The Brag #410 by The Brag

THURSDAY 8PM | FREE ENTRY

5TH MAY

BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11 :: 3

rock music news welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... With Nathan Jolly and Cool Thomas

five things WITH

PIKELET Growing Up The Music You Make I became interested in playing the piano We enjoy making music that straddles 1. 4. that my Grandmother had given to us when the fence between pop music and I was about three or four years old. I always knew that music was my main passion, but didn’t think I could be a concert pianist... So I took up drums instead, when I was 13. Inspirations I find inspiration to be an interesting 2. topic to discuss, because I can never really pinpoint one particular thing that inspires a song or my interest in music in general. Being creative is a conglomeration of all the millions of things going on in your life at the one time, and all the millions of musicians you’ve met throughout your life who have influenced you either negatively or positively, and all the music you’ve ever heard that has touched you deeply or repulsed you greatly. Your Band My bandmates are Matthew Cox, 3. Tarquin Manek and Shags Chamberlain. We’ve been working together on Pikelet for around four years now. Also heavily involved is Chapter Music, who’ve been supporting Pikelet since the very beginning.

experimental music. Some bands/musicians that I would love to list as bands we sound like (but can’t honestly say we meet their standards all the time) would be Brian Eno, Broadcast, Ariel Pink, Bo Hansson (and various other 70s prog gods like Syrinx, Merit Hemmingson...) They’re some sounds that we strive towards. I think in the end though, it still just sounds like kinda weird pop music. Music, Right Here, Right Now There are heaps of lovely home5. recorded geniuses springing up into our collective consciousness thanks to the internet, influencing all of us and shaping the music of the future in a much more commonman kind of fashion. Bottom-up is always better than top-down. What: Stem is out now on Chapter Music With: Holy Balm, Donny Benet Where: FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel When: Saturday May 7

THE IVY DOES BANDS

The Ivy have launched a new live music night every Thursday; the sultry, sleazy soul music happens in the den, while the electrified rock happens poolside. Just like how television taught us it should be. Acts performing through the month of May include Groove Academy, Andrea Pacifico, Scott Pullen, DJ Tikki Tembo and The Radio City Cats, and seeing as it’s basically a pool party, turn up in zinc and an outfit from the Quiksilver range and you should be right. Oh, and entry is free! FREE!

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 WRITERS: Jonno Seidler, Caitlin Welsh NEWS CO-ORDINATORS: Nathan Jolly, Chris Honnery ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant GRAPHIC DESIGN: Alan Parry SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER: Tim Levy SNAP PHOTOGRAPHERS: Margaret Burns, Katrin Clarke, Ashley Mar, Daniel Munns, Patrick Stevenson COVER DESIGN: Sarah Bryant 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 GIG & CLUB GUIDE CO-ORDINATOR: Conrad Richters - gigguide@thebrag.com (rock) clubguide@thebrag.com (dance) INTERNS: Sigourney Berndt, Lenny Adam REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Simon Binns, Joshua Blackman, Mikey Carr, Oliver Downes, Max Easton, Tony Edwards, Christie Eliezer, Murray Engleheart, Lucy Fokkema, Max Easton, Mike Gee, Thomas Gilmore, Chris Honnery, Nathan Jolly, Alex Lindsay Jones, Peter Neathway, Romi Scodellaro, Rach Seneviratne, RK, Luke Telford, Rick Warner Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this address 153 Bridge Road, Glebe NSW 2037 ph - (02) 9552 6333 fax - (02) 9552 6866 EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Publisher, Editor or Staff of The Brag.

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4 :: BRAG :: 410 : 02:05:11

Oh Mercy

DAN SULTAN + OH MERCY

Dan Sultan and Oh Mercy main man Alexander Gow bumped into each other on the street and decided they should tour together. When I suggested the same thing to Lisa Mitchell she tasered me and I woke up bound and gagged in a coin laundry - so that tour has been postponed a few months. But Sultan and Gow will be charming, crooning and strumming their way across the country, stopping in at The Brass Monkey in Cronulla on July 15 and The Basement on July 16. Tickets are on sale now and will sell out very quickly. Another reason you need to pick up THE BRAG early in the week…

HUGH CORNWELL

If you’re a fan of seminal UK punk rockers The Stranglers and you happen to like their old stuff better, boy do we have a treat for you. Founding member, lead vocalist and songwriter of the outfit, Hugh Cornwell is touring Australia to belt out their early hits, some solo material and even the group’s acclaimed debut, Rattus Norvegicus IV in full - an Australian first. Cornwell is hitting Newcastle on Wednesday May 4 at the Cambridge, and Manning Bar the night after. Tickets are on sale though the venues’ websites.

THE GO! TEAM PLAY GIG, THEN GO! BOWLING

The Go! Team are making the most of their time in Australia, busting out shows left, right and centre. Not only are these party kings touring regionally as part of Groovin’ The Moo, but they’re also hitting The Metro Theatre on Wednesday May 4 with Purple Sneakers

DJs and local electronica outfit Fishing. Also, they’re playing at a bowling alley. Yep. Strike Bowling on Friday May 6 at the King Street Wharf. If you want to be involved in the latter, you’ll need to hit up the competition online. Slap “After Hours, Vice, Go Team and Strike Bowling” straight into Altavista, or whatever it is you use.

THE EMMA DEAN DREAM

Brisbane born Emma Dean was recently given effusive praise by the New York Post and they don’t just throw around overarching support like Marcia Hines. The record that justified the love is her stunning debut Dr Dream And The Imaginary Pop-Cabaret, and Dean is launching its haunting ‘Something They Can Hold’ single at The Basement on Saturday May 14, with Fronz Arp and Jacob Diefenbach in support. She asked us to ask you to come - not sure about meeting times though, sort that out between yourselves.

Holly Throsby

HOLLY WOULD

Holly Throsby recorded her latest record Team in a lonely old church designed for maximum depression, and it seems to have worked; the album is full of beautiful, heartbroken songs (last track ‘When’ might be the saddest thing since Thomas J got stung by all those bees). The Thros (as we like to call her) has been touring the record and is finishing up with two Sydney shows - Friday May 6 at Brass Monkey in Cronulla, and the following evening at The Annandale. Sam Shinazzi will open in Cronulla, but apparently doesn’t like the commute - so Ghoul and The Singing Skies will be in support at the Annandale.

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BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11 :: 5

rock music news

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... With Nathan Jolly and Cool Thomas

free stuff

FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM

he said she said WITH

RAINBOW CHAN Although I do most of my composing on my own, I play music with my sister Rose, Jessica Dunn (Sirens Big Band) and newcomer Echo Chord (Ben Carusi). I also study music at uni, so I’m constantly engaging with other performers and composers, learning from them and sharing different skills. It’s a rich pool of knowledge and creativity. I make pop songs that explore strange and colourful textures, glitchy samples, sweet harmonies and intricate arrangements. I make loops with vintage toys and music boxes sourced from markets and fairs. You can also expect folksy guitar finger-picking, 8-bit keyboards and distorted beats. I’m independently releasing a limited run of personally handmade EPs; the sleeves are made with vintage fabrics, and there’s a handdrawn picture in each one.

've always been a keen learner. I learnt saxophone and choral singing from a young age, later taking up classical piano and teaching myself guitar, how to use gadgets and how to make loops with music boxes. My grandmother in Hong Kong also used to send us mixtapes that had the sweetest ‘50s ballads and crooners music on it. My family listen to them on day-trips in a squishy cars, singing along loudly; my sisters and I would challenge each other to

BRITISH SOUND, INNIT??

If you were at the last two sold out Ben Sherman Big British Sound shows, aside from seeing the cream of Australia’s musical crop (do crops even have cream?), you may have noticed that each of the bands played a few cover songs. If you were paying close attention, you would have noticed all these covers were British - at which point the whole theme of the night would have finally fallen into place for you. This year’s edition takes place on Thursday May 12 at the Gaelic Theatre, and shall feature Strange Talk, Ball Park Music, Boy In A Box, Owl Eyes, Step-Panther and more.

HAND ME THE DRUM STICK…

First thing’s first. If you haven’t watched The Drums videos for ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ and ‘My

improvise harmonies. Usually we’d end up laughing and going out of tune but creating the weirdest, dissonant stuff. I’m inspired by musicians who are sincere and innovative. I love anything from Chopin to Björk, Stockhausen to Joanna Newsom, Zhou Xuan to N.E.R.D. I draw inspiration from visuals and fabrics as well; I love retro aesthetics and intricate, colourful patterns which often shape the structure of my songs.

I’m listening to a lot of Oscar+Martin, Collarbones and Fox+Sui at the moment. I’ve been getting into music you can dance and boogie to. I had totally forgotten that, up until the age of 14, I aspired to be a hip-hop dancer! What: brushed upon with rose EP Launch With: Domeyko/Gonzalez, Echo Chord Where: The Vanguard, Newtown When: Wednesday May 4

Tash Parker

THREE’S COMPANY

Spectrum is set to play host to three top quality Australian singer-songwriters this Saturday May 7, for the Sydney leg of the Three’s Company tour. On the bill are Brisbane’s indie-folk singer-songwriter Scott Spark and Melbourne’s folk maiden Tash Parker, who have been winning hearts since last year with their respective debut releases, while Sydney’s own folk/alternative duo The Rescue Ships are gonna treat the night as welcome home party of sorts, having just returned to Australia after a string of international gigs. A unique tour jam-packed with talent! For a shot at one of five double passes, let us know the name of the title track of Scott Spark’s debut album (which won Rage Indie Clip of the Week!)

Best Friend’ then you are doing life wrong. Please go sort that out. ... [Intermission] … Good, aren’t they? The whole album is great, channelling the surfing/cats indie scene that emerged last year while secretly doing it a lot better than everyone else. They’re coming to Australia this week, playing Groovin’ The Moo and then the Metro Theatre on Monday May 9.

TEX MESSAGE

Tex Perkins is planning to celebrate his forthcoming album with the Dark Horses (Tex Perkins & The Dark Horses is out June 10) by slamming some whiskey, smashing the glass, and carving a hole in The Factory Theatre on June 16. If you come along with us, please don’t request any Cruel Sea songs - it’s not the done thing. Also, don’t wear a Cruel Sea T-shirt. In fact, just don’t mention the war.

Belles Will Ring

The Grates

GRATE NEWS

The Grates have spent the last few years in Brooklyn, where we imagine they lost their charming Aussie hospitality to that world-weary NYC attitude. Their new album I’m Walkin’ Here, Geez (actual title: Secret Rituals) is infused with the spirit of the Big Apple, and they’ll be flinging the new songs at you from the stage of the Oxford Art Factory on June 24, with Guineafowl and Big Scary in support. Tickets available through Moshtix.

WASHINGTON

There’s a huge sign across the door of The Metro saying Washington May 6. Well, we need someone to go there and whack a big SOLD OUT sign across it - and to possibly colour in her glasses so they look like ‘50s biker sunnies. While you’re at it, maybe add a few tattoos and a moustache? I dunno, art is subjective. If you were planning to go to this show, but didn’t plan in the actual ‘make a plan that involves getting a ticket early’ way, never fear - a Thursday May 5 Metro show was announced, and it’s all ages for you Fanta fans. Lissie and Deep Sea Arcade are supporting that one as well. Yes!

BELLES WILL RING AND RELEASE AND TOUR

Spring is in the air (in America, probably…), and Blue Mountains psychedelic jingle-janglers Belles Will Ring are set to release their second album Crystal Theatre on May 13. In order to promote the record, they will be performing blistering live sets in Maroochydore and Katoomba. (There will also be a launch show July 16 at GoodGod Small Club, if you can’t make the other ones...)

FBI LOWDOWN

There is a bunch of good things happening at FBi Social this week. On Thursday, roots singer and songwriter, Sailorine, is lined up to belt out some tunes on the piano, harmonium and most importantly, the djembe. While some people think no djembe is good djembe, let it

be known that BRAG is a fan of djembe and lots of djembe. Djembe djembe djembe. On Saturday, just for a change of scenery, Pikelet will be hitting the stage sans djembe - and rumour has it that this could be one of our last chances to catch her before the the next album-hibernation phase begins… Holy Balm and Donny Benet as supports.

VIVA LA SOUNDWAVE REVOLUTION!

While we might need to wait a little longer than expected for the full Soundwave Revolution lineup, what we’ve peeped already is pretty amazing... Joining the already epic bill are The Used, Reliant K, Face to Face, Framing Hanley, Watain and the kings-of-crabcore, Attack Attack!. These fresh additions will play alongside Every Time I Die, Yellowcard and Story Of The Year and many, many more… Get the diary and a pen out: Sunday September 25.

“Gripped in the arms of the changeless madman we’ll dance our lives away in the ballrooms of mars” - T.REX 6 :: BRAG :: 410 : 02:05:11

POPBOOMERANG RECORDS LABEL NIGHT

SYDNEY LAUNCH

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AERIAL MAPS

MARK LANG (SKIPPING GIRL VINEGAR) THE BON SCOTTS RUSSELL CRAWFORD & THE STICKMEN CELADORE TICKETS $12 (PLUS BF) INCLUDES FREE CD FROM www.thebasement.com.au & www.moshtix.com.au Electric & Eclectic Rarities (PB046) features 20 rare or unreleased songs from SKIPPING GIRL VINEGAR • THE AERIAL MAPS • FOUR HOURS SLEEP • YOUNG WERTHER • THE STEINBECKS • D. ROGERS • BRYAN ESTEPA • THE BON SCOTTS • CELADORE • UNDERMINERS • & MORE

PURCHASE THE CD OR DOWNLOAD THE COMPILATION AT www.popboomerangrecords.bandcamp.com www.popboomerang.com (FREE WITH ANY ORDER OVER $30)

BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11 :: 7

dance music news

free stuff

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

FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM

he said she said WITH

couple of guys from college. As far as musical opinions go, we certainly don’t agree on everything but it’s always a healthy discussion about what we like or don’t like. Some bands get together and you feel like they’re all on the same wavelength, but I’ve never been in a band like that!

The appropriately-named Radical Awesome Tours are bringing radical awesomeness to Marrickville’s Red Rattler this Friday May 6 in the form of BIG A little a, a post-neo-new-waveelectro-punk musical project from Brooklyn that has received tons of acclaim from Pitchfork, The New York Times and Time Out New York (to name a few). Aa’s percussive-synthy choonz will feverishly rock the warehouse alongside Melbourne’s vibrant experimental pop quintet Rat vs. Possum, as well as Sydney party heroes Domeyko/Gonzalez, Simo Soo and Siberia Records’ DJ 3DS. Brooklyn is cool. Warehouses are cool. This lineup is insanely cool. If you’re cool you’ll wanna get your hands on a double pass to this gig – just name the city Aa hail from.

The Music You Make A pretty energetic racket! Not too much 4. melody but a lotta rhythm.

THE LITTLE STEVIES

JOSH FROM BIG A LITTLE A (NYC)

to trade tapes with the kids on my ice hockey team, back and forth. Your Band The forming of the band was around 3. 2002. I wasn’t an original member, it was a

Music, Right Here, Right Now We all agree that Brooklyn, NYC, is a really active scene. We do agree on some of the bands that we like – High Places are one of the bands we really liked, but we haven’t heard much from them recently. What: mAate is out now on Sensory Projects

Growing Up I didn’t grow up in a musical household at all. Your momma don’t rock and your daddy don’t rock... I really got into music through skateboarding.

Inspirations I remember early childhood as being void of music, because my parents didn’t really listen to music. I waited ‘til I found Fugazi and Bad Brains in Thrasher Magazine! I also used

BIG A LITTLE A

With: Rat vs Possum, Domyeko/Gonzales, Simo Soo and DJ 3DS (Dan Midnight Juggernaut) Where: Red Rattler, Marrickville When: Friday May 6

BRIAN MCKNIGHT

R&B and gospel legend Brian McKnight will return for his first Australian tour in over 10 years, in June. The 16-time Grammy-nominated veteran has collaborated with musical deities like Justin Timberlake, Quincy Jones, Christina Aguilera, Justin Bieber (oh God) and – drumroll please – Australia’s own Guy Sebastian, over the course of his career, and will be joined by special guest Dwele when he performs at the Metro Theatre on Saturday June 25. McKnight was introduced to the world through his 1992 self-titled debut album, before the release of arguably his most celebrated record, Back At One, in ’99. The national support act, Dwele, is a cult neo-soul favourite who also boasts an impressive sonic pedigree, having worked with Kanye West and the late J Dilla as well as the likes of Common and Pharoahe Monch. General tickets go on sale this Friday May 6, at 9am.

Melbourne’s The Little Stevies released their new album, Attention Shoppers, back in March and have been celebrating since with a bunch of intimate shows around the country. Compared with the likes of The Waifs and Missy Higgins, the indie-folk trio have a reputation for warming hearts and moistening eyes with their finely-crafted songs and trademark charm and charisma. They’ll be showcasing all of this at The Vanguard this Saturday May 7 alongside Australian singer-songwriter Gossling. To win one of two double passes to the show, tell us the name of The Little Stevies’ debut album.

KIMBIE EP

The prolific post-bass London duo known as Mount Kimbie, who toured recently for Future Classic, have revealed details of their next EP, Carbonated, which will be released on June 27 on Hotflush. Among the tunes featured on Carbonated are the title track and previously unreleased numbers ‘Bave’s Chords’ and ‘Flux’, along with remixes from Airhead, Peter Van Hoesen and Klaus. Airhead, who’s shortly releasing his own album on Brainmath and is a member of James Blake’s live band, subtly twists ‘Carbonated’ with his remix, while Belgian producer/DJ Van Hoesen creates a six-minute dark techno rework for the latenight dancefloor. This is well worth checking for both Kimbie fans that have been there from the beginning, and those who jumped on the bandwagon following the Future Classic showcase.

Joris Voorn

The Beastie Boys

BEASTIES RETURN

The Beastie Boys have just dropped their new album Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, which is available as a free stream on Soundcloud for those who want to listen before they buy. First scheduled for a 2009 release, the original Hot Sauce Committee was put on hold due to Adam Yauch’s sudden cancer scare (which has since been successfully treated, thankfully). In the interim, more tracks were completed - hence the additional ‘Part Two’ - which has now received an earlier release date than the original. Okay, we’re a little confused too, but regardless of the titular ramifications of the album’s complicated history, the important fact to take away from all of this is that the release is finally out. Mixed by Philippe Zdar, once of Cassius fame, and featuring collaborations with the likes of Nas and Santigold, Hot Sauce Committee Part Two surely demands at the very least a listen out of curiosity, so off to Beastie Boys’ Soundcloud page you go; go on, git…

DEPECHE MODE REMIXES 2: 81-11

One of the most influential groups of modern times, Depeche Mode, will release Remixes 2: 81-11 in June, a follow-up to the hugely successful remix compilation, Remixes 81-04, from 2004. Given their lofty reputation as pop and dance music auteurs, Depeche Mode have always attracted the attention of some of the more interesting and talented figures in the electronic scene when it comes to remixes, and the tracklist for the second of their triple-CD remix compilations (which will be available in both single and triple disc versions) is indicative of this. Remixes 2: 81-11

comprises classic remixes from M83, UNKLE, Trentemøller, François Kervorkian and Dan The Automator alongside what is arguably my pick of the bunch, Jacques Lu Cont’s stonker of a rework of ‘A Pain That I’m Used To’. While avid collectors will in all likelihood have previously heard these remixes, Remixes 2: 81-11 also offers all-new mixes from Stargate, Eric Prydz, Karlsson & Winnberg (from Miike Snow) and Röyksopp. In addition, the expanded editions (ie the triple-disc versions) include exclusive remixes by former bandmembers Vince Clarke and Alan Wilder - the first time either artist has remixed tracks for their former colleagues. I suggest preordering your copy online now.

SPICE AFLOAT

After hosting the February triumvirate of Butch, Vincenzo and Trus’Me, Spice Afloat returns with its third midnight cruise of the season on Saturday May 14. This time around the international drawcards are Joris Voorn and Edwin Oosterwal from the Green and Rejected record labels, with Voorn in particular expected to arrive in Australia amid plenty of fanfare. Having played some memorable sets at Lost Baggage and for Bread and Butter’s Easter boat cruise on past visits, Voorn has continued to grow in stature since he was last in Australia. His Balance 14 mix was a commendable addition to the esteemed compilation series, while his Donna Summer/Giorgio Moroder homage ‘The Secret’ has been backed heavily by the Cocoon cognoscenti - lead by Papa Sven, who dropped it during his recent Sydney jaunt - and follows the 2009 ‘home run’ that was his Ibiza anthem ‘Sweep The Floor’. Support comes from locals Murat Kilic, Matttt & Tomass, Nic Scali and Sam Roberts, and tickets are available online.

“Wear a tall hat like a druid in the old days. Wear a tall hat and a tattooed gown” - T.REX 8 :: BRAG :: 410 : 02:05:11

BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11 :: 9

free stuff

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

FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM

he said she said WITH

JAMES CURD (DFA / PERMANENT VACATION) My music style has always been across the board. The music I made as Greenskeepers was sometimes rock, disco, g-swing or R&B. I love pushing myself by trying to get all the different ideas and songs out of my head and into a recording. The solo releases I’ve been doing for DFA and Permanent Vacation are more 2011 disco and early-house-inspired sounds, and when I DJ I have a similar approach. I just want to have a good party and have fun behind the decks.

was a skateboarder growing up. I did it 12 hours a day, everyday, and took it really serious. It was at this time that music became a big part of my life. My dad worked at N.A.S.A and is far from a music person, but the rest of my family were musical, and they have all been supportive of me and my music. My early inspirations came from my sisters playing Prince, Stevie Wonder and INXS non-stop when I was just a kid. By the time I was 13, I started finding my own way, and used to listen to Beastie Boys, everything on Wax Trax! Records, along with hip hop like Casual and A Tribe Called Quest.

Today I find inspiration in new and old music. I like to explore and find random rare songs. Sometimes I’ll buy a record based on the cover alone; sometimes it’s great, sometimes not, but it’s fun and a bit of a hobby. When I started skating at a club in Chicago that had a half pipe, that’s when I first got hooked on house music. I used to go with the only other two skaters in my town. I wanted to own the songs that I was hearing but they were only on vinyl at that time, so I started buying tons of records and skipping lunches or eating Taco Bell day after day, to buy turntables.

I think the music scene has changed dramatically in a short period of time. I used to go to clubs to hear new music and not what was on the radio. The focus was on dancing and paying attention to the technical side of what the DJ does to shape a night and tell a story; now it has became almost like a rock concert where the crowd looks at a DJ on a laptop. I would rather hear an imperfect mix or song played live than a perfect-sounding pre-recorded or computer-generated one. I understand why musicians might rely more on computers, but I’m not sure why the audience is not interested in a more live performance. Who: James Curd Where: Adult Disco @ Civic Underground When: Saturday May 7

Darwin Deez

DARWIN DEEZ

Darwin Deez is hitting the decks for the first time with the Purple Sneakers DJs this Friday May 6 at The Gaelic, a couple days before his Metro gig on May 10. Also appearing for the first time at the Gaelic is Strongbow’s new Summer Pear Cider. We’ve got three double VIP passes to give away. You’ll get to see Deez in the first Sydney appearance of his national tour, access to the upstairs VIP area, free food and a free cider – plus all the usual Purple Sneakers funtimez. To win, give us the name of Darwin Deez’s album. It appears in this text twice. Pear-y easy!

CHANGE IT FOR THE BETTER

Nina Las Vegas

Phatchance

Three of Australia’s more eminent hip hop figures, Pez, Maya Jupiter and 360, will unite for the ‘Change It For The Better’ national tour in May/June. It ain’t no normal tour either – it’s part of an Australian Government anti-violence pro-respect campaign that specifically focuses on domestic violence against women, launched in June 2010 at the APRA Song Summit. Fresh from her tour with acclaimed soul singer Aloe Blacc, Maya Jupiter’s new single ‘Phenomenal’ is from her just-released self-titled album, and was written especially for The Line. “I want to be a part of the movement that promotes a culture of respectful relationships. No woman should live in fear, that’s why I support The Line,” she says. The tour rolls into Sydney on Friday June 3 for an all-ages gig at The Factory Theatre in Enmore. Further info and free tracks from the artists involved are available through theline.gov.au

KNIFE UPDATE

FBI SOCIAL

FBi Radio is settling in to the newlook King Cross Hotel with its weekly FBi Social brand. This Friday, hipster website TwoThousand have reached out to some of Sydney’s more eminent purveyors of rap, R&B, and hip hop for ‘Perm Bank’. The bash will feature DJ sets from Gay Bash’s Nick Sweeney, Halfway Crooks and the collective of Swimming In Rap, featuring 16 Tacos, Radge, Nina Las Vegas, Lisa Mona, Schiza Minelli, Dominique Silkens and others in a rap rumble royale. Entry is free, and there’s the promise of free drinks from 8-9pm. Not too shabby, eh? Perm Bank is Friday May 6 – and for those who enjoy this week’s revelry and like planning ahead, it’s worth noting that Lotek will be launching his debut album, International Rudeboy, at FBi Social the following Friday…

After five years of keeping us waiting, siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer have finally announced they are working on a new album as The Knife, due to be released sometime in 2012. According to their website, the duo are currently recording the follow-up to Silent Shout, but details outside of this basic fact are somewhat hazy. In the same post, they mention their worries about “the ongoing discrimination of Romani people in Europe”, a situation which is “totally unacceptable”, and encourage everybody to take action for the Roma people’s housing rights in Rome by signing these two petitions by Amnesty International. It’s not yet clear whether their new album deals with these issues or if it’s just a personal concern for The Knife but either way, take note! And anyone who managed to miss Karin’s solo project, Fever Ray, back in ’09 should seek that album out post haste, as many critics - including yours truly - rated it above Silent Shout; lofty praise indeed.

VOID 4TH BIRTHDAY

Void has unveiled the lineup for its fourth birthday celebration on Saturday May 14 at Oxford Art Factory, which will feature a man considered by many to be the world’s finest dubstep DJ, N-TYPE. N-TYPE was the guest of honour at Void’s first birthday back in ’08, but he’s accomplished a fair bit since that visit – last year he toured with the likes of Pendulum and The Prodigy, while in ’09 he released his second mix album, the ninth instalment of the Rinse mix series, that was hailed as “the new definitive compilation series for pirate music enthusiasts”. This birthday party ain’t just about one man though: Garage Pressure, Victim, Swindle, Prize, Preacha and Low Society DJs will also be pushing a mix of dubstep, hip hop, grime and future beats across two rooms of the Oxford Art Factory. $20 presale tickets can be procured through voidsound.com

PHATCHANCE AND COPTIC SOLDIER

Solo indie hip hop artists Phatchance and Coptic Soldier have forged a considerable following through their frenetic touring schedule, which has of late included supports for heavyweight acts like Method Man and Redman, DJ Premier and The Beatnuts. A triple j Unearthed feature artist, Phatchance has gradually climbed the national hip hop ladder of respect and recognition, while his stage partner Coptic Soldier negotiated the perilous gauntlet of critical acclaim with his debut EP The Sound Of Wings. The pair released an acoustic hip hop EP back in February, and will be hitting the road in support of the release sans DJ, for the ‘Hey, Where’s Your DJ?’ tour. With support by close collaborator and multiinstrumentalist Jon Reichardt, as well as a series of special guests in each state, the tour is being touted as “probably the only opportunities to catch this unique acoustic material live before the artists go into lock down to work on their respective albums.” The duo will play Oxford Art Factory on Saturday July 2.

LAUNDRY IN MAY

Chinese Laundry have revealed their roster for who’s spinning in the venue on Friday nights for the month of May. German DnB proponent Phace will be throwing down on May 7, with Friday the 13th headline honours going to Dr Werewolf and MC Shureshock, with Jason Voorhees perhaps lurking in the background. Broken beat pioneer Elite Force will represent the following week, before the month is rounded off with DnB stable Hospital Records showcasing a few of their artists – Nu:tone and MC Lowqui, alongside Royalston. Hit jammusic.com.au for further details.

SPANK! ORIGINALS COMPETITION

Spank! Records and Future Classic are looking for unsigned artists to submit the best of their own original, unlicensed tracks as part of a new competition. The Spank! Records

Originals competition is a new development based on the success of the last two years’ remix competitions with Bang Gang 12” and Sweat It Out Records. This year, the parameters have widened, with Spank! and Future Classic calling on unsigned artists to submit the best of their own original, unlicensed tracks for consideration, with the winners selected by a panel of the astute folk from the Future Classic label. The prize package for this year’s competition is larger than anything Spank! Records has ever put up before, totalling over $15,000 in value – and that’s aside from the respect, notoriety and invitations to coke and sex parties that should (inevitably) come with winning. The competition period commences/d on Monday May 2 and closes on May 23. The winner will be announced via the Spank! Records and Future Classic mailing lists on June 9. Submissions must be made through the Spank! Records website – spankrecords.com.au

“Well you damaged the soul of my suit. You pulled my love out by the roots” - T.REX 10 :: BRAG :: 410 : 02:05:11

BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11 :: 11

The Music Network

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Industry Music News with Christie Eliezer

Lifelines Born: Daughter Tia Joy Hannah, to country music performer Felicity Urquhart and musician/ producer husband Glen Hannah. She is their first child. Born: Son Arlo, to actress/ musician Toni Collette and drummer husband David Galafassi. Born: Son Journey, to Black Eyed Peasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Taboo and partner Jaymie Dizon. Engaged: Music fans Tommy and Mandy, after he proposed to her on stage midway through Michael Frantiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s set at Bluesfest in Byron Bay. Engaged: Museâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Matt Bellamy and actress Kate Hudson - she revealed it on a US talkback show. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re expecting their first child together. Detained: After his Aussie shows, The Game went on to Canada and was refused entry after being stopped at customs and interrogated for three hours. Suing: British singer Katy Perry is taking action against Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s NW magazine, for alleging she had an affair with her record producer. In Court: US punk band The Vandals won the first round against trade paper Variety, when the band - represented by its bassist-turned-lawyer Joe Escalante - had the case moved from Delaware to California, a state thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more sympathetic to â&#x20AC;&#x153;freedom of speechâ&#x20AC;? defences. In 2004, the band used lettering similar to Varietyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s masthead for its Hollywood Potato Chip album. At the time, Variety sued and worked out an arrangement that the Vandals would withdraw the image and never use it again or pay them $50,000. The image recently appeared on The Vandalsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; site, but they insist it was not of their doing. In Court: Michael Jacksonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s estate settled its dispute with the Heal The World Foundation. It argued it was using the same trademark as Jacksonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own charity of that name. HWF agreed not to use the name or Jacksonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s image. Died: X-Ray Spex frontwoman Poly Styrene, 53, cancer. She gave British punk a biracial feminist attitude that resonates to this day - and Germ Free Adolescents remains a classic. Died: Grammy-winning US â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;70s singer songwriter Phoebe Snow (â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Poetry Manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Every Nightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;), brain haemorrhage, 58.

CLOUDY APPLE TURNOVER

iTunes generated US$1.4 billion in the first three months of this year - but it only makes up 5.7% of Appleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s turnover. In the same period, Apple made a record gross of $24.67 billion (an 83% increase over this time last year) and a record profit of $5.99 billion. Divisions like hardware units make more: Macs rose 28% rise to 3.76 million, iPhones up 113% to 18.65 million and 4.69 million iPads were sold. Nevertheless, iTunes remains important to Apple. It keeps customers loyal, adds value to the more expensive hardware, and helps Apple create a huge gap with its competitors - like, for instance with its cloud music service. The word is Apple has â&#x20AC;&#x153;completed workâ&#x20AC;? on its cloudbased iTunes music streaming service, allowing users to access their entire collection of music from any Internet-connected, iTunes-running device. In this, Apple has beaten Google to the finish line; Googleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s streaming music service (which includes music locker features) has stalled because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still in negotiations with record labels. Apple hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t put together any new licensing agreements with labels either, but sources say the recording industry isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t about to drag its feet with Appleâ&#x20AC;Ś

ARTIST MANAGERS SEMINAR

The Association of Artist Managers (AAM) presents the second of its series of annual seminars on Tuesday May 31. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s at Notes Newtown in Sydney from 6:30pm. There are three panels: the majors, the lawyers and the DIYs. A&R managers Glenn Dickie (EMI) and Courtney Hard (Sony), among others, explain why acts should sign to majors, and the current play of 360-degree deals; Simpsons Solicitors partner Jules Monroe and Sony Music Entertainmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s A&R coordinator Katie Hankin will dissect the record deal; indie high priest Sebastian Chase of MGM, who pioneered the structure of the modern-day indie label, leads a panel including Resist Recordsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; founder Graham Nixon and Inertiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s head of A&R Justin Cosby, explaining how they found gold on the DIY trail. More info at aam.org.au.

U2 SETS NEW RECORD IN BRAZIL Weeks after setting an all-time record gross for a tour, U2 also set a new record in Brazil, reports Billboard magazine. The world record was set by the April 8 U2 gig, the second of three shows at Morumbi Stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil - they broke the Stonesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; record of $558 million for their Bigger Bang tour of 2005-2007. U2â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s three Brazil shows grossed $32,754,065; a record for that country. The three shows amount to the third highest gross for a tour worldwide, the magazine said. They were beaten by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 10 nights at Giants Stadium in New Jersey in 2003 ($38.6 million), and the Spice Girlsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 17 shows at the O2 Arena in London in 2007-08 ($33.8 million). U2â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tour now officially sits at $580,454,299 gross and 5,570,560 in attendance at 85 shows since June of 2009. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll finish on July 30 at more than $700 million gross and 7 million in attendance, projects the promoter Live Nation Global Touring.

COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVAL

The Tamworth Country Music Festival has started a campaign to celebrate its 40th anniversary next January. The campaign aims to spark up sponsors and corporate partners to underwrite the celebrations, which this column understands includes plans to bring out a major international star. Recently, organisers held a sneak preview for the media of a rough draft

THINGS WE HEAR * Fremantle, WA, wants to slug nightclub owners with a â&#x20AC;&#x153;vomit taxâ&#x20AC;? to cover its costs of clearing up after piggy clubbers. It would charge 0.139Â˘ to the dollar (double the general rate) for the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s three nightclubs that open past 2am. The tax would make the council an extra $100,000. * Rage Against The Machine and Alice Cooper will co-headline Soundwave Revolution in September, tips journo Nui Te Koha on Triple M. * Jon Bon Jovi through his charitable fund, the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, opened a $3 million homeless youth shelter in Philadelphia, and plans a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;pay what you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; community restaurant in New Jersey. Folks who canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t afford a meal can work in the kitchen to pay for their food. The perennial nice guy says that not supporting troubled youths â&#x20AC;&#x153;denies all of us their talents and visions.â&#x20AC;? * In the meantime, the Black Eyed Peas are setting up a music school in New York offering classes to students ages 13 to 19. The academy opens in July.

of the festivalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new logo. Its major colours are gold (to reflect the Golden Guitar awards) and ruby (which represents 40th anniversaries). A video to accompany the campaign comes with music by Slim Dusty and Troy Cassar-Daley. Recently, organisers presented Keith Urban with a commemorative â&#x20AC;&#x153;goldenâ&#x20AC;? guitar studded with rubies, to celebrate his return to play Tamworth for the first time in ten years.

SPANK! & FUTURE CLASSIC LAUNCH COMPETITION

Spank! Records and Future Classic have teamed up for a competition that launches on May 2. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s asking unsigned acts to submit the best of their original unlicensed tracks. Winners go in the running for a chance to win $15,000 in prizes including a digital and vinyl release and development deal with Future Classic, a huge home studio from Native Instruments and Arturia, plus a dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recording, mixing and mastering with Studio 301. Deadline for submissions is May 23; announcement June 9.

PIRACY NOT TO BLAME?

Are music and movie execs bullshitting when they blame piracy for declining sales? A study by the London School of Economics reckons that record labels are incompetent, and â&#x20AC;&#x153;downloads have an effect on sales that is statistically indistinguishable from zero.â&#x20AC;? The LSE claims that people are spending less on entertainment because of higher bills, lower pay rises and less job security. Its data suggests that people who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have computers and canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t download illegally stopped buying music at the same time as those who do. It declares any new laws to stop or curtail online piracy are just a waste of time.

ROCK THE SCHOOLS

Logitech Rock The Schools will be staging its largest international free education and entertainment tour, with continued sponsorship from Logitech (which provides the tour with equipment and promotion of its Ultimate Ears model) as well the Australian Institute of Music, the Aussie Govtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s National Drugs Campaign and Ubisoftâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wii game, Just Dance 2. The tour, which launches in Sydney on May 2, will visit

* Kanye Westâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s charity The Kanye West Foundation closed it doors, suddenly, without a reason, just four years after it was established to prevent teens from dropping out of high school. * Good Charlotteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Benji Madden is the latest to say he wants to buy a house in Australia, most likely on the Gold Coast. * Staff at the Bowery Bar in Sheffield, England â&#x20AC;&#x201D; owned by Arctic Monkeysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; drummer Matt Helders â&#x20AC;&#x201D; opened up a bottle of rum which they bought for ÂŁ70, and served it out. Later they realized it was a 215-year-old bottle of Henry Jefferson of Whitehaven, which was worth ÂŁ40,000. * Joelistics has created a tongue-in-cheek web series to accompany the May 20 release of his debut solo record Voyager, on Elefant Traks. * Thousands of Christian music fans attending Easterfest in Toowoomba were evacuated when the main tent collapsed from heavy rain. East Creek, which ran alongside Queenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Park, flooded, causing some shows to be cancelled and others to be relocated to other venues. 3,000 campers had to be moved.

90 high schools and reach 70,000 students, says its Project Director Frances Corkhill. The concept covers workshops on music industry careers and lunchtime concerts. Bands involved at various stages of the tour are Adelaideâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Delamare, Melbourneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Red Ink and Sydneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Feeding Edgar, along with the winner of Novaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m With The Bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; competition. Media partners include Habbo.com, Girlfriend and Channel [V], with [V]â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Billy Russell attending the Sydney Media Day on May 5 at Randwick Girls High School.

SOUTH COAST GIVES BACK

Rod and Myra Niemeier are well known in the South Coast music, hosting local and touring musicians at their home in Tanja, and with Rod serving as a volunteer MC at blues festivals in Batemans Bay, Narooma and Thredbo. On March 9, fire took their handcrafted (and uninsured) house, leaving them with nothing. The local blues and roots community has been holding a series of benefits (the last on Easter Sunday was filmed for a live DVD). Go to www. rodandmyra.net to donate.

KENSINGTON CLOSED

Newcastleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s latest nightclub The Kensington wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t open for too long. The State Government moved quickly (helped by an angry outburst from the cops) to close the loophole which allowed it to open with a crowd of 500 with a catererâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s licence, after it was denied a liquor licence twice.

HMV NEEDS MAJOR HELP

Troubled British music retailer HMV has asked the four major labels for help, as it battles debt and cash flow problems. According to Britainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The Sunday Times, HMV has asked EMI, Sony Music, Universal and Warner Music to allow it to buy catalogue CDs on a sale-or-return basis, with only a small upfront payment. This would save HMV about ÂŁ15 million, which would be used to help pay off its ÂŁ130 million debt. It has until July 2 for its next loan repayment. Recently, HMV downgraded its expected full year profit to ÂŁ30 million from ÂŁ40 million; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s closing down its Canadian stores, 40 shops in the UK and is planning to sell its Waterstones bookstore chain.

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record. Taylor and Holmstrom spent a long time in The Odditorium (their studio), laying down guitar parts one at a time and perfecting the sound before they would let De Boer’s drum anywhere near. “We really wanted to localise it - my guitar, right speaker. Pete’s guitar, left speaker. Just two dudes that really worked out these parts that were awesome.” He describes guitar tones that are “super dubbed-up, with these big, fat, warm [sounds that] you just sit in from the waist down... Our record is like if Angus Young produced Echo & The Bunnymen.” It’s not a boast, thought it might look it on paper – it’s just the type of sound that they were going for. Cool is also what has held the band together after more than 18 years. When asked if they’ll do a White Stripes and call it quits out of nowhere, Taylor replies with an audible grin: “I just know every time we start a practice, everyone shows up. It’s so fun. God, we love playing - it feels so good, man. It’s so awesome, it’s an amazing thing…” He’s laughing now, so entertained by the sheer awesomeness of his situation. “So it seems like everyone’s in for the long haul, everyone digs it, man. We’re really good, we’ve got this trip we’ve developed and it’s a really amazingly good trip.”

ourtney Taylor (sometimes Taylor-Taylor) is halfway through telling me about a film he watched recently called Babies (a documentary that tracks the first year of four babies’ lives, and is released here on Thursday), when his Oregon drawl slows down noticeably. “I was speechless, I don’t know what to say about it,” he says of the film, his words unfurling with a languid deliberateness. “It is so abnormally informative. And it’s an amazing trip. I mean really, it’s the farthest I’ve ever journeyed. But it is fucking amazing.” There it is – those last two words are suddenly stretched out, and dripping with melodramatic relish. It sounds like nothing so much as something kicking in in his brain (though far be it from this reporter to make any suggestions as to what that might be...) A follow-up question: would Mr Taylor recommend getting “super high” before watching this film? “Oh, yes!” he chuckles, delighted. “Ohh, indeed.”

The frontman for Portland neopsych institution The Dandy Warhols, Taylor is a strange mix of enigmatic and completely transparent. Particularly since his supporting role in (and narration of) Ondi Timoner’s 2004 car-wreck rockumentary DIG!, fans are familiar with his apparent schtick of playing the louche, insouciant rockstar, while actually – or simultaneously – being a shrewd businessman with a better-than-average feel for how the music industry actually works. While nobody involved in DIG! feels that they were portrayed justly or realistically (more on that later), Taylor’s portrayal seems to have been an amplified, sharpened image of the real thing. Louche, sure; rock star, less so. Shrewd, absolutely; businessman, not so much. This is, after all, a man who started his band mainly out of boredom. “Really it just started as a thing for me and Pete to do,” Taylor says, referring to the band’s other guitarist

Peter P Holmstrom. The two of them started playing together in their native Portland in about 1993. “It was a really great way to start it, you know, not trying. ‘Here’s two chords – we’ll just have two guitar tones and we’ll learn how to play these guitars later.’ Just make ‘em sound really cool first and not try anything tricky. Although eventually you try to learn something,” he adds after a pause. “We wouldn’t have made a record if we weren’t trying to learn something, I suppose.” Cool has always been a driving force for the Dandies. Combining the laid-back vibe of slacker culture with the image-conscious art-school posturing of The Strokes, they helped to bridge the aesthetic gap between the end of grunge and the early-00s guitar-rock revival. Trawl their earlier lyrics for references to the indefinable quality of cool: “There’s nothing in my art / I’d rather be cool than be smart” (‘Cool As

“Super dubbed-up, with these big, fat, warm sounds that you just sit in from the waist down... Our record is like if Angus Young produced Echo & The Bunnymen.”

Kim Deal’), “not so cool man, if you care” (‘Boys Better’), “I never thought you’d be a junkie because heroin is so passé, nowadays / You never thought you’d get addicted, just be cooler in an obvious way” (‘Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth’, that final put-down for a certain early-’90s aesthetic – a sort of ‘Death of Auto-Tune’, for heroin chic). Taylor and Holmstrom, along with keyboardist/bassist Zia McCabe and drummer Brent De Boer (who took over from Eric Hedford in 1998), have been back in the studio recently – in fact, Taylor says they’re “nearly finished” their ninth studio album. Their motto, he proclaims, was “no more synths” – bringing to an end a phase of ‘80s and electro influence that began with 2003’s Welcome To The Monkey House. “We’ve been exploring a limited palette, ever since Monkey House,” Taylor explains. “But now every time we try and lay a synth down, it’s just kinda… It just feels real insincere to me all of a sudden. Pete and I just worked on our stuff. Really honed it in, and honed our guitar stuff together this time.” Guitars, he says, “really are this freaky embodiment of cool” - so it’s the guitar sound that’s been the focus of their as-yet-unnamed

“You’re built like a car. You’ve got a hubcap diamond star halo” - T.REX 14 :: BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11

I nearly don’t ask about DIG!, Timoner or the documentary’s other subjects, The Brian Jonestown Massacre. I’m sure, I tell Taylor, that everyone must ask the same inane questions, like, ‘Was it really like that?’ His tone when he replies is a combination of weariness and eagerness; weary of the saga, but keen to tell his side wherever possible, perhaps. “That was a friend using us,” he says. “There’s a lot of fiction and directing, we got directed… ‘Go over and take pictures at their house!’ ‘No, what, are you kidding?’ ‘Come on, they need you…’” (He’s apparently referring to the infamous scene where the on-the-rise Dandies appear without warning at the rented hovel where the BJM were crashing in genuine squalor – for a rock-star photo shoot. It’s emblematic of the way both bands are framed within the film: the Dandies are the callous megastars, BJM the downtrodden, tragic failures.) “There was always some weird reasoning why we had to go do something. Why are we going out to the middle of the desert to shoot a documentary? It was fucked. So that whole thing was such a treacherous, like, act of treachery and villainy… She was just trying to get shit to happen so she could make a career out of us, you know?” Taylor says his band and Brian Jonestown Massacre – and he and BJM’s volatile, brilliant frontman Anton Newcombe – are all still on relatively good terms. It’s Timoner who’s out of the circle. I tell him it’s a shame how that turned out, and he replies with a heavy sigh and genuine feeling. “Oh, I know. She had so much footage of us, all these great musical things… I just can’t believe what she could have done. She won’t give us the film, [even though] we have the right to use any film she didn’t use,” he laments. “God, we’ll never know what fun, what cool, what amazing victories we had.” What: The Capitol Years 1995-2007 is out now on Capitol Records With: Los Huevos Where: The Enmore Theatre (licensed all-ages) When: Sunday May 29

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Alex Lloyd & The Pigram Brothers Film Scores And Campfire Sessions By Matt Petherbridge and sit by the campfire and play some tunes. It’s funny how well they sound out in the natural environment.” This approach has definitely brought a more soulful vocal technique to Lloyd’s repertoire. He remarks that “it’s hard to talk about [the travelling experience] without sounding off with the fairies”, but he believes that the voyage across the Kimberley was one of “self-discovery”. “It was really magical. I found it incredibly easy to write because there was so much inspiration out there - like, if you fly over the Kimberley region, it’s such an interesting landscape. It’s like poetry floating through the air,” says Lloyd, using the track ‘Catfish Rain’ as an example. “That was conceived on the plane flying from Broome to Kununurra, when I saw the rivers running like snakes all through the land. It came to me very easily. It’s about the wet season and dry season, and how they effect people’s moods as much as the landscape.”

Jeff Martin 777 After The Party By Mike Gee

t 41, Jeff Martin is having one of the best years of his life. Now based in Perth with his wife and son, the expat-Canadian has also set up Yo-Yo, his own studio. It’s there where his latest group 777 (featuring Sleepy Jackson drummer Malcolm Clarke, and Martin’s former bassist J Cortez) recorded their excellent debut album The Ground Cries Out. But there’s an elephant in the room... having a Tea Party. Six years after their glorious fifteen-year, eight-album career came to a jarring end in 2005, The Tea Party – one of the greatest psych-rock bands of all time – is reuniting in Canada this July. ‘Moroccan Roll’, as the media cleverly dubbed the band’s fusion brew, will be unleashed once again. “My priority and commitment is to Malcolm and J, and the 777 band. It’s a big thing; 777 is the prime band,” Martin explains, when I ask him to describe his relationship to the two different projects. “The Tea Party will come together when it fits in; I’ve got to respect what’s going on in those two boys’ [bassist and multi-instrumentalist, Stuart Chatwood, and drummer/percussionist Jeff Burrows] lives. Then we’ve got to do those shows in Canada and not kill each other...” After all, The Tea Party didn’t break up on the best of terms, disbanding abruptly and citing creative differences. “[The reunion] came about after I met them for the first time in six years when I was in Canada in March,” Martin explains. “It took some growing up as people on our behalf, so we’ve got to see how it goes. My take on the reunion is if you’ve got a Rolls Royce in the garage, you’ve got to pull it out once in a while and give it a spin.” It’s slightly unfortunate that the Tea Party elephant should blow in just when The Ground Cries Out is released, because it threatens to overshadow a very fine album indeed. A mix of classic Jeff Martin-esque Middle Eastern-tinged bluesy-prog rock with a couple of instrumentals (including the Southeast Asian-influenced number, ‘The Mekong’, penned by J Cortez) and

some rootsy blues numbers, it’s the strongest Martin album that’s come out post-Tea Party. The title track is a monster, ‘Queen Of Spades’ is a bluesy stomp that would have fit on Led Zeppelin III and ‘One Star In Sight’ is one of the loveliest pop songs Martin’s ever penned. 777 sounds like a very, very good band - and Martin’s production is superb. He’s known Malcolm Clarke since the mid1990s, when The Tea Party played a show at Perth’s Belvoir Ampitheatre and he found the drummer backstage drinking the band’s rider. Cortez is a member of Martin’s previous postTea Party outfit, The Armada. “That band gave me a taste, gave me the itch to play rock’n’roll again,” Martin says. “I fell in love with my Les Paul again. I wanted to play ‘Psychopomp’ again. And how could I have a better rhythm section than Mal and J? You hear stories about bands gelling the first time they play together. It was like that with us. I could imagine this was how Jimmy Page felt the first time he played with Led Zeppelin. “The record was a very fluid process,” he continues. “Nothing was pre-empted, nothing was forced. With us it was like, ‘Let’s get more, let’s get more’.” According to Martin, when 777 play live, no one night is ever the same as the next. “The Tea Party was a very structured band live because the music is so intricate, [but] with this band all we have is signposts, so all we need to do is reconnect at the signposts. How we get there is something else,” he says. “It’s like ten minutes before you walk on stage, and you have no idea what’s going to happen. And then we jam…” What: The Ground Cries Out is out now on Riverland Records, through MGM With: The Joe Kings Where: The Gaelic Theatre When: Saturday May 7

t’s a common misconception that Alex Lloyd’s career floundered a little following his 2001 breakout album Watching Angels Mend, and its impressive follow-ups, Distant Light and Alex Lloyd. But as proven by the latest chapter in the life of the ARIA-winning singer-songwriter-cumfilm composer, his career definitely hasn’t been on pause. Over the past few years, Lloyd has been crafting an impressive collaboration with legendary Indigenous band The Pigram Brothers (Alan and Steven) on the film score for Brendan Fletcher’s debut feature film, Mad Bastards – a film and a soundtrack which have garnered acclaim both here at Sydney Festival and abroad, at Sundance. The seeds of the project were laid after Lloyd composed the score for Fletcher’s 2006 documentary, 900 Neighbours. Fletcher would tell Lloyd stories of “hunting and living off the land” throughout the Kimberley region, which sparked something within the “city kid’s point of view”. “[Fletcher] didn’t want to use known actors, he wanted to cast locals, which involved travelling thousands of kilometres back and forth across the Kimberley region over a four-year period,” Lloyd explains. “He insisted at the beginning of that process that I go away on road trips, at least once a month or twice a year for two months with The Pigram Brothers.” The musicians would collaborate during the day and by night, performing and refining the material over the campfire like wandering folk-gypsies. “We would do campfire sessions on the trips - say, if we got to a new town or an Aboriginal community. We would have dinner with them

The film score for Mad Bastards rests heavily on a bluegrass/calypso feel, including songs that draw from old Pigram Brothers recordings (‘Moonlight’), re-recorded collaborations (like the reinterpretation of Lloyd’s ‘Slow Train’, recorded live on the set), and a new song written for the film, called ‘Won’t Look Back’. Lloyd feels that this song in particular embodies the spirit of the film’s protagonist, TJ. “I put myself in [TJ’s] shoes, walking down the track just after his car had blown up in this particular scene in the movie… I had the scene in my head and I was waiting to travel from London to Broome - and when I got there, I sat on Brendon’s porch in Broome and we finished the lyrics together.” The success of Mad Bastards at Sundance gave Lloyd and The Pigram Brothers an opportunity to play some shows overseas, at legendary venues like The Music Cafe and The Egyptian Theatre. “It was a really amazing experience - and the success of the shows over there inspired us to tour Australia as well.” Fans of both Lloyd and The Pigram Brothers who are heading to their Sydney show mid-May can expect a wealth of material from their backcatalogues, alongside new tracks from Mad Bastards. “It depends on the night, it’s really spontaneous. People can call out songs and if I remember how to play it, we’ll do it,” he says. “It’s pretty cool to hear songs like ‘Amazing’ done differently - it’s quite bluesy and cool now.” What: Mad Bastards hits cinemas on Thursday May 5; Mad Bastards: Music From The Motion Picture is out now through MGM Where: Notes Live, Newtown When: May 20 / May 21

Bhagavad Guitars Back To The Familiar By Mike Gee

According to singer/guitarist John Kilbey, brother of The Church’s Steve, the band’s drummer Matt Kerr had joked at Matty’s funeral that maybe the band should reunite as a tribute. Next thing you know that’s exactly what they did - and the couple of shows they played in honour of their fallen comrade led to them heading back to the studio to record a new album. It’s a time that Kilbey characterises as “quite a big emotional healing”, during which they forgave each other for all that had led to the initial break-up. “When we broke up, some issues hadn’t been resolved. But once those were out of the way, we were having so much fun we decided to do an album,” he says. “Still, personalities are personalities and we spent some of the time at rehearsals going over old territory. We looked at the scars and dealt with them and thought, ‘We can do this’. For Kilbey, the reunion has also been an eyeopener musically. He hasn’t been silent over the post-Bhagavad years - he’s recorded a bunch of solo albums and done some production work

- but getting back with Kerr, guitarist/vocalist Jeremy Butterworth, and Adrian Workman (bass/keyboards/vocals) reminded him of how special the band had been, and how much he’d missed playing with them. “To be honest, I would never have believed this could happen. I didn’t even think about it after we split. I’ll tell you what, it’s the fastest way to feel 18 again.” The Bhagavad Guitars burnt brightly from 1988 until their demise, releasing a bunch of EPs on the legendary label Red Eye, and an album that took five years to see the light of day. It was the classic early years of Aussie indie pop back then, the time of Clouds, Falling Joys, Hummingbirds, Underground Lovers and more - a watershed for Australian music. The ‘Guitars were renowned for their tight, slightlytwisted pop - plenty of hooks, great harmonies, memorable melodies, strong choruses - and they bring all of that and more to their latest release, Unfamiliar Places. If The Bhagavad Guitars never quite got it all down on an album the first time around, this time they have - and that’s reason enough alone to celebrate. “Having the other guys there actually means I finish things,” Kilbey says. “I’d been in a large songwriting block for quite a while, and Jeremy and I went away for a weekend to write some songs. He was like, ‘This is going to be so great, you’re going to get me out of my funk’ -

Bhagavad Guitars photo by Gav Maynard

ccasionally, tragic loss can give birth to something new – or, in this case, something old again. After fifteen years apart, it was the death from a brain tumour of Bhagavad Guitars’ best friend and lighting guy, Matty Clyde, that brought the legendary Sydney band back together.

and I’m thinking, ‘I haven’t told him about the block…’ But we wrote one song and the block just dissolved. We wrote the better part of the album that weekend. “I think the guys are more into [music] things than they were back in the early days. And they’ve all got families, so it’s a chance to let their hair down. None of their partners had actually seen them play before.” And this time. there’s no major record label or ‘biz’ pressure, either. “No - one of the great liberating feelings about doing this now is that we’re making

music for our own enjoyment, gratification and expression. We don’t have any pressure on us to be famous, have hit songs, get played on the radio. It’s been great to just focus on the creativity and enjoyment - and whatever happens, happens.” What: Unfamiliar Places is out on Riverland Records With: Alannah & Simon (The Hummingbirds), Peter Fenton (Crow), The Glammarays (feat. Jodi Phillis) Where: Notes Live, Newtown When: Friday May 6

“Come on now, sugar / Bring it on, bring it on, yeah / Just remember me when you’re good to go” - THE DANDY WARHOLS 16 :: BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11

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Popboomerang Foster The Roster By Nathan Jolly

“T

he original goal was to discover the best Australian pop rock bands, develop them within the country and help break them internationally. This hasn’t changed.”

Scott Thurling, founder and sole operator of Melbourne label Popboomerang, is discussing the steady stream of releases that have flowed through his label since an inaugural compilation in 2003 introduced it to the country, as well as bands like Starky, The Smallgoods and Treetops. A handful of the label’s newer signings are set to hit Sydney this week for a label night that will double as the launch of Electric And Eclectic - a new compilation showcasing the embarrassment of unreleased riches in the label’s vault. These days, for a multitude of reasons, it’s becoming increasingly hard for an independent record label to operate at any level of functionality. Thurling was fortunate to launch Popboomerang in the right climate, and the strong and nurturing Melbourne music scene has seen the label thrive in tough conditions ever since. “It was the tail end of an era when guitar pop was the flavour on radio, and in favor with the industry,” recalls Thurling, of the label’s inception. “There had been a bit of a feeding frenzy where larger labels snapped up the indie bands in the mid-to-late ‘90s. CDs were still booming when we started, but vinyl

was declining and downloading was just being introduced. There was a bigger collectors market out there, seeking b-sides and non-album tracks from the pop bands, than there seems to be now.” With physical sales slowing down across the industry at large, Thurling has taken the entire Popboomerang back catalogue online; the label’s bandcamp site serves as a one-stop shop and a showcase of the ongoing quality of their roster. It’s also a testament to a lot of hard work. “It has been hard,” Thurling readily admits. “Especially not having any partners involved and having to maintain a day job to make ends meet. But being the lone decision-maker has been empowering. It’s good to learn from your mistakes and not to be able to blame anyone else. But with revenues from traditional music sales declining and traditional costs of doing business pretty static … it is very hard to keep dollars flowing in.” A push into the Sydney live scene will hopefully see the label’s good fortunes continue. The May 7 showcase at The Basement is to feature Popboomerang acts Mark Lang (Skipping Girl Vinegar), the very un-AC/DC Bon Scotts, Russell Crawford & The Stickmen and Celadore. Tom Ahmed of Celadore is, not surprisingly, forward in singing Thurling’s praises. “You

Clockwise from left: The Bon Scotts, Mark Lang, Aerial Maps

become a part of a family within the label and are quickly opened to many new opportunities,” he says. “It’s fantastic to have someone who really believes in, as well as supports, what you are doing. Being a part of a smaller label means you really feel you’re working closely together to achieve your band’s goals, as well as those of the label.” For Damien Sutton, years spent following the label made it a natural home for his band, The Bon Scotts. “I’ve liked most of what the label has released over the years, so when it came to releasing the album we only really looked at four labels,” he explains. “Scott came to one of our shows and obviously liked what we were doing, and it’s been pretty good since then.”

With a string of releases penned in for the rest of the year, Popboomerang certainly isn’t going anywhere. “There are disappointments and frustrations and kicks in the belly,” Thurling admits. “[But] I’ll know when the time is right to wind things up, and it does not feel like that time now.” What: Electric and Eclectic is out now on Popboomerang With: The Aerial Maps, Mark Lang, The Bon Scotts, Russell Crawford & The Stickmen and Celadore Where: The Basement When: Saturday May 7 More: www.popboomerang.com

Darwin Deez photo by Pieter M Van Hattem

Maroon 5 The Nomadic Life By Birdie

Darwin Deez Even Hugier By Rach Seneviratne

ccording to rumours that spouted last year from the charming frontman Adam Levine, Hands All Over was set to be Maroon 5’s third and final album. But as guitarist Jesse Carmichael clarifies, ladies the world over can breathe easy – it was just a bit of nonsense. “Adam started this rumour and it kind of got out of control,” Carmichael explains. “He said it on purpose, I think, just to get people kind of talking… We’re the last people to know what we’re doing in the future! I think Adam said that we’ve achieved as much as we could and that we may do one more album and then call it day - but Hands All Over came out and we’ve got some new songs already, so I don’t believe we’ve reached some kind of peak at all.” Featuring the criminally-catchy ‘Misery’, the gold-certified third effort saw the L.A. pop/ funk-rockers in a two-month lockdown with legendary producer Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange (AC/DC, Def Leppard, Nickelback) in a breathtaking Swiss location last year. Carmichael claims that Hands All Over wasn’t Maroon 5’s peak, but with a guest appearance from the Grammy’s favourite Nashville trio, Lady Antebellum, it seems like it came pretty damn close. “[Lake Geneva] was such an inspirational place to work - it’s a very beautiful setting,” says Carmichael. “You’re in this studio and you’ve got these amazing mountains behind you. It’s a huge contrast to what you’re used to in L.A. The song ‘Out Of Goodbyes’ [feat. Lady Antebellum] was the only one actually written in its entirety in Switzerland, just from sitting by the waters and soaking in the scenery. “I just love the adventure of travelling; I’m totally comfortable being away from home all the time. I’ve done so much touring by now… At first, you force yourself to get used to the

idea that wherever you find yourself is your home, [but] after a little while it just becomes second nature and you start to crave it.” ‘Free as a bird’ has been the motto so far, but Carmichael does add that one of these days it could be time to settle down. Maybe. Depends on how the band’s upcoming Australian jaunt goes, too… “I’m going to meet my future wife in Australia!” laughs Carmichael. “No really, I love the accent! It’s pretty much my favourite place in the whole world, I never get as excited about going anywhere else. I love the ocean and I love the people, nobody else has the same attitude. But, you know, before that happens, there’s still a few things to get done. This tour should take us all around the world for the rest of the year, so after that we’ll want a bit of time off. As I said, we’ve got some new songs, too so that’s the part I’m very excited about.” And while a much more soulful, R&B style is the band’s penchant at this point, it ain’t very likely Maroon 5 will repeat the formula on its next effort. “I really enjoyed collaborating with Lady Antebellum because they’re like the parallel band to us, only in the country world. I also enjoyed the way that that song came to life – so spontaneously. I love it when music has that magic feeling, when it comes from a spark and not something premeditated. I like the idea of people coming together from all different scenes and collaborating,” he says. “We’re a band that borrows many different styles, so you never really know what’s coming around the corner.” With: Sara Bareilles, Ry Cuming Where: The Acer Arena When: Friday May 6

“J

ustin Bieber’s phone.” Oh, I was hoping to speak to Darwin Deez...? “I don’t know who that is, I’ve never heard of him. This is Justin Bieber. Justin Weezy F Bieber. This is Dustin Bieber actually. I don’t make music. I work in the electromagnetic section of Home Depot.” From anyone other than this lanky, ringlet-clad New York geek boy, I’d be a bit thrown. But knowing that it is in fact Deez (neé Smith) on the other end of the line, I would almost have been surprised if he didn’t answer the phone with a Biebs impersonation. Deez’ trademark sound has made waves in most parts of the world where people like to have fun. His brand of kooky guitars and palpitating lo-fi beats sounds something like The Strokes crossed with jumping castles, which is a win in almost anyone’s book - and apparently, anyone’s list. He made NME’s Annual Cool List in 2010, but remains fairly sage about his position within a top ten that could potentially masturbate someone’s ego to the point where they ejaculate bravado. “I’ll tell you what the cool part of it is: people actually listening to [my] music in large numbers.” It’s a grounded wisdom not usually associated with the insta-fame of a young indiepop upstart, so I’m not surprised when Deez explains that he’s actually been around the traps for a while. He earned his stripes at New York’s Sidewalk Cafe, a venue that spawned the likes of Regina Spektor and Adam Green. “Naturally it’s a cool thing, ‘cos I’ve been making music for fifteen years… This album is the first time that I’ve really been successful.” His self-titled debut album spawned ‘Radar Detector’, ‘Up In The Clouds’ and ‘Constellations’, high energy, high humour pop songs that saw hordes of people worldwide finally take a shine to his music – but Deez doesn’t see himself as a one trick pony. His sophomore intentions are for bigger and better things that extend beyond the limited spectrum of DIY indie pop. “I’m very inspired by

the huge, colossal songs on that Coldplay album, X&Y; I’m really impressed by people’s response to that kind of music.” So if the hype surrounding Darwin Deez is stained by ‘hipster’ tags, it’s all just media fodder – there’s a higher sonic cloud he sits on, no matter where the wind blows it. Deez is in it for the music, man. “There’s an intrinsic joy to creation,” he says. “Y’know, that’s kind of the bottom line for all of it. You’ve gotta keep experimenting when you write music ... If I’m gonna make another record and put more than a year’s worth of energy into it, then part of me wants it to be the biggest, poppiest, hugiest stadium kinda record.” Next month’s Australian tour will see Darwin and his fellow Deezes give our nation a lesson in how to bring it. As any who caught 2010’s Parklife tour know, these guys add a whole other dimension to what it is to see a band ‘live’ – kinda like watching Avatar in 3D, but with two pairs of those glasses on. “Playing live is exciting for us,” Deez says, coyly. By “exciting” he means: intermittently broken up by minute-long dance breaks, where the whole band is led by Deez in a kind of boogie that’s halfway between the ‘Single Ladies’ and ‘Lotus Flower’ dances, with a couple of teaspoons of Jagger thrown in. On top of that, Deez might be busting out a few rhymes from his self-described “concept album” (rap mixtape). “I do my own raps, so yeah, I’ll probably play one for fun. We also do covers! We did Paul Simon, The Cranberries, Green Day...” Yep - probably the coolest guy that was ever raised by disciples of Meher Baba. But that’s another story altogether. With: Owl Eyes Where: The Metro Theatre (licenced all-ages) When: Tuesday May 10 More: Also playing a DJ set at Last Night @ The Gaelic Theatre, on Friday May 6

“And I have known love, like a whore / from at least 10,000 more / Then I swore when you were the last...” - THE DANDY WARHOLS 18 :: BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11

John Legend On Adele, Obama and Kanye West By Hugh Robertson

uring the 2008 US Presidential Election, Barack Obama was inspiring millions with the potential for change at the same time as the country was nosediving into its worst recession in generations. It was truly a doubleedged sword, as the same economic conditions that struck the final blow against Bush’s Republicans continued throughout Obama’s time in office, dominating the national discourse and severely limiting his ability to deliver on his election promises. It was this combination of hope and frustration that inspired the recording of Wake Up!, an album of ‘60s and ‘70s soul songs re-recorded by John Legend and The Roots. They aren’t quite ‘protest songs’; perhaps a more accurate description would be ‘social awareness songs’. And sadly, the circumstances that inspired the album still exist two and a half years later. “There’s still a lot of frustration for the American public,” Legend tells me from across his hotel’s table, on a rainy ANZAC Day. “They get a sense that in Washington, despite Obama’s efforts to bring people together, it’s still very hard to get anything done. There’s still a lot of gridlock, a lot of partisanship, a lot of people scoring political points without doing anything much to improve the situation. [The politicians] are talking at each other, and they’re hurling ultimata and invective, but not solutions. So it’s frustrating to watch sometimes – you just want to throw up your hands and say ‘Argh! This is ridiculous!’”

little less synthetic, something that’s a little more real and raw.” Legend talks a lot about not wanting to stay still, about changing his sound and constantly evolving. Since he and Kanye West have been collaborators and friends throughout their entire careers, it seems obvious to ask: does Legend think My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy raised the bar? “I think every artist looks at Kanye’s projects and is challenged by them - particularly in hip hop and soul - because he’s always at the forefront, creatively doing things that are ahead of the pack,” he says. “And so when he makes a great album it makes me think that I’ve got to challenge myself - not to make an album like his, but to make an album that’s as challenging and as interesting as his is. “And it’s not like I’m thinking about his album from afar - we’re actually working together [on my next album]. It’s really interesting to see him transfer his energy to a soul album, as opposed to a hip hop album.” What: Wake Up! is out now through Sony

“Adele might be part of the signal that the pendulum is swinging back to something that’s a little less synthetic, something that’s a little more real and raw.”

Burlesque

The motivation behind Wake Up! was to capture both sides of the zeitgeist, to voice America’s frustrations while representing the hope and possibility of genuine, lasting change. But Legend knows he’s not going to change the world with a gig. When playing his own shows he mixes the Wake Up! material in with the rest of his backcatalogue (“I’ve only got ninety minutes, and I’ve released four albums, so I have to try and cover everybody’s favourites,” he says) - and even when he’s playing a show with The Roots, and they do play most of Wake Up!, Legend is uncertain how much impact the show itself has. “The crowd definitely gets into it, but I never know if that’s because it’s great music and great to listen to, or if they are really getting into the lyrics and really intently focusing on the subject matter,” he says. “But I don’t really need them to be super focused on the lyrics at the show, I just need them to be inspired, and enjoy it, and feel good, and be energised by it. And then hopefully, they will listen to the album and digest the lyrics a little bit more, on a more personal level.” Given that the album is filled with songs written by black artists, covered by black artists, and containing messages that seem aimed squarely at black kids, I’m interested to know if Legend feels the material translates when he plays for a predominantly white audience - like his State Theatre shows in Sydney last week. He agrees that the songs do come from an uniquely black experience, but actually sees that as beneficial. “When the songs were first made, they weren’t just consumed by black people but by people across the spectrum. And that’s the exciting thing about some of the best black music over the years, like Public Enemy and a lot of the great hip hop of the last twenty years. It was expressing an inherently black point of view, but it was consumed by people across the spectrum. And I felt the same thing about this album: that even though it was expressing things from a black point of view, people could listen to it regardless of what they look like or where they come from.” It seems like there’s much to look forward to for John Legend. His next album is looking good for an early-2012 release, and he tells me that he feels the Top 40 is finally ready for something with a little more substance to it. In fact he’s been feeling optimistic about ‘pop’ in general, since the tremendous success of Adele - the British singer currently dominating the charts in the USA with a sound that couldn’t be more removed from your Biebers and Guettas. “It’s good for the world that somebody like Adele is doing well,” he says. “I think it’s wonderful. It gives everybody hope that the world’s not going to shit, and that it’s not all super-saccharine pop music, and it’s not all four to the floor dance... it’s not all that. And I think Adele might be part of the signal that the pendulum is swinging back to something that’s a d 1

BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11 :: 19

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brushstrokes WITH CURATORS BEC

DEAN & LIZZIE MULLER

by artist Jo Law. The objects range from calculators and recording devices to instruments that measure the distance between stars in the cosmos.

s part of Performance Space’s Spring season, entitled Uneasy Futures, they’re hosting Awfully Wonderful – an exhibition that explores science fiction’s visions of the future, through art, technology and design. The line-up of 12 Australian artists includes Adam Norton and his Mars Gravity Simulator, Hayden Fowler’s living diorama (pictured left), plus works by experimental and ‘public art’ practitioner Deborah Kelly, photographers David Lawrey & Jaki Middleton, and video artist Sam Smith. To find out more about the exhibition, we took five with its curators, Bec and Lizzie… What inspired you to create the Awfully Wonderful exhibition? Why science fiction – and why now? Science fiction is a fantastical and really accessible way in which to imagine future possibilities. Sci-fi has operated in this way through literature and film for the entire scope of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Early ideas of utopia and concepts of the future looked towards the millennium as ‘The Future’, and now we are standing in it. William Gibson, one of our favourite and most obvious influences, has famously quoted “The future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed”, and you can see examples of this televised daily, with billionaires flying into space and refugees queuing for inadequate rations in camps all over the world. Presentday situations of post-scarcity and extreme scarcity exist in parallel with many others. So in thinking about this exhibition, we were interested in how Australian artists are conceiving of the future in their own times.

The exhibition includes ideas of space travel, extinction, biological change and evolution, technological advancement, apocalypse, and the neverending equations that underpin our existence. What is the ‘Wonder Chamber’? And how does it relate to Awfully Wonderful? The Wonder Chamber, Wunderkammer or Cabinet of Curiosities was a popular form of object display in certain parts of Europe from the 17th Century. It was a way of showing not only one’s wealth, but the scope of one’s interests and intellectual pursuits. It combined artworks with antiquities and scientific objects, drawing no clear distinctions between them. In this exhibition, we have used the Wonder Chamber as an open-ended strategy to inform our selection of works. Also, for part of the exhibition we have selected ten objects from the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney that have been interpreted and displayed

Uma Draws On Steamy Window by Sam Harris

POSTCARDS FROM HOME

As part of the Head On Festival, expat London rock’n’roll snapper Sam Harris is opening an exhibition of new work this week. Having carved a successful 10-year career photographing the likes of Blur, Jarvis Cocker and Johnny Lydon, for mazines like Esquire, Dazed & Confused and Raygun, the self-taught photographer had a massive sea change in 2002, embarking on several years of travel with his family. In 2008 he settled in Western Australia, where he teaches photography and documents his family – especially his two young daughters. Postcards from Home gathers these domestic moments in a collection that is as beautiful as it is intimate. Opens May 6 at Global Gallery, 5 Comber St. Paddington.

What are both of your backgrounds as curators? As curators we work very differently, but we have a shared interest in new technologies, the uptake of new technologies by contemporary artists and how these engage audiences. Strangely though, while Awfully Wonderful is an exhibition that considers the future, it is not primarily an exhibition of new media technologies. Lizzie is an independent curator and is currently senior lecturer at the Design School of the University of Technology, Sydney. Bec has worked for the Performance Space as associate director for the last four years. What is your favourite sci-fi film/novel of all time – and why? Lizzie’s favorite sci-fi novel is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, which fascinated her since she was a child. Bec’s favorite film of all time is the original Alien by Ridley Scott, the blue-collar space horror that she has watched about 500 times since she first saw it in 1989. What: Awfully Wonderful When: Runs until May 14 / Mon-Sat, 10am - 5pm (NB: the Mars Gravity Simulator only operates on Saturdays, from 11am-12pm) Where: CarriageWorks foyer More: performancespace.com.au

It’s Mothers Day on Sunday May 8, and we reckon you should take yours to see this delightful film, which follows four babies from four different countries, from their birth til their very first steps. Their names are Ponijao, Bayarjargal, Mari and Hattie, and they live in Namibia, Mongolia, Japan and the United States. It’s pretty much an hour and a half of adventure, action, humor and tumbles that’s guaranteed to melt your mum’s heart, and bring back golden memories of your diaper days… Babies opens on May 5 – and thanks to Madman, we have 15 double passes up for grabs; to get your hands on one, email freestuff@thebrag.com with what you’re getting your mum for Mother’s Day BESIDES a double pass to Babies…

CHALK HORSE MOVES

TOUGH TITTIES: ZINE!

VIVID: CREATIVE SYDNEY

ALL THE BEST: LIBRARIES

Chalk Horse gallery have a new address! Don’t panic, it’s still in Surry Hills – rubbing shoulders with Roller Gallery, in fact, at 8 Lacey Street. To celebrate, they’re doing what they do best: an exhibition! Chalk Horse founder Jasper Knight will open his latest exhibition of works this week – Sydney Boat Show. Only in his early 30s, Knight has already amassed an intimidating CV of solo exhibitions, founded one of Sydney’s most interesting galleries, and won a silly amount of scholarships and prizes for his particular brand of pop art. To see what all the fuss is about and check out the new digs, head along on Thursday May 5 from 6pm. chalkhorse.com.au

Creative Sydney – newly rebranded as Vivid Creative Sydney, we note – has just dropped its 2011 line-up, so put May 30 – June 4 in your diary. Not to be confused with an arts festival, Creative Sydney is focused on the business of being creative, rather than the inspiration behind creativity, or the development of new works. Besides the name, there are some other changes this year: the event has been compressed into just six days, and divided into three segments: Show & Tell (May 30 – June 3), In Conversation (May 30 – June 3), and Creative Futures (June 4). It’s also moved digs, from the MCA to the Sydney Opera House’s Playhouse. Stand-out participants include Etsy's EU director, filmmaker Ben Briand, and the founder of Future Shorts and Secret Cinema. creativesydney.com.au

From Emily Hunt's Sixteen Straws series

AMPERSAND: ISSUE 3

Our favourite curiosity journal, Ampersand, are launching their third issue this Thursday with a games night at Serial Space, involving tunes! (from DJ Tyson Koh) Readings! Trivia! The Box Game! Prizes! Dancing! Entry is just $10, which includes your own copy of #3, entitled The Fade, featuring writings, photos and illustrations from Eddie Sharp, Emily Hunt and The Drones, Nick Sun, Claudia O’Doherty, Lucy Kaldor, SPOD, Adam Hill, Rita Kalnejais, Laura Jean, Darren Hanlon, Craig Schuftan and more – plus the winners of Ampersand’s Capture The Fade photography competition, with an intro by judge Bill Henson. Serial Space on Thursday May 5 from 6pm. ampersandmagazine.com.au

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MOTHERS DAY! BABIES!

Run by Alex and Lou, Tough Titties is a colourful blog that promotes the amazing (creative) things women do. TT have a table at the MCA’s Zine Fair this year, so they’re making a physical, paperbased ZINE type thing, featuring stories of tough titties from the modern day to the dark ages. “We’re not talking Mother Teresas or Tilly Devines here either,” says Alex. “We want to hear about the legends of your suburbs, your neighbour down the street, some woman your mum told you about from the ‘50s, or an urban myth that you once heard about and always remember.” If you want to contribute something in written or graphic form, the deadline is May 7, and the rest of the details can be found at toughtitties.com.au

FBi Radio’s All The Best team are hitting up the Late Night Library program at Surry Hills Library, with an evening of stories themed around LIBRARIES, featuring zinester extraordinaire Vanessa Berry, Catriona Menzies (New Matilda), spoken word poetess Briohny Doyle (passionpoppistol.blogspot.com), and Elmo Keep, reading from an essay she wrote about American Psycho, for the current issue of Meanjin. The evening will be hosted by All The Best’s Jesse Cox, and we hear there’ll even be a chance to share your own stories… Thursday May 5 from 9pm at Surry Hills Library, 405 Crown Street. It’s FREE, but bookings are essential – 8374 6230.

TWIST & SHOUT

Twist and Shout is on this Friday at Sydney’s freshest jive joint, Tone. You should go. The kids at Twist & Shout not only look better, dress better and have better haircuts – they also dance better, have more fun, and party like it’s 1968. Zing! For just $5 on the door you can get all the 1960s rock, soul, surf, psych, rhythm and blues you can handle, We’ll see you there: Friday March 6 from 9pm-late. For warm-up exercises, head to soundcloud.com/dylanbehan

GESUNDHEIT! 34B BERLIN!

It was only a matter of time until Messr. Bublé took 34B Burlesque to smokey 1930s Berlin – the home of burlesque, the honorary fatherland of cabaret, and a site of the steaming artistic underground that had all Europe talking. Your train leaves May 14, fuelled by the beats of FBi’s Jack Shit, conducted by Francois Büble himself, and your travel companions include Kira Hulala, Audrey L’Espionne, Ember Flame, Briana Bluebell, Electrik Dreams, and Dizze Der Kazz. A brave new world of burlesque awaits! Pre-sale tickets are $20 for general admission, $30 for a reserved table (min. three persons) and more on the door, through moshtix.com.au 34B – 44 Oxford St Darlinghurst.

Jackass prankster Steve-O tells Alasdair Duncan about how his long battle with addiction – and his ability to staple his own scrotum to his leg – became the basis for his stand-up comedy act.

Something To Prove W

hen your friends stage e an intervention to tell you u that you have a drug problem, em, you know there’s a problem; when hen it’s Johnny Knoxville setting up p the intervention, you know that the e problem is pretty serious. It was as this very experience that convinced inced Jackass prankster Steve-O to find a new path in life. “I’ve been sober ober ever since Knoxville stepped in n and pulled an intervention on me,” he tells me. “It was him and a bunch nch of the other Jackass guys – they had me locked up in a psych ward to get me to stop hurting myself, which, ch, in and of itself, was pretty hilarious.” us.” He pauses at this point, reflecting on the situation. “I mean, given the fact ct that these people had been encouraging raging me to hurt myself for the last 10 0 years, it seemed somewhat ironic.” onic.” Steve-O is best known for his exploits in the Jackass franchise – you’ve ’ve probably seen him being chased ed by a bull, jumping off a tall structure cture or getting a tattoo of his own face ace across the whole of his back – but

these days, he’s more interested ed in the world wo of comedy. “I got into stand-up almost five years ago,” he says. “Somebody dy had invited me to a comedy club to do something crazy, so I showed up and somet walked walke in, and it occurred to me that the craziest thing I could do would cra ould be to try stand-up.” It seemed like such an outrageous idea, he had to do it. out When his time came, he was terrifi errified he would bomb, but it turned out wo ut not to be the case. “I came up with some stuff, I got up there and did it, and, to my very great surprise, I got some laughs. From that moment, nt, I was hooked. Also, I was really into h the ide idea that stand-up comedy y might afford me a way to not have to break bones and shove things up my y butt.” Much of Steve-O’s current act draws on his experiences with drugs, and h he talks about his many lows ows in a candid and deadpan fashion. ca on. For example, the intervention that ex hat Knoxville and friends staged was Knoxv actually actual the fourth he’d experienced, enced,

although althou the first three, he tellss me, were entirely imaginary. “There e e were a few occasions when I was doing oing drugs to the point where I watched ched people walk in and sit down to have a talk, all concerned about me,, and literally, it turned out they were lit never there,” he says. “That’s how ow fucked up my shit was. You know ow you’ve got a bad problem when n your hallucinations are worried about halluc ut you. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s ’s completely true, and in retrospect, compl ect, kind of o hilarious.” The enduring popularity of the e Jackass Jacka series – enough to inspire spire a third instalment recently, in 3D D – is also a subject on Steve-O’s mind. nd. “What kind of a world do we live ve in where that show is still popular?” r?” he asks, sounding a little exasperated. ated. “The fact that I get paid to hurt myself f is ridiculous enough, but now people ridic are paying to see that in 3D? Iff you pa use Jackass as a barometer for Ja or the direction directi our society’s going in,, it’s pretty clear we’re in a downward rd spiral. I mean, when a kid comes es

up to me and says he wants to do what I’ve done when he grows up, I I just have to laugh – I mean, I’m h ’m a professional dipshit.” Again, he prof pauses pause for a minute. “I mean, in n the act, I a also talk about how sincerely erely grateful gratef I am that society’s in a downward spiral, because otherwise, downw erwise, I’d probably be unemployed and pro d homeless.” home Though Thoug he’s touring as a comedian, dian, Steve-O Steve- is aware that much of his notoriety notorie still comes from Jackass, ass, and he promises that fans of the e show won’t walk w away disappointed .... in other words, there will be stunts. w s. “As soon as a I started headlining and d doing my own ow tour, I knew I didn’t have ve it in me to let people sell tickets to oa Steve-O Steve- tour if I wasn’t going to do at least some of the outrageous stunts s tunts and tricks I’m known for,” he says. tr ys. “I would feel like I was letting people ple down if I was to go out and just do comedy. comed As soon as I started touring, ouring, I decided decide I would do a set of stand-up, nd-up, and then th some tricks at the end. d. The comedy’s comed what I’m working on now,

but it’s important for me to give fans the best be show I can, and that includes doing a bunch of crazy shit.” Sobriety Sobrie hasn’t dulled Steve-O’s passion passio for crazy stunts – it’s just made him more aware of what’s at stake. “If you look at the last Jackass movie,” movie he tells me, “I was clearly dreading the stunts more than ever dread before. before I was terrified that sobriety had turned me into a pussy, but at tu the same time, I felt I had something sa to prove. prov My sobriety made for a more interesting dynamic in that movie, movie I think. The fact that I was visibly dreading the stunts so much made my contribution to the movie more compelling. Seeing me dread it c that much makes my footage better. m Like I said man, I really felt I had something to prove.” somet What: W hat Steve-O – The Entirely Too Much Information Tour When: W hen Saturday May 21 Where: W her The Enmore Theatre Tickets: T icke ticketek.com.au

SOURCE CODE! TICKETS! WIN! T

he highly-anticipated second feature from British filmmaker Duncan Jones (Moon) teams Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan in a romantic, sci-fi action-thriller exploring time travel and parallel realities. The plot revolves around a pilot involved in a top secret military operation that involves him reliving the same eight minutes on repeat, in a race against time to discover the identity of a bomber before he strikes again. Source Code opens on May 5. Thanks to Hopscotch, we have ten in-season double passes to this film up for grabs; to get your hands on one, email freestuff@ thebrag.com with your postal address, and the name of Duncan Jones’ famous uncle from Mars.

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Jospeh Parra in Applespiel's Executive Stress/ Corporate Retreat

Cheer Up Kid [TINY STADIUMS] The many faces of Nat Randall By Dee Jefferson Irwin’ character, which she developed as part of Performance Space’s NightTime Statewide touring program last year. "I get quite anxious sometimes in public situations," Randall admits. "[Making up characters] is a way to kind of deflect. That bear character came about when I was really drunk one night, and I was in an awkward situation, and I just kind of-" (she slips into a working-class British accent). "For me [the characters] are kind of an escape; [and] it's a way to be kind of really honest with people, but in a more digestible and comedic way."

Applespiel

[TINY STADIUMS] Executive Stress/Corporate Retreat By Lucy Fokkema

ooking razor sharp and more than a bit dapper in their suits, the members of Applespiel look more like escaped accountancy interns from Ernst & Young than members of an experimental performance collective.

go – but it might only be Ol' Dirty Bastard, or whatever. So the idea is that Applespiel has a very broad history of work and has performed at lots of different festivals [even if each individual member has only appeared in a handful of shows each].”

Troy, Nikki, Simon, Rachel, Nathan and Joe are mid-rehearsal for their new production, Executive Stress/Corporate Retreat, which is debuting as part of Erskineville’s ‘live arts’ festival, Tiny Stadiums. Palms a little sweatsticky from running the torturous beep test in their suits, they shake hands with me – boardmeeting style – before launching into the intricacies of tying a double Windsor tie knot.

Inspired by real-life team-building retreats, Executive Stress/Corporate Retreat teaches you, the audience, “how to be better at your job,” including essential business skills, such as tie knotes, job interview skills, and finding your ‘business spirit animal’.

Like Team MESS before them, the Applespiel collective is made up of fresh graduates from the University of Wollongong’s Performance program. They make diverse works that range from live art to performance art, but always with a focus on the relationship between audience and artist. “In all our works we’ve tried to make that dynamic and interesting for us, and for the audience,” explains Nathan Harrison. Over the past year they’ve presented work at all the major fringe arts festivals – Underbelly Arts, Tiny Stadiums, This Is Not Art festival, the Sydney Fringe Festival and more. It’s an astonishing laundry list for a bunch of kids who’ve only been working together for two years. “We know! It’s crazy! It’s so crazy!” exclaims Nathan. It might have something to do with Applespiel’s cleverly efficient collaborative model: by sharing members of the nine-strong collective across different projects, they can exchange skills and divide tasks between members. It also allows them to be more prolific than your average performance collective, because they rarely have to say no to an opportunity. “We call it the Wu-Tang Clan model,” explains Simon Binns. “The idea is that every time the Wu-Tang Clan performs the poster says Wu-Tang performing and everyone wants to

iOTA plays host in Smoke & Mirrors

“Don’t give the whole show away!” laughs Rachel Roberts. I won’t, but there’s a leaderboard tracking the evening’s activities, and the winner will be rewarded with a prize that Applespiel assure me they’d all like in their Christmas stockings. “[Corporate Retreat] is our take on the corporate thing, and we’re mixing in our own experiences; but part of the appeal is that… for us, all of this interview stuff is not everyday, it’s things we’ve come across [in research]. It’s all these things that we’re fascinated by, filtered through us,” explains Joseph Parro. “I just worry that we haven’t gone far enough,” says Simon, before launching into an anecdote about paintball and competitive violence in team-building exercises. And after all that research, what corporate gems do these young executives have to share before the show’s premiere on May 4? What have they gleaned from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have. That’s our tag,” concludes Simon. What: Executive Stress/Corporate Retreat – as part of Tiny Stadiums Festival When: May 4 – 15 (Wed-Sunday) at 7pm Where: PACT Theatre, Erskinville More: pact.net.au

ver the last six months, Nat Randall’s name has cropped up thick and fast around Sydney – from Imperial Panda Festival's Some Film Museums I Have Known and Man Up: A Series of Male Impersonations, to Firstdraft gallery’s April Fools' fundraising party and Penguin Plays Rough. In actual fact, Randall has been pretty active, via local performance collectives Team MESS and Bake Sale For Art, since she graduated from Wollongong University’s Performance program in 2008 – but it’s only recently that she ventured out into solo projects. “I’ve been kind of finding my feet in the performance art and queer performance scenes,” Randall reflects. “[Going solo] is quite daunting – but I do enjoy my own company quite a bit, and I do get carried away with different voices and characters… [Recently] I’ve really been working quite hard at solidifying all of these desires I’ve had – you know, in collaborative contexts, when you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s an idea for me – no-one else really wants to pursue that’; I kind of had a big bank of things that I’ve been wanting to do for some time.” Randall’s latest work, Cheer Up Kid, allows her to exorcise some of these ideas. “It’s sort of like a pastiche of all these different characters that have come about over the last couple of years,” she explains. For example, it will feature a reprise of the character she performed for the Man Up show – a gorgeously shy and earnest British ‘bear’, complete with leather cap, moustache and wife-beater. On the other end of the spectrum is a little girl – a progression of her ‘Bindi

The genesis for Cheer Up Kid was an obscure statistical report that Randall stumbled across during research for her Bindi character. “It was about how kids feel in public situations, ,” she recalls. “All of these kids had all of these insane anxieties about really mundane things that adults take for granted – like going to a restaurant, kids get really anxious, and they feel unwanted… I don’t know, I just find the way in which kids deal with things [really interesting]. I love the idea of what a tantrum is, and what a tantrum does to kids.” Nat compares the structure of Cheer Up Kid to Lily Tomlin’s live stand-up shows, where the actress/comedienne flips between fully developed and distinct characters, which she has been working on for years. Nat describes her own cast of characters as eccentric, funny and vulnerable. “[That bear character] and the other two characters that I play in this piece are bits of me as well as well as bits inspired by films, and other crazy, eccentric parents and children on YouTube…” Digging deeper into those film influences, she says, “I wouldn’t really call myself a film buff, but the likes of Lily Tomlin (in The Incredible Shrinking Woman) and Carol Channing (in Alice In Wonderland) – these really very powerful, eccentric women, often quite vulnerable, and flawed, hilarious but disturbing – they affected me as a child.” What: Cheer Up Kid – as part of Tiny Stadiums Festival When: May 4 – 15 (Wed-Sunday) at 8.30pm Where: PACT Theatre, Erskinville More: pact.net.au

Smoke & Mirrors W

hen it debuted almost 18 months ago, Smoke & Mirrors had the unenviable task of stepping into La Clique’s very large and very popular shoes as the “outrageous” circus-style show of the Sydney Festival season. Commissioned by the Festival to replace that iconic show, director Craig Illot and performer iOTA were carrying a heavy burden of expectation on their shoulders. Fast forward, and Smoke & Mirrors is about to get its third Sydney remount, besides sell-out runs in Melbourne, Adelaide and the Edinburgh Fringe, and three Helpmann Awards. On the eve of their February season at Melbourne’s Arts Centre, I chatted to co-writer and star iOTA about the origins of the show, and the magical atmosphere of The Famous Spiegeltent.

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anachronisms: a travelling cabaret salon, housed in an elaborate mirror tent, modelled after the early-20th-Century originals – all dark wooden panels, cloudy mirrors, and draped velvet. “It is just such a marvellous space, and it’s a big part of our show,” iOTA enthuses. “It’s really one of the main characters. It transforms your reality once you are in there and seated.”

& Mirrors: whereas the former is a line-up of discreet acts that can be switched around and interchanged, Smoke & Mirrors (as iOTA keenly emphasises in our interview) is more of a theatre piece. “Each performer is integral to the entire show, they can’t be removed and replaced by another performer. They perform for a purpose that makes sense for the show to work.”

Smoke & Mirrors embraces the dirty, sexy, beautifully bent spirit of the Spiegeltent, delivering a tapas of alternative vaudeville and sideshow treats – a bearded lady with a siren song; a magician; several strongmen-acrobats, and troupe of musicians – all bound together by demented cabaret-host extraordinaire, iOTA.

However the real emotional core of Smoke & Mirrors is the character of the host, and consequently, the show's success owes a great deal to iOTA’s charismatic performance, which utilises his unique skills, built over two decades of performing – from starting life as a singer-songwriter, to his transition into theatre in 2005, when he scored the lead in Craig Illot’s stage version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch (a role that saw him beat out Hugh Jackman for the Best Male Actor at the 2006 Helpmann Awards). “Long story short I haven’t stopped working since.”

“The original inspiration was the tent,” iOTA explains. “When we started out it was going to be a Snow White-esque tale, and we were looking for the right girl to play that role and we just couldn’t find her, which made us realise that the Snow White theme just wasn’t a good fit for the tent anyway, so it slowly morphed into something else.”

“[My character] is poking the audience, telling them that they are all wearing masks,” iOTA explains. “I am up there asking them ‘What are they hiding behind that mask they wear? Let me take it off and have a look at what is behind it.’ As the show progresses, the audience sees that my character is also wearing a mask, as we all do, and he is gradually forced to admit it, to face up to who he really is.”

The Famous Spiegeltent is one of the performance world’s most beloved

This narrative arc is one of the key differentials between La Clique and Smoke

What: Smoke & Mirrors – return season When: May 4 – 14, early and late performances Where: Seymour Centre Tickets: seymourcentre.com

Smoke & Mirrors photo by Prudence Upton

[THEATRE] iOTA brings the magic back to Sydney for the third season of Smoke & Mirrors By Jack Franklin

“AN UNFORGETTABLE, RAMBUNCTIOUS, THEATRICAL EVENT... IT’S POWERFUL, SEXY AND DESTRUCTIVE.” AUSTRALIAN STAGE

“A DIVERSE, EXCITING PROGRAM” The Brag 2010

Dana Stephensen & Brett Simon • Photography—Paul Empson

Photo: Jeff Busby

BRECHT’S FIRST PLAY SCREAMS INTO THE 21ST CENTURY

BAAL by Bertolt Brecht

Translated by Simon Stone & Tom Wright

PREVIEWS FROM SATURDAY! WHARF 1 SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY

PREVIEW TIX ALL $60* STC BOX OFFICE (02) 9250 1777 SYDNEYTHEATRE.COM.AU/BAAL

Baal is presented in association with the exhibition The mad square: modernity in German art 1910 - 37 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales Aug-Nov 2011 Director Simon Stone Set & Lighting Designer Nick Schlieper Costume Designer Mel Page Composer & Sound Designer Stefan Gregory With Brigid Gallacher Geraldine Hakewill Louisa Hastings Edge Shelly Lauman Oscar Redding Chris Ryan Lotte St Clair Katherine Tonkin Thomas M Wright WARNING: Contains adult themes, nudity, violence, simulated sex scenes, drug references and very coarse language. A co-production of Sydney Theatre Company and Malthouse Melbourne

FIVE BOLD NEW BALLETS EXPLORING THE NOTION OF A MUSE SYDNEY THEATRE AT WALSH BAY 26 – 29 MAY

BOOK NOW Tickets $36 – $65* sydneytheatre.org.au or 02 9250 1999 *Transaction fee of $7 – $8 may apply

MORE INFO australianballet.com.au

*transaction fees may apply

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Arts Snap

Film & Theatre Reviews

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

What's playing on the silver screen and the bareboards around town.

■ Film

SOURCE CODE Released May 5

thor world premiere

PICS :: AM

First there was Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in The Adjustment Bureau, now there’s Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan in Source Code. It’s the second time this year that there’s been an intelligent science-fiction thriller with a romantic bent, and it’s hardly unwelcome. Here’s a movie that is intricately constructed, depicts people worth caring about and is grippingly suspenseful. On top of that, it has some worthy ideas, even if it curiously trades elegance for ambiguity in its final reel, to questionable effect.

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The elegance comes from the highconcept premise, which has a man (Gyllenhaal) reliving the same eightminutes preceding a devastating train explosion until he determines the bomber’s identity. At first he awakens on the train disoriented; he’s sure of his identity as Colter Stevens, a helicopter pilot currently on duty in Afghanistan, but unsure of everyone else’s. His closest connection becomes the woman sitting opposite him, the lovely and relaxed Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan), who sees him as a work colleague named Sean Fentress. More details about the why and how of his participation in this scheme are supplied by a professional but compassionate military officer, Ms. Goodwin, (Vera Farmiga, always a treat), who speaks to him via video-link between each eightminute loop.

modern worship

PICS :: TL

Whereas Bureau spun a whimsical theology around its Phillip K. Dick source material, Source Code purports to be an original story. Movie savvy viewers will however note obvious similarities to The Twilight Zone, Groundhog Day or even that old X-Files episode that found Mulder stuck in a time loop of a forever-exploding bank. Source Code, though, ends up being more than the sum of its influences. It’s flashier and more mainstream than director Duncan Jones’ splendid 2009 debut, Moon, but is as skilfully constructed. There’s more than a splash of Hitchcock in its themes and craft – even the slick opening montage of the Chicago skyline appears to have been temp-tracked with Bernard Herrmann’s score from North by Northwest.

20:04:11 :: Daniel Askill @ Gallery AS :: Cnr Liverpool and Forbes St, Sydney

Arts Exposed In our diary...

SEMI-PERMANENT 2011 Friday May 13 & Saturday May 14 Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour

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Joshua Blackman ■ Theatre

AS YOU LIKE IT Design Is Kinky presents

Annie Sperling's 'Candy Mosque'

Sparing precious time for character, though just enough to make us care about the affecting romance that develops between Gyllenhaal and Monaghan, Ben Ripley’s gimmicky but effective script is elevated by the performances. Gyllenhaal makes for a stoically determined hero, Monaghan brings nuance to a slight role, Farmiga gives everything emotional weight, and Jeffrey Wright does everything but twirl his moustache as Dr. Rutledge, the creator of the “Source Code” who’s more interested in the phenomenal possibilities of his technology than the human cost.

Semi-Permanent is the Australian mecca for creative souls; run by the Design is Kinky crew, who also publish the covetable EMPTY magazine, S-P brings together a line-up of the most exciting, cutting edge creative talent from Australia and abroad. This year’s drool-worthy line-up includes iconic Australian illustrator Reg Mombassa, production designer Annie Sperling (L.A.), typographic illustrator Gemma O’Brien, VFX pioneers FUEL, fashion photographer Kayt Jones (UK), fishermanturned-photographer Corey Arnold (Portland, USA), design duo WeBuyYourKids, creative agency Moffit.Moffit, design studio Alt Group (NZ), graphic designer and skate-label maven Michael Leon, plus recent additions Supervixen and photographer/illustrator Kelly Thompson (NZ)… We’ll see you there… semipermanent.com

Until May 7 / CarriageWorks I think I need to put it out there, I don’t like clowns. I don’t find clowns interesting. I’ve never been fascinated by them, I’ve never been scared of them, I just have a bit of a problem with excessive face make-up in general. This created somewhat of a problem for me watching Siren Theatre Company’s interpretation of As You Like It, which equated the magic and freedom offered by Shakespeare’s hideaway forest of Arden, with the magic and freedom offered by the travelling circus lifestyle. Here, Touchstone the fool is a happy clown, and Jacques the gloomy Lord a sad clown, with everyone else in the forest somewhere in between. That said, there were things I liked about Kate Gaul’s production. I’m a sucker

for live music on stage, and this show featured a three-piece band, often with additions from the actors, and singer Ali Hughes. However, the musical stylings of the night were quite melancholic, bringing the tone of the show down throughout, and leaving me as an audience member feeling off-balance for the majority of the performance. As far as the actors were concerned, success was mixed. Shauntelle Benjamin, a relative newcomer to Sydney’s stages, was the pick of the bunch with her expressive Rosalind; and with Julian Curtis by her side as Orlando, they made for a delightful leading couple. There was also a lot of joy in the supporting roles, with Jane Phegan and Alan Flowers delivering the verse with beauty and perfect comic timing. Unfortunately, there were many times when I felt most of the actors got caught in the moody atmosphere of the music and delivered the text to match, leaving much of the production with a feeling of sameness. More contrast would have livened up these scenes. Henry Florence ■ Theatre

SILENT DISCO Until June 4 / SBW Stables (Griffin) Silent Disco follows the intertwined lives of teenage lovers Tamara Brewster (Sophie Hennser) and Jasyn ‘Squid’ Donovan (Meyne Wyatt, recently in The Brothers Size) over the last eight weeks of their 12-week relationship, looking at how they interact with each other, how they interact with their respective families, and their teacher Mrs Petchall (Camilla Ah Kin). We open in the optimistic, ‘honeymoon’ phase of their brief relationship, and by the time the evening comes to a close, something has happened that will shock both teens into the next phase of young adulthood. In between, we watch as their family lives unravel; as they seek to cope with this turmoil, bad decisions are made and prices are paid. Interwoven throughout is the perspective of the teacher Mrs Petchall, in a series of reflective vignettes about students who have passed through her classroom over the years. Playwright Lachlan Philpott has plenty of experience both as a high school teacher, and director of youth theatre – and both these things are evident in the writing. Besides taking the ubiquitous iPod and the idea of the silent disco as his central metaphor, the text is infused with everyday details and vernacular that are familiar to anyone who has ever been a teenager (from the casual cruelty and cavalier racism of teenagers, to the angry bravado with which they manifest insecurity), and there is a real urgency and romance to Tamara and Jasyn’s relationship. It’s also clear that Philpott has written it with the staging very much in mind – this is a play to be performed, not read: the characters’ lines move between dialogue, interior monologue and narration with barely a pause; scenes overlap and spill into each other. Director Lee Lewis does a fine job of choreographing a lot of action and dialogue into the space and time afforded her. At times, for my personal taste, there was too much going on – I would have loved a little more breathing room between scenes. The perfectly-cast performances glue it together, however; Hensser is charismatic and energetic, and as cute as a cartoon character, while recent NIDA graduate Wyatt has a stage presence that outstrips his experience. Silent Disco is what Griffin does best: dynamically-staged productions of new Australian works, utilising fresh talent. It’s nice to see them marrying that energy to the experience of main stage directors like Lewis. Dee Jefferson

See www.thebrag.com for more arts reviews

DVD Reviews Bone-up for film festival season...

DOGTOOTH

OLD JOY

Madman Entertainment Released February 16 Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Attenberg (selected for Sydney Film Festival’s Official Competition this year) comes close on the heels of Academy Award-nominated Greek drama Dogtooth (2009), which Tsangari co-produced. Add to that the fact that Dogtooth’s director, Giorgos Lanthimos, both appears in and co-produced Attenberg, and you’ve got an intriguing cell of emerging Greek filmmaking talent that is comparable to Australia’s Blue Tongue Films collective (Animal Kingdom, The Square). I saw Dogtooth at Melbourne Festival in 2009, just a few months after it won the Prix Un Certain Regard at Cannes Film Festival; when I rewatched it recently, I was surprised all over again by its graphic violence and sexual content, offset with moments of black humour, and profound insight into human nature.

Accent Film Entertainment Kelly Reichardt is relatively young (can’t be much more than 40?), has four features under her belt – including Wendy and Lucy (2008), and Meek’s Cutoff, which screens as part of Sydney Film Festival this year – and has already carved a niche as one of her generation’s most important philosopherfilmmakers, and a passionate documenter of society’s margins. In this, her second feature, she makes the private political and the political personal, with a simple, linear narrative about two college buddies who try to reconnect over a weekend camping trip: Mark (Daniel London), a wannabe Buddhist and NPR devotee who is about to have a baby with his wife; and Kurt (Will Oldham – aka Bonny ‘Prince’ Billy), a shiftless musician who is passing through town, and urges his friend to come on a day-hike to a series of hot springs in Oregon's Cascade Range.

Set almost entirely within the hermetically sealed confines of a countryside estate, Dogtooth takes us inside the world of three siblings who have been brought up in a complete cultural vacuum. All they know of the world is their father, their mother, and the area up to and including the perimeter fence. They have no friends, and no contact with the outside world apart from the planes that fly overhead. Their parents control them by means of an elaborate mythology, combined with strict rules and a system of rewards and punishments – operating on the premise that if you start early enough, and follow a rigorous program, you can train humans much as you would a dog.

From the opening scene, where Mark negotiates the weekend away with his resentful wife, we sense an underlying tension – which only builds as the two men travel towards their destination. It’s almost painful watching the desperately insecure and unhappy wannabe-New-Age Kurt try to impress his old friend – only partially aware of the veneer of pity that lacquers Marks sideways glances, and forced cheerfulness. At the same time, we wonder what makes Mark so desperate to get away from the house, that he’d put himself through the awkward ordeal.

Part of Lanthimos’ objective seems to be to show why that isn’t the case; the other, I think, is to throw the basic facets of human nature into relief by stripping his context, or canvas, back to white. The result is thought-provoking, elegantly shot, and brutal. If you like Michael Haneke’s work, then this is for you!

Reichardt works with such simple, unaffected elegance – her slow pacing and static lensing practically an exercise in meditation – that she makes other filmmakers look like blathering, incompetent twats. Instead of telling, she shows; where she doesn’t need to move, she stays still; she has a photo-journalist’s eye for shots that capture the essence of both her local environment, and her subjects. A film to savour.

Dee Jefferson

Street Level With Matt Roden, curator for The Wall

How did you get involved in The Wall? Even way-backer, I exhibited at the Wall – it was my first time out showing the world what I’d been doodling away at for years. I’ll always think of Dan Chin and Amy Manning, who used to run the Wall, as my double-headed Peggy Guggenheim. How is the ‘new wall’ different from the ‘old wall’? The Wall is still committed to giving up-and-coming artists the chance to put on their own shows – but we’re going to be putting on more group shows, more theme shows, more fundraisers... Kenzie Larsen's collection Basically looking for more ways to get more people involved. Following the Tumblng Ovr group show, we’ll orld Bar’s weekly arts happening, be exhibiting some talented ladies on the The Wall, is relaunching with a group topic of dreams, followed by a fundraiser for show called Tumblng Ovr – so we Japan with an auction and collectible book took five with The Wall’s new curator: graphic of haikus. After that a couple of solo shows designer and illustrator Matt Roden… with street artists and typographers, then a pop-up shop and mini markets. People What is Tumblng Ovr about? should look out for that kind of mixed bag in Tumblng Ovr is the Wall asking some of the future. our favourite creatives and creative friends to collect images for a week, as if they What are the challenges versus were going to be blogging them, and then advantages of programming this reproducing them and hanging them in the particular space? The challenges are that flesh. We’re taking the haphazard and sumit is every week. That’s a lot of art to show! of-its-parts tone of a Tumblr, and throwing The advantages are that it is in a great them up on the walls to see what’s triggering space – a fantastic room in fun bar. The and tickling people’s inspirations on any given World Bar is pretty committed to supporting week. local artists, musical and visual, so they’re very up for anything. And I think the fact Who’s on the line-up? that it’s not strictly a “gallery”, that the drinks Designer/typographer Luke Lucas don’t run out by 8pm, and the lights are a (Lifelounge), Kenzie Larsen, Future Classics little lower relaxes the “art experience” – and DJs, illustrator Caitlin Shearer, pop painter the fact that you can get a serious dance on Johnny Romeo, Bams & Ted and many more. afterwards is a plus. What is your own background as an artist/ curator? Way back in my baby-cheeked past What: Tumblng Ovr - The Wall relaunch I helped organise a couple of Wall based When: Wednesday May 11, 7.30pm - late. fundraisers for Throw Shapes and Heaps Decent - art auctions, band performances, Where: The World Bar / 28 Bayswater Rd zine printings and more. It’s always been a Kings Cross big fat blip on my ‘fond memories’ radar, so More: artonthewall.tumblr.com I’m looking forward to trying to do this every week.

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

ALBUM OF THE WEEK GANG GANG DANCE Eye Contact 4AD

It’s a world-prog dance party in your living room, and your Disney-villain neighbour is not invited.

‘Glass Jar’ opens with swathes of swirling synths and panned textural flourishes, before an extended drum solo a la Phil Collins (circa Face Value) blossoms into an ethereal siren song punctuated with steel drums and laced with Lizzie Bougatsos’ intoxicating intervals. It’s undeniably prog, but with a modus operandi different to the likes of Yes. There’s no needless noodling; despite the opener’s 11-minute duration, no arpeggiator trill or drum fill feels like an excrescence. ‘Adult Goth’ continues in a similarly heady vein, with a bouncing Bollywood bassline and scintillating synthetic textures. The effect is akin to a fluorescent Blonde Redhead dancing at the tail of a chaotic Rajasthani funeral parade. Gang Gang Dance seem to want to make a concertedly cohesive statement with their fifth album. Little of the

knotty, bipolar genre-hopping of Saint Dymphna can be found here; rather, all the constituent parts feel closely intertwined, and each track is very much an indispensible part of the whole. ‘Chinese High’ conjures a strobing Beijing street party, lit with Blade Runner-esque billboards sputtering commercial aphorisms in Mandarin, before it shifts keys for some euphoric jazz-fusion onanism. Single ‘Mindkilla’ dares you not to dance like a lunatic, while ‘Romance Layers’ could easily be a Prince jam conceived and promptly neglected after a ketamine-fueled romantic evening. A number of moments reference genres that don’t make sense to the context of the band (chart pop, nursery rhymes, Return To Forever-style chord progressions), but repeat listens prove that such allusions are simply GGD flexing their right to indulge in a bizarre pastiche that renders recreational drugs irrelevant. Luke Telford

BEASTIE BOYS

UNKLE

FLEET FOXES

Hot Sauce Committee Part Two EMI

Only The Lonely EP Pod

Helplessness Blues Sub Pop

Do you listen to The Beastie Boys for the rhymes, the beats or the good times? This is a pertinent question. The long-awaited, much-delayed Hot Sauce Committee Part Two proves many things, but the most obvious is that there is very little that these three New Yawk-ers have to say that is of any relevance to anyone anymore. That’s not a problem in the grand scheme of things – there aren’t a lot of people who can identify with Lil Wayne, either – but it’s particularly grating on an album that’s actually quite musically solid. Sonically, Mike D, Ad-Rock and MCA are starting to sound a hell of a lot like Beck. That’s interesting because they’ve shared producers (The Dust Brothers) in the past, to make critically acclaimed records - but from the distorted vocals through to the live bass-heavy riffing, this could be Odelay all over again. If it were smarter. Like most recent Beasties releases, this record has a few bona fide hits to add to their next Solid Gold collection, and a fair share of filler. The opening four tracks are as classic as they come, but not even the inclusion of Santigold can save the second half from drowning in frat-boy instrumental antics, the same kind which marred their last record that very few people really liked. Moreover, while they’ve made a career by introducing each other and themselves on each track, it’s enough already. There’s three of them, we know their names, and if you’re going to take up half a verse reminding us, you should have just sent us a business card. There’s a very good reason that these guys are hall of famers, but aside from the first twenty minutes, you’d be hard pressed to find it here.

James Lavelle’s UNKLE project has crossed a gamut of styles since the celebrated Psyence Fiction debut in the late '90s - but nothing he’s released since then has struck the same visionary chord. And while repeatedly employing an ensemble cast of guest vocalists may pose numerous problems outside the studio, it’s served as the heart of the project’s intrigue for more than a decade; regardless of the scattershot approach, it’s always interesting to see who’s singing on a new UNKLE track. Only The Lonely is no exception and if nothing else, the fact that Lavelle and co. have managed to snag bloody Nick Cave for the suitably sexified opener ‘Money and Run’ proves there’s still a little clout left in UNKLE yet. The track is only half-strength Grinderman at best, but it’s a dirty enough romp to be worthy of Cave’s swagger. The Duke Spirit’s Leila Moss does her best to slink through ‘The Dog Is Black’, a thumping track with a heartbeat groove and skuzzy bassline; she fares better than Sleepy Sun’s Rachel Fannan’s beige ‘Sunday Song’, despite its shining ambient outro (which is one of the few highlights of this EP). As for the other men, the closing track ‘Forever’, sees The Cult’s Ian Astbury sounding positively tired and ancient, while Gavin Clark falls close behind on ‘Wash The Love Away’ - a shoegazing piece of Brit-rock that’s far removed from UNKLE’s exciting origins. Whether or not these songs are outtakes from last year’s Where Did The Night Fall remains to be confirmed, but it’s a pretty safe bet. Only The Lonely continues the UNKLE tradition of hit and miss releases with something in between. Dan Patrick

Fleet Foxes’ selftitled debut was an unassuming masterpiece of American pastoral folk. Having apparently drunk from the same spring as Joanna Newsom and Bon Iver, Robin Pecknold and his merry band appealed to a mass audience (the record even being flogged at Starbucks) battered by economic freefall, their trademark reverb-saturated vocal harmonies recalling the likes of Crosby, Stills and Nash in conjuring an idyllic rural Neverland. Thanks to a combination of stellar reviews, thoughtful marketing and snowballing word of mouth, by the end of 2008 Fleet Foxes were a bankable commodity. It’s unsurprising then that with album number two, the Seattle-based fivepiece have filled a broader canvas with more of the same. Helplessness Blues finds Pecknold as earnest and direct as ever, tracks such as ‘Sim Sala Bim’ or the lucid first segment of eight-minute medley ‘The Shrine / An Argument’ gesturing towards moments of lost innocence, instants of purity that are always already gone – “apples in the summer / all cold and sweet” he sings on the latter, and means it. Sadness at the simple knowledge that all things must pass gives way to a lusty embrace of the moment, a song such as ‘Lorelai’ demanding that the listener go find a likely sunlit glade and, you know, commune. What continues to impress about Fleet Foxes is less the immensity of their ambition than the fact that they occasionally surpass it. There is dross here, but it’s dazzlingly sung and polished by producer Phil Ek to the point where it’s hard to care too much. A lushly seamless statement, Helplessness Blues is the ideal soundtrack for WWOOFing across whichever forgotten corner of the earth happens to be in vogue at the moment. Oliver Downes

Jonno Seidler

PANIC! AT THE DISCO

Grit Aglow Other Tongues This Sydney five-piece started out playing Of Montreal covers in high school, and only began writing original material for the (increasingly prestigious) Sydney Uni Band Comp about four years ago. Their debut album has been in the making for most of that time, and the band’s willingness to jam, re-record, re-think and overthink tracks in the process has paid off. There’s no getting around the fact that MsFf owe a significant debt, consciously

26 :: BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11

or not, to Animal Collective. That unmistakable sense of glee and ritual, emotionally rich melodies and forceful vocals wrapping around bubbling electronics, organic instruments warped and looped to sound like manmade effects and vice versa. On some tracks it’s clearer than others - ‘Teething’ sounds like if AnCo had put a Beirut cover on Strawberry Jam, with its fleet-footed, clicking percussion throughout, and Danny Keig’s mildly unhinged cries and warm brass sounds in the coda. But MsFf are more grounded than AnCo, displaying elsewhere a knack for muscular psych, for instance on ‘T is a P’ – the longest track here, clocking in at six and a half minutes,

Panic! At The Disco’s first album, 2005’s A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, was an emo standardbearer back before the ‘E’ word was forbidden. Their second, Pretty. Odd., was a Beatles-influenced, organic take on their trademark bombast. Vices & Virtues, their third, was not born easily - founding member and frontman Ryan Ross and former bassist Jon Walker both departed the band during its writing phase, citing creative differences. So what does an album sound like, whose birth tore a band apart? The first hint can be found in the fact that it was co-produced by slick LA rock svengali Butch Walker, and Goldfinger’s John Feldmann. The choice is indicative of a return to the polished pop sheen of Fever, a strategy that was part of the reason for the band split in the first place. With Panic! now a duo (Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith), and without primary lyricist Ross, the songs on Vices are more lyrically naive than their fully-developed predecessors more personal and sentimental than the quirky narrative of Ross’ work. The instrumentation is dense and digital against the more acoustic washes of Fever; it feels like a more ‘now’ album, whereas their debut was more timeless but perhaps a little less unique. Electronic drums, processed vocals and skittering synths (sometimes even performed on an iPad) feel a world away from the previous album, but they help lift songs like ‘Let’s Kill Tonight,’ ‘Memories’ and ‘Ready To Go (Get Me Out Of My Mind)’ up to the level of the band’s finest work.

Snowman’s third and final album Absence may well be their best. The band has traded in their signature serrated tribal surf-goth pop for a resigned and lush sound, as seductive and inviting as it is billowingly eerie. Instead of the claustrophobic red and black hues we’ve become accustomed to, Absence is an opaque, immersive, blinding white. Everything is drenched in reverb, to the point where the consonants of some instruments surrender completely to the echo, becoming shapeless, all-enveloping clouds of sound. ‘White Wall’ ebbs and flows in 6/4 time, chiming guitar arpeggios and hissing hi-hats the only features in hard focus. The rest – barely discernable as synths, whispering falsetto and bass – suffocate the listener in a vast array of tattered sheets. The precise, off-kilter percussion is one of the few things that remains from their old sound. It’s what makes single ‘Hyena’ so recognisable as a Snowman piece, with its passive aggressive eastern riffs and persistently thrumming toms. While listening to it is like welcoming back an old friend, the moments when the drums relent (as on the ineffably blissful siren swoon of ‘Séance’) are the most satisfying on the album. Elsewhere, that same distinctive percussive tension is moulded to serve the new aesthetic. On opener ‘Snakes & Ladders’, the focus of the beat keeps changing, leaving us to find our own way around the shifting paths that wind through a forest of voices in thrall to a descending canon: “Falling back into your arms / I’m”.

Vices & Virtues finds Panic! striving to make it without their key songwriter. They succeed far more often than they fail, in a diverse, eclectic and colourful set.

The hazy, disorienting sound of Absence is meant to evoke the feeling of trying to relive a distant memory, and its success is both vivid and ironic: Snowman is gone, and this is their intangibly beautiful and haunting swansong.

Peter Hodgson

Luke Telford

it’s undercut by a surprisingly earthy, steady two-note bassline that gives the coiling vocals something to orbit around – and ‘Brain Tooth’, a grinding spiral of space-cartoon synths and baby-alien choruses. ‘Do What You Like’ is another highlight, building a wistful tirade out of beachy, delayed guitar excursions and a restrained (for them) arrangement that sees the brass return for a rich, sad and surprising end. Grit Aglow is aptly named – there are abrasive and oddly-shaped little moments here in abundance, but at its heart it is luminous, gleefully weird pop, and one of the best records that's come out of Sydney this year. Caitlin Welsh

Absence Dot Dash

Vices & Virtues Warner Music

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK MEGASTICK FANFARE

SNOWMAN

OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week...

TH' DUDES - Where Are the Girls?: Th' Definitive Collection NICOLAS JAAR - Space Is Only Noise JINJA SAFARI - Jinja Safari EP

10K FREEMEN - Mke Or Brk LOVE PARADE - A Strawberry Situation

live reviews

What we've been to see...

GEORGE CLINTON The Metro Theatre Sunday April 24

Having been a decisive influence on an entire generation of rockers (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and rappers (Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg), George Clinton and his extended posse of funk freaks really have nothing left to prove. That’s exactly why their gargantuan setlist and impassioned live performance tonight is so god damn exhilarating; they’re still dedicated to giving their audiences the night of their lives. The fact that Clinton himself - by now an enormous beast of a man who literally embodies the myth that he has created through the years - only hits the stage an hour after the show begins is of little-to-no import. With a mish-mash of musos from Parliament, Funkadelic and other far-off galaxies, the evening is really about the extensive band that Clinton has managed to keep together for decades. Possibly through the continued use of illicit substances, but who’s counting? With two leads, four backing singers, a rhythm section tighter than the one in heaven and some unexplained dancer in a furry white pimp suit, the performance is an exercise in sound saturation that sometimes borders on overbearing. Most songs become medleys and those medleys can go for up to 45 minutes without break – which none of the audience seem to mind, as most of them are from the generation before iTunes. The lockedin jamming, especially with a rhythm section where only the drummer seems to be under the age of 40, is pretty damn amazing – and the songs, which have been re-interpreted by hip hop stalwarts the world over, are still as epic as ever. The roaring ‘Flash Light’ is a mid-set highlight, as is ‘(Not Just) Knee Deep’, with its audience-involved sing-a-long that really does go forever. Clinton, when he finally makes an appearance, alternates between barking like a deranged James Brown and busting out chorus figures with such a wheeze that you wonder which physician is still letting him smoke joints. But more than a performer, the man is a bandleader. He knows his songs back to front and spends a lot of stage time conducting the various elements of his crew through complicated unison figures and transitions. At close to midnight, the show has descended into full-on madness. The sax player, who’s been in the group 33 years, also happens to be an incredible vocalist and takes over for a number, while one of the female backing vocalists rolls back on stage in lingerie – and on rollerblades. The songs keep coming and Clinton’s swaying and braying like Homer Simpson at Lolapalooza. Say what you like about funk as a genre (and many disparaging comments have been made recently), but just like Tower Of Power and Brown when he was still kicking, P-Funk put on the best show in town. It’s nice to hear ‘Atomic Dog’ without Snoop having ruined it, and it’s fascinating to watch old dudes out-play young guns. The grandaddy of funk knows how to party. We’re just lucky we scored an invite.

Jonno Seidler

TOOTS & THE MAYTALS, LUCIANO The Enmore Theatre Saturday April 23

It’s a reggae kinda Easter! Roots reggae’s greatest hope, the prolific Luciano, warmed up The Enmore. The man has a massive voice and presence, and his earthy style was a glaring reminder that the audience should have all been standing in a field at Blues & Roots, listening to the set with open skies above. Jamaican reggae legend Toots and his band The Maytals took the stage to a big introduction. One of Jamaica’s foremost musical exports (he’s recorded close to thirty number #1 singles in that country), Toots broke from his band in the late '70s as popular black music began to give way to synths – but they reformed in the '90s for both touring and recording purposes. Now aged 65, Toots’ big voice remains undiminished by time. He kicked off the concert with some early material, his 1969 hit ‘Sweet & Dandy’, the gospel leanings of which illustrated just how inter-linked the early Jamaican and US soul scenes were

throughout the '60s and '70s (southern radio broadcasts carried the sounds of Motown across the sea from the US to Jamaica). In fact, most of the first half of Toots’ show was built around layered gospel crescendos, courtesy of a childhood spent in the church choir; the first section of the evening showcased the innocent, early days of soul reggae, long before ideas like dancehall and daggering had appeared. A mix of young and old musicians formed Toots' eight-strong touring band. Honestly, I’d have to say the man on keys was the hardest working guy on stage, with his three boards in front of him, and taking care of the electronic brass as well. Despite the outfit showing a little of the strain of musicians who’ve broken up, reformed and spent too much time together, it was a highly professional, airtight performance - although, a passionate Toots got stuck into the Enmore’s sound engineer a couple of times. Further into the set we heard more hits like ‘Monkey Man’, many of them sped up to ska or doubletime tempo at the end for a big finish. (Toots’ reggae mega-hit ‘Funky Kingston’ in double time sounds suspiciously like country music, further evidence of the influence from the US.) Luciano emerged from backstage to join the band again close to the finale, and only after that did Toots wheel out the the massive ‘54-46 (That’s My Number)’. One of the greatest reggae tracks of all time, the crowd went suitably nuts. Finally, to close out a generous set, the musicians launched into a world and afroinfused reggae jam, paying nuff tribute to mother Africa. Good times.

Tony Two-Tone

BOB DYLAN

Sydney Entertainment Centre Wednesday April 27 Bob Dylan, for those who wandered in from a remote island and picked up The Brag (good choice), is one of only a handful of bonafide living musical legends. His prolific output helped shape the face of American culture in the ‘60s, advancing the lyrical content of popular music and bringing weight to a format previously beneath the ‘poets’ and ‘artists’ of the world. He was uncompromising, contrary and frustratingly obtuse, laying waste to previous notions of how songwriting, recording and the album format were approached. The fact that he is still selling-out shows almost 50 years after his recording career begun is a triumph – but from the disgruntled air and half-heard conversations of the audience filing out of the Sydney Entertainment Centre tonight, it appears he didn’t hold up his end of the agreement: to trundle out a selection of his greatest hits in an affable manner. Firstly, he didn’t address the audience once, not even to let us know that Sydney contains by far the best audiences he has ever played to, ever, and that he loves coming Down Under. Secondly, instead of regaling us with tales of answers blowing in the wind, seeking shelter from the storm, and other weather-related well-known songs, Dylan instead ran through a set heavy on songs outside his agreed upon ‘hits’ period of 63-78, from latter albums that indicate that Dylan hasn’t lost his flair for the English language. Thirdly, he kept changing the melodies to the few sanctioned hits played, so the result was less the cheery singalong expected of a performer of his age (see: Brian Wilson), and more a gravel-voiced, ever-evolving ‘performance’ – which is fine for the odd song, but when people are shelling out top dollar, the last thing they want is for an artist to act in any manner that can be considered artful… Of course, for a great deal of the audience, none of this came as a shock, and – even more importantly – none of this mattered at all. Bob Dylan was up there, being all Dylan-esque, performing like a man half his age with a vital, forward-propelling band half his age, with enough on-stage energy that Dylan didn’t feel the need to get the audience too involved. He is, after all, Bob Dylan, and when you have completed the bulk of your life’s work by your mid-20s, having the audience sing along to ‘Tangled Up In Blue’ probably isn’t a big priority. He did play 'Like a Rolling Stone' though. That ol’ sentimentalist…

JINJA SAFARI

MAY

WE ARE GRACE

STRAIGHT ARROWS

Wolf & Cub MAY

NUMBERS RADIO

Nathan Jolly

BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11 :: 27

The Minor Chord The all-ages rant bought to you by Indent.net.au and Janette Chen

Joelistics

ALL-AGES GIG PICKS FRIDAY MAY 6 HIP HOP PROJECTIONS 6

Western Sydneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE) will be hosting Hip Hop Projections 6, a showcase featuring the artworks and hip hop tracks that have come to life during a series of Urban Cultures workshops. Alongside the 50-plus young people involved in the project will be a collective of experienced and emerging artists from both here and overseas, dropping their beats and working their rhymes next Saturday in Parramatta, at the Switch Digital Arts Centre. Having opened for the likes of Kanye West, Busta Rhymes and Talib Kweli in the past, IraqiCanadian MC The Narcicyst will have you thinking about social and political issues around the world, as he sheds light on the modern Arab experience. Busting their moves on stage will be local B*boy dance group Justice Crew, whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve already won the hearts of many on Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Got Talent and So You Think You Can Dance. And joining them will be local MC L-Fresh, who has a number of releases under his belt â&#x20AC;&#x201C; six by the time he was 18. Having had the chance to open for The Herd and Joelistics, L-Fresh will also be bringing his distinct sound to Parramatta. If that wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enough, local MCs 6PounD, MC Trey, and DJ Nick Toth will be taking to the stage. Best of all, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s free! Check out ice.org.au to find out how to RSVP.

(SCOTLAND)

10TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW

Washington, Lissie, Deep Sea Arcade The Metro Theatre

SATURDAY MAY 14

A Day To Remember, UnderOATH Big Top, Luna Park Hip Hop Projections 6 feat. Megaphonic MCs, L-Fresh, MC Trey, DJ Nick Toth, Justice Crew, 6PounD & The Narcicyst Switch Digital Arts Centre, Parramatta

SUNDAY MAY 15

Chasing Amy, The Never Ever, Futures In Black And White, Recording All, Dan Sweeto The Annandale Hotel Once Were Weekend Warriors feat. Generation Crash, Pandaface, Scared of Clowns, Springfield Isotopes, The Nomadics Live At The Wall / Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt

SATURDAY MAY 21

Hungry Kids of Hungary, The Chemist, Andy Bull The Metro Theatre

FRIDAY MAY 27

Amy Meredith, Tonight Alive The Metro Theatre

WEEKEND WARRIORS

The Bald Faced Stag in Leichhardt has got some more all-ages gig lined up, with a new series named Once Were Weekend Warriors. Presented by Allanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Music and Billy Hyde, this month-long program gets musos together for coached band rehearsals and training, leading up to a big charity gig to show off all the hard work. As for the bands previously involved in the program, Once Were Weekend Warriors lets you enjoy the fruits of their continued labour next Sunday at Live At The Wall, with a lineup that includes bluesy Pandaface, punk from Springfield Isotopes, and a more classic rock flavour with Generation Crash. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be a set for you to dance to with Scared of Clowns - and The Nomadics will have something up their sleeve that will have you rocking. The order of the lineup will be announced on the night, so head along on the evening of Sunday May 15 to find out what the night will bring â&#x20AC;&#x201C; tix are just $10.

AMY MEREDITH

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For a bit of background, Information and Cultural Exchange has been working in Western Sydney for more than 20 years, bringing community and the arts together, particularly in migrant and refugee communities and youth arts. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got heaps of exciting projects happening around Western Sydney â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the Urban Cultures workshops are just one of many. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking into even just dabbling in any art form or new media, and live in the Western suburbs, ice.org.au is where youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d want to start.

Since dropping their debut album Restless last year, Sydney popsters Amy Meredith have been selling out venues across the country. After playing the Sydney leg of the Big Day Out at the beginning of the year, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re back again with a headline tour called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Higher Educationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have you dancing your feet off at The Metro when they swing by Sydney later this month, supported by local pop/punk outfit Tonight Alive, who are freshly back home from a string of US dates. So mark May 27 in your diaries, and put an orange highlighter across it. Tickets are $28.70, on sale now through Ticketek.

AS ALWAYSâ&#x20AC;Ś

The Minor Chord is also on the airwaves, with Kate and Eva bringing you sweet tunes and all the latest all-ages news every Wednesday, 5pm, on FBi 94.5.

Send pics, listings and any info to minorchords@thebrag.com 28 :: BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11

Remedy

More than The Cure since 1989 with Murray Engleheart

SOUTHERN DISCOMFORT

What should have been a smokin’ night from the South at the State Theatre last week was really a bit of a mixed bag. Little Feat did the Southern swamp voodoo soul thang well enough (although we were amazed that they felt the need to throw in a version of The Band’s ‘The Weight’, which was a little like Sabbath doing ‘Smoke On The Water’). It was also repeatedly hammered home that, as great as some of their songs still are, and despite some fabulous jamming, no-one could really sing them with any great power or conviction – which meant that stuff like ‘Fat Man In The Bath Tub’ didn’t come close to its soaring potential. The brief presence of Warren Haynes (of Govt Mule, The Dead and The Allman Brothers) on guitar for ‘Spanish Moon’ strangely didn’t add much either – and we say that while having a great deal of respect for the man. And as for Leon Russell? Sigh…We were utterly stunned when the great man walked slowly onto an intro tape of U2’s ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’. Seriously, what the fuck? His performance, it pains us greatly to say, was as flat as a fart. Sure it was wonderful to see the now highly regallooking gent play and sing; and yes, it's been 40 long years since Russell appeared at Randwick Racecourse with a travelling rock and soul revue – and a few more still since he led Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen troupe across America with all the cool of a top-hatted Keith Richards. But we really expected something much more uplifting than just him with a young backing band who, despite a towering, shit-hot guitarist, were clearly just his backing band. The sight of one of the guitarists playing a second keyboard at times – on the same stage as one of the greatest piano pumpers of all time – said it all.

TWIST & SHOUT

We were out the other night and someone was playing old school rock and roll - like The Beatles’ ‘Twist and Shout’ and Little Richard’s ‘Lucille’ - through a huge sound system. We were amazed by two things. One, just how incredibly strong and driven the rhythm sections were - something you rarely notice with this stuff unless big speakers are in play - and two, that a group of kids who couldn’t have been much more than 18 were madly singing along to every word.

LAST RITES

The fact that Judas Priest’s coming tour is to be their last is welcome news if all the future holds is more of the sort of awful stuff they did on their Nostradamus slab. But the announcement last week that founding guitarist K.K. Downing won’t be taking part in the final run has quite understandably raised a few eyebrows. Surely after more than 40 years together, you’d want to go out with the rest of the

team. Worse still, Downing’s replacement is said to be Richie Faulkner. Who? He’s from Lauren Harris’s band. You know, the daughter of Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris? Oh dear...

STEVE EARLE: AUTHOR

Steve Earle seems to be something of an everywhere man over the past few years. Besides being in the acclaimed TV series The Wire, he played a couple of other roles without ever really taking his eye off his recording and touring career. This month the master storyteller will also have a book to his name – but not one that details his hard times; instead, it’s a novel. I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive takes its title from the song by original punk Hank Williams (spookily, this was the last song that saw daylight before Williams died in 1953 from basically overdoing it on everything for too long all the time). Earle’s central character is a doctor called (what else?) Doc, whose life (much like that of Williams) is anything but blissfully romantic. “I’d always heard,” Earle told the LA Times, “that there was a doctor travelling with Hank when he died. When I buckled down, I discovered that Hank had been seeing a guy named Toby Marshall, who was not a doctor; he was a quack who claimed to be able to cure alcoholism with chloral hydrate. But I thought it would be more interesting if my character was a real doctor, so I went with that.”

RIP: POLY STYRENE

Talk of this tragically floated around during Easter, and was later confirmed: Poly Styrene (aka Marianne Joan Elliott-Said), former teen singer (and proud braceswearer - on her teeth, that is) of UK punks X-Ray Spex, has died of cancer. She was 53. Spex only had one album, 1978’s Germ Free Adolescents, with Poly’s glorious voice tearing through songs like ‘Warrior in Woolworths’ and the classic, ‘Oh Bondage Up Yours’.

RIP: THE DUTCHMAN

In another Easter loss, Oz blues legend Dutch Tilders (or ‘The Dutchman’, as he was affectionately known) passed away after a battle with cancer. Blues was Tilders’ thing at a time when virtually no one else wanted to know about the stuff. In any other country he would have been a national treasure, but he passed at the age of 69 in virtual obscurity, with his ‘70s collaboration with Kevin Borich, entitled The Blues Had A Baby, seeming to be his sole shot in the ‘big time’ limelight. We really ought to be far more ashamed of ourselves than we sometimes are.

ANVIL ALBUM

Anvil – the band hugely famous for not being famous – have a new record out next week. Appropriately titled Juggernaut Of Justice, it was recorded at Dave Grohl’s studio.

ON THE TURNTABLE On the Remedy turntable is John Coltrane’s 1967 masterpiece Interstellar Space, which features the champ and his drummer Rashied Ali, both running through a series of various planetary themes, ducking and weaving about each other like the incredibly agile heavyweights they were. It’s blistering emotion over melody more than ever before on Coltrane’s part, but the journey is well worth it. Also spinning is The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s party-starter and general house- and home-wrecker, Orange. Sure, we know, we know, it’s been reissued with a stack of extra goodies, but there’s something special about taking something like this in in its original form.

TOUR AND INDUSTRY NEWS Those Bon Scott tribute shows, Long Live Bon Scott (featuring Angry Anderson, Choirboys’ Mark Gable, Screaming Jets-er Dave Gleeson and the great John Swan, backed by an all-star band) are doing strong business. Dates Are Waves in Wollongong on May 28, Penrith Panthers on June 3, and The Enmore Theatre on June 4.

Deathcage

On May 13, Deathcage and Summonus are at Sydney University’s Hermann’s Bar (Wentworth Building, corner of City Road and Butlin Avenue), alongside Battle Pope and Before Dawn.

Send stuff to remedy@ozemail.com.au by 6pm Wednesdays. Pics to art@thebrag.com www.facebook.com/remedy4rock

THE BASEMENT’S BIG JAZZ JUNE! From June 8 to 19 The Basement gets back to its roots with a huge line-up of Australian and international jazz stars. We’ve got legends The Ron Carter Trio, New York’s Jason Moran and the Bandwagon, Belgium’s Pascal Schumacher Quartet, England’s The Magnets and Australia’s Steven O’Connell, Jane Badler, Paul Grabowsky, The Gapp Project, the fabulous Velvet Set Swing Band, and more. Oh, and Kinky Friedman and Van Dyke Parks, too.

Tickets online at

www.thebasement.com.au BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11 :: 29

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all sorts

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up all night out all week . . .

michael franti

PICS :: KC

22:04:11:: TONE :: 16 Wentworth Ave, Surry Hills 9267 3787

24:04:11 :: Enmore Theatre :: 118-132 Enmore Road, Newtown 9550 3666

It’s called: Teen Spirit

It sounds like: All the fun of a ‘90s house party without standing in the cold waiting for some creepy dude to buy you lemon Ruskis. DJs/live acts playing: 9021BROS, DJ OJ Simpson, Shee Bangz, Pushn Pop, Ren & Stimpy, Dawson’s Freak, Smithers & Berns, Doogie Howser MDJ Sell it to us: Teen Spirit is a club that plays only fun songs from the ‘90s. We have hours of 100% Hits to keep you dancing and singing and drinking and generally doing all of the things your older sisters and brothers used to do and hoped that you wouldn’t. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Singing along to Shania Twain’s ‘Man! I Feel Like A Woman,’ and it being the best thing ever. Crowd specs: Those that wanted to be a Spice Girl, and those that wanted to be with one. Wallet damage: $10 or $5 before 11pm, if you RSVP on our facebook page.

mind over matter

PICS :: KC

party profile

Teen Spirit

21:04:11 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford St, Darlinghurst 93323711

Where: 34B / Spectrum

21:04:11 :: Goodgod :: @ 55 Liverpool St, Chinatown 92673787 30 :: BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11

inner west festival

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rumble

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When: Friday May 6, doors 9pm

24:04:11 :: Sandringham Hotel :: 387 King St Newtown 95571254

:: MARGARET BURNS :: KATRINA S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER ON ENS STEV ICK PATR MUNNS :: CLARKE :: ASHLEY MAR :: DANIEL

"CR TR EA AN TIV SP ITY OR TS US "

CREATIVITY MOVES 速

PEOPLE . CULTURE . COMMUNITY Creativity is for everyone. Itt is is nott eexc exclusive. There is no club or secret code to crack. No obscure d puzzle to decipher or genetic pre-disposition to wish for. If you are human, you are creative. Being human equips us with everything we need to feel, to express, to relate, to understand, to imagine and to create. Creativity is integral to human existence. Our lives are our creative act. Get making! Housed in the old Eveleigh Rail Yards, the CarriageWorks site has been a place of movement, since its earliest days. Today, CarriageWorks is home to artistic exploration, creative collaboration, individual expression and collective experience. CarriageWorks exists to open up new opportunities to bring creativity, in all its forms, to as many people as possible. We invite you to make CarriageWorks yours, and share the experience with us. carriageworks.com.au | facebook.com/carriageworks | twitter.com/carriageworks | carriageworks.tumblr.com

BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11 :: 31

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up all night out all week . . .

23:04:11 :: FBi Social - Kings Cross Hotel :: 248 William St Darlinghurst 9331 9900

Phace

PICS :: AM

elvis costello

It’s called: Phace (GER) at Chinese Laundry Fridays It sounds like: Twisted Soul jacked up on steroids. DJs: Phace (GER), Reload, Mark Bionic, The Hump Day Project, Flash Hubbard, AutoClaws. Three records you’ll hear on the night: ‘Cold Champagne’, ‘Channel Feel’, and ‘Open Your Eyes’. And one you definitely won’t: That annoying Barbra Streisand song. Sell it to us: Phace - current man-of-the-moment in the drum’n’bass scene - hits Laundry to tear up the thumping Nexo sound system. Sells itself, really. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: THE BASS! Crowd specs: Bass-bin lovers and Phace phreaks. Wallet damage: $15 before 11pm / $20 after. Where: Chinese Laundry / 1 Slip Street (under Slip Inn) When: Friday May 6

PICS :: AM

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party profile

19:04:11 :: State Theatre :: 49 Market St Sydney 93736655

21:04:11 :: The Metro Theatre :: 624 George St City 92642666 32 :: BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11

john legend

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children collide

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25:04:11 :: Acer Arena :: Olympic Boulevard Sydney Olympic Park 87654321

24:04:11 :: State Theatre :: 49 Market St Sydney 93736655

RES EATEST PLEASU O OF LIFE’S GR MARRYING TW

ND MUSIC GREAT FOOD A Y

Calling all artists for Live and Locals! Contact: events@lizottes. com.au

NE LIZOTTE’S SYD 33 9933 84 99 84 98 99 2 99 02 Lizotte’s presents 4 Live and Local rade plus Feeding MAY Stone Pa 5 Edgar, Is It Her & Dividers MAY d 6 Ash Grunwal MAY Knight 7 Grace Day Lunch with MAY Mother’s 8 The Soul Predators MAY dt 11 Lulo Reinhar MAY 13 Ray Beadle MAY Absolute 80s

MAY

Finn 15 Tim

MAY

L CO43A68S20T A R T N E C ’S 17 E T T 02 LIZO Bibb 3 Eric

MAY

Lizotte’s presents 4 Live and Local ers MAY e Brewster Broth 5 Th y Dylan pla MAY 6 Grace Knight MAY Reyne 7 James Day Evening MAY Mother’s 8 with James Reyne MAY tin 10 Jeff Mar resents Live MAY Lizotte’s p 11 and Local MAY 12 Jont ’s Famous Jazz & MAY Brian 13 Chilli Crab Night Close and MAY Tim Finn Up 14 Personal MAY Donovan 15 Casey

MAY

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MAY

James Reyne wster Brothers MAY The Bre 7 play Dylan nch with MAY Mother’s Day Lu ren Schaupp

MAY

Ka Katie Noonan and

MAY

11 Jeff Martin MAY r A New World 12 Songs Fo

Finn 13 Tim

MAY

zz & Brian’s Famous Ja t h 14 Chilli Crab Nig MAY s 15 Absolute 80

MAY

Lizotte’s Sydney 629 Pittwater Rd Dee Why

Lizotte’s Central Coast Lot 3 Avoca Dr Kincumber

Lizotte’s Newcastle 31 Morehead St Lambton

WWW. LIZOT TES.COM.AU BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11 :: 33

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send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com

pick of the week

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

Carolyn Crysdale Coach & Horses Hotel, Randwick free 7pm Songsalive!: Jeff Stanley, Eddie Boyd, Pete Loveridge, Pan, Reginald The SafetyDancing Goat, Russell Neal The Basement, Circular Quay$12 (+ bf) 8pm

ROCK & POP WEDNESDAY

Spangled Mistress, The Spoon Collectors, Shady May, Liam Gale & The Ponytales, Bears With Guns, Ne To, Peter Sot, Tara Lawrence, Chloe Harrison, Jade & The Stone City, Heageous Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $10 7pm The Study: The Wil Masey Band, Young Romantics Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills free 7pm

MAY 4

ROCK & POP

WEDNESDAY MAY 4

The Go! Team

Metro Theatre Sydney

The Go! Team (UK) Purple Sneakers DJs, Fishing $50.70 8pm MONDAY MAY 2 ROCK & POP

3 Way Split Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm Ben & Lachlan Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Bernie The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm David Agius Opera Bar, Sydney Opera House free 8.30pm The Dudes Petersham RSL Club free 8.30pm Latin Breeze Bankstown Sports Club free 9pm Mandarin Band Dooleys Lidcombe Catholic Club free 8pm No Brakes Rockdale RSL Club free 7.30pm Over the Edge Campbelltown RSL free 8.30pm Roy Orbison Tribute Ramsgate RSL, Ramsgate Beach free 8pm

JAZZ

Daryl Pratt Sextet 505 Club, Surry Hills $10– $15 8.30pm Herbie Hancock (USA) Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House $112.35–$143.35 8pm James Whiting The Basement, Circular Quay $20 8.30pm Jazz @ The Wall Live at the Wall, Leichhardt free 6pm Open Mic & Jazz/Latin Jam Session: Daniel Falero, Pierre Della Putta, Phil Taig, Rinske Geerlings, Ed Rapo El Rocco Jazz Cellar, Woolloomooloo free 7pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

Miss Gray, Massimo Presti, Helmut Uhlmann Kellys On King, Newtown free 7pm Open Mic: Carolyn Woodorth Orange Grove Hotel, Lilyfield free 7pm Songwriter Sessions Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills free 7.30pm

TUESDAY MAY 3 ROCK & POP

Gruff Rhys (Wales), Matt Tow, Melodie Nelson Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $30 8pm Hong Kong, Mathew Booth Band, Tor Beach Road Hotel free 8pm Matt Jones The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm OMG Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 11pm Steve Tonge O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm They Call Me Bruce Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm

Andy Mammers Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm Ben Finn Duo Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 6pm Carlo Bova Duo O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm Dave White Duo Ettamogah Pub, Kellyville free El Verano: Bridgemary Kiss, Sanfrandisko, Generik Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm The Go! Team (UK), Purple Sneakers DJs, Fishing Metro Theatre, Sydney $50.70 8pm Itchy Moose, Robosexual The Valve, Tempe 7pm Jamie Lindsay Northies, Cronulla free 7.30pm Jinja Safari, We Are Grace Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm Katy Perry (USA) Sydney Entertainment Centre, Darling Harbour $99.90 (+ bf) 7.30pm sold out Live & Local: Yhan Leal, Renny Field, Green Mohair Suits, Tiger Temple Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $13.50 7pm Mark Hopper Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7pm Matt Jones Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 11pm Mike Bennett The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Open Mic Night Coach and Horses Hotel, Randwick free 8pm Rainbow Chan, Domeyko/ Gonzalez, Echo Chord The Vanguard, Newtown $15 (+ bf)–$50 (dinner & show) 6.30pm Smoke & Mirrors: iOTA, Wayne Scott Kermond, Kali Retallack, Timothy Woon, Queenie van de Zandt The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $65 (conc)–$70 8pm

JAZZ

Anna Salleh’s Bossa Boots Cru54, Surry Hills free 7.30pm Dereb the Ambasaador Macquarie Hotel, Sydney free 7pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm Robert Susz & the Continental Blues Party The Rose Hotel, Chippendale free 7pm Todd Hardy Quintet 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 8.30pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK Ash Grunwald Brass Monkey, Cronulla $39.80 (+ bf) 7pm The Song Factory: Tamara Stewart Royal Cricketers Arms, Prospect free 7.30pm

COUNTRY

Joe Nichols (USA), Jasmine Rae, Peter McWhirter Penrith Panthers, Evans Theatre $59 (conc)–$99 7pm

THURSDAY MAY 5 ROCK & POP

031 Rockshow Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 11pm Adam Rennie Rag and Famish Hotel, North Sydney free 7pm Andy Calvert, Anna Chase, Dan & Babs (Maladies), David Dreadnaught Union Hotel, Newtown 7.30pm Andy Mammers Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Ash Grunwald, Ashleigh Mannix, Bentley, Mike Who Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Boats of Berlin, Guerre, Pear Shape, Fjords Gallery Bar, Oxford Art

Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Cambo The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm Chris Duke & The Royals, Lilly’s Radio Excelsior Hotel $10 8pm Colbourne Ave: The Sunwrae String Quintet Cafe Church, Glebe $20 8pm Dan Spillane Northies, Cronulla free 9.15pm Edoardo Santoni The Basement, Circular Quay $18 9pm Gadjo Guitars Ravesi’s Hotel, Bondi 7.30pm Hugh Cornwell (UK), The Dark Shadows Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $49 (+ bf) 8pm In The Pines & Tune Up: Fan Fiction, Leeroy Lee, Sailorine, Emma Swift, Stuart Coupe FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel 7.30pm Mandi Jarry Duo Dee Why Hotel free 8pm Matt Jones Novotel Homebush, Homebush Bay free 4.30pm Michael McGlynn Greengate Hotel, Killara free 8pm Multiplier Effect, Parody Park, Fifth Fiction The Valve, Tempe 7pm The NOW Now: Ensemble Offspring, The Splinter Orchestra The Red Rattler Theatre, Marrickville $15 (conc)–$25 8pm Open Mic: Carolyn Woodorth Lone Pine Tavern, Rooty Hill free 7pm Sam & Jamie Trio Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm Sarah Paton O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm Shayne O’Leary, Geoff Jones, Tony Mazell & the Four Tunes South Sydney Juniors, Kingsford free 8pm Smoke & Mirrors: iOTA, Wayne Scott Kermond, Kali Retallack, Timothy Woon, Queenie van de Zandt The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $65 (conc)–$70 8pm Stone Parade, Feeding Edgar, Is it Her, Dividers Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $18 8pm Tony Joe White (USA), The Widowbirds Coogee Diggers $45 (+ bf) 8pm

JAZZ

Jazzgroove: Baz, Abel Cross Neo Bop Quintet 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 8.30pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm Katy Perry

“So, what do you do? / Oh yeah, I wait tables too / No, I haven’t heard your band / ‘Cause you guys are pretty new” - THE DANDY WARHOLS 34 :: BRAG :: 410 : 02:05:11

g g guide g

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Ash Grunwald

TV’s Greatest Hits: Guy Noble State Theatre, Sydney $79– $89 8pm Washington, Lissie (USA), Deep Sea Arcade Metro Theatre, Sydney $32 (+ bf) all ages 7pm Watussi Notes Live, Enmore 8pm

JAZZ

Anna Salleh’s Bossa Boots Cru54, Surry Hills free 7.30pm The Blues Preachers The Vanguard, Newtown $12 (+ bf)–$47 (dinner & show) 6.30pm Marsala 505 Club, Surry Hills $10–$15 8.30pm No Beef Patty Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK Afro Moses Brass Monkey, Cronulla $17.85 (+ bf) 7pm Up Close and Personal:

Dave Wilkins The Marlborough Hotel free 8.30pm

COUNTRY

Out of Nowhere Petersham Bowling Club free 7.30pm

FRIDAY MAY 6 ROCK & POP

2days Hits Rooty Hill RSL Club free 8pm Andy Mammers Town Hall Hotel, Balmain free 9pm Ash Grunwald Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $33–$73 (dinner & show) 8pm The Bhagavad Guitars, Peter Fenton, The Glamma Rays, Simon & Alana Notes Live, Enmore $19.90– $42.35 (dinner & show) 7pm BIG A little a (USA), Rat Vs Possum, Simoo Soo, Domeyko/Gonzalez, 3DS

The Red Rattler Theatre, Marrickville $20 (+ bf) 8pm Black Diamond Heart Club Crows Nest Hotel free 11.15pm Blowin in The Wind: Brewster Brothers The Basement, Circular Quay $25 9.30pm Brad Johns Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Brian Estepa, Transat, Hailer, Quiet Titans Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $10 8pm Cambo O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 8pm Carl Fidler The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 10.30pm Dan Lissing Duo Crows Nest Hotel free 6.30pm David Agius Novotel Homebush, Homebush Bay free 5pm Di Solomon Greengate Hotel, Killara free 5pm Dollshay Colonial Hotel, Werrington free 9pm The Flaming Stars South Sydney Juniors, Kingsford free 8.30pm Franky Valentyn Duo Club Five Dock, Five Dock RSL free 8pm Gadjo Guitars Vivo Café, Sydney 5pm Gary Johns Ettamogah Pub, Kellyville free 6pm The Green Day Show Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 11pm Heath Burdell Northies, Cronulla free 9pm Hello Cleveland Pioneer Tavern, Penrith South free 9pm

Bareilles (USA), Ry Cuming Sydney Acer Arena, Sydney Olympic Park $91.65 (+ bf) 8pm Matt Jones Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool free 4.30pm Matt Price Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 9pm Mimesis Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel free 7pm Muddy Feet Brewhouse At St Mary’s, St Marys free 9.30pm The Nickelback Show Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills free 10pm Puma Social After Hours Bowling: The Go! Team (UK) Strike Bowling Bar, Sydney 9pm Rapture Club Rivers, Riverwood free 9pm Reigan Derry Luke Robinson Duo Northies, Cronulla free 5.30pm Reload Westmead Tavern free 5pm Rob Henry The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Sam & Jamie Trio Kirribilli Hotel free 8pm Segression, Dreadnaught, Contrive, Our Last Enemy Annandale Hotel $15 7.30pm The Shouties Rose of Australia Hotel, Erskineville free 9pm Singled Out Commercial Hotel, Parramatta free 7pm Smoke & Mirrors: iOTA, Wayne Scott Kermond, Kali Retallack, Timothy Woon, Queenie van de Zandt The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $65

Holly Throsby & The Hello Tigers, Sam Shinazzi Brass Monkey, Cronulla $28.60 (+ bf) 7pm Ignition The Marlborough Hotel free 10.30pm Ivory Glare, Winslow’s Cancer, Indelerium The Valve, Tempe 7pm Jed Zarb Adams Tavern, Blacktown free 8.15pm Jimmy Bear Sportsman’s Hotel, Blacktown free 9.30pm Josh McIvor Parramatta RSL free 5pm Keepin It Real Customs House Bar, Sydney free 7pm Keith Armitage Macquarie Hotel, Liverpool free 4.30pm The Khanz, Conics, Tales in Space Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Last Night Darwin Deez DJ Set, Rapids, Wacks, M.I.T., Randall Stagg, Shimmy Up Top Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills $10 8pm Luke Dixon The Grand Hotel, Rockdale free 5.30pm Lycantia, The Veil, Fotility, Greed & Rapacity Live at the Wall, Leichhardt $12 8pm The Magic of Buble Western Suburbs Leagues Club Campbelltown, Leumeah $23 (member)–$25 8pm The Maristians Rag and Famish Hotel, North Sydney free 8.30pm Mark Travers Castle Hill RSL Club free 9.30pm Maroon 5 (USA), Sara

(conc)–$70 7pm The Trip Old Manly Boatshed 8pm Venus Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill free 8pm Washington, Lissie (USA), Deep Sea Arcade Metro Theatre, Sydney sold out 8pm Zoltan PJ Gallagher’s Drummoyne free 10pm

JAZZ

Clairy Brown & the Bangin’ Rackettes The Vanguard, Newtown $20 (+ bf)–$55 (dinner & show) 6.30pm Dave McRae, Joy Yates, Jade McRae 505 Club, Surry Hills $15–$20 8.30pm SIMA: Mike Nock Trio, Karl Laskowski The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $10 (member)–$20 8.30pm Unity Hall Jazz Band Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain free 8pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

The April Maze Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7pm Cafe Carnivale: Cecilia Vilardo, Angela Rosero, Helen Rivero Eastside Arts, Paddington $22 (member)–$28 8.15pm George Doukas & Balcano Camelot, Marrickville $19.50

COUNTRY

The Flood Vault 146, Windsor $23.50– $49 (dinner & show) 7pm

WWW.THEGAELIC.COM

04 May

5@5 $10 STEAK & 12-3PM ALE TUE- FRI $5 PINTS

OPEN 10AM- 4AM

wed (9:00PM - 12:00AM)

thu

PURPLE SNEAKERS

05 May

LAST NIGHT

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

fri

WED

May

MAY

(5:00PM - 8:00PM)

(9:15PM - 1:00AM)

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

THU 05 MAY

MAY 16TH

7PM - MUSIC & MOVIE TRIVIA

THE STUDY feat

sat

WRESTLING

TUESDAY ROCKSTEIN

JELLY

PRESENT

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

SATURDAY NIGHT

May

sun

THE WIL MAISEY BAND + BEDLAM IN BELGIUM

MURS & 9TH WONDER R.A THE RUGGED MAN

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

PURPLE SNEAKERS PRESENT LAST NIGHT

SUNDAY NIGHT

FRI 06

May

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

YOUNG ROMANTICS

(8:30PM - 12:00AM)

DARWIN DEEZ DJ SET + RAPIDS (LIVE)

MAY

DJ’S PhDJ + RANDLLE STAGG + M.I.T +SHIMMY UP TOP

SAT 07

JEFF MARTIN

MAY

#/-).' 3//. THU 12 MAY

"2)4)3( ")' 3/5.$

SUN 15 MAY

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WED 19 MAY

BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11 :: 35

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

SATURDAY MAY 7 ROCK & POP

2 Of Hearts Engadine RSL & Citizens Club free 8pm Against Me! (USA), Off With Their Heads, Grand Fatal Metro Theatre, Sydney $40.10 (+ bf) 8pm Andy Mammers Duo Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 7.30pm Ash Grunwald Vault 146, Windsor $34.70– $60.20 (dinner & show) 7pm The Atoms Crows Nest Hotel free 11.15pm The Bandits South Sydney Juniors, Kingsford free 8.30pm Barnstorming Penrith Panthers free 9.30pm Bat Out of Hell Live: Peter Northcote, Brydon Stace, Virginia Lillye, Scott Aplin, Fab Omodei, Luke Cuerden, Louise Perryman, Ross Middleton, Bobby Poulton, Nik Pringadi State Theatre, Sydney $89 (+ bf)–$119 8pm Black Diamond Heart Club Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 10pm Check It Aqua Jam Session: Adam Katz, Benny Vibes Beach Palace Hotel, Coogee free 8.30pm Chris Paton Northies, Cronulla free 8.45pm Covernote Hawkesbury Hotel, Windsor free 6pm

Danger Danny Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm David Agius Trio Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm Deep Duo Peachtree Hotel, Penrith free 9pm Elevate Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool free 9pm Finabah, The Jefferson Rock Lily, Pyrmont free 8pm Geoff Rana The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 5.40pm Get Yer Ya Yas Out: The Classic Kings Mona Vale Golf Club 8pm Happy Hippies Ettamogah Pub, Kellyville free 6.30pm Hat Trick Northies, Cronulla free 5.30pm Hit Selection Duo Richmond Club free 8.30pm

Holly Throsby & The Hello Tigers, Ghoul, The Singing Skies Annandale Hotel $25 (+ bf) 8pm Hue Williams Toukley RSL free 8pm Jeff Martin 777 Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills $43.50 (+ bf) 8pm John Watson Kirribilli Hotel free 8pm Judy, Dean & Frank Show Campbelltown RSL $25 8.30pm Keith Armitage Castle Hill RSL Club free 8pm Kyuss (USA), Tumbleweed The Big Top at Luna Park, Milsons Point $67.95 8pm sold out The Lazys, Sunset Riot Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor free 8pm The Little Stevies, The Spit Press, Gossling, Emma Davis The Vanguard, Newtown $15 (+ bf) 7pm

Gotye

Groovin’ The Moo: UNKLE, Darwin Deez, Datarock, The Wombats, Cut Copy, AC Slater, Architecture In Helsinki, Birds of Tokyo, The Drums, The Go! Team, Gotye, Art Vs Science, House Of Pain, Bliss N Eso, Horrorshow, Nina Las Vegas, The Aston Shuffle, Tim & Jean, Sampology, Drapht, Washington, The Jezabels, Gyroscope, The Holidays Maitland Showground $99.90 (+ bf) 12pm Mandi Jarry Sir Joseph Banks Hotel, Botany free 7pm Mark Da Costa & the Black List Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills free 9.30pm Mark Travers PJ Gallagher’s Drummoyne free 10pm Matt Price Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel free 4pm Midnight Drifters Raby Tavern free 8pm over 15s My Goodness McGuiness!, Leeroy Lee CuriousWorks, Surry Hills $10 8pm The New Christs, Leadfinger, The Cool Charmers Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $20 7.45pm The Nickelback Show, The Green Day Show Celebrity Room, Blacktown RSL Club free 9pm Nicky Kurta Trio Opera Bar, Sydney Opera House free 2.30pm Open Mic: Carolyn Woodorth Terrey Hills Tavern free 7pm

Passenger (UK), Flight of the Crow, Jackson McLaren, Inland Sea Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $17 (+ bf) sold out 8pm Pikelet, Holy Balm, Donny Benet FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst $15 8pm Popboomerang Rarities CD Launch: The Aerial Maps, Russell Crawford & the Stickmen, The Bon Scotts, Celadore, Mark Lang The Basement, Circular Quay $15 8.30pm Rob Henry Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Say It Forever, Wake The Giants, The Author, A Strobelight Summer St James Hotel, Sydney 8pm Sharron Bowman Brewhouse Marayong, Kings Park free 7.30pm Sierra Montana Caringbah Bizzo’s $10 8pm Smoke & Mirrors: iOTA, Wayne Scott Kermond, Kali Retallack, Timothy Woon, Queenie van de Zandt The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $65 (conc)–$70 7pm Steve Lucas, Terry Serio’s Ministry of Truth, Reno Nevada Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $10 1.30pm Steve Tonge The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 4pm Sticky 40 - celebrating 40 years of Sticky Fingers: Rolling Stoned - The Australian Rolling Stones Show, The Volts Bridge Hotel, Rozelle $15 8.30pm

Stormcellar Pendle Hill Inn free 11pm Talk It Up Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 11pm Three’s Company: Scott Spark, Tash Parker, The Rescue Ships Spectrum, Darlinghurst $12 8pm The Wojo’s Band Of Gold, Andy Miles, The Other Kylie, bucket, Bernie Hayes, Andy Travers & Miss Cathy The Valve, Tempe 7pm

JAZZ

Captain Matchbox Cell Block Theatre, Darlinghurst $30–$40 8pm Eon Beats Project 505 Club, Surry Hills $10–$15 8.30pm Grace Knight, Emma Hamilton Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $41–$96 (dinner & show) 7pm Jack Derwin Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7pm sold out Katie Noonan & Karin Schaupp City Recital Hall, Sydney $40 (conc)–$45 8pm Mark Vincent The Cube, Campbelltown $37 8pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 5pm SIMA: Coffin Brothers The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $10 (member)–$20 8.30pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK Beecroft Bush Dance Beecroft Community Centre $12 (member)–$17 8pm

WEDNESDAY 4TH MAY

THURSDAY 5TH MAY

FRIDAY 6TH MAY

SATURDAY 7TH MAY

THURSDAY 12TH MAY

FRIDAY 13TH MAY

36 :: BRAG :: 410 : 02:05:11

Wed 18/05 Mike Noga (The Drones) (CD launch) + Daisy M Tulley Thurs 19/05 Dave Graney Book & CD launch Fri 20/05 & Sat 21/05 Alex Lloyd & The Pigram Brothers Play music from the ﬁlm “Mad Bastards” Wed 25/05 Greek Festival Of Sydney Pop & Rock Revolution Thur 26/05 Freddie White (Ireland) Fri 27/05 Shot Of Desire 4th Birthday Fri 3/06 Contraban + the Licks Wed 8/06 Dominique Fraissard EP launch Fri 10/06 First Ladies Of Soul Sat 11/06 Perry Keyes Fri 1/07 Skipping Girl Vinegar (album launch)

ASH GRUNWALD + Ashleigh Mannix

THURSDAY 5TH MAY

AFRO MOSES FRIDAY 6TH MAY

HOLLY THROSBY + Sam Shinazzi

SATURDAY 7TH MAY

THE FLOOD + Kim Kackenzie

SUNDAY 8TH MAY

THE LITTLE STEVIES + Gossling

MONDAY 9TH MAY

MOTHER’S DAY COMEDY NIGHT SPECIAL

THE FOXY HORNBAGS + Ms Vicky B + Mr Peter Meisel (USA) emcee + Luke O’Shea

TUESDAY 10TH MAY

MARK OLSON OF THE JAYHAWKS

+ Gabrielle Huber (Dead Letter Chorus)

Wednesday 11 May Pete Cornelius Thursday 12 May Jeff Martin Friday 13 May KISS Tribute Sunday 15 May The Ritmo Arch Tuesday 17 May Mike Noga Wednesday 18 May Freddie White Friday 20 May GANGgajang Saturday 21 May Doc Neeson Sunday 22 May Glen Mead Tuesday 24 May John Overholt Wednesday 25 May Bones Atlas Thursday 26 May Jackson Mclaren Friday 27 May Mark Seymour Saturday 28 May Abby Dobson Sunday 29 May The Brewster Brothers Tuesday 31 May Pete Sot Thursday 2 June Renée Geyer Saturday 4 June Classic Rock Show Sunday 5 June Darren Jack Band Wednesday 8 June Joel Lefﬂer Saturday 18 June Steve Flack Monday 20 June Kinky Friedman Tuesday 21 June Kinky Friedman Thursday 23 June English And The Doc Sunday 26 June Natalie Gauci Thursday 30 June Caravãna Sun Wednesday 6 July James Blundell Saturday 9 July Johnny Cash Tribute Saturday 16 July The Paper Scissors Thursday 4 August Diesel Friday 5 August Diesel Saturday 6 August Diesel Sunday 7 August Diesel Thursday 18 August Wendy Matthews

gig picks

g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Ben Sundae The Belveder Hotel free 8pm Derek Warfield & the Young Wolf Tones Coogee Diggers $39.80 (+ bf) 8pm The Shack: Kate Maclurcan, The Shady Bluegrass Band, Green Mohair Suits Tramshed Community Arts Centre, Narrabeen $15 7pm Trojka Camelot, Marrickville 7pm

COUNTRY

The Flood, Kim Kackenzie Brass Monkey, Cronulla $23.50 7pm

SUNDAY MAY 8 ROCK & POP

Ace Brighton RSL Club, BrightonLe-Sands free 7pm Carl Fidler O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 4pm Craig Calhoun Woollahra Hotel free 6.30pm David Agius Harbord Beach Hotel free 6.30pm Drive: Peter Northcote Bridge Hotel, Rozelle $15 Groin Gravy, Dirty Grotto, The Cruel Kind, Siara Stone, The Dash The Valve, Tempe 3.30pm Heath Burdell Ettamogah Pub, Kellyville free 4.30pm Josh McIvor The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 4pm

The Little Stevies, Gossling Brass Monkey, Cronulla $13.30 7pm Screaming Sunday: L.U.S.T., Paradox Park, Multiplier Effect, Contraban, Kill Appeal Annandale Hotel $10 all ages 12pm Mandi Jarry Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel free 4pm Mark Olsen, Halfway Annandale Hotel $30 (+ bf) 8pm Maxine Kauter Rock Lily, Pyrmont free 8pm Metal Health: Warrant, L.A. Guns (USA) Metro Theatre, Sydney $90 8pm Mike Bennett The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm Nicky Kurta Duo Northies, Cronulla free 2.30pm Rachel Laing Pennant Hills Bowling Club free 11.30am Renae Kearney Brewhouse Marayong, Kings Park free 1pm Rob Henry The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 6pm Smoke & Mirrors: iOTA, Wayne Scott Kermond, Kali Retallack, Timothy Woon, Queenie van de Zandt The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $65 (conc)–$70 6pm The Tom & Dave Show Northies, Cronulla free 6pm Triple Imagen South Sydney Juniors, Kingsford free 8pm White Brothers Ettamogah Pub, Kellyville free 1pm

up all night out all week... Zoltan Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 1pm

JAZZ

Blues Sunday: Mark Hopper Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7.30pm Joyce Collins The Belvedere Hotel free 5pm The Soul Predators Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $13–$68 (dinner & show) 12pm Unity Hall Jazz Band Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain free 4pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

The Crooked Fiddle Band, Dave Carr’s Fabulous Contraception The Vanguard, Newtown $16 (+ bf)–$51 (dinner & show) 6.30pm Derek Warfield & The Young Wolfe Tones Notes Live, Enmore $39.80– $62.25 (dinner & show) 7pm Kate Gogarty, Stephanie Jansen Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor free 8pm The Mustard Seeds The Bird in Hand Inn, Pitt Town free 1pm licensed all ages Shane MacKenzie Cohibar, Darling Harbour free 5pm

COUNTRY

Robin Lee Sinclair Band Marrickville Bowling and Recreation Club $10 4.30pm Tracy Killeen Royal Cricketers Arms, Prospect free 3.30pm

TUESDAY MAY 3 Gruff Rhys, Matt Tow, Melodie Nelson Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $30 8pm

WEDNESDAY MAY 4 Rainbow Chan, Domeyko/Gonzalez, Echo Chord The Vanguard, Newtown $15 (+ bf)–$50 (dinner & show) 6.30pm

THURSDAY MAY 5 Hugh Cornwell (UK), The Dark Shadows Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $49 (+ bf) 8pm Washington, Lissie (USA), Deep Sea Arcade Metro Theatre, Sydney $32 (+ bf) all ages 7pm

Washington

SATURDAY FRIDAY MAY 6 MAY 7 The Bhagavad Guitars, Peter Fenton, The Glamma Rays, Simon & Alana Notes Live, Enmore $20.40–$42.85 (dinner & show) 7pm BIG A little a (USA), Rat Vs Possum, Simoo Soo, Domeyko/Gonzalez, 3DS The Red Rattler Theatre, Marrickville $20 (+ bf) 8pm Puma Social After Hours Bowling: The Go! Team (UK) Strike Bowling Bar, Sydney 9pm

Holly Throsby & The Hello Tigers, Ghoul, The Singing Skies Annandale Hotel $25 (+ bf) 8pm Jeff Martin 777 Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills $45.30 (+ bf) 8pm Kyuss (USA), Tumbleweed The Big Top at Luna Park, Milsons Point $67.95 8pm sold out The Little Stevies, The Spit Press, Gossling, Emma Davis

The Vanguard, Newtown $15 (+ bf) 7pm Pikelet, Holy Balm, Donny Benet FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst $15 8pm Popboomerang Rarities CD Launch: The Aerial Maps, Russell Crawford & the Stickmen, The Bon Scotts, Celadore, Mark Lang The Basement, Circular Quay $15 8.30pm Three’s Company: Scott Spark, Tash Parker, The Rescue Ships Spectrum, Darlinghurst $12 8pm The Little Stevies

BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11 :: 37

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

club pick of the week

Datarock

THURSDAY MAY 5

Murs & 9th Wonder

Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills

Murs & 9th Wonder, R.A The Rugged Man, The Narcicyst, Daily Meds, DJ Jaytee $35 (+ bf) 8pm MONDAY MAY 2 The World Bar, Kings Cross Mondays Mista Killa free 8pm

TUESDAY MAY 3 The Gaff, Darlinghurst Coyote Tuesday Kid Finley, Johnny B free 9pm The Valve, Tempe Underground Tables Gee Wiz, Myme, Benji, BC free 6pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Pop Panic Conrad Greenleaf 9pm

WEDNESDAY MAY 4 Bank Hotel, Newtown Girls’ Night DJ Playmate free 8pm Goodgod Front Bar, Sydney Special Moments Long John Saliva free 8pm The Hive Bar, Erskineville Vinyl Club free 8pm Lewisham Hotel Club Cubano DJ Jamie free–$12 7pm Marlborough Hotel, Newtown DJ Moussa free 11pm The World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall free 9pm

THURSDAY MAY 5 11a Oxford St, Paddington Inhale Sweet Az Soundsystem, Jonny Faith, Typhonic free 6pm Ambush Gallery, Waterloo Journeys Opening Night Ivens free 6pm Australian Hotel & Brewery, Rouse Hill Cool Room Nick Skitz free Brisbane Hotel, Sydney YellowFever (USA) $18 9pm Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor Top 40 Fitzroy DJs free 9pm Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills Murs & 9th Wonder (USA), R.A The Rugged Man, The Narcicyst, Daily Meds, DJ Jaytee $35 (+ bf) 8pm

Goodgod Front Bar, Sydney Club Al Levins free 9pm Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney Tenzin, Cadell, Zannon, K-Note free 8pm Hugo’s Lounge, Kings Cross Forro’ 8pm Ivy Courtyard, Sydney Ivy Live The Groove Academy feat. Sarah J. Hyland free Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Datarock (Norway) $42 8pm Woollahra Hotel DJ Rock Fan free 7.45pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Propaganda Propaganda DJs free (student)–$5 9pm

FRIDAY MAY 6 Bank Hotel, Newtown Friendly Fridays DJ Beth Yen free 7pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Frenzie free 8pm Candys Apartment, Kings Cross Liquid Sky Tongue in Cheek, SMS, MooWho, Kyro & Bomber, Sohda $10-$15 8pm Club 202 Broadway, Chippendale Frat House free-$10 9pm Club 77, Kings Cross Solo (UK), Kato, Three Fingers, Mattrad, Awkward Boys, Detnum, Manjazz $15$20 9pm Cohibar, Darling Harbour DJ Jeddy Rowland, DJ Anders Hitchcock, DJ Mike Silver free Establishment, Sydney Tank G Wizard, Def Rok, T, Eko $15 9pm Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills Last Night Darwin Deez DJ Set, Rapids, Wacks, M.I.T., Randall Stagg, Shimmy Up Top $10 8pm Goldfish, Kings Cross Funk Tank free 6pm Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney Caddell free 5pm Home The Venue, Sydney Sublime Paul Webster (IRE), Ahmet Atasever, Peewee, Scotty G, VLN, Losty, Nomad, Nasty, Arbor, Big Dan, The Dirty Stopouts, Morphee, Geeflukz, Flite, IKO, Suga Shane $20–$25 10pm Jacksons on George, Sydney Ultimate Party Venue Resident DJs free

Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Falcona Fridays Anna Lunoe $10 10pm Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown DJ Michael free 8pm Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Sampology’s Super Visual Monster Mash Sampology, Tom Thum $25 8pm Phoenix Bar, Exchange Hotel, Darlinghurst Phoenix Rising Dan Murphy, Johan Khoury, Mark Alsop $10 4am The Rouge, Kings Cross Shock Horror Jamie What?, Dancefloor Terrorism, Mr Belvedere, Implex $5 9.30pm The Roxbury, Glebe eMerge Pre-launch Party Luke Warren, Jim Thomason, Mike Hansen free 7pm Tatlers, Kings Cross Northern Soul Nights Sydney Soul Scene DJs 9pm Tone, Surry Hills Twist and Shout Dylabolical, Doctor J $5 9pm Vegas Bar, Exchange Hotel, Darlinghurst The Chicken Shack Goldfoot, OPP, Flashback 11pm Water Bar, Woolloomooloo The Groove Academy feat. Sarah J, Hyland free 6pm The Watershed Hotel, Sydney DJ Matty Roberts free The World Bar, Kings Cross MUM MUM DJs $10-$15 8pm

SATURDAY MAY 7 Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Neon Nights free 8pm Candys Apartment Shake Shake Shake Zomg! Kittenz, Teez, Disco Volante, The Kid, Pretty Young Things $10-$20 8pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney AC Slater (USA), Dopamine, Jeff Drake, Adam Bozzetto, A-Tonez, DJ Moto, Dirty D & Ahab (live set), Nick!, Methodixx, Bounce Crew DJs, King Lee $15-$25 9pm Civic Underground, Sydney Adult Disco James Curd, Future Classic DJs $15 10pm Coach and Horses Hotel, Randwick Retro Night free 8pm Cohibar, Darling Harbour DJ Jeddy Rowland, DJ Anders Hitchcock free Dee Why Hotel Kiss & Fly Lady Lauryn, Kasier, Olsen 8pm

Empire Hotel, Darlinghurst Empire Saturdays Empire DJs free 9pm Establishment, Sydney Sienna G Wizard, Def Rok, Teko, Lilo $20 9pm The Forbes Hotel, Sydney We Love Indie $10 9pm Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Slow Blow Smoke & Lazzzers Party! Jacksons on George, Sydney Ultimate Party Venue DJ Michael Stewart free Live at the Wall, Leichhardt Eight By 8ight Jonny Faith, Trinity, Dane Austin, Dave Stuart, The Autohoare, Xanthopan, Natasha Chamberlain, Andosound, Oliver Gurney $20 9pm Pontoon, Darling HArbour Fashionista DJ John Young $5-$10 9pm The Rouge, Kings Cross Le Rouge Dave Manna, Matt Nukewood, Micko P $10-$15 9pm Sly Fox, Enmore Woo-Hah Mark N, Moriarty, Mothballz, Saba, Dubious free 9pm Water Bar, Woolloomooloo Saturday Night Deluxe DJ Alex Almeida free Watershed Hotel, Darling Harbour Skybar free 10pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Wham! $15-$20 9pm

SUNDAY MAY 8 Bank Hotel, Newtown Alex Almeida free Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Kali, Mirror Mirror free 6pm Cohibar, Darling Harbour Shane ManKenzie free FakeClub, Kings Cross Spice John Devecchis, Garry Todd, Murat Kilic $20 4am The Hive Bar, Erskineville Revolve Records DJs free 5pm Jacksons on George, Sydney Aphrodisiac Industry Night Resident DJs free Water Bar, Woolloomooloo Mothers Day The Groove Academy feat. Sarah J. Hyland free The Watershed Hotel, Sydney Afternoon DJs DJ Brynstar The World Bar, Kings Cross Fortune Disco Punx free 6pm

“Yeah, like it or not / Like a ball and a chain / All I wanna do is get off / And feel it for a minute, babe” - THE DANDY WARHOLS 38 :: BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11

club picks up all night out all week...

Long John Saliva

THURSDAY MAY 5 Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney Tenzin, Cadell, Zannon, K-Note free 8pm Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Datarock (Norway) $42 8pm

FRIDAY MAY 6 WEDNESDAY MAY 4 Goodgod Front Bar, Sydney Special Moments Long John Saliva free 8pm

Club 77, Kings Cross Solo (UK), Kato, Three Fingers, Mattrad, Awkward Boys, Detnum, Manjazz $15-$20 9pm Gaelic Theatre, S urry Hills Last Night Darwin Deez DJ Set, Rapids, Wacks, M.I.T., Randall Stagg, Shimmy Up Top $10 8pm

Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Falcona Fridays Anna Lunoe $10 10pm Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Sampology’s Super Visual Monster Mash Sampology, Tom Thum $25 8pm Tone, Surry Hills Twist and Shout Dylabolical, Doctor J $5 9pm

SATURDAY MAY 7 Chinese Laundry, Sydney AC Slater (USA), Dopamine, Jeff Drake, Adam Bozetto, A-Tonez, DJ Moto, Dirty D & Ahab (live set), Nick!, Methodixx, Bounce Crew DJs, King Lee $15-$25 9pm Civic Underground, Sydney Adult Disco James Curd, Future Classic DJs $15 10pm

SUNDAY MAY 8 FakeClub, Kings Cross Spice John Devecchis, Garry Todd, Murat Kilic $20 4am

Darwin Deez

The World Bar, Kings Cross Fortune Disco Punx free 6pm

We has internets!

Extra bits and moving bits without the inky ﬁngers.

www.thebrag.com BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11 :: 39

Deep Impressions Underground Dance and Electronica with Chris Honnery

Soul Sedation Soul, Dub, Hip Hop & Bottom-heavy Beats with Tony Edwards

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.

inja Tune beatsmith turned singer/ songwriter Fink is back with the single ‘Perfect Darkness’. Much in the same vein as his recent solo vocal work, the song will keep fans happy. Hopefully the release telegraphs his fourth full-length, the first three of which have maintained an incredibly high standard. Live Brisvegas disco outfit Mitzi have had their All I Heard EP remixed in fine fashion, with names like Joakim, Cassian, Softwar and LTJ all involved. The band are a talented, up-and-coming outfit with an original take on songwriting - definitely worth checking out. Ada

ne of my favourite electronic craftswomen, the German electronic producer Ada, will release an overdue new album in June entitled Meine Zarten Pfoten (‘My Tender Paws’), her first since 2004’s Blondie. Anyone familiar with the poignant sounds of Ada, epitomised in such serene cuts as ‘Love Stoned’, ought to agree that the title is fitting, and should welcome Ada’s return to the production fold. In the seven years since her last artist album, Ada has released a string of EPs on the Areal Records imprint and mixed a compilation for Kompakt, Adaptations, which was comprised solely of her own material (a mixture of original productions and remixes) and functions as a good starting point for anyone looking for an entry point into Ada’s body of work. I also recommend checking out Cologne Tape, the collective of Ada, Axel Willner (aka The Field), Jörg ‘The Modernist’ Burger, Popnoname and John Stanier of Battles, who released the krautrock/ambient EP Render last year and apparently have more to come (hopefully). Meine Zarten Pfoten will be Ada’s first appearance on Pampa Records, and is scheduled for a June 10 release; the sprightly donkey on the album cover is an incentive to go ‘old school’ and buy the physical CD rather than the digital release, but whatever works for you guys; I don’t mean to hassle or impose, I am merely a guide, a faint voice echoing at the edges of your frenetic daily grind… I’ve had the ‘new’ release from Terre Thaemlitz AKA DJ Sprinkles, Routes Not Roots, on heavy rotation this week, and have really been digging it. (Please note, I’m not shying away from the usage of ‘dig’ in my parlance; this white boy feels it’s apt in this instance!) Technically speaking, the release is both a side project from Thaemlitz’s alter-ego Kami-Sakunobe House Explosion (K-S.H.E.) and a followup to the excellent critically acclaimed LP Midtown 120 Blues on Mule Musiq - but it's important to note the album was originally released in 2006 on Thaemlitz’s own Comatonse label and has been a secret weapon of in-the-know DJs for the past five years. Significantly, my sonic arsenal did not feature this secret weapon, and as a result I have been pulling other weapons out of my arsenal until I stumbled upon this LP one dreary Easter morning last week. The reason I was able to discover the album is that French imprint Skylax have had the good sense to give it a proper release, a move that gives us simpletons who aren’t drinking pals with Thaemlitz access to what is a rare producer album that works as a true album, rather than a series of tracks arbitrarily flung together. Listening to Routes Not Roots, it's damn near impossible to ascertain it was crafted five years ago – in fact, a listen to it is enough to get me going on one of my increasingly frequent ‘they don’t make ‘em like they used to’ rants. Showcasing a sense of adventure that is sorely absent in the majority of house music produced at present, Thaemlitz has the skill to pull off an ambitious gem of an album that comprises an array of deep and jazzy house and electronic soundcapes that even references Radiohead – see the track ‘Head [In My Private Lounge, My Pad]’. This is exactly the kind of shake-up needed in

LOOKING DEEPER SATURDAY MAY 14 Kollektiv Turmstrasse Tone

SATURDAY MAY 28 Robert Hood Inner-city warehouse

SATURDAY JUNE 4 Iron Curtis Inner-city warehouse

SUNDAY JUNE 12 Marcellus Pittman Tone

house music, and let's hope Routes Not Roots has the impact it deserves now that it’s been given a proper release - the irreverent cover emblazoned with a bit of ye olde full-frontal nudity is a good start in catching the eye of unwary consumers! Minimal pioneer and veteran of the scene, Detroit’s Robert Hood, will headline the next in HaHa’s ‘Versus’ series in a warehouse bash on Saturday May 28 at an as-yet-undisclosed location. It is the second time in as many years that Hood will venture Down Under after a very long absence from our shores prior to the 2010 visit. Credited as being one of the pioneers of minimal techno, Hood was a member of Underground Resistance and recorded alongside Jeff Mills under the moniker H&M. Hood’s landmark 1994 album Minimal Nation was a prototype seized upon by Richie Hawtin et al, and he most recently released the concept LP Omega, which was written and produced as a soundtrack to the 1971 sci-fi film The Omega Man. Hit the HaHa website or Facebook for further details, since it is a warehouse party and all that... Given the shortage of venues around town, Hood in a warehouse is a damn fine option, and one that is wholeheartedly endorsed by your humble author.

THURSDAY MAY 5 MURS & 9th Wonder Gaelic Theatre

SATURDAY MAY 14 th Void 4 Birthday ft N-TYPE Oxford Art Factory

FRIDAY MAY 20 The Bamboos Manning Bar

FRIDAY MAY 27 Bliss n Eso, Horrorshow Hordern Pavilion

MAY 31, JUNE 1 & 2 OFWGKTA Sydney Opera House

THURSDAY JUNE 2 Sonny Rollins Sydney Opera House

SATURDAY JUNE 4 Hypnotic Brass Ensemble Sydney Opera House

Diplo’s Greensleeves mix Riddimentary: Diplo Selects Greensleeves is worth getting your hands on, too. The invitation into the Greensleeves vaults came from the relationship Diplo has developed with Greensleeves' parent label VP, largely due to the artist clearances requested for involvement in his Major Lazer project. According to FADER Magazine, the second Major Lazer album is currently in mix-down. Eccentric German studio wizard Robag Wruhme has compiled the latest Resident Advisor podcast. If underground leftfield 4/4 electronica is up your alley, you’ll enjoy Wruhme’s headspace. The producer also has a new LP out through DJ Koze’s Pampa imprint. Entitled Thora Vukk it’s, once again, an album of deep and detailed electronica. The new Kraak & Smaak full-length is out through Jalapeno. Electric Hustle features collaborations from Romanthony, Lee Fields, John Turrell, Lex Empress, Janne Schra, Sebastian. There’s been some ace singles off the album already, the worldbeating Dutch producer trio continuing to carve the alternative dance scene up. Prefuse 73 is back with his new record, The Only She Chapters. Always tinkering with new directions, Prefuse himself muses that “this can be seen as a departure from other albums but it’s not a departure intended to leave people feeling alienated or baffled. It’s just a different way to interpret my music and it’s an open invitation for anyone that wants to listen.” One of the original masters of headphone music, this is detailed and intricate as hell. Heavy on the female vocals as well, with contributions from Faidherbe, Shara Worden, Trish Keenan, Niki Randa and more. The seminal I Need A Freak album from eighties electro-funk outfit Sexual Harassment has been revisited by the

Prefuse 73 Citinite label, inviting fresh producers like DâM-FunK, Lil’ Kenny, Sweat X and Jimmy Edgar to record re-interpretations of the raw material. You can pick it up digitally through Citinite. This Thursday night brings a showcase of US hip hop to Sydney in the form of MURS & 9th Wonder and R.A the Rugged Man. Backpack emcee Murs (also known as Felt alongside MC Slug of the Atmosphere collective) will be flanked by DJ/producer 9th Wonder, who’s penned some seriously good beats for names like EPMD, Badu and De La over the years. His rework of Roy Ayers’ ‘Everybody Loves The Sunshine’ on Verve Remixed Vol. 4 is one of Soul Sedation’s favourite versions. NY rapper R.A the Rugged Man rounds out the bill on the night, another contender with a credible CV behind him. It all goes down at the Gaelic Theatre.

Robert Hood,

Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through deep.impressions@yahoo.com. 40 :: BRAG :: 410 :: 25:04:11

Local hip hop don Katalyst has released yet another single from his forthcoming, keenly awaited Impressions album. Entitled ‘Ready To Drop’, it features Killaqueenz’s Kween G on vocals. There’s no release date for Impressions as yet...

ON THE ROAD

R.A the Rugged Man

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

snap

index

PICS :: TL

up all night out all week . . .

25:04:11 :: TONE :: 16 Wentworth Ave, Surry Hills 9267 3787

party profile

storm in a tea cup

PICS :: AM

WHAM!

adult disco

Who’s spinning? Kid Kenobi Three records you’ll hear on the night: Azzid o da Bass – ‘Dooms Night’; Green Velvet – ‘La la Land’; Plump DJs – ‘Scram.’ And one you definitely won’t: Anything Biebe r. Sell it to us: One of Sydney’s best ever DJs is going to take us on a journey, with a marathon set showcasing his career, his record collection and his skills. From the first tune of the night to the very last, Kid Kenobi will be your selector. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Your love for all those amazing tunes from yesteryear. Crowd specs: Anyone who's danced to a Kid Kenobi set in their life. Wallet damage: $15 before 10pm / $20 after Where: The World Bar / Kings Cross When: Saturday May 7 from 8pm

PICS :: AM

24:04:11 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700

It’s called: WHAM! ICON SERIES presents KID KENOBI It sounds like: A history of Sydney’s club scene for the past 15 years.

rock lily launch

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23:04:11 :: Civic Hotel, 388 Pitt Street Sydney, 8080 7000

circo loco after party

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20:04:11 :: Star City, 80 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont, 9777 9000 :: :: ALICIA COOK :: MITCHELL JAY S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER STEVENSON ICK PATR :: Y CHE PEA MAS :: THO ASHLEY MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS

24:04:11 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711 BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11 :: 41

snap sn ap

hot damn

PICS :: AM

up all night out all week . . .

grease party #3

PICS :: PS

21:04:11 :: Spectrum :: 34 Oxford St Darlinghurst 93316245

we had parties

chinese laundry

:: The Gaelic Theatre :: 64 Devonshire St Surry Hills 92111687

PICS :: AM

24:04:11

PICS :: AM

25:04:11 :: The Club :: 33 Bayswaer Rd Kings Cross 93574411

wham!

PICS :: DM

23:04:11 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex Street Sydney 82959958

beresford

PICS :: AM

23:04:11 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700

23:04:11 :: The Beresford Hotel :: 354 Bourke St, Surry Hills 93571111 42 :: BRAG :: 410 :: 02:05:11

:: :: ALICIA COOK :: MITCHELL JAY S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) ON ENS OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER STEV ICK PATR :: :: THOMAS PEACHEY ASHLEY MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS

VILLAGE SOUNDS AND SECRET SERVICE PRESENT THE 11TH ANNUAL ARTS & MUSIC FESTIVAL

FRIDAY 29, SATURDAY 30, SUNDAY 31 JULY 2011 TICKETS ON SALE THIS THURSDAY 5 MAY 3 DAYS U ONSITE CAMPING U MULTI STAGES

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