The Brag #426

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rock music news welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Nathan Jolly and Steph Harmon

five things WITH

PAUL FROM THE SNOWDROPPERS ripping off Joy Division or BJM and wearing black jeans. Which is great, but call a spade a spade, you know?

2.

The Music You Make It’s a mongrel. It’s always got that blues 4. backbone, but we love to play really loud and

3.

Music, Right Here, Right Now There’re always plenty of good bands 5. around in Sydney. Hopefully not too many more

Inspirations They always change, but in terms of some inspiring recent gigs, we saw Reverend Beat Man a few weeks ago (from Switzerland, the head of Voodoo Rhythm Records) who was crazy and awesome. Johnny loved seeing the Hives recently again, being a fan for many years – we basically like bands who aren’t afraid of being entertaining on stage. I think it’s a good change to see someone go, ‘Hey, I’m gonna rock this shit out, I’m stoked to be here and I want you to get your dollar’s worth, and dance around and have fun.’

Growing Up We started off doing shows for fun at 1. burlesque and cabaret type nights our friends were putting on. Our first ‘gig’ was just me and Johnny with a banjo and acoustic at 34b; it was like an open mic night for that sort of thing, so there was a whole bunch of boobs and feathers and then us singing about cocaine and sex.

Not a whole lot has changed in that regard.

We were having a lot of fun and so ended up doing ‘proper’ gigs at places like the Hoey and Club 77, and it went from there. It was funny moving over into the whole “rock band scene” as somewhat of an outsider, with the amount of pretension around at the time. Like, ‘We’re making Important Music’ – no, you’re just

HUSKY

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: Katrina Clarke, Cai Griffin, Ashley Mar, Daniel Munns, Vicky Nguyen, Thomas Peachy, Rosette Rouhanna 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

If you want to know how to do life correctly, ask Melbourne’s Husky. These guys just signed to Liberation Music, and have announced a debut record to be released October 21. They recently finished a sold-out tour with Jinja Safari, are about to embark on a sold out tour with Kimbra (okay it may not have sold out yet, but as if it won’t – September 16 at the Metro), and will be headlining their own shows in the meantime – like the one at GoodGod Small Club this Thursday August 25. Are you writing this down?

I’m only typing it once.

FALLS FESTIVAL

Ever the clever marketers, the people behind Falls Festival appear to be adding new bands to the lineup each week (like the most recent An Horse, CSS, John Butler Trio, Kimbra, Scratch Perverts and The Head & The Heart) in the hope that we’ll give them space in news every issue... NICE TRY, you guys. (The lineup already boasts Arctic Monkeys, Beirut, Fleet Foxes, Metronomy, J Mascis, The Grates, The Kooks, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and more – and while the Victorian festival has sold out, you can still grab tickets to the one in Tassie, being held from December 29 to January 1.)

Your Crew We’ve got a good extended family of bands and their crews and friends that we’ve been playing, drinking and embarrassing ourselves with over the years. A bunch of other acts that aren’t necessarily similar to us in style, but kindred spirits in the sense of not really fitting into a particular scene. I like to think we’ve joined forces, Captain Planet style, and sort of made our own little scene. “Shitty Blues-Core” or something. It’s a tough slog trying to be a touring band, so it always helps

Where: The Sydney Blues & Roots Festival @ Windsor, NSW When: October 27 – 30 More: www.sydneybluesfestival.com.au

Congrats to Boy and Bear for hitting #2 on the ARIA charts first week in, with their lovely Moonfire album. They held off Jay-Z and Kanye West, which means they’ll be in possession of an intolerable swagger at their November 5 show at the Enmore Theatre. But for those who tend to plan week-to-week, the band are also stopping in at Red Eye Records to play an acoustic set (as opposed to their metal set) at 5pm this Thursday August 25.

RAT VS POSSUM

Rat vs Possum took those old sounds Animal Collective didn’t want anymore and twisted them into the marvelous, squelchy Korg-driven goodness that exists on their new eight-song album, Let Music & Bodies Unite. Listen to ‘Fat Monk’, the first taste of their second album, on Bachelorette

BACHELORETTE

That lovely, spaced out pop artist we call Bachelorette moved from New Zealand to New York and is now hitting up New South Wales on her ‘New, New, New, New’ tour (unofficial title), which may also take in New Caledonia (not verified). She plays GoodGod Small Club on October 22, with support from Donny Benét and Jasmina Maschina.

their Bandcamp page, and then waste every moment up until the September 23 release date thinking about how you wished it was September 23 already.

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6 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

With: Baby Animals, Diesel, Folk Uke, Ash Grunwald, Watussi, Jeff Lang, Jeff Martin and more

BOY AND YEAH!

EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Publisher, Editor or Staff of The Brag.

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venues close than open, and she’ll be right.

Wanna swoon over something? How about the news that Kurt Vile And The Violators are coming to Australia, playing December 6 at Oxford Art Factory. Not swooning? You obviously haven’t heard Kurt Vile’s last album Smoke Ring For My Halo then… Go and listen, and then come to this show.

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noisy in that rock/punk way, and we’re also big fans of good, concise pop songwriting – so ten-minute noise wank jams are banned outside of the rehearsal room. Everyone in the band probably has a different idea in their head what we’re aiming for sound-wise, but for me, maybe it would be Howlin’ Wolf covering The Kinks’ ‘Til The End Of The Day’, with some sort of pub rock band like The Angels backing up. That’s the kind of image I get in my head.

KURT VILE & THE VIOLATORS

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to have nice people to share the good times and horror stories with.

MEREDITH FESTIVAL

Gyroscope

GYROSCOPE TOUR

Remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books? Well, while I enjoyed the freedom of slightly controlling the narrative arc of a novel, it never really seemed to me that deciding whether or not to turn on a torch in a cave I didn’t wish to enter really qualified as any true form of choice... Plus, I often cheated. We all did. Anyway, Gyroscope are embarking on a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ tour, which involves letting the public dig through their back catalogue and choose their setlist via The Internets. There will be no caves apparently, but there will be a night at the Factory Theatre on November 19. Vote for ‘Fast Girl’ under a few different names.

They’re billing it as ‘The Most Dynamic Crack Squad Of Sonic Mavericks Yet Assembled In The Supernatural’, and you know what? They’re kinda right. Grinderman, Gang Gang Dance, Cut Copy, Ladyhawke, Adalita, Explosions In The Sky, Mudhoney, Icehouse, Future Of The Left, Oscar + Martin and Eagle & The Worm are just some of said sonic mavericks, with the rest of the lineup offering more obscurities than you can point a Google at.

It’s their 21st birthday, so we excuse them for pulling out all the stops. It happens on December 9 – 11 at Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre in Victoria, you’ve got until Tuesday August 23 to enter the ballot (another reason to pick BRAG up early in the week, yeah?) – and fingers crossed for some Sydney sideshow announcements.

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rock music news

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Nathan Jolly and Steph Harmon

free stuff

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He Said She Said WITH

JORDAN LESER

M

y parents brought me up listening to a whole mixture of musical styles – I grew up on West African, Celtic, pop, soul, classical etc. And one of my favourite memories is dancing around the living room with my dad to world music.

There’s five generations of musicians on my father’s side, and my great grandmother was the first female pianist to play at Albert Hall. So when I started to play piano at the age of six, I knew there was something in me that I couldn’t ignore.

Nature is a huge source of inspiration for me – there is always an endless supply of beautiful metaphors in the natural world. Maybe growing up in Byron Bay has instilled that wonderment in me. So to be part of an initiative like Music For Trees is a privilege, because it combines a passion for music with a passion for the environment. I love music that takes you on a visual

as well as an emotional journey – some of the artists that do this for me are Kate Bush, Leonard Cohen, Loreena Mckennitt, Yann Tiersen, Paul Kelly (and the list goes on...)

For the past year I’ve been developing my craft with Jim Moginie and Rob Hirst from Midnight Oil. Together we’ve recorded an EP which is due to be released later in the year.

At the moment, I’m a completely solo project, but I’m looking to form a band in the coming months. My approach to songwriting is honest and personal, and aimed straight at the heart.

I hope to create emotionally intimate live shows that connect with people.

I don’t see as much music in Sydney as I’d like to, but some of my favourite local bands at the moment are The Jezabels, kyu and Danny Ros. I’ve really enjoyed playing at venues such as Low Bar, El Rocco Room, The Sandringham and more recently The Basement, because they’re really supportive of young up-and-coming musicians.

What: Music For Trees presents Unplugged & Uncomplicated Where: Carriageworks When: Saturday August 27, 12-5pm More: www.musicfortrees.com

…TRAIL OF DEAD

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead have a ridiculously long name, but you better believe they deserve every word of it. Supporting Mogwai, scoring a 10.0 on Pitchfork, album after album of pure, unbridled genius… Forget about the dead, you’ll know these guys by the trail of alternative rockers clamouring to get into Manning Bar on Saturday September 10.

If you wanna skip the crowds and score yourself one of two double passes, just email us the name of the band’s last album…

ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI

I don’t know much about architecture in Helsinki – they probably have some really nice churches though? I do, however, know a little about Architecture In Helsinki – like how they’re a Fitzroy-based five-piece up for a J Award, they killed it at Splendour and they’ve got enough pop beats and quirky lyrics to keep you warm through the cold nights… I also know they’re playing at The Metro Theatre on Thursday September 1, and they’re bringing Cut Off Your Hands and Oscar + Martin along for the ride.

BRAG has three double passes to the gig.

To nab one, just tell us something you know about Architecture In Helsinki.

Ball Park Music

BALL PARK MUSIC @ THE STANDARD

If we were to invent our own awards (let’s call them ‘The Braggys’), the award for best debut album title from an awesome Brisbane band would go to Ball Park Music for Happiness And Surrounding Suburbs. It sounds like it could have been the title of a Go-Betweens record – one of the good ones, too! The band are celebrating their recent win at the Braggys with a tour that’ll feature special guests Northeast Party House and The Jungle Giants. They play October 28 at The Standard, an awesome new venue opening next month above Kinselas – be reading next week for the low down on that one, too!

RIYM: SHOW, ALBUM, TOUR

So according to our inbox, Richard In Your Mind are launching an album on September 23 at GoodGod Small Club. Yep, a new album, already. We are as surprised/delighted as you.

SUN marks the third album from the Sydney oddballs and the follow-up to last year’s My Volcano, and contains plenty of sunshinethemed fun-psyche tunejams judging by the tracklist (‘She Took The Sun Away’, ‘Maybe When The Sun Goes Down’ and ‘Sun’, amongst others).

If you can’t wait ‘til September, you can catch them at FBi Social this Thursday August 25, with Hammocks & Honey and Oblako Lodka.

Ash Grunwald

WORLDS COLLIDE AT MUM

This Friday night at MUM @ The World Bar, The Spit Press magazine is joining forces with Major Raiser, that lovely initiative that pairs good bands with good crowds to raise money for and awareness of a different cause each party.

The night is being headlined by Peppercorn, featuring a few ex-Red Riders, with support from Fishing, The Mountains, Tank, Oceanics, Rockets, Tim Fit, Vacant Field, Barnzy and Cuervo. World Bar have just launched a quiet new nook bar too, the Apothecary, round the side where the pokies were. Nice.

SYDNEY BLUES & ROOTS FESTIVAL

The worst thing about owning a djembe (aside from the dubious lifestyle choices that lead to its purchase) is that you can never find an environment to beat it aimlessly. Well, Sydney Blues and Roots Festival have a mammoth three-day lineup, which offers up plenty of opportunities for freeform expression.

Baby Animals, Diesel and Abbie Dobson join an already great bill (Ash Grunwald, The Snowdroppers, Chain, The Break, The Flood, etc), and it all happens October 27-30 in Windsor.

Moon Duo

SOUND SUMMIT LINEUP

They may have cut their official ties with This Is Not Art earlier this year, but there’s no wind lacking from the sails of Sound Summit, whose lineup for 2011 has just been slammed down upon us like so many excellent bands. We’ve got Moon Duo (featuring Ripley Johnson of Wooden Shjips) headlining the Friday September 30 showcase, Wet Hair bringing their analog-heavy scuzz all the way from Iowa, and noise-art-metal champions MONO coming down from Japan. And in the spirit of their past, they’ve announced their first ever Festival-Within-A-Festival, The Clubhouse, which will host showcases by Australia’s finest (and most interesting) indie labels and curators: think people like R.I.P Society, Spring Break and Siberia Records. There will also be a series of panels and workshops of course, plus a record fair, trivia, a bike tour and more. It’s held from September 29 – October 2; head to soundsummit.com.au.

SPOOKYLAND

Spookyland sounds like the most backyardbudget themepark of all time, family-owned by a pair of parents that spent years pushing their kids to do am-dram and street theatre. Instead (or possibly ‘as well as’), it’s the fitting moniker for 19-year-old Marcus Gordon, who writes odd, folksy outlaw anthems. He’s recently found a band to join his chaotic quest, and the full Spookyland experience will be happening for free this Thursday August 25, at the Oxford Art Factory – or for a small amount of money, at Changing Lanes Festival on September 17.

VICTORY LAP FOR JEBEDIAH

As Jebediah put the finishing touches on what was to become their break-back-intoawesomeness single, Kevin Mitchell turned to Vanessa and wistfully declared, “If we can just touch 35,000 people with this song, it will have all been worth it”. Well, it was worth it, because ‘She’s Like A Comet’ just went Gold – and to celebrate, the band are doing one last capital city run, stopping in at the Metro on November

19 to play ‘Harpoon’ and other favourites.

Kosciuszko out now. Slightly Odway out now.

Of Someday Shambles out now. Self-titled and Braxton Hicks out now and wildly underrated.

HENRY WAGONS

Here’s your timely reminder about Henry Wagons’ solo tour, for which he has abandoned his Melbourne bandmates to hit The Vanguard this Thursday August 25. He’s bringing Brisbane’s Gossling too, equally solo.

PEATS RIDGE PRE-SALES

As of Monday August 22 at 10am, some ridiculously well-priced Peats Ridge tickets went up for grabs. At just $245 for three days of music, art and a supremely high level of fun, getting out of Sydney for New Years Eve has never looked so eco-friendly. The festival goes from Dec 29 – Jan 1 at Glenworth Valley, just an hour north of Sydney, and with plenty of space, scenery and water to float in, it’s one of the few festivals that people who hate festivals still go to. And camping passes are only $40. You’re welcome.

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BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 9

The Music Network

themusicnetwork.com

Industry Music News with Christie Eleizer

Lifelines Re-marrying: After almost divorcing last year, Slash and Pera Ferrar will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary by renewing their marriage vows.

Divorced: John Mellencamp and Elaine Irwin finalised their divorce, with Irwin getting custody of their sons, 17-year-old Speck and 16-year-old Hud. Injured: Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist of The Hives fell 3 metres off the stage after he got his leg caught while jumping around a lighting rig. The song they were performing was, ya better believe it, ‘Walk Idiot Walk’.

Investigated: The LA sheriff’s office has decided not to charge rapper The Game, after his Twitter account told his 580,000 followers to call an emergency services hotline claiming it was the number to apply for a hip hop internship, and jamming it for two hours.

Facing jail: Former Queens Of The Stone Age and Kyuss bassist Nick Oliveri could get 15 years if found guilty of charges relating to his four-hour standoff with an Los Angeles SWAT team, following an argument with his girlfriend.

Died: US label executive Rich Fitzgerald, from esophageal cancer. He played a major role in the US success of The Bee Gees, Eric Clapton, Green Day and Alanis Morissette.

Died: Joel Chin, A&R of Jamaica’s VP Records, was murdered outside his house in Jamaica. He discovered Beenie Man, Wayne Wonder and Sean Paul.

SYDNEY ACTS DOMINATE NA2R LIST

Six of the eight finalists of this year’s New Artist 2 Radio (NA2R) initiative are based in Sydney. NA2R, in its tenth year, is the commercial radio’s annual competition to discover unsigned, indie acts for commercial airplay. They are rock band Stone Parade, roots trio Taylor And The Makers, singer songwriter Danielle Blakey, former Australian Idol entrant Barry Southgate, former Tooheys Uncharted and JD Set winners The Glass Ceiling, and The Stellar Affect, who’re finishing off their debut EP. The other two on the list were the Gold Coast’s Nine Sons Of Dan and Melbourne’s Bellusira. Two winners will showcase on the Gold Coast on October 14 before key music and program directors.

One will play at the Australian Commercial Radio Awards the next night. They win $1.3 million worth of six weeks of radio airplay from six major networks, and a digital deal with MGM, plus professional advice from

VGM – Media & Marketing. Last week, NA2R 2009 winner Emma Louise blitzed the Queensland Music Awards. Last year’s winners Radio Ink and The Smart have got strong airplay, and The Smart opened for Bon Jovi.

the Arena could interconnect, to enhance the overall experience for the clients of Allphones and the one million-plus patrons who visit the Arena every year.”

GREG CLARKE TRIBUTE

After a slow start, Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream has tied with Michael Jackson in America. With ‘Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)’ she scored five #1s from one album.

Jackson did that with Bad. But while Jackson spent seven weeks in total with his Bad songs, Perry stayed for a total of 18 weeks. Perry’s five chart toppers have scanned 20.2 million units in all formats. In Australia, Teenage Dream has gone triple platinum for sales of 210,000 units. All the five #1 singles topped the airplay charts and went multi-platinum.

Rose Tattoo, Baby Animals and The Screaming Jets are among acts playing a tribute to the late tour manager Greg Clarke, who worked with them. Others on the ‘As Loud As It Gets’ bill who were associated with Clarke are The Poor, Judge Mercy/Wrecking Crew and Ugly Little Secrets, who include former members of Candy Harlot. All proceeds go towards an organisation being set up in his name, to fund and mentor young aspirants who want to work in live and studio engineering, and tour and production management. It is being held on Friday September 2 at the Enmore Theatre from 6.30pm.

DRESSING ROOM RIDERS

While being interviewed in the studio of London’s Capital FM, Jay-Z wanted four golf buggies on his rider, and Beyonce wanted hers with a love seat. Jennifer Lopez wanted her coffee stirred anticlockwise, Lady GaGa called for a Sunday roast by 5pm and P Diddy needed 204 towels. The Wanted asked for Boddingtons beer, pork scratchings, an Xbox and a dartboard.

ALLPHONES GET NAMING RIGHTS FOR ACER ARENA

Acer Arena will be renamed Allphones Arena from next month. Independent telecommunications retailer Allphones, which has 160 stores, signed a five year naming rights deal. The retailer is making a “substantial investment” into venue owner Nine Entertainment Company’s various divisions, including its live entertainment division Nine Live. Nine has agreed to continue broadcasting the Smart Market Productions-produced Allphones Eclipse Music TV, which will be recorded at Allphones Arena from next month. There were three or four other strong bidders as well. Nine refuses to say who they were, but its CEO David Gyngell says, “We decided to partner with Allphones as they were best able to demonstrate how their brand and

KATY PERRY TIES WITH MJ IN THE STATES

WEALTHY TEENAGERS: BIEBER > CYRUS > SMITH

17-year old Justin Bieber topped People magazine’s list of highest earning teenage celebs. He made US$53 million last year, from music, concerts, 3D concert movie Never Say Never, and the Someday perfume range. No wonder he can afford to buy $30,000 watches and $25,000 necklaces. Miley Cyrus, 18, was second with $48 million. Included: Nick Jonas ($12.5m), Selena Gomez ($5.5m), while Will Smith’s kids Jaden and Willow made $9 million combined.

LABELS FIGHT WITH ARTISTS

Record companies already upset about vanishing profits face an extra hassle from those pesky artists they’ve signed. Artists are pushing to get their copyright from recordings released before 1978 back, from 2013 onwards. Bob Dylan, The Eagles and Tom Petty are among those who’ve filed for these copyrights, which means they’ll get the royalties that their record companies get now. The record companies will fight back, arguing that “termination rights” do not apply to sound recordings, and that the acts were “employed” by them at the time.

TIME TO PAY FOR FAT AS BUTTER

Newcastle’s Fat As Butter has introduced a “time to pay” ticketing option allowing punters to pay in three installments. The

THINGS WE HEAR

* A row broke out in Darwin after Dan Sultan called himself a “Territorian at heart” during a visit there. The NT News says the singer got visibly angry when his management and publicist emphasised to the media that he should be referred to as “Australian”. * The Rapture blabbed that they’ll be here next year for Future Music. * Two promoters are pitching in to get Van Halen out next year. * There’s some confusion about Ice Cube’s visit next month. His official website says the September dates are a “rumour”, and that he’ll be here in April, but the promoter insists he’s spoken to Ice’s people and it’s on. Ticketek is still selling tickets for September.

Ice Cube

be The incredible stories

festival is being held on Saturday October 22, with the first round of artists announced including Empire of the Sun, The Living End, Flo Rida, Naughty By Nature and The Jezabels.

JAZZ FEST BRINGS $750K TO DUBBO

Final figures are still being tallied, but the record attendance for the 21st Dubbo Jazz Festival pumped $750,000 into the local economy, says organiser Ross Tighe.

Two days sold out, with 10% more tickets hurriedly printed to cater for demand. One of the headliners, The Shuffle Demons, almost had to pull out when funding fell through, but came anyway just to play a set at the festival.

JINGLE PUNKS LAUNCHES IN SYDNEY

US company Jingle Punks provides prelicensed music of 40,000 tracks through a patented search engine, to ad agencies with clients like TV shows The Voice, 16 & Pregnant and Real Housewives. It’s now opened a Sydney office under head of business development APAC Tatyanna Wright. It’s already working with local ad agencies, and says it’s looking to sign Aussie music for international exposure.

CERTIFIED: GOTYE, JEBEDIAH, ADELE

Goyte’s ‘Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra)’, which hit #1 on the ARIA chart this week, has been certified platinum.

It’s also reached #2 on the iTunes Single Charts in Holland and in his native Belgium.

Jebediah’s crossover hit ‘She’s Like A Comet’ has gone gold. Adele’s 21 went platinum x 6 (420,000) in Australia. Its 14 weeks at #1 broke Pink’s Greatest Hits ...

So Far record for the longest running No.1 album this decade on the ARIA charts, and is now the equal second longest running No.1 album this century, tied with Bryan Adams’ So Far So Good and Kings of Leon’s Only By the Night.

WE MANAGE SIGN LEADER CHEETAH

Matthew Kennedy of Sydney’s We Manage added Adelaide’s Leader Cheetah to his roster, which includes Melbourne’s Wagons and Brisbane’s Little Scout.

* New research by Repucom say that Australia’s music festivals are attracting more sponsors, but brand awareness of sponsors among fans remains low. * In the weeks before his death, former Warrant singer Jani Lane kept smashing up hotel rooms, and got banned from a Hilton hotel in LA. * A gang of drug traffickers is inserting pictures of Amy Winehouse in their bags of cocaine to improve sales, Brazilian police said. * While the Ten Network revived Young Talent Time to streak towards the Glee audience, the next season of Glee will move its music from pop to classic rock. * Kiss were dropped from a star-studded Michael Jackson tribute show in Cardiff, Wales, in October, after they called him a child abuser last year.

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“I was pretty crazy in the early days – I was definitely having a good time. I have a reputation ... but these days, the other guys in the band are crazier than I am.”

The Vines The Wild Ones

Nicholls is not most people. He genuinely loves music, and when he tells me that his ambition for the future is to go on writing and playing songs as long as there are people out there to enjoy them, he is being completely truthful.

The Vines’ fifth album, Future Primitive, came out last month. It’s their first entirely selffinanced album, but sound and feel-wise it’s business as usual; a collection of fuzzed-out garage rock and pop that clocks in at just a shade over half an hour. The band made the record with producer Chris Colonna, better known for his work as part of eclectic cut-npaste dance guys Bumblebeez, and he brought his own distinctive touches into the studio.

“It was good, it was really cool making the album with him,” Nicholls says of their working relationship. “We got along well. He’s kind of young – for a producer, I mean – and he had a lot of crazy ideas on how to improve the sound.”

The album does indeed feature a slight update of The Vines’ sound, not in terms of the songwriting, but in the little tweaks and curlicues of electronic sounds around the edges. Were these Chris Colonna’s idea? “Um, I think it went both ways,” Nicholls says. “We definitely thought it would be cool working with him, because he could do the kind of stuff we wouldn’t have any knowledge of. We definitely had the idea in mind that he could give us a new sound, take our music in a bit of a different direction... I think the one thing we took away was that you should never be tied down to just the one way of working. We really threw the rule book away when we went into the studio with him, and it worked out great for us.”

Future Primitive is only just out, but The Vines are in a productive period right now; as Nicholls alluded to, they’re already in the studio working on album number six. In a recent triple j interview, he said that the finished product might be out within months, but when I press him, he’s uncertain. “It’s possible, but I wouldn’t say for sure,” he says. “We may find that we want to record a bunch more songs, in which case we’ll be in the studio for a bit longer. I can’t say for sure how it’s going to go, but if not this year, the new album will hopefully be out early next year.” What about the sound of the album, I ask him – how are the songs shaping up? “They’re epic acoustic monsters,” he enthuses. “They’re really trippy. They’re mostly acoustic, but we’ve brought in some other elements as well, some orchestral touches and some strings. They’re going to be really cool.”

By Alasdair Duncan

C

raig Nicholls is the guy who arrived kicking and screaming to save rock ‘n roll, at a time it was generally agreed upon that rock ‘n roll needed saving the most. He’s the guy who inspired a major label bidding war and graced the cover of Rolling Stone back when those things still meant something, with a band whose songs were two-minute blasts of noise delivered straight from garage rock heaven. He’s the guy who lived on a diet of weed and McDonalds, whose reputation for erratic behaviour made him a celebrity to be gawked at and gossiped about; he’s the guy who smashed a reporter’s tape recorder, who destroyed the set of David Letterman’s show. He’s the guy who abused an audience in Japan, the guy whose antics at an infamous Annandale Hotel gig caused his bandmate Patrick Matthews to walk off stage and never return. He’s the guy who was

dropped by EMI after an Asperger’s diagnosis made touring a virtual impossibility, torpedoing his band’s commercial prospects. He’s the guy who could have had it all.

Nicholls claims to avoid reading articles about his band, but he’s still aware of the reputation that precedes him as the wild man of Australian rock. The question, as far as I can see it, is whether the Craig Nicholls we see depicted in the press is anything like the Craig Nicholls who exists in real life? “Well, it’s probably not me so much anymore,” he answers. “I was pretty crazy in the early days – I was definitely having a good time. I think some of the craziness that went into making Highly Evolved and some of the earlier albums has gone away – I’m definitely a lot more mellow now. I have a reputation for being the crazy one, but these days, the other guys in the band

are a lot crazier than I am.” Founding member Matthews has never come back but, in general, the atmosphere in The Vines is a lot happier now. “We’re loving working on the new album,” Nicholls tells me, when I ask about the band’s present dynamic. “We just love making music together. It’s really cool.”

‘Cool’ is one of Craig Nicholls’ favourite words, and he uses it pretty much all of the time.

Playing the main stage at Splendour In The Grass is cool. Touring Europe and America and being met by throngs of screaming female fans on the strength of your debut album is cool. Writing new songs and working with new producers is cool. The meteoric rise to fame that The Vines experienced, followed by the subsequent cooling-off period – and the ceaseless media coverage of both these things – would turn many people into cynics, but

When researching for my interview with Nicholls, I came across a Guardian article from a few years back, where one particularly interesting fact popped out. The piece said that the audience for a Manchester gig that The Vines played in 2002 included one Alex Turner; it was his first ever show, and Nicholls’ performance left an indelible impression. He later told Guardian writer Craig McLean that when watching Nicholls, he felt “that’s what being a singer is all about”, and decided that, should he ever front a band, he would do what Nicholls did. Turner, of course, went on to front Arctic Monkeys, one of the most successful UK bands of the last half-decade – and, arguably, products of The Vines’ ongoing garage rock legacy.

I ask Nicholls what it feels like to know that he and his band directly influenced a whole new wave of artists. “It feels really good, yeah,” he says. “Really amazing. For me, Arctic Monkeys are one of the most important bands to happen in the last five years. They’re doing such great things, and to think that we’ve had some kind of influence on them is...” – he thinks about this for a while. “It’s just really cool.”

What: Future Primitive is out through Sony Where: Saturday August 27 When: The Metro Theatre More: Also playing at Homebake with Grinderman, Gotye, Icehouse, Gurrumul and more on Saturday December 3 @ the Domain

“Fame is but a fruit tree, so very unsound. It can never flourish ‘til its stock is in the ground” - NICK DRAKE 12 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 13

The Gangsters’ Ball In Full Swing By Caitlin Welsh classier age. Now in its fourth year, the night has expanded its horizons a little, as organiser (and member of The Velvet Set, the ten-piece swing band who provide the night’s classic live soundtrack) Graham Coupland explains.

How did you get started playing swing and jazz? What do you love about it?

To be honest, when the idea of forming a swing band was first put to me by Dave Bell, our sax player, I knew absolutely nothing about swing! I did some research, bought some CDs and within a few weeks was completely hooked. I love the rhythm, clever composition and overall feeling of happiness that swing music imparts on the players and audience alike.

W

ay back in 2007, before everybody and their dog started having Mad Men parties, the original vintage shindig was the Gangsters’ Ball – an all-out spats-and-stockings celebration of a naughtier,

Without doubt. The genre is extremely popular due to its stylish nature, and the Gangsters’ Ball is the perfect occasion for exponents of everything vintage to strut their stuff.

How detailed does the night get – are there period-accurate drinks served, for instance?

Yes indeed. There will be old-fashioned cocktails served, and even the venue is given a makeover, with 1930s props and decorations to re-create an authentic speakeasy.

How did The Gangsters’ Ball get started?

When The Velvet Set first started playing gigs around Sydney in 2007, we often had burlesque dancers performing during the band breaks to make the shows more interesting and unique. The concept worked really well – too well, in fact – and we became the victims of our own success, outgrowing the small pub and cabaret venues we’d been playing in. So we’ve moved our shows to bigger venues with great dance floors, and haven’t looked back since.

What have the crowds been like the last few years? Are they the hardcore vintage community who dress up 24/7, curious punters in cheap pearl strings, expert swing dancers, the burlesque community, or a mix?

All of the above and more. We have firsttimers checking out the vintage theme, fans of burlesque and cabaret, rockabilly kids, and couples in their 60s and 70s who’ve danced swing for years… Attendees are completely immersed in the style, music and humour of a bygone era, and leave with a sense of amazement and wonder at the quality and talent of the bands and acts they’ve just seen.

There’s nothing else like it in this country, and this uniqueness ensures the night’s success.

Do you think the increased popularity and trendiness of “vintage” has been a factor in this success?

What’s new about the Ball this year?

Traditionally Gangsters’ Ball has featured a great band, plus burlesque and cabaret acts,

but this year I’m raising the bar with fabulous sideshow vaudeville, magic, aerial and juggling acts!

What would you say to first-timers who are interested in coming along, but are a bit intimidated that their retro threads won’t be up to scratch?

My advice is to go crazy with your outfits, and bring some band-aids for the blisters on your feet you’ll get from dancing all night long! The more effort attendees put into their outfits, the more fun they will have, I guarantee it – it doesn’t cost a lot to dress vintage, either. And don’t forget your sense of humour!

Any tips on how we can get into the mood?

The recent [HBO] series Boardwalk Empire recreates the 1930s style and look of Prohibition America. Beg, borrow or steal a copy of series 1, and you’ll be ready for Gangsters’ Ball.

What will you be wearing?

Well that’s a highly guarded secret – but I can allude to a spiffy new gangster suit that will definitely make an impression.

With: The Velvet Set – plus vaudeville, acrobatics, magic and more Where: The Gangsters’ Ball @ The Metro Theatre When: Saturday September 3

Anberlin With A Twist By Nina Bertok

S

o many bands claim Australia is their ‘favourite place to tour’ that it’s almost become a cliché, but Florida pop-punkers Anberlin actually mean it; they’ve proved it by making their way halfway across the world at least once a year. It’s a special connection, alright – which is why drummer Nathan Young believes their Aussie fans deserve a special show.

“It’s definitely a one-off for Australia,” he says of the upcoming ‘An Evening With Anberlin’ tour.

“I guess it could be done in other places too, like here at home in the States, but we wanted to do something extra special for Australia because our fanbase there is like no other. Per capita, it’s actually the biggest in the world for Anberlin. I can’t explain it and I don’t know why it’s turned out that way over the last ten years, but we’ve developed an amazing bond with the Australian people, which is the reason that we come back so often. We’ll come back once a year, and sometimes we’ll tour twice a year – which is geographically a very long way to go for your fans!”

As the ultimate dream-come-true live experience for any Anberlin fan, ‘An Evening With Anberlin’ will see the band step out of the box, as far as the typical concert performance is concerned. With a setlist featuring rare songs and B-sides, Young says the band will also be putting a new spin on fan favourites, and an acoustic twist on the heavier tracks. “Crowd interaction is important, of course, especially when you’re doing such a fan-dedicated show like this,” he explains.

“We’re thinking about taking questions from the audience – I don’t think there’ll be any

kind of order to it, just whoever gets in there first I guess! I’m excited about the chance to play around with some of our songs, maybe add some electronic parts here or there, strip it down to acoustic, maybe change the percussion… I think it will be just as much fun for the audience as it will be for us, too.

I mean, we’ve been doing this now for a decade, and after a while it can turn into a formula where it’s just not fun anymore. I think we’ve got some good songs in our catalogue, and you always want to serve them justice.”

And while Young and the band are looking forward to putting a new twist on their classics, the drummer says he’s looking forward just as much to belting out some of their newer songs too, especially from Anberlin’s latest offering, 2010’s Dark Is The Way, Light Is A Place. A darker, less poppy side of the band, Young says the fifth record marked both the beginning and the end of an era for Anberlin. “Stephen [Christian, vocals] was talking about how the album felt like we were on the brink of something, and that’s very true,” Young says. “We’ve been a band for ten years now, and that’s kind of bound to happen; it’s almost like a coming-of-age.

It’s the start of a new cycle in many ways, and I don’t necessarily mean changing our sound or anything, but for us as people and as members of this band, it’s inevitable to go through personal change – and that’s going to impact your music. Yeah, this album sounds a little bit less poppy than what we’re known for, but we still had a lot of fun making it. Personally, I don’t think it’s that much of a departure or anything. It’s just a bit of a new twist on the way we make music.”

Charlie Mayfair The Right Track Nils Hay

H

aving pulled herself away from the piano to talk to me, Hannah Shepherd – vocalist and keyboardist – is keen to share what’s been happening in the Charlie Mayfair rehearsal room. With a brand new single out and a suite of new songs up their sleeves, the band is hitting the road again.

“We’re working on a bunch of new tunes so that we can pull them out on the tour,” she explains.

Charlie Mayfair’s latest single ‘Tell Her’ has exposed the quintet to a darker, more layered folk rock sound. “It’s probably the most important song I’ve dreamt up in my whole life,” Hannah explains. “It’s really special to me, and to the whole band too, because of the message that it sends.” Following the heart-wrenching loss of someone close to Hannah, ‘Tell Her’ was penned as a reminder to let the important people in your life know how you feel about them. “It’s basically about losing someone who means everything to you, and the grief that goes with it.”

The moodier sound was developed with some guidance from producer Matt Redlich, who’s worked with fellow Brisbanites Hungry Kids of Hungary and Ball Park Music. “We first met him when he came to a show of ours,” she recalls.

“He was taking photos of us and I kind of joked, ‘You should work on our new record,’ and he was like, ‘Yeah. Cool.’”

What: ‘An Evening With Anberlin’ Where: The Enmore Theatre, Lic/AA When: Thursday September 1

Taking the new material down the east coast has the young group more excited than anything. “I think you fall into a bit of a comfort zone of always seeing your best friend in the crowd, or your dad or whatever,” Shepherd says,

of staying in your hometown. “It’s really exciting going and playing to new people, new faces, and it might be the first time they’ve heard you.”

The pressure, it seems, sharpens their act up too. “On stage you’re really relying on each other and your own musical ability and the song – you forget about whatever else might be going on, and you’re really, really, in the moment.”

It takes the proper preparation to get it right, and after some prodding Hannah reveals the band’s secret pre-gig ritual. “About 20 minutes before, we usually find a space, a bathroom or something … and we’ll all go in and just sing one of our songs and clap and jump around and stuff.” So if you find yourself in the toilet at a Charlie Mayfair gig and a jam session breaks out, you know what’s going on.

With the approaching tour, and a new EP to follow, Hannah and the rest of her band seem convinced that they’re on the right path. “We’ve had some sentimental conversations, and everyone’s said that this is what they want to do with their lives.” They’d be happy to talk to some labels about taking the next step, she says, but at the moment it’s not a high priority. “If we don’t have to have day jobs and we can just be Charlie musicians, that would be incredible.

Until then, we’re just going to keep working and going to uni and all the other stuff to fuel this.”

What: ‘Tell Her’ is out now Where: Bar On The Hill, Newcastle Uni / The Vanguard, Newtown When: Wednesday August 31 (midday show) / Thursday September 1

“Do you feel like a remnant of something that’s past? Do you find things are moving just a little too fast? ” - NICK DRAKE 14 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

Eagle And The Worm The Party Animals By Jack Franklin

E

agle And The Worm’s debut album has perhaps the most apt title for its contents: Goodtimes. That’s what it is, man – all ten tracks of it. The Melbourne act are above all else a party band, and with their near-perfect record spinning, it’s like an eight-piece band set up in your living room. Loosey goosey good times.

“It’s going pretty sweet,” says Jarrod Brown, the man behind it all. “I am really proud of Eagle And The Worm; having an album and being able to back it up with a full-scale national tour, with the whole eight-piece band. Pressing the album onto 12-inch – which was the ambition right from the start – I’m really proud. It’s hard work but I’m pumped. It’s pretty sweet not only playing a show in [another city] – but you also get to hang out with eight of your friends for a couple of days, playing some tunes and selling some records.”

Bringing the good times is something that’s close to Brown’s songwriting heart. After playing around the scene in plenty of other notable bands, like The Custom Kings and The Hondas, he felt it was time to write just for himself. “I had a sound that I was really feeling,” he explains.

“I was sick of writing for so many other bands – I had been playing bass and writing for any number of other bands, putting so much work into spreading myself over so many different sounds, and it got to the point where I thought, ‘I wanna do my own record’. I was always writing – I had so many different demos. I guess the ambition was to just write a great record… I was hearing a sound in my head and went for it. I put a lot of time into researching and demoing it, and I guess putting so much time into it enabled me to go into the studio with no rehearsals and count it out.”

summer. Saw Guided By Voices in New York, Hall And Oates. Hall And Oates were hilarious; we met Darrel Hall in a guitar shop in LA, it was fucking awesome. He’s looking really good, he’s pretty fit, he is still hanging onto it pretty hard…

Oates is just like, ‘I’ve sold 50 million records, so whatever. I’m fucking Oates.’ But Hall is still looking for more. Still got the same hair, wearing transition shades. Pretty awesome.”

Back home, it’s all about getting the band in shape, and getting ready to truly represent the record live. “We are getting pretty good at it – but it’s an eight-piece band, it gets better all the time. We have now set up something for ourselves where we can experiment and explore a bit more live, maybe on this tour and more so next year. But yeah man, eight dudes – you can’t just tap into that connection straight off the bat. We have worked pretty hard and rehearsed a hell of a lot. We are pretty pumped about the show. Everyone get the fuck down.”

What: Goodtimes is out through Warner Music Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Friday September 9

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“I wanted to be able to hear a band playing, which is why I didn’t want to rehearse much. I just want to have people really fired up in the studio, and having a sweet time. Recording in that way is the backbone of the album.”

With the album encompassing classic 1960s-’70s styles, reviewers seem to be making a sport of deciding which song sounds like which legendary band, but the vibe runs deeper than simple homage. ‘Summer Song’ is a wigout space jam, ‘Futureman’ a loose boogie party and ‘All I Know’ a rock and roll hoedown.

“I don’t think anyone writes by genre description or anything like that,” Jarrod says of the disparate sound. “Like, ‘I want this to be dubstep rock fuckin’ country’ or something. I was just writing a particular sound to come out of the speakers, with a particular kind of density in the arrangements, a particular looseness with the rhythm section. I wanted to be able to hear a band playing, which is why I didn’t want to rehearse much. I just want to have people really fired up in the studio, and having a sweet time.”

The balls of the album were laid down in only four days, with most of the band learning the songs on the spot. “It was about having a good time, and I just wanted to keep that on the record,” Brown explains. “Take that looseness from the studio and build some really nice, intricate, lush arrangements. Recording in that way is the backbone of the album; having the balance of having fun and jamming, but also presenting a song that has melodies people can hear and connect with. I guess the record has that balance too, between tripping out, going wherever you want and maintaining the idea of a song,” he says.

“The role I wanted to play was to be a creative director, setting those limitations with people – and despite the fact that people didn’t know the songs back-to-front, I was really able to hone in on different things. I was able to say, ‘I really want your personality to shine through the song really hard, just go for it.’ It was more about getting chemistry, saying the right things and getting the right atmosphere.”

In preparation for the national tour, Brown took time off to travel – but it seems that wherever he goes, music follows. “I just went on holiday, which was pretty fuckin’ sweet,” he says.

“America for three weeks, and it’s the middle of

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Josh Pyke The Art Of The Happy-Sad Song By Bridie Connellan

Y

ou know That Subjectively Horrible Painting at the Art Gallery of NSW? The oversized gaunt piece in the gilded frame collection, of two brothers in a makeshift boat on a river looking miserable and half-dead with bandages around their legs? “I’d seen it a million times, but I’d never really questioned what the whole thing was about, so I went home and looked it up,” Josh Pyke says, of Évariste Vital Luminais’ oil-on-canvas The Sons of Clovis II. “You know the story about the King – his sons tried to overthrow him so he had them hamstrung, put them on the river and sent them downstream. That’s a very short version, but when I was doing research on Clovis II at home, his sons actually just acceded him very peaceably. The myth that the painting depicts is not actually historically accurate. Writing ‘Clovis’ Son’ revolved around the idea that history kind of has its own version of the truth.”

‘Clovis’ Son’ is the first track on Pyke’s third album Only Sparrows – and explaining how it disproves a 19th century painter, the Sydney songwriter immediately exposes himself as a massive geek.

But on a grey Thursday afternoon, and with a killer new record under his arm, Pyke is more than welcome to get nerdily bleak. In the expected

rumpus of reviews and banter surrounding the album, adjectives like ‘dark’ and ‘black’ and ‘melancholy’ have swirled around in a unified nod of agreement, and it’s certainly not unwarranted.

Expressing the dilemma exhibited by tortured artists from van Gogh to Gotye in first single ‘No One Wants A Lover’, this well of a songwriter admits the obvious: that ‘Sometimes it’s good to feel lost’.

“You know, I was talking about this to a friend of mine who’s an author, and whether you’re writing a song or writing a book, there’s a period where you’re off the map,” he explains. “You’re literally off the map of the field of experience that you’ve had in the past. That’s one of my favourite points in songwriting: exploring. There’s a sense of freedom which is associated with being lost, and it’s not necessarily a negative thing at all.”

Pyke chuckles at mention of his own lyrics, ‘If I could write a sad song every day of the week / I’d be the happiest fucker I know’ – but despite such a tendency to point out the sore points of the human existence, Pyke’s music has always assumed a beautifully inoffensive stature. His sunbathed indiepop masks waves of honest sentiment, and it’s true when he tells us ‘sometimes we feel the train coming/but we don’t move out of the way’ (‘Coffee Cups’). “I think it’s fair to say that everybody has the same hopes and desires and the same anxieties and the same fears about the future. It’s just how you express it that makes you different,” says Pyke.

“In my day-to-day life I’m definitely not known as a melancholy guy. My favourite songs are always the happy-sad songs; they kinda make you happy even though they’re about sad stuff. That kind of contrast is always what I’m looking for in songs, either one I’ve written or one I’m listening to.”

“Musicians can never have an objective view of what they’re doing, that’s why there’s an abundance of selfdoubt around. I’ll just keep putting my creative back into it.”

With 2007’s Memories And Dust voicing the frustrations of an upcoming artist and 2008’s Chimney’s Afire somewhat stabilising his apprehension, Pyke embraced the changeholiday cliché, using his recent stint in NYC with supergroup Basement Birds (with Steve Parkin, Eskimo Joe’s Kayven Temperley and Jebediah’s Kevin Mitchell) as a new level of stimulation. “I just always need new… stuff, whether it’s a situation or an idea. When you’re on the road, you’re always a little bit emotionally fraught; you’re always facing a broader and stronger range of emotions. That’s all I need around me to write, really.”

The rest of Only Sparrows has a more homebound and accident-prone context, with Pyke now assuming a new moniker: Dad. Pyke needn’t worry about setting a good fatherly example though, with three albums, 14 singles, and a bag of accolades and side ventures, and a work ethic that’s echoed in final track ‘Love Lies’: ‘You’ve got to put your back into it sometimes’. And the breeding ground for his success has been local: the early days saw Pyke working at Fish Records while studying at Sydney University and writing under the pseudonym ‘Socks Rumsay’ for that highly esteemed music journal, The BRAG... Still, the man is humble. “I always like to think of myself as a working artist,” he says. “I’ve never been a buzzed artist, I’ve never been a hyped artist. Musicians can never have an objective view of what they’re doing, that’s why there’s an abundance of self doubt around. I’ll just keep putting my creative back into it.”

Probably the Nicest Guy In The Business, Pyke’s love of his listeners is genuine; the troubadour embarked on a sold-out series of intimate fansonly shows to preview Only Sparrows earlier in the year – and he still gets kicks from hearing an audience burl out his breakthrough hit, ‘Middle Of The Hill’. “I never ever forget they’re the reason I can pay my bills. I feel so bloody fortunate,” he says. So the challenge presented by Pyke’s third album was to somehow toe the line between self-satisfaction and pleasing his people. “I did sort of struggle with that at first; I did wonder, ‘Are my fans going to come with me on this?’ But at the end of the day, I think the thing that people liked about my music in the first place is that it’s honest, and I’ve never compromised on songs. I always write from my heart, as corny as that sounds.”

What: Only Sparrows is out now on Ivy League Where: September 8 / September 10 When: The Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle / The Metro Theatre, Sydney 16 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

- Wed 17th -

Justin Grounds (UK) and Karoshi: AUSTRALIAN TOUR

- Thurs 18th -

POP FRENZY PRESENTS: Times New Viking AUSTRALIAN TOUR

- Fri 26th - early -

PIGEON PARALLELS EP LAUNCH

with Elizabeth Rose, LGT, Trifore

- Fri 26th - late -

Country Grammar Dirty South Hip Hop and Crunk - Sat 27th -

ASTRAL PEOPLE AGENCY LAUNCH JONTI, BON CHAT BON RAT, WINTERCOATS, ALBATROSS, MIKE WHO, PREACHA, WEDDING RING FINGERS

BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 17

arts frontline

free stuff email: freestuff@thebrag.com

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

five minutes WITH

JETHRO LAWRENCE

T

he World Bar’s weekly arts night, The Wall, is teaming up with a bunch of talented young illustrators and graphic designers this week to present Alphabet Soup – a typographic group show that will look pretty and raise funds for local community organisation WEAVE, who work with disadvantaged young people in the inner west. Besides being a great cause, it’s a fantastic lineup of next-big-things from more familiar names like Maricor/Maricar, Toby & Pete and Helen Mycroft, to Bianca Chang, Georgia Hill – and Jethro Lawrence, who’s not even out of uni, but already turning heads.

When did the art start? As a kid I loved colouring in between the lines. I was master of the “texta” pen. However, throughout my life it has been through the fact that my mum is an artist and my dad is an engineer that I have made it to being a graphic designer; a mix of the two is what I like to think. I’ve always enjoyed art but I’ve never liked learning the fundamentals, I’d rather just play.

What is your training in design? I studied art in my final two years of high school and am now in the process of finishing my Bachelor of Design in Visual Communications at UTS. How would you describe your style? I tend not to lean towards any style (that I know of)

in the future. For example, during an internship last year I was approached by someone to do a keynote presentation; I remained enthusiastic about the experience and the client loved the outcome – and I have since received paid work from that person, and am collaborating with them on my major work for uni, which involves visualising the future of television.

and the same goes for mediums. I feel that it’s important to tailor the design to the project at hand and to explore new areas of design. I currently tell people that I work in print, motion and interactive design, which covers a lot of ground.

Where do you currently work? I am currently volunteering at FBi Radio as their Design Coordinator. It’s been a great place to get out ideas that I’ve not been able to put into my uni work, and a wonderful experience to do it in such an atmosphere of cool music vibes.

Care to share any recently acquired wisdom? It’s important to keep in contact with clients, especially those that you’ve had a good relationship with, because you never know what opportunities will pop up

What’re you making for Alphabet Soup? My piece for Alphabet Soup is very process driven. It is taking me back to my art days and away from the computer, which has been extremely enjoyable. It’s been a very simple and gentle process of gathering inspiration from the things that are currently surrounding me. I won’t tell you which letters I’ve chosen but needless to say, come exhibition night you’ll know which one is mine.

What’s your favourite letter of the alphabet, and why? I’ve always liked a capital K. It’s something to do with the harsh graphic diagonal lines that make it elegantly powerful.

What: Alphabet Soup at The Wall When: Wednesday August 31 from 7.30pm Where: The World Bar / 24 Bayswater Road, Kings Cross More: artonthewall.tumblr.com / jethrolawrence. com / designspiration.net/Jethro

PACT X SYDNEY FRINGE

Erskineville’s PACT theatre has announced their lineup for the Sydney Fringe: nine new short performance works from local and interstate artists. Top of our list is Nathan Harrison’s one-man show, The Art and Craft of Approaching Your Head of Department to Submit a Request for a Raise produced by the Applespiel collective. Based on a 1968 novella by French experimental writer Charles Perec, and concerning Jacques Perriaud’s algorithmic flowchart for how to get a raise from your boss, it sounds a lot like essential viewing… The entire season of shows kicks off September 8. pact.net.au

Al Pacina is: TONY MONTANA

POT LUCK GETS CRAFTY SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND

Yes, it’s that time: with the Blu-ray release of Brian De Palma’s Scarface around the corner, Popcorn Taxi are screening the freshly restored and remastered digital ‘print’ of the film – giving old friends and noobs alike the chance to get acquainted with one of the screen’s most charismatic villains, Tony Montana (not to be confused with Tony Manero, who arguably dressed better and used dance moves as weapons, as opposed to M16s.)

Wednesday August 30 at 7pm, Randwick Ritz. popcorntaxi.com.au

We hope you made it to the zine fair on Friday – but if not (or if you just hate independent press) then this Friday August 26 is your chance to hit up FBi’s Social's brand-new arts weekly, Pot Luck – and get crafty at Kit Palaskas’ Craft Club. Don’t know Kitteh?

WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS This one’s for all those art-school wankers and literati who just love William S. Burroughs – or those of you who, like us, realise you probably should know a bit more about one of the 20th century’s great iconoclasts and most influential writers. A contemporary of Ginsberg and Kerouac, Burroughs smashed boundaries like most of us smash post-deadline beers, splashing the queer and drug cultures of ‘50s New York over the pages of novels like Naked Lunch and Junky. He also made art using shotguns.

Thanks to the excellent folk at Madman Entertainment, we’ve got five capsules of face-melting awesomeness up for grabs, each of which contain a copy of the doco A Man Within (with a list of special features that includes Burroughs’ home movies with Patti Smith, Steve Buscemi, Allen Ginsberg, Sonic Youth and others) and a copy of his novel Junky. To get your hands on one, tell us one other novel by Burroughs.

She’s a freelance designer, artist, and craft enthusiast currently based in Sydney, with skillz in sewing, scrapbooking, making party decorations, and kitten appreciation. Tyson Koh will be providing the tunes, it’s FREE, and there’s even a happy hour from 6pm-7pm.

Best of all, Kit will make sure you don’t cut off your li'l fingers while you’re being creative.

Level 2, Kings Cross Hotel. fbiradio.com

WAYSIDE STORY

Stories From The Wayside opened over the weekend, with a little help from Aussie hero David Wenham (aka Faramir, aka Diver Dan).

Based on some of the more colourful stories from visitors, volunteers and staff of Kings Cross’s Wayside Chapel, this inspiring piece of verbatim theatre is full of real stories of life in the Cross, in the words of people who have lived the highs and lows, and come out the other side. It’s directed by Dean Carey, the Artistic Director of the Actor’s Centre, and – due to demand – has extended its season to September 4. thewaysidechapel.com

'My face is meltiiiinng!' (Still from Magic Trip)

ANYPLACE RESIDENCIES

Applications are once again open for Serial Space and Anyplace Projects’ sweetarse arts residencies, which give individual creative-types or collectives a three-month studio within their complex at 118 Terry St, Rozelle. The spots will run from September 5 – November 30, and successful applicants will be required to pay just $20 rent a week, for the chance to create art or performance around other interesting people, in a place that isn’t their bedroom. Submissions close Monday August 29; for all the details on how to apply head to serialspace.org

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT

Upcoming at The Paper Mill gallery is a timely group show exploring the possibilities for abstraction in paper-based art. The Kids Are Alright will feature works by a top-notch interstate line-up of five of our best abstract painters: local Greg Hodge, Tassie artists Fernando do Campo and Courtney Foote, and Melburnites Dionisia Salas-Hammer and Emma Beer. Opens this Tuesday August 26, from 6pm. If you’re more inclined towards active art appreciation, sign up for one of typographic illustrator Gemma O’Brien’s ‘Type Tours’, examining public lettering: Saturday August 27 at 11am or 2pm. Book via thepapermill.org.au

LOOKING GLASS

Opening this week at Kaleidoscope Gallery, Through The Looking Glass brings together a diverse range of local artists working in different mediums and scales, around the loose theme of ‘curious works’. The eleven-strong lineup includes Arnie Arnold, Meghan Brewster, Tilly Leahy, Terry Chisholm, Sarah Park and Alison See, 18 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

and the works range from stunning large-scale black-and-white portraits documenting dementia, to tiny paintings on micro-chips, and lightsculptures… Opens Thursday August 25 from 6pm. 3-7 Danks Street Waterloo. kaleidoscopegallery.com

ARTICULATE

Sydney Opera House have a new arts monthly!

Taking place on the last Thursday of each month – but also handily downloadable as a podcast, via iTunes – the evening will be a chance to listen to artists, performers and curators talk about their work, and the broader issues of being creative in Australia. The first ARTiculate will focus on dance, featuring Chunky Move’s Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek, Sydney Dance Company’s AD Rafael Bonachela, and Spring Dance curator Wendy Martin in conversation. Thursday August 25 from 6pm at Sydney Opera House, Utzon Room. It’s free! But seating is limited!

BERLIN/SYDNEY

The Art Gallery of NSW are currently showing The Mad Square, an exhibition of German modernist art, spanning the years from 1910-1937, when Expressionism, Dada, Constructivism, Bauhaus and New Objectivity were shaking things up. In conjunction with that, a flotilla of cabaret, theatre, films and music events will take place across Sydney – from STC’s production of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, to the Goethe Institute’s exhibition on Bruno Taut, one of the most eminent architects of German Modernism, and Sydney Opera House’s Australian premiere of the newly restored version of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, with a live soundtrack by the SSO. artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions

ANTENNA DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL

Brand-new documentary festival Antenna are punching out of the corner this month with an outstanding lineup of local and international documentaries announced for their October festival. At the top of our list are Michael Madsen’s visually stunning Into Eternity (for all of us who couldn’t make it to Melbourne Film Festival), Alex Gibney’s Magic Trip, about the fabled Ken Kesey cross-country bus ride, Beth Aala’s Pool Party (about Williamsburg’s McCarren Park pool parties) and Robert Nugent’s Memoirs Of A Plague – which will open the festival on October 5. Full lineup at antennafestival.org

Mike Mills

Professional Beginner

By Dee Jefferson

Melanie Laurent,Ewan McGregor and Cosmo the talking dog star in Beginners

O

n paper, Mike Mills looks like the ultimate cool kid: he’s a graphic designer, a conceptual artist, a former skater and punk rocker, and he’s made filmclips for Air, Blonde Redhead and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion; his first feature, Thumbsucker, starred hipster du jour Lou Pucci, and sported a soundtrack

by Elliott Smith and The Polyphonic Spree. But watch Mills talk – for example in Beautiful Losers, the 2008 doco about the LA/NYC lowbrow art scene – and you see a sensitive soul with a big imagination.

His films are as vulnerable and tender as they are stylish and funny; this is a guy, after all, who made a documentary about antidepressants called Does Your Soul Have A Cold?

Mills laughs sheepishly when I mention the animals. “It did come up – and we were like, Oh shit! Coz we don’t really read each other’s things – I mean, we read each other’s scripts once, I think. But then all of a sudden [her script has] a cat – and I’d already been writing about a dog for a long time. What do you do? We didn’t want to impinge on each other’s creative freedom… I was like, ‘Honey, we’re gonna get nailed!’ But you’ve just gotta do it,” he smiles. “I’m a big animal nut – I inherited my dad’s Jack Russell, and I have a border collie, and I talk to them all the time – and I answer back for them.”

In Beginners, Mills borrows liberally from his relationship with his father – a museum curator who, at the age of 75 (after the death of his wife of 45 years, Mills’ mother) came out. A few years later, he died of cancer – but not before packing-in more romance and adventure than some of us achieve in a lifetime.

“I wanted to talk about my parents’ marriage, and how their love was very historically conditioned; how their sex and and emotions emotion emot ionss and and options option opt ionss were were very much part of the stories that

were available [in 1950s America].”

Mills cast Canadian Christopher Plummer as his father. “My dad was very Plummeresque: very poised, very born-in-1924, very tiewearing, very regal in a way; very aesthetic – but a little controlled, and a little British. [After he came out], the guys he ended up in relationships with were these wild, un-aesthetic, hot-blooded, boundaryless, big personalities. And it was heartbreaking – I thought, you know, he really wants to be like that. He wanted to be messier.”

Meanwhile, Mills poured himself into the character of 30-something graphic designer Oliver (played

by Ewan McGregor), whose own perspective on love is powerfully affected by his father’s late-life transformation. Having stumbled through a series of serious relationships that never quite worked out, he takes the plunge when he meets Anna (played by French actress Melanie Laurent).

“Ewan is such a great, naturalistic actor, [and] I really wanted my film to be real,” says Mills. “I’d just seen Young Adam before I cast the film, and he’s so good in that; my film had a lot of thinking, lm think thinking ing, and and in that that fifilm he was so good at thinking; that

performance was so silent. And then I watched Velvet Goldmine, and he really fucking goes for it [in that film]; he makes himself really vulnerable, and there’s something real at stake.”

The final piece of the puzzle was casting Laurent as the love interest – a sideways leap, given that the character was originally American. Examined side-by-side – a Scot, a Canadian and a Frenchwoman – it’s an unusual cast for an autobiographical film made by and about Americans; but less strange when you consider Mills himself. “I’m a Europhile,” he jokes. “I’m an art school snob! And let’s be honest, I love European films – those are the films I looked at in art school, and all the films [that influenced this film] – except maybe for Woody Allen, but then he’s so Europhile as well – are European.”

Those influences include ‘60s cinema

by Truffaut, Hungarian director István Szabó, and Swedish filmmaker Jorgen Leth. Further back than that, the films of Charles and Ray Eames, Jim Jarmusch and Errol Morris gave Mills the guts to branch out from his work as a graphic designer, and try his hand at filmmaking.

In particular, Morris’ acclaimed

police documentary The Thin Blue Line made a strong impression: “The conceptual ar tist in me thought, ‘Ohhh! I like that - the visual argument.’” At the time, Mills was designing record covers for bands. “I just begged all of them to let me do a music clip for them,” Mills smiles. “I didn’t have any training, but I’m very curious, and I’m a very good student when I’m not in school.”

It’s been a lot of years and career shifts since that first gig, and Mills doesn’t take any of his achievements for granted; but neither does he sound worldweary; he sounds like someone with a lot more adventures in him.

“It’s this weird process: you get decent enough at videos that you can get hired; then you wanna do commercials, and you have to start all over again – and no-one thinks you’re any good, and you have to beg and do little things, and bad things; and then you want to do features, and you really have to start over again – and no-one cares what you did before. Lots and lots of starting over.”

What: Beginners, Dir. Mike Mills When: Opens August 25

TO ENTER:

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In person, only Mills’ deep-set and slightly-too-tired eyes belie his youthful energy. He’s in Sydney to promote his new film Beginners – two months after his wife, Miranda July, was here with her new film, The Future. As one of the characters in Beginners says, the world is made up of people who think things will never work out, and people who believe in magic. Mills and July believe in magic; they believe in following follow fol lowing ing your your dreams dreams instead inste instead ad of your pay cheques, and refusing to

take no for an answer. They make films with talking animals.

WIN! ydney Opera House’s comedy mega-festival Just For Laughs round days off top international iis just j d the h corner, promising i i four f d i i comedy – from veterans John Cleese (aka Basil Fawlty, aka Minister for Silly Walks) and Martin Short (Arrested Development), to next-gen fire-starters like Irish larrikin Dylan Moran, superstar cynicsavant Louis C.K., whimsical boy-wonder Demetri Martin, and intrepid sasspot Margaret Cho. Repping the British contingent – off the back of a 27-night sell-out stadium tour – is Russell Howard, known for his high-energy, current-affairs-inspired sets.

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We have TWO DOUBLE PASSES to see Russell’s show at Sydney Opera House’s Opera Theatre on Sunday September 4.

To get your hands on one, email freestuff@ thebrag.com with the name of his top-rating BBC Three show.

sydneyoperahouse.com/JFL BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 19

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Laura Naumann & So Forth [THEATRE] Germany’s next big thang hits Sydney By Simon Binns

W

hen most uni students get together, they get drunk. Others join clubs and go on ski trips. Then there are those, like Laura Naumann and her German company Machina Ex, who get together and create live video games.

“We do point-and-click adventures but in real life environments,” Naumann says, as if it were a perfectly normal thing for 22-year-old German students to do. “These two guys wanted to have a great weekend somewhere, and they tried to find a place like an adventure park where you can be in a real life computer game; they didn’t find one, so they said ‘let’s do it!’”

The result is an interactive experience that puts the audience in the game, rather than behind a screen. “We set up a world that the game takes place in; there are performers and interactive interfaces and items, and you have to solve tasks to make the story go on.”

This sort of experimentation is part and parcel of her studies in the university town of Hildesheim.

“We have creative writing, dramatic art, music, blah blah blah; it’s 50% theory, 50% practical work, and people get together and try out things.”

At the moment, however, Naumann is taking time off from games and uni to be in Australia for the world premiere of her award winning script Sweet Bird andsoforth. “I’ve never had anything put on overseas before… It’s really exciting,” she smiles, fighting off jet lag after flying in the night before.

Sweet Bird is an exploration of those missing years between childhood and adulthood. It tells the story of Amanda, who is leaving, and the friends who have gathered to farewell her. It has been described as “Skins meets Chekhov” – which is an impressive accolade on both counts.

Naumann started writing the play when she was still in high school (although she assures me it’s changed a lot since then). “I think when you’re

young you don’t write about divorce or being a 60-year-old man trying to find a friend; you write about what you know, and I knew that very well,” she says.

Reflecting on her teenage years, Naumann says, “It’s that time when you’re full of different things: on the one hand you’re full of ideas and an indefinite longing for something; on the other hand, from movies or adults or books you’ve heard about so many ways you can live your life – and you’re trying to have all of them at the same time.

And you always think that people are expecting something of you... You try to make it right – but what is that?”

Sweet Bird andsoforth has been developed on a variety of occasions, including the World Interplay Festival in 2009 in Cairns – where she met Laura Scrivano, who is now directing its premiere.

Matching the youthful story are some of Sydney’s hottest young acting talent, including the likes of Geraldine Hakewill, Michael Cutrupi and Alex Milwood – and Naumann has enjoyed hearing her play, which has been translated into English

by Australian director Benjamin Winspear, in what she describes as our “beautiful foreign language.”

Between writing plays, having them premiered on the other side of the world in a foreign language, and touring with her live video game theatre company, one wonders where Laura finds the time to actually go to university. At the mention of this problem she grins: “I’m not a good student I guess…”

What: Sweet Bird andsoforth by Laura Naumann When: Until September 10 Where: ATYP – as part of their 2011 Under The Wharf season More: sweetbirdandsoforth.com / atyp.com.au

Geraldine Hakewill stars in Sweet Bird andsoforth

Horrible Bosses [FILM] Toe-to-toe with Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day By Rachel Corbett nterviewer etiquette states that before you begin any conversation with the star of a film, you should inform them of how much you loved their latest work – even if you were shoving salted popcorn into your eyes 40 minutes in, in an effort to feel something other than the pain of watching such a miserable load of uninspiring rubbish.

I

outsider to penetrate. At one point Bateman interrupts the interview to point out a friend of Sudeikis’ on the television behind us. When I ask who the person is, Sudeikis replies, “my aura security”. It’s either a joke too cerebral for me to understand, or his way of saying “it’s none of your business”. Either way, it’s a cue to move on.

In this case, however, no embellishment is required on my part: I genuinely thought Horrible Bosses was laugh-out-loud funny; but when I ask the three stars whether anyone has ever begun an interview with “I thought that was pretty average,” I suddenly wish that I’d hated it. “I wish they would,” Bateman says. “I think you would get a great interview from us if you said you thought it was garbage. We would definitely appreciate the candour.” “I wish you hadn’t liked the movie so much, actually,” Day chimes in.

“Now this interview is going to suck”.

While Sudeikis and Bateman are happily entertaining themselves, Day reveals that acting across from a scantily clad, on heat, Jennifer Aniston was one of the more awkward moments in his comedy career.

The pair met for the first time on set, and 20 minutes later Aniston was straddling him in lingerie, trying to nuzzle his crotch. “You do have to picture that you’re not alone in that room. There’s a sweaty sound guy there, and a gross guy eating an egg sandwich holding a boom, looking at you. It’s really pretty unsexy.”

On the other hand, I happily circumnavigate the question that every interviewer prior to me has asked: “So, have any of you ever had any horrible bosses?” “Why do people keep asking that question?” asks an exasperated Bateman. “I feel like it’s a talking point from the studio, like they’ve sent out a sheet of suggested questions that everyone is following.”

Horrible Bosses allowed the three comedians to play with some pretty controversial material – something they found liberating coming from America, where sensitive sections of the community regularly assemble placards and outrage at a moment’s notice. “We’ve got a very vocal minority down in the deep south who like to write letters and boycott major brands,” Bateman laments. “Our country is run by Jesus, and Jesus doesn’t like any swears or dirty words,” adds Day.

Bateman, Sudeikis and Day obviously have an amazing chemistry on screen, but the camaraderie that makes so many of the scenes in Horrible Bosses sing, translates to a circle of trust that is often difficult for an

What: Horrible Bosses When: Opens August 25

Ha Ha On The Harbour

[COMEDY] Cargo Bar Does Comedy By Peter Neathway

C

hecking out Cargo Lounge’s weekly comedy night, you might expect to see local comics making funnies – and sure enough, in coming weeks Blacktown’s Daniel Townes and Bondi’s Rich Brophy represent. What you mightn’t expect is the years of international experience that this fresh young generation of headliners have under their belts.

Townes entered the Sydney scene around 2003.

“A friend suggested it to me. I put it off for two years and then finally plucked up the courage to give it a go.” Within a

few years he was packing his passport. “I went to England as the prize from a comedy competition that I won. There are a lot of comedy clubs and comedy nights across the UK, so it gave me the opportunity to get on stage every night in front of different types of audiences.” Townes has since flung funnies across the UK, Singapore, Germany, Ireland, South Africa, Canada, Holland and Spain (one of his favourites). “Malaga, in Spain, was my first gig in a country where English isn’t the first language. I had the time of my life.”

on stage as much as possible. “I think the phrase is ‘war of attrition’. I just did gig after gig. When you start off you can only get a few gigs a week, but then it turns into seven or eight gigs – more if you’re desperate. I wasn’t going on holidays, I was missing out on birthdays and parties and everything, just learning how to be properly funny. Because over there it’s quite different to here, you’ve got to hit your jokes hard and often; they don’t have that same time for you. It makes you funnier I guess.”

Rich Brophy, on the other hand, had his heart set on the UK, and stayed there for a five-year stint. “Um, I think it was naivéte; I’d done a few gigs in Australia and then I kind of travelled through North and South America, and they loved Aussies so much that I thought, well I’m just going to go to the UK and absolutely kill it. And then I rocked up and realised that I was nowhere near as funny as I thought I was... and they hate Australians (laughing). They don’t hate Australians, but there’s a healthy disrespect for us there.”

As a relative newcomer, Brophy relished the chance to work with top comics. “That’s one of the amazing things about the UK, is gigging with guys that are just at the top of their game.” One such guy was Michael McIntyre, who now plays venues like Wembley Arena. “I worked with him a few years ago at The Comedy Store in London – I did a few gigs with him just before he got massive in the UK. Having that mix between up-and-comers and guys like that is pretty amazing, because there’s not really that crossover here either.”

Brophy bounced back, and like Townes he took the opportunity to get 20 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

McIntyre said that Rich Brophy’s was ‘not a name I’ll be forgetting soon’, a gem Rich held on to (with McIntyre’s blessing). “I actually put that quote on a poster for Melbourne Fringe and was told that no one’s ever heard of him in Australia.”

Daniel Townes (right) and Rich Brophy (far left)

What/When: Cargo Comedy feat. Daniel Townes (Aug 23) and Rich Brophy (Aug 30) Where: Cargo Lounge / 52-60 The Promenade, King Street Wharf, Darling Harbour More: Cargo Comedy runs Tuesday nights: dinner from 6pm, show from 7.30pm. $15 for show only or pre-book $30 dinner and show (includes meal and drink) at cargobar.com.au

MAD SQUARE MODERNITY IN GERMAN ART 1910 –37 Amidst an era of chaos came an explosion of creativity – edgy, provocative, yet utterly compelling.

Over 200 works by key artists such as Grosz, Dix and Beckmann spanning three decades of influential German art.

ART AFTER HOURS Wednesdays until 9pm Free events include: 5.15 & 7.30pm Live music in the ArtBar 6.30pm Celebrity talks & performances 7.15pm Free films Free celebrity talks & performances 6.30pm 24 Aug: Mark Tedeschi, crown prosecutor & photographer in conversation with journalist Richard Ackland 31 Aug: Bob Carr, former NSW premier 7 Sep: Wendy Sharpe, artist 14 Sep: Tom Wright, writer & director 21 Sep: Paul Livingston (aka Flacco), performs with composer Stu Hunter 28 Sep: Robyn Archer, singer & performer 5 Oct: David Stratton, film critic, ABC TV 12 Oct: Gerard Vaughan, director, National Gallery of Victoria 19 Oct: Verushka Darling, cabaret performer 26 Oct: Frank Strobel, Sydney Symphony guest conductor 2 Nov: Elizabeth Farrelly, columnist & critic

rare filM screening with live jazz score Fri 2 Sep & Sat 3 Sep, 6.30pm Celebrated composer Stu Hunter & band perform a live jazz score set against a screening of Berlin: symphony of a great city (1927) $65 / $55 Gallery members / $35 student Book online or tel (02) 9225 1878

FREE FILM PROGRAM Weimar to Hollywood Wed 2pm & 7.15pm, Sun 2pm 17 Aug – 6 Nov Highlights: The cabinet of Doctor Caligari (dir: Robert Wiene 1919), The blue angel (dir: Josef Von Sternberg 1930), and The last laugh (dir: F W Murnau 1924).

Berlin Sydney Immerse yourself in the culture, glamour and decadence of the 1920s with a program of events inspired by the Weimar Republic at leading arts venues across Sydney. www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/berlin-sydney

Find us on

Until 6 November www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/mad-square

OPEN DAILY 10AM–5PM, WEDNESDAYS UNTIL 9PM Art Gallery of New South Wales Art Gallery Rd The Domain Sydney Information 1800 679 278 www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

Christian Schad Self-portrait 1927 (detail) oil on wood Private collection, courtesy Tate London © Christian Schad Stiftung Aschaffenburg VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney

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Arts Snap

Film & Theatre Reviews

At the heart of the arts Where you went last week. Photos by Tim Levy

Hits and misses on the silver screen and the bareboards around town.

■ Film

HORRIBLE BOSSES Opens August 25 Jason Bateman and Jason Sudeikis are carving out quite a niche playing wannabehip prius-owning middle-class white guys.

In Horrible Bosses, they team up with the lesser-known Charlie Day to form a posse of nice-but-dorky white guys thrown into a series of misadventures. When you strip it down to its basic formula, it’s not unlike Todd Phillips’ hugely successful The Hangover – but instead of fighting for their right to party, these guys are fighting for their right to work hard at their boring jobs.

Their foils are three perfectly evil bosses – so evil, that when the three friends drunkenly concoct a plan to kill them, you barely pause.

fbi's pot luck

11:08:11 :: FBi Social :: The Kings X Hotel L2 248 William St Kings Cross 93319900

In other words: Horrible Bosses has the kind of foolproof narrative premise that you can build serious bank on. The secret ingredient is the casting: all three leads are likeable, funny, and excellent improvisers – and it’s not hard to spot where they leave the script and start really enjoying themselves. Besides being really good at it, they work with the kind of casual ease that comes from operating within well-worn parameters: Bateman plays Bateman (as per Arrested Development, Juno, The Change-Up, Couples Retreat etc), and Sudeikis plays a variation on his Hall Pass role (although admittedly, Day’s character is a far sweeter and less alcoholic version of the Always Sunny In Philadelphia role that put him on the map).

The three leads face-off against a superb support cast that includes Kevin Spacey as a sociopath, Colin Farrell (channelling Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder) as a douche-bag coke-head, and Jennifer Aniston, in a welcome respite from her usual rom-com fare, playing a nymphomaniac. Jamie Foxx, meanwhile, has fun with the role of Motherfucker Jones, a streetwise hustler who signs on as the ‘murder consultant’ for our would-be assassins.

quit your day job

11:08:11 :: LO-Fi Collective :: 383 Bourke St Darlinghurst

The unexpected pleasure with Horrible Bosses is that despite its broad premise, it’s not afraid to go both high and low in search of laughs – from the predictable (cock jokes), to the surreal (the house of cats), to self-conscious genre references (including an especially sharp riff on Hitchock’s Strangers On A Train versus DeVito’s Throw Momma From The Train, and a delightfully left-field reference to Scott Hicks’ Snow Falling On Cedars).

Mission accomplished.

Dee Jefferson

robot serial killer

■ Theatre

BLOOD WEDDING Until September 11 / Wharf 1, STC

14:08:11 :: Serial Space :: 33 Wellington St Chippendale

Federico Garcia Lorca was a poet first, and Blood Wedding – one of the Andalusian tragedies that put him on the map as a dramatist both in Spain

Arts Exposed

and internationally – rolls together his fascination with fate, death and desire, and his distinctive style, which fuses the symbolic and the tangible; the poetic, and coarsely humorous.

True to its origins, Iain Sinclair’s adaptation embraces passion, vivid imagery and symbolism – particularly the second half, in which the social realism and drawing-room drama of the first two acts give way to a heady concoction part Pan's Labyrinth, part Buñuel. At the centre of it all is Leah Purcell, in the twin roles of presiding matriarch and death incarnate. As the nameless ‘Mother of the Groom’, she reluctantly gives her blessing to a union between her only surviving son (Kenneth Spiteri) and a local girl of dubious reputation (Sophie Ross). Little does the Groom suspect that the heart of his betrothed belongs to another man – a former lover, now married to the girl’s own cousin. Over the next two hours a tragedy unfolds inexorably, as those put together by social custom are torn apart by irrepressible passion.

Also acting as director, Sinclair made it his mission to achieve the force of passion that he had hitherto only seen a Spanish cast and crew achieve with this play – which is a tall order for an Australian cast.

I kept wondering what Marisa Peredes would do with the leading role, or an older Penelope Cruz – women whose performances are electric and unbridled, but with cores of steel; women who walk the line between the melodramatic and the empathetic, and never lose their audience. But you can see why Purcell was cast, with her transfixing, glittering, dark eyes, and everything from her wirey short hair to her legs firmly planted on the stage showing you – not telling you – that a mother’s love (and vengeance) is as immutable as the mountains. The other stand-out performance is Ross, who teeters charismatically on a precipice between fire and ice.

For me, however, this production succeeds in spite of its performances (some of which are over-acted) rather than because of them. It impales the audience with its relentless sense of impending tragedy and its strong visual sensibility, that tips over into the fantastical and the horrific with the addition of a blood-soaked and bloodthirsty moon (played with wonderful, mad malevolence by young newcomer Holly Fraser). Sinclair’s bold vision, married to already powerful material, makes for a heady and unforgettable experience.

Dee Jefferson ■ Comedy

TOMMY DEAN Reviewed Sat Aug 13 / Happy Endings Comedy Club There’s a kind of spiritual affiliation between comedy and basements, so as one descends from street level into the stuccoed surrounds of Australia’s (apparently) oldest jazz cellar, El Rocco (the home of Happy Endings Comedy

Leah Purcell in Blood Wedding

What's in our diary...

GALLERY A.S. PRESENTS: MOTION / PICTURES August 26 – September 10 Cnr Commonwealth & Hunt St, Surry Hills

22 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

Cobra By Her Side by Anthony Lister

Next up from Gallery A.S. (aka Joseph Allen Shea, previously of Monster Children Gallery) is this tribute to Sydney’s slice of post-war Hollywood – hosted, appropriately, in the Art Deco love-in that was formerly Paramount Pictures.

Allegedly hosting Hollywood luminaries such as Bob Hope and Charlton Heston, this week sees the building hosting a kickarse lineup of artists exploring the influence of cinema and the moving image: Daniel Askill , Jacob Ciocci, Daniel Johnston, Anthony Lister, Andrew Long, Stefan Marx, James McCready, Tim Moore, Dan Moynihan , Mel O’Callaghan, Riley Payne, Sam Smith and Soda_Jerk.

See www.thebrag.com for more arts reviews

Film & Theatre Reviews Hits and misses on the silver screen and the bareboards around town.

Club) it just feels right.

MC Paul Hancock â&#x20AC;&#x201C; an energetic, sharp and supremely confident performer with a really good Dirty Dancing joke that got far less from the audience than it deserved â&#x20AC;&#x201C; introduces headliner Tommy Dean, as â&#x20AC;&#x153;one of the greatest comics in the country.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Country?â&#x20AC;? Dean retorts. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Surely you all were hoping for one of the greatest comics on the planet. For those in the audience from outside this country, I just became less exciting.â&#x20AC;?

In a recent Brag interview, Dean said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;the way I think about things seriously, when worded the way I word things, makes people laugh.â&#x20AC;? True of tonight, Dean discussed Masterchefâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s carrot mousse, his kids, chicken schnitzel as a symbol of humanityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s place at the apex of the food chain, and supermarket conveyor dividers â&#x20AC;&#x201C; at times prompting sighs of satisfaction at the end of strings of expertly connected jokes.

Not just anyone can rock a tee emblazoned with baking tips, but Dean is not just anyone. Into the gig, Dean reveals his tee slogan, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Screw the Cutterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, is a scone making footnote. Pop the cutter down, then up, and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t...well, you know, because that makes them flop.

Dean is like a perfect scone: light, well rounded, and entirely satisfying.

Peter Neathway

â&#x2013; Theatre

A QUIET NIGHT IN RANGOON Until Sept 10 / New Theatre Something Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve become very aware of recently, perhaps because of my frequent watching of The West Wing,

is how writers can create action out of characters explaining concepts. This is important in The West Wing all the time, as the show often deals with congressional rules or international policies that are unknown to the average viewer. In Rangoon there is a similar problem of how to explain the Burmese situation without having a character deliver a monologue detailing its troubled history.

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Writer Katie Pollock has found some interesting solutions this problem.

Apart from the usual conversations between central characters, she has also introduced the internet as a character that the protagonist Piper (Kathryn Schuback), a young Australian journalist, interacts with. As well as offering information, this also helps set the mood, with the internet being just as untrustworthy as some of the other people Piper meets.

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Rangoon sees Piper travelling to Burma on a personal quest, before quickly becoming embroiled in the troubles as her editor at home asks her to write about the protests. She seeks help from a young blogger who in turns puts her in touch with a monk and an injured protestor. However, the situation soon gets very complex and she is left unsure of who to trust.

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The play is ambitious, moving from what is ostensibly a political thriller about the 2007 â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Saffron Revolutionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to a more personal story of those caught up in it.

Unfortunately, the play gets to a point where there are too many balls in the air, and as a result, they all drop. Rather than any one character or subplot having their story heard, we only get snippets of each and it becomes hard to stay invested in every story.

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Street Level With Asher Treleaven

during my circus training. My comedy tends to be a combination of socially responsible rhetoric and cock jokes.

Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re currently at the Edinburgh Fringe at the moment with Matador; what thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about? Matador is a show about racism and xenophobia in Australia. The show has been going wonderfully â&#x20AC;&#x201C; lots of great reviews and lovely crowds. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been excellent discussing Australian racism in the UK because there is an inherent understanding of Aussie culture in Britain.

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he annual Gangstersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Ball celebrates everything swing, cabaret and vaudeville, transforming the Metro Theatre into a wonderland part gaming den, part dance hall, part cocktail lounge â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and 100% playground for molls, flappers, gangsters and glamour-pusses.

This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ball will be hosted by awardwinning comedian and vaudevillian Asher Treleaven, who will do his best to manage a lineup that includes troublemaking burlesque babe Gypsy Wood, acclaimed acrobatics troupe This Side Up, master illusionist Cath Jamison, and aerial artist Melise Avion. We caught up with Asher this week, in-between his crazy schedule of shows at the Edinburgh Fringeâ&#x20AC;Ś Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a Byron boy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; do you think thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s affected your career and/or style of performance? I discovered circus and performance in Byron and I think it left an indelible mark on me. And Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll always be a little off-centre â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Byron has that effect on people.

What was your training in performance? I learnt most of my performance skills in London on the street at Covent Garden and touring with Robin Inceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Book Clubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, a cultish new wave comedy crew in London. NICA was a great experience, but I always wanted to get into doing stand up comedy and comedy is one of those skills you have to learn via performance.

Does your circus background feed into your comedy material? Right now I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t use any circus in my stand up shows, as they tend to be pretty issue heavy; however I am a very physical comic, which is something I learned

Any particularly hairy incidents â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or lessons learned? No hairy incidents yet â&#x20AC;&#x201C; just long days and endless nights. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m also performing a night with my burlesque lady Gypsy Wood called Comic Strip in the Assembly Rooms, which has been selling out and giving us no end of ha-has and ta-tas.

Which past era would you choose to have a night on the town in? Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d choose Berlin in the summer of 1924. The Weimar scene was in full swing and National Socialism was just a twitch in the far rightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eye in Munich.

The cabaret scene was the very definition of modern liberalism; men were women, women were men, and the champagne flowed freely â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it sounds wunderbar to me, darling.

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Looking The Part

@ Westfield Sydney’s Urban Precinct on Level One

S

o you want a job in the music industry, but you don’t know where to start? You’re not alone. Most people say you have to slog it out for free at first, network your butt off and make a name for yourself.

That stuff counts, sure, but so do first impressions – and for that, you’ve gotto try and look the part too.

Leigh spent a day amidst the huge range of shops on level one of the new Westfield Sydney, gearing himself up for job interviews and tryouts in the greatest industry around… He couldn’t decide if he wanted to manage a band, join one, write about it, or hit the decks – so we found him the look for all four. After he was done, we got some friends of the BRAG to judge his success: Des Miller from Magnetic Heads (and the label manager of Broken Stone Records), Charlie Chux from Discopunx (who also works for Heaps Decent), Jon Owen, who manages Cameras (and works at Channel V), and long time music journalist Nathan Jolly, the editor of The Music Network.

You’ll find the shops Leigh checked out below, and to the right, the looks he picked... So: would you hire him?

LONSDALE

Lonsdale was launched in London in 1960 by ex-boxer Bernard Hart, as a boxing equipment company. Since then, the label has obviously branched out – at Westfield Sydney you can pick up hoodies, tees, shoes, caps, pants, shorts and (of course) bags – but in homage to its fisticuff heritage, Leigh picked up a miniature boxing glove keyring in blue, to match the rest of his outfit.

Web: lonsdalelondon.com.au Contact: 9221 1701

SNEAKEROLOGY

This place is heaven for anyone in the market for a new pair of kicks.

With a boutique collection of all the latest products (plus legendary retro ware), the experts at Sneakerology will guide you through the ranges of Nike, Adidas, Puma, Gravis, Reebok, New Era and more. It’s adjoined to sister shop Streetology too, which stocks urban clothes and accessories direct from Japan and around the globe – and boasts Sydney’s largest array of 59fifty and snapback caps from New Era. You can spend hours here. Leigh did.

Web: sneakerology.com.au Contact: 8072 8889

ADIDAS

In the 1920s, Adolf ‘Adi’ Dassler and his older brother Rudolf opened Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik, a small shoemaking shop in a tiny German village. Adi was the sports fanatic and Rudolf was the salesman – and their personalities clashed accordingly. Which is why, in the 1940s, Rudolf sailed across the river to set up a rival brand.

Adi changed his shop’s name to Adidas, and the outlet grew from there; today, it’s one of the finest sportswear brands around, and Westfield Sydney has the pick of the bunch. (What happened to Rudolf, you ask? He called his shop ‘Puma’. He did alright too.)

Web: adidas.com.au Contact: 9221 0499

HENLEYS

The fourth largest menswear label in the world, Henleys is a lifestyle brand from the United Kingdom that’s synonymous with quality urban and streetwear (and really great pants and shirts). They’ve launched a ladies range too, but for today’s mission we weren’t so interested in that; Leigh couldn’t go past their wall o’ jeans...

Web: henleys.com.au Contact: 8252 6574

GENERAL PANTS

Listing all the awesome labels that General Pants’ are stocking at the moment would leave no room for the images. With a huge variety of brands and ranges, Leigh found most of what he needed here; clothes from Cheap Monday, St & Ard, Le Specs, We Rob Banks and Dr Denim clad him head to toe. And we weren’t surpised when he walked out of here with an entire outfit for his band tryout...

Web: generalpants.com.au Contact: 8275 5160

NIKE

The Nike flagship store at Westfield Sydney is a colour wonderland, with streetwear, sportswear, gym gear, shoes and accessories for any sporty (or aspiring sporty) type. The clothes are bright, bold, and will get you moving.

Web: nikestore.com.au Contact: 8246 9166

LE COQ SPORTIF

The opening of Le Coq Sportif at Westfield Sydney marked the first time the legendary French brand had its own Aussie store. The shop design is all about the red, whites and blues, and the helpful (and mostly French) staff will talk you through their huge range of shoes, gym gear, tees, pants, bags, and the beautiful custom-made bicycles. Drool.

Web: lecoqsportif.com.au Contact: 8246 9251 24 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

Jeans – Tokyo mechanic wash denim, $129.99, Henleys Tee – Nike t-shirt, $39.95 Jacket – Adidas hoodie in loneblue, $150 Watch – Adidas calculator watch in blue, $99 Cap – The Hundreds “new era” cap, $60, Streetology Sneakers – Espionage x Reebok “Twilight Zone Pump”, $240, Sneakerology Headphones – SQ505 red headphones, $99.95, Audio Technica Bag – Lonsdale “Canonbury” bag in chilli, $109.95 Keyring – Lonsdale boxing glove keyring, $12.95

THE DJ

“The only shame about this outfit is that there’s not more red snakeskin – when you’re a DJ, you can never have too much. What screams “PARTY!!” more than a red snakeskin unitard, right? DJs require a passion for music and tight jeans, so we’re going well here, too. The calculator watch is a handy way to work out BPMs, and the gym bag matches the tee, which is important – but he’s going to find it an arduous task slinging that into a taxi with a babe on each arm... The third most important part about DJing is that you must have headphones nonchalantly adorning your neck AT ALL TIMES. You never know when your skills will be required.” – Charlie Chux

THE MANAGER

Pants - Cheap Monday slim chino in washed black, $90, General Pants Shirt – Stussy blocked shirt, $109.99, General Pants Boots – St & Ard Thompson work boot in black, $149.95, General Pants Sunnies – Le Specs “The Tuxedo” sunnies, $69.95, General Pants

THE MUSO “Nothing says rock’n’roll like leather work boots and a nonchalant text message lean... This guy is so goddamn cool he could only be in a band! With his psych print top-button-up shirt and clubmaster sunnies, there’s no need for a backstage pass; you can almost see the free drink cards in his top pocket.

The fitted chino has rolled back into fashion on the tide of a post-punk new wave – get your skinny indie legs into a pair before they get bleached and torn apart by the next grunge revival.” – Des Miller

THE JOURNALIST Pants – Dr Denim “Donk” chino in coffee, $149.95, General Pants Shirt – We Rob Banks two tone chambray shirt, $99.95, General Pants Blazer – Westbourne Rovers “School Boy Blazer” in blue tweed, $189.95, General Pants Belt – General Pants embossed belt, $39.95 Shoes – St & Ard “Expedition” boot in navy, $149.95, General Pants Bag – Emile Messenger bag in navy, $169.95, Le Coq Sportif Glasses – stylist’s own

Pants – Henleys premium denim regular fit pant in black, $99.99 Top – We Rob Banks tonal pocket shirt in washed black, $99.95, General Pants Jacket – We Rob Banks “Peter Pipe” blazer in grey, $189.95, General Pants Shoes – St & Ard “Billy Brogue” in aged black, $149.95, General Pants

“His jacket says ‘party’, but his stance says, ‘I’m afraid I can’t let you go ahead with that, Glen’.

Whilst looking like he may be an actual member of the group he represents, this manager has set himself apart with one simple yet distinct feature: his shoes are nowhere near as pointy as the rest of the band. Everyone knows round-toed shoes mean business. You’ll also note that he’s wearing black – moreso for its slimming qualities than its rock appeal. Although of course, he may tell you otherwise... You can never trust these guys.” – Jon Owen, Cameras’ management

“Leigh’s nailed the Pitchfork look, with that all-purpose smoker’s/writer’s jacket, stylish pants in that Partridge Family-shade of brown (so hard to find, but so vital to the look), and specs earned from years of taking notes in low light situations. The shoes match the satchel bag (waterproof it: Macbooks and pubs are not happy bedfellows), and almost match the shirt colour – which is essential when capturing that effortless, ‘Oh, I suppose I do colour-match, I didn’t even notice’ look. Extra points for pen pockets all over the place.” – Nathan Jolly, editor of The Music Network (and BRAG writer)

Stylist: Hayley Hughes Model: Leigh Scully Photography: Ken Leanfore

BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 25

BRAG EATS

News Bites

BRAG'S WEEKLY GUIDE TO FOOD

Dining By Design When Your Eyes Are As Big As Your Stomach... By Natasha Magi

OLD FITZ

FOOD SOCIETY

It was only a matter of time before Brooklyn’s Eastern European food craze arrived in Sydney – but we didn’t expect it to look so incredible.

Open for just a few of weeks, The Food Society is your Darlinghurst pit stop for organic pork pierogi, beetrootand-vodka-cured ocean trout blini, borscht, potato dumplings – and six different varieties of slivovitz. Get your head around it. Lower Ground Floor, 91 Riley Street, Darlinghurst / 8090 3462 / foodsociety.com.au

Y

ou can’t spit in the inner west these days without hitting a hip new bar or restaurant where clientele and décor alike seem to be striving for a carefully cluttered, methodically mismatched fusion of Mexican cantina, post-colonial South East Asia and New York Dive. In amongst the rabble are the gems; we couldn’t include them all here, but below we’ve taken a peek at four places that looks as good as they taste, and the minds behind them.

Photos by Mikey Pozarik

Yes, it’s true: the Old Fitzroy Hotel on Dowling St has run dry of its renowned laksa – devastating news for any one who was lucky enough to indulge in its coconutty goodness. In happier news, former Young Chef of the Year and Kylie Kwong protégé’ Hamish Ingham and his Bar H co-owner Rebecca Lines are taking over the Old Fitz kitchen, and bringing with them a cheap-as Chinese street food menu. And when we say cheap, we mean it, with nothing on the menu over $15. Classics like san choy bow will feature in four different variations for $5, and there'll be beef short ribs with rice/beans for $15. (And theatre-goers will be happy to know that the dinner-andshow meal deal is still on offer.) 129 Darling Street, Woolloomooloo, or visit oldfitzroy.com.au

Lamb shoulder from The Food Society

SAUSAGE SIZZLE

Snags: are they making a comeback? Did they ever leave? What does it all mean?

The answer to these questions – and a big-ass feast of bacon and egg rolls, sausage and steak sandwiches, chicken kebabs, cob corn and veggie burgers – will be revealed next week, when celebrity chef Ben O’Donoghue leads the Guinness World Record attempt for the World’s Longest BBQ Marathon. Head along to Cathedral Square (corner of College and William Streets, Sydney CBD) between 7am Thursday September 1 and 9.30am Friday September 2, and you can chow down for a donation, which goes to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA).

supportive in principle of gluten-free things, because they prevent coeliacs from starving. We just wish they’d call it something different.

You can raise this and other issues, such as the merits of buckwheat versus rice flour and the finer points of spelt and kamut pastas, at The Gluten Free Expo this weekend at Sydney Showground, Olympic Park. Opens Friday August 26 from 4-8pm, and all day Saturday – and we hear MasterChef whiz kid Callum Hann is doing a demo. glutenfreeexpo.com.au

GLUTEN-FREE EXPO

It sounds about as fun a mouth full of gravel, but we’re

Callum Hann

DUKE BISTRO

EL CAPO

65 Flinders St, Darlinghurst Interior Design: Michael Delaney

52 Waterloo Street, Surry Hills Interior Design: Josh Logue

This is probably the most talked about restaurant in town this year, and not just for its food.

Melbourne designer Michael Delaney (also responsible for re-vamping The Norfolk, The Carrington and The Abercrombie) has transformed upstairs Flinders into his own little work of art.

As he says, it’s sort of "Raffles Hotel meets postcolonial Asia" – with a colour scheme Wong Kar Wai would approve of.

Part of the new wave of Mexican Latin-American dining in Sydney, El Capo ('the boss', or 'bosses') has quickly distinguished itself with its superior culinary credentials, thanks to chef/owners (and husband-and-wife team) Dianna and Omar Andrade – who previously ran the underground dining phenomenon Transient Diner.

A chandelier of champagne bottles greets you as you enter through the red-soaked hallway downstairs; upstairs, billiard-table-green walls are offset by dark polished-wood floors, tapestryupholstered banquettes, and low-slung table lighting made from Vietnamese nón lá (leaf hats), painted black and fire engine red. The piece de resistance, the bar has been refashioned from a small Japanese chest left by the original owners, overhung by ornamental bird cage lanterns, and flanked by four wooden Thonet stools – one of which is permanently occupied by a pig’s head.

“I bought it knowing Limbo [aka chef Thomas Lim] loved all the food that comes from pigs,” Delaney explains, “but in the end it seemed like the wrong kind of room to have taxidermy. One night I sat the head on the stool while I was stoned, and decided to glue it down. He’s like the customer who’s always at the bar, that single guests can talk to until their date arrives.”

The bottom line: In the words of its creator, Duke's interior has a "moody seriousness that sets it apart from the dive bar chaos below, and makes it a sweet place for a date.”

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26 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

Dianna and Omar were hands-on when it came to finding the décor and furniture, sourcing a mismatched assortment of interesting chairs both old and new: “old chairs from Mitchell Rd Auction House, and some random shops on South King Street in Newtown,” says Dianna. “We prefer random.” The crowning touches are stacks of faux American dollar bills, and a box of dominoes for each table.

The bottom line: the food rocks as hard as the music, and is as colourful as the décor.

Fresh New Bar. FRESH COCKTAILS. SPIRITS. WINE. IMPORTED & LOCAL BEERS, LEAFY DECK. LIVE MUSIC. COMFY COUCHES. LUSCIOUS FOOD.

LAID BACK

Visit our website for event details starting in November.

www.cafebookstore.com.au

Logue’s brief was to reference the Mexican movie genre ‘Narco Cinema’ – think bad-ass babes, bigass trucks and and moustachiod drug lords toting guns. Logue commissioned two large-scale pieces by local artists Numskull and Roach, which flank the dining tables, and a smaller piece at the back which channels Our Lady of Guadalupe, warning patrons to “never snitch”.

Corridor

Curl up with a book and a glass of wine Stop by for a cocktail and a dinner to share

413 Crown St Surry Hills 9318 1116

It’s also got the style to match; thanks to Josh Logue, of boutique design outfit Mathematics (also behind LO FI Bar, above Kinselas), it’s got a tequila-fuelled, DIY visual sensibility that steers well clear of the cheesy clichés of cactii and sombreros.

stay classy DINNER 7 NIGHTS corridorbar.com.au.

153A King st. Newtown

BLOODWOOD

DRY LAND BAR

416 King Street, Newtown Interior Design: Matt Woods

92 Redfern Street, Redfern Interior Design: Foolscap Studio

Bloodwood’s menu and interior design have quickly made it a frontrunner in Sydney’s new crop of sustainable dining options. Located in the former Newtown Conservatory, and designed by long-time local – and sustainable design proponent – Matt Woods (also behind Avido and FBi Social at Kings Cross Hotel), its interiors reflect its owners’ ethos of minimal waste by utilising recycled and recyclable materials, from big-ticket items like reclaimed FSC-certified plantation timbers and repurposed railway sleepers, to the furnishings and décor: restored chairs and bar stools, salvaged doors, water jugs fashioned from re-blown wine bottles.

At just 90sqm, Dry Land is certainly one of Sydney’s smallest small bars – but what it lacks in size it makes up for with its warm and elegant nautical interior. Owner Roy Leibowitz (previously of Love Tilly Devine) sought out old friend and interior designer Adele Winteridge, of Foolscap Studio (the same company behind GoodGod and The Commons), to set the tone.

It’s not just about looking good, however: the paints used on the interior are either low on or free of toxic VOC’s, and the lighting is built for energy efficiency, with a strategic use of LEDs and dimmable cold cathode long-life fluoros (those things dangling from knotted cables over the dining room). Impressive design features include a natural ventilation system that utilises a rear wall of louvers, and the dining room’s acoustics-friendly ceiling, constructed from layers of salvaged doors.

The bottom line: this is THE place to enjoy a delicious guilt- and toxic-free meal AND hear what your date is saying…

The result takes inspiration from modernist architect Eileen Gray, Art Deco ship posters, prewar train and ship cabins, and 1950s underwater sci-fi comics. Think midnight-blue walls offset by candlelight, wall-mounted submarine bunker lamps, and hanging pendant-lights fashioned from old whisky glasses that Leibowitz bought at auction; a curved, polished-wood bar lined with green ceramic tiles; and bar shelves made from marine plywood, with brass detailing.

Central design features include the bar’s coveted single booth, upholstered with sailing canvas, and the submarine-style bathrooms, which are accessed by punching a large industrial safety button (which swings open the door), and feature a plywood veneer that makes you feel like you’ve stumbled into a ship’s cabin.

The bottom line: this warm, comfortable, and welcoming bar could easily become your second home.

BRAG EATS free stuff

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THE SNAG STAND

T

he humble snag is getting a revamp courtesy of The Snag Stand, a new boutique food venture that sources its snags from Sydney’s finest artisan butchers (including AC Butchery and Rodriguez Bros), and whips them up into delicious treats like the Backyarder (classic Aussie beef and tomato sausage on a rustic roll w/ creamy coleslaw, Coopers Ale BBQ sauce and cheddar cheese) and the Spicy Spanish Chorizo (grilled with semi sundried tomatoes, chipotle aioli, baby rocket and shredded Spanish goats cheese on a brioche roll). Prices range from $6.90 for an American Classic, to $10.90 for a Wagyu Beef or Toulouse (Bangalow Pork).

Thanks to The Snag Stand, we have two vouchers up for grabs, each worth $20, to grab a bite from their outpost at Level 5 Westfield Sydney (Pitt St Mall). To get your hands on one, email freestuff@thebrag. com with your postal address and one of their creations NOT mentioned above. snagstand.com.au

food review

THE ABERCROMBIE [BROADWAY]

A

nd lo, it hath risen, like the un-killable behemoth, like mythical Brigadoon from the murky, misty deconstructed site of Chippendale, to again hail those who find themselves stricken ‘tween the harsh city lights and the small comforts of Newtown. The Abercrombie is back. Now with kitchen.

The boys behind the ubiquitous eateries that skirt the Hills – the Norfolk, the Flinders, the Carrington – are back with a newly refurbished and polished establishment (yes, a-whole-nother week has passed since they opened their last joint), this time taking the slowly sinking institution of the Abercrombie (known long for Purple Sneaker indie-tracked blow out debauchery) and tucked in some tartan booths, hung up some art, and coated the whole place in a slick of Scotchguard so they can hose it all down come Monday morning.

A haven for uni-students in search of the long haul before the last call, the Abercrombie may have cleaned out the sights and smells of parties past (which were caked in the corners like a careless brusher’s plaque deposits), but they have kept their patronage firmly in mind. What do the youth crave when they’ve already committed to turn one on?

What calls out to the hung-over, above their own cranial clamour? The Abercrombie is in the comfort food business, and we may all be in danger.

Crafty mac ‘n’ cheese balls ($12) melt with an aioli of such gooey goodness that they could serve it as fromage frappe – mop it up with the spare fries from your fried chicken burger or a plenty hefty Philly cheese steak burger (both $17). The latter comes drenched in cheese and topped with peppers (you can’t commit to calling it capsicum in these circumstances), with just a little bite. If you’re after a burn, take on the chorizo tacos

($5.50), but in fact all the tacos – lamb, ‘shroom or chipotle chicken – do the job well; if a whole generation has waved goodbye to the meat pie in favour of this street snack, at least we’re treated to tasty offerings like this.

Scoff if you must at the mash-up meals (but not the mash – it sits abreast of a hearty braised beef pie with gravy and mushy peas, and lays battle against a crispy and delish rosti for true potato dominance) that see the Scottish heritage of the building butt up against the current trend for diner dishes; the scotch egg slider ($6), the braised lamb brisket nachos ($17), the Glasgow hot wings ($12). But then maybe appreciate how little ambition we had towards pub grub only a year ago – that parmigiana never got off the couch and did anything with it’s life.

If you’ve managed to make it through all this without a coronary then dial zero-zero and prep your finger for the third digit as you tackle the deep-fried Golden Gaytime for dessert – but know that the popular treat is often sold out come Sunday night. Show up on a Thursday to make sure you don’t miss out, and have a few beers. It feels right – sure what you’re indulging in is a little naughty, but hey, it’s pretty much the weekend. But shift your butt quick if you can’t handle crowds – this place is about to get large and loud. – Matt Roden Where: Cnr Broadway and Abercrombie Street Specials: $10 lunches, 12-4pm weekdays Contact: (02) 92816675 Web: theabercrombie.com.au

aftrs.edu.au A U S T R A L I A N

F I L M

T E L E V I S I O N

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

ALBUM OF THE WEEK GOTYE

Out’ and ‘I Feel Better’; old ones will have fun pairing and comparing tracks with their sonic and spiritual counterparts on Like Drawing Blood.

Making Mirrors Eleven/Universal

Making Mirrors undoubtedly builds on the template of Like Drawing Blood – but even though it sounds familiar, de Backer makes it feel new.

Many people will buy Making Mirrors on the strength of ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’, which deserves all the attention it’s getting and more on top. Others might buy it hoping for Like Drawing Blood Pt II, and it’s hard to imagine either group being too disappointed. Just as rich, cheeky and steeped in pop history and musicality as its predecessor (though it’s more polished, and lacks a little of LDB’s anything-goes eclecticism), and as carefully-constructed and addictive as its breakout track, it should cement Wally de Backer as the oddball-yet-everyman genius of Australian pop.

New fans will, one hopes, accept the genre excursions (like the self-referential dub ‘State Of The Art’, and the downtempo ‘Don’t Worry We’ll Be Watching You’) that sit alongside the more accessible grooves of ‘Easy Way

DREAM ON, DREAMER

PAJAMA CLUB

Fans of their second EP Hope will not be disappointed with Dream On, Dreamer’s debut full-length album; the sound is familiar to the Melbourne act’s previous output, but carries with it a more mature sound to what they started out with in 2009. The posthardcore band worked on the album in Florida with Cameron Mizell, who’s worked with artists such as I See Stars and Woe Is Me – and his influence here is tangible.

If there’s a post-hardcore rule book, Dream On, Dreamer have followed it flawlessly, with a satisfying mix of breakdowns, screams and catchy melodies. The first single ‘Downfall’ is a stand-out track, with a fast beat lending it immense energy right from the get go. It carries with it a lyrical theme of making the most of one’s life – inspirational, if not typical of the genre. ‘A Path Of Its Own’ is also worth a listen, as is the token slower track ‘Lifestream’, which brings the album to an end with a softer, more heartfelt moment.

The one thing that fans of the genre may notice lacking in the album is a clear sign of originality, which is becoming very difficult to come by in today’s post-hardcore bands.

Don’t get me wrong, though – if you’re after an album with quality songs that tick all the right boxes in the genre, and follows in the footsteps of other Aussie bands like House Vs Hurricane, then it's right here. But as for a fresh, original sound, Dream On, Dreamer haven’t quite got there.

Heartbound is an impressive debut record, one of those albums that you’ll love over time – and it'll be intense live.

Alyssa Gilbert

The first and most important thing to say about Pajama Club is that they are not Crowded House. Nor should they be seen as simply another vehicle in which Neil Finn might practice his songwriting mastery. Rather, they are a band in their own right, Finn being joined by Auckland songwriter Sean Donnelly, drummer Alana Skyring (ex-The Grates) and his better half Sharon Finn, whose contributions here, both on bass and vocally, combine to ground the project (as they undoubtedly have her husband’s career) while lending it a dark, sultry edge.

Opener ‘Tell Me What You Want’ sets the score in this regard, Sharon singing “tell me what you want / show me how to do it / tell me what you need / I can do anything” in a breathy mantra over an oh-so-smooth bassline. Indeed, Pajama Club is a surprisingly bass-heavy listen; the punchy power-pop chorus of ‘Daylight’ is reached via a verse punctuated with deep and menacing eruptions, with a sense of earthing also true of the simmering ‘Dead Leg’ or ‘TNT For Two’.

Finn has obviously gotten a kick out of experimenting with his friends – everything is coloured with sampled sounds and electronic ornament. That said, it is the stripped-back acoustic ‘Golden Child’ that forms the record’s emotional core, dealing with touching eloquence on the pains of letting one’s offspring go. The album highlight, it is also the odd one out, being more reminiscent of Ghost Of A Saber-Tooth Tiger’s Acoustic Sessions, Sean Lennon’s serially underrated project with Charlotte Muhl, than the night-life flavours of the rest.

Pajama Club provides an equally invigorating and oddball answer to the question of what to do when one’s excessively hirsute offspring flies the coop...

Oliver Downes

Caitlin Welsh

MOTOR CITY DRUM ENSEMBLE

S/T Lester Records

Heartbound UNFD/Warner

First single ‘Eyes Wide Open’, while not universally embraced at first, deserves more attention now. It’s full of wide-open sounds, from the Musical Fence samples buried in the mix to the ethereal pedal steel. And the slightly naff environmental message is carried off thanks to de Backer’s ability to be incredibly eloquent using words of three syllables or less. It’s why ‘Somebody’ and ‘Hearts A Mess’ hold such broad appeal – there are no convoluted metaphors or tortured poesy, just a normal guy with a wonderful voice building fascinating houses for his normal-guy thoughts to live in. “I don’t even need your love, but you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough.” A nuanced, relatable moment, simply expressed, set to a melody you can’t get out of your head.

DJ-Kicks !K7/Fuse As Rob Gordon said in High Fidelity, “The making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art.” This is a good quote to remember when reviewing any comp, as it reminds you of that most important and fundamental rule of mixtape creation: subtlety. In which case, the latest offering from Motor City Drum Ensemble for the esteemed DJ-Kicks series is perfection.

Having first come to attention as one half of Inverse Cinematics (most notably with their Slow Swing EP), and then under his current moniker with his excellent ‘Raw Cuts’ series, Motor City Drum Ensemble (AKA German producer Danilo Plessow) has built a solid reputation for himself, not only within the house music scene but with music appreciators as a whole.

In the case of his DJ-Kicks offering, a wide range of flavours are present, from afro-funk to DnB to straightup disco, with no shortage of bass, beats and deep dub to keep heads nodding. Those unfamiliar with the most recent trends in contemporary dance music need not worry, as this astute collection of tracks leans more toward the classic side of things, with some artists being decades apart (take Phillipe Sarde vs Aphex Twin, for instance). And although it would be easy to pigeon-hole this as just another house music mix, that would be a fundamental mistake given its inherent elegance and complexity.

MCDE is undoubtedly a consummate producer and mixer. His ear for detail sees 22 distinctive tracks seamlessly woven together to create a highly enjoyable DJ-Kicks mix; one that is stylistically eclectic, immersive, yet above all, unified.

Digby Woods

Yearlings Independent Listening to the second fulllength release from Sydney’s Dead Letter Chorus is like falling in love; like becoming so infatuated that you fail to recognise the minor imperfections that make the object of your affection complete.

The record strolls, skips and sprints down a winding path, through the most intimate emotions contained within a love affair.

Dreams, promises, confusion, frustration, regret and unparalleled bliss may be commonly occurring themes across the spectrum of alt-folk and country, but it’s

28 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

the honesty and musical mastery with which the band delivers them that makes Yearlings so breathtaking.

On the surface, standout tracks ‘Run, Wild’, ‘Yellow House’, and ‘The Poet And The Thief’ sound like relatively simple songs, but upon closer inspection there’s so much going on. The flawless harmonies held between Gabby Huber and Cameron Potts are interwoven with multiple layers of guitars and percussion, piano, sublime strings, claps, even a theremin – all perfectly mixed to create an album that somehow manages to maintain a hearty rawness.

If you were (understandably) misled into expecting a simple modern folk album

Remixes 2: 81 – 11 Mute/EMI

Quite aside from a shared insistence on maintaining sonic exuberance throughout, both acts draw liberally on the legacy of the Beach Boys, with a track like the supremely chillaxed ‘That’s What I Want’ built from falsettos on a base of Wilson Bros rounds. That said, Ganglians are just as drawn to the sludgier end of the spectrum – it’s almost possible to taste the clag in the brutally upbeat stomp of ‘Jungle’ or the experiment in swamp-thing reanimation ‘Things To Know’.

Indeed, it’s at times difficult to know whether to take this music as unaffected affirmation – a track such as ‘Good Times’ seems cut from the same cloth as Yeasayer – or ironydrenched critique. Such a thought hovers over the insolently tuneful ‘Sleep’ or ‘Evil Weave’, the lazily knowing delivery undercutting its surface concordance in a manner not dissimilar to that employed by Ariel Pink. Of course, it’s not an either/or equation – Ganglians are good enough to do both convincingly. Other peaks here include ‘California Cousins’, whose jangly acoustic guitars immediately recall The Mamas & The Papas infamous homage to the Golden State, or the grindingly euphoric ‘Faster’ which somehow manages to combine a Beatles aesthetic with Wavves.

With Still Living, Ganglians have apparently learnt to bottle joy: the kind that stumbles red-eyed into the morning, raw and a little disbelieving at having lived to see another day.

Oliver Downes

by the first minute-and-a-half of opener (and the album’s first single) ‘Covered

By Snow’, try not to strain as you lift your jaw off the ground when the driving, Pumpkins-esque drums are let loose.

The love song acts as the perfect topic sentence to the haunting beauty of ‘All Mine’ and the happy-go-lucky charm of ‘Run, Wild’. And if you generally consider stunning modern love ballads a little too softcore, I promise not to tell your friends about that tear in your eye during the intro of ‘I Belong With You’.

Yearlings is a gorgeous album that should be picked up by anyone who's loved, loved and lost, or never loved at all.

Sheridan Morley

DEPECHE MODE

Still Living Popfrenzy Sometimes artists seem to arrive at the same point from wildly divergent routes.

Building on the ideas hurled out on their epic 2009 double album Monster Head Room, a sprawling slab of woozy surfer pop and spastic psychedelic jams, Sacramento four-piece Ganglians’ third album Still Living is in spirit – and to some extent in sound – eerily similar to Panda Bear’s recent Tom Boy.

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK DEAD LETTER CHORUS

GANGLIANS

That there’s a wealth of ace B-sides, alternate mixes and remixes to be found amongst the ever-growing pile of Depeche Mode singles is common knowledge among the trio’s fans.

Genuine 12-inch aesthetes, Basildon’s synth juggernauts have been blessed with a whole bevy of twiddle-happy admirers over a large part of their 30-year-plus career. The sequel to 2004’s mammoth Remixes 81–04, 81–11 is a similarly grandiose, careerspanning 3CD/LP compilation.

Despite a number of glaring omissions (Flood’s single edit of ‘Freelove’; Sasha’s glorious, rave-friendly mixes of ‘Precious’; Bertrand Burgalat’s Frenchfunk reconstruction of ‘Easy Tiger’; Booka Shade’s ‘Martyr’ dub), there are still some nuggets in the singledisc version. Bushwacka’s sparse, atmospheric techno redux of ‘Dream On’ and Darren Price’s mega-chill ‘Slowblow’ are immediate standouts, while Tigerskin’s No Sleep mix of ‘In Chains’ (pillorying 'People Are People'’s famous “clanging” samples) breathes life into the otherwise turgid track.

Likewise, minimal whiz Trentemøller contributes a fine rendering of ‘Wrong’ (the highlight of 2009’s lukewarm Sounds Of The Universe), Miike Snow's Karlsson & Winnberg turn 1981 curio ‘Tora! Tora! Tora!’ into a credible proghouse/dubstep stomper and Röyksopp all but make ‘Puppets’ their own.

The obvious turkey here is the Stargate mix of ‘Personal Jesus’ – a meaningless electro-butchering of a classic song that manages to sound more dated than Depeche Mode’s early ‘80s output. Similarly, whoever let Eric Prydz near ‘Never Let Me Down’ deserves to be tortured with the resultant festival-doof mess; one must praise the skip button.

The occasional flop aside, Remixes 2 is a worthwhile listen for serious aficionados.

Denis Semchenko

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

MOONFACE - Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped JAY Z & KANYE WEST - Watch The Thrones METRONOMY - The English Riviera

HOLLY THROSBY - Team WHY? - Alopecia

!

T S A NG F

I

SELL

THEY WILL HAVE THEIR WAY THE SONGS OF TIM & NEIL FINN ALLEN TOUSSAINT, JON CLEARY THE DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND

SARAH BLASKO, PAUL DEMPSEY, CLARE BOWDITCH, LIOR, HOLLY THROSBY, ALEXANDER GOW & SALLY SELTMANN WED 16 & THURS 17 NOV CONCERT HALL . FROM $79* SYDNEYOPERAHOUSE.COM/MUSIC

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK ‘MUSIC AT THE HOUSE’ *A TRANSACTION FEE OF $5 - $8.50 APPLIES TO ALL BOOKINGS, EXCEPT INSIDERS.

BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 29

gear guide A Beginner's Guide To...

WITH

Software And Hardware

M

any people end up using whatever gear they’re first introduced to, and then Frankensteining it with extra kit to get the jobs they need done – which can end up creating an unnecessarily complex and crippled workflow. If you’re starting out, it really is worth pausing to work out the best solution for the music you want to make. There are some common questions, as well as some not-so-obvious things to be aware of...

Is it right for my music?

If you’re wondering which software host or digital audio workstation (DAW) to get, then your genre shouldn’t be a deciding factor – all the main platforms are open and flexible enough to cover any style of music you want

to make. That said, some genre-defining sounds arose from specific hardware (such as the Rollins TB-303 for making acid house), and specific add-on plug-ins like Antares AutoTune (see: Kanye West). So your host software can be anything, but a little research might help you achieve the sounds you want via some choice extras.

Ease of use?

An iPhone app can be a quick way to get you started, but ultimately it’ll require more effort or additional gear to complete a track. Studiolevel software platforms such as ProTools, Ableton Live, Logic Pro and many more all have a steeper learning curve, but are equally capable of professional

results in the right hands.

For hardware instruments and effects, units with knobs and dials are much easier to experiment with than the (particularly 90s style) units, which have minimal controls and are edited via a small data window and some navigation buttons.

The best DAW for me?

Find the one software solution that covers ALL your needs. Do you want to 1) write beats and create your own sounds, 2) play live or DJ, 3) record and mixdown instruments and vocalists, 4) sample, edit and mash-up, 5) combine video with your work, 6) work with surround sound – or all of the above?

Work that out first, and comparing options becomes much easier.

All gear, no idea!

Once you’ve chosen your main kit, every piece of gear you don’t add to your rig can actually help you make more music. Amassing heaps of gear and plugins means you’ll get confused at every turn, and only scratch the surface of what each tool can do. Get the most basic setup that will cover all your needs, and then master your tools and music/production skills. More knowledge, less gear – that's the best foundation to build on.

– Adam Maggs at Live School Training Centre Ableton Certified Trainer www.liveschool.net adam@liveschool.net

ANDREW EDGSON @ STUDIOS 301

Getting Started I got started in audio 1. engineering through recording both my old band and a few of my friends’ bands at home. After doing this for a year or so, I decided that I’d benefit from some formal education, so I enrolled in an audio engineering diploma course in Sydney. It really helped me; it confirmed many things I had read, I learnt in my own time, and it allowed me to experiment in a professional, focused environment.

whether it be the musicians we are recording or the engineers that work in-house. I try to draw inspiration from all that talent around me.

Your Studio Over the past six years 3.

I have been able to spend

Inspirations To be honest, the best 2. inspiration comes from

the vast majority of my time working in a great sounding room with a heap of great equipment at my disposal.

I would say rather than picking a particular favourite bit of equipment, I couldn’t work without a room that didn’t have great acoustics – although a computer and headphones are pretty vital too!

working with people who are simply enthusiastic about what they do. At my current studio, a range of very talented people are always cruising around,

The Music You Make I don’t really get the time to make my own music anymore; I just help other artists make their music

4.

sound the best it can, and work creatively in that sense.

Some of the artists that I have helped this year include Ernest Ellis, The Living End, Liam Finn, Cloud Control, Strange Talk, Winter People, Two Door Cinema Club, !!!, Beach House and many more.

Music, Right Here, Right Now 5.

Musicians have never had it so good; there has never been another time in history when an artist could record their own music and release it themselves online so easily, retaining full control of their art.

What: Studios 301 Where: 18 Mitchell Road, Alexandria Web: www.studios301.com Phone: 9698 5888

SUPPORTED BY www.f biradio.com 30 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

gear reviews

Tips From The Top

Mark Crowley pits the old against the new

WITH

Nathan Johnson

THE TECHNICS SL-1200 The fundamental tool for every classic DJ, from Grandmaster Flash to Carl Cox, the Technics SL-1200 is the cornerstone upon which DJ culture developed. And despite the fact it is technically hi-fi equipment for playback, the SL-1200 has arguably been one of the most influential instruments in modern music – it’s hard to imagine hip hop, rap, techno, disco and house music existing without it. Sadly ceasing manufacturing late last year, the Technics SL-1200 remains the professional DJ’s ‘standard’ turntable across the world today.

KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID! The key to the SL-1200’s longlasting success lies not in radical technological advancements (the design remained unchanged from their 1972 original), but rather in its focus on THE CLASSIC performing all the fundamental

functions required for a DJ reliably, even after extensive periods of use. Indeed, with a little TLC, it’s not uncommon for 20-year-old SL-1200s to be running as well today as the day they came out of the box.

NICE AND DIRECT As opposed to standard hi-fi turntables, which utilise a belt-driven motor to turn the records (literally a small rubber band run between the motor section and the turntable platter, to reduce the noise associated with the motor’s operations), the Technics SL-1200 uses a direct drive motor placed right under the centre. This greatly increases the torque (resistance) that the platter can offer against the DJs touch, allowing for minor tempo adjustments without skipping the record, and accomodating the quick restart of playback after scratching that’s so important for a turntablist. Moreover, the

MIX ENGINEER @ MIX OSMOSIS rubber band used in beltdriven turntables is susceptible to the heat generated by the friction of the two moving parts, causing the rubber to expand over time and the speed of playback to change ever so slightly with extended use. The ability to quickly match tempo is of penultimate importance to your average DJ, which is why they’d pick the direct drive of the Technics SL-1200 every time.

RESPECT YOUR ELDERS Changes in technology, especially playback format, have led to the decline in their usage, but the Technics SL-1200s still remain the preference for many DJs. If you’ve never used them before, try and take a closer look – or at the very least, please don’t spill your drinks on them next time you see them in a club!

VS.

THE CHALLENGER

DIGITAL DJ SOFTWARE

While CDJ technology has become incredibly popular, it feels that with each passing year the strongest contender for most popular DJ devices is the trusty laptop coupled with a form of MIDI controller. The digital market hasn’t settled upon a club standard, but there are a number of competitive software and hardware brands making a strong claim to the throne: names like Serato Scratch, Native Instruments Traktor Scratch, Virtual DJ and even Ableton Live.

SYNC, STOP, REPEAT. One of the major advantages of digital DJ formats is that almost all platforms these days offer some form of automatic beatmatching and loop synchronisation. While the purists will cry blue murder about the death of proper beat mixing and the DJs critical ear (and there is some truth to this among DJs

who’ve only used digital), the reality is that in trained, experienced hands, these features allow users to push the boundaries of what it is possible to achieve in electronic music performance. Digital beat-matching and auto looping has been embraced by long mix techno pioneers such as Richie Hawtin and Carl Cox – names renowned for being at the cutting edge of music tech across multiple decades.

EFFECTS, FX, EFFECTS Your computer is a more than capable digital FX processor (digital FX chips are used in most major DJ mixers – Pioneer DJM800, for example), and has the distinct advantage of being easy to update and conceivably endless in terms of processing power and memory. Most major DJ software includes an array of digital effects, and has the capacity to create complicated

routings in an easy-to-manipulate virtual environment. As a cross-over production platform, Ableton literally offers a recording studio’s worth of effects (not counting third party plug-ins), and Traktor Pro 2 offers 30 effects that can be routed across six total stackable FX slots. That’s a lot of mayhem.

IT’S ALL ABOUT PHILOSOPHY At the end of the day, the argument comes down to the user’s musical philosophy. It’s a well treaded adage that limitations spawn creativity, and this can definitely be true of a classic two-turntables-and-two-channels DJ mixer setup. But new technologies inspire new sounds and techniques; it’s hard to imagine James Holden mixing like he does without a digital platform. In the end, no musician’s or DJ’s ability will be damaged by experimentation and experience across both platforms. The final decision should come down to what feels most expressive for you.

People new to recording often spend a lot of time focused on kick drums, bass guitars and the bottom end – but if you don’t get the VOCALS tight and clear, your mix will always be behind the 8-ball.

When beginning your mix, try dealing with the lead vocal track first. Firstly, split your verse, chorus and middle section vocals onto different tracks. Apply EQ to each track differently – be subtle, yet aim to give each vocal section its own unique stamp. For instance, give the chorus lead vocal a little less lower mid to make room for bigger instrumentation, or try and use an effect on the vocal in the middle section/ bridge, to lift your song somewhere new.

Now the trick: send all of the lead vocal tracks to back into one bus or auxiliary channel, then place a compressor over this channel. Set the compressor up with a mid-range threshold ratio to tickle the loudest sections – not too much gain reduction, 6db max. Then, automate the volume of each source channel (ie; vocal verse track) – in effect, you are now controlling the amount of compression with the source track, not the compressor. And remember, over compression is the fastest way to kill a take quickly.

Make sure you turn the consonants at the end of words up in volume, so you can hear the t’s and s’s. Sometime singers don’t project the first part of the first word of a line as loudly, so you can use this method to really nail the vocal clarity, and get your lead sitting pretty. No one will ever comment about your mix and say ‘great compressor dude’, but they will compliment on a “great vocal take” or “...that singer really nailed it!”

MIXOSMOSIS is a boutique music mixing and recording studio in Sydney www.mixosmosis.com mix@mixosmosis.com

www.studios301.com facebook.com/studios301 02 9698 5888 adam@studios301.com Sameer Sengupta Mastering clients include: Armin Van Buuren, Ministry Of Sound, Axwell, PNAU and The Lost Valentinos Mastering from $100 per song.

BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 31

The Minor Chord

The all-ages rant bought to you by Indent.net.au and Dominic O'Connor

ALL-AGES GIG PICKS FRIDAY AUGUST 26

here are some pretty exciting gigs happening around town this week.

For all you hip hop fans, Outkast’s Big Boi (USA) will be hitting the Enmore Theatre this Saturday August 27. With his solo debut Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty on high triple j rotation last year, and after his brief promotional tour, his return is highly anticipated. This time he brings impressive supports: New York’s Theophilus London, who will also be embarking on his own debut tour of Australia following the success of his Lovers Holiday EP and his popular mixtape releases, and Sydney’s own hip hop masters, Thundamentals.

Boyce Avenue Enmore Theatre

Floridian Boyce Avenue are also playing at the Enmore this week. Sporting an acoustic roots and melodic rock fusion, Boyce Avenue is comprised of three brothers who began writing acoustic covers of hits by artists like Justin Timberlake, Rhianna and Coldplay and posting them on YouTube. In 2010 the band reached over 165,000,000 views – making their YouTube channel one of the most frequented worldwide. During this time, the boys began to write and produce their own music, were approached by label giants Universal Republic Records, and released their debut album All We Have Left. Due to overwhelming demand, their Sydney show has been moved from the Metro Theatre, so catch them at the Enmore this Friday August 26.

The Living End, Hunting Grounds, King Cannon Enmore Theatre

T

Also hailing from Florida, punk rock group Anberlin will be playing at the Enmore on Thursday September 1. Anberlin have toured with the likes of Fall Out Boy and Story Of The Year, following the release of their successful album New Surrender.

They'll be supported by Sydney pop punk sensation Tonight Alive, who are currently in Los Angeles recording their debut album before they hit our shores supporting The Getaway Plan. Their EP has already sold more than 20,000 copies in Australia and Japan alone – so this is band to keep your ears on.

The Enmore continues to pump out some great all-ages gigs, with Australia’s iconic rock trio The Living End playing Saturday September 3. The ARIA-chart-toppers will be supported by Ballarat’s garage punk party-starters Hunting Grounds and King Cannons. Hunting Grounds last toured with Grinspoon in April and have since had their heads stuck in the studio, busily recording their debut LP, the followup to last year’s Brothers In Violence EP. Their new music video ‘In Colour’ was last week’s J Plays ‘Clip Of The Week’, and is also on the top ten list of most downloaded

SATURDAY AUGUST 27 Big Boi, Theophilus London, Thundamentals Enmore Theatre

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 1

Anberlin, Tonight Alive Enmore Theatre

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 3

tracks on AMRAP's AirIT. You can check out their new clip on the Indent site.

If you’ve been keeping up to date with The Minor Chord, you’ll remember that a couple of issues ago we were getting excited about the return of MySchoolAct, an online talent competition created exclusively for Australian high school students who live for their music. If you’re in a band, or if you're a soloist, sign up to MySchoolAct, upload your video or MP3, and start spreading the word far and wide to build your fanbase. Hundreds of acts are fighting for the chance to either secure a Sony recording deal worth $50,000 or a spot on the Big Day Out 2012 lineup.

One act in particular has already caught MySchoolAct presenter Nathan Sapsford’s eye. Nathan’s ‘pick of the week’ is Matt Prior & The Wonders Of The World, a punk act from Hurlstone Agricultural High School, Glenfield. Sapsford describes the band as having ‘Super punk sensibility, lashings of the Arctic Monkeys’ carefree early days... Guitar music to dance to is really hard to do, but they’ve nailed it.

They’ve only recorded one song but it’s great... Go forth, listen and vote!” To cast your votes or to check out some of the other acts participating in the MySchoolAct competition this year, head to our Indent site for more details.

That just about wraps it up for this week, but do remember to tune into FBi Radio 94.5fm each Wednesday at 5pm to hear the all-ages picks from The Minor Chord team. If you don’t have access to a radio you can still keep up to speed by checking out our website indent.net.au. If you’re in the know of any all ages events, be they musical, artistic or of any other vein, write to us at theminorchordradio@gmail.com.

The Living End

Send all ages listings & info to theminorchordradio@gmail.com 32 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

Remedy

More than The Cure since 1989 with Murray Engleheart

IN YOUR FACE, ROD

Ian ‘Mac’ McLagan, keyboard player with The Faces, reckons that the reason that Mick Hucknall, rather than Rod Stewart, is better as the Faces’ modern-day singer is because Rod now has trouble with the keys of the songs. What’s been obviously forgotten in the mists of time here is that The Faces were always pissed. That was their entire charm and grace, and they were hugely successful with that boozy template. Now in their old age they want to blubber about technicalities? Please!

COMFORTABLY NOEL

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, our verbal hero Noel Gallagher was asked for his feelings on playing smaller venues in his own right, rather than the massive joints that Oasis were able to comfortably pack out. Our man wanted none of it. “People keep saying, ‘Oh, it’ll be great to get out of your comfort zone’.

It’s like, ‘Fuck you!' Get out of your fucking comfort zone! It fucking took me 20 years to build a comfort zone. I have no fucking intention of stepping outside of mine. Not for no fucker!”

CLARKEY TRIBUTE

As Loud As It Gets is a tribute show for Greg Clarke who sadly passed away recently. It’s on September 2 at the Enmore Theatre with Rose Tattoo, Baby Animals, The Screaming Jets, The Poor, Judge Mercy/Wrecking Crew and Ugly Little Secrets. Clarkey was a wonderful bloke who did sound for many folks, and loved it loud. All proceeds go towards an organisation being set up in his name to help fund and mentor young people in the music industry, in areas like engineering and tour & production management.

RORY REISSUED

Just out are reissues of the last of the great Rory Gallagher’s back catalogue. The slabs in question are Defender (1987), Fresh Evidence (1990), the 22-track double-set BBC Sessions (1999), which is a live and studio effort, and Wheels Within Wheels (2003). The latter is an unplugged affair

that highlights Gallagher’s love of traditional sounds such as country blues and bluegrass, as displayed by his treatments of material from Robert Johnson and Bill Monroe.

NEVERMIND REISSUED

That ridiculously huge reissue of Nirvana’s Nevermind to mark the landmark effort’s 20th anniversary is out on September 27, and seems to get bigger as the release date approaches. But then again, in the modern era, if anything deserves such a treatment this is it. The “super deluxe” box has four slabs and a DVD, which includes the original recording and B-sides plus the “Devonshire Mixes”, which is apparently a version of the record done by Butch Vig on his lonesome, rather the edition that ended up making it out of the garage (which was mixed by Andy Wallace). There’s also a 19-track disc and mirroring DVD of a full 1991 show at the famed Paramount Theatre in Seattle, plus a book that clocks in at almost 100 pages.

There’s a much plainer double-disc deluxe edition, and there’s a vinyl box with four LPs in it too – but we’re big believers in having all the bells and whistles, so…

LO FIVE PRESENTS

+BENTLEY +DJ ABILITY

BLACK BOOKS

There’s not one but two Black Sabbathrelated books on the way, and neither involve Ozzy O. No, it’s true: bassist Geezer Butler (the creative heart and head of the band, penning many classic lyrics and summoning up much of their early ‘satanic’ edge after he painted his bedroom red and saw demons) has a tome in the works; the other is by Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, and titled Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven And Hell With Black Sabbath, which should be out in late October. (PS: Did someone at Rolling Stone really once tag Sabbaff as “The Beatles of heavy metal”?)

ROCK AROUND TOWN

Last week we pulled up at a set of lights next to a bloke playing Slayer in his car at considerable volume. Elsewhere, we had reports of a taxi driver playing ZZ Top’s Tush cranked up really high... The times, they might be a’changing.

August 25TH THURSDAY 8PM

Rose Tattoo

ON THE TURNTABLE On the Remedy turntable is White Lace & Strange: Heavy Psych And Power Fuzz From The USA 68-72. This is some wild, wild shit this – third-nipple-removing stuff from one of the most fertile periods there ever was for big rock and bigger noise.

It’s the under-the-counter, amped-up stuff that was happening between the cracks while Zeppelin were slaying the UK and Cactus were being framed as their US counterparts. Some of it is actually some of the very best garage punk scuzz imaginable. Highly recommended.

TOUR AND INDUSTRY NEWS Following last year’s re-release of Galaxie 500’s three classic albums on Domino Records, former frontman and guitarist Dean Wareham set out on tour playing a set of G500 material, with a three-piece band featuring his wife Britta Phillips on bass and drummer Anthony Lamarca. Now Wareham and co. are bringing the music of Galaxie 500 to Australia. On October 12, they’ll be at the Annandale with fellow astral-planers, Melbourne’s Sand Pebbles.

The Cool Charmers and the Patron Saints are at the Sando on October 30.

Beatdisc Records in Parramatta are having their Sweet 16th Birthday Party on Saturday August 27 with a sale (16% off pre-owned and 10% off new stock), a BBQ, a ping-pong tournament and all-round good times.

On October 2, T.H.U.G and Daredevil are playing at the Bald Faced Stag from 3pm.

There’s a fundraiser for the R.I.P Society label that doubles as the farewell for the Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys, who are leaving us for a US tour. It’s happening on Saturday August 27 at 7pm at the Red Rattler.

Send stuff to remedy@ozemail.com.au by 6pm Wednesdays.

Pics to art@thebrag.com www.facebook.com/remedy4rock

FRI 26th AUGUST

)YV^UZ^VVK

,3,*;9 * ALBUM LAUNCH

BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 33

snap sn ap up all night out all week . . .

mum

It’s called: FBi’s Northern Lights Finalist Showcase It sounds like: A huge amount of talent, mostly of the electronic persuasion.

Who’s playing? Flume, Tim Fitz, Caitlin Park, Tank, Rainbow Chan (check ‘em out at fbiradio.com/Iceland) Sell it to us: FBi Radio is running a comp to take two solo artists to Reykjavik for the Iceland Airwaves festival, and these guys are the finalists! This is your chance to see them LIVE before voting closes. Come check ‘em out and make sure the best man or woman wins. PLUS If you get there early, you’ll catch Pot Luck (our new weekly weekend starter) - including tunes from Tyson Koh, and a set from The Bungalows.

The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Hopefully the musician you liked best, so you can vote.

Crowd specs: Music lovers who appreciate the next big thing when they see it.

Wallet damage: Zero dollars!

Where: FBi Social / Level 2, Kings Cross Hotel When: Friday August 26, 9pm sharp, or earlier for Pot Luck!

PICS :: TP

party profile

fbi's northern lights

the panda band

PICS :: CG

12:08:11 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700

abercrombie hotel

PICS :: RR

13:08:11 :: The Gaelic Theatre :: 64 Devonshire St Surry Hills 92111687

children collide

:: Manning Bar :: @ Sydney Uni City Rd Chippendale 95636107

:: KATRINA CLARKE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) CHY OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER :: VICKY NGYUEN:: THOMAS PEA NS MUN IEL DAN :: MAR LEY :: CAI GRIFFIN :: ASH NA :: ROSETTE ROUHAN

34 :: BRAG :: 426: 22:08:11

faker

PICS :: KC

12:08:11

PICS :: KC

13:08:11 :: Abercrombie Hotel :: 100 Broadway Ultimo 92113486

12:08:11 :: The Beresford Hotel :: 354 Bourke Street Surry HIlls 9357 1111

BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 35

snap sn ap

13:08:11 :: Manning Bar :: @ Sydney Uni City Rd Chippendale 95636107

live in the backroom

daniel merriweather

PICS :: CG

regurgitator

PICS :: RR

up all night out all week . . .

10:08:11 :: Tone:: 16 Wentworth Ave, Surry Hills 9267 6440

It sounds like: The freshest live music Sydney has to offer as well as DJs spinning all night.

Who’s playing? Bachelor Pad, The Lockwoods, Archerbolds Sell it to us: This is a brand spankin’ new live music night, and into our third week, we’re already looking like the best on offer: a sweet, intimate venue in the heart of the Cross, with $5 drinks, and free entry. Yep, there are also plenty of places to sit.

The bit we’ll remember in the AM: The Backroom is the place to be in the Cross on Thursdays.

Crowd specs: Anyone looking for a good time beyond the gates of hell.

Wallet damage: zero Where: The Backroom / 2A Roslyn St (just off Darlinghurst Rd)

ash grunwald 12:08:11

11:08:11 :: The Back Room :: 2A Roslyn St, Potts Point 9361 5000 36 :: BRAG :: 426: 22:08:11

:: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711

last night PICS :: CG

i know leopard

PICS :: AM

When: Thursday August 25 (and every Thursday)

PICS ::VN

party profile

It’s called: Live In The Backroom

12:08:11 :: The Gaelic Theatre :: 64 Devonshire St Surry Hills 92111687

:: KATRINA CLARKE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) CHY OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER :: VICKY NGYUEN:: THOMAS PEA NS MUN IEL DAN :: MAR LEY :: CAI GRIFFIN :: ASH NA :: ROSETTE ROUHAN

BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 37

g g guide g

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com

pick of the week

Zoltan Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 6pm

JAZZ

The Glorious Sousaphonics, Mr Bamboo 505 Club, Surry Hills $10– $15 8.30pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm

The Vines

SATURDAY AUGUST 27

THURSDAY AUGUST 25 ROCK & POP Caitlin Park

TUESDAY AUGUST 23 ROCK & POP

Metro Theatre, Sydney

The Vines,

Papa vs Pretty, Bleeding Knees Club $36.90 (+ bf)–$47.90 (incl. CD) 8pm Abbe May

MONDAY AUGUST 22 ROCK & POP

The Barden-Stapleton Project The Basement, Circular Quay $12 (conc)–$20 9pm David Agius Opera Bar, Sydney Opera House free 8.30pm Matt Jones The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm The Thing Os Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm

JAZZ

Andrew Dickeson, Roger Manins 505 Club, Surry Hills $10– $15 8.30pm Jazz – The Final Frontier: Rinske Geerlings, Daniel Falero, Philip Taig, Pierre Della Putta The World Bar, Kings Cross free 7pm Rob Eastwood Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm

Acoustic Ladyland, Charmaine Bingwa, Michelle Cashman, DJ Jasmine, Ruby For Lucy, Carolyn Woodforth The Basement, Circular Quay $20 6pm Johnsong, Monannlisa Wilde, Lilyso Beach Road Hotel, Bondi 8pm The Listening Room Open Mic The Vault, Windsor free 7pm Moon Shakes: The Push, Cabaret Callado, Surprise Act Flinders Hotel, Darlinghurst free 8pm Outlier Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm Rob Henry The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Shane Flew Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm Steve Tonge O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm Strip!, feat ex BNO from Scruffy’s Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills free 8pm They Call Me Bruce Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm

Dave Seaside Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7.30pm Jager Uprising: Rainy Day Woman (WA), Annie McKinnon, We, The Keen, Swap Annandale Hotel $8 7.30pm James Johnston, Red Remedy Rock Lily, Pyrmont free 8pm Jamie Lindsay Northies, Cronulla free 7.30pm JP O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm Karoshi Tone, Surry Hills 8pm Mandi Jarry Summer Hill Hotel free 7.30pm Matt Jones Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 11pm Mike Bennett The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Musos Club Jam Night Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt free 8pm Owl Eyes, Cameras, Split Seconds Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm Rainy Day Women, Swap, We The Keen, Annie McKinnon Annandale Hotel $8 7.30pm The Study Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills free 7pm Unity Floors Low 302, Darlinghurst free 8pm

Abbe May, Hootenanny Annandale Hotel $20 (+ bf) 8pm Alvin ‘Youngblood’ Hart (USA) The Basement, Circular Quay $33 (+ bf)–$77.80 (dinner & show) 9.30pm Andy Mammers Harbord Beach Hotel free Bachelor Pad, The Lockwoods, Archerbolds The Back Room, Potts Point free 7pm Brad Johns Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm The Conscious Polot Macquarie Hotel, Sydney free 9pm Craig Woodward & The Lonely Dogs, Luke Dixon Brass Monkey, Cronulla $14.30 (+ bf) 7pm Crossroads Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills free 8pm The Dark Shadows, Dr El Suavo, Frank Castro Sandringham Hotel, Newtown 8pm Doc Walker (Canada), McAllister-Kemp Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $31.70 (+ bf) 8pm Domekyo / Gonzalez Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Domino, Mavis & Her China Pigs, Thaker Beat, The Beat Valve Bar, Tempe 7pm Greg Byrne Toxteth Hotel, Glebe free 8pm Henry Wagons The Vanguard, Newtown 8pm

JAZZ

Jazzgroove: Remco Keijzer Quartet, SHOWA 44 505 Club, Surry Hills $8 (member)–$10 8.30pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 24 ROCK & POP

Alvin ‘Youngblood’ Hart (USA) Brass Monkey, Cronulla $37.75 (+ bf) 7pm Andy Mammers Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm Bayou Band Macquarie Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Bernie Segedin Dee Why RSL Club free 9pm Blackie Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Caitlin Park, The Singing Skies Goodgod Small Club, Sydney $10 8pm

Henry Wagons

“Saturday’s sun has turned to Sunday’s rain. So Sunday sat in the Saturday sun and wept for a day gone by” - NICK DRAKE 38 :: BRAG :: 426 : 22:08:11

g g guide gig g

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Hot Damn!: Angelas Dish, Wake The Giants, Seek the Silence, Delamare Spectrum, Darlinghurst $12 (guestlist)–$15 8pm Husky, Tigertown Goodgod Small Club, Sydney $12 8pm Kevin Borich Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $32–$74 (dinner & show) 8pm The Living Chair Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills free 9.30pm

Musos Club Jam Night Carousel Hotel, Rooty Hill free 8pm Neil Young After The Goldrush Tribute Notes Live, Enmore 8pm Phill Simmons Guildford Leagues Club free 10pm The Popfrenzy Sessions: Times New Viking (USA), Bed Wettin Bad Boys Tone, Surry Hills $25 (presale) 8pm

Richard In Your Mind

Rayon Moon Low 302, Darlinghurst free 8pm Richard In Your Mind, Hammocks & Honey, Oblako Lodka FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst $12 8pm Rockit To Mars Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm Rose Carleo Rooty Hill RSL Club free 8pm You Am I Harbord Diggers Club $28.10 (+ bf) 8pm

JAZZ

Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm Steve Clisby, Bill Risby 505 Club, Surry Hills $20 8.30pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK Dave Wilkins The Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 8.30pm Mye Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7.30pm

FRIDAY AUGUST 26 ROCK & POP

Almost Famous The Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 10.30pm Andy Bull, Spring Skier, Pluto Jonze Goodgod Small Club, Sydney $15 (+ bf) 8pm Bestianity, Bain Wolfkind, The Veil, Diable Amoreux,

wed

Times New Viking

TUESDAYS!

24 Aug

ROCK-STEIN

MUSIC & MOVIE TRIVIA

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

thu

25 Aug

WED 24 AUG

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

fri

26 Aug

(5:00PM - 8:00PM)

(9:15PM - 1:00AM)

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

SATURDAY AFTERNOON (4:30PM - 7:30PM)

sat

27 Aug

Cradle Songs: Karin Schaupp City Recital Hall, Sydney $22 all ages 10am Diesel The Basement, Circular Quay $40 9.30pm Drew Harris Orange Grove Hotel, Leichhardt free 8pm Flamin’ Beauties Penrith Hotel free 9pm GTS Club Rivers, Riverwood free 8.30pm Helm, Mind at Large, Shinobi, Raising Bodhi Waves Nightclub $15.60 8pm

Reverend Kriss Hades Live at the Wall, Leichhardt $12.50 7pm Boyce Avenue (USA) Enmore Theatre all ages 8pm The Bungalows, Tyson Koh FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst 6pm Californication Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10.30pm The Capitols Club Five Dock, Five Dock RSL free 8pm The Choirboys Mounties, Mount Pritchard $25 (presale)–$30 8pm

SATURDAY NIGHT

sun

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

Aug

SUNDAY NIGHT

28

THU 25 AUG

FRI 26 AUG

Hue Williams Wangi RSL free 8pm Hugo Race The Vanguard, Newtown $20 (+ bf)–$55 (dinner & show) 6.30pm James Taylor – A Tribute The Vault, Windsor $17 (presale)–$20 9pm Jeff Martin (Canada), Terapai Richmond Notes Live, Enmore $39.80 (presale)–$67.35 (dinner & show) 7pm Jim Conway’s Big Wheel Empire Hotel, Annandale $15 (conc)–$20 8pm Keith Armitage Harbord Beach Hotel free

RIOT HOUSE COMEDY WEDNESDAY’S THE STUDY feat

FREE ENTRY

JUGU

PHEBE STARR + ALIZA WAXMAN

CROSSROADS SEMI FINAL WITH YOUR HOST RONNIE SIMMONS

$5 MILLERS $5 JIM BEAM $10 JIM BEAM BLACKS

PURPLE SNEAKERS PRESENT LAST NIGHT

THE PAPER SCISSORS

(LIVE)

TIGER CHOIR + RANDALL STAGG

SAT 27

ELECTRIC ZOO

SUN

BABYROLL!

AUG BEN DRAYTON + THE BLOW WAVES + DIVINE KNIGHTS + GARCON GARCON + BLUSH FOUNDATION

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

(8:30PM - 12:00AM)

28 AUG

RUFFLEFEATHER + BEN CUDDY + NEW BAND IN TEXAS

01/09 CROSSROADS--FINALS 02/09 LOUIS LONDON 03/09 AIM EVENT/SRDL AFTERPARTY 04/09 GLITTER CANYON 10/09 NORTHERN SOUL 11/09 FRINGE FEST CABARET SHOW 17/09 CHANGING LANES FESTIVAL 24/09 LEADER CHEETAH

COMING SOON BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 39

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

Ghostwood

Annandale Hotel $10 (presale)–$15 7.30pm Thousand Needles in Red Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor free 7pm Tully Dingle, Zoe Elliot, Alice Terry Band, Matt Corby The Manly Fig $12 (student)–$15 7.30pm The Understatement, Swing from a Streetlight, Peace of Mind, Cascade Lewisham Hotel $10 8pm Vika & Linda Bull Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $58–$128 (dinner & show) 8pm

JAZZ

Khancoban, Kid Cornered Petersham Bowling Club 8pm King Tide Brass Monkey, Cronulla $25.50 (+ bf) 7pm Last Night: Paper Scissors, Tiger, Randall Stagg Gaelic Club, Surry Hills $15 8pm Liam Finn (NZ), Big Scary, Evil J & Saint Cecilia Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $20 (+ bf)–$35 (incl CD) 8.30pm Mad Season Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills free 9.30pm Memory Loss Springwood Royal Hotel 9pm Michael Wheatley Trio Rose of Australia Hotel, Erskineville 9pm Monster Gale, Skinpin, The Waysmiths, Elephant Valve Bar, Tempe 7pm MUM presents Worlds Collide: Peppercorn,

Fishing DJs, The Mountains, Oceanics, Rockets, Tank, Tim Fitz, Barnzy, Vacant Field, Cuervo, MUM DJs The World Bar, Kings Cross $10-$15 8pm Nix To The Max- Stevie Nix Show Heathcote Hotel free 8.30pm Radio Ink, Peacock Dreams, Husky, DJ Chip Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills free 8pm Red Remedy, Rick O Shay, Ape BC, The Chargers Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Ron Ashton Guildford Leagues Club free 10pm Steve Balbi El Rocco’s, Bar Me $33.30 8pm Super Florence Jam, The Go Roll Your Bones, The Dead Love, The Incredible Kicks, Ashes

Kool Fusion Freeway Hotel, Artarmon free 7pm Pugsley Buzzard 505 Club, Surry Hills $15 (member)–$20 8.30pm SIMA: Mike Nock Trio, Karl Laskowski, Ken Allars The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $10 (member)–$20 8.30pm

Andy Bull, Spring Skier, Pluto Jonze Brass Monkey, Cronulla $14.30 (+ bf) 7pm Astral Launch Night: Jonti, Bon Chat Bon Rat, Wintercoats, Dro Carey, Albatross, DJ Mike Who, Preacha, Wedding Ring Fingers Tone, Surry $10-$15 8pm Bang Shang a Lang Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain 8pm The Bedroom Philosopher, Catboy The Vanguard, Newtown $15 (presale)–$20 6.30pm Big Bozza Band, delSanto, Big Bozza Band, Khan of K Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Bruce Mathiske Parade Theatre, NIDA, Kensington 8pm Cherribomb Cronulla RSL free 7pm

Chihei Hatakeyama (Japan), Ollie Brown (UK), Kane Yeosop Yoon The Silent Hour, Woolloomooloo $22 8pm Conics, Mrs Bishop, Long Island Sound FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst 8pm Daemon Foetal Harvest, Mytile Very Loath, Hell Itself, Autolysis Valve Bar, Tempe 7pm Damn Fine Gentlemen Bald Rock Hotel, Rozelle free 7.30pm Dave Carroll The Vault, Windsor free 9pm Diesel The Basement, Circular Quay $40 9.30pm Ghostwood, Cassette (NZ), The Ruminators, Kato Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills free 8pm Havex Caringbah Bizzo’s 8pm

Helm, Shinobi, Babyroll, Scatterfly Live at the Wall, Leichhardt $12 (+ bf) 8pm Henry Wagons Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $2 8pm Hot August Night Concert: The Sydney International Orchestra Workers Blacktown $35 (member)–$45 8pm Jam for Genes Charity Fundraiser: Merilyn Steele Maroubra RSL Club free 7pm Johnny G & the E-Types Penrith Panthers, Evans Theatre free 9.30pm Killer Queen Penrith Panthers, Evans Theatre $27 (+ bf) 8pm Miriam Lieberman, Pape MBaye Camelot, Marrickville 7.30pm Moonshine Ruby Tavern free 8pm Big Scary

ACOUSTIC & FOLK Johnny Rock The Belvedere Hotel free Mark Hopper Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7.30pm

SATURDAY AUGUST 27 ROCK & POP

031 Rockshow Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10.30pm

Unity Floors Rayon Moon ★ FRI AUG 26 ★ Electronic

Low Society Pres:

Antiserum (Rottun Records) Supported by Filth Collins and more TBA

Chopper and the Honeyboy James Domeyko Money Smokers

★ THU SEPT 1 ★

Speakeasy

Comedy

★ SAT SEPT 3 ★

KILLED BY DEATH

Metal club night

★ COMING SOON ★ Foreign Dub Presents: Jungle Theory Old school jungle Dnb night Hidden Dragon Launch

450 PARAMATTA RD PETERSHAM 40 :: BRAG :: 426 : 22:08:11

302 Crown Street Darlinghurst 02 9368 1548 Wednesday through to Saturday from 5pm to 2am Sunday 6pm to 2am

g g guide gig g

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Papa vs Pretty

No Pressure The Coast Hotel, Budgewoi free 8.30pm One Hit Wonders The Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 10.30pm Roy Orbison Reborn: Dean Bourne Campbelltown RSL $25 7pm The Shuffle Boys Club Five Dock, Five Dock RSL free 8pm Tony Williams Guildford Leagues Club free 10pm Unplugged + Uncomplicated: Jordan Leser, John Dixon, Andy Golledge, Les Deux Violettes CarriageWorks, Eveleigh free 12pm Van Hagar Blacktown RSL Club free 10pm The Vines, Papa Vs Pretty, Bleeding Knees Club Metro Theatre, Sydney $36.90 (+ bf)â&#x20AC;&#x201C;$47.90 (incl CD) 8pm War of Attrition, Insizer, Truth or Tradgedy Lewisham Hotel $10 2pm The Waves Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Whores, Bed Wettinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Bad Boys, Raw Prawn, Street Talk, The Sweats Red Rattler, Marrickville $10 7pm Winter Haze: Peabody, Midget, The Happy Hate Me Nots, Royal Chant, Kill City Creeps, Sativa Sun, Chicks Who Love Guns, Ya-Aha Annandale Hotel $13 (+ bf) 6pm Yuki Kumagai, John Mackie Hernandez Cafe, Darlinghurst free 7.30pm

Joyce Collins The Belvedere Hotel free 9pm

SUNDAY AUGUST 28 ROCK & POP

7 Deadly Sins Band Comp: Forget The Stereo The Lucky Australian, North St Marys $10 licensed all ages 1pm Chopper and the Honeyboy Low 302, Darlinghurst free 8pm David Agius Harbord Beach Hotel free 6.30pm Drive: Peter Northcote Bridge Hotel, Rozelle $10 3pm Jason Simon (USA), Margins, Immigrant Union, Blackie Annandale Hotel 8pm $20 (+ bf) Killer Queen Cabravale Diggers, Canley Vale $26 3pm Mario Brothers Club Five Dock, Five Dock RSL free 4pm Rich Uncle Skeleton, Kickstart, The Dead Electric Valve Bar, Tempe 4pm Rumble in the Quad Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 6pm Screaming Sunday Annandale Hotel all ages 12pm Sunday Soup Mix: Helpful Kitchen Gods, Fabels, Sativa Sun, The Lewis

Club, Stephanie Says Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale free 5pm Tamara Stewart The Vault, Windsor free 2.30pm The Villains Heathcote Hotel free 4pm You Me At Six (England), We The Kings (USA), The Mission In Motion Roundhouse, Kensington $57 (+ bf) 8pm

JAZZ

Blues Sunday: Mark Hopper Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 3pm The Idea of North The Factory Theatre, Enmore $28 (conc)â&#x20AC;&#x201C;$36 7pm Josh McIvor The Belvedere Hotel free Karl Broadie Bald Rock Hotel, Rozelle free 6pm Mike Hallam Hot Five Cronulla RSL free 12.30pm Monks of Cool Mars Hill Cafe, Parramatta free 2pm The Peter Head Trio Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 4pm The Subterraneans Town Hall Hotel, Newtown free 7pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK Shane MacKenzie Cohibar free 5pm

COUNTRY

Cash Only Marrickville Bowling and Recreation Club $10 4.30pm

You Me At Six

JAZZ

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Bernie Baroco Brown The Basement, Circular Quay $15 7.30pm Bruce Mathiskeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rhythm Express Parades Theatres (NIDA) $40 8pm Edoardo Santoni Band, James Muller Quartet 505 Club, Surry Hills $15â&#x20AC;&#x201C; $20 8.30pm Leichhardt Organic Food Markets: Paul Sun Trio Orange Grove Public School, Leichhardt free 9.30am SIMA: Tina Harrod Quartet The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $20 (member)â&#x20AC;&#x201C;$25 8.30pm

BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 41

gig picks up all night out all week...

Owl Eyes

Liam Finn

Cuervo, MUM DJs The World Bar, Kings Cross $10-$15 8pm Super FLORENCE Jam, The Go Roll Your Bones, The Dead Love, The Incredible Kicks, Ashes Annandale Hotel $10 (presale)–$15 7.30pm

SATURDAY AUGUST 27 WEDNESDAY AUGUST 24 Caitlin Park, The Singing Skies Goodgod Small Club, Sydney $10 8pm

COOGE E

Karoshi, Justin Grounds (UK) Tone, Surry Hills 8pm Owl Eyes, Cameras, Split Seconds Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm

THURSDAY AUGUST 25

SAT SEPT 10 + SAT OCT 8

TRIPLE SHOT OF ROCK

3 LOCAL ORIGINAL BANDS FOR $10 SUN OCT 9

MICK THOMAS

SOLO

+ SHACKLETON + VAN WALKER & LIZ STRINGER – ONLY SYDNEY SHOW

FRI OCT 14

Doc Walker (Canada), McAllister-Kemp Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $31.70 (+ bf) 8pm

Oblako Lodka FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst $12 8pm

FRIDAY AUGUST 26 Liam Finn (NZ), Big Scary, Evil J & Saint Cecilia Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $20 (+ bf)– $35 (incl CD) 8.30pm MUM presents Worlds Collide: Peppercorn, Fishing DJs, The Mountains, Oceanics, Rockets, Tank, Tim Fitz, Barnzy, Vacant Field,

The Bedroom Philosopher, Catboy The Vanguard, Newtown $15 (presale)–$20 6.30pm Unplugged + Uncomplicated: Jordan Leser, John Dixon, Andy Golledge, Les Deux Violettes CarriageWorks, Eveleigh free 12pm

SUNDAY AUGUST 28 You Me At Six (England), We The Kings (USA), The Mission In Motion Roundhouse, Kensington $49.50 (+ bf) 8pm The Bedroom Philosopher

Henry Wagons The Vanguard, Newtown 8pm The Popfrenzy Sessions: Times New Viking (USA), Bed Wettin Bad Boys Tone, Surry Hills $25 (presale) 8pm Richard In Your Mind, Hammocks & Honey, Super FLORENCE Jam

JEFF MARTIN 777 COMING

SOON!

SUN OCT 16 – CASH SAVAGE & THE LAST DRINKS & THE TOOT TOOT TOOTS L SUN OCT 23 – GRAVEYARD TRAIN SAT NOV 12 – BROTHERS GRIM 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 42 :: BRAG :: 426 : 22:08:11

USE ME.

BRAGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture

brag beats

+ Jacques Renault, Ben Gold, YokoO, and more Also inside: club guide + club snaps + columns

( DARLINGHURST ) 197 OXFORD ST

BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 43

dance music news

free stuff

club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Honnery

FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM

five things WITH

Jacques Renault

SHANTAN FROM STOLEN RECORDS SKRILLIONAIRES Growing Up I grew up on Bobby Brown, Jodeci, 1.

Snoop Dogg, Boyz II Men and Wu-Tang

The Music You Make Once upon a time we did a hip 4. hop show, but we like a wide range of

Clan. Wearing out the carpet by putting together routines that I could perform in the circle of the next blue light disco, and hoping it would get me some kissy kissy action. Oh, and I was like the best rapper in my school and neighbourhood. One of my early crews was called the Shimmy Sham Posse – we had a hit song called ‘Shimmy Sham Posse In Effect’. But the first rap song I wrote was much earlier; it was maybe in year four that I penned a song about my favourite termiteeating marsupial, The Numbat.

stuff. Cheesy R&B, dancehall reggae, moombahton light, vintage soul, various Latin rhythms, future beat, and whatever it takes to get you moving. We are the party.

Inspirations I am inspired by an urge to be über 2. famous, rich and loved by everybody. Look at me! It is not working out so fantastically so far, but I have managed to make it from a Z grade celebrity onto the W List...

Your Group The Stolen Records Skrillionaires 3. is made up of Mike Who and myself. We mostly play together at 6pm on Wednesday Sunsets on FBi 94.5, but sometimes the collaboration manifests itself live. Good music, airhorns and me yelling on the microphone. Make nooisssseeee!

Music, Right Here, Right Now Good and bad. There are some 5. interesting little venues and a variety of different nights popping up – it’s nice to see places like GoodGod starting to do well.

Maybe I’m still buzzing from being in New York a few months ago, but you realise that Sydney can be quite musically limited, particularly for some of the stuff I’m into. But I guess it is just a motivation to start putting on your own nights.

Who: Shantan Wantan Ichiban of the Stolen Records Skrillionaires With: PVT, The Vasco Era, Def Wish Cast, Juggernaut DJs, Gareth Liddiard, Beni, Daily Meds, Megastick Fanfare, Binge Thinkers, Joyride and loads more Where: Changing Lanes Festival @ Devonshire Street & surrounds When: Saturday September 17

JACQUES RENAULT

Dance music and cold weather go together like hot chips and sauce; with either combination, you know it’s gonna be a party. Since 1997, NYC-based producer/ DJ Jacques Renault has released music under more record labels than you can count on your hands and feet, and built up a reputation as one of New York’s best nightlife specialists. Jacques will be bringing his funky dance tunes from the US to AUS to play a very special show for Adult Disco at Civic Underground on Saturday August 27. Joining him on the night will be local legends Shunji and Steele Bonus, along with the dudes from Future Classic. BRAG is dishing out a free double pass; just tell us the name of the TV show whose character shares Renault’s name…

GUI BORATTO READIES III Snoop Dogg

Brazilian melodic techno exponent Gui Boratto has revealed the album art and tracklisting for III, his third full-length LP and his first since 2009’s Take My Breath Away. “Music is space.

I’m an architect and I treat music like I see architecture,” Boratto, a former architect, told me when I spoke with him a few years back.

His intricate approach to sound design is again apparent on III’s lead-off single ‘The Drill’, out now through Kompakt. “These days, most of the electronic music scene is really cold. I prefer my old references of the ‘80s,” Boratto has affirmed, espousing a production mandate that is built on warm, ‘organic’ flourishes. III is slated to drop on September 12 on Kompakt.

Ghostpoet

CANYONS DEBUT LP

Perth duo Ryan Grieve and Leo Thomson, collectively known as Canyons, have announced that their long-awaited debut album, Keep Your Dreams, will be released in late October through Modular Recordings.

The pair have been supported by some of the more respected names in the electronic scene throughout their career thus far, having had their track ‘Blue Snakes’ released on Cosmo Vitelli’s esteemed Parisian label I’m A Cliche, and their deep, jamming epic ‘Fire Eyes’ pressed by none other than DFA Records. Keep Your Dreams consists entirely of unreleased material save for two tracks, one of which is ‘Blue Snakes’ – which was also used by eclectic French DJ Agoria on his recent fabric mix. The other is the rocky anthem ‘My Rescue’, released earlier this year via Modular replete with a Dr Dunks extension.

LAUNDRY IN SEPTEMBER

SHORE THING: SNOOP, CALVIN HARRIS, PENDULUM

Is it really that time of year again already? Evidently so. Fuzzy have unveiled the lineup for their annual Shore Thing NYE fiesta on Bondi Beach, and it isn’t short on star power. The ‘Doggfather of Rap’, Snoop Dogg, UK party boy Calvin Harris and our homegrown boys Pendulum will all throw down as 2011 bleeds into 2012 in the picturesque surrounds of Bondi. Given there’s not much to say about each of the headliners that hasn’t been said many times over – I’ll resist a discussion of Snoop’s filmic exploits (and I ain’t referring to his appearances in mainstream Hollywood flicks, buster…) – I’ll opt to play passive facilitator, and inform you that standard tickets are now selling for $138 via shorething.com.au. High rollers also have the option of purchasing the aptly named MET – ‘More Expensive Ticket – for $225, which will offer such extras as a dedicated luxury coach transfer to and from Bondi Junction to minimise the NYE transportation carnage, along with canapes, massages and more.

Chinese Laundry has revealed its September lineups, and as one would expect, it features a number of renowned DJs. On Saturday September 3, Nick Warren of Way Out West fame takes to the decks for a four-hour set in support of his polished recent mix for the Balance compilation series, which hit shelves a few months back. Englishman Micky Slim, DnB don Goldie and Hybrid Sound System will headline the following Saturdays, before the month ends with a DnB double header featuring Culture Shock and The Quemists. As is the norm with Laundry, you’ll make things easier and cheaper for yourselves the earlier you arrive – pre 10pm should do it.

THA DOGG POUND RESCHEDULE AUSSIE TOUR

Having had to postpone their Australian tour back in March due to the passing of original Dogg Pound member Nate Dogg, rap duo Daz and Kurrupt are now heading to Aus for the ‘100 Wayz Tour’. For those unfamiliar with the duo’s pedigree, Tha Dogg Pound were signed

GHOSTPOET TOUR

Ghostpoet has announced his debut Australian tour for Niche Productions, and will play the inaugural Musica /Tumbalong event in Darling Harbour on Saturday October 22 with his live band. Born Obaro Ejimiwethe, Ghostpoet was discovered in his early twenties by Gilles Peterson, who quickly signed him to his label Brownswood Recordings. On his first Aussie jaunt, Ghostpoet will be performing songs from his Mercury Prize nominated Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam album, a breakthrough release that aroused the excitement of listeners worldwide.

One of the better album reviews I uncovered gushed: “Ghostpoet is more than an emcee; he’s a raconteur. His voice is mellifluous, languid, the lyrics rich with idiom, pop culture and pun.”

Put the thesaurus away, pal.

to Death Row Records in their early careers and were key to the label’s success. They also appeared on Snoop Dogg’s debut album Doggystyle, before Tupac’s death and record label feuds stalled their momentum somewhat.

They’ve since moved stables and are now releasing albums independently. Tha Dogg Pound will be performing at Phriction Nightclub in Penrith on Thursday September 1, in their only Sydney appearance.

‘Clouded hazy futures clear whenever I’m with you, Just think of all the things that we could do to pass the time’ - THE RAPTURE 44 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 45

dance music news

free stuff

club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Honnery

FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM

five things

Astral People

WITH YOKOO He also introduced me to Portishead, Massive Attack and Bjork. I was only a teen, and at the time my brother was far more musically advanced and educated – I would often follow his taste in music. The depth and emotions carried by music has always has inspired me, and taken me on amazing journeys.

You I’ve been playing music since 3. the early 2000s, and got into

1.

Growing Up I went through various music phases as a teenager, influenced by my entourage and what I was doing in my spare time. This led me to discover a diverse range of genres, ranging from heavy metal and rock to reggae, hip hop, classical, jazz, dub, trip hop and all sorts of electronic, abstract, twisted music.

Inspirations I’ll always remember the day I first heard 2.

The Cure; my older brother was listening to their first album at home and it blew me away.

producing my own stuff about four years ago. As soon as I finished my degree, I decided to push myself and make it a full time job. It has been hard at times but well worth it; every second is enjoyable when you do what you are truly passionate about, and everyone who hangs around you believes in your talent and gives you their full support. I have now been in Sydney for 1.5 years, involved with Reckless Republic, Murat Kilic and Warren Faulkner, and helping with the touring and event organisation side of things, like Spice and Spice Afloat. That’s financially enabled me to keep focused on my music, and helped me make amazing connections within the industry.

MANTRA SPEAKING VOLUMES

Melbourne emcee Mantra will release a new album, Speaking Volumes, on Obese Records next month. “This is the first time I’ve recorded an album I was so in control of,” Mantra said of the LP. “I knew how I wanted it to sound, and worked together with the producers and guest artists to make it happen.” The guest artists include Promoe, Drapht, Urthboy and Illy, with beats credited to the likes of M-Phazes, El Gusto and Mista Savona among others. The first single from Speaking Volumes, ‘Got Me Wrong’, is available now.

The Music You Make Until now, my music was deep and 4. dreamy, round and warm-sounding, pleasant to the ear but with no particular stand out features. Although you could recognise a YokoO track amongst others, in all honestly when I look back, I don’t believe it had the one thing that makes you go ‘Fuck yeah, WHAT is this tune?!’ That said, it didn’t stop me from releasing on well known labels such as Plastic City, Musik Gewinnt, Freunde, Affin and Kina to name a few. I’ve now come to a point in my career where I feel I need to start making a difference – working at it really hard, making sounds and sampling, collaborating with other artists, and going for something with a little more edge, quirkiness and uniqueness...

Music, Right Here, Right Now I have just returned from a two month 5.

European tour, and the scene in Sydney seems to have changed a little in a good way, with lots of small parties and many more venues open to that “underground” sound.

Where: S.A.S.H @ White Horse When: Sunday August 28

ASTRAL PEOPLE LAUNCH

Heard of the brand spankin’ new agency Astral People? No? You will soon enough.

Probably when you talk to your friends about what they did on Saturday August 27, and they’re all like, “OHEMGEE! We totally went to this bitchin’ party at Tone and saw Jonti, Bon Chat, Bon Rat, Wintercoats and Dro Carey, with DJ sets from Preacha, Mike Who and Wedding Ring Fingers. And for the first hour, there were free drinks from Little Creatures!”

Already got a case of FOMO? BRAG would love to give you a double pass – just tell us the name of the international label Jonti is signed to.

FUNKOARS ALBUM TOUR

The Funkoars will release their fourth album The Quickening on Friday September 16 through Golden Era Records, and are embarking on an extensive national tour that includes a spot at the newly revamped/‘Merivaled’ Beresford Hotel on Thursday October 20. The Quickening features guest performances from Hilltop Hoods, Vents, Ad-Fu, and K21, with production from Large Professor, Dazastah, Simplex and Debate.

Joining The Funkoars on the road nationally are Golden Era labelmate Vents, Ciecmate and Adelaide newcomers Mase & Mattic.

Barbara Tucker

Robag Wruhme

Big Boi

BIG BOI TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE

Big Boi hits Sydney’s Enmore Theatre this Saturday night with support from Theophilus London, who’s currently basking in the success of his LP Timez Are Weird These Days, and Thundamentals. With a career spanning nearly two decades, Big Boi is a pioneer who is cherished across a number of genres. You’ll know him best as one half of Outkast, but he’s now forging his own sonic legacy; his debut solo album Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty was one of the more successful releases of 2010, garnering a surfeit of critical and popular acclaim. And tickets to this Saturday’s all ages show can still be snared online.

APPARAT PREPARES DEVIL’S WALK

Apparat, the pseudonym of German musician Sascha Ring who is of course also a core member of Moderat, will release a new album, The Devil’s Walk, on September 27 through Mute Records. Conceived during a trip to Mexico last year with Telefon Tel Aviv’s Joshua Eustis, the bulk of the material was laid down in a makeshift studio in the small town of Sayulita, and completed with the assistance of Patrick ‘Nackt’ Christensen (formerly of electro-goth outfit Warren Suicide). Two of the album tracks have already been released as free downloads, ‘Black Water’ and ‘Ash/Black Veil’, and are currently doing the rounds on the interweb.

TORTURED FT. BARBARA TUCKER & QUENTIN HARRIS

RA X

The lineup for the Sydney leg of Resident Advisor’s tenth birthday bash, RA X, has been revealed; well, for the most part anyway. The highly touted Germanic producer Robag Wruhme, quirky Parisian and Tigersushi head honcho Joakim and local favourite Simon Caldwell will each take to the decks along with a mystery headliner in a two-level spectacular at the Civic Hotel on Saturday September 17. “By having an unannounced headliner, each event becomes less about a single big name and more about the music as a whole – and of course, celebrating ten years of Resident Advisor,” RA co-founder Nick Sabine reasoned. Mystery international aside, there’s plenty to get excited about as is. Robag, one-half of the now defunct Wighnomy Brothers, released the magnificent album Thora Vukk on DJ Koze’s Pampa imprint earlier in the year, along with a mix, Wuppdeckmischmampflow – try saying that quickly a few times over – on Kompakt Records, which was similarly par excellence. $30 presale tickets are available online.

Tortured Events presents a warehouse party at Sun Studios in Alexandria on Saturday September 10, featuring two icons of the NYC house scene, Barbara Tucker and Quentin Harris.

As the co-founder of The Underground Network, the longest running club night in NYC’s history, Tucker is a celebrated house diva who has collaborated with the likes of Louie Vega, Lil Louis, Danny Tenaglia and The Pet Shop Boys over the course of an epic career that stretches back to the early cretaceous period and spawned such anthems as ‘Most Precious Love’.

Harris meanwhile released his second album, Sacrifice, last year, which featured collaborations with the likes of Inaya Day and David Morales, and showcased sounds that ranged from upbeat house to a slightly harder edged electro funk – a sound that fellow New York stalwart Danny Tenaglia has dubbed “hard and soul”. But Harris’ finest moment as a producer remains the Thievery Corporation-sampling ‘Let’s Be Young’, an absolute gem of house that still holds up today. Presale tickets are available online, including a VIP option that offers access to the VIP garden, with artists and table service.

‘First gear... second chance... / it’s the third time’s charm for new romance’ - THE RAPTURE 46 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

Luke Fair Playing Fair By Andrew Hickey

D

espite his propensity to rack up frequent flyer points, Luke Fair could be described as nothing less than down-to-earth. The Toronto, Canada native, currently based in Austria, has been spreading his good vibrations across the globe for the better part of six years, playing for Creamfields, Ministry Of Sound and countless other global events. The deep house maestro first gained fame for his U2 and John Digweed remixes; we spoke to him about his upcoming projects, the life of the globetrotter and emergency landings...

AH: I interviewed Downlink recently and we talked about dubstep in Canada. What’s the dance music scene like over there – and what are the clubs like?

Luke Fair: I moved to Europe a few years ago, so I’m not too up to date on the Canadian scene. I grew up in Toronto and it always had an amazing club culture, so I’m assuming it’s still similar. There have always been huge scenes for all genres of electronic music there, with tons of events every single weekend. It’s always been one of the best cities for music and events in North America, in my opinion.

AH: You released your first production/remix work in 2005, the U2 ‘Silver & Gold’ remix.

How do you feel your style has evolved over time?

LF: My style has always been house-based, so it really hasn’t changed a drastic amount since I began. I’ve always just tried to find music that I truly love, without paying much attention to charts or anything like that. It all depends on what I dig up while hunting for tunes.

Sometimes I’ll find a ton of more techno-y records than normal, and other times it’s more disco-influenced stuff.

AH: You’ve gotten feedback from and toured with guys like John Digweed. What was that like, and how did it help your progression?

LF: That was a huge help, and what I owe much of my DJing to. Without getting noticed

by Digweed, and also by Deep Dish, I probably wouldn’t have had my break. Getting to open for them not only exposed me to much bigger crowds than I normally would have, but I also learned a lot by having to open rooms and play different types of sets.

AH: You’ve had the chance to travel to a lot of cool places so far, from Beirut to Casablanca. Any memorable experiences that stand out?

LF: My most memorable experience was the emergency landing on a flight from Toronto to Seoul. About five hours into the trip there was a loud bang, and the plane dropped a bit. We lost the left engine when something came loose in the fan. It then quickly vibrated, melted from the friction and then blew back through the engine.

Good thing we were over Alaska and not the Pacific, as we were able to make an emergency landing there.

AH: What inspired you to get involved in music? Was there a certain artist or genre that drew you in?

“I’ve always just tried to find music that I truly love, without paying much attention to charts or anything like that. It all depends on what I dig up while hunting for tunes...”

LF: I started out listening to a lot of the US house legends. The club that I first started working at in the late 90s regularly brought in guys like Derrick Carter, Cevin Fisher, Sneak, David Morales etc. I heard this music each and every weekend, so they were my first influences.

AH: Is there a certain vibe or sound you try to create when you’re putting together a track or DJ mix?

LF: Whenever I put together a DJ mix at home, I spend a ton of time on it. Whether it’s for my podcast or some radio show, I put the same amount of time into it as if I’m working on a compilation CD. I want everything to flow as well as I can make it, to have each mix blend really well. I spend a ton of time searching for music just for that one mix, as it’s often a bit of a different vibe to a club set.

AH: You’re part of Discoteca Musice. Tell us a bit about the label and your involvement?

LF: I’m working on the label with four friends who are also DJs – Dana Bergquist, Erik Molthe, Tom Morgan and Gabriel Sordo. We have pretty strict quality control, because every track or remix is voted on. Most of the stuff that we put out is house, tech-house and occasionally techno.

AH: Do you have more interest in DJing or producing? And what are the differences, juggling between both?

LF: I definitely like DJing a lot more. That’s what I started with. I haven’t produced much in the last few years, unfortunately. I hope to get a few more tracks done before the end of the year.

AH: What projects do you have coming up that we should look out for?

LF: I’ve got a couple of productions coming up. One is my own track called ‘Kanpachi’ on Discoteca. That should be out in the next few months. I’ve also collaborated with Steve Mill, one of my favourite producers. Our track ‘Beaches’ will be coming out in September, with a Peter Horrevorts remix.

Where: Chinese Laundry When: Saturday August 27 BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 47

Joe Music The Ladies Want By Alasdair Duncan

F

rom a childhood immersed in gospel and devotional music, R&B singer Joe has gone on to a career spanning nine albums and several number one hits – including the seriously infectious ‘Stutter’ from 2000. As he prepares to release his ninth studio album, The Good, The Bad, The Sexy, Joe – real name Joseph Lewis – is bringing his smooth, sultry sound to Australia… He shared some thoughts about gospel, Mariah Carey, and what women want.

AD: You were raised in a home that was rich in gospel music – can you tell me a bit about those days?

Joseph Lewis: Oh man, wow. Everything I knew, everything I did in those days other than school was church and gospel music. My father would travel from city to city, preaching in the streets, and I would be his right hand man, his musician. He would preach wherever people would listen to him, and I was always there. That’s where I learned to play music.

The training I was getting then would see me through for the rest of my life.

AD: You’ve had a long career in music – what’s the force that drives you?

JL: Truly man, I’m just having so much fun doing this. When I was a kid, I didn’t have dreams of seeking fame and fortune or accolades – all I knew was that I loved music, and I wanted to have the kind of life where I would get to be around it.

AD: Is there any one thing you consider to be your career highlight, the thing you’re proudest of?

JL: I would say one of my proudest moments

was recording with Mariah Carey – I had never reached that level of success before. I’d had some number one records, but I’d never gotten to the point where I felt like I’d really become successful in my mind. Working with her, I really felt like I’d made it.

AD: Your new album, The Good, The Bad, The Sexy, is coming out next month – can you tell me a bit more about it?

JL: Well it’s just like the title says, man! There are songs that fall into all three categories.

One of the ‘sexy’ songs is called ‘Pull My Hair’, and there’s a ‘good’ song called ‘Slow Kisses’… These songs are really inspired by how relationships go, they’re very sensual overall. I worked with some great producers and collaborators. It’s the kind of music that the ladies want and the fellas can appreciate.

AD: A lot of R&B artists are incorporating pretty heavy dance beats into their sound these days. Have you been tempted to?

JL: I’m staying true to form. I don’t want to ride that wave – everyone is doing it, from Usher to Ne-Yo, whoever can. It’s cool, it puts food on the table, but I want to keep my music true to that real R&B sound.

AD: Are there any contemporary stars out there that you really like?

JL: I love Chris Brown – I look at Chris as today’s Michael. There will never be another Michael, of course, but Chris can sing, he can dance, and on some level, he gives this generation what Michael gave us back in the day. Also, Trey Songz is cool – he’s a crooner, with a little bit of that Marvin Gaye sensibility. I like Kanye. There are not a lot of creative souls like him – he says what’s on his mind, to the point of being

almost offensive, but I get it, I understand who he is, and I really truly appreciate the music that he puts out. I think he’s one of those guys who really matters in music today.

What: The Good, The Bad, The Sexy is out August 31 Where: Big Top, Luna Park When: Saturday September 10

Jacques Renault Disco Underground By Reuben Stone

I

t’s 9pm in Brooklyn, and Jacques Renault is in his office, surrounded by records, keyboards and dying plants. The dying pants are a peculiarity to be sure, but as for the instruments, he’s always been a hoarder. “I was taking violin lessons [as a kid], but then I got a bit older and wasn’t into it so much. I wanted to learn the trumpet. My mum said I couldn’t quit the viola but I could play both – and ever since then I’ve been collecting instruments.” Note to parents: teach your kids too multitask.

Renault’s viola studies took him from his home in Washington D.C. to Chicago in 1997 – but once there, he discovered dance music, wrapped up as the city was in the house and DnB scene. It was a small step from that to disco, a scene which he ended up following to Brooklyn, New York and, after a bunch of remixes for a number of labels like DFA, Chinatown, Italians Do It Better and Edition Disco, he now shares his own label On The Prowl with Marcos Cabral, the co-pilot of his production duo, Runaway. “With opportunities arising in London, it seemed like the right thing to do. It gave us our own outlook on what we were doing.”

It seems as though there’s a bit of a disco orgy happening in New York at the moment. You may be thinking roller skates and platform shoes with dead goldfish inside, but it’s a far classier breed than that. “There is definitely a niche community here,” Renault says. “I love it how everyone has their own label, but we all play at each other’s shows and parties. It’s a cool scene, and I feel like everyone is doing a good job.”

Jacques Renault’s remix of Midnight Magic’s ‘Beam Me Up’ last year definitely helped project him further onto the international scene. He feels a certain allegiance to tracks that he remixes, and is careful not to transform them into something too different from the original. “I have a little routine with remixes, I guess. I am pretty nerdy with drums,” he says, referring to his working of ‘I Know, I Hear’ by Holy Ghost! “I want to stay as true as I can to the original track. You know, more and more people over the years are taking people’s tracks and completely changing them into new songs.” For Jacques, it’s more about adding his own unique, subtle touch to a song he admires, rather than churning out something completely new. “I like to add my little bit of love.

The remix work is one of the best parts of being a DJ, because you know how you want to arrange a song. If you can see the opportunity to take something that is already socially good, and turn it into something more useful whether for yourself or for other DJs… it’s really good to just have that mindset.”

This month will bring Renault to Australia for the second time, and he’s amped for it. “I’ve got a whole bunch of new gems I’m working on, even one as we speak. So I’ll be playing that stuff plus a whole bunch of old records I’ve dug up,” he says. “The response in Australia has been really good. It’s really exciting coming from the other side of the world and playing these spots where people are familiar with my music. It may sound a little cheesy, but it’s so great to have a good reaction over there.”

Where: Adult Disco @ Civic Underground When: Saturday August 27

Ben Gold The Golden Child By Marissa Demetriou

B

en Gold is surprisingly chirpy for 9am on a Saturday morning, but a few moments of chatting with the prodigal child of trance soon has you buzzing with the same infectious energy. When I speak to him, he’s preparing for his set at seminal British festival Global Gathering and working on new tunes – or as he calls them, “Dance floor weapons!”

At just 25 years old, Gold has moved from strength to strength since he began DJing at just 16. The UK producer’s tracks line the wallets of trance DJs around the globe, and have brought praise from trance dons like Armin Van Buuren and Paul Oakenfold, who lauded Gold as “definitely one to watch out for in the future” – certainly helping cement him as a force to be reckoned with within the trance scene. “It’s amazing what these people are saying. These boys have been there, done it and they’re wearing the t-shirt, so it’s an honour, really,” Gold enthuses. “I’ve gone through a musical journey to end up where I am now. If you work hard enough and bide your time, eventually you’ll get it.”

Gold’s upcoming appearance at Godskitchen with fellow heavyweights Marco V, Richard Durand and John Askew will be the first time he’s played on Australian soil – and when I ask what he has in store for us, the unbridled glee in his voice can only mean that we’re in for a treat. “A lot of new music. I base my DJ sets around records which other people don’t

“The musical barriers are moving apart,” he says. “House influences are coming in, and the BPM of trance music is slowing down.

You still get the high energy stuff which is consistent, but the slower tracks that a few years ago would be in the ‘warm up’ category are now the main records in your set. It’s always evolving, that’s important. You can’t keep listening to the same thing, the same beats and melodies.” And ever since the internet started to represent both one of the most valuable resources and one of the biggest setbacks for artists today, Gold has stayed well away from online forums and YouTube uploads of his tracks. “Sometimes you can read one bad comment and you take that as the overall opinion of your track. But that’s part and parcel of the internet,” he says.

“I judge it all by the dance floor.”

have, edits or bootlegs that I make myself, energetic stuff – and hopefully it’s going to go down well,” he explains, citing Orjan Nilsen’s ‘Between The Rays’ and ‘The Mule’ as his current favourites.

The Godskitchen crowd won’t be the only beneficiaries of his set, though; Gold explains that he gets just as much out of shows, funneling the high from a good night into his production. “My main influences are from my

DJ sets. When I’ve just done a string of shows, I tend to be buzzing in the studio; I just try and grab things from everywhere and throw them into one track.” And while he’s eager to continue producing the kind of trance that has got him to where he is today, Gold is up for some new challenges too. “I want to start looking into doing an artist album, which I don’t want to rush – maybe do some strange collaborations, and show a different side to Ben Gold which hasn’t ever been released.

Hoping to bring back “shedloads” of inspiration after his Australian tour, Gold is bursting to come down under and show trance heads what he has up his sleeve. “I’m really looking forward to coming to Australia – there were was a really good buzz on [Godskitchen] after the lineup was announced. I felt quite a lot of love coming from Australia.”

What: Godskitchen: A Trance Odyssey With: Marco V, Richard Durand, John Askew Where: Hordern Pavilion When: Sunday October 2

‘Can you feel it, Sister Saviour, Drawing you into the club’ - THE RAPTURE 48 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

Deep Impressions Underground Dance And Electronica with Chris Honnery

Marcel Dettmann

Ben Klock

Soul Sedation

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

W

M

arcel Dettmann and Ben Klock going click-to-click for several hours of pulsating, sweaty techno – it’s the sort of gig you hear about in Europe, but we never seem to get here in the land of Oz. Well, the times they are a-changin’.

The two Berlin producers, associated with serious ‘industrial’ techno sounds of the highest order, will be playing at Chinese Laundry’s Garden Party in October. And it’s not as if they have been lumped together ad hoc – Klock and Dettmann have been playing back-to-back sets as a duo for over five years, so should have their routine well and truly down pat. Though the pair are known for playing epic 12-hour sets in the inimitable confines of the notorious Berlin clubbing temple Berghain, it’s doubtful we’ll be treated to such a marathon.

Nonetheless, Sydneysiders should still receive a lengthy set from the two Germans. “In a team there is always the other one who gives you feedback,” Klock offered in a recent interview in relation to his partnership with Dettmann. “You decide which sound you use and how to make the arrangement and stuff. I think in a duo, it’s sometimes easier or faster.” While Klock seems a phlegmatic character if his interviews are anything to go by, his music more than speaks for itself – this should be a cracking gig.

One of the more respected figures in the electronic music milieu, Peter M. Kersten, aka Lawrence, will release a compilation titled Timeless through the Cocoon label in October. Lawrence runs the Dial imprint together with Carsten Jost, a bastion of ‘thinking man’s dance music’ that is always constructed immaculately. As the compilation’s title suggests, the mix is not your standard collection of the latest ‘flavour of the month’ tracks. Rather, Kersten encompasses sixteen years of productions - placing milestones of stripped back deep house such as the Chez Damier, Ron Trent and Stacey Pullen collaboration ‘Forever Monna’ from 1995, and 1999’s ‘Overcome’ by Thomas Melchior/Baby Ford, alongside contemporary homages to Detroit techno such as Delano Smith’s ‘My Life’ and Pigon’s fantastic dub tech cut ‘Beatmatching’ (which was included on the highly recommended 10-Years-Anniversary compilation of Dial Records). Timeless also features cuts from well-known names like Aril Brikha, Isolée and Robert Hood, while Roman Flügel offers a genuine oddball number with ‘Brian Le Bon’, a track based on Duran Duran’s ‘Save A Prayer’.

Timeless should offer a sonic education without getting unbearably pedagogical – it will be a mix to bliss out to, either on the dance floor or in the living room.

With the announcement of the lineup for this year’s Subsonic Music Festival imminent, the Subsonic crew returns to the fray in September with a warehouse bash headlined by dual international headliners: Subsonic favourite Boris Brejcha and Englishman Simon Baker. Those in attendance at last year’s Subsonic Music Festival will recall Brejcha’s rollicking set following on from Extrawelt in the early hours of Sunday morning on the main stage – those who missed it now have a second bite at the sonic cherry. Meanwhile Baker is renowned for such cuts as ‘Plastik’ on the esteemed Playhouse label and ‘X,Y And Z’ on the UK’s Leftroom imprint, as well as the chart-topper ‘Kaskazi’ with

LOOKING DEEPER SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 10

Subsonic ft Boris Brejcha & Simon Baker Secret Warehouse Location Disconnected ft Lucy The Civic Underground

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 17

Resident Advisor X ft Robag Wruhme The Civic Underground

SATURDAY OCTOBER 15

Marcel Dettmann, Ben Klock Chinese Laundry Jamie Jones. Doors will open at 7pm with free drinks and food for the early birds, accompanied by insouciant tunes ably provided by the Foreign Dub crew. And as a bonus, everyone there before 10pm will be entered into the draw for free Subsonic tickets – hit the Subsonic Facebook page for further information regarding both the warehouse party and the Subsonic Music Festival itself.

The debut album of colourful German producer Justus Köhncke will receive its first proper full release in September through August Day Records. Entitled Spiralen Der Erinnerung, the rarely-heard covers album was crafted way back in the acid-washed summer of 1999, but the collection of quirky versions of songs from the likes of Janis Ian, Paul McCartney, Carole King and John Cale was only released on vinyl. Come September 19, however, those of you who don’t own turntables will be able to hear Köhncke’s covers in all their considerable glory. At worst, this should certainly be one of the more interesting releases you will listen to this year.

elcome to your weekly dose of good music. To recent history, and the U-Tern party at Tone over the weekend proved well worth turning up to.

Gian Arpino and Cameron Brown had everyone moving from the beginning; the dancefloor filled quickly and didn’t empty until it was all over. Jack Prest jumped up next and ripped some seriously bumpy disco after that, setting an excellent base for the touring Canadian DJ/producer. But then U-Tern took over and, alas, largely played a bland-ish set of electronic house music. It was light on congas, strings, funk guitar riffs and backing vocal harmonies; all the good stuff, basically. This column was slightly bummed indeed. I think it demonstrates a couple of pertinent things that a savvy promoter could whisper in the touring DJs ear before they go on at one of Sydney’s smaller venues: a) Sydney is not flooded with cheap ecstasy, so playing “clubbier” doesn’t necessarily mean it will go off harder, and b) in a venue of a couple of hundred people, you can probably afford to play deep – our scene is big enough that people will most likely go with you (i.e. there’s no need to play a 'festival' set unless you’re playing a festival). To be fair, U-Tern’s output has always straddled both the deep, original disco and new electro disco/house scene, but to this column’s mind we heard a lot of the latter, and barely any of the former. Frenzie, who jumped on the decks afterwards, took us back to the vintage disco classics straight away and everybody just kept on getting down. In brief, U-Tern came a long way to play what was a fairly standard set of emotionally lacking music.

Returning to the positive: the new Toddla T album, Watch Me Dance, is worth celebrating. Soul Sedation is very impressed. With regular commentary about the “death of the electronic album” (which can be loosely translated as “most artists don’t have the depth to write a cohesive album”), and dance labels announcing they’ll focus on singles only from this point forward, artists like Toddla come out with brilliant LPs (SBTRKT also springs to mind) and prove it’s all just BS, and the other guys are pussies. Check the big title track ‘Watch Me Dance’, which features Roots Manuva and speaks for the pair’s ongoing successful relationship, as well as the Shola Ama vocal on ‘Take Me Back’, a very cool tune. If you’d like to hear dub, hip hop, dancefloor breaks, jungle, British rave nostalgia, and both reggaeton and moombahton all mixed up by a young producer with an incredibly good ear, then this is your album.

To local talent, and Sydney-based producer Flume is earning himself some welldeserved triple j radioplay with his track ‘Sleepless’. It’s a beautiful construction and well worth the time spent tracking it down.

For those who appreciate the technical excellence and attention to subtlety of producers like Onra, Floating Points and Flying Lotus, Flume will segue nicely into your newest playlist. There’s only a small handful of tracks on his Soundcloud page as yet, but what is there speaks of big things to come.

The Sydney hip hop imprint Big Village continues its output with the release of Ellesquire’s debut record, Ready. Last year the emcee released a great record under Ellesquire

Justus Köhncke

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

ON THE ROAD SATURDAY AUGUST 27 Big Boi The Enmore Theatre

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 31 Theophilus London Oxford Art Factory

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 11 Elzhi Tone

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 17 The Herd + Sietta The Metro Theatre

Public Opinion Afro Orchestra Oxford Art Factory Goldie Chinese Laundry

THURSDAY OCTOBER 6 Booker T. Jones The Metro Theatre

SATURDAY OCTOBER 22 Música Tumbalong Park

SATURDAY OCTOBER 29 London Elektricity Arthouse

the Loose Change moniker alongside Joel Rapaport. And as it was then, production is handled by P Major. Look out for the key tunes ‘On The Prowl’ and ‘Ready’. With the Big Village output coming thick and fast, and their best nuggets garnering national radioplay, the pressure increases for both the Elefant Traks and Obese imprints, who have a hardworking competitor nipping at their heels.

The Gotye & Kimbra collaboration ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ continues to blow minds, and not just locally – British experimental downtempo producer Bibio has pulled off a stunning remix. If you concede the most difficult tracks to remix are the ones that are close to perfect in the first place, then Bibio has really demonstrated his true colours with this outing. Indeed, it’s how the finest modern producers stay ahead of the hordes of imitators – by taking on remix projects like this and pulling them off with such skill.

Bibio’s back catalogue of no less than six albums is well worth looking into.

Modern funk producer Lack Of Afro has come out with the very classy new tune ‘A Time For…’ featuring Motown-worthy vocals from Wayne Giddens. The Exeter based producer as usual has crafted a perfect bed for the vocal to shine on. Soul Sedation just can’t stop hitting the play button on this one; fans of Aloe Blacc in particular should take note. Lack Of Afro’s new full length, This Time, is due out in September.

To new music: Zara McFarlane releases her debut record on Brownswood this October. Tipped as an emerging voice of British soul music, the young singer has a very fine set of pipes indeed. Check out her tune ‘Chiaroscuro’ for a sample, and keep that release in mind for the coming months.

This weekend one half of the beloved hip pop duo Outkast is in town; Big Boi rocks the Enmore on Saturday night. He’ll appear with emerging Brooklyn emcee Theophilus London on support duties, and you can also catch London the following Wednesday night for his own headline show at the Oxford Art Factory.

Send stuff for this column to tonyedwards001@gmail.com by 6pm Wednesdays. All pics to art@thebrag.com BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 49

club guide

send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com

club pick of the week

Jonti

SATURDAY AUGUST 27

Tone Venue Surry Hills

Astral People Agency Launch feat.

Jonti,

Wintercoats, Bon Chat Bon Rat, Albatross 8pm - late $10 (+ bf) MONDAY AUGUST 22 The Ranch Hotel, Eastwood Ignition free 9.30pm Scubar. Sydney Crab Racing 7pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Jazz –The Final Frontier DJs free 7pm

TUESDAY AUGUST 23 Establishment. Sydney Rumba Motel DJ Willie Sabor and Friends 6pm Scubar, Sydney Backpacker Karaoke 8pm The Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Coyote Tuesdays Residents DJs $10 7pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Pop Panic Silent Disco Edition Pablo Calamari, Urby, Andy & Mike free 9pm 50 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 24 Bank Hotel, Newtown Girls Night DJ Playmate free 9pm Marlborough Hotel, Newtown Student Nights DJ Moussa free 11pm Scubar, Sydney Schoonerversity 3pm Valve Bar, Tempe Kingston Flavas 7pm The World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall Glovecats, Special K, Hydraulix, Starjumps, Alison Wonderland, My Lord Chiari free 7.30pm

THURSDAY AUGUST 25 Arthouse Hotel, Sydney Mojito Central Latin Mafia DJs free 7pm

Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Drop Lo Five, Bentley, Ability free The Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney Tenzin, Cadell, Zannon, DJ K-Note free 8pm Home Nightlcub, Darling Harbour I Heart Unipackers Hugo’s Lounge, Kings Cross Hussy 8pm Ivy, Sydney Ivy Live The Groove Academy feat. Michelle Martinez free 7.30pm Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Retail Therapy 8pm Scubar, Sydney $5 Everything Thursdays DJs Sly Fox, Enmore Inhale Bass – Two Faced Takeover Hellmore, BT, Gielis, Hypercolour, Swindle b2b Preecha free 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Propaganda Shag, Urby, Finlay free (student)–$5 9pm

FRIDAY AUGUST 26 Arthouse Hotel, Sydney RnB Superclub $20 9.30pm Bank Hotel, Newtown Friendly Fridays Sandi Hotrod free 9pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Movement Paper Plane Project free 8pm Blue Hotel, Woolloomooloo Friday Shines Jazz Nouveau 6pm Candy’s Apartment, Kings Cross Liquid Sky Liquid Sky DJs $10–$15 8pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Dubrave Blaze Tripp, Will Styles, MC Shureshock, MC Hayley Boa, Gabriel Clouston, Temnien, Zwelli, Slick 50 $15 (early bird)–$20 10pm Civic Underground, Sydney Volar 10pm Club 77, East Sydney Club Blink $10–$12 8pm Cohibar Guest DJ, DJ Jeddt Rowland, DJ Anders Hitchcock free Cronulla RSL DJ Michael Stewart free 8pm Gaelic Club, Surry Hills Last Night Paper Scissors, Tiger, Randall Stagg $15 8pm Goodgod Front Bar, Sydney Yo Grito! Silky Doyle free 9pm Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Love Kings Levins, Radge $10 11pm The Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney DJ Cadell 5pm Home Nightclub Sublime Resident DJs Jacksons On George, Sydney Ultimate Party Venue DJ Michael Stewart free Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Falcona Fridays Falcona Agency DJs The Marlborough Hotel, Newtown Resident DJs free Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Friday I’m In Love free 12am Phoenix Bar, Exchange Hotel, Darlinghurst Wolfden Wolfden DJs $10 9pm Scubar, Sydney Jagermeister Fridays DJs 7pm Settlement Bar, Sydney Spoilt D-funk free 6pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Eve Talia Di Giulio (live) Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills Radio INK, Peacock Dreams, DJ Husky, DJ Chip, Phebe Star, S. Kobar 5pm The Watershed Hotel Bring on the Weekend! DJ Matty Roberts free The World Bar, Kings Cross MUM, The Spitpress and Major Raiser present Worlds Collide Peppercorn,

YokoO

Fishing DJs, The Mountains, Oceanics, Rockets, Tank, Tim Fitz, Barnzy, Vacant Field, Cuervo, MUM DJs free-$15 8pm

SATURDAY AUGUST 27 Arthouse Hotel, Sydney Vamp Tom Piper, Light Year, Blaze Tripp, The Hump Day Project Bank Hotel, Newtown Mike McGrath, D*Funk free 9pm Blue Hotel, Woolloomooloo Saturday Night Deluxe Richie Carter free 8pm The Burdekin, Darlinghurst Beats & Pieces Franchi Brothers, Tom Brereton, Ezequiel, Da Silva, Technils 10pm Candy’s Apartment, Kings Cross Ritual Teez, Disco Volante, Zomg! Kittens!, La Dooda, Brosman, M.A.I.N.ST, InTheory, Say Oh! 8pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Luke Fair (Canada), John Glover, Neon Stereo, What So Not, A-Tonez $15 (early bird)–$25 9pm Civic Underground, Sydney Adult Disco Jacques Renault (USA) 8pm Cohibar DJ Brynstar, DJ Mike Silver free Enmore Theatre Big Boi (USA), Theophilus London (USA), Thundamentals $77.10 (+ bf) 7.30pm Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills Electric Zoo The Blow Waves, The Blush Foundation, Divine Knights, Garcon Garcon $20 (+ bf) 5pm Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Jingle Jangle Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour Homemade Saturdays $20$25 9pm Ivy, Sydney Pure Ivy Saturdays $20 6pm Jacksons On George, Sydney Ultimate Party Venue DJ Michael Stewart free Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Kitty Kitty Bang Bang Miss

T, Gabby, Cassette, Alison Wonderland 8pm The Marlborough Hotel, Newtown Resident DJs free Scubar, Sydney Every Saturday DJs 3pm Tonic Lounge, Potts Point Tan Cracker’s Soul Club Boogie Monster, Kinetic, Tom Tutton, Gian Arpino free-$10 9pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Voyeur Sax on Legz (live), 30 Funk, Robbie Santiago, Phil Lake, Joe Amoroso, Deekay Tone Venue Surry Hills Astral People Agency Laund feat. Jonti, Wintercoats, Bon Chat Bon Rat, Albatross Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills Ghostwood, Casette, The Ruminators, Kato, DJ Banshee 6pm The Watershed Hotel Watershed Presents…

Skybar The World Bar, Kings Cross Wham! MICAH (WA), James Taylor & MC Shureshock, Murat Kilic, Ben Morris, Telefunken, The Jackal, Temnein, Jo Gadget, Bermuda P, Diamond Lights, Discopunx $15-$20 8pm

SUNDAY AUGUST 28 Bank Hotel, Newtown Kitty Glitter free 4pm Fakeclub, Kings Cross Spice YokoO, Nic Scali, James Taylor $20 4am Hugo’s Lounge, Kings Cross Sneaky Sundays 8pm Jacksons On George, Sydney Aphrodisiac Resident DJs free Scubar, Sydney Sundays at Scubar 3pm The Watershed Hotel Afternoon DJs DJ Matty Roberts free The White Horse Hotel SASH Sundays feat. Yokoo, Tim Culbert, Tomass, Garth Linton The World Bar, Kings Cross Deep House James Taylor, Mitch Crosher, Sullo 9pm Glovecats

club picks up all night out all week...

Big Boi

Luke Fair

SATURDAY AUGUST 27 Chinese Laundry, Sydney Luke Fair (Canada), John Glover, Neon Stereo, What So Not?, A-Tonez $15 (early bird)–$25 9pm Civic Underground, Sydney Adult Disco Jacques Renault (USA) 8pm

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 24

FRIDAY AUGUST 26

The World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall Glovecats, Special K, Hydraulix, Starjumps, Alison Wonderland, My Lord Chiari free 7.30pm

Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Love Kings Levins, Radge $10 11pm

Enmore Theatre Big Boi (USA), Theophilus London (USA), Thundamentals $77.10 (+ bf) 7.30pm

Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Friday I’m In Love free 12am

SUNDAY AUGUST 28

THURSDAY AUGUST 25 Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Drop Lo Five, Bentley, Ability free Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Retail Therapy Nad, Mr Belvedere, Kristy Lee 8pm

The World Bar, Kings Cross MUM and Major Raiser present Worlds Collide Peppercorn, Fishing DJs, The Mountains, Oceanics, Rockets, Tank, Tim Fitz, Barnzy, Vacant Field, Cuervo, MUM DJs free$15 8pm

Fakeclub, Kings Cross Spice YokoO, Nic Scali, James Taylor $20 4am The White Horse Hotel Surry Hills SASH Sundays feat. YokoO, Tim Culbert, Tomass, Garth Linton

BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 51

snap sn ap

up all night out all week . . .

hot damn

Wallet damage: FREE entry plus $4 spirits / $6 Vodka Mother (9pm – 11pm), and $4.50 schooners, $5 Strong bow cider, $5 cocktails and $5 Heineken ALL NIGHT. Where: HUMP @ The Ranch Hotel – Cnr of Epping and Herring Rds, Eastwood.

When: Every Wednesday from 9pm.

Spectrum :: 34 Oxford St Darlinghurst 93316245

alex smoke

PICS :: AM

11:08:11::

It’s called: HUMP Wednesdays It sounds like: Electro, house, hip hop, a bit of dub and non-stop rockthe-house party jams.

Who’s playin’? Live acts and headliners rangin g from Hook N Sling (Ministry Of Sound) and Goodwill (Ministry Of Sound) to DJ Nino Brown (Chiefrockers Crew) – plus residents Troy T (Superfest) and Joey Kaz. Sell it to us: This is the weekly party for anyon e who wants trash-theroom, balls-to-the-walls, dance-til-your-fee t-bleed and shout-at-the-top-ofyour-lungs partying.

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 – ‘Jacksons Last Stand (Hook N Sling Mix)’; Klaxo ns – ‘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 get loose, rock out and have some killer fun.

PICS :: CG

party profile

hump wednesdays

friday, i'm in love

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13:08:11 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex Street Sydney 82959958

12:08:11 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711

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the exchange hotel

back to school

12:08:11 :: The Exchange Hotel :: 34-44 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93601375

52 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

03:08:11 :: The Ranch Hotel :: Cnr Epping & Herring Rds Eastwood 9887 2411 :: KATRINA CLARKE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER NGYUEN:: THOMAS PEACHY Y VICK :: NS MUN IEL DAN :: :: CAI GRIFFIN :: ASHLEY MAR :: ROSETTE ROUHANNA

snap

u-tern

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up all night out all week . . .

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wham!

sash

13:08:11 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700

PICS :: TL

13:08:11 :: Tone :: 116 Wentworth Ave Surry Hills 9267 6440

14:08:11 :: The White Horse Hotel :: 61 Princes Highway, St Peters 9519 8967 :: KATRINA CLARKE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: THOMAS PEACHY OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER UEN NGY Y VICK :: NS :: DANIEL MUN :: CAI GRIFFIN :: ASHLEY MAR :: ROSETTE ROUHANNA

LUKE FAIR

(CAN, 3.5 HOUR SET) JOHN GLOVER : NEON STEREO WHAT SO NOT? : A-TONEZ : DJ MOTO SUSHI : KING LEE : LUKE WARREN $15 BEFORE 10PM & $25 AFTER / DOORS OPEN 9PM

$8*867 7+

BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 53

snap sn ap

halfway crooks

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up all night out all week . . .

chinese laundry

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13:08:11 :: Phoenix Bar :: Downstairs 34 Oxford St, Darlinghurst 93311936

It’s called: Modern Musicology Trivia It sounds like: Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Spicks & Specks and the best way to spend your hump day

What’s garn on? Questions, answers, prizes , refreshments Three rounds you’ll hear on the night: Band Or Horse, Drunk Photo Guess Who, The Switch-A-Roo And one you definitely won’t: Name That Smell

bungalow 8

13:08:11 :: Bungalow 8 :: 8 The Promenade King Street Wharf 92994440

Sell it to us: Run by four music-lovers who love having digs at each other, this trivia night is aimed at rewarding people for their up-to-date music knowledge rather than rewarding peopl e for knowing obscure facts about the golden era of Rock and/or Roll. Also.. . we have great prizes, sweet food, adult refreshments...

The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Winning two tickets to Big Boi this week thanks to the Enmore Theatre!!

Crowd specs: Cool cats, music lovers, hipste rs, uni kids and other stereotypes used to classify groups of peopl e.

Wallet damage: Free for all (except Kurt Bismi re) Where: The Roxbury Hotel / 182 St John’s Road Glebe.

When: Every Wednesday from 7pm

propaganda

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party profile

modern music trivia

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12:08:11 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex Street Sydney 82959958

strike

13:08:11 :: Strike Bowling Bar :: 22 The Promenade, King St Wharf 1300787453

PICS ::AM

slow blow

12:08:11 Goodgod Small Club :: 53-55 Liverpool Street Sydney, 9267 3787 54 :: BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11

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11:08:11 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700

:: KATRINA CLARKE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) CHY OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER :: VICKY NGUYEN:: THOMAS PEA NS MUN IEL DAN :: MAR LEY :: CAI GRIFFIN :: ASH NA :: ROSETTE ROUHAN