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THE DOMAIN SATURDAY DECEMBER 11 ON SALE THIS FRIDAY 136 100 or ticketmaster.com.au

Instore Friday June 4

Jack Johnson will donate 100% of his 2010 tour profits to charity. Learn more at AllAtOnce.org Presented by Michael Coppel, Nik Tischler & MAX I jackjohnsonmusic.com I jackjohnson.com.au I Brushfirerecords.com I coppel.com.au BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 5

S I H T EK E W

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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

usic is a relatively new endeavour for me. During the course of my youth, apart from being an occasional choirboy, I was never really actively involved in the making of music. But I was always exposed to quality and often obscure music throughout my (evercontinuing) upbringing. I received a nice mix of black and white music from my mother and father respectively, and was early-on instilled with a cultural curiosity for film, museums, music etc.. At around age 10 I was taken to see the trifecta of Bowie, Jackson, Ciccone over the course of one year - and I was pretty much sold off into dreamland…

MARTIN FROM WIM

The first album I ever owned was a Nina Simone Greatest Hits CD, with this sombre illustration of Nina on the front. I remember being this really sensitive boy and getting upset over little things and the only (admittedly angstridden) solace was found trying to empathise with this guttural, generationally-defying pain in her voice. Listen to ‘Four Women’! …I do stand by the idea that it was she who first really taught me how to sing, and to do so with any real evocation. But also in the early days there was Bowie’s Hunky Dory, Sam Cooke, Simon & Garfunkel, Motown, Nick Drake… Lately I have been listening to a lot of Nico’s ‘Chelsea Girls’

(for the lows..) and this 60’s couple, Shirley and Lee (for the highs!). Simple, but great stuff. WIM is five extremely different boys, each bringing their own to the table. We take large nods at early influences and a classic songwriting sensibility - while trying to face forward and draw branches across different aesthetics. We’re interested in being able to naturally move over a broad spectrum of sounds and sentiments, and at this early stage in our path, we are trying to reconcile this notion of a multi-genre band without losing its cohesion as an entity unto itself… (NB - this is a 5am solo rant.) That said, WIM is ultimately about a return to good, challenging but palpable musical songwriting, lyrical allure, high calibre execution, a theatrical show and a willingness to believe in it. (Again, it’s 5am..)

Musically speaking, we’re spreading our wings in some new directions – introducing different instruments, mixing up live delivery, switching roles and amassing shiny new songs. We were fortunate enough to get to make a comprehensive recording in L.A. with some kindly music legends - and we can’t wait until the time is right to show our lovely supporters our first professionally made release. It was an amazing, meteor-showered (seriously) experience that apparently enraged Bryan Ferry. Gold. There seems to be a building, supportive community atmosphere amongst musicmakers and appreciators in this city. There’s a sense that maybe, just maybe, we as citizens of this place can begin to believe that we can stand on our own feet in front of the rest of the world.. This is a strange town for music people it seems. I think we just need to be a little more encouraging to one another. Who: WIM With: Cloud Control Where: Citizen @ Hidden Level 4, Kings Cross Hotel When: Thursday June 3

Xxxx

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

NOTES ON MANAGING

The music industry can be a baffling place. The Association of Artist Managers understand this, and rather than locking the iron gate and laughing at you from the other side as you fruitlessly pepper poles with A4 gig posters you printed at work, they are inviting you to learn from their awesomeness at the ‘Touring Australia and Beyond’ seminar, taking place at Notes Newtown. Glenn Wheatley, Larry Wanagas, John Watson, Bill Cullen, Aaron Chugg, Cath Haridy and Baz Barrett (basically all of the big names in management) will be sharing stories from 6:30pm on June 23. For $20 you can buy a pre-sale ticket to the event, or for only double that you can take your chances and try and get one on the door. Visit aam.org.au for more.

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, Patrick Stevenson, Jeremy Bowring, Julian De Lorenzo, Jay Collier, Renee Rushbrook 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 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

12 :: BRAG :: 364 : 31:05:10

last tour of the country sold out, and they are a lot more popular this time around - so you’d want to be quick on June 4 to avoid the crushing disappointment of missing out at Yet Another Thing. Direct all emails about how you can’t box Mazzy Star into one genre to the usual place.

Muse Leonard Cohen

MUUUUUUUSEEEE!!

Occasionally described as the Andrew Lloyd Webber of rock music, Matt Bellamy is bringing his po-faced three-piece back to Australia - even though they were just out here in January. This time they’re promising it’ll be even bigger than Big Day Out. They’re calling it their biggest Australian show yet. That’s pretty big. We’re guessing they’ll play that Twilight song. And the one about oppression. And probably that one with three parts that goes for eleven minutes. Tickets on sale June 7, and then you have six whole months of dreaming about how sweet the laser show will be before they hit the Acer Arena on December 9...

GHETTO SUPERSTAR

Print this, and amend as you see fit: Dear [name], The reason I was unable to attend work/uni/your wedding on Thursday June 3 is in no way related to the fact that Ghettoblaster relaunched at Q Bar the evening prior, for only five dollars. Yes, The Salvagers, The Sculptures and The Company were playing, during which time I took advantage of the cheap drinks; however this is a separate incident and should be treated as such. Also, there was an awesome art exhibit from Wolves&Owls. Should you come across any photos of me looking like I was enjoying myself too much at said event, I was squinting and/or being ironic. Regards, [name].

THE DRUMS – NEW ALBUM, SPLENDOUR SIDESHOW

NME touting you as the ‘coolest new band’ or whatever is one hell of a double-edged sword. On the one hand you get added to the Splendour lineup and get to tour sunny Australia, but on the other hand, you know that there is a big pile of backlash waiting to bury you when you get home. Luckily The Drums are in the pre-backlash stage, and are set to play a Splendour sideshow on August 1 (national Wattle Day - mark it down). In March they played a three-date run in the UK, where they were watched by Morrissey, Mike Joyce

and Andy Rourke. Which to us sounds a lot like The Drums were snubbed by Johnny Marr. Their self-titled sophomore is out June 11 – and tickets to the Oxford Art Factory gig are on sale June 4.

REED RADIO! ANDERSON ALBUM!

In an act of petty revenge some forty years after radio refused to play tracks from the first Velvet Underground record, Lou Reed and music producer Hal Willner will be taking over ‘Sydney Shuffle’ on ABC Radio National each weekday of VIVID Live from May 31, at 2-3pm and 11pm-midnight. If you miss out, you can listen online at abc.net.au/rn. Annnnd in an amazing spousal related link, Reed’s wife Laurie Anderson will release her first album in nearly a decade, no doubt about to be featured heavily on Radio National. The record is titled Homeland, and will be released June 25 through Nonesuch.

SVIIB

Dream-pop might be the best genre of music ever invented. Or maybe I’m just listening to Mazzy Star at the moment. At any rate, School of Seven Bells play this genre extremely well, and because they’re releasing an album and playing Splendour, they’ve decided to play a special headlining show July 31 at the Gaelic Club. Their

GIVE ME A LEONARD COHEN AFTERWORLD

You know how K.D Lang did that version of ‘Hallelujah’ at the Logies and Richard Wilkins and Bert Newton built it up so much that everyone had to pretend it was mindblowingly life changing afterwards? Well, that song was actually written a few years ago by a songwriter named Leonard Cohen, responding to the brief of ‘a heart-wrenching song to soundtrack the death of Marissa Cooper on The OC’. Solely off the back of that seminal show, Leonard ‘one-hitwonder’ Cohen has grown in stature to the point where he can now justify an Australia tour, including a show at Acer Arena on November 8. TV, huh? Tickets on sale today via ticketek.com.au or tomorrow via ebay.com.au

GIG OF THE WEEK

TEEN SPIRIT

The ﬁrst Friday of June is coming up and by now you must know that means that Teen Spirit is about to make you feel like a teenager again, but with less rocket fuel and more party groping. So tell mum you are heading to slumber party, steal some cash from her purse and sneak down to Oxford St for the best selection of 90s party hits you are going dance to this side of that cassette you taped off the Hot 30 thirteen years ago. Don't think this party is completely unsupervised though your chaperones for the night will make sure you do the right thing (another drink, dance the macarena, now!) and that you get home safe, if you know what I mean ;) These pillars of responsibility include: Hayley (Chaingang) 9021Bros and Doogie Howser MDJ It will be important to keep your ﬂuids up so we've arrange some of your favourites: We'll be showing some very 90s VHS up on the big screen as well. Tell us what you'd like to see below. Song requests are also more than welcome, they're encouraged! Entry is $10 or $5 before midnight.

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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

SAM FROM NIKKO (QLD)

Growing Up My parents aren’t musical and 1. have pretty cheesy taste - their

The Music You Make Our debut album The 4. Warm Side is out now on

favourite group is ABBA. Perhaps it was an act of rebellion that led me towards the more obscure end of popular music, as I had little else to rebel against as a middle-class, white male with supportive parents. A lot of my friends share musical taste with their parents, which I see as a fairly regressive way of appreciating music. I just can’t understand how popular music that’s inherently grounded in the context of time and place can seem relevant to someone my age, other than as a jumping-off point from which something new can be created.

Tenzenmen/FUSE. The bulk of the album was recorded live to tape in three days at Black Box in Brisbane, then we spent a few months tracking overdubs (violin, trumpet, more guitar) ourselves at the Con, before going down to Melbourne to record vocals and mix. It was a very straight ahead recording process, none of this “let’s fuck around with tech” stuff that a lot of other bands spend heaps of money on, to hide the fact that their songs are shit.

Inspirations We’re fans of bands like The Drones 2. and Mogwai, not only because they create amazing and highly original music, but also because they do things on their own terms and put their music first. In that regard, people like Aaron Turner of ISIS and Ben Weinman of The Dillinger Escape Plan appeal to me personally, as they do things themselves. Turner owns and manages one of my favourite underground metal labels, Hydrahead, and Weinman is the manager and sole-remaining founding member of TDEP. Musicians like that, who take complete control of their creative output just so they can be assured it will not be twisted by anyone else, take on huge amounts of responsibility, and are a big inspiration for me personally.

Children Collide

Your Band Ryan, Jackson and I met at school. Ryan 3. has been playing guitar from a very young age; I couldn’t play shit but really wanted to start a band. I grew up with Blair and knew he’d recently taken up drums. The only spot left to fill was bass, so that was the instrument for me. We recruited Jackson from another high school band and started to get serious about writing and playing our own music. Thus Nikko was born, around 2005. After a few years of playing together, we realised we needed more in order to add further depth to our sound. Hence, Ryan’s old primary school buddy Daniel Kassulke was added on keys in 2008. Most of us work shitty day jobs; cafes, bottleshops, supermarkets, injecting rooms… Seriously, Daniel gets paid ridiculous amounts of money to hand out needles to junkies at 2am.

ten on entry to their show at Spectrum on July 3, and spend the other ten in any manner you see fit. Ad lib to fade.

HOLY COMMUNION!

Having peaked way too early with the heading of this news piece, I guess all that’s left to say is that Communion – the Aussie branch of the famous UK band night run by Mumford & Sons’ Ben Lovett - has finally found a new home! After the hopefully-not-permanent closure of Goodgod Small Club, the night has relocated to Melt Bar in Kings Cross. Playing at the next event is The Seabellies, Cameras and Pluto Jonze with DJ sets by Sweetie from FBi (the radio station not the bureau), and Who The Hell DJs (blogging!). Go through Moshtix for the ticket and pay only $12, or swagger up on the night to be charged an extra $3 for your arrogance. Your decision.

FANFARLO FEVER

FACTORY CHILDREN

Not a Dickens novel, but a clumsy mish-mash of the fact that Children Collide are playing The Factory Theatre in Marrickville on Saturday June 5. If you haven’t seen these guys live before, they throw themselves around the stage, yelp, hurl and carry on, while still staying tight - proving Nirvana had the right idea all along. They’re touring in support of the first single from their second album, the wonderfully named ‘Jellylegs’ which was produced by Rob Schnapf, whose work with Beck, The Vines and Elliot Smith proves that he could produce Metal Machine Music and it’d still sound amazing.

VOLCANO IN YOUR FACE

If you have ever been to a Richard In Your Mind show, or taken mind-altering substances, there are two things you should do. Firstly, grab a copy of their new album My Volcano on June 26 (give or take a couple of days lag time - don’t download it, this isn’t the future). Secondly, withdraw twenty dollars out of an ATM, spend

When David Bowie says something we usually listen (as long as it isn’t Tin Machine related). So when we read that he described Fanfarlo as “delicious melancholia,” we not only imagined and then impersonated those words said in his voice, but were curious as to how we could catch the band live and pretend Bowie’s opinion was formed independently by us. Fortunately, the group will perform a show on August 2 at the Gaelic Club, in addition to their set at Splendour. Tickets on sale June 4.

NOT SPREADING THEIR WINGS

Oh dear. It seems that there was some confusion surrounding The Butterfly Effect playing a show on the weekend of Come Together at an inner Sydney venue - causing fans to wondering if one of the founding members has split and created a splinter group, also named The Butterfly Effect, ala Boney M. Obviously this isn’t the case, and aside from making the first comparison between Boney M and The Butterfly Effect in the history of written word, we are also informing you that their June 12 show at Come Together is their only Sydney performance. Although my personal advice would be deep skepticism, followed by an arduous wait outside the nearest inner-Sydney venue... It’s up to you.

IT IS A BIG WHOOP

Fridays in June are among the most pedestrian, depressing times in everyone’s life, regardless of race, creed or future life plans. Realising this sorry state of affairs, Big Whoop! is coming to Meltbar in Kings Cross, with a different headlining act each week to save you from

Music, Right Here, Right Now 5. A lot of bands in both Brisbane and Melbourne have a negative perception of Sydney’s live scene, but that isn’t our experience. The best shows we’ve played outside of Brisbane have been in Sydney and Newcastle, and our upcoming show at the Excelsior on the 3rd is probably our most anticipated of the tour. Who: Nikko What: The Warm Side is out now on Tenzenmen/FUSE Where: The Excelsior / MUM @ World Bar When: June 3 / June 4

thinking about your own mortality and how you will never truly know anybody. Underlights, Sticky Fingers, Sound Casino and Radio National will take turns at headlining while the other three bands support, in an order that may or may not be decided via a jump-rope contest, the likes of which were popular in Brooklyn in the mid ‘70s.

RICHARD ASHCROFT (THE VERVE) TOURS

It isn’t The Verve, that is true. But Richard Ashcroft & The United Nations of Sound are playing the Enmore Theatre on July 31, and that is enough of a cause for celebration in our books. The presser states that he will be playing material from his solo and Verve catalogue, which means that he will definitely play ‘Sonnet’ and ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’, and these songs will definitely make you rethink the path your life is on. But by the time ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ kicks in you’ll have forgotten all that nonsense. Tickets on sale this week. Quick!

ROCK-STEIN TRIVIA AT THE GAELIC CLUB

Robert F Cranny, self appointed trivia king of the entire world, has some strong competition it seems, with news that Rock-Stein is launching at The Gaelic Club. Every Tuesday from 7.30pm, Jake Grigg, vocalist of Something With Numbers and Hamish Rosser of The Vines will take it in gruelling shifts to ask questions about Dee Lite, Keith Richards and Tag Team – and after the two month’s program is up, the winning team will be challenging the musos. Also! The Gaelic Club is now The Gaelic Hotel, and is no longer a theatre but now a hotel/pub, complete with a food menu, a late night license, jugs of Coopers and other pubby things to make this the pubbiest pub quiz this side of that other pub you go to! Make sure you bring your iPhone too, as cheaters often prosper.

FABULOUS DIAMONDS

Melbourne duo Fabulous Diamonds are killing it overseas, spending a fair bulk of the past few years jetsetting and generally taking over the world, one indie club at a time. Now, they have an album full of new tracks (five of which they didn’t even bother to name!) that they are dying to test out live in Sydney (conjecture). They will finally get their dearest wish when they play Spectrum Friday July 23 – and the album comes out June 19 through Chapter Music, so make sure you grab a copy of that so you can be that annoying one who stands next to me singing along too loudly.

Saritah

SARITAH + DIGGING ROOTS

Seoul-born slash Perth-raised slash Melbourne-based singer slash songwriter Saritah (deep inhale), is heading a triple bill at the gorgeous Notes Live in Newtown, ably supported by Canadians Digging Roots and ethereal songstress Lucy Hall. The petite powerhouse Saritah will be bringing her good vibes and jumpalong, singalong tunes to Notes Live before leaving for a long and winding journey across the globe. Her playful style dabbles in and out of folk, acoustic groove, dancehall and reggae, and gig pals Digging Roots will complement Saritah with their own soulful, political genre-mashing performance. We have three double passes to dish out for June 3 - if you want one, then tell us the name of one of Saritah’s albums.

Song Summit LIVE Showcases On June 19th Song Summit 2010 kicks off for its second year. It’s a major music industry expo presented by APRA|AMCOS and Events NSW as part of Vivid Sydney and features panel discussions, networking sessions and workshops. One component is Song Summit LIVE - a series of public showcases from some of Australia’s leading and upcoming musical talent, as well as a bunch of internationals… Here are some highlights: On Saturday June 19, Rock The Schools (a national entertainment and educational initiative for up and coming Australian bands) presents Sydney new wave pop band Amy Meredith and QLD pop-act Finabah. Celebrating its fifth year, Rock the Schools has toured over 270 metropolitan and regional schools and directly impacted over 200,000 students – and even more online. On Sunday June 20, Song Summit LIVE partner Gadigal Information Service present three emerging Aboriginal musicians in the Wolf Bar. Gadigal provides a community-based media, arts and information service for the Indigenous community in Sydney. Also on Sunday night, four of New Guinea’s hottest emerging artists Cornerstone, dAdiiGii, Lawrence Martin and Warian Echoe will take the stage, in what should be a fantastic cultural music experience. Song Summit LIVE is running at HOME nightclub on June 19 & 20 - the showcases kick off once the conference program has closed for the evening. Tickets are available via Ticketek through the Song Summit website at www.songsummit.com.au/LIVE We’ll be featuring more details about other Song Summit LIVE performances in this column every week, so stay tuned...

“Honour and the glory. Ego makes him weak. Destiny is chosen. The people can not speak” - THE RED EYES 14 :: BRAG :: 364 : 31:05:10

Secret Sounds presents

T MON 2 AUG - LMETRO THEATRE U O D special guests BOYS&OBEAR and JOHNNY FLYNN

EXTRA SHOW ADDED!

st 1

SUN AUG THE FACTORY special guests THE MAPLE TRAIL

All Ages. Tickets from The Factory, Ph 9550 3666, www.factorytheatre.com.au

ON SALE THIS FRIDAY 4th JUNE

I SPEAK BECAUSE I CAN OUT NOW ON EMI

www.lauramarling.com

BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 15

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

DJ HARRI (GLASGOW)

As a child I had piano lessons, but hated it. Neither of my parents had any musical taste and we didn’t get a record player till I was about thirteen. I got my first decks in the early eighties – a Citronic mobile DJ set-up. As a teenager in Glasgow/East Kilbride I regularly went to see bands at Green’s Playhouse in Glasgow. I saw Hawkwind, Captain Beefheart, Neil Young, as well as Crazy Horse, Focus, Donovan, Groundhogs and loads of other rocky stuff that felt good at the time… Waiting on the ice cream van to buy skins and then turning the lights out and just listening with my mates in silence. Then I discovered James Brown, George Clinton and Reggae.

y key childhood music memories are: Hearing The Rolling Stones’ ‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction’ on the radio and absolutely loving it. Seeing Brian Jones of the Stones playing the sitar on ‘Paint It Black’, on Top Of The Pops. Listening to Radio Luxembourg in bed. Hearing John Peel play Rupie Edwards’ ‘Ire Feelings’. And the first time I heard Kraftwerk, Lee Perry and Norman Whitfield.

PERSIAN CATS + RAVI

In the early eighties me and a mate travelled to Spain to work the holiday season - we were handing out flyers for night clubs. This was probably my first inclination that DJing could actually be cool; the clubs in Spain at the time had amazing soundsystems and laser lights. It took me a few years of musical boredom living in Aberdeen before I started my own night. The production thing came about as a result of a local Glasgow businessman asking me to do a remix for a band he managed. He put me in the studio with an engineer and musician, and I got the bug. I’m pretty fortunate in that I’ve not had a proper day job since the mid eighties. I’ve got lots of good stories (mostly unprintable) and a fairly unreliable memory - I generally remix

them live after I have had a few. Unfortunately, I am sober at the moment ;D The music that I would listen to at home or in the car isn’t necessarily the music that I’d play in clubs. I pretty much spin whatever seems appropriate to the occasion, I never have a master-plan; I generally just go with the flow. If I get to do my own warm up I would ideally go from Reggae, Dub, Soul and Funk to slo-mo House to deep soulful stuff with some Techy bangers and energetic interludes. I think there is a really healthy music scene at the moment - if anything there is too much. In the current climate, very few people can make a decent living from music, and it seems that producers will make more money from DJing - and every DJ has to produce. Glasgow has always had a thriving club culture, with loads of good clubs covering every genre imaginable. In more recent times, people have been opening their ears to more than one genre of music, which is a good thing. The past couple of weeks at Subculture we’ve featured loads of young local guys who are great and inspiring... My nineteen year old son Jasper is also a wicked DJ, he keeps nicking all my tunes ;-)

The Sydney Opera House and Sydney Film Festival have teamed up this year to present Sounds on Screen, a showcase of films about music. As part of this year’s SOS, the Opera House is hosting two special screenings of No One Knows About Persian Cats - an eye-opening insight into the underground music scene in Iran’s capital city Tehran, where ‘Western’ music is illegal. The critically acclaimed faux-umentary follows a couple of indie rockers on their quest to get a full set-list and band together in time for a coveted spot at a gig in London. Along the way they face the constant threat of arrest and imprisonment, by Iran’s zero-tolerance police. To win one of five double passes to the June 5 screening at Sydney Opera House, which includes a live performance by Iranian-Australian band Ravi, tell us the name of the director (clue – see p35...)

Who: Harri (Subculture) Where: CO-OP’s First Birthday @ A Secret Sydney Warehouse When: Saturday June 5

No One Knows About Persian Cats

PICNIC’S REVENGE Gift Of The Gab

The next Picnic soiree features the doublebill of US stalwart DJ Spun and Scotland’s Graeme Clark, who also works under the pseudonym The Revenge. Clark has released notable re-edits of Stevie Wonder, Unfinished Business and Hot Chocolate over the past few years, along with a stream of more nuanced ‘serious’ cuts, such as the dub-infused deep house Revenge cut ‘The Soul Part II’, which was included by Seth Troxler on his Boogybytes compilation. DJ Spun also boasts a rather smashing sonic CV, comprising releases on labels such as NOID, Editions Disco, Big Bear, and his own Rong Music. Spun founded the “trailblazing” Rong Music imprint in the early noughties as a safehouse for likeminded friends and peers, and has since released material from jazz great Chico Hamilton, plus Mudd, Chicken Lips and Woolfy. From 10pm Saturday June 12 at The Civic Underground, with support from The Loin Brothers, Matt Trousdale and Marcus King.

T-Pain

BOUNDARY BONDS WITH...

EY ANGELA HENL LE BIRD MUSIC PUBLICIST (A LITT EL TOLD ME) AND AUSTRALIAN LABS) MANAGER (SUB POP RECORD What does your job involve? Most days you can find me organising interviews for albums and tours, gently prodding editors to run reviews, creating publicity and marketing plans, coordinating promo mailouts, writing, editing and sending media releases, conversing with clients, scouring press for editorial coverage, making many phone calls and replying to many more emails…. Plus I oversee all things Sub Pop for Australia (which would take up a whole page if I listed everything involved).

NEW AL USHER ON MISERICORD

BLACKALICIOUS

Direct from the U.S, MC Gift of Gab, from hip hop duo Blackalicious and the ‘eccentric’ collective Quannum (which also includes DJ Shadow and Lyrics Born) will play a solo show at Oxford Art Factory on Friday June 11. While the Blackalicious back catalogue is well-known to most readers, the fact that Gab embarked on his first solo project for Quannum with Vitamin D and Jake One back in ’04, the same year Carlos Moya was a quarterfinalist at Roland Garros, is hopefully slightly more obscure... If not, there is the Moya fact to fall back on... Gab has recently released a new LP Escape 2 Mars, which features guests like Brother Ali, Del The Funky Homosapien, Lateef, Joyo Velarde and Bart Davenport and has been hailed by UK music mag Uncut as “supremely groovy”. Sounds like Mikey Carr at his best, no?

After a short hiatus, Ewan Pearson’s little known Misericord label returns with a new LP from Al Usher, a serene mid-tempo sleeper Hilversum. In the same vein as Al Usher’s ‘Lullaby for Robert’, the vinyl-only release comes with a remix from Barcelona’s John Talbot on the flipside, and has been backed by the likes of Chris Duckenfield, Filippo ‘Naughty’ Moscatello and Pearson himself over the past few months. With the disco revival leading to an outpouring of vanilla DJs pushing contrived sunkissed rubbish, Al Usher shows how melodic, post-Balearic electronica should be crafted with Hilversum. Murphdog tipped me off that Spank Records already has it on order, so make sure you pop in and grab a copy as this won’t be readily available for too long.

KODE9 DJ KICKS

UK dubstep luminary Kode9, the man behind the Hyperdub label, has mixed the latest DJ Kicks compilation, out on 18th June on !K7 through Inertia. Soul Sedation’s Tony E gets quite territorial when other people cover his “dope beatz” (sic), so I’ll stick purely to the facts on this. The compilation includes new cuts from Kode9 himself (‘Blood Orange’, ‘It’, and ‘You Don’t Wash’ – the latter a DJ-Kicks exclusive) and Zomby, amongst a Londoncentric run-sheet of artists that also comprises Mr Mageeka, The Bug and African iconoclast Mujava, who first toured Australia last year in a coup from Sydney’s own iconoclastic party brand on the fly.

Challenge you regularly face? Getting musicians to answer their phones for interviews! There’s nothing worse than spending hours / days putting together a schedule to have it fall though... kills me. Most enjoyable part of working in the music industry? Working alongside extremely talented bands, and watching their profile build over the months and years. Nothing beats seeing a musician’s face as they hold a copy of their finished album for the first time.

WINTERBEATZ 2010

The promoters behind Supafest are staging another largescale event in Winterbeatz 2010, featuring Ne-Yo, Grammy Award winner T-Pain, local duo Phinesse and Australia’s own DJ Nino Brown. Ne-Yo broke through with the release of his multi-million selling debut album In My Own Words in 06. The first single off the album, ‘So Sick’ debuted at number one on the Billboard Chart and even received a remix from DFA. Winterbeatz is slotted for Sydney’s Acer Arena on Wednesday July 28, with tix on sale as of Wednesday June 2.

Up coming projects you’re excited about? Melbourne International Arts Festival (October) and BIG SOUND (September). Band Of Horses tour in July too - I’ve worked on their past two tours so I’m counting down the days until they return. Stacks of great Sub Pop releases coming soon as well, like Wolf Parade, Blitzen Trapper and a new Vaselines album. I can’t wait to hear the new No Age album out later in the year... plus there are a few upcoming projects which I have to keep my trap shut about for the moment... More at www.alittlebirdtoldme.net.au

“Inside out, see the people run through the streets and all they want is to be” - THE RED EYES 16 :: BRAG :: 364 : 31:05:10

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free stuff

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

five things WITH

FAITHLESS

DAILY MEDS The Music You Make First and foremost we make music, 4. hip hop and beyond… mixing live and electronic elements, with some epic ballads and conscious lyrics while at the same time getting well dirty – but we always stay true to our hip hop roots. We have recently released our debut EP and already managed to push off 500 copies. The EP is currently available at gigs and at 567 King St, only $10. Huge shout outs must go to Thundamentals, Loose Change, Mantra, Swarmy, Lookup, Horrorshow, Spit Syndicate, True Vibenation, and every other head holding it down for Australian hip hop. Music, Right Here, Right Now 5. The Sydney hip hop scene

Growing Up P-Smurf and Billie Rose grew up as brother 1. and sister in a second hand record store in Newtown in the late ‘80s-early ‘90s, Roleo also being a Newtown-born local. All have been heavily influenced by the area and its diverse subcultures, especially growing up in the thriving punk rock and live music scene. Mikoen also was growing up to a blend of rock, reggae and soul.

Inspirations A Tribe Called Quest, Artifacts, N.W.A, Janice Joplin, Salt ‘n’ Pepa, Flying Lotus, Prodigy, Roots Manuva, Wu-Tang, The Herd, Rhymesayers, Def-Jux, Samiyam, Ella

Fitzgerald, NOFX, Slick Rick, 046, Def Wish Cast, Nirvana, Fiona Apple, Jay-Dee, The Roots, Michael Jackson, Prince, Public Enemy, KRS-ONE, Nas, The Beatles, Mos Def... Your Crew Daily Meds consists of MCs P-Smurf and 3. Mikoen, who have been performing together in Sydney hip hop group Reverse Polarities for the last five years. P-Smurf is also a founding member of local art collective Sketch the Rhyme. Billie Rose has been performing in numerous acts such as R.P and The Phonies. Roleo has been producing hip hop and electronica since he was 16; he’s also a core member of the Oneofour Beatmaker Collective.

M.I.A.

FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM

is definitely jumping in fat-ass leaps and bounds. The support we have received from local and intercity acts has been great. Any competitiveness apparent in the wider scene is definitely dying down, and strong ties are continuing to form within the whole community. The future holds big things for Sydney and Australian hip hop, as long as you wonderful cats keep turning up at the shows, and buying the CDs. Who: Daily Meds What: Rap City with DJ Premier, Beatnuts, Masta Ace & Edo.G When: June 13

With the tracks like ‘We No Speak Americano’, ‘Riverside Motherfucker’ and ‘Sexy Bitch’ infecting the ears of the masses, it’s hard to seriously contemplate the idea of a dance music act producing a rich, high quality full-length album. Thankfully the ambassadors for all good things dance, Faithless, have saved the day with their new release The Dance. Eclectic and cheeky yet anthemic, The Dance is a beat-driven dancefloor-geared production with a clever lyrical bent; riding the dance music tsunami with that leftfield, inimitable Faithless style. To win one of three copies of this new ditty, tell us the name of their last album.

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 of ice skating, earmuffs, chattering teeth and other things wintery. Last year this alpine-themed 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 ice-related entertainment will be part of this year’s itinerary, including ice hockey games and dancing on ice. The Sydney Winter Festival runs from June 24 to July 4. We have five double passes to the ice rink up for grabs! To get your hands on one, tell us the name of one wintery beverage you might expect to find at the Festival...

Where: The Forum

a year was listen to folk music so the music we were making got really, really folky, kind of proggy folk. We made an album’s worth of stuff. It was great music, we were all really happy with it. But it just wasn’t us. We thought, ‘this isn’t what we are’.” In the meantime (and on page 45), Mikey Carr has reviewed leadoff track ‘Flashover’, which is available as a teaser on the official Klaxons website. Rumours abound that Seidler will be ‘ducking’ the album review, in fear of being accosted by inner-city hipsters... Time will tell.

Royksopp

CO-OP BIRTHDAY

THE GOSSIP CORNER: M.I.A’S TANTRUM

Early last week I stumbled across an intriguing article in the New York Times, which I was flicking through over breakfast while enjoying some well-earned ricotta hot cakes following a spot of morning yoga. Entitled ‘M.I.A.’s Agitprop Pop’, Lynn Hirschberg’s, detailed and well-researched piece contained quotes from ex-beau Diplo as it followed the singer through the making and promotion of new album / \ / \ / \ Y \ / \. The piece was not entirely hagiographic in its tone and was received with ire by the Sri Lankan diva, though it has to be said it wasn’t exactly slanderous. Some of the so-called slights seemed more like reflections of the singer’s own hypocrisy – eg “‘I kind of want to be an outsider,’ [M.I.A.] said, eating a truffle-flavored French fry.” Following the article’s publication, M.I.A. tweeted “CALL ME IF YOU WANNA TALK TO ME ABOUT THE N Y T TRUTH ISSUE, ill b taking calls all day bitches”, using derogatory language that surely sets a poor example for her legions of younger fans... The Tweet included a phone number that was actually Lynn Hirschberg’s. M.I.A then followed with another Tweet, “NEWS IS AN OPINION!”, adding that an unedited version of the interview would be available online over the weekend. Hirschberg responded with a fairly straight bat in The New York Observer, describing the episode as “infuriating and not surprising… It’s a fairly unethical thing to do,” she said, “but I don’t think it’s surprising. She’s a provocateur, and provocateurs want to be provocative.” The original 10-page interview is available through the NY times website.

REIGNITING THE KLAXONS CONTROVERSY

Way back in, oh it must have been late 2006, the Klaxons’ debut album was released to (nu)rave reviews just about everywhere – but not in The Brag. Young upstart Jonno Seidler gave Myths Of The Near Future what is at this stage the only 0/5 review in the history of our hallowed publication.

With news that the Klaxons are finally releasing their sophomore album, Surfing The Void, later in the year, the obvious question is how Seidler will receive the album. Will he swallow humble pie, or is there another bagel on offer? For the record, James Righton told London radio that the delay between albums was caused by the decision to scrap an album of recordings the band decided sounded too ‘folky’. “All we did basically for about

Esteemed Glaswegian house maestro James ‘Harri’ Harrigan will headline Co-Op’s first birthday party at an as-yet undisclosed innercity location on Saturday June 5. Over the past 365 days, Co-Op has hosted an array of quality underground acts, including Motorcitysoul, The Revenge and Sasse, and Harri, the production partner of The Revenge, is no different. Harri has been a resident at the Glasgow’s renowned nightspot Sub Club (which was recently voted in the top 15 clubs in the world by both Resident Advisor and DJ Magazine) for over 20 years, and boasts a record collection that most young sconies would wet themselves over. Not only a specialist DJ, Harri is also a respected producer who is set to release material on the Soma and Darkroom Dubs labels over the next few months. Tickets on sale through www. residentadvisor.net.

WLS PERTH CANCELLED

With We Love Sounds less than a fortnight away, the Perth leg of the national festival has been cancelled. Poor ticket sales was cited as the reason for the abandonment. “When planning for this year’s event began many months ago, the national promoter, Sounds, and the local promoter, Boomtick, were determined to bring something new and fresh to We Love Sounds 2010,” an official statement affirmed. “This meant unparalleled production and infrastructure costs to ensure all patrons were undercover, experiencing the very best in audio and visual quality. Rest assured every situation and scenario to avoid this course of action have (sic) been carefully considered. This included scaling back the production value of the event, however this simply wasn’t an option for the promoters. When a patron buys a ticket to one of our events or festivals, they should expect nothing but the best - and anything less is unacceptable.” Sydneysiders still have the opportunity to see the likes of Underworld, Seth Troxler, Tiga and Felix Da Housecat on Saturday June 12 at Fox Studios. We should be thankful that we live in a city where the public is more receptive to dance music - but we still have a long way to go.

ROYKSOPP’S AMENDED PROMISE

The amicable Norwegian duo Royksopp have released an official statement addressing the delay in the release of their forthcoming LP Senior, the follow-up to last year’s Junior. “We promised you a release this April,” the pair acknowledged. “We would like to start by apologising for any false expectations this statement created. We love you, and we would never purposely misinform you. You see… a lot of other things happened. Long story short, the toppling of the record industry finally rippled its way into our universe… Because of this, to ensure the best possible release scenario for Senior, we have gone through many changes on exactly who we’re releasing it with. But now it’s all come together.” Describing the album as a “very special release”, the statement added that “it’s almost fitting that a truly unique album should have a difficult start in life.” According to the ‘updated promise’, Senior, which is purportedly a moodier companion to its vivacious antecedent, will be out by the end of August – now how about an Australia tour, lads?

“Pulling down the high place for life is funnier than fiction” - THE RED EYES 18 :: BRAG :: 364 : 31:05:10

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Industrial Strength Industry Music News with Christie Eliezer

Life lines Split: Hole’s Courtney Love was dumped by hotelier Andre Balazs after she revealed she’d had a lesbian fling with Kate Moss in the ‘90s. Split: Actor/rapper Common and Serena Williams, after two years, because they “just grew apart”. Divorcing: Singer Cheryl Cole is rushing divorce proceedings against her unfaithful footballer husband Ashley, so he can play in the World Cup without being distracted. Divorced: Rapper Nas and singer Kelis have officially terminated their marriage but are still in litigation over support for their year-old son Knight. He’s paying her $10,000 a month after a court reckoned he made over $150,000 a month. Committed: ’80s singer Adam Ant, under the Mental Health Act, a week after he told a church congregation to ‘fuck off’ during a charity gig. He suffers from bipolar disorder. Recovered: 150 AC/DC fans in Wels, Austria, who suffered burning eyes showing allergic reactions to bark mulch spread at the venue – the runway of Wels Airport – to avoid the soil getting too muddy after constant heavy rainfall. Ill: Singer Walter Williams from R&B group The O’Jays revealed he’s suffered from multiple sclerosis for 30 years. Arrested: Rap mogul Marion ‘Suge’ Knight, for pointing a gun at another driver after a dispute, and driving on a suspended license.

SONG CYCLES: WHY INDIGENOUS ACTS HAVE IT HARD Little media support, physical distance from crowds, racist attitudes, a lack of musical and technical training, and lack of education. This is what’s keeping indigenous musicians and arts workers locked out of the system, says a new report called “Song Cycles” - a joint research project of the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA).The report, released last week, showed that radio is a prime culprit. Only 4% of content played by community radio is of indigenous acts. The ABC plays less than 2%, and commercial radio’s contribution is 0.14%. “Touring is an important way for artists to get their name out and build their skills and a stable income,” said Dr Mark Bin Baker, Chair of the Australia Council Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board, and himself a musician. “But with 27% of Indigenous people living in remote locations, the distance to gigs and the costs associated with this mean they never reach the spotlight. Looking at ways to get around this is a crucial step”. The report also unearths some unhealthy attitudes that indigenous musos have to cop. A promoter told a band when they turned up for the gig, “If I knew you were Aboriginal, I wouldn’t have booked you”. Says Bin Baker, “Audiences, musicians and venues don’t need that deadwood attitude anymore!”

GAELIC BACK IN ACTION The Gaelic Hotel in Surry Hills has begun a new life, this time as a hotel rather than a theatre. Following renovations, it’s now open 10 am to 4 am, with entertainment of all styles on four days a week. Clayton Ries of Select Music tells us that the idea is to turn the 550-capacity venue into a cultural hub, adding that the plan has been around for four years. Bookings at clayton@selectmusic.com.au.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK NSW Minister of the Arts Virginia Judge turned up at a writers’ festival event to

announce a $630,000 funding — only to find her name accidentally not on the guest list and the security guard not being cooperative. “But I’m the Minister for the Arts” she gasped. He replied, “And I’m the Minister for the Door… and if you’re not on the list, you don’t get in.”

GET OFF MY CROWD Crowded House’s Recurring Dream (EMI) album is officially 13 platinum sales in Australia, for sales of over 910,000. That means it has now bumped Savage Garden’s self-titled debut (Roadshow) as biggest selling Australian album ever by an Australian group. The album was #35 last week on the ARIA catalogue chart.

BREAKING INTO JAPAN The Australian Music Office in Japan is holding an interactive panel discussion on June 10 to help Australian musicians on how to promote and distribute their music in that country. The panelists are Vice President of MySpace Japan Hideki Abe, columnist Steve McClure, Wong Wai Kit of digital content provider and aggregator ICJ Inc, Shin Fukuzumi who is an A&R at P-Vine Records which has released Jeff Lang, The Fumes and Marshall & The Fro and John Butler in that country. They will discuss how digital sales have overtaken physical sales in Japan, as well as some of the new digital players and where they think the market is going. Register at www.australianmusicoffice. com or call Austrade, 13 28 78. Cost is $55.

THINGS WE HEAR * Britney Spears wants to live forever! She wants to be frozen in liquid nitrogen after she dies, after hearing it was done to US film maker Walt Disney. * UK sales of Ponds Beauty Cream were quadrupled within 36 hours after Kylie Minogue said she used the cream rather than botox.

Strong violence,

drug use and Check the Classiﬁcation

coarse language

20 :: BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10

BYRNE ACTS OVER “NOWHERE” New York-based art rocker David Byrne is suing the governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, for using Talking Heads’ 1985 hit ‘Road to Nowhere’ for his senatorial campaign earlier this year without permission. Byrne wants $1 million damages. Apart from not getting the green light to use the song, Crist might also have got himself in legal trouble by implying that Byrne and the band endorsed him. Byrne is using the same lawyer who successfully sued John McCain after he used Jackson Browne’s ‘Running On Empty’. Meantime, Crist’s former opponent is also in trouble: he’d used Steve Miller’s 1976 hit ‘Take The Money And Run’ to attack the mayor, without permission either.

* Of the 7,000 fans who attended the Silverchair-headlined Bassinthegrass concert in Darwin, 400 hopped over the fence or got in with wirecutters. * On Mix 106.5 breakfast show, Today show co-host David Koch confirmed that when Justin Bieber was being ushered to one part of the television studio, the kid had snapped “Never fucking touch me again!”

R C ob ye spe ak Jo oli er er t s: Th h n F C e n W Ha ors la B y te re as ats r Bo em on w en di t tc B h ird s

Fe a G ture ot d Clare Bowditch

Colin Hay

Robert Forster

John Watson

Goyte

The Basement Birds

APRA|AMCOS and NSW Government through Events NSW are proud to present Song Summit 2010 as part of Vivid Sydney: a festival of light, music and ideas running from 27 May - 21 June. Gathering together the full spectrum of the music industry including local and international songwriters and music industry experts; Song Summit 2010 will span all facets of the music life-cycle to deliver crucial networking, educational, business and cultural opportunities for delegates. Song Summit will consist of a three-day Conference and Music Market, plus Song Summit LIVE - a nightly program of live music performances. Want to be part of Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier event for songwriters and composers? Register to attend Song Summit 2010 today!

S LI on ce VE g Su pe le m its r f b r m o an lo r at it d ud ma es pr es n m ou t ce us de at ic st .

www.songsummit.com.au

Fergus Brown

Computers Want Me Dead

Finabah

Tenielle Neda

Washington

Dan Sultan

On the evenings of Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 June, Home The Venue at Darling Harbour will host live music performances by emerging local and international artists including: Not coming to Song Summit, but want to be part of the LIVE vibe? Join us at Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour on Saturday or (and!) Sunday nights. Tickets start at $25. View the full Song Summit LIVE program and buy tickets at: www.songsummit.com.au/LIVE Thanks to the LIVE sponsors: Media Sponsor: Showcase sponsors:

BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 21

Cabins ...Like a melody By Caitlin Welsh

t’s four-fifteen on a miserable, wet afternoon, and Leroy and Brin from Sydney four-piece Cabins have been talking shop for hours - but neither the weather nor the stream of people asking them questions have dampened their spirits. As I wait for my turn, I can hear them cackling with a phone interviewer in the next room, and at one point someone yells, “I fuckin’ hate those guys!” before the band dissolves into laughter. An ominous start perhaps, but when we meet it’s all smiles. We head outside for a smoke and a chat in the damp air, and Brin kindly rolls me a perfect cigarette. (“Brin’s a rolling genius,” Leroy declares.) While they’re among the tightest local live act I’ve seen in years, Leroy (vocals, guitar and keyboard) and Brin (drums) are two of the most chilled and good-natured dudes I’ve ever met in the industry. And, like many bandmates who are so in tune with each other onstage, they tend to finish each other’s sentences. When I ask them about working with Woody Annison, their producer on their upcoming mini-album: Leroy: “He’s weird.” Brin: “He’s crazy.” Leroy: “He’s like a little gremlin –“

Brin: “-with blond hair!” They both start chortling away again, and Brin is the quickest to recover. “No, we had a good time with him, he did a great job.” Annison, who’s produced albums like Black Cab’s 2009 AMP-nominated Call Signs and Red Riders’ debut Replica Replica, is actually a great fit for the band. The music they make is intense, wryly literate and dark, in a ramshackle Bad SeedsVelvet Underground sort of way - and Annison knows how to make a track sound all angles and tension. The sound isn’t something that always appeals readily to the general public, which is why it was heartening to read recently that their single ‘Catcher in the Rye’ was downloaded as many as 25,000 times when it was made available for free as iTunes’ Single of the Week in February. “Yeah, apparently the standard or the average is like 15,000, so that was pretty cool,” says Leroy. I ask how they feel about the iTunes culture. “Well, I’m a fan of owning a CD. Like having it, having the artwork. So I like the way people are still paying for music, just over the internet, but…” - “You don’t get the hard copy,” finishes Brin. It’s a common sentiment among musicians and fans alike, but Cabins have an approach that reeks of authenticity. The free two-track demos they were handing out when they played at the Annandale Christmas party last year were in brown cardboard sleeves, stamped with the band and track names – and individually handnumbered out of 500. The booklet that goes with their upcoming release, Bright Victory, was designed in collaboration with the sickeningly talented Sydney design duo We Buy Your Kids. That the album has a physical presence and adds an extra dimension to the music is clearly important to the band. “A lot of reviews we get online, they always say, ‘The downfall of Cabins is they show their youth by how little you can find on the internet’,” says Leroy. “I don’t think that’s a downfall. I like that, having that mystery. “We also want people to read the lyrics,” he continues. “I mean with a lot of bands nowadays, it’s more about the actual music rather than about how much the lyrics mean, or whether there’s any passion through the lyrics, any evocative meaning.” And Cabins’ lyrics do deserve to be deciphered, with turns of phrase like, “I met a girl who had eyes like diamonds/It must have hurt having eyes like diamonds”. Leroy, who’s the primary songwriter for the group, says he looks to literature more than music for inspiration - but don’t go looking for Salinger references in ‘Catcher’: “It’s more about the guy from New York who shot John Lennon.” Mark Chapman? “MARK Chapman!” they both exclaim, and apparently this is a eureka moment of sorts. Leroy shakes his head in disgust. “I said DAVID Chapman! Fuck... But yeah, he thought Catcher in the Rye was written about him, when it wasn’t - so [the song] is more about people thinking they’re involved in something ... when it’s just got nothing fucking to do with them.”

AFTER PARTY!

HEAD ING TO THE SHOW AT THE ANN ANDA LE? MAKE SURE YOU COME DOWN TO HOT DAMN TO KEEP THE PART Y GOIN G!

“You know Jay-Z? I broke my headphones listening to that song too loud. ‘Shit I made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can...’” We’re about to go into that in more detail when a fluffy white puppy appears from elsewhere in the office and completely derails the conversation in one adorable swoop, and we somehow end up talking about hiphop. “’Empire State of Mind!’” exclaims Leroy at one point. “You know, Jay-Z? I broke my headphones listening to that song too loud. ‘Shit I made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can’!” I ask if he listens to any other hip hop. “Nah, man, just ‘Empire State of Mind’! Oh, and you know, there’s that one, ‘Shawty’s like a melody’… It’s so bad.” Perhaps they’ll be pleased then to know that Cabins’ last.fm page actually lists ‘Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ as a related artist… “It’s from when we were on the Mess Hall tour in the van, and they didn’t have a lead to plug in the iPods or whatever,” says Brin. “Easiest things to find were commercial radio stations,” Leroy continues, with a hint of shame but a wide smile, “and we got into it.” Who: Cabins What: Bright Victory is out June 11 on Ivy League When: Saturday June 5 Where: Factory Theatre

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hordern pavilion tuesday november 9

on sale tuesday june 8 132 849 or ticketek.com.au

In stores now

Presented by Michael Coppel jasonderulo.com I coppel.com.au BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 23

Born Ruffians The End Of Chapter One By Alex Young

ust over a year ago, Canada’s Born Ruffians had a major internal riff. With stress levels high after the extensive touring that came with the release of their debut album Red, Yellow & Blue, small issues were blown out of proportion. After a long therapeutic talk, they decided a) that they would always talk about problems in the future, and b) that they had toured too much. When I speak to vocalist Luke LaLonde, he’s in London for one week before umpteen US dates, having just spent time in Paris, Brussels and Berlin. All of this, he claims, is a simply a short tour – the band seems to have no qualms about jumping eyes shut, head first, straight back into it all. “I think through those experiences [last time] we kind of learned how to actually have fun on the road, and how to make sure we don’t do it too much.” Over two years on from the release of their debut, and after some much-needed time out and recuperation, the Ruffians’ desire to perform has returned stronger than ever. “I think having such a long break from touring writing and recording and stuff like that - being off the road for that long, you start to just want to go and play shows again.” And play they will, as they head out to celebrate the release of their second album

Say It – an organic and refreshing effort which is embedded with references from the bands most trialling time. Taking a longer period to record than their previous album – RY&B was completed within just seven days – LaLonde explains that this time, it was all round a more relaxed process. “We had more than a day per song to record… We could actually play around more in the studio with arrangements, with extra instruments; not be stressed out as much and not feel like there was a huge deadline hovering over us.” It’s a factor that has impacted directly on the sound, and LaLonde says that was something the group were wary of doing when going into the studio. “We like to keep things pretty light when we’re writing, especially for this record, and I think that kind of shows through the music - a little more of a chilled feeling and less of a manic, tense energy for the songs.” The result? An exciting and raw album that captures the energy of their debut, but spaces it out with a new maturity. The subtle differences between both recordings are hard to pinpoint - LaLonde ponders that the growth was not entirely conscious. “In a lot of ways, Say It was never an intentional departure, so anything different about it was the effect of time, and the effect that time has on people.”

After all, he explains, they still exist as any other young people do. “You know, we’re 23/24 and you go through changes in your early 20s, like at any point in life - but I think that there’s been a lot of development that’s happened especially in those couple of years, and a lot of changes have happened within the band that affected us.” It’s all of this that makes Say It feel like a completion of the first chapter for Born

Ruffians. LaLonde reflects: “I kind of think that Say It and RY&B kind of go in a pair together. If anything, our third record will be the departure from that school of thought, or that sort of period in our musical lives.” The perfect ending to the perfect beginning. Who: Born Ruffians What: Say It is out June 12 on Warp through Inertia

The Black Keys Brothers In Arms By Christine Lan

an old dusty couch and absolutely no distractions at all. I just remember that when I was there, I was going through - I’d just split with my wife and I don’t know... there was a fog over everything.”

“Since Dan [Auerbach – singer/guitarist] and I have been playing music together, one of the things we bonded over was we both liked very repetitive grooves... and a lot of looping,” explains drummer Patrick Carney. “The foundation of most of the songs came from a bass line and a drum part together that we wouldn’t mind listening to on loop for, like, six or seven minutes. Once we got that, we’d start adding other parts… I have a very short attention span when it comes to certain things,” he chuckles. “Extremely simplistic but good music, I can listen to forever.”

The album, mixed by Tchad Blake (who’s worked with Elvis Costello, Pearl Jam, Crowded House, Gomez and the Dandy Warhols amongst others), manages to retain classic tones while merging them with the spirit of the present. “I guess making music that sounds classic is something that Dan and I try to do,” says Carney. “Tchad helps balance the difference between a good sound and a retro sound. There’s nothing I hate more than things that are – like, I know a lot of people who are like obsessed with 1955 and they dress like it’s 1955 and they drive a car from 1955... I’m into old things like that, but at the same time, when we’re trying to present a record, the last thing I want to do is pretend that something is happening when it isn’t.”

Emily Haines Who Would You Rather Be? By Romi Scodellaro

mily Haines – Metric frontwoman, solo artist, and sometime contributor to Broken Social Scene – recently had what she calls “a strange week”. “I played with Patti Smith at a club show in New York and then a few days later found myself in Vancouver doing a Neil Young tribute with Lou Reed,” she tells me. “So in the span of a few days, I crossed through a portal of the most important music to come out of New York in the seventies.” For me, a strange week is one in which I forget to floss on two consecutive evenings – so I’m instantly worried that Emily and I are from worlds so different that we might have trouble communicating. And yet, endearingly, she says that when she met Patti, she couldn’t think what to say. “There was no way I was going to be the person who put something inane in the mind of Patti Smith, so I just said ‘thank you.’” Excellent: Emily’s human. An incredibly talented piano-and-guitar-playing sweet-voiced singersongwriter indie-rock goddess who gave the most electrified rock’n’roll performance I saw all last year, certainly - but she gets star struck like the rest of us. And yet sometimes she deals with it well. Intending just to thank Lou Reed when she met him for the first time too, she was taken by surprise when he greeted her with lyrics of the Metric song ‘Give Me Sympathy’: “Who would you rather be: the Beatles or the Rolling Stones?” To which she quickly replied, “The Velvet Underground.” The conversations that flowed from this exchange led to the pair developing something of a relationship, so when Emily was asked a few days later to come to Sydney for Vivid festival, which Lou Reed is co-curating with Laurie Anderson, ...“How could I say no?”

Emily will be playing two shows. One is Slow Music Night on June 4, with artists including Holly Miranda, Doveman, My Brightest Diamond and the Blind Boys of Alabama. The other show - the very idea of which made me pee my metaphorical pants - will see Emily play songs from Metric’s latest album Fantasies, without the rest of the band. Just Emily on a piano, plus a string quartet. “One night only,” she tells me. “That’s it.” The Opera House on June 1: it’ll be the place to be. As a world-wide exclusive, there’s been no show like it before, and Emily assures me it’s unlikely to ever happen again. The string arrangement has been composed specially for the occasion by Todor Kobakov, part of the motley mix that is Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton, Emily’s solo project. And anyone familiar with Emily’s solo efforts will not be surprised by this show’s sound. Pianobased, and both barer and somehow richer, we may hear something more like her mellow solo tunes in this re-imagining of Fantasies. Or perhaps something more similar to how Metric songs are first conceived – Emily composes them simply on piano, and then Metric turn them into the anthemic songs we know.

Brothers saw Carney and Auerbach truly tapping into their creative force as a duo for the first time. “Having known each other so long and doing this together for so long, there’s no ego, I don’t think, brought into the studio,” Patrick tells me, ”And just being friends makes it comfortable enough, I think, to make the best record we’ve made.” It’s the pair’s similarities and differences that have rendered their songwriting partnership so mysteriously compelling – that and the fact that they’ve known each other for 21 years. “When I first met Dan, we were little, we were boys... he was definitely cooler than I was, had more popular friends,” Carney recalls. “Girls would talk to him, and I was friends with the dudes who just played video games.” The bulk of Brothers was recorded at the legendary Alabama studio Muscle Shoals, which Carney describes as “really quaint”. “It was just a room with a couple of couches and a bathroom. There’s a basement, but it’s a concrete floor with

In November 2009, the pair released the Blakroc compilation with renowned MCs including RZA, Mos Def, Q-Tip, and Raekwon. “The Blakroc record forced us to approach music in a different way and that set the tone for this record,” Carney considers. “I play a lot of keyboards and piano on Blakroc, and a lot of instruments I wouldn’t normally play. It was kind of like spring training for Brothers.” The name of The Black Keys’ sixth album proves poignant and symbolic in asserting the artistic kinship of the pair, who are hoping to return to Australia in December or January. “The main thing was us realising or accepting how similar we are,” Carney muses. “When you put people like that together, there are times when it can be very difficult - but you see yourself in that other person and you see things that you hate about yourself in another person. It’s like when you’re dating somebody, but better.”

So, Metric without most of Metric. “That’s the concept,” she says. “I won’t be playing any of my solo stuff.” I can’t hide my disappointment; she’s never played her solo music in Australia and it’s been advertised that she will in this show, I whinge. She rushes to comfort me. “Well… maybe one or two surprises.” Well then, Emily: thank you. Who: Emily Haines What: VIVID Live When: Tuesday June 1 Where: Sydney Opera House, Opera Theatre

Who: The Black Keys What: Brothers is out now through Shock

“No time to be wasting there’s no time to be wasted.”- RICHARD ASHCROFT… July 31 Enmore Theatre 24 :: BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10

Emily Haines photo by Shervin_Lainez

ith their sixth album Brothers, the Black Keys continue to deliver swampy, psychedelic, howling blues-rock - drenched in ravaged primal rhythms, gutwrenching soul and deathly funk grooves. But for this one, it was their love of jazz musician Alice Coltrane and those dark primitive grooves that permeated their headspace.

Band Of Horses The Southern Kids By Steph Harmon

“T

hey tell you what’s up, they make fun of you, and then they’re like ‘okay, lets have a beer!’. We were like, ‘FUCK! They’re just like US!’” I’m talking to Creighton Barrett, drummer with Band of Horses, about what it was like meeting actual Australians. Apparently they had a pretty good time when they were here in 2008 - you can tell by the profanity. “Seriously. We fucking love Australia so fucking much.”

Creighton is swearing at me in a friendly-type way, down the line from the States - the band is in the middle of a tour supporting Pearl Jam. “It’s kind of winding down now, and then the record comes out, and we start another phase.” The record in question is Infinite Arms and after listening to it for a couple of weeks, I think I’ve finally worked out how it differs from their last two releases. Although the soaring, reverb-drenched majesty is still there, their third album is missing Those Glorious BoH Moments. There’s no ‘The Funeral’, and no ‘Ode to Irc’; there’s no ’Is There A Ghost’ and no ‘No-one’s Gonna Love You’. The lack of anthems has been decried by some, but the band make up for it with a new maturity, a new direction, and a new cohesion. The sound is altogether smoother, fuller and older.

They also ended up producing it themselves – well, most of it. After initially enlisting long-time producer Phil Ek [Fleet Foxes, The Shins, Les Savy Fav, The Dodos, Pretty Girls Make Graves… everyone, basically], they decided it would actually be better this time to go it alone. “Phil is one of my best friends, and he’s a great producer – he’s done wonders with us – but there were a few things we wanted that didn’t really meld with his ideas, that didn’t really meld with having a producer at all. There were some ideas that we wanted to go along with that he wouldn’t necessarily – that he wasn’t apt for? I guess that’s the way to put it,” he says diplomatically. “That, and most of the songs were written in the studio, and a lot of producers don’t really work that way. So we took the reigns into our own hands with this one.” ...And that there unintentional horse pun feels like a pretty good moment to end on. What: Band of Horses What: Infinite Arms is out now through Sony When: Thursday July 29 Where: Enmore Theatre

The band is older, too – this album is their first since frontman Ben Bridwell had his debut baby, Annabelle. The subject of song ten turns two years old this month. “It’s changed things a lot, you know?” Creighton tells me. He’s known Ben since they were 18. “Like, just seeing your friend grow as a person, become a person who’s responsible for someone else’s life... It had a huge impact on the record.” In another first for BoH, this album was a proper group effort. Long-time touring members Bill Reynolds and Tyler Ramsey were finally involved in the songwriting and on the record - Ben Bridwell, the sole founding member, has referred to Infinite Arms as the band’s “coming out album.”

“ Just seeing your friend grow as a person, become a person who’s responsible for someone else’s life... It had a huge impact on the record.”

from Sigur Rós with Special Guests

With band members based in disparate states across America, a lot of Infinite Arms was written trans-state over email - the songwriting and recording history namechecks Northern Minnesota, North & South Carolina, Asheville’s Blue Ridge Mountains, the Hollywood Hills, the Mojave desert and Alabama. And the music somehow manages to evoke this expansive sprawl. It’s a classic Americana sound steeped in deep tradition, but one which has seen a modern resurgence in the last decade; Southern, bluesy, pastoral folk rock that’s been championed by Fleet Foxes, Morning Jackets, Bon Ivers and Mystic Valley Bands… the Monsters of Folk, if you will. I ask if being part of that resurgence was something the ‘Horses intended. “Look, my whole thing with that is, I mean fuck, we’re from America!” he says – and it feels like he gets this question a lot. “We were raised in the Carolinas, we’re Southern kids, and if that comes across it’s not something that we set out to do. You can’t lie about your heritage… I love that question, because it’s the easiest to answer: We just don’t know any other way of doing it.” With the expiration of their Sub Pop contract, BoH were freed to take more time on the record than they had with their sophomore Cease To Begin. Ben Bridwell would finance it himself, and then the band would shop a finished product around to different labels to find a new deal that suited them best. “It wasn’t so much a departure from Sub Pop as it was just – well, by the time the record was done, we knew there were people who wanted to hear it, and we took every meeting there was,” Creighton explains. “Ben had his own ideas of what he wanted as a band, and he took them to everybody.” One such idea was to revive Brown Records, an indie label Bridwell began in the late 1990s as a labour of love. His first signing was his friends’ band Carissa’s Weird – the band in which Bridwell would later make his musical debut. Creighton was in the band too. It’s a label that obviously means a lot to the band, so when Columbia Records – an arm of Sony Music – said they would resurrect Brown Records as an imprint through which Band of Horses could release Infinite Arms, the deal was done. “You know, in this day and age, with what the music scene is like now, with the unfortunate dying of the industry in a certain way, [having your own label] allows a band itself to be its own entity. And we needed that – so if no one else wanted to pick it up, we’d pick it up, and we’d put it out ourselves,” Creighton tells me.

Mon Aug 2 ENMORE THEATRE Tickets from Ticketek, www.ticketek.com.au, Ph 132 849

TICKETS ON SALE NOW ecstatic, dramatic and live The Album ‘Go’ CD/DVD - Experience Edition - out now

www.jonsi.com BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 25

Faithless Flight From The Machine By Willie Newland t’s not often a dance act transcends the dancefloor – but finding chart success with songs like ‘God Is A DJ’ and ‘Insomnia’, Faithless are definitely a notable exception. Made up of rapper Maxi Jazz, songwriter Sister Bliss and production wiz Rollo, Faithless were everywhere in the 90’s with their massive dancefloor anthems flooding clubs and bedrooms alike. Yet for the past four years the band has been silent, each member either pursuing their own projects or taking time off.

sound,” Sister Bliss tells me excitedly down the phone, in her delightful British accent. “We know a lot of our fans love the big anthems and most people discovered Faithless that way. With this album, we definitely wanted to make it more dancey and more clubby because we really felt very much in the middle of that world again. When we made our last album I was pregnant with my son, so I wasn’t feeling very disco at all. I felt a lot more in the heart of dance music with this album.”

Fear not though, for Faithless have returned - holding aloft their weighty new slab of dancefloor-skewed electronica The Dance. It’s an album which sees the band returning to their dance music roots, but with a modern edge that reflects how the band see dance music today. “I think with this album we really wanted to make something that had a big fat

Now that the band were out of their record deal, they were free to release the music themselves and able to take the creative process at their own pace, avoiding the many pitfalls inherent in the machinations of major labels. “It was going to take as long as it took. We didn’t have any sort of concept, we just wrote music and Maxi wrote lyrics, and it kind of came together like that.”

The Red Eyes Tour Of Duty By Tony Edwards

This need for freedom extends beyond being allowed to make their own creative decisions; there were wider issues too, like how to market and manage the band and their music. Having been through the major label construction line before, the band were well acquainted with all the bullshit it could entail, and weren’t about to go through it all again. “You can often fall into this trap when you’re on a record label, where there are fifty other artists on the label and they’ve each got their slot - and if you miss your slot then everyone’s busy working Kasabian or whoever it is. I didn’t really want to be under those constraints. Luckily we were in a position where we could afford to fund it ourselves up to a point - obviously when the money runs out it’ll be a different story, but I think that sense of freedom is very important.” Starting out signed to indie dance labels before signing to a major, the band are already quite familiar with the whole DIY ethic - as are most bands who emerged in the early days of dance, when the genre was looked upon with disdain by the music establishment. While this more independent approach may not be new to Faithless, the circumstances in which they have adopted it are different these days, offering a prospect as thrilling as it is risky. “I mean the music industry has just changed completely since we released even the last record, let alone our first. It just seemed we were better able to move with a changing market on our own, rather than being a small part in some massive machine.” Who: Faithless What: The Dance is out now through Liberator

riginally from New Zealand, Damien Charles aka King Charlie had moved to Melbourne and messed around with various bands before the Red Eyes project started. It was when an old flatmate from Auckland joined him in Melbourne, and started guesting on the mic at the night he promoted, that the band really came together. “Soulphonic Sundays was the vehicle to start the live band,” Damien explains. Held at what was then the Laundry in Fitzroy, the number of guest musicians grew organically until the formations of the Red Eyes were laid. “It started sounding great, and the crowds followed.” The band continued to grow, and were invited to play at several festivals including Meredith, Pyramid Rock and the Woodford Folk Festival. A few years had passed before the band got around to recording their first album Rudeworld in 2007, and a couple of EPs later their second full length Red Army has arrived. “I put a lot more emphasis on live instrumentation on the new record,” Damien says. “I tried to make it sound how the band sounds live. It was a much bigger job that way but when I listened back to it, was worth it. It really does have the live energy of the band.” Red Army comes as the first half of a two part series - recorded in the same sessions, there’s another full album that’s almost complete, with the exception of a few overdubs. “The first album is a bit more uptempo, and the lyrical content is a lot more outgoing, outward looking. The “B” album is distinctly more personal, and a bit more downtempo.”

reggae tunes that work best in a live setting, as well the deeper end of dub - like ‘Road to Jericho’, which Damien described as “dark and dubby”, for headphone listening. “We do enjoy ourselves, we don’t take ourselves really seriously. I think that can be a bit of a trap in the reggae world. We take the music really seriously, but not so much ourselves - we’re a bunch of Aussies and Kiwis and we like to have a laugh.” Kylie Auldist of Bamboos fame joined the Red Eyes on stage for the album launch at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel. “She was coming to the show anyway because she likes the band, and she sang on a couple of songs on the albums”, Damien says. There’s a full East Coast tour scheduled for the band, with a tour of New Zealand to follow. Then there’s a pit stop in Korea for a festival, en route to Europe in the New Year. “We always used to tour with eleven of us, but you never know how many people will be on stage at one of our gigs. “These days we pick up different people in towns as well. There’s a core of eight of us, then we pick up people from different towns to play percussion or trombone or whatever.” Melbourne reggae compatriot Mista Savona will be on support at the Sydney launch, alongside Declan Kelly & The Rising Sun and 2SER’s Firehouse crew... Expect a bit of stage-sharing. Who: The Red Eyes What: Red Army is out now When: Friday June 4

Spanning the full spectrum of dub reggae, the eleven piece band covers the party

Where: Manning Bar, Sydney Uni

Birds Of Tokyo The Surprise Factor By Birdie

Like, I just affiliated them with being hard and tough - maybe because of the intense weather that they have to deal with all their lives.” This could be one of the reasons that Kenny claims he couldn’t be happier to be back home in Australia, following the band’s sold-out UK dates.

ead single ‘The Saddest Thing I Know’ may be a bit of a taste of Birds Of Tokyo’s upcoming album Comfort In Exile. But as frontman Ian Kenny reveals, it’s also a deceiving little number set to throw off the fans. “We thought it would maximize the surprise factor when people hear the rest of the record,” explains Kenny of the Perth band’s third LP. “’The Saddest Thing I Know’ is maybe one of the most direct pieces of music on the album. It’s a fairly straight-up sort of track, whereas the rest of it is a lot more embellished and layered and has complex song structures. So ‘The Saddest Thing’ is there to whet the appetite, but it’s also kind of there to confuse you as well.” That said, those who anticipate a sequel to 2008’s Universes shouldn’t get their hopes up. According to Kenny, Comfort In Exile is deeper, darker and heavier than its predecessor. “It’s darkly beautiful, or beautifully dark, or something,” laughs Kenny. “Doing something like the Broken Strings tour is always going to affect your next move, because it takes your perspective on what you already know, and completely shifts it around. We really enjoyed playing with a string section and grand piano and all that - I’m so glad that the band put in the time and effort into taking on something like that. It took about seven months to make it work, and it was one of the biggest projects that we turned around. Most of all, we really enjoyed not being a rock band for a while.”

It was an experience that clearly got the band pushing the boundaries of their musical output. Recorded over three continents and with producer Scott Horscroft [The Presets, Silverchair] at the helm, Kenny promises that Comfort In Exile is the band’s most adventurous and experimental piece of work so far. “We were able to completely disconnect

from our comfort zone,” he tells me. And although the band spent the first few weeks recording in Sydney, the majority of studio time was spent in the small, industrial town of Gothenburg, in Sweden. “Sweden was so cool, they’re very lovely people in every sense of the word, but you get this overwhelming feeling that they’re also a very hard people.

The band have signed to EMI for their next LP, and I’m curious to hear about the move to a major. “We’ve been independent up until now,” Kenny says. “The Birds have been such a DIY band with everything from touring to recording to production. Now that we’ve signed with EMI for this record, it’s given us an opportunity to have a bigger infrastructure working behind us.. Their system is set up so that the marketing engine really pushes their artist, and at the end of the day, you want people to hear your music, right?” Kenny shares his time between fronting Birds of Tokyo and prog-metal group Karnivool. “I never saw this coming for the Birds. Maybe it was because I was much more focused on Karnivool, but the Birds have really come into their own now. I’m realising that the two are such vastly different engines and that they’re continuing to get further away from each other as we go along which is great for both bands.” Who: Birds Of Tokyo When: Saturday June 5 Where: Enmore Theatre

“The senator is in the street. He speaks to the young and old” - THE RED EYES 26 :: BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10

The world’s biggest singing show is coming to Australia. It’s open to anyone over 16 including groups, even if you’ve tried out before. This time you will get a helping hand from judges Ronan Keating, Natalie Imbruglia, Guy Sebastian and Kyle Sandilands.

SYDNEY AUDITIONS

SATURDAY JUNE 12, SUNDAY JUNE 13 AND MONDAY JUNE 14, 2010

REGISTRATION 9.00AM TO 3.30PM AUSTRALIAN TECHNOLOGY PARK BAY 4 LOCOMOTIVE ST, EVELEIGH (SYDNEY SOUTH) NSW 2015 www.xfactortv.com.au

Have you got The X Factor?

CATCH THEM Five hundred Australians are required for a worldﬁrst study to pinpoint the causes of bipolar disorder. The focus is on 12 to 30 year-olds who have at least one relative with bipolar disorder but are not sufferers of the illness themselves. One in 50 Australians suffers bipolar disorder yet there is still no way of identifying a person in the very early stages, or, who is at high risk.

BLACK DOG INSTITUTE

BEFORE THEY FALL

Researchers from the Black Dog Institute and the University of NSW (UNSW) are undertaking the study in collaboration with major universities in the USA. They will look at all the factors that may contribute to the illness, including a patient’s DNA, brain imaging and psychological testing.

Early prevention for better results. To participate: Please phone 1800-352-292 or email: bipolar-kidsandsibs@unsw.edu.au

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

BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 27

Tiga Planet Turbo By James McInnes

iga James Sontag is one of those rare humans who’s achieved pretty much every little music-heads wildest dreams – but managed to remain just downright humble.

Tiga whet his musical appetite way back in the 80s, touring the Goa region of India with his DJ dad – who gave him a pretty unhealthy taste for dance music. Following in his father’s footsteps, Tiga brought the sounds of acid house to Canada, spinning in Montreal’s better clubs in the early ‘90s. Off the back of his talent and his passion, he started one of the first exclusively techno record stores called DNA, and a little label called Turbo. “I stole the logo - not the entire thing - from a Japanese company that makes model kits... I probably shouldn’t advertise that too much. Almost all of my ideas originated at, you know, the age of eleven.” Fast forward to the start of the 00’s, and Tiga has made his first appearance in the world of covers, off the back of Prince’s ‘When Dove’s Cry’ and U2’s hilariously average track ‘New Years Day’. A few years later he dropped Corey Heart’s ‘Sunglasses at Night’ and Nelly’s ‘Hot in Here’ - a little out of place around the time when the word electro had nothing to do with hip hop or funk, and more with blogs, fluro and Club 77. By now he was DJing to tens of thousands of people - and between all of that had managed to release two studio albums, and had worked with everyone from Soulwax to James Murphy to the Scissor Sisters. Last year, Tiga flew to Australia for Parklife and spent the majority of his time hanging out with friends and classmates Aeroplane, Erol Alkan, The Glimmers, Junior Boys and Pedro Winter (or Busy P) playing soccer, playing to sell out festival crowds and coming up with Goa Trance slogans like ‘A Bong On Mars’. “It felt like we were 14 year old stoned high school kids,” he tells me, “hanging on a street corner in Sydney looking out for cops. We started playing a game I initiated - who could make the best slogan. And I won.” Tiga certainly does have a soft spot for Goa Trance… “The idea is great, I love it. I like the idea of trance dancing – but the execution isn’t how I would do it…”

WINNER PEOPLES CHOICE AWARD MELBOURNE COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010

This year Tiga is coming back for that super chilly (but always sunny) festival We Love Sounds - but this time round he’s doing something a little different and running his very own stage. On the super bill for Planet Turbo is of course Tiga, as well as DJ veteran of more than 20 years Felix Da Housecat, German techno- and electro-head Zombie Nation, Seth Troxler (an extremely talented DJ who often gets caught on camera extremely high) and Proxy, who’ll be doing his thing live. Thomas Von Party will also be playing – he’s Tiga’s brother, and also happens to be the fellow who more or less runs Turbo - and local hero Gus Da Hoodrat of Bang Gang party man fame.

“I stole the Turbo logo from a Japanese company that makes model kits... I probably shouldn’t advertise that too much. Almost all of my ideas originated at, you know, the age of eleven.” One more dark horse was recently thrown into the Planet Turbo mix – a man whose name I was unfamiliar with. Tiga was so excited about his inclusion that I was urged do a little more research, and it turns out he’s the chap behind the video clips for artists like The Knife, Fever Ray, Goldfrapp, José González, Moby and Yo Gabba Gabba. “We’re gonna be doing visuals and building a stage for the night – should have a laser – and we’ve got this guy Andreas Nilsson!” The director will be in charge of all the visuals for the Planet Turbo stage, putting a welcome multi-sensory focus on the event. In general, dance-music festivals can feel a bit flat - a DJ hanging out with his headphones and a laptop doesn’t do too much for entertainment. If you can work some visuals into the flow, you’ll be putting on a better show.

O .C E R O T S Y D E COM 28 :: BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10

U .A M O .C K E T E K M.AU OR TIC

So what’s next for Tiga after the tour, and later in the year? “Specifically I would like to get into TV; I think I’d like to write and maybe act,” he tells me. “I’m definitely getting into more writing and film work, and also I think I’m getting more into live performance.” He’s thinking specifically about getting a live band together. “That’s the one area I kind of fucked up, where I never really did it properly... I don’t have any regrets in my career, but the one thing I’ve not yet done that I should have done is a live show.” Maybe there’s space for it on the next album? “I’m starting to feel the first calling for a new record. I’m just waiting for no one to be interested anymore,” he laughs. “And twenty years later, I announce my live debut!” Who: Tiga What: We Love Sounds When: Saturday June 12 Where: Sydney Entertainment Quarter

Midnight Juggernauts Don’t Force It By Mikey Carr

hen Midnight Juggernauts released their debut LP Dystopia in 2007, they didn’t really know what they were getting themselves into. Being handpicked by Justice to join them on an international tour, and getting the chance to play such lofty festivals as Coachella, Fuji Rock and Glastonbury, the band were riding high on their visceral blend of indie pop, dance and psychedelia. Three years later and the sound that made the Juggernauts famous is now sweeping the globe, with indie-dance being the new hot ticket to success for any band with a few synths lying around and a disaffected air of musical nonchalance. Where a lesser band might think to cash in on the trend, churning out a sophomore LP in a week or two, the Juggers have chosen to walk a different path. The result? The Crystal Axis. “With the last record, we recorded that like three years ago, and we’re obviously not the same people we were then,” drummer Daniel Stricker tells me, having just gotten home to Melbourne after playing some overseas shows. “We could’ve very easily just put out another record like that, and taken some easy route I guess, but that’s just not us anymore.” Instead the band have decided to wade into muddier waters, making some decidedly daring choices, and veering toward territories altogether more ‘prog’. “We just wanted to make something we were happy with,” Daniel explains of the band’s shift away from the sound of Dystopia. “I mean otherwise you’re just forcing it and people can always hear it if you’re forcing it.”

With all this experimentation and technical hijinx, you might think that the Juggers are beginning to tire of making pop music; that they yearn to break free and journey to the musical antipodes, to jam out with all the strange sonic marsupials. While many might love to see that, it doesn’t look likely - the band are all about making the popular music. “We definitely wanted to make a pop record. There is a lot of stuff we listen to that is as far from pop music as you could think of, but at the same time we do love pop music and with this record, we didn’t want to force it to be anything; whether that’s a pop record or a dance record or anything. It’s more just a reflection of where our heads were at at the time,” Stricker tells me. “Like I said before, we didn’t want to force it.” Who: Midnight Juggernauts What: The Crystal Axis is out now on Siberia Records When: Friday August 20 Where: The Forum

another fine

presentation

“We could’ve very easily just put out another record like Dystopia, and taken some easy route I guess, but that’s just not us anymore... And people can always hear if you’re forcing it.” The real inspiration for the album lies in the energy and experimentation that comes with touring, and the way in which the band brought that all back home with them. “We’d been touring for all of 2008 and so we came home with a bunch of ideas, and just got a house on the beach in this kind of isolated national park, and stayed there for a couple of weeks,” Daniel explains. “We had a bunch of new pedals and toys and stuff, and we set it all up and just played. We’d never really approached working on an album in this way before, just all of us in a room jamming stuff out together. The last album was done more in the computer and the studio and then we added the live instrumentation later. This was kind of the other way around.” Despite the shift seeming quite well thought out, Daniel is quick to note that it was never really something that was orchestrated or strategised. “We didn’t so much make a conscious decision to do a more live sounding record, but we’d just been playing so much together as a band, it was kind of the logical option. The organic path to take.” This new organic approach seems to have yielded quite a few bizarre results, mind you. Having been cooped up all three of them in such an isolated location, the band came up with some pretty interesting new techniques to achieve some of the more out there sounds on the record. “There’s this one song where we had a trigger on a kick drum that was going through a keyboard,” Daniel explains, a hint of boyish excitement creeping down the phone line. “What that means is that when I played drums the keyboard would be triggered and Vincent would be there tweaking the sound, so we ended up with this sort of pulsing rhythmic thing.”

Tickets available from Moshtix and civilsociety.com.au

Still holding on to the bands pop roots, what distinguishes The Crystal Axis is the attention to the background, to the layers and subtleties; the trimmings, if you will. “The album is very layered,” Daniel says. “It’s very much a pop record, but for us all the ambient layers are very important. It’s kind of like headphone music really, if you listen to each song carefully there’s a lot going on under the surface.” BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 29

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

brushstrokes WITH DANCER/CHOREOGRAPHER ALISDAIR

an you briefly describe Bromance? It’s a work about becoming a man and how male interaction and intimacy is a part of that process. The good, the bad and the ugly... What is the appeal of exploring brotherhood, through dance? Masculinity is a hard thing to define and I think that a lot of dudes out there, just like myself, struggle to say what being a man really means. Recently I have been coming to terms with the impending reality that I am becoming a man. It’s pretty daunting. There is this sense as a boy that all the men around you are holding the secret to manhood, waiting to pass it down to you, yet when the time comes it seems to be more of a personal internal journey. I guess part of this journey is thinking about all the lessons you have learnt about manhood, and a lot of them, in my case, happen to be lessons from other men. Sometimes observations, sometimes interactions. What is your background and training as a performer? I started dance doing ballet at the age of 5 at the South Yarra Ballet School, at 8 moved to the Victorian Ballet School and then between the ages of 12-18 did full time dance training at the Victorian Collage of the Arts Secondary School.

CREATIVE SYDNEY 2010

Last year Creative Sydney set the agenda for the issues and the artists that had Sydney talking for the rest of the year. In 2010 they return with a perfect potion of discussions, performance and networking. It kicks off this Saturday June 5, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, with a day of panels under the theme ‘Creative Futures’. For the following week, put this in your diary: Friday June 11, when the MCA’s Biennale

MACINDOE

After that I did one year of the Bachelor in Dance degree at the VCA.

goodbye after a project together where we were both dancing for Leigh Warren & Dancers.

Can you describe your personal style of choreography/dance? I guess you could say that my work sits somewhere between video clips and contemporary theatre. I am inspired by the work of my mentor Lucy Guerin, and works by Chunky Move, Antony Hamilton, Cobie Orger, Cage Physical Theatre, Stephanie Lake and many more choreographers.

There have been a bunch of mainstream films in the past few years that have started to explore this idea of ‘bromance’ – Knocked Up, I Love You Man, new Aussie film I Love You Too. Do you think there is a shift in how we talk about the relationships between men? Yes - I think the need for discussion about male issues is breaking through to the media, arts and entertainment sectors, and this is a good thing. In a culture where processes like becoming a man are not really acknowledged, celebrated or discussed, there are now growing amounts of platforms for the issue to be opened up and accepted as relevant.

How did you come up with the idea for Bromance? Talking to co-choreographer Adam Synnott about what we were interested in exploring and what we had in common. We were having coffee in Adelaide to say exhibitions and the Creative Sydney Bar will stay open late; meanwhile, in the Foundation Hall, a mash-up performance by Parades, performance artist Flutter Lyon and filmmaker Husein Alicajic threatens to blow your mind… Register now at creativesydney.com.au

STENCIL/ART + $2000

What_the_hells. You can win money for making stencils? If only we paid attention in art class… The Australian Stencil Art Prize (ASAP) is calling for entries. Now in its

What: Bromance When: June 2-5 Where: Performance Space @ CarriageWorks More: performancespace.com.au

ANIMAL KINGDOM

Opening this week in cinemas, Animal Kingdom is David Michôd’s Sundancewinning debut feature, a powerful film noir set in the Cody family, one small microcosm within the jungle of Melbourne’s criminal underbelly. Our unwitting guide is lumbering teen Joshua “J” Cody (played by newcomer James Frecheville). The top-notch cast includes Ben Mendelsohn and Aussie expat Guy Pearce (The Hurt Locker). Animal Kingdom opens this Thursday June 3; thanks to Madman, we have ten in-season double passes up for grabs. To get your hands on one, email us with the name of one other cast member!

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE

SMH’s Michael Idato describes Beautiful People as “Arrested Development meets The Wonder Years” – no complaints here. Season 2 of this ever-so-slightly twisted family sitcom has just dropped. Based on the best-selling wild-childhood memoirs of Simon Doonan, Creative Director of Barneys New York, this series continues the endeaveours of the precocious teen to escape his completely bonkers family, and get inside the glittery raft of colourful characters that is the ‘beautiful people’. Thanks to Roadshow, we have 5 copies of Season 2 up for grabs! To get your hands on one, email us with the name of your favourite sitcom!

second year, the competition has a $2000 cash price attached, ka-ching! Artists this year can also enter stencil artworks on canvas, board and multimedia surfaces. Paper and cardboard aren’t accepted (fascists). Finalists will be exhibited at Oh Really gallery from November 11-21. The deadline is August 1, and you can find out more, and enter online, at www.australianstencilartprize.com

M(ART) GALLERY

The place where music and art come to make gentle love. This week, head along to MART Gallery to check out Zounds, an exhibition of works commissioned by Dappled Cities last year, for the release of their album. Opens June 1, closes June 4 (12-5pm each day). Next on the line-up is an exhibition of works by label owner, band manager and photographer David Shrimpton – including studies of Blaine Harrison from Mystery Jets, Luke Boredom from Violent Soho, Red Riders, Kirin J Callinan, The Duke Spirit & Cut Off Your Hands, both on the road and in their homelands. June 11-26 at MART (156 Commonwealth St, Surry Hills).

POWER OF STRONG

WRONG PROM / RIGHT MOVES

This CarriageWorks initiative just keeps getting bigger and better – and selling out every event. The next edition is Wrong Prom: The Blues Brothers - inspired by the 80s classic, starring Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi and James Brown. Watch the film, prepare your costumes, and prepare to get seriously coooool. And as per usual, there will be professional dance instructors to help even the most wallflowery of wallflowers to get on the dancefloor and shake their tailfeathers. Get down to CarriageWorks on June 23 for some mid-week debauchery – tickets from www.carriageworks.com.au (it will sell out fellas).

Exciting times indeed – last week it was announced that the new Artistic Director of Griffin Theatre Company will be young director/dramaturg Sam Strong. We hope you caught Strong’s playful production of David Hare’s Power of Yes at Belvoir (which just closed on Sunday); or his production of Thom Pain, last year, for B-Sharp. We can’t wait to see what he does with the Griffin program – and within its soon-to-be renovated space. Strong says, “I am thrilled to be leading a Company with such a wonderful history and a unique reputation as a boutique powerhouse of new Australian writing. griffintheatre.com.au

POP CULTURE EXPO

It's time to let your pop culture geek outta the bag - the Supanova Pop Culture Expo descends on Sydney Olympic Park’s The Dome for two days only: June 19 & 20 bringing with it the glorious popcultural binge of Twilight stars, TV heroes from eras past and present, plus the über-est comic books, science fiction, pulp movies, toys, console gaming, animation, entertainment and technology. This year's heavyweight guests include Whedonverse heroes Eliza Dushku (Faith!) and Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia!) Lou Ferrigno (aka The Hulk) and True Blood's Allan Hyde (aka Godric the bloodthirsty). COMIC BOOKZ FTW NOOBZ

SYDNEY UNDERGROUND

The Sydney Underground Film Festival is currently accepting (experimental) submissions, for their September edition. Last year SUFF screened over 100 quality films – including a freakin' amazing scratch-n-sniff session of John Waters’ diabolical classic Pink Flamingos. Besides being trashalicious, SUFF is a champion for Sydney’s thriving local alternative film culture, so we think they’re pretty rad. Early-bird entries close on June 11, and the festival runs September 9-11 at the Factory Theatre, Enmore. www.suff.com.au 30 :: BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10

UNREAL ROCK

Opening this week at CarriageWorks is a dual exhibition of works by David Porter (aka Jacques L’Affrique – c’est cool!) and Vernon Treweeke. Porter’s work captures the energy and vitality (and sweat?) of an era in Australian music and youth culture – the 70s. Porter’s photography absorbs all the personality of the venues, backstage, on tour, the personalities, and the gigs themselves. Vernon Treweeke has been dubbed ‘the father of Australian psychedelic art’, and he has the ‘eroticised abstractions of well known Australian landscapes’ to prove it. Unreal Rock and Vernon Treweeke: UV3D run from June 3 - 26, and they’re FREE. carriageworks.com.au

WINTER BLUES & JAZZ

Nothin’ like some smooth blues and jazz to keep us smooooth during the winter season: The Entrance Winter Blues & Jazz Festival will host more than 30 artists and performers at Memorial Park on July 10-11. With most performances being free, the weather will not deter residents nor visitors of this cruisy seaside town; the chilled-out vibes of the Entrance playing as a backdrop to an array of blues and jazz luminaries including Galapagos Duck and Kevin Borich. And to top it off, you get fireworks at the end! To find out more, visit www.theentrance.org

HOLLY MIRANDA.

METRIC’S

EMILY HAINES WITH STRINGS.

DAVID HIDALGO & MARC RIBOT:

SLOW MUSIC NIGHT.

BORDER MUSIC.

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. DAVID HIDALGO & MARC RIBOT: BORDER MUSIC 2 JUNE | OPERA THEATRE | FROM $49* Guitar guru Marc Ribot and band are joined by LOS LOBOS members David Hidalgo & Cougar Estrada, to create a wild party night of south-of-the-border musical mayhem.

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.

HOLLY MIRANDA 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. 3(<90, (5+,9:65 36< 9,,+ CURATORS.

SLOW MUSIC NIGHT 4 JUNE | CONCERT HALL | FROM $59* An absolutely unrepeatable concert created just for Sydney, this centrepiece event of Vivid LIVE features a stellar line-up of artists on the Concert Hall stage to present their most intimate, reﬂective and serene compositions.

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.

7(9;5,9

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The Shipment Young Jean Lee brings her award-winning theatre company from downtown New York to Sydney Opera House. By Dee Jefferson

orean-American theatre-maker Young Jean Lee is a force of nature – at the age of 28 she went from a sixyear PhD on King Lear, at UC Berkeley, to knocking on the doors of New York’s most experimental performance spaces and companies, offering to intern. What happened in between, by all accounts, was a mental breakdown and some therapy, during which Lee decided that what was really lurking inside her academic exterior was a playwright. Seven years later, she is bringing one of her most critically acclaimed works to Sydney. The Shipment explores black identity politics, by amplifying stereotypes. It begins with a piece of stand-up comedy, followed by a few performed sketches, and ends with a theatrical vignette (or micro play) in which Lee pulls off a magic trick of perspective - a twist that leaves the audience with a sense of how deep the politics of race really run. Notoriously picky New York Times theatre critic Charles Isherwood describes it as “subversive, seriously funny” theatre. Lee has been writing and directing theatre with her eponymous theatre company since 2003. In her ‘Artistic Statement’, she writes, “When starting a play, I ask myself, ‘What’s the last play in the world I would ever want to write?’ Then I force myself to write it. I do this because I’ve found that the best way to make theater that unsettles and challenges my audience is to do things that make me uncomfortable.” Lee is genuinely interested in the effect that her work has on an audience, and so this interview opens with a discussion of how different audiences – particularly those outside America have reacted to The Shipment. “You know, the first European city we went to, [people] came up to us after the show and they said ‘you know we really loved it so much because it shows how stupid Americans are, with their race problems; and we’re so happy we don’t have race problems here in our city.’ And so we thought, obviously [laughs] that’s not the message we wanted to give; so we added a paragraph [to the stand-up act] that basically, whenever we’re outside the United States, targets the specific race problems of whatever city we’re in… So that paragraph will definitely be in for the Sydney shows!”

know what to do’, and he said ‘Well, why don’t you try writing the worst play you can think of’; so I wrote the worst thing – the thing that would be the least cool, the least like any of the artists I admired, the most shameful thing I could think of. And everybody loved it! – because it was different; and ultimately that’s what people want from experimental theatre; they want something that they don’t expect, as opposed to my approximation of what ‘cool, experimental theatre’ is. So what was that play about? [Laughs] It was a historical drama about the English Romantic poets – so like Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron (and Wordsworth’s sister Dorothy) hanging out in a cottage in England talking about life and art. I can guarantee you it’s the least cool thing you could possibly do in downtown experimental New York. Why do you think everyone loved it so much? Because, you know [pauses] I was trying to write this thing and I was just going insane – and so the play was infused with all of my frustrations in writing it; so it went in these crazy directions; it’s like kids playing with Barbie dolls or something – originally the Barbie dolls will be sitting around having a tea party, and then [the kids] will, like, cut the Barbie dolls’ heads off and throw them out the window, when they’re bored; that’s what that play was like – and people really responded to that! You were a pretty serious scholar of Shakespeare – then you went to the other end of the spectrum, and did totally experimental theatre; how did that happen? Actually I think Shakespeare is incredibly misunderstood as a playwright – because everyone thinks of him as this traditional, dominant, patriarchal, canonical, sort of, you know monster… but if you look at Shakespeare historically, within his context, [he] is the most experimental, crazy writer of his time; I mean, his plays are insane.

I understand you worked very closely with your four actors to devise The Shipment; to what extent did you research the topic, in a formal sense? I did do a lot of research – but you know in America, all the stereotypes are just pretty out there, you don’t really have to hunt very hard; and you know, I’m not black, so the show doesn’t really reflect much of my personal content… [The process] was just asking the actors – ‘tell me your stories, tell me your frustrations, tell me how you feel about race’. The show ended up being a lot about stereotypes, because [the performers] are all actors, and all they ever get asked to audition for are stereotyped roles. Why did you feel driven to tackle this topic, at this time? I started the show pre-Obama; so it was such a different climate back then. Before Obama started running for President, nobody in America wanted to talk about black identity and race problems – they really wanted to believe that it was all over and there wasn’t an issue any more; and then Obama announced his candidacy and suddenly everybody was talking about race, because it just became this big issue that you couldn’t avoid. And I think that really helped our show a lot. Do you remember the first time this idea of creating the ‘worst play possible’ arose? Oh, absolutely – it was when I first started making theatre; I just wanted to be like Richard Foreman and the Wooster Group; so I was writing these horrible shows that were basically like bad imitations of their work – so I was in despair. And I had a playwriting and I called him and said p y g professor p ‘I’m ‘I’m really realllly in in trouble trouble bl – everything everythi thing that th t I make makke sucks, suckks, and and d I don’t don’t’t

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What: The Shipment, as part of Vivid LIVE When: June 8 – 11. Where: The Playhouse, Sydney Opera House More: vividlive.sydneyoperahouse.com

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.

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Miss Out! Mid-Year Entry Applications close June 11. Visit uws.edu.au/midyear or call 1300 897 669.

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Sydney Film Festival 157 films; 92 Australian premieres; 7 world premieres; a chance to talk to cinema’s most intriguing artists - are you feeling spoiled for choice yet? In a perfect world, we’d bliss-out at the Festival all day, every day; failing that, here are our tips for what is unmissable this year. For all screening details and tickets for this year’s Sydney Film Festival, head to sff.org.au - for more reviews and daily coverage see thebrag.wordpress.com

Julien Temple tackles seminal UK pub act Mr Feelgood. By Nell Greco It’s difficult to start this article without mentioning Julien Temple - a name that immediately evokes controversy: Malcolm McLaren, Sid Vicious & Johnny Rotten, Joe Strummer – need I go on? Long known for music documentaries that stir up the muck, Temple returns to rattle the cage (and a few egos) with Oil City Confidential. This latest film throws light on the beginning - and end - of England’s original pub-rock band, Dr Feelgood. It’s the third documentary in Temple’s trilogy about British rock outfits of the ‘70s, the first two being The Filth and the Fury (Sex Pistols) and The Future is Unwritten (Joe Strummer, The Clash). And yes, barely a mention of the Stones or the Beatles.

This psychotropic biopic of a punk poster boy gives us many reasons to be cheerful… By Nathan Jolly Never let the truth get in the way of a good story. So proclaims Ian Dury (channelled via the brilliant Andy Serkis) in the first minutes of Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, setting the wonky framework for what follows; and even though this biopic of the Blockheads frontman plays fast and loose with the rules, it captures the psychotropic, fractured feel of Dury’s life and work in a way that a conventional biopic or documentary wouldn’t.

perhaps because of it! – Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll is far from a rose-coloured retrospective. The film makes no bones about the darker side of the singer-songwriter’s creativity, which included drug use, bouts of depression, a violent and often physical temper, and the emotional abuse of his family.

Dury’s impact on the punk scene cannot be understated. His first two albums, with Kilburn & the High Roads, paved the way for the debut albums for The Clash and The Sex Pistols in 1977, by which time Dury had put together The Blockheads, recorded the groundbreaking album New Boots and Panties!! and released the single ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’ which brought that particular idiom into common parlance. In 1978 the Blockheads released the single ‘What a Waste’, which went top five and caught the ears of Lou Reed, who invited the band on an extensive US tour.

In fact, this biopic places Dury’s importance as an artist on the backburner in favour of exploring his fractured psyche. In talking about bringing the script to screen, director Matt Whitecross (who co-directed The Road to Guantanamo with Michael Winterbottom) has said that Dury’s dual-personality was a driving force for the film’s kaleidoscopic style. The plot is non-linear, careening from Dury’s past as a child crippled with polio, through different aspects of his personal and professional life, including his strained relationships with his ex-wife, his band mates, and Baxter. The film is anchored, however, by the recurring motif of Dury on stage during an unspecified Blockheads concert, and the animated pop-art bridging scenes.

By the time the ‘90s hit, Dury had slowed down considerably, only performing sporadic shows throughout Europe and Japan, and a handful of benefit gigs for causes such as cancer and AIDS. After a protracted battle with cancer, he passed away in 2000; however his influence endures, in the working class spoken word of The Streets, the music-hall Brit-ness of Blur, and the junkie wordplay and punk-rush of The Libertines.

To bolster the psychedelic bent of the film, legendary pop artist Peter Blake was enlisted to design the titles, and the many intercuts that bridge the different eras of Dury’s life. Blake is best known for designing the sleeve of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, perhaps the most widely recognisable artefact from the pop art era. Rather than being a mere gun for hire, Blake was instrumental in the Dury story, having taught him at the Royal College of Art.

The Dury estate was involved in every aspect of the film’s production, with the filmmakers given the full support of Ian’s son Baxter (who is given a significant representation on screen), his daughter Jemima and his second wife Sophie. Despite this – or

Also adding authenticity is the involvement of original Dury collaborator Chaz Jankel, who has composed the incidental music for the film, while the original Blockheads have pre-recorded the tracks used through the film. It’s this credibility that allowed the

34 :: BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10

filmmakers so much leeway with both the narrative structure and film’s ambitious aesthetic. Indeed, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll seems such a complete vision that it’s surprising to discover that Dury’s story was affixed to an initial premise about a musician’s redemption. Naturally, when scouring ‘70s musicians trying to find a suitable story, screenwriter Paul Viragh was drawn to the tale of Ian Dury; it isn’t hard to see why. The adversity that Dury dealt with throughout a childhood spent in a strict school for disabled children helped instill in him a fierce determination and rebellion - twin attributes that made Dury the perfect poster boy for the punk movement that rose in 1977. However Dury’s avant-garde bend saw him infuse poetry, jazz, vaudevillian music-hall, character sketches, the kitchensink drama of the ‘60s and sexual word play into his music, which both alienated and ignited audiences in the late ‘70s. Dury’s wry humour came out in vastly different ways - in the sexually charged ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’, which hit #1 in 1979, and the savage ‘Spasticus Autisticus’, which was a response to the patronising International Year of Disabled Persons, and was promptly banned by the BBC (despite being written by a disabled person). Ultimately the factual elements of this biopic – the order of events, and even the ‘accuracy’ with which they are presented – is less important than the raw energy of this snapshot of one of punk’s most colourful characters. What: Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll When: June 2 at 6.30pm / June 4 at 8.30pm Where: Event Cinemas (George St)

The scene is set in Canvey Island in the UK. Where, you say? Canvey is a peninsula at the arse end of England’s East Coast, separated from mainland Essex by mudflats. The community is so tiny, and Temple’s coverage of it is so thorough, that by the end of the film you’ve seen every pub, street and store, and you almost feel like a local. In the 1950s, Canvey became the site of an oil refinery and a decent amount of boredom. Until, that is, Lee Brilleaux - Dr Feelgood’s lead singer and harmonica player - discovered ‘the blues’. The rise of Dr Feelgood is told best by the band’s charismatic, larrikin guitarist, Wilko Johnson - and the energy and excitement that the band incited in people is obvious through live footage of him and Brilleaux interacting on stage. Talking heads describe them as ‘punk before punk’, because of the intensity they exuded; when other musicians were wearing flares and

long hair, Dr Feelgood wore suits and never smiled. They were scary and somehow, that scared/inspired other kids (like Strummer and Rotten) into punk bands. What set The Filth and the Fury and Strummer apart was Temple’s attentive observation of the socio-political environment that fostered these bands - without a single, talking-head ‘poli’ in sight. Musicians speak for themselves about the inspirations behind their music, while images of street riots and garbage piled metres high in the middle of London flash across your screen. Cinematography, graphics and storytelling have all evolved since Temple began the trilogy, but his trademark edited-pastiche of cartoons, sound effects and other films, remains. In Oil City Confidential, he employs symbolic scenes and imagery from film noir, but takes it one step further by projecting footage of the band’s live performances on the oil refinery containers. Canvey Island might have created Dr Feelgood, but Dr Feelgood left a legacy that the oil refinery and the British music industry could never compete with. This is an intriguing documentary for the depth and honesty it provokes from its participants. Although thematically it should have come before The Filth and the Fury, it’s a high note to finish on practice makes perfect. What: Oil City Confidential When: June 5 at 6pm/ June 10 at 8.30pm Where: Sydney Opera House / Event Cinemas (George St)

2010

SY D N E Y F I L M F E S T I VA L 2 010 G U I D E

[SOUNDS ON SCREEN] The Mars Volta guitarist turns his hand to film. By Nathan Jolly

Mr Vampire (1985)

By Emma Butschek

Considering the psychedelic nature of most of his music, it is surprising how narrative-driven Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’ debut feature is - albeit filtered through his woozy use of time and place. Set in a stylised and bleak El Paso, this coming-of-age story was written and directed by RodriguezLopez, who also plays the central character, an emotionally volatile 20-something misfit who seems stuck between the two extremes of shy disenchantment and murderous rage. With Engine Slayer, RodriguezLopez arrives fully formed as a filmmaker, and an artist with a unique vision. Surprisingly, perhaps, his ambitions were never very grand. “It was never intended for release,” he says about the film, which was shot in 2007. “It was one of three films made just in order to make them, and I put it away in the closet along with many other projects.” It was external pressure from friends involved in the creative process that finally resulted in the

film’s release. “My crew asked me if they could pull the film from the vault and send it to a film festival. They felt the film demanded it, and they respected me and my philosophy, but felt that there had been a lot of hard work done, and the film had had no exterior life. I am so in the present that it is hard for me to think back and worry about releasing stuff from my past.” Rodriguez-Lopez borrowed money (and skills) from family members and friends in order to create the featurelength film. The shoestring budget doesn’t hamper the quality; rather it infuses it with a stylised nostalgic feel. The film’s main benefactor was John Frusciante, who received an executive producer credit in exchange for his generosity. According to Rodriguez-Lopez, however, Frusciante wasn’t one of the people angling for the wider release. “He is a very free person, and like me he doesn’t think of things in terms of ‘product’ so he didn’t have any expectations in that regard,” explains Rodriguez-Lopez. “We have similar world views and because he is a friend of mine, it was less of a

thing. In a way he was paying for me to have an experience. Much like somebody would pay for someone to go to school. Seeing the end product definitely gave him pleasure, but that wasn’t why he was involved.” The end result doesn’t seem too important to Rodriguez-Lopez either. “The process is the part that I enjoyed,” he explains. “Acting, directing, writing is all part of one being that is much bigger than the finished product. What happens at the end and how the film turns out, and lives on is like the dessert… the process is the true essence of life. “Whether I am cooking food, or having a conversation with my mother, or making love to my woman, it is all coming from the same place. A desire to understand the world.” What: The Sentimental Engine Slayer When: June 4 @ 7pm / June 7 @8.30pm Where: Sydney Opera House / Event Cinemas (George St)

[SOUNDS ON SCREEN] Indie Rock is alive and kicking (underground) in Iran. By Dee Jefferson Negar and Ashkan have a band; they play indie rock; they’ve been invited to play a concert in London – if only they could get out of Tehran. With two weeks until the gig, they must prepare a set-list of English songs, find a bass player, guitarist and drummer – and a place to rehearse. Most importantly, they enlist the help of a street-hawker/ wannabe-promoter with ‘connections’ to get them passports and visas. Director Bahman Ghobadi (Turtles Can Fly – 2004) uses his simple premise, a documentary framework and a handheld aesthetic to take us on a tour of Iran’s underground music scene – from indie to metal, rock-n-roll, soul, experimental jazzfunk, blues, hip hop and traditional Persian music. There’s even a warehouse rave. At moments, it is sublimely beautiful; ultimately, ever pit stop catches you up in the spirit and energy that makes a live performance so exciting. The film is a slow starter, with the narrative broken up with stretches of live performance, and montages of street life in Tehran. It gathers speed as the stakes get higher, with the threat of arrest and imprisonment increasingly likely, and the kids ever more desperate to get to London. Even so, the plot is really just an excuse to take a tour though modern Iran, with its musicians and musiclovers as your guide.

For a Western audience, this film is even more poignant these days; last June, public protests against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saw a crackdown by police, the results of which flooded our media; up until last week Jafar Panahi, one of Iran’s most prolific and acclaimed filmmakers, was under arrest - galvanising the international film community into furious action. Music, like films, brings people closer through a shared experience. This

film harnesses that power, while also providing a fascinating and rare insight into sub-cultural Tehran that any music lover should see. What: No One Knows About Persian Cats When: June 5 at 2pm (with live performance by Iranian-Australian band Ravi) / June 12 at 2pm Where: Sydney Opera House

Long before Bella & Edward, Buffy & Angel, Sookie & Bill, vampires have intrigued, seduced and shocked us. ‘Immortal Seduction: the Vampire Movie’, a retrospective of ten films curated by Variety critic Richard Kuipers, will allow those of us who love vampire films as much as he does to revisit some much-loved classics; but if your vampire knowledge only extends as far as Twilight or True Blood, this is the opportunity to see the films that have inspired the current trend. Ranging from the grotesque to the outlandish, Kuipers has carefully selected a program of films that will appeal to people of all ages and tastes - but that will, above all, entertain and educate us on the history of this strangely seductive creature that we can’t seem to get enough of. “The vampires that are on screen now are very romantic, and the films involve coming-of-age, schoolboy/schoolgirl stuff. It’s like High School Musical with fangs,” says Kuipers. Not that he doesn’t believe these films have value for teens; “I just wanted to look at the different types of vampires we’ve had and try to understand why this creature has been so popular and has had such a sway over audiences for so long.’ But will these films appeal to the Twi-Hard generation? “Even though it is R-rated, Near Dark is definitely something for young audiences – it’s fast, it’s grimy, it’s got a fantastic soundtrack (Tangerine Dream). It’s full of action and gore and suspense. The vampires in Near Dark are more like serial killers than vampires. It’s like a rock’n’roll, western, gothic horror film.” It’s also the directorial debut of Kathryn Bigelow, so if you enjoyed The Hurt Locker – this is a chance to see where her career as a director began. “Daughters of Darkness will appeal to the more emo crowd,” Kuipers suggests, “because it is a very sensual and seductive vampire film. Its primary focus is lesbian but it’s straight vampire as well, and it’s a very dreamy, very artistic film. It’s half an art film and half a sexploitation vampire film. It’s a great clash of styles.” For pure kitsch and hilarity, there are two films on offer. The first is Dracula AD 1972, which takes Dracula out of his traditional Gothic setting and puts him into a glam-rock inspired seventies setting. “It’s got this pot-smoking, kids-on-the-loose kind of feel and then on the other side, it’s got this classic vampire story.” The other is Mr. Vampire, which is an eastern take on vampires, and for that reason is missing all the usual Christianity references; there are no crucifixes or holy water - “It’s all running water, sticky rice and putting prayers on the vampires’ heads,” says Kuipers. Mr Vampire was also pre-CGI – so all the kung fu action stuff is real. It’s also one of the biggest hits in the history of Hong Kong cinema. Many of these films are out of print or difficult to find now and seeing them on the big screen is somewhat of a special privilege. For details of the ‘Immortal Seduction’ program head to sff.org.au

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but what was he going to do with it all? And what happens when Guetta decides to give the street-art thing a go himself? “I don’t know who the joke’s on, I don’t know if there is a joke” - this line in the film, from Banksy’s promoter, is a pretty succinct summing of the film project as a whole. This film is a tongue-firmly-in-the-cheek look at the commercialisation of art, something that Banksy himself has been accused of.

Elusive street artist Banksy has made a documentary. Well, maybe; sort of; it’s more of a mock-umentary; or a piece of video art perhaps? Labelled as the ‘world’s first street-art disaster movie’, the subject of his film is vintage-clothes-shop-owner-turnedstreet-artist Thierry ‘Terry’ Guetta – a.k.a. Mr Brainwash. An obsessive videographer, French-born Guetta lucked into the burgeoning street

artist movement and specifically Shepard Fairey (of the Obama ‘Hope’ poster fame) after moving to L.A.. He convinced Fairey and his fellow street artists, including renowned Bristol boy Banksy, that he was a documentary-maker, allowing him full access to their furtive world. Over a period of years, Guetta amassed a huge amount of material showing the growth of the street-art movement;

The film also examines the idea of the ‘celebrity artist’; Banksy’s artwork is hanging in the homes of stars such as Brad and Angelina, Christina Aguilera and Kate Moss. Then there are the important questions the film raises about creation and ownership. Narrated by Rhys Ifans (Enduring Love) and with one of the best film titles in a long time, Exit Through the Gift Shop promises an amusing and intriguing examination of the current state of the art market. Documentary, mockumentary, piss-take or piece of modern art? That’s up to you to decide. BETH WILSON

tolerate in order to pay off debt, and eat, and afford the small pleasures that make it all bearable – but will probably kill you. Add the nagging spouse, and the constant need to fill out forms, and modern life really can seem like hell.

Belgian partners-in-crime Benoit Delépine and Gustave de Kervern (Louise-Michel – SFF ’09) are masters of deadpan, surrealist comedy – and many of the scenes in their films resemble the kind of one-shot sight gags that Little Britain, or Swedish auteur Roy Andersson (You, the Living), do so well. With Mammuth, their fourth feature, they continue their deadpan, darkly comic

exploration of the lives of quiet desperation that factory workers lead. At age 60, Serge (played by Gérard Depardieu - large and lumpen, with a mane of woolly, matted hair) has succumbed to the whole host of banal (but thoroughly evil) trappings of modern life: the shitty house and mortgage, the loans you can’t ever quite pay-off, and the job you hate but

Upon his retirement from the local abattoir, where he has worked for ten years, all his boss can say for Serge is that he has been punctual, thorough and even-tempered; his colleagues shuffle their feet, eat the party food, and give him a 2000piece puzzle. Spurred into action by his vitriolic wife (Yolande Moreau), Serge sets out on an Odyssean quest through his past places of employment - a cemetery, a bar, a fun park, a roadside diner - to obtain the vital affidavits required to claim his retirement pension. But as soon as he dusts off his old motorcycle, the past (literally) returns to haunt him, offering a chance to re-invent himself.

Roman Polanski’s substantial work as an artist has more recently been overshadowed by his three-decade flight from the law; but one needn’t, and shouldn’t, sully the other. The Ghost Writer is a robust and skillful thriller that’s refreshingly devoid of the skittish editing and ADD storytelling to which we’re more accustomed. Instead, Polanski handles with Hitchcockian confidence the titular character’s slide into the world of conspiracies and political intrigue.

stateside because the U.S. do not recognize the authority of the International Criminal Court. Security is high – the ghost can’t even take the memoir draft from the secure office – and soon he’s stuck between evasive politicians, mysterious men in black and Lang’s wife, who is played rather deliciously by Olivia Williams. She’s the smartest and most engaging character, a woman who uses her quick wit to her own advantage without letting others in on the joke.

He, known only as “the ghost”, is played by Ewan McGregor, a blank-slate character assigned to write the memoirs of ex-British PM Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). A thinly veiled shadow of Tony Blair, Lang is shacked up in a windswept beachfront home in the U.S., avoiding extradition (in an obvious Polanski real-life parallel) to the UK. He’s under suspicion of handing over terrorist suspects to the CIA while in office, and is

There’s a zing to the character interplay here thanks to Robert Harris (who wrote the source novel, The Ghost) and Polanski’s sharp, wryly funny dialogue, that veils characters’ true intentions. The film also demonstrates Polanski’s superb control of editing and suspense. The final shot, apparently improvised, is ingenious. JOSHUA BLACKMAN Ewan McGregor will attend this Australian premiere at SFF.

Debra Granik’s gritty and emotionally raw debut feature Down to the Bone, which made Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air) a star, make us curious to see her follow-up. Winter’s Bone, a thriller, set in the wilds of Missouri’s Ozark highlands, was described by Salon.com’s Andrew O’Hehir as “The Sopranos, transposed to the Ozarks, with a teenage female protagonist”. Further piquing our interest is the fact that Winter’s Bone won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance this year.

screen from Kim Basinger and Charlize Theron in The Burning Plain) stars as Ree Dolly, a teen who has become the carer for her two younger sisters and her ailing mother. Ree has one week to track down her father, a crystal-meth dealer who has gone missing after being released from prison, and putting the family’s house up for bail bond. Unless she can make him show up for trial, the family will be evicted.

In their statement about the film, the directors say: We wanted a film that is funny and moving. Funny because we’re confronting a ‘socially disabled’ man with a modern society that is beyond his reach. Moving for the same reason. DJ

Pre-empting his impending death, family patriarch Edoardo bestows his company upon his son Tancredi, and Tancredi’s son Edo. Meanwhile, the women of the family look on, expected to exercise grace and discretion at all times – a part that Tancredi’s wife Emma (Tilda Swinton) has been doing for many years. Enter her son’s friend Antonio, a workingclass chef.

Infused with the visuals of Visconti and the spirit of Antonioni, Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love is proving to be a cinephile’s wet-dream, trailing breathless praise behind it as it passes through international festivals. Anyone who loves beauty, poetry, romance and fashion – not to mention Tilda Swinton! – will also love this expansive romance, which takes in the natural pleasures of the countryside and cuisine of Sanremo, as well as the 36 :: BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10

forbidding architecture of Milan, and the oppressive opulence of aristocracy. Set at the turn of the millenium, the story takes place within and around three generations of the Recchi family, one of Milan’s largest textile producers. They live in a large Mussolini-era mansion – grey on the outside, but sumptuous within. Dinner parties are carefully choreographed affairs of perfection, from the entrée to the crystalware, and the carefully polished conversation.

Guadagnino’s film simmers with passion, rather than boiling over. Emma’s sexual awakening is signified by an orgasmic encounter with a prawn dish made by Antonio, filmed with lingering eroticism; the lovers’ first encounter, in the grass, is shown in a dream-like montage of extreme close-ups of sunlight playing on their intertwined bodies, intercut with images of their natural surrounds – impressionistic rather than explicit. In every shot of Tilda Swinton you feel how truly she is Guadagnino’s muse. Even the clothes, by Jil Sanders, and Fendi, seem to worship her body. The final ingredient in this perfect dish is a nervy but exhilarating soundtrack by American avant-garde composer John Adams. DJ Luca Guadagnino will attend SFF, including post-screening Q&As.

Incredible young actress Jennifer Lawrence (who almost stole the

Granik’s poetic sophomore feature is infused with Gothic fairytales, film noir and the primal force of ancient myth. DJ

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that any surveillance cameras can only get blurry shots (yes, really). Morris has a rich history in poking fun at the media and the way we use (or are used by) it, producing shows such as Brass Eye, a spoof current affairs program which pranked celebrities into endorsing ridiculous products; and satirical news bulletins On the Hour and The Day Today (on which he collaborated with In The Loop director Armando Ianucci).

From UK comedy-powerhouse Chris Morris comes what is possibly the world’s first farce about jihad. Morris presents his four ‘heroes’ as buffoons, who fall into Islamic fundamentalism because it just

Cult favourite Todd Solondz takes the characters from his controversial tragi-comedy Happiness, and re-examines them ten years on, with different actors - including Shirley Henderson, Allison Janney, Charlotte Ramping, Ally Sheedy, Pee-Wee Herman (a.k.a. Paul Reubens) and ‘Omar’ from The Wire. It’s worth watching Happiness again before seeing this, as it reprises some of the director’s earlier themes about forgiveness and relationships.

seems like a good thing to do. Cue scenes of them trying to record ‘martyrdom videos’, complete with blooper reels; testing explosives on birds; and waggling their heads from side-to-side when they’re outside, so

Solondz has had a strong and distinctive voice in international cinema since Welcome to the Dollhouse, with darkly comic portraits of American suburbia, and characters who often tread a difficult line between being empathetic and repulsive. Humanity always prevails, however.

There is a serious side to Four Lions, and lest you think Morris doesn’t realise it, he researched the subject for three years. In his Director’s Statement for the film Morris says: Terrorist cells have the same group dynamics as stag parties and five a side football teams. There is conflict, friendship, misunderstanding and rivalry. Terrorism is about ideology, but it’s also about berks. DJ Chris Morris will attend SFF, including post-screening Q&As.

that plays the paedophilia, terrorism and racism cards. DJ Shirley Henderson will attend SFF, including post-screening Q&As.

Director Julie Bertuccelli captured Australian audiences with her debut feature Since Otar Left (2003), a rich intergenerational story about grief. She returns with The Tree, based on Australian expat Judy Pascoe’s novel, and starring the completely charming Charlotte Gainsbourg. The Tree just had its premiere at Cannes, chosen to close the festival; after the screening, it received a sevenminute standing ovation. After her husband dies, a little girl becomes convinced that his spirit resides in the Moreton Bay fig tree in their backyard; soon the entire family are participating

in nightly audiences with ‘the tree’. The film follows the family’s path through grief and towards renewal, through this unusual route, and alternates between the perspective of the mother (Gainsbourg) and the child (7-year-old Australian newcomer Morgana Davies - who some critics say steals the film). Speaking at the Cannes press conference, Bertucceli said, “I wanted to see how I could treat nature as a mirror of feeling, and make it present in peoples’ lives, in order to help people live.” DJ Julie Bertucceli will attend the SFF, including post-screening Q&As.

This is his sixth feature. and by most accounts, his best. It may even take him to the mainstream - which is really saying something, for a film Yes, it’s got the least marketable title ever – but it also lets you know roughly what you’re in for, plot-wise. This latest film from Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul continues his exploration of reincarnation. Uncle Boonmee, on his death bed, surrounds himself with loved ones, and reflects upon his life – or lives, as it were. Like his earlier films Blissfully Yours and Tropical Malady, Uncle Boonmee is a meditation on and within rural Thailand, particularly its tropical jungles. The film has come straight from its world premiere at Cannes, where it took the Palme D’Or – that festival’s biggest prize – which may take this director’s very distinctive body of work beyond its passionate but limited fan base (very few of whom, interestingly, are from Thailand).

Weerasethakul’s lush, sensual and somewhat hallucinogenic films follow a dream-logic that requires the viewer to surrender to the

experience, rather than looking for the plot points. Definitely not a film to ‘squeeze in’ between chores! DJ

Julien Temple’s documentary Oil City Confidential chronicles the life and times of Lee Brilleaux and Wilko Johnson, the charismatic team behind seminal British pub act Dr Feelgood. Hailing from the tiny community of Canvey Island, and growing up in the shadow of the oil refinery, boredom spawned Dr Feelgood’s energetic blend of blues and punk, which inspired Johnny Rotten and Joe Strummer into their own seminal bands.

20 years old, and causing a whole lotta fuss. And this is Xavier Dolan’s second feature – his first, I Killed My Mother (which won three of the four awards out of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight last year) is also playing in the festival. So if you want to hear a fresh young voice, and see one of the ‘ones to watch’, this is it. Heartbeats is all about the ‘fall’ part of falling in love, with its passion, exhilaration, anxiety. When best friends Francis (Dolan himself) and Marie meet country-boy Nicolas, ‘fresh off the bus’ as it were, the two begin a headlong fall into love (or is it lust?) with the 38 :: BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10

newcomer, driving a wedge into their once-solid friendship. Dolan writes what he knows, and as with his debut, he mines his own experience and emotions. Here is what he says about Heartbeats: I was returning from a road trip with two friends, Niels and Monia. The journey had laid on some rich moments ranging from arid deserts to outlandish obese people. Locked in together for mile after mile, the dynamics of our intimacy sparked ideas for a project about a love triangle. DJ

In an incredibly prolific and diverse career, Michael Winterbottom’s latest film is his first real genre piece, as well as his first feature fully shot in the US. His aim with this project – in fact his passion – was to adapt Jim Thompson’s pulp novel The Killer Inside Me as faithfully as possible. The result is a mercilessly violent film noir, starring Casey Affleck as Texan deputy sheriff Lou Ford, who has a predilection for violence and rough sex. When an affair with a prostitute (Jessica Alba) triggers something deep-seated in Ford’s psyche,

he embarks on a killing spree – unbeknownst to his colleagues (who are on the hunt for the serial killer) or his girlfriend (Kate Hudson). The story is seen through the lens of Ford’s increasingly delusional perspective, which, when you add genre conventions into the mix, makes for a heady, overblown experience. This film comes with an unequivocal warning: depictions of extreme violence contained within. If you found Irreversible tough, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. DJ

To get your hands on one of ten passes to the screening on June 10 at 8.30pm at Event Cinemas (George St), tell us one other film by Julien Temple (hint: p34) We’ve been locking ourselves in dark rooms for weeks now watching films, to bring you reviews of this year’s Sydney Film Festival. For all the reviews, RIGHT NOW, head to thebrag.wordpress.com We’ll also be blogging our reviews daily, as we come out of screenings. XOXO BRAG

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Creative Sydney [FESTIVAL] The future is now. By Dee Jefferson

“There are already lot of really fantastic initiatives to look at peoples’ inspiration,” Scully explains – “Semi-Permanent, for example; there are events like Next Wave in Melbourne, that are about the development of artistic work; or Underbelly, which was about seeing work developed in progress. And I didn’t want to replicate something that’s already done really well. So for me the goal this year is to refocus what we do onto the creative industries.” With ten years of experience in independent publishing and media, and as Director of the Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards and its industry mentorship program, Scully doesn’t just know her subject, she lives it. “I think creative people don’t need any help coming up with ideas," she suggests, "they can deliver those in spades. The thing that’s really hard is learning how to turn those ideas into a successful business, or

into a career with longevity. That’s the challenge. How do you create a career that is creatively sustaining and inspiring, and you get to work on projects that inspire you – but you also pay the bills.” It’s no mean feat, and it’s something that people who have been in the industry twice as long as Scully still have trouble juggling - which is both daunting and relieving at the same time! Scully laughs - “I always feel a little bit better when I know that people whose brands I really respect, or whose events I really enjoy going to, struggle with a lot of the same things that I struggle with everyday.” For that reason, one of Scully’s favourite sessions last year was the ‘Epic Fail’ panel, featuring a selection of the festival's 'Creative Catalysts' - including artist Deborah Kelly, Jamie Leonarder (a.k.a. Jay Katz), and experimental filmmaker Stefan Popescu (Sydney Underground Film Festival) – “telling it like it is, showing us the lowest points in their careers, and then talking about how they came back.” The second big change this year is the creation of distinct 'pathways' through the festival, so that punters can participate on several different levels – if you are particularly focused on professional development, and want to take notes, the weeknight sessions may suit you best; for an overview of key trends and future

Popcorn Superhet Receiver

'Epic Fail' session, Creative Sydney 2009.

directions of the creative industries, head to ‘Creative Futures’, a day of panels held on Saturday June 5. Those who seek more direct networking, should sign up for the ‘Creative Connections’ day, on Saturday June 12, which gives punters one-on-one face time and consultations with the organisations that can help you make your creative work financially viable. “It’s so much easier if you can just speak to a person for ten minutes, Scully enthuses - "explain the situation you’re in, and they can say ‘you know what we can’t help you’, or they might say ‘these are the programs that are open to you’ or ‘why don’t you try this’…” For those of us who loved the opportunity at last year’s festival to discover exciting new projects

Richard Tognetti is 44-years-old and has been Artistic Director of the internationally acclaimed Australian Chamber Orchestra for 21 years – and he doesn’t agree with me at all. “I have to say, I’m not really overly concerned about audiences dwindling,” he says, “I haven’t seen any reason for that”. Tognetti grew up in Geelong on a diet of Pink Floyd; he also happens to be a virtuoso violinist – so he knows both sides of the cultural coin. Since he came to the ACO in 1989, at just 25 years of age, he has been an adventurous programmer, mixing classical pieces with experimental and contemporary composers, like John Adams and Xenakis.

Alice Ansara (far left) in rehearsals for Oresteia.

The ACO’s current program, titled ‘Romantic Symphony’, exemplifies Tognetti’s approach to programming: on the same bill as Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony and Brahms’ Symphony No. 1, sits an avant-garde composition by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, titled ‘Popcorn Superhet Receiver’. This will be the Australian premiere of the piece, which was composed in 2004, and threaded through the soundtrack of the Academy Award-winning film There Will Be Blood; as such, its inclusion on

Greenwood, like Tognetti, is a ‘slashie’ – a guitarist/violist. “In things like Radiohead’s Kid A, you can hear the inspiration that comes from [Greenwood’s] classical training, in the arrangements for strings,” Tognetti says – “but it’s still essentially a ‘pop song’ – whereas [‘Popcorn Superhet Receiver’] is one of his first forays into writing for an orchestra; and it’s essentially from a classical lineage.”

There is a certain connection between the frenetic, anxious, ecstasy of ‘Popcorn Superhet Receiver’ and the Brahms No. 1, which is so emotive. Interestingly, Tognetti tells me, the music used in bowling ball murder scene at the end of There Will Be Blood was the last movement of the Brahms Violin Concerto. “I loved that strange juxtaposition; I think the reason must have been because it’s an ecstatic piece, and Daniel Day Lewis’s character is sort of in this ecstatic state – so there you go, that’s a connection between programmatically using Jonny Greenwood and Brahms!” For me, the odd one out in this line-up is Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony – it’s an incredibly popular piece, but it’s far more controlled than the other pieces. “It is more controlled than the Brahms,” Tognetti agrees, “[Schubert] is in incredible control as a craftsman, and no more so than in this symphony; but I find it incredibly powerful and dramatic – it certainly takes me on a journey.” “I like to think of myself as a bit of a curator, like in an art gallery,” Tognetti reflects – “you put improbable and unlikely things next to each other, which you wouldn’t normally do at home.” What: ‘Popcorn Superhet Receiver’ by Jonny Greenwood, as part of ACO’s ‘Romantic Symphony’ program. When: June 1 & 2 Where: City Recital Hall, Angel Place

Richard Tognetti.

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More: tickets from $35 from aco.com.au

What: Creative Sydney When: June 5 - 13 Where: Museum of Contemporary Art More: www.creativesydney.com.au

[THEATRE] War, bloody vengeance, sex... and sexism. By Alice Hart

the program will inevitably draw a whole swathe of ‘noobs’ into the ACO’s sphere.

At the time of this interview, Tognetti hadn’t yet spoken to Greenwood about ‘Popcorn Superhet Receiver’. “I heard a rumour about this piece a few years ago, and we tried to get a recording and we couldn’t; and then it went kind of ‘out of ear, out of mind’. I perchance went to There Will Be Blood, and I thought the music and the use of music was fantastic; when I dug a bit deeper, I found out that it was no less than this piece [that I had originally been trying to get hold of], that had been cut up [for the film].”

“The idea is to kind of cross the tribes,” Scully says. “What would happen if you mashed Dorkbot with Even Books? The content would be amazing, and it would be a really compelling mix of lo-fi and high tech, but it also means that people who knew about [each project] would discover the other.”

Oresteia

[CLASSICAL] Richard Tognetti serves Brahms to the Radiohead massive. By Alice Hart grew up with classical music, and I’ve been going to concerts since I was little; but even I feel like there is a certain stigma attached to 'classical music' by people under 30 – it’s partly a cringe against the highbrow, and partly the expense of concerts; and once you actually get there, it’s hard to escape the sense that you are a stranger in a foreign land - one of very few young people in the audience.

and artists, there is still a performance strand to the festival: from Monday June 7 – Saturday June 12, you can check out the ‘Sydney Sessions’ – nightly performances of crossdisciplinary collaboration.

n preparation for Sydney Theatre Company’s upcoming production, I’ve been reading the Ted Hughes version of the Oresteia, a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus in the th 5 century BC. I’m surprised by how gripping the tale is, with Hughes' large swathes of poetic prose conjuring up images of war, bloody vengeance and sexual licentiousness that add meat to what is a fairy simple revenge tragedy. The Oresteia is set within the cursed house of Atreus (the lurid back-story to this curse, incidentally, involves one brother serving another a stew of his butchered children). In the first play, a victorious King Agamemnon returns to Argos after ten years years at war with Troy. Awaiting his return is his wife Clytemnestra, who has been having an affair with Agamemnon’s cousin (and would-be successor), and who has secretly been harbouring a significant grudge against her husband for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia, on the way to Troy. No sooner has Agamemnon returned, with the prophetess Cassandra as part of his war loot, than Clytemnestra murders him. In the second play, Orestes, the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, returns to Argos to avenge his father’s death (encouraged by his sister Electra). STC’s Associate Director Tom Wright is taking the helm of the upcoming production, based on his own adaptation. Wright is an old-hand at adapting the classics, having written Barrie Kosky's update of Women of Troy (STC '08), The War of the Roses (STC ’09), and Voltaire’s ‘Candide’ (Optimism – STC ’09). Wright believes that certain prevalent ideas or ideologies in modern society can be better tackled from an oblique angle – through a classic work, for example – than head on.

Like most classic drama, the Oresteia can be appreciated on several levels; it’s a gripping, often lurid, tale of revenge; it’s an insight into the way we as individuals interpret and process our pasts; and it's a foundation document of modern ideology. Wright is incredibly conscious of this last aspect in particular. “This adaptation focuses on two things, predominantly,” the director explains. “[Firstly] it takes seriously the idea that we in the 21st century can’t see the Greek classics except through Freud; [secondly] it tries to draw attention, and not disguise or hide from, the way that there’s a kind of innate patriarchy at work in [the Oresteia] – the way Clytemnestra is treated; the way Cassandra, in particular, is treated; but also the way women are generally treated in the ideological superstructure of the play.” “In the final play, the god Apollo says things like ‘to kill a man is a greater crime than to kill a woman'; and the most important one is Apollo’s description that the true parent is the father, and all the mother is is sort of an ‘incubating womb’. So if you want to know where everything from Senator Fielding [of the Family First party] through to the gentle sexism of the Women’s Weekly comes from, one of the core sources is ancient Greek rationalism – the other one is Judeo Christian [ideology].” This is part of the reason behind Wright’s decision to recast the Greek chorus of ‘Elder Statesmen’ in the first part of the Oresteia into women. One of his chorus-members is Alice Ansara, part of the STC’s ‘Residents’, and who worked with Wright previously on his segment of The Mysteries: Genesis (2009). Like me, the young actress has embraced the opportunity to learn more about this key work in the dramatic canon. “I’ve started reading the Greeks, and a little bit of Greek history,” she reflects. “And I have to say,” she says slyly, “without, you know, sucking up to the writer/director: I’ve read the Hughes version, and I’ve read a couple of other versions – and Tom’s adaptation is very good.” What: Oresteia, by Aeschylus, in a new adaptation by Tom Wright When: Opens June 5, previews from June 1. Where: STC – Wharf 1 More: sydneytheatre.com.au

Richard Tognetti photo by Jon Frank / Oresteia photo by Brett Boardman

reative Sydney is first and foremost an event about Sydney’s ‘creative industries’ – not, Festival Director Jess Scully emphasises, an ‘Arts Festival’. “I’m interested in work which is creative and artistic, but is created with the purpose of meeting the needs of an audience or market,” she clarifies. And a glance over the Creative Sydney program this year certainly confirms the festival’s refocus on the 'business of creative work' – including panels like ‘Agents + Managers’, ‘Networks & Clusters’, ‘Creative / Commercial’ and ‘Global Talent, Local Market’.

©DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC.

www.princeofpersiamovie.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.

Gnosis

■ Theatre

HOLE IN THE WALL May 26-29 @ Performance Space

PICS :: TL

pechakucha

Hole in The Wall is a unique storytelling performance that the audience literally becomes part of. Arriving at the show, everyone is split up into separate lines and enter four, small, identically wallpapered rooms. Without any warning, the floors start rotating and you are forced to follow the moving and encroaching walls, until the motion finally ceases. As the music reaches crescendo, one of the walls opens to reveal the stage, the performers and another segment of the audience; and so the show begins.

20:05:10 :: Superdeluxe@Art Space :: The Gunnery Bldng 43-51 Cowper Wharf Rd

Featuring gripping performances from Matt Prest and Clare Britton, the key collaborators behind the concept of Hole in the Wall, the performance is both highly visual and experimental. Incorporating music, dance and visual art, Britton and Prest draw you into their relationship and life, examining and deconstructing all their fears, hopes, dreams and nightmares. In pursuit of their ‘perfect’ home, this fragmented, dark, suburban love story explores the deterioration of a couple, as well as the fears and insecurities that continue to haunt their lives and corrode the relationship. The mysterious and sometimes abstract dialogue is accentuated with visuals, haunting ‘alter egos’ and music, creating an atmosphere laden with tension, anger and tarnished love. Throughout the show, the walls close and the navigation within the performance space begins once again, with each wall re-opening to reveal a ‘different’ room of the house and a new scene. As the actors constantly use the doors of these rooms, the audience become flies on the wall and experience the darker secrets of Prest and Britton’s relationship.

PICS :: RR

performance space season launch

Hole in the Wall is a house with a life of its own, and a performance that will leave you examining your own insecurities and sense of happiness.

19:05:10 :: Carriageworks :: 245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh 85719099

Arts Exposed Our hot tip for the week...

SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2010 JUNE 2 – 14

State Theatre, Dendy OQ, Sydney Opera House and Event Cinemas (George St) It’s one of our favourites times of the year, where we have an excuse to sit in the dark with our little nanna-rug and a cup of hot chocolate, and bliss-out. There are 157 films this year, so we’re feeling really spoiled for choice; there are various strands within the festival – Sounds on Screen, for example; or the ‘mood’ pathways, which include ‘Take Me On a Journey’ and ‘Push Me to the Edge’. Or, you could just close your eyes and point at a random spot in the program… Head to p X-Y, where we’ve compiled our hit-list of mustsee films, from the Official Competition, to the ‘Best of the Rest’. We’ve also posted lashings of pre-festival reviews online, where we’ll also be posting our daily reviews throughout the festival.

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Prue Clark ■ Film

PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME Released May 27 On the incredibly low level at which it aims, Prince of Persia is enjoyable. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a good time, or have a smile on my face every time Alfred Molina showed up as a desert-dwelling, ostrichracing gambler with a hatred for the tax man. But it’s also pure product, less an adaptation of the enduring game series created by Jordan Mechner than a Jerry Bruckheimer blockbuster in the vein of Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s the most expensive video game adaptation ever made, with a budget of over US$150 million; and to damn it with faint praise, it’s probably the best adaptation yet. It excels particularly in action sequences borrowed directly from the game – the parlour wall-running gymnastics indulged by our hero Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), a street urchin adopted into the Persian royal family as a child.

Gyllenhaal, having already proven himself a very capable actor, makes for a surprisingly effective action hero with his bulging pythons, long hair and a convincing English accent. As Dastan, he finds himself framed for the murder of his King and forced to escape the newly captured city of Alamut with the delectable princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton - Clash of the Titans). They must protect the treasured “Sands of Time” dagger from his scheming uncle Nizam (Ben Kingsley), who wants to use its ability to travel back in time for his own nefarious purposes. Along the way there’s action, pseudo-screwball banter between the romantic leads, mystics, snakes and the most unconvincing sandstorm ever put to film. At times Persia longs for a Lawrence of Arabia level of desert grandeur, when instead it’s closer to the hammy 50s epics where sound stages stood in for location shooting. It also clearly aspires to a Raiders of the Lost Ark style of adventure, albeit with an even more threadbare plot and Disney kid-friendly tone, which, ultimately, is its target audience. If I were 12 I would love this film, and, I suppose, that means that it’s some sort of success. Joshua Blackman ■ Dance

GNOSIS BY AKRAM KHAN May 26 & 27 at Sydney Opera House Virtuosic dancer Akram Khan combines his classical Indian and contemporary dance roots in his latest work, Gnosis. Divided into two parts, the first sees Khan don ankle bells as he explores the traditional Indian dance form kathak, to the sounds of the tabla, sarod, taiko drums and cello. The inspiration for this solo piece is the Mahabharata, an Indian epic about the blind king Dhriarashata and his wife Gandhari, who, in an act of devotion to her husband, blindfolds herself for life. Gnosis’ opening sequence is remarkable. Taiko drummer Yoshie Sunahata is seated facing away from the audience, beating a single drum faster and faster and louder and louder as the lights go down, until only the surface of the drum before her is lit, a luminous white disc floating centre stage. When the drumming reaches its climax, Khan emerges, light gleaming off his bald head. And then he begins to dance. Khan is magnetic. In this classical part, his movements were very upright, stylised and upper-body focused - even the shape of his hands has been carefully choreographed. This amazing kathak performance proved Khan’s reputation as an exquisite dancer with exceptional stamina. However, when shown to an audience who haven’t grown up with this classical Indian dance vocabulary, the kathak form could begin to drag. Gnosis: Part 2 is contemporary based. Rather than a solo, Khan is joined once again by Sunahata, now as a dancer and singer (is there anything she can’t do?). This piece explores the notion of inner knowledge and clouded vision, themes of darkness, blindness and the difficulty of a clear vision in life. As a narrative, it’s more successful, and as a fusion of Western contemporary and Indian traditional forms, it’s riveting. A very strong ending. Lucy Fokkema

See thebrag.wordpress.com for more reviews

DVD Reviews What's been on our TV screens this week The good, the bad, and the damn ugly...

IN THE LOOP

LAW ABIDING CITIZEN

Madman Entertainment Released June 2. Forget West Wing - is this what politics is really like? The characters of this scathing political comedy, are either selfishly manipulative or clueless. In the former category are Brit spin doctor Malcolm Tucker (played with profane relish by Peter Capaldi) and American warmonger Linton Barwick (David Rasche). In the latter is the bumbling British MP Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), who mumbles suggestive platitudes about a possible war in the Middle East. “To walk the road of peace,” he says, “sometimes we need to be ready to climb...the mountain... of conflict.” This understandably ruffles Whitehall’s feathers, and soon he finds himself a pawn in a trans-Atlantic game to justify a war. Iraq is never named, but the allegory is plain. Director Armando Iannucci has adapted his BBC series The Thick of It, drawn upon the zaniness of Dr. Strangelove and blended it with the pseudo-documentary style of The Office to craft one of the most entertaining and timely political satires in years.It’s also utterly hysterical, with dozens of throwaway one-liners that also offer sly observation. Hollander is a lovable fumbling klutz and a good foil for Capaldi. When asked his opinion in a Washington committee meeting all he can muster is that it is “difficult, difficult, lemon, difficult.” You have to at least admire his honesty. Extras for this single-disc relase include a director's commentary with Armando Iannucci, deleted scenes, and interviews with key cast members and the director.

Roadshow Home Ent. Released June 3. A lot of platitudes are thrown around in F. Gary Gray’s new thriller, most of them by the psychopathic serial killer Clyde Shelton played by Gerard Butler. He voices fears about a judicial system more concerned with legal wrangling than with honest justice. You might sympathize with him for a little while, but less so after witnessing his alternative: the dismemberment of a live but paralysed victim, Saw-style, one limb at a time. Mercifully this occurs off screen, but it’s not the only bit of nasty in this trashy mix of Silence of the Lambs and Seven - that is nonetheless disturbingly entertaining, thanks to a healthy dose of ludicrousness. In the opening scene, Clyde’s wife and daughter are killed, and prosecutor Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) makes a deal with the killers to ensure a sentence (“It’s not what you know, but what can be proven in court,” he says). Clyde is furious and directs his vengeance at the killers and system that let them off lightly. The twist is that he is behind bars when the killings begin. How is he committing these crimes? Does he have an accomplice? And if so, who? The final answer is as absurd as some of the gleefully over-the-top killings. Despite all this, Law Abiding Citizen is suspenseful and decently made. Foxx and Butler make adequate adversaries, with the latter particularly having fun with the lipsmacking sociopathic traits of his character. Extras for this single-disc release include a behind-the-scenes featurette, and another about 'The Justice of Law Abiding Citizen.'

Joshua Blackman Joshua Blackman

Street Level with Pip Jamieson, co-founder of The Loop.

s part of Creative Sydney, Pip Jamieson will be talking on a panel about 'Crowds + Collaboration' – something she knows about, as one of the founds of The Loop, a professional networking space set up specifically for creative professionals – think LinkedIn, but with more functionality and fewer ‘corporates’. Lucy Fokkema took five with Pip to see what it’s all about. What is The Loop? It’s a space where they can put their portfolio online and connect with each other and employers. We’ve been online for five and a half months and we’ve got over 4, 500 portfolios online and companies like Frost Design, MTV networks, Discovery networks all looking through portfolios to find people. Do people use The Loop more to find collaborators, or professional networking? It’s a mix, 50/50 across the site. When you join the site you can say whether you are looking for work or just ‘sitting pretty’ as we call it. The people who are ‘sitting pretty’ are generally just looking for someone to work with. Is the site more useful for people who already have a profile or for emerging creative professionals looking to make a name for themselves? Definitely emerging. We do have a lot of established people on the site, but they’re more there as an inspiration to the emerging artists on the site. A lot of students are finding it a fantastic place, a) to build their presence online - it’s very expensive to create your own website and you have to think about things like domain names and hosting... [The Loop] is a good place for up and comers to have their work seen. Why is having something like The Loop important? Matt Fayle, my business partner came up with the idea. His creative friends were always asking him to build them wesbites - he recognised they needed a space to showcase their work... And when I worked in marketing at MTV we relied on word-of-mouth to find illustrators and designers, which is sometimes great but amazing people slip through the cracks... Professional sites like Linked In are

really corporate, resume-based, there’s no space for images or video - it doesn’t tell a story. For creatives, that’s useless. It’s your portfolio that speaks volumes and you need a space to put your content up and look at what other people are producing... We wanted to make it all about images and people’s art. What’s next for the Loop? We’re in Phase 2 of Web Development, which is frightening because we’ve only been live for five months. It’s kind of a hybrid of Facebook and Twitter, you can ‘follow’ people you admire through the site and you’ll get updates when they upload something to their portfolio. Unlike Twitter it’s not about what you’re having for lunch, or endless chatter, it’s all about content...just facilitating collaboration, allowing people to get their work out their and to get great jobs - all those goals will stay the same, we’re just looking for ways to make that easier. What: ‘Crowds + Collaboration’ panel session, as part of Creative Sydney (June 5-13) When: Saturday June 5, from 2-3pm Where: Foundation Hall, MCA More: theloop.com.au / creativesydney.com.au

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

CD OF THE WEEK CRYSTAL CASTLES II Shock

I’m really glad that people hated this band at first because this second album will force them to go back and reconsider.

Crystal Castles kicked and screamed their way onto the scene – smashing up record stores, spitting in the faces of their crowd and looking like they ate nothing but prescription pills and crackers. They polarised everyone and become one of those bands that you either love or hate. I fell into the ‘love’ camp. For all the hype and bullshit, I genuinely found the music to be inventive, exciting and full of those little ‘Ohhhh!’ moments. It wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t meant to be. And like all of those bands who debut with one ferocious lead album and can’t back it up, Crystal Castles left room for growth and improvement.

tunes. They’ve got brains, they’ve got things to say and they really explore the depths of what noise/electronic music can sound like. Tracks like ‘Violent Dreams’ and ‘Vietnam’ have an M83 meets DFA1979 feel. They start off dreamily distorted and twist and morph into almost violent assaults but it works, and the songs feel better for the risks. Alice’s vocals are frequently stuttered and filtered through phasers which adds to the disconnect between often tender lyrics and 8-bit nerd craziness. This album is pure atmosphere; a headphone symphony that will also sound punishing on the dancefloor.

Their second (and second self-titled) album has demonstrated that Crystal Castles are more than just a bunch of dirty punks stealing Madonna photos and chip-

Kirsty Brown

KAREN ELSON

CIRCLE PIT

TAME IMPALA

VILLAGERS

The Ghost Who Walks XL

Bruise Constellation Self-Released

Innerspeaker Modular

Becoming A Jackal Domino

For a girl from Oldham, supermodel Karen Elson’s quietly theatrical debut sounds worlds away from Old Blighty. It’s soaked in the postmodern Americana the White Stripes do so well, in dustbowl torch songs and ramshackle vaudeville ballads. Elson’s husband, a Mr. Jack White III, has a clear presence as both producer and drummer - particularly on ‘The Truth is in the Dirt’ which features a distinctly Stripes-y conversation between a lazy twang and a swaggering riff. If you love what White can do with a Dolly Parton or Carter Family cover, there’s lots to like here. All the old-timey country instrumentation – pedal steel, organ, cigar-box guitar, fiddle – is enormous fun, like your ears are playing dress-ups. Through all that atmosphere, it’s easy to lose sight of Elson herself at times; I wonder if being terrifyingly beautiful for a living makes her tread softly when she gets behind a mic? Yet her voice is lovely and suits the woolly analogue recordings to a T. She doesn’t quite achieve the sheer yearning of the classic chanteuses, and here and there it feels burdened by the weight of the references being invoked. But she absolutely nails it more than once – the gorgeous '100 Years From Now', equal parts Piaf and Kurt Weill; and 'A Thief at My Door', a sparse, smouldering slow number Neko Case wouldn’t kick out of bed, with a darkly fuzzy guitar in the final third. Elson wrote or co-wrote all but one of the songs here, and for all White’s set-dressing, they easily stand up on their own. If she keeps going like this, Karen Elson might be the best crossover from fashion since Grace Jones. This is how to be a slashie.

Jack Mannix is one of those people who everybody knows through six degrees of separation. He’s friends with some of my friends, he appears in magazines that we read frequently (most notably in his selfshot VICE photo essay ‘Jack Mannix Is Smoking’) and even though I’ve never met the guy, I feel like I’ve been hearing about him for years. Bruise Constellation is a result of what was probably quite a lot of work - but it comes off looking like a rush job because Mannix and his female partner in crime Angie Garrick are too busy trying to be cool-as-fuck to lend any thought to proper production or tightening up vocal lines. Half the time you can’t tell if they’re singing out of tune to be ironic, or if that’s meant to be the point - but really, this doesn’t do a band with a solid live following any favours. This collection is all about projecting a certain style and way of living. That style is wastrel chic and that way of living is always catching up on last night’s party, while delicately balancing a stolen cigarette in your mouth; but for those of us who aren’t that way inclined, Circle Pit don’t offer anything particularly enlightening. The musical ideas are strong enough, the guitar playing fits nicely into the post-grunge canon, but deliberately sounding like Kurt Cobain when he was utterly fucked on smack is not something that can work over a whole LP. The people who will like this already know who they are. I’m just not one of them. Jonno Seidler

Tame Impala were one of those bands I always wanted to like. Their first EP, while showing a marked lack of experience, did have a great deal of promise. And their live shows, whenever I caught them, have always been pretty great. So you can imagine how disappointed I was when, arriving home to listen to their debut LP Innerspeaker, all I discovered was a pile of late-60s obsessed psychedelic repetition. While the whole thing has a sense of honesty in its creation that is somewhat redeeming, and while the production does sound great especially at the start - the problem is the shameless lack of dynamics. If that was the point, it's a weak one to make - and the less said about the lyrics the better. All the songs sound the same; so much so that I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that they were all written in the same key, in the same week. One thing I can say in the album's favour is that it does have some really catchy moments. Singer and songwriter Kevin Parker has a gift for crafting the most fucking infectious little vocal hooks. He comes across like John Lennon’s long lost brother on this album though which, while it sounds great, does mean you're sort of constantly comparing the songs to The Beatles - and that’s a battle no one can win. 'It Is Not Meant To Be' and 'Desire Be Desire Go' are pretty good, and there are some fantastic moments across the rest of the album, but they’re only moments - and are so easily lost. It’s not a terrible album, it’s just mediocre in way that I find intensely offensive - as it offered so much yet delivered so little.

Becoming a Jackal starts with an organ drone and an alluring scrape of strings. A dense matrix of piano spins into focus, drawing it all together like a towering loom. It sounds like you’re lost in a Grimm brothers forest. A cyclical chord progression repeats and repeats; you’ve got no idea where you are.

TEENAGE FANCLUB Shadows Liberator Music Glasgow’s Teenage Fanclub is a songwriting democracy; each album contains an equal distribution of songs by Norman Blake, Raymond McGinley and Gerry Love. When all three are on song they create power pop to rival Big Star, harmonies to rival The Byrds and indie gems to rival anyone.

You’re lost, and Conor O’Brien doesn’t give you much hope in this spin of gothic pine: ‘It feels like I’m changing, keep forgetting my way, so I ask a lone stranger, but he led me astray.’ Then, a falsetto melody - the first of many to sound like a howl on the album - crawls down your neck like so many icy moths. Not all of the songs are as sultry as the first. The title track sounds a bit like Neil Young via Bright Eyes, and manages to brighten the mood considerably after ‘I Saw The Dead’. Understandably, the other famous indie Conor (Oberst) is a common point of reference for reviewers thus far, but O’Brien’s use of imagery, combined with a lyricism that is gauche at first but betrays new depths upon each listen, recalls records like Okkervil River’s The Stage Names or even Funeral, the first Arcade Fire record. Though it bears many listens well, it always seems as though something’s missing. The whole jackal/ transformation metaphor is clever, but it feels as though, lyrically at least, O’Brien could’ve leant a bit further into the darkness. It’s an exciting and rewarding listen, even if it does feel like you’re occasionally being led by the nose…

On Shadows, Norman Blake’s songs are dazzling. ‘Baby Lee’ combines sun-drenched harmonies with swooning strings and a cute xylophone line to produce a joyous love song. ‘When I Still Have Thee’ blends hammond organ and mandolin to reveal a golden pop nugget. But the other writers are distinctly off-colour. Gerry Love’s ‘Into The City’ is nondescript, passing by like a cloudy Scottish day; and his ‘Shock and Awe’ delivers the absolute opposite of its titular promise.

Luke Telford

Andy McLean

As for McGinley, his fragile voice is a double-edged sword. On 1995’s Grand Prix it perfectly articulated his vulnerability and self-doubt; on Shadows it just sounds strained and weak. His ability to conjure a compelling melody has deserted him, leaving the songs devoid of life or vitality. It gives me absolutely no pleasure to report any of this. I interviewed these charming men in 1992 and have been a paid up member of the Fanclub fanclub ever since. But such is the life of a critic – we have to call it as it is – and it’s now been 10 years since the Glaswegians produced a consistently great album. Norman Blake solo album anyone?

Mikey Carr Caitlin Welsh

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK

OFFICE MIXTAPE

THE PREACHERS

Wondering what the 'experts' listen to? Here's the music that drives The Brag... for this week, anyway.

The Preachers EP Independent

It’s great to hear this sort of music being done this well again. There’s something so timeless about blues, a fact well observed in the sheer amount of blues groups out there - but it’s rare nowadays to hear a band really capture the energy of artists like Muddy Waters or The Animals. And it’s especially exciting when a band’s doing it from Sydney.

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The Preachers’ duel vocalists Isabella Manfredi and Gideon Bensen have a parched quality in their voices that would make most men quiver, both displaying a great deal of versatility in style across the five songs. Bensen in particular goes from sounding very much himself to playing Nick Cave to Manfredi’s PJ Harvey - before bouncing back over for a bit of Gareth Liddiard rasp. Jak Orion and Bensen’s guitar work is stunning, moving from dense country twang to heavily effected atmospherics here and there. Matched with Manfredi’s simple but effective piano

playing, this young Sydney band has an authentic sound - even if it gets a bit derivative at times. Moments on this album sound like they could have been written by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - but you sort of want to ignore this when you listen to the EP, as they channel their influences with such verve as to colour the music anew. In the end you’re too busy enjoying it to get caught up in arguments about originality it’s more a case of liking the band in spite of their influences rather than because of them. Brilliant debut and I can’t wait to hear more. Mikey Carr

LOU REED - Transformer cLOUDDEAD - Ten SLEEPY SUN - Fever

TV ON THE RADIO - Dear Science HOLY FUCK - Latin

Single Reviews

Vinyl Record Review

By Mikey Carr from musicfeeds.com.au

THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE

COME TO THE VILLAGE

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

Belles Will Ring

Axis: Bold As Love [Remastered 2010] Universal

Opening with unnerving ambience before bringing in a catchy little guitar hook underneath wistful and hushed vocals, ‘Come To Village’ soon drops the pretence and gets straight down to the jingle jangle guitars - keeping the tempo down, and the mood up. One of the few local bands who really pull off the whole late 60s psychedelic vibe, Belles Will Ring showcase their skills as masterful songwriters on this track, demonstrating a good knowledge of structure and how to subvert it, without getting lost up their own arse. Produced to perfection, the song reaches that blissful point of polyphony where everything sort of bleeds into a joyous hum and you want to take your clothes off and sway in the wind. First class.

SURVIVAL OF THE FATTEST Loose Change (feat P. Smurf) Working over the top of P. Major's jazz sample heavy production, MCs Rappaport and Ellesquire, along with guest star P. Smurf deliver their rhymes with a fury and slickness that demonstrates that while this may be a new project, these guys are pros who know how to turn a phrase. There’s plenty of humour here, both in the sampling and some of the lyrics [“your bulimic break beats make me start to spew, and anorexic punchlines, somebody starving you?”], giving the track a very Aussie vibe that’s as charming as it is funny. More like this please, Aussie hip hop. More like this.

Buying a Hendrix LP brand new for thirty-five bucks won’t make you feel super cool, but that’s what mint-condition Stems singles at garage sales are for... So fuck the haters – if you have a record player and don’t own this album, a) what is wrong with you? and b) this is the version to buy.

THE RING

GOT NUFFIN

FLASHOVER

GRAPEFRUIT

Jamie Lidell

Spoon

Klaxons

Bearhug

First single from his latest album Compass, ‘The Ring’ sees Lidell embracing his love of funk and soul in a very big way. The song showcases Jamie’s amazing voice more so than anything else, with the instrumental arrangements playing more of a supportive role - and playing it to perfection. With Beck sitting in his producer’s chair, it’s easy to understand why everything sounds so good on this track.

This track would be great if I’d never heard The Strokes. Sure you shouldn’t judge a band by who they reference, but this song lacks any real presence as a stand alone product – it just sounds like a bassline with some overdubs on it, and some lacklustre lyrics sung in a lacklustre way. I’ve never been a massive Spoon fan, so maybe there's something I’m missing here, but compared to some of their other songs – the ones with the bounce and the humour and the moods - this just sounds flat and uninspired. Rather than adding texture, the listless piano tinkering just begs the question of whether these guys even give a fuck anymore.

This track reminds me of some overly made-up pommy dandy thrusting his own overinflated sense of self importance into my face as he screams "’ow good am I, innit!??" Aside from the addition of some slap bass, this sounds like pretty much everyone of their other singles, innit!??

Starting with a light and airy island vibe before going all moody and then coming back again, this first single off Bearhug’s forthcoming To Anything EP is a shining example of simple indie guitar rock with a bit of a shoegaze edge. The Sydney band do a great job, but it all feels a bit too safe, a bit too considered - there isn’t any real sense of excitement here. The band are obviously talented, and in the end the song sounds much better than most releases by similar bands, but that’s just not enough to make it truly engaging. It’s good pop but not great; and unless you really like this sort of thing it runs the risk of getting a little bit boring.

The fusion of Jamie’s vocal loops and the backing instrumentals give this song a depth and body you can feel in your gut. This is the future of pop music, and it’s happening already.

Is it just me or does it all just seem too half-assed? Sure they make a good amount of noise and they do it in fast tempo, but then you have these whingy mincing Blur-esque vocals over the top - not to mention what may just be the most poorly achieved breakdown in recent music history. Irrelevant indie nonsense.

The 180gm vinyl has a sexy weight to it, the anti-static sleeve is always a welcome touch and the slim booklet inside is very pretty - with rare photos, reproductions of Jimi’s handwritten lyrics and a concise, reverential essay. Individual numbering (it’s in a limited run of 5000) always makes one feel a bit special, too. In terms of the music, the mastering is polished without being intrusive or stomping out the roughness that gives that nebulous sense of 'authenticity'. The bass has better depth than on the (also excellent) CD reissue. It does feel like the stereo remastering suits some tracks better than others though – ‘Little Wing’ has a lot more texture and you can hear the subtle rolling effect of the Leslie speaker better, but ‘Wait Til Tomorrow’ sounds a bit hollow inside all of that stereo space. I’m not sure it imparts quite the same thrill as putting on your dad’s old copy with its faint smell of weed and incense, but it still sounds like the screaming good time it’s always been. Caitlin Welsh

BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 45

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

Cloud Control

Richard In Your Mind

oo much hype on a band and you’re often left underwhelmed. Not enough hype, and they might just slip right past you. Just enough hype and you’ve got yourself the perfect bowl of porridge. If you haven’t heard of Cloud Control already, then surely you’ve tucked yourself nicely away under sedimentation of some sort. Hailing from the Blue Mountains, this four piece is one band that will surely knock your winter socks off. Starting out with humble beginnings, these mountain folk are working themselves up the musical ladder, and have just released the long awaited debut album Bliss Release. What can you expect in this album? Exactly what the title suggests, bliss. Let TMC assure you, you won’t find two voices that are better suited to each other. Heidi and Alister’s vocals mix like spaghetti and meatballs and will leave you with an overall tasty experience. They say the drummer is the heartbeat to any song, and ‘they’ certainly aren’t wrong in this case - Ulrich who will have you gyrating away on the dance floor and clapping rhythms back in return. If we’re running with this heartbeat-body analogy, then you could say you that seeing Cloud Control live is an outof-body experience. A collection of warm, wholesome sounds and cheery pop tunes that sound like something out of the depths of a tropical forest, this record brings you a unique blend of harmonies and imaginative beats with beguiling bass hooks from bassist Jeremy, that’ll make you wish you were part of the team. Lucky for us, the clouds have aligned – mainly due to the high demand under 18s fans bombarded the band with and they’re bringing to you an all ages show. Teamed with friends Richard in Your Mind, Cloud Control has jumped into the tour jet for their national Bliss Release tour. Coming at you, straight out of Sydney, Richard in Your Mind’s psychedelic pop will have you grinning, as they romance you with their charm. Not just a supporting act, but a show in themselves. To hear the latest from Richard in Your Mind, be sure to pick up their second record My Volcano due to be released this June. Do yourself a favour and join the party. You can catch this enormous all ages shindig at The Clarendon in Katoomba this Thursday June 3.

encompassing the alternative Sydney with the escapist journey we all want. They have supported acts like Thrice, Closure in Moscow, and Forgiven Rival. Be sure to grab a copy of their debut EP Avalanches to get ready for a performance not to be missed. If you’re more inclined to hardcore, metal rock, then we might just make your day. Bringing you the biggest (and we don’t just mean size, but sound) line up, the Hordern Pavilion is offering up an all ages show with Bullet for My Valentine, Bring Me the Horizon and Cancer Bats. You know they’re a bunch of real deal bands when they turn their focus away from the commerce and superficiality that often comes with working in the music industry, and solely put focus their energies on the music and nothing else - as noted in countless interviews with the bands. TMC finds this so very refreshing, and we’re sure you do too. This is particularly the case with Welsh band Bullet for My Valentine who’ve stated they would never alter their sound for commercial gain. While this isn’t till September, the TMC thought we’d give you time to save your pennies and get yourself excited… And now for something a little bit different - words. Words are good, and here are three more of them. Shoot The Player. And no we’re not suggesting you to act out in violent behaviour. So then what is Shoot the Player you ask? It’s the Sydney music project, nay, MOVEMENT, led by Amelia Tovey and Jonathan Wald. This duo have combined their love of music and videos together to bring you single shot music films (much like Beyoncé’s ‘Single Ladies’ but with a tad smaller budget…) that will make you question what a musical video ought to be. Shot in real life locations with real deal unedited and spontaneous acoustic performances, these videos aim to capture the raw talent of the artists and the real essence of their environment. With the film clips arranged on line by the cities in which they were filmed, Shoot The Player will bring you performances from Paddington to Paris, from Beach House to Ben Lee to Frightened Rabbit to Washington. Original, unpredictable and quirky, Shoot The Player is definitely something you want to check out, and here’s where you can do just that: www.shoottheplayer.com. Should this inspire you, TMC suggests you to pick up a camera and get creative. School holidays are only a blink away! For more news and updates on The Minor Chord tune into to FBi 94.5fm every Wednesday from 5pm.

City Escape

Round about the same time as Cloud Control, you can catch City Escape for some indie/alternative rock at ‘Live at the Wall’ in Leichhardt. Scheduled for Sunday June 6, what better way is there to end the weekend and prepare you for the week ahead? Described as hardcore, yet ambient, City Escape are a band whose name belies their sound,

Send pics, listings and any info to minorchords@thebrag.com 46 :: BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10

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No good can possibly come from this. The Faces are doing it again and with Simply Red’s Mick Hucknell in place of Rod Stewart. They’re playing at the Vintage at Goodwood Festival in the UK in August with former Sex Pistol, Glen Matlock on bass which means it’ll just be original members, Ronnie Wood, Kenny Jones and Ian McLagan. The horror, eh? We reckon they might as well do a selection of Simply Red hits. The rest of the festival bill is far better than the headline act, and includes The Buzzcocks, The Wailers, The Beat, Martha And The Vandellas, Roy Wood’s Rock n’ Roll Orchestra, Alvin Stardust, The Damned, Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band and The Pretty Things, who are tackling the entire S.F Sorrow slab with special guest Arthur Brown.

13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS

They haven’t quite reached the level of The Doors or Hendrix when it comes to never ending streams of releases but the 13th Floor Elevators are sure giving it a good shot. With what seems like countless live recordings available and studio reissues, not to mention the now ridiculously priced boxed set Sign of the 3 Eyed Men , there’s now Headstone: The Contact Sessions - which was originally one of the big drawcards of said rare box. Recorded in 1966, it was to have been the Texan acid casualties debut album, but for some reason was dumped and Psychedelic Sounds came out of the blocks instead. Accordingly, we’re talking a real sixties punk artefact here and in mono to boot, with such future classics as ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me’, ‘Roller Coaster’ and ‘Fire Engine’ plus unreleased live stuff. Pretty damn cool. And you don’t have to fork out up to $1,000 for the boxed set to get it, either.

REM RE-ISSUES

This is gonna sound really weird at this point, but there was a moment in time and actually quite a large one when REM really mattered. No, seriously. They were The Byrds’ more skewed pop tagged with the wide open spaces of Americana. Bloody good at times they were, too. That’s all in the past of course but their continuing deluxe reissue program of their classic early slabs continues. The next is the 25th Anniversary two slab edition of 1985’s Fables Of The Reconstruction which is due in July, with fourteen previously unreleased demos from those sessions. Beats the pants off the 'updated' extras on the recent Exile on Main Street repackage…

The Hard Ons

HARD ONS RETURN

The Hard Ons are back with new nineteen-song album called Alfalfa Males Once Summer is Done Conform or Die. The T-shirts are gonna be killers.

STONES IN EXILE

That Stones In Exile doco which bored us silly last week - to the point where we actually went to sleep in front of the TV will be out in August as a three DVD set. We’re hoping that the really good stuff is on the extra discs...

SONISPHERE FESTIVAL

Metal’s 'Big Four' - Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax - join forces on the Sonisphere festival in Europe in June. The fact that they’ll only be performing together on that continent won’t be a problem, with the show in Bulgaria being projected onto more than 400 theatre movie screens across the planet on June 22.

LED ZEPPELIN X 100

There’s been some pretty impressive bootleg packages from various acts over the years but this has to be the motherlode of all motherlodes; a 100 vinyl slab box of Led Zeppelin material.

FOREVER YOUNG

Oz rock vet, former Coloured Balls’ drummer and all round good guy, Trevor Young has a new band called Forever Young with Rose Tattoo’s Geordie Leach on bass.

DAYSEND SIGN TO AVALON

Congrats to Daysend who have signed an exclusive deal with Avalon Marquee, one of the largest metal labels in the massive Japanese market.

ON THE TURNTABLE On the Remedy turntable is David Sylvian’s Brilliant Trees, on which the former Japan frontman does a musical about-face equal to that of John Lydon moving from the Sex Pistols to Public Image. Unlike the glamish kinda Roxy Musicoid Japan, Brilliant Trees is positively ethereal with an ambient floating-in-space jazz feel. And if that description puts you off, it just means that I haven’t expressed it properly. Also spinning are a few scorching Springsteen live bootlegs from 1978. Man, that guy was virtually untouchable back then; a hugely powerful Elvis-meets-Creedence type thing. How the mighty have fallen.

TOUR AND INDUSTRY NEWS After the huge sold out months in advance success of round one, there’ll be two more Sydney Trade Union Club revival shows on August 27 and 28 at the Excelsior in Surry Hills. This time with three original Sydney Trade Club era bands reforming for their first shows since the 1980s. Headliners are the original 1982 lineup of Mondo Generator

The Johnnys (Roddy Ray’Da, Graham Hood and Billy Pommer Jnr) along with Grooveyard and The Party Bores, who include members of The Eastern Dark, Trans 262, Psychotic Turnbuckles, Minuteman and The Mushroom Planet. Frozen Doberman are at the Annandale on June 5 with the Hell City Glamours and City Burns Unit. No Life Til Leather returns yet again on July 2 to Hermann’s Bar. The latest lineup of the Nick Oliveriled Mondo Generator is here to visit. On June 3 they’re at the Harp Hotel, Wollongong, June 4 at the Annandale with Hytest and Immolate and June 5 at the Cambridge in Newcastle. ‘Dog Food’ the new single from their August due slab Time To Destroy features Dave Grohl, Happy Tom (Turbonegro) and The Fresh Prince Of Darkness - as does the slabbage itself.

Send stuff for this column to remedy@ozemail.com.au by 6pm Wednesdays. All pics to The Brag please. www.myspace.com/remedy4rock 48 :: BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10

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BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 49

snap sn ap

club blink

PICS :: RR

up all night out all week . . .

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

sosueme party profile

trash

PICS :: RR

It’s called: SOSUEME – One66 single launch.

22:05:10 :: Agincourt Hotel :: 871 George St City 92814566

It sounds like: Bermuda Triangle on a budget. DJs/Live acts playing: One66, The Hansom, Montpelier, Elaine Bene Delta Riggs, Alison Wonderland vs s, White Bats, Rose, DJ Beatchel or vs the Popstar, Hobophonics, ZOMG. Sell it to us: Persevering into the bass-less realm of two-piece indie One66 headlines a musical merr rock, iment of sorts as they unveil their brand spanking new single at Sosueme . Along for the melodic magic carp et ride is the alluring resonance of rhythm and blues rock-n-roll 7-piece The Delt Brisvegas ensemble Montpelier, local lads The White Bats and an a Riggs, epic up of DJ love from the ultimate sold iers in dance-inducing warfare. Sosu mash99% genre free. eme: Wallet damage: $10 entry all nigh t. Where: Q Bar + 34B Stereo / 44 Oxford St / Darlinghurst

oaf showcase

PICS :: RR

When: Friday June 4 / 8pm

dillinger escape plan 21:05:10

:: The Metro Theatre :: 624 George St City 92642666

50 :: BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10

PICS :: JC

19:05:10 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711 ) ASHLEY MAR :: S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHERMCKENZIE :: JEREMY BOWRING :: DANIEL MUNNS :: ROSETTE ROUHANNA :: SOFII RUSHBROOK :: JULIAN DE LORENZO :: JAY COLLIER PATRICK STEVENSON :: RENEE

BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 51

snap sn ap

22:05:10 :: Hordern Pavilion :: 1 Driver Ave Moore Park 93834000

hoodoo gurus

PICS :: AM

sydney roller derby league

PICS :: TL

up all night out all week . . .

21:05:10 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711

It’s called: Throwshapes.com.au presents MUM w/The Magnetic Hea ds. It sounds like: The inner west. DJs/live acts playing: In the band room: The Magnetic Heads, The Shake Up, Pluto Jonze, Cameras & Pape r Moon. Upstairs: Long Island Soun (formerly Wandering Bear), Nikko, d New Pagans & Radio Star. In befo between/after everything: MUM DJs re/ inclu ding Walk ie Talkie, Wet Lungs, Jack Shit, 16 Tacos, Throw Shapes DJs, th 10 Avenue and more… Sell it to us: MUM normally has eigh means this week with 9 bands play t bands and its 100% awesome which ing its 112.5% awesome – right? The bit we’ll remember in the AM: That your ears are still ringing but you’re not sure from which band. Crowd specs: Bands and band fans. Wallet damage: Free before 8pm , $15 after. Where: The World Bar, Kings Cros s When: Friday June 4

big scary

PICS :: RRU

party profile

mum

jungle fever burlesque underlights

PICS :: AM

22:05:10 :: 34b :: 34b Oxford St Darlinghurst 93601375

21:05:10 :: Melt :: 12 Kellett St, Kings Cross 93806060 52 :: BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10

) ASHLEY MAR :: S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHERMCKENZIE :: JEREMY BOWRING :: DANIEL MUNNS :: ROSETTE ROUHANNA :: SOFII RUSHBROOK :: JULIAN DE LORENZO :: JAY COLLIER PATRICK STEVENSON :: RENEE

PICS :: TL

21:05:10 :: Spectrum :: 34 Oxford St Darlinghurst 93316245

BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 53

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

pick of the week My Brightest Diamond

FRIDAY JUNE 4

Vivid LIVE: Slow Music Night: Laurie Anderson (USA), My Brightest Diamond (USA), Holly Miranda (USA), Emily Haines (Canada), Doveman (USA), The Blind Boys of Alabama (USA) Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House $49 (conc)–$79 8pm

MONDAY MAY 31 ROCK & POP Bennerfields, Manger, Sez Martin Raval, Surry Hills $15 (+ bf) 7.30pm Midnight Reflection, Don Hopkins & the Generous Few, Alice Terry The Basement, Circular Quay $15 (+ bf) 9.30pm 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 Unearth (USA), The Black Dahlia Murder (USA), Hand Of Mercy, The Storm Picturesque The Factory Theatre, Enmore $45 (+ bf) 7pm Unherd Open Mic: Ghostboy, Derkajam Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 7pm Vivid LIVE: Noise Night: Boris (Japan), Bardo Pond (USA), Melt Banana (Japan) Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House $30 (conc)–$45 7.30pm Vivid LIVE: Transitory Life - A Retrospective, Songs & Stories: Laurie Anderson (USA) Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House $55 (conc)–$65 8pm

Vivid LIVE: Transitory Life - A Retrospective, Songs & Stories: Laurie Anderson (USA) Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House $55 (conc)–$65 8pm

JAZZ Casablanca Nights: Gary Holgate, Pete Drummond, Joseph Calderazzo, Evelyn Duprai, Amanda Bloom, Nick Jeffries, Anita Meiruntu, Mark Palmer Notes Live, Enmore $21.50 (presale) 7pm James Valentine Quartet Golden Sheaf Hotel, Double Bay free 7pm Judy Bailey’s Jazz Connection, Briana Cowlishaw 505 Club, Surry Hills $8–$10 7.30pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm

ACOUSTIC/FOLK Foster & Allen (Ireland) Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, Wollongong Tuesday Night Live: Moustache Train, Colin Jones, Zach Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm Unplugged: Split Enz/Finn Brothers Tribute Uni Bar, Wollongong University, Gwynneville free 4pm

COUNTRY JAZZ Alister Spence Trio 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 7.30pm Amelia Cormack, Amanda Bloom, Rob Mills The Vanguard, Newtown $25 (+ bf)–$30 (at door) 6.30pm Open Mic & Jazz/Latin Jam Session: Daniel Falero, Pierre Della Putta, Phil Taig, Rinske Geerlings, Ed Rapo Bar Me, Potts Point free 7pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm

ACOUSTIC/FOLK Songwriter Sessions Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills free 7.30pm

COUNTRY Camden Valley Country Music Club Hope Christian School, Narellan free 7pm

Laurie Anderson

TUESDAY JUNE 1 ROCK & POP ABBA Mania Civic Theatre, Civic Precinct Newcastle $48 8pm Mark Wells Front Bar, Northern Star Hotel, Hamilton free 8pm Rob Henry The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm Steve Tonge O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm The Manly Marvels Band Competition Manly Fisho’s $10 7pm The My Tys, Alex Gibson, Ellie Cullington The Basement, Circular Quay $15 (+ bf) 8.30pm Vivid LIVE: Bardo Pond (USA) The Studio, Sydney Opera House $30 (conc)–$35 10pm Vivid LIVE: Emily Haines (Canada) Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House $29 (conc)–$50 7.30pm

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 JUNE 2 ROCK & POP Back To The Tivoli Bankstown Sports Club $12 10am Come Out and Play Croatian Wickham Sports Club free 8pm Delta Riggs Sandringham Hotel, Newtown 8pm In Pieces The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm Jager Uprising Annandale Hotel $5 (at door) 7.30pm Jess Chalker, Tonk’s Green The View Factory, Newcastle $10 8pm Joe Moore The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm JP O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm Live & Local: Howie Shearman, Kristy Coote, Bobby Virtue, Rein Room Lizotte’s Restaurant, Lambton $13.50 7pm Open Mic Night Excelsior Hotel, Glebe free 7.30pm Open Mic Fubah on Copa, Copacabana free 7pm Phil Edgeley Front Bar, Northern Star Hotel, Hamilton free 8pm Rachel Scott, Andrej Kouznestov St James’ Church, Sydney free–$5 (donation) 1.15pm Ruby for Lucy, Stu Larsen, Phebe Star The Vanguard, Newtown $10 (+ bf)–$15 (at door) 6.30pm Sideshow Wednesday: Cloud Control, Richard in Your Mind Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm Tonk’s Green, Bridie O’Brien, Klia Zuka Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills free 7pm TrickFinger

Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly 7.30pm Vivid LIVE: Holly Miranda (USA) The Studio, Sydney Opera House $30 (conc)–$35 7.30pm Vivid LIVE: Melt Banana (Japan) The Studio, Sydney Opera House $30 (conc)–$35 10pm Yellow Brick Road: Designer Pilot, Johnny Took Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm

JAZZ Darryl Beaton Band Civic Underground, Sydney free 10pm Dereb the Ambassador, Tony Buchanan Raval, Surry Hills $17 (+ bf) 7.30pm John Redmond Trio The Manhattan Lounge, Sydney free 6.45pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel free 8pm Robert Smith Trio City Diggers, Wollongong free (member)–$5 2pm Robyn Pinson Trio Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL free 9.30am The Dilworths 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 7.30pm The Music of Ella Fitzgerald: Tricia Evy Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill $79 (dinner & show) 8pm

ACOUSTIC/FOLK Corrina Steel, Jo Meares and the Honeyriders, Chelsea Basham Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $12 8pm Harry Manx (Canada) The Basement, Circular Quay $43 (+ bf) 9.30pm Illawarra Folk Club Bush Dance: Wongawilli Band Wongawilli Community Hall free (member) 8pm Susie Mae, Henry Fraser Hampshire Hotel, Camperdown free 7pm

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

THURSDAY JUNE 3 ROCK & POP Aleesha Dibbs, Jesse Redwing Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Back to the 70s Motor Neurone Research Fundraiser: The Robertson Brothers North Sydney Leagues Club, Cammeray $27.50 8pm Bek-Jean Stewart, Jim Dead & The Army of Shadows, The Leisure Suit, Maxine Kauter Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10 8pm Blu FM Band Competition: Buried Beneath the Lies, Rebel Romantics, Swingtanic Sextet Hotel Gearin, Katoomba free 8pm Cloud Control, Richard in Your Mind Clarendon Guest House, Katoomba $18 (+ bf) 8pm Cog University of Wollongong, Gwynneville $25 (student)–$30 8pm Crushed Ice Camden Valley Golf Resort, Catherine Field free 6.30pm Dappled Cities, The John Steel Singers, Otouto Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle West $18 (+ bf)–$33.40 (incl CD) 8pm Dave White The Orient Hotel, The Rocks $5 9.15pm Dead China Doll, Nikko, Founder, Hira Hira Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $10 8pm

“The bridge above the river is only the beginning of your fall,” - RICHARD ASHCROFT… July 31 Enmore Theatre 54 :: BRAG :: 364: 31:05:10

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

Fire! Santa Rosa Fire!, Deep Sea Arcade, Traps, Bearhug Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $10 (+ bf) 8pm Heartbreak Club Bull N Bush Hotel, Medowie free 8pm Hitseekers Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Hot Damn!: Chemical Transport, Ruin Gloria, Retraspec, Futures In Black And White, Hot Damn DJs Spectrum, Darlinghurst $10–$12 8pm Jenny Marie Lang Guildford Leagues Club free 10pm Jody Yates Windang Bowling Club free 8pm Kcavement, Headkase, Dawn Heist, Granny Fist Live at the Wall, Leichhardt $12 8pm Kingbayler The Vanguard, Newtown $13 (+ bf)–$15 (at door) 6.30pm Kirk Burgess Earlwood Hotel free 7pm Mal’s Open Mic Night The Harp, Tempe free 7.30pm Mondo Generator (USA) Harp Hotel, Wollongong 8pm Ngariki Front Bar, Northern Star Hotel, Hamilton free 8pm Open Mic Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Residents: The Strides Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm Saritah, Digging Roots (Canada), Lucy Hall Notes Live, Enmore $15 (+ bf) 8pm Satellite Lewisham Hotel 7.30pm Strung Out (USA), The Loved Ones, Lungs Annandale Hotel $36 (+ bf) 8pm Tahir Albion Park RSL Memorial Club free 8pm

The Former Love Pirates, Rocketsmiths Brass Monkey, Cronulla 8pm Tim Finn (NZ) Lizotte’s Restaurant, Lambton $85 (show only)–$139.50 (dinner & show) 7pm Vivid LIVE: Songs From ‘Delusion’: Laurie Anderson (USA), Colin Stetson, Eyvind Kang, Doug Weiselman Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House $65 (conc)–$75 8pm Vivid LIVE: The King Khan & BBQ Show (Canada) The Studio, Sydney Opera House $30 (conc)–$35 10pm White Bros New Brighton Hotel, Manly free 10pm - late Zoltan The Mill, Milperra free 8pm

The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $22 (member)–$28 8pm Dennis Aubrey’s Songwriters Night @Newtown RSL free 7pm Harry Manx (Canada) The Basement, Circular Quay $43 (+ bf) 9.30pm

JAZZ

ROCK & POP

Arbori Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly 7.30pm Colbourne Ave: Ben Panucci Cafe Church, Glebe $10 (conc)–$20 8pm James Morrison, The Idea of North The Factory Theatre, Enmore $46 (conc)–$55 8pm Sepora Liquidity Cafe/bar, Rozelle free 7.30pm Samba Mundi 505 Club, Surry Hills $10–$15 7.30pm Sandy B Clarence Hotel, Petersham free 8pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 9pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK Cafe Carnivale: Jorge Do Prado

COUNTRY Nicki Gillis Rooty Hill RSL Club free 8pm

FRIDAY JUNE 4 2 Of Hearts Penrith Panthers free 9pm Almost Famous Fred Chubb Lounge, Rooty Hill RSL Club free 8pm Andy Mammers Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Back on the Block - the Music of Michael Jackson & Quincy Jones: James Tuialii, John Bettison, Glenn Cunningham, Sarina Jennings, Chrissy Moy, Bill Risby, Chris Kamzelas, Franco Raggatt, Victor Rounds, Kere Buchanan, Sunil De Silva, Angus Gomm, Stewart Kirwan, Anthony Kable, Andy Bickers The Basement, Circular Quay $25 (+ bf) 9.30pm Beth Robertson Docks Hotel, Darling Harbour free 7.30pm Bill Chambers Persian Basement, Lane Cove 8pm Brazillian Brothers

Fire! Santa Rosa Fire! Royal Inn Hotel, Waratah free 8pm Cloud Control, Richard in Your Mind Clarendon Guest House, Katoomba $15 (show only)–$43 (dinner & show) 8pm Club Blink: True Love Chaos, The Mansons, No Pressure Agincourt Hotel. Ultimo $12 Covernote Celebrity Room, Blacktown RSL Club free 8pm Crow, The Maladies, The Momos, Gramaphone Man Notes Live, Enmore $18.50 (presale) 8pm Dappled Cities, The John Steel Singers, Otouto The Attic, Mona Vale Hotel $15 (+ bf)–$33.40 (incl CD) 8pm Dead Letter Circus The Factory Theatre, Enmore $20 (+ bf) 8pm Deborah Sinclair Edgeworth Bowling Club free 7.30pm Eric Lewis The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 5pm

Gemma & the Southpaws Long Jetty Hotel free 7.30pm Glenn Whitehall Clovelly Hotel free 7pm Got It Covered Ingleburn RSL Club free 9pm Heartbreak Club, Wiseheimer, King Cannons, Son of Dad Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle West $10 8pm Hip Fidelity After Dark Bar, Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL free 10pm Ian Henry Front Bar, Northern Star Hotel, Hamilton free 8pm Indiana Phoenix Edgeworth Tavern free 9pm Joe Casali Guildford Leagues Club free 10pm Jon English, Jonah’s Road Lizotte’s Restaurant, Lambton $79.50 (incl supper)–$99.50 (dinner & show) 7pm Kcavemen, Headkase, Granny Fist Hamilton Station Hotel, Islington $12 8pm

wed

02 June

(9:15PM - 12:15AM)

thu

03 June

(9:15PM - 12:15AM)

fri

04 June

(9:15PM - 1:00AM)

(5:00PM - 8:00PM)

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

sat

05 June

sun

SATURDAY NIGHT

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

06 June

SUNDAY NIGHT

(8:30PM - 12:00AM)

BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 55

guide send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Key String Mattara Hotel, Newcastle free 8pm Lj Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club, Bondi Junction free 5pm Matt Bourne Chatswood RSL Club free 5pm MJM Campbelltown Club Hotel free 8pm Mondo Generator (USA), Hytest, Immolate Annandale Hotel $35 (+ bf) 8pm MP2 Empire Bay Hotel free 7pm MUM: Magnetic Heads, Pluto Jonze, Cameras, Paper Moon, Long Island Sound, Nikko, The New Pagans, Radio Star The World Bar, Kings Cross $10–$15 8pm Next Best Thing Seven Hills Toongabbie RSL Club free 8.30pm Nothing Sacred Tall Timbers Hotel, Ourimbah free 6pm On the Prowl Toukley RSL Club free 8pm Partee Jam Vineyard Hotel free 9pm Pixilated Pirates Manly Fisho’s $10 8pm Professor Groove & the Booty Affair Brass Monkey, Cronulla 8pm Purple Sneakers: Fait Accompli DJ Set, M.I.T, Nick Findlay, BenLucid, Banshee, Johnny Says Aloha, Erectro, Phatworks Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale $12 7pm Rampant, Rampage, Own Worst Enemy Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $10 8pm Reckless The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9.15pm Rock Factor Iron Horse Inn, Cardiff free 6.30pm Rocketsmiths Newtown RSL Club 8pm Saritah, Digging Roots (Canada), Lucy Hall Heritage Hotel, Bulli $15 (+ bf) 8pm

56 :: BRAG :: 364: 31:05:10

Service 30 Jewells Tavern, Newcastle free 8pm Simon Larry Liquidity Cafe/bar, Rozelle free 7.30pm Solid Inc Fire Station Hotel, Wallsend free 8.30pm Surprise Party Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club, Bondi Junction free 9pm Sydney Film Festival Sounds on Screen: Lemmy Sydney Opera House $15 (conc)–$17 9.30pm Sydney Film Festival Sounds on Screen: Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll Event Cinemas George Street, Sydney $15 (conc)–$17 8.30pm Sydney Film Festival Sounds on Screen: The Sentimental Engine Slayer Sydney Opera House $15 (conc)–$17 7pm The Australian Pink Show Heathcote Hotel free 9.30pm The Domestics, Massema Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 7pm The Flaming Stars Ashfield RSL Club free 8pm The Green Day Show Hawkesbury Hotel, Windsor free 9.15pm The Red Eyes, Mista Savona Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $15 (+ bf) 8pm The Sculptures, The Initiation, The Never Ever Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills 8pm The Take, Empires & Vampires, Machines of Me, Spangled Mistress The Crest Hotel Sylvania $12 8pm Tim Finn (NZ) Lizotte’s Restaurant, Kincumber $85–$139.90 Triple Grip Mingara Recreation Club, Tumbi Umbi free 7.30pm Ugly Bitch Caringbah Bizzo’s $10 8.30pm V Tribe The Lucky Australian, North St Marys

free 7pm Vendetta Of The Fallen, Alice Through the Windshield Glass, Syko Sapian, Absolution Live at the Wall, Leichhardt $10 7.30pm Vivid LIVE: Slow Music Night: Laurie Anderson (USA), My Brightest Diamond (USA), Holly Miranda (USA), Emily Haines (Canada), Doveman (USA), The Blind Boys of Alabama (USA) Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House $49 (conc)–$79 8pm Vivid LIVE: The King Khan & BBQ Show (Canada) The Studio, Sydney Opera House $30 (conc)–$35 10pm Watussi, D-Cup Coogee Diggers $20 (+ bf) 8pm Weathered Warners Bay Hotel free 9pm Zoltan Revesby Workers Club free 8pm

JAZZ Bridge City Jazz Band Club Ashfield free 7.30pm Buddy Brown Stone Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly 7.30pm Full Swing Lane Cove Golf & Country Club, Northwood free 7.30pm Pianoman Cruise Restaurant, The Rocks free 10pm Ray Beadle 505 Club, Surry Hills $10–$15 7.30pm Scot Finnie Cruise Restaurant, The Rocks free 10pm Shawnuff Swing Band Newtown Jets Rugby League Social Club, Tempe free 7.30pm SIMA: Jason Bruer The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $12 (member)–$20 8.30pm Vince Jones Cosmopolitan Cafe, Double Bay $42 9pm

Fait Accomppli Winemaker’s Dinner Breakers Country Club, Wamberal $65 (dinner & show) 7pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK Cafe Carnivale: Marsala Eastside Arts, Paddington $10 (child)– $28 8pm Illawarra Folk Club: I Viaggiatori, Zumpa City Diggers, Wollongong $10 (member)–$15 7.30pm The Crooked Fiddle Band The Vanguard, Newtown $15 (+ bf)–$18 (at door) 6.30pm Vivid LIVE: Chirgilchin (Tyva Republic) The Studio, Sydney Opera House $30 (conc)–$35 7.30pm

COUNTRY Lee Kernaghan Revesby Workers Club $49.90–$55.55 8.30pm Macarthur Country Music Club

Wests Campbelltown Tennis Club, Leumeah free 7pm

HIP-HOP Dust Tones: Agency Dub Collective, Zino & Caroline, Ology, Bentley Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Urthboy Hotel Gearin, Katoomba

SATURDAY JUNE 5 ROCK & POP 2 Of Hearts Ryde Eastwood Leagues Club, West Ryde free 9pm 2days Hits Tea Gardens Hotel, Hawks Nest free 7pm

gig guide send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Alphamama Club: Alphamama Tokio Hotel, Darling Harbour free 8pm Ange Murphy The Entrance Sails Stage free 9am Azlock, Vanstorm, Hold Em To The South, Break The Fall, Mercify Chilli Lounge, Wyong $12 2pm Birds of Tokyo, Midnight Youth, The Rockefeller Frequency Enmore Theatre $51.10 7.30pm Bistu, Lab 64, Thrashed, Danger Bus The Harp, Tempe 8pm Botanics, Dubbly, Blackbird Hum Manly Fishos $15 8pm Boxset Wickham Park Hotel, Islington free 8pm Brett O’Malley Front Bar, Northern Star Hotel, Hamilton free 8pm Chartbusters Campbelltown Catholic Club free 8.30pm Children Collide, Cabins, Betty Airs The Factory Theatre, Enmore $22 (+ bf) 8pm Chris Byrne Breakers Country Club, Wamberal 7.30pm City Escape Spectrum, Darlinghurst 8pm Creedence & Beyond Toronto District Workers’ Club free 8pm Crow, The Momos Northern Star Hotel, Hamilton $12–$14 8pm Daniel Champagne Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly 7.30pm Dappled Cities, The John Steel Singers, Otouto Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $18 (+ bf)–$33.40 (incl CD) 8pm Dominik Cotton Sir John Young, Sydney free 9.30pm Double Daddio’n’Daughters Evening of Song: Dick & Christa

Hughes, Loene Carmen, Peter Head Raval, Surry Hills $25 (+ bf) 7.30pm End Of August Mingara Recreation Club, Tumbi Umbi free 7.30pm Eye Of The Tiger Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill free 9pm Floyd Vincent & the Childbrides Lizotte’s Restaurant, Lambton $20 7pm Frozen Doberman, Hell City Glamours, Chinese Burns Unit Annandale Hotel $15 (+ bf) 8pm George Katralis, Patric Coyte, Richard Henerson El Rocco Room, Kings Cross 8pm Highway To Hell Tunkuwallin Tennis & Sports Club, Summerland Point free 8.30pm Hue Williams Bass Hill RSL free 6.30pm In Pieces Five Dock RSL free 8pm Jon English, Jonah’s Road Lizotte’s Restaurant, Kincumber $79.50 (incl supper)–$99.50 (dinner & show) 7pm Lawrence The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 4.15pm Lj Clovelly Hotel free 8pm Machine Translations The Vanguard, Newtown $15 (+ bf)–$18 (at door) 6.30pm Mick Buckley Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club, Bondi Junction free 9pm Mondo Generator (USA) Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle West 8pm Nothing Sacred Fubah on Copa, Copacabana $6.50 8pm Patio de Tango Milonga: Tango Bar Bexley RSL & Community Club $22 8pm Peachy Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 9pm Peter Northcote

Coogee Diggers 8pm Resist the Thought The Loft Youth Venue, Newcastle 8pm Roc-A-Tac, Brian Gillette Guildford Leagues Club free 8.30pm Rock Party Paddy Maguires, Haymarket free 9.30pm Rocketsmiths, The Author, Royal Chant, Red Ink, Only the Sea Slugs Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills $10 8pm Rubicon Catherine Hill Bay Hotel free 1.30pm Saritah, Digging Roots (Canada), Lucy Hall Clarendon Guest House, Katoomba $15 (+ bf) 8pm Satellite V, Grizzly Adams Ashfield RSL Club free 8.30pm SFX: Tonight Alive, Corpus, Ladies and Gentlemen Space, Sydney $15 Sound Stream Brighton RSL Club, Brighton-LeSands free 8pm Steve Balbi Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Steve Smyth Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $8 8pm Stormcellar Pendle Hill Inn free 7.30pm Sydney Film Festival Sounds on Screen: Nobody Knows About Persian Cats: Ravi Sydney Opera House $20 (conc)– $25 2pm Sydney Film Festival Sounds on Screen: Oil City Confidential Sydney Opera House $15 (conc)– $17 6pm Teargas Repressed Records, Newtown free 3pm The Bandits Fred Chubb Lounge, Rooty Hill RSL Club free 8.30pm The Buble & The Legends Of Swing Celebrity Room, Blacktown RSL

Club free 10pm The Jacks Oatley Hotel Free 8pm The Mick Hart Experience, Tempo De Naughty Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $12 8pm The Money Smokers, Royal Chant, Spooky Land Caringbah Bizzo’s 8pm The Presence Hornsby Inn free 8pm The Rebel Rousers Terrigal Bowling Club $10–$30 (dinner & show) 7.30pm The V Dubs Wallsend Diggers free 8.30pm The White Bros The Orient Hotel, The Rocks $5 9pm Tone Rangers Harbord Diggers Club free 8pm Trash: Persist, Silverback, Aftermath, Snake Grills Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo $10 (guestlist)–$12 9pm Vivid LIVE: Creative Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney free 11am Vivid LIVE: Doveman (USA) The Studio, Sydney Opera House $30 (conc)–$35 7.30pm Watussi, Katoomba Dub Collective Hotel Gearin, Katoomba $20 8pm Yo Gabba Gabba, DJ Lance Rock (USA) Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre $25–$48 Zoltan Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL free 10pm

JAZZ Eclipse Alley Five Strawberry Hills Hotel, Surry Hills free 4pm Alice Terry Liquidity Cafe/bar, Rozelle free 7.30pm Warwick Alder 505 Club, Surry Hills $10–$15

7.30pm Memphis Soul Revue: Johnny G & the E-Types Notes Live, Enmore $23.50 (presale) 7pm SIMA: The Tim Bruer Quartet The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $12 (member)–$18 8.30pm Vivid LIVE: The Blind Boys of Alabama (USA) Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House $49 (conc)–$89 8pm Vince Jones North Sydney Leagues Club, Cammeray $25 8pm The Hipstones, Evan and The Brave, Jeff Duff, DJ Trevor Parkee aka Elchino The Basement, Circular Quay free 9pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK A Night of Blues Marrickville Bowling and Recreation Club $5 5pm Flamenco del Mar, David Holberton, Pablo de cadiz, Will Henderson, Felipe Krunze El Toro Loco, Manly 6pm Manly Food & Wine Festival: Flamenco del Mar, David Holberton, Pablo de cadiz, Will Henderson, Felipe Krunze Manly Beach free 1pm The Shack: Kitty & the Bobcats, Nick Charles, Zoe Elliot Tramshed Community Arts Centre, Narrabeen $15 7.30pm

COUNTRY Guys, Girls, Guitars & Bars: Kirsty Lee Akers, Liam Brew, McAllisterKemp, Chelsea Basham Cessnock Rugby League Supporters Club $20 7.30pm

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!

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

Please send your resume with a cover letter through to: brownie@thebrag.com

BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 57

Michael Coppel by arrangement with Phil Mcintyre Entertainment proudly presents

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

SUNDAY JUNE 6 ROCK & POP 2 Fold The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm 2days Hits Harbord Beach Hotel free 6pm Blues Sunday Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly 7.30pm Chontia Docks Hotel, Darling Harbour free 5pm Chris Byrne Tall Timbers Hotel, Ourimbah free 4.30pm City Escape Live at the Wall, Leichhardt 8pm Drive: Peter Northcote Bridge Hotel, Rozelle $10 3.30pm Dunhill Blues Botany View Hotel, Newtown free 7pm DV8 (Netherlands) Catherine Hill Bay Hotel free 1.30pm Dwayne Elix & the Engineers Marrickville Bowling and Recreation Club 8pm Elevation U2 Show The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 4.15pm Gold Cadillac Wickham Park Hotel, Islington free 8pm Indiana Phoenix Great Northern Hotel free 4pm Kirsty Larkin Gateshead Tavern free 2pm Kool Bananas Oatley Hotel Free 1pm Lee Kernaghan Campbelltown RSL $49.90

7pm Saritah, Digging Roots (Canada), Lucy Hall Brass Monkey, Cronulla $15 (+ bf) 7.30pm Scarlet’s Revenge, Feick’s Device, The Forest Folk, Transat Lansdowne Hotel, Broadway free 6pm Shawn Lidster Fubah on Copa, Copacabana 2pm Shock To The System, The Villianares, The Marines, The Owls Annandale Hotel $5 (at door) 6pm Soulganic Clovelly Hotel free 4pm Steve Edmonds Band Premier Hotel, Broadmeadow free 4.30pm The Bandits Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club, Bondi Junction free 7pm The V Dubs Gunyah Hotel, Belmont free 4pm Tim Pringle Wisemans Ferry Hotel free 12pm Tony Williams Long Jetty Hotel free 2pm Vivid LIVE: My Brightest Diamond (USA) The Studio, Sydney Opera House $30 (conc)–$35 7.30pm Yo Gabba Gabba, DJ Lance Rock (USA) Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre $25–$48 Zoltan Penrith Panthers free 4pm

JAZZ Bill Dudley’s New Orleanians Strawberry Hills Hotel, Surry Hills free 5pm

Cabaret Jazz Adamstown RSL free 2.30pm Frank Sultana (plus special guest) Liquidity Cafe/bar free 7.30pm Mal Gatt Latin Jazz Trio The Entrance Sails Stage free 11am The House of Blues: The Subterraneans Town Hall Hotel, Newtown free 6pm The Shawnuff Quartet Hampshire Hotel, Camperdown free 3pm The Shuffle Kings Lizotte’s Restaurant, Lambton $23 7pm Vanuatu Shakedown: The Bakery, Emma Davis, The Liberators, Three Bags Full The Vanguard, Newtown $35 (+ bf) 7pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK Cafe Carnivale: Banda Brasil Barrenjoey Music Room, Avalon Beach $10 (child)–$20 6pm Green Jam The Hero of Waterloo Hotel, Millers Point free 7pm Matt Jackson Pontoon, Darling Harbour free 2pm

COUNTRY Guys, Girls, Guitars & Bars: Kirsty Lee Akers, Liam Brew, McAllister-Kemp, Chelsea Basham Lizotte’s Restaurant, Kincumber $20 1.30pm Reluctant Friends of Steve Royal Cricketers Arms, Prospect free 12.30pm

gig g gp picks up all night out all week...

MUM: Magnetic Heads, Pluto Jonze, Cameras, Paper Moon, Long Island Sound, Nikko, The New Pagans, Radio Star The World Bar, Kings Cross $10–$15 8pm

SATURDAY JUNE 5 Children Collide, Cabins, Betty Airs The Factory Theatre, Enmore $22 (+ bf) 8pm Dappled Cities, The John Steel Singers, Otouto Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $18 (+ bf)–$33.40 (incl CD) 8pm

One Show Only ENT. CENTRE THURSDAY JUNE 10 FINAL TICKET RELEASE on sale now! 136 100 or ticketmaster.com.au

Machine Translations The Vanguard, Newtown $15 (+ bf)–$18 (at door) 6.30pm The King Khan & BBQ Show

WEDNESDAY JUNE 2 Sideshow Wednesday: Cloud Control, Richard in Your Mind Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm

THURSDAY JUNE 3

SUNDAY JUNE 6 Saritah, Digging Roots (Canada), Lucy Hall Brass Monkey, Cronulla $15 (+ bf) 7.30pm Vivid LIVE: My Brightest Diamond (USA) The Studio, Sydney Opera House $30 (conc)–$35 7.30pm

Fire! Santa Rosa Fire!, Deep Sea Arcade, Traps, Bearhug Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $10 (+ bf) 8pm Vivid LIVE: The King Khan & BBQ Show (Canada) The Studio, Sydney Opera House $30 (conc)–$35 10pm

FRIDAY JUNE 4 Don't miss Russell's new movie Get Him to the Greek. June 17 www.russellbrand.tv I www.coppel.com.au 58 :: BRAG :: 364: 31:05:10

The Red Eyes, Mista Savona Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $15 (+ bf) 8pm

Children Collide

BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 59

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

club pick of the week Bad Ezzy

Mullet 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, Daigo, Shipwreck, M.I.T free

WEDNESDAY JUNE 2

SATURDAY JUNE 5

World Bar, Kings Cross Wham! Whamtarctica Blog Launch

James Taylor n MC Shureshock, Raye Antonelli Vs Wax Motif, Trent Rackus vs Johnny Rad, Illya Vs Husky, Levins Vs Bad Ezzy, Telefunken Vs Matt Weir, Adam Bozzetto Vs, Moneyshot, Brenden Fing Vs Sushii, Reno Vs Foundation, Discopunx, BC Vs Andy Webb, Temnein Vs Daigo, Venuto, Kingpin $15 before 10pm, $20 after MONDAY MAY 31 202 Broadway, Chippendale Hospitality Crew free Empire Hotel, Potts Point Bazaar HBK, I Low free One World Sport, Parramatta Ricky Ro free Soho, Kings Cross Comedown free The Sugarmill, Kings Cross Mondays James Rawson (live), Kavi-R free V Bar, Sydney Monday Mambo Mambo G $5–$10

TUESDAY JUNE 1 Xxx 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 Newtown RSL Club Crymziko, Sceptic, Sceptic & Dseeva, Tavern Slander, Kade MC free Oatley Hotel Suburban Alternative DJ Mini

Bank Hotel, Newtown Girls Night DJ Beth Yen free Cruise Bar, Circular Quay Rockstar free 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 Red Rattler Theatre, Marrickville International Whores Day Party Kooky, Madame Cake, KK No Pants $10–$20 The Sugarmill, Kings Cross Battery Operated DJ Matt Hoare free World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall/SUGD 16 Tacos, Adam Bozzetto, Bently, Alistair Erskine free

THURSDAY JUNE 3 202 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 Thursday’s at MPB Louis M free Q Bar, Darlinghurst Hot Damn! DJ Sarah Spandex, Mark C, Heart Attack $10–$12 Roundhouse, Kensington We Love 90s Goodwill, Nino Brown, Cadell, DJ Anujual, Ignition free

(member)–$10 Sapphire Suite, Kings Cross Flaunt Nacho Pop, Diaz, Eko, Tom Piper, R-Son, Zero Cool free Scubar, Sydney Bikini & Boardies Party Seamus free Shelbourne Hotel, Sydney The Social Club Beth Yen free The Eastern Hotel, Bondi Junction Sneaker Husky, Ant Best Shy, Travis Hale, Dave Rizzle, Yogi free The Rouge, Darlinghurst Surprise Surprise Astrix, Sms, Ember, Lights Out, Tom Piper World Bar, Kings Cross Teenage Kicks Banshee, Nik V, Tom Libertine, El Mariachi, Sugar Ape free

FRIDAY JUNE 4 Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach Dustones Agency Dub Collective, Zino & Caroline, Ology, Bentley free Chinese Laundry, Sydney DJ Lord, Typhonic, Boonie, Mindgutter, Raye Antonelli, Will Styles, A-Tonez, Farj & Paul Fraser $15 after 1am 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 + special guest DJs all night free Fraser Studios, Chippendale Mad As Art Busty Beats free Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale Purple Sneakers Fait Accompli DJ Set, M.I.T, Nick Findlay, BenLucid, Banshee, Johnny Says Aloha, Erectro, Phatworks $12 Goldfish, Kings Cross Sugar & Soul Phil Hudson, Paul Hatz, Agey, Danny De Sousa, Matt Cahill, Tom Kelly free Home The Venue, Darling Harbour Sublime feat 3 hour Hellraiser set Hellraiser, DJs Scotty G and Big Dan, Peewee Ferris, MC Losty, Haze, Team Rocket, Dover, Vekta, JTS, Ravine, Concept, Fazed, DJmon and Jin Kang. $15 general, free before 11.30pm (guestlist), $10 after (guestlist)

Kinselas, Taylor Square Toby Wilson free Kit & Kaboodle, Darlinghurst Gameboy Fridays The Gameboys, Calling In Sick, Isbjorn $10 after 10pm Live House, Lewisham Abduction $5–$10 Mansions, Kings Cross Nick Polly, Little Rich, Nick T, Stevie S, Adrian Allen free Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill In the Woolshed, Sub Bar and Station Store Café DJ Task, DJ KDB, DJ Tenzin ($10), MC Bunny Belle, DJ Cookie free Middle Bar, Kinselas, Darlinghurst Flavours on Friday MC Q-Bizzi, C-Bu, Trey, Mike Champion, Naiki, Tekkaman $20 Oatley Hotel We Love Oatley Hotel Friday’s Undie Sundie DJs Free Omega Lounge, Sydney Unwind DJ GST and Guests free Opera Bar, Circular Quay Gian Arpino free Q Bar, Darlinghurst Sosueme ONE66, The Delta Riggs, Alison Wonderland vs Hansom, Montpelier, Elaine Benes, White Bats, DJ Beatchelor vs The Popstar, Hobophonics, Zomg, $10 Raval, Surry Hills Listen Hear Huwston, Micah, James De La Cruz, Chris Coucouvinis free 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 SoHo, Potts Point Playtime Kristiano, Chardy, Ember, Elmo Is Dead free Spectrum, Darlinghurst Silent Alarm Silent DJs $5 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 Loose Birdman, Peeping Tom, Hoodlmz, Lu Nattic, ShortBit free before 11pm, $10 after The Gaff, Darlinghurst DJ Tokoloshe, Sveta free The Grand Hotel, Wollongong PANG! Nadastrom (USA), Proxy, Aston Shuffle $30 The Lincoln, Kings Cross The Scene Charlie Brown, Samari

Foreign Dub

“Let’s break the night with colour. Time for me to move ahead” - RICHARD ASHCROFT… July 31 Enmore Theatre 60 :: BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10

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

MC Shureshock The Loft, King Street Wharf Late at The Loft Somatik, Noel Boogie, Noodles, DJ Huwston, Meem, The Swat DJs, Lippo free The Rouge, Kings Cross Twilight the Only, kyro vs SmS, Deckhead, Ray Seymour, Dan Baatz free on guestlist before 11pm The Roxy Hotel, Parramatta Roxy Fridays $10, free for members The Sugarmill, Kings Cross The Gameboys, Calling In Sick, Joyride $10 after 10pm Tonic Lounge, Kings Cross Tonic Fridays $15 Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Celebrity Jackson, Adrian M, Victor Lopez Free (Guestlist)–$10

SATURDAY JUNE 5 202 Broadway, Chippendale Jamrock Nick Toth, Joe (USA), Lukie D, Shotta Paul, Admiral Kilosh $15 Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo Trash DJ M!Veg, DJ Absynth $12 Arthouse Hotel, Sydney Drum + Bass Club Anthems London Elektricity, MC AD, Linken, Vertigo, Sariss, i-dub, Intercepta, Royalston, MC D-Tech $20 BB’s, Bondi Beach Wildlife DJs Mesan, James Roberts, Adriano Giorgi, Dinseh Sundar, Matt Singmin, Chris Kyle free Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach Rex Bar DJ Micha $35 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 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 eleven, Paddington Empire Hotel/Plantations, Potts Point

F#%k Yeah! Mc Shureshock, Tape2Tape (Yes Yes Records), Will Styles (Funktrust), Slice (Inna Riddum), Rubio (Twisted Collective), Frenemies (DJ Temnein + MC Heyboa), Creeptown, Wax Motif (United Colours), Kato (United Colours), Deli, Coopa vs Dizz & Draz, Bass Thiefs $20 Gasworks Nightclub, Albion Hotel, Parramatta DJs Matt Hoare and Andy Marc $10 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 Ivy, Sydney Pacha CD Launch Alex Taylor, Matt Nugent $20 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 Fiddler Bar DJ Bobby

Dazzler free Opera Bar, Circular Quay Krishna Jones free Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Defeat, Redial, Nadisko, Smacktown, Gus Lakeview, Sodul, PMA Project, Always, Never, Diskera, Le Night $20 (+ bf) Q Bar, Darlinghurst Ghetto Disco Quirk DJs, Your Mate, Hoodlmz, J3NoVa, Stress Less, Alpine Circuit, Deckhead, Sticky B $15 Shelbourne Hotel, Sydney Shipwreck, Daniel Nall, Leon Pirello $10 after 10pm 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 The Bank Nightclub, Kings Cross Sin City Don Juan, DJ Willie, Mista Kay, MC Q-Bizzi The Dolphin Hotel, Surry Hills DJ Chris Skinner, DJ Carl O’Brien free 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,

Nick Toth BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 61

club guide

club picks

send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com 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 The Rouge, Kings Cross Le Rouge Tim McGee, Lights Outs, Chris Fraser, John Glover, Coops $10 before 11pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross hush free on guestlist 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! Whamtarctica Blog Launch James Taylor n MC Shureshock, Raye Antonelli Vs Wax Motif, Trent Rackus vs Johnny Rad, Illya Vs Husky, Levins Vs Bad Ezzy, Telefunken Vs Matt Weir, Adam Bozzetto Vs, Moneyshot, Brenden Fing Vs Sushii, Reno Vs Foundation, Discopunx, BC Vs Andy Webb, Temnein Vs Daigo, Venuto, Kingpin $15 before 10pm, $20 after

SUNDAY JUNE 6 202 Broadway, Chippendale Meem, Frenzie, Gian Arpino, DJ Huwston, Simon Caldwell free Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Bondi Cultura Tropical Jam

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 Gasworks Nightclub, Albion Hotel, Parramatta Sundayze Goldfish, Kings Cross Martini Club Live DJs Illya, Johnny Gleeson, Miss Match, Jack McCord and Tom Kelly free Home Terrace, Sydney Spice After Hour Loin Brothers, YokoO, Jeremy Joshua, Jay Smalls, Jamie Mattimore, Sam Roberts $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 Kit and Kaboodle, Darlinghurst Escape $10 (at door) Madam De Biers, Kings Cross Soul on Sunday Nino Brown, Don Juan free Oatley Hotel Sunday Sessions DJ Tone & Friends Free

up all night out all week... Phoenix Bar, Exchange Hotel, Darlinghurst Loose Ends Resident DJ Matt Vaughan & Regular Guests Including Seymour Butz, Mark Murphy, Stephen Allkins, Avra-Cybele, Ben Drayton, Sveta, The Loin Brothers Free Entry From 10pm 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 Soul On Sunday Nino Brown, Don Juan free The Beresford Hotel, Surry Hills B Side free The Bunker Bar, Kings Cross Marco Resmann 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 The View Factory, Newcastle East. Soul Shakedown Party Kid Mince, The Scorcher & Chuan free Tilbury Hotel, Woolloomooloo Woolfy free Trademark Hotel, Darlinghurst Soul on Sunday Nino Brown, Don Juan Watershed Hotel, Darling Harbour Miss Gabby free

Agency Dub Collective

THURSDAY JUNE 3

World Bar, Kings Cross Teenage Kicks Banshee, Nik V, Tom Libertine, El Mariachi, Sugar Ape free

FRIDAY JUNE 4

Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach Dustones Agency Dub Collective, Zino & Caroline, Ology, Bentley free Chinese Laundry, Sydney DJ Lord, Typhonic, Boonie, Mindgutter, Raye Antonelli, Will Styles, A-Tonez, Farj & Paul Fraser $15 after 1am Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale Purple Sneakers Fait Accompli DJ Set, M.I.T, Nick Findlay, BenLucid, Banshee, Johnny Says Aloha, Erectro, Phatworks $12.00 Q Bar, Darlinghurst Sosueme ONE66, The Delta Riggs, Alison Wonderland vs Hansom,

Montpelier, Elaine Benes, White Bats, DJ Beatchelor vs The Popstar, Hobophonics, Zomg, $10

SATURDAY JUNE 5

Chinese Laundry, Sydney We No Speak Americano tour Zombie Nation, Yolanda Be Cool, D-Cup, Jeff Drake, Steve Lind, Club Junque, Teejay, Tones, Scott Wright, Harry Cotton, Bella Sarris $15 before 10pm / $25 after. Q Bar, Darlinghurst Ghetto Disco Quirk DJs, Your Mate, Hoodlmz, J3NoVa, Stress Less, Alpine Circuit, Deckhead, Sticky B $15

SUNDAY JUNE 6

202 Broadway, Chippendale Meem, Frenzie, Gian Arpino, DJ Huwston, Simon Caldwell free

(BLACKALICI US/QUANNUM)

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BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 63

Soul Sedation

Deep Impressions

Soul, Dub, Hip Hop & Bottom Heavy Beats with Tony Edwards

Underground Dance and Electronica with Chris Honnery

Sven Vath

This Week’s Episode: Courtesy of the ‘Writer’s Writer’

ertain electronic chin-strokers have a slightly condescending view of Sven Vath’s monolithic Cocoon brand and its annual compilations. “Very accessible club tracks for beginners,” they say with a sneer, before turning back to their copy of The Wire magazine and adjusting the volume on their Bose™ stereo, which is streaming a collaboration between Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Sylvian. However, many of these ivory tower elitists haven’t set foot inside a Cocoon party, where freaks and glamours alike bump and grind in a sweaty amorphous mass to the likes of Ricardo, Richie, Papa Sven and a selection of some of the best ‘new generation’ techno DJs. Checking out the YouTube promo for this year’s Cocoon’s ‘Party Animals’ themed extravaganza, where Richie speaks about the Cocoon tradition (while getting his nails painted no less!) it was hard not to bemoan the fact that I will be rooted in Sydney for the duration of the European Summer. The closest I will get to a Cocoon party over the next few months is the fourth edition of Cocoon’s pre-summer mix series, which is helmed by Italian stalwart Marco Carola and Nick Curly, who’s lauded by those in the know as one of the better DJs doing the rounds at the moment. As one would expect, Carola’s disc is laden with loopy minimal tracks from acts like Someone Else and Joseph Capriati, while Curly follows on by exploring more organic and percussive material from Ryan Crosson, Peace Division and Lauhaus. The compilation is split to represent mainroom and terrace sounds and, whether as a substitute or a supplement, the double CD is worth picking up for a satisfying snapshot of the club sounds of 2010. Try and spread the gospel and buy it for your uneducated friend as a birthday gift instead of your usual half-assed option of The Clubber’s Guide To… It’s just like global warming – every one of us must do our bit to ensure a better tomorrow. Many of the new nights that pop up around Sydney town seemingly serve little purpose other than to act as a lurid vehicle for ordinary DJs to push ordinary music and perpetuate derogatory stereotypes that bring down the rest of us... New night Redlight serves as an alluring counterpoint to my cynicism, with a mission statement geared towards providing quality DJs with an intimate forum to play extended sets. Redlight hits the floor running in July with an international double bill of Poker Flat’s Martin Landsky and French maestro Alexkid (born Alex Mauri) who you may recall headlined Deep As Fu*k’s notorious annual Pirates of the Underground boat cruise two years running from 2007-08. Mauri’s artist album Mint spawned a couple

of crossover hits at the beginning of the noughties, namely ‘Come With Me’ and ‘Don’t Hide It’, but while that release was centred around bar-friendly house grooves, Mauri is equally adept at crafting techno, dub and even pop music. Aside from releasing on Laurent Garnier’s revered F Comm label and Cadenza, Mauri has worked with musicians as far a field as Suzanne Vega, John Cale and even George Michael – he’s one of those ‘DJ’s DJ’/‘producer’s producer’ types. Mauri also has a more esoteric band project, Dubphonic, which he discussed with me over brunch at Bill’s when he was last in town. “The idea behind it was to imagine the soundtrack of a Sergio Leone movie made by John Carpenter,” he said of Dubphonic, before adding, “I’m not sure we succeeded, but I feel very comfortable with the result. Unluckily, nowadays it is hard to have a label release this kind of music. It is very cinematic, and record labels expect ‘hits’ - we just cared about beauty.” Those after beautiful, atmospheric releases a la Matt Edwards’ Quiet Village project are advised to seek out Dubphonic’s back catalogue, while techno fiends should make sure they are at the launch of Redlight at Plantation on Saturday July 17, for as Mauri has demonstrated on previous visits down under, he can mix techno and house as well as just about anyone I praise in this column. I end on a slightly disturbing note, with the news that London super club Matter is closing indefinitely over the summer. Matter is run by the same team as fabric nightclub, and rumours abound that Fabric is next on the chopping block. Buzzin’ Fly main man Ben Watt made some ‘tweets’ pertaining to the tenuous future of fabric, and was ordered to remove his comments. In reply, Watt did little to dampen the speculation, tweeting “I have been asked to remove my comments about fabric’s alleged fall into administration. I have no wish to upset anyone. The truth will emerge in due course. In the meantime I can only sympathise with those at the sharp end of this story. Best, Ben.” Say it ain’t so Ben! In light of the rumours, there is all the more reason to drop by Fabric if you’re in London over the next few months. Alexkid

LOOKING DEEPER SATURDAY JUNE 5 Co-Op feat Harri TBA

SATURDAY JULY 2 Stephan Bodzin The Arthouse

SATURDAY JULY 17 Redlight Launch: Alexkid & Martin Landsky Plantation

SATURDAY JULY 24 James Holden Chinese Laundry

Martin Landsky

Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through deep.impressions@yahoo.com. 64 :: BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble 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.

he Public Opinion Afro Orchestra’s debut LP, Do Anything Go Anywhere, is steeped in incredible amounts of dopeness. I’ve been hitting repeat for weeks now! Precision grooves, laidback vocals, and messages that this column feels an affinity with. Damn good work guys, please crack on with more amazing music as soon as possible! Hope everyone down at POAO’s Basement gig last weekend enjoyed themselves. Quantic is about to drop his second album as Quantic Presenta Flowering Inferno. Dog On A Rope sees him further exploring his ear for reggae and cumbia sounds, all produced from his temporary residence in Columbia. If you wanna know what it might sound like check ‘Make Dub Not War’ off his previous Flowering Inferno album. There’s a new Hypnotic Brass Ensemble album in the pipeline, too. You can score a free track ‘Spottie’ off the ChoiceCuts Soundcloud page, the Dublin label that’s putting the release out.

Wellington’s Electric Wire Hustle will be coming out to support Shapeshifter at their approaching Metro show. This is dope news, the trio makes beautiful electronic soul music. Soul Sedation thinks so and Gilles P thinks so too - he’s added them to his Brownswood Bubblers 5 compilation. Jonny Faith and Monkfly round out the healthy bill. EWH are releasing a full album this coming July. In massive news for Elefant Traks, Urthboy’s jetting off for some European dates. He’ll play the Open Air festival in Switzerland, Splash in Germany, three dates supporting Brother Ali in Germany (dope!) and then an Elefant Traks showcase alongside Hermitude in LDN. And that, my friends is where good music and consistent hard work get you. Big up Urthboy! Before he flies out you can catch the emcee in the flesh at the Sandringham Hotel on June 19. Labelmate Ozi Batla is doing an Inner West show of his own at the Annandale Hotel the following Saturday 26 June. In more Sydney hip hop news MC Anzak and Mickey Morphingaz have a new track out, ‘Two Worlds Collide’. Soul Sedation imagines there’s a full album coming out soon… Premo gig coming up at the Forum this Sunday week. Alongside The Beatnuts, that should a pretty fat show of oldschool sounds. Catch you down there.

And there’s also a new Diesler album Tie Breakers imminent. If you didn’t catch his remixes album on Freestyle last year, you need to go back and dig yourself up a copy of that. It’s full of wicked afro funk for the dancefloor. The new album features vocals from Laura Vane, Double Yellow, Stee Downes, Linda Bloemhard and Stockholm’s Carloline Ekstrom. You should get down with Grooveman Spot out of Japan, this guy is making some epic beats. His album Change Situation is full of all types of goodness, hip hop, future beat, soulful breaks, ambient experimental, funk, disco and features Kissey Asplund, Muhsinha and Erik Rico on vox. The guy really has all the tricks in his bag. You can find his work on the Jazzy Sport and Planet Groove labels. Staying Tokyo-oriented, I need to donate some column space to another amazing producer from that neck of the woods who goes by the name of 45 aka Swing-O, a composer and pianist who’s worked on more than 100 albums including those of the Kyoto Jazz Massive. Soul Sedation has just picked up his second album The Revenge Of Soul from ‘09, and now I’m headed back to dig up his first release Hello Friends, that dropped a year before that. The album I’ve got now is truly amazing, full of some classic sounding disco/RnB, soul, hip hop and jazzy breaks and features vocalists Stephanie McKay, Bull Jun and Ryan Shaw. To add to the picture Swing-O is part of a “bpm under 100” soul/jazz/hip hop night in Japan, a man after my own heart! I have to say, when you put this guy up alongside Mitsu The Beats and Grooveman Spot it’s hard to deny that the Japanese are killing it in the soulful hip hop department. They’re paying absolutely no heed to the tragic electro pop style that’s invaded hip hop - word to Nippon for keeping it real and golden age!

Grooveman Spot

ON THE ROAD SUNDAY JUNE 13 Rap City - DJ Premier, The Beatnuts, Masta Ace & Edo.G The Forum Shapeshifter The Metro

SATURDAY JUNE 19 Urthboy The Sandringham Hotel

SATURDAY JUNE 26 Ozi Batla Annandale Hotel

SATURDAY JULY 24 Funkdafied Warehouse Party TBC

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

BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 65

snap sn ap

the wall

PICS :: RR

up all night out all week . . .

19:05:10 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700

wham

It sounds like: Polar bears roari ng in unison. DJs: All 21 of them! James Taylo r& Trent Rackus vs. Johnny Rad, Illya MC Shureshock, Raye Antonelli vs. Wax Motif, vs. Husky, Levins vs. Bad Ezzy, Bren Sushii, Reno vs. Foundation, Disc den Fing vs. opunx, BC vs. Andy Webb, Venuto, Kingpin. Three records you’ll hear on the night: ‘Duckface’ – The Martin Brot ‘Babbadabba’ – Renaissance Man hers; ; ‘I Feel Better’ – Hot Chip. And one you definitely won’t: ‘Bor n Free’ – M.I.A. Sell it to us: We’re launching the chilly season in style with a tonn e of our favourite DJs, back to back, sharing body heat penguins and laser guns. Four room . Expect bubbles and arctic creatures, fairy s of frosty frivolous fun! The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Getting your tongue stuck on an mid-dance move. imaginary icicle

purple sneakers

PICS :: DM

party profile

It’s called: Whamtarctica!

22:05:10 :: The Gladstone Hotel :: 115 Regent St Chippendale 96993522

Crowd specs: snowmen and Eski mos. More info: whamblog.net Wallet damage: $15 before 10pm / $20 after. Where: The World Bar, Kings Cros s. When: Saturday June 5

wham

PICS :: DM

hot damn

PICS :: RR

22:05:10 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700

20:05:10 :: Spectrum :: 34 Oxford St Darlinghurst 93316245 66 :: BRAG :: 364:: 31:05:10

) ASHLEY MAR :: S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHERMCKENZIE :: JEREMY BOWRING :: DANIEL MUNNS :: II ENZO :: JAY COLLIER ROSETTE ROUHANNA :: SOF RUSHBROOK :: JULIAN DE LOR PATRICK STEVENSON :: RENEE

BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 67

snap sn ap

21:05:10 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex Street Sydney 82959958

21:05:10 :: Q-Bar :: 34-44 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93601375

It’s called: June long weekend , Bungalow 8 presents “The Rum ble in the Bungle” It sounds like: Sydney’s best DJs battle it out for the belt, right on waterfront area. our DJs: Murray Lake vs Taras, DJ A Game vs NVT, Jon Croft vs Bust vs Cheryl Leigh. a, Miss T Three records you’ll hear on the night: Breakbot, Flight Faci lities, Yolanda Be Cool. And one you definitely won’t: Mar iah Carey. Sell it to us: Part y on the harb our as the sun sets, with killer wate from the dance floor and a sick r views line-up battling it out for you all night. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: $5 Drinks between 6pm-9pm . Crowd specs: Young and fun! Wallet damage: Free before 9pm , $10 after. Where: Bungalow 8, No 8. The Promenade, King Street Wharf. When: Sunday June 13, from 6pm

starfuckers

PICS :: AM

party profile

bungalow 8

sosueme pres. naboo

PICS :: PS

garden party featuring james zabiela

PICS :: AM

up all night out all week . . .

oh my!

PICS :: SM

22:05:10 :: Club 77 :: 77 William St Kings Cross 93613387

21:05:10 :: Home The Venue:: Tenancy 101 Cockle Bay Whf Darling Harbour 92660600 68 :: BRAG :: 364:: 31:05:10

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19:05:10 :: Fringe Bar :: 106 Oxford Street Paddington 93605443

usher

PICS :: AM

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

PICS :: RR

up all night out all week . . .

20:05:10 :: Overseas Passenger Terminal :: George Street The Rocks 92995868

It’s called: Chinese Laundry pres ents the We No Speak American o tour It sounds like: The Fonz and a polar bear copulating… heaps cool ! DJs: Zombie Nation, Yolanda Be Cool, D-Cup, Jeff Drake, Steve Lind Junque, Teejay, Tones, Scott Wrig , Club ht, Harry Cotton, Bella Sarris Three records you’ll hear on the night: ‘We No Speak Americano’ Yolanda Be Cool & D-Cup; ‘Kern – kraft 400’ – Zombie Nation; ‘The Only Fuckin Rave Party’ – The Only. And one you definitely won’t: ‘No More Tearz to Cry’ – R.A.E.D (as amazing as it is, Sydney, and inde ed the world, just aren’t ready for it). Sell it to us: No selling required, but if we have to…we have music to fit everyone’s taste across three dive rse rooms, and with Yolanda Be Cool & D-Cup about to conquer the worl d you better grab a chance to see these guys on their home turf before they are considered global dance mus royalty! On top of that goodness, ic we have one of the stars of the ‘We tour, Zombie Nation, in an exclu Love’ sive Sydney sideshow. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: _____ Crowd specs: Just our typical ama zingly ‘up for it’, genetically and intellectually superior crowd! Wallet damage: $15 before 10pm & $25 after. Where: Chinese Laundry! Cnr Suss ex and King St When: Saturday June 5

candy’s apartment

PICS :: JB

20:05:10 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700

party profile

teenage kicks

PICS :: RR

chinese laundry

gameboys

PICS :: AM

22:05:10 :: Candy’s Apartment :: 22 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93805600 ) ASHLEY MAR :: S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHERMCKENZIE :: JEREMY BOWRING :: DANIEL MUNNS :: ROSETTE ROUHANNA :: SOFII RUSHBROOK :: JULIAN DE LORENZO :: JAY COLLIER PATRICK STEVENSON :: RENEE

21:05:10 :: Kit & Kaboodle :: 33-35 Darlinghurst Rd Kings Cross 9368 0300 BRAG :: 364 :: 31:05:10 :: 69

snap sn ap

gallery bar

PICS :: TL

up all night out all week . . .

It’s called: The Pants Party It sounds like: A house party shov ed down someone’s pants and then smuggled into a club. Who’s spinning? The Gameboy s, Boonie, Max Smart, Mo’ Hat Mo’ Play, The Free Sweedes & Liz Bird Sell it to us: The Pants Party will be nothing too heavy nothing too light a sensory delight for all to experience; , just right! Musical delights will be up all night ranging from nu-disco serv to hip hop to funk to party jams from ed genres, we even have Twister to all help inspire the more adventurous dancefloor connoisseur! Three records that’ll rock the fl oor: ‘Crave You’ – Flight Facilities is pretty much mandatory; ‘As We Enter’ Nas & Damian Marley…we challeng to dance! And it’s more than likely e that Solo might sneak into someone you not on in the night. ’s set later The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Play ing Twister, drinking $9 cocktails, watching Animal House on a big screen whilst countless pairs of pant from the ceiling around you. s hang Crowd specs: people who want something a little different out of their Saturday night and who want to dance the dance of life! More: email mohatmoplay@gmail.co m for more info. Wallet damage: Free before 10pm , $10 after. Where: Melt Bar, 12 Kellet St, King s Cross (opposite Mansions) When: Saturday June 5, from 9pm

mum

21:05:10 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700

dubrave

PICS :: RRU

party profile

melt

PICS :: JD

22:05:10 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711

level

PICS :: AM

21:05:10 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711

22:05:10 :: The Empire Hotel :: 32 Darlinghurst Rd King's Cross 93607531 70 :: BRAG :: 364:: 31:05:10

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