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DIRECTED BY JOE WRIGHT ORIGINAL SCORE BY THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS
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Secret Sounds presents
AUSTRALIA 2011 With Special Guests Belles Will Ring
Pulp have decided to get together and play some concerts this year. The shows will involve the original members of the band (Nick Banks, Jarvis Cocker, Candida Doyle, Steve Mackey & Mark Webber) & they will be playing songs from all periods of their career. (Yes, that means they’ll be playing your favourites) If you wish to know any more then please visit www.pulppeople.com where you will be subjected to a barrage of cryptic questions. In the meantime ask yourself this: “Do You Remember The First Time?” Thank you for your attention.
Wed 27 July Hordern Pavilion Tickets from Ticketek, www.ticketek.com.au, Ph 132 849
ON SALE NOW SPLENDOURSIDESHOWS.COM FREE 25-track SPLENDOUR SAMPLER! SOUNDS.SPLENDOURINTHEGRASS.COM Codeword: SPLENDOUR2011
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SECRET SOUNDS PRESENTS
SIDESHOWS ON SALE TICKETS FROM SPLENDOURSIDESHOWS.COM
WITH SPECIAL GUEST MARQUES TOLIVER
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS THE GRATES
UT LD O THUR JULY 28 -SOFACTORY THEATRE
THUR 28 JULY ENMORE THEATRE
SATURDAY JULY 30 METRO THEATRE
With special guestss Belles Will Ring
Wed 27 July Hordern Pavilion
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS OH MERCY
TUESDAY AUGUST 2 AGES METRO THEATRE ALL WITH SPECIAL GUESTS STRANGE TALK
With special guests Husky
AUGUST 3 THEATRE METRO THEA ATRE
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS
YOUNG THE GIANT
AUGUST 3 OXFORD ART FACTORY
Tuesday August 2 The Factory
WITH GUESTS
WED 27 JULY THE BASEMENT
DZ DEATHRA A AYS DEATHRAYS + THE GROWL
JULY 29 AN ANNANDALE NN NA AND NDAL ALLE HOTEL A HO OTE EL
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FUNERAL
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WITH: BOY IN A BOX
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FEATURING TRACKS:
New York City Moves To The Sound Of L.A. Finale and Just Because
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rock music news
welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Nathan Jolly and Steph Harmon
He Said She Said WITH
JORDIE LANE
M
y earliest childhood memory is of my parents taking my sister and I on one of their many tours, for their travelling theatre company; my mother dressed as a sleazy male cabaret singer, my father dressed as a female policewoman in a marching band. This was the first of many strange and wonderful memories growing up. On my first day of primary school I remember the agony of stepping out on my own, but also the feeling of independence after being dropped off by my father. This didn’t last longer than a few hours, as he showed up again at lunchtime. My dad had become the prep ukulele teacher. My favourite musicians include Jimi Hendrix, Wes Montgomery, Bob Dylan, Gillian Welch and Ryan Adams. Jimi and Wes were a huge influence in getting me excited about playing the guitar. When I heard Bob Dylan, I hated him at first, but very quickly started
(Jeff Lang) on bass, and Mike Noga (The Drones) on percussion, playing strange stuff like wine glass drones, kitchen utensils, boxes, broom sticks and banjo skins.
to see the endless beauty in using words in songs as a focus rather than guitar, and I quickly changed my ways. Gillian and Ryan would have to be my two favourite modern singer/songwriters; they showed me that there is still beautiful good stuff being done out there. But overall, it’s not music that inspires me; it’s the places I go, the people I meet, the things they say, the world we are living in now! I made my new album Blood Thinner entirely on my own in the Californian desert, guided by L.A. producer Tom Biller (Beck, Kanye West, Karon O, Warpaint). We met at a bar in L.A. and he loved my stuff, and we made the record without even feeling like we were doing so. It was a perfect match. As the whole album was made on four-track cassette tape, I have decided on a four-piece band to re-interpret the songs live, including my right hand man Matty Green on guitars, samples, and vocals, Grant Cummerford
With at least one record store closing every week in recent months, it’s going to be a really tough time for music in the next few years. But on a good note, the live scene still seems to be overflowing with crowds and new exciting bands everywhere. I’ve really enjoyed catching some bands down in Melbourne lately, like Toot Toot Toots, Little John and Graveyard Train. And this guy from Sydney named Ryan Nico (Slow Waves) blew my fuckin’ mind the other night... With: Blood Thinner album launch With: Special guest Mike Noga (The Drones) Where: The Vanguard, Newtown When: Friday July 29
AVENGED SEVENFOLD TOUR If the devil is 6, then God is 7. It is written in the holy scriptures of The Pixies, yet Californian metal act Avenged Sevenfold seem to be bandying that number about a little too freely for a band that systematically and without remorse are setting up the destruction of all living creatures through the sheer force of sound. Confront them with bibles and accusations when they play Sydney Entertainment Centre on Saturday June 30. Unfortunately, the equally awesome Sevendust had to pull out of the support slot, but they’ve been replaced by Melbourne’s Dream On Dreamer - so, you win some, you lose some.
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: Nathan Jolly, Chris Honnery ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant GRAPHIC DESIGN: Alan Parry SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER: Tim Levy SNAP PHOTOGRAPHERS: Niki Bodle, Katrina Clarke, Cai Griffin, Ashley Mar, Daniel Munns, Vicky Nguyen, Thomas Peachy, Patrick Stevenson COVER DESIGN: Sarah Bryant ADVERTISING: Matthew Cowley - 0431 917 359 / (02) 9552 6333 matthew@thebrag.com ADVERTISING: Les White - 0405 581 125 / (02) 9552 6333 les@thebrag.com ADVERTISING: Meaghan Meredith - 0423 655 091 / (02) 9552 6333 meaghan@thebrag.com GIG & CLUB GUIDE CO-ORDINATOR: Matt Banham - gigguide@thebrag.com (rock) clubguide@thebrag.com (dance & parties) INTERNS: Sigourney Berndt, Louisa Bathgate, Greg Clennar REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Simon Binns, Joshua Blackman, Liz Brown, Ben Cooper, Oliver Downes, Alasdair Duncan, Max Easton, Tony Edwards, Christie Eliezer, Murray Engleheart, Max Easton, Mike Gee, Chris Honnery, Nathan Jolly, Alex Lindsay Jones, Peter Neathway, Hugh Robertson, Romi Scodellaro, Rach Seneviratne, Luke Telford, Rick Warner Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this address 8a Marlborough Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 ph - (02) 9552 6333 fax - (02) 9319 2227 EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Publisher, Editor or Staff of The Brag. ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Stephen Forde : accounts@furstmedia.com.au ph - (03) 9428 3600 fax - (03) 9428 3611 Furst Media, 3 Newton Street Richmond Victoria 3121 DEADLINES: Editorial Wednesday 12pm (no extensions) Art Work, Ad Bookings Thursday 12pm (no extensions) Ad Cancellations Tuesday 4pm Published by Cartrage P/L ACN 104026388 All content copyrighted to Cartrage 2003 DISTRIBUTION: Wanna get The Brag? Email distribution@furstmedia. com.au or phone 03 9428 3600. PRINTED BY SPOTPRESS: www.spotpress.com.au 24 – 26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville NSW 2204 Win a giveaway? Mail us a stamped and addressed envelope, and we’ll send your prize on over...
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SECOND SHOW-LUTION
Grinderman
HOMEBAKE 2011. YES YES YES YES YES.
Having moved into the same building as them a month ago, BRAG has it on very good authority that when the Homebake press release says that the festival organisers have been “frantically placing the finishing touches” on the lineup, they mean it. Their hard work and stressed faces were worth it though, with a Homebake ‘Classic Edition’ that sees some of the most respected Aussie musicians seated snugly alongside some of the biggest and most exciting newbies. Big breath: Grinderman, Ladyhawke, our cover star PNAU, Gotye, Gurrumul, Cut Copy, Icehouse, Eskimo Joe, The Triffids, Architecture In Helsinki, Drapht, The Vines, The Jezabels, Kimbra, C.W Stoneking, Hungry Kids of Hungary, Illy, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Papa vs Pretty and loads, loads more. Yikes. It goes down at The Domain (of course) on Saturday December 3; tickets on sale from 9am on Monday August 15 and with a lineup like that, don’t sleep in. (Welcome back, Homebake!)
COLD CHISEL ARE BACK
If you grew up in rural Australia, Cold Chisel was probably ruined for you by the football players, the sad pub singalongs, the builders and dockers and tradies and FM radio and beer ads and fuckin’ Chiiiiissssel!!!! ...But if you get past that, you’ll discover they had an amazing ’78-’83 run of literate, well-crafted albums. Also, ‘Choir Girl’ is a song about abortion, which came to prominence by being pumped on the Catholic Church-owned FM radio stations in the ‘80s... Take that, Jesus! Anyway, Chisel are back with their biggest tour in almost thirty years, hitting the Acer Arena on November 10. Tickets go on sale Thursday August 4, and You Am I are supporting.
CHILD BEARING HIPS
We find The Vasco Era’s new single title visually ambiguous; it conjures either a full-bodied lady, or a normally-bodied child. Whichever way you like it, it’s blistering rawk from a fine Melbourne act who are gearing up to release their third LP. You’ll get to see it happen for yourself when they play GoodGod Small Club on Wedesday August 17.
LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO!
You know that African stuff that all the Vampire Weekends who’ve popped up recently are
The Living End have built up so much goodwill in this country – due to more than a decade of blistering live shows, plus the odd single that fixes FM radio for a few months every now and then – that they could have gone on a throatslashing spree last month and their Sydney show still would have sold out in mere minutes. Not to worry, they’ve added a second (and they say ‘final’) Sydney show set for Saturday September 4 at the Enmore. Tickets on sale now.
Pulp
dabbling in? Well, the upside of these bands actually being popular is that the amazing South African singing group Ladysmith Black Mambazo (who started this whole thing by schooling Paul Simon Graceland-style in the ‘80s) are touring Australia. They’re stopping in at the State Theatre on November 4, to make you all go, “What on Earth were we listening to before this happened?!”
DR DON DON
On Friday July 29, when you’re sitting around at home thinking “I’m not at Splendour, but I need to watch an acclaimed hip hop producer perform under his new genre-mashing moniker, ideally somewhere near Central,” remember you read here that Chasm will be performing at Gaelic Club under the name Dr. Don Don, with a mash of hip hop, electro and dance. That’s almost exactly what you were looking for, hey?
JESUS JONES
UK baggy group Jesus Jones wrote perhaps the best Madchester-full-of-love-and-booze-andsorted-for-E’s-and-wizz-innit-esque song outside of ‘Fool’s Gold’: the amazing ‘Right Here, Right Now’. They play Friday August 19 at the Enmore with The Wonderstuff (pundits may recall that these guys brought a cover of ‘Dizzy’ crashing into our early childhoods), and Australia’s own lovely, dreamy The Clouds.
BRAG GIVEAWAY: SIDE OF STAGE AT PULP?
So, we were in the boardroom with Jarvis Cocker from the legendary Pulp, trying to nut out a decent prize for his upcoming Sydney show on Wednesday July 27 at the Hordern (proudly presented by BRAG). After a four-hour brainstorm, we arrived upon the idea of letting one fan and their friend watch Pulp’s first three songs from the side of the stage, like some kind of guru/guitar tech... Find us on Facebook and ‘like’ us by Tuesday for your chance to win.
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rock music news
free stuff
welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Nathan Jolly and Steph Harmon
five things
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM
INERTIA’S MOST WANTED
Growing Up Being the eldest of five siblings, growing 1. up was quite crazy and noisy - but it was
The Music You Make I started fronting bands and recording 4. my own songs when I was 14 years old; my
also wonderful and creative. It helped each of us develop pretty wild imaginations, and taught each of us very powerful stuff in terms of communication and self expression. I couldn’t stop writing, and I would sing into hairbrushes, cans of hairspray, tubes of moisturiser, whatever I could get my hands on!
first official release was my EP, Universal Need, in 2008. My debut album Paper Flower was recorded and mixed at Linear Recording in Leichardt with Chris Vallejo, and mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London. From my live show you can expect to hear intimacy and quirkiness, and possibly rawer sounds than on the record - and you can also expect to hear an extremely hot band!
Inertia is a powerhouse of a record company who, apart from having their own in-house labels, distribute tunes from some of the most incredible rosters from all over the world; tastemakers like Sub Pop, Warp, !K7, Ninja Tune and Secretly Canadian amongst a whole heap of others. We’ve got one prize pack of ‘The World’s Most Wanted Music’ to give away, including the latest releases from Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Friendly Fires, Cut Off Your Hands, Okkervil River, Battles, Radiohead, Patrick Wolf and The Horrors. We meant it when we said they looked after some of our favourites... If you want to know more about the acts, check out their Most Wanted mini-zine, which you can grab in music and fashion shops all over the country. And if you want to win nine of your new favourite albums, email us the name of one of Inertia’s in-house labels.
Music, Right Here, Right Now In Sydney there are constant streams 5. of inspiration everywhere, if you look at
UTILITY FOG
WITH
ALANNA CHEROTE
Inspirations I’m heavily influenced by The Beatles, 2. The Everly Brothers, Johnny Cash, The Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Ray Charles, The Doors, Edith Piaf and Leonard Cohen. Listening to Joan As Police Woman changed my ears for life, and I’d say that Brandi Carlile, Crowded House, Sheryl Crow, Feist, Ron Sexsmith, Ray Lamontagne, early Alicia Keys, Keb Mo, Lucinda Williams and Coldplay are all influences and favourites of mine.
the incredible original artists we have. This keeps you sane and helps you escape from a scene quite strangled by red tape, rules and regulations. The local music scene is obviously smaller than in Melbourne there’s not a lot happening, no where near as much as somewhere like Toronto, New York or Berlin. But having said that, there is SO much inspiration to be seen and heard.
Your Crew My crew includes Australian publishers 3. Centrifuge, Aussie label Other Tongues, and then of course my Canadian label Sparks Music, who are based in Toronto. They found me through being introduced to my music at the MIDEM music conference in France in 2009. In the future, I hope to collaborate
What: Paper Tongues is out now through
with each and every one of the Finns, each and every one of the Cherote siblings, Chris Kamzelas, Chris Martin, Sheryl Crow, Joan As Police Woman and Ron Sexsmith...
The Flaming Lips
Other Tongues
Where: The Vanguard, Newtown When: Wednesday August 3
Do you like edgy, experimental music? Do you like FBi’s ‘Utility Fog’, the program dedicated to showing you the best in digital-acousticelectric music? Do you like drinking in a minimalistic, uber cool space? If you answered “yes” to any or all of those questions, then you’re going to want to get your hands on the double pass we’ve got for ‘Utility Fog curates The Gate’, which is happening on Saturday July 30 at Pablo & Rusty’s in Epping. It’s been curated by Peter Hollo from Fourplay String Quartet, who also performs as Raven: and he’s put together a lineup that includes the folktronicamazing Part Timer, Ollie Brown (half of Icarus from the UK), and sound artist Gail Priest. All you gotta do is let us know what night Utility Fog is on the radios…
Grouplove
HARVEST - A CIVILISED GATHERING
In a genuine ‘STOP THE PRESSES!’ moment, the inaugural Harvest lineup was dropped moments before we went to print - but it’s too good to let go. Set for Nov 13 at Parramatta Park, Harvest is a boutique festival with all killer, no filler: Portishead, The National, The Flaming Lips, Bright Eyes, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Holy Fuck, The Family Stone, Mercury Rev, Death In Vegas, The Walkmen, PVT and (a select few) more. Tickets go on sale August 4.
AESOP ROCK AND KIMYA DAWSON
In this day and age, what with the interwebs and the easy mish-mash of culture that spews from it, we didn’t even blink at the fact that oddball rapper Aesop Rock and indie folk artist Kimya Dawson (Mouldy Peaches and Juno and that) are playing Manning Bar on October 14. They’ll be performing a set together, we’re guessing Odelay-esque, and also taking a set each to their own… They may as well, it was a long flight. Tickets are available now from the Manning Bar website.
ED WORLAND AND THE GREEN TEAS
If you are reading this in a few weeks time, and
were lucky enough to have been at the Bald Faced Stag on Thursday July 28, you would have seen Ed Worland and the Green Teas and thought, ‘Man, those guys are amazing, why wasn’t I told about this band?’ Well, we did tell you - you just picked up the magazine a few weeks too late. Don’t blame us for your poor organisation and peculiar hoarding habits.
STONEFIELD
Four-piece psychedelic, all-female, all-teenage juggernaut Stonefield are playing Thursday September 22 at Oxford Art Factory, and because they just got back from Glastonbury, they’ve implemented a door policy where if you aren’t caked in mud and dressed in a loincloth, you can’t get in [citation sorely needed].
GOTYE’S MAKING MIRRORS
Gotye
IT’S SPLENDOUR WEEK!
If you’re staying in Sydney next weekend, you’re probably getting really over all this Splendour In The Grass business, yeah? Well stop being so bitter all the time; a bunch of the lineups’ best are coming to Sydney too, and some of them haven’t even sold out yet. FOR EXAMPLE: that lovely group Grouplove play on Wednesday August 3 with fellow Californians Young The Giant; Hollywood-Does-Motown act Fitz & The Tantrums will be funking around The Basement on Wednesday July 27 (with Sydney’s Lanie Lane in tow); Dananananaykroyd will be trying not to break any more bones at The Annandale on Friday July 29 (with the superbly raucus DZ Deathrays); Kele (guy from Bloc Party) will follow Strange Talk’s set at The Metro Theatre on Wednesday August 3; and The Grates and The Hives somehow still haven’t sold out The Enmore on Thursday July 28. For more about some of our fave Splendour acts, for more sideshow info and, for those who are actually heading up there, for playing times, check out our Splendour special on pp. 22–26.
If you haven’t watched the incredible and addictive clip for Gotye’s ‘Somebody You Used To Know’ (featuring the amazing Kimbra, and her equally astonishing back and profile combo), you probably haven’t been on Facebook; it’s been universally adored, shared and retweeted, amassing 200 000 views in two weeks and even a Tweet of appreciation from The Hon. Ashton Kutcher. The track comes from Making Mirrors, Gotye’s third album which is set for an August 19 release – and he’s just announced a national tour for it, which will involve a ten-piece orchestra making it all happen live. There will be visuals too, animated by Rubber House, Lucinda Shreiber, Mechanical Apple and PictureDRIFT, in a show that hits the Sydney Opera House on Saturday August 20 as part of Graphic Festival. Tickets are almost sold out, so stop reading this and find an internet already.
GLENN AND DAN ARE FRIENDS
Glenn Richards (from Augie March, whose ‘There Is No Such Place’ is one of the most beautiful, sad songs ever) and Dan Luscombe (of the Drones, Dan Kelly’s Alpha Males and a bunch of other great outfits) are doing a national duo tour, where they perform requests, play random songs from their respective backcatalogues and then do whatever else they feel like doing. If this kind of set list anarchy appeals to you, then you’d best be down at Notes in Newtown on Friday September 30, loudly requesting they ‘play that one from triple j.’
“We fell out of progress a long, long time ago. Forget what makes us different and then we’ll take it slow” - FUNERAL PARTY 18 :: BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11
- Thurs 28th -
FABELS + MEDICATED YOUTH + THE WALK ON BY - Fri 29th -
Steppin Out
Raffi Lovechild and Friends - FREE ENTRY
- Sat 30th -
Golden Era
Classic Hip hop, UK Garage and party Jams - FREE ENTRY
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The Music Network
themusicnetwork.com
Industry Music News with Christie Eleizer
Lifelines Married: singer Nick Lachey and actress Vanessa Minnillo, after five years. Hospitalised: emergency surgery in Chicago for R&B singer R. Kelly, after an abscess was discovered on one of his tonsils. Jailed: Amy-Lee Frances, 21, for nine months after punching her victim five times after a drinking session at Strutters Nightclub in Rockhampton. Frances accused the victim of stealing her drink. She also had to pay the clubber $2000, after breaking her collarbone (and gloating about it on Facebook). In Court: Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour appeals the 16 month jailing sentence of his son Charlie, 21, for defacing the Cenotaph, throwing a bin at a car carrying Prince Charles and smashing a window during a student protest. In Court: Renee Geyer’s lawyer says she’ll plead guilty to careless driving, after being involved in two car crashes over four months. Released: DMX is out after a year in prison (drugs, driving on a suspended licence), during which time he earned 20 cents an hour as a porter.
SPIKE ON PYKE
With his third album Only Sparrows due out on August 19, Josh Pyke couldn’t resist heading down to the Hub in Newtown to preview some of the tracks. Catching all the action, before 250 people, were Channel [V]’s cameras for their Guerilla Gig series.
SPARK & OPUS
After three and a half years at Bill & Edrei Cullen’s artist management company One Louder, Briese Abbott has set up her own artist company firm, Spark & Opus. Her roster includes Sydney’s PVT and jazz pop singer Brous. She’s contactable at briese@ sparkandopus.com
TAKE THAT SET NEW CONCERT RECORD
Take That have set a new record for the highest grossing concert series. They made more than £38 million (AU$57 million) for eight nights at London’s Wembley Stadium in June and July, and drew a record 623,737 people. The previous record was set by Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band for 10 shows at New Jersey’s Giants Stadium in 2003, which made around £24 million after they drew 566,560. In total, Take That’s UK run grossed £114 million, and drew 1.8 million fans to 29 shows.
SOUTHERN CROSS AUSTEREO
The recently-merged Austereo and Southern Cross Media company will be called Southern Cross Austereo. Its CEO Rhys Holleran said they had considered a new name, but decided
that both names had strong brands. SCM bid $741 million for Austereo earlier this year. As reported earlier, Austereo chief executive Guy Dobson is SCM director of metro radio, SCM chairman Max Moore-Wilton retains his post (Austereo’s chairman Peter Harvie stayed on for the transition), SCM’s sales head Jeremy Simpson will oversee the sales division, and Austereo’s marketing boss Nikki Clarkson is head of marketing and communications.
AIM OPEN DAY
The Australian Institute of Music (1-51 Foveaux Street, Surry Hills) holds an Open Day on Saturday August 13 between 10am and 3pm. Prospective students can attend showcases, master classes and workshops to learn about the courses, which include Audio Technology, Composition & Music Production, Contemporary Performance, Classical Performance, Music Theatre and Entertainment Management. They can tour the school’s state of the art recording studio, and check out the AIM high school program, Open AIM short courses and Young AIM music courses too. Thirsty Merc’s Rai Thistlethwayte is among a panel of industry pros who'll be answering your questions.
MERCURY PRIZE NOMINEES
The nominations for this year’s Mercury Prize include Adele’s 21 and PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake — both of which are the bookies’ fave at 4/1. The others were Anna Calvi’s Anna Calvi, Elbow’s Build A Rocket Boys!, James Blake’s James Blake, Katy B’s On A Mission, Metronomy’s The English Riviera, Gwilym Simcock’s Good Days At Schloss Elmau, Everything Everything’s Man Alive, Ghostpoet’s Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam, Tinie Tempah’s Disc-Overy and King Creosote & Jon Hopkins’s Diamond Mine. Missing in action are two chart hitters, Wild Beasts and Arctic Monkeys.
WEBER LAUNCHES COVER YOUR ARTZ
Cover Your Artz is a new website for touring artists and events across Australia. It acts as something of a dating site for musicians and managers who, when on the road, need to hire a lighting designer, sound engineer, merch seller etc. The site will also take care of the arduous paperwork for you, creating everything from automated booking sheets to invoices. Penny Weber, a long time manager (TrueLive, Paris Wells, Offcuts) and road manager came up with the concept in 2003. There were a few hiccups, but the first version was finished by 2007, and she’s been working out all the glitches since then. Webber and her team are holding industry workshops on August 28 at Notes Live, 73-75 Enmore Rd, Newtown 10am – 5pm, for $150. Register at coveryourartz.com
WARNER SALE COMPLETED
New York conglomerate Access Industries has completed its US$3.3 billion acquisition of the Warner Music Group ahead of time. It now controls the third largest record company in the world, and takes on its $2 billion debt. Access is owned by Russian immigrant Len Blavatnik, who made his fortune from natural resources & chemicals, telecommunications & media and real estate. Warner Music becomes a privately held company, and its stock will no longer be traded on the New York Stock Exchange. But it retains the Warner Music Group name and stays in its current offices.
Left: Rai Thistlethwayte
RIHANNA OVERTAKES GAGA ON FACEBOOK
Rihanna has overtaken Lady Gaga to become the most popular female artist on Facebook. According to social media statistics site Famecount.com, she took the crown on July 14, registering 40,598,000 Facebook fans compared to Gaga’s 40,565,000. But Gaga is still queen on Twitter, with 11.6 million followers compared to Rihanna’s 6.1 million.
WALFORD JOINS CHANNEL [V]
R&B singer and model Carissa Walford has joined Channel [V] as a permanent host. The 23-year old made her debut on The Riff, when it returned from a production break on the weekend. Walford was previously at FOX Sport’s Fuel TV for five years, hosting Web Soup.
FBI & REYKJAVIK
FBi Radio is sending two solo music producers to Reykjavik Iceland in October, to attend the Iceland Airwaves festival. The idea is to meet other musos, set up collaborations and be inspired. Six finalists will be chosen before listeners decide. Deadline is Friday July 29; see FBi’s website for details.
GOOD WORKS #1: BANDS FOR BEARS’
25 Sydney bands are set to play at Bands For Bears, to raise money for Animals Asia Foundation. It will be held at Notes, Newtown on Monday August 1 from 7pm. Organised by guitarist Peter Northcote (an ambassador for the organisation) with help from fellow animal activists and industry folks like David Keogh of Perfect Pitch, acts performing to
T.I.N.A. SAVED
Newcastle’s This Is Not Art (T.I.N.A) underground festival will go ahead Thursday September 29 to Monday October 3 after all. Things looked shaky when Newcastle City Council pulled its funding of $18,000. But the arts and music community raised $8750 through the Pozible site, while the Copyright Agency Limited chipped in $9,000, and Izilla Web Solutions promised $2,000. Seems as though council has had a rethink too, and will put in more money for the 2012 event. Incidentally, during the uncertainty, subfestival Sound Summit was never affected. After eleven years of a tie-in, it cut its ties with T.I.N.A. earlier this year.
THINGS WE HEAR
* A George Michael-fronted Queen will play this New Year’s Eve in Sydney, reckons Triple M’s entertainment reporter Nui Te Koha. * If you spot a gig by The Andy Callison Project this week, it’ll be Eskimo Joe warming up for their Splendour In The Grass set. * Our “person of the week” is Coffs Harbour’s deputy mayor Denise Knight, who announced at a council meeting that she is donating her $1140 pay rise to help fund the building of a new performing arts centre in the city.
raise money to stop bear farming include Steve Balbi, Danny Mark Young, Barry Leaf, Darryl Beaton and Brydon Stace. Tickets are $44.90 for the show or $69.40 for dinner and show; go to oztix.com.au.
GOOD WORKS #2: HOPE FOR ORPHANS JAPAN FUND RAISER
Australian charity Hope For Orphans Japan (hopefororphansjapan.org) is holding a fundraiser on Tuesday July 26 at Tokonoma (490 Crown Street, Surry Hills), from 7pm – 10pm. It hopes to raise $30,000 for the 57 kids who live at the Ichi no Seki Fuji no Sono orphanage. It is the most isolated orphanage in Iwate, one of the worst hit areas by the earthquake and tsunami in March. Funds will go towards grief counselling, two weeks at a summer camp, music, art and dance therapy, computers, toys, books, sports equipment and the coaches for training. Diesel and Old Man River will play, Deborah Hutton is MC, Sam Neill and Bryan Brown will be on stage. Tickets are $150, from bigtix.com.au.
FUNDING FOR ROCK THE SCHOOLS
The Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, Peter Garrett, announced $400,000 funding for the Logitech Rock The Schools 2012 initiative. Project Director Frances Corkhill said, “This grant gives Rock The Schools the opportunity in 2012 to develop a dedicated social media strategy, promote the program with a focus on music education and careers, and take the tour further into the Australian community, inspiring more young Australians than ever before.” The initiative has grown from 30 schools in 2006 to 90 this year.
* Justin Bieber and galpal Selena Gomez were walking along a beach in California when they overheard his music blasting out of a wedding reception. So they wandered in, he congratulated the couple (Rob and Jeanine McCool) and posed for pix with wedding guests. None of whom threw eggs at him. * Michael Edgley, a top concert and theatre promoter before he decided to go into property development, has gone into bankruptcy, owing $7.3 million. * Fuzzy Agolley plans to go back to studying the arts after Video Hits winds up in August, and ultimately wants to end up in New York to study music production.
We has internets!
www.thebrag.com “We are the voices under the tracks drawing you forward, pushing you back” - FUNERAL PARTY 20 :: BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11
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BRAG SPECIAL
PNAU
A
t the beginning of this year, shortly after catching PNAU’s storming set at Big Day Out, I interviewed the duo’s Pete Mayes, who was brimming with enthusiasm for their then-upcoming fourth album: Soft Universe. “It’s more song-based,” he said at the time. “A lot of the lyrics on the record are very personal for Nick [Littlemore, vocals and production]. He went through a break up and spent a lot of time feeling heartbroken, so that comes through a lot in the songs – but what we really wanted to do was merge the darker lyrics with really positive, happy music. I really like the juxtaposition of those two elements. This album’s also going to be quite different from anything that we’ve done before, in that it’s all about Nick’s voice – he sings on every song. If you like what you saw at Big Day Out, then I think you’re really going to like this.” Six months later, Soft Universe has finally arrived, and it’s everything Mayes promised and more. The pulsing synths and dance floorready beats that defined their earlier releases are still very much there, but something feels different. The first thing that strikes you upon listening is that PNAU seem to have evolved from a club duo into a full-fledged rock band – Mayes, though, insists that those band elements were always there, if you knew where to look. “Early on, people saw us as more of a club outfit,” he says, “but it’s never really felt that way for us. When we made our first record we were listening to a lot of club music, but we’ve never felt tied down to that – we make the music that we want to. The last
On Solid Ground By Alasdair Duncan
PNAU album was quite clubby and electronic, but then we did the Empire Of The Sun record [Mayes has co-writing credits on over half of Walking On A Dream, the first album from Littlemore’s side project with Luke Steele], and you could hear the changes starting to happen,” he continues. “These days, we really are just obsessed with great songs, great melodies – and hopefully that’s what you hear on the new album.” If you’ve caught singles ‘The Truth’ or ‘Solid Ground’ already, you’ll have a fair idea about the sheer stick-in-your-headedness that Soft Universe’s songs have to offer. Given that PNAU have prioritised hooks and melodies over beats this time around, I ask Mayes what ingredients, to him, go into making great songs. “I think the aim of music is to affect people emotionally and physically,” he says after a pause. “Melody is important, because whether it’s a synthesiser or someone singing to you, that’s the focal point of the song. You can spend a lot of time working on a song, fleshing it out, producing it, and it might end up sounding amazing, but if you can strip it right back and play it on a piano or an acoustic guitar and it still sounds amazing, then to me, that’s a great song. That’s when you get most excited about your music, when you realise that it still works in that form. And we’ve really found that with this album.” The hooks and melodies on Soft Universe are one thing, but there’s no getting away from the sadness at the album’s core. After all, it was written during a period of emotional upheaval,
“It’s quite intimidating having Elton John critique your record in rough, demo format. He just sat there with his head almost in the speakers, just really, deeply focused on it...”
right in the middle of Nick’s aforementioned break up. “Some of the songs are him longing for her and being apart from her,” Mayes tells me, “then you see songs when they’ve broken up…” I ask Nick himself if it’s difficult to sing the lyrics, and reflect on the pain he felt at the time he was writing. “These songs are all about love and loss,” he says, “and they’re quite descriptive about certain things. Performing them for the first time – like at Big Day Out – was a bit tough. These days, though, I’m not emotionally attached to them in the same way. I feel the more euphoric side of them now.” In making Soft Universe, the duo famously had help from one of the biggest names in the music business: Elton John. An avid fan of new music, he claims to listen to five new albums every day – and the story goes that when he heard PNAU’s self titled album, he liked it so much that he just had to work with them. Elton John doesn’t actually appear on the record but, as the pair tell it, he acted as a sort of mentor, listening to early versions of the songs and helping push them in the right direction. “We met with him every three to four months,” Littlemore says. “He’d sit down and we’d play him the record, and he’d sing along to the songs he knew and liked. Then we’d go through the other ones, work out which ones were working and which weren’t, and how we were going to frame the band. It was very generous of him to give that much time, and it was great to have a mentor work with us, someone who really cared.” “If the songs weren’t hitting the mark, he’d let us know straight away,” Mayes adds. “He’s really honest; he’s willing to tell us whether something works or not. It’s quite intimidating having Elton John critique your record, and listen to it in rough, demo format. When we were in L.A. the last time, we played him the batch of songs that we’d recorded, and he just sat there with his head almost in the speakers, just really, deeply focused on it.” Sitting in a room while Elton John listens critically to your
“Sugar sugar, take my hand. My palms are wet, c’mon let’s dance.” - PNAU 22 :: BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11
music would surely be quite an experience. “To think about it in the abstract it seems surreal, but when you’re with him, it’s not like that – it’s not surreal at all, he’s just a good friend listening to our music and giving us pointers. I don’t think we would have lasted so long over here without his help.” Littlemore is known for having multiple projects on the go at once, and near the end of the interview, answering an unrelated question, he casually lets slip the fact that there will “probably” be another Empire Of The Sun album in the near future. I stop him, slightly dumbfounded; I thought the story with Empire was that, after the huge success of their first album, Littlemore cut his ties with Steele, effectively dissolving the band. “I remember there being some confusion there,” I say, “and Luke saying he’d fallen out of contact with you ...” “Yeah, there was quite a lot of confusion,” Littlemore replies, “but, you know, there’s no confusion now! It was weird. I saw him at the Brit Awards about three years ago and had an anxiety attack. I hadn’t been in contact before that, and things had been weird – but we got in contact again, started working on songs, and from there we haven’t stopped. We did two days in New York about three weeks ago, and we made eight little ditties ... It’s been a beautiful and joyous experience. We’re all about accentuating the positive. We’re just going to make great music together, and really enjoy it.”
What: Soft Universe is out now on etcetc, through Universal Where: The Enmore Theatre / Panthers, Newcastle When: Wednesday July 27 / Friday July 29 More: Also playing at Splendour In The Grass on Saturday July 30, 10.45pm @ Mix Up Tent
Does It Offend You, Yeah?
JULY 29 - JULY 31
...You Should Have Seen It Coming By Tom Hoare Much has been made of how the band are ‘fresh from a split with their major label’, with indie kids’ tongues wagging feverishly about the effect this has had on their most recent album, Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You. When a sleepy and peaceful-sounding Dan Coop takes a break from his regular duties as the band’s synth player to call The BRAG from his trendy East London flat, this is one of the first things we ask him about… “It was a bit of a ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’-type situation,” Coop says. “I thought it would be ‘we’re the band, you’re the label, we’ll write the music and you sell it’ – I thought that was kind of the whole point of record labels – but it wasn’t the case. That’s the shitty part of the music industry, really.” When one listens to Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You, it’s immediately clear that the band had far more creative freedom and leeway to pursue their own sound. A marked departure from their 2008 debut You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into, the new album has more of a voracious snarl and fuzzy grittiness to it, undoubtedly the result of a reduced presence of the record suits in the studio. Coop agrees: “We’re not the easiest guys to work with, because we know what we like, and if we don’t like it then we start to freak out. We’ve had a lot of people coming back and saying that it’s definitely not as accessible as our last album. We definitely tried to get a more cohesive sound together – we tried to make a record which has got an electronic backbone to it, but that also takes in a lot of different styles’.
I
n an episode from the original series of The Office, perennial twat David Brent (with a snarky tone and ambivalently cocked eyebrow) asks a colleague, ‘Does it offend you, yeah? My drinking?’ If you heard that a certain band had named themselves in homage to
that quote, you’d probably think that said band revelled in rebelliousness and anti-conformist individualism; that it was the kind of band that wanted to ‘stick it to the man’ and put two fingers up to ‘the norm’. In the case of the UK’s Does It Offend You, Yeah?, you’d be right.
When You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into first came out, the electro-punk fusion genre was burgeoning in the UK, with bands like The Wombats and Klaxons drawing critical and commercial attention towards the fledgling sound. But mention DIOYY’s affiliation with the style, and Coop is surprisingly downcast about the genre’s health in the UK scene. “I think that’s been and gone, to be honest. In the UK, if you were to come over here and see the state of the charts, you’d see there isn’t really any scene whatsoever. It’s all basically US hip hop, autotune-y, Lady Gagatype stuff,” he says. “There is obviously a scene of kids that are into the more indie, guitar-based music in the UK, but it’s just that absolutely none of them are buying music any more. I think we might need to do something about it.” Fans of DIOYY will know exactly what to expect from their set at Splendour on the weekend; the band has a reputation for rowdy and raucous live
“I thought it would be ‘we’re the band, you’re the label, we’ll write the music and you sell it’, but it wasn’t the case. That’s the shitty part of the music industry...” shows that often end in trashed instruments and, in the case of one gig in Hollywood, a broken bone for lead singer James Rushden. “I think people just expect a certain type of show when they come and see us,” explains Coop. “I don’t even think we’re that big of a band, I think we’re still a small alternative band from Reading, but we’ve just got this following...” So what’s with the broken bones and instrument-smashing then? Are they just hard as fuck? “No, it’s just alcohol really! We like to get pumped up before we go on – we try hard to get everyone in a party atmosphere.” The sets themselves promise to bring a crazy ambience. “We’re more the type of band that likes to get on stage and just rock out, rather than worry too much about production. We try to create more of an atmosphere within the crowd, rather than hit them with laser shows or whatever.” As well as the performance aspect of the festival, Coop is excited to hang out with some muso buddies that DIOYY are sharing the bill with. “Kele from Bloc Party, we’ve always got on really well. I’d definitely quite like to meet The Hives as well; I always get on quite well with Scandinavian people. They’re quite accommodating.” Finally, I’m keen to hear when DIOYY’s next effort (potential title in keeping with the last two: ‘We Told You Not To Fuck With Us’?) will be available. Coop plays his hand close to the chest. “We’re getting some stuff written and recorded over the next few months, but I’m not sure when it’ll be coming out. I’m looking at new forms of releasing music to people at the moment, looking around and seeing what’s the best option,” he says. “We’ll definitely have something soon.” What: Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You is out now through Inertia When: Friday July 29, 7.15pm @ Mix Up Tent Sideshow: Wednesday August 4 @ The Metro
DJ Shadow Something Out Of Nothing By Alasdair Duncan
H
ard to believe, but it’s been a decade and a half since DJ Shadow’s debut. A hypnotic record, constructed exclusively from samples, Entroducing... was one of the defining releases of the ‘90s, and inspired a generation of crate-diggers to delve into their own record collections for inspiration. As the music world fell more in line with Shadow’s approach, however, he began to tire of the sample-only approach, and started adding more live elements to his tracks. His last album, The Outsider, left many fans scratching their heads, its reliance on guest vocalists and guitar riffs making it sound almost like a conventional dance release, rather than the magic everyone knew he could produce. Since then, Shadow – real name Josh Davis – has taken his approach back to basics. He has a new album coming out later in the year, which he says will represent a return to the sample-heavy sound of the early days. When I ask him why, he tells me that at the core of his decision was a sense of frustration with much of contemporary music. “The more every other style of music starts to rely on the same synthesisers and the same software and the same production techniques, the more samples have become relevant to me again,” he says. “As soon as you stop using the synthesisers that rock groups and R&B groups and dance groups use, you immediately start to sound different. I like to provide an alternative in the music I release. To me, sampling is a great way to have an infinite palette – the combinations you can create with samples are endless.” Of course, finding those perfect sounds can be a time- and labour-intensive task. “I think about two thirds of the process is spent on gleaning,” Shadow says with a laugh. “I don’t set myself
a feverish pace or anything – I like to be quite leisurely about it, and just vibe on the music. I like to challenge my own taste and my own ideas about music, rather than just always looking for a similar type of sound. Finding a straight-up break beat isn’t as exciting as creating something totally new from a million different elements. That’s one of the things that’s changed about my approach – I don’t settle on just taking what’s there, I like to fabricate something out of nothing.” Those who make sample-based music inevitably run into copyright concerns, and this is the case with Shadow, too. While he tells me that, on his forthcoming album, he’s used everything from one-of-a-kind acetates to “a moderately wellknown UK band”, he always samples first and worries about the copyright later. “On the first album, I used moderately obscure things, but I also used Björk, which was, at the time, a brand new record,” he says. “I don’t let any rule book dictate what I’m going to use or not use. I clear a lot of the samples outside the label, and I work pretty hard trying to convince the artists that this is a token of respect – everything I’m using, I use because I like it. A lot of the people I’m contacting never had full-fledged music careers – a lot of the stuff I’m using is way off the beaten track, and in most cases, people are just surprised that we have a copy of the record, period.” Shadow has received many accolades through his career, but the most bizarre would have to be his presence in the Activision game DJ Hero, where he’s a playable character. How does it feel seeing yourself in animated form? “I felt a lot better about it after I had them remove the pupils from my eyes,” he says. “I asked them to do that because the pupils in the character’s eyes just looked strange to me. As soon as you remove them, the figure becomes a bit more like a comic
“Sampling is a great way to have an infinite palette – the combinations you can create are endless.” book character – I think that’s something I relate to more than a video game representation of me. I basically gave them the Dr Strange example – I don’t know if you remember him from Marvel Comics, but he didn’t have pupils in his eyes, either. I thought, considering my namesake, it was appropriate.” Here in Australia, music fans are celebrating the 10th anniversary of The Avalanches’ debut, Since I Left You. Before I let Shadow go, I have to ask if he’s a fan of the album, especially since its sample-heavy approach could be seen to parallel his own music. His answer somewhat surprises me. “I never really heard it all the way through,” he says. “People played me various bits, and I think I met one or two of them when I was in Australia for the first time. I remember, though, that the big deal about the record at the time was the number of samples they used, and I think that side of it got blown out of proportion a bit. The number of samples is irrelevant – someone can always come along and say they’re better than the last guy purely because they used five more samples than he did. I definitely respect what they achieved, though; the fact that they took sampling to heart and [used it to make] what I hear is a good record.”
What: The Less You Know The Better will be out in September When: Friday July 29, 10.45pm @ Mix Up Tent Sideshow: Saturday July 30 @ Hordern Pavilion, with Midnight Juggernauts (DJ Set) and Ghoul
BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11 :: 23
BRAG SPECIAL
Kaiser Chiefs Things Change By Mitchel Brown
It was thanks to Hodgson’s desire to overcome the industry’s changes that he agreed to the concept behind Kaiser Chiefs’ latest album, The Future Is Medieval, an idea which was put to him by lead singer Ricky Wilson and entrepreneur Ollie Beale. One of the most original takes on the concept of the album in years, the Chiefs’ fifth LP plays out something like a choose-yourown-adventure book; go online, listen to snippets of 20 tracks, choose your ten favourites, choose the track order, design your own artwork and pay £7.50 for it. Not only that, but you’re then given your own website to sell your version of
the album to others, at £1 a pop. “I think what it actually achieves is that people have some sort of investment in it,” Hodgson explains. “You’ve chosen the songs, you’ve done the artwork, you can listen to it on your iPod and your artwork comes up on the screen. And you enjoy it more, I think.” If ever there was a way to give listeners more incentive to stick with an album for longer, The Future Is Medieval is it – and the 20 tracks available are by far the most diverse of the band’s career. Gone are the chant-along choruses over driving backbeats that defined earlier hits like ‘Every Day I Love You Less And Less’ and ‘Never Miss A Beat’; they’ve been supplanted by atonal melodic runs and unexpected key changes, over more expansive percussion. The minimalistic arrangements have also been expanded upon, with a much heavier reliance on ambient noise and layered guitars and synths on tracks like lead single ‘Little Shocks’ and the wildly schizophrenic ‘Things Change’. Hodgson says a lot of it came from the band’s new studios, which he built over the last two years. “[It] wasn’t the plan, but I think it certainly influenced the music a lot,” he admits. “In the past you’d have a song and you’d have a deadline in which to finish it. But this time, with some songs, the recording started two years ago – and then a year later, if you didn’t like the vocal, you’d do it again. I think having that kind of freedom meant that you could listen to songs. We just had that time to explore it.”
And that’s what it all comes back to for the band – exploring new territory. With so much terrain covered on The Future Is Medieval, it’s hard to imagine where Kaiser Chiefs might go from here, but Hodgson seems intent on continuing to push boundaries. “I just like anyone exploring the limits of what’s possible,” he says. “You have these conversations late at night at the pub, and everything’s brilliant. You know, when you meet someone and you’re drunk and you’re having a chat – and then by the end of the
night you’re like, ‘Yeah, we’re definitely going to start that business!’ And nobody ever does. But some people do, and those are the people to be admired, I think.” What: The Future Is Medieval is out now on Liberator Playing: Sunday July 31, 7.45 @ the Ampitheatre Sideshow: Saturday August 6 @ The Enmore Theatre, with Papa vs Pretty and Stonefield
British Sea Power Finding Work For Idle Hands By Simone Ubaldi
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Friendly Fires Fantasy Island By Topher Healy
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t’s a warm spring day in Brighton, and Ed Macfarlane and Edd Gibson are relaxing in a double-decker tour bus while awaiting soundcheck for Friendly Fires’ headlining set at The Great Escape. It’s a swanky mode of transport, and somewhat befitting the conceptual basis of their new album Pala. Both the title and lyrical bent are derived from Aldous Huxley’s 1962 novel Island, which explores the notion of utopia – and for Friendly Fires, utopia is now. They’re lording it around the UK on private buses, selling out shows, soaking up accolades for an album they’ve been rightly confident about – but at the same time, there’s a sense of the finite. How long will the good times last? For the time being at least, the focus seems to be on using Pala as a very effective instrument for making people dance. TOPHER HEALY: You once mentioned in an interview that you felt Friendly Fires should be festival headliners, like the Chemical Brothers. ED MACFARLANE: (laughs) I just think … we have it in us to be that kind of a band. The Chemical Brothers have been headlining festivals for years and years, and no-one’s really replaced them. I’m not saying necessarily that anyone does need to replace them, I just think we’re a band that can make people feel like they do. TH: You’ve also said that being in Friendly Fires is fantastic now, but you don’t know how long it’s going to last. Do you think a band in your position 20 years ago would have had the same attitude…? EDD GIBSON: I think in the past you could get away with doing a dodgy album. You could still come back and record another album, and if it was great you’d get all your fans back. Today, record labels have a lot less time for that sort of thing, because there isn’t enough money. TH: Is that something that remains in the back of your mind? That it’s conceivable you might only make two or three albums? EM: The bands that I’ve always liked have 24 :: BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11
done a really good short, immaculate body of work, [with no] horrible dodgy records that have ruined their name. But ideally, I’d like us to write as strongly as possible for as long as possible. TH: One of my favourite tracks on Pala is ‘Hawaiian Air’, which I understand was the last track you recorded. EM: We had ten tracks already that we were pleased with, and when we went off to Australia touring, ‘Hawaiian Air’ wasn’t even thought of at all. We were just happy playing out these new songs. We had a certain amount of time before the record was due to be released anyway … so we had one last go. I think it’s one of the first songs that we’ve written that has a real pogo sort of hook; that snare on the beat, kids jumping up and down. That’s not usually what we see – it’s normally, you know, people dancing in their own little world. TH: It’s another reference to an island paradise too, of course, like the parrot on the cover. Speaking of – the parrots in Island were trained to utter uplifting phrases for the populace. If Friendly Fires had their own trained parrot, what would it say? EM: I’d find it quite strange to hear a parrot repeating the same phrase over and over again. I’m not sure if that would be uplifting or not… Something like they would say on the island. “Live for the here and now.” That’s what the record’s about. TH: You’re coming back for your second Splendour. What will be different this time? EM: Whenever you get asked this question it’s like, “Have you got any new gimmicks?” (laughs) Kanye West turning up and rapping in one of our songs... And then Chris Martin playing the piano part in ‘True Love’. Plenty to look forward to. What: Pala is out now through XL/Remote Control Playing: Sunday July 31, 7.15pm @ Mix Up Tent Sideshow: Thursday July 28 @ The Metro Theatre (sold out)
e’ve been the hot new band before. We’re definitely on the other side of that now, but we still give the kids a run for their money,” says Martin Noble, guitarist for Brighton-based art rock stalwarts British Sea Power. The band released their fourth album earlier this year, the criticallylauded Valhalla Dancehall, and they’re not showing any signs of slowing. Not many, anyway – because while British Sea Power have been renowned for their colourful and exuberant live shows (which have in the past featured costumes, giant bears and a multitude of plastic birds, and on at least one occasion has landed a band member in hospital…), Noble claims they have had to tone things down a little. “We don’t fall off stages or throw guitars on our heads so much these days. Once you’ve done it, you tend to learn,” he laughs. Noble found out the hard way, for instance, not to somersault into the crowd unless the crowd is prepared to catch you… “The main thing is to try and evaporate every other thought from the room and try and get everyone involved in a moment. Who wants to be thinking about what they had for tea, or what work they have to do, at a show?” You need a certain amount of youthful enthusiasm to be a rock star, Martin says, which is why he abandoned his university studies to become a working muso some ten years ago. He has long-deferred his degree in marine biology, but he intends to pick it up again if British Sea Power ever run out of steam. “It would be difficult to get my head back into studying, but I really think I’ll go back to it one day. I figured I could do that later on in life, but you can’t really get into the music business when you’re in your mid-forties. Some people can, I guess. Seasick Steve did alright, didn’t he?”
But while he’s still young, Martin is happy to spend his time bounding from gig to still semicrazed gig with band mates Yan Scott Wilkinson (singer/guitarist), Neil Hamilton Wilkinson (guitar), Matthew Wood (drums), Abi Fry (viola) and the once-hospitalised keyboardist Phil Sumner – a lifestyle that requires all the energy he can muster. The band is relentlessly adventurous, and they’ve tried their hand at many a zany project, hosting club nights and fashion shows, writing soundtracks for obscure documentaries about rural Ireland and performing in strange and far flung places including the Arctic circle, down a Cornish mine, on the Great Wall of China and out at sea. Yet they still feel there is more ground to conquer. “We still love making music, and there is still lots to explore. We will follow the music industry into the imploding nebulae,” Martin enthuses. “We’ve done our own festival a few times, so we’re going to continue with that next year, hopefully on a small island called Piel Island which has ten houses, a castle and a pub. And we love playing in other countries. Hopefully one day we’ll open a BSP fun park as well, or have a memorial garden in our honour…” And with Valhalla Dancehall barely six months old, British Sea Power have already leapt head first into their fifth studio album. “We’ve taken a long time to do albums before and we wanted a change,” Martin explains. “At the end of Valhalla Dancehall, we wrote four songs in four weeks and thought we could easily do another album quickly. Bands used to knock an album out every year! It’s a good challenge, and keeps our idle hands from the devil.” What: Valhalla Dancehall is out now through Remote Control Playing: Friday July 29, 11.45am @ the Ampitheatre Sideshow: Thursday July 28 @ Oxford Art Factory
Kaiser Chiefs photo by Danny North
T
here’s plenty to be said for a good, catchy tune, but the most treasured items in our record collections are often the ones that take the most time to grow on us. But the concept of the physical record collection is dying, and Nick Hodgson – Kaiser Chiefs’ drummer and principal songwriter – believes that the willingness of consumers to invest in more challenging music is dying with it. “That’s certainly one thing that’s been lost with free music,” Hodgson laments. “If you don’t like it on first listen, you don’t care. In the old days when I used to buy stuff, I can remember listening to the Stone Roses for the first time and going, ‘Oh, I don’t like it.’ And then because I’d paid for it I’d think, ‘Right, I’ve got to like it!’ And so you keep listening and keep listening, and by the end of the week you’re like, ‘Fuckin’ hell, this is amazing!’”
JULY 29 - JULY 31
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan Coming To America By Matthew Hogan
The Mars Volta The Revolving Door By Matt Panag
E
ver since she parted ways with Belle & Sebastian in 2002, Glasgow-born Isobel Campbell has been something of a nomad, only finally settling on her new home of L.A. last October. Moving to the entertainment capital of the world means that she finally lives near her now long-term collaborator Mark Lanegan, with whom she has released three albums of sprawling Americana – the most recent of which, Hawk, came out last year. Campbell first approached the husky-voiced grunge icon after departing with the twee popsters, back in 2002. “I was looking for a singer with a deep voice, and my boyfriend at the time had been a Screaming Trees fan when he was at university, and he was like, ‘You should ask this guy,” she recalls. “And then I did. I sent him some stuff and then he got back to me… I think I first talked to him on the phone in January or something, and then he was playing in June or in May – a couple of nights in Glasgow with the Queens Of The Stone Age. Then he came back with his own thing in November – so that’s when we started talking.” When their first collaboration, Ballad Of The Broken Seas, finally came out in 2006, the duo didn’t tour; Lanegan was battling with substance abuse at the time. “I toured [the record] but it was really hard, because Mark wasn’t doing music – he was just taking time out, and actually working a normal job, trying to straighten himself out,” Campbell says. “I completely understood, but at the same time I was gutted. I never really expected there to be a second record when the first record had almost run its course, and it had been nominated for a Mercury Prize in the UK; that was in September.
I woke up one morning in November and Mark had called me and left a message. He was in Glasgow, and I think I did a comedic double take or something, because after all this time, he just turns up – it was all so strange!” Campbell met Lanegan for coffee and they agreed to tour together. “At the end of one of those tours, that’s when I suggested a new record, and he said, ‘In a heartbeat’,” she continues. “The second record [2008’s Sunday At Devil Dirt] happened really fast, and then the third one was more just me experimenting. It had started momentum and the wheels started going and I was like, ‘Oh no, I’m going to have to finish this now’. Because it’s really intense, to do something properly – it’s quite demanding on your time and on everything – and also because I was hopping on planes every other week, going to different places... But I had the best time; the last record was the best time I’ve ever had making a record.” Now finally living and recording in America, where her chosen genre has it roots, it sounds like Campbell made the right decision in immigrating. “For me anyway, I like it,” she confirms. “The whole Scottish thing, the old country, it can just be very doom and gloom, and sometimes people out here [in L.A] can be a bit over the top. I didn’t think that I would like over the top, but I think I probably am,” she laughs. “You can trick yourself into being very chirpy. I like it.” When: Saturday July 30, 7pm @ GW McLennon Tent Sideshow: Friday July 29 @ Factory Theatre
C
hatting to me as he drives to his former stomping ground of Pasadena, vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala is as engrossing a conversationalist as his live performances would lead you to expect. He’s taking interviews ahead of the release of The Mars Volta’s highly anticipated and long-time-coming sixth album (due some time early 2012), and a tour that will see them in Australia this month. The fifth time he and long-time collaborator Omar RodriguezLopez have toured Australia as The Mars Volta (and they’ve been here more than that, for their former project At The Drive In), Cedric says that both are looking forward to returning. “I can’t put my finger on why we love coming to Australia so much,” he says. “I feel like the day I put my finger on it is the day it’s gonna stop being fun. It’s a lot like my relationship with Omar; I don’t try to give it a name.” Cedric and Omar have been performing together for fifteen years and remain the core of The Mars Volta, with a well-documented turnstile of other members. Turbulence has followed the group since their inception; their live shows were a concoction of drug use and musical chaos before they found their feet. And while time has tempered the self-destructive elements of the band, their musical force seems as frenzied as ever – something Cedric credits Omar with. “Omar likes to throw a monkey wrench at the comfort zone that everyone in the band has, and he’s really not into swimming in the same waters. I can definitely say there are a lot of songs that might sound similar, but we really, really try to change it up record after record, and I think this new record is going to be really symbolic of that. It’s very symbolic of the failed attempt of the last record [2009’s Octahedron]
to be more stripped back – and now we have the right drummer [Deantoni Parks] to interpret that.” Parks was already known to the band, having previously filled in after Blake Fleming was fired mid-tour in 2006, when TMV were supporting the Red Hot Chili Peppers. “He came in and had to learn, like, four songs, and then a lot of the time we were like, ‘Ok, learn this and just kind of improvise for a while...’” From these inauspicious beginnings, Parks has become a key creative force in the band, working alongside Omar creatively since the band was last here for the Big Day Out in 2010. At that time, they had just let drummer Thomas Pridgen go, and taken on Dave Elitch for their BDO dates – but Omar and Parks were already at work on material for an unspecified new album. “A lot of heavy synth and different kinds of song structures,” Cedric explains. “We just jumped on it and made it a Volta record, and then we started writing more stuff with him, and in the process it became what our sixth album is gonna be.” I ask if it’s difficult to find the core of a song amongst such a fluctuating line-up, or if the musicians on hand change the tracks each time they’re performed? “It is hard, but you have to just embrace the change and embrace that the songs are always going to be played differently,” Cedric replies. “I think the key thing for an audience to remember is that if you don’t watch [the band] during that one tour, then you probably won’t see [a show like that] again. So there’s kind of a necessity in coming to see us.” When: Saturday July 30, 7.45pm @ The Ampitheatre Sideshow: Saturday August 3 @ Enmore Theatre
The Hives Patience Is A Virtue By Lachlan Kanoniuk
The Hives photo by Travis Schnieder
H
olding the undisputed championship title of The Greatest Live Band On Earth for over a decade now, irresistibly cocksure Swedes The Hives have crafted an unwavering sheen of infallibility as they’ve conquered venues and festivals the world over. While witnessing The Hives in action has become a transformative rite of passage for any avid young music punter, the launch of a new studio LP has become a salaciously awaited ritual in itself – and with their previous release The Black And White Album approaching its fourth birthday, we can pencil in this year as a harbinger of the next record. Speaking after The Hives’ triumphant, top hat-garnished return to the festival circuit in Europe, machine gun drummer Chris Dangerous explains that the band’s in a good place right now. “Ah, [the first shows back] have been going really, really good. We took a long break from playing to get started on the new record – I think the last shows we played before starting again this summer were sometime around last summer. So we had so much fun starting up again.” When The Hives do touch down in Australia this week, we can expect them to be checking more than a few tasty new tracks through customs. “You can expect from [the album]…
well I’m pretty sure – no, absolutely sure – that it’s our best record so far,” Chris boasts. “We’re very, very proud of where it is now. We were almost finished with it, but then we thought to ourselves that it needed to be one hundred percent, not ninety nine. So we got back in the studio and recorded some more songs, just to have more to choose from. That’s why it’s taken a bit longer than expected,” he explains. “We’ve started with the festivals, so it’s been difficult work on; we’re trying to finish up between the shows in the next few months. It’s fun though – we’re producing it ourselves, so that makes it take a little longer, the six of us trying to agree.” The liner notes to 2007’s The Black And White Album featured a barrage of producers, with the likes of Timbaland and The Neptunes taking top billing, so it’s surprising to hear that the upcoming record will be a self-produced affair. “We worked with so many producers [last time] that we got sick of them,” Chris laughs. “No, not really. We learnt so much from making that record, so we thought we’d give it a go and see what we could do with it. It’s an experiment. Even working with a producer, it’s still the same problem: everybody has to agree. We thought it was time we did it completely by ourselves… [But] we’re stealing all their tricks.”
While the studio setting has been somewhat of an experimental playground for The Hives, one thing has remained unwavering over the band’s long history: their monochromatic attire. And it doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon. “It’s impossible to change that. We can’t just start wearing red and say, ‘Shit, we’re sorry about the last fifteen years’. It doesn’t work like that, we’d
be lynched. We don’t wanna change it either. We love sketching down ideas for new costumes, and they will always be black and white.” When: Friday July 29, 9pm @ The Ampitheatre Sideshow: Thursday July 28 @ Enmore Theatre, with The Grates
BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11 :: 25
26 :: BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11
FORUM
LA CANTINA MEXICANA
COCKTAILBAR BAR COCKTAIL
HUNTING LODGE
TEMPLE STAGE
TIPI FOREST
GW MCLENNAN TENT
MIX UP
AMPHITHEATRE
LA CANTINA MEXICANA
COCKTAIL BAR
HUNTING LODGE
TEMPLE STAGE
TIPI FOREST
TONI TONI LEE
CASSIAN
1.10 - 2.00
2.00 - 3.00
1.20 - 3.00
12.30 - 2.00
4.45 - 5.45
KELE
5:00 5 00
9.00 -10.00
AJAX
8.00-10.OO
5.30 - 6.30
7:00
6.15 - 7.15
THE GRATES
6:00
7.45 - 8.45
THE MARS VOLTA
8:00
10:00
9.15 - 10.15
THE LIVING END
9:00
SATURDAY 30 JULY 2011
3.00 -3.45
3.45 - 4.45
4.45 - 5.30
2.45- 3.30
KEYNOTE INTERVIEW & AUDIENCE Q&A W/ PERRY FARRELL
3.00 -3.20
FIESTA VIVA MARIACHI
3.00 - 4.00
2.30 - 4.00
LAMBDA DJ’S
3.15 - 4.15
HIP HOP, TAP & BREAK WORKSHOP
5.00 - 6.00
3.20 - 7.00
DWIGHT CHOCOLATE ESCOBAR
4.00 - 5.00
10.00 -12.00
8.00 - 9.00
8.00 -9.30
9.00 -10.00
UNITED COLOURS
7:00 -11.30
7.00 - 10.00
10.00 - 11.00
REGINA SPEKTOR
9.30 - 11.00
10.00 - 11.00
CASSIAN
9.30 -11.00
ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI DJ SET
LITTLE FILM BIG HEART SHORT FILMS
8.00 - 9.30
MSG
8.30 - 9.30
PNAU
10.45 - 12.00
JANE’S ADDICTION
11:00 11 00
10.00 - 12.00 .00-12.00
DJ STEVIE M
DEVOLA
12.30 - 2.00
12.30 - 2.00
SOSUEME DJ’S
12:00-1:15
OPERON
1:00 1 00
12.30 - 2.00
12.00 - 1.00
10.00 - 2.00
TROPICANTE
11.00 - 12.00
1.00 - 2.00
NINA PURPLE TRUMPDISCO LAS VEGAS SNEAKER DJ’S
11.00 -12.30
1:00 1 00
ALISON WONDERLAND
RAPSKALLION
11.00 - 12.30
UBERHAMMER
12:00 12 00
11.00 - 12.30
10.00 -10.45 10.45 - 11.45
SOUNDWAVE
9.00 -10.00
GOMEZ
8.15 - 9.00
DJ SPEX & MC HERNAN
7.00 -8.00
6.30 - 8.00
PEDESTRIAN DJ’S
6.30- 8.00
DANNY T
7.00 - 8.00
7.15 - 8.15
ISOBEL CAMPBELL & MARK LANEGAN
6.30 - 7.15
6.00 - 7.00
5.30 - 6.30
DRAPHT DJ SET
5.45 - 6.30
GYUTO MONKS SUNSET CHANTING
RANDALL STAGG
4.00 -5.30
STARJUMPS
4.30 - 5.30
ZENTHAI YOGA
GWYN WILLIAMS
4.00 - 5.00
THE NEXT STEP
ZENNA
5.00 - 6.30
GOOSEBUMPZ
5.30 - 6.30
SEEKER LOVER KEEPER
12:00 12 00
HOBOGESTAPO
11.00-12:00
A FRENCH BUTTLER CALLED SMITH
10.30 -12.00
CUTLOOSE
11 11:00 00
LOOT N PLUNDER
9.30 - 11.00
ROGERS ROOM
9.45-10.45
RAPSKALLION
9.30 - 10.30
DWIGHT CHOCOLATE ESCOBAR
8.00 -9.00
D-CUP
8.00 - 9.30
FRAMES
8.30 -9.30
DRUM CULT
10:00
GOOSEBUMPZ
NAYSAYER VERY SPECIAL SWICK (SWEAT (PURPLE INDIAN PhDJ (PURPLE & GILSUN SECRET GUEST IT OUT) SNEAKER DJ’S) SUMMER DJ’S SOFTWAR SNEAKERS DJ’S) DEACON ROSE
DJ STEVIE M
10.00 - 11.30
1.00 -1.20
PANEL: CLIMATE CHANGE & THIS GENERATION’S PROTEST SONGS
11.20 - 1.00
DJ STEVIE M
FIESTA VIVA MARIACHI
1.00 - 2.00
WOMEN OF LETTERS
11.00 -11.20
12.00 - 1.00
(COMMON TROLLS)
I OH YOU DJ’S AIRWOLF VS JASPER
LAST NIGHTS VS CAN’T SAY DJ’S (SYD) DJ’S (MELB)
FIESTA VIVA MARIACHI
DJ SWEETIE
1.00 - 2.30
3.30 - 4.20
4.00 - 5.00
2.00 - 3.00
12.00 - 1.00
4:00 4 00
CHILDREN COLLIDE
DAKINI
9:00
8.30 - 9.30
THE VERY SMALL MALL 4pm – 7pm LA CANTINA MEXICANA 4pm – 12mn SMIRNOFF COCKTAIL BAR 4pm – 12mn JAGERMEISTER HUNTING LODGE 4pm – 12mn GLOBAL BAR 4pm – 12mn MO’ ROCKIN’ WINE BAR 12md – 12mn PONTOON 4pm – 12mn CHAI TENT 9am onwards FOOD & MARKETS 9am – late
2.45 - 3.30
12.45 - 1.45
SKULLY BOO vs RAVELESSIO
7.00 -8.00
DJ SPEX & MC HERNAN 6.00-8.OO
5.00 -7.00
ALSO ON SITE ON THURSDAY FROM 9AM ARE THE FOLLOWING AREAS:
4.00-5.00
SPARKADIA
RHYTHM KONNECTIONS
11.00 - 12.00
4.00 -5.00
TROPICANTE
7.00 - 8.00
AIRWOLF
5.30 -7.00
4.00 -5.30
7.45 -8.15
7.00 -7.30
BLOCKNESS MONSTERS
SAMBILISCIOUS DANCE PERF.
7.30 - 8.30
DEE DEE
8:00
THE NEXT STEP DANCE PERF.
7.00 -7.30
NAYSAYER & GILSUN
KRISTY LEE
B.R.A.V.E
6.00-6.45
5.00-5.45
4.00-4.45
6.00 - 7.00
MR PERCIVAL
THE EARLY
7:00
ALICE BLUNT SPACE INSTRUMENT DOLL
6:00
GYUTO MONKS
WELCOME CHANTING
5 5:00 00
THE DANCE OF TAO – TAI CHI
4 4:00 00
THE JEZABELS
RAPSKALLION DANCERS
BOBBY DANGER
11.00 - 12.00
2.00 -3.00
DRUMMING WORKSHOP
1.30 - 2.15
GARETH LIDDIARD
BURLESQUE CABARET VAUDVILLE WORKSHOP
12.15 -1.00
11.00 -11.45
GYUTO MONKS MR PERCIVAL 8.00-8.45 VOCAL MORNING YOGA 9.00-10.00 WORKSHOP TAI CHI WKSHOP 11.30 - 12.30 10.15-11.15
GUINEAFOWL
LANIE LANE
MONA
2.20 - 3.10
3:00 3 00
3 3:00 00
AJAX - ARCHITECTURE THE ASTON THIEVERY THE ASTON FOSTER THE HOODRAT & FITZ AND THE MEGA JAMS PEOPLE DANGEROUS MUSCLES TANTRUMS CASSIAN IN HELSINKI SHUFFLE CORPORATION SHUFFLE SET DAN (LIVE)
2 2:00 00
2 2:00 00
DANANANANAKYROYD
1:00
1:00
TIM & JEAN
12.00 - 12.50
CUT OFF YOUR HANDS
12:00
12:00
11.00 -11.45 11.45 -12.30 12.30 -1.15 1.15 -2.00
GHOUL
11.00 -11.45
TOURISM
11:00
11:00
THURSDAY 28 JULY 2011
2:00 2 00
2:00 2 00
FORUM
LA CANTINA MEXICANA
COCKTAIL BAR
HUNTING LODGE
TEMPLE STAGE
TIPI FOREST
GW MCLENNAN TENT
MIX UP
AMPHITHEATRE
FORUM
LA CANTINA MEXICANA
COCKTAIL BAR COCKTAIL
HUNTING LODGE
TEMPLE STAGE
TIPI FOREST
GW MCLENNAN TENT
MIX UP
AMPHITHEATRE 11.45 -12.30
BRITISH SEA POWER
12:00 WELCOME TO COUNTRY
ILLY
WAX MOTIF
1.35 12.45 -1.30 -1.45
JINJA SAFARI
1:00
12.00 - 1.00
11.00 - 12.00
1.00 - 2.00
ALPINE
12.00 - 12.50
THE CHARLIE CHUX HOLIDAYS HOOPS
1.10 - 2.00
GROUPLOVE
MR PERCIVAL VOCAL WORKSHOP 11.30 - 12.30
FILM & PANEL: WHOSE ISLAND HOME? 10.00 - 11.30
BANSHEE
12.30 - 2.00
DEACON ROSE
12.30 - 2.00
2.30 - 4.00
12.30 - 1.30
3.20 - 5.00
DJ STEVIE M
3.30 - 5.00
OMAR GAWD
3.30 - 5.00
SPLENDOUR PEACE PARADE
6.00 - 7.00
5.00 -5.20
MOGWAI
10.00 - 11.00
AUTO PILOT
10.00 - 11.00
DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH? DJ SET
9.30 - 11.00
SLINKY
10.00 - 11.00
5.20 - 7.00
6.30 - 8.00
ANNA LUNOE
6.30 - 8.00
7.00 -7.20
9:00
PULP
10:00
9.15 - 10.15
8.30 - 9.30
9.00 - 11.00
SI CLONE
7.20 - 10.00
TROPICANTE
8.00 - 9.30
9.30 - 11.00
U-GO-B
9.30 - 11.00
DANGEROUS DAN
7:00 -11.30
THE FOLES
8.00 -9.30
10.00 - 11.00
DEVENDRA BANHART
12.00 - 1.00
AJAX
10.45 - 12.00
COLDPLAY
11 00 11:00
12:00-1:15
10.00 - 2.00
DJ SPEX & MC HERNAN
11.00 - 12.30
GUS DA HOODRAT
11.00 - 12.30
DEEDEE
1 00 1:00
12.30 - 2.00
DJ PREQUEL
12.30 - 2.00
HEY NOW
12.30 - 2.00
ELECTRIC GARDEN DJ’S
SURECUT KIDS
11.00 - 12.30
BLUNT INSTRUMENT
12 00 12:00
10.00 - 2.00
1.00 - 2.00
FLIGHT FACILITIES
12.30 - 2.00
DWIGHT CHOCOLATE ESCOBAR
11.00 - 12.00
VAN MIERT
11.00 - 12.30
12.30- 2.00
2 2:00 00
2 00 2:00
CAPTAIN KAINE
1 1:00 00
JOYRIDE
12:00-1:15
ELECTRIC GARDEN DJ’S
STONEY ROADS DJ SET
11.00 - 12.30
10.00-10.30 10.30 - 12.00
LITTLE FILM BIG HEART SHORT FILMS
FALCONA DJ’S
7.30 - 9.00
9.00 - 10.00
THE PANICS
8.15 - 9.00
DANIEL WEBBER
7.00 - 8.00
FIESTA VIVA MARIACHI
7.45 - 8.45
7.15 - 8.15
ALICE SPACE DOLL 7.00 -7.30
8:00
12 12:00 00
MOISTA CLOISTA
FLIGHT FRIENDLY FLIGHT FIRES FACILITIES CUT COPY FACILITIES BLISS N’ ESO
CLOUD CONTROL DJ SET
6.00 - 7.00
DJ STEVIE M
5.00 - 6.30
7.20 - 10.00
9.00 - 10.00
LIGHT YEAR
8.30 - 10.00
DJ STEVIE M
8.00 - 9.00
KATO
7:00 -11.30
CADILLAC DJ SET
DJ SHADOW
10.30 - 12.00
KANYE WEST
11 11:00 00
10.00-10.45 10.45 - 11.45
(WE NO SPEAK NO AMERICANO)
D-CUP
10:00
LITTLE FILM BIG HEART SHORT FILMS
8.00 - 9.30
CRETEN
8.30 - 9.30
KAISER CHIEFS
NOAH AND THE WHALE
6.30 - 7.15
LIGHT YEAR
GYUTO MONKS SAND MANDALA DISSOLUTION
5.30-7.00
KRIS BAHA & MARCO POLO FIESTA VIVA MARIACHI
ELBOW
7:00
6.15 - 7.15
LANDSOAKEN
5.30 - 6.30
THE MIDDLE EAST
5.30 - 6.30
DRAPHT
6:00
5.00 -6.30
7.00 -7.20
FIESTA VIVA MARIACHI
7.00 - 8.00
EASY COME
7.30 - 8.30
9.00 - 10.00
BLUEJUICE
9.00 - 10.00
GOTYE
8.15 - 9.00
(WE NO SPEAK NO AMERICANO)
D-CUP
THE HIVES
9:00
SUNDAY 31 JULY 2011
5.20 - 7.00
THE HOLIDAYS DJ SET
4.30 - 5.45
F.R.I.E.N.D.S DJ’S
3.15 - 4.15
WIL ANDERSON DOES PARKY
3.00 -3.20
FIESTA VIVA MARIACHI
2.00 - 3.30
WTRS & JHEASY
2.00-3.30
JINJA SAFARI DJ SET
2.00 - 3.00
HIP HOP, TAP & BREAK WORKSHOP
THE NEXT STEP
LIGHT YEAR
4.45 - 5.45
THE VINES
5 00 5:00
5.00 -5.20
4.00 - 5.30
6.30 - 8.00
NZED
7.00 - 8.00
(feat THE RELATIVES)
7.15 - 8.15
BLACK JOE LEWIS & THE HONEYBEARS
6.30 - 7.30
MAGIC HAPPENS
TROPICANTE
5.00 - 6.00 FIESTA VIVA MARIACHI
SUN IN AQUARIUS
4.00 - 5.00
5.00 -6.30
KNICKERS VS BOW TIE
4.45 - 5.30
OH MERCY
3.45 - 4.45
THE HERD
3.30 - 4.20
3.00 -3.45
LIAM FINN
4 00 4:00
3.20 - 5.00
TROPICANTE
CLOUD CONTROL
HOOPS
2.45 - 3.30
DRUMMING WORKSHOP
2.00 -3.00
YELLE
2.30 - 3.10
THE VACCINES
3 00 3:00
2.30 - 4.00
APRA PRESENTS: SONGWRITERS SPEAK
11.00 - 3.00
DWIGHT CHOCOLATE ESCOBAR
11.00 - 12.30
ANY EXCUSE DJ’S
11.00 -12.30
3.00 -3.20
FIESTA VIVA MARIACHI
MUSIC TRIVIA
RHYTHM KONNECTIONS
1.30 - 2.15
LEADER CHEETAH
SAMBILISCIOUS SAMBA WORKSHOP 12.45 - 1.45
12.15 -1.00
YOUNG THE GIANT
LOOSE CARNAGE DJ’S
GYUTO MONKS 8.00-8.45 MORNING YOGA 9.00-10.00 ZEN THAI YOGA 10.15-11.15
11.00 -11.45
MOSMAN ALDER
11.00 -11.45 11.45 -12.30 12.30 -1.15 1.15 -2.00
PIGEON
11.00 -11.45
2 00 2:00
HUNGRY KIDS OF HUNGARY
1:00
12.00 - 1.30
10.00 - 11.00
12:00
PANEL: BIG BROTHER V LITTLE BROTHER
11.00 - 3.00
2.00 - 3.00
4.00 - 5.00
3.30 - 5.00
5.45 - 6.30
GYUTO MONKS SUNSET CHANTING
KATO 6.30 - 7.15
7.30 - 8.30
MODEST MOUSE
8:00
DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH?
7:00
JAMES BLAKE FUTURE CLASSIC DJ’S DJ SET BOVINES DJ SET
4.30 - 5.30
3.00 - 4.00
ELAINE BENES
2.00 - 3.30
3.15 - 4.15
TIM FUCHS
DEBATE: SOCIAL MEDIA: GOOD OR EVIL?
11:00
HIP HOP, TAP & BREAK WORKSHOP
ELSEWHERE DJ’S
2.00 - 3.00
DRUMMING WORKSHOP
JUNG HEARTS RIO LOBOTOMY MITZI DJ’S
DJ SPEX & MC HERNAN
ROCK POP N JU
12.30 - 2.00
11.00 - 12.30
SWEEPLESS
DEATHSTROBE DJ’S
STEVIE WONDERLAND
12.45 - 1.45
BURLESQUE CABARET VAUDVILLE WORKSHOP
THE DANCE OF TAO – TAI CHI
DEEGS 5.00 - 6.30
DAKINI
5.30 - 6.30
BOY & BEAR
5.30 - 6.30
THE BLACK SEEDS
6.00 - 7.00
ESKIMO JOE
6:00
4.00 - 5.00
4.00 - 5.00
4.45 - 5.30
KATO
4.30- 5.30
WARPAINT
3.45 - 4.45
5:00 5 00
GLASVEGAS
JAMES BLAKE
4:00 4 00
THE NEXT STEP
2.45 - 3.30
RHYTHM KONNECTIONS
1.30 - 2.15
3.00 -3.45
WAX MOTIF
3.10 - 4.00
THE KILLS
3 3:00 00
WILD BEASTS
2.00 -3.00
PHRASE
2.00 - 2.50
JEBEDIAH
2:00 2 00
KIMBRA
RAPSKALLION DANCERS
12.15 -1.00
11.00 -11.45
GYUTO MONKS MR PERCIVAL 8.00-8.45 VOCAL MORNING YOGA 9.00-10.00 WORKSHOP TAI CHI WKSHOP 11.30 - 12.30 10.15-11.15
MARQUES TOLIVER
JULZ & THE GRIMLY BEATS
11.00 -11.45 11.45 -12.30 12.30 -1.15 1.15 -2.00
WORLD’S TRANTER END PRESS
11.00 -11.30
MILLIONS
11:00
FRIDAY 29 JULY 2011
Avenged Sevenfold The Nightmare Scenario By Birdie
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iven the untimely and tragic death of drummer Jimmy ‘The Rev’ Sullivan in late 2009, Nightmare seemed pretty apt for an album title when melodic metallers Avenged Sevenfold finally wrapped up their fifth record last year. 2010 had been the most devastating period in the band members’ lives after they unexpectedly lost their best friend, but according to guitarist Zacky Vengeance, scoring their first ever number one spot with Nightmare couldn’t have served as a better send off.
“Jimmy’s death was the hardest hit any of us had ever taken in our lives,” he tells me. “It’s something you can never prepare yourself for – it still doesn’t feel real. In one moment, it was all gone. We went from having the beginning of an unbelievable-sounding album and one of the best years of our touring life and making a decent amount of money finally, to having our entire world turn upside down. Losing Jimmy was horrific and I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy; no pun intended, but it was a nightmare. Nobody could cope with it. We were at each other’s houses 24/7, curled up into a ball, in blankets, crying with our friends. Nobody could be alone.”
As the guitarist explains, recruiting Ilejay has been rewarding in more ways than one; he describes the new drummer as “a little kid playing in the major leagues.” “We wanted someone who was exactly like we used to be when we started this band,” Vengeance explains. “Someone who took nothing for granted, someone who would kill for the opportunity, someone who would have been a right fit for the band back in the early days. With Arin, we feel like mentors, teaching him all the things that we’ve learned in the last 12 years because it’s all so new to him. No offense to him, but he’s completely naïve and he’s never experienced anything like this band! He’s been doing an amazing job though, especially since this album was never even going to get on the road. After everything that happened, it just took on a life of its own.” What: Nightmare is out now through Warners With: Dream On Dreamer Where: Sydney Entertainment Centre When: Saturday July 30
The first “ray of light,” as Vengeance puts it, came in the form of ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, who not only encouraged the band to take all the time they needed to recover from the shock, but also offered his services in regards to the album’s completion. And while recording was the last thing the band had on their mind after Sullivan’s sudden passing, Vengeance says that after much soul-searching, Avenged Sevenfold realised the album presented an opportunity to properly honour their late friend in the way that they knew best. “It was incredible,” sighs Vengeance. “We worked harder than we ever had in our lives on anything – the only thing on our minds was ensuring that Jimmy was going to get the best possible send off. The fact that Nightmare turned into a number one album was just a huge weight lifted off our shoulders. It was a big statement to us, to our fans, to the world, really. We’d never had a number one album before and this was the only chance that Jimmy would ever get to be a part of something as special as that. He deserved it more than anyone; it’s his accolade too.”
For a better Australia, shed some light on Census night. Tuesday August 9
“We worked harder than we ever had in our lives on anything – the only thing on our minds was ensuring that Jimmy was going to get the best possible send off.” The album that eventuated understandably deals with some extremely dark themes. “We never intended to make a record that was so dark, cold, sad and emotional right off the bat, but that’s how it ended up sounding when we got those personal feelings out,” Vengeance explains. “It was all we could write about! It’s raw and honest and it’s naturally dark, with a deep undertone... This is a period of time when we were in the midst of utter devastation, and felt all hope was gone.” It was Portnoy who played drums on many of the songs on Nightmare, stepping in for Sullivan up until 2011, when fresher blood became a more obvious choice for a drummer. Nothing personal against Portnoy, Vengeance insists, it’s just that the chemistry between band members has always been equally as important as the music itself – which is why the much younger Arin Ilejay replaced the former Dream Theater sticksman this year. “Look, Mike is amazing as a musician, as a person, and for being that ray of light for us at first,” Vengeance says. “He came to us and helped us at a really devastating time. After we put the record down we were satisfied our job was done – we’d done it for Jimmy – and we were finished, it was over for the band. We had no intention of touring the album. Then it got to number one and Mike started helping us get back on our feet, and he encouraged us to play the music to our fans. He was right – our first tour got 17,000 people per night in the ‘States, it was insane! We realised we were doing the right thing by continuing with the band. It’s just that Mike is not necessarily the right fit for our band, because you’ve got to have the chemistry. We were looking for someone who was young, ambitious, someone real hungry for it.” Basically, they wanted someone who embodied all the qualities of Avenged Sevenfold circa 2001’s Sounding The Seventh Trumpet – youth, energy, passion and, yeah, even inexperience.
What is Census? Think of it as a snapshot of Australia at one given moment, used by government and industry to determine where improvements should be made in Australian communities. What you say is private and confidential and lights the way forward for health, education, transport, industry and the environment, making a brighter future for all of us. So how will you shed some light on Tuesday August 9? You can either fill out the form delivered to your home, or complete the eCensus online. For more information visit abs.gov.au/census or call 1300 338 776.
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Felix Riebl In The Deep End By Cass French
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at Empire fans know Felix Riebl as the hyperactive ringleader with the boundless energy and the shit-eating grin, but even the life of the party goes home alone sometimes. When Riebl found himself in New York after a devastating break-up, the best therapy turned out to be songwriting. “I honestly didn’t plan for this album to happen, it more or less found me,” he explains. “In the apartment that had just been deserted, it tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘Felix, pick yourself up, go and write me into an album instead of chain smoking and not eating.’ Then I got on a plane back to Australia, finished the songs, and within about ten days we were in the studio. The album was recorded in about seven days.” The record is called Into The Rain, a breakup album that’s anything but self-pitying, but still more intricate and melancholy than anything we’ve heard from Riebl before… CF: How did this process compare to your experiences with The Cat Empire? FR: That band is like being part of some chaotic carnival; it’s great while it’s in season, but it shouldn’t inhabit the whole year or else it loses its magic. So I’m interested in exploring other worlds, musically… There was something calm and relieving about playing choruses that involved big chords and swelling electric guitar sounds. It’s an itch I hadn’t been able to scratch, a hole that couldn’t be filled by The Cat Empire.
CF: Apparently this is The Breakup Album - was that part of why you needed to head off on your own for a bit? FR: It’s my breakup album, yes, but it’s about more than that. I feel it’s a voyage from beginning to end; it leaves the shallows and explores darker waters. These songs came out of a lot of sadness, frustration and confusion, but by contrast, the music is open and there is always some distant optimism. It was an album I had to write alone. CF: ‘Wide Open Rivers’ is the single, the album’s called Into The Rain... Is there a significance to the water imagery? FR: Yes, no doubt. There is a lot of water in this whole endeavour – rivers, ships, tears, oceans, storms, shores. It’s also something I associate with the force and ease of the songs themselves. There is an image I remember from my apartment in NY... Below my window there was a concrete playground, and in the middle there was a statue of a seal looking skyward, always pleading. It would sit there patiently and endure all those sweltering summer days, and then finally it rained. It was one of the heaviest downpours I’ve ever seen – big, fat, NY-sized raindrops, smashing all over everything. I looked down and smiled at the seal. It was a homecoming of sorts. So was this album for me. CF: What inspirations, sounds and ideas did you find seeping into the album?
FR: It’s always hard to tell exactly, and I think the best influences are usually the ones you can’t predict. But for the sake of this interview, these are some that come to mind: the song ‘Feelings Of Grief’ (Paul Kelly), Calexico (I saw them a lot on their previous summer tour), Simon and Garfunkel (walks and headphones), Dire Straits (old memories), The Boatman’s Call (Nick Cave), Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Bruce Springsteen), Harvest (Neil Young), Madmen, Fiorino’s Pizza on Bedford Ave, The Guardian, a forever curious and energetic three-year-old, a beautiful, elusive and unpredictable girlfriend, Derek Walcott’s
White Egrets, Wagner at the Met, the sound of trains from the rooftop, distance, jealousy, passion, tours, near misses, Jackson Pollock, mindless, endless arguments, a lot of laughter, a sad and confusing break up. It was an ocean of colours, sounds, moments, and madness, followed by desolation, followed by music. What: Into The Rain is out now through MGM With: Ben Salter Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Friday August 5
Syndicate The Next Step By Birdie
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Catherine Traicos Flame Lillies And Starry Nights By James W Nicoli
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arlier this year, Melbourne singer/ songwriter Catherine Traicos found beauty and hope in Brisbane amidst the devastation of the worst floods in recent memory. She also found the inspiration (and the title) for her latest record, Gloriosa. “Everywhere I went I just saw – it was actually quite amazing – there was a whole lot of mud and dirt, you could see where the water levels had risen up buildings and stuff,” she remembers. “And then, out of the mud, there would be beautiful flowers – fully grown flowers, not just like green little shoots. They were just flowers and it was amazing; I was just entranced. “I saw the flame lily, which is the Gloriosa, and it really resonated with me because it’s a flower from my childhood,” she says. Traicos grew up in Zimbabwe, where the flame lily is the national flower. “I thought about calling the album ‘The Flame Lily’, and I mentioned that to a friend and he looked it up and said, ‘Well, you know the Latin name is Gloriosa’. And I thought, that’s such a beautiful word – and I just kept thinking about it, and how the whole state of Brisbane after the floods kind of mirrored my own experience. When you write a song, you make sense out of all the mess that’s around you, and I thought about my friend Jacqui who said, ‘You can always create something beautiful out of something terrible’.” Gloriosa has a real old world charm to it. It sees Traicos and her new backing band, The Starry Night, delve into alt country territory, with moments of blues, folk and roots – and the album will be getting a vinyl release, too. “They’re the kind of songs that require a bit more engagement from the listener, and you get that when you listen to vinyl, because it’s
a whole other experience,” she explains. “You know, you’re required to pay attention and then turn the record over, and if there’s any dust on it you have to clean it.” In the studio, Traicos enlisted the services of five-time ARIA award-winning producer Paul McKercher, and she can’t praise him highly enough. “Working with him made it very real for me; that you can make a living out of music,” she says. “It takes a lot of hard work and it will probably take a long time, and it might put your relationships under stress – because you can only really maintain one or two good relationships if you devote that much of yourself to music – but it is possible, and that’s fantastic.” The Starry Night also proved to be an important addition during the recording process; they had a significant input on the songs that made it to the record. “There was a song which I thought we may as well [make] a B side, but the band just took it and made it this awesome song, and it’s on the album now.”
reg Agar feels like he’s been talking about his band’s debut album “forever.” But while Syndicate’s self-titled release has been a long time coming, according to the frontman, it’s well worth the wait – and to him, touring is the ultimate pay-off. With 21 shows packed into just 25 days, Agar is equally excited and anxious about Syndicate’s most intense headline tour yet – and they’re attempting to survive Dry July at the same time. “I’m obviously the type that’s up for a challenge!” he laughs. “It’s going to be absolutely worth it, though. Unfortunately, it’s a cause that’s been all too close in my life so far with family, so I’m very much down to support it. Having said that, obviously it’s going to be really hard! I’m worried about our guitarist Jimmy, because it’s like he turns into some kind of vampire if he doesn’t have a drink!” he laughs. “Actually, I shouldn’t start any rumours about addiction – I’m just joking! But yes, it will be very hard to tour and have a good time without having a drink, but I’m sure we can do it.” With the release of Syndicate’s muchanticipated first LP, it shouldn’t be too hard to keep Agar’s mind off the booze. Featuring a stellar cast of guest appearances – including Jeff Blue (Linkin Park), Brandon Friesen (Nickelback), Matt Sorum (Guns’n’Roses) and Mike Fraser (AC/DC) – Syndicate is sure to rank as one of the biggest rock releases of 2011. “We’ve been super-lucky to have the kind of freedom of creativity that we’d had, as well as the time to get this album exactly how we wanted it,” says the singer. “We definitely obsessed over all the details, and we’re very much emotionally invested into it. We’ve become perfectionists, that’s for sure. It’s hard through, because we’ve spent all this time on the album and now it just kind of gets snatched out of
your hands, and this is how it’s going to sound forever; there’s no going back, it’s out there for everyone to form opinions,” Agar continues. “In retrospect, I believe it came out the best that it could have.” And Agar firmly believes that as long as the passion’s there, you can’t go wrong. “Working with people like Brandon [Friesen] and Matt [Sorum] really opens your eyes,” he says. “We probably learned the most from Brandon, in the sense that he was kind of like a coach pulling us aside from time to time. The biggest thing I learned came after we all had a massive yelling match at each other one night. We almost killed each other! Brandon came in and said, ‘Look, it’s fine that you’re arguing, because it means you’re all passionate about what you’re doing!’” If they managed to keep it together within the confines of their L.A. studio during the making of the album, Agar reckons the band will be just fine bundled up in a car as they take off on their upcoming tour. That’s right – in just one car. “We’ve proven it to ourselves in L.A. that we can survive in a confined space without murdering one another, even though we’ve had some close calls,” he laughs. “Everything is about the next step for us. We’ve been writing songs – well, Chris has been doing some crazy shit at home. He’s already written 30 songs, and really good songs. So it’s all about quantity as well as quality.” What: Syndicate is out now Where: The Bridge Hotel, Rozelle When: Saturday July 30 More: Also supporting Alice Cooper on September 26 at the Enmore Theatre
Traicos and band are loading into a van and hitting the highway for an extensive tour of the country, something that they are more than used to these days… “I think once you’ve toured a few times, you’re aware of what’s in store for you; late nights, early mornings, really horrible accommodation and sore feet!” she laughs. “You just start to focus on the good stuff and just go, ‘Well, it’s not going to be bad - it’s going to be awesome.’” Who: Catherine Traicos & The Starry Night What: Gloriosa is out now through Fuse With: Ruby For Lucy Where: Hermann’s Bar @ Sydney University When: Saturday July 30
“There’s still hope for us to see soaring stars and shooting skies”- FUNERAL PARTY 28 :: BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11
ALBUM LAUNCH
Wednesday 3rd August THE VANGUARD
w/ supports Nick Kingswell + Matt Cornell “A soon to be discovered gem” – DRUM MEDIA “A voice that’s fresh and believable” – MAG “An impressive collection of songs” – RAVE “Melodies that are sweet and smooth as honey” – AMG
www.othertongues.com.au / www.alannacherote.com
THE FIRST NEW STUDIO ALBUM IN 7 YEARS! “There Are Rules, indeed — The Get Up Kids wrote them” – Consequence Of Sound ★★★★1/2 “An absolutely stunning success” – Alternative Press
The Get Up Kids ‘There Are Rules’ Australian Tour
Saturday 6th August – Metro For more info and tickets, go to: www.soundwavetouring.com
NEW ALBUM OUT NOW FEATURING ‘AUTOMATIC’ AND ‘SHATTER YOUR LUNGS’ OTHER TONGUES EDITION INCLUDES 2 BONUS TRACKS www.othertongues.com.au
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arts frontline
free stuff email: freestuff@thebrag.com
arts, theatre and film news... what's goin' on around town and more...
five minutes WITH
SAM SMITH
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Was it always your intention to add another layer to the ‘narrative’ of Cameraman by having a gallery show, bringing the objects out into the real world? The Grantpirrie show is related to Cameraman, but they are two distinct entities. I am very interested in the relationship between video and sculpture and the new show adds another perspective to that.
n some kind of superhuman feat, Sam Smith is popping up everywhere over the next couple of weeks: his two-channel video artwork Cameraman is at the AGNSW; he’s opening an exhibition of his sculptures, titled Objects and Slides, at Grantpirrie; and he’s taking over Late Night Library (for one night) to talk about movies that are about movies… It seemed like the right time to suss him out. Your work often feels quite unsettling – it’s partly the images, it’s partly the sound design, and sometimes it’s the sheer quantity of visual input from different sources/screens. Is this an effect that you consciously cultivate? I think this is an interesting point. It’s not something that I am consciously cultivating but definitely something I’m aware of. In a way, I think it’s a natural product of the content and subject matter if my work. Anything unnatural has an unsettling effect and quite often I have sequences in my work that could be classified as horror, science fiction or supernatural. What subjects/themes most interest you? I’m interested in looking at the language of film and how it can mediate experiences and alter perspectives while also exploring moving images in three-dimensions. I am always influenced by the mechanics of cinema and looking to combine the reality of the screen world and physical space in new ways. You seem to have a little fetish for cameras – what’s that about? I think of the video
ALAN BALL! HERE!
Whether your idea of The Most Beautiful Thing You’ve Ever Seen is a plastic bag dancing in the wind, the final minutes of Six Feet Under, or Alexander Skarsgaard stripped to the waist, odds are you’ve enjoyed the fruits of Alan Ball’s labours at some point. The American Beauty writer and creator of True Blood will appear onstage at Sydney Opera House on the evening of September 8, in conversation with Wil Anderson, as part of the SOH’s Ideas At The House program. So get to sydneyoperahouse.com – quick smart.
or film camera as emblematic of film. I keep returning to the form of the object as it symbolises the potential held in the creation of motion pictures. Where does your obsession with cinema stem from? In terms of study, I went through Sculpture, Performance and Installation at CoFA. I’ve never officially studied film but I’ve always had an obsession with it. Nowadays more than ever there is a blurring of the distinction between filmmaker and video artist. I don’t think of myself as one or the other, just as an artist. How did Cameraman come about? Initially from a desire to look more closely at the language of montage, especially in a multiscreen gallery context; how narrative could be shaped through breaking, overlapping and contextualising time on two channels of video.
TINAH FEYMAN
Tinah Feyman’s Bedpants is the latest instalment of the Late Night Library series. Dreamed up by the ladies at evenbooks, the event is named after two excellent comediennes and their memoirs: Tina “Bossypants” Fey and Sarah “The Bedwetter” Silverman. SNL alumnae (and Alec Baldwin) will be celebrated in this night of debates, cookies, scatological humour and morbidly obese women f**king Matt Damon. Cough. It’s on Thursday August 4 at Surry Hills Library and you really MUST book (on 8374 6230).
What will the show feature? A series of sculptures formed from plaster, cement, blackbutt and varnish. They continue my investigation into the physical form of a camera lens and the lens as a portal between reality and the film world. There is also a slide carousel time-lapse work that depicts the degradation of a large sculpture, revealing the structure within. What have you and Kate Jinx got planned for Late Night Library? Each of us will present a talk about a specific cinematic obsession that we have. I believe Kate will be charting the presence of cats in cinema and I’m going to talk about the history of films about filmmaking, with lots of movie clips to illustrate. It’ll be fun! Moving image: Cameraman is showing at the Art Gallery of NSW until August 14. Sculpture: Objects & Slides opens at Grantpirrie (86 George Street Redfern) on Thursday July 28. Talks: Sam Smith & Kate Jinx present Cinemania for Late Night Library (Surry Hills Library) on Thursday August 11 from 8.30pm
BAD TEACHER
Bad Santa meets Dangerous Minds and totally destroys it in Bad Teacher – the unruly new comedy from Jake Kasdan of Freaks & Geeks fame. Doing what she does best, Cameron Diaz works her funnybut-wrong skills as shallow high school teacher and gold-digger on a mission to snag the school’s new temp teacher (played by Justin Timberlake). With a support cast that includes Jason Segal and Lucy Punch, Bad Teacher looks like an antidote to any arthouse blues for the week… If you need a laff, email us with the name of another comedy starring Diaz, and we may sling you one of 20 in-season doubles.
APOCALYPSE NOW
This Wednesday June 27 Popcorn Taxi is screening the brand-new remastered version of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 mindfuck, Apocalypse Now. This is one of those things where we WISH we hadn’t seen the film, so we could experience it for the first time in pristine condition, on a big screen, in the cinephilic romance of Randwick Ritz. If you feel the same way, we have two double passes up for grabs: just tell us one of the film’s main stars. popcorntaxi.com.au
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS
The ladies of Bams&Ted are stepping back from the Edge Of Love, and moving onwards towards their next pop-up fashion concept. Before they do, they’re giving you one last chance stock up on '40s wartime chic with a late night soiree this Wednesday July 27, at their 84 William St digs, serving up champagne and cheap prices – until 8pm. Then the following Thursday, August 4, they’re launching into full gothic mode for the opening of Edward Scissorhands. bamsand-ted.blogspot.com
BIZARRE BAZAAR #3
The Bizarre Bazaar is back again next week, but – possibly due to the foul weather – they’re bringing their twilight markets out of the laneway, and into the cosy confines of Darlinghurst’s District01. The lineup includes 30 talented emerging designers, including fierce jewellery from ATAT, supersleek minimalist tees from Moons Of Apollo, handmade womenswear and accessories from Roger + Peach, and local labels Blessed Are The Meek and AucklandStockholm. Did we mention there's chunes from Soul Patrol DJs, and a pop-up Patron Tequila Bar? Bizarre Bazaar runs Thursday August 4 from 5–9pm at District01, 74-76 Oxford Street. For the full lineup of stallholders see bizarrebazaar.info
THIS ENDS NOW
ART&ABOUT X KALDOR
MARK ALSWEILER X CHINA HEIGHTS
NZ-born, Sydney-based artist Mark Alsweiler opens his third exhibition of work at China Heights this Friday July 29. Titled Sundial, the show will combine canvas and installation works with Mark’s newfound fetish for the carved object – i.e. those awesome little dudes will make their way off the canvas and into the third dimension, in the form of balsa-wood sculptures. Mark writes that this latest body of work was “Influenced a lot by South American folk art and imagery associated with the American Indian of old. Sundial references items and ways of living of a time past, in contrast with todays modern fast paced world.” Check out his skillz at markalsweiler.com
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Art&About launched its 10th program last week, set to take over our parks and streets from September 23 – October 23. They’re kicking off with a massive birthday party that will transform Martin Place with art installations and live music; for the festival proper, regular faves like the Laneway Art Project and the Sydney Life large-scale photo exhibition return, alongside new projects like the 48-metre-long and 3-metre-wide Happy Talk pavilion (a pop-up rumpus room for arts and crafts) – and Kaldor Public Art Projects’ 24th project, for which prominent UK artist Michael Landy is calling on Sydneysiders to submit their stories about acts of kindness seen or experienced… Submit your stories here by August 20: kaldorartprojects.org.au
Jurassic Lounge is back for another season of Tuesday-night soirees at the Australian Museum, having pulled in massive crowds with their unexpected mix of performance and prehistoric fauna, which transforms the Museum into a after-dark playground for grownup kids. Stuffed Tassie tigers and skeletal T-Rexes rub shoulders with poets and performers, live pythons cuddle up to punters, and torchlight tours of the amphibian section segue into silent disco – and of course the pop-up bar. The encore season of Jurassic Lounge kicks off Tuesday August 2 and runs from 5.30-9.30pm every Tuesday night. For lineup deets see jurassiclounge.com
HANDMADE BICYCLES!
Treadlie is bike porn – a gorgeous magazine devoted to bicycles and their lovers, and covering everything from design and fashion to gear and bike-centric itineraries and routes. As part of Sydney Design, they’re presenting Made To Measure – a show featuring 18 wild and wonderful handmade bikes, built by a handpicked lineup of pros, talented hobbyists, artists and dreamers. Amaze. July 28-31 at kind of gallery (72 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst). More deets at treadlie.com.au
NIGHTTIME #12: FIGHT
Performance Space’s short works program, NightTime is gearing up for its 12th instalment, themed “fight” – so curators Nat Randall (Team MESS) and Georgie Meagher are looking for engaging short works of the performance, live art, installation or dance varieties that respond to “ideas and structures of opposition, competition and combat”. The Deadline for submissions is August 1, with the performances set for the weekend of September 10-11. performancespace.com.au
Jurassic Lounge photo – 'Signor Bluetongue' by Matt Ravier
If you’re a fan of The Moth and its ilk, you probably already know about Story Club – Project 52’s monthly celebration of the humble raconteur. The next episode, This Ends Now, features some of our favourites: Eddie Sharp (co-founder of Imperial Panda Festival and Erotic Fan Fiction), comedian David Cunningham (who was channeling Professor Dumbledork and JK Rowling last time we saw him), and Zoe Norton Lodge, whose past appearances at Story Club, Penguin Plays Rough and Late Night Library have left us breathless (from laughter). This Ends Now happens Wednesday July 27 from 7.30pm at Hermann’s (Sydney University). Entry $10 or half that with an Access Card.
JURASSIC LOUNGE
HANNA
Joe Wright cuts loose in a surreal action fairytale – with gingerbread By Joshua Blackman
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a feisty, pop-culture obsessed teen played by the equally feisty Jessica Barden. nitely Barden “She’s defi definitely a character who lives in a world where young women are taught to use their sexuality to get what they want,” Wright says of Hanna’s new friend. “I am quite interested that feminism has spawned these kind of little celebrity-obsessed kids, and what that means.”
t kind of started as a necessity really,” director Joe me, down the Wright tells me line from London. We’re talking about Hanna, his first action film, but have somehow come upon the subject of his virtuoso five-minute tracking shot in Atonement. I say “somehow,” but this is really a ruse; in an age where most directors rely singularly on the power of editing, what I really wanted to glean from Wright was a properly artistic justification for his showy – and underused – choice to shoot scenes in elaborate long-takes. “It kind of started as: we’ve only got a day to do the beach scene in Atonement, and there’s no way we can cover the amount of shots needed in a day, so what about if we did it in a single take?”
“I’m very wary – wary and kind of disappointed, I guess – of the continued sexual objectification of women, and young women, in cinema,” he adds, “I wanted to very much avoid doing that in the film, and in a way the character Hanna lives outside of gender. She’s kind of like an angel or a spirit from another world.”
It wasn’t the reason I was after, but that’s the kind of refreshing, relaxed pragmatism one gets from the English director of the excellent 2005 Pride & Prejudice. Wright’s latest film is an electric thriller in the guise of a fairytale, about a little girl from the woods trained as a deadly assassin. On first glance he doesn’t seem like an obvious pick for this kind of visceral material; aside from a brief foray into Hollywood with The Soloist (2009) his output has been constrained to ambitious, strongly directed costume dramas.
IV
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A W AY
Hanna stars Saorsie (sur-shuh) Ronan as a 17-year-old girl raised in a wooden house in the Arctic by her father, Erik (Eric Bana). He teaches her foreign languages, trains her in her hand-to-hand combat, and shows her how to slay reindeer with a bow and arrow. When she’s “ready,” he arranges for them to split up and rendezvous in Berlin, but Hanna is intercepted by a steely wicked-witch – I mean, CIA agent – who is played with
Saoirse Ronan and director Joe Wright on the set of Hanna.
teeth-sharpening relish by Cate Blanchett, sporting an almostconvincing Texas drawl. Thus begins a chase that takes our Little Red Riding Hood from the deserts of Morocco, north though Spain and into Germany. The fairytale aspects are important, because under the elliptical action sheen lies a Brothers Grimm story in disguise. After Ronan (who was attached to the project and
WIN!
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Photos to courtesy of Xxxxxx
Peer a little closer and it doesn’t seem so far-fetched. Wright has a natural affinity for camera movement, and his integration of music and image is sophisticated and inventive. Both are on display in this European-flavoured thriller, which features another “look at me with my Steadicam!” tracking shot and a pumping score from The Chemical Brothers. It’s an action film but one, Wright says, that’s more like the ‘80s French thrillers Diva or Boy Meets Girl, than your typical American effort.
Thematically and symbolically (Wright cites David Lynch as a strong influence), the director has brought an art-house sensibility and a lurid-dream like quality to the female assassin movie – think Leon: The Professional, only with gingerbread houses and evil stepmothers. The sonic glue that ties these disparate elements together is The Chemical Brothers’ rhythmic score. Unusually for a featurefilm, some of the finished music was available on set to inspire the crew and the actors, and footage was consciously edited to the music rather than the other way around. The result is a soundtrack that blurs the line between sound effects and music while feeling at one with the images.
T
who had worked with Wright on Atonement) suggested him for the job, Wright helped pump up the symbolism in Seth Lochhead and David Farr’s script. “There was kind of an inherent fairytale structure to the story to start with,” the director explains, “You know, the young person growing up in isolation, and then being required to go out into the world and explore the world and encounter evil for the first time. All these ideas are kind of
fairytale ideas, so I guess I made the fairytale themes more explicit in the imagery.” The action is thrilling, but in-between the film slows down and becomes something else entirely: a coming of age road movie. In the introspective mid-section, the inquisitive Hanna (who’s grown up without any mod-cons and with only her father for company), bonds with a travelling family, especially
It’s when I bring up the score – and our shared love of music – that the succinct Wright really opens up. “It’s a big part of my life. My dad was really good at using music in the puppet shows that he produced. He was a puppeteer, and so every evening at home we used to listen to the Radio 3 concert and he’d write down the name of the pieces that he liked. So music has always been a part of my life. It feels like an integral part of filmmaking for me.” What: Hanna When: Whe n: Rel Releas eased ed July July 28 28 Released
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES!
wentieth Century Fox let us have a sneak peek at advance footage for Rise of the Planet of the Apes a few weeks back – and all we can say is, prequels haven’t looked this good since JJ Abrams’ Star Trek reboot. Going back in time to see how it all started, British director Rupert Wyatt has come up with a heartwrenching premise that revolves around scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) and his adopted ‘son’ Caesar – and what happens when the teenaged Caesar realises that his life as an ape is going to be hell unless he does something about it. Academy Awardwinner Joe Letteri and the fellas at Peter Jackson’s WETA studio have done wonders, transforming Andy Serkis and Co. into the most ape-like non-apes the screen has seen.
www.apeswillrise.com
James Franco and Freida Pinto in Rise Of The Planet Of the Apes Rise Of The Planet Of the Apes opens on August 4. We have 10 cheeky IN-SEASON DOUBLE PASSES up for grabs; to get your hands on one, email freestuff@thebrag.com with the name of Rupert Wyatt’s first feature.
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Arts Snap
Film & Theatre Reviews
At the heart of the arts Where you went last week.
Hits and misses on the silver screen and the bareboards around town.
Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine take on Evil ■ Film
TUCKER & DALE VS EVIL
delayed reactions by drs
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late night library
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The Powerhouse Museum presents:
What everyone can appreciate, though, is the film’s wide-eyed sense of fun, and the cute chemistry between best-buddies Tucker and Dale. Neither are all that bright, but they’re lovable, and the fairytale crush Dale has on Bowden’s Allison is endearing. Inevitably, the energy stalls a little about two-thirds the way through (no film could keep up the hysterical level of farce for even a brisk 85 minutes), but as a piece, I can’t recommend Tucker & Dale vs Evil enough. Joshua Blackman
SYDNEY DESIGN 2011 July 30 – August 14 Sydney Design launches this weekend – a flotilla of design talks, exhibitions, workshops and happenings taking place around Sydney for the next fortnight. There’s a decided ‘lace’ theme this year, with the Lace Symposium taking place this Saturday July 30 at Powerhouse Museum, alongside the visually spectacular Love Lace exhibition, plus a lace-making workshop with local papercraft magician Benja Harney, a crochet workshop with British public artist extraordinaire Shane Waltener, and various other workshops in bobbin technique and traditional weaving… Of course it’s not all about lace – and we’re checking out Zoe Sadokierski’s gorgeous ink and watercolour sketches of typwriters at Blank Space (Type Horses: Writers & Their Typewriters), and the Japanese Design Today 100 exhibition at the Japan Foundation Gallery… For the entire, intimidating lineup see sydneydesign.com.au 32 :: BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11
Alan Tudyk (Tucker) and Tyler Labine (Dale) are the standouts here as two hillbilly bumpkins on holiday at a wood cabin deep in the mountains, though Katrina Bowden (Cerie on 30 Rock) is also appropriately perky as the big-hearted lead girl. Bowden arrives in the woods with a bunch of disposable teens – as per tradition – and it’s their prejudicial assumption that Tucker and Dale are two pig-squealing, murderous country folk that starts an extended tale of mistaken identity worthy of a screwball comedy. Each thinking the other party are the killers, much of the comedy comes in the gleefully gory ways the teens inevitably impale and mangle themselves while trying to “rescue” Bowden from the hillbillies custody. This movie wouldn’t exist were it not for the rules of horror movies, which reflect both the genre’s virtues and limitations. Slasher movies, especially, are bound by the conventions established in the ‘70s and early ‘80s with movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and John Carpenter’s Halloween. Every horror film since that has been imagined in that tradition must necessarily be assessed by how it fits into the established tropes. Tucker & Dale vs Evil is built around this idea, and seems specifically made for those familiar with the concepts it’s satirizing.
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underbelly festival
A romantic comedy. With chainsaws. That’s Tucker & Dale vs Evil – kind of: a gory and surprisingly sweet horror-comedy that’s could be described as the Shaun of the Dead of slasher pics. More irreverent than Edgar Wright’s dry dose of genius, it deliberately reverses genre expectations with mathematical precision – so much so that it becomes weirdly obvious where the film is going after the first ten minutes. But it’s hard to mind when the results are this funny, this clever, and this playful.
■ Film
BAD TEACHER Released July 21 Bad Teacher is worth checking out for several reasons. Number one, because it gives Cameron Diaz the chance to showcase her comic skills in a leading role, and she totally nails it. Secondly, because it doesn’t resort to last-minute moralising the way that so many Hollywood comedies do, or teach you any heavy-handed lessons about the human condition. Thirdly, and most importantly, because it’s funny as fuck. It has a talented ensemble cast,
a script packed with laughs, a winningly misanthropic attitude towards children and their education ... and a disturbingly realistic scene where Justin Timberlake dry-humps Cameron Diaz and makes what I can only assume is his actual sex face at the point of climax. Actually, that last one might sound like a turn-off, but trust me, it’s actually very funny. Diaz stars as Ms Halsey, an elementary school teacher whose contempt for her students and co-workers is almost boundless. She sleeps through class while her kids watch inspirational teacher movies like Stand By Me and Dangerous Minds, occasionally raiding the mini-bar she keeps in her desk drawer or stealing out to her car to smoke some weed. Her ticket out of teaching, she decides, is to scrape together the money to get her breasts done, and snag herself a rich guy. Lying and cheating her way into the money is one thing, but when fellow teacher Ms Squirrel (Lucy Punch) gets between Ms Halsey and the rich simpleton of her dreams (Timberlake), the situation devolves into all-out war. It may not be the most high-brow film ever made, but director Jake Kasdan knows his way around an ensemble comedy – check out his underrated 2002 effort Orange County – and gets great performances out of his cast. Jason Segel is great as a schlubby gym teacher, while Timberlake sings, dances and brings a very special brand of manic idiocy to his role as the notional romantic lead. Diaz is at the centre of Bad Teacher, though, and her performance is its greatest strength – she fully inhabits the unrepentant dirtbag Ms Halsey, and the curtness with which she shoots barbs at her impressionable young students is hilarious to watch. She’s a horrible person, but she knows as much and, crucially, the film doesn’t go out of its way to punish her for it. Kasdan’s movie reminds us that despicable behaviour can sometimes be its own reward. Alasdair Duncan ■ Comedy
GREG FLEET: THAI DIE Reviewed July 15 / The Comedy Store Thai Die is the ultimate holiday disaster story, of Fleet’s first overseas trip, to Thailand in 1994. Originally debuting at the 1995 Melbourne Comedy Festival to critical acclaim, it went on to Edinburgh Fringe and launched Fleet’s UK career. In Thailand, Fleet was defrauded of almost $40,000, sort-of kidnapped, and had his life threatened with an axe before escaping illegally into Burma into the middle of a civil war. Yes, it’s 16 years on, but this is no rehash. Today’s Fleet brings perspective, experience and new jokes to young Fleet’s tale. Fleet controls the room and maintains pace with narrative suspense, leaving the sword (or axe) always dangling above his own head. By the time you know he’s in the clear, he’s already under mortar fire in Burma, so you’ve only time to quickly draw breath before you’re holding it again. Otherwise light on theatrics, Fleet hilariously rings a handbell like a town crier whenever Young Fleet should have been hearing alarm bells.
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Film & Theatre Reviews Hits and misses on the silver screen and the bareboards around town.
It’s a rich and very funny show, which wouldn’t be complete without Fleet-isms (self aware exaggerated Aussie slang) like getting “all mortared out” in Burma, and meeting “crime-y Thai guys.” And it’s an honest show, with a bittersweet ending for one of Fleet’s Burmese acquaintances. The same humanity that Fleet shows his Burmese mate Zarwin mirrors the humanity at the core of Fleet’s naiveté and openness. It’s the same humanity that draws Fleet into a conniving casino card cartel in the interests of trying to help a Thai family survive better with a few hundred more dollars than they’d have had without him. And the same openness for which Fleet now has this story to tell. Peter Neathway ■ Dance
BELONG Until August 20 / Sydney Opera House Sydney has a fairly rich dance scene at this point in time, encompassing semiregular works by the Australian Ballet, Sydney Dance Company, Chunky Move, the brand-new Mod Dance Company, Sydney Opera House’s annual Spring Dance Festival, and a constant stream of world-dance tours such as Ballet Revolución and Havana Rakatan… Within all this, Bangarra Dance Theatre is unique, as fusion of Indigenous stories and choreography with modern dance and theatre practice. Their latest touring work, Belong, is a double bill of mediumlength works that explore personal and communal histories. About is Elma Kris’ exploration of her Torres Strait home of Thursday Island, focusing on its various wind spirits. ID is Stephen Page’s exploration of modern Aboriginality as it intersects with dance theatre. The
more thematically thorny of the works, it looks backwards in time at some of the more torturous moments from modern Indigenous history, including death in custody. Conversely, it has moments of great lightness and humour – as with a Glee-tastic playground scene in which the dancers appear dressed as primary-school kids, engaged in quintessential playground power struggles. Across the double bill, Jacob Nash’s set design is a stand-out – a series of powerful works of art in their own right, that range from the striking, large-scale ‘painted’ backdrops of About, to the video pieces in ID, and a forest set-piece in which hollowed-out tree trunks function as slender podiums for tree spirits. David Page’s sound design, meanwhile, is a clever mix of dance beats – ranging from house to chill, warehouse techno, and more primal, tribal rhythms – with sounds of nature and traditional vocals.
Ricky Gervais delivers his most expensive practical joke! In this hilarious hit series Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant send their friend Karl Pilkington to experience the Seven Wonders of the World... against his will.
Both Kris' and Page's choreography is as muscular as it is elegant, and some of the best moments are where the foot-stamping energy of the corroboree bursts its way through the dancers' poised veneer. As a company, Bangarra haven’t the razorsharp precision, control and synchronicity that you expect from SDC or the Australian Ballet; and taken individually, there is a noticeable disparity between some excellent soloists, and some occasionallyshaky team-mates. These technical quibbles don't really matter in the end – About achieves a confluence of sound, visual and choreographic design that verges on mesmerising; and Page’s ID, while suffering some momentum issues due probably to the quantity and arrangement of the tonally disparate episodes, features enough striking set-pieces to keep your imagination on the hook. Dee Jefferson
Street Level
With comedian Michael Chamberlin / interviewed by Michael Brown in Mardi Gras, went begging on the streets for the day, fired a gun for the first time at a firing range located within a Gold Coast shopping centre and went to a swingers’ club (didn’t do anything, just watched and chatted…) What did you learn from the experience of doing new things? It was all a bit of an attempt to shake me out of a ‘do nothing’ malaise. I still pursue that attitude: instead of walking past a door ten times and wondering what’s in there, I now walk in and have a look around.
Gleebooks really bring in the glee with Wit Large: smart comedy for smart people, held the first Saturday of every month, and hosted by co-founder Dave Bloustien. August headliner Michael Chamberlin is relatively new to Sydney, having moved here to write for the new Andrew Denton project – but he’s an old hand within the Adelaide and Melbourne comedy scenes, with a decade’s experience as a stand-up and writer for top Australian comedy shows. You must be (a little) older than you look because you’ve been around long enough to write for everything from Backberner to Rove and now Adam Hills’ Gordon St Tonight. What has it been like writing on big shows like these? It’s not bad. It works a different part of the brain and keeps a bit of cash coming in so you can do your own thing. The main stint I did was at Rove, which ended up being roughly four years. My main aim is to steal stuff. I stole a pair of fingerless gloves from the wardrobe department of Rove and a black pen from the ABC. I’m total clepto! For your solo show this year, Things I Haven’t Done, you went and did some things you hadn’t done; like what? I ran to the top of Eureka Tower, snuck into a Village People concert for free, visited a mosque and synagogue for the first time, got a personality test at a Scientology office, attempted to eat a two-kilo steak, marched
Many of your comedy festival sets have been story-driven rather than jokes – why? I don’t know if I’d say that I decided to tell stories, it’s just that, well, I’m not very good at writing short jokes for myself. You can do it for monologues for TV shows and the like, because they’re usually about one topic and by their nature are a little disjointed but when people say, ‘Tell us a joke!’ I often think: ‘Um…I don’t really have any.’ This week’s Wit Large theme is ‘Health’ – any funny stories there? So I’m a celiac – not the most glamorous condition, no one’s going to be organizing a fundraiser for me. I remember going into hospital to get an ultrasound on, well, essentially my stomach as they were working through the diagnosis. I was standing by the ground floor elevator and a very attractive lady walked past to head up the stairs. I soooo got caught perving. So got caught. She gave me a look like I’d reached out and tried to grab her. Cut to: ten minutes later. Walk in for the scan, she’s the doctor. Funny? Not really. Awkward? Yes, it was. What: Wit Large feat. Michael Chamberlin, Scott Abbot, Daniel Moore When: Saturday August 6 from 4.30pm Where: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Pt Rd, Glebe Tickets: $15 (includes some complimentary beer and wine) from witlarge.com.au
The UK’s No.1 best selling TV comedy series in 2010! “there is so much joy to be had hearing the stunningly simple reflections of this reluctant traveller.” The Age, Green Guide
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ROCKS AROMA FESTIVAL
We highly recommend not sleeping or eating for a week, and then getting your tired arse down to The Rocks Aroma Festival this Sunday July 31. A mecca of coffee, chocolate, tea and spice-oriented goods – from cappuccinos and chai to baklava and to-die-for hot chocolate – the Aroma Festival will be divided into four zones this year: The Latin Quarter (including Danks Street cafe Mayan Coffee & Xocolat), The Continent (featuring the Gelatissimobile, Toby’s Estate, and the Italian Gingerbread and Nougat, stall, among other things!), The Orient (including Dim Sum Station, Let’s Do Yum Cha and Dragon Beard Candy) and The Oasis (think gozleme, Turkish coffee and apple tea…). Toby’s Estate are also running a one-hour Speciality Coffee Masterclass at 10am and 2pm, with more coffee-tasting than you can shake a stirrer at! Formulate your plan at therocks.com
BEER BARON STARTS A BAR
You might know the Beer Baron best as your roundthe-clock alcohol delivery service, providing party prescriptions for Sydney in the wee hours of the morning. But we hear that the Baron (aka Jed Clarke) is branching out and extending his trading hours by opening a Redfernbased cocktail bar. Called 182 Redfern Street (for obvious reasons), the bar will channel a relaxed vibe where, Jed tells us, “friends can drink, play board games, read books and listen to records”. Whilst boutique beers and fruity wines will no doubt feature, Jed has insisted that there will definitely be a focus on cocktail culture, including some unusual twists: “We’re currently working on a Jack-Daniels-HickoryInfused-Smoked-Coca-ColaSpiced-Rum-In-A-Big-MetalTankard. It’s a mouthful, but it’s worth the effort.” 182 Redfern St is expected to open around mid-August – and Sydney booze hounds and party animals can rest assured: this new venture will not spell the end of the Beer Baron service...
MUDGEE WINE & FOOD FESTIVAL
If you’ve ever been lucky enough to sample the delights of Mudgee’s staple foods and wine, you'll know that any festival dedicated
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to showcasing what Mudgee has to offer is certainly worth trekking to. The annual Mudgee Wine & Food Festival celebrates its 20th anniversary this year with a bonanza on Sunday August 14 at Balmoral Beach. This is your chance to suss out Mudgee’s famous wines – without making the four-hour journey North-West. The festival will feature regional produce with award-winning cheeses and honey and a selection of international cuisine to soak up all that alcomohol. Tasting tickets start at $15, and all include a free souvenir wine glass. mudgeewine.com.au
COOK FOR A CURE
Based on the premise that delicious noms taste even better with a side-dish of ‘good deeds’, Cook For A Cure is a brand-new initiative from Research Australia that involves getting Aussies to throw dinner parties to raise money for their choice of sixteen institutes which do research into cures and treatments for epilepsy, cancer, Alzheimer’s and a range of other diseases and afflictions. To get involved, all you have to do is choose a cause to support, throw a BBQ/dinner/picnic, invite all your friends and family, and make them pay. Eating and doing good has never been as easy. Hop along to cookforacure.com.au
Shenkin
Café 53 Erskineville Road Erskineville NSW 2043 (02) 9550 5511
Best made at home as the Unique, quick and easy entertaining option. Want to impress at your next dinner party or gathering? Or do you just appreciate drinking a great cocktail? Six delicious cocktail bases, ranging from Margarita to Mojito, Strawberry Daiquiri to French Martini and On the Beach to Cosmopolitan. Created from real fruit juices, all you have to do is mix your favourite spirit and serve to turn any gathering into a special occasion. $13.99 for the Classic Cocktails and $17.95 for the Frozen Cocktail range.
www.urbanthirst.com 34 :: BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11
One of Sydney’s only Israeli cafés offering up traditional and contemporary breakfast, lunch, drinks and desserts.
FULL OF BEANS A Beginner’s Guide To A Good Cup Of Joe By Hugh Robertson
S
ydneysiders tend to get a little bit silly about their coffee. I’ve seen two good friends almost come to blows over which establishment offered the better brew, and every weekend the queues outside favoured haunts are such that you really need a coffee before you can face ordering your coffee. But for all the madness, how much do we actually know about what’s in our cups? Of course there are those who can sniff a Brazilian robusta at 100 yards, but for the vast majority, coffee is merely a means to an end. For instance, I’ll bet you didn’t know that coffee ‘beans’ are actually the seeds of the coffee plant, and not beans at all. Don’t worry – I didn’t either. The seeds are picked, and the fruit peeled and washed, before being graded by size, density, colour, climate, altitude, preparation and harvesting methods – and, of course, taste. Bags of sorted seeds are then sent to be roasted, and then on to the barista. Throughout the process, there are millions of variables that can affect the flavour of your cuppa. Nothing demonstrates Sydney’s obsession with these dark arts like the Aroma Festival – the annual celebration of coffee, chocolate and spices which hits The Rocks this Sunday July 31. Since 1999, the festival has continued to expand, and this year's spread features the flavours of four distinct regions: The Oasis (Middle East), The Orient (Asia), The Continent (Europe) and the Latin Quarter (South America). Aroma is your best bet for sampling and comparing the full spectrum of tastes and traditions side by side, so you can work out whether your preferences lie with the Turks' intensity, or the soft, milky French... It’s all about education, says Andrew Low, General Manager of Toby’s Estate. “We did some consumer research that showed people know how coffee is roasted, but not all that much about what happens before roasting,” he tells me. This was one of the inspirations for the Master Class that Toby’s Estate runs at Aroma, taking people through the journey from farm to cup. “We’ve found that when people come to these classes it really opens up a whole new world for them.” Even a 20-minute conversation with Low is an education, but this is the real eye-opener: “Coffee should be treated like bread where you buy small amounts every week. And you really need to drink it within a couple of weeks of the roast date,” he says. Otherwise, you’re basically trying to raise flavour from the dead. Low recommends sampling single-origin coffee, to work out which regions are most to your taste. “Coffee is like wine,” he explains. “Beans grown in different regions have unique flavours, and do vary quite a lot.” If you aren’t a coffee drinker already, then Barnaby Hartford Davis, rockstar barista at Darlington’s much-loved Shortlist cafe, suggests starting out with a mocha. “Coffee purists might loathe and revile me for saying this,” he begins, “but it’s a great stepping stone: a mix of hot chocolate and a weak latte…” Once you’ve crossed that bridge, Hartford Davis recommends playing around with the strength of your coffee
– and if you find yourself loving the taste, try ordering a smaller size with less milk to avoid drowning out the flavour of the roast. “But be warned about the ‘large double shot’”, he cautions. It might be enough to kick-start your brain, but the flavour of even two shots will be washed out entirely by half a litre of milk. A great resource is Beanhunter.com, which reviews and rates coffee from all over Australia. And in a city that has three or four of the twenty best roasters in the world, you’ll often find yourself in very capable hands. It’s perfectly acceptable to ask for a remake of a substandard brew, but be mindful that what you love in a coffee (Riverina milk with Haigh’s sprinkles on top) might not necessarily be the way it is done. “I think it’s best to surreptitiously watch the barista,” Hartford Davis suggests. “If he or she seems to be paying attention to every stage of the process, then it’s likely that the coffee you get is the best he or she is going to produce.” The world is your orange mocha frappuccino – drink it up. Just don't order an orange mocha frappuccino.
Tips From The Top Toby’s Estate give us the 411 Barista Tips? * The beans must be ground fresh * The coffee should be evenly distributed in the basket, and tamped level * The extraction should pour slowly and syrupy and have a dark golden brown crema; the shot should be stopped when it starts to blonde * Milk should be stretched or aerated 'til 40 degrees, and then folded to 65 degrees, to a fine micro foam. ‘Single Origin’? Beans come from the trees of one farm, estate or region, and are processed by a single mill. ‘Fair Trade’? Fair trade eliminates the middle man money pusher, so that the farmers are linked directly to the importers. This means that they get the fairest price for their crop, and ensures long-term sustainability. Flat White vs Cappuccino vs Latte? All have a shot of espresso and are topped with steamed milk. A Flat White has a ver y thin layer of froth, a Latte has a layer of froth 1-2cm thick and a Cappuccino is about 3cm deep in beautiful creamy froth. Macchiato vs Short Black vs Ristretto? A Short Black is essentially the same as an Espresso; one 30ml shot of pure caffeine heaven, which takes about 28-32 seconds to seep through the machine. A Ristretto is a restricted espresso; only the first and best (about 15-20ml) of the shot is used. And a Macchiato is an espresso with a dash of steamed milk.
▼ free stuff Relax outside with our al fresco dining, or stay warm.
Family owned and open 7 days a week from 6am-5pm.
THE SHORTLIST!
If you don’t have a coffee in one hand and a bacon & egg roll in the other right now, we’ll bet you a bacon & egg roll and a coffee that you wish you did. Confused? You probably need a coffee and a bacon & egg roll to kick your brain into gear. Luckily, those sexy champs at The Shortlist on 258 Abercrombie Street are giving away a bacon & egg roll and a coffee to three of our readers. What a thing it would be to wake up in the gutter on Struggle Street and remember you have a free breakfast awaiting you! ...Glorious.
Throw your hat in the ring by emailing freestuff@thebrag.com with your best hangover cure.
Shortlist, Darlington: photo by Mikey Pozarik
News Bites
BRAG'S WEEKLY GUIDE TO FOOD
Toby's Estate, City Road: photo by Mikey Pozarik
BRAG EATS
MODERN MIDDLE EASTERN CUISINE
579 Crown Street Surry Hills Monday 7am - 3pm Tuesday to Saturday 7am – 3pm 6pm - 10pm Sunday 9am - 3pm
02 9319 0848 SYDNEY’S PREMIER CERTIFIED ORGANIC CAFÉ & CATERER
cafemint.com.au Brand new menu and experienced chef.
Wholesome and delicious food, using local organic produce. Exciting and nourishing meals influenced by Mediterranean, Middle East and Thailand flavours.
AT O ORGANIC PRODUCE, OUR NUMBER ONE INGREDIENT IS OUR INTEGRITY.
487 Crown Street Surry Hills 02 9319 4009 www.organicproduce.com.au
Offering up pub favourites as well as traditional Thai food. Live music, Beer Garden, Sports Room and Gaming Room Come get warm this winter in this cosy cottage style pub.
Tudor Hall Hotel (02) 9310 4314 90 PITT ST REDFERN
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BRAG EATS food review
THIRSTY?
The Tudor Hall: Sidewalk Bistro [REDFERN]
Sydney does outdoors well. But when it rains so much that people start wearing gumboots to the office, we yearn to be snuggled into the corner of a pub, in the tradition of the people who know better than anyone what comforts a sodden, bone-chilled patron: the English. Shaun Of The Dead had it right – an unpretentious local with rich wood trimmings and inexpensive beer is a comforting refuge from zombies and torrential rain alike. The Tudor Hall Hotel in Redfern is a proper Sydney local. Set amongst the quirky cafes of the increasingly gentrified Redfern Street, yet untouched by the inner west’s reno-mania, these kinds of pubs, when done well, are to be treasured. Both the pub-grill/prawns-ineverything Thai fusion menu and the chef at The Tudor's Sidewalk Fusion Bistro are recent additions – the friendly licensee Paul confides that the bistro’s had poor luck with kitchen staff: “Bad chef, after bad chef, after bad chef,” he sighs. The reviews online from earlier this year attest to that. But the most recent recruit, head chef Kenny, has proven himself thoroughly – not only does he know his way around the familiar pub food that bundled-up locals need on a night like this, but his family are behind BigBoyThai in Chalmers Street, so he’s brought his expertise in authentic Thai food to the cosy bistro. The Massaman Curry ($15) is both immense and immensely satisfying, with soft shards
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of beef, a couple of cashews (although I would have liked more of those), fresh cherry tomatoes and coriander. The sauce is thick but delicately flavoured, with a tiny hint of heat, and fluffy rice to soak it up. The 400g grain-fed steak (just $14) is intimidatingly thick and cooked exactly as requested. It also comes with a side of the Yummy Tummy chips ($5), which we’d already filled up on for entrée – dusted with an unexpectedly subtle and smoky paprika seasoning and served with lemon wedges to squeeze over, they’re a nice mix of subtle flavours – and just the kind of fried carb your body craves on a cold night. The clientele is endearingly all-over-the-place. Middle class couples do date night in the bistro, a gaggle of scruffy 20-something arty types whisk their juicy-looking burgers upstairs, and the men at the next table bitch cheerfully about their footy tipping (“I said, uncle, there’s
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The Tudor shows that going one step beyond standard pub grub doesn’t just mean poking a couple of sun-dried tomatoes into the salad and cutting your chips a bit thicker. Small details, like the gratis dish of orange quarters Kenny brings us after clearing our plates, make a comforting and cosy pub meal just different enough to feel special. And if we ever see the sun again, that snug little beer garden will be well worth a visit. – Caitlin Welsh Where: 90 Pitt Street, Redfern Hours: Sidewalk Fusion Bistro is open for lunch and dinner every day Contact: 9310 4314
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no win for us until JT’s back! Carnn!”). Paul says sheepishly that it’s a quiet night – but with customers four deep at the register, we’re wondering what a busy Tuesday looks like.
Whoever said Dry July wasn’t any fun obviously never tried an Urban Thirst Mojito! You’ve got one week left to enjoy your favourite cocktails sans alcohol – and this one’s so good, by the time August rolls around you won’t even want to mix in the booze… Recipe: Add three parts soda water to Urban Thirst’s Mojito mix, with a sprig of fresh mint. Combine all in a tall glass filled with loads of ice, and while the afternoon away… Best drunk with: anything with Cuban flair during: Dry July while wearing: a Guayabera or ‘Mexican Wedding Shirt’ – and a cigar and listening to: Buena Vista Social Club.
Jam Packed With Fruit is Cleveland Street’s answer to morning tea or a leisurely lunch, serving mouthwatering freshly made hot savory pies, sausage rolls and sweet pastries. An entire wall at this sweet spot is literally filled with Paul Simons famous Jams. We recommend: burgundy our Chunky steak and or on a pie, crème brulee tart Berry jam. sweeter note our Five
P A U L
S I M O N
Jam packed with fruit
324 Cleveland Street Surry Hills
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Album Reviews
What's been crossing our ears this week...
CD OF THE ALBUM OF THE WEEK WEEK THE PANICS XXX
Rain On The Humming Wire Cosmogramma Dew Process Warp
Distinctly Australian, yet of Xxxx universal appeal, The Panics’ fourth record convincingly betters their last while affirming them as one of this country’s strongest rock acts.
x With the release of 2008’s Cruel Guards, The Panics went from quiet achievers to goldcertified, ARIA and J Award-winning juggernauts. Somehow finding just as much love on community radio as they did on commercial stations, they proved their ability to create a legitimate work that appealed to all corners of the music industry. As their third record, Cruel Guards marked a tidy completion to their first trilogy, crafting a nationally adored sound that was uniquely their own. It was always going to be a tall ask for album number four then, but with Rain On The Humming Wire, they’ve proved themselves up to the challenge. Rain On The Humming Wire is by no means a radical left turn, but while it’s not unfamiliar
MELLOWHYPE
CUT OFF YOUR HANDS
BlackenedWhite Fat Possum
In the context of Odd Future, Hodgy Beats is a perfect foil for Tyler, The Creator. Where Tyler is a slash ‘n burn MC, aggressive both in form and content and impossible to ignore, Hodgy is a chameleon, his high-pitched flow capable of adapting to many different styles without ever dominating any of them. His imagery is far less violent too, the women portrayed as willing sexual partners rather than objects upon which to project dark, twisted fantasies. But the real revelation here is Left Brain’s beats, from the unrelenting aggression of ‘GunSounds’ to the lush synths of ‘Primo’; from the lean, mean, rolling bass of ‘64’ to the nearanthemic ‘DeadDeputy’. But across all these styles there remains a lo-fi aesthetic, an ominous atmosphere that keeps you on edge and serves to make Hodgy sound more substantial than he probably is. ‘Loaded’ is a case in point: a fairly innocuous glitch synth joined by an evil, lurking bass throb that hangs in the background like a threat.
While there are moments of #swag throughout, MellowHype is its own beast, at the most accessible end of Odd Future’s output. And with Left Brain’s beats, it is an exciting, interesting beast that points to exciting times ahead.
There is absolutely nothing whatsoever wrong with sounding like The Smiths, or The Kinks, or The Jam. It’s when a track feels like 90% influence that problems occur, because then what was the point? ‘Hollowed Out’ rattles and beams like The Stone Roses at their sunniest, pairing with the Blurish reverie of ‘Oh Hell’. Even the Sex Pistols get a look-in: ‘Fooling No One’ features a rip of the down-hill tumbling chord progression from ‘God Save The Queen’. But instead of sneering about having no future, Johnston is sighing unconvincingly about being unconvincing. There are, thankfully, some moments that sound as though they might have originated somewhere below the equator. ‘Buried’ has the gentle, shuffling eloquence of a Go-Betweens creation, and is a reassuringly gorgeous closer. Between that and ‘Oh Hell’, COYH have a nice little sideline going in the prettily strummed and gently emoted - but that light, lovely touch is largely lacking in the rest of the record. This is all good stuff, but it’s more fun as a challenge in trainspotting for Britpop nerds than it is as anything else.
Hugh Robertson
Caitlin Welsh
This is the label release of an online mixtape that came out last year, although six songs have been dropped and replaced by two new ones. Only two of those six are a great loss, ‘Chordaroy’ and ‘Based’, the latter notable for featuring C. Renee, the first female MC on any OFWGKTA release. It’s worth tracking the full version down as comparison; the MellowHype universe is one that demands you spend more time with it.
Max Easton
SEBASTIAN
THE LIVING END
Total Ed Banger
Hollow Speak ‘N Spell
COYH have never made a secret of being Smiths fans, but the one-two punch of jangly single ‘You Should Do Better’ and the album title had me worried that the Kiwi fourpiece were drawing too much on that particular hatful of references… ‘You Should Do Better’ opens the album, and the equally shameless ‘Nausea’ follows on; the tracklist is a litany of self-pitying undergraduate poem titles. ‘Hollowed Out’, ‘Fooling No One’, ‘Down & Out’ – it looks as though Nick Johnston has been nursing a steaming mug of morose cynicism for so long that it's all he can taste.
territory, it is more confident and well-rounded. The sparse ballads that peppered their past give way to mammoth arrangements layered with passing moans, peeping through vast walls of sound; a place where each individual component of a song is just as prominent as the other, and where the signature husk of Jae Laffer’s croon flavours the throbbing rhythm section with tales of displacement and change. The pace of the record is notably altered too; tracks like ‘Creatures’ and ‘Shot Down’ brim with an energy and exuberance that reflect the triumphs of the band and litter this album, making it by far their most cohesive, and perhaps their greatest, work. Where Cruel Guards may have been The Panics conclusively finding their sound, Rain On The Humming Wire takes them a step closer to perfecting it.
Busy P’s so-hip-ithurts Ed Banger label has brought us some of the finest Gallic electro house around. Labelmates Justice, Uffie and Mr Oizo all exploded onto the scene around 2007, while SebastiAn (mind the capital A) had to slow burn to the top. But although Total is a good record with plenty of driving electro beats, it lacks the variance it needs to really be a tour de force. New single ‘Embody’ pulses with a disco-like groove and follows the Ed Banger recipe for a hit to a T: splash of funky synth, dash of catchy, distorted vocals, add a rock solid beat, stir, and hey presto – a great dance track (albeit a fairly predictable one). 2006 dancefloor killer ‘Ross Ross Ross’, slightly rearranged to fit into Total, still has as much ferocity in 2011 as it did on first release, although here it feels like a superfluous addition. SebastiAn comes into his own halfway through the record, especially with standout track ‘Arabest’; he chops vocals with strings to create a dark yet still up-tempo track that blisters with atmosphere. ‘Water’ forays into electro rock territory, with punk-inspired synths and a rock steady beat that make for a welcome shift in tempo, and ‘CTFO (ft. MIA)’ bristles with attitude – but the album as a whole is still more filler than killer. The interludes that pepper Total start as an interesting concept but quickly become irritating – it starts to feel like monotonous sound rather than clever preludes to the tracks, and by the time you reach ‘Mean Games’, patience begins to wear thin. Total channels the electro house explosion of yesteryear – and rather than updating the sound, it sticks to the Ed Banger it knows. Marissa Demetriou
The Ending Is Just The Beginning Repeating Dew Process The Living End’s 1998 debut record reached #4 in triple j’s recent poll of Australian albums, but when Chris Cheney spoke to BRAG he admitted that he would “gladly go back and re-record [it].” On triple j he went one further, saying that he would be ashamed to release the album today, as it’s a band trying to “play as fast as we could ... trying to cram as much information in every single song.” But that’s what The Living End do, and for all the pre-release talk of a dramatic shift in sound, The Ending... is classic Living End – high-energy RAWK from a band who’s been playing together long enough that they know each other’s every thought. ‘Heatwave’ is an early favourite, capturing a surfy fury reminiscent of early Midnight Oil, while ‘Machine Gun’ channels the spiky ska stylings of The Police and The Clash in equal measure. But ‘For Another Day’ is the standout: Cheney pushes his voice to great effect, with a weary Springsteen resolve in his voice as he sings of lessons learned in preparation for a second chance that will never come. And then the overdrive kicks in on the guitars, and I’m in love. While Cheney has never been a great lyricist, he is expert at creating a sense of community through vague “us”/”them”/”we” identifiers – if you are listening to TLE, you are one of the unimpeachable “we”, and your engagement in the record will be that much greater for it. Occasionally a slower tempo shows the lyrics up, but mostly this is a strong album that paves the way for more great TLE live shows, where you can sing along at the top of your lungs. Hugh Robertson
INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK DONNY BENÉT Don’t Hold Back Rice Is Nice
Donny Benét is the solo stage name of Sydney’s Ben Waples, sometime bass player for Jack Ladder and the nowdefunct avant jazz act Triosk. But for his solo project, he sheds all associations with the indie and jazz communities to step into the slimy skin of an Italo-disco superstar. In stark contrast to his reserved bassplaying alter ego, Benét – allegedly the son of a legendary Italian disco accordianist – peddles a turgid mix of moog solos, onanistic lead guitar and endless 7th chords.
The success of his debut lies largely in that it dials the joke down a notch. His outrageously silly live show works because Benét is completely poker-faced the whole time, and this mock seriousness extends to Don’t Hold Back. This is a record of Donny Benét being his sensual self, as opposed to Waples documenting an exaggerated gag. With any other recording of this ilk, the listener’s level of enjoyment would hinge largely on how funny they found the overarching concept. The remarkable thing about Don’t Hold Back is the way Waples successfully circumvents this awkward eventuality. Sonically, it
resembles certain Hype Williams tracks, or Dam Funk’s teenage bedroom demos. Un-quantised drum machines, tacky synths and overly-affected bass all jostle in a desperate race to reach some unattainable realm of disco perfection. The stilted results appear to be of no concern to Benét, whose out-of-tune croon brags of being a sophisticated lover with an unbridled fondness for the girls of Japan. Don’t Hold Back works just as well as a straight-faced piece of hypnagogic pop as it does a novelty disco gag. You can stroke your chin and admire it, or you can get down with the get down. Your call.
JUNIOR BOYS It’s All True Domino
Full of nuance and space, Junior Boys’ 2006 release So This Is Goodbye was a glacially stunning piece of electronica, lauded by critics and fans – but the problem was, how to reproduce such melancholic beauty when the world has just flowered before you? Understandably, things got a little cheery with their 2009 follow-up Begone Dull Care, and now with their fourth album, Junior Boys seem downright happy. Although the modular synthesisers, rich texturing and meticulous programming found in their earlier work is still present in It’s All True, it seems they have shunned their Depeche Mode moodiness and found the funk. Album opener ‘Itchy Fingers’ comes on like a good mood. The 2-step drums bound with energy and the bass is funky; it’s completely the opposite of what you've come to expect from the Canadian duo. At first, you’re taken aback, but as the second cut ‘Playtime’ rolls around, you’re immediately at ease. This is the Junior Boys sound; a grainy, drifting apparition of late-night beauty that reminds you why you loved them in the first place. And it’s so seductive, too; the only thing that separates this music from R&B swooning is Greenspan’s fragile voice flittering over the track. It's then that you realise you’ve got an R&B and soul album on your hands, put together by two white boys from Ontario. JB purists who find solace in tracks like ‘Kick The Can’ may be disappointed in the lacklustre funk of ‘Second Chance’ and ‘EP’, but it's doubtful that anyone will be able to resist the joyously housey closer, ‘Banana Ripple’. Junior Boys have impressed their sound into classic R&B molds, and pressed out something their own – albeit to mixed results. Rick Warner
OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week... BELLES WILL RING - Crystal Theatre AVEY TARE - Down There HOLLY THROSBY - Team
DOM - Sun Bronzed Greek Gods SBTRKT - SBTRKT
Luke Telford
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Street Press Australia and Rhythms present
very special guest
Mike Noga (The Drones) Thu 28th July
Wickham Park Hotel Newcastle Fri 29th July
The Vanguard, Sydney Sat 30th July
Grand Junction Hotel Maitland Sun 31st July
Lizottes, Kincumber Tix and info at jordielane.com Rolling Stone ÌÌÌÌ MAG ÌÌÌÌ you can’t help but cry “genius!” Rhythms Magazine
Remedy
More than The Cure since 1989 with Murray Engleheart
QUEEN DO NYE?
So (as reported on Triple M this week) apparently “Queen” are playing Sydney Harbour on New Year’s Eve, eh? With the by-now-standard different singer and bassist to that of their classic era, and George Michael and others will be joining them on vocals too... “Queen”, eh? How and why did one of the great Brit bands (in the ‘70s at least…) get to be a damn musical commune? Surely at this point they should be called Parts Of A Band Formerly Known As Queen? To think, some people got weird about The Who still being called The Who after John Entwistle died…
THE SAND PEBBLES
Melbourne’s space truckin’ cadets, The Sand Pebbles, release a new album Dark Magic on August 26 – their first in three years. In preparation they’ve done a limited-edition vinyl 7”, ‘Because I Could/ Entrance To The Stream,’ with remixes by Tim Holmes (Death In Vegas) and Will Carruthers (Spacemen 3, Spiritualized). The poster for the launch in Melbourne says it all: “Sand Pebbles. Hypnotic. Cosmic. Kinetic. Freewheeling. Exploding from the eye of the universe."
JOHNNY WINTER
‘Blood Thinner’ out now Vitamin Records vitamin.net.au
Johnny Winter has had a rollercoaster time of it. A blues purist of the late ‘60s who went on to be a bona fide Madison-SquareGarden and football-stadiumplaying, capewearing rock star in the early '70s – and back to a straight master blues man by late that decade, as per his work with Muddy Waters – has been a bluesman ever since. It’s clearly where he’s most comfortable. And he’s proving it with a new tribute record to heroes like Robert Johnson, Elmore James and Jimmy Red called Roots, which is due in September with a little help from friends like Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, John Popper and brother Edgar Winter. There’s also been a Johnny Winter figurine available and an excellent autobiography called Raisin’ Cain, which tells his story (warts and all), and includes some amazing pics with Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. The major career that got away, this one...
THE MARK OF CAIN STRIP TUESDAYS! UNI/BACKPACKER NIGHT
Some bands don’t just do recordings, they make statements. And The Mark Of Cain certainly fall into that category. The good
RIOT HOUSE COMEDY WEDNESDAY’S
FREE ENTRY
DANIEL ALLARS SUSSIE & THE HURRICANES + HAlfway homeboy
THU8 2 JUNE
foster the people
FRI 29 JUNE
PURPLE SNEAKERS PRESENT LAST NIGHT
SAT 30
31 JUNE
DR DON DON
PLUS THE RESIDENT PURPLE SNEAKERS DJ’S
JUNE
SUN
SOLD! OUT
guineafowl (LIVE)
HEY FEVER EP LAUNCH BHANGLASSI
darky roots (bris) one dread + this version + bed spells los skeletone blues THE BLINDFOLDS
04/08 CROSSROADS--HEAT 2 06/08 ABSOLUTE POWER/SRDL AFTERPARTY 10/08 EMMA STEPHENSON/RIOT HOUSE COMEDY 12/08 PS/LAST NIGHT 13/08 PANDA BAND EP LAUNCH 16/08 ROCK-STEIN TRIVIA/STRIP TUESDAYS! 18/08 CROSSROADS
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news is that by year’s end we should finally have a new album by the trio, and typically, like most great efforts, it didn’t come easy. “It’s been a hard couple of years,” said TMOC singer and guitarist John Scott, “and I never expected the album to take so long to complete, but we are now coming to its final moments before it is thrust into the world for better or worse. Most musicians always think/say that their most recent recording is their best - I can understand that, as it’s the most tangible piece of art they’ve been close to, but also, I know in my heart that this album is the best thing we have ever done.”
LEMMYYYY
Lemmy has recorded outside of Motörhead on many occasions over the years, but a solo album? Nah. Until now. The great man has been piecing together such a project for almost a decade, with contributions and appearances from folks like arch fan Dave Grohl, The Damned who he played with briefly, the (very) Reverend Horton Heat and (for some reason) Joan Jett. The Lemmster croakingly joked in Billboard that the slab might be titled ‘False Teeth For The Deaf.’ Release date? Next year... Maybe. "It goes all kinds of directions,” he told Billboard. “It’s either very inconsistent or very eclectic, depending how you look at it.” We’ve never been fans of the term ‘eclectic’ ourselves. All too it’s often code for ‘all over the damn joint musically’, and we hate that. But in Lemmy, of course, we trust.
UFO
They’re kinda well past it now, but there was a time when UFO were one hell of a band – particularly when they had guitarist Michael Schenker in their ranks. So a five-disc set of all they did in their classic era – including BBC sessions titled The Chrysalis Years 1973–1979 – is more than welcome. Originally these guys did a line in “space rock”, before retooling and delivering albums like No Heavy Petting (which was astounding for such a young outfit) and the classic Lights Out, when they were an established big name act. Like we said: Schenker was the key throughout.
ON THE TURNTABLE
THE STUDY feat
WED 27 U J NE
Mark Of Cain
FREEY ENTR0 4:3 N OPE
COMING SOON
On the Remedy turntable is the reissue of High Tide’s 1969 classic, Sea Shanties, which is anything but the collection of drunken ocean-going songs that it sounds like. These Brits were flying under the radar when Led Zeppelin first hit – but exactly why, on the evidence of this debut, is totally beyond us. Surely someone must have felt the ground still shaking in between Zep gigs and wondered what the rumbling was. This is riffarama-laden heavy psych blues of the highest order, led by guitarist Tony Hill (former member of garage punkers, The Misunderstood). The interesting part is that High Tide’s thing isn’t rooted in a twin guitar attack or even the spare clobber of a power trio, but rather the crossing of swords between Hill’s guitar ampage and the sawing (and yes, soaring) violin work of latter day Hawkwind man, Simon House. Kinda like John McLaughlin going at it against Jerry Goodman in the Mahavishnu Orchestra – only much heavier, and much more out there. This is seriously great shit. Seriously.
TOUR AND INDUSTRY NEWS Soundwave Revolution is on September 25 at Old Kings Oval, Parramatta Park, with Van Halen (with Mr David Lee), Alice Cooper, Bad Religion, Machine Head, Danzig, The Cro Mags, The Devin Townshend Project, Gojira and stacks more. Grindhead Records and 666 Entertainment present Slaughterfest IV on July 30 at The Sando in Newtown. The bill includes Fuck...I’m Dead (VIC), Looking Glass (ACT), Roadside Burial, Summonus, Mother Eel, Deathcage, Mother Mars, Ether Rag, Red Bee, Agonhymn (VIC),
Burial Chamber, Arrowhead, Rock n Roll Weapon, Fat Guy Wears Mystic Wolf Shirt and Van. Doors open at 12pm and entry is $20. The first 100 payers get a free Slaughterfest IV compilation, featuring tracks from all the bands at the festival. Speaking of Slaughterfest, local sludge metal monsters Summonus recently spent some quality time with Jason PC of Blood Duster recording a record in his Melbourne studio, Goatsound. (And yes, there was a goat involved, albeit a stuffed one.) They’ll be very-fuckin’-loudly unleashing a few of these new songs at Slaughterfest.
Send stuff to remedy@ozemail.com.au by 6pm Wednesdays. Pics to art@thebrag.com www.facebook.com/remedy4rock
The Minor Chord The all-ages rant bought to you by Indent.net.au and Janette Chen
ALL-AGES GIG PICKS TUESDAY AUGUST 2 his week, the gale-force sounds from Splendour in the Grass will be blowing in from Woodfordia, bringing us a string of big acts and sideshows to welcome in a new school term. But before you knuckle down on that schoolwork, we’ve got news for all the hopeful young musicians out there. Entries for this year’s triple j Unearthed High competition closed today (Monday), but while that ship may have sailed, we can wave ahoy! to MySchoolAct, an online music talent competition open to all Australian high school students, sponsored by companies and institutions from all aspects of the music industry.
The Vaccines, Oh Mercy Metro Theatre, Sydney
MySchoolAct is a one-stop shop to kick-start your career in ANY aspect of the music industry. Contestants must be between 12 -19 years and you can enter the band competition, or register as a fan to vote for your favourite high school acts, and win loads of prizes. If that tickles your fancy, simply upload a video or audio file of your band or solo act, which will then be judged based on its popularity among fans who have registered with the website. There’ll be a Grand Final Workshop for the final five acts, and aside from being rewarded by the warm, fuzzy feeling of having your peers recognise your talent, there’s also a bunch of amazing prizes thrown in to sweeten the deal. And for those involved in the production process, there are scholarships to be won for the best video director, audio producer and digital designer. Head to the Indent site for all the details.
Kaiser Chiefs, Papa vs. Pretty, Stonefield Enmore Theatre, Enmore
T
If you’re a fan of The Vaccines, you’ll be in line with your ticket at the Metro Theatre on Tuesday August 2. These UK indie rockers will be there to ask you, What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? – which also happens to be the title of the debut album. Supporting them will be Melbourne’s Oh Mercy, with a recent release – and 2010 AMP shortlisted album – of their own to promote, Great Barrier Grief. After ten years together, Kansas City darlings The Get Up Kids’ public deterioration led to an eventual breakup in 2005. Since reforming in late 2008, the band have jumped right back into making the music which earned them the respect and reputation as one of the most loved pop-punk bands on the scene. Now with their latest album There Are Rules, The Get Up Kids will be hitting up the Metro on Saturday August 6 to show the kids just what those rules are. On tour to promote their new album Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You, Does It Offend You, Yeah? are finally upon our shores, and will be shaking up the Metro Theatre on Thursday August 4, after their Splendour stint. Joining them are Purple Sneakers DJs, as well as brand-spankin’new band Nantes, who have been doing the rounds on the Sydney indie scene – and are made up of some familiar faces from Jonathan Boulet’s live show. Papa vs Pretty are putting in the hard touring yards to promote their debut album, United In Isolation – and they’re bringing back rock along the way. The Sydney
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 3
The Mars Volta Enmore Theatre, Enmore
THURSDAY AUGUST 4 Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Purple Sneakers DJs, Nantes Metro Theatre, Sydney
SATURDAY AUGUST 6 The Get Up Kids Metro Theatre, Sydney
FRIDAY AUGUST 19
Dream On Dreamer, The Bride, Hands Like Houses Campbelltown PCYC, Minto
SATURDAY 20 AUGUST Dream On Dreamer, The Bride, Hands Like Houses Masonic Hall, Blacktown
SUNDAY 21 AUGUST Balance and Composure Resist Records, Newtown
Loud Festival: Dream On Dreamer, Buried In Verona, Sienna Skies, Resist The Thought, In Hearts Wake, Northlane, Endless Heights, Stories, Hearts Like Wolves Annandale Hotel, Annandale three-piece will be supporting the Kaiser Chiefs on their Australian tour, which hits the Metro Theatre next Saturday August 6. Also on the bill are The Vines and 2010’s Unearthed High winners, Stonefield, who have just returned from playing at Glastonbury. Needless to say, this will be a rock’n’roll gig of historic proportions... If you’re a fan of hardcore, next weekend is one to look forward to, with Melbourne band Dream On, Dreamer taking to stages across Sydney. With their first LP Heartbound to be released very soon, they’ll be hitting up Campbelltown PCYC Friday August 19 and Blacktown’s Masonic Hall Saturday August 20 with The Bride and Hands Like Houses, before taking part in an afternoon of hardcore rocking at Loud Festival at the Annandale Hotel on the Sunday. Also on Sunday, Resist Records in Newtown will be hosting the in-store appearance of Balance and Composure. These Pennsylvanian pop-punkers will be heading down under in support of their recent album, Separation, before heading back to the US to hit the road once again. And on a parting note, we leave you with a reminder that you'll be able to hear from The Minor Chord on your radio – Wednesday afternoon at 5pm on FBi 94.5. Just a little something to get you through the midweek drag.
Balance And Composure
Send pics, listings and any info to minorchords@thebrag.com BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11 :: 39
snap sn ap up all night out all week . . .
the gate @ pablo's party profile
It’s called: The Gate @ Pablo’s It sounds like: The periphery of all your favourite genres’ sanity. Who’s playing? Part Timer, Ollie Bown, Raven and Gail Priest, curated by Utility Fog on FBi 94.5 Sell it to us: It’s all about musical exploration, featuring musicians who are doing new, exciting and diverse things. It happens in an unassuming suburban café that suddenly turns into a 100-capacity venue on these nights. To do the amazing music justice, we’ve also got a dedicated lighting designer creating what could be the best small space lighting in Sydney... An aural and visual feast! The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Being able to drink in every note without distraction, thanks to an incredibly attentive crowd. Crowd specs: Everyone - music shouldn’t have an age limit. Wallet damage: $12 via website / $18 on door Where: 42 Langston Place, Epping. It’s right opposite the Epping Station, so all you need to do is 1) jump on a train 2) chill out 3) jump out and party.
alpine
PICS :: TL
When: July 30 from 7pm
swing vs rockabilly
PICS :: KC
jinja safari
PICS :: NB
07:07:11 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711
16:07:11 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711
fbi social
PICS :: CG
16:07:11 :: The Factory :: 105 Victoria Road Enmore 95503666
:: NIKI BODLE ::KATRINA CLARKE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: THOMAS PEACHEY :: OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER YEN NGU Y VICK :: NS MUN IEL DAN CAI GRIFFIN :: ASHLEY MAR :: PATRICK STEVENSON ::
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miami horror
PICS :: AM
14:07:11 :: Kings Cross Hotel :: 248 William St Darlinghurst 2010 9331 9900
16:07:11 :: The Metro Theatre :: 624 George St City 92642666
RES EATEST PLEASU O OF LIFE’S GR MARRYING TW
ND MUSIC GREAT FOOD A Y
Calling ts all artisand e iv L r fo Locals! Contact: es. ott events@liz com.au
NE LIZOTTE’S SYD 3 9933 84 99 84 98 99 2 99 02
Lizotte’s presents 27 Live and Local JULY cGlashan 28 Don M JULY Craig Calhoun JULY
29
ys 30 Choirbo JULY
r Girl 31 Bachelo JULY
d & Russell Morris ad C an ri B 3 s AUG Pete Hawke 4 & Phil Emmanuel i AUG ey & Ricky Maym 6 Steve Kilb Lunch AUG Lazy Sunday 7 with Salt Vocal Group
AUG
ST A O C L A R T N E C LIZOTTE’S 02 4368 2017 Lizotte’s presents 27 Live and Local usical JULY Menopause The M JULY
28
JULY irboys 29 Cho
JULY lor Girl 30 Bache JULY Jordie Lane 31
Steve Kilbey 5 & Ricky Maymi rian’s Famous Jazz AUG B 6 & Chilli Crab Night Hawkes AUG Pete 7 & Phil Emmanuel
AUG
ASTLE C W E N ’S E T T O IZ L
02 4956 2066
r Girl 26 Bachelo JULY
JULY sty Larkin 27 Kir
y Newcastle Comed 28 Showcase JULY 29 Wolverines JULY
K 30 ABBASBAC JULY
JULY irboys 31 Cho AUG
Felix Riebel
3 (The Cat Empire)
ia 4 Rock Triv
AUG
il Pete Hawkes & Ph 5 Emmanuel AUG man 6 Tim Freed
AUG
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 :: 422 :: 25:07:11 :: 41
snap sn ap
dubmarine
PICS :: AM
carrington hotel opening
PICS :: TL
up all night out all week . . .
16:07:11 :: Beresford Hotel ::54 Bourke Street, Darlinghurst 9357 1111
PICS :: VN
last night
major raiser
PICS :: CG
14:07:11 :: Carrington Hotel ::563 Bourke Street, Surry Hills 9360 4714
16:07:11 :: The Gaelic Theatre :: 64 Devonshire St Surry Hills 92111687
15:07:11 :: The Gaelic Theatre :: 64 Devonshire St Surry Hills 92111687
last night
It sounds like: Your inevitable descent into crazycatladydom. Who’s playin’? We’ve puffed out our chest with primary school pride to welcome DR DON DON to the stage. If you’ve somehow shaken ‘King of the Stars’ outta your head, be prepared to have that monster tune dig right back in there. Live acts for the night are Melbourne’s very own HEY FEVER (launching their new EP) and local lads BHANGLASSI. Sell it to us: Can't afford Splendour tix? Party for $15 around the corner! The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Getting kicked out of the pokies for making out with your bestie's newly-18-year-old sibling. Crowd specs: All the babes congregating for a babe convention in The Gaelic. Wallet damage: $15 Where: The Gaelic / Devonshire St, Surry Hills When: Friday July 29
:: NIKI BODLE ::KATRINA CLARKE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: THOMAS PEACHEY :: OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER YEN NGU Y VICK :: NS MUN DANIEL CAI GRIFFIN :: ASHLEY MAR :: PATRICK STEVENSON ::
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mum
PICS :: TP
party profile
It’s called: LAST NIGHT
15:07:11 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700
SECRET SOUNDS PRESENT
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS OH MERCY
TUESDAY AUGUST 2 METRO THEATRE TICKETS FROM TICKETEK, WWW.TICKETEK.COM.AU, PH 132 849 - ON SALE NOW SPLENDOURSIDESHOWS.COM
FREE 25-track SPLENDOUR SAMPLER! SOUNDS.SPLENDOURINTHEGRASS.COM Codeword: SPLENDOUR2011
thevaccines.co.uk
FREE 25-track SPLENDOUR SAMPLER!
FREE 25-track SPLENDOUR SAMPLER!
SOUNDS.SPLENDOURINTHEGRASS.COM Codeword: SPLENDOUR2011
SOUNDS.SPLENDOURINTHEGRASS.COM Codeword: SPLENDOUR2011
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g g guide gig g
send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com
pick of the week Pulp
WEDNESDAY JULY 27
Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park
Pulp (UK), Belles Will Ring $89.60 (+ bf) 8pm
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Dan Spillane, Mark Da Costa The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9pm DJ Moussa Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 11pm Dusty Yellow Sunbeams, Iniut, Shady May, Lumiere Tailors on Central free 7pm Embrace Tokio Hotel, Darling Harbour free 8:30pm Gemma The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8:30pm Jager Uprising Annandale Hotel $8 7:30pm Kym Campbell Dee Why RSL Club free 6:30pm Magnetic Heads, World Champion, Je Suis En Rockstar, Rank Sinatra Goodgod Small Club, Sydney 8pm Mandi Jarry Summer Hill Hotel free 7:30pm Matt Jones O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9:30pm Moving Pictures Dee Why RSL, Auditorium $30 8pm Nicky Kurta Duo Opera Bar, Sydney Opera House free 8:30pm Nikki Thorburn, The Falls, Lissa Hotel Hollywood, Surry Hills free 8pm Old Man River, Gabrielle & Cameron Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm Outlier Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Phebe Starr, We Are the Bird Cage, Erin Masrhall, Whisky Indian November The Vanguard, Newtown $12 (+ bf)–$47 (dinner & show) 6:30pm Pnau The Enmore Theatre $40 7:30pm Pulp (UK), Belles Will Ring Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park $89.60 (+ bf) 8pm Wild Beasts (UK), Gossling Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $42 (+ bf) 8pm
JAZZ
MONDAY JULY 25 ROCK & POP
Andy Mammers Opera Bar, Sydney Opera House free 8:30pm Bernie The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8:30pm Modest Mouse (USA), Deep Sea Arcade Enmore Theatre $71.70 (+ bf) 8pm O’Malley’s Got Talent O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 8pm Rinske Geerlings, Daniel Falero, Philip Taig, Pierre Della Putta The World Bar, Kings Cross free 7pm The Kills (USA/UK), Teenage Mothers Metro Theatre, Sydney $66.20 (+ bf) 8pm The Thinos Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Zoltan Coogee Bay Hotel, Beach Bar free 9pm
JAZZ
James Muller Trio 505 Club, Surry Hills $10–$15 8:30pm
Rob Eastwood Dee Why RSL Club free 6:30pm
TUESDAY JULY 26 ROCK & POP
Adam Pringle Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Cambo O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9:30pm Embrace Tokio Hotel, Darling Harbour free 8:30pm Kristy Garrett Dee Why RSL Club free 6:30pm Matt Jones The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8:30pm Ninth Pillar, Alex Kuusik, Carlos Bova, Rachael & Derek, Gabby Dever Brass Monkey, Cronulla $14.30 (presale) 7pm The Kills (USA/UK), Teenage Mothers Metro Theatre, Sydney $66.20 (+ bf) 8pm The Listening Room The Vault, Windsor free 7pm They Call Me Bruce Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9:30pm
Tom T Trio Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm
JAZZ
Cam Mcallister, Bri Cowlishaw 505 Club, Surry Hills $8 (member)–$10 8:30pm John Harkins Jazushi, Surry Hills free 7pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm
Fitz & the Tantrums (USA), Lanie Lane The Basement, Circular Quay $49.50 (+ bf) 9:30pm Paul Sun, Monique Lysiak Jazushi, Surry Hills free 7pm Pen Island, The Fast Stuff 505 Club, Surry Hills $10–$15 8:30pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm
Wild Beasts
ACOUSTIC/FOLK
Devendra Banhart (USA), The Grogs, Husky Metro Theatre, Sydney $66.20 8pm The Smith Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7:30pm
THURSDAY JULY 28 ROCK & POP
Bachelor Girl The Vault, Windsor $30 (presale)–$35 (at door) 8pm British Sea Power (UK), Fire! Santa Rosa Fire! Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $52 (+ bf) 8pm Dave White Duo The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9pm Dave Wilkins Marlborough Hotel, Newtown 8:30pm David Haack Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7:30pm Don McGlashan (New Zealand) Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $28 7pm Fiona Treloar Excelsior Hotel, Glebe 7:30pm Foster The People (USA), Guineafowl Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills $45 (+ bf) 8pm Friendly Fires (UK), Cut Off Your Hands (New Zealand) Metro Theatre, Sydney $59 (+ bf) 8pm
WEDNESDAY JULY 27 ROCK & POP
Alpha Degenerate Valve 7pm Andy Golledge Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Andy Mammers Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free Art vs Science The Station Resort $28.40 9pm Ben Finn Duo Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 6pm Ciara Hayes, Lourdes, Emma Louise, Liam Gale & The Ponytails Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $15 8pm
Fitz & The Tantrums
“New York City loves to mess around with the L.A sound”- FUNERAL PARTY 44 :: BRAG :: 422 : 25:07:11
Gadjo Guitars Ravesi’s Bondi Beach free 7:30pm Gary Mara Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain free 4pm Glenn Whitehall Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Sydney free 7pm Hawkmoth Valve Bar 7pm James Blake Factory Theatre $49 8pm Jay Laga’aia (New Zealand), Sam Le Mann, Azo Bell, John Kane, Genni Kane, Anne Kirkpatrick, Hannah Kane, Matthew Laga’aia Notes Live, Enmore $29.60 (presale)–$54.10 (dinner & show) 7pm Jeffrey Siler (USA), Mark Moldre, Zac Miller The Vanguard, Newtown $8 (+ bf)–$43 (dinner & show) 6:30pm Johnathon Devoy Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm JP Toxteth Hotel, Glebe free 8pm La Fiesta Sound System Hugos Lounge, Kings Cross free 8pm Lime Cordial, Dead Beat Band, Deadgang Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Lj Newport Arms Hotel free 8pm Mona (USA), Boy In A Box Annandale Hotel $44 (+ bf) 8pm Musos club jam night Carousel Hotel, Rooty Hill free 8pm
g g guide gig g
send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com
Warpaint
Enmore Theatre $86.20 (+ bf) 8pm The Nugs, Unity Floors, Making, Snowfield, The Radiants Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst $10 8pm Tony Mazell & the Four Tunes, Kel-Anne Brandt, The David Hayes Band South Sydney Juniors, Kingsford free 8pm Tony Williams Guildford Leagues Club free Tumbleweed, My Disco Sandringham Hotel, Newtown 8pm Warpaint (U.S.A), Jack Ladder, Donny Benet Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $44 (+ bf) 8pm
JAZZ
Andy Glitre The Basement, Circular Quay free 5pm Lionel Robinson Dee Why RSL Club free 6:30pm Nadia Fried Jazushi, Surry Hills free 7pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm Virna Sanzone 505 Club, Surry Hills $10–$15 8:30pm Northlake, Timehascome, That’s What She Said Spectrum, Darlinghurst $12 (guestlist)–$15 8pm Our Monk, The Wrecking Room Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm PNAU Waves Nightclub $39 7:30pm Quini Jannali Inn free 8pm
Sarah McLeod, Dean Michael Smith, Sean Millar Brass Monkey, Cronulla $28.60 (presale) 7pm Shinola Macquarie Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Sould Nights Tokio Hotel, Darling Harbour free 9pm The Hives (Sweden), The Grates
FRIDAY JULY 29 ROCK & POP
Arcadia, Letters of Carnage, Mrs Mangle Live at the Wall, Leichhardt $12 –$15 (at door) 9pm
Armchair Travellers Duo Richmond Club free 8:45pm Bachelor Girl Brass Monkey, Cronulla $30 (presale)–$35 (at door) 7pm Boxing With Ghosts, Hotcakes, Jessamine, The Cashmere Revolution Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Chris Arnott Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7:30pm Clive Hay Hawkesbury Hotel, Windsor free 7:45pm Constant Project Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills free 7:30pm Craig Calhoun Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $28 8pm Dan Brodie & the Grieving Widows, Smitty & B. Goode, The Bloods Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $15 8pm Dananananaykroyd (Scotland), DZ Deathrays, The Growl Annandale Hotel $47.30 (+ bf) 8pm Dave Cooke RG McGees Hotel, Richmond free 9pm Diesel The Vault, Windsor $35 (presale)–$40 (at door) 8pm Dr Don Don, Hey Fever (Melb), Bhanglassi Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills 8pm Elbow (UK), Matt Corby Enmore Theatre $79.90 8pm Elevation U2 Show Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10:30pm Exit Strategy Customs House Bar, Sydney free 7pm Fan Fixion, Shag, Milly Von III
Foster The People
Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst $15 (+ bf)–$20 (at door) 7:30pm Foster The People (USA), Guineafowl Metro Theatre, Sydney $49.70 (+ bf) 8pm Harbour Masters Chatswood RSL Club free 5pm Heaven Can Wait South Sydney Juniors, Kingsford free 8:30pm Helen Begley, Luke Dickens, Psycho Zydeco The Manly Fig $12 (student)–$15 7:30pm High Maintenance Richmond Inn free 8pm Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan, Red Ghost The Factory Theatre, Enmore $56.70 (+ bf) 8pm Jordie Lane, Mike Noga The Vanguard, Newtown $17 (+ bf)–$52 (dinner & show) 6:30pm Kevin Bloody Wilson Campbelltown RSL $50 7pm Leo Sayer (UK) Rooty Hill RSL Club $35–$65 8pm
Lockdown, Bridges, Get New, Deadly Visions Caringbah Bizzo’s 8pm Luna Bugs, The Fresh Prince of St Clair, Sodomiser, 30 Odd Foot of C*nts, Shanghai, Rex Havoc, The Red Room, The Pullaparts, Luis Rojas, Josh Shipton & Kylie Walker, Sally Hackett, Alice Terry, Sex In Mexico, Cassady Glimmer Town Hall Hotel, Newtown free 7pm Memory Loss Blaxland Tavern 8pm Memphis Outlaws Club Five Dock, Five Dock RSL free 8pm Mental Elf The Hero of Waterloo Hotel, Millers Point free 7pm Mick & Tina Bambu, Western Suburbs Leagues Club Campbelltown, Leumeah $23 (member)–$25 8pm Mike McClellan The Basement, Circular Quay $35 (+ bf)–$83.80 (dinner & show) 9pm
COOGE E wed
27 July
SAT JULY 30
(9:00PM - 12:00AM)
THE SNOWDROPPERS
thu
28 July
(9:00PM - 12:00AM)
MON AUG 1
‘LITTLE JOHNNY’
fri
29 July
(5:00PM - 8:00PM)
(9:15PM - 1:00AM)
SUNDAY AFTERNOON
SATURDAY AFTERNOON (4:30PM - 7:30PM)
sat
30 July
SATURDAY NIGHT
sun
(4:30PM - 7:30PM)
July
SUNDAY NIGHT
31
ADVANCED FILM SCREENING WITH LIVE INTRODUCTION BY KEVIN ‘BLOODY’ WILSON
SAT AUG 6
SECOND STOREY WINDOW ‘MINUTES’ EP LAUNCH WITH JEFF CHINKY FAN CLUB & HAMISH WHITE
SAT AUG 13 TRIPLE SHOT OF ORIGINAL ROCK
3 LOCAL ORIGINAL BANDS FOR $10 @ DOOR
(9:00PM - 12:00AM)
(8:30PM - 12:00AM)
CROWS FEAT, LEWIS CLUB & DISTORTED SOUND THEORY Band Bookings
info@codeone.net.au - www.codeone.net.au
Tickets & info from www.coogeediggers.com.au
COOGEE DIGGERS 9665 4466 CORNER BYRON & CARR STREETS
USE ME.
BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11 :: 45
g g guide gig g
send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Mitchell Fingers Trio Rose of Australia Hotel, Erskineville 9pm Monkey Wrench Engadine Tavern free 9:30pm Night Owl Down Under Bar & Bistro, Kings Cross free 8pm Peter Fenton (Crow), Black Lion, Permanent Hermann’s Bar free 7pm PNAU Newcastle Panthers $38.50 7:30pm Pod Brothers Club Rivers, Riverwood free 8:30pm Polar Nation Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Ron Ashton Club Merrylands free 8:30pm Short Stack, Heroes For Hire, Because They Can Penrith Panthers, Evans Theatre $50 7pm
Skyscraper Waverley Bowling Club free 7pm Soul Nights, Radio City Cats, Mr Fabulous Tokio Hotel, Darling Harbour free 8pm Swinging Sixties Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain free 9:30pm Talisman Kingswood Sports Club free 7pm The Dirty Secrets, Jeff Drake, Matt Nugent Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills $15 5pm The Eradcaited, Dining in Tuscany, Vices, As Chaos Unfolds St James Hotel The Fitz Band Comp Fitz Cafe, St Ives free 7pm The Last Waltz Revival Notes Live, Enmore 8pm
The Nickelback Show Wentworthville Leagues Club free 10pm The Peej, Mish The Tea Gardens Hotel, Bondi Junction free 6pm The Wishing Tree Bondi Pavilion $15/20 8pm Tigers & Rogues Valve Bar 7pm Tim Kendell Guildford Leagues Club free Two’s Company Engadine RSL & Citizens Club free 8pm
JAZZ
Freefall Duo Jazushi, Surry Hills free 7pm Ray Beadle Band Club Cronulla free 8:30pm Snafu The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $10 (member)–$20 8:30pm
Catherine Traicos & The Starry Night
TUESDAY 26TH JULY Quarterpipe Records Presents
NINTH PILLAR + Alex Kuusik & Carlos Bova
(ACOUSTIC SET)
+ Rachael & Derek + Gabby Dever THURSDAY 28TH JULY
SARAH MCLEOD + Dean Michael Smith + Sean Millar
FRIDAY 29TH JULY
BACHELOR GIRL
SATURDAY 30TH JULY
THE LAST WALTZ REVIVAL SUNDAY 31ST JULY
BONES ATLAS + Rose Of York + Calculations
WEDNESDAY 3RD AUGUST
FUTURES IN BLACK
AND WHITE + The Former Love Pirates + Andrew Eddy
46 :: BRAG :: 422 : 25:07:11
Super Swing Session 505 Club, Surry Hills $10–$15 8:30pm
SATURDAY JULY 30 ROCK & POP
031 Rockshow Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 8pm After Party Band Penrith RSL free 9pm Alchemy Acappella, Stairwell to Heaven, Timbre Flaws Friend in Hand Hotel, Glebe $20 7:30pm Avenged Sevenfold (USA), Sevendust (USA) Sydney Entertainment Centre, Darling Harbour $82.90 (+ bf) 7:30pm Between The Devil & The Deep, One Vital Word, Skinwakers, McLovin St James Hotel Black Label, Thug, Lucy Desoto, The Handsome Devils The Basement, Circular Quay $15 (+ bf)–$20 (at door) 9:30pm Blue Moon Quartet Fairfield RSL free 7pm Bno Rockshow Crows Nest Hotel free 11pm Bridezilla, Lauren Kate Arthouse Hotel, Sydney $45 6pm Catherine Traicos & The Starry Night, Ruby for Lucy Hermann’s, Darlington free 8pm Chris Connolly Guildford Leagues Club free 10pm
Darker Half, Arcadia, Sundacy Agincourt Hotel Darky Roots, One Dread, This Version, Budspells Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills $20 (+ bf) 8pm David Cazalet Rooty Hill RSL Club $25–$55 8pm Down Thunder Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill free 9pm Fours A Crowd Cronulla RSL free 7pm Fuck I’m Dead, Looking Glass, Roadside Burial, Summonus, Mother Eel, Deathcage, Mother Mars, Ether Rag, Red Bee, Agonhymn, Burial Chamber, Arrowhead, Rock ‘n’ Roll Weapon, Fat Guy Wears Mystic Wolf Shirt, Van Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $20 12pm Funkstar Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 10:30pm Good Suns, Ungus Ungus Ungus, Rocke Head, Captain Kickarse & the Awesomes Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Jack Derwin Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7:30pm Keepin It Real The Vault, Windsor free 8pm Mama’s Little Gringos Bald Rock Hotel, Rozelle free 7:30pm Max Pellicano Workers Blacktown $40 (member)–$45 8pm Velvet Hammer: Mechanical Black, Gay Paris, Naked on the Vague, Bosom, Totally Unicorn, Ten Thousand Free Men & Their Families, La Donna Rama, Seymour
Butz, Ben Drayton, Matt Vaughan, Araya Cybelle, Chris Lego, Aaron Smith, Sir Loins, Brian W-C Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $27.50 (+ bf)–$35 (at door) 8pm Moving Pictures State Theatre, Sydney $89 (+ bf) 8pm Periphery (USA), Tesseract Annandale Hotel $41.80 8pm Pop Singles, Bare Grillz, Unity Floors, Wizard Oz, Swan Districts Black Wire Records $10 Radio City Cats Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain free 9:30pm Ralph Tresvant, 112, Allure, Shai, Horace Brown (USA), Marques Houston The Big Top at Luna Park, Milsons Point $95 (+ bf)–$145 (premium) 7pm Raven, Part Timer, Ollie Bown, Gail Priest Pablo & Rusty’s Specialty Coffee $18 7pm Recharge Kingswood Sports Club free 8:30pm Replika Engadine Tavern free 9:30pm Retro Groove Engadine RSL & Citizens Club free 8pm Revolution Club Five Dock, Five Dock RSL free 8pm Ruby For Lucy Hermann’s Bar $12.00 8pm Sarah McLeod Notes Live, Enmore $25 (show only)–$49.50 (dinner & show) 7pm Seattle Sound Celebrity Room, Blacktown RSL Club free 10pm Soundproofed Penrith Panthers free 9:30pm
Thursday 4th August Diesel + Declan Kelly
Friday 5 August Kira Puru & The Bruise
Saturday 6 August Mr Percival Sunday 7 August Bones Atlas Wednesday 10 August Panda
THURSDAY JULY 28TH
Band
Fri 5/08 Alfredo Malabello (Album Launch)
Thursday 11 August Matt Corby Friday 12 August Ray Beadle Saturday 13 August James
Sat 8/08 Café Of The Gate Of Salvation With guest Paul Capsis
Taylor Tribute
Sunday 14 August The Louds Tuesday 16 August Boats Of
FRIDAY JULY 29TH
Berlin
Wednesday 17 August Bob Log III
Thursday 18 August Wendy
Tue 16/08 Kevin ‘Bloody’ Wilson
Matthews
Friday 19 August Rock Box Saturday 20 August FisherKing Sunday 21 August Jace Everett Wednesday 24 August Alvin Youngblood Hart
SATURDAY JULY 30TH
Thursday 25 August Craig Woodward
Friday 26 August King Tide Saturday 27 August Andy Bull Wednesday 31 August Jeff Martin
Friday 2 September Owl Eyes Saturday 3 September A Tribute
Fri 19/08 Storylines Thur 25/08 After The Goldrush – Neil Young Tribute Fri 26/08 Jeff Martin & Terapai Richmond
Thursday 1 September Jeff Martin
Fri 12/08 – The Conscious Pilots + The Soul Predators + Uncle Jed
MONDAY AUGUST 1ST
Wed 31/08 The Amazing Rhythm Aces (US)
to Bob Dylan
Thur 1/9 The Lucky Wonders CD launch
Sunday 4 September Bonjah Friday 9 September Ian Moss Saturday 10 September Ian
Fri 2/09 Fred Smith Album launch
Moss
Sunday 11 September Max Wednesday 14 September Alloway
Thursday 15 September The Trews
Friday 16 September The Flood Saturday 17 September Johnny G & The E Types
Friday 23 September Classic Rock Show
Saturday 24 September Spy Vs Spy
Thursday 29 September Glenn Richards
Saturday 1 October The Trews Thursday 6 October Jack Ladder
THURSDAY AUGUST 4TH
Sat 3/9 Girlaxy presents – Coyote Ugly Fri 9/09 Otis Redding 70th Birthday Celebration w/ Johnny G & The E Types Sat 10/09 Little Scout Wed 14/09 Beccy Cole Thur 15/09 Maxine Kauter & James Edgar Francis
g g guide g
send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Stormcellar Raby Tavern free 8pm Sydergy Club Cronulla free 8:30pm Syndicate Bridge Hotel, Rozelle 8pm Tezza & the Twistops Campbelltown RSL free 8:30pm The Anthill Mobb South Sydney Juniors, Kingsford free 8pm The Bhagavad Guitars, Peter Fenton, Matthew J Tow Kings Cross Hotel,
Darlinghurst $13.30 8pm The Choirboys Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $38 (show only)–$78 (dinner & show) 7pm The Clue, Mayday Way Hey, Panda Face Excelsior Hotel, Glebe free 7:30pm The Dirty Grotto Valve Bar 4pm The Kylie Show Mounties, Mount Pritchard free 8pm The Last Waltz Revival Brass Monkey, Cronulla $34.70 7pm Caroline Nin
The Snowdroppers Coogee Diggers 8pm Tice & Evans, Kaki Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 4pm Tom T Trio Richmond Club free 8pm Two’s Company Brighton RSL Club, Brighton-Le-Sands free 8pm
JAZZ
Caroline Nin (France) The Vanguard, Newtown $30 (+ bf)–$65 (dinner & show) 6:30pm Doug Williams & the Mix, Tiaan Williams International College of Tourism & Hotel Management, Manly $110 7pm Old Time Band The Hero of Waterloo Hotel, Millers Point free 2pm Susan Gai Dowling Jazushi, Surry Hills free 7pm The Catholics 505 Club, Surry Hills $15–$20 8:30pm Tim Clarkson Trio The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $10 (member)–$20 8:30pm
SUNDAY JULY 31 Ace Brighton RSL Club, Brighton-Le-Sands free 7pm
Alter Ego Macquarie Arms Hotel, Windsor free 12pm Bachelor Girl Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $40 (show only) 7pm Bones Atlas Brass Monkey, Cronulla $14.30 7pm Cash Only Marrickville Bowling and Recreation Club 4:30pm Ceara Fox Waverley Bowling Club free 3pm Dom Turner’s Supro Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 4pm Don McGlashan (New Zealand), Andrew Keoghan The Basement, Circular Quay $25 (+ bf)–$73.80 (dinner & show) 9pm Girls Talk Campbelltown RSL free 5pm Helpful Kitchen Gods, Starjyleruna, The Young Romantics, Din Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale free 5pm Jade Hurley Cabravale Diggers, Canley Vale $10 3pm Jesse James Richmond Club free 4pm Paul Fisher Hurstville RSL Memorial Club free 2pm Peter Northcote Bridge Hotel, Rozelle $10 3pm Steve Edmonds Band The Brewery, Newcastle free 2pm Sydney Blues Society Botany View Hotel, Newtown free 6pm Triple Imagen South Sydney Juniors, Kingsford free 8pm
Unforgettable Club Five Dock, Five Dock RSL free 4pm
JAZZ
Caroline Nin (France) The Vanguard, Newtown $30 (+ bf)–$65 (dinner & show) 6:30pm Gjangoholix Jazushi, Surry Hills free 7pm Karl Broadie Bald Rock Hotel, Rozelle free 6pm Mark Hopper Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 3pm Mike Hallam Hot Five Cronulla RSL free 12:30pm Old Time Band The Hero of Waterloo Hotel, Millers Point free Sean Coffin Quartet Cafe Sydney free 12pm The Peter Head Trio Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 4pm Unity Hall Jazz Band Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain free 4pm
COUNTRY
Samba Mundi, Kush Caberet Quintet, The Somethings, Rasa Duende, Grupo Capoeira, Tango Oz, Sydney French Choir, Emma Hamilton, La Bande Originale, Martha Zwartz, Veli Toprak, Chinese Musical School Of Sydney The Rocks free 10-5pm Wildseed, Lonesome Train The Vault, Windsor free 2:30pm
25 years experience in the industry working with Australia’s premier musicians.
‘our recordings cut through the noise’ Offering: • In-house mastering suite including analog chain • CD Manufacturing & Duplication • Analog to digital transfers & remasters • Record, Mix, Master Package deals • State of the art analog & digital including 2˝ tape & pro tools • Highly experienced in-house engineers
02 9331 0666 bookings@damiengerard.net www.damiengerard.net STUDIO:
174 Mullens St Balmain OFFICE:
230 Crown St Darlinghurst BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11 :: 47
gig picks
up all night out all week...
(USA) + JACK LADDER + DONNY BENET
(US (USA) Elbow Elbow (UK), Matt Corby Enmore Theatre sold out 8pm Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan, Red Ghost The Factory Theatre, Enmore $56.70 (+ bf) 8pm Jordie Lane, Mike Noga The Vanguard, Newtown $17 (+ bf)â&#x20AC;&#x201C;$52 (dinner & show) 6:30pm
Modest Mouse
MONDAY JULY 25
THURSDAY JULY 28
Modest Mouse (USA), Deep Sea Arcade Enmore Theatre $71.70 (+ bf) 8pm
The Hives (Sweden), The Grates Enmore Theatre $86.20 (+ bf) 8pm
The Kills (USA/UK), Teenage Mothers Metro Theatre, Sydney $66.20 (+ bf) 8pm
The Nugs, Unity Floors, Making, Snowfield, The Radiants FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst $10 8pm
WEDNESDAY JULY 27 Fitz & the Tantrums (USA), Lanie Lane The Basement, Circular Quay $49.50 (+ bf) 9:30pm Magnetic Heads, World Champion, Je Suis En Rockstar, Rank Sinatra Goodgod Small Club, Sydney 8pm Wild Beasts (UK), Gossling Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $42 (+ bf) 8pm Dananananaykroyd
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Tumbleweed, My Disco Sandringham Hotel, Newtown 8pm Warpaint (U.S.A), Jack Ladder, Donny Benet Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $44 (+ bf) 8pm
FRIDAY JULY 29 Dananananaykroyd (Scotland), DZ Deathrays, The Growl Annandale Hotel $47.30 (+ bf) 8pm
SATURDAY JULY 30 Avenged Sevenfold (USA), Sevendust (USA) Sydney Entertainment Centre, Darling Harbour $82.90 (+ bf) 7:30pm Catherine Traicos & The Starry Night, Ruby for Lucy Hermannâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Darlington free 8pm Velvet Hammer: Mechanical Black, Gay Paris, Naked on the Vague, Bosom, Totally Unicorn, Ten Thousand Free Men & Their Families, La Donna Rama, Seymour Butz, Ben Drayton, Matt Vaughan, Araya Cybelle, Chris Lego, Aaron Smith, Sir Loins, Brian W-C Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $27.50 (+ bf)â&#x20AC;&#x201C;$35 (at door) 8pm Syndicate Bridge Hotel, Rozelle 8pm
brag beats
BRAG’s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture
dance music news club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Honnery
he said she said WITH
SBTRKT
OPIUO
I
grew up near Motueka, at the top of the South Island, New Zealand. That place is surrounded by beautiful mountains, crystal clear rivers, and banging beaches; it was an outdoor heaven for a child. I loved my upbringing. My parents used to have big festivals organised on their land, so I was surrounded by the fun, free and wild festival culture from a super young age. So I had a love for outdoor parties and loud sound systems from day one… I don’t really have any specific inspirations, favorite styles of music or certain musicians. I experience new, ridiculously exciting shit daily. I guess my biggest inspirations are actually the people and places I meet and see (plus the imaginary ones). I try and picture where my music will end up, whether it’s at a raging, wild beach party, or merely someone’s lounge as they rise to meet the day. This is what gets me going in the studio. Enjoying music purely for the way it can enhance emotion in our everyday lives. It’s an amazing tool. Opiuo is a solo project, but I try my best to involve as many people as I can whenever the time is right. From collaborating with fellow producers the world over, to performing with amazing dancers and acrobats, to jamming on stage with live musicians – working with other people is so much fun! I’m lucky enough these days to live solely off my music. It has been a looooong road to get to where I am today, but it’s all been worth it – every exciting, sometimes stressful, sometimes anxious, but extremely
satisfying second. All I can say is, if you are willing to put in the hours, it’ll happen. When I perform, I play a 100% original live set of funk-a-delic, soulful, bass-laden, trance-induced, glitchy, monkey-chunked, booty-waking, body-shaking, electronic, hippo-hop, crunky beats. It’s a style I’ve stumbled into over the last few years, and it just keeps evolving. It’s all mashed as seamlessly as I possibly can into party-making beats, with an exact amount of the most essential ingredient: bass. I love both the global and local music scenes at the moment. They’re more inspiring, supportive, and accessible than ever before. Anyone can now make beautiful, fun, eclectic music in their home, and get it out to the world in a matter of seconds. Sure, connections still play a big part, but it’s not limited to people with money; the music really does the talking. A few years ago I put some music out for free, people grabbed it, spread it to their friends, and I got attention – and ended up where I am today. Simple, really... I’m so thankful for everything that has happened.
MÚSICA /TUMBALONG
Tumbalong Park in Darling Harbour will be transformed into a special performance space on Saturday October 22, hosting an array of emerging international and Australian artists across the electronic music and indie spectrum, for the inaugural música event: música /Tumbalong. Boasting a hand-picked selection of nine artists, five of which are making their debut Australian appearances, música /Tumbalong is a limitedcapacity event that will run from midday through until 10pm, with each of the performers playing 45 minute – one hour sets. The lineup comprises Italy’s Tiger & Woods, UK acts SBTRKT and Ghostpoet, Baths, Electric Wire Hustle and Australian outfits Bon Chat, Bon Rat, Mitzi and DJ Simon Caldwell. First release $79 tickets are on sale from Tuesday July 26 through musicaevents.com
What: Squiggle EP is available now through addictech.com Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Friday July 29
THIEVERY CORPORATION SIDESHOW
Empire Of The Sun
Veteran trip hop exponents Thievery Corporation, the duo of Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, will perform a headline show in Sydney at the Enmore Theatre on Monday August 1. The pair is known for crafting tranquil dub beats in a similar vein to Nightmares On Wax, and are returning down under as part of the Splendour In The Grass line-up. Thievery Corporation formed way back in 1995, self-signing to their own collaborative label as a response to the competitive ‘90s music scene, and recently released their seventh studio album, Culture Of Fear – a release showcasing what the composers themselves described as music with “beautiful, trippy ‘60s and ‘70s space rock influences.” Supporting Thievery Corporation on their Australian tour will be the Cumbia Cosmonauts and DJ Bentley, and there were still a few $55 industry tickets floating around at the time of writing.
PORTISHEAD TOUR
STEREOSONIC 2011
The lineup for this year’s Stereosonic event, slotted for Saturday November 26 at Sydney Showgrounds, Homebush, has been announced. Dutch trance figurehead Armin Van Buuren (a chap who also has a law degree under his belt!), compatriot Ferry Corsten (performing live), French enigma Mr Oizo, the Dirty Bird Claude VonStroke, Carl Cox, Benny Benassi, The Bloody Beetroots, Empire of the Sun, Afrojack, Dirty South, Caspa + MC Rod Azlan, Zombie Nation, Kaskade, Guy Gerber, BT, The Gaslamp Killer, Deetron and The Two Bears (the collaboration between Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard and Greco-Roman’s Raf Daddy), will all be performing, along with a host of locals. First release tickets are available from $127.95-$129.95 from Thursday August 4 – hit stereosonic.com.au for full details.
The Harvest Festival has pulled a rambunctious rabbit out of the hat by announcing that revered outfit Portishead will be performing at their inaugural boutique event, held at Parramatta Park on November 13. The hugely influential Bristol group, widely regarded as the forefathers of the trip hop genre along with Massive Attack, haven’t toured Australia in a whopping 13 years. They’re arguably best known for their Mercury Prize-winning debut LP Dummy, a brooding and poignant collection of pieces that featured a cover still of vocalist Beth Gibbons taken from the band’s short film, To Kill A Dead Man. After an extended hiatus following the release of their sophomore album, Portishead returned to the fold with 2008’s Third, and the group have been touring consistently since – and thankfully, they are now, finally, venturing down under again. General release tickets to Harvest go on sale at 9am on Thursday August 4.
HERBERT X BJORK
In advance of her new album Biophilia, Björk will release a batch of tracks that she’s
collectively naming ‘The Crystalline Series’. The series consists of alternate versions and remixes of tracks from Biophilia, and each part will be available on CD, digital and vinyl. First up, new mixes of ‘Crystalline’ and ‘Cosmogony’ by Grammy-nominated producer Serban Ghenea, then those long-awaited Omar Souleyman versions, in which the Syrian superstar reworks the songs ‘Crystalline’, ‘Tesla’ and ‘Mewal’. This will be followed by not one but two sets of remixes by Matthew Herbert: the first 12” featuring a remix and remix instrumental of ‘Crystalline’, and the second featuring two remixes and remix instrumentals of ‘Cosmogony’. Herbert has a long history of working with Björk, having remixed a number of her tracks in the past, as well as making key contributions to her 2001 masterpiece, Vespertine.
MC ELZHI @ TONE
Detroit’s MC Elzhi will perform his first solo show in Sydney at Tone nightclub on Sunday September 11. Elzhi made his international debut on ‘Come And Get It’, a stand out song from Jay Dee’s (J Dilla) debut album, Welcome 2 Detroit. The widespread praise for the track led to Elzhi joining the group Slum Village in 2002, with whom he recorded three acclaimed albums: Trinity, Detroit Deli and Slum Village. After leaving Slum Village following acrimony with the group’s Barak Records label, Elzhi released his eagerly anticipated mixtape, Elmatic, an homage to Nas’ widely praised debut Illmatic, which is available online through Elzhi’s official website. Elzhi will be supported by DJs Ology and Frenzie, with the night hosted by Koolism’s Hau.
“It’s fifteen to five, I’m still awake. Something on my mind I can’t hide away.” - PNAU BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11 :: 49
dance music news
free stuff
club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Honnery
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM
five things WITH
KALI FROM PICNIC
Growing Up It wasn’t all picnic baskets and daisy 1. chains – although there were a lot of
brought you such parties and artists as DJ Harvey and DJ Garth at Beck’s Bar, The Revenge, Derrick May, Maurice Fulton, Roy Dank, Lovefingers, Horse Meat Disco plus loads more, and come September 16, we will have the long awaited second coming of Mike Simonetti (Italians Do It Better, NJ).
daisy chains and actually plenty of picnic baskets. But I digress… My earliest memories related to music are actually more about dancing (and often hurting or embarrassing myself). There have been so many sprained ankles, teeth through lips, holes in walls, crook necks, dislocated fingers and threats of school expulsion, all because of that harmless self-expression they call shaking it down…
The Music You Make We’re more about the music other 4. people make, and our love definitely centres around disco, house, grooves, acid house, and music that in general is so deep that you don’t have any choice but to FEEL IT. The one thing we really don’t do (in public) is bang. We’re way too classy. (Yes we’re doing a party called One Night Stand – but that’s cute and a tease!)
Inspirations The inspiration comes from 2. inspiration itself. The music inspired me to dance, the dancing inspired me to DJ, other peoples’ DJing and music productions inspired me to get better and go deeper and, along with being so sick of hearing music I already knew, all of that inspired me to start touring amazing men (unfortunately no women yet) from overseas, and putting on parties where other people can dance. Now our local DJs are inspiring me to do more home grown parties, too.
Music, Right Here, Right Now Music has never sounded so 5. much like the past, and my unfaltering love for it will continue to carry me into the future. What: Picnic presents One Night Stand With: Simon Caldwell
3.
You Picnic Touring & Events. You may have heard about this amazing party we’re doing this weekend with Sydney’s perfect DJ - Simon Caldwell. We’ve also
DEEPCHILD FREEBIES
One of the most sincere and passionate figures in the Australian music scene, and arguably our most recognisable techno export, Rick Bull, aka Deepchild, is offering two of his early albums – Chocolate Dubs and What’s Going Wrong? – to fans, as free downloads through his website deepchild.bandcamp.com. “I believe that music is not my property to own,” Bull explained online. And before we go further, I must add that Deepchild’s site is always worth reading if you’re after an intelligent and personalised insider’s view of the dance scene. Anyhow, as Rick was saying, “I do need to make a living, but I feel I need to make these albums more available to share, especially now that they’ve been out for some time. I’d love to be in the position to give away all my stuff for free, but at the moment I’m certainly finding it liberating to ‘set free’ some of the stuff which has been locked away for a little too long… it’s an honour to maintain publishing-
Where: Address emailed out the week of the party, when you buy a ticket through residentadvisor.net When: Saturday July 30
rights over this older stuff… and an honour to be in the position to share it. Now, you see, you can’t pirate/steal these albums – it’s impossible. They are already free,” he offered facetiously. I suggest you repay Deepchild’s largesse and purchase his latest release, Talk To Me, through the revamped and far improved Beatport site; Talk To Me is a dark and brooding affair released on Cologne label Trapez.
Ice Cube
Vinyl fetishists should mark this one down in the diary: Golden Cage returns on Saturday August 6 with a wax-only affair featuring extended sets from Simon Caldwell and Robbie Lowe. Both headliners are veterans of the Sydney scene, and deservedly have strong local followings. Caldwell’s DJ pedigree is well documented; he’s co-promoted one of Australia’s freshest and longest running dance parties – Mad Racket
Yelle
– for the last 12 years, pushes quality deep grooves every Monday night on his Sunsets show on FBi 94.5, and had the honour of being only the second Australian to put together an RA Podcast. Meanwhile, Lowe has long held a reputation as one of the best warm-up DJs in the business, and is still remembered for some of the sets he played at the Sweet Chilli parties a few years back. Both headliners will be playing three-hour sets, with the party held on level three of the Kings Cross Hotel. Anyone wanting to see Caldwell spin a week early is advised to check out the Picnic warehouse party this Saturday, where he’ll be playing an extended ‘extended’ set – six hours!
CLUB // TOXIC
After recently releasing her second album Safari Disco Club and touring with Katy Perry, France’s Yelle returns to Australia for Splendour In The Grass, and will perform a sideshow at Oxford Art Factory on Saturday August 6. Yelle grew up in a house bursting with musicality, her father being a famous musician in the Côtes d’Armor region where she still resides today. Yelle played the piano, then went on to acting, and played in a few bands that never made it past the rehearsals. Any ladies looking to drag their boyfriends along to the gig need only recount the following: Yelle writes songs about smaller breast sizes, lesbian temptation, dildos, sex and jogging. You heard me – jogging.
Joelistics’ father collected jazz records, his mother was a political agitator and his music is some of the raddest hip hop this country has been proud to call its own. Radio stations and critics alike agree that Joelistics’ debut album Voyager is a perfect representation of this kids’ talent; from lyrics to beats to on stage charisma, Joelistics ticks every hip hop box. To prove his point he’s heading out on his first solo tour, and we’ve got two double passes for the Sydney stint, at The Sandringham Hotel on Saturday August 6. Joelistics is a founding member of TZU, too – to win, send over the name of their debut album.
DJ SHADOW
With samples that put the Beastie Boys to shame, and scratching that makes Grandmaster Flash look like a noob, DJ Shadow certainly needs no entroduction. Catapulting himself to the forefront of music innovation in 1996 with his seminal release Entroducing, his was the first album made entirely of samples. Since then, the California-based luminary has released a few more gems, The Private Press and The Outsider – and word is he’s working on his fourth, due for a release before the year is out. BRAG is giving away a double pass for you and a friend to witness the audiovisual extravaganza that is DJ Shadow’s Shadosphere tour, which comes together on Saturday July 30 at Hordern Pavilion. Just tell us Shadow’s real name.
ICE CUBE TOUR
Iconic rapper/producer/actor/ screenwriter/film director Ice Cube will perform at the Enmore Theatre on Sunday September 18 in support of his ninth studio album, the brazenly titled I Am The West. Born O’Shea Jackson, ‘Ice’ was responsible for a number of highly controversial landmark hip hop LPs in the early ‘90s, including Death Certificate and The Predator. These releases followed his work with Dr. Dre and MC Ren as N.W.A, and coincided with his acting debut in Boyz N The Hood, the acclaimed class flick that also starred Larry Fishburne. More recently, Ice has collaborated with Tech N9ne on the track ‘Blackboy’, which appears on Tech N9ne’s album Killer – and though he’s more focused on his work in the film industry these days, he still showed younger imposters how it’s done on I Am The West, which was released independently through Cube’s own Lench Mob label.
GOLDEN CAGE FT CALDWELL, LOWE
YELLE SPLENDOUR SIDESHOW
JOELISTICS
This Saturday, the CLUB // ‘Toxic’ party celebrates the intoxicants – music, colour and dance – in an outlandish bash at Phoenix Bar. Drawing inspiration from the parties of New York and London, CLUB // aims to introduce a new genre of nightlife and “invites Sydney’s Club Kids to come alive and join the party”. As the press release elucidates, “The freaks, the misfits, the kooky, and the colourful have a new home and we welcome you in.” The party will be officially sponsored by Bondi fancy dress bastion Fancy Shmancy Enterprises and Illamasqua, who will be dressing the venue, organisers and guests in “toxic attire”. DJs Ben
Lucid and Djuan will be soundtracking the evening, with curtain up at 10pm.
DC BREAKS
With their latest EP The More I Want currently doing the rounds on dancefloors worldwide, UK duo DC Breaks, hailed as one of the more exciting acts in the DnB scene, will perform at Inhale’s Oxford Art Factory fiesta on Thursday August 4. DC Breaks have also reworked the likes of Tinie Tempah, Rox, Example, I Blame Coco and even JLS, and have recently signed an exclusive deal with Andy C’s Ram Records. DC Breaks are known for DJing across six decks and two mixers, and will be joined by Foreigndub, Ronin, Missree, DJ Finesse and Fernatik for a party hosted by MCs Antic, Ramando P and Kye. Doors open at 9pm, and $10 tickets are available online.
UBER LINGUA RETURN
Self-described “global bass and post-planetary beats” party crew Uber Lingua are set to return to Tone nightclub on Saturday August 20, with a non-stop global collision of DJs, VJs, instrumentalists, dancers and multi-lingual MCs running from 10pm – 5am… but the lineup is still yet to be announced. What a tease, huh? Still, just giving you the timely heads up, and there’ll be more details as soon as we get them.
“Thought you were the sun, pure warmth shone upon. Though you were the moon, oh I fell too soon.”- PNAU 50 :: BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS
&
HORDERN PAVILION
THIS SATURDAY! Download free app @ http://bit.ly/shadowapp
'It Takes a Thief' - best of out now! New studio album 'Culture of Fear' out now!
FULL LIVE BAND
With Cumbia Cosmonauts
Enmore Theatre
In conjunction with Sydney Design
Made To Measure The Treadlie Handmade Bike Show
Next Monday (Aug 1)
28â&#x20AC;&#x201C;31 July 2011 kind of 72 Oxford St, Darlinghurst
BOOK NOW! ticketek or 132 849
www.treadlie.com.au Space kindly donated by Deus Cycleworks
Presented by Michael Coppel I djshadow.com I thieverycorporation.com I coppel.com.au BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11 :: 51
John 00 Fleming Trance Rants By RK
Y
Crystal Fighters Show Us Your Txalapartas By Lachlan Kanoniuk
T
here are certain sounds that you can come to expect when heading into a dance festival these days. Pounding house beats, a bit of dubstep wubwubwub action, and a reworking of Duck Sauce’s ‘Barbara Streisand’, with the meme de jour subbed in for Babs’ name. One thing you don’t expect to hear is the txalapartas – most likely because you don’t have a freaking clue what a txalapartas is, let alone what it sounds like. But the traditional Baroque instrument provides the centrepiece for Spain-via-UK dance sensations Crystal Fighters and their revelatory live set. “There are times when I do feel like we are outsiders, and then there are times when we feel like we are part of the big happy dance music family... It all depends on the gig,” ponders lead singer Sebastian, when asked how exactly his band fits into the dance festival circuit. “It is hard in some ways to fit in to this pre-ordained, pre-organised dance music scene, which is something I really like and think is a great thing to have in existence – it’s not like we really set out to not be a part of that. In some ways we are outsiders, but in other ways we like to reference the things that define the dance music genres, through remixes we do and the remixes that get done of our work.” But with the traditional Spanish folk elements of their sound, Crystal Fighters have certainly become ambassadors of sorts for a culture not necessarily linked to the genre. “It’s definitely a talking point for people and they do focus on it, because it does separate and contextualise our music a little bit. For us it’s something that, as far as we know, hasn’t been done in a way that’s particularly interesting before. So we’re glad to be ambassadors of this new thing, however small and niche a genre it is,” Sebastian says.
As well as blending two disparate styles of music, the band emanate a distinct strain of the punk mentality, a direct result of their formative environs. “Punk music and that punk sort of style, whether it be from London or the US, but particularly from Spain – it was the sort of thing we were referencing when writing the album (2010’s Star Of Love). It’s punk in attitude and punk at a time when things were really changing in the country, and I really think that’s what punk means: standing up for what you believe, in the face of a less-than-perfect situation,” he explains. “The music is just a form of punk expression. I find the big points, the interesting angles with music and culture, aren’t really discussed, so we thought we found one [way] that was interesting with this. That’s why we’ve stuck with it.” With a Spanish upbringing and now a London base, the band are well-accustomed to bringing something new to wherever they go. And it comes as no surprise that Sebastian is more than a little bit excited for Crystal Fighters’ first visit to Australia. “Europe is very interesting for us. There are a lot of cities where people get very interested in a band for whatever reason, be it musical or cultural, and these people generate this huge interest in the band,” he says. “We’ve never been to Australia as a band unfortunately, but we’re very much looking forward to it. We think it will go down well there. I’ve been down before, and I think Australian people will enjoy what we do. There’s an energy to the people, and an appreciation for dance music out there – for interesting dance music.” Whith: Death From Above 1979, Digitalism, Diplo, Duck Sauce, Santigold, MSTRKRFT, Mylo, SebastiAn, The Streets and loads more Where: Parklife Festival @ Kippax Lake, Moore Park When: Sunday October 2
ou don’t get much more successful than John 00 Fleming. Nor do you get much more humble and respectful; John elicits a certain down-to-earth nature that is rare in a superstar DJ. “I’ve just been non-stop playing as usual, lots of long haul flights, which isn’t particularly new – but most importantly, I’ve finally nailed my first artist album,” the UK trance producer tells me. “It has been a long road, and it’s something I’m really proud of. I’ve never done music to become famous. That’s why I’ve persisted for so long, and it’s why I’m so proud of this album.” I recall our last conversation, when his artist album was nothing more than an ambitious plan. For Fleming, the one goal was to make the release completely his own. “I never wanted to have a team of writers,” he explains. “I’m the one that has the visions and hears the strange sounds in my head, and then I’m the one person who’s taken those projects and ideas and morphed them from my head into some sort of finished product, you know what I mean?” Fleming surprised a lot of his followers when he moved away from traditional trance around 2005, but as he explains, the music scene itself is always changing. “There is a shift in music at the moment – like there always has been, I guess. But I feel like I can take those steps; that’s why I’ve always had my own opinion about trance,” he explains. “There’s a very fine line between the pop music mentality that has come onto the scene, and [the other half] – these things always [happen in] cycles. I was recently speaking with Paul Oakenfold and we both agreed that we weren’t happy with the scene the way it was before. I’ve never wanted to be one of those DJs who likes to play a two-hour set of commercial music. It had to move you, there had to be an edge.” Despite his move across to slightly more varied tastes, Fleming has always been a student of the trance movement – goa trance to be precise. And with trance having dispersed in all manner of different directions in recent times, he’s going back to his roots. “To be frank, I think the real problem is that there isn’t any real trance music out there,” he says. “Truth is, there are no genres in the DJ world, and I’ve worked like that for a long time.” Fleming’s reaction has been to go back ten years, to see what the DJs were doing back then. “I’m playing all this different music in my sets and I see all the music lovers enjoying it, which is great.
“I’ve been given all manner of different tags over the years,” he continues, “and when it all gets too euphoric and commercial, I’m happy to go to other places to source my music. I might look elsewhere in the techno department for example; that’s how the guy in the shop used to load you up. There are no rules now … we’re playing what we want.” And importantly, J00F knows how to connect with his crowds. He knows what people want, and how far he can push the boundaries. “That’s what makes you think when you open a crowd. Sometimes you play a bit deeper and then build up to the power and get into some of the psy stuff, and other times you think, ‘What are you going to use next? How are you going to keep the crowd interested?’” For John, one of the tricks is to avoid pandering to expectations. “Even when you play for five hours without playing any big hits, the music is in your brain telling you to do it, so it’s really hard not to,” he says. “Sometimes I find that today’s generation is lost to the beauty of doing something unexpected. You can’t always do exactly what people expect from you.” Where: Chinese Laundry (four hour set) When: Saturday August 6
James Blake For Music’s Sake By Ben Swan
I
n this age of remakes, remixes, sequels and prequels, it’s always interesting to find someone creating something that’s truly unique. Hailed as the prince of (post-)dubstep, and numerous other unbefitting titles, James Blake is a confident, intelligent and opinionated young man, with a somewhat uncompromising reputation of discussing his work... The 21 year old is currently on tour, with an on-stage act consisting of Rob McAndrews on guitar, Ben Assister on percussion and himself on keys, and when we speak he’s enthused about the development of his live show. “A lot of it is Ben and Rob themselves deciding how they’re going to adapt certain parts of the sound,” he says. “It’s been really interesting, they’re great musicians. It’s so good to play with them, and they’re such good friends of mine, that I’m more and more leaving things up to them to decide how it sounds. “It’s rare that I trust people to interpret my music,” he continues. “It’s sounding more full, more energetic and possibly more positive in some ways. I’m really enjoying playing live … it’s a pleasure, and interesting to me every time. I’d love to do something with just the band being recorded, really.” An intensely focused bedroom producer, his acclaimed self-titled debut was recorded entirely at home, but Blake says his sound and techniques are always evolving – that’s just what happens when you’re constantly touring. “The songs are improving [live], and I think
they’re improving as songs as well. We were discussing the other day how nice it would be to hear what the album would sound like if we’d just recorded it now, as opposed to it being a studio-produced record that just gets reinterpreted [on stage].” Moving on from that first release, Blake is cagey about what fans can expect from him in the future. His recent 12-inch on emerging dubstep label Hemlock Recordings sees Blake in his menacing and murky dubstep guise, which is sure to confuse a few fans whose introduction to his sound was his soulful (and now Mercury Award-nominated) LP. But Blake reveals there is plenty more to come. “It’s a strange time, because I’m touring and doing lots of different things that aren’t really the sort of things that inspire creativity,” he says. “But when I am home, I’ve managed to steal a few moments, and make a few things that I’m really, really proud of.” Recently, Blake has come under some criticism for his disparaging comments on the art of remixing. Quoted by American magazine Spin as saying “Remixing is like musical prostitution”, he is understandably prickly when the topic arises. “I said a couple of things that got blown out of proportion – well actually, they didn’t get blown out of proportion, they got misquoted and they got misinterpreted,” he says. “I don’t really like the format – I think it’s slightly opportunistic and not really relevant.
I think a lot of remixes of really good songs are just not relevant; they’re just tacked on like a little toy in a box of Kellogg’s, it’s just not always necessary… The worst thing that came out of what I said about remixes is that I was saying that there were no good remixes, that it was not a valid thing to do - but obviously I’ve done it, so that can’t be what I meant. “What I was [talking about] is the commercial remix industry – which, put into practical terms, is when you have a great piece of music and you get four or five producers to remix the music, and there’s not much quality
control over which is released. I think that’s really sad for the original – a sad indication of the value in music and I think ultimately, a sad indication of the willingness to do things for money that some people have, which is not what I’m about,” he says. “I do music for music’s sake.” What: James Blake is out now through Universal Where: The Factory Theatre / The Metro Theatre When: Thursday July 28 (sold out) / Saturday July 30 More: Also appearing at Splendour in the Grass from July 29 – 31, at Woodfordia in Queensland
“I need everybody, to understand what it feels like. I need everybody, everyone, to understand.”- PNAU 52 :: BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11
Deep Impressions Underground Dance And Electronica with Chris Honnery
Soul Sedation Soul, Dub, Hip Hop & Bottom-heavy Beats with Tony Edwards
Modeselektor
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.
ON THE ROAD DJ Shadow
F
I
taly’s Luca Mortellaro, a published author, experimental sound designer, and (most significantly) the man behind the ‘Lucy’ moniker, will headline the next instalment of Disconnected at the Civic Underground on Saturday September 10. Lucy’s first demo piqued the interest of one James Holden, the man behind Border Community, and it has been largely peaches and cream since: Lucy is now releasing on Luke Slater’s esteemed Mote Evolver imprint. (OK, let’s hold it there. I’ve got to admit I’m just not down with this ‘Lucy’ moniker business, it just seems… asinine; so I’m going to stick with ‘Mortellaro’ for the duration of this news item.) Our man Mortellaro – see? Alliteration! – has spun at international clubbing coliseums such as Berghain and fabric, and recently dropped his debut LP, Wordplay For Working Bees, on his own label, Stroboscopic Artefacts. It was subsequently lauded by Resident Advisor as a “fluid ecosystem of club-ready tracks and disparate sketches, dark Berghainaping techno reanimating hazy memories of early ‘90s IDM”, in a rave 4.5/5 review. At the risk of bowing to clichés, Mortellaro is an exciting and original producer who subverts the well-worn techno stereotypes; but rather than resort to further platitudes, I’ll let you find out for yourself when you venture out to see – [sigh] – Lucy play a three-hour set on the best sound system in Sydney. Lucy will be supported on the night by the always slick Disconnected residents Ben Dunlop and Defined By Rhythm, and presale $25 tickets for this highly recommended gig can be procured online. Popular crossover electronic Berlin duo Modeselektor have disclosed full details of their new album, which will be released on their own label in early October. Titled Monkeytown, the album was announced around a fortnight ago, but the only details released at the time regarded collaborations: namely, that Thom Yorke – he of Radiohead fame – Busdriver, Anti Pop Consortium and Miss Platnum would provide guest appearances. We now know that Monkeytown is 11 tracks long, and the press release features two different album covers: a print version and an “interactiv” one. I’m not quite sure what the “interactiv” sleeve entails, and rather than fumbling for outlandish adjectives I would instead suggest that you view the image online, and make up your own goddamn mind!
irst stop, essential listening: Sietta – The Seventh Passenger. Get this record; it’s a massive, massive debut from the NT twosome. A big, complete, worthy record, all the more impressive considering the combined age of the duo is not much... You’ve all heard the lead single ‘What Am I Supposed To Do?’ by now, and having listened to the rest of the record, I’ll admit it’s definitely the best track – but the rest of the release certainly holds its own. The electronic approach of producer James Mangohig is genuinely exciting; hopefully after this, the kid gets to sit down with some of the country’s best studio guys to keep him growing. We might well see a case of the student rapidly overtaking the master.
LOOKING DEEPER SATURDAY JULY 30 Picnic ft Simon Caldwell Warehouse venue TBC
SATURDAY AUGUST 13 Alex Smoke Chinese Laundry
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 10 Disconnected ft Lucy Civic Underground
SATURDAY OCTOBER 29
Circo Loco ft Matthias Tanzmann Greenwood Hotel Yorke features on two tracks, ‘Shipwreck’ and ‘This’, while Busdriver lends his voice to the eccentrically-titled ‘Pretentious Friends’ (that one has particular personal resonance for me). Previously unannounced guest appearances come from Otto von Schirach, Pillow Talk (contributing an “emergency call”), Gordon Boerger, Siriusmo and Sascha ‘Apparat’ Ring, who demonstrates his versatility by playing guitar on ‘War Cry’. After starting his own imprint, Dissonant, and releasing three quality EPs on it, Marc Antona is now ready to launch his debut LP, Rules Of Madness. It'll be out in early September via his own abovementioned imprint, although Antona has been releasing his stuff on imprints such as Mobilee, Highgrade, Freak ’N Chic or Micro Fiber for years. (And I’ve been told plays an influential – and often unheralded – role behind the scenes at Cadenza.) Rules Of Madness features Marc’s trademark organic take on dancefloor grooves laden with hidden melodies and emotional ambiance… I’m sorry, I’m turning into my pretentious friend (/alter ego). Initial samplers with three album tracks are doing the rounds on vinyl now, but all you dilettantes who don’t own turntables will have to wait for the September 3 physical release.
Alex Smoke
It’s hardly surprising Elefant Traks have signed Sietta – I don’t think it would have taken labelhead Urthboy two seconds make up his mind on this one. Much like Andy Barlow and Lou Rhodes earned a place in the world’s collective heart with their Lamb project, Sietta have the potential to go on to become one of the world’s favourite singer/ producer duos. This debut is an album of love songs for the dubstep generation, in which Caiti Baker sings with sincerity and youthful angst. Some of the themes are somewhat juvenile but you get the sense that her eyes and ears are wide open, and that the next stage of her life experience will allow her writing to expand exponentially. I have a feeling a second album will flow quickly here, too; there’s a confidence of approach that makes me feel that we’ve witnessed the start of something big and beautiful. If the musical partnership remains strong, Sietta will be able to retain a strong and loyal audience over the course of a long career. Love it – get on the Sietta train! In news from the cosy Tonic Lounge (one of the best venues in the Cross in this column’s opinion), Mr Thing of Scratch Perverts fame will be dropping by the venue on Saturday August 13. Pushing the styles of his Strange Breaks & Mr Thing compilations for BBE, anyone who caught his wicked set of rare groove, funk, soul and breaks at the now defunct Melt last year will know just how much fun a crate digger of this calibre is in an intimate space. And don’t forget, Tan Crackers Soul Club goes down at Tonic this weekend, as Gian Arpino and friends dig deep into their black wax collections. British neo soul icon Omar’s Sing (If You Want It) record has been re-released through the Tru Thoughts label. ‘Dance’ is the massive single that this column has had playing on repeat in every recent playlist, and ‘It’s So’ is another monster that soul heads need to know about. Rhythmical soul Omar
FRIDAY JULY 29 Opiou, JPS Oxford Art Factory
SATURDAY JULY 30 DJ Shadow Hordern Pavilion Cumbia Cosmonauts The Mac James Blake Metro Theatre
AUGUST 4 & 5 Wu-Tang Clan Enmore Theatre
SATURDAY AUGUST 27
Big Boi, Theophilus London Enmore Theatre
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 17 The Herd, Sietta Metro Theatre
music at its finest, the album does get a bit nu-jazz noodly at times, which will bore those with a short attention span – but if you know Omar’s work, you’ll know he’s worth paying attention to. And there’s a Bob Sinclar remix in deep Latin style, for any DJs who need the flavours a little more house-y. Disco heads need to get down to Tone on August 13, as Canada’s U-TERN comes through town. The name behind of some of the biggest tunes of the disco re-edit movement, including the Stevie Wonder ‘Do I Do’ edit, Mark Ronson’s ‘Bang Bang Bang’ and Holy Ghost’s ‘Say My Name’, this man has serious skills. With local supports from Mase Boogie (Paper Plane Project), Jack Prest (Flatwound) Gian Arpino, Downtown Brown and Frenzie, this party could well be the nu disco session of the year. In the meantime, check U-TERN’s radio show 'One Day Later' on brookylnradio.net. The Thundamentals are back with their second album, Foreverlution, which comes out on Friday July 29. Check their website for pre-release streaming previews, or tune in to our good friends at FBi, as they’ve dubbed it Album Of The Week. You can catch the band soon, as they’re supporting Big Boi and Theophilus London at the Enmore Theatre on August 27. For those of you into quality soulful new boom bap (a rarity at this stage in our musical evolution is seems), look up Trek Life’s album, Wouldn’t Change Nothing. Out of LA, the emcee is working with the Mello Music group, and producers like Oddisee, Dilated Peoples and Rhettmatic have all penned beats for him. Good to see Cali keeping it real on the hip hop front! And finally, if you’re not across the Opiou gig coming up this Friday at the OAF, sort it out now. One of Australia’s emerging electronic superstars, I’d be surprised if you didn’t crack a smile at one of this guy’s sets. Soul Sedation is pumped for the chunky bass and breaks.
Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through deep.impressions@yahoo.com.
Send stuff for this column to tonyedwards001@gmail.com by 6pm Wednesdays. All pics to art@thebrag.com BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11 :: 53
club guide send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com Levins
club pick of the week DJ Shadow
SATURDAY JULY 30
Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park
DJ Shadow (USA),
Midnight Juggernauts DJs, Ghoul $79.90 (+ bf) 7pm MONDAY JULY 25 Club 77, Kings Cross Sideways Fridays 10pm World Bar, Kings Cross Mondays at World Bar 16 Tacos, Pipemix free 8pm
TUESDAY JULY 26 The Gaff, Darlinghurst Coyote Tuesday Kid Finley, Johnny B free 9pm The Valve, Tempe Underground Tables Myme, Ato, Gee Wiz, Benji, BC, One Am, Allstars 6pm World Bar, Kings Cross Pop Panic free 8pm
WEDNESDAY JULY 27 Bank Hotel, Newtown Girl’s Night Emme free 9pm Enmore Theatre Pnau $40.80 (presale) 7:30pm Marlborough Hotel, Newtown DJ Moussa 11pm
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Shelbourne Hotel, Sydney Wednesday Night Live Sincopa free 7pm The Hive Bar, Erskineville Vinyl Club 8pm Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain Swing Patrol $14 7pm World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall free 8pm
THURSDAY JULY 28 Front Bar, Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Club Al Levins, McInnes, Joe Gadget free 8pm Home The Venue, Sydney I Love Unipackers Steve Frank, John Young $5 8pm Jacksons On George Ultimate Party Venue Resident DJ’s free The Factory Theatre, Enmore James Blake (UK), Marques Toliver (UK) James Blake (UK), Marques Toliver (UK) $49.50 (+ bf) 8pm The Gaff, Darlinghurst The College Party 9pm The White Horse, Surry Hills Let Loose 7pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Propaganda Propaganda DJs free (student)–$5 9pm Waves Nightclub PNAU $39 7:30pm
FRIDAY JULY 29 Bank Hotel, Newtown Friendly Fridays Richie Carter, Lok free 9pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach Movement Kato, Victim, DJ Huwston, Mason & Bennett, Preacha 8pm Blue Hotel, Woolloomooloo Friday Shines Jazz Nouveau free 6pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Dubrave Will Styles, MC Shureshock, MC Hayley Boa, Andrew Bell, Flux 3, Struz, Robust, Audiobotz, Deli $15 (early bird)–$20 8pm Club 77, Kings Cross We.MONSTA, Jitter & Dither, Scoops, Rubio $15/20 10pm Cohi Bar DJ Shamus & DJ Anders Hitchcock free Cronulla RSL DJ Michael Stewart free 8pm Front Bar, Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Yo Gritto King Opp, Silky Doyle, Daniel Darling, Chimmy Sing free 9pm Gaelic, Surry Hills Purple Sneakers Dr Don Don, Hey Fever, Bhanglassi 8pm Goldfish, Darlinghurst Funktank Mike OConnor, Fabz, Drop Dead Ed 9pm
Gypsy Nightclub, Darlinghurst Genisis Orjan Nilsen, Nick Arbor, Nathan Cryptic, Scott Richardson, Thomas Knight $22 9pm Home The Venue, Sydney Digital Therapy Adam Byrne, Big J, Likewise DJs $10 9pm Jackson on George Ultimate Party Venue free Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Falcona Fridays Mailer Daemon, Belvedere, Stu Turner, Gidaro, $10 8pm Newcastle Panthers PNAU $38.50 7:30pm Oatley Hotel We Love Oatley Hotel Fridays DJ Tone free 9pm OneFiveOne Jungle Rave Starfucker DJs $13.10 8pm Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Opiuo $17.90 5pm Settlement Bar, Sydney Spoilt Ryzie-Ry free 6pm Shelbourne Hotel, Sydney MixTape 6pm Supper Club Fairfield RSL Club Intimate Lounge Music 7pm The Great Norten Hotel Bad-Party Records JunWan, Loca Motiv, Loods 8pm Tone, Surry Hills Steppin Out Saca La Mois DJ, Mashy P, Madame B, Rick G, Satva, Stevie Dub, Senor Gonzalakiss, Lovechild 9pm Watershed Hotel, Darling Harbour Bring on the Weekend! DJ Matty Roberts free 9pm Woodport Inn Inthemix Awards DJ Tom Piper 9pm
SATURDAY JULY 30 Bank Hotel, Newtown Abel, Jack Prest free 9pm Big Top, Luna Park Made In The ‘90s Ralph Tresvant, 112, Allure, Shai, Horace Brown $100-150 7pm Blue Hotel, Woolloomooloo Saturday Night Deluxe DJ Marc Us 8pm Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst Hand That Mc a Mic! Electric Elements Crew, Dutch, Last Credit, Stories For Nothing, Rabbit Hole DJs $10 8pm Cargo Bar, Darling Harbour The Institute of Music 9pm Central Coast Leagues Club, Gosford Red Nightclub free 9:30pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Chymera, Hump Day Project, DJ Helena (UK), Sam Scratch, Cassette (NZ), Mattt, Naiki, Georgia & Morgan, Marky Mark $15 (early bird)–$20 8pm Coach and Horses Hotel, Randwick Retro Night free 8pm Cohi Bar DJ Matty Roberts free
Dee Why Hotel Kiss & Fly Ben Morris, Kaiser, Olsen 8pm Empire Hotel, Darlinghurst Empire Saturdays Empire DJs free 9pm Forbes Hotel Cube Kerry Wallace, Edoardo Perlo, Tom Brereton, Amy Fairweather, Kimba $15 10pm Gladstone Hotel Reload Linken, Vertigo, James Daak, Speaks, SFL, Highly Dubious, Juzlo $5 9pm Goldfish, Kings Cross Hed Kandi Johnny Gleeson, Danny Velicious, Frankie Romano, MC Chris Luder $20 Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park DJ Shadow (USA), Midnight Juggernauts DJs, Ghoul $79.90 (+ bf) 7pm Hotel Chambers, Sydney Red Room Trey, Naiki, C-Major, Troy T 8pm Ivy, Sydney Pure Ivy Jolyon Petch, Ben Morris, Oakes & Lennox, Mark Matthews, Steve Frank, 14th Minute 6pm Jacksons On George, Sydney Ultimate Party Venue Resident DJ’s free 9pm Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Kitty Kitty Bang Bang Miss T, Gabby, Cassette (NZ), Alison Wonderland $10 8pm Metro Theatre, Sydney James Blake (UK) $54.20 (+ bf) 8pm Phoenix Bar, Exchange Hotel, Darlinghurst Phoenix Rising Dan Murphy, Johan Khoury, Mark Alsop $15 5am Selina’s, Coogee Bay Hotel Festival of Fire - Fire and Ice Party free 9pm Shelbourne Hotel, Sydney Club Troppo Winter Series MJ, Drew Mercer free (early bird)–$10 9:30pm The Basement, Sydney BeXta, Nasty, Hardforze, BIG DAN, Audiodamage, DBS, James Blake
Aken, DJ Husband, Yev, MAGS $15 9pm The Factory Theatre, Enmore Salsa Palladium $32 (+ bf) 7:30pm The Forbes Hotel, Sydney We Love Indie free–$10 9pm The Gaff, Darlinghurst Johnny B free 9pm The Polo Lounge and Supper Club, Darlinghurst Robopop $10 10pm The Tea Gardens Hotel, Bondi Junction Tim Whitney free 9pm Tone, Surry Hills Golden Era, free The Valve, Tempe Underground Tables Myme, Ato, Gee Wiz, MC Benji, BC, One Am, Allstars free 6pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Wham! James Taylor, Kato, Ben Morris, Illya, Telefunken, Ro Sham Bo, Discopunx, Ben Korbel, Adam Bozzetto, Pablo Calamari, foundation, Boonie, Andy Webb $15/20 9pm Tonic Lounge Gian Arpino, Tom Tutton, Kinetic, Toon $10 10pm Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills The Tongue, Nicky Night Time, Groove Terminator (USA) $15 6pm Watershed Hoted The Watershed Presents... DJ Brynstar
SUNDAY JULY 31 Alexandria Hotel Sunhaze Future Classic DJs free 2pm Bank Hotel, Newtown Glitter Sundays DJ Justin Scott free 4pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Picnic Sundays Mirror Mirror, Kali 6pm Fake Club, Kings Cross Spice Matt Weir, Mitch Crosher, Nic Scali $20 4am Jacksons on George Aphrodisiac Industry Night free 8pm Oatley Hotel Sunday Session DJ Tone free 7pm Sweeney’s Rooftop Sundaes Hanna Gibb, Ty $10 12pm The Hive Bar, Erskineville Revolve Records DJs free 5pm The Tea Gardens Hotel, Bondi Junction Anthony K, Demolition, Gee, Gary Honor free 4pm Watershed Hotel, Darling Harbour DJ Matty Roberts free World Bar, Kings Cross Disco Punx free 6pm
club picks up all night out all week...
Pnau
Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Kitty Kitty Bang Bang Miss T, Gabby, Cassette (NZ), Alison Wonderland $10 8pm Metro Theatre, Sydney James Blake (UK) $54.20 (+ bf) 8pm
WEDNESDAY JULY 27 Enmore Theatre Pnau $40.80 (presale) 7:30pm World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall free 8pm
Boa, Andrew Bell, Flux 3, Struz, Robust, Audiobotz, Deli $15 (early bird)â&#x20AC;&#x201C;$20 8pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach Movement Kato, Victim, DJ Huwston, Mason & Bennett, Preacha 8pm
The World Bar, Kings Cross Wham! James Taylor, Kato, Ben Morris, Illya, Telefunken, Ro Sham Bo, Discopunx, Ben Korbel, Adam Bozzetto, Pablo Calamari, foundation, Boonie, Andy Webb $15/20 9pm
SUNDAY JULY 31
THURSDAY JULY 28
Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Opiuo $17.90 8pm
Alexandria Hotel Sunhaze Future Classic DJs free 3pm
Front Bar, Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Club Al Levins, McInnes, Joe Gadget free 8pm
Tone, Surry Hills Steppin Out Saca La Mois DJ, Mashy P, Madame B, Rick G, Satva, Stevie Dub, Senor Gonzalakiss, Lovechild 9pm
Fake Club, Kings Cross Spice James Taylor, Kali, Murat Kilic $20 4am
The World Bar, Kings Cross Propaganda Propaganda DJs free (student)â&#x20AC;&#x201C;$5 (at door) 9pm
FRIDAY JULY 29 Chinese Laundry, Sydney Dubrave Will Styles, MC Shureshock, MC Hayley
SATURDAY JULY 30 Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst Hand That Mc a Mic! Electric Elements Crew, Dutch, Last Credit, Stories For Nothing, Rabbit Hole DJs $10 8pm
BAR & DANCETERIA
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& DJs: JE SUIS UN ROCKSTAR + RANK SINATRA
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$6 EACH! 5PM - 7PM
& ASSORTED DINNER TIME VIBES FROM DJs...
McINNES + JOE GADGET
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FREAK BEAT/ PSYCH / GARAGE / SURF / PUNK
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LEVINS
THE HEAD CHEF OF THE DIP TAKES YOU ON A MUSICAL ADVENTURE PLAYING WHATEVER THE HELL HE WANTS
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8084.0587 BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11 :: 55
snap
propaganda
PICS :: DM
up all night out all week . . .
alphamama
PICS :: TL
14:07:11 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700
falcona fridays
PICS :: PS
04:02:11 13:07:11 :: Tone ::16 Wentworth Ave Surry Hills 02 9267 6440
hot damn
PICS :: CG
15:07:11 :: Kit & Kaboodle ::33/37 Darlinghurst Road Kings Cross 9368 0300
the nextmen PICS :: TT
15:07:11 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711
PICS :: KC
meniscus
15:07:11 :: Tone ::16 Wentworth Ave Surry Hills 02 9267 6440 56 :: BRAG :: 422: 25:07:11
PICS :: KC
14:06:11 :: Spectrum :: 34 Oxford St Darlinghurst 93316245
:: NIKI BODLE ::KATRINA CLARKE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: THOMAS PEACHEY :: OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER YEN NGU Y VICK :: NS DANIEL MUN CAI GRIFFIN :: ASHLEY MAR :: PATRICK STEVENSON ::
BRAG :: 422 :: 25:07:11 :: 57
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cassian
PICS :: AM
upall allnight nightout outall allweek week...... up
16:07:11 :: Bungalow 8 :: 8 The Promenade King Street Wharf 92994440
the only
It’s called: Back2School Recommencemen t Party ft. Hook N Sling It sounds like: Electro, house, hip hop, a bit of dub and non-stop rockthe-house party jams. Who’s spinning? Hook N Sling (Ministry Of Sound/Pacha London/Space Ibiza), Troy T (Superfest/RNB Superclub), Joey Kaz. Sell it to us: We throw down every Wednesday , suffer for it every Thursday and get our story straight by Friday each and every week. Our monthly theme parties are infamous and our annual Recommencement Party ft. Hook N Sling will be at capacity once again, with its all-killer, no-filler Back2School glory! Three records that’ll rock the floor: LMFA O ft. Lil Jon – ‘Shots (Skeet Skeet’s Ignorant Dance Music Mix)’; Ou Est Le Swimming Pool – ‘Jackson's Last Stand (Hook N Sling Mix)’; Klaxons – ‘Gravity’s Rainbow (Kavinsky Remix)’. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: None of it. It’s a f*cking student party. Crowd specs: People who want to rock out and have killer fun. Wallet damage: FREE plus kick-ass drink specia ls to save you dollars. Where: HUMP @ The Ranch / Cnr of Eppin g & Herring Rds, Eastwood. When: Wednesday August 3
PICS :: AM
16:07:11 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700
party profile
PICS :: DM
wham!
back2school @ hump
16:07:11 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex Street Sydney 82959958
hump wednesday
strike
PICS :: AM
13:07:11 :: The Ranch Hotel :: Corner of Herring and Epping Roads Eastwood 9887 2411
girl thing
PICS :: NB
15:07:11 :: Strike Bowling :: 122 Lang Road Moore Park 1300 787 453
16:07:11 :: Q-Bar :: 34-44 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93601375 58 :: BRAG :: 422: 25:07:11
:: NIKI BODLE ::KATRINA CLARKE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: THOMAS PEACHEY :: OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER YEN NGU Y DANIEL MUNNS :: VICK CAI GRIFFIN :: ASHLEY MAR :: PATRICK STEVENSON ::
MINISTRY OF SOUND, GLOBAL GATHERING & FUTURE MUSIC
BEST DRESSED TO WIN A MAC BOOK PRO