Brag#735 by The Brag Magazine

CAMP COPE Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve Got You

ALSO INSIDE: How going vegan can avert the climate apocalypse, Soccer Mommy, Lucy Dacus, Charlotte Allingham, Jen Cloher and much more!

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PRESEN TS

2018

Celebrate the talent behind the talent. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to recognise those who stand behind the artists and celebrate their genius, dedication and creativity.

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in this issue what you’ll find inside…

“It’s Christmas time for horror film lovers.” (20-21)

In This Issue 735

Game On

The Frontline

Parent Talk

8-10

Camp Cope

Out And About

12-13

Charlotte Allingham

28-33

Could food unfuck the world?

14-15

Will Netflix’s foreign film library catch on?, Bookshelves

34-36

Vance Joy

38-39

Soccer Mommy

Golden Age Cinema

40-41

17-19

Red Sparrow, Everything Sucks, Winchester, A Fantastic Woman

Cousin Tony’s Brand New Firebird

42-43

Prophets Of Rage

60-63

Tom Morello

What can be done about crowd violence?

Lucy Dacus

64-67

Short story: Mr Lewis

Benjamin Booker

68-69

Sounds Like, The Defender

Sshh

70-71

Snaps

48-49

Grizzly Bear

72-74

Gig guide

50-51

Gomez

52-55

Jen Cloher is telling the truth

56-59

Beatdisc Records

20-21

Your guide to Monsterfest 2018

The Watcher

“Our film program is so strong, and we think it could be a nice way of us leveraging the audience we have for the cinema here into live music.”

12-13

Always Will Be illustration - courtesy Charlotte Allingham

8-10

“I think men are terrified right now.” (8-10)

“We are relying on a system that cannot be sustained.” (28-33)

(15-16)

xxx

the frontline with Nathan Jolly, Bianca Davino and Poppy Reid ISSUE 735: Wednesday March 7, 2017

UNEARTHING AUSTRALIA’S TRUEST GEM

EDITOR: Joseph Earp joseph.earp@seventhstreet.media PRINT EDITOR: Belinda Quinn NEWS: Nathan Jolly, Tyler Jenke, Bianca Davino, Lars Brandle

In 1991, Neighbours was coming off the back of an unprecedented four-year run that saw it go from a cancelled failure to a pop culture phenomenon, making massive teen stars of Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan. The cul-de-sac-loving empire peaked by mid-1987, seeing close to twenty million UK viewers were glued to the screen for Scott and Charlene’s wedding. By 1991, the aforementioned stars had left, but that didn’t stop BBC and Grundy casting them as the main characters in the new Neighbours video game. And because street racing was such a huge part of the Neighbours universe, they decided a racing game would be the most accurate way to capture the magic of Ramsay Street. In the game itself you play Scott Robinson, racing other characters from the show throughout Ramsey Street. We can only consider it a stroke of good luck that this school racing went on pre-Susan Kennedy, or she’d have stern words about this, for sure.

ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant PHOTOGRAPHER: Ashley Mar COVER ILLUSTRATION: Jini Maxwell 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: Belinda Quinn - gigguide@seventhstreet.media REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Arca Bayburt, Lars Brandle, Tanja Brinks Toubro, Alex Chetverikov, Allison Gallagher, Emily Gibb, Emily Meller, Adam Norris, Holly Pereira, Daniel Prior, Natalie Rogers, Erin Rooney, Anna Rose, 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. ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Carrie Huang - accounts@seventhstreet.vc (02) 9713 9269 Level 2, 9-13 Bibby St, Chiswick NSW 2046 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 DISTRIBUTION: Wanna get the BRAG? Email jessica.milinovic@seventhstreet.media PRINTED BY SPOTPRESS: spotpress.com.au 24 – 26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville NSW 2204 like us:

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Since announcements that Gibson could be going under, its CEO and primary shareholder Henry Juszkiewicz has come out stating that the way guitar stores and music retailers operate has been a contributing factor. When pondering the slow decline of the music sector of the retail industry, he highlighted that there are obvious problems, saying, “all of the retailers are fearful as can be, they’re all afraid of e-commerce. With Amazon just becoming the second largest employer in the US, the brick and mortar guys are just panicking.” He added that stores have already developed the mindset that there may not be a place for them in the future, pointing out that the guitar industry still hasn’t recovered from 2008’s stock market crash and claims retailers do little to include women and families.

BUNCHA’ AIRHEADS The Radiohead song ‘Airbag’ would have turned out a whole lot differently if Thom Yorke’s car happened to be purchased in Australia and fitted with faulty Takata airbags.

In the biggest manufacturing recall in automotive history, over four million Australian cars have been deemed unsafe for the streets (not to mention your planned race for pink slips on Thunder Road), due to faulty airbags fitted. If your car happens to be on the list, you can legally claim a free hire or rental car due to the inconvenience. For a full list of all of the makes and models, head to productsafety. gov.au.

nature, which makes a person feel offended, humiliated or intimidated.” The AAM is leading by example in the Australian music industry following the watershed #metoo movement and local #meNOmore open letter for the industry.

Ray Meagher

CHANGE TO MANAGEMENT The Association of Artist Managers (AAM) in Australia has updated its Code of Conduct to include a clause on sexual harassment. AAM has over 220 active managers as members, is the only peak body for managers of contemporary music – a largely unregulated sector of the music industry. Among 12 clauses relating to professionalism, ethical conduct, duty of care to the artist, and conflict of interest, the Code now features the following addition: “To not engage in any acts of sexual harassment including unwanted, unwelcome or uninvited behaviour of a sexual

HOT TO TROT Stone the flamin’ crows! Ray Meagher, who has played Home And Away’s moody old legend Alf Stewart since early 1988, has branched out from selling bait in a coastal town, to boldly enter the hot sauce game. Ray’s Flamin’ Hot Sauce is available now, and judging by the amount of chilli added to the mixture in the promo videos, it has a hell of a kick. Although I highly doubt the actor himself has designed the sauce — much as I doubt he has anything to do with the officiating of the Oz Lotto or the management of a successful caravan park — anything that keeps Alf’s face in the public eye is alright by me. Order a bottle or six from the official website: au.godaddy.com. xxx

@TheBrag

GUITAR CRASH

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COVER STORY

“When I was 11, me and my friend had a march, a protest, around our school oval about equal rig

en guy N en

u-N lle A

Gis

t’s midday on a Friday, and Georgia Maq has barely slept.

“I had a Tinder date,” she enthuses down the line from her home in the western Melbourne suburb of Footscray. “It was the most perfect, ridiculous person I’ve ever met in my whole life. We did nangs until five in the morning … We ate waffles and I was like, ‘You need to leave at midday because I’ve got interviews to do.’” It’s an unusual start to an interview, but it comes as no surprise from Maq, whose candour is exactly what makes her songwriting so personable and invigorating. As the singer and guitarist for Camp Cope, the 23-year-old exemplifies the old saying about the personal being political – she draws from her own life and experiences to create powerful commentary on culture, politics and the world around us. “I’ve always been a very strong feminist,” she says. “When I was 11, me and my friend had a march, a protest, around our school oval about equal rights. We didn’t know what we were talking about, but we knew that women were treated worse than men.” That feminist ethos is central to what Camp Cope is all about. Maq, bassist Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich and drummer Sarah ‘Thomo’ Thompson – “we’re like three sisters, like the Kardashians,” the singer laughs – have been playing together since 2015, after years of Maq performing and busking solo. In 2016, the band released its self-titled debut album, which reached the ARIA Top 40. Over 36 minutes, Camp Cope announced themselves with short, sharp folk-punk tracks covering serious topics from homelessness to street harassment. But if Camp Cope was the introduction, then the band’s second album, How To Socialise & Make Friends, is a fully-fledged manifesto. In the last couple of years, Camp Cope’s name has become synonymous with unapologetic feminist activism within the Australian music scene – from the #ItTakesOne campaign demanding safety within live music spaces, to a recent debacle at Falls Festival when the band called the festival out for its lack of support for non-male acts. The new record puts these strongly-held beliefs and thoughts to music. Its opening track and lead single, the cleverly-titled ‘The Opener’ – which landed at 58 in the 2017 triple j Hottest 100 – is a pointed missive to condescending men within the music scene. It includes direct quotes that have been levelled at the band: “Yeah, just get a female opener, that’ll fi ll the quota,” Maq snarls. Pulling no punches, it’s urgent, it’s angry, and it’s well overdue.

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hts. We didn’t know what we were talking about, but we knew that women were treated worse than men.”

“We’re just complaining, or being bitches, or we should be grateful,” Maq recites when asked what the negative reactions have been to the single, the eye-roll audible in her voice. “We should be grateful that triple j even plays us, we should be grateful that we even got put on Falls.” But the haters aren’t slowing this trio down, nor shutting them up. How To Socialise & Make Friends is a blistering record, powered by Maq’s commanding words and vocals, Hellmrich’s distinctive, creative basslines and Thompson’s frenetic beats. The album runs the gamut of emotions, from the scorched-earth fury of ‘The Opener’ to the raw personal ache of ‘The Face Of God’ – a song about sexual assault that Maq says is her unintended contribution to the #MeToo movement that has shaken society in recent months. “I wrote that song after an experience that I had last year, and I was like, ‘I don’t feel comfortable playing this in front of anyone,” she shares. “And then #MeToo happened, and I felt this power, and I felt like it was my duty to release that song.” The remarkable song makes Maq’s private pain feel universally relatable, but more than that, it zeroes in on the uncomfortable fact that “nice guys”, especially those in positions of cultural power, are often spared with these reckonings. “Couldn’t be true, you don’t seem like that kind of guy,” she sings. “Not you, you’ve got that one song that I like.” “I’d tell people who are mutual friends about what happened, and it just fell on deaf ears, and you’d still see them at their shows,” the singer says. Yet with the turning of the tide, Maq feels certain that things are changing. “I think men are terrified right now,” she muses. “Even if they haven’t done something, I think this generation of men will learn and they will reflect and it will pass onto the next generation of boys at shows, and men in the music industry, and men in positions of power. “They’ll know that if they do something like that, there’s a good chance that the person that they’ve hurt is going to feel strength, and they’re going to publicly call them out and fucking end their fucking careers.” Now that women like Maq have done the emotional labour of calling out men who have wronged them, the singer says the work must be reciprocated to make real systemic change. “I think it’s up to men,” she says. “From now it’s up to men to listen, and to be better.”

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COVER STORY

er r t ified right e r a n e m k now.” n I“ thi

“From now it’s up to men to listen, and to be better.” hile How To Socialise & Make Friends takes the patriarchy and the men who benefit from it to task, it also creates a loving homage to a man extremely close to Maq’s heart – her late father, musician Hugh McDonald, who passed away from cancer in 2016. The album ends with the emotional solo number ‘I’ve Got You’: “I will always hear your voice when I speak; I will always see your face in me,” she sings.

Poison City Records, and is the band’s manager as well as drummer, an arrangement that the group is adamant to keep, even as their star continues to rise.

“I don’t feel like my dad has left me,” Maq says quietly. “Of course he’s dead, but he’s still me because I’m half of him, and he taught me so much. He believed in me and he believed in the band, and never doubted us. He was such a strong supporter.”

“I sit in my bed and I write a song on a guitar and I sing and stuff, and then I’ll record it on my phone and send it to Kelly and Thomo, and then we’ll just go into a rehearsal space and write it as a band,” she reveals.

Both of Camp Cope’s albums close with tributes to Maq’s lost loved ones – Camp Cope’s final track, ‘Song For Charlie’, was written after her stepfather took his own life in 2014. “Isn’t that fucked?” she ponders. “Who’s next? Every single man, all two men that I’ve loved and looked up to in reverence have died in horrible ways.”

On the album track ‘Anna’, Maq croons, “get it all out, put it in a song” – a sentiment that summarises her own relationship with songwriting. “It’s how I deal with stuff, I guess,” she says. “It’s just who I am as a person. I couldn’t ever do a creative writing class in school and I dropped out of music class, but it’s the thing I know how to do best in the world, which is kind of weird.”

But despite these heartbreaking circumstances and coincidences, Maq stresses that writing about death is important to her: “I love talking about death. [The songs] are at the ends of the albums because death is a part of life. I think that’s something that people often forget or try to hide.” Camp Cope has come a long way since Maq’s days as a busker – they played their biggest hometown show in December, packing out the iconic, 2000-capacity Forum Theatre – but the band remains fiercely independent and down to earth. Thompson works a day job at the band’s label,

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“It’s just who I am as a person; songwriting has always just been my outlet.”

ver on the technical side of things, the second album saw the trio return to the studio with producer Sam Johnson, who they worked with for their debut. The tracks were laid down over two days at South Melbourne’s Holes & Corners.

The band much prefers playing live to the recording process – “it’s so annoying, if you stuff it up you have to do it again,” Maq sighs – but the record perfectly captures their intensity, and was deliberately pared back to let the music speak for itself. “It’s even more stripped back because this time we were like, ‘We’re not going to have any backup vocals, not going to have any harmonies, nothing,’” the singer says. “It just kind of happened that way. We were listening back to the mixes and being like, ‘It doesn’t need anything else because that wouldn’t be us’.”

“I can’t write songs in a short time,” she admits. “Songs for me take so long. ‘Sagan-Indiana’ came out of me in like a couple of days, which is huge for me. They all took a very long time, and some I’ve been sitting on for ages, so it feels really good to finally release them into the world.” Camp Cope’s rise to the top has seen the band receive unique opportunities, a recent one of which was Maq’s support slot for actor-turned-musician David Duchovny – a huge moment for the self-confessed X-Files tragic. Yet her career highlight so far was meeting Liam Gallagher at Falls Festival, a pay-off not only for Maq, but also for her thousands of internet followers, who had seen her countless Instagram stories and tweets about the Oasis singer in the lead-up to the event. “It was huge for me. I was losing my shit and freaking out, like, ‘This isn’t real, this is my boyfriend, the love of my life’,” the singer laughs. “I’ve always been such a fucking big Oasis fan and it’s still blowing my mind that I got to meet Liam Gallagher.” Looking towards the future, Maq says she’d like to further explore her queer identity through the band’s music. “I wrote a song about a girl I had a crush on when I was 16,” she recalls. “I played it in front of the whole class and she was in the class. It was weird, but it went down pretty well. There’s gonna be more of that as time goes on, I reckon.” The conversation turns back to Tinder. On the band’s first album, Maq namedropped the dating app on ‘Trepidation’. “That was when I hated Tinder,” she remembers. “I was like, ‘It’s just sleazy and everyone wants to sleep with each other’. Then I just embraced it and now I’m like Tinderella.” And as her band becomes more of a household name, Maq is getting recognised more often by hopeful romantics on the app. “I matched with someone and their opening line was “play ‘Swinburne’”, which is an old song of mine,” she laughs. “One guy was like ‘Wow, I didn’t expect to match with a rockstar,’ and I’m just like, ‘No!’” Where: Metro Theatre When: Friday March 23 With: Sports Bra, Chastity Belt And: How To Socialise & Make Friends is out now through Poison City Records

Camp Cope photo by Naomi Beveridge

“I don’t feel like my dad has left me. Of course he’s dead, but he’s still me because I’m half of him, and he taught me so much.”

And Maq still pulls beers behind the bar at Footscray’s Reverence Hotel, her songwriting process remaining the same as it’s always been – some of Camp Cope’s songs, like the exquisite ‘Footscray Station’, started out as solo tracks years ago.

The album came together quickly – the tracks were put together two weeks after the band returned from its first US tour last winter – but Maq says that for her, songwriting has always been a gradual process.

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DANDE AND THE LION AUDLEY'S TALKING TOUR

16 MARCH OXFORD ART GALLERY BAR, SYDNEY 28 MARCH BRASS MONKEY, CRONULLA 29 MARCH STAG & HUNTER, NEWCASTLE 4 APRIL RAD BAR, WOLLONGONG www.dandeandthelion.com.au thebrag.com

@dande_and_the_lion BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 11

arts in focus [VISUAL ART] Jess Cockerill chats to Charlotte Allingham, an illustrator riding a wave of sudden – and well-earned – viral success

where it’s half beautiful to look at, and half gross to look at it. There’s a lot of occult influences. But I like the idea of a modern setting, fighting these old monsters people believed were real. It’s a crossover between tradition and modern, trendy stuff. The mix between them is a good contrast. What held you back from making work incorporating your own culture?

Charlotte Allingham: How To Stave Off Demons

harlotte Allingham, a young illustrator and Wiradjuri woman living in inner Melbourne, spent January 26 this year lying low, rendering her latest artwork in her apartment. For her, the drawings were a way to protest the morbid celebration of the start of the end for her people: centuries of genocide, persecution and silencing. Just a week beforehand, Charlotte’s Instagram,@coffinbirth, had hit its first K. Recently, she’d begun to bring in elements of her own cultural heritage: the gecko totem of her mob back in Condobolin, NSW; the dot paintings her father makes. Then the internet got a hold of

her artwork, Always Was. It was shared across the country and quickly became an icon of Invasion Day 2018, where rallies across the country drew more numbers than ever before.

people what Instagram is, and that I’ve gone viral, they just don’t get it. So I just say, ‘Don’t worry, I’m just joking.’ But the best part about it is Koori girls messaging me, saying how empowering it was.

Jess Cockerill: I first saw one of my friends repost Always Was on Australia Day, and then over the weekend, suddenly it was everywhere. How did it feel to go viral?

How did you become a concept artist?

Charlotte Allingham: It was overwhelming, because I never did art to become famous, it was always just for me. I work in a nursing home and trying to explain to the old

To be told you’re not Aboriginal is the most terrifying thing to me, because I’m so light-skinned. I’ve always felt too white to be part of my own culture, which is crazy because I don’t know how to fix that. That’s why I started doing this kind of art, to be honest. I didn’t know if people would chase me out of town for doing it or

“I never did art to become famous, it was always just for me.” not. But it’s been the opposite. It’s like personal healing, in a way. Everything I know about my culture is from my dad because he’s Aboriginal, so that’s all I really know – and what I’ve been trying to find on the internet. I didn’t get the opportunity to grow up in a community with my mob or anything. I grew up here in Melbourne, so from

I should’ve paid more attention in high school but I drew instead. It’s paid off now. I went to school for interactive games, and I always drew erotic stuff. I really liked creeping my mum out so I just kept doing it. Then I started making these very romanticised images of women fighting monsters; a weird dimension

“I’ve always felt too white to be part of my own culture, which is crazy because I don’t know how to fix that.” 12 :: BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18

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FEATURE

All illustrations courtesy © Charlotte Allingham

an early age I didn’t really get exposed to it. And when I did try to become a part of that community and do more with my culture, I got walled. I don’t really know why... I feel like there’s beef, but I wasn’t born then so I don’t know. They said to get a DNA test, and I said I can’t, it would affect me too much to try to go down that alley. So I just stopped, until recently. The kind of art you’re making seems to communicate to a group of people high-brow gallery art doesn’t always reach. Do you think that’s part of the appeal? Yeah, it appeals to the little man. It’s fun, figurative. I always drew women, Japanese-style stuff, and then one day I was like, ‘Oh, I’m denying my own culture here.’ So thebrag.com

then I started looking into it. For instance, those red demon dudes. They’re actually yara-ma-yhawho, which suck blood out of their fingertips and then swallow you whole. Unsuspecting travellers come across them under trees, and get eaten. Then they vomit you back up, and you get smaller each time, and you get redder, so you turn into one of them. It’s so creepy. But if you play dead, they don’t get ya. What is Australia Day like for you? There’s something about it which makes Australia Day so dark. You’ve got all these people saying it’s fine. There’s people saying we’re choosing to be offended, and I was enraged. It’s not a choice. You didn’t give us a choice. If my grandmother was born just a couple years

earlier, she would’ve been part of the stolen generation, and that makes me feel sick. It must feel very reassuring to see such a positive reaction. Do you feel any pressure to keep producing a particular kind of work, or more of it? I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing with my art and not massproduce just because I know people like it, because I think that would probably change how I do art in the first place. I’ve had so many messages asking me for prints, but I feel like I don’t really want to just sell them, because it’s not something I want to profit from. So I’m going to sell them and give half to charity. I want to donate to SEED, ‘cos they do Indigenous and environment stuff. It seems like a really good cause.

“If my grandmother was born just a couple years earlier, she would’ve been part of the stolen generation, and that makes me feel sick.” BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 13

arts in focus

FEATURE

Does Netflix’s Foray Into Foreign Language Originals Have Legs? [TV] Molly McLaughlin examines the trend of streaming services making leaps of faith, and leaving the English-speaking world

he second season of the popular Las Chicas Del Cable series, set in Madrid in the 1920s, was recently released by Netflix, alongside La Casa Del Papel, the intriguing story of a heist gone wrong. Maybe this sounds

unremarkable, and perhaps it would be, were it not for the fact that both are in Spanish. Throw in Dark, a foreboding German sci-fi thriller that echoes Stranger Things, and 3%, a Brazilian-based teen dystopia,

and you’ve got the makings of a wave that might just get notoriously reluctant Australian audiences reading subtitles. So what’s behind this trend, and will it prove to be a lasting shift in our viewing habits? Although more than 200 languages other than English are spoken at home in Australia, this linguistic diversity has been slow to influence language learning at schools and has been underrepresented in pop culture. The 2016 census found that 69 per cent of Australians only speak English

at home, and our historical lack of interest in and access to foreign-language fi lms and TV has refl ected this fact, with SBS functioning as the only reliable option for foreign-language offerings. However, a recent surge in popularity of TV shows filmed in languages other than English has been almost entirely led by Netflix, as the global streaming service and content producer has made hundreds of once niche shows accessible to viewers around the world.

the platform that year. The story of Jane’s artificial insemination and the subsequent chaos for her tight-knit Venezeulan family, including her grandmother Alba who is an undocumented immigrant and doesn’t speak English, is a compelling family tale that represented a shift in

First came Narcos in 2015, a runaway success which featured moderate use of Spanish by drug king-pin Pablo Escobar and his cronies. Although audiences came for the gritty scandals they stayed despite the subtitles, making Narcos one of the first shows to introduce Spanish to Australian audiences on a massive scale. Then, in 2017, Australian viewers fell in love with the charismatic heroine of Jane The Virgin, a bilingual comedy influenced by Mexican telenovelas, making it the most searched show on

“First came Narcos in 2015, a runaway success which featured moderate use of Spanish by drug king-pin Pablo Escobar and his cronies.” 14 :: BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18

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arts in focus The BOOKSHELF: In our new monthly column The Bookshelf, we ask some of our favourite writers to divulge stories about their favourite books, reading habits, and creative practices. This time around, we reached out to Jennifer Down, the novelist and short story writer behind the excellent Pulse Points.

“The 2016 census found that 69 per cent of Australians only speak English at home, and our historical lack of interest in and access to foreign-language films and TV has reflected this fact.” the way Latinos are portrayed on screen. After dipping our toes in the water with Jane and Narcos, it seems we were ready for a Spanish immersion with the arrival of Las Chicas Del Cable, or Cable Girls last year. Following a group of young women working at Madrid’s first telephone company during the roaring ’20s, this melodrama explores the complex gender dynamics of the era (and features some gorgeous outfits.) Last year, Netflix revealed that Las Chicas Del Cable was the 10th most-binged show in Australia (defined as more than two hours per day of viewing time), behind US-based hits like Greenleaf, Gilmore Girls and 13 Reasons Why. The series is currently rated 90 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes and, with only eight episodes per season, has audiences clamouring for more. A look ahead at Netflix’s 2018

releases reveals there is so much more international content to come. German historical thriller Babylon Berlin is already proving popular as it chronicles the social tumult in the city in the lead up to the Third Reich, and building on the obsessive success of Dark. Other foreignlanguage series to keep an eye out for later in 2018 include a Japanese anime set in a school of gamblers titled Kakegurui, and Osmosis, a French sci-fi drama about an all-knowing dating app. Spanning languages, genres and demographics, these Netflix Original series prove there is absolutely something for everyone in the golden age of streaming. And as Netflix continues its rapid push into Europe, Asia and Latin America, the classic Aussie refrain of “I don’t do subtitles” may soon become a thing of the past. What: Las Chicas Del Cable is available to stream on Netflix now

“Last year, Netflix revealed that Las Chicas Del Cable was the 10th most-binged show in Australia.”

What is the most prized book that you own? A copy of Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet that belonged to my grandma Roma. She gave it to me years before she passed away at 95, but I never really read it properly until after she died. It has her pencil underlinings and notes in the margins. She was the gentlest soul, but also very tough, and I can see why she loved it.

“I went to the library a lot as a kid, and my mum used to buy me books as treats sometimes.”

What was the first book that you bought? I have no idea. I went to the library a lot as a kid, and my mum used to buy me books as treats sometimes. The first book I can remember spending my own money on, I think, was called The Last Race by Celeste Walters, about two teenage girls, both elite swimmers and competitors. What’s the last book that made you cry? Just recently, I picked up a book of lyric essays called Where It Hurts by a Canadian writer, Sarah De Leeuw. The essays are loosely tied together, with loss and landscape as through-lines. She has incredible control over language. There were two essays – one called ‘Belle Island Owls’, about the disintegration of a marriage, and ‘Soft Shouldered’, which touches on missing the countless First Nations women who have disappeared and been killed while hitchhiking along the notorious “Highway of Tears” – that made me weep. Her writing is like a new bruise. What’s the book you fell in love with when you were a teenager? A novel called The Way The Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald, a Canadian author. It was recommended to me by the librarian at the school where my dad works. It’s loosely based on the wrongful conviction (and eventual exoneration) of Steven Truscott, told from the perspective of an eightyear-old girl. It was everything I never knew I loved.

rushed to praise these essays – while perfectly competent – on the domestic minutiae of life, where historically, when women have focused on the same topics, they’ve been dismissed or derided. What’s a “classic” book that you’re ashamed you haven’t read? There are so many. Probably Ulysses. I’ve read Joyce’s short fiction, but it feels a bit like cheating. What’s a book people might be surprised to learn that you love? I’m not sure if I still love them, but when I was 16 or 17 I had my shoulder reconstructed and for weeks I was too stoned on pain meds to read anything but the Stephanie Plum books. It’s this series of comedy/ detective/chick-lit novels about a female bounty hunter in New Jersey who’s just… super horny for both a local cop and this guy she works with. I’ve never divulged that to anyone. I hope I lost all my literary cred just now.

“I don’t have time to read things that I truly think I will loathe, or that’ll make me angry.”

If you were trapped on a desert island, what’s the one book that you would want to have with you? Probably poetry – something by Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Anne Carson, Judith Wright or Richard Siken.

What’s the last book that you hated? I don’t have time to read things that I truly think I will loathe, or that’ll make me angry. I’m hesitant to say even this, but last year I read my inaugural Knausgaard (Autumn, the first of his Seasons quartet) and found it a bit underwhelming. I find it interesting that people

Who’s the writer that changed your life? Probably Helen Garner. I read The Children’s Bach when I was 16 and was stunned by the economy of language in creating a psychological landscape of such acuity and depth. And to read something recognisably Australian, set in the city where I’d grown up, was revelatory, too.

“I read The Children’s Bach when I was 16 and was stunned by the economy of language in creating a psychological landscape of such acuity and depth.” thebrag.com

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arts in focus

FEATURE

“We’re lucky that we’ll be able to work the grant across both the cinema and what we do in the stage in here.”

Golden Age Cinema: Best Of Both Worlds [FILM/MUSIC] Joseph Earp chats to Matt Lennon of the Golden Age Cinema, a multi-disciplinary venue that proves Sydney has a great deal of cultural strength in her yet

aybe on paper, a venture like Surry Hill’s Golden Age Cinema comes across like a bit of a risk. After all, there’s that old adage about staying in one’s lane, something that the cinema most stridently doesn’t do – it’s not only known for its carefully curated film program, but also its bar, and its chops when it comes to live music. The intimate, mood-lit venue hosts a stage that has been trod upon by everyone from Speedy Ortiz’s Sadie Dupius to Sydney’s own Jack Ladder, who took to the venue to play an emotional tribute dedicated to David Bowie shortly after the musician’s death, and the venue’s patrons are as likely to soak up the vibes as they are to check out a film. And yet this meeting of the worlds of cinema, spirits and sounds has more than paid off. Golden Age Cinema is one of those spaces that definitively prove that, despite our city’s stringent lockout laws and the

ensuing reputation we have gained as little more than a glorified, commerce-obsessed rat trap, we still have some guts and culture in us yet. Sydney’s nightlife isn’t down for the count – it is on its way up, and the success of a brave venue like the Golden Age only proves that. Case in point? Even on a breezy Wednesday afternoon just past four PM, the cosy venue is already coming to life. Punters are ordering cocktails, the bar staff are setting up the tables, and Matt Lennon, the venue’s newly appointed brand manager, is looking around at it all with a smile. “It’s really exciting,” Lennon says of the venue’s success. “Live music is something that Bob [Barton, owner] has always been really focused on since he opened the cinema and the bar, and it provides a real difference we think; it really adds something to the venue. It’s intimate, and you never really know who you’re going to see.

“We have had really brilliant, internationally-renowned bands play the stage, but every week we also do a local acts night. So you could see a new band testing out a new album or a new EP, or you could see someone who has been overseas playing their first hometown show in a while. And that’s really exciting for us.” The success of the venue’s live music program is surely attributable to the drive and vision of Ben James, who Lennon describes as “amazing.” James has been with the venue from the beginning, and his keen eye when it comes to spotting new talent, as well as his ability to net some pretty big names, has helped the space to no end. “Ben’s vision has always been about mixing up-and-coming bands with really established names,” Lennon says. “We’re just really excited to be able to do new things on the stage and in the cinema as well.” Excitingly, the ambitious plans James, Barton and Lennon have for the venue seem ever

“Our film program is so strong, and we think it could be a nice way of us leveraging the audience we have for the cinema here into live music.” 16 :: BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18

“We have had really brilliant, internationally-renowned bands play the stage, but every week we also do a local acts night.” more likely to become a reality, particularly given the space has just been awarded a coveted City of Sydney grant. The money, Lennon happily reveals, will help the cinema expand and alter, becoming a hub of culture and an integral part of Sydney’s perseverant music and arts scene. “The grant will allow us to experiment with live sounds in the cinema setting,” Lennon says, revealing the plan to bring performers into the cinema space to accompany a specially curated series of films with live music. “I know Bob is really excited to bring live music into the cinema experience. We obviously show a lot of really great older films and more contemporary films that have really powerful scores, and to be able to create that in real life will be really amazing. It’s something we’re really excited to explore a lot more.” As far as Lennon is concerned, that merging of different art forms will only make the Cinema stronger, developing its already admirable reputation as a multidisciplined site where film lovers and music lovers alike can come together to relax, have a drink, and soak up some very special events. “We’re lucky that we’ll be able to work the grant across both

the cinema and what we do in the stage in here,” says Lennon. “Our film program is so strong, and we think it could be a nice way of us leveraging the audience we have for the cinema here into live music, and to educate our customers that, yes, although we are a boutique cinema, we’re also a great bar and live music venue as well.” As Lennon speaks, the bar slowly begins to fill up, proving his point for him. It’s not yet five PM, and already Golden Age is beginning to feel like a thronging hub of life and activity – one can only imagine what the bar will become now that it has the financial support of the City of Sydney itself. “It’s a great place to come and have a drink, and see live music without necessarily even having to go into the cinema space,” Lennon says, grinning the smile of someone who knows exactly what a special place he has helped create. “I’ve been coming here for years, but I only started working with Bob and the team at the beginning of this year. It’s been really nice to rediscover the space and see how much it has changed.”

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arts reviews ■ TV

■ FILM

By Cameron Williams

By Alice Davies

The dream of the ’90s is alive in Everything Sucks – in the worst possible way

A Fantastic Woman is a devastating misfire

Fantastic Woman holds the unique, if unfortunate distinction, of being both an important and a distinctly disappointing film. It is, as the increasingly worn-out cliché goes, a movie for now – an important artistic statement about inclusion, acceptance, and self-love – that so happens to sag under the weight of its aimless plotting and bizarre, useless transgressions.

“The teenagers end up being an afterthought, empty vessels to fill with a cornucopia of pop culture references.”

nly seconds into Everything Sucks, the new 10-episode Netflix series set in the 1990s, teenage boys debate whether there should be Star Wars prequels like 30-yearold men on Twitter. And then, faster than you can say ‘don’t have a cow, man’, they shift to arguing whether the Alanis Morissette song ‘Ironic’ contains any irony at all like they’re filing a searing hot take. As is probably evident already, Everything Sucks is a bizarre teenage drama that applies a nostalgic view of the ’90s expressed in the vernacular of 2018 onto a show set in 1996 that becomes a flimsy excuse to smash through references like plot and character don’t matter. In the town of Boring, Oregon, an aspiring filmmaker (Jahil Di’Allo Winston) and his friends (Rilo Mangini, Peyton Kennedy and Quinn Liebling) in the AV Club form

an uneasy alliance with the drama club (Sydney Sweeney and Elijah Stevenson) to make a short film after an incident puts the two groups at odds with each other. But Everything Sucks plays less like a television series and more like a listicle about the ’90s designed to hit the worst nostalgic impulses, and present the decade as a retro time to a new generation. After fantasising about the ’80s for so long it makes sense that the ’90s is now considered kitsch enough to yield a show like Everything Sucks but co-creators, Ben York Jones and Michael Mohan deliver a misfire. In Everything Sucks, it matters more for a character to have a Tamagotchi than to explain why they have a digital pet in the first place. The show never attempts to contextualise anything properly: it continually riffs on ’90s references to the point that it becomes nauseating.

There’s a stomach churning scene that’s supposed to pass as charming in which the AV Club gang re-create music videos from the ’90s, mainly Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall’. If you thought it was irritating when anyone with a pulse and an acoustic guitar played ‘Wonderwall’, just wait until you see this! The teenagers end up being an afterthought, empty vessels to fill with a cornucopia of pop culture references. Jones and Mohan never let their characters experience and respond to the decade they’re living in, and they let the time period define every action and piece of dialogue. As you meet each character you care less about who they are and more about the algorithm that got this show made. Stranger Things meets Dawson’s Creek meets Freak And Geeks – normally having these shows mentioned would be a compliment, but Everything Sucks amplifies the worst elements of each. In that way, Everything Sucks becomes an admirable feat of Netflix engineering, but a dud when it comes to storytelling. There are moments where Jones and Mohan veer away from the clichés associated with coming-of-age stories, such as a queer sub-plot focusing on one of the AV Club, Kate, but it still smacks of two male writers fumbling their way through proceedings. Everything Sucks stays true to its namesake when it comes to execution, so it gets points for honesty, but it shows the churn and degradation of the current obsession with nostalgia in pop culture through the Netflix algorithm.

“The show never attempts to contextualise anything properly.” thebrag.com

What: Everything Sucks is available to stream on Netflix now

It’s particularly disappointing given how strong the film starts. Opening with a bait and switch designed to suggest the elderly and charming Orlando (Francisco Reyes Morande) is A Fantastic Woman’s hero, writerdirector Sebastian Leilo quickly switches gears and subs in his real protagonist, Orlando’s young partner Marina Vidal (expertly played by Daniela Vega). Marina is a trans woman, and the light of Orlando’s life – they are planning to travel together, and later to settle down. But one night, Orlando falls ill, taking a tumble down a staircase, and before Marina – or the audience – have properly gotten a handle on the situation, Orlando has slipped into a coma and died. Certainly Leilo deserves credit for so nimbly disposing of the most likeable male in his film: replacing Orlando with Marina neatly subverts audience expectations, and opens up A Fantastic Woman to explore an infinitely more interesting lead (played, thrillingly, by a trans woman, rather than the usual parade of cis actors mainstream audiences might be used to seeing play-acting queer onscreen.)

“Certainly writer/director Sebastian Leilo deserves credit for so nimbly disposing of the most likeable male in his film.” But, in his haste to write Orlando out of the picture, Leilo doesn’t give Marina any real time to grieve. She seems peculiarly unflustered by the loss, and finds herself forced to direct her energy into defending herself from slurs – and, later, physical violence – dished out by the police and Orlando’s discriminatory, close-minded and grieving family. Such a creative choice makes sense on paper: Marina being denied the chance to properly mourn her partner is just one of the injustices she must face over the course of the film’s flabby running time. But it does mean the film lacks any coherent emotional throughline – because Marina doesn’t appear to care about Orlando, neither do we as audience members. Add a series of narrative dead-ends – sub-plots about Orlando’s dog, Marina’s sister, and Marina’s vocal coach go nowhere – and A Fantastic Woman quickly begins to drag. It’s a shame. A film that makes as many stirring and important contextual choices as A Fantastic Woman should be something to celebrate; to cry from the rooftops about. Instead, this is a beleaguered and bleary-eyed dud. Oh well. Maybe next time?

What: A Fantastic Woman is in Australian cinemas now

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arts in focus ■ FILM

Espionage thriller Red Sparrow is gratuitous to the point of monotony

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Mary Magdalene is a case of a director quite literally p By Joseph Earp

By Joseph Earp

inematic violence isn’t immoral, or degrading, or anything of the things it gets called by the naysayers who make up the bulk of mainstream critics these days. It’s a tool, nothing more, nothing less – as starkly utilitarian as a colour palette, or the use of a zoom. Indeed, it’s only problematic when it’s being used for the wrong reasons: to manipulate, or to glorify. So, when confronted with scenes of torture or bloodshed or distress, it helps to ask oneself why a filmmaker has chosen to use violence – to examine, carefully, and without hyperbole, their endgame. In the case of Red Sparrow, a new Jennifer Lawrence vehicle helmed by the determinedly pedestrian Francis Lawrence (he of Constantine and Hunger Games fame; also, no relation), that endgame is made explicitly clear by the time the first explosion of mutilation rolls around, roughly 20 minutes in. The steely-eyed Dominika Egorova (Lawrence), a ballerina turned assassincum-seducer, has an opportunity to hurt those who have engineered the accident that made her pack in her promising dance career. And she takes it, without batting an eyelid and without mercy, brutally beating her tormentors while they’re locked in carnal embrace, Lawrence the director’s camera scooping close-ups off the battered flesh.

“Stripped of its cruel and adolescent violence, Red Sparrow is shockingly ho-hum: a derivative, John LeCarre on crack spygame.” The message is clear: this is not your average Jennifer Lawrence blockbuster. The Lawrences, finally freed from the firmly PG-13 shackles of the young adult film franchise that made their names, is clearly trying to serve up some very adult, Paul Verhoeven-esque entertainment: Red Sparrow skimps neither on sex (in one scene, a naked Dominika is forced to offer herself up to the man who assaulted her in front of a class of her fellow assassins), nor on violence (there are two, count ’em two, lengthy and extreme torture scenes), nor on sexual violence (rapes abound). But underneath all of that fire and fury, the two Lawrences seem to have forgotten to substitute in anything of real value. Stripped of its cruel and adolescent violence, Red Sparrow is shockingly ho-hum: a derivative, John LeCarre on crack spygame that will have viewers accustomed to the genre sighing the story beats as they happen. It doesn’t help either that the film is some two and a half hours in length, and that its twist drops with all the weight of a boulder in a lake. No. Red Sparrow isn’t a bad film because it’s violent and gratuitous, though it is both of those things. It’s a bad film because it’s violent for the sake of being violent – the cinematic equivalent of a jackass putting a staple through their nipple so they might relish in the horrified gasps.

What: Red Sparrow is in cinemas now 18 :: BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18

lmost all of the best Christian films are about doubt. The Exorcist, The Last Temptation Of Christ, The Passion Of The Christ, Jesus Of Montreal – all of them feature divine beings and keepers of the faith beset by worries, concerns, and doubts. It’s not particularly hard to see why, either. Conflict is what drives plot, and characters of steadfast conviction aren’t much fun to watch – they’re just too moral; a gaggle of cinematic Ned Flanders-types, endlessly nattering about supernatural concerns most of us wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot barge pole. We want our Christs to be broken and tempted, not, ironically, to preach at us. In that way, Garth Davis’ new bigbudget faith picture, Mary Magdalene deserves at least some kudos points for firmly and resolutely breaking the mould. In Mary Magdalene, Jesus (Joaquin Phoenix) is steadfast; his feats of faith unquestionably real; his followers dedicated, stately

philosophers who don’t stop spouting devotionals for a second. A brief text epilogue even goes so far as to treat the resurrection of Christ as an unassailable fact, coolly – almost flippantly – placing it in the historical record. So there’s no doubting Davis’ intentions: he is a believer, and he has made a film for his fellow Christians. In the process, Davis has managed to alienate an entire audience of nonbelievers who will struggle through the chaste, platonic “romance” that blossoms between Christ and the titular Mary (Rooney Mara). But more than that, he has managed to leech the drama from his own film. In Mary Magdalene, God is real and the kingdom of Heaven is awaiting us all after death, so there is nothing to fear – no sense of emotional stakes. And in turn, what might well be the most famous death of all time – the crucifixion of Christ – becomes as sapped of meaning as the driving into the ground of a croquet hoop.

“What might well be the most famous death of all time – the crucifixion of Christ – becomes as sapped of meaning as the driving into the ground of a croquet hoop.” Opening in the Middle East, as a young Mary struggles against the strict guidance of her father and domineering brothers, the film ostensibly tells the story of Christ’s

“We want our Christs to be broken and tempted, not, ironically, to preach at us.” thebrag.com

arts reviews ■ FILM

reaching to the choir

“In Mary Magdalene, Jesus is steadfast; his feats of faith unquestionably real; his followers dedicated, stately philosophers who don’t stop spouting devotionals for a second.”

monotonous voice of a particularly bland Sunday school teacher. There is, at least, some joy to be gained from Davis’ cinema verite approach. His camera is fluid, gliding above the sand behind Christ, Mary and the apostles as they make their trek to the end of all ends in Golgotha, and the resurrection of Lazarus, filmed in expertly controlled close-ups, is a marvel that offers a tantalising glimpse of the film Davis might have been able to make if he had been willing to stray from the beaten path a bit. He’s got himself a bold opening shot too, as Mary sinks through an ocean as serene as a stone, and the water and dirt motif he threads throughout Mary Magdalene is more impressive than anything in his script. Phoenix turns in a good, if workmanlike performance, though ironically, he is at his weakest when preaching. His is a Christ who reveals himself in brief glimpses and touches – a nuzzled kiss placed upon the top of the head of a revived believer; a chapped hand grasping the outstretched wrist of a beggar; a figure, all in white, sitting by a hilltop, newly brought back to life. And his crucifixion, when it comes, is supremely physical; he writhes and stretches before he ascends, a flap of skin on his ribs modelled after the same wound in Caravaggio’s Doubting Thomas open to the sand and the wind. And yet the stand-out performer is Tahar Rahim, who brings nuance and complexity to Judas. Whereas Mara and Phoenix seem determined to take the most literal readings of their characters, Rahim plays the scripture’s fallen apostle as though he is a cult member who eventually comes to see the light and unlearn his programming, going from beaming devotee to troubled and reserved naysayer.

ascendency and death from the point of view his spiritual right handwoman. But before the end of the first act Davis and his screenwriters, Helen Edmundson and Phillipa Goslett, lose sight of proceedings and abandon their wide-eyed heroine in favour of the son of God himself. The move is both a blessing and a curse. Mara’s Magdalene, sporting an

inexplicable American accent and a trembling bottom lip, is so insufferably po-faced that it’s impossible to see her as anything but a narrative device, and it proves refreshing to get some distance from her. But by abandoning both Mary and the promising hints that he’s willing to offer a feminist retelling of a typically male-dominated story, Davis dooms himself to repeating a narrative in the leaden,

The film could have done more with the complexity that he brings. Instead, it is an exercise in penance-paying for Christians and a testing of the patience of all else, as dry and plain as a communion wafer.

What: Mary Magdalene is in Australian cinemas Thursday March 22

Winchester is a strangely compelling – if flawed – haunted house flick By Joseph Earp

“Listen, nobody said Winchester was Shakespeare, and it never pretends to be.”

here’s truth to that old filmmaker’s warning: endeavour to make your film as impervious to the zingers of critics as possible. Don’t give it some title those old groaners can pithily turn into a selfreflexive barb – give ‘em half a chance and they’ll turn Point Break into Point Broken; Non-Stop into Make It Stop. Not that the Spierig brothers, the horror maestros behind Jigsaw and the recently-released Winchester, were ever going to be able to steel themselves against the slurs of critics. Firstly, they make horror films, which mainstream writers are famously and aggressively sniffy about, and, secondly – and perhaps more devastatingly – they’ve just made a film about real-life multi-millionaire Sarah Winchester, the heir to the gun fortune of the same name. So, what chance did they ever have against a horde of punhappy critics who have rushed to call their rifle-related film everything from a “misfire” to a “blunt weapon” to “two barrels of awful”? It’s unfortunate. Winchester certainly doesn’t break the mould – it relies too heavily on the template set by James Wan’s elegant and ridiculous The Conjuring films for that – but in its occasionally laughable soupiness, it has a charm and colour all of its own. The set-up is tantalising: Sarah Winchester (Helen Mirren), convinced that she is being haunted by the victims of the repeating rifle that has made her fortune, holes herself up in a creaky old house that she has custom-built to keep in the spectres. Accompanied by Eric Price (Jason Clarke), an initially supernaturallyresistant doctor sent to test her mental acuity, Winchester confronts her oppressors, works to overcome the grief prompted by the loss of her husband, and finally takes control of her destiny. Oh, did I mention she achieves all this by literally shooting ghosts with a rifle? Listen, nobody said Winchester was Shakespeare, and it never pretends to be – the film is at its most successful when it drops its The Changeling-esque facade of super-seriousness and leans into its strangest impulses. A showdown with a snarling ghost is more Ghostbusters than it is The Amityville Horror, and the Spierig Brothers clearly relish encouraging the well-regarded and steely Mirren to play proceedings as though she’s wading through a deluge of cheese, chewed-up scene stuck between her teeth. Sure, Clarke is as dull as anyone with even a scant knowledge of his career will have come to expect by now, and the finale is a bit of a mess, but who cares? Measured by its gleeful chaos alone, Winchester is a bizarre joy; a ramshackle pleasure as haphazard as the house in which it is set.

What: Winchester is in Australian cinemas now

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THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT SCREENING: Friday March 9, at 7PM FOR FANS OF: The Strangers, Don’t Breathe, Black Christmas

“It’s been ten long years since Bryan Bertino’s contemporary horror classic The Strangers was unleashed into the world, and time has done nothing to diminish its sharp edges.”

It’s been ten long years since Bryan Bertino’s contemporary horror classic The Strangers was unleashed into the world, and time has done nothing to diminish its sharp edges – it’s an ugly, glinting work of art, a film about senseless murder and pure survival that neatly sidesteps the clichés that sometimes come associated with big budget, studio-backed slasher film fare. For that reason, it’s impossible not to be excited about the breakout hit’s long-gestating sequel, The Strangers: Prey At Night, which is finally set to drop in the states this Friday March 9, the same day that it plays at Monster Fest. Bertino has settled for writing duties this time, handing over the position of director to Johannes Roberts, perhaps best known for the “much better than it could have been” shark slasher surprise, 47 Meters Down. Lovers of elegant, thrilling horror fare, this one’s for you, particularly given the calibre of the cast: everyone from Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks to The Ring’s Martin Henderson is set to make an appearance. To be honest, we can’t wait.

Here’s Your Guide To The Peerless, Blood-Soaked

TRAVELLING SIDESHOW BY JOSEPH EARP

And yet this year, the folks at Monster have truly outdone themselves. Featuring everything from a kitsch ’80s classic to a

PYEWACKET SCREENING: Friday March 9, at 9:30PM FOR FANS OF: The Witch, The Wicker Man, The Changeling

The set-up of Pyewacket is gorgeously simple: a young woman, seeking to rebel against her domineering and abusive mother, summons the film’s titular forest-dwelling beastie. What unfolds is horror of the most lean, eerie sort, with director Adam MacDonald doubling down on the tension and creature effects that made his debut, the elegant, grizzly bear starring Backcountry, such a delight.

tormented work of evil by a contemporary Turkish master, Monster Fest’s 2018 Travelling Sydney Sideshow is a three-day extravaganza that should test the mettle of both seasoned genre nuts and newcomers alike. To be honest, you would be well advised to head along to every single event in the program, but for ease of access, here’s a quick primer on some of the films booked to screen. And don’t forget, if anything takes your fancy, multi-passes and single tickets for the festival are available – just head over to monsterfest.com.au for more info, and to book. Enjoy!

“The set-up of Pyewacket is gorgeously simple: a young woman, seeking to rebel against her domineering and abusive mother, summons the film’s titular forest-dwelling beastie.”

THE MONSTER SQUAD SCREENING: Saturday March 10, at 2:30PM FOR FANS OF: The Goonies, Krampus, Return Of The Living Dead

For a while there, Fred Dekker looked poised to become the future of horror cinema. The director and writer of Night Of The Creeps, a gorgeously gory, fraternity-set sci-

TARNATION

It’s Christmas time for horror film lovers – Monster Fest, Australia’s premium celebration of genre cinema, is hitting Event Cinemas on George Street this March. Run by the tireless workers over at Monster Pictures, distributors of some of the most exciting and extreme movies in recent memory, Monster Fest is a peerless event; a carefully curated, lovingly assembled gauntlet of blood, guts and spooks.

SCREENING: Sunday March 11, at 2:15PM FOR FANS OF: Evil Dead, Brain Damage, Long Weekend

Bizarre backwoods Aussie gorefest Tarnation boasts crossbows, penis critters, unicorns and possessed, foaming at the mouth kangaroos. I mean, what more could any selfserving horror fan possibly want? It’s also as funny as all hell, paying tribute to a range of horror-comedy classics. Expect to see a touch of Shaun Of The Dead, and more than a few nods to genre titan Sam Raimi, not only in the setting, but also in the film’s anarchic sensibilities.

“Evrenol does practical effects like almost no-one else working in horror, and is a master of keeping audi 20 :: BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18

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NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

2017 was a hard year for horror fans. We lost two pioneers of the genre – Tobe Hooper, the twisted mastermind behind The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the ripe to be rediscovered Lifeforce, and George A. Romero, the veritable godfather of the zombie sub-genre, director of Martin, Dawn Of The Dead, and the jaw-droppingly underrated killer simian flick Monkey Shines. Now, thanks to Monster Fest, horror fans can pay tribute to the latter genius by heading along to a new restoration of Night Of The Living Dead, the black and white chiller that kickstarted both Romero’s career and the American fascination with the undead. Cited by Jordan Peele as a key inspiration for Get Out, the film has never been more timely – its handling of racial politics remains blisteringly on-point.

LIVING SPACE SCREENING: Saturday March 10, at 7PM FOR FANS OF: Red Snow, The Night Porter, Tombs Of The Blind Dead

The Nazisploitation horror sub-genre is ripe for reappraisal, which makes Living Space, an Aussie-produced chiller about a young couple who find themselves haunted by a fascist general, a very appealing proposition indeed. Even better still, the film’s writer and director Steven Spiel is set to attend the screening for an exclusive Q-and-A, alongside his producer, cinematographer, and one of the film’s stars, Emma Leonard, so you’ll have your chance to ask all your burning questions about the man’s assured debut.

SCREENING: Sunday March 11, at 7PM FOR FANS OF: I Saw The Devil, Only God Forgives, Bad Lieutenant

COLD HELL

Excitingly, Shudder, the American horror and genre streaming platform extraordinaire, has already picked up Cold Hell. Considering the hits that the service has dropped so far (everything from Flying Lotus’ queasy debut Kuso to the absolutely traumatising We Are The Flesh), that should be seen very much as a reason to get excited about the German-Turkish horror-thriller, a cat-andmouse story about a serial killer, a police officer, and a young taxi driver who gets caught in the middle of the two. What: Monster Fest Travelling Sideshow Where: Event Cinemas George Street When: Friday March 9 – Sunday March 11

ences pinned firmly to their seats while he ratchets up the tension.” thebrag.com

HOUSEWIFE

fi horror, and The Monster Squad, a gleefully mean homage to Universal horror stars, had more wit, skill and intelligence than most of his peers. But after helming the disastrously received (and yet more impressive than some remember) Robocop 3, Dekker was thrown into a director’s jail – a fate he has only just now wriggled out of by writing the new, Shane Black-directed Predator film, heading our way in 2018. So what better chance to celebrate the man’s work and legacy than with a screening of The Monster Squad, a Goonies on acid romp through the suburbs he co-wrote with Black? The film has aged like a fine wine – it’s more subversive, funny, and spirited than ever – making it a perfect throwback for a lazy Saturday afternoon.

“IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME FOR HORROR FILM LOVERS.”

SCREENING: Saturday March 10, at 4:30PM FOR FANS OF: Dawn Of The Dead, White Zombie, Zombi

FEATURE

SCREENING: Sunday March 11, at 4:30PM FOR FANS OF: Baskin, Beyond The Black Rainbow, The Beyond

Can Evrenol’s Baskin was a shot in the arm for the slasher genre – a surreal, slowburning nightmare that paid homage to everyone from Lucio Fulci, to Dario Argento, to Umberto Lenzi, while still maintaining an energy and a style entirely of its own. That makes Evrenol’s follow-up film, Housewife, even more exciting. By all accounts, it is a similarly gruesome, similarly bizarre flick about a young woman named Holly who finds herself plagued by childhood traumas, not to mention the affections of a bizarre celebrity psychic and cult leader. If that sounds batshit crazy, that’s because the film is bound to be so – Evrenol does practical effects like almost no-one else working in horror, and is a master of keeping audiences pinned firmly to their seats while he ratchets up the tension. Get excited for this one: it’s going to be something special. BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 21

ew to stre am sn ’ t a

“Cleverly, in Intruders, the barriers stopping heartbroken hero Anna Rook from fleeing aren’t physical – they’re psychological.”

Wild Things

ing

W h

arts in focus

James Spader in Sex, Lies, And Videotape

WITH JOSEPH EARP

know judging a book by its cover is a sin – particularly for a film critic – but I’m going to start out this month’s column by recommending something I haven’t actually seen: Alex Garland’s new film Annihilation, which hits Netflix on Monday March 12. In my defence, I have at least read the book that the film is based on, a J.G. Ballard-inspired head trip by Jeff Vandermeer that’s a personal favourite of mine.

But trust me, Ravenous is a real surprise – the film’s writer-director Robin Aubert cites Robert Bresson and Andrei Tarkovsky as influences, and it’s clear he’s taken his sense of pacing from those two: proceedings unfurl slowly, with mounting horror. That’s not even to mention Aubert’s extraordinary inclusion of what could generally be called a kind of zombie religion – believe you me, this one breaks a very old, very worn-out mould.

“If I’m wrong and Annihilation is garbage, come next column I’ll post a full page picture of me eating my hat.”

As dependable as always, your mates and mine over at Stan have some exciting horror titles on offer too, chiefly the underseen Intruders. A home invasion flick with a difference, Intruders neatly solves the problem of believability a lot of singlelocation slashers face – namely that it eventually strains credibility when, an hour and a half in, our beleaguered heroes are still unable to leave the domicile they’ve found themselves trapped in. Cleverly, in Intruders, the barriers stopping heartbroken hero Anna Rook (Beth Riesgraf) from fleeing aren’t physical – they’re psychological.

Still disturbed by the death of her father years prior, Anna has developed extreme agoraphobia; when a band of untowards led by Martin Starr’s Perry Cuttner come after a tidy stash of money she’s squirreled away, she can’t bring herself to make a break for freedom, even when the opportunity is there right in front of her. It’s intelligent, carefully controlled stuff, but more than that, it never exploits Anna’s circumstances: by the time the twisty third act rolls around, director Adam Schindler attempts to explain his hero’s trauma with surprising empathy and care.

Natalie Portman in Annihilation

“Ravenous is a real surprise – the film’s writer-director Robin Aubert cites Robert Bresson and Andrei Tarkovsky as influences.”

On the distinctly trashier front, Stan also have Wild Things up their sleeve, a 1998 thriller starring Kevin Bacon, Matt Dillon and a brace of femme fatales played by Neve Campbell and Denise Richards. The film is one of those strange propositions that has aged both poorly and remarkably well – its sexual politics are oddly subversive, even if the accusation of sexual assault that triggers the proceedings is extraordinary creaky, and a little tasteless.

Oh, and the film has got excellent reviews by the lucky Americans who have had the privilege of checking it out on the big screen (its international distribution was picked up by Netflix after a panicked Paramount sold it off, perhaps frightened by the disastrous reception mother!, a similarly audacious film, received.) If I’m wrong and the film’s garbage, come next column I’ll post a full page picture of me eating my hat. Promise (but actually.) Onto the stuff I have seen, first and foremost the excellent Les Affames (Ravenous), available via Netflix. I am sure that you’re pretty tired of the second wave of zombie horror that we’ve all been wading through since the twinned success of The Walking Dead and the better-than-it-had-to-be Dawn Of The Dead remake, and maybe the idea of getting yourself through another serve of undead-based gore turns your stomach a little bit.

Les Affames (Ravenous)

Directed by John McNaughton, he of Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer fame, Wild Things is a slick, oiled-up thriller: Duquette is a grizzled Sergeant, Dillon is a skeezy guidance counsellor and Campbell and Richards are the kind of vindictive, sexed-up wenches who could only have been dreamt up by a male writer (take a bow, Stephen Peters!)

The strength of an erotic thriller can only ever be gauged by its setpieces, and on that front Wild Things excels – one particularly notorious aquatic sex scene still feels risky and uncompromising today. Sure, it’s not exactly going to leave you feeling smarter and more connected to your fellow humans – but you’ll have fun for every sticky minute of its run-time. Quickly, before we run out of time, let’s hop over to SBS On Demand, and one helluva double feature they have on offer. First up is Sex, Lies And Videotape, Steven Soderbergh’s lo-fi, feature-length debut. The film pretty much kickstarted the current American indie movement – shot on a shoe-string budget, and with a cast of then relative unknowns (James Spader, Andie MacDowell and the chisel-jawed Peter Gallagher), it’s the glittery-eyed Helen of Troy that launched a thousand mumblecore dramas; an understated, brutally effective slice of life. Excitingly, the 28 years since its release have done nothing to dull its sharp edges; it’s still a glinting, subversive work of art, anchored by Spader’s nuanced performance as a charming loner who – perhaps inadvertently, perhaps not – disrupts an unhappy marriage while reconnecting with a friend from his past.

Kurt Russell in Bone Tomahawk

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Then, when you’re done blasting that particular masterpiece, check out Bone Tomahawk to see exactly where the American independent movement has ended up. Similarly low budget, similarly audacious, Tomahawk is a Western with a difference; a sun-blasted slice of horror that sets up a premise audiences are encouraged to think they recognise, before completely and dramatically subverting expectations. The whole goopy, cannibalistic mess is held in place by a fine dramatic turn by Kurt Russell, and by the wit and skill of its writer-director, S. Craig Zahler, exploitation filmmaker extraordinaire. Check it out: it’ll melt ya brain. ■ thebrag.com

game on Gaming news and reviews with Adam Guetti

2017

New Releases March might not be a more varied month than most, but that’s not to say there aren’t plenty of titles that’ll have you reaching for your wallet.

Kicking things off on Wednesday March 7 is Bravo Team. The cover shooter is brought to you by the team behind Until Dawn and is set to hopefully breathe some new life into PSVR. For a complete change of pace, why not go green with Pure Farming 2018? It’ll cultivate itself on PS4 and XBO from Tuesday March 13. Meanwhile, Switch owners will score an extra title for their library when Kirby Star Allies debuts, this time tasking you with recruiting enemies to help you fight. You can find it from Friday March 16.

Days later on Friday March 23, competition remains hot with both Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (PS4) and Detective Pikachu (3DS) landing on store shelves. The former is the follow-up a stunning JRPG, while the later takes everybody’s favourite Pokémon and slaps on a detective’s hat. Yes, it’s set to be bizarre as you’re surely imagining.

It appears Criterion’s Burnout Paradise is having its engine retuned with an upscaled version of the 10-year-old classic now in the works. Burnout Paradise Remastered will not only feature 4K visuals, but include all eight pieces of DLC, including the Big Surf Island update.

More ticket information including exact pricing and on-sale dates are said to be announced soon, so stay tuned.

Wrapping things up on Tuesday March 27 is the controversial release of Far Cry 5, which will see you do battle with a fanatical doomsday cult in the middle of the American country. You can find it on PS4, XBO and PC.

By Adam Guetti

Beautiful Paradise

For those of you already planning your 2018 gaming conventions, it’s time to start saving those gold coins, because PAX Australia has just announced its plans for this year. The incredibly popular event is set to return to Melbourne’s Exhibition Convention Centre from Friday October 26 to Sunday October 28. “Mark your calendars,” says PAX Aus Content Manager, Luke Lancaster. “Book your leave. Breathe sighs of relief when you check Melbourne Cup dates. PAX Aus is coming back … and we cannot wait to celebrate the best that the gaming world has to offer.”

Things really heat up, however, on Tuesday March 20 with not one but three heavy hitters arriving. Yakuza 6 sends the popular open-world series back to the present to wrap up its tale on PS4, while Assassin’s Creed Rogue Remastered takes the 2014 title and pretties it up for PS4 and XBO. Then there’s Sea Of Thieves, the hotly anticipated XBO exclusive that lets you sail the seven seas in a jaunty multiplayer pirate adventure.

reviewroundup

PAX Aus Returns

NEWS

MAR

“When people think of Criterion Games, they often remember the Burnout franchise and for good reason,” claimed Criterion Games’ General Manager Matt Webster in a press release. “What we created 10 years ago, we feel is still fun and unique to this day in the gaming industry.” The game will be available for PS4 and XBO gamers from Friday March 16, while a PC iteration is also in the works – but currently lacks a release date.

Review: Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition (iOS, Android)

Review: Monster Hunter: World (PS4, XBO)

F M

onster Hunter: World’s biggest achievement is arguably the fact that it’s the most accessible the series has ever been. There’s still a heavy learning curve at play here for newcomers coming to grips with various systems and mechanics, but if you’ve had a passing interest in the global phenomenon, this is your chance. Only adding to that is improved visuals, a livelier world and a more robust online 4 infrastructure. It certainly won’t be for everyone, but World offers up a fantastical new playground for those willing to give it a shot.

inal Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition is a fascinating creation – taking a giant console JRPG, then rewiring it for the mobile market. As a result, the 50+ hour adventure has been significantly shrunk down to ensure everything runs smoothly. The visuals have also seen a drastic overhaul, while the tale of Noctis becoming king is significantly streamlined. Understandable concessions aside, the game has to be commended for its ambition. Hardcore fans of the original game will likely have gripes, but if you’re 3.5 a Final Fantasy fan lacking a new-gen console, Pocket Edition is a worthy substitute.

Review: Shadow Of The Colossus (PS4C) Review: Bayonetta 2 (Switch)

ith Bayonetta 3 now on the horizon, this is the perfect time to quickly catch up on the series. Some may find it disappointing that outside of a few costume changes, everything plays out exactly the same as it did in 2014, but it’s hard to complain when that core gameplay remains as satisfying as ever. Plus, if you nab a physical copy of the 4.5 game, you’ll score a download code for the original as well, which is a truly incredible deal.

thebrag.com

hadow Of The Colossus was an instant classic when it hit the PS2 back in 2005, and nothing has changed since. The PS4 remake acts as a remarkable love letter to the emotional and beautiful game, with environments not just touched up, but completely rebuilt to make use of the PS4’s power. There’s even a fresh control scheme to alleviate longtime woes. Without question, if you haven’t already played through this experience before, you have no excuse not to now.

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parent talk

with Nick Hollins

THE BRAG DAD

PERCUSSIVE PARENTING With apologies to present and future neighbours, we’re about to buy a drum kit for our four-year-old. We reckon it makes sense. If you want to turn your kid into a rock’n’roller, you’re restricted to looking at vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. And in my view, vox, keyboards and drums are the best starter instruments for little ones – guitars are a stretch for tiny hands. Of course, drums have to be the biggest pain in the ass for parents. Unlike with other instruments, you can’t get your kids to plug into headphones. Personally, I remember that being part of the sell when I got an electric guitar at 12 years old – the option to have me over in the corner, wrapped up in my headphones.

DON’T BE A FUEL BP knows how much of a pain in the butt it is to leave the comfort of your car to pay for petrol, especially if you have a backseat filled with restless kids, a pet or three, or simply a gruelling school/soccer/other school/home schedule. So luckily (as the old adage goes) there’s now an app for that particular problem. BPme allows customers to pay for petrol using their smartphone without getting out of the car, which is perfect for parents who don’t wanna juggle toddlers and babies while attempting to walk into a servo. It can also direct you to the nearest BP, check your odometer, and store your receipts/purchase history for tax time. It’s free, simple to use and will prevent your kids from jumping into the front seat and testing out the handbrake while you’re inside paying for petrol and Powerade.

It’s true: your kid will be drumming at high volume without much skill for at least a couple years. That’s the price that one just has to pay, and it’s why good drummers are hard to find. But on the plus side, starting them young with drums will hardwire timing and rhythm right into their being. My mate Jasper started when his son on the drums when he was but three years old, and he’s the best behaved kid I know. And that’s not to mention the commercial prospects – contemporary music revolves around electronic production and beat making. Imagine the gift of having a knack for drums.

KEEP THIS IN MIND Meditation and mindfulness pair easily with a more relaxed and considered life. And yet as our kids grow and develop, you may notice that they can be a little… energetic. That’s been my experience anyway. My son recently turned four, and all that talk about three-year-olds being difficult seems quaint and off target by comparison. Four-year-olds are the real trouble. But this is where daily meditation comes in, helping both parents and children ground themselves. Getting into the habit with your kids is an interesting way to bond with them, and help them find a little peace and quiet in their busy lives.

Petrol station photo by Flickr / Andrea Diener, Snare drum photo by Flickr / Vladimir Morozov, Teeth brushing photo by Flickr / KKinjo

Headspace is a tremendous resource – a subscription-based app that has content tailored to kids. You can subscribe for free, or pay a moderate amount per month for premium content. They have options for three age groups: 5 and under, 6-8 and 9-12. It’s an incredible way for kids to learn patience, and to develop the crucial ability to sit quietly without external stimulation of endless YouTube, toys, games etc. Get on it, won’t you?

ABC TRICKS I can’t remember where I learned this little life hack: it’s just something parents tell each other. It’s nice and simple too. When brushing your young child’s teeth, morning or night, sing them the alphabet song. It’s familiar to them, and lasts just long enough to do a decent job of cleaning their teeth. Some kids don’t enjoy brushing their teeth, and it can be deeply uncomfortable for them. The song, in this way, serves as a distraction. It just gets a little tricky when they want to sing or dance along, as my son does. But it really helps to grow their skills, and once the song is mastered you can move to flip cards to teach them the letters. Just a handy tip for ya!

FACEBOOK’S TAKING OVER THE WORLD Not satisfied with commanding the attention of billions, Facebook has launched a product aimed at children who fall below their required age of 13. Messenger Kids is designed to allow children as young as six years old to enter the social media abyss. Rest assured, the full gambit of addictioninducing UX design is here, and as a parent, you can use the app to wipe off a solid 10 hours of their week. Perhaps you see no problem with this. You’ve always calmed their craziness with an iPad, so hooking them up with a “Safe” version of Snapchat, without inapp purchases, to video call their mates with animal-face filters sounds ideal. No biggie.

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But I disagree. Psychologists are already concerned by the impact that regular Facebook has on young teenagers: it distracts their developing minds, allows peer pressure and bullying to follow them home from school, and raises stakes on social status and leaves them hopelessly addicted to the endless scroll. Why in hell would we want this for even younger children? Shouldn’t we encourage them to read books, play with their toys, and run around outside? How have we lost the sight of the importance of having them lay on the ground with nothing to do; to feel actual boredom, known in other cultures as an absence of hyper-stimulation?

thebrag.com

BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 25

out & about

Queer(ish) matters with Arca Bayburt

“IT’S BEEN 40 YEARS SINCE THE PEOPLE MARCHING IN THE FIRST EVER MARDI GRAS WERE DRAGGED ALONG THE GROUND BY THEIR HAIR, BASHED BY POLICE AND ARRESTED.”

“THERE ARE STILL MANY PARTS OF SOCIETY THAT COULD USE WORK WHEN IT COMES TO THE STRUGGLES FACED BY LGBTQI PEOPLE.”

Mardi Gras & Beyond

n a chilly Saturday evening on June 24, 1978, a group of gay, queer and transgender people marched themselves unknowingly right into Australia’s LGBTQI history. It’s been 40 years since that night. 40 years since the people marching in the first ever Mardi Gras were dragged along the ground by their hair, bashed by police and arrested. 2018’s Mardi Gras was so different. We danced to Cher and rolled around in glitter – no one ran from a cavalcade of cops in sheer terror.

The first Mardi Gras parade started out as a peaceful demonstration; a protest demanding humane treatment and civil rights. The group even had a permit, which I suppose gave them a feeling of tenuous security, so they dressed up and took to Oxford Street. This was during a time when homosexuality was illegal. As the march marched on, more people emerged from the watering holes along the street to join in. Music was playing and the ever-growing group was having a good time, all things considered. That was of course, before a police car blasted its high beams and ploughed into the front of the group. One of the parade participants recalled the experience as such: “I could see silhouettes of police bashing people and arms and legs flying around. The police took me aside and just beat the shit out of me.” It has also been described by other attendees, a group now affectionately called the 78ers, as an ambush by police in what appeared to be an organised attack. Finally, 38 years later, the NSW Police Force apologised for their brutality during that first Mardi Gras night. They acknowledged what had happened and noted that it was

“AN APOLOGY FROM THE POLICE ILLUSTRATES A MEASURABLE SHIFT IN ATTITUDES.”

unacceptable and wrong. The apology seemed glib, but even if it might have rung hollow, symbolism is still powerful. An apology from the police illustrates a measurable shift in attitudes. There are still many parts of society that could use work when it comes to the struggles faced by LGBTQI people. Suicide rates are still high. Rates of mental illness and drug use, often co-morbid issues, are still higher than amongst the heterosexual populace. This isn’t some innate thing. It’s not that straight people are better at moderating their vices; it’s that they don’t have the psychic burden of being hated for existing. This is still something that is a reality for a huge number of LGBTQI people that we still need to work on. There’s a lot to be done. So here we are in 2018: Mardi Gras is now seen by many as a celebration more than a protest. It draws hundreds of thousands of participants and spectators from all over the world. It’s one big party, right? Except that isn’t all it is. There will be, I believe for quite some time yet, a political unrest, an air of protest and demonstration that underpins Mardi Gras, despite the party vibes and despite the corporate varnish. The idea that Mardi Gras has, in a way, achieved its aims is one that is hard to swallow, even for somebody relatively young like me who wasn’t around in 1978, but was still old enough to experience socially and politically sanctioned prejudice, hatred and oppression in this country. At some point we reached a fork in the road for Mardi Gras – is it a party? Is it a protest? Is it both? This has become a splinter in the discourse between the original group of people who started it all, and its current organisers. The main concern expressed by the 78ers is that the current generation doesn’t have a real grasp on the struggles experienced by their elders; doesn’t understand the simple pain of living in a world that either completely rejects you, or completely erases you, with nothing in between. No leniency, no social or governmental protections, nothing. I understand this sentiment and have often expressed it myself.

We wouldn’t have it this good had it not been for the 78ers, who were beaten and broken and arrested and humiliated, publicly, privately, ostracised and demonised – all so you’d have the privilege of walking down the street with pride, rather than shame. There is a fear here that is valid. Those who came before us are afraid we will forget the cost. Our freedoms today had a price of admission; they’re the ones who paid it. We must always respect that. We must always respect our history, lest it make vacuous, superficial idiots of us all. 26 :: BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18

“AT SOME POINT WE REACHED A FORK IN THE ROAD FOR MARDI GRAS – IS IT A PARTY? IS IT A PROTEST? IS IT BOTH?”

Sydney Mardi Gras 2016 photos by Katrina Clarke

We can’t forget the origins of Mardi Gras. Just because ANZ has sparkly ATMs now doesn’t mean that we can smear everything with glitter and expect that it’s all good. Yeah, it’s much better now, but there is something to be said about remembering how it got this way. We wouldn’t have had it this good had it not been for the violence that came before.

thebrag.com

@ Kelman Vineyards

Bed & Breakfast

C O O P E R A G E

H U N T E R VA L L E Y

Hunter Valley Cooperage Bed & Breakfast 41 Kelman Vineyards Oakey Creek Rd, Pokolbin NSW Tel: 61 2 4990 1232 www.huntervalleycooperage.com

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BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 27

FEATURE

Could Food Unfuck The World?:

Climate Change And The By Joseph Earp “Gaia likes it cold” – TA N YA TA G A Q, ‘ C O L D ’

The Bad News: Things Are About To Get Much, Much Worse “Humans on Earth behave in some ways like a pathogenic organism … The human species is now so numerous as to constitute a serious planetary malady. Gaia is suffering from Disseminated Pramtemaia, a plague of people.” – J A M E S L O V E L O C K

e are living in a new age now. Some have called it the Anthropocene: an epoch in which temporary human gains result in ecological disasters; a period defined by extinctions and tragedies as definitively placed as boundary markers on a football field. Occasional environmental horrors are the new norm, and once “safe” animals like the giraffe are hurtling towards

an inglorious end. “We are currently witnessing the start of a mass extinction event the likes of which have not been seen on Earth for at least 65 million years,” writes James Dyke. Yet the Anthropocene could also be feasibly labelled the era of the “I Told You So”. After all, decades of climate-related scientific studies – many of which were categorically ignored, tackled only by the intellectually masochistic – have finally become reality, as the restrained, concerned tone of academics has been swapped for near-hysteria. Indeed, it should be surprising to no one that climate scientists are suffering from nothing less than clinical pre-traumatic stress. “Nearly all climate scientists harbour serious doubts about the industrialised (and industrialising) world’s willingness to meet the challenges we face, which of course compounds their trauma,” writes Jack Holmes. Those fears are grounded, it seems. 2016 was the hottest year on record; 2017 was even hotter than that. According to NASA, levels of arctic ice were at the lowest

ever recorded last March, while the amount of carbon in the atmosphere is at its very highest. And just two years ago, scientists working away at the suitably named Cape Grim in Tasmania measured 400 ppm of Co2 in the atmosphere, a symbolic marker that stands as testament to the seemingly unshakeable prevalence of fossil fuels. “It’s a bit sooner than we expected,” scientist Paul Krummel told Fairfax at the time. Those could well be the words chiselled into humanity’s gravestone. The horrors of climate change are accumulating faster than most projections, and even calm ecologists now believe the human race is locked in a cycle of knock-on effects, with the ongoing acidification of the ocean, the mass dying off of trees and vegetation and the widespread devastation of endemic species all ensuring further warming. That’s not even to mention the more abrupt shifts waiting ahead of us: as author Naomi Klein notes in her terrifying, anxiety-addled premonition This Changes Everything, “once we allow temperatures to climb past a certain point, where the mercury stops is not in our control.” Climate

“Occasional environmental horrors are the new norm, and once ‘safe’ 28 :: BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18

thebrag.com

FEATURE

“The horrors of climate change are accumulating faster than most projections, and even calm ecologists now believe the human race is locked in a cycle of knock-on effects.”

et sea level rise is only one of a near comical litany of horrors awaits us, with each atrocity proving more unexpected and unusual than the next. For example, there are concerns that the melting of sea ice will unleash centuriesold diseases; that ancient illnesses will wreak havoc on an unprepared global populace. After all, as John Gray points out in his prescient philosophical treatise Straw Dogs, “our bodies are bacterial communities, linked indissolubly with a largely bacterial biosphere”, meaning any widespread alteration to global temperature levels will have a direct, potentially terminal, biological impact. “We’re physiologically evolved to manage within a particular climatic zone,” epidemiologist Alistair Woodward told Mashable this year. “But if climate changes quickly, whether temperature goes up or down, we’re stressed. And one of the expressions of that stress is a greater vulnerability to disease, injury and ill-health.” Then there’s the vulnerability of our food sources. Boom and bust farming patterns are precarious enough as it is, and will be directly threatened by rising temperatures. “Even a modest shift in climate could have massive consequences on yields and revenues,” writes Paul Roberts in The End Of Food. “Higher temperatures boost pest populations and allow insects, fungi, weeds and other pests to migrate into farming regions that were previously uninfested … Higher temperatures also stimulate soil bacteria … which accelerates the decay of soil organic matter and thus reduces the soil’s capacity to store and transport nutrients and water.”

Global Diet

Australia is not safe from such threats either. “Australia’s food supply chain is highly exposed to disruption from

change is not some gentle bell curve: it is a self-fulfilling cycle, one that will quite soon speed up to a point of horrifying, frenetic destruction. “We are now closer to the risk of crossing thresholds or tipping points, which are large features of [a] climate system prone to abrupt, irreversible change when a critical threshold level of temperature rise is reached,” Dr Martin Rice, the head of research for the Climate Council, says to the BRAG. “Examples include loss of the Greenland ice sheet, the partial conversion of the Amazon rainforest to a savanna or grassland, and the large scale emission of carbon dioxide and methane from thawing permafrost. Each of these examples would cause very significant disruptions to the climate system, with knock-on effects for human societies. “For example, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet would eventually raise sea level by approximately seven metres,” he continues. “[That would] commit humanity to continuously rising sea levels for centuries or millennia, devastating major coastal cities worldwide.”

animals like the giraffe are hurtling towards an inglorious end.” thebrag.com

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FEATURE

“Climate change is not some gentle bell curve: it is a self-fulfilling cycle, one that will quite soon speed up to a point of horrifying, frenetic destruction.” increasing extreme weather events driven by climate change, with farmers already struggling to cope with more frequent and intense droughts and changing weather patterns,” says Dr Rice. “Water scarcity, heat stress and increased climatic variability in our most productive agricultural regions, such as the Murray Darling Basin, are key risks for our food security, economy, and dependent industries and communities.” Of course, such issues will be further compounded if warming renders large sections of the planet inhospitable – and there is evidence enough to suggest that the Middle East and North Africa will become uninhabitable over the course of the next 50 years, meaning “more than 500 million people” will be displaced. The world’s contemporary refugee crisis will be but a taste of what is to come. Amplify the current situation tenfold and add both a strained food production system and the possibility of widespread plagues and it is not hard to see why many predict that the endpoint of these numerous stresses is war. “Climate change will exacerbate regional and local tensions in ‘hot zones’ around the world,” reads an article on the American Security Project website. “In these regions, the impacts of a changing climate will act as an accelerant of instability.” Ultimately, it is not hard to see why the likes of John Gray believe full-scale global civilisational collapse is imminent. “Humans are like any other plague animal,” he writes with his trademark detached cynicism. “They cannot destroy the Earth, but they can easily wreck the environment that sustains them … [It is] likely … that disseminated primatemaia [a plague of people] will be cured by a large-scale decline in human numbers.” This is not all paranoid speculation, though it might sound it. Even the most extreme of effects listed above is supported by a plethora of evidence. After

all, about a hundred years ago scientists were asking questions about the existence of climate change. About 50 years ago they were arguing if it could be avoided. Today the argument is not whether it exists, or if we can bypass it, but if the human race can survive it. That is the bottom line.

Is It Food’s Fault?: The Impact Of A Meat-Heavy Diet “Meat’s increasing cheapness has not only allowed more people to eat it more often but has also effectively embedded meat deeply in the food economy.” – PA U L R O B E R T S , T H E E N D O F F O O D

Yet even as humans lay waste to a staggering 75 per cent of the endemic species on earth, there are other creatures that we enact crueller, more unusual punishments upon. In contrast to the range of dwindling, under-pressure animal populations around the world, the global number of meat and dairy animals is rising, as the creatures we breed for consumption are forced into increasingly cramped, increasingly inhumane conditions. The human race is outnumbered. There are three livestock animals to every human on the planet, meaning that “at any one moment, the number of meat and milk animals is roughly 25 billion”. Accordingly then, a near ruling share of the planet’s surface is farmland, with the journalist Bryan Walsh noting that “some 40 per cent of the world’s land surface is used for the purposes of keeping all … of us fed,” with about 30 per cent of that used for livestock rearing. Though anecdotally one might believe that vegetarian and vegan diets are rapidly taking hold, the facts simply do not support such a worldview. Meat is becoming an ever more important foundation of the global diet, with beef consumption in particular set to climb “by 25 per cent over the next 15 years.”

We cannot shake our carnivorous habits it seems, even as meat increases our cancer risk, contributes to global obesity rates – and, crucially, leads to the widespread destruction of the environment. Our meat-heavy diet isn’t only affecting our health. It’s affecting the health of the planet. According to a controversial study published in 2006 by the Food And Agriculture Organisation, meat production accounts for about 18 per cent of humancaused greenhouse gases – a figure that has even been criticised by some for being too low. Indeed, a report published in 2009 went so far as to argue that food production is responsible for a startling 51 per cent of carbon emissions, with beef production in particular posing a significant strain on an already at-risk global resource pool.

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Whatever the exact figure, the takeaway is largely the same: our reliance on cattle is killing us. For instance, cows not only produce more carbon than cars, they also contribute directly to deforestation. “Deforestation has huge implications for climate change,” Dr Rice says. “Forests store large amounts of carbon … When forests are cleared or burnt, stored carbon is released into the atmosphere, mainly as carbon dioxide. Deforestation accounts for roughly 15 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.” thebrag.com

Cows photo by Flickr/RockinRita

“There are concerns that the melting of sea ice will unleash centuries-old diseases; that ancient illnesses will wreak havoc on an unprepared global populace.”

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Deforestation In Madagascar photo by Flickr/JTalbot

That’s not even to mention the incredible pressure cattle put on humanity’s water supplies. A single pound of beef reared in the US requires 1,800 gallons of water, with food production in general taking up a staggering two thirds of our total global water footprint. Then there’s cow burps. Cattle don’t just drain resources, they actively pump methane into the environment, their unnaturally corn-rich diets helping disrupt their regular digestive processes and leading to an excess of gas. “According to a Danish study, the average cow produces enough methane per year to do the same greenhouse damage as four tonnes of carbon dioxide,” writes Matt Blitz. Scarier still is the surprisingly minimal energy conversion involved in beef production. As Roberts notes, 60 per cent of a cow is considered waste, disposed of before it even reaches your plate. “The modern cow needs at least seven pounds of feed to put on a pound of live weight – nearly twice that of pigs and more than triple that of chickens,” Roberts writes in The End Of Food. “Worse, because so much more of a cow’s weight is inedible – 60 per cent is bone, organ, and hide – … beef’s true conversion rate is actually far lower.” To that end, beef isn’t just a means of damaging the environment; it’s a strikingly inefficient way to thebrag.com

harvest and redistribute food energy. And what with the effects of climate change beginning to accumulate and multiply, efficiency is soon going to become more important than ever. As our water supplies become strained, as land must be abandoned, and as droughts and storms ravage the corn we grow to feed our livestock, our already unsustainable cattle production industry is set to fall into tatters.

nsurprisingly, the beef industry is working hard to wash its hands of all this. Anti-cattle studies play hard and loose with the facts, lobbyists say. The carbon imprint of cattle production has been exaggerated, they say. Beef is no worse for the environment than any other meat, they say. We don’t deserve to lose our jobs, they say.

Ultimately, we are relying on a system that cannot be sustained. And consider that ‘we’ very localised – Australia is the “meat eating capital of the world”, and beef production accounts for exactly half of all agricultural farmland in this country. Although it might be true that we use less water than Americans in our means of production – beef lobbies are very keen to distance themselves from a range of Stateside methods, for obvious reasons – all other issues remain the same.

And, for what it’s worth, beef lobbyists in Australia are certainly making a lot of noise about their attempts to offset the industry’s impact. Target 100, a local initiative, is attempting to educate both farmers and the population at large about the ability to grow and distribute ethical meat. Their website, one long, extended pat on the back, stresses that emissions associated with cattle production have been in decline since the ’90s, thanks to insidious developments such as “increased survival rates” and “heavier finishing weights”.

We are setting ourselves up to fail; leaning in to a coming catastrophe our politicians won’t even acknowledge. And every day that we do, we dwindle down our alternatives, leaving us relying on a system as outdated and destructive as fossil fuel production. Roberts says it best: “The meat-rich diets of the West simply don’t work on a global level.”

There are other widely circulated beef “breakthroughs” being bandied around the place too, as the industry promises change rather than face total obsolescence. One of the more interesting developments, for instance, involves substituting cattle’s usual corn-dominated diet for seaweed. Seaweed is more prevalent than one might think – 25 BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 31

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“Humans are like any other plague animal. They cannot destroy the Earth, but they can easily wreck the environment that sustains them.” million tonnes of the stuff is farmed each year – and results in significantly less methane produced by cattle. As a food source, seaweed is also considerably more environmentally friendly than corn: it’s easier to grow, easier to distribute, and richer in nutrients. There are numerous other solutions making the rounds too, some of them government directed. Emission Reduction Funds are available, designed to support farmers in “increasing the fat content of a milking cows’ diet” by introducing additives such as canola meal. Such a move, the fund’s proponents say, will see methane emissions reduced by the introduction of fat, meaning carbon production will be dramatically offset. Yet such attempts are ultimately about as useful as rewording a problem without answering it. Climate change is no longer avoidable, its early symptoms are inescapable, and direct action is needed to halt the very worst of what is coming. Remaining reliant on the beef industry – a $17 billion behemoth – is a threat no amount of surface level change is going to fix. And anything less than a total reimagining should be considered a surface level change: the above listed alterations, for example, are largely cosmetic, and deliberately underplay a range of other issues associated with cattle production. Even if the industry curbs its still sizeable carbon problem – which seems unlikely, given its habit of drowning out cattle critics rather than effectively communicating with them – that won’t alter the issues of pollution or deforestation, twin threats embedded deep in beef production. “Demand management has to be part of the solution as well,” says CSIRO scientist Mario Herrero, simply.

The Future Of Food: What Can Be Done To Help? “Nothing is inevitable. Nothing except that climate change changes everything. And for a very brief time, the nature of that change is up to us.” – Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything Humans are not good at change: particularly not when it has to be speedy. Alterations to global attitudes happen slowly, over decades, as ideas once considered fringe are gradually adopted into the mainstream. So although a majority of global citizens now agree that climate change is real, they are yet to accept that it is an “immediate threat”. As a result, “getting people to ‘go green’ requires policymakers, scientists and marketers to look at psychological barriers to change and what leads people to action” according to a report produced by the American Psychological Association.

“Pushing global temperatures past certain thresholds could trigger … potentially irreversible changes,”

“Even as humans lay waste to a staggering 75 per cent of the endemic species on earth, there are other creatures that we enact crueller, more unusual punishments upon.” 32 :: BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18

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A starving polar bear photo by Flickr/Christopher Michel

Of course, analysing such psychological barriers takes time – and time, again, is something we are significantly lacking in. In order to stop the knockon cycle of climate change’s worst effects, we must curtail our emissions almost immediately. Otherwise, it will not matter if the beginnings of a warmed world’s catastrophes scare us into cleaning up our act: when we get past a certain point, there is no turning back.

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“We are relying on a system that cannot be sustained.”

The effects of climate change in Kot-Mithan photo by Matloob Ali/Flickr

reads a report by the American Association For The Advancement Of Science, cited in This Changes Everything. “At that point, even if we do not add any additional CO2 to the atmosphere, potentially unstoppable processes are set in motion. We can think of this as sudden climate brake and steering failure where the problem and its consequences are no longer something we can control.” What, then, can we do to avoid such a fate? Should we uniformly reject a meat diet, turning our collective backs on the entire international livestock industry? The answer is, of course, no. Even if this was possible – which is hard to imagine – it could not be achieved nearly fast enough. And even if meat were to be rejected tomorrow, perhaps thanks to some international ban, we are yet to prepare an alternative. That, after all, is part of the problem. Capitalism is a self-perpetuating system. Growth is everything, regression is death. Suddenly altering an organic cycle of supply and demand would be akin to thrusting a stick into the spokes of the bicycle you’re riding: global systems, particularly ones as widespread and ingrained as the meat industry, cannot simply disappear. Clearly, they must be slowly phased out to avoid mass unemployment and catastrophic food wastage. The hope then is not mass veganism – though certainly going two days out of the week without meat, an option pushed by Arnold Schwarzenegger of all people, would be the most sensible course of action for those seeking to offset their carbon footprint in the short term. But in the long term, what the human race needs now more than ever is not for its meat heavy diet to be totally abandoned, but for the source of meat itself to be altered. And in that way, two clear options have arisen. thebrag.com

he first is the widespread consumption of insects. No doubt to many, few concepts could claim to be as repulsive. After all, though a range of Eastern diets feature crickets and grubs, for Westerners, eating insects is an idea so outlandish as to fall well outside the window of what the public is willing to consider culturally acceptable. Yet the benefits of such a move are almost innumerable. Unlike the ineffective energy redistribution proffered via a side of beef, insects are exceedingly nutritious. For example, 44 per cent of the matter ingested from a cockroach will be absorbed into the body, and the energy required to rear it stands as significantly less than that required to rear a cow. For very little cost and very little resource consumption, insects can become a truly sustainable source of food. Of course, convincing the public at large to chow down on grubs, crickets and roaches is a problem in and of itself. But as the already precarious livestock industry begins to break down, and as huge sections of our already crowded earth begin to refuse us, there remains the chance that a foodstuff as easy to grow and distribute as insects could suddenly seem appetising indeed. Then there is option two: artificial meat production. It sounds like fiction, and for good reason. Not long before it was seriously touted as a scientific possibility, genetically modified foodstuffs featured heavily in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx And Crake trilogy, a grim glimpse into humanity’s future that painted lab-grown meat as a kind of abomination. In that way, what Atwood failed to consider was the huge ecological benefits of entirely artificial meat. Growing a leg of beef in a factory would neatly sidestep the barbarity of the slaughterhouse, but it would also phase out the more destructive impact of livestock rearing. No

animal to cull would mean no water or grain needed to raise it, after all. Again, though such a future might feel distant and alien, revolution is closer than one might think. Even two years ago, while admitting more research was needed, American food academics were projecting that “3D printed meat production will become technically feasible”, while breakthroughs in production mean some already foresee the development of “meat ink”, a kind of edible animal glue that will allow food scientists to create “high protein and nutritious meals”. There are of course, ethical issues involved with the synthesising of flesh – not to mention a widespread academic disdain towards further human intervention fixing a problem caused by human intervention. John Gray for one argues that any belief in scientific progress is misguided. “Humans cannot save the world,” he writes. “But this is no reason for despair. It does not need saving. Happily, humans will never live in a world of their own making.” Yet such cynicism underwrites the potential for human growth and change – or, more accurately, it dismisses such a force entirely. Climate change is a burden of mankind’s own making, and though it is folly to assume we can divert it, we are not yet decisively doomed. The pressures of a warming world will alter our lives in every conceivable manner. Maybe right now, that alteration seems inconceivable – like death; like the very end of the species at large. But, as Klein notes in This Changes Everything, if we can alter step by step with our planet, changing as it changes, maybe we can weather this thing. We just have to be ready to give up every element of the world as we once knew it: our food included. That is not the “right” or “green” thing to do. It is the only option we have left. ■ BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 33

JOY,

vance Honestly By Joseph Earp

n first impression, it seems like James Gabriel Wanderson Keogh likes to keep his cards pretty close to his chest. It’s album release day when the 30-year-old behind the Vance Joy moniker talks to the BRAG, and he seems resolutely unflustered, even under the glare of two huge lights, two cameras, and the watchful eyes of a roomful of journalists. He doesn’t break a sweat. His brow is smooth, unbroken by frown lines – while we’re getting set up, he takes the time to show off his socks, a colourful, custom-made pair given to him by a friend, as the chaos swirls around him. Basically, spend enough time in Keogh’s presence and you’ll find yourself wracked by the overwhelming desire to say something completely off the wall and nuts, just to see if you can throw him; just to test what it takes to pierce the veil of calm he projects. Even his answers seem a little guarded, initially. His new record, Nation Of Two, has only been out for a few hours – is he worried about how it will be received? “Not really,” he says, his eyes flashing politely. He’s spent the morning on Sunrise, the morning television program, so he hasn’t had much time to really think about the record, he says. Surely he must some doubts and worries though, particularly given the pressure on him to follow-up the success of ‘Riptide’, the song that made him an international star? But no, he doesn’t think so. He’s just happy to make music; happy to be heard. And so, after maybe 20 minutes in his company, you finally realise the truth. Keogh isn’t trying to hide anything from you. He’s not playing anything down, or trying to beat you at a poker game you don’t even initially realise that you’re playing. He is just firmly and distinctly committed, and it’s his self-confidence, paradoxically, that makes him appear so cautious and reserved. He picked out a career as a musician for himself years ago, back when he was a young law student and athlete, and now he’s following that dream. Nothing’s going to slow him down, or put a dampener on his spirits – not the eye of the camera, or the warmth of the lights, or the questions of a journalist who’s only just realising that Keogh is the real, authentic deal.

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FEATURE

“THE SONGS ARE JUST HAPPENING, AND YOU’RE JUST

FEELING YOUR INSTINCT AROUND THEM.”

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“YOU JUST HAVE TO This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

TRUST YOURSELF.”

The BRAG: Does the album still feel like yours when you release it out into the world? Or does it belong to everyone now?

So when you first started out and you didn’t have managers to show it to, did you know when a song was finished? Were you like, ‘Yep, this is it’?

Vance Joy: I think it belongs to everyone. People will gravitate towards the songs they gravitate towards, which is cool. And if I look on my hashtag, then I can see which songs people have listened to and posted about. Especially right at the start, I like doing that. You can go, ‘Oh, people have listened to that particular song.’ It’s nice. It’s nice feedback.

Luckily, I’ve always gotten a pretty good sense of when a song’s finished. Although sometimes you write a song, and you do get the sense of like, ‘This isn’t finished quite yet.’ I had that with ‘Mess Is Mine’ [from 2014’s Dream Your Life Away.] I had an idea for a chorus, and there were parts spread around. So in the recording process we put all the parts together and made a song that made sense.

Do you get a sense when you’re writing the album of like, ‘Oh, this is the big song – this is gonna be the single.’ Not really. I let it happen. The songs are just happening, and you’re just feeling your instinct around them. If the song is good, and if it feels like it has enough ingredients to make it a worthy tune, you go along with the feeling of it. It calls out for the style that is required, even when you’re doing the production.

“LUCKILY, I’VE ALWAYS

OF WHEN A SONG’S FINISHED.”

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Have you ever had a time when you’re writing a song, and you’ve just gone, ‘This is awful; I have to abandon this’?

And you do, you get that feeling of like, ‘This is fun, this feels great to sing.’ And you get the sense of whether it’s upbeat or not too, because usually the criteria for a single is that they have an upbeat vibe. But there’s songs that you write that are ballads, and don’t really have much production – they’re just your voice and a guitar – and you go, ‘This is cool.’ And people sometimes go, ‘Wow, that’s the song that I like most out of all of them.’

It’s almost like it doesn’t even get to that point. That’s something that maybe happens in a songwriting session, because you’re going, ‘Okay, let’s push through this, let’s write this song today, the chords are going to be A minor, B and G.’ You’re forcing it out to some degree. And in those cases, instead of abandoning something before it comes out, you give birth to some weird song. And you go, ‘Okay, I don’t need to hear that again.’

And that’s surprising. You go, ‘I never envisaged that song would have that life, or be special.’

But when I’m writing by myself, the stem of an idea gets collected on my phone, but I never feel like I’m spending four hours trying to get something out, or sit there going ‘I’m going to rhyme ‘grass’ with ‘glass’.’

Who are the first people you show songs to? I show it to my mum and my dad, my sister… They’re the first wave of people. And then after I show it to them, I usually show it to my managers – I’ll usually just send them a little voice memo. And that’s usually when I’ve realised, ‘This is a song that makes sense; I’ve had some positive feedback from this one.’ And it’s nice, [my managers] will never be like, ‘Oh, that song sucks, write more songs.’ They’re either gonna be like, ‘Thanks, I love it’, or they’re gonna go, ‘Thanks, I really love it.’ It’s up to you to decide which one is more genuine. Not that they’re ever not genuine – but sometimes you do get a really strong initial response, and you realise, ‘Oh, they do really like this one.’

I never feel like it’s work. I wouldn’t commit the time to a bad song. The writing process only happens you think something is worth pursuing, so you pursue it. And then maybe only later you go, ‘That sucks, or that’s cool.’ But when you’re in the moment – you’re there with the song – you always get this sense of like, ‘Oh, wow, this actually feels really cool.’

Where: Hordern Pavilion When: Friday September 14 And: Nation Of Two is out now through Mushroom / Liberation

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Vance Joy photos by Justin Bettman

GOTTEN A PRETTY GOOD SENSE

But usually I feel like when I’m recording that first voice memo and sending it off, then it’s done. You just have to trust yourself. And you kinda know, because you go, ‘This is the verse, this is the chorus, this is the little instrumental bit, and then it goes back to the chorus.’ And that’s it.

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“I A FEELING THAT I’VE FELT

“I WANT A STEADY BAND,

FOR SURE, AND I’D BE HAPPY TO HAVE THEM ON THE RECORD, BUT THE SONGS WILL

ALWAYS BE MINE.”

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FEATURE

TRY TO PAINT PICTURES THAT CAPTURE A MOMENT; A BILLION TIMES THAT HAS

CRUSHED ME.”

Soccer Mommy:

Coming Clean Sophie Allison, the 20-year-old behind the Soccer Mommy moniker, is an unstoppable force, learns Augustus Welby

ophie Allison began releasing music as Soccer Mommy at the tail end of 2015. Without any label backing or promo campaign, Soccer Mommy’s Bandcamp page soon became a source of great intrigue, culminating in the official release and distribution of the mini-LP, Collection, in August 2017.

Issued via indie rock stable Fat Possum, Collection found admirers at such high-profile publications as Pitchfork, Stereogum, NPR and the New York Times, and nabbed Allison support slots with Mitski, Jay Som and The Drums. It’s been a rapid rise, especially considering Allison is still just 20 years old, but she’s not inclined to slink back and lap up the adulation. Rather, she’s been busy working on Soccer Mommy’s debut full length record, Clean. Preceded by the instantly memorable indie rock gems ‘Your Dog’ and ‘Cool’, the album’s characterised by Allison’s emotive lyrics and thoughtful full band arrangements. It’s also awash with catchy melodies, the inclusion of which is no mere accident. “I think that’s the first part [of a song] that grabs you,” says Allison. “Lyrics obviously grab you; if you have a great lyric, that can just be like, ‘Woah’. But I think definitely when people listen to your album, the first thing they hear is the melodies. That’s the first thing that gets you, and then you can come to enjoy the intricacies that are below all that. “I can have a great lyric and then be like, ‘I’m going to put it in a different song because I don’t like this melody. It isn’t catchy enough.’” Allison’s lyrics command attention throughout Clean. Typically personal in nature, they often focus on romantic relationships and associated mistreatment, as well the narrator’s aspirations to become someone more desirable and cooler. And despite the inclusion of several detailed, fact-heavy narratives, listeners will surely see echoes of their own life experience. This aspect of the lyrics’ appeal, however, wasn’t especially premeditated. “I just kind of write it for me,” says Allison. “I try to paint pictures that capture a moment; a feeling that I’ve felt a billion times that has crushed me. I take little pieces of my life or little moments that I remember that just perfectly capture that feeling for me – that perfectly capture a time in my life or a feeling – and I try to piece those together to try to make the song feel like what all of that felt like. “That way it just ends up getting people because of the feeling. Even if the words are personal and the lyrics are specific, the feeling is still there and it’s something a lot of people have experienced, usually.”

“I look up to Joni Mitchell a lot, definitely. Her songwriting is so insanely beautiful and crushing and captures every feeling I could

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Produced by Gabe Wax, the album is a much more hi-fi production than Soccer Mommy’s earlier bedroom recordings. Along with enhanced studio production, a bigger sound is enabled by the presence of a full band. That said, Allison has yet to solidify the Soccer Mommy live lineup, which meant most of the arrangements took shape as the album was recorded. “Some of them I was like, ‘I know what we want here, I know what we need to go about doing.’ And then some of them just totally changed once I got in the studio; it was totally different to what I thought it was going to be.” Wax has previously engineered records by Cass McCombs and Speedy Ortiz, as well as co-producing Beirut’s latest, No, No, No. The strength of Clean, in terms of songwriting, performance and production, speaks volumes to the close partnership formed by Allison and Wax.

“I LOOK UP TO

JONI MITCHELL A LOT, DEFINITELY.”

“He was super invested. He did more work than me,” Allison laughs. “We had to do [the recording] with months in between. We did a week in September and then we did a week in November. So a couple of the songs we recorded the basic tracking and then he sent me the finished song with full production on it. “There was two on there that he did pretty much everything besides the basic guitar, drums, vocals and bass. But other ones it was a total group effort. He did an amazing job, but it was great to work as a team on it and make this thing that was kind of both of our creations.” Guitarist Julian Powell is the only other musician on the album who’s also part of the Soccer Mommy live set-up. “He was very involved with the whole process as well. But the drummer [Nick Brown] and the piano player were just hired people.” The move from intimate solo recordings to dynamic band arrangements coincides with a sharpening of Allison’s songwriting skills. But make no mistake, fleshing out the arrangements doesn’t mean Soccer Mommy’s likely to become a group-oriented project. “I want a steady band, for sure, and I’d be happy to have them on the record, but the songs will always be mine. The ideas, the vision of it will always be mine.” What: Clean is out now through Inertia / Fat Possum

Soccer Mommy photo by Shervin Lainez

This kind of empathetic transfer is something Allison has cherished in the artists she admires. “When a lyric is so insanely specific and fits the exact thing I’m feeling, it can be very cathartic listening to it,” she says. “I just apply it to moments of my life and feel like it’s something I’ve written.

ever want to capture. And Mitski is an amazing songwriter too. I think she’s one of the best around right now. Those are definitely two big ones for me.”

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“FRIENDS OF OURS WHO HAVE BEEN SEEING US PLAY SINCE THE HOW MUCH THE BAND’S GROWN.”

s the album model has shifted over the years, so too have the implications of a debut LP. What was once perceived as a definitive opening statement and the first chapter of an artist’s career now may arrive a little later in the piece. An act can be around for years without an album out – and by the time they get there, it may even be considered a departure of sorts from their already-burgeoning body of work.

This is something that is not lost on Melbourne quintet Cousin Tony’s Brand New Firebird – or Cousin Tony for short. Speaking to the BRAG a matter of weeks away from the release of their own debut, entitled Electric Brown, the band seem excited to get their debut out into the world. It’s far from their first rodeo, though – originally forming in 2013, the four-piece have worked for several years across a string of minor releases to further develop their take on pensive, lushly-arranged music of the indie rock persuasion.

“IT’S A BEAUTIFUL THING WHERE A BAND CAN DO ALL THIS WORK BEHIND THE SCENES AND THEN EMERGE WITH THIS

FULLY-REALISED SOUND.”

“It’s a beautiful thing where a band can do all this work behind the scenes and then emerge with this fullyrealised sound,” says Lachlan Rose, who fronts the band and serves as its chief songwriter. “That’s not really our scenario, though. We’ve been doing this for a long time, and over time we’ve found our sound to be quite eclectic in nature. That exploration is always going to continue – it’s never going to be a cemented sound as far as this band is concerned. After I finished uni, I think that realisation hit me. When I was studying, I found myself becoming more and more interested in all different kinds of music. I think that’s definitely something that’s going to continue.” Electric Brown – perhaps titled as a satirical nod to Icehouse’s ’80s classic ‘Electric Blue’ – was recorded in Melbourne in the first half of 2017 by producer/engineer Matthew Neighbour. Arriving some 18 months removed from their previous effort, the Melbourne Bitter EP, Electric Brown sees the band present a fleshed-out hybrid of tropical pop, post-punk and glamourous indie rock and roll. “Friends of ours who have been seeing us play since the first EP came out have said to me how amazed they are by how much the band’s grown,” says Rose, who’s clearly very proud of what he and the rest of Cousin Tony have achieved on the new record. “The first song I ever wrote for this project was just me, by myself, with an acoustic guitar. It was a song called ‘Head Home.’ I’m sitting here now, in a studio, surrounded by about 12 guitars and about eight synthesizers. I’ve recorded a small choir in here for a song. Y’know what I mean? I’d like to think that in the years I’ve been doing this band, I’ve grown – and the music has grown with me.”

“IT’S NOT ALWAYS SAD,

WHAT WE’RE SINGING ABOUT – BUT IT DOES COME FROM A SINCERE PLACE.”

While touring in support of the aforementioned Melbourne Bitter, Rose and co. would occasionally include new songs intended for recording for Electric Brown in the setlist. “Sometimes we wouldn’t even announce it,” says Rose. “We’d just go straight into it and get an unfiltered reaction.” He claims that he was inspired to not withhold some of the songs when he learned about how Gilbert & Sullivan would have their musicals performed in front of a test audience. “They’d hand out sheets, and people would be able to tick and cross off each scene and each song and each performance,” he says. “You’d write comments and leave them anonymously. It would give them a lot of perspective on what they’d written – there were songs they thought were terrible that have gone on to become some of the best-known numbers in the world of theatre. I had that in my head when I decided to start playing new songs live. There’s really no better sounding board for it – nothing’s more honest.” Fans have had some time to soak up ‘Morning Person’, the lead single lifted from Electric Brown. The brisk, sunny track is highlighted by Rose when discussing the stage in the writing and recording process in which he and his bandmates had a clearer idea of Electric Brown as an entity. “That was one of the most fun songs to record for the album,” he says. “There was something about it that just really gelled.” For Rose, it’s the fact that the song implements a blend of light and darkness that results in something quintessentially theirs.

“I’D LIKE TO THINK THAT IN THE YEARS I’VE BEEN DOING THIS BAND, I’VE GROWN

– AND THE MUSIC HAS GROWN WITH ME.”

“It’s quite a sombre, sad song in terms of its meaning and its lyricism,” he explains. “That said, it’s executed in this colourful, upbeat way. Once we nailed that juxtaposition, that’s when we started to realise what the central crux of this record was going to be. It’s not always sad, what we’re singing about – but it does come from a sincere place. For lack of a better term, I’d say it comes from a deep place. I want my music to celebrate those emotions; to uplift them.” For the band at this point in time, Electric Brown remains in purgatory – it’s long since been recorded, but its release date still looms. That’s on Rose’s mind as he discusses the record: “You go through something, you write about it, you record it... by the time it’s out, you’re completely beyond this thing you went through,” he says. How to break that cycle? Rose concludes: “You have to have faith that what you’ve done has value.” What: Electric Brown is out now 40 :: BRAG :: 734 :: 21:02:18

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FEATURE

FIRST EP CAME OUT HAVE SAID TO ME HOW AMAZED THEY ARE BY

Cousin Tony’s Brand New Firebird:

Sound And Colour Melbourne indie hopefuls Cousin Tony’s Brand New Firebird discuss the mechanics of their longawaited debut, Electric Brown, with David James Young thebrag.com

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FEATURE

Who Made The Biggest Impact –

Rage Against The Machine Or Public Enemy? Ahead of the debut Australian tour by supergroup Prophets Of Rage, Sally Plath pits RATM and PE in a head to head deathmatch from which only one act can emerge

ith members of two incredibly influential acts, Public Enemy and Rage Against The Machine, joining forces to form Prophets Of Rage, we’ve been given one of the most powerful supergroups of the decade.

Even more excitingly, the band are set to make their first ever appearance in Australia for the inaugural Download Festival and a run of sideshows this month. As a result, we’re looking back at the monumental careers of each and trying to see which eradefining act has ultimately had the most influence on music – and culture. But first, a disclaimer: Cypress Hill, we love you, but your music is only influential insofar as making us really want cheese and bacon balls, Jolt Cola, and Futurama with the sound down. Maybe if ‘Legalise It’ from Black Sunday is cited as the direct reason that many U.S. states are relaxing their legislation around marijuana, Cypress Hill may have a case, but until then… Now, on to the other groups.

“PUBLIC ENEMY BROUGHT THE

VISCERAL ANGER OF AN OPPRESSED MINORITY

TO THE MAINSTREAM WITHOUT SOFTENING ANYTHING.” Public Enemy Along with NWA, Public Enemy brought the visceral anger of an oppressed minority to the mainstream without softening anything. Fuelled by Chuck D’s political poetry, and driven by a production style that sounds more like the apocalypse than the cruising music or party jams of their contemporaries, PE hit hard in 1987 with their first album Yo! Bum Rush The Show and everything changed. This is because Public Enemy meant war. More than this, they were living in a warzone, and were reporting from the front lines. While the monstrous success of Michael Jackson’s Thriller in 1982 and his subsequent crossover to MTV (who refused to playlist black artists, before Jackson’s ubiquity and the quality of his videos made him impossible to ignore) is often cited as the moment black music crossed over in the mainstream, in truth it took Public Enemy’s peerless run of four albums from 1987-1991 to really change the landscape. Where: Hordern Pavilion When: Thursday March 26

Those four albums planted hip hop culture inside suburban homes, addressing hard hitting topics such as power structures, police violence, institutional racism, and even the failures of the 911 system in servicing disadvantaged (read: black) communities. That they did so without compromising their poetry or the politics, without shielding the message or shying away from controversy is a testimony to their singular power. Public Enemy’s fingerprints can be found in every strain of conscious hip hop popular now, from the politicallydriven rhymes of Kendrick Lamar, to the righteous anger of Run The Jewels, and the sonic chaos and doom of Yeezus. Historically, Public Enemy are roundly considered one of the most important American art collectives of the 20th century. In 2005, the Library of Congress added their 1990 album Fear Of A Black Planet to the National Recording Registry, which preserves recordings that “are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States.”

“I CHALLENGE YOU

TO FIND A SINGLE COVERS BAND IN AUSTRALIA THAT DOESN’T PLAY

‘KILLING IN THE NAME’.” Rage Against The Machine It’s hard to rage against the machine when you are employees of a multinational corporation, as the members of RATM were in 1992 when they released their blistering debut album through Epic Records, a subset of the Sony Corporation. “We never saw a conflict as long as we maintained creative control,” Tom Morello said at the time, although they must have been ready for cries of hypocrisy. Luckily, the album was just too damn important for it to matter who was footing the bill. RATM’s anger extended well past the corporate structure of entertainment conglomerates, too, with lyrics targeting the Klu Klux Klan, police brutality, the oil industry, media coverage of the Persian Gulf War, and numerous other hot button topics. They protested on live TV, they stormed the streets, and they walked the wall. They were uncompromising in their politics, which is a stance that has

influenced many young angry idealistic bands, but stylistically they unwittingly spawned the nu-metal genre, who took RATM’s blend of high-register rapping, impassioned screaming, and barrages of guitar riffage, and left behind the politics. The result was the watered-down studied-anger of nu-metal bands who were hugely popular around the turn of the century, but ultimately proved a fad: shallow, and misogynistic. More pleasingly, Rage Against The Machine also influenced a generation of guitarists; ‘Killing In The Name Of’, ‘Guerilla Radio’ and ‘Bulls On Parade’ are among the earliest songs most fledgling guitarists/garage bands learn how to play, and Morello’s pedal-warped solos opened up many young ears to the endless possibilities of a whammy bar, a few shitty pedals and the joy of feedback. Plus, I challenge you to find a single covers band in Australia that doesn’t play ‘Killing In The Name’.

“PUBLIC ENEMY

MEANT WAR.” So, who wins? While Rage Against The Machine were more stylistically influential — arguably spawning an entire genre that collectively sold hundreds of millions of records within a handful of years — Public Enemy’s uncompromising lyrical skill, their focus on the politic issues impacting their downtrodden community, and the fact that today’s biggest rap artists seem to take lyrical cues from Chuck D even now, 31 years later, makes their impact a more lasting one. However, there’s no loser in this contest, and they definitely ain’t done yet, as Prophets Of Rage sees them team up to continue their mission, as vital a voice as ever. Catch them when they head to Australia for the first time this month to play the inaugural Download Festival Australia and a run of sideshows.

Enough said.

“PUBLIC ENEMY’S FINGERPRINTS

CAN BE FOUND IN EVERY STRAIN OF CONSCIOUS HIP HOP POPULAR NOW, FROM THE POLITICALLY-DRIVEN RHYMES OF KENDRICK LAMAR, TO THE RIGHTEOUS ANGER OF RUN THE JEWELS.” 42 :: BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18

thebrag.com

FEATURE

thebrag.com

BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 43

FEATURE

Tom Morello:

Machine Translations David James Young chews the fat with one of the most extraordinary guitarists of all time, the legendary Tom Morello himself

long with being one of the most influential and defiant bands of the ’90s, Rage Against the Machine were also one of the most volatile. Their creative and personal differences ultimately lead to their 2000 implosion, with several members noting that there wasn’t a whole lot of common ground between them across their timeline. In fact, a lot of said ground was covered by two of the most revered hip-hop acts in history – and two acts that, so it happened, the members of Rage would go on to have a lifelong friendship with. “Public Enemy and Cypress Hill were our two biggest hip hop influences when Rage was starting out,” says Tom Morello, a guitarist who, certainly at this juncture, needs no introduction. “They were our cornerstones, man. We listened to the first Cypress Hill record all while we were making our first record – in fact, B Real is in the video for ‘Killing In The Name’. Public Enemy were the first band to ever take us out on tour. We have a long history with both B and Chuck, so we’re honoured that we now get to share the stage with them.” The stage Morello is referring to in this instance is the one soon to be trod by the Prophets of Rage, the

supergroup that reunites Morello with his Rage and Audioslave bandmates Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk. Up the front of the proceedings is the aforementioned B Real, one third of Cypress Hill, as well as Chuck D of Public Enemy. After Prophets came off the road – their maiden voyage was tellingly titled the “Make America Rage Again” tour – the band decided to see if their on-stage chemistry would reflect in writing original material together. An entire album was written within two weeks, and their self-titled debut was recorded within a month by veteran producer Brendan O’Brien – himself no stranger to Morello and co. “We did it the oldfashioned way – musicians, in a room, together, looking at each other,” says Morello proudly. “A lot of records made today, I call ‘em ‘laptop records.’ It’s just bands recording separately, not even recording in the same studio, just dropping off files to one another. This was about having the entire band in the room and capturing performance. I think that’s one of the things that makes this record as strong as it is. It was a real pleasure having Brendan work with us. He’s worked on some of my favourite records that I’ve ever

made – across Rage, Audioslave and as The Nightwatchman – so it was a no-brainer to have him involved.” Morello is world-renowned as one of the electric guitar’s most innovative players. His pursuit of distorting and manipulating the sound of his six-string has led to some of the most famous solos of all time (see his piercing wail of ‘Killing In The Name’); as well as some of the most infamous, like the ‘laughing monkey’ sound of Audioslave’s ‘Original Fire’. Wherever the inspiration takes him, Morello is inimitable in his style – and with the making of Prophets Of Rage, he looked to expand his palette even further than usual. “Laying down the solos is still probably my favourite part of making a record,” he says. “I always save it until last. It’s a purely creative, inspirational mood that I get in. There’s no craftsmanship – I go in the booth, I lift up the antennae and I see what comes beaming in. On this record, I really tried to challenge myself and go outside of my comfort zone. I was using guitars I’d never played before, pedals and amps I’d never used. I tried out a Jimmy Page violin bow … Hell, I even managed to record a track with the first guitar that I ever owned. It was a Kay guitar that I got for 50 bucks, and it was found in the closet

“NORMALLY I’M A VERY TRADITIONAL GUY – I’VE HAD THE SAME SET-UP MORE OR LESS FOR

THE LAST QUARTER-CENTURY.”

“PUBLIC ENEMY

WERE THE FIRST BAND TO EVER TAKE US OUT ON TOUR.”

after collecting dust for about 30 years. Normally I’m a very traditional guy – I’ve had the same set-up more or less for the last quarter-century. I was really inspired to branch out on this record.” While Prophets of Rage have been touring, Morello has been working on a new solo record with his project The Nightwatchman. He mentions an incredible diverse array of artists will be involved as guests, from Marcus Mumford to Pussy Riot. It’s reflective of the fact that Morello has always been very open about performing and collaborating with as many people as he can. According to him, it’s more or less his human nature. “When I was starting out playing music, I always kind of envisioned myself as the kind of guy that only ever played in one band and never did anything else,” he explains. “Rage, as you know, were not exactly a prolific band – there’d be years between records where there’d just be nothing new. I am a prolific writer, and I just wanted to play all the time. If there was a studio door open or an amp to plug into on stage, then I was in. I took every opportunity that came my way, and that lead to some of the greatest experiences of my entire life. I’ve gotten to play with everyone from Pete Seeger to the Wu-Tang Clan; from Springsteen to Slipknot. You learn something in every instance. I channel it all into my own music.” Where: Hordern Pavilion When: Thursday March 22

“LAYING DOWN THE SOLOS

IS STILL PROBABLY MY FAVOURITE PART OF MAKING A RECORD.” 44 :: BRAG :: 733 :: 07:02:18

thebrag.com

FEATURE

“THERE ARE SONGS ON THE ALBUM THAT ARE

ABOUT PEOPLE

Lucy Dacus:

WHO KNOW THAT THE SONGS ARE ABOUT THEM, FOR BETTER OR WORSE.”

Survival Allison Gallagher chats to Lucy Dacus, a singersongwriter with few equals

few years ago, Richmond, Virginia based musician Lucy Dacus recorded her debut record No Burden over a one-day session in Nashville, initially as a favour to guitarist Jacob Blizard after he invited her to make a record for his college project. From these relatively humble beginnings, Dacus abruptly found herself a breakthrough artist. She released the album in early 2016, and a few months later she was signed to the fabled Matador Records. Her sophomore album Historian, out now, started coming together as Dacus, a compulsive journaller, began noticing the threads of her songs intertwine with one another. “The first song on it I started writing in 2011 so it’s been a long time coming. I made a list of songs I’d written and realised these ten songs all shared a similar theme and direction.” The album’s prevailing theme is, at its core, one of endurance and strength through times of uncertainty and darkness. On opener ‘Night Shift’, Dacus navigates heartbreak by addressing a former lover directly – “Don’t hold your breath / forget you ever saw me at my best”, she fires. Throughout the album, Dacus has an ability to make intimate, unique narratives feel almost universally applicable. To that end, Historian feels in equal measure personal and political, a frank reflection on surviving loss and catastrophe amidst what was – for many – an almost unbelievably bad 2017. When I ask if it was comforting to have something to devote creative energy to during that time, Dacus replies yes – in the same way breathing is comforting. “I have to do it – I don’t know what I would fill my time with otherwise. Especially at a time when I feel quite helpless and powerless, it was good to take control of something constructive and productive – something that means something at least to me and hopefully other people as well. There’s no getting around how awful and occasionally horrific life has been in the US in the past year.” Dacus and band returned to Nashville to record Historian, this time having a full week rather than a single day. It shows – the record is far more texturally rich than the relatively barebones one before it. Flourishes of horns and strings complement fuzzed-out guitar chords and Dacus’ voice, which sounds confident and self-assured even on the

“THERE’S NO GETTING AROUND

HOW AWFUL AND OCCASIONALLY HORRIFIC

LIFE HAS BEEN IN THE US IN THE PAST YEAR.” record’s most personal moments. “This one I got to write the songs with the band in mind. All the songs on No Burden were written solo and so my big concern was how to make it interesting. Really, every consideration beyond that is new to me – I had never recorded before when we recorded No Burden so I didn’t really know what I was dealing with there.” While No Burden was something of a happy accident, Dacus describes Historian instead as a happy victory – each choice a purposeful and considered one. “Every decision was intentional and I can stand behind every sound you hear and every word I say.

“EVERY DECISION WAS INTENTIONAL

AND I CAN STAND BEHIND EVERY SOUND YOU HEAR AND EVERY WORD I SAY. THAT FEELS REALLY GOOD.” thebrag.com

That feels really good. I’m even more invested in it than I was with No Burden for that reason and that does make the stakes higher on a personal level – I want the record to mean more to people than No Burden did.” With those stakes heightened, Dacus says she took several risks with the album. “Recording felt more risky or more innovative, using sounds we hadn’t before and asking – is this going to work? We’ve never done this before.” Ultimately, those risks paid off – Historian stands as a compelling statement to Dacus as a songwriter. Writing the album’s lyrics was a similarly vulnerable process for Dacus. “A lot of the content is a lot more sensitive, it’s much closer to home for me. There are songs on the album that are about people who know that the songs are about them, for better or worse.” It’s not hard to see the album’s title as somewhat eponymous – Dacus the historian, holding onto personal histories and translating them into a kind of living document. “I’m a historian in more ways than one –

as a musician but also as a photographer and writer, and just as a person who interacts with my friends and family. We all contain a personal history of ourselves and the people around us. I contain a lot of my family, and the stories I remember of my friends – I’ve always had that impulse to contain and capture into paper and music and art. I’m a historian more than a musician by my own metric.” On the album’s slow-burning final track ‘Historians’, Dacus speaks to the power of those personal histories as a survival method, a way of coping through the darkness. “I’ll be your historian and you’ll be mine / and I’ll fi ll pages up scribbled in, hoping the words give you meaning” she sings, offering a cautious optimism in the capacity of our words to provide a way of navigating inevitable pain. It’s a fitting close to an album that dives headfirst into the depths of human despair, to come back up to the surface with resilience and a resolute conviction to making it through. What: Historian is out now through Remote Control / Matador BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 45

FEATURE

“PEOPLE IN AUSTRALIA STILL LOVE ROCK MUSIC, AND IT WAS JUST COOL TO SEE PEOPLE RESPONDING TO IT LIKE THAT.”

Benjamin Booker:

Retro Futurism Natalie Rogers bears witness to the conversational prowess of Benjamin Booker, an old soul with one hell of a voice

-year-old, Virginian-born musician Benjamin Booker is in good spirits. He’s got a healthy mind and body, and he’s keen to chat about his upcoming trip to Australia for Bluesfest. But, at the same time, he’s more than willing to admit that such a pleasant state of affairs hasn’t always been his norm. As a young teen he spent most of his time away from his trailer park home and his parent’s strict Christian beliefs, finding solace at his local skate park after the family relocated to Tampa, Florida. “I was at the skate park every weekend and we’d listen to a few local bands,” he says. “My dad would pick me up and drop me off, so

“WHEN I FIRST STARTED TOURING IT WAS JUST ME AND MY DRUMMER IN A LITTLE SUV,

JUST THE TWO OF US.”

can I give a shout out to my dad for taking me all those times?” Booker grew up surrounded by gospel music with barely any other musical influences – in fact he says he hadn’t even heard of the Beatles until he was 16 – so it was at the skate park and small DIY punk shows around the area that Booker first fell in love with music. “Back then nobody, no bands, toured my home town,” he laughs. “It’s like the last place people wanna go. Most of the music I grew up listening to live were local bands. Which, looking back on things now, was kind of awesome, because I just grew up listening to my friends and people who were my age in other cities making music. I really didn’t listen to ‘outside’ music until I was older. I didn’t know any big names back then.” After graduating high school, Booker became miserable and spent much of his late teens and early twenties faking a smile and using substances behind the scenes to get by. “I went to school for journalism for a while. I wanted to be a music journalist but I gave it up to start working for a notfor-profit.” Eventually, Booker went to work for HandOns New Orleans and remembers the time as an eyeopening experience. “To do anything

well in life you have to be passionate about it. I’ve worked at a place where I made sandwiches all day. My parents would always say, ‘You’re making sandwiches, so make the best sandwiches,’ so I did.” However, disillusioned by the hypocrisy he encountered in the city, Booker continued to indulge his self-destructive habits, and threw himself into songwriting, releasing his self-titled debut album, a raw, gutsy, bluesy punk rock offering, and then hitting the road. “When I first started touring it was just me and my drummer in a little SUV, just the two of us. I didn’t have a tour manager or a sound person and I did that for as long as I possibly could.” By the following year Booker found himself on tour supporting Jack White and Courtney Barnett. And not much longer after that, the former skate punk found himself in Australia as one of the much anticipated acts at St Jerome’s Laneway Festival in 2015. “I definitely have some fond memories of being in Australia. It was my favourite time of that album tour,” he says. “It was just nice to travel around with all the bands. I’d never played anything like that, where all the bands play together and you can pop around to see them – it was like a summer camp. Some of the people I became friends with I caught up with very recently, and I will always keep in touch with. People in Australia still love rock music, and it was just cool to see people responding to it like that.” Soon Booker found himself back in New Orleans. Faced with the neardeath experience of being randomly shot at in the street, coupled with the daunting prospect of writing a worthy

follow up LP, he decided a change of scenery was the only way forward. Booker headed south to Mexico. Witness, released in June 2017, is a collection of 10 powerful songs that are crafted more like essays, as Booker voices his struggle and concerns over issues such as police brutality, racism, inequality and poverty in the USA. The title track is a direct reaction to the slaying of African Americans by the police, featuring the singer, actress and activist Mavis Staples. “That song has really jumped out at people, but initially I wasn’t going to use it. “I’ve never been able to pick what people will connect to because every song I write is incredibly personal to me. I have my producer, Sam Cohen to thank for that because everybody is drawn to that song.” The album as a whole feels like it could be the soundtrack to Booker’s young life. It combines the heavenly gospel tones of his childhood with the punk rock angst of his youth, not to mention soulful lamentations made by a man who sees the injustice in society, and stands by the strength of his convictions to no longer idle. But today, as Booker approaches his 29th birthday, he is filled with gratitude. “The people I should thank are the people I work with. The label and the management do whatever it takes to allow me to be able to write the songs. I honestly don’t know what my last two records would have been like if it wasn’t for the support of those important people.” Where: Factory Theatre When: Thursday March 29

“TO DO ANYTHING WELL IN LIFE

YOU HAVE TO BE PASSIONATE ABOUT IT.” 46 :: BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18

thebrag.com

Q&A

“THE FIRST TIME WE MADE MUSIC TOGETHER THERE WAS DEFINITELY

A SPARK OF SOMETHING SPECIAL.”

Sshh:

The Sound Of The Future Joseph Earp learns the secret of creative catharsis from Sshh Liguz and Zak Starkey of Sshh

shh matter. That’s not death via oversimplifi cation – that’s just the best way to describe the effect of their wide-ranging, infectious sound, one that takes in elements of blues, garage rock, electro and so much more. In an era in which the empire of rock seems to be fading, its heroes receding into distant memory, Sshh are a kind of last guard, producing danceable tunes that bang harder than a screen door in a storm. We spoke to the duo, Zak Starkey and Sshh Liguz, about music-making, good (and bad) gigs, and their future.

The BRAG: When you fi rst started working together as Sshh, did you immediately know it was going to work out, or did you initially have some creative trepidation? Sshh: The first time we made music together there was defi nitely a spark of something special. It was raw and raucous and raunchy and real. We knew we were onto a good thing. It took a few leaps of faith but we got there. There’s always going to be creative differences – we’ve both got strong opinions and sometimes they clash. But that’s the electric beauty of it all. What is the best song you’ve ever written together? thebrag.com

All of them! [Laughs.] Different songs are special for different reasons so it’s impossible to say what the ‘best’ one is. ‘Rising Tide’ is great because it’s kind of an oxymoron. It’s a love song that was born from an argument. It’s got passion from both ends of the spectrum. How do you tend to write music? Do you do it together, or do you each work on separate parts? Each song is different. We don’t have a rigid way which we work. We just let it happen. Sometimes it works when there’s a certain theme or idea we want to explore. Other times it’s just an organic flow that happens in the blink of an eye. When you’re making music, do you think a lot about your influences, or do you try to go in fresh? Both! There’s always going to be an element of your influences in everything you do. That’s just a given. But we try to approach each new creation from a new perspective. We try to move forward. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But that’s a risk we’re willing to take. You like to collaborate with special guests – how do you go about choosing who you are going to work with?

We’ve been lucky enough to work with some pretty heavy hitters. But the thing is, they have to be right for the project we’re working on at the time. We need to all vibe off each other and the music we’re making. You can’t force chemistry. What’s the best gig you’ve ever played? What’s the worst? The best gigs are when you connect with the audience. When we supported Primal Scream in Perth recently was really great. The energy of the audience was awesome. People were losing their shit and so were we! It was a great laugh. The worst gigs are when it’s stiff and uncomfortable and the audience doesn’t manage to transcend that initial awkwardness. Although luckily, those don’t happen too often.

“THERE CAN BE A CERTAIN LEVEL

OF TENSION BETWEEN US LEADING UP TO A SHOW THAT SOMETIMES CARRIES ON TO THE STAGE.”

How do you warm up before a show? Do you have to fight off stage fright? We have to fight each other! There can be a certain level of tension between us leading up to a show that sometimes carries on to the stage. But it’s cathartic for us to get the frustrations of every day life musically beaten out of each other. What: ‘Rising Tide’ is out now independently

“YOU CAN’T FORCE

CHEMISTRY.” BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 47

FEATURE

Grizzly Bear:

Speaking In Tongues

“WE START A LITTLE LANGUAGE

WITH INSTRUMENTS AND SOUNDS THAT BECOME REOCCURRING CHARACTERS IN A RECORD.”

AND THEN

Augustus Welby shoots the breeze with Christopher Bear, the drummer for indie rock stalwarts Grizzly Bear

the world. It can be such a long process and it’s just really nice to put it out there.

“In the moment sometimes you think, ‘Wow this sounds really different or this is a different palette for us or different type of tune.’ Then, weirdly, after time it starts feeling like, ‘Well it’s different but it still has some of these elements in there that make it feel like what we do.’”

here was good reason to question whether Grizzly Bear would ever release another album. In the five years that followed the New York outfit’s 2012 release, Shields, its four members separately pursued a variety of interests, including political campaigning, working in Michelin star restaurants and performing with other musicians. But the arrival of Grizzly Bear’s fifth LP, Painted Ruins, in August 2017 decisively relieved any such concerns. The prolonged absence didn’t undo the band’s vanguard status, either – a fact affirmed by the quartet’s imminent return to the Sydney Opera House as well as a trip to the Golden Plains music festival. Grizzly Bear emerged in the mid-’00s Brooklyn indie scene, standing out from their peers thanks to their sophisticated, ornate style of indie rock. After

48 :: BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18

garnering indie acclaim for 2004’s Horn Of Plenty and 2006’s Yellow House, the major breakthrough came with album number three, Veckatimest, in 2009. Critical commendation was matched by a swelling fanbase, and there’ve been reduced circumstantial pressures on the group ever since that stunning record was released into the world. However, that doesn’t mean they became any less invested in the work itself. “It would be impossible to not have some thought of, ‘What are people going to think of this [new album]?’” says drummer Christopher Bear. “But by the time you’ve gotten as far as writing it and recording it and mixing and finishing it and putting all the final touches on it – artwork and all that stuff – at that point you’re thinking about that, but you’re also just elated to finally be putting it out there in

Grizzly Bear have carved out a distinct sound over the last 16 years. Within 30 seconds of Painted Ruins opener ‘Wasted Acres’, the orchestral synth arrangement and Daniel Rossen’s earnest vocals unmistakably mark it as a Grizzly Bear record. But when comparing the new album to its closest companions, Shields and Veckatimest, the differences become quite pronounced – in terms of songwriting, production and overall tone. Actuating these stylistic modulations isn’t an overly deliberate process, mind you. “There’s never

thebrag.com

FEATURE

“WHEN WE’RE STARTING TO PASS AROUND DEMOS,

A LITTLE BIT OF A PALETTE STARTS TO EMERGE.

IT NATURALLY STARTS HAPPENING.”

“SOMETIMES MAKING THESE SONGS, IT’S A PROCESS OF

THROWING THE KITCHEN SINK AT THE THING

STEPPING BACK AND TAKING OUT ALL THE ITEMS THAT FEEL LIKE TOO MUCH.”

necessarily a plan from the outset saying, ‘Okay this one we’re definitely going to try to use more guitars or have more minimal instrumentation’,” says Bear. “When we’re starting to pass around demos, a little bit of a palette starts to emerge. It naturally starts happening and based on what the demos are as we’re individually working on ideas and passing them around. You start to identify where each other’s at.

Grizzly Bear records are painstaking productions that typically feature dense layers of instrumentation and harmonised vocals. The band’s also known for their supremely dazzling live shows, as anyone who caught their 2010, 2012 or 2015 Australian tours can

thebrag.com

“Especially when we’re getting down to the mixing process, I’m always thinking ‘How the fuck are we going to play this live,’” says Bear. “We’ve piled so many instruments on top of each other and in the end it’s just five of us onstage. Even bringing [touring keyboardist Aaron Arntz] into the mix, for some songs there’s still just so much going on to try and figure out how to flesh it out.” Concerns about what can be feasibly be performed live will occasionally bring about fortuitous studio revisions, however. “Sometimes making these songs, it’s a process of throwing the kitchen sink at the thing and then stepping back and taking out all the items that feel like too much,” Bear says. “Every now and then the process of taking stuff away ends up breathing so much more new life into something and giving it room to be something different.”

Grizzly Bear has two alternating lead vocalists, guitarist Rossen and band founder Ed Droste, while bassist Chris Taylor has produced each of the last four LPs. Painted Ruins saw Bear become more creatively involved than he had been previously, which resulted in a rhythmically-insistent live sound coming through on a range of tracks (notably the singles ‘Mourning Sound’ and ‘Losing All Sense’). “A lot of the stuff on the new record that we’re playing live ended up feeling pretty like the record. There’s a lot of elements of the record that we intended as having more of a live feel, more of the experience of the band as we sound live – just having a little bit more of the drums and rhythm section a little more forward. That’s not the case of every tune, but some definitely stemmed as ideas from something that was more of a live jam and less [a case of] constructing it instrument by instrument.” Where: Sydney Opera House When: Monday March 12

Grizzly Bear photo by Tom Hines

“We start feeling out the ideas we’re going to be working on musically. And from there, in the studio, it’s about recording the stuff, and we’re all very [influenced] by what we have around us and what we have access to instrument-wise. We start a little language with instruments and sounds that become reoccurring characters in a record.”

surely attest. But despite such advanced technical accomplishments, the band members aren’t immune to self-doubt and insecurities.

BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 49

FEATURE

Gomez:

On the Twentieth Anniversary of Bring It On Allison Gallagher and Gomez’s Paul Blackburn talk the strange and confusing nature of legacies

“WHEN YOU’VE PLAYED THEM SO MANY TIMES YOU FIND NEW WAYS OF PLAYING THEM, OR YOU’LL HEAR NEW THINGS YOU’VE NOT HEARD AT THE TIME,

LIKE THESE WEIRD DYNAMIC SHIFTS.”

n 1998, the UK was entering a post-Britpop malaise. Be Here Now had failed to live up to the colossal expectations that followed (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? And bastions of the genre Blur had, with their eponymous 1997 album, moved in a radically different musical direction – distancing themselves from the movement and choosing to instead take influence from American indie rock acts. Considering this climate of listlessness, Merseyside band Gomez, with their debut album Bring It On, were a welcome breath of fresh air. With its swampy overtones, sprawling guitar experimentation and Ben Ottewell’s distinctive, smoky howl, the record drew heavily from blues rock and neo-psychedelia, eschewing the brightness and sunny optimism of Britpop. At the end of the day, it had more in common with Mellow Gold than Parklife. “The headspace was quite mangled, and fueled by… things that impacted the creative aspect – which probably accounts for some of the more bizarre psychedelic parts,” laughs the band’s bassist Paul Blackburn. “At the time, we were feeling there was kind of a gap in the market. We were into certain types of music that didn’t seem to be being made at the minute, so we mostly decided to make it for ourselves.” Forming in late 1996, Gomez had barely played a show by the time labels began descending on the group. With their earnest beginnings as a gaggle of school friends, fresh out of university and taping jam sessions in the garage of the house they shared together, the band could barely have expected the bidding war that would result from their home-recorded offerings. “We had these demos and then it turned into a bit of a record company circus, which was overwhelming. One minute we were talking to a small label in Sheffield through our manager at the time, Stephen Fellows, and then someone he knew that he’d worked with had more contacts in the industry and they’d passed it across to other people. The next minute we were playing showcases to big companies like Island, Virgin and EMI. It started to become quite surreal.” The band eventually signed with Hut Records, a subsidiary of Virgin, and began recording what would become Bring It On. Going against the grain with its hybrid of styles and esoteric sonic textures, the band’s idiosyncratic approach would pay off – the album would go on to win the Mercury Music Prize that year, beating out the likes of Pulp’s This Is Hardcore and The Verve’s

‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ – boasting Urban Hymns. “I think that’s basically what a lot of people appreciated about it,” says Blackburn. “It was coming from a different angle, which is why we started doing our own music in the first place. We had something we wanted to say and to a certain extent, it wasn’t with the idea that people were necessarily going to listen to it.” Following the album’s success, Gomez would go on to release six more albums and tour across the globe. While Bring It On laid the groundwork for the rest of their career, further albums explored varying sonic territory. “I don’t think we’ve got the patience or concentration span to stick with one thing for very long,” comments Blackburn. “You’ll have bands that are more known for sticking to

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“WE HAD SOMETHING WE WANTED TO SAY AND TO A CERTAIN EXTENT, IT WASN’T WITH THE IDEA THAT PEOPLE WERE NECESSARILY GOING TO LISTEN TO IT.” a particular genre and keeping the style of their music within closer boundaries, but we’ve always been quite experimental.”

responsibilities (he starts the interview pre-emptively apologising for the occasional noise of a one-year-old in the background.)

Two decades after the album’s release, Gomez are returning to Australian shores to commemorate the anniversary of Bring It On – what Blackburn jokingly refers to as the “look at us, we’re old” tour – including an appearance at this year’s Bluesfest and a handful of headline shows. For Blackburn, part of the excitement is simply touring again – the band have not done so for around six years.

“Some of them it’s like getting back on a bike because we’ve played them so many times in the past,” Blackburn says of the band’s obscurer catalogue. “The ones we haven’t played so much there’s a bit of figuring out and trying to remember what was played at the time.”

And while the band has its first rehearsal together within a couple of weeks, Blackburn says he’s been having a quick look at the songs when he’s been able to find a spare minute in between his newfound parental

Given the album’s hazy, layered sound, it’s understandable that there’d be songs on Bring It On that are practically impossible to perfectly recreate. “There’s always been a bit of live interpretation,” explains Blackburn. “When you’ve played them so many times you find new ways of playing them, or you’ll hear new things you’ve not heard at the time, like these weird

dynamic shifts. The re-interpretations keep it exciting for everyone.” Over 20 years since their initial formation, Gomez are one of the few bands of the era to have continued with their original line up, with all five founding members still part of the band. “We were friends before the band started, and it feels more like family than a work thing. You take the rough with the smooth,” says Blackburn. What: Bluesfest When: Thursday March 29 – Monday April 2 Where: Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, Bryon Bay With: Leon Bridges, Lionel Richie, Robert Plant, Ms. Lauryn Hill and many more And: Enmore Theatre, Saturday March 31

AND IT FEELS MORE LIKE FAMILY THAN A WORK THING.” thebrag.com

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“What a powerful thing to know: that one’s own desires are mappable onto strangers; that what one finds in oneself will most certainly be found in The Other.” – GEORGE SAUNDERS.

It goes like this: you wake up, and the first thing you read is a news article about the kind of world that we will live in when climate change irreversibly alters the make-up of the ocean. Maybe you’re not even out of bed yet – maybe you’re lying in the sheets, flicking through your phone – and then all of a sudden you’re reading about the end of the world. Because according to this article, which has been written in the detached, eerily academic tones of a terminal cancer diagnosis, within 20 years ocean acidification caused by our highly polluted atmosphere will begin to poison the air. Within two decades, this report says, you won’t be able to walk outside your front door without the help of a gas mask. Untold millions of animals will die. The food chain will break down. Supply lines will be severed. The risk of global war will increase. And, same as it ever was, the first to suffer will be the poor and the needy. So what the fuck are you meant to do? What are you actually meant to do? I mean, you’re lying there in your bed, or maybe sitting at your desk, and this news article is open in front of you, and you’re assessing your choices. You can, what, try and ignore it? Think about something – anything – else? Maybe share the article on Facebook, adding some pithy comment to make yourself seem less scared than you actually are, something like: “Well, I guess now is finally the time for me to take up smoking”, or, “Guess I won’t bother going on that new diet anymore”?

“IT’S REALLY EASY TO BECOME

LESS HUMAN.”

But that, when it comes down to it, is about all you can do. Because there is a limit to how much you can take. No matter how conscious and aware you might want to be, you can’t keep your heart open to the world all of the time. No-one can. You start your day out by reading that yes, the rapture is real, and more than that, it’s heading our way; that we have 20 or so years, tops, before our way of life is changed forever. And then you have to live, somehow; you have to go on despite this great, horrible atrocity we are glumly trudging towards, and you have to work a job to save up to a future that might not even have a place for you. “People call it compassion fatigue,” says Jen Cloher, simply. The Melbourne-based musician is sitting in her car, having just dropped off her partner Courtney Barnett at an appointment, and her voice sounds tremendously close. “That’s what they call it.” Cloher understands that particular kind of exhaustion all too well. Two years ago, after months of reading about environmental devastation and the lies pouring from the mouth of the man recently chosen to serve as the US Republican party’s nominee for President, the musician found she simply could not take it anymore. “Compassion fatigue,” she says again. “It’s a terrible couple of words to put together really, but you can see how it happens when everything comes at you from all these angles. It’s really easy to become less human. I mean, I think that we live in such a fast world – and the result of that fast living is that we disconnect. We disconnect from our bodies, and from our hearts. We don’t have time to take in the reality of what’s going on around us, and even when we do, sometimes it’s too painful; sometimes there’s just too much suffering that is so readily in your face.” For Cloher, that disconnect quite quickly came to feel paralysing. “I know that I went through a stage of actual despair, if I’m being honest with you,” she says. “I went into a place of despair about the future of this earth and what humanity is doing to it. And we are the earth, so we are by extension watching ourselves dying. We came up through the earth – we haven’t just been plopped onto the planet out of outer space. And I was really challenged by all that; by what was happening to us.” So Cloher turned to work, throwing herself into the day-to-day running of Milk Records, an independent music label founded by Barnett, as a way of coping. Thankfully, there was enough to do on that front to keep her active – she had posts to schedule on Instagram, and shows to organise, and press releases to send out – but still, as busy as she was, she couldn’t quite shake a deep, steadfast sense of guilt. “What could I do?” Cloher says. “I had to really think about it – about the difference that I could try and make.” Eventually, she hit upon a plan. “I made the decision to get involved with a local environmental community group,” she says, “and I brought my skill set when it comes to independent fundraising to a project that they were working on to save the blue-banded bee, which is an Australian native bee.” Along with Barnett and several other artists from the Milk Records roster, Cloher got to work organising a fundraising gig. She printed limited run t-shirts that she sold via a crowdfunding website that also offered a range of other purchasable perks, and she got down to the quiet, intensely admirable business of doing what she could. She wasn’t saving the world, of course, in the way that none of us can ever save the world; in the way that we can only ever make the smallest, most imperceptible of changes. But it wasn’t nothing. And in a world of gradually accumulating atrocities, sometimes not nothing is enough.

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Jen Cloher

IS TELLING THE TRUTH BY JOSEPH EARP “It was so rewarding,” Cloher says. “And it was so good for me. Because rather than living in despair I was actually going out and doing stuff. And sure, it may not have fixed everything, but at least I was putting some of my energy and my time into more than just me. And I think that, despite all the bad things that you read, a lot of people do that, all around us, all the time. I think it’s very important. I think it can keep you sane. “Because that’s the thing – if you want to keep your heart open, you’ve got to stay sane. And that can be a challenge.” She laughs again. “To say the least.”

ast year, Cloher released her latest record, a self-titled collection of 11 songs about relationships, art, grand plans, Australia, and yes, despair. There is a song on the record called ‘Analysis Paralysis’, which, as Cloher tells it, was born out of those strange feelings of worthlessness that she felt during 2016; feelings always tempered by the acute understanding that she was a lot better off than most. “So many of us experience those feelings,” she says. “But we are in this amazing country; we have enough land, we have enough clean air and water; we have food on our tables; most of us sleep with a roof over our heads. That’s what ‘Analysis Paralysis’ is all about. It’s a song about having so much.” Jen Cloher is far and away the musician’s best record; better, even, than In Blood Memory, her 2013 masterpiece. In fact, it proved to be the greatest record of 2017 – the most fully realised, the most immediate, the most heart wrenching. But more than that, it is also the work of a musician who has lost interest in hiding from her audience; a musician who has given up burying her feelings in simile, or using three lines where one will do. There are songs about her relationship with Barnett that do not pretend to be anything else but songs about her relationship with Barnett. There are songs about marriage equality. There are songs about Australia’s habit of dreaming small, and turning on any who experience overnight success – particularly those who do so while young. So by the time the 11 tracks are done, you don’t even really feel like you’ve listened to an album. You feel like you have been let into some great, beautiful secret; like a stranger has taken you by the hand, and quietly, undramatically let you into their life. And because we are used to artists lying to us – because sometimes we want and expect to be tricked when we relax before our record players with a glass of wine, or cling to the barrier at a show – there are times when Jen Cloher is difficult; times when it whips about the place like a Hills Hoist in a storm. After all, it is unusual even for the musicians we love – the musicians we think of as honest, and unfettered – to tell us the truth. They change names to protect the innocent, and they spin life into white lies to protect themselves. But Cloher doesn’t. And more than that, she makes not doing so seem like the easiest thing in the world. “There’s just no reason to hide,” she says. “That’s what I’ve discovered. There’s so much power in being open about your experience. Some people have said to me, ‘Wow, you’ve written some pretty intimate stuff about your relationship and your partner is quite visible.’ “But I’m kind of like, ‘Yeah, but who cares?’ It’s not really hurting anyone. It can’t hurt Courtney, it can’t hurt me. Why would that be something to hide? People need it. Cause there’s a lot of lies – there’s a lot of people out there telling lies.” Of course, as Cloher herself points out, it’s not particularly new for her to write about her life in such a way. Hidden Hands dealt unsentimentally and openly about the loss of a parent, while songs on her debut LP Dead Wood Falls are so simple and detail-obsessed as to resemble diary entries.

▲

Cloher has always been a confessional songwriter. She is the kind of artist who can scoop up the detritus that makes up what we tend to call “everyday life” and can turn it into

“I WENT INTO A PLACE OF DESPAIR ABOUT

THE FUTURE OF THIS EARTH AND WHAT HUMANITY IS DOING TO IT.”

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song; who writes lines that shrink the room a little, and prompt their listeners to draw little, sharp gasps of air. “I guess the difference this time around was this record was about my heart, and how it feels to be Jen Cloher in my heart,” she says. “I talk really honestly about being a child, and not really feeling like I was a boy or a girl, and living in a world that goes, ‘You are this, so conform.’ I talk openly about how I think aspects of the music industry are really detrimental and poisonous; I talk about how hard it can be being an artist in this massive country with a small population tucked down the end of the world.” She laughs. “I guess I kind of talk about a lot of stuff.” Of course, it wasn’t easy to start writing an album that was so unfurnished by disguise, but when Cloher got down to it, the process only ever got easier. And anyway, she never really doubted herself – not really. “It takes a lot of courage to be honest, because you’re kind of like, ‘Here I am, I am not hiding anything anymore.’ But it has been hugely rewarding for me. What I have actually discovered is that the more honest that I become the more connected I feel – the more connected I feel to everything.” Cass McCombs is to blame for all this – McCombs and Mark Kozelek and Laura Jean, the artists Cloher says have always impressed her with their honesty. They were the forces that guided her, and in their honesty and their truth, they showed her a way of making art that she had only ever guessed at before. “I read an interview with McCombs where he just said, ‘Write about what you care about. Write about what you love. That’s what the world needs right now.’ The words cut Cloher to the quick. “You know when something really penetrates your psyche; when it hits your heart? You go, ‘I really understand what this person is saying’. And I think that’s really the album that I have written – an album about what I love.”

o record the new album, Cloher had to escape. She took Barnett and her longtime collaborators Bones Sloane and Jen Sholakis with her, and the four of them fucked off to South Gippsland in Victoria. “It’s dry and tufty up there,” Cloher says of Gippsland. “A lot of cows. A lot of dairy farms.”

Cloher and Sholakis have been round the traps together for some time now – Sholakis played on Dead Wood Falls way back in 2006, and has been a permanent staple of Cloher’s artistic inner circle for the 11 years since. “Jen doesn’t really ‘approach me’ anymore,” Sholakis explains. “I’ve kind of become part of her – attached to her side like a boil. If she was going to approach me about working with her on a Jen Cloher project I’d assume she was approaching me to tell me she was gonna sack me.” Thanks to that connection, Cloher and Sholakis didn’t have to talk too much about the album in advance, or worry about making sure the other knew exactly what the thing was meant to sound like. And anyway, Cloher rarely works that way; rarely dives into the album-making process with something as nebulous as a genre or tone in mind. “I’ve never been like, ‘I am going to make an album in this style, or one that sounds just like this’,” Cloher says. “I just don’t think my musicianship extends to that kind of thinking ahead.” That’s not to say she’s completely unware of where she’s heading, mind you. She is not new to this particular game – she knows what she wants from a record and how, in the vaguest possible sense, she wants the thing to sound. She might not have a blueprint, but she has something else; maybe the kind of plan that can’t be readily translated into words; that we just know on the deepest level that we know things. So for Greg J Walker, the man responsible for the album’s recording, the key was about staying as uninvolved as possible. “Most of the songs didn’t change too much from their initial structures,” he explains. “Jen had already put a lot of thought into them and it was primarily a live, band-orientated album we were aiming for. We changed a few things along the way but nothing too major. “I got involved in a couple of the longer and more introverted tracks adding some different textures and counter-melodies to help shape them a little, but the songs had really good structures and arrangements from the get-go. A big part of my job was just to capture that without harm.” “Jen comes [to the studio] really well prepared with her songs,” agrees Sholakis. “We very rarely just get a sketch or an idea from her. She usually has a fully formed song and an arrangement in her head of how things will go. Obviously once we put our parts down, arrangements can change, new ideas can emerge and so on. But for the most part the songs are whole. Meaning, she could play them on an acoustic guitar to us and they’d sound complete.” Which Cloher did, strumming out the tunes to the band at the beginning of the recording day and working with them as they begin to nut out individual parts. Walker was impressed. “It’s always great to work with people who have a clear musical direction and vision,” he says now, “and Jen had all that – plus a killer band that played off each other beautifully. It was a real pleasure to record them.” The days were long – “eight to ten hours long,” Walker explains – but the recording sessions were no drag. There’s not much phone reception to speak of out in South Gippsland, so Cloher couldn’t have checked an email even if she wanted to. Instead, she and her band relaxed in the evenings with board games, and glasses of wine, and big, hearty, homemade meals. Everyone brought their partners along with them. Sholakis brought her dogs. “It was like a holiday,” Sholakis says, simply. Sometimes, at the end of a day, they went down to the beach, and sat there on the sand, just talking. To be honest, in real life, recording sessions tend to considerably less exciting than they appear in the movies. There are more drugs in films, not to mention significantly more moments when the recording artist, usually played by some old, colourful character actor you just about remember from that one movie, pulls their headphones off their ears, dumbfounded, and mutters, “We got it.”

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So Cloher had no massive, heart-stopping revelation that she was making the record of her career while laying the songs down to tape. There was no moment when the band locked eyes, and the cameras swooped in to collect close-ups off their faces, and a sense of mutual appreciation settled over the room like a light rain. There was, in other words, nothing more to the recording sessions than four friends standing in a room, playing beautiful, sturdy songs with ease, and for no other reason than they wanted to. But throughout, Cloher resisted all temptation to play the process down, or be cynical about the record she and her friends where assembling. She was done with that kind of selfdepreciation – exhausted by having to put up a front of false humility. “That was probably because I’ve watched someone go and have a big, successful experience outside of Australia,” Cloher says, the conversation drifting back to Barnett. “I loved [Barnett’s success], even though a lot of the album is about watching it from afar and at times feeling lonely – which I think is pretty normal when you don’t see your partner for about a year and a half. “But the other side of [what happened] with Courtney was just this immense joy I got from watching an Australian woman being celebrated around the world for her songwriting. I feel like it was maybe the first time I had ever seen that happen. That’s not to suggest that other women from Australia haven’t gone and had big success overseas … but it felt like it was just Courtney being herself. That was hugely affirming for me, and for heaps of women and men in this country.” Jen Cloher was mixed in Chicago, in a loft-cum-mini-Americana museum owned by Jeff Tweedy of the American band Wilco, by a man named Tom Shick. And it was in that mixing studio, its walls covered with old guitars and paintings, that the record finally, finally began to take shape. “I’m so glad we went to Chicago,” Cloher says. “It ended up being a really satisfying way of ending the project. It just meant we had such closure – closure that you don’t always get when you’re making a record. It was like, ‘Wow, it’s a complete thing now.’ You know: it’s an actual record.”

ilk Records takes up a lot of Cloher’s time these days. She spends much of her waking hours at the computer, answering emails and checking in with the small army of publicists, artists and pressing companies Milk has become involved with over the years. “It’s the worst when you’re lying in bed at night and you just remember all of these emails that you have forgotten about; these emails that you know that you need to get back to,” Cloher says. Now, at least, Cloher has plans to lay low for a little bit. She hasn’t been to the dentist in a while she says, and she knows she needs to, and she’s way overdue a trip to the shops. “You get lost in all of your exciting projects, and then you’re like, ‘When did I last buy a jumper?’” Of course, such respite is temporary – she has more touring to do, and has already hit America and Europe. Jen Cloher, she explains, proved to be her first ever “world-wide release” – kinda. “When I say world-wide, let me be real about that: I mean England, Europe to some extent and the US,” she explains. So far, that touring has been a dream. “It’s a big job, but it’s [been] really exciting. It’s been a dream of mine to get out and play to new audiences overseas. I’ve never even played to audiences outside of Australia before, so it’s exciting finally getting round to it now.”

e are living in the kind of era that wears away at a lot of things, but that wears away the sanctity of art first. It’s hard to think about Picasso when there’s war breaking out, or to put a record on when you’re worried about the breathability of the air, or whether it’s safe to bring children into a world that is beginning, finally, to buck itself free of the human race.

Cloher knows that, of course – Cloher has had those thoughts herself. “I think any artist who is awake and conscious has had that dilemma,” she says, simply. But whenever that fear starts to set in, she just calms herself by thinking about the Dirty Three. She saw the Melbournebased, Warren Ellis led instrumental trio early in 2016 year when they played the beloved Sugar Mountain festival, and the experience was a revelatory one. Or no, actually, that’s not entirely true. She didn’t see the band – she saw their audience. She was standing side of stage when the group played, gazing out at a sea of faces, all of them awash with something that looked a little like rapture. It was a startling moment. “People were bawling,” Cloher says. “There was tears and snot running down their faces. And it was such an intimate moment. It was so powerful to witness all these people having huge emotional and physical responses to the music that has obviously changed them, and helped them along their path. “And sort of around the same time I had been reading a lot of work by Mary Oliver, who is this incredible poet – she’d be probably in her late seventies now, and a lot of her childhood was spent in the wilderness. She writes beautiful poems – almost like haikus about nature and animals and the planet. And she has this great poem about how poetry is like bread in the pockets of the hungry.” Cloher says the words again. She’s still sitting in her car, somewhere in Melbourne, and it’s almost like the vehicle shrinks down; like it contracts to fit the exact dimension of her words. “Bread in the pockets of the hungry. Those words just reminded me that even that though we live in a world where people want to tell us that art is not a need, it is. It’s a deep need. It’s as necessary as the air we breathe; the food we eat. We have to have art in our life.” She takes a breath, laughs, and the world expands a little bit. “Realising that was cool. It was like, ‘Fuck yeah. Of course I’m going to keep making music.’” Where: Lansdowne When: Thursday March 29 And: Jen Cloher is out now through Remote Control / Milk

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“WE DISCONNECT FROM OUR BODIES, AND FROM OUR HEARTS. WE DON’T HAVE TIME TO TAKE IN THE REALITY OF WHAT’S GOING ON AROUND US, AND EVEN WHEN WE DO, SOMETIMES IT’S TOO PAINFUL.”

“IF YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR HEART OPEN, YOU’VE GOT TO STAY SANE.

AND THAT CAN BE A CHALLENGE.”

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“Currently, Beatdisc average a gig every two to three weeks, but they remain very particular in what they’re looking for.”

By Jade Smith

utdated, antique, old-fashioned, kitsch. In our highly digital world, the humble record store has seemingly slipped into anachronistic vernacular, with records and other old-timey relics being the primary sustenance for the mythological ‘hipster’. But down laneways and through arcades, record stores are quietly thriving. And what may set them apart from those that have since closed their doors is a willingness to embrace technology through social media and online retail, and by fostering a sense of community, thus welcoming in a whole new generation of music fans. Beatdisc Records is a prime example of the new guard of record stores. From instore gigs, to strong relationships with like-minded small businesses such as Black Wire and Poison City Records – and of course, selling records – Beatdisc have carved out a new and engaging platform for themselves and their customers.

Beatdisc Records:

“In the mid ’90s, he was a DJ – using CDs – and doing a booming business because all of this digital stuff wasn’t in yet. And he thought, ‘Oh, I might see if I can give a CD shop a go.’ So he opened it, quit his nursing job after 20 years, and it went really well. It was just purely second hand. And then I discovered the shop in ’98, as a young punk. I used to work just down there” – he gestures off down the centre of Parramatta – “and used to spend every lunch break [at Beatdisc].” Vic offered Curnovic a full-time job straight out of high school, which he describes as “every teenager’s dream.” He also worked a few shifts at Vic’s other store, alongside another familiar face in Greater Sydney’s music scene, Chris Sammut. “Vic had a second shop at the time in Penrith as well, and I worked there a couple of days a week and then here the rest of the time, and eventually he sold the Penrith shop to Chris who turned it into Repressed Records, and that’s a really good success story because Chris has gone on to do incredible things with Vivid and everything else.”

Curnovic is also quick to point out the importance of volunteers to Beatdisc’s instores. “That’s another important thing – I can’t do any of this stuff or any of the shows without volunteers. Because, as I say, we don’t make any money out of the shows, I can’t pay anyone to help, but everyone does. It’s a community effort. I basically provide the space, and everyone chips in, and it’s incredible.”

How To Thrive In A City With No Venues

Peter Curnovic, the owner of Beatdisc, his dog, Henry, and I are sitting in Parramatta’s Centenary Square, just a stroll away from the shop. The vibe is incredibly communal: through the sounds of the ever-expanding city, Parramatta is alive with construction, bustling farmer’s markets, children playing in the fountain, regulars spinning yarns, and people pausing every so often to smile at Henry.

Not long after, Curnovic began managing the Parramatta store and following complications with the health of Vic’s parents, bought the shop in 2008. “I turned it into more of a gig space, with more of a community vibe; a sort of a meeting place. Especially with the shows, it’s become a bit more of an institution. It always was, but I think even more so in the past decade.”

After all, as the shop’s 20 Years Of Beatdisc video states, “Western Sydney really isn’t the most obvious of places for a record store like Beatdisc to thrive in, but it did”. Indeed, it’s the shop’s unique geography that Curnovic attributes in part to Beatdisc’s ongoing success. “There are no other stores out here anymore. We’re the only place here, we care about people and our customers, we keep the prices as low as we can, and we have really friendly staff – I hope that comes across. And the shows defi nitely set us apart, especially because there’s no venues in Parramatta at all.”

urrently, Beatdisc average a gig every two to three weeks, but they remain very particular in what they’re looking for. “[Instores] only happen if it just works out. It’s not something I go and chase. It’s always gotta work for our community. Because it’s a lot of work to put them on, so it has to pay off – we’ve gotta make sure that people come.

For Beatdisc to be operating after 22 years in a city without specified music venues is no mean feat, as becomes increasingly clear while Curnovic talks through the store’s history and his involvement. It all began with a registered nurse working in a psychiatric hospital, hoping to build a career change. “A guy called Vic Aird opened the shop in ’95. At the time, he was a nurse and he just wanted to see if he could try something different.

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This community-mindedness is the crux of Beatdisc’s success, and a testament to their twodecade run. The shop operates within council noise limits, residents don’t complain, and other business owners within the building think it’s great that the gigs bring people into the area – “we all get along” – which makes it an interesting counterpoint to the state of nightlife in the Sydney CBD. It’s more than a single-minded us-versus-them scenario: it’s more like a sharing of exposure, and Beatdisc’s instores don’t just benefit Beatdisc, but their neighbours, and Parramatta as a whole.

“I’m happy to do them and I love doing them for everyone, but has to be the right lineup. Moneywise, [we make] next to nothing. We just do it for the community, which I think is very important.” While Curnovic concedes that instores may create exposure for the shop, their main purpose is putting love back into the community, and providing a live music experience in Parramatta when there is no-one else to do it.

Indeed, everyone from the bands, to the sound engineers, photographers, and lighting, are all volunteers. “I might buy them dinner or something on the night, but I don’t get paid, and it’s just beautiful that someone’s happy to do it. And we transform the whole shop – it’s not just that the band comes in, sets up on stage and plays – it’s a whole thing. It’s all a big community effort, and if I didn’t have those people that help on a regular basis, I wouldn’t be able to do it. Community! It’s very important.” In addition, all Beatdisc shows are all-ages, and the shop prides itself on its inclusivity. “We like to be inclusive of everyone – age, sex, whatever your orientation. Good records stores are like a community. And I think that’s the role a good record store plays – a place where you consume music, you can get to flick through the racks, meet likeminded people, have a good conversation with someone – potentially friendship. Especially with the shows, I know several bands who have formed through friendships made at Beatdisc and that’s just beautiful. I think that’s the main role that record stores play – not just to sell stuff.”

“Beatdisc have carved out a new and engaging platform for themselves and their customers.” BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 57

FEATURE

“For Beatdisc to be operating after 22 years in a city without specified music venues is no mean feat.”

We Lost the Sea

Mere Women

Curnovic’s community focus and passion for music in Parramatta has also seen him involved in live music indicatives beyond Beatdisc. With a new interest in live music and culture in Parramatta, the local council employed a Live Music Coordinator for the first time, who partnered up with Curnovic to get bands playing across the city. “So they employed a Live Music Coordinator, which is pretty progressive on their part, because most councils wouldn’t, but I think they can see the promise of [what] live music brings to an area. We were trying to do a collaborative thing – at the Town Hall here actually – for a two or three-month block. “I was looking to book some artists, and we would get other promoters and everything, and have a really awesome and eclectic mix of artists playing over that block. And basically, it just all fell apart, because

Beatdisc Records:

Oslow

How To Thrive In A

Lincoln le Fevre, Peter Curnovic, and David James Young 58 :: BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18

thebrag.com

FEATURE

Oslow

City With No Venues people in council were like ‘Ooh, you can’t have rock music in a Town Hall’. And that was basically what it came down to and it was a real shame. We tried to save it by trying to get a pub on board, but people don’t want to take the risk.”

he fact that these initiatives fell through points to a larger problem within societal attitudes towards music and civics – that music either lacks importance and relevance to society and business, or is too ‘high culture’ and thus looked down upon. But at the same time, the council’s delegations go a long way in recognising the cultural and personal significance of live music. When asked what live music does for cities, Curnovic replies that it remains hugely important, citing a 2015 study by the University of Tasmania into the economic benefit of live music for Australia as a nation, that was brought to his attention by the Live Music Coordinator at the time. “If you’re coming from a council’s point of view where’s it’s basically dollars, he showed us this figure of this two or three year study the University of Tasmania did, of how great live music is for the country. When you put $1 in, it gets $3 back. For every $1 spent on live music, you get back threefold. So why don’t they make things happen? And when they’ve done things – when they had Paul Kelly here for Sydney Festival – that was awesome! I don’t know why they don’t keep on doing stuff like that and putting shows on in Centenary Square or Parramatta Park every month or even every quarter.” In Beatdisc’s own context, it’s clear to see the potential of live music. The shop proves that if you build a space for bands, people will soon come. “We get 60 to 70 people at every show and it’s like, fuck, this city needs live music! There’s not enough venues – well, there’s no venues in Parramatta.

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“Every other month in Sydney or the Inner West someone’s closing. And it’s good, a couple have opened – like The Lansdowne is doing shows again. But it’s important. You know it, my community knows it, our community knows it. Maybe in the future, I can hopefully look at a bigger venue or something, but that’s all time and money, and it has to happen at the right time too.” But complications and lack of other venues aside, Beatdisc and their community are committed to continue doing what they’re doing. Parramatta is a huge CBD that is always growing, and if anyone wants to go to a gig or dig through some crates, they know where to go. The exposure that they lend local and interstate bands as an alternative venue to the city is also invaluable, as a creative hub that proves that music can thrive in a city without proper venues – and that people will be there to see it and be a part of it, too. With that, Curnovic and co.’s hard work and dedication comes as no surprise. “I love my job: providing a service to people that they get thorough enjoyment out of. And that’s why I do the shows as well, I get to see some of my favourite bands come to Parramatta, and play to people who love it as well.” That said, Curnovic does concede that while working in a record store is great, running a small business is tough and he doesn’t always get the time to switch off. “It would be nice to have a job where you just go in and then leave, but it’s not like that. It’s still enjoyable, I’m still my own boss. I can pay my mortgage, luckily. Not every small business owner can. I think it’s just great that I get to provide an outlet for people to consume music that they love and enjoy – because vinyl is forever, and we try and make it an experience when you come to Beatdisc. I think people can see that – our longevity says it all. It’s just great.” ■

“The shop operates within council noise limits, residents don’t complain, and other business owners within the building think it’s great that the gigs bring people into the area.” “For every $1 spent on live music, you get back threefold.” What: Snape LP Launch With: Snape, Ted Danson With Wolves, Library Siesta Where: Beatdisc Records When: Friday March 16

BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 59

What Can Be Done About

Content Warning for sexual assault. If you need assistance, call 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or L ifeline on 13 11 14. 60 :: BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18

thebrag.com

Belinda Quinn talks to members of Speedy Ortiz, Arafura, Wet Lips, Fruit, and a lecturer in criminology, Dr Bianca Filemore, about violence prevention and intervention at gigs

Keep On Growin’:

Crowd Violence At Gigs? O

ver the past three years, a plethora of thinkpieces have called out sexual and physical violence within music scenes. And earlier this year, The Industry Observer released an open letter penned by Australian women working in music that detailed an unnerving amount of sexual assault and harassment within the workforce.

▲

It’s no wonder then that more bands are joining the collective push to create safer spaces and gender equity. Each and every facet of the industry and of DIY communities has a role to play – we need a holistic approach to dealing with perpetrators of violence.

For clarity, in this article violence is defined as intentional or negligent behaviour that results in physically or sexually harm. thebrag.com

BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 61

“It’s not just about one band calling out harassment from the stage, it’s about ever impacts those around them.”

What can you do if you’re playing the show? “When you’re onstage, you are setting the mood of the event,” explains guitarist and vocalist of Melbourne act Wet Lips, Grace Kindellan. “[You’re] giving everyone permission to behave in a certain way.” Dr Bianca Fileborn, a UNSW lecturer in criminology and one of the researchers behind the university’s new study on sexual harassment and assault at Australian music festivals, agrees. “Bands can have a really central role to play in changing the culture at festivals,” she says. “Some of our participants have commented that they really appreciate it when bands take a stand against sexual harassment and assault, and encourage the audience to look out for each other.” Kindellan helped curate one of the hut stages at last year’s Gizzfest, where she witnessed a group of young men pushing into people at Hexdebt’s set, giving one woman a bloody nose. She describes the rest of the day as “a constant battle” to try and prevent drunk men from being aggressive towards the audience and disrespecting performers.

Worryingly, Kindellan witnessed King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard stop and ask their audience to take care of each other during their set, and then continue to play to a heavy-handed mosh. “When you start the set with a statement about being respectful of the bodies around you, then you call out violent behaviour in the crowd and refuse to play the rest of your set until it stops, then you are sending a message that violence is not ok and will not be tolerated as part of live music,” she explains. “That’s what Blake Scott and The Peep Tempel do and it works.” Maintaining crowd-control from the stage doesn’t come without challenges. “The bigger the venue, the less likely you are to be able to see and directly intervene when you see something going wrong,” says Sadie Dupuis, the lyricist and guitarist for Speedy Ortiz, who created a help hotline for punters to use during their shows. “It’s not just about one band calling out harassment from the stage, it’s about everyone who goes to concerts becoming a little more aware of how their behaviour impacts those around them.”

King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard

Dupuis says of her motives to start the hotline: “from age 13 to my mid20s, I’d been touched inappropriately and without consent in a crowd,” and “[at times] I had no way of reporting harassment to a venue because the person harassing me worked for the venue.” “When we headline, we also print safer space guidelines, bystander intervention and conflict de-escalation strategies… that does a lot to set a tone for the night,” Dupuis explains. Speedy Ortiz

“When you’re onstage, you are setting the mood of the event.”

Aisyiyah, vocalist of Arafura and former soundie of Blackwire Records, echoes this. “There is either nobody

What’s wrong with stirrin’ up a pit? It’s important to be mindful that the people around you might have a more complicated relationship towards violence than you do, and that won’t always be visible to you. I love having a good dance and getting a bit silly at gigs – but please don’t drag or push me into your drunk and sweaty shove-fest. For one, women and LGBT+ people are statistically more likely to have experienced discriminatory, sexual and domestic violence outside of shows, and people of colour and trans women are disproportionately subjected to physical violence. And coming into contact with these forms of aggression when you’re just out to have a good night can result in re-traumatisation.

“The bigger the venue, the less likely you are to be able to see and directly intervene when you see something going wrong.” Wet Lips 62 :: BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18

“P

erpetrators have been able to use the crowded nature of these spaces to get away with touching people,” explains Dr Fileborn. “It’s also been really difficult for participants to do anything about these experiences, as they often don’t know who’s responsible. Perpetrators can easily disappear into the crowds – this makes responding to incidents extremely difficult.”

Not to mention living with post-traumatic stress disorder can mean some punters may have flashbacks and even become reactive in attempt to protect themselves: all this can happen while a perp just thinks they’re having harmless fun. Your aggression-induced adrenaline rush shouldn’t take priority over someone’s right not to relive some of the worst moments of their life; and live music should, at the very least, have a red hot go of giving minorities a tension release too. “I don’t think able-bodied people even consider that there are disabled or chronically ill people at gigs most of the time,” says Nancy Vera, trumpeter and vocalist of ensemble FRUIT, who has hypermobility spectrum disorder and neuropathy. The ensemble’s main composer Jessica Corcoran also has the former disorder, and says of people pushing and shoving, “I feel threatened, like it’s a physical challenge of who is ‘tough’ enough to cop being pushed around or knocked into – and this doesn’t take into account that being shoved can easily mean an injury for me due to my compromised joints. I become hyper-aware of the threat of injury to myself and others and tune out from the band.” thebrag.com

ryone who goes to concerts becoming a little more aware of how their behaviour Is genre an aggravating factor?

“Bands can have a really central role to play in changing the culture at festivals.”

“Rock – at least certain strains of it, and perhaps the most popular strains of it – has this stupid macho oppressive history. I can’t wait ’til rock is excised from that grossness,” says Dupuis. We really only need to look at comments coming from our own backyard for proof: last year, INXS’s Kirk Pengilly said he misses the days where he “could slap a woman on the butt and it [be] taken as a compliment, not as sexual harassment.” I guess it’s easy to confuse the social pressure to please men in power (rather than admit discomfort) with flattery when you’re a rich, cis-male, white old rock-dog. Yeah, poor Kirk. Aisyiyah says, “I definitely experience different crowd behaviours moving across genres but at the end of the day, I’ve seen people thrashing about carelessly and ignorantly at overtly feminist shows when the band is like: ‘Hey everyone, don’t be violent!’” She explains that this is why there needs to be proactive protocols in place by venues and promoters. And Dr Fileborn adds, “It’s really difficult to know if certain ‘types’ of bands result in more sexualised or aggressive behaviour, and it’s important not to demonise specific subcultural groups as this is likely to be counterproductive and lead to defensive responses. It’s possibly more the case that different types of bands or music are able to be taken advantage of by perpetrators in different ways.”

My white, hetero cis-dudes: please speak up My attempts to contact acts that have recurring and, at times, bizarrely aggressive moshes, were either met with silence or a “we’ll have to politely decline,” – even after I explained I wasn’t interested in starting a witch hunt and was instead trying to open a dialogue. It’s fair to say that the media puts more pressure and emotional labour on women, trans folk and people of colour to talk about their experiences of violence, than the (predominantly) straight white men who actively engage in it: and that’s gotta change. More dudes need to come out of the woodwork and be amicable to listening, learning and speaking up. “I don’t think it’s challenging to want to do the right thing, which is why I have so little tolerance for bands that promote any kind of violence with their music,” explains Dupuis.

“Perpetrators can easily disappear into the crowds – this makes responding to incidents extremely difficult.” to report to or it’s just so ingrained that victims are made to feel weak or whiney if they make a fuss over it. It’s a hard thing to turn into statistics so wider audiences who aren’t subject to violence are unaware of the severity of it.” She says that promotional material needs to explicitly denounce hostility. “It may not be very attractive from a marketing perspective, but it’s very important to make it known that you want people to have fun and be safe and that you’ll stick up for them if need be.”

Race intersections “I’ve been groped at shows many times – one time was during Royal Headache at The Imperial, another time was at Black Vanilla at Goodgod,” says Aisyiyah. As an Indonesian woman, she couldn’t tell whether the perpetrator’s motives were racial, but she explains that “brown women’s bodies are more likely to be subjected to violence because we are perceived to be submissive and are constantly fetishised.” “Our experiences of physical violence on a personal level may not be more prominent, [but] we definitely face different kinds of discrimination and marginalisation on multiple levels that are more insidious and scary,” Aisyiyah explains. She brings up the nature of state violence, which has a history of targeting people of colour, LGBT+ folk and people from poorer backgrounds.

Crowd shots overleaf and this page by Ashley Mar

“There needs to be an acknowledgement that violence doesn’t just happen on an interpersonal level and that police and security aren’t always there to ‘protect’ us,” she explains. “We have to find alternatives to police.”

“Brown women’s bodies are more likely to be subjected to violence because we are perceived to be submissive and are constantly fetishised.” thebrag.com

The bigger picture Of one of the more minor (and it’s still not really that minor) cases of sexual assault I’ve endured at a show is a dude knowingly grinding his boner against me while watching The Smith Street Band. And he had room to move; he could have easily inched away – it’s fucking repulsive. When unwanted sexualised attention within music spaces feels so repetitive, all those experiences become compounded. You start to feel like that’s your role in that space – to be consumed in some form or another, rather than to participate. Kindellan says, “We live in a patriarchal society where masculinity and power are conflated with aggression, violence and a lack of compassion. When a young man beats up or sexually assaults a woman or a trans person, they get ‘boys will be boys’. Patriarchal violence is everywhere; live music is just another venue for it.”

How can everyone help out? Participating in music is obviously not this deep, dark well of despair – otherwise I wouldn’t be making it and working within it. But it is important to consistently challenge ourselves; to compassionately call each other out without becoming apologists for oppressive behaviour. “When bills are booked with all white, cis-male lineups, that gross mentality of rock as an aggressive boys’ club is reinforced,” says Dupuis. Dupuis also encourages fans to email her, the label, the promoter and the booking agents when they have booked a known abuser – but only when it’s safe to share that information. “I’ve gladly dropped off shows on more than one occasion upon learning (from fans who e-mailed me!) that a promoter or venue had stood behind an abuser or a bigot.”

hen it comes to frontline support for survivors and victims, Creative Interventions explains it’s important to listen to their stories without placing blame. On the perp side, the community intervention toolkit states it’s important – and this is only if you have the emotional energy and it’s safe to do so – to give perps the opportunity to “recognise, end and be responsible for their violence.” It’s not just about music. Change starts with better sexual education in schools, with updates to policy in workplaces and for reports to be taken seriously. And safer spaces are limited; there’s always gonna be a chance something will go wrong at a show. But the point is to try to be an ally in diminishing rates and to give room for more empathetic and compassionate spaces to share art in. I think that’s a pretty cool thing to be a part of.

BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 63

Richard Hill is a writer of short fi ction and poetry based out of Brisbane. He wrote Mr. Lewis late last year.“It’s a story about redemption, I think,” he explained to the BRAG.“About the things we do when we’re angry – and how that rage can be quelled.”

SHORT STORY

Mr Lewi s BY R I C H A R D H I L L

r Lewis tickled me today,” Sally said. Her father lowered his paper, slowly, and peered over the top. Sally was lying on the floor, working her way through a Colour by Numbers book she had been given for her birthday.

“M

“What’s this Mr Lewis like?” Sally’s father asked. He scanned his memory to see if he could recall a Mr Lewis from any of the Parent Teacher evenings. But it was all a blur of standard Primary School faces – lazy beards; oversized glasses; pleasant, innocuous smiles.

“Tickled?” Her father said.

“Oh, Mr Lewis is lovely,” Sally said. “He even told us his first name.”

“Yeah, tickled.” She still hadn’t looked up from her book. He squinted at her. She was colouring in Rapunzel’s long, luxurious hair with a green pen, her free hand blindly searching for the mug of cold chocolate by her elbow. He put down his paper.

“What is his first name?”

“Why did Mr Lewis tickle you?”

“What…what did he do after he tickled you?”

“I was in trouble,” the girl sighed. “But it wasn’t really my fault. It was Brodie’s. She was talking to me, and I wasn’t saying anything back. But Mr Lewis said we were disturbing the class. He made me stay after school.”

“Oh, he felt bad. So he let me sit on his lap. He said he hoped he wouldn’t have to tickle me again.”

Sally’s father gently shut his eyes. Sally looked up at him. “Are you angry at me, daddy?”

“Leroy,” Sally said with a giggle. “The whole class laughed when he told us, but he didn’t even care.”

Sally’s father bit his lip, and closed his eyes. He used to have to take Anger Management classes after his divorce from Sally’s mother, and now the techniques they had taught him came rushing back. Clench and unclench your fists. He did so. Count to thirty. He did so. If you’re still not calm, count to fifty. He did so. His daughter, a little alarmed now, sat up even straighter on the floor.

Sally’s father rose from his chair, and shuffled into the kitchen. “I’m sorry daddy. Please don’t be angry with me.” “Dad?” came his daughter’s cry. He didn’t answer. Instead, he leant against the sink, and poured himself a glass of cold water. When he came back into the living room, his daughter was sitting straight up, looking at him with shame growing in her cheeks.

Sally’s father grabbed his glass of wine, his hand all balled up. He wanted to take a sip, but he found he couldn’t even do that. He was shaking. The surface of the wine moved from side to side. When he opened his eyes again, his daughter was quietly crying.

“Dad, I promise it wasn’t my fault. Don’t be angry at me. Be angry at Brodie.” “Please don’t,” she said. “Please don’t. I’ve already been punished.” “He tickled you?” “How long did he tickle you for?” “Because I’d been naughty.” Sally nodded, and hung her head. “I didn’t mean to.” Sally’s father sunk back into his chair. It was a Thursday evening, and Thursday after dinner was their Quiet Time. It was a treat for both of them – a half an hour stretch without television, or the looming threat of homework. Thirty minutes when father and daughter could just sit in the living room and get on with their separate little activities – his six year-old daughter with her colouring, and he with his newspaper and a glass of red wine. “Where did he tickle you?” Sally’s father asked. “All over. It was after class. He said it was like getting detention.” Sally’s father supressed a strangled cry. “Did he make you take off…your clothes?” “Dad!” The girl looked shocked. “No! Just my jumper.” “Why did he make you take off your jumper?” “So he could get to my armpits.” Sally stared at her father, confused, her colouring in briefly forgotten. “Was there anyone else there?” “No.”

“Fifteen minutes,” Sally said. “He said fifteen minutes was long enough, because I hadn’t been too naughty.” “And then you sat on his lap.” “And then I sat on his lap.” Sally looked at her father’s face for his reaction. He had closed his eyes again, and she could tell he was doing his quiet counting. She had seen him do it before. His lips were sticking together and then coming apart gently, and she could tell he was up to about twenty one. She was secretly proud. She could count up to twenty one as well. In fact, she could count up to a hundred. Leroy had taught her that (she always called him Mr Lewis in class, but in her head, he was Leroy. The name made her laugh, and she liked it. She liked saying it, to herself, when no one could hear her.) She started to count as well, and by the time she reached eighty, she saw her dad had finished counting. He went into the kitchen, and she heard him rattling around with the cupboards and some glasses. She heard the crack of the ice falling into the ice tray. Her dad closed the freezer door. She had always wondered if the light in the freezer stayed on when the door was closed, but that was a mystery she had cracked with Leroy’s help. Leroy had taken her to the staff room at playtime and had shown her the little button inside the freezer that got pressed when you shut the door. He had flicked it on and off a few times with the door open, and she had seen the light flickering, like the lights at a disco. When Sally’s father came back in the room, he was holding a glass that was very full, and had ice in it.

“Did you tell any of your friends?” “You should go to bed,” Sally’s father said. “They knew I had to stay after class,” Sally said. “That’s why it’s not fair. When I told Brodie, she just said that I deserved it for talking in class. But honestly, it wasn’t like that…”

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“It’s so early!” Sally said, in outrage. “Please, please. Mr Lewis has already told me off.”

thebrag.com

Mr L ewi s c o nt i n u e d …

Sally’s father closed his eyes shut tight, and emptied half a glass of whiskey down his throat. “He’s already told you off,” Sally’s father said. Clench and unclench your fists. “Yeah,” Sally said nervously. “Yeah.” Sally got to go to bed later than normal that night. Her father didn’t say anything when her usual bedtime came around. He didn’t say anything at all. Sally just sat and coloured. She had almost finished her entire colouring book when she looked up and saw it was eleven thirty at night. She put herself to bed. She said goodnight to her dad, and then walked upstairs, and tucked herself under the covers. She lay in bed, listening out in case her dad put the television on, like he usually did. He didn’t. He must be really mad, she thought. She’d have to tell Mr Lewis that her dad didn’t think he’d punished her enough. But she knew he had. He’d tickled her and tickled her all over, and she was sure that was enough punishment. Just for talking in class? That was more than enough. She fell asleep, and did not dream. Downstairs, her father called Sally’s mother. She was out – he could hear chatter in the background, and the gentle hum of music.

“Sally’s father bit his lip, and closed his eyes. He used to have to take Anger Management classes after his divorce from Sally’s mother, and now the techniques they had taught him came rushing back.” The children were grabbing their bags and making their way home. He pushed himself flat against a wall, hoping that Sally wouldn’t see him. She would be disappointed already – the school would have told her that she was going to After Care rather than seeing her dad, and he could imagine her confusion if she ran into him, standing here in her playground, still hungover, and still dressed in his work things. He stayed invisible until the bulk of the children were gone, and then slowly, he walked over to Sally’s classroom. He knew where it was. He had been here a number of times the previous year – Sally had a different teacher back then, but was in the same room bright, gaudily painted room. Sally’s teacher had been a woman – an old diddy, too scatty and jovial for Sally’s father to really connect with. His first question at the beginning of this year, after Sally had announced she had a new teacher was, “is she old?” “It’s a he,” Sally had said. “It’s a he.”

“I think our daughter has been molested.” “What?” “I said, I think our daughter’s class teacher has molested her.” There was a pause on the other end. Sally’s father heard someone call his ex-wife’s name in the background. “Are you pulling my leg?” She said, eventually. Her words sloshed back and forth around her mouth. “Are you?” Sally’s father put down the phone, gently, his hands shaking, and then he went upstairs to check on his daughter. She was very still. He stroked a few strands of hair away from her face. It was around then he saw the scratch marks on her armpits. There were only a few – gentle traces of a man’s fingernails, but there were enough of them, and there were some on both sides. He went downstairs, and had another drink. And then another.

he next morning, he woke up with an outrageous hangover, and he woke up late. He had fallen asleep in the armchair. His daughter was fully dressed, and she was shaking him.

“Dad! Dad! We’re late.” Sally’s father went into whirlwind mode, showering for no more than two minutes, jumping into his work clothes, and ignoring the desperately ringing phone. They were late. He scooped his daughter up in two hands and threw her in the back of the car. He broke the speed limit more than once on his way to the school, and he gave his daughter two kisses on either cheek before pushing her through the gates with one hand. He thought about calling “learn a lot!” to her retreating back, like he usually did, but he didn’t say anything. He got back into his car, and drove to work. During his lunch break that day, he thought. He thought and thought and thought. His head was still throbbing, but still he thought. He called up the school and asked After Care to pick up Sally that day, which was unusual. He always picked up Sally on a Friday. Friday afternoon, they went to McDonald’s, or the park, if it was nice. It was their afternoon. Just like Quiet Time. But today, he had other plans. When he finished work, he drove slowly to Sally’s school. He parked out front. He considered, as he had considered so many times the night before, calling the police. But he decided not to. This was his issue to deal with. He stepped out of the car, and walked into the playground.

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Sally’s father strode into the classroom, only half expecting Mr Lewis to be there. It was a Friday afternoon, after all – maybe the staff all went out for drinks together, or maybe they rushed home to their families. But there he was – Mr Lewis, in the centre of the classroom, on his hands and knees, on top of a young, dark haired girl, and with his hands in her armpits. Sally’s father didn’t move. He was half in, half out of the classroom, and his body felt frozen. The dark-haired girl was laughing hysterically. Mr Lewis’s face was deadly serious, as if he were a plumber, unclogging a drain. The girl noticed Sally’s father first. She sat up a little, and pointed at him. Mr Lewis stopped and turned. “Yes?” Mr Lewis said, and Sally’s father got a good look at his face. He was young. No older than thirty, certainly, and his hair was thick, black and going prematurely grey around the temples. He was handsome, in an odd sort of way, and he was dressed in a bright red jacket, with matching bright red boots. He looked like a children’s show presenter. Sally’s father almost half expected him to be wearing a sock puppet on his right arm, but he wasn’t. His right arm was still buried deep in the dark-haired girl’s armpit. “I’m Sally’s father.” He ground his teeth. “Ah, I’m glad you’re here,” Mr Lewis said, and his face relaxed into a smile. “I wanted to see you very much. I’m just in the middle of something, but please take a seat. I won’t be a minute.” Sally’s father, with little else to do, sat in one of the empty seats. He was too big for the little plastic chair, and it squeaked when he lowered his body into it. Mr Lewis looked back down at the dark-haired girl. “You’ve been tickled for twelve minutes. I said I’d tickle you for fifteen minutes. How many minutes left?” The dark-haired girl considered the question. “Three minutes,” she said eventually. “Very good,” Mr Lewis said with a level smile. And resumed his tickling. The tickling continued for three minutes exactly. Sally’s Father knew because the whole time his eyes were flicking between the clock and the dark-haired girl. Mr Lewis was very careful to dole out only as much punishment as needed. He worked the girl’s armpits first, and then under her chin, and then removed her socks and shoes and continued with the soles of her feet. The girl was laughing hysterically, if somewhat desperately. She kept trying to shove Mr Lewis away, her hands limp, and her tongue still poking through her teeth.

BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 65

Mr L ewi s c o nt i n u e d …

SHORT STORY

“Sally’s father didn’t move. He was half in, half out of the classroom, and his body felt frozen.”

“Yes, I did,” Mr Lewis said. The sound of his chewing was loud. Sally’s father could hear the saliva swish around in his mouth.

When the three minutes were up, Mr Lewis straightened, and stared at the girl.

“You can’t…do that. She’s only six years old for fuck’s sake.”

“That’s all, Brodie,” he said. “Now hurry along.” Brodie sat up straight, and put her socks and shoes back on.

“You…touched my daughter.” “Yes.” Mr Lewis said slowly. “Yes, I did. I tickled her.”

“Please, Mr Campbell. There is absolutely no swearing in this classroom. It’s a rule that the girls must follow, that I must follow, and that you must follow. Really, I should punish you, but as this is your first time in our classroom, I’ll let you get away with it.”

“Yes Mr Lewis,” she said. “It’s important you remember what you’ve learnt here,” Mr Lewis said. Brodie picked her discarded jumper back up from the floor and hurried out of the classroom, not even looking at Sally’s father. Mr Lewis straightened, and dusted off his jacket. “Well, Mr Campbell,” Mr Lewis said to Sally’s father. “Like I say, I’m very glad you’re here. I wanted us to have a chat.” “I think I’m going to kill you,” Sally’s father said.

Mr Lewis leant back in his chair. Neither man spoke. The clock ticked in the background. Sally’s father tried to remember the name of the teacher that had taught him to tell the time. The name was there, somewhere, in his head, but it was lost for the moment. Clench. Unclench. Count to thirty. “How did you plan to kill me?” Mr Lewis said suddenly. “Do you have a knife?” “No,” Sally’s father said slowly. “I was going to do it with my hands.” “Well, you are quite a well-built man,” Mr Lewis said. “I suppose you could do that quite easily.”

Mr Lewis didn’t reply. He merely walked over to a wheely chair in the corner, and threw himself into it. Sally’s father felt very, very small, in his little plastic chair.

Sally’s father nodded, slowly.

“Sally came in very upset this morning,” Mr Lewis said.

“A sensible solution, if you think that a crime has been committed,” Mr Lewis said. “But there has been no crime here. I have already rectified the issue.”

“I was thinking about calling the police as well,” Sally’s father said.

“Because you molested her.” “You cannot…touch…children.” “Molested? No. I think it was because she felt hard done by. And I admit,” Mr Lewis hung his head, “that that’s entirely my fault.”

“Sometimes I must,” Mr Lewis sighed. “I don’t like it anymore than you do. But punishment is punishment.”

“Hard done by?” Sally’s father clenched and unclenched his fists. “Yes. Hard done by. As I’m sure you’re aware, I had to punish your daughter yesterday for talking during class. She came in this morning beside herself. She said you had been very upset with her for breaking the rules. She told me this morning, however, that she was innocent. That yes, she had been talking a little, but that it had been Brodie who had initiated the chat. Of course, I am more than happy to accept fault. I was unaware that Brodie had been the real suspect. I leapt to conclusions and punished a near innocent.” Sally’s father looked into Mr Lewis’ big brown eyes, and considered how best to remove them from the man’s sockets. “As I explained to your daughter, I couldn’t undo her punishment. And, as I’m sure you will agree, your daughter did break the rules. She did talk. I explained this to Sally, and said the only way to restore the balance was to punish Brodie equally. Which is what you saw me doing just now.” Mr Lewis removed a packet of gum from his pocket and slipped two pieces into his mouth. He offered one to Sally’s father. “My daughter had scratch marks on her armpits,” Sally’s father said. Mr Lewis slowly returned the packet to his pocket. “I’m very sorry about that, Mr Campbell. But as you can understand, I’m sure, sometimes these punishments have undesirable effects.”

“I’m going to tear out your tongue,” Sally’s father said. He had said these words once before, years ago, to his own father. He hadn’t acted on his threat then, but he was sure he was going to now. “You’re an angry man,” Mr Lewis said, not unkindly. “I’m sorry you’re so angry. I see anger a lot, in the class room. You know, I used to teach in a high school. I taught English to a group of teenage boys. It broke my heart. It broke my heart to see how angry they were. I was trying to teach them the beauty of Shakespeare, of Poe, of Austen. But they were angry. Angry at me, and angry at William Shakespeare, and angry at Hamlet, and angry at the House of Usher. Always so angry. What do you do when they’re like that? When anger is already instilled in them? You can’t do anything.” Mr Lewis spat his mouthful of gum directly onto the table, in front of Sally’s father. “That’s why I quit that job. That’s why I came here. Here, I can get the anger out of them. I can work it out before they become adults. Before it destroys them.” Mr Lewis reached across and touched Sally’s father’s hand. “I wish someone tried to get the anger out of you, many years ago.” Sally’s father grabbed Mr Lewis’s hand, more than ready to twist it off.

“I’m…I came here to kill you,” Sally’s father said. For the first time, Mr Lewis seemed to take in what Sally’s father had said. “Oh? Why is that? It seems like a slightly excessive solution. I explained to you that the punishment was undeserved, and I apologised to your daughter already. Now, I’m apologising to you.” “You touched my daughter,” Sally’s father said. Clench. Unclench.

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“Sally’s father looked into Mr Lewis’ big brown eyes, and considered how best to remove them from the man’s sockets.” thebrag.com

But Mr Lewis just read out and patted him with his free hand, his face unmoved. “Are you angry because your wife left you?” Mr Lewis asked. “I know you drink. I can imagine that makes you even angrier.” “How do you know?” Sally’s father asked. “Sally told me. She told me you drank last night, which I guess is understandable, given you were so upset about the miscarriage of justice. I will apologise for that again, but I don’t think it’ll do the trick. I feel like, if you’ll forgive me to jumping to conclusions, the anger in you is too deep-seated for mere apologies to absolve.” “That’s…” Sally’s father looked away. “That’s alright. That’s what it is, Mr Campbell. It’s alright. There is, in all of us, the capacity to feel that kind of disappointment – that kind of irritation.”

“All of a sudden, without warning, Sally’s father felt something inside of him break. It happened just like that. This thing that he didn’t even know that he had – suddenly it failed; splintered. Sally’s father went weak.” and heartbroken, and angry, all at once, and he couldn’t move. After six minutes, Mr Lewis pulled off Sally’s father’s shoes and socks. And then the punishment really began. Sally’s father was more ticklish than he remembered. He writhed and spat, and giggled through his tears, and then he started laughing. Really laughing. Laughing more than he remembered ever having laughed before. He didn’t even notice the clock when it ticked over to three forty. Mr Lewis did. He stood up. “That’s it, Mr Campbell. Punishment is over.”

“It’s not irritation,” Sally’s father said. “It’s… Even anger doesn’t cover it. It’s…” He searched for the word. “It’s fucking rage.”

Sally’s father didn’t move.

Mr Lewis withdrew his hand. He looked upset.

“I want more.”

“Now, Mr Campbell, you swore again.” Mr Lewis looked up at the clock. “That’s supposed to be twenty minutes of punishment, but I’ll knock it down to ten for you.”

“A sucker for punishment?” Mr Lewis half smiled. For one hopeful second, Sally’s father thought he was going to be tickled again. But Mr Lewis’s face dropped.

Mr Lewis stood up. He looked much taller than Sally’s father had first realised. And bigger too – broader around the shoulders. Sally’s father tensed up a little in his plastic chair.

“No,” he said. “Punishment is punishment, and you can’t get anymore.” Mr Lewis sat on his wheely chair. “You can however, sit on my lap, if you want.”

“Stand up, Mr Campbell.”

Sally’s father dived over to Mr Lewis. He climbed up and grabbed Mr Lewis around the shoulders, throwing his whole weight into Mr Lewis’ lap. Mr Lewis didn’t even wheeze. He just sat there, as Sally’s father started sobbing all over again, deeper this time, huge racking tears coming from somewhere lost and important in his body. Mr Lewis patted Sally’s father three times. One. Two. Three. And then that was it.

Sally’s father shook his head. “If you refuse, I will make it fifteen minutes.” Mr Lewis stared at him. “I’m trying to be kind here, Mr Campbell. Stand up.” All of a sudden, without warning, Sally’s father felt something inside of him break. It happened just like that. This thing that he didn’t even know that he had – suddenly it failed; splintered. Sally’s father went weak. And Mr Lewis, sensing the change, took him by the hand, gently, and led him into the centre of the class.

“Time for you to pick up Sally,” Mr Lewis said.

“Down on the f loor,” Mr Lewis said. Sally’s father lowered himself down, and lay prostate on the ground.

“I’m quite a senior member of local parliament,” Sally’s father said, defensively, as he felt Mr Lewis looking at him.

“Arms up,” Mr Lewis said. Sally’s father raised his arms above his head. Mr Lewis came down, sitting on him, his legs on either side of Sally’s father’s body.

Mr Lewis nodded. “I know, Mr. Campbell,” he said. “Go pick up Sally.”

“Look at the clock,” Mr Lewis said. Sally’s father looked at the clock. “Ten minutes from now. What time will it be ten minutes from now?” “Three forty,” Sally’s father said through his tears. “Correct. When it’s three forty, tell me, and I will stop.” And then Mr Lewis began.

Slowly, Sally’s father climbed off Mr Lewis’ lap. He straightened himself out a little. He readjusted his tie. His nice shirt was stained with his own tears and snot, and he tried to rub the worst of it away.

Sally’s father walked slowly out of the room. He turned around only once, when he heard Mr Lewis let out a small snort of laughter. Sally’s father waved goodbye. Mr Lewis waved back. When Sally’s father picked up his daughter from After Care, he saw the look of worry in her face – the look that said she thought he might be in the same rage he was in this morning. But he was far from angry. Rather than taking her by the hand, he picked her up and threw her on his shoulders, galloping his way to the car, hurling her into the front seat.

For the first five minutes, it took Sally’s father all of his energy not to hit Mr Lewis. The tickling was much rougher than he expected. He could see how his daughter had been scratched. And through him flooded an anger like electricity – a terrible wave of it, pulsing up and down to his toes, and then back up to the very top of his head.

“McDonald’s,” he said. “We’re going to McDonald’s.”

He was angry with Mr Lewis. Angry with his ex-wife. Angry with his fucking daughter. Angry with his dad. Angry with all of it – angry in a way that moved past red and landed straight in black; into this murk of cold, unceasing agony. And soon Sally’s father realised he couldn’t hit Mr Lewis even if he wanted to. All of a sudden, he couldn’t move. He was terrified,

“I know.”

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As they were driving, Sally turned to her father. “Mr Lewis punished Brodie as well today,” Sally said.

They kept driving. They drove into McDonald’s and then they drove to the park. Sally played with the other children. Sally’s father lay on the grass, and he felt it prickle against the back of his neck – every single blade. •

BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 67

Sounds Like… NEW ALBUM AND SINGLE RELE A SES WITH JOSEPH E ARP

I feel sorry for the increasingly criticised Delta Goodrem. I really do. I have always had a weird soft spot for her – I immigrated to Australia with my family at the age of 11, moving over from the UK, and she was the first pop star from Down Under I ever really got acquainted with. There was something a little bit alien about her to me: she was distinctly antipodean in a way that I wasn’t yet used to. In retrospect, I think what I found so alluring about her was her pastiche of Americanness. She, like so many other Aussie superstars, has the whiff of the States about her – as though she was raised by Sesame Street, Michael Jackson and Charmed, which to be honest, she probably was. Her cultural touchstones aren’t her own, and her music, although personal, has been filtered through a lens that she has borrowed rather than inherited. There’s something maybe a little bit sad about that, but something really touching too. She’s someone who wants stardom – really wants it – and will adopt the guise of a society foreign to her in order to get it. In that way, she belongs to an old crowd of superstar; she is completely uncynical, totally committed to her art. The author Bret Easton Ellis described her as being an Empire musician living in a post-Empire world – she acts as though she exists in a world untouched by the war on terror, and by the chaos and political control that followed 9/11. Because of all that, I was admittedly a little concerned when I heard that with her new

“I don’t think there’s any band doing what Confidence Man are doing.”

Confidence Man

single, ‘Think About You’, she had pivoted to the raunchy – that she had, to borrow the contemporary parlance, “pulled a Miley.” Was Delta really jettisoning her wide-eyed sincerity and going full sex pest? I needn’t have worried. Sure, ‘Think About You’ might be a song explicitly about masturbation, but it’s a song about masturbation as only Delta Goodrem could write one. It is at once deeply lustful and yet totally sexless – as wryly and shyly erotic as a cheek to cheek nuzzle. Keep on keeping on, Delta. I am rooting for you. I have been similarly charmed by the new Vance Joy record. I have always been a bit resistant to the man in the past – I always found there was something too arch about him; something a little toothless. But with

“‘Think About You’ might be a song explicitly about masturbation, but it’s a song about masturbation as only Delta Goodrem could write one.”

this record, he has perfectly married his two selves – his penchant for whimsy, and his sturdy, capable musicianship. Nation Of Two has all the lightweight joy that made ‘Riptide’ such a hit, but there is a weird undercurrent of darkness to it too; a clarity wholly lacking from his debut. Also, does it give anyone else a Neutral Milk Hotel vibe? Let’s keep it Australian, shall we, and move on to the new single by one of the most daring and important acts in this country, Confidence Man. I don’t think there’s any band doing what they’re doing. Every part of their shtick is a joke, and yet also very, very much not a joke – they mean every single word. ‘Don’t You Know I’m In A Band’ is the name of the new single, and it’s so clear-eyed as to resemble a mission statement. It’s funny, and glittery, and coated in a thin layer of sweat, and I love it. All those who consider Confidence Man a gimmick should start listening properly, with their mind wide open. Significantly less impressive, sadly, is the new Augie March record. I worry that they’re a band that used up all their good ideas far too early in their career – they did the folk-rock thing, the Bruce Springsteen thing, the chipper, upbeat thing… They have passed through each phase available to them as a band of bearded dudes, and now they seem a little trapped. It doesn’t help that they called the thing Bootikins – fucking Bootikins – and that it contains songs with titles like ‘Mepihstopheles Perverted’. It’s always tragic to watch a band lose their way and slip into self parody, but it’s particularly sad when a band who started out so promisingly do so.

“Car Seat Headrest’s new record, Twin Fantasy, isn’t really new – it’s a rerecording of one of lead singer Will Toledo’s famous Bandcamp releases – but my lord is it perfect.” Quickly, cause we’re running out of words, on to the Americans. I caught Car Seat Headrest at Sydney City Limits the other week (shoutout to anyone else who braved that festival, and the small dust storm it was conducted in the middle of), and it reignited my love for that excellent band. Their new record, Twin Fantasy, isn’t really new – it’s a re-recording of one of lead singer Will Toledo’s famous Bandcamp releases – but my lord is it perfect. It

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albums

The Defender BY POPPY REID Each month, the BRAG writers pick out a pop culture artefact that they feel has been unfairly slighted. This issue, Poppy Reid makes her case for Rebecca Black, a viral star who deserves more love than she’s received. Rebecca Black

Car Seat Headrest

“Augie March have passed through each phase available to them as a band of bearded dudes, and now they seem a little trapped.”

After all, everybody knows Black’s story. It has become one of those internet legends – a proto-myth, embedded deeply into the code of the net itself. Just 13 at the time, Black convinced her mum to pay $4,000 to music factory Ark – an alleged pseduo scam which essentially prays on young hopefuls who’ve watched too much Hannah Montana and have dreams of becoming the next Miley Cyrus. Ark wrote Black’s debut single ‘Friday’ for her, recorded the now infamous video with her in it, and then uploaded the whole thing up to YouTube. they’ve taken the plunge and made a record that feels co-authored by the twin presences of Black Sabbath and Queen. It’s ripe, sticky stuff – all fractured guitar solos and treacly harmonies. The whole record is worth your time, but if you’re a weirdo who reckons they only have three minutes of their busy life to spare, listen to ‘Black Moon’. It’ll change you.

navigates Strokes-esque guitar licks and crushing, Leonard Cohen-indebted lyrics, and it might be one of my favourite things the band have ever released. Just as impressive is the new Screaming Females record, All At Once. The band have always veered towards the worlds of prog and metal, but with All At Once,

ou’d be forgiven for believing that history has not been kind to one Rebecca Black, the Californian 20-year-old whose debut single was dubbed “the worst song ever” in 2011.

Highlight Of The Month: It’s gotta be Delta and ‘Think About You’

Dud Of The Month: Bootikins

Screaming Females

What was meant to be a video for future school projects spread for years to come. ‘Friday’ clocked over 167 million views on YouTube in a matter of months (this is before Black issued a copyright claim against Ark and had it removed). It also hit number one on the Billboard Heatseekers chart in the US, where firstweek downloads tipped over 40,000. Shortly afterwards, it hit the Top 40 in New Zealand, and number 61 in the UK. Black even took out a highly coveted Teen Choice Award in 2011, and was named ‘The Number One Most Searched’ on Google in 2012. Should I go on?

Ryan Seacrest, Simon Cowell, Glee’s music supervisor and the queen of contemporary pop herself, Katy Perry. Indeed, perhaps what is most shocking about Rebecca Black – and no, before you ask, it’s not that she now has a net worth of US$1.2 million – is that despite starting one of the most criticised careers in recent memory under a global spotlight as an early teen, she has changed the very music industry business model itself. Following a cameo in Katy Perry’s ‘Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)’ video, Black blessed Australia with a national tour, sponsored by the country’s biggest telco, Telstra, all just a few months after ‘Friday’ was released. Not one to let one song’s popularity start and end her music career, Black followed up ‘Friday’ with (wait for it), ‘Saturday’ (what else was the follow-up meant to be called?). Rebecca Black had seen the myriad ‘Friday’ parody tracks and raised you her own. Beneath its awkward ‘Disney outtake’ manner, and the failed attempt at legitimacy with YouTuber Dave Days as the featuring artist, the follow-up almost vindicated Black.

“BLACK’S CAREER RULED MUCH OF THE NOUGHTIES AND DEFINED THE IMPACT OF YOUTUBE MONETISATION FOR GEN Z.”

Granted, the song was rather lacking substance – albeit in an enjoyable way – was overwhelmingly kitsch, and painted Black as maladroit, but her career ruled much of the noughties and defined the impact of YouTube monetisation for Gen Z. She quite literally changed the game. For every death threat Black received for the track’s unnerving auto-tune and hapless lyrics (“yesterday was Thursday, today is Friday,” anyone?), she has also vetted career opportunities from

Gone was the Ark-controlled mouthpiece who spouted lyrics she didn’t write through the crutch of autotune, and standing in her place was a songwriter who didn’t take herself too seriously, but could hit enough of the notes needed to make it on college radio. Indeed, ‘Saturday’ received over 32.2 million YouTube hits, hit number 55 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and sold 3,000 downloads in its first week. Say what you like about Rebecca Black, but her ability to capitalise on accidental success and carve out a place in the music industry for herself remains a convincing argument that she is so much more than a music trivia answer at a beer-soaked pub on King Street.

“FOR EVERY DEATH THREAT BLACK RECEIVED FOR THE TRACK’S UNNERVING AUTOTUNE AND HAPLESS LYRICS, SHE HAS ALSO VETTED CAREER OPPORTUNITIES FROM RYAN SEACREST, SIMON COWELL AND GLEE’S MUSIC SUPERVISOR.” thebrag.com

BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 69

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17:02:18 :: Metro Theatre :: 624 George St, Sydney

thy art is murder

17:02:18 :: Metro Theatre :: 624 George St, Sydney

thy art is murder

What weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been out to see this fortnight. See full galleries at thebrag.com/snaps

s n a p s

queen + adam lambert

21:02:18 :: Qudos Bank Arena :: Edwin Flack Ave & Olympic Blvd, Sydney Olympic Park

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25:02:18 :: Enmore Theatre :: 118-132 Enmore Rd Newtown 9550 3666

lil uzi vert

BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 71

21:02:18 :: Qudos Bank Arena:: Edwin Flack Ave & Olympic Blvd, Sydney Olympic Park

queen + adam lambert

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

PICK OF THE THE ISSUE Jen Cloher

Sydney CBD. 8pm. $52. Jackie Brown Jr + Nardean + Motherfunk Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $12. San Cisco Roundhouse, Kensington. 7pm. $24.40. Split Feed + Blue Velvet Marlborough Hotel, Newtown. 9pm. Free. Tinariwen + Moussa Diakite and Wassado + Paris Groovescooter Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 7:30pm. $60.

FRIDAY MARCH 16

THURSDAY M A RC H 2 9

Dande and the Lion Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 7:30pm. $11.

The Lansdowne, Chippendale.

Jen Cloher 8pm. $30. WEDNESDAY MARCH 7 Lee Fields & The Expressions Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $57.70. Thursday + Quicksand Metro Theatre, Sydney CBD. 7pm. $79.55.

THURSDAY MARCH 8 Rosa Maria Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $11.61. The Butterfly Effect Metro Theatre, Sydney CBD. 8pm. $59.55. Turnover + Turnstile Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 7pm. $48.10.

FRIDAY MARCH 9 72 :: BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18

Ball Park Music + Ali Barter + Hatchie Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 7:30pm. $45.10. Erica Freas + June Jones + Marcus Whale + Clean Shirt + TryThePie The Red Rattler, Marrickville. 8pm. $15. Jess Locke + Brightness + Jack R Reilly Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $12. So Li + Ash Morse + Baiylaw Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 7pm. $10. Wawawow + E For Echo + Neighbours The Botany View Hotel, Newtown. 8pm. Free. Kira Puru Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $18.25. ‘

Tiny Little Houses Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $23.26.

SUNDAY MARCH 11

SATURDAY MARCH 10

Middle Kids Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $29.

Blood, Sweat and Beers The Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt. 7pm. $39.75.

TUESDAY MARCH 13

Deafcult + Sounds Like Sunset + Lapse + Key Out + Egoism and more The Red Rattler, Marrickville. 5pm. $20 Thievery Corporation Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 7:45pm. $89.90. Willow Beats The Lansdowne, Chippendale.8pm. $23.50. Underground Lovers Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $39.

Black Rheno + Summonus + Witch Fight + Potion + Grim Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $12. Nice Biscuit Botany View Hotel, Newtown.

9pm. Free. Hockey Dad + Boat Show + Dear Seattle Metro Theatre, Sydney CBD. 8pm. $28.35. Snape + Ted Danson With Wolves + Library Siesta + Coward Punch Beatdisc Records, Parramatta. 7pm. $10. Twilight at Taronga feat: – Kate MillerHeidke and Odette Taronga Zoo, Mosman. 6pm. $70.

SATURDAY MARCH 17 Bruno Mars + Dua Lipa Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olympic Park. 7pm. $101.75. Luca Brasi + A. Swayze and the Ghosts + Isla Ka The Lansdowne, Chippendale. 7pm. $34.70. Flickertail + Haleigh Hing Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $9. Lost Tropics Oxford

Cub Sport

Kamasi Washington Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 7pm. $69.90. The Minimalists Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 7pm. $65.90.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 14 Lazy Byrd + Pavid Dark The Hideaway Bar, Enmore. 8pm. Free.

THURSDAY MARCH 15 Lauv Metro Theatre,

Cub Sport Metro Theatre, Sydney CBD. Saturday March 17. 7:30pm. $28.35. The Brisbane four-piece will tour their second album Bats mid-this month. Over the years they’ve moved from producing upbeat pop to a darker, brooding electronica. The band is also home to music’s most wholesome couple, Tim Nelson and Sam Netterfield, both of whom came out while writing the album and are now engaged, and are no doubt ready to take on Sydney.

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g g guide gig g W I T H B A L L PA R K M U S I C

send your listings to : gigguide@seventhstreet.media

1. What would your dream rider be? Angel Olsen

Ole mates Ball Park Music have been around the traps for a while now, amassing a small army of fans with their indie rockinflected tunes. Indeed, their newest record, the bright and jangly Good Mood, is as energetic and as important as their debut – a fascinating glimpse into the minds of five musicians who haven’t run out of energy yet. As is our Drawn Out custom, we asked the gang five questions, for which they illustrated answers: check ’em out.

2. If you were an animal, what would you be?

Angel Olsen

Giant Dwarf Theatre, Redfern. Friday March 23. 7pm. $45. Olsen will occasionally whip out an underwater-like vibrato that poignantly builds on the romantic sentimentality of her music. She promises an intimate and tender show full of shimmering guitar builds and heart-wrenching vocal outbursts that often sound on the verge of tears, but in control at the same time.

Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $11.50.

Hordern Pavillion, Moore Park. 6pm. $112.15.

Pludo Metro Theatre, Sydney CBD. 8pm. $20.

The Vacant Shade Oxford Art Factory Gallery, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $10.

Spirit Faces Waywards, Newtown. 7:30pm. $12.25.

FRIDAY MARCH 23

Twilight at Taronga feat: - Tex Perkins, Don Walker and Charlie Owen Taronga Zoo, Mosman. 6pm. $70.

Camp Cope + Chastity Belt + Sports Bra Metro Theatre, Sydney CBD. 7:30pm. $40.10.

SUNDAY MARCH 18

Jack River Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $19.75.

Young Blood feat: - Ali Barter, Tiny Little Houses, Flowertruck, Fritz, DZ Deathray DJs Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 12pm. $18.25.

THURSDAY MARCH 22 Goldlink Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $67.40. Yoko-Zuna + Godriguez Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $18.25. Prophets of Rage

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NOFX Hordern Pavillion, Moore Park. 6pm. $79.90.

SATURDAY MARCH 24 Joy Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $20.30. The Smith Street Band + Bec Sandridge + Press Club Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 7pm. $46.10. The Underachievers + Mick Jenkins +

Baro Metro Theatre, Sydney CBD. 8pm. $69.90. Lamine Sonko And The African Intelligence + Ajak Kwai Metro Theatre, Sydney CBD. 8pm. $23.

4. What is your favourite food? 3. Who is your favourite cartoon character?

The Ruminators + Crocodylus + Rosa Maria The Lansdowne, Chippendale. 4pm. $23.50. Zeahorse + White Dog + Snape Botany View Hotel, Newtown. 8pm. Free.

SUNDAY MARCH 25 Hockey Dad + Boat Show + Dear Seattle Metro Theatre, Sydney CBD. 8pm. $28.35. The Story So Far + Slowly Slowly + Easy Life Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 7pm. $58.

5. What puts you in a good mood?

MONDAY MARCH 26 Good Charlotte Hordern Pavillion, Moore Park. 6pm. $98.90. BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18 :: 73

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

Have a gig or club listing to get in The BRAG? You can now submit your gig and club listings, head to thebrag.com/gig-guide.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 28

THURSDAY MARCH 29

Leon Bridges Metro Theatre, Sydney CBD. 8pm. $89.90.

Benjamin Booker + Unity Floors Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8:30pm. $53.50.

The New Power Generation Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $95.60.

Lionel Richie Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olympic Park. 7:30pm. $122.15.

Morcheeba + Wallace Metro Theatre, Sydney CBD. 7pm. $83.20.

FRIDAY MARCH 30 Bad Friday feat: - Boo Seeka, The Belligerents, Party Dozen and more Railway Parade, Marrickville. 2pm. $65.30.

SUNDAY APRIL 1

TUESDAY APRIL 3

Newton Faulkner Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $62.

Borns Metro Theatre, Sydney CBD. 8pm. $54.90.

MONDAY APRIL 2

First Aid Kit + Stella Donnelly Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $79.

Lana Del Rey Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olympic Park. 7pm. $99.90.

Hurray For The Riff Raff

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

Hurray For The Riff Raff + Slow Dancer Dead + MoE + Grim + Arafura

MoshPit, Erskineville. Monday March 12. 7pm. $15. These four acts are some of Australia’s best when it comes to DIY noise rock. When Jem and Jace of Dead aren’t touring all edges of the world or making bone-crushing, rumbling grooves, they’re running their own label, WeEmptyRooms out of Victoria. They’ll be joined by their buds, Norwegian act MoE, as well as the ever-thrilling punk acts Arafura and Grim.

Factory Theatre, Marrickville. Monday March 26. 8pm. $62.

The Navigator was one of our favourite albums of 2017; a two-part narrative that combines the storytelling folk of Townes Van Zant and Gillian Welch, with Afro-American and Caribbean drums, Alynda Segarra tells the coming of age of a young woman grappling with her Puerto Rican ancestry. And excitedly, she’ll be bringing her stories to the Factory Theatre late this month.

free stuff head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

Have You Seen The Listers?

WIN

A DOUBLE PASS

Anthony Lister is an Australian hero – a graffiti extraordinaire whose colourful, spray-painted images have received praise from gallerists, critics, and celebrities alike (he counts Paris Hilton as one of his multitude of fans.) But even punters well acquainted with his work might not know his troubled life story, one that involves struggles with addiction, domestic fractures, and a series of pressing economic burdens. Fascinatingly, all that back history is beautifully detailed in a new Australian documentary, Have You Seen The Listers? that explores Lister’s life in his own words. It’s a startling work – by turns heartbreaking and heartfelt, and one that fans and newcomers alike are sure to lap up. The film hits Australian cinemas on Thursday April 5, and we have ten double passes to giveaway. To enter, head along to thebrag.com/freeshit. 74 :: BRAG :: 735 :: 07:03:18

thebrag.com

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25 MARCH HORDERN PAVILION

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22 MARCH HORDERN PAVILION GO TO LIVENATION.COM.AU

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