Brag#724

A BEHIND-THE-SCENES LOOK AT A HORROR FILM 15 YEARS IN THE MAKING

WIN TICKETS TO PHOENIX THE MENTALIST'S SYDNEY SHOW

SLØTFACE

POP PUNK WILL NEVER DIE ALSO INSIDE: T H E J U N G L E G I A N T S , M U T E M AT H , J E N N I FE R P E E D O M , E V E RY T H I N G E V E RY T H I N G A N D M O R E!

S L Ø T

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in this issue

free stuff

what you’ll find inside…

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head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

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The Frontline

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Back To Business

8-9

Sløtface talking playing in jail cells and on glaciers (as one does.)

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Gordi’s not a singersongwriter – she’s something much more Everything Everything

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WCB

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The Jungle Giants

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The Temper Trap

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Mutemath

16-17 Live snaps 18-19 Ten of the boldest albums from 1997

20-23 The behind the scenes story of The Evil Within, one of the year’s strangest horror films 24 Jennifer Peedom 25 Arts reviews 26 Game On 27 Off The Record + Out & About 28 Album reviews, arts giveaway 29-30 Gig picks

“None of us get to choose our parents. But when one is rich, that helplessness becomes even more pronounced.” (20-23)

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PHOENIX THE MENTALIST Nothing beats heading out for a nice evening on the town and getting one’s mind casually blown.

And that, make no mistake, is the treat lying in wait for all those heading along to the Sydney shows by “entertainer, speaker and media personality” Phoenix The Mentalist. Wellknown for his appearances on everything from Studio 10 to Kyle And Jackie O’s morning show, not to mention his deft mind tricks, the acclaimed mentalist has been described by his fans as “genuinely mind blowing”.

If you do wanna see Phoenix in the flesh, then you’re in luck – we’ve got a double pass to give away to his Psyche! shows taking place at the Giant Dwarf Theatre from Wednesday September 6 to Saturday September 9. To enter, head over to thebrag.com/freeshit.

Slotface photo © Frederike Wetzels

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“We are kind of being inspired by each other, and by all of the cool things that young people all over the world are doing to make the world a better place.” (8-9)

the frontline with Nathan Jolly and Tyler Jenke ISSUE 724: Wednesday September 6, 2017

Flume

PRINT & DIGITAL EDITOR: Joseph Earp Joseph.Earp@seventhstreet.media NEWS DIRECTOR: Nathan Jolly STAFF WRITER: Joseph Earp NEWS: Nathan Jolly, Tyler Jenke, Brandon John ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant PHOTOGRAPHER: Ashley Mar ADVERTISING: Josh Burrows - 0411 025 674 josh.burrows@seventhstreet.media PUBLISHER: Seventh Street Media CEO, SEVENTH STREET MEDIA: Luke Girgis - luke.girgis@seventhstreet. media MANAGING EDITOR: Poppy Reid poppy.reid@seventhstreet.media THE GODFATHER: BnJ GIG GUIDE COORDINATOR: Anna Wilson gigguide@seventhstreet.media REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Arca Bayburt, Lars Brandle, Tanja Brinks Toubro, Alex Chetverikov, Max Jacobson, Emily Gibb, Emily Meller, Adam Norris, Holly Pereira, Daniel Prior, Natalie Rogers, Erin Rooney, Anna Rose, Spencer Scott, Natalie Salvo, Aaron Streatfeild, Augustus Welby, Zanda Wilson, David James Young Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this NEW address Level 2, 9-13 Bibby St, Chiswick NSW 2046 EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher, editors or staff of the BRAG.

A WORTHY CAUSE King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

KINGS OF ALL THEY SURVEY

FIELDING YOUR QUESTIONS

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are only releasing fi ve full-length albums this year, and because this leaves them with quite a bit of spare time on their hands, they have also organised a multicity touring festival. Excitingly, they have announced the lineup for the Sydney leg, which returns to Luna Park Big Top on Thursday November 23. We’re talking three stages, loads of bars to help you avoid long lines, and free rides.

To reiterate: free rides! The whole thing starts at 4:45pm, which seems like a lost 4:20 opportunity, but oh well. The bands involved include Gizz (of course), Amyl And The Sniffers, Leah Senior, Orb, Parsnip and more.

New Year’s Eve is usually a horrible mess of drugs, alcohol, crowds, traffic, over-priced everything, and the false expectation that this is going to be “the most legendary night out ever.” By contrast, January 1 is the day when everything starts again – and what better way to keep those drunken New Year’s Resolutions than to make one of them “see more live music” and then immediately head to Sydney’s best New Year’s Day festival Field Day. Luckily for you, they have just announced a massive lineup: Flume, Stormzy, Mura Masa, DJ Snake, Anna Lunoe, Schoolboy Q, Vince Staples will all make an appearance.

Tickets are available now – that is, until they sell out, which they definitely will.

DISTRIBUTION: Wanna get the BRAG? Email george@seventhstreet.vc PRINTED BY SPOTPRESS: spotpress.com.au 24 – 26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville NSW 2204 follow us:

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“Should the government’s proposed postal vote on marriage equality go ahead, we want to help ensure a ‘yes’ vote is successful.

We are delighted to announce fundraising support of The Equality Campaign through a one dollar donation from every ticket sold at this year’s Queer Screen Film Fest.” All films will screen at Event Cinemas on George Street between Tuesday September 19 and Sunday September 24. Check the entire program at queerscreen.org.au.

If you don’t know who to catch at this year’s Sydney Fringe Comedy Festival aside from some vague notion of wanting to watch “someone who is funny”, then you’ll enjoy a run of comedy nights going down at the Bat And Ball Hotel in Redfern, where ten

PREPARE FOR PAUL This past weekend, Paul Kelly scored his very first Australian number one album, the exceptional Life Is Fine, which you really should listen to if you’re yet to do so. To celebrate he has booked a special headlining gig in the Forecourt at the Sydney Opera House (the pointy one) on Wednesday November 1, from 5:30pm. He’s even invited along the legendary Steve Earle, not to mention rising stars The Middle Kids. Sure, it’s part of a larger national tour in order to promote his new album, but we like to

comedians take the stage each night. The evenings are hosted each Thursdays to Sundays, 7:15pm to 9:45pm until Saturday September 16. That’s a lot of observations about the current political climate, and maybe a few bits about Bunnings, too. Each show has a completely different lineup,

think the Opera House is the main event, and he’s kinda shuffled the other shows around this one. Here are some rather poetic quotes from Ben Marshall, who is Head of Contemporary Music at the Opera House: “Paul Kelly is a giant of modern Australia, a people’s poet laureate examining and feeling the experiences, aspirations and problems – both large and small – of everyday Australians. He is a true artist, one who deals in honesty, even when a story is the lie that tells the truth.

Were you at The National’s last show at the Sydney Opera House Forecourt? It was truly monumental, and because the band quite liked it there on the harbour, they have decided to come back and do it all again.

They also will have a new record out, which may have further swayed the decision. They’ll play Wednesday February 21 - Thursday February 22, 2018, with tickets on sale now.

“A renowned perfectionist whose star is remarkably at its ascendant now, 40 years into a life lived in public – as amply demonstrated by the magnifi cent Life Is Fine, his first ever number one album. Be there on the steps of the Sydney Opera House late this spring to witness the master storyteller at the height of his powers.”

Tickets are on sale now from the Sydney Opera House website. Head along to thebrag.com for more information.

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King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard photo by Brianna Elton

DEADLINES: Editorial: Friday 12pm (no extensions) Ad bookings: Friday 5pm (no extensions) Finished art: No later than 2pm Monday Ad cancellations: Friday 4pm Deadlines are strictly adhered to.

Published by Seventh Street Media Pty Ltd All content copyrighted to Seventh Street Media 2017

The Queer Screen Film Fest runs across six days next month, with 20 films showcasing a diverse range of LGBTQIA+ stories. Excitingly, Queer Screen have announced they will be donating $1 from every ticket sale to the Equality Campaign, which should be the nudge you needed to book a ticket to one of the films.

Queer Screen President Kevin Ryan said of the decision: “Queer Screen has a proud history of supporting Australian Marriage Equality. As an organisation, we’re dedicated to celebrating the strength and diversity of LGBTQI people on screen, and we’re passionate about achieving equality for our community.

INTERNATIONAL HEROES YOU’RE HAVING A LAUGH

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Carrie Huang - accounts@seventhstreet.vc (02) 9713 9269 Level 2, 9-13 Bibby St, Chiswick NSW 2046

so repeat nights out are a must. There are dinner options too, if you can’t laugh without schnitzel in your mouth. Head to sydneyfringecomedy.com for more info.

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Back To Business Music Industry News powered by The Industry Observer

Flavour Flav

members of groundbreaking hip hop group Public Enemy. Public Enemy have been inducted into the Rock‘n’Roll Hall of Fame and have sold tens of millions of records. Despite Drayton’s position in Public Enemy, the group’s management and related companies have for years attempted to minimise his role in the Public Enemy business, while continuing to rely upon Drayton’s fame and persona to market the brand.”

Flavor Flav alleges that he hasn’t received any royalties from the group in recent years for their music, live shows, or merchandise. Likewise, he also claims that merchandising deals for a number of items bearing his name and likeness were all struck without his knowledge or consent.

On top of all that, Flavor Flav also claims that the group’s 14th record, Nothing Is Quick In The Desert, features an unauthorised use of his voice and image. The record was released for free download in June, and despite Flav requesting $75,000 in payment, he only received a comparatively paltry $7,500.

TIME TO LAWYER UP, BOYEEEE

Public Enemy have made a career out of urging others to ‘Fight The Power’, but now it seems as though the group’s hype man, Flavor Flav, is fighting with his

emcee Chuck D over a series of unpaid royalties. Flavor Flav is currently in the process of suing Chuck D, claiming that he is owed an unspecified amount in terms of both money and property rights.

Jonesy And Amanda

“This action involves the usurpation of money and property rights from Plaintiff William J. Drayton, known as ‘Flavor Flav’,” the lawsuit reads. “Drayton is recognised as one of the two key

Ben And Liam

Flav’s lawsuit claims that he and Chuck D (real name Carlton Ridenhour) had agreed that any profits that arise from the group’s name would be shared equally between them. However in recent years, payments from the group’s business management company Eastlink have “diminished to almost nothing, and Drayton has been refused accountings, even on the items bearing his likeness,” allegedly at the behest of Chuck D.

STREAM ON Streaming has been a welcome vitamin pill for the record industry, which appears to finally be back to health after years of sharp decline.

Although Spotify and its rivals have already been described as a saviour in some corners, if a new report by Goldman Sachs is to believed, we ain’t seen nothing yet.

Analysts from the investment bank forecast global revenues will grow to US$41 billion in 2030 with streaming generating US$28 billion, a 16 per cent rise on its previous estimates.

For a little perspective, that figure from streaming alone is nearly double the total sum generated by all formats last year.

HOW’D YOU RATE THIS ONE? With the latest radio survey results out in the wild, the results aren’t particularly noteworthy across the board, providing little excitement aside from WSFM regaining its spot as the number one station in Sydney, bumping SmoothFm off the back of strong results from its brekky team Jonesy and Amanda. The pair have jumped from a listener share of 7.8 per cent to 8.9 per cent.

across the board, are still struggling to match the market share held by former hosts Matt and Alex before their departure earlier this year, The Music reports.

In Sydney, Ben and Liam hold a 5.9 per cent share, a drop on Matt and Alex’s 6.6 per cent at the same time last year – but on the positive side, they’ve gained 0.8 per cent since last month’s survey, which saw triple j score surprisingly good ratings nationally across the board. Matt and Alex also had plenty of time to settle into the role and gain their following, so hopefully Ben and Liam will continue to find their feet.

Kean estimates that around 600 consumers have lost around $130,000 through Viagogo’s practices. NSW Fair Trading has received 165 complaints and 237 inquiries regarding Viagogo, and have made at least 194 unsuccessful attempts to contact the company.

Head to theindustryobserver.com for more music industry news

WAKE ME UP BEFORE YOU VIAGOGO

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xxx Flavour Flav photo by Mehan Jayasuriya/Flickr

The State Government has issued an “urgent public warning” about online ticket reseller Viagogo, after numerous complaints were raised regarding their shady practices. “I’m issuing an urgent public warning about Viagogo’s unfair and unsatisfactory business services and practices … This is simply not good enough,” Minister for Better Regulation, Matt Kean, announced. “Complaints to date have included delayed delivery, events being cancelled, heavily marked-up prices, hidden fees, and failure to provide refunds.”

According to the IFPI, global recorded music revenues were up by 5.9 per cent to US$15.7 billion in 2016. Of that headline figure, digital income accounts for half of all music sales for the first time ever, with streaming accounting for around US$4 billion, up 60.4 per cent yearon-year. With streaming the engine room for growth, the US recorded music market in 2016 was up by double digits for the first time in nearly 20 years, while the Australian market reported an overall lift of about 5.5 per cent, according to ARIA.

One highly scrutinised breakfast team who aren’t faring quite so well are triple j’s Ben and Liam who, despite some gains

Matt Kean

Goldman Sachs analyst Lisa Yang and her team published their conclusions in its latest Music In The Air series, which also identifies Amazon, Pandora, Tencent and Apple among the beneficiaries of the streaming era, while music majors Universal and Sony Music are tipped to grow handsomely as subscription services boom in the years ahead.

Anything is possible when she follows her dreams.

But it all starts with a classroom. A space that says she is the exception.

She is more than a young labourer or bride-to-be. She is a future leader, a change-maker, a ourished dream.

Wednesday, October 11th is International Day of the Girl Fuel her future at RoomtoRead.org/GirlsEducation

Room to Read has supported 50,000 girls to complete secondary school with the skills necessary to negotiate key life decisions.

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Sløtface: COVER STORY

Øn Prisøns And Pølitics

Emily Gibb talks to Norwegian pop punk titans Sløtface, and discovers a band on the verge of a breakthrough

inmates who were between 18 and 60 years old. We had no idea what to expect, but it was really interesting. It was a really special experience.”

rom performing for inmates in a Norwegian gaol chapel to hitting up the Art Rock festival stage straight from a hospital ward, Sløtface don’t do things by halves. Informed, intellectual, badass and upfront, the young band from Norway’s Stavanger have not only made waves thanks to their pop punk hooks and sharp, relatable lyrics, but also due to their steadfast belief that a band can do more than just make music.

Intimate performances have been the group’s preferred gig of choice since they spent their formative years kicking around Stavanger, cutting their teeth as Slutface (before social media censorship prompted a slight name change).

An obsession with classic high school movies meant it was a natural step for the band to smash out sets at parties whenever possible, and they came to love the tight confines of Norwegian living rooms.

F

That approach has already afforded them some rare experiences, like, as lead singer and songwriter Haley Shea puts it, their own version of Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison performance. “That was our reference point,” she says.

“We did a government-funded tour of these Norwegian high schools that have this cultural program and the inmates at this prison receive the same high school education, so obviously they have the rights to the same cultural exchange program. We played in their chapel in the prison to like 30

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But regardless where in the world they play, Shea is just happy if they reach like-minded people, bring them together and – most importantly – entertain them.

“Obviously it’s really fun to play big stages with, you know, thousands of people, but we still enjoy a really sweaty atmosphere, whether it’s at a tent at a festival or club.

“But then we did Sløtface karaoke,” she laughs, “as the closing slot at this big Norwegian festival where we were the band and the audience members came up and sang. We had like five or

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“We are kind of being inspired by each other, and by all of the cool things that young people all over the world are doing to make the world a better place.”

She pauses for a moment; reflects. “When we go to a show, we want to be entertained, have a really good time and make friends with other fans, so we hope that that’s what people get out of listening to our band and coming to our shows. We are kind of being inspired by each other, and by all of the cool things that young people all over the world are doing to make the world a better place.”

This week Shea, along with guitarist Tor-Arne Vikingstad, bassist Lasse Lokøy and drummer Halvard Skeie Wiencke, get to broaden their reach even further as they head to Australia, playing their first shows on our soil just before the release of their debut album Try Not To Freak Out. Alongside Norway’s capital of Oslo, Sydney is one of the top five cities that stream the band’s music, so the anticipation is high on both sides. “We’re really excited. It’s also the farthest away from home we’ve ever played; it’s like the exact opposite of the world from where we live.”

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“Patti Smith would never put up with this shit,” she snarls, the song going on to challenge the patriarchy while both addressing and rubbishing societal pressures. There is a reason, after all, Shea has been called the heir apparent to musicians like Kathleen Hanna and PIL-era Johnny Rotten.

Not that it’s all piss and vinegar. There are times when the record slows – when Shea takes the time to address her intense, often anxious thought patterns, as on mid-record stand out ‘Night Guilt’.

“That’s kind of what I use those stage performances for: to be like the gassiest, angriest version of myself; the person that I can’t really be in real life because I want people to like me too much.”

When it comes to their live show set-up, Shea and her bandmates embrace their punk sensibilities, and they like to use gigs as a chance to let loose. “We’ve always tried to lean as close towards a punk live show and a punk aesthetic as we can,” she says.

“When you work really hard on something, you want it to be the best that it can be, and you get that sort of fear about not quite meeting expectations that you have for yourself.”

Records, their 2016 EP. Lead single and feminist pop opener ‘Magazine’ makes clear Shea’s intentions as a songwriter from the very outset.

“People use their stage personas for different things, but they also provide a chance to release a lot of anger and frustration. That’s kind of what I use those stage performances for: to be like the gassiest, angriest version of myself; the person that I can’t really be in real life because I want people to like me too much. Onstage it doesn’t really matter if you piss a few people off.”

Try Not To Freak Out is a pure, undiluted expression of the band’s intentions, an album that melds the Scandinavian hard rock and metal scene’s trademark energy and intensity with the pop sensibility Sweden has been championing over the last few decades.

With each member bringing demos to jamming sessions, the group built the record from cherry-picked parts, trying a swathe of different directions before Shea began carving out the lyrics. Indeed, it’s their differing musical tastes that she attributes to the idiosyncrasies on the record, although at the end of the day, Freak Out takes the nostalgic, familiar hum of American high school movies and makes it the band’s own.

That’s not even to mention the lyrics, which seem more nuanced and referential than those on Empire

COVER STORY

six people up onstage at all times and that felt like it was a giant house party – one with like 2,000 people.”

Part of the reason that Shea can talk about anxiety so honestly is that she still finds herself hounded by it. Some might think that success and acclaim have a calming effect on shattered nerves, but often the opposite is the case, and Shea still has to fight hard to conquer her negative thought spirals.

“Some days it’s really, really tough,” she explains.

“When you work really hard on something, you want it to be the best that it can be, and you get that sort of fear about not quite meeting expectations that you have for yourself. So there were days when I was really struggling with anxiety and then had to sing a song about anxiety.

That was a little bit tough.”

For now though, the group are powering on with shows, and will play straight through to November, all the while working on their distinctly punk ideals.

“The whole, ‘Why should musicians care about politics? Stick to the music,’ cliché is something that we have heard a couple of times,” Shea says. “It’s not something that we really care that much about, because we know that the people that like our music are on the same page as us.

“I am sure they think that music is an important tool to create awareness and bring people together and you know, inspire people to work together on things.

I think that music just really makes you realise that people that love music have that in common, and that’s so much bigger and more important than a lot of our differences. That’s a cool way to see the world, I think.”

What: Try Not To Freak Out is out September 15 via Propeller / Caroline Australia Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Wednesday September 6

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FEATURE

Gordi: Live Through Song Gordi talks to David James Young about staying true to her vision

T

he term “singer-songwriter” has always had a certain connotation to it; an aesthetic, even. A sound. And ever since her quiet and unassuming arrival into the Australian music scene, Sophie Payten – better known by her stage name Gordi – has been a singer-songwriter. Or, at the very least, that’s how it’s seemed.

Truthfully, that tag is something Payten has spent the last couple of years actively working against – subtly, yes, but incrementally.

All that work has now culminated in the release of her stunning debut LP, Reservoir, which works both as a payoff to those who have followed Payten’s trajectory and a clean-cut introduction point for those that haven’t quite got the memo just yet.

“These songs all came together over an extended period of a few years,” says Payten. “One half of the songs were written between 2013 and 2015, and the other half were written last year. I knew all of these factors would mean the album was prone to complications, and the challenge was creating some sort of cohesion.

I made a point of having a system in place to ensure that. We had a week of recording and mixing in Wisconsin, and the aim of it was to bring the record together. We dropped a few different things into the different songs to link it

as a body of work. By the end of that week, I felt like the album had really become one.”

Reservoir was created with four different producers at the helm. This was Payten’s idea, one she felt strongly about ahead of Reservoir’s recording. “Having the different producers was important to me because I wanted to have a lot of variation. I wanted to explore a broader style, studying the light and dark. There’s simple moments, there’s epic moments... There’s a lot of colours that come through on this record.”

The four producers in question collectively sport a CV worthy of the hottest festival line-up: they have worked with the likes of Solange, PJ Harvey, Sigur Ros, Halsey, Perfume Genius, and Alex the Astronaut.

However, it wasn’t their credentials that sold Payten – rather, their specialties.

“Tim [Anderson] is more of a left-of-centre pop kind of guy. He was the guy to go to when it came to the hooky kind of stuff on the record. As for the more epic-sounding stuff, I knew to work with Alex [Somers].

He’s a producer that’s really mastered that style, while Ali [Chant] is great at capturing a raw, unvarnished vibe. There were also two tracks produced by me. I had a really clear idea of what I wanted them to sound like, and I felt capable of doing it myself.

Working with the other producers actually really helped to boost my confidence in my own abilities as I came to work closer with them. The idea of collaboration was really wonderful and really helpful to me.”

The album is expansive not only in its timeframe and production credits,

but also its geography. Along with the aforementioned Wisconsin, the album was also put together across sessions in New York, Los Angeles, Iceland, and Australia.

Now basically a citizen of the world, Payten has seen a lot of change in her life across the last few years. For better and for worse, it’s dealt with on Reservoir.

“I would say that one of the central themes of the record is that of platonic relationships,” she says.

“As you go through this period of growth and exploration in your early 20s, you come to realise these relationships you’ve accumulated along the way have become such a big part of who you are. I feel like I’ve kind of been struck by the tragedy that can come with that, I think. These long, slow-burning friendships or relationships can slowly dissipate.

“Maybe that’s just what’s supposed to happen, and you just have to be okay with moving in different directions. Still, that doesn’t mean it’s not still sad. I’ve been contemplating that for a number of years – especially as I tour more and I’m home a lot less.”

Speaking ahead of the release of Reservoir, Payten is acutely aware not everyone is going to gel with it. Lead single ‘Heaven I Know’ has already proven to be divisive, and there are moments on the record that get to even darker and more experimental places than that. It’s a bold album, and whatever idea you have of Gordi as a singer-songwriter type right now, one listen of Reservoir will promptly smash it. If that doesn’t sit well with you, Payten reasons, that’s a you problem.

“I’ve met a lot of really wonderful people in the last few years, and a lot of great artists who I really look up to,” she says.

“As you go through this period of growth and exploration in your early 20s, you come to realise these relationships you’ve accumulated along the way have become such a big part of who you are.

I feel like I’ve kind of been struck by the tragedy that can come with that.”

“I think the overarching thing I’ve learned from them is that you can’t let yourself get anxious about the things that you can’t control. What you can control is how proud you are of the music that you make, how much you’re satisfied with it, how much you feel challenged by it, how much integrity you put into it, how honest it feels to you. People will like it or they won’t.

I don’t think I’d be creatively satisfied in a production that was just there to please the masses. As long as I like the music I make, I know I’m staying true to myself.”

What: Reservoir out now through Jagjaguwar

“You can’t let yourself get anxious about the things that you can’t control.

What you can control is how proud you are of the music that you make.”

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FEATURE

“It’s good to be able to express something negative and do it in a way that can be danced to. It’s impossibly hard for us to sound angry with what we’ve got, so we channel it all in our high energy performances.”

Everything Everything: The Future Is Now Max Jacobson speaks with Everything Everything’s Jonathan Higgs about his band’s bleak new album

U

K indie/art pop masters Everything Everything have unleashed their follow up to the universally-praised Get To Heaven with a darker, more electronic LP, A Fever Dream. And fans will be happy to hear that the things that make the band stand out amongst their indie contemporaries – the level of skill they have as instrumentalists, their work as an ensemble and their genius as crafters of hooks that etch themselves in your head – are all very evident on the new record.

Indeed, if ever proof was needed that the band are the very definition of the phrase “rock gods”, then this is it – the group evidently know how to transform the simplest, catchiest melodies into full-blooded avant-garde masterpieces, a skill they have been honing for almost ten years now.

“All our records are about the world, but this one is sort of just about how weird it is; how everyone’s turned on each other and we’ve all become the enemy. In the end, it’s about how it’s all turning to shit.” thebrag.com

As lead vocalist Jonathan Higgs tells it, the band “didn’t try to write any soft songs” for A Fever Dream, and as such the more subdued feel that ended up dominating the record was a natural occurrence. As a result, A Fever Dream is a more cohesive and linear album than its predecessor, and is indicative of a change in the band’s songwriting process. There’s more clarity in its sonic exploration – every element is precise and carefully honed.

Higgs puts this down to a writing process more intimate and collaborative than the band have ever embarked upon before. “It’s been very collaborative between me and [bandmate] Alex [Robertshaw] on this last record,” he says. “We wrote a lot of it next to each other, which is something we haven’t done before.

It used to be [us] just writing it by ourselves and bringing it in, but on this one it was a lot more collaborative from the ground up.”

A lot of this is refl ected in the album’s lyrical themes which are, as usual, confrontational and abrasive. But that is to be expected of a socially conscious band creating music in the year of our lord 2017 – what person with a conscience could keep quiet when the literal rise of fascism is unfurling all around us?

case, it’s the band’s goal to continue improving their songwriting ability.

“The record is sort of about the world,” says Higgs. “I mean, all our records are about the world, but this one is sort of just about how weird it is; how everyone’s turned on each other and we’ve all become the enemy. In the end, it’s about how it’s all turning to shit.”

It isn’t only their songwriting aptitude that makes them a band to watch: live, they prove themselves expertly skilled musicians. Their sets demonstrate surprising discipline, the band all synchronising with one another while displaying utmost sonic precision.

The band have fully embraced the paradox of playing very danceable songs about very sad things, and they will continue to smash out songs about disenchantment, with as much liveliness and vigour as they can muster, well into the future.

Make no mistake: there are still plenty of experiments scattered across the album. That is, after all, to be expected by now. Everything Everything have never been a band to slow down or settle into the homogenised middle ground; they are, at the heart of it, pop revolutionaries, and although their songs are catchy and gratifying, they don’t make music that can simply be gobbled up like so much candy.

“High energy songs are a more powerful way to express negativity,” Higgs says. “It works better for us than playing soft. It’s a good way to kind of fi nd the brightness in a dark situation.

It’s good to be able to express something negative and do it in a way that can be danced to. It’s impossibly hard for us to sound angry with what we’ve got, so we channel it all in our high energy performances.”

There is a reason, after all, that their influence has even been felt in indie and experimental circles. Everything Everything aren’t just a band leapt upon by radio junkies; they are forging ahead in the realm of the avant-garde, and are finding fans there too.

Part of what makes the band’s music so special in the indie-pop realm is their knack for creating instantaneously catchy alt-pop tunes that are equal parts eccentric and accessible. It’s hard to tell which aspect of the music gets more attention from critical circles, but in either

“The quirkiness kinda comes naturally,” says Higgs. “At first we were mainly about the quirks, because we didn’t really have any idea what we were doing, but as we’ve gone on we’ve tried to write the best songs that we can.”

“We’re all classically trained, but not on our current instruments,” Higgs says. “I was on the trumpet. We picked up rock’n’roll instruments because when you’re in your teens, playing the trumpet isn’t exactly as cool as being a rock singer.”

A Fever Dream, like its predecessors, bears traces of electronica and indie rock influences, so perhaps it was unsurprising that in the lead-up to the album’s drop, Higgs named Arcade Fire as one of the biggest influences on the band. But given the infamy of Arcade Fire’s latest release, the question has to be asked: is Higgs ready and willing to offer his two cents on Everything Now? “We thought the new album was a prank, just with the whole roll-out and campaign,” he laughs. “But it looks like the joke’s got a bit old now; it’s probably real at this point. Still, they’re a huge influence on us.”

With: A Fever Dream is out now through Sony Music Australia BRAG :: 724 :: 06:09:17 :: 11

FEATURE

“It’s either nostalgic memories that influence what I’m writing, or it’s fucked up people: either fucked up people or people that have fucked me up.”

Catharsis lies at the heart of Barling’s music, and he uses his art to come “full circle after bad things have happened.”

Dance, for a time, used to fulfil this need, but eventually it failed to satisfy in the same way as “creating something from absolute beginning to end.

“For me [inspiration] comes from two places. It’s either nostalgic memories that influence what I’m writing, or it’s fucked up people: either fucked up people or people that have fucked me up,” says Barling. “Often it tends to be people in my past, because I’m having quite a good time currently with my life, so I guess I’m not that depressed anymore.

“But my music is all coming from a place of catharsis – it’s about cleaning out all the shitty memories and writing music about them. Essentially, my story is about how fucked up shit can end up providing a growth moment for you in your life. All of my music ends up being about growth.”

EP1, Barling’s only release to date, is a five-tracker that explores the depths of these experiences and the dangers of love. Barling was in a very different place when writing the EP, and he sees it as a reflection of the personal turmoil he went through.

But as he currently puts the finishing touches to some new material, Barling now draws upon more recent, happier times. While he recognises that the music has undergone a shift in mood, he’s not worried about his sound straying too far from that which earned him attention in the first place.

WCB: The Storyteller William Cooper Barling talks to Lee Coleman about his journey from contemporary dance to music, and why ‘indulgent’ isn’t a dirty word

I

t feels as though Auckland’s William Cooper Barling is on the cusp of something special. Dropping tracks that boast deep atmospheric production and Barling’s urgent, raw voice, the singer-songwriter is combining hyper dynamic R&B, soul and electronica like no-one else, forging ahead through new musical territory as he goes. “Unique” might be an overused way of describing emerging acts these days, but it’s hard to find a word that suits Barling better.

alone was not enough – he desperately needed something more.

Barling’s love affair with music began while he was singing with his grandma on camping holidays as a child. Along the way, he developed a love for movement, and for many years worked as a contemporary dancer. But although he loved it, he soon realised that dance

Electronic production provided Barling with the key he needed, unlocking the opportunity to go it alone vocally and to express his ideals as purely as he could. With the help of his gadgets, he learned to loop, creating “full moods” and vocal “landscapes” – the building

“I wanted to create stuff that I wasn’t hearing – stuff that I wanted to hear,” says Barling. “I sang my entire life; I didn’t learn to play any instruments. I guess I thought that you had to in order to be able to create music. But over a period of time, I created a sound that [was based on] vocals – I literally learnt how to make music without knowing how to play any instruments.”

blocks for his songwriting. This unique production style grew organically he says, and he describes the process as an “amalgamation of the people I’ve been around and the music I listen to.

“I really enjoy when people use vocals as an instrument. Then from there I guess I just get carried away with production. People like James Blake, the jazz singer Chet Baker – they were my biggest influences when I was first starting to write solo stuff. I just loved James Blake’s concept of electronic production. I heard him many years ago, and I remember thinking, ‘Can music be like this? Can viable music be like this?’ It was quite a cool moment.

I know he’s indulgent, but I guess I am as well.”

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Barling is an accomplished performer, and he works hard to make his live show a fully immersive experience, largely through the aid of complex visuals projected onto a screen behind him.

But what is the key to a good show for Barling?

“I guess I’d say nudity,” he says, laughing a little. “I mean I’m not going to be nude, but I think I am the best version of myself when I perform my music; the authentic version of myself. It’s weird: I don’t get particularly nervous when performing live, but I feel it’s very telling of who I am as a person when I perform live.

“I mean, I don’t like to perform live, as in have keys or drums or whatever, because I feel like I can’t deliver the song, or set, the way that it should be. So, I like to have as little onstage as possible so I can stand there and be a bit naked. I think that’s what people deserve. If you’re going to tell a story then tell the story – be the storyteller. I enjoy that.”

What: EP1 available now thebrag.com

xxx photo by xxx

“I think I am the best version of myself when I perform my music; the authentic version of myself.

It’s weird.”

“The new stuff that I’m working on is more about periods in time that make me really happy. It’s very much about day-drinking with people that you really love – it’s a really different choice of influences for me. Even when I’m writing a happy song – a lot of my acapella songs are about my partner – it sounds sad but it’s actually really happy. I guess that’s not going to change. And if it does, then that’s a bridge I’m yet to cross.”

“We’ve definitely worked out a set that we think and hope is really cool and works, and that everything blends.”

FEATURE

The Jungle Giants: Quietly Ferocious Zanda Wilson gets the inside scoop from The Jungle Giants’ Cesira Aitken

T

he Jungle Giants are in the most exciting stage of the album cycle. They’ve written, recorded and released their third record Quiet Ferocity and are about to take their hard work out on the road for a massive national tour. Better still, they will be showing off a brand new live set-up, one that has seen the Brisbane band simplify things and cut loose some of their touring members, leaving the four founding musicians ready to take full control of proceedings.

“We’re in the middle of rehearsals at the moment, so it’s pretty intense, and hopefully it’s as intense a polished and finished product as we start to go through the tour,” says the band’s lead guitarist Cesira Aitken. “It’s been a while since we played some shows but it’ll be pretty fun; everyone will have a good dance I’m sure.”

xxx

“We totally remember not being able to go to shows when we were a little bit younger, which wasn’t that long ago. We’re always totally into doing all-ages shows.” thebrag.com

It may be their first extended run of the year, but The Jungle Giants had the privilege of playing shows at Melbourne and Taronga Zoos earlier this year alongside good buddies Ball Park Music. It was an experience that Aitken thoroughly enjoyed, and it helped keep the band’s live chops in check. “That was awesome actually,” says Aitken. “It’s nice playing late afternoon sets where the sun is setting and it’s just beautiful.

We also got to go through and do Melbourne Zoo as well, which was the first show, and have a look at some of the animals.”

Putting together a new show with a vastly-expanded discography of music to choose from has its challenges too, and it took some time for The Jungle Giants to establish the best way to consolidate their three albums into a single set.

“Obviously now with three albums, it’s a little bit harder putting a setlist together because you don’t want to play forever,” Aitken chuckles.

“We’ve chosen songs from the previous record that kind of blend into the new record’s sound. We’re trying to give a pretty seamless transition between songs without anything standing out too much as obscure sounding in comparison to something new. We’ve definitely worked out a set that we think and hope is really cool and works, and that everything blends.”

The forthcoming run will see The Jungle Giants play several all-ages and under 18s-only gigs, something the band felt they simply had to do. “We totally remember not being able to go to shows

when we were a little bit younger, which wasn’t that long ago,” laughs Aitken.

“We’re always totally into doing allages shows, and whenever venues can possibly accommodate it we’ll always do that, or an under 18s show.”

The process of writing and shaping Quiet Ferocity allowed the band to record with less wild abandon and more methodical efficiency, in that way changing up their usual haphazard creative schedules.

“Yeah we’ve locked in a great process now,” says Aitken. “It’s been awesome.

With this record it was a totally different approach to the previous one. We wouldn’t book large blocks of recording time in advance like we used to.

“As the demos came out of [frontman Sam Hales’] writing room we would just book small blocks of studio time with an engineer and do them as they were ready. It was cool because it put less pressure on everyone, especially Sam, to be there and to have to be there every day. We used to find ourselves in situations where we had to just record for five weeks to get things right. Now we get together for four days to do two songs and we know how they go; Sam knows how he wants them to sound.”

A lot of that streamlining came about thanks to a decision made by Hales, and more specifically his move towards writing in a way designed not to overcomplicate instrumentation. “When Sam brings us the songs now, the production and the instrumentation is already almost 100 per cent locked down,” says Aitken.

“So when we’re recording it’s just all about refining things – and especially with this record, we’ve really condensed a lot of elements of the recording process.

“With other records we thought we needed ten guitars and all these crazy percussive elements, but this time we decided to just find a few really great sounds and just make them sound the best that they can. It was a very clean way to be recording these songs.”

Quiet Ferocity has already been warmly received by radio programmers and by The Jungle Giants’ fan base, with the record nabbing the band the number 11 slot on the ARIA albums chart.

As a result, Aitken believes that they’re really only now hitting their stride as a band, and that they’ve locked in a sound that will define their music for years to come. “I think with the last two records we felt great about them as they came to be released, but with Quiet Ferocity it seems like we’re all taking this sound we’ve created as far as it can go, and exploring it more,” Aitken says.

“Especially with the recording process now it feels like we have a real method.

Our older music may not have sounded over-complicated in the finished product but, as we reflected on it during this album, it definitely seemed that way to us.”

What: Quietly Ferocious out now through Positive Feedback

BRAG :: 724 :: 06:09:17 :: 13

FEATURE

“‘Sweet Disposition’ is still a song that I really connect with.

I think it has to do with the kind of response it gets.

When we play, we know that people are waiting for it.”

The Temper Trap: Journeymen The Temper Trap talk to David James Young about their long distance relationship, what’s coming next and why they still love ‘Sweet Disposition’

T

hey may all continue to call Australia their spiritual home, but that doesn’t mean The Temper Trap are staying still. As bass player Jonathon Aherne explains, the last few years have seen some major geographical shifts for the quartet, a situation they’re only now properly wrapping their heads around. “Dougy [Mandagi, vocals/guitar] lives in Berlin, I live in New York and the other two live in London,” he says.

“Even then, one of the guys in London is going to move back to Australia pretty soon. Then all four of us will be in completely different parts of the world. It’s actually been alright to make it work for us – mostly because we’re not writing at the moment. We tend to meet up to play shows, and we’ll rehearse together the day before.

It can be a little tricky if we’re all on emails at different times and we need to have a quick turnaround on a decision, but we’re lucky that’s one of the only real obstacles for us right now.”

June 2016 saw the release of Thick As Thieves, the third studio album from the band. Having now toured the record for over a year, and with more shows to come, Aherne is intimately familiar with the record – and, even this far removed from its creation, still thinks about it quite a lot. “For me, there’s always a lot of build up to the release of a record,” he says.

“You’re wondering if people are going to respond to it; if they’re going to connect to it. That’s really the name of the game as far as I’m concerned: the connection that happens. All the music I love gets to me – it does something to me. With my own music, I’ve never been the kind of person that doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. That mentality where it’s like, ‘I like it and if no-one else does, too bad’ – that’s never been me. I love to see how people engage with our music, and how they respond to it in their own way.”

“With my own music, I’ve never been the kind of person that doesn’t care what anyone else thinks … I love to see how people engage with our music, and how they respond to it in their own way.”

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For Aherne, it’s of equal importance to not only keep old fans invested, but to have newer people come on board every time the band releases music.

“I’m incredibly grateful for the Temper Trap fans around the world that have allowed us to continue to do this for so many years now; who’ve been with us for years and years. I also really get a lot out of making those new connections, though. I love being able to grow and for more people to get into our music. I’m very analytical about it all – if something we do doesn’t make that connection, I really take the time to think about why that is.”

As Aherne has already mentioned, The Temper Trap are currently in a period of creative inactivity as they continue to tour in support of Thick As Thieves.

In the meantime, however, the band are considering taking a moment to look back before they press forward onto album number four. “We’ve been talking about putting out an EP,” says Aherne. “There’s songs that we like. Some of them are co-writes, so there’s a couple of technicalities with producers. I can’t say too much about it, but some of these producers will charge you ten thousand dollars or something ridiculous just to be able to use the song you recorded. Managers tend to really stick to their guns on this sort of thing.”

In spite of this, Aherne remains ever the optimist. “I mean, we’ll see what happens. We’ve left a lot of great ideas on the cutting room fl oor – I’d love to see what would happen if we got in there and scrubbed them up a

bit. There’s a lot of space between our album releases – it’d be really nice to put something out where there’s no real pressure on us and we can just bridge that gap a little more.”

This November will see the band performing in Australia once again, headlining dates in both Sydney and Melbourne. Fans can expect a wide array of tracks from all three albums, including songs both never played and not played for a long time. And yes, it will come back – as it always does – to their signature song, ‘Sweet Disposition’. Although it verges on being a decade old, the song is still one that Aherne and his bandmates get a lot out of performing. “I’m a little bit of a hippy,” the bassist confesses with a laugh.

“This could sound like nonsense to some people, but I really tend to try and connect with the spirit of a song.

That connection I was talking about before? Well, ‘Sweet Disposition’ is still a song that I really connect with. I think it has to do with the kind of response it gets. When we play, we know that people are waiting for it. As soon as they start singing, that spirit is there. It feels exciting – it feels like you’re doing the right thing. That song connected us with all our fans. It just came so naturally. It took on a life on its own.

People have tattoos of that song.

They’ve walked down the aisle to that song. We’ll forever be grateful for the places that it’s taken us.”

When: Wednesday November 22 Where: Metro Theatre thebrag.com

FEATURE

Mutemath: Following Their Bliss Joseph Earp talks to Mutemath’s Paul Meany about how his band took 15 long years to find themselves

A

sk any band what their thoughts are about their newest record, and you can take it for granted that they’ll murmur some vague, selfcongratulatory yet humbled statement – something like, “Well, we love it, but we can’t wait to see what the fans think.”

It’s par for the course, not only because vague questions get vague answers in both music interviews and, yer know, regular conversation, but because bands usually are proud of their latest release – or at least, tied financially to it enough that they have to pretend to be.

But when Mutemath’s lead vocalist Paul Meany gets posed a warm-up question about his new record, Play Dead, he doesn’t dismiss the question, or blurt out an answer. He thinks, for what feels like an impossibly long time and then finally says, his voice hushed: “We’re really proud of this one.”

Boo Seeka photo by Ian Laidlaw

It’s not hard to see why, either. Mutemath have been going at it for 15 years now, releasing bold, psych, prog and avantgarde indebted records and amassing a small army of followers along the way.

But Play Dead, more than any record they have dropped since their self-titled debut, feels like an uncompromised mission statement; as pure a work as they have ever released.

That wasn’t an accident either – Meany and his compatriots actively worked to simplify their sound, and they tried hard not to experiment just for the sake of

experimenting. “I think the first record certainly set the experimental tone,” Meany says, his voice thick and low.

“I think we had always wanted to just try stuff. I don’t know if that’s just an indulgent trap that artists can fall into – we certainly fell into it. It was like, ‘Oh, this is our second record? Let’s throw in horns and string sections and not use the instruments that we used on the prior record.’

“I think all that yielded some fun. But I think between all these experiments from album to album, it was becoming evident to us as we were playing our shows and trimming down what we could play in our 90-minute set, what we enjoyed most, and what we liked playing best.”

Certainly the key to Play Dead is an unfettered sense of fun – which maybe sounds paradoxical, given the record’s morbid title and Mutemath’s reputation as stony-faced prophets. But in each of the record’s sun-blasted guitar licks, you can hear how much they are bloody enjoying themselves; you can feel, rippling off the record like heat waves off tarmac on a sunny day, a pure, unabashed sense of glee.

“This is the first album that we did where we had no outside collaborators,” Meany says. “It was just the four of us doing all the writing, all the recording, all the mixing… The whole thing. We just approached this record as four producers coming in to produce a really good Mutemath album, and trying to

figure out what that sounded like. And I think we worked out that it was very exciting for us; we enjoyed it. We paid attention to what we’ve experienced in our shows, and we really tried to funnel that into getting the best performances out of each of us.”

He thinks for a moment. “I mean, I reckon this record was about discovering what it sounds like when our band is firing on all cylinders. It was about finding out what we do best as a band – about really unleashing. It wasn’t so much about what we might be listening to – like, the songs we have on our playlists and our iPhones and wanna try on this record. It was much more about self-producing it.”

Some of the material on the record is five years old, adding the strange weight of legacy to the project. But despite that selfsame vague, reflective quality, it never becomes a work of history, or the result of some mad bout of archiving; it has blood, and vim, and vigour.

“We had 30 demos that we brought with us to the writing session. Some of them old – there are songs on this record that date back to 2012 – and as we were listening to them, we didn’t agree on which songs we wanted on this album.

And that was fine. All we did for each other was say, ‘Hey, you pick the three or four songs that you are most proud of out of these 30.’ And coincidentally, each one of us picked different ones.

“I reckon this record was about discovering what it sounds like when our band is firing on all cylinders. It was about finding out what we do best as a band.”

“So we took time to push them along, getting the performances out of each other that we needed. And we shaped them into songs, and we enabled each other to step up as producers and arrangers. That kinda took the pressure off democratically trying to work out if we all liked a song before we poured into it. We tried to let each guy kind of follow their bliss with a song that they thought really connected to them.”

The result is the prototypical Mutemath record; a beautiful album that might be the very best of their entire career.

“I feel like in some strange way, this is the record that we’ve been working towards all along,” Meany laughs.

“It’s like we were trying to follow up our very first album.”

What: Play Dead out Friday September 8 through Caroline/Spunk

“We just approached this record as four producers coming in to produce a really good Mutemath album, and trying to figure out what that sounded like.” thebrag.com

BRAG :: 724 :: 06:09:17 :: 15

26:08:17 :: Metro Theatre :: 624 George St Sydney 9550 3666

ocean alley

What we’ve seen (and heard) this week. See full galleries at thebrag.com/snaps

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stone sour

26:08:17 :: Hordern Pavillion :: 1 Driver Ave, Moore Park 9921 5333

thebrag.com

thebrag.com

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24:08:17 :: Factory Theatre :: 105 Victoria Road, Marrickville 9550 3666

sarah mcleod

Of The Boldest Albums From 1997

THE DANDY WARHOLS

SUPERGRASS

…The Dandy Warhols Come Down

In It for the Money

Having released debut Dandys Rule OK on Portland indie label Tim/Kerr, “the most well-adjusted band in America” made the jump to Capitol for their sophomore release.

When they entered the studio to record the follow-up to 1995’s riotous I Should Coco, Supergrass only had two songs ready to record. This, coupled with tensions surrounding Danny Goffey’s extra-circular activities, put a strain on the drawn-out sessions, and yet the resulting album sounds anything but laboured.

By Michael Hartt uring their recent week of features discussing the best and worst of pop culture from 20 years ago, The A.V. Club said that 1997 is a “frequent contender” for the title of the worst year in music.

such as grunge and Britpop, were fast running out of steam, thanks to acts that were nothing but second or third-rate versions of the bands that had kicked open the doors for their respective genres in the first place.

Sure, their point was strongly made by the fact that, during a two-week period in June and July of that year, albums were released Sugar Ray, Smash Mouth and Limp Bizkit; a beefcake triumvirate that provides no finer representation of everything that was absolutely horrid about music in the late ’90s/early ’00s.

But amongst all of the chaff being doled out by also-rans and dudebros, 1997 also served up some of the brashest, most creative and best indie-rock albums of the decade. Some acts took their sound in new directions, while some pushed their sound (and sometimes themselves) to their absolute limit. To that end, here are ten albums that explain the glamour and the glory of indie rock in 1997.

By 1997, movements that had been so vital in their infancy during the earlier part of the decade,

After the label rejected their first attempt, the band went on to produce an album that added a heavy dose of power pop and glam into their psychedelic/shoegaze stew, as best exhibited on ‘Boys Better’ and ‘Every Day Should Be A Holiday’.

FURTHER LISTENING: The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Give It Back!, Apples in Stereo’s Tone Soul Evolution.

In It For The Money found the band growing more musically adventurous than they had ever been on their debut, adding lush layers of strings and horns. Some of the album’s finest moments come from Rob Coombes’ cosmic keyboards, particularly in ‘Richard III’ and ‘Sun Hits The Sky’.

FURTHER LISTENING: The Charlatans’ Tellin’ Stories, Jebediah’s Slightly Odway.

BLUR

PRIMAL SCREAM

SPIRITUALIZED

Blur

Vanishing Point

Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space

The only problem was, the band had painted themselves into a corner, creatively. Guitarist Graham Coxon in particular hated what his band had become and rebelled by embracing noisy, lo-fi American indie rock, the complete antithesis to Britpop’s bright, cheeky chappy aesthetic. As he told Damon Albarn, he wanted to make music “to scare people again”.

The old adage is that Blur won the Britpop battle but lost the war. While this is true for the most part, the band made a far more successful dismount from the genre they helped create than many of their contemporaries. By the time of Blur’s third album of the Britpop era, 1995’s The Great Escape, they were the biggest they’d ever been, scoring a string of top ten singles in the UK – including their first number one – and becoming bona fide pop stars.

Decamping to Iceland, Blur produced their most experimental work to date. Lead single ‘Beetlebum’ with its soaring lead guitar lines gave the group their second UK number one single in spite of warnings they’d be committing commercial suicide.

Bouncing between thrashy (‘Chinese Bombs’, ‘Song 2’, ‘Movin’ On’) and lackadaisical (‘Death Of A Party’, ‘Country Sad Ballad Man’, ‘You’re So Great’), Blur is the moment Damon Albarn and co. laid Britpop to rest.

FURTHER LISTENING: Pavement’s Brighten the Corners, Guided By Voices’ Mag Earwhig!

“The old adage is that Blur won the Britpop battle but lost the war. While this is true for the most part, the band made a far more successful dismount from the genre they helped create than many of their contemporaries.”

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The period around 1994’s narcotic-fuelled Give Out But Don’t Give Up brought Primal Scream as close to splitting up as they’ve ever got. As a result, when you compare 1997’s Vanishing Point to its predecessor, It’s almost like the work of a completely different band. The Rolling Stones/Parliament/Funkadelic-influence – so blatant on the last album – was reined in and replaced with songs that meld krautrock, dub, soul and psychedelia.

Spanning across nearly 70 minutes, Jason Pierce’s magnum opus is the sound of heartbreak writ large. Straddling gospel, blues, free jazz, rock’n’roll, krautrock, doo wop and noise rock, it was a shift away from the minimalist sound found on Spiritualized’s first two albums in favour of a denser, more symphonic, more cinematic production.

The comedown from the ecstasy euphoria of the early ’90s is evident in the darker, paranoid and claustrophobic vibe of the album, in particular ‘Trainspotting’ and ‘If They Move, Kill ’Em’. It was the first Primal Scream album to feature Stone Roses’ bassist Mani, and his presence is immediately obvious, thanks to the pulverising bass line on ‘Kowalski’. The album’s dub leanings became even more pronounced when the remix album Echo Dek was released five months later.

Literally an album that sounds like it’s being broadcast from the Mir space station, Ladies And Gentlemen explores an inner space occupied by despair and crisis. The heartbreak in question could be about Pierce’s breakup with keyboardist Kate Radley (who played on the album) or it could just as easily be anger with himself for falling so hard for heavy substances. The sprawling, drawling 17-minute closer ‘Cop Shoot Cop’ is unlike any track released by any other act during this period.

FURTHER LISTENING: Super Furry Animals’ Radiator, Broadcast’s Work And Non Work.

FURTHER LISTENING: Cornelius’ Fantasma, Bowery Electric’s Beat. thebrag.com

FEATURE

THE VERVE

SIDEWINDER

SLEATER-KINNEY

TEENAGE FANCLUB

Urban Hymns

Tangerine

Dig Me Out

Songs From Northern Britain

Oasis’ northern neighbours and occasional touring buddies finally tipped over into the big time with their third album, one that had been hinted by the band’s second record, A Northern Soul.

That strong sophomore release indicated a desire to move away from all-out space rock towards more anthemic, acousticdriven tracks, and the new style served them well on three of the four big hits on Urban Hymns: ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’, ‘Lucky Man’ and ‘Sonnet’.

Sydney-based Canberra transplants Sidewinder’s second album was one of the most ambitious released by an Australian band during the ’90s. Across its 13 tracks, it traverses a landscape that includes jangly distorted guitars (‘Here She Comes Again’, ‘God’), electronic loops, synth washes and psych folk weirdness (‘Sunshine In A Pocket’).

Reportedly costing a small fortune to make (with more than enough music made for several albums), Tangerine only peaked at number 76 on the ARIA Charts on release in September 1997. Sidewinder began work on a follow-up but decided to call it a day in 1999. Their catalogue, sadly, is currently out of print.

The classic line-up of Sleater-Kinney was finally established with the addition of drummer Janet Weiss to the trio following the release of 1996’s Call The Doctor.

Weiss’ powerhouse playing became an essential part of the group’s sound, with the first signs of this revealed on third album Dig Me Out. Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker’s guitars were not only more thunderous than on the previous two SK albums, the songs too were their best to date, and deal with heartache, sexism, survival and defiance.

On their sixth album, Scottish power pop dons Teenage Fanclub continued the roll of good form begun with 1995’s Grand Prix. Recorded at AIR Studios while Creation Records labelmates Oasis were recording Be Here Now elsewhere in the building, Songs From Northern Britain found the group taking their trademark sound in a folkier, more pastoral direction as displayed by the indomitable trio of singles ‘Ain’t That Enough’, ‘I Don’t Want Control Of You’ and ‘Start Again’, as well as the warm embrace of ‘Your Love Is the Place Where I Come From’.

But their space rock roots were still on show via the cacophonous ‘The Rolling People’, as well as album opener and the band’s most famous song, ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’, which melded woozy guitars with a towering wall of orchestration.

Their use of a sample of a cover of The Rolling Stones’ ‘The Last Time’ meant the band had to relinquish their royalties and give a writing credit to Jagger/Richards.

Bitter sweet, indeed.

FURTHER LISTENING: Yo La Tengo’s I Can Feel The Heart Beating As One, Blonde Redhead’s Fake Can Be Just As Good.

FURTHER LISTENING: The Pastels’ Illumination, Elliott Smith’s Either/Or.

FURTHER LISTENING: Drop City’s This Heavenly Machine, The Earthmen’s Love Walked In.

FURTHER LISTENING: Radiohead’s OK Computer, Paul Weller’s Heavy Soul.

“If you want to get an Oasis fan talking, ask them what they think about Be Here Now – very few albums in the history of rock are as loved or as loathed as much as Oasis’ third album.”

OASIS Be Here Now f you want to get an Oasis fan talking, ask them what they think about Be Here Now – very few albums in the history of rock are as loved or as loathed as much as Oasis’ third album.

The story of Oasis in 1996 and ’97 is like the story of a dog that chases a car for miles and then, once it has caught up with it, doesn’t know what to do. Since their emergence in 1994, the band told anyone that would listen that they were going to be the biggest act in the world.

And after releasing two colossally popular albums in the space of 15 months – Definitely Maybe in August 1994 and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? in October 1995 – and playing to ever-increasing crowds (particularly in Britain), their promise was actualising, culminating in two nights of shows in Knebworth that saw them play to 250,000 people, at the time the largest free-standing outdoor shows in British history.

In that moment, Oasis were well and truly the biggest band in the world (or at least the world they inhabited).

But where do you go after that? The reality for Oasis postKnebworth was another tour of America, a country where they were making in-roads but were far from the superstars they were at home. Liam Gallagher refused to join the start of the tour, leaving brother Noel to lead for a couple of gigs, and it wasn’t long after Liam re-joined the tour that it was Noel’s turn to abandon ship, as he travelled home without his bandmates.

No wonder there was speculation that Oasis’ day was done.

This is the context in which Be Here Now came to life. As had been the case previously when things got fraught in the Oasis camp, heading into the studio was seen as the solution, with the band aiming to ease tensions through hard graft.

Having suffered from writer’s block after recording Morning Glory?, Noel pushed himself to get songs for the new album

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written during breaks in touring. Most of the songs that ended up on Be Here Now were demoed by Noel and producer Owen Morris during a stay at Mick Jagger’s villa on the island of Mustique, and the former lothario’s new life as an international rock star heavily informed the record’s lyrics, providing a stark contrast to the working class anthems of the first two albums.

Musically, there are dense layers of trebly guitar everywhere (it’s believed at least one song has 30 tracks of guitar).

Just as strikingly, nine of the 12 tracks are longer than five minutes. There’s a choir, there’s an orchestra, there’s Johnny Depp playing guitar, and there’s the sound of a door shutting to signify the end of the album.

Sessions at Abbey Road (where else?) were started then stopped due to complaints about noise and the unwanted media and fan attention recording in London was bringing. As a result, the bulk of Be Here Now ended up being tracked at AIR Studios in Hampstead and Ridge Farm In Surrey.

Even the album’s release on August 21 was an over-thetop event, what with the album hitting the shelves of British record stores in the middle of a chart week. It sold 424,000 copies in the UK on release day and sold 663,389 by the end of the chart week two days later, making it, at the time, the fastest-selling album in British history.

What eventually came out of the sessions was in some ways a cross-pollination of the sound of Oasis’ first two albums, as the band took the raucous guitars of their debut and the sumptuous production of their second album and turned everything up to eleven.

The story of Be Here Now is ultimately one of overindulgence, whether it be overindulgence of chemicals, fame, recording budgets, or egos, and it’s the first era of Oasis reaching its ultimate, fully-realised, ostentatious, riotous peak.

The lyrics teeter between the (faux) profound and poetic (‘Stand By Me’, ‘Don’t Go Away’, ‘D’You Know What I Mean?’) to, at their worst, absolute waffle (‘Magic Pie’, ‘Be Here Now’).

FURTHER LISTENING: Ocean Colour Scene’s Marchin’ Already, Cornershop’s When I Was Born For The 7th Time, Cotton Mather’s Kon Tiki.

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ARTS FEATURE

Mechanical Octopi, Meth And Madness:

THE TRUE STORY OF

THE EVIL

WITHIN

BY JOSEPH EARP

THE DEATH.

“When [Andrew] was young he would have these really powerful, sick, twisted dreams, and [they were] so shocking to him that he didn’t think they came from him.”

– ANDREW GETTY’S CHILDHOOD FRIEND, RYAN READENOUR. is ex-girlfriend found the body. He had collapsed on the cold tiles of his grand mansion and died there, surrounded by the banks of computers he had been using to edit his passion project of some 13 years, a low budget horror film starring cult actor Michael Berryman. Foul play was initially suspected: the man was discovered on the floor “naked from the waist down”, according to an article in The LA Times, and “surrounded by a significant amount of blood.”

But it didn’t take long for murder to be ruled out. The man was a mess of health issues – his doctor had only recently warned him that unless he worked hard to lower his blood pressure, he would not be long for this earth, and in a restraining order he had filed against his ex-girlfriend Lanessa DeJonge he had made reference to an unspecified illness he had been diagnosed with back in 2013.

DeJonge’s mother had even told the tabloids after his death that he had been “recently diagnosed with a brain aneurysm”, a condition allegedly not helped by his penchant for partying. So it was no surprise that when the autopsy report came back, it identified his poor health as the problem. His stomach was the scene of the crime – or, more specifically, a nest of haemorrhaging ulcers contained within it.

His name was Andrew Rork Getty, and at 47 years old, he was the heir to one of America’s most prestigious and tragic dynasties. Like the Trumps on prozac, the Gettys were a clan of oil tycoons and philanthropists who had spent the last few decades embroiled in one controversy after another. Andrew’s aunt in law had died of a heroin overdose; one of his uncles had died of a brain tumour as a boy; and another, John Paul Getty Jr., struggled with addiction all his life. Andrew himself kept up a surreptitious meth habit for many years: the drug was present in his system when he died, and the autopsy report confirmed that the haemorrhaging of the ulcers had been spurred on by his frequent consumption of it.

And the controversies went deeper. Although Andrew’s grandfather, John Paul Getty, was at one point most famous for being the world’s richest private citizen (he had an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion), his infamy superseded his wealth when his grandson John Paul Getty III was kidnapped in Rome, and the elder Getty outright refused to pay the ransom. “I have 14 other grandchildren, and if I pay one penny now, then I will have 14 kidnapped grandchildren,” Getty Sr. quipped.

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Getty Sr. did eventually acquiesce after receiving his grandson’s ear in the mail – the grotesque package had been held up in a postal strike, only making its way to Getty after three long weeks that John Paul III had spent tied to a stake in a cave. But even when it did come time for him to pay, the ever-frugal Getty forked over just $2.2 million instead of the $3.2 million demanded of him. The sum he paid was not random: $2.2 million was the most amount of money that would remain tax deductible.

Yet it wasn’t only a legacy of controversy and addiction that defined the Gettys: they were also avowed patrons of the arts. John Paul Sr. might have undercut the price of his grandson’s life, but he made considerable charitable contributions on the side, a habit fostered in Andrew’s father Gordon from a young age.

So that was the legacy that Andrew was born in; the great, constricting weight of history he had to battle against. And as a result of it, Andrew had little to no say in the direction of his life. I mean, none of us really do – none of us get to choose our parents, or their economic situation, or their class, or the country we will be raised in.

But when one is rich, that helplessness can become even more pronounced. Andrew was a Getty from the day that he was born. He never had the chance to be normal, whatever normal means – never got to work a shitty job at McDonald’s, or find his passion at a determinedly average school surrounded by his friends.

Instead, Andrew was pushed into the Dunn School, and from there, the University of Southern California, shortly followed by New York University. He hated them all. He was a lonely child, with a miserly, mercurial streak. He would be that way all his life.

“He was very private and didn’t come out of his house,” one of Andrew’s neighbours told the New York Times after his death.

So while others had friends, Andrew had his passions. There were two that dominated his life: dinosaur bones and horror films. He collected the former, donating significant sums of money to the palaeontology department at Los Angeles’ Natural History Museum, and he studied the latter, relentlessly poring over obscure art slashers from the ’70s, the films of David Lynch, and cult oddities like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

He needn’t have worked a day in his life, of course, but he did, first as the president of an investment company and then as the manager of a production company. And all the while, he got to work making the film that would consume the last few years of his life; a bizarre, anti-art oddity first called The Storyteller, then eventually known as The Evil Within.

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THE DREAM. “Rather than have a steak dinner one night, [Andrew] spent so much on the movie that I saw him eat cereal. He’d only eat cereal for a couple of weeks.”

– THE EVIL WITHIN’S PRODUCER, MICHAEL LUCERI Frederick Koehler was just out of college when he started work on The Storyteller. He’d nabbed a fair number of screen credits up to that point, but was far from a household name: most of the movies he’d starred in had been madefor-TV shlock fests with titles like Mr. Mom, The Pick-Up Artist and The Positively True Adventures Of The Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom, and his biggest role had been in an episode of the television show Ally McBeal.

So he was excited about The Storyteller, hopeful that it represented his first real shot at making it big. He was, after all, set to star in the fi lm, playing the role of a young man with special needs named Dennis who fi nds himself tormented by a murderous spirit. With his youthful, boyish face, Koehler had always been good at acting younger than he was, and the role played directly into his strengths, requiring him to undulate between clear-eyed innocence and brooding vengeance.

He was acting as part of a strong cast, too. Michael Berryman, a legend on the horror circuit thanks to his portrayal of the slobbering Pluto in Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes, was set to play the fi lm’s antagonist, a demonic entity named only The Cadaver, and Sean Patrick Flanery, he of The Boondock Saints and Powder, bagged the role of Dennis’ slimy brother John.

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▲

It was, in so many ways, the role actors of Koehler’s stature dream about.

Even then the fi lm had all the trappings of a cult classic: Getty, serving as the fi lm’s writer and director, had based much of its surreal imagery on his

“Andrew Getty strove to translate the visions in his head into precise, striking images. And when the limits of technical filmmaking could not keep up with his imagination, he would stretch the limits of technical filmmaking.”

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ARTS FEATURE

Dennis (Koehler) finds himself trapped in a nightmare

▲

own childhood dreams, and the script was full of woozy, odd effects, and strikingly bleak twists.

But from the get-go, the fi lm’s production was problematic. Most of it was shot in Getty’s historic mansion, a sprawling Hollywood Hills cathedral-cum-castle once owned by Miklos Rozsa, the composer behind Ben Hur’s classic score.

Getty sank considerable amounts of his own cash into renovating the house to make it screen ready, and his ambition proved limitless: he would spend months perfecting the set, agonising over shots, and instructing his actors.

The very defi nition of the auteur, Getty strove to translate the visions in his head into precise, striking images. And when the limits of technical fi lmmaking could not keep up with his imagination, he would stretch the limits of technical fi lmmaking, spending months building ultra-expensive mechanised camera rigs, and blowing a small fortune on the construction of an animatronic octopus programmed to play the drums.

Yet these bursts of activity would be separated by long, agonising stretches of inaction. Getty was constantly rewriting the script, and would sometimes take months off shooting to perfect even the slightest, most minor line of dialogue.

And just as worryingly for the principal cast, no actor was safe from Getty’s tendency to reshape the film. Parts would fluctuate at whim; a key actor might suddenly find themselves playing little more than a supporting role, and vice versa.

What should have been a six month shoot soon ballooned into a two-year long ordeal, with only Koehler and Berryman surviving Getty’s multiple reshoots. And even then, when filming finally wrapped, it wasn’t over. Having already transformed his house into a film set, Getty then transformed it into an editing suite, filling it with expensive equipment and confining himself to its dark recesses. Unusually, he decided to colour correct all of his footage before splicing it together, adding years onto what was already becoming a mammoth project.

And alone in the house, immersed in his passion project, Getty’s obsession bloomed. He began constructing his own special effects and reshooting whatever he could without calling on the help of his principal cast, spending years perfecting the fi lm on which he had staked much of his life. And then, on March 31, 2015, he died, alone, surrounded by all that still unfi nished work. The Evil Within, then having been in production for 13 unlucky years, sat on his hard drives, Getty’s dream apparently consigned forever to obscurity.

“No actor was safe from Getty’s tendency to reshape the film.

Parts would fluctuate at whim; a key actor might suddenly find themselves playing little more than a supporting role, and vice versa.”

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“Wes Craven once described The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as being like a film made by a murderer, and The Evil Within shares that strange, malicious streak.”

THE REBIRTH “It’s terribly sad that [Andrew] had to leave us so prematurely; [he was] such a fascinating creative mind and a great guy. It would have been nice for the filmgoing world to see his evolution as a filmmaker. But now The Evil Within will be his legacy piece.”

– MICHAEL LUCERI, THE GUARDIAN. Without the efforts of Michael Luceri, The Evil Within might always have been a rumour; a great lost film notable only for appearing in those listicles about Hollywood’s forgotten curios; the horror world’s version of The Day The Clown Cried.

But whether guided by charity or curiosity, Luceri refused to let The Evil Within die.

With the help of editor Michael Palmerio, he cut the 98-minute long fever dream into shape, staying true to Getty’s vision while keeping it as streamlined and as coherent as possible.

The result is one of the most astonishing horror films of the last decade. Wes Craven once described The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as being like a film made by a murderer, and The Evil Within shares that strange, malicious streak. It is a haunted film, and Getty’s desperation oozes off of every single shot. You wouldn’t have to know that The Evil Within was somebody’s life’s work before wandering in to pay witness to it (pay witness; not watch): the film makes that known itself, what with its eerie, stilted performances, and its special effects that look more like relics than prosthetics.

So it’s a shame that the critical response to The Evil Within has so far been one large, collective shrug. Charles Bramesco of The Guardian cruelly called the work “very clearly the handiwork of a rank amateur under the influence of powerful narcotics,” while thoughtful responses to Getty’s film have been localised to genre-sensitive titles like Birth.Movies.Death and Rue Morgue.

A shame, perhaps, but not a tragedy. A film like The Evil Within was always going to be ignored by highbrow culture-sniffers; spurned by those who ask for respectability and sheen from their art. In any case, Getty didn’t make the film for them. That much is clear.

What with his outsider protagonist and the vast, homogenised forces of evil that he faces, Getty’s sympathy was clearly always with the loser; with the social outcast.

And it is those losers that will find The Evil Within, drawn to its strangeness like moths to a flame, and those losers who will take it into their hearts like the vicious, haunted oddity that it is. ■ What: The Evil Within, playing as part of Sydney Underground Film Festival, 2017 Where: The Factory Theatre When: Saturday September 16

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Much of the film’s surreal imagery came straight from Getty’s dreams

The Cadaver (Berryman) torments Dennis

Koehler’s performance is all sweaty-faced, delirious mania

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arts in focus

FEATURE

“I think when you’re a filmmaker, you get drawn to certain kinds of things, and I’m drawn to people that are prepared to take risks, and people that live life very passionately.” ain’t pretty at all.’ I mean he would’ve been hurt pretty bad, but he didn’t die.

“So too with a scene in Sherpa – we had a lot of shots that we chose not to use … We did use one body and it was silhouetted, and we absolutely were very careful not to show anything close up and not to identify anybody. I talked to my Sherpa translator who was back in Sydney a lot about that; the editors; the producers... The decision was made to use that shot because we have to see the cost. And it makes people feel very uncomfortable – and that’s the intention.”

“I don’t think it’s gratuitous: it’s just fucking real, and it’s what happened.”

Mountain: Madness Bites [FILM] David Molloy chats with director Jennifer Peedom about the landscape she is in thrall to, and the allure of the extreme

I

n 2015, no one saw Sherpa coming. It was a documentary that floored viewers with its captivating, gruelling insight into the worst disaster to ever strike Mount Everest, shot through with magnificent landscape cinematography and deep human pathos.

While it wasn’t director Jennifer Peedom’s first foray into feature documentaries, it was certainly her defining effort to date, and during

“When I saw that [wingsuit] footage, I thought, ‘I want to fly like a bird like that,’ and I just felt like leaping off a cliff.”

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the making of its successor, the expansive and poetic Mountain, she was deeply conscious of the possibility of pigeonholing.

“When people have asked, ‘What are you working on next?’ I say, ‘I’m working on this collaboration with the Australian Chamber Orchestra,’ and they say, ‘Oh, what’s it called?’, and I’m like, ‘Here we go, you’re gonna laugh’,” she says.

“There’s a really huge gap between the people who get those people and the people who do it … Most laypeople look at what they’re doing and say, ‘Well, you’re an idiot; you’re crazy.’ I’ve had enough connection to that world to know they’re not crazy; they’re just wired differently.”

Far from being an effort to recreate Sherpa’s drama, Mountain bears closer resemblance to the sprawling mood-poetry of Koyaanisqatsi – it is, in Peedom’s words, a “love letter to the mountains”. In the quiet of the Sydney studio we meet in, she carries herself with the calm of experience; that magnetic tranquillity possessed by the worldly.

Her subjects, keep in mind, are not people stepping a little out of their comfort zones. We’re talking mountaineers, base jumpers, steep incline skiiers: the kind of folks whose weekends are spent strapping on a wingsuit and attempting to excel in environs mankind was not made to withstand.

And Peedom, on an intrinsic level, understands that drive and attempts to distil it in her work in a way that does not reduce the impulse to a stunt reel.

“It’s curious that I’ve been drawn to the mountains,” she says. “I think when you’re a filmmaker, you get drawn to certain kinds of things, and I’m drawn to people that are prepared to take risks, and people that live life very passionately; and often you wind up in extreme environments.

“We talk about the thrill of being in the mountains, in a space where time warps and bends and sensations are thrillingly amplified, and you see these people in these heightened realities and I’ve felt that and experienced that and I kind of wanted to show some of that; what it is to be in these magnificent

environments and just see these climbers’ faces,” she says. “When I saw that [wingsuit] footage, I thought, ‘I want to fly like a bird like that,’ and I just felt like leaping off a cliff.”

While Mountain’s focus is much less on human stories than Sherpa, it shares one aspect beyond the obvious – it does not shy away from consequence. One frightening moment in the sequence titled “Madness Bites” shows a skier caught in an avalanche, and the camera holds firm to the figure as they spiral down a mountain.

“I find that emotionally you have to push people to make your point,” she says. “To really show how nuts it’s got, and how maybe we’ve gone too far and how these big brands are really pushing us and we’re just kinda egging each other on for the sake of it. You’ve gotta show the implication of that, and if you just show people skiing down these beautiful things and having an amazing time, you’re glorifying it.

The point of that shot was to show the opposite of that; to say, ‘This is the potential consequence, and it

The shot in question depicts a body being brought down from the site of the avalanche that killed 16 Sherpas as Peedom and her crew look on.

It’s a harrowing moment – one essential to the film’s message.

“The shot that makes me feel more uncomfortable is the widow and her face and her baby,” Peedom says, acknowledging the permission given by the family to use the footage.

“They knew that that shot would be impactful, and sometimes you’ve gotta go there to have the impact, to have the emotional impact … I don’t think it’s gratuitous: it’s just fucking real, and it’s what happened.

“I mean we had to sit there and watch 13 of those guys come down: it was one of the worst days I’ve ever experienced. And I was talking to Renan [Ozturk, Peedom’s stalwart cinematographer] about it and he said the audience needs to see what we’ve saw and feel what we felt.”

Mountain’s emotional weight is wildly different – with Richard Tognetti’s moving orchestral score, Robert Macfarlane’s “beautiful, articulate, poetic” language, Willem Dafoe’s cello-like narration and Ozturk’s incomparable eye, the impression is more painterly, serene and profound. Peedom took it on as a challenge, but it has allowed her and her crew to express something deeply personal – a connection to the earth we live on – and communicate it to the world.

One shot, devised by Canadian collaborators Sherpa Cinema, defined the effect – a timelapse which shows snowbanks rising and falling like lungs. “To me, that shot is about the earth breathing and being very alive, and we need to take care of it,” she says. “When my little boy saw that shot – and he’s six years old – he said, ‘The earth is breathing, mumma.’”

What: Mountain arrives in Australian cinemas on Thursday September 21 thebrag.com

arts reviews ■ Theatre

Dignity Of Risk lets young artists show us what they’re made of

By David Molloy

I

n contemporary theatre, personal stories are enriched and brought to life on the stage, and we continually champion the bravery of those willing to expose their vulnerabilities. But, as a society, we also bubble wrap those we perceive as weak. Dignity Of Risk seeks to pierce that preconception, and, as it turns out, it takes a show like this to remind us that we are all unified and strengthened by our overcoming of hardship, no matter its scope.

This is not narrative theatre, but a pastiche of stories mashed together into one riveting production. Director Natalie Rose has gathered a cast of young performers from Shopfront Arts Co-Op and ATYP, many of whom live with disability, to share their stories, tackle their fears and straight up party in a live theatre environment.

Overwhelmingly, the fire and passion of youth becomes the defining feature of the show. In the form of a confessional, each young person announces the things they want to do in life and what they’re held back from experiencing. They share triumphs, desires and trepidations – and then, in a series of spectacularly affecting moments, they show us what they’re made of.

The production’s greatest strength is its levelling of the playing field. As the lights rise slowly, the audience can’t put faces to voices, shuttering their assumptions. A late sequence sees the cast attempting to form a scale of who’s had it toughest,

and despite what you may think, every one of these folks has seen some shit.

And even when talking through poverty, mental breakdowns, suicide attempts and sheltered lives, they find solidarity – and even comedy – in their bleakest anecdotes. They are not unified by suffering, but by the proud comparison of their battle scars.

Rose has built a career from this pragmatic, humanist approach: her application of her own uncompromising form with this young ensemble is commendable. Choreographer Margot Politis also deserves a shout-out for a gobsmacking dance sequence in which two performers, one a wheelchair user, reel recklessly around the stage. It’s a moment of rare wonder that could well become the banner for both companies moving forward.

This is no call for sympathy; no cry for help. This is progressive, potent theatre crafted by daring young artists ready to try, fail and try again. And it’s the best dance party ATYP has ever staged.

Dignity Of Risk ran from Wednesday August 9 – Saturday August 26 at ATYP.

“The production’s greatest strength is its levelling of the playing field.

As the lights rise slowly, the audience can’t put faces to voices, shuttering their assumptions.”

■ Film

Assholes is the most disgusting film that you will see this year

By Joseph Earp

B

ack in the early thousands, the American independent film movement became stricken with an illness that can only be described as mumblecore-itis. Thanks to the relative breakout success of cinematic slurrers like Joe Swanberg (Hannah Takes The Stairs), Andrew Bujalski (Mutual Appreciation) and arch straight white dude Noah Baumbach (The Squid And The Whale) the once promising Stateside genre movement was squashed under the weight of ultra-low budget films about arrogant New Yorkers, their therapists and their boring, vapid lives.

However, if mumblecore is a disease, then Peter Vack’s sometimes agonisingly filthy Assholes is the antidote. Sure, it’s an ultra-low budget film about a pair of arrogant Americans (expertly played by Jack Dunphy and Betsey Brown), their therapists and their boring, vapid lives, and sure, it might feature long bouts of cheerfully mundane,

“Assholes not only features a rogue’s gallery of filthy, hard-to-love perverts, it’s also bursting at the seams with a not-to-be-sniffed at catalogue of literal human assholes.” back and forth dialogue, but it doesn’t so much mock its genre forefathers as it does tear them apart from the inside.

So, consider this a warning for those amongst you who are easily upset – that title is a pun of the most debased and offensive variety. Assholes not only features a rogue’s gallery of filthy, hard-to-love perverts, it’s also bursting at the seams with a notto-be-sniffed at catalogue of literal human assholes which, over the

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course of the film’s 74 shit-stained minutes, get variously rubbed, licked, wiped and stretched.

film runs as short as it does.

One can imagine that many more shots of faces slathered in human shit or shrieking ass goblins (it’s hard to explain) would leave most audiences trembling in a heap on the floor.

In that way, it owes as much to Harmony Korine, the lord of the trash humpers himself, as it does a wet blanket like Baumbach – one particular sequence involves Dunphy and Brown crashing their chemically-addled way through a bunch of Times Square shops to the quiet disbelief of New Yorkers who may or may not be in on the joke, a shaky nod to Korine’s Gummo.

Instead, as it is, Assholes is a minor triumph of horror and disgust, not to mention a long, wet fart let rip in the all-too serious museum that American independent cinema has become. Long live the new mumblecore.

There is only so much that one can take, of course, and Vack knows that – hence why his

Reviewed as part of the Sydney Underground Film Festival 2017.

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game on Gaming news and reviews with Adam Guetti

2017

New Releases September is typically a jam-packed month for video game releases, and 2017 is no exception, with a little something lined up for everyone.

First up on Wednesday September 6 is FPS and MMO hybrid, Destiny 2.

The first game sucked fans into hours upon hours of addictive gameplay, and the sequel only aims to polish things for the better. Find it on PS4 and XBO. Alternatively, if you’re after something more family friendly, Knack 2 (the follow-up to the original PS4 launch title) is set to arrive on the same day to win you over with a healthy dose of child-friendly charm.

Jump ahead to Friday September 15 and sports fans have plenty to cheer about thanks to NBA 2K18 (PS4, XBO, Switch, PC, PS3, 360) and NHL18 (PS4, XBO). Both will show off a new coat of paint and continue to refine their respective mechanics.

Meanwhile, Nintendo 3DS owners should get excited for what is arguably the handheld’s biggest release of the year when Metroid: Samus Returns blasts onto store shelves from Saturday September 16: it’s the longawaited return of one of Nintendo’s most beloved franchises.

Then on Tuesday September 19, both Marvel and Capcom’s best and brightest meet in the arena to do battle. From Iron Man to Mega Man, Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite’s (PS4, XBO) possibilities are almost... well, infinite.

Closing out the month on Friday September 29 is soccer sensation FIFA 18, which kicks its way onto PS4, XBO, Switch, PC, PS3 and 360. The big feature of this iteration: EA’s real player motion technology.

reviewroundup

By Adam Guetti

Oz Comic-Con While every other state has already had their chance, it’s finally time for Sydneysiders to enjoy the wonders of Oz Comic-Con once again! Taking place from September 30 to October 1 at the ICC Sydney, the annual event is a celebration of television, film, video games, anime and everything in between.

Aside from stocking up on your latest pop culture wares, you can spend your time watching or participating in cosplay competitions, visiting the Anime Station, or checking out the slew of celebrity guests ready for meeting and greeting. This year’s main attraction is none other than Jason Momoa – Game Of Thrones alumni and star of both Aquaman and Justice League.

Tickets start from $17.50 and can be purchased on the event’s website ozcomiccon.com.

WHAT'S ON

SEP

The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses

If you’re a long-time Zelda fan, you may want to sit down, because The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses is coming. A worldwide event met with fan acclaim, the orchestral adventure will fill the Sydney Opera House’s Concert Hall on Sunday October 29 and will feature an all new movement from Skyward Sword, a highly-anticipated Breath of the Wild arrangement, and the return of a true classic.

This will be video game music like you’ve never seen before, complete with a cinematic video presentation synced to the series’ soundtrack, all played by a full orchestra and choir.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so for more information head on over to sydneyoperahouse.com.

Review: Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PS4)

Review: Micro Machines: World Series (PS4, XBO, PC)

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ometimes the best intentions are fraught with disappointment, and such sentiments sadly couldn’t be truer for Micro Machines: World Series. Despite Codemasters’ attempt to reinvigorate the classic series, the racer is missing a few gears entirely. The decision to leave out single-player content, for example, is a truly baffling one, leaving frustratingly unsupported multiplayer options that are plagued with long delays between matches.

2 Local multiplayer saves proceedings a little, but can’t prevent the game from feeling like a false start.

Review: Splatoon 2 (Switch)

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ust because Splatoon 2 is more of a series of well-polished refinements rather than an entirely new experience doesn’t mean it's any less fun to play. To the contrary, in fact, single-player will help draw you in, and the new Salmon Run is a surprisingly welcome addition to the mix. Competitive multiplayer, however, remains the series’ strong point. Matches are typically fast, frantic and unabashedly doused in Nintendo’s trademark charm, so it’s a shame that the company continues to struggle with the management 4 of successful matchmaking. Regardless, it’s a worthy addition to your Switch Library.

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ou could be forgiven for thinking Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is a fullfledged sequel – that’s how impressive it is. For a standalone spin-off, the production values are incredibly high, jamming in jaw-droppingly picturesque visuals, a strong narrative and action that plays as tight as it ever has. Naughty Dog might be hard at work perfecting The Last of Us Part II, but that doesn’t mean the studio isn’t in top form here.

With fan-favourite Chloe Frazer now leading the bullet-fuelled charge, Uncharted’s future looks to be in safe hands, making this an obvious must-buy for PlayStation fans.

4.5

Review: Agents of Mayhem (PS4, XBO)

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ome games like to tell emotional tales, create rich worlds and promote deep messages. Agents of Mayhem is not one of those games, but that’s largely the point. The loose Saints Row spin-off aims to replicate the feel of an ’80s Saturday morning cartoon and mostly succeeds. The action is swift and often laughable, as is the intentionally ludicrous story. Yet, while often enjoyable, the game is unfortunately let down by its open 3 world’s fairly repetitive nature, both in look and in design. Still, this is mindless and harmless entertainment.

thebrag.com

out & about Queer(ish) matters with Arca Bayburt

Think of the Children! (Logically)

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With this belief, I understand how they’d take steps to arrive at a “think of the children” argument as a way of mounting righteous opposition to same sex marriage. That said, the reasoning does diverge somewhat, depending on who you’re speaking to.

Some people think that queers cannot by any natural terms have children.

Leaving aside the obvious holes in such a dubious declaration, let’s consider the most basic criteria required to qualify for a marriage license in Australia today: 1.

Both parties must be over 18.

2. One must be a man and the other a woman.

Now, there is no such criteria that requires fertility testing for either parties, so we can reasonably assume that a legal heterosexual marriage can exist where one or both parties are unable to produce children.

And before you open your maw to indignantly scream “adoption!” or “IVF!” to circumvent the fertility thing, queer people are able to adopt children and also go through IVF.

Out & About photo by Etienne/Flickr / Australia’s Future Music Festival photo by Flickr/Eva Rinaldi

So, if you were to argue that marriage’s reason is to provide the starting point for a family (and that biology demands it), you’d have to concede that an infertile couple’s heterosexual marriage is decidedly non-traditional and

“IF YOU WERE TO ARGUE THAT MARRIAGE’S REASON IS TO PROVIDE THE STARTING POINT FOR A FAMILY (AND THAT BIOLOGY DEMANDS IT), YOU’D HAVE TO CONCEDE THAT AN INFERTILE COUPLE’S HETEROSEXUAL MARRIAGE IS DECIDEDLY NON-TRADITIONAL.” what’s on…

On Saturday September 9, head over to the Oxford Art Factory for the Loose Ends Spring Dance!

Cast off the gloom of the winter with a musical ode to all things delightful, queer and springtime. The evening will feature the likes of DJ Matt Vaughan, Annabelle Gaspar and Stereogamous, along with Luke O’Connor and Rohan Willard. Plus there will be a special guest from Melbourne, Simona Castricum

thebrag.com

Off The Record Dance and Electronica with Alex Chetverikov

Australia’s Electronic Music Scene Isn’t Dying; It’s Thriving

t seems a great number of marriage equality opponents have decided the best thing to do in the face of cold, hard logic is sling children across the battlefield of #respectfuldebate like they’re a bunch of moral hot potatoes.

The argument that marriage has nothing to do with children is a sound one; however this seems contrary to the beliefs of so many people who don’t look at marriage as only the joining of two human beings, but rather an institution that helps to establish a nascent nuclear family.

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perhaps, to take it to its most extreme logical conclusion, that it is void. If this makes you uncomfortable – if maybe it feels a little unfair or ridiculous – perhaps it’s worth reconsidering your opposition to same sex marriage on those grounds.

Moving on to the next golden stream in this river of piss, there are those who believe that children must be considered in the marriage equality debate – not because queer people can’t have children, but because they can.

By now a large number of people may have seen some interesting posters popping up across Melbourne and Sydney: products of a crusade to prevent the “fags” from “molesting children” by ensuring same sex marriage remains illegal. Hmm, how thoughtful.

eing involved with Sydney’s electronic music industry (and, by extension, Australia’s) is interesting work, mostly as it provides welcome relief from the obsessive hours of music trawling that are endemic to the music nerd; hours navigating seemingly endless spools of reused samples and track progressions that give way to refreshing regional selections.

There’s a lot to be learned from patience, and a lot to be gained.

“THERE’S A BUBBLING ENERGY AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT IN SYDNEY; A SENSE OF EVER-PRESENT YOUTHFULNESS IN EVEN THE MOST SEASONED OF LOCAL DJS AND PROMOTERS.”

Though we may be a microcosm within the greater global nucleus, we’ve always delighted in producing worldwide talent from a smaller pool, whether musical or otherwise. Resident Advisor, one of electronic music’s most visible and comprehensive online resources, started right here in Sydney after all, before it eventually expanded worldwide to encapsulate a universe of sounds and voices. Future Classic and Ministry of Sound both boast a strong presence here too, while our southern rival capital has produced a slew of consistently outstanding record labels and artists.

There’s a bubbling energy at any given moment in Sydney; a sense of ever-present youthfulness in even the most seasoned of local DJs and promoters, perhaps in part influenced by our comparatively young history. Indeed, it’s this young, bubbling history that also renders a greater accessibility to our music – in the case of either Mad Racket or Madeira Club, overblown, popular idolisation and that old trope of hero worship make way for humility and humanity.

Future Music Festival

I fail to see how marriage equality can lead to child molestation. Even if I am being generous with a slippery slope argument, it just doesn’t compute.

I think the real argument here is that homosexual = child molester; not, gay marriage = child molesters.

So, since the argument is that child molestation is contingent upon homosexuality itself, not on homosexual marriage, we can therefore dismiss this as a valid claim to consider when discussing same sex marriage, because the marriage stuff is only incidental to the gay stuff.

And now, because I find myself being extraordinarily and perhaps insanely generous by entertaining this feeble non-argument and providing a response, it is worth clearly stating that heterosexuality is not a preventative for child molestation, the same way that homosexuality is not a precursor for, or cause of, paedophilia or child abuse.

That’s all folks.

Feel free to email me if ya wanna fight about it.

performing live on the main stage. Tickets are available now.

On Sunday September 10, Get on down to Sydney Town Hall for a YES Rally for Marriage Equality.

Several local and national organisations are uniting to co-host the rally including Community Action Against Homophobia, GetUp!, Just.Equal, NSW Gay & Lesbian Rights Lobby, PFLAG Australia, Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, Sydney Pride Festival

and Trans Sydney Pride. Join the rally to declare support for LGBTIQ Australians and loudly call for a yes vote.

for the diary Tuesday September 19 marks the beginning of the Queer Screen Film Festival. It runs from September 19 to Sunday September 24, and will show off 20 of the hottest LGBTIQ films from around the world. The program is available to view online and tickets are available now.

Our smaller industry here helps foster this sense of intimacy and visibility. This feeling of warmth and generosity has always been inherent to my experiences in Sydney, and I suspect that won’t soon change. While “small” might suggest limitations (which, in its own way, can inspire and refine the creative process), there’s a healthy sense of competition too. Even in the face of gentrification, we nurture one another. Perhaps my musings on Ultra Music Festival’s impending, yawning maw last week might not be so relevant after all!

Warmth – an intimate, organic warmth – has motivated one of the more beautiful recent movements in Australian electronic music. These intricate landscapes of sound evoke the natural beauty of the everyday as much the urban world that encloses us. Whether we’re talking about Melbourne’s Albrecht La’Brooy, within whose dreamy train carriage we’re carried as aural passengers, or Perth’s Phil Stroud and his ensemble’s gentle percussive meditations, or Sydney’s Caravan, whose Coarsica releases throbs of soft organic boogie, Australian music has a sense of the intimate about it. Amidst the all-too-noisy, all-too-distracting detachments of technology, we find a point of peace.

“WARMTH – AN INTIMATE, ORGANIC WARMTH – HAS MOTIVATED ONE OF THE MORE BEAUTIFUL RECENT MOVEMENTS IN AUSTRALIAN ELECTRONIC MUSIC.”

What amazes and inspires me most is neither that we produce such a wealth of talent, nor that we’re a distincly humble lot.

It’s how this recent crop of artists have synthesised a distinct essence – or, should that be a distinctly Australian essence – and one unlike anything else I’ve heard.

Feeling inspired? Check out thebrag.com/gigs for everything happening in Sydney’s EDM scene.

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reviews

albums

What's been impressing our ears this week...

ALBUM OF THE WEEK MOGWAI Every Country’s Sun Caroline/Spunk

After finding swathes of 2014’s Rave Tapes difficult to play in the live arena, Scotland’s favourite sonic terraformers Mogwai have spun back to the organic on this sweeping new set of soundscapes. Whilst never quite scaling the same heights as Happy Songs For Happy People or Mogwai Young Team, as always with Mogwai, this album has the potential to become your favourite blanket; a shelter and a cathedral.

‘Party In The Dark’ is an early surprise and, after nine records, sports perhaps the band’s most conventional song structure to date, with vocals prominent throughout. It isn’t long, though, before moors and mountains hove back into view. ’20 Size’ comes on like Crazy Horse-era Neil Young atop shimmering electronic pulses and swirling Hammond organ. Comparative lullabies then follow

“Like a crack of sunlight filled with the psychedelic spiralling of dancing dust motes, Every Country’s Sun is a beautiful place to spend an hour.” before ‘Battered At A Scramble’ lopes in and ‘Old Poisons’ raises the pulse and engages the hips, but it’s the title track that is the pinnacle here. Like Disintegration-era Cure on Rohypnol, it’s skyscraping.

You ever wake up still drunk on a Sunday morning, with weary bones but feeling pretty splendid and poetic? This is your album. Like a crack of sunlight filled with the psychedelic spiralling of dancing dust motes, Every Country’s Sun is a beautiful place to spend an hour.

Andi Lennon

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK RACHEL MARIA COX Untidy Lines Sad Grrls Club I’ll admit the blinking cursor on the blank page began to feel as though it was mocking me as I sat down ready to write my review of Rachel Maria Cox’s Untidy Lines, because, really, what can you say about the record? It’s nothing short of a stunning debut LP from a very important new voice in the Australian music industry, and my favourite release (so far) of 2017.

Although it comes across as effortless, the intricacies of the song writing – a mix of trivial anecdotes and gut-wrenching realities – make this album incredibly unique and highly memorable.

Production-wise, Untidy Lines is richer than Cox’s 2016 EP I Just Have A Lot Of Feelings, but the same angst and self-deprecation found within their early work such as ‘A Phone I Can’t Use’ is as evident as ever in ‘Emotionally Untidy’ and ‘Misery Kink’.

Fans of The Forty Whacks, The Smith Street Band and the Gold Coast’s Friends With The Enemy will be drawn to this album. While the only downside is length (it’s a measly seven tracks), Untidy Lines will make you want to laugh, cry, dance, and sing your broken heart out.

Natalie Rogers

“Untidy Lines will make you want to laugh, cry, dance, and sing your broken heart out.”

giveaway

film

Winning...

Sydney Underground Film Festival

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ydney’s premier celebration of all things filthy, the Sydney Underground Film Festival, is heading back to the Factory Theatre, news that will surely be accepted into the pestilent, depraved hearts of genre lovers from all over our fair city.

And oh boy is the lineup a doozy this year, with choice cuts supplied by filmmakers as diverse as David Firth (he of Salad Fingers fame), Justin Benson and Aaron Scott Moorhead (the directors behind cult favourite Spring) and Steve (AKA Steven Ellison, AKA experimental musician Flying Lotus.)

To celebrate the fest we have two double passes to give away to the festival’s opening night, the Australian debut of the Found Footage festival on Thursday September 14.

Head to thebrag.com/freeshit to enter.

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thebrag.com

g g guide g send your listings to : gigguide@seventhstreet.media

pick of the the issue

For our full gig and club listings, head to thebrag.com/gig-guide.

Sarah Blasko

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 12

Placebo

Enmore Theatre

Unity

Placebo

Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olympic Park. Saturday September 9. 7:30pm. $100.

feat: Sarah Blasko, The Jezabels, Killing Heidi, Frenzal Rhomb, Holly Throsby, Jack Colwell, Andy Bull and more 8pm. $70.

City Calm Down

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 6 Melanie Dyer Leadbelly, Newtown. 6pm. $12.

Sløtface + Antonia And The Lazy Susans

Arch emo stylists Placebo have been kicking about for two whole decades. Celebrate the band’s birthday with a night of their hits, and, hopefully, a couple of their covers (we’d kill to hear them smash out ‘Running Up That Hill’.)

Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $40.

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 7 Badgirl Garden Slyfox, Enmore.

9pm. $5.

Jeff Rosenstock + Foley Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $30.

John And Yuki Osaka Bar, Potts Point. 7pm. Free.

Karl S. Williams Leadbelly, Newtown. 6pm. $12.

Lostkeyz + Cheap-

skate + Clews + Kirklandd Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm.

Free.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 8 Alex Lloyd And Josh Needs Leadbelly, Newtown.

6pm. $28.60.

Ariana Grande ICC Theatre, Darling Harbour. 7:30pm. $101.75.

City Calm Down + The Cactus Channel + Nick Hill Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm.

$31.75.

DJ Jack McCord Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 7pm.

Free.

Gang Of Youths Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park.

7:30pm. $65.

Matt Thomson The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville.

7pm. $7.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 9 Human Movement Metro Theatre, Sydney. 9pm. $28.35.

Gang Of Youths

City Calm Down + The Cactus Channel + Nick Hill Metro Theatre, Sydney. Friday September 8. 8pm. $31.75.

God love City Calm Down. The Melbourne-based band of Joy Division-esque pop punk pariahs are set to take to the Metro Theatre on Friday, recruiting jazz masterminds The Cactus Channel as a more-than-worthy support act.

thebrag.com

Gang Of Youths

Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park. Friday September 8. 7:30pm. $65.

Having just released their big-hearted and captivating new album Go Farther In Lightness, the gang are set to celebrate with a massive Sydney show.

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g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@seventhstreet.media

Throsby, Jack Colwell, Andy Bull and more Enmore Theatre, Enmore. 8pm. $70.

The Getaway Plan

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 13 Roadhouses Landsdowne Hotel, Chippendale. 8pm. $8.20

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 14 Chickasaw Bayou The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $7.

Madison McKoy City Recital Hall, Sydney. 9pm. $10.

Tropical Strength Golden Age Cinema, Surry Hills.

9pm. Free.

The Getaway Plan Metro Theatre, Sydney. Friday September 15. 8pm. $35.

The Getaway Plan are revisiting their debut album Other Voices, Other Rooms with a massive two-set show where they’ll play the album in its entirety, along with numerous other hits.

Juicy Monkeys Mega ‘90s Party Three Wise Monkeys, Sydney.

9pm. $15.

Paul Hayward’s Sidekicks The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville.

3pm. $7.

Kreator + Vader Manning Bar, Camperdown.

8pm. $79.90.

Placebo Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olympic Park.

7:30pm. $100.

Low Down Riders The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville.

3pm. $7.

Stuart B + Murray Lake Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 6pm. Free.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 15

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 10

Mark Olson Leadbelly, Newtown.

6pm. $30.

Bell.

Leadbelly, Newtown. 6pm. $32.

The Getaway Plan Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $35.

Bonnie Kay And The Bonafides The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville.

5pm. $7.

Sunday Social – feat: Helena Ellis, K-Time, Lavida, Melkior The Argyle, The Rocks. 9pm. Free.

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 12

Los Scallywaggs Oxford Art Factory, Sydney. 7pm. $5.

Acoustique Lounge L1 Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 7pm. $15.

Patrick James Leadbelly, Newtown. 6pm. $20.

Duncan Woods + Alex Mac + Somatik Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 3pm.

Free.

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 11 Simon Napier-

The Creases

Unity – feat: Sarah Blasko, The Jezabels, Killing Heidi, Frenzal Rhomb, Holly

Queen Porter Stomp The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $7.

Sam Wall Manly Wharf

Hotel, Manly. 7pm.

Free.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 16 The Creases + Hatchie Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $15.

Dashboard Confessional + Far Away Stables Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7pm. $72.90.

DJ Zok Crown Hotel, Camden. 9pm. Free.

Ha The Unclear The Bearded Tit, Redfern. 4pm.

Free.

Metal Down Under – feat: Elm Street, Lethal, Psycroptic, Reaver, Reign Of Terror, Vendetta Saralisse, Odysseus Reborn, Sickness, Tyrant, Witchgrinder The Baldfaced Stag, Leichardt.

6pm. $24.50.

Out Of Nowhere The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville.

3pm. $7.

Rufflefeather Leadbelly, Newtown. 6pm. $12.

Tim Boffa + Alex Mac Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 6pm. Free.

Tired Lion Oxford Art Factory, Sydney. 7pm. $23.30.

Ukes Of Hazzard, The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $7.

Uptown Kings Cross Hotel, Potts Point. 9pm. $10.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 17 AJ Tracey + Slimset + Yemisul Oxford Art Factory, Sydney. 9pm. $34.

Mike Waters Coke Sign rooftop, Kings Cross.8pm. $24.

Port Royal Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney CBD. 7pm.

Free.

Sunday Social – feat: Helena Ellis, K-Time, Lavida, Melkior.

The Argyle, The Rocks. 9pm. Free.

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 19 Acoustique Lounge L1 Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 7pm. $15.

Want your gig or club listing in The BRAG? You can now submit these online. Head to thebrag.com/gig-guide.

AJ Tracey

AJ Tracey + Slimset + Yemisul Oxford Art Factory, Sydney. Sunday September 17. 9pm. $34

The Creases + Hatchie Metro Theatre, Sydney. Saturday September 16. 8pm. $15.

The Creases just dropped one of the Aussie records of the year, Tremolow, which harkens back to the glory days of Britpop. Mad for it!

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For our full gig and club listings, head to thebrag.com/gig-guide. thebrag.com

AJ Tracey photo by Ian Upton

Mark it down in your calendars: 2017 is the year of grime. Oh, and while you’re at it, jot yourself another note: AJ Tracey is gonna blow the roof off the OAF come September 17.

From your first day at SAE, you’ll start creating in world-class facilities, on the latest software and equipment, all under the guidance of our expert lecturers – because at SAE, we believe to be job ready, you need to know the job.

START IN SEPTEMBER - ENROL TODAY sae.edu.au 1800 723 338 BRISBANE | BYRON BAY | SYDNEY | MELBOURNE | ADELAIDE | PERTH | ONLINE

From your first day at SAE, you’ll start creating in world-class facilities, on the latest software and equipment, all under the guidance of our expert lecturers – because at SAE, we believe to be job ready, you need to know the job.

START IN SEPTEMBER - ENROL TODAY sae.edu.au 1800 723 338 BRISBANE | BYRON BAY | SYDNEY | MELBOURNE | ADELAIDE | PERTH | ONLINE