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One off Gentlemen of the Road Stopover date to be announced
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rock music news welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Nathan Jolly and Andrew Yorke
five things WITH
SIMON FROM TIN CAN RADIO been the more electronic side of music. Growing up I was very much an average kid, listening to Guns N’ Roses, Pearl Jam, Incubus, Oasis and Blur. But when I moved out of home and into uni this changed in a big way. I will never forget being given an Aphex Twin album and my head exploding; all I ever knew of the “dance” world was doof-doof, and the shit being pumped into my ears was definitely not that. After that my world moved from rock to electronic, with musicians like Mike Patton, Björk, The Mars Volta, Foals. A massive influence has to be LA’s Flying Lotus. I immediately fell in love with his rhythms and organic sound. Your Band Tin Can Radio’s crew is made up of five 3. bandmembers, and anyone who can stand
Growing Up There was always music playing in the 1. house when I was growing up. My father was big into his rock – Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, Cream – whereas my mum was more pop, soul and Motown, the smoother side of music. My brother was actually the musical one when I was younger; I used to sit and watch him playing
piano, but after a while he got bored of it, so the home piano became free for me. After that I was hooked, and got a guitar and a set of drums to keep me busy. From then on, my neighbours hated me. A big influence in my life has always 2.Inspirations
listening to our schizophrenic conversations. Plus, we all need daily back rubs – so whoever can stomach Rob’s back hair will do. The Music You Make We’ve got a melting pot of five different 4. musicians, ranging from funk/jazz to drum’n’bass/electronica, which gives us the resources to slam together so many different genres in such a smooth way. It’s like when
the first person dropped pineapple onto a pizza – you never would have thought it’d work, but it works so well. This genre-melding can definitely be heard in our last release Chase The Sun, Hold The Night. More recently, our style has matured a little – but the general feeling has stayed the same. Music, Right Here, Right Now 5. Our new project, Audio Democracy, is a perfect reflection of where we’re at in this present state – but this time, you guys choose how the final product will look and sound. You can check it out on our website: www.tincanradio. com. Also come check out our live shows where the music really comes alive; explosions, chainsaws, zombies, balloons and much, much more. We’re lovin’ a few bands right now – just on tour with the Sydney surfers Rapids who have fit in very well to the Tin Can fam’, as well as up-and-comers Louis London, who we first saw at a house party in Sydney, and Brisbane boppers Fushia. Keep them peepers peeped. With: Rapids, Louis London Where: FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel When: Friday July 13 Xxxx
BEN HARPER TOUR
PUBLISHERS: Adam Zammit & Rob Furst EDITOR IN CHIEF: Adam Zammit 9552 6333 adam@peergroupmedia.com EDITOR: Steph Harmon steph@thebrag.com 02 9698 9645 ARTS & ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Dee Jefferson dee@thebrag.com 02 9690 2731 STAFF WRITER: Caitlin Welsh, Alasdair Duncan NEWS: Nathan Jolly, Alasdair Duncan ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant GRAPHIC DESIGN: Alan Parry SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER: Tim Levy SNAP PHOTOGRAPHERS: Katrina Clarke, Ashley Mar, Daniel Munns, Elke Owens, George Popov, Tim Whitney
Some things are almost impossible to believe: Iggy Pop is 65, Sydney buses are governed by a timetable, Lana Del Rey performing live and Lana Del Rey recording in the studio are one and the same person and... AND... Ben Harper has NEVER before taken a headline, solo tour around Australia. An astonishing piece of information given how frequently the Californianborn blues/folk/soul/reggae/rock musician has visited our shores over his 18-year, ten-album career. Still, this fact will remain true until Monday November 12 when Harper will give a one-man, acoustic performance at the Sydney Opera House as part of a tour that will also take in Brisbane and Melbourne. Tickets go on sale at 9am this Wednesday July 11 via livenation.com. au, and given the popularity of Harper’s previous Australian shows, it’ll be best to get in quick.
Oh Mercy
ADVERTISING: Ross Eldridge - 0422 659 425 / (02) 9690 0806 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, hip hop & parties) INTERNS: Verity Cox, Dijana Kumurdian, Andrew Geeves, Natalie Amat
GOMEZ QUINCEAÑERA
English is cool and all, but it is also limited. Just ask a speaker of Pascuense (the native language of Easter Island), who can utter the single word ‘tingo’ to refer to the act of gradually stealing a friend’s household belongings by borrowing them one at a time. In Spanish, ‘quinceañera’ translates literally as ‘one who is fifteen’, and refers to a rite-ofpassage celebration that occurs in Latin America on a girl’s fifteenth birthday. It’s also the name that UK supergroup Gomez – who are, appropriately, celebrating their fifteenth year of touring – have adopted for their impending Australian tour. Ever the democrats, the versatile five-piece are giving audience members a chance to help create the setlist for their performance at The Hi-Fi on Friday October 19 – visit www.gomeztheband.com for more info.
REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Benjamin Cooper, Alasdair Duncan, Max Easton, Christie Eliezer, Murray Engleheart, Andrew Geeves, Chris Honnery, Nathan Jolly, Anna Kennedy, Sheridan Morley, Jenny Noyes, Hugh Robertson, Romi Scodellaro, Jonno Seidler, Rach Seneviratne, Roland K. Smith, 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
JACK CARTY PARTY
EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher, editors 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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Gomez
OH MERCY
Get any bunch of boys who have ever played sport in a room together, give them a bunch of beer, and eventually someone will start talking about “some guy he knows” who once put Deep Heat on a sensitive area for a dare. Oh, the LOLz! Spoiler: apparently it feels not unlike having your tackle branded with acid magma. Apparently. So why not skip that part and head straight out to see pop geniuses Oh Mercy tour their third album, which is also titled Deep Heat but feels much nicer when it’s rubbed all over your body? You can find them at The Standard on September 29.
Local folkster Jack Carty has been a busy boy of late, launching second album Break Your Own Heart in April, and teaming up with video director Jefferton James (Boy And Bear, Kate MillerHeidke, Dead Letter Chorus) to create the newly released video for single ‘She’s Got A Boyfriend’. Now he’s getting his Dickensian on as he announces his Tales of Two Cities tour, a gig that will see Carty rack up his frequent flyer points by flitting between Sydney and Melbourne during the month of July to play a weekly residency at a bar in each city. Carty will be warming the innards of Café Lounge in Surry Hills with indie, poppy, folky goodness in a series of intimate performances across the Thursday nights of July 12, 19 and 26.
BLUEJUICE TOUR
Shut the front door: a new forerunner has emerged for 2012 tour name of the year. Please welcome Bluejuice and their recently announced ‘Winter Of Our Discotheque’ tour. The Sydney party rockers and full-time humourists may well be exercising their puntastic skills in an attempt to erase from our minds the indelible image of frontman Jake Stone passionately locking lips with a septuagenarian in the infamous video clip for ‘Act Yr Age’ – the first single from 2011 album Company. This upcoming tour coincides with the release of fourth single ‘The Recession’, and Stone and co. will be joined by Deep Sea Arcade
and The Preachers as they visit universities across Australia – including a touchdown at UTS on Friday August 10.
SLEEPMAKESWAVES
Sleepmakeswaves are embarking on a huge national tour to answer the question, ‘Can we truly be a post-rock band if rock is still a going concern?’ If they get time, they may also play tracks from their incredible album ...and so we destroyed everything, and possibly even the single this tour is named after: ‘Now We Rise And We Are Everywhere.’ Catch them on September 7 at The Standard. Tickets from moshtix.
THE AU REVIEW’S MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR
Magical Mystery Tour is the real psychedelic masterstroke in The Beatles’ catalogue, not that Sgt. Pepper thing everyone keeps slamming on top of ‘Best Thing Ever’ lists. The AU Review know this only too well, which is why they have assembled 20-ish musicians – members of Regular John, City Riots, Guineafowl, Winter People, Lime Cordiale, Cameras, Deep Sea Arcade et al – to perform the whole damn thing live (with a string, horn and woodwind section!). The brilliant website is celebrating its fourth birthday on August 3 at Oxford Art Factory, and there’ll be secret special guests too – which means turn up early or miss Bowie, probably!
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rock music news
free stuff
welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Nathan Jolly and Andrew Yorke
YOUTH LAGOON
five things WITH
MICK HART Inspirations My favourite muso list is 2. pretty huge, but I do tend to go back to the old-school days. I grew up listening and learning to Jimi Hendrix on guitar and Bob Dylan, Stones, Beatles etc. Flea from the Chili Peppers has always been a modern inspiration, as well as Ben Harper for my slide/ Weissenborn stuff. And many, many more...
recorded in Coogee with Luke Bertoz engineering, and we really love it for its rawness and purity in sound, and the little quirks in between. The upcoming live shows will obviously feature a lot of the new album plus heaps of old favourites as well, and a few awesome surprises. We have some great new ideas for the live show this time around, and can’t wait for it!
Your Crew Music, Right Here, My bandmates are Damian Right Now 3. 5. Leonard (bass) and Tony Chubb The current music scene seems (drums) – my long-time friends and collaborators. They are amazing players and beautiful souls. I also have some other very tight buds who often play with me as well, especially my very close friend Steve “Mojo Man” Smith (bass/guitar). He’s a legend! We all connect so well musically because we are so tight as friends, and to me that means everything. The Music You Make My style is a diverse blend 4. of indie folk and roots. In the
1.
Growing Up My dad is a brilliant musician – still plays live, also! – and my earliest musical memories are of him rehearsing with his band at our home when
I was like five or six – they would show me things, and let me join in. That’s where it all started for sure – learning on all the different instruments, guitar, bass, drums etc…
FUMIN’
The Fumes manage to make two-piece bluesy rock sound nothing like The Black Keys or The White Stripes, but still sound gritty, and loose, and amazing. Their new single ‘Dance In Costume’ is their best to date, which is really the way to do things rather than that slow decline so many bands seem fond of... Catch them at The Brass Monkey on July 12, or Notes the following night.
FAIT ACCOMPLI
When I think of ‘soul punk’ I just think of James Brown in a leather jacket with face piercings. Sydney three-piece Fait Accompli don’t look anything like this image, which was startling until I listened to their new EP Spies and got all, ‘ohhh, soul puuuunk, I see.’ They play The Annandale Hotel on Friday July 20 with special guests Chicks Who Love Guns, Udays Tiger, Bang! Bang! Rock ‘n’ Roll, Bec and Ben, Papercrane and Violet Pulp. That’s a lot of special guests.
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM
past I’ve been compared to Ben Harper, Dylan, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead and Ryan Adams, but it is ever-evolving for me musically. Side By Side is my seventh studio album. It was
healthy as always, with brilliant and different music out there – but unfortunately for Sydney, there’s a very limited range of venues. There are still some excellent places though, and the Vanguard is definitely a favourite of mine! I saw Ryan Adams’ solo show at the Opera House in February, and it was mindblowing seeing him totally hold the audience for over two hours in that wonderful space. A hugely inspirational gig for me! What: Side By Side is out now Where: The Vanguard When: Saturday July 14 More: Touring through NSW in August; for more shows, see www.mickhart.com.au
22-year-old cutie pie Trevor Powers, a.k.a. Youth Lagoon, exploded onto the world stage when music’s pompous uncle Pitchfork deemed his debut album The Year Of Hibernation among the Top 50 records of last year. The multi-instrumentalist charmed Sydney audiences in February, and is bringing back his fragile vocals and electronic dream pop for Splendour In The Grass, as well as sideshows in Sydney and Melbourne. What’s better than that? Youth Lagoon has just announced that the show at The Factory Theatre on Friday July 27 is all-ages – with support from Sydney’s Sures and Bearhug. If you and a buddy want to go to the show (and score a free copy of the album), just chuck on your cuffed skinnies, ironic kitten-printed sweater and tell us which Sydney wunderkind supported Youth Lagoon on their last tour.
THE TEA PARTY
Did you ever want to be one of those yahoos making a ruckus on a band’s live album? C’mon, what do you think, you’re too cool or something? I mean, Liam Gallagher heckled the rest of Oasis at an MTV Unplugged show, and I’m sure your mum yelled out “Marry me!” at a Duran Duran concert that one time... Anyway, Canadian rock veterans The Tea Party are coming to Australia on their reunion tour, and because their super generous fans pledged them some cash, they’ll be recording a live double album to later be released on vinyl. To celebrate, we’re giving away two double passes to the Sydney show at the Hordern Pavilion on Saturday July 21, plus two signed posters. To be a part of rock history, just answer this: which video game did The Tea Party bassist Stuart Chatswood compose the soundtrack for?
THE SMITH STREET BAND
No One Gets Lost Anymore from Melbourne hearton-sleeve Bright Eyesy/Springsteeny group The Smith Street Band was one of the best albums released last year – or any year, really. There, we said it. We are therefore already reserving a space for the upcoming follow-up Sunshine and Technology in our end-of-year list, and we haven’t even heard it yet. It’s out August 24, but you get to hear the new songs live on September 8 at The Annandale. They’re bringing out The Restorations as a support act, too!
Beach House
TIN CAN RADIO
Tin Can Radio have been on a songwriting binge apparently, which is much healthier than a Burger Rings binge or a heroin binge. Their new single ‘It Goes On’ is an art-pop gem – all hooks and weaving guitars and shifting structures – and it’s being launched at FBi Social this Friday July 13, with support from Rapids, Buzz Kill,
Bitch Prefect
FALLS FESTIVAL!
“Look at the situation / they got me facing / I can’t live a normal life / I was raised by the state.” If you are now rapping the next part of this at your significant other, then you have undoubtedly already decided to come to Falls Music and Arts Festival over the NYE holidays, to see Coolio perform alongside an eighty-act-strong lineup which features The Flaming Lips, Beach House, SBTRKT, Sampology, Best Coast, The Vaccines and tons of others who are yet to be announced. Enter the ticket ballot at fallsfestival.com before it closes on August 2, and then cross your fingers, hack databases, whatever it takes to be there, really. (NB: Falls happens in Tasmania and Victoria, which are relatively far away from NSW – but we can hear those sideshow announcements whispering through the wind…)
Louis London and that old guy who stands uncomfortably close to the stage and claps before the songs end. Later that night, video mash-up party rocker (sorry) DJ Tom Loud will be taking you from 1954 to the present day via dance music, at the Hot Dub Time Machine. Good night, yeah?
NEW ESTATE BRIGHTEN UP
BITCH PREFECT
Bitch Prefect’s debut record Big Time is yet another brilliant album from the folks at Bedroom Suck Records, who are releasing quality records like nobody’s business. This one comes from Adelaide and it’s all lo-fi in a non-shitty way, and the guitars jangle like the Stone Roses’ guitars jangle. Which is the correct way to jangle. You can watch it live on August 25 at the Red Rattler in Marrickville.
We love Melbourne band New Estate. Their fourth album Recovery is warm and sprawling and messy and sweet and summery and makes me wanna meet someone and fall in love and let them break my heart so this record can warm my corners. They launch it on Thursday July 12 at Brighton Up Bar, which is on Oxford St, around the 77 Oxford Street area. Exactly around there.
GET YOUR CLUBFEET ON
The Pitchfork-endorsed Clubfeet are celebrating their new double A-side ‘City Of Light’/’This Time’
by synthing up a storm on Wednesday July 11 at GoodGod Small Club. These guys came all the way from Cape Town to Melbourne and are now coming all the way from Melbourne to Sydney, so the least you can do is catch a cab to this show. C’mon guys, I’lls are supporting! They are a punctuationist’s dream!
THE BRAND NEW HEAVIES
Brand New Heavies spent the ‘90s turning key areas of London into acid jazz hang outs – which we imagine was much like the prohibition era in every single way, except Jay from Jamiroquai kept turning up in that fucking hat trying to join the scene. These legendary soul funk pioneers are returning to Sydney in September, playing (and selling out, let’s be honest) The Metro Theatre on September 8. Tickets are on sale Monday July 16 from 9am, which acid jazz fans will struggle to be awake for... Wake and bake?
“The golden gates, the closing clouds, Jacob, the ladder has fallen down” - PATRICK WOLF 10 :: BRAG :: 470 :: 09:07:12
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The Music Network
themusicnetwork.com
Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer
THINGS WE HEAR
* Fans can be enterprising: Vienna authorities are considering filing charges against a man suspected of breaking into the Verona graves of 19th century Austrian waltz king Johann Strauss Jr. and German Romantic composer Johannes Brahms, and taking their teeth. Meantime, a girl dressed just like one of One Direction’s girlfriends and talked her way into the backstage area. * Soundwave 2013 rumours: Linkin Park to headline, according to Triple M’s Nui Te Koha. Promoter AJ Maddah Twittered that he is flying to America “in a few weeks” to catch a Blink 182 show, so that he can “beg in person.” * The Cat Stevens/Yusef Islam musical Moonshadow is closing four weeks ahead of schedule in Melbourne, and won’t be coming to Sydney. * By the time you read this, Create/Control would have announced that it has added 12-piece Brisbane collective Velociraptor to its roster. * Gina McKeon, a journalist contributing to FBi’s weekly program All The Best, received the Walkley Award for Young Australian Journalist of the Year (Radio), and also Highly Commended in the general Young Journalist of the Year category. Her story on The Block in Redfern won her the award.
CHANNEL [V] WELCOMES MARTY SMILEY
Melbourne’s Marty Smiley was named the new presenter for Channel [V]. He joined a nationwide search that saw 6,000 apply online. Smiley, 21, is an art student, a youth worker at Reach Foundation, and an ‘80s tragic who wanted to be on TV after seeing U2 and Pearl Jam play together at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl at 15. Channel [V] introduced him to the media at a party last Tuesday, where he charmed us with a delightful bow-tie, an acceptance speech rap, and a spontaneous dance routine later in the night.
ARTERY SETS UP IN AUSTRALIA, UNDER LEOST
* Nigerian-born Daniel Okoduwa, who runs an African DVD and music store on Flushcombe Road, Blacktown, received the African Entrepreneur of Year Award at the African Professionals of Australia annual gala night at Homebush. He was lauded for his film Gossip Nation about Blacktown’s African community. * Figures by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, which were released by Clubs NSW, showed that assaults in licensed clubs on the far North Coast fell to 22 last year, from 54 in 2004. This was, club owners say, due to more public education, and more commitment to throwing out patrons who were getting too drunk. * Slash and Odd Future’s Tyler The Creator were among those who applauded Frank Ocean’s admission last week that his first lover was a man. * A vote in the European Parliament overwhelmingly defeated the international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Losing its support for the ACTA was a bitter blow for copyright owners, but Euro legislators said it could allow internet users to be spied on by private companies, and be disconnected at a whim. Australia was among those who signed the ACTA. * The company behind the All Tomorrow’s Parties series of curated boutique festivals is in liquidation, while founder Barry Hogan has set up a new company.
tipped to become the first song to sell six million downloads in a year. It is currently the 15th best-selling digital song of all time. Adele’s 21 is the best selling album, moving 3.69 million in America and 4.36 million in her homeland.
THELMA PLUM UNEARTHED
17-year-old Brisbane singer-songwriter Thelma Plum won the (National Indigenous Music Awards) NIMAs' triple j Unearthed competition. Plum, who has an Indigenous Australian and Brazilian heritage, will perform at the NIMA awards in Darwin on Saturday August 11, alongside The Medics, East Journey and Troy Cassar-Daley. She will also attend the iNTune Conference that week.
California’s The Artery Foundation – which manages skull-crunching acts like All Shall Perish, The Amity Affliction (US only), Asking Alexandria, Dance Gavin Dance, Whitechapel and Unearth – is opening up in Australia. They appointed Matt Leost (Premier and Fetch) as their first Australian manager and representative. Leost will bring his current roster including Buried In Verona, Make Them Suffer, Built On Secrets, Saviour and The Storm Picturesque to Artery. He will also manage US band For All Those Sleeping in Australia. Leost will assist in negotiating touring contracts and logistics for Artery artists within Australia, and nurture the signing of Oz talent to the Artery roster. He can be contacted at matt@thearteryfoundation.com
SHEPHERD DEPARTS SOUND ALLIANCE
GOTYE’S BIGGEST SELLING SINGLE IN THE US AND UK
GURRUMUL GOES PLATINUM
Half-year sales figures show that the definitely undead Gotye monster ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ is the biggest selling single in the US and UK so far in 2012, selling 5.59 million and one million respectively. It is one of two tracks to sell over five million this year, the other being fun.’s ‘We Are Young’. It is
Ben Shepherd, commercial director at Sound Alliance for the past two and half years, is leaving and returning to Melbourne. His replacement is Ryan Bernal, GM of US Sydney, in a wider role as managing director. Sound Alliance runs InTheMix, Faster Louder, Mess And Noise and Same Same.
SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS OPEN
APRA and the AGSC are calling for submissions for the 2012 Screen Music Awards. Go to apra-amcos.com.au; the deadline is Monday August 6. Gurrumul’s Rrakala is certified Platinum for sales of 70,000. His performance at the globally televised Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in London (100 million worldwide) and recent screening of his episode of ABC-TV’s Australian Story nudged it over the mark. His debut album in 2008 went 3x Platinum (210,000).
DAVID GUETTA RE-SIGNS WITH EMI
The biggest electronica act in the world, French electronic artist, DJ and producer David Guetta, has re-signed with EMI Music. He has sold eight million albums and 30 million singles since he signed up to the French division of EMI in 2001. Guetta said, “EMI is home to me. They believed in my music a decade ago when EDM was just an underground scene and took it to another level. I am very happy to extend my deal with the best team on the planet.” Guetta has over 33 million Facebook fans, five million followers on Twitter, and almost 1.5 billion online video views. ‘Titanium’ is the longest-charting dance hit since ‘Thriller’.
ART OF SLEEPING & KIRIN J CALLINAN JOIN SELECT
Two more acts have joined Select Music’s roster. Art Of Sleeping broke through on the triple j hit ‘Empty Hands’, and toured with Owl Eyes. Kirin J Callinan has been selling out shows on the East Coast, and recently signed to Grizzly Bear member Chris Taylor’s label Terrible Records.
GRAINY VIDEO PROVES SINGER INNOCENT?
A grainy video could end the manslaughter case against Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe. He was nabbed when the American band returned to the Czech Republic for shows. Police said that two years ago, Blythe caused the death of a fan (known as Daniel N.) at a LOG show in Prague. Fan-filmed video used in news reports at the time showed the fan jump onstage three times, and the singer and a security guard throwing him off; Daniel landed on the floor and died two weeks later. While Blythe posted bail of four million Czech koruna (AU$191,000), new fan-filmed video emerged, showing someone pulling Daniel off the stage (possibly a security guy) – with the singer far from the action.
PAUL SERGEANT LEAVING ALLPHONES ARENA
Paul Sergeant, GM of Allphones Arena, leaves in late September to become CEO of Etihad Stadium in Melbourne. Rod Pilbeam, Executive Director of venue manager AEG Ogden, is talking to candidates “who can further develop the success that the Allphones Arena business has enjoyed over the past six years.”
RICE IS NICE INKS GOOD HEAVENS
Sydney/Melbourne-based indie label Rice Is Nice have signed Good Heavens. They heard new songs by Sarah Kelly (redsunband) and linked her with ex-Wolfmother members Myles Heskett and Chris Ross. Label managers Julia Wilson and Ben Shackleton said, “This collaboration sees these songs move into a new light, and a new band head out into the world.” Good Heavens had the chance to showcase their sound at the Rice Is Nice label party, which sold out The Annandale Hotel last Sunday.
WANNA PROGRAM BIGSOUND 2013?
QMusic is looking for an Executive Programmer for the 2013 Big Sound music industry conference and showcase in Brisbane; the new programmer will be replacing Graham Ashton. More info at bigsound.org.au; deadline is July 26. The appointment will be made in September.
Lifelines
Expecting: Kings Of Leon drummer Nathan Followill and wife Jessie, their first. Divorced: Puddle Of Mudd singer Wes Scantlin was so happy to finally end his four-year marriage that he signed the divorce docs with TWO smiley faces. Hospitalised: Slipknot guitarist Jim Root narrowly escaped death; it was diagnosed that his appendix burst two weeks before. Hospitalised: Pennywise singer Zoli Teglas collapsed onstage and needed back surgery. Hospitalised: Children Of Bodom singer Alexi Laiho, after suffering extreme stomach pain before a show in Oslo, Norway. Injured: Kelly Clarkson ended up with a hairline fracture in her leg, after tripping over a mic stand while walking across the stage after a show in Milwaukee. In Court: Rick Ross did not father a secret child in Florida three years ago, says a courtordered DNA test, after a woman demanded paternity payment from him. In Court: Glebe Coroners Court could not determine if former Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs drummer Col Baigent – one of a few suspects – had anything to do with the death of the family nanny in Coolah, northern NSW, in 1991. In Court: Usher’s stalker, who turned up outside his house claiming to be the singer’s wife, has been sent to a psych ward for mental evaluation.
SHOCK GETS HEAVY WITH RAZOR & TIE
Shock’s relationship with New York’s Razor & Tie has been solidified with a new arrangement. Shock will promote, market and release R&T’s heavy music priorities in Australia and New Zealand. The first under the deal are P.O.D. and For Today, then All That Remains and The Sword. Shock GM of Music, Leigh Gruppetta, said, “With the direction [R&T] are taking and their brilliant new A&R team in place, we feel there is a great deal of synergy between the two companies.”
ST. VINCENT: THE SEXIEST INDIE WOMAN
Annie Clark, aka St Vincent, was voted ‘2012’s Sexiest Woman In Indie Rock’ in a poll by online dating service Nerve. Cat Power was second, then Santi White (Santigold), Alexis Krauss (Sleigh Bells), Caroline Polachek (Chairlift), Bethany Cosentino (Best Coast), Brittany Howard (Alabama Shakes), Haim, Megan James (Purity Ring) and Malin Dahlström (Niki & The Dove).
Over the next few months in Sydney, we’ll be installing new equipment which is designed to bring you a better experience than ever before from Vodafone and to prepare for 4G. If you are a Vodafone customer there is likely to be some disruption to your service. However, we’ll mostly be working throughout the night between 11pm and 8am to minimise any inconvenience. We apologise sincerely for any inconvenience. If you have any queries or experience any issues please visit vodafone.com.au/networknews or call us on 1300 650 410.
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BRAG :: 470 :: 09:07:12 :: 13
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Piece By Piece By Alasdair Duncan
S
ynthetica is something of a landmark album for Canadian indie synth rockers Metric. Singer Emily Haines said that for her, the record is all about “forcing yourself to confront what you see in the mirror when you finally stand still long enough to catch a reflection.” It’s a typically-cryptic statement from Haines, but thankfully keyboard player and long-time collaborator James Shaw is able to shed some light on what exactly she means: “In the past, her writing process has always been that before each record, she would go away somewhere and disappear into total isolation for a few months,” he explains. “She would find inspiration outside of herself, get out of her head. This time around, she didn’t do that, so her writing became more about her, about her experiences, about how she fits in, and her life. She wasn’t writing about external things. For the first time, she was writing about herself.” In the past, Haines has returned from her trips away with the raw material for songs that she and Shaw would then interpret together – so her decision to stay in Toronto ultimately made for Metric’s most collaborative album to date. “We wrote together the entire time,” Shaw explains. “She didn’t write entire songs as such – she wrote pieces, and then we’d put them together and take them apart in all kinds of different combinations, until we found something we really liked.” The band had a big board in the studio, and if a section of a particular song wasn’t working, they’d look at it, and find another piece to put in its place. “The record is almost like a huge collection of all these different pieces rather than a collection of songs,” Shaw continues. “It’s really interesting, because we’ve never worked that way before.” After a decade of working together, Haines and Shaw have a seemingly unbreakable musical bond. She writes the ghostly melodies that characterise Metric’s songs, and he fills the arrangements with all manner of synthetic sounds. “My inspirations are sonic,” Shaw
says. “I’ll go buy a new synthesiser and the minute I plug it in and I’m hearing new sounds I’ve never heard before, I’ll get really excited and think about all the possible ways I can use them to write songs. All of my songwriting is based on the exploration of musical instruments.” Shaw is not the type to think up a chord progression and find any old instrument to play it on – for him the sound comes first, and everything else follows.
some deep sense of unease with the state of the modern world. “We didn’t set out to make a concept record or anything like that, but at a certain point in the writing process, we began to see a through-line of a lot of themes recurring. The name Synthetica had been around for a while, and it wasn’t letting up. We were waiting for the moment when we’d back out and come up with another title, but that didn’t happen. It stayed with us.”
In the early stages of writing Synthetica, Shaw hoarded as many different keyboards as possible, to find new sounds and new ideas. “I wanted to hear as many of them as I could,” he says with a laugh, “so in the lead-up to the writing, I scoured the internet to find the strangest and most bizarre keyboards. I ended up getting so many that I set up a little area in the studio that we called Synth World, and that’s where most of the writing happened.” One keyboard proved particularly inspiring – when Shaw happened upon a Farfisa, an oldfashioned electronic organ from Italy, it shaped a lot of what followed. “The Farfisa really spoke to us, and it became sort of a sonic fingerprint for the record,” he explains. “The whole opening to ‘Artificial Nocturne’ is based around it, as is a lot of ‘Dreams So Real’. I guess we were all just floored by the sound of it.”
When writing the album, the members of Metric were all fascinated with the notion that, with so much change happening in the world and technology evolving so fast, it can be hard to know what’s true and what’s real. “When you read news online, you have no way of knowing if it’s true or not,” Shaw says. “You can have thousands of friends on Facebook but they can all be strangers. Entire relationships can take place via text messaging, without people ever meeting one-another. When you say something in a text, are you saying it? Does it have any weight to it?” The record, ultimately, was about this realisation; that the modern world can be duplicitous and vague, and it can be hard to know what’s happening. “We’ve begun to substitute real communities for online ones, but it can be hard to know what that really means, or what’s true in that process,” Shaw continues. “I think those feelings really made their way into the music this time.”
My discussion with Shaw progresses from the arrangements on Synthetica to the songs themselves. The lyrics feature recurring themes of the artificial and the unreal – the synthetic, as the title suggests – and seem to draw upon
It’s a concept that comes through on the lead single ‘Youth Without Youth’, which is about the fleeting notion of childhood in the modern age.
“My inspirations are sonic. I scoured the internet to find the strangest and most bizarre keyboards. I ended up getting so many that I set up a little area in the studio that we called Synth World, and that’s where most of the writing happened...”
The song initially came into being a number of years ago, but back then, it had a very different form – it was very slow and ballad-y, nothing like the stomper we now hear on Synthetica. “It’s about this idea of childhood in a world where childhood is rare,” Shaw explains. “Kids are forced into an adult world quite prematurely – they’re exposed to a lot, they play games with weapons – so we decided that we wanted an arrangement to match that, we wanted music with a lot of aggression and anger. I remember when that was done, Emily decided on the title. She doesn’t like songs to be named after other things, and ‘Youth Without Youth’ is also the name of a Coppola film, but with this one she felt it had to be that way.” Like the last Metric album, Synthetica is being independently released by the band on their own label, MMI – they even streamed the whole thing on Soundcloud in the lead-up to its release, in order to minimise online piracy. Running your own label is a lot more work, but Shaw tells me Metric would rather spend Wednesday, Thursday and Friday planning the release of their record than find out on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday that it all went wrong and now must be fixed. “It’s definitely more work, but it’s the right kind of work,” Shaw says. “The expenditure is massive, but the money comes back to you. It’s making the band the main employer, as opposed to the band being the employee of a label. When you make money for a record label, they spend some of it on you but keep a lot for themselves. Financially, it works out better this way – it’s just that we do a little more.” What: Synthetica is out now on Metric Music International (MMI), through Create/Control Where: The Hi-Fi When: Thursday July 26 More: Also playing alongside Jack White, The Shins, Bloc Party, The Smashing Pumpkins, Lana Del Rey, Azaelia Banks, Youth Lagoon and more at Splendour In The Grass, held from July 27-29 at Belongil Fields, Byron Bay
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Cake Reap The Harvest By Andrew Geeves
“It’s incredible that there’s no musicians’ union, after so many years of exploitation. There’s a good opportunity for it. Where it’s doable is hard to say...” “You have companies whose business model is based on monetising the popularity of something created by an independent filmmaker, author or band by increasing the rate of the advertising they provide on the way to an ostensibly free product,” McCrea laments. “Musicians are then in the unfortunate position of having to negotiate with companies like Spotify, who offer insulting rates with very little transparency. The priorities are wrong. There should be more emphasis on allowing artists to eat food.” After a quick pause McCrea utters self-consciously, “This isn’t what you want to talk about, is it?”
“I
Woah. The seriousness and immediacy of McCrea’s sense of purpose startles me. Is he spearheading a much-needed movement for the unionisation of North American musicians? “It’s incredible there is no union after so many years of exploitation,” he replies, dodging my question via deft paraphrasing. “Here in the US, we have 25% fewer working musicians than we did ten years ago. The tech industry has proven to be very good at taking advantage of that. There’s a good
opportunity [for unionisation]. Whether it’s doable is hard to say, but it’s worth a try.” McCrea’s take on the plight of the modern day working musician is a theme that will be familiar to anyone that has read interviews with the man who, alongside Vince DiFiore, has driven Cake since their inception just over 20 years ago. So why does the current climate in the music industry make it near impossible to pursue musicianship as a career? “It’s always been difficult”, McCrea starts, “but the big [change] is that the traditional music industry gatekeepers are becoming more powerless. It’s increasingly difficult to keep peoples’ attention. Musicians who were just on the margins have now been removed from the pool.” The elimination of marginal yet talented musicians sounds grim, but it is a state of affairs with which McCrea has firsthand familiarity. “I have one friend – whose name I’m not going to mention, but who you would have heard of – and he is a really important and influential songwriter. He is now studying to become a bricklayer, but he deserves to write songs.”
“I think it’s a fascinating time,” McCrea continues. “New corrupt companies replacing old corrupt companies.” He won’t be drawn on the identity of these ‘old corrupt companies’; a wise move, perhaps, given that Cake spent most of the six years that passed between the release of Showroom and previous studio album Pressure Chief extrapolating themselves from a record label. But he is willing to disclose a reluctant preference for the way things were: “Old gatekeepers definitely stole money from artists, but they paid a lot more than the new gatekeepers. [Nowadays] you have these huge overloads and everyone else is working for free.”
Oops. I’m trying to ask how his band manage to engage in serious issues without becoming too embittered – but McCrea has misinterpreted it as evidence that his band aren’t being taken seriously. The operator rescues me from further misunderstanding, informing me that our chat must soon come to an end. I retreat to the safety of what Australian audiences can expect from Cake’s imminent performances. “We don’t use a setlist, but we’ll probably play a few songs from all our albums. The live Cake experience is a lot messier and louder than the recorded music.” McCrea recommends two books on musicians’ rights as I thank him for his time, before concluding the interview by softly adding, “Sorry if I got us off on the wrong subject.” With: Beck, Sigur Rós, Ben Fold’s Five, Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane, The Dandy Warhols, Grizzly Bear, Beirut and more Where: Harvest Festival @ Parramatta Park When: Saturday November 17
Afghan Whigs Unbreakable By Benjamin Cooper
W
hen you’ve ridden rough-shod over more than two decades of alternative music, there are particular assumptions that come with curating your own festival. But Greg Dulli of the iconic Afghan Whigs is not in the slightest bit interested in grandstanding about his role in September’s All Tomorrow’s Parties in New Jersey. It will be only the second time that his band has performed in America since reforming last year, but the frontman is focused on the rest of the bill. “The day we’re curating is still a work in progress,” he admits down the line from Los Angeles. “But we’re going to have some tight stuff. We’ve got everything from Louis CK to Jose Gonzalez – but I’m really looking forward to Charles Bradley. My friend tour-managed him last year and invited me to one of his shows. I was blown away by his story, the voice, and just his humility.” Without wanting to engage in an overt circle jerk, I’m interested to know what the frontman of such a seminal band took away from witnessing Bradley’s heady brews of funk and soul? “First up, I have to point out that you just used the word ‘seminal’ shortly after you said ‘circle jerk’. I mean, that was the same sentence and all!” Dulli laughs. “I think there’s your article title right there ‘Afghan Whigs: Seminal Circle Jerks’... But seriously, when I see a guy like
“Emotionally or spiritually, I was in a pretty unhealthy place. That’s what makes going out and playing so well now really exciting... like I’m vindicating my former self.” 16 :: BRAG :: 470 :: 09:07:12
Charles Bradley I’m not watching his moves so much as I’m feeling what he’s about. I don’t know Charles personally all that well, but there seems to be something in how he has transcended his struggles. He has finally achieved the acclaim that eluded him for so long – that’s a rare thing.” Acclaim certainly did not elude Dulli’s band throughout the 1990s; their post-punk and soul-inflected releases through Seattle stable Sub Pop Records gathered them a swathe of fans across America and Europe. And any lingering doubts about their talent were flung aside when the band returned to performing after a decade-long hiatus, in a sold-out show this May at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. “It was a hell of a night,” Dulli says. “I have really never stopped performing, so I wasn’t worried about how the show was going to go. We’ve all kept busy; I’ve spent a lot of time working with Mark [Lanegan, ex-Kyuss and Queens Of The Stone Age] in The Gutter Twins, or recording various projects. But after the show, Jonathan [Poleman, Sub Pop founder] came up to us and said, ‘I’ve got to be honest, man: I always thought you were a great band, but I cannot believe that you are all playing so incredibly.’ That was really cool because he’s known about this stuff from the very start, and that kind of validation is nice.” The positive reception to the band’s comeback shows was particularly important for Dulli. “I definitely can’t speak for the others [in the band], but I know that during the last tour I wasn’t in the best shape of my life,” he says. When I suggest that feeling a little off-kilter would have been only natural – Dulli had been in a two-month coma prior to the 2000 tour – he quickly interjects: “I don’t really like to talk about any of that stuff these days. I will say, though, that emotionally or spiritually or whatever I was in a pretty unhealthy place. That’s what makes going out and playing our songs so well now really exciting. I don’t want to sound cheesy, but it does feel like I’m vindicating my former self.” If Dulli feels a responsibility to clarify some of his musical legacy, it extends only as far as that final tour in 2000. Since then he’s
worked constantly, although admittedly “in an enormously self-involved way,” he laughs. “I work on my own stuff, or do some production work on my friends’ bands. Or sometimes I just send Mark [Lanegan] some ideas – but we usually just argue like teenagers about basketball.” Lanegan and Dulli have shared a particularly productive relationship through the former’s involvement in the latter’s group The Twilight Singers for more than a decade. From this project they developed The Gutter Twins collaboration in 2003, which released an EP and an album and toured extensively, including to Australia in 2009. “Oh man,” Dulli recalls, “Mark and me played at Byron a few years back, and even though we were acoustic people seemed to be digging it.” I compare their music to the exceedingly high decibel output from Mark Lanegan Band’s recent Australian tour, and Dulli is somewhat taken aback. “Really?” he asks. “I always find it surprising when people
comment on how loud his show is, because Mark does not really like loud music. I’ve actually discussed this before with Josh Homme, and we were both saying that even though Mark looks like a rock’n’roll demon in Queens Of The Stone Age, we all know he’s packing the most protective earplugs imaginable.” So should Australian fans be bracing for loudness when The Afghan Whigs tour here for the first time later this year? “I think we’re all much more peaceful guys these days – but we are playing really well, so it could get loud.” When: Thursday July 26 Where: The Factory Theatre More: Also playing at Splendour In The Grass alongside Jack White, Bloc Party, Smashing Pumpkins, The Shins, At The Drive-In, Lana Del Ray, Explosions In The Sky and loads more, held July 27-29 at Belongil Fields, Byron Bay
Cake photo by Robert McKnight
love your city. It’s well situated,” is the closest John McCrea comes to small talk. Speaking from an early evening in Oakland, California – a city the Cake frontman drolly articulates as similar to Sydney in being “well situated geographically” – McCrea gives me more than I bargain for when I enquire about his day. “I’ve been working with musicians’ collective bargaining. We will be in a bad way if we don’t find new ways of aggregating our power against some of these huge new tech industry corporations that are counting on how disconnected we are from each other.”
I was expecting to talk more about Cake’s journey to Australia in November to perform at Harvest Festival, and to hear something about Showroom Of Compassion – the sixth studio album from the Sacramento-based fivepiece, which was released on their own record label, recorded in a purpose-built solar-powered studio, and holds the double-edged and uncannily apposite honour of being the lowest selling album ever to reach #1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. But hey, musicians’ rights are cool too.
McCrea’s unrelenting austerity is disconcerting; although known for being ardent proponents of a number of social and environmental issues, ranging from the importance of music education in North American high schools to sustainability, the ideas conveyed in Cake’s music always come wrapped in a more light-hearted wit. “Well apparently I haven’t been very good at getting my message across if I am interpreted solely as a court jester,” comes the gentle but firm rebuke. “There’s some irony in our music, but there’s some fairly sincere emotion as well that’s not in any way ebullient or celebratory.” McCrea’s tone becomes sterner and his words more pointed here. “Most people haven’t listened to a whole album by us. I would hope there would be a lot of variance in a six-album career. Our stuff that has been successful seemed like a lot of fun, but it’s not the entirety of our scope.”
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Baby et Lulu A Parisian Affair By Alasdair Duncan
A
bby Dobson is best known as the singer of ethereal Aussie pop group Leonardo’s Bride, but this month she launches a whole new project. A collaboration with her long-time friend Lara Goodridge of FourPlay fame, Baby et Lulu sees Dobson moving in an entirely different direction – one which celebrates the pair’s love of classic French songs. Their self-titled debut sees them reinterpreting the music of legends like Edith Piaf, Brigitte Bardot and Françoise Hardy, and for Dobson, it represents the culmination of a life-long love affair with all things French, which began when she learned the language in high school, and peaked with a trip to Paris as a youngster. “After I finished school, I went travelling for a year with Dean Manning, who was my boyfriend at the time and who would later form Leonardo’s Bride with me,” she explains. “We travelled with a guitar with the romantic idea that one day we’d have to sing for our supper, which we ended up doing quite soon into the trip. We spent six months of that time in Paris, playing a couple of nights a week in a bar, three of four sets a night.” Dobson has since returned to the city many times, and always finds something new to love about it. “It’s so beautiful – even the lights along the Seine are art-directed,” she sighs. “I can eat there, I can drink there, I can smoke there, and it just feels fabulous.”
Dobson has always had French songs in the back of her mind, but when she and her friend Goodridge realised that they shared a love of Piaf and the like, making music together was only a matter of time. “Lara and I had toyed around with the idea of doing French songs together for a while – we’d even spent some time in Paris together,” Dobson tells me. “Then one night, at a party, her boyfriend talked us into getting up on a couple of chairs together and performing a French song. We enjoyed it so much we just thought, ‘This can’t be over!’ From that we started choosing other songs and working on them. It’s been a side-project for both of us for a number of years, so we’ve been building up to this for a while.” Baby et Lulu’s songs are built around harmony, which, for Dobson, is the real thrill of being involved in the group. “Harmonising is one of the most beautiful and freeing things you can do as a singer,” she explains. “It’s a pure, naïve joy – you feel like a bird. We both adore it, and Lara is fantastic at harmonising. I remember one of the first rehearsals we did – we were doing the project remotely, with me living in Melbourne, and we’d swapped songs back and forth and put a repertoire together. But then we met up and sang together for the first time and I just had this real feeling of pure, childlike joy come over me, like, ‘When I grow up, I want to do this!’”
The Rubens Finders Keepers By Callum Fitzpatrick
W
hat a year it’s been for The Rubens. The four-piece was only hatched in early 2011, yet they’ve already scored a spot in triple j’s Hottest 100, jetted over to New York to record their debut album with bigshot producer David Kahne, and they’re now getting ready to play a host of sold-out shows and massive festivals around the country. Now that they’ve returned to their hometown of Menangle, New South Wales, the three brothers – Sam, Elliott and Zaac Margin – along with good mate Scott Baldwin have had some time to reflect on how quickly they rocketed onto our radars. But such fast success is still a little hard to come to terms with. “I don’t know what the hell just happened, dude,” says frontman Sam. “The whole triple j Unearthed thing just came out of nowhere, and since then it’s been the busiest and most intense seven or eight months of my life.” Although much of the band’s progression can be attributed to the triple j airplay they received, Sam explains that jetting off to New York to record the debut album (set to be released in September) was something the band hooked up independently. “We sorted that out before triple j picked us up. A friend of ours is a mixing engineer and was over in France doing a workshop with producer David Kahne. He just dropped our track on the fly in the studio; David really liked it and agreed to produce us.” Grammy–winning Kahne has produced everybody from Paul McCartney and Tony Bennett to The Strokes, Regina Spektor and Sublime. Sam says that through working with him, the band was able to pursue a much bigger sound than people are probably expecting. “All the instrumentation is similar, because that’s our style – there’s always going to be organ and twangy, reverby guitars – but we made sure we used David for all he was
Amid the Piaf and Bardot covers, their debut LP includes one more modern song – a Frenchlanguage cover of Leonardo’s Bride’s ‘Even When I’m Sleeping’. “When we recorded the original version in Leonardo’s Bride, we also did a French version,” Dobson explains, “but we never released it, and it was so long ago I don’t think anyone has a copy anymore. It was nice to
come back to that song. I mean, people may not necessarily know everything we’re covering, so it’s nice to have that one on there too.” What: Baby et Lulu is out now Where: The Basement / Camelot Lounge When: Saturday July 14 / September 8
Twin Shadow Confessions By Benjamin Cooper He moved to California and, one day before dawn, decided to take a ride in the hills. Everything changed when he felt the surge and flow as he shifted gears and let the motor roar out: “I had total clarity, just for a moment.”
worth. We didn’t go to New York to make a thinsounding basic album; we could’ve just done that in my bedroom like we did with the original demos. Instead, we used everything we could to make it sound full and big. You’ll be surprised – there are strings on some parts, and we even got a horn section in for one song.”
It’d be easy to assume that the reason he delayed getting back on the bike was solely an understandable reluctance to engage again with the chrome and bitumen. But the reality is quite different. “We’ve honestly just been on the road for the last few years, since the first album,” he says. “I mean, that’s really the nature of the game. You have to record when you can find any spare time away from the road, because you just gotta make the paper, y’know?” Lewis Jnr argues that the modern musician is both directed and hemmed in by a much larger machine – but of course there’s more that goes into creating a piece of art. “There’s definitely a balance between promoting a record that you really care about, and fulfilling the expectations of a label,” he says. “Touring is hard work, but the reality is that the business is against you [as an artist]. So you have to be smart about it: the business isn’t why I do it, but the business helps me to do it.”
But if their latest single ‘Don’t Ever Want To Be Found’ is anything to go by, the raw, bluesy tones that attracted most to The Rubens in the first place aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. “The hardest thing about making the record was having [first single] ‘Lay It Down’ hanging over us the whole time,” Sam says. “We had to work out how raw we wanted to stay so that we didn’t piss off people in Australia who liked the song for that quality, but we also wanted the album to sound more beautiful. It created a constant struggle for us.” The band is about to embark on their Don’t Ever Want To Be Found tour, which has already sold out shows at the Oxford Art Factory and Melbourne’s Corner Hotel. But Sam says that the lads are in no danger of letting it get to their heads. “We’ve gotten used to people coming to our shows, which is really weird. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves how horrible it was to have to call up mates on the day of the show just to try and get 20 people in the room and make sure it wasn’t completely empty. It was soul-destroying stuff. Now, to hear that we’ve got nights sold out, where everybody is there just to see us… It’s the best thing you can hope for when you’re in a band.” What: ‘Don’t Ever Want To Be Found’ is out now Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Wednesday July 18 (on sale now) & Thursday July 19 (sold out).
G
The ideas behind Confess came from Lewis Jnr’s decision to get back on a motorbike following a significant accident a year before.
Twin Shadow was last in Australia for this year’s Laneway Festival, before returning home to the United States for a two-month tour. So does he worry that people won’t take the dark ambience of his music seriously if his tour is constantly chasing an endless summer? “Oh man,” he laughs, “we have been pretty lucky this year. But that’s just it: it comes down to the pure luck of when the label decides to release the album.” What: Confess is out now on 4AD, through Remote Control.
“He kisses him on Bermondsey Street and, standing brave on the balls of his feet, declares this the greatest love of the century.” - PATRICK WOLF 18 :: BRAG :: 470 :: 09:07:12
Twin Shadow photo by Tina Tyrell
eorge Lewis Junior has built a veritable feast of mythology around the release of his second album Confess. The new wave artist known as Twin Shadow approached his first album since relocating to LA as an intensely personal jaunt down the dark roads of a Lynchian reality – but Lewis Jnr bristles at the suggestion that he’s made a concept album. “I didn’t set out to make any kind of record,” he says down the line from Rome. “But since my first album [Forget, 2010], a million things have happened. My life has changed completely. Nothing is how it was before.”
The Dominican Republic-born, Florida-raised musician keeps an understandably tight degree of control over his work. Having previously been in Boston band Mad Man Films with Joseph Ciampini (Hooray For Earth) and Zak Longo (Before Lazers), it’s important to Lewis Jnr that the music released under his latest moniker remains intensely personal. “What I’m doing now, this is my music,” he explains. “I don’t really share it with anyone else when I’m recording. Don’t get me wrong – I like it when people come and visit me in the studio and offer their input. But ultimately I’m doing what I need to. This is all me.” Still, the live component of the project necessitates the involvement of others. “While I don’t really believe in being in a band, I do have a live band, because that’s what keeps the music interesting. And my band certainly are not hired guns; that’s not what I’m suggesting at all. We have a lot of fun, and get in a lot of trouble together when we’re on the road.”
Dirty Projectors Collecting Moments By Luke Telford
“O
h, forget about it. That’s proprietary information, dude.”
Dave Longstreth is tired and irritable. It’s his eleventh straight hour of interviews, and he has no interest in hearing yet another faceless music journalist praise the new Dirty Projectors record. It’s called Swing Lo Magellan, and feels like a disarmingly informal step down from the heady conceptualism of the band’s three previous releases. But he knows that, so when I say it’s great, his response of “Oh, thanks” feels laden with a subtext that’s closer to “Please just hurry the fuck up, man.”
As the interview begins to yield to his fractiousness, I decide to risk a curveball of a question. Though Dirty Projectors has clearly always been Longstreth’s brainchild, it’s the ensemble vocals of the group’s female members that make his labyrinthine pop deconstructions so viscerally and immediately relatable. Most people connect with the voice in a piece of pop music before anything else, but these vocals are different – their dexterity, invention and sheer lemony timbre disassemble what in most other bands would pass as harmonies and group vocal arrangements. They’re viscerally human, but sound bizarre enough to be improvised – and following this line of thought through an awkward pause, I ask Longstreth about a recent article published in The New Yorker, called ‘The Song Machine’. It’s about the people and processes behind the creation of top 40 pop songs, but particularly, it’s about a singer called Ester Dean.
be with me – but mostly just because I was really interested in the things that I was doing.” The album cover captures the overall feel very well: an image of Longstreth, with Coffman, in a bemused encounter with a local on the house’s driveway. “He kind of just showed up. I don’t know, because the photo was just hanging around. It was there, and it just seemed to me to be this strange moment, but it had a lot of power,” says Longstreth, trailing off. “That idea was a little bit of something that guided the recording process itself. I wasn’t really looking for this kind of digital recording that you’ll get a lot of times these days, that just feels like the performances – the parts are objectively rendered, flawlessly corrected, and all of this. I wanted a recording that’s a collection of moments. Not to say accidents, but moments that mark themselves, that have the impress of some kind of… ah, I don’t know, some sort of quality. That’s what we were looking for in the performances from the record. A lot of the vocals are just the very first time the song is being sung.” What: Swing Lo Magellan is out now on Domino, through EMI
Dean is a top-liner – a vocalist hired by production teams to improvise those crucial vocal hooks that make hits like Beyoncé’s ‘Halo’ so invasively catchy. I ask if this approach to music has any remote bearing on how the vocals in Dirty Projectors songs come together, and it transpires, to my relief, that Longstreth has worked as a top-liner himself. “I’ve done a little bit of top-lining for some weird J-pop music,” he admits, laughing. “Which was like way outside [my comfort zone], and it definitely informed the way that I wrote some of the songs that came after.” So, some headway. But when I ask him which J-pop band he was working for, he responds with the opening quote. Two steps forward, one step back...
“The unit of musical attention is so compressed at this point that it’s crazy to me that people hear the songs that I write as somehow improvised.”
Dirty Projectors photo by Jason Frank Rothenberg
Longstreth is careful to note that, although the top-lining improvised approach to vocal melody does inform the Projectors’ melodies, there’s nothing improvised about the music at all. “One thing that sometimes bamboozles listeners of Dirty Projectors is the fact that there are eight to twelve chords in a verse, as opposed to one or two or four chords repeated over and over again,” he says. “So some people walk away with this conception that the music is essentially improvised, but that really just has to do with the unit of musical focus in 2012, as opposed to 1961 or 1942, or 1886 or something. The unit of musical attention is so compressed at this point that it’s crazy to me that people hear the songs that I write as somehow improvised on-the-fly or something.” This is a curious comment in light of Swing Lo Magellan. Like Bitte Orca and Rise Above, the record doesn’t want for stunningly inventive musicality, but it feels infinitely more reserved, relaxed and accessible than anything the band has previously put to tape. It’s very much like a collection of songs, in the classic rock sense – the tension of opener ‘Offspring Is Blank’ yields its levee to a massive, widescreen payoff riff, while the title track kisses Simon and Garfunkel extremes of folk-rock affability with meditative ease. This informal feel may have stemmed, in part, from Longstreth’s decision to retreat to a secluded house in New York state to write the record, a hermitude that was tempered with visits from bandmembers, or occasional trips into the city. “I don’t know that it did [colour the songs], except it provided a place to focus,” he says. “I knew that when we were done with all the touring from Bitte Orca that I wanted to grow in a commensurate way as a songwriter, so it seemed like the thing to do would be to create the conditions for that kind of isolation. So the house was a pretty isolated spot, but it felt like the right place to be, and I wasn’t lonely. In part, because I would come down to New York, or sometimes Amber [Coffman, one of the group’s key vocalists] would come up and BRAG :: 470 :: 09:07:12 :: 19
arts frontline
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five minutes A
longside fellow COFA design grad Adrian Moore, Max runs Spoken Authors – a commercial design agency that facilitates community-based design projects and hooks up talented individuals from in different backgrounds diff with worthy causes. wit Their latest project is The the transformation of Marrickville’s Sashimi Ma Warehouse from a Wa massive disused space mas full of crazy junk into community venue a co that contains a gallery, workshop, screen-printing wor studio, gig space – and a stud 7m sskateboard ramp. All done in six months, with tiny budget of $7500. a tin WTF. WTF How did you guys connect? We met one conn another four and a half anoth years ago in the first week of our design degree at COFA. Since degr then we have always the worked together and w
Cheeky Australian artist TV Moore has an upcoming exhibition of playful, psychedelic and hyper-colourful photographs. The still prints are a departure from his more serious multi-channel video works, but they retain a deeper critique of ‘high’ art; fragmented images peek through streaks of finger painting and colour spiking, inviting viewers to look beyond the surface of the image. The exhibition brings together a suite of “paintings about paintings”, littered with distinctly
[at COFA we] soon became notorious for being inseparable, Adrian always with his skateboard and me with dishevelled hair, and camera hanging off the shoulder. What do you do when you’re not designing? Adrian skates like a maniac, loves to surf and plays drums whenever he gets the chance. I, on the other hand, prefer to take photographs, read, cook and drink the worst cask wine with the best people. How did you come up with the idea for Spoken Authors? The concept was developed in our final year of uni, as we wanted to find a way to continue to work together in the future. Over time this idea developed into a business model that aims to give young and talented individuals from a diverse range of educational backgrounds the ability to move beyond 2D representations of their ideas and to see their designs implemented in the real world. We wanted to extend the educational framework that university provides by offering short-term, well-structured projects that also benefit the broader community. This is where the Sashimi warehouse comes in. Who was on the Sashimi refit team? After establishing a brief with the artist group running the space, Adrian and I focused on recruiting creative minds for the project and we encouraged lateral thinking to produce an inspiring space on a tight budget of $7500. Our team consisted of industrial designers Nonda Maroulis and Emiel Saada,
Australian cultural references. Daze of Being Wild opens July 26 at Robyn Oxley9 Gallery (8 Soudan Lane, Paddington) and is showing until August 18.
MCA CLOTHING EXCHANGE
Time to freshen up your wardrobe? Got some extra clothes or accessories lying around? Give them a fresh shot at outfit glory at the MCA Clothing Exchange. Check your unwanted goods at the door in exchange for swap-credit and grab yourself some
Crossings
renewable energy engineer Fabian Muschalik, art curator Tom Glenn (formerly of Oh Really), interior architect Sophie La, and Jackson Wallace. How’d you do it so cheap? Most of the design elements were fabricated primarily from recycled materials, by novice hands with the guidance and knowledge of experienced builders. The finished space also features murals by Tom Ferson, The Dirt, Birdhat, Skulk, Vars One, Ox and Houl. What: Sashimi Warehouse Where: 44-46 Fitzroy St, Marrickville When: Freshly launched, open now! More: facebook.com/ spokenauthors
50/50! DVD! WINNING! Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon ‘babeface’-Levitt team up in this bromantic dramedy about a 20-something writer who tries to remain positive after being diagnosed with cancer, with a little help from his mate. It’s based on the real-life story of Rogen’s bestie Will Reiser, who wrote the script, Rogen takes producing duties, and Jonathan Levine, director of the ‘90s New York hip-hop-and-weed coming-of-age tale The Wackness, directs. So expect a nice mix of laffs, warm fuzzies, the occasional sad face, and at least one tribute to the power off the bong. th b Thanks to Roadshow, we have five copies of 50/50 on DVD up for grabs; to get your hands on one, email us with the name of one other film starring Seth Rogen.
sweet threads. With any left over items to be donated to the Salvation Army, it’ll boost your good karma levels too. Get in on the clothesswapping action Sunday July 22 from 11am until 5pm in the MCA Foundation Hall. Just remember, one dodgy uncle’s paisley suit is another hipster’s sweet retro threads. For detailed swapping guidelines visit mca.com. au/events/mca-clothing-exchange
Finn Lafcadio O'Hanlon – Untitled (detail)
WILD DAZE
ROLON
Max and Adrian as illlustrated by Alexander Hope
WITH MAX
Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Seth Rogen
VNA X LISTER
UK street art mag Very Nearly Almost is coming Down Under this week to launch issue #19, which features expat graf hero Anthony Lister, by all accounts sharing “tales of debauchery” and “the inner workings of his mind and multiple personas”. Lister is creating a special drop of limited-edition customised mags, featuring a four-colour screen-print created exclusively for the occasion – which you can purchase if you turn up early for the launch party this Friday. So if collectible affordable art is your bag, this event has you covered – there’ll also be a far less portable but freshly-painted and specially commissioned wall by Lister, Skel, Shannon Crees, Sprinkles and Alex Lehours, and live music by DJs Rolls Royce and Kato. ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE. Friday July 13 from 6-9pm at Oxford Art Factory.
SURRY HILLS ARTS
The Surry Hills Festival has opened submissions from artists, performers and creative types wanting to be part of this year’s fest, taking place Saturday October 27 in Prince Alfred Park. Now helmed by the people behind Peats Ridge, the Fest is gunning for a far more expansive, no-holdsbarred arts and performance program, and is expecting crowds around the 90,000 mark – which should more than sate your inner exhibitionist. So start asking yourself those crucial questions: ‘Are my stilts really robust and secure?’/‘Could my mime be more site-specfic?’/'Is my performance art really sustainable?’ and head to surryhillsfestival. com for more useful information. Applications close August 16.
HERE WE ARE
Opening at MiCK gallery this week is a group show spanning all the artz – sculpture, photography, video, illustration, collage – with new works by polymathic purveyor of psychedelia Brett Chan, Sydney photographer Samuel Hodge, New York-based ex-Sydney colour merchant (and printmaker) Elizabeth Corkery, young Sydney-via-Tulsa surf-photographerslash-illustrator Finn Lafcadio O’Hanlon, sculptural interventionist Louisa Dawson, collagist Kyle Montgomery (China Heights) and mixed-media artist Zoë Macdonell. Kind of a silly amount of talent in one space. Here We Are runs July 30 – September 2 at MiCK (44 Gurner St Paddington) mickthegallery.com
MORE AWESOME THE MILITARY-FLORAL COMPLEX
Sydney-based painter-turned photographer Phillip George is opening an exhibition of his large-scale, digitally manipulated rose portraits at Breenspace this week, under the banner Fog Garden. George, whose exhibition of Arabesque surfboards a few years back dovetailed with cultural aftermath of the Cronulla race riots, has a long standing interest in Middle Eastern culture, politics and aesthetics, and his ‘roses’ series takes a potent aesthetic motif and symbol of both Persian and Western culture, and overlays it with Arabesque and post-Renaissance decorative patterns, and the contours of modern military machinery…Most importantly, of course, they look really stunning. Fog Garden opens Thursday July 12 at Breenspace (Level 3, 17–19 Alberta Street Sydney). breenspace.com
SCHOOL OF LIFE
And finally, some good news: philosopher Alain de Botton is lending out his School Of Life concept for one afternoon of lifemending magic at Sydney Opera House, featuring presenter Gretel Killeen, activist Anna Rose, financial expert John Armstrong and columnist and author Tom Chatfield taking you through mini-presentations on communication, climate change, combating financial insecurity, and thriving in the digital age, respectively (or: How To Tweet In Support Of The Carbon Tax) Sunday July 15 from 4pm in the Studio. sydneyoperahouse.com
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20 :: BRAG :: 470 :: 09:07:12
Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim are now bringing even more Awesome (show) to Sydney, with another date added to their Down Under tour. It’s happening Wednesday October 3 at the Enmore, and will no doubt feature more jokes involving poop, puke and paedophiles than you can shake a kitten at – and, according to the presser “dancing, singing, poetry, videos and signings after the shows”, which suggests that it will probably be the best $70 you spent, ever. Alternatively, if you hate Wednesdays, there might be tickets available for their October 2 Metro Theatre show, which is potentially where all the really hardcore Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! fans will be.
Bill Bailey
Not Just A Pretty Face By Caitlin Welsh
I
nterviewing Bill Bailey comes with a small caveat: he reads everything. So be nice, or you might end up in his show. One hapless journalist who referred to Bailey’s “egg-shaped head” and hair that “flows like a shower curtain down his back”, ended up having their description mocked on stage every night, in his show Part Troll. “People get very creative in their descriptions of my physical demeanour,” Bailey admits. “I don’t have a team of image consultants, much as you may find that surprising. It’s down to my own laziness, I suppose, it’s something that’s not really bothered me. I’m aware of it, because they say ‘Ooh, you look like this, you look like that’, and every single review – ‘Oh, the wurzel-head, the bearded thing’, and I think, ‘Cor, blimey, I hadn’t really paid it much attention.’”
Bill Bailey photo by Andy Hollingworth
Bailey loves to talk. We go fifteen minutes overtime (“Yup, that’s him!” says his unfazed publicist blithely) and I don’t get to half my questions. Far from seeing journalists as a necessary evil taking up his valuable time, though, the actor, musician and comic – whose inventive live shows incorporate all these talents – finds long stints of interviews useful to his process. “Very often, you’re in a writing mode; I’m writing the show, I’m immersed in the show, performing the show, writing the show, making notes, recording the show, listening to the tapes, going back, making notes, meeting with lighting people, stage people, working with filmmakers – you get totally wrapped up in the mechanics of the show,” he says, rapid-fire, “and then I sit down to talk to journalists and try to explain myself, and then I very often realise in the midst of it I actually figure out what the show’s about.” In its present form – not even Bailey knows what it will look like by the time it arrives on our shores in September – the new show Qualmpeddler has been heavily influenced by a trip to China Bailey took with his family in April this year (although he also promises a “reggae, Jamaican, dub version of Downton Abbey”). He explains that it’s been one of his long-held goals to travel there. “In 1989 I was touring around Japan with a theatre company, and at the end of the tour we were going to do some shows in Beijing,” Bailey explains. “And it was all planned, we were all ready to go, and then Tiananmen Square happened. So that was the end of that. And our flights were cancelled, and we couldn’t go, and we ended up going to Hong Kong instead. And I remember very vividly the signs that were up around the place, saying ‘Fax the Truth to China’... Other modes of communication like phone, mail and Telex were all monitored. But faxes, for some reason, were getting through, and that was the only way that people in Hong Kong could get the information to China, and tell people in China what was happening.”
China these days, Bailey says, is a fascinating place to visit. At one point, he bought a live owl that was offered to him in a restaurant – the way yum cha places get you to pick your lobster from the tank – and later released it into the wild. (“I did not eat an owl. I would not eat an owl. And the other thing is, there can’t be all that much meat on an owl, really. I know owls, and there’s not much to them.”) Better experiences were had later, in Yunan province: “Pine needle salad was something I’d never had before, but it was strangely tasty. I actually really liked it. It’s like they had no idea what to do with the Christmas tree at the end. ‘No, no, don’t chuck it out! Put it in a bowl with some dressing on it!’” More than anything, though, he was struck by the strangeness of the oppressive political culture. “You have to get a guide to take you around,” he recalls. “And I was trying to talk to her about Mao, and Mao’s legacy, and she would almost look over her shoulder and say, ‘Yes, he was a great leader,’ and then lean in and whisper, ‘But he made a few mistakes.’ And you say, ‘Yeah, 70 million dead in peacetime, that could be a mistake’. And they just laugh nervously and say, ‘Anyway, here are the tombs!’” The Qualmpeddler tour poster draws on Maoist propaganda artwork, with Bailey in a Mao-style jumpsuit towering over a phalanx of people about whom he has, one presumes, qualms: Kardashians, the Assads, Simon Cowell, Flash Gordon villain Emperor Ming. “It’s a pastiche of an actual early Mao propaganda poster. And that particular pose was a denunciation. And all of those people who are now celebrities and dictators were all factory workers, pointing at this individual grovelling on the factory floor. And then there was this giant, beneficent Mao, floating above them, pointing at all of them, denouncing them. And there was blossom, and all these people working in the fields. And it looks like this wonderful photo of harmony… But the reality is that it’s basically someone being hounded to death. And that’s the duality of the whole Mao era: beautiful art depicting scenes of cruelty and horror. And it’s an extraordinary painting.” “And this is the brilliant, delicious irony of the whole thing,” Bailey goes on, both a little horrified at himself and proud. “There is a service in China where people will hand-paint the poster. So I will get a genuine pastiche of a Mao-era propaganda poster – made in China. So that seems very fitting.” What: Bill Bailey – Qualmpeddler Where: State Theatre When: September 5-7 Tickets: from ticketmaster.com.au
BRAG :: 470 :: 09:07:12 :: 21
The King Is Dead! [FILM] Long Live Rolf De Heer By Dee Jefferson
O
n one level, Rolf de Heer is a giant of Australian cinema, with an almost three-decade career that encompasses classics Dingo and Bad Boy Bubby, Cannes winner Ten Canoes, and the critically acclaimed outback drama The Tracker. Across 15 features, he’s covered just about every conceivable genre – silent slapstick, magical realism, social realism, sci-fi, Ozploitation, family-adventure, and even a film about jazz… On another level, de Heer is the quiet achiever of our industry, turning out lowbudget features with a minimum of fuss (with perhaps the exception of his one international venture, the behemoth 2001 drama The Old Man Who Read Love Stories, starring Richard Dreyfuss), and often without government funding (“I don’t like going that way ya know,” he tells me. “I don’t like writing under pressure, I like to do it when I feel like it, rather than 'cause I have to do it.”) In person, de Heer is unassuming and friendly. Now a resident of idyllic rural Tasmania, he’s in Sydney doing press for his latest film, a dramedy as modest in concept as it is in budget, about a young couple (played by Bojana Novakovic and Dan Wyllie) who struggle to maintain their
Rolf de Heer (left) on set with Gary Waddell
tolerant composure after moving next-door to a den of dealers. It’s based on his various experiences of neighbours – from the age of ten, when he was a new-immigrant living in Sydney’s outer suburbs, through five decades of different living situations, and neighbours that ranged from saintly to sinister. “I once lived somewhere where I heard a racket going on next door such that I almost called the police during the day, and then it quietened down; I thought I heard a gun shot, then it quietened down, and I went back inside; 15min later I went back out and I saw two Maoris get out of a car with baseball bats and stroll across into the place next door,” de Heer recalls. “I called the cops, but as the call was going through I could hear them all laughing – and so I stopped the call. That was my sum total experience, and it became that entire sequence [in The King Is Dead] – I just thought ‘What If?’” It was the years living next-door to methheads that directly informed the story for The King Is Dead, which stars Anthony Hayes, Luke Ford and screen veteran Gary Waddell (of ‘70s heroin flick Pure Shit) as leery junkies with a taste for loud music, domestic violence and petty theft. De Heer tapped into this story idea after a funded script treatment he was writing hit a dead-end. He offered to give the funding agency their money back, but citing red-tape nightmares, they told him to just submit ‘whatever’ – and he knocked out a script without further ado. That was almost 15 years ago now. Not long after finishing the script, de Heer was commissioned to direct The Old Man Who Read Love Stories, and the project was put on the backburner – to be revived a couple of years ago when a ‘lull’ between selling his suburban house and moving to Tasmania coincided with a brilliant idea to shoot the ‘neighbours film’ in his own house, on his own street, working to a super-tight budget and schedule.
Bojana Novakovic and Dan Wyllie as the happy couple in The King Is Dead! Of the element of serendipity that pervades his career, de Heer (who has previously said that he works constantly out of necessity as much as choice) says, “It’s such a difficult thing to do to finance a film [that] I tend to not get enough energy to do it unless there’s a confluence of circumstances. Ten Canoes, for example, was not a film I intended to make, but there was this confluence of circumstances where suddenly I thought ‘click click click click, this this this this this’ – irresistible. And that’s how things tend to happen for me with most films. [The King Is Dead] was no exception – except for the casting.”
Besides being gentle-mannered, de Heer is 61 years old – could he not just have got a professional to handle the rap? “Nah you can’t,” he assures me. “The Tracker taught me that. [With this song] you have to be offensive – and that’s easy enough, anyone can do that. However it has to be right for Shrek, and at that stage I knew Shrek and other people didn’t… So Graham [Tardif] the composer did the [beats], then I went to a music store [and] found someone who knew a bit about it: ‘I need gangster rap! Okay, give me two [CDs] but across the spectrum.’ So there was a compilation one and there was one from Eminem…
De Heer describes a protracted and complex process of casting the film according to the chemistry and ‘threat dynamics’ of various pairings and groups: every character/castmember needed to fit together just so, to be convincing. As he writes in the press notes, “casting a film well is the next most important thing in the entire process after getting the script right.”
“But then I realised I had to learn how to rap in order to write it,” he continues, almost incredulously. “So there I was with headphones on… [saying] all these words… it took me something like two days to make it all fit, to make it all work, and I thought it was good. And then I went into the production office – the production manager, the production co-ordinator were there – and said, ‘Do you reckon this works?’ and off I went: ‘motherfucker this, motherfucker that’. Well – they all fell about laughing… We’re just about to post on YouTube a music video we’ve cut to it. We’ll try and get some airplay, but there aren’t many programs that’ll do it…”
De Heer writes (or at the very least adapts) all his scripts (“Writing is the first 50% of making the film and for me I just couldn’t imagine wanting to make a film that I haven’t written,” he says) – right down to the lyrics in any original music, which in The King Is Dead meant a particularly offensive piece of gangsta rap called that recurs throughout the film, courtesy of local goon ‘Shrek’ (played by Luke Ford).
What: The King Is Dead! – Dir Rolf de Heer When: Opens July 12 Where: Hoyts Cinema Paris
Not Suitable For Children [FILM] Couples That Play Together… By Dee Jefferson
Ryan Corr, Sarah Snook and Ryan Kwanten in Not Suitable For Children
M
ichael Lucas and Peter Templeman met in film school, started writing together after they graduated in 2005, and spent the last five-or-so years pushing one out, as it were. The result is Not Suitable For Children, an extremely likeable rom-com starring the extremely likeable Aussie expat Ryan Kwanten and rising star Sarah Snook, about two 20-something friends coming to terms with the idea of parenthood after one of them is diagnosed with testicular cancer. It doesn’t exactly sound like a comedy, but it is – and very sweet, to boot. It opened the Sydney Film Festival in June to a satisfied crowd of typically judgmental cinephiles and industry types, and if all goes according to plan, will make a nice dent in the Australian box office this weekend. Lucas and Templeman are already working on a follow-up – an action comedy about an international consequence-enforcement team called KARMA. This might be a writer-director partnership made in indie-comedy heaven. The secret of the Lucas-Templeman partnership is part luck, part timing, and a whole lotta chemistry. Lucas describes 22 :: BRAG :: 470 :: 09:07:12
Templeman as having a darker, more ‘Todd Solondz’ comic sensibility, while he is a self-confessed rom-com junkie who counts Richard Curtis (of Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill fame) amongst his heroes. Not Suitable For Children was Lucas’s idea initially, sparked by a medical scare he had at the age of 25, while still a screenwriting student at AFTRS. Templeman, then 33, was a directing student, but it was only after they graduated that Lucas shared an early draft of the script with his classmate, and asked him for feedback. At this point, their versions of the story diverge. Clearly the less coy of the two, Templeman says (laughing), “We were right in the midst of a really pretty intimate writing partnership, working on the early stages of KARMA and another project that [didn't end up being] produced. And I knew he’d done a draft for [Not Suitable For Children] and was going to start working on that on the side, while I was doing TV [directing gigs] – so we sat down and had a huge session [working on the draft]. And my notes were so scathing, apparently, that Michael went off and got an agent, a producer…" (laughs).
“He didn’t actually ever say ‘Let’s do this one together’ and I didn’t say ‘Hey let’s do it together,'” Templeman concedes, “because it was such an early-stage draft – but I assumed, I think, that if he was going to keep developing it that we’d probably do it together. But then suddenly he had a producer, and I was on a list of directors (laughs) that she’d made. And I was being interviewed by her [producer Jodi Matterson], [Executive Producer] Darren Ashton, and Mike! It was weird.” As the project’s inception suggests, Lucas and Templeman were far more than just co-writers of the film, with Lucas’ creative involvement extending through cast rehearsals, filming and post-production, via re-writes and suggestions. The duo’s respective backgrounds in television – Templeman as regular director for the Marx and Venus, Bogan Pride and Lockie Leonard series, Lucas as a regular writer for Channel Ten’s Offspring – predisposed them to an unusually responsive approach to their script. “Having worked on TV, I’m such a convert to writing for specific actors, and that’s now how I really like to write – to have their voice in my head,” says Lucas. “I just find it really inspiring… The more that I watched Ryan [Kwanten], Ryan [Corr – playing housemate Gus] and Sarah [Snook], the more things I’d think of. I’d observe rehearsal tapes of them, little asides they’d make – and just kept trying to put more and more of that in [the script]. And just looking at the rushes, you know – that’s one thing about working in TV, you always have to be [open] to forgetting what you planned and looking at what’s there, seeing if there’s anything that you need to acknowledge or change. … And particularly with someone like Sarah, who has such a great voice and such a distinctive (in this role) turn of phrase and everything, I really just wanted to get as much of that in there as I could!” In fact, Snook’s role became increasingly dominant over the course of the rehearsals. “Mostly because I wanted to bring more of what she had onto the screen,” Lucas
explains. When Snook was cast, her character, Jonah’s housemate Stevie, was more conservative – emotionally, romantically and in terms of her career. “I was studying Sarah’s performance, and I just wanted to learn everything I could about the character that she was presenting,” Lucas admits. “And [the character we’d written] just didn’t sit right with me – so really at the last minute, I removed a whole strand of the story and reshaped her character.” A NIDA graduate who debuted on stage rather than the screen (but has subsequently won an AACTA Award for her role in TV movie Sisters of War and scored roles in Packed To The Rafters and Spirited), Snook made waves a couple of years ago when she made it into the top five actresses in David Fincher’s rigorous audition process for the key role in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. She says it was the quality of the writing that attracted her to Not Suitable For Children: “It felt very natural – like it could happen to anyone, anywhere. But also, the character of Stevie is just pretty cool! (laughs) She’s a badass chick.” Rom-coms still constitute a relatively small proportion of Australia’s cinema output – and an even smaller fraction are actually successful, compared to America and the UK, with recent big-budget efforts like Peter Helliar’s I Love You Too and Working Dog’s Any Questions For Ben? underwhelming critics and audiences, and only Stephan Elliott’s blockbuster A Few Best Men flying the flag for the genre in recent years. “Perhaps there’s been a fear that the Australian public won’t take [independent Australian rom-coms] with open arms,” Snook speculates. “I think that’s not necessarily correct. Personally, a lot of my friends love Judd Apatow and that kind of stuff. I think [Australians] get that humour, and have that kind of film to offer.” What: Not Suitable For Children When: Opens July 12
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Arts Snap
Film & Theatre Reviews
At the heart of the arts Where you went last week...
Hits and misses on the silver screen and the bareboards around town.
art for jungle
PICS :: KC
Katy Perry with dancing cat
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PICS :: KC
28:06:12 :: Darlo Bar (upstairs) :: 306 Liverpool St Sydney 9331 3672
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Arts Exposed What's in our diary...
34B Burlesque: Ooh lala Friday July 13 / 34B @ 44 Oxford St, Darlinghurst
Holly J’aDoll 24 :: BRAG :: 470 :: 09:07:12
characters in Porn.Cake: “Cake is the new porn!” they exhort numerous times over the 70 minutes and mounds of sugary, gluten-y goodness.
Released July 5
Ant, Annie, Bill and Bella are four friends pushing middle age and not particularly happy about the idea. In a series of vignettes, writer Vanessa Bates touches on their waning sex drives, the threat of infidelity, the exasperation of mobile phones, the desperate longing for a return to simpler, happier times. These are characters caught in a web of neuroses and desperately attempting to fight their way out. Cake becomes an escape route, a holy symbol of childhood birthday parties and unadulterated joy.
KATY PERRY: PART OF ME The reason Katy Perry: Part Of Me is so effective is that, while pop singer Perry is its ostensible subject, it’s not really about her at all – it’s about you. It’s about you, the gawky young dreamer with a talent your family and friends don’t yet understand. It’s about you, who are so pretty and don’t even realise it. It’s about you, who will one day show them all. It’s about you, a firework just waiting to explode. Well, okay, maybe that’s not you specifically, but it’s certainly a large chunk of Perry’s young fanbase, and the target demographic for this very strange film. Part Of Me is part3D concert film and part-documentary, but mostly, it’s an exercise in empowerment. It’s an hour-and-a-half-long affirmation that if you follow your dreams, you too can burn as brightly as Katy Perry.
PICS :: KC
700 photos
■ Film
On the eve of Bastille Day, 34B and Messr Bublé are celebrating the spirit of amour and revolution, with a soirée of burlesque, babes and bubbles – ooh lala! They’ll be busting out the bon vivant, the Belle Epoque, Moulin Rouge and Montmartre, the Nouvelle Vague – with a bevvy of belles du jour that includes scene queens Holly J’aDoll and Baby Blue Bergman, pole-dancing princess Electric Dreams, plus Rita Fontaine, Frankie Faux, Bijou Belle, and newcomer Mystique Rose. Treat yourself to a reserved table, grab a bottle of champers, and celebrate – Vive la France! Vive les babes! Tickets from qbar.iwannaticket.com.au
The film documents the planning and execution of the California Dreams arena tour, cutting between performance footage, talking heads-style interviews with Perry’s nearest and dearest, and various backstage interactions, which are presented as spontaneous and candid, so I guess we’ll just have to take the filmmakers’ word for it. The tour in question was an all-out audio and visual assault of candy colours and bright lights – believe me, I witnessed it first-hand – and the film takes much the same approach. Information comes at you so rapidly and in so many different forms – grainy webcam videos, splashy hi-def concert footage, old Polaroid images – that the senses quickly overload. For all the time she spends on screen, Perry herself proves to be a bit of an enigma. I feel I know even less about her now than I did going in. Russell Brand makes a few brief appearances, skulking in and out of the background of certain shots, and his presence – or absence – is one of the more interesting parts of the film. The comedian’s marriage to Perry was falling apart during the production, and this seems like a variable nobody actually counted on. While the details of the breakup are elided over, the film still uses it as a sort of narrative thread. We see Perry breaking down in tears before a South American concert, then putting on her brightest smile and performing anyway. Whether this is real or contrived, it’s hard to tell, but it’s one of few moments when reality seemingly punctures the film’s bright bubble of empowerment. Alasdair Duncan ■ Theatre
PORN.CAKE Until July 14 / SBW Stables If you’re one of the however many millions of people who tune into Masterchef from week to week, you’ll probably find it quite easy to believe the rallying cry of the
It’s a cute concept and the characters often seem painfully familiar: Georgia Symes’ Annie, a naturopath, can be found wandering the streets of Rozelle most weekends; Joseph Ber’s Bill is every male Gen-X-er who managed to get stuck in a state of arrested development via a GFCinduced redundancy. It’s slick and sharply executed, with jaunty voiceovers from Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson during the scene transitions providing some excellent double entendres. But in the end this is more like a wedding cake than a rich ganache: prettily dressed but strangely bland and hollow in the middle. There’s insufficient distinction between the two couples to make much in the way of conflict, and the moments of vulnerability and opportunities for empathy are too few and far between. These are people resigned to their mediocre fates and looking for ways to ease the pain, rather than trying to get rid of the source of their anguish. That might be a realistic depiction of life at 40, but it isn’t a very nourishing one. Rebecca Saffir ■ Film
TED
Released July 5 Seth McFarlane is nothing if not oldschool. Family Guy and American Dad are simply riffs on classic golden-age sitcoms; every episode employs a full orchestra to perform the score and musical numbers; in 2011 he made an album of jazz-pop standards in the same studio where Sinatra recorded at Columbia. No surprise then that his debut feature Ted opens with an origin story of a boy, a bear, and a wish, complete with fruity Disney narration by MacFarlane regular Patrick Stewart, the film takes place in a world that accepts a magical talking teddy bear into its heart and onto its late-night talk shows… then gradually forgets about him like any fad celebrity. Fast-forward from the mid-‘80s to now, via montage, and John (Mark Wahlberg) and Ted (voiced by MacFarlane) have grown up together – sort of. At 35, John’s favourite pastime is still watching Flash Gordon on the couch, bong in hand, Ted by his side (doing a skin-crawling
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Film & Theatre Reviews Hits and misses on the silver screen and the bareboards around town.
Street Level With Scott Owen (aka Wet Lungs) songwriter – he's totally stealing all the skills.
impression of a Boston woman’s orgasm), before dashing to his shitty job. As a film about male friendship, it’s surprisingly deft. Ted is a classic boor – foul-mouthed, self-centred, and the lower a girl’s self-esteem is the better – but as we discover, he genuinely cares about John. The only part of their friendship that overtly references the fact that Ted is a toy come to life is their “thunder buddies” tradition, where even now at the first flash of lightning, Ted comes running and dives into bed with John and his long-suffering girlfriend Lori (Mila Kunis, casually dazzling in a stock role). A dude in his mid-30s being scared of thunder is more of a stretch than wishes coming true, but Wahlberg’s guileless Boston-vowelled manboy just about makes it plausible that the grown-up Lori would stay with him for four years despite his arrested development.
But what could have been a sweet romantic (and bromantic) comedy, fuelled by old-fashioned magic and friendship and the hard truths of growing up, is mushed up ineptly against a crude romp full of on-the-nose jokes. By all means have the teddy say “cunt”, but one too many gags are predicated on how gay dudes/women/Asians are inherently hilarious/weird. The script feels unpolished; instead of a neat ending that deals with the emotional core, there’s a silly chase more suited to the family-flick opening sequence and a lazy fakeout that, literally, magically solves everything.
Tell us a little bit about 199? It started towards the end of last year as the business side of what Tom Peachey and I do. We put on parties sometimes but mainly help bands with marketing and strategy. We’re looking to put some records out towards the end of the year and have the good times. When did the art start for you? When I was a kid I would try to draw pictures of the cartoons I watched but I’d say the art started when I saw some stencilled canvas at Glebe markets when I was 15. I hadn’t seen much like it before and started making multi-layered stencil portraits and doing graffiti.
There’s plenty here for fans of Family Guy and Flash Gordon alike; it’s really only good enough to be sad it wasn’t better. Caitlin Welsh
S
cott's been making street/art for the last seven-or-so years (more recently under the moniker Wet Lungs), curating World Bar’s weekly house party MUM for the last twoor-so years, and through his newish agency 199 he’s starting to make waves in the local industry via parties, art shows, graphic design, and plans to launch a micro-label. Fans of The Rubens might recognise his illustrations from their touring artwork, Dirty Shirlows patrons will recognise it from the walls, and right now, he’s getting pieces wall-ready for aMBUSH group show Always On Vacation.
Marky Mark with bear
What’s your background/training? I've been working in and around music for the last five years and making art off and on since high school. I’ve always loved music and played in bands but it’s only recently that art and music have met for me. Earlier this year I designed posters and shirts for The Rubens and I Oh You but haven’t done anything outside of friends as I’m lacking the fancy computer skills. I’ve recently started playing guitar in one of my favourite bands, Post Paint, which is really fun, and Bligh is a hugely talented painter as well as
How would you describe your style? I mainly draw self-portraits or portraits of friends/ imagined people with halos or daggers pointed at them. I like painting on wood with spray cans, house paint and oil sticks but I’m trying to do some lino prints and drawings on paper. My work is scratchy, stream-of-consciousness snapshots of real happenings and the parts an anxious mind creates. What/who are you currently creatively crushing on? I really like Charlie Isoe, that dude’s work is amazing. I’ve been looking at flowers more and keeping them in my room. Very inspired by a go-go dancer and old books at the moment too. Tell us about this piece (pictured)? This painting is to do with a book I like called Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises. I’ve always wanted to go to all the places in the book and still plan to. The last line of the book is “It’d be lovely to think so” which is said by Hemmingway’s love interest, who always goes with other guys. What: Always On Vacation feat Dejon, Birdhat, Tdub, Wet Lungs, Wolfkid, David Crystalface, Mr French/Refic, L E W, Skulk, Jael, Guy Verge Wallace, DABS BMX, Optic Soup, and live music by Guerre, Albatross Where: aMBUSH / 4A James St, Waterloo When: Opens Thursday July 12 from 6pm
“QUALITY DATE MOVIE: AN AUSTRALIAN ROM-COM-WITH-A-DIFFERENCE FULL OF CHARM, SMARTS, LOOKS, TUNES.. WIN.”
Empire MAGAZINE
OPENING NIGHT FILM SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2012
SOUNDTRACK OUT NOW FEATURING MUSIC BY The Black Keys, Slow Club, The Bamboos & Quantic AVAILABLE THRU SONY MUSIC BRAG :: 470 :: 09:07:12 :: 25
Album Reviews What's been crossing our ears this week...
ALBUM OF THE WEEK FUTURE OF THE LEFT The Plot Against Common Sense Remote Control Falko doesn’t give a shit if you like this record. The attitude of Andrew Falkous, and his bands’ breathlessly energetic tunes, are the reason that the fans love him. For most it doesn’t even matter which incarnation they’re hearing – from the defunct mclusky to current project Future Of The Left – as long as there’s dollops of snarl and shredding. The band hint at this in the album’s liner notes where they cheekily declare, “Without you all we would only be 87 percent as good.” Mad, but totally in control. Take the plunge at your own peril...
Early single and album opener ‘Sheena Is A T-Shirt Salesman’ cunningly misdirects us into thinking that this latest record will be packed full of barely-disguised hardcore pop. But then
THE LUMINEERS
THE SMASHING PUMPKINS
S/T Inertia
Oceania Create/Control
Given how saturated the landscape is with the sepia-folk of Boy & Bear, Bon Iver and other things that rhyme with ‘pear’, The Lumineers shouldn’t be particularly likeable. A three-piece who take the whole idea of earthy, indie guitars back to their logical roots and strip away the bullshit, the band risk playing their hand too soon, and showing the bones of their songwriting without glossing it over for the kids. But fortunately, despite the insistent lack of bells and whistles, The Lumineers are pretty good. While basic, their tunes are kind of like a winter stew; you can re-heat it multiple times and it’s still something you want to eat. Admittedly there are missteps, and I happen to think that the lead single ‘Ho Hey’, which is so kitschy with its mindless call-and-response shouts, is the biggest. Elsewhere, singer Wesley Schulz’s stretching, raw melodies sit just right, like on the rip-snorting ‘Classy Girls’ and the made-formotion-picture ‘Dead Sea’. He sounds a bit like an old-school rocker trapped in the wrong configuration at times, but the instrumentation makes it work. Their supplementing of live bass with cello really takes the edge off; it serves as a melodic device on the ballad 'Charlie Boy', and a dramatic equaliser on the raucous 'Stubborn Love'. Earnest and comfortable, The Lumineers isn’t an album that’s going to change lives; instead, it’s an offering from the kind of band you’d sit and watch a whole set of if you stumbled into a bar and they were on the stage. They may spark up on future releases, but for now keep them in the back pocket for when you want good songs without the popular narrative. Not quite luminescent, but well on the way to shining bright.
It’s an hour long, it’s full of life-affirming lyrics and it’s part of a series of concept albums. I really didn’t want to like it. In fact, I wanted to hate it. But surprisingly, The Smashing Pumpkin’s Oceania isn’t terrible. Their seventh studio album, part of a 44-track work-in-progress called Teargarden By Kaleidyscope, retains only Billy Corgan as founding member, replacing original drummer Jimmy Chamberlin with 19-year-old tom-smasher Mike Byrne. Joining them on their ambitious undertaking is new guitarist Jeff Schroeder and yet another girl bass player, Veruca Salt’s Nicole Fiorentino. Fans of Mellon Collie, beware. Though it does revive the fuzz-meets-stadium spirit of Siamese Dream in parts, this record feels like more of a foray into mysticism than a Pumpkins alt-rock album. The corny lyrics (the record opens with the line “God right on! / Krishna right on!”) are cringe-worthy in the face of ham-fisted conceptual tropes, and the combination of wailing riffs and extravagant drum fills in early songs like ‘Panopticon’ teeter dangerously on the brink of hair metal. But despite its high-flown elements, Oceania has glimpses of genuine romance, and a well-grounded pop sensibility that manages to sustain interest. ‘Violet Rays’ revives the charmingly naïve lyricism of songs like ‘Luna’ (“And I’ll leave with anyone this night / And I’ll kiss anyone tonight”), while its combination of ballad chord progressions with ‘80s-inspired synthesisers marks a different direction for the band. The album is strongest at its midpoint: the acoustic breakdowns of ‘My Love Is Winter’ and ‘Pinwheel’ and the dreamy melodic build of ‘One Diamond One Heart’ make persevering through the epicry worthwhile.
Falko’s trademark wit whips everything back into shape on the following ‘Failed Olympic Bid’, as he declares his exasperation with the lack of vision in domestic social policy. He offers a laugh for those who, from the UK or otherwise, are already bored with London’s Olympic Games, as he skewers its figurehead with the line, “I’ve got a hole for Sebastian Coe.” The guitars occasionally wander, as in ‘City Of Exploded Children’, where the mix swells but the licks lose some of their potency – and sometimes Falko’s lyrics become so obtuse that it’s impossible to tell if you’re being mocked, or if there’s something Welsh going on that escapes nonnatives… We might not fully appreciate that “truth applies in both directions” (in ‘Cosmo’s Ladder’), but then again who really cares when there’s this much speed and fury packed into a three-minute song? And ‘Notes On Achieving Orbit’ is such
2:54
Album opener ‘Revolving’s mix of propulsive bass, thin guitars and melancholic vocals neatly combine said influences with a studio sheen designed for mass appeal. Unfortunately, an overuse of the same songwriting patterns emerges across 2:54 – cumbersome drum fills, predictable song structures and drawn-out melodies bordering on the lethargic. Towards the culmination of ‘Sugar’, Hannah’s ‘Little Sister’-ripping fretwork teases a pay-off worthy of their stoner rock references, yet it ends abruptly. Similarly, Colette’s detached vocal delivery echoes a misguided display of restraint, begging for a sense of urgency akin to PJ Harvey’s Mercury Prize-winning Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea. Upon comparing an early demo of ‘Creeping’ with its studio counterpart, 2:54 may benefit in returning to a murkier aesthetic, where guitars saturate into hiss and vocals sit further in the mix. Alternatively, the industrial snare of ‘Scarlet’ and ‘Circuitry’’s dreamy arpeggios hint at a direction akin to recent tourmates Warpaint.
A bit too blithe and kind of overworked, but worth a shot… especially if you’re into gnarly guitar solos.
With recent reformations, reissues and new albums due from ‘90s stalwarts My Bloody Valentine (we hope), The Smashing Pumpkins and Mazzy Star, one must question the necessity to scope out new bands that loyally mine these influences without adding a trace of their contemporary relevance.
Dijana Kumurdian
Alister Hill
Jonno Seidler
Fall in Time EP Independent It takes a lot for a band to find their sound – and even more to make that sound successful. The biggest challenge is to have a sound that’s purely of that band; something that captures an audience, and isn’t a carbon copy of what’s come before. In the massive music market of 2012, it’s hard to do that. Except, people are still doing it – and some of them are Charlie Mayfair. Brisbane-based, the ex-folk sextet have
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just dropped Fall In Time, an EP containing four of the finest tracks to come out this year. ‘Waste Me’ opens the EP with bouncing vocal samples and lingering treble guitar, and Hannah Shepherd’s vocals drifting ever-sohauntingly over the top. Every drum line is perfectly executed, adding a rare rhythmic complexity. ‘Stone’ showcases Dave Di Marco in a wide and moving musical experience. ‘Tell Her’ is closer to pop-folk than any song on the EP – but still lyrically rich and musically moving. Closing the EP is ‘Blue Water’, a huge track that spreads itself across multiple movements in less than six minutes. Choral and dripping with delay, every
One of the most exciting things about Mildura duo Jackson Firebird is their live set up with its ‘bottle bin’ rhythm section (an upturned recycling bin on the ground). Doesn’t sound like much on paper, but the simple pulsing drumbeat makes the room vibrate and gives their gigs something unique. So how does this impressive show translate onto their long awaited debut album? ...Not that well. Unfortunately, they just haven’t been able to capture their live energy that well – but there are still a couple of decent songs on here. In the throbbing vein of cock rock they have such poetic gems as “I said yeah / Alright / This motherfucker ain’t stopping tonight”, “Get off your knees now honey” and “She wants it / Every day and night”. They’re not trying to win any awards for lyrical content, but they are making some good, straight-forward cock rock songs. ‘Red Light’s stoner rock riffs feature a couple of banging solos in there, as does ‘Can Roll’, with its ‘We Will Rock You’-inspired beat. But by the time you get to the hard rockin’ drums, fuzzy guitar tones and megaphones on ‘Quan Dang’ and ‘Sweet Eloise’, the salute to the cock rock gods begins to feel a little rehashed. The well-chosen Tom Waits cover ‘Goin’ Out West’ nearly makes up for it – until the ‘bottle’ drum solo (it's actually a water jug in this case) which, while probably great live, on record sounds like the 'solo drum' function of an 1980s Casio. Take out the bottle bin and you’re left with over 30 minutes of Aussie cock rock that's reminiscent of the greats, with a few flashes of brilliance, but on the whole lacking in grunt. Anna Kennedy
layer is rolling and smooth but still crisp and distinct. With Fall In Time, Charlie Mayfair have nailed down a sound – and while there is still space for them to grow, in creating something so terrifically wide in scale they’ve proven their ability. Their folk roots shine through, and are backed up by soaring rock guts, subtle supporting electronics, and incredibly powerful vocals. Charlie Mayfair are a future for Australian folk that doesn’t end in teapots and lampshades – and that’s a welcome relief. Alex Sol Watts
JUSTIN BIEBER Believe Island/Universal
Cock Rockin’ Warner
INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK CHARLIE MAYFAIR
Benjamin Cooper
JACKSON FIREBIRD
2:54 Fiction/Co-op For their eponymous debut as 2:54, Londonbased siblings Hannah and Colette Thurlow have enlisted the crème of ‘90s sonic sculptors, led by long-term PJ Harvey collaborator Rob Ellis and Alan Moulder on mixing duties. In recent interviews the duo have cited QOTSA, Kyuss and The Cocteau Twins as influences, suggesting an amalgamation of these touchstones topped with their recent signing to Fiction Records (The Cure).
a perfectly vicious closer that it’s all too easy to forget that its first five minutes were packed with enough tension to snap the weakest of capitalist wills.
Believe is being positioned as Justin Bieber’s first album as an “adult”, and as such we are finally allowed a carefully calibrated glimpse of a libido. Admittedly, this takes the form of “chillin’ by the fire while we eatin’ fondue”, but as with the chorus of ‘Baby’, it’s not what he’s saying that matters. Bieber is an expressive singer with a solid handle on vocal tropes, from the suggestive slow jam rasp to starry-eyed Motown sweetness – and that raspy shit makes all the difference. Not only is Believe’s constant genreshifting jarring for the listener, but Disney Channel tripe like ‘Fall’, ‘One Love’, ‘Catching Feelings’ (what are they, cooties?) and the title track is maddeningly peppered with great tracks like dazed Drake collab ‘Right Here’ (take notes from the Degrassi alum, Biebs), or honeyed, all-out Jackson 5-sampling throwback ‘Die In Your Arms’. Bieber’s best move would be to hook up more long-term with Diplo, whose Top 40 chops are impeccable. His contribution here (with Ariel Rechtshaid), ‘Thought Of You’, is genius: all eager handclaps and unapologetically ‘90s synth stabs in the chorus, building over Baile funk breaks in the bridge and then exploding into the most exuberant chorus, like ‘Firework’ crossed with ‘Fuck You’ on MDMA, anchored by a gleefully squelching bass synth. It’s also Bieber’s best performance ever – sassy, wistful, resigned and buoyant, he pines after a crush while enjoying the feeling: “Though it’s infatuation / I’m good with that” he shrugs, before deploying a falsetto hook so irresistible it’s hard to mind the Autotune he probably needs now that he’s a man (welcome as the deeper timbre is). Bieber has chosen a great time to make RnB. Now it’s time for him to make some great RnB. Caitlin Welsh
OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week... HAIM - Forever CHILDISH GAMBINO - Royalty THE SMASHING PUMPKINS - Adore
FRENTE! - Marvin The Album JOE MCKEE - Burning Boy
ADRIAN BOHM PRESENTS THE STAR OF ABC TV’S BLACK BOOKS
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FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Ronnit Sternfein tel 03 8414 9710 or email ronnit@beat.com.au
BRAG :: 470 :: 09:07:12 :: 27
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live reviews
up all night out all week . . .
What we've been to see...
JONATHAN BOULET, WOLF & CUB, JOSEPH LIDDY AND THE SKELETON HORSE
jonathan boulet
PICS :: AM
The Metro Theatre Saturday June 30
30:06:12 :: The Metro :: 624 George St Sydney 9550 3666
party profile
the rescue ships It’s called: The Rescue Ships ‘City Life’ East Coast tour It sounds like: Warm gravy on a Sunday roast. Who’s playing? The Rescue Ships, Ngaiire, Tim Carroll. Sell it to us: Brian Campeau naked on a giant folk steed hurtling towards certain death, to the sweet sounds of Elana Stone, Ngairre and Tim Carroll. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: That unforgettable scene in the box office smash Death Becomes Her where Meryl Streep’s breasts grow. Crowd specs: Yes please! Only people wearing glasses allowed. Wallet damage: No thanks! But actually, yes. $18 Where: Red Rattler / 6 Faversham Street, Marrickville When: Friday July 13
Joseph Liddy and The Skeleton Horse are a new project fronted by Joseph Ireland, the ex-banjo-player in the nowdefunct Queensland band The Middle East. Although the outfit seems to have a rotating roster of members, tonight Ireland – or Liddy, as he now likes to be known – is joined by fellow ex-MiddleEast members Rohin Jones (guitar), Jack Saltmiras (baritone guitar) and Mike Haydon (drums), plus a bassist and percussionist. Paying homage to the Tour de France by sporting cycling jerseys, the sextet perform stompy, churny, shouty, country-tinged, whiskey-soaked blues – very different music to that which Middle East fans might expect. Aside from the odd phrase muttered by Liddy, the audience is left to their own devices in the longish gaps between songs, creating a relaxed vibe akin to watching a group of friends jam in a loungeroom. Panning red and white spotlights signal the arrival of Adelaidian psychedelic rockers Wolf & Cub. With lead singer Joel Byrne convincingly channelling a rock Jesus aesthetic, the quartet rip through a ballsy, tight and tough set with an unwaveringly uniform ‘stadium rawk’ LOUDNESS, which at times borders on the abrasive. Solidifying their standing as the perfect accompaniment to a JD & C, W & C bring us a thumping, DefLeppard-esque cover of David Essex’s ‘Rock On’ that neatly follows on from another crowd-pleaser ‘This Mess’. The intensity of Wolf & Cub may not appeal to everyone, but their performance is professional and full of conviction. Beneath a new and impressive beard, Jonathan ‘Rip Van Winkle’ Boulet takes the stage. With two drumsets, guitars dominating over vocals, and minus the light percussion of the marimba, opener ‘Black Smokehat’ sets the scene for a high-energy set with a heavier timbre than that which fans may have anticipated. By way of ‘90s bands analogy, Boulet’s sound is closer tonight to the “I Am You Are Me” frenetic chanting of The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ ‘One Big Mob’ than the “Hey Oh Mah Mah Mah” melodic chorus of Dario G’s ‘Sunchyme’. Recently released We Keep The Beat, Found The Sound, See The Need, Start The Heart gets a look in via ‘Hallowed Hag’, ‘Mangle Trang’, ‘FM AM CB TV’ and ‘This Song Is Called Ragged’ (gasp, that bullet art videoclip!), whilst ‘321 Ready Or Not’, ‘Ones Who Fly Twos Who Die’ and, of course, ‘Community Service Announcement’ show that Boulet hasn’t forgotten the self-titled EP that got him here. Andrew Yorke
LAWRENCE ARABIA
king cannons
PICS ::KC
The Green Room, Enmore Tuesday July 3
28:06:12 :: The Metro :: 624 George St Sydney 9550 3666 :: KATRINA CLARKE :: ELKE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER POPOV :: TIM WHITNEY :: RGE GEO :: NS MUN IEL DAN :: OWENS :: ASHLEY MAR
28 :: BRAG :: 470 :: 09:07:12
Of the crop of small bars which are gradually displacing the local fauna along Enmore Rd (Greek Club, R.I.P.), The Green Room has the advantage at the moment – a comfortable, open space, a wide variety of enticing alcoholic concoctions, dolorous lighting, and a surprising selection of forgotten obscurities to project upon the rear wall. It ticks a lot of boxes, with the decision to host gigs – apparently being a step too far for some of their competitors – being the olive in the proverbial shaken, dry martini. Certainly it provided a strangely appropriate forum to enjoy the dulcet tones and wandering thoughts of Lawrence Arabia tonight; a small bar finding its feet
as a venue is a good fit for a refined and unusual songwriter who may well have accepted the niche as his permanent home. “Obscurity, how do you do? We’ve given up but can’t afford to” he sang at one point, with a whimsical elegance to match the bored langour of the long-dead French waifs gazing from the film on the back wall. Joined by some mates on bass and drums, with a multi-skilled chap on saxophone, violin and whatever else needed playing, James Milne was dapper in suit and tie, the faux-grandeur of his presentation being undercut by some cheerfully self-effacing chit-chat – “This song’s about having a nervous breakdown and going home to live with one’s mum,” was how he introduced ‘The 03’ from his third album The Sparrow, which is being launched this evening. It was his older songs that provided the real highlights however, with the vocal harmonies of ‘Talk About The Good Times’ and ‘Apple Pie Bed’ being vividly brought to life. Though generally excellent, the newer material suffered in comparison this evening, a fact not helped by some sound issues; the violin and indeed Milne’s own voice were regularly lost in the mix, while a crackling microphone tarnished an otherwise awesomely groovy rendition of ‘Early Kneecappings’. It doesn’t do to quibble however, and the attentive quiet that fell during ‘Bicycle Riding’ provided one of those moments of respectful magic that must make folk want to open small venues in the first place. Oliver Downes
RICE IS NICE PARTY: STRAIGHT ARROWS, THE LAURELS, DONNY BENET, GOOD HEAVENS, SPOD, RICHARD IN YOUR MIND, SHADY LANE The Annandale Hotel Sunday July 1 Rice Is Nice Records was established by Julia Wilson and Ben Shackleton in 2009, and its truly gob-smackingly diverse range of artists were all on show tonight at the sold-out Annandale. Pete Avard looks like the youngest guy here tonight, but wowzers can the boy play. The Shady Lane drummer snaps out the beats with tight and tasteful intent, which frees up frontman Jordy to straddle the lazily-deceptive and joyous melodies off his latest LP, Built Guilt. Richard In Your Mind continue to amaze: just as soon as the punters have adjusted to the proto-techno vibe of the opener, the mood shifts with unexplainable ease to a swinging stomp affair. A bike-horn blasts rudely, before mainmain Richard Cartwright produces a fur-covered leafblower. Streamers explode across the crowd as Cartwright giggles that he is “blowing your minds!” Very nice. SPOD bounds on stage to entertain us with rousing tales of late nights with the boys... and cats. He hoists his pants really high as he reflects on going to swingers parties with your wife, then announces that he’s bought a keg for everyone in the room to enjoy. The beer is speedily drained as the man on stage clutches a plastic rose, handed to him by an admiring fan, and continues his sexy game. Speaking of sexy, what’s going on with Donny Benet? Usually the smoothest mofo alive – I have seen entire darkened rooms of wispy girls fall at his feet – something is amiss this evening. The live debut of new signing Good Heavens (featuring Sarah Kelly from theredsunband and two-thirds of when Wolfmother ruled) are an amazing surprise; incredibly tight, with Myles Heskett’s drumming dropping jaws aplenty. The Laurels’ benefitted from an astute sound-guy, which allowed breadth for their shimmering and insistent drone. And then things got messy for Straight Arrows: four young punks ripped into the audience, spraying spit and bile as far as their oesophaguses would allow. The crowd went bat-shit for this hopped-up fun, and this reviewer even had a cheeky crowd-surf… Rice Is Nice may well be the jumbled-up mess of a mind that this city needs right now. Benjamin Cooper
snap sn ap
urbantramper
PICS :: AM
up all night out all week . . .
sures
PICS :: AM
27:06:12 :: FBi Social :: Kings Cross Hotel 248 William St 9331 9900
vice party
PICS :: KC
28:06:12 :: GoodGod Small Club :: 53-55 Liverpool Street Sydney 8084 0587
set sail
PICS :: KC
28:06:12 :: FBi Social :: Kings Cross Hotel 248 William St 9331 9900
mum
PICS :: EO
30:06:12 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 9332 3711
29:06:12 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 9357 7700
clubfeet It sounds like: Cut Copy, Van She, Metronomy. Who’s playing? Clubfeet, I’lls Sell it to us: Clubfeet are excited to announce their first-ever live shows in their adopted Australian homeland, with a national tour in July. The Melbourne (via Cape Town) five-piece have been making international waves over the past twelve months, labelled as one of the hottest young prospects from this corner of the world. Clubfeet have spawned many a remix and video project, winning them a bunch of cred in the blogosphere. The band debuted their live show at New York’s CMJ Festival to rave reviews – including a spot in Paste’s Top 10 Bands of CMJ. This is a show not to miss! The bit we’ll remember in the AM: ‘City of Light’, ‘Cape Town’ and ‘Heartbreak’ from the upcoming album Heirs & Graces. Crowd specs: Young and restless. Wallet damage: $12 (+ bf)
the cracks
PICS ::KC
party profile
It’s called: Clubfeet's ‘City Of Light/This Time’ Tour
30:06:12 :: Upstairs Beresford :: 1/354 Bourke St Surry Hills 8313 5000
Where: GoodGod Small Club, Liverpool Street When: Wednesday July 11, from 8pm
:: KATRINA CLARKE :: ELKE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER POPOV :: TIM WHITNEY :: RGE GEO :: NS MUN IEL DAN :: OWENS :: ASHLEY MAR
BRAG :: 469 :: 02:07:12 :: 29
g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com
Ratcat
ROCK & POP
Adam Pringle and Friends Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Bondi Jam Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Cara Kavanagh Duo O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 10pm The Songwriter Sessions Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm
JAZZ
Ian Blakeney Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm Jazzgroove: Matt McMahon Trio, Trichotomy 505 Club, Surry Hills $8 (conc)–$15 8.30pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
SATURDAY JULY 14
Annandale Hotel
Auld Lang Syne: Ratcat, Tumbleweed, 78 Saab, Front End Loader, Smudge, The Hard-Ons, Spurs For Jesus, Further, Little Lovers, Raise The Crazy, Little Bastard
Andrew Denniston, Maxine Kauter, Tommy D, Len Phillips, Betti Laila, Guy Meets Girl, 2 Picks, No Sticks, Carrie Tong Taverners Hill Hotel, Leichhardt free 7pm Russell Neal, Laura Bishop Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 7pm
ROCK & POP
Open Mic Night Hard Rock Cafe, Darling Harbour free 8pm Unherd Open Mic
Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm
JAZZ
Elana Stone 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 (conc)–$15 8.30pm Monday Jam: Danny G Felix The Lansdowne, Broadway free 9pm
WEDNESDAY JULY 11 ROCK & POP
Andy Mammers Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm Brad Johns Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm Broken Hands Valve Bar, Tempe 7pm Clubfeet, I’lls GoodGod Small Club, Sydney $12 (+ bf) 8pm Dan Spillane Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 6pm The Donovans The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm Gemma The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm Jagermeister Presents: The Desert Sea, Flight To Dubai, Psychic Asylum, Erik the Red, The Fixators Annandale Hotel $8 7.30pm Jason Bettinger Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Live & Local: Tina Alcorace, North of the Bends, Bowtie Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $15 8pm Mark Hopper Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7.30pm
Casey Golden Trio, Gavin Ahearn Trio 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 (conc)–$15 8.30pm Daimon Brunton Quintet The Basement, Circular Quay $15 (+ bf) 8pm Ray Charles Tribute: Sonic Mayhem Orchestra feat. Lachy Doley Blue Beat, Double Bay $20 9pm World Music Wednesdays Macquarie Hotel, Sydney free 8pm
Black Diamond Cat And Fiddle Hotel, Balmain free 6.30pm Carolyn Woodorth, Bryan Farley, Pete Loveridge, Anna Forbes Royal Hotel, Springwood free 8pm Daniel Hopkins, Matt Lyons, Raoul Graf Taren Point Hotel free 7pm Folk Club Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory free 8pm The Folk Informal: Liam Gale & the Ponytails, Piers Twomey, Jenna Murphy, Salta FBI Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst $10 8pm Greg Sita Cookies Lounge and Bar, North Strathfield free 6.30pm Live & Local Open Mic Night Royal Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Michele Madden, Simon Day, Blackie, Joe Dabron Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10 8pm Russell Neal, Pete Scully, John Chesher, Gavin Fitzgerald, Paul McGowan Coach & Horses Hotel, Randwick free 7pm TAOS, The Wooden, Jonno Read, Richard Murphy, Dan And Bill, Tommy D, Amy Price Evening Star Hotel, Surry Hills free 7pm
THURSDAY JULY 12 ROCK & POP
Across Two Bridges: G Nunan Band, The Solid Ones, Rob Rhodes The Basement, Circular Quay $15 (+ bf)–$69.80 (dinner & show) 7.30pm Anthems Of Oz The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9pm Applespiel, The Fiery Biscuits, Oysters Sydney Livehouse @ Lewisham Hotel $10 8pm B-Massive, The Hungry Mile, This Dancefloor Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Baby Animals Annandale Hotel $35 (+ bf) 8pm Faker Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont free 6pm The Fumes, Blackwater Fever, Sativa Sun Brass Monkey, Cronulla $17 (+ bf) 7pm Hot Damn Sleepover: Resist The Thought, Saviour, Absolution, Lakeside, Hot Damn DJs Spectrum / Q Bar, Drlinghurst 8pm Igor (NZ), No Art, King Tears Mortuary, Ghastly Spats, JuliaWhy? The Red Rattler, Marrickville $5 8pm Iluka, Castlecomer, Eliza Hull FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $10 (+ bf) 8pm Johnathan Devoy Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Karnivool, Redcoats, Sleepmakeswaves The Hi-Fi, Moore Park sold out 8pm Marcelo D’Avila Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7.30pm Maxwell Stone, T.F.T., Modern Murder, Hang Dai, On Shoulders Of Giants, Ten Thousand Free Men and Their Families Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10 7.30pm Melissa Etheridge Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House $99.95–$130.20 8pm all-ages New Estate Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst $10 8pm Nick Saxon Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $20 8pm Remmos K, Aunty Hu Hu and the Big Lazy Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt $5 8pm Rock Circus, Scott McLaren, James Moy Valve Bar, Tempe 7pm Sam Shinazzi, Restless Leg The Green Room Lounge, Enmore free 8pm Steve Tonge Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Up Close & Personal Acoustic Artists Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 8pm The Upskirts, The Mountains, Train Robbers Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm
JAZZ
Rob Eastwood Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Russell Neal, Senani, George & Ted, Gaz Black, Massimo Presti, Chris Brookes Kellys On King, Newtown free 7pm
JAZZ
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
$35 (+ bf) 3pm MONDAY JULY 9
Melissa Etheridge Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House sold out 8pm Musos Jam Night Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt free 8pm Pluto Jonze, Young Men Dead, Tokyo Denmark Sweden Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm The Poet & The Thief, Lanrae, Kasandra The Vanguard, Newtown $15.80–$50.80 (dinner & show) 8pm The Rockwells Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Steve Tonge Duo O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm
Xxx
pick of the week
TUESDAY JULY 10
The Upskirts
2012 Jann Rutherford Memorial Award Fundraiser: Paul Cutlan & The Jann Rutherford Quintet, Hannah James Quartet, The Sirens Big Band Blue Beat, Double Bay $25 (conc)-$40 (+ bf) 7pm
“Watch as the wasteland, flowers, old cars and rubbish flourish with blackberries and red berries” - PATRICK WOLF 30 :: BRAG :: 470 : 09:07:12
g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Gerard Masters 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 (conc)–$15 8.30pm Lionel Robinson Dee Why RSL Club free
Karnivool
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Andrew Denniston, Stephen Sayers Ettalong B/C free 7.30pm Live & Local Open Mic Night Peakhurst Inn free 8pm Russell Neal, Brad Myers, Richard Murphy, Andrew Robinson, Nick Domenicos, Spencer McCullum Kogarah Hotel free 7pm
FRIDAY JULY 13 ROCK & POP
The 50-50 Club: Zoe K & the Shadow Katz, DJ Goldfoot, The Go-Gettes The Vanguard, Newtown $15 Aaron Lyon Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7.30pm Aftermath, Vices, Hearts Like Wolves, Adversary, Final Frontier Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst $13.30 (+ bf) 8pm Bad Moon Rising – The Creedence Clearwater Revival Show The Basement, Circular Quay $32–$82.80 (dinner & show) 7.30pm Bang Shang A Lang Taren Point Bowling Club 8.30pm Bertie Blackman, Manor The Standard, Surry Hills $35 (+ bf) 8pm Bonez, Night Owl, Lyall Moloney, Kieran Morris, Andy Golledge The Old Fitzroy Theatre, Woolloomooloo $5 8pm The Cleanskins Excelsior Hotel, Glebe free 7.30pm Club Blink: Dead Inside The Chrysalis, The Dead Beat DeeJays Club 77, Darlinghurst 8pm Dan Lawrence Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Dave Mason Cox The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 5pm Doc Neeson Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $44–$86 (dinner & show) 8pm Elisha Keen, Cletus Kasady, Winters End, Alex Gibson The Roxbury, Glebe $10 8pm Enter The Ninja, The Barefoot Band, The Yellow Canvas, Ask The Axis Sydney Livehouse @ Lewisham Hotel $12 8pm The Fumes, The Blackwater Fever Notes Live, Enmore $17 (+ bf) 8pm Gods of Thunder – Kiss Tribute Show Penrith RSL free 9pm Homeground Heroes Retro Rockers Valve Bar, Tempe 7pm INXS Campbelltown RSL $71.40 (+ bf) 8pm The Jeff Duff Experience Brass Monkey, Cronulla $19.90 7pm Karnivool, Redcoats, Sleepmakeswaves The Hi-Fi, Moore Park $40 (+ bf) 8pm Kelly Hope Baulkham Hills Sports Club free 8.30pm Love Parade, Medicated Youth The Green Room Lounge, Enmore 8pm Mending Melissa, Del Santo, Southdown The Square, Haymarket $15 8pm
The Mess Hall, Regular John, Kill City Creeps Annandale Hotel $20 (+ bf) 8pm Millions, Step-Panther GoodGod Small Club, Sydney $12 (+ bf) 8pm MUM: Tessa & The Typecast, Long Island Sound, The Universal, The Stringsmiths, Total Bore, Glenn Be Trippin, The Shiny Bright DJs, Wolfden DJs, 10th Avenue, Cries Wolf DJs, Miss Adventure, Post Paint DJs The World Bar, Kings Cross $10-$15 8pm The My Tys Blue Beat, Double Bay $15 (+ bf) 7.30pm OAF’s 3rd Official Hat Party: Made in Japan, Toucan, Tom Ugly, Griswolds, Sweet Teeth, Broke Down Engnes, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Reckless The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm Red Hot Numbers Engadine RSL & Citizens Club free 8pm The Rescue Ships, Ngaiire, Tim Carroll The Red Rattler Theatre, Marrickville 8pm River of Snakes, The Walk On By, Space Ticket Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Steve Edmonds Band The Vault, Windsor free 8pm Tessa & the Typecast, I Am Apollo, Dan Cresanti, Hansom Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills free 6pm
JAZZ
Java Quartet The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $10 (student)–$20 8.30pm Kinetic Jazz 2012: L.I.E St Luke’s Hall, Enmore $12 (conc)–$15 7.30pm Marsala 505 Club, Surry Hills $15 (conc)–$25 8.30pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
The Alcreda Trio feat. Alexis Sellies, Russell Neal Mars Hill Café, Parramatta 8pm
SATURDAY JULY 14 ROCK & POP
All Ages Arvo Alliance #3: Griever, The Howlers Sydney Livehouse @ Lewisham Hotel $15 2pm all-ages Auld Lang Syne: Ratcat, Front End Loader, Tumbleweed, Hard Ons, Smudge, 78 Saab, Further, Little Bastard, Raise the Crazy, Spurs For Jesus, Little Lovers Annandale Hotel $35 (+ bf) 3pm Bang Shang A Lang Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL 9pm C & C Music Factory feat.
Freedom Williams (USA), Confection & Merv Mac, Nasser T, Sam Boutros, MK1, Mac & Trey The Factory Theatre, Enmore $55-$85 (+ bf) 8pm Cascade The Lair, Metro Theatre, Sydney $10 8pm all-ages Cerebral Violation Festival: Hazmat, Aeturnus Dominion, Foundry Road, Corotted, Terrorential, Infinite Black, Fatigue Valve Bar, Tempe 3pm Clagg, Summonus, Unknown To God, Chroma Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $12 8pm Crowsfeat, Release The Hounds, Overpass Coogee Diggers 8pm Dave Tice and Mark Evans Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel free 4pm Endless Summer The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9pm Epics, Born Lion, Chinese Burns Unit, Clowns The Roxbury, Glebe $10 8pm Fantine, The Deer Republic, Ghosts of York, F.R.I.E.N.D/s Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills free 6pm The Furious Five Oatley Hotel free 8.30pm The Heavies, My Dynamite, Glitter Canyon, Blind Valley Notes Live, Enmore $15 7pm Intransit Panania Hotel free 8pm James Parrino The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 4.30pm King Tide, The Chitticks, Anthony Ousback Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm Kittens: Rockets, Oceanics, Kittens DJs Spectrum, Darlinghurst $10 8pm Knxwledge (USA), Oscar & Martin, Fishing, Nakagin, Gardland, Astral DJs, Harry Cotton GoodGod Small Club, Sydney $12 (+ bf) 9pm Live Cover Bands Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 10.30pm Mick Hart, Dan Lethbridge The Vanguard, Newtown $18.80–$53.80 (dinner & show) 8pm The Night, Drawing North, DJ Alley Cats The Lansdowne, Broadway free 9pm Rabbit Hole’s 1st Birthday: Olympic Ayres, The Shiny Brights, Vulpes Vulpes, Train Robbers, Cutloose, Polographia, Rabbit Hole DJs FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $15 8pm Rob Henry Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Sarki Eastern Suburbs Legion Club, Waverley free 8pm Say Anything (USA), The Getaway Plan, The Mission In Motion The Hi-Fi, Moore Park $50 (+ bf) 7pm Shake & Bake Brass Monkey, Cronulla $17.85 7pm
The Gate presents Sound/ Light/Stone: Single Twin, Tash Parker, Jordan Ireland, Seaworthy York St Anglican Church, Sydney 7pm Steve Edmonds Band Figtree Bowlo free 8pm Teal, Cuervo Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory free 8pm Van She, Rufus, Panama, Beni Metro Theatre, Sydney $29 (+ bf) 8pm Velociraptor, The Oceanics Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills free 8pm Whores, Drunk Elk, Oily Boys, Housewives, Love Chants The Square, Haymarket $10 8pm
JAZZ
Jazz Nouveau Supper Club, Fairfield RSL Club free 7pm Kinetic Jazz 2012: Ed Goyer Quartet St Luke’s Hall, Enmore $12 (conc)–$15 7.30pm Manins Muller Quartet 505 Club, Surry Hills $20 (conc)–$25 8.30pm Munro, Jo Fabro Blue Beat, Double Bay $10$15 (+ bf) 7pm Serendipity Whisper Café / Bar, Kings Cross free 7pm Virna Sanzone Band The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $10 (student)–$20 8.30pm
COUNTRY
Beccy Cole, Lyn Bowtell Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $44–$102 (dinner & show) 7pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Baby Et Lulu: Abby Dobson & Lara Goodridge The Basement, Circular Quay $30 (+ bf)–$84.80 (dinner & show) 7.30pm Russell Neal, Black Diamond George IV Inn, Picton free 8.30pm
SUNDAY JULY 15 ROCK & POP
The Bluetongues Botany View Hotel, Newtown free 6.30pm Dr Kong & The Stem Cells, The Insidious 6ix The Vanguard, Newtown $13.80 8pm Elevation U2 Show The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 4.30pm Ensemble Offspring Petersham Bowling Club $15–$20 3pm Gary Johns Trio The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Glenn Cunningham Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont free 8pm Hunter & Suzy Owens Band Marrickville Bowling Club free 4.30pm INXS Penrith Panthers $61.50 (+ bf)–$91.45 (dinner & show) 7.30pm Jason & The Lyrebird, Six White Horses, The Dalton Gang’s Last Raid Brass Monkey, Cronulla 7pm Mandi Jarry Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm
Mark Hopper Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7.30pm Mavis And Her Chins Pigs, Big Blind Ray And The Wailing Wall, Girl Most Likely Lansdowne Hotel, Broadway free 6pm Nine Sons of Dan, This Sanctuary, Cupid Against Venus, Forever Ends Here The Lair, Metro Theatre, Sydney 6.30pm all-ages Salsa Night Hard Rock Cafe, Darling Harbour free 8.30pm Steve Edmonds Band The Brewery, Wollongong free 3pm Sydney Battle Of The Bands Heat 3 Bexley North Hotel $5 3pm
JAZZ
Kinetic Jazz 2012: The Tim Bruer Quartet St Luke’s Hall, Enmore $12 (conc)–$15 7.30pm
COUNTRY
The Slowdowns Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 4pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Black Diamond Hotel William, Darlinghurst free 6pm Counterfeit The Green Room Lounge Bar, Enmore free 5pm Russell Neal, Rebecca Moore, Jade Sharwood, Simon Marrable, Tasman Formosa Corrimal Hotel free 3pm Shoot The Moon Salisbury Hotel, Stanmore free 2pm
wed
11 July
(9:00PM - 12:00AM)
thu
12 July
(9:00PM - 12:00AM)
fri
13 July
(5:00PM - 8:00PM)
(9:30PM - 1:30AM)
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
sat
14 July
(4:30PM - 7:30PM)
SATURDAY NIGHT
(9:00PM - 1:30AM)
SUNDAY AFTERNOON
sun
(4:30PM - 7:30PM)
July
SUNDAY NIGHT
15
(8:30PM - 12:00AM)
BRAG :: 470 :: 09:07:12 :: 31
gig picks
up all night out all week...
MUM: Tessa & The Typecast, Long Island Sound, The Universal, The Stringsmiths, Total Bore, Glenn Be Trippin, The Shiny Bright DJs, Wolfden DJs, 10th Avenue, Cries Wolf DJs, Miss Adventure, Post Paint DJs The World Bar, Kings Cross $10-$15 8pm
Pluto Jonze
Baby et Lulu
OAF’s 3rd Official Hat Party: Made in Japan, Toucan, Tom Ugly, Griswolds, Sweet Teeth, Broke Down Engnes + DJs Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm The Rescue Ships, Ngaiire, Tim Carroll The Red Rattler Theatre, Marrickville 8pm
SATURDAY JULY 14 Baby et Lulu: Abby Dobson & Lara Goodridge The Basement, Circular Quay $30 (+ bf)–$84.80 (dinner & show) 7.30pm
WEDNESDAY JULY 11 Pluto Jonze, Young Men Dead, Tokyo Denmark Sweden Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm
Mick Hart, Dan Lethbridge The Vanguard, Newtown $18.80–$53.80 (dinner & show) 8pm
Hot Damn Sleepover: Resist The Thought, Saviour, Absolution, Lakeside, Hot Damn DJs Spectrum / Q Bar, Darlinghurst $20 8pm
Rabbit Hole’s 1st Birthday: Olympic Ayres, The Shiny Brights, Vulpes Vulpes, Train Robbers, Cutloose, Polographia, Rabbit Hole DJs FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $15 8pm
FRIDAY JULY 13
THURSDAY JULY 12
Karnivool, Redcoats The Hi-Fi, Moore Park sold out 8pm
Applespiel, The Fiery Biscuits, Oysters Sydney Livehouse @ Lewisham Hotel $10 8pm
Love Parade, Medicated Youth, Bambino Koresh The Green Room Lounge, Enmore 8pm
The Gate presents Sound/Light/ Stone: Single Twin, Tash Parker, Jordan Ireland, Seaworthy York St Anglican Church, Sydney $20 7pm
Faker Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont free 6pm
Millions, Step-Panther GoodGod Small Club, Sydney $12 (+ bf) 8pm
Van She, Rufus, Panama, Beni Metro Theatre, Sydney $29 (+ bf) 8pm Xxxx
The Rescue Ships
www.fbisocial.com
L2 Kings Cross Hotel
Wednesday July 11
THE FOLK INFORMAL: PIERS TWOMEY +SALTA +LIAM GALE & THE PONYTAILS + JENNA MURPHY 8pm // $10 at the door
Friday July 13
TIN CAN RADIO + RAPIDS + LOUIS LONDON + SPECIAL GUESTS 8pm // $10 + BF from Oztix // $15 at the door
Thursday July 12
ILUKA
HOT DUB TIME MACHINE:
Saturday July 14 RABBIT HOLE 1ST BIRTHDAY: OLYMPIC AYRES
+ THE SHINY BRIGHTS (SA)
+ VULPES VULPES +TRAIN ROBBERS + DJ CUTLOOSE + 2AM HEADLINER: POLOGRAPHIA
(SINGLE LAUNCH) CASTLECOMER + ELIZA HULL
DJ TOM LOUD
OLYMPIC AYRES & POLOGRAPHIA BROADCAST LIVE ON FBI RADIO
8pm // $10 + BF // $13 at the door
11:30pm // FREE
8pm til early // $15 at the door
RADIANT LIVE:
32 :: BRAG :: 470 : 09:07:12
brag beats
BRAG’s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture
dance music news club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Alasdair Duncan
he said she said
WITH
STATE ADVANCED FROM BROKEN THOUGHT THEORY made by the people around me. To see the growth and development of people’s sound excites me. Life experiences, for me, always provide plenty of inspiration for writing songs too.
M
y earliest memories are of my dad’s vinyl collection; mostly classic rock, from Dire Straits and Eric Clapton to Jimi Hendrix and Frampton Comes Alive. Growing up I was always into what my older brother was into, so I went through grunge, punk, a bit of metal and finally hip hop. My high school was rife with B-boys, graff artists and emcees, and growing up on
NINA LAS VEGAS’ MIX COMPILATION
Vancouver Island, the West Coast hip hop scene was flourishing. Heiro, J5, Swollen Members and Dilated Peoples were the soundtrack of my teenage years, and I’ve been hooked ever since. There’s so many artists that have inspired me and my music at different times – it’s hard to choose favourites. Right now I find inspiration in the music being
The booty-shaking DJ sets of Nina Las Vegas have long been a staple of triple j, thanks to her Saturday night House Party sessions. This month, Las Vegas has branched out into the
I met EaRelevant along with local emcee Skase AK within a week of landing in Australia. Later that year Broken Thought Theory was formed with E.R. and Sydney vocalist VCee, and began building momentum. We’ve recently released our debut EP and have begun work on a follow up, as well as numerous side projects. Before relocating, I released three albums with Canadian group Character Traits, whose members are all frequent collaborators with BTT. Our most recent release is drum heavy, sample-based hip hop. We bring intricate rhyme structures punctuated by VCee’s soul-inspired vocals, which creates its own vibe. Currently, we are working with a few different producers to expand the range of
world of compilations, with the announcement of her debut, double-disc mix under the House Party moniker. The track listing features an abundance of the kind of indie dance bangers that fans of the show have come to expect. The first disc has a distinct electro and house focus, with tracks from the likes of Parachute Youth,
Tiësto
our sound, and building with our existing team. I also have a solo EP out next month backed by funk trio Sloppy Joe. The hip hop scene in Sydney is strong and there’s plenty of good young artists on the come up. There seems to be a good amount of respect amongst artists, with most willing to support one another. Lately, the Big Village artists have been making noise, and we ourselves are part of a seven-act collective named Mothership: Broken Thought Theory, High Noon, Hometeam, Madame Wu & Elise Graham, Ruthless, Skase AK and Bay Side Wreckers. All worth a listen for sure. What: Broken Thought Theory EP Launch With: Curtis-C, Psych The Passenger, High Noon, Hometeam, Barnzy & PaperToy Where: Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst When: Friday July 13
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Van She, Miike Snow and The Presets, while the second has a little more of a hip hop flavour, and includes selections from M.I.A, Missy Elliott and Diplo, as well as some more straight-ahead dance tracks from Beni, Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem.
STEREOSONIC RETURNS
There’s no better way to mark the beginning of the summer festival season than by getting 16 or 17 of your bestest buds together and letting the bass from a set of gigantic speakers pummel you into submission. If you have a mind to do this, then Stereosonic 2012 is probably your best bet – the touring dance behemoth is now in its sixth year, and is all set to return with a bigger lineup than ever before. At the top of the bill are three huge names – Tiësto, Avicii and Calvin Harris. Also appearing are the likes of Example, Carl Cox, Major Lazer, Laidback Luke, Martin Solveig, Dash Berlin, Markus Schulz, Diplo and Sander van Doorn… and we’re only about a quarter of the way down. Safe to say, it’s going to be enormous. The Sydney leg of Stereosonic will return to Skoda Stadium, Homebush, on Saturday November 24 – and as this venue features a slightly reduced capacity, fans are advised to get in quickly to snap up those tickets.
The Pharcyde
THE PHARCYDE AUGUST TOUR
The weird and wonderful crew known as The Pharcyde have been staples of the Los Angeles hip hop underground since the early ‘90s. Currently celebrating two decades in the business, the inimitable pairing of Imani and Bootie Brown will return to Australia in August with a brand new show and a fistful of classic tracks to play. The group’s debut, Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde, was one of the most acclaimed and influential hip hop recordings of the ‘90s, and included singles ‘Ya Mama’, ‘Passing Me By’, ‘4 Better Or For Worse’ and ‘Other Fish’. Their second album pushed things even further – the track ‘Runnin’ was produced by the then-unknown J-Dilla, and its video was directed by none other than warped visionary Spike Jonze. The Pharcyde are touring nationally, and will play at The Beresford in Surry Hills on Wednesday August 22.
AVICII: ENOUGH WITH LEVELS ALREADY!
“Shut up and play the hits” is clearly not a phrase Avicii’s people are familiar with. At Night Management, who look after the Swedish DJ powerhouse, recently released a bizarre YouTube video imploring his fans to move on from his big hit, ‘Levels’. Admittedly the track has been somewhat overplayed in recent times, not least of all by Avicii himself, but his management have had enough, and drawn a line in the sand. “ENOUGH WITH LEVELS ALREADY!!! YOU KNOW THERE ARE OTHER AVICII TRACKS, RIGHT?” they implore in the video, which features footage of Jay-Z and Kanye West on that night when they played their hit ‘Niggas In Paris’ a mind-numbing twelve times in one show. The description of the video includes a list of dozens of Avicii tracks besides ‘Levels’, including remixes of Adrian Lux, Little Boots and David Guetta. As dance music hissy fits go, this is one of the more entertaining in recent times…
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dance music news
free stuff
club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Alasdair Duncan
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM
five things WITH
KERRY WALLACE Growing Up I was born and grew up 1. here in Sydney (no, I’m not English) with a fairly musical family. My mum, sister and myself all played piano, and believe it or not my sister and I used to sing together too. During school when I was about 16, I bought my first set of decks and decided I wanted to become a DJ; fourteen years later I’m still playing music, and loving it like it was the first day.
2.
Inspirations My initial inspiration as a DJ was Simon Dunmore back at the Defected parties at Tank. Every time he was in town I’d be front and centre all night long. I admired his mixing style of letting the track do the work, and seamlessly rolling one track into another. I like to think this is the way I mix today.
M83 TO SCORE SCI-FI FILM
In an interview with The Playlist last week, Anthony Gonzales of French dream-pop outfit M83 confirmed that he will be writing the score for the new Tom Cruise sci-fi flick Oblivion, due for release next year. The film is being directed by Joseph Kosinski, who has a history with this sort of thing – he’s the one who tapped Daft Punk to work on the soundtrack to his last movie, TRON: Legacy. So yeah, the fact that Oblivion is to be directed by the same guy who made TRON: Legacy doesn’t bode that well for it being a good movie – but at least it will have an awesome soundtrack. “I can’t wait to hear my music played by amazing musicians and an orchestra and brass and maybe choirs,” said Gonzalez, who is never one to shrink from musical grandiosity. “It’s a chance to create something big, and I’m ready for it.”
RUFUS TOUR
Indie electro trio Rufus seem to be on the way to very big things indeed. The youngsters have some high-profile support slots under their belt, including shows with Röyksopp, Yuksek, The Aston Shuffle and Van She, and have played sold-out shows of their own. Their second EP, released earlier this year, included
The Music You Make I’ve touched on production more than 4. a few times now, but at the moment, between S.A.S.H, our new tour company Paved Way and DJing most weekends, it’s a serious struggle to find the time. Stay tuned though, as I just bought myself a pretty solid studio set-up – it’s inevitable it’ll happen soon(ish). Music, Right Here, Right Now For the past five years or so I’ve gone 5. deeper and deeper, and it seems like Sydney is somewhat following suite. When we started S.A.S.H a year ago we were one of the only deep house parties around, but since then they seem to be popping up like wildflowers. I’m glad more Sydney siders are finally starting to listen to good music, and if our efforts at S.A.S.H have been in any way a part of this new movement, then I stand a happy man. If you haven’t been down to S.A.S.H as yet, I suggest you come check it out… It’s pretty mad. With: Ben Korbel, Declan Lee, Glitch DJs, Le Brond, Shaun Broughton and Matt Weir
S.A.S.H. Myself and Matt Weir run the party together and have a really supportive tight
When: Sunday July 15, from 2pm
the excellent cut ‘This Summer’, as well as ‘Talk To Me’, which was picked up by Kitsuné for inclusion on a recent compilation. The trio are all set to tour the country again, and you can see them at The Standard on Saturday August 4. This week also sees a brand new Rufus release: a remix EP featuring versions of ‘This Summer’ and ‘Selena’ by the likes of Parachute Youth, Frames, Lancelot and Softwar, as well as a new version of ‘This Summer’ by the guys themselves.
FOALS MIX TAPES
The Tapes series of compilations provides a great opportunity for indie dance artists to express their weirder side and highlight some of the tracks that have influenced them. The Rapture and The Big Pink have each provided an excellent entry in the series, and the latest comes courtesy of the UK’s Foals. Singer Edwin Congreave, who is known for his epic house parties and after-show DJ sets, dips into the stranger depths of their record collection in true style. The mix draws on everything from old-school disco to minimal techno and glitched-out electro, with selections from the likes of Julio Bashmore and Nicholas Jaar all the way back to Marshall Jefferson and
Where: S.A.S.H @ The Abercrombie
“What on earth is this? I don’t like it,” says my grandmother about things like nachos, mobile phones and immigration – so given her phobia of the unfamiliar, who knows what she’d make of dubstep. Fortunately, the legion of folks following this new-ish genre is strong testament to the fact that most of the world is more open-minded than my nan… Many of said folks will be at Big Ape, the Perth clubbing institution who are celebrating their first birthday with a huge national tour they believe definitively represents the past, present and future of dubstep, featuring the talents of Skream, Sgt Pokes, Joker and Plastician. The tour hits The Metro Theatre on Saturday July 21, and we have two double passes; to be in the running for one, send us a description of your favourite dubstep dance move (with extra points awarded if you direct us to a YouTube video of you performing it.)
DR. OCTAGON
Got a case of chimpanzee acne? There’s only one doctor who has the cure. More than a decade before Tyler the Creator went ‘Yonkers’, Dr. Octagon was treating ‘moosebumps’ and relocating saliva glands. The prolific selfprofessed creator of horrorcore, Kool Keith aka Dr. Octagon will be resurrecting one of hip hop’s most bizarre characters in a worldexclusive tour. His seminal 1996 album Dr. Octagonecologyst marked the return of pure hip hop, minus the gangsta, and you can catch the extraterrestrial time-travelling gynecologist/ surgeon performing the cult hit in full at Oxford Art Factory on Thursday July 12. With support slots by up-and-coming Aussie hip hoppers True Vibenation and beat master Roleo, you won’t want to miss this one. And we may be able to get you there, if you tell us which of Kool Keith’s other alter egos killed off Dr. Octagon…
Cerrone. Congreave assures fans that there was some genuine crate-digging involved in this effort – one track, ‘Confusion (Ma Afrika)’ by Condry Ziqubu, is a relic of apartheid-era South Africa that had to be ripped from an old cassette tape for inclusion in the mix.
DJ J.PERIOD AUSTRALIAN TOUR
Brooklynite J.Period is one of the most in-demand producers and remixers in the world of hip hop, having worked his magic on the likes of Kanye West, Mary J. Blige, John Legend, The Roots and many more. His official mixtapes for artists like Q-Tip and Lauryn Hill have earned great acclaim and many millions of downloads – and he even assisted in creating mixes for Activision’s DJ Hero. You can check out J.Period’s skills behind the decks for yourself when he arrives in Australia later this month for a tour of the East Coast – he’ll be appearing at the Civic Underground, corner of Pitt and Goulburn Streets, on Friday July 27.
BLAH BLAH DAFT PUNK RUMOURS BLAH BLAH...
Speculating about new Daft Punk releases is the internet’s third-favourite pursuit, just behind pictures of cats and One Direction fan fiction, but the rumour mill has it that the French robots are all set to release a new track this month. The rumours came about when the French dance music magazine Tsugi made mention of an as-yet-unreleased Daft Punk track, ‘Renoma Street’ – when questioned about it on Twitter, editor Patrice Bardot cryptically replied “21/7”. While cryptically replying to things on Twitter is the last refuge of scoundrels, some felt that he was hinting at a July 21 release date – and because they like to remind us that we can’t have nice things, indie website Pitchfork soon weighed in, declaring the rumours to be bogus on the word of a supposed inside source. So, who do you believe?
Sydney native Sky’high is without a doubt one of the freshest talents to grace the local hip hop scene in some time. Sky’high, real name Skh’ai Gerrey, grew up around the housing commissions of Maroubra and Ultimo and began writing rhymes at the age of 15, determined to use creativity as an outlet rather than straying onto the path of drugs and alcohol like many around her. Her debut album, Forever, came out in May on Elefant Traks, and marks the arrival of a truly original voice on the Australian hip hop scene – triple j magazine claimed it “an uncompromising distillation of her bold personality”, praising Sky’high for her “outspoken and streetwise style”, and her expertly-delivered rhymes, which arrive with a “Hulk-fist impact”. This coming Friday July 13, Sky’high will appear at Niche Productions’ Movement night at the Beach Road Hotel alongside DJ Morgs of Thundamentals.
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little family of DJs, staff and friends. If we didn’t have our crew alongside us, we’d have nothing… WE SALUTE YOU!
Your Crew Most people here in 3. Sydney will affiliate me with
Sky’High
SKY’HIGH AT BEACH ROAD
SKREAM
KENNY LARKIN BRINGS DETROIT TO SYDNEY
Detroit native Kenny Larkin has a body of work that goes back more than two decades, and in electronic music circles he’s renowned for his soulful techno cuts. Coming up alongside legends like Carl Craig, Larkin’s early records drew on funk, soul and jazz, folding these influences and more into discrete and beautiful techno packages. He’s been associated with such esteemed labels as Plus 8, Buzz, Warp and Cadenza, and he has remixed the likes of Radio Slave and Inner City. Larkin will come to Australia in September for an intimate gig at The Spice Cellar on Saturday September 15, and there are limited presale tickets currently available from Resident Advisor.
Chet Faker
CHET FAKER SINGLE LAUNCH
With his mighty ginger beard, Chet Faker may not have the look of a guy who produces slow, sensual electronic music – but his EP, Thinking In Textures, is one of the most gorgeous beat-based releases of the year. The EP features seven compelling slowjams taking in sounds from soul to disco and minimal house, overlaid with his distinctive falsetto croon. If you didn’t catch Faker’s last run of shows you’re in luck, as he’s all set to tour the country again in support of his newest single, ‘Love And Feeling’. You can head along to see him at Oxford Art Factory, Oxford Street, on Thursday August 16 – but if you need a little bit of a Faker fix before then, have a listen to his remix of The Temper Trap’s ‘Trembling Hands’. Who knew pitchshifting and a tempo change could do that to the next Coldplay…
FRANCE’S MAELSTROM HEADS DOWN UNDER
In dance music terms, France is known as the land of insatiably-catchy house and glitchy Ed Banger-style techno, but the country also has a thriving bass culture, represented in no small part by Maelstrom. The Parisian DJ and producer, real name Joan Mael Peneau, has released tracks on Boys Noize Records and had his style praised by heavyweights like Claude VonStroke and Laurent Garnier. His newest EP, Generation, was released on Gesaffelstein and The Hacker’s label Zone-Music, and features a combination of slick, stylish techno and dark, driving bass. Maelstrom will bring his DJ show to Australia this month for a series of club dates, and you can see him on Friday July 17 at Club 77, William Street, presented by Motorik. The evening also marks a farewell for Motorik regular Light Year, who is headed off to the USA.
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Photo by Sam Whiteside
You MUST: ■ Be available most evenings ■ Own camera & gear ■ Have a car ■ Be over 18 years of age (we’ll check!) ■ Not be creepy Please send your application to: tim@photodoco.com
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Dr. Octagon Forward Motion By Andrew ‘Hazard’ Hickey anything this like again.” First order of business for Keith, though, is finding out whether he should pack his thermal underwear and a bubble goose jacket. “I love Australia, it’s like a second home,” he says in his trademark drawl. Taking a break from promoting his new album Love & Danger, which dropped last month, he’s clearly looking forward to the visit. “I’m always happy to go where I feel welcome, and Australians are the coolest people I’ve met travelling.”
H
e is the man and myth behind albums like the 1996 masterwork Dr. Octagonecologyst; he has penned such lyrics as “In my real world, orangutans dance for Thanksgiving / with skeleton bones and skunk tails”; but the Kool Keith we spoke to, once we finally tracked him down, was one who spoke in serious tones about his inspiration, and where he wants to go in the next chapter of his career.
Fresh from a recent trek to Europe, the veteran MC (and self-proclaimed creator of horrorcore) is gearing up to hit Australia to perform his aforementioned classic 1996 album in full, bringing back to life one of the most oddball personas in hip hop history. The upcoming shows Down Under actually mark the first time Dr. Octagon has ever performed the album live. “Fans can expect something that draws a line in the sand. They won’t hear or see
As with everything he does, Dr. Octagonecologyst was a result of Keith’s environment. Recorded in California alongside Dan The Automator, he believes that such a concept-driven album could never have been made in his native New York. “There’s too much going on – you might see a fight in the street and it’ll change your whole vibe.” But the intensity of New York can work in his favour too, as it did with the suitably graphic follow-up album, Sex Style. And even with his reputation as hip hop’s concept album king, the rapper, real name Keith Thornton, is looking to head in a different direction next time. “My two last albums I was in jail, I was in prison lyrically,” he says with conviction (pun intended). “I’m getting into a variety of new beats, doing my own production. I like to move forward and not focus on the same thing.” Indeed, Kool Keith has never stuck to formula since his solo career kicked off; adding to the Dr. Octagon project, he’s also recorded under the pseudonyms Dr. Dooom and Black Elvis. But while his creativity has never been in
question, he believes he became somewhat pigeonholed with this musical schizophrenia – as contradictory as that may seem. “I opened up Pandora’s box in the wrong way. I’ve met people that want me to write a whole song about a hat, or a rapper that wants me to write about [baseball player] Derek Jeter for three verses...” He’s also looking to cut down on collaborations. “Everyone that works with me gets more recognition than me,” he says. “I made them stars.” Concept albums do have a place, however, and Keith believes many of today’s rappers are following in his footsteps. “They’re making music that is conceptual and characterised. With movies today, people wanna see concepts like Batman and The Avengers. It’s the same with music: you damn near gotta put a movie poster out for your album.” With no one to appease, Keith is excited about the idea of switching things up and doing it for himself. “I rapped for other people, I rapped for mass appeal. I never wrote anything for myself.” Ultimately, he says, it’s all about continuing to grow as an artist. “You stop moving and evolving, you die. If you want to be a shark, you got to keep moving.” What: Dr. Octagon performing Dr. Octagonecologyst live With: True Vibenation (live), Roleo (live), Frenzie, Preacha Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Thursday July 12
Rennie Pilgrem The Best Of Breaks By Annabel Maclean
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Alex Smoke Smoke Signals By Henry Andersen
‘C
lassically trained.’ It’s a nice, vague little phrase that crops up in press statements for musicians of any genre. “Yeah,” says Alex Menzies, better known as Alex Smoke. “It’s one of those classic bio lines, and then you find out they played recorder until they were seven…” For Menzies, however, ‘classically trained’ is not some token bid for musical legitimacy, but a very prominent part of his life and musical thinking. “I played cello for 16 years, and piano and drums. I sang full-time in a choir for five years. Singing in the choir, you’re aware of the other parts – the way that they interact and the way that harmonies play off each other. For me, even at the very start of my production career, I knew that was what I had to bring to the table.”
receiving a commission to write a piece for a prominent string orchestra, The Scottish Ensemble. “I’ve never been more nervous than the first performance, because you feel that you’re walking in someone else’s field and that maybe you’ll make a fool of yourself.” Classical music, though, is as much Menzies’ field as electronics. “If you listen to a lot of minimal classical composers like [Steve] Reich and [Philip] Glass, you could well believe that they wrote with a sequencer. Ironically, my background in classical music was more traditional, so my writing is not as technically taxing as many modern composers. I still love strong melodies and flowing passages, as well as the more sequencer-led ideas of repetition and looping.”
As a teenager, Menzies gravitated from classical music into dance culture and electronic sound. “I first discovered Detroit techno and hip hop off the radio, as well as all those big albums like Leftfield’s Leftism and Daft Punk’s Homework. Once I had my first computer I realised there was nothing stopping me from just ploughing in there and making it myself.” And that’s exactly what Menzies did; using a computer his grandmother bought him, he taught himself the software.
Menzies is currently unveiling the next in his long series of musical projects: Wraetlic. This new project extends Menzies’ electronic aesthetic into the visual realm. “There is a strong visual element which was included from the conception, and written by an amazing talent from Japan called Vokoi. Wraetlic is much more experimental in outlook, and is also entirely focused on the vocals. The songs are all very short, the production is non-4/4 and experimental, and the live show is fully audio-visual.”
Menzies has released three full-length albums under his Alex Smoke alias: Incommunicado (2005), Paradoelia (2006) and 2010’s Lux, on which Smoke’s compositional prowess is particularly evident. The album is filled with gorgeously introverted techno, clockwork percussion and subtly shifting harmonies. There is also a prevalent fascination with microsound, those tiny, digital clicks and pops created by deliberately clipping various waveforms. “It’s something totally new to someone whose background is entirely classical,” says Menzies. “It’s a refreshing way of looking at sound and music, where the parts that would traditionally be thrown out are now centre stage. The joy of error!” In 2008, Menzies was offered a chance to reacquaint himself with the classical world, 36 :: BRAG :: 469 :: 09:07:12
From the first online glimpses of Wraetlic, it is clear that there is a distinct sonic difference to Menzies’ other music. And yet amongst the stuttering beats and glacial projections, Menzies’ diligently trained ear is still recognisable. “The other facet [of my classical training] which probably played a big part was the discipline involved to just keep going and learning. I used to work [on my music] for eight hours a day, every day, and I couldn’t have been happier.” Who: Alex Smoke (live), Trinity, Glitch, Jay Smalls Where: One22, 122 Pitt Street, Sydney When: Saturday July 14
ost breaks fans know Rennie Pilgrem for his work with the UK hardcore breakbeat producer act Rhythm Section and their ‘91 hit ‘Feel The Rhythm (Comin’ On Strong)’, and for running Thursday Club Recordings, a label he founded two years later. His breaks tracks – particularly ‘Like No Other’ and ‘Hey Funky People’ – dominated sound systems in clubs around the world and he’s been at the forefront of the breaks scene ever since, oft-cited as the Godfather of the nu-breaks genre. Twenty years into his career, Pilgrem is releasing a milestone anthology: The Best Of Rennie Pilgrem. Including some of his best work and some genuine classics from the breakbeat scene, he says the time felt right to release the anthology. “I don’t think there’s been a lot of very exciting breaks for the last three or four years,” he says down the line from London. “In Spain – which is a big market for breaks – they’ve gone mad for this retro sound where they get you over and they want you to play your classics, partly because there’s been a vacuum of good new stuff. So I’ve been doing some [retrospective] sets and I thought, ‘Actually some of this isn’t even available for people to buy digitally’ – so [releasing The Best Of] seemed like a good idea.”
Pilgrem says TCR has evolved greatly over the years, and he has a realistic view of the label’s future. “Over time it grew to have a very good roster of artists,” he says. “But at the moment, I’m really only [releasing] my stuff, because since the whole digital way of buying music … releasing other people’s stuff is not really worth it. Hopefully that might change, but right now it’s too easy for people to get the music for nothing. For you to release someone else’s music and to promote it, it just means you’re going to lose a chunk of money each time.” Now running a night called Ruffneck alongside DJs and producers Jay Cunning and Jurassic, Pilgrem says his upcoming tour to Australia may well be his last. “I think it could well be the last time, because I’m now 78 years old,” he jokes. “I’m not sure how long I’m going to be going all over the place.” But Pilgrem tells me that Australia is still one of his favourite places to play. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad tour over there. Even the last couple of times where they were saying, ‘Oh, breaks is suffering’, I had a lot of great feedback… Australia and Spain have been the best places in the world for breaks, really.”
Pilgrem says putting the anthology together was a bit of trip down memory lane – in fact, there were a bunch more tracks that he could have included. “There’s nothing stopping me from doing another one,” he says. “It was very nostalgic; I’ve still got copies on vinyl of everything. Obviously vinyl isn’t as important anymore – whereas 10, 15 years ago, it meant everything – so it has been an interesting, nostalgic little journey.” This month also marks the tenth anniversary of TCR, Pilgrem’s label which has been at the forefront of the breaks, rave, nu-funk and future jungle scene since it started. The label celebrated the milestone with its annual birthday BBQ over the weekend, with sets from the likes of Meat Katie, Pyramid, Terry Hooligan, High Eight, King Yoof and Pilgrem himself. “It’s a big, free party that we’ve done every year. The main focus of it is great music, and the main thing is to try and beat the drinking record at this bar every year,” Pilgrem laughs. “People can’t believe it’s all free… We’ve had people fly from Europe and Italy and stuff just to come to the party. We actually had a guy fly there, get a cab from the airport, party for 12 hours, get a cab back to the airport, and then he had to go to work. Quite impressive. It’s an amazing party.”
With: Spenda C, Kato and more Where: Cakes @ The World Bar When: Saturday July 14
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club guide send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com
club pick of the week Dr. Octagon
THURSDAY JULY 12
GoodGod Front Bar, Sydney Girls Gone Mild Eliza & Hannah Reilly free 8pm The Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney The Greenwood Thursday Nights Resident DJs free 8pm Gypsy Lounge, Darlinghurst Naked Resident DJs 9pm Ivy Poolclub & Changeroom, Sydney Changeroom Thursdays Shantan Wantan Ichiban, Elly K, Yogi & Husky 8pm Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Resident DJs free 8pm Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Dr Octagon (USA), True Vibenation, Roleo, Frenzie, Preacha $35 (+ bf) 8pm Q Bar, Darlinghurst Hot Damn Hot Damn DJs $15-$20 8pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Rack City DJ Tikelz, DJ Lenno, DJ Ziggy, DJ Lyrikz, DJ Rkays, Mista Cee 8pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Swag Thursdays Resident DJs 9pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Propaganda Ali, Conrad Greenleaf, Urby, Dan Bombings free (student)-$5
FRIDAY JULY 13
Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst
Dr Octagon (USA), True Vibenation, Roleo, Frenzie, Preacha $35 (+ bf) 8pm MONDAY JULY 9 Scruffy Murphys, Sydney Mother Of A Monday DJ Smokin Joe free 8pm The Sugar Mill, Kings Cross Makeout Mondays DJs free 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Jazz DJs free 7pm
TUESDAY JULY 10 Empire Hotel, Kings Cross Tight Resident DJs free 9pm Establishment, Sydney Rumba Motel Salsa DJ Willie Sabor free 8pm
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Scruffy Murphys, Sydney I Love Goon Tuesdays DJ Smokin Joe free 8pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Coyote Tuesday - DJ Spin Off DJs $10 7pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Jam Mike, Jonno free 8pm
WEDNESDAY JULY 11 The Bank Hotel – Velvet Room, Newtown Lady L, Resident DJs free 9pm The Bank Nightclub, Kings Cross Money Talks DJs free 10pm Epping Hotel DTF Resident DJs free Flinders Hotel, Surry Hills Hip Hop Resident DJs free
GoodGod Small Club, Sydney Clubfeet, I’lls $12 (+ bf) 8pm Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale Frat House Wolf & The Gang free 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall Resident DJs $5 9pm
THURSDAY JULY 12 Beach Road Hotel, Bondi The Camera Club DJ Frenzie free 7pm The Cool Room, The Australian Brewery, Rouse Hill Christmas In July Starfuckers DJs, Troy T, Big Will, Anthony K 8pm
Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway Totally Barry Bad Barry DJs free 9pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach Movement Sky’High, DJ Morgs free 8pm Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst Broken Thought Theory, Barnzy, Curtis C and Psych The Passenger, High Noon, Hometeam, PaperToy $10 8pm Candy’s Apartment, Kings Cross Friday The 13th Kyro & Bomber, Robust, Intheory vs Whatis?, Retrojunk vs Nintempo, Bystanders vs Mindtricks, Smashmelllow vs Sharkbait, Homeslice vs Scotty P, Cal French, Matty P 9pm Cargo Lounge, King St Wharf Kick On Fridays Resident DJs free 4pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Nick Thayer, Sample Sex, Day Trip, Cheap Lettus, Big Deal Gillespie, Sticky Bandit, Ya Jokin, Venda, Modest, Major Roar $15-$25 10pm Clarendon Tavern Let’s Get Stupid JTS (UK), DJ Syph, Inoxia, Cloudze, Snappa, Xbox free 7pm Epping Hotel Flirt Flirt DJs free
FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel Hot Dub Time Machine DJ Tom Loud free 11.30pm GoodGod Front Bar, Sydney Yo Grito! Yo Grito! DJs free 8pm GoodGod Small Club, Sydney Same Old Scene Radge, Tyson, Sex Azza Weapon, Power Suit $10 11pm Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour Sublime Richard Durand $15 (+ bf) 9pm Hugo’s Lounge, Kings Cross Hugo’s Fridays Resident DJs 8pm Ivy Changeroom, Sydney Love Gun Fridays Tina Turntables, The Apprentice, Hooligan 8pm Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross KK Fridays Falcona Agency DJs 8pm Nevada Lounge, Darlinghurst DJ Hayden free 6pm Oatley Hotel We Love Oatley Hotel Fridays DJ Tone free 8pm Omega Lounge, City Tattersalls Club, Sydney Unwind Fridays DJ Greg Summerfield free 5.30pm Oxford Art Factory – Gallery Bar, Darlinghurst VNA 19 Launch Party Kato, Rolls Royce free 6pm Pontoon, Darling Harbour Perfect Resident DJs free 9pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross My Studio Nacho Pop, Dim Slm, Digital Mouthm Mike Ruckus 8pm Scruffy Murphy’s, Sydney Frisky Friday DJs free 6pm The Shark Hotel, Sydney Puls8 DJ Jono, Guest DJs free 9pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Weekend Express, Kato, James Taylor, Morgan $10 10pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Eve Resident DJs 9pm The World Bar, Kings Cross MUM Tessa & The Typecast, Long Island Sound, The Universal, The Stringsmiths, Total Bore, Glenn Be Trippin, The Shiny Bright DJs, Wolfden DJs, 10th Avenue, Cries Wolf DJs, Miss Adventure, Post Paint DJs $10-$15 9pm Zink Bar, Cronulla Far Out Friday Derek Turner 7pm
SATURDAY JULY 14 Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway Strange Fruit Strange Fruit DJs free 9pm BJs Nightclub, Bondi Junction DJ Shane Taylor 10pm
Nic Fanciulli
Candy’s Apartment, Kings Cross Disco! Disco! Sherlock Bones, Lumberjacks, Pretty Young Things, Nightriot, Le Bronx, Camo, Instant Gentleman, Jamie Roe, Husstler 9pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Brookes Brothers (UK), Utah Jazz (UK), ENEI (Russia), Jeff Drake, Frew, A-Tonez, Reload, Bassriot, Def Tonez, King Lee, Murray Lake, Mike Hyper $15-$25 9pm Club 77, Darlinghurst Starfuckers Starfuckers DJs 10pm The Cool Room, The Australian Brewery, Rouse Hill Saturday Nights DJ Koffee Establishment, Sydney Sienna G-Wizard, Troy T, DJ Def Rok, Lilo 8pm Factory Theatre, Enmore C & C Music Factory feat. Freedom Williams (USA), Confection & Merv Mac, Nasser T, Sam Boutros, MK1, Mac & Trey $55-$85 (+ bf) 8pm Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale Sonunda Volume 4 Trena, Kayros, Jordan Zed, Azza Huasca, Oblongmonster, Monsieur Tralala $5-$10 9pm Goldfish, Kings Cross Musik Matters Nic Fanciulli (UK), Ben Korbel, Matt Cahill, Ben Ashton, T-Boy, Jack Fuller $30 (+ bf) 6pm GoodGod Small Club, Sydney Knxwledge (USA), Oscar & Martin, Fishing, Nakagin, Gardland, Astral DJs, Harry Cotton $12 (+ bf) 9pm Hermann’s Bar, University of Sydney, Darlington Winter Wobble! Andy Donaldson, Lee Etherington, Tony Spencer 9pm Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour Homemade Saturdays Resident DJs 9pm Ivy, Sydney Ivy Saturdays Sam La More, Trent Rackus, Jeff Drake, Chris Fraser, Baby Gee, Tass, Recess, Animal Jeans, Man Bon De Veire, Bad Ezzy, Morgan, Crazy Caz $20 8pm Nevada Lounge, Darlinghurst DJ Hayden free 6pm Nevermind, Darlinghurst Swagger Weekly Launch Party DJ Booth, Half Neson, FML, Boyonce $10-$15 9pm One22, Sydney Alex Smoke (UK), Trinity, Glitch, J Smalls $25 10pm Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Midnight Juggernaut DJs, Redial, Nadisko, Smacktown, Natnoize, Obey, Ra, Pablo J & The Lobsterettes $20 (+ bf) 9pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross The Suite Charlie Brown, Big Will, Dim Dlm, Discokid, Troy T, Jo Funk, Steve S, Adamo, J Smoove 8pm Secret Warehouse, Sydney One Night Stand Canyons, Simon Caldwell $20 10pm Soho, Potts Point Usual Suspects Russ Chimes (UK), Oakes & Lennox, Jack Bailey, Mike Rukus, Digit & Jumes, Kato, Here’s Trouble, 14th Minute, Recess 9pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Ant J Steep, Murat Kilic, Dean Relf $20 10pm Tunnel Nightclub, Kings Cross ONE Saturdays Resident DJs $10-$20 10pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Cakes Rennie Pilgrem (UK), Cakes DJs $15-$20 8pm
club guide send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com
SUNDAY JULY 15 The Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway S.A.S.H. Sundays Ben Korbel, Declan Lee, Glitch DJs, Le Brond, Shaun Broughton, Matt Weir, Kerry Wallace $10 2pm The Beresford Hotel, Surry Hills Beresford Sundays
Resident DJs free 5pm Goldfish, Kings Cross Martini Club Sundays Martini Club, Tom Kelly, Straight Up Steve free 6pm Hugo’s Lounge, Kings Cross Sneaky Sundays Sneaky Sound System, Resident DJs 8pm Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Easy Sundays Resident DJs 8pm Oatley Hotel
Sunday Sets DJ Tone free 7pm Q Bar, Darlinghurst Daydream DJs 4.30am The Spice Cellar, Sydney Spice After Hours Murat Kilic $20 4am Valve Bar, Tempe 1Outs Sydney SinCity MCs 1pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Dust John Devechies, James Taylor, Alley Oop free 9pm
club picks up all night out all week...
Oscar + Martin
WEDNESDAY JULY 11 The World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall Resident DJs $5 9pm
THURSDAY JULY 12 The Cool Room, The Australian Brewery, Rouse Hill Christmas In July Starfuckers DJs, Troy T, Big Will, Anthony K 8pm
FRIDAY JULY 13 Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach Movement Sky’High, DJ Morgs free 8pm Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst Broken Thought Theory, Barnzy, Curtis C and Psych The Passenger, High Noon, Hometeam, PaperToy $10 8pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Nick Thayer, Sample Sex, Day Trip, Cheap Lettus, Big Deal Gillespie, Sticky Bandit, Ya Jokin, Venda, Modest, Major Roar $15-$25 10pm Oxford Art Factory - Gallery Bar, Darlinghurst VNA 19 Launch Party Kato, Rolls Royce free 6-9pm
Fishing, Nakagin, Gardland, Astral DJs, Harry Cotton $12 (+ bf) 9pm One22, Sydney Alex Smoke (UK), Trinity, Glitch, Jay Smalls $25 (+ bf) 10pm Secret Warehouse, Sydney One Night Stand Canyons, Simon Caldwell $20 10pm Soho, Potts Point Usual Suspects Russ Chimes (UK), Oakes & Lennox, Jack Bailey, Mike Rukus, Digit & Jumes, Kato, Here’s Trouble, 14th Minute, Recess 9pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Ant J Steep, Murat Kilic, Dean Relf $20 10pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Cakes Rennie Pilgrem (UK), Cakes DJs $15-$20 8pm
SUNDAY JULY 15 The Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway S.A.S.H Sundays Ben Korbel, Declan Lee, Glitch DJs, Le Brond, Shaun Broughton, Matt Weir, Kerry Wallace $10 2pm
The Spice Cellar, Sydney Weekend Express, Kato, James Taylor, Morgan $10 10pm
SATURDAY JULY 14 Chinese Laundry, Sydney Brookes Brothers (UK), Utah Jazz (UK), ENEI (Russia), Jeff Drake, fRew, A-Tonez, Reload, Bassriot, Def Tonez, King Lee, Murray Lake, Mike Hyper $15-$25 9pm Factory Theatre, Enmore C & C Music Factory feat. Freedom Williams (USA), Confection & Merv Mac, Nasser T, Sam Boutros, MK1, Mac & Trey $55-$85 (+ bf) 8pm Goldfish, Kings Cross Musik Matters Nic Fanciulli (UK), Ben Korbel, Matt Cahill, Ben Ashton, T-Boy, Jack Fuller $30 (+ bf) 6pm GoodGod Small Club, Sydney Knxwledge (USA), Oscar + Martin,
Brookes Brothers
BRAG :: 470 :: 09:07:12 :: 39
snap up all night out all week . . .
29:06:12 :: The Standard :: 3/383 Bourke St Surry Hills 9331 3100
fun. Who’s playing? Knxwledge, Oscar+Martin, Fishing, Nakagin and Gardland. Three songs you’ll hear on the night: 'Arom atik' – Knxwledge; ‘Recognise’ – Oscar+Martin; ‘Oooo’ – Fishing. And one you definitely won’t: Bryan Adam s’ ‘Summer Of 69’ Sell it to us: Five mega-rad artists for a super cheap price at Sydney’s epicentre of awesome. Knxwledge is out all the way from the US of A and is stroking all the right people the right way. Definitely one to watch for the future, so why not see him now in an intimate environment and save yourself some clams? Cheap drinks with amazing forward-thinking beats – sound s like a great night to us! The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Marcus from Collarbones ripping up the dancefloor with the best moves this side of the pacific. Crowd specs: Sydney’ finest and friendliest. Wallet damage: $17(+ bf) / $20 on the door. Where: GoodGod Small Club, 55 Liverpool St, Sydney When: Saturday July 14, from 9pm
propaganda
PICS :: AM
ben walton
It’s called: Astral People presents Knxwledge (USA) It sounds like: Wonky beats, RnB grooves and messy
PICS :: DM
PICS :: GP
kid mac
party profile
knxwledge (USA)
28:06:12 :: The World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 9357 7700
roots
PICS :: GP
30:06:12 :: The Spice Cellar :: 58 Elizabeth St Sydney
aston shuffle
PICS :: AM
29:06:12 :: Spectrum :: 34-44 Oxford St Darlinghurst Sydney 9331 3100
:: KATRINA CLARKE :: ELKE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER POPOV :: TIM WHITNEY :: RGE GEO :: NS MUN IEL DAN :: OWENS :: ASHLEY MAR
40 :: BRAG :: 470 :: 09:07:12
strike
PICS :: AM
30:06:12 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex St Sydney 8295 9999
29:06:12 :: Strike Bowling Bar :: King St Wharf Darling Harbour
TRIPLE $15 FOR 3! BOWLING / DRINKS / LASER TAG
MIX AND MATCH AS YOU LIKE.
TUESDAY NIGHTS AT STRIKE KING STREET WHARF, STRIKE CHATSWOOD & STRIKE ENTERTAINMENT QUARTER CONDITIONS APPLY. LASER TAG NOT AVAILABLE AT STRIKE KING STREET WHARF.
FIND US ON
BRAG :: 470 :: 09:07:12 :: 41
snap up all night out all week . . .
29:06:12 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex St Sydney 8295 9999
And one you definitely won’t: That doof-d oof stuff. Sell it to us: Weekend Express will be steam ing into the Cellar! Heavily indebted to the past but with both feet facing forward, Weekend Express is an analogue trip down a highway to high times ; an imaginary place where every night is the best night of your life. Combine the Express with Spice, and you’ve got one hell of a party on your hands! The bit we’ll remember in the AM: The smile on your face, and the craving you have for more. Crowd specs: All you hip-hoppers, do-woppers , name-droppers, bill-boppers, you come into our house… Wallet damage: $10 Where: The Spice Cellar / 58 Elizabeth St, Sydney When: Friday July 11
huxley
30:06:12 :: One22 :: 122 Pitt St Sydney
tornado wallace
PICS :: AM
tantrum desire
PICS ::AM
29:06:12 :: Metro Theatre :: 624 George St Sydney 9550 3666
It’s called: The Weekend Express @ The Spice Cellar It sounds like: Deep pitched-down grooves, and sleazy low-slung house. Who’s spinning? Weekend Express (Kolou r Recordings/Melbourne), Pink Lloyd (Soft War), Kato, Morgan, James Taylor . Three songs you’ll hear on the night: ‘2 The Rhythm’ – Weekend Express; ‘About You (Mic Newman Remix)’ – No Dial Tone; ‘There Was Rhythm’ – Groove Armada.
PICS :: AM
PICS :: AM
360
party profile
the weekend express @ the spice cellar
28:06:12 :: Australian Brewery :: 350 Annangrove Rd Rouse Hill 9679 4555 :: KATRINA CLARKE :: ELKE S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER TIM WHITNEY :: :: OV POP RGE MUNNS :: GEO OWENS :: ASHLEY MAR :: DANIEL
42 :: BRAG :: 470 :: 09:07:12
club tropicana
PICS :: AM
cool room
PICS :: TW
29:06:12 :: The Spice Cellar :: 58 Elizabeth St Sydney
29:06:12 :: GoodGod Small Club :: 53-55 Liverpool St Chinatown 8084 0587