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Fri Feb 18 Seymour Centre sydney.edu.au/seymour
Popfrenzy presents
with special guests
HIGH PLACES (US)
The Way Out Out now on Spunk popfrenzy.com.au myspace.com/thebooksmusicpage
AND
BEST COAST
(LA) This is a very influential and cool band… I respect them so much. They were very revolutionary. They had a lot of guts to be doing stuff like that in the military society that was going on then. – KURT COBAIN
WED 9 MARCH SYDNEY ENMORE THEATRE W/RICHARD IN YOUR MIND TICKETEK.COM.AU THIS R! SUMME
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popfrenzy.com.au mutantes.com Also playing Golden Plains, Perth International Arts Festival
Blonde Redhead (US) Sat 29 Jan, Opera House | sydneyoperahouse.com Les Savy Fav (US) Thu 10 Dec, Manning Bar | manningbar.com Best Coast (US) Wed 9 Mar, The Enmore | ticketek.com.au
Future Entertainmment presen ts t
VS
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rock music news welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on, down and around town with Nathan Jolly and Cool Thomas
five things WITH
CAITLIN PARK
Growing Up I remember watching Disney 1. films over and over again as a young kid, and becoming enthralled with the soundtracks. I’ve always despised musicals, but Disney films, as musical-esque as they can be, were different, and made me understand how music moved and how it could change the mood of anything. As a kid, my parents always had music around the house, and even though I can’t remember physically touching the records, I know Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Joe Cocker and Van Morrison were digging their heels into my ears. My parents would teach us songs on car trips, but I wouldn’t call them musicians. They absorb music quite emotionally - “Listen to this part…” - nerding out! More modern, less emotional nerding out came from my sister, later down the track... When there was no-one 2.Inspirations
COHEED AND CAMBRIA
PUBLISHERS: Adam Zammit & Rob Furst EDITOR IN CHIEF: Adam Zammit 9552 6333 adam@peergroupmedia.com EDITOR: Steph Harmon steph@thebrag.com 9552 6333 ARTS EDITOR & ASSOCIATE: Dee Jefferson dee@thebrag.com 9552 6333 STAFF WRITER: Jonno Seidler, Caitlin Welsh NEWS CO-ORDINATORS: Nathan Jolly, Cool Thomas, Chris Honnery ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant GRAPHIC DESIGN: Dara Gill SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER: Tim Levy SNAP PHOTOGRAPHERS: Susan Bui, Ashley Mar, Daniel Munns, Rosette Rouhanna, Patrick Stevenson, Tom Tramonte, Cowan Whitfeild COVER DESIGN: Sarah Bryant
The Star Wars universe of the prog-rock world will be taking you on a mystical adventure at the Stone Sour Sidewave. If your thing is evil bikes, characters named after band members or even a mystical binding that holds together a vast number of planetary systems occupied by fictional races, you’re not going to want to miss this. It’s the late addition of Coheed And Cambria to the huge line-up of Stone Sour, Sevendust and 36 Crazyfists, and ‘s gunna rock! Monday February 28 at the Luna Park Big Top, all ages, book through Ticketek.
OLD MAN RIVER & PASSENGER
For some reason I always assumed Old Man River was a Xavier Rudd-esque purveyor of that Byron Bay genre of snooze-core. Then
in my house as a teenager, I would play Lauryn Hill’s Miseducation and sing through the album – proving how Doo Wop I am not. Propellerheads’ Decksanddrumsandrocknroll was an amazing album, and I think Take Calfornia changed my life. Joni Mitchell I was never into - until I was, and I became intrigued, and drank a gallant drop of Sunnyvale cask wine, and cried through the entire doco, A Woman Of Heart And Mind. Paul Simon’s Graceland, Carole King’s Tapestry and Neil Young’s Harvest. Anything The Books release is extraordinary and anyone called Markland Starkie (The Sleeping States) is an incredibly influential songwriter. Steve Reich. Cat Power. Joanna Newsom. Phillip Glass. Penguin Café Orchestra. Your Crew Selling cakes, selling carpets, fixing 3. computers – the live band met in university. We all studied music at the Conservatorium (Ben, Eirwen and I). I met Miles (drums) through friends, and ending up singing with a British accent on his electro album.
4.
The Music You Make Folk music with samples and sound effects and electronics. The new EP was
The Books
With: Spookyland Where: Assemblage Warehouse - 22 Kensington St, Chippendale When: Saturday January 29
Andrew W.K.
W.K.O.A.F
Andrew W.K likes to party. That is pretty much the gist of his lyrics, his mission statement, the titles to his album and how he lives, even when visiting his parents. On January 25 he will be partying at Oxford Art Factory and you should go and get some of those excess party vibes that surround his every party move. It’s a slippery slope though - be warned.
TANGLED UP IN DYLAN
Bob Dylan went through a Christian stage, a brutally terrible 80s stage, recorded what is generally considered the worst live album ever with The Grateful Dead and helped bring poetry and misogyny to the musical mainstream… Or was that Figgkidd? Oh, and also, he wrote about three hundred amazing songs. Bobby is doing a show at Sydney Entertainment Centre on April 27, with tickets on sale January 31. Put both dates in your diary.
EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Publisher, Editor or Staff of The Brag.
BIG DAY OUT NEWS
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 extensions) 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
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When: Warriors With Wild Hearts EP is out now through Broken Stone Records
O-WEEK AT UNSW
Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this address 153 Bridge Road, Glebe NSW 2037 ph - (02) 9552 6333 fax - (02) 9552 6866
Win a giveaway? Mail us a stamped and addressed envelope, and we’ll send your prize on over...
There are plenty of wonderful local musicians, that’s for sure. We need to go out and see more live music for venues to re-open or pop up as they once did. That’s why we wanted to have the launch in a new space.
To welcome everyone to O-Week 2011, UNSW’s Roundhouse has put together a lineup of huge acts to help you start a fresh year of binge drinking student life! Indiepop lads Kisschasy are returning from a well-earned break following the tour of their last album Seizures, and they’re well ready for action. Sydney prodigies Papa Vs Pretty and Tassie four-piece Enola Fall will also be making an appearance on Wednesday February 23, with tickets on sale through Ticketek now.
REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Simon Binns, Joshua Blackman, Mikey Carr, Benjamin Cooper, Oliver Downes, Max Easton, Tony Edwards, Christie Eliezer, Murray Engleheart, Lucy Fokkema, Mike Gee, Andrew Geeves, Thomas Gilmore, Kate Hennessy, Chris Honnery, Nathan Jolly, Alex Lindsay Jones, Andy McLean, Hugh Robertson, Amelia Schmidt, Romi Scodellaro, RK, Luke Telford, Beth Wilson, Alex Young
PRINTED BY SPOTPRESS: www.spotpress.com.au 24 – 26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville NSW 2204
Music, Right Here, Right Now The music scene in Sydney is vibrant, or 5. would be if we had the venues to back it up.
I saw him live and it sounded like Sleepy Jackson before Luke started scoring Disney films from the ‘30s and Lucas films from the 2030s. Awesome. Old Man River plays Friday February 11 at The Annandale, with UK singersongwriter Passenger in support.
SALES/MARKETING MANAGER: Blake Rayner 0404 304 929 / (02) 9552 6672 blake@thebrag.com ADVERTISING: Les White - 0405 581 125 / (02) 9552 6618 les@thebrag.com ADVERTISING: Jessie Pink - (02) 9552 6747 jessie@thebrag.com GIG & CLUB GUIDE CO-ORDINATOR: Christian Moraga - gigguide@thebrag.com (rock) clubguide@thebrag.com (dance) INTERNS: Liz Brown, Rach Seneviratne
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recorded in a variety of small rooms – mostly my bedroom and lounge room – and features dialogue samples from a variety of different voices, including my oldest friend, my father and the Annandale Public School Choir. The record is very special to me and to really emphasise this, I had it mixed by my talented friend Liam Judson (Belles Will Ring, Cloud Control). The live show is a little different, as it should be, but it doesn’t lack the cinematic, linguistic atmosphere of the record.
BETWEEN A BOOK AND A HIGH PLACE
The Books are be the only two words we should really have to write here. The legendary American duo known for their glitchy sound-collages and visuals are heading to Australia, thanks to our besties at Popfrenzy - and just to make it even better, they’ll be join by Brooklyn indie-poppers High Places. Make sure you catch both at The Seymour Centre on February 18 - tickets are on sale now through the venue.
In case you didn’t pick it up already, Big Day Out is this week. Tickets to the Thursday January 27 event haven’t sold out yet, and if you’ve got or are getting one, you can bring a friend for free. HUGE. The Black Keys have sadly pulled out “due to exhaustion,” but do not fear - your favourite Something For Kate frontman Paul Dempsey will be filling the void. In related news, the Primal Scream, M.I.A & Die Antwoord and Deftones sideshows are sold out, but The Jim Jones Revue, Plan B, CSS, Lupe Fiasco, Booka Shade and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros sideshows still have a few tickets floating about… Oh yeah, and they’ve added another stage - The V Energy Green Room - with laser lightshows and sets from Gadget, Mandu, Big Prez DJs, Walkie Talkie, Tenzin, United Colours and more. Phew! Flick over to page 22 for our huge BDO special, and then rip out the map & playing times, put them in a zip lock baggie and tie it around your neck. The people will flock to you.
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rock music news
free stuff
welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on, down and around town with Nathan Jolly and Cool Thomas
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM
he said she said WITH
Os Mutantes
SIMON FROM DARK BELLS Dark Bells is Teneil T on guitar and vocals, Ash Moss on bass and vocals and me, Simon Parker, on drums. Ash and I both played in bands (Mercy Arms, Damn Arms) that shared the same manager, so we ended up bumping into each other at a lot of shows, and the similar musical tastes sort of bonded us. I think the fact that everyone in the band pretty much works full time to stay afloat makes us appreciate the time we get to rehearse and play. We’d be unhappy people if we didn’t have that outlet. We’re influenced by so many things, including each other. Before I joined the band, the other guys recorded an EP with Tim Dunn at Hanging Tree Studios, and we’re hoping to release it as soon as we can! I think the best way to experience Dark Bells is to see us live. We lean towards a darker droney style, but balanced with a pretty solid rhythmic element.
O
ne of my first childhood memories is listening to the radio with my cassette player, waiting patiently for my favourite song to come on so I could record and listen to the track over and over again. I wanted that song so bad that I didn’t seem to care that the DJ would be talking over most of it! I think that’s where my obsession started, and I haven’t really lost it since. The most inspiring musicians for us are the ones who don’t give a fuck about what
anyone else thinks, and keep an integrity about what they do. Anyone who plays music wants recognition and success in some way, but it doesn’t always mean you have to compromise the music to get it. A perfect example would be Robert Smith from The Cure. He’s always done what he wants to do regardless of what was happening around him, and in the process he created some amazing work that’s been both catchy pop and experimental, and is still exciting after all these years.
The music scene in Sydney is flourishing as far as we’re concerned, with great bands like The Laurels, Myth and Tropics, Dead China Doll and Ghostwood playing around. I think the best thing is we all try to support each other through venue closures, and feeling like you’re a million miles away from the rest of the world. What: De La Soul, Tricky, Lamb, Four Tet, Caribou and heaps more Where: Playground Weekender festival at Wiseman’s Ferry When: February 17 – 20
OS MUTANTES
If you are a fan of the absurdist Brazilian godfathers of pop, Os Mutantes, then you’re in good company. With props from Beck, and Sean Lennon, and branded as “revolutionary” by Sir Kurt Cobain, these legends from the 60s were Brazil’s answer to The Beatles. Combining British and American psychedelic, pop and rock influences with traditional Brazilian bossa nova, tropacalia and samba, their inimitable sound has been branded by Devendra Banhart as music ‘without an expiration date’. After a hiatus from the 70s to the early 2000s, Os Mutantes have returned from the musical wilderness and are playing on March 9 at The Enmore Theatre with LA’s Best Coast... And if you’re not into all that other stuff, you’re totally into Best Coast. To win a double pass, tell us the name of Os Mutantes’ 2009 album.
BEATS ANTIQUE
San Franciscan electronica, glitch, dubstup (and everything else) trio Beats Antique are heading to Sydney to make you dance. Yes, just you. Weird, huh? Anyway, if you’re unaware of them, it’s worth checking them out online and then heading down to Manning Bar on Friday February 4 at 9pm. Supported by Svelt, bumble and more, Manning will probably collapse from all the bopping! (Nah, it won’t, don’t worry. Fairly sound structural integrity.)
RODRIGO Y GABRIELA Holly Throsby
THROSBY’S BACK!
The obscenely talented Holly Throsby has a great new record named Team, and to celebrate it she’s bringing a team of musicians along with her for a tour. Her team is called The Hello Tigers, and they’ll be joining her at Balmain Town Hall to launch said album on March 6. The following night at the town hall will be less riveting, as the parking issue is discussed earnestly at the monthly council meeting. You’re probably not as invited to that one, either.
Mexico’s finest acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela are here to school you hard in the art of the Spanish guitar. Attend their performance and weep at your inability to play guitar, as they ease casually through blisteringly complicated original material, and twist well-known songs in ways so delicate you will swoon. Have a prev at their latest album 11:11, and buy your tickets! Enmore Theatre, Wednesday April 20, tickets through Ticketek.
BIG NIGHT IN
If Big Day Out isn’t your thing, Purple Sneakers & Last Night have got just the right thing for you. This Friday January 28, they present a Big Night In. On the live music front, you’ll catch indie bros Ghostwood, ambient bros Sooners and indie duo Kate & Max. When the decks take over you’ll catch a Dappled Cities vs Deep Sea
British India
BRITISH INDIA
The hardest working band in the world (probably) are touring AGAIN. Cancel whatever plans you have on April 16, because British India are playing The Annandale Hotel, and you need to be drunkenly yelling for their boss cover of ‘Lithium’. Come to think of it, why have you planned so far ahead to have plans in April? We could all be dead by then! …If we’re not, we’ll see you at the Annandale.
Arcade DJ set, a teenagersintokyo DJ set as well as a “friendship set” from Purple Sneakers favs PhDJ, M.I.T and Fantomatique, while Minou spins in the glassroom. All happens at the Gaelic, for ten dollar only. Belles Will Ring
SLEEPOVER @ OXFORD ART FACTORY
Even though the two nights of great music on at Oxford Art Factory on January 28 & 29 is called ‘Sleepover’, you actually cannot sleep over. Bouncers tend to frown at such behaviour. Still, Friday has Belles Will Ring, Made In Japan, The Preachers and The Tsars, and Saturday night has The Seabellies, We Say Bamboulee, Only The Sea Slugs and Tin Sparrow. Each night is $8 through moshtix or ten at the door. Again, don’t actually sleep over.
GARETH LIDDIARD & DAN KELLY
Neil Young realised he was going deaf, which is why he wrote Harvest - so he wouldn’t have to be around blaring guitar din for the next year. I assume similar reasons are behind this solo tour by The Drones’ Gareth Liddiard. He’s bringing the ever-entertaining and perennially-quiffed Dan Kelly along for the ride, and they stop in at The Factory on March 24. Wanna be my date?
OWLS, BULLS, ETC
You know when a toddler loves a cat so much that she squeezes it to death, coz it is so, so cute? Well, that’s what I will be doing to the entire UNSW Beergarden on Friday February 25 when Owl Eyes (the 2010 winner of the ‘Cutest Girl In A Tree In A Promo Shot’ award) and Andy Bull team up to co-headline a little show there.
THE HAVKNOTZ
Sydney rap/metal/rap/rock/rap hybrid (theory) The Havknotz are supporting HED P.E on Saturday January 29 at the Manning Bar and if you are not at this show, down the front, cutting sick to all the songs, I will find you and mess you up (booyyyy).
“Black then white are all I see in my infancy. Red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me.” - TOOL 12 :: BRAG :: 396 : 24:01:11
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dance music news
free stuff
welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... With Chris Honnery
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM
five things WITH
CANYONS Thomson. We met in late high school. We’re strong, true, honest friends that rely on each other and want to make music we think is exciting and new, that is hopefully pushing something forward. The Music You Make We make music that draws influences 4. from 70s rock, house, folk, soul, new wave, punk and more. Our live show will be a five to six piece band incorporating live instruments and electronics - and it will be FUN! Music, Right Here, Right Now This is a tough question, as we’ve been 5. locked away writing a record and haven’t
Growing Up My parents were never musicians, but my 1. mum used to paint and was always playing music. The first bands I fell in love and became obsessed with were Poison, INXS and Big Audio Dynamite II.
2.
Inspirations That’s a very hard question - too many over the years. If you have to name one, Jimi
Hendrix is right up there. Miles Davis, for the way he has changed music forever. Prince is genius. Michael Jackson. Hearing or finding something that seems as though it directly talks to you, that you can relate directly to your own experiences and life at that exact time, is amazing and definitely inspiring.
3.
really had a chance to go out and catch bands. But it’s a really exciting time to be making music and creating, in that there’s so much information so readily available to you. It’s not like we’re back in the 50s, having to hang out with dudes we don’t like that much because they have more money and a bigger 45” collection, just to hear some new sounds! That can be a double-edged sword - there’s so much music out there. The test is to be original and get your own sound happening, and not sound like whoever’s doing good things within your particular “scene”.
Your Crew Canyons are Ryan Grieve & Leo
With: Ratatat Where: Manning Bar, Sydney University When: Friday January 28
M. WARD
You know the band that cutie Zooey Deschanel is in? She & Him? Well the ‘Him’ part of that duo is M. Ward, who’s also a member of American folk supergroup Monsters of Folk. He’s guested on recordings with Cat Power, Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket and Norah Jones - and when he’s not busy being the ‘Him’, a member of Monsters of Folk and featuring on someone else’s song, he’s busy being M Ward. He’s been around since 1999, so his honest indie-folk solo gear does more than hold a candle to his other projects. For a double pass to his show (the Enmore, February 20) as well as a copy of his latest album Hold Time, tell us what song he covered for the film Eagle vs Shark. We’ve got two packs to give away!
CASEY SPOONER
Fischerspooner’s flamboyant front man Casey Spooner is set to drop his first solo album, Adult Contemporary, this week. The first single from the album, ‘Spanish Teenager’ (which features Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears on vocals), came out last week with additional remixes by Derrick Carter and Acid Washed - but the LP itself is said to have been a very personal affair. Spooner was originally supposed to contribute just one song to a project by Jeff Saltzman, the producer of Fischerspooner’s 2009 album Entertainment, but instead ended up with so much material that Saltzman decided to use all the recordings for Spooner’s own album. “I was working in a very unselfconscious manner, as the sound and style were Jeff’s initial direction. (It) is the most emotional work I may have ever made,” Spooner affirmed.
Mary J. Blige
ARMIN VAN BUUREN
RAGGAMUFFIN
The annual reggae festival, Raggamuffin, returns this Friday January 28 at Parramatta Park for its fourth consecutive year. This year’s event will play host to ninetime Grammy Award winner Mary J. Blige, The Original Wailers – and if you’re thinking Bob Marley and The Wailers, you’re correct, as it’s a few of the original members in their latest incarnation – Jimmy Cliff, Maxi Priest, Sean Paul, Ky-Mani Marley, The Black Seeds and The Red Eyes. 10% of profits from this year’s Raggamuffin show will go towards the Queensland Premier’s Flood Relief Appeal – all the more reason to get your raga on come Friday.
One of the genuine nice guys in the dance world, Dutch trance megastar Armin Van Buuren is on his way back to Australian shores. The law graduate is touring to celebrate his radio show notching up its 500th show, and on Saturday April 16, Armin will be marking the milestone in style at Acer Arena. We managed to get the Dutchman on the blower [and by that we mean telephone, thank you very much] to
THE NUMANOID RETURNS
Attention all Numanoids. I repeat, attention all Numanoids. The godfather of electro, Gary Numan, is coming to town and will play The Enmore Theatre on Friday May 13. A true pioneer who has influenced a broad range of contemporary artists with timeless cuts like ‘Cars’ and ‘Are Friends Electric?’ – which has been sampled by the Sugababes and covered by Groove Armada in recent(ish) times – Numan will be performing his landmark 1979 album The Pleasure Principle (and yes, ‘Cars’ was lifted off it!). A radical LP when it was released, The Pleasure Principle abandoned tradition; here was a rock album where guitars were largely replaced with Numan’s signature sound of synthesisers fed through guitar effects pedals, with traditional song structures left behind altogether. And in a night of nostalgia, Numan will be joined by Sydney’s own electronic luminaries, Severed Heads.
ask him his thoughts on the big 500. “I am very proud and happy with the 500th edition of the show,” Armin replied in his thick accent. “The way trance sounds today differs from ten years ago, but it has preserved the same feeling. Trance has evolved over the years. Nowadays, Trance is influenced by other styles like techno, minimal and tech house. It’s nice to have experienced this development, and we will celebrate trance in the biggest way possible!” Tickets go on sale at 9am Monday January 31.
BFTO: COACHELLA 2011
MARK RONSON AND THE BUSINESS INTL
In addition to their performance at this year’s Future Music Festival, Mark Ronson and his new band The Business Intl will play a sideshow at The Enmore Theatre on Friday March 11. Ronson’s latest album, Record Collection, has been a mainstay on triple j in recent times, offering a dozen cuts that included guest spots from the likes of Spank Rock, The Drums’ Jonathan Pierce, The View’s Kyle Falconer, Q Tip, Ghostface Killah, Boy George and Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon. How Ronson goes translating these tracks to the live milieu minus the stars themselves is anyone’s guess; we can but assume that his band really is ‘the business’. Tickets are on sale now.
Gary Numan
Benji B
THE BENJI PRITCH DOUBLE
Benji B and Mark Pritchard will play a double-bill set at Tone on Thursday January 27, with KoolAde providing support. Hailing from the UK, Benji B draws on house, dubstep, hip-hop and funk influences in his sets, and his popularity has allowed him to host his own show on BBC Radio 1, following on from a certain Mary-Anne Hobbs. Pritchard, meanwhile, is well known to Sydneysiders for his regular spots at Void and his production projects Harmonic 313 and Global Communication alongside Tom Middleton.
It’s a new year, and a fitting time to resurrect the hugely popular ‘Better Festivals Than Ours’ segment (BFTO) in dance music news! The lineup for Coachella 2011 has been revealed, and it’s expectedly gargantuan. Kings of Leon, Interpol, Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes, Mumford & Sons and The National will all represent, along with Kanye West, Robyn, Animal Collective, Duran Duran and PJ Harvey. On the dance/electronic front, Joy Orbison, Kyle Hall, Green Velvet, DJ Zinc and Mount Kimbie will offset the far more prominently billed likes of Fedde Le Grand, The Business International and the dinosaur himself, Paul Van Dyk. Coachella is taking place from April 15-17; plenty of time for you to sell your body and get there!
“Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.” – TOOL 14 :: BRAG :: 396 : 24:01:11
TOMORROW ONLY!
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free stuff
dance music news welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... With Chris Honnery
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM
five things WITH
CRYSTAL FIGHTERS
MITZI (QLD) Jad on synth/keys. This makes up the core of the songwriting and performing of Mitzi, but we try to have a lot of fun on stage, and often invite some friends of ours to play with us - including a small horn section, and a female backing vocalist. We want the live thing to be an experience for the eyes and ears. Hopefully people enjoy it as much as we do on stage. The Music You Make [Jad] James Murphy is someone I look 4. to as a brilliant contemporary producer, and I’m sure the others agree. I’ll always play something from one of his records when DJing - they are all amazing. Along with that, I like to play music from some great producers like John Talabot, Clap Rules and Nicolas Jaar.
1.
Growing Up [Cale] My first musical memory is sitting with my dad at about age six, watching him play Neil Young’s ‘Heart Of Gold’. I only really remembered this when I started listening to a lot of Neil Young myself in my late teens. My dad plays guitar and sings; he was really into the whole psychedelic surf rock thing when he was a teenager. He started DJing in the late seventies when he was about 25, doing his own discos. He also owned his own record store for a few years, importing a lot of disco 12” singles and disco/funk records.
2.
Inspirations [Dom & Jad] David Byrne & Brian Eno, because they were innovators and were always pushing the boundaries, by experimenting with different genres and sounds. George Benson, Chaz Jankel & Quincy Jones because they are all great musicians, producers and performers that inspire us when we write music.
3.
Your Crew Mitzi is comprised of Charlie Murdoch on bass, Cale Suesskow playing drums and vocals, Dom Bird on guitar and vocals, and
Music, Right Here, Right Now [Jad] The popularity of dance music and 5. the DJ is making it less feasible for electronic musicians to play in bands; it’s obviously much easier to fly a solo DJ around the world than a band with gear. We all love DJing, although it doesn’t compare to playing live we just wish the masses would agree! What: Flight Facilities, The Swiss, Future Classic DJs, Simon Caldwell & more Where: Adult Disco @ The Civic When: Saturday February 5
continue to bask in the success of their debut album Illumination, which has spawned no less than five rather successful singles in recent times. This is a free event, so RSVP via Facebook to guarantee your attendance, and stay tuned to the page so you don’t miss out on upcoming parties!
Flight Facilities
PANDA BEAR
Panda Bear has announced the release date and other details of his latest LP, Tomboy; the album will be released via Paw Tracks on April 19. All of the tracks will have been previously available on four limited edition 7” singles issued over the past year (the fourth and final 7” is due out imminently on Kompakt), but the versions which appear on the finished album have apparently had parts added to them, and been freshly mixed by Pete ‘Sonic Boom’ Kember, the Spacemen 3 co-founder and modern-day psych sage who produced MGMT’s 2009 album, Congratulations.
FLIGHT FACILITIES, THE SWISS
On Saturday February 5, Adult Disco expands to engulf both floors of The Civic in a celebration of homegrown disco muscle featuring Sydney duo Flight Facilities, Modular disco troupe The Swiss and rising stars Mitzi from Brisbane. Flight Facilities launched their single ‘Crave You’ – a “sun-kissed earworm” – at Adult Disco last July, and the track has since made it onto high rotation on triple j. Mitzi on the other hand are relative newcomers, with the four-piece set to introduce attendees to their brand of “lazy disco grooves and anthemic pop”. Joining the fray will be Mad Racket’s Simon Caldwell alongside Graz, Softwar, Andy Webb and the resident Future Classic DJs.
CASSIUS IN THE HOUSE
With the release of a brand-new single this February, veteran French house duo Cassius return once again to the dance music fold after a four-year absence since their last single, ‘15 Again’. The production pair will drop the ‘I <3 U So’ single, a record which comes with remixes from Skream, L-Vis 1990, Bowski, and Gesaffelstein, on February 28 via Busy P’s French party-tune / electro noize imprint Ed Banger. As the press releases states, ‘I <3 You So’ is a “giddy concoction of vocal samples and dubstep-influenced beats.”
UNPLUGGED + UNCOMPLICATED
Monthly event Unplugged + Uncomplicated falls next Saturday at Carriageworks, where a selection of local outfits will play live music for free from noon till 6pm. The line-up features True Vibenation, a troupe comprised of hip hop twins Verbaleyes & Native Wit and DJ Gabriel Clouston, who will be taking to the stage at 5pm following performances by Ray Mann, DJ Skae, Sub Conscious Records founders Sceptic and Dseeva, Nuzil Muzik and The Kumpnee.
STANTON WARRIORS
Having headlined Chinese Laundry’s Garden Party last weekend, it is pertinent to discuss the Stanton Warriors’ forthcoming artist album. The UK pair made their mark at the forefront of the breaks scene, and have since ensured their longevity by encompassing a diverse mix of house, hip-hop, electro and funk in their releases. Their latest effort, Warriors, continues the eclectic recipe, purportedly incorporating indie and tribal sounds. Lead-off single ‘Get Up’ had just been added to triple j’s high rotation pool of tracks, and the album from which it arose has just been crowned FBi Sunsets’ Album of the Week. Warriors will be available for your consumption as of next month.
MIAMI HORROR
Melbourne electro posse Miami Horror headline the new industry night Thank God It’s Monday at Kit N Kaboodle this, er, Monday - January 24. Sorry for the short notice. The concept has been created with hospitality folk in mind, who sacrifice their weekend pouring drinks for us drunken louts at assorted venues around town and deserve a belated chance to get down. And as for Miami Horror, they
Crystal Fighters are as exotic as their name would suggest; part semi-precious stone, part Power Rangers, this mysterious group of soundsmiths emerged from the gorgeous Basque countryside of Spain to create liberating, folk-tinged dance music. Their new album, Star Of Love, is a blissedout celebration of the Basque culture’s sundrenched heritage; a hidden idiosyncrasy rife with soulfulness and hedonism. Spanning decades and continents of musicianship, Crystal Fighters bridge the divide between electronic dance music and traditional Basque instrumentation to create music that is ecstatic, chaotic, shimmering and melancholy all at once. We have three copies of Star Of Love to give away; to win one, tell us what (or who) a Crystal Fighter would fight?
BENJI B & MARK PRITCHARD
Aaahhhhhh, a summer night at Tone... This Thursday January 27, Niche Productions is bringing us a monstrous double-header of British radio-jockey and DJ Benji B and British expat (turned proud Sydneysider) Mark Pritchard. Benji B has his own show on BBC Radio 1, runs one of London’s most successful club nights, ‘Deviation’, and is playing at a string of European festivals this year – so it seems we’re not the only ones who love his eclectic style. Seamlessly mixing classic tunes with dub, house, hip hop and more, he’ll be joined on the decks by his friend and former compatriot Mark Pritchard. Supporting the two influential DJs will be KoolAde. If you want one of three double passes to the eve, tell us the name of Pritchard’s solo side-project.
shapes and sizes to enjoy a drink (an ALize) before they take to the dancefloor with an ALice, or an ALison, or ALone. ALways DJing each week will be Andrew Levins, don’t be ALarmed when he drops a smattering of songs from the ALleys of ALbury to the ALps of ALabama.” This will be a free event for those curious cats who, like us, have been won over yet again by Levins’ idiosyncratic prose...
Professor Green
ACOUSTIC HORRORSHOW
Sydney hip-hop crew Horrorshow will perform an acoustic show on Sunday March 6 at The Basement alongside Spit Syndicate and Joyride. Horrorshow have undergone a rapid ascension in a relatively short space of time, with their debut album The Grey Space garnering an ARIA nomination, while their follow-up LP, The Space In Me, was both triple j’s Album of the Week and FBi Sunsets’ feature album. With those esteemed factions throwing their considerable weight behind the group, a hip-hop neophyte such as yours truly is quite prepared to jump on the bandwagon.
CHRIS BROWN IN AUS
Having been compared to the likes of Michael Jackson, Usher and even Stevie Wonder during his career, Chris Brown will play Sydney’s Acer Arena on Tuesday April 26. Brown is currently enjoying global success with the single ‘YEAH 3X’, lifted from his forthcoming album F.A.M.E.. The song is currently sitting at #5 on the ARIA singles chart having already achieved double platinum status in Australia. Support comes from our own R’n’B starlet Jessica Mauboy, Justice Crew and DJ Havana Brown. Tickets go on sale Friday February 4.
CLUB AL
Levins hit us up with an amusing presser outlining details of his latest coupe, ‘Club Al’, which will take over the front section of GoodGod Small Club every Thursday. Here it is, uncensored for your pleasure! “AL Pacino. AL Gore. AL Bundy. AL B Sure. AL Green. AL Capone. AL Yankovic. AL Brown. AL Borland. AL Jolson. Ten out of ten AL’s agree that CLUB AL is Sydney’s premier night named after their ALluring first name. A weekly club for AL’s of all
FUTURE MUSIC FESTIVAL ADDITIONS
Given that the lineup for this year’s Future Music Festival (FMF) is stacked already with the likes of The Chemical Brothers, Dizzee Rascal, MGMT, Mark Ronson and The Business Intl., Leftfield, Sven Vath, Loco Dice and Richie Hawtin, you’d be forgiven for assuming there would be no further add-ons. But such a presumptive attitude is sure to come back and bite you in the backside and deservedly so, as no one likes a smug and recalcitrant know-it-all. You’ll gladly learn your lesson though, since it turns out that more acts have in fact been announced for the imminent FMF. Fast-rising British rap/grime MC Professor Green, New Zealand’s Zowie, Dim Mak’s Tai, Stafford Brothers and the teenager once hailed as Australia’s #1 DJ (by ITM), Tydi, will all be joining the fray come Saturday March 12.
“’Cause I’m praying for rain and I’m praying for tidal waves. I wanna see the ground give way.” – TOOL 16 :: BRAG :: 396 : 24:01:11
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The Music Network
themusicnetwork.com
Industry Music News with Christie Eliezer
AAM ANNOUNCES NEW BOARD The Association of Artist Managers (AAM) has announced four new names in its board — including Catherine Haridy (Eskimo Joe, Bob Evans, Jebediah, Basement Birds, The Chemist) who arrives as its chairman. Heath Bradby (Karnivool, Snowman, Downsyde, Drapht, and Papa vs Pretty) is also new to the board, and joins Kim Thomas (Whitlams, iOTA) as the vice chairmen. Denny Burgess (Rebecca LaVauney, Peter Ryan) maintains his seat as the treasurer, and Bill Cullen (End Of Fashion, Paul Kelly, Sarah Blasko, The Drones and Kate Miller-Heidke) and Gregg Donovan (Grinspoon, Josh Pyke, Airbourne, Jackson McLaren) maintained their board positions. The final two new board members are Briese Abbott of One Louder and Tom Harris (Temper Trap, Little Stevies).
MOST PLAYED Australia’s love affair with Pink continued last year. She topped the PPCA’s annual Most Played Artist Report for the fourth consecutive year, while her ‘Funhouse’ was the 15th most played track. Of the most played artists, #2 was Lady Gaga, followed by Black Eyed Peas, Rob Thomas, David Guetta, Powderfinger, Jet, Kings Of Leon, Nickelback, Vanessa Amorosi, Guy Sebastian and Jessica Mauboy at #12. Of most played Aussies in the Top 50, John Butler Trio were #18, Eskimo Joe at #25, INXS at #26, Temper Trap at #40 and AC/ DC at #44.
UNIVERSAL, SONY, CHANGE SINGLES RELEASES IN UK From February 1, Universal and Sony will make singles available for sale on the same day they’re released to radio stations. In the past they have been heard on radio for weeks, sometimes months, before they go into stores, leading impatient consumers to rip tracks from radio or go to pirate sites. Martin Talbot of the Official Charts Company said that it would mean larger sales for the larger records, and that “the chance of a record coming in, appearing
Life lines
very quickly and then dropping back out again will become a rarer phenomenon.” It is expected that the other larger labels will also follow this policy.
LAUNCH SQUAD BOOKING THE EXCELSIOR The Launch Squad will book the Excelsior Hotel in Glebe. From Thursday January 27, the venue will showcase three singersongwriters on Thursdays, with bands featured on Fridays and Saturdays. Each act receives a guaranteed payment plus a percentage of all bar profits (excluding food), with venue providing in-house production and an operator - bands must provide backline, mics, stands and leads. If interested in performing, contact James Dawson at james@thelaunchsquad.com.au or see myspace.com/thelaunchsquad.
INDENT FUNDING FOR MUSICNSW NSW Minister for the Arts, The Hon. Virginia Judge, announced $250,000 in funding to assist young people across the state to stage their own all ages, drug and alcohol free music events. Peak youth network Indent will distribute the money through event grants as well as its Indent tours, which last year saw 20 new acts play ten all ages gigs/workshops to 1600 young people. Indent’s Event Development and Grassroots grants programs will fund 21 event teams with 43 events proposed, including youth festivals, band nights, workshops and new act competitions. See www.indent.net.au.
HOLIDAYS WIN RED BULL AWARD Sydney band The Holidays’ Post Paradise won the fifth Red Bull Award for Best Debut Release, as part of the sixth Australian Music Prize. The Holidays will receive $15,000 in flights and accommodation to travel to Los Angeles and spend a week in the Red Bull studio in Santa Monica. The band will take the prize, as they’ll appear at South By Southwest in Texas in March. Previous Red Bull Award winners include Goyte, Bluejuice, Jack Ladder and Oh Mercy.
HARVEY JAMES CELEBRATED
Ill: Producer and ex-Chic member Nile Rodgers underwent surgery to remove an aggressive cancer. Ill: Apple Inc. co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs is taking his second medical leave of absence in two years, so he can focus on his health. Ill: Backstreet Boys’ A.J. McLean has entered rehab for substance abuse for the third time. Jailed: Motley Crue’s Vince Neil, for two weeks from February 15, after being caught drink driving his Lamborghini in Las Vegas, in June last year. Charged: English Elvis Presley impersonator Michael Cawthray for attacking Jeffrey Burton, the son of Presley’s guitarist James, at the European Elvis Championships in Birmingham. Died: Trish Keenan, singer of Brit electro-pop duo Broadcast, of complications of pneumonia. She reportedly contracted swine flu while on the tour that took them to Australia at the end of last year. Died: US songwriter, manager, publisher and music executive Don Kirshner, 77, heart failure. Among the names he discovered were Neil Diamond, Bobby Darin, Carole King, Neil Sedaka, The Monkees, The Archies and Kansas. Died: US drummer Alex Kirst, member of the Nymphs and Iggy Pop’s band, 47, in a hit and run incident in the California desert.
Organisers of the Harvey James fundraiser ‘Gimme That Guitar’ (February 17 at the Factory) have confirmed it will go ahead as a tribute to the Sherbet guitarist. James handpicked the bill, with Sherbet, Richard Clapton, Renee Geyer, Ian Moss, Swanee, Dragon, Kevin Borich and Lindsay Wells. James’ two sons Gabriel and Joshua will play in the Band Of Friends, Gabriel will step into his old man’s shoes for the Sherbet set. Donations to Harvey’s family and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre can be made at www.gimmethatguitar.com.
BLISS N ESO GO PLATINUM Bliss N Eso’s Running on Air has gone platinum (sales of 70,000) after 24 straight weeks in the ARIA Top 50. It debuted at #1 on the ARIA chart.
STAPLE GROUP LAUNCHES UNFD Last year The Staple Group launched two new companies - creative agency ONE: Meaning Communicated Differently, and electronic music agency Archery Club. This year it bows UNFD (pronounced Unified), which combines Staple Management and Boomtown Records, with the inclusion of the Boundary Sounds management roster. UNFD launches with The Getaway Plan, Miami Horror, The Amity Affliction, Philadelphia Grand Jury, Illy, Deez Nuts, Briggs, Daughter, House Vs Hurricane, Grafton Primary, Heroes For Hire, Dream On Dreamer, Parades, Break Even and Clubfeet. Founder Jaddan Comerford says UNFD is a full service music solution company offering artist management, label services (including distribution and marketing), touring, merchandise, publishing and business management. Recently, Stu Harvey and Martin Novosel joined Staple’s team of Luke Logemann, Jerry Soer, Nick Yates, Seam Lam, Cam Chambers and Rachel John Staple.
SHOCK WIDENING SALES FORCE Shock Entertainment is widening its sales force in Sydney, near the Parramatta area.
THINGS WE HEAR * UK 80s-orientated festival Rewind will launch itself in Australia in October. It’ll most likely be held near Wollongong, with about 25,000 expected for the first year. The bill is far from fixed, but the UK version in August features The Human League, Spandau Ballet singer Tony Hadley, Rick Astley, Kim Wilde, Bananarama, Hue & Cry, Heaven 17, Billy Ocean, and a reunited Bluebells. * Will South Australia become the first state to jail scalpers? The Greens are pushing for it. * Will Sound Relief 2 make an announcement by this Wednesday? * The news of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban’s surrogate daughter Faith came as a surprise to the folks at The Australian Women’s Weekly. They’d interviewed Kidman before Christmas and she didn’t tell them about the kid, instead talking about wanting They need a DVD key accounts sales rep and a customer service/EDI operative. Email your CVs to vic.reception@shock. com.au.
AIR SURVEYS INDIES AIR is putting together a profile of the indie label community in this country, so it can serve it better. They would like labels and self-released artists to complete a survey at app.fluidsurveys.com/surveys/air/air-survey. Confidentiality assured. If you have any questions regarding the survey, forward them to Benjamin Plant at surveys@air.org.au.
EMI & ROLLING STONE FOR QLD EMI Music Australia has dug through its offices to find money-can’t-buy items for the
to adopt a Haitian refugee. Kidman emailed the mag’s editor to explain she didn’t want to talk about the birth too early. * We may see Elton John here in November; he’s announced a NZ date then. * A few hours after hearing about Steve Prestwich’s death, Jimmy Barnes performed ‘When The War Is Over’ at his gig in Adelaide. * Daft Punk have officially denied strong internet rumours that they are linked to DJ duo Third Twin, or are playing festivals using that pseudonym. * After performing at the Rhythm and Vines festival in NZ, DJ Carl Cox did a promo tour for motorbike company Ducati. He, NZ club spinner Gavin S and Cafe Del Mar sax player John McGough rode around the country and chilled in natural thermal pools. * An Irish newspaper revealed that U2’s Adam Clayton and his French girlfriend secretly had a baby son a year ago.
QLD flood relief. These include the electric chair used on the cover of the Hoodoo Gurus’ Electric Chair record, limited edition Spice Girls and Depeche Mode CDs, vinyl boxed sets, and autographed CDs/ posters from Coldplay, Robbie Williams, Jet, Miami Horror and Good Charlotte. Sony Music Entertainment is releasing a three-CD compilation, Flood Relief – Artists For The Flood Appeal, including Aussie artists like Midnight Oil, Guy Sebastian and Crowded House with internationals like Pink, Sting, Bon Jovi, Kings Of Leon, Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Jeff Buckley. All proceeds from sales will go to the Salvation Army Flood Appeal. In the meantime, Rolling Stone will auction off illustrations of all winners from its awards on Tuesday January 25, and donate the takings to appeal.
› THE MUSIC NETWORK TOP 40 The top 40 for 2010 TW TW TI HP ARTIST
TRACK
LABEL
1
3
6
1 CHRIS BROWN
YEAH 3X
SME
2
5
5
2 DAVID GUETTA FT. RIHANNA
WHO’S THAT CHICK?
VIR/EMI
3
8
3
3 WYNTER GORDON
DIRTY TALK
NEON/WMA
4
4
7
4 GUY SEBASTIAN FT. EVE
WHO’S THAT GIRL?
SME
5
1
8
1 BRUNO MARS
GRENADE
ATL/WMA
6
7
8
3 NEON TREES
ANIMAL
MERC/UMA
7 15 7
7 BIRDS OF TOKYO
WILD AT HEART
CAP/EMI
8
6
7
6 MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE
SING
WB/WMA
9
2
8
1 PINK
F**KIN’ PERFECT
SME
10 13 5 10 ALEXIS JORDAN
HAPPINESS
SME
11 14 3 11 ENRIQUE IGLESIAS FT. LUDACRIS
TONIGHT (I’M LOVING YOU)
INT/UMA
12 NEW 1 12 BRITNEY SPEARS
HOLD IT AGAINST ME
SME
13 16 3 13 KATY PERRY
E.T.
CAP/EMI
14 10 11 1 KATY PERRY
FIREWORK
CAP/EMI
15 12 12 1 PINK
RAISE YOUR GLASS
SME
16 9
FADED WHITE DRESS
SME
5
9 AMY MEREDITH
17 18 12 17 JAMES BLUNT
STAY THE NIGHT
ATUK/WMA
18 17 9 12 JESSICA MAUBOY FT. LUDACRIS
SATURDAY NIGHT
SME
19 11 11 3 KE$HA
WE R WHO WE R
SME
20 30 2 20 AVRIL LAVIGNE
WHAT THE HELL
SME
21 38 6 21 MARTIN SOLVEIG FT. DRAGONETTE
HELLO
HUS/UMA
MORE
SME
23 29 12 3 ENRIQUE IGLESIAS FT. NICOLE SCHERZINGER
HEARTBEAT
INT/UMA
24 20 10 9 FAR EAST MOVEMENT
LIKE A G6
INT/UMA
25 21 9 10 GOOD CHARLOTTE
SEX ON THE RADIO
CAP/EMI
26 24 15 14 TRAIN
SAVE ME, SAN FRANCISCO
SME
27 32 6 27 FLO RIDA
TURN AROUND (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)
ATL/WMA
28 26 16 2 KINGS OF LEON
RADIOACTIVE
SME
29 19 9
THE TIME (THE DIRTY BIT)
INT/UMA
22
79
2 22 USHER
9 THE BLACK EYED PEAS
30 31 18 1 BRUNO MARS
JUST THE WAY YOU ARE
ATL/WMA
31 22 26 8 BIRDS OF TOKYO
PLANS
CAP/EMI
32 23 16 4 NELLY
JUST A DREAM
UNI/UMA
33 28 14 23 LIFEHOUSE
ALL IN
GEF/UMA
34 27 16 14 ADAM LAMBERT
FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT
SME
35 45 3 35 KANYE WEST
ALL OF THE LIGHTS
DEF/UMA
36 37 10 36 THIRSTY MERC
ALL MY LIFE
MUSH/WMA
37 25 22 2 MIKE POSNER
COOLER THAN ME
SME
38 33 14 30 SHORT STACK
PLANETS
SMR/UMA
39 34 8 22 KINGS OF LEON
PYRO
SME
40 40 8 31 THE SCRIPT
NOTHING
SME
themusicnetwork.com
‘Willst du bis der Tod euch scheidet, treu ihr sein für alle Tage’ – RAMMSTIEN 20 :: BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11
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THE BRAG GUIDE TO
By Toby McCasker
T
he prospect of interviewing Tool makes my nape-hairs bristle in a giddy Mexican wave, and not just because Lateralus heavily informed my formative years. Some moons ago, in a time when I couldn’t yet construct a devastatingly handsome sentence but dearly loved all things metal and interesting, I somehow found myself at the listening party for the release of 10,000 Days. It was an exciting day, a surreal day; I unimpressed Maynard by falling through the curtained entrance to their bandroom; I annoyed Justin Chancellor with some truly awful questions; I wee’d on Danny Carey. Wait, what? …Whilst relieving myself in the gents as ‘Jambi’ thumped against the grim tiled walls, I felt the presence of a hefty gentleman weight the stinking metal at my feet, as he too engaged the communal trough. Partially violating urinal etiquette I turned, ever so slightly, and the sight of all ten vertical metres of Tool’s percussive goliath doing his business a shoulder away caused me to, how you say, freak out like a little bitch. In so doing, a ponderous golden droplet flicked from the tip of my startled manhood and onto the toe of his boot, instantly darkening into a conspicuous blot. I recount this horrible moment in both our lives to him before I even say hello. “Oh! My God. Yes,” Danny laughs - and I know then and there that he never wore those boots again. While endlessly comical, the story is indicative of the kind of post-celebrity hubris that hangs over the members of Tool; a pall of mystique so paralysing it can choke the urine from even the most resolute of men. “It kinda perpetuates itself, I guess," Danny says. "You guys are so far away and we don’t
get down there that often. Here around town [that’s LA, for all those in the cheap seats], people are bored of seeing me at the pisser!” Hometown Carey-fatigue notwithstanding, fervent Tool aficionados are a far more peculiar breed than most. One need only visit the bizarre bowels of long-running fansite toolshed.down.net to conclude that some of these people’s mothers smoked up big time during the first, second and third trimesters. “Oh, that’s a gross understatement,” Danny laughs, and he laughs hard; it sounds like stalactites thundering into the floor of a bear’s apartment. “I’m always amazed at the interpretations I see of songs or some of Maynard's lyrics. I’m going, ‘Oh my God, are you kidding me?’ But, you know, you don’t want to put the fire out sometimes. For us, it’s great to entertain it, to even foster these people’s weird ideas, so that it kinda takes on a life of its own… Good pieces of art do that, whether paintings or songs or anything. They kind of do their job on their own once you let them out into the world.” The very worst, I propose, must at least be a story to tell... “There was one and, uh, I couldn’t even describe it to you. I think this guy must’ve had a doctor’s degree in physics or something. It was this insane analysis of our music; all these mathematical equations and stuff. I was kind of beside myself, wondering if he actually thought that we were operating on this mathematical level when we composed these pieces!" Convinced I can go one better, I relay a recent forum post I was unlucky enough to stumble over at the cult of delirious hero-worship that is toolian.com: ‘If you take the album letters La Te Ra Lu S and match them to the elemental symbols on a periodic table, then find the
etymological root for each of those element’s names, it gives the hidden message,‘Hidden beneath the city of lights lies hellfire.’ Danny’s head explodes. “There’s something wrong with that, man!” he groans with good humour. “Crazy. Look hard enough and you’ll find anything.” The enduring lunacy that attaches itself to the band’s output is something that continually shocks (if not actually frightens) Danny, even after two decades. “Of course when we started out we were hoping to become popular and sell records and play for thousands of people, and share our art with that many people... But these little added bonuses, I don’t think we ever could have imagined,” he says. ‘Added bonuses’ is an interesting way to refer to the guy who believes that Danny is the human manifestation of Ares, the Grecian god of war… “I’m just always amazed at how people’s minds work," he laughs. “I think Frank Zappa once said something about how, you know, music is really there just to reinforce people’s lifestyles. You know, like the guy that listens to the ‘cool’ music so he can feel a little bit cooler than everybody else, or the guy that listens to jazz, who wants to be the cool old jazz guy. People use it to reinforce all their psychosis at the same time," he reasons. "But it’s gone way beyond what I ever thought it would.” Intriguingly enough, it seems to be the peripheral interests of Tool’s personnel themselves that regularly add fuel to the semi-provoked bonfires lit up by diehard listeners. In Danny’s case, his well-known penchant for arcane geometry and the occult – both things that decorate and inform Tool’s greater monolith. “For me it just went hand-in-hand with what drew me to drumming, to do art; just being dissatisfied with regular, organised religion, or just being dissatisfied with this reality, you know?” Considering the breadth of frontman Maynard Keenan's ongoing deification, helped along by his work with A Perfect Circle and that Puscifer thing, it’s easy to
22 :: BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11
wonder whether the idolatry ever had any adverse effect on the band’s output. “Not too much, as far as functioning within the band,” Danny answers. “That process is still consistent, because it’s sort of out of our control. I think we kind of have to get in the room and sort of surrender to it. We have our methods of madness that work, and they’re kind of tried and true, but then there’s always a sense of experimentation or exploration that can happen too when we’re working, and we’re always open to that.” He describes moments when the band will work on a song for months, and on a whim chuck everything out and start over. “It’s such a drastic musical situation when you’ve put in so many hours on something; you’re just kind of horrified to see this work get thrown out the window. But it ends up being the best decision we make - the song becomes something really special and it takes it to a whole 'nother place that we never thought it would’ve gone. I’m always proud of my bandmates when something like that happens, because it usually results in some weird thing like ‘Jambi’ where I just go, ‘Wow. This is a song that no other band would’ve written.’” ‘Jambi’ takes me back to that uncomfortable memory that greeted you at the door of this interview, but Danny mentions it for a good reason: that song’s three divided rhythms provide a telling glimpse into the shape of Tool’s future – and yes, we’re talking the next album. “’Jambi’ is a typical Tool song to me; I remember when we were mastering the last record, that was the one that I liked to play for people, like, ‘This is where we are, as Tool.’ It’s a good feeling,” “[The next album] is still in its infancy though,” he adds hurriedly, before I can even ask. “We’re still at the point where we’re just jamming and logging ideas… I’m hoping it’ll be out...” he pauses, “- definitely before the end of 2011.” When: Big Day Out @ Sydney Showground When: January 26 & 27 (no NSW sideshows)
BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11 :: 23
THE BRAG GUIDE TO By Hugh Robertson about self-esteem, self-knowledge and children being forced to join the army in Africa. In the end it took an online petition (which gathered 30,000 signatures) and a protest outside their HQ in New York to realise that not only did Lupe Fiasco have fans, he had lots of them. And they were passionate about their man. A tremendous public show of support in the face of a lack of support from the label - fitting again, when you consider that the first Lupe album, Food and Liquor, was all about trying to find a balance between wants and needs, between good and evil, between food and liquor. Of course, the whole situation is absurd when you consider the success of the first two Lupe records. Both reached #1 on the Billboard Rap chart; both were nominated for Best Rap Album at the Grammys; both featured heavily on nearly all year-end lists. The fact that Atlantic/Warner seemed to be holding out for a blockbuster rather than being content with what will (in all likelihood) be a terrific album with moderate sales says more about the modern-day structure of record labels than I have the space to get into here. Consider the words of its creator: “We wanted to go for a more ‘popular’ sound,” says Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, on the phone from California. “The album is a bit more, I guess, popular-sounding than the other albums,” he laughs. “You don’t have to be a die-hard Lupe Fiasco fan to enjoy the music that’s on it.”
I
t’s fitting, really, that the lead-up to the release of Lupe Fiasco’s third album has been such a... well, such a fiasco. Originally announced in early 2008, it has gone through multiple name changes and countless delays - all because his label, Atlantic Records, didn’t really know what to do with a rapper who wasn’t talking about bitches and bling, but rather spitting rhymes
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Despite the years of obfuscation from his label, Jaco himself remains philosophical about the whole thing. It’s just a business decision, he says, nothing else. “I would say [they don’t understand me] as an artist... the artist I am, and the artist they want me to be”, he explains. “They have a certain idea of what ‘a star’ is, or what ‘a star’ should sound like, and they want everybody to fit that mould, no matter what. They are happy to stuff you into that commercialised space, even if they have to cut off your arms and legs...”
In conversation, Jaco comes across incredibly well. While the Lupe Fiasco persona seems to get bigger and bigger with every tour (the current promo posters, with him in his badass leather jacket, are a case in point), the man behind the curtain is softly spoken and almost excessively considered in his responses. Over the course of our talk I get the sense that he’s reached an understanding with his label: he will fulfil his contractual obligations as long as he doesn’t have to pretend to be thrilled with them. He is thoughtful and pragmatic when it comes to The Business, lamenting the fact that American radio is so narrow and restricted - although he’s aware that there’s not much you can do about it. Jaco is happy to admit, for instance, that the first single from the new album, ‘The Show Goes On’, was presented to him by his label as a compromise to get a release date. “It’s all about compromise,” he says, without even the slightest hint of indignation or anger. “Sometimes you have to compromise on what you want to do as an artist for the sake of the business, because at the end of the day it is a business.” His response to Atlantic’s dithering was, essentially, to quit. Jaco left the Lupe Fiasco moniker in LA along with all the baggage that the name entails, to reinvent himself as the lead singer of a band called Japanese Cartoon. Although, as the man himself explains, it wasn't so much a reinvention as the other side of a split musical personality. “I just created something completely different [in Japanese Cartoon],” he begins, “and said from the outset that this is me, being completely different, on purpose. It has nothing to do with Lupe Fiasco, it has nothing to do with hip-hop; it’s just all about me making the music that I want to make. Lupe Fiasco is [a product of] my hip-hop experiences and influences, with Nas, Jay-Z, Wu-Tang and what have you, but Japanese Cartoon is the product of my Clash, Queen, Bad Brains, Radiohead, Coldplay kind of experience,” he explains.
The most important part of Japanese Cartoon, for Jaco, is that it offers tremendous artistic freedom. “There’s only so much that I can do within the framework of Lupe Fiasco, without ruining my commercial appeal, or ‘selling out’ or whatever,” he explains, “[but] there’s no ceiling on Japanese Cartoon. So I could make the next album a Russian waltz album, or an instrumental album like UNKLE does, and I don’t have to worry about any repercussions.” So, what are we left with? Well, we have a new Lupe album, which is a good thing. But Jaco had to compromise his artistic vision, which is bad. But he seems to be comfortable with this, which is good… If this is starting to sound like Homer Simpson and his cursed frozen yoghurt I apologise, but it’s hard not to play ‘on the other hand’ after talking to Jaco for twenty minutes. I suppose all we can hold on to is that Lupe Fiasco owes Atlantic three more albums, and he seems to be able to balance the business with the art. The good with the bad. The yin with the yang. The food with the liquor. Where: Big Day Out @ Sydney Showground When: January 26 & 27 Sideshow: Monday January 24 @ The Enmore Theatre
SMALL SHOT. BIG NIGHT. FRU0490_TB_365x255.indd 1
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Primal Scream
THE BRAG GUIDE TO
By Mitch Alexander at The Olympia - it’s a huge hall that holds 10,000 people - and because it’s such a big song with lots of space in it, now it sounds like a fucking stadium rock song!” While all the songs are present in the show, some of which have never featured in a Primal Scream gig, the band have taken certain steps to elevate the set from a play-by-play duplication to an all new experience. In essence, they’re letting young and old fans listen to the album for the first time all over again. “We’ve more than recreated them - they sound incredible!” he bellows.
T
he worst thing dad can do when you dismiss Frank Zappa or Jonathon Richman as a lot of guitar wankery and silliness is suggest you just don’t get it because while it’s often true, a large chunk of the problem is that you can’t get it because you just weren’t there. It’s the same story with the greatest pop music the world has ever known; even when the kids come around to Sgt Pepper’s or Parallel Lines or Thriller, the impact the albums had on the social and cultural landscape is something that can’t be understood simply through research. As a teen in the 21st century, our zeitgeist recordings - The Strokes’ This Is It or Jay-Z’s The Black Album - still lay in the shadows of their ancestors, The Velvet Underground and N.W.A respectively. And Bieber Fever absolutely does not count. So while Primal Scream’s 1991 breakthrough masterpiece Screamadelica is a cornerstone of
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popular music that fused the past, present and future, I know I can never truly appreciate the magnitude of its importance on release. I can remember where and when I bought it and the grin prompted by the opening chords of ‘Movin’ On Up’, but to hear the cosmic trance (ok, call it acid house if you must) in the comedown of the decadent '80s is something that can’t be recreated. I had accepted this already, but frontman Bobby Gillespie isn’t having a bar of it. “The songs that we never played back then are the ones that sound incredible in the set now,” Gillespie enthuses down the phone. It’s been almost 20 years since Primal Scream released Screamadelica, and they’re celebrating the landmark by performing the album in its entirety around the world. The night before we talk saw the band play the second of two premiere shows at the gorgeous Olympia Theatre in London, and clearly Bobby is still on a contact high. “We did ‘I’m Coming Down’
“There’s certain things that we can do now; different personnel in the band, technology, and we’ve got a budget that we didn’t have back then,” he explains. The promised reinventions may also polish some of the more dated sonic experiments. “‘Inner Flight’, ‘I’m Coming Down’, ‘Shine Like Stars’ - you should hear it on the show, there’s live harmonium, electric sitar, drum machine, tables and vocals and a keyboard. Very, very delicate. It’s beautiful.” The Olympia performances coupled these renovations with a revised playing order of the album, and an opening set of nonScreamadelica singles; the Primal Scream fanboy’s ultimate wet dream. “The way you sequence an album and the way you sequence a live show are completely different," he explains. "For an album you can do different moods, but for a live show you’ve gotta come out and blast them with high energy. And because of the way [Screamadelica] is - the moods are up, down, up, down - we arrived at this [different live] sequence, and it works. “Before we thought about performing it, we saw Van Morrison playing Astral Weeks. He deviated from the album sequence, but you know what? It was beautiful! And that gave me the courage to do this,” Bobby continues. “Astral Weeks is one of the best albums ever, and I figured if Van the Man can do it, then so can we.” This recent trend - bands performing their most revered works from start to finish -
can be either met with firey excitement or accusations of sacrilege. It’s a delicate bubble that can easily pop when pushed to the limit, but Bobby is confident about the alterations Primal Scream have made to the iconic album - not because of the glowing reviews or ticket sales, but the personal responses. “All of our friends were at the [Olympia] shows. Kevin Shields, the Gallagher brothers - Noel came on Friday, Liam on Saturday, which is great because they don’t get out much - and they just had huge smiles on their faces,” he recalls. “Plus I’ve got other friends that aren’t in famous rock bands - heavy music fans who would say ‘you’re shit’ if it was, and they said it was fucking great… 10,000 people with their arms in the air during 'Come Together', everybody is dancing. How many times do you see that at a rock & roll show? “Rock & roll is supposed to be dance music, right? Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Chuck Berry - people were dancing to that - and then somewhere in the late '60s people stopped dancing. It wasn’t rock & roll music anymore, it became rock. The thing is, we’re a fucking rock & roll band, so you come to our show, we’ll get you dancing!” In the absence of Marty McFly, we can’t travel back to 1991 and hear a masterwork unfold. And even if time travel was possible, you’d still need one of those memory wipe sticks from Men In Black to let you hear it for the first time again. In lieu of waiting on the arrival of two science fiction inventions, Primal Scream are offering a far more realistic option. If you just didn’t get it the first time you heard Screamadelica, it will all make sense this time around. Where: Big Day Out @ Sydney Showground When: January 26 & 27 More: Saturday January 29 @ Selinas, Coogee Bay Hotel
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THE BRAG GUIDE TO By Andrew Weaver drummer Patrick Keeler – kept themselves busy alongside White, but they returned in late 2010 with their long-anticipated fourth album, ****. The record is certainly a four star effort, with songs ranging from straight-up rockers to slower, more soulful grooves – and frontman Craig Fox has never sounded better than on numbers like ‘Cave Drawings’ and ‘My Sparrow’. And for this year's BDO, the band is bringing it all to Australia for the first time since 2006. “It’s going to be nice to get back down there,” Little Jack enthuses.
A
s one of the busiest bassists in rock music, Jack Lawrence has got used to the seeming never-ending groove that is his life. When not busy being ‘Little Jack’ to Big Jack White in both the Raconteurs/Saboteurs and The Dead Weather, he’s keeping the groove going with The Greenhornes. It’s the band with which he first came to international attention, when they were lauded by White as one of the finest exponents of garage rock in America. The Cincinnati, Ohio three-piece had been on an album hiatus for eight years while the rhythm section – Lawrence and
Lawrence tells me that for each group he plays with, he requires a slight tinkering in terms of approach. “It’s nice to have different outlets for different styles of music,” he says. “Being in a few different bands helps, because I’ve never felt robotic or like I’m just going through the motions – it really helps keep everything fresh. There’s a challenge to that, which keeps it going. But as far as style-wise, there’s a difference which is good, too; there’s more outlet for songs. Say I write a song that I think would fit better with The Dead Weather than it would with The Greenhornes, then it’s nice to be able to that. We all write different songs all the time - a country song, a soul song - and it’s nice to have these bands [so that] it all fits.”
“They’d always adapt to that style of music too,” he opines, of the likes of The Zombies et al, "and they’d always have fast songs or slow songs. It’s very much like the moods of all of us – you can listen to the new Greenhornes record and I think no matter what mood you’re in, you can probably find it on the record. If you’re feeling trippy there’s stuff there, and if you’re angry there’s stuff there, too.” The group recorded their three previous LPs in Cincinnati, with local legend and former Afghan Whigs member John Curley. They went back to his studio to work on ****. “We looked up to them a lot,” Lawrence says of the Whigs, “and ended up becoming good friends with most of the guys in the band… When we started Greenhornes I was 19, so we were all pretty young,” he recalls. “It was nice to have someone like John around to show you a little bit of how a studio works, and the ins and outs of all that.”
Although they’ve been together since 1996, Little Jack believes that The Greenhornes’ approach has stayed the same. “It’s been like that for forever,” he says. The big change, for them, has been how to go about putting out their music. “As much as you can turn your back to the internet, or not approve of what happens on it, you have to take it seriously and find out how to work it," Lawrence explains. "It’s not the ideal means for me personally to get the record out there and get noticed, but it’s definitely something that’s changed - and you just have to go along with it.” What: ★★★★ is out now though Liberator Where: Big Day Out @ Sydney Showground When: January 26 & 27 Sideshow: Thursday January 27 @ The Annandale Hotel
There’s a maturity at play throughout ****, all hinged around the increasing soulfulness of Fox’s voice. It’s the sort of music that Lawrence says the trio grew up listening to, with plenty of Stax and Motown classics amongst their collection, alongside the best of the British Invasion bands and the Nuggets compilations.
By Bruce Laird Orton explains. “We’d been talking about our shared love of rock & roll, so that was our natural starting point for the band.” Orton makes it clear that the Jim Jones Revue is a band for all generations, not just the 1950s. “The band isn’t just 50s rock & roll,” he affirms. “That’s our original inspiration, but we’re also into a lot of other stuff, like The Ramones, The Stooges, MC5 and Grinderman,” he says. “But when I was a young kid and I first heard ‘Jailhouse Rock’, it made me feel strange – and I’ve felt strange ever since!” he laughs. “It was like the first time I saw The Ramones play – I went in one person, and came out another.”
T
he proposition that English audiences ‘got’ rock & roll before their American counterparts remains one of the more exhausted socio-musicological topics. The empirical evidence is superficially compelling: the leading bands of the so-called British Invasion – Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Zombies and The Who – were all devotees of progenitor rock & roll artists from America, such as Son House, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. Black American rock & rollers like Chuck Berry and Little Richard - and the original white firebrand Jerry Lee Lewis - found a far more sympathetic audience across the Atlantic than in their homeland. The proposition, however, lurches into British imperial revisionist history - and it doesn’t explain Elvis Presley. Rupert Orton (brother of Beth) hasn’t dwelt too much on the cross-cultural history of rock & roll's evolution. But maybe he’s the ideal candidate: Orton plays guitar in British band Jim Jones Revue - a high energy rock & roll act which evokes the theatrical origins of the genre, channelling the spirit of Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, with a liberal dosing of The MC5, Iggy Pop and Nick Cave. “I dunno,” is Orton’s immediate response to the proposition. “I suppose it was easy for English people to understand rock & roll.” Prior to forming The Jim Jones Revue, Orton was managing and booking the Punk Rock Blues club in London; Jones himself was out front of Black Moses, and known to Orton through their mutual love of old school rock & roll. When Black Moses folded, Orton and Jones decided to establish a new outfit, dedicated to the music the pair loved. “Just over three years ago Jim’s band ran its natural course,”
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The Jim Jones Revue were barely conceived when they found themselves asked to play a show. Orton and Jones were taken aback, but reluctantly agreed to the gig. “A friend heard our first rehearsal, and he really liked what he heard,” Orton recalls. “He wanted us to play a couple of days later. So we ended up doing the show, and it was sold out – the show just exploded.” The ‘explosion’ to which Orton refers leads to a discussion of the relationship between performer and audience; the Jim Jones Revue's intention is to spark a reaction in its crowd. “Absolutely, 100%,” Orton agrees. “This is not a spectator sport. The crowd excitement builds and builds – audience participation is crucial,” he says. “We played a show a few weeks ago, and when we got on the stage, the roar that came back was like a bolt of electricity,” he remembers. This reaction they elicit from audiences isn't contrived, either. “We didn’t really think about that when we started,” Orton says. “It was just a case of ‘how can we make this band so exciting that we’d want to see it live?’" It’s partly within that audience reaction that can be seen the link between 50s rock & roll – with its evangelical edge – and punk rock, for which Orton retains a strong affection. “One of the things we’ve talked about is the correlation between [the two genres],” he explains. “We often wonder just what it would’ve been like to see Little Richard back then, with his wild hair stacked up, screaming about sex. Punk in the 1970s must’ve been pale in comparison!” he laughs. Where: Big Day Out @ Sydney Showground When: January 26 & 27 Sideshow: Tuesday January 25 @ The Metro Theatre
By Jonno Seidler
“I
was in New York over Christmas. The snow was utterly beautiful, it seemed to close off the sound, so all I could hear was the flakes falling, and my breath.” Trying to get hold of Nick Littlemore is not an easy proposition. The famously absent half of both Pnau and Empire Of The Sun has been even harder to reach lately, given the globetrotting adventures that have brought him in contact with everyone from Sir Elton John to the dazzling troupes of Cirque du Soleil, where he is currently on board as Musical Director. If Channel V did a B430 show that actually did what it said on the packaging, Littlemore would be it’s undeniable star. Over ten years after a little Brisbane duo dropped Sambanova on unsuspecting Australian audiences, Pnau are set to make their triumphant return to local shores with slots at Big Day Out and a new album, Soft Universe, due to drop around August. But first we have to track down Littlemore, who seems to have had more fun in the recent NYC blizzards than anyone else... “I quietly let the snow cover me completely,” he writes me in an email, “I became a part of the scene, I returned to my sensuous nature.” Citing the break-up with his longterm girlfriend, Soft Universe will apparently showcase more of Littlemore’s aforementioned sensuality than ever before. For a start, there’s no guests - not even Luke Steele. “Peter and I still write in the same way, except I now focus on writing real songs rather than just making beats,” says Littlemore. “I am singing on every record now. Peter encouraged me, and Sir Elton felt that was the only thing holding us back internationally.” It seems that the Rocket Man has had a profound effect on the direction of the duo, having taken stewardship of them after his very public love affair with their self-titled album of 2007. It was John who put Littlemore in touch with Academy Award winning
director Francois Girard and the talented performers of Cirque du Soleil, with whom he has been working in Montreal for the better part of two years. “Sir Elton is like a bolt of lightning in my life,” says Littlemore. “He is a true genius unlike anyone else I’ve met. It is both a privilege and a pleasure to be mentored by the man.” There’ll be no dancing strawberries on stage this time around; Nick maintains that Pnau are getting serious. “We wanted to make the show more raw, and our new direction does not need gimmicks. It’s visceral and hopefully more engaging than our previous shows.” Nick will return to the States for the opening of Cirque du Soleil in New York this July. Which means - quite literally you should catch him and Pnau while you can. And until then, Littlemore's final poetic paragraph, quoted verbatim: "I found a seat on a path by a lake in Central Park, brushed off the snow and sat down. I quietly let the snow cover me completely, I became a part of the scene, I returned to my sensuous nature. Later on, the snow-fall turned into a blizzard. I watched as the city vanished inside the whiteness, this majestic city. Enveloped by it. I went out and walked amidst the storm, the wind calmed for a while and I found myself alone 40 blocks from my hotel. I slowly walked back, there was no one in sight, over twenty inches of snow had fallen. It was a somnolent night, still all I heard was the sound of flakes and my breath. I’ll never forget it." What: The first single off Soft Universe, ‘The Truth’, is out February 4 Where: Big Day Out @ Sydney Showground When: January 26 & 27 (no NSW sideshows)
THE BRAG GUIDE TO
By Ryan Winter
R
ammstein have remained embroiled in controversy right from the beginning of their career; the original cover design on their debut album Herzeleid was labelled a ‘poster for the master race’. Links to the Columbine High School massacre and the Beslan School hostage crisis followed, along with a more recent backlash to their 2009 release Liebe Ist Für Alle Da, which was pulled from shelves throughout Germany. “Personally, I couldn’t really understand where it came from,” recalls guitarist Richard Z Kruspe. “People say what we do is controversial, but it’s just us; we’re very open when it comes to sexuality and that sort of stuff. When we put out the first single ‘Pussy’ and did this whole porn thing, I mean - you watch the video, and you hardly see any cock in it. It’s like something you see on TV everyday. And we released it on a porn site because we couldn’t place it on YouTube, and obviously MTV weren’t supporting us. Then it had something like 40 million clicks in two weeks,” he laughs. “I think the album being banned was just kind of a way to punish us when it was released, like the censors just had to do something against us. But we got even more publicity and promotion out of it, so there’s no way they can win this battle.
“We grew up and have lived within a system where everything was censored and everything we did was watched and controlled. I think this is why we’re often overstepping boundaries,” Kruspe continues. “Art should be a really selfish thing, because that makes it honest. We are not the kind of people who just do things because we think we should; we come up with things we like for a song or a video and it’s selfish... Everyone has their own morality and boundaries and if someone says they don’t feel comfortable, that’s fine. It’s not where my line is drawn, you’re not ok with it... [but] rock music should provoke and should polarise.” The explosive chemistry and unadulterated approach to music adopted by Rammstein
has maintained its intensity throughout their career, mostly due to the fact that all six original members remain involved. It’s an often overlooked ingredient of the bands’ success and, as Kruspe explains, it’s not necessarily because the band always get along. “I think everyone in the band understands that our achievements today could not have been reached if we hadn’t remained together. The genesis is not us as individuals, it’s the band as a whole, so there has to be sacrifice,” he explains. “I did at least half a dozen therapy sessions just to stay in the band, which was the biggest challenge of my life. There have been so many moments where I felt I didn’t want to do it and couldn’t deal with it anymore... But there’s a reason why we came to together and a reason why we are so successful at what we do, which is bigger than a personal ego. If I can overcome that and stay in a band and be happy, it can be a wonderful thing for my life anyway," he shrugs. "It’s just one of those things; in any relationship you need to get rid of your anger, but in a band you can’t, so what are you going to do? You have to go to therapy - which is what I do.” Returning to Australia for the first time in a decade, Kruspe is looking forward to taking time between dates on the Big Day Out to really become acquainted with the countryside. "The band loved playing in Australia back in 2001. Our last experience felt like we were combining a holiday and our job, which is why the Big Day Out is just a great festival. We love it, and we are excited to play there again," he says. "And I will do a little road trip while I’m there with some friends, in a car, going from city to city. If you fly all the time, you don’t really get a feel for the country - and with some days off between each show, I’d love to use the time.” Where: Big Day Out @ Sydney Showground When: January 26 & 27 (no NSW sideshows)
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Rob Zombie Horror Films & Heavy Metal By Rod Whitfield
P
rior to an upcoming tour of our shores, most overseas artists reel out the company line about how they love Australia and how they can’t wait to get back. Virtually all of them seem absolutely sincere, which is nice - but legendary singer/ songwriter/film director Rob Zombie leaves no doubt whatsoever. “I can’t wait, it’s gonna be awesome,” he emphasises, the enthusiasm fairly dripping from his voice. “We are dying to play there - just dying!” he laughs. His eagerness is easily explained; he’s only been here one single other time, and it was a long, long time ago. Which is damn surprising considering the man has been making music for a quarter of a century, had a hit band in the 90s with White Zombie, and now nurtures a flourishing solo career; he released eight albums between the two phases. Still, that one time down under proved to be memorable enough: “I was there with White Zombie,” he says. “The day after we played was the day that the OJ Simpson verdict came down, if you can believe it! I remember the front page of whatever the local paper was, it said ‘OJ Verdict’ - and the story underneath that was
that there was a gang riot outside of the White Zombie concert, which is really funny,” he laughs. “I still have the newspaper, I can’t remember what city we were in, I guess Melbourne or something... But yeah, there was a big gang riot outside our concert that night!” A decade and a half is long enough a wait for Rob Zombie fans in Australia but thankfully, the wait ends next month, when he and his ripping solo band finally return for the Soundwave Festival. With such a sizeable back catalogue now accumulated, he offers a few insights to BRAG and his Aussie fans as to what his setlist may consist of... “I’m gonna try to play what I think everybody wants to hear,” he tells me. “A couple of songs off every record I guess, and all the White Zombie records. Not just all the new songs - we’ll play one, or maybe two of the new songs, but that’s it. I want to play all the stuff from all the records, to make everybody happy.” A generous man indeed. Zombie’s history goes back so long now that he has difficulty remembering his earlier days and first albums. “When I look back at those things, I don’t even remember ‘em!” he chuckles. “It seems like a million years ago. Mainly because I can’t remember it that well, and I have no communication with any of the people that I worked with back then,” he admits. “So it kinda seems like it never happened. But that’s a weird thing when you keep moving along, and keep getting new band members, new people - the other stuff seems further away. Basically, anything with White Zombie seems like another lifetime for me, because it basically is.”
“My movies have brought a lot more fans in, because movies reach more people. If you like metal, you like metal, and if you don’t like metal, you don’t listen to it. But everybody likes movies!” His long and storied career in music is matched by a parallel career in film; Rob Zombie has varied credits as screen writer, director and producer on titles like House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects, the 2007 remake of Halloween and its sequel, and The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. “In some ways I feel like I’m just getting started, so it’s all good. When I look back on the last five years and some of the things I’ve done - a couple of records, a lot of touring, a couple of movies - you just never know where you’re going to be every couple of years,” he says. “It’s been good; the main thing I’m happy about is that I did it all on my terms. I didn’t have to change for the industry. So that’s good.”
. y a d o t e t a Celebr omorrow. t n i a g a t i Live Australia Day isn’t just about freedom and wide-open spaces. We’re not just celebrating our diverse blend of cultures. And it’s not just about friends coming together for an all-day eat-a-thon. We celebrate on 26 January because tomorrow, we get to live it all over again. To find out about celebrations near you, visit australiaday.org.au
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Does Rob feel that the two streams of his career complement each other? “I think so,” he says. “The most obvious way [being] that my movies have brought a lot more fans in, because movies reach more people. Music is very compartmentalised these days. If you like metal, you like metal, and if you don’t like metal, you don’t listen to it. But movies - everybody likes movies. Sometimes people come up to me and say ‘I love your movies!’, and they’re very normal people. They don’t even know that I make music too, they don’t have a clue. So that’s been kinda cool,” he continues. “I just like the fact that the basic Rob Zombie fan likes both, because it all involves the same world. And that’s cool, I get a kick out of that!” As for the future, Rob plans to keep making music, touring the world and cranking out the nasty horror movies that he’s become notorious for. “Yeah, that’s the main thing,” he says. “I mean, I wanna do more world touring. We’re heading to England, heading to Australia, then I’m gonna come back and shoot [his next movie project] Lords Of Salem - and then I’m gonna head back to Europe and do more shows in countries I haven’t been to in a thousand years!” he quips. “Come back, finish my movie, do a new record, go back on tour… So, pretty much 2011 is jam-packed, and I’m already trying to figure out 2012. So I’m good to go!” With: Iron Maiden, Queens Of The Stone Age, One Day As A Lion, Slayer, Primus and more Where: Soundwave Festival @ Eastern Creek Raceway When: Sunday February 27
Amanda Palmer Down Under With Her Map Of Tasmania By Romi Scodellaro
“H
ow can you love Vegemite? / it tastes like sadness / it tastes like batteries / it tastes like asses / I cannot hold a man so close who spreads this cancer on his toast / it’s the Vegemite, my darling, or it’s me.” Whether you completely agree or emphatically disagree - whether you’re outraged, amused or delighted - there’s no arguing that Amanda F. Palmer, previously of the Dresden Dolls, has a way with words. It’s something she demonstrates by beginning our interview by announcing she’s feeling like “a rock’n’roll sack of shit… in a good way.” The newlywed Amanda is getting over a bout of the lurgy – well that, and last night’s benefit gig to raise funds for The Jane Austen Argument, who she wants to accompany her on her upcoming Aussie tour. (By the way, follow her on Twitter for details of last-minute shows that won’t be promoted or announced in any other way...) She’s currently staying with some friends in Melbourne. “It’s really nice having an Australiabased mum to give you chicken soup when you get sick,” she says, and while she’s New York-born and Massachusetts-bred, she says she feels incredibly at home Down Under. “I’ve been fantasising about making Melbourne a second home for a couple of years,” she says. “I love Australia.”
months off to do things she hasn’t done in ten years, like clean her apartment and read mail. And she’ll be enjoying the newlywed life with her husband, author Neil Gaiman, who will be making an appearance at her Sydney show – although to do exactly what is yet to be determined. “It was perfect,” she says of their wedding, which took place a year after their engagement. “Everything came together beautifully and randomly.” They called their friends, asked if they could use their house and their children (as ring bearers and flower girls), then took a cab over after a gig and were married. They ended the night eating Mexican food. It all sounds pretty much perfect, except for one teensy thing: Neil likes Marmite. “It’s just like Vegemite, only grosser,” says Amanda. And apparently, he has twenty-one jars of the stuff. What: Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under is out now through Liberator Where: Sydney Opera House / James O Fairfax Theatre, Canberra / Great Northern, Byron Bay When: January 26 / February 1 / February 10
We hear this sort of thing from a lot of musos visiting our fair country, and a healthy skepticism suggests they may say this in every other country they visit too - but it’s slightly more believable when it comes from Amanda. How many people release albums just for us? Her second solo album, Amanda Palmer Down Under, is just that: a collection of songs mostly written in Australia about Australia, and all of them for Australia. It’ll only be physically released here, although it’ll be available as a digital download and via mail order around the world. “Although I think even the inside jokes aren’t all that inside,” Amanda says. “Even Americans know that Vegemite is revolting.
“Even the inside jokes aren’t all that inside. Even Americans know that Vegemite is revolting.” “I realised at a certain point that I had a big enough handful of songs to put out a tour EP,” she explains, “then the concept just grew and grew, and it turned into a full-fledged record… To do a legitimate release that was just for Australia felt like the right kind of reciprocity for all the love this country has given me.” (For the record, there’s also a song about New Zealand, which is really about Amanda’s period being late, which ends in the line: “I hope I haven’t grossed you out, but that’s what you get when you ask me to write a song about your country in twenty minutes.” Which basically means that Australia wins.) The album, half studio-recorded and half live performances, seems like a fair exchange for the love we’ve offered her. It has the slow, emotional piano ballads we expect from Amanda (‘Australia’ being a real standout; a sweet, sad song about escapism), as well as a couple of covers, and the very different-sounding, Jamaican-accented first single, ‘Map of Tasmania’, which features the Young Punx. It was written in about fifteen minutes, and yes, it means what you think it does. Witness: “I say grow that shit like a jungle / give ‘em something strong to hold onto.” The speed at which Amanda seems to set down some of her songs (she says ‘Vegemite (the Black Death)’ was a quickie too) reflects the way she works best: in one sitting. “Some songs just refuse to finish themselves. Some of my best songs are songs you’ll never hear because they’re only half done, and I can’t figure out ways to solve them or continue them,” she says. “If possible, when I get inspired by a melody or a lyric, I really try to carve out the time to complete the song at least to seventy or eighty percent, so it’s more or less done and I can polish it up later.” While this has proved true for Amanda throughout the years, the writing journey for Down Under was a departure from her previous methods: most of the writing occurred on the road. Having consistently repeated to journalists that she could only work sitting at her piano in her Boston apartment, she discovered while touring around Australia that the itch to write would overtake her in any old place. And, she tells me, the secret stash of songs she has up her sleeve for whatever she does next were written in the same manner as well. But a new release is a while off yet. After her Aussie tour, Amanda plans to take four or five BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11 :: 31
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Iron and Wine Down By The River By Oliver Downes
beats with the funk of ‘Big Burned Hand’ or the awesome groove of album closer, ‘Your Fake Name Is Good Enough For Me’. “It’s strange, I came to [it] through minimalist pattern music of all things,” he remarks, of the latter’s influence. “Most people come to it through the blues or Paul Simon or whatever, but once I was really into Steve Reich … the African music just exploded from me, where it’s funky and has the same kinda crazy patterns and stuff. It’s just incredible.” Also impressive is the depth of sound present on the record, dozens of overdubs incrementally added over dozens of hours, being built up in thickly generous layers. “You just treat it like painting,” explains Beam. “You make some marks and then you leave it, you go have a sandwich or a smoke or whatever, and you come back a week later and listen to what you did and you react: either you make more marks, or scrap the whole thing and start again.”
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am Beam is a gentleman. Softly spoken, with a light chuckle and gently selfdeprecating humour, the man behind Southern indie powerhouse Iron & Wine couldn’t be a nicer fellow to talk to - nor a more thoughtful one. “It’s more about the process than the final result,” he says, as we talk about banjo player Béla Fleck, another genre-busting trailblazer. “Which is like the artist’s journey to begin with; as long as you’re invested, that’s where it’s at.” For Beam, the journey has been one of a gradual accumulation of texture. The bare acoustic folk of his initial recordings was augmented with subtle electrics on the attractively pagan Woman King EP (2005). Benefiting from lessons learnt through the Calexico collaboration In The Reins, Beam and co-producer Brian Dreck allowed the Chicano influence to infuse alongside percussive globs of rootsy Americana and African rhythms on his follow-up long player, The Shepherd’s Dog (2007) - with results that attracted both critical acclaim and commercial success. With his new record, Kiss Each Other Clean, Beam has expanded the project’s possibilities once again with some of his most creative arrangements to date, ramping up the African
Indeed, of twenty or so songs brought to the studio, half ended up falling on the cutting room floor under the pressure of Beam’s incessant revisions. The remainder are loosely united by the image of the river, his lyrical style lending itself well to a constantly unfolding stream of images – take the list of vivid sights that comprises opener ‘Walking Far From Home’, or the mantra-like incantation of names that concludes ‘Your Fake Name’, and the album itself, with a sense of unending change. “I don’t sit and write records,” says Beam. “I’m writing all the time and so when it comes time to put a record out, you look in your bag and see what songs you’ve got… All these songs treat [the river] very differently; sometimes it’s a force of destruction and sometimes it was a force of redemption. There’s all the religious, Christian stuff – baggage – that it has with it, so it was fun to have an image that was so participatory. It had a lot to offer.” Kiss Each Other Clean certainly has depth. Although Beam regularly allows songs to be used in advertisements, film and television soundtracks, and has recently signed to Warner in the US (a move seemingly at the forefront of indie commercialisation), he could never be accused of selling out – after all, a happily married father of five has to put food on the table somehow. “You can’t predict public taste and you can’t keep everybody happy – that’s impossible,” he says. “You put your nose down to the grind and make sure that you’re involved.” What: Kiss Each Other Clean is out now on Remote Control Records
Professor Green Easy Being Green By RK
“I
think the first album was sort of eclectic,” Professor Green tells me, from the UK. “Musically, a lot of my influences came through, and gave me the opportunity to go where I wanted with my music.” Professor Green is one of the latest additions to this year’s Future Music Festival, joining The Chemical Brothers, Pendulum, Dizzee Rascal, Mark Ronson and more. The album in question, Alive Till I’m Dead, came out last year, delivering the rapper’s break-out single ‘Just Be Good To Green’, featuring Lily Allen. But he tells me he’s already working on the follow-up. “People have got to expect different sounds from me; I’ll pick up another path with the next record. The sound is progressing, and it’s a more mature record, more evolved.” Green was ten years old when he started listening to Biggie. “He was the first artist I grew attached to,” he says, before admitting that he never intended to make music himself. “Mainly because I never thought I had any creative flair. So for a joke, I did a lyric and then people were like ‘you can rap!’ Of course I went red in the face but from there I started messing around with it, then I was battling, and eventually got signed to a label.” Green is the first to admit that his music is diverse. “There is a broad variety of stuff on [Alive], from dub to dub step and then some more rock type stuff - and then obviously the rap influence and the pop element as well. What I wanted to get across was a bit of humour; I wanted to make sure my music reflected a personal experience… there are some personal things there.” There’s nothing wrong with bringing twisted subtexts to lyrics, especially in hip hop. In fact, the language of the music
isn’t just the meaning of the words; it’s also the emotion and construction of the sound behind them. Green agrees: “It’s always a mutation, and I tried to make the record a combination that is influenced by all of these things.” With the album now out, Green is focused on the relentless touring and promotional schedule that has inevitably followed its release. “There’s loads of stuff planned; I get to come back to Australia. Last time I was out with Lilly Allen for a bunch festivals, so hopefully this time I can come out on my own.” And will we see a followup album? “Yeah, completely. I really want to get another album out now; I feel like I’m in a really good place creatively, and I don’t want to wait until I think it could be time for a second album. I would rather not interrupt that flow and keep doing what I’m doing. That’s why collaborations are great, because it brings a different kind of me out. If you have energy with someone else, it creates a unique kind of vibe, you know?” For someone who fell into rapping almost accidentally, Green is certainly doing it well. “It wasn’t a conscious decision,” he explains. “It was just getting the attention of the right people, and the music was just an extension of that. I don’t think that you necessarily have to do anything bar the music that you want – and I’ve been doing that for ages. I’m doing the music I enjoy and the music I love.” With: The Chemical Brothers, Dizzee Rascal, Pendulum, MGMT, Mark Ronson & The Business INTL, KE$HA, The Presets, Art Vs Science and more Where: Future Music Festival @ Randwick Racecourse When: Saturday March 12
The Medics Remedy On The Rocks By M.E. Cohen
A
ustralia Day is a time to kick back at the barbie and suck back a buzz from grandpa’s medicine cabinet. Some like their buzz straight up - but for that chilled-out taste on a hot summer’s day, serve it up on the rocks. Festival Of the Voice is a colossal ten-hour free music festival being held at The Rocks on Australia Day, with 70 of our best homegrown musicians, from around the country. From 11am the laneways and parks of The Rocks will host six outdoor stages of pop, rock, funk, reggae, and indigenous music, headlined by Cloud Control, Katie Noonan and The Captains, and Hungry Kids of Hungary; and making the journey southwards are The Medics, the Cairns-bred indie rockers who took out last year’s Deadly Award for Band of the Year. Bassist Charles Thomas jokes that their hometown scene is made up mostly of metal bands, and he had to escape to the big smoke of Brisbane to “become a man”. Having built a large fan-base in Cairns, The Medics moved to Brisbane seven months ago, to play bigger shows and be closer to the action. As it turns out, there was more action than they anticipated: they watched two-storey houses go underwater as floods ravaged the city and, banding together with their new community, the musicians helped those in need after the water subsided. Thomas lent a hand in the suburb of Oxley, clearing debris and moving
furniture. The band’s rehearsal space even got flooded. But of course, the show must go on. “We practice in our lounge room now and the neighbours hate us; it’s pretty brutal,” says Thomas. “One more noise complaint and we get kicked out.” No worries, though; The Medics seem to know how to roll with the punches. Last year a massive challenge came when their keyboard player, Emma Andrews, quit the band to pursue other interests. At first they were stressed that they couldn’t complete their layered sound, but after experimenting with different guitar pedals they found a solution, and The Medics continue to gain accolades for their mix of energetic and ambient tunes, with critics comparing them to early Radiohead and The Mars Volta. Drummer Jhindu Lawrie’s father is the renowned Indigenous songwriter Bunna Lawrie, of the group Coloured Stone. The Medics were excited when he asked them to be his backing band for a solo performance and happily learned Bunna’s songs, which were infused with reggae and funk. Not only does he shed some light on different musical styles, he also acts as a mentor to the group. “Bunna drops in to talk business with us and keep us focused,” Thomas says. As for the band name, Thomas explains:
“One day back in high school, we were all hanging out and I found a medic card in my wallet. I would get fractures and scrapes from downhill skateboarding, so my overprotective mum snuck it in there.” Their live performances boast heaps of raw energy and dynamic song structure, which will no doubt keep the boredom at bay on Australia Day. Whether or not you swipe a swig from grandpa’s medicine cabinet, The Medics will sort you out with a hearty
helping of healing elixir, served up just the way you like it - on The Rocks. With: Cloud Control, Katie Noonan and the Captains, Hungry Kids of Hungary, Cuthbert and the Night Walkers, Andy Bull, King Tide, Microwave Jenny and more Where: Festival Of the Voice / various locations throughout The Rocks When: Wednesday January 26, from 11am – 9pm More: therocks.com
“Prayed like a martyr dusk to dawn, Begged like a hooker all night long, tempted the devil with my song and got what I wanted all along” – TOOL 34 :: BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11
Caribou The Process Of Discovery By Tyson Wray t was relentless,” Daniel Snaith laughs gently, “but in a great way.” The Canadian electronic master better known as Caribou is reflecting on 2010. Following the release of Swim, one of the year’s most intricate and meticulous albums, Caribou reinforced his status as one of contemporary music’s most diverse artists, renowned for his effortless weaving of folktronica, krautrock and shoegaze. The record made bestof-2010 lists the world over. “Since the album came out in April, I’ve been on tour constantly,” he tells me. “It’s been going unbelievably well, better than I could ever have anticipated. I’ve played a lot of shows all over the world, so while exhausting at times, it’s been very engaging.”
“I
really looking forward to touring with Four Tet. Kieran is a very good friend and we often work together; it’s always enjoyable to spend time and play shows with him… After that I’ll be at home making music again and exploring the other side of my musical life,” he says, with solemn relief. “I’ll hopefully be able to make my next album, which is a very exciting prospect. I’ve got no idea what it’ll sound like. It really all depends - it could go in the same direction or it could go a completely other way. It depends on what’s around me and what I’m interested in at the time,” he says. “It’s a whole process of discovery.”
After five albums, Swim is Snaith’s follow up to his 2007’s Polaris Music Prize-winning Andorra, and illustrates above all else his growth as an artist. Critically acclaimed and widely regarded as one of the most innovative and unadulterated electronic records of the year, the dreamy and hypnotic exploration seamlessly intertwines diverse genres through Snaith’s chameleonic compositional talents. A thorough testament to his own progressive nature and sequential growth, Snaith believes his musical development has resulted in the evolution of his productions; the infusion of multiple genres and styles.
What: Swim is out now With: Four Tet Where: The Metro Theatre When: Thursday February 17 More: Also appearing at Playground Weekender Festival, at Wiseman’s Ferry on February 17 – 20, with Doves, Tricky, Lamb, De La Soul, You Am I, Kate Nash, Kool & The Gang, Tunng, Toro Y Moi, Black Mountain and heaps more...
“For me, [the music I produce] changes naturally. It evolves as my interest in music changes,” he tells me carefully. “For the past few years, I’ve been more interested in contemporary club and dance music. That’s very obvious in this record, but my taste and interest in the music I listen to has changed and gone in a lot of different directions over the past five years. I wouldn’t say that it’s coherent, just that it follows my interests.”
“I don’t spend too much time worrying about the critical response. People like my wife and Kieran Hebden - if those people like it, then I’m happy.” Although he’s held in the highest regard by all nature of critics, the perception of the masses plays a minor role in Snaith’s creative development. “For me, the importance of the album’s reception is foremost my own opinion. By the time that the record comes out, I’m generally very certain how I feel about it - I don’t spend too much time worrying about the critical response. Otherwise, the opinion of my friends and others that are close to me are who I find important; they’re the first people who I play the record to and who get to hear it,” he pauses, to laugh. “People like my wife and Kieran Hebden,” he says. Hebden is the mastermind of Four Tet, with whom Caribou will be heading to NSW for Playground Weekender Festival, and a double headliner show at the Metro. “If those people like it, then I’m happy.” Snaith’s performances underpin his development as an artist. Under constant evolution, his impulsive nature is emphasised by his highly accessible technical dexterity. His live show has gathered worldwide acclaim for its unique yet formulaic nature; for him, making music on a stage is as creative a process as being in the studio. “The live show has to integrate both live and acoustic elements much more than it did in the past,” he explains. “At first it worried me that we wouldn’t be able to have those spontaneous and improvised aspects which make that real and genuine live interaction. But now that’s become one of my favourite aspects of our live show; we’ve been able to augment our abilities to act spontaneous and on-the-fly instead of limiting them,” he says. “Because of that, since we began touring the record, many of the songs have changed significantly. The way that we change them night to night leads to a slow development, to the point where now some tracks are quite different from the way that they were on the record. “ Returning to Australia for the first time since the release of Swim, Caribou’s excitement is palpable – not only for the visit, but for the opportunity to retreat and reflect. As he begins to slowly turn his focus firmly on the future, he tells me that the indefinite potential for both his productions and performances are an exciting and turbulent thought. “This Australian tour is the only touring that I’m going to be doing for the whole year,” he says quietly. “I’m BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11 :: 35
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brushstrokes RAVIER (THE FESTIVALISTS)
So how does an event like Jurassic Lounge come together? The Museum approached my company, The Festivalists, to program and run Jurassic Lounge, with the brief of encouraging new audiences to engage with the Museum in a different way. We’d been collaborating for a while, running film festival screenings in the Museum’s theatre and shooting short films after-hours, so it was a natural fit. What’s the concept for the event, in short? Every Tuesday night this summer, the Australian Museum opens its doors for afterhour sessions featuring art, live music, drinks and new ideas. Drink in hand, visitors are invited to have a wander and discover some great live acts and exhibitions, all against a spectacular backdrop of dinosaur skeletons, precious gemstones and native animals.
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here’s a new weekly in town, and it’s called Jurassic Lounge. Appropriately enough, this Tuesday night arts soiree will take place in the Australian Museum, our oldest museum and home to an estimated 16 million cultural objects and specimens of animals, fossils and minerals… The basic idea is that you get a bunch of artists, performers, DJs, musicians and troublemakers in amongst the dinosaur skeletons and rare gems, and let them loose; colourful explosions of joy ensue. We talked to the Artistic Director of The Festivals, who are behind this new series.
When I think of world-class cities known for their vibrant arts scenes, I think of cities unafraid to let local artists take over age-old institutions. The Australian Museum is letting up-and-coming artists hijack and remix what is historically Australia’s very first museum. It’s exactly what Sydney needs right now. What kind of things can punters expect for their $15? $15 gets you inside, a free drink and enters you into a draw to win a 3D video camera. You can then check out the entire Museum - from live baby crocodiles to massive dinosaurs - including the current exhibition, Wildlife Photographer of the Year. The bar acts as a
Prohibition-era America, and backgrounded by a gang war between the Italian and Irish mafia, Millers Crossing is also a nice primer for the Australian premiere of Golden Globe-winner Boardwalk Empire (which also stars Steve Buscemi…) Monday January 31 at the Chauvel.
SMAC AWARDS
It turns out FBi Radio really do know how to throw a party; with our heads still pounding, and our brains slightly soggy, we are delighted to announce the winners of the arts categories for the 2011 SMAC Awards: Best Artist – Beastman; Best Arts Event – Superdeluxe@ artspace; Best On Screen – Greedy Hen’s filmclip for Cloud Control’s ‘There’s Nothing In The Water’; Best Performer – Toby Schmitz in Measure for Measure (Belvoir); Remix The City – Art & About (Sydney Statues, Oh Alfred! and the Laneway Art Project). With a powerhouse lineup of nominees as well, the night was nothing short of a spectacular, boozy, tribute to how creative Sydney is. www.smacawards.com
hub from which you can explore the furthest reaches of this amazing building. Each room comes alive with performances and happenings. The skeleton room, for example, is turned into a silent disco with Sydney’s hottest DJs, including Cunningpants, Jack Shit and The Cosmic Explorer. Elsewhere there will be live performances by local musicians and artists, including Bridezilla’s Daisy Tulley, Canadian import Brian Campeau, drag diva Maxi Shield and VJs Eightfilters. Every night will be different and, from live snakes to live tattooing, from acrobats to illusionists, you’ll never quite know what to expect. What is your background and training? I studied business but during my MBA in Toronto, I fell in love with film festivals. I got a chance to work in the arts in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Manchester, and finally in Sydney, where our non-profit company runs film festivals and cultural events. The Festivalists are behind such events as Kino Sydney - a monthly open-mic night for filmmakers - and Possible Worlds, Sydney’s Canadian Film Festival. What: Jurassic Lounge When: Weekly on Tuesday nights, from 5.309.30pm Where: Australian Museum, 6 College St, Sydney More: www.jurassiclounge.com
Paste Modernism #2 show, which saw around 50 Australian and international artists plaster the walls of LO-FI Gallery with their paste-up creations. Applied onto pre-installed panels and canvas sheets, the entire exhibition was removed from the space (in varying states of repair) and is now yours to own, for a price. The panels range from 50cm x 50cm to 3m x 3m in size, and the big names in the lineup include Anthony Lister, Ben Frost, Mini Graff, Beastman – and many more. Bidding is open until February 1, so head to stores.ebay. com.au/StupidKrap-Urban-Art
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rom the filmmakers behind multiAcademy Award-winner No Country For Old Men comes True Grit – a dark comedy based on Charles Portis’ bestselling 60s novel about a young girl’s quest for justice in the Wild West. 14-year-old Mattie Ross (newcomer Hailee Steinfeld) sets out to bring her father’s killer to justice, enlisting the help of a trigger-happy, drunken U.S. Marshal, Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), to track the criminal into dangerous Indian territory. When Mattie insists on accompanying the Marshal, they form an unlikely hunting party – joining forces along the way with a talkative Texas Ranger named LeBouef (Matt Damon). Pictures, we have Thanks to Paramount passes to True Grit ble dou on eas in-s ten r hands on one, up for grabs. To get you directors of this the of es nam tell us the on p. 38) film (hint: see our story
ONLY AT THE MOVIES January 26 www.truegritmovie.com.au
FIRST DRAFT DEPOT OLD NEW BORROWED BLUE
Artist, writer, performance-maker and photographer - William Yang is an allround Sydney treasure, who has been documenting both his own life and his city’s since the '70s. His debut solo exhibition, Sydneyphiles, held in 1977, caused a storm of controversy for its frank depiction of Sydney’s gay party culture – and we rather suspect William hasn’t had a dull moment since. His latest solo exhibition opens at Stills Gallery next week (coinciding with – and part of – the official Mardi Gras program) and will feature a range of Yang’s iconic images of Sydney’s gay community from the seventies to the present, a new series of self portraits covering the span of Yang’s life along with a series of landscapes. It’s called Old New Borrowed Blue, and it opens at Still Gallery February 2 and runs until February 26.
MILLER'S CROSSING
With True Grit opening in cinemas this week, the Chauvel are holding a one-off screening of a Coen Brothers’ cult classic, Miller's Crossing (1990). Making their debut in 1984 with the noirthriller Blood Simple, followed by the quirky comedy Raising Arizona (1987), the Coens lived up to the growing critical hype with a tragicomedy of Greek proportions, in which a gangster’s romantic foibles have a spiralling destructive effect on the criminal empire he has built. Set in 36 :: BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11
Artists take note: applications are open for First Draft Depot’s Project Space, a smaller venue with a flexible approach to programming that exists to service the creative life of Woolloomooloo. What does this mean? It means that if you have an idea for a show/ exhibition/installation, and you just need a little support and space to make it happen, then First Draft want to hear from you. In another burst of happy tidings, First Draft Depot is also calling for applications from emerging artists who want one of their coveted ‘affordable studios’, which form part of First Draft’s new studio complex in the heart of Woolloomooloo. The current round of applications closes on Friday February 4, so get hopping. All the details and application forms for both initiatives can be found at firstdraftgallery.com/depot
SHORT CIRCUITS
Metro Screen are up to their old tricks again, with their upcoming Short Circuit Seminar set to prime emerging filmmakers for the promotional part of their job: getting their film seen. Head along to find out all the essentials about festival submission, where to screen your work locally, the value in aligning your film with a distributor, and the pros and cons of releasing your work online. The panel discussion will feature shortfilm-makers Lucas Crandles (Dark Heart Productions) and Victoria Waghorn (Punk Monk Propaganda), and SBS’s Shorts On Screen programmer, Nicola Hewitt. Tuesday February 1 from 6.30-8.30pm, Metro Screen (Paddington Town Hall). $15 for Metro Screen members, $20 for non-members. metroscreen.org.au
STUPIDKRAP AUCTION
To raise funds for the Queensland Premier’s Flood Relief Appeal, StupidKrap are holding a massive online auction of works from their
SAM IRWIN X OH REALLY
Upcoming at Oh Really is an exhibition by Sydney-based photographer/ cinematographer Sam Irwin; if the pics we saw are any indication, it’s going to be exquisite. Sam seems to have his fingers in a lot of pies, from commercials and music videos to indie film work, fashion and band photography; last year his film clip for Parades’ ‘Loserspeak In New Tongue’ (you know, the paint-splashy one) was nominated for a J Award. His first solo photography exhibition is entitled HOME, and is the result of many trips back to the isolated landscapes of his childhood in New Zealand’s South Island. The resulting collection of black and white landscapes will be on display from February 3 at Oh Really Gallery, 55 Enmore Road, Newtown.
FLICKERFEST WINNERS
Big congratulations and warm fuzzy hugs to the Flickerfest winners this year. Among the Closing Night proceedings we were stoked to see Shaun Tan win Best Australian Film for The Lost Thing (out now on DVD through Madman), Best Screenplay go to actor/writer/director Christopher Stollery, for his hilarious short film Dik, about the
perils of preschool spelling. The Most Popular film – which also won the award for Most Resourceful Filmmakers (very encouraging for all you aspiring filmmakers, yes?) was When the Wind Changes, written by and starring Richard Davies (expect to see more of this fella, we think). You can find out more about that film at whenthewindchanges. info, and you can see the full line-up of Flickerfest winners at flickerfest.com.au
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WITH MATT
AMANDA PALMER GOES DOWN UNDER AN AUSTRALIA DAY SPECTACULAR
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With Neil Gaiman, Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen, Jane Austen Argument & a virtual Meow Meow! *
26 JANUARY 8PM | TICKETS FROM $40 *Transaction fee of $5-$8.50 applies to all bookings, excluding Insiders
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TRUE GRIT
The Coen Brothers' have got what it takes... By Martyn Palmer
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The Coen Brothers traverse a broad cinema spectrum, from arthouse introspection (The Man Who Wasn’t There) to gangster noir (Millers Crossing), starstudded rom-coms (Intolerable Cruelty) and cult sensations (The Hudsucker Proxy, The Big Lebowski). The films that have put them on the map are Fargo – which was nominated for seven Oscars, winning two (Best Actress for Frances McDormand and Best Original Screenplay) – and No Country For Old Men, which won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Joel, 56, and Ethan, 54, were born and raised in St Louis Park, Minnesota, and started making movies on a Super 8 camera as children. Joel studied film at New York University and Ethan is a philosophy graduate from Princeton. In 1984, the brothers wrote and directed Blood Simple, a noir thriller set in Texas. Three years later they made Raising Arizona, starring Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter, which was screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival and established their reputation as two of the most innovative filmmakers working today. Who came up with the idea to make True Grit? JC: I think we were making or finishing No Country for Old Men when we first started talking about it, and it was a while sort of getting the whole thing together, in terms of approaching the studio [who owned the rights], seeing if they wanted to make it. But [the idea] came from the [Charles Portis novel], which we both read. What was it that you liked about the story in True Grit? EC: Well it’s a very simple story, it’s just a girl going to avenge her father’s death, but actually, like No Country For Old Men, it’s a simple story and it’s a pursuit story… It just seemed like promising material for a movie. It’s funny and it has really strong characters, particularly the young girl, who is this incredible character who refuses to give up. JC: We were looking at it less as a western in a way and more of a young adult adventure story. It’s very interesting that the main character is a kid and it’s a movie that kids can go and see. We hadn’t done that before and it has a different kind of flavour.
Newcomer Hailee Steinfeld is 'a natural'
Had you seen the movie with John Wayne? JC: Yeah when we were kids - although we hadn’t remembered it very well. We remembered enough of it to know that whatever it was, it was sufficiently different from what we were doing, that we didn’t really have to worry about it. And were you a fan of the genre? Did you watch Westerns when you were kids? JC: Well, I wouldn’t say we were fans but we certainly saw them. There were a lot of western shows on TV, like Maverick and Sugarfoot. EC: Yeah that’s what was on. Not that we are inordinate fans of it or whatever, but just given our age it was on TV and we would have seen some of it. JC: Yeah there were some John Ford films that we saw when we were kids, and we saw Invitation to a Gunfighter, we saw Texas Across the River, Sons of Katie Elder; they didn’t have to be good, but we watched them. The dialogue in True Grit is wonderfully vivid. How much is from you guys and how much is from the book? EC: It’s mostly from the book and what’s not from the book is just us trying to be consistent with what is… JC: The book is a first person narrative, and the voice of the little girl is very funny and is the sort of signature thing in the book, but just
in reference to what you were talking about, there are a lot of stories told by [the character of the Marshal, Rooster Cogburn], at various points of the book, and we kind of played on that. When you are writing, do you immediately start to cast? JC: It’s hard for us to resist when we are doing our own scripts, but when we are adapting something like this, we don’t generally think about that too much. EC: Yeah, I think because the characters are given in the books, and we know who they are as we are writing it. When we are writing our own thing we do cast some of the characters because it’s a kind of crutch for writing. In this case, we didn’t really think about it until we were done. And then you think ‘okay, Rooster is going to be Jeff Bridges?’ JC: Yeah, Jeff was obvious really right off the bat once we actually started thinking about it, because actually, to tell you the truth, the list is not long when you get into that age, that kind of physicality. And Jeff, because we’d worked with him before, was the first person that we thought of. EC: He’s [also] old enough, fat enough. I mean, he’s not in perfect shape – and you can’t have a perfect health, fitness and beauty gym rant body because that would be wrong – but he also had to be robust enough to do the part because it’s demanding stuff. JC: Jeff did most of his own riding and he did most of the stunts. You had a long casting process before you found Hailee Steinfeld to play young heroine Mattie Ross. Were you getting worried? EC: Yeah, kind of. It’s so important to get that role right, and you start convincing yourself that, ‘oh this girl is good’ or ‘she’s interesting..’ And you sort of force yourself to think that would work, even when they are not perfect. And then we met Hailee at kind of the eleventh hour and she was perfect.
The Coen Brothers and Jeff Bridges on set
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Were you a little anxious that she hadn’t done a film before? JC: I know she had done a TV pilot, so she wasn’t a rank amateur in the sense that you know, a kid from the middle of nowhere who had never been in front of the camera before; but on the other hand it was very limited. But, she’s certainly a natural in terms of being comfortable in her stuff and she wasn wasn’tt intimidated by anyone or by the process.
The film has some gloriously funny moments in it. Is that Coen Brothers humour or is it in the book? EC: We tried to be faithful to the spirit of the book, and the book is very funny. JC: A lot of the humour in the book comes from the voice of that first person narrative, the voice of the little girl, which you can’t exactly do in the movie, because she’s not narrating - but you are trying to get the spirit of that humour into the movie. Tell me about casting Matt Damon, as talkative Texas Ranger Smokey LaBoeuf... JC: We had seen Matt in The Departed, those kinds of roles where he was playing a character that wasn’t the classic, the Green Zone character he does so well. He wasn’t the leading man or Bourne Identity guy. And I had met him years ago when he did a movie with my wife (Frances McDormand) and I liked it, it was a long time ago, one of the first things Matt did. It was a movie that Tommy Lee Jones directed, called The Good Old Boys. He’s a guy that we’ve wanted to work with for a long time because he’s great, a very interesting actor. Do pay much attention to the critical reaction to your films? JC: I think if it’s something like A Serious Man it’s pretty important that you get a decent critical reaction if you want it to do any business at all. It’s a movie about a bunch of Jews in the midwest in the 1960s, starring Michael Stuhlbarg and he’s not Johnny Depp. So you kind of need something to get people into the theatres. On other movies, if you’ve got George Clooney and Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading, you go, ‘well I hope it gets good reviews but if it doesn’t, well we could still be fine from a commercial point of view…’ But it was interesting because The Big Lebowski, as I understand it, didn’t have great reviews when it was released and now of course, it is completely revered. JC: Yeah, they didn’t know what to do with it. It didn’t get great reviews and it opened kind of soft, and they really didn’t know how to market it (laughs). They had no idea how to market it - they didn’t even know kind of who they were aiming the marketing at. EC: Yeah, they kind of didn’t know what they had, and we didn’t either, I mean, it’s not like we think about that stuff. What: True Grit, Dirs. Joel & Ethan Coen When: Whe n: Rel Releas Released eased ed Jan Januar January uaryy 26 26
O N LY AT T H E M O V I E S
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Catfish
[FILM] The truth (or not) behind “the other Facebook movie”. By Caitlin Welsh
Nev (pictured left) in Catfish
W
hat do catfish have to do with Facebook? I’m not telling. Trust me, you’ll prefer it this way. (I had the big twist ruined for me before I knew there was a big twist to be ruined – thanks a bunch, Wikipedia.) And the directors – New York-based filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost – would prefer it that way too. The story of Catfish starts simply enough. High school friends Ariel and Henry share their studio with Ariel’s photographer brother Yaniv, who Ariel says is “wildly cinematic”, and is as often the subject of their constant, compulsive filming as they are themselves. In 2007, 24-year-old Nev starts to develop a sweet and deeplyfelt relationship with a beautiful girl and her fascinating family - on Facebook. Rel and Henry sense a nice story unfolding, and keep documenting the romance. But when the trio happen to get a freelance gig near her Michigan home and decide to pay Megan a visit, they discover that the family is far more complicated than Nev suspected. “It’s best experienced knowing as little as possible. I guess you start looking for the twists, if you know what’s coming,” muses Ariel, though he adds that even the most cynical filmgoer can be caught off guard. “I think it still surprises, because the outcome is so unpredictable that if someone were to ask me to write this film, I would never have gone in this direction.” The story is so perfect, with its combination of neatly cinematic structure and messy, compelling humanity, that it seems literally too good to be true. The sweet, handsome Nev is as unselfconscious on camera as any seasoned actor; the scenes in Michigan are nailbiting and devastatingly elegiac by turns. Super Size Adam Bull Amber Scott and Noah Gumbert Me director Morgan Spurlock, among others, Molto calledVivace it “the best fake documentary [he’d] ever seen”. Ariel shrugs. “Fake documentaries are popular these days – starting with Blair Witch,
and Cloverfield and [I’m Still Here] – so I guess it’s a trend. I don’t blame people for assuming that or considering it,” he says good-naturedly. “But it’s basically more flattering – it’s like, overly flattering that people would consider this staged.” He and Henry are even less ruffled by their film being paired with The Social Network and referred to as “the other Facebook movie”. “Shit, yeah,” is Ariel’s enthusiastic response. “You want to compare [my film] to a David Fincher movie? Please! Bring it on.” “They also really do go well together,” says Henry seriously. “They’re very complementary takes on the same subject.” As Ariel points out, Catfish is as much a part of the history of Facebook as Fincher’s film: while the latter is about its conception, Catfish documents an innocent time when Facebook emerged as an alluringly simple, honest alternative to the cluttered, anything-goes freakshow of Myspace. Despite our already being conditioned to be suspicious of the facelessness of online interaction, Facebook seemed somehow safer. The tense second act of the film winds around the inevitable realisation that the new social network could be, as Henry puts it, “just as strange a place” as the old one. “We had this joke between us, but it was pretty serious,” recalls Henry, “saying ‘if we die – which might happen tonight, gentlemen’… We’d already called our editor, told him what was happening, downloaded everything to the hard drive, sent it to him.” He pauses, and adds solemnly, “Along with the request that he find Werner Herzog, and ask him to do the voiceover.” What: Catfish When: Opens January 26
No Lights No Lycra [DANCE] Encouraging the Secret Love of Tacky Pop Songs By Lucie Robson
I
t’s Tuesday night, and up a long, narrow staircase in Surry Hills there’s a room full of people dancing in the dark. Pop music of all colours and eras is playing loudly, and my fellow dancers and I can’t see each other. Which means it’s kind of like dancing alone in my bedroom - but with a much better playlist. This is No Lights No Lycra. In 2009, Melburnites Heidi Barrett and Alice Glenn invited friends and acquaintances to a night of dancing in the dark. They had both studied dance and wanted people to get genuinely excited about it again. “We sent a big email out to everyone and we ended up with five people,” says Alice. “I suppose the first time you hear about it, it can sound a bit random. You know, we’re going to turn all the lights out and have a bit of a dance - it can sound intimidating. So we ended up with five people, but we absolutely cut sick in this massive hall in the dark and it was so much fun. And I think that everyone there told another five people, because the next time we had about 25 people. And it’s continued to grow ever since.” Cut to 2011, and these midweek, drug- and alcohol-free parties are held in cities like San Francisco, Glasgow and Berlin. Sydney NLNL Coordinator, Tim Marshall, says there are plans afoot to add a local flavour to the Sydney event by having a local band play live, and inviting punters to design their own playlists featuring music from the Sydney scene. “When I describe it to people it’s like: we turn the lights out, we dance for an hour, everyone just dances however they want to dance,” Tim continues. “And that’s simply it, but it’s just so much more. It’s exercise, it’s cathartic in some ways, and it’s a whole lot of fun.” Like Alice and Heidi, Tim found getting people to venture along for the first time wasn't always easy. “People can be sceptical; I guess no-one realises how much
they can really get into it. But we’ve had a lot of people come along - a lot of really shy people as well, which I lov - and they just get so into it. And by the end they’re an absolute ball of sweat with a massive smile on their face. And they all say the same thing, that they were just really able to let go because everyone around them was, and they realised that nobody really gives a shit what anyone else looks like.” So that explains No Lights; but what about No Lycra? “I’m glad you asked,” says Alice. “It can be a misconception. It’s really just a metaphor for the fact that there’s no uniform required. That’s what it means. You know, you don’t need to come in your leotard, you don’t need to come in your spandex, or that looks really hot. It’s really just a metaphor for you to come in your comfy gear.” And no beers? “We’re trying to get away from that idea that the only time people really feel comfortable to dance is out, when they’re drinking, or if they’re a trained dancer. It’s the idea that anyone should feel comfortable to move and get in touch with their body.” One of the unexpected delights of NLNL has been the way it encourages people to rediscover dance, explains Heidi. “I just think one of the loveliest things is people who have come to No Lights for the first time – the sort of people who used to go out and just hate it when everyone would start dancing – and then, the confidence that has grown in these people,” she says. “And now these people love dancing.” What: No Lights No Lycra When: Every Tuesday, 8pm Where: CuriousWorks / Level 4, 11 Randle Street, Surry Hills More: $5 entry; nlnlsydney.blogspot.com
Speaking in Tongues [THEATRE] Andrew Bovell's modern classic returns to Griffin after 15 years. By Simon Binns
T
he term “modern classic” gets thrown about far too often. As soon as a new play has a good season people are willing to rate it alongside the greats
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of literature. However, sometimes those claims aren’t ridiculous, and with Andrew Bovell’s Speaking In Tongues, which won the AWGIE for Best Play in 1996 and was later adapted for screen as the multi-award-winning Lantana, the term may even fall short. This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of its debut at SBW Stables, and to mark the occasion Griffin Theatre Company is welcoming it home.
A complex puzzle of plots, Speaking In Tongues intertwines stories of two couples going through relationship troubles, a man who’s lost the love his life, and a woman whose disappearance becomes a murder investigation. As the plot unfolds we discover that all these stories are interconnected, and Bovell’s clever intersections combine to form a revealing investigation of the ethics of emotional conduct.
One of the talents bringing this classic back to life is actor Andy Rodoreda, whom you might have seen recently on your television screen in East West 101 or Rescue Special Ops. He’s also no stranger to Sydney’s main stages having worked extensively at Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir Street and Griffin. Rodoreda is relishing the prospect of bringing this story to life in such an intimate venue. “It’s a pretty raw and real piece and I think a tight space and an intimate space for these types of pieces are a joy for the audience – and a joy for us.” The “us” in that sentence is the rest of the all-star cast that Griffin have managed to pull together for this classic’s reworking. Alongside Rodoreda are Caroline Craig, Lucy Bell and Chris Stollery, who have all been regular presences on our stages and screens for the past decade or more. Rodoreda’s had the pleasure of working with Bell before and has found the ensemble a delight to work with “They’re all talented and generous.” A complex mix of relationships and murder mystery, Speaking In Tongues is a highly emotive play, and this new production is attempting to bring those emotions into the present day with an exciting new interpretation, rather than relying on old renditions. “I think most of us tried to stay as far away from Lantana as we could,” laughs Rodoreda, “We’re setting it now, and we wanted to keep
it fresh to make it real and relevant.” One of the features that often defines classics is their universal themes, and with this play it’s no different. “These relationships could be anyone’s relationship; there’s definitely something in it for everyone, it’s a contemporary classic.” This production of Speaking In Tongues also represents another landmark for the Griffin Theatre, with Artistic Director Sam Strong taking on a directing role for the first time since taking over from Nick Marchand late last year. “He’s a bit of a natural, really,” Rodera tells me. “He’s got the intelligence that’s required for this complex script but also the dramatic human quality and patience that needs to go with it.” People often complain about being born too late to see the great works that came before they were born. This production presents a chance for audiences to see the play on the stage where it was first performed with a fantastic new cast. It’s one not to be missed. What: Speaking in Tongues by Andrew Bovell, Dir. Sam Strong When: Previews from February 4; runs until March 19. Where: SBW Stables, Darlinghurst More: www.griffintheatre.com.au
Speaking in Tongues: photo by Michael Corridore
Andy Rodoreda in Speaking in Tongues
Strong sex scene, themes and violence
BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11 :: 41
Arts Snap
Film & Theatre Reviews
At the heart of the arts Where you went last week.
The Best and Worst of the Big Screen and Bare Boards...
The Red Shoes
PICS :: TL
firstdraft gallery
■ Sydney Festival
THE RED SHOES (UK) Until January 30 / Seymour Centre
12:01:11 :: Firstdraft Gallery :: 116 Chalmers Street Surry Hills 96983665
The ragtag crew who make up the performing ensemble of Kneehigh Theatre’s The Red Shoes look conspicuous amongst the well-designed lines and carefully set coffee table of the patio at the Seymour Centre. The group are playing music before the show starts, and no one is very surprised when they start heading into the theatre. This does lead to some hilarious preshow moments however, such as when a performer, who I might point out is wearing nothing more than a white singlet and underpants, shuffles along a row of audience members bumping them with the suitcase he is carrying as he goes. This thrown-togetherat-the-last-minute aesthetic continues into the show, with all performers washing their feet on stage before the arrival of the central storyteller.
the absolut exhibition
PICS :: TL
Based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, The Red Shoes is the story of a girl whose desire for a particular pair of shoes becomes a problem when the shoes start forcing her to dance. At first she finds this rather fun, but the shoes quickly take over her feet and won’t let her stop. The show gets more gruesome from here on in, but there’s always plenty of dancing.
13:01:11 :: Sugarmill Stairwell Gallery :: 37 Darlinghurst Rd Kings Cross 93687333
Arts Exposed What's on our calendar...
City of Sydney presents
With one performer taking the role of narrator, and choosing which of the four other performers takes each role, the intended feel is that of a group of people reinventing the story. Unfortunately, the show’s makeshift style doesn’t quite deliver on its promises. The performance is neither bad enough to push the junk aesthetic to its full potential, or awesome enough to overcome it. The main problem really is that it’s a show about dancing that doesn’t have amazing dancing. Some of the dance is really cool and really interesting, but it’s never jaw-dropping; and considering that we spend so much time watching it, this becomes a problem. Despite all this, the story is affecting, and there are moments when the aesthetic and performances all come together to form some truly beautiful moments. The show is also quite funny, but overall it just didn’t quite live up to its potential.
CHINESE NEW YEAR FESTIVAL – LAUNCH CELEBRATION
Henry Florence
Belmore Park (across Eddy Avenue from Central Station) Friday January 28 from 4-10pm
Until January 29 / Wharf 1, STC
Ring in the Year Of The Rabbit at the Chinese New Year Markets, which open this Friday night as part of the launch celebration of City of Sydney’s Chinese New Year Festival (January 28 – February 13). The delicious Chinese street food on offer is just one incentive, with traditional Wudang martial arts performances, a giant rabbit sculpture, traditional arts and crafts, and a karaoke competition also being extremely tempting. If you’ve had a shitty past 12 months, you should find the firecrackers immensely satisfying, as they apparently scare away the previous year’s misfortune. Bonus! The markets only go from January 28 – 30, so get along! www.sydneychinesenewyear.com.au 42 :: BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11
■ Sydney Festival
BIGGER THAN JESUS You know you’re in for a good night when you have to walk past a protest to get to the show. Apparently 12 citizens were so outraged by Canadian Rick Miller’s multiaward winning Bigger Than Jesus that they decided to apply for a permit to stand outside the theatre and pray for the salvation (or perhaps damnation?) of the audience. What these people have failed to realise is that Miller’s one-man show is far from an attack on Jesus, but rather an informed reflection on his character. Held together by the liturgical text of the Catholic mass, Miller (himself a lapsed Catholic) has created a complex, intelligent, yet hilarious series of explorations of the life and personality of Jesus. From a Jewish professor explaining the historical facts we can be sure of, to a Southern evangelist whose secret to successful spiritual life is
dancing, and a reimagining of the last supper told through Star Wars actions figures, the show is always engaging and entertaining. There are moments when Miller pushes the possibilities a little past their limits, with a couple of self-reflexive moments falling a little flat; however, they are few and far between, and always immediately outweighed by the next moment of absolute hilarity or genuine insight. Daniel Brooks’ work as a director is also clear, with the show moving seamlessly and stylishly between the characters he and Miller have created. The lighting, designed by Beth Kates, is also superb, complementing the multimedia that is incorporated throughout the show. The most memorable element of the show for me was Miller’s investigation of what Jesus must have felt and thought at various moments throughout his life. So much is debated and discussed about the facts of his life and their historical implications, but it is rare to see such a genuine enquiry into the man behind the myth. Henry Florence ■ Sydney Festival
MISANTHROPOLOGY Until January 30 / World Famous Spiegeltent Every time I write the title for Eddie Perfect’s new solo show, Misanthropology, his first since the hugely successful Drink Pepsi, Bitch! (2006), my spellcheck draws a big red line underneath it. The reason for this is because the word doesn’t exist. In keeping with the true thespian tradition of using our imaginations to the fullest, Misanthropology is a made up word. But after seeing the show you may have a better handle on its urban meaning. Presented at the World Famous Spiegletent at the adults-only time of midnight, Eddie Perfect dissects our modern lives with a measured but always comedic disdain. Evolution, according to Perfect, has reached its climactic high and is stagnating in a pool of water somewhere near Jurassic Park. Like a modern day and infinitely more musical Bill Hicks, the composer, comedian and performer spares nothing and no one from his razor sharp satirical wit. Playing to an almost-full Spiegeltent, Perfect brings down the house with his hilarious take on ‘modern life’, which has more than just a few people laughing at the notion that perhaps mankind is not all it’s cracked up to be. Proving he’s still as fit as ever, Perfect barely cracks a sweat as he sings his way through each riveting concerto in a silver suit, the bleached-blonde hair from his Shane Warne days replaced by a more natural sandy colour. At a little over 60 minutes Misanthropology is well paced, traversing six songs – including Daddy’s Tits and At the Eco-Lodge and a musical hit about seeing the world from a dolphin’s perspective that sounds so much like a Ronan Keating song it could probably make it on the American Top 40 if it wasn’t taking the piss. Supported by talented threepiece band Daniel Pilner, Mick Stuart and Alon Ilsa, Perfect proves he’s still got what it takes to keep an audience entertained. Nick Hose
Film & Theatre Reviews What's been on our TV screens this week The Best and Worst of the Big Screen and Bare Boards...
■ Film
■ Film
Released January 26
Released January 20
God knows why it took Mark Wahlberg so much time and effort to get this picture off the ground; you’d think any studio with an inch of nous would see the potential in a boxing pic with this kind of inspiring, feelgood real-life story behind it – not to mention one that pairs the acting chops of Christian Bale with the commercial value of Wahlberg. Ultimately, however, this makes The Fighter all the more beguiling: an underdog project based on an underdog tale. The only thing that could make it better is the resurrection of a damaged career, a la The Wrestler.
You’d expect more from a film directed by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and written by the duo behind Superbad; but you’d be disappointed. The Green Hornet is a shameful mess that begs – nay, screams – for an edit at the very least, but ideally a re-write. Or you could just not go and see it; which is what happened in The States, where the film has bombed.
THE FIGHTER
THE GREEN HORNET
Set in the rough and tumble neighbourhoods of Boston that filmmakers seem to love so much (Mystic River, Good Will Hunting, The Departed, The Town), The Fighter is based on the real life story of ‘Irish’ Micky Ward and his half-brother Dicky Eklund, boxers of very different talents and temperaments, the former a wannabe world champ, and the latter a has-been. The narrative is framed by the unusual device of a documentary being made about Dicky, ostensibly about his career ‘comeback’. It’s a premise that allows the filmmakers to heighten the comedic and tragic potential inherent in the disjunction between how a person perceives himself, and how he really is – with the emphasis on the tragic, in this case. From the moment an emaciated, wild-eyed Bale appears on screen, delivering the opening scene’s frenetic piece-to-camera monologue, you know that you’re in for an incredible performance, in the calibre of Rescue Dawn and The Machinist (and only slightly less harrowing). As Bale acknowledged when he accepted his Golden Globe, his performance was made possible by an understated turn from his co-star. (The less generous subtext in my mind being that Wahlberg isn’t capable of this kind of performance). In fact, Bale is so good that he all but blows his castmates out of the water – with the exception, perhaps, of Melissa Leo, who transforms herself into the brothers’ embittered battleaxe of a mother. Even Amy Adams, who puts in a strong performance as Micky’s fiercely protective girlfriend, pales in comparison. With a powerhouse cast and an unbeatable ‘underdog’ premise, director David O’Russell turns in the film of his career, and lives up to the promise of Three Kings. And while it’s just shy of two hours, The Fighter feels like an emotional marathon, and a sweeping epic – every bit as triumphant, in the end, as a blockbuster like Rocky, but wrapped up in the style and tone of indiearthouse. If The Social Network weren’t also in the field, one might expect The Fighter to sweep the Oscars clean. If I had one criticism, it would be that O’Russell plays the white-trash boganism of Micky’s family too heavily for laughs, in too many scenes. It works when you give the characters the courtesy of a back-story and more than a skerrick of psychology (e.g. Muriel’s Wedding), but here they are pure caricature, which jars with the compassionate tone of the film. Dee Jefferson
A modern adaptation of the beloved '30s radio series of the same name (which also devolved into a couple of films and a television series starring Bruce Lee), The Green Hornet centres around an unlikely friendship between recently bereaved, newly-minted media magnate Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) and one of his father’s more industrious and inventive employees, Kato (Jay Chou), who team up to do something meaningful with their lives: fight crime. This friendship – the central premise of the story – is one of the film’s biggest problems; ultimately, the script does nothing to convince you that a partnership between the übermensch Kato and the talentless, selfish and obnoxious Britt would last more than a few days at most. Kato has all the physical and technical skills, and does all the work; apart from some serious bank, Britt brings very little to the table. The film stays afloat for about the first third, setting up the backstory for Britt’s emotional baggage – a lonely childhood spent seeking the attention and approval of his over-achieving and emotionally frigid father – and taking us through the standard but satisfying ‘transformation’ sequence that is a prerequisite for this kind of 'ordinary guy' superhero film (Batman Begins, Ironman, Spider-Man).
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Tu We Th Fr
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off* PG Tron: Legacy 3D PG Red Hill MA15+ The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader 3D PG 29 Sa The American* MA15+ 30 Su Fair Game M *
No free list
Centennial Park Tickets at moonlight.com.au or at the gate. Gates open at 7pm, screenings at approx. 8.15pm
At this point, with Kato and Britt – aka The Green Hornet – setting out to fight crime, the film fizzles out. With Academy Award-winner Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) shamefully under-used as a cardboard cut-out villain, there’s never any sense that there’s a point (let alone an urgency) to Britt’s task. (Albeit one of the film’s most entertaining scenes is an early encounter between Waltz’s eccentric Eurogangster Chudnofsky, and a cocky upstart played by James Franco.) Cameron Diaz also makes a plucky pass at a shamefully underwritten character, ‘the sexy-but-smart assistant to the superhero’. As with the Batman and Bond films, a large part of the appeal of The Green Hornet is the gadgets – and these bits are both funny and cool – but the action scenes are badly shot and edited, and far too long. In fact most scenes in the film are too long, and a fair few could be cut entirely, not being funny enough to justify even on the basis of whimsy. The best that can be said for this film is that, thanks to the special brand of stoner humour mastered by co-writers Rogen and Evan Goldberg (who wrote Superbad and Pineapple Express), it is funny. But overall, the film feels like its makers were all getting way too high on their own supply. Dee Jefferson
Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale go toe-to-toe in The Fighter
See www.thebrag.com for more arts reviews BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11 :: 43
Album Reviews What's been crossing our ears this week...
ALBUM OF THE WEEK SMITH WESTERNS Dye It Blonde Fat Possum/Spunk
Smith Westerns are not an alt-country band. It's a fact which took me a little while to get my head around; the name sounds like something Wild Bill Hickock keeps in a battered hip holster. Rather, they deal in fuzzed-out pop that’s equal parts festival-anthem Britpop hooks as it is lush, glam melodies in the Bolan mould. Their self-titled debut was a fabulously lo-fi mush of libidinousness and innocence, recorded in guitarist Max Kakacek’s basement – have a listen to ‘Be My Girl’ to start, but you’ll want the whole thing. Is it the sound of 2011? 1977? 1995? Do you care? Smith Westerns don’t. They’re too busy making kickass records.
For their second outing Dye It Blonde, the Chicago band ventured into the studio with producer/engineer Chris Coady (he worked on Beach House’s gorgeous Teen Dream, and engineers most of TVOTR’s albums), who’s kept the scuffed-sneakers patina of their sound while giving it room
THE DECEMBERISTS
FENECH-SOLER Fenech-Soler B-Unique/Shock
The King Is Dead Third Man Records/ Capitol No one is ever surprised when they find out that Colin Meloy, The Decemberists’ frontman, majored in creative writing at university. At their best, his songs are novellas set to music, with a rich cast of characters and plots that ebb and flow with the tune. So really, the only thing that is surprising about The Decemberists making a country album is that it took them until their sixth. But this isn’t Nashville bootscootin’ country music; this is more like what Bob Dylan once described as “his kind” of country music, about “real people, real emotions, and real problems.” It’s Justin Townes Earle’s territory, and Gillian Welch’s; Meloy’s oft-florid writing is at its double-distilled finest here, and you would have to be a hardy soul indeed not to be moved. This band have always had their roots in American and Celtic folk melodies, and the mix of slower numbers and more up-tempo fare really gives them a chance to shine. ‘All Arise!’ is a standout, as jaunty fiddles blaze away over a rhythm The Band would be proud of, but the deft touch is required – and achieved – on the beautiful ‘Rise To Me’, or ‘June Hymn’. Meloy’s voice really comes into its own here as well; country is a genre suited to voices that are expressive, rather than overly polished. And the album is only forty minutes long - it never outstays its welcome - so when it ends all you want to do is play it again, Sam. Maybe a couple of times. Country music gets a bad rap for stupidly large hats and ostentation. But when it is as beautifully written as this, it's impossible to deny. Hugh Robertson
Shit gets cosmic with Fenech-Soler’s self-titled release, a spacey swirl of arpeggiated synths, electro jabs and smooth romance. Their penchant for Balearic disco and breathy vocals offset any initial comparisons that I made with Australia’s own electro pop buzzcocks Art vs Science; rather than the guns blazin’ approach which AvS take to electro pop, Fenech-Soler are a melodic renaissance of the lust and reverie of the 80s. Album opener ‘Battlefields’ launches into the quartet’s distinctive sound; meshing punchy 80s Eurodisco with steamy nightclub lyrics. Undulating, dirty bass-buzz and fluttering synths evoke the ocular imagery of Saturday night debauchery – flashing lights and gyrating bodies. ‘Lies’ and ‘Golden Sun’ continue with the same funky brazen attitude, but on the other side of the coin is some inspiring Balearic disco heaven. ‘Stop And Stare’ is an echoey, delayed synth explosion which culminates in a furore of majestic piano chords, and a liberating harp arpeggio. Singer Ben Duffy’s voice flows nicely through the soaring production of ‘Stone Bridge’ and the atmospheric ‘Stop and Stare’, and also complements the brash brass funk-stomps of ‘Battlefields’ and ‘Lies’. His proclivity for falsetto and his ostensibly Oxford accent will earn comparisons to other bands in the cluttered indiedance fuckpool, but Fenech-Soler’s triumphant choruses help to thrust them to the front of the pack. Lush synthesisers and juicy 80s throwbacks are this reviewer’s guilty pleasure, so while Fenech-Soler are naff as all fuck, their unabashed bravado and affable tunes make this highly-polished debut a highly-listenable one. If anything, these guys have made an album in which every song would be the perfect song for your first kiss. How is that at all a bad thing? Rach Seneviratne
to breathe. It’s fleshed out with loads of stylish reverb and unabashed, febrile riffs – the kind you can’t help but sing along to using race-car noises like “whhaa-oo-whoaaaaw” and “beeuww ba-bew bewwwwwww”. ‘All Die Young’ and ‘Smile’ in particular are eternal singalongs waiting to happen, the former Oasis-size and the latter Lennonesque; ‘End of the Night’ features a piano hook ripped straight from T-Rex’s ‘Teenage Dream’, and battle-weary choruses about wanting to be a star on a Saturday night. It’s a terrifically cohesive collection, almost too much so – it takes an extra listen for the cheerily-borne adolescent melancholy and arch resignation to emerge as distinct moods. Take note, though: for all the ink being spilled in the rush to describe them as rambunctious upstarts making precocious garage-glam about young love, these songs are carefully crafted, enigmatic and melodically rich. Caitlin Welsh
JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN
THE BLACK EYED PEAS
GRACE WOODROOFE
The Deep Field Liberator
The Beginning Interscope/Universal
Always Want Modular/Universal
When it comes to success, contentedness can be dangerous. Talk to Alanis Morissette or Tori Amos; mollification of youthful angst or a newfound sense of peaceful maturity doesn’t bode well for album sales. Whether punters are mourning an opportunity for schadenfreude or whether contentment does indeed breed mediocrity, troubled and tortured seems to trump satiated for preferred musician modus operandi. Take heed then, Joan as Police Woman. The centred fullness of her third effort, The Deep Field, demonstrates that Joan Wasser has come a long way since her hectically cathartic debut, Real Life. Wasser’s evolution noticeably peaked on the ambivalence-ridden To Survive, where satisfaction sat nestled amongst simmering volcanoes of residual rage and self-doubt. But volcanoes lie dormant this time around; The Deep Field is an unabashed revelling in the pastoral tranquillity of a deep and gratifying love. Her personal fulfilment corresponds to a buoyant expansiveness; mawkish violin and piano are traded for brass and keyboard, and the unconditional positivity expressed in her lyrics (“I smile at strangers no one ever saw / When they smile right back at me / I know that we agree / That good living requires smiling at strangers” in ‘Human Condition’) becomes the rule, and not the exception. Wasser’s soulful vocals, often punctuated by Parker Kindred’s wonderfully bassy punch, saves The Deep Field from falling into easylistening, background music territory on a number of occasions. But the album's uniform pleasantness borders on blissful monotony.
There is so much to be sad about The Black Eyed Peas’ shift from a genuinely talented underground hip-hop act to one of the biggest, most shameless pop groups in the world. If you have never heard either of their first two albums (Behind The Front and Bridging The Gap), you won’t be able to reconcile the sounds coming out of your speakers with the personnel involved - or at least their postFergie incarnation. But for all the criticism that gets levelled at her, the real problem here is that will.i.am chose money over respect. And he discovered house music. Because while they were doing the Top 40 hip-pop thing, at the very least they would build a song around the sample; ‘Pump It’ was a pretty basic R&B track, but it was propelled by that great riff from ‘Misirlou’, which gave it real vibrancy. The last two albums, on the other hand, have been dominated by gigantic house beats compelling everyone to dance, so the actual words you are singing don’t matter at all. That’s why we end up with couplets like “I’m a lover not a fighter/Loved on a dyke turned her to a dick liker”. Even the music is just so basic - not to mention hugely predictable. It is real lowest-common-denominator stuff, for people who demand no more of their music than something to party to. Which is fine for what it is - but it’s so much less than what it could be. You can’t blame The Beginning for achieving exactly what it sets out to do, but I can’t bring myself to reward it for clearing such a low bar. Not even with half a star. It just makes me too sad. Hugh Robertson
What? An appeased artist?! More angst, please.
Dunks Speak 'n' Spell
Doing as much for your head as for your tapping toes, Ghouls’ second mini-album is another teaser to tide you over before the Sydney fourpiece’s debut LP comes out later this year. Dunks is a wondrous piece of work, that finally brings local intelligent experimental music to a point where it can be appreciated by more than just a niche group of people. And there’s a
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Produced by Ben Harper over nine days, Always Want is surprisingly eclectic for a singer-songwriter's debut album - and Relentless7 as her backing band make a huge (and often experimental) sonic contribution. They dish out humid blues thunder on current single ‘Bear’, atmospherics that segue into a slinky dub groove on ‘Battles’ and dejected roadhouse blues on the title track, as Grace muses “I always want what I can’t have”; a song she wrote when she was only fifteen years old. Grace was discovered and managed by the late, great Heath Ledger, and his profound effect on her is nowhere more apparent than on 'H'; there is a real honesty and heartache to Woodroofe’s voice as she sings, “I know you said that time was blind / now you’re in a place that only exists in my mind”. Whisked away by Ledger to L.A while she was still in high school, Woodroofe was graced (pun not intended) with grand opportunities to develop her craft. In ‘Transformer’, she pays tribute to budding actor friends she met on her travels, as she growls, “I’m an actress / I’m an actor / I’m a fulltime be-whatever / I’m your transformer”. Always Want clocks in at just over 31 minutes, leaving you brainstorming a life of crime to try and discover all of her unreleased demos and B-sides for the full effect of immersion... Matt Petherbridge
Andrew Geeves
INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK GHOUL
Grace Woodroofe is intent on mesmerising the world on her debut album. From the opening notes, the Perth-born musician is magnetic, drawing you in with soulful cries on the pensive first single, ‘I’ve Handled Myself Wrong’.
very clear explanation for that, noted by almost everyone who’s heard these guys live or on record; Ivan Vizintin. The man has a voice that is seemingly blessed, sonorously ringing out over the screwed-up electronic landscapes created by his band and taking them firmly into the realm of Music You Can And Will Want To Listen To. Whether you hear that on ‘3Mark’ which dropped in November last year, or over the jittery guitar stomp of new tracks like ‘Dreambeat’, the result is the same. The eureka moment that most groups only have once a career is all over this EP; as tuneful as it is ambitious and never forgoing experimentation, even when it veers in a poppy direction.
to Ghoul is that there’s not a chance in the world you know where they’ll head to next – and they can head somewhere new three times in thirty seconds. Seemingly incongruous musical ideas, as on the throbbing and careening ‘Facepaint’, start off sounding like Burial and end up straying into classic crooner territory, while samples and sounds hiss and bubble underneath. This is one of those things you really have to hear before anything a reviewer writes will make any sense.
The most exciting part about listening
Jonno Seidler
If there’s one thing you can take from attempts to articulate the might of this little collection of songs, it should simply be: go get.
OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week...
JAVELIN - No Mas BOB DYLAN - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan AMERICAN FOOTBALL - American Football
DEADMAU5 - For Lack Of A Better Name MATT HELDERS - Late Night Tales
BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11 :: 45
live reviews What we've been to see...
FUTURE CLASSIC PRESENTS: HENRIK SCHWARZ
DAN MANGAN, ANDY BULL, SPOOKYLAND
Beck’s Festival Bar Thursday January 13
Oxford Art Factory Friday January 14
While the Future Classic lads did a solid job warming up the masses, there was no doubt that everyone was there see ‘The Schwartzenator’, which was affirmed by the cheers that ensued when Henrik Schwarz stepped up to the decks in an ensemble that was oh-so ‘Berlin’ (the elegant beige scarf, etc.) and began a set of agreeable party jams. On a surface level, Schwarz lived up to expectation with a set that combined accessible tracks (namely cuts from Michael Jackson and Coldcut’s ‘Walk A Mile In My Shoes’), with more brooding, Detroit-infused acidy sounds – played to a rapturous audience.
January is a very tidy place to be writing reviews from. It means I can herald the Sydney appearance of Vancouver’s Dan Mangan as an early gig-of-the-year contender without raising any eyebrows… And regardless of the calendar month, it helps if you mean it. After leaving a packed out Oxford Art Factory in a sweaty, grinning mess, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one thinking such thoughts; I have no doubt either that the sweaty finish seeded some thoughts of a different ilk in those that way inclined…
But there were also certain deeper questions that the evening raised, which cannot be addressed properly within the scope of this review, such as: how far one should delve beneath the veneer of a performance to discover how the ‘magician’ performs their tricks? Particularly when doing so can detract from an otherwise enjoyable experience…
It was with typical Canadian hospitality that Mangan hosted a couple of Sydney’s finest new faces. Spookyland’s Dylanesque acoustic meanderings coursed through material from his latest EP, venturing into an extended crescendo that gave it much needed variety - and forestalled any Dylan tribute-band calls.
Schwarz holds a reputation for treating the Ableton software he performs off like an actual instrument when he plays live. He seemingly loads his laptop with a mixture of his own tracks and his vast record collection which, as anyone who has heard his DJ-Kicks would know, spans everything from soul and pop to house and deeper material - and splices them together as he sees fit. In short, there’s plenty of ‘tweaking’ on the go; but just how much tweaking constitutes a live performance? As the masses lapped up what was unquestionably a hugely enjoyable set, I couldn’t help but wonder just how much Schwarz was doing with the material he was churning out, aside from some rudimentary DJ tricks; filtering, delaying, cutting the bass etc... I mean, while his enthusiasm behind the decks certainly was infectious, he didn’t appear to be wearing headphones for much of his set, which perhaps ensured he was able to focus on his (quite impressive) dance moves: the DJ bop.
Andy Bull’s follow-up put paid to the support-band crowd chatter, by opening with a tweaked cover of everyone’s second-favourite song, The Shins’ ‘New Slang.’ Dishing out self-deprecating banter and melodic keyboard-pop from his piano seat, Bull had an arresting presence, transcending the pop-sheen of some of his songs with an authenticity that pasted many a smile on the populated canvas… And this was very much a night about the smiles.
On a personal level I would have rather seen Schwarz DJ, as playing ‘live’ constricts the vast pool of tracks he can draw on, and as someone who has followed his career quite closely it was often fairly easy to foresee what was coming next. But that said, there wasn’t a soul in attendance who wasn’t beaming and moving when he dropped an extended version of his inspired rework of Omar’s ‘I’m Feeling You’, which features a vocal from none other than Stevie Wonder. Undoubtedly pleasurable on a superficial level, Schwarz perhaps left more discerning attendees yearning for something a bit more substantial/ challenging. Still, for a balmy summer night in early January, the German summed up the situation and delivered the soundtrack to a party. And perhaps it’s wrong to ask for anything more than that. Chris Honnery
TUMBLEWEED, THE MEANIES The Metro Theatre Friday January 14
Growing up in the 90s, I felt right at home with the stoner rock sound and surreal, acid-fed artwork that Tumbleweed embraced. Next to them, my other favourite band from my teen years were Melbourne-based underground rock band The Meanies. So it was a pleasure to my eyes and memories to see Tumbleweed's Theatre Of Gnomes cover art occupying a modest half page in the local street press - and even more so when I saw that The Meanies were the main support.
and look a LOT older now. Tumbleweed played an awesome set; they still have it after all these years. Ex-vocalist Dave Curley has humbly stated that the true and best lineup for Tumbleweed began upon his departure, starring bassist Jay Curley, guitarists Lenny Curley & Paul Hausmeister, drummer Steve O’Brien and lead Richie Lewis. It was great to see them all back together doing their thing again. Truly a surreal trip down nostalgia lane. Roach Drs
After seeing Tumbleweed a few times since their recent regrouping, I was definitely there early to catch The Meanies, who I hadn’t seen in over ten years. They got straight into their charismatic stage antics, with singer Link McLennon thrashing around on stage, treating the mic stand like some sort of angry wizard's staff. The bassist Wally was a tad more sedate than the rest, calmly and casually keeping up with fast-paced tracks like ‘10% Weird’. About midway through the set, Link has a dispute with a punter in the front row, casually stating, ‘you and me outside after the show’. I pissed myself - it just seemed like he would’ve gotten a beat down, but also not cared.
With the boisterous folk-grass opening to ‘Sold’ kicking off Dan Mangan’s set, it was immediately apparent that this was to be more than just a night of moody solo crooning. This was embodied in the jovially-slapped double bass to Mangan’s left, matched only in its ferocity by Mangan’s own choral growls and impossibly fast bare-fingered strumming. The spirit of the Canadian lumberjack was harnessed within the beards, stomps, handclaps, flannel shirts and enthused movements of Mangan and his band, in what was essentially well-rehearsed looseness. Full band jams end on the cue of Mangan’s tambourine hitting the floor, his drummer stands to stomp the stage as a kick-drum substitute for ‘Tina’s Glorious Comeback,’ and his all-male band attempt female backing vocals... This latter, however, wasn’t as effective. Finishing with a mass sing-a-long of the unchained and slightly absurd chorus to ‘Robots,’ Mangan managed to win the hearts of this city with a combination of fantastic tunes and endearing stage manner (not to mention those piercing blue eyes…), proving that nice guys finish not last, but with extremely satisfied live audiences.
Tumbleweed came on the stage with their typically effortless look and feel. They look a lot older than I remember – but then yesterday I saw a photo of myself when I loved them, I was 12 then
Max Easton
GYPSY & THE CAT Oxford Art Factory Thursday January 13
I read in an interview last year where the guys from Gypsy & The Cat said, “We had this album, a great album, but no live presence or live show; we’d never played before...” So when I got the email from BRAG that I was covering this gig, I was curious. Judging from the musicianship displayed on their album Gilgamesh, I was confident that they could easily put together a few chords on a six-string or keyboard - but what I was intrigued about was just how did G&TC’s humble brand of synthy dream pop translate to the stage? On the Sydney leg of their two-city album promo tour, I found out. Walking out to a packed Oxford Art Factory in matching white buttonup shirts, Xavier and Lionel (with backing band in tow) wasted no time, launching straight into hit single ‘Time To Wander’. What hit you in the face almost immediately was the near-perfect studio quality sound that emanated from the speakers. With only guitar, keys, bass and drums on stage, it wasn’t long
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before I was nerding out, hunting for prerecorded backing elements. Just a few short minutes later, I grew tired of being ‘that guy’. You know, the guy who screws his nose up when the reverb on the backing mic is
weak? Or who complains that the floor tom is missing from the mix? Yeah, that unlikeable fellow... Anyway, that guy sucks, so I just decided to enjoy the show instead. The band breezily coasted through the album cuts ‘Gilgamesh’ and ‘Breakaway’, before getting all interactive with the crowd on ‘The Piper’s Song’. The crowd (not overly hipster, not completely bogan, but that middleground between the two that triple j happily champions) took their cues and sung the chorus - which clearly thrilled the band. Rapture then abounded, as the band took the punters on a little indie-electro interlude through a live performance of Daft Punk’s ‘Da Funk’ and Justice vs. Simian’s ‘We Are Your Friends’ (which I, admittedly, thought was a little contrived) before kicking through the tail end of their set; ‘Sight Of a Tear’ and ‘Parallel Universe’, and a dual encore of 'Running Romeo' and crowd favourite 'Jona Vark'. Gypsy & The Cat write the kind of pop that could easily transition across to MOR Contemporary radio, and that’s how they came across this night; shiny, easilyconsumed and flawless. Rick Warner
live reviews What we've been to see...
Sydney Town Hall Thursday January 13
Leaving aside their obvious link as participants in the installation, tonight’s lineup seems a little random. Sweet, husky Sarah and Laura, I worry, might be overshadowed by the towering personalities of the boys: Gareth “Makes You Want To Kill Yourself, But, You Know, In A Really Amazingly Good Way” Liddiard and Kram - whom I last saw running red-cordial rings around his own drum kit during his support set for the Eagles of Death Metal. That said, the staging actually created a really lovely coherence between all their very different sets. The installation – which is on my Everybody-Must-See-It list for this year’s Sydney Festival – is gorgeously effective in its simplicity. Designed to be an intense experience (but one that the audience is in control of), there are four large horizontal screens on one wall and four booths closed in by black matte curtains, which each contain another vertical screen, about as tall as a tallish man. (Precision is so not rock’n’roll.) Twenty musicians were filmed performing one of their songs, accompanied by only one instrument (although a cheeky, be-turbaned Dan Kelly cheated a bit with his loop pedal and harmonica). You’re given Silent Disco-style headphones that can be tuned to one of the four loops of film, and you can wander around at will,
sharing the big screens with dozens of others or standing in a booth, the world blacked out with curtains and muffled. The footage is black and white and in startling high-definition, with most artists staring straight into the camera for an unsettlingly intimate effect. It’s certainly eerie to be watching Sarah Blasko sing live six metres away as a slightly largerthan-life monochrome Blasko mouths silently at us to our left. There were a couple of hi-def cameras trained on the live performers at the launch, creating beautifully-framed triptychs from where I stood; Kram’s hair and drumsticks and a wide shot of the kit, as he flayed the skins bare-handed; Gareth’s fingers on the fretboard and his beard snarling around the mic and hand across a battered, unadorned guitar with a V of chest-scruff peeking from a plain black shirt; a close-up of Sarah’s profile, focused and still, a shot of her pianist’s hands echoed on the screen next to it, with a slight time-lag between the two, just to trip us out. The performances served as a great counterpoint to the footage. Live performance is a strange thing: with such honest, singular performers, it’s easy to be convinced that they’re not doing anything they wouldn’t at home, in rehearsal or for their own amusement. With the music stripped away on the screen, though – watching Ron Peno, Warren Ellis, Peaches or Jimmie Little consciously reaching out and trying to engage us – it reminds you that even the most heartfelt performance is still an act. Caitlin Welsh
S: OUR LOV ELY PHOTOG RAP HER LEY MAR :: ROS ETT E ROU HAN NA ASH TIM LEV Y (HEA D HON CHO ) ::
live opening night
PICS :: TL
LIVE OPENING NIGHT EVENT: SARAH BLASKO, GARETH LIDDIARD, KRAM, LAURA JEAN
13:01:11 :: Sydney Town Hall :: 483 George St Sydney 9265 9189
BRAG :: 394 :: 10:01:11 :: 47
snap sn ap
13:01:11 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711
gypsy & the cat
PICS :: RR
dan mangan
PICS :: TT
up all night out all week . . .
tumbleweed
fbi night: gold panda
:: The Metro Theatre :: 624 George St City 92642666
PICS :: TL
14:01:11
PICS :: AM
13:01:11 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711
14:01:11 :: Beck's Bar - Hyde Park Barracks :: Macquarie St CBD 82392311
It’s called: Hot Damn Summer Lovin’ Party! It sounds like: Punk party hardcore. DJs/live acts playing: Resist The Thought, Buried In Verona, Coma Lies, Feed Her To The Sharks, False Light and the Hot Damn DJs Sell it to us: $4 punch. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Getting laid in a lei. Crowd specs: Sydney’s cheapest kids in short shorts, bikinis and leis, drowning in punch. Wallet damage: $15, or $12 if you know the right people… Where: The Exchange Hotel, Q Bar, 34B, Vegas, Phoenix and Spectrum When: Thursday January 27
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last night 14:01:10
PICS :: CW
party profile
Hot Damn
:: The Gaelic Theatre :: 64 Devonshire St Surry Hills 92111687
AN BUI :: ASHLEY MAR :: DANIEL : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: SUS ONTE :: COWAN WHITFEILD OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHERS TRAM TOM :: ON :: PATRICK STEVENS MUNNS :: ROSETTE ROUHANNA
snap sn ap
mum
PICS ::SB
up all night out all week . . .
plutonic & g love
PICS :: RR
14:01:11 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700
15:01:11 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711
party profile
We Love Indie It’s called: We Love Indie It sounds like: The sounds of indie that we love. DJs/live acts playing: The best indie rock, indie disco and indie electro classics new and old from our resident DJs and special guests. Sell it to us: A cross between a jam session in Noel Gallagher’s living room, a 60s school disco making love to the 80s, and getting your freak on at a Foals gig… The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Lots of sparkly faces throwing shapes on the dancefloor to The Courteeners’ ‘Not Nineteen Forever’ in the early hours of the morning. Crowd specs: Indie hipsters and Britpop followers, red lipstick, winklepickers and haircuts that’d put Paul Weller to shame! Wallet damage: Cross our palms with 10 golden nuggets! Where: The Forbes Hotel / 30 York Street, CBD When: Every Saturday, 9pm – late.
AN BUI :: ASHLEY MAR :: DANIEL : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: SUS ONTE :: COWAN WHITFEILD OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHERS TRAM TOM :: ON :: PATRICK STEVENS MUNNS :: ROSETTE ROUHANNA
BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11 :: 49
Remedy
The Minor Chord
More than The Cure since 1989 with Murray Engleheart
The All Ages rant bought to you by Indent.net.au. By Kate Dean
ALL AGES GIG PICKS
stuff and maybe, just maybe, a DVD of their BDO performance with Henry Rollins out front.
ORANGE GOBLIN
In February there’ll be much rejoicing by Orange Goblin fans – us included – when a five-disc boxed set is released, along with reissues of Time Travelling Blues and the out-of-print - or maybe just damn tough to find - Frequencies From Planet Ten.
NANTUCKET SLEIGHRIDE
Motörhead
MOTÖRHEAD TOUR
You know how in New York City when there’s a big release from a major act they splash it across a huge footy fieldsized billboard in Times Square? Well, it seems our equivalent of that level of PR is a bit more suburban-based – which is just fine with us. The coming Motörhead tour being exhibit A: there’s a five-foot-long poster for their visit on the footbridge over Castle Hill Road about 300 metres from Koala Park. Too damn cool.
MY BLOODY LONG WAIT
According to Amazon UK, that ridiculously long-awaited and recently totally unpublicised (apart we think from our mention sometime back) doubledisc reissue of My Bloody Valentine’s sonic masterpiece, Loveless, is being dispatched this coming Tuesday.
RIP STEVE PRESTWICH
The sad and sudden loss of Cold Chisel drummer Steve Prestwich was more sobering than most of the untimely passings we’ve experienced in the last five years or so. He was diagnosed with a brain tumour just two weeks before he passed, but didn’t come out of the operation he underwent to treat it. For all the fire in Chisel in the late 70s and early 80s, Prestwich was the face of calm. No Keith Moon-type skin flaying, trashed drum kits or threats to the punters down the front who kept on pushing the monitors out of place from him. Which pretty much mirrored our only meeting with him during rehearsals at the ABC, when Chisel first reformed. He was quietly spoken and gracious. On stage, though, he was a relentless, Charlie Watts’-type, snapping-snare-groove machine, and harboured a stunning songwriting hand which was clearly evident in what for us was and is Chisel’s greatest song, ‘When the War Is Over’, which he penned.
HARD ONS IN EUROPE
The Hard-Ons are off to Europe again soon, with a reissue program in the works here at home that will include unreleased
New Year’s Eve has become something of a tradition for Gov’t Mule, with last year no exception: Mountain’s drummer Corky Laing joined them for a full reading of Mountain’s glorious Nantucket Sleighride. Laing was almost in tears, as it had been nearly forty years since he performed the entire epic, complete with keyboards.
YOUNG PUNKS
In the social pages of a Newcastle newspaper recently were three unknown faces with names that readers of this column certainly should recognise: X’s Ian Rilen, Ian Krahe and Steve Lucas. Interesting sense of humour some folks…
GIRLSCHOOL HIT AND RUN
You gotta wonder who advises some people. To mark their 30th birthday, Brit metal gals Girlschool are re-recording their second album, 1981’s Hit And Run. Why? It wasn’t exactly their Ace Of Spades; and besides, the sultry Kelly Johnson (former guitarist) sadly won’t be in the frame.
COVERED
This is kinda cool; a label’s new acts covering stuff by said label’s old acts. That’s what’s happening on February 24, when Warner Bros release a comp titled Covered: A Revolution In Sound, with The Flaming Lips and the associated Stardeath & White Dwarfs tackling ‘Borderline’ by Madonna, Disturbed tackling Faith No More’s ‘Midlife Crisis’, and best of all by far (for our beads and shells), Mastodon and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons doing ZZ’s ‘Just Got Paid’.
FARMER JASON FOR NFL Farmer Jason, the alter ego of Jason Ringenberg from smokin’ rockers Jason & The Scorchers has stepped into the big league of the NFL with both the Carolina Panthers and Green Bay Packers using his tunes for their gameday promotions. Clearly our man is an equal-opportunity supporter. The Panthers will use something that Farmer Jason co-wrote and recorded with Scorchers guitarist Warner Hodges, called ‘Sir Purr’ in honour of the team’s mascot; as well as the more “mature” ‘Panthers Running Wild’. The Packers meanwhile are using a Team Farmer Jason song called ‘He’s The Quarterback’.
The end of the holidays is sadly creeping up on us. Along with it comes the irritating uniforms, the most stress your average kid can develop, and for those extra lucky ones in year 12, no social life! But cheer up, my friends – all is not so bad. Stationery shopping is not the only thing to look forward to, as we celebrate this last week of holidays with a bang (and a melodic, feet-shuffling bang at that).
ABC3: STAY TUNED
Before we get into the swing of live things this week, ABC3 is creating a new music community and is looking for 30 bands (whose collective average age is under 21) to be part of it. Stay Tuned is a multimedia platform for young music enthusiasts – for makers, shakers and fans. Right now, however, they are looking for musicmakers. All you have to do is submit a one-minute video that’s just you, the band and the camera talking about how you met and the music you make. 30 bands will be selected to be profiled on TV, online and through the Stay Tuned community. Check out Indent’s website for more info.
LOWKEY
First up we have a pick that no rap fan can miss. Lowkey (UK) is a jack-of-all-trades, you could say; a poet, playwright and political activist, besides having a growing profile as a rapper. Surely over a million views on YouTube proves the talent here, so head down to the Factory Theatre this Saturday January 29 to catch Lowkey, plus support by locals Lady Lash and Cuzco. You can add 'humanitarian' to Lowkey’s resume as well, as all the profits from this gig are going to development projects in Gaza and Indigenous communities around Australia.
CRYSTAL CASTLES
If you prefer electronic pop, we’ve got you covered too: Kath and Glass of Crystal Castles will be rocking the Enmore Theatre this Tuesday January 25. With a thirst for individuality that critics and fans can’t ignore, Crystal Castles have developed a reputation for fierce and exhilarating live sets. They even have the attention of Robert Smith of The Cure, who they teamed up with to record a version of ‘Not In Love’. Faster Louder described them as “electrifying” - this is a show you don’t want to miss.
NO TRIGGER
And now for some punk, to get your ears ringing: No Trigger formed way back in 2000 (a whole decade ago, guys!), quickly gaining praise as ‘the best unsigned band in America’. However, ten years later, it seemed as if they had all but disbanded.
MONDAY JANUARY 24 Lupe Fiasco The Enmore Theatre
TUESDAY JANUARY 25
Crystal Castles, Goldfields The Enmore Theatre
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 26
Cloud Control, Katie Noonan, Hungry Kids of Hungary, Cuthbert & the Nightwalkers and more… The Rocks
SATURDAY JANUARY 29
Lowkey (UK) w/ Lady Lash, Cuzco The Factory Theatre
SUNDAY JANUARY 30
Blood, Sweat and Beers feat. No Trigger (USA), Defiance Ohio (USA), The Currency, Lungs, Coerce, Totally Unicorn and more… The Annandale Hotel Not so: the original line-up is back and ready for a tour – and they’re playing the fourth instalment of Blood, Sweat & Beers, at the Annandale this Sunday January 30. Fellow Americans Such Gold will also be performing, with Paces, Easy Company and Mary Jane Kelly all on the line-up as well. It kicks off at 2pm, nice and early, so you can be rested well for the first day back at school…
AUSTRALIA YAY
Australia Day is this Wednesday January 26, an occasion of immense importance: triple j's Hottest 100 is announced, Big Day Out is on – plus we hear it’s kind of historic. One of our top picks is the Australia Day concert at The Rocks: local dazzlers Cloud Control (who are breaking our hearts by relocating to the UK) will say farewell with a bang; the line-up also features Katie Noonan, King Tide, Cuthbert & the Nightwalkers, Hungry Kids of Hungary, Andy Bull... With markets happening at the same time, you can pick yourself up a bargain while gorging on delicious stall food. The fun kicks off from 11am – but if you can’t make it, FBi Radio will be bringing it to you live via the wireless. And don’t forget to tune in to The Minor Chord on FBi 94.5 on Wednesday around 5pm, for Eva and Kate’s latest picks.
ON THE TURNTABLE On the Remedy turntable is The Church’s HeyDay, which not all that surprisingly (re-)revealed itself to be a masterwork. While taking several spins of that in, it struck us as kind of strange that after the whole paisley boom of the early 80s they’re the last men still standing, and continue to make a music that matters. Not only that, but they rose to and have maintained a position as a world class act of considerable standing. Gotta respect that on so many levels. Also going round and round is the solo effort from Peter “Blackie” Black of Hard-Ons and Nunchukka Superfly fame, titled Break Bread With The MonoBrows. It’s closer to the pop that the Hard-Ons have always dealt with to one degree or another, although here Blackie gives it an almost whispered Travis Bickle or Jonathan Richman bend, while there’s a Flaming Lips-like edge on the track ‘Sent’, with its lush production and string backing. A man of many talents.
TOUR AND INDUSTRY NEWS In what has to be one of the best bannered dates of the year even at this point comes 'Get Yer Wah Wahs Out'; Tumbleweed teaming up with Swervedriver on February 18 at The Metro, with The Laurels also on the bill. There’s some killer Soundwave sideshows coming up. Queens Of The Stone Age are at the Enmore on March 2, while Primus and The Melvins will be teaming up at The
Enmore on February 28. Riding a wave of critical acclaim that saw them garner a slew of great reviews and top two critics’ polls for 2010, Melody Black bring their metallic death pop to SFX on February 4 for their pre-album release party. That means that they’ll be airing tracks from their recently completed and soon to be released debut effort, Love Your Demons. Crystal Castles
Send stuff for this column to remedy@ozemail.com.au by 6pm Wednesdays. www.myspace.com/remedy4rock 50 :: BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11
Send pics, listings and any info to minorchords@thebrag.com
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pick of the week Tool
THURSDAY JANUARY 27
Sydney Showground, Homebush Bay
Big Day Out 2011
Tool (USA), Rammstein (Germany), Iggy & the Stooges (USA), M.I.A. (UK), John Butler Trio, Grinderman (UK), Wolfmother, Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77 (Italy), Lupe Fiasco (USA), Paul Dempsey, Deftones (USA), Birds of Tokyo, Primal Scream (Scotland), LCD Soundsystem (USA), Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros (USA), Die Antwoord (South Africa), Angus & Julia Stone, Plan B (UK), Booka Shade DJs (Germany), Bliss n Eso, The Naked & Famous (New Zealand), The Jim Jones Revue (UK), Airbourne, Andrew WK (USA), Little Red, Crystal Castles (Canada), Pnau, Gyroscope, Cansei De Ser Sexy (Brazil), Dead Letter Circus, Kid Kenobi & MC Shureshock, Vitalic (France), Ratatat (USA), Blue King Brown, Kids of 88 (New Zealand), Operator Please, Children Collide, Gypsy & the Cat, Lowrider, Sampology, Sia, The Vines, The Greenhornes (USA), Washington, Matt & Kim (USA), Boy & Bear, Parades and more...
$155 (+ bf) from 11am Bring a friend for free! Check bigdayout.com for details… Iggy & the Stooges
MONDAY JANUARY 24 ROCK & POP
Bernie The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm CSS (Brazil), Romy, Grouse DJs Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $49.50 (+ bf) 8pm Jimmy Buffet & the Coral Reefer Band Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House $119-$169 8pm Matt Jones Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm Monday Club Cock ‘N’ Bull Tavern, Bondi Junction 4pm A Night at the Quad – Beautiful Kate: Tex Perkins, Murray Patterson Quadrangle, The University of Sydney, Camperdown $25 (conc)-$30 7pm Open Mic Night Macquarie Arms Hotel, Windsor free 7pm Puta Madre Brothers The Vanguard, Newtown $12 6.30pm Street University 2nd Birthday feat. Mos Def Speed Street, Liverpool all ages Unherd Open Mic: Derkajam Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm
JAZZ
Open Mike/Latin Jam Session Bar Me, Kings Cross free 8pm Susan Gai Dowling 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 8.30pm Tallulah Rendall The Basement, Circular Quay 8pm
TUESDAY JANUARY 25 ROCK & POP
Adam Pringle Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Andrew WK (USA), Royal Headache, Levins Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $40 (+ bf) 8pm Andy Mammers, Crash Avenue Ettamogah Pub, Kellyville free Bernie Hayes, The Shouties Rose of Australia Hotel, Erskinville 8.30pm Bno Rockshow Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 11pm Bondi Open Air Cinema: Jack Carty, Ashleigh Mannix, Nick Van Breda, Six String Karma Bondi Pavilion Forecourt, Bondi Beach $13.90-$18 6.30pm CocoRosie (USA), Ólöf Arnalds (Iceland) Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House $49 - $69 8pm Colm Mac Con Iomaire (Ireland) The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park North, Sydney $45 (+ bf) 7pm Crash Syndicate Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor 8pm Crystal Castles (Canada), Gold Fields Enmore Theatre $61.60 (+ bf) 7pm Embrace Tokio Hotel, Darling Harbour free 7pm An Evening of Chamber Music: Philip Glass (USA), Wendy Sutter City Recital Hall, Sydney $60$75 8pm
Hungry Kids of Hungary, The Paper Scissors, Slow Down Honey Brass Monkey, Cronulla 7pm The Jim Jones Revue (UK), Kim Salmon, Leanne Chock Metro Theatre, Sydney $66 (+ bf) 7:30pm Kinetic Method, Howler, Dutch Beach Palace Hotel, Coogee 12pm L.U.S.T., Mad Charlie, The Jason Shore Allstars Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10 8pm Little Big Horn Bald Rock Hotel, Rozelle free 8pm Mad Season Taren Point Bowling Club free 9pm Matt Jones The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm The Muddy Turds, White Knuckle Fever, Aerobi Inexperience, The Luke Hoskier The Valve, Tempe 8pm Original Sin INXS Show The Cube, Campbelltown $10$15 7.15pm Seattle Sound Mean Fidler, Rouse Hill free 10pm Sharmber, Bedlam In Belgium, Renae Kearney Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Sky Brown Macquarie Arms Hotel, Windsor free 8pm Smoke & Mirrors: iOTA The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park North, Sydney $60-$65 (+ bf) 9.30pm Steve Tonge O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm The Sunroom Newport Arms, Hotel free 5pm They Call Me Bruce Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm
JAZZ
The Aretha Franklin Experience: The Bods The Basement, Circular Quay $26-$74.80 (dinner & show) 9.30pm Jazzgroove: Bernie McGann Quartet, Jackson Harrison Trio 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 8.30pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm
COUNTRY
Doc Walker Rooty Hill RSL Club $31 8pm
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 26 ROCK & POP
Amanda Palmer (USA) Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House $40-$80 (+ bf) 7pm Anthems of Oz Rooty Hill RSL Club free 7pm Australia Day at O’Malley’s O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9pm Barnstoming Cronulla Sharks free 2.30pm Beach House (USA), Parades, Anna Burns, DJ M.I.T. Becks Bar, Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney SOLD OUT 8pm Ben Finn Duo, The BBQ Kings Mean Fidler, Rouse Hill free 1pm Big Day Out: Tool (USA), Rammstein (Germany), Iggy & the Stooges (USA), M.I.A. (UK), John Butler Trio, Grinderman (UK),
Wolfmother, Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77 (Italy), Lupe Fiasco (USA), Paul Dempsey, Deftones (USA), Birds of Tokyo, Primal Scream (Scotland), LCD Soundsystem (USA), Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros (USA), Die Antwoord (South Africa), Angus & Julia Stone, Plan B (UK), Booka Shade DJs (Germany), Bliss n Eso, The Naked & Famous (New Zealand), The Jim Jones Revue (UK), Airbourne, Andrew WK (USA), Little Red, Crystal Castles (Canada), Pnau, Gyroscope, Cansei De Ser Sexy (Brazil), Dead Letter Circus, Kid Kenobi & MC Shureshock, Vitalic (France), Ratatat (USA), Blue King Brown, Kids of 88 (New Zealand), Operator Please, Children Collide, Will Styles, Gypsy & the Cat, Lowrider, Sampology, Sia, The Vines, The Greenhornes (USA), Washington, Silent Disco, The Hairy Pranksters, Reggie Watts (USA), Wunmi (UK), Red Bacteria Vacuum (Japan), The Balloonatic, The UV Race, Barbarion, The V Dentatas, Matt & Kim (USA), Anna Lunoe, Blackmilk, Smudge, I Am Giant, HardOns, Amy Meredith, Boy & Bear, Parades, Knievel, Cameras, CHAINGANG, World Champion, Catcall, Flatwound, Ninalasvegas, Yacht Club DJs, Paradise Lost DJs, We Say Bamboulee, Metals Sydney Showground, Homebush Bay 11am Bondi Open Air Cinema: Jack Carty, Ashleigh Mannix, Nick Van Breda, Six String Karma Bondi Pavilion Forecourt, Bondi Beach $13.90-$18 6.30pm Carl Fidler, Bernie, Cambo The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 3pm Colm Mac Con Iomaire (Ireland) The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park North, Sydney $45 (+ bf) 7pm The Cracks, The Protectors Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Cutaway & the Squid Bald Rock Hotel, Rozelle free 4pm David Agius St Joseph Banks Hotel, Botany free 4pm Embrace Tokio Hotel, Darling Harbour free 7pm Festival of the Voice: Cloud Control, Katie Noonan & The Captains, Hungry Kids of Hungary, Cuthbert & the Night Walkers, Casey Donovan, Tijuana Cartel, Andy Bull, The Medics, The Spooky Men’s Chorale, Pai Anderson, Street Warriors, Eli Wolfe, Robyn Loau, Gail Page, The Big Singing Thing, King Tide, Benjalu, Microwave Jenny, Christa Hughes & the Honky Tonkshonks, Robyn Loau, Dead Letter Chorus, Gail Page, I Sing On The Cake, The Cleftomaniacs The Rocks free all ages 11am The Frank Bennett Affair Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Goodnight Dynamite Pritchard’s Pub, Mount Pritchard free 1pm Greg Byrne Northies, Cronulla free 6pm I Know Leopard, The Spirits, Honey Pies Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Josh McIvor Harbord Beach Hotel free 7.30pm
‘Eine Richtung, Ein Gefühl, Aus Fleisch und Blut. Ein Kollektiv’ – RAMMSTEIN 52 :: BRAG :: 396 : 24:01:11
Presented by Pres
Gig Guide
send your listings to: gigguide@thebrag.com Josie Ryan St James’ Church, Sydney free$5 (donation) 1.15pm JP O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm Luke Robinson Parramatta RSL free 1pm Mandi Jarry Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel free 4pm Matt Jones The Belvedere Hotel, Sydney free 5pm Matt Price Woolwich Pier Hotel free 2pm Mavis & her China Pigs, Old Man Crow, Nut & Butter Thing The Valve, Tempe 8pm The NOWnow Festival: Sean Baxter, Nick Shimmin, Sam Pettigrew, Kim Myhr, Alan Courtis, Aemon Webb, Jon Watts Serial Space, Chippendale $15 (conc)-$85 (whole event) 7pm Push Pull, Raprager, Jessamine, The Deltorers Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $10 Rob Henry The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 1pm Sam & Jamie Trio Kirribilli Hotel free 6pm Singled Out Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney Smoke & Mirrors: iOTA The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park North, Sydney $60-$65 (+ bf) 9.30pm Steve Tonge Duo Australian Hotel & Brewery Rouse Hill free 2pm Steve Tonge Duo Maloney’s Hotel Sydney free 9.30pm Sticky Fingers Enmore Park free all ages 11am The Study: Taylor and the
Big Day Out: Tool (USA), Rammstein (Germany), Iggy & the Stooges (USA), M.I.A. (UK), John Butler Trio, Grinderman (UK), Wolfmother, Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77 (Italy), Lupe Fiasco (USA), Paul Dempsey, Deftones (USA), Birds of Tokyo, Primal Scream (Scotland), LCD Soundsystem (USA), Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros (USA), Die Antwoord (South Africa), Angus & Julia Stone, Plan B (UK), Booka Shade DJs (Germany), Bliss n Eso, The Naked & Famous (New Zealand), The Jim Jones Revue (UK), Airbourne, Andrew WK (USA), Little Red, Crystal Castles (Canada), Pnau, Gyroscope, Cansei De Ser Sexy (Brazil), Dead Letter Circus, Kid Kenobi & MC Shureshock, Vitalic (France), Ratatat (USA), Blue King Brown, Kids of 88 (New Zealand), Operator Please, Children Collide, Will Styles, Gypsy & the Cat, Lowrider, Sampology, Sia, The Vines, The Greenhornes (USA), Washington, Silent Disco, The Hairy Pranksters, Reggie Watts (USA), Wunmi (UK), Red Bacteria Vacuum (Japan), The Balloonatic, The UV Race, Barbarion, The V Dentatas, Matt & Kim (USA), Anna Lunoe, Blackmilk, I Am Giant, The Snowdroppers, Amy Meredith, Boy & Bear, Parades, Papa Vs Pretty, Regular John, Cabins, Jinja Safari, The Mission In Motion, Bass Kleph, Chris Arnott, Mark Murphy, The Only, The Hummingbirds, Brendan Clay, Lanie Lane, Metals Sydney Showground,
Makers, Johnny Took Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills free 7pm Uni Night Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 9pm White Brothers, The Poc Brothers Ettamogah Pub, Kellyville free 1.30pm
JAZZ
Mark Hopper Artichoke Gallery Café, Cremorne free 7.30pm Paul Sun, Monique Lyslak Jazushi, Surry Hills free 7pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK Open Mic Night Coach and Horses Hotel, Randwick
COUNTRY
Roger Corbett, Glenn Skarritt, DJ John Lee Macquarie Arms Hotel, Windsor free 2pm
THURSDAY JANUARY 27 ROCK & POP
Andy Mammers, BJ Dee Why Hotel free 8.30pm Backlash Riverwood Sports Club free 8pm Beach House (USA) City Recital Hall, Angel Place $45-$55 9.30pm
Homebush Bay $155 (+ bf) 11am Bondi Open Air Cinema: Jack Carty, Ashleigh Mannix, Nick Van Breda, Six String Karma Bondi Pavilion Forecourt, Bondi Beach $13.90-$18 6.30pm Cameras Oxford Art Factory Charity Turner Brass Monkey, Cronulla Colm Mac Con Iomaire (Ireland) The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park North, Sydney $45 (+ bf) 7pm The Dash, The Frozen Pipes, Cloudmouth, Lord Bishop Valve Bar, Tempe 7pm David Agius Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Dollshay Miranda Hotel free 9pm FBi Night: Holy Fuck (Canada), My Disco Becks Bar, Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney $38 (+ bf) 8pm Gotye City Recital Hall, Angel Place $40-$50 7pm The Greenhornes (USA), Straight Arrows, Step Panther Annandale Hotel $33 (+ bf) 8pm Hailer, Bears With Guns, Liam Gale, Tara Lawrence Excelsior Hotel $10 8pm Heath Burdell Northies, Cronulla free 9.15pm Indie Warhol: Rufus, Nic Yorke Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Johnathon Devoy Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Josh McIvor Marlborough Hotel, Newtown
Holy Fuck
The Khanz, Tales in Space, The Conics Oxford Art Factory, Gallery Bar 8pm Michael McGlynn Greengate Hotel, Killara free 8pm Nicky Kurta Green Park Hotel, Darlinghurst free 7pm The NOWnow Festival:
Anla Courtis, Scott Sinclair, The Un-Australian String Quartet, Jason Kahn, Matt Earle, Adam Sussmann, Sean Baxter, Mike Majkowski, Jeff Henderson, Hermione Johnson, Peter Farrar Trio, Martin Kirkwood The Red Rattler Theatre, Marrickville $15 (conc)-$85 (whole event) 6pm
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SAT 29 JAN
REKHA THAPA (NEP)
30 Jan
SUNDAY NIGHT (8:30PM - 12:00AM)
(9:00PM - 12:00AM)
+ DANCE PARTY COMING SOON
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JELLY WRESTLING BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11 :: 53
Presented by
Gig Guide
send your listings to: gigguide@thebrag.com
Aloe Blacc Open Mic Mars Hill Café, Parramatta free 8pm Panorama Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 11pm Sam & Jamie Trio Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm Smoke & Mirrors: iOTA The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park North, Sydney $60-$65 (+ bf) 9.30pm Steve Tonge The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm Sufjan Stevens (USA) Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House $55-$85 8pm The Suspects Marble Bar, Sydney free 8.30pm They Call Me Bruce Club Five Dock, Five Dock RSL
JAZZ
The Jitterbug Club: Mojo Juju & The Snake Oil Merchants, The Jitterbeetles, James Grim The Vanguard, Newtown $20 (+ bf) 6.30pm Latin Night: Oscar Jimenez 505 Club, Surry Hills $10-$15 8.30pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm Soul Nights, Roxanne Lebrasse Tokio Hotel, Darling Harbour free 7pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Acoustic Night: Wheelers & Dealers Martini Bar, Leichhardt free 7.30pm DJ Big Will, Bold Bongos Australian Hotel & Brewery, Rouse Hill free 9pm Vikingo De Jerez The Basement, Circular Quay $20-$68.80
COUNTRY
Dean Haitani Artichoke Gallery Café, Cremorne free 7.30pm
FRIDAY JANUARY 28 ROCK & POP
2 Of Hearts Hawkesbury Hotel, Windsor free 7.45pm All Mankind, Uncorrected Management, Hopefools, FRIENDS DJs Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Aloe Blacc & The Grand
Scheme, Benji B, Waajeed & Africa Hitech Becks Bar, Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney (sold out) 8pm AM 2 PM Blacktown RSL Club free 8pm Andy Mammers, BJ Kirribilli Hotel free 8pm Beau Smith Greengate Hotel, Killara free 5pm Ben Finn Macquarie Hotel, Liverpool free 4.30pm Big Shots – Duelling Pianos Show Club Five Dock, Five Dock RSL free 8pm Breathing Shrine, Constant Light, Axx Onn, Borgia, Scattered Order Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $12 8pm Brown Sugar Marble Bar, Sydney free 9.30pm Californication Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 11pm Carl Fidler, Rob Henry The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Chartbusters Mosman RSL Club free 9pm Chase The Sun, Cass Eager & the Velvet Rope, Claude Hay Coogee Diggers $15-$17 8pm The Complete Stone Roses Selina’s, Coogee Bay Hotel $53.40 (+ bf) 7pm Daniel Lissings Crows Net Hotel free 6pm David Agius Greengate Hotel, Killara free 8pm Deftones (USA) Roundhouse, Kensington $72.40 (+ bf) 7pm Dollshay Adams Tavern, Blacktown free 8.15pm Domino, Meza, Danny Ross Band, The Tells Notes Live, Enmore 8pm Drew McAlister O’Malley’s Hotel free 8pm Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros (USA), Iron Bar Hotel The Forum Theatre, Moore Park $66 (+ bf) 8pm Elevation U2 Show Engadine Tavern free 9.30pm Enola Fall, Sirens Lines, Danger Bus Caringbah Bizzo’s 8pm Funkstar Crows Nest Hotel free 11.15pm Grinderman (UK), Ed Kuepper Enmore Theatre $77.10 7.30pm Hat Trick Northies, Cronulla free 5.30pm Hip Not Hop PJ Gallagher’s Parramatta free 8.30pm Hit Selection Duo
Camden Valley Golf Resort, Catherine Field free 7pm Hungry Kids of Hungary, The Paper Scissors, Slow Down Honey Mona Vale Hotel $15 (+ bf) 8pm Innerwestlife Petersham Bowling Club free 7.30pm Josh McIvor Ettamogah Pub, Kellyville free 6pm Kick Star Penrith Hotel free 10pm Last Night: Ghostwood, Sooners, Kat & Max, Dappled Cities vs Deep Sea Arcade DJ Set, Teenagersintokyo DJs, PhDJ, M.I.T., Fantomatique, Minou Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills $10 8pm Luke Robinson Novotel Homebush free 5pm Mad Season Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills free 10.30pm The Maristians Rag and Famish Hotel, North Sydney free 8.30pm Matt Jones Parramatta RSL free 5pm Matt Price PJ Gallagher’s Drummoyne free 9pm The Momos, The Gilbert Gantry Union, Suite Nonchalant, Genevieve Chadwick Annandale Hotel $10 8pm MUM: The Honey Pies, BhangLassi, I Know Leopard, Our Monk, Saloons, World Champion, DJs Walkie Talkie, Sammy K, Nic Yorke, Jenny Kong, Mush, Jack Shit, Cries Wolf DJs, Party By Jake DJs, Wet Lungs, Hayley (Chaingang) The World Bar, Kings Cross $10-$15 8pm Nicky Kurta Duo Mounties, Mount Pritchard free 8.30pm The NOWnow Festival: Magda Mayas, Monica Brooks, Laura Altman, Sydney Saw Orchestra, The Thing, Noel Meek, Rory Brown, Alex Masso, Duo Vulgarités The Red Rattler Theatre, Marrickville $15 (conc)-$85 (whole event) 6pm Oxford Art Factory Sleepover: Belles Will Ring, Made in Japan, Preachers, Cambodian Space Project, The Atom Bombs Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $8 (presale)-$10 (at door) 8pm Raggamuffin: Mary J Blige (USA), Jimmy Cliff (Jamaica), Maxi Priest (UK), Sean Paul (Jamaica), The Original Wailers (Jamaica), The Black Seeds (NZ), Ky-Mani Marley (USA), The Red Eyes, K-Note Parramatta Park $121.50 (+ bf) 1pm Ratatat (USA), Canyons, The Alps Manning Bar, University of Sydney $34 (student)-$40(+ bf) 8pm Replikant Customs House Bar, Sydney free 7pm The Rocks Markets By Moonlight: Brett Hunt, Pat Capocci The Rocks Market free 6pm Sam & Jamie Show Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel free 7pm Smoke & Mirrors: iOTA The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park North, Sydney $60-$65 (+ bf) 7.30, 9.30pm Sufjan Stevens (USA) Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House $55-$85 8pm Tenpenny Towers Manly Fisho’s 8pm This Gentle Flow, Buzzard, Adrift For Days, Serious
Break The Valve, Tempe 7pm The Tom & Dave Show Mean Fiddler , Rouse Hill free 9pm Train (USA), Ryan Meeking State Theatre, Sydney $83.30$97.60 8pm Velvet Hotel Engadine RSL & Citizens Club free 8pm Venus Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill free 8pm The Waves Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm
JAZZ
Fran Workers Blacktown free 8pm James Morrison The Basement, Circular Quay 8pm The Jitterbug Club: Mojo Juju & The Snake Oil Merchants, The Jitterbeetles, James Grim The Vanguard, Newtown $20 (+ bf) 6.30pm My Sauce Good 505 Club, Surry Hills $10-$15 8.30pm Phil Spillier Artichoke Gallery, Cremorne free 7.30pm SIMA: Aron Orrignon Trio The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $10 (member)-$20 8.30pm Soul Nights Tokio Hotel, Darling Harbour free 9pm Tomasz Stanko Quintet (Poland) City Recital Hall, Sydney $45$60 8pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Tililili Mars Hill Café, Parramatta free 8.30pm The Unthanks (UK) The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park North, Sydney $45 (+ bf) 5.30pm
SATURDAY JANUARY 29 ROCK & POP 031 Band Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 11pm 08 Crash, Ugly Bitch, The Maze Valve Bar, Tempe 6pm 2 Fold Duo Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 7.30pm Andy Mammers Northies, Cronulla free 8.45pm Angie Dean Castle Hill RSL Club free 6.30pm Armstrong Brown Peachtree Hotel, Penrith free 9pm Australia Today Workers Blacktown $5.50 (member)-$7.70 7.30pm Ben Finn Duo Ettamogah Pub, Kellyville free 6.30pm Bernie Castle Hill RSL Club free 8pm Blonde Redhead (USA), The Verlaines (NZ) Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House $49-$69 8:30pm Blood, Sweat & Beers: The Nation Blue, Unpaid Debt, Old Music For Old People, Defiance Ohio (USA) Annandale Hotel $33 (+ bf) 4pm Blues Brothers Revue The Cube, Campbelltown $20 (member)-$25 7.15pm
Bodies, The Holy Soul, The Daicos, Sea Scroll Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $10 8pm Cambo Sir Joseph Banks Hotel, Botany free 7pm Chase The Sun, Cass Eager & the Velvet Rope Old Manly Boatshed $10 9pm The Continental Blues Trio Barcelos, Naremburn free 7pm Cover Cats Brighton RSL Club, Brighton Le-Sands free 8pm David Agius Duo Penrith Panthers free 6pm Drew McAlister Greengate Hotel, Killara free 8pm Heath Burdell Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel free 4pm (Hed)P.E. (USA), The Havknotz, Recoil Manning Bar, University of Sydney $39 (+ bf) 8pm Hungry Kids of Hungary, The Paper Scissors, Slow Down Honey Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor $15$18 (+ bf) John Hill Penrith Panthers free 8.30pm Keith Armitage Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Lowkey, Fear of a Brown Planet, Lady Lask, Cuzko The Factory Theatre, Enmore $40 (+ bf) all ages 7pm Luke Dixon Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm Mark Da Costa, The Blacklist Crows Nest Hotel free 11.15pm Matt Jones Del Rio Riverside Resort, Wisemans Ferry Matt Price Novotel Homebush free 4pm Matt Seaberg, Steve Tonge The Observer Hotel, The Rocks 4pm free Maz Mazak, No Qualms Northies, Cronulla free 5.30pm Millennium Bug Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club, Bondi Junction free 8.30pm Natasha Duarte Mars Hill Café, Parramatta free 8.30pm No Art, BattleSnake, The Leafs, Howling Bells DJs Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Oxford Art Factory Sleepover: Seabellies, We Say Bamboulee, Only the Sea Slugs, Tin Sparrow, Set Sail Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $8 (presale)-$10 (at door) 8pm The Pink Show Blacktown RSL Club free 10pm The Patriarchs, Alternative Times, Fret Manly Fisho’s 8pm Radio City Cats Marble Bar, Sydney free 10.30pm Reese & Tim Newport Arms Hotel free 7.30pm The Road Crew Gladstone Hotel, Dulwich Hill Rob Henry PJ Gallagher’s Drummoyne free 9pm Ryan Meeking, The Falls Raval, Surry Hills 8pm Primal Scream (Scotland), World’s End Press Selina’s, Coogee Bay Hotel $77 (+ bf) 8pm Smoke & Mirrors: iOTA The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park North, Sydney $60-$65 (+ bf) 7.30, 9.30pm
Sufjan Stevens (USA) State Theatre, Sydney $65$85 8pm Tall Pop Syndrome Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 10pm They Call Me Bruce PJ Gallagher’s Parramatta free 8pm Tice & Evans, Kaki Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 4pm Tracey Bunn Petersham Bowling Club 8pm Twilight at Taronga: Beatlemania Taronga Zoo, Mosman $56.50 (child)-$68.50 all ages 7pm Venus 3 (USA) Kirribilli Hotel free 8pm Xtra Hot Cronulla Sharks free 9pm
JAZZ
Alphamama Club: Alphamama, Matt Mandell Tokio Hotel, Darling Harbour free 8pm Jazz Nouveau Supper Club, Fairfield RSL free 7pm The Jitterbug Club: Mojo Juju & The Snake Oil Merchants, The Jitterbeetles, James Grim The Vanguard, Newtown $20 (+ bf) 6.30pm Jive Bombers Ashfield RSL Club free 8pm Mother’s Little Gringos Bald Rock Hotel, Rozelle free 8pm Organic Food Markets: Paul Sun, Ray Martin, Didi Mudigdo Fitzroy Gardens, Potts Point free all ages 9.30am Paul Sun, Alex Compton, Cameron Andrews Larrikin's Café & Lounge Bar, Walsh Bay free 6pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 5pm PJ O’Brien Macquarie Arms Hotel, Windsor free 8pm Sabarje Artichoke Gallery Café, Cremorne free 7.30pm SIMA: The Mark Isaacs Resurgence Band The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $10 (member)-$20 8.30pm Tiki Wonderland 505 Club, Surry Hills $20$25 8.30pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK Cool Room: Altiyan Childs Australian Hotel & Brewery, Rouse Hill 9pm The Unthanks (UK) The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park North, Sydney $45 (+ bf) 5.30pm
COUNTRY
Alter Ego Granville RSL free 8pm
SUNDAY JANUARY 30 ROCK & POP
2days Hits Harbord Beach Hotel free 6pm 44 Shades of Green, BattleSnake, The Leafs, Transat, Frontiers in Photography Petersham Bowling Club $10 3pm Anno Domini The Lucky Australian, North St Marys 8pm
‘Weiter, weiter ins Verderben, Wir müssen leben bis wir sterben’ – RAMMSTEIN 54 :: BRAG :: 396 : 24:01:11
Presented by Pres
The Baddies Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 4pm Blood, Sweat & Beers: No Trigger, Such Gold, Ten Paces, Mary Jane Kelly, Phantoms Annandale Hotel $20 (+ bf) ALL AGES 12pm Carl Fidler Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Malleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 4pm Cat Power (USA), Dirty Delta Blues Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House $47.20-$89 (+ bf) 8pm Chasm City Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor free 8.30pm The Continental Blues Trio Pyrmont Bridge Hotel free 5pm Dave White Duo Northies, Cronulla free 2.30pm David Agius Mounties, Mount Pritchard free 2pm Don Hopkins & the Generous Few, Ruby for Lucy, Jane Walker, Jeff Stanley Band Notes Live, Enmore 8pm Drive: Peter Northcote Bridge Hotel, Rozelle $10 3pm Errol Renaud & Caribbean Soul, Carribean Soul Sugar Lounge, Manly free 6pm Heath Burdell, White Brothers Ettamogah Pub, Kellyville free 1pm James Brown and Mowtown Review Valve Bar, Tempe 4pm
Johnny Gretchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wasted Ones Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 3pm JP Duo Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 1pm Mandi Jarry Coogee Bay Hotel free 9pm Matt Price Woolwich Pier Hotel free 2pm Mike Bennett, Rob Henry, Josh McIvor The Observer Hotel, The Rocks 4pm free The Phonies, Graham Mandroles, Bentley Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free Pom Pom, Spectacle, Jugu Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $8 5pm Rockin the Kasbah The Gaff, Darlinghurst free 5pm Samba Mundi, Los Monos The Vanguard, Newtown $12-$20 6.30pm Smoke & Mirrors: iOTA The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park North, Sydney $60-$65 (+ bf) 9.30pm Sunday Chill: Caravan Sun Newport Arms Hotel free 3pm The Tom & Dave Show Northies, Cronulla free 6pm Un Quarto Morto Town & Country Hotel, St Peters 6pm The Verlaines (NZ), Songs Annandale Hotel $16 (+ bf) 8pm White Brothers PJ Gallagherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Parramatta free 8pm Zoltan Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel free 4pm
JAZZ
Blues Sunday: Mark Hopper Artichoke Gallery CafĂŠ, Cremorne free 7pm Finn Bald Rock Hotel, Rozelle free 6pm Jive Bombers Rhythmboat (departs Pyrmont Bay Wharf) $49 11.45am Monks of Cool Mars Hill CafĂŠ, Parramatta free 2pm Paul Sun, Ray Martin John Blenkhorn Frenchs Forest Organic Market free All ages 9.30am Yuki Kumagai, Mackie, Tony Burkys, Richard Booth, Alan Gilbert Cronulla RSL free 12pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK Matt Jackson Pontoon, Darling Harbour free 2pm Okapi Guiatrs Cat & Fiddle Hotel, Balmain $10 5pm Sunday Sounds The Apple Store, Sydney free 3pm The Unthanks (UK) The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park North, Sydney $45 (+ bf) 7pm
COUNTRY
Cash Only Marrickville Bowling and Recreation Club free 4.30pm Rough Stock Macquarie Arms Hotel, Windsor free 1pm
picks TUESDAY JANUARY 25
THURSDAY JANUARY 27
Andrew WK (USA), Royal Headache, Levins Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $40 (+ bf) 8pm
FBi Night: Holy Fuck (Canada), My Disco Becks Bar, Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney $38 (+ bf) 8pm
Amanda Palmer (USA) Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House $40$80 (+ bf) 7pm
Blonde Redhead (USA), The Verlaines (NZ) Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House $49$69 8:30pm
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Primal Scream (Scotland), Worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s End Press Selinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Coogee Bay Hotel $77 (+ bf) 8pm
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Cat Power (USA), Dirty Delta Blues Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House $47.20$89 (+ bf) 8pm
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Sufjan Stevens (USA) State Theatre, Sydney $65-$85 8pm
SUNDAY JANUARY 30
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Festival of the Voice: Cloud Control, Katie Noonan & The Captains, Hungry Kids of Hungary, Cuthbert & the Night Walkers, Casey Donovan, Tijuana Cartel, Andy Bull, The Medics, The Spooky Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Chorale, Pai Anderson, Street Warriors, Eli Wolfe, Robyn Loau, Gail Page, The Big Singing Thing, King Tide, Benjalu, Microwave Jenny, Christa Hughes & the Honky Tonkshonks, Robyn Loau, Dead Letter Chorus, Gail Page, I sing on the Cake, The Cleftomaniacs The Rocks free all ages 11am
SATURDAY JANUARY 29
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WEDNESDAY JANUARY 26
Ratatat (USA), Canyons, The Alps Manning Bar, University of Sydney $34 (student)-$40(+ bf) 8pm
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The Jim Jones Revue (UK), Kim Salmon, Leanne Chock Metro Theatre, Sydney $66 (+ bf) 7:30pm
Oxford Art Factory Sleepover: Belles Will Ring, Made in Japan, Preachers, The Tsars, Cambodian Space Project, The Atom Bombs Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $8 (presale)-$10 (at door) 8pm
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Hungry Kids of Hungary, The Paper Scissors, Slow Down Honey Brass Monkey, Cronulla 7pm
Grinderman (UK), Ed Kuepper Enmore Theatre $77.10 7.30pm
45..%,
Crystal Castles (Canada), Gold Fields Enmore Theatre $61.60 (+ bf) 7pm
FRIDAY JANUARY 28
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CocoRosie (USA), Ă&#x201C;lĂśf Arnalds (Iceland) Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House $49 $69 8pm
BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11 :: 55
club guide
send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com
club pick of the week The Original Wailers
Parramatta Park P
Raggamuffin
Mary J Blige (USA), Jimmy Cliff (Jamaica), Maxi Priest (UK), Sean Paul (Jamaica), The Original Wailers (Jamaica), The Black Seeds (NZ), Ky-Mani Marley (USA), The Red Eyes, K-Note $121.50 (+ bf) 1pm
Enmore Theatre Lupe Fiasco (USA), Blackmilk $66 (+ bf) 7pm Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills I Love 90s Grumpy Grampa $5 (+ bf) 8pm Metro Theatre, Sydney Plan B (UK), Paris Wells $66 (+ bf) 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Mondays Mista Killa
TUESDAY JANUARY 25 The Argyle, The Rocks Australia Day Eve Husky, Liam Sampras free 6pm Candy’s Apartment, Kings Cross Australia Day Eve DJs Slipperywhenwet, MooWho, Zomg!, Kittenz, Disco Volante, The Kid $10-$15 8pm
56 :: BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11
M.I.A.
THURSDAY JANUARY 27
FRIDAY JANUARY 28
MONDAY JANUARY 24
Sky $58-$102 (whole event) 2pm Jacksons on George Australia Day Party House and Guest DJs free Sugar Lounge, Manly The Bucket Room free 8pm Swiss Grand Hotel, Bondi Beach Re:Love Australia Day EventAustralian Made Grass, Shipwreck, LC, Matt Saville, Lunch Money, TittyTassles, BHDJs, Step Brothers $25 12pm Wentworth Hotel, Homebush Uni Night DJ Nicky M, Dream One free 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall presents Whitespac3 Gallery Group Exhibition
CarriageWorks East London West Sydney Jonzi D, Brotha Black, Sarah Sayeed, MC Trey, Maxwell Golden $30 8.30pm The Gaff, Darlinghurst Kid Finley, Johnny B free 8pm Soho, Potts Point QLD Flood Relief Fundraiser Helena, Tenzin, fREW, Chris Arnott, Night Dimension, Oakes & Lennox, Matt Nukewood, Implex, Here’s Trouble, E-Cats, Steve Frank, Elmo Is Dead, You Say What!?!, Jack Bailey (note donation) The Valve, Tempe Underground Tables Ato, Myme, Gee Wiz The World Bar, Kings Cross Pop Panic M.I.T., Wallace & Vomit, Gatsby
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 26 The Argyle, The Rocks Australia Day Mr Wilson,
MarcUs, Phil Hudson, Levi free 2pm Bank Hotel, Newtown Girls’ Night DJ Sandi Hotrod free Candy’s Apartment Australia Day Party DJs Disco Volante, Teez, Zomg!, Kittenz, Tongue in Cheek $10-$20 8pm CarriageWorks East London West Sydney Jonzi D, Brotha Black, Sarah Sayeed, MC Trey, Maxwell Golden $30 8.30pm Coolabar, Sydney Latin Dance Party Coolabar DJs $10 9.30pm Cruise Bar, The Rocks Australia Dazed DJ Garry T, Kate Monroe, DJ Sista P, DJ Chip, Gi Jode, David DC $30 2pm Goodgod Small Club Front Bar, Sydney Special Moments Long John Saliva free 8pm Ivy Pool Club, Sydney Circuit Pool Party DJ Taito Tikaro, Alex Taylor, Kitty Glitter, Murray Hood, MC Glammer, Dan Murphy, Steve
The Arglye, The Rocks Random Soul free 6pm CarriageWorks East London West Sydney Jonzi D, Brotha Black, Sarah Sayeed, MC Trey, Maxwell Golden $30 8.30pm Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills Local Produce: Thacker Beat, Dirty Little Immigrants $5 8pm The Gaff, Darlinghurst Kid Finley, Pee Wee Pete free 8pm Goodgod Small Club Front Bar, Sydney Club Al Levins free Home The Venue, Sydney Unipackers Flite, IKO, Uncle Abe, Scotty G, Big Dan free (guestlist)-$10 10pm Macquarie Hotel, Sydney Sketch the Rhyme free 8pm Martin Place Bar, Sydney Louis free 5pm Sugar Lounge, Manly Felipe & Simone free 8pm Tone, Surry Hills Benji B, Mark Pritchard, Koolade $25 (+ bf) 9pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Teenage Kicks Mani (Stone Roses, Primal Scream) DJ set, DJ Dan (Propaganda UK), Urby, Mush, Johnny Segment, S.Kobar, Monkey Genius, El Mariachi free
FRIDAY JANUARY 28 202 Broadway, Chippendale Cindee, Miss B, Marta Taylor, Grey Wolf, DJ Philf, Mitch Morris 9pm Australian Hotel & Brewery, Rouse Hill DJ Retro free Bank Hotel, Newtown DJs Adam Grace & Jeremy Kirschner free Bar Europa, Sydney Illya free 8pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Nina Las Vegas, Kato 8pm Beck's Bar, Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney Sydney Festival Aloe Blacc Mark Pritchard
& The Grand Scheme, Benji B, Waajeed & Africa Hitech SOLD OUT 8pm Candys Apartment, Kings Cross Liquid Sky DJs Kyro & Bomber, Tongue in Cheek, Sohda, D.U.I. vs Threesixteen $10-$15 8pm CarriageWorks East London West Sydney Jonzi D, Brotha Black, Sarah Sayeed, MC Trey, Maxwell Golden $30 6.30pm, 9.30pm Chinese Laundry Shockone, ALF, Linken & Vertigo, Typhonic, We Monsta, Doctor Werewolf $15 (before 11pm)-$20 10pm Civic Underground Urban Icons Plus +1 Simon Caldwell, Phil Smart, Murat Kilic, Yokoo, Rifraf, Garry Todd $15 10pm Collingwood hotel, Liverpool Fuego K-Note & DreadJuan, Mac, Dennis, C-Major, The Empress MC free (guestlist)-$20 9pm Festival Garden, Sydney Late In the Garden The Sun Chasers free 11pm Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills Purple Sneakers presents Last Night: Ghostwood, Sooners, Kat & Max, Dappled Cities vs Deep Sea Arcade DJ Set, Teenagersintokyo DJs, PhDJ, M.I.T., Fantomatique, Minou $10 8pm Jacksons on George, Luna Lounge Ultimate Party Venue House and Guest DJs free Ladylux, Potts Point Ladylux Fridays Venuto, Taras, Mehow & Pacman, Marcello, Redmond & Beatboy free-$10 9pm Le Panic, Kings Cross Box Social MYD, 3Hundreds, Sotiris, Jamie What, 14th Minute, Jordan F $10 9pm Home Rooftop, Sydney Sublime Flite, IKO, MC Sugar Shane, Peewee Ferrix, Losty, Arbor, Hard Forze, Big Dan, Ravine $20-$25 11pm Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown DJ Michael free 8pm Metro Theatre, Sydney M.I.A. (UK), Die Antwoord (South Africa) $77 (+ bf) 8pm Oatley Hotel We Love Oatley Hotel Fridays DJ Ando, K-Phunk, Slip and Slyde free 8pm Parramatta Park Ragga Muffin Mary J Blige (USA), Jimmy Cliff, Maxi Priest (UK), Sean Paul (Jamaica), The Original Wailers, The Black Seeds
(NZ), Ky-Mani Marley, The Red Eyes, K-Note $121.50 (+ bf) 1pm Pontoon, Darling Harbour Nic Philips free 9pm Sting Bar, Cronulla Electro Sessions DJ Soda, JustMore DJs, Brosman, Kocked up Noise, Matt Mandrell, Riggers free 8pm St James Hotel, Sydney Club Blink Club Blink DJs Sugar Lounge, Manly Olsen, Martinez (Denmark) free 9pm Tank, Sydney G Wizard, Def Rok, Troy T, Eko, Lilo, Jayson, Losty, Ben Morris, Matt Nukewood, Charlie Brown, Oakes & Lennox, Venuto, Adrian M 9pm Tao Ultra Lounge, Sydney Tao Fridays DJ Husky, Yogi, DJ Marc Us, Dan Copping, DJ Agey, Frankie Romano, Phil Toke free 9pm Watershed Club Miami free Wentworth Hotel, Homebush Wentworth Weekend Warm Up Wentworth DJs free 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross MUM The Honey Pies, BhangLassi, I Know Leopard, Our Monk, Saloons, World Chapion, DJs Walkie Talkie, Sammy K, Nic Yorke, Jenny Kong, Mush, Jack Shit, Cries Wolf DJs, Party By Jake DJs, Wet Lungs, Hayley (Chaingang) $10-$15 8pm
SATURDAY JANUARY 29 The Argyle, The Rocks John Devechis, Kate Monroe, Heidi free 6pm Bank Hotel, Newtown DJs Jack McCord & Paul Master free Beck's Bar, Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney Mad Racket Octave One (USA), Jimmi James, Zootie, Ken Cloud, Simon Caldwell $28 (+ bf) 8pm Brewhouse Marayong, Kings Park DJ Hype (UK) free 7.30pm Candys Apartment HEAT DJs Zomg!, Kittenz, Disco Volante, D.U.I. $10-$20 8pm CarriageWorks East London West Sydney Jonzi D, Brotha Black, Sarah Sayeed, MC Trey, Maxwell Golden $30 6.30pm, 9.30pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Reste!, MYNC, Jeff Drake,
club guide
SIDESHOW WEDNESDAYS
send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com Adam Bozetto, Slappin Plastic, MC Adam Zae, Matttt, Club Junque, Luny P, Teejay, Titty Tassles $15 (before 10pm)-$25 9pm Civic Underground, Sydney Adult Disco Treasure Fingers, Generic DJs, Frames, McInnes $20-$25 10pm Empire Hotel, Darlinghurst The Temple Alex K, Sunset Bros, Outsource, Rata, Steve Play, Andre Jay, Dk1, Wilz, Frantic, Benino G, Blinky, ScottyO, Nick Nova, Danny P, Rath free 9pm The Factory Theatre, Enmore Lowkey, Fear of a Brown Planet, Lady Lask, Cuzko $40 (+ bf) all ages 7pm Festival Garden, Sydney Late in the Garden The Sun Chasers free 11pm The Forbes Hotel, Sydney We Love Indie We Love Indie DJs $10 8pm The Forum Theatre, Moore Park Booka Shade (Germany) $66 (+ bf) 8pm Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills Rekha Thapa (Nepal) $25 (+ bf) 8pm The Gaff, Darlinghurst Johnny B free 8pm Home, The Venue, Sydney Homemade The 808s, Aladdin Royaal, James Saxman, Matt Ferreira, Hannah Gibbs, Venuto, Dave Austin, Great Dane, Flite, IKO, DJ Seiz, Uncle Abe $20$25 9pm Hotel Chambers, Sydney Red Room Troy T, K-Note, Mac, Mike Champion free (guestlist)-$20 8pm Jacksons on George, Luna
Lounge Ultimate Party Venue House and Guest DJs free Ladylux, Potts Point Ladylux Saturdays Venuto, Garry Todd, Arty Groove, Matty Saville $10-$20 9pm Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown George B free 8pm Opera House, Sydney Subliminal Sessions Sydney Harbour Cruise Carl Kennedy, The Stafford Brothers, Tommy Trash, Antonio Martinez, Nyx Synrinz Nelio $50 11.30am Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Saturday I’m Pregnant OAF DJs free 11.30pm Phoenix Bar, Exchange Hotel, Darlinghurst Phoenix Rising Dan Murphy, Johan Khoury, Mark Alsop $10 4am Pontoon, Darling Harbour Phil English, Nobby Grooves $10 8pm St James Hotel, Sydney Trash Trash DJs 8pm Sugar Lounge, Manly Clarkey, Mike B free 8pm Tone, Surry Hills Dust Tones Raashan Ahmad, Paper Plane Project, Astronomy Class Sound System $12 9pm Watershed Skybar free The World Bar, Kings Cross Wham Beni (Kitsune), Levins, James Taylor, Raye Antonelli, Garry Todd, Mitch Croshe, Foundation, Hannah Gibbs, T-BO, Yogi, Moneyshot, Ennsu, Temnein,Gabriel, Clouston 8pm - 6am $15 B4 10pm, $20 after
SUNDAY JANUARY 30 The Argyle, The Rocks Mr Wilson, Danny De Sousa, DJ Huw free 2pm Bank Hotel, Newtown DJ Murray Hood free Beach Road Hotel Rex Room, Bondi The Sunday NiceUp! The Phonies, Graham Mandroles, Bentley free 6pm CarriageWorks East London West Sydney Jonzi D, Brotha Black, Sarah Sayeed, MC Trey, Maxwell Golden $30 6.30pm, 9.30pm Festival Garden, Sydney Late in the Garden Meem free 10.30pm The Forbes Hotel, Sydney Church of Techno Mitch Crosher, Kerry Wallace, Joey Kaz, Jey Tuppea, Jaded, Shepz $5 (at door) 9pm Home Terrace, Sydney Spice Schwa, U-one, Sam Roberts, Murat Kilic $20 5am Jacksons on George, Pool Bar Aphrodisiac Industry Night House and Guest DJs free Oatley Hotel Sunday Sessions DJ Tone & Undie Sundie DJs free 7pm Penrith Panthers Sunsets On The Terrace 2 Faced free 2pm The Rouge, Kings Cross Cheap Thrill$ free 8pm Sugar Lounge, Manly Le Franchi Brothers free 9pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Fortune Disco Punx free 6pm
club picks up all night out all week...
MONDAY JANUARY 24 Enmore Theatre Lupe Fiasco (USA), Blackmilk $66 7pm
Metro Theatre, Sydney Plan B (UK), Paris Wells $66 (+ bf) 8pm
TUESDAY JANUARY 25
Soho, Potts Point Flood Fundraiser Helena, Tenzin, fREW, Chris Arnott, Night Dimension, Oakes & Lennox, Matt Nukewood, Implex, Here’s Trouble, E-Cats, Steve Frank, Elmo Is Dead, You Say What!?!, Jack Bailey note donation 8pm
Teenage Kicks Mani (Stone Roses, Primal Scream) DJ set, DJ Dan (Propaganda UK), Urby, Mush, Johnny Segment, S.Kobar, Monkey Genius, El Mariachi free
FRIDAY JANUARY 28
Metro Theatre, Sydney M.I.A. (UK), Die Antwoord (South Africa) $77 (+ bf) 8pm
SATURDAY JANUARY 29
Beck's Bar, Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney Mad Racket Octave One (USA), Jimmi James, Zootie, Ken Cloud, Simon Caldwell $28 (+ bf) 8pm The Forum, Moore Park Booka Shade (Germany) $66 (+ bf) 8pm
Lupe Fiasco
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 26
Swiss Grand Hotel, Bondi Beach Re:Love Australia Day Event: Australian Made Grass, Shipwreck, LC, Matt Saville, Lunch Money, TittyTassles, BHDJs, Step Brothers $25 12pm
THURSDAY JANUARY 27
Tone, Surry Hills Benji B, Mark Pritchard, Koolade $25 (+ bf) 9pm The World Bar, Kings Cross
BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11 :: 57
Deep Impressions Underground Dance and Electronica with Chris Honnery
Carl Craig
LIVE MUSIC
CARRIAGEWORKS
TRUE VIBENATION
+ RAY MANN + DJ SKAE + SCEPTIC & DSEEVA + NUZIL MUZIK + THE KUMPNEE
SAT 29 JAN F R E E ! NOON-6PM (ARTIST TIPPING WELCOME)
CARRIAGEWORKS’ CAFÉ & BAR OPEN CARRIAGEWORKS 245 WILSON STREET EVELEIGH MAIN ENTRANCE: CNR CODRINGTON STREET | TRAIN: REDFERN OR MACDONALDOWN
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UNPLUGGED + UNCOMPLICATED IS PRODUCED BY CARRIAGEWORKS + OCCURS ON THE LAST SATURDAY OF EVERY MONTH
F
resh from ‘wowing’ Sydney with a rip-roaring set at D25, Detroit auteur Carl Craig will celebrate the 20th anniversary of his Planet E label with the release of the colourfully titled 25-track digital compilation, Twenty F@#&ing Years – We Ain’t Dead Yet. The track list is absolutely top-shelf (as one would expect), including time-honoured classics like Moodymann’s ‘Dem Young Sconies’, Urban Tribe’s ‘Covert Action’ and Innerzone Orchestra’s ‘Bug In The Bassbin’ alongside more recent bangers like Tres Demented’s ‘Shez Satan’ and Martin Buttrich’s ‘Full Clip’ (before he went all deep and rolling, ‘Full Clip’ is Buttrich in full, epic tilt; essential!), along with a previously unreleased C2 (Craig) remix of Kenny Larkin’s ‘You Are’. Hold the f@#&ing phone! Needless to say, I’ll be jumping online come February 22 to procure my copy of Twenty F@#&ing Years, and I advise you, my readers, my friends, my brothers, my lover(s) to do the same. As a bonus for ardent collectors, the compilation will also be available in a vinyl boxset edition to be released later in the year, with its tracklist to be decided by fans; details of how to contribute will apparently be unveiled through Craig’s website. Berlin techno duo Format:B return to our shores on Saturday March 26 for a set at the under-utilised Melt venue in Kings Cross. (Though Gunnar Stiller did play there in November, so Melt may yet get more techno events throughout the year.) The pair have been a fixture in the German underground scene since the early 1990s, but it has only been in the last few years that they’ve garnered global accolades. Following a succession of milestone EPs such as Like A Techmachine and Bronson Road 69, the duo cemented their place in the techno pantheon with the release of their debut LP, Steam Circuit in ’08, and they won Aussie crowds over in a series of dates at the end of last year that included a particularly memorable set at the Subsonic Music Festival. And now they’re back for another round… Following the hedonism of Spice Afloat, the afterhours institution continues its maritime dalliance with a 'Midnight Cruise', slotted for Saturday February 12. (As implied by the title, the ship sets sail at exactly midnight.) Aside from some of our finest locals, including Matt ‘don’t call me Aubo’ Aubusson and Murat Kilic, the cruise boasts a triumvirate of internationals vying for top billing. Take your pick of Trus’Me, Butch and/or Vincenzo as to who most ‘does it for you’, but regardless of your sonic orientation at least one of them ought to hit the spot, as they each traverse different sounds. Vincenzo has deep house grooves covered, Butch is for those looking to up the ante with some techno and Trus’Me is a white boy’s Moodymann. (“Moodymann with a smile” – as in not so moody – being
LOOKING DEEPER SATURDAY FEBRUARY 5
Damian Lazarus, Art Department AGWA Boat Cruise
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 12
Vincenzo, Trus’Me & Butch Spice Midnight Cruise
SATURDAY MARCH 26 Format:B Melt XHIN The Civic one of the better quotes about him doing the rounds). As the man behind the Prime Numbers label, Trus’Me (the nom de plume of Manchester’s David Wolstencroft) should offer a solid counterpoint to the more robust sounds of the other headliners, and when I caught up with him for gelato a few years back he stated that his “ethos is about bringing back the rawness of early techno where it’s about the groove”. Right on, man. Tickets to this fiesta are still available online. (And hold off with the cash for comment emails, would you? A man’s gotta eat.) Panorama Bar resident DJ Steffi is set to release her debut album, Yours & Mine, next month via the Ostgut Ton imprint. The Dutch native has long been one of underground house music’s more formidable DJs, and her consistently brilliant podcasts – for the likes of To The Bone and MNML SSGS – have helped cement her reputation with the cognoscenti. While she also runs the Klakson and Dolly labels, it’s only recently that she’s turned her hand to production, announcing her arrival with the track ‘Kill Me’ (boasting guest vocals from Elif Bicer and included on Tama Sumo’s 2009 Panorama Bar mix CD) and then contributing ‘My Room’ to Ostgut’s recent Fünf compilation. She has also released EPs on Jus-Ed’s New York imprint Underground Quality and was part of the Third Side project on Restoration alongside Italian artists Marieu and Lucretio. Yours & Mine has been described by the elite few who’ve listened to it as “warm, analogue-driven house grooves” that are also “deep and gritty”. I’ll confirm or rebut this once I’ve heard the album, but you’ll want to give it a listen regardless of what I say, or don’t say, on this page. I can’t spoon-feed you all the time, compadre…
Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through deep.impressions@yahoo.com. 58 :: BRAG :: 396 :: 24:01:11
Soul Sedation
Soul, Dub, Hip Hop & Bottom-heavy Beats with Tony Edwards
De La Soul
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.
looking ahead you can expect new music from Bullion and Mo Kolours, also on the London based electronic soul label.
A
Not usually known for its local hip hop offerings, on Sunday March 6 The Basement will play host to Horrorshow, Spit Syndicate and Joyride unplugged. The idea is to “revealing a little more of the depth of talent amongst this group of friends.”
s the Playground Weekender momentum and hype builds, this column is looking forward to – aside from pitching tents and sailing pirate ships with you all – catching Kool & The Gang, De La Soul, Caribou, Roy Ayers, Mayer Hawthorne, Four Tet, Dixon, Mad Professor, Trus’me, King Tide and Bad Wives. You should also keep your eyes out for the Bondi FM Café at PGW for the first time ever this year, which will be operating in the camping area, and broadcasting shows live from the riverside site! Tune-wise, the following has come to Soul Sedation’s attention this week: you need to know about Scottish production outfit Capitol 1212. They make damn good beats, as can be heard on their track of late last year, 'Good Feelin'', which features the Jungle Brothers’ Mike G and others on the mic. They’ve also got some new material out on a reggae tip, the best of which is the new tune ‘Don Man Sound’ featuring Tenor Fly. Berlin vocalist and musician George Levin has an “extras” style EP out on BBE. Intangible EP - The Bonus Tracks contains songs that were left off his recent album, Everything Must Change. British Reggae radio broadcaster David Rodigan has programmed the latest instalment of the Fabriclive series, Fabriclive #54. He’s a knowledgeable oldschool music historian, and the tracklist is appealingly broad, containing generation spanning music from names like King Tubby’s, Big Youth, Beres Hammond, Super Cat and Joe Gibbs. Soul Sedation awarded one of the tracks of 2010 to Onra’s ‘Long Distance' ft Olivier Daysoul. Well, this year Daysoul is back with a collaboration alongside British beatsmith Eric Lau entitled ‘Finer Things In Life’. British vocalist Ahu’s ‘To: Love’ was another of this column’s favourite tunes of last year. It’s now been remixed by OneHanded music artist Tightface, and this
In news that makes this column smile: at Prince’s request Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings opened for “the symbol” last week in Madison Square Garden. Good taste, Prince!
Music revivalists take note: “60s dance party” Twist & Shout is relocating to Surry Hills venue Tone. The T&S DJs promise you rock and soul to surf, psych, doo wop and rhythm and blues. Their first Tone night goes down on Friday February 4. This week’s events bring our city more futuristic electronica with BBC radiohost Benji B in town to expound his forward thinking musical sensibilities upon our ears. He’ll be sharing the Tone stage with Mark Pritchard this Thursday January 27. And this Saturday night you should move your ass to Dust Tones, as it moves its ass from the Beach Rd Hotel to Tone. The first Surry Hills Dust Tones night kicks off this Saturday January 29 with this dope lineup: Raashan Ahmad of the Crown City Rockers, Perth’s Paper Plane Project, Astronomy Class Sound System, Mike Who, DJ Ability, Noel Boogie, Gabriel Clouston and DJ Bentley.
ON THE ROAD THU JAN 27
Benji B, Mark Pritchard Tone
SAT JAN 29
Dust Tones ft Rashaan Ahmad Tone
THU FEB 10
De La Soul, Prince Paul Enmore Theatre
FRI FEB 18
Kool & The Gang, Roy Ayers Enmore Theatre
SAT FEB 19
Mayer Hawthorne & The County Manning Bar
SUN FEB 20 Roy Ayers The Basement
SAT FEB 26 Roska, Lorn Tone
FEB 17 - 20
Playground Weekender Wiseman’s Ferry
WED MAR 16 Ahu
Horace Andy, Dub Asante Metro Theatre
Send stuff for this column to tonyedwards001@gmail.com by 6pm Wednesdays. All pics to art@thebrag.com BRAG :: 396:: 24:01:11 :: 59
snap
14:01:11 :: Beach Road Hotel :: 71 Beach Road Bondi 91307247
the wall
PICS ::DM
neon nights
PICS :: TT
up all night out all week . . .
zouk
PICS :: RR
12:01:11 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700
chinese laundry
PICS :: AM
15:01:11 :: Tone Venue :: 116 Wentworth Ave Surry Hills
14:01:11 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex Street Sydney 82959958
It’s called: Teenage Kicks DJs/live acts: Mani (Primal Scream/Stone Roses) DJ Set, DJ Dan (Propaganda, UK), Urby, El Mariachi, S.Kob ar, Johnny Segment, Mush, Monkey Genius.
Sell it to us: We’ve teamed up with our buddi es at BBM and wrangled the absolute indie legend Mani for an exclusive DJ set. He’s played bass in two of the most influential bands of recent times, he’s an all round nice fella, and here’s your chance to party with him. We’re also hostin g the UK’s biggest indie DJ (and founder of Propaganda), DJ Dan. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Loud indie rock ‘n’ roll classics played by indie royalty, and a selection of some of the best in the business. Crowd specs: Post BDO. Wallet damage: Entry is free, but hit us up at teenagekicks@theworldbar.com for a priority-entry guest list. Where: The World Bar / 24 Bayswater Rd, Kings Cross When: Thursday January 27
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P*A*S*H
PICS :: AM
party profile
Teenage Kicks
14:01:11 :: Qbar :: 34 Oxford St Darlinghurst 93316245 AN BUI :: ASHLEY MAR :: DANIEL : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: SUS ONTE :: COWAN WHITFEILD OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHERS TRAM TOM :: ON :: PATRICK STEVENS MUNNS :: ROSETTE ROUHANNA
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robopop
13:01:11 :: Spectrum :: 34 Oxford St Darlinghurst 93316245
PICS ::RR
hot damn
PICS :: RR
up all night out all week . . .
teenage kicks
PICS :: RR
15:01:11 :: The Oxford Hotel :: 134 Oxford Street Darlinghurst 93313467
chinese laundry
PICS :: AM
13:01:11 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700
15:01:11 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex Street Sydney 82959958
It sounds like: Two of the most influential name s in electronica on the same stage together, playing a hand-picked select ion of beats. Who’s spinning? Benji B (UK), Mark Pritch ard and KoolAde. Sell it to us: BBC Radio 1’s Benji B and Mark Pritchard together for an intimate club show at Tone, playing off each other and sharing with the audience why they’re the best at what they do. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: The newes t and freshest beats that the electronica scene has to offer. Crowd specs: Anyone keen for a great night out. Wallet damage: $25 + bf Where: Tone / 16 Wentworth Ave, Surry Hills When: Thursday January 27
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wham
PICS :: DM
party profile
Benji B & Mark Pritchard
15:01:11 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700 AN BUI :: ASHLEY MAR :: DANIEL : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: SUS ONTE :: COWAN WHITFEILD OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHERS TRAM TOM :: ON ENS STEV :: PATRICK MUNNS :: ROSETTE ROUHANNA
JACK LONDON ARRIVES IN SYDNEY OPENING IN DAVID JONES JANUARY 27 2011 65-77 Market St. Sydney, NSW 2000. T (02) 9266 5544 JACK LONDON FLAGSHIP STORE COMING SOON! WWW.JACKLONDON.COM.AU