Brag#681

ISSUE NO. 681 SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

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

MUSIC, FILM, THEATRE + MORE

INSIDE This Week

FEELINGS COME FIRST ME AT L O A F

Staying brave in a brutal industry.

D AV ID H A S SEL HOF F The Baywatch star on the dangers of hot tubs.

BER N A R D FA NNING

A legendary frontman on the project that his given him life.

SCABZ

On getting lost, making mistakes and finding a new way.

Plus

A MID SUMMER NIGH T 'S DR E A M M AT T BER RY BL A CK MOUN TA IN T HE CO AT H A NGER S A ND MUCH MOR E

BE ACH

SL ANG

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RENAE TITCHMARSH

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youthful taps into the Replacements, energy of the h the fuzzalbeit throug oney or drench of Mudh Dinosaur Jr.“

“It

Australia Rolling Stone

“Sometimes

album titles really do say it all: A Loud Bash Of Teenage Feelings, the second fulllength album by the Philly rock band Beach Slang, pulls off exactly what it promises.“ NPR

HEAD TO artistfirst.com.au FOR AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE ‘TOXIC YELLOW’ VINYL

NEW ALBUM OUT SEPTEMBER 23

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DEAP VALLY FEMEJISM “Route one thrill-seeking and badass bitching” Q “Our favourite Californian rockers return sounding more fiery than ever” NME OUT NOW thebrag.com

GIRAFFE TOUNGE ORCHESTRA BROKEN LINES The rock supergroup featuring William DuVall (Alice In Chains), Ben Weinman of (Dillinger Escape Plan), Brent Hinds of (Mastodon), Pete Griffin of (Dethklok) and Thomas Pridgen of (The Mars Volta).

OUT SEPTEMBER 23

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THE SWORD LOW COUNTRY Following 9 months of touring in support of the critically acclaimed album, High Country, The Sword return with a stripped down acoustic presentation of the High Country songs.

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music news welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Alex Chetverikov, Emily Norton and Anna Wilson

five things WITH

RACKETT

In Bed With Madonna from which we take our preshow ritual and Suicide and The Stooges from whom we take our attitude to the stage and the crowd. The Dead Kennedys inspire the passionate attack on the drum kit. Bundaberg community radio gave us the initial pre-pubescent jingles.

The Spice Girls in general.

Frank Zappa for the genius and sheer versatility of his music.

Growing Up Rackett were collectively 1. raised on a stream of singing competitions, dance productions, school assembly performances, elaborate

Christmas pantomimes, heavy metal bands and country music musters.

Inspirations include 2. Inspirations

The Band Rackett are four superhuman babes sent to Earth to crank the volume to eleven and blow up your speakers. We are on a mission to spike your

3.

expectations with surprise, to subvert stereotypes and catalyse together a musical molotov cocktail so volatile that absolutely anything is possible. The band was formed at the start of 2016 and is made up of Bec Callander on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Jessamyn Jean on lead guitar, Ally Gaven on bass and Skarlett Saramore on drums.

The Music If Black Sabbath and 4. the Spice Girls had a love child, it would be Rackett.

We exist not so much as a muddy blend of each, but rather as some kind of teenage Jekyll and Hyde.

We provoke people and want them to throw their phones aside and run amok. Expect to have as much fun as is humanely, possibly without resorting to violence. We are yet to get the point of crowd surfing, but when we do expect to see us on surfboards. We have just recently punctured Australian eardrums with our debut single. ‘Bats’ was released around six weeks ago and has been played on triple j’s Home and Hosed and Sydney’s FBi as well as being featured online by several major local music blogs. An EP produced by Dave Hammer at Def Wolf Studios is set for release at the start of next year.

Music, Right Here, Right Now 5.

The Sydney music scene has

drawn Rackett into its bosom as it would a stray perisan cat – so far that mostly means a lot of back-scratching and free food. At our debut single launch party at Brighton Up Bar there were bodies clambering up onto every conceivable surface – speaker stacks, tables, amps and chairs. We perceived this as great enthusiasm, however it may be more related to the fact that the venue was well over capacity.

What: Rackett Where: Selina’s When: Thursday September 29

The Brothers Comatose

Mike Patton

MANAGING EDITOR: Chris Martin chris@thebrag.com 02 9212 4322 DEPUTY EDITOR: Joseph Earp ONLINE EDITOR: James Di Fabrizio SUB-EDITOR: Sam Caldwell STAFF WRITERS: Joseph Earp, Adam Norris, Augustus Welby NEWS: Alex Chetverikov, James Di Fabrizio, Anna Wilson ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant PHOTOGRAPHERS: Katrina Clarke, Ashley Mar COVER PHOTO: Ian Laidlaw ADVERTISING: 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)

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Nat Amat, Prudence Clark, Tom Clift, Anita Connors, Christie Eliezer, Emily Gibb, Tegan Jones, Lachlan Kanoniuk, Sarah Little, Emily Meller, David Molloy, Annie Murney, Adam Norris, George Nott, Daniel Prior, Tegan Reeves, 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 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: Kris Furst: 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.

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HOUSE AT THE HOUSE

One of Australia's most beloved bands, Crowded House, are reuniting in order to play a long overdue set of 'encore' shows.

The gigs will see the band blast through a whole host of their hits, dropping soft-rock banger after soft-rock banger. It's all going down at the Sydney Opera House on Friday November 25 and Saturday November 26, and tickets are bound to go like hot cakes, so do make sure you save the date(s).

FRINGE IN A FOLK

Ever wondered what a festival within a festival would look like? Well, wonder no more. Head on into FringeWorld while you’re attending the National Folk Festival and see for yourself. The event will be full of surprises, including a circus arena and new concert venue, The Borderland, which will showcase some cool and quirky content. Program planning is now underway and with concepts like ‘Flip! The Other Side of Folk’, the Human Chess Challenge, Down the Rabbit Hole, Big Kids’ Carnival, Choose Your Own Adventure and The Night of Endless Possibilities already announced, patrons should prepare to be unprepared and expect the unexpected.

The National Folk Festival will run from Thursday April 13 - Monday April 17 2017.

COMA COMA CHAMELEON

Wake up: The Brothers Comatose are coming! The San Franciscan five-piece are coming back to life and visiting good ole Down Under this Spring for a national tour. Featuring brothers Ben and Alex Morrison on guitar, banjo and lead vocal duties, bassmaster Gio Benedetti, fiddle player Philip Brezina and Ryan Avellone on mandolin, these chaps are heading to Sydney for a special sideshow. They’ll perform on Thursday September 29 at Django Bar.

TURTLE CLUB

The new Bellingen Turtle Fest is a unique ecoconcious festival aimed at raising awareness and funding to support the local Bellingen River snapping turtles. Bellingen Turtle Fest’s inaugural three-day event will play host to an eclectic lineup of musical acts showcasing regional, touring and crowd favourites in an intimate stage setting. Local acts at the camping festival include hippy chic group Vanishing Shapes, Newcastle’s The Crooked Fiddle Band, Bears With Guns, Abby Dobson and many others. With a jam-packed lineup of art, music, markets and inspirational kid-friendly activities, the festival’s mascot “George” and his friends will surely benefit from such a fun and environmentally-friendly cause. Go festival camping at the Bellingen Showgrounds and help save the turtles from Friday September 30 to Sunday October 2.

HORSE TAMER

Patti Smith and her band will perform in Sydney for a hotly anticipated Bluesfest sideshow. It has been eight years since ‘the godmother of punk’ last toured Australia, and nearly 41 years since the release of her first and most celebrated recording Horses. She’ll be performing the record in its entirety for the special show.

Catch it at the State Theatre Sunday on Sunday April 9.

DZ Deathrays

DEATH TO THE RAYS

Fresh from a chaotic year that saw them supporting Violent Soho on their mammoth national tour, playing Groovin The Moo, and touring North America DZ Deathrays are back, unleashing new single ‘Pollyanna’ and unveiling a whole heap of new Australian tour dates scheduled for December. With their third album in the works for 2017, along with major tours around the globe to see out 2016, the band are sure to show off their energy bursts in the live setting. DZ Deathrays will play the Factory Theatre on Thursday December 15. xxx

@TheBrag

MOFO Festival has unleashed the first instalment of its 2017 program. As well as playing a headline Sydney show, all-time legends Puscifer will be getting down at the Museum of Old and New Art. Adding to the hype comes t t ma - the latest project from Faith No More frontman Mike Patton in his only Australian show. “Mike Patton and Maynard James Keenan [of Puscifer] are both visionaries and serial musical adventurers,” said MoFO curator Brian Ritchie. “They are just the tip of the iceberg of avant-garde musicians crashing into Tasmania in January.”

MOFO 2017 will run from Wednesday January 18 - Sunday January 22 in venues around Hobart, and Friday January 20 – Sunday January 22 onsite at MONA.

xxx

AWESOME INTERNS: Anna Wilson, Emily Norton, Alex Chetverikov, Angela Antenero

PARTY FOR PATTON

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live & local

free stuff

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Alex Chetverikov, Anna Wilson and Emily Norton

five things WITH

BELLINGEN TURTLE FEST

ISAAC CHAMBERLAIN FROM BAD PONY That’s all I listened to for at least a year.

the acoustic that he got for his 21st birthday and we started learning from scratch together.

Your Band Bad Pony have been together for three years, but we’ve played in different bands with varying lineups for nearly 10 years now: that’s how we all met. I think our strength as a group comes from our experience playing different styles and different instruments. For example, our singer used to be a drummer, our bassist used to be a lead singer/ guitarist, our guitarists moonlight as drummers and our keyboardist used to be a lead singer.

Inspirations My first influences were 2. from my parents’ records. There

The Music You Make Our music has been 4. compared to the likes of Foals,

3.

Growing Up I grew up in a musical family.

1.

We had a piano in the living room

was constantly music playing in the house, mainly The Beatles, Crowded House, Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson. However, my most significant inspiration came when Silverchair released Diorama.

Two Door Cinema Club and Last Dinosaurs. We definitely have a focus on catchy hooks, dancey rhythms and big synths. We like to produce work that people appreciate the more they hear and

don’t grow tired of after a few listens.

Music, Right Here, Right Now 5.

The live music scene in Sydney

is certainly in a bit of a strange state at the moment, what with so many iconic venues closing down and the limitations enforced by the lockout laws. However, there are still plenty of great venues and people campaigning for the scene.

Leadbelly, Oxford Art Factory, The Bank Hotel, Brighton Up Bar and Moonshine are always putting on great shows with talented acts.

We have seen some amazing bands live, such as Wolves In Fashion and Swim Season – they both absolutely kill it, so I would urge people to get out there and catch those guys.

What: Bad Pony Where: Leadbelly Newtown When: Thursday September 29

The folks at Belligen Turtle Fest sure know how to impress. Not only have they dropped one of the lineups of the year, an incredible string of artists that includes rising talent Emily Wurramara, Mark Seymour And The Undertow, Katie Noonan and the ever-enigmatic pop powerhouse Woodes, they’re also raising funds for an incredible cause. The eco-conscious festival has been designed to raise awareness and funds for the protection of the snapping river turtle, hence the Emily Wurramara event’s ever so snappy name.

We have one double pass to give away. The double pass ensures you get full access to the festival for three days, and camping space, so it’s a doozy of a prize.

Head over to thebrag.com/ freeshit to enter.

xxx xx

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Betty & Oswald

Xxx

that I would occasionally play around with, but I didn’t really get into to it. At the age of 12, I travelled to Tasmania to meet some relatives for the first time and watched them jam on guitars, drums, didgeridoos and weird percussive bits and pieces for hours. I became obsessed with the acoustic guitar.

When we got home, dad pulled out

head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

Thanks to the visionaries (ahem) behind the King Street Crawl, Sydneysiders can look forward to a second instalment of the Visions Circuit absolutely free. Visions is pulling UK buzz band Telegram over for a three-day east coast tour of totally free headlining shows. Showcasing songs from their debut album, Operator, the band will be joined on the Sydney stretch by Matrick Jones and Deep Sea Arcade DJs. Visions has a solid reputation in Sydney for its regular club nights and free music events, with past highlights including sets from The Preatures, Montaigne and after-parties for the DMA’s. Catch Telegram at Waywards, Newtown on Friday October 7.

SO MUCH MUSIC

Australian Music Week is shaping up to be yet another exciting, informative series of events. Among the many shows included is the HiFi Days Festival to be held at Cronulla Park on Sunday November 6, with The Delta Riggs and Jeff Martin of The Tea Party playing alongside Terepai Richmond, Bootleg Rascal, Letters To Lions and Betty & Oswald. Cronulla’s Brass Monkey will present a special screening and live soundtrack performance of new blues music retrospective I Am Blues starring Ray Beadle and Chris Cain held on Saturday November 5. Along with all of this, the Music Week’s schedule of industry panel events and information sessions will offer a great opportunity for hopefuls and emerging musicians to have hands-on experience with a range of professionals. It all kicks off on Friday November 18 and runs through till Tuesday November 22 at various venues across Cronulla.

SEE YOU AT SELINA’S

Selina’s, the renowned live music venue, is coming back to the Coogee Bay Hotel for a new start. Renowned as one of Sydney’s most cherished and lasting live music venues, the venue has reopened its doors to embrace a new generation of live bands and live music. The venue had closed in 2015 to undergo extensive renovations.

Having hosted the likes of INXS, Midnight Oil, Nirvana, Rose Tattoo, Cold Chisel, Divinyls, Crowded House and many more in its several decades of tenure, its return is set to inject some new life into Sydney’s

I’M A RABBIT

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Twin Fires

live music circuit. Selina’s hosts live music every Thursday. Rackett will be one of the first bands to christen the venue: they’ll be playing Thursday September 29.

WE’RE ALL GOING ON A…

THE NUCLEAR AGE

Coming off the back of new single ‘Who Made You God?’, Brisbane outfi t The Bear Hunt have announced a string of shows on the East Coast, joined by the likes of Pretty City, Claws & Organs, The Aves, and many more. The indie-rock group’s new single follows up last year’s debut

Laura Jean

album To Be Honest, with a new EP slated for release in early 2017. Drawing to mind the fuzzy melodies of ‘90s alternative rock, they’ve shared the stage with Built to Spill, Screamfeeder, Budd and many others, along with their appearance at this year’s Teneriffe Festival. You can catch The Bear Hunt on Friday September 30 at Vic On The Park.

They’ll play another gig at Glebe’s The Record Crate on Sunday October 2.

BURNING BRIGHT

Twin Fires are about to celebrate the launch of their new EP with an exclusive home show. To mark the release of their new EP This Time I’m Fine, the Sydney locals will play a special launch show this month.

Their EP has been described as “Kurt Vile crossed with rollicking ‘80s Springsteen” by [V] Music, and shows off the group’s immaculate skills as songwriters. Head on down to Brighton Up Bar on Thursday September 22 for the live launch.

US thrash lords Nuclear Assault are set to make their debut on Australian shores - just in time for them to hang up their guitars for good. With a 30-year legacy behind them, the band are calling it a day. The group are best known for their debut, 1986’s Game Over, a record that cemented the band’s immediate global reputation. Decades later, they’re seen as a widely infl uential cornerstone of the genre they helped defi ne. They’ll hit Manning Bar on Friday February 24 2017.

FRONTIER PSYCHIATRISTS

Ole mates The Avalanches have fi nally announced a string of headlining shows. The celebrated band are of course renowned for their debut Since I Left You but they are also winning ample acclaim for this year’s Wildfl ower, a gauche, neon-lit shot of style that contains the beloved ‘Frankie Sinatra’.

The band will be hitting up the Enmore Theatre, a perfect not too big, not so small that it’ll sell out in half-a-second kind of venue. The hit the esteemed halls of the Theatre on Thursday January 5. thebrag.com

Twin Fires photo by Ian Laidlaw

Revered Melbourne songwriter Laura Jean is heading out on tour celebrating a special milestone. Her brilliant debut, Our Swan Song, is turning ten and will be getting reissued with a limited vinyl run. Jean will also be performing an overview of her decade-long career, backed by the Letter String Quartet and drummer David Williams (Augie March). She’ll be joined on the tour by Georgia Mulligan and Nadia Reid. It all goes down on Friday November 18 at Newtown Socal Club.

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Industrial Strength Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer

THINGS WE HEAR • Which venue operator is having words with another over how similar the name of a planned new venue is to his?

• Which manager went out for a quiet birthday dinner with his wife, when the curtain opened and 30 industry guests serenaded him with ‘You Are My Sunshine’?

• Will Keith Urban join Sting, The Living End and Vance Joy at the AFL Grand Final?

• Are Rick Parfitt of Status Quo’s touring days over, after the 67-year old’s massive heart attack in June?

• Was Iggy Azalea paid $250,000 by Google for its corporate gig at the Hordern Pavilion last week? She was in the country for just 24 hours.

• How true rumours that Beyonce’s famous line “Becky with the good hair” is singer Rita Ora? • Are Lady Gaga and Madonna

NEW SIGNINGS #1: UNIVERSAL & SONS OF THE EAST

Universal Music Publishing Australia has signed Northern Beaches band Sons of the East, made up of Nic Johnston, Daniel Wallage and Jack Rollins. A new single ‘Lost Cause’ is just out. The publisher’s vice president of creative, Arwen Curson, said, “I love, love LOVE these guys. I’ve been subconsciously humming their tunes since the first play.”

NEW SIGNINGS #2: SWEAT IT OUT & ANNA LUNOE

DJ/producer and Beats 1 Hyperhouse host Anna Lunoe is now with Sweat It Out, releasing new single ‘Radioactive’. The deal comes just as she heads back on a North American tour from mid-October with Nina Las Vegas and others.

NEW SIGNINGS: NICHE & RETIREE

Niche Productions has added Sydney tropical

collaborating? And Taylor Swift and Kesha too?

• The latest Australian digital radio ratings put its total audience at 3.6 million. Nova’s Coles radio was most listened to (with 151k), SCA’s Buddha (139k) and ARN’s 80s iHeartRadio (119k).

• Kim Kardashian admits taking 6,000 selfies on a four-day Mexico trip.

• According to NSW Police, out of 25,000 at Defqon.1 last Saturday in Penrith, 77 got arrested for drugs, eight for drink driving and 44 for driving under influence of drugs. 200 needed drug and heat medical assistance (six hospitalised), • In a move to get more punters and venue owners to switch to smaller bars, a report by NSW Liquor and Gaming review recommends that smaller bars be allowed to expand capacity from 60 to 100 to make them more financially viable, get new applications approved quicker by local councils, and allow parents to bring their children in during special events and

pop band Retiree to its artist agency roster.

They will play a show at Melbourne’s Boney to celebrate new single ‘Continental’ – the first from a batch of songs they wrote in a beach house. Their debut self-titled EP went out on dance imprint Plastic World, and last year’s ‘This Place’ was championed by London tastemakers Rhythm Section.

STUDY: MUSIC VIDEOS PROMOTE BOOZE ABUSE Alcohol glamorised in music videos can lead to serious problems for some viewers in later life. A study by the University of Nottingham in England of 49 Top 40 videos featured content that glamorised drinking and encouraged teens to binge drink and abuse alcohol. The glamorising of boozing in videos was also linked to the objectification of women and the use sexual imagery or lyrics. “Among young people particularly, binge drinking is also linked to criminal behaviour, unprotected sex, progression to illegal drug use and is a risk

functions.

• November’s RnB Fridays Live tour sold out in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in hours, while Perth had to move to a larger venue. The tour is based on the hit radio show, with Nelly, TLC, Mya, 112, Montell Jordan and Blackstreet.

• Statistics from YouTube say it’s the world’s largest music platform with 82 per cent of its 1.3 billion users using it to listen to music.

• Nirvana’s official Facebook page had to shut down the latest conspiracy rumours: that Kurt Cobain did not kill himself in 1994 but is living in Peru as singer Ramiro Saavedra. Fans got excited when someone discovered Ram performing ‘Come As You Are’ on a Spanish TV show (only four years after the clip was uploaded) and said they looked very similar even disguising himself as a right hand guitarist. Well, have YOU seen a photo of them together?

• Spotify has now hit 40 million subscribers.

Apple Music has 17 million after a year, and Tidal is at 14 million.

factor for alcohol dependence in later life,” said the university’s Joanne Cranwell.

LIVE NATION & FLIGHT CENTRE STRIKE DEAL

A multi-year deal with Live Nation Australia/ NZ makes Flight Centre the promoter’s official concert travel package partner. Fans from both countries attending LN concerts and events can combine airfares, accommodation and car hire with preferential access to tickets and VIP concert experiences.

SKEPTA BAGS MERCURY PRIZE, AXES OZ TOUR

Grime star Skepta took out the UK’s the £25,000 Mercury Prize with Konnichiwa, voted out of 223 entries. David Bowie was expected to win but thankfully judges went for the most creative album rather than opt for the sentimental vote. Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker said, “We as a jury decided that if David Bowie was looking down on the Hammersmith Apollo tonight, let’s face it, maybe he is ... he would want the 2016 Hyundai Mercury Prize to go Skepta.” The final six were also down to Lauren Mvula, Radiohead, Michael Kiwanuka and The 1975. Unfortunately, Skepta’s four-date Australian tour, set to start last weekend, was cancelled a day before.

The promoter is hoping to reschedule but tickets are being refunded.

VENUES #1: NEW GM FOR PALACE HAYMARKET

Paul Walker is the new GM of Palace Hotel Haymarket. His 17-year career in hospitality has included running the Cleveland Inn in Surry Hills, and being licensee of the Harlequin Inn in Pyrmont. Walker emphasises that live music on the weekends remains a strong component for the venue.

VENUES #2: NEW OWNER FOR THE COLOMBIAN

The Colombian Hotel, the Oxford Street hub for the LGBTQI community, has changed hands. Iris Capital took it over from David McHugh who moved overseas, reportedly paying $15 million.

VENUES #3: ICONIC PACHA BRAND FOR SALE?

Iconic international nightclub brand Pacha is reportedly up for sale, after 49 years of service, for $562 million. According to Spanish publication Cronica Global, the problem is that Pacha founder Ricardo Urgell is pissed off with the way that Ibiza’s clubbing rulers the Mutates family has turned it into a highly commercial expensive place, and that it doesn’t reconcile with his own ideals for Pacha.

VENUES #4: ARMIDALE CLUB BURNS DOWN

One of Armidale’s best live music venues, The Armidale Club in Beardy Street, burned down last Friday in what is being called a “suspicious fire”. 25 fireys battled the blaze.

Owners Kate Richards and Allen St James, who renovated the venue last year, were about to open a huge beer garden before summer.

VENUES #5: EVENTBRITE BOOKING NEWTOWN S.C.

From next month, US-based self-service ticketing platform Eventbrite’s Australian operations will take over ticketing from Ticketscout for Newtown Social Club, as well

10 :: BRAG :: 681 :: 21:09:16

Lifelines Ill: Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago in rehab for 30 days for alcohol/drug issues.

Sued: A$AP Rocky by the landlord of his New York apartment. The rapper made changes – including turning a walk-in wardrobe into a home recording studio, and removing a chandelier and security camera. He promised to restore them when he left, but the landlord said he didn’t, and is demanding $100,000.

In Court: Gold Coast nightclub operator Jamie Pickering lost an appeal bid to overturn a conviction for or supplying cocaine to two teenage girls at a party.

In Court: boyfriend Nick Gordon was found responsible for the wrongful death of Whitney Houston’s daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown.

Died: Chris Stone, who co-founded the legendary Record Plant studios in New York 50 years ago, aged 81, after a heart attack and massive stroke. Such classics as Stevie Wonder’s Songs In The Key Of Life, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and The Eagles’ Hotel California were among those made there, as well as works

by Jimi Hendrix, Prince and Bruce Springsteen. Stone sold the studio in 1989 to Beatles producer George Martin/Chrysalis Records. as its Melbourne sister venues The Corner Hotel and Northcote Social Club.

ANOTHER KEEP SYDNEY OPEN RALLY

Recommendation by the Callinan Review that the lockout be “relaxed” by 30 minutes didn’t impress. Keep Sydney Open scoffs “it missed the point”. It’s calling another rally on Sunday October 9 from 12pm - 5pm. Coordinator Tyson Koh says, “We shouldn’t have to settle for lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-key policy solutions when only an hour’s flight away Melbourne has created a safe and dynamic nightlife with a cool-headed, smart policy.” The last rally drew 15,000. The Australian Hotels Association NSW director of liquor and policing John Green was disappointed the 1.30am lockout was not to be lifted. “We don’t support blanket measures that unfairly penalise many safe, well-run venues with a proven track record of compliance.”

SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS BACK IN SYDNEY The 2016 Screen Music Awards are back in Sydney, held at the City Recital Hall on Tuesday November 8. Organised by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers, it is hosted again by The Chaser’s Chris Taylor and Andrew Hansen, with music direction by Emmy Award-winning screen composer Ashley Irwin. The 12 categories include compositions for docos, short films, mini-series, advertising, children’s television and feature film scores.

TRIPLE J HOTTEST 100 PARTNERS WITH AIME Although triple j is not moving the Hottest 100 from Australia/ Survival Day at least for another year, it is teaming up again with the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) for the Hottest 100. Content director Ollie Wards explains, “In partnering with AIME we hope to raise money to empower Indigenous young people and also acknowledge and discuss all perspectives of 26 January.” Last year, triple j listeners raised over $100,000 for AIME, a mentoring program supporting Indigenous kids through high school and into university, training and employment with a completion rate the same as the average Australian child – aiming to close the gap in educational outcomes.

MIDDLETON CALLING FOR VOICES

Former Powderfinger guitarist Darren Middleton, as part of recording a track called ‘Lightning Halos’, is looking for voices around the world to digitally be part of a choir. The track is part of an EP due in November. Since he began the campaign two weeks ago, 78,000 viewed the video and “hundreds” of submissions. Go to darrenmiddleton.com.

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BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG

I

t’s never too late to pursue your dreams. Beloved character actor Kathryn Joosten didn’t even consider fi lm until she was 42. World-famous chef Julia Child had her first cookbook published at the age of 50. And James Alex became an overnight success at the helm of the acclaimed Beach Slang at the ripe old not-so-rock‘n’roll age of 39.

“What’s so funny is that my first band worked relentlessly to get to the point that we did,” he begins, chatting away in the lobby of an inner-city Sydney hotel.

“With Beach Slang, we were there almost as soon as we released our first EP. That first run of shows had kids singing along immediately. We were just staring at one another, wondering how this all happened.

I’ve had people ask what the key was to the immediate success of the band – I’m thinking, ‘Man, if I knew, you think I would have spent all those years kicking around?’ There’s no science to these things. It’s purely just rock‘n’roll magic.”

Back in July, Beach Slang came, saw and conquered Australia on a whirlwind visit as part of Splendour In The Grass, alongside acts like The Avalanches, touring partners Spring King and one of Alex’s all-time favourite bands, The Cure.

Although it’s been barely a year since the release of the band’s debut The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us, the world is already staring down the barrel of a follow-up.

It’s entitled A Loud Bash Of Teenage Feelings, and it sees Alex and his band getting their heads around everything that has happened in the 12 months following Things’ release. Much of the record was written while on tour, something that Alex had never really considered previously.

“I didn’t know that I had the skill set to write on the road,” he says. “It felt like a really cool challenge, especially considering we were up against the ‘sophomore slump’, as so many put it. It was a little daring and – to be completely honest – probably a little dumb. I think it brought out something special in this record that wouldn’t exist if I was just writing the same way that I wrote the last record – at home, alone in my bedroom. I was in a different city every day, meeting new people every day. I was getting new energy all the time.

I may be romanticising it a bit, but it felt very Jack Kerouac. It became second nature to write this way.”

Beach Slang photo by Ian Laidlaw

Alex got his start as a teen in pop-punk band Weston. The band achieved cult status, but never once received the accolades of their peers. Upon their quiet implosion, Alex drifted away from music entirely before trying out some song ideas with a couple of friends. The rest, as they, say is history – now 42, Alex is finally seeing the fruits of his labour after over 20 years of work. It’s gotten to the point where fans across the world are now sending Alex photos of their Beach Slang tattoos, with lyrics of his marked on the arms, legs and chests of his truest devotees.

“My first reaction was to think, ‘Why would anyone get a tattoo of my lyrics?’’ he says.

“I mean, you get Jawbreaker lyric tattoos.

You get Smiths lyric tattoos. That’s the kind of level I was thinking at. It was so hard to see myself on the other side of that. It’s so hard to describe... words mean everything to me. I wanted to be a writer long before I ever wanted to be a

thebrag.com

Earlier in 2016, it was uncertain if Beach Slang would even make it to Splendour, let alone to their next album: a show in Salt Lake City ended with thrown guitars, temper tantrums and an onstage proclamation that the audience had just witnessed the fi nal Beach Slang show. Within a day, Alex addressed the rumours head-on and assured fans that the band would continue. Several months removed from the fact, he sees the band’s foundation as solid – he’s adamant about not fucking this whole thing up.

“I feel like I should talk more about how calm things are in the band right now,” he says with a nervous laugh. “It was a lesson learned for me that I didn’t think our onstage wobble mattered, and we all woke up the next day to all of this press and all of these messages. I didn’t think we were on that level at all. My manager said to me, ‘You have no idea how big your band is getting, do you?’ and my honest reply was, ‘Absolutely not.’

“We probably just thought we were The Kinks, and that we could get away with having a fi ght onstage. We’re trying to proceed in a way that isn’t so alarmist.

We’re thinking things through a little more.” Alex looks around the room, still in a haze of jetlag and no-sleep delirium, yet with a sense of clarity as he imparts his fi nal words. “There’s no desire for us to stop.” He smiles, and succinctly adds: “There’s no reason to.”

What: A Loud Bash Of Teenage Feelings out now through Cooking Vinyl

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Alex speaks about the band almost as though it is a separate entity from himself, perhaps because it represents that oh-so-rare second chance, and rarer still, one that ended up paying off in dividends. Although Feelings is primarily focused on the stories of the kids coming to Beach Slang shows rather than Alex himself, it also touches on the ways Alex sees himself in them and what they’re going through. It’s particularly pertinent considering Beach Slang is still a group in its relative infancy, and even a band of grown men are not exempt from maturing in the public eye. “Rock’n’roll is a crazy, confusing thing,” says Alex.

“I’VE TRIED DOING OTHER STUFF, MAN: THIS IS THE ONLY THING I’M ANY GOOD AT. I JUST WANT TO PLAY SONGS WITH MY FRIENDS AND HOPE THAT OUR FRIENDS TURN UP AT SHOWS.”

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musician. To see someone commit what I’ve written to their body... It’s the biggest knockout punch in the absolute best way. I cannot thank those people enough, I really can’t. Something I’ve done has connected in some way that it’s permanently a part of you... it’s pretty right on, man.”

“When you’re a band starting out with something going for you, you’re fi guring out the whole thing as it goes along.

You’re gonna make mistakes, and you’re gonna slip up – but you’re also going to have these moments of triumph.

Everything is going to happen, and that’s what we’re in. We had no expectations when this band started. Now that it’s getting somewhere, it gets a little clumsy. You’re going to have moments where it falls apart. The test is when bands push through that. You have to ask yourself if what you’re doing means enough to fi ght back – to fi ght the good fi ght, as it were.

I’ve tried doing other stuff, man: this is the only thing I’m any good at. I just want to play songs with my friends and hope that our friends turn up at shows.”

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BRAG :: 681 :: 21:09:16 :: 13

Flyying Colours Colourful Minds By Natalie Rogers

“I WANTED TO CAPTURE WHAT WE SOUND LIKE LIVE – JUST THE FOUR OF US PLAYING TOGETHER IN A ROOM.”

F

lyying Colours’ lead singer Brodie J Brümmer and guitarist Gemma O’Connor go back a long way. “It feels like we’ve known each other forever,” Brümmer says. “We went to high school together. Gemma gave me my first joint, and you can’t really beat that.”

“This album is almost like the answer to our pervious EPs,” Brümmer says. “It’s been really nice to finally put the nail in the coffin. We’ve been working on these songs for a while, and I feel a great sense of relief to have this album out there. It was like a slab of concrete that had been tied to my back was lifted off, and I could play guitar for enjoyment without purpose again.”

Mindfulness is a heady mix of psych, indie, grunge and shoegaze, and features bassist Melanie Barbaro and drummer Andy Lloyd Russel for the first time. “Mel and Andy joined us just before we went over to Europe last year.

It’s been an adventure working out exactly what we sound like together – but one of the best things about being in a band is the fact that you

Flyying Colours photo by Bianca Milani

Nonetheless, it’s not just the casual sharing of drugs that has defined the pair’s relationship: they have also spent the last half decade making incredible music together. Since their formation in the spring of 2011, the band have released two EPs (Flyying Colours, 2011, and Roygbiv, 2015) to critical acclaim, and this month sees the release of their debut fulllength, Mindfulness.

Scabz Shit No More By Joseph Earp

Given the scuzzy, skulking nature of their music, it feels fitting that they formed almost on a whim. “We formed Scabz at Q Bar one night when we realised that we all played instruments and should start a band,” says lead singer and guitarist Siobhan Poynton. “We started rattling around odd song ideas and promised to all wake up early the next day to start working on them. We enlisted our good mate Naomi right there and then to be our manager, ’cause we wanted a lift with all the gear and she is the only person we know with a car. About six months later we finally had a jam.”

Though the trio haven’t been making music for very long, they have known each other for some time, and the band’s rhythm section go way back.

Scabz’s drummer Lara Chrystal and bassist Loz Wylie started playing together in high school. “Sometimes they bring out old pictures for a laugh, and then realise they still have the same hair cuts and I laugh,” says Poynton. “It’s a great time.”

Perhaps also as should be expected, the band have a singularly unstructured approach to writing material, and they work in a free-form fashion. “Most of the tracks I write and finish and then take to Loz and we figure out a sick bassline,” says Poynton. “Then we play it for Larz [Chrystal] at rehearsal and she gets the feel and comes up with a beat. A few tracks are born out of think tanks, when we just banter at the pub and

14 :: BRAG :: 681 :: 21:09:16

just chuck it over a riff. There are so many 10-second think tank bangers yet to be released into the wild.”

“Bangers” being the operative word.

One of Scabz’s great strengths lies in their ability to fashion singularly catchy melodies, albeit the kind that will have you singing lyrics about beer and the woes of falling in love with straight girls rather than anything more radio-ready. Indeed, one of their finest works to date, ‘Beach Song’, pivots on an ear-wormy hook, even as Poynton sings lyrics about crushing skulls and bones over the top. “‘Beach Song’ was pretty much the first song we ever finished,” she explains. “I wanted to write a fun, surfy song, then I figured I may as well just sing about the beach and kinda made the lyrics up on the spot by taking cues from words and stuff around Lara’s room. [The song] kinda ended up coming super true a year later, so maybe I’m a prophet or something.”

Even if ‘Beach Song’ might feature a set of abstract lyrics, Scabz are a band rooted in realities, and their song ‘Locked Out’ directly references the restrictions strangling our fair city’s lineup – Poynton often introduces the song by dedicating it to “the dishonourable Mike Baird”.

“Watching venues like Q Bar where we started dancing to Blink-182 at four in the morning disappear is fucked,” she says. “But the most fucked part is this inflated sense of power the police have been given. Anyone having fun is a criminal. If you work in a bar you are a delinquent. And mandatory sentencing can get fucked.”

So far the band have only released one clip, a distinctly lo-fi video for ‘Beach Song’ that features the band stuffing themselves at a particularly gloomy looking Sizzler. But though

the piece perfectly complements the spasmodic pleasures of the track, it was only conceived of after another idea fell through.

“We actually had a totally different plan for the film clip,” Poynton says.

“Lara and one of our mates had planned this hectic synchronised swimming video. We woke up on Saturday after all getting belted the night before, roped in manager Naomi to drive us to the location and set out on the road beyond Newtown. I called our friend who was the choreographer and whose house we were meant to be filming at as we aimlessly drove around Kogarah trying to look for the house.

Eventually we pulled into Sizzler, and were just like, ‘Fuck it, let’s film ourselves eating heaps of food instead.’”

Scabz are nothing if not a group ready to roll with the punches then, and they’re evidently on the path for spectacular things, as their live shows well indicate. “I reckon our best gig would be a tie between King Street Crawl and our first ever show in the ’Gong at Rad Bar,” says Poynton when asked to pick a favourite show.

“King Street Crawl was awesome ’cause it was so packed, and I’m pretty sure every person we know was there having a laugh and a beer. Rad Bar was great ’cause this guy said we were the best band in Wollongong.” There you go then.

Scabz have transformed from the shittest band in Newtown into the best band in Wollongong. How’s that for a story arc?

What: Coven Presents: Howlers With: Scabz, Billie Rose, Imperial Broads When: Thursday September 22 Where: Red Rattler

Scabz photo by Brianna Elton

F

or the self-proclaimed “shittest band in Newtown” Scabz sure are not shit. The group haven’t as much emerged onto the Sydney scene as they have exploded into it, dropping fuzzed-out and fucked-up singles like ‘Beach Song’ and ‘Victoria Bitter’ and playing raucous shows that always seem to teeter on the very edge of utter collapse.

“THE [WORST] PART IS THIS INFLATED SENSE OF POWER IF YOU WORK IN A thebrag.com

can constantly explore techniques and create new sounds, and because Andy and Mel didn’t play on our previous EPs, Mindfulness is a good example of where we are at the moment – it’s really indicative of us all.”

Produced by Brümmer and their manager/ musician (and partner to Clare Bowditch) Marty Brown, Mindfulness was a labour of love that began to take shape at Brown’s studio in Coburg, in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. “We did the tracking at Marty’s studio, but I did a few bits of mixing at home – I’ve got a studio set up there now,” Brümmer explains.

A self-proclaimed perfectionist, he says that he spent time painstakingly working on every detail, and relished the opportunity to have complete creative control. He is evidently a musician who likes to sweat the details, and he draws a great deal of strength from micromanaging every single element of his sound.

“I really insisted on taking my time with it and letting myself experience every avenue – I experimented with every possible sound of the snare drum, for example. It was the only way I was going to be able to get through it and actually be happy with it, and be able to put it out.

“I wanted it [Mindfulness] to sound particularly like us,” Brümmer continues, “and if someone other than myself did the mixing, the songs may not have the same feeling. I wanted to capture what we sound like live – just the four of us playing together in a room.”

Brümmer says that it was difficult to produce the band’s very particular sound given their exceedingly, almost miniscule budget, but it was a challenge the four-piece revelled in.

“It wasn’t a conscious thing. We didn’t say, ‘We’ve got a small budget – let’s do this or that’. We just wanted the album to sound authentic.

“For example, there’s not a single instance of Auto-Tune on the record. We didn’t try to fix stuff – we didn’t use drum replacement which so many producers do, you know? Like when they replace all the kicks so they sound huge, and we didn’t want to do that. It’s not that I think that those things are necessarily bad, it’s just that for this particular record that’s how we wanted to sound, and I think it really works for us.”

‘It’s Tomorrow Now’ is the first single from their debut. The track has already received ample servings of attention, not only for its complex arrangement and Brümmer’s subtle yet significant vocal delivery, but also for its visually-mesmerising video clip, made by visual artist and good friend Thom Russell.

“He [Russell] made the ‘Running Late’ video as well, and he also did the cover art for our first two EPs,” Brümmer says.

“It’s always fun to be making videos, especially with Thom because we never know what he’s going to do. He’ll explain the concept to us: it’s not like we’re in the dark, but we never really understand what he’s saying.” Brümmer laughs. “But we love to work with him: he’s such a great artist. He’s got a very unique way of working, and a unique style. That’s what he brings. We do our thing and he does his thing, and it just feels really natural. We love this clip as well, because it’s the first to feature all four of us – the full lineup.”

So the lineup is complete? “Yeah, there won’t be any more changes. This record showcases exactly who we are as players and I think that’s going to develop even more over time, and we’re excited to start recording again. We can’t wait to make more music together and work harder as a band.”

What: Mindfulness out Friday September 23 through Island/Universal

THE POLICE HAVE BEEN GIVEN. ANYONE HAVING FUN IS A CRIMINAL. BAR YOU ARE A DELINQUENT.” thebrag.com

BRAG :: 681 :: 21:09:16 :: 15

Bernard Fanning Dusk To Dawn By Adam Norris

B

ernard Fanning has attained that rare distinction, succeeding as both a frontman and a solo artist. Through Powderfinger he became a household name, and has continued to accrue fans and impress critics as a performer in his own right. Yet the man himself remains relatively unknown, a secrecy in part born from the classic sense of discomfort many performers feel. But when discussing his latest album, Civil Dusk, Fanning opens up, revealing that he considers a song first and foremost a way for singers to communicate directly with their audiences.

“I think there’s often this misnomer that happens with writing, and art in general,” he suggests, “that it has to be this expression of yourself.

To a certain extent that’s true, but you also are free to invent and add whatever you like: to create what you want. It’s about going into it with the idea of creating something for yourself that hopefully resonates with other people. Because, if it isn’t moving you in the first place, it has very little chance of moving anybody else. It’s really most importantly about communicating ideas, and it doesn’t matter what the genre of music is if you mean it. It doesn’t matter if that’s in the confines of a romantic song, or a political song about a rabbit. You just have to mean it.”

Rabbits notwithstanding, the political potential of songwriting is something Fanning is quite well-versed in.

Civil Dusk’s lengthy closer is ‘Belly Of The Beast’, a song born from Fanning’s great frustration about

indigenous and refugee rights within Australia. Indeed, Civil Dusk is in general a more mature album from the musician, full of songs from a man unafraid to paint with a darker brush.

“My wife is Spanish, so we have flit back and forth over the last few years. But [I’m] still paying close attention to what is happening in Australia, where’s there’s a lot of turmoil. There’s been a lot of political turmoil since Howard basically.

“Then there’s all of the Rudd-GillardAbbot fiasco, something which continues to this day. [‘Belly Of The Beast’] is talking about the idea that, regardless of what we think our politicians are doing to represent us, it’s incumbent on us the voters to make sure the right people are selected in the first place.

“Granted, the people elected aren’t given license to be maniacs and to do ridiculous things, to apply policies like the asylum seeker policy or the complete lack of activity when it comes to Aboriginal Australia.

Those sorts of things show a major immaturity and weakness in the way that we approach politics in Australia: it shows that short-termism. Looking at both of those issues in particular, they are issues that will take a generation to solve, to work at and make large improvements. And that’s the kind of people that we have to look to elect. The people who are looking at the long-term, not just looking for immediate popularity.”

Oddly enough, one of the most immediately exciting aspects of Civil

Dusk isn’t even the music itself, but the fact that it represents one side of a coin: a complimentary album, Brutal Dawn, is fast on its heels, and is likely to carry over certain influences and reflections of its predecessor. Given some commentators have already identified Civil as a relatively melancholic album, it will be fascinating to see just how closely aligned the two records are. Or maybe it’s just that Fanning needs a hug.

“Ha! No, no, I’m good. I intend to write [Brutal Dawn] until the last possible day that I can still be writing and recording. I want to make the best kind of record that I can. So at the moment there are some crossovers there. If those songs end up being the best ten of the next collection, then yeah, they’ll go on.

But most important is putting out the songs that can do the job.

“But you know, I don’t want to be held to that idea of tying them together. If they sound completely different, that’s OK, as long as there are some connections there. We’re recording in the same place, and I’m still going to be playing the majority of it, so there are already some limitations right there,” he laughs.

“But we don’t intend it to just be a bunch of songs that didn’t make it onto Civil Dusk. I want to make it better than Civil Dusk.”

Some 20 years ago, Fanning admitted to feelings of uncertainty about finding his musical feet, and he expressed concerns that his voice was failing. These decades later, he is clearly a man who has

made peace with the nature of his talent.

“Ultimately, the thing I enjoy the most is songwriting,” he says.

“The puzzle, that’s the thing that’s important, whether or not it’s my voice communicating it. There’s always going to be much better voices out there. Bob Dylan is

“IT DOESN’T MATTER IF [YOU’RE WRITING] A ROMANTIC SONG, OR A POLITICAL SONG ABOUT A RABBIT. YOU JUST HAVE TO MEAN IT.”

The Coathangers Hanging in Hollywood By Natalie Rogers the technical side of music. It’s the same thing with Meredith [Franco, AKA Minnine Coathanger, bass and vocals], but we’ve introduced each other to music that maybe we wouldn’t have heard, and I think that helps as far as us being very collaborative, because we each have a different ear for things.

“We also wanna make sure that every song we write sounds different from the last,” Luke adds. “Of course we want our music to sound like a Coathangers song, but we don’t want to write the same song over and over again – we like to keep things fresh.”

A decade on from their inception and debut release, Self-titled, the three friends have remained true to their lo-fi sound while finding ways to keep it interesting and new, even incorporating a pet sound or two. As a follow-up to their tongue-in-cheek hit ‘Don’t Touch My Shit’ the threepiece wrote ‘Squeeki Tiki’ after Kugel found inspiration while playing with a friend’s dog. “We wanted to write a similar song because people love that one – it was always the most requested song to play as an encore, and it came about in a similarly random way,” Luke explains.

W

hen Atlanta’s own punk rock outfi t The Coathangers roll into town to celebrate the release of their fi fth studio album Nosebleed Weekend, expect it to be just that – a bloody, bat shit-crazy bash.

“We never thought in a million years we’d get to go to Australia once, much less go again, so it’s a big deal,” says drummer and

16 :: BRAG :: 681 :: 21:09:16

vocalist Stephanie Luke, AKA Rusty Coathanger. “Last time we had a great time with Bone Soup, and the guys from Smack Face Records put together some really great shows for us, so I know it’s going to be a blast.”

Before their return to Australia, The Coathangers will wrap up months of playing the US, and, speaking

to the BRAG on a rare day off from West Coast tour commitments, Luke is in characteristically fi ne form and keen to chat about recording in an iconic North Hollywood studio, fi nding just the right pitch for your dog toy, and what being from the South is all about. “I grew up listening to punk rock and hardcore and all that good stuff, but I’m from the

South so there was a lot of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Patsy Cline around growing up,” Luke says.

“We do have a lot of shared musical influences but we’re also different,” she continues. “Julia [Kugel, AKA Crook Kid Coathanger, guitar and vocals] is originally from Russia and she used to play classical guitar and piano, so she knows a lot about

“We were staying in North Hollywood getting ready to start recording Nosebleed Weekend and we were renting an Air BnB from friends, and while Julia was playing with one of the dogs, she threw his toy. Suddenly she’s like ‘What if we use this for the percussion part of the song?’ and I was like ‘Sure! Why the heck not?’

“It was so random and Julia went through all these different dog toys to find the right tone and pitch of the

thebrag.com

Meat Loaf The Bat Flies On By Shane Pinnegar

R

ock legends don’t get much bigger than Meat Loaf, AKA Marvin Lee Aday. The man has an estimated 50 million album sales under his belt, has acted in acclaimed cult flicks like The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Fight Club, and ranks as one of the most colourful figures contemporary pop currently has.

He’s not showing any signs of slowing down either: he’s just dropped his thirteenth record, Braver Than We Are, one written with his longtime creative collaborator Jim Steinman. Though Steinman was initially only going to contribute two or three songs, before long he became an integral player in the process, and a lot of material was plucked from older projects and rewritten.

‘More’, for example, was originally recorded by The Sisters Of Mercy in 1990, and ‘Loving You’s A Dirty Job (But Somebody’s Gotta Do It)’ first appeared on Bonnie Tyler’s 1986 album Secret Dreams And Forbidden Fire, while other tracks date back to early Steinman musicals The Dream Engine and Neverland.

a good example. That guy did not have a classically likeably voice, but he’s one of the best communicators of ideas. And that’s what matters in the end.

“How do you tell an idea? I think it goes back to whether I need a hug or not. If I’ve been able to

communicate enough that there’s this sadness there attached to the song, then that’s great. That’s what you want.”

Where: State Theatre When: Saturday October 22 Sunday October 23

More than that, Steinman was in daily contact with Aday and his producer/guitarist Paul Crook, acting as creative consultant and reworking the songs while remotely assisting in all aspects of the project. The end result is as suitably epic and over-the-top as all of Aday and Steinman’s best work together: an album that the singer declares, “is a tribute to both of us and our work together”.

Aday, agrees with Steinman’s sentiments that the record is one of the best things that he has ever worked on in his entire life. “I’ve never seen Jim so much in love with a record since we’ve been working together,” Aday says.

“I have listened to this record more than all of the other records I’ve ever made combined. This

record, if you really sit to listen to it, will take you on a journey. It will hypnotise you. It honestly does.

It’s hypnotic, and I’ve never done a record like that!”

Of course, Steinman and Aday have been friends and occasional collaborators for some time now – since “somewhere early in ’72” Aday reckons – and the pair have never let business disputes affect their friendship, no matter what the press’ version of that story insists.

“That’s an assumption of the media actually,” Aday says. “Because what happens is lawsuits happen: but I don’t file a lawsuit against Jim, and he doesn’t file against me.

Some manager will file a lawsuit against that other manager, or the record company will file against something, and then they turn to me and Jim and go, ‘Okay, you two can’t talk to each other.’ [But] Jim and I have always talked to each other.”

Despite the insane success of their past work together, Aday is adamant that they don’t work to fulfil specific expectations, whether those restrictions be external or self-imposed. “I’ve never lived my life like that,” he says. “What happened yesterday, happened yesterday. Not all of it is good, [but] some of it is good, some of it is bad, some of it is incredibly great – and so you learn from your mistakes.

“You learn from your failures, and you learn from your successes, but you can never live off of either one,” he continues. “People are going to judge this record against Bat Out Of Hell. But Jimmy thinks this record is much better than that one.”

The album pivots on the colossal ‘Going All The Way Is Just The Start (A Song In 6 Movements)’, an 11-minute epic that Aday ranks up with some of his best work. “I’m going to be honest with you,” he

says. “If people really go and listen to the first verse of ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ and the first verse of ‘Going All The Way’, it’s the same voice, just a different timbre. It’s exactly the same voice, but I think the first verse of ‘Going All The Way’ is the best thing dramatically that I have ever put on record.”

The track also features both Ellen Foley, a musician famous for performing on the studio version of ‘Paradise By The Dashboard Light’ and Karla DeVito, best known for appearing in the video clip for ‘Paradise’ and singing it live on tour with Aday. It was a meeting of worlds that wasn’t without its initial hiccups, but one that proved fruitful indeed.

“Ellen was a little apprehensive about doing it at first,” Aday says.

“They hadn’t had the greatest relationship, Karla and Ellen, because Ellen felt she didn’t get the recognition because Karla did the video with [Ellen’s] voice. But the next day we had two different cars booked [for Foley and DeVito], and they said, ‘Never mind, we’ll come together,’ and they had dinner that night. They checked in together, and they have remained in contact ever since then. That was one of the greatest things Jimmy and I have ever done.”

Braver Than We Are features a suitably epic cover painting, one depicting Aday and Steinman facing down what appears to be the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

“Exactly! Very good!” Aday erupts with glee. But it’s not just an idle image: the musician argues that it’s representative of a general attitude that has served him well throughout his entire career. “The cover is a defiance against the record industry,” Aday says. “They’re the Four Horseman of the Record Industry.”

What: Braver Than We Are out now through Caroline

“OF COURSE WE WANT OUR MUSIC TO SOUND LIKE A COATHANGERS SONG, BUT WE DON’T WANT TO WRITE THE SAME SONG OVER AND OVER AGAIN – WE LIKE TO KEEP THINGS FRESH.” squeak. It sounds silly, but it does matter with all the different types of pitches, you know? And it matches the theme of the song perfectly too.”

In the retro-inspired video clip for the single ‘Down Down’, two of the three got a chance to show off their moves, and the clip was a way of fulfilling a long-held dream. “Julia and Meredith had always wanted to do a video where they got to do a choreographed dance, so they had some good ideas even before we went into the video and they just came up with it on the spot. They’re good at dancing, so I left the dancing to them.”

The Coathangers often alternate roles within the band: on the album’s lead single ‘Make It Right’ Luke displays her signature take-no-prisoners drumming style, while on ‘Copycat’ Kugel takes the reins behind the kit.

“We like to switch instruments every now and again. Julia’s fiancé plays drums in a band as well so she was practising with him and she found a really cool beat for ‘Copycat’. She plays differently to how I play so we love to hear what she comes up with,” Luke says.

“Then Meredith came up with the bassline and then I got on the guitar and started playing around with it.

I play guitar very differently to how Julia plays it: she plays it with the right technique, that is!” she laughs. “But

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we just started jamming that song out and it just kind of came together at the last minute.”

To say the recording of Nosebleed Weekend was a little unusual would be an understatement. For the first time in 30 years the iconic Valentine Recording Studios opened its doors to musicians once again, and the Coathangers were the first to lay tracks on the vintage equipment.

“The original owner of the studio, Jimmy Valentine, had opened up the studio in an old dentist’s office in the early ’60s and he recorded big bands and stuff for old TV shows in Hollywood. Then, I guess once rock‘n’roll started becoming popular he wasn’t a fan of it, so he shut the studio down for about 30 years – but man, is it a treasure! It had all the original equipment: the soundboards, the reel to reel, the microphones – I mean everything! We got super lucky. It was a great learning lesson for everybody and we were super blessed.”

Where: Newtown Social Club When: Thursday October 6 And: Yours And Owls Festival, Stuart Park, Wollongong on Saturday October 1 – Sunday October 2 with The Sonics, Bleached, Chastity Belt and many more

“I HAVE LISTENED TO THIS RECORD MORE THAN ALL OF THE OTHER RECORDS I’VE EVER MADE COMBINED.” BRAG :: 681 :: 21:09:16 :: 17

Black Mountain Four to the Floor By David James Young

S

tephen McBean doesn’t do days off. He might not be on tour the day that he takes his interview with the BRAG, but he’s not exactly sitting around and twiddling his thumbs either – instead, the Black Mountain frontman is busy setting up a home studio in his Los Angeles flat, where he moved from the band’s native Vancouver in 2010.

“I’m just putting up...” he begins to talk, and then pauses while noise in the background suggests he’s moving some equipment and tools around.

“I guess you’d call it soundproofing,” he concludes. “It’s nothin’ special, but it’ll do me.”

It’s this DIY ethic that has influenced Black Mountain’s 2016. On April Fool’s Day, the band unleashed their fourth studio album – titled, fittingly enough, IV – which arrived nearly six whole years after its predecessor.

But the ensuing tour more than made up for any lost time – the band immediately and extensively hit the road. Even with over four months separating the release of the album and now, McBean still feels as though the live sound of IV is developing with every tour cycle and to him, it’s a gradual but rewarding process.

Matt Berry Night Owl By Gem Doow

I

f you know of Matt Berry, chances are it’s due to his screen appearances rather than his music: Berry captured the attention of contemporary comedy lovers with his role as rogue zoo owner Dixon Bainbridge in The Mighty Boosh and incorrigible pants man Douglas Reynholm in The IT Crowd.

Nonetheless, if you rifle through his back catalogue it’s equally crammed with kookily satisfying gems, off-kilter works like Snuff Box, a super dark comedy about a gentleman’s club for hangmen, and Gareth Marenghi’s Darkplace, a supernatural hospital drama set in the ’70s.

More recently Berry has written and acted in his own TV baby Toast of London, a stonkingly funny comedy revolving around his oddly loveable character Stephen Toast. While Toast is a top-shelf lothario and an actor of dubious skill in deep denial about his place in the pecking order, his consistent failures make us feel for him, and the series puts to use Berry’s trademark comedy tools: a mane of hair luxuriant enough to make other blokes his age cry and his sonorous boom of a voice.

Toast also boasts a killer intro track, which brings us nicely to Berry’s lesser-known but equally prodigious talent: the tune, ‘Take My Hand’, was written by him.

No actor-turned-singer, Berry stumbled into comedy accidentally, while straying away from his artistic roots were in fine arts – specifically painting – and music. Over the years Berry has scored plenty of the shows on which he’s worked (check out ‘Theme from Snuff Box’) and even provided a multitude of soundtracks for shows he hasn’t appeared in, including Steve Coogan’s Saxondale. If that’s not enough, he also has five studio albums under his belt, including a compilation of music for insomniacs – no joke: Berry is a notorious night owl – with his sixth, The Small Hours, out now.

Berry is a self-confessed stickler for detail when it comes to Toast.

Does the same apply when it comes to his music? “I think so, pretty

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“[DARK MATERIAL] IS A FAR MORE INTERESTING BASIS FOR A SONG THAN SAY, ‘I’VE HAD A GOOD DAY’. WHO CARES ABOUT THAT?” much,” he says. “If you’ve come up with something and it’s referencing things that you have a clear idea of, well it’s the same in any art form. If it’s authored by you, you have to be all over it.” Indeed, The Small Hours clearly demonstrates that love for minutiae and the extra efforts to which he’ll go in order to get things sounding just-so: for instance, some of the recording was done on a Decca desk from the 1950s, a piece of machinery that emitted a burningelectrical pong when he turned it on.

Additionally, the fact that The Small Hours has been released on the Acid Jazz label gives you some insight into the sound of the record. Like a lot of Berry’s musical work, there’s snatches of, um, acid jazz, but the work also pays homage to ’60s and ’70s prog, folk and psychedelia.

A lot of the album sounds sunny, albeit bleached through a retro filter – though the notable exception to that particular rule is ‘Night Terrors’, an instrumental in the vein of a ’70s Italian-horror soundtrack.

Contrast that with the lyrics: every track smacks of existential crises.

On ‘One By One’, Berry sings about seeing his “whole life sailing by alone” and hair loss, while ‘The Peach And The Melon’ talks about a man who is “more than I’ll ever be”. Even more cutting is the single ‘Gone for Good’, one that refers explicitly to the hideous shit we say to ourselves, in this case including the epithets “weak” and “coward”.

Was Berry having a bad year? “Not at all,” he demurs. “The last album I made was in 2013, so it’s basically

a collection of songs written since then. There’s quite a long time between then and now. There’s no point in marking alright things or things that have gone well. I’m not really interested in conveying that. If I’m going to write personal songs – bits of it are personal and other bits are surreal – it’s that kind of energy that I’m more interested in than a happy song. I don’t think they’re miserable though – I think they’re kind of bitter sweet.”

On Berry’s website, he tells an ominous tale about the inspiration for the title song on his previous album, Kill The Wolf a story that involved a “lady friend” zoning out and telling him to split before the sun rises, later denying any knowledge.

This time around there was no pseudo-mystical inspiration for The Small Hours – the work is more a reflection on the cost of Berry’s comedic fame. “On The Small Hours I’m sort of commenting on the other side of what I do: the public side I guess. It’s about the comedy – what being on the TV entails and the knock-on effects of being a relatively known face. I can’t escape that: it becomes part of who you are. You try to avoid mixing the two, but they’ve always gone hand in hand in some way.

“I mean, I do try to separate [the TV work] and the music. They’re not really linked – they’re just two things I do and there’s no artistic link as such, but the paths cross.

Lyrically, [the fame] infuses the music and you end up commenting on the darker sides of what being on the TV can bring, and all of the darker people that show up once you’re on TV. “That is interesting. That’s a far more interesting basis for a song than say, ‘I’ve had a good day’. Who cares about that? It’s much more interesting if you spot something odd in your day.”

What: The Small Hours out now through Mushroom

“Our albums are pretty much a product of their time – they’re reflective of what everyone’s headspace was like at the time,” he says. “We’re all really proud of the new one. It seems to be translating live quite well. People that are coming to the shows seem to be excited to hear songs from it, which is good for us because we’ve incorporated a good part of the record into the setlist. There’s a creative challenge in taking a record out on the road and learning how to present it as you go. There are bells and whistles that can come with making a song in the studio, but when you’re playing it live the

challenge becomes figuring out whether you want to lose the bell or lose the whistle – sometimes, keeping everything in is not an option. It can be difficult, but we’ve had a lot of fun figuring all of that out.”

IV was recorded in Seattle at Avast! studios, and sees the band continue their foray into psychedelia, fuzzheavy riffage and prog-rock detours through the great unknown. Given the noted gap between releases, during which McBean spent time touring and recording with his other band Pink Mountaintops, it’s not all that surprising to hear the band were not able to instantly click back into formation. “The album was made over the course of about a year,” explains McBean, “where I would come back up to Vancouver and just jam with the rest of the band on whatever stuff they had.

We went through a bunch of stuff, and I think for a while things just weren’t happening. It took about five attempts at working on songs for us to get on a roll. After that, things were thankfully pretty painless – I put that down to working with Randall Dunn again, who did some stuff with us on our last record [2010’s Wilderness Heart]. He came to be very influential in terms of the scope of the record and the arrangements that we went with.”

Since the album’s release through celebrated indie label Jagjaguwar, IV has seen a sturdy critical response and a lot of positive appraisal from longtime fans of the band. It’s the individual reactions that have intrigued McBean the most. “There are some people that have been telling us they think this new record is a return to our older sound,” he says. “In a way, I can kinda see where they’re coming from – we were also reissuing our first album [2005’s Black Mountain] at the

Ufomammut The Sound And The Fury By Augustus Welby

I

talian trio Ufomammut are coming to Australia for the first time this October. Looking back on the band’s release history, it’s hard to know what to expect from their live shows. Since emerging in 2000, the group have released six albums plus the double-EP set ORO, and while some of their records feature more conventionally-structured songs, others are conceptually oriented, consisting of lengthy instrumental movements rather than succinct songs.

Though the group can be broadly categorised as an experimental metal band, their catalogue encompasses everything from sludge, drone and stoner metal, to psychedelic rock and ambient. So what does an Ufomammut set look like then? “Because we are still promoting that album, the main core of our live show is [2015’s] Ecate,” says Poia, the band’s mononymous guitarist. “And then we will add some other old tunes from the Ufomammut discography. But basically it’s focused on Ecate.

“With the live show, even if we play the same songs off the albums, there’s something different about

“SONGS BECOME SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT [LIVE].

THEY EXPAND, THEY CHANGE, THEY SHRINK IN SOME PARTS.”

them,” adds bassist Urlo. “We try to give more than what you can listen to on an album, because there is an exchange with the people listening in the crowd. It’s more physical and intense, hopefully. Another thing that is different is that we have a very important visual part behind us that is all the album explained through images too. I hope it will be something interesting because we are looking forward to coming to Australia.”

Released early last year, Ecate followed 2012’s two-part ORO project. Composed of Opus Primum and Opus Alter, the songwriting on ORO wasn’t particularly concerned with immediacy, and the work is full of languid, experimental tracks.

The band’s previous release, Eve, was an even more left-of-centre project, featuring a continuous 45-minute slab of music. By contrast, Ecate is a harder-hitting affair – although it contains six tracks that all last for around 10 minutes, there’s less emphasis on the quieter, tension-building side of the band’s sound. No matter what era of the group’s discography the songs come from however, they’re likely to mutate and intensify in the live environment.

“Usually when we record an album it is not finished,” says drummer Vita.

“We always play the album on the road, when we tour, so little by little the songs become something a little different. They expand, they change, they shrink in some parts. What we play live is Ecate for sure, but I think it’s in a different way than the album.

It’s changing every show and it gets – I hope – better and better.

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time of recording IV, so I guess that factored into it. I also think that each record that we’ve made is pretty diverse in its sound. When we were touring Wilderness Heart, we had people writing about the record and talking about it and they were referring to it as an acoustic record – even though that album has a bunch of our most full-on rock songs on it. All we try and do as a band is make albums that we find interesting.

You’ve gotta try and not follow anyone else’s rules – least of all your own.”

After a handful of festival dates in North America, McBean and co are headed back to Australia for the first time in years. As well as performing at Wollongong’s Yours And Owls festival, the band are also scheduled to do a run of their own headlining shows.

“We’ve always had fun while we were down in Australia,” says McBean.

Black Mountain photo by Magdalena Wosinka

“I’ve been there three times – I’ve been down with Black Mountain twice and Pink Mountaintops has also played shows there, too. It’s a great place with good people. It’s funny – I haven’t spent a lot of time in Australia, but I’ve become friends with a lot of them through them coming through Vancouver and visiting there. Now when I come to Australia, I’ve got people that I know, which is nice. I think that there is a truly great history of rock’n’roll in Australia, too – some of my favourite bands of all time come from Australia. The Birthday Party, AC/DC, Radio Birdman... they’re all amazing. It’s a good place, man. They take care of us. The shows should be fun.”

What: Factory Theatre When: Monday October 3 And: Yours And Owls Festival, Stuart Park Wollongong, Saturday October 1 – Sunday October 2 with The Sonics, The Coathangers, Bleached and more

“ALL WE TRY AND DO AS A BAND IS MAKE ALBUMS THAT WE FIND INTERESTING.”

“The idea of playing Ecate in its entirety is very important for us because it gives the people the idea of what the album really is,” he continues. “We play songs from the past that probably are quite different from what they were.”

Given the prominence of their ambient instrumental sections, ORO and Eve aren’t the best place to start for new Ufomammut listeners.

However, this relative inaccessibility isn’t what prompted the added heft and structure audible on Ecate.

“We don’t ever really plan when we do the new albums,” Poia says. “Ecate is very different from ORO, and more from Eve too. I think [throughout] our discography, we use the new stuff to find a different way of playing Ufomammut.

“There are still a lot of ambient parts in Ecate,” he adds. “For example ‘Chaosecret’ – the first part is a very long ambient part, and on ‘Revelation’ there are a lot quiet parts too, but they are played in a different way than in the past.”

Ever since the release of their debut record, Godlike Snake, Ufomammut have garnered comparisons to stoner and doom bands like Kyuss, Electric Wizard and Earth, as well as classic rock acts such as Hawkwind and Pink Floyd. This is indicative of the band members’ broad tastes and stylistic choices.

“We all listen to different things,” Urlo says. “Vita is more of a metalhead guy and we are more into softer, electronic music and so on. We have been inspired by bands like Pink Floyd and

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Black Sabbath. Actually the Melvins is another influence. We have also been inspired by bands like The Beatles, even if you probably can’t hear it in our music. We like to do what we feel in the moment without thinking too much that we have to play doom or metal or whatever. We just want to play the way we feel. Probably that’s why we cross between genres.”

They haven’t stopped seeking out new inspirations, either. “Our doors are always open,” says Vita. “We try to get inspirations from every kind of music we like. Like Urlo said, I’m a bit more of a metalhead than them so I’m always inspired by heavy metal bands from the ’80s. But maybe we will be inspired by something different.”

“For example Poia and me and Vita too, we very much like the band The Prodigy,” Urlo says. “I think they do all the heaviness with something that is really peculiar. We can find our inspiration from other music. The music of the past is very important, but just as a foundation.” “There are the roots, but we want to listen to the branches also,” Vita says. “It’s what we need – to

discover new things, to get inspired in a new way.”

Where: Bald Faced Stag When: Friday October 7 With: Monolord And: Ecate out now through Neurot

BRAG :: 681 :: 21:09:16 :: 19

David Hasselhoff Knowing The Exit By Adam Norris

W

hile striding across the Los Angeles sands way back in 1990, David Hasselhoff unexpectedly stepped into one of the most successful television shows in the world. Though Baywatch ended back in 2001, there will forever be salt water in the man’s veins: for proof, look no further than his role in cult favourite Sharknado 4, or his cameo in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. Evidently The Hoff and the ocean are inseparable.

It’s entirely fitting then that Captain Hasselhoff has been announced as the headline act for the It’s The Ship! festival, a massive floating celebration of EDM that must be seen to be believed. With the full lineup including over sixty artists, ranging from Peking Duck to Knife Party, attending the event will certainly be one hell of a way to make your friends jealous.

“It’s party ’til you drop!” Hasselhoff says. “I’ve been on one of these cruises before when it went from Stockholm to Helsinki. And it was crazy, it just went nuts! This insane party. And it’s fun for me, because I don’t drink any more, so I can still watch everyone get completely hammered and go crazy, and then wake up and feel great! So I say, ‘Good morning, it’s Captain Hoff!

If you’re as hungover as I am, you wouldn’t be because I don’t drink!

But if I did, I’d meet you guys in the hot tub!’ Basically, you’d better come with your party hat or your workout hat, because you’re going to find me at the gym or you’re going to find me onstage.

“There’s like 17 bars, and at first they

wanted me to have a meet-and-greet in the hot tub. But I said guys, you know...” he laughs. “I can’t go to a hot tub. It gets really intense after people have a few drinks. I like to be part of the action, but not completely inside the action, because it gets a little too out of hand.”

produced Cher, Celine Dion, and we’re going to remix ‘True Survivor’ and slip it onstage, see what we can do. We have a captive audience there, so we know that we’re going to do well! They can’t get away! They’re going to go Hoffcrazy, it’ll be Hoffelicious, they’ll party their arse Hoff!”

Even a cursory glance at the 2016 It’s The Ship! promo suggests Hasselhoff isn’t kidding; the 1000-foot Mariner Of The Seas liner looks ready to host one of the wildest parties ever to set sail. Yet it won’t all be debauchery and crazy times; one of the most unexpected but colourful additions to the experience is the sheer variety of activities available beyond just dancing the night away – though given Hasselhoff’s own musical success, don’t be surprised if you find him crooning Rat Pack numbers at the bar.

Many people will know Hasselhoff’s musical abilities from his time atop the Berlin Wall, but he has long made forays into musical theatre and pop.

Despite the fact that his career is proving distinctly self-referential these days, it’s music that keeps pushing him forward.

“There’s a casino, rock climbing, a basketball court,” he says. “I mean, it has an ice skating rink: how crazy is that! A mini golf course! So come prepared. To be honest, I can’t [wait to] perform. I said, ‘Put me on the ship and I’ll take on the rest.’ I’m not going to just sit in the hot tub, I’m going to be onstage; I am going to answer questions and take pictures.

“A long time ago I was wanting to do a thing called DJ Hoff,” he continues.

“We have a song that has about 24 million streams, ‘True Survivor’, and I got to go into the studio with the guys who, believe it or not, actually created that crazy song I did years ago, ‘Hooked On A Feeling’, that probably has the world’s worst video. But it became [popular] a while ago now because it’s so camp. And these guys

“AT FIRST THEY WANTED ME TO HAVE A MEET-AND-GREET IN THE HOT TUB. BUT I SAID GUYS, ‘I CAN’T GO TO A HOT TUB. IT GETS REALLY INTENSE AFTER PEOPLE HAVE A FEW DRINKS.’”

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“It’s the emotion of it,” he muses. “I just know that I worked really, really hard on my voice, especially on Broadway.

It clicked, then. It’s a challenge to hit those keys, but also to act through your music. I start off a lot of my shows now with [1997 Broadway classic] ‘This Is The Moment’. It just really effects people; really moves them.

“That’s kind of where I’m at. I come from the old school. I played a heavy metal concert to a hundred thousand people called Nova Rock, it’s all online, and it’s insane! I thought they’d all want to leave, but they all wanted to hear songs that they grew up with. It’s just a way of connecting with your fans in a fun way. I really don’t know what I’m getting into on this one. All I know is, I know how to create havoc, and I know where the exit is.” He laughs.

“That’s the most important thing. No matter where I go, I need an exit, even in Australia.”

What: It’s The Ship!

Where: Departing from Darling Harbour When: Friday November 4 – Monday November 7

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream photo by Cybele Malinowski

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

arts in focus

a midsummer night’s dream The Bard Is Back also inside:

THE RED TURTLE / DAUNTLESS MOVEMENT CREW / ARTS NEWS / ARTS REVIEWS / AND MORE thebrag.com

BRAG :: 681 :: 21:09:16 :: 21

arts in focus

free stuff head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

arts news...what's goin' on around town... with Alex Chetverikov, Emily Norton and Joseph Earp

five minutes WITH

MICHAEL MCSTAY WRITER/DIRECTOR OF THRENODY and a half to write. In preparation for this season, I wanted to completely rework what I had and strip it back to its core. All up, that took about two-and-a-half years of writing and workshopping. This incarnation upholds the classical unities of time, space and plot, and incorporates a chorus to tell the story. It’s written in iambic pentameter, and the chorus members jump in and out of the different characters that appear throughout Virginia’s adventures.

T

ell us a little bit about the plot of Threnody Threnody is a story told by a group of women, focused on Virginia, a young girl who has been imprisoned in her room for her entire life. One night she decides to escape, and we witness what happens when she encounters the world. Throughout her first evening as a free woman, she is fixated on finding “The Rider on the Diamond Horse”, a character in a story told to her by

her mother, and she continually mistakes less-than-reputable characters for the Rider. Her misadventures lead her from a house party to a brothel to a forest and she meets an array of eccentrics along the way.

When did you begin writing the play?

The play has been through several incarnations. It began as a cabaret that had a brief showing last year: that took about a year

You Bette

Introduce us to your key cast.

Josephine Starte (NIDA 2015) plays Virginia, with the rest of the players acting as a chorus.

They are, in alphabetical order, Charlie Devenport (WAAPA 2013), Zoë Jensen (NIDA 2013), Alex Malone (WAAPA 2014), Lauren Richardson (ACA 2015), and Georgia Wilde (NIDA 2014).

How long was the rehearsal period?

The rehearsal period was extremely short for such a text-

What do you want the audience to leave thinking/feeling?

Virginia’s journey through Threnody takes her to the darker side of human connection, and shows her tragic loss of innocence. Despite this, I hope that audiences will feel invigorated in their own search for meaning.

We are attempting to make beautiful a cruel world, one that the audience will no doubt recognise outside the theatre.

What: Threnody When: Tuesday September 27 – Saturday October 8 Where: The Old Fitz Theatre

BETTE YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR

MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN

Although it’s only been a few years since a Tim Burton film has graced our screens, it feels like it’s been far, far too long. Good thing then that Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children is heading our way stat, then, isn’t it? The family fantasy film is based on a celebrated series of books written by Ransom Riggs and follows the exploits of a group of young children blessed with supernatural powers – a bit like a pre-teen X-Men then.

It hits cinemas on Thursday September 29, and to celebrate, we have 5 in-season double passes to give away. To enter, head over to thebrag.com/freeshit, won’tcha?

October 14. Featuring a great range of music and comedy acts on the night, the events will raise money to pay for the funerals of women who died as a result of domestic violence, many of whom are not afforded the dignity of a formal ceremony due to the conditions they face before their death. #IStandUp will be held at Forest Lodge’s Harold Park Hotel on Friday October 14, with doors opening at 7pm.

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

Bringing with them a fresh perspective, the organisers behind Spring Social are going to welcome the season with food, art, music and fashion, transforming the retail precinct in the process.

Activities at this year’s Spring Social include an edible garden from Lotus, live displays from Little Tokyo, Sydney’s ‘go to’ tattoo studio for traditional Japanese tattoo art, with emerging musical artist Alphamama closing the festival with a unique blend of jazz, soul and hip hop. Get some zenspiration at The Galeries from Thursday September 22 to Sunday September 25.

Bringing the campy spirit of Bette Midler back to our attention is You Bette, a feather-filled, sequin-rich retrospective that looks back on the glitz and glamour of Midler’s decades in show business. Responsible for many lasting moments in Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway (she never ventured into Off-Off-Off Broadway from the sounds of it!), the showbiz starlet will be performed by Amanda Stella Web, with support from the Tinsel Town Showgirls. It’s sure to be an utterly fabulous night.

You Bette will go down on Saturday September 24 at the Oxford Hotel.

heavy play. It was limited to about a month, with a lot of hard work and sacrifice from the cast and crew to make sure the production is one we can be proud of. There were long nights and early mornings and shifts missed at work. When it’s a passionate team, though, everyone pulls together.

DONE AND DUSTED

Alphamamma

Two icons of Australian popular culture are coming together for a great cause. Ken Done, one of Australia’s most celebrated artists, has teamed up with clothing brand Havaianas for a limited edition release of thongs. The thongs are based off Done’s Barrier Reef Garden print from 1984, one of his many colourful and evocative depictions of Australia’s beautiful landscape. A portion of the proceeds for every pair sold will be donated to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, which remains the only Australian independent, not-for-profit organisation solely dedicated to raising funds for scientific research into preserving the Reef. Given it is one of Australia’s enduring natural landmarks, this is a great opportunity to contribute to the awareness of the Reef’s importance, with the thongs’ brilliant splashes of colour proving to be a rather fetching statement. The thongs will land in participating retailers on Friday September 30.

Hypodermic Syringes Syringes by Jane Gillings Katie Burch

P-ARTY PEOPLE

Art Party, one of Sydney’s premiere showcases of the performing arts and music, is celebrating its birthday, and you’re invited. The shindig will feature a range of musicians and performers putting on the kind of high-octane, excitement-fuelled shows the Art Party-brand have made their name with.

There’ll be poets, fire breathers, two stages, a host of booze to guzzle your way through and a range of artistic disciplines to soak in and sashay around.

Get to it, won’tcha? Art Party’s fourth birthday goes down at the Oxford Art Factory on Friday September 23.

STAND UP AND BE COUNTED

As part of a wonderful new initiative to raise awareness of the prominence of domestic violence in Australia, not-for-profit organisation Share The Dignity has announced a series of comedy specials will be run around Australia on Friday 22 :: BRAG :: 681 :: 21:09:16

LAUGH IT UP

GET BORNE

An exciting new exhibition curated by Margarita Sampson is set to open at Stanley Street Gallery on Thursday October 6. Borne, which brings together a varied range of emerging and established sculptors, reconsiders the context and material of bodyadornment and jewellery. It explores how we have come to define jewellery and our frame of reference towards the medium, with a sometimes-playful and unpredictable response to the challenge provided by many of the artists involved. When does artwork become wearable? How can we use materials, and what materials can or cannot be used? How does the body animate the works? These are but a few of the questions posed by the new exhibition, which includes new work from 28 artists.

To celebrate their sixth birthday those funny folks at The Comedy Lounge have today announced a special series of one-off events. Called The Headliner Series, the shows will feature several of the club’s favourite acts. Launching the shenanigans are solid favourites Katie Burch and Jacques Barrett, with Rhys Nicholson, Rebecca Deunamuno, Eric Hutton, Andrew Wolfe and Steve Hughes all appearing over a three-week stretch. The Comedy Lounge birthday bash kicks off at Cafe Lounge on Saturday September 24.

thebrag.com

A Midsummer Night’s Dream [THEATRE] Rude Mechanicals By Adam Norris though we’re onstage as much as everyone else. So when we do open our mouths, we have to be familiar with our voices as the character, and try and keep it funny without the pressure of knowing people have to laugh every time you say something.

We’ve tried to find the humour quite organically. I’m also surrounded by a bunch of really funny actors, which makes it easier.”

Certainly it doesn’t hurt to have some theatre veterans at your disposal. As one expects from the Sydney Theatre Company, the quality of the production’s cast is exceptional, and the version is set to be helmed by one of our latest stage wunderkinds, Kip Williams.

A

“It’s mostly seen as a comedy: it’s light and you can see yourself in the characters,” Harvie says, “but you also have the fantasy world of the fairies. It’s kind of relatable.

We’ve been talking about this a lot in rehearsal: how within the story you have different strands.

“Hermia and Lysander are kind of like Romeo and Juliet, but with somewhat of a happier ending.

It’s the themes of Shakespeare’s tragedies, but with a nice comic spin where everyone turns out OK. Well, if you ignore the fact that with Theseus and Hippolyta, he kind of wins her using the sword. He forces this Amazonian queen to be his wife, which is a bit troubling today!

But I think it’s fun, and because you do have all the different worlds the language isn’t always as heavy.

You have the fairies, the Rude Mechanicals and the lovers: there are so many subplots that it’s easy to watch.”

Harvie herself plays one of the Rude Mechanicals, Robin Starveling.

The Mechanicals are a troupe of performers within play, roles that in Elizabethan times were performed by clowns. Indeed, the lead Mechanical, Bottom, is famously bestowed with the head of a donkey. The potential for ass jokes is limitless.

“It’s pretty different!” Harvie laughs of undertaking a comedic role. “I’ve definitely been struggling with this idea of how the Mechanicals are the funny part of the play, and we’ve been exploring that in rehearsal. It’s about just letting go and playing it for what it is, because it lends itself to quite a few different versions.

“It can be full of gags and very funny, but gaggy is maybe not what we want for this production. It’s not what helps tell the story the best way. It’s tough, because it’s a small part – there are a few of the Mechanicals who don’t have as much to say,

“Also, Kip is a really humble, easygoing, generous director. He has time for everyone, and is extremely busy, so I don’t know how he does it all. When we came in on day one, he and Bob Cousins [set design] and Alice Babidge [costume design] had a very strong, clear vision, so it’s quite easy to fit into that and then work with them on making the show that they have in their minds.

"The play is quite bitsy, in the sense that there are 12 or 13 of

us in the cast, but some of us don’t have any speaking scenes together. During the time when we’re not sure if it’s working, we’ve all learned to trust in Kip: he knows what he’s doing.”

At the risk of putting carts before horses, this production of Midsummer already has all the hallmarks of being a season standout. With a well-versed cast and impressive production values it will almost certainly be a hit, though perhaps not in the guise that most patrons might be expecting.

“When I first performed it I was at drama school, and we had too many people and not enough space to do a full production, so we just did scene work.

"Our production was very much about playing the humour of the scene. But now we have quite a different kind of realisation of Midsummer than I think a lot of people would have seen in the past. We’re definitely playing with some darker themes, so don’t go in expecting to see what you’ve seen before.”

What: A Midsummer Night’s Dream Where: Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House When: Playing until Saturday October 22

Michael Dudok de Wit [FILM] The Man Behind The Red Turtle By Adam Norris

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or many animators, winning an Academy Award for your craft would be a career highlight.

But when Michael Dudok de Wit won his back in 2001, there’s no way he could have anticipated the phone call from Studio Ghibli asking him if he was interested in making a feature.

The resulting collaboration led to the production of The Red Turtle, the first non-Japanese film Ghibli has produced and also one of the most heartfelt and mysterious stories you’ll find this year, and one entirely without dialogue, at that. Featuring a man stranded on a remote island and a giant turtle that transforms into a woman, the story is unique, but also ranks as another entry in a long tradition of fables depicting animals who become human.

“I had an addiction to fairy tales as a child,” de Wit recalls, “and it’s a theme that comes up everywhere. If you kiss the frog, you get the prince.

It’s also within Greek mythology and Celtic mythology, and indeed in Japanese tales, which I only found out about much later. They have a very strong sense of it.

“I’ve got a personal theory about why [these stories persist], which sounds a bit silly if I put it into words. I grew up in a society where animals very much have their place, and are established in their place.

A pony is a pony, a spider a spider.

They have a neat place, and that is confirmed. A cow belongs on a farm, et cetera. I grew up in that and felt at peace with that, but I also was very much in touch with nature.

I felt a fine sensitivity that animals don’t just have their set place. As a child I talked to trees, and it was perfectly normal, and I’ve kept some of this as an adult. We have another communication with nature, which

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is much finer, but as soon as you try to describe it, it sounds silly. So I responded to that by writing the story. I thought it would be beautiful to naturally tell the story that an animal can be a human being, and vice versa. I’m going to try and tell it as naturally as possible.”

For de Wit, storytelling is evidently a natural, imperative act – one that requires suspension of disbelief and for the artist to simply sink into the world of the film. However The Red Turtle isn’t completely divorced from reality, and the film features a subtle ecological commentary, addressed in the slow maturing of the main character’s relationship to both the island and to his remarkable companion. The sense of pacing throughout is incredible, and although the movie is set over many years and depictive of a life that is by necessity repetitious, the film never comes close to being monotonous itself.

“Repetition is something that I adore, that I use in my short films too. Not as a technique, because it can very quickly fall flat and look like a cheap trick,” de Wit laughs. “But I see repetition as something we live deeply anyway. Our days and the seasons have a rhythm. When there is rhythm in life, you adjust to it; you kind of let yourself be carried by it.

Ideally, when something is rhythmic there should be an evolution.

Gradually, things change.

“For instance, every day is the same for me: I wake up, I do my things, I go to bed, but every day is slightly different to before. It is slowly evolving. Film is something I find very beautiful when people use that, and in fairy tales and written fiction.

When I wrote this story, I was initially

“I SEE REPETITION AS SOMETHING WE LIVE DEEPLY ANYWAY, JUST BECAUSE OUR DAYS AND THE SEASONS HAVE A RHYTHM.” aware that he was not going to try and leave the island just once. He now tries to leave three times, and the fourth is in an incomplete raft.

There were going to be two more attempts originally, but it didn’t fit in the story, it became too repetitive.”

Given the reputation of Studio Ghibli, there will undoubtedly be many people excited to see how de Wit adds to the canon, and it would take a particularly cold heart not to be moved by this story. de Wit has long extolled Ghibli, and the way they “handle the presence of the mysterious”.

“It’s very easy to be mysterious, anyone can be mysterious. If there’s mystery in a fi lm, it’s very conscious, and it may not work with every spectator. But I think it should be clear that this mystery belongs there, it has its place, it has its beauty. It doesn’t have to be rationalised.

“We all know what life is, we all know what love is. But they're still naturally mysterious, and that’s the beauty of it. Of course, when you create a mysterious creature like the red turtle and do something mysterious with it, you want to

make sure the audience go along with that. And so when I sent the first draft to the producers at Studio Ghibli, I was very sensitive to how they would react to the idea. Often I see films in a similar way to how you follow music. You just go with the flow, and don’t say, ‘But why did they play this instrument at this moment? Why is there this change of rhythm?' You don’t ask these questions. You just get carried away by it.”

What: The Red Turtle opens in cinemas Thursday September 22

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A Midsummer Night's Dream photo by Hon Boey.

Midsummer Night’s Dream has a curious reputation. It’s part fantasy, part comedy, part drama, renowned for producing some rather questionable costuming over the ages. It’s also a tragic counterpart to the film Dead Poets Society, and in today’s age of incremental equality, has some rather dubious character motivations.

Yet out of all the works in Shakespeare’s canon, it remains one of the most charming and frequently performed, even some 425 years after its debut. Indeed, Emma Harvie thinks it may be exactly those disparate elements that have assured the story’s enduring appeal.

“I’m a relatively young actor in this industry, this is my first professional show, and I’m learning a lot from the actors around me," says Harvie.

"You learn different things with each director: you learn about your own sense of acting, and as an actor who at this point in my life wants to be a theatre actor, I’m learning a lot from the other actors in the cast – Paula Arundell, Bob Menzies, Susan Prior and Josh McConville.

“WE’VE TRIED TO FIND THE HUMOUR QUITE ORGANICALLY. I’M SURROUNDED BY A BUNCH OF REALLY FUNNY ACTORS, WHICH MAKES IT EASIER.”

arts in focus

Dauntless Movement Crew [DANCE] B-boying At The House By Joseph Earp urban environments, although Carbone describes it with the understated candour of a parkour veteran.

“Parkour is an art form which focuses on getting from one point to another,” he says, simply.

“We believe that it is becoming increasingly popular and people love to do it because it’s something different and provides an opportunity to express yourself through movement.”

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ontemporary dance gets an odd rap these days. It’s not that those who practice the art form are necessarily demonised – it’s more that they’re not really understood. Films like Step Up hold a disappointingly firm grip on modern cultural perceptions of the form, not to mention the stranglehold of rigid divides between so-called ‘high’ and ‘low' art. Indeed, for those who believe the pleasures to be found in say, ballet, are completely distinct from the delights of a good bash of breakdancing, an art form like breakdancing’s spin off sport, ‘b-boying’, will seem like a strange, not particularly ‘respectable’ mutant hybrid of disciplines.

in cognito throughout the crowd of well-wishers, only revealing themselves and their talents at a coordinated point in the ceremony during which they would form a circle and begin their insane, gravity-defying feats.

That’s where Dauntless Movement Crew come in. The young group of performers are dismissing myths and crushing stereotypes left, right and centre, proving that b-boying is not a form to be ignored or looked down on. For their next show, Jump First, Ask Later, the celebrated troupe of dancers are heading to the Sydney Opera House, proving that the world-famous venue need not merely be the home of tutus, librettists and snoots in suits.

Nonetheless despite all the hard work, the real key to the Dauntless Crew’s magic is their diversity.

Though they identify as b-boyers, their discipline touches on a number of disparate dance styles. Carbone credits the team’s individual backgrounds for this striking blend of subgenres. “We all started off in our own different art forms,” he says.

“Dauntless Movement Crew started as a group of friends hanging out in Fairfield, training as a hobby,” says performer Joseph Carbone of the group’s origins. “We decided to form a team and began doing small community festivals and events. That is when we realised our passion and decided to pursue a career in performing.”

From there, the crew began performing at private events and functions, even wowing with special, ‘undercover waiter’ shows at weddings. These gigs would see the performers disperse themselves

Obviously, that level of skill requires a ridiculous amount of training, and the Crew rarely have much time off.

“We train as a team at least four days a week,” explains performer Natalie Siri. “However we do our own individual training in addition to that.” The gang also prepare extensively before their shows, doing “at least thirty minutes of warm up and ten minutes of vocal training” before hitting the stage.

“Some of us were into b-boying, some of us were into parkour, and some were into martial arts tricking and gymnastics. Throughout training together, we have individually expanded on these different art forms. These days, we incorporate different styles of dance, including hip hop, contemporary dance and b-boying. However our shows are based on the style of b-boying.”

Of all the styles the gang adopt, parkour is probably the most en vogue at the moment, thanks largely to the volume of videos showcasing the style uploaded to YouTube daily. The highly athletic dance style involves performers running, jumping, sliding and flipping around

Of course, you can’t have dance without music, and a large part of the Dauntless Movement Crews’ show relies on the careful selection of tunes that perfectly fit the wild feats they perform. Carbone and Siri agree that the songs they select are “upbeat and mainstream” and that the key is selecting something that “the crowd can interact with”.

However, given how fast the crew are moving when they’re in the thick of a show, one has to wonder how aware they actually are of the audience. How can they possible tell what the audience are thinking and feeling while they’re doing backflips off each other? But the Crew are adamant: they feel the crowd. “We feed off their energy,” says Siri.

“And [it helps] that we can tell if they’re enjoying the shows based on whether or not they’re clapping and cheering. We also generally tend to get a lot of positive feedback from both the producers of the show and the spectators afterwards.”

But even if they didn’t receive direct accolades from their fans, they would still hold a distinction few other crews can claim: one of the coolest logos of all time. Better still, their ridiculously badarse red wolf emblem has a suitably cool origin story entirely of its own. “We were all out camping, working on development for a theatre show,” Siri explains.

“It was after midnight in the middle of nowhere and we were climbing rocks and hanging out as a team.

Everyone could hear a wolf howling but we weren’t sure whether it was real or if our minds were playing tricks on us, because it was dark and late and kind of spooky. After a few howls we decided to go and find the wolf, pretending we were a wolf pack, working together to find it. We never did, but it was a hilarious night together and we decided to keep that wolf with us always.”

What: Jump First, Ask Later Where: Sydney Opera House When: Thursday September 22 – Saturday October 2

■ Film

THE BEATLES: EIGHT DAYS A WEEK In cinemas now Ron Howard’s new documentary focuses on the legacy of The Beatles, specifically looking at their touring years from 1962 to 1966. The archival footage is as stirring as ever but unfortunately, despite the odd revelation, the film treads a familiar path.

While Howard may be an accomplished filmmaker, his delivery here is somewhat unwieldy. The focal point of the film is very US-centric, and it attempts to contextualise Beatlemania in relation to the assassination of JFK and the escalation of the Vietnam war.

In this area and in others, the film yields few revelations, a pity considering the unparalleled access the director had to archival footage.

Despite some wonderful snatches of restored footage, the narrative of the film is plagued by a series of somewhat random talking heads, all of them coming at the expense of acknowledging key players in the Beatles story. For example, barely any time is dedicated to pivotal manager Brian Epstein, a leader who engineered the group’s 25-city Pan-American tour and established the group’s dominance on both sides of the Atlantic.

Epstein drove the group to release a new single every three months and a new record every six, encouraging them to capitalise on their momentum.

Similarly, producer George Martin is relegated to a number

of short voiceovers, providing little more than a footnote to the story, despite the fact he was one of the tale’s key figures.

The Beatles use of drugs during the Swinging Sixties too is conveniently omitted from this nostalgia piece.

During the four-year stretch covered, the Fab Four played a gruelling 815 gigs in 15 different countries. Paul McCartney begins the film by jokingly telling one reporter that the band’s music, ‘is not culture, it’s a good laugh.’ By the end of the period however, John Lennon tells another reporter that ‘Help!’ resonates so deeply because it’s autobiographical.

It’s difficult to watch the Beatles-juggernaut unravel quickly in the wake of such a relentless schedule, culminating in the band ceasing to tour from 1966 through to their acrimonious split in 1970. The constant state of pandemonium surrounding the group is only quelled momentarily during the recording of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, an album that allows the band to distance themselves from their previous identity.

As McCartney comments, ‘By the end it became quite complicated, but in the beginning, things were really simple.’ The film harks back to a simpler time of happiness and self-discovery, where artists hadn’t been mediatrained to wring every last piece of personality out. To that end, Eight Days A Week is a largely enjoyable exercise but unfortunately doesn’t dig deep enough under the surface.

Tim Armitage

education profile WITH

CITY EAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE

W

hat makes you different?

City East Community College is your local, not-for-profi t college, offering something for every need. Our venues range from classrooms, community halls and even the great outdoors, and we can change your life for the better and introduce you to a vibrant community of learners.

Our diversity of subjects and commitment to making quality education accessible to all sets us apart from other providers. We have a course to suit all needs, whether you want to boost your career prospects, revitalise your small business, improve your personal fi tness, awaken your creativity or explore a new language and culture.

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Who are the teachers?

They are people who are genuinely passionate about their subject area. They’re just like you and me, with the added bonus of a specialisation. They have industry experience, relevant qualifi cations for their subject, a commitment to adult learning and perhaps best of all, they love to celebrate your success.

What else you need to know: We also have a range of free sustainability courses run in partnership with local councils, programs to assist mental health recovery, free and subsidised English. On top of all that, we’ve been doing this for a long time now.

Places are limited, so don’t delay.

Go to cityeastcc.com.au and find out more.

Take the next step: Just go to our website and browse through our amazing range of subjects. We’ve had CEOs learning to paint, bankers learning yoga and politicians learning to type. We’ve also seen seniors learn web design, refugees embark on a new career and young job seekers become accomplished public speakers.

Enrolment dates: We are now accepting enrolment into our spring program of courses.

Address: 98 Bondi Road, Bondi Junction, NSW 2022. Courses are located throughout the Inner City and East region.

Phone: (02) 9387 7400 Email: enrol@cityeastcc.com.au

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film reviews

out & about Queer(ish) matters with Arca Bayburt

■ Film

SULLY In cinemas now If you’ve ever been on a plane and things have begun shaking too bloody much, then this film is most definitely for you. Sully is an hour and thirty six minutes of visceral aviation pangs, starring the one and only Tom Hanks.

Sully tells the ‘untold’ true story of Flight 1549 from LaGuardia Airport, a plane that ended up in the Hudson river with every single one of its 155 passengers alive. Told from the perspective of the man who executed the landing, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the film is a raw look at a heroic man.

Context is key when it comes to appreciating Sully: the Hudson river landing occurred in 2009, some eight years after 9/11, and to see the movie as one inherently touched by American patriotism and defiance against the odds may help to overcome some of the trite elements found within the scripting and dialogue.

At times it feels as though the movie overplays itself, and occasionally the moments of great, vivid drama take away slightly from the narrative. Hanks is always a little too smooth; he never seems to fray.

To that end the film is unashamedly positive, a beam of hope, and it gives us a true hero to hold onto in the midst of a world ravaged by death, pain and disorder. But pockets of trite aside, the movie does prove incredibly affecting. Flight 1549 lost two engines at an incredibly low altitude, a situation that immediately put 150 lives into Sully’s hands, and director Clint Eastwood works hard to make you empathise with the pilot. Much of the film’s plot focuses around an inquest into Sully’s actions, and before long he is being acutely and brutally judged.

Throughout it all, Eastwood ensures that you are entirely on Sully’s side – your heart is mixed up with him and his lot – and the investigation’s lead commissioner is openly posited as the film’s villain.

Yet though Sully is the focus, by the film’s conclusion it branches out, and takes aim at other targets, in the process delivering a powerful dose of humility and humanism, highlighting the collective bravery and professionalism of New York city’s emergency response teams This is a feel good film, with some stellar acting, big stakes and big feels.

Amy Henderson

The Plebiscite: Reloaded Welcome back, concerned citizens!

The most useless and expensive straw poll ever conceived has made a triumphant return! The Cabinet has approved a plan to provide funding to the tune of seven and a half million dollars to each side of the marriage equality debate in the lead up to the Saturday February 11 plebiscite.

That’s right. The government is going to fund an anti-gay campaign. Now before you tell me I’m being unfair because the “yes” side is getting funding too, let go of your pearls and read this carefully: the government is literally going to fund an anti-gay campaign, with a $1,500 cap on tax-deductible donations. The problem here is that churches don’t have to pay tax, so this cap isn’t applicable to them.

This means that individuals can donate big money to their churches who will then donate to the “no” campaign. We’re all on this horse together, galloping psychotically through hell.

Now, Labor understandably wants to stymie the Coalition’s plans for the plebiscite to go ahead, evidently because a campaign such as this will absolutely cause damage to queer people, especially youths. Bill Shorten said it himself, “Let me be as blunt as possible: a ‘no’ campaign would be an emotional torment for gay teenagers, and if one child commits suicide over the plebiscite, then that is one too many.”

Ever the charismatic raconteur, Malcolm Turnbull addressed this concern in a soundbite so thick with smarm it’s a miracle he didn’t suffocate while gurgling out his response: “If the Labor Party wants to frustrate that, well all that will mean is that the resolution of the same-sex marriage issue will be postponed potentially for a very long time.”

So with Turnbull determined to valiantly squeeze out this uncomfortable turd, damn the naysayers: the rest of us will have to deal with the impending splash back in a political climate that’s already so absurd I have a hard time believing it’s real. I mean Pauline Hanson merely substituted the word “Asian” with “Muslim” in her maiden speech just a few days ago and then said, “Australia needs a national government, not a corporate one, not a union one, and not an alternative lifestyle one.” An alternative lifestyle government? Please explain?

The hostility is real, not imagined. Queers aren’t being sensitive little flowers: we’re

this week…

about to be publicly persecuted for an extended period of time on a national level. Sensationalist idiots like Hanson and her feckless goons get plenty of airtime spouting hateful shit that the disgusting bigoted, racist underbelly of Australian society all agree with. We’re already stewing in hate and now the foundations have been laid bare: just look at the Safe Schools fiasco. And now we’ve got a government-funded campaign against people who live “alternative lifestyles” and it’s going to dial this hate waaay up.

People are going to suffer. Queers are going to be told that they’re paedophiles, unfit parents, unfit teachers, unfit people.

We’re going to be told that we are dangerous, damaging and wrong. We’re going to be told that we are subhuman while being forced to pander to those who deign to give our mangled human rights even a moment of consideration.

We’re going to have to do that same old assimilationist rain dance to save ourselves.

We’re going to have to prove our humanity, because it will be assumed we have none.

We will need to somehow demonstrate that we are human beings worthy of rights and protections and freedoms.

In order to pacify the rabid, numbskulled masses who’ll be fighting to protect their “way of life” from big scary queers, we’re going to have to do some pathetic, saccharine reenactment of human foibles so they can recognise themselves in and identify with us. It’s gonna be the same old, “Hey, we’re people too. We pay bills, mow our lawns, wash dishes, drive cars, have jobs. Hell we even breathe oxygen! We’ve also adapted to Earth’s atmosphere! We have so much in common!”

What’s this endless parade of national vitriol going to do to some 15-year-old queer?

If this plebiscite goes ahead, we’re going to see some even nastier shit. We’re already hearing it. Gird your loins, my alternative lifestyle brethren, for this is only the beginning.

PS: It’s that time again. We must vote in our new Mardi Gras overlords, AKA Board of directors. Mardi Gras members can vote for directors, get discounted tickets and early offers to events and parties. Ollie Henderson and Kat Dopper are among the few ladies who have put their hands up to be on the board, so if you want to have a say in how Mardi Gras is run, go vote!

Pauline Pantsdown

From Tuesday September 20 to Sunday September 25, get down to Event Cinemas on George Street to see some fabulous queer films for the Queer Screen Film Fest.

On Thursday September 22, Midnight Shift is hosting a panel discussion on marriage equality called Q&Gay: How To Win Marriage Equality. The panelists will include: Cat Rose, Sally Rugg, Shirleene Robinson, Nic Holas, Norrie and Simon Hunt (also known as Pauline Pantsdown).

On Friday September 23, The Sydney Hellfire Club makes its return after a long, cold winter with Spring Fever at Midnight Shift. Dress code is

The Intervention at Queerscreen

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No Effort, No Entry. It’ll be a night of amazing music and sensational performances set against a backdrop of 23 years of Hellfire’s visual history playing out on some big screens.

Oh, and here’s one for all you Bette Midler fans – a celebration of Midler’s life and work is heading to the Oxford Hotel. You Bette will feature songs an stories, so make sure you leave Saturday September 24 free and head on over.

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

ALBUM OF THE WEEK THE HARD ACHES

melodies with lines like “I planned to be dead and buried / by my mid, my mid to late twenties”.

Indeed, the whole EP is full of cathartic choruses scientifically engineered to hypnotise the heaving masses in venues around Australia.

I Freak Out feels a lot like a debut album; although it’s only six songs long, it’s a release that says more than its length would suggest. It cements The Hard Aches as a band to watch, while cramming emotionally and musically dense content into every second, leaving the release bursting at the seams.

Closing track ‘Alcohol And Cigarettes’ is an album highlight, a stark and honest set of stream-ofconsciousness lyrics by frontman Ben David paired with a dynamic and shifting backing track.

As good as The Hard Aches are with anthemic choruses, they can also hit you in the gut with the same intensity.

I Freak Out Anchorhead

The Hard Aches are here to drop incredible albums and chew gum.

And they’re all out of gum.

After slimming the band down to a two-piece a few years back, The Hard Aches have gotten their brand of emo-infleunced indie rock down to a fine art. Look no further than lead single ‘Glad That You’re Gone’, a tune that blends indelible chorus

I Freak Out packs melodies and energy into one hard-to-resist package.

Spencer Scott

FLYYING COLOURS

PREOCCUPATIONS

HARTS

CERES

Mindfullness is a rich, glowing stream awash with light: a summery escape and a shoegazey work of art.

The first release under the name Preoccupations (the band FKA Viet Cong) sees the Canadian post-punk quartet dial in on a newfound sonic identity. While angular guitar streaks were massaged with beaming synth lines in their 2015 debut, ’80s-era synth hooks and overarching melodies now take pole position in Preoccupations.

Regarded as one of the most exciting new additions to Australia’s rock scene, Harts has delivered the record we’ve all been been waiting for. Though his sound is marked out by deliberate invocations of the psychedelic soul power of the ’60s it also mixes in the indie-rock stylings of a more recent time.

Already hitting album number two, Melbourne’s Ceres truly impress with Drag It Down On You.

Mindfullness Universal Music Australia

Melbourne’s Flyying Colours have stumbled on the perfect album title for their music: their sound is wholly arresting in the moment, but deeply introspective and even therapeutic.

Mindfullness’ sea of distortion drags you in with the tidal force of ‘It’s Tomorrow Now’ and sweeps you off to a brighter place in ‘When’.

Brodie J Brümmer and Gemma O’Connor wear their infl uences on their sleeves, calling back to the vocals of Sonic Youth while establishing their own synergy.

The duo’s fuzzy guitars create a palimpsest of shimmering waves around and through their harmonies, buoyed by sharp drum fi lls and punchy bass lines.

Don’t miss seeing this album live – the humble quartet create something truly special with their new material, something close to euphoria. Mindfullness is the perfect placeholder until they return.

David Molloy

Preoccupations Jagjaguwar / Inertia

Opening track ‘Anxiety’ is wrapped in an uneasiness and murkiness, and the croakiness of the vocals prove stark and tense.

‘Zodiac’ is where the band’s stylistic change starts to take shape, as the track kicks of with pumping danceera synth. It only takes the next tune ‘Memory’, for this new musical direction to truly crystallise: the song rapidly spins into an upbeat, dancedemanding groove.

There’s glistening synth, a melodic and punchy-as-hell bassline from Flegel, and emotive vocal glances. It’s a truly anthemic track, and it punches upwards while staying true to the band’s uncanny knack for creating intricate instrumental textures.

With only nine songs on the album, each needs to be treated as sacrosanct; treasured and cherished. For the most part, Preoccupations have made every moment of their second LP count.

The payoff is huge.

Chris Scott

Smoke Fire Hope Desire Dew Process / Universal Music Australia

After being eased into the experience through ‘Smoke (Intro)’, ‘Fear In Me’ drops you right in the thick of it.

‘Hope’, by contrast, begins with the inspiring opening line, “Others discourage / They don’t understand what we can achieve with a little bit of hope.” The track binds a driving electronic arrangement with an electric guitar section that’ll send shivers down any music lover’s spine, while ‘Desire’ sits as one of the album’s most dynamic tunes. A synthesiser mimics a string section while a ghostly vocal asks, “Am I a slave to the world? Or am I spiritually free?” while piano keys trickle around it.

Although the entirety of the record demands your time and attention, if you were forced to choose just a few tracks to serve as a taster, you can’t go past the almost sevenminute-long ‘Ain’t Too Far Gone’, an incredible showcase of a whole slew of talents.

Phoebe Robertson

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK Plini is that rare kind of guitar virtuoso: the kind with utterly stunning technical chops rivalled only by his compositional sense. For some guitarists that means writing catchy songs with traditional forms, but in Plini’s case it means every track evolves and grows like an orchestral piece or soundtrack.

PLINI

Handmade Cities Independent/Bandcamp

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On his admittedly short debut fulllength album, Plini further develops the compositional brilliance of his EPs. The soundscapes are lush and the rhythms are addictively physical drum-along-in-the-car’ tracks, but what stands out most is the lyrical confidence and melodic strength of Plini’s guitar playing.

It’s also a very diverse record: if you’re into metal you’ll be instantly at home with the power of the guitar rhythms, but if you’re approaching from more of a modern alt-rock direction you’ll appreciate the textures and melodies.

Essentially, you don’t need to be a guitar nerd to get something out of this record: you merely need to be a music lover, someone who appreciates rhythms and powerful, cheese wire taut choruses.

Plini is still incredibly early into his career and if he’s making music of such world-class quality on his first full-length record, then, well we’re in for a hell of a journey.

Drag It Down On You Cooking Vinyl Australia

‘‘91, Your House’ is a blistering bag of emotion, while the screamed chorus, “I’m a piece of shit” has all the kind of naked self-criticism that will resonate with anyone who has ever doubted themselves – AKA, everyone.

‘Laundry Echo’ is filled with catchy riffs, with the tune bringing drummer Frank Morda’s work to the very forefront while further exposing the pleading nature of Tom Lanyon’s vocal style.

Elsewhere, the sexually-charged ‘Choke’ is a real album highlight.

The guitar work is tremendously impressive, with the vocals once again impressing. Lanyon isn’t afraid to show the flaws in his voice and push his limits, adding extreme emotion to each song, particularly ‘Nothing On Your Shoulders’, yet another highlight on a stellar album.

Drag It Down On You should cement Ceres’ reputation as one of the most exciting bands in the Australian music scene: particularly for those who like their alternative rock to come with a raw, emotional edge.

Alexander Crowden

MORGAN DELT Phase Zero Sub Pop / Inertia

Treating your ears to Morgan Delt’s homegrown kaleidoscopic melodiousness is akin to taking a sip from a cool glass of ’60s psych. The record kicks off with the powerful ‘I Don’t Wanna See What’s Happening Outside’. The dreamy, near-ethereal track is leisurely paced, acting as the perfect preface for a 39-minute escapade through a host of imagined worlds. A pensive finish to the song then melds into ‘The System of 1000 Lies’, a powerful tune dominated by an authoritarian sitar chord.

Delt takes a step back in ‘Another Person’, a track which proves clean but uninspired: unfortunately it’s monotonous, and doesn’t feel like it achieves very much. It’s at this point, in fact, that the record begins to slip, and ‘Sun Powers’ is a strange trip through some pretty unfulfilling, derivative territory.

That said, things are saved by the outstanding psych pop finale, ‘Some Sunsick Day’. Vocals often lost throughout the rest of the record come to the fore in what is the album’s most exuberant number, capping off proceedings on a high.

Ultimately, Phase Zero is a portrait of Delt’s maturation but there’s something lacking: it never quite feels complete.

Tom Parker

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

THE ORB - Orblivion THE FALL - Dragnet THE WHO - Tommy

THE JAM - In The City THE THE - Soul Mining

Peter Hodgson

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live reviews

game on

What we’ve been out to see...

Gaming news and reviews with Adam Guetti

If you thought September was busy, your pile of shame is going to grow a whole lot bigger in October. 3DS fans are first up, with the release of Sonic Boom: Fire And Ice on Saturday October 1. The blue hedgehog hasn’t had a lot of luck lately, so hopefully this can finally steer the ship back on course.

2016

Jump ahead to Friday October 7 and things get a lot more adult. Mafi a III (PS4, XBO, PC) sends the popular gangster series to a fictionalised 1960s New Orleans where it’s you vs the Italian mob for control of the streets.

Meanwhile, action fans should hold out for Tuesday October 11. That’s because Xbox One gamers will finally be able to shoot down a brand new foe in Gears Of War 4, while PS4 owners will be able to continue Lara Croft’s adventure in Rise Of The Tomb Raider.

On Thursday October 13 however, the gaming landscape changes with the release of PlayStation VR. Designed specifically for PS4, the device will bring virtual reality to the mainstream with a slew of brand new games and experiences.

Wrapping things up on Friday October 28 is both The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition (PS4, XBO) and Titanfall 2 (PS4, XBO, PC). The former will add of prettier coat of paint onto one of 2011’s best, while the latter takes everything you loved about the original Titanfall then improves upon it with a new single-player campaign.

PlayStation Goes Pro

The long-rumoured PlayStation Neo has finally been unveiled as the PS4 Pro. Designed to provide a greater experience for hardcore gamers, the Pro will pack in a 1TB hard drive, double the original’s GPU power, and boast a boosted CPU clock rate. This will allow the console to reach resolutions not possible on the current model.

NEWS

SEP

New Releases

“Our goal is to deliver high-fidelity graphical experiences,” said PS4 Lead Systems Architect Mark Cerny at the reveal. “We aim to provide developers with tools to further their visions.”

Though the console will not feature a 4K Blu-ray drive, there will be a new Netflix app with 600 hours of 4K content to stream: provided you have an incredibly speedy connection, that is.

Run, Mario, Run

Forget about the death of the headphone jack, because the big news out of Apple’s iPhone 7 reveal was Nintendo’s beloved plumber finally making the jump to mobiles. Yes, Super Mario Run will grace your iPhones and iPads in mere months.

FOY VANCE, KYLE LIONHART

The Basement Wednesday September 14 “Tonight’s a special night,” explained the amiable Basement doorman to punters heading down the stars into the venue.

“It’s an Irish night.” Indeed, there was a large contingent of our Irish brethren out for County Down’s Foy Vance, lending the venue the feel of a Celtic singing hall.

The whisky chasers flowed freely as punters looked for a pick-me-up after Kyle Lionhart’s short set of sad songs.

In the space of a mere thirty minutes we learned of his four-year battle with depression, his sister’s meth addiction and the day he had to beg his wife not to leave him after a long tour.

By contrast, the combination of Vance’s bluesy piano tinkerings and voice – a complex mix of soothing tone, rasp and condensed Nor’n Irish vowel sounds – was immediately uplifting. Backed by a single drummer who often deployed

Designed with mobile devices in mind, Super Mario Run is an endless runner within the Mario universe – requiring players to tap the phone in order to jump and dodge enemies. According to Nintendo, the simplicity should allow gamers to easily play with a single hand.

It’s worth noting that unlike Pokémon GO, the game will not be free to play – Nintendo promise a one-time fee with no further purchases. It’s currently scheduled for a holiday release on iOS devices, while Android users will unfortunately have to wait a little longer.

nothing but a lone bass drum, Vance trilled lyrics such as “I will find my means to an end / With an open heart in hold and a closed hand, full of friends”, filling the room with a hopeful urgency.

His love letter to home, ‘Bangor Town’, conjured a sad longing for an overdue family reunion, yet he cut the tension with a little Irish charm, stopping the mood from getting too heavy. “The only time you’ll hear an Irishman singing sentimental songs about home: when he’s nowhere fucking near it,” he quipped.

Safe covers of ‘Never Tear Us Apart’ and ‘Purple Rain’ provided an opportunity for a sing along while bottles emptied, before the show closed in the same way as the album, with a hymn-like version ‘The Wild Swans On The Lake’.

But once again, Vance didn’t allow us to disappear into our own thoughts for too long. Over the crowd’s meditative hums, he announced in song, “A baby’s on the way / Second of March 2017, folks!”

Another whiskey? Ah, go on then.

David Wild

Review: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (PS4, XBO, PC)

I

n the world of Deus Ex – a cyberpunk interpretation of our future – cybernetic enhancements are par for the course. Need some new body parts? Too easy; just replace them with augmentations and not only will your woes be solved, you’ll also become far superior to your slower, weaker self. The only catch: you’ll be classed as an ‘Aug’ – a group not everybody within this new-age society is so willing to accept.

By the conclusion of 2011’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, The Aug Incident had taken place, resulting in the death of millions at the hands of these enhanced individuals. Cut to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’s 2029 setting and Augs have since been deemed as outcasts, relegated to a life of segregation.

Adam Jensen is one such outcast. The only difference is that he’s also an uncover Interpol operative who must use his state-of-the-art toolset to unravel a worldwide conspiracy. It’s a setup that sounds more exciting than the final narrative actually becomes; a slightly disappointing reality, particularly considering the calibre of its predecessor.

Much like its 2011 older brother, however, what it opens the door for is far more interesting. Part shooter, part RPG, the game hinges on choice, with key decisions becoming paramount in preventing a serious terrorist attack.

PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR

As a result, most missions and objectives can be tackled the way you see fit. When presented with a keypad, for example, do you choose to hack into the system and open it yourself, utilise a single-use tool, or take on every nearby guard in an attempt to find a key card in the wild?

This level of freedom is strongly backed up by the game’s skill system, allowing you to upgrade Jensen’s augmentations to match your desired play style. Should you want to survive longer on the battlefield, maybe look into pumping up Adam’s health bar, or hold out for a more substantial skin shield that soaks up incoming damage. Alternatively, if you’re after something more blatantly aggressive, take a gander at the arm-mounted nanoblade launcher, one that will pierce flesh and armour with ease, often pinning corpses to the closest wall.

This is what makes Deus Ex: Mankind Divided so enjoyable: freedom. Few games allow such wildly varied opportunities, so if you’ve been looking to save the world, Adam Jensen is ready and waiting.

Adam Guetti

THE DEAD LOVE, RICK DANGEROUS AND THE SILKIE BANTAMS Bald Faced Stag Friday September 16

It’s rare that you go to a show and find yourself wishing the main support were the headliners, but that’s exactly what happened at the Bald Faced Stag on Friday. Support act Rick Dangerous And The Silkie Bantams outright stole the show, playing a set packed full of comedic flavour and an extremely tight sound. The band delivered impressively high-energy rock songs about masturbation, thrusting and all manner of other impious topics, demonstrating nothing if not lyrical prowess.

While their music is composed of the most basic of melodies and isn’t especially pioneering, audiences get double the entertainment with this band.

With lead singer Rick’s toilet humour and dad-like dancing, the band looked more like extras from The Office than anything else.

Indeed, there’s a kind of down-to-earth, dirty humour to the group, and while they’re not a novelty band, they certainly have the air of the troublemaker about

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them; they are unafraid of taking the piss out of both their audience and themselves.

They sashayed through a slew of entertaining songs, with set highlights including the pulsating ‘Bruja’ and the tantalising ‘Bully Wank’, both tunes generating a contagious energy throughout the packed room. Make no mistake: these boys are damn entertaining. Remember their name.

Love was well and truly alive when The Dead Love took to the stage: the audience emphatically sang, screamed and cheered for their grunge-punk vibes, presented amid a haze of long hair. You don’t even have to know the band to fall head-over-heels in love with the lull of their beat. New drummer Miles Cochrane absolutely killed it on songs from their impressive new album So Whatever, the album’s title track and ‘99’ proving standouts in the set.

Though Rick Dangerous had said his band were “riding on the coat-tails” of The Dead Love, in actuality, these bands were each soaring in their own right, turning out passionate, powerful sets.

Anna Wilson

BRAG :: 681 :: 21:09:16 :: 27

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VIEW FULL GALLERIES AT

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Manning Bar Saturday September 17 Still battling through a Friday hangover?

Fear not – Hostile Objects and Creative Adult will perk you up in an instant. Hostile trade in furious, rapid-fire hardcore that completely belies their latearvo timeslot, while Adult are a curious blend of Crazy Horse-inspired protogrunge jamming and sprawling postpunk, and even when they’re down a guitarist, they’re far from disadvantaged.

Meanwhile, Cayetana’s scrappy, earnest take on melodic punk is the kind that can instantly win people over – that is, of course, accounting for those not already enamoured with them to the point of boisterously singing lyrics back to the bandmembers. This trend continues through the following sets from The Hard Aches and Camp Cope – the latter band in particular are almost thrown off entirely by how loudly their words are reciprocated. With both acts having put their names to killer 2016 releases, it’s a truly exciting time to be watching each in action as their respective stars continue to rise.

Rozwell Kid are proudly the day’s uncoolest band and, raised on Cheap

Trick and Weezer, they play power-pop with a sugar rush and a mile-wide grin.

They work their magic and have the crowd eating out of the palm of their hands, with help from The Bennies’ Craig Selak and the best guitar power-stances you’re likely to see all year. Placing Pity Sex after this would seem a bit of a vibe-killer, given their more introspective, reserved nature. Still, they’re equally as impressive in a very different way – they not only showcase the lineup’s versatility, but also how well the band has adapted and recovered in the wake of guitarist Britty Drake’s departure.

It all ends in a blaze of glory care of High Tension and The Bennies.

Though the two may come from polar-opposite sonic spectrums – one a break-neck beatdown of brutality, the other a weed-toking, hot-boxing love-in – they end up complementing one another beautifully. They raise the energy in the room to a new peak and ensure it stays there right to the very end – which comes with Bennies frontman Anty Horgan crowdsurfing his way out into the middle of the room to share a spliff with a fellow punter.

If you’re not loving life by now, you’re simply at the wrong damn show.

David James Young

mike noga

PICS :: AM

I LOVE LIFE

up all night out all week . . .

pity sex PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR

28 :: BRAG :: 681 :: 21:09:16

PICS :: AM

16:09:16 :: Brighton Up Bar :: 1/77 Oxford St Darlinghurst 9361 3379

15:09:16 :: Newtown Social Club :: 387 King St Newtown 9550 3974

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

pick of the week DZ Deathrays

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

SUNDAY S E P T E M BER 2 5 Wilbar L Wilb Lane

Sounds Of The Suburbs - feat: DZ Deathrays + Guantanamo Baywatch + Peter Bibby and more 12pm. $64.98 WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 21 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Andrew Dickeson Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. $10.

Nelson Freire Plays Schumann

Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 7pm. $39.

The Darren Heinrich Trio Play Bar, Surry Hills.

8pm. Free.

The Fever Pitch feat: Special Guests The Hideaway Bar, Enmore. 8pm. Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES &

Kay Camargo + Paul Davison + Phil Marino + Luke Collings + Wally Byrne + Zer0fret + Kenneth D'Aran + Paul B Mynor + Russell Neal Town Hall Hotel, Balmain. 7:30pm. Free.

The Bean Project + Maia Marsh + PJ Orr The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $7.

FOLK

Ana Popovic The Basement, Circular Quay. 7pm. $39.60.

Manouche Wednesday - feat.

Gadjo Guitars Mr Falcon's, Glebe.

7pm. Free.

Michael Gorham Duo Old Dave's Soul, Coogee. 7pm. Free.

Songsonstage feat: Bill Hunt +

Amarillo + Darren Cross + Jep And Dep Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7pm. Free.

Below Oceans - feat: Ghosts Of Pandora + Liability + Lowgazer Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10.

Enter Shikari + Hacktivist + Stories Metro Theatre, Sydney.

7:30pm. $69.90.

Monsieur Camembert Presents Famous Blue Cheese - An Evening Of Leonard Cohen Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 7pm. $48.

Paul Winn Duo Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

9pm. Free.

Why We Run + Body Type Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington. 8pm. Free.

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 22 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Darren Heinrich Duo Old Dave's Soul, Coogee. 7pm. Free.

Jazz At The Cellar feat: Edward Lyons Cake Wines Cellar Door, Redfern. 5pm.

Free.

John Maddox Co Sappho Books, Cafe And Bar, Sydney. 7pm.

Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Anthony Charlton Australian Arms Hotel, Penrith. 8:30pm. Free.

Cope Street Parade Django Bar @ Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 6pm. $18.

Dr Taos Mr Falcon's, Glebe.

8:30pm. Free.

Harbourview Hulabaloo - feat: Zack Martin + Chris Brookes + Kenneth D'Aran Harbourview Hotel, The Rocks. 7pm. Free.

Ina Maka + Bunk Brothers Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 9pm. $10.

Kenta Hayashi Play Bar, Surry Hills.

9pm. Free.

Shake The Shackles The Little Guy, Glebe.

8pm. Free.

Sunset Sessions The Bristol Arms Hotel, Sydney. 6pm.

Free.

The Polka Kings The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $7.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Alex Lloyd Brass Monkey, Cronulla. 7pm. $34.70.

Brad Johns Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor.

6:30pm. Free.

Coven Presents (Howlers) - feat: Scabz + Billie Rose + Imperial Broads + Catlyf Red Rattler, Marrickville. 7pm. $10.50.

Dog The Duke, Swap To Sahara, Night Kite The Hideaway Bar, Enmore. 8pm. Free.

Live Band Karaoke Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain. 9pm. Free.

Matt Jones Duo Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. Free.

Monsieur Camembert Presents Famous Blue Cheese - An Evening Of Leonard Cohen - feat: Monsiuer Camembert Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 7pm. $48.

Queens Of The Stone Age Tribute Show feat: Queen & The Stone Age + Dookie Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10.

Rackett Selina's, Coogee.

8:30pm. Free.

Rolo Tomassi The Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt. 8pm. $20.

Rolo Tomassi + Belle Haven + Gvrlls + Watchtowers The Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt. 8pm. $20.

Thunder Fox + Breizers + Majun Bu Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington. 8:30pm.

Free.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 23 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Annick Gouw + John & Yuki Well Co. Cafe And Wine Bar, Leichhardt.

8pm. Free.

Funk Engine Mr Falcon's, Glebe.

9pm. Free.

Nelson Freire Plays Schumann Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 8pm. $37.

The Regent Street Big Band Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8pm. $15.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

A Tribute To The Music Of John Farnham - feat: Whispering Jack Show Revesby Workers Club, Revesby.

8:30pm. Free.

Alex Lahey Moonshine Cider & Rum Bar, Manly. 8pm.

Free.

Alex Lloyd The Basement, Circular Quay. 7:30pm. $34.50.

Anthony Callea Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8pm. $45.

Art Party 4 Year Anniversary - feat: Dubarray + Rhythm Hunters + Candy Royalle + Junkyard Beats + Ungus Ungus Ungus + Rainee + Deepsea Lights + Maitri + Mandala + My Sisco Electro Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $39.70.

Blow Colonial Hotel, Werrington. 9pm. Free.

Circles The Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt. 8pm. Free.

City Calm Down + Ali Barter Metro Theatre, Sydney.

8pm. $30.90.

Diesel Rooty Hill Rsl Club,

Rooty Hill. 7:30pm. $40.

DJ Mickey St Johns Park Bowling Club, St Johns Park.

8pm. Free.

Gavin James Plan B Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $42.70.

Hits & Pieces Trio Club Engadine, Engadine. 8pm. Free.

James Rietdijk Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor.

11pm. Free.

Matt Lyon The Oriental Hotel, Springwood. 8pm.

Free.

Melody Pool + Peter Bibby Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $18.

Old School Band Penrith RSL, Penrith.

9pm. Free.

Purple Doves Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 7:30pm. $23.

Reckless Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 10pm. $5.

The Australian Blink 182 Show Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor.

9pm. Free.

The Grand Union + Rig + Swamp Ash + Black Knuckles + Eight Ball Junkies The Hideaway Bar, Enmore. 8pm. Free.

They Call Me Bruce Quakers Inn, Quakers Hill. 8pm. Free.

Waax Waywards, Newtown.

9pm. Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

"Split 7" Launch" feat: J M S Harrison + Cabin Inn + Key Out + Lisa Caruso The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $7.

Emad Younan Sappho Books, Cafe And Bar, Sydney. 7pm.

Free.

Matt Ross & The Gospel Storm Trio Old Dave's Soul, Coogee. 8pm. Free.

Simon Kinny-Lewis + PJ O'Brien Django Bar @ Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 6pm. $23.

Sunset Sessions The Bristol Arms Hotel, Sydney. 6pm.

Free.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Michael Dimarco Sappho Books, Cafe And Bar, Sydney. 7pm.

Free.

No.4 Band (Tim Oxley) The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $10.

Rat & Co + DJs Cake Wines Cellar Door, Redfern. 5pm. $16.67.

Songsonstage feat: Russell Neal + Watchmore + Kenneth D'Aran Orange Grove Hotel, Lilyfield . 7pm. Free.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Lyre Byrdland Play Bar, Surry Hills.

8pm. Free.

Mick Reid + John & Yuki Well Co. Cafe And Wine Bar, Leichhardt.

8pm. Free.

Nelson Freire Plays Schumann Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 8pm. $37.

Peter Dasent & Friends The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 3pm. $7.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Apocalyptica Metro Theatre, Sydney.

8pm. $67.

Bird Yard Big Band Penrith RSL, Penrith.

2pm. Free.

Blake Tailor Duo Penrith Panthers, Penrith. 9pm. Free.

Cath & Him Town Hall Hotel (balmain), Balmain.

9:30pm. Free.

Craig Thommo Orient Hotel, The Rocks.

5:45pm. Free.

Crossroad Picton Bowling Club, Picton. 8:30pm. Free.

DJ Imatt Rooty Hill RSL Club, Rooty Hill. 8:30pm.

Free.

Dragon Ettamogah Hotel, Rouse Hill. 8pm. $30.

Green Beaver + Squeezers Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. $15.

Hiaground Old Dave's Soul, Coogee. 8pm. Free.

five things WITH Growing Up I was more into engineering 1. and building shit as a kid: my old

man had a record player and I was just fascinated by the mechanics and how the thing worked. I’d play the same LP by some average ’80s punk band every night just to watch it spin around under the stylus.

Inspirations 2.

One day on the way to work I heard over the radio that Fiji

had won its first gold medal at the Olympics in the rugby sevens. To celebrate they formed a circle in the middle of the field and sang ‘E Da Sa Qaqa’, a traditional gospel song. I tore the internet apart and managed to track down the full thebrag.com

HARRY COULSON

recording: it hit me right in the guts.

They sang with no ego and their voices were powerful, humble and authentic.

Your Band We’re proper musos – we’ve 3. all done our time in pit orchestras,

big bands and touring groups.

We’ve done our fair share of festival gigs too, along with shit weddings and all-night party gigs.

We can all read music and play at least two instruments. We’ve played with everyone from A-grade hacks to B-grade celebrities and we’ve blown every cent we earned in the process on beer, whisky, video games and motorbikes.

The Music You Make Blues done the punk way, 4. with stories told the long way about

lessons learnt the hard way. No drum machines, no samples, no synth, no loop stations… No bullshit.

Music, Right Here, Right Now 5.

I don’t like how inoffensive music has

gotten. Music now is like Hollywood actors that have had too much botox and can’t show any facial expressions.

The emphasis is on production, effects, smoke and mirrors, all at the expense of substance. Nonetheless, you will find some of the finest musicians in the world living here in Sydney: people like Aaron Flower, Tim Firth, James Muller, and Rai

Thistlethwayte. There are some cracking bands here too: groups like Ocean Alley. They’re crews who can write top music and have the prowess over their instruments to finish the job. They are a dying breed, which is why we need to back them when they come along. Do your part: shun

venues that put on shitty DJs and go see a live band, or else we’ll cancel Christmas. I mean it.

What: The Blue Dogs album tour Where: Old Growler When: Friday September 30 BRAG :: 681 :: 21:09:16 :: 29

g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Holy Balm + Enderie + Phone + Sex Havers DJs Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $15.

Immolation Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm. $55.60.

Kris Mcintyre Plough & Harrow, Camden. 8pm. Free.

Mothers Of Rock The Henry Sports Club, Werrington County. 7:30pm. Free.

Panorama Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 10pm. $5.

Peabody + Julia Why? + Sachet Botany View Hotel, Newtown. 8pm. Free.

Songwriters In The Round - feat: Dan Mac + Leah Flanagan + Bernie Hayes + Sam Buckingham Bondi Pavilion Theatre, Bondi Beach. 7:30pm.

Free.

Soundbird Penrith RSL, Penrith.

9pm. Free.

Stephanie Lea Penrith Panthers, Penrith. 5pm. Free.

Holy Balm + Enderie + Phone + Sex Havers DJs Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $15.

The Matchbox Tribute Show Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale. 9pm. Free.

The Search Party The Bunker, Coogee.

8pm. Free.

The Smiths Tribute - feat: Steve Kilbey + The Maladies + Mr Blonde + J M S Harrison + Christine Jane + Theories Of Everything + Panic Syndrome + More Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 7:30pm. $18.

The Smooth Groove Revesby Workers Club, Revesby.

8:30pm. Free.

The Vanns + Verge Collection + White Blanks Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $12.

Tribute To Crowded House/Split Enz/

Hoodoo Gurus - feat: Australian Trilogy North Bondi Rsl, Bondi North. 8pm. Free.

Vera Blue + Lanks + Lastlings Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 1:35pm. $33.80.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 25 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Global Rhythms Music Festival feat: The Strides + Joseph Tawadros Quartet + Grace Barbe Afro-Kreol + Ajak Kwai + Declan Kelly Presents Diesel N' Dub + Afrobrasiliana Soundsystem + Miriam Lieberman Trio + Emily Wurramara Bicentennial Park, Glebe. 12pm. $32.50.

Judy Bailey's Jazz Connection Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 6:30pm.

Free.

Nancy Sinatra Lee Hazlewood Experience Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 6:30pm. $23.

Oscar Flores Old Dave's Soul, Coogee. 2pm. Free.

The Unity Hall Jazz Band Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain. 4pm. Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Fred Smith Django Bar @ Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 1:30pm. $23.

Heath Burdell Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain. 3pm. Free.

Live & Original @ Grind Espresso -

feat: Nikita Rolleston + Lauren Anne + Pippa Wright + Kealy Day Grind Espresso, Cronulla. 5:30pm.

Free.

Live Music Sundays - feat: Sydney Blues Society Botany View Hotel, Newtown. 6pm. Free.

Songsonstage - feat: Andrew Denniston + S.U.Z.I.E + Johno Purdon + David Levell + Zer0fret + Russell Neal Mr Falcon's, Glebe.

6pm. Free.

The Polka Kings Django Bar @ Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 6pm. $18.

+ Red Wine Roses + The Cloacas + The Moving Stills + Mvrks + Mini Skirt + Uplifting Bell Ends + Stay At Home Mum Wilbar Lane, Cronulla . 12pm. $64.98.

U2 Elevation Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 3:30pm. Free.

Uk Anthems Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm. Free.

Vera Blue Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $33.80.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Big Merino The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 5pm. $7.

From Street To Stage Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free.

Hot Potato Band + Cheap Fakes Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 6pm. $18.

Jimmy Bear Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor.

1pm. Free.

Kold Creature + Killer's Creed + Pure Envy + Lavidius + Drillhorse + Special Guests Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 4pm. $10.

Matchbox Band Penrith Rsl, Penrith.

2pm. Free.

Matt Lyon Penrith Panthers, Penrith. 3:30pm. Free.

Sounds Of The Suburbs 2016 feat: DZ Deathrays + Guantanamo Baywatch + Peter Bibby + Alex Lahey + Verge Collection + Big White + Wildhoney + James Crooks + Tees + Pist Idiots + Baxter + Wash + Amyl And The Sniffers + Heads Of Charm

wed

thu

21 Sep

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

22 Sep

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

fri

23 Sep (10:00PM - 1:40AM)

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 26

John Maddox Duo Mr Falcon's, Glebe.

7pm. Free.

Live & Original @ The Corridor Corridor Bar, Newtown. 7pm. Free.

Songquest - feat: Russell Neal + Johno Purdon + Guests Kelly's On King, Newtown. 7:30pm.

Free.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

The Trials And Tribulations Of Miss

3:30PM  6:30PM

5:45PM  8:45PM

sat

sun

24 Sep

25 Sep (10:00PM - 1:15AM)

mon

(8:30PM - 11:30PM)

tue

26 Sep

(8:30PM - 11:30PM)

(8:30PM - 11:30PM)

27 Sep

EVERY SATURDAY

Party DJs

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

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

Jonathan Jones Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm. Free.

The Monday Jam The Basement, Circular Quay.

8:30pm. $6.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

GROUND FLOOR - AFTER BANDS

French CD Launch With Sonic Mayhem Orchestra Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. $15.

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 27 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY,

BLUES & FOLK

Little Sundays - feat: Local Talent The Little Guy, Glebe.

6pm. Free.

Songsonstage - feat: Russell Neal + Chris Brookes + Guests Gladstone Hotel, Dulwich Hill. 7:30pm.

Free.

Songsonstage - feat: Stuart Jammin + Guests Kelly's On King,

Newtown. 8pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Bucket Lounge Presents – Live & Originals Mr Falcon's, Glebe.

7pm. Free.

Live Rock & Roll Karaoke Frankie's Pizza, Sydney. 4pm. Free.

Tom Trelawny Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm. Free.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Alma Music Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. $10.

Linda Taylor Duo Old Dave's Soul, Coogee. 7pm. Free.

gig picks up all night out all week...

Scabz

Ana Popovic The Basement, Circular Quay. 7pm. $39.60

Art Party 4 Year Anniversary – feat: Dubarray + Rhythm Hunters + Candy Royalle + Junkyard Beats + Ungus Ungus Ungus + Rainee + Deepsea Lights + Maitri + Mandala + My Sisco Electro Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $39.70

Enter Shikari + Hacktivist + Stories Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7:30pm. $69.60

City Calm Down + Ali Barter Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $30.60

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 22

Funk Engine Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 9pm. Free.

Vera Blue

Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $12.

Vera Blue + Lanks + Lastlings Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 1:35 pm. $33.80

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24

Rackett Selina’s, Coogee, 8:30. Free.

Apocalyptica Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $67

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 25

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 23

The Smiths Tribute – feat: Steve Kilbey + The Maladies + Mr. Blonde + J M S Harrison + Christine Jane + Theories Of Everything + Panic Syndrome + more Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 7:30pm. $18.

Global Rhythms Music Festival – feat: The Strides + Joseph Tawadros Quartet + Grace Barbe + Ajak Kwai + Diesel + Emily Wurramara Bicentennial Park, Glebe. 12pm. $32.50

The Vanns + Verge Collection + White Blanks

Hot Potato Band + Cheap Fakes Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 6pm. $18.

thebrag.com

Scabz photo by Brianna Elton

Coven Presents Howlers – feat: Scabz + Billie Rose + Imperial Broads + Catlyf Red Rattler, Marrickville. 7pm. $10.50.

Alex Lahey Moonshine Cider And Rum Bay, Manly. 8pm.

Free.

30 :: BRAG :: 681 :: 21:09:16

Enter Shikari photo by Corinne Cumming

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 21

Enter Shikari

brag beats

BRAG’s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture

on the pulse club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Alex Chetverikov, Joseph Earp and Emily Norton

five things WITH

D-JADEABELLA

Nina Las Vegas

DESERT ISLAND DISCS Yahtzel

MOVE WITH MOVEMENT

part of my life. I listen to music that suits my mood, so it’s almost like I have had a soundtrack to my whole life. When I psyched myself up for soccer I listened to a lot of Foo Fighters and Metallica, when I was doing chores it was something fun like the Spice Girls, and when I got older and needed to study it was Craig David. That said, video games have always been what have stuck with me the most. The feeling of nostalgia I get from a good video game track is something that always brings back happy memories.

Inspirations My favourite 2. musicians are the

Foo Fighters and Muse. Dave Grohl and Matt Bellamy are just both so talented, and ‘Everlong’ is easily my favourite song in the

entire world. No matter how sad I am or how bad the day has been, it always has the power to bring a smile to my face.

Your Crew I’ve been pretty 3. lucky to work with

some amazing artists and DJs over the past few years. Craig (the owner of Neko Nation) was the one who first gave me a shot playing a DJ set for a Neko show: I never thought I’d be doing as much as I do now.

[DJ duo] Team Rocket have also been the other great influences in my life: Dave PSI and DJ Destiny are just so wonderful and supportive to new DJs. Their encouragement definitely makes me want to keep improving so I can put on the best possible show I can.

The Music You Make And Play My style is very geeky, which definitely suits for

4.

the events that I play at. I love high energy happy hardcore and basically anything with a BPM at 170. Again, I love my video games, so I play lots of gaming remixes as well as anime and various pop culture themes from shows like Doctor Who and Game Of Thrones.

I want to play songs that you dance like a dork to.

Music, Right Here, Right

5.

Now

I think the rave scene is a wonderful thing to be a part of. During event I’ve attended, whether I’m playing or not, everyone acts so welcoming and lovely. I’ve made so many wonderful friends through this scene and hope to continue doing so.

What: Neko Nation Where: Manning Bar When: Saturday October 1

Destructo

GANDER AT THE GARDEN

David Morales, a man whose incredible career has seen him produce over 500 remixes, has been announced for the launch party of Electric Gardens festival. Morales’ versatile and storied career has seen him remix the likes of Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Eric Clapton, Pet Shop Boys, U2, Whitney Houston, and Jamiroquai, and he first honed his DJing craft at such legendary establishments as The Loft and Paradise Garage. The Electric Gardens Launch Party will take over the Ivy Bar on Saturday December 10.

EASY AS

The man who once DJed for 24 solid hours to raise funds for cancer research is now bringing his immense mixing talents to Australia. Oxford Art Factory will host a set from DJ EZ on Thursday November 10, showcasing the prominent mixmaster’s incredible ability to span both decks and genres, keeping revellers happy all the while.

Though his craft is primarily rooted in UK garage, his style and selections are always a joy to behold, and OAF is surely set for an injection of fun.

SHALLOW GRAVEZ

With 30 million streams across the Spotify network and headlining world tours to conquer, Gravez has cemented his place within the electronic scene. At only 23 years old, the Atlanta-based musician is

GET HARD

The place to go to party...

Hard. Hard Festival founder Gary Richards, AKA Destructo, is bringing an unbelievable party to Sydney. The bill will feature Canadian headliner Zeds Dead, who will be playing a number of collaborative tracks off their debut album Northern Lights.

Miami-based group GTA will also be making appearances, along with “I need no introduction” Destructo and Ghastly, Rezz, and Chris Lorenzo, who all have awesome collab tracks too. Oh, and watch this space because more acts are TBA soon.

Hard Festival will be on Saturday December 3 at Royal Randwick Racecourse.

thebrag.com

making waves within the electronic music industry, though he generally eludes genre definitions and labels.

He started off remixing well-known hip-hop tunes from Travis Scott and Jaden Smith before they both started to publicly support his efforts. Most recently, he appeared on Skrillex and Diplo’s Jack Ü remix album, and now he’s coming to perform on Australian shores. His debut EP Bury Me will also emerge sometime in the near future. He’ll be rocking it to the beat at the Chinese Laundry on Friday October 14.

Donny Benet

FLAG TO A BULL

Red Bull Sound Select charges on, with news of its sixth instalment arriving this week. Plan B Small Club will host the event, with Donny Benet performing along with special guests Broadway Sounds and Klue. It’s all set to take place on Friday September 30, with St. Jerome’s Laneways Festival’s Travis Banko curating the event.

BRAG :: 681 :: 21:09:16 :: 31

xxx

Growing Up Music has 1. always been a big

Seemingly not content with dropping a spectacular first lineup, V MoVement Sydney has expanded its epic five-day bash to include a host more incredible acts and names. Yahtzel, NO ZU, DJ Levins, Purple Sneaker’s Martin Novosel and more will now play alongside the originally announced lineup of Mind Gamers, Sebastien Tellier, Daniel Stricker of Midnight Juggernauts fame and so many others.

A range of venues will be getting involved too, including El Topo, the joint chosen to host a set from rising star Yahtzel, along with Freda’s and LNDRY. But it’s not just musicians that are getting involved; there will also be a range of exhibitions and interactive events, including Potluck, a showing at Goodspace Gallery from renowned Tokyobased Australian artist and illustrator Karan Singh. MoVement Sydney parties will run from Wednesday October 19 - Sunday October 23 and there are a lot of ‘em, so keep your eyes peeled.

Returning with a massive opening party lineup, The Island Live is back and bigger than ever. As summer kicks off so does the third installment of the intimate series, with DJ and producer Nina Las Vegas acting as the event’s headliner. She will be joined by Yahtzel, Stoney Roads DJs and rising star Third Floor. With ticket prices including a trip on a water taxi, and an array of exclusive drinks promos on offer, there’s sure to be a great summer ahead. It all goes down on Friday October 7 at Sydney Harbour.

How To Dress Well Doctoring Sounds By Augustus Welby

“I WANT LOVE, I WANT SEX, I WANT GOOD FEELINGS AND I WANT TO CLAIM THEM WITH REAL AUTHORITY.”

O

“[Music] is 100 per cent my real passion,” says Krell. “The thing I care about the most is doing this music project. It’s just made me so happy over the last fi ve, six years.

I feel so fucking blessed to have found this thing to do that I love so much.”

Krell’s passionate investment in How To Dress Well is reflected in his creative self-confidence.

Speaking with the BRAG after the release of 2014’s What Is This Heart?, he said, “If I had to say which record I thought was the best of this year, it would be mine.”

But such statements shouldn’t be mistaken as a display of arrogance.

First of all, Krell is an undeniably hard worker, and he’s graciously appreciative of his ongoing success.

“That’s part of what brings me so much joy from it – when you start to work towards a dream and then it’s matching up and it’s producing itself in reality, it’s kind of a thrilling feeling,” he says.

Just as you’d expect from someone engaged in a philosophy PhD, Krell’s not interested in doing things by halves. Nor would he release anything he didn’t completely believe in, which is certainly the case with his new LP, Care.

“I always take very seriously and want to treat with a lot of respect the fact that I’m not putting something out just for myself,” he says. “As my audience has built, [I’ve just been trying] to do something very good for the people who have invested so much time and energy into my project. With this record, I cannot fucking wait to get it to people.

It’s immediately apparent upon pressing play that Care is a celebratory, triumphant record.

Although Krell hinted at a proclivity for pop on his first three albums, with radio-ready hooks rising to the fore on What Is This Heart?, Care is an all-out buffet full of bold melodies and sensual rhythms. The record features production from the likes of Jack Antonoff (fun., Taylor Swift), Dre Skull, CFCF and KaraLis Coverdale, who help to spotlight the vocal and lyrical hooks.

“A lot has changed in my life in the last couple of years, spiritually, psychically. I’m way happier and more secure in myself than ever before,” Krell says. “It sounds cheesy, but I’ve come to realise that there are things that I like in life – like I want love, I want sex, I want good feelings and I want to claim them with real authority.

I think that personal voyage has material consequences in the kinds of choices I make musically.”

This personal development is refl ected in the album’s lyrics, which largely concern human emotions, intersubjective interactions and selfunderstanding. An especially major theme is how crucial self-understanding and selfacceptance are when having a healthy relationships with others.

Though it’s not wholly unusual for such themes to appear in pop songs, what’s unique about Care is the honest, raw manner in which Krell addresses his thematic concerns. He adopts a sober and assertive perspective, rather than acting irrational and fl ippant.

Off The Record S

If you’re anything like me (god I hope you’re not), 2012 meant late, late, late nights getting down to Fort Romeau’s track ‘Jack Rollin’’ (taken from his debut album Kingdoms).

Hell of an apt title. Anyway, if that’s the case, you’ll be stoked to hear that the head is making his debut

Fort Romeau

voyage to Australia. Since those early days he’s gone onto release a second full-length on Ghostly International, EPs on both Running Back Records and Live At Robert Johnson, and a split EP with Ostgut Ton’s Nick Höppner. He’s also performed at the likes Detroit’s MoVement Festival and Berlin’s Panorama Bar. Don’t miss him at Cruise Bar on Sunday October 16.

Anna Müller and Paul Wallner AKA HVOB are coming our way. One of the most intriguing electronic acts to emerge recently, their album Trialog was released last year to critical acclaim from the likes of XLR8R, Resident Advisor, i-D and ARTE. Since then, they’ve been taking their live show across the planet, with stopovers including Cape Town, New York, Hong Kong and New Delhi. Catch them on Sunday November 20 at Cruise Bar.

Krell singles out one song on Care that typifi es his newly realised inner clarity. “I used to think that the only way to honour an experience was to take a poetic path. I think that the most profoundly poetic thing I’ve ever written is the long chorus on ‘Made A Lifetime’ where I say, ‘I’ll always be indebted to how warm skin is / If you ever want to feel it let me know.’ I used to think I had to blow things up and destroy things in order to touch reality.

“Part of the reason I called the record Care is because care for me is nurturing. You can’t just destroy yourself to get a poetic image. You have to live the next day. This calmness I’ve developed in myself over the last few years, it’s brought me way more happiness and way more pleasure and clarity of vision, clarity of feeling.”

What: Care out Friday September 23 through Domino

RECOMMENDED SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24

Dance and Electronica with Tyson Wray ad news to start this week: Don Buchla, the American engineer and synthesiser pioneer, has died at 79. A man who began his career in 1963 with the release of the modular synth Buchla Series 100 (commissioned by Morton Subotnick and Ramon Sender), his legacy within electronic music in undeniable, with his machines fuelling the output of the likes of Suzanne Ciani, Alessandro Cortini and Donnacha Costello.

A silver lining: at least in recent years he was able to see the modern day resurgence of his inventions. Vale.

“I think if one wanted to, one could do a psychoanalytic case study on my album arc so far – the four albums – and the way that art has allowed me personally to work through a lot of stuff. Now when the songs are sad, they’re not this swirling, inchoate, inarticulate sadness. They’re directly facing the sadness, directly grappling with my desires. Instead of being like, ‘I think I want this, I think I want that,’ now the songs say, ‘This is what I want and this is how I’m going to get it, and I can’t wait to have it.’ Or, ‘This is what I want but I know it’s wrong.’ I feel like I have a much more direct relationship with myself now and I put myself through a lot less hell.”

Rebekah Burdekin Hotel

HVOB

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 30 Prosumer Red Rattler Mall Grab 77

SUNDAY OCTOBER 2 Bicep UTS

SUNDAY OCTOBER 16 Fort Romeau Cruise Bar Tour rumours: y’all can lock in a tour from The Field in March.

Same goes for the Australian debut of Mind Against. Also, a return from DJ Koze in the near future is well on the cards.

Best releases this week: oh dear lord Thomas Brinkmann’s A 1000 Keys (on Mego) is just so, so good. Otherwise make sure you spend some time with Levon Vincent’s Tubular Bells (Oldfi eld) (Novel Sound) and Wolfgang Voigt’s Ambient Grunge (Profan). Also, Daft Punk’s goey-on-tick-addict cousin that tries to crack onto your girlfriend at the club post3am Justice just announced that they’re returning with a new album on Ed Banger, and the lead single ‘Randy’ is just fucking deplorable. 2007 were dark days.

Releases to look forward to: regular readers of this column will know that I’m a massive fan boy of Giegling. Basically, the Weimarbased imprint is currently the best thing happening in electronic music – I will fight anyone who says otherwise (not literally, I’m weak as shit). Anyway, it’s just announced a heap of upcoming releases and I’m stoked as fuck. In November it’ll be releasing Mind Over Matter, a 14-track compilation that sees the release of DJ Metatron’s ‘State of Me’ (bloody finally) along with tracks from the likes of Edward, ATEQ, Vril, Kettenkarussell and Legov.

Later this month it’ll also release a remix 12-inch of Kettenkarussell’s 2014 full-length Easy Listening (with Losoul, Vril and Ezekiel Honig serving up their own rubs), alongside another remix take by Huerco S of Olin’s recent record From Iceland. Stoked.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 22

11 – SUNDAY NOVEMBER 13

Return To Rio: Carl Cox, De La Soul, Eric Powell, DJ EZ + more Del Rio, Wisemans Ferry

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 12

Marcel Dettman Chinese Laundry

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 20 HVOB Cruise Bar

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 26 Randomer TBA

Seven Davis Jr Civic Underground

Jackmaster Greenwood Hotel

SUNDAY OCTOBER 23

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 30

Honey Soundsystem Cruise Bar

Machinedrum Civic Underground

FRIDAY DECEMBER SATURDAY OCTOBER 2 – SUNDAY 29 DECEMBER 4 Green Velvet Greenwood Hotel

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 10

DJ EZ Oxford Art Factory

FRIDAY NOVEMBER

Subsonic Music Festival: Lee Scratch Perry, Mad Professor, Josh Wink, Ben UFO + more Riverwood Downs Mountain Valley Resort

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

32 :: BRAG :: 681 :: 21:09:16

thebrag.com

How To Dress Well photo by Ben Tricklebank

ver the last six years, journalists have never failed to mention that How To Dress Well mastermind Tom Krell is working towards a PhD in continental philosophy. It’s an intriguing biographical detail – and he is indeed still working on that PhD – but he’s not planning on making a full-time shift into academia any time soon.

I’m so proud of it and so happy to share it.”

club guide g

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

send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com

club pick of the week Allday

FRIDAY S E P T E M BER 2 3 Enmore Theatre

Allday

+ UV Boi + Tyne James Organ 8pm. $40.80.

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 21 CLUB NIGHTS Queerbourhood feat: Seymour Butz + Friends The Bearded Tit, Redfern. 7:30pm.

Free.

Sosueme - feat: Ember + Morning Harvey + Rig Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm.

Free.

The Wall - feat: Gradz + Roan Psyko + Lo-Fi + Palm Trees + Charles Oliver + Dunzalia Banks The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm.

Free.

V MoVement - feat: Basenji + Swindail UTS Underground, Ultimo. 7pm. Free.

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 22 CLUB NIGHTS Basenji + Swindail Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm.

Free.

Femme Fetale The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. Free.

Jai Wolf Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $45.

V Movement - feat: Basenji + Swindail Uts Underground, Ultimo. 8pm. Free.

Yeo Newtown Social Club, Newtown. thebrag.com

7pm. $15.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 23 HIP HOP & R&B

Allday + UV Boi + Tyne James Organ Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $40.80.

Ben Morris Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 8pm. Free.

Freshly Squeezed Fridays - feat: Plutonic Lab + DJ Danialsan + The Otherside + Roleo + DJ Platterpush + Open Mic Jam + More Tba Plan B Small Club, Sydney. 10:30pm. $10.

Fridays Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm.

Free.

CLUB NIGHTS A-Tonez Marquee, Pyrmont.

10pm. $12.30.

Argyle Fridays The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. Free.

Banquet - feat: Moonbase Commander The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. $11.44.

Bassic - feat: Odd Mob + Ian Munro + Gomu + Gradz + Loe-Res + Heirs To The Throne + Goreway Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $22.90.

El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel,

Surry Hills. 9pm.

Free.

Eve X Decisions - feat: Jikuroux + Candlelyte + Waterhouse + Air Max ‘97 + Scam B2B Aph Red Rattler, Marrickville. 10pm. $10.

Fatback - feat: DJs Adverse + Juzzlikedat + Caratgold + Amity + Makoto + Cman + Edseven + VJ Spook Plan B Small Club, Sydney. 9pm. Free.

Feel Good Fridays Bar100, The Rocks.

5pm. Free.

Just 90’s Haus feat: Robbie Lowe + Simon Caldwell + Andy Lowe Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 9pm. $20.

Lauren Hansom + Mike Who Cake Wines Cellar Door, Redfern. 5pm.

Free.

Loco Friday - feat: DJs On Rotation The Slip Inn, Sydney.

5pm. Free.

NJE Present Soul Beats And Solace Mixtape Launch + Untameable + Kazy A + DJ Riley Jm + X-Iled + Dukes Of All + Mersey + S.M.H.G & King Jc + Point Blank Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 10pm. $10.

Peoples Club Weekly - feat: Ben Fester + Vibe Positive + Johnny Lieu + Smooth Prince + David Bangma + U-Khan + Chris Rawson + Ariane

Goodbar, Paddington. 8pm. $15.

Prince And Bowie Tribute Party - feat: Scubar Fridays - feat: DJs On Rotation Scubar, Sydney.

8pm. Free.

The Elements Of Tech And Bass Presents 4th Birthday Party - feat: Severity Zero B2B Axe + Foreigndub B2b Sam The Chemist + Gillittene B2B Strafe + Thierry D B2B Polar + Reload B2B Aggrovator + Pitch B2B Micky Roll Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 9pm.

Free.

Tone Five-Year Reunion - feat: Ben Peterson + Tone All-Star Deejays Play Bar, Surry Hills.

6pm. Free.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24 HIP HOP & R&B

Graham M And Husky Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 6pm. Free.

On The Corner Mr Falcon's, Glebe.

8:30pm. Free.

This Is How We Do It! - feat: DJ Wy-C + Tripple P + MC Young Supreme Peachtree Hotel, Penrith. 6pm. $11.80.

CLUB NIGHTS

Argyle Saturdays - feat: Tass + TapTap + Minx + Crazy Caz The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. Free.

Blueprint & CU Saturday - feat: Steve Ward + Lucca Tan + Ben Nott + Aaiste Civic Underground, Sydney. 10pm. $22.

Cakes The World Bar, Kings Cross. 8pm. Free.

Cause 1st Birthday - feat: David Mayer + Wild Fox + Elia + Rabbit Taxi + David James + Jahra Mortimer + Alex Ludlow + Philip Kanis Slyfox, Enmore.

9pm. $27.50.

Comfort Club #8 - feat: Datura + A.Lias + David Bangma With B&H Smooth + Señor Face + Bilsn Tokyo Sing Song, Newtown. 9pm. Free.

El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 9pm.

Free.

Kick On Saturdays feat: Guest DJs Cargo Lounge, Sydney. 6pm. Free.

Lndry - feat: Motez + Kormak + Acaddamy + Bassilisk + Clueless + Marley Herman + Kaiser Waldon + King Lee + Mike Hyper + DJ Just 1 + Offtapia Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $33.10.

Mad Racket - feat: Rambl + Simon Caldwell + Ken Cloud + Jimmi James + Zootie Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville.

10pm. $38.50.

My Place Saturdays - feat: DJs On Rotation Bar100, The Rocks.

8pm. Free.

No Rest In September Alternative Club feat: DJ’s S.H.E. + Action Ant + Xerstorkitte + Many More Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $5.

One Night At Disco - feat: Retro DJs Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 10pm.

Free.

One Year In The Disco - feat: Luis Cl + Rimbombo + Jackson + Brudo & Hux Secret Location, Sydney. 10pm. $22.

Pacha - feat: Throttle + Fossa Beats + Akouo + Ribongia Ivy Bar/lounge, Sydney. 6:30pm. $38.

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

8:30pm. Free.

Something Else Vs Charades - feat: Rebekah + Trinity + Eliza Dabron + Loveless + Dave Stuart + U-Khan Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst. 10pm. $22.

Step On Plan B Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $6.

The Spring Shake Up - feat: Hollywood Honeys + Miss Pia Andersen + Sara Jeanne + Kitty Van Horne Django Bar @ Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 6pm. $23.

Tumbao - feat: DJs Dante Riviera + Nick Toth + Pascal Pouzet + Dimitri Sinesiou + Vincent Sebastian + Special Guests Plan B Small Club, Sydney. 9pm. Free.

Yours - feat: Porsches (DJ set) Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm.

Free.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 25

Ember

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 21 Sosueme – feat: Ember + Morning Harvey + Rig Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. Free.

V MoVement – feat: Basenji + Swindail UTS Underground, Ultimo.

7pm. Free.

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 22 Jai Wolf Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $45.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 23 Banquet – feat: Moonbase Commander The World Bar, Kings Cross.

9pm. $11.14 Bassic – feat: Odd Mob + Ian Munro + Gomu + Gradz +Loe-Res +Heirs To The Throne + Goreway

Chinese Laundry, Sydney.

9pm. $22.90.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24 Blueprint & CU Saturday – feat: Steve Ward + Lucca Tan + Ben Nott + Aaiste Civic Underground, Sydney.

10pm. $22 Cause 1st Birthday – feat: David Mayer + Wild Fox + Elia + Rabbit Taxi + David James + Jahra Mortimer + Alex Ludlow + Philip Kanis Slyfox, Enmore. 9pm. $27.50 Mad Racket – feat: Rambl + Simon Caldwell + Ken Cloud + Jimmi James + Zootie Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville. 10pm. $38.50 Something Else Vs Charades – feat: Rebekah + Trinity + Eliza Dabron + Loveless + Dave Stuart + U-Khan Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst.

10pm. $22.

Basenji

Rebekah

HIP HOP & R&B

Stuart B And Tim Boffa Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 4pm. Free.

CLUB NIGHTS Mark Sixma Marquee, Pyrmont.

10pm. $31.80.

Sin Sundays The Argyle, The Rocks. 7pm. Free.

World Records feat: Steve Spacek + Inkswel + Tom Studdy + Mike Who Cake Wines Cellar Door, Redfern.

1:30pm. Free.

BRAG :: 681 :: 21:09:16 :: 33

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VIEW FULL GALLERIES AT

thebrag.com/snaps

buoy

PICS :: AM

up all night out all week . . .

all out

PICS :: AM

14:09:16 :: Newtown Social Club :: 387 King St Newtown 9550 3974

14:09:16 :: Slyfox :: 199 Enmore Rd, Enmore

five things WITH Growing Up I grew up in the church. I 1. was originally groomed for the

gospel industry, and then later for the mainstream pop world, until ultimately I chose to be independent. I had hard times but remarkable learning experiences.

Inspirations 2.

Prince, Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, Burt Bacharach,

Sly & The Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, J Dilla, motown, disco, life, my soul, to name a few.

34 :: BRAG :: 681 :: 21:09:16

SEVEN DAVIS JR

Your Crew This is a hard question. I have 3. affiliations with everything from the underground to the mainstream, hip hop to house. I have close associations with celebs that I don’t talk about. I like to think I’m an international member of many crews.

The Music You Make And Play 4.

I make underground soul but

produce in other genres. I don’t discriminate genres or tempos, so I can play anything. At my Australian shows, I’ll be playing music from my

new sophomore album Live From The Other Side along with house and disco.

Music, Right Here, Right Now 5.

With the recent passing of so many great musical legends the world is writing a new music history and I’m thankful to be a part of that.

What: Seven Davis Jr as part of V MoVement Sydney Where: Civic Underground When: Saturday October 22

thebrag.com

Storyfest OCt 14-16 http://www.wordtravels.info

Ignite IDeas Storyfest 16

Join the nation’s mightiest wordsmiths for live literary mayhem: spoken word, poetry, stories, lyrics, monologues and slam finals.

This boutique festival is unlike anything you’ve experienced before. Prepare to have your mind sewn back together after each event.

With Sydney, NSW and National slam finals, experimental performances, panel discussions, conversations, wordshops, screenings and a youth program. 17 events packed into three days. Most of our events are free.

FRIDAY 14 OCT 10.00am – 3.00pm The Rumble: Youth Program 10:00am - 11:30pm Slam Wordshop Featuring Eunice Andrada, Luka Buchannan, Venue: Story-Fest Hub - Abraham Mott Hall Note: Invitation only

OUR VENUES: Story Hub: 15a Argyle Place, Millers Point Sydney Dance Lounge: The Wharf Pier 4/5, Hickson Rd Sydney Opera House

Performance 11:30am - 1:30pm Featuring: Eunice Andrada, Emily Crocker Venue: Around The Rocks Note: Invitation only

SP ŧ SP 6\GQH\ 6ODP )LQDO Featuring: Tanya Evanson, Sara Mansour, Troy Wong Venue: Sydney Dance Lounge

SP ŧ SP 7KH :RUG 6FUŸQLQJ Featuring: Tim Parish Venue: Hub

SP ŧ DP /DWH 1LJKWV +DLNX 'HDWKPDWFK 2SHQ 0LF Featuring: National Haiku Deathmatch Champion, Lorin Elizabeth Venue: Story-Fest Hub

SATURDAY 15 OCT DP ŧ DP 7KH 5HG 5RRP &RPSDQ\ %RWDQLFDO 3RHWU\ :DON Featuring: The Red Room Company Poets Venue: Sydney Botanical Gardens

DP ŧ SP 3RHWU\ 0HQXV Featuring: 4 Festival Poets Venue: Fine Food Store, La Renaissance

SP SP ZULWLQJ XQGHU WKH LQIOXHQFH :RUNVKRS Featuring: Tanya Evanson (CAN) Venue: Story-Fest Hub

SP ŧ SP ODQJXDJH PDWWHUV 6FUŸQLQJ Featuring: TBC Venue: Story-Fest Hub

SP SP 3RHWU\ RI 3HUVXDVLRQ Featuring: Creative Directors from One Green Bean, Marcel Worldwide and The Monkeys.

Venue: Story-Fest Hub

SP ŧ SP 16: 3RHWU\ 6ODP )LQDO Host: Sunil Badami.

Featuring: Storytellers from The Moth Venue: State Library NSW

SP ŧ SP 3LQ 7KH 7DLO RQ WKH 6WDWLRQ Featuring: Three State Champions Venue: Circular Quay Train Station

SP ŧ DP /DWH 1LJKWV 7ROG Featuring: Storytellers from The Moth Venue: Story-Fest Hub

SP ŧ SP /RVW /DQJXDJHV ŧ 6SRWOLJKW RQ :HVW 3DSXD Hosted by: Sea Rakaisau Venue: Story-Fest Hub

SUNDAY 16 OCT ON

DP ŧ SP 0HQXV Featuring: 4 Festival Poets Venue: Fine Food Store, La Renaissance

DP ŧ SP 3HUIRUPLQJ :ULWHUVŪ )RUXP Featuring: Poets and Poetry Slam Organisers Venue: Story-Fest Hub Note: Public Event

SP ŧ SP &URVV 3RŹLQDWH Featuring: Tanya Evanson, Sketch the Rhyme and Tim Parish Venue: Story-Fest Hub

SP ŧ SP $36 1DWLRQDO )LQDO Hosted by Miles Merrill.

Featuring: Tanya Evanson and DJ Ribongia Venue: Sydney Opera House

SP ŧ SP 1RW -XVW &KLFN /LW Hosted by Sea Rakaisau Featuring: Samantha Turnbull and Hani Aden + open mic Venue: Story-Fest Hub

SP ŧ DP 2IILFLDO $IWHU 3DUW\ Venue: Story-Fest Hub Basement