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ROCK FOR RECLINK FT. THE CRUEL SEA & DAN SULTAN Thu 15 March
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Fri 16 March*SOLD OUT!*
NATIO N AL AL BU M Just Announced
DEVILDRIVER
LIVE T OUR
Sat 5 May
YOUNG GUNS Thu 31 May Coming Soon
XAVIER RUDD *SELLING FAST!*
F R IDA Y M A R CH 1 6
Fri 23 March
HELM & ELECTRIC HORSE
T HE S T A N DA R D
Sat 24 March Pez Fri 30 March
Fu Manchu Thu 3 May
Iced Earth Thu 5 April
Digitalism Fri 11 May
Dead Meadow & Pink Mountaintops Fri 6 April
Kaiser Chiefs Tue 15 May
Sneaky Sound System Sat 7 April Sandy Rivera Sun 8 April
Mutemath Wed 16 May Mickey Avalon Fri 18 May Dead Letter Circus Fri 25 May
Mark Lanegan Band Fri 20 April
Tim Ripper Owens Sat 26 May
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ALSO PLAYING THE GLASSHOUSE, PORT MACQUAIRE, 12 MARCH
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rock music news welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Nathan Jolly and Caitlin Welsh
five things WITH
LINK & WALLY FROM THE MEANIES Wally: I actually still haven’t grown up yet, so music is continually affecting me. When I was little though it was loads of James Last, Bert Kaempfert, Charlie Pride and Slim Whitman, along with Top 40 radio, the mighty 3XY.
2.
Inspirations Link: I love the chaos of Keith Moon, the skill of Mitch Mitchell, Bonham’s drum sound, Greg Ginn’s nuts progressions, Hendrix’s groove and voice, the Ox’s ridiculous bass lines… I could go on and on. Wally: Jesus was my inspiration – he was a local kid who bred homing pigeons and played a mean blues guitar. Pretty good at rockabilly, too. Your Crew Link: I like producing with Loki 3. Lockwood from Spooky records. He always has a slab of Coopers in the studio fridge as well. Wally: We can’t afford crew these days, don’t play often enough to warrant hiring them anyway. Growing Up Link: My mother played the piano; I 1. remember trying to learn as a kid, but didn’t have the patience. I was into playing the tennis racket to The Everly Brothers or the Beach
Boys at that stage. I thought my dad could play the uke, but when I got older I realised he was just muting the strings and beating out a rhythm. My brother played bass guitar and I got my first guitar at about 12 – a Canora.
JEZZIES WIN AMP
PUBLISHERS: Adam Zammit & Rob Furst EDITOR IN CHIEF: Adam Zammit 9552 6333 adam@peergroupmedia.com ACTING EDITOR: Dee Jefferson steph@thebrag.com 02 9698 9645 ACTING ARTS & ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Roslyn Helper dee@thebrag.com 02 9690 2731 STAFF WRITER: Caitlin Welsh NEWS: Nathan Jolly, Chris Honnery ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant GRAPHIC DESIGN: Alan Parry SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER: Tim Levy SNAP PHOTOGRAPHERS: Katrina Clarke, Jay Collier, Ashley Mar, Daniel Munns, George Popov, Rocket Weijers, Tim Whitney ADVERTISING: Ross Eldridge - 0422 659 425 / (02) 8394 9492 ross@thebrag.com ADVERTISING: Les White - 0405 581 125 / (02) 8394 9027 les@thebrag.com ADVERTISING: Meaghan Meredith - 0423 655 091 / (02) 8394 9168 meaghan@thebrag.com GIG & CLUB GUIDE CO-ORDINATOR: Conrad Richters - gigguide@thebrag.com (rock) clubguide@thebrag.com (dance & parties) INTERNS: Sigourney Berndt, Alex Christie, Antigone Anagnostellis, Verity Cox
“At that age, when something hits you sideways like that, you never forget it” was one of many Almost Famous-esque phrases David Fricke said regarding the power of music, during his keynote speech at the AMPs last Thursday. And while we here at THE BRAG suggested a nine-way tie (featuring nine novelty cheques), there had to be a winner, so congrats to The Jezabels who took bragging rights and 30 grand for their accomplished debut Prisoner. Congrats girls and guys! (Also, the Jezzies are playing June 9 at the Hordern with special guests LIGHTS and Snakadaktal, and they will sell it out!)
SURRY HILLS FESTIVAL
You know the Jebediah song ‘Leaving Home’? Well, this is exactly the opposite scenario: the Prince Alfred Park has had either ‘a bit of spit and polish’ or a complete refurbishment (your turn of phrase will depend on whether you are an old cobbler, or work in the parks and rec. department) and will be welcoming back the Surry Hills Festival on October 27 (Peanuts calendar; markitdown!!) with open arms – or open branches and improved BBQ areas or something. It’s good news for Surry Hills, which is good news for Sydney, which is good news for the world. Hurray, the world is getting better!
The Music You Make Link: We play fast, medium and slow 4. rock’n’roll with a melodic edge. My body is mostly sore after our shows from dancing like
an epileptic. We have too many releases to go into it. Wally: We’ve been around for over 20 years. If you don’t know us by now, you never will. Music, Right Here, Right Now Link: The music scene wherever you go 5. round the world is gonna be 80% filler 20% killer. Melbourne has a shitload of venues, which is great. I think the biggest obstacle a band has to face is the vast amount of bands competing for people’s attention. Sometimes really amazing artists remain unnoticed because they don’t have the kind of brains that lend themselves to promoting their music. Two bands I really love at the moment are Batpiss, and Sun God Replica (of course, I do play in the latter…). Wally: I go to Melbourne for the best music, but overall I think the scene’s pretty healthy everywhere. Quite different from when we first started, but pretty bloody good none the less. You could do with a few more venues up here though. Sort that out, could ya? With: Shark Bait, Cruelty’s Fun Where: The Sandringham Hotel, Newtown When: Friday March 16 from 8pm / $15
ACO UNDERGROUND
Remember that Australian musician who was given that Stradivarius violin worth a cool 1.7 million last year? Well, her name is Satu Vänskä, and her electro-acoustic collective ACO Underground (as in Australian Chamber Orchestra, of which Satu is Assistant Leader) have drafted in Midnight Oil guitarist Jim Moginie (who is a complete mo-genius) to play a special night at The Standard, featuring an audio-visual installation from surf cinematographer Jon Frank. It happens April 1; tickets are $25 from Moshtix. Sounds like art.
360
SOUND SUMMIT DIRECTORS
You know how that Royal Headache album tore a hole through the Australian music scene last year? (Turns out the secret was ‘good songs’.) You know how the Woollen Kits are doing the same as you read this? Well, the label boss who released both these excellent things, Nic Warnock of RIP Society, has come on board as co-director of Newcastle’s Sound Summit. Also stepping in as co-director is Daniel Gottlieb, who writes for Pitchfork’s Altered Zones, curates live shows the world round, and hosts Spiral Sounds on 2SER. All this means that September 27-30 might be the best four-day stretch in Newcastle since Daniel Johns wrote the ‘Israel’s Son’ riff.
COME TOGETHER
Those who frequent rock front pages (i.e. this newsy-part) will know that we are dope, down by law, and like our boy Montell Jordan, we will never go wack on an old school track. We will be bringing that style of flava to Come Together, July 9 at Big Top, Luna Park which features 360 (our boy Siddy), Horrorshow, (cover-stars) Hermitude, Seth Sentry, Koolism, Thundamentals, Skryptcha, Purpose and Bam Bam.
REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Michael Brown, Liz Brown, Bridie Connellan, Ben Cooper, Oliver Downes, Alasdair Duncan, Max Easton, Tony Edwards, Christie Eliezer, Murray Engleheart, Henry Florence, Mike Gee, Chris Honnery, Nathan Jolly, Alex Lindsay Jones, Robbie Miles, Peter Neathway, Hugh Robertson, Matt Roden, Romi Scodellaro, Jonno Seidler, Rach Seneviratne, Luke Telford, Rick Warner Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this address 8a Marlborough Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 ph - (02) 9552 6333 fax - (02) 9319 2227 EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Publisher, Editor or Staff of The Brag. ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Stephen Forde : accounts@furstmedia.com.au ph - (03) 9428 3600 fax - (03) 9428 3611 Furst Media, 3 Newton Street Richmond Victoria 3121 DEADLINES: Editorial: Wednesday 12pm (no extensions) Artwork, ad bookings: Thursday 12pm (no extensions). Ad cancellations: Tuesday 4pm Published by Cartrage P/L ACN 104026388 All content copyrighted to Cartrage 2003 DISTRIBUTION: Wanna get The Brag? Email distribution@ furstmedia.com.au or phone 03 9428 3600. PRINTED BY SPOTPRESS: www.spotpress.com.au 24 – 26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville NSW 2204 Win a giveaway? Mail us a stamped and addressed envelope, and we’ll send your prize on over...
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Kimbra: torso not included
KIM-BRA
According to YouTube, as of last week, 100 million people have viewed Kimbra’s torso. The type of displacement and psychological trauma this knowledge could cause for a young girl is truly remarkable, and fun to speculate wildly about, and if there’s one thing we do well in rock news, it’s baseless speculation. Anyway, Kimbra will be cramming socks, books and Fruit Tingles into a bag and embarking on her first national tour in over a year, stopping in at the Enmore on May 17. She’s bringing along Daniel Merriweather (voted most British Aussie by THE BRAG) as a support act, because it makes sense and it’s a good idea. Ok!
Seth Sentry
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rock music news
free stuff
welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Nathan Jolly and Caitlin Welsh
he said she said WITH
SARAH MCLEOD FROM SCREAMING BIKINI We used to play in a band together when I first went solo, and have remained writing partners since. The Music You Make The Screaming Bikini record we have 4. out now is actually a random collection of
Growing Up After I saw the final scene in Back To The 1. Future, I checked my mum’s record collection
and found out that ‘Johnny Be Goode’ was played by Chuck Berry. From there on I was a massive Chuck Berry fan, and used to jump off the coffee table onto the floor on my knees playing air guitar. My knees are a wreck now because of this! My family weren’t particularly musical but my mum and I sang a lot of choir songs together; I was the alto and she was the soprano!
2.
Inspirations My favourite rock band is Shihad – amazing players, and Jon Toogood is the best vocalist/frontman around. I’m always surprised
that they’re not as big as AC/DC. Pop bandwise I love Cheap Trick. I love the punch of rock but I get most of my song ideas from pop music and then work out how to make them heavy. I like to change musical direction a lot in order to freshen up my approach – I was rock then I was dance then I was acoustic, and now I’m rock again; it keeps me inspired and on my toes. Your Crew Apart from working with Screaming 3. Bikini, my favourite production partner is Mick Skelton. He’s the drummer from the Baby Animals and he and I have been writing songs together for years, we have a very special writing relationship, it just works.
tracks that were initially recorded for a solo album. Most of it was made in Miami with a guy called Jimmy Douglass, who they call The Senator; he has worked with Aretha Franklin, Hall & Oates, Roberta Flack, AC/ DC, The Rolling Stones, Roxy Music, among many others. The rest was recorded in New York with a tripper called Freebase. All these songs were produced in a different way to the sound of the band now, so our live show actually sounds nothing like our album. The album has electro drums and synths, and live we are a three-piece rock band: bass, drums and guitar. Strangely enough, the songs sound way better this way… less is more. Music, Right Here, Right Now It’s really cool that despite the changing 5. of the game there are still great bands
JAMES WALSH
James Walsh, the former frontman of the now-defunct Starsailor, is bringing his acoustic guitar and angelic voice to The Standard this Saturday March 24, as part of his solo tour Down Under. Joining him is the lovely Sarah McLeod, of Screaming Bikini (and ex-Superjesus fame), also in acoustic mode. If you’re expecting THAT remix, you might need to start practising your own dance-mix noises (all together now: nntsa nntsa nntsa nntsa nntsa) but if you’re keen for a double dose of acoustic love, email us one of the many names used by the producer of ‘Four to the Floor’s smash reinvention.
SET SAIL
Set Sail have been arrested in Madrid, obtained 26 free beers on a Virgin Flight, worked with Abercrombie & Fitch and gone from constant busking to sell-out shows within a year. Even more impressively, after a scrimmage with our Department of Immigration, whereby one of their band members was deported, they have managed to return to Australia after producing a web series documenting their travels through 15 countries. Makes Lady Gaga look lazy. To see them at the Oxford Art Factory on March 15, email us leader singer Brandon’s onomatopoeic surname and we might just send a double pass your way.
coming out and working hard at their craft and not being deterred by the dismal state of the music industry. I’ve been watching this band called Boy In A Box coming out with smash after smash; its great to see young kids who know how to write a hit. With: James Walsh (UK – Starsailor) Where: The Standard When: Saturday March 24
SHIR MADNESS
Tumbleweed
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM
Shir Madness is an amazingly punny name for this fun fab festival of Jewish Music, which happens March 25 at the Bondi Pavilion. Old Man River, Tim Freedman, and Israeli pop artist Mosh Ben Ari (great name!), who seems to have cornered Israel’s reggae-infused-rock market, will be headlining the event, alongside more than 40 acts, five stages and the following words/genres we don’t quite understand but can’t wait to mispronounce loudly and repeatedly at the festival: klezmer, choral, ladino, Chassidic.
ASSAAD COME TO THIS
One of my Favourite Internet Things Ever was a story I found last year called Beyonce The Vampire Slayer. B is a no-nonsense Slayer with a chip on her shoulder, a hyperactive Kanye for her Watcher, and no time for romance; Jay-Z is an arrogant hip hop mogul with the means to bankroll a cabal of Slayers and a face only a mother could love. Can they find some sexy common ground? (It’s a real thing. Go find it right now.) So when Canadian rootsy-folkie type Chris Assaad’s Australian tour was announced, and the presser quoted a blogger who described Assaad as “the love child of Lior and John Butler [who] was conceived on a week long chilled out, doped up, peace considering road trip…” it made us suspect there’s some dreamy JBT/Lior slash out there somewhere. Assaad is playing the Beach Road on March 22 and Venue 505 on March 23.
Set Sail
hasn’t headlined a show in Sydney for about a year, so get along to this one (and buy a brick, or don’t; the power is yours. But do.).
MEAN GUYS
There’s an almost certainly apocryphal tale which has Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder inviting legendary Canberra band The Meanies to tour America with them in 1994, only to have their extremely stitched-up American manager yell over his moustache/the phone – in what was probably an American-sitcom-style office with lamps and plants and business projections – “Who The Fuck Are The Meanies?” We choose to believe the story, plus the elaborate bits we added, and will be boring you with elongated versions of it when The Meanies play a oneoff show March 16 (this Friday, innit?) at the Sandringham Hotel, where God drinks (Tim Freedman, Love This City, 1999). Belinda Carlisle
ROCK‘N’ROLL MARKET
too; it’s intense, but in a good way, not in a stalkerish-ex way.
Tim Freedman was looking decidedly sheepish at the AMPs last week. We’ve decided it was because it was the day of the SYDNEY RAINPOCALYPSE 2012 and most of Tempe was reported to be completely underwater. This runs directly counter to Freedman’s never verified and now debunked assertion that it never rains in Tempe (‘You Sound Like Louis Burdett’, Eternal Nightcap, 1997). We hope it was a one-off, because the Sydney Rock’n’Roll & Alternative Market is Sunday March 18 at Jets Sports Club in Tempe, and we wouldn’t want all those rad vintage finds and rockin’ bands to get all damp.
MILDLIFE!
LIVE OF BRYAN
TUMBLEWEEEED
Take a pair of Converse shoes, then scuff them up. I don’t mean that sidewalkin’ frappuccino kinda scuffed, I mean drag them across barbed wire and bury them in a pit of rocks and sand. Then splash psychedelic paint all over them, but not too much. This pair of shoes looks like Tumbleweed sound, which is why the news that these Wollongong merchants of scuffed-psychotropic-serpentine-rock are playing the Annandale April 14 is a wonderful thing. There’s a new album coming in June, too. Whoa!
YOUNG GUNS
May 31, come with us to the Hi Fi and watch UK alternative-rockers Young Guns, who we assume are named after the film – to the extent that we won’t even Wikicheck this fact for fear of finding a laboured story that disproves this theory/fact. (“Well we are young, and young and gun kinda rhyme in our accent, innit?”). In the UK they share stages with Guns N’ Roses, QOTSA and Bon Jovi, so don’t be surprised if this show turns into a sweaty, heaving mass of hair and hormones. Buy their record Bones,
Mildlife play a brand of chilled electronic music that feels like taking a warm bath with R2D2 (you know the feeling) and they have just been announced as the March signing for Major Label, in what is fast becoming a singles club to rival Sub Pop’s single club. Check out ‘Milk and Wool’ at generalpants.com.au then buy some new jeans, assuming you need some new jeans.
Bryan Estepa is one of those singer-songwriters where everything he releases is hailed as his best work to date and his defining record and his magnum opus and all that. The annoying thing is, it happens to be true, which means, three albums in, Estepa is building an enviable back catalogue which he’ll be flinging at us from the stage of the Annandale Hotel, March 17. He
BELINDA!
Heaven is a place on earth, and this Wednesday, March 14, that place will be Selinas at Coogee (although if you ask on Tuesday, it’ll be at Castle Hill RSL) as Belinda Carlisle sails through her catalogue of hit songs and makes everyone there marvel at how, much like Paul Rudd, she manages to look better and better with each passing year. Last time she was out, she did a bunch of The Go-Gos stuff too, and sold stubby coolers with her face on them at the merch desk. True story.
“You tell me with your tongue, And your breath goes in my lungs, And we float over the rift” - THE SHINS 10 :: BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12
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The Music Network
themusicnetwork.com
Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer
THINGS WE HEAR
* Gotye’s video for ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ hit 100 million views on YouTube last Wednesday. The single is in the US Top 20, and stayed at #1 for a second week. When Coldplay appeared on Seven Network’s Sunrise to announce they were touring here in November, Chris Martin revealed he’d bought Making Mirrors and “really liked it.” * When Rihanna hits Sydney next month for the Australian premiere of her feature film debut, Battleship, at Luna Park, will she also be persuaded to play at the opening of The Star’s new superclub The Marquee? Will it be Rihanna or Jennifer Hudson who play Whitney Houston in a new biopic? * Slash, Sam Sparro and Taio Cruz played at the Museum of Contemporary Art to mark the $700m merger of Southern Cross and Austereo.
AMP PRIZE: JEZABELS WIN, FRICKE IMPRESSES
The Jezabels’ Prisoner won the 7th Australian Music Prize (AMP) $30,000 prize last Thursday. The band, away in the UK, sent a lengthy thank-you statement. Obviously aware of the dissension among the 40 judges as to how 'safe' some of the albums on the shortlist were, they acknowledged that the difference of opinion came because of “the importance [the judges placed] on maintaining the ideals that the Prize has come to represent.” This year’s winner’s event, at the Basement, was a lunch-cum-debate among guests, with a keynote address by Rolling Stone US senior writer David Fricke. Fricke, who was up until 4am that day filing a review of New Order’s gig at the Hordern, outlined his love for Australian music — gleefully recounting one gig where two bartenders got into a fistfight while X banged away onstage! — and its global impact. Dan Rosen, chair of the PPCA (which donated the prize) said of Fricke’s speech, “It was truly inspirational and left many in the room feeling a great sense of pride in our wonderful Australian artists and optimism for the future of our local industry.”
EMI LAND ASTON SHUFFLE
EMI Music Australia signed Canberra duo The Aston Shuffle. They end their First Degrees tour through colleges this week, and start work on their next CD. Their debut, Seventeen Past Midnight, hit #1 on the iTunes Electronic Chart. EMI’s electronic roster includes David Guetta, deadmau5, The Slips, The Chemical Brothers, Minx, Alison Wonderland and Eric Prydz.
* Peter Garrett is the latest to throw his weight behind saving the Annandale Hotel: he’s forking out for its 'Buy A Brick' campaign where fans buy a brick between $150 and $500 and have their names on a plaque. * The Day On The Green at Centennial Vineyards Bowral is rescheduled as heavy rain made the site unsafe. Featuring Noiseworks, Ian Moss, Richard Clapton, Dragon, 1927 and Choirboys, the new date is to be rescheduled. * Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell and his wife accidentally left $120,000 of jewellery in their room when they checked out of their hotel in Stone Mountain, near Atlanta. When they returned the stuff was missing. * One-time Sydney music journo Andrew McMillan was buried in the Northern Territory 500km from Darwin. He made a playlist for mourners on the 500km bus journey from Darwin, finishing on a 3km railway track and a 5km drive down a dirt track to Birdum Creek Station.
MAJOR LABEL GET MILDLIFE
General Pants’ singles-only Major Label signed Melbourne electro-rock band Mildlife as its March release. Go to generalpants.com. au to hear their ‘Milk & Wool’ for free. Major Label has turned two years old, and through A&Ring by their 700 staffers, launched acts like Guineafowl, Felicity Groom, Colour Code and The Bungalows to greater things. More recently, Pear Shape got on triple j, The Khanz put out a second single after play on FBi Radio, and Made In Japan launched their debut album Sights and Sounds to a packedout Oxford Art Factory. To submit tracks for May, go to generalpants.com.au, take it to a General Pants store, or email sami.stewart@ peergroupmedia.com.
US RELEASE FOR EMMA LOUISE
Brisbane singer-songwriter Emma Louise has been signed up by New York label Frenchkiss, set up by Les Savy Fav bassist Syd Butler. His GM Paul Hanly saw her play at Big Sound in Brisbane and got her to showcase for them in New York last December. Her Hearts And Empty Rooms EP is released in the US on March 25, when she performs at SXSW.
ROYAL HEADACHE: RUPTURED
New York label What’s Your Rupture? release Royal Headache’s self-titled album Stateside on May 8. They follow up with US dates a month after.
ORCHARD, IODA MERGE
Two of the USA’s largest digital aggregators, The Orchard and IODA are merging, Billboard revealed— and Sony Music will be a strategic investor. Sony already owns 51% of IODA. Sources told Billboard that Sony will own 50% of the merged company, which will have revenues of US$130 million. There is no official confirmation on this news. It comes a week after US indie distributor Fontana was merged with another indie distributor INgrooves by Shamrock Capital, which bought Fontana from Universal Music Group.
MUSIC MAKES YOU RACIST?
A new study by the University of Minnesota suggests that the music you listen to could make you racist. 138 Anglo-Saxon students were gathered and told to determine how college funds should be distributed to African Americans, Latino Americans, Arab Americans and Anglo-Saxon Americans. They were played seven minutes of music. Those listening to ‘white power’ Skrewdriver and Bound For Glory wanted 40% of money to go to whites
and the least to Arab Americans. Those dosed with Bruce Springsteen and The White Stripes wanted 35% of money for whites. Those who heard Akon and Fergie wanted it distributed equally. Heather LaMarre, assistant professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University told the Daily Mirror: “Rock music is generally associated with white Americans, so we believe it cues white listeners to think about their positive association with their own in-group.” Associate professor Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick added that music can influence our thoughts and actions more than we think, and “has the power to reinforce our positive biases toward our own group, and sometimes negative biases toward others.”
SURRY HILLS FESTIVAL
The Festival Company, which puts on the Peats Ridge festival, have signed a three-year deal with the Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre to run the Surry Hills Festival. TFC director Matt Grant says they pushed the festival back to October 27, “to make the most of Prince Alfred Park’s reopening.” The deal also calls for TFC to do another event for SHNC in April 13, but Grant wasn’t forthcoming about that.
of unsigned/indie Musicoz Awards is March 31. This year Musicoz partnered with BigPond, Facebook and YouTube for a greater “exposure platform”. See musicoz.org
SIMPSON FOR 2DAY, TRIPLE M
Southern Cross Austereo promoted its National Sales Director Jeremy Simpson to Sydney General Manager, looking after 2DAY and Triple M. Cathy Thomas, director of radio sales, takes over his previous role.
LANEWAY AT SXSW
The Laneway Festival expands its international brand by holding its SXSW party Austin Or Bust with Kindness, Zulu Winter, Blood Orange and Aussies Husky, DZ Deathrays and Twerps. It is co-curated by the Windish Agency and Eat Your Own Ears and presented with The Austinist website.
Lifelines
STRINGER AT EMI
Nicole Stringer begins at EMI Music Australia’s publicity department this week. She was previously at PR company RPM (Revolutions Per Minute).
RADIO REVENUE UP
Metro advertising for commercial radio grew in all cities except Sydney in February. All major cities showed a 1.19% increase on the same month a year earlier, to $51.774 million. Sydney fell 1.8% to a total of $15.622 million.
DMG RADIO DOES DMG MUSIC
The first initiative by DMG Radio’s new music marketing arm, DMG Music, is Nova’s showcase series Red Room. It debuted at the Star last week, with Jessie J, Gym Class Heroes, Professor Green and Tinie Tempah. The division is run by Jocelin Abbey, former Universal label manager who joined DMG last month as its marketing and solutions director.
BEARD CALLED TO THE BAR
Music manager and former Sydney magazine editor Katherine Beard was admitted to the Supreme Court of Victoria as a solicitor. While working as a lawyer, she continues to advise musicians and artists.
GAGA HITS 20 MILLION
Lady Gaga set a new record, of 20 million followers on Twitter. Justin Bieber has 18m, Katy Perry 15.7m, Shakira 15.5m and Rihanna 15.4m.
RIHANNA GETS DOWN
Rihanna is the most downloaded artist in history, with 42.5 million downloads. She beat Black Eyed Peas (42.4m), Eminem (42.2m), Lady Gaga (42m), Taylor Swift (41.8m), Katy Perry (37.6m), Lil Wayne (36.7m), Beyonce (30.4m), Kanye West (30.2m) and Britney Spears (28.6m).
PPCA PATRON PROGRAM
The PPCA (Phonographic Performance Company) launched the PPCA Patron Program to better educate artists, labels and businesses on the work it does in safeguarding the rights of artists. It tapped Clare Bowditch and Tim Levinson (Urthboy, The Herd) as patrons to spread the message.
MUSICOZ DEADLINE
The deadline for entries to the 18 categories
“You wore a charm on the chain that I stole special for you” - THE SHINS
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Expecting: Former 98 Degrees singer Nick Lachey and wife Vanessa Minnillo. Marrying: Madonna’s toyboy, French dancer Brahim Zaibat, 24, has proposed to her but the singer, 53, is still thinking it over. Injured: On the eve of their Oz tour, Taking Back Sunday singer Adam Lazzara’s leg was broken by a falling tree. They were recording in a rural part of Michigan. Lazzara had gone outside for a cigarette when it fell. Ill: Lene Nystrom was suffering from pneumonia when Aqua arrived in Australia after the long flight from Scandinavia. Arrested: Six members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot, for staging a protest against Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin’s dodgy election win. Charged with hooliganism, they face seven years in jail. In Court: NSW rapper Matt White, who came sixth in last year’s Australia’s Got Talent, was in Dubbo Local Court to change his bail conditions while he faces assault charges at Port Macquarie Local Court on March 19. The alleged assault took place in Wauchope. The changed bail conditions allow him to go outside his hometown of Coonabarabran, to perform, do workshops, and negotiate a management deal with Newcastle’s Street Warriors and hopefully a contract with Black Money Records. In Court: Christopher Scott Corben, 32, pleaded not guilty in the NSW District Court to a charge of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent in the toilets of the Ivy nightclub in October 2009. The alleged victim said the assault lasted an hour, Corben claims it was consensual and he did not penetrate her. Died: US guitarist Ronnie Montrose, 64, from cancer.
Wednesday March 28th – The Vanguard, Sydney www.thevanguard.com.au (ph 02 9557 9409)
Friday March 30th – Brass Monkey, Cronulla www.brassmonkey.com.au (ph 02 9544 3844)
Saturday March 31st – The Vanguard, Sydney www.thevanguard.com.au (ph 02 9557 9409)
Sunday April 1st – The Vault, Windsor
Classy Americana drawing on the influences of honky-tonk, rock ‘n roll, rockabilly, western swing, alt-country, blues and sixties rock and pop. Eilen Jewell is one act you should not miss!
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BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12 :: 13
HERMITUDE Hard At The Hustle By Hugh Robertson
T
here comes a time in every career when one is afforded the luxury of taking a deep breath, stepping back a little bit, and contemplating what has been achieved. For musicians, this could be measured in albums sold, gravitas bestowed, venue size, Facebook fans – something like that. And it’s worth reflection, when you consider the spectacular implosions and break-ups of bands not even halfway to the Big 1-0. But for Angus Stuart and Luke Dubber – aka El Gusto and Luke Dubs – the occasion of their tenth anniversary as Hermitude was marked by as little fanfare as possible. Instead, they’ve been hard at the hustle: they recently returned from a triumphant trip to New Zealand, their Australian tour has nearly sold out – and there’s very real possibility of tours to the US and UK before 2012 is out. At the centre of the excitement is HyperParadise, arguably the duo’s best record yet. Writing in these pages a few weeks ago this reviewer gave it four and a half stars, describing the “colossal, unapologetic swagger” of the album as “the sound of a band proud to be a known quantity at the top of their game”, and both Dubber and Stuart agree that this record represents the pinnacle of their vision for the outfit. “We both feel that HyperParadise is an album where we’ve stepped up our game a bit, composition and production-wise,” Dubber explains. “It just feels really good to get it out
there.” “And now that it’s done, we both feel like we’ve achieved something great,” Stuart adds. “And I can still listen to the songs on the record and not be all like, ‘Ugh, no, I don’t want to hear that for years!’” The pair disagree on exactly what inspired the sounds on the record, offering up everything from their new studio in Leichhardt, the sandwiches at Bar Sport and neighbouring Parramatta Road to the music they’ve been listening to and being surrounded by keyboards and synths rather than guitars and drums (as was the case when they recorded 2008’s Threads). But underneath all that are two self-assured musicians making exactly the music they set out to make. “Our main goal was to have really strong melodies that would basically replace the vocal melody, but be played with synthesisers and samples and stuff like that,” says Stuart. “[We wanted] to have really strong melodies that would be the hook or the narrative, and then create the mood, the bed of feeling underneath with all the instruments – the drums, and the bass, and all that stuff. We’ve always been predominantly instrumental, but we’ve always had guest vocalists on our records. This time around we really wanted to do an album that was all instrumental, and that, to us, is really what Hermitude’s about – the beat, the electronic music and the sound.” It’s this minimalist, back to basics approach that will be front and centre at their show at Oxford Art Factory this week, eschewing
“The thing that got me was that some people were putting $300 down on a record that they hadn’t heard yet. That’s incredible!”
live instruments and vocalists in favour of a good, old-fashioned party. “We’re back in the studio now, rehearsing furiously for the tour,” Dubber reveals. “We’ve been in here every day, working out a nice new show that we’re really excited about. It’s got lots of cool little segues between all these new tracks on HyperParadise.
yet! That’s incredible! That’s such loyalty to what we do, and it was really touching to see how well that did, and how dedicated these people were to helping us get our music on vinyl. It blew us all away – we watched it creep up, just freaking out about how well it was doing. It was a great feeling. And vinyl is still alive and kicking, it seems.”
“We’re basically doing it a similar way that we have in the past,” he continues, “with the beats coming off Serrato and us triggering samples, and me playing the keys live... It’s always fun putting a set together, and figuring out a new way to run through our songs, but I think we had reached a point where we really needed some new beats to play, because you just want to come at it from a fresh perspective every time you put a set together. So now that we’ve got this whole swag of new beats to play it’s really refreshing, and there’s all these cool ideas popping up, trying to make the show really dynamic. Having a mad, high-energy vibe for people to dance to, but also having enough dynamics to bring it down and go through some of the more mellow tunes on the album as well.”
And so are Hermitude, pushing themselves and trying new things every day. They are relentless about their craft, honing and editing and experimenting with tracks endlessly, sometimes for days at a time. But the real key to their success, and something you hear nearly every great recording artist talk about, is a desperate desire to keep working and writing new material, even when they’ve spent the better part of a year in the studio.
Whatever the reaction to the new live show is, there can be no doubt that Hermitude’s fans are extremely passionate and dedicated. This was put to the test late last year when the band, knowing they wanted their upcoming album to be on vinyl, but aware that their label Elefant Traks couldn’t foot the hefty bill alone, instead decided to crowd-fund a vinyl pressing through Pozible. “We thought that was a really good idea, and worth a shot,” Dubber recalls, “We were thinking that people could chuck in a little bit, and then we’ll just make up the rest, because we really wanted to press the album to wax. And then it just went crazy, and exploded. And we reached our pledge, and then it kept going. But it’s just incredible. The thing that got me was that some people were putting $300 down on a record that they hadn’t heard
“The response [to HyperParadise] has been amazing,” says Dubber. “You write the record, and work towards the goal of finishing it, and then once the record is out and you’ve released this thing in to the world, it’s done. For me, personally, it’s all about the journey of writing the record. And then once it’s released and everyone gets to say what they think about it, that’s great. And I’m loving all the feedback – it’s more than we could have ever hoped for or expected. So it’s heartwarming to hear all these amazing responses, and there are all these people on Facebook telling us how much they love the record, so that’s an amazing feeling as well. But for me, [HyperParadise] is done, so what are we doing now? Let’s write some more tunes.” What: HyperParadise out through Elefant Traks With: Special guests Sietta Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Friday March 16 More: Also playing at Come Together @ Big Top, Luna Park xxx
“Well, this is just a simple song to say what you done. I told you about all those fears, And away they did run” - THE SHINS 14 :: BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12
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Charles Bradley Screaming Eagle Of Soul By Benjamin Cooper
“L
isten up now, if you get yourself over here to Williamsburg I insist you look me up, right? I’ll take you all around, show ya the best of Brooklyn.” Even talking about New York sandwiches gets Charles Bradley, aka ‘The Screaming Eagle of Soul’, moving in an excited flow punctuated by generous – and genuine – offers. Bradley’s story traces an epic Kerouacian arc across America, from humble beginnings in Florida to his 2002 signing with Gabriel Roth’s Daptone Records. The decade since has seen sporadic releases of his tunes in the vinyl format only, before last year’s victorious debut album No Time For Dreaming. And then there’s the fact that prior to all of this music business he lived all across North America by taking on jobs such as being a chef in a psychiatric hospital. For Bradley, this troubadour existence feels natural. “I’ve been on my own since before I can even remember, travelling place to place. But when I get up there, on stage, it’s different. If the band is playing it hot and right then I just know
“When I was just a young kid I was given a little baby hen for a pet. One day my aunt walked out into the yard and called to the little thing, the hen came to her and she put the damn thing in the oven!”
something’s going to happen between me and the crowd. I like performance, I really do. I haven’t got it in me to be a liar, and when I’m up on that stage I can tell the truth, exactly as it is, to the entire room. I love everybody in that room, but only so much as the show allows. I know my heart, I know how it is, and it’s far too tender for me to let it get hurt, so I just have my connection during the performance, and then it’s gone.” Whilst in Australia for a string of festival appearances and solo shows, Bradley plans for something a bit more exotic than the typical kangaroo-spotting jaunt. “I know you’ve got some dolphins, but what I really want to see is some swans. Swans you have got to admire for how strange they are: they ain’t got no bite and they do this awkward run away from approaching people. But I just love seeing them and being near them. Did you know two swans mate for life? They don’t want for anything or anyone else because they’ve got this commitment for life to the other... that’s rare stuff these days.” Ornithological reflections pepper our conversation and sit comfortably alongside Bradley’s recollections of the significant women in his life. He was initially raised by his grandmother in Florida, and then met his mother for the first time when he was sent to her in New York. Interestingly, though, it’s his remembrances of another relative that provide a snapshot of the determination and uncompromising will that are his trademarks. “When I was just a young kid I was given a little baby hen for a pet,” he says. “Now this little thing was the friendliest creature ever. One day my aunt walked out into the yard and called to the little thing, the hen came to her and she put the damn thing in the oven! Well, when I got home I said to my grandfather, ‘What’s that smell?’ Then I saw what my aunt was doing and my heart just stopped. I ran over to the oven with no thought for the heat, reached in and grabbed my little pet and threw him onto the grill, which burned him out. … I just couldn’t understand how she could take
something so young and sweet and hurt it so. I decided that they might have killed him, but no-one was going to eat my friend.” The aunt in question was forgiven years later, when reconciliation was achieved through the gifting of another bird: Nicky the Macaw. “He’s been with me through my time in California and all of my journey across the country here to New York. Sometimes I just think of all the stuff I’ve been through in my time, and I smile because I’ve still got my Macaw over there, asking me ‘What’s up?’ and making me laugh.” Nicky is probably the only thing that can get in at Bradley’s all too tender heart. “I got no family left these days,” Bradley says. “When I got Nicky he was only five weeks old, and he wasn’t in good shape: I had to feed him with a tiny little syringe – and now you should see the size of him! I tell you, that bird’s got some moves these days. Any time I fall asleep on the couch here at home he magically Houdini’s out of the cage and paces up and down on my
neck, ‘till I wake up to him smiling on top of my head.” Nicky won’t be making any appearances in Australia: “he’s too old for travel now,” Bradley tells me. “But as for me? Well, I’m only just startin’.” And his enthusiastic approach to each new city belies any suspicions that he might prefer the company of birds to people: “I like to take a little breakfast and then use the time afterwards to wander the city I’m in and meet her people. Once I’m in that mic-check, though, it is all go, baby. When I’m up on that stage I just have to give my whole heart to the room. Afterwards I’m nothing but a shell, but damn it feels good when you know that whole room is moving.” With: The Cactus Channel, Kylie Auldist (acoustic) Where: The Factory Theatre, Marrickville When: Friday March 16
The Specials Ska Issues By Patrick Emery
T
he Iron Lady portrays an England beset with social, political and economic strife. Strikes, food shortages and racial conflict played against the pomp and ceremony of the Silver Jubilee. By the late 1970s, with the Winter of Discontent eroding the English people’s traditional resilience, the Conservative Party swept to power, winding back welfare programs and cracking down on industrial unrest. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher asserted that there was no such thing as society, only the individual. It was into this tumultuous environment that multi-racial ska band The Specials were born in 1977. Lynval Golding, guitarist and founding member, describes it as strange to see the events of his youth portrayed on the big screen. “We played a gig in 1979 that’s shown in the film, although we’re not actually on the soundtrack,” he laughs. “Our songs would never be used in that film!” In 1977 Golding, Horace Panter – also known as Sir Horace Gentleman – and Jerry Dammers formed The Coventry Automatics, who eventually morphed into The Specials. They were soon joined by Silverton Hutchinson (who left early in the band’s career), Neville Staple, Roddy Byers and Terry Hall. Dammers had already sowed the
“The Clash tour probably gave us our audience. It proved to us that we could cross over. I don’t think that without Joe Strummer and Mick Jones there would be The Specials.”
seeds of the band’s political stance, which would subsequently become a significant ingredient in the band’s public and musical image. Ska had its roots in the Caribbean Islands, most notably in Staple and Golding’s home country of Jamaica. While England wasn’t the only country with colonial interests in the Caribbean, the concentration of post-war Caribbean migration toward England meant that it became the focus for the fledgling European ska movement. “The ska in the band came from me and Neville,” Golding says. “I think The Specials played a huge part in educating people in Europe about ska music, and reggae.” (It’s worth mentioning though that Golding has a surprising soft spot for our native sons. “When we were touring in Europe we played with AC/DC,” he recalls. “They’re my favourite, favourite band! We did a gig with Bon Scott just before he died. It was absolutely fantastic!”) The other critical influence on The Specials was The Clash. Joe Strummer had been to see The Specials play in 1977, and suggested them as support act for The Clash shortly after. The tour introduced The Specials to an audience well beyond their Coventry roots, and led eventually to The Specials’ nationwide popularity. “The Clash tour probably gave us our audience,” Golding says. “It proved to us that we could cross over. I don’t think that without Joe Strummer and Mick Jones there would be The Specials.” The Specials were at the forefront of Rock Against Racism, a project instigated in the punk and ska music community to stem the rise of racism, and to counteract the insidious influence of right-wing rhetoric in the punk movement. 30 years on, Golding says England has evolved since that time for the better, though he’s regularly disappointed with what’s seen as a return to racist commentary. “England has become a multi-racial country, and there’s no doubt a multi-racial band helped stop racism,” he muses. “England has become the world, and that’s a good thing. I think if we can put together all these people in the one country, then that’s a good thing. England is no longer just white – and that’s a good thing. But I’m also very saddened
that racism is being used, even on the football field. I’m a big football fan – I follow Chelsea. I’ve gone to games where there’s been lots of racism directed at players on the pitch. I am really embarrassed when there’s this chanting at black players on the pitch – calling them ‘black bastard!’ I was at a game when someone was calling the black players black bastards, and then he turned to me and said ‘I’m not talking about you – I’m just talking to the players.’ How can it not be about me as well?” In the early 1980s, with internal tensions rising, the members of The Specials went their separate ways. Hall, Staple and Golding formed Fun Boy Three, while Dammers pursued his own political agenda under the moniker The Special AKA. Golding says the seeds of the current reunion began when he tried to organise a 25th anniversary tour. With the various members spread around the world – Staple has lived in Los Angeles for many years – logistics proved a significant problem. “I tried getting everyone back together for the 25 year anniversary,” Golding
“You feel like an ocean made warm by the sun” - THE SHINS 16 :: BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12
says. “But it took five years to get everyone back together. But once we did manage it, it’s been fantastic to play again.” The ongoing absence of Jerry Dammers – guitarist, principal songwriter and arguably the band’s political protagonist – has been something of a sore point. While Terry Hall was quoted in the English music media a few years ago as saying the door was open for Dammers to return, Dammers has publicly criticised The Specials’ reformation, claiming he had no option but to decline to participate. Golding is disappointed Dammers hasn’t been involved, but says it was unavoidable. “We couldn’t agree with his idea with what to do with the 30th anniversary tour. There are lots of members in this band, and it’s a democratic decision. That’s the thing about democracy,” he adds ruefully. “You have to go with the majority decision.” Where: Enmore Theatre When: Saturday April 7
Bleeding Knees Club Skin In The Game By Hugh Robertson
B
leeding Knees Club are one of those bands that you feel compelled to be allconsumingly jealous of. It’s been barely two years since Jordan Malane and Alex Wall picked up instruments for the very first time, and already they have an EP and an album (released on Columbia in the UK, no less), have played Vice parties in London and industry showcases in New York and LA, and in a couple of weeks’ time will be tearing up Austin, Texas at SXSW. Pretty good for a couple of surfer dudes from the Gold Coast who taught each other how to play guitar. At the beginning of the year they were featured as one of NME’s ‘20 Bands to Sell Your Kidneys For’ (or whatever superlative they are using now), and subsequently had to turn punters away from their gigs in London – including one at the legendary Old Blue Last, where the queue went around the corner. But Malane hasn’t quite processed their rapid rise to stardom. “I guess it is strange, but I dunno,” the guitarist admits (he’s standing in a London alleyway outside a Vice party that I’ve torn him away from – but at least he’s managed to sneak a beer out with him). “When everything happens really fast you don’t really stop and think about it.” Malane and Wall have had one hell of a steep learning curve, but they have had excellent teachers wherever they’ve gone. When they went into the studio to record their EP they had local legend Mark Duckworth to guide them, and when it came time to think about the album, Dev Hynes (aka Lightspeed Champion) was at hand. “Last year we toured with him and we said that he should do the album, and he totally jumped at it,” says Malane. “So me and Alex went over in June last year to Brooklyn [to record]. Dev gave us confidence in our songs, too; we’d ask what he thought, and he’d say no to stuff. But when he said yes, like, I felt confident in my song. When Dev thinks something is cool, it’s fucking cool.”
and EMI, and big labels like that. And the guys we were talking to were all 35 or 40, and they just didn’t get what we were doing. We don’t want to work with those people, we want to work with people who are like-minded. So that’s why it’s cool to release with Johann in Australia.” Whatever happens to the band from here on in, it does seem as though Malane and Wall have figured out what they value in labels and in other bands, and it is amazing the way a band can survive on little more than that. Bleeding Knees Club’s songs might be full of youthful, punky attitude and narcissism, but their relationships within the industry all seemed based on trust and respect, and a mutual admiration for the other party’s work. If you have to start somewhere, that’s not a bad place to be. What: Nothing To Do out now through I OH YOU Where: Beach Road Hotel, Bondi When: Wednesday April 11 More: Fri April 13 & Sat 14 at Oxford Art Factory (NB Saturday show is an all-ages matinee)
“The guys we were talking to [at major labels] were all 35 or 40, and they just didn’t get what we were doing. We don’t want to work with those people, we want to work with people who are like-minded.” From New York, Malane and Wall headed to London for shows – and to work with sound engineer Dan Grech-Marguerat (Radiohead, Howling Bells, Sparks etc), who put the final touches on the album. “We’d just go down there every day and tell him what we thought. But we barely had to tell him anything, he just owned it.” While they lucked out in getting such people involved in the album, Malane and Wall were equally fortunate when it came to their first national tour, supporting Yacht Club DJs. “Oh, they are the best guys,” enthuses Malane. “They’re just dudes, and they love fun music. And it was just funny for them to ask us because we weren’t even a band, and all of a sudden we got booked on a full tour of Australia...we were just so unprofessional. But I guess it kind of shaped us,” he muses, “because we learned so much from just that one tour.” Malane reckons the best way to learn is to be thrown in the deep end and be forced to figure it out yourself. “Oh, man, I’m so good at fucking up,” he confesses with a laugh. “It’s so funny just how good I am at fucking up. But playing so many shows, we’ve learnt how to deal with it and keep the show going.” There’s no doubt that Bleeding Knees Club’s success to date has as much to do with raw talent as it does with having the right sound at the right time, but when you hear Malane speak about I OH YOU, the band’s Australian label, you start to see a pattern emerge – one that, while not a traditional pathway to world domination, says a lot about the band, what they value and the way they operate. “It’s a really good vibe,” Malane says. “I knew Johann [Ponniah, co-founder of I OH YOU] for a little bit before he released our EP in 2010. But he’s a fucking legend. And he’s one of us – he’s our age, and one of our mates – and he wants whatever we want, which is really cool. I guess it comes down to the fact that we’re both around the same age,” he continues. “We grew up on the internet, and we know what each other likes. We can just talk shit and make things happen. Because the other options we had to release the album were Sony BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12 :: 17
Evanescence Back In Black By Rod Whitfield
Even in those early days, however, Lee says there was definitely a strong feeling that something was ‘happening’. “We definitely dreamed really big from the very beginning. If I hadn’t been dreaming so big I wouldn’t have put all those strings in our music; and I never thought it was going to be just keyboard stuff, it was going to have to be a full orchestra, that was my vision. Not a cheap thing, not a thing that any band could afford.” But Lee says it was still fairly “surreal” when success arrived. “I don’t think I could really understand it all when it was happening, it took a couple of years. And then it was like, ‘That’s crazy, that really happened!’” she laughs. With the success of Evanescence, Lee has also become a role model for young rock and goth chicks the world over. “You know, it’s a lot of responsibility for anybody who’s ‘famous’ on any level, where there’s people watching your every move. And it is hard sometimes. I
went through a time when it was really hard for me, actually, not to just feel like everyone was criticising me, ‘cause people naturally for some reason – when you’re doing well especially – they’re super interested in what is wrong with you, or whatever they can see in you that’s a flaw. It’s just human nature. That’s why people love crappy reality TV – it’s like, ‘Well I’m better than them!’” she laughs. The band recently released their third full-length album – the first release in five years since The Open Door – simply titled Evanescence. Once again, it’s a record chock full of epic, emotional goth rock anthems. “In many ways, I feel it’s the best thing we’ve ever done,” says Lee. “I don’t think it’s completely typical of us, I think there’s some really new feelings, and new things we’ve been inspired by since the last record...I think it’s a bit of both. And it’s been fun playing the new songs live, that’s for sure. I’m not bored with any of them yet, so I guess that’s a good thing!” Evanescence make their long awaited return to Australia very shortly, and Amy can’t wait to get Down Under and show the Aussie fans the new songs and their brand new show, which promises to give punters an even bigger band for their buck. “We’re playing the longest set we’ve ever played,” Lee tells me, “so I think people will feel they’ve got their money’s worth – it’s an hour and 20 [minutes], and the songs are really demanding; we’re doing songs from all three albums – so get ready to rock!” With: Blaqk Audio Where: Sydney Entertainment Centre When: Thursday March 29
Electrelane
Xxxx
A
my Lee turned 30 years old in December 2011; Evanescence formed in 1995 – and so if you do the maths, she was just in her mid teens when she put together the gothic rock outfit that has gone on to sell records in the tens of millions, win Grammy Awards and gain all sorts of other awards, accolades and success. “Something like that,” the chirpily friendly vocalist agrees, from on tour in South Carolina, “but it’s weird to put a number on it like that, because the ‘band’ was really just me and [original guitarist Ben Moody] writing together, and working in our parents’ garages and basements on whatever weird recording gear we could find, and recording ourselves. It was a band, but it wasn’t like we were running around playing gigs and developing a big following at that point.”
Ladies On Top By Anna Kennedy
I
n the decade after they formed in the late ’90s, Electrelane gained a reputation as one of the hardest-touring up-and-coming bands out of Brighton – until in 2007, with a highly-acclaimed new album (No Shouts, No Calls) and their own indie record label, the UK four-piece called an indefinite hiatus. “We’d been doing the band for a really long time and focusing all our energy on writing and recording, then going on tour. We all felt pretty tired by the end of it,” guitarist Mia Clarke explains. “It felt like the natural time to put it on hold for a little while and concentrate on other things that we wanted to do.” Two relocations to the States and three university degrees later, Electrelane were back together in 2011, playing festivals around Europe and gearing up for their first Australian tour since 2005. “We just really missed playing together,” Clarke explains. “Even though we’d been doing stuff musically, its just not the same as the four of us being in the room together or on stage together; we just really missed that energy and playing the songs we’d been playing for a long time.” Co-founded by Verity Susman and Emma Gaze, adding Mia (in 2000) and Ros Murray (in 2004) to form the band’s current lineup, Electrelane’s all-girl dynamic saw the music press comparing them to groups like Sleater Kinney and The Organ (despite the fact that their sound – preferencing ambient harmonies and instrumental tracks laden with Farfisa organ, ukulele, banjo and vocal chanting aplenty – couldn’t be more different). “They have a strange need to lump all the female bands together,” Clarke says. “Getting compared to Sleater Kinney has always baffled me because as much as I really like the band, we don’t sound anything like them.”
With four diverse albums, an EP and numerous singles over nine years, Electrelane have carved their own dynamic style, which flits between the buildups and temporal changes of prog-rock, experimental electronica and post-punk drums. With sometimes-haunting melodies penetrating through pumping Krautrock-inspired rhythms, their sound draws influence from an amalgamation of the band members’ tastes. “While we try not to compare our sound to anyone else’s, influence-wise there’s a lot of bands that we share a love of,” says Clarke. “I feel like Sonic Youth, Faust and The Ex are the bands that have influenced our more sortof ‘rockier’ sound; but at the same time we like the Velvet Underground, Neu!, and My Bloody Valentine, more sort of shoegazey bands – although I feel like it’s always been more experimental rock than shoegaze.” Electrelane’s upcoming tour will give Australian audiences a chance to experience their infamously intense live energy (their third, mostly-instrumental album Axes was initially recorded live in its entirety – by none other than Steve Albini – so as to retain the band’s flowing live chemistry). But what’s happened to this on-stage dynamic after their five-year hiatus? “Everyone gets worried; we don’t play a few shows and people think we’re rusty,” Clarke laughs. “You know, the first day was definitely a bit shaky, but then it felt like it was back to the old ways straight away. We’re just having a lot of fun now and I think the break’s been good for all of us. We’re having a really good time being together.” With: Songs, Caitlin Park Where: Manning Bar, Sydney University When: Thursday March 22
Sydney Sailors VS Western Walers Reclink Community Cup Comes To Sydney By Max Easton
Y
ou wouldn’t normally associate Front End Loader, The Celibate Rifles and The Meanies with a game of Aussie Rules; but this weekend will see all three bands descend on Marrickville’s Henson Park for the inaugural Sydney Community Cup. Coming off the back of a 15-year history in Melbourne, this event is making its first foray into New South Wales, facing the muso-heavy Western Walers against the media-heavy Sydney Sailors in a charity game of Aussie Rules – and Sailors captain Adam Spencer (ABC Radio) is taking it extremely seriously. “I’ve taken my pre-match training regime to a new level,” he reveals over the phone from ABC studios. “I had a vasectomy last Friday to limit any off-field distractions between now and the big game…so the Community Cup will actually be the first public outing of my post-vasectomy lower-half body.” As for the game, the captain has his game plan sorted too. “My plan is to surround myself with people who are really quite good to cover up my manifest deficiencies and just demand that they pass the ball to me in attacking positions.” Meanwhile, for Walers captain and ARIA-award winner Dan Sultan, the preparations are a little more laidback. “Well, I’m preparing more than I have for the Community Cup in Melbourne,” Sultan murmurs. “I’m not saying there will be revelations this year, but I’ll probably just not be quite as awful as I have been in the past. Let me
just say this though – musicians, we’re on stage, we’re usually standing up, and a lot of the time we’re dancing, so rock‘n’roll is good for cardio. Sitting in a nice comfy office chair speaking into a microphone and eating pastries isn’t ideal footy preparation, so I think we’ll be the ones running at the end of the day.” This year’s Community Cup is run by Reclink Australia – a charity organisation whose directive is to bring communities together through sport and arts events, with proceeds going to the disadvantaged. Four bands are set to play before the bounce, kicking off a game that Dan Sultan describes as being the least important part of the afternoon. “The level of football we’re playing isn’t exactly very good,” the Walers captain laughs. “I think by the time people are on the hill watching some bands with their friends and a beer, they’ll realise it’s not really about football. It’s just a good day out. You get to play footy and hang out with people you don’t necessarily hang out with, there’s a few beers, some bands and a bit of a barbeque, so it’s a good day…and off in the background there’s a little bit of a game going on somewhere as well.” Spencer disagrees wholeheartedly; the Cup is more than just a casual run-around for charity – it’s an historic event that fills him with a (somewhat facetious) sense of pride. “It was an honour to be selected as captain,” Spencer
beams. “When I say selected, I mean to have rung them and demanded to captain the team. But to think of the tradition, honour and history in these brand-new never-before-worn red and white jumpers – well, I think it’s fair to say that it humbles me.” Kicking off at mid-day on March 18, the Community Cup looks set to take the long history of the Melbourne event and find a new and hopefully long-lived home in Sydney’s Inner
West. The captains’ banter may focus more on sarcastic barbs and self-deprecating admissions than confident pre-match posturing, but the match itself – if nothing else – is guaranteed to entertain. What: The Reclink Community Cup Where: Henson Park, Marrickville When: Sunday March 18 / bands from 12 noon, match commences 2pm
“You woke up this morning, got yourself a gun. Mama always said you’d be The Chosen One.” - ALABAMA 3 18 :: BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12
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arts frontline
free stuff email: freestuff@thebrag.com
arts, theatre and film news... what's goin' on around town and more...
five minutes WITH
MAYA NEWELL
F
ilmmaker Maya Newell’s latest short documentary Two explores the secret, closeted lives of adult babies. Screening as part of Seen and Heard at the Red Rattler this week, a film festival dedicated to showcasing women in major production roles, Newell tells us about how she came to make friends with a grown man who wears nappies, sleeps in a cot and wants to be two years old again. How did you come to make a documentary about adult babies? A good friend of mine met an adult baby in Sydney, which set us both spilling with questions. Coincidently, when I moved to London I started working at a production company and was set the task of researching a story on adult babies. Still baffled by the topic, I started out by talking to diaper distributors, cot carpenters and a handful of babies themselves. However, the production company dropped the story, as no adult babies would disclose their identity. Then, when I was studying at university in London, I decided to make a radio documentary about the babies. Through voice only, they could maintain their anonymity and in this process I got to know Julian, a fairly closeted baby who bravely let me into his life. What was the hardest thing about making this film? Most people’s reaction to adults
who wear diapers by choice is abhorrence and disgust. I have talked to people who cannot even broach the topic without dry retching. Crazy. The hardest part is finding a way to communicate the adoration and curiosity that I had for Julian to an audience so they could understand him perhaps in the same vein that I did. Do you still keep in contact with your film subjects once you complete a project? Always, where it is possible. Julian and I
FANTASTIC PLANET FILM FESTIVAL This year’s Fantastic Planet Film Festival is oozing with the best new horror, fantasy and science fiction this side of reality, like Below Zero (based on screenwriter and producer Signe Olynyk’s idea to have herself locked in the meat freezer of a remote, abandoned slaughterhouse - for the LULz, we assume). It screens Saturday March 24 at 7pm. You can also catch Bryan Lefler’s Unicorn City, a Pythonesque comedy about an unemployed gamer who creates a utopian gaming society (Sunday March 25 at 7pm). If you’d like a double pass to one or both of these, tell us the coldest you’ve ever been (for Below Zero) or your fantasy-hero alter ego’s name (for Unicorn City). Unicorn City
What: Seen and Heard Film Festival When: Thursday March 15 - 29 Where: The Red Rattler / 6 Faversham St Marrickville More: seenandheardfilms.com
TINY STADIUMS Archived No. 5
Below Zero
have a healthy email relationship as he is in London and I am in Sydney. He now refers to me now as Auntie Maya. For me, building a relationship with the people I decide to make films about is one of the best things about documentary filmmaking. It is a strange relationship of exchange and honesty and at times it can be incredibly intimate. What other films are you most looking forward to at Seen and Heard? Pool Party looks incredible, and Jury Prize at Tribeca [Film Festival] is a fairly good indication that this film is a strong piece of cinema. It’s just such a great thing to bring all these women together and screen what they can do. What have you got planned for future projects? I have a number of projects on the go. I’ve been working regularly in Alice Springs making films with local Arrernte people and am also in the process of making a documentary about the experiences of children in same-sex families, like myself.
PACT centre for emerging artists has just announced the 2012 return of Erskineville’s underground phenomenon Tiny Stadiums with new curators Groundwork taking over from Quarterbred for 2012 and 2013. Amelia Wallin, Maria White and Christopher Hodge head up this curatorial collective and Centre/Margins is the key idea behind the 2012 event. They’re brewing up an exciting program to delve into the binaries between fact and fiction: the two-fold and the double-sided and experiments with the ideas of place and belonging. The full program will be released at the end of April but as a little teaser, we know that the first show for the festival is (Best Experimental Performance Melbourne Fringe 2011) Sweet Child of Mine by Bron Batten, in conversation with her parents live on stage about who she is and what she does. Sounds controversial. Stay tuned for more juicy details. pact.net.au
NEW RADICALS
Whilst it isn’t new to be radical, it is radical to be new. And experimental Sydney outfit Ensemble Offspring’s first show for the 2012 program
is headed in the right direction. Unearthing the sonic possibilities between acoustic and electric to produce all sorts of sensory experiences, six cutting-edge composers and classically trained musicians will take to the stage with an entourage of megaphones, bellladen gloves and a mass of melodicas. You can see/ hear/ feel it for yourself at the Sydney Opera House’s Utzon Room on March 30. sydneyoperahouse.com
CUT AND PASTE #10
This bi-monthly performance showcase of new theatre work is upon us again with a lineup of formidable local talent including Duncan Graham, Geoff Lemon, Evan Donohoe, Fish Wife and The Electric Ninjas all presenting new works. Head to The Old Fitz (129 Dowling St, Woolloomooloo) early on Sunday March 18 to guarantee yourself a ticket (Cut & Paste often sells out!) then you can use the excuse to enjoy a pre-show balcony beer too. We also hear that if you go see The Importance of Being Earnest Dragons at 5pm the same day you’ll get half price entry to Cut & Paste. Sweet deal. For more info hit up rocksurfers.org.
Number 96
CUT YOUR HANDS
If you think origami is just paper chains and paper cranes (pretty cool anyway) let us introduce you to the alchemists of papyrus, the geniuses of cut and paste. Here Today, Gone Tomorrow is the title of this year’s International Hand Cut Paper Exhibition and it features both local and overseas paper artists including Cara Barber, Claire Brewster, Chen Hangfeng and Shannon Rankin. All of these people can work wonders with this ancient art form and it’ll make you feel a little guilty for never progressing past the 'newspaper hat'. The exhibition opens Tuesday March 20 at NG Art Gallery, 3 Little Queen St, Chippendale, from 6-8pm. ngart.com.au
P2P, crowd sourcing, shareware… computer. Whether these words mean anything to you or not, the aim of this collaborative audiovisual jam session is to push boundaries and blur the line between performance and technology, and it’s bound to push your buttons in all the right ways too. For beginners and battle-hardened technerds alike, get hooked in on the local world of technology-based creative performance. Share Sydney returns to form with the first of a bi-monthly series of free events and it all happens Wednesday March 14 from 6pm at Serial Space (33 Wellington St, Chippendale). sharesydney.org
GYPSY ART CLUB
This Tuesday March 13, a little bit of 1930s bohemian Paris will spring to life in the heart of industrial Marrickville. The inaugural Gypsy Art Club is an early evening event for all those weary souls out there in search of a creative oasis. Whether you want to draw life-models, listen to Kush Kabaret’s gypsy jazz accordionist Philipe Wittwer, bust out some exotic moves to said gypsy jazz accordionist, daydream of 20 :: BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12
sunshine meadows and fields of… wheat… or just have a bit of a cheeky cushion-corner pash, Camelot Lounge is the place for you. The Gypsy Art Club will run every Tuesday from 7-10pm at Camelot Lounge, 19 Marrickville Rd, Marrickville. Entry is $20. camelotlounge.com
MAKESHIFT
Head down to the Sustainable Markets @ Taylor Square this Saturday and you’re gonna find something unexpected lurking in Sydney’s oldest toilet block. No, not that. A Leaf from the Book of Cities is the latest brainchild from award winning art collective Makeshift and they have turned this piece of iconic Sydney architecture into an open underground society. At ground level, the disused women’s convenience will house a workshop where you can get together with likeminded creatives to hack out ideas about building a more sustainable future for our city. Then head downstairs to the old men’s facilities, and a mobile printing press will turn these ideas into limited-edition artworks that will be distributed to passers-by on the last weekend of the Markets. The project will be open to visitors from 8am-1pm every Saturday until the end of the month.
AUSTRALIAN FILM FESTIVAL
If you want to know how Australian TV lost its virginity 40 years ago, head to The Australian Film Festival’s celebration of the groundbreaking 1970s Aussie TV series Number 96. They’ll be screening two episodes of the iconic show that shattered every taboo of its era including nudity, homosexuality and interracial romance. The screening takes place at Star Cinema (600 George St) Tuesday March 13 from 7pm and will be followed by a Q&A. If you want something a little less retro, five finalists have been selected for the Festival’s Future Film Screenplay Competition and each budding writer will present 15 minutes of their work for you and a slew of formidable judges. To catch a glimpse of the future of Australian screenplay, register online to bags a free seat. Tuesday March 13, AFTRS Theatre 1 (The Entertainment Quarter, 130 Bent St) at 6.30pm. australianfilmfestival.com.au
ArchivedNo. 5 image © NG Art Gallery
SHARE
BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12 :: 21
21 Jump Street Stay in School By Nathan Jolly
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum in 21 Jump Street
C
hanning Tatum and Jonah Hill are reclining in a Sydney hotel room wearing matching white robes. As a display of dick-bag decadence it ranks highly. Hill lazily stretches his arm out to greet me and attempts a wordless nod before the two collapse in fits of laughter. “That was really hard to do,” admits Hill of the ostentatious display. Tabloid reports suggest the previous day Hill required rescue at Bondi Beach when a drunken swim got out of hand. Hill denies the rumour, stating he was “just being awesome”.
G IV EA W AY S
It is clear the two stars of 21 Jump Street – the Phil Lord and Chris Miller-helmed adaptation of the late-‘80s television drama due for cinematic release March 15 – are enjoying their time in Sydney, and amidst all the joking they offer up succinct, thoughtful answers that suggest that the interview process is second nature to them. They make an interesting pairing, and while it wasn’t initially apparent how the two disparate actors would work sideby-side, their chemistry is obvious in person and happily carries over to the screen.
“Jonah just called me up,” Tatum recalls. “I didn’t really get why he was calling me for a comedy ‘cos I don’t do this type of thing, but he promised me he would make me funny. He did, and I can’t thank him enough for it.” “There was no-one else that could play the part,” Hill interjects. “It was perfect. We just got lucky, we had to play friends so I think we knew we had to get along.” While the original series was a fairly straightforward police drama, the easy hook of undercover cops in a high school trying to bring down a synthetic drug ring meant the premise lent itself easily to both school-based comedy and hefty doses of action. Hill co-wrote the script with Michael Bacall (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World). “I always wanted to make Bad Boys meets a John Hughes movie. That was the kernel that we sort of popped into a little piece of popcorn and ate,” he laughs, metaphor falling apart. “I’ve never really done something like this,” says Tatum of the comedic portions, “but the writing was really, really good. We did the scenes as
they were written and then after that, we were like, ‘Okay, let’s play now’.” Of course that easy back-and-forth didn’t apply when it came time to shoot the action sequences, during which Hill freely admits he was floundering. “Channing saved us because we really didn’t know how to make an action movie, and he’d made a bunch of them and knew how to do this kind of thing,” Hill says. “He was really our guiding light in that world.”
Street, his “other film”, romantic drama A Vow, sits on top of the box office in Australia, the US and numerous other markets worldwide. It also means he is incredibly busy, with the duo joking Tatum will be conducting interviews for the rest of his life. “I had no intention of having this many films come out in one year. The Vow was meant to come out last year, but they wanted it to come out on Valentine’s Day.” “Smart move”, Hill acknowledges.
Hill was this year nominated for his first Oscar, a Best Supporting Actor nod for his role alongside Brad Pitt in Moneyball (he lost out to Christopher Plummer). “It’s something that’s incredibly exciting, it’s something that is rare, and you just have to try to have fun with it and appreciate how cool it is,” says Hill. This sets Tatum off on a praise chorus directed at his co-star. “I don’t look at him as a comedic actor, or a dramatic actor, he’s just a great actor. I’m happy he is in such a great film and gets a chance to show his chops,” he gushes. Tatum is similarly spun out about his own current good fortune. As he is conducting interviews for 21 Jump
THE RUM DIARY W
“They have someone who plans these things out,” deadpans Tatum. While they are full of praise for each other’s performances, they credit Ice Cube (who plays Captain Dickson, the duo’s commanding officer) with “doing a lot of the heavy lifting.” “I was really nervous to be around the guy,” Tatum says. “He is so incredibly focused as an actor. He had pages and pages of monologues, and every word was word perfect. When someone is that intense and you know how serious they can be, it’s so fun when you get them gut-laughing.” Another example of perfect casting
came with the addition of Dave Franco as Eric, the charismatic drug dealer Hill’s character Schmidt befriends in order to bust, but develops something of a friendcrush on. “We needed a guy who felt like I would idolise him; a lot of great actors came in, guys we were friends with, but the second Dave came in it just felt funny and natural that I’d idolise him, and it felt easy for me to want to be best friends with him. Also he’s the only guy who auditioned that’s shorter than me, which is important.” Although the movie is ostensibly a big-screen adaptation of a television series, it shares only the initial premise with the original. “If you took the title off the movie, it could easily be a movie that stands alone,” says Tatum. “It’s not like we are playing any of the characters from the TV show.” “You could call it ‘High School Cops’ and it would be the same movie,” Hill concludes. “Terrible name, though.” What: Jump Street 21 When: Opens March 15
WIN!
hether he’s a prancing pirate, a charming chocolatier or a jaded journalist, the world will never get enough of a swaggering, intoxicated and slightly out-of-this-world Johnny Depp. Set him as the lead in Hunter S. Thompson’s experimental classic The Rum Diary alongside Hollywood’s current hotshots Amber Heard and Aaron Eckhart amidst the rum-soaked island life of Puerto Rico and you’ve got yourself a pretty sweet trip to movie heaven. Oh – and it’s also a badass story about jealousy, treachery, alcoholic lust, and fighting some corrupt landbarons (these days referred to as entrepreneurs).
IN CINEMAS MARCH 15 If YOU want a free ride to movie heaven, we have FIVE in-season double passes to get you there. Drop an email to freestuff@thebrag.com and tell us just when, where and how you like your rum. 22 :: BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12
THE INAUGURAL OPENING EXHIBITION OF
THE TOXTETH, 345 GLEBE PT ROAD, GLEBE, SYDNEY CITY
‘THERE GOES THE NEIGHBOURHOOD’ WED 14 . MAR . 2012 6PM Daniel Farrell, Thomas Jackson, Beastman, Numskull, Robin Hearfield, Kyle Montgomery, Max Treffkorn, Toko, Damien Aistrope, Luca Ionescu, Joseph Allen Shea, Marty Routledge, Chris Loutfy, Mitch Lyne Lucien Alperstein, Kimberly Manning EXHIBITION RUNS UNTIL SUN 18 . MAR . 2012
Kyle Montgomery
As the gentrification avalanche tumbles down the hills from the Eastern Suburbs, the known creative precincts of Surry Hills and Darlinghurst are being pushed further to Redfern and Darlington. Following the success of Lo-Fi, as well as The Standard, Go Font Ur Self and Self Est., the founders see The Tate as yet another step in the process of addressing the distance between Sydney’s arts education system and the art industry, as well as bridging the physical gap between Sydney’s inner west and the inner city. Celebrating the opening of a brand new project space brought to you by the creators of the iconic Lo-Fi Collective Gallery, Go Font Ur Self and Self Est, ‘There Goes The Neighbourhood’ is the inaugural opening exhibition of THE TATE Gallery in Glebe. WWW.TOXTETHHOTEL.COM.AU / CHRIS.LOUTFY@PEERGROUPMEDIA.COM
AS SEEN ON “MTV”, “ROAD TRIP”, “FREDDY GOT FINGERED” AND HOST OF “TOM GREEN’S HOUSE TONIGHT”
TOM GREEN A-LIST ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS
MTV’s funniest & most unpredictable personality returns to Australia to provide non-stop laughter with his brilliantly cracked view of the world around him.
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The New Electric Ballroom
Version 1.0
[THEATRE] A Charge In The Air By Alasdair Duncan
The three women in question sit in the living room of their house in an Irish fishing village, and repeat the story of a fateful night years ago at a club called The New Electric Ballroom. Innocent words and phrases are repeated until they become ominous and creepy, the play ultimately becoming a commentary on the stories that define us, and how we hold onto them. “As an audience we get to see how creepy life for these women is,” Gaul
says. “I don’t think the characters are aware of this. I think what is alarming for audiences is just how easy it is for us all to fall back into patterns rather than break them or take risks, take a chance, go for it! The atmosphere of the play is strong; made of many elements including the dialogue and the story.” Given that the play takes place in just the one location, with only four characters – the three women and a hapless young man who stumbles into their lives – and minimal action, I ask Gaul if directing it was a challenge. The way she sees it, though, the language in the play is the action. “It’s always challenging in art to do just as much as one needs and nothing more,” she says. “The play is physically very lively actually – I won’t give anything away – and in the SBW Stables theatre that can be quite a challenge given that the stage is very small.” While the script itself is quite dark, Gaul’s production emphasises the comedic elements. “The comedy is necessary and earned,” she says, “and our actors are very cluey on how to achieve this. You may not see it in the script, but the comedy comes out on stage, via character, dialogue, and action.” Like a good deal of Enda Walsh’s body of work, The New Electric Ballroom is explicitly tied to Ireland, exploring the darker and more bizarre ends of the Irish character and Irish humour. As such, the actors will perform it with Irish accents. When it’s not done well, attempting a foreign accent on stage can turn into a bit of a disaster, but Gaul’s cast have trained meticulously to make sure it goes over well. “We chose a version of a west coast accent for the production,” she tells me. “The aim was to create a completely different world for the audience’s enjoyment. When the lights go up they see and hear something they don’t know. It takes a lot of time to create a dialect or accent. But that’s part of the job and we have a wonderful expert, Natasha McNamara to help with research and coaching.” What: The New Electric Ballroom Where: SBW Stables Theatre / 10 Nimrod St, Kings Cross When: Until March 31 Tickets: griffintheatre.com.au
The Table of Knowledge [THEATRE] Under the Table By Emma McManus
I
f you haven’t brushed up on your South Sydney political history lately, you probably don’t know about the 'Sex for Development' scandal that erupted in Wollongong in 2008. Sure, it’s no Underbelly Razor, but the scandal did involve sexual bribery, political bias, fraud and corruption that climaxed with the sacking of a swag of government officials. This meaty subject matter is at the heart of Version 1.0’s latest production, The Table of Knowledge. The idea for the show was spawned at a barbeque shortly after the saga during a conversation between Version 1.0 CEO David Williams, Merrigong Theatre Company’s CEO Simon Hinton and Artistic Associate Anne-Louise Rentell (who do you invite to your barbeques, Huh!?) and The Table of Knowledge premiered last year at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre to critical acclaim. Williams talks to me about the high pressure that comes with “developing a work about a scandal in Wollongong, with money from Wollongong City Council, premiering in Wollongong”. “We had to be particularly aware of the context of our presentation, as well as the media representations surrounding the story.” These representations largely centred on the sex scandal, which caused the story to receive an unusually high amount of coverage. However, Williams is clear that Version 1.0 has tried to resist the salaciousness of the sex angle: “The sex scandal is a good way of selling tickets but it isn’t necessarily good material for a show, or at least not a very interesting show.” He emphasises that The Table of Knowledge “had to be a piece that delved deeply and generously into this Wollongong story, but at the same time was a great piece of theatre that really investigated how local government went wrong and how local government could be better. And that’s not just a story about Wollongong, Wollongong’s just an example that takes us to that story”.
When it comes to creating a show from a public enquiry, Version 1.0 is definitely not the new kid on the block. “Version 1.0 has made a body of work over the last eight years or so, that focuses on public enquiries into various forms of corrupt activity, and so large scale public enquiries have been regular source material for us.” According to Williams, this is an "old fashioned Version 1.0 show in that sense... It’s a big public enquiry, it’s about public accountability, and it’s about trying to imagine how systems can work better by confronting how systems have abjectly failed. So I guess that was what drew us in. It was a great story and there was a public enquiry and that was enough to go, ‘there might be a show here’”. On the subject of bringing the show to Sydney, Williams says, “This isn’t a show that should only play to a Wollongong audience. Other places have had similar scandals and Sydney is no exception”. He points out that there have been 32 investigations by ICAC (the Independent Commission against Corruption) from 1989-2008 into local government corruption in suburbs as far-reaching as Burwood, Warringa and Randwick. In light of this, Williams is keen to extend the show’s reach, looking to bring it not only to Sydney but to other parts of Australia as well. “It’s absolutely a story that has great resonance… In order to make a show that is not only about Wollongong we have to take it to other places… playing it in Sydney and getting reactions from audiences in Sydney will be the absolute test of that”. What: The Table of Knowledge When: March 13-24 Where: CarriageWorks / 245 Wilson St Eveleigh Tickets: ticketmaster.com.au
Nuns
[THEATRE] Bad Habits By Alasdair Duncan or Australian playwright Robert Luxford, nothing is sacred – least of all the sisters who he gleefully sends up in his new comedy, Nuns. The trio of the title lead racy lives within the walls of their convent. “Sister Catherine is a very heavy smoker, but she has a highly addictive personality, so really, she’ll get into anything,” Luxford tells me. “At one stage, she’s hitting the nail polish. Sister Bernadette is a youngster who is just new to the convent, and who is being initiated into Sister Catherine and Sister Rosa’s little circle. They conspire against the Mother Superior; they blackmail her with a sex tape of her with Father Kelly. So yeah, it’s fair to say that the play is very much a farce.”
F
Luxford attended catholic school, although he tells me that his experiences there didn’t inform the play to any real extent. “If the nuns at my school had gotten up to half the things these ones do, they would have been excommunicated for sure,” he says. It was mostly his love of movie comedy that inspired the work. “Well, the play is a satire, it’s a farce, so it’s not reality-based – it’s very much akin to something like Monty Python,” he says. “Aside from that, I’m very much inspired by the movies of the Zucker brothers – Flying High, The Naked Gun, all of those. My inspiration goes all the way back to old Hollywood films, though, Chaplin and things like that. If you come and see the play, you’ll see all the influences playing out in it.”
Nuns started out as a shorter work, before Luxford decided to expand it into a full-length production. “Initially, three ladies approached me to write a play for them to go to Edinburgh with, so I wrote them a ten-minute play about a trio of nuns behaving badly. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long enough for them, so they went with another play.” Luxford forgot about the play for a few months, until a friend suggested he submit it to the Crash Test Drama competition for short plays. It was a finalist there, and at Short & Sweet – which bills itself as the biggest little playwriting festival in the world – and after this initial run of success, he decided to revisit the script, fleshing it out to its current size.
As a playwright working in Australia, it can be difficult to get new work produced, but Luxford has gotten around that problem by going international. The first full production of Nuns actually took place in Chicago, put on by a group called Gorilla Tango Theatre, who he found via the Internet. “If you have a look around, there are actually a lot of websites out there that will accept all kinds of work from playwrights. I’ve licensed my work through a few different ones, and had a lot of success. Everyone can access them, from schools and universities through to professional theatre companies – there’s a worldwide audience out there.
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“The United States is quite a good area to get plays done,” he continues, “and I’ve also had play readings done in Toronto and London. I’ve had other plays produced around the world – there was a short of mine that was done in Romania, although it was in English, it wasn’t translated. I’ve definitely had more luck overseas than here, and for any young Australian playwrights out there who aspire to have their work produced but are finding it difficult to come up with opportunities, I’d definitely recommend going that route.”
Fortunately you won’t have to travel to Romania to see Nun’s though. It’s playing at The Imperial Hotel from March 22. What: Nuns by Robert Luxford When: Thursday March 22 – Sunday April 15 Where: The Imperial Hotel / 35 Erskineville Rd Erskineville Tickets: moshtix.com.au
The New Electric Ballroom - image © Heidrun Lohr
T
he New Electric Ballroom is a strange and powerful piece of theatre. Created by Enda Walsh, the Irish playwright also responsible for works like Disco Pigs and Hunger, it is a claustrophobic tale of three shutin sisters, endlessly repeating stories about a night, years before, when first love turned to betrayal and tragedy. For director Kate Gaul, who is staging the play in Sydney, the appeal of the script was clear. “The language, the bold theatricality, the daring circumstances the characters find themselves in, they all attracted me immediately,” she says. “Enda Walsh stands on the shoulders of the giants of Irish playwriting, theatre and literature with this play – it’s quite a challenge to meet the play’s audacious confidence. The play is actually very funny and has strong roles for three women, which also appealed to me.”
JOHNNY DEPP
“THRILLING AND FUNNY” EMPIRE
RUMDIARY
A B S O L U T E L Y N O T H I N G I N M O D E R AT I ON
Drug use, sex scenes, coarse language and violence
IN CINEMAS MARCH 15 BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12 :: 25
Arts Snap
Film & Theatre Reviews
At the heart of the arts Where you went last week...
Hits and misses on the silver screen and the bareboards around town.
■ Theatre
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE Until March 31 / The Genesian Theatre
parallax
PICS :: TL
No shit Shylock: of course a Jew has eyes. Of course he has hands, organs, dimensions and passions. If you prick him he will bleed, if you poison him he will die and if you wrong him he will revenge. I mean, DUH.
16:02:12 :: Bizarre Bazaar Fashion Market :: Sussex Lane nr Erskine St Sydney
The good news is that this is now old news – we all know prejudice sucks. Shylock the Jew’s iconic speech in The Merchant of Venice, railing against bigotry and injustice is still powerful, but it’s also pretty outmoded. So directors Constantine and Michael Costi don’t bleed any profound new truth out of this comedy, but in this creaky old theatre studded into Sydney’s CBD they have a pretty fun time nevertheless. To cut a long, iambic story short: it’s party time in Venice, where Bassanio’s borrowed money, through his melancholy friend Antonio, from the wealthy and ostracised Shylock in order to woo Portia. Her dad has promised her to whatever loser answers some silly riddle, and Bassanio sets off to compete. Everybody is really, really good-looking, thanks to Alice Joel’s 1950s-inspired costume design; the boys are in white singlets and Hawaiian shirts (it’s a bit Baz), and the girls have peddlepushers, big hair and kitten heels. These innocent aesthetics mesh well with the daft simplicity of the Shakespearean lovematches; falling instantaneously in love seemed more feasible back in the days of milk bars and doo whop.
PICS :: TL
trent parke
This glittering comedy is pretty camp. Costi’s encouraged his actors to match the text’s rich linguistic twists with high-energy physicality, and it all makes for some big fat laughs out loud. The supporting actors, swapping smoothly between minor characters, have the most chances to act up. Stephen Lloyd Coombs and Brendan Cain are really fun in the suitor sequences, and I would love a mime-invite to any mime-party that Ray Mainsbridge is mime-throwing. One stumble is the solemn sing-along to Bassanio’s attempt at picking up Portia – it’s aiming for earnest but feels too sentimental.
PICS :: TL
29:02:12 :: Stills Gallery :: 36 Gosbell St Paddington
art month launch 01:03:12 :: Carriageworks :: 245 Wilson St Eveleigh
Shylock and Antonio stand apart from all this slapstick spectacle, and the production is better for their naturalism. It’s hard to watch anyone but Geoff Sirmai when he’s sniffling around on stage as Shylock. His stereotypically New York Jew mannerisms are laid on pretty thick, but his delivery is so truthful it’s mesmerising. Andy Fraser’s Antonio is by turns miserable and macho, and he’s actually strongest when he’s weakest; when he’s deflated or angry and flawed, he’s very believable. Jacqueline Breen ■ Theatre
THE WEIR
Arts Exposed
Until March 31 / New Theatre
What's in our diary...
THERE GOES THE NEIGHBOURHOOD March 14 – 18 / The Tate, 345 Glebe Point Rd Gold Rush by Kyle Montgomery
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hat do you get when you stick a community-focused gallery W above Glebe’s notorious Toxteth Pub? All the best things in the world in one place, that’s what! The Tate Gallery is the brainchild of Marty Routledge and Chris Loutfly (also responsible for Sydney’s favourite lowbrow gallery/ studio, LO-FI Collective) and opens its doors this week with the humble aim of providing arts students with free studio and exhibition space. The gallery’s inaugural exhibition, There Goes the Neighbourhood, is an invitation to the creative community to take back ownership of the once-bohemian Inner West suburb of Glebe, and will feature a diverse selection of works, from internationally recognised artists like Numskull and Beastman, to the incredibly advanced galactic space monsters of six-year-old Max Treffkorn. Opens March 14 at 6pm.
The Weir, written by Irish playwright Conor McPherson, premiered at London’s Royal Court Theatre in 1997. The current production at the New Theatre, directed by Alice Livingstone, draws its main strength from an engaging ensemble of performers. The chemistry between the four, middle-aged men is that of a long friendship and they bounce off each other with great affability throughout the show. Set in a bar, the play begins with two locals, Jack (Peter McAllum) and Jim (Barry French) chatting familiarly with the barman Brendan (Lynden Jones). Talk soon turns to Finbar (Patrick Connolly), rumoured to be arriving with a young woman from Dublin. When Valarie (Amanda Stephens Lee) arrives, the men descend into tales of Irish mysticism, of spirits and faeries, until finally she tells a story of her own, a tale that comes from a deeply traumatic past. All the while, a working clock sits on stage, ticking away. This is a risky move
in a show that runs for an hour and fortyfive minutes with no interval. But it works; drawing attention to the way in which time passes, it creates a lovely tension with the language, which sits almost outside of time as it subtly weaves the characters’ stories together. The performances are very likable, but perhaps even a little too likable. Whilst Livingstone has done well to direct away from the characters coming across as perverse old men, I wonder if the overly good-natured behaviour they express towards each other causes some of the real conflict in the script to disappear. This lack of continued tension, which should be bubbling beneath the surface, causes the emotional high point of the piece to emerge abruptly. There is no clear impetus for Valerie to launch into her story and so the emotional weight of it doesn’t quite sink in. This production of The Weir is a conservative one; and doesn’t give us much to think about in an Australian context. However, there are some resonances with Australian culture in terms of the tensions between the country and city, and the different isolations that occur in each. If nothing else though, The Weir is worth seeing for some beautifully told classic Irish yarn spinning. Emma McManus ■ Film
MARGIN CALL Released March 15 Margin Call gives us front-row seats at the unravelling of an investment bank – and not just any investment bank, but the one that triggered the market collapse of late2008, now known as the Global Financial Crisis. As much as we’ve seen theatre, film and documentary unpack the GFC over the last three years, we’ve not seen it from this angle; we’ve not seen the human face of the tipping point; the point at which a (hugely profitable) system of trading and swapping bundles of mortgages between investment banks around the world, suddenly stopped after one bank, realising that the emperor had no clothes, tried to cut its losses and run. This one bank – it’s behaviour as a company, and the interactions of the staff within – becomes a microcosm for the capitalist market system itself, exemplifying its core principles and weaknesses. And if that sounds like the most godawful boring two hours of your life, it’s not; Margin Call is a corporate psychological thriller that plays out like an episode of Survivor, as the major players in the firm each react and interact to the emergency – from the cocksure 23-year-old risk management rookie (played by Gossip Girl’s Penn Badgley) to the 28-year-old former rocket scientist and mathematician (Zachary Quinto) who tips off his bosses about the impending crisis, and then up the chain of command, through Paul Bettany, Kevin Spacey, Simon Baker, Demi Moore and Stanley Tucci – and finally, a cadaverous, poisonous Jeremy Irons, as CEO. While Margin Call is not quite as emotionally devastating as Michael Clayton, and hasn’t quite the rapiersharp dialogue of The Social Network, it’s nevertheless very smartly written (with the exception of some clunky scenes-as-analogy involving strip clubs and great heights), and executed with a fine sense of atmosphere and dramatic tension; you’re always being surprised by the characters, you’re always teetering on the edge of what might happen next, and you’re constantly on edge, waiting for the emotional explosion that must be just around the corner, but never comes. Because it turns out, the only thing more terrifying than watching a company ruthlessly devour the market that made it, is knowing that that same company will ultimately survive, and even prosper, when the next up-cycle starts. Dee Jefferson
See www.thebrag.com for more arts reviews
DVD Reviews Sit back, veg out/freak out.
GAME OF THRONES: SEASON 1
HBO Home Entertainment Released March 7 Welcome to the realest fantasy you’ve ever seen. Yes, there are swords and dragons and dudes in robes – but Westeros, where the Game of Thrones is played, is a real place in the most meaningful sense. The people are real; the history is real; and as a product of both of these, the politics are real. This is why HBO’s epic fantasy adaptation has become such a crossover phenomenon. As much discussion can be devoted to the real motives of Varys (Conleth Hill) or Tyrion (the flawless Peter Dinklage) and the validity of Robert Baratheon’s (Mark Addy) grasp on the Iron Throne, as to the badassness of the battle scenes or how much the petulantly vicious Prince Joffrey needs to die in a fire. The female characters are also wonderfully well-drawn and acted, from Lena Headey’s icy puppetmistress Queen Cersei to her exiled counterpoint Daenerys, whom Emilia Clarke has almost reinvented with her nuanced performance. The series walks a fine line between gradually introducing us to Westeros and its intricacies – author George R.R. Martin works the necessary exposition through the books so well – and throwing us in the deep end. While you can follow it perfectly well if you’re paying attention, extra exposition is provided by a wonderful raft of extras and appendices – members of the Houses laid out in detail with character notes, seven commentaries, and terrific featurettes. The most fascinating of these are Creating the Dothraki Language (a mix of Arabic and German, apparently) and a quick but eye-opening short about the stunning opening credits – no matter how closely you’ve studied them, you’ll learn something new. Now is the time to bone up for Season Two, kids – winter (or at least April 1) is coming. (Five ravens out of five)
CONTAGION
Warner Home Video Released February 29 It’s not often that an Academy Award-winning actress dies in the first ten minutes of a film – and even less that you get to see the fleshy underflap of her scalp. But Steven Soderbergh has a whole pantheon of Oscar-winners and nominees (including Matt Damon, Kate Winslet and Marion Cotillard) to potentially kill off in this extremely effective take on the epidemic genre. And while celebritystudded casts often engage (rather than suspend) disbelief, Soderbergh’s fine-tuning of tone and atmosphere is such that you are absorbed into what seems to be a very real, very terrifying scenario. The film opens on ‘Day 2’ of the infection, with a very sick Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow) en route home to the States from Hong Kong, and leads us through a montage of various people in different places and stations of life succumbing to her symptoms – sweats, coughing, impaired vision. By 'Day 4', they’ve started dying. Over the next 150-or-so days – and 106 minutes – you’re privy to the global unfolding of the best thing since the Spanish influenza. Every visual and audio element of Contagion is designed to create an arc that begins with unease, moves to anxiety, up to heart-thumping adrenaline. To this end, Soderbergh incorporates a pulsing, dark electronic soundtrack courtesy of composer Cliff Martinez (who also did Traffic for him), and editing by Oscar-winner Stephen Mirrione, who has turned the inter-weaving of multiple storylines and the manufacture of anxiety into an art form (as per 21 Grams and Babel). The real disappointment here, with such a great creative team involved (and Soderbergh taking cinematography duties as well), and given Soderbergh’s history of outstandingly informative commentaries (see: Bubble), is the absence of any commentary track/s.
Caitlin Welsh Dee Jefferson
Street Level
A PLAY ON WORDS
With Brad Robson
H
ave you noticed that epic black and white artscape plastering the back hallway at Erskineville’s Hive Bar? That was Brad Robson. See that guy taking his texta to a canvas like a dinosaur to a carcass at Jurassic Lounge? Brad Robson. How about that sweet mural at Cockatoo Island’s Outpost Art extravaganza? Brad Robson too. Seems Robson has been splashing out in all sorts of nooks and crannies around Sydney of late and is finally set for his first solo exhibition happening at PLATFORM72 from March 14. Here’s what makes him tick. Where did you learn street art? I’ve always practised art in some way. Since an early age, my father inspired me and taught me to draw. I studied graphic arts through my twenties and illustration and painting were a natural progression from this. I believe anyone who really wants something bad enough, teaches themselves. I don’t consider myself a street artist as most of my work is commissioned and not on the streets but I’m consistently inspired by freestyle art forms. What’s the relationship between gallery work and street art for you? I believe the new crop of more contemporary galleries are embracing the “street” styled work and bringing in a whole new audience. The line between the fine art world and the freestyle art world is starting to fade – which I think is brilliant!
Xxxxx
What do you usually make art about and what inspires your subject matter? In my illustration work I like to create new worlds that have never before existed. My paintings are more abstract, sometimes dark; sometimes light. I’m inspired by all that’s around me but above all I’ve learnt to listen to myself and trust my hand, almost like a stream-ofconsciousness approach. What were you doing in New York and how did it influence your art making? I was in NYC for six weeks and I studied illustration and visual story telling at the School of Visual Arts. Being exposed to so much art and meeting so many other fantastic artists was just mind blowing! It really made me realise the possibilities that exist for artists. It made
me push myself in new directions, as you’ll see with my NYC piece that I’ve turned into a window display in my upcoming exhibition at PLATFORM72. What is PLATFORM72 and what will your exhibition involve? PLATFORM72 is a gallery/ design store setup by artists for artists and takes no commissions on sales. It gives the public a fresh and updated collection of art in the heart of Darlinghurst on Oxford St. I’ll be exhibiting a series of paintings, art prints, skate decks and a window display paying homage to NYC. What’s the most exciting thing you’ve done as an artist? Travelling to NYC was a great experience. Doing what you love and doing it in a city like New York - now that’s living! What: Brad Robson Solo Exhibition When: March 14 – 20 Where: PLATFORM72 / 72 Oxford St Darlinghurst More: bradrobson.com.au
THE WEIR
BY CONOR MCPHERSON DIRECTED BY ALICE LIVINGSTONE 7 — 31 MARCH
Funny, offbeat and chilling, this is superb theatrical storytelling in the best Irish tradition.
542 KING ST NEWTOWN | TICKETS 1300 13 11 88 | NEWTHEATRE.ORG.AU BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12 :: 27
Album Reviews What's been crossing our ears this week...
ALBUM OF THE WEEK DEEP SEA ARCADE
Deep Sea Arcade have been kicking around Sydney’s few remaining musical watering holes for so long now that it almost comes as a surprise to realise that Outlands is their debut record. In taking their time, the five-piece have practically provided a model of How To Get Things Right, paying their dues at the Annandale and Beach Road, trying out different things, throwing out a single every now and then (‘Keep On Walking’, ‘Crouch End’), while gradually grinding and polishing the 12 songs gathered here.
songwriting that has lasting appeal, however; the pair bring a sense of craft to the music here, combining instantly appealing hooks with an ability to cram as much into a three-minute pop song as possible, without overloading it. It’s well-trodden territory – by The Beatles, The Kinks and The Smiths, amongst goodness knows how many others – but DSA have somehow managed to carve out a space of their own.
The Deep Sea Arcade sound is immediately inviting: wet, jangling guitars and dreamy organs drenched in a fine haze of reverb. Very retro. Very slick. It’s the sturdiness of Nic McKenzie and Nick Weaver’s
No small part of the appeal is in McKenzie’s casually sinister lyrics, his offhand delivery adding to the impression that they’re tumbling out effortlessly, like nursery rhymes or Freudian slips. Focusing
Outlands Ivy League Records
Immaculately produced, it’s difficult not to want to fall into Outlands’ effortlessly manipulative arms.
ANDREW BIRD
JAMES VINCENT MCMORROW
Break It Yourself Spunk “This is not the carefully crafted, onelayer-at-a-time puzzle that recording/ producing often turns into. This is just musicians playing together in a room,” says lanky Chicago native Andrew Bird of his sixth full-length solo album. It’s something of a revelation given that the carefully crafted way in which dense layers of instrumentation are added and subtracted is characteristic of Bird’s earlier albums, such as Armchair Apocrypha and Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production of Eggs. Yet, in this instance, the words of the Bird ring true. Fear not: Bird’s trademark pizzicato strings, precise whistling, violin solos, ostinatos and detailed lyrics still feature prominently on Break It Yourself; but the space in which they exist has been expanded. Rather than being superimposed on one another, each of these elements is given room to breathe. The sparser, more straightforward way in which they are arranged in numbers such as the ebullient, somewherebetween-irish-jig-and-calypso ‘Danse Caribe’ and the slower, majestic ‘Hole In The Ocean Floor’ results in an album that’s less hyperactive and more immediately accessible than Bird’s previous efforts. Like any self-respecting musician tarred with the indie-folk brush, Bird owns a barn that doubles as a recording studio. This provided the space in which Break It Yourself was recorded within the space of a week, with long-time collaborators such as Martin Dosh (drums), Jeremy Ylvisaker (guitar) and Mike Lewis (bass). Perhaps on account of this, Bird’s early folk influence is readily tangible on this album. The opening strains of ‘Polynation’ are almost Appalachian, whilst ‘Orpheo Looks Back’ could well have been the ninth track on Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks. Andrew Bird: now with added folk. Andrew Yorke
MARK LANEGAN BAND
Early In The Morning Dew Process Most singers can’t do much about who they supposedly sound like. Jack Ladder’s bugbear will eternally be Nick Cave; The National’s Matt Berninger gets everyone from Cave to Leonard Cohen. Now here’s Irishman James Vincent McMorrow, rocking a milky falsetto that’s so much like a certain Wisconsin folkie I’m afraid it will haunt him as much as it helps his sales. The main focus is on small, gentle songs that are no doubt spellbinding in a small, dark, quiet room full of enraptured fans, but take several listens to stick properly. When McMorrow injects a little more rollick into the sound it does him a lot of favours. In the frantic climax of ‘From The Woods!!’, there’s a sense of urgency in the primal yelps that burst from a long smoke trail of eerie, cautionary-tale images. ‘And If My Heart Should Somehow Stop’ is a lilting, hopeful ballad, with a countrified edge. It’s the long-lost brother of ‘Lover, You Should Have Come Over’ – from the gentle waltzing rhythm, to the contemplative tone, to the lyrical echoes of “it’s not too late” (in exactly the same place in the song) and even McMorrow’s vocals are arch and delicate in the same way. It’s distractingly similar and certainly unintentional, though I doubt that Grace still hasn’t made it to Dublin. This release includes a cover of Steve Winwood’s sunny ‘80s hit ‘Higher Love’, which suffers from the same problem as half the covers recorded since Buckley’s ‘Hallelujah’ – confusing grave plainness with restraint and atmospheric prettiness with emotional depth. There’s a genuine love for old stories here, but McMorrow is capable of a more interesting album than this one. Caitlin Welsh
Long-time collaborator Alain Johannes (with whom Lanegan worked in QOTSA and his solo LP Bubblegum) makes his presence felt immediately; his distinct rhythmic guitar style is heard within seconds on the bluesy distorted opener ‘The Gravediggers Song’, and his mastery of virtually every member of the lute family can be heard on every track. But that blues that Lanegan has relied on so heavily in the past is largely absent. There are some gloriously brooding, blues-immersed moments like ‘Deep Black Vanishing Train’, but it’s the divergent array of sounds, all doused with Lanegan’s melancholic imagery, that really make the album. ‘Harborview Hospital’ makes use of fuzzy shoegaze guitars and bright keys to temper Lanegan’s nicotine-swathed growl, while songs like ‘Quiver Syndrome’ and ‘Riot In My House’ (with Josh Homme on guitar) are straight-out rock material. It’s the forays into electronica that really sparkle, though. The simply programmed drums sewn over lonesome guitarwork and introspective vocals, make ‘St Louis Elegy’ a standout, while the insistent, pulsing drums on ‘Tiny Grain of Truth’, coupled with Johannes’ psychedelic guitar noodling, is an ideal album closer. Blues Funeral sees Lanegan exploring new fields in which to sow his melancholia.
Take three banging hotties, put them in a reverbdrenched room and get them playing guitar-driven ‘60s pop; it’s a winning combination, and it works to great effect for the Fabergettes on their debut EP. This super-cute combo features Nat Martin (formerly a Cuthbert & The Nightwalkers choir girl) on guitar and vocals, Bec Allen (Catcall) on bass, Cipi Morgan on guitar and back up vocals, and drummer Marten Culity. Over the last few months they’ve garnered themselves more than their fair share of hype. Are they worthy? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t any good – quite the opposite, in fact. These girls (and guy) do what they do very well. Listening to the four tracks on the EP, it’s obvious they’ve done their homework and are familiar with the nuances of the genre. Title track, ‘Ding Dong’ is as catchy and as throwaway as the name suggests. Who knows what it’s about, though – the reverb is so over the top it sucks up the clarity of the words; but that’s the point, right? What is clear, however, are Martin’s vocal melodies. She has great voice; her breathy croon suggests fun, cheek and just a little bit of sex. ‘Dream Boy’ is the kind of tune your parents might have danced to at their high school formal. ‘Kiss Ya’ starts with a humorous call-andresponse between Martin and her Fabergettes, until the guitars crash the party and things get a little heavy. Like the Fabergettes themselves, Ding Dong is cute, fun, and doesn’t outstay it’s welcome. Roland Kay-Smith
Rick Warner
On The Impossible Past Epitaph Records Philadelphia’s Menzingers seem an odd choice for Epitaph Records. The revered independent punk label has slowly accumulated a stable of make-upwearing screamo acts and pop-punk bands to sit alongside prize-fighters like Bad Religion, Refused and Social Distortion. It’s not a bad ploy. The fanbase for these teen-centric hair bands are fervent and clear unit-shifters, so in a rational economic sense, it’s
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just smart business. But what the hell does economic rationality have to do with punk rock? So when an earnest suburban punk band like The Menzingers prove they are still a viable commodity, it’s a nice thing. In the same vein as contemporaries The Loved Ones and The Gaslight Anthem, there’s an undeniable ‘everyman’ notion about The Menzingers. These are the guys that practiced on shitty amps in garages next door to you; the band playing your backyard party for a few beers. This latest album is full of wellthumbed themes like love, the bottle and self-doubt, and while these topics don’t push any boundaries to even the casual rock listener, the sincerity that’s nailed
to them is what sets The Menzingers apart. The escapism heard in the dark highways of ‘Mexican Guitars’ and the lost love of ‘Casey’ are laced with regret, while the emotion of ‘Gates' and ‘Freedom Bridge’ show a capability for Ataris-esque sentimentality. The standout comes in the form of ‘Obituaries’, a tale of loneliness and regret set in New York City. While the chorus of ‘I will fuck this up. I fucking know it’ smacks of adolescence, the simple honesty of it resists any latent cynicism. This is an outstanding punk rock album lashed with sincerity. Rick Warner
THE TING TINGS Sounds From Nowheresville Sony
Ding Dong EP Independent
INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK THE MENZINGERS
Oliver Downes
THE FABERGETTES
Blues Funeral 4AD If you were expecting anything from a Mark Lanegan album other than dark, haunted notions poured out into a dirty whisky tumbler, then you obviously haven’t been paying attention. Since the mid-'90s break-up of The Screaming Trees, his seven solo albums have overflowed with lamentations and heartbreak, bearing his tortured soul like a tobacco-stained drunk hunched at the end of the bar. Blues Funeral is no different.
on dredging ‘the evil thoughts on my mind’ (‘Seen No Right’) from the ocean floor, McKenzie seems fascinated by the insecure (‘All The Kids’), the neurotic (‘Together’), the sexually predatory (‘Lonely In Your Arms’) – and the downright unsettling (‘If The Devil Won’t Take You’).
A couple of years back, The Ting Tings arrived with an album full of pop hooks so incredibly effective, they may well have been precision-engineered in a secret underground bunker. ‘Great DJ’, ‘Shut Up And Let Me Go’ and the rest of them became all but inescapable, playing in a near-constant loop on the radio, in car commercials and in any other medium featuring music. The band’s initial run of success was so great that it seemed to spook them a little bit – during the early sessions for their second album, they reportedly recorded and then trashed half a dozen straightforward electro pop songs, worrying that they were too poppy and chart-friendly. So, the duo started again from scratch, and came up with Sounds From Nowheresville. The basic template for the songs is still very much the same – a bouncy beat, a catchy riff, and Katy’s squeaky, half-sung, half-spoken vocals out there at the front – although it’s not as accessible or sugary-sweet as their debut. In fact, with the possible exception of ‘Give It Back’, nothing here really leaps out and grabs you in the way that the songs from 2008’s We Started Nothing did. The more you listen, though, the more the good stuff starts to come out – ‘One By One’ is built around a shimmering synth hook and a beguilingly detached vocal, while ‘Guggenheim’, with its clattering percussion and schoolyard chant chorus, takes a bit of time to lodge itself in your head, but it does get there. Unfortunately, the album loses a lot of momentum towards the end – when you only have ten tracks, and the last three are slow, boring ballads, you have a problem. File this one under interesting, if not as fun as it could have been. Alasdair Duncan
OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week... THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH - Shallow Grave HOT CHIP - Made In The Dark PSAPP - The Only Thing I Ever Wanted
THE SHINS - Chutes Too Narrow LILACS & CHAMPAGNE - S/T
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(Boy & Bear) 15 Tim Hart Collins MAR Legendary Judy 16 The g ute 80s featurin r MAR Absol de 17 Mannix, Carne & Ry MAR rosby 18 Holly Th presents MAR Lizotte’s 21 Live and Local medy featuring MAR Cookin Up Co 22 Chris Wainhouse MAR d Brothers 23 The Fiel ford presents MAR Gaynor Craw 24 Eric Bibb MAR Bensusan 25 Pierre
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OAST C L A R T N E C ’S E LIZOTT 02 4368 2017
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Lizotte’s Central Coast Lot 3 Avoca Dr Kincumber
Lizotte’s Newcastle 31 Morehead St Lambton
WWW. LIZOT TES.COM.AU BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12 :: 29
live reviews
Remedy
what we've been to see...
More than The Cure since 1989 with Murray Engleheart
APHEX TWIN, MARK PRITCHARD Enmore Theatre Friday March 2
Ginger Baker
BAKED GOODS
He’s the man who has escaped all the headlines when it comes to hell raising for reasons that we can’t fathom. But the life and times of master drummer, 73-year-old Ginger Baker, has made it onto the big screen, which premiered last week at SXSW in Austin. The project on the notoriously cranky former Cream striker, who makes Lou Reed seem warm and gregarious and went on to play with everyone from post-Lemmy era Hawkwind to John ‘Rotten’ Lydon, is aptly titled Beware Of Mr. Baker. Jay Bulger produced the doco and, incredibly, was allowed to hang out with the man at his home in South Africa where he houses his 39 polo ponies. The apparently warts-and-all movie features interviews with Baker’s family, including former spouses plus a who’s who of the music biz from the last 40 years with the likes of Eric Clapton (but not Baker’s nemesis from Cream, Jack Bruce) and Charlie Watts. But why Carlos Santana and Marky Ramone are included is hard to explain. Rather than resting comfortably in his advancing years as say, Jerry Lee Lewis is, life seems to be as tumultuous as ever for Baker. “God is punishing me for my past wickedness by keeping me alive and in as much pain as he can. I wasn’t planning on living this long!” he said in a statement.
A SOLO HARD ON
Blackie from the Hard-Ons is working on his second solo album.
SCOTT MORGAN
Scott Morgan, one of the last men standing from the original Detroit scene, has been diagnosed with severe liver disease. Like so many of our heroes, legendary status in no way means that they’re comfortably well off, and with the crippling cost of medical care in the US times are tough for the still sometimes member of the Sonic’s Rendezvous Band. His local hospital St. Joseph Mercy has an assistance program that covers part of his bills but certainly not all. Anyway, if you can spare a few bucks go to scottmorganmusic. com.
A MONSTROSE BATTLE
Sadly, pioneering hard rock guitarist, Ronnie Montrose lost his battle with cancer last week. He was 64. Although he played with everyone from Van Morrison to a very, very loud version of the Edgar Winter Group – there must be some killer footage on YouTube somewhere of a show they did at Madison Square Garden in about 1972 doing stuff like ‘Tobacco Road’ that could remove your third nipple – but for us it was his stuff with Montrose in the early seventies that really made his mark. Fronted by a young Sammy Hagar they were the virtual prototype for what Van Halen would become several years later. Their first two albums, Montrose and Paper Money are well worth checking out. No need to explore them any further than that though.
MONKEE ATTACK
Still on the grief front, the sudden passing of Monkee, Davy Jones has taken us by surprise. The guy was 66, but still looked kinda like he was in his twenties, and wasn’t an ex-junkie or big drinker and didn’t have long hard years on the road to suddenly catch up with him either. He apparently died of a heart attack.
DISCHORDS REUNITE
Sydney’s eighties outfit, Dee Minor & The Dischords are reforming. For all the zany, clown-like make-up of singer, DM, they used to pump it out with energy and among other things did a monstrous version of The Yardbirds’ ‘For Your Love’.
KING-SIZED BOOK
A kinda large 600-plus page book on “the madmen and mavericks who made independent music” by Richard King is on the way. Titled How Soon Is Now, it looks at the history and behind the scenes action at labels like Factory, Rough Trade, Mute and Creation, which were homes to the likes of Joy Division, The Smiths, Sonic Youth and Primal Scream.
ON THE TURNTABLE On the Remedy turntable is Pampered Menial, the debut effort from Pavlov’s Dog who, to be honest, we couldn’t stand back in 1975. The interesting thing is it was produced by Sandy Pearlman and Murray Krugman, the studio bods behind the mighty Blue Oyster Cult and there are some familiar DNA strands on show here although it’s by no means as God-like as BOC’s Secret Treaties or Tyranny and Mutation. David Surkamp’s Tiny Tim-on-acid vocals, which drove us nuts originally, are now strangely endearing with their grating quality, something of an almost perverse asset.
TOUR AND INDUSTRY NEWS For the past seven-plus years, Melbourne’s Whitehorse has gathered together members of the city’s underground music community to create crushingly heavy, sludge-metal layered with electronics. They’ve destroyed in Japan and the US and now they’re hitting the east coast of Australia with their first show in Sydney in two years before taking their steamrolling live experience back to the US for a 31-date tour. The American run will coincide with three upcoming releases: a split 12” with Batillus from NYC, another with Cross from Seattle and a split 7” with Hot Graves from Florida. On March 15 they’ll be at The Basement in Canberra with 4dead, The Reverend Jesse Custer and Throat of Dirt and then on March 16 at the Square in Haymarket with Summonus
(their final gig with original bassist Keith Livingstone and their last show for at least four months), Adrift For Days and Thorax (ex Pure Evil Trio, Three Found Dead) 8pm, $10. The mighty Boris are here this month on the Hope tour with special guests, Laura. On March 22 they’ll be at the Metro. Melody Black kick off part two of their Love Your Demons tour on March 16 at The Bald Faced Stag with guests, Vanity Riots and Graveyard Rockstars. Melodyblack.com for more info. Dirty Three bring their frenzied majesty to Sydney Opera House Concert Hall on March 21; a once-in-a-lifetime show.
Send stuff to remedy@ozemail.com.au by 6pm Wednesdays. Pics to art@thebrag.com www.facebook.com/remedy4rock 30 :: BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12
As far as sideshows go, Aphex Twin at the Enmore Theatre on a Friday night is just about as big as it gets. From the moment my plus one and I entered the bustling (read: packed) venue at around nine o’clock, the excitement and expectation was palpable. Mark Pritchard was behind the decks channelling the zeitgeist of the rave era and the crowd – comprised of seasoned clubbers and precocious young sconies alike – were responding with enthusiastic body movements. Meanwhile, the bar queue was so deep that we decided to push through the sweat and thirst rather than risk missing the opening of Aphex Twin’s first show in Sydney in almost a decade. And finally, at close to 10pm, the silhouette of Richard D James appeared in the shadows of the elevated stage, and the headline set began. Given the incredibly varied and experimental nature of the Aphex Twin catalogue, it is no surprise the night was completely different to what I expected. For starters, we were treated to a DJ set rather than a live performance, which meant that James spent his hour-and-a-bit on stage cutting up beats from other luminaries rather than going to work on his own material (though I’ve subsequently heard rumours that he slipped in some unreleased Aphex Twin tracks throughout the set – you’ll have to ask the nearest Aphex fanatic to confirm or refute this, as this was not an easy set to identify tracks from!). So those wanting to hear classic Aphex cuts – ‘Digeridoo’, ‘Polygon Window’ et al – live will have to wait for another time. Instead, what we got from the man was an incredibly eclectic set that began in early rap and breakbeat electro territory, via cuts from the likes of Grandmaster Flash and Dopplereffekt, before traversing DnB and techno influences en route to an abrasive climax of speedcore and, ultimately, extremely distorted electronic frequencies. While the finale clearly affirmed that James isn’t one for crowd pleasing, the majority of the crowd were nonetheless patently pleasured by the forceful sonic tour de force he conducted, which was accompanied by an impressive light show (I forgot how fun good lasers are!). Like that other dance music auteur Moodymann, Aphex Twin the DJ is a very different entity from Aphex Twin the producer, and while his selection on this night didn’t always resonate with my own taste, his distinct taste ensured this was an engaging DJ set unlike any other I’ll hear this year – and from a jaded music reviewer such as myself, you can’t ask for more than that. Chris Honnery
MESHUGGAH, DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT, DREDG The Factory Theatre Tuesday February 28
It is as though a prerequisite of every registered Swedish birth is that each clench of the forceps must be performed to a click set strictly at 200bpm. But I’ll get to that later. It isn’t often that Sydney gig-goers are spoiled for choice – let alone on a Tuesday night; but with Soundwave in town, said Tuesday threw up choices between Steel Panther, Alter Bridge, System of a Down, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Black Veil Brides, The Devin Townsend Project and Meshuggah. I chose to jump on the math wagon, and wheeled my way down to Marrickville’s Factory Theatre – where US group Dredg kicked off proceedings with a refreshing, ‘intelligent’ prog sound – floating guitars, complex drums and metronomic bass – that was well received, though largely due to a polite crowd. Endearing if a little underwhelming, Dredg served as a solid precursor to bigger things to come. The first of the heavyweights, The Devin Townsend Project, delivered no less than a five-star performance. A wall of bass, vocals and unrelenting guitars was sent flying kamikaze-style directly towards each punter’s face. Assisting the huge sound was a superb vocal mix that brought soft clean, belted clean and guttural screams to the absolute height of their capabilities, with no volumerelated issues. Psytrip space graphics
alternated with a puppeteered dinosaur of metal (with a speaking voice spookily similar to Dev’s...) projected onto a backdrop screen, howling lyrics through songs as his live master pulled the invisible strings. This was truly a set that proved not only Townsend’s phenomenal vocal talent, but also a versatility of musicianship that rarely exists around a largely metal-renowned performer. Now, back to the metronomic Swedish births. The fixed gaze of front-and-centre punters on frontman Jens Kidman’s unfaltering 4/4 bodybang, seemed almost comical – but perhaps it helps them decipher the almostfunky juxtaposition of time signatures that Meshuggah are famous for. ‘Bleed’ was a definite highlight, and the perfect mix of old and new material ensured that both long and short-term fans were satisfied, and the set was different enough from their Soundwave performance that dual show-goers were not disappointed. Sheridan Morley
NEW ORDER, THE NAKED AND FAMOUS The Hordern Pavilion Wednesday March 7
The Naked And Famous are an appropriate choice of support for New Order, not just stylistically (similar vein of emotive, drum and synth-driven New Wave/ post-punk) but also in terms of records (the band with New Zealand’s best 2011 single in support of the band with the highest selling 12” single of all time). It’s been a quick two-year jump for them from releasing Passive Me, Aggressive You to playing festival mainstages and arenas like the Hordern, but they held the space well, despite being hampered by volume and vocals that could have been much louder. Opening strongly, with ‘Punching In A Dream’ as the second track, they ran through a selection from their album and closed with fellow singles ‘Girls Like You’ and the epic ‘Young Blood’, putting in a solid show for a crowd mostly twice their age. New Order, in turn, were magnificent – pure professionals playing album-perfect renditions of their best-loved tunes (and a few neglected ones). The same issues with low vocals and sound that plagued The Naked And Famous persisted through the first couple of tracks (including ‘Crystal’), but were quickly sorted, bringing out the proper loud rave-up sound they deserved. At the Hordern, people of average stature like myself inevitably wind up with a view of the back of someone’s fat neck, so fortunately there was a phenomenal fit-inducing strobe and light show to spice up the atmosphere, and original video clips playing on the screen behind the band. As an act, they don’t tend to move around a whole lot, with Sumner only venturing away from the mic stand towards the end of the set, but the sounds more than made up for it. ‘True Faith’, ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’, ‘Regret’, ‘The Perfect Kiss’ – it was a proper greatest hits set, with the second half dedicated to the ravey end of their back catalogue, all leading up to the much rumoured encore of ‘Blue Monday’ (which was awesome) and a cover of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, which came across as a bit perfunctory (adding a screamed ‘LOVE’ into the chorus probably wasn’t necessary), but it was still a pleasure to hear both live from two quarters of Joy Division and the definitive New Order lineup (sans Peter Hook) in their first visit to these shores in a decade; the fans left wellpleased. Dorian Grey
BEN KWELLER The Hi-Fi Friday March 2
Ben Kweller may never have reached the stratospheric, popular heights of those two other Bens (Folds and Lee) he toured together with some ten years ago, but he’s certainly got audience devotion stitched up. Back in Sydney to promote album number five, Kweller’s loveable brand of alt-countrymeets-slacker-rock doesn’t seem like a good fit for the newly refurbished Hi-Fi, but it is. That, of course, is helped by fans who actually know every word to every song the guy has ever written, but also by his undeniable vocal skills and ability to shred his guitar like he’s auditioning for Def Leppard.
live reviews what we've been to see...
In acknowledgement of his dedicated fan base, the majority of Kweller’s set delves into cuts from his debut and sophomore record, which, to be frank, are the best. Whether it’s the perfect piano-pop balladry of ‘Falling’ or the quiet acoustic love-song to his wife in ‘Lizzy’, Kweller manages to utilise very obvious chorus repetition without you wanting to smack him. He alternates so rapidly between these and punchy rockers like ‘My Apartment’ and ‘The Rules’ that it’s very hard to pigeonhole him, even in the genre he’s semi-created for himself. The band, while unremarkable, sing killer harmonies and all get bonus points for looking like extras from Community. Meanwhile, Kweller breezes through the material without any evidence that he’s straining in that upper register he seems to write 90% of those memorable melodies in, even pausing at one point to ask a particularly overzealous audience member if there’s one song they especially want to hear. You can take or leave the new songs, and he does, only picking the few that are remotely exciting, but the real thrill is left to the encore, with the double-classic whammy of overdrive and hormone-heavy classics ‘Commerce, TX’ and ‘Wasted & Ready’ smashed out back to back. Ben Kweller has been here a lot in the last ten years, but he’s not getting any less likeable. It’s a solid performance from the nice Texan who was simply born to perform. Jonno Seidler
ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI, GENEVA JACUZZI, RICHARD IN YOUR MIND, ERIK OMEN Oxford Art Factory Friday March 2
The man known to his Nana as Ariel Marcus Rosenberg is back in town, and is accompanied by an entourage that exceeds his Haunted Graffiti. Comprised of what Nana Rosenberg would refer to as ‘handsome young devils’, Sydney fiveish piece Erik Omen are first to take the stage. Their set is heavy on the reverb and done no favours by a thumping, overbearing bass. Echoing Blonde Redhead in their final and strongest number, ‘Payphone’ – featuring the guest vocals of Holiday ‘Bridezilla’ Sidewinder – hopefully time and experience will allow Erik Omen to capitalise on their potential. Richard In Your Mind bring catchy songs, wacky lyrics and an endearing stage presence. Their set showcases refreshing stylistic diversity, from the up-tempo, mariachi-band-holidaying-in-Jamaica sounds of ‘I Will’, to Springsteen-esque harmonica playing, and slower tracks that weave a hypnotic spell so sultry it would make ideal musical accompaniment to what Nana Rosenberg would call a ‘special hug’. Beneath an eruption of white gauze and channelling an aesthetic equal parts apiarist, Culture Club and the ghost of Laura Palmer, one gets the feeling that Geneva Jacuzzi and Nana Rosenberg wouldn’t exactly hit it off over the family dinner table. Laying spoken word with plenty of vocal effects over pre-recorded, ‘80s synth beats, Jacuzzi’s schtick is more performance art than music performance. She is a bit Peaches, a lot Laurie Anderson, and, incredibly, ignored by the majority of the OAF crowd who continue to talk throughout her set – even when she yells “SHUT THE FUCK UP”. Whether Jacuzzi’s despair is feigned, genuine,
or somewhere in between, a mismatch between artist and audience results in neither seeming too amused by the end of her performance. Blame the Noel Fielding haircut and/ or unashamed glam presence, but there is something spookily Mighty Boosh about Ariel Pink. He reads aloud a short poem about splitting, multiplying and the cosmos, before launching into ‘Good Kids Make Bad Grown Ups’. Whilst Pink and his Haunted Graffiti look like they are having fun, renditions of ‘Fright Night’ and ‘Round And Round’ are somewhat lacklustre, and it is only when ‘Bright Lit Blue Skies’ appears over halfway through the set that everything kicks into gear. This paves the way for the highlight of the performance, an extended version of ‘Revolution’s A Lie’ in which Pink leads his troops through a multitude of improvisational twists and turns, effectively demonstrating the truly unique nature of his brand of experimental music. Andrew Yorke
BONNIE PRINCE BILLY & THE CAIRO GANG Sydney Opera House Monday March 5
It seems that a sinister cabal of production assistants has conspired to ensure that only music from Bon Iver’s For Emma... ever be used for pre-show soundtracking (third time tonight in as many gigs attended). As part of Sydney Opera House’s ongoing experiment with allowing the plebs into the Concert Hall, the use of Mr Vernon could not but succeed in fostering an appropriately pseudo-sacred atmosphere; what better way to make ready for the appearance of a bona-fide preacher than to revisit the wisdom of an anointed Indie saint? With more than a whiff of ‘white suit’ about his faded fisherman’s pants and loose button up shirt – Will Oldham, knockaround Baptist – there was something oddly spiritual about the performance of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy tonight, the cavernous space of the building’s disappointed interior reverberating with a prayer raised to God (who lies within, or dead, or everywhere, depending on which song you consult), music or simply the darkness under the sails far above. Of course, such seriousness was constantly undercut by Oldham’s stage manner, the spasmodic leg movements, the strangely alluring stomp with which he accompanied several songs, hitching up those trousers, shaking those knees – taking a perambulation around the stage at one point – to check out the acoustic, as later became apparent. (One audience member was unable to restrain the urge to call out, ‘Where’re you goin’?’). The raw fragility of Oldham’s voice as he launched into another staggeringly beautiful wall of vocals, blended effortlessly with Angel Olsen and Emmett Kelly’s harmonies, was the only reply necessary. Indeed, if there’s one thing Bonnie Billy knows how to do – aside from sing his guts out, obviously – it’s maintain the intensity, whether it be with head thrown back in throaty howl (‘New Whaling’), a croon so soft and sweet that one must strain to hear (‘Love Comes To Me’), or calmly articulating his position to a community of peers (‘No Match’). Not necessarily uplifting, but utterly mesmerising to be sure, an unplugged encore closing with the words ‘I wish I had died when I was young’, before he shambled off the stage. Oliver Downes
OUR PHOTOGRAPHER :: TIM LEVY
BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12 :: 31
snap
up all night out all week . . .
go here go there
meshuggah
PICS :: JC
party profile
It’s called: MUM & FBi Social present Go Here Go There It sounds like: The best new Australian bands, with some local favourites in there too. Who’s playing? Richard In Your Mind, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Sticky Fingers, Step-Panther, Sures, Gung Ho, The Shiny Brights, Tiger Widow, Oceanics, Rockets, Pear Shape, Jenny Broke The Window, Call To Colour, Felix Lloyd’s High Tea, Swim Team DJs, &Dimes DJs, Mush and more. Sell it to us: This party has super-rad bands, DJs who party, sweet deals on burritos, good beers and tequilas, and maraca-shaking fun times over two venues. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: You’ll still be here with a smile on yo face and a lover to embrace. Crowd specs: Everyone who’s down for the good times. Wallet damage: $20 (or $15 on a band’s list) gets you into both venues and 20% off at Guzman y Gomez. Where: The World Bar and Kings Cross Hotel When: Friday March 16 from 8pm
ben kweller
02:03:12 :: The Hi-Fi :: Entertainment Quarter 122 Rd Moore Park
PICS :: KC
neon indian
PICS :: KC
28:02:12 ::The Factory ::105 Victoria Road Sydney 9550 3666
matt corby
PICS :: GP
02:03:12 :: The Standard:: Level 3/383 Bourke St Surry Hills 9331 3100
slipknot
PICS :: JC
slow club 27:02:12 :: Entertainment Centre :: 35 Harbour Street Sydney 9320 4200
PICS :: GP
01:03:12 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711
01:03:12 :: GoodGod Small Club :: 53-55 Liverpool Street Sydney 9267 3787
:: KATRINA CLARKE :: JAY S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER NS :: GEORGE POPOV :: ROCKET MUN IEL DAN :: MAR LEY ASH COLLIER :: MIKEY HART :: WEIJERS ::
“I got me some medicine. You got your red dress on. Steal your mamma’s transistor radio. We’ll find a frequency” - ALABAMA 3 32 :: BRAG :: 453: 12:03:12
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29:02:12 :: Beach Road Hotel :: 71 Beach Rd Bondi Beach 9130 7247
PICS :: KC
beach road weekender 03:03:12 :: Beach Road Hotel :: 71 Beach Rd Bondi Beach 9130 7247
the dead leaves
PICS ::AM
the coopers sideshow
PICS :: RW
up all night out all week . . .
mastodon
PICS :: JC
02:03:12 :: GoodGod Small Club :: 53-55 Liverpool Street Sydney 9267 3787
02:03:12 :: The Hi-Fi :: Entertainment Quarter 122 Rd Moore Park
bryan estepa It sounds like: A great blend of good ole rustic rock‘n’roll, whimsical folk music, introspective pop song writing, and unbelievably clever Brit inspired rock by a group of hungry teens. Who’s playing? Bryan Estepa and band, Bayonets For Legs, Piers Twomey, Larissa McKay, Will And The Indians. Sell it to us: Come down for Sydney singer-songwriter Bryan Estepa’s first major headline show for 2012. We're also celebrating the first birthday of Estepa’s last critically acclaimed album Vessels! Why wait ‘til its 10th, 25th or 50th birthday when it’s all happening now!? Plus, the other acts on the bill are amazing! The bit we’ll remember in the AM: The moment you wake up and start a marathon listening party with all the CDs you’ve bought from all five artists on the bill. Crowd specs: 18+ Wallet damage: $15 on the door Where: The Annandale Hotel / 17 Parramatta Rd, Annandale When: Saturday March 17, 8pm
manchester orchestra
PICS :: KC
party profile
It’s called: Bryan Estepa (live)
04:03:12 :: The Hi-Fi :: Entertainment Quarter 122 Rd Moore Park :: KATRINA CLARKE :: JAY S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) RGE POPOV :: ROCKET OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER GEO :: NS MUN LEY MAR :: DANIEL COLLIER :: MIKEY HART :: ASH WEIJERS ::
“Just because I burned my bible baby it don’t mean I’m too sick to pray” - ALABAMA 3 BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12 :: 33
g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com
Richard In Your Mind
FRIDAY MARCH 16
The World Bar / FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel
Go Here Go There #3 Richard In Your Mind, Step-Panther, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Sticky Fingers, Sures, Gung Ho,Tiger Widow, The Shiny Brights, Oceanics, Rockets, Pear Shape, Jenny Broke The Window, Call To Colour, MUM DJs $20 8pm MONDAY MARCH 12 ROCK & POP
Bernie The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Bon Iver (USA) Sydney Opera House 8pm sold out Massimo Presti, Mai-anne,
Miss Gray, Russell Neal Kelly's On King, Newtown free 7pm St Vincent, Oscar & Martin The Factory Theatre, Enmore $45 (+ bf) 8pm
JAZZ
James Muller Trio 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 8pm Monday Jam: Danny G Felix The Lansdowne, Broadway free 9pm
Open Mic Jazz: Various Artists, DJs The World Bar, Kings Cross free 7pm Sonic Mayhem Orchestra Blue Beat Bar & Grill, Double Bay $10 (+ bf) 7pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Jasmine Beth, Genevieve Chadwick, Frank Sultana The Basement, Circular Quay $20 8pm
TUESDAY MARCH 13 ROCK & POP
Bondi Jam Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Bon Iver (USA) Sydney Opera House 8pm sold out Dan Lawrence
The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm OMG Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm Sea Legs Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst 8pm Steve Lane & the Autocrats, Henry Fraser, Fanny Lumsdale The Basement, Circular Quay 8pm They Call Me Bruce Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 8.30pm Wild Flag, Love of Diagrams, Unity Floors Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $56.10 (+ bf) 8pm
JAZZ
Jazzgroove: Matilda Abraham, Galaxstare 505 Club, Surry Hills $8 (conc)–$15 8pm Peter Head The Harbour View Hotel, free 8pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK Benja William, Miss Gray, Just ADD Music, Starr Witness, Toni Martelli, Andrew Denniston Dee Why RSL free 6.30pm
WEDNESDAY MARCH 14 ROCK & POP
Adam Cohen, Gossling The Basement, Circular Quay $55 (+ bf) 8pm Beast & Flood, Scandalgate, Elliphant, Hey Baby Annandale Hotel, $8 7.30pm Belinda Carlisle (USA) Selina’s, Coogee Bay Hotel $55 6pm Ben Finn Duo Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 6pm Canyons FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, free 1pm Cara Kavanagh Duo O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9pm Dan Spillane Coogee Bay Hotel free 9pm Dave White Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9pm David Agius Summer Hill Hotel free 7.30pm Flood The Sky, Chris Taylor, Castlecomer The Valve, Tempe free 7pm Gemma The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm Georgia Fair, Winter People, Castlecomer Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Hatemail, Monte, The New Blowouts Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10 8pm Jed The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9pm The Lonely Boys
Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 11pm MA, Hello Vera, Lily So & Co. The Vanguard, Newtown $25 (+ bf) 8pm Mandi Jarry Northies, Cronulla free 7.30pm Musos Jam Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt free 7pm Pajama Club Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $28 (+ bf) 8pm Roky Erickson (USA), The Treatment The Factory Theatre, Enmore $48 (+ bf) 8pm The Secret City, Kyle Dessent, Salvation Jane, Mal Ward Royal Hotel, Bondi free 8pm The Study: Setec, Dan Crestani, Taylor Hogan The Gaelic Club, Surry Hills free 7pm Will And The People Macquarie University, North Ryde 8pm
JAZZ
Buck/Mayas Duo, Great Waitress 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 (conc)–$15 8pm Peter Head The Harbour View Hotel, free 8pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
The Battlefield Band (UK) Cafe Dal’or, Dulwich Hill $75 7.30pm Black Diamond, Darren Bennett Cat and Fiddle Hotel, Balmain free 6.30pm The Folk Informal: Jeremy Harrison, Ross Henry, Ben Sandridge, Billy Shears FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, $10 8pm John Chesher, Gavin Fitzgerald, Paul McGowan, Ken Mclean, Nick Punal, Tom Richardson, TAOS Coach & Horses Hotel, Randwick free 7pm Lyric on Podium, David White, Greg Sita Cookies Lounge and Bar, Bakehouse Quarter, North Strathfield free 8pm Miss Gray, Spike Thomson, Boris Sladakovic, Helmut Uhlmann UTS Loft, Broadway, Ultimo free 6pm Raoul Graf, Aaron Crowther Taren Point Hotel, free 7pm Warren Munce, Lois Mares, Laura & Susie, Russell Neal Evening Star Hotel, Surry Hills free 7pm
THURSDAY MARCH 15 ROCK & POP
Bandintexas, Gloryhole, Fabels, D.O.G. The Imperial Hotel, Erskinville $5 8pm Beachball 2012: The Aston
“It’s been awhile since I saw your ultraviolet smile. You don’t dance to techno anymore” - ALABAMA 3 34 :: BRAG :: 453 : 12:03:12
Xxxx
pick of the week
Pajama Club
g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Shuffle, The Swiss, Rufus, Luke Millions Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $24 (+ bf) 8pm Bloods, Lunars, Sures, DJ Catcall, DJ Shag GoodGod Small Club, Sydney $10 8pm Clean Marlin, Blind Date, Brendan Racquet, The Underground Architects, Ibis Nelson & The Cowboy Zealots Annandale Hotel $8 7.30pm Darren Paul Duo The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9pm First Aid Kit (SWE), Caitlin Park The Standard, Darlinghurst $40 (+ bf) 8pm sold out The Glimmer, Dusty Ravens, Alex Party Cat Union Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Gyroscope Rock Lily, Pyrmont free 8pm Heathen Eyes (NZ), Still Waiting, Prevailing Disorder, Last Man Standing The Valve, Tempe free 7pm Hit Selection Duo The Three Wise Monkeys, Sydney free 10.30pm Hot Damn!: Hopeless, Endless Heights, Distant Wreck, Bridges Spectrum, Darlinghurst $15 (guestlist)–$20 8pm Johnny Clegg (South Africa) Enmore Theatre $89.90 (+ bf) 8pm Kirk Burgess Newport Arms Hotel free 8pm Marty From Reckless Coogee Bay Hotel free 10pm Mick Harvey, Louis Tillett Notes Live, Enmore 8pm Mojo Juju, Cash Savage The Vanguard, Newtown $18 (+ bf) 8pm Musos Club Jam Night Carousel Hotel, Rooty Hill free 8pm The Nuts Bankstown Trotting Club free 8pm Open Mic Night: Various Artists Excelsior Hotel, Glebe free 7pm Outlier Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm Pluto Jonze, Sures, John Vella Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills $20 (+ bf) 6pm Point Blank, The Two Peters, Bill Neill, Mal Ward Appin Hotel free 8pm
Rock for Reclink: The Cruel Sea, Dan Sultan, The Ronson Hangup The Hi-Fi, Moore Park $40 (+ bf)–$45 7pm A Ropes End: The Walking Who, I A Man, Saloons, Wade Jackson FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $10 8pm Set Sail, Colour Coding, Castlecomer Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $15 (+ bf) 8pm Steve Tonge Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Thraxas, Larry Leadfoot, Visitor Lewisham Hotel 8pm Tim Hart, Patrick James, Mike McCarthy Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $20 6pm TNL: The True Gentleman, Belle, Maddie Bell Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm The Velvet Cave: East River, Daniel Darling, Flash & Crash DJs, Velvet Gallagher, Ken Blements, Shaun Sprowles 77 Yurong Lane, Darlinghurst $5 8pm
JAZZ
The Idea of North Blue Beat Bar & Grill, Double Bay $29 (early bird)–$34 8pm Mango Balloon 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 (conc)–$15 8pm Peter Head The Harbour View Hotel free 8pm Steve Clisby Macquarie Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Sax in the City: Jeremy Rose & Friends The Spice Cellar, Sydney free 6pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Malo, Charlie Gradon, Max Carpenter The Basement, Circular Quay $15 (+ bf)–$20 8pm Pieta Brown & The Sawdust Boys (USA), Lucy Thorne Camelot, Marrickville $22-$27 8.30pm Proper Music Social: The Glimmer, Dusty Ravens, Alex Partycat The Union Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Tom Richardson, Kyle Dessent, Nick Domenicos, Russell Neal
Pieta Brown
Kogarah Hotel free 7pm
FRIDAY MARCH 16 ROCK & POP
70’s Revival Show The Basement, Circular Quay $25 (+ bf)–$30 9pm Alpha Degenerate, Terrorential, Whisky Smile, The Laziest Man Alive Lewisham Hotel 8pm Aqua (DEN) The Hi-Fi, Moore Park $55 (+ bf) 8pm sold out Audio Vixen Western Suburbs Leagues Club Campbelltown, Leumeah $20 8pm Betty Airs, The Faults, Bad Dreems GoodGod Small Club, Sydney $12 8pm Bob Log III (USA) The Vanguard, Newtown $16 (+ bf) 8pm Bones Bones Bones The Gaelic Club, Surry Hills $13.30 8pm Canyons, Albatross, Rainbow Chan, Mikie & Tyson The Standard, Darlinghurst $15 (+ bf) 8pm Charles Bradley (USA), The Cactus Channel & Kylie Auldist The Factory Theatre, Enmore $49 (+ bf) 8pm Chasing Karma Engadine Tavern free 9.30pm Closure in Moscow, Strangers, The Dead Love Spectrum, Darlinghurst $14 (+ bf) 8pm Courtyard Sessions: Panama, MA, Sures The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale free 6pm Darryl Ford, Hayden, Usual Suspects, Lisa Goulay, Mal Ward Hero’s Hill, Revesby free Dave Mason Cox The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 5pm Doni Raven And The Blackjack Wolfpack Excelsior Hotel, Glebe free 7.30pm Elevation U2 Show Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10.30pm Fab Two Bambu, Western Suburbs Leagues Club Campbelltown, Leumeah free 9pm Fiona Leigh Jones Duo Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Flamin’ Beauties Mortdale Hotel free 8pm Friends of the Clown, Mosk & Dade, Helitus Quack, Marvellous Crane Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Gang of Brothers Blue Beat, Double Bay $10 10pm Go Here Go There #3: Richard In Your Mind, Step-Panther, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Sticky Fingers, Sures, Gung Ho, Tiger Widow, The Shiny Brights, Oceanics, Rockets, Pear Shape, Jenny Broke The Window, Call To Colour, MUM DJs The World Bar / FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $20 8pm The Great Escape Kingswood Sports Club free 7.30pm Harbour Masters Customs House Bar, Sydney free 7pm Holly Throsby, Bearhug, Jordan Ireland Annandale Hotel $20 (+ bf) 8pm Jane Birkin Sings Serge
Gainsbourg City Recital Hall, Sydney $55–$85 8pm Kate Miller-Heidke, Matt Joe Gow & The Dead Leaves The Studio, Sydney Opera House $54.40 8pm The Living Chair Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills free 10pm The Lonely Boys Coogee Bay Hotel free 10pm The Meanies, Shark Bait, Cruelty’s Fun Sandringham Hotel, Newtown 8pm Messrs, Johnny Rock & the Limits, Kyle Taylor, Naysayer and Gilsun Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills free 6pm Movement: The Slips (UK) Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm Rip it Up Eastern Suburbs Legion Club, Waverley free 8.30pm The Road Crew Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club, Bondi Junction free 8.30pm Ross Ward Great Southern Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm Satellite V Rose of Australia Hotel, Erskineville free 9pm Seven, Vegas Aces, Crotchet Crookes, DJ Alley Cats The Lansdowne, Broadway free 8pm Snaketide, Howard’s Goat, Crossfire Hurricane The Roxbury Hotel, Glebe $10 8pm Speedster Crows Nest Hotel free 11pm Ted Nash Chatswood RSL Club free 5pm Whitehorse, Summonus,
Holly Throsby
Adrift For Days, Thorax The Square, Haymarket $10 8pm
JAZZ
Jackson Harrison Trio The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale 8pm Nicky Parrot 505 Club, Surry Hills $20 (conc)–$25 8pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Acoustic Relief Vineyard Hotel free 9pm Judy Collins, Daniel Champagne Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $84–$126 (dinner & show) 7pm
SATURDAY MARCH 17 ROCK & POP
3 Way Split The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 11pm Absolute '80s: Mannix Carne & Ryder Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $50–$92 (dinner & show)
thu
wed
JED 12 Mar
Darren Paul Duo 15 Mar (9:00PM - 12:00AM)
(9:00PM - 12:00AM)
Dave Mason 16 Mar fri
Cox
7pm Albatross, Guerre, Canyons DJs GoodGod Small Club, Sydney $5 9pm Andrew & O’Brien Brighton RSL Club, BrightonLe-Sands free 8pm Aqua (DEN), Radio Ink Enmore Theatre $61.60 7pm all-ages The Blanks The Roxy Theatre, Parramatta $30 (+ bf)–$35 8pm Blues Platoon, Mye, Adam Roche, The Sweet Jelly Rolls The Roxbury Hotel, Glebe 8pm Bob Log III (USA) The Vanguard, Newtown $16 (+ bf) 8pm Bonic, Toy, Double Denim, DJ Alley Cats The Lansdowne, Broadway free 8pm Bryan Estepa, Will & The Indians, Piers Twomey, Larissa McKay Annandale Hotel $12 (+ bf) 8pm Call The Shots, Chasing Amy, Daylight Hours, Your Weight In Gold, The Sweet Apes, Forever Ends Here, Final Grontier, She’s Taken Empires
(5:00PM - 8:00PM)
Reckless
(9:30PM - 1:30AM)
St Patrick’s Day
Stringy Bark.......................... 7:00AM U2 Elevation ....................... 11:00AM Irish sat Breakfast The Blarney Boys ............. 1:30PM 17 Eggs, Bacon, Black & White Pudding, Mar Mushrooms, Tomatoes & Soda Bread The Moonshiners ............ 4:30PM Bottomless Irish coffee & Guinness Dublin Up ................................ 7:00PM Plus The Killarney 3 Way Split............................ 11:00PM Upstairs Level 1 from 7am!
Trio Live
(4:30PM - 7:30PM)
U2 18 Mar Elevation sun
+ PARTY TUNES AND TOP 40
Souled Out (8:30PM - 12:00AM)
BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12 :: 35
g g guide gig g Annandale Hotel $15 (+ bf) 11am Counterfeit: Rex Havoc, Shane Scanlan & Phil Mc Neill, Leyne Elbourne & Justin Holt, Little Neptune,Lovesick DJs, The Blarney Stoners, Laura Bullock, Red Room DJs, Janise Farrell, Fiona,Cathy & Shane, Taos, The Mickey Wards, Dave Bourke, Tony Flint Acoustic, The Immigrant Project, The Expert Mentals, Bevans Eleven,Scarlet’s Revenge, Alex Party Cat Town Hall Hotel, Newtown free 7pm Cover Notes Duo Riverwood Inn free 8pm Crossfire Hurricane Manly Fisho’s $15 7pm Dangerous, Awaken I Am, Divide & Conquer, Marlow Spectrum, Darlinghurst $12 (+ bf) 8pm David Agius Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm The Deltones
North Sydney Leagues Club, Cammeray $36 7.30pm Dirty Grotto, The Lints, Nicky D, Dubious Company, Head in a Jar The Valve, Tempe free 12pm Electric Circus W.A.S.P. Tribute Show, Vanity Riots, Pleasure Overload, Nobody’s Fool The Valve, Tempe free 7pm Electric Circus W.A.S.P. Tribute Show: Vanity Riots, Pleasure Overload, Nobody’s Fool Valve Bar, Tempe 7pm Elevation U2 Show Hurstville RSL Memorial Club free 9pm Elevation U2 Show The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 4.30pm Endless Summer Beach Party Coogee Bay Hotel free 10pm Fabba Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club, Bondi Junction free 8pm Grey Ghost, Tigertown, F.R.I.E.N.D.s DJs Bryan Estepa
Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills free 6pm Helpful Kitchen Gods, Dirty Youth, Call To Colour, Fabels, Dr Delites Town & Country, St Peters free 6.30pm Intentions, F’Tang Black Wire Records, Annandale $10 7pm Jason Walker, Suzy Connolly, Luke O’Shea, Lachlan Doley, Danielle Blakey, Sam Knock The Burning Log, Dural $40 7pm Kate Miller-Heidke, Matt Joe Gow & The Dead Leaves The Studio, Sydney Opera House $54.40 8pm King Tide, Blue Candy Blue Beat Bar & Grill, Double Bay $10 10pm Kurt Williams Duo Engadine Tavern free 9.30pm Leek, Hugo Race Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Leo Lion Heart Benefit Concert: Mastacraft, Full Frontal Lobotomy, Divine Electric, Thin Air The Gaelic Club, Surry Hills $20.40 7.30pm Mainline Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill free 8.30pm McMahon Brothers Blacktown RSL Club free 9pm Michael Rother (GER), Dieter Moebius (GER), Hans Lampe (GER), Baptism of Uzi Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $45 (+ bf) 8pm Moonshine Raby Tavern free 8pm Nova & the Experience,
The Stringsmiths, Shadows At Play, Skinny Legions Lewisham Hotel 8pm Paddys Lads Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 7pm Peter Byrne Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 1.30pm SFX: Sound of Seasons, Wake The Giants, Call the Shots St James Hotel, Sydney 9pm Shindig Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 4pm Tone Raners Kingswood Sports Club free 8.30pm Tunnel Vision, Acoustic Groove, Lisa Gourlay, Mal Ward Panania Hotel free Twin Set Engadine RSL & Citizens Club free 8pm Vanity Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10.30pm Wards Express Caringbah Bizzo’s 8pm The Waves Bambu, Western Suburbs Leagues Club Campbelltown, Leumeah free 9pm The Yellow Canvas Excelsior Hotel, Glebe free 7.30pm
JAZZ
Ben Hauptmann Band The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $15-$25 8pm Blue Moon Quartet Fairfield RSL free 7pm Nick Jeffries 505 Club, Surry Hills $15 (conc)–$20 8pm
L2 Kings Cross Hotel
Peter Head The Harbour View Hotel free 5pm Yuki Kumagai, John Mackie Well Co. Café / Wine Bar, Leichhardt free 7.30pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Alex Thompson, Bity Booker, Sally Penny, Oliver Goss, Jonno, the Pug, Daniel Hopkins Royal Exchange Hotel, Marrickville free 7.30pm Clem Gorman, Black Diamond, Darren Bennett Ettalong Beach Hotel, free 8pm Miss Gray, Kyle Dessent Terrey Hills Tavern, free 7.30pm
COUNTRY
Craig Morrison Riverstone Schofields Memorial Club, free 8pm
SUNDAY MARCH 18 ROCK & POP
Ace Brighton RSL Club, BrightonLe-Sands free 7pm Adrian Whyte, Endless Surfari, Jordan Colley The Vanguard, Newtown $12 (+ bf) 7pm A.O.K., Spi Con, Phili The Lansdowne, Broadway free 8pm The Blanks The Basement, Circular Quay $30 (+ bf)–$35 9pm The Cleanskins Botany View Hotel, Newtown
free 7pm Drive: Peter Northcote, Barry Leef The Bridge Hotel, Rozelle $10 3.30pm Elevation U2 Show The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 4.30pm Fastrack Zodiac The Three Wise Monkeys, Sydney free 10pm Flamin’ Beauties Overlander Hotel, Cambridge Gardens free 3pm Flinders Quartet, Vince Jones Sydney Opera House $55 4.30pm all-ages John Vella Oatley Hotel free 2pm Kirk Burgess Waverley Bowling Club free 3pm LJ Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club, Bondi Junction free 6pm Mark Hopper Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7.30pm The Necks Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House $39 7pm Rachel Eldon Collaroy Services Beach Club free 2pm Reclink Community Cup: Wolfpack, The Meanies, The Celibate Rifles, Front End Loader, DJ Rusty Hopkinson, Boonge Henson Park, Marrickville free-$10 12pm Satellite V Marrickville Bowling Club free 4.30pm Set Sail Brass Monkey, Cronulla 8pm Six Fears Seven, As Rockets Fall, The Reprize The Valve, Tempe free 4pm Souled Out
www.fbisocial.com
Monday March 12
Tuesday March 13
Wednesday March 14
7.30pm $10
9pm FREE
8pm $10
A RATIONAL FEAR
FINAL JURASSIC LOUNGE AFTER PARTY
THE FOLK INFORMAL
Comedy Panel
Dancing Heals (Live)
FBi presents local singer/songwriters
Live Broadcast on FBi 94.5
+ Nick Phish, Tim Dog & Del Cat from Jurassic Lounge Djing
Jeremy Harrison + Ross Henry + Bec Sandridge + Billy Shears
Thursday March 15
Friday March 16
Saturday March 17
8pm $20
9pm - 3am $12
Hungry Beast’s Dan Ilic & Lewis Hobba
8pm $10
A STORY NEVER TOLD presents ROPES END
The Walking Who I, Am Man + Saloons + Wade Jackson
Entry to both FBi Social and The World Bar!
GO HERE GO THERE with MUM Step Panther + King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard + The Shiny Brights + Rockets + Pear Shape + More!
Tickets for FBi SOCIAL TURNS 1 now on-sale via Oztix! 36 :: BRAG :: 453 : 12:03:12
FREE THE BEATS LIVE Elliot + Able8 + Flight Recorder + Ostinato + Gabriel Clouston + Master of Ribongia + Mannheim Rocket + Mike Berkley Broadcast live on FBi 94.5 midnight - 2am
Check fbisocial.com for full line-ups 22-25th March!
Xxxx
send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com
gig guide send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Spenceray Coogee Bay Hotel free 7.30pm Sydney Rock‘n’Roll & Alternative Market: The Flaming Stars, The Road Runners, Coop Deville, DJ Brian, DJ Rod Almighty Jets Sports Club free 11am Zoltan Harbord Beach Hotel free 6pm
JAZZ
The Peter Head Trio The Harbour View Hotel free 4pm The Subterraneans Town Hall Hotel, Newtown free 7pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Aimee Francis Salisbury Hotel, Stanmore free 2pm
Audrey Auld (USA), Faith Lee The Vanguard, Newtown $25 (+ bf) 8pm Holly Throsby, Rainbow Chan Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $24 6pm Jules Backman, Miss Gray, Starr Witness, The Wildbloods, Helmut Uhlmann Hotel William, Darlinghurst free 6pm
gig picks
NICHE PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS
AN EVENING OF DISCO/HOUSE, DUBSTEP, HIP HOP, LEFTFIELD ELECTRONICA & FUTURE SOUL
up all night out all week...
16 MAR
THE SLIPS
St. Vincent
23 MAR
MONDAY MARCH 12 St Vincent, Oscar & Martin The Factory Theatre, Enmore $45 (+ bf) 8pm
TUESDAY MARCH 13 Wild Flag, Love of Diagrams, Unity Floors Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $56.10 (+ bf) 8pm
WEDNESDAY MARCH 14
FRIDAY MARCH 16 Holly Throsby, Bearhug, Jordan Ireland Annandale Hotel $20 (+ bf) 8pm The Meanies, Shark Bait, Cruelty’s Fun Sandringham Hotel, Newtown 8pm
SATURDAY MARCH 17 Bryan Estepa, Will & The Indians, Piers Twomey, Larissa McKay Annandale Hotel $12 (+ bf) 8pm
Georgia Fair, Winter People, Castlecomer Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm
Michael Rother (GER), Dieter Moebius (GER), Hans Lampe (GER), Baptism of Uzi Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $45 (+ bf) 8pm
Pajama Club Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $28 (+ bf) 8pm
SUNDAY MARCH 18
THURSDAY MARCH 15 Bloods, Lunars, Sures, DJ Catcall, DJ Shag GoodGod Small Club, Sydney $10 8pm Pieta Brown & The Sawdust Boys, Lucy Thorne Camelot, Marrickville 8pm
The Necks Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House $39 7pm Reclink Community Cup: Wolfpack, The Meanies, The Celibate Rifles, Front End Loader, DJ Rusty Hopkinson, Boonge Henson Park, Marrickville free-$10 12pm
Wildflag
ASTRAL PEOPLE SHOWCASE FEATURING
COLLARBONES WINTERCOATS RAINBOW CHAN +ASTRAL PEOPLE DJS
30 MAR
MOVEMENT DJ/PRODUCER COMPETITION
More info at facebook.com/movementsydney
ALL LIVE EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT 8PM TIL MIDNIGHT
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/29( $7 7+( %27720 2) 7+( 6($ )HDWXUHV WKH VLQJOH 露$QGUHZ LQ 'UDJ路
1(: $/%80
287 12:
ZZZ KRXVHRIWRPRUURZ FRP
6ZHHW +HDUW 6ZHHW /LJKW 1(: $/%80 287 $35,/ WK ZZZ VSLULWXDOL]HG FRP
NEW ALBUMS COMING SOON ON DOMINO Lightships(Gerard Love) / Black Dice / Patrick Watson / Lower Dens / James Yorkston WWW.DOMINORECORDCO.COM
38 :: BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12
BRAG’s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture
brag beats
dj quik
inside
flow for sale also: + club guide + club snaps + columns
hilltop hoods
canyons
picnic turns 4 + more BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12 :: 39
dance music news
free stuff
club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Honnery
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM
five things WITH
Kid Kenobi
DARIUS BASSIRAY (MELB) in terms of programming sets, and the limits and risks you can take whilst DJing. Gab Oliver and the Sunny parties were a big inspiration for me in Melbourne, and his album No Nonsense is pretty much the most inspirational album I own. Your Crew I left my day job to do music 3. full-time about five years ago, so
Growing Up I didn’t grow up in a musical 1. household or inspired by any of the clichéd record collections found in my uncle’s garage. Growing up, I was always into music and I was lucky that my mum’s side of the family lived in Manchester, so whenever I wanted obscure CDs I couldn’t find in record stores, I would
get my Grandma to send me music over. If I had to narrow it down to the record that defined my childhood, it would be DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing. Inspirations Phil K has always been an 2. inspiration to me, personally and musically; he exposed me to the idea of throwing out the rulebook
I have been lucky in that respect. I was with Darkbeat for eight years, but recently left that crew to pursue other avenues. Now I co-run a party called Electric Owl; we’ve hosted acts such as Fred P and Move D, and will be debuting our big Easter show with Moodymann and Martin Buttrich – so that’s really exciting. We’re really trying to showcase forwardthinking artists and we’re quite selective in the parties we choose to throw, and try not to do them just for the sake of it. I’m playing live more regularly now, with Paul Beynon, but for Spice Cellar I will be DJing. I checked the club out last time I played in Sydney and it had an incredible vibe, a real cool aesthetic – it should be great fun. Music You Make I guess it’s all different forms 4.The
Roger Sanchez
of dynamic electronic music. I’ve released on labels like Further Recordings, Dieb Audio and Fade, and now I’m focusing most of my releases on my own label, Text Book Music. I’m currently working on an EP, with material taken mostly from a live set I worked six months on for the excellent KUBIK concept down here in Melbourne. Music, Right Here, Right Now 5. I just saw DJ Koze at Rainbow Serpent Festival, and he really blew me away; Andrew Weatherall’s recent DJ set did the same thing for me. Habersham out of the USA continually writes and produces my favourite records (he has done for nearly eight years now); Mathew Jonson and Lusine are also always big for me, as well as Seuil and the French deep house sound. With: Child (Melb – live), Murat Kilic, Garry Todd, Nic Scali, Steven Sullivan & Christian Verlaan Where: The Spice Cellar / 58 Elizabeth St, CBD When: Saturday March 17
of DJs and live acts to perform as part of a two area (outdoors and inside) twelvehour bash at The Abercrombie. The lineup is crowned by one of Australia’s premier club exports, We Love Space Ibiza’s Ben Korbel, who will be throwing down alongside a host of local (and cult) favourites. Foreseeable highlights include sets from Mad Racket resident Ken Cloud, Pinksilver’s Markojux playing live, Future Classic’s Jimi Polar pushing beats and highly-touted Melbourne DJ Volta strutting her (sonic) stuff. The party will run from midday through till midnight, with $10 entry all day.
KID KENOBI’S LAUNDRY
Kid Kenobi has been bursting eardrums of late with his side project ‘Too Fresh’ and a slew of remixes for Bombs Away, Doctor Werewolf and Surecut Kids (cue big beats, ‘90s-reticent rave music, sirens and acid house synths) – besides being his usual awesome self. He’ll be headlining the Chinese Laundry on Saturday March 17 at 9pm alongside What So Not (launching their EP The Hype), Jeff Drake and Alley Oop. Email us with the Kid Kenobi’s original name at birth to grab a double pass for freeee…
GROOVE ARMADA EP
Groove Armada, comprised of the core duo of Tom Findlay and Andy Cato, will release a new EP, No Knock, at the end of this month – their first release since 2011 s Red Light EP. No Knock will arrive on house label Hypercolour, who have previously turned out releases by Maya Jane Coles and Huxley. The four-track is less glossy than recent GA-stamped releases, focusing instead on analogue sounds and classic lo-fi drum programming. Described as “sensuous rather than showy”, it sounds like No Knock will make an interesting addition to the GA canon, not to mention Hypercolour’s expanding roster. Public Enemy
ROGER SANCHEZ
The ‘S-man’, Roger Sanchez, is once again Australia-bound, and will play The Ivy on Anzac Day, Wednesday April 25. Having first captured the public’s attention with the single ‘Luv Dancin’ on the Strictly Rhythm label, under the moniker Underground Solution, Sanchez subsequently attained ubiquity via the cut ‘Another Chance’, and has continued to develop his ‘Release Yo Self’ brand via parties in Ibiza. His sonic CV contains remixes of Chic, Daft Punk, Diana Ross and The Police, contributions to the soundtrack of Hollywood movie Blade, and he’s also the founder multiple record labels.
CAKES @ WORLD BAR
The World Bar launches a new Saturday weekly – CAKES – this Saturday March 17 with a lineup packed with DJs aiming to deliver what the press release describes as “a multiroom party Valhalla… an orgy of sonic bliss set throughout the mighty breadth of The World Bar.” Throwing down across the different rooms and levels of the venue will be Pacha Ibiza’s Nicc Johnson, Sampology (doing a DJ set), 40 :: BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12
Perth’s Micah, Melbourne’s Kasey Taylor, Keesh, Pipemix, Speak Easy DJs and Mike Hyper.
LOOSEKABOOSE VS CHEMISTRY
This Anzac Day, two of Sydney’s most reputable party crews, Loosekaboose and Chemistry, have organised for a smorgasbord
PUBLIC ENEMY
Legendary rap group Public Enemy will embark on a tour of Australia in May, headlining The Metro on Friday May 11. The tour coincides with the group’s 25-year anniversary, and as if to prove there’s plenty of life in them yet, they’ve announced they will be releasing two new studio albums this year. Most Of My Heroes Still Don’t Appear On No Stamp, produced by long-time collaborator Gary G-Wiz, will be released in June, while The Evil Empire Of Everything will follow in September. Beyond their influence in rap circles, Public Enemy have been name-checked by artists as diverse as Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Björk, Tricky, Prodigy, Ben Harper and Aphex Twin, and their 1991 collaboration with thrash metal outfit Anthrax helped to create the ‘rap metal’ genre. Public Enemy’s iconic status in American culture was cemented when their 1990 album Fear of a Black Planet was selected for preservation in the USA Library of Congress in 2005.
H av e It,
Eat It Too...
t a y a d r u t Ev ery Sa R A B D L R O TH E W
ngs x i k d r r e at 24 baysw
l! a i c e p S h c n u La
Y G O L O P M SA KEESH MIC A H
(DJ S E T )
(PERTH)
(MELB)
+
t h g i n s g n i d r o c e r vapour p r e s s u r e ic Johnson RodskekezEasy DJs ag e Kasey Taylor (MeSlaby) WNhut!? Pipemix Spea gar Hyper Johnson +
+
+
e Bart aser + Mik r F l u a & P Farj
+
+
+
BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12 :: 41
dance music news
free stuff
club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Honnery
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM
CAKES
five things WITH
KEESH (MELB) Inspirations I definitely look up to and 2. hold in high regard women who have challenged the gender barrier in the music industry and come out on top – Joan Jett and Stevie Nicks, to name a couple. As cheesy as it may sound, the other thing that really inspires me is my supporters; without them I probably wouldn’t have had the courage to throw myself into my career half as much as I have. Your Crew I’m a lone ranger; I’ve always 3. refused to join any kind of agency
Growing Up I grew up in country Victoria, 1. in a narrow-minded little town – which I guess is the main reason why as soon as I began experiencing the vivacity and open nature of the club scene, my interest was immediate. I remember back before the popularity of CDs exploded, when
I was maybe about eight years old, I used to make mixtapes, recording my favourite songs onto a cassette from the radio. My first DJing experience came all the way back in grade six; I used to play the music for the assembly/ recess/lunch bells – until I got kicked off for dropping an Eminem track.
or lock myself in with any kind of promotion company. Just like with my personal life, I like my freedom, and I hate commitment. I have my manager and he’s all I need. The Music You Make I’ve begun moving from 4. minimal techno more into a harddriving Dutch-minimal sound, which in turn reflects my live sets, which are always jam-packed with so many diverse styles infusing
between one another – from dirty Dutch to pounding hard electro to deep dark minimal. You can expect a few hours of extreme fluid-loss and cardiac arrest material being thrown at you if you’re on that dance floor. Music, Right Here, Right Now 5. The most inspiring act I’ve seen
Nicc Johnson
lately was The Gaslamp Killer; that guy’s stage appearance and energy in his show is absolutely brain-melting! He consistently had the audience by the balls and completely orchestrated the crowd reactions, which is something that really opened my mind with my own live sets. With: Sampology (DJ Set), Micah (Perth), Bart Johnson; Vapour Recordings Label Night feat. Kasey Taylor (Melb), Nicc Johnson (PACHA Ibiza), Rodskeez; and Garage Pressure feat. Farj and Paul Fraser, Hip Hopz, Mike Hyper, Pipemix Where: Cakes @ The World Bar When: Launching March 17
ORBITAL TOUR KRS-One
Saturday March 17 will see The World Bar deck its halls with astroturf and a giant Millennium Falcon; and some of the country’s most sonically blissful DJs will deck, um, your ears, with their own brand of electronic coolism – including Samplogy (DJ Set), Micah (Perth), Keesh (Melb), Bart Johnson, Kasey Taylor (Melb) and international crowd-pleaser Nicc Johnson (Pacha, Ibiza). What’s the occasion? World Bar’s new Saturday weekly, CAKES! Tell us a type of cake named after a bird for your chance to win a double pass…
The Hartnoll brothers (aka Orbital, aka UK electronica gods) are coming to Australia this Autumn, hot off the heels of the April 6 release of new album Wonky – their first album since reuniting in 2009. Expect epic soundscapes, expect classic cuts like ‘Halcyon’, ‘Chime’, and ‘The Girl With The Sun In Her Head’, expect a stunning audiovisual live show – expect flashbacks to the ‘90s. And expect them on stage at midnight – old school timez! – at Metro Theatre, when they take the stage on Saturday May 5. Tickets on sale this Friday March 16 through ticketek.com.au
HI-FI LAUNCHES
While it opened its doors a couple of weeks ago, Hi-Fi officially launches this week, on the site of the now-defunct Forum at Fox Studios in the Moore Park Entertainment Quarter. Joining its established older siblings in Melbourne and Brisbane, the Hi-Fi Sydney has a capacity of 1400 people, and has already hosted the likes of Roots Manuva. We can expect many more high profile international acts to grace the venue’s stage over the coming months – for starters, there’s Hamburg duo Digitalism to look forward to, who play the Hi-Fi on Friday May 11. Yelawolf
KRS-ONE
It has been announced that Def Wish Cast, along with Ellesquire and DJ Blaze, will support esteemed hip hop figure KRS-One (an acronym for Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone), when he plays his first ever Sydney show at the Enmore Theatre on Thursday April 5. KRS began his career as the founder of Boogie Down Productions in the mid-‘80s, winning attention for a politically conscious lyricism that earned him the nickname ‘The Teacher’. Along with the release of more than 20 LPs, KRS-One has also established the Stop The Violence Movement and published three books. Continuing to live up to his nickname, he’s also apparently taken to lecturing across US universities. Presale tickets to ‘The Teacher’s’ maiden Sydney performance are currently available online.
ARIL BRIKHA
Seminal Swedish producer Aril Brikha will headline a joint venture between T-Quest and Shrug at new techno hotspot One22 this Saturday March 17. Born in Iran with Assyrian ancestry, Brikha has a lengthy back catalogue of memorable productions, but his 1998 breakthrough track ‘Groove La Chord’ and the Deeparture In Time album (released early 2000 on the Australia-bound Derrick May’s Transmat imprint) are probably the quintessential releases he will be remembered for. However Brikha’s ‘later work’, which includes releases on Kompakt, Music Man, Poker Flat, Connaisseur and remixes of Octave One, Deetron, and Kollektiv Turmstrasse, should not be discounted by any stretch, and have confirmed the man’s status as a pioneer of deep techno soul. Support will feature Shrug’s Dave Stuart, Robbie Lowe, the T-Quest DJs themselves (Darkchild playing back-to-back with Galaktik) and Subsonic’s MSG. Doors open at 9pm, with presale tickets available from Resident Advisor.
LE BROND @ SPICE CELLAR Something of a heartthrob in local clubbing circles, the inimitable Brendan ‘Le Brond’ Cassidy headlines The Spice Cellar on Saturday March 31. Le Brond has carved out a niche in the local dance scene with DJ sets that are meticulously constructed around deep 42 :: BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12
and rhythmic variations on house and minimal sounds. Having spun for many of Sydney’s most respected club brands, including Minimal Fuss and Circoloco, Le Brond has played alongside renowned club drawcards such as Buzzin’ Fly mainman Ben Watt, Dixon, Akufen, Konrad Black, Diatribe and Gregor Treshor, while in terms of international jaunts he’s played at Berlin’s Arena Club with Dop and Motor City Drum Ensemble and at the established Transit party in New Caledonia. Also stepping up to the decks that night will be Murat Kilic, YokoO, Robbie Lowe and Nic Scali. Entry is free with guest list before midnight, and $20 thereafter.
BAG RAIDERS
Sydney duo the Bag Raiders are returning ‘home’ in April for a national DJ tour to celebrate the release of their forthcoming Leave Them All Behind compilation on Modular Records, the fourth instalment in the mix series. Bag Raiders have been holed up in their LA studio since the turn of the year, working on the follow-up to their ARIA and J Award-nominated self-titled debut album, but the imminent release of their LTAB compilation has them homeward bound. Leave Them All Behind 4 features an array of exclusive tracks and remixes, many of which will undoubtedly get played throughout the Bag Raiders’ home-town show, which will be at The Ivy on Sunday April 15.
YELAWOLF
Alabama born rapper Yelawolf will perform at The Metro on Saturday March 31 courtesy of Niche Productions, as part of his maiden Australia tour. The self-styled “gutter motherfucker from an Alabama creek” wanted to be a professional skateboarder, before he was signed by Eminem to the Shady Records imprint. He released his debut album Radioactive late last year on the back of two mixtapes of considerable quality (Trunk Muzik and Trunk Muzik 0-60). Despite their business alliance and a surfeit of lazy critical shorthand based on the visual resemblances between two skinny white boys, Yelawolf is certainly not the new Eminem: he is not a product of Detroit, nor has his reputation been built on pop culture wit and wisecracks. You can see what the man is about come the end of the month, with presales available online.
DJ Quik Holding Court By Benjamin Cooper
D
uring the ‘90s, David Martin Blake (DJ Quik to his fans) had a hand or four in some of the most infamous West Coast hip hop recordings laid to tape, across frequent collaborations with Suge Knight of Black Kapital and Death Row Records, and including Snoop Dogg’s Tha Doggfather and 2Pac’s All Eyez On Me. But the rapper and producer got his start way back in 1987, when he self-released his mixtape The Red Tape and subsequently refused Eazy E’s offer to sign with his label. Cut to today, and Quik’s trajectory has been less of an exponential ascendancy than a consistent push; his current placement as a multi-platform artist in the collective QDT (alongside Snoop Dogg and Teddy Riley) affirms his status as one of the most consistent of the true Compton originals. When we attempt to speak in the lead up to his Australian tour, it turns out Quik is as hard to tie down as his myriad work commitments would suggest. It’s not the studio, though, so much as the desire to stay fresh and fit, that presently occupies him. “Right now you’re hitting me whilst I’m on my basketball court at my place up in the hills,” he explains down the line from Los Angeles. “That call dropped out before because I was getting right in that zone, you know? When I’m playing ball, just like when I’m up there, on the stage for everyone, there’s a little too much going on for me to focus on just one thing. Now I think about it, I wonder which one is the better cardio workout? Something to think about, anyway.” The conversation shifts from music to sports, with Quik declaring his opposition to all East Coast influences, admonishing my support of the National Football League’s Philadelphia Eagles, and stating that his more-local San Francisco 49ers are “the real deal. If you want consistency then you just cannot go past a team that is so committed to holding the crown.” When it’s queried whether he gets bored with the consistency of his fellow Californians he rushes in to say, “If I ever need excitement I just switch over
to watch (National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles) Clippers. Everyone is always backing the LA Lakers [but] I think the Clippers have got that intensity factor this season with the young bloods. That intensity is the difference.” Quik’s admiration for commitment and intensity translate to his solo work and collaborations in the studio. In April last year he dropped his eighth studio effort, The Book Of David, which nails his appeal on the slick track ‘Flow For Sale,’ featuring Kurupt. Quik opens the track by metering-out the declaration, ‘So you want me to wait in line?/ How could that ever be cool? / I’m a crucial if lesser known artist from the West / And I’m a threat just ‘cause I’m a vet.’ When I ask him about the confrontational nature of such a line, he suggests that while there is little to be gained from pointless aggression, he would like to see a wider acknowledgement of the foundations he and his peers laid down for those operating within the modern, more commercialised arena of urban music. “These young bucks do not respect none of the shit that we brought,” Quik says. “To be honest, there’s even less awareness of what it is that guys like me are still bringing to the game. The way it is for me now, I’m not interested in forcing an agenda with my music. I recognise that music is different now; you’d have to be a fool not see that the whole game don’t play like it used to. But there is a real lack of selection when it comes to who artists will work with, which is completely different to how we did it back in the day. We just got on and made the tracks. If anything, I think that music has specialised itself down into such little worlds that there’s very little cross-over and even less options for rappers.” The Californian wants to be clear, however, that he is not embittered about his current situation. “Let’s be real here: my money still spends. I can still get a glass of champagne when I need one, so I’m all good. If people want to call me ‘old’, then it’s all good. I’d
“I like those Odd Future boys, I like their quirkiness and the tricks. But if you really look and listen, I mean, is there anything going on beyond that stuff, y’know?” much rather be old than be dead.” When pressed as to his impressions of some of rap’s current crop he is honest, stating: “I like those Odd Future boys, I like their quirkiness and the tricks. But if you really look and listen, I mean, is there anything going on beyond that stuff, y’know?” Australian audiences can be assured of powerful performances when Quik makes his first Australian appearances this month, with the man having lost none of the passion that has distinguished him from so many
imitators for the last two decades. “Like I told you before,” he says, “whether I’m balling or moving verses, I can feel that fire burning up inside me. The advantage I’ve got is I’m not limited by all this specialisation. I just throw down what people want to hear. I haven’t got that limited range, I’m showing something more, and the crowd can hear it for what it is.” With: Stan Bravo, DJ Def Rok, and more Where: Gaelic Theatre When: Thursday March 15
Hilltop Hoods All Grown Up By David Seidler
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illtop Hoods are surprised: surprised that over 20 years after the group’s inception in the halls of Adelaide’s Blackwood High School, the three of them, Suffa, MC Pressure and DJ Debris, are still kicking it together; astounded that, now six albums in, their popularity and critical acclaim continues to grow; overwhelmed by how far Australian hip hop (which couldn’t have sounded more oxymoronic just a decade ago) has come. Sitting down with Suffa and Debris over drinks at Surry Hills’ swanky hotspot The Winery, the chief sentiment expressed is awe – as though they can’t quite understand how they’ve gone from high school mates and hip hop enthusiasts to double-Platinum-selling icons. “Hip hop is just huge in this country,” says Suffa, behind shades. “For years, with each album that we released we thought, it’s definitely going to plateau. We were like, ‘It can’t get any bigger than this’.” And then, inevitably, it did.
Hilltop Hoods photo by Conan Whitehouse
But even as ‘I Love It’, released last November as the first single from the forthcoming Drinking From The Sun, garners commercial airplay and cements its Top 10 chart status, the Hilltop Hoods can’t quite forget their roots. While fellow Adelaide local Sia’s anthemic chorus takes hold across the country, the group stay true to that chorus’ closing words: “Now we’re all grown up and it’s still about hip hop.” With the prospect of a fully-fledged attempt at cracking the US market looming, the Hoods aren’t about to sell out. “I don’t think we’re over there
“I don’t think we’re over [in the States] targeting the rap fans; they’re not going to want a bar of it and we don’t want a bar of them.”
targeting the rap fans,” Suffa contends. So no incursions into Flo Rida territory then, I ask? “Nah. They’re not going to want a bar of it and fair enough,” he says, “because we don’t want a bar of them.” Having remastered an entire album (2008’s The Hard Road) with the “fucking expensive” Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and toured the country with The Hard Road Restrung, one doesn’t imagine the brand of hip hop that the group purveys will resonate with too many who adored ‘Right Round’. Rather than engage in the ploys for pop audiences that characterise much American rap today, the Hilltop Hoods have consistently reinforced a certain intense musicality. On Drinking From The Sun, that entails the introduction of a string quartet, a choir and more guitar than you might expect. Live, the thick beats will be reproduced by Plutonic Labs on drums, multi-instrumentalist and producer One Above, and Debris behind the decks. But the band won’t be expanding to former symphonic proportions any time soon, Debris assures me. “We’ve done it before... and they didn’t like it when bottles came on stage.” Three years in the making, Drinking From The Sun was delayed by extensive local and international tours, management duties for their record label Golden Era’s fledgling signings – and putting out Parade Of The Dead, a cinematic treatment of one of the tracks from 2009’s State Of The Art, motivated by Suffa’s zombie obsession. “I’m not allowed to do that again,” Suffa says, obviously peeved. “Pressure’s put the kibosh on it. He thought one zombie DVD was enough. I wanted to make the sequel Ninjas Raid The Whorehouse,” he says earnestly. It’s obvious that a major driving force for Hilltop Hoods is obsession. Suffa, who only last week completed his ‘Top 100 Hip Hop Albums of the ‘90s’ list on Twitter (Nas’ Illmatic came in at #1), has a profound knowledge of the genre. The self-professed “vinyl junky” described how he chased down the ten or 20
albums on the list that he didn’t already own on wax. From that very list, The Roots’ (#36) Black Thought and Jurassic 5’s (#35) Chali 2na guest on Drinking From The Sun – and Suffa, “a fucking starstruck fan,” is patently chuffed. “Our goal is to work with as many of our favourite artists as possible,” he says, adding, almost disbelievingly, “I’m working through my ‘Top 10 MCs’ at the moment.” At the top of the pecking order is the man Suffa identifies as the greatest living emcee, Eminem, who, along with Lil Wayne, the band toured with when he came to Australia in December last year. Playing to 50,000 noticeably partisan fans was, says Debris, “a little humbling”; but the Hoods, perennial festival favourites, relished the challenge of shifting from headliner to support act. “At festivals, there are so many other things going on, so if a crowd is in front of you, they’re there to watch you,” says Suffa, before adding a qualifier: “unless they’re the four or five little goth girls down the front at every Big Day Out, waiting six hours for My Chemical Romance, giving us the finger the whole set.”
Running the Hilltops Hood, a grants initiative for emerging hip hop artists that they founded in association with Arts SA, managing a record label, crate-digging for missing vinyl and planning DVD box sets to boot, it’s little wonder the Hilltop Hoods are so pleasantly surprised by the state of Australian hip hop – they’ve been too busy nudging it along to actively watch it prosper. And with the imminent release of Drinking From The Sun (a metaphor, they explain, for an underground culture rising up), they look set to continue that legacy of hectic immersion. What: Drinking From The Sun is out now through Golden Era With: Public Enemy (USA), 360, Hermitude, Andrew W.K (USA), Digitalism (GER), Kaiser Chiefs (UK), Matt Corby, Wavves (USA) and heaps more Where: Groovin’ The Moo hits Maitland Showground (Maitland) on Saturday May 12, and The Meadows (University of Canberra) on May 13. Full lineup and tour dates at gtm.net.au
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Class Actress Sleazy Ideas By Alasdair Duncan
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lizabeth Harper makes darkly glamorous electro pop with her group Class Actress; sweet music with a very sinister kick. A Los Angeles native, she finds inspiration in the city’s eerie combo of beauty and isolation, and especially in its chronicler, the novelist Bret Easton Ellis. “I absolutely love his work,” she tells me. “He’s definitely an archetypal LA writer, but he kind of nails that American narcissism perfectly. He writes about the fact that we’re a culture that’s consumed by fear, basically. There’s this idea that we lead a free lifestyle, but a lot of the time, we live in fear – there’s this consumer culture that manipulates us into buying stuff through fear.” The lyrics that Harper writes for Class Actress are inspired in no small part by Ellis’s lean, muscular prose. “There’s definitely a literary sense to the songs,” she says. “[He] writes in a very pared-back way, he has this ability to say the most with the least amount of words. The final line of his novel Imperial Bedrooms, ‘I never liked anyone and I’m afraid of people’ – when the narrator says that, it kills me. It’s perfect. I think that’s the goal of pop music, and that’s what I always try and do with my lyrics.” Harper is also a religious follower of Ellis’s Twitter feed, and looks forward to cryptic updates about the person he refers to as ‘the 25 year-old’. “It’s hysterical,” she says,
Harper’s other obsession is Britney Spears. “When it comes to pop, I like Gaga, but when you come right down to it, although she cultivates this very arty image, her music is actually pretty straightforward dance pop. When it comes to Britney, though, the music is on a whole other level. I really like her record Blackout,” she continues. “Her deadpan delivery of those lines is fantastic, and she brought something very dark back to pop music... Britney’s music has been weirder over the last few years – she’s been pulling dubstep, getting into some very intricate RnB, and I think that’s why a lot of people I know love her, because the production is just so top-level.” To Harper, Britney Spears is the modern version of Gone With The Wind’s Scarlett O’Hara – “her whole philosophy seems to be ‘you will survive this, you will get through it, no matter what.’” When writing Class Actress tracks with her production partner Mark Richardson, Harper draws on these reference points. “I guess I just try to make music like I would want to listen to,” she says of the group’s debut album, Rapprocher. “Mark and I are both obsessed with the hardships of the emotional side of life, with the idea of sensitive people who’ve been knocked around. We also have some sleazy ideas too, though,” she adds with a laugh. “It feels good to make music with those bright pop melodies and dark synths. There’s tension in our relationship, but we get past it – we fight a bit, but he’s really good at taking a story I’ve told and interpreting it in a wholly different way through the music. You’ve gotta have that.” What: Rapprocher is out now on EMI
Xxxx
“I love it. The other day, Bret said that he felt his age for the very first time, and went on to name the specific time and place that he experienced this phenomenon. It’s just crazy. Following him on Twitter is like reading Less Than Zero.”
Canyons Exploring New Worlds By Alasdair Duncan
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erth duo Canyons released one of the most intriguing albums of last year in Keep Your Dreams; a swirling mix of sounds, it drew on disco, acid house, psychedelic rock and influences even more out-there still, without really sounding like any of them. Guitarist Ryan Grieve tells me that the album was the purest distillation of his and band-mate Leo Thomson’s tastes. “There are a lot of influences for us – everything from weird ‘70s soundtrack stuff through to dance and electronic music from the ‘80s and ‘90s, through to psychedelic rock. There are lots of bands who find their sound and stick to it, but Leo and I weren’t interested in that – we wanted to try as many different things on the album as possible, just hit on as many different sounds as we could.” The challenge when it comes to a crazy, sprawling electronic record like Keep Your Dreams, is figuring out how to play it live. Canyons have been working on this for the last few months, creating a show that captures the breadth of their sound. “I play guitar, Leo plays keyboards, and we tour with four other guys – a drummer, a bass player, a saxophonist and a percussionist,” says Grieve. “Combining the electronic elements with those live instruments was the real challenge. We spent a few months just working out the logistics of all that, making sure all the elements would mix and mash together properly and convincingly. We’re really happy with the way it’s all flowing and running now – it’s all sounding really good.” Keep Your Dreams has a loose and free-flowing quality to it, and listening to the album, it’s easy to imagine many of the songs expanding into giant, lumbering acid house monsters on stage.
Grieve assures me that there’s definitely room for improvisation in Canyons’ live show. “That’s a big thing for us – we’re not really into the idea of playing really tightly on a grid or sticking to strict arrangements. We want to do that when the songs call for it, but we want to have that freedom to stretch things out for five minutes if we want to, or cut them short and move on if it’s not working. The album works really well in the live setting, too. ‘My Rescue’ is a great one to play, and so is ‘Sun And Moon’ – it’s uptempo, and it has a real weirdness to it, but it’s simultaneously quite poppy, and I really like that combo. But there’s room to explore in all of them – when we say we put on a live show, we really mean live.” I ask Grieve if he prefers the songs in their live or recorded form: “I definitely think the live show is a lot more dynamic,” he says, “it’s a little bit more raucous and crazy. I mean, ultimately, we’re touring our first record. There are years of influences and ideas that went into it, and there was a whole lot of stuff we just wanted to get out, so either way, it’s amazing to be out there playing these songs.” As for the future, Grieve doesn’t know where Canyons are heading, but he’s determined not to be tied down. “We don’t want to be seen as just disco guys or just house guys, we want to be able to take things in any direction after this album. Whatever we do, we just don’t want to be contained.” With Albatross, Rainbow Chan and Mikie Tyson Where: The Standard, Sydney When: Friday March 16 More: Keep Your Dreams out through Modular
Picnic Turns 4 Four To The Floor By Matthew Cowley
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ver the past four years, Picnic parties have cemented themselves as an institution for late night dancers looking for something a little left of centre. With some hefty name-checking already under their belt, including debut Australian tours for
The Revenge, Horse Meat Disco and DJ Harvey, and co-presenting Andrew Weatherall’s shows for Sydney Festival 2012, they
have a reputation for being ahead of the curve, and making those ‘impossible’ tours a reality for Australian dance music aficionados. Picnic officially debuted in February 2009, with a party headlined by cult UK disco party crew LaserMagnetic and Pete Herbert. “There were a few parties here and there before that, but that was the first party that we officially called Picnic,” says co-founder Carly Roberts (better known to punters by her DJ moniker Kali). “But the first time I was like, ‘This is a fuck-off experience,’ was a few months later, at the first Revenge warehouse party. That, I think, was the first time we knew we were hitting our mark with Picnic. We were trying not to be lazy promoters; we were trying to make it really good in all aspects – the sound, the venue, the music, the punters, the door girl – everything. That, I think, was the first party that really locked it down.” Like all good events, Picnic parties have evolved over time. “When Picnic began, it became known almost solely as a disco party,” says Roberts, “but that was never what it was about for me. I realised that after a while this ‘disco’ label was why I wasn’t DJing at my parties anymore – I love disco, but I’ve always seen myself as an eclectic DJ; I really love house music, and I felt for a while that the ‘disco’ scene was becoming too narrow minded. So it’s been really exciting for me, over the past six to twelve months or so, to see that the crowd’s taste is starting to shift. At the warehouse parties now I can feel that people are gagging for house music. You can see the energy in the room really centre itself around
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house, and it’s incredible to see an evolution like this within your own party.” Picnic’s upcoming birthday bash will celebrate the parties’ roots with a lineup that spans from Picnic veterans Horse Meat Disco to Stephen Allkins of Love Tattoo, across two rooms in Alexandria’s Sun Studios. “I’ve wanted to do a two-room event for a while now, and it’s always been a pipe dream for me to use that space – I’ve just been waiting for something to rise to the challenge,” says Roberts. What strikes you talking to Roberts is that she always treats a great event as being more than the sum of its parts. That perfect moment when an event comes together is, for her, an artistic achievement – something valuable within itself. Should you catch Roberts at this perfect moment at one of her parties, it’s not uncommon to find her crying with joy on the dancefloor under the disco ball. “I definitely would cry standing in front of an amazing piece of art,” Roberts admits. “And I have definitely cried standing in front of a Picnic party.” With Horsemeat Disco, Stephen Allkins, Matt Vaughan, Tamas Jones, and Picnic DJs Matt Trousdale, Mirror Mirror, Marcus King, Perfect Snatch, Steele Bonus and Andy Webb What: Picnic 4th Birthday Party Where: Sun Studios / 42 Maddox Street, Alexandria When: Saturday March 17 / 9pm til very late
Soul Sedation
Deep Impressions Underground Dance And Electronica with Chris Honnery
Soul, Dub, Hip Hop & Bottom-heavy Beats with Tony Edwards
tINI
Soul Sedation goes live every Wednesday night on Bondi FM (88.0 or bondifm. com.au). Tune in 10pm 'til midnight to hear a deep and soulful selection of the tunes covered here, and plenty more that I don't have room for.
ON THE ROAD
Sietta
FRIDAY MARCH 16 Hermitude, Sietta Oxford Art Factory
FRIDAY MARCH 23 The fact that tINI and Martin Buttrich are touring Australia over Easter has been common knowledge for some time now, but the conspicuous absence of a Sydney show from their respective tour itineraries was beginning to get pessimists such as your humble narrator concerned that our fine city was going to be inexplicably snubbed. Thankfully, that’s not the case, as it has now been confirmed that both Buttrich and tINI will front up and form a delectable Desolat double bill at the Civic Underground on Easter Thursday. Buttrich’s production pedigree is well documented: the German is a hugely respected producer who plays an often unheralded role behind the scenes for well known pop acts such as Moloko. In terms of club sounds, he’s been an integral figure in the rise of Loco Dice (along with his one-time co-worker at Peppermint Jam distribution, Timo Maas), and together the pair founded the Desolat label. It was Loco Dice, in fact, who took tINI under his wing after he saw her play a gig in her hometown of Munich, and she promptly became a member of the Desolat family. After demonstrating her talent via contributions to Desolat sampler’s, tINI cemented herself in the upper echelon of club producers with the release of her debut LP Tessa last year, an album filled with spacious, groove-laden minimal house that evoked early Perlon and Playhouse releases. To say this was an impressive album is an understatement – it is rare that a club album is as cohesive, consistent and captivating as Tessa, and I would put it on par with anything in the Desolat catalogue, which is laden with ‘primo’ quality releases. With a muchvaunted reputation as a slick DJ, tINI has been touted as one of the more exciting figures in the underground clubscape – and as you can tell from reading/skimming the preceding paragraph, Deep Impressions is firmly on the bandwagon.
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Detroit luminary Derrick May will headline Chinese Laundry on Saturday April 28, returning Down Under after a reportedly riproaring set for Picnic on his last Aussie jaunt (the word of mouth for that gig was seriously top shelf – I regret missing it). For anyone who has been living under a rock, May is responsible for one of the biggest house anthems ever in ‘Strings Of Life’ from back in 1987, but his influence extends well beyond the success of that one track. Along with high school friends Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson, May rounds off the Belleville Three, a core trio of producers who played an integral role in shaping the burgeoning house and techno scenes of the late ‘80s/ early ‘90s, and paving the way for producers such as Carl Craig and Stacey Pullen. May’s reputation as an auteur faded slightly due to an extended break from production during the ‘90s, though throughout this period he continued DJing worldwide and concentrated on his Transmat label, which continues to garner accolades today. Berghain and Panorama Bar’s in-house label, Ostgut Ton, an icon for all things dark and serious in the house and techno world, has announced the launch of a new sub-label, Unterton. It has been reported that the new label will specialise in remixes of material that has already appeared on Ostgut Ton, as well as music from
Watussi, True Vibenation, Alphamama Metro Theatre
LOOKING DEEPER SATURDAY MARCH 17
Aril Brikha One22 (122 Pitt Street, CBD)
FRIDAY MARCH 30 Efdemin One22
THURSDAY APRIL 5 Tini, Martin Buttrich The Civic Underground
SATURDAY APRIL 28 Derrick May Chinese Laundry
Derrick May “befriended artists and one-off projects”, mostly on white-label vinyl. The first release off the press will feature remixes of tracks from tobias’ recent album Leaning Over Backwards by Dial’s Efdemin – who is of course en route Down Under to make his Australian debut in a few weeks time – and the peerless duo of Ricardo Villalobos and Max Loderbauer, whose reinterpretation of the ECM back catalogue was rated by many critics as one of the (sonic) highlights of last year. Four years since Russian duo SCSI-9 released their last album on Kompakt, the pairing of Anton Kubikov and Maxim Milyutenko will release their fifth album, Metamorphosis, via Greek label Klik Records. The new LP is said to be darker and moodier than usual – which is saying something, since SCSI-9’s output has never strayed too far away from brooding, emotional soundscapes. Adding to the curiosity is the guest appearance from Viennese electronic experimental composer Zanshin (aka Gregor Ladenhauf) on two tracks, ‘Song From The High Tower’ and ‘I’m Lost’, who is also known for his work as part of house duo Ogris Debris. Given all of this, Metamorphosis sounds like a perfect late-night soundtrack to your reading of Dostoyevsky (or perhaps more aptly, Kafka), as you stare out into the bleak winter night and ponder confronting existential questions between sips of Hennessy.
Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through deep.impressions@yahoo.com
Rustie
S
o this column managed to catch UK beatsmith Bonobo in his live band format, which included some pretty incredible musicians, at The Metro recently. It was a good show, without being great. I’m not entirely sure that the setting captured the delicate spirit of the show. Much more successful was the show – of similar nature – that The Cinematic Orchestra performed at the City Recital Hall for Sydney Festival back in 2009. It was a jazzy show that needed to be screened in an intimate, respectful space, but to be fair that didn’t stop anyone having a good time. It was great to hear the crowd roar for his early material like ‘Pick Up’ and ‘Scuba’, but the most recent album, Black Sands, definitely got some love as well. It was a deep, melodic gig, and the addition of the incredible drummer and the lovely Andreya Triana on vocals certainly made it a show worth seeing. The Metro got seriously loose afterwards as Rustie and Hudson Mohawke joined the bill at a late stage, Playground Weekender refugees the both of them. Speaking of which, the PGW celebrations kicked on regardless off the cancellation, with big parties at the Beach Road on Saturday night, and then at the UNSW Roundhouse on the Sunday. Soul Sedation missed the Beach Road gig, but can confirm the UNSW gig was suitably loose. Bonobo played once again, indoors, while The Cuban Brothers’ performance outside in the courtyard got rained out (those guys just couldn’t catch a break unfortunately). Then Roots Manuva rocked the main room (he’s got a new metal guitarist who shreds pretty hard and adds a hectic element to Roots’s stage show) and Shapeshifter finished us off in fine style. Pictures that emerged on Sunday – and were passed around the venue on iPhones – of the Wisemans Ferry river crossing covered in massive piles of debris made everyone feel comfortable that the cancellation was the right decision after all. In new music, The Bastard Jazz label has released a new remix compilation from Captain Planet, so if you haven’t had
THURSDAY APRIL 5 KRS-One, Def Wish Cast Enmore Theatre
SATURDAY APRIL 28 Electric Empire The Standard
enough of his crazy Latin dancefloor hip hop yet you can pick up some more gear there. The album includes work from remix competition winner Aphrololo, as well as Erik The Red, and BBE’s Chris Read. It’s also time for a new release of DJ-Kicks: The Exclusives, which features new juice from Four Tet, Chromeo, Kode9, Apparat, Scuba, as well as Photek & Kuru. And that brings us to the next instalment of the mix series which sees DnB luminary Photek taking us through all things electronic and futuristic. That one’s out real soon. Further along the drum and bass trip, UK jungle legend Aphrodite (aka Gavin King) is headed to Australia, one of the genre’s earliest and foremost proponents. Head back in time for his 1999 self-titled album to find out where the jump-up jungle sound really started. Supported by breakbeat king Kid Kenobi, and What So Not (Flume’s club electro project with Emoh Instead). That one goes down this Saturday March 17. Tan Cracker’s Soul Club has found a new home at Kings Cross Hotel and will return with a bang on Friday March 30 with a guest appearance from Katalyst. You can expect to hear funk, rare groove, Latin and dancefloor jazz, and, of course, a little injection of hip hop. And legendary hip hop figurehead KRSOne has officially arrived in Australia. He’s come by boat – due to his aversion to flying – and is now much better acquainted with shuffleboard, and cocktails with umbrellas in them, due to his four week trip on the QE2. Def Wish Cast, who’ve readied a new album of their own, are supporting ‘The Teacha’ on his tour, as are Ellesquire and DJ Blaze who’ve earned supports at the Enmore Theatre on Thursday April 5. That one will be massive, make sure you track down a ticket asap.
The Cuban Brothers
Send stuff for this column to tonyedwards001@gmail.com by 6pm Wednesdays. All pics to art@thebrag.com BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12 :: 45
club guide send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com
club pick of the week DJ Quik
THURSDAY MARCH 15
The Gaelic, Surry Hills
DJ Quik (USA), Stan Bravo, Lee Monro x Ello C, Victor Lopez featuring MC Jayson, Uncle Abe $66.30 8pm MONDAY MARCH 12 Goldfish, Kings Cross We Owe You One 6pm Scubar, Sydney Crab racing 7pm The World Bar, Kings Cross A Little Thing We Call Jazz DJs free 7pm
TUESDAY MARCH 13 Establishment, Sydney Rumba Motel DJ Willie Sabor 8pm FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel Jurassic Lounge After Party Dancing Heals, Nick Phish, Adele & Timmy free 9pm Goldfish, Kings Cross We Owe You One 6pm Scruffy Murphy’s, Sydney 46 :: BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12
Frat House free Scubar, Sydney Backpacker Karaoke 8pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Coyote Tuesday DJ Johnny B, DJ Shipwreck, MC Fro, Dr Rhythm $10 7pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Tuesdays Mike J, Ping Pong Tiddly, Chappers free 8pm
WEDNESDAY MARCH 14 Bank Hotel, Newtown Wednesdays With Lady L Jimmy D, Sandi Hotrod Epping Hotel DTF Resident DJs free 8pm The Flinders Hotel, Darlinghurst Hip Hop DJs free 8pm Kit & Kaboodle Supper Club, Kings Cross Resident DJs 8pm Lansdowne Hotel,
Chippendale Frat House Wolf & The Gang free 8pm The Loft, UTS, Broadway Live at the Loft Hermitude free 5pm Ruby Rabbit, Darlinghurst Resident DJs 9pm Scubar, Sydney Schoonerversity 3pm Serial Space, Chippendale SHARE free 6pm all-ages The World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall The Mane Thing, Singha, Pop The Hatch, Brothers Grimm, T-Bo, A-Tonez, Micha, Jack Bailey $5 9pm
Ken Blements, Shaun Sprowles $5 8pm The Arthouse Hotel, Sydney Lounge DJs 8pm Bar 100, The Rocks The Powder Room 5pm Cargo Lounge, Kings St Wharf Dance The Way You Feel 6pm The Flinders Hotel, Darlinghurst Hippies from Hell DJs free 8pm The Gaelic, Surry Hills DJ Quik (USA), Stan Bravo, DJ Def Rok, Mr Jayson, DJ Victor Lopez and Uncle Abe $66.30 8pm Goldfish, Kings Cross We Owe You One 6pm GoodGod Front Bar, Chinatown Girls Gone Mild Eliza & Hannah Reilly free 9pm Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney Resident DJs free 8pm Ivy, Sydney Ivy Live DJs free 6pm The Lansdowne, Broadway Vultures DJs free 8pm Low 302, Darlinghurst Thursday Switch DJs free 9pm Q Bar, Darlinghurst Hot Damn Hot Damn DJs $15-$20 Ruby Rabbit, Darlinghurst Resident DJs 9pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Flaunt Dim SLM, DJ Task 8pm Soho, Potts Point Femme Fatale Resident & Guest DJs 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Propaganda Chris Moody (UK), Conrad Greenleaf, Jack Shit, Dan Bombings free (student)–$5 8pm
FRIDAY MARCH 16 34 Degrees South, Bondi Get Down Get Down DJs free 8pm Arthouse Hotel, Sydney After Dark Resident DJ 9pm Bar 100, The Rocks Shut Up & Strut Cissy Strut 8pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Movement The Slips (UK) free 8pm Candy’s Apartment, Kings Cross Button Down Disco – JL Afterparty Pretty Young Things, Detektives, Nightmare, Pash N Hop, Webs, Hooligans, Crux, Draulics, DJ Hassy Has 8pm Cargo Lounge, Kings St Wharf Kick On DJs Chinese Laundry, Sydney Doctor Werewolf, Glovecats, Linken, Vertigo, Day Trip, Scoops $15-$25 10pm City Hotel, Sydney One Night in Cuba Mani, Nandez, DJ Yamaya, Av El Cubano, DJ Coco $15 8pm
Hermitude Civic Underground, Sydney Volar Resident DJs 10pm Club 77, Darlinghurst Club Blink 13 Year Anniversary Bzurk, Snowflake, Firefly $12 9pm Epping Hotel Flirt Resident DJs 9pm GoodGod Front Bar, Sydney Yo Grito! Yo Grito! DJs free 9pm GoodGod Small Club, Sydney Bad Apple Robbie Lowe, Ben Ashton, Amy Fairweather, Tom Brereton, MoonChild, Jack Fuller, WhiteCat $10-$15 11pm Home The Venue, Sydney Delicous & Sublime Fridays Resident & Guest DJs 9pm Hotel Chambers, Martin Place F**k Me I’m Famous Resident DJs $15 9pm Hugo’s Lounge, Kings Cross Rat Pack DJs Jackson’s On George, Sydney Ultimate Party Venue Resident DJs free Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Falcona Fridays Devola, Kirsty Lee, Inthemix DJs, Rumfoord, Maia $10 8pm Kong’s Jungle Lounge, Bondi Junction W!ldlive Fridays Resident DJs $10 10pm The Marlborough Hotel Level 1, Newtown Resident DJs free Oatley Hotel We Love Oatley Hotel Fridays DJ Tone free 8pm Omega Lounge, Level 2 City Tattersalls Club, Sydney Unwind Fridays Blended Beats DJs, Greg Summerfield free Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Hermitude, Sietta $20 (+ bf) 8pm sold out Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Pay Day Fridays Dim SLM, DJ Troy T 8pm Shelbourne Hotel, Sydney Friday MixTape James FitzG free 6pm Soho, Potts Point Soho Fridays Resident & Guest DJs free 8pm
THURSDAY MARCH 15 77 Yurong Lane, Darlinghurst The Velvet Cave East River, Daniel Darling, Flash & Crash DJs, Velvet Gallagher,
Aril Brikha
Space, Sydney Zaia Resident DJs 9.45pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Andee Frost, Andy Webb, Ash Le Rouge $10 10pm The Standard, Sydney Canyons (Live & DJ Set), Albatross, Rainbow Chan, Mikie & Tyson (Health Club DJ’s) $15-$20 9pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Eve 2nd Birthday DJs 8pm Tunnel Nightclub, Kings Cross Why Sleep? DJs $10-$15 10pm
SATURDAY MARCH 17 The Arthouse Hotel, Sydney Armageddon DJs Bar 100, The Rocks My Place Omega Soundsystem Candy’s Apartment, Kings Cross Big Guns Sherlock Bones, SMS, Zomg! Kittens!, LA Tech, Hypa, Mewtwo, InTheory, Nintempo, BlakYella 8pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Aphrodite (UK), Kid Kenobi, Reload, A-Tonez & King Lee, Jeff Drake, Matt Nugent, What So Not, Samrai, Joe Barrs, Alley Oop $20-$25 9pm Club 77, Woolloomooloo Starfuckers Starfuckers DJs 9pm Dee Why Hotel Kiss & Fly Saturdays Resident DJs 9pm Epping Hotel Back Traxx Back Traxx DJs 9pm Establishment, Sydney Sienna Valentine’s Special G-Wizard, Troy T, Lilo, Def Rok 9pm FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel Free The Beats Live! Elliot, Able8, Master of Ribongia, Flight Recorder, Ostinato, Ghostsoul, Mannhiem Rocket, Mike Berkley $12 9pm The Flinders Hotel, Darlinghurst Horne Dogg free 8pm GoodGod Small Club Albatross, Guerre, Canyons (DJ Set), Surprise Guests $5 9pm Home The Venue, Sydney Homemade Saturdays Resident DJs $20 9pm Ivy, Sydney Pure Ivy Ember, Jeff Drake, Wolfpack, Rome & Kalcic, Oh Glam, Mirror Mirror $20 Jackson’s On George, Sydney Ultimate Party Venue Resident DJs free Kit & Kaboodle Supper Club, Kings Cross Kitty Kitty Bang Bang Resident DJs 8pm The Marlborough Hotel Level 1, Newtown Resident DJs free Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville
club guide send your listings to: clubguide@thebrag.com Mad Racket Future Fuzz Simon Caldwell, Ken Cloud, Jimmi James, Zootie $20 One22, Sydney Aril Brikha (SWE), Robbie Lowe, Darkchild (USA), B2B Galaktik, MSG, Dave Stuart $15–$30 9pm The Red Rattler, Marrickville Trashbags 1st Anniversary MC Lauren LaRouge, Kelly Ann Doll, Ace McDermott, DangerBoy, Ray Chashman, Queen Xylene Nocturne, Lara Love, Pepper Grinde, Lady Nostalgic, Video 8 $5 8pm Ruby Rabbit, Darlinghurst Resident DJs 9pm Selina’s Nightclub, Coogee Bay Hotel Resident DJs 8pm Shelbourne Hotel, Sydney Club Troppo MJM, Drew Mercer free–$10 9pm The Sly Fox, Enmore Shake That Monkey Typhonic, DJ G-Mo, Kate Doherty, Raine Supreme free 9pm Spectrum, Darlinghurst Kittens Kittens DJs $10 8pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Child, Darius Bassiray, Matt Weir, Sam Roberts $20
10pm Sun Studios, Alexandria Picnic 4th Birthday Horse Meat Disco (UK), Stephen Allkins, Tamas Jones (Hey Convict!), Matt Vaughn, Andy Webb, Steele Bonus, Perfect Snatch, Long John Saliva, Marcus King, Mirror Mirror, Matt Trousdale $40 9pm Tunnel Nightclub, Kings Cross ONE Saturdays DJs $10$20 10pm The Watershed Hotel Watreshed Presents... Skybar The World Bar, Kings Cross Cakes Sampology, Micah, Keesh, Bart Johnson, Kasey Taylor, Nicc Johnson (Ibiza), Rodskeez, Farj & Paul Fraser, Mike Hyper, Pipemix, Speak Easy DJs
SUNDAY MARCH 18 Bank Hotel, Newtown Sundays Kitty Glitter free 4pm Bar 100, The Rocks Funkdafied Sundays DJs
5pm The Beresford Hotel, Surry Hills Beresford Sundays Resident DJs free 5pm Goldfish, Kings Cross Martini Club free 6pm Gypsy Nightclub, Darlinghurst Sensation 169 Resident DJs $10-$15 11am Name This Bar, Darlinghurst Sunday Sets DJ Competition Flight Deck free 6pm Oatley Hotel Sunday Sets free DJ Tone 7pm Phoenix Bar, Darlinghurst Loose Ends Matty Vaughn free 10pm Ruby Rabbit, Darlinghurst Resident DJs 9pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Sapphire Sundays Trey, Dim SLM, Bobby Digital 8pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Spice Murat Kilic $20 4am The World Bar, Kings Cross Dust Mr Doris, Ben Korbel, James Taylor, Alley Oop free 7pm
club picks up all night out all week...
WEDNESDAY MARCH 14
The Standard, Sydney Canyons (Live & DJ Set), Albatross, Rainbow Chan & Mikie Tyson (Health Club Reunion) $15+bf 9pm
The World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall The Mane Thing, Singha, Pop The Hatch, Brothers Grimm, T-Bo, A-Tonez, Jack Bailey $5 9pm
SATURDAY MARCH 17
THURSDAY MARCH 15
Chinese Laundry, Sydney Aphrodite (UK), Kid Kenobi, Reload, A-Tonez & King Lee, Jeff Drake, Matt Nugent, What So Not, Samrai, Joe Barrs, Alley Oop $20-$25 9pm
GoodGod Front Bar, Chinatown Girls Gone Mild Eliza & Hannah Reilly free 9pm
Goodgod Small Club Albatross, Guerre, Canyons (DJ Set), Surprise Guests $5 9pm
The World Bar, Kings Cross Propaganda Chris Moody (UK), Conrad Greenleaf, Jack Shit, Dan Bombings free (student) $5 9pm
Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville Mad Racket Future Fuzz Simon Caldwell, Ken Cloud, Jimmi James, Zootie $20 10pm
FRIDAY MARCH 16
One22, Sydney Aril Brikha (SWE), Robbie Lowe, Darkchild (USA), B2B Galaktik, MSG, Dave Stuart $15–$30 9pm
Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Movement The Slips (UK) free 8pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Doctor Werewolf, Glovecats, Linken, Vertigo, Day Trip, Scoops $15-$25 10pm GoodGod Small Club, Sydney Bad Apple Robbie Lowe, Ben Ashton, Amy Fairweather, Tom Brereton, MoonChild, Jack Fuller, WhiteCat $10-$15 11pm Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Hermitude, Sietta $20 (+ bf) 8pm sold out The Spice Cellar, Sydney Andee Frost, Andy Webb, Ash Le Rouge $10 10pm
The Spice Cellar, Sydney Child, Darius Bassiray, Matt Weir, Sam Roberts $20 10pm Sun Studios, Alexandria Picnic 4th Birthday Horse Meat Disco (UK), Stephen Allkins, Tamas Jones (Hey Convict!), Matt Vaughn, Andy Webb, Steele Bonus, Perfect Snatch, Long John Saliva, Marcus King, Mirror Mirror, Matt Trousdale $40 9pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Cakes Sampology, Micah, Keesh, Bart Johnson, Kasey Taylor, Nicc Johnson (Ibiza), Rodskeez, Farj & Paul Fraser, Mike Hyper, Pipemix, Speak Easy DJs $20 Horse Meat Disco
BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12 :: 47
snap up all night out all week . . .
spenda c
PICS :: AM
party profile
aril brikha It’s called: T-Quest & Shrug present Aril Brikha (Art Of Vengeance) It sounds like: Deep, dubby, dark, driving, melodic, proggy, trippy, techno. Who’s Playing? Dave Stuar t (Shrug), Robbi e Lowe, DarkChild b2b Galaktik (T-Quest), Aril Brikha (Sweden/ Art Of Vengeance), MSG (Subsonic). Three songs you’ll hear on the night: Tunes by ‘Groove la Chord,’ ‘Palma’ and ‘Read Only Memo Aril Brikha including ry (Octave One Remix)’. And one you definitely won’t: An obscure folky Korean-pop funk tune from some unknown Danish chef. Sell it to us: With haunting strings, filtered chord adorning hypnotic beats, Aril’s live sets transc s and synth pads end multiplying genres and bring back the old feeling dance music’s everof making us just want to dance! The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Spend ing the night glued to the dancefloor in Sydney’s newest underground club. Crowd specs: More techno lovers than you can throw a laptop and controller at. Wallet damage: $20 presale from ResidentAd viser.net Where: One22 / 122 Pitt St (entrance via Lees Crt) When: Saturday March 17 from 9pm
damien lazarus
PICS :: TL
02:03:12 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex St Sydney 82959958
mardi gras
PICS :: AM
01:03:12 :: The Standard :: 3/383 Bourke St Surry Hills 9331 3100
bonobo
PICS :: TL
03:03:12 :: Oxford St Sydney ::
01:03:12 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700 :: KATRINA CLARKE :: JAY S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) RGE POPOV :: ROCKET OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER GEO :: NS MUN IEL LEY MAR :: DAN COLLIER :: MIKEY HART:: ASH WEIJERS ::
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oddisee
PICS :: GP
propaganda
PICS :: DM
02:03:12 :: Metro Theatre :: 624 George St Sydney 9550 3666
01:03:12 :: Civic Underground :: 388 Pitt St Sydney 8080 7000
CHILD DARIUS BASSIRAY TRAPEZ | AUS
TEXTBOOK MUSIC | AUS
SAT 17 MAR ACID MONDAYS 2020 VISION | UK
NEGGHEAD NIGHTMARES 0 ON WAX
GARRY TODD
ALEX WOLFENDEN CAFE MAMBO
CH 3
2DIY4/ILLUSION
SAT 24 MAR
CH 3
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LE BROND AUS
SAT 31 MAR
b a s e m e n t
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i n f o @thespicecellar .com.au t h espicecellar .com.au
BRAG :: 453 :: 12:03:12 :: 49
snap up all night out all week . . .
cabana bar
It’s called: Movement presents The Slips It sounds like: Live electronica, dubstep and disco goodness! Who’s playing? The Slips, DJ Lancelot and Movement DJs Three songs you’ll hear on the night: The Slips have a bunch of tasty remixes to feed your ears including Gotye’s ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ and ‘Downtown’, which is an awesome collab with Phrase, as well as new tunes from The Slips upcoming mixtap e. And one you definitely won’t: Anything ‘90s pop (Aqua, Eiffel 65 etc.) Sell it to us: An evening of UK funky garag e, dubstep, future soul and leftfield house coupled with an awesome live band – every Friday night. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Still having cash in your backburner for Saturday night (no nasty door charges!) Crowd specs: Purveyors of quality electronic music and people wanting to have a good time. Wallet damage: Free!
Where: Beach Road Hotel / 71 Beach Rd, Bondi When: Friday March 16 (and every Friday night) from 8pm
PICS :: AM
party profile
the slips
the spice cellar
PICS :: AM
01:03:12 :: Cabana Bar :: 80 Christie St St Leonards 9436 4288
steve bug
PICS :: AM
03:03:12 :: The Spice Cellar :: 58 Elizabeth St Sydney
mum
PICS :: KC
03:03:12 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex St Sydney 82959958
03:03:12 :: Soho Bar :: 171 Victoria St Potts Point 9358 6511 :: KATRINA CLARKE :: JAY S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) RGE POPOV :: ROCKET OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER GEO :: NS MUN IEL DAN :: LEY MAR COLLIER :: MIKEY HART:: ASH WEIJERS ::
50 :: BRAG :: 453: 12:03:12
teen spirit
PICS :: TL
bassjackers
PICS :: MH
02:03:12 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700
02:03:12 :: Q-Bar :: 34-44 Oxford st Darlinghurst Sydney 9331 3100
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