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rock music news welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Nathan Jolly
five things WITH
DANNY FROM PIGEON spectrum of music. It met somewhere in the middle with a generous dose of The Beatles, for which I’m very grateful, but my love for music really sprung to life when I was about 12 and started listening to things like Limp Bizkit and Greenday…
2.
Inspirations Nowadays everything moves so fast that you can go through 20 bands in two weeks and love all of them, but there are always the ones that are a reflex iPod pick. For me, those would be bands like Miike Snow, Delphic, Bag Raiders, Friendly Fires and Röyksopp; that lovely place where electronic meets indie pop. I just love listening to something and wondering what each sound is and how they got there. I dig production a lot and I think all of those bands have really interesting and unusual styles and sounds, making for a really satisfying listen. Your Crew The band Pigeon consists of five 3. people of varying attractiveness. Aaron Day
Growing Up My upbringing was quite musical. My 1. dad used to be a bass player in one of those
The Music You Make We make a mix of electronic music, 4. electro-pop, rock, indie-pop, and a few other genre curveballs for the unsuspecting listener. We’ve released one EP so far, and we’re hoping to release another one really soon. We self-produce all of our music and we love doing that, because for us it’s like half of the creative process, creating whack sounds. Our live show is fun and energetic, and we like to think that it keeps people guessing as to what we’re going to do next... Music, Right Here, Right Now The music scene is in a really interesting 5. place at the moment. We’re at a stage where everyone and anyone can record and release music, so to be set aside from other bands you really need to have everything going at once, in terms of recording, song quality, live show and media attention. I think we’re gonna see a big change in how the industry operates with the advent of streaming. Musicians need to take a massive step forward to get a slice of the pie. What: ‘Oh Hebe’ is out now Where: GoodGod Small Club When: Saturday August 18
Xxxx
sweet ‘70s prog rock bands, covering bands
like Yes and Genesis. That’s pretty bad ass. My mum basically only listens to Christmas compilations and The Bay City Rollers – so I guess I grew up experiencing a broad
plays keys and synths, Luke Cuerel plays the saxophone and trumpet, Chris Paget is captain of the bass station, Nick Kirk wrestles with the beats and drums, and I (Danny Harley) try to handle the vocals, keys and guitar. We all met at various educational institutions, whether it be high school or
university, and we’ve been trying to merge our musical styles together ever since.
REGULAR JOHN
Twerps 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
Regular John have always been a psychedelic band: it used to be more of a four-on-thefloor, beat-you-into-dreamy-submission kind of psych, but their recent single ‘Slume’ is a little more wobbly and woozy and wonderful, and bodes well for their forthcoming second album, Strange Flowers. They are playing at The Annandale Hotel on October 13, but if you can’t wait ‘til then, catch them as part of 2SER’s Live At The Loft series on Thursday August 30 at The Loft, University of Technology Sydney. Tickets $12 for the ‘Dale; $free for UTS.
ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant GRAPHIC DESIGN: Alan Parry SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER: Tim Levy SNAP PHOTOGRAPHERS: Anna Brown, Katrina Clarke, Georgie Collis, Nicholas Irving, Ashley Mar, Daniel Munns, Thomas Peachy, Pedro Xavier COVER PHOTOS: Mickey Church (White Arrows) by Matthew Wardenaar; Marcus Azon (Jinja Safari) by Gary Compton; Kody Nielson (Opossom) by Milana Radojcic ADVERTISING: Ross Eldridge - 0422 659 425 / (02) 9690 0806 ross@thebrag.com ADVERTISING: Les White - 0405 581 125 / (02) 8394 9027 les@thebrag.com GIG & CLUB GUIDE CO-ORDINATOR: Conrad Richters - gigguide@thebrag.com (rock) clubguide@thebrag.com (dance, hip hop & parties) INTERNS: Verity Cox, Dijana Kumurdian, Natalie Amat, Sasha Godman 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 DEADLINES: Editorial: Wednesday 12pm (no extensions) Artwork/ad bookings: Thursday 12pm (no extensions). Ad cancellations: Tuesday 4pm Published by Cartrage P/L ACN 104026388 All content copyrighted to Cartrage 2003 DISTRIBUTION: Wanna get The Brag? Email distribution@furstmedia. com.au or phone 03 9428 3600. PRINTED BY SPOTPRESS: www.spotpress.com.au 24 – 26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville NSW 2204 Win a giveaway? Mail us a stamped and addressed envelope, and we’ll send your prize on over...
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SOUND SUMMIT FTW
Unless you’re Dave Gleeson, Newcastle invariably peaks each year around the end of September, which is when Sound Summit sweeps through the sleepy old town to fill it with cool bands and acts quicker than you can say Frogstomp. It happens this year from September 27-30, and the lineup is the best yet: Blues Control, Home Blitz, MIST / Outer Space / Radio People, Lasse Marhaug, High Wolf, Oren Ambarchi, Twerps, Straight Arrows, Rites Wild, Mad Nanna and East Link. The full music showcase program will be announced on Friday August 17, which is when tickets go on sale, too. Get in quick with accommodation though – stuff fills up pretty fast!
YAY GERONIMO!
Brisbane five-piece Hey Geronimo do the indie slacker pop thing so convincingly that they probably won’t even bother turning up for their show at FBi Social on September 21, because something good will be on TV (Smudge’s Tom Morgan used to actually do this, which makes him the best human ever) – but on the off chance that they do make it to the gig, you’ll hear their third single ‘Dreamboat Jack’, which proves you can judge a song by its title, ‘cos it’s a boss title and a boss song. Joining them are The Griswolds (why has it taken this long for that name to be taken?) and Courtney Barnett.
PEAR SHAPE
Pear Shape sound like AM radio did before AM radio became the domain of bigoted talk-back shows and opera dissertations and static-y cowboy guff. They have bright, harmonised choruses and Wurlitzer organs and actual melodies. They have even named their latest single ‘The Coca Cola Kid’, which is sooo prelitigation. Catch them being awesome at FBi Social on September 22. Supports are yet to be announced, but tickets are on sale now ($10 from Oztix) – and seeing as you’ve already got Pear Shape confirmed, you can’t really lose. Unless the support act turns out to be you, reading from your teenage diary, missing your first love. In which case you totally lose.
POST PAINT
Oh c’mon! There is no way that any of the numerous Pavement fans scattered in the shady lanes and brightened corners of Sydney will let Newcastle/Sydney group Post Paint get away with the blatant Pavement appropriation that is the title of their first EP, By Muskrat And Sextet… unless they listen to the music, of course: a sample-based, layered, Nancy-and-Lee-sounding master-storm. Join them at Goodgod this Wednesday August 15 as they launch the EP, with help from Daisy M. Tulley (Bridezilla violin babe flying solo), The Shooters Party (awesome psych) and Sky Squadron (awesome psych!). $10 at the door, but $8 if you are one of those university-types.
LEE RANALDO
As guitarist for Sonic Youth, Lee Ranaldo not only redefined guitar tunings, alternative rock, the album as a concept, the side project as an even more important concept, art, and New York in general, he also produced the first two You Am I records, which is a debt that Australia will never truly pay back. The least you can do is get along to his October 20 show at Oxford Art Factory (pre-sale on Monday August 13, general sale the following day) and watch him perform his warm Neil Young-esque tunes from new album Between The Times And The Tides. Of course by the end of the night you will actually owe him even more. It’s a cycle of debt, like the mob or a Target debit card or something.
Maria Minerva
MARIA MINERVA
Maria Minerva is Estonia-born and London-based, and released her debut cassette (her what?) last year, a move which saw her tagged with a lo-fi label that she’s made no move to shrug off. “Maria Minerva has not heard that postmodernism is passé,” she says through her press release, in a jarring employment of third person narrative. “Maria Minerva wishes she was born in the 1980s and born again in the 1990s. They call it lo-fi, I call it 21st century folk music.” She is heading to Oz for the first time in support of two forthcoming releases: her second (as yet unnamed) record, and The Integration LP, a collab with LA Vampires which sounds very exciting indeed. Catch her at Goodgod on August 30, with Guerre, Rainbow Chan and Four Door warming the stage for her first.
CARRIAGEWORKS PRESENTS A VERSION 1.0 AND AUSTRALIAN THEATRE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE PRODUCTION
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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
ALISA FROM POST PAINT M. Tulley from Bridezilla for our launch. Her solo work is really beautiful, and we’re all very happy/nervous to be playing off the back of that. We have a lot of sleepovers with Jack from Jack Colwell and The Owls, too. We try to make ‘80s-inspired lush art rock, but oftentimes it comes out more wall-ofsound than anything else. The three tracks off our new EP By Muskrat & Sextet are a much tidier and quieter version of what we do live. We were really lucky to record them with Chris Rollans from Studio Ripple, who helped us piece together the chaotic sound collages we’d been making at home into something with a lot of depth and clarity.
W
was a pretty big deal for me. Both of them really push the boundaries of conventional violin playing, and that’s been a big help in finding my own voice.
I was lucky to have older siblings with great taste in music. I remember my sister showing me records by Warren Ellis and Owen Pallet when I was about 13, and that
When Post Paint first started out, one of our favourite Sydney bands to play with was Sooners. The special approach they had to songwriting and dynamics was a huge influence on our band in the early days. When they called it quits last year, it was like four really loveable dogs dying. We have the good fortune to be sharing the stage with Daisy
hen I was a kid, my violin teacher was the most important person in my life. My mum used to bring a pen and notepad into my lessons and we’d have a debrief afterwards about the key points and arguments made. I really loved having music as such a big part of my childhood. I definitely wouldn’t still be playing today if it wasn’t.
After spending the last few months playing shows in the USA, we’re really excited to be gigging Sydney again. As great and diverse as the American music scene is, the venues there made us appreciate the nurturing scene we have here. With most venues offering guarantees for bands, the Australian Council for the Arts dishing out grants to support new works and touring, and awesome radio initiatives like triple j Unearthed and FBi Radio, we’ve got it pretty good. What: By Muskrat & Sextet EP is out now With: The Shooters Party, Sky Squadron and Daisy M. Tulley Where: Goodgod Small Club When: Wednesday August 15
ALEXISONFIRE
Dallas Green’s City And Colour project is great and everything, but Alexisonfire fans are still stinging from that band’s sudden dissolution and lucklustre farewell tour – so it comes as very welcome relief that, unlike Twin Peaks or Lost, they are wrapping everything up in a neat little package with a nine-date farewell tour, with two of those dates happening in Australia. On December 11 they’ll be playing what we think’ll be a sold-out Hordern Pavilion; tickets go on sale this Friday August 17. If you miss out, there’s always the Sao Paolo show on December 7… Siesta-riffic!
EL GRAN COMBO
Mumford & Sons
Mumford And Sons are bringing their dangerous, curse-laden folk music to the small town of Dungog on October 20 as part of the Gentlemen Of The Road Stopover – part of a global series of events they’ve been curating since June. They are bringing tourmates Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros and Willy Mason, along with local gems Sarah Blasko, Matt Corby, Husky and – just in case you get over-folked – Yacht Club DJs to Dugong, a couple days after they play The Entertainment Centre on October 18. Mumford And Sons’ second record Babel will be out by then (assuming September 21 is in the same place this year), and we hope there’s less swearing on it than the last one. Tssssssk.
BEARDOCALYPSE!
There really aren’t enough Latin Grammywinning Puerto Rico salsa orchestras playing in Sydney, so we were happy to hear that that glaring oversight would be corrected with the legendary El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico playing two huge shows on September 29 and 30 at The Roundhouse, UNSW. There’s nothing funner than pretending to dance to this stuff while watching others who actually can, and they’ve previously filled Madison Square Garden as easy as if it was your friend Madison’s square garden – so if you want tickets, better hop to it.
LONG WAY TO THE TOP
MUMFORD MAKE A FESTIVAL
The Beards have gotten quite far based on a one-note joke and a few great tunes, which I guess is the secret to all great bands, from The Beatles through to Nirvana through to, well, The Beards. They are embarking on the hilariously-
The Delta Riggs
titled The 2012 End Of The World (for beardless people) Tour, which hits The Metro on November 2 (plenty of time to grow one) with impressive support acts The Snowdroppers (quite beardy) and experimental-acoustic strummer Kim “I’m growing it, I’m growing it!” Churchill.
Linkin Park
THE DELTA RIGGS
There’s that old saying that good things come in pairs, and they’re onto something there – shoes, Twix bars, Veronicas, Gallaghers and this month, Melbourne rock bands. You’ll be seeing double when The Delta Riggs and Money For Rope’s Double Vision Tour rolls around town. They’re playing Beach Road Hotel on Wednesday August 15 and The Annandale with Kill City Creeps on Saturday August 18 – and we’ve got two double passes to The ‘Dale up for grabs. To nab yourself two tickets to a night of straight-up rock’n’roll, tell us the name of The Delta Riggs’ latest EP.
THE BLIND DATE TOUR
It’s a familiar feeling: the sweaty palms, the ill-timed-haircut regret, the hours of careful outfit selection, all for a shot at love. Get ready to relive the agony and the ecstasy with The Blind Date Tour. ‘What is this,’ you ask, ‘a collective nightmare of awkward set-ups and probable disappointment?’ No way! It’s a pop-tacular national tour that we put on our cover, featuring the cosmic jungle pop of Jinja Safari, the sunny grooves of New Zealand’s Opossom, and Los Angeles’ rocky psych courtesy of White Arrows, all landing at The Metro Theatre on Friday August 17. For your chance to score one of two double passes and a copy of the extra spesh Blind Date Tour EP, tell us your best blind date story.
LEPERS & CROOKS
“You’ve been with the professors, and they’ve all liked your looks / With great lawyers you have discussed lepers and crooks,” sings one Robert Zimmerman in his ‘Ballad Of A Thin Man’ – and there’s no denying that’s one of the greatest songs that’s ever existed. Speaking of great songs? Lepers & Crooks, a Sydney band who rock like they funk, will be doing both and more at The Lansdowne this Sunday August 19. They’re putting their finishing touches on a debut album which should be out extremely soon – but if you can’t wait for that, we’ll see you on Sunday. Bring Mr. Jones.
WINTER PEOPLE, SPRING TOUR.
Sydney’s most seasonally apt band, The Winter People, are flinging their debut album out September 21 (during spring, ‘cos they’re sassy like that) and are embarking on a massive album tour/truckstop-sausage-rollmarathon. It rolls into Sydney this October – and more specifically into The Factory Theatre on October 13, with five vocalists, two violins, and a car-boot that won’t shut with your guitars just stacked like that. Tetris them, you guys! (Founds are supporting too, with their awesome new album Hadean out next month.)
The Long Way To The Top concert spectacular makes me feel nostalgic for an era in which I wasn’t alive. There should be a word for that THE RUBENS feeling, and if there is already please email it The Rubens are Mushroom Group founder to BRAG, because life is about learning. The Michael Gudinski’s favourite Australian band, lineup this year – the tenth anniversary of the which is why he signed them and why they first epic tour – is fairly monumental, with Axiom, will be huge – in fact at their album showcase Brian Cadd, Dragon, Marcia Hines, Col Joye, last week, he said he hadn’t been as excited Masters Apprentices’ Jim Keays, Dinah Lee, about a band since The Temper Trap. Huge Mi-Sex, Russell Morris, Ian Moss, Noiseworks, call! Their debut record My Gun (recorded Doug Parkinson, Little Pattie, Glenn Shorrock, by Regina Spektor/Paul McCartney producer Spectrum, Lucky Starr, Matt Taylor and David Kahne) is stomping bluesy-but-not-tooPhil Manning (Chain) and John Paul Young bluesy rock, which will bleed throughout the performing, and it’s all happening on October airwaves this year… and next year, too. They 6 at The Entertainment Centre. Tickets are on launch it at The Metro Theatre on September sale NOW – as is a three disc compilation of the 21, with Bertie Blackman in support – and same name. Buy both! tickets are available through Ticketek.
SOUNDWAVE 2013! YES!
If you gathered together everybody in Australia who owns either a Linkin Park, Blink-182, A Perfect Circle or Metallica album, the only person left over would be that weird wind-swept guy who works at your local cheese-cloth store and only listens to live Replacements bootlegs (“The recorded stuff doesn’t have the same vibe, maaaan”). Well screw that guy, because everyone else is going to be clambering to get tickets to Soundwave 2013, which features the aforementioned bands as well as The Offspring, Paramore, Garbage, Tomahawk, Stone Sour, Kyuss Lives, Anthrax, Sum 41, Dragonforce, All Time Low, Flogging Molly, Ghost, Duff McKagan’s Loaded, Motion City Soundtrack, Lawrence Arms, Kingdom Of Sorrow, Fozzy, Sleeping With Sirens, Cancer Bats, Madball, Vision of Disorder, Pierce the Veil, Periphery, Shai Halud, Of Mice & Men, Miss May I, Danko Jones, Woe Is Me, The Wonder Years, While She Sleeps, Such Gold, Lucero, Six Feet Under, Deaf Havana, Red Fang, Chunk! No Captain Chunk! and Memphis May Fire. There are more to be announced, too! Tickets are $189 including the usually-hidden costs of fees and public transport, and go on sale Thursday August 23. The event itself? February 24, 2013. Circle that day with a massive red marker, and cross out the one after.
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The Music Network
themusicnetwork.com
Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer
THINGS WE HEAR
* Rihanna’s wild partying and even wilder dresses have seen her dumped as the face of the family-friendly skincare company, Nivea. * What will Newcastle’s Fat As Butter do if Flo Rida doesn’t hand over the $400,000 that the NSW District Court ordered of him? They’ll take it out of his Australian record royalties, which were frozen when the case was launched. * Van Halen have axed plans to tour here in November, promoter When The Lion Roars confirmed. Last September the US band bowed out of the Soundwave Revolution festival too, citing the need to finish off an album. * Justice Crew became the first Australian group to hit #1 on the ARIA chart in over five years, with their fourth single ‘Boom Boom’. * Radiohead set up a charity in the memory of their late drum technician Scott Johnson, to fund music equipment for kids. * Rose Tattoo’s Angry Anderson wants to get into politics, and is seeking pre-selection for the federal seat of Gilmore for the National Party. * The Cosmic Psychos’ documentary
Blokes You Can Trust will see the light of day by the end of the year. Director Matt Weston says they raised the required $28,000 through Pozible in 30 days. * Former Queens Of The Stone Age bassist Nick Oliveri faced 15 years’ jail after a fourhour standoff with a S.W.A.T. team last year, after which the team found cocaine and a weapon in his house. He’s done a deal with the prosecutor, offering to do 52 weeks of anger management and 200 hours of community service in return for three years’ probation. * Sydney’s Sarah McLeod has been invited back to perform at the Rock The Mansion annual event at the Playboy Mansion in Chicago on August 25. Last year she played so loud she woke Heff up from a brief snooze. * The site of the old Tank nightclub is now home to nightclub don Justin Hemmes’ new Cantonese restaurant, Mr. Wong. During the ribbon-cutting ceremony by Clover Moore, Hemmes was quizzed by a bloke from the Australian Financial Review on how he managed to get stars Dave Grohl and Billy Corgan to be “guest” waiters at his French brasserie Felix. “Wait till you see who we’ve got next month!” Hemmes cackled.
It is open to any unsigned act that has not been in the national airplay chart. The winner will get airplay for two singles, ads for touring, and marketing over 12 months valued at $1.9 million, as well as financing by Mushroom and radio for video clips, social media activation and on-road support over 12 months. The winner will perform at the Radio Awards on October 12 before 1200 executives. See firstbreak.com.au for more.
UK TRADE MISSION COMES TO AUSTRALIA
Following trade missions to Los Angeles and Tokyo, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is bringing one to Sydney and Melbourne in October (8-12). The trip will give UK delegates from the indie sector the chance to find out about the Australian music scene and meet some of its gate keepers. The keynote speaker is Michael Gudinski, with others including manager John Watson, APRA boss Brett Cottle, ARIA’s Dan Rosen and Tim Levinson of Elefant Traks. Companies taking part in the program include Inertia Music, Alberts, Ministry Of Sound, Liberation Records, Shock Music, triple j, Spotify, JB Hi Fi and AIR. According to BPI figures, UK artists have more than a 20% share of the market.
REVERB MAGAZINE CLOSES RALLY FOR THE SANDO
A rally is being held for The Sandringham on August 26 in Sydney Park at St. Peters. Then, in the fine tradition of AC/DC’s ‘It’s A Long Way To The Top’ flatbed video sequence, one time Akka-Dakka bassist Mark Evans and a band will play the song as the truck trudges down King Street to the Newtown music venue. Meantime, the Sando is the latest business to unite with the Unhappy Banking association, fighting the behaviour of the club’s bank BankWest. Last month the venue went into administration after the bank claimed that owner Tony Townsend defaulted on its $3.6 million debt. Townsend says he’s had his books checked by senior business advisers who told him that the bank’s behavior was questionable. “We never missed a payment to the bank, we
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were on track,” he claims. “There’s a lot more to unfold with this story.”
GUERRILLA BAR
Richard Dobson, one time singer with British boy band 5ive, and music producer Sven Tydeman have teamed up with Tim Pullen (Cowra Smokehouse) and Zane Heemi (Becasse) to set up Guerrilla Bar in Glebe. Along with the great food and wide selection of beer and wines, it will showcase acoustic acts on Sunday afternoons and DJs on Friday and Saturday nights.
FIRST BREAK
The Mushroom Group and peak association Commercial Radio Australia have teamed up in new initiative First Break to find new talent.
After six years in operation, Newcastle’s Reverb magazine has closed, with its September issue the last. Editor Kevin Bull cited “a combination of the well-reported changes within the print industry, and mounting business debts” – the latter due to declining ad revenue.
NEW TV SHOW ‘THE AUDIENCE’ CALLING YOU
New Ten show The Audience is looking for young people who have a big life change in the works. Moving overseas? Launching a new company? Following a dream? Giving up a vice? Producer Granada Media Australia is looking for people who need guidance on an issue, or honest problem solvers who can help others with their decision. To apply or find out more, visit www.theaudience.com.au
Lifelines Hospitalised: Amy Winehouse’s ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, after a drug and drink binge where he began choking on his vomit. Suing: Elton John is taking action against England’s The Times newspaper, which ran a story on avoiding tax written by an accountant who, the paper claimed, worked for Elton. He hadn’t. The singer is angry that being dragged into the story will affect donations to his many charities. Died: Oscar-winning composer Marvin Hamlisch, 68, after a brief illness. Died: Take That singer Gary Barlow’s fourth child Poppy was delivered stillborn. Died: Marshall Tucker Band guitarist Stuart Swanlund, 54, in his sleep. Died: Leading Jamaican reggae star Ranking Trevor, 60, a motorbike accident. He was a pioneer of “toasting”, which inspired hip hop.
SHOCK RECORDS SIGNS CHOPPER READ
In peculiar news, Shock Records have signed an album deal with one time criminal Mark ‘Chopper’ Read. It will be an album of prison song covers, sung by Read. What? Foo Fighters’ ‘This Is A Cell’? U2’s ‘Bouncing Off The Walls’? Elvis’ ‘Jailhouse Rock’? AC/DC's 'Jailbreak?' Edwin Starr's ‘War(rant), What Is It Good For?’ ...Anything by Soft Cell?
Just Announced
COM.AU THEHIFI. E HIFI
1300 TH
Novalima (PER) & DJs Sistema Criolina (BRA) Fri 28 Sep
Coming Up
SELLING FAST!!
Nasum (SWE)
Passenger Fri 17 Aug
Sat 18 Aug w/ Psycroptic
Dream On Dreamer
Apocalyptica (FIN)
Sat 1 Sep
Fri 31 Aug
Triple J’s House Party
Illy
Earth (USA)
Musiq Soulchild (USA)
Sat 25 Aug
Fri 24 Aug
Thu 13 Sep
Fri 14 Sep
SOLD OUT!!
SELLING FAST!!
Fri 21 Sep
Full On by Ferry Corsten
Fear Factory (USA)
Regurgitator Unit & Tu Plang
Apollo the Party
Nekromantix (DEN/USA)
Russian Circles (USA)
Tortoise (USA)
Everclear (USA)
Gomez (UK)
Alternative Rugby Commentary
Hanson (USA)
Wheatus (USA)
Sat 15 Sep
Sun 30 Sep
Sat 22 Sep Fri 5 Oct
Thu 27 Sep
Sat 6 Oct
Sat 29 Sep
Thu 11 Oct
Fri 12 Oct
Fri 19 Oct
SELLING FAST!!
Sunn O))) & Pelican Thu 25 Oct
Leb I Sol (MKD) Sat 3 Nov
(USA)
District 7 Fest Sat 27 Oct
Kerser
Sat 2 Feb
The Living End
Sat 20 Oct
One Album
21 Nov White Noise 22 Nov State Of Emergency Each Night! 23 Nov Modern Artillery 24 Nov The Ending Is Just The Beginning Repeating 25 Nov Roll On 26, 27 Nov The Living End
ENTERTAINMENT QUARTER, BUILDING 220, 122 LANG RD, MOORE PARK, SYDNEY
BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12 :: 13
BLIND DATE A
T H E
music or books.” But he doesn’t take any particular issue with religion now, noting that one benefit of being raised with such an emphasis on respect and kindness is that sometimes it rubs off... “Lately I seem to be constantly visited by Jehovah’s Witnesses, which is fine because I’m a pretty happy guy and I don’t mind hearing them out. But they honestly seem to think I’m this lost little man, purely because I’m being really polite and trying not to be argumentative. I just don’t know how to tell them that this is only slightly different from the teachings in my childhood. ‘Thanks for having a cup of tea, though!’”
T O U R
sk anyone you know who’s in a band, and they’ll tell you how much those national tours can stretch even the strongest of friendships. One van, five musos, way too much gear and a dodgy A/C? Shit gets intimate. To sign yourself up for ten days and seven cities spent with near-strangers would be even scarier. It’s with understandably sweaty palms, nervous glances and awkward pauses that New Zealand’s Opossom, Los Angeles’ White Arrows and Aussies Jinja Safari embarked on their Blind Date Tour last Wednesday – but we’re betting that by the time they reach Sydney this Friday, they’ll all be best friends...
Poppin’ Fresh By Benjamin Cooper
Opossom Possom Magic By Krissi Weiss
K
ody Nielson’s former band, The Mint Chicks, push a violent and chaotic energy through both their music and their performances, but Nielson himself is hesitant to the point of complete nervousness when we chat. Maybe he’s having a bad day, but he chooses his words with absolute trepidation and stutters his way through most sentences. His new, softer project, Opossom, may be a more accurate representation of his personality than the bedlam of Mint Chicks. “It’s been more free,” Nielson says of the new project. “I didn’t really have a picture of what I wanted to do with the music; it was more that I would keep the recordings that I liked. I think Mint Chicks wrote a lot together, and this style isn’t really what we would’ve done… It was good to not have to work everything out with someone else, you know? There are pros and cons to doing it on your own, but because I was just going with the flow it was all easier.”
I
t’s the afternoon following Jinja Safari’s appearance on triple j’s ‘Like A Version’ segment, and frontman Marcus Azon is still justifiably pumped. They managed to bust out a killer version of R. Kelly’s ‘Ignition’, and even included a sneaky Kanye West lyrical cameo.
cheeky Yeezy, particularly after our first choice got knocked back.” So what were they hoping to play? “‘The King Of Wishful Thinking’ by Go West. To be honest we actually all hate that song, but we practiced it and I reckon we could have done a brilliant job… They didn’t want us to do Destiny’s Child, either.”
“I feel like nothing patently declares how white we are like dropping both R. Kelly and Kanye on national radio,” Azon laughs down the line. “We didn’t drop the N-bomb, for obvious reasons, and then we managed to bust some sweet rap moves! Both Pepa [Knight] and I are huge fans of rap and consumerism, so it was awesome to throw down some
Azon and Knight’s upbringings were a world away from questionable 1980s pop and bootylicious anthems. Through their strict Christian childhoods in Tasmania, the pair were only exposed to “stuff related to religion or religious teachings,” Azon says. “Seriously, when we were kids our mums were against us being around anything that wasn’t Pentecostal Christian
“But in all seriousness, we’re really psyched for the tour because we’re all such huge fans of both bands. We’re really excited about going on tour with Kody, and we met the White Arrows guys earlier too. It’s going to be a pretty ridiculous and fun time. Actually, did you know that Opossom’s drummer is Bic Runga, who is Kody’s partner? Weird stuff, hey?” The tour will certainly involve equal parts chaos and good times, but it will also be approached with consideration by Azon, following some lessons learnt. “A little while back I kind of did that classic thing, where I was trying to hang with the cool dudes ... and I had this reflective moment in LA where I realised that wasn’t me. I was acting like a leech around the perimeter of that little world, so I decided to focus up and start writing music. Now, to borrow a phrase from R. Kelly, I’m thuggin’ it out.”
Producing and co-writing such diverse projects as King Kapisi, The Adults and He Will Have His Way (the Finn brothers tribute), Nielson has also been busy writing and playing with Bic Runga, who has now lent her skills to the Opossom project – all while crafting the Opossom sound. Ex-Mint Chicks bassist, Michael Logie (who was also in Runga’s live band) rounds out the lineup. “I showed the record to Bic and Michael,” he explains. “I was already playing music with both of them in Bic’s band. I started taking the songs to them, and we just started rehearsing during sound checks.” With so many different creative outlets and musical pursuits, it’d be easy to assume that Opossom could become Nielson’s sidelined side-project, rather than a fully-fledged focus. Even he seems unsure, at this stage, about how far he would like to take these new songs. “I just want to go with the flow with it,” he says. “I’ve been focusing a little bit more on getting by. It’s more just a chance to do what I want without having to sign off to anyone. I take it seriously, but it’s not as serious as when I am producing or collaborating with other people.” With Opossom marking the beginning of a new musical era for Nielson, it is hard to ignore that he has taken Logie with him for the ride. Were there any hard feelings at the end of The Mint Chicks? “No, everyone just needed their own space to do their own thing and just chill out,” he says. “We were so busy doing that for about eight years, and everyone was kind of just a bit spent. I think after we finished the last record we knew it was time to have a break. There were no hard feelings though. I’ve been working with Ruban [Nielson, Kody’s brother and ex-Mint Chicks bandmate] lately doing some producing for [his band] Unknown Mortal Orchestra. It’s still all good.” Lyrically, Nielson wrote the album swiftly, but says he was far more specific in his content than he has been in the past. Still, he adds, he really didn’t know exactly what a lot of the songs were about until after they were recorded. “It’s mostly about drug experiences and falling in love and things like that,” he explains, stumbling a little on his words. “A lot from knowing addicts and, yeah, that. I’m not championing drugs or anything, but it’s hard to avoid knowing people who have been affected by it in a big way. I guess when I was writing about relationships ending, I was writing a lot about what happened at the end of The Mint Chicks as well, and the way I was feeling. It wasn’t all bad or anything; I was actually trying to write really quickly and not think about it too much. It’s only when I look back on it now that I can figure out exactly what everything was about. At the time, I was just getting it done. Now it makes more sense.” Who: White Arrows, Jinja Safari and Opossom
What: The Blind Date Tour EP is available with every ticket purchase Where: The Blind Date Tour @ The Metro Theatre (lic. all-ages) When: Friday August 17
14 :: BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12
White Arrows Taking Aim By Benjamin Cooper
W
hen not fronting Los Angeles’ rockers White Arrows, Mickey Church could have another career as a ghostbuster. “There are literally proton packs everywhere, man! I really want to try one on…” he says in hushed tones. “They’re probably all just vacuum cleaners, but this janitorial closet I’ve jumped into is stacked with equipment. Any ghosts come along, we are seriously armed here.” Church issues another warning, this time to those expecting only raucous rock at White Arrows’ upcoming shows: the Californians may be touring off the back of their debut album Dry Land Is Not A Myth, which was released in June, but when they join locals Jinja Safari and New Zealanders Opossom as part of The Blind Date tour, they will quite likely sneak a bit of New Jersey balladry into their setlist, courtesy of Bruce Springsteen. “‘I’m On Fire’ is one of my favourite tracks ever, and we’ve been performing it for a while, so we decided to put it up online too. I don’t really intellectualise performing it, because
it’s just a favourite track. It’s got to be an homage, because to approach something that in your eyes is already perfect is only going to make something less perfect. People seem to enjoy it, and recently at one of our shows a member of The E Street Band’s son was there and came up afterwards to say he really got into it. That was cool.” When The Boss’ influence on our Deputy Prime Minister is mentioned, Church is frank. “I s’pose Bruce is just a dude who speaks for the people, whether they’re politicians or not,” he says. “He’s very relatable yet meaningful in the way he communicates with people. There’s so much in his lyrics, so whatever people feel is fine, as long as there is some relevance and poignancy.” Church tells me White Arrows are looking forward to the upcoming Australian tour, despite dreading getting on that plane. “It’s a ridiculously long flight,” he protests. “It’s like fourteen
hours or some bullshit, right? It doesn’t matter though – we’ve been waiting for this for ages. “We’ve toured with Kody [Nielson, Opossom] before. We’ve got a lot to catch up with him about,” he continues. “And then the Jinja Safari guys we’ve met before too, but in a bit more of a weird way. We had just played Great Escape festival in Brighton in the UK and were standing around in the hotel lobby. We saw these guys, and both our groups cautiously approached each other, until someone said something about how we looked like musicians. Then we start talking and they say, ‘Wow, you guys are White Arrows? We’ve just suggested having you on tour with us back in Australia... It’d be awesome if it came through!’ “And, in the ways of the weird kindred universe, it did. I’d love to take the credit for this all coming together, but we literally did nothing except turn up.”
This page: Opossom photo by Owen Behan Cover Photo l-r: Mickey Church (White Arrows) by Matthew Wardenaar, Los Angeles USA; Marcus Azon (Jinja Safari) Gary Compton by Sydney Aus; Kody Nielson (Opossom) by Milana Radojcic, Auckland NZ
Jinja Safari
There will be little chance for relaxed cuppas on the Sydneysiders’ upcoming Blind Date tour. The merry pop of Jinja Safari will be joined by the spaced-garage rock of LA’s White Arrows and the washedout summer pop of New Zealand’s Opossom, the relatively new project from ex-Mint Chicks maestro Kody Nielson. “I’m gunna ham this up, but we actually came up with the name for the tour while we were cruising around Malibu in the States with the top down in a convertible. It was pretty bad-ass,” Azon laughs.
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BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12 :: 15
Future Islands Close To You By Mitch Alexander
“I guess our songs can be a bit glum, but they’re also a little ironic... We definitely enjoy the dark side of things. No one wants to hear about a happy relationship.” with a pause, as if he’s recalling it all right now. “Robert Smith is still the king – he can still belt it out.”
S
“We just came back from playing a festival in Sweden and that was pretty amazing,” Welmers says excitedly. “Of course we went to Sweden,
which we’d never done before, but we also got to see The Cure play… They’re all of our favourite band.” The ‘all’ Welmers refers to includes himself and the other two members of Future Islands – vocalist Samuel T. Herring and guitarist William Cashion. The trio started their first band in North Carolina while in college, with various twists, turns and lineup changes leading to the band you see before you today. Over the space of six years, three albums and a clutch of EPs, the now Baltimore-based band has carved out a nice little niche in which to play their heart-on-sleeve glossy synth pop, a Masters course in lovelorn lyrics. So it shouldn’t come as too much of a shock that the band are so enamoured with Robert Smith’s pioneering goth pop sound. “They played for, I think, three and a half hours with no breaks,” continues Welmers
Future Islands’ third and most recent album, On The Water, is their first attempt at a song cycle (a term invented after ‘concept album’ became too damaged), a narrative telling a tale of – you guessed it – love, loss, despair, redemption, and other such grand themes. In a makeshift recording space that doubled as living quarters, the three pushed their sound (and friendship) to previously unexplored extremes, for an album that conjures visions of Bowie & Eno’s Berlin experiments or Robert Smith’s most unforgiving self-analysis, with less of the glittering pop shine that Future Islands often employ. “I mean they’re definitely still Future Island songs, they’ve got that dance vibe and pretty big sounds, but [they’re] also a lit bit
Taking into account their fairly nonstop touring routine and vast recorded output, Future Islands’ approach appears to be one of workhorse-like determination. “It’s pretty evenly split up along the lines of what we play: I do the programming and keyboards, William writes the parts for bass and extra guitar parts, and then Sam works on the lyrics,” explains Welmers. “But we all have a say in whether we enjoy what’s happening. That’s just how we’ve always done things. There’s no set plan for how this happens, and we would never stop doing something just because, like, ‘Oh, that’s not how we write’.” Wrapping up the interview, I ask Welmers where he sees the future of the band, whether this can continue into a long-term thing. Perhaps they can take another page from The Cure’s books, still playing to disaffected audiences worldwide after three decades? “Oh yeah, that would be amazing,” he replies. “The three of us work together really well, we’ve been doing it for almost 10 years now. I would love to be talking to you in twenty years, thirty albums in or something”. What: On The Water is out through Valve Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Thursday September 20
The War On Drugs
Come To The City By Alasdair Duncan
T
he War On Drugs’ Slave Ambient was a great big mystery of an album, its beautiful, fuzzed-out songs coming on a little Bruce Springsteen and a little Sonic Youth. It was also an album of obsessive details – chief songwriter Adam Granduciel spent years in the studio perfecting it, tinkering with tape loops and playing around with synths and pedals to get everything just right. It was an exhausting process, but one that taught Granduciel quite a bit about himself, as well as his music. “I don’t like to record in pristine settings,” he explains, “so most of the songs on this record started out at home. I have a bit of studio equipment set up there, a tape machine and some weird effects. I spent a lot of time there just recording weird overdubs, experimenting, then I would go to the studio for a few days to try and pick all those recordings apart and hear all the different things that were happening.” Listening to the album feels a little like being in a dream, which is fitting given how much of it came from Granduciel’s unconscious mind. “I really felt like I was inside the record,” he tells me. “When I was recording it, I discovered a great many things about myself as a musician and a writer, and I tried to just soak it all in.” He didn’t put a lot of focus on the lyrics – he just let them come as he was shaping the music. “I feel like they
“You can make a record that you’re proud of and do it a lot more quickly than you might think, as long as you trust yourself to know what feels right.” 16 :: BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12
really just came out of me,” he says. “I was really excited about being alive and being a musician, and I was really just focusing on that, and on the arrangements of the songs. I mean, there are a few lyrics that were consciously written, about a trip I’d taken or something like that, but for the most part they were unconscious. I just let them flow out of me, just trying to capture feelings.” Getting Slave Ambient finished was a momentous task for Granduciel, but now it’s done he feels that the process for the band’s next record will be a lot more streamlined. “I might use some of the same methods, but it might only take a year instead of three or four,” he laughs. “I spent a lot of time with this record going down roads just to see if I really wanted to go down them – I’d spend two months on a different version of a song just to see if it made me feel any different from the version I’d just finished, but I would never end up using that second idea. I’d always go back to the original feeling.” Doing this taught him to trust his instincts, and as a writer and producer he now feels like he’s found an easier way to make a record. “I’ve realised that you can make a record that you’re proud of and do it a lot more quickly than you might think, as long as you trust yourself to know what feels right.” Granduciel will be bringing The War On Drugs to Australia for Harvest Festival later this year, and I’m interested to know how those strange, intricate songs from Slave Ambient will translate from studio to stage. “Live, it’s a little bit more of a rock record,” he explains. “We don’t use any computers or anything like that on stage, but there are a couple of drum machines we used on the record that we bring along, for example. We have a few samplers and bits of gear to try and get some of those studio sounds as well. But at the end of the day I wrote that record in the studio, so rather than make the songs sound just like the studio versions, all I can do is just play them – I mean, you’ll always know what song you’re hearing, they don’t change that drastically, but they’re different.”
The songs on Slave Ambient were written in a very unconventional way, but having played them live for a year, Granduciel feels pretty confident that he’s found his way into them. “We don’t alter the songs drastically or play them super loud or anything, and we play as much as we can from the albums and EPs. I mean, ‘The Animator’ is in there, so we cover a lot.” I’d been curious about this track, one of the electronic interludes from Slave Ambient, and am glad to hear that it makes it into the show. “Yeah, we can do it with some loop stuff,” he explains. “Robbie [Bennett, keys & guitar] has a couple of synths, I play a harmonica, so it’s cool. Sometimes we’ll play it for less than a minute and sometimes for three or four, depending on how it’s going.”
Granduciel is used to playing European festivals, where you fly in, play, and fly right out again, so the idea of travelling around Australia with Harvest is pretty exciting. “There’s so much great stuff on the bill,” he says. “I mean, Beck’s playing, you’ve got Grizzly Bear, Sigur Rós… With Harvest, we get to travel and see every band we want to see, which is really great. You don’t often get the chance to do that, so I’m really excited!” With: Beck, Sigur Rós, Ben Folds Five, Grizzly Bear, Liars and many more Where: Harvest Festival @ Parramatta Park When: Saturday November 17
Xxxx Xxx Future Islands photo byphoto Mike by Vorassi
ometimes you can forget that bands are people too. Of course they have the physical requirements – legs, toes, haircuts and so on – but for some reason you see them onstage, you read about them, and you start to separate the creation from the creator. They become vessels to funnel sound through, with no interest in anything that’s not their next project. This perception can be reinforced when a band nonchalantly shrugs off their world-faring day job or plays the modesty card. So it’s particularly refreshing to hear Gerrit Welmers, the man in charge of Future Island’s glossy keyboards and electronic percussion, speak about seeing the band’s collective idol with bright-eyed enthusiasm. Remember: musicians like music as well.
Future Islands like songs about love. It’s that simple. Mutual, everlasting love; unrequitedbordering-on-the-obsessive love; love that turns sour – they’re not picky when it comes to source material. The neat little trick they often employ is to mask their blissful lyrics in a shroud of downbeat atmospherics, or turn tales of woe into jubilant dancefloor fillers with electro-bubblegum keyboards. Think of it as a 21st century update of Phil Spector’s teenage melodramas, or the way Eels’ Mark Oliver Everett sprinkles chirpy guitars over tragic words. At times they’ve almost been accused of revelling in misery, a charge that Welmers neither confirms or denies. “I guess our songs can be a bit glum, but they’re also a little ironic,” he offers. “Like, we’ll play songs about suffering, but they’re kind of catchy… I guess some songs are kind of dark but others sound uplifting. We definitely enjoy the dark side of things. No one wants to hear about a happy relationship, like, ‘My life’s great, everything is really cool, I love my girlfriend’ and so on.”
more mature,” Welmers says. But their recorded output up to this moment already seemed pretty mature (these aren’t songs about partying and frat house misadventures), so I probe a little further… “I think maybe the sound is a little bit more defined or refined?” he replies. “I guess I’m making sure there’s not so many cheesy sounds, keeping away from that glitchy, catchy type stuff. I think it’s a natural progression. But yeah, as far as lyrics, Samuel has always been a pretty mature writer.”
Alpine Such Great Heights By Bella Arnott-Hoare
T
itled like a kid’s first book, A Is For Alpine is Alpine’s first full-length release, and for most it will certainly act as an introduction to the Melbourne sextet. The whimsical melodies and almost childlike falsetto enunciation evoke the innocence of formative years – but the band has existed since 2009 and, having now earned solid critique, record company approval and spots supporting some of the country’s biggest acts, this record in fact represents Alpine’s coming of age.
Since the jagged, haunting pop tune ‘Villages’ was picked up by triple j for regular rotation, they’ve emerged as a band to watch, starting with their Zurich EP before being recruited by Ivy League Records – and they’re now poised to unveil a polished, full collection. Perched beside one another at the end of a table, co-frontwomen Phoebe Baker and Lou James look like polar opposites: Lou’s black, mechanical bob and sleek eye makeup starkly contrast Phoebe’s strawberry blonde tresses and outspoken floral collar. It’s the start of a long day of interviews that will soon turn into photoshoots, the life of a now-professional band. But they’re learning the ropes. “We got signed in ‘09 – it [feels] like yesterday,” Lou says. “It’s the middle of 2012 and I don’t understand where the time’s gone, which is scaring me because we’ve done so much. When I do sit down and look back I’m like, ‘Holy bananas.’ We’ve written an album, and we went to Austin, and we’re sitting here doing an interview for the album – it’s crazy.”
kind of a dag, you can do what you want. You don’t really care. That’s the same theory behind the performance; we’re just expressing our personalities.” But Phoebe admits it’s something they had to work on. “We’re finding our feet, so we’re exploring being onstage and matching it with the music, or exploring the music.” All together, Alpine are hard to pin down, ambiguous musically and visually. Whether intentionally or not, they’ve rarely been considered an ‘Australian’-style band by critics, noted for their European sound – helped in part by their Nordic bandname. “A lot of people do say our music is European-sounding, which is funny because we didn’t set out like that. It just kind of happened,” says Phoebe. “But then when I think about the name Alpine I associate it with hiking and that fresh beautiful feeling when you’re up there, and that’s what I want to put into the music.” What: A Is For Alpine is out now on Ivy League With: Clubfeet, Georgi Kay Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Friday August 31
“Grace Jones hula hooping for a whole show with a glass of wine and a straw in a G-string... Performance is letting out what you don’t let out normally.” For a band on the cusp, there will always be a moment when the rest of the world is forced to take notice. Alpine’s could have been last November with the release of their film clip for ‘Hands’. With visuals of writhing, half-naked teens involved in pseudo-sexual activities, it certainly demonstrated their willingness to raise eyebrows. The piece by Lucy Schroeder illustrated their precarious status as a band in loose metaphorical terms. “It’s that stage between innocence and sexuality where it’s sensual, it’s awkward, it’s sexual. And having all those girls in quite a confined space is quite confronting. It is a full-on clip, but I like that it does make people talk; it does stick in your mind,” says Lou. “And it’s not necessarily exactly about the content of the lyric,” Phoebe says, “which is kind of an acceptance of your emotions – but it could be, in a way, [about] an acceptance of your newfound sexuality. In all our videos – ‘Heartlove’, ‘Villages’ – we let the directors explore what they want to explore, and we just go along for the ride.” Winning the SoundKilda Best Music Video Commendation, and having reached an impressive number of YouTube hits, the clip was one of their defining moments – albeit a tricky one. “‘Hands’ was a risk,” says Lou. “When I first saw it I thought it was full-on, but you’ve got to take risks as a band, and in life. Even my dad hasn’t seen it. But people do talk about it because it’s memorable, hopefully.” Alpine have evidently come a long way from the high school friendships that blossomed into band revelry. Since then, the band’s sound and stage presence have been under construction, a kind of work-in-progress. With the creative input of six band members, including ex-punk performers Christian and Phil, their output has been asserted in part through compromise – and for the girls, the support of a best friend has helped each other ease out their stage personas. “We go way back. I think that’s really awesome [for] two front co-lead chicks, having your best friend on stage,” says Lou. Although the full musical complement is what makes their shows so compelling, the two ladies – dressed in glittering onesies – command attention at centre stage. Their onstage personas are inspired by musical icons; for Phoebe, performance is about exploring unexpected oddities, and providing entertainment with the same experimental force as her idol, androgynous Jamaican diva Grace Jones. “We want to put on a good show and for the audience to have fun, like when I watch Grace Jones – seeing her hula hooping for a whole show with a glass of wine and a straw in a G-string. It’s letting out what you don’t let out normally. I just want the audience to feel like they can be inspired, or not feel nervous.” But this kind of expression, Lou says, comes with its own brutal truths... “The reason we go crazy on stage is that when you’re BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12 :: 17
Enter Shikari
A Flash Flood Of Sounds By Krissi Weiss
‘G
enre-defying’ is a term thrashed about so often it has little in the way of meaning or accuracy, but Britain’s Enter Shikari get pretty close to the essence of the concept. In fact, they don’t just defy genre labels; they completely obliterate the notion. Combining post-hardcore, metal and punk with electronic breakdowns, trance and dubstep could be a recipe for disaster, but frontman Rou Reynolds and co. have amassed an overwhelming following during the decade they’ve been together. Although the band had accumulated a dedicated niche following in their early years, their latest release, A Flash Flood Of Colour, debuted at #4 on the British charts and catapulted the band into a whole new arena of notoriety. On top of preparing for Enter Shikari’s run of European and UK summer festivals as well as a world tour, Reynolds has just launched his fashion line, Step Up Clothing. “The whole premise of the company is about the resource and the moral side of the business, so it’s all fair trade, organic, and with minimal impact on the environment,” Reynolds says, as he walks home from a meeting through the streets of London. “The T-shirts have a 90% reduced carbon emission rate. All of the shirts are designed by friends of mine and represent different causes and charities.” In the past, Reynolds has insisted that he and
Enter Shikari are not political in any way, but the lyrical content of the band’s music – as well as projects like this clothing line – seem to contradict that position. “I think the main reason I’ve said that is that the second you mention the p-word, I guarantee about 50% of the people who are watching, reading or listening will just switch off,” he says. “They think it’s gonna be boring. When I think of politics, I think of old men bickering about budgets.” But what about demonstrations of youth solidarity – or even just a good oldfashioned riot? “Obviously that’s more exciting,” he laughs. “But I think we try and encourage people to just think about the things going on around them. Nature doesn’t respect any borders whatsoever, and when you think about it countries are just gangs on a larger scale. It’s a very immature and blinkered way of structuring society, and all of the psychological shit it brings – patriotism and negativity – creates so many problems in this world.” By album number three audience expectation starts to become a weighty issue, but Enter Shikari have never made music just to please the masses; indeed, they seem to distance themselves from any external demands placed on their creativity. “It’s the whole first-album thing,” he says. “If we’d just stayed making the same music over and over a fair few people would’ve been really pleased, but most people would’ve been really bored. Particularly us.
The whole reason you get into music is so you have that creative freedom and you’re not stuck at a desk or something, doing the same thing over and over again. You do it for freedom, and that is how we approach things. “The music that we make is quite scientific, but it’s so simple as well,” he continues. “You just absorb the experiences and feelings you have every day and you churn them up inside you until they come out of this blender that turns out to be an amalgamation of sounds. We don’t think, ‘Oh we need some hardcore or drum and
bass or punk’, nor do we think, ‘Screw you guys, we’re not playing this song or that song’ if we know people will want to hear it. But creatively, the songs just come out via whatever tools we have on hand. It’s what we did for this album and what we’ll continue to do.” What: A Flash Flood Of Colour is out now on Liberator Music Where: UNSW Roundhouse (lic. all-ages) When: Friday September 21
Joe McKee Home Free By Benjamin Cooper
Breaking Orbit Making Time By Peter Hodgson
B
reaking Orbit have done something not many bands have managed: they’ve created their own niche and filled it before anyone else could jump in. Their music combines alternative attitude and mood with progressive musicianship and adventurousness, somehow hitting the exact sweet spot where alternative fans can find the emotional nourishment they need, while prog fans can dig into the technical and intellectual aspects that they crave. Debut album The Time Traveller is full of melodic hooks, intriguing rhythms and entrancing textures and, if these guys can get a foothold, they’re sure to be huge in markets like Europe and South America. There’s a healthy scene for them in Australia, too – which is where most of their energy is focused for now. “I’ve been making music with our lead singer Matt Quayle for about ten years, and all of us have been in various incarnations of other bands,” drummer Mark Tyson explains. “We collectively started working together around 2006, but Breaking Orbit itself didn’t really take its current form until 2009.” The guys all come from varying backgrounds – some classical, others more contemporary – and right now they find themselves focusing fairly heavily on the more progressive and eclectic forms, taking influence from those that have come before, like Oceansize and Meshuggah. “As individual musicians we feel relatively accomplished, although we’d probably never formally admit to that,” Mark laughs. “But I think in terms of how we’ve been writing music, and the processes we go through to do that, we started off back in the day with the Tool approach of nine- to twelve-hour jams, recording things, listening back, refining, and all that kind of stuff. Over that time we’ve really learned how to write together. For example, with my background being classical I tend to lean more towards the big symphonic sounds. 18 :: BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12
I have a background in ambient and things like that as well. Whereas the other boys, like Dylan Mitrovich, our guitarist and producer – he has a similar classical kind of background but his influences are more from the heavier side, and the complexities that, say, Mike Patton has introduced to his music.” Many of the songs on The Time Traveller have been played live since the formation of the band, and have evolved organically over that time. Recording for the album started in 2010, with the two singles ‘Callsign’ and ‘My Direction’ offering audiences a concise, digestible version of the band’s sound. The album proper takes listeners much deeper. “We tried to go for that full sonic experience – that sense of space, and of telling a story through music.” The album was mastered by Forrester Savell, who is generally hailed as possessing the best pair of ears imaginable for this type of music – not just in Australia, but in the world. “He came in towards the end of the process,” Mark explains. “Forry is arguably the most accomplished person in Australia in this genre, from a production perspective… Him and Dylan spent a good month and a half back and forth to refine it, and we were stoked that he was keen to do it.” Savell has the uncanny knack of knowing how to create a full, sweeping sound yet with enough detail that you can focus in on individual instruments – which is perfect for both the scale and minutiae of what Breaking Orbit is about. “All those individual moments and textures, you can hear them as the whole or individually – so, without blowing one’s own steam, we were absolutely ecstatic over the final product when we first heard it.” What: The Time Traveller is out now Where: The Annandale Hotel When: Friday August 17
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oseph McKee is remarkably composed for someone who lives in such a constant state of change. At present he’s living and working in Melbourne, following a stint in his home state of Western Australia after the dissolution of his band Snowman in London. If that all seems a bit Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiago?, it hasn’t troubled McKee. “I like to keep moving,” he admits. “I do tend to get quite fidgety and restless, and so I want to keep moving and consuming things – whether it’s art, or music, or whatever. Melbourne’s been great so far for doing just that. “ McKee used his time at home in the Darling Ranges south of Perth last year to write and record his debut solo LP, Burning Boy. It’s an entirely different serving than anything offered up by Snowman; an album highlight, cerebral single ‘Darling Hills’, sees McKee alternating between pleading and disdain amidst sublimely restrained orchestral work. “Basically, there were things I couldn’t do with my band outright,” he explains. “It was awesome and everything else, but with Snowman those songs could only be played in the particular way we did things. I don’t want to feel bound, so having complete control over the album was very freeing for me. It was enormously freeing to not have to think about how it’s supposed to be arranged.” Returning to Australia after several years in London has presented occasional challenges to McKee. “Things had obviously run their course over in Europe, so it made sense to come back home,” McKee says. “I’ve had to hook up with a whole new crew of musicians to bring some of the songs to life, but at the same time I do want to steer clear of forming a band. These songs don’t need those other instruments and I don’t want to feel limited by those kinds of arrangements, so I’ll do
it differently. I don’t want to feel bound by writing for the certain instruments of certain players, so I aim to get different people each time I play. This obviously means that every time I play live it’s a different interpretation of the work, which keeps things moving too.” “Working [in Melbourne] has been really great precisely because it’s been so different,” he says. “I’m definitely keen to go back to London and see people in the future, but at the moment there’s so much planned that I’ll just to do it as it comes.” The experience of relocating again to Melbourne was softened somewhat for McKee by the presence of a multitude of other Western Australians... “The Westies are everywhere around Melbourne, aren’t they?” he laughs. “It’s been really nice to reconnect with people, having been dislocated for so long and everything. It’s really nice to be surrounded by such a swag of people I know. It is funny though: Melbourne seems to actively suck all the creative types from Perth, and haul them over the other side of the country. I’m not complaining, though – there’s really great ideas musically coming out of the city. It’s just a shame Australia is so far away from the rest of the world.” Before heading abroad for his upcoming European dates, McKee is excited to be embarking on a string of national shows, which will see him launching his new album in the intimate confines of the Paddington Uniting Church this Thursday. “It’s great to be getting back on the road,” he says. “If I had to be honest, I’d just say I want to keep on moving, you know?” What: Burning Boy is out now on Dot Dash, through Remote Control Where: Paddington Uniting Church When: Thursday August 16
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arts frontline
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arts, theatre and film news... what's goin' on around town and more...
five minutes WITH MARK
ROGERS
sacrifice it takes to save it. It’s about choice, guilt and family. You compare it to Pinter’s Ashes To Ashes – can you explain the connections? I love that particular play, it’s like an echo chamber of events filtered through these two voices. Blood Pressure also plays with this kind of language, an almost heightened way of speaking about events and thought, but it is more grounded in the reality of the relationship of the two brothers.
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e first met Mark at This Is Not Art, at which time he was writing an awesome theatre blog called The Perf with fellow Applespiel member Simon Binns; most recently, we saw him in Applespiel Make A Band And Take On the Recording Industry. He also writes, directs and is one half of Bodysnatchers, alongside fellow Wollongong University Performance Studies grad Sanja Simic. They broke out at last year’s Fringe with Gobbledygook; next up is Blood Pressure. What, in essence, is this play about? It’s about a failing relationship and the massive
What was your initial inspiration? I had a conversation with Sanja about a grand piano and a wheelchair, I think, just talking about random images we liked. This then became something else that was particular to my own and others’ experiences with organ failure and donation, and the particular emotional weight of giving a part of yourself (physically) to someone else. About half the cast and creatives have experience with this stuff too, so all this fed into the writing process. “Uncompromising and aesthetically rich” – when you’re talking about Bodysnatchers’ work, what does this mean? Uncompromising in the sense that our work is what we’re interested in, it chases our neuroses and the world as we experience it. It’s in our bio as a reminder to us that our work is particular to us, and that is its strength. And aesthetically rich means we like theatre because it’s a visual medium, and drawing on other disciplines like photography/performance art/video and film enriches that aspect of our work. by Nick Casey, a performance of Charlie Garber and Gareth Davies’ hit Imperial Panda show Masterclass, and the group exhibition Why White?, curated by Michelle McCosker and including work by Hiske Weijers, Sean O’Connell, Jonathan James, Victoria Lobregat, Susan MacDonald, Louise Coxx, Bec Paton and Equilibrium Design Studio. There’s also some BBQ. 107projects.org
FRINGE COMEDY
HUNGRY FOR ART
Redfern arts hub 107 Projects is opening its doors next month, so you can have a stickybeak at what they get up to and check out their killer reno. The Redfern Street space was established last year by the peeps behind Knot Gallery, Token Imagination and Frequency Lab, as “a place for creative practitioners to perform, exhibit, develop new works, hone their skills, engage in workshops and continue to grow professionally”. Head along on Saturday September 8 from 12pm-4pm for a free degustation menu that includes live music 20 :: BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12
Do you have a routine for writing? It changes process to process. I wrote the first draft of Blood Pressure in a night in my childhood bunk bed. (It was a horrid mess). I’ve written another play at Café New Deli in Marrickville. Wherever works and has coffee. What: Blood Pressure by Mark Rogers Where: The Old Fitzroy Hotel Theatre When: August 14 – September 1 More: rocksurfers.org
guitar, and performer Adriano Cappelletta (of Cubbyhouse). Sunday August 26 from 8pm at the Old Fitzroy Theatre (129 Dowling Street, Woolloomooloo). More info at rocksurfers.org
ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL
The Italian Film Festival has dropped its lineup; this year’s must-see is Paolo and Vittorio Taviani’s prison drama Caesar Must Die, which took home the Golden Bear at Berlin Film Festival earlier this year and played in competition at Sydney Film Festival. A masterly combination of fiction and drama, the film’s premise is the drama program at one of Rome’s most dangerous prisons, where inmates are making first contact with Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The politics and heated emotions of the play intercut with the politics and heated emotions in the cells – but the real magic in this film is little nuggets of beauty and drama that the directors spot in the everyday lives of their subjects, recreate and reintegrate into their footage. Another highlight is Cannes Grand Prix winner Reality, in which Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah) takes on reality TV in Italian culture,
Holy Motors opens August 23 – and thanks to Icon Films, we have 15 x in-season double passes up for grabs; to get your hands on one, email us with the name of one of Carax’s previous films.
Shit gets weird in Holy Motors in a biting satire. The fest runs September 20 – October 10; for the rest of the program, see italianfilmfestival.com.au
THE LIGHT FANTASTIC
From now until December, Tuesdays to Sundays, you can play Big Snake on the massive four-stories-high digital façade currently gracing the Commonwealth Bank HQ in Darling Harbour. It’s part of Luminous, a new lights installation geared at getting people down to the newish Darling Quarter precinct. Two touchscreen consoles have been installed so that punters can play each other at Big Snake or Pong, across the two buildings – or just go solo-nuts on Finger Paint. When you’re not duelling, the lighting program kicks in, with designs by local digital lighting designer Bruce Ramus, but you should really head to myinteractivecity.com, where you can create your own design and book a time slot to screen it. Fridays during August are being programmed by aMBUSH gallery, and will feature sets by the Future Classic DJs. More deets at darlingquarterluminous.com.au
Phoenix racer Squirty before the local finals – from Wiener Takes All
BEDROOM PHILOSOPHER
Justin Heazlewood is bringing it back to where it all began (not necessarily true) this month with his e-book show-slash-gig-slash-performancepoetry-slash-comedy show at Goodgod Small Club. Expect readings from The Bedroom Philosopher Diaries (of which Neil Gaiman has said, “what all the great rock and roll touring books would have been like, if the people who wrote them had been honest to the point of embarrassment, had a clear, self-deprecating sense of humour and had real problems with veggieburgers and plastic razors”) and songs from B-Phil’s forthcoming album (avec accompaniment by his Awkwardstra), plus deadpan-delivery of bent dialogues by Zoe Coombs Marr, body poetry by Melbourne comedian Sabrina D’Angelo, and turntablism (or prolly just DJing) by SPOD. Thursday September 6, tix at goodgodgoodgod.com
CUT & PASTE #15 107 PROJECTS OPEN DAY
You’re obviously fans of crowd-funding, but how relieved are you that no-one bought the $750 package? (And how were you planning to personalise that item?) We’ve been very fortunate with our Pozible campaign, the response has been fantastic. It’s also a great way of rewarding engagement with our company and encouraging investment in the arts. I’m sort of glad no one has bought the nude photo of me yet, although I am 100% committed to it. I thought I’d just take requests for the personalised pose – leopard, ballerina, whatever they liked.
If you like things a little rough around the edges – more rough 'n' ready than ice-princess perfection – Cut & Paste is right up your alley; it’s Tamarama Rock Surfers’ bi-monthly variety night, where local performers, musicians, magicians, comedians and storytellers showcase bite-sized bits of work, often using the occasion to try out or hone works in progress. The upcoming show will feature The Chaser’s Dom Knight trying out 10 minutes of new stand-up material for size; former STC Resident Zindzi Okenyo taking some songs for a spin; magician Ben Orson, comedian Alex Lee, Fanny Lumsden on voice and
GOOD DOG!
The Good Dog Film Festival runs this weekend at the Balmain Town Hall, offering up a slew of canine comedy and dog-centric drama and docos. Highlights include: My Dog: An Unconditional Love Story, in which people like Glenn Close, Law & Order’s Elliot and Munch, playwright Edward Albee, and Sopranos’ Edie Falco talk about their canine companions; the dogumentary Wiener Takes All, which features sausage dogs competing in sausage-dog Olympics; Bill Plympton’s demented dog animations; Norman the Scooter Dog (of normanthescooterdog.com), we assume riding a scooter; Nick Park’s Wallace & Gromit adventure The Wrong Trousers, Chris Morris’ 2003 short My Wrongs #8245–8249 & 117 (starring Paddy Considine and a Doberman Pinscher); and the feature documentary A Pug’s Life – which we wish featured rapping pugs, but is actually about Hollywood pug stars. Screenings run from Friday August 17 – Sunday August 19, all deets at gooddogff.com
Wiener Takes All – photo by Shane MacDougall
Ryde will be flexing its art muscles this weekend, over two days of workshops, pop-up art and performance held at The Sydney Gallery School, TAFE NSI Meadowbank College. On Saturday August 18 you can head along during the day to take part in free drawing classes and sculptural activities, as part of DrawFest; or check out See Street Gallery’s Commodified exhibition, which showcases artists working in the greater Ryde area. Amongst the sculpture-heavy lineup is Sydney-via-Suffolk artist Will Coles (who previously did the large soysauce-fish sculptures, cement TVs and remotes at Outpost Festival), Jimmy Rix (who did the giant steel grater at Sculpture By the Sea), Sarah Nolan (whose mixed-media sculpture embraces her love of fabric and found-objects), and Janet Tavener (who does amazing things with ice and colour-rich resin). Full program and details at ryde.nsw.gov. au/hungryforart
From September 7-30, Sydney Fringe are making it really easy for you and putting all the Funny in one place: the Factory Theatre. You can catch Ronny Chieng off the back of his spot at the world comedy mecca: Montreal’s Just For Laughs Festival; Michael Hing, off the back of sell-out shows at Melbourne and Sydney Comedy Festivals; local heroine Gen Fricker, of Project 52 and FBi infamy; Raw Comedy 2011 winner and hotly tipped next-big-star Dayne Rathbone (he came second in the UK’s largest comedy competition, So You Think You’re Funny); and a proper live performance type thing from Brisbane-based YouTube comedy collective Skills In Time; plus heaps more. They’re also programming live comedy podcasting, with Mel Buttle and Patience ‘from the Grates’ Hodgson, Michael Hing and Jake Druce, and Dom Knight. More at sydneyfringe.com
How did y’all decide to form a company? We both started directing at around the same time and helped each other out on each other’s projects. I’d say that pretty much everything I’ve ever done had some Sanja in it and vice versa. So it felt pretty natural to start a company. The first work we did was a development of Tis Pity She’s A Whore at Merrigong Theatre.
Simply put, Leos Carax’s Palme d’Or contender is about a man who travels between different parallel lives; it’s the kind of film that Paul Auster might have written, as directed by David Lynch; a brave, surreal, sad and funny exploration of identity and its impossibility. Or as Peter Bradshaw said sai sa aiid in in the tth he Guardian, he Guardi Gua rdian dian an, “Holy Motors is weird and wonderful, rich and strange – barking mad, in fact. It is wayward, kaleidoscopic, black comic and bizarre; there is in it a batsqueak of genius, dishevelment and derangement; it is captivating and compelling.” If that’s not titillating enough, it also stars Kylie Minogue and Eva Mendes.
Janet Tavener: Frozen Dinner – Chops & Veg, 2011, acrylic faced mounted digital print, 80 x 80 cm
Frozen Dinner by Janet Tavener
HOLY MOTORS!
The City of Ryde comes to life e in August with th ceramics, digital gital media, drawing, wing, installation, n, painting,, printmaking and sculpture e exhibitions, s s, art talks, music, us sic, performance e and food events. s s.
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The Bourne Legacy Taking The Reins By Alasdair Duncan
A
thriller that doesn’t require you to shave several points off your IQ – that’s how Tony Gilroy describes The Bourne Legacy, but you could apply that description to any number of films on his resume. Gilroy has worked steadily as a screenwriter over the last two decades, and penned the first three entries in the Bourne series, which were the very definition of smart, cerebral action flicks. He stepped behind the camera for 2007’s acclaimed Michael Clayton, and followed that up with the equally lean corporate espionage tale Duplicity. There was never any doubt that the Bourne series was in good hands when Gilroy stepped in to replace Paul Greengrass as director, but with the absence of Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne, the challenge was finding a leading man worthy of the series’ pedigree. That leading man proved to be Jeremy Renner, whose mixture of toughness and vulnerability made him perfect for the role of Aaron Cross. As Gilroy tells it, he tiptoed into the project long after everyone else had initially walked away. Attending a meeting with producers – a “very casual meeting”, he stresses to me – to discuss the future of the series post-Damon and Greengrass, he suggested that perhaps the next film could be about a larger conspiracy involving a project like the one that spawned Jason Bourne. The business people liked the idea, but Gilroy wasn’t sure he was up for the job – he didn’t yet have a character to hang his story on, and for him, this is all that matters. “The character is really where I always
Writer-director Tony Gilroy
G IV EA W AY S
Cross is a loose end left behind by a failed CIA program; escaping execution at the beginning of the film, he finds himself in a desperate race to escape those who want him dead. Casting the role proved to be an extremely tricky business. “We conducted a very lengthy, public search for a long time,” Gilroy explains. “We ran around and auditioned a lot of people, spoke to a lot of people, screen tested people, got very interested in some people. The bar was high and the requirements were enormous – we really needed to pick the right person. Late in the process, The Avengers tightened up their schedule, and all of a sudden, Jeremy was available.” He was just the kind of star they were looking for – an actor about to break very big, who didn’t yet have a signature role to his name, or the associations that inevitably come with that. “We were immediately interested,” Gilroy says. “We ran right over to throw a script at him and have a conversation.” Renner gives one of several outstanding performances in the film – another comes courtesy of Edward Norton, who plays CIA operative Eric Byer. Byer is ostensibly the bad guy of the piece, leading the hunt for Cross, but part of what makes him so sinister is the fact that he plays the role as a normal guy just trying to do his job. Byer defines himself as a patriot, a concept Gilroy finds fascinating. “This is a guy who really has his eyes wide open,” he says, “a brilliant guy who really believes that somebody has to carry the bodies out of the town square in the dark of night so that everybody else can be safe. Certainly in America, you want to be safe, you want your family to be safe, even if you’re conflicted about some of the things you’re tacitly condoning to make that happen. He’s a living expression of that, and it would have been unfortunate to have a character like that and not have the opportunity get into some of those ideas.” Gilroy’s films all have a toughness to them, an overriding sense of the masculine, but The Bourne Legacy features that most masculine of all movie set-pieces – a really big car chase. This climactic scene takes place on the streets of Manila, and for Gilroy, shooting it was something of a dream come true. “There’s no incredible secret to how a car chase is done,” he says, when I ask how it came together. “You need to have the right people around you, including a great second-unit director, you have to have enough money, and you have to begin planning it a very long time in advance. I like to go to real places and create a sequence that really uses both the possibilities and the limitations of the environment, and I did this over many, many trips to Manila. A sequence like that may seem overwhelming, but if you take it piece by piece, beat by beat, you can put it together.” That and it’s fun as hell. “You get to be seven years old again and smash little cars together,” he laughs. “You have to love that.”
WIN!
Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross The Bourne Legacy With The Bourne Legacy set for release this week, I ask Gilroy if he sees the film as the potential beginning of a new series starring Renner. “I don’t know exactly,” he says. “There’s no master plan for what’s going to happen here. I mean, one thing that was very important to us is that we wanted to make a movie that could stand strongly on its own – you don’t necessarily need to know anything about the previous three to get something out of this one. We’ve road-tested it to make sure it works that way. We also wanted something that would preserve the spirit of the past, something that the true fans would be able to dig back into. [And we] wanted to leave
ourselves in a place where the mythology we’d created could move in a bunch of different directions.” The audience’s reaction will, of course, play a part in this. Whether filmgoers embrace Renner as Aaron Cross remains to be seen, but Gilroy feels good either way. “I’m not nervous,” he says. “I like my movie, and that’s where you’ve got to be. The rest of it is just very exciting.” What: The Bourne Legacy - Dir. Tony Gilroy When: In cinemas Thursday August 16
MOONRISE KINGDOM! very few years Wes Anderson makes a film; right on time, Moonrise Kingdom arrives this month – a perfect storm of impeccable styling, comic timing, deadpan delivery and oneline zingers that’ll make your toes curl with joy. Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of ‘65, the story revolves around runaway pre-teen lovers Suzy and Sam – he an emotionally disturbed orphan and boyscout she a Françoise-Hardy-loving, blueeye-shadow-wearing femme fatale with anger management issues – as they embark on an adventure in the New England wilds, with her parents, local law enforcement, social services and the Khaki Scouts of America in pursuit. Besides the hard-boiled young leads, the casting cup floweth over with Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Ed Norton, Bruce Willis, Bob Balaban and Harvey Keitel. (All the good ones).
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Moonrise Kingdom opens in cinemas on August 30 In case you missed it at Cannes, we’ve got TEN 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 one other Wes Anderson film. © 2012 Universal Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
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moonrisekingdommovie.com.au
Facebook.com/UniversalPicturesAU
The Bourne Legacy photos both by Mary Cybulski
“It’s never about a theme or an overarching story – it’s always about an individual who wants something desperately, who needs something. The place where it got interesting for me, when I decided I might actually be interested in writing and directing, is when the character of Aaron Cross began to emerge.”
start,” he explains. “It’s never about a theme or an overarching story – it’s always about an individual who wants something desperately, who needs something. The place where it got interesting for me, when I decided I might actually be interested in writing and directing, is when the character of Aaron Cross began to emerge.”
Vernon God Little photo by Peter Gahan
Jeremy Thomas [FILM] The Lone Ranger By Dee Jefferson
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n September 2008, the world watched in horror as the sub-prime mortage bubble exploded, and the bottom fell out of the UK and American markets. It ushered in a new, global era of austerity that inevitably had knockon effects through different aspects of our daily and not-so-daily lives. As British producer Jeremy Thomas says, one of the first things to go in times of austerity is funding for the arts. In September 2008 he was still trying to secure funding for David Cronenberg’s latest project – a film about Freud, Jung, and the woman who came between them and helped shape modern psychological theory. Thomas describes the process of getting that film funded as excruciating. Even with a track record of almost four decades as an independent producer, including working with notorious directors like Terry Gilliam and on lavish productions like Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor, the experience stands out. “If we didn’t get it made as a Canadian/German co-pro – which happened in a natural way because it was set in Vienna so we could shoot some of the locations in Europe and the interiors in Cologne (Germany) and then do all the post work in Canada – we would never have made [A Dangerous Method].” Even so, when the film started shooting in June 2010, Thomas still hadn’t fulfilled the budget. Greenlighting a film before you lock down the money is generally not done (“It was a terrifying experience,” says the producer) but it’s becoming a necessity in the age of austerity. “I’m doing it now – with the Jim Jarmusch film shooting right now... I know where the money is [and] I know it’s there, but if I wait until I’ve closed the [deal] I won’t make the film because the actors are no longer available.”
Vernon God Little – photograph by Peter Gahan
Luke Willing and Julia Rorke
Thomas is known for his persistence and patience; if he’s passionate about a film or its director, he’ll make it happen. When he first met Cronenberg, at Toronto Film Festival in 1980, the director said he wanted to adapt Naked Lunch for screen; Thomas immediately optioned the book from William S. Burroughs, but it took ten years for the film to be realised. His forthcoming film, Kon Tiki (based on Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl’s famous expedition diary) has been in the pipeline since 1996.
Michael Fassbender and Mortensen
Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen on set Thomas and Cronenberg started working on A Dangerous Method in early 2003, when the director urged his erstwhile producer to check out Christopher Hampton’s play The Talking Cure, at London’s National Theatre. In the subsequent months, it emerged that the play had in fact started life as a movie – a script Hampton wrote for Twentieth Century Fox, based on John Kerr’s book ‘A Most Dangerous Method’, and specifically as a vehicle for Julia Roberts (“If you can imagine!” snorts Thomas). The script had languished in their vaults for almost 20 years, until Hampton resurrected the material for stage – but getting the film rights turned into a complex set of negotiations between Thomas and Fox and the playwright and the author. The producer prevailed. Thomas averages between two and three films a year, but says that the kind of film he makes is a dying breed. “It’s all to do with economics, I suppose; the films I make are not as popular now, financially, as they were, because the film business is dominated by fewer films with bigger budgets. The studios make a very few very high budget films for between one hundred and two hundred million. So I’m working in an economy of about a tenth of that.” A Dangerous Method was even more of a coup, when you consider that, as Thomas tells it, period dramas and intellectual films are anathema to most distributors these days (“If you promote [those kind of films] to distributors, as a producer, they groan at you”). “I talk about the cinema of Nicolas Roeg, Nagisa Oshima or Cronenberg – people that I’ve worked with a lot – and Bertolucci; they’re cinema that was at one time ‘mainstream arthouse’, let’s say, which gave it the proper commercial release. Today, that audience has all but disappeared – and those that want it, it’s so readily available through the internet. People have a flat-screen at home.” What: A Dangerous Method – Dir. David Cronenberg When: Out now on DVD (Transmission)
Vernon God Little [THEATRE] It’s A Tough Job By Alasdair Duncan
D
BC Pierre’s Vernon God Little is a surreal thrill ride of a novel, telling the story of a Texan boy who is wrongly implicated in a school shooting, and the people he meets on his desperate quest for freedom. It was awarded the Booker Prize in 2003, and subsequently adapted into a stage play by UK playwright Tanya Ronder. Director Louise Fischer is mounting an Australian production of the show this month, although getting there has been a long process. “The London producers of the show were keen on a tour from the UK, which didn’t eventuate,” she tells me, “but getting this on took four years of me regularly contacting the agents and asking if they were sure the rights weren’t available.” Finally, this persistence paid off, even if Fischer was worried she might be arrested on stalking charges before seeing it through. Fischer was immediately taken by Ronder’s script, seeing it as part Our Town, part Alice In Wonderland, part raging acid trip. “It was a brilliant piece of writing with enormous scope for actors to play richly diverse roles,” she says. “The play works on so many levels. On the surface, it’s a side-splitting romp about a boy on the run from the law and himself, but scratch this layer and you get an acerbic dig at the excesses of consumerism and the hunt for five minutes of fame that has become synonymous with the great American dream. Dig a little deeper and it’s a heartbreaking exploration of the loss of innocence and a brutal indictment against capital punishment.” It’s thematically rich territory, and as a script, makes for quite a directing challenge. Pierre’s book is filled with vernacular language and slang, and Ronder’s script shares this quality, making it quite a colourful piece of work. “It’s very potty mouthed I must admit I blush at every rehearsal when my ratbag cast come up with even more lewd suggestions,” Fischer says. “The
text easily springs off the page, though, and the cast have had a lot of fun bringing it to life.” Given the American setting of the play, the Australian cast will be performing with American accents, with even the odd Mexican one thrown in at times. If not done well, putting on accents in the theatre can have a jarring effect, but Fischer assures me her players are on top of things. “The cast are busting their proverbials listening to even more American TV than usual,” she says. “I know, I know it’s a tough job …” The play features a huge cast of characters and a story that’s broken up with musical interludes, and Fischer tells me that keeping it all together has, at times, felt like the old scenario of herding cats. “The challenge with plays like Vernon is keeping the balls in the air and the cast on the ball,” she says. “Scenes need flow, the musical interludes need to be sewn into the fabric of the show and not just there as window dressing, and energy needs to be high without sacrificing the meaning of the play. The ultimate challenge is staying true to the story.” While she has described them as ‘ratbags’, Fischer firmly insists that her cast and crew at New Theatre are like family. “They are a wonderfully talented, intelligent and passionate bunch,” she says. “Working as an ensemble, playing multiple roles is a both a joy and a challenge for an actor, but they are rising to the occasion admirably. I have enormous respect for my colleagues and so many people give their time and talents passionately and tirelessly.” What: Vernon God Little When: Tuesday August 14 – Saturday September 15 Where: New Theatre / 542 King St, Newtown More: newtheatre.org.au
Indie Game: The Movie [FILM] Adventures in Underground Gaming By Callum Fitzpatrick
S
hould a videogame be considered art? It’s been a relevant debate in game culture for years. Some struggle to see true artistic expression in a medium that’s usually backed by multi-million-dollar companies and created by hundreds of people. But for others, it’s the ultimate artform – the “combination of storytelling, visuals and audio, wrapped up in an interactive package,” says James Swirsky, one of the filmmakers behind Canadian documentary Indie Game: The Movie. And that’s why he says indie games are so different: a peek behind their vivid graphics reveals a true reflection of the developer’s personality. Part of the Official Selection and winner of the World Cinema Documentary Editing Award at Sundance 2012, Indie Game follows four game developers through their journey as they create and release their treasured videogames: design/programming team Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, as they eagerly await the release of their twoyears-in-the-making Super Meat Boy; Phil Fish, who’s set to unveil the hotly anticipated Fez, which has taken him four years; and Jonathan Blow, contemplating creating a new game after Braid, one of the highest-rated games of all time. First-time filmmaking duo Lisane Pajot and James Swirsky say it was the individuality behind the games that attracted them to the concept in the first place. “We looked around the landscape of the genre and we just kept
seeing these really cool, unique games that just felt like they were doing something different. And when you look behind them, oftentimes you’ll see that they’re insanely personal. They’re actually expressions of these people and reflections of themselves.”
Frame from the as yet unreleased FEZ
The filmmakers were also intrigued by the idea that over the last few years, thanks to online marketplaces like Steam and Xbox Live Arcade, these indie developers had a shot at making a living off their art. “These guys are making really personal games and putting them out there – and if it’s the right game at the right time, it can really take off. That might not be the end goal, but their lives can be changed overnight.” The game-makers’ journey towards success, however, is paved with stress and anxiety, compounded by impending deadlines and social media pressure. “It was hard to watch people struggle and go through really devastating moments,” says Pajot. “As the filmmaker, you have perspective [on their situation], but when you’re in the moment and stuff is happening to the project you spent years on, it feels like the world is ending. You act irrationally and you lose objectivity. These guys put so much into their work and it was such a big part of their lives that you did worry about them at times.” “One of the things you worry about is changing a situation or making it worse,” adds Swirsky. “You just want to be part of
everything, document it and watch things unfold. You don’t ever want to be one of the wrinkles.” Approaching the editing stage, Pajot says the tricky part was trying to generate something that was relevant and ‘techy’ enough for an audience of gaming enthusiasts, while making it understandable for a broader audience. “It was difficult making a film that represented this intense emotional journey, had enough context for a general audience to get a sense of this world, but also had enough ‘meat’ around it to satisfy gamers.
Luckily a lot of gamers and developers have enjoyed it and like the fact that they can show it to their family and say, ‘Hey, this is why I like games.’ That’s the ultimate compliment for us.” What: Indie Game: The Movie Where: Possible Worlds Film Festival @ Dendy Newtown When: Fri August 17 6pm drinks, 6.30pm film More: Play videogames and enjoy free drinks and snacks from 8pm; tickets from dendy.com.au
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Arts Snap
Film & Theatre Reviews
At the heart of the arts Where you went last week...
Hits and misses on the silver screen and the bareboards around town.
Jack Black is Bernie
■ Film
BERNIE
biennale
PICS :: AM
Opens August 16
28:07:12 :: Cockatoo Island :: Sydney Harbour
In a number of ways, Bernie feels like a return for director Richard Linklater. There’s the fact that it’s set in his home state of Texas, where Slacker and Dazed And Confused also took place. Stylistically, though, Bernie also represents a return to the simplicity of those early films. Linklater’s work has grown increasingly complex over the last decade, but Bernie is a simple story told with an eye for small details and a lightness of touch. A macabre little comedy that takes its inspiration from real-life events in the Texan town of Carthage, the film operates on a relatively small scale, but it’s also his most enjoyable and rewarding in some time.
johnny wong’s dumpling bar
PICS :: KC
Bernie is a difficult film to review without talking about the plot, so I’ll try and steer away from that as much as possible. Suffice to say, it’s very far removed from your usual true-crime fare, skating the line between real and absurd in a way that almost feels like the work of David Lynch. Its three central characters – an undertaker, a wealthy widow and a small-town Sheriff – are played by Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine and Matthew McConaughey, respectively. Their lives intersect in expected and unexpected ways, and thanks to a deftly written script and some very skilful performances, some tricky moral questions begin to emerge. Part of the reason Bernie is so good is that Linklater knows how to get the best out of his actors. Black is always at his best when he tones the wackiness down a bit, and Linklater seems to appreciate this. His character, Bernie, is a nice guy – which, of course, is what they always say when it turns out that somebody is actually not so nice. Bernie is a liar and a criminal, but the film doesn’t come down either way on this. We’re not positioned to sympathise with or to judge him, just presented with his character, flaws and all. This ambiguity is Bernie’s greatest strength – it’s what makes it linger long after the credits roll, despite the lightness of its tone and the simplicity of its story. Much like its troubled central character, this is a film that is simultaneously sweet and deeply unsettling.
experiences of threat. Their sensations, thought processes and fears elicit tiny gasps and shudders of recognition from the audience. As the piece moves into more abstract territory – menacing loops of sound, strange tableaux and shadowplays – the unease in the seating banks only grows. Of particular interest is the way in which seeing the mechanisms by which Saulwick turns the screws on our anxieties in no way lessens their effect. We can see her scrunching plastic under the microphone on her brightly-lit table of tools; we know the scraping of a lock is Saulwick and not an impostor. But with those sounds she conjures up a whole world of primal fear that existed in our minds long before we stepped into this theatre, and simply being here can’t diminish its hold on our imaginations. I know that Saulwick is only slicing a watermelon and not something far more sinister. But the strength of this work is that it allows us to imagine the worst without ever resorting to gratuitously depicting it. It is a tense and visceral hour. We emerge into the bright lights of the foyer and exhale with relief. Rebecca Saffir ■ Performance
THRASHING WITHOUT LOOKING Reviewed August 1 / Performance Space It is almost impossible for me to tell you what you will experience if you attend Aphids' Thrashing Without Looking. In the artists’ own words, it is “an experiment in live cinema”, and it is entirely contingent on the input from its audience, or rather participants.
Mum’s In
■ Theatre
Bordello Theatre / Lvl 4, Kings Cross Hotel Sundays from 5pm
Reviewed August 1 / Performance Space
Upon entering the performance space, a couple of us are handed a typed sheet that looks like a cross between a set-list and a menu, and we’re ushered into a makeshift bar in front of a large screen. Our host, Tristan, explains that we’re going to direct the night’s action. What he really means is that we’re going to make selections from our set-list/menus, each of which correspond to pre-planned options the five artists will enact. All of it is being captured on camera, and the other audience members are standing in the centre of the space watching a select feed through video goggles. At the end, we discover that what we’ve made is one of the strangest music videos in history, mashing up as many of the clichés and motifs of the genre as possible.
Despite what commercial television producers might need us to believe, the most threatening things in life aren’t always gory and gruesome larger-than-life criminal masterminds. Threat exists in the very real possibility of things going just wrong enough, and if you have ever lived in a city of decent size the odds are the knowledge of this threat is drummed into you like a heartbeat.
But it’s in the doing, not the watching, that Thrashing Without Looking provides something really special. I got to sip champagne, chat up a stranger, eat chocolate cake, rock out to Rihanna in the dark, slow dance with my best friend, and create a confetti storm. I have no idea what you’ll choose, but if you’re anything like me you’ll wish it could have gone all night.
Tamara Saulwick’s Pin Drop starts with pitch-perfect re-performances of interviews she conducted with twelve women on their
Rebecca Saffir
01:08:12 :: The Standard:: Level 1/383 Bourke St Surry Hills 9331 3100
Arts Exposed What's in our diary...
Sydney alt-cabaret queen Vashti Hughes is bringing back her onewoman show Mum’s In for a third season – in a re-worked format; so it’s time to see what all the fuss is about! Hughes (who is, yes, part of the famous showbiz family that includes Christa ‘KK Juggy’ and father Dick) offers up a tour-de-force evening of performance as she re-incarnates the legends of Sydney’s Razorhurst era The Bordello Theatre....sexxxyyy – sly-grog maven Kate Leigh, brothel madam Tilly Devine, high-class hooker Nellie Cameron, and career criminals Frank ‘the Little Gunman’ Green and Guido Caletti – all set to an original soundtrack by Ross Johnston, in the revamped, totally pimped-out Level 4 of Kings Cross Hotel. Expect lashings of velvet, violence, vixens and vodka, with special cocktails like the Devonshire Wake, Blood On the Strand and The Darlinghurst Push offered up to complement the show… Tickets and info from mumsin.com.au 26 :: BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12
Alasdair Duncan
PIN DROP
See www.thebrag.com for more arts reviews
Film & Theatre Reviews
NEW THEAT A RE
Hits and misses on the silver screen and the bareboards around town. ■ Film
THE BOURNE LEGACY Opens August 16 The Bourne films have always been a cut above your average action thriller, and The Bourne Legacy lives up to their high standards, while also representing a new beginning for the series. When star Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass announced their exit after Ultimatum, it seemed unlikely that the films could, or even should, continue, but writer-turneddirector Tony Gilroy devised an elegant solution. The Bourne Legacy runs parallel to the events of that third film, letting them play out in the background while adding new characters, new layers to the central mystery, and a new leading man in Jeremy Renner. The tagline is ‘there was never just one’, and while we knew that all along, now we have compelling reasons to care. Renner’s character Aaron Cross is a field agent with Operation Outcome, a secret CIA program linked to the one that created Jason Bourne. When we meet him, he’s on a training mission in the remote Alaskan wilderness, oblivious to the fact that his program has been shut down, and he is marked for termination. Brawn and ingenuity
eventually lead him to team up with Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), a scientist whose connection to the program has also made her a target. All the while, a sinister CIA operative played by Edward Norton is tracking them. The ostensible villain of the piece, Norton’s character sees himself as a white-collar patriot with a job to do, and downplaying the villainy makes his role all the more effective. Gilroy is one of the finest writers working in Hollywood right now – he proved his directorial skills with debut feature Michael Clayton, and brings the same command of suspense to The Bourne Legacy. The script is tense and tightly-controlled, while the action sequences pack a visceral, bonebreaking punch. Renner proves himself both thoughtful and tough, while the rest of the cast is top-notch, including quite a number of ‘oh, it’s him/her!’ supporting players. The Bourne series has been praised for its realism, and Legacy maintains this while getting rid of the shaky cam that was a trademark of the earlier Greengrass instalments. Gilroy has said that he aspired to make an edge-of-the-seat thriller that didn’t require viewers to shave off any IQ points, and in this, he has succeeded. Alasdair Duncan
VERNON GOD LITTLE
Freedom is a piece of shit
BY DBC PIERRE DIRECTED BY LOUISE FISCHER 14 AUGUST — 15 SEPTEMBER
Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz in The Bourne Legacy
TICKETS 1300 13 11 88 NEWTHEATRE.ORG.AU 542 KING STREET NEWTOWN BY ARRANGEMENT WITH ORIGIN™ THEATRICAL, ON BEHALF OF SAMUEL FRENCH LTD.
PRINCIPAL PARTNER
Street Level With Takie
T
he TATE’s resident artist is unveiling her first solo show this week – It’s All Yours; she’s dusting off the skills she’s honed over two years in Melbourne’s street art scene, and applying them to found objects, salvaged scraps, and a field of paper. Expect lashings of colour and energy (and beer, if you get there early). What is your background/training as an artist? My biggest passion has always been art and creating it, that’s the driving force that’s gotten me to where I am now. I also studied graphic design straight out of school, and did that for the last five years – then the need to get out from behind the screen took over. What’s the meaning behind this show’s title? It’s a salute to the people who have helped shape the show and their generosity; lots of my mates have given me things to paint on and kept me company along the way, so the show is really for all of these influences – it’s all theirs.
What does the show comprise of? The space will be jam-packed with – I’ll hazard a guess – 40-plus pieces, some as small as A5, some as large as 2 meters. I like to jump around subjects and themes to keep fresh and inspired; I shift between a range of mediums, but the most used are oil pastel, acrylic and markers. The pieces are my reaction to what’s happening around me; it's a little bit like social commentary and a little bit obsessive documentation. What’s your creative process? I am lucky enough to have a space at the Tate studios in Glebe, surrounded by creative individuals and new shows happening at the gallery every Wednesday night. It really is a dream environment for an artist, so the inspiration and the work itself have come easily. The two things I need to work - inspiration and music. What took you to Melbourne for the last two years? And what brought you back? I went down to Melbourne for a change and the art, I soaked up the scene like a sponge, and reignited my creativity again. It opened
the world of street art to me as well, and that’s where this journey really began, as a street artist getting up with my mates. I returned exclusively for the chance to create every day for three months and produce the work for this show. What’s blowing your mind at the moment? Every day I see something from artists I admire that blows my mind. This morning I saw a progress-shot of a mural [Brazilian street artists] Os Gemeos are painting in Boston; it is HUGE, a scale that is pretty overwhelming. They are two artists whose work never fails to light me up. What: It’s All Yours Where: The TATE @ The Toxteth / 345 Glebe Point Road, Glebe When: Opens Wednesday August 15 from 6pm til 9pm; runs until the 19th August. More: thetate.com.au BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12 :: 27
Album Reviews What's been crossing our ears this week...
ALBUM OF THE WEEK but who you may know better from his days in Evermore.
ALPINE A Is For Alpine Ivy League It’s very rare for a band to release two incredible singles in a row (‘Hands’, ‘Gasoline’) and follow it up with an album that is anywhere near as good, so I was worried about how this record would turn out. Thankfully, Melbourne sextet Alpine aren’t just two shells in a double-barrel shotgun – they’re the whole army.
You’ll have to do a lot of pinching to find any fat on this dazzling debut.
A Is For Alpine is a gorgeous record full of theband-formerly-know-as-Swiss’ trademark breathy vocals, upper octave guitar flourishes, and synthetic, ‘90s synth pads. It’s tastefully arranged and extremely well-produced for a local act signed to an indie label, much of which has to do with the skills of Dann Hume, who mans the mixers here
HUNTING GROUNDS In Hindsight Redcat Sounds Since winning triple j’s Unearthed High competition in 2009 under the moniker Howl, Ballarat’s Hunting Grounds have undergone a name change and a seismic shift in musical sensibilities. Gone is the screamy whine of radio favourite ‘Blackout’ from their self-titled 2009 EP; similarly, there’s a noticeable absence of the kind of sneering ‘tude evident on more recent tracks like 2010’s ‘Brothers In Violence’. Instead, the six-headed Victorian beast offer us controlled song craft and endless walls of guitar. From the first dragged-out notes of the opening title track, the band’s intent is clear: everything is going to be much bigger and more layered than before. Like a surf-rat descendant of Pet Sounds, dreamy guitars jostle away beneath singer Michael Belsar, with the bratty punk shrieking of yesteryear fading across a wash of instrumental power that permeates this record. The punch on ‘Clearly See’ displays a remarkable maturity in the band’s approach. Setting itself up as a markedly post-Britpop take on shoegaze, it becomes a pop song as soon as its sing-along chorus begins. Produced to within a whisker of itself, the song retains a memorable smoothness that evades many local artists – but an entire album of such slick product does begin to wear. Vocalists frequently lose their pitch at crucial moments, and the slap-dash fix-it production job is a touch insulting if they think it’ll go unnoticed. Moreover, the instrumental breaks that seem so important to the songs – like the newwave bass that dips at the edges of ‘Wings’ – are too frequently missing. Hunting Grounds deserve praise for embracing such a huge shift in direction, but now it’s time to restore the excitement and danger that they promised.
Between the aforementioned singles and two updated tracks from their Zurich EP, the pleasures of Alpine’s debut can be found in the way the material fits so seamlessly together – and in just how exciting the new stuff is. Convention would have it that opening your album with a two-part and largely instrumental ode to love would be a foolish idea, but with a never-ending palate of sparkling textures, and the ever-engaging harmonies of dual frontwomen Phoebe and Lou, Alpine sink their teeth in and don’t let go. By building from the guitar and working their way back up, the riffs end up as strong as their melodies, which is why old jam ‘Too Safe’ and the newer ‘Seeing Red’ join the likes of ‘Gasoline’ in ensuring that this record will get serious traction
JOSS STONE
THE DARKNESS
Four Frenchkiss Records
Soul Sessions Vol. II Stone’d/S-Curve
Hot Cakes Liberator
Four doesn’t sound like it was written and recorded – it sounds like Bloc Party chased it, cornered it and beat it into submission before it could escape. Opening song ‘So He Begins To Lie’ is rough and raw, with Kele’s voice fighting to get out from behind a ferocious tangle of guitars. ‘3X3’ gallops along at a frantic pace, with Kele howling "No one loves you as much as I do" and later moaning "YES! YES! YES! YES!" – if you were the object of his affection, you might actually be a little concerned. ‘Day Four’ is a moment of real calm amid the squall, harking back to the quiet beauty of Silent Alarm’s ‘Blue Light’, although the peace and quiet is short-lived. ‘Coliseum’ follows, with a gurning, fuzzed-out riff that sounds like The Strokes’ ‘Juicebox’ if it were way more pissed-off. ‘V.A.L.I.S.’ and ‘Team A’ are positively ecstatic compared with what’s come before, the kind of tracks that inspire shoulder-popping dance moves, before ‘We Are Not Good People’ closes things with a simultaneous inward and outward burst of anger. Four has a rough and raw quality that’s a lot closer to Bloc Party’s live show than anything the band have yet recorded. It’s doubtful this will really be their last record, but if it is, they’re going out on a pretty powerful note.
It was all going so well for Joss Stone. She was young, carefree and in possession of a ludicrous set of pipes, The White Stripes let her cover their songs, and over the course of five albums, she netted a bunch of awards and so much money that two nutters in the UK recently plotted to murder her. But she's been in artistic decline ever since the original Soul Sessions. While other vocalists who initially plied their wares covering the greats (Norah Jones and Michael Bublé come to mind) have branched out, Jones remains stubbornly stuck in an era and style that she's wrung every last drop out of. Vol. II – the sequel to her 2004 Mercury-nominated release – has all the elements of a regular Stone record: a crack team of session players, lashings of horns, and an emphasis on funk and soul. But despite picking up great numbers from the genre (Labi Siffre’s ‘I Got The’, which inspired Eminem’s breakout hit ‘My Name Is’, for instance), Stone’s renditions are lifeless. Not even the best band in the world can save two-dimensional arrangements that may as well be MIDI files. It’s not like Stone has become any worse as a singer – she’s still brilliant. But when she started out she was a teenage girl and now, as a woman, you’d expect her to be a bit more, well, seasoned.
The Darkness are oftdismissed as a reallife Spinal Tap – catsuits, moustaches, and lyrics that are thinly-veiled metaphors about genital warts. But lost amidst the pantomime is the fact that they write fantastic songs. Their 2003 debut, Permission To Land, was first and foremost tremendous fun, but also contained some of the best pure rock songs of the past decade – a decade more notable for aloof, detached cool than up-to-11, stadiumsized theatricality. Their 2005 follow-up prioritised the gags above the songs (“The world’s most expensive penis joke”, said one review), so when the band broke up amid rumours of drugs, fraternal strife and colliding egos, no one was especially surprised or sad. But now the original foursome are back together, and the joy is palpable. ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us’ is a highoctane statement of intent full of Hawkins' trademark riffs and wails, while ‘Everybody Have A Good Time’ was clearly written with arms-aroundyour-mate sing-alongs in mind. Even ‘Every Inch Of You’, the clunky, autobiographical album opener, overcomes its many shortcomings thanks to sheer enthusiasm and falsetto. ‘Living Each Day Blind’ is a slow-burner with some great guitar work, while the double-tracked riffs on ‘Forbidden Love’ and ‘Concrete’ will have your head banging down the street.
It’s been well-publicised that due to her earnings, Stone has split from EMI and gone it alone on her last few records. Perhaps that wasn’t such a good idea, because she seems to be treading water at the moment – and when the choice is between her and fellow torch singer Adele, who writes from the heart, we all know who’s going to win.
But perhaps the clearest demonstration of The Darkness’ rediscovered power is their cover of Radiohead’s ‘Street Spirit’. Only they could reimagine it as a Black Sabbath track, full of doomy guitars and metal falsettos, and it reinforces that very few bands understand the strange alchemy of rock’n’roll better than The Darkness. It looks as though they might still have a few tricks up their sleeve.
The sequel that nobody asked for – and frankly, that nobody needs.
Pure rock’n’roll excess, and tremendous fun. Leave your irony at the door.
Alasdair Duncan
New War Sensory Projects Space, or at least the impression of it, plays an important role on New War’s debut. The instrumentation is pretty straightforward post-punk fare; what makes it exciting is the spaces implied by what’s played, the chemistry lurking between the notes. Take the first minute of ‘Game Of Love’: little more than a two-note bass loop, a simple floor tom, and Chris Pugmire singing “come to me, oh come to me” as enigmatically and threateningly as he can. What’s truly striking is the formless mass
28 :: BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12
YEASAYER Fragrant World Spunk Records/EMI Yeasayer’s debut album, All Hour Cymbals, was brilliant. It seemingly came out of nowhere and appealed to almost everyone. But two albums later, Yeasayer have distanced themselves from it dramatically with Fragrant World. This latest effort sees the band trade all their tribal darkness and hippy light for over-processed vocals and alienating electronics. Album opener ‘Fingers Never Bleed’ kicks things off on the right note, teaming hypnotic drums with the harmonic, layered vocals of singer Chris Keating. But by the second track, ‘Longevity’, things are already going off grid, sounding worryingly like a Savage Garden remix and doing little to prove the band's own permanency. Clanking keyboards, pulsating drum machines and a mish-mash of samples jolt through the album, and while Keatings’ vocals still soar and peak, his voice sounds strained and over-worked. There are still moments of quirky cleverness, with songs like ‘Devil And The Deed’ guaranteed to bring out the robot in us all. Poppy as Prince in the ‘80s, Fragrant World bops along until the heavy bass of ‘Reagan’s Skeleton’ gives the album some balls, though even then it still possesses a sort of unshakable flamboyancy. ‘Damaged Goods’ is a bit of a trip, but overall it sounds like Yeasayer have given up the hallucinogens for cigarettes. The Brooklyn band have recorded an album that is obvious in its hard work, and if these tracks came from another artist they would surely garner more praise. Unfortunately – and admittedly, unfairly – they come from a band so high on my pedestal that they were almost bound to fall. Yeasayer have cleaned up their act on new album Fragrant World, but I miss the dirt. Erin Bromhead
Jonno Seidler Hugh Robertson
INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK NEW WAR
Jonno Seidler
BLOC PARTY
When singer Kele Okereke isn’t disappearing for years at a time to hole up in America and release solo albums, he’s muttering cryptically about the band’s imminent break-up. This must make life pretty stressful for the rest of Bloc Party, and may well explain the sense of nervous tension that runs through their new album.
Benjamin Cooper
on air. Despite their obsession with winter, this is definitely a summer record, full of bright tones and phasing, Phoenix-like synths. Alpine really know how to write pop songs.
of noise that rises behind it all, building an impalpable sense of panic. The memory of that first, eerie mood lasts throughout much of the rest of the record, seething just out of earshot. Although New War is effectively a retropop band (recalling groups like Gang Of Four, or maybe Flowers Of Romanceera PiL), much of this album eschews pop structures in favour of menacing atmosphere, and it sounds like most of it was jammed out rather than written. Sometimes it doesn’t work the way it’s perhaps meant to – the acid-ruined poetry that accompanies atmospheric drone on ‘Felt Like A Memory’ is more than a little silly. But the piece it segues into is fantastic, all tumbling pulses, grating
synths and gritty bass. The textural ebb and flow on ‘Calling From The Inside’ feels effortless; dubby guitar ambience ambles slowly across the stereo spectrum, with Pugmire spouting aphorisms like a post-punk Jim Morrison. But it’s ‘Black Site Cantos’ that proves to be the most effective piece – a single, creaking bass riff drives the tune, loping and raving, to a shell-shocked, screeching climax. An impressive debut assembled with a collective sleight of hand that somehow manages to conjure much with seemingly very little. Luke Telford
OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week... CROWDED HOUSE - The Very Very Best Of... ROBAG WRUHME - The Olgamikks PLAN B - Ill Manors
GOOD HEAVENS - Strange Dreams POST PAINT - By Muskrat & Sexet
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beautiful music
PICS :: PX
up all night out all week . . .
rufus
PICS :: AM
02:08:12 :: FBi Social :: Kings Cross Hotel 248 William Street Kings Cross 9331 9900
04:08:12 :: The Standard :: 3/383 Bourke St Darlinghurst 9660 7953
It’s called: Red Door Presents Dead China Doll and more It sounds like: Loads of fuzzy guitar riffs, driving bass lines and prolific drumming. At times these bands have the air of unmistakable happiness but an undertone of inconsolable rage; a bit like the sound Madonna would make if she queefed into a kazoo. Who’s playing? Dead China Doll, Nhomea, Yes I’m Leaving, Housewives, SunSun DJ, Ears Have Ears DJs (FBi Radio). Sell it to us: A dark and dirty night in the heart of Marrickville’s underground with some of Sydney’s most raucous and rawest experimentalists and mentalists. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: For about five hours, everything was right with the world. In fact, you’ll probably feel so aurally satisfied you might need to suffocate Madonna to restore your equilibrium. Crowd specs: Expect to find a room full of relaxed inner-west underground peeps. The kind of party where all your friends are, really vibing out on the bands, and Madonna is there with a…no, it’s just your friends.
the good ship
PICS :: AM
party profile
red door presents
04:08:12 :: Goodgod Small Club :: 53-55 Liverpool St Chinatown 8084 0587
Wallet damage: $10 Where: A secret location in Marrickville. Head to Facebook for details.
03:08:12 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford St, Darlinghurst 9332 3711 PICS :: KC
woollen kits & bed wettin bad boys
au review's 4th b'day
PICS :: KC
When: Friday August 17 from 9pm
03:08:12 :: The Square :: Cnr Hay Street & George Street Haymarket 0405126927
:: KATRINA CLARKE :: ASHLEY S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER :: IER XAV RO PEACHY :: PED MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS :: THOMAS
BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12 :: 29
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live reviews
up all night out all week . . .
What we've been to see...
the double vision tour party profile
It’s called: The Double Vision Tour It sounds like: Chewing glass while taking a kick to the bollocks on a rowdy Friday night. Who’s playing? The Delta Riggs, Money for Rope, Kill City Creeps. Sell it to us: The Annandale presents a night of likeminded bands playing fastpaced blues-influenced rock, covered in a healthy dose of psychedelica. Three bands putting a refreshing twist on your dad’s favourite tunes. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: The red wine stains on your favourite paisley shirt Crowd specs: Rude sideburns, classic haircuts, tight jeans, bad tattoos, hipster chicks and models sipping champagne. Wallet damage: $12+bf
HLEY MAR
PHOTOGRAPHER : AS
DJANGO DJANGO, THE CAST OF CHEERS
Where: The Annandale Hotel
Oxford Art Factory Wednesday August 1
When: Saturday August 18, 8pm ‘til late
Django Django were one of the most hyped acts on the lineup of this year’s Splendour In The Grass. Whispers started flowing back from Austin following their South By Southwest gigs, with the buzz amplified by blog chatter. The flow-on Down Under of all that attention is attested to by a packed Oxford Art Factory floor, well before the start of openers The Cast Of Cheers. The Irishmen can’t be faulted for intensity, with frontman Conor Adams leaping about the stage as he spits vocals into the mic. It’s arresting stuff, but the tiring effort of observing the man means that I almost miss the transition to the more settled single ‘Animal’, from their debut Family. It’s a rather marvelLous spectacle when Adams gets the chance to actually sing and strike out between notes, with the guitars embracing the full pop lashings of British post-punk.
miike snow
The live version of ‘Skies Over Cairo’ morphs into an epic Egyptian dance jam, complete with amazingly polite crowd surfing and a frontman spouting edicts about travelling to the evening’s gig. Also bobbing up in the mix is a pleasingly unrecognisable version of their biggest hit ‘Default’, which is thrillingly fast and then abruptly finished. And just like that, with all their material expended and energy sapped, the Scotsmen flashed a smile and a wave and departed. Hyped and weird, but certainly wonderful. Benjamin Cooper
PICS :: AM
The evening’s Scottish headliners Django Django emerge in what looks like matching
shirts, and launch into the ‘Introduction’ track from their self-titled debut. It’s very clear from the get-go that the set will be a continuation of the earnestness displayed by the opening act, albeit with a much more mystical aesthetic. The ride continues through the joyous yet measured old Western vibe of ‘Hail Bop’, before a problem becomes evident: there are certain constraints to only having one album’s worth of tunes.
30:07:12 :: Metro Theatre :: 624 George St Sydney 9550 3666
DRO XAVIER
PHOTOGRAPHER : PE
RAPIDS, PHEBE STARR, THE MOUNTAINS Goodgod Small Club Thursday August 2 Taking a break from obsessive Olympic viewing, I venture out on a Thursday eve to check out Sydney up-and-comers Rapids. Upon entry, I am greeted by a spectacle not mentioned on the night’s official lineup. Mickey Avalon’s doppelganger is stripping on stage, and immediately I’m kicking myself for missing the 200m freestyle finals for this.
smashing pumpkins
PICS :: AM
Fortunately things pick up when The Mountains take to the stage: how nice of them to stop by to play for us all on their way home from the set of Almost Famous II. The ‘70s styled folk-rock outfit deliver a solid pop-infused set that goes down well with the growing crowd. New single ‘Packs’ is as catchy as a case of chicken pox in a primary school playground and has the audience clapping in all the right parts.
31:07:12 :: Sydney Entertainment Centre :: 35 Harbour St Darling Harbour LEY
:: KATRINA CLARKE :: ASH S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER XAVIER :: RO PED :: CHY PEA MAS THO MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS ::
30 :: BRAG :: 474 :: 06:08:12
Phebe Starr graces the stage next, dressed as Etsy’s answer to Lady Gaga. Draped in a long, shimmering black robe with huge shoulder spikes, she looks like a demon but sings like an angel. The highlight of her set for me was the track ‘Maneki Neko’, a quirky hip-wiggler of
a tune. Playful in both her synthdrenched up-tempo pop and her stage banter, Starr seems destined to become one. Fresh on the heels of their debut EP release, Holland Air, Rapids dive into their headlining set. Frontman Jamie Timony thrashes through the track ‘Shoppe Sorry’, advising the crowd “Don’t go hopping on that jet if you’ve got something that smells”, and watching him writhe around the stage with such reckless abandon I have a feeling he’s speaking from experience. The set shifts between trendy electro of the Van She breed to attempted stadium rock reminiscent of late ‘90s band The Music. Timony himself has stated Rapids are a bunch of genre hoppers, but as the night wears on they seem more lost than daring. Growing pains aside, these Sydney-siders can wail out a heavy wall of sound. Holland Airs’ closer, ‘Moth Mantra’ hops along, half rap half croon, while ‘Cut Fast’ delivers a highpoint for the night, driving the crowd into a near tribal drum hypnosis. A brief encore concludes the show, and while I wouldn’t say I had a blast, I was glad I left the couch. Erin Bromhead
Remedy
More Than The Cure Since 1989 with Murray Engleheart
WHEN THE WALL OF SOUND MET THE NEW YORK UNDERGROUND: THE RAMONES, PHIL SPECTOR AND END OF THE CENTURY
It’s a mouthful of a title. But then, it’s a mighty tale, written by Frank Meyer of The Street Walkin’ Cheetahs and author of On The Road With The Ramones. While the most legendary chapter of the band’s career was the making of the record in question, we’re not so sure it’s really worth an entire book, despite the associated pistols and wide-screen paranoia. Anyways, the album that really shoulda made ‘em the champs was cursed by expectations that were simply never ever going to be met. Which begs the question: exactly what were people expecting? Primal white noise rock’n’roll? Not on Uncle Phil’s watch. Righteous Brothers’ type symphonies then? From The Ramones? Nah. In the end it was probably a case of an opportunity that was too good to refuse and simply too great to accept. If that makes any sense.
DOC’N’ROLL
Rock’n’roll docos suddenly seem to be all the rage. The latest is titled Filmage: The Story of Descendents/ALL. A release date has yet to be set.
AEROSHIT
A few weeks back we were throwing things around the joint about Aerosmith’s forthcoming slab, Music From Another Dimension!, allegedly being a return to early primal form. And our scoffing has been kinda vindicated, with reports that two of the guests on the recording are Julian Lennon and Johnny Depp. “Joe Perry – Joe Perry to the foyer please! Where are you, man? Stand the fuck up. You’re the keeper of the keys here – do something!”
THE ART OF SELF DEFENCE
High On Fire’s debut effort, The Art Of Self Defence, has been reissued with the trio’s first demos and bonus tracks plus a 48-page booklet. The sound has been enhanced by Brad Boatright of From Ashes Rise, who recently had the honour of handling the tarting-up of Sleep’s Dopesmoker epic.
REDD DO THE BLUES
Redd Kross’ first studio record in 15 years, Researching The Blues, is out this week. It’s a weird title from a band that historically have masterfully merged Kiss and The Beatles. The blues of any description is the last thing that you’d ever associate with them – least of all on this outing, which includes some serious rock god wah wah pedal stomping. Oh, and it’s also available on that hip new sound medium, "cassette". For real.
While we reckon it’d be nice if musicians and other artists were treated the same as Olympic athletes, the musical culture on display in the opening ceremony in London and the lead up to it sure got our tick of approval. Among the sounds was ‘All Day And All Of The Night’ (The Kinks), ‘A Message To You Rudy’ (The Specials), ‘God Save The Queen’ (The Sex Pistols), ‘Going Underground’ (The Jam), ‘Hey Jude’ (The Beatles), ‘London Calling’ (The Clash), ‘My Generation’ (The Who), ‘Pretty Vacant’ (The Sex Pistols), ‘Satisfaction’ (The Stones), ‘She Loves You’ (The Beatles), ‘Song 2’ (Blur) and ‘Surf Solar’ (Fuck Buttons). While not one but two Pistols’ songs is a fine thing indeed, it also shows how sadly harmless punk has become at this point. Inclusions by acts as deeply and classically English as Ian Dury and The Small Faces would have been nice too – but as Dury once said, “mustn’t grumble.”
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In the '90s, tribute albums were the thing to do, with lousy artists paying homage to acts whose work they were never likely to match in their wildest dreams. It seems the concept is making something of a comeback, and on September 28 it should redeem itself somewhat with Re-Machined – A Tribute To Deep Purple’s Machine Head. It includes two radically different takes on the band’s worst song, the endlessly plodding ‘Smoke On The Water’ (one cringingly by Carlos Santana and the other by The Flaming Lips), while Metallica tackle the single B-side to ‘Never Before’ – ‘When A Blind Man Cries’. Not ‘Highway Star?’ Sigh… Also taking part are Iron Maiden, Black Label Society, and rock supergroup Kings Of Chaos, featuring Joe Elliott, Steve Stevens, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum.
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On August 17, Warner Music Australia release the double-disc compilation Boogie! Australian Blues, RnB And Heavy Rock From The ‘70s. It’s a Blood, Sweat And Beers-like celebration of the blues-based sounds that shook pubs in Australia in the early to mid-‘70s, and features Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, Chain, Cold Chisel, Daddy Cool, Rose Tattoo, The Angels, Lobby Loyde & the Coloured Balls and Buffalo – among stacks of others. The 44-track collection features cover art by Ian McCausland, who designed for the likes of The Aztecs, Daddy Cool, Chain and even The Stones back in the day, with liner notes by Jen Jewell Brown who, as Jenny Brown and Jenny Hunter-Brown, was the undisputed Queen of Australian rock critics. The set is the baby of David Laing, who put together the Do The Pop! compilation some years ago.
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ON THE TURNTABLE On the Remedy turntable is Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock set which, while of course much longer than his expertly edited grab of material on the original festival soundtrack, isn’t as focused. Maybe it had to do with the size of his band at that point – but that’s not to say it ain’t still great. Also spinning is Colosseum Live which, if you can get past the wildly overly dramatic vocals of Chris Farlowe, makes for some meaty jazz rocking, with the then soon-to-be Humble Pie axeman Clem Clempson, the Bonhamesque drumming of Jon Hiseman and the multireed work of late saxman Dick Heckstall-Smith.
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(ex-Grand Fatal, Twin City Faction, Massappeal), Grant Lawrence on drums (ex-Twin City Faction etc) and Luke Death on bass (ex-Extortion), do their debut gig at Blackwire Records on Sunday August 19. The band takes their cues from the likes of Black Flag, Poison Idea and The Accüsed. You(se) get the idea. They’re supporting Canadian punks Burning Love with ex-Cursed singer Chris Colohan and Fattura Della Morte, who are playing their first show in two years with their original lineup. 4pm start, and it’s all-ages.
Send stuff to remedy@ozemail.com.au by 6pm Wednesdays. Pics to art@thebrag.com www.facebook.com/remedy4rock
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Lizotte’s Sydney 629 Pittwater Rd Dee Why Xxxx
Hostile Objects, featuring Rod Hunt on vocals (Summonus, ex-Murder, Blasting Process, Persecution, Terrible Virtue), Jimmy Meek on guitar
ASTLE C W E N ’S E T T O IZ L Australia” ent Restaurant in AUG
TOUR AND INDUSTRY NEWS The bill for Soundwave 2013 has been announced and it’s a lulu – no pun entirely intended – with Metallica, A Perfect Circle, The Offspring, Tomahawk, Stone Sour, Kyuss Lives, Anthrax, Dragonforce, Ghost (swoon!), Flogging Molly, Duff McKagan’s Loaded, Madball, Lucero, Six Feet Under, Red Fang and stacks more. The Sydney date is February 24.
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AST O C L A R T N E C ’S LIZOTTE
BOOGIE!
OLYMPTICK
RES EATEST PLEASU O OF LIFE’S GR MARRYING TW
Calling ts all artisand e iv L r fo Locals! Contact: es. ott events@liz com.au
Lizotte’s Central Coast Lot 3 Avoca Dr Kincumber
Lizotte’s Newcastle 31 Morehead St Lambton
W W W. L I ZOT T E S.CO M.AU BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12 :: 31
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send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com
New War
SATURDAY AUGUST 18
The Square, Haymarket
New War, Lost Animal, Scattered Order, Four Door
ROCK & POP
Dan Lawrence The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Unherd Open Mic Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm
JAZZ
Lawrence Ku Trio, Phil Slater, Nick McBride 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 (conc)-$15 8.30pm Monday Jam: Danng G Felix Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Rob Eastwood Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK Russell Neal, Chris Brookes, Massimo Presti Kellys On King, Newtown free 7pm
TUESDAY AUGUST 14 32 :: BRAG :: 475 : 13:08:12
ROCK & POP
Adam Pringle and Friends Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Mandi Jarry Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 8.30pm Rob Henry The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Sons Of Mercury Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm Spaghetti Western Orchestra Sydney Opera House $89.90 7.30pm all-ages
JAZZ
Ian Blakeney Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm Jazzgroove: Bernie McGann, Harry Sutherland Venue 505, Surry Hills $8 (conc)-$15 7.30pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK Andrew Denniston, Tim Weedon, Stell Bell Harbourview Hotel, The Rocks free 7pm Jim Saphier, Black Diamond George IV Inn, Picton free 7.30pm A Night Of Americana:
Jamie Oehlers Quartet Venue 505, Surry Hills $10 (conc)-$15 8.30pm Peter Head The Harbourview Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm Sizzling Strings: Bruce Mathiske w/ Phil Stack, Greg Young and Steve Cowley The Basement, Circular Quay $28 (+ bf) 7.30pm
COUNTRY
All The Pretty Horses: Lucky Luke & His Shooting Stars, Lacey Cole & The Lazy Colts, Joseph Liddy & The Skeleton Horse, R.L. Jones The Res Rattler, Marrickville $5 7pm Kenny Rogers (USA), Glen Campbell (USA) State Theatre, Sydney $99– $299 8pm
$12 8pm MONDAY AUGUST 13
JAZZ
Steve Hogan The Basement, Circular Quay $25 8pm Russell Neal, Brian Manning Merton hotel, Rozelle free 7.30pm The Songwriter Sessions Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 15 ROCK & POP
Benn Finn Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9pm Bernie Hayes Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Chet Faker FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel sold out 5pm Dave Seaside Artichoke Gallery, Manly free 7.30pm Dead Marines Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel free 8pm The Delta Riggs, Money For Rope Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Glen Bidmead Dee Why RSL Club 6.30pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Grass Taylor Mars Hill Café, Parramatta free 6pm Greg Sita Cat and Fiddle Hotel, Balmain free 7pm Helmutt Uhlmann The Loft, UTS, Ultimo free 6pm Russell Neal, Sanitys Collision, The Yellow Canvas Cookies Lounge and Bar, North Strathfield free 6.30pm TAOS, Gavin Fitzgerald Coach & Horse Hotel, Randwick free 7pm Turn Mortal Coil Valve Bar and Venue, Tempe 7pm
Antares, Uncle Jed, The Thompsons The Basement, Circular Quay $10 8pm Hot Damn!: Antagonist A.D. (NZ), Lionheart, Shinto Katana Spectrum, Darlinghurst 8pm Howard Jones Sapphire Showroom, Failfield RSL Club $60 8.30pm Iowa, Sounds Like Sunset, Lyyar, Narrow Lands FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst $10 8pm Jay Smith, The Vanns, Landon Elliot River, Lobsterface Valve Bar and Venue, Tempe 7pm Joe Mckee, Melodie Nelson, Heartswin Paddington Uniting Church $14.30 (+ bf) 8pm Johnathan Devoy Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Little Bastard, The Mountains, Jack Dawson, Callithump Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Neighbourhood Watch: Sea Legs, Iluka, The Darkened Seas, The Grease Arrestor The Standard, Darlinghurst $5 8pm Nicholas Roy, Brendan Maclean, Annaliese Szota Brass Monkey, Cronulla $14.30 7pm Nicky Kurta Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Save Our Sando Save Our Scene Fundraising Show: Pat Powell & Friends, Chris Duke & The Royals, Handball Deathmatch, Sunday Dub Club DJs Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10 8pm The Smith Artichoke Gallery Café, Manly free 7.30pm The Starlettes Blue Beat, Double Bay $20 (+ bf) 7pm Terry Serio’s Ministry of Truth Camelot Lounge, Marrickville $15 7pm Um & Ah Presents Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10 8pm Vultures: Benjalu, DJ Skar The Lansdowne, Broadway free 8pm Wolf & Cub, The Walking Who, Grass Taylor Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont free 6pm
JAZZ
King Brothers Trio, Ray Beadle Venue 505, Surry Hills $10 (conc)-$15 8.30pm Lionel Robinson Dee Why RSL Club free 7pm Peter Head The Harbourview Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm Ross Wilson Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $56–$98 (dinner & show) 7pm
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pick of the week
Greg Atwells, Huntings, Kieran Delaharpe Brass Monkey, Cronulla $17.85 7pm Jager Presents Annandale Hotel 7.30pm Josh McIvor Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 6pm Musos Jam Night Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt free 8pm Nicky Kurta Summer Hill Hotel free 7.30pm Post Paint, Daisy M. Tulley, Sky Squadron, The Shooters Party Goodgod Small Club, Chinatown $8 (student)-$10 8pm Roland K Smith & the Sinners, Handsome Young Strangers, Handasyd Williams & the Brother’s Primitive Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10 8pm The Rubens, Phebe Starr, Lime Cordiale Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $5-$10 (+ bf) 8pm Sarah Paton The Obsever Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm The Silver Dollars, The Flaming Stars, DJ Brian Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont free 6pm Steve Tonge Duo O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm
COUNTRY
Kenny Rogers (USA), Glen Campbell (USA) State Theatre, Sydney $99– $299 8pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK Andrew Denniston Ettalong B/C free 7.30pm Black Diamond, Kath Cox Corrimal Hotel free 7.30pm Hayley Sales The Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 8.30pm Russell Neal, Kafunkafun, Nick Domenicos, Spencer McCullum Kogarah Hotel free 7pm
FRIDAY AUGUST 17 ROCK & POP
2 Of Hearts Engadine RSL & citizens Club free 8pm The Abstractionists Artichoke Gallery Café, Manly free 7.30pm Antagonist A.D. (NZ), Lionheart, Shinto Katana Masonic Hall, Blacktown $20 (+ bf) 8pm Bears With Guns, Open Skys, Dusty Yellow Sunbeams FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst $10 8pm Breaking Orbit, Meniscus, Mish, The Hungry Mile Annandale Hotel $12 8pm Burning Love (CAN), Epics, Lo! Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $25 8pm Children Collide, Dune Rats, Bad Dreems The Standard, Darlinghurst $25 (+ bf) 8pm Cumbiamuffin Camelot Lounge, Marrickville $20 7.30pm Dan England, Clint Boge Club 77, East Sydney 8pm Dead China Doll, Nhomea, Yes I’m Leaving, Housewives, SunSun DJ, Ears Have Ears DJs Secret Location, Marrickville $10 9pm Dylan Hartas, Justine and The Men, Adrian Heath and The Far Horizons, Little Big Horn Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt $15 8pm Endless Summer Beach Party The Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 10.30pm Glenn Cunningham The Basement, Circular Quay $30 8pm Good Heavens, Bloods The Lansdowne, Broadway free 8pm Halfway Homebuoy, Daniel Allars Band The Basement, Circular Quay 8pm The Headliners Westmead Tavern free 4pm Ian Moss, Jordan Miller Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $50–$120 (with dinner) 8pm
THURSDAY AUGUST 16 ROCK & POP
Ainslie Wills, Caitlin Park, Brendan Maclean Goodgod Small Club, Chinatown $12 (+ bf) 8pm Chet Faker Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst sold out 8pm Down To Earth – Emerging Artist Showcase: Burn
The Rubens
g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com
Chet Faker
Jinja Safari, Opossom, White Arrows Metro Theatre, Sydney $38.90 (+ bf) 8pm all-ages Laced In Lust, The Gunn Show, Smokin’ Mirrors, Rattlesnake, Sylvain Valve Bar and Venue, Tempe 7pm The Louisiana Roadshow Brass Monkey, Cronulla $23.50 7pm Mere Women, Hira Hira Black Wire Records, Annandale $10 7pm MUM: The Owls, Pirates Alive, Mezzanine, Warchief, Reactionary, The Money Go Round, Around The Corner, MUM DJs The World Bar, Kings Cross $10-$15 8pm Nicholas Roy, Brendan Maclean Notes Live, Enmore $14.30 7pm Original Sin INXS Show Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills free 10pm Passenger (UK), The Falls The Hi-Fi, Moore Park $30 (+ bf) 7.30pm all-ages Pop Singles, Family, Charles Buddy Baaboul Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst $10 8pm Roots Spectrum, Darlinghurst $10 8pm Soul Sacrifice: Celebrating The Music Of Carlos Santana Blue Beat, Double Bay $20 (+ bf) 7pm Sydney Asian Art Day: No Art, Making, The Darkist, Mr Wang Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory $10 8pm The Tenth Circle, The Dark Gift, Sounds Of Coma, 2nd Sydney Livehouse @ Lewisham Hotel $12 8pm The Vampires With Shannon Barnett The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $10-$20 8.30pm The Walking Who, Louis London, Karl Broadie, PhDJ Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills free 6pm The Waves Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm
JAZZ
Galaxstare Venue 505, Surry Hills $15 (conc)-$20 8.30pm Masterpieces of Time: Synergy Percussion City Recital Hall, Sydney $15 (student)-$25 7.30pm allages The Vampires, Sharon Barnett The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale 8.30pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK Soul & Sound Mars Hill Café, Parramatta $10 8.30pm
SATURDAY AUGUST 18 ROCK & POP
Chasing Karma Oatley Hotel free 8.30pm Children Collide, Dune Rats, Bad Dreems The Standard, Darlinghurst $25 (+ bf) 8pm Counterfeit Tribute Night – Britpop: The Seizures, The Blarney Stoners, The Filth, The Russian Messengers, Wand Erection, The Pox, Handsome Sons, The Unremarkables, Middle Aged Youth Group, Alex Party Cat Town Hall Hotel, Newtown free 7pm Crowsfeat, Karmic Dirt, Paris Club Coogee Diggers 8pm Dan England, Clint Boge Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor 8pm Dave Tice and Mark Evans Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 4pm The Deer Republic, Bec & Ben FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst $8 8pm The Delta Riggs, Money For Rope Annandale Hotel $12 (+ bf) 8pm Dirty Deeds – The AC/DC Show Club Windang free 8pm Doobies, Eagles And West Coast Rock: The Barry Leef Band, Kimi Tupaea The Basement, Circular Quay $30 8pm Dragon Brass Monkey, Cronulla $44.90 7pm Elevation U2 Show Engadine RSL & Citizens Club free 8.30pm Fantine, Battleships, Jenny Broke The Window, F.R.I.E.N.D/S Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills free 6pm Garcon Garcon, Bright Young Things, DJ Matt Vaughn Supper Club, The Oxford Hotel, Darlinghurst $10 (+ bf) 9pm Grandville, ER Among Ether, Winslow’s Cancer, Green Ra’ashid Valve Bar and Venue, Tempe 2pm Hotel California Live At The Brewhouse, King St Wharf, Sydney $25 (+ bf) 7pm Ian Moss, Jordan Miller Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $50–$120 (dinner & show) 8pm
Kingswell, DJ Urby Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont free 7.30pm Kittens: Twincest, Fingertips, Kittens DJs Spectrum, Darlinghurst $10 8pm L-Fresh The Lion, Kween G, Kade MC, DJ Ology, Mirrah Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst $10 (+ bf) 8pm The Lucky Wonders, Sarah Humphreys & The Volunteers, Tim Stokes Notes Live, Enmore $19.50 7pm Luke Robinson Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Mental As Anything, Smoking Ponies, Super Florence Jam Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm The Monks of Mellonwah, Number Station Sandringham Hotel, Newtown 8pm Nasum (SWE), Dyscarnate (UK), Captain Cleanoff, Psycroptic The Hi-Fi, Moore Park $45 (+ bf) 7.30pm Neck Of The Woods, Charles Buddy Daaboul Mars Hill Café, Parramatta $10 8.30pm New War, Lost Animal, Scattered Order, Four Door The Square, Haymarket $12 8pm Next Best Thing Sutherland United Services Club free 7.30pm No Beef Party Artichoke Gallery Café, Manly free 7.30pm Past Hits and Previews: Richard Clapton State Theatre, Sydney 8pm Pigeon, Tokyo Denmark Sweden, Master of Robognia Goodgod Small Club, Chinatown $10 (+ bf) 8pm Retro Groove Brighton RSL Club, Brighton-Le-Sands free 8pm The Ruminators, Pirates Alive, Smaal Cats Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Scooter: Bandintexas, Gabby Dever and the Fisherman, Koro Vacui, Georgia O’ Connor and The Loveless Children The Red Rattler, Marrickville $8 7pm SFX: Caulfields, Cast To Stone, Awaken I Am St James Hotel, Sydney $15-$20 9pm Stand Alone, Johnny Roadkill, Ugly Little Secrets, Mad Charlie Sydney Livehouse @ Lewisham Hotel $12 8pm Tall Pop Syndrome The Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 10.30pm Ungus Ungus Ungus The Lansdowne, Broadway free 9pm
Wine Bar, Leichhardt free 7.30pm
ACOUSTIC FOLK
Dane and Aaron Cookies Lounge and Bar, North Strathfield free 8pm Melissa Kellie Rozelle Markets free 10.30am Muddy Feet The Belvedere Hotel free 9pm Sanitys Collision Newport Markets free 11am Tanith Nair Mars Hill Café, Parramatta free 6pm
SUNDAY AUGUST 19 ROCK & POP
Ace Brighton RSL Club, BrightonLe-Sands free 7pm Andy Baylor & The Banksia Band Petersham Bowling Club $15 6pm The Baddies Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 4pm Ensemble Offspring Petersham Bowling Club $15–$20 3pm all-ages Hunter & Suzy Owens Band Marrickville Bowling Club free 4.30pm Jive Bombers Cronulla RSL free 12.30pm Lepers & Crooks The Lansdowne, Broadway free 8pm Matt Price Harbord Beach Hotel free 6pm
S.P.G. Botany View Hotel, Newtown free 7pm
JAZZ
Jimmy Shaw Rozelle Markets free 11am The Marvellous Mizdemeanours Camelot Lounge, Marrickville $20 6.30pm The Peter Head Trio The Harbourview Hotel, The Rocks free 4pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK Aimee Francis Sailsbury Hotel, Stanmore free 2pm Black Diamond Hotel William, Darlinghurst free 6pm Kool Bananas Oatley Hotel free 2pm Monks Of Cool Mars Hill Café, Parramatta free 6pm
Children Collide
wed
15 Aug
(9:00PM - 12:00AM)
thu
16 Aug
(9:00PM - 12:00AM)
fri
17 Aug
(5:00PM - 8:00PM)
(9:30PM - 1:30AM)
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
JAZZ
Arrebato Ensemble Camelot Lounge, Marrickville $20-$25 7.30pm David Rodrigues Rozelle Markets free 11am Gai Bryant Quintet With Miles Merrill The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $10-$20 8.30pm James Muller Venue 505, Surry Hills $20 (conc)-$25 8pm Jazz Nouveau Supper Club, Failfield RSL Club free 7pm Peter Head The Harbourview Hotel, The Rocks free 5pm Yuki Kumagai, John Mackie Well Connected Café/
The Pinks, Wolf Mail Soho Stray Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont free 2pm Price of Fame, 40 Bends, Grey Skull Valve Bar and Venue, Tempe $15 1pm Rock Monster Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills free 3pm Ross Wilson Brass Monkey, Cronulla $47.95 7pm Simon Kinny Lewis Rozelle Markets free 10.30am Substation X, Another Broken String, Deadbeat Decision, Glass Chain Valve Bar and Venue, Tempe 5pm Suite Az Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont free 8.30pm Sunday Blues Jam: Mark Hopper Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 8pm The Turps, True Gentlemen,
sat
18 Aug
(4:30PM - 7:30PM)
SATURDAY NIGHT
(9:00PM - 1:30AM)
SUNDAY AFTERNOON
sun
19 Aug
(4:30PM - 7:30PM)
SUNDAY NIGHT
(8:30PM - 12:00AM)
BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12 :: 33
gig picks
up all night out all week...
Ainslie Wills
Joe Mckee, Melodie Nelson, Heartswin Paddington Uniting Church $14.30 (+ bf) 8pm
Passenger (UK), The Falls The Hi-Fi, Moore Park $30 (+ bf) 7.30pm all-ages
Save Our Sando Save Our Scene Fundraising Show: Pat Powell & Friends, Chris Duke & The Royals, Handball Deathmatch, Sunday Dub Club DJs Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10 8pm
FRIDAY AUGUST 17 Breaking Orbit, Meniscus, Mish, The Hungry Mile Annandale Hotel $12 (+ bf) 8pm Dead China Doll, Nhomea, Yes I’m Leaving, Housewives, SunSun DJ, Ears Have Ears DJs Secret Location, Marrickville $10 9pm
Passenger
SATURDAY AUGUST 18 Children Collide, Dune Rats, Bad Dreems The Standard, Darlinghurst $25 (+ bf) 8pm Fantine, Battleships, Jenny Broke The Window, F.R.I.E.N.D/S Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills free 6pm Pigeon, Tokyo Denmark Sweden, Master of Robognia Goodgod Small Club, Chinatown $12 (+ bf) 8pm
Good Heavens, Bloods The Lansdowne, Broadway free 8pm
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 15
THURSDAY AUGUST 16
The Delta Riggs, Money For Rope Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm
Ainslie Wills, Caitlin Park, Brendan Maclean Goodgod Small Club, Chinatown $12 (+ bf) 8pm
Post Paint, Daisy M. Tulley, Sky Squadron, The Shooters Party Goodgod Small Club, Chinatown $8 (student)-$10 8pm The Rubens, Phebe Starr, Lime Cordiale Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $5-$10 (+ bf) 8pm
Jinja Safari, Opossom, White Arrows Metro Theatre, Sydney $38.90 (+ bf) 8pm all-ages Mere Women, Hira Hira Black Wire Records, Annandale $10 7pm
Chet Faker Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst sold out 8pm Iowa, Sounds Like Sunset, Lyyar, Narrow Lands FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst $10 8pm
MUM: The Owls, Pirates Alive, Mezzanine, Warchief, Reactionary, The Money Go Round, Around The Corner, MUM DJs The World Bar, Kings Cross $10-$15 8pm
The Delta Riggs
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 15
Saturday AUGUST 18
CHET FAKER SPECIAL INTIMATE SHOW
Deer Republic EP LAUNCH
SOLD OUT! TUNE IN TO FBi RADIO 94.5 AT 5PM TO HEAR IT LIVE!
Laugh your tits off:
FRIDAY AUGUST 17
Up and comers
BEARS WITH GUNS
HOSTED BY MARK WILLIAMSON
8 PM
LYYAR NARROW LANDS 8 PM
$10 AT THE DOOR
level 2, kings cross hotel 34 :: BRAG :: 475 : 13:08:12
BEC & BEN
ENERATE
THURSDAY AUGUST 16
SOUNDS LIKE SUNSET
GOLDSMITH
OPEN SKYS
$10 AT THE DOOR
IOWA
THE FORMER LOVE
8 PM
DUSTY YELLOW SUNBEAMS 8 PM
$10 AT THE DOOR
$8 AT THE DOOR
Hands up!
ROBOPOP
“THROW DOWN TIL YOU THROW UP”
URBAN CLASSICS!
DJ’S STAGGMAN AND CLOCKWERK
HIP-HOP/R’N’B SPECIAL
11:30PM
FREE
11:30PM TIL THE DEATH
www.fbisocial.com
FREE
brag beats
BRAG’s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture
dance music news club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Honnery
he said she said WITH
COMPUTER JAY (USA)
Growing Up Though my parents weren’t musicians, 1. they were both in the entertainment industry and cherished the arts. I grew up with a lot of music playing around the house – mainly Motown and funk. Sis
Inspirations I have many favourite artists, but the one 2. I’ll name today is Junie Morrison. I must have
SIS @ SPICE CELLAR
been no older than five when I heard ‘Not Just Knee Deep’ by Parliament, which Junie wrote. That song has stuck with me forever, and it’s been sampled countless times by other artists that have influenced me. Your Crew I’ve been very fortunate to play with 3. many amazing groups, including The Pharcyde, Dam Funk, Master Blazter and Shafiq Husayn to name a few. Though I’m currently focusing on solo releases, I have a project with Gaslamp Killer brewing as well – the project’s called ‘Computer Killer’. Music is my day job. The Music You Make I definitely come from a rap/hip hop 4. background. That’ll always be in me. My sound also consists of electronic modern funk, and some weird science.
HARBOURLIFE + FIELD DAY The date has been announced for Fuzzy’s Harbourlife festival, which will return to the postcard setting of Mrs Macquarie’s Point on Saturday December 1. While no lineup has been fed to us media hyenas as of yet, Fuzzy director John Wall had the following to say
Music, Right Here, Right Now I am loving the music world right now. I 5. feel musicianship and live performance have been on a rise the past few years – we are entering the renaissance of tomorrow. Oh, and rap has been pretty dope lately as well. What I love about the LA scene is the diversity and unity that exist at the moment. Creativity truly in regard to the event: “This year we’re taking Harbourlife back to its musical roots… With the renaissance of quality house and deep house music over the last couple of years, there’s a wealth of music that’s perfectly suited to a not-toohuge outdoor party in such a feel-good location.” (When is the last time you used ‘not-too-huge’ in a
thrives here. The last show I saw that blew me away was Budos Band at the Echoplex, here in LA. They were in the pocket like WHOA. With: The Pharcyde, DJ Vickone Where: Upstairs Beresford When: Wednesday August 22
sentence?) While we don’t have any names from the Harbourlife bill, we can literally go one better for Field Day and announce the first act that will perform at Fuzzy’s New Year’s Day extravaganza: Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. You can sign up for the Field Day 2013 pre-sale on the Field Day website.
German producer Burak Sar, aka Sis – he of ‘Trompeta’ fame – will headline The Spice Cellar on Saturday September 22. Legend has it that after handing a copy of ‘Trompeta’ to Ricardo Villalobos at the hallowed Robert Johnson club in Frankfurt, Villalobos was so taken by the cut that he decided to release it on his own boutique label, Sei es Drum, which up to that point had showcased only his own productions. Critical acclaim swamped Sar as soon as the ‘Trompeta’ epidemic swept through nightclubs throughout ’08, leading to the inevitable coke and sex parties no doubt. Sar subsequently unveiled further releases for the likes of Welcome To Masemenos and Connaisseur Recordings, before establishing his own label, Cocolino Records. He will arrive in Sydney following the release of his new EP on Crosstown Records – a sure fire sign that he’s still at the coalface of clubland, even if he may have ditched the trompets (sic).
DAPHNI DROPS JIAOLONG She Can DJ 2012 finalists
SHE CAN DJ FINAL
The She Can DJ competition returns for another year, and has announced its top 10 female DJ finalists drawn from Australia and New Zealand. Sydney is well represented in the comp, with five female selectors cracking the final ten: Alley Oop, Elly K, Fingertips, Natnoiz and the one and only Cassette. They are joined by Dusk and Leah Mencel from Adelaide, Girl Audio and Juliet Fox from Melbourne, and Hannah Parker from Brisbane. The finalists are set to be pitted against each other over the coming weeks, with the all-female lineup set to come together to perform at the ivy for the competition’s finals on Wednesday September 5.
Canadian producer Dan Snaith, the mastermind behind Caribou, will release JIAOLONG, a full album under his Daphni moniker, in October. Smith has been increasingly prolific under his Daphni alias in recent times, crafting remixes for the likes of Hot Chip, Emeralds and Carl Craig’s No Boundaries. According to Pitchfork, a modular synth that Snaith built features prominently throughout, while an accompanying press release has Snaith declaring his new found love for DJing was integral to his approach to the Daphni album, stating that “in contrast to live concerts where bands predictably string together the songs from their most recent album, DJs have the potential to blindside you, be genuinely surprising”. Smith’s spiel culminates with a message of hope, encouraging listeners to seek out that “small world where dance music lives up to its potential to liberate, surprise, and innovate”. Amen, brother.
BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12 :: 35
dance music news
free stuff
club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Honnery
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM
he said she said WITH
TRIPLE J HOUSE PARTY
DEACON ROSE
I
wasn’t hugely into music as a young kid. My dad had pretty standard taste – he liked Cold Chisel a lot. Mum never really showed much interest in music. I was kind of into Kris Kross from memory, but the first album I bought was Silverchair’s Frogstomp, on cassette. It was in my early teens that I started paying attention to music. There’s so much I take inspiration from. I’m hugely inspired by the 1970s. It was such an amazing time for music and popular culture. Anything involving synthesisers – particularly classic analogue synths, drum machines etc. I find film incredibly inspiring as well. I started with triple j a few years ago after a stint in community radio. I’ve always been into electronic music, and radio made sense as a perfect way to share it with others.
teaching myself production, and have been lucky enough to spend some time with very talented producers. The stuff I’m really into right now is bass-heavy deep house. It’s just so club friendly. In saying that though, I love all sorts of club music, and my sets generally represent that. In my opinion, music, particularly electronic music, has never been so exciting. Technology now allows entire studios to exist on a laptop, meaning you can work anytime, anywhere. It’s never been easier or more affordable to express yourself musically, and the depth and quality of music around at the moment is staggering. What: triple j House Party mixed by Nina Las Vegas is out now With: Nina Las Vegas, Beni, Flume, What So Not Where: triple j’s House Party @ The Hi-Fi When: Friday August 24
The last few years I’ve been
DISCONNECTED FT PERC
London techno figurehead Ali Wells, aka Perc, will headline the next Disconnected bash at One22 this Saturday. Wells is coming off a watershed year in 2011, during which he began to garner wider recognition outside the niche techno diehards after finally releasing his debut album, Wicker & Steel. By dropping the LP, Perc also provided a gateway for neophytes to discover his Perc Trax label, home to the mutant industrial sounds of Dead Sound & Videohead. In support of Perc, who is sure to play a set replete with spitting snares, big kicks and distorted beats, DJs Andosound, Ben Dunlop and Defined By Rhythm will all be throwing down. First release tickets are available online for $20.
CIRCUS RECORDS BASH
This next announcement comes courtesy of the Big Ape crew: Doctor P, Cookie Monsta, Funtcase and Slumdogz will all perform at The Metro Theatre on Saturday September 22 as part of a Circus Records showcase presented by We Are The Wall, the peeps behind The World Bar’s huge Wednesday bass night. Starting in 2009 as a platform for Doctor P and Flux’s dubstep productions, Circus Records has grown quickly to become associated with reputable bassdriven music. Rattling through the key players fronting up in Sydney: Doctor P was responsible for one of the bigger dubstep cuts of 2010 with
The second instalment of S.A.S.H Soup won’t arrive in eatable form, although it will certainly be warming up the insides of The Abercrombie on Sunday August 19. Defined By Rhythm – the underground house DJ and producer best known for his sharp programming and impeccable mixing skills – is headlining a mighty fine ensemble with his [The Box] crew of Jay Smalls, Michael Scholes and Michael Doney, with Tim Davis, Kerry Wallace and Matt Weir in support. What else? The ever-enthralling (and cello playing) Tom Middleton has given the nod to the boys at S.A.S.H to upload his awesome surprise set from June onto a flashy S.A.S.H-imprinted USB. We have five to give away, and two come with double pass entry to the August 19 party. Sound good? Send us your favourite soup recipe, and you’ll be in the running.
LATE NITE TUFF GUY
Mr Carmelo Bianchetti, aka DJ HMC, aka Late Nite Tuff Guy – a chap who is lauded by older generations as the granddaddy of the Australian techno scene – will headline the next Picnic One Night Stand at the Civic Underground on Saturday August 25. Based in South Australia, HMC landed an international club hit with ‘Phreakin’’ back in that sunkissed spring of ‘95, which for better or worse put Adelaide on the world techno map – at least temporarily. But it is Bianchetti’s cut as Late Nite Tuff Guy, ‘I Get Deeper’, that is more likely to resonate with BRAG’s younger, racier readership – it’s Seth Troxler endorsed, yo! A string of recent releases on disco edits imprint Dessert Island Discs indicates that Bianchetti is not ready to consign his days to savouring the bountiful pleasures of Rundle Mall, and will continue to deceive clubbers as to the merits of Adelaide as a creative stronghold for a while yet… $20 presales through Resident Advisor.
Donny Benét
DONNY BENÉT’S ELECTRIC LOVE
Donny Benét, who was described in BRAG’s sister Melbourne publication Beat as an “ubersuave Sydney retro-popster,” is celebrating the release of his new album, Electric Love, with a dinner and show set at Goodgod Danceteria on Friday September 7 – the very date the album drops. Benét announced his arrival last year with the release of his debut album Don’t Hold Back, an LP of retro synth ballads that didn’t take itself overly seriously (a finding that could be deduced from the fact that the album came with a free karaoke DVD...) Benét’s forthcoming offering apparently traverses themes of heat, love, war and self-belief – and if you think of these ideas as stimulus for a modern day Italo funk artist, then you’ve got a sense of what Electric Love might entail... Maybe. $12 presale tickets are available online.
A new party crew, Charade, make their entrance into the Sydney club realm on Saturday September 1 with a party at One22 headlined by New Zealand outfit Chaos In The CBD, a DJ/ production duo made up of brothers Ben and Louis Helliker-Hales. The brothers write and DJ “emotionally sophisticated club music with an exuberant party edge” that has led to them to release on French imprint Youngunz and Fatboy Slim’s Southern Fried Records. The bros have also been involved in remix work for producers like Canblaster, Kastle, Savage Skulls, French Fries and Manare. In support of Chaos In The CBD’s jaunt across the ditch, compatriot Kiwi Pharley, Templar Soundsystem, Kato, U-Khan and Zeus will also be spinning. Presale $15 tickets are available through Resident Advisor. Kyle Hall
Astral People are bringing two Detroit house figureheads, Rick Wade and Kyle Hall, to town to play The Civic Underground on Sunday September 30. Wade has been producing since the early ‘90s, setting up the iconic house stable Harmonie Park with the inimitable Dan Bell before subsequently conceiving his booty bass label, Bass Force, as a release for his alter ego, Big Daddy Rick. Contrastingly, Hall is of a younger generation, having prospered from the sonic groundwork laid by Wade et al. He has crafted productions that tap into American musical history, drawing on a wide array of traditions for releases on labels such as Hyperdub and Planet E. In support of this delectable double act, Simon Caldwell, the Future Classic DJs, Preacha and Astral DJs will be spinning, with early bird $25 tickets available online.
36 :: BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12
S.A.S.H SOUP + USB
‘Sweet Shop’; Cookie Monsta aka Tony Cook is a producer and DJ from Nottingham; while FuntCase aka James Hazell is known for his controversial ‘filthy’ style of dubstep. Meanwhile Slumdogz is comprised of the abovementioned Doctor P, DJ Swan-E and vocalist Krafty MC, who combine to produce sounds that conflate elements of DnB, dubstep and jungle.
CHARADE FT CHAOS IN THE CBD
RICK WADE + KYLE HALL
“You blocked me on Facebook and now you’re going to die” threatens Knife Party’s track ‘Internet Friends’ and, let’s face it, we’ve all been there. The track is just one of many gems that features on the new double CD release, triple j House Party, mixed by Nina Las Vegas. The track listing is pretty damn sweet, with the likes of Hermitude, M.I.A., dead prez and Gerling all getting a spin. To add light a fire under it, Nina Las Vegas, Beni, Flume, What So Not and Deacon Rose (left) are bringing the party to The Hi-Fi on Friday August 24, the first stop on their tour around the country. To grab a prize pack featuring a double pass and an album, tell us the track that always finds its way into your house parties.
CASSIAN
Sydneysider Cassian is embarking on a national tour in support of his third solo EP, The Love Cuts. As part of the tour, Cassian will perform at Goodgod Small Club on Friday September 14. The hometown boy has been featured on Kitsune Maison compilations over the years, having established himself with remixes of the likes of Bag Raiders, The Rapture and Miami Horror. When asked what he hoped that dancers hear in his music, Cassian told an online rag, “Something familiar yet new, definitely something with a strong groove that’s not overly loopy, and a quality in the production that really makes the speakers pop”. Cassian will be joined for his Sydney show by Morgan, Chux, Help, Hamish Velvet and Set Mo.
JERU THE DAMAJA
East Coast hip hop guru Jeru The Damaja, a rapper, producer and label owner whose career spans over 20 years, will headline Oxford Art Factory on Thursday September 13. Jeru’s discography features landmark albums such as his debut LP The Sun Rises In The East and The Wrath Of The Math, while his sonic CV also includes collaborations with Gangstarr and Groove Armada. Jeru will be flanked by Dialectrix, Jackie Onassis, Frenzie and DJ Mathmatics, with early bird presales going for 30 crabs.
DAVE SEAMAN
Progressive don Dave Seaman returns to Sydney to play Musik Matters at Goldfish in Kings Cross on Saturday September 1. While Seaman is renowned in clubbing circles for his immensely popular Global Underground and Renaissance mix compilations, his diverse musical abilities are emphasised by a quick glance through his back catalogue. He’s tweaked knobs for the likes of Kylie Minogue, Take That and The Pet Shop Boys, and remixed everyone from U2, Michael Jackson and David Bowie to New Order. Seaman remains relevant to the present club milieu via his independent label Audio Therapy, which boasts a roster featuring Popof, Timo Mass, Pig & Dan, Tiger Stripes and Robert Babicz. Seaman’s recent EP, ‘Attack Of The Abalones/Wrong Side Business’, will act as a further reminder that the veteran still has plenty of creative juice flowing through his veins.
Francis Inferno Orchestra Rip It Up By Benjamin Cooper
G
riffin James has been back in the country less than 72 hours and he’s already basically homeless. Worse still, his vinyl collection has been attacked. The man better known as electronic project Francis Inferno Orchestra arrived back in Melbourne only to find he’d been booted. “It wasn’t as nasty as it sounds, because I was living with my dad. It was a pretty chilled deal, and I had a pretty large amount of space to work in. But then I came home from two months of touring through Europe to find the house is getting sold, so I have to move way out to the ‘burbs with my mum. Meanwhile, I go outside and my record boxes are smashed open in the garage. There are expensive, original records sprawled out everywhere... I mean, my dad doesn’t really realise what he’s doing, but then he starts chucking synths and all this expensive gear into a moving van and I’m trying not to flip,” he deadpans. “It was some bizarre shit, man.” James has released a swag of EPs on labels like Join The Dots, Sleazy Beats and House Of Sound, which have received critical acclaim and generated significant commercial appeal – most have charted in the top five of the UK’s vinyl dance specialists, Juno Records. Yet it is Melbourne electronic music and party collective Animals Dancing that has provided the most inspiration for James in recent times. “For a while in Melbourne, the only option to go out to was a fairly average, stock standard club show,” he says. “I remember Revolver [venue and club in Prahran] being the only
possible option one night, and I just thought, ‘Something’s gotta change’. Thankfully the Animals Dancing guys came along. I guess the group kind of grew from these nights they used to put on at Mercat Basement, under the Queen Vic Markets. They’d been managing there for quite a while and just thought, ‘Let’s start our own damn party!’ The sound of it – I mean, they’d play long C-grade and disco, and then a bit of a power set. It was exactly what Melbourne needed at the time. “The funny thing is that since they started having their parties, other people have been copying them and doing pop-up parties in really weird places,” he continues. “Recently in Melbourne, these two teenagers held this pop-up rave on a rooftop 15 stories up, with 300 people. Apparently everyone had to climb along this really dangerous route, and then when they got to the roof there was this hectic old-school acid house rave from the early ‘90s going on. Now, of course that kind of shit is stupid and dangerous, but it’s worth looking at the influence [of Animals Dancing]. I know that they have certainly helped to support me and a lot of other people, so they hold a sentimental spot in the scene. They’ve helped to set the bar differently for what parties can be – people often don’t leave ‘till eight in the morning, and they’re definitely still such a hub for people.” James was also fortunate enough to have been remixed by Soul Clap, an experience
Don’t Call It Dubstep By Joshua Hayes
D
As for the forthcoming album? “I have actually
With: Ben Korbel, Andy Webb, James Taylor Where: The Spice Cellar When: Friday August 17, from 10pm until late
Humans Need Funk By RK spent a lot of time in the studio producing [Chapter 2], and I’m not scared or anything, I’m not worried, I never regret anything I do,” he says. “Whether or not you like the singles from my album, I think that you’ll be surprised at what I’ve done on it. For me, I think it compares with nothing else that’s out there at the moment. It’s Benga music, so hopefully I’ve done my fans proud – and to all the new people that are now entering my music, welcome.”
K
azu Kimura could be Australia’s techno hero; he grew up in Japan and spent years cultivating a scene there, only to move Down Under to a new home in Brisbane. Kazu is currently spending his time gigging around Europe with a focus on Spain, where he’s now based. Tough life. “Actually, I haven’t slept for a little while so I’m really tired. I hope my brain works during this interview,” he says with a laugh. Other than the typically gruelling DJ schedule he keeps, Kazu has been working on a few remixes in his Madrid studio. “It’s been pretty busy with the summer over here. I’m working on a track for a friend of mine from Brisbane who is living in London now, and is starting up his own label – these are my old friends, so I’m really happy to be doing that.” About eight months ago, Kazu also made the trip back to his homeland. “I hadn’t been back to Japan for a little while,” he says. “[We went to] a small club in Tokyo. We don’t have a lot of space and we do have a lot of earthquakes – it was great to go back to one of the places I used to play at years ago.” He hadn’t been back since the 1990s – and the scene has come a long way since then. “I was really excited, because the techno scene in Tokyo has always been there, but it was always a little underground. Around the turn of the millennium things were huge there, but now house is coming back in a big way – and of course hip hop is still very popular.”
And when it comes to making that Benga music, he’s been busier than ever, wrapping up his new solo album and making plans for another album from Magnetic Man – a project he shares with Skream and Artwork – to be released in the new year. But in the meantime, Adejumo is taking well-earned breaks wherever he can. “I’ve written a lot of music in the last couple of months, and I’m still trying to add to the Magnetic Man catalogue, but while I’m doing that I also want to take a break from it all. So I’m watching Entourage.” Incidentally, he’s just started season five, which finds Vinnie Chase and company reeling from the commercial and critical flop of their all-or-nothing project, Medellin. Taking risks is something that particularly resonates with Adejumo. “As an artist, especially as an artist in my field, a lot of things you do are gambles,” he says. “I mean, you know that if you cross this barrier or if you do that, you could risk your fanbase not liking it. But they’re all risks that I’m willing to take, always. Always. [As I progress] in my career, and make better music and better songs and keep my life interesting, I take risks – and I certainly have done with this album.” When asked what to expect from his upcoming set at Parklife, Adejumo has changed his show to be more live, mixing snippets of his own tracks on the fly with Ableton Live. He says it makes for a more engaging performance, although there is a downside – he’s not able to crowd surf. “I don’t think, since I’ve done [sets] live, that I’ve crowd surfed once,” he says. “There’s so much going on for me … so I don’t really have time to have my crowd surfing moments.”
gnarly. You don’t have to impress anyone – you can just rip it up.”
Kazu Kimura
Benga J Beni Adejumo may be one of the pioneering figures of dubstep, but he’s always been about doing his own thing. “A lot of dance music acts inspire me because I try to move away from what everybody else is doing. So in that aspect, the Skrillex’s of this world inspire me – just to move away,” he laughs. Indeed, in a recent light-hearted interview with NME, Adejumo said he had quit dubstep. The comment went viral on the internet, prompting discussion about whether he was serious or just taking the piss. “When we first did that interview, it kind of came across as joking, but I did mean what I said. I did mean to say that I’ve quit dubstep,” Adejumo clarifies. “I didn’t mean to shock people as hard as I did, but it was definitely time for me to start announcing that I just make Benga music.”
he describes as being “Just mental! It was all arranged through [UK label] Under The Shade, and it felt very surreal to be part of that.” For now though, he’s focused singularly on rocking The Spice Cellar this Friday. “I’m lucky in that I’m getting to play after-hours on Sunday morning, when everyone’s gross and grimy and they’re up for you being a bit
Kazu’s most recent travels have seen him maintaining a hectic booking schedule during the European summer. “I’ve been playing a lot of outdoor festivals in Spain and Europe,” he says, plugging a recent set from a gig in Spain that can be streamed on his SoundCloud. “I’ve moved away from playing vinyl in the last couple of years, much the same as everyone. I’ve been playing on Traktor and Maschine. I’m also using the iPad as a controller and another new effects unit called the Pioneer RMX-1000; it’s a new thing that came out in early June this year, and I’m loving it. The music I play needs to extend the sound sometimes, so I play loops and edit them with effects, which makes things more interesting. I don’t just want to play a track from beginning to end and then press ‘next’. It’s more interesting for me to create my own unique sound from the track. What: Chapter 2 will be out on Sony Music in October With: The Presets, Passion Pit, Chiddy Bang, Plan B, Tame Impala, Chairlift, Robyn, Justice DJ Set, Hermitude, Parachute Youth, Charli XCX, Labrinth and a whole lot more Where: Parklife @ Centennial Park When: Sunday September 30
“My sound has always been about funk – it’s dark, but at the same time has rhythm and makes a groove,” he says. “I call it technobut-with-funk, you know? I don’t really play that white noise sort of sound – I do like it dark but it needs to have funk. Humans need funk!” Outside of said funk, Kazu’s sound remains influenced by the dons of techno – he is still loving Hawtin’s Plus 8 and Beyer’s
Drumcode. “It’s somewhere between minimal and techno and for me, that is a really good sound – it’s what I’ve been playing, and I like to put my own twist on it. One of my tracks made it into the Beatport Top 100 at #20. That was pretty exciting!” As we finish up, Kazu adds a few words on his return to his second home. “The people in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney love their music. I always get a really warm welcome when I get back Down Under. I’m always happy to come back there, it’s always good to come home!” he says. “I’ll be bringing a lot of my new toys – I just hope I can carry everything with me!” With: Lancelot, Jeff Drake, J-Trick, A-Tonez, Smokin’ Joe Mekhael and more Where: Chinese Laundry When: Saturday August 18
BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12 :: 37
club guide send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com
club pick of the week
The Spice Cellar, Sydney
Francis Inferno Orchestra
Francis Inferno Orchestra,
FRIDAY AUGUST 17
Ben Korbel, Andy Webb, James Taylor $10 10pm MONDAY AUGUST 13 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 AUGUST 14 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 Coyote Tuesday Residents DJs 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Jam Jam DJs free 8pm
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 15 The Argyle, The Rocks Anthony Casa, Morgan free 6pm 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 8pm Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale Frat House DJ Alley Cats free 8pm The Marlborough Hotel – Cellar Bar, Newtown DJ Pauly free 9pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Cream Resident DJs free 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall DJs $5 9pm
38 :: BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12
THURSDAY AUGUST 16 The Argyle, The Rocks Elly K, Starjumps free 6pm The Cool Room, Australian Hotel & Brewery, Rouse Hill We Love Thursdays Residents DJs 8pm Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Resident DJs free 8pm Goldfish, Kings Cross Gelato Natalie Conway, Fantine Pritoula, Richard Sanford, Joshua Beagley, Maurice Suckau 9pm 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 Q Bar, Darlinghurst Hot Damn Hot Damn DJs 9pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Turnt Up Thursdays Nacho Pop, Leon Smith 9pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Propaganda Propaganda DJs free (student)-$5 9pm
FRIDAY AUGUST 17 Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway Totally Barry Bad Barry DJs free 9pm The Argyle, The Rocks Argyle Fridays DJ Huw Longman, John ‘The Owl’Devecchis free 6pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Movement Panama, Mrs Bishop free 8pm Candys Apartment, Kings Cross Fried Chicken EP Launch Robust, Kyro & Bomber, Sherlock Bones $10-$15 9pm Cargo Lounge, King St Wharf Kick On Fridays Resident DJs free 4pm
Chinese Laundry, Sydney Bass Mafia Tomba (Israel), A-Tonez, Empress Yoy, Go Freek, LA Tech, Sydney Be Heard DJs, Animal Jeans $15-$25 10pm Civic Underground, Sydney The Seed 2.0 Resident DJs 9pm Clarendon Tavern Let’s Get Stupid Weaver, Zander, Inoxia, Snappa, Harpoon, DJ Dimension, MC Napsta free 7pm Epping Hotel Flirt Flirt DJs free Goodgod Front Bar, Sydney Yo Grito! Yo Grito! DJs free 9pm Goodgod Small Club, Chinatown Rapaport, Swarmy, Julze & DJ Sizzle, Tenth Dan & Grub, Klue, Max Gosford, Juzlo $15 Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour Sublime Peewee Ferris, MC Suga Shane, Matt Ferreira, John Young, Flite, I.K.O. 9pm Hotel Chambers, Sydney Hungama Official Independence Day Party Arjun (UK), Kolaveri Di, Kabhi Kabhi, Teri Meri, Chammak Challo, Remember Tonight, Vinny, J-Rok, Raddi, Avi, Smithy $25-$40 (+ bf) 9pm Ivy Changeroom, Sydney Love Gun Fridays Tina Turntables, The Apprentice & Hooligan 8pm Jacksons On George, Sydney DJ Ivan Drago, DJ Rain Julz free 9pm Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross KK Fridays Falcona Agency DJs 8pm The Marlborough Hotel – Cellar Bar, Newtown DJ Simon Laing free 9pm The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill I Love The Fid Fridays Timmy Lala, Rob Kay, Kristiano, Jarred Baker, Bobby Dazzler free-$10 8pm Nevada Lounge, Darlinghurst DJ Hayden free 6pm Oatley Hotel We Love Oatley Hotel Fridays free 8pm Omega Lounge, City Tattersalls Club, Sydney Unwind Fridays DJ Greg Summerfield free 5.30pm
Pontoon, Darling Harbour Perfect Resident DJs free 9pm Q Bar, Darlinghurst Teen Spirit – Reservoir Dogs Teen Spirit DJs 9pm Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont Chief Rockers (Samrai, Nino Brown, Naiki), Suite Az, DJ Kitsch78, DJ Troy T, MC Rodney O free 7.30pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Mr Casanova Competition DJs 8pm Secret Warehouse, Sydney We’rehouse Benj, Statz, Tooths, Benny Green, Justin Power, Jon Deville, Matttt $20 8pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Francis Inferno Orchestra, Ben Korbel, Andy Webb, James Taylor $10 10pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Eve Resident DJs 9pm The Watershed Hotel Bring On The Weekend! DJ Matt Roberts free 9pm The World Bar, Kings Cross MUM: The Owls, Pirates Alive, Mezzanine, Warchief, Reactionary, The Money Go Round, Around The Corner, MUM DJs $10-$15 8pm Zink Bar, Cronulla Far Out Friday Derek Turner 7pm
Pigeon
SATURDAY AUGUST 18 Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway Strange Fruit Strange Fruit DJs free 9pm The Argyle, The Rocks Kristy Lee, DJ C’est CHIC, Phil Hudson free 6pm Arthouse Hotel, Sydney Flirt Flirt DJs $10 9pm BJs Nightclub, Bondi Junction DJ Shane Taylor 10pm Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst The LION Speaks L-Fresh The Lion, Kween G, Kade MC, DJ Ology, Mirrah $10 (+ bf) 8pm Candys Apartment, Kings Cross Big Guns Vengeance, SMS, Pretty Young Things $20 9pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Kazu Kimura (JPN), Lancelot, J-Trick, Jeff Drake, Tigerlily, Smokin Joe Mekhael, A-Tonez, Whitecat, King Lee, Mike Hyper $15$25 9pm Club 77, Darlinghurst Starfuckers Starfuckers DJs 10pm FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel
Hands Up! Staggman, Clockwerk free 11.30pm Goodgod Small Club, Chinatown Pigeon, Tokyo Denmark Sweden, Master of Ribongia $10 8pm The Green Room Lounge, Enmore Vinyl Solution DJ Nic Dalton free 7pm Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour Homemade Saturdays Resident DJs 9pm Ivy, Sydney Ivy Saturdays Denzal Park, Matt Nugent, Chris Fraser, Baby Gee, Tass, Pro-Gram, Starjumps, Elly K, Crazy Caz, Joe Redd $20 8pm Jacksons On George, Sydney DJ Rain Julz, DJ Simon Laing free 9pm Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Kitty Kitty Bang Bang Isbjorn, Mr Belvedere, David Neale, Playmate, Devola, Pat Ward, Handsome, Kristy Lee 8pm La Cita, King St Wharf Miami DJ U-Turn, DJ Ricky Ro, DJ Agee Ortiz, DJ Asado, Mc Cocoman, La Fiesta free 9pm The Marlborough Hotel – Cellar Bar, Newtown Resident DJs free 8pm
club guide send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com The Metro Theatre, Sydney Genesis Rank 1 (NL), Jochen Miller (NL), Leon Boiler (NL), Nick Arbor, Thomas Knight, Toby Matrix, Punk Ninja, Antony Carpena, Krish Titan, VLN, Dejan, Big J, Duress, Eonic $60 9pm Nevada Lounge, Darlinghurst DJ Hayden free 6pm Nevermind, Darlinghurst Swagger Swagger DJs 9pm One22, Sydney Disconnected Presents 008 Perc, Andosound, Ben Dunlop, Defined By Rhythm $20-$30 10pm Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Bitch 7th Birthday â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Reunion Bitch DJs $20 (+ bf) 9pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross The Suite Resident DJs 8pm Space, Sydney Masif Hard Dance Icons Andy Whitby (UK), Andy Farley (UK), Paul Glazby (UK), Phil Reynolds (UK), Steve Hill, K90 (UK), Yoshi, Micky D $25-$30 10pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Luke McD, Robbie Lowe, Sam Roberts $20 10pm The Supper Club, The Oxford Hotel, Darlinghurst Garcon Garcon, Bright Young Things, DJ Matt Vaughn $10 + bf 9pm Warehouse Venue, Sydney Operation White Out D&D aka Dave Fenandez & Dean Dixon $25 10pm The Watershed Hotel Watershed Presentsâ&#x20AC;Ś Skybar $20 9pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Wham Wham DJs $15-$20 9pm
SUNDAY AUGUST 19 Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway S.A.S.H Sundays Defined By Rhythm (House Set), Jay Smalls, Michael Scholes, Michael Doney b2b Tim Davis, Kerry Wallace, Matt Weir $10 2pm The Argyle, The Rocks Good Life Sundays Random Soul, The Vibe free 4pm The Beresford Hotel, Surry Hills Beresford Sundays Resident DJs free 3pm Goldfish, Kings Cross Martini Club Tom Kelly, Straight Up Steve 6pm Hugoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Lounge, Kings Cross Sneaky Sundays DJs 8pm Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Easy Sundays Resident DJs 8pm Q Bar, Darlinghurst Daydreams Daydreams DJs 4.30am Oatley Hotel Sunday Sets free 7pm Q Bar, Darlinghurst Daydreams Daydreams DJs 4.30am Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Sapphire Sundays Tony Shock, Resident DJs 8pm Secret Location, Sydney Spirit Of House Warehouse Jam Phil Toke, Phil Hudson, Michael Zac, Eadie Ramia $5 2pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Spice After Hours Luke McD, Murat Kilic $20 4am The Watershed Hotel Afternoon DJs DJ Brynstar free 4pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Soup Kitchen Soup Kitchen DJs free 8pm
club picks up all night out all week...
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 15 The World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall DJs $5 9pm
FRIDAY AUGUST 17
Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont Chief Rockers (Samrai, Nino Brown, Naiki), Suite Az, DJ Kitsch78, DJ Troy T, MC Rodney O free 7.30pm Secret Warehouse, Sydney Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;rehouse Benj, Statz, Tooths, Benny Green, Justin Power, Jon Deville, Matttt $20 8pm
Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Movement Panama, Mrs Bishop free 8pm
SATURDAY AUGUST 18
Chinese Laundry, Sydney Bass Mafia Tomba (Israel), A-Tonez, Empress Yoy, Go Freek, LA Tech, Sydney Be Heard DJs, Animal Jeans $15-$25 10pm
Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst The LION Speaks L-Fresh The Lion, Kween G, Kade MC, DJ Ology, Mirrah $10 (+ bf) 8pm
Goodgod Small Club, Chinatown Rapaport, Swarmy, Julze & DJ Sizzle, Tenth Dan & Grub, Klue, Max Gosford, Juzlo $15
Kween G
Chinese Laundry, Sydney Kazu Kimura (JPN), Lancelot, J-Trick, Jeff Drake, Tigerlily, Smokin Joe Mekhael, A-Tonez, Whitecat, King Lee, Mike Hyper $15-$25 9pm
Rapaport
The Metro Theatre, Sydney Genesis Rank 1 (NL), Jochen Miller (NL), Leon Boiler (NL), Nick Arbor, Thomas Knight, Toby Matrix, Punk Ninja, Antony Carpena, Krish Titan, VLN, Dejan, Big J, Duress, Eonic $60 9pm One22, Sydney Disconnected Presents 008 Perc, Andosound, Ben Dunlop, Defined By Rhythm $20-$30 10pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Luke McD, Robbie Lowe, Sam Roberts $20 10pm Warehouse Venue, Sydney Operation White Out D&D aka Dave Fenandes & Dean Dixon $25 10pm
SUNDAY AUGUST 19 Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway S.A.S.H Sundays Defined By Rhythm (House Set), Jay Smalls, Michael Scholes, Michael Doney b2b Tim Davis, Kerry Wallace, Matt Weir $10 2pm
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BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12 :: 39
snap
03:08:12 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 9357 7700
PICS :: AM
sash sundays
05:08:12 :: The Abercrombie Hotel :: 100 Broadway Ultimo 9211 3486
the residents
PICS :: AM
mum
PICS :: TP
up all night out all week . . .
brawther
PICS :: AM
04:08:12 :: The Spice Cellar :: 58 Elizabeth St Sydney
04:08:12 :: One22 :: 122 Pitt St Sydney
It’s called: Rapaport – Patterns mixtape launc h It sounds like: Bass-heavy UK beats with sophisticated Jewish-humoured lyricism from a humble-hearted grime gnome. Who’s playing? Rapaport and DJ Max Gosfo rd, Swarmy, Julez and DJ Sizzle (Melb), Tenth Dan and Grub, plus DJs Klue and Juzlo. Three songs you’ll hear on the night: D Doubl e E – ‘Streetfighter’; Dizzee Rascal – ‘I Luv You’; Hudson Mohawke – ‘Thunder Bay’. And one you definitely won’t: ‘You Should Consider Having Sex With A Bearded Man’ by The Beards. Sell it to us: A grime party with banging beats , nice rhymes, dibi dibi flows and people getting down to bass music. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: That girl doing that move in that dress. Crowd specs: Dress patterns. Wallet damage: $15 from Moshtix. Where: Goodgod Small Club / 55 Liverpool When: Friday August 17
40 :: BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12
St, CBD
hold tight
PICS :: AM
party profile
rapaport
04:08:12 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford St, Darlinghurst 9332 3711 :: KATRINA CLARKE :: ASHLEY S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER :: IER XAV RO PED :: PEACHY MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS :: THOMAS
Deep Impressions Underground Dance And Electronica with Chris Honnery
Michael Mayer
presents
steffi BERLIN OSTGUT TON • KLAKSON • DOLLY
O
ne of the most influential men in technoland, Kompakt Records co-founder Michael Mayer, has announced he will release what will be only his second full-length album towards the end of October. Entitled Mantasy, Mayer’s forthcoming album comes a whopping eight years after he released his solid but hardly earthshattering debut album, Touch. It is because of this sporadic production output – and Mayer’s supreme skills as a track selector – that the man is more revered for his DJing, label curation and commercially released Immer and Fabric mixes than his own solo production work. However in relatively recent times, Mayer has crafted some slick remixes for the likes of WhoMadeWho, Moby and Gui Boratto, which prompts one to entertain predictions that Mantasy could be Mayer’s production masterwork – even if the title is, well, an absolute stinker. A Kompakt press release reveals that Mantasy was put together in a matter of weeks, with Mayer quoted as saying, somewhat oddly, that, “Frankly, you can hear that”. He also says the ten-track set “clearly reflects the gazillions of sounds I’m listening to in private, especially my love for soundtracks or soundtrack-like music”, with nods to Italo disco, classic house and minimal influences. OK, so the interviewer perhaps caught Michael on a bad day – and why Kompakt would use those grabs for publicity is beyond me, unless it’s a ‘clever’ ploy to manage listeners’ expectations – but none of that is going to taint my excitement for what has the potential to be a special release from the Kompakt kingpin. But Mantasy… really, Michael? Subsonic have announced that Sydney favourite Alex Mauri, who goes about his business under the nom de plume Alexkid, will headline its festival launch party at The Burdekin on Saturday September 1. Mauri has established himself as a respected and versatile
LOOKING DEEPER SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 1 Alexkid The Burdekin
Steffi Goodgod Small Club
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 8 Sasse One22
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 3 Margaret Dygas Greenwood Hotel
producer in the underground scene since being signed to Laurent Garnier’s F Comm label back in the acid-washed summer of ’97 on the strength of a DnB demo. Over the ensuing years, Mauri’s output has varied, spanning accessible crossover vocal cuts such as ‘Don’t Hide It’ and ‘Come With Me’, his work as part of electronic outfit Dubphonic (which Mauri himself describes as “the soundtrack of a Sergio Leone movie made by John Carpenter”), and remixes of Damian Lazarus and, more recently, Nina Kraviz. While Mauri commands huge respect as a producer, he is also a formidable DJ; he may never get the press that some of the more illustrious figures in the techno and house world receive, but he can certainly hold his own against anyone behind the decks, as he has shown in past Sydney performances alongside the likes of Superpitcher. In fact, one only has to go through Alexkid’s sets at some of the classic Deep As Fu*k parties to be reminded of his superlative ability to work a dancefloor. Anyone who was in attendance at last year’s Subsonic Music Festival will remember Alexkid’s afterhours classic house set, which took place spontaneously in the confines of the pizza lab after the festival had finished, and is still spoken about with immense fondness by all who danced along to a very animated Mauri (who was lip synching and mugging to the crowd like a total diva at various stages, to the likes of Barbara Tucker et al – it was a tremendously fun set). While Alexkid won’t be representing at Riverwood Downs this year, he is a perfect choice to kickstart the countdown to the festival, which is slotted for the weekend of December 7-9. Festival tickets are currently on sale, with the full lineup to be announced in the coming weeks. South African producer Alan Abrahams, who produces under the monikers Portable and Bodycode, will drop a Portable 12-inch entitled A Process on German imprint Live At Robert Johnson at the back end of September, following the likes of Maxmillion Dunbar, Massimiliano Pagliara, San Laurentino, Roman Flügel and The Citizen’s Band, who all released on the label in 2012. Abrahams has garnered ‘props’ from all the right people in the electronic music community for his releases on labels like Perlon, Karat, Spectral Sound and his own dormant Süd Electronic imprint, and possesses a sound that is based upon his own distinctive croon. Anyone who is scratching their head and wondering why precious column space is being devoted to Portable ought to stop indulging in such petulant displays of ignorance and seek out his most recent album, Into Infinity, which was released last year on Perlon records and lauded by Little White Earbuds as Abrahams’ “most mature, consuming” album to date. I advise you to head straight for the collaboration with Efdemin, ‘One Way’ – it’s a ripper, and works as a perfect fusion of the respective producers’ sounds.
SUPPORTED BY TRINITY & MAGDA BYTNEROWICZ
11 TIL LATE SATURDAY 1ST SEPTEMBER 2012 GOODGOD SMALL CLUB 55 LIVERPOOL ST, SYDNEY $20 1ST RELEASE SOLD OUT $25 2ND RELEASE SOLD OUT $30 3RD RELEASE & DOOR RESIDENTADVISOR.NET
Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through deep.impressions@yahoo.com BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12 :: 41
snap up all night out all week . . .
soft and slow
propaganda
It sounds like: The gentle lapse of a plum soaked in gin served out of a gentleman’s hat. Who’s playing? Pink Lloyd, Dreamcatcher, Magic Happens and friends. Three songs you’ll hear on the night: André s – ‘New For U’; Alex Kenji and Luigi Rocca – ‘Acid Monks’; The Dirtbombs – ‘Share vari (Omar S Remix)’. And one you definitely won’t: Silence. Sell it to us: We will be taking the reins of The Spice Cellar every Friday from 3am til late (early) to ease you into the weekend – playing everything from the gayest Marvin to the most acid of house. Good morni ng, Sydney. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Dream catcher’s shoes, Pink Lloyd's dancing, and Magic Happens’ "jokes". Crowd specs: Come one, come all. Wallet damage: $10. Where: The Spice Cellar / Basement Level, 58 Elizabeth Street When: Fridays, from 3am til late/early
PICS :: DM
party profile
It’s called: Soft And Slow
oliver$
04:08:12 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex St Sydney 8295 9999
skryptcha
PICS :: KC
03:08:12 :: Goodgod Small Club :: 53-55 Liverpool St Chinatown 8084 0587
PICS :: AM
pelvis
PICS :: KC
02:08:12 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 9357 7700
strike
PICS :: AM
03:08:12 :: The Standard :: 3/383 Bourke St Darlinghurst 9331 3100
02:08:12 :: Strike Bowling :: Lvl 4 Mandarin Centre Crn Albert & Victor St Chatswood 42 :: BRAG :: 475 :: 13:08:12
:: KATRINA CLARKE :: ASHLEY S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER :: IER XAV RO PEACHY :: PED MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS :: THOMAS
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