanks not only to Rateliff’s stentorian voice and a rollicking band, but the

arrangement of songs themselves. You hear the album as a short story collection, each track a distinct vignette. “I always think of the record as having a Side A and B, like a vinyl,” Rateliff says. “You have to listen to the first side, and those songs have to be good enough and keep your attention that you want to get up off the couch and flip it over for more. All of the records I grew up listening to are like that. I had a bunch of Night Sweat songs written, and just before we went to record I kind of hunkered down at my house and started writing, and ended up with another 15 or 16 songs. I liked ‘Wasting Time’ a lot, but I didn’t know if it was going to fit. We had other songs that were ruckusey,

R&B, soul songs, but I thought it was important to showcase different emotions, to have the songs reflect what I feel personally. You have to feel it in order for it to be real.” What: Bluesfest 2016 With: The National, Tom Jones, Kendrick Lamar, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and many more Where: Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm When: Thursday March 24 – Monday March 28 And: Also appearing at the Metro Theatre on Thursday March 31 More: Nathaniel Rateliff And The Night Sweats out now through Stax/Caroline

LIVE

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The Griswolds Keep The Party Going By Emily Gibb

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omewhat ironically for a band that took its name from the goofy family of the modern classic American comedy series, National Lampoon’s Vacation, the international market wasn’t always a big focus for Aussie expats The Griswolds, says lead singer Chris Whitehall from Washington, D.C. “At the very beginning it wasn’t, because we didn’t really know what was going to happen. But when things started happening, the focus changed and we thought, ‘Wow, this is something we could actually make work. We can take this to the world because we have the opportunity to,’ which was a very scary and amazing thought.” The indie-pop band first took shape at a Sydney house party in 2011, and the revelry hasn’t eased since. “It’s such bedlam; everyone’s so different to everyone else, it’s this chaos that kind of works,” says Whitehall. “There’s so much love in the band, and it just started out of chaos and it’s still going out of chaos.”

Crafting their live skills through consistent touring, The Griswolds signed to US label Wind-up Records in 2013, and there came an opportunity to shift focus to the North American market. Since the release of their debut album Be Impressive in August 2014 – featuring the single ‘Beware The Dog’ – the four-piece have spent more time off Australian shores than on them. “We’ve spent most of our time here,” says Whitehall. “We’re just kind of riding the wave and no-one [knows] what to expect next – but we ain’t going to quit. I mean, we have huge expectations for ourselves. We want to do this forever, so we’re going to have fun doing it and love each other and just have a good time.” You need only take a glance at The Griswolds’ social media accounts to see they do exactly that. Their latest US headline dates marked their third tour across the States this year, alongside tours in Canada and Europe. “This year alone, playing 140 shows around the world has

been a crazy experience,” says Whitehall. “I think we’ve all aged about five years this year, but it’s been such a fun journey – nothing we could have ever expected.” Along the way, one particular gig gave The Griswolds the motivation to keep going in a notoriously difficult market to crack. “Firefly Festival in Delaware. We walked out to 15,000 people all screaming our lyrics; they’d all brought beach balls and were throwing them around. It was the craziest gig we’ve ever played, the best feeling we’ve ever had. It was a life-changing moment when you weren’t really sure where you sat, you’re not really sure how much your work has paid off, and when you see something like that, you’re like, ‘Wow, yeah! We worked our arses off and here it is. This is the pay-off; this is the pay-off right here and now we’ve just set a whole new benchmark.’” Returning home for summer, The Griswolds will dive into writing their second album before touring in January with new best friends, Ohio

outfit Walk The Moon. Guitarist Eli Maiman requested The Griswolds’ support for their US tour in April and the camaraderie between the two groups clicked immediately. “We didn’t know who or what to expect,” says Whitehall, “then as soon we met them, eight guys became best friends instantly; even our crew and their crew. Every night on tour over here was just a wild,

The Porkers

Loren Kate

Fork In The Road By Spencer Scott

The Long Way To Woodford By Adam Norris

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ewcastle’s The Porkers may well be the most successful independent band to come out of their home city. Back in 1990, the ska punk exponents climbed all the way to number six on the Australian independent charts with their debut EP, Tired Of Being Pork Hunts, and they’re still going strong two-and-a-half decades on. They have also made their mark beyond the steel city as part of the lineup at Deans Diner, the burger joint that sits proudly next to Newtown Social Club. The Porkers Burger (with bacon, of course) has been on the menu for years, feeding punters after the sweat-and-beer-soaked gigs next door. “I can’t say I have actually been in to try one, but I have been sent the picture many times,” confesses frontman Pete Cooper (affectionately known as Pete Porker). “I walked past once and had a look at the board and thought ‘fuck yeah’, but I haven’t had the pleasure of one yet.” Last year, The Porkers returned stronger than ever after a five-year hiatus, opening up the Soundwave bill. Cooper admits that although they had never officially called it a day, he thought things were over for the band at the start of the break. The return to the stage brought with it a new version of The Porkers – a lineup that operates with a “revolving door of members” – but there is still a distinct sound that runs through the outfit. “There is always a new twist or a new influence that comes in with a new member,” says Cooper. “I’ve always found it really refreshing and it kept things interesting.” Cooper and saxophonist ‘Big Phil’ Barnard are the only two members who have survived since the band’s original conception, but the stage is far from filled with strangers. “Dave Power [guitar] has been a longtime member, and Scottie [Chapman, drums] played in a band called On Inc., as well as a bunch of other bands,” says Cooper. “He

What: Be Impressive out now through Chugg/MGM Where: Supporting Walk The Moon at the Metro Theatre When: Sunday January 31

actually co-wrote a song that was on our very first record, so he has been around offstage for a while. Now he is just onstage.”

that stays very true to Kate’s songwriting ethos of honesty and wordsmanship, and she is quite content to think of herself as an autobiographical writer.

The gigging schedule for The Porkers is a little less hectic than it has been in the past – it’s more a matter of quality over quantity these days. Their last run of shows was with The Allniters, another vintage ska group that directly influenced The Porkers.

“That song came out really easily, which I put down to every word there being something completely truthful. There’s no lie in there, that’s who he was to me. So in that way, writing it was easy. From the very first, I’ve tried to write very honestly. I think I write quite differently from other people. I get these big bursts, like I need to vomit them out, so I just pick up my guitar and see what comes. It’s always something unexpected, it’s never a sit-down-writea-song-about-this kind of thing. It’s always very spontaneous. Sometimes I’ll write a song and think, ‘What is that?’”

“Me and Big Phil used to go and see them all the time and they were one of the first bands that we were blown away by,” Cooper says. “The funny full circle thing is that Big Phil is now playing sax for The Allniters when they play.” The Porkers’ next gig is Gingerfest, a nowannual festival that honours the legacy of The Ginger Ninja AKA Nicholas Sofer-Schreiber, a beloved member of the Australian punk community at large. The festival was founded after he was horrifically murdered in 2013, and is now celebrating its second year. Cooper says this may be The Porkers’ last trip to Sydney for some time, as the band regroups and makes plans for its next big milestone – its 30th anniversary. “There will definitely be something happening,” Cooper explains, revealing plans for a celebratory tour, but also potentially a new album – the band’s first since 2007. At a recent show in Brisbane, The Porkers performed their first new song in over eight years. “We started the song together, and we all finished the song together. So that’s a good sign,” laughs Cooper. “So I would say the 30th would be a good time to get some new music out.” What: Gingerfest 2015 With: Gay Paris, Irrelevant, The Sinking Teeth, Mad Dash, The Hard Aches and more Where: Factory Theatre When: Saturday December 19

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f you haven’t heard of Loren Kate, then clearly you haven’t been listening in the right places. The winner of the 2014 Telstra Road To Discovery competition is no stranger to the stage, having performed across Australia for a decade now and featured at some of the most outstanding festivals this gig-loving country has to offer. Now, after years of attendance, Kate has finally been invited to join the lineup for the Woodford Folk Festival. It will be the cap to a rather busy year.

“[Today’s] the day after Mullumbimby Festival,” Kate happily sighs, “so I’m pretty tired but I’m feeling good! I’m in the Northern Rivers area and just went for a swim. Life’s pretty great.”

“I’ve never really played much in Queensland, so part of [the excitement] is finding a new crowd, playing for new audiences. You always hope to find fresh

ears. And my partner plays at Woodford a lot, he’s one of the children’s entertainers. So I’ve always looked at him up onstage there and thought, ‘Oh, maybe one day…’” She chuckles. “The plan is to just focus on my shows up to Woodford, and if songwriting happens in that time as well, that’s great, but right now the focus is performance. I have a few festivals over the summer after Woodford, and then I want to have a whole EP written and ready by the end of next year. “I started going to Woodford quite a few years ago. My first time was 2008, I think. I played the old Chai Tent – it was such a wonderful venue. I played a lot with Women Out Front; they’d get me up to perform every morning. I had just the best time, but this is my first time being invited as an artist in my own right, so that feels pretty cool.” Kate’s latest EP, Til Night Meets The Sun, is her fourth release, written across two years and led by the brilliantly bittersweet ‘When You Leave’, composed for an ex-partner who passed away. It is a brace of songs

Kate laughs. “Then a few months later, I’ll see it as something I clearly needed to deal with but only just found a way of saying it. I’m definitely tapping into stories of my life, but it’s something that other people seem to be really able to tap into, and they start sharing their own stories with me. I grew up listening to singersongwriters, storytellers. They’re kind of my favourite genre, and I’m not that good at making up stories, so I end up having to just tell my own life. Luckily it’s pretty colourful.” What: National Folk Festival 2016 With: All Our Exes Live In Texas, Castlecomer, 19-Twenty, The East Pointers and many more Where: Exhibition Park, Canberra When: Thursday March 24 – Monday March 28 And: Also appearing at Woodford Folk Festival 2015/16, Woodfordia, Sunday December 27 – Friday January 1 More: Til Night Meets The Sun out now through Vitamin

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The Griswolds photo by Jory Lee Cordy

While her touring schedule has indeed been hectic (and with two children along for the ramblin’ ride), it sounds like Kate would have it no other way.

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crazy party, playing music. It was nuts. We just fell in love with them. On the [next] tour, I’m sure it will be bedlam; we’ll be partying and getting crazy every night, I’m sure.”

Jennylee The Inner Child By Augustus Welby

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enny Lee Lindberg has been the subject of cult fandom ever since she emerged as the bass player for Warpaint in 2008. The Los Angeles-based musician has now branched out with her first solo LP, Right On! – credited simply to Jennylee. Warpaint are a highly collaborative unit, and the band’s two records serve to showcase each member’s individual personality. Considering her three bandmates have always supported Lindberg’s ideas within the group, you’d imagine she felt a whole lot of pressure crafting Right On! outside it. However, baulking at the pressure simply wasn’t an option. “This album was birthed in a way that things just happened and I allowed them to happen,” she says. “It was about freedom and freedom of expression and, ‘Don’t overanalyse and don’t criticise and don’t be judgemental and let yourself go and don’t try to control things, don’t give yourself limitations.’ “Being in that mind frame before writing something or being creative, it’s a real good space to be in because things just come flooding. I’m always really pleased with things that I do when I’m operating from that space. So I didn’t feel any pressure, because there was no pressure that I was putting on myself. It was just like, ‘Oh, I’m going to sit down and I’m going to write some stuff.’” This approach certainly was conducive to productivity – Right On! arrives less than two years after Warpaint’s self-titled second album (which itself took four years to make). However, it’s not as though

Lindberg could simply sit down for a few minutes and pull entire songs out of thin air. “There were times when I’d get a little stuck,” she says. “But what I was very mindful of, if the song wasn’t happening and it wasn’t coming out naturally and I was trying to control it or force it, then I would move on. So I didn’t feel any pressure as far as, ‘Oh no, I’m doing this on my own.’ I was excited to see how far I could actually go with myself.” Lindberg has been progressively pushing herself into new territory throughout her career. On Warpaint’s debut effort, The Fool, lead vocals were split between guitarists Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman. On Warpaint, Lindberg took the lead for two songs – ‘Disco//Very’ and ‘CC’. “I’ve been writing music for a long time and a lot of it was either instrumental or vocals were very minimal. I never really had a whole lot of confidence when it came to writing vocals, or even just singing. I didn’t really like my voice for a very long time – I hated my voice actually. Then I just started over the last five years singing more at home, writing more songs. But it was still never with the intention of releasing anything or even sharing. “[With Right On!] it was really liberating and empowering to just let myself go and be the only person participating in this journey, because it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time and I just got to that point where it was like, ‘I am so ready to do this and go for it.’”

Lindberg’s resolution to act on impulse rather than adhere to an idealised structure has actually been of immense psychological benefit, regardless of the associated creative project.

many, many years. One part of me is like, ‘No, you can’t do that. Don’t worry about it.’ And the other part is like, ‘No, don’t listen to that voice. You absolutely can do that.’ So it’s been an internal conflict for many years.”

express, there’s lots of things I want to make. I feel like I’m actually living my life when I follow through with those things, but it’s hard to do that when you tell yourself you can’t do it all the time.

“Without being too deliberate when singing about it, the record’s overall tone is about me breaking free from my chains that I’ve created for myself and changing my belief system that I have about myself and what I’m capable of and what I can do,” she says. “There’s programmed beliefs since I was little – things that I’ve always thought – that are false. They’re not right and they’ve also held me back, but it’s also been because I’m a little fireball and I’m not a quitter and I don’t usually give up on things. For the most part, I’ve been fighting myself on that for

Lindberg has taken some big steps forward – the groove-heavy, post-punk-indebted Right On! is a testament to this – but she doesn’t pretend to have reached ultimate equilibrium.

“I was like, ‘It’s time for those voices to go away. It’s time to be a child and operate and express as a child would, and treat yourself as you would your child.’ You’re not going to tell your child that their song they made isn’t good. You’re not going to tell your child that their song sucks and you don’t like their voice. So that’s where I was coming from when I was making this album.”

“I’m sure I will continue to [have internal conflicts], but this was a good step in the right direction in terms of coming to terms with wanting to strive for excellence. There’s a lot that I have in my head – there’s a lot of ideas, there’s a lot of creative energy going around, there’s a lot of things I want to

What: Right On! out Friday December 11 through Rough Trade/Remote Control

Lime Cordiale The Dry Road To Paradise By Tegan Reeves “The same thing happened with the big drone shots that are in the music video for ‘Not That Easy’ – some guy was just in town with this drone helicopter thing, and then he filmed our show and we used the footage.” Most of Lime Cordiale’s time has been spent playing house parties and bars up and down the east coast, so their most recent tour gave them the chance to reach out to a different audience. “We didn’t know much about Vision Splendid, and when the organisers asked us to go up and play at the festival, we thought it would be pretty cool to do something different,” says Oli. “A lot of actors fly up to introduce their films, but we were the only band that were playing up there, and we went up thinking, ‘Yeah, we’ll go up and see this place, and it’ll probably be pretty weird,’ but we ended up staying in Winton for a week and then played shows in Longreach and Townsville.

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ydney’s Lime Cordiale and their infectious brand of jangly rock are back on home turf. Earlier this year, when they were touring drought-stricken areas in rural Queensland, founding members and brothers Oli and Louis Leimbach made it a family affair, taking their dad along for the ride. The video clip for their new single ‘Not That Easy’ is a montage of these tour shenanigans, captured on film by Leimbach senior. Being on tour with their father seems like something that most musicians would baulk at the idea of, but for Oli and Louis, it seemed like a natural decision.

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The clip is made up of a number of outlandish scenes – think quintessential country pubs, large fake dinosaurs and Segways, all in the middle of the Australian outback.

“We were at this festival in Winton called Vision Splendid, which is this really small town in outback Queensland, and we had been asked to play there,” Oli says. “People from all around the area came to the town, then two people rocked up to the festival with Segways. We saw them riding down the road, and we were like, ‘What the hell? What kooks.’ It was just the weirdest thing to see people riding Segways in the desert, so naturally we hailed them down and asked them if we could have a go. We fi lmed it, and by that point we thought that we might be doing a music video, so we were trying to fi nd a few opportunities that were entertaining.

“The thing with country towns like that is you go in there thinking it’s going to be full of bogans, but these were proper country towns, there’s no such thing as a bogan out there – there’s just farmers and country people who are the most genuine people and awesome Australians. We would just sit in the pub and sit there all day having some of the best conversations with such weird and different people, who all have great stories and all have time for you. “We really got into being up there and hearing all the stories of the drought and people struggling and having to move out of the town, which is when we started to feel

The Sydneysiders were taken aback by the level of hardship being experienced in these rural areas, and Oli returned home keen to share some of the stories he learnt along the way, hoping they might raise awareness and spur other bands to get out into rural Australia. “Everyone we met was extremely positive, but we were continually hearing stories of people having to sell their farm, or their home being taken from them by the bank because they were out of money. A lot of farmers’ properties aren’t worth anything because of the drought, so people were losing their homes for a lot less than what they bought it for. This leads to these people having to move out of the town and find another occupation when they’ve been in the shearing shed for generations.” It’s always refreshing to see a band break well out of the east coast touring circuit, especially considering this was the scene that really shaped Lime Cordiale’s sound. So will they be making it out to the country again? “Yeah, I’d like to,” says Oli. “It’s just different, and people get really enthusiastic; they don’t have that much live music around there. We’d definitely like to get back there, for sure.” What: Road To Paradise out now through Chugg/MGM With: Ayla, Australia Where: Metro Theatre When: Saturday December 19

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xxx by xxx

“We were on tour in outback Queensland, playing a few shows

for drought relief, and in between cities there was ten hours of dead dirt road with nothing around,” says Oli. “Dad decided to come along with us and bought his camera and filmed the whole trip. We’ve never been on tour with our dad before, but it was interesting, and then when we looked back at the footage, we realised there was a lot of good footage, so we ended up turning it into a music video and dedicating it to drought relief.”

like we should get more involved in the drought relief program. We sold raffle tickets along the tour, raising money for the drought appeal.”

Hindi Zahra Breaking Down Boundaries By Tegan Reeves

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ranco-Moroccan singer Hindi Zahra is one cool cat. Not even a minute into our conversation, we are broaching the subjects of feminism and politics as she effortlessly draws on her cigarette. Her opinions are insightful and worldly – formed from a childhood in Morocco and France, and adulthood touring the globe. “My grandfather was a nomad of the desert and my father was a military officer, so I grew up in many different places,” she says. “I’m not really used to one population, one city, one culture, one language. My father speaks six languages and we grew up in many different places and cultures.” The concept of multiculturalism is obviously something that resonates strongly with Zahra, evident when listening to her music and her singing style that jumps between English, French and Berber (a northern African indigenous language). Zahra recounts a show she played with her band in Ankara, Turkey only weeks after October’s terror attacks there. “We went to Turkey after the bombs in Ankara, and we played one of the first concerts that was allowed in Turkey after those bombings, and we played for 2,000 people. When you get onstage, you say to people that the real politics is art, is music, is

expression, and that makes me very proud of what we are doing. “What is also interesting on tour is to see the different ages within my audiences, different religions, different nationalities. For example, the show we just played, we had people of all colours, all ages, men and women. This is very important to me – to deconstruct boundaries and to create bridges between cultures, people, genders. That is my motivation.” Zahra’s creativity isn’t limited to music – if she’s not on tour, she’ll be painting, which she sees as another platform to build bridges between people and cultures. “When I finish the tour and go back home, I will be surrounded by silence, and painting is a kind of silent meditation for me, because it’s a space for silence and creation. For me, painting is about letting my body express itself, without my brain controlling anything.” Zahra, who released her second album Homeland this year, has often been compared to female artists like Patti Smith and Janis Joplin, and during our conversation her strong sense of femininity is tangible. She explains that she loves these comparisons, her modesty shining through. “I’ve been called the African Patti Smith. I think it’s not about the music, but the way I portray

myself onstage. They both had this masculine energy, and most of the female artists nowadays portray this feminine, sexual energy, and we need a mixture of both energies. “For example, Tina Turner is female and male at the same time. She can be wearing a really short skirt, but you can still feel her masculine

side. She is not about seduction, she is into the power of women, which is really interesting for me, because it is easy for a woman to play on her powers of seductive body language – this is the easiest thing for a woman to do. However, females are taught to hide this masculine force because they are scared of being attacked for being

too masculine. I’m not interested in that seductive side of female performance.” Where: Homeland out now through Parlophone/Warner And: Appearing at So Frenchy So Chic In The Park, St John’s College, Saturday January 16

Beach Slang That Thing You Do By David James Young “These songs are about me and they’re about my friends. They could be about when we were 15 or they could be about yesterday – that’s the thing, man. It’s about what feels good to us in the very moment that we’re doing it. That’s where this record comes from.” In just over 18 months, Alex has experienced the kind of success with Beach Slang that he never saw in nine years of playing with Weston. It’s something that is not lost on him – a man in his 40s, playing primarily to audiences half his age, has had his career blossom, and his dreams of living the rock’n’roll lifestyle are becoming a very clear and apparent reality.

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ou may know Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as the city of brotherly love, as the backdrop of one of Tom Hanks’ finest cinematic performances, or as the hometown of Will Smith – and there are no wrong answers here. When it comes to James Alex – lead vocalist and guitarist of garage rock hopefuls Beach Slang – he reflects on the city’s sense of community and its positive upbringing of his own music over the last 20-plus years. “Bands come and go, but I think the ethics and the hunger are very much the same in the bands from this city,” he says. “That’s what I think makes it so great. Philadelphia’s got this real blue-collar fighting spirit to it. When you come up in a scene like that, it’s kind of distilled into you. I’ve described it as being like a romantic grit that’s tattooed on all the bands 18 :: BRAG :: 642 :: 09:12:15

that come up around it. People change, but I think the core elements – those ethics, those values – they’re still very much the same when it comes to the music that is coming out of here.” Alex formed Beach Slang in 2013, having originally risen to a degree of cult prominence with pop-punk band Weston, in which he toured and recorded extensively for the better part of the ’90s. His fellow bandmates have also kicked around in their fair share of jam rooms and sweaty bars with groups like Ex Friends and Nona, meaning Beach Slang’s formation was not only one that made sense, but one that would stick. “We all knew each other from a safe distance,” Alex remembers. “We were all about two degrees

of separation from one another. It came to a head when I was playing a show with one of my previous bands. JP [Flexner], who plays in Beach Slang now, filled in for our drummer who couldn’t play that night. He found out that I was writing songs for this new project, and when I played some stuff to him, he immediately wanted in. He said he knew a guy to play bass – which was Ed [McNulty] – and that we should all have a jam. The seeds were planted, and it all kind of took off from there.” The trio had an initially slow beginning – mostly due to work commitments on Alex’s behalf – but a refresh of direction (as well as the addition of lead guitarist Ruben Gallego) sparked the writing and recording of Beach Slang’s debut album, The Things We Do To Find

People Who Feel Like Us. It’s a bold statement of a title, going hand-inhand with a bold statement of an album – 26 minutes of raised fists, radiating guitars and wave-crash drums – that has become one of the year’s most celebrated rock records, despite only being released at the end of October. “I tried to sit down and clearly define what I think of when I write,” says Alex. “I came up with this three-point system, which came to more or less define what this album was going to sound like. Sonically, I wanted it to sound like a John Hughes film. Lyrically, I wanted it to be like Charles Bukowski putting words to that. Musically, I wanted it to sound like what Paul Westerberg would put chords behind. I had these three touchstones, and I kept bouncing my ideas off them.

“It’s been incredible to watch the band grow in real time while we’re out on the road,” Alex says with an audible pride. “When we first headed out on tour, the record wasn’t out yet. Once it was, the crowds kept getting bigger and bigger, the singing along getting louder and louder. We had so many shows sell out across pretty much every major ‘market’, if you will. It felt so rewarding, especially because of those nerves that you get when a record is coming out. You’re never sure if people are going to want the new thing that you’re putting out there, so to have that kind of response is so validating.” The next question is a potential maiden voyage for Alex and co. to Australia for a run of shows, which is more or less confirmed by the man himself. “There’s not a great deal I can say right now,” he teases. “What I can tell you, though, is that Beach Slang will absolutely be in Australia playing shows next year. We’re so excited by the prospect of it – it’s going to be something completely new for us. What: The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us out now through Polyvinyl/Cooking Vinyl

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arts in focus

free stuff head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

arts news...what's goin' on around town... with Eden Gillespie and Joseph Earp

IRRATIONAL MAN Irrational Man

five minutes WITH

KUBI VASAK FROM SYDNEY COLLAGE SOCIETY

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hat’s the idea behind the newly formed Sydney Collage Society? The idea behind SCS is to push the boundaries of cutand-paste collage art. We focus on celebrating the creative community of Sydney, while also promoting and fostering a healthy appreciation for the art of collage across the whole of Australia through sharing, exhibiting and supporting the works of artists at home and abroad. I think that it’s always a positive to have new art societies/collectives in Sydney, where artists can collaborate and share ideas.

Above: All That We See by Kubi Vasak

Collage is such an accessible art form and taught from a young age – but what kind of advanced techniques are involved for the more

experienced artists? It’s still common practice to use the traditional glue stick and scissors, but personally, I prefer to use spray adhesive and surgical scalpels to cut finer details – I find I get more of a cleaner/ professional finish. But at the end of the day, it’s really up to the individual and what works for them. Who are the artists involved in the opening exhibit, Cut It Out!? We are made up of co-founders Leah Early and myself. And we’ve got Danilo Brandão, Nikolaus Dolman, Chelsea Tuesday and Kate Yurk on board with us. We’re always on the lookout for more artists! Who else is providing entertainment on the night?

Besides all the impressive art which will be on show, will have great tunes from Black Zeros and Noire (DJ sets) and there will be plenty of Sailor Jerry to fill ya cup! How do aspiring collage artists get involved with the Sydney Collage Society? You can use Insta (@ sydneycollagesociety) or hashtag #SCScollage, or send us your work at hello@ sydneycollagesociety.com.

Head to the Gasoline Pony in Marrickville on Sunday December 13 in your best Mad Hatter costume and wish The Living Room Theatre a happy birthday.

Jaws

NEW THEATRE SEASON 2016

Jasper Jones

JAWS SWIMS INTO SYDNEY

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, the world’s most famous cinematic shark has returned to celebrate his 40th birthday. The Andrew (Boy) Charlton Pool’s screening of Jaws, co-ordinated by Art & About Sydney and Golden Age Cinema, is sure to please hardened genre fans, and provide a unique opportunity for those who have never seen the film before to experience it in the most terrifying setting imaginable. There’s nothing quite like watching a vicious predator tear innocents apart while sitting eerily close to a large, murky body of water yourself… Seafood and ocean-inspired drinks will be served throughout the evening – though given the carnage onscreen, one might be forgiven for not having much of an appetite. Screenings will take place over two nights, with those interested encouraged to buy tickets now at artandabout.com.au. The event will take place on Friday January 29 and Saturday January 30.

ESSENTIAL INDEPENDENTS

JASPER JONES AT BELVOIR

Craig Silvey’s exceptionally well received bildungsroman is being transformed into a play. The novel Jasper Jones’ transition into theatre was perhaps not exactly destined, but it does make a lot of sense: there’s a kind of raw, unpretentious honesty to the text that will suit the confines of Belvoir St Theatre perfectly. Just as excitingly, the project marks the second collaboration between writer Kate Mulvany and celebrated director Anne-Louise Sarks. The pair already joined forces on the stunning Medea back in 2012, so seeing their creative forces combined again is an exciting prospect indeed. Tom Conroy and Alfie Gledhill will take lead roles, with Mulvany herself rounding out the cast. If all those early indicators are anything to go by, Jasper Jones is set to be a stunner. It will run from Saturday January 2 – Sunday February 7.

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Irrational Man is available to own on digital, Blu-ray and DVD from Wednesday January 20, and we’ve got five DVD copies to give away. To enter the draw, visit thebrag.com/freeshit.

What: Cut It Out! group exhibition Where: Lowroad Garage, 74 Oxford St, Paddington When: Friday December 11 More: sydneycollagesociety. com

QUESTIONS WITH QUENTIN

The People’s Republic Of Movies has announced that Oscar Award-winner and world-class director Quentin Tarantino is arriving in Sydney to host a live Q&A film event early next year. Two of Tarantino’s favourite Ozploitation films, The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith and Mad Dog Morgan, will be screened on the night and fans will get the rare opportunity to have their questions answered by the man himself. He’ll be in Australia as part of the promotional tour for his new film, The Hateful Eight, due in cinemas next month. The newly established People’s Republic Of Movies (P.R.O.M) is overseen by Chris Murray, who aims to establish a series of filmmaker and fan events. Tarantino will answer fans’ questions at The Star on Friday January 15.

Woody Allen’s latest flick, Irrational Man, is one of those films that makes you feel better about not taking an umbrella to work when the forecast said monsoon rains would be expected. You won’t feel like the most irrational person on Earth when you watch Allen’s protagonist, philosophy professor Abe (Joaquin Phoenix), face up to his own struggles while grabbing the romantic attention of his fellow teacher Rita (Parker Posey) and a bright student, Jill (Emma Stone). It’s typically witty and hilarious Allen fare with a side of emotion.

Palace Cinemas has announced a brand new independent American film festival, Essential Independents: American Cinema, Now, which will come to Sydney for two weeks next May. Independent cinema is a big deal in the States and is not a modest industry, but a thriving business. Iconic film figures such as Woody Allen, Penelope Spheeris and Kelly Reichardt are but a few names that have contributed to its success. The festival’s artistic director Richard Sowada says, “Far from being bogged down by the studio parallel universe, American independent cinema has constantly responded to changing moods, politics and

technology.” Essential Independents: American Cinema, Now will take place for two weeks, beginning in May next year. More information will be released soon at palacecinemas.com. au.

THE LIVING ROOM BIRTHDAY PARTY

The Living Room Theatre will be blowing out its candles and celebrating its adolescence with a Mad Hatter-themed party this weekend. Founder Michelle St Anne will welcome supporters and exhibit some of her own art, focusing on the beauty of Sydney’s Inner West and The Living Room’s hometown, Marrickville.

With both modern and traditional theatre represented, the only common denominator across the New Theatre’s 2016 season appears to be a desire to challenge the norm. Classics such as The Cherry Orchard sit alongside less polite fare, with Peter Weiss’ still shocking Marat/Sade sure to unsettle unprepared audience members come performance time. Most conceivable genres have been covered too, so those looking for a laugh – albeit a wry one – can check out Wendy Wasserstein’s acerbic and witty The Heidi Chronicles. Perhaps most impressively, there’s a real focus on Australian stories too. That Eye, The Sky, an adaptation of the Tim Winton novel, is getting a revival, while fans of more contemporary theatre will revel in the news that Richard Bean’s new play will receive its debut as part of the program. It’s exciting stuff indeed, not only for long-time lovers of theatre, but for all those who appreciate the cutting edge. The 2016 season kicks off with The Ritz on Tuesday February 9, with events continuing throughout the year. Bookings are available at newtheatre.org.au.

ST GEORGE OPENAIR FULL PROGRAM

Cinema under the stars will be back on Sydney Harbour this summer, as St George Openair Cinema has now revealed its full 2016 program. The 20th season of the Mrs Macquarie’s Point cinema will open on the second weekend of January with the already announced Looking For Grace. A total of 14 premiere or preview screenings have now been added to the program, including blockbuster and award season favourites like Carol (Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara), The Danish Girl (Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander), Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels), Spotlight (Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton), Brooklyn, Trumbo, Hail, Caesar! and Room. Another of the anticipated summer releases showing at the harbourside location is Quentin Tarantino’s newie, The Hateful Eight, alongside the massive Star Wars: The Force Awakens. St George Openair Cinema will run from Friday January 8 – Friday February 19. To see the full program and book tickets, head to stgeorgeopenair.com.au.

WELCOME TO MR. G’S ROOM

Mr. G

The Mr. G Summer Heights High Singalong will be light on the actual Mr. G, but heavy on laughs. It seems that not even the allure of Sydney’s most esteemed venue could draw the notoriously picky Mr. G himself – at least for now – but fans of Chris Lilley’s drama teacher/relentless self-promoter will be excited to hear that his life’s work will be celebrated in two shows full of laughter, songs, and dress-ups. Expect lots of blonde wigs. Hosted by triple j’s own Alex Dyson, the performances will incorporate clips from Summer Heights High along with numbers from the life-changing Mr. G: The Musical. Of course, though it’s ostensibly a celebration of the character, it will undoubtedly also serve as a reminder of Lilley’s wide variety of talents – something to tide us over while we wait for the man to get himself back on our television screens. The Mr. G Summer Heights High Singalong will hit the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House from Friday January 29 – Saturday January 30.

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Jimmy Carr [COMEDY] Getting Down To Business By Nick Mason

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t takes a lot to make Jimmy Carr sweat onstage. A few diehard fans may cast their minds back to an especially humid evening at Melbourne’s The Toff In Town, in which the typically dapper stand-up comic sweltered through a hilarious preview of his show Gagging Order. “I’d basically organised this whole tour so I could go and watch the tennis in Melbourne,” Carr jokes now, “and we saw women playing in 44-degree heat. I mean, it was just brutal.” Still, on the eve of his next visit to Australia – a month-long tour of his latest show, Funny Business – Carr sees the bright side. “You don’t understand how great it is for me: I’m doing this tour because I loved doing it two years ago, I loved coming out to Australia in January. You wonder why Poms are so whingy? I’ll tell you why we’re so whingy – have you ever been to Britain in January? It’s like, ‘How is the weather today?’ It is depressing. It’s just depressing every day. It’s cold and wet and windy and shit. Then you go to Australia and you go, ‘Oh, this is where it’s at.’ Everyone wants to come out as well. People just want to go out and have fun.” Carr scores plenty of screentime in the UK as host of The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year, 8 Out Of 10 Cats and as a frequent guest on the beloved quiz show QI. But here, Carr remains somewhat of a novelty. “In Australia I’m not on TV all the time. I do a couple of QIs and people might know me from that, but people have to search me on YouTube. They have to go and find me. It’s quite a defining thing, a sense of humour, especially if you’ve had to go and sort of seek it out and go, ‘Oh, I like this guy, I like what he does.’ “I really like that quote about comedy, that laughter is the shortest distance between two people. And I like the idea that you come halfway around the world

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and suddenly you’re in a room with friends because you’ve all got the same sense of humour.” If you have yet to come across Carr’s comedy, you’ll quickly note his reputation for sparkling repartee. It’s a rare breed of comedian who relishes a heckle, but Carr seems to fit into that category. “You’ve got that 100 per cent right,” he says. “I know the jokes and I’ve rehearsed them, I know they’re funny and it’s going to work and we’re going to have a great time together. 20 per cent of the show has got to be me messing around with the audience. It’s got to be something that can only happen that night, in that room with those people. That’s the fun of it for me and also for the people in that room. “People might have heard the term ‘heckle’ and think it’s a drunk guy at a wedding interrupting speeches. At my shows, it’s someone shouting something really funny out. They’ve got to have a little bit of chutzpah before they shout out at one of my shows, because they know I’m going to say something incredibly unpleasant back. But it’s all in good fun and they know it’s got to be good, because they know the rest of the audience are not going to laugh unless it’s funny.” Carr bases his career on risk-taking; he’s a renowned purveyor of polarising gags. He’s no stranger to the press, which has scrutinised his various missteps over the years. Still, Carr is relaxed regarding the apparent ‘controversial comedian’ tag. “Anything following me around at all is great. I think the fact of the matter is, I’ve got quite a dark sense of humour and I tell those jokes and I think you’ve got to wear it, haven’t you? You can’t be surprised that people call you controversial when you joke about those

things. But having said that, my aim is never to cause offence. The primary aim is never to cause offence, the primary aim is to get laughs, and ultimately it’s not my decision what I joke about – it’s the audience’s. If they don’t laugh, then it’s not in the show. “There’s a great Lenny Bruce quote: ‘The audience is a genius.’ They decide what is and what isn’t funny. They decide what is and isn’t acceptable through laughter. If an audience laugh, then it is acceptable and it’s funny. If they don’t, then it’s not in the show. They regulate comedy, the audience.” As a self-confessed “comedy nerd” and a veteran of the scene, Carr knows what it takes to make it in stand-up. “All you’ve got to do as a comedian is listen. You get immediate feedback from the audience. It’s such a great medium for that. You know, for people that make films, opening night is tremendously stressful because they’ve put three years of work into this thing and they’ve got to see if people like it. A comedian – you say one line, if they don’t like it, you say, ‘Right, we’ll do something else.’ It’s not a tough job – you’ll never find me complaining.” Nevertheless, it’s a job well done, and as Carr’s star continues to rise, the risks and the pressures of his profession faze him less. “When I started doing comedy, I left a very good job to join the circus of being a stand-up comedian. Now it feels like the stakes are a bit higher. You have to remind yourself, ‘Who cares?’ I make my living telling jokes, which is a lovely way to make a living.” What: Funny Business Where: State Theatre When: Monday January 18 – Thursday January 21

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film reviews

game on

Hits and misses on the silver screen around town

NEWS

■ Film

IN THE HEART OF THE SEA In cinemas now Ron Howard likes his films with emotions writ large, speeches inspirational, and men as manly as possible. Drenched as much in testosterone as in brine, his latest takes lofty literary inspirations and reduces them to little more than machismo and soaring strings. As the title implies, however, there is something more potent hidden within this hulking beast’s heart. Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) seeks out the last remaining survivor of a lost whaling ship as research for his novel, Moby Dick. The shipman, Thomas Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson), recounts the story of his time aboard the Essex, and how the ship was destroyed by a white whale of unprecedented size. This is not the great American novel, but the ‘true’ events that led to its inception. Its source material, Nathaniel Philbrick’s book, draws from the tales told by Nickerson and the ship’s first mate, Owen Chase (played in the film by Chris Hemsworth). There’s plenty of opportunity for artistic licence, which Howard and screenwriter Charles Leavitt use to fill in the necessary acts of sacrifice, hubris and loss. It must be said that the accents, difficult though they may be, are all over the shop. The cast is a mix of Aussies, Brits and Americans, and sounds like it. It’s an enormous cast (including numerous Game Of Thrones alumni), but no one story is so distinct or complicated as to evade attention. Even Cillian Murphy’s drinking problem manages to sustain at least a passing emotional investment. The overall tone of the film is painted so thickly

as to be somewhat suffocating. Exposition rears its ugly head frequently, and there’s little emotion to be felt other than those you can hear Howard whispering into your ear. The music, especially, is so stock-standard ‘epic’ that it becomes completely forgettable. But there are a few shining moments that pierce through, especially in the whaling sequences. The complex emotions of the hunt are treated with a distinctly modern sensibility that the post-Blackfish audience will certainly appreciate: we cannot shut off our sense of disgust at seeing what we now know to be peaceful, intelligent creatures slaughtered en masse, and Howard is eager to show he understands. There’s also something simultaneously thrilling and annoying about the prevalence of wild, spinning GoPro shots and action cuts designed to produce seasickness in the audience. Sometimes they are effective, other times not – an early trip inside a dead whale is a gruesome personal favourite.

David Molloy

Ever been told your Xbox is a pointless bit of gear that isn’t good for anything? Well, now you have the ammunition you need to fire back, because using proprietary software developed for the Microsoft Kinect system (i.e. the camera you’ve probably ignored), researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine have successfully adapted hands-free technology used for radiographers when taking X-rays. Combined with Kinect, the software can measure the thickness of body parts and check for motion, positioning and the X-ray field of view immediately before imaging. This in turn will help avoid compromised images and exposed radiation.

HITTING THE BIG LEAGUES Though still foreign to many gamers, eSports certainly look to be on the rise in Australia. Case in point: thousands of devout League Of Legends fans (the MOBA taking the world by storm) packed out Melbourne’s Margaret Court Arena last month to watch the best in their field take part in the League of Legends International Wildcard Allstars tournament. The event’s organisers claim it to be the biggest event of its kind in the country thus far, playing host to pro eSports teams from the likes of Turkey, Russia, Brazil and Japan – all vying for a spot at the 2015 Allstar event in Los Angeles. The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) team was the one to eventually come out on top.

Gift Guide Christmas Gaming With Christmas rapidly approaching, it’s time to decide what goodies you want your stockings stuffed with. But fear not, because we’ve done the hard part for you, and made a few premium selections…

PlayStation Wireless Stereo Headset 2.0 RRP $129 Grabbed yourself a PS4 but lack the proper headset to use it with? There’s a bevy of options on the market, but for an affordable yet effective set, check out PlayStation’s own creation. It replicates a wonderful 7.1 surround sound, features a noise-cancelling microphone and manages to remain comfy after long sessions.

Xbox One Elite Wireless Controller RRP $199 You might think $200 is fairly pricey for a controller, but you certainly get what you pay for with the Xbox One’s Elite unit. From afar, the amount of customisation on offer is daunting, but hardcore gamers are sure to appreciate each and every choice. The D-pad (a constant sore point with fighting game fans), for example, can be effortlessly swapped out to allow for greater control or ergonomics, as can the analogue sticks. Pedals can also be added to allow for even more button flexibility.

Star Wars Sphero BB-8 Droid RRP $249 It wouldn’t be Christmas without desiring a gift that makes you feel like a child inside, and no item this year will replicate that feeling more than the BB-8 App-Enabled Droid by Sphero. Using your smartphone or tablet, you can navigate the ball of joy around all sorts of mazes… or record and view virtual holographic videos. Make no doubt about it, this is the droid you’re looking for.

TRUTH In cinemas now Your average cinemagoer has a keen sense for injustice. Normally, the desire is to see evildoers go down in flames for their crimes, but when a story is grounded in reality, the outcomes are never so straightforward. Truth is a tale perfectly pitched to raise your righteous fury, superbly acted and competently scripted with a tense, lingering political thriller atmosphere. It’s 2004, and 60 Minutes news producer Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) has her eye on a new story, one that implies President George W. Bush dodged his military service. But with the election looming as the story goes to air, the truth becomes a target – first the story comes under attack, then those telling it. This is director James Vanderbilt’s debut, after penning and producing the recent iterations of The Amazing Spider-Man. In its construction, it is relatively simple, but his work shines through in the quality of his performers. Of course, one hardly expects less from Blanchett and co-star Robert Redford, both of whom turn in immensely powerful performances. Redford’s recreation of US broadcasting legend Dan Rather is one of the film’s greatest assets as a pseudo-father figure to Blanchett’s Mapes. This brings us to one of the film’s odd hangovers – though this is emphatically Mapes’ story (the film is based on her book), her character is wholly emotionally reliant on the men in her life. Her relationships with

Review: Star Wars Battlefront (PS4, XBO, PC) Rather, her husband (Connor Burke) and her father take up so much screentime that we drift from seeing her coping on her own. Regardless, Blanchett is as potent as ever, every inch the unshakeable producer faced with professional destruction. She keeps us hooked to every moment as Vanderbilt refuses to shy away from one unrelenting truth – that no matter who is truly at fault, the woman in charge will find herself most hunted. There’s also strong Aussie representation on display elsewhere, with the almost unrecognisable Noni Hazlehurst rocking up as a tanned Texan that channels her excellent performance opposite Blanchett in Little Fish. It’s clear that Vanderbilt is an ardent fan of The Newsroom, as the same swelling strings and carefully crafted early-2000s vibe are here on display. The exposition and music can become cloying, as can Dennis Quaid’s smirking military rep. Such quibbles are left aside as the film draws to its dramatic conclusion, leaving the viewer enraged, and more importantly, inspired to boldly ask questions, no matter the danger. David Molloy

Arts Exposed

The Laugh Stand Christmas Comedy Gala Harold Park Hotel, Tuesday December 15 If your family and friends are difficult enough to say they don’t want anything for Christmas, why not give them the gift of two hours of laughter? The Laugh Stand’s Christmas Comedy Gala has wrapped up some of Australia’s finest comedians including Cam Knight, John Conway and Brett Blake to conclude a year of weekly stand-up nights at the Harold Park Hotel, one of Sydney’s original homes of comedy. ’Tis the season to be jolly, and the audience will be just that thanks to The Laugh Stand. Visit thelaughstand.tumblr.com for more info, and grab tickets at trybooking.com.

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WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

Like the tale on which it is based, In The Heart Of The Sea feels more like the prelude to greatness than greatness itself, but it is an enjoyable adventure.

■ Film

What's in our diary...

Gaming news with Adam Guetti

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ver since its announcement, there’s been a hell of a lot of pressure on Star Wars Battlefront. After all, it is the resurrection of a multiplayer favourite, handled by DICE – the crack first-person shooter team behind the Battlefi eld series. But with unstable launches for some of DICE’s more recent efforts, fans were sceptical as to whether or not the force was actually going to be strong with this one. The good news, however, is that you can breathe easy. If you’re hoping for some deep and engaging single-player content though, you’ll be left sorely disappointed, because there’s virtually none of that with Battlefront. Instead, you’ll have to be content with a handful of training missions and four Survival missions (one on each planet) that can be played either solo or with a friend – featuring wave-based levels that pit Rebel players against a horde of increasingly agitated Imperials. The further you progress, the greater the challenge, so expect enemies to possess the dastardly powers of invisibility, jetpacks, extra armour and shields. Each presents your foes in a new light, forcing you to adapt and change strategies on the fly. They’re certainly enjoyable romps, especially with a compatriot by your side in the heat of battle, but once you’ve worked your way through,

there’s not a whole lot bringing you back for seconds or thirds. That’s because the real meat and potatoes of Battlefront is with its competitive multiplayer, and thankfully it’s here where DICE is truly able to strut its stuff. Having access to such hallowed content has allowed the developer to be lovingly authentic with its recreation and make the most of George Lucas’ beloved world. If you’re a long-time Warsie, jumping into an X-Wing fighter or going toe-to-toe against an AT-AT with your squad is an exhilarating feeling. Some modes work better than others (Drop Zone and Supremacy are highlights), though most are varied enough to keep you chugging along. Still, delve deeper and you may start to realise that both weapons and the game’s progression system are slightly lacking. Neither are deal-breakers, especially considering they can be addressed via future updates, but they’re current sticking points nonetheless. The Star Wars faithful won’t mind, because at its core Battlefront is a polished, authentic and enjoyable multiplayer experience that’ll make you feel like you’re in a galaxy far, far away like never before. Adam Guetti

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DEAR PLUTO POP UP XMAS MARKET

The latest hot shopping spots around Sydney…

Speciality: Dear Pluto’s Pop Up Xmas Market is part of a week-long series of events we are curating at 107 Projects in Redfern. In addition to the threeday shopping extravaganza, we’ve got workshops, a light-hearted (dare we say comedy) talk about dating, an art exhibition and even a speed dating party.

THE FINDERS KEEPERS

Speciality: The Finders Keepers market will be brimming with over 200 Australian artists and designers showcasing handcrafted goods. And don’t expect run-of-the-mill here! You’ll find original products that come with great stories to share over gift-giving traditions. Showcasing their latest collections, look out for gorgeous indie fashion labels like Milk & Thistle and Dragstar, or find luscious hemp-based skincare from Humble Body. For those with a green thumb, keep an eye out for much-coveted ceramic vases from Bridget Bodenham, and Vessel and Vine for their range of planters and pots.

MADE IN ST PETERS

Speciality: A unique selection of stuff made/created in St Peters. We wanted to showcase and celebrate the makers of the area. We’ll have a range of shoulder bags, badges, light boxes, patches, screen printed T-shirts, local honey, tarot readings, weird Australiana and all kinds of affordable art. The Department Of Nothing, Vectorpunk and The Urban Beehive are a few of our local characters. The crowd: Much like St Peters these days, it’s a diverse crowd. But expect rock’n’roll families, the fashion mafia, art lovers and people looking for something that’s well crafted, locally made and unique. And lots of sexy locals. Stocking fillers: Come early and take your time. Our goal is to make this a one-stop Christmas emporium that is gonna be chilled and fun. We’ve made an effort to

include local printers and designers whose gifts start at $3. Look for the one-off badges from $5. With a spare $10, I would buy a jar of honey from the St Peters hives. It tastes like the flowers in Sydney Park. What’s the fuel? Art is our fuel. But there will be iced chai and we’re metres away from the babes at Velvet Garage café. BYO longneck, shop with a beer and enjoy the tunes. As Alec Empire said, “Pleasure is our business.” Stallholder info: To apply, email ASAP: treehouseindustries@ yahoo.com.au. Where: 31 Princes Highway, St Peters – opposite Sydney Park, minutes from Newtown and St Peters station. When: Friday December 18 (5-9pm) and Saturday December 19 (10am-5pm) More: Just type Made In St Peters into Facebook.

The crowd: We find that Finders Keepers attracts all walks of life, from the baby boomers seeking sustainable shopping to the inner-city fashionistas, and mums and dads who are still cool kids. There’s something for everyone, and all are indeed welcome. Stocking fillers: Check out what’s on the table at each stall; often there’s some bargains to be found that would make perfect stocking stuffers. For the special man in your life, look no further than the likes of Hide + Seeker for carefully crafted leather goods. The littlest members of the family will not miss out; The Smallest Tribe has a selection of playful designs and accessories perfect to keep youngsters hip for the summer holidays. To spend the last $10 in your pocket, make sure you’re covered for wrapping paper and cards! For the essential accompaniment for every gift, Amelia Lane Papers has your wrapping needs sorted. With gorgeous hand-designed cards, you’ll be well stocked for those last-minute well-

The Finders Keepers wishes. You can also check out Bespoke Letterpress, Emma Kate Co., Amelia Lane Paper and Parchment & Twine. What’s the fuel? This season, we are excited to announce the new addition of a beverage stall by the wonderful folk at CAPI. For those who’d like something a little stronger, Stone & Wood will be serving their beers at the bars, in addition to a selection of white and red wine. You’ll also discover a fantastic selection of food stalls and trucks with ready-to-eat meals, along with treats and snacks to take home as well. The Veggie Patch Van’s sweet potato chips with avocado dressing are always a crowd favourite, or if it’s Vietnamese you’re after, then don’t go past the friendly faces from Bar Pho. There will also be bagels, salads, cakes, gelato, coldpressed juices and donuts too! Stallholder info: Stallholders apply via an application form on our website. Subscribe to our newsletter and follow our social media channels for the announcement of our event and application dates for 2016 very soon! Where: Australian Technology Park, Exhibition Hall, Locomotive Street, Eveleigh. Entry via Henderson Road (entry via Bay 8).

We’ve lined up a fantastic selection of upcoming makers and designers for the markets, giving you the opportunity to get your loved ones some unique gifts this Christmas (no socks or ties over here). There’s a pop-up nail salon, an in-house florist and a curated range of locally sourced and made wares including ceramics, cards, jewellery, apparel, art and homewares. Some of our favourite stalls include Amy Blue Illustration, Everything’s Good, Sprout & Friends and Suely Lu Design. Opening night will feature live music from Cohlaj and free nail art by Cutiecoolz. We’ve lined up a rotating roster of 30 stalls over the three days. That’s not including our other contributors, workshops and artists, of course. With no space left unused, the walls will also have some fantastic works from Natalie Synnott, Imogen Grist and Gal Dente on display and available for sale from Tuesday right through to Sunday. The crowd: Like nice things and/or gotta get some Christmas gifts? Then this market is for you. There’s something for every age bracket, whether

Above: Amy Blue pin. Left: Jess Chen’s artwork you’re a tiny tot or silver fox. Stocking fillers: We’d get a highly inappropriate card from Millie Hall for grandma, and a sushi cat sticker pack from Jess Chen. What’s the fuel? There is an onsite bar and café, with wines from Cake Wines, coffee and snacks. There’s also candy sushi (yes, candy that looks like, and is packaged like, sushi), for those of you with a sweet tooth. Stallholder info: Unfortunately, applications for stalls have now closed. However, we love hearing from local designers and makers; say hello to us at hello@dearpluto.co, and we’ll be in touch next time we’re doing something cool. Where: 107 Projects, 107 Redfern Street, Redfern When: Friday December 11 – Sunday December 13. We’ve also got some great things lined up for next year already, although most are still hush-hush. One event we’re particularly excited for is St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival, where we’re putting on a makers’ market for the second year running. Subscribe to our events on our Facebook page to ensure you don’t miss out on any of the fun. More: dearpluto.co

Everything’s Good

When: Friday December 11 (6-10pm), Saturday December 12 (10am-6pm) and Sunday December 13 (10am-4pm) More: thefinderskeepers. com/sydney-markets

Arts Snap 03:12:15 :: Flickerfest 2016 Launch :: Bondi Icebergs, Bondi Beach

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Finders Keepers photos by Dave Kan and Bec Taylor

O PHOTOGRAPHER :: ENZO AMAT

out & about Queer(ish) matters with Lucy Watson

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f you’ve ever been out on Oxford Street, you will have seen a drag queen. You might also have seen RuPaul’s Drag Race, a reality TV show that’s like a cross between Project Runway and America’s Next Top Model, except with drag queens. Whether it’s Dame Edna, Courtney Act, Tootsie or Mrs. Doubtfire, drag queens (men dressing as women for parody/performance) have entered our popular psyche.

Drag kings haven’t been so lucky. I’ve had countless discussions about this, and they usually involve someone asking, “What’s a drag king?” “Do you know what a drag queen is?” I reply. “Of course,” they say. “Well, I’m pretty sure you can guess what a drag king is then.” With just the briefest pause for thought, most people can imagine what a drag king is. If you are not one of ‘most people’, a drag king is a woman dressing as a man for parody/ performance, just like a drag queen is a man who dresses as a woman.

Lee VaLone

So why aren’t drag kings as popular or successful as drag queens? I have a few theories. The home of drag is on the stage. And the stage has always been a place for exaggeration, excess and performance, but particularly camp performance. Drag is about exaggerating too: the exaggeration of gender performance, the parodying of excessive femininity or excessive masculinity. Excessive stereotypical femininity works onstage, because that’s where it’s been for so long – floor-length glittery gowns, hours-long updos and choreographed routines are all aspects of extreme femininity we see performed on a regular basis, whether it’s at the Oscars, the strip club or the theatre. Excessive masculinity, on the other hand, is much more at home on a construction site than a stage: ball-scratching, VB-swilling, legs spread wide, muscles and hair on full show. This all sounds stereotypical, but that’s what drag is about: taking the piss out of the gender stereotypes we’ve held dearly for so long. And taking the piss out of femininity is easier to understand onstage than masculinity. But this also speaks to a more pronounced problem, and that is femininity is more worthy of parody. Elaborate hair and makeup and ball gowns? Hilarious! Excessive! Beards and VB? Just a fact of life mate. This seems over-simplistic, and it is a generalisation, but it’s a real problem that has deep-seated sexism at its heart. Femininity is worthy of parody, because it’s laughable. Masculinity isn’t laughable, it’s desirable. Because men are strong, providers, protectors. Women have always been subordinate, so it’s easier to laugh at them.

Women have been wearing ‘men’s clothes’ for decades now, because the clothes made for men were made with comfort and practicality in mind, while women’s clothes were about beauty. When women cottoned on to the fact they could wear comfortable, practical clothes, jeans became not just a fashion of the working class, but a practical element of everyone’s wardrobes. So while a man in a dress is funny because we don’t often see it, a woman in jeans and a T-shirt is ordinary. Indeed, some of the drag kings I’ve spoken to have talked about how the clothes they wear onstage are very similar to those they wear in real life. (And of course, this isn’t always the case – a lot of the best drag kings I’ve seen parody a kind of camp, chivalrous masculinity, and it’s hilarious.) This also speaks to the fact that drag queens are part of gay culture, while drag kings live in lesbian culture. And lesbian culture has never enjoyed the same levels of visibility that gay culture has had. Good drag kinging is possible, and very funny. But we don’t see it as often, because femininity is much easier to parody. Drag kings are not as popularly well known as drag queens, for the same reasons trans women are regularly oppressed in our communities: femininity is simply seen as something to laugh at, rather than desire. This is not to say that drag queens are bad. I think we should be taking the piss out of the ridiculous gender stereotypes we’ve routinely prescribed our society, and this will certainly help to break the stigma of gender transgression. But let us take the piss out of masculinity too. For equality. Leomeo

this week... On Friday December 11, head along to the Christmas edition of Girlthing at 90 Liverpool Street. It’ll feature all the regulars, including Fuzzy from Melbourne, and Astrix Little back from overseas adventures.

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suggests and take over the streets. Also on Saturday December 12, The Shift Club is getting down and dirty with Extra Dirty, kicking off the summer party season with a

headline set from Paris’ Leomeo and support from Feisty and Chip. And don’t forget Ho Ho Homosocial next week on Friday December 18, also at 90 Liverpool Street.

Lee VaLone photo by Elisabeth Fuchsia

Then on Saturday December 12 in Camperdown Memorial Rest Park is Reclaim The Streets. This is an event that celebrates all-night parties over lockouts, public transport over hideous highway plans (*cough* WestConnex *cough*), and “late nights over lattes”. Meeting in the park at 2pm, it’ll soon after do as its name

BRAG :: 642 :: 09:12:15 :: 23

BARS BRAG

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

– Fri noon-midnight; Sat 5pm-midnight 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 Mon – Sat 4pm-1am

Bondy’s L1, 16 Philip Ln, Sydney CBD (02) 9251 2347 Thu – Fri 5pm-late; Sat 5pm-late Bulletin Place First Floor, 10-14 Bulletin Place, Circular Quay Mon – Wed 4pm-midnight; Thurs – Sat 4pm-1am deVine 32 Market St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 6906 Mon – Fri 11.30am-11.30pm; Sat 5.30-11.30pm Frankie’s Pizza 50 Hunter St, Sydney CBD Mon – Fri noon-3am; Sat – Sun 4pm-3am

KNOX STREET BAR

Tell us about your bar: Knox Street Bar is already on its way to becoming a local institution. Located in a garage basement, it offers genuine hospo service, classic cocktails, craft beer, tasty food and entertainment with an eclectic twist. Our guests can launch their latest EP and party with 60 friends in our showcase Drum Room, chill out in the newly opened Panic Room, or enjoy a quiet drink, meal and conversation with locals at the bar. What’s on the menu? Our chef, Sebastien Wilde, has created a menu with some seriously tasty yet fun bar food. Currently and back by popular demand are two favourites: the fried chicken and watermelon bánh mì ($15) with sambal cucumbers, jalapeño, crispy onions and coriander; and

the incredibly flavoursome buttermilk fried cauliflower ($17) with romesco, pickled onions and Grana Padano. This week’s blackboard special is meat and two veg: ($25) grilled pork chop, kipfler potato salad, and apple, pistachio and raisin salad. Care for a drink? We take cocktails seriously at Knox Street, as Sydney’s only specialist sour bar. Tyrone McCulloch and Jacob Fleming have created a cocktail menu that takes you from the classics to Yuzu Boogaloo – Botanic Australis gin, yuzu concentrate, fresh lemon, ginger, whites, blood plum and dehydrated ginger pop rocks, served tall. We also have on tap a changing selection of local beers, organic cider and a healthy wine list. Better still, if you want to try your luck and have fun, any cocktail is just $16 if you take your chance and spin the cocktail wheel. Sounds: We like to constantly mix it up, with the music choice entirely depending on the crowd. On Wednesdays we have our regular after work disco with ’70s and ’80s music video projections. Then you might drop by

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bar bar

OF

ADDRESS: GARAGE, CORNER KNOX AND SHEPHERD ST, CHIPPENDALE PHONE NUMBER: (02) 8970 6443 WEBSITE: KNOXSTREETBAR.COM OPENING HOURS: SUN – THURS 4-10PM, FRI – SAT 4PM-MIDNIGHT

TH

EK

B R A G ’ S G U I D E T O S Y D N E Y ’ S B E S T WAT E R I N G H O L E S

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 5pm-late The Fox Hole 68A Erskine St, Sydney CBD

E E W

on a Friday night and see Rodrigo, our resident DJ, playing whatever vinyl he wants (and it’s so good) on the driveway entrance ramp next to a projection of slow TV on the garage wall. On Saturdays there could be an EP launch and a party in the Drum Room. Highlights: On Saturday December 19, the bizarre is back. Yes, it’s the Knox Street Bizarre Christmas Show where you can again experience the unexpected. Limited tickets are for sale at the bar or online from our website, knoxstreetbar. com. Everyone is welcome at Knox Street, so we are always open to discussing and hosting your events and projects. The bill comes to: Start with a Garage Slapper ($18 whisky sour with urban honeycomb from our beehives on the roof), then match the fried chicken and watermelon bánh mì ($15) with a glass of Riesling ($10-$12) or Batch summer ale ($8). Our sparkler, Sieur d’Arques Cremant De Limoux Brut ($14), is dynamite with fried chicken, and you will still have coin to spin the Cocktail Wheel.

(02) 9279 4369 Mon 7am-3pm; Tue – Fri 7am-evening The Grasshopper 1 Temperance Ln, Sydney CBD (02) 9947 9025 Mon – Thurs & Sat 4pm-late; Fri noon-late Harpoon Harry 40-44 Wentworth Ave, Sydney CBD (02) 8262 8800 Mon – Sun 11:30am-3am The Lobo Plantation Basement Lot 1, 209 Clarence St, Sydney CBD 0415 554 908 Mon – Thu, Sat 4pm-midnight; Fri 2pm-midnight The Loft UTS 15 Broadway, Sydney (behind 2SER) (02) 9514 2345 Mon – Wed 2pm-10pm; Thurs – Fri 2pm-late Mojo Record Bar Basement 73 York St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 4999 Mon – Wed 4pm-midnight; Thu, Sat 4pm-1am; Fri 3pm-1am The Morrison 225 George St, Sydney CBD (02) 9247 6744 Mon – Wed 11.30am-midnight; Thu 11.30am-1am; Fri – Sat 11.30am-2am; Sun 11.30am-10pm 11.30am-10pm The Palisade 35 Bettington St, Millers Point 0421 001 474 Tue – Fri noon-2.30pm & 6pm-9.30pm; Sat 6pm-9.30pm Mr Tipply’s 347 Kent St, Sydney CBD (02) 9299 4877 Mon – Sat 10am-late 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 (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 Bar Cleveland Cnr Bourke & Cleveland St, Redfern (02) 9698 1908 Mon – Thu 10am-2am; Fri – Sat 10am-4am Bar H 80 Campbell St, Surry Hills (02) 9280 1980 Mon – Sat 6pm-late; Sun 11am-3pm Bellini Lounge 2 Kellett St, Potts Point 0432 241 556 Thu – Sun 6pm-late 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 – 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 Darlo Country Club Level 1, 235 Victoria St, Darlinghurst 0449 998 005 Wed – Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 5pm-2am Dead Ringer 413 Bourke St, Surry Hills (02) 9331 3560 Mon – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm Della Hyde 34 Oxford St, Darlinghurst Mon – Sun 5pm-3am 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 Gazebo 2 Elizabeth Bay Rd, Elizabeth Bay (02) 9357 5333 Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat – Sun noon-midnight Golden Age Cinema & Bar 80 Commonwealth St, Surry Hills (02) 9211 1556 Mon - Sun 11am-9pm 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 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 10am-midnight; Thu – Sat 10am-3am Hustle & Flow Bar 105 Regent St, Redfern (02) 9310 5593 thebrag.com

COCKTAIL OF THE WEEK

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

COUNT NEGRONI’S COLD DRIP @ DELLA HYDE, 34 OXFORD ST, DARLINGHURST Ingredients: • Cold drip infused Beefeater gin • Orange Colombo Aperitif • Dolin sweet vermouth • Orange bitters • A dash of sugar Method: Add all ingredients to a mixing glass filled with ice. Stir down until chilled and strain into a rocks glass over a large chunk of ice. Glass: Cut crystal rocks glass Garnish: Flamed orange zest

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 noon-midnight; Sun noon11pm Love, Tilly Devine 91 Crown Ln, Darlinghurst (02) 9326 9297 Mon – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 4-10pm thebrag.com

Origins: The drink was inspired by a recent trip through the States by some of the Della bar guys. Over there, a lot of cafés and bars are working with cold drip and cold batch espresso. Back on home soil, we wanted to use similar techniques in a signature cocktail for Della Hyde. While cold drip cocktails have been trending in Sydney as of late, we wanted to make it unique. The result is fully infused coffee gin and an alternative option to Campari for the bittering agent in the drink. Best drunk with: Della Hyde’s cayenne pepper and paprika spiced chickpeas! Deliciousness. During: Preferably opening hours – Tuesday to Sunday from 5pm. While wearing: Your birthday suit. And listening to: Anything Jamie Lidell. More: dellahyde.com.au

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 The Print Room 11 Glenmore Rd, Paddington 0424 034 020 Wed – Fri 3pm-late; Sat 12pm-11pm, Sun 12pm-10pm Queenie’s Upstairs 336 Riley St, Surry Hills (02) 9212 3035 Tue – Sat 6pm-late & Fri noon-3pm Roosevelt 32 Orwell St, Potts Point 0423 203 119 Tue – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm Rosie Campbell’s

320 Crown St, Surry Hills (02) 8356 9120 Mon 5pm-midnight: Tue – Sun 4pm-midnight Shady Pines Saloon Shop 4, 256 Crown St, Darlinghurst Mon – Sun 4pm-midnight 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 The Tilbury Hotel 12-18 Nicholson St, Woolloomooloo (02) 9368 1955 Mon – Fri 9am-midnight; Sat 10am-midnight; Sun 10am-10pm Tio’s Cerveceria 12-18 Nicholson St, Woolloomooloo (02) 9368 1955 Mon – Fri 9am-midnight; Sat 10am-midnight; Sun 10am-10pm 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 Bondi Hardware 39 Hall St, Bondi (02) 9365 7176 Mon – Wed 5pm-late; Fri noon-midnight; Sat 9am-midnight; Sun 9am-10pm The Bucket List Shop 1, Bondi Pavilion, Queen Elizabeth Drive (02) 9365 4122 Mon – Tue 11am-5pm; BRAG :: 642 :: 09:12:15 :: 25

Your bar’s not here? Email: chris@ thebrag.com

Wed – Sun 11am-late The Corner House 281 Bondi Rd, Bondi (02) 8020 6698 Tue – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 3pm-10pm Fat Ruperts 249 Bondi Rd, Bondi (02) 9130 1033 Tue – Fri 6pm-late; Sat – Sun 2pm-late Mr Moustache 75-79 Hall St, Bondi Beach (02) 9300 8892 Mon – Fri 5pm-11pm; Sat noon-11pm; Sun noon-10pm 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 Bauhaus West 163 Enmore Rd, Enmore (02) 8068 9917 Wed – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat – Sun 11am-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 26 :: BRAG :: 642 :: 09:12:15

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 noon10pm 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 Cnr Knox & Shepherd St, Chippendale (02) 8970 6443 Tue – Thu 4-10pm, Fri – Sat 4pm-midnight Kuleto’s 157 King St, Newtown (02) 9519 6369 Mon – Sat 4pm-late; Thu – Sat 4pm-3am The Little Guy 87 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 8084 0758 Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 1pm-midnight; Sun 3pm-10pm Mary’s 6 Mary St, Newtown (02) 4995 9550 Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm 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 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 Temperance Society 122 Smith St, Summer Hill (02) 8068 5680 Mon – Thu 4pm-11pm; Fri – Sat: noon-midnight; Sun: noon-10pm Thievery 91 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 8283 1329 Tue – Thu 6pm-11pm; Fri 6pm-midnight. Sat 11pm-3pm & 6pm-midnight Timbah 375 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9571 7005 Tue – Thu 4pm-10pm; Fri noon-11pm; Sat 3pm-11pm; Sun 4pm-8pm Wilhelmina’s Liquid and Larder 332 Darling St Balmain (02) 8068 8762 Tues – Fri 5pm - late; Sat – Sun 8am - late The Workers Lvl 1, 292 Darling St, Balmain (02) 9555 8410 Thu – Sat 5pm-3am; Sun 2pm-late ZanziBar 323 King St, Newtown (02) 9519 1511 Mon – Sat 10am-4am; Sun 10am-12am 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 (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 Jah Bar Shop 7, 9-15 Central Ave, Manly (02) 9977 4449 Mon – Fri 4pm-late; Sat 9am-late; Sun 9am-10pm The Local Bar 6/8 Young Ln, Neutral Bay (02) 9953 0027 Tue – Fri 11.30am-midnight; Sat 7am-midnight; Sun 7am-10pm Los Vida 419 Pacific Hwy, Crows Nest (02) 9439 8323 Mon – Wed 5pm-midnight; Thu – Sat 11.30am-midnight; Sun 11.30am-10pm Manly Wine 8-13 South Steyne, Manly (02) 8966 9000 Mon – Sun 6.30am-late The Mayor 400 Military Rd, Cremorne (02) 8969 6060 Tue – Wed 5pm-late; Thu – Sat noon-late; Sun noon-10pm Miami Cuba 47 North Steyne, Manly (02 99775186 Tue – Thu 8am-10pm; Fri – Sat 8am-1am; Sunday 8am-4pm 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 thebrag.com

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

ALBUM OF THE WEEK SOULSAVERS

love letters to the worlds they inhabited. Opening with ‘DeLarge’, you can’t help but be immediately drawn into a tense, violent and lonely world, only to then be countered with the stark orchestral composition of ‘Clay’, a feeling that continues through ‘Torrance’.

Kubrick San Quentin

The British production duo steps into the world of one of cinema’s greatest visionaries.

CASS MCCOMBS A Folk Set Apart Domino/EMI

Critics and the listening public at large have spent the last 13-odd years trying to work out Cass McCombs. Somewhat predictably then, his new record A Folk Set Apart doesn’t so much unlock his mystery as deepen it. A collection of 19 tracks, including B-sides and alternative takes, it’s already been described by McCombs (in typically perverse fashion) as his own favourite album, despite not being an album in the strictest sense of the word. McCombs is the master at taking middle-of-the-road material – check out the deliberately perfunctory title of ‘Three Men Sitting On A Hollow Log’ – and injecting the mundane with the mystic. It’s why so many have labelled him a ‘freak folk’ musician, despite the fact that doesn’t even begin to cover the sheer breadth of his bizarre brand of the bucolic. Every facet of the singer-songwriter is on display here, from the dork rock of ‘An Other’ to the beautiful tangled twangs of ‘Minimum Wage’. On that level, the work serves as an introduction to McCombs, but first-time listeners should come in expecting more questions than answers. There’s no use denying that A Folk Set Apart is a love-it-or-hateit record. But if it works for you, you’ll find it to be one you can obsess over; a distinct portal into another world. Joseph Earp

It’s ambitious to release two albums in the same year, let alone a couple of months apart. It’s even more ambitious to base one of those on a concept inspired by filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, but that’s exactly what Soulsavers have done. After releasing Angels & Ghosts with Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan, they’ve followed up with the self-produced Kubrick, a meticulously arranged eight-track homage.

Kubrick is strictly an orchestral affair seeking to paint a just picture of the director’s world and perhaps looking to establish itself as a standalone companion piece. Flourishes of Soulsavers’ other influences seep through in ‘Dax’, ‘Mandrake’ and ‘Joker’, a superb album standout that does wonders in recreating the creeping insanity of Full Metal Jacket.

Each track is named after a different character from those iconic films, and they feel more like

Soulsavers have created a stunning, emotional and cinematic landscape that in turn allows

Wild Honey Independent

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Iain McKelvey

DALLAS CRANE

THE TONGUE

ROYAL CHANT

THE NECTARINE NO. 9

Scoundrels Nylon Sounds/Rocket

Hard Feelings Elefant Traks/Inertia

The War Cry Of Failure Dirty Mab

Saint Jack Forever Heavenly

Nine years and nothing’s changed – the boys from Dallas Crane are back at last with a slice of cleanly produced, beer-and-sweat-soaked pub rock. The album cover of toilet graffiti should give you the right idea.

Australian hip hop breeds both fierce loyalty and passionate hate. But while the lovers debate what it is they love about the genre, the haters are very clear: the Australian accent is not made for rap, and our ocker-ness detracts from the message, making it seem as if the artist is just taking the piss. Enter The Tongue and his latest album Hard Feelings, and what’s the first thing you notice? He’s not annoying.

Royal Chant are going places. They’re motivated. They’re making big plans. That’s their take on the matter, anyway – the above statements of purpose form the chorus of ‘Dick Move’, the charming, fuzzy number that kicks off their new LP. And actually, in this case, they might be right. The War Cry Of Failure is the band’s strongest release to date; a warm, distinctly human collection of sludgy hits.

The Nectarine No. 9 were an Edinburgh-based ’90s band on the zeitgeist-forming Scottish label Postcard Records. This reissue is a refreshing revisit of their 1995 LP Saint Jack and the ’90s art-pop scene in general.

Scoundrels benefits from being both consistent in its swagger and certainty, and diverse in its exploration of genre variations within rock’n’roll. From the AC/DC-like opener to pitch-perfect blues in ‘Come To Light’ and the almost Cat Stevens-esque balladry of ‘Lucky Me’, there’s a surprising range to the record. ‘The Sunnyside’ busts in like the long-awaited announcement it is, with Dave Larkin’s gravelly holler already up to 11 and a foot-stomping rhythm section that will doubtlessly shake the foundations of every pub they play. The transition between ‘Lucky Me’ and gritty chest-thumper ‘Disillusioned’ is the record’s pinnacle moment. The lyrics are rarely a strong point, comfortably resting in well-trodden rock/blues territory (alcohol, rage, being the underdog, et cetera), but are we really here for the words? No – we’re here for grimy fun, which is why the all-too-clean and radiofriendly ‘Get Off The Dope’ feels out of sync. Thank goodness ‘The Good Times’ is there to salvage the closing.

What’s more, the album he has created with rising Sydney producer Papertoy is a tight, thoughtful and entertaining listen, but only if you give it time. Opener ‘The Knock’ and subsequent tracks ‘Never Going Down’ and ‘Houdini’ lack punch and never really engage. The talent and production levels come through, but it feels like background music. This doesn’t last, though, with The Tongue really finding his stride in ‘Proud’. From this point on, everything fits. The soulful minimalism sits beautifully with the lyrical style that seems out of step on the first part of the album.

Get on down to your local – Crane are already on their way.

Hard Feelings takes a little while to get off the ground, but when it does it soars gracefully, with a lot of help from some great local guest talent to boot. It’s just a shame that The Tongue’s grip on the mic doesn’t translate across the entirety.

David Molloy

Daniel Prior

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK

WILD HONEY

a journey into the inner workings of a classic filmmaker’s ouevre.

Sydney-based surf-pop four-piece Wild Honey have ushered in summer with the release of their dreamy debut self-titled EP. The band is the brainchild of singer and songwriter Thom Moore, and there’s no mistaking his desire to pay homage to the jangly, psychedelic sounds of The Beach Boys and The Zombies. However, this is no clichéd tribute act. Theirs is an inspired and carefully crafted sound, made all the more remarkable by Moore’s echoey vocals and on-point observations about modern romance and impulses. Wild Honey opens with ‘Eye To Eye’. A melodic debut single, it explores the ebbing away of a

relationship. The plaintive lyrics – “According to you / I ought to be ashamed / Of what I’ve become / From my point of view / I haven’t changed at all / Since day one” – set the tone for the EP. This is followed up by ‘The Truth’, a proper toe-tapping rattler. EP highlight ‘This Time’ is a blissful blend of languid guitars and tambourine, while ‘Coming Home’ charms with strong beats and a harmonica segue. Mixed by Simon Todkill (The Rubens, George Maple), Wild Honey is a confident EP and a great soundtrack for picnic days and trips to the beach.

Indeed, although the lyrics are offbeat, on the whole the LP is stunningly pop-oriented. Royal Chant deploy hooks the way a hunter lays out bear traps, and the guitar lines nestled in ‘The Familiar Taste Of Familiar Mistakes’ and the wry ‘I Am A Model’ have the power to ensnare the casual listener. Not that they don’t know how to keep things nuanced. For every one of the LP’s crashing choruses, there is a quiet moment of introspection to serve as its mirror image. On the one hand, you have the intense guitar solo that sends ‘Well Hey, I Guess Things Break’ flying into its composite parts, and on the other you have the mournful, vaguely tragic harmonica line that carries ‘I Can’t Make It On My Own’ over to its spit-and-tear-tainted finale.

A music critic/Nostradamustype figure writing in 1999 said of Nectarine that although they had lost out on a chance at major success at the beginning of the ’90s, by the turn of the decade they were carrying themselves “with a secret knowledge that their timeless music will one day be plucked from obscurity by a more assiduous generation”. That critic was right on the money: this is the second reissue of their work this year after My Personal Culloden, a collaborative work with Scottish poet Jock Scot. Tracks like the bass-driven ‘Tape Your Head On’ are effortlessly cool; ‘Couldn’t Phone Potatoes’ and ‘My Trapped Lightning’ are products of their time – proper ’90s jams, the former with an appropriately ridiculous title.

It’s powerful stuff, simultaneously a collection of gouging selfdirected insults, and a cautiously optimistic manifesto: a war cry of failure, indeed.

This reissue works as an exhumation of Saint Jack, but also as a careful melding of some of their most seminal work, including tidy little sweeteners like the acoustic cover of Nico’s ‘These Days’.

Joseph Earp

Sarah Little

OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week... KING KRULE - 6 Feet Beneath The Moon BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - The Ghost Of Tom Joad CLOUD NOTHINGS - Here And Nowhere Else

LAURA MARLING - Short Movie MINERS - Pala

Anita Connors

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05:12:15 :: Hordern Pavilion:: 1 Driver Ave Moore Park 9921 5333

RATATAT, BLACK CAB Metro Theatre Thursday December 3

BIRD’S ROBE COLLECTIVE 5TH BIRTHDAY Manning Bar Saturday December 5

OK, Manning Bar, let’s set one thing straight – having an 11-hour gig with no passouts is utterly absurd. A lot of people either couldn’t return to, or were completely turned off, an incredible day of live music. Sort your shit out. Bird’s Robe Collective celebrated its fifth anniversary in style with a mega lineup of its local talent, in what later became known as Mikefest 2015 in honour of BRC founder Mike Solo. In fact, Solo was a point of obsession for all involved, a near-messianic figure who earned numerous song dedications. First to the plate was Mike Mills, AKA Toehider, performing an acoustic set despite a broken nail. His cuttingly honest lyrics seemed drawn too sharply in the chilled-out setting, but what a voice. Dream Cities saw Solo take to the drums, and they wowed with jazzinfluenced guitar licks and sample-heavy, dreamlike post-rock. Pirates brought the only brass instrument of the day, an amplified saxophone, along with the first evidence of BRC’s love for polyrhythm. Then suddenly – metal?! Yep, BRC has Mish on its roster, too, so blast beats made an appearance. The mix did them no favours and had them sounding pretty rough. All was forgiven as Captain Kickarse and The Awesomes stepped

out and delivered organised chaos in a series of mental jams. Solkyri brought the powerful performance they’re known for, inviting an enormous, swelling energy into the room. Dumbsaint diffused and balanced that energy with Pelican-style post-metal and tightly coordinated video work. Anubis’ wandering prog left less of an impression, though their three-part harmonies were memorable. The room filled for Meniscus, described by another audience member as ‘sonic death’, which they lived up to by pounding us with a concrete wall of sound. The floor was packed as Toehider returned with full band in tow (Solo once again gracing the kit) to deliver the most charismatic and potent rock’n’roll performance of the day. Their wild, vibrant rock gave way to the anarchic, carnivalesque metal of Troldhaugen, the dark horses of the set, who surprised with a metalcore cover of Nicki Minaj’s ‘Anaconda’. A note of sobriety filled the crowd when we realised this would be Sleepmakeswaves guitarist Jonathan ‘Kid’ Khor’s last set with the boys, but it gave way to elation as they slammed through a grand selection of their overwhelming, euphoric instrumental rock, closing (of course) with ‘A Gaze Blank And Pitiless As The Sun’. Long live prog, and long live Mikefest! David Molloy

Mike Stroud and Evan Mast – otherwise known as Ratatat – can put on an explosive live show. The Brooklyn-based duo are in the midst of a handful of shows for their Australique Tour, culminating in a slot at Meredith Music Festival, with the tour name a spin on the title of their fifth studio album, Magnifi que, released in July this year. Melbourne-based group Black Cab opened the Sydney show, channelling the croaky baritone vocals and alt-rock sounds of New Order. That said, their influences are more firmly rooted in psychedelic rock of the ’70s and drone music. There were some catchy elements amongst the nicely crafted electronica, though the set felt a little lacking in dynamism. Ratatat took the stage a solid halfhour behind schedule. The mounting anticipation of the crowd was largely absorbed by a string of roadies and sound engineers. When it finally arrived,

THURSTON MOORE BAND, GOLD CLASS Metro Theatre Saturday December 5

From his string of solo albums to the quasi-solo record Chelsea Light Moving – much less soundtracking your teenage years as a part of Sonic Youth – Thurston Moore’s distinctive sound arrives anew and yet familiar in his latest incarnation, The Best Day. To tour the album, Moore, together with Sonic Youth bandmate Steve Shelley on drums, My Bloody Valentine bassist Debbie Googe and guitarist James Sedwards, took to a cordoned-off Metro Theatre for a surprisingly intimate gig. Joining them on the tour were Melbourne four-piece Gold Class, who crafted a pulsing energy out of growling guitar and fluid percussion flecked with ’80s new wave in frontman Adam Curley’s vocals. Dressed all in white, Curley deadpanned and howled over their full-bodied postpunk, before snaking over the barrier and into a sparse yet thoughtful crowd at the end of their set. Carrying their leader’s established sound of intricate yet disparate melodies, the full Thurston Moore Band built this higher still thanks to an incredibly tight rhythm section and mirrored guitar work

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the set was accompanied by an intense audiovisual show, complete with revolving Renaissance sculptures, psychedelic birdlife, and a dazzling display of lasers. People were actually whipping out sunnies to cut the glare. They opened with ‘Pricks Of Brightness’ from the new album and cranked out ‘Cream On Chrome’ mid-set, which is just a damn good tune. In between club bangers and more intricately layered electronica, there were some new renditions of old favourites, such as ‘Wildcat’ and ‘Loud Pipes’. On this evidence, guitars have returned to the forefront of Ratatat’s music – there were face-melting solos and lashings of showmanship. There was a distinct lack of audience interaction, not that it was particularly missed. Barely more than a “thank you” was uttered from beginning to end. While some might question Ratatat’s evolution (or lack thereof) as a band, their rocktronica mash-ups are still thoroughly enjoyable. Annie Murney

from the fierce-looking Sedwards. Darkly hypnotic songs such as ‘Forevermore’ and ‘Speak To The Wild’ were given a much more sinister edge than their recorded versions. Swirling dual guitars met with smouldering bass to create rising, soaring soundscapes, which just as easily fell flat to crawl and chug through sonic debris. The crowd was also treated to new material from a new album with the working title Rock ‘N’ Roll Consciousness – that is, as Moore quipped, if they “can’t find a name that’s more pretentious first”. Here, swaying, delicate guitars manifested into the usual charging racket Moore and co. are known for, before arriving at tracks from his first solo album, 1995’s Psychic Hearts. A welcome treat for an audience eager to hear older material, these songs were also a testing experience for some as the night ended with an extended version of ‘Ono Soul’ featuring a fevered and jarring breakdown of noise that had people plugging their ears with their fingers. While it wasn’t ideal seeing just two of the four onstage, it was a treat enough to see one half of Sonic Youth – and flanked by the sheer intensity of Googe and the unnerving stare of Sedwards, it made for a tight and memorable set. Jade Smith

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

CUSTARD

Factory Theatre Friday December 4 The stars were bright, the mood was right, and Custard were about to hit the stage at the Factory Theatre. The band is celebrating its quarter-century this year, and while any career is going to have its share of tricks learned and forgotten, there was a certain unevenness to Friday’s gig. Fun, but staggered. Showcasing the group’s first album in 15 years, Come Back, All Is Forgiven, certainly fuelled expectations. Yet by the end of the night it felt like something had not quite clicked. While it was big on nostalgia with some fine moments, Custard’s absence from the stage has left a mark. They kicked things off by confidently sending two new tracks, ‘Orchids In Water’ and ‘We Are The Parents (Our Parents Warned Us About)’ into a notably hesitant audience. It took a while for the crowd to seem comfortable and start filling the Factory dancefloor, but proceedings were soon galvanised when fans in the front contributed to Matthew Strong’s first solo by beating out their excitement on the strings of his guitar, waved invitingly just above their heads. A couple of early favourites and the audience was entirely on side, willing to

forgive the handful of missed notes (though to be fair, many in the crowd also seemed a touch rusty; maybe it was where I was standing, but movement seemed pretty limited to the first few rows). A false start into ‘1990s’ signalled the return to newer material. These songs feel classic Custard in both sound and self-referential lyrics, but it was not until ‘Music Is Crap’ and ‘The New Matthew’, with its frontman/drummer changeover, that the crowd really began to sway again. The new songs still seemed a little jittery, with bass player Paul Medew losing the gist of his solo, resulting in some slightly awkward dead air. The crowd did not seem to mind, offering up light-hearted cat-calls as the witty Dave McCormack salvaged the moment, steering us back to firmer shores. As the night bumped along, the setlist was increasingly disregarded. By first curtain, every track from the new album was exhausted, leaving the encores to past hits and memories. The soothing ‘Anatomically Correct’ closed the night, helping wash away the slight after taste of rust. While sometimes the performance was a little loose, the band’s informal attitude made this gig feel like a get-together with absent friends; new stories adding flavour to old memories. Adam Norris

wed

09 Dec

DAN SULTAN

Newtown Social Club Tuesday December 1 On the road with OpenLIVE, his new album recorded at Melbourne’s National Theatre, Dan Sultan took to the stage without a support or backing band. It was an intimate, back-to-basics gig. And the three-time ARIA Award-winning artist’s take on blues and alt-rock was nothing but mesmerising. A relaxed and chipper Sultan opened with new song, ‘Burn’. Whole-hearted and emotional, this up-tempo toe-tapper set the tone for the evening. It wasn’t long before the sell-out crowd was up and moving. Sultan then took it down a notch with ‘Sorrowbound’. The song’s candid lyrics and pared-back melody evoked the quiet realisation that a relationship had failed. ‘On The Leffy’ is a song that was inspired by a recent trip to Dublin. Sultan preceded it with an anecdote of walking along the Liffey River before asking a local for directions to a pub across the water. The recounted exchange included a hilariously spot-on Dublin accent. The tune, however, does not reflect such a cheery sentiment. Co-written with Paul Kelly, it has the poignant refrain, ‘I never thought I would miss you / Till I missed you’.

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The performance of ‘It Belongs To Us’ was one of the great revelations of the night. On the album Blackbird, it’s performed on acoustic guitar. Here, however, Sultan shifted it to synth. This simple change transformed the love song from a drivetime thumper to tender and soulful. It garnered much hoo-ha from the crowd. ‘Kimberley Calling’ was nothing short of impassioned. Sultan’s voice soared as he told the deeply personal story of his journey to find his grandmother’s grave in Western Australia. The highlight of the night, however, was the emotional ‘Crazy’. Taking it from his second album Get Out While You Can, Sultan’s range was on full display. Indeed, he effortlessly oscillated between loud and gentle, strength and vulnerability. It is a testament to his skill as a performer that Sultan was able to command his surrounds without support. With rich, raw vocals, emotive lyrics, and a seductively puckish sense of humour, he is simply a joy to watch onstage. It is crazy to think that he’s not a household name yet. By way of a closing message, he promised to record a new studio album next year. Can’t wait.

thu

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

10 Dec

(9:00PM - 12:30AM)

fri

11 Dec (10:00PM - 1:40AM)

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

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12

5:45PM  8:45PM

Dec

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

sun

13 Dec

(8:30PM - 12:00AM)

(10:00PM - 1:15AM)

mon

14 Dec

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

tue

15 Dec

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

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up all night out all week . . .

04:12:15 :: Metro Theatre :: 624 George St Sydney 9550 3666

MONO, FOURTEEN NIGHTS AT SEA, TANGENTS Newtown Social Club Sunday December 6

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It was still light out when Tangents took to Newtown Social Club’s tiny stage, and the sleepy Sunday dusk setting suited them rather well. Largely an improvisational band, they drifted pleasantly through a gentle, electronictinted soundscape of their own making, driven and shaped by a fantastic drummer. They set a rather sombre tone for what was to follow.

04:12:15 :: Qantas Credit Union Arena :: 35 Harbour St Darling Harbour 9320 4200

FAIRGROUNDS 2015

audience, leaving plenty waiting for some kind of crowd engagement or wanting fewer self-indulgent jams.

Hazelberry Park, Berry Saturday December 5

With hour-long waits for food that then sold out by sunset, the inaugural run of Fairgrounds, held in the boutique South Coast town of Berry, did have its negatives – but feeding a few hangry mouths got the mood back up to great heights. Boasting a solid lineup that locals would never have fathomed gracing their town, the pretty and photogenic showgrounds were filled with a chilled-out crowd. A mix of too-cool 20-year-olds and cooler parents educating their new gen relaxed on picnic rugs under the shade and across the pitch, dipping their toes in the pool when the heat peaked in the afternoon. Attracting the crowds early on were sets from Methyl Ethel, C.W. Stoneking and Unknown Mortal Orchestra, with their sounds filling the lawns and fitting the scenery perfectly, as if they were made specifically for the setting. Over at the Newtown Social Club stage, Adam Gibson and The Ark-Ark Birds’ nostalgic narrative entertained and gave perspective to those exiting the big smoke for the weekend. With perfect timing, Royal Headache then upped the Australiana back on the main stage with frontman Shogun belting out tunes via his signature gruff Aussie tone and shirtless antics – ‘Garbage’ and ‘Another World’ kicked the band and crowd in to a new gear. Mercury Rev injected the afternoon with a less energetic but no less theatrical performance, their tight sound indicative of their decades of experience. The same couldn’t be said of their ability to play to the

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Swathed dramatically in black, Meg Mac, her band and back-up vocalists gave the crowd the acknowledgement it was waiting for. Delivering a powerful set with favourites ‘Roll Up Your Sleeves’ and ‘Never Be’, her Bill Withers cover ‘Grandma’s Hands’ saw her powerful voice echo throughout the grounds and command the attention she deserved. California’s Jessica Pratt captivated her intimate audience with beautiful mellow folk and intense concentration that led to a standing ovation, and not just due to the mass exodus heading to Father John Misty, who introduced his set with the words: “It’s been a long time since I’ve been back here. To this oval.” Throwing off his sunglasses in the midst of ‘I Love You, Honeybear’, Josh Tillman casually begun to seduce the crowd. Endlessly quotable with dry charisma, cicadas ringing through the mics were the only thing that delayed him from jumping into the crowd, seamlessly throwing his guitar offstage and owning the night.

Fourteen Nights At Sea had more structure to their wanderings, though no less control. The five-piece displayed a darker tonal focus and more teeth than their predecessors – imagine a drunk Mogwai consumed with existential angst and you’d be close to the mark. Their set was defined by restraint, and they would agonise over builds before finally releasing us. Seeing a band as monumental as Mono in such an intimate setting was a rare gift, and the experience seemed almost like a holiday to them. They entered humbly in plain lighting with little more than a wave and a smile, and were greeted with warm applause that ceded to reverential silence. They rewarded our courtesy with a setlist lifting heavily from Hymn To The Immortal Wind and their immaculate

double album The Last Dawn/Rays Of Darkness. You may have heard that Mono can be an emotional experience live, but words fail to express the cathartic power this foursome wields. Lead guitarist Takaakira ‘Taka’ Goto has the presence of both a master conductor and rock wizard rolled into one, his hands compulsively guiding and shaping the actions of his bandmates as if he were weaving sounds from the air. It was hypnotic to watch him draw his shimmering wash of sound from his guitar, eyes closed in trance-like focus. Mono are shoegazers through and through, but in that distinctly Japanese way that carries no arrogance. They rarely smile and only bassist Tamaki Kunishi stands, but it’s all in service to the aura they exude as an intrinsic part of their live performances. Their closing number said it all, an 11-minute monolith titled ‘Death In Reverse’: opening with an insistent guitar motif from Hideki ‘Yoda’ Suematsu; making way for Taka’s trademark surging and splashing cymbals courtesy of Yasunori Takada; gradually introducing Kunishi’s bass before bursting, receding and exploding again with successively greater force and majesty each time. David Molloy

Before too long, Ratatat graced the eager crowd with bang-on visuals, lighting and that video game guitar. Despite a dark lacklustre start, the Brooklyn duo satisfied the crowd with their instrumental goodness spanning all 12 years of singles. Their slew of hits, including ‘Seventeen Years’, ‘Wildcat’ and ‘Loud Pipes’, got the crowd moving to see the day out, but a few chants of “Say something!” reflected the sentiment that they could have uttered a few more words than “hello” and “thank you” to really end the night on a high. Emily Gibb

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WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 9 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC New Orleans Beats Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. Free. The Consouls Video Game Jazz Play Bar, Surry Hills. 5pm. Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Muso’s Club Jam Night Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt. 8pm. Free. Songwriting Society Of Australia Showcase - feat: Kim Banffy + Monica + John Chesher + Gavin Fitzgerald + Paul Mcgowan + Russell Neal + Pete Scully Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 7:30pm. Free. Stillhouse Union + James & Aileen The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $5.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Bully Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $45.50. Ed Sheeran Allianz Stadium, Moore Park. 6pm. $100.93. Goat + King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $49.85. Julia Holter Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7pm. $48. Mark Travers Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. Free. Mick Daley Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 4pm. Free.

Sosueme - feat: Winterbourne + Paces Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. Free. Sugar Jam Open Mic Night Sugarmill, Kings Cross. 8pm. Free. The Hotelier + Ceres Black Wire Records, Annandale. 7pm. $23.50.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 10 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Little Big Wolf + Frank Sultana & The Sinister Kids + Ina Maka Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 9pm. $10. Muso’s Club Jam Night Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill. 8pm. Free.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Kriola Collective + Bateria 61 The Basement, Circular Quay. 7pm. $14.90. Lights Of Christmas - feat: Paulini + Naomi Price St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney. 7:30pm. Free. Rhythm & Bowls - feat: Johnny G & The E Types Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville. 5pm. Free. The Fatback Band Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $49.90. Thursdays In Jam - feat: El Moro + DJ Av El Cubano Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 9pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK &

COVERS Anthems Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. Free. Brendan Gallagher The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $7. BSR Xmas Party - feat: The Killing Word + Evan Lock + Melodie Nelson + Magnetic Heads Freda’s, Chippendale. 8pm. Free. Carols By Blowtorch - feat: Urban Guerillas + The Smart Folk + Sweat And Shame Union Hotel, Newtown. 7:30pm. Free. Gazele + DJ Dizar Rock Lily, Pyrmont. 8:30pm. Free. Gordi Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $11.90. Kinksy Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 7pm. $20. Lachlan Bryan & The Wildes + James Thomson Django Bar, Marrickville. 7pm. $17.70. Live At The Sly - feat: New Venusians + The Baldwins + The Sticks Slyfox, Enmore. 7:30pm. Free. Moon Duo + Grinding Eyes + Glass Skies Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7pm. $43. Peter Head The Push Bar, The Rocks. 7pm. Free. Rudimental Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $67.80. Steve Crocker Fortune Of War, The Rocks. 9pm. Free. Stormcellar Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. $10. The Hotelier + Ceres Factory Floor, Marrickville. 7pm. $20. The Vanns + Hollerin’ Sluggers + Chico Seeds Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 10pm. Free. Waax

Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $12.25.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 11

pick of the week Chris Cornell

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Flamin’ Beauties Royal Hotel, Bondi. 9:15pm. Free. Gin Wigmore Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $34.70. Michael Duchesne Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 9pm. $15. Vanessa Heinitz Duo The Mill Hotel, Milperra. 4pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS A.D.K.O.B Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. Free. Adrian Joseph Lord Raglan Hotel, Alexandria. 7pm. Free. Chaika + Pickpockets The Basement, Circular Quay. 7:30pm. $24.30. Chris Cooke Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 5:45pm. Free. Chris Cornell + Dave Leaupepe Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 8pm. $114.40. Dave Anthony 99 On York, Sydney. 5:30pm. Free. Geoff Davies The Push Bar, The Rocks. 7:30pm. Free. Glenn Esmond Fortune Of War, The Rocks. 8pm. Free. Halestorm Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle. 8pm. $49.90. Holly Stone Vineyard Hotel, Vineyard. 9pm. Free. Karaoke Figtree Hotel, Sydney. 9pm. Free.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 11 – SATURDAY DECEMBER 12

Sydney Opera House

Chris Cornell + Dave Leaupepe 8pm. $114.40. Kurt Williams Padstow Park Hotel, Padstow. 7pm. Free. Night Lyfe Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. Free. Peter Cetera State Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $71. Polish Club Waywards, Newtown.

8pm. Free. Reckless Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 10pm. Free. Spit Roasting Bibbers Crown Hotel, Camden. 8pm. Free. Ted Nash Kings Park Tavern, Kings Park. 6pm. Free.

The Belligerents + Jenny Broke The Window Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $15. The Cliffies The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $5. The Exploited Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm.

$53.70. The Robbie And Kylie Experience Towradgi Beach Hotel, Towradgi. 9:30pm. Free. The Rumjacks Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville. 8pm. $17.85. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats

on the record WITH

MICHAEL ROSENTHAL FROM STORMCELLAR grandmother gave me Number Of The Beast – best nanna gift ever!

I hear the exploration into the possibilities of music.

The Daphne Rawling Band photo by Colin Lucas

The Last Record I Bought The Last Thing I Recorded 2. I’ve been listening to a 4. Stormcellar are Michael Barry bunch of music from war-torn (vocals/harp), Paul Read (slide Mali. Last album was Music In Exile by Songhoy Blues. The rhythmic approach is hypnotic. I was looking for other musical perspectives. I found a reference to them in the street press, did some research and found that they’d been taken under Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)’s wing. The First Thing I Recorded 3. My first recordings were with a

The First Record I Bought 1. Red Sails In The Sunset by Midnight Oil. I was learning drums and Rob Hirst was a monster to thebrag.com

be sure. I remember sitting there trying to get my hands and feet to be independent. Not long after that I swapped to guitar. By the way, my

band called Pioneer Disposals, a duo – the other half was Craig Schuftan. Our music was created using lo-fi tape loops of found sounds and live reconstituted guitar. Our early shows were in art galleries. When I listen back

guitar/mandolin), Bill Williams (bass), Theo Wanders (drums/percussion) and me (electric/acoustic guitars). Jo Fitzgerald adds harmonies. We recorded across three studios – one in Kansas City, and two in Sydney (A# and Everland). Everywhere Feels Like Home is a collection of music, a soundtrack, inspired by our adventures in the American Midwest. Guests? Yep: Curtis Mayfield’s younger brother DC Bellamy, a co-write with Kansas City blues luminary Ron Teamer, cello virtuoso Dr. Geoffrey Gartner and national treasure Bukhchuluun Ganburged on horsehead fiddle and traditional Mongolian two-tone singing. Most of the songs are played as recorded. Our album launch is on December

10 at Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville and we will have Geoffrey, Bukhu and Jo on hand to present the songs as recorded. This is a rare event and promises to be a special evening. The Record That Changed 5. My Life Instrumentals: (No Pussyfooting) by Fripp and Eno completely broke down my ideas of what music could be. Soundtracks: one of the earliest was Local Hero by Mark Knopfler. The main theme starts out ambiently – hinted at – but by the end it’s this triumphant piece that has a healing force to it. I go back to them when I need to get out of a funk or need to be reminded of the possibilities. What: Everywhere Feels Like Home out Friday December 11 independently Where: Lazybones Lounge When: Thursday December 10

BRAG :: 642 :: 09:12:15 :: 31

g g guide gig g

g g picks gig p

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $46.60. Unwritten Law + Grenadiers Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $60.20. Vanessa Heinitz Bar Cleveland, Redfern. 8:30pm. Free. Warriors Of The World + Whisky Smile + Metal + The Archaic Revival Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 4pm. $14. Whelan & Gover Royal Motor Yacht Club, Newport. 8:15pm. Free.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 12 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Bajaga & Instruktori Enmore Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $77.40. Chris Cody Foundry616, Ultimo. 8:30pm. $21.50. Finn The Home Tavern, Wagga. 10pm. Free. Los Romeos Oxidados! The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 3pm. $5. Rob Lucky & The Lucky Bastards Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville. 8pm. Free. Songsonstage feat: Ben Osmo + Guests Club Willoughby, Willoughby. 7pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

SUNDAY DECEMBER 13 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Clayton Doley & Kim Killspeed The Vanguard, Newtown. 6:30pm. $15. Ivanhoe The Deck, Sydney. 3:30pm. Free. Songsonstage - feat: Stuart Jammin + Pauline Sparkle + Monica Harlequin Inn, Pyrmont. 3pm. Free. Steve Edmonds Towradgi Beach Hotel, Towradgi. 3pm. Free. Stormcellar Shady Pines, Darlinghurst. 6pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK &

32 :: BRAG :: 642 :: 09:12:15

COVERS Becky & The Pussycats Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 6:30pm. Free. Adrian Joseph Fortune Of War, The Rocks. 1pm. Free. Ben French The Mill Hotel, Milperra. 12pm. Free. Benj Axwell Picton Hotel, Picton. 12:40pm. Free. Cover Note Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm. Free. Escape Sundays Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 2pm. Free. Frankie’s Vinyl Fair - feat: The Neptune Power Federation + Black Aces + Kvlts Of Vice + Babymachine Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 12pm. Free. Glenn Esmond Bella Vista, Pyrmont. 12pm. Free. Halestorm Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm. $49.95. Joey Cape + Chris Creswell + Brian Wahlstrom + Laura Mardon Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 6:30pm. $33. Michael Fryar The Rivo Hotel, Riverstone. 4pm. Free. Open Mic Epping Hotel, Epping. 5pm. Free. Rebecca Moore Ingleburn Hotel, Ingleburn. 1pm. Free. Riley Beech Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown. 2pm. Free. Steve Crocker Strawberry Hills Hotel, Surry Hills. 4pm. Free. Steve Edmonds Towradgi Beach Hotel, Towradgi. 3pm. Free. Ted Nash Fortune Of War, The Rocks. 6pm. Free. Tequila Mockingbird The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 5pm. Free. The Neptune Power Federation + Black Aces + Kvlts Of Vice + Baby Machine Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 6pm. Free. The Road Runners Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville. 4:30pm. Free. Vanessa Heinitz Buckley’s Bar, Circular Quay. 1pm. Free. White Bros Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 4:30pm. Free.

MONDAY DECEMBER 14 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

@ The Corridor feat: Jasmine Beth + Ali Fawcett + Hannah Robinson Corridor Bar, Newtown. 7pm. Free. Songsonstage feat: Russell Neal + Chris Brookes + Guests Kelly’s On King, Newtown. 7:30pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Frankie’s World Famous House Band Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 9pm. Free. The Monday Jam The Beresford Hotel, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free.

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

TUESDAY DECEMBER 15 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Steve Hunter Band Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Live & Original @ Mr Falcon’s feat: Andy Kidd + Loretta Durso + Hannah Robinson Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 7:30pm. Free. Songsonstage feat: Russell Neal + Guests Gladstone Hotel, Dulwich Hill. 7:30pm. Free. Songsonstage - feat: Stuart Jammin + Gilli Moon + J. Walker Kelly’s On King, Newtown. 8pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Bandquest - feat: Zack Martin + Lucy B + Total Radio Silence Ruby L’otel, Rozelle. 7:30pm. Free. Live Rock & Roll Karaoke Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 4pm. Free. Neon Indian Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $42.70. Open Mic The Bourbon, Potts Point. 7pm. Free.

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 9

Mansionair

Bully Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $45.50. Ed Sheeran Allianz Stadium, Moore Park. 6pm. $100.93. Goat + King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $49.85. Julia Holter Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7pm. $48.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 10 Little Big Wolf + Frank Sultana & The Sinister Kids + Ina Maka Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 9pm. $10. Rhythm & Bowls - Feat: Johnny G & The E Types Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville. 5pm. Free. The Fatback Band Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $49.90. Gordi Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $11.90. Kinksy Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 7pm. $20. Lachlan Bryan & The Wildes + James Thomson Django Bar, Marrickville. 7pm. $17.70. Live At The Sly - Feat: New Venusians + The Baldwins + The Sticks Slyfox, Enmore. 7:30pm. Free. Moon Duo + Grinding Eyes + Glass Skies Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7pm. $43. Rudimental Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $67.80. Stormcellar Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. $10. The Hotelier + Ceres Factory Floor, Marrickville. 7pm. $20. The Vanns + Hollerin’ Sluggers + Chico Seeds Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 10pm. Free.

Window Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $15. The Exploited Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm. $53.70. The Rumjacks Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville. 8pm. $17.85. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $46.60. Unwritten Law + Grenadiers Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $60.20. Warriors Of The World + Whisky Smile + Metal + The Archaic Revival Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 4pm. $14.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 12 Mansionair Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $17.90. Misfits Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm. $59.90. Shelley Segal The Newsagency, Marrickville. 8pm. $16.50. Smudge + Sam Shinazzi Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $19. The Amity Affliction + A Day To Remember + Motionless In White + Hands Like Houses Qantas Credit Union Arena, Darling Harbour. 6pm. $89.90.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 13 Halestorm Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm. $49.95.

Waax Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $12.25.

Joey Cape + Chris Creswell + Brian Wahlstrom + Laura Mardon Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 6:30pm. $33.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 11

The Neptune Power Federation + Black Aces + Kvlts Of Vice + Baby Machine Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 6pm. Free.

Gin Wigmore Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $34.70. Peter Cetera State Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $71. The Belligerents + Jenny Broke The

TUESDAY DECEMBER 15 Neon Indian Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $42.70. Julia Holter

Julia Holter photo by Tonje Thilesen

Alfredo Malabello The Push Bar, The Rocks. 7:30pm. Free. Big Rich Picton Hotel, Picton. 8pm. Free. Chris Cornell + Dave Leaupepe Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 8pm. $114.40. Dave Anthony Duo Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee. 8:30pm. Free. Dave Debs Panania Diggers, Panania. 8pm. Free. Fatai The Basement, Circular Quay. 7:30pm. $29.20. GJ Donovan Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 4:30pm. Free. Jconnexion Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill. 8pm. Free. Madchild Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $39.10. Mansionair Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $17.90. Michael Fryar Duo Crown Hotel, Sydney. 8pm. Free.

Misfits Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm. $59.90. Never Say Die Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney. 3pm. $54.80. One World Dundas Sports Club, Dundas. 8pm. Free. Peter Cetera State Theatre, Sydney. 2pm. $71. Shelley Segal The Newsagency, Marrickville. 8pm. $16.50. Self Is A Seed Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt. 8pm. $16.90. Sepora Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 9pm. $15. Smudge + Sam Shinazzi Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $19. Steve Crocker The Belvedere Hotel, Sydney. 7:30pm. Free. Ted Nash Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee. 9:30pm. Free. The Amity Affliction + A Day To Remember + Motionless In White + Hands Like Houses Qantas Credit Union Arena, Darling Harbour. 6pm. $89.90. The Culture Industry - feat: The Fox Company + Squawk + Lint + Ugly Mondays Studio Six, Sutherland. 8pm. $10. The Party Scarves Panania Hotel, Panania. 8:30pm. Free. Vanessa Heinitz Kings Park Tavern, Kings Park. 7pm. Free. VIP Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 10pm. Free. Whelan & Gover Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale. 9pm. Free.

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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 James Di Fabrizio

five things WITH

Growing Up Although my 1. parents weren’t musical at all, they tried to get me to learn all kinds of instruments, but my short attention span meant I couldn’t stick with one long enough to get good at them! This was probably terrible for them as they had to listen to some extremely bad drum playing. I do think that subconsciously it helped me grasp the concept of rhythm that allowed me to learn how to DJ really quickly.

2.

Inspirations My favourite band is Tool. I see them as an updated Pink Floyd in some ways – their albums have concepts

SKISM

of layering multiple tracks on four decks, so there’s always an element of surprise thrown in there.

Your Crew My crew is the 3. roster of artists that

I can only speak from personal experience, but the bass music scene is really strong right now and I’m proud to be a part of it. Shouts to everyone keeping the music flowing: Eptic, Laxx, Must Die!, Trampa, Zomboy are gods amongst men.

I manage and who release on my label Never Say Die. I’m blessed to work with such talented people who continually inspire each other and me. The Music You 4. Make And Play Most people know what to expect from one of my DJ sets. It’s high-energy dubstep with some trap hybrids thrown in. I have a signature style

In celebration of the collective’s fabulous first year, Sistas With Soul is hosting a massive party for Boxing Day 2015. Soul In The Square will showcase local and

New Year with 180-degree views of Manly Beach. In the past, Fear Of Dawn have shared the stage with electronic music stars like Disclosure, Dusky, NiCe7, Nick Warren, Jody Weisternoff, Audiojack and Huxley, but this time the NYD vibes on the beachfront will be all theirs to share with a bunch of party-loving locals. Welcome in 2016 with Fear Of Dawn at Daniel San’s Beachfront Dojo on Friday January 1.

GIBBS GETS GOING

Music, Right Here, Right 5. Now

With: Must Die!, Laxx Where: Greenwood Hotel When: Saturday December 12

international hip hop, future soul, jazz and reggae artists. Headlining the event is Ahmed Sirour, all the way from Brooklyn. Sirour will perform a super smooth live soul set backed by local favourites The

Yolanda Be Cool

SUMMER VIBES GET DEEPER

Vibes On A Summer’s Day, the Bondi Beach festival that’s back to epitomise summer, has announced its Curator Series, complete with a bunch more great acts. The Curator Series will celebrate some of Australia’s well-established music labels, producers and stylists. For the dance music fans, the highlight of the program is being curated by Sweat It Out, with artists like Yolanda Be Cool and Juan Dü Sol (RÜFÜS) joining the fun. Vibes On A Summer’s Day will take place on on Sunday January 24 at the Bondi Pavilion.

Ojeez and other surprise guest vocalists. Soul In The Square is a day for the whole family to enjoy, from live music to free fairly floss and Sydney’s first fusion BBQ, Mama’s Kitchen, cooking traditional Lebanese favourites with an Aussie twist. It will be held at a secret location (a three-minute direct train ride from Central Station) on Saturday December 26.

WOLF + LAMB

US party-starters Wolf + Lamb are playing an exclusive Sydney show this weekend at one of the most picturesque locations in town. Zev Eisenberg and Gadi Mizrahi lay their foundations in Brooklyn and started building a series of labels in 2005. Their energetic style will be an ideal counterpoint to the Sunday evening vibes at Café del Mar on Sunday December 13, where a host of locals will play in support: Murat Kilic, Robbie Lowe, Mike Witcombe, Alan Thomas, Cassette and Alice Q.

THE GOOD LIFE GOES ON

Good Life, the underage festival held exclusively for 13-to-17-yearold music fans, is back for another year, featuring its largest lineup yet with four stages of live music. And capping it off are a water park, sports zone, outdoor cinema and a celebrity meet-and-greet. Chart-topping hip hop artist A$AP Rocky will headline, alongside electronic duo DVBBS, Deorro, trap legend Marshmello and trance producer Marlo. Rounding out the headliners come Jeremih and Dawin, with the bill filled out by Will Sparks, Timmy Trumpet, Joel Fletcher, Havana Brown, Frontliner, Droplex, Toneshifterz, Slice N Dice, Tyde Levi and Brynny. Capping off the world’s largest under-18s festival comes the debut of the Geordie Shore House Party featuring Snoop Dogg collaborator DJ Jam and Some Blonde DJ bringing the beats while the cast of Geordie Shore joins in on the party. Good Life 2016 will take place at the Sydney Showgrounds on Friday February 26.

NO FEAR OF NEW YEAR’S DAY

Wolf + Lamb

House music crew Fear Of Dawn have locked in a set at Daniel San’s Beachfront Dojo, kicking off the

Freddie Gibbs has announced a trio of headline shows to go along with his appearance at Golden Plains Festival this March. The tour will take Gibbs to stages in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney, and follows the release of his latest album, Shadow Of A Doubt. The record is but the latest instalment in the Indiana rapper’s impressive discography, which includes five LPs and a string of EPs. Gibbs graced Australian shores earlier this year on a sold-out national tour. He’ll be back in town to play Manning Bar on Friday March 11.

TOKYO SING SONG GETS WEIRD(ER)

The ‘weirdo rappers’ Simo Soo and Marky Vaw will be curating two nights at Newtown’s Tokyo Sing Song in December. Expect oddness to ensue. Both Soo and Vaw have recently released albums, so on one level the weekend will serve as a launch celebration for the pair. But more than that, the two-night stint will also provide a reminder of Sydney’s vibrant underground scene; a celebration of the brilliant bizzarity that Sydney’s mainstream media often forgets about. The oddballs will be taking to the stage, of course, but so will musicians as diverse as Melbourne’s HTMLflowers, ‘goth Barbie queen’ Zsa Zsa LaFine and the incomparable and intoxicating Kimchi Princi. The far-out festivities begin this Friday December 11 and then again on Saturday December 12. Entry is free.

OUTSIDE OF LEFTFIELD

Back with a first studio effort in 16 years, Alternative Light Source, electronic outfit Leftfield are returning with a one-off open air show. The Neil Barnes-led collective’s current live show has been playing to sold-out audiences across Europe and garnering immense acclaim in the process. The set will mark the group’s first Australian performance since 2011. It goes down at Calais Estate in the Hunter Valley on Saturday February 20. BRAG :: 642 :: 09:12:15 :: 33

xx

thebrag.com

A VERY MOODY CHRISTMAS PARTY

Christmas is coming early this year, with Harpoon Harry throwing an epic party and Moodymann set to perform. The charismatic house artist will deliver his Detroit-inspired music with delicious samples of soul and blues. Simon Caldwell, Boogie Monster, Kali, Preacha, Heavenly, Andy Webb and Adi Toohey will be supporting on the day. Forget Christmas carols, head down to Harpoon Harry on Sunday December 20 for a diverse, sweet-sounding lineup.

and lyrically they are both deep and introspective as well as ironic and satirical. Musically one of the most unique and forward-thinking rock bands out there.

SISTAS WITH SOUL

Moodymann

Le1f Reading The Riot Act By David James Young

I

n the early ’90s, the riot grrrl movement gave a voice to women who felt sidelined, oppressed and ignored in the realm of punk rock; quite literally bringing them to the front and ensuring they would no longer be denied their place at the table. Roughly two decades on, Khalif Diouf – better known as Le1f – has referenced the movement by calling his debut album Riot Boi. There are several readings that one can make into the ostensible co-opting of the counterculture by gender-fl ipping it and using it for the title of his album; a primary one being a refl ection of the intersectionality that lies within the visibility of women in punk and the visibility of LGBT people like Le1f in hip hop. Diouf, however, assures that there is a clearer-cut reasoning behind the title. “I think it’s more a commentary on how little things have truly changed in the past 20 years, more than anything,” the New York rapper says. “Some of the key things I talk about on this album I feel have been following me around for so long – there are songs on this album that are over a year old, and they’re just as topical now as they were when I was writing them. This isn’t a good thing by any stretch of the imagination – people are still dying for really unfair reasons. As long as there are these phobias and this discrimination prevalent in our society, people can relate to the music that refl ects on that. It’s as true then as it is now, regardless of who is making it and what kind of music it is.” Riot Boi is an assured, resonant debut album any way one cuts it. Filled with bold, booming production and a versatility in both flow and stylistic approach that refuses to let a single dull moment rear its head, it’s also notable for Diouf’s fearless takedown of matters such as authoritative violence, queer rights and the continued oppression of people of colour. According to Diouf himself, a lot of what made it onto Riot Boi has been a long time coming.

There are several key collaborators who make themselves known throughout the tracklisting of Riot Boi, from longtime contributor Junglepussy to PC Music affiliate Sophie. Perhaps the most notable, however, is Devonté Hynes, the producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist behind such projects as Blood Orange and Lightspeed Champion, as well as a songwriter for the likes of Solange, Kylie Minogue and Sky Ferreira. Hynes produced and featured on ‘Change’, the song that closes out Riot Boi, and his work left a very clear impression in the Le1f camp. “Dev is absolutely amazing,” enthuses Diouf. “He’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. For someone who’s so prolifi c and almost a pop star in his own right, he’s such a good friend to musicians and people in his community. I didn’t even really know him that well when he sent me the beat for ‘Change’, but I remember it had him doing what was basically a scat track over the top of it. He’s such a wealth of ideas, and the more I worked with him and explored what was possible, the more I came to count him as a friend.” Hynes also served as a bandleader and bassist when Diouf made his network television debut last year, performing breakthrough single ‘Wut’ with a live band on the Late Show With David Letterman. “His arrangement was genius!” adds Diouf. “He was the mastermind behind the entire thing.” Diouf will return to Australia at the end of January, and he’s looking forward to the trip. “Oh my God, I can’t wait,” he says breathlessly. “I miss it so much! Some of my best shows have been in Sydney and Melbourne, so I’m very ready to come back and party with you guys. It’s been far too long!” It’s mentioned that Le1f’s arrival in Australia comes at a particularly busy time as far as touring is concerned – for instance, the night of his Sydney show, Joanna Newsom is also playing earlier at the Opera House. “Oh my God, really?” laughs Diouf. “I love her! She should come party too!” What: Riot Boi out now through Terrible/Remote Control With: Oscar Key Sung, Baby Face Thrilla Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Thursday January 21 34 :: BRAG :: 642 :: 09:12:15

thebrag.com

Le1f photo by Eric Johnson

“These were issues that I felt were important enough to make songs about,” he says. “A lot of them just felt timely, because a lot of these issues are still prevalent. There’s still a lot of tension about police brutality and trans issues. These are things that I’ve always wanted to engage with using my music – there’s a song on the record called ‘Taxi’, which I’ve been wanting to explore thematically for a really long time. Before I’d even made [2012 debut mixtape] Dark York, I had this list of ideas. A lot of the political ones on the list I just didn’t do at the time. I felt like I didn’t know how to properly express what was on my mind. I didn’t know how to talk about it. I think this album became very therapeutic for me – I felt like I was fi nally able to make sense of what I was doing.”

SAT 12 DECEMBER

SPECIAL GUESTS

RESIDENTS

CLIVE HENRY

RABBIT TAXI MESAN KERRY WALLACE

MANTRA COLLECTIVE

OFFICIAL AFTER-HOURS 10PM TILL LATE $10 BEFORE 12AM / $15 AFTER 199 ENMORE ROAD WWW.SLYFOX.SYDNEY

BY DAY

BY NIGHT

Sunday 13th December TERRACE

TERRACE

Secret Guest Dirty Doering RifRaf Marc Jarvin

Secret Guest ࠮ Secret Guest Pete Nouveau ࠮ B_DEEP

THE DEN Danni B ࠮ Dan Zina ࠮ Kerry Wallace

MAZE Sonderr ࠮ Marley Sherman Brad Landy

THE BOX Hosted by Deep Seeded

GREENWOOD HOTEL 1pm to 9pm - $15

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

www.sash.net.au thebrag.com

BRAG :: 642 :: 09:12:15 :: 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 Wolf + Lamb

Boathouse Saturdays - feat: Resident DJs The Watershed Hotel, Sydney. 9pm. $20. O-Ii-Shi! Pre-Xmas Jam - feat: Boogie Monster + Naiki + Kavi-R + Lovebombs DJs + Mike Who + Krystel Diola Play Bar, Surry Hills. 5pm. Free. R&B DJs By The Greens Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville. 4pm. Free.

Café del Mar

Wolf + Lamb + Murat Kilic + Robbie Lowe + Mike Witcombe + More Xxx

2pm. $25. WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 9

FRIDAY DECEMBER 11

HIP HOP & R&B Lord St Collective Presents: Crackin’ Eggs Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 7pm. $10.

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. Sasslife Weekly Secret Garden Bar, Enmore. 7pm. Free. The Wall The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. Free.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 10 HIP HOP & R&B Yelawolf Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $59.90.

CLUB NIGHTS

Phat Play Friday feat: Broke + Dizar + Benny Hinn Play Bar, Surry Hills. 4pm. Free. Simo Soo + Marky Vaw Tokyo Sing Song, Newtown. 10pm. Free.

CLUB NIGHTS Bassic - feat: Ricky Remedy + Noy + Hydraulix + Stalker + Chenzo + Autoclaws + Blackjack + Lennon Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $22.60. Blvd Fridays - feat: G-Wizard Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $13.40. Chimpo + 8 Diagram + JNR + DJ Tokoloshe Civic Underground, Sydney. 10pm. $22. Dibby Dibby Soundsystem - feat: Suhana Lye Cliff Dive, Darlinghurst. 11pm. $5. El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 9pm. Free. Eric Wareheim + DJ Dougpond Dutch Boys DJ Experience + Mikey Kampmann Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 10:30pm. $15. Feel Good Fridays Bar100, The Rocks. 5pm. Free. Friday Frothers - feat: DJ Babysham + DJ Jesse Sewell Side Bar, Sydney.

36 :: BRAG :: 642 :: 09:12:15

Touch Sensitive

9pm. Free. Friday Lite - feat: Victoria Kim Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 10pm. Free. Harbour Club - feat: Resident DJs The Watershed Hotel, Sydney. 6pm. Free. Jam Fridays Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 9:30pm. Free. Kowton Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 10pm. $10. Loco Friday - feat: DJs On Rotation The Slip Inn, Sydney. 5pm. Free. Party In The Park Launch Party - feat: Touch Sensitive + Elijah Scadden + Robustt + Two Much + Persian Rug + Buck Nite Mona Vale Hotel, Mona Vale. 9pm. $15. Sam Wall Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 6pm. Free. Scubar Fridays - feat: DJs On Rotation Scubar, Sydney. 8pm. Free.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 12 CLUB NIGHTS El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 9pm. Free. Frat Saturdays - feat: DJ Jonski Side Bar, Sydney. 7:30pm. Free. Goodgod & Good Night: The Final Dance Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 10pm. $22.90. Lndry - feat: Friend Within + Oscar Key Sung DJ + Elijah Scadden + Francisco + Pat Ward + Hausnet + Coda +

King Lee + DJ Just 1 + Fingers Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $27.70. Mantra Collective 3rd Birthday - feat: Enzo Siragusa + Seb Zito + Rich Nxt Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 2pm. $30. Masif Saturdays Space, Sydney. 10pm. $25. Milwaukee Banks Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $12. Mo Funk + Raye Antonelli Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 6pm. Free. My Place Saturdays - feat: DJs On Rotation Bar100, The Rocks. 8pm. Free. Pacha Sydney feat: Tigerlily + Jesabel + Disorder & Hookie + A-Tonez + I Am Wolfpack + Friendless + Fear Of Dawn + Jade Le Flay + A-Game + DJ Just 1 + Pro/Gram + E-Cats + Rocco + Wild Fox + Jay Bro + Gold Class + Trent Rackus Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 6:30pm. $38. Scubar Saturdays - feat: DJs On Rotation Scubar, Sydney. 8:30pm. Free. Sam Paganini + Pig&Dan + Trena + Rouss + Louis Coste The ArtHouse, Sydney. 9pm. $49.50. Something Else Feat: Will Saul + Jay Haze/Fuckpony + Dilby + Dave Stuart + Lance Harrison + Simon Mann + U-Khan + Mark Craven + Tech No More + Wanos + Samsonite Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst. 9pm. $22. Stafford Brothers Marquee, Pyrmont.

Tigerlily

Lndry - Feat: Friend Within + Oscar Key Sung DJ + Elijah Scadden + Francisco + Pat Ward + Hausnet + Coda + King Lee + DJ Just 1 + Fingers Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $27.70.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 13

Mantra Collective 3rd Birthday - Feat: Enzo Siragusa + Seb Zito + Rich Nxt Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 2pm. $30.

CLUB NIGHTS Marco Polo - Feat: Infinity Ink Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 1pm. $12.40. Mo’Funk + Samrai + A-Tonez Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. Free. Roland Tings + Tornado Wallace Museum Of Contemporary Art, The Rocks. 5pm. $38.25. S.A.S.H By Day Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney. 1pm. $15. S.A.S.H By Night Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 8pm. $15. Straight Up Sundays - feat: Cool Hand Luke Middle Bar, Darlinghurst. 5pm. Free. Sun Sets - feat: Wolf + Lamb + Murat Kilic + Robbie Lowe + Mike Witcombe + Alan Thomas + Cassette + Alice Q Cafe Del Mar, Darling Harbour. 2pm. $25. Tim Boffa + Murray Lake Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 4pm. Free.

HIP HOP & R&B Big Daddy Kane Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $49.90.

MONDAY DECEMBER 14 CLUB NIGHTS Mashup Monday feat: Resident DJs + DJ Thieves + Recess + OTG + Chivalry + More Side Bar, Sydney. 8pm. Free.

Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 10pm. $22.90.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 10 Rudimental Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $67.80. Yelawolf Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $59.90.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 11 Bassic - Feat: Ricky Remedy + Noy + Hydraulix + Stalker + Chenzo + Autoclaws + Blackjack + Lennon Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $22.60. Dibby Dibby Soundsystem Feat: Suhana Lye Cliff Dive, Darlinghurst. 11pm. $5. Kowton Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 10pm. $10. Party In The Park Launch Party - Feat: Touch Sensitive + Elijah Scadden + Robustt + Two Much + Persian Rug + Buck Nite Mona Vale Hotel, Mona Vale. 9pm. $15.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 12 Goodgod & Good Night: The Final Dance

Milwaukee Banks Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $12. Pacha Sydney - Feat: Tigerlily + Jesabel + Disorder & Hookie + A-Tonez + I Am Wolfpack + Friendless + Fear Of Dawn + Jade Le Flay + A-Game + DJ Just 1 + Pro/Gram + E-Cats + Rocco + Wild Fox + Jay Bro + Gold Class + Trent Rackus Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 6:30pm. $38. Sam Paganini + Pig&Dan + Trena + Rouss + Louis Coste The Arthouse, Sydney. 9pm. $49.50. Something Else - Feat: Will Saul + Jay Haze/Fuckpony + Dilby + Dave Stuart + Lance Harrison + Simon Mann + U-Khan + Mark Craven + Tech No More + Wanos + Samsonite Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst. 9pm. $22. Stafford Brothers Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $23.70.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 13 Roland Tings + Tornado Wallace Museum Of Contemporary Art, The Rocks. 5pm. $38.25. S.A.S.H By Day Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney. 1pm. $15. Yelawolf

Luke Million photo by Sven Kovac

Kicks The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. Free. Rudimental Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $67.80. Rudimental DJs Marquee, Pyrmont. 8pm. $13.40. Wax Wars - Feat: Total Eclipse Jred + Ask + Broke + Mark N + Perplex + Kuya + Samrai

HIP HOP & R&B

Big Daddy Kane

HIP HOP & R&B

SUNDAY DECEMBER 13

Oxford Hotel, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $10.

10pm. $23.70. The Argyle’s Inaugural Femme Fatale Ladies’ Night The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. Free.

TUESDAY DECEMBER 15 CLUB NIGHTS Coyote Tuesdays The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. $10.

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Off The Record Dance and Electronica with Tyson Wray

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Monster, Kali, Preacha, Heavenly, Andy Webb, Karim + Daniel Lupica, Lovebombs, Adi Toohey, Annabelle Gaspar and L’Oasis on Sunday December 20 at Harpoon Harry. It kicks off at 3pm.

Kevin Saunderson

One of the finest names to emerge from Melbourne’s deep house scene, Francis Inferno Orchestra, has locked in a rare headline show in Sydney. I say ‘rare’ because the kid is so damn popular that he was forced to move to Europe due to the overwhelming requests for overseas bookings. Last week he dropped his newest single ‘Harmony’, which is hands down my favourite (technically) Australian track of the year. Catch him alongside Steven Sullivan, Kyle Kenn, U-Khan, Methodix, Loveless and Dave Stuart on Saturday January 16 at the Burdekin Hotel. ig news: Piknic Électronik is coming to Sydney this summer. First launched in Montreal in 2003 and expanding to Barcelona in 2012, the weekly outdoor event plays host to a specially curated lineup of DJs and producers. After a successful launch in Melbourne earlier this year, organisers have announced that in 2016 they’ll also be expanding up here. It’ll take place every Sunday afternoon from Sunday January 10 – Sunday March 27. Headlining the first party will be Detroit’s techno don Kevin Saunderson, while later in the month both Jeff Mills and Derrick May will be stopping by. The full lineup is coming on Tuesday January 5 and the venue is Sydney Park in St Peters. Stay tuned.

B

Well this is probably the best Christmas present ever. My all-time favourite producer, DJ and all-round greatest dude on the planet, Kenny Dixon Jr. AKA Moodymann, will drop by Sydney later this month. I’m not even going to try and list the Detroit techno and house kingpin’s accolades; the man is on a whole other playing field. He’ll be supported by Simon Caldwell, Stereogamous, Boogie

More tours of note: Get Physical head honcho DJ T. will visit us on Saturday December 26 at Jam Gallery; Friend Within will play at Chinese Laundry this Saturday December 12 (supported by a DJ set from Oscar Key Sung) and European house heavyweights Catz N Dogz will also hit Chinese Laundry on Saturday February 6. Tour rumours: sometime over March or April we’ll be seeing the return of the Sex Tags honchos DJ Sotofett and DJ Fett Burger. Reading material: the ‘best of’ end-ofyear lists are coming, and as usual, most of them are rubbish. The only one that’s been published so far that I’d recommend is the always on-point list by The Quietus. I bet you a pint that there’s some killer electronic albums on it that went under your radar. Best releases this week: as always, releases tend to slow down at this time of year, but I’m really digging the first compilation on new label Salt Mines’ SALT001 and Foreign’s BAROC005 (on BAROC).

Francis Inferno Orchestra

RECOMMENDED Kowton Goodgod Small Club

SATURDAY DECEMBER 12 Optimo Chippendale Hotel Friend Within Chinese Laundry Will Saul, Jay Haze Burdekin Hotel SHXCXCHCXSH Bridge Hotel

SUNDAY DECEMBER 13 Wolf + Lamb Café del Mar

SATURDAY DECEMBER 19 Floating Points

Oxford Art Factory Petar Dundov Burdekin Hotel

SATURDAY JANUARY 2 Machinedrum Goodgod Small Club

Worthy, Ardalan Chinese Laundry

SUNDAY JANUARY 3 Mala Civic Underground

tINI Café del Mar

Seven Davis Jr Chippendale Hotel

SUNDAY DECEMBER 20

SATURDAY JANUARY 16

Moodymann Harpoon Harry

SATURDAY DECEMBER 26 DJ T. Jam Gallery

FRIDAY JANUARY 1

Francis Inferno Orchestra Burkedin Hotel

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 6 Catz N Dogz Chinese Laundry

TUESDAY MARCH 15

Finnebassen, Lovebirds, Bjorn Wilke + more St. Germain Café del Mar Enmore Theatre

nova red room: stereosonic edition

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FRIDAY DECEMBER 11

02:12:15 :: Marquee Sydney :: The Star, Pirrama Rd Pyrmont 9657 7737

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