The Brag #473

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SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE PRESENTS

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‘ILL MANORS’ IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ALBUM OF 2012.

THE TRUTH IN BLACK & WHITE

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

five minutes WITH

LARRY HEATH FROM THE AU REVIEW

T

ell us about your website?

The AU Review is all about supporting emerging writers and photographers in Australia, who in turn support the national music and arts scene with their content. We don’t typically stray towards any particular genre, leaving it up to our contributors to decide what to cover: live music, theatre, or whatever else might take their fancy. I started the site four years ago, essentially because I was looking for a site just like this but couldn’t find one. With a background in web/graphic design and project management, it all fell together from there.

It’s a huge site with national coverage, taking in video, photos and words from hundreds of contributors. How do you find the time?

I can’t say I do it alone; we have an army of volunteers who help keep the site going.

But it certainly does take over my life, which is hard for something which still doesn’t pay my bills – every cent we make goes straight back into the site. But at the end of the day it’s something I truly love doing. I get to travel, meet my heroes, and live the sort of lifestyle people dream of. It ain’t an easy job by any means, but when you love it, you do whatever you can to make it work. To answer

your question more succinctly though, I’d probably just say that I don’t sleep much!

What’s been your proudest moment over the last four years?

Meeting Dave Grohl remains the highlight – and not just meeting him, but getting to sit at a bar and drink with him, which was, surprisingly enough, the exact thing I always dreamed would one day happen. But this sits at the top of a very long list of amazing moments.

What’s been your worst/most embarrassing?

I once interviewed Scott Ian from Anthrax and it just went south so quickly. I’d misread the email about the interview, and thought I was there to talk about something I wasn’t.

We cut a 15-minute conversation down to a three minute video, which to this day remains difficult for me to watch. Luckily, I’m not a fan!

What’s planned for The AU Review’s 4th birthday party?

My favourite record of all time is, for one reason or another, Magical Mystery Tour by The Beatles. I thought it’d be amazing to get some of my favourite local bands together to

recreate the song live; over 20 musicians are taking part, including a string, woodwind and brass section. Chance Waters and members of Regular John, Deep Sea Arcade and Guineafowl are among them, and we have a couple of big surprises along the way. I have to tell you, I have NO idea how this is going to go, but I can’t wait to see it… We’re also celebrating the launch of the second book in our Australia’s Year In Music series.

It’s an annual almanac that looks back at the prior year in music through thousands of photos by 60 Australian photographers.

We’ve published seven different limited edition covers, and they’re available now through australiasyearinmusic.com What: The AU Review’s 4th Birthday Party – Magical Mystery Tour live With: Chance Waters, Fanny Lumsden, Milan, Kristian Jackson and Anthony Hughes, plus members of Deep Sea Arcade, Regular John, City Riots, Guineafowl, Winter People, Lime Cordiale, Cameras – and heaps more!

Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Friday August 3 More: www.theaureview.com Xxxx

The Preachers

PUBLISHERS: Adam Zammit & Rob Furst EDITOR IN CHIEF: Adam Zammit 9552 6333 adam@peergroupmedia.com EDITOR: Steph Harmon steph@thebrag.com 02 9552 6333 ARTS & ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Dee Jefferson dee@thebrag.com 02 9690 2731 STAFF WRITERS: Alasdair Duncan, Benjamin Cooper NEWS: Nathan Jolly, Alasdair Duncan ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant GRAPHIC DESIGN: Alan Parry SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER: Tim Levy SNAP PHOTOGRAPHERS: Nohmon Anwaryar, Anna Brown, Katrina Clarke, Ashley Mar, Daniel Munns, Thomas Peachy, Pedro Xavier

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Benjamin Cooper, Alasdair Duncan, Christie Eliezer, Murray Engleheart, Andrew Geeves, Chris Honnery, Nathan Jolly, Anna Kennedy, Sheridan Morley, Jenny Noyes, Hugh Robertson, Rebecca Saffir, Romi Scodellaro, Jonno Seidler, Rach Seneviratne, Roland K. Smith, Laurence Rosier Staines, Luke Telford, Rick Warner, Alex Sol Watts, Caitlin Welsh Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this address 8a Marlborough Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 ph - (02) 9552 6333 fax - (02) 9319 2227 EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher, 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

BRAG PRESENTS: OAF’S 5TH BIRTHDAY

Oxford Art Factory has just turned five, and to celebrate they have roped in The Preachers, Kill City Creeps, Group, The Shooters Party, Spirit Valley, Sures, Bloods, Sweet Teeth, Reckless Vagina and Whipped Cream Chargers to help hang the piñata (and play sets across both rooms). It’s happening on Saturday September 15, and alongside all those bands – plus OAF’s Friday I’m In Love DJs and the OAF Gallery DJs – BRAG will be DJing (I KNOW!) and initiating a pass-the-parcel filled to the brim with CDs and other bits and bobs, because we are nice like that. Oh and also, the first 100 people through the door get lolly-bags! This is a fifth birthday party, after all...

SCISSOR SISTERS

Things are going so swimmingly for the contemporary music programmer at the Opera House that when a British friend the other day asked, “Why’s it called the Opera House when they have Regina Spektor, The Cure and Odd Future playing, innit?”, I didn’t really have a sufficient answer. The next great contemporary band to muck up the curtains and ash on the carpet are New York disco glams The

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Scissor Sisters, who we believe are named after a chess move or a Newtown hairdresser or something. They are touring off the back of their latest excellent record, Magic Hour, which sounds exactly like its cover art, so Google it.

Or listen. They play the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall on September 27; tickets range from the wonderfully divisible $64 to that ugly prime number $83, and are on sale Wednesday August 1 (National Wattle Day).

Sydney feels most like Sydney when indie-pop lads Dappled Cities are around. The cycle of a band is seasonal, like a farmer or an NBA player (exactly like both of those examples), so when they disappear into studios and relationships and day jobs, things don’t feel quite right. Anyway Sydney, Dappled Cities are back doing stuff! The have a brilliant new album out called Lake Air, which is packed full of pop gems, fun synths and festival choruses (read all about it on page 20), and they’ll be celebrating its excellence with an in-store performance from 5pm this Friday August 3 at Red Eye Records. They’re even offering to scribble all over your record with permanent markers, too!

EMPERORS

Have you heard ‘Be Ready When I Say’ by Perth four-piece Emperors? It sounds like the single Billy Corgan should have released around the time he went all electro with Adore.

All Emperors’ songs have this effortless epicness to them, which is possibly why triple j love them, why Ladyhawke and Shihad both asked the band to support them, and why we will be up the front at their September 14 show at GoodGod Small Club, singing back the words to songs from their debut album Stay Frosty – which you really should have bought by now.

HUNTING GROUNDS

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Last week, BRAG went to the media launch of Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson’s Wreck And Ruin record, and they bickered their way through the entire set like only people who truly love each other can. It was cute and sweet and mushed our lil’ bleedin’ country hearts to the point where we are seriously hanging out for the album to be released (September 7) – but moreso for their show in support of it at the Seymour Centre, which happens on November 2. In related news, it turns out that Shane sings a lot like Ryan Adams, which is how everyone should sing.

Tickets are on sale on Wednesday August 1 (National Horses’ Birthday).

DAPPLED IN-STORE

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KASEY HEARTS SHANE

Hunting Grounds

Ballarat boys Hunting Grounds don’t muck about. Two weeks ago triple j started hammering their single ‘Flaws’, which does that shimmering, summery Empire Of The Sun thing without the head gear or tribal costumes – and the band is responding in kind by heading out on a 13-date national tour in support of In Hindsight, the debut album from which ‘Flaws’ was ripped. Their show at GoodGod Small Club on Friday August 10 is the one you’ll wanna catch, moreso because Brisbane skuzzy surf pop kids Gung Ho are supporting!

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rock music news

free stuff

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

FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM

he said she said WITH

MELINDA FROM THE FALLS nights at Blender Gallery in Paddington fuelled this, as it was the first time I’d really listened to a lot of that music. I think it has really inspired the way we harmonise together.

Every person we work with is like another member of the band. That includes the guys in our band, but also our sound engineer, producer, and the artist who helps us put together our posters and other artwork. We try and work with people who have a similar aesthetic to us, who can bring new ideas to the table that we may never have thought of.

Our debut EP Hollywood is really a glimpse at our story so far. We met. We fell in love.

We wrote songs. We fought. We made up. We broke up. We wrote songs. Our songs are very personal, very raw and very honest, and I think our live show is too.

I

grew up in Darwin. For some reason music was always my thing. I’d play anything I could get my hands on – the clarinet my sister was supposed to be learning, or the next door neighbours’ pianola – and in high school I played saxophone. When I finished school I knew I wanted to do music, but didn’t really know how. I was very lucky to have a lecturer in my first year of uni that encouraged me to pursue my music. He helped me record an audition tape for the Conservatorium of Music

in Sydney, to which I was accepted – I went on to study a Bachelor of Music on saxophone.

Even though classical saxophone is worlds away from what I do now, it’s the reason I kept making music once I left school, how I met Simon, and how I ended up here.

I am in love with music from the mid-to-late ‘60s and early ‘70s, like Neil Young, Simon & Garfunkel, The Byrds, Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones. Playing exhibition opening

GO HERE GO THERE IV

Bearhug

THIS WEEK AT THE WORLD BAR

The World Bar have another big week lined up to stop you doing taxes and washing clothes and completing those chores you penned in to do this week. Monday night (July 30) they have a chilled evening of jazz and possibly wine swirling, should you choose; Tuesday night is karaoke: cheesy and awesome; Wednesday night sees a flood of dubstep DJs play, including but not limited to Glovecats, Creature Colour, Mindquad, Sherlock Bones and Lights Out; Thursday’s indie club Propaganda will have you dancing (or moping, if you’re one of those) with DJs Urby, Conrad, Gillex and Dan Bombing, while Friday night is MUM: Tourism (check them out! Brisbane’s answer to Arctic Monkeys!), Sex In Columbia, Yale, Train Robbers, Call To Colours, Small Cats and a heap more.

SNOW MCKEE

After three undeniably great albums and whatever the opposite of a seachange is (relocating from the most isolated city in the world to London), Perth band Snowman disbanded, with 2011’s Absence providing a suitable postscript… Except Joe McKee spent the last three years readying his brilliant debut solo record Burning Boy, which is out now and coated with McKee’s lovely baritone. He’ll be touring the album throughout August, hitting Paddington Uniting Church on Thursday August 16, with Sydney psych-queen Melodie Nelson in tow.

DUNE RATS’ PRIVATE PARTY

Dune Rats’ two-minute blast of slacker-surferpunk ‘Fuck It’ basically acts as a manifesto for the Brisbane two-piece, so it’s not too surprising

MUM and FBi Social are teaming up again to unleash the fourth installment of Go Here Go There, which is a clever name once you realise the festival is split between The World Bar and Kings Cross Hotel. It happens on Friday August 10, it costs $15, you get to wear a wristband that gets you into both venues, and you’ll watch Hey Geronimo, Bearhug, Chicks Who Love Guns, Jeremy Neale, The Walking Who, Lime Cordiale, Private Life and a bunch of other acts. Plus, $5 beers all night. Yep.

they are hosting a private ‘suburban surf party’ in Sydney on Saturday August 18. “How do we attend?” I hear you emailing us. Well, you’ve been hasty and needlessly clogged up our inbox without getting to the end of this paragraph, because all you need to do is buy tickets through OzTix to one of their shows supporting Children Collide (August 17 and 18 at The Standard), then patiently wait for details by your emailing machine. Easy.

It’s so inspiring to see so many new music nights popping up all over the city. Oxford Art Factory has been hosting a night called Folk Club where we’ve been playing each week, and where we have discovered heaps of new artists that we love, including Packwood, Boy Outside, Jack Carty and Carla Lippis.

What: Hollywood EP is out on August 3, through MGM Distribution With: Stu Larsen Where: The Hellen Rose Schauersberger Laboratorium When: Saturday August 11

DJANGO DJANGO

“Man that was a great set by UK psychedelic-pop quartet Django Django, but boy do I wish this Thursday August 2 at Oxford Art Factory night wasn’t over, as I now wish to party with the group.”

If that sounds like the kind of thing you’ll be saying after their show, then not only are you abnormally detail-oriented in your everyday speech patterns, but you are in luck. The band are hosting an after party and performing a DJ set straight afterwards, a mere 37.6 metres away at Brighton Up Bar. First in, best dressed – it’s a small venue, so run!

BEACH ROAD HOTEL

The Beach Road Hotel in Bondi has a series of events to go to in-between stalking the ‘cast’ of Bondi Rescue. Wednesday night (August 1) sees the red-cordial antics of Closure In Moscow, alongside black-tee-loving Self Is A Seed and Bang! Bang! Rock’n’Roll, while Friday night has MC Tuka from Newtown’s favourite hip hop crew Thundamentals debuting some tracks from his new solo record. Then Saturday from noon ‘til 6pm, the Favourite Things vintage markets are on. You should touch loads of things there, and buy some too!

NEW WAR

As one of those coolies with your finger on the underground musical pulse, you’re probably already a long-time fan of fuzzed-out Melbourne rockers New War. But if you haven’t had a chance to hear them yet, or you’ve been waiting for a show a little closer to home, they’ll be launching their self-titled debut LP at The Square on Saturday August 18. Label buddies Lost Animal will also be there to launch their debut Ex Tropical on vinyl.

With enough launches to make NASA green with envy, it’s sure to be a good gig – and we’ve got a double pass to give away. To get your name on it, tell us the name of the first single off New War’s album.

SPAGHETTI WESTERN ORCHESTRA

That final showdown in The Good The Bad And The Ugly would have been a lot less memorable with an LMFAO song playing in the background. Luckily you won’t be subjected to that this August, when international music and comedy sensation The Spaghetti Western Orchestra recreate the magic of classic western themes through a combination of dramatic performance, vaudeville and audience participation. The fivesome will be playing over 100 instruments, which range from “Double Bass” and “Tasmanian Lottery Balls” to a “Child Sized Boot”, “Packets Of Cornflakes” and “Sticks And Twigs (locally sourced)”, in a week of shows that runs from August 14-19 at the Sydney Opera House and is bound to be ridiculous. To lasso yourself a double pass to the opening night on Tuesday August 14, tell us the name of another Spaghetti Western that Ennio Morricone has scored.

SECOND SPEKTOR SHOW

‘Samson’ by Regina Spektor is one of those universally agreed upon ‘amazing songs’ regardless of your taste in music. “You are my sweetest downfall” – how perfect! Well, it seems that its reach can be measured in the very real terms of ‘everyone flooding the Internet and selling out her Sydney Opera House show in minutes.’ Not to worry, slowoff-the-mark Spektor fans: she has announced a second Sydney Opera House show for December 11, and tickets are on sale right now. New York songwriter Only Son (Jack Dishel) is coming along to play support; he has previously played with The Mouldy Peaches, AKA the band that Juno invented.

BREAKING ORBIT

Sydney four-piece Breaking Orbit have been meddling in alchemy and prog-rock recently, the results of which can be found on their debut album The Time Traveller, which they are launching on Friday August 17 at The Annandale Hotel. Tickets and the record are on sale now – and we highly recommend you get both.

Last Dinosaurs

NEKROMANTIX

“Danish American psychobilly horror legends Nekromantix return this October” – you’re already sold, aren’t you? What if I tell you they have a guitarist called Franc and a female drummer named Lux? That their founder Kim spent eight years as a ‘submariner’ in the Royal Danish Army? That their album is called What Happens In Hell, Stays In Hell, suggesting it’s a place you can mill in and out of without any consequences? This all sounds very positive, doesn’t it? The record’s out now, and they’ll be playing from it and more on October 5 at The Hi-Fi. Tickets on sale now.

KNIGHTESS

If you only go to one women’s performance night from 6pm on Monday August 20 at the University of Sydney’s Manning Bar, make it Knightess. The night is a fundraiser for Lou’s Place, which is a daytime drop-in centre for women that’s smack bang in the middle of Kings Cross. The gig will feature Caitlin Still doing some spoken word, as well as sets from Eirwen Skye, Rainbow Chan, Kimberley Aviso and Violet Pulp. Also, a zine stall and dancers! Entry is by donation, but make it a good donation.

Check lousplace.com.au for more info on the centre.

BRAG PRESENTS: LAST DINOSAURS

So how come rock albums that were recorded three years ago sound so archaic and Dawson’s Creek looks like it was filmed in the late ‘70s – but the dinosaurs on Jurassic Park still look so frighteningly real? This is a question we can ponder together at Last Dinosaurs’ show, which has just been announced for The Metro Theatre on October 20.

The Brisvegas band are back after their first European jaunt with an all-ages Satellites Tour, before heading around the world again thanks to their synthy, jagged pop album In A Million Years winning deals in the UK and the USA. Go team! Tickets to the October show goes on sale this Friday August 3, and with each ticket you’ll also grab a live tour EP called Last Dinosaurs, Live At Splendour, which does pretty much what it says on the tin.

“God made man but he used the monkey to do it. Apes in the plan. We’re all here to prove it” - DEVO 10 :: BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12

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The Music Network

themusicnetwork.com

Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer

THINGS WE HEAR * Will we see INXS tour Australia, playing the Kick album in its entirety? A deluxe 25th anniversary version of the album is on its way, with unused tracks featuring Michael Hutchence, and memorabilia of his handwritten lyrics. * Corey Taylor let it slip that Stone Sour are returning for Soundwave 2013. * Not sure how authentic this one is, but apparently some hacker fed a virus into the computer system of Iranian nuclear scientists, which caused AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ to be played at full volume. * Johnny Rotten is getting rid of his trademark broken teeth after doctors warned him that his diseased gums could eventually kill him. * After finishing off her set at Splendour over the weekend, Emma-Louise high-tails to New York for two months to write for her debut album. Her Sparks Tour sold out all around the country. * Two radio execs were sacked last week for inappropriate Tweeting. 2DAY FM breakfast producer Bruno Bouchet got his marching orders for five jokes about the Batman massacre in Colorado – but he’s keeping a connection with Kyle Sandilands by

ARIA #1 CHART AWARDS

PLAY LIVE? GET ROYALTIES! Songwriters who play live can be paid for their efforts by submitting an APRA Live Performance Return (LPR) before August 31, to get paid in November. APRA members should register all the songs they’ve played live in pubs, clubs and other public places over the past twelve months. Last year, APRA distributed more than $4 million to APRA members who perform live. These royalties make a difference: Boy & Bear used their funds for touring, and Jen Cloher and indigenous performer Kevin Bennet used their first payment to buy new guitars. APRA is also holding open days to help songwriters submit their LPR: Sydney’s are on August 13, 14 and 15. See apra.com.au for more info.

‘MAKE ME APPY’

festival, Flo Rida is being sued for another no-show. This time it’s for $200,000 by Canadian promoter Spin Artist Agency, for pulling out of ten shows a day before they were to happen last year. The promoters are suing for breach of contract and are claiming losses in ticket, food and alcohol sales.

ARIA is bringing back its #1 Chart Awards next month to honour Aussie acts who had a number one single, album or music DVD from August 2010 to August 2012. In this period, Aussie acts spent a total of 61 weeks at the top. They included Powderfinger, Guy Sebastian, The Wiggles, AC/DC, Hilltop Hoods and Missy Higgins, alongside newer names like Gotye, Reece Mastin, Karise Eden, The Temper Trap, Drapht and Bliss N Eso. Of these, Universal Music acts spent 32 weeks on top, followed by Sony at 24.

Generally, music DVDs tended to peak for longer: AC/DC’s Live At River Plate for 15 weeks, and Powderfinger’s Sunsets Farewell Tour for seven. Australian singles and albums tend to stay at the top for only a week or two, the exception being the freak ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ by Gotye, which had the penthouse view for eight weeks. Over this same period, 84 singles and 73 albums from Aussies reached Gold, Platinum or multi-Platinum. The awards will be held at the Ivy Sunroom on Friday August 10. They will serve as the launch of the revamped aria charts website and the relaunch of the Sony/ Universal streaming service Songl, which is sponsoring the awards.

DEADLY FINALISTS ANNOUNCED The Medics, Troy Cassar-Daley, Last Kinection, Yung Warriors, Jessica Mauboy and Christine Anu are all multi-nominees in the finalists list of this year’s Deadly Awards, which celebrate the achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders.

Cassar-Daley leads with three nominations.

The Medics and Lost Kinection are up against each other in the band and album categories, while Yung Warriors are up for hip hop and single of the year. The full list can be found at vibe.com.au/deadlys. The Deadlys will be held at the Opera House on September 25, with 26 categories across music, sports, the arts and the community open for public voting.

HOMEBAKE EARLY DETAILS

PITBULL IN SYDNEY COURT The legal stoush over Pitbull’s contractbreaking Australian tour cancellation was played out in a Sydney court last week. Tour promoters Suave Productions, aka Jaime Fernandez and Juan Uribe, are suing him for $200,000 for not turning up at the last minute for three shows, claiming they paid him half his fee upfront. But Pitbull’s tour manager Barry ‘Purple’ London told the court that Suave had not paid the full $60,000 in time, and slow ticket sales raised concerns that the tour was not marketed properly.

FLO RIDA SUED AGAIN In the wake of losing the court battle for not turning up to Newcastle’s Fat As Butter

G IV EA W AY S

body is an absolute honour, not only for our 30-year-old iconic venue, but also for Sydney, as one of the world’s true global cities.”

ghostwriting the Big K’s autobiography. The other was Darwin’s Mix FM and Hot 100 program director Phil Brandel, who was behind a Facebook page created in the name of Claudia White that slagged off other media outlets. * Someone posted Reese Mastin’s phone number on Twitter, forcing him to get a new one. * Stereophonics parted with their drummer of eight years, Javier Weyler. * Germany’s music and entertainment trade show Popkomm has closed, after 27 years. * At the recent Entech Connect conference in Melbourne, Sydney-based T7 Event Solutions hosted an ‘Am I Seeing Things?’

3D holographic projection, and a discussion on how holographs could change live events.

Ever since Tupac emerged at Coachella with Snoop Dogg, the question has been which music festival or tour will try it here? The company’s MD Daniel Saward told Music Feeds that there “had been some interest” in the Musion Hologram Technology which T7 licenses for the Australian market, but he warned that the cost ($45,000 for hardware and installation, which doesn’t include the content creation) could be prohibitive. It takes six hours to set up, and is most effective only at night and with good weather.

Homebake will announce its lineup this week, but let slip some details early. Of the four stages, a new one will be dedicated to Rowland S. Howard. The cinema pavilion will be curated by actor Kieran DarcySmith, while the Sydney Comedy Festival is presenting the new comedy stage. In an inspired piece of marketing, it is advertising its Saturday December 8 bash at the Domain as “the final countdown to the end of the world, according to Mayan prophecies.”

OZ MUSIC BUSINESS MANUAL Long-time manager, tour promoter and venue operator Darrel Baird of Blue Tongue Management has launched The Australian Music Business Manual. It is published online at musicbusinessmanual.com, which allows him to constantly update chapter contents.

These cover everything including setting up a business structure, accounting, copyright, tour logistics, sponsorship, media opportunities and associations. Baird says, “With less than 6% of Australian musicians able to gain professional management in their careers, I believe this management system can and will up-skill self-managed artists in all facets of the music industry.”

MUSE RUN THEIR TOWN Muse have been offered the chance to take over the running of their hometown of Teignmouth for a day. The Teignbridge District Council extended the invitation after members returned recently to run through the town with the Olympic torch: “They’re the biggest rock band on the planet,” the council said.

WANNA WORK AT MUSICNSW? MusicNSW, set up to build the NSW music sector, is looking for a part-time Project Coordinator to help manage their grants, workshops and initiatives including Indent, which helps 13–25 year olds run all-ages entertainment. See www.musicnsw.com for full details.

APPLY FOR SXSW

ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE WINS The Sydney Entertainment Centre (SEC) was awarded the 2012 Venue Excellence Award (Arenas) by the International Association of Venue Managers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

It is the first time an entertainment arena outside North America won the category. The SEC’s GM Steve Romer said, “For the SEC to be recognised by the peak international

On August 1, South By Southwest opens registrations for attendees to its Texas event (March 8-17, 2013) at sxsw.com/attend. Band submissions can be made through sonicbids. com for $35. Deadline is November, but get in early so they assess your music before the rush. They’ll announce the first round of international acts in late September.

Split: Spice Girls’ Mel C and her partner of ten years, Thomas Starr. They have a daughter, Scarlett.

Ill: 360 revealed that he suffers from a rare disease called Keratoconus, which has left him blind in the right eye and is starting to affect his vision in the left one.

Ill: Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker was forced to give up drugs after doctors found six ulcers in his stomach.

Sued: Pete Doherty had to pay £10,000 to poet/punk Nick Toczek for stealing the line “It’s a lousy life for the washed up wife of a permanently plastered, pissed up bastard” for Babyshambles’ song ‘Baddie’s Boogie’. Kate Moss’ co-credit has been removed from the track. Doherty was recently thrown out of a Thai rehab centre for being a bad influence on the other patients.

Sued: Lady Gaga, for $10 million

by Bratz dolls toy maker MGA Entertainment, who says she sabotaged a deal to make a doll in her likeness that would play snippets of her songs. MGA says she changed her mind about allowing the songs to be used, tried to delay the doll until next year when her next album is out, and stopped cooperating when she went on a world tour.

In Court: Norton Dudley Williamson, 44, pleaded guilty in Hobart’s Supreme Court after the drug squad intercepted a ute at the Spirit of Tasmania ferry terminal, and found $400,000 in cash and a $11,000-valued stash of Super K, ecstacy, cocaine and LSD, which they said was heading for Tasmanian nightclubs.

Died: Samuel Guetta, key figure in the Ibiza clubbing scene, unknown cause. The cousin of David Guetta was also head of Cadenza Records, ran music website Ibiza Voice, and operated a booking agency.

Died: Australian banjo champion Chris Duffy, pancreatic cancer.

SYDNEY FINALISTS FOR ‘UNSIGNED ONLY' A bunch of Sydney acts made it to the finals of the global ‘Unsigned Only’ competition with their songs. Anna Weatherup made it both for the Christian and Voice categories.

Others were Stone Parade (Rock), Red INK and Adam Katz (Pop), Luke O’Shea (Folk), Nathan Ironside & The Stirring (Christian), Liam Burrows (Voice) and Lee Mon of Albury (AAA).

JO NESBØ’S

JACKPOT I

f you like your crime capers Scandinavian, blood-spattered and funny, with a few Tarantino and Coen Brothers homages thrown in for good measure, you’re in luck: hot on the heels of the screen adaptation of bestselling Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbø’s Headhunters, comes Jackpot, a darkly comic look at what happens when four ex-con factory workers who love soccer and betting get in over their heads. Get across this Scando-crime stuff stat, ahead of Martin Scorsese’s highly anticipated film of Nesbo’s bestselling Harry Hole thriller Snowman…

12 :: BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12

Cutting Edge has launched its ‘Make Me Appy’ competition, for people working in advertising, production, design and marketing to submit their best app idea. It will be judged on creativity, originality, commercial viability, and adherence to budget. The winner will get the app produced by Cutting Edge’s digital team to the value of $20,000, from design and development to its launch on the App store. Deadline is August 31; head to cuttingedge.com.au/makemeappy

Lifelines

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Thanks to Rialto, we have five in-season double passes up for grabs to check it out; to get your hands on one, email freestuff@thebrag. com with the name of the Norwegian band Nesbo fronts.

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It’s A Beautiful World By Alasdair Duncan

W

hen Devo got their start, they freaked a lot of people out: five weird, hyper-literate guys from the middle of Ohio, dressing strangely, making arch synth pop music, and preaching the theory that mankind had to regress in order to move forward. Of course, like many things that were once strange and outsider-y, they are now an accepted and loved part of popular culture.

Years later, founding member Jerry Casale still seems a little baffled by it all. “Well, you know, at the time you’re doing something, you never get rewarded as a pioneer,” he tells me. “Years later, though, people start to look back and go, ‘Oh yeah, we always thought what they were doing was really cutting edge’. That’s how culture works, how the shock of the new always works, but that’s okay. These days we’re not shocking anymore – we’re digested as part of pop culture, and people accept that de-evolution is real. They don’t think of it as being an artful pose we’re putting on, they don’t see it as shocking.”

Listening to Devo’s lyrics, which include gems like “the lucky ones are going to be the first to go”, the band’s attitude seems like one of healthy pessimism. I ask Casale if he agrees, and he laughs heartily. “Well, yeah, there’s definitely a dark side to Devo, because we have a very dim view of human nature,” he tells me.

“It seems like the ugly part of human nature always wins out.” Within Devo’s worldview, however, there is room for a certain amount of humour – in shooting lyrical barbs at that ugly side of humanity, the band could even be said to celebrate it. “Sure, but I mean, what else are you going to do?” Casale answers. “If you couldn’t do that, if you couldn’t poke fun, you’d become either

a homicidal maniac or a beaten-down zombie with no spirit. The dark side of humanity is grist for the mill. That’s not just the case with us – many artists in many mediums find themselves obsessed with the same themes that we do.”

Casale once said that Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, a dystopian comedy about a future America where everyone is really, really dumb, is the kind of film that Devo would make if they made movies. I’m curious as to whether he sees any other contemporary artists as carrying on the legacy of deevolution. “We see a lot of things that we like,” he says. “I mean, in music, the bands mostly take Devo’s style, not really the content. Even the bands that have been very laudatory about Devo in the press, like LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip – what they like about Devo is more the stylistic details of music and composition and off-kilter lyrics, rather than the manifesto of the ideas behind the band, necessarily.

We see it in a lot of places though. We love Banksy, we love Shepard Fairey, we’ve always loved Jeff Koons. We see the work of all those artists and more – because I’m sure I’m forgetting some – and in it we see a like-minded sensibility.”

Devo write such bright, hooky pop songs – ‘Beautiful World’, ‘Whip It’,

‘Girl You Want’, the list goes on – that many listeners never pause to consider how dark and messedup the lyrics are. One surreal and hilarious example of this is Devo’s encounter, a few years ago, with the corporate entity known as Disney.

“We did a project for Disney a few years back, where they wanted us to repurpose our songs for four- to eightyear-olds,” Casale says. “I went out and did some casting, found some kids between 11 and 13 in LA who could really sing and play, and we made up a band, Devo 2.0, and then Disney’s record company compiled a list of songs for us to play – they gave us a shortlist. We recorded them and then I shot video of the kids playing the songs, and had a friend create all kinds of computer graphics to go along with it, we got a whole live show together. When it was almost done, one of the executives thought to ask for a copy of the lyrics…”

Needless to say, there was a crisis.

Tense phone calls were made, meetings were held, and a lot of money was thrown at a problem that Devo didn’t know even existed until the Disney executives sat down and read the words. “The first problem came with, ‘It’s a beautiful world for you, for you, for you, but not for me’ (‘Beautiful World’),” Casale explains.

“The executives told us, ‘You can’t

say that!’ I asked what we should say instead, and they suggested, ‘It’s a beautiful world for me too!’

The funniest one was ‘That’s Good’. I wrote that song in 1983, and there’s a verse that says ‘Life’s a bee without a buzz, it’s going great til you get stung’, which to me means that life surprises you when you least expect it. The executives demanded that I get rid of that whole verse, and I wondered how that could possibly be. These guys in suits, who were so enthralled with the notion of urban hip hop culture, said to me that the verse clearly means that life’s a bitch unless you’re getting high, and that you’re feeling really great about getting away with it until you get popped by the cops. I thought, ‘Wow. I didn’t realise that in 1983 I was anticipating the rise of Tupac Shakur.’”

Initially, Devo chose to embrace their collaboration with Disney and the rewriting of their songs to be performed by chirpy kids as deevolution in action, but by the end, it got a bit weird – even for them.

“The biggest surprise was when they wanted to take ‘The Uncontrollable Urge’ out of the program all together,” Casale says. “They told us, ‘There’s nothing in that song you can keep – we’re not about to start telling the four- to eight-year-old market about sex’. We told them we were surprised, once again, because there’s nothing

“We have a very dim view of human nature… If you couldn’t poke fun, you’d become either a homicidal maniac or a beaten-down zombie with no spirit. The dark side of humanity is grist for the mill.”

directly about sex in that song. They told us that the fact that it’s undefined means it has to be about sex. We said, ‘Okay, we can’t just throw it out, what if we define it?’ They came back to us and said, ‘Okay, you can keep it if you rewrite the lyrics and re-record the song and make it about junk food’.

So basically, Disney had us take this song that wasn’t really about anything and make it a song about junk food, because that was acceptable for preteens.”

With an Australian tour imminent, I get my questions back on track and ask Casale what we can expect from their next round of live shows, a tour they’re sharing with Glaswegian legends Simple Minds. “That’s where the fans get to see a real curiosity,” he says. “We’re a band that still physically plays everything and lugs a bunch of analogue synthesisers up on stage with them. You can expect things from all stages of our career, from songs that we wrote way back in the early days to recent songs from the Something For Everybody record.

It’s a balanced selection from the beginning to the end and everything in between, with plenty of costume changed and video elements. The things people rightfully expect, and would be very angry if they didn’t get.”

With: Simple Minds, The Church Where: Sydney Entertainment Centre / Wollongong WIN Entertainment Centre When: Friday December 7 / Wednesday December 12 More: Also playing A Day On The Green at Bimbadgen Winery, Hunter Valley on Saturday December 8, with Simple Minds, The Church and Models

“In ancient Rome there was a poem about a dog who found two bones. He picked at one. He licked the other. He went in circles He dropped dead” - DEVO 14 :: BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12

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Liars Wish You Were Here By Lachlan Kanoniuk

W

IXIW (pronounced “wishyou”), the sixth full-length from renowned sonic experimentalists Liars, is a monster. Crafted with the benefit of a relatively elongated gestation, the record is a contradictory mix of the trio’s most experimental impulses presented in their most accessible artefact yet. The predominantly electronic compositions aren’t what you’d expect from Liars – but then again, the unexpected is what you’d expect from Angus Andrew, Aaron Hemphill and Julian Gross.

As the trio prepare to return to Australia for the upcoming Harvest Festival, Aussie expat Andrew talked to me about the band’s stylistic leaps and bounds.

With WIXIW having only recently entered the world, Liars are busy transposing these electronic tracks into the live setting. “We’ve done a short European tour already – it was just a promo tour,” explains Andrew. “It’s a difficult record to try and figure out how to play live. The record was mostly created within the computer, so there’s this disconnection that was already there when making it. You don’t have this physical recognition of how

you made the songs; it’s more to do with mouse clicks and keyboard strokes. The question has really been how to inject that physicality back into it after it was made so artificially, as well as dealing with a bunch of new technology.”

Judging from the production diary clips posted ahead of the release of WIXIW, the process was an all-encompassing one – it looked like something of a psychological experiment at times.

Pushing out of their comfort zones seems to be a guiding principle of Liars, one that is no doubt responsible for such an unpredictable body of work. “To be honest I kind of pine for the idea of – or admire the artist that can find this one way of working, and then spend time constantly refining it. It would be great to be like The Ramones or something, and to know what you do and just do it,” Andrew laughs. “The fact of the matter is that it’s something that wouldn’t keep us excited or interested.

“The point and the reason we change and evolve so much is that we want to challenge ourselves to think about music in different ways. That’s what keeps us excited about it. That can pose some issues for anyone who wants to follow us, in a sense where they want to know what they’re going to get with each record. Unfortunately it’s not the way we function, and it’s not something that I spend too much time taking into account when making [music]. We feel that if we make something we’re interested in and proud of then people will appreciate it for that.

“At the same time, I’m aware that there are people that like some of our records more than the others,” Andrew continues. “I think that in the end people can just understand it and know that when you’re dealing with Liars you can’t be certain of what you’re going to get, but you should always give it a go. We are investing a lot into our work, and it’s not made by some sort of formula.”

“Being in a band is one of the best multimedia platforms for an artist.

It’s not just about music – it’s about graphic design or photography or performance or lyrics.”

For their latest record, one of the first goals the band set was to give themselves as much time as possible to experiment. “So the first six months we just spent creating lots of weird sounds, and ended up with this catalogue,” Andrew explains. “Then there was this point where we had to figure out how we were going to make any songs out of these sounds.

It’s a very different way than how we would normally work, as in working out a melody or an idea for a song, then adding textures and interesting sounds. In this way of working, it was backwards. It was a real challenge for us to make a song that justified these interesting sounds; to make a song that was worthy of all the great things we came up with while experimenting so much.”

WIXIW highlight ‘No. 1 Against The Rush’ was given a remarkable video treatment, which makes sense considering Liars’ reverence for the form. Since the beginning, the group have extended beyond aural expression to explore many of the extracurricular aspects that stem from being in a band. “I don’t feel like it’s something that’s compulsory, or something that we force ourselves to do. Since we began making music at art school, I felt that being in a band was one of the best multimedia platforms for an artist to utilise all this different media under the one umbrella. It’s not just about music – it’s about graphic design or photography or performance or lyrics. There are so many different ways of expressing yourself with one platform. It’s what attracted me to be in a band in the first place.”

What: WIXIW is out now on Mute, through EMI With: Beck, Sigur Rós, Ben Folds Five, Grizzly Bear, Fuck Buttons and many more Where: Harvest Festival @ Parramatta Park When: Saturday November 17 16 :: BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12

Liars photo by Zen Sekizawa

As for Liars’ forthcoming set at Harvest set, don’t expect your standard festival fare. “We are more of a situationist band. The goal is not to come out and play the songs how you would hear them at home. I think that’s not the point of seeing a band live – we allow for the possibility for things to go wrong, and accommodate chaos and the risk for things to fall apart.”

BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12 :: 17

Shady Lane After The Black Hole By Benjamin Cooper ighly involved discussions about cleaning foodstuffs off puppets occur all too infrequently in this job. Jordy Lane, fuzzy-haired chap and main dude in Sydney’s Shady Lane, describes the removal of baked beans off toy fluff as being the least of his worries. “They scrub right off... Milk’s the really smelly one.” I voice some objections to the torture of his recently purchased puppet, but he throws his hands up in the air: “What can I say? I’m a vendor for the truth. Or a martyr for the truth. I haven’t decided.”

H

expertise and assistance of friend, labelmate and sometime bandmate Brent Griffin (aka SPOD).

Did Jordy have any concerns about going it alone this time? “Not really, no. You just kinda point and shoot,” he deadpans. “There is of course other stuff involved... There’s a bit of planning, and a bit of storyboard work before you start experimenting with the shots. The main concern was the puppet, but I got a really good one from the interwebs. I’ve been told this particular type is hard to find, so he’s rare and I’m lucky. Win/win.”

The puppet in question is called Bobby, and features in the film clip of ‘Convenient Face Hinge’, the second single off the band’s hardwrought second album Built Guilt. The clip itself is so bizarre and utterly engrossing that it’s forgivable to watch it several times before switching your attention towards the actual song. There’s a compellingly dark and depraved lounge vibe as Bobby goes about his psyched-out adventures, encircled by Jordy’s guitar freaks and Pete Avard’s tightly packed drums. Perhaps most impressive is Jordy’s decision to shoot and edit the film clip on his own, having previously called on the

The success of Shady Lane’s music lies in its one-two punch: an innate gift for melody and lyrics, matched with languid, expansive production. The group’s 2009 debut album Here We Go, Down The Black Hole was packed with obtuse references to death, space and time, yet still had a number of quite obvious singles in the mix; Built Guilt, however, is a much more complete album, which eschews big singles in favour of a unified glut of weird pop. But all of that is news to Mr Lane. “If the new album seems more complete, it’s pretty accidental. I feel like the first album was definitely worked out more as a whole piece. This album has been very much a constant process, so I worked out what I was doing over time,” he reflects. “Then again, I have been fairly close to this whole process for a while.

That’s the difficulty when you make an album – it ends up becoming a rather intense experience.”

Secret Sounds presents

“After the milk torture episode, Bobby did spend a couple of weeks in my bag, and may have developed some kind of green thing near his mouth.

So I’m not sure how healthy he is....”

The recording took place at his parents’ home, shortly after Jordy had returned from living the inner city artist life for some years. “I don’t know if it was the space, but it was quite a different process [this time],” he says. “Instead of programming beats I was demoing songs and then showing them to the band, and we’d all work them out. I guess I’m conscious of wanting us to be a live rock band rather than a programmed outfit, so instead of having to interpret from a electronic bedroom recording, we’re making stuff together more. It can be a bit creativity-destroying if there’s no team work going down.”

Special Guests

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The final recordings were the culmination of a lengthy and difficult period for Jordy that stretched from the inner west to the suburbs, but in spite of the protracted pain it encompasses, the release of Built Guilt has meant closure for its creator – and crazy awesome tunes for the rest of us. “I think I was very unsure of myself when I started making the album,” Jordy muses.

“When I moved back I certainly had more time to focus specifically on making the music, which definitely helped my brain. But at the same time I wasn’t in the best mindset, and I still found working very difficult at times. It was a much more painful process, totally, and I found it difficult every time I thought about it. There were moments when I wanted the album to not exist at all, but then I’d remember that I had to finish it off.

I knew that if I didn’t do it, then that would suck the most. I had to get rid of this sense of dread.

But you remember the negative times less and less, because they’re gone now. Now I love the album, it’s awesome!”

With an energised frontman/vendor for truth leading them, the album launch shows are certain to be charged and memorable affairs, particularly given the involvement of some old friends like Fishing and Megastick Fanfare. “We’re actually heading to Melbourne to play some shows with Richard In Your Mind, too. I’ve been told things might get a bit rowdy on the way down – we might even stop at Maccas on the way. I haven’t even told my mum yet!” And what kind of role can we expect Bobby the puppet to play in the southern sojourn? “Well, after the milk torture episode, he did spend a couple of weeks in my bag, and may have developed some kind of green thing near his mouth. So I’m not sure how healthy he is presently. I tried to clean it off, but I guess performance stuff is all smoke and mirrors, so he may show up anyway.”

What: Built Guilt is out now on Rice Is Nice With: Fishing, Megastick Fanfare DJs Where: Brighton Up Bar When: Friday August 3

18 :: BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12

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BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12 :: 19

Dappled Cities Keep It Simple By Denis Semchenko

A

s I discuss the long career of Dappled Cities with singer/guitarist Dave Rennick, neither of us can hide the astonishment at the fact it’s already been three years since the release of Zounds, a sprawling album that found the band at their most experimental and – at times – dark. There was, of course, their magnificent performance at 2009’s Splendour In The Grass and the subsequent sideshow tour, which saw the Sydney five-piece don lightbulb suits every time they played ‘The Price’ (to say nothing of the gold superhero outfits of Laneway 2010); and then there was another domestic tour that year, and a slot at last year’s Harvest Festival. But after that, things got a little quiet for a large chunk of time – most of which was spent writing the songs that have formed the band’s impossibly-bright new album, Lake Air. “After Zounds came out, we immediately went to the States and the UK to live – we haven’t really spent a long time in the UK, but we gave it a good crack,” Dave recalls. “We were all living at the same two-bedroom flat in Islington and gigged like crazy. It was really fun! While we were living in London, we decided to write

a very different record to Zounds – a concise, consistent record where we wanted to focus not so much on the production or sound, but the songs and lyrics. So we spent a lot of those three years songwriting – Tim [Derricourt] and I even went on a songwriting excursion to hone our skills and become better songwriters. We worked with a whole bunch of people and met our producer-to-be, Jarrad Kritzstein.”

When the band got down to the recording process, it was actually quite a quick and easy process. “We put these songs down very naturally,” he says. “The tracking was really fun – we started them in Jarrad’s studio in LA where we took the songs apart and laid down the foundations, and then we recorded quickly, swiftly. Being our fourth record, you’d think we might be quite good at that… Maybe…” Lake Air certainly does sound like an effortless pop album, I profess. “Oh, that’s nice!” Dave chortles. “‘Effortless’ is a great word to describe what we wanted to show here. Zounds was the opposite – we wanted to show how ambitious and almost… serious we were; Lake Air is most definitely about being effortless. I love that about it.”

It also sounds like the happiest and funkiest Dappled album to date. “Yeah, I’d say so – I mean Granddance was also quite happy, but this one is definitely a combination of ‘happy’, ‘sun’, ‘bright’ and ‘light’ – it’s very spacious, and all these things together bring a very nice vibe to it,” Dave explains. “When you put it together with the falsetto singing and disco rhythms, you’ve got a pretty damn happy album. We don’t consider ourselves the funkiest musicians, but Jarrad, the producer, is definitely a funky musician – his involvement has really spruced things up… Jarrad’s a great combination of a brilliant musician and engineer and a really fun, happy, excitable dude – that’s sort of just what we needed. After ten years of being in a band, we sound like a team going forward, and we’ll definitely be working with him again on the next record – if he lets us. I don’t think we’ve offended him in any way…”

“We’ve always been accessible in our approach to songwriting – but this album is like ten singles in a row. There are big choruses everywhere and festival beats all over the place.”

Songs like ‘Run With The Wind’ and ‘Born At The Right Time’ are natural single choices, but Lake Air doesn’t appear to contain a single track without at least one killer hook. “We tried to write catchy songs and we’ve always been accessible to our fans in our approach to songwriting – but after many years, this album is like… ten singles in a row,” Dave says. “There are big choruses everywhere and festival beats all over the place; we’re actually having trouble picking the singles because each song has its own identity. ‘Real Love’ is the frontrunner, as is the title track, but now everyone’s talking about how they like ‘Waves’ a lot and that was really unexpected – even if there’s no drums in ‘Waves’, maybe that’s a single, too. Picking a single is a very dark art and something I don’t claim to be good at – it’s best to follow your instincts in regards to what people are responding to.”

The album’s biggest surprise, though, comes in the shape of the lauded Rennick/Derricourt guitar section taking a back seat, with shimmery synths in their place as the constant for the first time on a Dappled Cities record. “There are even songs on there where I’m not playing guitar at all!” Dave laughs. “Tim’s played on every song – he’s probably the better guitarist out of the two of us – but yeah, there’s less guitar. There’s less everything. Each of us was at a point where they’d go, ‘I don’t need to play my instrument on this song’, and we’ve learned to give each other space lately. Also, I’ve been a bit bored playing guitar these days.” There’s always the keyboard, of course... “There are so many things in the world that make noises,” Dave enthuses. “We want to use them all and we have a temptation to use every single noise we can possibly think of on a record – or even one song. But we’re learning not to do that, because we can get a bit carried away...”

What: Lake Air is out on HUB, through Inertia Where: Acoustic in-store @ Red Eye, York St. When: Friday August 3, 5pm 20 :: BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12

BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12 :: 21

The Flaming Lips Wayne’s World By Matthew Hogan

W

hat have The Flaming Lips been up to in 2012? Well. In the first half of this year, Oklahoma’s favourite sons have written a fight song (based on ‘Race For The Prize’) for NBA finalists The Oklahoma City Thunder, broken a Guinness World Record for the most gigs played in different cities in 24 hours, released a 24-hour song encased in an edible gummy foetus, unleashed a split single with metal titans Mastodon, and collaborated with Coldplay main man Chris Martin, pop skank Ke$ha, soul queen Erykah Badu (which resulted in a music video featuring Badu’s nude sister, amid much controversy), and Australia’s own Tame Impala, among others.

The collaborations resulted in The Flaming Lips & Heady Fwends, originally a Record Store Day vinyl release – but after all those copies sold out, along with the super limited edition (which featured the featured artists’ blood encased in the vinyl), a CD version was released last month.

It all started early last year, when head Lip Wayne Coyne and his cronies set out to record and release new material every month. This morphed into a project where they collaborated with an artist on a release every other month, and eventually it turned into Heady Fwends, a full-length featuring a massive list of names.

“When this year began I really just pushed full force, and ended up doing most of the Bon Iver, Ke$ha, Erykah Badu, My Morning Jacket,

and Chris Martin collaborations,” Coyne recalls.

“That was all done in January, so you could imagine what those days were like – one day you’re recording with Ke$ha and then two days later you’re recording with Erykah Badu, and then a couple of days later you’re recording with, you know... These are all big songs.

There’s a lot going on. It’s not nothing. I think by then we’d worked our way into a pretty good way of working very intensely but efficiently, and getting the most bang out of our buck, or the most out of our time together.”

When we speak, Coyne is still recovering from playing shows in Memphis, Clarksdale, Oxford, Jackson, Hattiesburg, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans, all in a 24-hour period.

“When you think about something like that and you’re three months away from it, you think, ‘On that day I’ll sleep until four in the afternoon and I’ll just get up and we’ll start,’” Coyne says. “But it doesn’t happen – you don’t really sleep for five days before then, because it’s so much work. So even when we got done with it – it was probably about 7.30 at night when we actually finished. I was still very wired up until about one o’clock in the morning. Delusional, but wired up. Delusional because I was thinking I was going to sleep for an hour and then go out and party,” he laughs.

“That was the dumbest thing, because I lay down and then I didn’t want to get up for a couple of days!”

While the likes of Jackson Browne and Neon Indian joined them on stage throughout the 24-hour tour, Coyne says it wasn’t about the celebrity or even getting into the record books.

It was about the fans. “I think that was the main reason we set it up the way that we did,” he says. “We were in a bus with the TV crew, and there was a bus full of other crew, and there was a bus with all the other band members, and there was giant bus full of about 50 of our greatest, craziest fans that would be at every show, having breakfast with us, and stopping at places to get gas. Doing everything together – we’d see each other in the middle of the night.

That was the real reason I wanted to do it. The

world record is fine, I’m not dismissing that at all, but I really like the idea of these really special moments that we get with our fans.”

What: The Flaming Lips & Heady Fwends is out now through Warner Music With: Hot Chip, The Vaccines, Beach House, Maxïmo Park, Coolio, Best Coast, SBTRKT, Boy & Bear and loads more Where: Falls Festival @ Lorne, Victoria / Falls Festival @ Marion Bay, Tasmania When: December 28 – January 1 / December 29 – January 1

Sophie Koh Down The Garden Path By Zoë Radas

S

ophie Koh has got that good side of inertia going: she’s just released her third album Oh My Garden completely off of her own bat, amongst trips to LA; she has several shows coming up across our country; and she’s somehow finding the time to compose her grandmother’s memoirs. “She’s 97,” Koh says warmly. “Well, we don’t know how old she is, she could be a hundred. She was sold to my grandfather in Malaysia when she was 16. No one really knows her history, and she’s been sick lately... It’s amazing how you get things done when you’re really busy. I’ve been a machine the last few weeks.”

The sincerely poppy record Koh has created features synths stretched like boiled sweets, robotic blips, and mechanised ascending glisses alongside the more traditional piano and guitar sounds of her past albums. ‘Winter Sunglasses’ in particular showcases some awesome production, but the songs still hold a lot of sparse beauty. Without a typical bass/ drums/guitar checklist to tick off, deciding when the songs are done requires a different approach. “The way I record is normally with a producer, and I choose producers that play instruments as well,” Koh explains. “There’s a lot of conversation between me and the producer. In the end, he’s the most important person of the whole recording process.”

On Oh My Garden, Koh worked with Brad Wood (Sunny Day Real Estate, Placebo, Smashing Pumpkins), making four trips to his LA studio over 18 months after meeting him through fellow Australian Ben Lee. “I was so nervous going over on the plane. I’ve never been to America, number one, and I’d never been to Hollywood. The picture in your head is kind of daunting. But when I got there, [the studio] was just in his backyard, in his shed.

He had children and he had pets, so I did a bit of babysitting,” she laughs. “Even though it was in Hollywood, we were still sipping cups of tea and walking the dog.”

Koh and Wood spent the most time in his state-of-the-art studio, experimenting with gadgets and sound. “What I love about Brad is, he’s such a dad,” Koh says. “He’s worked with Billy Corgan and Liz Phair, but I went over at a time when the American music industry was a little bit slow and people were struggling to find work. He was so happy to work with an Australian artist and was branching out to do a bit more pop stuff too.

We’re friends now, and he’s kind of like a dad to me.”

Koh’s single ‘I Understand’ features a contemplative and quite beautiful chord progression on the piano – and as it turns out, she is not, in fact, a guitarist. “I’m a classical piano player,” she tells me. “I’m shit at guitar! When I started out in music, the easiest way was to bring my guitar along to open mics and shows and stuff. And because I’m so highly trained in piano, I kind of overcomplicate things when I write on piano. It always ends up sounding like Tori Amos; it doesn’t really translate to a pop song. One day I’ll write that album… Probably the next one.”

While recording in Los Angeles, Brad Wood and Ben Lee spent an entire day with Koh hooking wires from the studio to the nextdoor-neighbour’s place, which housed a grand piano. But unfortunately, a concert piano is incredibly hard to record on; it’s designed to be placed at the head of a hall and for the sound to touch every corner of an audience. Not exactly easy to control, and in the end they had to can much of what they’d recorded, and meld what was left with electronic keys. “I don’t know how Tori Amos does it,” she laughs.

The Hard Slog By Krissi Weiss

S

ydney four-piece Rapids are at the beginning of what looks to be a high climb through the local music ranks. With a crisp sound that couples biographical lyrics with an off-centre pop sound, their music is in equal parts rugged and precise, but like many bands it’s lumped under the genre of ‘indie’ for the most part – and even frontman Jamie Timony has no idea what that means. It’s hard to know whether indie is a sound, a business philosophy, or even just a state of mind these days. “I have absolutely no idea why we end up being described as ‘indie’”, Timony laughs. “To me, it sort of means having a clean-cut, poppy sound – but that’s just me.”

Rapids released their debut EP, Holland Air, a few months ago, after three and a half years of developing their sound around the gig circuit and in the studio. So far the press – including the indie gatekeepers, triple j – have been encouraging, but life in Rapids is, for now, a hard trek of survival in the city. “At the moment we’re all working jobs – gotta keep the money coming in when you’re living in the inner city,” he laughs. “But we’re practicing as much as we can and writing constantly. I guess you’ve just gotta wait and see what happens, and concentrate on writing the absolute best music in that time that you can.”

It makes sense, then, that the band didn’t want to rush their debut. “Our focus was to make sure we were happy with the EP, so it all took about six months to finalise,” Timony explains. “We’ve been trying to gig as much as possible, getting our chops up that way. For a lot of that time we lived together as well, so we were able to come home and practice most nights.”

Co-produced with Liam Judson, who shaped the sound of Cloud Control’s AMP-winning and ARIAnominated Bliss Release, Holland Air has been floating around for some time – but Rapids are

finally ready to give it a proper public launch. “This gig’s really important for us,” he says. “GoodGod is a really great venue, and it’s our headline show so the onus is on us to bring the crowd. We’re going to play some new stuff, too – we’re writing at the moment, because we’re going to record another EP in September.”

Releasing an EP instead of a full-length album is obviously the most cost-effective option for young bands, but Timony explains that for Rapids, it’s also a strategic tool around which a single is packaged. “I think an EP is a marketing tool for us,” he says. “While we’re trying to get our name out and about it’s an economical thing to do. It is the backbone for singles – but we do hope to get an album out when we can.”

Coat-tailing on more established bands and their audiences is another way for up-and-comers to recruit new fans – and although they’re already regulars around the local traps, Rapids’ main desire at this point is to spread their wings as far as possible. “We’ve just signed with a booking agent, and our main focus of this release is to tour as much as we possibly can,” he says. “That’s something we haven’t done much of, so we want to get onto some cool supports and stuff. You need to tour with someone who is popular and good, and you really need to be on a good slot as well. Your music needs to align so that people are going to want to relate to what you’re playing.

As much as you need to do your own shows, it’s hard when you’re just starting to get your name out there!”

What: Holland Air is out now through Ratbag Music With: The Mountains, Phebe Starr Where: GoodGod Small Club When: Thursday August 2

“When a good time turns around you must whip it. You will never live it down unless you whip it” - DEVO 22 :: BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12

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What: Oh My Garden is out now through Crying Ninja Records With: Ktwhyte, Amy Rose, Bity Booker Where: FBi Social, Kings Cross Hotel When: Thursday August 2

Rapids

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arts frontline

free stuff email: freestuff@thebrag.com

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

five minutes WITH ANNA “market it to boys and girls will buy it, market it to girls and boys won’t”.

It’s a market truism that many people in kids industries live by. I started to wonder what effect that would have on girls, rarely getting to see themselves as the hero. I wanted to write a book that was for girls that wasn’t about makeup or periods, that asked them to look at the world from beyond their bodies.

What was the strangest thing you discovered during your research? How into shopping very young girls were. When I would ask them what their favourite pastime would be they would say: basketball and shopping. This is something I don’t remember being a part of my life as a pre-teen at all.

W

hile we are too old for Anna’s new book Girl!, we appreciate its no-nonsense tips for world navigation – from cyber-bullying, and anger-management, to making your own clothes, human rights, saving water – and all delivered in-between writing plays, her PhD and having a 9-5 desk job…

What made you decide to write this book? I worked in children’s publishing briefly oversees and kept coming across the statement

How do you think being a girl has changed since you did it? The girls I spoke to seemed way more open-minded than I remember us being. They are seeing people of all different sexualities, ethnicities, religions on their favourite TV shows and they seemed to be far more okay with difference than a lot of society. I think there is a lot more pressure on girls in relation to body image than we had at that age. I think that has more to do with the amount of

COSMOPOLIS

BARNES

marketing that is directed at them at a younger age. Also, the internet.

Haha. How that has changed the experience of being a kid is more of an essay than an answer.

What was the FIRST thing that blew your mind, creatively speaking? I remember reading Toni Morrison’s Paradise when I was home sick from school when I was fourteen years old and being completely blown away. I became obsessed with her soon after. The first play I ever read (apart from Shakespeare) was 4:48 psychosis

by Sarah Kane. My older sister was doing her honours thesis on her. It was definitely a pivotal moment in my life at seventeen years old because it opened up a whole new world to me. I didn’t go see theatre as a kid, I went to the football or the basketball. That play made me realise that I was a playwright.

And the last thing? I saw Sleep No More by Punch Drunk when I was in New York last year and that was pretty spectacular. An empty hotel with three levels of roaming performances. Oh, to have that insurance budget!

You got a Realise You Dream

grant from the British Council – what did you do with that?

I went over to do the young playwrights course at Royal Court Theatre. I ended up sticking around in London for a year or so and did a play development with a theatre group in South London and attended a European playwriting conference as well.

What: Girl! The Ultimate Guide To Being You When: Out now through Penguin More: Check out the ten finalists for 2012 Realise Your Dream – and stay posted for forthcoming 2013 submissions – at artsfrontier.britishcouncil.org.au

AM I A PERVERT?

You’ll be able to ask Jesse Bering in person when he appears at Sydney Opera House’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas, taking place from September 28-30. Known to Slate readers as their resident science writer, Bering has been described as the David Sedaris of experimental psychology and the Hunter S. Thompson of science writing,

French photographer Emmy Etié has been shooting bands for a decade now, from sweaty mosh-pits to the rarefied atmosphere of the photographers' pen to up close and personal portraiture and editorial work for magazines like French Rolling Stone.

She’s recently relocated to Sydney, where she’ll be exhibiting an updated version of her 2007 retrospective show, featuring around 50 large-scale portraits and live shots, including The Cramps, The Hives, Iggy and The Stooges, Frank Black, The White Stripes, The International Noise Conspiracy, The Hoodoo Gurus, Spencer P Jones, Deniz Tek, Turbonegro, PJ Harvey, Nashville Pussy, George Clinton, Nada Surf – and oodles more. Rock ‘n’ Roll Shots runs from September 7-30 at Green Room Lounge (156 Enmore Road). emmyetie.tumblr.com

MMMM BACON

You probably haven’t heard the name Anish Kapoor – and that’s the exciting thing about the MCA, they’re always introducing you to something awesome. They’ll be presenting a retrospective show of the Turner Prize-winning British sculptor from December to April 2013 as part of a new Destination NSW-endorsed partnership with the Art Gallery of NSW, called Sydney International Art Series – which sounds a lot like what they both already do: “bringing the world’s most outstanding exhibitions to Sydney.” The Art Gallery of NSW, following on from its Picasso show coup, will be presenting Francis Bacon: Five Decades from November 2012 to February 2013 – the first of its kind in Australia, and a chance to get up close and personal with the hugely influential painter’s body of work…

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SIR PATRICK STEWART

Best known for his breakthrough role in Ricky Gervais’ Extras, Sir Patrick Stewart knows all about being a struggling actor, from years of bit-parts in series like Star Trek and films like Excalibur and X-Men. Somehow, he’s accumulated various honours, including appointments as Chancellor of Huddersfield University and a ‘Knight Bachelor’. He’ll be sharing his experiences and answering audience questions in a live phone interview from London at Popcorn Taxi @ Event Cinemas Bondi Junction this Wednesday August 1, following a screening of two episodes of Star Trek in HD on the big screen – ‘Conspiracy’ and ‘Naked Now’, which apparently will mean something to trekkies (as will the free Star Trek coffee mug bestowed on all attendees). Tix from popcorntaxi.com.au

IGNORE MAINSTREAM #2

34B: GO FOR GOLD

As the London Olympics wind down, 34 Burlesque and its bevy of babes will just be getting warmed up, for their own special night of games: for Russia on (what else) hoops is Kira Hula-la; for Great Britain, getting her backside trackside, is Briana Bluebell; local lass Rita Fontaine will be representing Australia against Cherry Lush for Germany; Memphis Mae will be vaulting all kinds of poles for the USA; Pickled Tink will be pummelling the pommel for China; and Sheena Missdemeanour will be (hopefully) fencing, French style. Expect a night of coquettish competition and game-changing glamour: Friday August 10 from 8.30pm at 34B (44 Oxford Street). Tickets $20 for general admission or $30 for a reserved table, from qbar.iwannaticket.com.au

– the mind boggles – and is the author of Why Is My Penis Shaped Like That? Other interesting thinkers include filmmaker, futurist, techno-optimist and ‘epiphany addict’ Jason Silva, neuroscientist Sam Harris (who will get straight to the heart of the matter by arguing that we don’t have free will), and a China-USA-relations panel that should make West Wing fans jizz their pants. Besides this, expect the usual feminist panel, Germaine Greer, arguments about circumcision and right-to-life, war, climate change, and whether your office is in fact a cult. Cough. Full lineup etcetera at fodi.sydneyoperahouse.com

JEllyfish

With a practice spanning over a ten years and the streets of Sydney, the Insomniaks graf crew are presenting a group show this week at aMBUSH that pays homage to the old school and the new. The gallery first programmed these guys in December 2010, and subsequently invited them to create a mural at the Outpost festival on Cockatoo Island. While the emphasis of the upcoming show is on the role of graffiti as the godfather of all street art, we’re rather taken by the computer-generated images by Opens (see left), made using only PhotoShop’s marquee and paint bucket tools, to a crankedup soundtrack of dubstep (the artist's muse of choice). Also exhibiting are Daks, Oricks, Noel, Joshuair, Roter and Hules.

Ignore Mainstream 2 opens Friday August 3 from 6-9pm at aMBUSH (4a James St, Waterloo).

Rock 'N' Roll Shots – photograph by Emmy Etié

Public art festival Art & About has just dropped its 2012 program, set to take over the CBD from September 21 – October 20.

Circle Friday September 21 in the Leunig calendar, when local label Modular presents Friday Night Live, a free outdoor opening party; they'll also be presenting a series of secret lunchtime gigs throughout the fest.

Arts-wise, Jasper Knight and architect Isabelle Toland will team up to tackle the city’s everyday habits in cheeky pieces of pop-up installation art, The Glue Society and local artist James Dive are bringing their installation I Wish You Hadn't Asked (a living room that rains) to the street outside Hyde Park Barracks, and the Emergence projection project will team up with the Australian Museum archives to create light displays on the greenery in Hyde Park. And it wouldn’t be a City Of Sydney shebang without Food Trucks, which will make an appearance at the closing night street party bonanza. Full program and deets at artandabout.com.au

ROCK SHOTS

Cosmopolis opens in cinemas August 2; thanks to Icon Film, we have 15 in-season double passes up for grabs to check it out.

To get your hands on one, tell us one other actor starring in the film. iconmovies.com.au

What are you currently working on? A play, Minus One Sister, with director Kip Williams.

I also just finished my Writer in Residency year with Red Stitch Actors Theatre down here in Melbourne so I’m looking at getting the play I worked on with them into production. I write a regular column with the Lifted Brow about celebrity culture, so yeah, keeping myself busy.

ART + ABOUT X MUSIC Lux Interior of The Cramps

It’s based on a book by one of America’s most important post-modern fiction writers, directed

by David Cronenberg (Videodrome; Eastern Promises), set entirely in a car, and stars Robert Pattinson as a potentially sociopathic prince of Wallstreet, plus Samantha Morton and Juliette Binoche: what more do you need to know? If you’re like us, you’ve been gurning for a screen adaptation of Don DeLillo’s dystopian thriller – let alone by this kind of team.

STEP UP

Miami Heat In The Streets By Alicia Malone danced before shooting this movie.

“Everything was difficult for me,” he admits, “I trained for nine hours every single day for three weeks, then did another couple of hours by myself at home. Contemporary, salsa, hip hop – I had to learn all the styles. I grew up doing martial arts. I trained for about seven years, and fought in the Octagon for a year and a half. I came to LA to do that, I wanted to be the next UFC fighter – the biggest UFC fighter out there – but I ended up being signed by a modelling agency. I lived in a one-bedroom apartment with five guys and had $25 to my name, but I worked really hard, and nine months later I had booked six commercials, then I got the lead in this movie. [The experience] really opened my eyes to what acting is all about, and now I want to make a career out of it. “

Kathryn McCormick, Ryan Guzman and Stephen ‘Twitch’ Boss star in Step Up 4: Miami Heat

I

n 2006 a relatively unknown actor called Channing Tatum starred in his first major role as a troubled dancer in the film Step Up. Six years later, three movies, new stars and over $400 million at the box office, the dance movie franchise is still going strong, with film number four, Step Up 4: Miami Heat, now in cinemas worldwide.

dreams of joining a prestigious Miami dance company. Her greedy hotel developer father (Peter Gallagher) is against the idea, but Emily gains a boost of confidence when she meets Sean (Ryan Guzman), a member of local dance crew The Mob, who stage spectacular flash mobs in public places around the city, and put their videos on YouTube.

Starring a fresh cast of hot young dancers, Step Up 4 centers on Emily (Kathryn McCormick), who

The story may be nothing revolutionary, but as with the other Step Up films, it’s the dancing that

audiences love to watch. Jamal Sims, head choreographer on all four movies, admits that with each film it gets harder to impress people. “Audiences are so educated on what good dance looks like, you can’t just give them BS, they really know. We have to create things that go above what they could imagine.”

Sims says the most challenging scene to choreograph was the finale, which involved a large number of dancers doing dramatically different styles. “We

have people running on bungee cords on the wall, there are the trampoline artists, people dancing with sparks and on skateboards.

There were so many extra things on top of dancing that we had to worry about and everything had to be timed to the music. We also didn’t have a lot of time to shoot the scene, we only had 3 days, and it was in 40-degree weather!”

Luckily, his cast was ready for a challenge – especially Guzman, who unlike the others had never

JAMAL ON MIAMI RYAN ON UFC “The city was everything; the Miami backdrop is probably one of the biggest parts of the movie. The energy there is sexy, it’s romantic, but also has this nightlife that is dance, dance, dance.

The Latin flavour, everyone is dancing.

And the people are always pretty much naked too, so that’s great!”

G IV EA W AY S

Left: One of choreographer Jamal Sims’ Step Up 4 setpieces

“UFC fighting is euphoric to me. When that cage door closes and it’s just you and another guy and you’re about to fight them, everything becomes really silent and quiet for me and it’s just peaceful. I don’t get angry or sad, or put any emotion into it, because that can hinder your fighting. It’s more thinking without thinking. Your body is in tune with what’s in front of you, and it’s finally just a peaceful mindset.”

KATHRYN ON HOLLYWOOD

“I think everybody has their place. Some people think it’s like a pie and if too many people get a slice there will be nothing left. I don’t think so; I think there are many pies. Everyone has their own path and you just have to be patient and put in the work. I don’t think you should compare yourself and not celebrate someone else’s victory just because you have some kind of envy, because your path is going to be different – and it’s supposed to be.”

Guzman had a supportive partner in his co-star. A dancer since the age of three, McCormick is familiar to American audiences from her stint on So You Think You Can Dance. “Dance is my whole heart and soul,” she says. “It has so much of me, and I’m only 22. I want to do this for the rest of my life. One thing I love about dancing is that it’s acting too. No, it’s not vocal, and words are powerful (I found that through doing this film) – but dancing is the closest thing to my heart, because it has been with me from when I was a kid to the point that I am now. It’s carried me through life.”

Fellow So You Think You Can Dance alum Stephen ‘Twitch’ Boss is back for another Step Up film, reprising his role from Step Up: 3D. Despite the long shoot days and multiple takes required on the films, Twitch finds it easy to keep the energy up. “You have music pumping and we’re so excited about making the movie; we’re not thinking about the choreography, we’re just dancing and feeding off each other’s energy.

Then you have Jamal on the microphone going ‘Yeah!’ There’s a lot of energy to feed from, and it’s just so much fun.”

That on-set energy is what Sims hopes will translate to audiences, making them want to dance in the aisles while watching Step Up 4, and maybe think about taking a dance class afterwards. ”I remember being a kid and watching Rocky, and leaving wanting to find some stairs to run up. That’s definitely part of the objective with this film, to make the audience want to leave the theatre and dance.”

What: Step Up 4: Miami Heat When: In cinemas from August 2

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER

T

WIN!

ake one iconic historical figure and one of the key turning points of modern history; mix it with an equal part of fiction, courtesy of Seth Grahame-Smith (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), add a dash of blood, stir it with the imagination of director Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted), and serve in a Tim Burton-shaped pitcher. That potent mix you’re holding is Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter – a historical-horror mashup that its creators describe as the quintessential super-hero origins story, in a 19th century packaging. Together, these mavericks of the marvellous have reimagined America’s greatest president as a Batmantype figure – a man both ordinary and extraordinary, and motivated to fight the forces of darkness (i.e. slavery, Confederates and vampires) by incidents in his childhood. Sounds like a whole lotta fun.

IN CINEMAS FROM AUGUST 2 – IN 3D Thanks to Twentieth Century Fox, we have ten doubles up for grabs to check it out – just email freestuff@thebrag.com with the name of the fella who plays Abe (see our story over the page).

TM and © 2012 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

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Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter [FILM] High Stakes Historical Horror By Gerard Elson

S

eth Grahame-Smith is the mash-up meister behind Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and the surprise bestseller Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Gleefully inane, the latter is undoubtedly a forerunner for ‘daftest idea ever’, making it ideal source material for a big budget Hollywood action movie. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch, Wanted) from a script by GrahameSmith, produced by Tim Burton, and starring Benjamin Walker (Flags of Our Fathers) as an axe-swinging, demon-hunting Honest Abe, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter the movie at the very least has forthrightness in its favour: Lincoln, as the film’s troubled protagonist, does indeed slay befanged paranormal nasties.

Both Grahame-Smith and Walker feel that Lincoln is an underappreciated figure in American history, despite his massive legacy and the extent to which his iconography remains a part of the culture. “In the States we grew up with a very superficial understanding of Lincoln,” says Grahame-Smith. “He’s on our currency. Great. Top hat, beard, freed the slaves. We understand these things. But that’s just superficial.”

The pair agree that the more one delves into Lincoln’s biography, the more remarkable the man and his achievements seem. Born in a one-room Kentucky log cabin, his landowner parents lost the sum of their considerable acreage in court disputes due to faulty

Benjamin Walker (right) battles evil in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

“The more you read about Lincoln, the more fascinated you become with just how fraught with tragedy his life was and what he had to overcome,” says Grahame-Smith. “It’s this falling in love with the actual story that’s the beginning of what this film is. And then we take those ideals and those speeches and those moments that we love and we put them in this crazy context.”

Crazy ain’t the half of it. At time of writing, I’ve not yet had the chance to see the finished film in full, but the footage which has screened to media promises a movie of almost majestic ridiculousness. The production design as envisioned by Bekmambetov is a steampunk wet dream, designed for maximum coolness, period accuracy be damned. And the vertiginous, explosive finale – set both onboard and atop a hurtling steam train on the Underground Railroad – makes a similar sequence in the director’s Wanted look restrained by comparison. Needless to say, proponents of cinematic verisimilitude need not apply.

Despite the huge amount of CGI employed in the creation of the movie’s setpieces, Walker explains that amidst the orgy of pixels are many key practical elements, including that train from the finale itself. “It’s just crazy,” he says. “They built a locomotive, put it on a gimble, had it shake, pumped it with smoke.

There were a couple of days [where] the trick was to try not to fall off this train and break your neck. They flung stuff in the air, vampires swung in. So a lot of it was actually practical.”

Another area where Bekmambetov opted in favour of tactile, in-camera effects was the make-up, both in the case of the vampires and Walker’s Lincoln countenance. “They could have done that all CGI,” says Walker. “[Instead], they chose to bring in Greg Cannom and Will Huff, the guys who brought

you Benjamin Button. They created something that was real and that you could touch.”

With the story of Lincoln coming bound with so many sensitive issues – not least, the very human evil of slavery – such a knowingly exploitative revisionist take on his story might seem somewhat in bad taste. Thankfully, Grahame-Smith and Walker were themselves all-too aware of this. “Slavery is a very real and very American evil,” Grahame-Smith acknowledges, “and it’s a human evil. I never wanted the book or the film to take any responsibility off the humans for being the perpetrators of slavery. But, let’s face it: the vampires represent that evil – that evil of being a slave trader, a slave owner.”

Indeed, the writer believes the film actually improves on his book with the inclusion of a character played by Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker, Real Steel). “In the book I dealt with these issues of slavery in sort of symbolic ways, but I didn’t have an African American

character to give rise to a fighting-back against it, to give voice to the oppressed. One area I think the film succeeds better than the book is having Mackie playing not only an oppressed, downtrodden slave, but in fact he’s a badass who’s fighting for righteousness. It’s really his plight that draws Abe into the fight, and the two of them go at it side by side.

That’s something I’m actually embarrassed I didn’t have in the book. So we put a lot of consideration into it.”

“Lincoln’s legacy is safe,” Walker assures.

“We’re not debating whether or not what he did is the right thing. And his legacy is enormous. So there’s room for this movie.”

Grahame-Smith shrugs. “Ultimately, that’s up to people to judge. But staying on the right side of that line is something that was always on our minds.”

What: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter When: In cinemas from August 2 in 3D

Portlandia [TV ON DVD] We Tease Because We Love By Alasdair Duncan The show itself is a biting satire of the hipster enclave of Portland, where making artisanal light bulbs and putting birds on things are seemingly valid career choices. Armisen and Brownstein play various characters within this milieu, but the comedian insists that it’s all done with love and affection. “Anyone I’ve played on the show is just a version of me,” he explains. “I do the things that they do, and they have traits that are mine, too.

We deliberately don’t change our voices that much for the characters. They sound like us most of the time, even if they look different.

People sometimes say that we’re skewering these people, but we’re not. If we’re skewering anyone, it’s ourselves. We have a lot of affection for Portland and all these people who have this kind of lifestyle.”

Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein in Portlandia

F

red Armisen is a comedian whose resume includes Saturday Night Live and guest spots in movies like Anchorman; Carrie Brownstein is a rocker, and a founding member of riot grrl group Sleater-Kinney. They seem like an unlikely pairing, and yet their sketch-comedy show Portlandia is one of the finest and funniest things on American television right now. I’m curious to know how exactly they met, and how they decided to do comedy together.

“Well, we kind of knew each-other a little bit, we had some mutual friends,” Armisen tells me. “We met, and I knew as soon as I met her that we’d have a friendship, and that it was going to be something really exciting.”

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The pair knew straight away that they wanted to work together on something, but didn’t know what form that collaboration would take. “We thought about music, but that just seemed way too obvious, the idea of us sitting together and jamming,” he says with a laugh. “We didn’t want to be those people – it didn’t seem original. So we came up with the idea to do some videos – just weird, short videos that didn’t necessarily have any jokes in them, but they were just our own thing.

As soon as we started shooting those, we put them on a website called Thunder Ant, and we were able to pitch that as a show after a couple of years. I guess it just sort of happened, and became its own life form.”

In conversation, Armisen is quiet and humble – when I compliment him on the show, he seems almost embarrassed. He finds himself being approached on the streets of Portland quite a bit these days, and says that while he often doesn't know quite what to say, he is grateful that people seem to enjoy the show. “People are always very nice,” he says.

“I’m just glad that people watch it. It’s funny, because it seems like people in Portland appreciate it. I haven’t heard one negative thing from a person on the street. People say, ‘Oh, I have a cat-food bakery, do you want to do a show here?’ I get approached by people like that, people who have these very eccentric, Portland businesses, but they’re all very cool about it.”

In the two seasons that have aired so far, Portlandia has had some damn fine guest stars. TV comedy players like Aubrey Plaza, Jason Sudeikis and Nick Kroll have all showed up, but so have the likes of Edie McClurg, who played air-headed secretary Grace in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It’s an impressive roster, and Armisen tells me that the casting process is mostly pretty informal – essentially, it’s about inviting people they like around to play. There are a few who went

through the regular channels, agents and all that stuff,” he says. “For the most part, it’s just been us hooking up with friends. It’s informal, and that’s quite a nice way to be. I mean, after you’ve spent a whole day shooting, you kind of just want to hang out with your friends, so doing the show this way is a really good way to do that.”

I ask Armisen if there is anyone he has his eye on for future episodes. “There are many,” he says. “Some of them are stupid dreams, just because I want to work with my heroes.

I wish I could get everyone from this band called The Damned on, or Hugh Cornwell, or John Waters, or Woody Allen. There are all kinds of people. There are also actors.

People like Griffin Dunne – just people we like or we think are cool.” He pauses to think for a second. “We had Steve Jones from The Sex Pistols come on. You know who would be the ultimate, is Ralf Hütter from Kraftwerk.

The main guy. If we could get that guy, that would be the coolest thing ever.”

The first season of Portlandia, which runs on the IFC network in the US, ran for six episodes – a cult favourite with a growing fanbase, it has just been renewed for a third season of twice this length. Armisen and Brownstein are in the process of writing the season right now, thinking about possible new characters and guest stars, but I ask if this increased scope means that they are feeling added pressure to perform.

“The quickest answer is yeah, we do feel pressure,” he tells me. “I want to get it right, and do something good. We don’t want to overwork ourselves, but we want to make the best show we can, to be entertaining and funny. I have my fingers crossed that we can try to focus on making it good.”

What: Portlandia – Series 1 on DVD When: Out Wednesday August 1 through Umbrella Entertainment

TM and © 2012 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation / photo by Stephen Vaughn

Grahame-Smith says the idea to reimagine America’s noblest president as a pulp vigilante struck whilst visiting bookstores on the publicity tour for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in 2009 – the bicentenary of Lincoln’s birth. In the window of one shop was a display for a new Lincoln biography. The window adjacent was bedecked with promotional materials for Breaking Dawn, the final novel in the Twilight Saga. “It was one of those Reese’s peanut butter cups moments,” he says, referring to a confection not commonplace in Australia which combines peanut butter with chocolate. “You got your peanut butter, you got your chocolate and just… voila! Sometimes these things are handed to you.”

property titles. After relocating to Perry County, Indiana – partly, Lincoln later explained, to distance the family from the spread of slavery – Lincoln’s mother succumbed to illness and died when young Abe was just nine years old.

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Arts Snap

Film & Theatre Reviews

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

Dee Easton and Sam Calleja in Rocket Town

PICS :: PX

eon

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

■ Theatre

18:07:12 :: Alaska Projects :: Lvl 2, Kings Cross carpark, 9A Elizabeth Bay Rd

BONDI FEAST Reviewed Sat July 21 / Bondi Pavilion

time machine festival

PICS :: AM

It is, to put things mildly, absolutely f***ing freezing down at Bondi Beach on this Saturday night. The wind chill factor has even the ruddy Brit backpackers at my bus stop rugged up against the bitter air.

Sensible people are probably indoors, yet I’m standing in a snaking line of jacketed individuals winding their way up the stairs of the Bondi Pavilion.

firstdraft gallery

PICS :: AM

18:07:12 :: Serial 002 :: 10-14 Kensington St Chippendale

18:07:12 :: Firstdraft Gallery :: 116-118 Chalmers St Surry Hills

Arts Exposed What's in our diary...

La Biennale presents

If you were in that line on Saturday night – or any other night in the last two weeks – you’d know we were making our way to Bondi Feast, a festival of theatre, comedy and music hosted by the Tamarama Rock Surfers. The lure of mulled wine and jaffles probably helped get people out of the house and into the theatre, but no more than the lineup of work from writers like Suzie Miller, Jessica Bellamy, Toby Schmitz and Tim Spencer, the promise of erotic fan fiction, stand up comedy and a dance party the audience was in charge of programming.

The night I attended dished up as an entrée three new short plays commissioned by TRS for the festival: An Itch in the Junk by Caleb Lewis was a dark comedic monologue that mashed up Bondi legend and Irish folklore; Jessica Bellamy’s Pigeon explored the hidden lives of Westfield dwellers in all their heartrending banality; and Cait Harris’s Shiver Up a Chiko Roll ingeniously mashed up radio play, horror story and Bondi pisstake in the most effective use of an empty stage you’re likely to see in ten minutes.

The meat dish was Emily Steel’s Rocket Town, a 60-minute two-hander about life in the outback town of Woomera. Exploring isolation, adolescence, friendship and choice through the unique prism of two teenagers who live in a town built for science and housing less than 300 people, Steel’s writing is sharp, evocative and never patronising. Director Daisy Brown’s staging keeps things lively on a fairly blank stage, and performers Sam Calleja and Dee Easton imbue their angsty teens with depth and pathos.

I couldn’t stick around for the Beach Dance Party (DJed by Benny Davis and Holly Austin, programmed by you) but by the looks of my Twitter feed as I battled gale force winds back to the bus, I certainly missed out. I’d have moved into the Pav last week if I could. The TRS’s collective

enthusiasm for new writing is infectious, and unlike your average winter flu, it’s something I’m happy to see spread around.

Rebecca Saffir ■ Theatre

A HOAX Until September 1 / SBW Stables For as long as there have been people writing stories, there have been people pretending to be someone else to get their stories read. Literary hoaxes and falsified identities are countless, and Australia seems to have a real knack for churning them out. A Hoax draws on many of them, mashes them up with contemporary identity politics and a bit of old-fashioned farce, and presents us with a tall tale indeed.

Ant is a social worker who wants to be a writer. Miri is his (Aboriginal) client who’d rather be anything but. Ronnie is a hotshot literary agent who’s fallen from grace, and picked up the super-camp AfricanAmerican Tyrelle as her assistant along the way. They all want to be more than what they are, and they’re all going to use each other to do it. Writer Rick Viede’s depiction of human venality knows few boundaries, and for two hours we watch the four of them lie, cheat and manipulate each other in an attempt to come out on top.

Viede wants the play to be about identity politics and the desperation people feel to be included, and in many regards he’s on the right track. But the story has a lot of threads, and a couple wind up getting away from him with the result that we’re asked to believe that the character with the most institutional power has the most trouble being heard.

It’s a mostly enjoyable two hours though, and Shari Sebbens as Miri is an absolute joy to watch; her mercurial shifts of temperament and motivation perfectly and sympathetically pitched. Lee Lewis moves her actors around the tricky Stables theatre with ease and keeps the whole business moving at a cracking pace. But this can’t quite conceal the feeling, upon exiting the theatre, that something about it just doesn’t add up.

Rebecca Saffir

The Biennale Bar @ Pier 2/3, Walsh Bay Fridays August 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31 from, 6.30-9.30pm

Tiffany Singh's Knock On The Sky Listen To The Sound at Pier 2/3

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If you like your art boozy and after-dark, head down to Hickson Road in Walsh Bay on any Friday this month, for the Biennale Bar. Each night will be presented by a different cultural organisation – kicking off Friday August 3 with dLux MediaArts, who have given the night over to the virtual experiments of augmented-reality artists Andrew Burrell and Warren Armstrong (aka The Institute For Advanced Augmentiform Development and Release) and electronic music collective Filthy Children. Bring your smartphone for access to the various augmentiforms and virtual toads, which you are invited to ‘lick’ for a more psychedelic experience…shit could get weird. The following Fridays will be hosted

by The Thousands, FBi Radio, Biennale of Sydney and Sydney Chamber Orchestra, in that order. bos18.com/whats-on

Glenn Hazeldine and Shari Sebbens in A Hoax

See www.thebrag.com for more arts reviews

16.5pt Univers 57 Condensed for three & four line advice

Internationally acclaimed Bangarra Dance Theatre presents a fusion of contemporary dance and indigenous storytelling inspired by the timeless wonder and spiritual resonance of Lake Eyre

exhilarating and engrossing - Sydney Morning Herald simply exquisite - Sun Herald visually spectacular, captivating the audience with a simple but flawless unity of music and movement - Time Out Magazine

until 18 August sydneyoperahouse.com.au 02 9250 7777

Scan to preview TERRAIN

Groups (8+) $60 Students $25 Student Rush 2 for $40* *Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays available from 9am on the day of the performance

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

ALBUM OF THE WEEK Canadian duo Purity Ring sprung from relative obscurity about a year and a half ago, turning critics’ heads with a string of well-produced singles and enigmatic videos released online. After much anticipation – and an inclusion on lineups with indie legends like Dirty Projectors and Japandroids – they’ve delivered Shrines, an amalgam of dream pop, electronica and hip hop that, despite its internet beginnings, has seemed to restore some faith in the continuation of ‘the album’ as a form.

already set her amongst the likes of The Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson and Portishead’s Beth Gibbons.

What on first listen could seem like saccharine electro-pop is quickly belied by the consuming waves of Roddick’s synth, and surprisingly grotesque descriptions nonchalantly delivered by James.

‘Fireshrine’ has a hook as spooky as it is catchy (“Get a little closer, let fold / Cut open my sternum and pull / my little ribs around you”), and songs like ‘Cartographist’ and ‘Belispeak’ set melancholic melodies against hip hop drum patterns, making them totally danceable. Though mellow, ‘Obedear’ and ‘Crawlersout’ are both arresting in their use of claps and samples, prompting you to groove along solemnly and girlishly.

Their 38-minute debut combines the synth, sampling and drum-machine work of Born Gold’s Corin Roddick with the otherworldly voice of Megan James, whose lyricism and atmospheric sensibility have

The album has a consistent sound but avoids being too samey as it’s kept short. It’s broken up midway through with ‘Grandloves’, featuring New York band Young Magic, whose lush, multi-layered

PURITY RING

Shrines 4AD / Remote Control

If Grimes’ Visions is what you want on the dancefloor, Purity Ring’s Shrines is what you'll want to hear when you get home.

ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS

SEBADOH

Cut The World Spunk Records

Some people remember where they were when they first heard of the passing of a true icon, or a shocking world event.

I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I first heard Antony And The Johnsons’ single ‘Hope There’s Someone’, from the 2005 album I Am a Bird Now. Antony Hegarty’s angelically gothic voice has haunted the chambers of my eardrums ever since.

Seven years on, Cut The World – a collection of live symphonic songs recorded with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra – plays like the soundtrack to a melancholy fairytale drenched with a darkness beyond redemption. The live album features new versions of songs spanning Hegarty’s entire catalogue – save for the title track, a fresh creation. ‘You Are My Sister’ retains all its heartwrenching beauty while donning a new coat of fragility, whilst ‘Another World’ quite literally takes you to one.

The new arrangement of ‘Cripple And The Starfish’ manages to protect the song’s integrity while gifting it with new life.

At times this album flirts dangerously with the theatric, with the stunning simplicity of ‘I Fell In Love With A Dead Boy’ flailing in an orchestral sea; others, like ‘Epilepsy Is Dancing’, fall victim to a wordiness reserved for drama school. Still, Cut The World manages to find the hairs on the back of your neck and steadily raise them.

Although I'm wary of live albums (more often than not a shameless cash grab by artists in their downtime, or their labels), Cut The World sounds more like a new idea than a rehash of old ones. You may not remember where you were the first time you heard it, but you’ll be really glad you did.

Erin Bromhead

SONNY & THE SUNSETS

Secret EP Self-released

When I saw Lou Barlow play a solo show back in 2006, I was surprised by how nervous and humble he seemed (he even mentioned playing the show was weird because he was “usually just a bass player”).

Swamped by the Northcote Social Club’s small stage, he dealt with false starts and stumbled parts endearingly, as if he wasn’t the indie rock veteran that he really is.

The perennial DIY spirit still comes through in Sebadoh’s Secret EP, even though it’s their first released recording since The Sebadoh 13 years ago. The five tracks, which won’t appear on the band’s forthcoming album, are intended to be “just a taste” – and it’s everything you’d expect from Barlow’s lo(wer)fi answer to Dinosaur Jr. ‘Keep The Boy Alive’ has all the build and vocal doubling of a ‘90s indie anthem, with guitars in the vein of 1994’s Bakesale but more crisply recorded, and backed by more boisterous drum patterns. Lou Barlow’s sweetly shaking voice counteracts the guitarrock in ‘Arbitrary High’, and lyrics like, “I can’t hang with sober people / They scare the shit right out of me” from ‘My Drugs’ are an affront to the grown-up songwriting that might be expected of a band that’s been kicking around since the early ‘90s.

The biggest surprise on the EP is alt-country track ‘I Don’t Mind’, where Jason Loewenstein’s vocals set a more introspective tone against the slow, twanging, Wilco-esque guitars, steady drums and languid slides. ‘All Kinds’ closes the record on a rocky note, finally establishing that this is the Sebadoh we remember, with fancier recording gear but just as much attitude.

Longtime Companion Lost And Lonesome Sonny & The Sunsets' latest offering, Longtime Companion is a breakup album lacking the obligatory punch to the guts. There's no weeping piano or violin streaked ballads; instead, there’s two-step country twang, and plenty of it.

On the opening track ‘I Was Born’, Sonny Smith croons, “I wanna know, will I ever feel alright, dear?” and you know that this is a hurting man. Yet there is something in his voice that makes it sound as if he’s smirking as he sings. Backed by sun-soaked harmonies, cheerful flute melodies and plenty of pedal steel, Smith comes across as a younger, less serious (read: less broken) Townes Van Zandt.

Known for his genre-hopping, Smith has the kind of voice and approach to songwriting that makes you instantly draw comparisons; on ‘Year Of The Cock’, you’re reminded of a cheeky Ben Kweller, whereas the catchy groove of ‘Pretend You Love Me’ could pass as a collaboration between The Flaming Lips and Mark Oliver Everett.

It makes for some easy listening, which is ultimately strange because it’s an album documenting the demise of Smith’s long-term relationship.

It should be harder, yet somehow this album sounds more like you’re stuck at a square dance festival than reading the diary of a man drowning in grief and self-pity. There are moments of nostalgic psych-surf rock (‘I See The Void’) before the title track closes on a The Big Chill Soundtrack note. Confused? So am I.

As fun as ever, Sebadoh are giving us a lot of guitars for a well-spent five bucks.

Perhaps Smith’s intention is to push and pull you in various directions, reflecting the emotional twists and turns he experienced writing this album. Still, the album as a whole leaves you feeling as lost as his Longtime Companion.

Dijana Kumurdian

Erin Bromhead

Sneeze Weed Z-Man Records

The popular image of the ‘60s, as revolutionised by wild-eyed teenagers in stovepipe trousers and Beatle boots bashing out three-chord punk tunes in their parents’ garage, is as much romantic conceit as corroborated historical truth.

Yet it remains a popular image in garage punk folklore, and one that we all continue to indulge.

Melbourne-based Bonniwells are ripped straight from that image: rudimentary melodies, troglodyte beats and sneering anti-social attitude. ‘From The Sunn’

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stumbles into view from the barest of ingredients – a proverbial bedroom jam session that somehow evolves into a song packed full of sonic intensity. ‘Lazy Daisy’ is a rich collage of acid, amphetamines and adolescence; ‘Elk Beat’ finds hitherto unknown garage gold in the basic structures first mined by The Sonics; and ‘Ms Anderson’ sweats with the passion of every teenage boy’s wet dream.

‘How We Came To Stay’ is raised on a diet of The Trashmen and The Troggs, and a special treat of Buffalo Springfield if you’re lucky; 'Mongo Pusher' drags its feet through the psychedelic sludge like an acid casualty trying desperately to regain a lost grasp on reality; and 'Everyone Say Hello' is the fucked-up Pistols’ morning-

DAVE GRANEY & THE MISTLY

Gossamer Columbia

Three years after the release of Manners, Passion Pit are finally back with plenty more of the eerily chirpy indie pop with which they made their mark.

While Gossamer isn’t a million miles away from Manners stylistically, frontman Michael Angelakos’s recent revelation of his ongoing battle with Bipolar Disorder brings the lyrical content into a whole new light.

Don’t let the exterior fool you; this may seem like a record brimming with dance-ready songs, but there’s a simmering darkness that lurks beneath it all.

Take lead single, ‘Take A Walk’; it may be full of upbeat, stomping melodies, and Angelakos’ charming falsetto is as strong as ever, but scratching behind the glossy veneer is a heartbreakingly tender story of a family struggling to make ends meet. The same manic stabs of electronic synths permeate the album throughout, although there are plenty of opportunities for us to take it down a notch; ‘Mirror Seas’ brings some temporary reprieve.

Meanwhile, tracks like ‘Constant Conversation’ steer away from the squeaky pop element that dominates the rest of the album, and takes on a distinctly RnB feel; this one is the dark horse on Gossamer. The gently crooning chorus is interspersed with Angelakos’ vocals slowly climbing up the falsetto scale into chipmunk territory – the perfect blend of new and old Passion Pit, still with plenty of layers for you to unwrap with each listen.

While you might not find another ‘SleepyHead’ on Gossamer, the time Passion Pit have taken to carefully craft their sophomore record makes for far meatier listening – but there is plenty for you to cut loose and dance to as well.

Marissa Demetriou

after-the-happy-pilled-night-before, when peace, love and happiness has turned to hate, shit and frontal lobe torture. 'Crack Man' is the superhero garage anthem that Tim Burton missed for his latest feature film, 'Suntan And Freckles' is surf rock on a beach polluted by washed up Stooges records, and 'Mudskipper' is bubblegum pop stuffed in a Tacoma trashcan.

Even if you don’t buy into the ‘60s mythology, Bonniwells are the antidote to all of that contrived corporate bullshit that’s regularly shoved down our throats. Rock’n’roll with attitude, hold the fashion statement.

Patrick Emery

Dijana Kumurdian

PASSION PIT

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK BONNIWELLS

vocals offer an interesting counterpoint to the rest of the album. Though it may not offer many surprises, Shrines is definitely captivating. You want to be a part of Megan James’ fantasy world of made-up words and tactile, childlike experiences.

You’ve Been In My Mind Fuse

The self-proclaimed King Of Pop and the newly-crowned King Of The Dudes, Dave Graney inhabits a strange yet strangely alluring world, where The Beatles don’t rate anywhere near Steely Dan and Marcos Valle reigns supreme as the Brazilian Orpheus. The ex-Moodist and Coral Snake charmer has been incredibly prolific throughout his artistic life and remains one of the few songwriters to have maintained a flawless creative streak for over seven years – as 2009’s Knock Yourself Out, 2010’s Supermodified and last year’s re-recorded “greatest hits” Rock & Roll Is Where I Hide attest. Recorded live in the studio with the incorruptible Lurid Yellow Mist (freshly rechristened The mistLY), You’ve Been In My Mind is yet another fantastic addition to the SA-born Melbournian’s catalogue.

Naturally, the songs are superb: ‘Flash In The Pantz’, ‘We Need A Champion’, ‘Cop This, Sweetly”, the weirdly nostalgic ‘Mt Gambier Night’, the aforementioned ‘King Of The Dudes’ and the self-effacing closer ‘I’m Not The Guy I Tried To Be’ are all vintage DG nuggets. As ever, Graney disperses sneering “ooh”s and lascivious “mmm”s between his savage witticisms, all the while playing the jazziest 12-string electric guitar since Roger McGuinn’s 'Eight Miles High' Coltrane-isms. The top-notch accompaniment is likewise a familiar delight, with Clare Moore effortlessly switching between rhythm patterns, Stu Thomas – who might just be one of the finest white bass players in this land – maintaining the swing, and Stu Perera taking his left-handed Rickenbacker for a walk in areas Nels Cline has yet to tread.

Never a flash in the pan, Dave Graney again proves he isn’t the kind of an artist who’ll be on your mind after you’ve absorbed his tonne-weighing shtick. Instead, he’ll be in your mind.

Denis Semchenko

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

THE SMITH STREET BAND - No One Gets Lost Anymore THE LAURELS - Plains FRANK OCEAN - Channel Orange

PASSION PIT - Gossamer NEW WAR - New War

Single Reviews

Video

Film Clip Of The Week

By Jacob Stone

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI 'Only In My Dreams'

Professional home production weirdo Ariel Pink is back with a classic slice of mid-'60 pop that shimmers like The La’s ‘There She Goes’ – but there’s a sense of creeping sarcasm that contrasts the form in the same way his last single ‘Bright Lit Blue Skies’ did. The lyric is a nice mixture of post-breakup despair and gleeful, cheesy delusion: “If at first you don’t succeed, just dream a little dream…” Ariel can’t deal with his lover leaving, and prefers to imagine them together in Vasoline-smeared beach scenes, back at the start of the romance. “…And we’ll have so much fun, if only in my dreams”. I know how he feels... While this is tacky at times, it’s a quality release from a reliably creative oddball.

NO DOUBT 'Settle Down'

THE FROWNING CLOUDS

OH MERCY

‘Drums’ – dir. Liam Gilmour The film clip for ‘Drums' – the leading single off Oh Mercy’s upcoming sophomore album, Deep Heat – features frontman Alexander Gow lurching around a house party filled with impossibly good looking people in extravagant headwear, with the female attendees all apparently lacking spatial awareness while the rest of the band play on unperturbed.

GOOD HEAVENS

THE XX

TOURISM

The new project from Wolfmother’s ex-rhythm section comes on like a ‘90s shoegaze act. Guitars are tightly doubled, raw and thick with feedback. The drums sound matte-black and propulsive, and everything is stripped down to fighting weight. It’s therefore appropriate that ex-theredsunband singer Sarah Kelly lends vocals, balancing her light tone against the propulsive weight of the rhythm arrangement. It’s a little bit Helmet, a little bit Magic Dirt, a little bit Ride, and it sounds convincing in all except lead melody. Like The ‘Clouds reviewed to the left, this song has all the right musical and production ingredients without managing to nail it in the tune department. But it’s pretty good, pretty good…

This minimal slice of relationship doom is somehow even slighter than what we’ve already come to expect from Jamie xx and his London cohorts. Although this is a great song, knowing the lyrical crimes that are committed across their new album means I can’t in good conscience support them...

‘Angels’ is as you’d expect; a beautifully spare, devotional love tune – but The xx were always a sonically classy band. The problem is the clumsy mixture of quality lyric and generic, almost teenage diary confessional. “Being as in love with you as I am…” sings Romy Madley-Croft, intimate and close-mic’d, and you’re in the bubble with her.

It's warm and languid – a little claustrophobic, but still lovely.

The new single from this Brisbane band is classic Britpop in a '90s guitar vein – think The Kooks, The Arctic Monkeys or a lighter, lessdistorted side of The Cribs.

Mostly, think The Kooks. ‘City Never Sleeps’ is a standard tribute to a big night out, and the pleasures of being just young enough to get drunk, have sex and dance in a big city on a Saturday night. It’s also about a flawed romance, I think. Melodically, we’ve heard things like this before, but well-played clean guitar melodies don’t really get old. The singer is Rod Stuart enough to make you maybe chance taking your knickers off, and the rest of it is classic guitar pop – inoffensive, fun, and musically sophisticated.

'It’s Not Easy Being Mean'

'Angels'

'City Never Sleeps'

'Propellors' An orchestral flourish gets things started – and then goes on for so long I’m surprised this is a pop single. It’s all clicking Arabic percussion and winding strings, until the dancehall backbeat drops and we’re back in classic No Doubt territory. It’s an exciting moment for this band; this seems like the kind of album that could win them back their place in pop’s Pantheon of great mainstream acts. Gwen flips a sweet, glib melody about being too young or too old, and it all feels current and satisfying. “No one’s going to knock this girl down for sure”.

The only major criticisms are of the horrible, FM radio rock/ pop middle 8, and the way the whole song is basically M.I.A. without any attitude – and heaps less bass.

Another wonderful jolt of '60s British Invasion-era pop. This regional Melbourne band have progressed from their early days of ripping off The 'Stones, creating an airy sense of space in the top line of this song. I can’t see The 'Stones being this ambiguous though, and that’s sort of interesting. It sounds a little like Deep Sea Arcade, with the psych, reverb, and '60s melody – and to be honest, they sound amazing.

While this might not be the single to break the band, there’s a sense of youthful power and ambition in The Clouds’ musicianship. If they could get a tighter grip on addictive lead melodies and chorus hooks, they’d be ready to solidify their corner of the indie world.

As Gow promises to show us “heathen delight”, a gold confetti shower pours over his band – Oh Mercy seem to have thrown caution to the wind and produced the type of film clip you wish you were in. The group have abandoned the clever, understated and whimsical style of clips past, in favour of the loudest and most brash they could pull together – highlighted by Gow's gold jacket, which is possibly the best to be found this side of 1985.

Featuring an oozing bass line, an awesome saxophonist, and a focus on irresistible rhythm in place of the quirky riffage that featured throughout their first record Great Barrier Grief, Oh Mercy have packed up the earnest indie pop for the night and replaced it with down and dirty, funky rock – and Gow uses ‘Drums’ to showcase his falsetto vocals with aplomb. Throw on your most obnoxious outfit and join the party.

Marissa Demetriou

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G IV EA W AY S

Extra bits and moving bits without the papercuts

ALBARE iTD PRIZE PACK! WIN!

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o he gets to shred for a living (can you say ‘shred’ when it’s about jazz?), and has a bunch of virtuosos to accompany him while he does it. Albare, Melbourne’s maestro of jazz guitar, is either really lucky, super talented or both – either way, his lightning-fast fingers and unique songwriting skills impress the kind of people who know way more about music theory than we ever will. His brilliant record Long Way came out earlier this year on the legendary German jazz

label, Enja; his recent Australian tour garnered rave reviews of the packed-out shows; and he’s just released a film clip to accompany the first single, ‘Eagle’s Way’, dedicated to Buzz Aldrin himself.

To celebrate, Albare’s coming back to Sydney, playing at 505 on Friday August 3 with legendary harmonica and vibraphone virtuoso Hendrik Meurkens, alongside Albare’s long-time collaborator Evripides Evripidou, pianist Phil Turcio and drummer Tony Floyd.

If this is all sounding as good to you as it should, we’ve got a prize pack to give away – featuring a copy of Long Way, a copy of Hendrik Meurkens’ Celebrando, and a double pass to the show. For your chance to win, simply let us know the venue Albare played last time he was in Sydney. Hint: it went down in May…

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live reviews What we've been to see...

THE RUBENS, THE UPSKIRTS, THE GUPPIES Oxford Art Factory Wednesday July 18

Celebrating their imminent debut with producer David Kahne (The Strokes), The Rubens wasted no time capitalising on triple j’s golden ticket of approval with ‘Lay It Down’. Catching Kings Of Leon’s precrossover hit ‘Milk’ as it echoed throughout the sold-out venue, one couldn’t help but wonder what success these Menangle boys are set for…

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the xx

First up was a set of two-minute raveups and brat-punk from Newcastle’s The Guppies. Despite an awkward rendition of The Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’, frontman Lachlan Morris’ vocal rasp and no-frills demeanour suggests that this trio could carve a niche in Australia’s overcrowded garage.

20:07:12 :: The Metro:: 624 George St Sydney 9550 3666

THE XX

Metro Theatre Friday July 20 I last saw The xx at Laneway Festival back in 2010, when the London band were riding the high of their blog-loved self-titled debut.

Fragile, melodic, seductive and dark, the soft-pop album was made for Saturday night comedowns and blanket-wrapped Sunday mornings – a peculiar choice for an afternoon festival set. The crowd swayed with held hands and closed eyes, but the sound was wafty and the band unengaged; surely a Sydney club show – the first they’ve offered us – would be a far better way to appreciate them live.

The super-mega-sold-out Metro was beaming a bright white ‘X’ onto the pitch black stage, reminiscent enough of the bat-signal that our restless chatter was dominated by the Aurora shooting we’d heard about only hours prior. It was a gloomy, introspective mood that was fostered by the tender opening bars of ‘Angels’ and would prevail throughout the show, especially amongst the back two-thirds of the room; our eyes were focused on the lighting, on the floor, on the inside of our eyelids, anything to block out the increasingly loud raptures of those who’d made it up the front to squeal at bassist Oliver Sim every time he opened his apparently overwhelmingly handsome mouth.

‘Angels’ – the lead single from The xx’s forthcoming record, Coexist – was followed by the best of their debut; we swam through

a reverb-filled sea, from ‘Islands’ to ‘Heart Skipped A Beat’ to ‘VCR’ to ‘Crystalised’ to ‘Shelter’. More than anything, The xx’s live show highlights the angst and melodrama of their music; a striking prismic case held Jamie Smith’s gear, with the black-clad threesome shrouded in smoke and gothic lighting as rippled purples, reds and blues were projected onto a screen behind them.

They unveiled a selection of songs from their new record, which featured more complex arrangements and rockier builds, but ultimately the music varied little and the themes stayed focused: sex, love, distance and heartbreak.

Sydney’s The Upskirts looked the part with their confident swagger, flirting between dance rock and dream psych with something to prove. The unbridled energy with which they delivered current single 'Wrecking Ball' demanded attention, but misplaced screams and constant hairflicking left a contrived aftertaste. A mid-set highlight came with a pulsating cover of the Drive theme song; featuring drummer Kel on vocals, The Upskirts proved that they can swoon as well as squall.

Steph Harmon

Alister Hill

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Metro Theatre Wednesday July 18

18:07:12 :: The Metro:: 624 George St Sydney 9550 3666 :: NOHMON ANWARYAR :: ANNA S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER LEY MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS :: THOMAS PEACHY :: PEDRO ASH BROWN :: KATRINA CLARKE :: XAVIER ::

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Finishing with a teasing cameo from labelmates Alpine, the band could have easily ended on that soaring high note – but they returned to the stage for a piano-led ballad that seemed to dwell on their rapid success and recent New York sojourn. Swigging from a bottle of red wine and effusing a sense of relief, the group ended on a roaring rendition of ‘Lay It Down’, followed by a merry meet-andgreet with fans. 'I was forced to change, I spent some time away, I’ll never be the same' – that may not be a bad thing after all.

Much is made of the ability of this band to harness the quiet sexual power that oozes through their record when they play it live, the brilliant tracks embellished with an energy and swell that’s bounced back tenfold by their fanatic crowds. But unless you were searching for the most superficial of re-works, every note, bassline and drum pad stab of the old songs mirrored the recordings (even the needy inflections in Romy MadleyCroft’s voice felt like carbon copies), with so little banter between the songs we could have been listening to a surround sound stereo. What’s great for some people (I’m looking at you, almost everyone in the venue) is a little boring for others – I couldn’t help but think we’d have all been better served by a dark, warm loungeroom, a receding Sunday hangover, and a really good pair of headphones.

LADYHAWKE, ALL THE COLOURS

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Any sense of ‘too much, too young’ for The Rubens was quickly vanquished as they skipped on stage to the marching beat of Big Boi’s ‘General Patton’.

Performing with a second bassist, the group slipped straight into two slick midtempo rockers, with Sam Margin’s denimclad, crooner-like presence echoing through the aptly-titled ‘Elvis’. With each new song, the band confirmed that they have all but left their lo-fi beginnings behind, opting for a more soul-studied Motown influence. Coupled with Elliott Margin’s organ stabs and bouncing piano, the group’s slick low-end groove had the crowd bopping, while onstage smirks loosened up to some fiery guitar solos, yet it was Sam’s sincerity and ‘ooha oh’ hooks that had the crowd humming along.

All The Colours (incidentally looking more or less monochromatic in dark jeans, jackets and bow ties) do a sterling job warming up a crowd that initially seem more intent on guarding their spots close to the stage than giving the night’s support a shot. The Melbourne four-piece offer a tight little set with minimal banter and smooth transitions between songs. They may be a bit too egalitarian when it comes to the singing – choral components sound a bit out, and some members attempt notes they can’t quite hit – but their bluesy pop-rock hits the mark more often than not.

The stage is set with fairy lights, which twine right up the mic stand of one Pip Brown, or Ladyhawke – the better for her to hide behind, it seems. While a lot of female songwriters have that impossibly-awkward vibe going for them, not an ounce of it seems put on with Ladyhawke, who says ‘Hello!’ and then looks down at her guitar for

pretty much the rest of the show. I’m torn between thinking it’s sweet and feeling a bit unengaged.

She plays a fairly even-handed mix of songs from her eponymous first album and her sophomore, Anxiety. Its title seems telling tonight – Brown just doesn’t seem comfortable on stage, perhaps even less so than when she last toured.

It’s hard not to think that it’s because while Anxiety has some excellent songs on it – the slow-building ‘Cellophane’, the epic ‘Black White & Blue’ – it just doesn’t go where her first album did in terms of delivering those synthy pop hits.

She’s actually wonderful, but there’s an edge of performance missing, and it makes for a slightly lacklustre evening.

Repeatedly throughout the night, and from as early on as her opening song (the very well-received ‘Back Of The Van’), Ladyhawke’s voice is drowned out almost entirely by instrumentation – her head is bowed so low she misses the mic. Still, she and her four-piece sound great live, and the crowd cheer and sing along (to the point of distraction, in fact) to every song. The night closes on a total high, with Ladyhawke relying on the strengths of her first album. She plays ‘Paris Is Burning’ right before leaving the stage, and returning with an encore that closes on a frenzied, powerful ‘My Delirium’.

Romi Scodellaro

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live reviews

up all night out all week . . .

What we've been to see...

Oxford Art Factory Friday July 20 Age doesn’t really matter anymore.

Countless young bedroom producers and DJ upstarts have proved that the vitality of youth can bring something to music that even years of recording can’t match. But when it comes to live performance, there’s no hiding a lack of experience, a fledgling nervousness, that stunned mullet look that sweeps across the face of a newbie when suddenly confronted with a room full of punters. At 20 years old, Brisbane local Emma Louise is an exception to the rule. Before a packed Oxford Art Factory, she delivered a show as poised and polished as an artist twice her age, lending significance to the Gold status her debut four-track EP Full Hearts and Empty Rooms recently won.

Animals are a core thematic concern for Emma Louise. Across ‘Sandalwood’ and ‘Caged’, dedicated to her pet bird Henry, animalistic imagery prevailed. But it was her human side that really caught the initially boisterous Saturday-night crowd off guard. While scores of ‘pretty’ singersongwriters have come and gone, and the scene now resembles something of

the pub-rock glut of the ‘80s, the way that Louise – sparkly dress and ballet flats – conducts herself onstage suggests she might well be a stayer. Keeping banter to a minimum, she simply introduced each song with words about its inspiration – “leaving someone behind” and “missing the comforts of home” – with a strength of sentiment that underscored her whole performance as a result.

The requisite yowls of approval went up for the massively radio-played ‘Jungle’ and newer single ‘Boy’, but it was on ‘Flanelette Sheets’ – an as yet unreleased track – that the singer really shone. Despite a lack of soft furnishings, and a bar too close to the stage, a hush descended over the room and lasted long enough for a disarming Louise to really showcase her unsullied vocals and impressive acoustic guitar skills. By ‘1000 Sundowns’ – the last track of the night, for which a capable band left her to her own devices – Louise’s prospects of greater success were put beyond doubt. Bar a half-hearted call for an encore, which by that point was unnecessary evidence of her talent, the entire set felt solid and perfected in a way that belied the artist’s years.

David Seidler

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EMMA LOUISE

20:07:12 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford St, Darlinghurst 9332 3711

We may be in the clutches of a merciless winter, but Sydney kids don’t seem deterred from getting sound-bites away from rain-slicked pavements.

One particular audio-hearth is local indie institution GoodGod Small Club, which boasted a bevy of electro-acoustic artists last Saturday night, the first to hit the stage being Tim Fitz. Having seen the local multi-instrumentalist play a few times last year, it was interesting to watch his new-found foray into bluesy grooves coupled with bustle-and-banjo folk. He still retains his Medusa-like wield on the synth, sample pads and guitar pedals, but forewent the live drumkit this time around.

His signature drop-down middle eights are stark and soulful, providing a platform for his guttural vocal quirks and displaying his oft-enshrouded vocal range.

One of the best features of Tokyo Denmark Sweden’s set was the vocal acrobatics of lead singer Amy Pes, who marshalled the floor-filler synth/pop outfit. The two other bandmembers pottered around in the rhythmic and soundscape engine room, while Amy stated her presence with a command that calls to mind something

OF MONSTERS AND MEN Oxford Art Factory Sunday July 22 It’s a Sunday night somewhere in the real world – the weekend is over, a full new work week is just around the corner – but hiding underground in the full-to-capacity Oxford Art Factory, it’s easy to forget that. Out of context, Of Monsters And Men sounds like the title of a fairytale, and that’s exactly the experience this Icelandic six-piece deliver.

The audience is spellbound from the beginning. Of Monsters And Men are storytellers, an art perfectly paired with the whimsy of their folk-pop tunes. In the lead-in to ‘From Finner’, Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, one of the lead singers, tells us they’re playing it because they’re far from home and they’re so happy (these form part of the lyrics) – and because it’s a song about travelling on a whale. “We came on a plane,” she explains, “which is kind of similar.”

The band seem perfectly at ease on a stage that’s almost too small for them all to fit, and they’re in an infectiously good mood. They’re so serenely cheerful, beaming from the stage, that everyone on the dancefloor is grinning as they

With the talk of Britannia still smouldering, Pluto Jonze announced himself with bombastic, infectious Brit-pop – and suddenly I felt like I’d been hurled back into the early ‘90s, watching Blur at the dizzying apex of their Parklife fame.

This Sydney-based artist has the panache of Beck and the curled upper lip of Mika, with a sense of harmonics that sticks more closely to you than the Sol-smeared floor of GoodGod. His music is as hook-laden as it comes, with raiseyour-baton lyrics ('Let your love goooo...') and anthemic tag lines. Notably, Jonze’s drummer had charging chops, and even though he performed with session players their set was cohesive, immediate, and ultimately won favour with the capricious sound system. I may not have previously known a single lyric to any of his songs, but by the end of his set I found myself toe-shuffling back out onto a near-glacial George Street.

albare itd It’s called: Albare iTD It sounds like: A mélange of diverse melodies and rhythms – African, Middle Eastern and Southern European influences fuse with heritage US jazz to create a sound that is simultaneously modern and nostalgic.

Who’s playing? Albare iTD feat. Hendrik Meurkens Sell it to us: Having just come off the back of Australian and European tours, jazz guitarist Albare and his International Travel Diary band are set to play a string of shows this August. To kick them off, Albert iTD will be performing an intimate set at 505. The show will include a special appearance by German harmonica maestro Hendrik Meurkens, who also appeared on Albare’s recent album Long Way, which was released on esteemed German jazz label Enja.

The bit we’ll remember in the AM: The sensation of teetering on the edge of chaos as this ensemble of jazz greats feed off each other’s energy.

Crowd specs: Intimate.

Wallet damage: $35/$25 concession Where: Venue 505 / 280 Cleveland St, Surry Hills When: Friday August 3

Elizabeth Kennard

bop away. There seems to be a part of every song that is perfect for audience participation, from shouting out ‘Hey!’ to clapping and stamping along, and band-members take the time to teach us choruses and draw us in at every opportunity.

An early highlight of the night is ‘Little Talks’, a joyous ruckus that sees Nanna’s voice complemented perfectly with Raggi Þórhallsson’s, the male lead. I don’t think I’ve ever loved the accordion so much, or the trumpet solo. And while not all their songs are happy-clappers, there are hopeful notes even in the saddest of their tales. The bittersweet ‘Love Love Love’, pared back instrumentally and sung in a heartbreaking tone, is somehow more sweet than bitter when performed live. These quieter moments are interspersed throughout the show, giving us an opportunity to stop for a second, and more thoroughly enjoy the next opportunity to dance.

They close with their beautifully-paced ‘Six Weeks’, and we’re left to stumble back upstairs into the cold reality that is midnight on a Sunday, our little adventure over.

Romi Scodellaro

new brutalists

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GoodGod Small Club Saturday July 21

between Goldfrapp and PJ Harvey if you could imagine them talking Britannia and Brian Ferry over a cheeky cider.

Maybe it was the way each band-member was facing out from each other, but the trio lacked any obvious chemistry – still, their choice samples of chime-synths and deft segues made for a highly polished set.

party profile

PLUTO JONZE, TOKYO DENMARK SWEDEN, TIM FITZ

19:07:12 :: The Standard:: Level 3/383 Bourke St Surry Hills 9331 3100 :: NOHMON ANWARYAR :: ANNA S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER LEY MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS :: THOMAS PEACHY :: PEDRO ASH BROWN :: KATRINA CLARKE :: XAVIER ::

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rainbow chan

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cameras

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up all night out all week . . .

19:07:12 :: FBi Social :: Kings Cross Hotel 248 William St 9331 9900

call the cops

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21:07:12 :: FBi Social :: Kings Cross Hotel 248 William St 9331 9900

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20:07:12 :: Factory Theatre ::105 Victoria Rd Enmore 9550 3666

20:07:12 :: The World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 9357 7700

au review's 4th b'day It sounds like: Magical Mystery Tour.

Who’s playing? 20-plus musicians will be recreating the classic Beatles record, including members of Deep Sea Arcade, Regular John, City Riots (Adelaide), Cameras, Guineafowl, Winter People, Chance Waters, Lime Cordiale, Milan, Anthony Hughes, Kristian Jackson, Fanny Lumsden and more!

Sell it to us: Free entry, cheap drinks, and well known Australian artists recreating The Magical Mystery Tour in full… need we say more? Oh, and there’ll be some surprise acts and DJs playing too.

The bit we’ll remember in the AM: We hope the music, and the surprises we have in store! Given this is a one-off event, it could either go incredibly well, or be a total disaster. There’ll be only one way to find out…

Crowd specs: Fans of local music, super fun sexy good times, and The Beatles.

fait accompli

Wallet damage: FREE!

20:07:12 :: Annandale Hotel :: 17 Paramatta Rd Annandale 9550 1078

Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Friday August 3, from 8pm

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party profile

It’s called: The AU Review’s 4th Birthday Party

:: NOHMON ANWARYAR :: ANNA S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER LEY MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS :: THOMAS PEACHY :: PEDRO ASH BROWN :: KATRINA CLARKE :: XAVIER ::

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Remedy

More Than The Cure Since 1989 with Murray Engleheart

HIGH ON…

We’ve seen some amazingly indelible images in our time, but one of our greatest ever metal visions was High On Fire’s Matt Pike at Soundwave: shirtless with long greasy hair, primitive prison-type tattoos, bad teeth, a beer gut and major butt crack, he looked like an individual who had truly suffered for his doomy art. Sadly, the great man has now entered rehab for treatment of a booze problem, and the band has put their plans on indefinite hold.

Funnily enough, it was only last week that we saw a pic of Pike and Al Cisneros from Sleep that was dated 1990, when both were just kids in leather jackets and t-shirts (and in the case of Pike, a baseball cap). And it was seemingly shot in suburbia, not hell. They looked like virtual metal babes-in-the-wood. Who knew then that they were set to freak-the-fuck-out their future record company and carve a legend for themselves with the metal epic, Dopesmoker.

RES EATEST PLEASU O OF LIFE’S GR MARRYING TW

ND MUSIC GREAT FOOD A Y

Calling ts all artisand e iv L r fo Locals!

Contact: es. ott events@liz com.au

YDNE LIZOTTE’SReS ” staurant in Sydney

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THE OUTLAWS

Of all the Southern rock bands, one of the very best has long been the most ignored historically. We speaketh of The Outlaws, who made a string of classic mid-‘70s records that featured killer songs with fourpart harmonies and no less than three lead guitarists. In September they’re set to release their first effort in almost twenty years, called It’s About Pride. They’ll be hitting the high seas in October as part of a US rock cruise, with Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Doobie Brothers (who hopefully will be fronted by the gravel-throated Tom Johnston rather than that schmaltzy McDonald guy).

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NU GUNNERS

COAST L A R T N E C ’S E T LIZOT

Some hate, it seems, is selective – much like deafness. Last week at a Gunners show in France, former Gunner Izzy Stradlin walked on stage with Axl Rose and the (nu) Guns N' Roses for the second time this year. But rather than just helping out on an encore of ‘Paradise City’, The Iz hung around for almost a dozen GN'R classics and select covers.

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Did you think that the Dig It Up! festival was the greatest rock’n’roll extravaganza you’d ever seen in your entire life and wanted to witness it all again? Or are you sick to damn death of hearing how great it was coz you couldn’t make it? Salvation is at hand, baby: Moshcam was there to film all the rock action, which means you can watch blistering sets from The Hoodoo Gurus, Died Pretty, Redd Kross, The Sonics, Tek And Younger, Kids In Dust (aka Sunnyboys), The Fleshtones and The Hard-Ons, just by going to moshcam. com/digitup. There’s eight whole hours of it.

So Dig It Up – or die trying.

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Former Dead Kennedy Jello Biafra’s project Guantanamo School Of Medicine should have a typically scathing new album out by the end of the year, titled White People And The Damage Done. The outfit this time around includes former Rollins Band bass beast Andrew Weiss and drummer Paul Della Pelle, who did time in the mighty Helios Creed among many others.

GUNNERS FOR BUBS

You really know you’ve crossed over and been accepted (not in a good way) when your songs are packaged for kids – but having your treasured anthems and hard-earned bad reputation packaged up as lullabies is a whole other six-pack entirely. But that’s exactly where Guns N’ Roses now find themselves. We saw a CD the other day of GN’R songs redone as soothing sounds for bubs, complete with cover art that mimicked Appetite For Destruction. What a world, eh? What next?

A Slayer CD for elevator musak? Sunn 0)))) as background music for that next dentist visit?

RED FANG FILM

Bringers of very big rock, Red Fang, are releasing a movie of their exploits on their first headlining tour of Europe. We can think of far worse ways to spend our viewing time.

We were just about to dust off our copy of The Cro Mag’s Age Of Quarrel the other week when news broke about founding member and general hellraiser Harley Flanagan stabbing two presentday members. Witnesses? Only an entire audience, apparently. It happened during a gig – timing really is everything, isn’t it? Anyways, following on from the creed of former Sex Pistols’ manager, the late Malcolm McLaren, that “any publicity is good publicity”, it all might work out for the intentions of the Southern Lord label, who have put Flanagan on their books for a number of coming releases. Or at least, they had...

On the Remedy turntable is Deer Tick’s Divine Providence, which has pissed off some folks; it’s quite a departure from their usual stuff, and instead swan dives with varying degrees of mad bug-eyed and boozed-fuelled grace into a realm that’s kinda like Angry Anderson guesting on the Exile On Main Street sessions. We love it, of course. Anyone that even momentarily can turn their collective hand to something as authentically rawk as this can fall over and sleep on our floor any day they want.

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TOUR AND INDUSTRY NEWS

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ON THE TURNTABLE

TLE S A C W E N ’S E T T LIZO Australia” ent Restaurant in

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Ridiculously prolific UK metal author Joel McIver, who has pumped out good solid reads on everyone from Tool and Slayer to Sabbath and Metallica, is at it again.

This time, it’s a tome on Machine Head titled Inside The Machine. It’ll be out in October and has a foreword by the band’s former striker, Chris Kontos. The publicity rave reads: “A unique insight into their rollercoaster story, which includes alcohol addiction, inter-band brawls and therapy, sackings, near-splits and two decades of the heaviest music known to man, delivered all over the world.” Alright!

AGE OF QUARREL

DIG IT UP!

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INSIDE THE MACHINE

On ‎August 3 there’s a big night at The Square with The Woollen Kits launching their new seven-inch on Trouble In Mind Records, along with a long-awaited gig by Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys. Also on the bill are Adelaide trio Terrible Truths, who are

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launching their own new seven-inch, as well as newcomers Drum Drum, featuring David of Dead Farmers.

Kill City Creeps, The Peep Tempel and The Harlots at The Vanguard on August 11.

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Lizotte’s Central Coast Lot 3 Avoca Dr Kincumber

Lizotte’s Newcastle 31 Morehead St Lambton

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Lizotte’s Sydney 629 Pittwater Rd Dee Why

Kill City Creeps

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

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The Smashing Pumpkins

TUESDAY JULY 31

Sydney Entertainment Centre, Darling Harbour

The Smashing Pumpkins (USA), Wolfmother $89.50 (+ bf) 8pm

JAZZ

Jo Fabro 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 (conc)–$15 8.30pm Peter Head Harbourview Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

MONDAY JULY 30

TUESDAY JULY 31

ROCK & POP

ROCK & POP

Bernie The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Broadway Unplugged The Vanguard, Newtown free 8pm Miike Snow (SWE) Metro Theatre, Sydney sold out 8pm Monday Jam Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Unherd Open Mic Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm

JAZZ

David Braid (CAN), Simon Barker 505 Club, Surry Hills $15 (conc)–$20 8.30pm Ian Blakeney Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm Monday Jam: Danny G Felix The Lansdowne, Broadway free 9pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

Cat Vas Opera Bar, Sydney Opera House free 8.30pm Russell Neal, Two Screws Loose, Massimo Presti, Chris Brookes Kellys on King, Newtown free 7pm

Adam Pringle and Friends Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Bondi Jam Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm The Dancers Company Riverside Theatres, Parramatta $56 7.30pm allages Electric Guest (USA), YesYou Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $38.50 (+ bf) 8pm JP Trio Scruffy Murphy’s, Sydney free 10pm Mandi Jarry Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 8.30pm Red Letter Day and West Tigers Present Homeground Heroes Grand Final Valve Bar, Tempe 7pm The Smashing Pumpkins (USA), Wolfmother Sydney Entertainment Centre, Darling Harbour $89.50 (+ bf) 8pm Songwriters Association Open Mic Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt free 7pm Steve Tonge The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm

JAZZ

Jazzgroove: Mango Balloon, Song Fwaa 505 Club, Surry Hills $8 (conc)–$15 8.30pm Kristy Garrett Dee Why RSL Club free

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

Andrew Denniston, Moorea Vittiglio, Humbug Harbourview Hotel, The Rocks free 7pm Her & Him Opera Bar, Sydney Opera House free 8.30pm Russell Neal, Paul McGowen Taverners Hill Hotel, Leichhardt free 7pm The Songwriter Sessions Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 7.30pm

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 1 ROCK & POP

Andy Mammers Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9pm Blake Pardey, The Broken Hands, Tim Ireland, Damien Lane The Valve, Tempe 7pm Bryce Cohen, Charlie Gradon, Ellie Horan, Ally Gaven Brass Monkey, Cronulla $14.30 7pm Cambo The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm

Andrew Denniston Royal Hotel, Springwood free 8pm Blake Pardey, Broken Hands, Tim Ireland, Damien Lane Valve Bar, Tempe 7pm Greg Sita Cookies Lounge and Bar, North Strathfield free 6.30pm Helmut Uhlmann UTS Loft, Ultimo free 6pm Russell Neal Cat and Fiddle Hotel, Balmain free 6.30pm TAOS, John Chesher, Gavin Fitzgerald Coach & Horse Hotel, Randwick free 7pm Thom & Jocelyn Opera Bar, Sydney Opera House free 8.30pm

Of Integrity, Grim Demise, Exekute The Valve, Tempe 7pm Djanjo Django (UK), The Cast of Cheers (IRE) Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $46.20 (+ bf) 8pm Down To Earth – Emerging Artist Showcase: Burn Antares, Callithump The Basement, Circular Quay $10 8pm Glenn Shorrock, Sam Stephenson Brass Monkey, Cronulla $40.80 7pm Hot Damn!: Behind Crimson Eyes Spectrum, Darlinghurst 8pm Hue Williams Jack’s Bar and Grill, Greenacre free 7pm The Human Wrongs, Jac Yvonee, SNM, Treetop Kings Annandale Hotel $10 8pm Katrina Burgoyne Dee Why Hotel 7pm Kirk Burgess Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Sydney 7pm free Little Bastard, Jordan Leser, Andy Gollege Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm LJ Fringe Bar, Paddington free 7pm Matt Jones Band Bull & Bush, Baulkham Hills 8.45pm Michael McGlynn Greengate Hotel 8pm Mojo Juju, Bones Jones & The Skeletons, Blackbear The Vanguard, Newtown $18.80–$53.80 (dinner & show) 8pm Musos Club Jam Night Carousel Hotel, Rooty Hill free 8pm Rapids, The Mountains, Phebe Starr GoodGod Small Club, Sydney $10 (+ bf) 8pm Sam and Jamie Trio Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney 9.30pm Steve Tonge Observer Hotel, The Rocks 8.30pm Tony Williams Pioneer Tavern, Penrith 12pm

JAZZ

Andrew Gander Quartet 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 (conc)–$15 8.30pm Kristy Garrett Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm Peter Head Harbourview Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm Phil Stack Trio The Spice Cellar, Sydney free 9pm Spyglass Gypsies, The Irwell Street String Band

ACOUSTIC & FOLK Andrew Denniston, Daniel Coates, Rock The House The El-Rocco Room, Kings Cross free 7.30pm Big Ben The Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 8.30pm Darren Bennet, Black Diamond Corrimal Hotel free 3pm Nick Kingswell Opera Bar, Sydney Opera House free 8.30pm TAOS Kogarah Hotel free 7pm Under the Purple Tree Horse & Jockey Hotel, Homebush free 7.30pm

FRIDAY AUGUST 3 ROCK & POP

Adam Martin Metro Theatre, Sydney 8pm all-ages A-Live Customs House Bar free 7pm Andy Mammers Cronulla RSL 7.30pm The AU Review’s 4th Birthday Celebrations – Magical Mystery Tour Tribute Night: Deep Sea Arcade, Regular John, City Riots, Guineafowl, Winter People, Cameras, Lime Cordiale The Oxford Art Factory, Sydney free 8pm Australian Nickelback Show Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills free 10pm Bonniwells, Gooch Palms, Ausmuteans GoodGod Small Club, Sydney $12 7.30pm Boukabous, Gliterus The Old Manly Boatshed, Manly 8.30pm Brew The Sound – Round Two: Breakaway, Monks Of Mellonwah, The Initiation, Tree Top Kings, Sampy The Cool Room, The Australian Brewery, Rouse Hill $10 8pm CJ Wilson Chatswood RSL free 5pm Cover Notes Duo Vineyard Hotel free 9.30pm David Agius Duo Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill 8pm Drag Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $60 8pm Dragon The Basement, Circular Quay $30 (+ bf)–$84.80 (dinner & show) 8pm

THURSDAY AUGUST 2 ROCK & POP

Andy Mammers Harbord Beach Hotel 8pm Beautful Music: Sophie Koh, Bity Booker, Amy Rose, Ktwhyte FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst $12 8pm C-Major Lil Darlin, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm Dan Spillane Northies-Cronulla Hotel 9.15pm Dave White Duo The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9pm Deus Ex Machina, State

“We’re through being cool. Eliminate the ninnies and the twits” - DEVO 38 :: BRAG :: 473 : 30:07:12

Camelot Lounge, Marrickville $20 7pm

Sophie Koh

Xxx

pick of the week

The Chill The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm Closure In Moscow, Self Is A Seed, Bang Bang Rock ‘n Roll Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Djanjo Django (UK), The Cast of Cheers (IRE) Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst sold out 8pm Ed Sheeran (UK) Enmore Theatre sold out 8pm Jagermeister Presents Annandale Hotel $8 7.30pm Josh McIvor Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 6pm JP Northies, Cronulla free 7.30pm Mojo Juju, Bones Jones & The Skeletons, Blackbear The Vanguard, Newtown $18.80–$53.80 (dinner & show) 8pm Musos Jam Night Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt free 8pm Open Mic Night Hawkesbury Hotel, Windsor free 8pm Paul Haywards Live Punk Rock Karaoke Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Roland K Smith & The Sinners, Chuck’s Wagon, Tombstone Ramblers Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10 8pm Steve Tonge Duo O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm Terry Halliday Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm

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

Elizabeth Rose Dynamic Duo Engadine RSL & Citizens Club free 8pm Fallon Bros, Dan Lawrence Observer Hotel, The Rocks 8.30pm Freshmix Fringe Bar, Paddington free 8pm Gay Paris, Super Best Friends, Glitter Canyon, The Pieter Van Den Hoogen Band The Vanguard, Newtown $18.80 8pm Glenn Shorrock Brass Monkey, Cronulla $40.80 7pm Handsome Young Strangers, Urban Guerillas, Subtle Vagrants Town Hall Hotel, Newtown free 9pm Harry Howard And The NDE, The Holy Soul The Red Rattler Theatre, Marrickville 8pm Holland, I Am Apollo, Amy Cashaway FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst $10 8pm Ignition, Harlequin Duo Crows Nest Hotel 6.30pm Jamm for Genes: Darren Percival, The Falls, Thandiwe Phoenix Opera Bar, Sydney Opera House free 6pm Jive Bombers Windsor RSL, South Windsor free 8pm Keith Armitage Harbord Beach Hotel, Harbord 8pm Kirk Burgess Tahmoor Inn free 7.30pm Kurt Williams Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool free 4.30pm The Leisure Bandits, Made In Japan, Declan Kelly, Kristy Lee Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills free 6pm Martyr Privates, Sewars, The Nugs, Ghastly Spats, Snotty Babies Blackwire Records, Annandale $10 7.30pm Michael & Lucus Kirribilli Hotel 8pm MUM: Sex in Columbia, Tourism, Yale, Train Robbers, Call to Colour, Small Cats, 10th Avenue, Cries Wolf DJs, Wet Lungs, DJ Boy, Sammy K, Swim Team, Wolfden DJs The World Bar, Kings Cross $10-$15 8pm Original Sin INXS Show Engadine Tavern free 9.30pm Pete Hunt Panthers, North Richmond free 8pm Rob Henry Castle Hill RSL 9.30pm Sam and Jamie Band, Heath Burdell Dee Why Hotel 7pm Steve Tonge Northies-Cronulla Hotel 9pm Superheavyweights Brass Monkey, Cronulla 8pm Ted Nash Figtree Hotel free 8.30pm Temtris, Dead Life, Jo Jo’s Smokin Mirrors, Lab 64 The Valve, Tempe 7pm Triangle Skies, Chico Seeds, Brown Esky, Another Door Opens Sydney Livehouse @ Lewisham Hotel $12 8pm Wildcatz The Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 10.30pm Woollen Kits, Bed Wettin’

Bad Boys, Terrible Truths, Drum Drum The Square, Haymarket $10 Zoltan Henry Lawson Club, Werrington Country 8.30pm

JAZZ

Albare iTD 505 Club, Surry Hills $30 (conc)–$45 8.30pm Gang Of Brothers Featuring The Martinez Brothers Blue Beat, Doulbe Bay $15 (+ bf) 7pm Marsala Camelot Lounge, Marrickville SOLD OUT 7.30pm The Tim Bruer Quartet The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale 8pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

Russell Neal, Black Diamond Bowral Hotel free 7.30pm

SATURDAY AUGUST 4 ROCK & POP

80s Rock Revival Bull & Bush, Baulkham Hills 9.30pm Adam Katz, Battleships, Tourism, F.R.I.E.N.D/s Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills free 6pm Andy Mammers Castle Hill RSL 9pm Ben Finn Trio Ettamogah Pub, Rouse Hill 6.30pm Black Diamond Hearts Golden Sheaf Hotel, Double Bay 9pm Bruce Mathiskes Zenith Theatre, Chatswood $39 (+ bf)–$45 7.30pm Celebration Mix Oatley Hotel free 8.30pm Classic Rock Show: Barry Lef Band Brass Monkey, Cronulla $34.70 7pm Cover Notes Duo Riverwood Inn free 8pm Dan Spillane Mean Fiddler Hotel, Rouse Hill 6pm Dirty Grotto, Incredible Kicks, The Deadsets, Prints The Valve, Tempe 12pm Drawing North, Sound Of Seasons, Far Away Stables, Arms Attraction The Lair, The Metro Theatre, Sydney $15 (+ bf) 4pm Electric Lounge, Phoebe Eve, Shady May, Oliver Goss James Squire Brewhouse, Sydney 8pm Glenn Whitehall Trio Frenge Bar, Paddington free 8pm The Good Ship, Doc Holliday Take The Shotgun, The Heavies GoodGod Small Club, Sydney $12 (+ bf) 7.30pm Grun, Missing Children, Bloods, The Faults, Excellent Robot Blackwire Records, Annandale $5 5pm all-ages Harbour Masters Engadine Tavern free 9.30pm Harm’s Way, Cold Youth, Legions, Phantoms The Valve, Tempe 7pm Heath Burdell, Renae Kearney Northies-Cronulla Hotel 5.30pm

Holland Old Manly Boatshed 8pm Hue Williams The Tea Gardens Hotel, Bondi Junction free 8.30pm I A Man Spectrum, Darlinghurst $10 8pm Jamie Lindsay Band Crows Nest Hotel 11.15pm Jive Bombers Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool free 8.30pm John Vella Hollywood Bar and Cafe, Hotys Broadway free 6pm Keyim Ba Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $29 8pm Laced In Lust, Sylvain, Vanity Riots, Angel Awake The Roxbury Hotel, Glebe $10 8pm Live Cover Bands Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 10.30pm Lovechild, Kang, Slaquer, Permanent Sydney Livehouse @ Lewisham Hotel $12 8pm Mal Eastick Band Empire Hotel, Annandale $15 (conc)–$20 8pm Mark Gardener (UK), Underground Lovers, Sky Parade (USA) The Factory Theatre, Enmore $62.50 (+ bf) 8pm Matt Jones Band Scruffy Murphys, Sydney 10.30pm MayDay (Taiwan) Sydney Entertainment, Centre, Darling Harbour $122.15 (+ bf) 8.15pm Michael Knight Kirribilli Hotel 9pm The Mike Whitney Band The Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 10.30pm Original Sin INXS Show Colyton Hotel free 9pm Rebecca Johnson Band Carousel Inn, Rooty Hill free 8.30pm Rufus, Elizabeth Rose, Movement The Standard, Darlinghurst $15 (+ bf) 8pm The Ruminators, The Chitticks, The Deadheads Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm SFX: Double Chamber, Elanora Heights, Beneath the Shore St James Hotel, Sydney $15$20 9pm Shady Lane, Fishing, Megastick Fanfare DJs Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst $10-$12 8pm Sharron Bowman Brewhouse, Marayong 8pm SixFtHick, Midget, Bruce, Bloody Kids Annandale Hotel $17 (+ bf) 7pm Skyscraper Stacks Tavern, Sydney free 5pm Sophie Joy Madison Hoyts, Moore Park free 5.45pm Sound Summit Sydney Program Launch: Woolen Kits, Rites Wild, Family, Rat King The Red Rattler, Marrickville $10-$12 8pm Soulfood a Cappella The Basement, Circular Quay $20 (+ bf)–$74.80 (dinner & show) 8pm Stormcellar Taverners Hill Hotel, Leichhardt 8.30pm The Sweet Apes, Ventures, London in Terror, Rose from Ruins, When Giants Sleep, Past is Practice Lucky Australian Tavern, St Marys $10 4pm Ted Nash Picton Hotel free 8.30pm Texture Like Sun, Phebe Starr, Beard With Guns FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $10 8pm Tim Barry Sandringham Hotel, Newtown 8pm

Tim Freedman The Vault, Windsor 8pm Time Machine Engadine RSL & Citizens Club free 8pm Yum Brighton RSL Club, BrightonLe-Sands free 8pm

JAZZ

Kafe Kool Supper Club, Fairfield RSL Club free 7pm Jackson Harrison Trio The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale 8pm Lily Dio and The Soul Contenders 505 Club, Surry Hills $15 (conc)–$20 8.30pm Monsieuer Camembert Camelot Lounge, Marrickville $30 7.30pm Peter Head Harbourview Hotel, the Rocks free 5pm Sambossa Blue Beat, Double Bay $10-$15 (+ bf) 7pm Yuki Kumagai, John Mackie Well Connected Cafe, Leichhardt free 7.30pm Yuki Kumagai, John Mackie, Paul Furniss, Tony Burkys, Bob Gillespie Penrith RSL Club free 2pm

SUNDAY AUGUST 5 ROCK & POP

50 Million Beers Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 4pm Ace Brighton RSL Club, BrightonLe-Sands free 7pm

The Big Mischeif, Mirrors In Iceland, Mystic River, One Day Soon, Kill Gill The Valve, Tempe 4pm Blues Sunday: Mark Hopper Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7.30pm Bri Cowlishaw, Georgie & Friends Commodore Hotel, North Sydney free 3pm Cambo, Rob Henry, Renae Kearney Observer Hotel, The Rocks 4pm David Agius Duo Ettamogah Pub, Rouse Hill 1pm Glenn Whitehall Bayview Tavern, Gladesville free 6pm Holland, I Am Apollo, Bec Sandridge Brass Monkey, Cronulla $12.25 7pm Jess Dunbar Mill Hill Hotel, Bondi Junction 3pm Jonny Gretsch’s Wasted Ones Botany View Hotel, Newtown free 7pm Kirk Burgess Waverly Bowling Club free 2pm Kurt Williams Fringe Bar, Paddington free 4pm LJ Northbridge Hotel free 4pm Mandi Jarry Harbord Beach Hotel, Harbord 6.30pm Masta Gravity, Mourning Chuck, With Confidence, Thrush, Transvestite Lucky Australian Tavern, St Marys $10 2pm Matt Jones Duo Paragon Hotel, Sydney 6pm Paddy Melon Trio Mean Fiddler Hotel, Rouse Hill 12pm

Satellite V Marrickville Bowling Club free 4.30pm Set Sail, Animaux, Kids & Cousins The Lair, Metro Theatre, Sydney $15 (+ bf) 4.30pm all-ages The Spread – Tasty Jams The Lansdowne, Broadway free 7pm Vibrations Band Comp The Valve, Tempe 1pm Zoltan, Dave White Duo Northies-Cronulla Hotel 2.30pm

JAZZ

The Lounge Bar Lotharios Boronia Park, Hunters Hill free 11am all-ages Marianna Cabaret Spectacular, My Sauce Good Camelot Lounge, Marrickville $20-$25 6.30pm Peter Head The Harbourview Hotel, The Rocks free 4pm

ACOUSTIC & FOLK

Bop Louis Duo Oatley Hotel free 2pm Catherine Summers Opera Bar, Sydney Opera House free 2pm Harmonate Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 3pm Hoola, Red Switches Rozelle Markets free 10.30am Kerrianne Cox The Red Rattler, Marrickville $10-$15 2pm Russell Neal, Bart Thrupp Salisbury Hotel, Stanmore free 2pm Shane MacKenzie Cohibar, Darling Harbour free 3pm

wed

01 Aug

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

thu

02 Aug

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

fri

03 Aug

(5:00PM - 8:00PM)

(9:30PM - 1:30AM)

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

sat

04 Aug

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

SATURDAY NIGHT

(9:00PM - 1:30AM)

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

sun

05 Aug

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

SUNDAY NIGHT

(8:30PM - 12:00AM)

BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12 :: 39

gig picks

up all night out all week...

Rufus

THURSDAY AUGUST 2

Megastick Fanfare

Beautful Music: Sophie Koh, Bity Booker, Amy Rose, Ktwhyte FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst $12 8pm Djanjo Django (UK), The Cast of Cheers (IRE) Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst sold out 8pm Rapids, The Mountains, Phebe Starr GoodGod Small Club, Sydney $10 (+ bf) 8pm

FRIDAY AUGUST 3 Phebe Starr

MONDAY JULY 30 Miike Snow (SWE) Metro Theatre, Sydney sold out 8pm

TUESDAY JULY 31 Electric Guest (USA), YesYou Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $38.50 (+ bf) 8pm

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 1 Mojo Juju, Bones Jones & The Skeletons, Blackbear The Vanguard, Newtown $18.80– $53.80 (dinner & show) 8pm

40 :: BRAG :: 473 : 30:07:12

Albare iTD (+ Hendrik Meurkens) 505 Club, Surry Hills $30 (conc)–$45 8.30pm The AU Review’s 4th Birthday Celebrations – Magical Mystery Tour Night: with members of Deep Sea Arcade, Regular John, City Riots, Guineafowl, Winter People, Cameras, Lime Cordiale The Oxford Art Factory, Sydney free 8pm MUM: Sex In Columbia, Tourism, Yale, Train Robbers, Call to Colour, Small Cats, 10th Avenue, Cries Wolf DJs, Wet Lungs, DJ Boy, Sammy K, Swim Team, Wolfden DJs The World Bar, Kings Cross $10$15 8pm Woollen Kits, Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys, Terrible Truths, Drum Drum The Square, Haymarket $10 8pm

SATURDAY AUGUST 4

Rufus, Elizabeth Rose, Movement The Standard, Darlinghurst $15 (+ bf) 8pm

The Good Ship, Doc Holliday Takes The Shotgun, The Heavies GoodGod Small Club, Sydney $12 (+ bf) 7.30pm

Shady Lane, Fishing, Megastick Fanfare DJs Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst $10-$12 8pm

Grun, Missing Children, Bloods, The Faults, Excellent Robot Blackwire Records, Annandale $5 5pm all-ages

Sound Summit Sydney Program Launch: Woollen Kits, Rites Wild, Family, Rat King The Red Rattler, Marrickville $10-$12 8pm

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

five things WITH

MIKE MONDAY a more “old school” vibe creeping into lots of the deeper stuff, which I’m keen to explore as well.

Especially at the warehouse!

Your Crew Well I guess you could say that I’ve found 3. my new home with the S.A.S.H boys. My wife got a guy to mow our lawns off a tip from a friend, and it turned out to be a guy I shared a cab with from an awesome S.A.S.H party. I took that as a sign and, along with the itch that was developing to get back into it, I gave Kerry from S.A.S.H a call – and here we are.

The Music You Make I took 12 months off, and not having the 4. pressure of making my own productions has meant that I can completely focus on what I want to play. While I’m not making so much music lately, I’ve been keen to help others by sharing my knowledge of the creative process through my business: mikemonday.com

Nicki Minaj photo by Matt Irwin

Music, Right Here, Right Now It seems like Sydney is getting onto a good 5. thing. There are a bunch of great parties and

Growing Up I started learning the piano when I was 7, 1. and I’ve been a music producer for 18 years;

work out why this was, and if I could do anything to make the “on fire” days more frequent.

my life has been pretty much defined by music.

As I’ve spent most days either creating or performing, I got more and more interested (and eventually a little obsessed) with the creative process; why I’d be on fire some days, and others I’d feel stuck. So I started on a quest to

Inspirations I’ve got a very clear idea of what is a “me” tune and what isn’t. It’s great - there’s a lot out there that I’m feeling. Pretty much everything on Crosstown Rebels, and I love the new Lauhaus and Kabale und Liebe stuff. But I’ve also noticed

LIL’ JON BRINGS THE CRUNK PARTY TIMES

Get ready to skeet skeet skeet, everyone – Lil’ Jon is coming back! Hard to believe, but it’s been more than a decade since the self-styled King Of Crunk came bursting into the public

2.

consciousness, with diamond grills blazing and his group The East Side Boyz in tow. He made his name with singles like ‘Salt Shaker’ and the Usher collaboration ‘Yeah!’, and released five albums with The East Side Boyz, the last of these being 2004’s Crunk Juice. Since then, he’s cranked out one solo album, 2010’s Crunk Rock

partymakers out there to give credit to – The S.A.S.H crew, Picnic, Boom Boom, Spice Cellar, Paul Strange… They all deserve the love and attention they’re getting for pushing the sound in the right direction.

With: Gabby, Co-Op, Carlos Zarate Where: S.A.S.H. Secret Warehouse Party When: Friday August 3 More: Book your ticket on Resident Advisor, where an address of the ticket collection point will be posted the day of the party.

– which, via an interlude, actually answered the question ‘What Is Crunk Rock?’ – and a collaboration with LMFAO, ‘Drink’, the video of which kinda has to be seen to be believed.

The rapper and his party crew will appear at Marquee, The Star on Friday August 3.

Nicki Minaj

NICKI RETURNS

Whether she’s spitting rhymes about pooping on her competitors (‘Did It On Em’), wilfully misconstruing what the concept of a honey trap is all about (‘Beez In The Trap’), rapping in character as a flamboyant British homosexual (‘Roman Holiday’), or knocking out club tracks with David Guetta (I don’t know, pick one), Nicki Minaj makes the RnB landscape an infinitely more surreal and colourful place. The rapper and singer was in Australia only recently, but if you just can’t get enough of her motormouthed, pink-haired antics, you’re in luck – she has just announced a return this coming October with special guest Tyga. The Pink Friday: Reloaded tour promises to be bigger, tackier and way more epic than her last – amendments reportedly include a bigger set, bigger stage, more dancers, and a storyline presented with the aid of video content. In other words, it’s Katy Perry’s California Dreams tour but with fewer cupcakes and more pooping on competitors.

Allphones Arena on Friday October 5. Sign me up.

PUNKS JUMP UP Scissor Sisters

Electro pop upstarts Punks Jump Up first made a splash in 2004, when their debut single ‘Be You’, featuring The Beepettes, found its way into the crates of discerning DJs like James Murphy and Erol Alkan. Since then, they’ve only released original tracks sparingly, with ‘Dance To Our Disco’ and ‘Blockhead’ coming out a few years apart on the boutique Kitsuné label, and ‘Overtime’, a collaboration with Chromeo’s Dave1, arriving several months back on the Moda Music label. The duo have done considerably more remix work in the past couple of years, with a resume that includes Crystal Castles, Robyn, Gossip, Miike Snow, Digitalism, Ladyhawke and Miami Horror. They’ll be bringing their infectious disco sounds to Sydney in the coming months, playing a set at the ivy pool on Sunday October 7.

FUTURE CLASSIC DJS MAKE IT EPIC

SCISSOR SISTERS COME BACK TO OZ

My last experience with Scissor Sisters was at Splendour In The Grass a couple of years back, when singer Ana Mantronic stopped the show to deliver an entertaining and educational talk on the hows and wherefores of inserting amphetamines in your various orifices. “Shelving and shafting”, I believe she called it. Anyway, that was just one small part of a very entertaining live show, the kind of experience that will hopefully be repeated when the band tour Australia again later this year. The flamboyant electro pop act are touring off the back of their newest album, Magic Hour – the record came frontloaded with pop hooks and beats from the likes of Diplo and Calvin Harris, so the new songs oughta make for banging additions to their already pretty banging live show. The band play at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall on Thursday September 27.

These days, lots of things are referred to as ‘epic’ that are actually kind of disappointing.

When Future Classic DJs promise something epic, however, I’m kind of inclined to take them at their word – if anyone knows what they’re doing, it’s these guys. Next Friday August 10, they will be taking over GoodGod Small Club for what they’re billing as an epic long set.

On the night, they’ll be playing and testing the new tunes that their local and overseas friends have sent them, with the aim of pushing right on through til the morning. Friday August 10 is also the day Future Classic release a brandnew compilation, with specially-commissioned remixes and originals from the likes of Danny Daze, DJ T, Perseus, Soul Clap, Flume, Softwar, PharaoBlack Magic, Slow Hands, Tigerskin and Worst Friends! – so you can probably expect to hear a bit of that on the night as well. The evening’s warm-up set comes courtesy of Zé, and tickets are $10 on the door, or through the Future Classic website.

STEFFI TO SYDNEY

German-native Steffi is nothing if not a multitasker. She runs the Klakson label alongside Dutch producer Dexter, and together they have released vinyl from the likes of Fastgraph, Duplex, Seymor Bits, Putsch 79 and Mr. Cisco, and earned the support of heavyhitters like Laurent Garnier, DJ Hell, Andrew Weatherall and the unique Miss Kittin. She also works as a party promoter, touring artists like ADULT. and Two Lone Swordsmen, and launching nights like Elechicks and Lomotion in Amsterdam. And you know what else?

She’s a pretty killer DJ, spinning everything from old-school Detroit techno to house and electro disco in residencies taking in spots like Paradiso and Panorama Bar. If you haven’t actually been to Amsterdam or Berlin recently, then don’t fret – Steffi will be in Australia next month, playing a set at GoodGod Small Club on Saturday September 1, presented by 4our Events.

I:CUBE AT ADULT DISCO

Having been a part of the scene since the mid ‘90s, I:Cube is a true French house original.

The producer, otherwise known as Nicholas Chaix, came to prominence amid the first wave of French house artists in 1996, with his remix of Daft Punk’s ‘Around The World’. Daft Punk later returned the favour by remixing I:Cube’s track ‘Disco Cubizm’, thus making the circle complete. He has gone on to release five albums since then, the latest of which, entitled ‘M’ Megamix, arrived earlier this year – a curious beast, it was part studio record and part live album, featuring fragments of two dozen or so new tracks sequenced together in the form of a DJ set. See I:Cube in action when he plays at Adult Disco, Civic Underground, on Saturday September 1 – but don’t type his name into your browser bar or some weird shit will happen.

BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12 :: 41

dance music news

free stuff

club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Alasdair Duncan

FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM FREESTUFF@ @TH THEBRAG.COM HEBRAG.COM

five things WITH

Beatles records and getting into some jazz with my dad. I learned drums for a bit in late high school, around the time I started to get serious about dance music – I remember taking Reprazent’s ‘Brown Paper Bag’ to my drum teacher and asking how to play it! I think that obession with rhythms and patterns has stayed with me since.

Inspirations I have so many – I really try and 2. listen to as much stuff as possible...

The new Frank Ocean LP is pretty incredible. Formative artists for me as a DJ were and are Underworld – who I first saw at the 1999 Big Day Out – and artists like Matthew Herbert, Rhythm & Sound, Terre Thaemlitz, Radiohead, Arthur Russell, Benjamin Brunn & Move D, Grace Jones and many, many more.

Your Crew I was lucky enough to be part 3. of HAHA’s monthly parties at the Abercombie from back in 2006. The boys let me grow and develop, and it was a really formative time for me personally – and the Sydney scene as well. Some of my most treasured moments are with HAHA, and I still work with them. I’ve also been known

The Circoloco parties began at Ibiza’s DC10 nightclub in the late ‘90s, and quickly attracted the likes of Danny Tenaglia, Sasha, Steve Lawler and Pete Tong, all of whom played there for free. The brand has gone on to become a huge touring concern, with residencies in cities all over the world – and thanks to the folk at Finely Tuned, it’s set to return to Australia. At the top of the bill is Maceo Plex, whose tracks ‘Under The Sheets’ and ‘Stay High For Me Baby’ have proven durable floor fillers in recent times.

Also appearing is Matthias Tanzmann, the German DJ maestro who recently teamed up with Fabric to mix their Fabric 65 compilation, and Margaret Dygas, who is known for her marathon sets at Berlin’s Panorama Bar. The Circoloco Halloween party goes down on Saturday November 3 at The Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney. Get your ticket now.

OLIVER$

MAGDA BYTNEROWICZ Growing Up Growing up wasn’t very musical 1. at all, actually, except for my parents’

CIRCOLOCO HALLOWEEN

Oliver$

to play records for the likes of Picnic, CO-OP, BOOM BOOM, Loosekaboose, Shrug and Future Classic, as well as putting on the odd shindig myself.

The Music You Make I like to play a whole range of stuff that 4. can loosely be called house and techno – as long as it’s warm and interesting, and has a certain groove. For the Brawther support with Dean Dixon, I daresay we’ll be narrowing our focus towards the more analogue house music end of the spectrum; a bit of old and a bit of new, and few little surprises as well, no doubt.

Music, Right Here, Right Now I think the underground electronic music scene in Sydney is actually the healthiest it’s been in at least four years. There are so many dedicated crews putting on wonderful parties because they love the music, and punters have responded in droves. It’s really exciting!

Sven Weisemann’s set in Melbourne last weekend for Out Of Focus was hands down some of the most exciting DJing I’ve seen in a while; so musical and dynamic, with lots of technical ability that pumped the whole gig up several notches.

5.

Who: Dean Dixon vs Magda With: Brawther (FR), Simon Caldwell, Kali Where: One22 / 122 Pitt Street, Sydney When: Saturday August 4

Best known for his mash-up of the infamous ‘I Need A Dollar’, Berlin-born Oliver$ has been letting loose some monumental tracks since his 2009 releases ‘Whatcha Gonna Do’ and ‘You Got It’, working with labels like Made To Play, Grand Petrol and Front Room Recordings. The deep house producer soared to #1 on Beatport with his track ‘Do Ya Thang’, which glued itself to the top spot for over five weeks, but he’s equally known for his live DJ offerings, which you’ll be experiencing firsthand if you make it to Chinese Laundry on Saturday August 4. We have two double passes to give away; if you want one, tell us at which famous Berlin bar he has a bi-monthly residency.

HOME BREW CREW

Home Brew may be a bunch of ratbags on the surface, but their dedication to creating a new brand of soul-induced hip hop has crafted them a clear slot in the underground New Zealand hip hop scene. They’ve been jet-setting across continents on the back of their first self-titled double album, which debuted at #1 on the NZ Top 40 Album Charts (the first hip hop album to do so since Scribe’s 2003 LP, The Crusader). Known for their ‘advocated drug dependencies’ and general rascalesque behaviour, one can’t dismiss their constant work ethic and ability to create rad tunes – check out ‘Good God’ featuring Tyna Keelan and the delectable Holly Smith. The boys will be hitting up The Factory Theatre on Saturday August 11, and we’ve got two double passes to give up.

If you want one, let us know the name of another track from their record.

BLOTTER LABEL SHOWCASE AT THE SPICE CELLAR Having launched only last year, the Australian Blotter label are still new kids on the block, but they already have some strong releases behind them, gaining support from artists like Damian Lazarus, Brodinski and Claude VonStroke.

Founder and curator Sir Jonathan describes the label’s mission to support young creative people with something to say, highlighting innovation not just in music, but on all ends of the artistic spectrum. The crew from Blotter will throw a showcase party at The Spice Cellar on Friday August 10, which doubles as a launch party for the brand new FRAMES single, ‘Master Of Time’ – a collaboration between FRAMES and Chicago’s own J-Dub, who is best known for his releases with DFA and Drop Music as well as for fronting the Greenskeepers. Support on the night comes from Sir Jonathan himself, as well as Moonbase Commander.

Brawther

BRAWTHER’S AUSTRALIAN DEBUT

Parisian native Brawther began making electronic music around a decade ago when, on a student trip to the UK, he became infatuated with the sound of Aphex Twin and began to explore the Warp Records catalogue. Now, at age 25, he already has an impressive resume, having released tracks on Chez Damier’s Balance Alliance label, and shared stages with the likes of Tevo Howard, Kyle Hall and Romanthony. You may well have come across Paris Underground Trax, whose debut EP caused quite a stir a few years back – well, that was Brawther as well, working under one of several aliases.

This month, Brawther makes his first ever trip to Australia, courtesy of the crew at Picnic. He’ll be appearing at One22 on Pitt Street, on Saturday August 4, with support from Simon Caldwell, Kali and Dean Dixon vs Magda.

DIAFRIX RETURN Seekae

SEEKAE ARE BACK

The lads from Seekae earned great acclaim last year with their sophomore release +Dome – with its layers of eccentric beats and obscure noises, it proved to be an underground favourite, and brought a good deal of attention from well outside their homeland. After extensive touring through Japan, Europe and the USA, the Sydney band cemented their reputation with a stand-out gig at Vivid LIVE earlier this year. This very publication has described their live show, variously, as sounding like “the human journey of an 8-bit boy”, full of “oozing, tweaking bleeps” and “playful electronic sounds”. Curious? Seekae will be taking a victory lap around the country this year, and you can catch them alongside tour mates Kangaroo Skull and Thomas Williams at The Basement on Friday September 7.

42 :: BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12

Three years on from their debut Concrete Jungle, the African-born, Melbourne-based hip hop duo Diafrix return with their second full-length album, Pocket Full Of Dreams.

Core members Momo and Azmarino are joined by an array of special guests, including 360, Dwele and Daniel Merriweather, as well as one or two other surprises who are yet to be announced. The previously-released singles ‘Simple Man’ and ‘Running It’ have already scored a lot of play on triple j, while the new one, ‘Helicopter’, is a guaranteed club banger. The Styalz Fuego-produced album is an eclectic affair, taking in a wide array of influences, from reggae, deep house and dancehall to soul and ‘90s NYC rap. Diafrix will launch Pocket Full Of Dreams with a show at GoodGod Small Club on Saturday October 27.

BART B MORE ADDED TO STEREOSONIC BILL

The lineup for this year’s Stereosonic festival was already pretty monumental, with headliners Tiësto, Avicii and Calvin Harris atop an already pretty generous bill. Well, there’s now one more name to add – Dutch favourite Bart B More. Quite apart from his skills behind the decks, B More has quite a good line in puzzling non sequiturs – check his Twitter feed for frequent updates like: ‘A dude on my flight was rocking a gas mask ... not a vibe’. The DJ joins an already strong Dutch contingent at the festival, including Chuckie, Sander Van Doorn, Laidback Luke and of course Tiësto himself. The Sydney leg of Stereosonic will return to Skoda Stadium (Sydney Showground) on Saturday November 24.

featuring

th

IT’SCK! BA

THE DMC CHAMPIONSHIPS ARE RETURNING TO AUSTRALIA IN 2012 BIGGER THAN EVER. THIS YEAR A NEW FORMAT TAKES PLACE WHERE DJ’S CAN USE THEIR CHOICE OF DIGITAL VINYL SYSTEM AND MIXER. NOW THAT THE WARRIORS CAN CHOOSE THEIR WEAPON, EXPECT TO SEE THE BEST BATTLE YET.

TO ENTER GO TO www.dmcdjchamps.com for more info email australia@dmcworld.com BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12 :: 43

James Dela Cruz You Down With DMC By Alasdair Duncan

T

he DMC Championships, an institution dating back to the ‘80s, is a breeding ground for the DJ talent of the future.

A young James Dela Cruz had his first experience of the contest in the late ‘90s – psyching himself up to spin records in front of others (and be judged for it no less), the experience opened his eyes, and set him on a career path that would eventually lead to his joining The Avalanches as a live DJ. “The DMC is important to me because it’s where I came from,” Dela Cruz tells me. “I entered back in ‘98 and ‘99 and placed second both times. The first year I entered, I watched every competition on video and then I tried to put on my own spin on it!”

At the NSW heat of this year’s DMC, Dela Cruz will return to play a showcase set and also to judge. I ask him just what he’ll be looking out for in a potential winner. “You can’t fake DMC,” he tells me, “because it’s not just about mixing. Anyone can do that, but not anyone can DJ.” With that in mind, he’ll be looking for someone who shows musicality and originality, and someone with flair who is exciting to watch. I ask Dela Cruz if there are any no-nos, or things that will get aspiring DJs kicked off the decks. “Don’t scratch with your mouth open while murmuring your scratches,” he says. “Nah, just kidding… Just watch the volume levels, especially with ‘ahh’ and ‘fresh’.”

Dela Cruz’s own DJ style is informed by his life-long love of old-school hip hop records.

“When [hip hop] started it was rebel music, like punk. It didn’t fit a lot of people’s accepted ideas of what music should sound like, but that’s why it was so great – it was all about taking elements from all musical styles and saying ‘fuck you’, and literally fucking the record up!” The old scratch DJs, Dela Cruz says, have their own style and language, and this is where he draws his inspiration. “A lot of people will look back in years to come and will say it was a big deal. It was fun times; turntablism was evolving and hip hop music was great.

Somehow the magic has gone in hip hop – I think it’s just a sign of the times.”

From his start at DMC to touring with The Avalanches, and then beyond as a solo DJ, Dela Cruz has had quite the eclectic career.

It’s always hard to narrow these things down, but I ask him about some of the highlights.

“There are a handful,” he tells me. “On tour in Europe, there was a club in Newcastle, The World Headquarters, run by these two guys – Tom and Robert I think, although I deeply apologise if I have the names wrong. These guys were very hospitable and just loved music, and you could see it in the club and its punters. It was special because the crowd were wholeheartedly open and really understood where I was coming from, and where I wanted to go. There was a lot of love in the room. It was one of those nights where you can’t stop smiling.”

Before letting Dela Cruz go, I’m required to ask

the obligatory Avalanches question – has he had any contact with the group since leaving a decade ago? And, if so, has he heard much word of their movements lately? He laughs heartily at this. “No, they haven’t reached out to me,” he says. “I do remember someone telling me that guy Darren went to rehab, but I said no, no, no…”

Who: Skae vs Who vs Clockwerk vs Zero0000 Where: DMC Championship, NSW Final @ The World Bar When: Saturday August 4 More: National final will be held Saturday August 18 at Laundry Bar in Melbourne

Oliver$ Away With Words By Alasdair Duncan

G

Hybrid Cinematic Sounds By Tamara Vogl

W

hen electronic music was paving its foundations, a small Welsh band known as Hybrid were in the works of transforming the genre. From 1996 up until now they’ve not only established a solid and incredibly loyal fanbase, but have been labeled as pioneers of electronic music, influencing popular artists like Deadmau5 and contributing to the scores of countless films. Fast forward 16 years and Hybrid are still pushing the envelope, continuing to transform their songwriting techniques and incorporating huge amounts of musicality into an otherwise technical genre. Ahead of their Australian tour, founding member Chris Healings spoke with me about the early beginnings of Hybrid, the benefits of independent music distribution, and the legacy they hope to leave on electronic music.

It was during the ‘90s in a small but dedicated Welsh house music tent that Chris began DJing, mastering his craft with an ever-expanding record collection. Still straddling the mixtape era, he received a bootleg of a unique Pink Floyd ‘Another Brick In The Wall’ remix, sent to him from a young Mike Truman. “The track was amazing,” he says. From there the duo joined forces, Mike with the studio, Chris with the musical catalogue; they made records every day for the Saturday night set.

With Hybrid now in motion, Chris and Mike began to dabble in orchestral music, layering waves of strings over the metallic pings of synthesisers; they were one of the first to experiment with this dichotomous mix. “After going to all of these raves … we would [go home] and listen to film scores,” Chris remembers. “We thought, ‘Why can’t you do this with electronic music?’ Dance music can be quite cold – if you put some musicality and add some organic elements, it can stand the test of time better.” Wide Angle, their 1999 debut album, was a combination of progressive house and nu-skool breaks with vocals and symphonic textures. The work forever embedded Hybrid as pioneers of dance – and they are still known for their cinematic approach to production, 44 :: BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12

specifically with the use of orchestral sounds.

Chris believes adding musicality to Hybrid’s sound has strengthened their longevity. “It gives it depth, gives it more feeling,” he says.

“It soldiers on.” With the addition of a third member, Charlotte James, Hybrid has seen a transformation in their songwriting process, as well as an increased musicality. “[Charlotte] is über talented,” Chris boasts. “We’d been looking since our first album for our own vocalist. She plays everything; banjo, trumpet, cello, piano – multi-talented.”

Coming towards the end of their record label contract, Hybrid are looking forward to standing on their own two feet when it comes to distribution. With the advent of the digital age, and the iron grip most artists suffer with labels choking their master rights, Hybrid are fortunate to have a solid following. “We have been keeping a lot of music [to ourselves],” Chris says. “Mini albums are cheap and downloadable [and we can distribute them to] our fanbase now, because they are so loyal.”

Hybrid have found another niche in the form of film scoring. Their work has been used for films including Man On Fire, The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Cowboys & Aliens. “Harry Gregson-William employed us to do all this crazy mad electronic stuff and then put strings on top,” Chris says. “There is a lot of emotion which comes from instrumentation. You can have the electronic stuff which is big and nasty, but then put lovely strings on top, evoking feeling.”

“Hopefully we paved the way for electronic artists,” Chris says, in respect to their 16-year career. “In a way, you don’t just have to do banging techno. Bringing more musicality into the electronic genre is something we’d like to be known and remembered for.”

Where: Chinese Laundry When: Saturday August 11

ermany’s Oliver$ is a man of few words. He doesn’t much care for phone interviews, and convincing him to answer even a basic set of email questions took quite a bit of doing. The Berlin-based producer was pretty reluctant to talk about himself in this Q&A, so allow me to fill you in on some of the specifics: If you’re not familiar with the name Oliver$, you may well be familiar with the tracks. He first came to prominence thanks to his remix of Aloe Blacc’s ‘I Need A Dollar’ – just Google the phrase “respectable coverage amongst the online community” and you’ll get a plethora of hits confirming this.

Following on from this initial success, Oliver$ released ‘Doin Ya Thing’ on the Play It Down label, and it remains his biggest hit to date; it hit the #1 position on Beatport and stayed there for an extremely respectable five weeks, going on to win Track Of The Year at the Beatport Music Awards 2012. His resume includes releases on cult labels such as Made To Play, Grand Petrol and Front Room Recordings, and he’s toured with the likes of Jesse Rose and Riva Starr. We sent off our email questions on the eve of his return to Australia, and here’s what we got back – if you enjoy eating at restaurants and using USB sticks, you and the enigma that is Oliver$ may be more alike than you know...

Berlin is one of the best cities in the world – it’s just so easy to live and eat and drink and party. Is it an inspiring place for you to be as a musician?

Yes sure – for me it’s THE place to be.

success of that track and ‘Doin’ Ya Thing’ change things for you at all?

Of course. My fees went up, and the tour schedule got busier.

What are some of your favourite places in Berlin?

For food, it’s DUDU and Tartane. For music it’s definitely Panorama Bar, Watergate or Katerholzig.

You’ve been doing a lot of touring recently – how are you adapting to life on the road as a DJ? It can be really exhausting, but I am definitely enjoying it.

Taking it back a little way, can you tell me how you first got into the world of electronic music?

My cousin Jan Driver was the first who introduced me to electronic music.

What kind of gear do you use when you DJ? A USB stick.

You’ve been working alongside Jesse Rose for the last couple of years – how did your association with him come about?

I got his email address from a friend and sent him over my ‘Hotflash’ track, and the rest is history.

Can you tell me a bit about the gear you use when you’re making tracks – does your equipment ever directly inspire the music you make?

I use Cubase as my main DAW, my tube compressors, Moog Little Phatty Stage II, Summing mixer and Transient Designer.

The remix that you did for Aloe Blacc proved to be extremely successful – did the

Do you have any new releases coming out in the next little while, either remixes or your own original tracks?

I just finished my single for Play It Down.

Besides that, I am working on many remixes for classic labels such as Strictly Rhythm and Kingstreet, as well as some major label acts such as Usher and Passion Pit. I also finished a remix for Radioslave’s label, Rekids.

You’ll be coming down to Australia next month, and stopping off in Sydney at Chinese Laundry – what can we expect from the show?

You can expect quality house music.

With: Samrai, A-Tonez, Whitecat and more Where: Chinese Laundry, Sussex Street When: Saturday August 4

Deep Impressions Underground Dance And Electronica with Chris Honnery

Margaret Dygas

Maceo Plex

F

inely Tuned have announced the mother of all Circo Loco Halloween parties, and though it falls a few days after the actual Halloween date – on Saturday November 3, to be precise – the fiesta is well worth delaying (or repeating) your Halloween shenanigans for. The lineup comprises three international big guns, and there isn’t a weak link amongst them: Maceo Plex, Margaret Dygas and Matthias Tanzmann each command considerable respect in both clubbing and chin-stroking circles alike. Spanish producer Eric Estornel, aka Maceo Plex, returns Down Under after playing a Deep As Funk warehouse party in 2009 under his Maetrik moniker, a gig that the Sydney clubbing public generally shunned – but it's safe to say it will be a different story this time around. Over the past few years, Estornel has refined his sound under his Maceo Plex pseudonym to straddle both darker underground influences and the more upbeat, occasionally pop-infused house sounds that have become a hallmark of the Crosstown Rebels stable in recent times. But unlike some of the other releases on the label, the Maceo Plex productions always have plenty of substance to them, and pack a robust dancefloor punch that gets even the most

LOOKING DEEPER FRIDAY AUGUST 3 Mike Monday Secret Warehouse Location

SATURDAY AUGUST 11

Kate Simko The Civic Underground

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 1 4Our feat. Steffi GoodGod Small Club

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 3

Circo Loco feat. Maceo Plex, Margaret Dygas, Matthias Tanzmann Greenwood Hotel

austere of the ‘heads’ moving. A fleeting perusal of the Maceo Plex remix catalogue affirms the sonic dexterity underscoring Estornel’s production prowess, applying his midas touch to everyone from Jin Choi and Silicone Soul to Glimpse and Azari & III. And if you want a preview of the man’s live performance, you could do far worse than track down his Live At Cocoon Ibiza LP, a recording from the closing set of Sven Vath’s seasonal shindig at the party mecca.

Having talked techno with many people in Berlin clubs over the past month, it is telling that the name which keeps coming up is Margaret Dygas. The esteem in which she is held in these parts is indicative of her abilities as both a DJ and a producer. Born and raised in Poland, Dygas has cemeted herself as a pillar of the underground house and techno scene through regular slots at Panorama Bar and Club der Visionäre, along with an album on the inimitable Perlon imprint. As adept at building a subtle and nuanced set as holding a peak time dancefloor, she is deserving of all the hype bestowed upon her. While not descending to sycophantic behaviour – indeed, this column is diametrically opposed to that sort of superficiality that corrodes our club scene – the promoters really should be complimented for luring Dygas Down Under for this gig... She will serve as the perfect foil to Maceo Plex, and while the uninitiated will surely snap up tickets to see the Crosstown Rebels golden child, it is likely that Dygas will open many punters’ ears to a brave new world of music. Finally, Tanzmann is a Sydney crowd favourite for a reason – but I’ll curtail my Circo Loco effusion because I fear I am writing up a press release free of charge... Tickets go on sale August 9.

Dygas certainly has some stiff competition from Steffi for the crown of the first lady of Berlin techno. And thankfully, you’ll be able to rate the two against each other in a relatively short space of time, as by a twist of fate from the techno gods, Steffi is making her debut Australian visit in September, and will headline 4Our at GoodGod Small Club on Saturday September 1. A resident at Berlin’s Panorama Bar for the past five years, Steffi has played and promoted underground parties for over a decade, and founded the first of her labels – Klakson – alongside counterpart Dexter. She has gradually developed a relationship with the Panorama/Berghain club’s label, Ostgut Ton, which culminated in the release of her debut LP Yours & Mine early last year – which featured on many of the year-end best-of lists. She has also since founded her second label, Dolly, which has seen releases from the likes of Basic Soul Unit, XDB and Brooks Mosher. Having had the privilege of seeing her in full force on her home turf, I assure Sydney dancers that we are in for a treat when Steffi throws down in GoodGod Small Club. Fittingly, she will be flanked by the foremost female DJ impresarios of the Sydney club realm – Trinity and Magda Bytnerowicz. $20 early bird tickets are available now through Resident Advisor.

Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through deep.impressions@yahoo.com BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12 :: 45

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

club pick of the week Brawther

SATURDAY AUGUST 4

One22, Sydney

Picnic Presents

Simon Caldwell, Kali, Dean Dixon vs Magda $15 10pm

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 31 Empire Hotel, Kings Cross Tight Resident DJs free 9pm Establishment, Sydney Rumba Motel Salsa DJ Willie Sabor free 8pm Scruffy Murphy’s, Haymarket Bounce free 10pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross We Love Brazil @ Coyote Tuesday Resident DJs $10 7pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Jam Jam DJs free 9pm 46 :: BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 1 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

The Cool Room, The Australian Brewery, Rouse Hill We Love Thursdays Resident DJs $10 8pm GoodGod Front Bar, Sydney Girls Gone Mild Hanna & Eliza 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 Q Bar, Darlinghurst Hot Damn Hot Damn DJs Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Rock The Spot Victor Lopez, Skae, Lou Lou, Redbak, Losty $10 9pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Swag Thursdays Resident DJs 9pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Propaganda Urby, Conrad Greenleaf, Gillex, Dan Bombings free (student)-$5 9pm

FRIDAY AUGUST 3

Brawther, (FRA),

MONDAY JULY 30

THURSDAY AUGUST 2

Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale Frat House Frat House DJs free 8pm The Marlborough Hotel, Newtown Student Night DJ Pauly free 9pm The World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall Glovecats, Creature Colour, Mindquad, Sherlock Bones, Lights Out, Pablo & Kween G, Joyride, Heke $5 9pm Glovecats

Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway Totally Barry Bad Barry DJs free 9pm Annandale Hotel Def Wish Cast, Mr Clean & don Data, Kween G, Scotty B & Swarmy, Herb, Rivals & LC Beats, Jacob Quest, Sarah Connor, DJ 2Buck $15-$20 8pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Movement Tuka, Rappaport free 8pm Candys Apartment, Kings Cross Nibiru EP Launch Kyro & Bomber, Vengeance, Hoodlmz vs Sherlock Bones, 2Busy 2Kiss vs Nightmare, Moowho vs Robust, Donald Crump, Intheory vs Retrojunk, Matty P, Ethan Boyd, Double Dunk Disco $10 9pm Cargo Lounge, King St Wharf Kick On Fridays Resident DJs free 4pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Kenny Ken (UK), MC Skibadee (UK), Royalston, Linken, Typhonic, Victims, Audiobotz, Modest $15-$25 10pm Epping Hotel Flirt Flirt DJs free GoodGod Front Bar, Sydney Yo Grito! Yo Grito! DJs free 9pm GoodGod Small Club, Sydney Pelvis $5 11pm Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour Sublime Peewee Ferris, MC Suga Shane, Matt Ferreira, John Young, Flite, I.K.O. 9pm Ivy Changeroom, Sydney Love Gun Fridays Tina Turntables, The Apprentice, Hooligan 8pm Kings Cross Hotel, Kings Cross DJ Tash, DJ Lok Stok, DJ Alex Mac, DJ Darryl Do Right, DJ Huwston, DJ Dan Copping, Swim Team DJs free 7pm

Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross KK Fridays Falcona Agency DJs 8pm The Marlborough Hotel, Newtown DJ Simon Laing free 9pm The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill I Love The Fid Fridays Samrai, Bobby Dazzler, Aldo Da Roit, Electro Kutz, Venuto 8pm The Metro Theatre, Sydney PHD 10th Birthday Soul-T, Karpe-DM, DJ-EM, Suae, Hardforze, Pulsar, S-Dee, Audio Damage, DJ Husband, Matrix, Dillytek, Arbee, Kamikaze, Deviant, D-Activ-8, Recall, Maetex, Forenzic, Tha Kid, Cravn, Mortus, Apollis, Ben11, Ha2f, Eric Liu $35$55 10pm 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 One22, Sydney Dance Café Mike Kon, Mr-X, Phumba The African free-$10 9pm Pontoon, Darling Harbour Perfect Resident DJs free 9pm Q Bar, Darlinghurst Teen Spirit Teen Spirit DJs $5-$10 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 Secret Warehouse, Sydney S.A.S.H. Secret Warehouse 001 Mike Monday, Gabby, CoOp, Carlos Zarate, Matt Weir, Kerry Wallace $20-$35 10pm The Shark Hotel, Sydney Puls8 DJ Jono, Guest DJs free 9pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Mars Monero, James Taylor, Disco Punx, Morgan $10 10pm The Standard, Surry Hills Skryptcha, True Vibenation, Jackie Onassis, Those Crooks $12 (+ bf) 8pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Eve Resident DJs 9pm Woodport Inn, Erina Inthemix Awards Tour DJ Kronic, Ember 10pm The World Bar, Kings Cross MUM Sex in Columbia, Tourism, Yale, Train Robbers, Call to Colour, Love Parade, Small Cats, 10th Avenue, Cries Wolf DJs, Wet Lungs, DJ Boy, Sammy K, Swim Team, Wolfden DJs $10-$15 9pm Zink Bar, Cronulla Far Out Friday Derek Turner 7pm

SATURDAY AUGUST 4 Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway Strange Fruit Strange Fruit DJs free 9pm The Argyle, The Rocks Takin’ It Back 1st Birthday Toby Neal, Matt Meler, Random Soul free 8pm BJs Nightclub, Bondi Junction DJ Shane Taylor 10pm Candys Apartment, Kings Cross Shake Shake Shake Sherlock Bones, Teez,, Hoodlmz $15$20 9pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Chinese Laundry Saturdays Oliver$ (GER), Samrai, A-Tonez, Whitecat, Ctrl

Alt Delicious, Black Male, Athson, Brothers Grimm, U-Khan, Sneaky Simon $15$25 9pm Club 77, Darlinghurst Starfuckers Starfuckers DJs 10pm The Cool Room, The Australian Brewery, Rouse Hill Saturday Nights DJ Koffee 8pm FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel Hands Up! Staggman, Clockwerk free 11.30pm Goldfish, Kings Cross Hed Kandi Presents The Winter Chill Alex Taylor, Johnny Gleeson, Phil Hudson (UK), Damien Goundrie vs Shaun Warner, Tim Whitney, Emmet Greene (IRE), Johnny G 6pm GoodGod Small Club, Sydney Jook Joint Jack Shit, Meem, DJ Soup $7 11pm The Green Room Lounge, Enmore Vinyl Solution DJ Nic Dalton free 7pm The Hi-Fi Sydney, Moore Park DILF Party – The Suit Seymour Butz, Stephen C, Half Nelson $45 (+ bf) 4pm Hollywood Hotel, Surry Hills Motion Dean Dixon, Dave Fernandes, Burn-Hard, Northern Soul Poster Boy $5 8pm Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour Homemade Saturdays Resident DJs 9pm Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park Hilltop Hoods, Horrorshow, Briggs $56.65 7pm all-ages Ivy, Sydney Ivy Saturdays Silver Sneakerz, Matt Nugent, Ember, Tass, Baby Gee, Joe Redd, Gabby, Trent Rackus, Devola, Pro-Glam, Bad Ezzy, Morgan, Crazy Caz $20 8pm Kings Cross Hotel, Kings Cross DJ Tim Boffa, DJ James Taylor, DJ Shaun Keble, DJ Richie Carter, Frenzie free 7pm La Cita, King St Wharf Miami DJ U-Turn, DJ Ricky Ro, DJ Agee Ortiz, DJ Asado, Mc Cocoman, La Fiesta free 9pm Nevada Lounge, Darlinghurst DJ Hayden free 6pm One22, Sydney Picnic Presents Brawther (FRA), Simon Caldwell, Kali, Dean Dixon vs Magda $15 10pm Opera Bar, Sydney Opera House Future Classic free 2.30pm Oxford Art Factory, Sydney Hold Tight! Jonwayne (USA), Mono/Poly (USA), Suff Daddy (GER), MFP (JPN) $25 (+ bf) 9pm Secret Warehouse, Marrickville The Unknown - Secret Warehouse Party Art Bilash, Bex Meli, Jerra Mai, Jesse, Mr Garbage, Shalyn Grey, Adriano $25 (+ bf) 8pm Soho, Potts Point Inthemix Awards Tour 2012 Chardy, Ember 10pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney The Residents Nic Scali, Matt Weir, Sam Roberts $20 10pm Tunnel Nightclub, Kings Cross ONE Saturdays Resident DJs $10-$20 10pm The Vanguard, Newtown 1980s Zombie Prom DJs $20 7pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Cakes - 2012 DMC Championships NSW Heat James De La Cruz, Lee Coombs (UK), Cakes DJs $15-$20 8pm

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

SUNDAY AUGUST 5 The Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway S.A.S.H. Sundays Robbie Lowe, Telefunken, Rodskeez, Steven Dee, Kerry Wallace, Matt Weir $10 2pm The Beresford Hotel, Surry Hills Beresford Sundays Resident DJs free 3pm

Goldfish, Kings Cross Martini Club Sundays Martini Club, Tom Kelly, Straight Up Steve free 6pm Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney Your Shot DJ Competition Finals Toulouse DJs $10 1pm 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 Daydreams Daydreams DJs 4.30am The Spice Cellar, Sydney Spice After Hours Robbie Lowe, Murat Kilic $20 4am The World Bar, Kings Cross Soup Kitchen DJs free 9pm

club picks up all night out all week...

THURSDAY AUGUST 2

Skryptcha

The World Bar, Kings Cross Propaganda Urby, Conrad Greenleaf, Gillex, Dan Bombings free (student)-$5 9pm

FRIDAY AUGUST 3 Annandale Hotel Def Wish Cast, Mr Clean & Don Data, Kween G, Scotty B & Swarmy, Herb, Rivals & LC Beats, Jacob Quest, Sarah Connor, DJ 2Buck $15-$20 8pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Kenny Ken (UK), MC Skibadee (UK), Royalston, Linken, Typhonic, Victims, Audiobotz, Modest $15-$25 10pm GoodGod Front Bar, Sydney Yo Grito! Yo Grito! DJs free 9pm One22, Sydney Dance Café Mike Kon, Mr-X, Phumba The African free before 10pm–$10 9pm Secret Warehouse, Sydney S.A.S.H. Secret Warehouse 001 Mike Monday, Gabby, Co-Op, Carlos Zarate, Matt Weir, Kerry Wallace $20-$35 10pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Mars Monero, James Taylor, Disco Punx, Morgan $10 10pm The Standard, Surry Hills Skryptcha, True Vibenation, Jackie Onassis, Those Crooks $12 (+ bf) 8pm

SATURDAY AUGUST 4 Chinese Laundry, Sydney Chinese Laundry Saturdays Oliver$ (GER), Samrai, A-Tonez, Whitecat, Ctrl Alt Delicious, Black Male, Athson, Brothers Grimm, U-Khan, Sneaky Simon $15-$25 9pm GoodGod Small Club, Sydney Jook Joint Jack Shit, Meem, DJ Soup $7 11pm Hollywood Hotel, Surry Hills Motion Dean Dixon, Dave Fernandes,

Burn-Hard, Northern Soul Poster Boy $5 8pm Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park Hilltop Hoods, Horrorshow, Briggs sold out 7pm all-ages Oxford Art Factory, Sydney Hold Tight! Jonwayne (USA), Mono/Poly (USA), Suff Daddy (GER), MFP (JPN) $30 (+ bf) 9pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney The Residents Nic Scali, Matt Weir, Sam Roberts $20 10pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Cakes - 2012 DMC Championships NSW Heat James De La Cruz, Lee Coombs (UK) Cakes DJs $15-$20 8pm

SUNDAY AUGUST 5 The Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway S.A.S.H. Sundays Robbie Lowe, Telefunken, Rodskeez, Steven Dee, Kerry Wallace, Matt Weir $10 2pm Oliver$

BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12 :: 47

snap

musicology

PICS :: PX

up all night out all week . . .

chez damier

PICS :: AM

21:07:12 :: The Goldfish :: 111 Darlinghurst Rd Potts Point 8354 6630

sash sundays

PICS :: AM

21:07:12 :: The Spice Cellar :: 58 Elizabeth St Sydney

jamie xx

PICS :: KC

22:07:12 :: The Abercrombie Hotel :: 100 Broadway Ultimo 9211 3486

20:07:12 :: Strike Bowling :: King St Wharf Darling Harbour 1300 787 453 :: NOHMON ANWARYAR :: ANNA S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER LEY MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS :: THOMAS PEACHY :: PEDRO ASH BROWN :: KATRINA CLARKE :: XAVIER ::

48 :: BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12

the cool room

PICS :: NA

strike

PICS :: AM

19:07:12 :: GoodGod Small Club :: 53-55 Liverpool St Chinatown 8084 0587

19:07:12 :: Australian Brewery :: 350 Annangrove Rd Rouse Hill 9679 4555

BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12 :: 49

snap up all night out all week . . .

PICS :: DM

propaganda

party profile

back to school party feat. helena

19:07:12 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 9357 7700

It’s called: Back To School Party feat. Helen a It sounds like: Commercial/house.

Who’s playing? Crazy Chris Coast from 8.30p m, Helena from 11.30pm, Steve Frank – the mash-up king – til morning.

Three songs you’ll hear on the night: ‘Sexy And I Know It’ – LMFAO; ‘ Levels’ – Avicii; ‘Big Booty Bitches’ – Bombs Away.

And one you definitely won’t: ‘Call Me Mayb e’ – Carly Rae. Just kidding, we will totally drop it – we can’t help it!

Sell it to us: That morning when you wake up feeling like Charlie Sheen after a bi-winning night out? We create that every Wedn esday night, and this night is no exception! One of Sydney’s top DJs, Helena, is coming down to rock the socks off your world, plus there’s a $500 travel vouch er for best dressed – so come in your best schoolyard get-up to enter the running!

The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Chris Coast ’s Crazy brand of party games, and the prizes you'll have won, like free bar tabs, drink cards and giveaways.

Crowd specs: Uni students and local partyg oers.

Wallet damage: Cheap drinks from 9-11pm: $4 house spirits, $5 Sol, $6 Vodka + Mother.

sven weisemann

PICS :: AM

Where: The Ranch Hotel / Cnr Epping & Herrin g Rds, Eastwood When: Wednesday August 8, from 8.30pm

thomas schumacher

PICS :: AM

21:07:12 :: One22 :: 122 Pitt St Sydney

21:07:12 :: Metro Theatre :: 624 George St Sydney 9550 3666 A

:: NOHMON ANWARYAR :: ANN S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER LEY MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS :: THOMAS PEACHY :: PEDRO ASH :: BROWN :: KATRINA CLARKE XAVIER ::

50 :: BRAG :: 473 :: 30:07:12

dirty south joe

PICS :: TL

skream

PICS :: PX, AM

21:07:12 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex St Sydney 8295 9999

20:07:12 :: GoodGod Small Club :: 53-55 Liverpool St Chinatown 8084 0587

Mild coarse language and violence

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