Brag#363

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N I G H T WO R K T O U R

BIG TOP TUESDAY JULY 27 ON SALE THIS FRIDAY

1300 BIG TOP or bigtopsydney.com, ticketmaster.com.au or 136 100 Presented by Michael Coppel I scissorsisters.com I coppel.com.au 4 :: BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10

New album Night Work in stores June 25

SECRET SOUNDS PRESENTS

SIDESHOWS ON SALE NOW

The Album ‘Go’ CD/DVD - Experience Edition - out now

TICKETS FROM METRO, PH 02 9550 3666, WWW.METROTHEATRE.COM.AU, TICKETEK PH 132 849 OR WWW.TICKETEK.COM.AU

TIX: METRO THEATRE, (02) 9550 3666 OR METROTHEATRE.COM.AU; TICKETEK OUTLETS, 132 849 OR TICKETEK.COM.AU

ASH the album A-Z Vol.1 OUT NOW WE ARE SCIENTISTS the album Barbara out June 18

MY BEST FRIEND IS YOU out now on UMA www.getmusic.com.au/katenash

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS

CLOUD CONTROL

FRIDAY JULY 30 METRO THEATRE

Tickets from venue: Ph 02 9550 3666 or www.metrotheatre.com.au or Ticketek Ph: 132 849 or www.ticketek.com.au

E VENUGE CHANTO

DUE G HELMIN OVERW ND! DEMA

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS

MON 2ND AUG

MANNING BAR New album THE RUNAWAY Out July on Heavenly/Cooperative

Tickets available: manningbar.com, www.oztix.com.au or 1300 762 545; Moshtix Ph 1300 GET TIX (438 849), or www.moshtix.com.au ACCESS tickets: In person from Access Centre (Lvl 1, Manning House) OAF ticket holders: original tickets will be valid for entry @ Manning.

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TAME IMPALA

INNERSPEAKER DEBUT ALBUM OUT NOW tameimpala.com

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modularpeople.com

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AUSTRALIAN TOUR WITH SPECIAL GUESTS AND CAIRO KNIFE FIGHT (NZ) Presented by Fidelity Corporation and Billions Australia

Friday 25 June - Sawtell RSL, COFFS HARBOUR Tickets from Park Beach Music (The Plaza), Coopers Surf (Palms Shopping Centre), www.offbeatoperations.com.au & www.karnivool.com.au

Saturday 26 June - Newcastle Panthers Tickets from the venue, www.karnivool.com.au & www.moshtix.com.au

wednesday 30 June - metro theatre, sydney

THURSDAY 1 JULY ALL AGES SHOW Metro Theatre, SYDNEY TICKETS ON SALE THURSDAY 27 MAY from Metro Box Office Tel:02) 9550 3666 or www.metrotheatre.com.au

FRIDAY 2 JULY 3RD & FINAL SHOW Metro Theatre, SYDNEY TICKETS ON SALE THURSDAY 27 MAY from Metro Box Office Tel:02) 9550 3666 or www.metrotheatre.com.au

Saturday 3 July - ANU Bar, CANBERRA Tickets from www.ticketek.com.au and all Ticketek outlets K A R N I V O O L

www.karnivool.com.au 8 :: BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10

www.myspace.com/karnivool

the new album

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rock music news welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on, down and around town. By Nathan Jolly

he said she said WITH

GEOFF FROM CRAYON FIELDS (VIC) One of my earliest musical memories is my mum on the floor surrounded by records and head banging to Slade’s Alive! (Slade’s live album.) She thought then, and probably still thinks now, that the band itself are called ‘Slade Alive!’

My parents are most definitely not musicians – they’re more into motorbikes and plastic fruit. Another earlier musical memory that comes to mind is when I recorded myself singing Rolling Stones songs on my parents’ cassette player in primary school. Later in high school a friend somehow got hold of it and I was shamed for months.

B

rett and I formed the band in high school, then our drummer left to become a lumberjack (true). So we

enlisted Neil and Chris. We seem to like similar things, and we’ve been getting along quite well since I bought the taser.

At the moment I listen to a lot of Lee Hazlewood, Felt, Dory Previn, Bryan Ferry and Prince. I generally like vocal based pop music that has a strong personality and bit of - as my dad would say – ‘front’. It’s always hard to know what inspires you; often the music I like most is far removed from what I set out to make. I find I’ll become obsessed with the one song, and listen to it over and over for weeks.

At the moment that song is ‘City Of Dreams’

by Talking Heads, which is odd because I never used to like it all that much.

Bridezilla

EDITOR: Steph Harmon steph@thebrag.com 9552 6333 ARTS EDITOR & ASSOCIATE: Dee Jefferson dee@thebrag.com 9552 6333 STAFF WRITER: Jake Stone jake@thebrag.com NEWS CO-ORDINATORS: Chris Murray, Chris Honnery ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant GRAPHIC DESIGN: Irina Belova SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER: Tim Levy SNAP PHOTOGRAPHERS: Ashley Mar, Sofii McKenzie, Rosette Rouhana, Daniel Munns, Hannah Cary, Patrick Stevenson, Andrea Heart, Maja Baska, Jeremy Bowring, Jacquie Manning, Will Reichelt

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Joshua Blackman, Mikey Carr, Bridie Connell, Tony Edwards, Christie Eliezer, Murray Engleheart, Chris Familton, Lucy Fokkema, Mike Gee, Alice Hart, Kate Hennessy, Chris Honnery, Nathan Jolly, Amelia Schmidt, Xanthe Seacret, Jonno Seidler, RK, Beth Wilson, Alex Young Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this address 153 Bridge Road, Glebe NSW 2037 ph - (02) 9552 6333 fax - (02) 9552 6866 EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Publisher, Editor or Staff of The Brag.

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Stephen Forde : accounts@furstmedia.com.au ph - (03) 9428 3600 fax - (03) 9428 3611 Furst Media, 3 Newton Street Richmond Victoria 3121 DEADLINES: Editorial Wednesday 12pm (no extentions) Art Work, Ad Bookings Thursday 12pm (no extensions) Ad Cancellations Tuesday 4pm Published by Cartrage P/L ACN 104026388 All content copyrighted to Cartrage 2003 DISTRIBUTION: Wanna get The Brag? email distribution@furstmedia.com.au or ph 03 9428 3600.

PRINTED BY SPOTPRESS: www.spotpress.com.au 24 – 26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville NSW 2204

10 :: BRAG :: 363 : 24:05:10

The music community in Melbourne is incredible. Everyone is extremely supportive, and on most nights of the week there’ll be a band worth seeing. A new-ish venue called the Birmingham has hosted some great band residencies lately, and I’ve been spending a lot of time there. I often wonder whether I would have moved to Melbourne if I’d grown up in another city. Some new local acts that I’ve really enjoyed recently have been Pop Singles, Darren Sylvester, Fatti Frances (even though I was kicked out of her band) and Milk Teddy.

Who: Crayon Fields With: Parades and Step-Panther Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Saturday May 29

SHH…IT’S A SECRET SOCIETY!!

The Vanguard is introducing a new bandfriendly jangley indie night of awesomeness called Secret Society. And in their first ever headlining show since that glorious gig in a kitchen in Newtown somewhere during a drunken, smoky party, six-piece Guineafowl will cram onto that tiny stage and hit each other in the face with the ends of various instruments, all for your pleasure. Feel bad that you turned up late and missed the (awesomely named) BMXicans and Vacations now, don’t you? The whole thing happens on May 25, costs a tenner, and either the doors open at 6:30pm, or The Doors reform and play at that time - the press release didn’t make that entirely clear. So turn up and find out for yourself.

PUBLISHERS: Adam Zammit & Rob Furst EDITOR IN CHIEF: Adam Zammit 9552 6333 adam@peergroupmedia.com

SALES/MARKETING MANAGER: Mark Brownie 0411 547 356 / (02) 9552 6672 brownie@thebrag.com ADVERTISING: Les White - 0405 581 125 / (02) 9552 6618 les@thebrag.com ADVERTISING: Sara Golchin - (02) 9552 6747 sara@thebrag.com GIG & CLUB GUIDE CO-ORDINATOR: Christian Moraga - gigguide@thebrag.com (rock) clubguide@thebrag.com (dance) INTERN: Rach Seneviratne. Happy Birthday!

I guess our music could be described as romantic pop. It’s been described as naïve and childish by some, and sleazy by others make of that what you will. Our live show often involves props, smoke and floral arrangements, though it’s more for decorative purposes than a theatrical kick. We like to make the songs sound fairly different to the record when we perform live - they often become a little more RnR.

LIONS AND SPITFIRES IN KINGS CROSS

BRIDEZILLA RESIDENCY (NOT A REALITY SHOW)

Bridezilla are young, successful, insanely talented and gorgeous, so there are a lot of reasons to hate them with a passion. Luckily we love them, and are stoked that they’ll be headlining the June instalment of the Oxford Art Factory Showcase series. Even if Bridezilla weren’t playing (which they are!) it would be worth the measly $5 they’re charging to check out the two support bands. Domeyko/Gonzalez use a series of pedals, samplers, synths and other noisy toys to create an awesome wall of shoegazey goodness, while Step-Panther are a Sydney based surf rock trio who just released their surftastic surf EP titled Surf. I hope I didn’t box these surfies dude in too much. Hang ten. The whole thing goes down on Wednesday June 16 and might be the best thing you do all month (especially knowing you…)

TUNED IN FESTIVAL

Unless you are a bigoted fuck-faced fuck, the idea of improving relationships and understanding between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians is an important one. With music being the food of love (or something along those lines…), the New South Reconciliation Council have brought together a smorgasbord of Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists for The Tuned In Festival - an event aiming to draw attention to the issue. Among the acts to play are

Cypress Hill

Urthboy, Last Kinection, The Jezabels and Loathing Stacy. The event organisers made us all feel rather old by stating: “It’s been ten years since thousands of people walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to show support for the reconciliation movement… Tuned In aims to engage the next generation, to continue on the progress already made in achieving a reconciled nation” It all takes place on Sunday May 30 at Dubbo RSL from 1:30pm.

Visit nswreconcilation.org.au

Not the teaser for Underbelly 6: Machine Vs. Beast, but a show happening on Friday May 28. Lions At Your Door, The Spitfires, Canopy Choirs and Radio National will be playing at World Bar, which if you haven’t been there before is pretty much the only venue in Sydney where you can drink out of a teapot, wander into two rooms full of bands that are nearly always interesting, hear DJs playing great tunes, and still duck into one of many tiny rooms to have a conversation that doesn’t involve nodding and laughing and pretending you heard what that girl you just met said.

FEDERAL BUREAU OF AWESOMENESS

Sure Kyle and Jackie O are brilliant purveyors of avant-garde culture and on the pulse of new music - nobody is denying that simple truth. But occasionally we want something predictable and familiar. Luckily New Weird Australia has bundled seven exclusive tracks recorded live at Unpopular Music 2009, a benefit gig held last year to raise funds for commercial juggernaut FBi 94.5. The dulcet tones of Scissor Lock, Anna Chase, Nick Wishart, kyu, Anon, Mandala Trap and Pimmon are available for $10 on the quaint ‘digital download’ format at newweirdaustralia.com. All proceeds go to help FBi Radio. Ahh, takes me back...

CYPRESS? DID SOMEBODY ORDER AN ORCHESTRA?

We were pretty excited when this press release came, but in the interests of truth, we have amended it where we saw fit: “Cypress Hill has long represented the will of the people [replace ‘will of the people’ with ‘stoners who like pulsing basslines and lyrics about smoking weed, growing weed, cops trying to take their weed, and spilling bong water on the carpet’].

With over 18 million albums sold worldwide, [that’s a lot of stoned people] the Los Angeles trio of rappers B –Real, Sen Dog [more a wheezer than a rapper] and producer DJ Muggs have continued to push rap’s boundaries [sing about the aforementioned topics] since their inception in the early ‘90s. In 2010 Cypress Hill will release their 8th studio album, ‘Rise Up’ produced by Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine [not a good idea]…. ‘Rise Up’ is the trio’s first release under the Snoop Dogg administration at Priority Records [of course Snoop signed them… Hang on, Snoop is allowed to run a label? Like a multi-million dollar label?

Snoop? Ah well…]” Anyway, point is – Cypress Hill are heading to Australia for a national tour, playing Enmore on September 24 and headlining Coaster Festival on the Central Coast. Tickets are on sale June 3.

GIG OF THE WEEK

WED 26 MAY

THUR 27 MAY HOT DAMN

UPSTARTS: ARC ARCHER + SIREN LINES SPOOKY LAND MRS BISHOP 8PM- $8

SARAH SPANDEX HEARTATTACK + MARK C NAT NOIZE

HOT DAMN:

FRI 28 MAY

THUR 27 MAY

9PM-$10/$12

SOSUEME

LADIES & GENTLEMEN LIVE BUILT ON SECRETS TOASTERS BOUTIQUE (MELB) IN THIS DEFENCE CAPTAIN FRANCO, LEVINS & SPRUCE LEE throw a party.

A Hip Hop party. A party for people who like to party… to Hip Hop music.

The Hip Hop they play isn’t necessarily what you would expect at a Hip Hop party.

It’s old, it’s new, it’s classic, it’s grimy… it even sometimes includes R&B that helped make Hip Hop sound like what we know and love today.

It is, well, it is what it is. A Hip Hop party for party people. And the next one is happening on SATURDAY MAY 29TH at that fantastic underground lair that is PHOENIX BAR!

8PM-$10/$12

FRI 28 MAY

DAN KELLY

(BINDI IRWIN APOCALYPSE JAM – SINGLETOUR)

EAGLE & THE WORM WONS PHREELY AFTER 11.30

SILENT ALARM $5 8PM - $17pre $20door

SAT 29 MAY

LAST DINOSAURS (BACK FROM THE DEAD – EP LAUNCH)

SCEPTIC DSEEVA DJ'S

A-DRONE + RIP LEE FIXD (MELB) + JOYRIDE ALISON WONDERLAND ELAINE BENES + LATCH DJ SAMMY K + JOHNNY MAC 8PM-$10

SAT 29 MAY

NAKED PARADE (EP LAUNCH)

AFTER 11.30

FRAMES + OMZLAY

WITH DJ'S

JAMIE VON PARTY V'S PAUL DONE

KNIFE & GOLDFOOT $10 8PM - $10pre $13door

VOID – DUBSTEP SYDNEY SHOWCASE ALL CREWS REPRESENT VOID LAW SOCIETY SPACE IS THE PLACE DUB RAVE GROUNDED BOUDI BASS CENTRAL COAST

3 HUNDREDS

DETNUM + LAST DINOSAURS DJ SET

8PM - $10early $15late

EVERY FRIDAY MEMBERS ONLY EVERY SATURDAY MEMBERS ONLY

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SAT 29 MAY

4TH SATURDAY EACH MONTH HALFWAY OF CROOKS BURLESQUE CAPTAIN FRANCO LEVINS SPRUCE LEE 10PM-$10

DAYCLUB GHETTO DISCOSAT/SUN RISING DAYCLUB LIVE

ESCAPE + LEROY THE SLEEPYHEADS NEON LOVE + NEW NAVY DJ'S

P*A*S*H

FRI 28 MAY

DJS JOHAN KHOURY DAN MURPHY + CHIP,

HIGH ENERGY VOCAL, UPLIFTING HOUSE

5:30AM $10/$15

SUN 30 MAY

LOOSE ENDS MATT VAUGHAN +GUESTS

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BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10 :: 11

rock music news

free stuff

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on, down and around town. By Nathan Jolly

FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM

five things WITH

STEVEN FROM SCUL HAZZARDS (VIC)

Growing Up I remember the first music 1. that I heard, the first music that

in Australia and Europe. Until returning to Australia recently, we had spent two years touring much of Europe, being based in London. I think our time in London and Europe heavily influences how last album Landlord came out. It is a lot more tense and dark, and somehow more hateful, than our previous efforts. The live show will be just as tense, drunk yet tight, and pretty damn loud.

got me excited and also inspired me to play guitar, was some kind of Jimi Hendrix Experience Best Of collection. In particular I remember being blown away by ‘Star Spangled Banner’. I was about eight I think, and it was like nothing I’d heard before. I think it still stays with me to this day, as much of my guitar playing retains a lot of the chaotic noise I heard in that piece. I still really love ‘Star Spangled Banner’ and a lot of his more unconventionally arranged songs.

Music, Right Here, Right Now 5.

We’re not from Sydney, but I can

Inspirations Favourite musicians… that’s 2. a tough one. I think that favourite bands is more relevant for me as I’ve always preferred entire bands that were good as opposed to particular members. Some of my favourites are Electrelane, Shellac, Blonde Redhead and then a lot of classic stuff like The Stooges and Bob Dylan. Probably the most relevant in referencing our band are The Jesus Lizard, Shellac, Big Black, and maybe even the In Utero era Nirvana.

3.

Your Band Scul Hazzards is myself, Steven Smith, on guitar and vocals, Tiffany Milne on bass, and Leigh Fischer on drums. As far as differing musical opinions go – I think there

are vast contrasts between us. Leigh and Tiffany love their metal while I like my indie and classic rock, although I do venture a little into heavier stuff as well. I think it’s our differences in taste and the push and pull between them that make our music unique, though.

The Music You Make Scul Hazzards are in the very simplest 4. terms a noise rock band. My approach to the band and our song writing is to make heavy, noisy rock within a pop structure. We have recorded all our own music and have releases

say that it was much more difficult to find a venue to play at this time than in the past. Before we left, you had venues like the Hopetoun and a bunch of squats to play at.

But other places have popped up... You hear a lot of musicians complain about how tough it is but I think a lot of the time the ones complaining are those who have no promise and get no opportunities as a result.

You also have to recognise that when you play challenging music it’s not going to be for everyone, and you need to learn to manage your expectations accordingly.

Who: Scul Hazzards What: Landlord is out now Where: Mum @ World Bar When: Friday May 28

WAGONS

Melbourne five-piece Wagons are carving their own little niche in the Australian music scene. Led by enigmatic mystery man Henry Wagon, the band essentially play ‘country’ music, harnessing the rollicking guitar ditties, rustic angular drums and deep Johnny Cash vocals that evoke visions of pastoral and bucolic glory.

Those Darlins had to cancel, but Wagons are still touring - and we have a handful of double passes for their gigs at The Annandale on May 28, The Clarendon Guesthouse on May 29 and The Brass Monkey on May 30, with special guests The Snowdroppers and The Exiles. To win, tell us the colour of Wagons’ MySpace background. Giddy up!

WIM RESIDENCY

‘Secret Garden’ by Springsteen is a pretty shabby song. But don’t let that be a deciding factor when weighing up whether you wanna catch WIM this Thursday May 28, and the following week too - in an indoor garden at Hidden Level 4, Kings Cross Hotel, which you have to enter via a secret entrance on Brougham Lane… Sounds like a Blyton book…

They’ve been playing their ‘Citizen’ residency all month already with supports like Guinea Fowl, Andy Clockwise and the Maple Trail.

They have Cloud Control lined up for June 3, too. And in case you haven’t heard of WIM, their presser states “WIM have garnered critical acclaim the world over from the LA Times, BRAG and much more.” The Times and BRAG, breaking the scene worldwide. Sounds in order.

DRAWN FROM BEES

Richmond Fontaine

RICHMOND FONTAINE

Richmond Fontaine isn’t a person, it’s a pretty prolific alt-country band – headed by acclaimed author Willy Vlautin. And that band will be playing the intimate and classy Notes in Newtown as part of the touring cycle for their eight album, the heartbreaking We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River. ‘Touring cycle’ sounds a bit mechanical, so let’s call this an intimate showcase of their latest material. Supporting them on this very special evening is Perry Keyes, and the charming Robert F Cranny. It all happens Friday May 28, and tickets are available from the venue.

MM9 AND KARNIVOOL TOUR LIKE MOFOS

I don’t wanna exaggerate, but chances are if you live anywhere in the state and walk into any pub venues at any time during the end of June / start of July you will probably either see Karnivool playing, or MM9 playing before them. And it’s pretty much a definite if you match the following dates with the following venues - unless you don’t have a ticket, in which case I can’t really help you. June 25 at Sawtell RSL, June 26 at Newcastle Panthers, June 30 at Metro (sold out, so wait until July 1 or 2 to see them at the same venue…), July 3 at ANU Bar, Canberra and July 4 at The Station, Jindabyne.

Tickets on sale now.

JBT APRIL UPRISING

John Butler Trio are very popular, possibly more now than ever. They’ve just released a number one album and seen some American success - and to celebrate they’ll be taking their April Uprising Tour to a series of non-biodegradable

venues around the country… They play Wollongong on September 2, The Hordern on September 3, Newcastle Entertainment Centre on September 7, and C.ex at Coffs Harbour on September 8. Ticket will go on sale on May 31, and you’d better get in quickly if you wanna secure a ticket on ticketek.com.au.

EVERYTHING IN ITS RIGHT PLACE

Speak n Spell label-head David Shrimpton brings out some pretty ace records, like Midlake, School of Seven Bells, Black Lips, Fourtet, Patrick Wolf… But just because he’s so good at his day job doesn’t mean that he doesn’t excel in other artistic fields. Such a presumption is unwarranted, and I will not stand for it. He happens to be an ace photographer, and if you need further proof of that than the preceding phrase, I suggest you head to the Mart Gallery between June 11 and June 26 and check out some of his pictures.

Around gallivanting around LA, Drawn from Bees are back in their country to launch their debut album Fear Not The Footsteps Of The Departed. It’s all complex and multi-layered and stuff, but you’ll find that out soon enough. Gaelic Club and July 10 are the two other things you will need to jot down in that book you always misplace (it’s slipped down between your bed and the wall...)

THE MAGIC CLOUDS

If you’ve not heard of brilliant 90s shoegaze band The Magic Clouds, it is because I just made them up by cleverly tweaking The Magic Numbers and Cloud Control. Why would I do such a thing? Well, to herald the announcement that Cloud Control will be supporting the Mamas and Papas of the 21st Century, The Magic Numbers. They both play on July 30 at the Metro and will both be killer. Tickets on sale directly after you read this entire issue.

PIVOT LOSE THEIR VOWELS

Due to some legal bollocks, Pivot are now known as PVT. Yeah it sounds a bit rubbish, but what certainly doesn’t is their cracking new single ‘Window’, which is available to stream online in the build up to their forthcoming LP Church With no Magic, due out in July. RCHRD PYK from the band isn’t happy about the change either: “It was frustrating and kind of ridiculous, but it became quickly obvious that it was a legal battle in the US we may not even win, and one we just couldn’t afford to lose. So in the end, we weren’t phased by it. Altering the name just seemed to be another step in the process for the record to come out and be heard.” Fair enough. We pretty much can’t wait for that album.

Song Summit LIVE Showcases The program has finally landed for Song Summit LIVE – a collection of public showcases from exciting homegrown and international talent. It’ll be taking place on June 19 & 20 at Home nightclub as part of Song Summit 2010, a major music expo presented

by APRA|AMCOS and the NSW Government as part of 2010’s VIVID Sydney… Here are some highlights: Saturday June 19 features artists Tenielle Neda and Luke Web, winners of Telstra Road to Tamworth, and the CMAA Telstra Horizon Award winner Amber Lawrence. Telstra Road to Tamworth is an awesome program offering fantastic opportunities for music development across Australia. This year, the award included separate performer and songwriter categories, and a digital heat for people who live more than 400 kms from the nearest physical heat location - giving more chances to country music hopefuls across Australia.

On Sunday June 20, Song Summit LIVE goes global with performances from Canada’s hottest emerging artists as part of Sydney Meets Sydney – a cross-cultural program between Sydney (Australia), and Sydney (Canada).

Performing on the night will be Canadians Carmen Townsend and Two Hours Traffic as well as local talents Fergus Brown and Dead Letter Chorus.

The events are open to the public and tickets can be purchased online now. Go to www.songsummit.com.au/LIVE, and follow the link to Ticketek.

We’ll be featuring more details about other Song Summit LIVE performances in this column every week, so stay tuned…

“Don’t make me wreck shit, hectic. Next get the chair got me goin’ like General Electric” - CYPRESS HILL 12 :: BRAG :: 363 : 24:05:10

NICHE PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS

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BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10 :: 13

dance music news

free stuff

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... With Chris Honnery onthefly.com.au

FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM

he said she said WITH

JEM FROM THE NAKED PARADE Mum has a music background from her grandfather, who was a keen ukulele player. Dad can strum a bit of ‘Kumbaya’ on the guitar... but that’s about it! My earliest childhood memory is of being ushered into the back of a very dark Sydney Opera House concert hall, around the age of three, and playing ‘Busy Busy Stop Stop’ on the violin.

I’ve loved music my entire life. Even completing a stuffy classical music degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music couldn’t dampen my spirits - but I’ve known that something was missing that whole time, and I couldn’t put my finger on it... It wasn’t until 2006 that I bought a pickup, effects pedal and looper for my violin and discovered what was missing! I love performing, I love the stage and those bright shiny lights.

T

he Naked Parade was born in a dingy theatre at the after party for an Arabian pantomime. We have been described as the lovechild conceived while Jeff Buckley and No Doubt were travelling through gypsy Europe and the Middle East.

The Naked Parade is an alternative pop/ rock band out to prove the music scene is still alive and kicking in Sydney. The closing down of the Hoey last year seemed to be a nail in the coffin of Sydney’s live music scene. We even thought about relocating to Melbourne. However, with our growing fan base and the launch of our debut EP The Science of Lust on May 29 at Q Bar, we decided to stay put. Sydney still has a musical pulse and we’re doing our bit to keep it alive.

Our gig on Saturday isn’t just an EP launch - it’s a mini music festival! 30 musicians, four bands plus dancing girls and DJs. We always

JACQUES RENAULT Autechre

BLACK CHERRY

New Yorker Jacques Renault, also known for his Runaway project, drops in to the Civic Underground this Saturday to play Adult Disco.

First catching the eye through his output on the Wurst Edits and RVNG of the Nerd imprints, it was the release of Runaway’s massive single ‘Brooklyn Club Jam’ on both DFA and Radioslave’s Rekids label that propelled Renault to that next level of fame; we’re talkin’ coke, money, sex, and glamour (maybe). He has since remixed the likes of Moby, LCD Soundsystem, Chairlift and Sydney’s own Lost Valentinos and released on Permanent Vacation, Italians Do It Better and Im A Cliché – the past few years have been kind to Jacques Renault. Support comes from Disco Delicious’ Andy Webb and Future Classic DJs, with doors open from 10pm and entry $15 before midnight.

give our gigs a dress theme. This one is ‘The Science of Lust: All Things Sexy’. In other words, schmicked up to the 9s, pin-up, corsets, fetish, short shorts, burlesque, leather, lace...

Honestly we always get a crap load of hot chicks turning up to our gigs dressed to the 9’s because they love the dress themes.

The gig is all about fun. Heaps of production has gone into this night. There’s a dress theme, four high energy bands guaranteed to get you up and dancing, live feed photography - plus soon we’re going to be doing a live EP launch through Bondi FM! Everyone in the band grew up in Sydney, and while we know it’s a tougher city than Melbourne to forge a music career in, we love it here. It can be a struggle putting gigs together in Sydney, because there just aren’t enough venues. But we know that if we want to play, we need to create our own opportunities.

Sydney still has a musical pulse and we’re doing our bit to keep it alive. 505 in Surry Hills, The Red Rattler in Marrickville and the Beach Road Hotel in Bondi are a few awesome music venues to scope out original music - also the Mac Hotel in Surry Hills is awesome for funk!

Who: The Naked Parade What: The Science Of Lust EP is out now Where: Q Bar, Oxford Street When: Saturday May 29

Are you craving African funk on Australian dancefloors? Melbournites Public Opinion Afro Orchestra and Sydney’s The Strides are here to save the day, teaming up for a double-headed bill at The Basement on May 28 – expect an electrifying night of afro-funk, dance-dub, reggae-hip hop, exotic soul, groovy jazz (and every other genre-jamming description under the sun). POAO are confirming their status as ‘afrobeat heavyweights’, and will be boasting a 16-strong line-up of chilled out funk merchants. The Strides have also expanded in number and now feature a 3-piece horn section for bonus pizzazz. To win a double pass to this wicked evening, tell us the name of a member of POAO. (Check the MySpace!)

Photosynthesis is a showcase of Australian electronica slotted for The Metro this Friday May 28 that will donate all proceeds raised to the Rainforest Rescue foundation. The event is an initiative from the CoreMelt Studios, REGEN, Ixchel, Subsonic Music and Kaptivate crews, and boasts a lineup of local electronic pioneers across dub, industrial, psytrance and electro sounds. Spoonbill, Ganga Giri, Snog, Pitch Black, Benza and Tom Elleard of Severed Heads fame will be playing in the mainroom, while there will be a second room of underground talent. There will also be live burlesque and circus performances, visuals, art installations and plenty of information about what Rainforest Rescue is doing around the world to help save forests, with $35 presale tickets available online.

BOUNDARY BONDS WITH...

RAYMOND NEDZIAK,

MERSEY SOUND COLLECTIVE Who is the Mersey Sound Collective?

The MSC is a group of artists, musicians, and poets who come together in order to collaborate and influence each other’s practice in a live setting. Our main focus is to unite people from different fields and factions of Sydney’s underground art scene, especially poets who’ve not had exposure in the live context.

How did the idea come to fruition?

My sister Patrycja and I would attend this monthly event called ‘Token Word’, run by Jess Cook and the Token Imagination crew. We were both really inspired by what they were doing, and equally disappointed when the event was cancelled. A couple of years passed before we decided to fill that void. When I started writing in high school, Patrycja gave me a book by the Mersey Sound poets - a group of poets from Liverpool who’d often recite at gigs side by side with bands. It was this spirit of crosspollination and fusion that inspired us to expand on our idea.

Seminal UK electronic duo Autechre, who are often compared with the likes of Aphex Twin and Squarepusher – high praise indeed! – play The Forum this Friday May 28 as part of their first Australia tour in over 15 years! Hailing from Rochdale, Autechre’s Rob Brown and Sean Booth are on the ‘intelligent’ electronic music tip, with the tragically defunct online publication Stylus Magazine affirming “there is flesh, bone, and brain beneath the near industrial barrage of beats”. The long overdue tour follows Autechre’s latest LP Oversteps, which was released in March on Warp Records through Inertia.

Local crew Foreigndub continue their monthly Remedy bash on Friday June 11 with UK duo Total Science headlining a night of ‘proper’ drum n bass that will cost all you proletariats absolutely nothing. Total Science have been producing since the early 90s, notching up acclaimed releases on their own CIA label and Goldie’s Metalheadz imprint, and will be joined by a support cast that includes Vice Versa, Fire vs Whitey and the Foreigndub DJs from 6pm at the UTS Loft Bar.

PUBLIC OPINION AFRO ORCHESTRA

PHOTOSYNTHESIS

AUTECHRE

REMEDY

Buxom burlesque bonanza Black Cherry is back for another rager of a night at the Factory Theatre on May 29, featuring a long and sordid list of bands, burlesque performers and DJs. Sexy rockers Torch Le Monde, rockabilly dynamos Wes Pudgey & The Sonic Aces, ska-cumreggae chillers Los Capitanes and sweatinducing glam band Devine Electric will guide you through the night with their own contrasting styles. On the burlesque front, aerial acrobat Kelly Ann Doll, Amsterdam import Danica Lee, and hula-hooping party starter Heidi Hoops will provide the entertainment we all came for... And with a sponsor like Green Fairy Original Czech Absinthe - how can it go wrong?

To win one of 3 double passes, visit factorytheatre.com.au and name one of the DJs playing on the night.

Scissor Sisters

SCISSOR SISTERS RETURN

The ever flamboyant Scissor Sisters return to Australia in July on the back of their forthcoming third LP Nightmoves, produced by Stuart Price of Madonna and Les Rythmes Digitales fame and scheduled for a June 25 release through Universal.

Frontman Jake Shears describes the album as “really us boiled down to who we are. It feels quintessentially us.” If lead-off single ‘Invisible Light’ is any indication, the new release will see the American outfit exploring more electronic sound – it’s an infectious, synthdriven disco cut that gives a nod to Giorgio Moroder et al. It also features a spoken word breakdown from Gandalf himself, Sir Ian McKellen, that rivals Vincent Price in ‘Thriller’ – except Ian focuses on, er, “sailors’ lust and sexual gladiators”. The Scissor Sisters play the Big Top at Luna Park on Tuesday July 27, with tickets on sale from 9am this Friday.

What can people expect at a Mersey Sound event?

They can expect improvised sounds.

They can expect local poets of every breed. They can expect installations and live art. The rest they will have to come and see for themselves.

What’s coming up?

A few projects are brewing. We’re always trying to contribute to other events/ projects in Sydney. The next scheduled MSC event will take place next month in a forest in the Blue Mountains. Stay tuned to Facebook for more details...

“Duck from the gunshots that is sticking to ya. Standing all alone shotgun goes boo-ya”- CYPRESS HILL 14 :: BRAG :: 363 : 24:05:10

BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10 :: 15

free stuff

dance music news welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... With Chris Honnery onthefly.com.au

FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM

five things WITH UNDERTOW Growing Up The Music You Make Growing up I listened to all sorts The album is a straight up hip 1.

4. of music, from the Beach Boys to hop album with a heap of different the Sex Pistols. I played guitar and sang in a punk/hardcore band in school too.

Inspirations I am inspired by all sorts of 2. musicians, but to pick a favourite one would be very difficult. I love everything from Simon and Garfunkel to Black Sabbath. At the moment I’m heavily inspired by UK hip hop. Unsigned artists like Rhyme Asylum and Contact Play who are just doing their thing and getting it out there... Also I just heard that Trem of LC’s album will be coming later in the year, and that is inspiring!

Your Band It’s a solo project, with most of 3. the production handled by Dazed from Melbourne - with guest beats from Flawlezz and Rob Hectick. I first met Dazed a few years back when he lived in Sydney with Flawlezz. We caught up and worked on ‘Swagger’ together, which is on Minds Believing. It was a DnF tune, but they weren’t going to use it so I thought I would. It worked out well.

The album also features all sorts of other Sydney artists such as Fame, Rinse, and Swarmy to name a few.

styles and influences. I recorded the album with Fame at The Bank Studios. People can expect an energetic and fun live show, with something to wet every hip hop listener’s appetite.

Music, Right Here, Right Now 5.

At the moment the music scene is great... The main thing the hip hop community would have to overcome is finding venues that will put on local nights really. A lot of different walks of life inspire me… A roots band called Jesse Morris and the 3 Beans, reggae and drum n’ bass acts like Sweet Az Sound System and Versionaries. Hip hop wise I would have to say peeps like That’s Them, Swarmy and Leanne Russo, Daily Meds and Thundamentals.

They would be the standouts at the moment however the music scene is alive and kicking with loads of talent emerging daily, so things can only get better!

Who: Undertow When: Saturday May 29 Where: St Petersburg

THE HOLIDAYS

The Holidays and their pretty tropical tunes will send you back to the halcyon days of the blissful summer that just went by, as you huddle into a foetal-shaped cocoon, molesting your hot water bottle while smothering yourself in thick doonas and hearty soups. The boys have been getting some well-deserved hype in the blogosphere as well as some loving remixes from bangin’ young dudes by the names of Jonathan Boulet and Aeroplane, so believe the hype! We have two double passes to give away to their May 27 gig at Oxford Art Factory, to get yo hands on some tickets tell us the name of their new single. HINT: Go to their MySpace!

RICHMOND FONTAINE

The name might sound a bit poncy, but Richmond Fontaine are far from that. This four-piece actually named themselves after a down-and-out cocaine mule they met in Nevada; they continue to defy any namebased expectations by creating evocative songs of love, loss and heartache through an Americana/alt-country filter. This month, the fellas are touring Australia’s east coast off the back of their ninth album, We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River – neatly coinciding with lead singer and part-time author Willy Vlautin’s appearance at Sydney Writers’ Festival. We have three double passes up for grabs, for the show at Notes Live in Newtown on May 28. To win one, drop the name of one of Vlautin’s novels!

DOOM NO LIKE VANILLA Nadastrom

Those of you entering the abovementioned Spank Remix Competition should cast your eyes over some passionate words from Bang Gang’s Jaime Doom before you begin your nascent production forays with Ableton et al.

Doom let fly about the prevalence of banal electro bands in the Australian dance scene in a recent online interview, asserting that “I really find the whole band thing weird… all these bands are just so vanilla… What is it with all those Aussie bands that are just vanilla as fuck and Sony Music just keeps pumping out these guys with their piece of shit, dressed up electro – on a conveyor belt for monkeys to listen to.”

Doom then proceeded to ‘name and shame’ the prime offender. “The band I was talking about was Miami Horror... Hopefully, we can start some sort of feud. Everyone’s too nice to each other in the Australian music scene, we need to start slagging each other off more.” You can count on Brag to do its part, Jamie!

JACK AT POLO LOUNGE

NADASTROM

US pair Nadastrom headline the second installment of Dance Club at Oxford Art Factory on Saturday June 19. The collective brainchild of Washington, D.C. natives Matt Nordstrom and Dave Nada - first introduced to Australia in a coup d’état from the original ideas factory, onthefly - Nadastrom hit the ground running with their chart-topping Pussy EP, and have continued the momentum with a frenetic gigging schedule. Nadastrom’s sound traverses electro, retro, Baltimore club, ghetto house and techno, and for better or worse encapsulates the club sounds of the next generation.

SPANK RECORDS REMIX COMP DEADLINE

The deadline for Spank Records’ second annual remix competition is 30th of May at 11.59pm EST, which means that time is running out for you to finish your breakthrough rework of D-Cup and Yolanda Be Cool’s ‘We No Speak Americano’. If you haven’t completed your masterpiece yet, you can take solace from the fact that many of the best club tracks have been recorded in an afternoon following a moment of inspiration. (And listening to tracks such as David Guetta and Akon’s ‘Sexy Chick’, you would have to say that half an hour could be enough time to throw together a ‘successful’ tune.) All entrants must complete an entry form when submitting their remix, which is available on the Spank website along with all the info spankrecords.com.au/sweat-it-out-comp/. The

winning remix will be announced first in Spank’s ‘Monthly DJ Equipment/Music Production Newsletter,’ and then on their website.

AEROPLANE’S MAIDEN FLIGHT

Belgian nu disco production pair and Aussie favourites Aeroplane, famed for their euphoric original productions like ‘Caramellas’ and remixes for luminaries such as Lindstrom and Grace Jones (the latter of which in particular is an absolute cracker), will release their first artist album this September. Hilariously (…) titled We Can’t Fly, the band are still putting the finishing touches on the record, but it’s slotted for a September 6 release date via Wall of Sound in the UK, so you can expect it to hit the airwaves in time for spring.

This Friday Sydney stalwart Mark Murphy shows dem young sconies how it should be done with a set at ‘Jack’ at the Polo Lounge, the Oxford Hotel. Jack is a soiree that celebrates ‘old skool’ house, disco, Detroit tech and everything in between, with MagdaB joining Murphdog behind the decks from 9pm till well past your bedtime. Boasting the tagline ‘wonk your body’ and free entry all night, Jack is an alluring option for misers after quality club tunes – a broad demographic at any time.

WFTO

Seasoned Brag journo, Tony ‘Afrobeat’ Edwards, shot me an email this week that functioned as an interesting counterpoint to the popular ‘Better Festivals Than Ours’ (BFTO) segment. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the inaugural ‘Worse Festivals Than Ours’! “English music festival the Glade was cancelled last week as organisers blamed bureaucrats for [metaphorically] strangling the electronic music event. In an official statement they explained, ‘Over the years we have fought hard to maintain the integrity of the event against steadily increasing restrictions imposed by local authority and police… This year the requirements imposed upon us for policing, security and stewarding have been greatly increased. To make matters worse the reluctance of the police to negotiate in advance and deliberately delay any dialogue with us has resulted in our being unable to tie down a final costing for the event.’” Doesn’t really have the same ring to it does it? Perhaps we don’t have it so bad Down Under!

Dexter

DEXTER

Multiple DMC World Champion Dexter will play Oxford Art Factory this Friday as part of his 20th anniversary XX world tour. The celebrated turntablist has been involved with The Avalanches, Grrilla Step and Curse The Machines throughout his career, and has remixed The Chemical Brothers, Beastie Boys and Dr Octagon. This show promises to offer a fusion of past and present, and you can expect Dexter to revisit some classic moments from DJ sets of years gone by against a backdrop of live video projections and VJ routines.

An array of guests will be joining him onstage, including the notorious Bboy Lama Roc, Royal Fam krumpers and world-class Torres Strait traditional dancer Albert David. $33 presale tickets are online.

“At the crossroads, sick of holdin’ the badlands where street wars, kick off quicker than Van Dam” - CYPRESS HILL 16 :: BRAG :: 363 : 24:05:10

METRIC’S

EMILY HAINES

HOLLY MIRANDA.

WITH STRINGS.

SLOW MUSIC NIGHT. LAURIE ANDERSON MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND HOLLY MIRANDA METRIC’S EMILY HAINES DOVEMAN CHIRGILCHIN BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA EYVIND KANG MARC RIBOT COLIN STETSON DOUG WIESELMAN SKULI SVERRISSON AND MORE.

METRIC’S EMILY HAINES WITH STRINGS 1 JUNE | OPERA THEATRE | FROM $39* ONLY AUSTRALIAN SHOW Emily Haines takes to the piano accompanied by a string quartet, with a stunning collection of specially arranged Metric songs plus her own solo work.

SLOW MUSIC NIGHT 4 JUNE | CONCERT HALL | FROM $59* The centrepiece event of Vivid LIVE with artists presenting their most intimate, reflective and serene compositions.

MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND.

HOLLY MIRANDA – 2ND SHOW NOW ON SALE! 2 & 3 JUNE | THE STUDIO | FROM $35* AUSTRALIAN DEBUT & ONLY SYDNEY SHOWS The singer’s debut album The Magician’s Private Library was produced by TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek and released on XL (home of White Stripes, Radiohead, The Horrors). Her charming music has been widely praised by Kanye West, Vanity Fair and the hipster music blogosphere.

DOWNTOWN MANHATTAN COMES TO SYDNEY. LAURIE ANDERSON. LOU REED. CURATORS.

MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND 2ND SHOW NOW ON SALE! 6 & 7 JUNE | THE STUDIO | FROM $35* ONLY AUSTRALIAN SHOWS My Brightest Diamond is the project of singer/ songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Shara Worden.

Mixing elements of opera, cabaret, chamber music and rock, their sound is exquisite and totally unique.

MAY 27- JUNE 11. FULL FESTIVAL PROGRAM & FREE EVENTS SYDNEYOPERAHOUSE.COM/VIVIDLIVE 02 9250 7777 *TRANSACTION FEE OF $5 - $8.50 APPLIES TO ALL BOOKINGS.

PARTNER

BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10 :: 17

Industrial Strength Industry Music News with Christie Eliezer

Life lines

Injured: Nikki Darlin of US bamd Those Darlins broke both bones in her left forearm during a festival gig in Ohio, causing them to postpone their Australian tour with The Wagons.

Injured: Jailed rapper Anerae “X-Raided” Brown was stabbed seven times in a brawl between black and Mexican inmates of Pleasant Valley State Prison in California. The Mexicans asked him to produce their rap album and he refused.

Ill: Tokio Hotel guitarist Tom Kaulitz told a German newspaper he fell ill after taking too many Viagra tablets and could not see straight for days.

Jailed: Northern Territory DJ Dylan Karta Prunster, 23, after pleading guilty to possessing and importing mephedrone.

Police raided his house in Darwin after he, umm, bragged about his commercial drug racket on Facebook.

Died: Former Sean Combs associate, rapper Dolla, shot and killed in a shoot out in a Beverly Hills mall.

Died: Dave Fisher, of the Highwaymen, popular 1960s folk group (‘Michael, Row the Boat Ashore’), 69.

Died: Bill Rule, radio announcer in Melbourne and Perth, in a Melbourne hospital.

AIR & MTV AUSTRALIA PACT DEAL Australian acts on labels which are members of Australian Independent Record Labels (AIR) will now be paid a royalty every time they are played on MTV — just like acts on major labels. AIR will act as a right-licensing body for its members.

Neither AIR nor MTV were willing to go into the actual numbers, but AIR GM Nick O’Byrne says he was pleased with the figure and that it was a “competitive deal” to what the majors were getting. Sources told us that MTV will pay extra if it exceeds the amount of Aussie indie content being broadcast. O’Byrne told this column, “We expect the amount of money distributed to our members to grow, as MTV is playing more music these days.”

Dave Sibley, MD, MTV Networks Australia & New Zealand said in a statement: “We have always been supporters of independent repertoire and, as our network evolves, it was right to formalise our relationship with the sector… We look forward to working more closely with AIR as it continues to grow its membership.”

Some AIR members as Shock and Remote Control withheld their videos from MTV until royalties were forked over. In 2008 AIR approached the ACCC to become a rights body. The deal is retroactive to January 1, 2010.

HEY, YOU CAN FIX THE MUSIC INDUSTRY’S WOES Aww come on, of course you’ve been flapping your gums about how to fix the music industry’s woes — even if no one asked you. Now Arts Minister Peter Garrett is inviting comments from musicians, industry execs and music fans on the Rudd Government’s draft of the Strategic Contemporary Music Industry Plan. It has five key areas for action.

These are enhancing industry cooperation; increasing exposure of Australian music

and fostering live music performances; boosting music industry exports and private capital investments to the music industry; improving training and skills development; and building business capability and innovation. A focus on Indigenous contemporary music will be integral to all of the key priority areas.

Garrett says, “This industry contributes around $2 billion to the economy and generates thousands of jobs across the contemporary music sectors.” Send your written submission to: Paul McInnes Assistant Secretary, Arts Policy and Access Branch, Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. GPO Box 787 Canberra ACT 2601 or to musicindustrystrategy@arts.gov.au

by June 30.

WIRTH EXITING MODULAR After three and a half years as GM of Modular Records, Marty Wirth is leaving on June 4.

AUSTEREO: STOP IT! YOU’RE KILLING US! Austereo will next month launch its fourth digital radio station, a comedy channel called Barry. Its first digital station Radar is starting to get a reputation in the biz for its content. The Hot30 Jelli, where listeners get to choose the playlist, winds down at the end of May. The “event” station, based around hot tours like Pink and AC/DC, is inactive at the moment — probably until Metallica turn up in October.

WELCOME TO THE PUNHOUSE! triple j Drive host The Doctor’s pun war — changing band names into a bad food pun — quickly went global through twitter.

Among suggestions were Crosby Stills and Mash (from Nine political editor Laurie Oakes), Fleetwood Big Mac (from Lateline anchor Leigh Sales), Lasagne West (from Illy), Modest Mousse, Tofugazi, Xavier Spud, Mash Grunwald, the Rolling Scones and The Meatles with John Lemmon, Paul A La Cartney, Mango Starr and Gorge Harrison.

AUSSIES MAKE IMPACT AT GREAT ESCAPE

SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS THE RESIDENTS IN

‘WE HUMAN BEINGS. WE THINK WE’RE FREE’ UNDER 30?

TICKETS JUST $30*

The focus on Australia at The Great Escape in the UK coincided with the event drawing a record audience — 5,000 music execs and 11,000 members of the public jamming themselves into 30 venues. Brisbane expats Violent Soho was one of the bands most talked about. The showcases of Aussie acts organized by Sounds Australia saw huge crowds for Sarah Blasko (who’s based in Europe this year and will play the summer festival circuit), Paul Dempsey, Eskimo Joe and Angus and Julia Stone.

Half a dozen labels showed interest in Philadelphia Grand Jury, including Sire founder Seymour Stein. One manager told this column that unlike Aussie bills he’d seen at other meets like South By Southwest, the Oz bands showcased were “cool, current and credible.” The first Aussie BBQ featured Blackchords, Hungry Kids Of Hungary, Bluejuice, teenagersintokyo, Bridezilla and Dappled Cities. The first day of the Great

THINGS WE HEAR * Mike Muir of Suicidal Tendencies (Sunshine Coast) and Jeff Martin of Tea Party (Perth) are the latest to be granted permanent residency in Australia. In January, Pavement’s Scott Kannberg moved to Melbourne from Seattle before marrying his Aussie partner Sarah in March. * The next part of the ‘Downunder’/’Kookaburra’ case goes back to court on May 28. The judge will work out what Larrikin Music will get, and all matters relating to cost.

BY AESCHYLUS, IN A NEW ADAPTATION BY TOM WRIGHT

Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company 1 June – 4 July 2010 Bookings (02) 9250 1777 sydneytheatre.com.au/oresteia DIRECTOR Tom Wright SET & COSTUME DESIGNER Alice Babidge LIGHTING DESIGNER Damien Cooper COMPOSER & SOUND DESIGNER Max Lyandvert WITH The Residents: Alice Ansara, Cameron Goodall, Ursula Mills, Julia Ohannessian, Zindzi Okenyo, Richard Pyros, Sophie Ross, Tahki Saul, Brett Stiller

* excludes Saturday evenings, transaction fees may apply.

18 :: BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10

* Over 5,000 Michael Jackson fans are split almost 50/50 on whether they believe he is still alive and masqueraded as burns victim Dave Dave on Larry King Live last September. Dave behaved and sounded like MJ. * The NSW licensing dudes are about to come down hard on those Sydney nightclubs who are turned away by doormen/women because they don’t look cool enough. They will now be

Escape also saw a panel of Aussie execs — Bill Cullen, Jaime Gough, Catherine Haridy, APRA’s Scot Morris, Danny Rogers of Laneway Festival, Inertia’s Ashley Sellers and publicist Chrissie Vincent — explaining how to break into the world’s eighth largest recorded music market.

PPCA SPITS OUT AT GYMS… Even after the May 17 Copyright Tribunal announcement that gyms have to pay more to play music during their huff-puff sessions, the PPCA (representing the record labels) and gym owners were trading blows in public. Gyms now have to pay $1 per attendee or $15 per class.

Previously they were charged 96.8 cents a class, with a cap of $2654 a year. Fitness Australia said it represented a 1500% rise.

The PPCA rejected their threats that some of them would go under by sniffing that gyms already charged members princely sums indeed. Gyms have planned to use cover versions or music specially made for retail to bypass paying the PPCA, as they don’t want to pass on higher charges to their customers. PPCA head Stephen Peach said that covers used were “second rate product” and gym users would not be fooled.

…BUT PACIFIES COMMUNITY RADIO The PPCA has made it clear to the Community Broadcasters Association of Australia (CBAA) that its fight over the 1% cap only involves commercial radio.

Since 1969, commercial radio only has to pay 1% of its annual advertising to record labels. The PPCA licenses to 800 CBAA rights holders. But the deal struck means that its licence fee paid to the PPCA is “significantly below the statutory cap of 1% of revenues.” CBAA General Manager Michele Bawden said she wanted to redo the deal so that the fees remained low.

CLUB SUED BY TECHIE Sound technician David Mackie is suing the Central Coast Leagues Club for $1 million. Mackie was setting up lights in the club auditorium when he fell 3m off a ladder in September 2000. He suffered a fractured skull, hematoma, broken ribs, dislocated shoulder and post traumatic amnesia. He cannot work and needs medical treatment, his lawyer told the Supreme Court.

fined. They can only keep people out if they are already overcrowded, drunk, agro or don’t conform to the dress code. * Sia isn’t retiring from music – she’s just taking a step back from promoting her records due to negative aspects of fame, like being stalked and having her bisexuality scrutinised, which caused her panic attacks and depression. * Paul McCartney blames lack of Beatles content online on EMI Records. * The NSW Police Association conference on the NSW Central Coast pushed to expand the lockout and trading restrictions of nightclubs and music venues in Newcastle to the entire state. It cited a 30% drop in alcoholrelated assaults. * Congrats to hard rock guitarist Todd Robinson, who plays with singer Kate DeAraugo, designs guitars for Crossley and runs Hard Rock Studios – he graduated from Southern Cross University in Lismore with a double major bachelor’s degree in contemporary music and education.

BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10 :: 19

hara Worden, the frontwoman of My Brightest Diamond, is humble, intelligent and talented; her music is startling and her voice is stunning. She plays with Sufjan Stevens and has worked with the Decemberists, David Byrne and countless others, and she’s been chosen by Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed to be part of this year’s Vivid Live. With only two studio albums under her belt since 2006, Shara’s been spending her time between them on collaborations, experiments and falling in “musical love.”

She’s also been spending her time writing songs that are harder than what she can actually play. “I’m just practising,” she says humbly.

Over the phone from her Brooklyn studio, she tells me she’s better at singing than at any real instrument. “I’m going on a little tour tomorrow and I tried to write some new songs, but I can’t play them. It’s just I always write just above what I’m actually able to do. It’s good, it makes you better. You have to practise.”

That discipline is unsurprising, considering that, like a lot of people who come from a family of musicians, Shara was taught music from a very young age. Even the sound of her speaking voice is musical – it’s melodic, it has measured pauses, and it moves emotively through different speeds. Rubato, I suppose. “My grandfather was a guitar player and they had a family band, and my dad played in that band and then all my aunts and uncles and cousins and sister’s cousins and cousins of cousins all play,” she laughs.

As a result, Shara’s musical standards are clearly very high. She thinks she’s no good at playing instruments but when she describes her studio, the image I get is one of a multi-talented songstress. “I have lots of different kinds of keyboards and guitars and ukeleles and some pianos and bells and whistles and tambourines and stuff,” she says, casually listing the orchestra of instruments she works with.

it. I love the specificity of it and the demand of trying to completely immerse yourself in the way that someone else sings, and the way that they play something. You can get really neurotic about it, but it’s a very different mindset to do a background vocal in that way.”

But she clarifies that her interest in musical instruments is more than simply functional.

“I guess I consider myself more of a guitar player but I’m really interested in timbre, so my relationship to the instruments is all about the different tones that they make.”

Despite her efforts, Shara hasn’t yet convinced me that she’s no good at much except singing a little tune. It’s a charming humility all the more impressive in the face of talent. “The first time I remember singing in front of people I was probably six, I guess,” says Shara, when I ask about her musical beginnings. “I had a little solo in a Christmas pageant and it was at a church, and in front of about a thousand people. It was fear that really put that memory in to a permanent space in my mind. I was in my nightgown! It was a little embarrassing.

“I was terrified but I was also really exhilarated by it,” she continues. “It’s strange to be a very introverted person and then also to have this thing that compels you to sing in front of people.

And I think even as a child there was something that was really exciting to me about that. It’s sort of weird, that whole notion of getting up in front of people. Some people really hate it, but for me it’s always a real driving thing.”

This energy comes through in all of her performances. Her compulsion to share her music with others through performance is what drives Shara – it’s what makes her write above her skill level, but also what makes her pursue collaborations like Slow Music in Vivid Live this year. With 2009 as her ‘Year of

Collaboration’, Shara aimed towards finding musical relationships that would extend and inspire her writing.

“It’s about finding people that you really connect with; feeling like you’ve got something to work on together,” she says. “I’m just so inspired by people. Like working with the Decemberists last year – each collaboration kind of brings out something new that you wouldn’t necessarily do if you were on your own, left to your own devices.

It’s such a learning experience too, to be working with other people and finding out how they do things; and then maybe you take a little piece of it into what you do. I don’t know if performing things is as much a part of it as being really stimulated by someone, and following that kind of spark that you have with someone. It’s kind of like falling in love, but it’s like musical love.”

So for such a talented, headstrong and creative musician, isn’t it a bit difficult to forgo the limelight and play back-ups for Sufjan Stevens? “It’s different with him, in a way,” she replies, slowly, tentatively. “I really enjoy singing with him and I think that we have worked together for so many years now that we really do understand how to communicate and how to get at the same thing.

“But it’s a very supportive role that I have in that band, and it’s my job to serve in that role, which is different to serving the ensemble. It’s just a very different relationship when you’re singing in support of someone else’s voice.

It’s almost like being…” she pauses, and I am unsure as to whether she’s finished, but then she recapitulates, “I don’t know, I really enjoy

Working with Sufjan seems to be a point of contrast for Shara, where she can examine a totally different process and voice in opposition to her own. “I don’t think we write music the same way,” she says, thoughtfully. “I don’t think we approach it the same because he can afford a whole lot of things in the music that, with my voice, I couldn’t do. I think that with the voice sort of being the way that it is, it inherently leads to different results. We were joking about it and he was saying ‘Sing the lead vocal over this!’ and I was like, ‘Sufjan, I can’t sing a lead vocal over that, it sounds ridiculous!’”

Shara is coming back to Australia to take part in Vivid Live next week, and she’s pretty much thrilled about it. “There’s one night [Slow Music] that’s a collaborative night, and I’m excited about that, because Colin Stetson (who is an absolutely phenomenal horn player) is going to be there.

I’ve worked with him before, and I’m hoping to do some new stuff with him.” The Slow Music night is being held at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall on June 4, and also features Laurie Anderson, Metric’s Emily Haines, Doveman, Holly Miranda and the Blind Boys of Alabama amongst others.

“It’s such an exciting festival and it’s really amazing to be working with Laurie Anderson.

She just creates these visual universes that are such experiential art pieces. So, I am excited.”

Who: My Brightest Diamond What: VIVID Live When: Sunday June 6, Monday June 7 Where: The Studio, Sydney Opera House

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King Khan & BBQ Show A

ccording to conventional history, Arish Khan and Mark Sultan met in Montreal punk band Spaceshits. While on tour in Berlin in 1999, Khan chose to stay on – and the Spaceshits were forced to break up. Khan focused his creativity on the manic, psychedelic garage/soul combo King Khan & The Shrines, while Sultan went on to form a number of bands, most notably in Les Sexareenos. Later, when Khan rekindled his musical relationship with Sultan, the latter was going by the stage name BBQ Show. Hence: King Khan and BBQ Show.

According to Khan and Sultan, the back-story is something completely different. In a three-way teleconference between Toronto (where Sultan is visiting family and friends), Berlin (where Khan continues to reside) and Wellington (where I’ve travelled for work), Sultan and Khan offer me a far more colourful biography. “We first met in 1847,” Khan says. “We were the first people to discover Canada. We were known as Indians then.” Taking Khan’s cue, Sultan continues the narrative. “My tribe was warring with Arish’s tribe,” Sultan says. “Yes,” Khan laughs, “and we made a teepee out of aluminium, and became known as the Alco Tribe.”

With that peculiar moment out of the way, I ask Sultan whether it was a surprise when – according to the official history – Khan decided

to stay in Berlin all those years ago. “You can’t put tears in reverse,” he offers cryptically. “It was all part of growing up. I wanted to procreate, and Mark couldn’t help.” At this, Sultan cuts in: “I offered to get surgery, but Arish wouldn’t wait.”

Khan’s explanation for the duo’s decision to form King Khan and BBQ Show is simple. “It was like Phil Spector had a gun to our head and forced us to work together again.” Their show is founded in the original garage rock’n’roll tradition, laced with a pop sensibility that Sultan and Khan are happy to celebrate. “We’re totally pop – I’m not afraid to admit that,” Sultan says.

“It’s like cooking,” Khan says. “You have certain ingredients... Or, we’re making a puzzle, but we don’t know what the picture is.” Confronted with the visual metaphor, Sultan jumps in: “And with that picture, if you look at it in a funny way, it makes a picture of a hypercolour t-shirt,” Sultan says, before Khan continues: “So it’s like when rap and metal met originally and you heard it, and then you puked on your hypercolour t-shirt.” Right.

Back in the 1990s, Spaceshits enjoyed a reputation for manic on-stage behaviour, leading to the band being banned from various venues in its home country. Despite the passage of time – and the fact that Khan is now a married father of two – neither Khan nor Sultan will admit

to having settled. “We’re definitely not mellowed out,” Khan protests. “But we don’t have to rely on shock anymore... We don’t have to urinate on stage to get the audience excited.”

The band enjoys a healthy relationship with another manic garage rock outfit, The Black Lips – the two have teamed up to record an album of gospel tracks. The Georgia-based Black Lips’ interest in gospel is well established – but what do King Khan and BBQ Show bring to the project? “French-Canadian stupidity,” offers Khan.

long ago, I ask Khan and Sultan to identify the essence of their creative relationship. “White musk,” Khan says. “Deep musk,” Sultan counters. “It’s vanilla plus chocolate equals caramel,” Khan says - but Sultan is vaguely offended by the suggestion: “I’ve never been called vanilla.” So Khan switches to a different tack, asserting boldly, “Music is immortality.”

King Khan by NRMAL Studio, Monterrey, Mexico

[VIVID Live] Rock N Roll Debauchery By Patrick Emery

Who: King Khan & BBQ Show What: VIVID Live When: Thursday June 3, Friday June 4

With time running out, and any sense of narrative continuity thrown out of the window

Where: The Studio, Sydney Opera House

Holly Miranda [VIVID Live] Soundscapes & Storytelling By Louise Hardwick

Bardo Pond [VIVID Live] Sonic Pioneers By Mikey Carr

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were too, but once we learnt, we were kind of doing the same thing anyway. It’s just that before that, we weren’t able to play anything [twice], cos we had no idea what we were doing.”

Joining these two on speaker is Michael’s brother and fellow guitarist John Gibbons, making for a very confusing interview that seems to be as influenced by certain chemicals as it is by my questions. “Hermit crabs love giant shells and we do as well,” Clint chimes in, as we’re discussing how the band feel about playing The Opera House. “We’re like giddy little school girls right now,” Michael adds.

Rather than restricting the band’s ability to explore their sound, their lack of structured musical knowledge allowed them to jam stuff out even more. Their songs now often go through three or more cycles of improv-based re-writes.

“When you can revisit something like that, you can really channel it, you know? And then the tree just grows from there. You start exploring outside of what you were trying to repeat, and it just leads you to some other thing - and then you’re like, holy shit, this better than what we were doing before. Then it goes into the recording process - cos we record everything and then, just when it comes close to finishing, a whole other jam will come out of it and we’ll abandon that original idea, whatever it was.”

orging themselves in the iron furnace of free sound and noise improvisation, Bardo Pond have always been seen as a band’s band – further verified by their being handpicked

by Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson for this year’s Vivid Live. “It was a bit of a kick in the nuts,” bassist Clint Takeda informs, over a crackly speakerphone. “It was a shock man,” Guitarist Michael Gibbons continues, “when our booking agent called me it just blew our minds man; all our minds are blown.”

Forming in 1991, Bardo Pond have made a name for themselves by sticking unflinchingly to their philosophy of creation in the moment, allowing free improvisation to direct where the music goes. “We have songs and everything, but really what we’re all about is free music; that’s what really inspires us,” Michael tells me. “Free sounds or free noise, whatever - when you’re doing it, and things start happening, and you can really feel it generate energy. It’s like a drug, and we can’t get enough.”

What is most remarkable about the band is that none of them really have any training in how to play their instruments, having only begrudgingly learned how to play on the insistence of another.

“Well basically it was this one guy we used to jam with,” Michael explains, his heavy and raspy voice cutting through the sound of Clint and John laughing and screaming in the background. “He made me learn how to play and he made me learn how to tune, he just insisted, you know?

Anyway I was quite resistant, Clint and John

With such chaos well in hand, the band have garnered praise from all over – especially from other acclaimed creatives. Asides from Vivid Live, they’ve been invited three times to play All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival by legendary acts like Sonic Youth, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and even Jim Jarmusch. So how did a bunch of stoned out noise artists from Philly manage to get such an impressive list of fans? “A lot of music people do like us,” Michael ponders, Clint and John having fallen silent, “and that’s what’s helped us with our career; with record labels, with gigs, even with coming down [to Australia].”

“Yeah. ’Cos it’s not about practice,” Clint pitches in, before they all collapse into laughter.

Who: Bardo Pond What: VIVID Live When: Tuesday June 1 Where: The Studio, Sydney Opera House

The New Yorker’s music evokes a consistently haunting sort of atmosphere, with tweaks and touches added by Holly’s friend and TV On The Radio member Dave Sitek, whose produced for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Telepathe and Celebration. Holly’s musical formation mostly took place in the church choir and the school band. A strict religious upbringing meant Miranda wasn’t exposed to secular music for a long time, apart from some old standards and Motown. “And then I started listening to my sister’s CDs, and that was the first time I heard Cher and Nine Inch Nails and all those people.

But the artist that really blew me away the first time I heard her was Ani Difranco - I had never heard anyone speak so honestly. After I listened to her, I wrote my first song.”

Although at times dealing with heavy emotional matter, the album can at other times slip into more childlike territory, on tracks like ‘Every Time I Go To Sleep’, or even the playful opener ‘Forest Green Oh Forest Green’. It comes across as the thoughts of a fully grown person figuring things out, all the while nursing a childlike fear of what’s at the bottom of the garden. The artwork too seems to portray this, the cover featuring a young girl sleeping on grass surrounded by arrows – shot at her, or protecting her? – and a drawing of a castle.

“I never really made the correlation, you know, of the sleeping girl,” Holly tells me. “I sort of put together the imagery during production [of the album] - for me it was just kind of childlike imagery. I originally had wanted the cover to be a painting.”

Normally she’ll first record her songs in the back of the van or at home, just her and her guitar.

I ask her how she feels about the two

versions of her songs, stripped back compared to full and layered. “I like to try different things.

You know, the way that the songs are on the record, I love to strip them down live where it’s me by myself. Last year I did a bunch of tours just my guitarist and me, before the record came out, as a duo. [But] for a show like at the Bowery we’ll have a choir - Kyp Malone is gonna join in - there’ll actually be forty people on stage. But in Australia I’ll be by myself.”

Holly is coming down as an invitee to VIVID Live where she’ll be part of a collaborative night on April 4. Called the Slow Music Night, the evening will involve Laurie Anderson, Emily Haines, The Blind Boys of Alabama, My Brightest Diamond and more performing their own songs and each others. After two weeks touring she’ll spend some time exploring Australia, and hopes to begin work on a graphic novel. “I plan to work on this graphic novel that I’ve been talking about doing for a while.

I’ve always drawn, and I really love graphic novels. Chester Brown is one of my favourite graphic novelists.

I want to make it more of a mixed media thing, using photographs as well, and short stories, and also making music to accompany it. It’ll be fun.”

Miranda is keen to begin on her second album towards the end of the year. Speaking of the reaction to her debut she says, “I’m just really incredibly grateful.”

Who: Holly Miranda What: VIVID Live When: Wednesday June 2, Thursday June 3 Where: The Studio, Sydney Opera House

“When I’m bombed I stretch like bubblegum” – MARK LANEGAN METRO JULY 8 22 :: BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10

Holly Miranda photo by Sebastian Mylnarski

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olly Miranda’s debut album The Magician’s Private Library is, simply put, astonishing. The 27 year old’s voice evokes in turns strength and fragility - anyone in adoration of Bat For Lashes, Cat Power or Neko Case would find themselves at home in Holly’s library of sorts. It’s a glittering release that holds a magical power of its own, full of beauty, stories and soundscapes.

Laurie Anderson [VIVID Live] Courageous Curation By Flutter Lyon

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ometimes I think to myself, oh maybe I shouldn’t be doing this? That stuff often turns out to be the best stuff.”

Laurie Anderson is speaking to me from New York about the risky and highly personal approach she and her long-term partner Lou Reed have adopted in programming Vivid Live. On the heels of Brian Eno’s successful program for ‘Luminous’ last year, the acclaimed cross-disciplinary performer and the legendary ex-rocker from the Velvet Underground were invited to curate a fortnight of performances by international musicians, artists and performers, as part of Vivid – ‘A Festival of Light, Music & Ideas’.

The result is a unique slice-through of the international cultural landscape that covers a huge spectrum, from theatre, photography and experimental film to folk music, psychedelia, punk, noise, and even ‘music for dogs’. In a similar vein to the programming model of international music festival All Tomorrow’s Parties, the program itself becomes a piece of art – and Anderson speaks about the curation on a very intuitive level. “It’s less about a theme and trying to fit people into a theme; it’s more about ‘Who do we really like? Who would we like to hear at a festival?’” she explains. “We felt people in Sydney would really love this stuff. Lou and I pretty much split up the program, and we each invited our own personal favourites”.

modesty and refreshing vulnerability when talking about her work. “I always put [work] out there kinda going, ‘Oh it should have been good, well… it’s the best I could do!’ I am not brimming with confidence at all. Maybe it’s my strategy to keep making things.

I think to myself, maybe next time I’ll get it right.”

When asked if she feels she employs a certain degree of courage in her artistic practice, Anderson says, “there’s plenty of times that I think to myself, how do I have the nerve to put this unfinished, weird thing out there and ask people to look at it? I would say it’s more nerve than courage.”

Ah yes, the nerve; the audacity; the desire to take bold risks; to express one’s clearly defined opinion; to say, ‘I believe in this and here it is’. This might just be the most inspiring aspect of this year’s Vivid LIVE. It’s considered, it’s risky, it’s compelling - and that’s what makes it great.

What: Vivid LIVE When: May 27 – June 11 Where: Sydney Opera House More: vividlive.sydneyoperahouse.com

Anderson – known to many for the 1981 song and video piece ‘O Superman’, which reached number two in the UK pop charts – has become an international leader in multi-disciplinary practice. She’s navigated a unique career path over the last 40 years, collaborating with William S. Burroughs, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel and Reed, amongst many others. In a world so fond of saying ‘Everything has been done before, nothing is new’, Anderson continues to employ a unique combination of artistic practices, resulting in work that is difficult to define or deny. In the late ‘70s she produced a spoken word album with Burroughs and New York poet John Giorno, with one side of the LP triple-grooved, so a different artist would play depending on where the needle was placed on the record. Anderson invented the first ever tape-bow violin in 1977, became NASA’s first artist in residency in 2003, has released over 12 albums, and has starred in multiple films and live shows.

As a part of the Vivid Live program, Anderson will present her latest project, Delusion (which was commissioned for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games) - a fusion of violin, electronic puppetry, music, visuals and the poetic, colourful language that has become her trademark. Anderson will also present a solo retrospective of her music and performance work, titled Transitory Life – an evening of music and stories, including some of her solo violin pieces.

The music line-up of Vivid Live offers a stunning selection of experimental, seminal international acts, all promising to shift and shake the sharper edges of sonic challenge - from Japanese genredefying punk-metal outfit Boris, to punk-pop noiserockers Melt Banana; the psychedelic white space sound of Bardo Pond; and Reed’s own Metal Machine Trio. The warmer musical offerings include the folk-country-soul-jazz meshings of Ricky Lee Jones and Blind Boys of Alabama, the melodious, weighty vocal stylings of My Brightest Diamond and Holly Miranda, and Tuvan throat-singing champions Chirgilchin.

In a program skewed towards musical explorations, the sole “theatre work” is The Shipment, a comedy about black identity politics created by KoreanAmerican playwright Young Jean Lee and her New York-based theatre company. Playing on African-American stereotypes past and present, The Shipment fuses them into a fragmented theatre “experience” that includes stand-up comedy, dancing, theatrical vignettes, and what might just be the world’s most uncomfortable tea party.

The clearly considered program is geared for cultural and emotive effect in all aspects, whether it’s confronting, tenderly transportive or merely playful - or all of these things at once, as in the case of Music for Dogs, a world premiere of a concert written specifically for dogs. The concept was first brokered when Anderson was backstage about to receive an honorary degree with cellist Yo Yo Ma. They got talking about their dogs, and realised they shared a mutual dream of always wanting to put on a concert just for their dogs - “to look out into the audience and it would mostly be all dogs,” Anderson laughs.

Consequently, Anderson has composed a 20-minute work especially for the hearing range of dogs, utilising frequencies far outside the human audio spectrum, and taking the idea of the apparently inaudible dog whistle to new artistic heights.

Despite her substantial achievements within the realms of art and music, Anderson retains a natural BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10 :: 23

Circle Pit Heads In The Stars, Souls In The Gutter By Nell Greco

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he Sydney music scene has been fatigued by indie-pop bands of late - so thank Buddha (for diversity’s sake) that there are a handful of bands lurking below the surface shirking off that label. Circle Pit are teetering on the brink of mainstream media acknowledgement but, despite being chuffed and flattered by the attention, they’re determined to keep it gutter.

Angie Bermuda (yes, she’s just as mysterious as the name suggests) and Jack Mannix (you’ve probably seen him smoking before) know what they want and they’ll fight for it, but they’ll also tell you they’re not punks either. Its 3:30 on a Friday afternoon and the two are still buzzing (read: recovering) from a sold out gig the night before supporting The Garbage And The Flowers. “There were heads going like this -” Angie starts fauxbanging, while spectators in the slow-filling beer garden pretend not to notice.

“We’re a rock’n’roll band but we’re a lot more than that as well, so there’s no real limits placed on what we can do.” The duo just recently returned from Melbourne, where they opened a gallery show: ‘Circle Pit: The Exhibition’. “By doing all the things we do musically, artistically and even

in general we’re trying to create a legacy, and a culture all of our own.” Jack tells me.

The latest account of their legacy is their debut album Bruise Constellation. “The album stands alone as a document of where we were in our lives; it’s an accurate reflection of our sound at that point -” Jack starts, and Angie finishes, “and a testament to healing and getting through...”

Jack extrapolates on this point a little more. “Our relationship to each other is very close. We’ve been best friends for about eight years and we have this almost... psychic... understanding of each other and what we want to do, so it’s really natural to write music together. We finish off each other’s ideas and edit each other down, and distil them into a common ground that we’re trying to create.”

He’s not making it up either. As Jack and Angie (Jacgie?) sit in front of me, it’s as though I’m watching one of those naff romantic comedies where the couple gush over one another as they both reach for the cherry on top of the soda and guffaw in embarrassment – minus the naff, romance or embarrassment. ‘Jacgie’ just are, and they’re serious about what they do. “Some people don’t take us seriously enough,” says Jack. “A lot of people miss the irony without understanding there’s an element of humour and there’s a lot of metaphor, and smoke and mirrors - in terms of our music, and our lyrics, and our image.”

Twisted as it might seem, missing the irony is actually getting the point. As we talk about their Melbourne expedition and the differences between the arts/music communities in Sydney and Melbourne, the notion of displacement comes up. Circle Pit feel displaced in Sydney, Angie explains. “I kind of like that feeling of displacement, and think that disharmony creates culture and feelings and thoughts that you wouldn’t have if there are like minded creative people around you.” Circle Pit’s music is in some way meant for the displaced, hence their endeavour to create this legacy and this culture.

They’re not wasting any time over it either. Despite not having yet launched Bruise Constellation, Circle Pit spent their time in Melbourne playing sold out gigs, recording another 7’’ and demoing their new album. They’ve recently had a third member join the band, Harriet Hudson (“she’s an amazing musician, performer, person!”), who’s inspiring a new flavour and direction for Circle Pit. “If you can imagine colour-wise, [Bruise Constellation] is like darker burgundy and navy blue” says Jack. If I was to visualise it though, it’d be more like the black and white scratchy static that used to show up on ye olde tv screens. “Ooh I like that!” pipes Angie - but their next album seems set to be a whole lot more flamboyant. “It’s like you bashed on that tv, and when the image comes up it’s really clear and really scary but really cool – you can’t look away. It’s a lot more glamorous, hard-rock,” she says.

“A lot of people miss the irony without understanding there’s an element of humour and there’s a lot of metaphor, and smoke and mirrors.”

Bruise Constellation will be pressed by American label Siltbreeze, who’ve just recently pressed Naked on the Vague’s Heaps of Nothing record - as well as an upcoming release from Pink Reason. If you want a copy of it, you’re going to have to import it. “It’s my most preferred format because it’s something that you treasure. CD is just disposable,” quips Angie. As someone who’s just purchased their first record player and enjoys regressive technology, I couldn’t agree more.

Although they’ve just begun their legacy, Circle Pit have been cultivating their own blonde, gutter subculture amongst their peers - and with the official launch of Bruise Constellation just days away, Jacgie have expectations of the crowd.

“We want to see heads banging. I want to see big beautiful blonde hair swaying in the pit,” Jack grins, “And a circle pit,” adds Angie, “so long as you’re treating everyone in it nicely.” So go along now, and play nice.

Who: Circle Pit What: Bruise Constellation is out now on Timberyard When: Wednesday May 26 Where: Oxford Art Factory 24 :: BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10

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Dappled Cities Still Flying By Alex Young

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ydney’s Dappled Cities have spent the best part of 2010 overseas, and by all reports everything is going swimmingly. When vocalist Tim Derricourt calls me one miserable London morning, he’s hungover. He tells of proclaiming Australia throughout the city by vomiting on bar floors, and of unreturned phone calls from one Justin Timberlake – apparently something to do with hurling in his bathroom and stealing his lady. Whether there’s any truth to such stories remains to be seen (probably never), But what cannot be doubted is that he’s having the time of his life.

“I really didn’t want to become one of those people who went over and fell in love with London. But I have,” he says. Having never released any of their past albums in England, and spending little time touring there in the past, the British experience has been a refreshing one for the band. Essentially starting over as an unknown act has sent Dappled Cities back to the basics: plotting gigs, and making contacts. But it’s a challenge that the group have relished. “I’m really happy we did it [London],” the singer enthuses.

“We have some amazing people around us…. London is so new for us, so we just got here and hoped it wouldn’t be awful. And so far it has been nothing but awesome.”

But despite such contentment with the U.K, Tim confirms Dappled’s sights are set a little further West. “America is something we’ve been working at for quite a while, and it’s just one of those countries you’ve got to steadily plod along with, and just be like “Keep going! Keeee-e-e-e-p going!” Making their fourth appearance at Texas’ SxSW industry conference this year, after signing a deal with LA based Dangerbird Records, hints at a certain level of success - but the band are well aware of the long road yet to travel.

“I think, particularly with America, it seems like the kind of place you need to be, rather than just visit. I 100% think that Australian bands can’t just go there and hope that someone will like them and they’ll get lots of airplay. For a band like us, we just know that we have to do the long haul, tour constantly and build a fan base through our live shows by going to the country a million times; so I think we will have to move there. Maybe next year.”

So another Austalian indie-band ship sails – but not before a national, appropriately titled ‘Winter Tour’ of Australia. Kicking off on June 3, it comes at an important time for the band; they’re not only enjoying a brief homecoming, but they’ll also be rounding up the campaign for their outstanding third album, last years’ Zounds. After an enduring three years in the making, plus an openly uncomfortably relationship with American producer Chris Cody, the closing of the Zounds chapter has been met with much relief. But such is the endeavour of Dappled Cities that the door won’t be closed without reflection and understanding.

“We don’t see ourselves as some pretentious art-rock movement or anything, but we certainly don’t shy away from trying to do the best sound recording out of Australia ever.”

While the making of any new album is going to be an intense period, Tim tells me the band initially wanted Zounds to come from a more relaxed process. “But then things just kind of spiralled out - and you’re trying to do things faster because you’re running out of time, and suddenly someone’s over halfway around the world and you’re trying to get vocal takes done…It’s just one of those things. I think with these projects you can hope and plan for it to be this kind of cool experience, but at the end of the day sometimes they just spiral out and suddenly you’ve got to be like, ‘Well, that was a really intense stretch of my life, but in retrospect I kind of appreciate what we went through!’”

The lessons learnt from their experiences have evidently already kicked in. Having paid their dues with external producers, and developing a trust in their own abilities to work around a studio, Dappled will self-produce their next album, which will be recorded in LA immediately after the Winter Tour. It seems like a quick turnaround after the lengthy wait for Zounds, but as Tim explains, it’s exactly what the band is looking for. “I think we were a little over-prepared for the last record, in knowing exactly the things we wanted and how it was going to end up…and it kind of ended up, well, we thought too much about it. So for this one we’re going to be a bit looser, to make it a bit easier.”

And while he can’t hint at what we might be able to expect, fans can be sure that whatever it is, it won’t be without boundless endeavour and drive. Certainly, the ambition of Dappled Cities can never be doubted? Tim laughs. “We don’t see ourselves as some pretentious artrock movement or anything, but we certainly don’t shy away from trying to do the best sound recording out of Australia ever - you know what I mean?” If anyone can do it…

Who: Dappled Cities When: Saturday June 5 Where: Manning Bar, Sydney Uni

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The Hold Steady You Gotta Trust Them On This One By Jaymz Clements

T

he Hold Steady are one of those bands that command a peculiarly passionate response – especially among those predisposed to supping at the table of literate bar-room rock ‘n’ roll. Their fans are a dedicated lot but then, why wouldn’t they be? In a world beset with a continual questioning of religion and relationships, mixed signals of status, and conflicting messages advertising ‘the good life’, we’re all groping blindly for meaning.The Hold Steady try to make sense of all that.

Craig Finn, the frontman and mouthpiece of the New York-based outfit, is the latest in a long line of songwriters who peer into doubts and anxieties we all deal with daily – anxieties which Finn turns into the fictional players of a widescreen narrative that’s played out over the band’s six year career.

The obvious comparison has always been Bruce Springsteen, but even with the Boss’s range that’s almost too constricting – there’s also shades of Townshend, Petty, Dylan, Alex Chilton and the Davies brothers in the story-telling; Robbie Robertson, Neil Young and Bob Mould in the personality-writ-large; even Michael Stipe, in the metaphors. The Hold Steady represent a crucial part of the socially addled America of today, as well as the personally idealised trials we all face – it doesn’t matter if you’re a depressed waitress, a rock kid at a punk show, a couple struggling with responsibility, or a twenty-something lost face-down in the toilet of a shitty club. Craig Finn’s band speaks to real life.

that part which endears people so wholly and completely to The Hold Steady, it comes down to a genuine appreciation for their craft; the life they’re reflecting through their songs, and the reaction they inspire. Finn acknowledges that The Hold Steady do foster an incredibly passionate fanbase, but that it simply comes down to being genuine in what you do, and your motivation for doing it. “It is strange to me but I think that it comes from being older,” he contemplates. “This seems like the best job I’ve ever had. It’s .. it’s .. I don’t know why that is; I really feel like we are truly exuberant to be able to do this and I think, theoretically, the audience that we play for appreciates that and recognises that.

“It’s a mutual thing,” he adds, finishing, “and I also know what it takes for a lot of people to get out to a show. It’s a mutual thing. Let’s have fun together,” he grins.

Who: The Hold Steady What: Heaven Is Whenever is out now through Vagrant/Shock

With Heaven Is Whenever, The Hold Steady have released their fifth album in seven years.

“I kind of was thinking about that fact, that it’s our fifth album,” Finn laughs from a hotel room in Philadelphia, where the band are about to launch into another epic pan-American jaunt. “I mean, there aren’t many bands that even get to make a fifth album!” he laughs huskily. “It’s a testament to how well things have gone, and how well we get on with each other… Because it is a lot of travel, a lot of waiting around, a lot of being together in small spaces,” he says.

“Yet it’s a great friendship and a great bunch of people playing music together, and having these amazing experiences… [The album] just very much feels formed from the touring and the travel we’ve done,” he contemplates, before adding, “also, it’s about the fact that everything is going to be alright.”

That’s a constant theme with The Hold Steady – hell, their last album was called Stay Positive, and the new album title is lifted from a line in ‘We Can Get Together’ (“Heaven is whenever/ we can get together”). But that positivity is steeped in the idea that while life is tough, there are always moments that make it special.

And sometimes, they’re the toughest moments.

Where prior albums have used messed-up characters and drugged-up street kids to convey the Hold Steady message – Gideon, Charlemagne and Hallelujah Holly with her little hoodrat friends – Heaven Is Whenever offers a wiser and more disconnected voice, relaying parables of uncertainty and confusion.

“Yeah,” agrees Finn, “I think it’s more of a ‘personal’ record than anything we’ve done before… I don’t know. I feel like it’s very much more of my own age which, you know, is now 38 years old. It was coming from an older voice, in some way.”

It’s the steely-eyed voice of the kindly uncle, who tells you to have fun before warning you not to take anything intravenously. Age helps in self-realisation, and Heaven Is Whenever is heavy on that topic. “Yeah, some of the songs actually almost seem like advice or something,” Finn confirms, laughing, “but it just comes from all the things that I’ve learnt. I thought that was just, I don’t know, an age-appropriate, honest way of dealing with our fifth album.”

It’s also the first album they undertook without long-time keyboardist Franz Nicolay, who left the band just before the writing of the album.

He left on good terms, giving the band a chance to approach the new album from a more guitar-based direction than they had over the course of their previous three records. The band also changed their producer, going back to Dean Baltounis who produced their rockier, guitarier debut Almost Killed Me and its follow up, Separation Sunday.

“I guess it was strange,” Finn says of Nicolay leaving, “but Franz left, and we got another guy to play piano and keys. We also added another guitar player, so it kinda gained more weight. It’s sure fun to have two new guys around and all. It was a breath of fresh air.

Writing-wise, having four members – rather than five – let the songs breathe a little bit.”

As for that critical relationship with their fans, BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10 :: 27

Masta Ace & Edo G Still The Masta By Cameron

M.A.N.D.Y. Drumming Up A New Decade By RK

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atrick Bodmer and Philipp Jung of Berlin’s M.A.N.D.Y have been on the same wave for some time now, and it looks like it’s only about to become more ferocious. Their secret? Merely enthusiasm for good music, and a will to make it work.

“For us it was an uncontrolled passion for music,” Phillip explains. “My parents weren’t very musical, but at some point you realise that music is a big part of your life… [Patrick] was into rock and jazz and I was into more electronic stuff. We gave tapes to each other, we were passing music around, and our influences helped us to create our sound - it’s a very traditional way of doing things, I think.”

It was at parties in the late 1980s, when the acid house revolution was at its peak, that Philip and Patrick were infected by the bug that would define their sound. “Infected” is his word, too. “We started buying records and doing parties for nothing. Eventually you invite the local talent – even people like Ricardo Villalobos (who wasn’t known at that time) used to hang out with us, and consequently, all of us did quite well!” But even with that, they never thought they’d be able to turn music into a business they could live from. “Patrick was studying and I was working at a record label, but by 2001 we decided to focus on our own label Get Physical, and on our own sound - and we did it! It was a lot about the timing and meeting the right people, but you get rewarded for your passions – even after your friends are calling you crazy and telling you to go back to listening to Bryan Adams!”

I get accused of asking the typical journo question, but I think it’s important to understand how an artist classifies their own work... “We never think about what we’re going to produce in the studio. There is a sound or a style, but it varies a lot. What’s important is that music should be enjoyed, no matter who you are or how you feel – it must be lively and there must be a solid groove. You can’t be afraid of putting themes and melodies into the music. Whether its house or techno, you have to enjoy it… It can’t be too superficial but it should be for the club, and it has to make people happy on so many levels.” This pretty much sums up M.A.N.D.Y’s entire approach to their club sets, productions, and remixes.

“We’ve been doing a lot of work in the studio.

A lot of remixes – there is plenty of cool stuff to look out for! Basically, anything that we like we will put out on the label.”

And the pièce de résistance? A return to Australia under the M.A.N.D.Y banner. “We’ll be bringing our laptops, and we’ll try to play for quite a while. It’s important for us to present the sound, so we hope that we can play for three to four hours. If we have that much time, we can hear new tracks from each other - it creates challenges for us to beat the other. If there’s energy in the club, I can’t imagine how much it’ll drive and encourage us to experiment, and to be brave!”

Who: M.A.N.D.Y When: We Love Sounds, Sat June 12 Where: Entertainment Quarter

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rooklyn rapper Masta Ace is a luminary.

Widely respected as one of the most skilled wordsmiths of the genre, it’s a respect that can in part be attributed to Ace’s longevity. In an age where many esteemed rappers eventually fall from grace, he’s performed with acclaim for the better part of 25 years. And after all these years, he’s kept up a remarkable level of activity.

Masta Ace first reached the public ear when he appeared on the 1988 Juice Crew posse cut ‘The Symphony.’ After a handful of releases through the 90s, he dropped his seminal, concept-heavy albums Disposable Arts and A Long Hot Summer in 2001 and 2004 - before joining Punchline, Wordsworth and Strick in rap supergroup eMC, who released The Show in 2008. These days Ace is still enjoying the cycle of 2009’s Arts and Entertainment, a dual effort produced with Boston native Edo G - featuring Sydney’s M-Phazes on a handful of beats.

Having ‘written that song about the state of hip hop a thousand times’ on solo endeavours, he prefers collaborations with other artists to give the process some vigour. Ace and Edo G originally met while touring, and went on to feature on a bunch of the same albums. Edo G eventually approached Ace with a proposition and some investor capital, and many dramas later, Arts and Entertainment was released. Not one to slow down, Ace already has another project up his sleeve. “I’m about to start shooting a DVD documentary about my career. It definitely won’t be coming out this year - I’m almost hesitant to say it will come out next year, because I’m particular about the way things come out.”

After almost a quarter of a century, there’s undoubtedly a wealth of possible material to include. Ace articulates the gradual progression of the concept thus far: “I got the idea for the DVD about two years ago, and I started jotting down ideas, interviews and such. The original plan was

to shoot it ourselves, but after two years going by with hardly any footage, I realised we needed to find somebody to get it shot. So that’s what I’m in the process of doing now.”

The second weekend in June will see Edo G and Masta Ace landing in Sydney and hitting the stage as part of the inaugural Rap City show, featuring DJ Premier, The Beatnuts, and DJ Total Eclipse. So what can punters expect from the pair’s live set? “They can definitely expect energy. They can expect us to perform tracks from the records we’re known for individually, as well as the album we’ve done together. It’s a very cohesive show, and we look to entertain.”

Ace is planning to use his time on the tour to get even more new projects happening, too.

“I’m looking forward to being on the road with Beatnuts and Premier. Me and Premier have known each other for a long time but have never actually toured together... I’m looking forward to sitting him down and talking about doing something in the studio together, because as long as we’ve known each other, I haven’t performed over a DJ Premier beat ever.”

It’s fair to say that after 25 years, Masta Ace has set some pretty high standards for these collaborations. “There are a lot of artists out there that walk into a collaboration not caring less about their performance. They don’t care if the verse is good or not, they just want to take the money and run. That’s not my approach. I want people to feel like I gave it 110%, I gave them a good verse. I want them to feel challenged to re-write their verse, and to come back harder.”

Who: Masta Ace & Edo G What: Rap City When: Saturday June 13 Where: The Forum

Public Opinion Afro Orchestra Bring The Beat Back By Tony Edwards

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with song titles like ‘Two Sides Of The Truth’ and ‘Mumbo Jumbo,’ politics lie at the heart.

“When Fela was making music he was talking to the people”, Hill goes on. “He was the day’s newspaper, you know? People would come into The Shrine and he’d be playing music and all his songs were about things that were happening at the time. I think that’s one of [the music’s] real strengths, and it’s something that all afrobeat bands try and embrace.”

he Public Opinion Afro Orchestra have emerged as Melbourne’s string in the bow of the global afrobeat resurgence.

Not long after the hype around the vintage funk and soul sound has started to subside, afrobeat is experiencing a fresh wave all of it’s own - and for Public Opinion’s DJ Manchild AKA Ethan Hill, the progression makes perfect sense. “From funk it’s not really that big of a jump to afrobeat”, says the co-founder of the twenty-strong group. “I guess you could say that Nigeria [afrobeat’s birthplace] in the midseventies was what New York and Chicago and LA were in the late sixties and seventies.

There was a huge explosion of music happening right then and there.”

Public Opinion’s Womadelaide appearance was one of the band’s highlights so far. Twenty people on stage and the rain started falling as their set began. “We thought ‘are people going to go, or are they going to stay?’ and then everyone went nuts. They stayed and they partied even harder,” Ethan gleefully recounts.

Just as every funk band owes its inspiration in at least some small part to James Brown, the afrobeat bands of today pay tribute to their genre’s godfather, Fela Kuti. From Antibalas and Nomo in the US - two of the scene’s most respected proponents - to Sydney’s own Strides and Liberators, these bands are involved in keeping a certain legacy alive. A year ago, Ethan, along with Public Opinion’s two other founders Zvi Belling and Tristan Ludowyk, undertook something of a musical pilgrimage to Nigeria and to The Shrine - the live music venue on the Kuti family’s property.

they took us to a BBQ at their house the next day. I got to interview Femi for my [PBS] radio show. It was amazing, we were in the spiritual home of Afrobeat.

“We met Femi Kuti [Fela’s oldest son], and one of his daughters Yeni - they were incredibly hospitable. They invited us to jam on stage at The Shrine with Femi Kuti and his band. Then

“[Fela’s Family] were amazed that there were three white guys from Australia who had come to Nigeria to make Nigerian music. Equal parts amazed and proud as well. They love it - their

father’s music is being taken to places that it never got to when he was alive. It’s bigger than ever, and as relevant as ever.”

The band’s debut album Do Anything Go Anywhere is out now, and features collaborations that were recorded on the African trip: Tumi from Johannesburg, and Modenine from Nigeria. And in the tradition of afrobeat,

The upcoming Sydney show will see a slightly reduced but still considerable sixteen people take to the stage. “We’re a pretty massive band, so it can make it difficult to get interstate.

That’s why it’s taken us so long to get to Sydney. We’ve got a five-piece horn section, percussionists and backing vocalists. It’s a bit of a visual spectacular, there’s so many people and so much stuff happening.”

Who: Public Opinion Afro Orchestra What: Gumball Music Festival, Hunter Valley When: May 28 and May 29 More: Friday May 28 at The Basement

“The end could be soon, we’d better rent a room so you can love me” – MARK LANEGAN METRO JULY 8 28 :: BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10

FRIDAY 28th May

CD LAUNCH PARTY @ QBar, Oxford St Sydney $10 (inc. Circuit Breaker 1 CD) from 8pm

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BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10 :: 29

arts frontline

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arts, theatre and film news... what's goin' on around town and more...

brushstrokes WITH DANIEL

GAUDIELLO (AUSTRALIAN BALLET)

religiously. There I learned jazz ballet and singing. But I realised I wasn’t that kind of showbiz kid. After a year and a half I didn’t want to go anymore. I was sent to castings and I would just freeze up, luckily that’s changed. I then went to a smaller dance school, where my teacher taught me to dance with my heart and to be creative.

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very year the Australian Ballet manages to seduce fresh audience blood with its Bodytorque series, which showcase young choreographers. The upcoming instalment, Bodytorque.á la mode, explores the places where dance and fashion meet. One of the hot young talents presenting new work is Daniel Gaudiello, a Senior Artist with the Australian Ballet. We took five minutes to find out about his short piece, South of Eden.

When did you first strap on ballet shoes?

At six years old I convinced my parents to let me go to The Johnny Young Dance School in Brisbane after watching Young Talent Time

The Killer Inside Me

Why did you transition into choreography?

Believe it or not, I wanted to choreograph before I wanted to dance. I remember the conversation with my dance teacher. She said, “you had better be a dancer first.” I don’t believe ex-dancers should be choreographers unless there is a clear passion there, not just a fall back because you are not qualified to do anything else.

What particular experiences inspired you?

I can always remember Stanton Welch’s Divergence. I was about 15 and I thought “wow” ballet can be fun and sexy and new. I looked up to him for that.

What was the inspiration for South of Eden?

My inspiration came from a show I saw on TV about hotel prostitution and how these women justified it to themselves and continued to explain how it was only a temporary thing. The program then goes on to show how the women never really leave once they begin working. the Phoenix; or the ‘ventriloquist’ in Death Defying Acts); followed by relief-teacherslash-rap-battler Melinda Buttle (The 7pm Project); the freshly-pressed musical comedy of Sydney fellas Smart Casual; and 19-yearold rising star Joel Creasey. Do they all have to be so young, and sickeningly talented?

Wednesday June 2 at Riverside Theatres.

SUSTAINABLE FOOD

APOLOGIES: SFF 2010

Sorry if we’ve been a little absentminded lately – we’ve got, you know, 157 films on our brain, and it’s a little hard to concentrate. Imagine what it will be like when Sydney Film Festival actually starts… Starting from June 3, every night brings a new film in SFF’s Competition strand, from the cult-tastic (Todd Solondz’ Life During Wartime) to the esoteric (Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee), and the films starring Charlotte Gainsbourg (The Tree). By the time you read this, the Roman Polanski sessions will probably have sold-out, not to mention Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop; thanks to our hot tips (har), madcap absurdist French comedy Mammuth will probably be gone too. sff.org.au

COMEDY ROADSHOW

What’s funny, has wheels and is cheaper than a return flight to Melbourne? The 12th annual Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow (har har) is chuffing into town next week, carrying six of the best from this year’s festival. At the top of the bill is UK comedia/actor Miles Jupp (who you might remember as the ‘weather man’ from Harry Potter and the Order of

FISH TANK

Sounds like a good idea, yeah? And if not, you know, head along to your local Palace or Dendy this week and see Food Inc., Robert Kenner’s doco about America’s industrial food system, based on Eric Schlosser’s seminal (yes, seminal) exposé Fast Food Nation. We’re just gonna say one thing: if you’re eating meat that’s not organic, then you’re an enemy of ‘good’. We digress. There’s a new Farmers Market in town – the Sydney Sustainable Markets. Held every Saturday at Taylor Square, this market gives NSW farmers and producers the chance to help YOU eat in a healthier, environmentally sustainable way. Every Saturday, 8-1pm at Taylor Square, Darlinghurst. sydneysustainablemarkets.org

REALISE YOUR DREAM

If you fancy yourself as one of Australia’s next big creative practitioners – whether your talent lies in the field of visual arts, fashion, design, architecture, music, animation, performing arts, anything really – then listen up. The British Council have kindly lent a hand to their favourite Commonwealth country (us), offering five awards to five budding creative Australians. The award includes an $8000 NAB cash passport and flights from Virgin Atlantic, and the British Council will tap into its strong creative and professional network to develop and mentor the lucky few Aussies.

If you have always wanted to hit the big time over in the motherland, enter the comp at www.realiseyourdream.org.au.

How is fashion incorporated into your piece?

That element came out of the mind of designer Melanie Bower. There is a slight juxtapose between the gracefulness of the movement and the cold images the costumes create.

What inspires you generally?

Films have always inspired me. They can change my mood and my perception of life. That is an amazing thing. Therefore I love changing the moods of others and I cannot pass up the opportunity to create something. I can’t go past a good story, I think of myself as a storyteller.

What is a lesser-known aspect of your job?

Ballet doesn’t begin in the studio, it begins when we wake up. We assess our bodies in the morning and do the things that we have to, to keep them strong. For some this might mean popping an anti-inflammatory, some do Pilates for an hour, some go swimming and ride bikes, some meditate, some get physiotherapy, and all this is before time in the ballet studio even starts.

It’s not for the weak, believe it or not.

What: Bodytorque.á la mode When: May 27 – 30 (5 performances) Where: Sydney Theatre at Walsh Bay Tickets: sydneytheatre.org.au

of ice skating, earmuffs, chattering teeth and other things wintery. Last year this alpinethemed festival pulled 80,000 Sydneysiders out of their cosy abodes and onto the ice, and we all donned our hippest windcheaters and enjoyed a smorgasbord of European foods and hot beverages. A throng of icerelated entertainment will be part of this year’s itinerary, including ice hockey games, dancing on ice, as well as a small animal farm for the kidlets. Last year’s inaugural festival sold out in 48 hours, so hop to it! The Sydney Winter Festival runs from June 24 to July 4.

ACO / JONNY GREENWOOD

The legendary Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood has taken a detour into the world of classical composition, as evidenced by his critically acclaimed soundtrack for There Will Be Blood. That music was a permutation of a work he composed in 2004; six years later (better than never) the Australian Chamber Orchestra are performing the Australian premiere of Popcorn Superhet Receiver for just four nights, from May 29 – June 2.

Described by the New York Times as classical music on “steroids, or acid, or both”, it’s 150% our cup of tea. The only thing that could make us more excited would be if Jonny himself was coming over. Ah well. For tickets (from $35) head to www.aco.com.au.

From the director of Cannes-winner Red Road comes Fish Tank, a tale of sexual awakening and survival set in London’s housing estates. Newcomer Katie Jarvis gives a incredibly natural performance as Mia, a high-school dropout whose sole pleasure is dancing. In fact, if it didn’t sound so trite, we’d say this was a Cannes version of Save the Last Dance - but without the incredulous love story or the ending where someone gets into dance school… It’s awesome (read our review on p.36), and thanks to Transmission Films, we have 10 double passes up for grabs. To get your hot lil hands on one, tell us the name of the director.

LEGION Did someone say apocalypse? Action thriller Legion stars Paul Bettany (The Da Vinci Code) as a naughty angel who has decided to protect humanity (Dennis Quaid and Kate Walsh) from a very annoyed God, and his army of evil angels. It’s scaretastic, and full of guns. Legion opens on June 3 – but we have 20 double passes up for grabs, to a special preview screening of Legion, on Monday May 31 at Event Cinemas George St. To get your hands on one, tell us the name of the director!

CREATIVE SYDNEY

Bang on top of Sydney Film Festival comes the second Creative Sydney - a series of free public events running June 5 – 13 at the MCA – and from the looks of the program they snagged McSweeney's, fellas! - this year is going to be unmissable. Creative Sydney 2010 will be a mix of discussion, presentation and performance events, spanning the worlds of advertising, architecture, broadcasting and publishing, design, events, fashion, film, gaming, music, performance, photography, technology, and visual communications. And it's oh-so freeee.creativesydney.com.au

BLACK CHERRY, BABES

Why is it called Black Cherry? Mental note: must research. Sydney’s premier mix of Punk, Rockabilly, Garage, Ska, Alt-Country, dirty Blues & Swamp is back, with a whole new line-up of talented burlesque babes, including Kelly Ann Doll (Melb), Swedish sensation Danica Lee, and the hooptastic Heidi Hoops.

Amazing. With Torche Le Monde in the mix, this party is 150% guaranteed to be hot – but just in case you need some extra powers of imagination, official sponsors Green Fairy Original Czech Absinthe are on hand…

Saturday May 29 from 8pm til late at Factory Theatre (105 Victoria Rd Marrickville).

SYDNEY WINTER FESTIVAL

On June 24 the warm and fuzzy alpine vibes of the Northern Hemisphere will descend onto Sydney’s CBD for a microcosmic celebration

Morning Honey - by Marnya Rothe

MARNYA ROTHE / CUT UP

This week, this pic caught our attention – courtesy of artist Marnya Rothe, and part of her new exhibition of surrealist fashion photography, Cut Out. The press release has quite a lot of theoretical perspectives on Rothe’s work, but we actually just like the picture… is that wrong? From May 27 – June 12 at Sun Studios, 42 Maddox St Alexandria. And proving her superhero ability to be in two places at once, Rothe’s exhibition will also show as part of the Head On Photo Festival, until June 5 @ Alicia Hollen 240 Oxford St, Paddington. Morning Honey!

30 :: BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10

GIVE YOUR UNI AMBITIONS A SIX MONTH HEAD START. Many people get ahead of the game by starting their degree six months earlier through the mid-year entry program at the University of Western Sydney. So, if you want to give yourself a six month head start in achieving your goal, you can. We have courses on offer in Law, Business, Science, Teaching, Engineering and much more. But you have to hurry because applications close on June 11.

Don’t Miss Out! Mid-Year Entry Applications close June 11. Visit uws.edu.au/midyear or call 1300 897 669.

THE WORK OF TWO IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS PRESENTED BY CARRIAGEWORKS IN ASSOCIATION WITH PENRITH REGIONAL GALLERY & THE LEWERS BEQUEST / 3 – 26 JUNE 2010 FREE ENTRY / CARRIAGEWORKS 245 WILSON ST EVELEIGH / CARRIAGEWORKS.COM.AU © IMAGE Jacques L’Affrique (aka David Porter) Rick Springfield 1971

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AR T,

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ANIMAL KINGDOM

Director David Michôd cuts a swathe through the filmmaking jungle.

By Dee Jefferson

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fter winning the world cinema prize at Sundance in January, David Michôd’s debut feature Animal Kingdom was bought by distributors in every major foreign territory, ensuring it will get a cinema release in every major market.

Jackie Weaver is small but deadly in Animal Kingdom.

But first, it must run the gauntlet of Michôd’s home territory. “Because it’s an Australian film, I have no idea whether it’s gonna do really well, or completely disappear; and that’s a spooky feeling,” the director admits.

It’s a very real issue for every Australian filmmaker, with media and community perceptions that ‘Australian films are too dark’, and many films barely making a dent at the box office, before slipping into obscurity. There’s a general perception that Australian films are just… a bit crap.

Michôd is fairly pragmatic on this subject. “Whenever anyone asks me ‘do I think Australian films suck?’ – my answers is always yes – but I think all films suck, from everywhere in the world; they’re incredibly hard things to make, and the ones that make it here from elsewhere in the world are, in theory, the cream of the crop – whereas what we see here of our own films, is everything; and so it’s just totally inevitable, in a country that makes only 20-30 films a year, that only a couple of them are going to be good. That’s just the way movies work, everywhere in the world.”

Animal Kingdom, however, has a lot going for it. While it is definitely part of a larger genre of Australian crime dramas – including betterknown examples such as Chopper, Two Hands, and the TV series Underbelly – Michôd’s debut is anything but formulaic. From head to toe, it throws out constant surprises, in narrative and tone.

The ostensibly innocuous opening shot of a young man sitting on the couch watching Deal or No Deal next to his slumbering mother, is anything but. Disoriented, unsure whether we’re allowed to laugh, we are flung into the Cody family, one small microcosm within the jungle of Melbourne’s criminal underbelly. Our unwitting guide is Joshua “J” Cody,

who is old enough to be drawn into his uncles’ schemes, but too young to be taken seriously.

While set in roughly the same criminal milieu as Underbelly, Michôd’s film is in no danger of glamourising Melbourne’s underworld in the same way; it is far more interested (as its title suggests) in the power relationships between its players. The overarching narrative follows a young man’s trajectory towards deciding his place in this terrain; its success is its ability to draw the viewer into J’s world for almost two hours, and make us care about an outcome that we cannot predict.

“Whenever anyone asks me ‘do I think Australian films suck?’ – my answers is always yes – but I think all films suck, from everywhere in the world; they’re incredibly hard things to make, and the ones that make it here from elsewhere in the world are, in theory, the cream of the crop."

Animal Kingdom also benefits from solid casting, including indie veteran Ben Mendelsohn (Beautiful Kate), who plays the unstable eldest Cody brother, and recent Aussie stalwart Joel Edgerton (The Square), who plays a niceguy crook. Guy Pearce (The Hurt Locker) enters the script halfway through as a police-detectivecum-father-figure; baby-faced Luke Ford (The Black Balloon) plays J’s youngest uncle.

collective of Aussie filmmakers that includes writer/director Spencer Susser (I Love Sarah Jane), whose debut feature Hesher, which Michôd co-wrote, is showing at Sydney Film Festival this year.

Most crucial to Animal Kingdom's effect, however, is the casting of J - which might have gone to any number of rising stars or pretty faces, but went instead to the incredibly awkward-looking James Frecheville, who lumbers impassively through the first two thirds of the film, before making the devastating transition at the core of the narrative.

Blue-Tongue is one of a series of informal collectives – likeminded collaborators - that Michôd has worked within since his student days at the Victorian College of the Arts. In 2000 he moved to Sydney, where he got a job at Inside Film magazine, answering the phones. When he left six years later, he had a serious chunk of experience under his belt, as the magazine’s Editor in Chief – but also a new ‘accidental collective’ in the form of fellow staff, who were all filmmakers in one sense or the other – and who have since then gone on to work in different, interesting roles within the industry.

A number of the cast and crew for Animal Kingdom - including Michôd himself and Oscar-nominated editor Luke Doolan (Miracle Fish) - are members of Blue-Tongue Films, a

Those six years also connected Michôd with Blue-Tongue Films (who shared the same Darlinghurst terrace as office space), which was at that time a small independent

production company started by stuntman/director Nash Edgerton and his brother Joel.

For Michôd, these different collectives of filmmakers have been crucial to his success so far.

“When I’m asked by people, ‘What advice would you give to young filmmakers?’ the thing I always say is: treasure and nurture your group of peers, whoever they are, and be constantly aware that this group is the well from which everything will spring.

"Especially with making films – they’re so expensive and big and unwieldy (even when they’re short films) that to feel like you’re trying to do it by yourself is overwhelming; but as soon as you have people around you who are encouraging you…it not only feels do-able, but it feels fun."

What: Animal Kingdom When: Opens June 3.

More: animalkingdomthefilm.com.au

Come Work With Us! The Brag is seeking a new Advertising Sales Executive to add to our energetic and youthful team.

A fantastic opportunity exists for the right person to join one of Australia’s leading music titles.

A knowledge of all things Sydney- its bars, clubs, pubs, boutiques and restaurants is essential.

This is a flexible role, with the option of P/T or F/T working hours.

A retainer and generous incentives are offered, commensurate with experience.

A mobile phone and car allowance adds to a great package with all the usual benefits.

Plus, you get to work in a cool, inner city location with one of Australia’s foremost youth marketing companies and publishing teams.

This is an excellent opportunity for the right, self motivated and hard working person to break into the music industry!

Please send your resume with a cover letter through to: brownie@thebrag.com 32 :: BRAG :: 363:: 24:05:10

The Brag is part of Peer Group, Australia’s foremost youth marketing company and Furst Media, Australia’s biggest streetpress company

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Prince Of Persia [FILM/GAMES] The latest, most expensive, addition to an increasing trend. By Joshua Blackman ack in 1990 when I was still coming to terms with the new IBM386 clogging up my desk, an elder cousin surreptitiously gifted me a 3.5” disc on which he promised was the latest – and greatest – computer game.

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any – is frequently secondary to gameplay; there’s little story to be found while whacking an invisible tennis ball over the net with your Wii remote or blasting Cacodemons with a double-barrelled shotgun.

The game was Prince of Persia, a memorable platformer that’s since spawned half a dozen sequels and an imminent big-screen adaptation, directed by Mike Newell and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton and Ben Kingsley.

With its star power, $150m budget and a strong Bruckheimer stamp, this film could be the first of its kind; it could be the first film based on a video game that is actually good.

That’s not to say that there are not games with sophisticated stories and empathetic characters.

There was an outcry from fans when it was rumoured that Alyx Vance, the player’s sidekick from Half Life 2, was to be killed in a future expansion. Players had developed an emotional link with her – not dissimilar to those derived from movies – stemming from that game’s masterly fusion of cinematic storytelling and first-person immersion. Other games such as Mass Effect and the 'interactive drama' Heavy Rain, have also embraced the possibilities of branching, interactive narratives and the increasing fusion between movies and games.

Granted, there are moments from the first Resident Evil (all to do with the lithe Milla Jovovich) that make it borderline watchable.

Dead or Alive has enough drunken fighting and skimpy outfits to tip it into the so-bad-it’s-good category; and Angelina Jolie was the perfect choice to play Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider movies. But these scant moments out of the thirty-odd live-action cinematic adaptations can’t hide the reality that movies based on video games, in general, are awful, preposterous hack jobs with no sense of character or story.

In some sense, this is not surprising. Games are inherently interactive experiences designed to immerse the player and supply challenges for them to overcome. Narrative – if there is

There are good games with good stories that would make fantastic movies. Two of them are already in development. Saving Private Ryan screenwriter Robert Rodat is working on a script to a Warcraft movie for Sam Raimi to direct. And, better yet, 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is tipped to helm the adaptation of Bioshock, the acclaimed “immersive-reality” simulation set in an Ayn Rand-inspired dystopian Atlantis.

These two examples could yet suffer the fate

A New Nightmare [FILM] Jackie Earle Haley takes on iconic dream-stalker Freddy Krueger. By Kelly Griffin

of Neil Blomkamp’s Halo film (after District 9 is there anyone who wouldn’t want to see that?), but represent an increase in quality of behind the scenes talent in a genre more accustomed to low budgets and Z-list directors, like the prolific – and infamous – Uwe Boll (Alone in the Dark, BloodRayne).

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is the most expensive video-game adaptation yet, but feels closer to an action adventure romp like Indiana Jones or Pirates of the Caribbean.

References to its microchip origins seem to

But there's nothing like a comeback - and Kusama is back with a vengeance, with her stylish take on Diablo Cody’s irreverent horror script, Jennifer’s Body, about a possessed vampire cheerleader (played by Megan Fox) who has a thing for teenage boys. It’s original, funny, sexy and darkly comic.

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25 years on, the Platinum Dunes “dudes” – Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller, who recently pumped new blood into classic horror films Friday The 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Amityville Horror – have revived Craven’s seminal slasher. In the director's chair is Sam Bayer – famed for his award-winning music videos such as Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit as well as his music video collaborations with The Rolling Stones, Marilyn Manson, Smashing Pumpkins and David Bowie.

Reprising the role of Freddy is former child star Jackie Earle Haley, who is better known these days for his critically acclaimed performances in Little Children (for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role), Watchmen (as masked vigilante Rorschach) and Shutter Island.

“Robert England (the original Freddy) had done an incredible job with this character,” says Haley. “He made the character a cultural icon over the past couple of decades to the point that when you think of Freddy Krueger you think of Robert Englund, so that’s kind of a daunting role to take.”

Haley’s approach to the character was to make Freddy as creepy and sinister as possible. “Sam was saying his vision for the piece was to get back to its origin, when Nightmare was darker, when it was scarier.

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Haley embraced his research with dedication, but says he quickly began to feel he might be taking the role a little too seriously. “I realised that I wasn’t playing a serial killer; what I needed to embrace was the mythological bogeyman that Freddy Krueger is, and when I did that it was incredibly freeing,” he explains.

“It became really clear that A Nightmare On Elm Street, and this horror genre that it lives in, represents the campfire story,” he continues. “It goes back hundreds of years, how we’d all like to sit around the campfire and point flashlights up at our face while we tell scary stories to one another and scream and then giggle right afterwards. So I needed to be sure that I was being true to that genre, being true to this character and who he is. … So really the mythological bogeyman approach was really much more of a fit with what was written anyway.”

With Platinum Dunes’ sleek contemporary remake taking in around $30 million in its opening weekend on the US box office alone, there’s every chance of a sequel; but Haley is tightlipped on the subject. “You know, I don’t know,” he shakes his head, “I haven’t heard. If they decide to move forward, I think it’d be a blast. It’s always a blast chasing people around with knifey finger hands,” he chuckles darkly.

What: A Nightmare On Elm Street When: In cinemas now.

What: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time When: Opens May 27

[FILM] Karyn Kusama talks vampire cheerleaders and coming out. By Paul Fischer

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He kind of felt that over the years [Freddy had] become a bit more campy… [he] lent me Nosferatu, which is an old silent horror film, and he also sent me this huge book on serial killers. He said, ‘here just check this stuff out, I’m not sure what I’m even looking at, but lets talk once you’ve perused….

Either way, it’s only a matter of time before the phrase “based on the video game” does not equate to a portent of doom.

Jennifer’s Body t has been quite the long road for former Sundance discovery Karyn Kusama, who burst onto the screen with her fresh and buoyant boxing drama Girlfight. Then came Aeon Flux, studio interference and her world came crashing down.

es Craven’s 1984 low-budget horror classic A Nightmare On Elm Street unleashed serial child-killer Freddy Krueger into the nightmares of a generation of cinemagoers. With his charred, disfigured face and trademark razor-clawed leather glove, Krueger became one of the most iconic cinematic villains of all time; his popularity surpassing that of the film that spawned his fame.

have been deliberately downplayed in the marketing campaign, but hopefully it will retain the playful sprit of the game, which had a deft blend of platform puzzles, story and romance.

If this had been any other writer, would you have still been drawn to the material?

I have to admit, I got the script and the synopsis was something like – you know, 'cheerleader from hell'. And I just thought, 'Why am I getting sent this?' But I was like, 'Wow, after Aeon Flux, I really still am in movie jail'. And then I read it…

Is this a Carrie for the Now Generation?

That was one of the movies I watched while we were making the movie. The thing with Carrie that I think is so interesting, is that it just – the idea that it pretty much starts off with menstrual blood. [Laughter] It’s like – “Wow, that is bold.” I do feel like there’s something about this movie that taps into what Carrie offered, which was a pretty sick sense of humour, at times, and this sort of conflicted female monster. You know, Carrie, of course, is so sympathetic. But when she becomes the anti-heroine, there’s something very tragic about her.

You also managed to find women who you cast pretty much against type.

Well, luckily for me, Megan was already attached to the movie. But it was pretty clear right away

that she had a sort of icy, porcelain façade, that once punctured, was easily sympathetic - and tragic, even. As much as Jennifer Check is sort of the anti-hero, or the monster of the movie, she’s also got these moments of tremendous humanity, or vulnerability; particularly I think in the sacrifice scene. And then with Amanda [Seyfried]… I feel like she’s got an old 'silent movie star' kind of face. She can do very subtle things with her face, and I just feel so much emotional access to her character. And so in a way, she kind of provides that emotional anchor to the film that you really need.

Is this film your coming out party, in a way?

[Laughter] Maybe it is. I mean, I came out of New York, and I went to film school in New York.

There was a period where I managed to be in the movie – in a movie theater every day. And it was – it could literally be – you know, the British noir series, the Hitchcock series, the Italian neorealism series. It could be – you know, post-war Soviet cinema. I feel like I really got an education in a lot of different kinds of filmmaking.

But for me, what realized is, I’m not a snob.

I make no distinction between lowbrow and highbrow. I feel like – you know, John Carpenter’s The Thing is as serious a movie about the nature of humanity as Elem Klimov’s Come and See. All I’m looking for is a sense of purpose, and a sense of energy, and a sense of thoughtfulness behind the filmmaking. And I can see that in a lot of genre pictures, pulp exploitation. So for me, it is kind of a coming out, because I’m sort of coming out as the – as someone who loves genre.

What: Jennifer's Body - UNCUT When: Released May 19, through Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Action violence, coarse language and sexual references

THE NEW ALBUM

MAY 21

Featuring the new single BETWEEN THE LINES www.warnermusic.com.au

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Arts Snap

Film & Theatre Reviews

At the heart of the arts Where you went last week.

What's hot on the silver screen and the bare-boards around town.

■ Film

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET Released May 20.

“Whatever you do, don’t fall asleep,” said Nancy in the original 1984 A Nightmare on Elm Street - advice that must be heeded if one is make it through this dour reimagining of Wes Craven's classic.

It’s not that the concept hasn’t more mileage – even after eight films (if you count Freddy vs. Jason), the stripey-jumpered, bladefingered, disfigured Freddy Krueger remains as iconic as ever, and the dream-stalking premise offers endless scope for visual ingenuity. It’s more that this movie is a victim of the Michael Bay’s homogenising horror remake machine, Platinum Dunes, the production company that’s already sapped the audacious low-budget character from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror and Friday the 13th.

PICS :: TL

where we've been

Similarly this new version of Nightmare feels less like the work of the stylish musicvideo director Samuel Bayer than that of a committee, rehashing the expected slasher tropes with little originality. Even the famous set pieces, such as the iconic telekinetic bedroom slaying and the vision of Freddy’s hand emerging from the bathtub are mishandled in the absence of Craven’s specific timing. Worse, the film fails to deliver scares beyond the lazy and predictable loudnoise-designed-to-make-you-jump gimmick, which quickly becomes more grating than frightening.

14:05:10 :: Sean Cordeiro & Claire Healy@GBK Gallery :: 285 Young St Waterloo

PICS :: TL

couples

Robert Englund’s Freddy Krueger, scary in the original, a one-liner joke machine in the sequels of diminishing returns, is replaced here by Jackie Earle Haley’s more sinister and realistic creation. Oddly though, Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer’s script has made him more sympathetic than mythical, turning the kids’ parents – those responsible for Krueger’s burn-victim appearance – into the real villains. Like the feeble attempts to characterise the 20-somethings targeted by Freddy, this is a thread that’s left hanging.

Haley, rehashing his Rorschach growl from Watchmen is, however, solid as Kruger, and Rooney Mara is effective as protagonist Nancy. The rest of the cast are merely non-descript fodder for Krueger’s knives; there’s no future Johnny Depp lurking in the background here. Regrettably too, this version also removes any is-it-or-isn’t-it a dream ambiguity that made the original so compelling, completely wasting what is still one of the most intriguing premises of any horror. This new Nightmare is just that.

14:05:10 :: Julia Schauenberg@Gallery 8 :: 8 Argyle Plc Millers Point

Joshua Blackman ■ Film

left coast festival launch

PICS :: TL

FISH TANK Released May 27.

12:05:10 :: + Flowhawk Exhibition@Sedition :: 275 Victoria Rd Darlinghurst

Arts Exposed Our hot tip for the week...

VIVID LIVE

MAY 27 – JUNE 11 SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

Finally, Vivid LIVE is upon us, unleashing Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson’s perfect storm of performance, experimental films, folk, punk, psychedelia and noise. We’re particularly looking forward to checking out Laurie’s performance retrospective Transitory Life, which will include songs and stories from her acclaimed solo shows.

Also on our dance card is The Shipment, by Korean American theatre-maker Young Jean Lee, and her New York-based theatre company – think rap, dance, stand-up comedy, and the world’s most awkward tea-party, all in the service of unpacking racial stereotypes.

Finally, aueteur Bill Morrison will turn the Concert Hall into a cinematheque, for Day for Night Movies - a marathon of docos, experimental art films (Maya Deren, anyone?), classics and more with live scores and performances from Vivid LIVE artists including Reed and Anderson.

Full program at vividlive.sydneyoperahouse.com

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Set within the same socio-economic ballpark as Harry Brown’s housing estates, Fish Tank looks like a picnic by comparison.

Whereas Daniel Barber shows us the hellish underbelly of London’s infamous ‘Elephant and Castle’, rife with pitiless violence, underage prostitution and the pointy end of the drug trade, Andrea Arnold is more interested in the casual neglect that afflicts a large swathe of the UK’s youth; and Fish Tank is a far richer film in terms of character and construction.

Mia (newcomer Katie Jarvis) is fifteen, a highschool drop-out, and pops cans of lager like most kids her age pop cola. She lives in a tiny flat in a housing estate, with her booze-soaked mother Joanne (Kierston Wareing) and younger sister Tyler. In her

spare time Mia sneaks off to an abandoned neighbouring high-rise and practises her dance moves – relentlessly. Her one spark of sunshine is the promise of a better life that this one talent holds forth.

As with her Oscar-winning short Wasp and her Cannes-winning debut feature Red Road (both visions of women surviving the physical and emotional minefields of life in a low-income and high-crime urban jungle), Arnold excels as a storyteller within this territory. Bolstered by Katie Jarvis’ incredibly natural performance, the director creates a heroine who is vulnerable, cheeky, tough and fragile – no mere cipher; even the film’s most potent symbol (the horse chained-up in an abandoned lot) feels natural, rather than laboured.

Fish Tank is most confronting when it explores the usually-taboo area of underage sex. When Joanne brings home Connor (Michael Fassbender - Hunger), a laid-back lover twice Mia’s age, awakening sexuality and desire for a father figure push Mia into his arms; the emotional fall-out for mother and daughter pushes the teen to make a tough decision, at a turning point in her life.

Mercifully, Arnold’s mood is optimistic; Mia is a survivor, with 150% spunk - despite a total lack of parental affirmations and institutional guidance. When she is unexpectedly put in her mother’s position, Mia manages to make better decisions. Mia’s life might be bleak, but things are definitely looking up.

Dee Jefferson ■ Film

THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES Released May 27.

The winner of the 2010 Best Foreign Language Oscar, Argentinean thriller, El Secreto de Sus Ojos is a rich, textured look at love, loss and memory. Set in 1999 Buenos Aires, the film looks at the people involved in a criminal case 20 years earlier, during Argentina’s military dictatorship, that was hampered by political and personal vendettas.

Popular Argentinean actor Ricardo Darín (Nine Queens – 2005) plays Benjamin Espósito, a retired state prosecution investigator. Still haunted by a 25-year-old case, he tries to exorcise his demons by writing a novel about the brutal rape and murder of a 23-year-old schoolteacher and the subsequent messy investigation. The story unfolds in flashbacks, edited through Benjamin’s memories, to reveal a plot that is about so much more than one miscarriage of justice.

The lives of Irene Ménendez Hastings (Soledad Villamil) Benjamin’s superior and love interest, Ricardo Morales (Pablo Rago) the teacher’s bereaved husband and Pablo Sandoval (Guillermo Francella) Benjamin’s alcoholic work colleague are all forever interwoven through this murder enquiry, with tragic consequences.

The Secret in Their Eyes has been masterfully structured by screenwriter/director Juan Jose Campenella, with each layer of memory peeled back to reveal something new, making the film completely compelling for its long 126 mins running time. The camera work is remarkable especially in the huge football stadium scene and in the smaller, intimate lift sequence. Both scenes ramp up the film’s suspense, leaving you breathless for very different reasons.

Adapted from a novel by Eduardo Sacheri, the film, while uniquely Argentinean in its setting, offers universally understood insights into memory and regret. Campenella has embedded very real menace and intrigue into a protracted love story, aided by the impressive ensemble cast. This is a film capable of completely absorbing you into its twists and turns as it explores the intricacies and extremities of what the search for justice truly means.

Beth Wilson

See thebrag.wordpress.com for more reviews

DVD Reviews What's been on our TV screens this week

By Joshua Blackman

ZOMBIELAND

THE ROAD

Sony Pictures Home Ent. Released May 4.

Take away the zombies, and Ruben Fleischer’s feature debut is a fairly odd, but sweet, coming-ofage tale; with the zombie premise, however, comes a fifteen-year-old boy’s creative dedication to gore and hardcore violence – lots of chewedout leg tendons, smashed heads and bad-taste scenarios involving toilets, fat people and really big guns. At its best, however, Zombieland is a hilarious analogy for the sense of alienation that many people feel in their day-to-day lives.

Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland) plays a socially maladjusted, obsessive compulsive young man who has, against the odds, survived the world-wide zombie epidemic, by virtue of his 30-or-so cardinal rules, which prescribe cardiovascular fitness, double-tap executions, cautious use of bathrooms, and the wearing of seatbelts. On his way east, towards his hometown, he runs into the gun-toting freewheeling red-neck “Tallahassee” (Woody Harrelson) - and so it is that one of this year’s more unlikely duos set off across ‘Zombieland’, each trying to get to somewhere better, each on a personal mission. Along the way, the two join up with two wily con-artist sisters, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin).

Zombieland’s roadtrip works its way across America, cutting swathes through the undead, towards a place where all four survivors realise this is the best family they’ve ever had. It’s pretty simple, pretty gory, pretty darn sweet, and a whole lotta fun.

This single disc release includes an audio commentary with the director and actors, and a punchy, interesting featurette on how a failed TV pilot script ended up as a big budget film, and an unpacking of Fleischer’s vision. Finally, a rare featurette on production design! Yip! Dee Jefferson

Icon Home Entertainment Released May 28.

With the success of the Coen brothers’ No Country For Old Men, it was probably only a matter of time before someone tackled Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prizewinning novel The Road. It’s gripping reading, not so much a narrative as a stream-of-conscious narration from the mind of a dying man travelling through a post-apocalyptic American wasteland, with his young son. McCarthy’s virtuoso talent with language and inventive vocabulary (dictionary please!) evokes a landscape of busted tarmac and crippled, blackened trees, stretching to heaven through a pall of smoke - all images that film can maximise.

Taking the helm is Aussie expat John Hillcoat, whose dark and bloody Ghosts of the Civil Dead and The Proposition definitely put him in the right ball-park, style-wise. Casting is spot on, with Viggo Mortensen drawing on some unknown deep pit of despair to play the role of the physically and spiritually emaciated father; interesting cameos from Charlize Theron and a barely recognisable Robert Duvall and Guy Pearce are cute rather than necessary.

Hillcoat has been remarkably faithful to the source material, resisting what must have been a strong temptation to up the ante on the cannibal content; all-in-all, i still find the book far more harrowing than this film version. While I can’t fault the film on any significant level, I can’t escape the feeling that Hillcoat hasn’t really added anything to an already fantastic book… I know, I know – surely this is a criticism that could be made by any one of the many book-to-film adaptations that are made these days?

If you like eerie and unsettling apocalyptic atmospheres, however, apply here.

Extras include a couple of 'making of'-type featurettes.

Dee Jefferson

Street Level With theatre-maker Matt Prest.

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his week A Hole in the Wall opens at Performance Space, as part of their You Are Here season. Created by partnersin-crime (and love) Matt Prest (The Tent) and Clare Britton (My Darling Patricia), A Hole in the Wall is part theatre, part installation art, inviting the audience into the intimate world of a couple whose relationship – and house - is disintegrating. The production has just returned from its mini-season as part of Next Wave Festival.

So... what's Hole in the Wall about?

It’s a love story about a couple who are bored and unhappy where they are, and they start by blaming the house there in. Then the house starts to turn on them as they struggle through a restless night in search of each other and what it is they really want. On entering the theatre, nine audience members at a time step right into a small purpose built room, domestic in feel with all the trimmings (suffocating wallpaper, skirting boards, architraves, oyster light). The walls and ceiling of the room start to move and the audience move with it. Then the rooms open up onto scenes of this couple, a man and a woman, and the audience find themselves right in the middle of the relationship and all the couple’s fears and hopes, dreams and nightmares.

What are both of your backgrounds/ trainings as performers?

Clare has a background in visual and imagebased theatre, working for the last 10 years with her company My Darling Patricia (Night Garden; Africa). As well as a designer and performer she has worked and trained in puppetry and is a qualified rigger. Matt studied in performance and installation at COFA and works mostly as a performer in contemporary performance as well as having a more multidisciplined approach to his own projects such as The Tent and Hole in the Wall.

How did you and Clare meet?

Clare and I met when we were about 5. We were teenagers in love when we were 15.

Around our mid 20s we fell in love again and had a little boy, Les. Both being artists we’ve always been interested in the possibility of working together and while I’ve worked with My Darling Patricia and Clare was a key artist

on The Tent, Hole in the Wall is the first real collaboration between the two of us.

You seem to have had some interesting and diverse inspirations for the show…

It was Gordon Matta Clark, particularly his ‘building cut’ works, who inspired us to get started on this work. This was where he would cut these beautiful organic shapes into the rigid architecture of an office building or warehouse.

We were interested in the process of violence and destruction leading to light and beauty and wanted to apply it to the space and story we were creating.

Any inspirations (or revelations) about the show after performing it at Next Wave?

We had a school group from come and basically they screamed for half the show - so I guess we know the show is kind of scary now. I don’t think we’ll change much before Performance Space but the show will definitely be at its best when we get there.

What: A Hole in the Wall When: May 26-29, shows at 6pm + 8pm Where: Performance Space (CarriageWorks) More: performancespace.com.au

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

CD OF THE WEEK THE DEAD WEATHER

Alison Mosshart has far transcended her role of trendoid in The Kills to become a vicious, visceral frontwoman. White’s got the mic so close to her that every time Mosshart breathes or even cracks a smile, we’re going to hear it. The effect is one of intimacy, made even more alluring by the fact that most of these tracks offer promises of torture and death to ex-lovers.

Sea Of Cowards Warner

I’m going to put it out there: with an output this frenetic and quality this good, The Dead Weather may soon end up replacing Jack White’s other band as the reigning champs of rock n’ roll.

Two solid gold wins in a row. I can’t wait for the Dead Weather trifecta.

Sure, without the success of The White Stripes, Jack ‘I sing and play guitar like a demon but hey did you know I’m equally as good on the drums’ White probably wouldn’t have had the clout to pull this ragtag team together. But this doesn’t discount the fact that every time the Dead Weather lay another song down on tape, they melt faces and blow minds. Sea Of Cowards does for blues what Elephant did for scuzzed-out garage punk; it makes the genre sexy, relevant and entirely irresistible to pretty much everyone who hears it.

RICHMOND FONTAINE

MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS

We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded like A River Nonzero/Shock

The Crystal Axis Siberia

Nine albums in and you might suspect Richmond Fontaine would eventually be running low on bittersweet moments to write about. But we sometimes forget that fate has a taste for the nostalgic and symbolic … and is sometimes altogether mean.

Days before the band were set to finish touring 2007’s Thirteen Cities, bandleader Willy Vlautin’s mother passed away unexpectedly, coaxing Vlautin into an extended seclusion.

When he emerged, a handful of scribbled notes became yet another album replete with downtrodden characters who continue to battle their demons with a mixture of vices and piousness.

Vlautin’s plaintive voice, barely raised above a mumble, delivers these stories with an air of detachedness, but you can tell that the pain hits close to home.

His longtime bandmates accompany the tales with poignant Americana – particularly Dan Eccles’ forceful guitars – and provide a more verbose counterpoint to the restrained vocals, like on the thunderous ‘43’, the swaying title track or the gorgeous fingerpicking instrumental ‘Walking Back To Our Place At 3 a.m’.

Vlautin, also a celebrated author, exorcises personal battles the only way he knows how: by committing them to the permanency of print and record. Those who can afford the time to ingest the lyrics are continuously rewarded. This is misery without being miserable, romance without falling into saccharine, regret without paralysing fear.

But the real winner is Queens Of The Stone Age conscript Dean Fertita, who cranks up the organ this time around to add beef to an already wall-shaking guitar sound. Like the bluesmen of yesteryear, White - who in addition to drumming and singing dons the producer’s hat again for this album - specialises in making things ‘cook’. He’s far more interested in how far he can twist a riff until it bleeds than writing another two-bit chorus. Accordingly, even though Sea Of Cowards flies by in just over half an hour, it feels like much longer. Good music will do that to you.

Melbourne’s synthstars-turned-world-champions took their sweet time recording their followup to the wildly successful Dystopia.

So long, in fact, that the cool set might be forgiven for thinking '45 and Rising' or 'Shadows' never existed. The Juggies have spent the time between releases criss-crossing the globe, and in the process have picked up another swag of influences, thrown it through a late 1970s processer and turned it into something entirely their own.

This is a band who were always really good at writing hooks, building them up and letting them loose. The Crystal Axis has its moments, but it isn’t as instantly catchy as the group’s debut.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing; in fact, it means you have to use your ears more to really ‘get’ it. Which helps, because there’s a lot of aural bliss going on here.

When I first heard ‘This New Technology’ and ‘Vital Signs’ as singles, I was nonplussed. But in the scheme of the album, not only do they sound much better, but they flow a lot better too. If you’re looking for local reference points, this baby is less like The Presets and more like Lost Valentinos; it’s dark but richly so, interwoven with some otherworldly sounds and the unmistakeable baritone of lead singer Vincent Vendetta.

Some surprising pop moments (‘Lifeblood Flow’) and whacked out shit that comes straight from a musical (‘The Great Beyond’) makes this an album which will divide fans. I wanted to hear Dan Stricker doing more behind the kit, but he seems to be more involved in the songwriting now.

It seems they all are. And that’s cool.

Jonno Seidler

THE BLACK KEYS Brothers Shock Brothers, as the album cover helpfully deadpans, is an album by the Black Keys. The designer might have thought to have added ‘They play blues rock’ just to make things clear, but given the band, that would probably be redundant.

Still, since 2008’s Attack & Release, the Ohioan duo have thrown out a couple of interesting diversions - including a rather splendid solo album from Dan Auerbach, as well as the hip hop crossover project Blakroc.

It all suggested a certain amount of restlessness setting in regarding the pigeon-hole, but any such disquiet seems to have been swept aside with studio album number six. Brothers is an immensely assured effort that drips with a warm, big-hearted spirit.

The standard themes are all there: wayward lovers, thwarted aims and hard men broken by loneliness all get a fair hearing – see particularly ‘She’s Long Gone’ and ‘Too Afraid To Love You,’ which gets the whole insecuremale-lingering-on-the-edge-while-zelady’s-long-since-taken-the-plunge thing to a T. But there’s a maturity to the lyrics here that goes beyond the generic tropes.

“I’m better off left alone” Auerbach sweetly warbles on ‘I’m Not The One’, ‘Next Girl’ steams forward with the sense that things’ll be better next time, while the sassy riff of single ‘Tighten Up’ supports a sophisticated rumination on hopeless love and self-reliance.

Richmond Fontaine externalise their anguish with sombre arrangements so that we don’t have to... May they always see the glass half empty.

With a foot in every decade from the sixties until now - it’s just gotta be the Juggies.

At 15 tracks there’s perhaps just a touch too much fat on the bone, and there’s certainly bugger all in the way of innovation here - but that’s hardly the point. Brothers brims with a fulsome generosity and bittersweet joy that will mollify the most wounded soul.

Mitch Alexander

Jonno Seidler

Oliver Downes

GRUM

WASHINGTON

Heartbeats Ministry Of Sound

Rich Kids EP Mercury

Grum. The name evokes filth and garage, yet the only grunge that can be associated with this music is the type that’s mopped from the floor of some Oxford Street nightclub.

Heartbeats, the debut album by Grum, is the bastard child of one Graeme Shepherd, a 24-year-old Scotsman who’s claiming both 80s pop and Daft Punk as the fathers.

But the music this UK one-man electro band makes resembles nothing better than the sort of ridiculous tunes your mum did aerobics to.

When I listened to the first few seconds of the first track, 'Through The Night', I was immediately wary and feared the inevitable – that the words “straight through the night” would be repeated anon to the point of abuse. When the second song, 'Can’t Shake this Feeling', began its mantra of – you guessed it - “I can’t shake this feeling”, I had to turn it off and do something else for a while.

It’s not that it’s necessarily bad music, it’s just that it’s not interesting. It behaves itself and plays by the rules; beats drop when they’re supposed to, the lyrics repeat to force a hook and it’s all peppered with sometimes painful blooping melodies. There are the occasionally brilliant riffs, but these rare gems are then immediately pounded out in endless loops throughout the entirety of a song thus ruining anything elusive about the music which would prompt a second or third listen. Even the remix of David Bowie’s 'Fashion' didn’t tickle me. The BBC reckons Grum’s music has charm. I reckon it’s merely wellmannered.

I’m sorry, but this album sounds like a glorified cry-wank about 1986, and I just don’t get it.

Jack Gabriel

Megan Washington is a ridiculously attractive, horrifyingly talented 23 year old from Brisbane. This is her first release after winning $50 000 worth of stuff in last year's Vanda & Young songwriting contest. And if I could turn in five songs like these, I think I’d be pretty chuffed.

The title track and leading single ‘Rich Kids’ is probably the most poptastic that this EP gets – and it doesn’t wear off as quick as you might think. While ‘1997’ is pretty popperific too, with the one-four-five in your face and the two rotating-riffs melody, Washington tempers it with a sense of reflection. ‘Someone Else In Mind’ reminds me of the Shins’ ‘Those To Come’ – a simple and persistent acoustic guitar pattern, unpredictable melody and interesting lyrics.

While Washington’s first EP, How To Tame Lions, only really varied in mood in a perfunctory sort of way, this one offers a larger range of textures, shapes and sizes throughout. ‘The Belly of The Whale’ is my favourite – it’s a slow, almost gospel-spiritual (or is it more Radiohead?) organ accompanying Washington’s sad melody and story.

The theme of family memories comes back in the final track ‘Five and Ten’, in which a beautiful Rufus Wainwrightstyle solo ballad underscores a nostalgic exploration of growing up with an older sister. “I remember how you held my hand the first time I heard Graceland,” she sings, earnestly and honestly.

Although in other parts of the EP the tight production might be overkill, it’s in the rawness and simplicity of the last two tracks that Washington showcases her impressive voice, her talent for songwriting and her progression as an artist.

Amelia Schmidt

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK

OFFICE MIXTAPE

Vorad Fils

Wondering what the 'experts' listen to?

Here's the music that drives The Brag... for this week, anyway.

The Warmest Static Feral Media I don’t really know enough about compositional electronic music programs to really give much insight into what exactly is going on here. Even if I did, the wavering walls of static-laced beats and electronic god-knows-what would probably still confuse me. All I can really tell you is that if you listen to this on heaphones while riding in heavy traffic through the rain, you will have a religious experience.

38 :: BRAG :: 363:: 24:05:10

The first solo effort from Seekae’s John Hassel, The Warmest Static is pretty much what you would expect; dreamy and blissful electronica rife with glockenspiel and melodicas, possessing a sort of embracing energy that makes it perfect for the bus ride home from work, or the bongfest after a night out.

While I hate to compare this to Seekae, the key difference between the two projects - and there aren’t too many - is that the hip-hop element is very much in the background for most of the album, having been replaced by an almost

avant garde classical sensibility and a tendency toward minimalism. The result is that while the album lacks that immediate visceral quality that peppers Seekae’s work, it has a more subtle beauty to it; the often muted beats play more of a supportive role to the stunning polyrhythmic melodies and sublime sampling. In all seriousness, some moments on this album are what heaven must sound like.

With video game samples on one hand, with Flying Lotus-esque synth bubbles on the other, and with everything in between - if you like electronic music, especially that of the ambient bent, buy this album.

Mikey Carr

SLEIGH BELLS - Treats THE TWERPS - The Twerps GOLDFRAPP - Head First

MALCOLM MIDDLETON - Sleight Of Heart PAVEMENT - Wowee Zowee

Single Reviews

Vinyl Record Review

By Jonno Seidler

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

BILL CALLAHAN

CHEMICAL BROTHERS

Rough Travel For A Rare Thing Drag City

Swoon

You know there’s something hectic brewing in the kitchen when England’s premier big-beat boys decide they’re over club stompers and they’re going to write a guitar-driven disco paean instead. With all this robotic overdrive happening, these lads are suddenly sounding an awful lot like Daft Punk and an awful lot more like Ratatat. The bass line is all Calvin Harris, the drums were probably lifted from Bloc Party, but

VIA TANIA Fields There’s a disturbing trend of women who sing a bit like elves and a bit more like some kind of bird becoming really, really big on the indie scene of late. Via Tania has that sort of voice, oscillating between Fever Ray and Lisa Mitchell.

It helps that ‘Fields’ is a really cool, loping sort of track that seems to build on a hypnotic guitar groove rather than going for the regular verse-chorus business. It won’t change your life, but it definitely sounds quirky and different and will help you get laid if you drop it at a house party in Surry Hills.

Apparently there’s a remix on the way from K.I.M. too, so you don’t even have to take my word for it - she’s like, totally in.

In fact, if you tune into 94.5 FM, they’re probably spinning this right now...

MUSE Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)

B.O.B FEAT. HAYLEY WILLIAMS Airplanes

This is exactly why you never get vampire-obsessed Mormons together with British glam-rock bands. The lead single off the new Twilight soundtrack is probably enough to completely destroy Muse’s career, but I think they’re also vampires? It sounds like it belongs in the end of an overthe-top musical, and not a good one either. Where’s the Bellamy sneer we heard on ‘Plug-In Baby’? Where’s the sexy insanity of ‘Hysteria’?

What the hell is this title supposed to be? When Muse got into the whole ‘we will save the world by writing gothic marching songs’, it was kind of entertaining. But that started almost TEN YEARS AGO, people. Shit, if I was Edward Cullen right now, I’d bite myself.

So Kanye West loses his shit for one minute and there’s already another rapper/ producer lined up to take the collaboration throne by hooking up with pretty much all the American talent he can find. Hayley’s the little belter from Paramore, by the by, who contributes pretty much nothing to this song seeing as she’s singing about an octave below her usual range. But her Tennessee touch plays off nicely against this guy, who has the flow of Outkast’s Big Boi combined with the energy of T.I. when he was really friggin’ crazy. The woeful piano intro is more than made up for by the rolling military snare-drum beat, and to her credit, Williams knows her way around a hook; this is a goddamn ear worm.

the combination is better than you might think.

Kudos to the Bros for realising that shouting "hey boy, hey girl" for the next decade wasn’t going to pay their taxes, and adapting to a new aesthetic.

I think there are words here, but I have no friggin’ idea what they are. This is harmless, hyped-up fun - unless you’re in Ratatat, in which case you’re probably going to be pretty pissed off right about now...

JINJA SAFARI Peter Pan

M.I.A Born Free

If you can get past the image of a ton of rangas in Africa, Jinja Safari, with their sitars and triangles, will easily brighten up your day. Nice harmonies and a solid backbeat, it starts off sounding like The Beatles postIndia, and slowly transforms into a low key Afrobeat ditty.

This track stays pretty much flat the whole time, even with the plethora of instruments in the mix. I get the feeling that this might be the kind of song that plays in the next Ben Stiller comedy, where he’s stuck on a tropical island with only Jennifer Aniston for company.

But hey, it brings world music to more people... And due to my rigorous Music 1 Aural skills training, I can say with at least 54% certainty that there’s a kazoo in the chorus, too.

Thanks, Ms Timms.

This is not a song. I love M.I.A as much as the next person indeed, I risked security guard obliteration when I jumped on her stage at Parklife a few years back - but our favourite counter-culture spokesperson has pretty much lost her bananas. When you don’t have the NSFW video around you’re forced to really listen to ‘Born Free’, and you realise in the process that this is an absolute wank of a track. You can’t hear any of the words, it’s scuzzy as shit but Maya’s not in a rock band, and all it does is serve as an alienating force against all of those who love the woman. Apparently the one riff that’s discernible in this mess is also stolen from a track by Suicide. Apt, because that’s kind of what this song makes me want to do.

It’s strange when an indie-rock luminary releases a vinyl-only album.

Curiouser still when it’s of a live show from three years prior – recorded in Melbourne in 2007.

At a stretch it could be said that Callahan is framing the precious experience of a live performance with the most nostalgic of all music formats. Or perhaps the nature of this release is a subtle move on Callahan’s part to encourage his future canonisation as some kind of alt-folk deity... Take the title for instance - is he so frail and rare to warrant that? Or is he poking fun?

This collection does feel as though it’s been engineered to appear as a timeless relic. The artwork would suggest as much, depicting his name as an anomalous growth ring in the cross-section of a tree-trunk. The selections are all old, too, mostly from his back catalogue as Smog; with a token nod to his 2007 debut under his own name.

The recording is very dry, but there’s a humble and inviting warmth to the music - and the band is in fine form. Callahan is his rumbling, troubadouric-self, his bard-like quality most apparent on tracks like ‘The Well’, in which his lonely ruminations meander confidently over the unravelling spindle of a folk-meetskrautrock backing. If you close your eyes, it's as if you’re in the room with the rest of the audience, BC towering over you like some kind of stoneyeyed scarecrow jesus. Sounds like it was a good gig.

Luke Telford

BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10 :: 39

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

VAMPIRE WEEKEND, CLOUD CONTROL Hordern Pavilion Thursday May 13 There is something inherently disappointing in experiencing live music at larger, stadiumlike venues. The intimacy is often lost, and while acts like Muse have the sound to fill them out, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a little apprehensive about the serving of summery, indie-pop that awaits at the Hordern Pavilion.

Sydneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cloud Control do well to defy my theory, and prove they are the package deal by performing their infectious pop-folk tunes confidently to a crowd that must surely be their largest to date. Their flawless vocal harmonies attract the unfamiliar ears of the audience, undoubtedly making new friends by the time they finish their short set.

Vampire Weekend take to the chandelier-lit stage in rather a grand fashion, the dramatic moment revealing Contraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s beady-eyed cover girl amongst a sea of flashing red light - sending the audience into a screaming frenzy. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a reflection of just how â&#x20AC;&#x153;bigâ&#x20AC;? the band have become, their success attributed to the uplifting, classically-pop music created on their self-titled debut and this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sophomore.

Despite such success, their entrance is the only real moment of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;grandeurâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; throughout the performance, as they humbly tuck straight into their signature calypso hooks and sunny key chimes. After just a few songs there is already a warmth seeping through the room, the cries of elation in â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;White Skyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and the casually inviting â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Cape Kod Kwassa Kwassaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; unfailingly plastering grins to the faces of their listeners.

Vampire Weekend are as easy to listen to in the live arena as they are on record, but an extra element of frivolity is added to their live show. Pioneered by front man Ezra Koenig, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a sense of total dorkiness in the way that the group collectively perform; from Chris Tomsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s basketball guernsey attire, to Chris Baioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top-half-bassist/ bottom-half-chicken-dance moves, to Koenigâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quips and cries about college life.

They might be one of the biggest bands in the world, but they still act like a bunch of college kids having the best night ever.

Midway the show plateaus a little, the Pavilionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s looming structures sapping the effervescence omitted from the stage as I originally feared it would. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a lengthy set, and when the bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eccentricities donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t transfer to the back of the room, songs like â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Holidayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Campusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; meld into the same, sickeningly sweet sound. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;M79â&#x20AC;&#x2122; lacks in live orchestration, the backing track not entirely sufficient in recreating the jovial orchestral arrangements. That said, it makes it all the more enjoyable to hear the grittiness of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Cousinsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;A Punkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, both of which are welcomed ecstatically.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the encore of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Horchataâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Mansford Roofâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; that brings the crowd response to a maximum, before the perfect closing song â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Walcottâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; creates all-in jumping from a satisfied mass. Appropriate venue or not, VW do pretty damn well.

Alex Young

TAME IMPALA, THE SILENTS, THE LAURELS The Metro Theatre Saturday May 15

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If The Laurels are supporting someone youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re seeing, get their early and have a listen. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mildly derivative grunge-revival epic pop, sure, but theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re pretty awesome at it. Tonight, the guitar sound is great â&#x20AC;&#x201C; fuzzy and crisp at the same time, like peak-era Pumpkins - and they seem to mean every note they play while not giving a shit if you care at the same time. Their apparent youth unnerves me, but I am very much entertained.

The Silents play druggy rock with spidery, looping guitars and nice harmonies. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s probably supposed to mean something, but I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand a word theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re singing - and my mind keeps inventing absurd psych-parody lyrics to go with the Hollywood acid-trip montage theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re apparently soundtracking. Pick a time signature and stop masturbating over your bass feedback, and we might really have something hereâ&#x20AC;Ś

And then comes Tame Impala. After collecting plaudits like so many glittery Tazos since the release of their eponymous EP in 2008, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve managed to pack out the Metro before the official release of their debut album. This is awesome. Kevin Parker pads onstage looking the part of psych-rock maestro, barefoot and lank-haired, and heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s truly one with his guitar as he segues effortlessly from dreamy jams to blazing riffs like Deerhunterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stoner brother.

The whole band is completely on the same wavelength â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the loose but precise drumming gives the hazy guitars backbone, and Dominic Simperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gorgeous viola bass anchors the sound.

Combined with kaleidoscopic visuals â&#x20AC;&#x201C; epic mountains, billowing clouds, quizzical sheep â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it kind of makes you feel as if you ought to be in a field somewhere, with some really good mates and even better drugs. Fan favourite â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Half Full Glass of Wineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is massive, a stadium-sized rawk anthem with harmonies and a woolly reverb in the vocal, and the crowd seethes in time.

After a hyperactive final number, it appears the night is over â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but as the chatty back half of the room disperses, the stubborn front section roars for more, even after the house lights go back on.

A solid fifteen minutes of stomping and chanting eventually pays off in the form of an impromptu cover of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Get Freeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; from a collection of Impala and Silents members in the unforgiving grey of the house lights.

With Craig Nicholls tearing the willing punters a new one with an unexpected guest appearance on vox, nobody went home disappointed â&#x20AC;&#x201C; except the ones who went home early.

Caitlin Welsh

URTHBOY, MANTRA The Factory Theatre Saturday May 15 The Factory Theatre is somewhat of a hotspot for hip hop shows at the moment (and will be until the owner tires of tags in the toilets), and an Urthboy show is always guaranteed to be a raucous affair - so with this in mind, I made my way down to Marrickville to witness the fitness.

Mantra kicked things off with a solid set.

Delivering breathless verses alone, the Melbourne MC showed exactly why he's held in such high acclaim. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Flightpathâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; was the cue for the crowd to take any available piece of paper and fashion it into a flying apparatus and with Mantraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s blessing, the stage became a landing zone for all manner of miniature aircraft.

With punters having been primed

by Mantraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relentless energy and phenomenal freestyle ability, Urthboy hit the stage with live compadres Elgusto and Jane Tyrell. The ensuing set was incredible and laden with highlights, from Elgustoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s MPC-button-mashing to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Sweet Dreams'â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s madness, from Urthboyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s incessant stamina to the slower, more poignant moments like â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Shrugginâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; - during which the whole room remained fixated.

Urthboy prefaced â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;No Otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; by recounting a story in which a fan informed him the song was played at a wedding, only to learn the same night that it had also been played at a funeral. The chemistry Urthboy, Elgusto and Jane Tyrell have in their set really shows, with two of the three often standing back to let the other shine. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also interesting to note the enthusiasm and size of the crowd, given that Urthboy hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t released an album since last year. And even so, the set concluded with the crowd eager for more.

The trio soon obliged and returned for a couple tracks including a fresh one. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s positive to see artists embracing all ages gigs - the whipper snappers might be irritating, but therein lies the future. Nice little catch 22, that one.

Cameron

THE CHILLS, SONGS Oxford Art Factory Saturday May 15 It was a long time coming, but Martin Phillipps and the current incarnation of

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

New Zealand’s The Chills finally returned to Sydney. The current musical climate is well suited for Phillipps' indie jangle and way with melody, and he showed he still has the enthusiasm and a band who can do justice to their old and new songs.

In support was a stripped down version of Songs. Billed as Songs (trio) they were in fact Songs (duo). With just Doyle and bassist Ela Stiles on guitar, they reduced their songs to a semi-folk strum, revealing the subtle parts of the songs and some Dylanesque tendencies in Doyle’s vocal delivery.

Conversely, The Chills were fleshed out to a five piece for their Australia tour - and the multiple keyboards, guitars and violin invested the songs with an ornate and dense sound. It was great to hear a band working with a comfortable level of volume that drifted over the audience, drawing them into the music.

With no new tunes recently released this was a trawl through the back-catalogue, The Cult with nearly all of the essential boxes ticked. The classic ‘Pink Frost’ was aired early in the set, sounding like a long lost friend, while the mid-period hits like ‘Heavenly Pop Hit’ and ‘Male Monster From The Id’ sounded as vibrant as they did two decades ago. Phillipps was in a chatty mood, introducing each song with a story or reference which added to the set’s ‘journey through the past’ feel. He even went to great pains to point out we weren’t watching a Chills cover band - they were “the real deal” Phillipps reinforced.

‘Rain’ and ‘Rolling Moon’ rounded out the back-end of the set, and reminded how timeless the music of The Chills really is. There was no concession to the passing of time, no overwhelming feeling of nostalgia, just an appreciation for great songwriting and Phillipps’ contagious display of passion for his art. He promised to return sooner rather than later next time, hopefully with a new album in tow.

Chris Familton

THE BAMBOOS & RAY MANN 3 Manning Bar, Sydney Uni May 7 2010 The Ray Mann 3 drew more attention that your typical support act, already having earned a large following themselves.

The band’s confidence has grown along with their profile, and their addition made the gig a very strong bill for Sydney’s funk and soul community. Hats off to BC for dropping some eclectic tuneage in between them and the Bamboos, too - a fine selection.

The intensity with which The Bamboos play is breakneck! The set is slick, polished and professional. There are few breaks in between songs, and when they do occur they’re only short – players are barely able to catch their breath before launching back into the music.

The beauty of the Bamboos’ recordings is that a lot of them are in short, sharp, pop-length bursts, so in a live setting you really get to hear a whole lot of music; and the band is worth its weight in gold.

We heard ‘Got To Get It Over’ and ‘On The Sly’ from the new album, and Kylie Auldist stood in for other Bamboos collaborators on past hits like ‘Step It Up and ‘King Of The Rodeo’. Regardless of whether you prefer the old raw Bamboos sound or the new polished vocal side of their repertoire, it'd be hard to have been disappointed with the show.

air – and it served as an icebreaker that helped the ‘Boo’s crack some smiles for the first time that night.

Sitar player Kumar Shome delighted the crowd with his encore. His brilliant guest appearance on ‘Up On The Hill’ off the new record was incredibly well received, the crowd well in tune with the content of the new album. His inclusion was a clever way to finish an (almost) airtight show.

Bravo.

Tony Two-Tone

CLOUD CONTROL, RICHARD IN YOUR MIND, GUINEAFOWL Oxford Art Factory May 14 I’d like to jump on very crowded “I’ve been into Cloud Control longer than you” bandwagon by claiming attendance at the 2006 USyd Band Comp heat, where all three of the bands on tonight’s bill were competing. Cloud Control went on to win that year, Richard In Your Mind were a close second and Guineafowl – well, they’ve had three different names and more lineup changes than the Fall. But they’ve settled into a wonderfully focused and fun pop group with songs tighter than frontman Sam Yeldham’s jeans, and a devoted following that is equal parts industry insiders and cute hipster girls.

See them now, claim it smugly later.

RIYM have walked a long and steady path, building a reputation as one of the most fascinating and original psych-pop acts in the country. The uber-deadpan Richard Cartwright showers the crowd with a streamer bomb, wonders what it would be like to actually control clouds and beams his trippy melodies over the top of increasing chatter. The new additions of guitarist Jordy Lane (Shady Lane) and Brent Griffin (Spod) on keys have rounded out the band’s live sound in a truly exciting way - a gentle plug for the forthcoming album wouldn’t have hurt their cause at all.

Headliners taking the stage to a packed house on the night of a debut release – that has to be a great feeling. When you’re Cloud Control on the final leg of a huge national tour with Vampire Weekend, it can’t really get much better.

They all sport huge smiles as the lights go up, but a mostly assured show gives way occasionally to what might be nerves. Hit single ‘Gold Canary’ comes out surprisingly early, but it makes for a terrific singalong. ‘Meditation Song #2’ feels more upbeat live, but also perhaps a little rushed. But this is the beauty of the band – just when you feel you’ve heard every pop song in the world a thousand times, they blindside you with something so perfect you stop caring. ‘Ghost Story’ is fiercely tight – Ulrich Lenffer’s drumming is ballsy and precise, Alister Wright and Heidi Lenffer wrap their voices around one another, and the whole show crystallises in that sound.

They close with two old favourites, ‘Vintage Books’ and ‘Buffalo Country’, which finally feel big and fully realised, taking on new life in the hands of a group who have paid their dues and honed their sound. As Alister stands at the edge of the stage like a rock god, grinning from ear to ear to raucous applause, a mate yells in my ear: “A massive fucking full stop on a LONG sentence!” It’s an excellent moment.

Caitlin Welsh

Although you wouldn’t know it from the music - small mistakes are too hard to pick up - the band’s faces betrayed some underlying tension in the performance. There were nervous glances being thrown around the stage as if the wheels were about to fall off. Auldist left the stage in an emotional state at one point but shook off the nerves backstage, returning to finish the gig in strong form. Perhaps it’s the preparation for the impending hectic European tour coming up - the band won’t have much downtime in between shows over there. At any rate the tenor saxophonist saved the gig somewhat with a ridiculously epic solo – I have no idea where he got all that

BRAG :: 363:: 24:05:10 :: 41

JAGERMEISTER & mess+noise

The Minor Chord The All Ages rant bought to you by Indent.net.au. By Melody Forghani

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ombine an empty basement, some spare time and a bunch of talented individuals together, and what do you get? Sleepyhands, the latest seven piece that Sydney has produced for the likes of you. Sleepyhands began belting out tunes as a four piece way back when, but over the coming months they lost a couple members and settled on being a duo. After a while of dual loneliness, the original two stumbled on another five fellow incredible-ites, much like Max stumbling along the wild things, and we’re ecstatic with the result. TMC caught up with one of the original cast, vocalist Sarah Adamson, who explained that like most great bands, it started with geography: “We all grew up in the same area, and ended up at the same high school”.

Think The Middle East’s size and sound with slightly edgier vocals. Their sound is sweet and their haunting harmonies are guaranteed to stick in your mind for hours after you’ve heard them. Each track off their forthcoming EP is as detailed and as layered as the next, and their blend of diverse instruments and rhythmic patterns will have you tapping your limbs away, like it has ours all week.

What inspires them? “Just about anything.

We really bounce and feed off each other,” Adamson explains - and then gives us a refreshing answer that compels us to believe, ‘yeah, we do have great local bands right now’ - “We draw inspiration from bands such as Parades, Boy & Bear and The Hunting Party, lots of Australian stuff. Oh and our fathers.” On recording their EP, Adamson tells us, “We were surprised at how it turned the way it did.

We hadn’t officially come together as a band before recording. The first time we heard the EP was the first time we had heard everyone playing together.”

Now if you haven’t already fallen in love with this totally new conglomerate of indiecool, this EP was recorded by Jonathan Jonathan Boulet

Boulet (of Jonathan Boulet AND Parades fame) in his hotly history-making garage.

“We are really thankful for him helping out.

At times recording became so tedious, trying to work with all the layers within our songs, and adding in all those subtle elements to our music - at one point we had four singers! Boulet was there for it all, and we really couldn’t have done it without him.”

If Sleepyhands sounds like something you’d be into, check out the latest garage tunes on their MySpace - we’ll keep you informed of their imminent release, or tune into TMC’s radio segment on FBi every Wednesday 5pm.

Speaking of releases, one of Australia’s best live funk acts The Cat Empire have a brand new album release for June. Returning to their home shores to launch the album, The Cat Empire are playing a special (all ages) show at The Hordern in August with Clairy Baby Browne & the Bangin’ Rackettes and Mama Kin (y’know, ‘Sure to Set your Soul on Fire’…) We’re telling you now as tickets do go on sale this week and will sell fast.

This Thursday, even if you didn’t win tickets to meet the band last week, you can still head to the Operator Please early evening gig in the Entertainment Quarter. It’s been a while but I’m sure no one has forgotten the song about ping pong, and hey they’ll probably play loads of new stuff from their recently released sophomore album Gloves. Did we mention it’s free? 'Cause it is. Otherwise the tour comes back to town later in June at the Metro (not free).

Red Rattler in Marrickville continues a stellar bout of programming this weekend with the Heavy Metal Work Orchestra featuring their innovative prowess from Friday to Sunday. The operative word in this title, however, is work. The orchestral performance uses De-Mi-Xe-Rphone, which allows live manipulation of any powered device. This recital features chainsaws, whipper snippers and beard trimmers! It is set to be so explosive and radical that protective ear gear will be provided for free. Seats are strictly limited for this unique event so book ahead, info on the Red Rattler site. Alongside each performance are musical lords, Scott Tinkler on Trumpet and Adrian Klumpes on Piano.

Out in 2168 region this Saturday, Liverpool PCYC will be having their Mayhem Festival - and if the name of the festival doesn’t explain the vibe check out whose playing. Power-pop heroes Town Hall Steps, who recently had their single ‘Alive’ feature in a Davenport ad, will headline with experimental rock locals DinkiBike and Perth-ithians De Ja Vu, plus many more on a massive bill. It’ll be an afternoon of… mayhem, for a measly $10 on the door.

17-19 Parramatta Rd, Annandale Ph 9550 1078

WWW.ANNANDALEHOTEL.COM 42 :: BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10

Oh yeah and a friendly reminder that Screaming Sundays at the Annandale is on again this Sunday. A focus on when punk meets pop with A Bad Day’s Goodnight who are leading the pack with glammers Chasing Amy and Cloud Four as supports. Remember it’s a midday kind-a thing.

Send pics, listings and any info to minorchords@thebrag.com

Remedy More than The Cure since 1989 with Murray Engleheart

R.I.P RONNIE JAMES DIO

First up this week, as the egomanical clubdestroying bullshit that is State of Origin begins, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to reflect on the death of Ronnie James Dio at the amazing age of 67 due to stomach cancer - and it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get much more horrific than that we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think. Even though the man had been ill, it still came as a shock. We never met or even spoke to him, but first saw him fronting Rainbow at the Hordern Pavillion in the mid seventies on the back of the all powerful Rainbow Rising album. They blew the roof off the joint even before the place went into meltdown when Blackmore smashed his guitar. Like that of Blackmore, Dioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s career stretched back to the sixties, and the UK and European club scene which had zero to do with riffs and big amps. In fact, when Sabbath toured Australia in 1980 with the Heaven and Hell effort, former Easybeat George Young caught sight of Dio backstage at the Capitol Theatre here in Sydney and recognised him from the Easysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; late sixtiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; US tour. We were never fans of the manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s signatory dungeons and dragons imagery thing but man, the guy had lungs that could only have been made of rich, well-aged leather.

OFFICIAL PRE TOUR PARTY

STONES

In other Stonesy news, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re more seriously considering doing the full slab from start to finish thing on coming tours, with landmark recordings like â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Let It Bleedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; on the starting blocks.

Sat 29 May

THE ALTERNATIVE ROOM

X TOUR THE STATES

Better so late than never at all we guess.

X are finally going to the US for a â&#x20AC;&#x153;shortâ&#x20AC;?

West Coast tour with the A Frames. The moment is being marked with the American repressing of X-Aspirations on vinyl. 300 copies will have handmade covers which will include a US tour poster. Meanwhile, a 7" single of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Home Is Where the Floor Isâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is also being reissued.

CLUTCH LIVE DVD

Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a big viewing treat for Clutch fans; a two DVD set called Live at The 9:30 Club which includes the entire show shot at the legendary Washington DC venue last Christmas, and a complete live run-through of their self titled effort from 1995.

Clutch

live bands

EXILE REVISIONISM

All this revisionist talk that The Stonesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Exile on Main Street is the greatest recording ever made in the known universe is just too weird, as Jerry Garcia would say. When it was first released it was sneered at as a low point in Mick nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Keefâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s career, quite literally a basement recording. Like Raw Power

by Iggy and The Stooges (which was considered by most to be no more than just another bargain-binnable cog in the glam rock machine of the day), itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s now a held up as a masterpiece. Imagine having to pay your bills and feed your kids on the basis of that kinda fickle bullshit?

THE PROTECTORS ETHEt RDJs G O T WE ARE LIARS COMErity gues celeb DJs Bzurk & Snowflake spinning alternative anthems and party tunes

Space: 127 Liverpool St

ON THE TURNTABLE On the Remedy turntable is the Powder Monkeysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; baseball bat of venom and gristle, Time Wounds All Heels and Lightning Hopkinsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; The Herald Sessions, which were cracklingly recorded by the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;ol Texan country blues fox back in 1954, and predated the whole blues punk spirit of the Fat Possum label and acts like RL Burnside by almost half a century. Also spinning is Electric Wizardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s amazing powerful Dopethrone, which along with Earth 2 remains the ultimate woofer tester. No wonder they blew up the PA when they played here a couple of years back.

TWO CLUBS, ONE VENUE, ONE ADMISSION $12

TOUR AND INDUSTRY NEWS Johnny Casino and The Secrets wrap up a mini machine gun tour on 23 May at the Sandringham at Newtown, with three sets from 4-7pm, for free. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re just back from 27 shows in 30 days across Spain, France, Germany, Holland and England. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll start work on their fourth album in as many years real soon.

Lou Reed has always been a frequency man; high or low, it ainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t no matter to him. So during the Vivid Live festival at the Opera House heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s doing a Metal Machine Music thing for an audience that eats from metal trays; dogs. Yep, those guys wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss a thing, although the entire show might be inaudible to us humansâ&#x20AC;Ś But your dogâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll dig it. Music for Dogs is on June 5.

In August, Shihad will be performing their 1996 Killjoy and 1999 The General Electric slabs in their entirety, at two special shows at the Annandale. On August 20 theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be doing Killjoy and on August 21 itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The GE. Their yet to be titled 8th studio slab will be out in September through new label home Roadrunner Records. Tickets on sale for the shows on May 26.

Shihad

Just when weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been thinking that rock really is dead - we heard of some tear inducingly tiny crowds for great local bands of late - it seems it kinda depends on whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s delivering said rock. For example, Slashâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Oz tour sold out in eight minutes when tickets went on sale on May 7. That left stacks of folks without so the August16 Sydney show has moved to the larger Hordern Pavilion. Additional tickets are on sale now with those purchased for the original Enmore show remaining valid.

Former Screaming Tree (now thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s another band that never really got close to the respect due) and sometime Queen of The Stone Ager, Mark Lanegan is returning to Australia, playing the Metro on July 8.

Just a bit of an update on that benefit for the movie Louder Than Love - The Grande Ballroom story. The main act at the Sydney event on May 29 from 6pm at Sandringham in Newtown is Ghosts Of The Grande - Chris Masuak (Radio Birdman), Paul Hayward (Young Docteurs), Andy Newman (Soulmovers), Bruce Tatum (Decline Of The Reptiles), Murray Shepherd (The Fun Things and Screaming Tribesmen), who are now featuring eight different guest singers. The merch stand will be selling several different exclusive T-shirt designs, including two from Grande Ballroom psychedelic poster artist Carl Lundgren and another from the late Stanley Mouse, who among other things did a lot of Grateful Dead poster art including the classic skull and roses design. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll also be a raffle with prizes, like signed stuff from members of The Stooges, The MC5 and Radio Birdman.

good

gone bad GIRLS MENTION THIS AD FOR FREE ENTRY BEFORE 10PM

DJ Bzurk and DJ Snowflake playing

TI]VKP OQ^MI_Ia[

Send stuff for this column to remedy@ozemail.com.au by 6pm Wednesdays. All pics to The Brag please.

127 LIVERPOOL ST, SYDNEY BRAG :: 363:: 24:05:10 :: 43

snap sn ap

14:05:10

vampire weekend

PICS :: RR

swing vs rockabilly

PICS :: WR

up all night out all week . . .

13:05:10 :: Hordern Pavilion :: 1 Driver Ave Moore Park 93834000

:: The Factory :: 105 Victoria Road Enmore 95503666

silent alarm It sounds like: Indie rock/pop.

DJs: Silent DJs & special gues ts.

Three records you’ll hear on the night: Passion Pit, The Kille rs, Clash.

Sell it to us: If you’re not too cool (your skirt's not too shor t, your are not too tight and your nose jeans is not way too high) then come down to Spectrum for Silent Alar m - a wee kly part y playing indie classics.

It’s night for those who come to danc e, not to be seen. P.S. Shhh... Don a the cool kids! ’t tell Crowd specs: You know the beau tiful people, with their designer boney bodies and faces that neve outfits, r smile? NOT THEM! Wallet damage: What damage? $5 Where: Spectrum, Oxford St.

gallery bar

When: Ever y goddamn Friday nigh t from 11:30pm

PICS :: HC

party profile

It’s called: Silent Alar m

14:05:10 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711 44 :: BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10

12:05:10 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711 PICS :: SM

cloud control & richard in your mind

oaf showcase

PICS :: RR

13:05:10 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711

ASHLEY MAR :: ROSETTE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER:: JEREMY BOWRING :: DANIEL MUNNS :: PATRICK ROUHANNA :: SOFII MCKENZIE :: MAJA BASKA :: JACQUELINE MANNING :: WILL REICHELT STEVENSON :: HANNAH CAREY

snap sn ap

trash

PICS :: RR

up all night out all week . . .

15:05:10 :: Agincourt Hotel :: 871 George St City 92814566

ghetto disco 15:05:10 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711

party profile

PICS :: AM

the chills

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s called: Ghetto Disco - Naked Parade EP Launch.

It sounds like: Streaking at a Geo rge Michaels concert.

DJs/Live acts playing: Naked Para de, Escape, Frames, Last Dinosaur s DJ set, Leroy, Sleepyheads, OMX Lay, 3 Hundreds, Jamie Von Party vs. Paul Done and Detnum.

Sell it to us: Prepare yourself for an assault on the senses as The Naked Parade prepares to launch their debu t EP Science of Lust at Q Bar this week.

Achieving a blissful cohesion betw een their honest lyrics, unusual violin looping and charismatic live shows, they will be joined by a stellar line up of live and DJ action to get you ready to bare all this Saturday.

Crowd specs: Music connoisseurs and beat-appreciatives.

Wallet damage: $15 entry all nigh t.

Where: Q Bar + 34B Stereo, 44 Oxford St, Darlinghurst.

jager uprising

PICS :: RR

When: Saturday May 29 from 8pm

club blink

PICS :: RR

12:05:10 :: Annandale Hotel :: 17 Paramatta Rd Annandale 95501078

14.05.10 :: Agincourt Hotel :: 871 George St City 92814566

ASHLEY MAR :: ROSETTE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER:: JEREMY BOWRING :: DANIEL MUNNS :: PATRICK ROUHANNA :: SOFII MCKENZIE :: MAJA BASKA :: JACQUELINE MANNING :: WILL REICHELT STEVENSON :: HANNAH CAREY

BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10 :: 45

g g guide gig g

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com

pick of the week 7pm

Sianna Lee, Fergus Brown The Lounge, Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst 8pm The Manly Marvels Band Competition: Seek the Silence, Recording All, Sideshow Alley, Standing Silence, Modern Day Tragedy Manly Fisho’s $10 8pm

JAZZ Club Jazz Open Mic Night The Manhattan Lounge, Sydney free 6.30pm Paul Sun azushi, Surry Hills free 7pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm Steve McKenna Quartet, Gerard Masters The Basement, Circular Quay $20 9pm Tim Clarkson Trio, Matt McMahon, Phil Slater 505 Club, Surry Hills $8–$10 8pm

ACOUSTIC/FOLK

The Crayon Fields

SATURDAY MAY 29

The Crayon Fields, Parades, Step Panther Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $12 (+ bf) 8pm MONDAY MAY 24 ROCK & POP Merenia Gillies Opera Bar, Sydney free 8.30pm Michael Bolton (USA), Mark Wilkinson State Theatre, Sydney $95 (silver)–$125 (gold) 8pm Sarah Paton The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm Singer Songwriter Night Vic on the Park Hotel, Marrickville $5 8pm The Jam Thing Albion Hotel, Parramatta free 8pm Unherd Open Mic: Ghostboy, Derkajam Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 7pm

JAZZ Hunter Keegan Mannell Organ Trio 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 9pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm

ACOUSTIC/FOLK Songsalive! Showcase: Richard Henderson, Kyle Horsley, Mai-anh, Russell Neal, Helmut Uhlmann Kellys On King, Newtown free 7pm Songwriter Sessions Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills free 7.30pm

COUNTRY Camden Valley Country Music Club Hope Christian School, Narellan free

TUESDAY MAY 25 ROCK & POP Andy Mammers Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm Bno Rockshow Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 11pm Bound by Shadows, Get a Dog Up Ya, Whole Hearted, Morna Point, Kill Crotty Oasis Youth Centre, Wyong $10 6pm Brendon Hui Arthouse Hotel, Sydney free 5.30pm Chris Pickering, Cookie Baker, Matt Gresham, Nicole Brophy Raval, Surry Hills $12 (presale)–$15 (at door) 8pm Enspier, Josh McIvor Albion Hotel, Parramatta free 8pm Jess Pollard Opera Bar, Sydney free 8.30pm Lisa Crouch Guildford Leagues Club free 12.30pm Mick Vawdon The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm Mitch Fingers O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm Patrizio Buanne State Theatre, Sydney $110 (gold)– $149 (premium) 8pm Secret Society: Guineafowl, The Bmxicans, Vacations The Vanguard, Newtown $8 (+ bf)–$10 (at door) 6.30pm Shrub Lovin’ 2010: Sticky Fingers, L-Lyric, Tere Paii Band, Mz Miles Sunken Garden, Ultimo Tafe free 12pm

Harry Manx (Canada) Clarendon Guest House, Katoomba $45 (+ bf)–$83 (dinner & show) 8pm Songsalive! Showcase: Pave Leclair, Mai-anh, Helmut Uhlmann + guests Club Five Dock free 7pm Tuesday Night Live: Barrell House, Mandi Jarry Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm Unplugged: Patrick Arnold Uni Bar, Wollongong University, Gwynneville free 4pm

COUNTRY Blacktown Country Music Club The Lucky Australian, North St Marys free 7pm Steel City Country Music Club Club Macquarie, Argenton free (member) 7.30pm

WEDNESDAY MAY 26 ROCK & POP The Allisons, Monique Montez Asquith Leagues Club, Waitara $18 11.30am Alphamama Opera Bar, Sydney free 8.30pm Andy Mammers Duo Ettamogah Pub, Rouse Hill free 5pm Bailey & Kuepper The Vanguard, Newtown $27.75 (+ bf)–$30 (at door) 6.30pm The Burning Sand, Origami Kitten, Sam I Am Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $10 8pm Chris Pickering, Cookie Baker, Matt Gresham, Nicole Brophy Raval, Surry Hills $12 (presale)–$15 (at door) 8pm Circle Pit, Songs, Lost Animal, Dead Farmers Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $12.80 (presale) 8pm Come Out and Play: Croatian Wickham Sports Club free 8pm Cruzade Jam Nights: Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor free 7.30pm Dan Spillane, Mark De Costa The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9.15pm DC Brooklyn Hotel, Sydney free 6.30pm Gemma The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm Jess Chalker, Tonk’s Green, Karina Aivazian The Basement, Circular Quay $16 7pm Joey Cape (USA), Tony Sly (USA), Jamie Hay Annandale Hotel $27 (+ bf) 8pm JP O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm Last Dinosaurs, Neon Love Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle West free 8pm

The Liberators Macquarie Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Matt Jones Novotel Homebush, Homebush Bay free 4.30pm Nightshift Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 11pm Open Mic Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Open Mic Night Excelsior Hotel, Glebe free 7.30pm Paul Southwell Shellharbour Workers’ Club free 8pm Pregnancy, Khamsin Rifles Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Rebecca Johnson Band Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm Richmond Fontaine (USA), Robert F Cranney Heritage Hotel, Bulli $18 (+ bf)–$20 7pm Star Assassin, Paper Champion, Dear Life, Milkmaids Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills $15 (+ bf) 8pm TonyLee, Andrej Kouznestov St James’ Church, Sydney free–$5 (donation) 1.15pm Upstarts: Arc Archer & the Carnival of Souls, Siren Lines, Spooky Land, Mrs Bishop Spectrum, Darlinghurst $8 8pm Whitley, Gossling, Seagull Paddington Uniting Church $30 (+ bf) 8pm Yourspace: All’s Fallow, Ben Aylward, The Forest Folk, Nothing Rhymes With David, Rebekah Bragg, Kane, The Partisan Town Hall Hotel, Newtown free 7pm Sideshow Wednesday: Wagons Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm

JAZZ Daryl Pratt 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 9pm John Redmond Trio The Manhattan Lounge, Sydney free 6.45pm Mats Lideborg (Sweden) Courtyard, Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 6pm Mats Lieborg Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 6pm Ricky Peterson & the Peterson Brothers, Sheila E, St Paul Lizotte’s Restaurant, Lambton $66 (+ bf) 8pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel free 8pm

ACOUSTIC/FOLK SSA Concert: Kyle Horsley, Lisa McGlasson, Massimo Presti, TAOS Newtown RSL free 7pm Harry Manx (Canada) Clarendon Guest House, Katoomba $45 (+ bf)–$83 (dinner & show) 8pm

COUNTRY South Coast Country Music Club Mount Kembla Heights Hall free 7pm

THURSDAY MAY 27 ROCK & POP 2 Way Split The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free–$5 9.15pm Alphamama Persian Basement, Lane Cove free 8pm Arkestra, Piano is Drunk, Virgo Rising Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Bandaluzia Flamenco Notes Live, Enmore $25.50 (presale) 8pm Bob Corbett Lizotte’s Restaurant, Lambton $15 7pm The Book of Vilah: Valerios Calocerious The Vanguard, Newtown $16 (conc)– $20 6.30pm Brian Letton Bomaderry Bowling Club $20 8pm Closure in Moscow, Secrets in Scale, Sienna Skies The Attic, Mona Vale Hotel $15 (+ bf)–$20 (at door) 8pm Crushed Ice Camden Valley Golf Resort, Catherine Field free 6.30pm David Christopher Bligh Hotel, Sydney free 5.30pm Exit Strategy Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 11pm Valar, Panzer Queen, Beaufields, Solkyri Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $10 8pm Flatwound, Joyride, Mailer Daemon Soundsystem Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10 8pm G3 Marble Bar, Sydney free 8.30pm Grand Atlantic, The Prehistorics, Skarlet Blue, Frankie Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Heart Attack & Vine Wickham Park Hotel, Islington free 8pm Hitseekers Bradbury Inn free 8pm The Holidays, Ernest Ellis, Joysticks Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $12 (+ bf) 8pm Hot Damn!: Ladies & Gentlemen, In This Defence, Built On Secrets, I Am Villain, Hot Damn DJs Spectrum, Darlinghurst $10–$12 8pm Ian Moss Asquith Leagues Club, Waitara $30 8.30pm Jam n’ Link Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel free 7pm Jo Vill Windang Bowling Club free 6pm Joel Sarakula Hotel Chambers, Sydney free 6pm

“I stay close to this frozen border, so close I can hit it with a stone” – MARK LANEGAN METRO JULY 8 46 :: BRAG :: 363:: 24:05:10

Whitley

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

Joey Cape (USA), Tony Sly (USA), Jamie Hay Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle West $27 (+ bf) 8pm Johnathon Devoy Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Last Dinosaurs, Neon Love, New Navy The Grand Hotel, Wollongong $13 (presale) 8pm Luke Escombe Macquarie Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Magic Hour Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm Mark Wilkinson, Erin Marshall Raval, Surry Hills $12 (+ bf) 7pm Open Mic Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Operator Please The Forum Theatre, Moore Park free Richmond Fontaine (USA), Robert F Cranney Brass Monkey, Cronulla $18 (+ bf)–$20 7pm Rob Devlin Piano Bar, Bankstown Sports Club free 8pm Ron Ashton Guildford Leagues Club free 10pm Simone Dee Trio Woollahra Hotel free 7.45pm Valar, Panzer Queen, Beaufields, Solkyri Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $10 8pm Whitley Paddington Uniting Church $30 (+ bf) 8pm Zoltan The Mill, Milperra free 8pm White Bros New Brighton Hotel, Manly free 10pm

Liquidity Bar, Rozelle 7.30pm Didi Mudigdo Berkelouw Wine Bar, Leichhardt free 7pm Jazz: Cool For School: Mike Nock Trio, Bernie McGann Quartet The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $17.50 12pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 9pm Sandy B Clarence Hotel, Petersham free 8pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK Emad Younan Bar Me, Potts Point 8pm Harry Manx (Canada) Lizotte’s Restaurant, Kincumber $45 (show only)–$99.50 (dinner & show) 7pm Songsalive! Showcase: Velvet Road, David Sattout, Tim Walker, Mai-anh, Helmut Uhlmann Red Lion Hotel, Rozelle free 7.30pm Martin Pearson The Harp, Tempe $15 (conc)–$20 7pm Dennis Aubrey’s Songwriters Night @Newtown RSL free 7pm

COUNTRY Steve Passfield Fred Chubb Lounge, Rooty Hill RSL Club free 8pm

FRIDAY MAY 28 ROCK & POP

JAZZ Calle Macondo 505 Club, Surry Hills $10–$15 9pm Colbourne Ave: Mike Nock Cafe Church, Glebe $10 (conc)–$20 Alice Terry

3 Way Split Hawkesbury Hotel, Windsor free 9pm Abbalanche Campbelltown RSL $15 8pm Abbie Cardwell & Her Leading Men, Brothers Grim, Blue Murders

The Junkyard, Maitland 8pm After The Fall, Sex In Columbia, The Conspiracy Plan The Grand Hotel, Wollongong $12 (at door) 8pm Angelgear Belmont Hotel free 9pm Autechre (England) The Forum Theatre, Moore Park $60.50 (+ bf) 8pm The Bad & The Ugly Jewells Tavern, Newcastle free 8pm Barnstorming Engadine Tavern free 9.30pm Battle in the Background Manly Fisho’s $10 8pm The Black Hill Ramblers Maroubra RSL Club free 8pm Blaze of Glory Oriental Hotel, Springwood free 9pm Brendon Hui Arthouse Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Brian Gillette Guildford Leagues Club free 10pm Brown Sugar Marble Bar, Sydney free 9.30pm Carnation The World Bar, Kings Cross $10 10pm Cash & Co Iron Horse Inn, Cardiff free 6.30pm Closure in Moscow, Secrets in Scale, Sienna Skies, Evelyn Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills $15 (+ bf)–$20 (at door) 8pm Club Blink: For All Eternity, Empires & Vampires, Azlock Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo $12 MUM: Lions At Your Door, Carnation, The Spitfires, Canopy Choirs and Radio National, Scul Hazzards, Dead China Doll, Hira Hira and Yes, I’m Leaving The World Bar, Kings Cross $10–$15 8pm Corporate Takedown, Invictus, Teratornis Lewisham Livehouse $10 8pm Dai Pritchard Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool free 4pm

Lions At Your Door Dan Kelly, Eagle & the Worm!, Wons Phreely Spectrum, Darlinghurst $17 (+ bf)–$20 (at door) 8pm A Day In The Life - A Beatles Retrospective: Jack Jones, Steve Balbi, Simon Meli, Kevin Bennett, Evelyn Duprai, Anthea White, Amanda Davis, Jak Housden, Joseph Calderazzo, Peter Skelton, James Haselwood, Mark Palmer Enmore Theatre $79.90–$129.90 (premium) 8pm Devils In Detroit, The Scotch Of Saint James, Robosexual Tailors on Central, Surry Hills $10 (1st release)–$15 (at door) 10pm Di Solomon Piano Bar, Bankstown Sports Club free 8pm E-Lixa Mattara Hotel, Newcastle free 8pm Feeding Edgar, Mrs Bishop, Hattie Carroll, Upskirts

Ruby Rabbit, Darlinghurst $10 9pm Girls of Rock Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm Greg Bryce Tall Timbers Hotel, Ourimbah 6pm Happy Daze Showband Rainforest Lounge, Bankstown Sports Club free 9pm Heavy Metal Orchestra, Adrian Klumpes, Scott Tinkler The Red Rattler Theatre, Marrickville $10 8pm Highway To Hell Beresfield Bowling Club free 9.30pm Hoof Hearted Catherine Hill Bay Bowling Club free 7.30pm Hooray For Everything Blacktown RSL Club free 8pm Ignition Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 10.30pm

wed

26 May

(9:15PM - 12:15AM)

thu

27 May

(9:15PM - 12:15AM)

fri

28 May

(9:15PM - 1:00AM)

(5:00PM - 8:00PM)

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

sat

29 May

sun

SATURDAY NIGHT

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

30 May

SUNDAY NIGHT

(8:30PM - 12:00AM)

BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10 :: 47

gig guide send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Ministry of Truth, Soulfox Blues Revue, Ed Clayton-Jones Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $12 8pm James Johnston CBD Hotel, Newcastle 8pm Kate Gogarty, Paul Rothenbuhler Roxbury Room, The Roxbury Hotel, Glebe $10 7.30pm Key String Long Jetty Hotel 7.30pm King Tide Brass Monkey, Cronulla $25.50 (presale) 7pm Kissteria Bull N Bush Hotel, Medowie free 7pm Last Dinosaurs, Neon Love Ivanhoe of Manly free 8pm Matt Jones Harbord Beach Hotel free 8.45pm Michael Peter Albion Hotel, Parramatta free 6pm Mick Buckley Carlingford Bowling Sports & Recreation Club free 9.15pm The Muddy Turds, White Knuckle Fever, The Clap, The Luke Hoskins Inexperience Town & Country Hotel, St Peters free 7.30pm The New Christs, Dragstrippers Great Northern Hotel, Newcastle 8pm Nightshift After Dark Bar, Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL free 10pm Nile (USA), Hate Eternal (USA), Abigail Williams The Factory Theatre, Enmore $63 (+ bf) 7.30pm The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra, The Strides The Basement, Circular Quay $25 (+ bf) 9.30pm Purple Sneakers: Chaingang DJs, M.I.T, Nick Findlay, Banshee, Nic Yorke, Elwizzbomb, The Double Adaptors Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale $12 7pm Rat Vs Possum St Petersburg 8pm The Rebel Rousers Cronulla Bowling & Recreation Club free 8.30pm Replica Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 1.30am Richmond Fontaine (USA), Perry Keyes, Robert F Cranney Notes Live, Enmore $22 (+ bf)–$25 (at door) 8pm Rumours: Rose (Hey Now), The [Au] DJs, And O.N.E DJs. Feeding Edgar (Live), Hattie Carroll (Live), Mrs Bishop (Live) And The Upskirts (Live) Ruby Rabbit, Darlinghurst $10 10pm Sam & Jamie Show Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel free 7pm Sam Moran Revesby Workers Club - Whitlam Theatre $20 8pm Secret Society Blackbutt Hotel, New Lambton free Soulground Revesby Workers Club free 9.30pm Sound Stream Camden Valley Golf Resort, Catherine Field free 7pm Spitster, Big Bozza Band, Lower Coast Skies, The Underground Architect Caringbah Bizzo’s 8pm Stickyfingers, The Tsars Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Talk It Up Campbelltown Catholic Club free 9pm Tim Pringle Crowne Plaza Terrigal 5pm Urban Stone Fred Chubb Lounge, Rooty Hill RSL Club free 8pm Valhalla Warners Bay Hotel free 9pm Vivid LIVE: Boris (Japan) The Studio, Sydney Opera House $30 (conc)–$35 10pm Vivid LIVE: Rickie Lee Jones (USA) Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House $59 (conc)–$89 7.30pm Wagons Annandale Hotel $27.50 (+ bf) 8pm Whitley, Gossling, Seagull Heritage Hotel, Bulli $23.50 8pm The Wolverines Windsor RSL, South Windsor $25 8pm

JAZZ Bridge City Jazz Band

Club Ashfield free 7.30pm Craig Scott Quintet 505 Club, Surry Hills $10–$15 9pm Didi Mudigdo St George Rowing Club, Arncliffe free 8pm Kevin Laso Liquidity Bar, Rozelle 7.30pm Juke Baritone & the Swamp Dogs, Mr Fibby, My Sauce Good The Vanguard, Newtown $18 (+ bf)–$21 (at door) 6.30pm SIMA: Sirens Big Band The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $12 (member)–$20 8.30pm Terry Serios Media Frenzy, Soulfox Blues Review, Ed Clayton-Jones Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $12 8pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK Cafe Carnivale: The Volatinsky Trio, Eddie Bronson Trio Eastside Arts, Paddington $10 (child)– $28 8pm Foster & Allen (Ireland) Newcastle Leagues Club, Newcastle West Harry Manx (Canada) Lizotte’s Restaurant, Lambton $45 (show only)–$99.50 (dinner & show) 7pm Original Folk Concert: We are a Leopard, Rum and Bones Mars Hill Café, Parramatta $6 8pm

COUNTRY Just A Country Boy Laycock Street Theatre, Gosford $33–$36 8pm Macarthur Country Music Club Wests Campbelltown Tennis Club, Leumeah free 7pm

HIP-HOP Dust Tones: Koolism, 1nfo, Noel Boogie, Lou Lou Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Dexter, Kuya, B-Boy, Lamaroc, Royal Fam, Grrilla Step, Dizz1 Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $30 (+ bf) 8pm Thundamentals, The Last Kinection, Soul Purpose, Host Manifest Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle West $12 (+ bf) 8.30pm

SATURDAY MAY 29 ROCK & POP 2 Of Hearts Revesby Workers Club free 9.30pm Alphamama Club: Alphamama Tokio Hotel, Darling Harbour free 8pm Andy Mammers Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel free 3.30pm Angelgear Catherine Hill Bay Hotel free 1.30pm The Audreys Duo Notes Live, Enmore $28 (+ bf) 7pm Aussie Foo Fighters Show Dundas Sports & Recreation Club free 9pm The Australian Pink Show Helensburgh Workmens Club free 8.30pm Battle of the Bands: Shape, The Raids, Chris Gresham Hornsby Inn free 8pm The Beatnix Canada Bay Club, Five Dock $18 7.30pm Black Cherry: Torch Le Monde, Wes Pudsey, Wes Pudsey & the Sonic Aces, Los Capitanes, Devine Electric, Kelly Ann Doll, Danica Lee, HMAS Heidi Hoops The Factory Theatre, Enmore $15 (+ bf)–$18 (at door) 8pm The Black Hill Ramblers, Grizzly Adams Ashfield RSL Club free 8.30pm Buried in Verona Caringbah Bizzo’s $10 8pm The Carpenters From Kempsey Wyong Leagues Club, Kanwal $25 8pm Catfish Soup Great Northern Hotel, Newcastle free 8pm Chartbusters Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 9pm

Boris Chris Byrne Lake Macquarie Tavern, Mount Hutton free 7.30pm The Crayon Fields, Parades, Step Panther Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $12 (+ bf) 8pm Crossfire Hurricane, The Pool Cleaners Manly Fisho’s $10 8pm Dan Kelly, Eagle & the Worm!, Wons Phreely Brass Monkey, Cronulla $17 (+ bf) 8pm Dan Rickets The Attic, Mona Vale Hotel 8pm Death Patrol, Teratornis, Vendetta of the Fallen, Aeturnus Dominion The Lucky Australian Tavern St Marys $10 Di Soloman, Danny Elliott Piano Bar, Bankstown Sports Club free 5.30pm Doc Halliday Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Dog Trumpet, David Lane The Vanguard, Newtown $15 (presale)–$18 (at door) 6.30pm End Of August Belmont Hotel free 6.30pm The Flaming Stars Eastern Suburbs Legion Club, Waverley free 8pm Funkstar Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Funpuppet Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm The Heavy Metal Orchestra, Adrian Klumpes, Scott Tinkler The Red Rattler Theatre, Marrickville $10 8pm Hooray For Everything After Dark Bar, Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL free 10pm Hot Gossip Warners Bay Hotel free 9pm James Valentine Opera Bar, Sydney free 2pm Juice Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm The K-Tels Fred Chubb Lounge, Rooty Hill RSL Club free 8.30pm Kelly Hope Guildford Leagues Club free 10pm King Tide, Delroys Annandale Hotel $18 (+ bf) 8pm Kissteria Blacktown RSL Club free 10pm Last Dinosaurs, Neon Love, New Navy Spectrum, Darlinghurst $13 (presale) 8pm Latin Addiciton Rainforest Lounge, Bankstown Sports Club free 9pm Louder Than Love Documentary Benefit: Ghosts Of The Grande, The Young Docteurs, Molten Universe, The No Such Things, The New Vintage, Il Bruto Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $15 6pm Mayhem 2010 - Youth Music Festival: Town Hall Steps, Elanora,

De Ja Vu, Within All Meaning, 46 Clicks, DinkiBike, Patient Mile, Larykan Liverpool PCYC, Miller $10 3.30pm Millennium Bug Campbelltown Catholic Club free 8.30pm The New Christs, Hits, Contraban Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $15 8pm No Pressure, Dirty Deeds AC/DC Show Tall Timbers Hotel, Ourimbah $5 8pm Noche De Fuego: Mi Tierra, Mani, DJ Vicco, Mambo G, Av El Cubano Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $17 (member)–$20 9pm Original Sin Bridge Tavern, Nowra free 8pm The Platters (USA) Bankstown Sports Club $25 7.30pm Pop Fiction Castle Hill RSL Club free 10pm Radio City Cats Marble Bar, Sydney free 10.30pm Rat Vs Possum, Brackets, Bearhug, Talkshow Boy Dirty Shirlows, Marrickville 8pm The Rebel Rousers St Marys Band Club free 9pm Red Hot Numbers Brighton RSL Club, Brighton-LeSands free 8pm Resist the Thought Masonic Hall, Blacktown 5.30pm Vivid LIVE: Rickie Lee Jones (USA) Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House $59 (conc)–$89 7.30pm Rip it Up Bald Rock Hotel, Rozelle free 7.30pm The Shaggers Beaches Hotel, Thirroul free 8.30pm Show Stoppers: David Harris, James Millar, Sophia Ragavelas Riverside Theatres, Parramatta 8pm The Soul Shepherds Opera Bar, Sydney free 8.30pm A Sound Mind Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills 8pm Taxiride Lizotte’s Restaurant, Lambton $40 (show only)–$85 (dinner & show) 7pm Tess Green, Jess Hutchins Fubah on Copa, Copacabana $6.50 8pm Tice & Evans, Kaki Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Toydeath Artspace Visual Arts Centre, Woolloomooloo free 7.30pm The Vaudeville Smash, Elle Kennard Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Trash: City Lights Fade, A Broken Silence, Ghosts On Broadway, Here Goes Nothing Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo $10 (Guestlist)–$12 9pm Vee Bees, Bladder Spasms, Bulldoze All Bowlos, Solid Gold Bastards Oxford Tavern, Wollongong $10 8pm Vivid LIVE: Boris (Japan) The Studio, Sydney Opera House $30 (conc)–$35 10pm Wagons Clarendon Guest House, Katoomba

Whitley, Gossling, Seagull Northern Star Hotel, Hamilton $19.90 8pm

JAZZ Alexi Kaye, Kisshead, Emma Deans The Basement, Circular Quay $18 (+ bf)–$20 (at door) 9.30pm Aaron Lyon Liquidity Bar, Rozelle 7.30pm Eclipse Alley Five Strawberry Hills Hotel, Surry Hills free 4pm Lily Dior 505 Club, Surry Hills $10–$15 7.30pm Yuki Kumagai, John Mackie, Tony Burkys, Richard Booth Blacktown Festival, Blacktown CBD, Blacktown free 10am Mike Nock New Quintet The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $20 (member)–$25 8.30pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK Foster & Allen (Ireland) Rooty Hill RSL Club $49 5pm Songsalive! Showcase: Russell Neal + guests Leichhardt Bowling Club free 5pm Songsalive! Showcase: David Sattout, Dyan Tai, Matthew Wells, Andrew Denniston Grumpy’s Inn, Hurlstone Park free 8pm The Gum Ball: The Basics, The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra, Tijuana Cartel, Astronomy Class, Collard Greens & Gravy, Mr Laneous & the Family-Yah, Jackson Firebird, Abbie Cardwell, Snowdroppers, Rachael Brady, Brothers Grim, Marshall & the Fro, Errol Jim & the Trade Secrets, The Firemen, The Wildes, Abbie Cardwell, Zoe K & the Band of Lost Souls, The Animators, Dead Muppets, The Domestics Belford Country Cabins, Pokolbin $80 (+ bf)–$95 (+ bf) 10am

COUNTRY Johnny Cash Tribute: Stuart French Coogee Diggers 8pm

SUNDAY MAY 30 ROCK & POP The Audreys Duo Lizotte’s Restaurant, Kincumber $65 (incl supper)–$75 (dinner & show) 6pm Bernie Long Jetty Hotel 2pm Blue Grass Arvo: The Black Hill Ramblers Marrickville Bowling and Recreation Club 4.30pm Blues Sunday Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly 7.30pm Chartbusters

“Flames scare the lions as do their dreams That’s the way it’ll always be” – MARK LANEGAN METRO JULY 8 48 :: BRAG :: 363:: 24:05:10

gig g gp picks

gig guide

up all night out all week...

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 11pm Changing Days, Vanity, A Triumph, A Tragedy, Burnt at the Stake, Maze, The Storm Picturesque The Lucky Australian Tavern St Marys $10 Chase The Sun, Claude Hay Beaches Hotel, Thirroul 8pm Collard Greens & Gravy The Junkyard, Maitland 5pm Craig Calhoun & the Brothers of Oz Woollahra Hotel free 6.30pm Eternal Life - A Tribute to Jeff Buckley: Matt Ralph, Krystal Rogers, Simon Paparo, Michael Azzopardi, Sam Newton, Katy Wren, Mark Flores, Dan Hopkins, Ariane Campbell, Genevieve Little, Greg Cade The Vanguard, Newtown $15 (presale)–$17 (at door) 6.30pm Feral Swing Katz Rocksalt, Menai free 12pm Gary Johns Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool free 3pm Gian Tall Timbers Hotel, Ourimbah 4.30pm The Heavy Metal Orchestra, Adrian Klumpes, Scott Tinkler The Red Rattler Theatre, Marrickville $10 8pm Hell Bent Catherine Hill Bay Hotel free 1.30pm Helpful Kitchen Gods, The Disadvantaged, Capacapo, The Stonewalls, Dr Delites Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale free 5pm Jess Chalker, Tonk’s Green Heritage Hotel, Bulli $15 8pm Kym Campbell Belmont Hotel free 3pm

Vivid LIVE: Lou Reed Metal Machine Trio (USA) Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House $29 (youth)–$65 7.30pm Mechanical Black, Godswounds, Squawk Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $8 7pm The Mighty Kingsnakes Premier Hotel, Broadmeadow free 4.30pm Mr Percival Lizotte’s Restaurant, Lambton $25 (show only)–$67 (dinner & show) 7pm Mr. Wilson Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel free 5pm Muddy Turds, The Clap Hamilton Station Hotel, Islington free 8pm Natalie Conway Opera Bar, Sydney free 2pm Outer Space Cowboys Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 4pm Phil Edgeley Fubah on Copa, Copacabana 2pm Pop Fiction Rooty Hill RSL Club free 2pm Screaming Sunday: A Bad Days Good Night, Cloud Four, Chasing Amy Annandale Hotel $12 (at door) 12pm Simon Gillespie, Angela Ayres Rainforest Lounge, Bankstown Sports Club free 2.30pm Sunsets: Superheavyweights, Ngaiire, Ninja Cindys Fringe Bar, Paddington $8 (at door) 5pm Terry McIntosh The Entrance Sails Stage free 11am Wagons Brass Monkey, Cronulla 8pm

JAZZ Bill Dudley’s New Orleanians Strawberry Hills Hotel, Surry Hills free 5pm Frank Sultana (with special guest) Liquidity Bar, Rozelle 12 noon Jazz on East Great Northern Hotel, Newcastle free 2pm The House of Blues: The Subterraneans Town Hall Hotel, Newtown free 6pm The Shawnuff Quartet Hampshire Hotel, Camperdown free 3pm

TUESDAY MAY 25

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

THURSDAY MAY 27

Charisma 2010: Kirsty Beilharz, Moya Henderson, Louisa Farrenc Recital Hall West, Sydney Conservatorium of Music $10–$30 3pm Foster & Allen (Ireland) Revesby Workers Club Whitlam Theatre $49.90 6.30pm Green Jam The Hero of Waterloo Hotel, Millers Point free 7pm Kelly’s Heroes P.J. O’Brien’s, Sydney free 7pm Matt Jackson Pontoon, Darling Harbour free 2pm

COUNTRY Belrose Country Music Club Belrose Bowling Club free 2pm Kings of Country Shellharbour Workers’ Club $25 (member)–$30 8pm

Secret Society: Guineafowl, The Bmxicans, Vacations The Vanguard, Newtown $8 (+ bf)–$10 (at door) 6.30pm

WEDNESDAY MAY 26 Circle Pit, Songs, Lost Animal, Dead Farmers Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $12.80 (presale) 8pm Whitley, Gossling, Seagull Paddington Uniting Church $30 (+ bf) 8pm

The Holidays, Ernest Ellis, Joysticks Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $12 (+ bf) 8pm The Holidays

FRIDAY MAY 28 Richmond Fontaine (USA), Perry Keyes, Robert F Cranney Notes Live, Enmore $22 (+ bf)–$25 (at door) 8pm Vivid LIVE: Boris (Japan) The Studio, Sydney Opera House $30 (conc)–$35 10pm Wagons Annandale Hotel $27.50 (+ bf) 8pm

SATURDAY MAY 29 Black Cherry: Torch Le Monde, Wes Pudsey, Wes Pudsey & the Sonic Aces, Los Capitanes, Devine Electric, Kelly Ann Doll, Danica Lee, HMAS Heidi Hoops The Factory Theatre, Enmore $15 (+ bf)–$18 (at door) 8pm

Rat Vs Possum, Brackets, Bearhug, Talkshow Boy Dirty Shirlows, Marrickville 8pm The Gum Ball: The Basics, The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra, Tijuana Cartel, Astronomy Class, Collard Greens & Gravy, Mr Laneous & the Family-Yah, Jackson Firebird, Abbie Cardwell, Snowdroppers, Rachael Brady, Brothers Grim, Marshall & the Fro, Errol Jim & the Trade Secrets, The Firemen, The Wildes and more Belford Country Cabins, Pokolbin $80 (+ bf)–$95 (+ bf) 10am

SUNDAY MAY 30 Vivid LIVE: Lou Reed Metal Machine Trio (USA) Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House $29 (youth)–$65 7.30pm

BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10 :: 49

club guide send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com

club pick of the week FRIDAY MAY 28

Autechre

Forum (Moore Park)

Autechre (UK) $60.50 (+ bf) MONDAY MAY 24 202 Broadway, Chippendale Hospitality Crew free Empire Hotel, Potts Point Bazaar HBK, I Low free One World Sport, Parramatta Ricky Ro free The Sugarmill, Kings Cross Mondays James Rawson (live), Kavi-R free V Bar, Sydney Monday Mambo Mambo G $5–$10

TUESDAY MAY 25 Xxx 202 Broadway, Chippendale Salsa free Cruise Bar, Circular Quay DCE Salsa Lessons $20 Establishment, Sydney Rumba Motel DJs Willie Sabor and Guests free Martin Place Bar, Sydney Louis M, Sammy free Opera Bar, Circular Quay DJ Jack Shit free The Gaff, Darlinghurst Coyote Tuesday Kid Finley, Pee Wee Pete free–$5 World Bar, Kings Cross Pop Panic Karaoke, DJ Shipwreck, Nude & Daigo free

WEDNESDAY MAY 26 Bank Hotel, Newtown Girl’s Night DJ Beth Yen free Cruise Bar, Circular Quay Rockstar free

50 :: BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10

Establishment, Sydney Mid Week Hurdle Nic Phillips, Craig Patterson free Gasworks Nightclub, Albion Hotel, Parramatta DJ Fresh free Goldfish, Kings Cross The Salsa Lounge Latin Mafia Sound System free Sly Fox, Enmore Queer Central Sveta, DJ Beth, DJ Bel free The Eastern, Bondi Junction John Glover, Tenzin, Here’s Trouble, Cassian, U-Go-B, Steve Frank, Mistah Cee, Naiki, Kavi-R free The Gaff, Darlinghurst New Generation Franny, Alex, Triky, Electroholics, Con-x-ion, Psygnosis, Calico, Kermy, Deceptikon free The Lincoln, Kings Cross Kareem the DJ free (guestlist) The Sugarmill, Kings Cross Battery Operated DJ Matt Hoare free World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall 16 Tacos, Adam Bozzetto, Bently, Alistair Erskine free

THURSDAY MAY 27 202 Broadway, Chippendale Basic Foreign Dub, Headroom, Space is the Place, Void free Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool After School Detention DJ Rangi, Mac, K-Note MC Buddy Love free Cruise Bar, Circular Quay DJ Dwight ‘Chocolate’ Escobar free Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown Brett Hunt free Dug Out Bar, Burdekin Hotel Speakeasy Magda, Dave Fernandes Empire Hotel, Potts Point Episodes DJ Schoder, Wanted,

Zahra, Jason K, Johar free Gasworks Nightclub, Albion Hotel, Parramatta Da Bomb with DJ Fresh free Goldfish, Kings Cross The Funk Quarter Phil Hudson, Phil Toke, Dave 54, Michael Wheatley free Home Terrace, Darling Harbour Unipackers Rnb, Top 40, Electro $5 Hotel Chambers, Sydney Timewarp Retro DJs free Judgement Bar, Taylor Square Judgement Night. Sex Worker & Ymerej, weekly guests free Kinselas Hotel, Darlinghurst Simon Alexander free Lady Lux, Kings Cross Notorious Thursdays Die Pritti, Jimmy 2 Sox, Stick Man free Mansions, Kings Cross Van Sereno and Cavan Te live on rotation free Martin Place Bar, Martin Place Thursdays at MPB Louis M free Q Bar, Darlinghurst Hot Damn! DJ Sarah Spandex, Mark C, Heart Attack $10–$12 Sapphire Suite, Kings Cross Flaunt Nacho Pop, Diaz, Eko, Tom Piper, R-Son, Zero Cool free Scubar, Sydney Bikini & Boardies Party Seamus free The Eastern Hotel, Bondi Junction Sneaker Husky, Ant Best Shy, Travis Hale, Dave Rizzle, Yogi free The Loft, UTS, Ultimo Reggae on a School Night Firehouse, Rebel Bass free The Rouge, Darlinghurst Surprise Surprise Astrix, Sms, Ember, Lights Out, Tom Piper World Bar, Kings Cross Teenage Kicks The Vines DJs, Vivienne Kingswood, Tom Libertine, Sugar Ape, El Mariachi free

FRIDAY MAY 28 202, Broadway Everyone Oliver Gurney, Methodix, Prize, Dane Austin, Andosound, Mark Craven, Ryzer, Mass Static, Raine Supreme, Royalston, Richard Dubstar $5 Bank Hotel, Newtown Damien Goundrie, Abel El Toro, D-Funk free Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach Dustones Koolism, 1nfo, Noel Boogie, Lou Lou free Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle West Thundamentals, The Last Kinection, Soul Purpose, Host Manifest $12 (+ bf) Cargo Bar, King St Wharf On The Harbour free Chinese Laundry, Sydney The Impossibles, The Audiophilez, Sotiris, Skool Of Thought, Blog Wars, Doctor Werewolf $15 after 1am Civic Undergound, Sydney Oxia, Garry Todd, John Devecchis, Ben Morris, Mitch Crosher $25 Clarence Hotel, Petersham Betty’s Rodeo Eliz, Whiz-Bomb, Em $10 Collector Hotel, Parramatta Corner Shop Tikelz, DJ Browski, J Lyrikz, Naughty, Gunz free Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool Fuego DJ Mac, Don Juan, K-Note, Asado, Dennis Tha Menace, The Empress MC, MC Seba Cruise Bar, Circular Quay Johnny Vinyl, Strike free Establishment Hotel Carnival La Fiesta Sound System and Special Guest DJs all night free Goldfish, Kings Cross Sugar & Soul Phil Hudson, Paul Hatz, Agey, Danny De Sousa, Matt Cahill, Tom Kelly free Home The Venue, Darling Harbour Sublime Peewee, MC Losty, Big Dan, Just Corz, Nik Fish, Weaver, Suae, Davepsi, Vekta, JTS, Ravine, Fazed, Makio, RaversMVP, Hannah Gibbs $15 students/ $20members/$25 guestlist Kinselas, Taylor Square Toby Wilson free Kit & Kaboodle, Darlinghurst Gameboy Fridays The Gameboys, Nad, Boonie $10 after 10pm Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown Mantra – A Traditional Bollywood Affair DJ Sunil Spinz, DJ Rav, Sufi

Mansions, Kings Cross Nick Polly, Little Rich, Nick T, Stevie S, Adrian Allen free Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill Ministry of Sound Tommy Trash, Stafford Brothers, Joel Granger, Tom Piper, DJ Ta$k, J-Smoove, DJ Cookie $10 Metro Theatre, Sydney Photosynthesis Ganga Giri, Snog, Spoonbill, Mitch Black, Benza $38.50 (early bird)–$60.50 (at door) Middle Bar, Kinselas, Darlinghurst Flavours on Friday MC Q-Bizzi, C-Bu, Trey, Mike Champion, Naiki, Tekkaman $20 Mounties, Mount Pritchard One Night Stand Nick Skitz free (student)–$10 Omega Lounge, Sydney Unwind DJ GST and Guests free Opera Bar, Circular Quay Gian Arpino free Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Dexter, Kuya, B-Boy, Lamaroc, Royal Fam, Grrilla Step, Dizz1 $30 (+ bf) Q Bar, Darlinghurst Circuit Breakers 2 CD Launch Joyride, Alison Wonderland, Elaine Benes, Toasters Boutique, Sceptic & Dseeva, A-Drone, Rip Lee, FIXD, Sammy K, Latch, Johnny Mack $10 Raval, Surry Hills Listen Hear Huwston, Micah, James De La Cruz, Chris Coucouvinis free Sandringham Hotel, Newtown Loose Change, True Vibe Nation, Suburban Dark, Mathus $10 Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Entourage Lil Pete, Jason k, DiscoKid, Adamo, James V $10 guestlist Soda Bar, Golden Sheaf, Double Bay Mike Who, Mr Glass, Brynstar free St James Hotel, Sydney One Night in Cuba Mani, Yemaya, Nandez, Av El Cubano $15 Tank Nightclub, Sydney RnB Superclub Def Rok, Eko, G Wizard, Lilo, Troy T, MC Jayson The Eastern, Bondi Junction John Glover, Tenzin, Here’s Trouble, Cassian, U-Go-B, Steve Frank, Mistah Cee, Naiki, Kavi-R free before 11pm, $10 after The Gaff, Darlinghurst DJ Tokoloshe, Sveta free The Lincoln, Kings Cross The Scene Charlie Brown, Samari The Loft, King Street Wharf Late at The Loft Somatik, Noel Boogie, Noodles, DJ Huwston, Meem, The Swat DJs, Lippo free The Sugarmill, Kings Cross The Gameboys, Calling In Sick,

MC Losty

Joyride $10 after 10pm

SATURDAY MAY 29 202 Broadway, Chippendale Jamrock Nick Toth, Joe (USA), Lukie D, Shotta Paul, Admiral Kilosh $15 Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo Trash DJ M!Veg, DJ Absynth $12 Bank Hotel, Newtown Miss Match, Ash Turner, Jimi Polar free BB’s, Bondi Beach Wildlife DJs Mesan, James Roberts, Adriano Giorgi, Dinseh Sundar, Matt Singmin, Chris Kyle free Chinese Laundry, Sydney The Only, Ajax, Brain matters, Elmo is Dead, Mark Dynamix, Matttt, Club Junque, Mitch Crosher, Steve Lind, Wedding Ring Fingers, Mike Hyper $25 Civic Underground, Sydney Adult Disco Jacques Renault (DFA / HITS / OTP / NYC), Andy Webb and the Future Classic DJs $15 Clarence Hotel, Petersham Caesars Sandy Bottom, Justin Scott, DJ Chip free Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool Pop Fiction, Zoltan free Cricketer’s Arms, Surry Hills Pod War free Cruise Bar, Circular Quay DJ Simon Neal, Ben Vickers free Docks Hotel, Darling Harbour Fabulous Nino Brown, Don Juan, Samrai, Tikelz, Solz, Lil B, Robbie Knotts, Broski, Shruggz, MC Q-Bizzi, MC Mike Celekt, Aga, Akay, Dimi K, Yanni-B $20 Eastern Hotel, Bondi Junction I Love Saturdays Zannon, Tony Shock, Matt Ferreira, Tass, Akay, Don Juan, Dante Rivera, Dennis Agee, Willie Sabor, Oscar Cadena free Empire Hotel, Potts Point Level Brenden Fing, Ben Morris, Mike Ruckus, Foundation, DJ Jasmine free Gasworks Nightclub, Albion Hotel, Parramatta DJs Matt Hoare and Andy Marc $10 Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale Britpop Andrew P Street, Tom Libertine, Johnny Darko, Faux Nun Goldfish, Kings Cross Abel, Tom Kelly, Phil Hudson, Ross Middleton on Sax free Home, Sydney Homemade Saturdays The 808s, Aladdin Royaal, James “Saxman” Spy, Matt ferreria, Hannah Gibbs, Tony Venuto, Dave Austin, Flite, LKO, Seiz, Uncle Abe $20 VIP/$25 door

club guide send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com

Tommy Trash Ivy, Sydney Pure Ivy Michael Gray (UK), Deborah Cox Jacksons On George, Sydney Leno, Aladdin Royaal free Kinselas, Taylor Square Brynstar, Shaun Keble, Yin Yang, Beth Yen and Matt Hoare free Mansions, Kings Cross Reckless, Little Rich, Shaun Keeble, Nick Polly free Martin Place Bar, Sydney Bamboo Eko, Nude-E, Mirage, Shorty, Ace, Moto, Qrius, IllDJ $5 Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill Rob Brizzi $10 Melt Bar, Kings Cross Kontrast Dan Newling, Matt Wier, Robbie Lowe, Joey Tupaea, Jamie Matimore $15–$20 Middle Bar, Kinselas, Darlinghurst Beats and Pieces Luke McD, Franchi Brothers $10 Q Bar, Darlinghurst Ghetto Disco Naked Parade, Escape, Frames, Last Dinosaurs DJs, Leroy, The Sleepyheads, OMX Lay, 3Hundreds, Jamie Von Party, Paul Done, Detnum $15 Shelbourne Hotel, Sydney Shipwreck, Daniel Nall, Leon Pirello $10 after 10pm Soho, Potts Point free entry before 11pm Space Nightclub, Sydney SFX DJs Bzurk, Absynth, Snowflake $10 Spectrum, Darlinghurst P*A*S*H Goldfoot, DJ Knife

Stonewall Hotel, Darlinghurst Greg Boladian, Nick J free Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre Magic City Unleash The Dragon: DJ Zany (Netherlands), Donkey Rollers (Netherlands), Noisecontrollers (Netherlands), Kamui, Alex Kidd (United Kingdom), The Pitcher, DJ Jowan (Netherlands), Dr Willis, DV8 (Netherlands), Nik Fish, Toneshifterz, Nitrouz, Amber Savage, Matrix, X Dream (Germany), Archie, Suae, Pulsar, Shadower, Hard Forze, Ar-bee, Sasha Vatoff, John Ferris, Andrew James, Paul Holden, Cantosis, Micky D, Arbor, Luke Spellbound, Audio Damage, S Dee, Soul-T, DJ Hektic, Karpe-DM, N-tensify, Scotty G, Nathan Cryptic, Toxic, Nemesis, Nasty, Simon Buse, Yoshi, Biscuit, The Horror, Tom E, Aladdin, Germ, Nik Import, Sytrax, Raven, HSB, Kid Finley, Just Corz, Bennett, Tempa, Nomad, Spinout, Wheelan, Roch, Keely, Tahndee, Brendon Metric, Nick Watts, Andre Jay, Pato, Slim, Zac Slade, MCD $115 The Bank Nightclub, Kings Cross Sin City Don Juan, DJ Willie, Mista Kay, MC Q-Bizzi The Bourbon, Kings Cross OneLove $10–$20 The Dolphin Hotel, Surry Hills DJ Chris Skinner, DJ Carl

O’Brien free The Forum Theatre, Moore Park Say Cheese Deborah Cox, Greg Boladian, Dan Murphy, Jake Kilby, Kitty Glitter $59 (+ bf) The Gaff, Darlinghurst Perfect Day Resident house DJs Mark Alsop, DJ Chip, DJ Murray Hood, DJ Miss Match, DJ Brett Austin, DJ Scotty Tanner, DJ James Tobin, DJ Man and DJ Dirty Dan free The Loft, King Street Wharf Late at the Loft Somatik, Noel Boogie, Noodles, DJ Huwston, Meem, The Swat DJs, Lippo free The Manhattan Lounge, Martin Place Hushhh... DJs Stunna, Sonny, Special K $10 after 9pm Verandah Bar, Sydney The Booty Bar George B, Nasser T, Lenno, K Sera Watershed Hotel, Darling Harbour Paul Moussa free World Bar, Kings Cross Wham! James Taylor + MC Losty, Wax Motif, Discopunx, Venuto, Foundation, Will Styles, Moneyshot, Lennox n Oakes, Saez, Mike Rukus, Mehow, Harry Cotton, Wedding Ring Fingers, Joseph Gadget $15 before 10pm, $20 after

SUNDAY MAY 30 202 Broadway, Chippendale Meem, Frenzie, Gian Arpino, DJ Huwston, Simon Caldwell free Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Bondi Cultura Samba Australia free Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool Michael Peter Cruise Bar, Circular Quay Sassy Sundays free Docks Hotel, Darling Harbour Salsa Caliente Sabroson, DJ Vico free Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown DJ Metal Matt, Louis Tillett free Goldfish, Kings Cross Martini Club Live DJ Pascal & Crew free

DJ Zany BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10 :: 51

club guide

club picks

send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com Home Terrace, Sydney Spice After Hour Luke McD, Matt Weir, Schwa $20/$10 Hotel Chambers, Sydney La Chambre Rouge X-Tof, DJ XL, Trey, Twinz $20 Ice Bar, Sydney The Kitsch Sound System, Phil Hudson, Chloe West, Mark Matthews free Kings Cross Hotel Jammin Sundays free Kinselas Hotel, Darlinghurst The Fifth Dimension free Madam De Biers, Kings Cross Soul on Sunday Nino Brown, Don Juan free Phoenix Bar, Exchange Hotel, Darlinghurst Loose Ends Resident DJ Matt Vaughan & Regular

Guests Including Seymour Butz, Mark Murphy, Stephen Allkins, AvraCybele, Ben Drayton, Sveta, The Loin Brothers Free Entry From 10pm Plantation Bar, Kings Cross Bunker Little Fritter, Jameson, Drew Waterhouse, Franchi Bros, Kerry Wallace $15 Sapphire Suite, Kings Cross Random Sundays Mike Rukus, Tom Piper, James Taylor, Matt Nukewood, Goodfella, Adam Lance, RobKAY free (guestlist)–$15 The Bank Nightclub, Kings Cross Nino Brown, Don Juan free

up all night out all week...

The Beresford Hotel, Surry Hills B Side free The Rouge, Kings Cross Cartel Barfly, Tom Piper, Tenzin, Matt Nukewood free The Roxy, Parramatta Sunday Social $10, free for members The Sugarmill, Kings Cross Neighbourhood Kate Munroe free Tilbury Hotel, Woolloomooloo Andy Web free Trademark Hotel, Darlinghurst Soul on Sunday Nino Brown, Don Juan Watershed Hotel, Darling Harbour Miss Gabby free

Mike Rukus

WEDNESDAY MAY 26

World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall 16 Tacos, Adam Bozzetto, Bently, Alistair Erskine free

THURSDAY MAY 27

World Bar, Kings Cross Teenage Kicks The Vines DJs, Vivienne Kingswood, Tom Libertine, Sugar Ape, El Mariachi free

FRIDAY MAY 28

202, Broadway Everyone Oliver Gurney, Methodix, Prize, Dane Austin, Andosound, Mark Craven, Ryzer, Mass Static, Raine Supreme, Royalston, Richard Dubstar $5 The Basement, Circular Quay The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra, The Strides $25 (+ bf) 9.30pm Metro Theatre, Sydney Photosynthesis Ganga Giri, Snog, Spoonbill, Mitch Black, Benza $38.50 (early bird)–$60.50 (at door) Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Dexter, Kuya, B-Boy, Lamaroc, Royal Fam, Grrilla Step, Dizz1 $30 (+ bf) Oliver Gurney

Ganga Giri Q Bar, Darlinghurst Circuit Breakers 2 CD Launch Joyride, Alison Wonderland, Elaine Benes, Toasters Boutique, Sceptic & Dseeva, A-Drone, Rip Lee, FIXD, Sammy K, Latch, Johnny Mack $10

SATURDAY MAY 29

Q Bar, Darlinghurst Ghetto Disco Naked Parade, Escape, Frames, Last Dinosaurs DJs, Leroy, The Sleepyheads, OMX Lay, 3Hundreds, Jamie Von Party, Paul Done, Detnum $15 World Bar, Kings Cross Wham! James Taylor + MC Losty, Wax Motif, Discopunx, Venuto, Foundation, Will Styles, Moneyshot, Lennox n Oakes, Saez, Mike Rukus, Mehow, Harry Cotton, Wedding Ring Fingers, Joseph Gadget $15 before 10pm, $20 after

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52 :: BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10

coremelt studios | regen | ixchel | kaptivate present

THE METRO - FRIDAY 28 MAY

ganga giri snog spoonbill pitch black benza tom ellard ex-severed heads

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BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10 :: 53

Deep Impressions

Soul Sedation Soul, Dub, Hip Hop & Bottom Heavy Beats with Tony Edwards James Holden by Eva Vermandel for Dj-Kicks

Underground Dance and Electronica with Chris Honnery

Soul Sedation goes live every Wednesday night on Bondi FM (88.0 or bondifm.com.au). Tune in 10pm 'til midnight to hear a deep and soulful selection of the tunes covered here, and plenty more that I don't have room for.

Autechre

NSW often seems headed this way itself, our festival promoters constantly harassed with ridiculous noise restrictions and increasing demands for an over-the-top and corrupt security presence. Imagine the percentage of our festival tickets that goes towards paying the wages of people who often do little more than ruin our vibe. I’d like to reserve my right not to be surveilled by police while enjoying my weekends, thanks, or have security go through my tent just because they feel like it. We leave the cities to get away from you bastards, not to have you follow us out! Obviously there’s a massive rant coming on here - Soul Sedation is really unhappy about this Glade thing. Thank god the amazing Victorian outdoor events (BYO policy & polite, minimal security) are only a twelvehour drive away…

James Holden

This Week’s Episode: A Great Place for Architects and Dilettantes

E

nglishman James Holden, who has remained on the ‘cutting edge’ of electronic music throughout the past decade, will play Chinese Laundry on Saturday July 24 on the back of his new DJ Kicks mix, which is due out in the next fortnigh. While I haven’t spoken to Holden about the compilation, I did stumble upon a rather informative interview online where the Border Community head honcho humbly spoke of DJing as “coming to terms with always being a dilettante - never really knowing whole albums or remembering the names of things.” Holden was typically candid when discussing the current club climate, asserting that “after you’ve seen a few of the scene’s circular cycles, things like the current deep house revival - the third I’ve witnessed since I started DJing!

- just don’t seem interesting at all.” You can expect something far more imaginative from Holden’s forthcoming DJ Kicks, which includes material from Caribou and Legowelt along with tracks from labelmate Luke Abbott – primed to release his debut artist LP later in the year – and, perhaps most significantly, a previously unreleased Holden track, ‘Triangle Folds’ that is currently floating about online as a free promo download.

Germany’s Stephan Bodzin will be joined by legendary US producer Robert Hood for a gargantuan techno double bill… in Melbourne. Sydney will have to settle for the double of Bodzin and Italian tech convert Hugo at the Likes of You at The Arthouse on Saturday July 2, with Hood Stephan Bodzin

playing a week earlier at ‘the new Bunker’, Plantation. Readers with greater powers of recall – anyone? – will remember that Hood was forced to cancel his planned visit to Australia late last year due to an illness in his family, and true to his word he has rescheduled in prompt fashion.

For the benefit of younger sconies and, uh, dilettantes – no not you, James! – Hood was a member of Underground Resistance and recorded alongside Jeff Mills under the moniker H&M. Hood’s landmark 1994 album Minimal Nation was a prototype seized upon by Richie Hawtin et al, and was re-released early last year in an expanded edition that was greeted with rave reviews in The Wire magazine (naturally). I confess I haven’t heard Hood’s Fabric mix, but in past columns I’ve spent more than enough time lauding the canonical compilation series, so at the risk of sounding somewhat half-assed – which is certainly not a tag I want tainting my squeaky clean reputation – you can safely assume it’s a winner and buy it on spec.

Hallowed Scottish imprint Soma Records will release the fourth installment of their Coma compilation series in early July. The mix is purportedly a mellow, after-hours affair that collates material from many of the label’s heavyweights, including Alex Smoke, Funk D’Void, Vector Lovers and The Black Dog, with Glaswegian duo Slam contributing the only previously unreleased cut, ‘B Movie,’ in a decidedly retrospective affair. While not offering a spate of yet-to-be-released cuts, the quality of this slightly nostalgic exercise, epitomised by Silicone Soul’s plangent come-down gem ‘3am’, affirms that the onus many dance compilations place on ‘current’ material is no substitute for salience, so... at risk of sounding somewhat half-assed you can safely assume it's a winner and buy it on spec.

After much gossip, it has been confirmed that clubbing super brand Circo Loco is coming to Sydney this summer via Pulse Radio. I tried to contact Mr. Cawood for an official statement, but didn’t receive anything that’s fit to print – I am ever mindful of scarring my younger readership. Rest assured that as soon as details surface you’ll read them here first, in your intoxicating weekly dose of witty, nuanced, technocentric prose.

LOOKING DEEPER SATURDAY JUNE 5

Robert Hood

Co-Op feat Harri TBA

SATURDAY JULY 26 Robert Hood Plantation

SATURDAY JULY 2 Stephan Bodzin The Arthouse

SATURDAY JULY 24 James Holden Chinese Laundry

Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through deep.impressions@yahoo.com.

54 :: BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10

restrictions imposed by local authority and police. The resulting compromises have led to increased costs, increased ticket prices and a throttling of the very essence of what we wanted to do,” they explained in a statement posted on their website.

“Police and licensing authority insisted we had to spend a total of £310,000 on stewards, security and policing,” festival chief Nick Ladd revealed. “That’s more than we spend on music.” This episode is a miserable indictment of the increasing pressure on our right to celebrate music in large outdoor gatherings. The Glade festival has been a beacon of underground music and culture ever since it broke away from Glastonbury in 2004 to stage a festival all its own, and now many of us will never have the chance to go.

H

i, how’s life? …Soul Sedation has a problem: Autechre, Dexter, Eric Lau and The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra are all playing in Sydney this Friday night. Talk about spoiled for choice.

We really like all that music. But we have an insistent feeling Dexter might win out, the guy doesn’t come to town very often…

In more quality news The Roots and John Legend get cosy in the studio to turn in an album of covers. It’s called Wake Up and takes on the vintage protest song - Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack are all among the artists covered.

“I was trying to make something that was sample-able,” ?uestlove told Rolling Stone.

“Like a ‘70s soul record.” As Legend points out, “Some of it has already been sampled.

Pete Rock and CL Smooth sampled ‘Our Generation’ years ago on ‘Straighten It Out,’ so we did a new version of ‘Our Generation’ with CL.” Not only do we get to hear from CL Smooth, but Common also features on the record. Seriously epic!

Speaking of which - a Common Australian tour has been announced. The rap royalty himself will be on stage at The Forum Friday June 11. The press release also told me that he’s also written three “children’s hip hop” books. Soul Sedation is not quite sure what that means, but is gonna go and check it out. Whatever: Common in the country = dope!

NY crate diggers Kon and Amir have gone to great trouble to list their 50 Greatest Samples In Hip Hop History. This is some seriously extensive coverage of sixties and seventies music – it hosts the entire track followed by some brief background info and then a more recent track that’s utilised the sample. To find the feature go to complex. com and type ‘Kon and Amir’ into the site’s search engine. You could easily spend an entire afternoon in there just listening in, and polishing up your knowledge. Soul Sedation now has even more old classics to go dig up. Incidentally Kon & Amir are up to their third crate-digging album on BBE: Off The Tracks Vol III. Vintage funk, soul and disco - these guys are dedicated.

In sad, sad news the UK’s Glade Festival has been cancelled after the organisers bowed to crippling financial pressure placed on them by authorities. “As many Glade fans will know, over the years we have fought hard to maintain the integrity of the event against steadily increasing

To end on a happy note, Jacques Renault plays Adult Disco at the Civic this Saturday May 29. The NY-based producer makes the most badass nu disco re-dits around; bumpy as, uplifting, and tons of fun. Get hold of his mixes if you can find them, I can’t stress enough how awesome this guy is. Pray and ye shall receive! Thank you very much Future Classic. Check out Renault’s own label On The Prowl records if you want to pick up some of the best nu disco wax around. Soul Sedation will see you at the gig.

Jacques Renault

ON THE ROAD FRIDAY MAY 28 Autechre The Forum Dexter Oxford Art Factory Eric Lau Melt Bar Public Opinion Afro Orchestra & The Strides The Basement

SATURDAY MAY 29 Jacques Renault Civic Underground FRIDAY JUNE 11 DJ Premier & The Beatnuts The Forum

SUNDAY JUNE 13 Shapeshifter The Metro

Send stuff for this column to tonyedwards001@gmail.com by 6pm Wednesdays. All pics to The Brag (art@thebrag.com).

snap

14:04:07 :: Cargo Bar :: 52 - 60 The Promenade King Street Wharf 92621777

dexter xx tour

teenage kicks

PICS :: HC

good fridays

PICS :: AM

up all night out all week . . .

13:05:10 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700

It sounds like: Melbourne to Moro cco, LA to Lisbon, Detroit to Delh i, and ancient Earth to outer space.

DJs/Bands: Dexter, Kuya, Grrilla Step, Dizz1, Mark Pritchard (Jed i Knights, Harmonic 313, Afrika Hi-Tek) and Josh Price (FEI7).

Three records you’ll hear on the night: ‘Forgot About Dre’ - Dr Dre; Zinc; ‘New York City’ - Tabou Com ‘187 Trek’ - DJ bo.

And one you definitely won’t: Ever ything mash-up.

Sell it to us: I’m celebrating 20 year s of DJing without ever playing a like, ever. track I didn’t The bit we’ll remember in the AM: into Body Rock and Lesson 6: The Log drums, Krumpers, Bombs over Baghdad Lecture by Jurassic 5, 6/8 beat jugg the 6/8 juggle). le (I invented Crowd specs: Humans, preferably breathing.

Wallet damage: $30+bf from mos htix.com.au or $35 on the door.

Where: Oxford Art Factory, 38-46 Oxford St, Darlinghurst.

When: Friday May 28, doors open 8pm

f.r.i.e.n.d.s.

PICS :: RR

party profile

It’s called: Dexter XX Tour

the palace

PICS :: MB

12:05:10 :: Fringe Bar :: 106 Oxford Street Paddington 93605443

starfuckers

PICS :: AM

15:05:10 :: The Palace :: 169 Dolphin St Coogee 96642900

15:05:10 :: Club 77 :: 77 William St Kings Cross 93613387

ASHLEY MAR :: ROSETTE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER:: JEREMY BOWRING :: DANIEL MUNNS :: PATRICK ROUHANNA :: SOFII MCKENZIE :: MAJA BASKA :: JACQUELINE MANNING :: WILL REICHELT STEVENSON :: HANNAH CAREY

BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10 :: 55

snap sn ap

dam-funk

PICS :: TL

up all night out all week . . .

wham

PICS :: DM

15:05:10 :: The Basement :: 29 Relby Place Circul;ar Quay 92512797

15:05:10 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700

gameboys fridays It sounds like: Imploding happ y gas.

Sell it to us: Invading the Cros s, Gameboys Fridays is back for another explosive week stacked with all your favourite DJ action. Residen t heroes and all-round part y people The Gam eboys, established amongst Sydn ey’s part y elite, will be spinning tunes and providing the soundtrack to wha t’s set to be another massive start to the wee kend.

Crowd specs: Superhuman part y people.

chinese laundry fridays

PICS :: AM

DJs/Live acts playing: The Gam eboys, NAD, Boonie.

14:05:10 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex Street Sydney 82959958

Wallet damage: $10 entr y all nigh t.

Where: Kit & Kaboodle, Cocktail level, 33-37 Darlinghurst Rd, King s Cross.

When: Friday May 28, from 8pm

oh my!

0

PICS :: SM

party profile

It’s called: Gameboys Fridays

candy’s apartment

PICS :: JB

14:05:10 :: Home The Venue:: Tenancy 101 Cockle Bay Whf Darling Harbour 92660600

15:05:10 :: Candy’s Apartment :: 22 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93805600 56 :: BRAG :: 363:: 24:05:10

ASHLEY MAR :: ROSETTE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER:: JEREMY BOWRING :: DANIEL MUNNS :: PATRICK ROUHANNA :: SOFII MCKENZIE :: MAJA BASKA :: JACQUELINE MANNING :: WILL REICHELT STEVENSON :: HANNAH CAREY

snap

the wall

PICS :: RR

up all night out all week . . .

12:05:10 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700

party profile

purple sneakers

PICS :: DM

P.O.A.O. 14:05:10 :: The Gladstone Hotel :: 115 Regent St Chippendale 96993522

It’s called: The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra + The Strides It sounds like: An interstate Afro beat/funk/reggae showdown.

Who’s spinning? The Public Opin ion Afro Orchestra and The Strid DJs Huwston and Manchild. es with Sell it to us: Following the elec trifyi Afrobeat Orchestra in March, Nich ng performance from the Antibalas e the country's hottest local Afrobeat Productions now bring you some of going head-to-head. Representing outfits from Melbourne and Sydney Melbourne: The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra and DJ Manchild ; and Huwston. While there’s no real com for Sydney - The Strides and DJ petition, it’s bound to be a night funk madness. of Afro-

The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Grooving your troubles awa y with the country's finest.

Crowd specs: Anyone keen for a dance on a Friday night!

Wallet damage: $25+bf presale, $30 on the door, tickets from moshtix.com.au.

Where: The Basement

gameboys

PICS :: AM

When: Friday May 28

sosueme pres. naboo

PICS :: PS

14:05:10 :: Kit & Kaboodle :: 33-35 Darlinghurst Rd Kings Cross 9368 0300 ASHLEY MAR :: ROSETTE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER:: JEREMY BOWRING :: DANIEL MUNNS :: PATRICK ROUHANNA :: SOFII MCKENZIE :: MAJA BASKA :: JACQUELINE MANNING :: WILL REICHELT STEVENSON :: HANNAH CAREY

14:05:10 :: The Metro Theatre :: 624 George St City 92642666 BRAG :: 363 :: 24:05:10 :: 57

snap sn ap

girl thang

PICS :: AM

up all night out all week . . .

mum

PICS :: JM

15:05:10 :: Q-Bar :: 34-44 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93601375

14:05:10 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s called: Sosueme - Circuit Brea ker 2 launch It sounds like: Invasion of the circuit snatchers.

DJs/Live acts playing: Toasters Boutique, Sceptic & Dseeva, Joyr Wonderland, Elaine Benes A-Dr one, Rip Lee, Fixd, Sammy K, Latc ide, Alison Mac. h, Johnny Sell it to us: Taking over Sosueme this Friday, Lightsounds present Breaker 2, the second instalmen Circuit t in a series of dance music com pilations that promotes original, independ ent Australian electronic music.

Bands, DJs and producers have contributed tracks for what has turned out to be a worldclass collection of exciting, loca lly produced electronic music. Get an all night dance-off ready to rival ready for the bigg est of rave s, the loudest of beats and the coolest of crowds.

Wallet damage: $10 entr y all nigh t.

radio social

PICS :: TL

party profile

sosueme

16:05:10 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700

Where: Q Bar + 34B Stereo / 44 Oxford St / Darlinghurst

live showcase

PICS :: TL

When: Friday May 28 from 8pm

hot damn

PICS :: HC

16:05:10 :: The Club :: 33 Bayswaer Rd Kings Cross 93574411

13:05:10 :: Spectrum :: 34 Oxford St Darlinghurst 93316245 58 :: BRAG :: 363:: 24:05:10

ASHLEY MAR :: ROSETTE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER:: JEREMY BOWRING :: DANIEL MUNNS :: PATRICK ROUHANNA :: SOFII MCKENZIE :: MAJA BASKA :: JACQUELINE MANNING :: WILL REICHELT STEVENSON :: HANNAH CAREY

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