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rock music news welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Nathan Jolly
five things WITH
BEN FROM GLASS TOWERS least cheesy of the bunch I was brought up on), they are also very melodic – something which has translated into my own songwriting. A defining moment was Franz Ferdinand’s debut album coming out when I was in year six: after listening to that record I stopped listening to Led Zeppelin and started listening to Joy Division. Inspirations Paul Banks from Interpol. I 2. love his style and how he holds
Growing Up Because of my parents, I 1. grew up listening to Neil Diamond
and Roxy Music as opposed to Bob Dylan and The Beatles. I think it shaped me a lot in terms
of songwriting; as cheesy as Neil Diamond and Roxy Music may be (and trust me, those two are the
Your Crew We’re currently recording our 3. debut album with our producer
The Music You Make Brilliant, bursting, exuberant, 4. desperate, soaring indie pop. Music, Right Here, Right Now The music scene in Sydney 5. is nothing like it used to be. It’s definitely not as tight knit as it once was. Also I think it’s a lot harder for new bands starting off these days; so many venues have closed down over the last few years, and the cull doesn’t seem like it’s going to be stopping any time soon. But the good thing is that there’s so much talent within Sydney. The sheer amount of musical genius that our city produces sets us apart from the rest of Australia. What: Collarbone Jungle EP is out now With: Maxïmo Park Where: The Hi-Fi When: Thursday January 3
PUBLISHERS: Adam Zammit & Rob Furst EDITOR IN CHIEF: Adam Zammit 9552 6333 adam@peergroupmedia.com EDITOR: Steph Harmon steph@thebrag.com 02 9552 6333 ACTING ARTS EDITOR: Dijana Kumurdian dee@thebrag.com 02 9690 2731 STAFF WRITERS: Alasdair Duncan, Benjamin Cooper, Krissi Weiss NEWS: Nathan Jolly, Chris Honnery ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant GRAPHIC DESIGN: Alan Parry SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER: Tim Levy SNAP PHOTOGRAPHERS: Nohmon Anwaryar, Jovan Atanockovic, Katrina Clarke, Ashley Mar, Daniel Munns, Elke Owens, George Popov, Rosette Rouhana, Pedro Xavier, Sam Whiteside COVER PHOTO: Ben Clement
Sarah Blasko
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: Natalie Amat, Siobhan Graham, Charis Lynn, Tanydd Jaquet 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, Krissi Weiss, 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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TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB + THE VACCINES
Two Door Cinema Club are fairly popular in Australia right about now. They sold out their Brisbane show quicker than you could say “Vulture St”, while the Melbourne Festival Hall show is selling quicker than you can say “Toadfish”. Considering their January 3 show at Hordern is all-ages, and features UK chancers (and Falls Festival buddies) The Vaccines and Unearthed faves Jungle Giants on the bill, we predict it will sell out quicker than you can say the lyrics to every single Tim Freedman song – except ‘Melbourne’, obviously. So snap up your tickets already.
MELODIE NELSON
If Melodie Nelson’s debut record Meditations On The Sun was her floating around the city in a dreamy, blissed-out state, then the follow-up, To The Dollhouse, is her coming down loudly and dramatically in a darkened, old-timey theatre. She launches the record (out November 2) at The Raval on November 16. Till then, check out lead single ‘Martha’, which adds to the canon of great songs with this name in the title: Tom Waits, Paul McCartney, Rufus Wainwright, Melodie Nelson.
MARTIN ATKINS
Hey, wanna spend an intimate evening with Martin Atkins? No, I’m not trying to set you up with one of my friends; these things can never be forced. I’m talking about Martin Atkins, who has been a member of PiL (with Johnny Rotten), Ministry, Killing Joke (YouTube ‘Eighties’: Cobain totally stole that riff and slowed it down) and Nine Inch Nails. That’s a pretty impressive pedigree, and obvious fodder for a series of epic stories which Atkins will be flinging at you during this spoken-word performance, alongside some mash-ups of his previous work (Ministry vs Killing Joke for example), ‘cos that’s another thing he does. You better believe he’ll be saying ‘Margaret Thatcher’ a whole lot. We mean it, maaan. (November 24 at The Factory Theatre. Tickets from Moshtix.)
EVANS KNOWS
There’s a new Bob Evans single out, the aptly named ‘Don’t Wanna Grow Up Anymore’, which seems more a sonic continuation of the Jebs’ Kosciuszko record than the previous Bob Evans records – and that’s a very good thing. It’s the first taste of the November 9 EP, The Double Life, which Kevin Bob will launch on November 22 at The Camelot Lounge. Play ‘Jerks Of Attention’!
SAN CISCO, GO!
San Cisco are Perth’s great white hope at the moment, and they certainly aren’t letting down the world’s most isolated capital city (funny that Tourism WA never use that phrase in campaigns) with ‘Wild Things’, the first taste of their forthcoming debut record. The single is out now, and will feature prominently in their set at Homebake on December 8. The album is out November 23, so you’ll have plenty of time to learn the third-harmonies and totally impress that girl/boy you convinced to go to the festival with you.
BLUESFEST: EARLY BIRD + SIDESHOW ANNOUNCE
Single-day ‘Early Bird’ tickets to Bluesfest are on sale now at only $139 a pop. Get in soon, as there are only 1000 of these babies on
BLASKO’S BACK
You know what real power is? It’s hiring a 40-piece orchestra and, rather than letting them adorn your music with all the flourishes and Disney-strings and (literal) bells and whistles that a 40-piece orchestra can add, just using them like you would a distortion pedal; switching them on and off at various moments, letting them overwhelm the music with a wall of sound before stomping back down on them as if to say, ‘Quiet now, you’ve done your part.’ This is how the orchestration on Sarah Blasko’s wonderful fourth record I Awake sounds, and probably how she will be performing the record live at her Sydney Opera House show on February 17. Tickets are on sale now.
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sale, and we did a straw poll on the streets of Sydney and there are more than one thousand people who like either Ben Harper, Santana, Iggy & The Stooges, Jimmy Cliff, Steve Miller Band, Chris Isaak, Wilco, Rodriguez, Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt, Dropkick Murphys or the numerous other acts on the bill. Bluesfest happens March 28–April 1 at the Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, which is the only tea farm in our eyes. If you can’t make it, though, they’ve also announced a few sideshows: Roger Hodgson (Supertramp) is playing at The State Theatre on Wednesday April 3, Bonnie Raitt is playing with Mavis Staples at The Enmore Theatre on Wednesday April 3, and The Blind Boys Of Alabama are hitting up The Enmore Theatre on Monday April 1.
Two Door Cinema Club
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himself on stage. And I love Bloc Party – probably a bit too much, actually. Every single one of their albums is flawless to me, and Silent Alarm is my favourite record of all time; the amount of desperation and intent nestled within that record is amazing. Also Bombay Bicycle Club; their debut album was the soundtrack of my teenage years, and the soundtrack of many loud, raucous, drunken car rides.
Jean-Paul Fung (Last Dinosaurs, Bluejuice). In my opinion he’s the best in Australia at what he does.
Drawing
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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
five things
BLACK CHERRY 6TH BDAY
WITH
GLEN CHESTHAIR FROM DRIVERSIDE AIRBAG Growing Up I grew up in Salisbury in Adelaide. My parents were the best 1. xylophone players of all time, though were both killed in a tragic unicycle accident leaving me to rock out of my own accord. And rock I did. My earliest musical memory is rollerskating with Cliff Richards. Inspirations I am, of course, my own favourite musician. Others include 2. Freddy Mercury, Rod Steward, Jon Bon Jovi and Marilyn. I draw inspiration from tight pants, V-neck spandex, and my own reflection. Your Crew Pfft… Who needs a crew when you’re Glen Chesthair? “Glen” 3. collaborates with no one. “Glen” does what he wants, when he wants, and “Glen” is always right. The truth is, there is a little “Glen” in all of us. The Music You Make Glam rock, ‘80s hair metal, GlenRock. I have been touring the 4. world since the age of nine, and am yet to release a studio album thanks to my heavy schedule and cocaine addiction. From my live performance you can expect a “leatherhand experience”. Music, Right Here, Right Now Due to the extinction of ‘80s hair metal, I have involved myself 5. in the Australian punk rock scene, frequently appearing in bands such as Driverside Airbag and The Scabs. I will continue to promote GlenRock and awareness of venereal infections caused by GlenRock. With: The Scabs, The Disadvantaged, Pants Optional Where: The Fork You Punk Rock Show @ The Valve Bar, Tempe When: Friday November 2
LONELY KIDS CLUB
COURTYARD BENÉT!
Courtyard Sessions at The Seymour Centre Courtyard will return from Friday November 16 and run every Friday from 6pm for a couple of months, and if the idea of sitting in a lovely courtyard, eating BBQ, drinking from the pop-up bar and catching Sydney’s best artists – in this case Donny Benét, Polar Knights and Jenny Broke The Window – for free doesn’t appeal to you, then… then… we can’t even think of what then, we’re too baffled by your oddball taste in leisure pursuits to concentrate.
STANDARD BIRTHDAY
Elvis Costello
DJANGO DJANGO IN SYDNEY, SYDNEY!
Django Django, that double-barrelled gang of Scotsman whose weird psych debut album had Australia swooning like an Austen character, have announced Falls Festival/Field Day sideshows in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, foolishly failing to capitalise on the clever headlines that could have been generated by publications in Wagga Wagga, Kurri Kurri, Booka Booka and Gumly Gumly. Point out this oversight to them at their January 11 show at The Metro Theatre. Grab your tickets this Thursday October 25.
THE PREATURES
DEEP SEA ARCADE
Deep Sea Arcade, named after a deleted scene from The Little Mermaid in which Ariel beats Ursula’s high score on Donkey Kong, have just returned from a massive and wellreceived European tour, and are cramming in one lap of Australia (in support of their single ‘Granite City’). It’ll be your last chance to see them before they disappear into the studio for a year to loop Theremins, sample traffic noises and record elevenminute sitar jams for their awesome second record. It all happens at The Metro Theatre on November 30, with The Preatures and Fishing playing support. It’s all ages too, future-William Millers. You are home.
We all love women: they’re our best friends, girlfriends, mothers and sisters. Heck, some of us even are women. The Annandale Hotel, along with My Sydney Riot, Sailor Jerry and Tallow Gallery, are showing the love this Friday October 26 with La Femme. Inspired by the Free Pussy Riot! movement, the night will be a celebration of music, art, freedom of speech and, of course, women. There will be lady-fronted bands including the gypsy folk rock of kazoo-playing Mylee Grace And The Milkshakes, sweetheart punk rockers Bec And Ben, and Lourdes and Warchief, with all-girl pop-up art gallery ‘Talkin ‘Bout A Revolution’, which will include the Sydney premiere of a short protest film, Journey. We’ve got a double pass, CDs from the acts, and a Sailor Jerry pack to giveaway; just tell us who your leading lady icon is.
launch this bad boy on Saturday November 3 at Enmore’s The Newsagency, and as with all shows there, it’s BYO. Longneck Nation!
Django Django
This Thursday October 25, The Standard turns one, and instead of crying about it like most one-year-olds are prone to do, they’ve organised Papa Vs Pretty, Fishing, Palms and Shady Lane to play at a huge party, sorted out free drinks for early-comers, and even got the Lo-Fi Collective to paint a mural celebrating their first year as Sydney’s most Bronze-y venue. $10 pre-sale.
Deep Sea Arcade
LA FEMME
The Preatures are on a roll. Signing to Mercury Records, releasing their amazing, swaggering, soul-tinged single ‘Pale Rider’, and now launching the accompanying EP Shaking Hands this Friday October 26 at Goodgod Small Club. Get along to this: they will seriously be playing The Hordern within a year.
bunch more – including November 3 at Coogee Diggers – you pretty much picked the least lazy, most prolific touring beast ever. We would’ve gone with one of those Brissy slacker bands… Tickets $25 from the venue.
RODRIGO Y? BECAUSE THEY RULE.
Jordie Lane is a bit Evan Dando-channelsGram Parsons, which is a good thing to be as far as we’re concerned. His new single ‘Fool For Love’ is a bit more radio-pop than other releases, which is also a good thing. Catch Lane, and his trusty support acts Liz Stringer and Ryan Nico, on December 15 at Notes Live in Newtown.
As if their speed-metal riffing, amazingly performed Latin rhythms, and jazz-infused, bullshit-impressive Flamenco instrumental passages weren’t enough to make you seethe with jealousy at guitar-geniuses Rodrigo y Gabriela, when they return to Sydney to play the Opera House on January 2, they’ll be bringing prodigy jazz pianist Alex Wilson to perform alongside them. Tickets on sale now; guitar lessons available on various telegraph poles around the Inner West.
ASH GRUNWALD
BLACK GOLD, TEXAS TEA
JORDIE LANE
“Oh, I’m only doing one launch show to promote my new album and no more.” If you guessed this quote was from Ash Grunwald, you cannot be more incorrect. Firstly, weird random guess; and secondly, considering that after 38 shows he has added a whole
It’s such a beautiful thing when a band’s album sounds exactly like its title suggests. Brisbane alt-country duo Texas Tea have nailed it with Sad Summer Hits, which is both jaunty and resigned, sunny and shady, and future hits if the Earth spins correctly. They
ELVIS LIVES
Remember when Elvis Costello went back in time and released that ‘Pump It Up’ single that totally pillages the Rogue Traders’ classic? Well, let’s call him on it on January 30 at The State Theatre when he plays his ‘Spinning Songbook’ show – basically the PluckA-Duck segment from Hey Hey, It’s Saturday, but instead of audience members spinning up washer and dryer sets, you get classics from Costello’s epic career. Which is much better, unless you really need a new washer and dryer. Tickets on sale October 29.
“Sheep to the slaughter. Oh I thought this must be love. All your sons and daughters in a stranglehold with a kid glove” - ELVIS COSTELLO 10 :: BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12
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Local clothing company Lonely Kids Club are launching their new ‘Moons Of Summer’ range of T-shirts this Friday October 26 at Name This Bar, and have enlisted some of the country’s finest and glitchiest acts to perform. Melbourne’s Galapagoose is back from the US and determined to show you his new accent by headlining this show, with support by Nakagin, Tight Curls (Doug from Fishing, rapping over Fishing-esque tunes), and talented beat-maker Victoria Kim. Doors at 8pm; $5 entry before 11pm.
The crew at Black Cherry understand how hard it is to pick a suitable costume for Halloween (sexy bunny or sexy lion???! omgz), so for their sixth birthday party, they’ve taken out the guess work: it’s a Day Of The Dead-themed fiesta (don’t go as Chris Brown) happening on Saturday October 27 at The Factory Theatre. You’ll need your best Dia De Los Muertos face paint and rockabilly shoes, as three rooms play host to Mikelangelo & The Tin Star, Los Capitanes and Neon Heart. You’ll be tempted by burlesque tricks from fire-eating, circus sensation Tank and more, and treated to a Green Fairy Absinth cocktail bar with delicious Mexican from the Cantina Mobil food truck. Want more info? Check page 26. Want a double pass? Send us a picture of your favourite Halloween costume.
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The Music Network
themusicnetwork.com
Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer
Lifelines Marrying: Big Day Out CEO and BRAG co-publisher Adam Zammit and model-turneddesigner Michelle Leslie tie the knot in New Zealand on October 27. The 50-strong contingent of Aussies heading over there include Silverchair’s Chris Joannou, whose partner Laura Csortan is one of the bridesmaids. Team BRAG is sending next week’s issue to print on October 26 to head along; all art/editorial deadlines for the October 29 issue have been pushed forward to Wednesday October 24, midday. Split: Singer-songwriter Danielle Spencer and Russell Crowe, after nine years. Injured: Mama Kin bassist and keyboard player Michael Caruana, in a motorcycle accident. He won’t join the band, featuring sister Danielle, on their national tour. In Court: The Vines singer Craig Nicholls faced Sutherland Local Court on charges relating to domestic violence against his parents. He was living with them in Connells Point. Court documents said that in one incident, he held steak knives against his mother’s throat saying, “I could stab you”. He returns to court on November 14. In Court: Gold Coast rapper Fortafy faced Brisbane District Court after claims that he and Schapelle Corby’s half-brother James Soeli Kisina went to confront Origin player Ben Te’o about whether he was the father of his ex-girlfriend’s child, and assaulted two of Te’o’s brothers. Fortafy was jailed for 18 months, wholly suspended, and Kisina for 15 months, suspended after three. Jailed: Scissor-wielding Jason Luis Rivera, who broke into Miley Cyrus’ property last month, for 18 months. Died: US label exec Danny Sims, who signed Bob Marley to his JAD label, 75, colon and intestinal problems. He gave his contract to Island Records in order to turn Marley into a superstar, and later signed Gloria Gaynor, Lloyd Price and Betty Wright. Died: Jamaican dancehall artist Captain Barkey, 50 (‘Go Go Wine’, ‘Bun Fi Bun’), shot outside a motel in the Bronx, New York.
SOUTHERN CROSS AUSTEREO BUYS INTO LABELS’ DMD Radio network Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) has become an equal partner in Universal Music Australia and Sony Music Entertainment Australia’s joint venture, digital music service Digital Music Distribution (DMD). DMD
supplies content for 29 of Foxtel’s music channels, Satellite Music Australia’s hotel and club service, and some retailers. SCA’s investment, and radio, TV and online presence, now gives a greater reach and clout to DMD’s new on-demand streaming service Songl, which offers millions of tracks from all majors and larger independents via the internet, mobile phones, iPads and smart TVs. All three partners call SCA’s arrival “a ground breaking day” for music delivery in Australia.
XL PROFITS HIT £41.7 MILLION, THANKS TO ADELE The phenomenal 25 million global sales of Adele’s 21 album pushed profits of its UK label XL to an astounding £41.7 million (A$65.21 million) in 2011. Its profits the year before were £3 million. XL co-founder Richard Russell got £8.5 million, and Beggars Group, which it is part of, also got £8.5 million. Beggars chief Martin Mills says he’ll invest the money in the future of his company.
FBI RADIO ANNOUNCE NORTHERN LIGHTS WINNERS The winners of FBi Radio’s Northern Lights competition are Moon Holiday (Alex Ward’s solo electronic project) and Lanterns (bedroom project of multi-instrumentalist Ross James, of Young Romantics). Accompanied by the station’s music director Dan Zilber, they journey to Iceland to play gigs in Reykjavik, collaborate with Icelandic musicians Samaris and Lay Low at Greenhouse Studios, and attend the Iceland Airwaves festival.
PITBULL WINS OVER AUSSIE PROMOTERS The NSW Supreme Court took the side of Pitbull against two Australian promoters. Jaime Fernandez (DJ Suave) and Juan Uribe (DJ Don Juan) sued the US rapper after he blew out three dates in December 2008. Pitbull was to be paid $60,000 for tour, with a $30,000 deposit and the balance on December 2, seven days before he left. When the balance was not sent in time, he decided to stay in America. He got the balance on December 3, but he felt it was too late to go. He returned the balance but kept the deposit. Justice Robert Beech-Jones agreed that Pitbull was entitled to cancel.
JAGERMEISTER INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARDS 2012
Frenzal Rhomb started a Twitter battle with DZ Deathrays after losing to them. Presenters dipped into the free Jager shots. Tim Levinson (aka Urthboy) kicked the ceremony off with an eloquent, passionate keynote speech about his pride at being part of the Aussie indie sector: “The importance of your music will never be defined by album sales or an award – you’re creating and evolving Australian music culture”. The venue (Revolt in Kensington, Melbourne), tone and format of the awards were just right – although Dan Kelly good naturedly complained it was wrong to hold awards on a Tuesday, as it was traditionally the musician’s night off. Presenter Adalita recalled “shitting [her]self” when she won last year. Tim Rogers with The Bamboos were a high; House vs Hurricane put in a brutal set; ex-Powderfinger guitarist Darren
THINGS WE HEAR * The Green Day tour next year could be pushed back, as singer Billie Joe Armstrong may be in rehab until after Christmas. Meanwhile Status Quo blabbed to the Byron Shire News before the official announcement that they’re here for Bluesfest, while Sharon Osbourne, here for a recent radio conference, revealed that Ozzy and Black Sabbath are also plodding their way here in 2013. * The appearance of Psy on The X Factor last week saw the show score its highest ratings of 2012, with 1.665 million tuning in. * Tensions arose on the joint US tour by Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie. At one show, Manson told the crowd he was “going to kick (Zombie’s) ass” after his set was cut short. Zombie, during his cover of Alice Cooper’s ‘School’s Out’, shouted “Fuck you Marilyn Manson!” and “Suck it Marilyn Manson!” * As we indicated last week, a buyer could not be found for Allans Billy Hyde, so all stores (except four franchises) will be closed over the next few weeks, putting 513 staffers out of work. USA’s Guitar Centre was in discussions, but pulled out. * According to triple j, the lyrics in Ball Park Music’s ‘Surrender’ (“...a nice dream, I
NOMINATED #1: COMMUNITY BROADCASTERS AWARDS Sydney’s 2SER, FBi, 2NBC and Nambucca Valley Radio 2NVR were multi-nominated finalists for this year’s Community Broadcasting Association Voxies Awards. Up for one each were 2RES Eastside Radio, Northside Radio in Chatswood, and 2RRR; full list is at cbaa.org.au
NOMINATED #2: SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS 61 composers and 40 works have been nominated for next month’s Screen Music Awards. These include Antony Partos (who leads the nominations for his music for The Slap and Mabo), Lisa Gerrard, Burkhard Dallwitz, Nerida Tyson-Chew and Michael Yezerski, as well as rock names David Bridie, Roger Mason, Lior, Michael Lira and David McCormack. See the APRA Middleton wanted to “fall in love with a new band tonight.” The seventh Jagermeister Independent Music Awards finished off at 3am at the Cherry Bar. Channel [V] will screen a 30-minute special on Thursday November 1 at 8.30pm.
could see your blouse, it was bright yellow and it made my day...”) refers to a dream singer Sam Cromack had, in which he fell in love with Megan Washington. * Ozomatli have pulled out of the Harvest festival. * Rapper Nas lost his home in Georgia after failing to keep up payments; he blames his expensive divorce from Kelis. * To celebrate the birthday of Jeremy Marou’s young daughter Zahirah, he and Busby Marou colleague Tom Busby went to her school and played a short set for her classmates. Marou, who’s adept on the ukulele, gave them a lesson on it and handed out free ukes to the kids. * Blur will be touring Australia next year, their booking agent confirmed. * The Australian Financial Review reported that this year’s Deni Ute Muster with Kelly Clarkson (for which she was paid $700,000) drew 15,000 mulletheads. Not quite the 18,000 that Suzi Quatro drew last year (she got paid $400,000) or the 25,000 that Cold Chisel drew in 2010 for a fee of $700,000. * The Black Keys settled a pair of copyright infringement suits against Pizza Hut using ‘Gold On The Ceiling’ and Home Depot promoting power tools with ‘Lonely Boy’ without permission.
and Australian Guild of Screen Composers' websites for full list.
HUNTER VALLEY LOSES MILLIONS WITHOUT BIG NAMES Hunter Valley venues go into the Christmas period with apprehension due to a lack of international music stars and less spending by customers, reports The Newcastle Herald. This time last year, four shows by Dolly Parton and Elton John at Hope Estate pumped $30 million into the region. This year the winery only has Matchbox 20 on November 3. The loss of George Michael is believed to have lost the area $8 million in tourism and other spending. The Herald reported that venues like the Newcastle Entertainment Centre also have no superstars. A Day On The Green kept up five shows at Bimbadgen Estate by packaging big Aussie names together and keeping tickets at $100.
Hermitude (Dance/Electronica Album, for HyperParadise), Lanie Lane (Blues & Roots Album, for To The Horses), Jess Ribeiro & The Bone Collectors (Country Album, for My Little River) & Mike Nock Trio Plus (Jazz Album, for Hear And Know).
As usual, there was the Rising electro-soulster Chet inevitable ‘indier than thou’ Faker, who out-bearded vibe, which the awards cop everyone in the room, took out each year. 360 admitted it Breakthrough Artist and Best “didn’t feel right” for him to win Single for ‘Thinking In Textures’. because of his label’s ties to He also made an unannounced EMI. Someone yelled “not performance with a stripped independent!” when Lanie back ‘I’m Into You’. Other Lane went on to collect her winners were The Jezabels win. For the record, her label (Best Independent Artist), Ivy League, like the others Royal Headache (Best Album), Chet Faker in The Mushroom Group, has 360 (Hip Hop/Urban album, for its physical stock distributed by Falling & Flying), DZ Deathrays (Hard Universal – but it’s independently funded Rock/Punk, for Bloodstreams) Elefant and marketed, retaining total control over Traks (Label), Tom Piper & Daniel Harley digital distribution. (Dance/Electronica Single, for ‘LGFU’),
attention advertisers The BRAG is printing early next week, on THURSDAY OCTOBER 25. Our content deadline for news and events to make it into the
MONDAY OCTOBER 29 issue is WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 23 by midday. A M O N K E Y DA N I E L B O U D E M O F FAT T : : S E X Y N I N J D O G ) : : B E N A DA M S : : P H E R S : T I M L E V Y ( TO P O U R LOV E LY P H O T O G R A A :: DIEGO IBANEZ :: D U K U F I H S O AT S : : V I C F R A N KO W S K I : : L E Y M A R : : K AT M A R C I N K RYC Z E K : : A S H ERS... ROCK ON! S TA N T O N : : C H R I S WA LT N H O J : : H T U O : : J O S H UA S
Thanks, Steph & The Brag.
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E HIFI 1300 TH COM.AU THEHIFI.
your Favour
ite Festivals!
This Week
Mayday Parade (USA)
Thurston Moore (USA)
Fri 7 Dec
SE LL IN G
SE LL IN G
FA ST
FA ST
Just Announced
District 7 Fest Feat: Tuneboy, + More
Fri 26 Oct
Sat 27 Oct
Mahalia Barnes & Prinnie Stevens
Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group (USA)
Sat 10 Nov
Sat 1 Dec
FR EE SH O W
Coming Soon
The Getaway Plan Leb I Sol (MKD) Sat 3 Nov
The Living End
FA ST
All Allocations Exhausted
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Sun 28 Oct
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65daysofstatic (UK)
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Wed 2 Jan
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State of Emergency Thu 22 Nov The Living End Mon 26 Nov
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An Evening with The Hoff (USA)
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Fri 15 Feb ENTERTAINMENT QUARTER, BUILDING 220, 122 LANG RD, MOORE PARK, SYDNEY
+ + + IN-TENSE HIGH PERFORMANCE TOURING PRESENTS + + +
‘An INTIMATE EVENING With’
MARTIN ATKINS ( ) U K
(X–P.I.L., MINISTRY, KILLING JOKE, NIN, PIGFACE)
NOVEMBER 2012
+ + + Saturday 24th Saturday 24th The Factory Floor The Factory Floor
Martin will spin some of his exclusive mash-ups (Ministry vs Killing Joke and more), some unreleased tracks, stripped down glitchy dub and generally anything he feels like from the last 60 years. Also a spoken word/visual presentation on the socioeconomic backdrop to the punk rock revolution in the Uk—growing up in the Northeast of the UK —power cuts, strikes, Margaret Thatcher, the I.R.A. and, PUNK ...then moving to London to be in the thick of postpunk energy and join PiL with Johnny Lydon.
www.tstouring.com myspace.com/In-TenseTouring
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HENRY WAGONS
Two’s Company By Thomas Bailey
W
hen changing eco-friendly light bulbs, it is imperative to turn them by the porcelain base rather than gripping the spiral bulb itself. This is a lesson that Henry Wagons, outlaw country troubadour of Melbourne, learnt the hard way. Suffering from a mad bout of serious flu after a “very selfcontained period of touring”, Wagons was in the process of changing one of these bulbs – the wrong way, it turned out – when it exploded in his hand. He reaches across the table of a Carlton café to show me the scar, a wicked scrawling of angry-looking pale lines across the webbing between his thumb and palm.
and basically the whole house was trashed. It looked like there was a party; there were shitloads of ‘em! “And she got pest controllers in and they laid down like 20 bits of rat bait and then she went off on tour, came back, and all the rat bait had been moved to one place in the centre of the room. And it was kind of weird, it was as if they were playing with the bait or something – but they had all died … in the house.” Wagons grins slyly, and it’s rather obvious he loves telling this story. He rubs his hands together like Christopher Lee in one of those old Hammer Horror movies and giggles menacingly. “And obviously maggots ate the rats, and then she had a plague of blowflies!” Ironically enough, a light bulb went off over Wagons’ head. “I thought, this is perfect for three verses and three choruses... Even in the mood I was in, sick and twisted as I was writing it, it was the perfect time to write something like that. And that’s what started this album, writing that song. And knowing I wanted to sing it with Alison about her house. It’s what started this whole duets thing, really. This songwriting mojo [I found], and this muse … it’s very fragile,” he admits. “And if I find myself on this sort of plane, I find I have to surf this wave. And I found myself on this duets trip, and it had all snow-balled from that song.” All told, Expecting Company? is another exciting chapter in Mr Wagons’ stellar and iconoclastic career, chock full of interesting collaborations with talented and vivacious musical compatriots. Through five albums with his band and now this, his first official solo recording, Wagons is growing in his songwriting acumen, and it shows. When I ask him if he still feels as if he’s learning as he goes, he agrees wholeheartedly. “Oh, big time!” he exclaims. “It’s sort of weird; I haven’t really done any recording or engineering of my own music since about 2000, really. I’ve done other bits and pieces, but never with Wagons. But now it’s gone full circle and I really wanted to get my hands dirty in that respect. I really love being in this production world again, and I definitely realise how much I’ve picked up over the last decade, and it’s been really helpful to bring those lessons – to put those lessons on tape, so to speak.
“I wrote seven songs, then I approached my label and said, ‘I’m doing this thing, and they seem to be duets’ – and, I reckon, partly anti-histamineinduced bouts of schizophrenia.” “I feel like I’m really excited about the ‘next thing’, because I’ve got so much stuff now that I’ve been through that process. Recording and making music is very similar – especially in production – to cooking. Or probably being some scientist, you know? I feel like Dr Frankenstein, twiddling knobs, adding swatches of this, adding sparkles and flavours. It seems to be a great space that my mind enjoys.” Wagons (the band, not the man) expect to begin recording their next album this summer – and Wagons (the man, not the band) is very much looking forward to it. “I’m so excited. I involved so much of myself on this album. I had to make every decision there was in terms of arrangement and production. But I just can’t wait to have a half-baked song idea and enter the [band] room… ‘Hey guys! Help me with this!’ I just can’t wait for that process over the summer.” What: Expecting Company? is out now on Spunk Records With: Achoo! Bless You, Fanny Lumsden Where: The Annandale Hotel When: Saturday November 10
“Don’t start me talking. I could talk all night. My mind goes sleepwalking while I’m putting the world to right” - ELVIS COSTELLO 14 :: BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12
Henry Wagons photo by Ben Clement
“The gash is big and full of broken glass, and I had the flu at the same time,” he says, rather jauntily, “and I guess I felt like every single bodily fluid that I had was coming out all at once! It was like, snot, and I was bleeding, and there was incredibly gross sweat – it was pretty much everything!” he exclaims, laughing. It is this somewhat demented glee that typifies his work in the band that carries his name, and also his work on the new solo piece he’s in the midst of releasing. Expecting Company? is an exciting, funny, and dark series of duets with such musical luminaries as Alison Mosshart (The Kills, The Dead Weather), Patience Hodgson (The Grates), Robert Forster (The Go-Betweens) and Sophia Brous, among others; a freight-train of wicked musings on life, love and other pests. After his losing battle with the light bulb, Wagons found himself in the studio writing songs, instead of pursuing the more sensible path of lying in bed and drinking lots of juice. “I wasn’t really in a state where I could allow my band to see me,” he admits, “and so I just started the process of writing those few weeks. I wrote seven songs, then I approached my label and said, ‘I’m doing this thing, and they seem to be duets’ – and, I reckon, partly antihistamine-induced bouts of schizophrenia. I put the feelers out to see if they were
interested, and everyone seemed quite excited. [Expecting Company?] got a life of its own from then.” A life-long fan of duets, Wagons is fully aware of the fact that they can either be really, really brilliant – or absolute crap. Naturally, I’m curious as to what he feels makes a good duet. He hums thoughtfully, stroking his beard. “I think there’s got to be an awareness,” he says finally. “A normal song is essentially a monologue, it’s like one guy getting up on his soapbox and spewing forth, whereas a duet – there’s so much more scope and meaning. You drop a line and then you have someone else coming in and responding to that line. All of a sudden, the dynamic has changed,” he continues. “You’ve got not just a relationship between the singer and the audience, you’ve [also] got a voyeuristic relationship with the audience, watching a relationship unfold. It’s much more of an intricate thing to wield as a writer. It’s almost like you’re writing a musical; you’re actually writing a dialogue instead of a monologue, and the best duets have an understanding of that. You need that dialogue, and you need that interaction to explore. And somehow you have to have something special in that dialogue, an intricacy in the relationship of some sort. “I’ve tried to do that where I can,” he continues. “I’ve tried to have an awareness of it; coming to duets from some strange and obtuse angle. And you know, it’s been fun!” Nowhere on Expecting Company? is the “strange and obtuse angle” more apparent than on the delightfully maniacal track ‘Unwelcome Company’, performed with the force-of-nature known as Alison Mosshart. Wagons, a friend of hers for some time, had once stayed with her in London in the house that inspired the aforementioned song. During his stay, she relayed an anecdote that appealed to his dark sense of poetry. “She told me this amazing story of this wave of pestilence that [Mosshart and Jamie Hince of The Kills] had in their home when London was building an Underground station beneath them. Their suburb basically had a plague of rats when all the Underground works forced them all to the surface. She was sleeping there, and she woke up and all the rats had been there
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Paul Kelly A Man For All Seasons By Krissi Weiss
“My family know better than to search for hidden meanings, but it’s human nature to try and figure out what has happened in someone’s life to bring about a song. I probably do it to other artists too.” come out last year,” he explains of the shared release date, “but they’d followed me around for a year and a half and got so much footage, as well as archival footage, things I’d forgotten about. So in the end it took them a lot longer to edit than they planned. I was always on track to release an album around the end of this year, so we figured if they’re gonna come out around about the same time, we may as well make it at the same time.” “The film and album aren’t connected at all, apart from coming out at the same time,” he reiterates. “The songs and records for me are fiction; the film is non-fiction. I wrote a book, a memoir [How To Make Gravy], and the film took a lot of cues from that book, looking at my wider family history, the musical times I was in, and the different musicians and songwriters who have influenced me. It’s been a long period in my life – four years or so, with the book and the film – where the focus has been on my life, the non-fiction. I’m pretty keen to get it back to the fiction again. That’s where I work.”
P
Kelly is warm and personable – a surprise for someone who has dealt with the media for nearly four decades – although talking about himself is not his favourite thing to do. “These days I like to set it up so I can talk and play,” Kelly says, after discussing some radio interviews he has scheduled. “If I can do the thing that I do, which is play music, then the promo is fine. When I just go around talking all day, by the end of the day you feel like a fake, you know?” Anticipation is high for Paul Kelly: Stories Of Me, and while Spring & Fall is sure to be received with open arms, the insight into Paul Kelly, the man, could potentially eclipse his latest album. “The doco was meant to
Surely, I suggest, his music has been heavily influenced by his life? “It’s pretty much fiction, but all fiction writers borrow things from what’s around them,” he explains. “They borrow little bits from their own lives and little bits from their friends’ lives – I think everyone does that, but you reassemble things and put them back together. I’m not really interested in self-expression… Most of my family by now know better than to try and search for hidden meanings, but it’s human nature to try and figure out what has happened in someone’s life to bring about a song. I probably do it to other artists too.” While Kelly values his audience to the point of finding them essential, he’s aware that there’s no way to anticipate their expectations. “A song doesn’t exist for me until it’s heard. Until it lands somewhere, it’s not
Spring & Fall was recorded in a chilly hall out the back of Gippsland, with nephew Dan Kelly and Machine Translations’ J. Walker on hand to round out the album. A host of Australian musical stalwarts add to the sonic texture via various musical contributions, but it was three men and a quasi-camping trip that really brought this album to life. “It was cold in a hall and we had to mitten up and put the wools on,” he laughs, discussing the recording process. “It was almost like camping. I guess for me some camping trips can be disasters, but this was one of the good camping trips. The company was good. I really love working with Dan; we’ve been working on and off for ten years, we have a wide shared language, and we’re both big fans of Machine Translations.” It’s hard to image that Paul Kelly feels the need to bring in outside opinions to his thoroughly familiar sound, but it turns out he’s a collaborative creator in the truest sense. “That’s how I work; I deliberately try and work with people who have strong opinions,” he says. “Everyone in my band is opinionated, and Dan’s no different. I don’t come with a finished song; my songs are written on fairly simple chords and, well, I’m not Prince,” he continues laughing. “I don’t have the basslines or the groove in my head. I need other people to help me arrange my songs and I like ideas being thrown around. A good band is a band that knows how to have a fight with each other, and how to fight with respect.” What: Spring & Fall is out now on EMI/Capitol; Paul Kelly – Stories Of Me opens exclusive to Dendy Newtown on October 25
Xxxx photo by Xxx
aul Kelly’s latest album, Spring & Fall, arrives at the same time as the biopic, Paul Kelly: Stories Of Me – but the timing is one of pure coincidence. The songwriter, often cited as Australia’s greatest, manages to write humble stories of life in Australia without the clichés that usually cause a collective cultural cringe – he’s no John Williamson. Yet Kelly has managed to so far allude the vetting of his private life. Anyone searching for evidence of the real Paul Kelly is hard-pressed to find it within his music – he holds firm to the position that he is a fiction writer. Luckily for Kelly, his astoundingly simple and yet powerfully affecting music has overshadowed failed relationships, a heroin addiction, and his past tendency to fall victim to the trappings of a rock star lifestyle.
really a song. But I wouldn’t know how to serve an audience; they’re all different people, they’re not just one big ear.”
Dan Sultan Rock For Recognition By Patrick Emery
I
n the shameful history of the treatment of Indigenous people since European settlement, a few shining lights of symbolism stand out: the 1967 constitutional referendum, which amended the Australian Constitution to allow the Commonwealth to make laws in relation to Aboriginal people (thereby putting an end to the draconian State government policies that underpinned the Stolen Generation), Paul Keating’s Redfern speech in 1992, and Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Stolen Generation in early 2008. Such acts have not necessarily improved the lives of Indigenous Australians – health, education, social and economic statistics remain a matter of national embarrassment – yet the symbolism remains important. “Very important,” comments Melbourne singer-songwriter Dan Sultan. “We’ve got a long way to go, and I think there’s a big road ahead of us. These things that some people might think are just symbolic are very important to me and my family. I don’t want to speak for every Aboriginal person, but symbolism is the basics, and there’s a lot more work to be done.” A Gurindji man, Sultan doesn’t claim to be a political activist, but he’s acutely aware of the issues facing Indigenous people and the importance of his role in championing efforts
16 :: BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12
Although ‘real’ improvement to the conditions of Indigenous people remains a critical focus, Sultan explains that the mere recognition of Australia’s native people is a significant first step. “We have to start with the basics, like acknowledgement in the Constitution, and being paid the respect of an apology for the wrongs that have been committed,” Sultan says. “If nonIndigenous Australia was ready to do something about it that’d be good, but if they’re only ready to do symbolic things, then that’s nothing to turn your nose up at. It’s a good start – it’s a start, which is more than nothing.” In that context, Sultan was moved by Kevin Rudd’s apology in 2008. “When Kevin Rudd apologised, I accepted the apology – my mother was taken away, and that decimated my family, as it did a lot of Aboriginal families,” he says. “It was a form of genocide. I think the day of the apology was a beautiful day in Australian history, and I think it’s something a lot of nations around the world really admire that happened. It’s something to be proud of.” Of course there’s a risk that events like this will simply preach a political message to the converted. Will Rock For Recognition genuinely change the opinions of the wider community? Sultan says that even if only a few people come around, progress is being made. “As long as we’re out there doing what we can, then you’ll always get a few people on board who haven’t been exposed to the issues,” he says. “There’s a bit of a risk of [preaching to the converted], so it’s
important to get a few bands in the future whose fans might not be too aware of what’s going on.” Despite his starring role in the upcoming shows, Sultan doesn’t see himself taking on an overtly political role – he’s a musician with an interest, not an activist brandishing a placard. “I’m not a politician, and there’s a lot more people out there who know a lot more about this issue than I do, who are doing a lot of work,” Sultan says. “Obviously I support what’s being proposed, but as a musician I’m just looking to put on some shows and hopefully get some people clued up. There might be a lot of people who’re sympathetic, but they might not know all the ins and outs of the issues.” A former drummer in sadly-departed Melbourne band The Roys (“Drumming was always a bit of a hobby. I was never really much of a drummer, and I’m still not much of a drummer,” he laughs), Sultan says he doesn’t see himself in a formal mentoring role to young Indigenous musicians, though he’s always happy to convey
the benefits of his experience to up-and-coming artists. “I’m happy to, though I haven’t done anything in an official sense. I’m happy to sit down with anyone, and I have spoken to a few people,” Sultan says. “Leah Flanagan is a great musician, and we both started out around the same time, playing shows. I’m not sure I see myself in a role model sense. If someone’s a role model or mentor, then it requires other people to see them in that way, and I don’t see myself like that. But at the same time I’m not going to turn anyone away. I’ve been shown a lot of support by both Indigenous and nonIndigenous musicians. And if I can pay some of that back, that’s great.” Who: Dan Sultan, Leah Flanagan, The Dead Marines Where: Rock For Recognition @ The Factory Theatre When: Friday November 9 More: Learn more about the issue at antar.org.au
Dan Sultan photo by Bryce Christensen
“These things that some people might think are just symbolic are very important to me and my family. Symbolism is the basics, and there’s a lot more work to be done.”
to improve their position. Sultan’s mother is a member of the Stolen Generation – a topic addressed in his song ‘Roslyn’ – and Sultan is, de facto, a role model for young Aboriginal Australians. In early November Sultan will headline the Rock For Recognition shows in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Fremantle. Supported by fellow Indigenous musician Leah Flanagan, and with special guests in each state, the aim of the concert series is to build awareness and rally community support around a change that needs to be made to the Australian Constitution, to formally recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
AN EVENING WITH
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BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12 :: 17
The Beards If The Beard Fits By Alasdair Duncan
N
athaniel Beard is in the back of a van, speeding down a North Queensland highway between stops on The Beards’ current national tour. He and his band have no time to slow down, as this convoy of facial hair and testosterone has a serious purpose – it’s the End Of The World Tour, and it comes with a dire warning about the coming apocalypse. “We stumbled across an ancient prophecy, which may be anything up to 25 years old,” Nathaniel explains. “It predicts that on December 21 of this year the great bearded spirit will be roused, and he will take great vengeance on those who don’t have a beard. We thought that the least we could do was warn people and encourage them to grow beards,” he explains. “I mean, we were planning to do that anyway, but now we have a higher reason.” As a city boy, I’ve always imagined that the further you drive into regional Australia, the more manly the men become, and the more prolific their facial hair. But Nathaniel tells me that this is not always the case. “That’s the impression that we had when we started touring too,” he says. “We figured that we’d find a lot of beards in remote towns, but we haven’t generally found that to be true. What you do find, in smaller cities and towns, is a cluster of a couple of guys who are likely to be local legends and who have really big
beards. There are at least a couple of stand-out beards in every small town you go to.” So where, then, can the highest concentration of beards be found? “A lot of the cities we play in have a really big beard scene,” he says, “but I think for the highest number of beards per capita, it has to be either Canberra or Hobart.” The band’s last jaunt around the country was as a part of the 100 Beards Tour, which aimed to encourage 100 men around the nation to start wearing beards permanently and adopt the bearded way of life. It was a lofty aim, although Nathaniel is unsure if they quite reached their target. “At the start of that tour, we decided that if we could convince just one person to grow a beard, the whole thing would be a success,” he says. “I know for a fact that we’ve been responsible for at least 30 or 35 new beards. People send us photos of their beards on our Facebook page – there’s one guy who posts a new photo of him and his beard every single day. We like that, we like to see a beard’s progress, and we like to see people who love their beards as much as we do.” This has been a big year for The Beards – the End Of The World Tour is their biggest to date, and their third album, Having A Beard Is The New Not Having A Beard, has just been
Tara Simmons Moving Mountains By Krissi Weiss
nominated for an ARIA. It’s something of a bittersweet honour, though, as the album is up for Best Comedy Release. While the band are happy to be nominated, they worry that they may be slightly misrepresented: their message about the importance of beards is no laughing matter. For Nathaniel and co, an ARIA win could shatter the glass ceiling for beard bands. “We’ve been lobbying the people at ARIA to consider putting us in a Best Beard band category, because that would be more fitting,” he explains. “We want to encourage young bands to do what we do
The Nature Of The Beast By Benjamin Cooper
T
T
‘Where Do You Go’, and it’s thematic sequel ‘Found’, are a confessional take on the discomfort of running into an ex-lover. ‘Honey’ is an examination of an irreplaceable friendship, with Simmons admitting that the protagonist in the song ended up suffering “something” devastating shortly after it was written. ‘Be Gone’, a song that Simmons says she still feels a bit bad about, is about the moment where you have to remove yourself from someone so they can find the strength to help themselves. Despite the confessional nature of this album and the accompanying track-by-track guide, Simmons admits that she is certainly not willing to divulge anything more. “I can’t give much more away; I don’t wanna hurt anyone for a start,” she says. “If people read those blurbs they would know they were about them, but it’s one step more that I’m not willing to take to give away more than I already have.”
The fourpiece have enjoyed a swift rise on the back of two elegantly wrought and individually distinct EPs. Evermore’s Dann Hume produced last year’s debut From The Sun, before Liam Judson (Belles Will Ring, Cloud Control, The Laurels) took the helm for April’s EP Fair & Verdant Woods – but the band decided to sweat out their last single, ‘Hector Myola’, in far North Queensland. “That was a lot of fun,” McLeod explains, “because Mark [Myers, ex-The Middle East] has this great set-up. We’d work all day – well, as much as we could – and then just sit up at night on the verandah with a glass of wine. It was nice to go away and record... It does feel like a long time ago now, though. It’s almost a year since we finished recording up there, and the same day that we were leaving, Tim Hart [Boy & Bear] showed up to start recording his album [this year’s Milling The Wind]. So we had this beautiful day, all hanging out together in Cairns, just enjoying our good luck. It was pretty great.” The good vibes continued at the start of the year, with Hart’s main band asking their fellow Sydneysiders to join them on the national Remember The Mexican tour. “Boy & Bear are total professionals, which was great for us to be around and learn from. They’ve been doing this for a while in various forms, and have had a lot of practice at
touring. They’re pretty reserved dudes on tour, but they’re also completely welcoming and friendly. And Dave’s perm – you should have seen it. It was so beautiful throughout the tour, ‘cause it just grew and grew,” he laughs. Tin Sparrow have just returned from recording their new single ‘The Beast’ in Melbourne with Big Scary’s Tom Iansek, an opportunity that proved too good to resist. “We’d heard great things about Tom, and he’s got a bunch of really nice gear for recording, so we thought we’d ask. It was great to have someone, for the first time, saying to us, ‘I don’t know about that, try this.’ He’s definitely a cruisey dude though; more of a guiding force with how we went about things than a jarring craziness. We needed that because we’re a pretty unorganised bunch. At the end of the day he’d still want to hang out and drink a glass of wine, so there’s similarities and differences with every producer you work with,” McLeod says. “The main thing has been that we’ve just wanted to keep things interesting and fun. It’s less about ‘I want to go on tour and kiss girls and be a rockstar’, and more about the fact that now we’ve been doing this for a little while, so it’s time to look back at the year. Figure out what we’ve learned, [think about] the people we’ve met, and just keep playing good music. We haven’t played a headline show since April so right now all I can think about is trying out a bunch of new songs at The Standard. And fixing up this gross David Crosby moustache I’ve got going on, for my mum’s sake.” With: ‘The Beast’ is out now With: Jessica Cerro, Dirt Farmer Where: The Standard When: Friday October 26
What: It’s Not Like We’re Trying to Move Mountains is out now through Inertia With: Pluto Jonze, Rainbow Chan Where: FBi Social When: Friday October 26
“I’m just the oily slick on the wind-up world of the nervous tick in a very fashionable hovel” - ELVIS COSTELLO 18 :: BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12
Xxx
Simmons has gotten a lot of things right. Timing has probably been a determining factor in her struggle so far, but her latest album has all of the best qualities of an indie pop album, with lead single ‘Be Gone’ already receiving more airplay and critical praise than any of her previous work. Everything feels a little strategic though; you can’t blame an artist for changing direction when something seems to be falling flat, but Simmons explains that it was both creative desire and a deliberate sonic shift that led to her new sound. “For me, what I had been doing wasn’t floating my boat anymore, I was bored of it,” she says. “I’d been doing it for a long time as well. I would have liked to have seen more success come out of what I was doing but that didn’t happen. There were certain changes in my life around the time of this record that made me a lot happier as a person, and I think when you’re in that headspace you don’t want to be writing all of this forlorn and mellow stuff. I was reacting to more upbeat and pop music that I’d never really found interesting before. I don’t think I could’ve done an album like I had done previously.”
Deconstructing every song seems almost counterintuitive for a songwriter, but that’s exactly what Simmons eventually agreed to do – not realising that her track-by-track breakdown would eventually become available to the public. “When the idea was pitched to me, I could take it or leave it, and I decided to do it,” she says. “But when I first did it I thought the only people reading it would be media people, and then we ended up choosing to publish it on the Home & Hosed blog on triple j. When it went out to the public I realised it was more revealing than I remembered. I was careful when I wrote it because I didn’t want to hurt anyone, but I guess the songs on this album are a lot more upfront, and I’m not hiding in the lyrics anymore.”
With: The Snowdroppers, Kim Churchill What: The End Of The World (For Beardless People) Tour Where: Bar On The Hill, Newcastle / The Metro Theatre, Sydney When: Wednesday October 24 / Friday November 2
Tin Sparrow here’s quite a lot of blood on Dean McLeod’s guitar. The guitarist of Northern Beaches rockers Tin Sparrow insists it’s fake stuff, the remnants of a gig he can’t (or would prefer not) remember. The last 18 months have been an intense ride for the band, to the extent that a little bit of blood spilt on instruments is apparently perfectly normal. “Oh yeah, next up we’re totally going on tour with Alice Cooper,” jokes McLeod. “It’s definitely a natural progression, after playing with Boy & Bear.”
ara Simmons has been plodding along in the insular Brisbane scene for a while now. Her despairing folk-meetselectronic-meets-quasi-classical sound was endearing and unique, but while her contemporaries moved onward and upward, Simmons struggled to break through to the next level. Life changed her mood, and that – as well as frustration – changed her sound. Gone are the ultra-experimental melodies, replaced with Lykke Li/Joan As Policewoman left-field pop. “I feel like I had some goals that I wanted to achieve, and I’ve done some of those,” Simmons says, of her latest album It’s Not Like We’re Trying To Move Mountains. “I sat down really early, at the beginning of this album, to determine what I wanted – and I’m very grateful for anything that I do get right.”
and write songs about topics that really matter. Topics like beards.”
Ball Park Music A Night At The Museum By Krissi Weiss
M
usic seems like a fairy tale career – travel, fans, fame, money (allegedly) – but as songwriter, singer and guitarist Sam Cromack and his ever-rising Ball Park Music have discovered, the reality is different. The Brisbane band’s debut album Happiness And Surrounding Suburbs hit the indie/pop world with a bang last year, but rather than stretching out the album life cycle to three or so years, BPM decided it would be a better move to smash out album number two with haste. “Things are going well for us, but in the grand scheme of things we’re a small Australian act, and we figured we needed to strike while the iron was hot,” Cromack explains. “If we went away for a couple of years people could easily forget about us; there’s plenty of other artists ready and eager to jump in and take your spot. We’re confident about what we’re doing and we do hope people like the record, but we thought, ‘Let’s just smash this now, and then even if it disappoints some people we’ll probably be forgiven because we turned it around so quickly’,” he laughs. “And if it’s received really well and everyone thinks it’s great, well, people might be like, ‘Holy shit! How did they do that so quickly?!’”
follow-up; critique is sure to come flying thick and fast. Still, it seems that BPM have matured and evolved enough that they’ll manage to keep their fans engaged and win over some others who failed to be charmed by the debut’s youthful exuberance. “I wanted to shake off a little bit of the novelty factor of the first record, without losing too much of that because that’s what makes us fun,” Cromack says. “I wanted to explore more ground because it’s weird for us; I never thought we really had a sound. A lot of people criticised the first record for being too eclectic, and I think that’s just in my nature as a songwriter: I always want to be doing more styles than what I am. The second record has that and we’ll probably be criticised again. You get to a point where you stop caring. We just wanted to make pop songs that were solid and relatable, with more creativity than we offered before.” What: Museum is out now through EMI With: Loon Lake Where: The Metro Theatre (all-ages) When: Thursday October 25 & Saturday October 27
Cromack is often seen as the face and the soul of BPM. His side project, My Own Pet Radio, has furthered his growing reputation as an inexhaustible songwriter, and it’s been easy for many to assume Ball Park Music is really just Cromack Music. But while that may have been the case in the beginning, it’s certainly not the case now. “I think I’ve gotten better and better at accepting who my band are and what role they play,” he says. Ball Park Music also consists of bassist Jennifer Boyce, Paul Furness on keys and trombone, and twins Dean and Daniel Hanson, on guitar and drums respectively. “I still write the songs – the core of what’s there – but the band were a lot more vocal this time on the direction of the songs. Another thing they don’t get credit for is that they’re often the ones that spot what’s missing on the album, noticing that a certain energy or idea has been left out. Then I’ll sort of write to their brief. “The group effort is something I’ve been desiring more as we grow as a band,” he continues. “I think I’ve had enough gratification for my songs to not need to have a bunch of people along just representing them.”
“When I listen to Jeff Mangum’s songs, the lyrics really speak to me, but I often have no idea what he’s talking about. I really wanted to incorporate the surreal and the poetic.”
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On their debut record, BPM came across as a quirky, fun band. While some of that remains on Museum, Cromack and co. were driven by a hint of cynicism and darkness this time around. “The first songs were full of positivity because I was yet to put out my first record, I was yet to do my first real tour, and it was all such a mystery; the music industry was filling me with such wonder,” he says. “In the making of this record there were a lot of times I felt burnt out and cynical about the whole thing. I was still striving to achieve balance – I couldn’t commit to an album that has one emotion throughout. There were some times where I didn’t even want to write lyrics, though; I was just enjoying making the music so much… A massive influence on this record was Jeff Mangum from Neutral Milk Hotel. When I listen to his songs, the lyrics really speak to me, but I often have no idea what he’s talking about. I really wanted to incorporate the surreal and the poetic.” BPM have been treated well in their time as indie favourites, but once money enters the equation, patience, and potentially friendships, can be tested. “When you first get into music, you’re so excited and so enamoured with the whole rock star fairy tale, but then at some point you realise that this is turning into a full-time commitment,” he explains. “The band started to bring in a little bit of money, and you have no choice but to be responsible for that – and figuring out the business side of things was really trying for a long time. It was new territory for us and the people who work with us. We’ve gotten through that now, but there’s still some days when you feel like you needed to have studied business or something.” They may have knocked Museum out swiftly, but you can’t be indie favourites through your debut album and escape scrutiny with its BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12 :: 19
Papa vs Pretty Step It Up By Benjamin Cooper
I
t’s too easy to forget that Papa vs Pretty are such a young band; Thomas Rawle and his cohorts have accumulated such a huge swag of achievements since he began writing music at North Strathfield’s McDonald College in 2006. The frontman and songwriter of the local threepiece has toured alongside class acts including Phoenix and Silversun Pickups, and the band have been embraced by the listeners and the critics, with a J Award nomination in 2011 for their brilliant debut record, United In Isolation. But in the rush and hustle of rock’n’roll, Rawle never had the chance to get a driver’s licence. “I’m rarely at home, so there’s no chance for me to try to drive,” he explains. “The problem is that now I’m trying to learn in a manual, and it’s totally fucked. I feel like I’m making all this progress and I’m doing really well and then something screws up. I wish I could blame the car, but it’s totally down to me.” Has he considered tapping into the band’s success, and indulging in an utterly excessive vehicle befitting a rocker? “I don’t think we’re quite at that status just yet,” he laughs, “and I feel like I want to be able to do it properly, you know? The problem is that vehicles in general just freak me out: when we first started out I’d be
ROLLING STONE e” iv al an om w y nn fu ly us eo ag tr ou “The most
sitting on planes and just having massive anxiety. Whenever we had to tour I’d just be freaking out... Thankfully I’m much better now, but the gears thing is still tricky. I’ll just keep practicing.” The band are capping off a hectic year of touring and recording with a special one-off show, to celebrate the first birthday of Sydney newcomer The Standard. When I ask for a progress report on new material, Rawle tells me he’s excited about the songs they’ve written but isn’t entirely sure what do with them yet. “I honestly don’t know what the next logical step is for us. I’m just excited that we’re playing this show at The Standard. It’s been such a huge year, starting with the Big Day Out tour, then we supported Incubus at their shows, and since then we’ve just been writing. I’ve written something like 50 or 60 new songs for the next thing, whatever that might be. Some of them might get used by us, some of it might get used for some writing with other people, but it’s better [now that] we actually have the songs there for us to call on.” It’s hardly surprising that the songwriting sessions this year have proved so fruitful: in the six years since Papa vs Pretty began, they’ve released four EPs and last year’s debut album. Rawle, bassist Gus Gardiner and drummer Tom Myers are also in demand as guest artists and musical collaborators, with Gardiner’s jazz background called in to great effect as a multi-instrumentalist on Jack Carty’s gorgeous sophomore Break Your Own Heart earlier this year. Do the band ever feel crushed by the sheer volume of creative projects taking up their time? “It’s the only way we know how to be,” Rawle replies. “I miss out on basic life skills that other people mastered years ago because I spend so much time writing. I can’t drive at all, and I know that the longer you wait the harder it gets, [but] this is it for us. It’s what I have to do. And to be perfectly honest if I hadn’t written the amount of songs that I have, given the amount of time I spend playing music, I’d be much more worried.”
“I miss out on basic life skills that other people mastered years ago because I spend so much time writing. I can’t drive at all, and I know that the longer you wait the harder it gets, but this is it for us. It’s what I have to do.” The recent addition of another live guitarist in Luke Liang has allowed the group to expand their approach to songwriting. “Obviously with another member the dynamic is changed,” Rawle says. “But the reality is that if you want to have any kind of longevity [as a band], then you have to step it up with each thing you do. Our live set-up involves a lot of guitars and a whole bunch of gadgets, so we really need four people to make it all work. Now we’ve got Luke I can focus on writing more – because some of us have to work really hard at songwriting and having the confidence to try new things.” When I express disbelief that Rawle struggles as a songwriter, he explains, “It’s just a confidence thing... The thing with music production now is that if you write using Pro Tools or Ableton it’s possible to create ebb and flow through the production, rather than the musicality of the writing. So it’s very easy to write using the same, cyclical four chords, and that’s great: David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ is one of the best songs ever and I love it. But you also have to be able to write a ‘Life On Mars’”.
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With: Papa Vs Pretty, Fishing, Palms, Shady Lane, and Falcona DJs; artwork commissioned by Lo-Fi Collective Where: The Standard’s First Birthday! @ The Standard, When: Thursday October 25
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Rawle is tight-lipped about his latest collaborations. Jack Carty recently told me the pair were working together, but the PvP frontman maintains mystery. “It’s really quite exciting for me at the moment. I kind of feel like Batman because I have all this stuff going on, and I’ve chosen not to tell anyone about it until release. I just feel that there’s such an image to music these days [that] you’re better off if you can detach yourself and just write and write and work... I work with a lot of people,” he says. “For now, the rest is a secret.”
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HOUSOS VS AUTHORITY
JETT ADORE OF THE STAGE DOOR JOHNNIES How did it feel to be inducted into the Las Vegas Burlesque Hall Of Fame? It was undoubtedly one of the biggest highlights of our lives. It is an honour and a beloved challenge to be ambassadors for the art of burlesque. The title has driven us to raise the bar by creating more and more spectacular acts, which we hope constantly bend, expand, and exploit our ideas of masculinity, romance, and sexuality. What’s your signature move? Well, we’re rather known for milking it (if you know what I mean). We like to stroke the suspense as long as possible until that moment when we and the audience just cannot take it any more. That’s when we finally give it to ‘em. As our host Nadine DuBois says, “We sell the sizzle and not the steak.” (Although for the right person, the steak might be up for grabs at the after party.)
T
ADVENTURE TIME
Sorry stoners, we’re not talking about your favourite animated TV series, we’re announcing that – dun dunna nuhhh – the Adventure Film Festival is coming to town. The best bit about it? You don’t have to actually climb anything, go down anything on a board, hike through any dense thickets or chop through any impenetrable jungles with your machete (but I guess you could if you wanted to). All you have to do is trek over
What can we expect from your show? For our Australian tour, The Stage Door
Who do you think is the sexiest man in the world? Bruno, that guy from the gym. Do you know him? His sister is really hot, too. I would ride the love boat with either one of them. Do you think men need to bring some class back into seduction? Well, I think a gentleman should always be a gentleman, even when bumping and grinding his under parts for the enjoyment of others. What: The Stage Door Johnnies With: The Schlep Sisters (US), Nadine DuBois (US), Minnie Tonka and Darlinda Just Darlinda Where: The Factory Theatre When: Friday October 26
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
If you asked me to come up with the opposite of foul-mouthed yobbos in Commodores and Ugg boots, I’d probably say, “Umm, I dunno, Shakespeare?” If the paragraph above left you huffing, readjusting your bifocals and incredulously turning to your spouse exclaiming, “Why, I simply cannot believe what passes for entertainment these days,” you’re in luck! Because you can take your whole cultured, post-modern, Don Delilloreading family to see a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, staged in the fairy-friendly surrounds of Centennial Park on Friday November 2 at 7:30pm. To win one of five family passes, just tell us the name of the play’s leading lady.
Xxx
he Stage Door Johnnies really put the sauce on your hot dog. But don’t worry, it’s the expensive, organic kind that goes with the seeded mustard you bought at the farmer’s market on the weekend. This all-male Chicagoan burlesque act (lovingly referred to as boylesque) ditches Chippendale sleaze for artful striptease, and is set to delight Australian audiences with naughty moves and acrobatic flair at The Factory Theatre this month.
Who squeals more at your shows, Americans or Australians? It’s hard to say. We have certainly been delighted to find that the men and women in our Australian audiences can drink like champs, which always helps uplift the rowdy volume in the theatre. The louder they are, the naughtier we get. When we can’t hear the music over the squeals, there’s no telling what we’ll do or how wet the front row seats will get.
Johnnies have teamed up with The Schlep Sisters (feisty, tassle-twirling Jewesses from New York City), and host/singer/comedienne extraordinaire Nadine DuBois. The audience comes expecting to see men and women getting naked (and darn it, we do), but the way the show knocks their stockings right off is through the enormous spectacle of gorgeous costumery, dance, acrobatics, live singing, dance, innovation, and comedy, which are part of each skin-baring moment. It’s the kind of big Broadway show you always dreamed of: the naked kind. It is full of suspense, surprise, and unbelievably sparkly nipples.
“Sunnyvale, mate! Sunnyvale for life, mate!” That’s what Paul Fenech’s character Franky of SBS’s bogan parody Housos reckons. The “stooge” who brought you Fat Pizza is chucking thongs and breaking cops’ windscreens in Housos Vs Authority, in which he, Shazza (Elle Dawe) and Dazza (Jason ‘Jabba’s Morning Glory’ Davis) reprise their roles as the slack-jawed outer-suburban rebels without a clause. This time they’re on a mission to scatter Shazza’s mum’s ashes on top of one of Australia’s most famous icons, Uluru, stopping to do a bunch of burnouts along the way. For your chance to win one of ten double passes to a special advanced screening of the film at Event Cinemas on September 25 – and to meet Franky, Shazza and Dazza themselves – just tell us your favourite clichéd ‘boganism’.
to the Chauvel Cinema, capture yourself some snacks, and watch people do things your spongy, urban-dwelling frame could probably never (let’s be honest, here) amount to. To see Mr. Toilet (seriously), watch a guy climb Everest, another walk the most epic tightrope ever, and another almost never remove himself from his bicycle seat, head to Sydney’s most lavish cinema from November 9–10. Check out the full program at adventurefilm.org
DON’T SHOOT THE MESSENGER
When you’re done with a magazine what do you do with it? Most probably toss it or maybe even take it to the hairdresser – but Sydney painter/ collage master BENNETT would do his darndest to turn it into a decent artwork. He uses anything from old National Geographic photos to packing cartons to international newspapers, to build the intricate layers of paper (and meaning) in his pieces. Off the back of an exhibition in Tokyo, a spot in The Hours at The Tate and Double Take at Darlinghurst’s Kind Of Gallery earlier in the year, BENNETT is launching a solo show Don’t Shoot The Messenger on Thursday November 1 at Soldiers Rd Gallery. Check out soldiersrd. com for more info.
MUSIC TO OUR EARS
by Jacqueline Larcombe
SURRY HILLS FESTIVAL
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HERE COMES THE FRIEND SHIP
All you bookworms and bibliophiles out there, rejoice and get your wriggle on down to Surry Hills Library to browse, borrow or peruse the interwebs, because it’s now open past bedtime on Thursday nights. As part of Late Night Library, adults-only events will be held on the first Thursday night of the month. First up is film-connoisseur/Doctor of Friendship Kenzie Larsen with her Melbourne Fringe-fresh show Friend Ship, which promises to be “a spectacle of both micro and macro proportions”. So head down to the library on Thursday November 1 for a free night of video, sculpture and googlyeyed pet rocks. Peep kenzielarsen.com for an introductory video.
Most of us know Paris for croissants, berets and irritating tourist photos (you know, that hilarious one where they look like they’re bigger than the Eiffel Tower), but before the city of lovers became the iconic metropolis it is today, one man captured Old Paris in a modern way. Over 200 of Eugène Atget’s 19th century photographs will be exhibited at the Art Gallery Of New South Wales, showcasing his images of Parisian streets, landscapes and architecture. Atget never called himself a photographer (he preferred “author-producer”), and for someone who made his money selling photos of buildings to painting students, Atget could probably never have imagined that his work would one day be considered a benchmark for contemporary photographers. There’ll be no shaking of any Polaroid pictures here, as Atget’s fragile work is rarely allowed to travel: this is the first time the exhibition will be seen in Australia and it could be the last. Fall in love with Paris all over again, until November 4.
THE ROCKS VILLAGE BIZARRE
Prepare to get lost in the laneways of The Rocks with burlesque honeys, comedians, limber contortionists and other unique folk coming together for the Rocks Village Bizarre. Reminisce with rockstar Uta Uber Kool Ja, experience the cabinet of curiosities, and venture to the Rocks Pop-Up for a poetry slam. If your best dance move is “the shopping trolley” maybe consider dropping by Dancing In The Streets for some lessons in boot-scoot, or learn to hula your way to happiness with Heidi Hoops. Give a big, proper welcome to summer and head down to the open-air bars for an Enchanted Forest cocktail or ale provided by the delicious White Rabbit brewery. And don’t feel guilty about indulging at the many food stalls: you can burn it all off later by dancing at the Silent Disco or pumping those calves at the bike-powered cinema, where patrons take turns peddling to keep the film rolling. The bizarre runs every Friday from
November 2 to December 21. Check out the program at therocks.com for event details.
UNI STUDENTS ARE BETTER THAN YOU
UNSW’s COFA Annual Exhibition is back once again to remind you that there are insanelytalented young people being unleashed from the cold, wrinkly grip of academia to steal your jobs and woo your girlfriend with their more-angular haircuts and better-cuffed jeans. The 300+ students included in the exhibition have tried their artisan hands at pretty much everything cool ever, like animations, ceramics, drawings, digital images, installations, painting, jewellery, sound, textiles, video works and heaps more. Notable grads include Claire Healy and Shaun Gladwell (who just had a retrospective show at the MCA), as well as Adam Cullen, Trent Jansen, the team behind Dinosaur Designs, and many more. Check out all the stuff you always wished you could make at The Roundhouse, from Friday November 23 to Wednesday November 28.
In Dis life YOLO by Jacqueline Larcombe
It’s that time of year again: the sun is staying out later, your desire for gelato is at an all time high (curse you, Messina on Crown), and the Surry Hills Festival is set to celebrate its vibrant arts scene while raising much needed funds for the Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre. Monobrowed, flower-crowned Fridas will be wandering around Frida Khalo Tent City to mingle with punters in a colourful spectacle. Transformation: Chalking the Nation is art for the people, by the people, and will sit alongside custom-made installations by some of Sydney’s best street artists. Take time to zone out with A ‘Love-In’ Story or leave your mark at the Paint By Numbers mural. Wander down to Prince Albert Park on October 27 from 10am till 10pm, and swing by surryhillsfestival.com for all the deets and the band lineup.
For those of you who like nothing more than to sneak a peek at people’s iPod playlists (and then judge them when you find all that Adele in their Top 25 Most Played), get yourself down to The Standard from Wednesday October 31 to get the scoop on the important musical moments of some of Sydney’s more interesting folk. Cheeky breakfast radio host and Aqua Tour 2012 attendee Tom Ballard is hosting a Listening Party featuring a rotating roster of special guests over six consecutive weeks. First up are funny man Scott Dooley, radio star/DJ Nina Las Vegas and Tony Abbottexpert David Marr, and future shows will include guests like Wil Anderson, Zan Rowe and Josh Pyke. Keep an eye on tomballard. com.au for lineup updates.
EUGENE ATGET
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SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED
Aubrey Plaza and Karan Soni in Safety Not Guaranteed
S
urely 2012 must be the year of the Duplass brothers, the filmmaking team of Mark and Jay Duplass who between them have spent the last decade steadily racking up writing, producing, directing – and for Mark, acting – credits across a wave of indie films. They make dark but sweet and genuinely offbeat comedies about the kind of people you know, using very little money – and everything they touch turns to indie-comedy gold. Over the last 18 months that has included their own films Jeff, Who Lives At Home and The Do-Deca-Pentathlon, and producing credits for Your Sister’s Sister and, most recently, Safety Not Guaranteed. But none of this should distract you from the real talent behind their latest project: director Colin Trevorrow and writer Derek Connolly (who won the screenwriting prize at Sundance this year), a pair of NYU graduates who have created a hybrid of the mumblecore and ‘80s adventure blockbusters that is so refreshingly un-cynical it might just melt your heart.
“We are refreshingly un-cynical people,” says Trevorrow, speaking from a hotel room the morning after presenting the Australian premiere of his film at Sydney Film Festival. “I kinda wanted the tone of the film to reflect the title.” The title is taken from a now-infamous personal ad in a ‘90s survivalist magazine, which read: “Wanted: Someone to go back in time with me... Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed.” Subsequently the inspiration for many a satirical spin-off, the words inspired Connolly, then working with Trevorrow as a jobbing screenwriter in LA, to write something altogether different. “When I read Derek’s [script], it just sort of spoke to me,” Trevorrow recalls. “I saw a real opportunity for a very iconic love story – for something that could be very fun and light and funny, but also really delve into some of the issues that Derek and I are both dealing with as 35-year-old men,” he laughs. “You know, finally having some context for our lives, and looking back at the choices we made, and maybe wishing we did a couple of things differently: personal things, like wishing I’d maybe been a bit nicer to certain people, a little more respectful at times. Those are the reasons why I think a lot of us wish we had a time machine.”
Safety Not Guaranteed takes as its premise a situation where snarky wannabe journos from a Seattle magazine (played by Aubrey Plaza, Jake Johnson and newcomer Karan Soni) seek out the author of the ad, who turns out to be a socially maladjusted DIY inventor called Kenneth (played by Mark Duplass). It’s a celebration of emotional courage and open-mindedness: the last kind of thing that you’d expect from former SNL interns (though Trevorrow emphasises that he and Connolly were really just passing through that iconic comedy stable, rather than seeking to be part of it). “I want to treat my characters with respect,” says the director, “and Derek [did] also. We wanted them to feel like real people, and we certainly know they take themselves seriously because I think we all take ourselves seriously, to a certain extent. And Kenneth goes beyond that: he’s a very self-serious character, and for me that was really the element of what made him funny. To him, there’s absolutely nothing hilarious about wanting to bring your own weapons to go back in time. He really means that. And I think our self-seriousness as humans is part of what makes us hilarious.” Trevorrow grew up in a musical and theatrical family, watching and loving
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the films of Amblin Entertainment, Steven Spielberg, Richard Donner and Robert Zemeckis. He studied at NYU, but honed his storytelling sensibilities while working in LA, where he and Connolly kicked off their careers in 2005 by creating an on-spec sitcom pilot called Gary: Under Crisis. “We shot it on our own as a way to sort of break into the business,” he explains, “and the result of that was that we got agents and we were able to start getting our work out there. Then I sold a screenplay that allowed me to start working as a professional screenwriter in the studio system. “So that’s really what I was doing for all that time: writing a lot of screenplays that didn’t get made into films. So it looks like I was completely off the reservation, but in fact I was working pretty hard, and Derek and I together as writing partners wrote a lot of things as well. And part of the motivation for doing Safety Not Guaranteed came from us being very frustrated with writing a lot of screenplays that we were not seeing made into films. This [was] really an opportunity for us to finally execute something.” Besides their writing-directing partnership, Trevorrow and Connolly also acted as producers on the film, hashing out every aspect of its creative function between them, and bringing
on Mark and Jay Duplass as Executive Producers for their reputation for getting low-budget films made no matter what. “It’s funny: Derek and I both, we’re not really part of a ‘scene’, ” says Trevorrow. “We don’t have a lot of people that we know, in the industry. I live in Vermont, so I’m very detached from it. We met Mark through one of our producers, Stephanie Langhoff, who works for Mark and his brother doing development for their company. We sent our script to her and she really fell in love with it, and she sent it to them, and it sort of went from there. “It was a very conscious choice of mine to seek [Mark] out and to bring, for lack of a better term, the mumblecore sensibility into this film,” says Trevorrow, “because I feel that more mainstream narratives could use the humanity and naturalism that those movies have. But I still want [my movies] to look cinematic and feel big, and I’m different from [the Duplass Brothers] in that way, because I want to use lights and I want it to sound awesome. But I don’t think that that is at the expense of things feeling honest.” What: Safety Not Guaranteed When: In cinemas now
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AUSTRALIAN FILM TELEVISION AND RADIO SCHOOL
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B
lack Cherry was born in 1999 when sisters Danielle and Carla Hatton – who had already been running a successful goth-industrial night called Vortex – noticed something lacking in Sydney’s entertainment scene. “There wasn’t much on offer in Sydney, and nowhere we could hang with our friends with various musical tastes,” Carla says. “We ran the first Black Cherry in a dodgy basement venue, The Mandarin Club, and it just kept growing.” Six years on, the night has become a burlesque, cabaret, rock’n’roll and all-round alternative institution, now housed at The Factory Theatre, and this year they’re celebrating its sixth birthday with a Day Of The Dead-themed Halloween extravaganza. “I was a Goth when I was younger, so every day was Halloween,” says Danielle, “but the best costume I’ve ever worn was at Carla’s recent birthday, when I dressed as Wayne from Wayne’s World, with mum jeans and all!” Along with extravagantly ghoulish entertainment provided by legendary locals and internationals, The Factory Theatre will be tricked out in All Hallow’s fashion by boylesque legend Herbie Strangelove. “Giant skeletons, cobwebs, gravestones, sugar skull art, and bone chandeliers are all on the cards. Think Alice Cooper in a sombrero. Olé!”
Matt Clark from
Tell us about your band. We play catchy as hell pop-infused rock‘n’roll that’s dirty and gritty, yet smooth as silk. What is your favourite Black Cherry memory? The first time we played Black Cherry, two cougars who were eyeing off our lead singer Benny jumped up on stage and started grinding him. This happened for a good three minutes and ended with one woman on her knees tearing Benny’s jeans off. It was like Thailand all over again. But that’s another story. Will your performance be Halloween-themed? We’ll be vamping it up for sure. We’ve also got a spooky cover in the works.
How did you celebrate your sixth birthday? Cake and ice cream. Got a sick Optimus Prime transformer that year too. Dunno where that is now, though. Damn. Neon Heart photo by Nick Bezzina
Tim Kent from Tell us about your band. We’re a bunch of old high school friends forced into a lifelong bond because we lack the basic social skills required to make friends in the adult world. We’re an ever-evolving sonic freak show drawing influence from bands like NOFX, Weezer, Sublime, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. What is your favourite Black Cherry memory? Bob Log III crowd-surfing in a little lifeboat above 900 people, or Betty Grumble’s Bacardi Breezer-drinking/glitter-spewing schoolgirl burlesque performance. What can we expect from your Black Cherry birthday set? Six poorly-costumed, over-enthusiastic music nerds with stage banter that is as awkward as it is offensive. What’s the best Halloween costume you’ve ever worn? I once went to a party dressed as Carl Sagan. But that was pretty much just an excuse to wear a sensual skivvy.
How did you celebrate your sixth birthday? With a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle birthday cake.
Tank photo by Jo Duck
What can we expect from you as an MC this year? Pyrotechnics, aerial juggling, being shot out of a cannon... nah, I’ll save that for our New Year’s Eve party. For our sixth birthday I’ll keep it real by being my loud, obnoxious, slightly intoxicated, very brassy, very crass self. But this year I will be wearing an amazing sombrero, face paint, and probably little else. It’s going to be rough and it will likely be messy! Will this top last year’s Black Cherry birthday bash? That’s like comparing a sunset to a rainbow: both are beautiful things in their own right. However, this year has a Mexican theme to it and some pretty amazing performers, so I can guarantee it’s going to be all kinds of awesome. Tell us about your special skills. I can drink copious amounts of alcohol, swear and carry on like a filthy pirate-hooker on stage, but I keep getting asked back to host. Also, I play the ukulele.
Tell us about your special skills. I have trained intensively in several methods of trapeze: spinning, static and swinging. I have also learned to foot juggle and fire-eat! I make all my own costumes, having completed my first degree in fashion design. What is your signature routine? I’d like to think that my style of spinning/ dance/trapeze is rarely seen, as I use heavy weights on my bar in order to make my spins incredibly fast! I have a Fifth Element routine that is well-known, as well as a ‘20s-themed act that’s been booked around the world for special events.
Will your performance be Halloween-themed? If by Halloween-themed you mean dressing up as spooky, insane characters, then yes! Tell us about when you popped your Black Cherry. My first show with Black Cherry was a lot of fun! There is so much going on under one roof at their events, it is an exciting place to be! I remember running around between my shows trying to catch a glimpse of everything.
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Tell us about your special skills. I have a few special skills up my sleeve. Circus was my initial training, which comes through strongly in my performances: aerial work on silks and trapeze and, believe it or not, hulahooping. These skills, mixed up with the art of striptease, have resulted in my unique flavour of boylesque. What is your signature routine? I would have to go with my sailor-hoop act, ‘Captain Kidd’. It’s an oldie but a goodie. Will your performance be Halloween-themed? I will be debuting my Dirty Lil’ Devil act, my tranny clown will make an appearance, and I’ll top it off with a saucy aerial act. How did you celebrate your sixth birthday? I spent my sixth birthday travelling in a circus. I was the kid dressed as a midget woman! What’s the best Halloween costume you’ve ever worn? My best Halloween costume was a zombie-stripper number, but this Black Cherry my new Dirty Devil might take the (birthday) cake.
Who are your inspirational figures? Well, I do have a slight obsession with drag queens. Lillian Starr, a wonderful burlesque performer and another Black Cherry favourite, has told me she believes drag queens are my “power animal”. What’s the best Halloween costume you’ve ever worn? Well when I was very young I decided to dress as an airhostess who was in a plane crash, which was pretty creative for a eight-year-old! However my dream costume is to dress as the Oogie Boogie man from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Bands – Mikelangelo And The Tin Star, Los Capitanes, Captain Reckless And The Lost Souls, Neon Heart, Graveyard Rockers, C.O.F.F.I.N, Jungle Rump Rock‘n’Roll Karaoke; Burlesque – Tank (USA), Mark Winmill, Kelly Ann Doll; DJs – Sinead Ni Mhordha (Ireland), Toz Riot and loads more Where: The Factory Theatre When: Saturday October 27 More: Tickets from blackcherrypresents.com.au
Mark Winmill photo by Magnus Hastings
What can we expect from your Black Cherry birthday performance? Fire! Spinning in the air! Awesomeness! I am debuting a new aerial act that is Harley Quinn themed, which I am super excited about.
What is your signature routine? Probably my ‘Show Pony’ routine where I shake my booty to Ginuwine’s ‘Pony’ whilst wearing a customised latex horse head. Then I trot about the stage to the classic horseracing tune, ‘The William Tell Overture’.
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Collaborator [FILM] Martin Donovan Acts Out By Dee Jefferson
Bourgeois & Maurice Martin Donovan and David Morse in Collaborator
W
ith over three decades of acting under his belt across theatre, film and television, most notably playing lead in many of Hal Hartley’s films and supporting roles in arthouse fare such as Insomnia and The Portrait Of A Lady, it’s fitting that Martin Donovan’s directorial debut is a characterdriven story that charts a course against the mainstream. Titled Collaborator, it’s a remarkably laid-back hostage drama with a vein of dry humour running through it, about a washed-up playwright returning home to visit his elderly mother, who is taken hostage by his troubled next-door neighbour. “One critic said it was the most relaxed hostage film in history, or something,” Donovan laughs. In town earlier this year for the film’s Australian premiere at the Possible Worlds Canadian Film Festival, the actor was philosophical about his directorial debut, which he also wrote and stars in. “It’s really hard to pin this movie down,” he admits. “It’s hard to talk about it, in a way. It’s been impossible to market.” As producer Ted Hope (the indie maverick behind the ‘90s cinema of Ang Lee, Hal Hartley and Todd Haynes) said at the New York preview screening, “It’s about everything: it’s about politics, it’s about the creative process, and celebrity culture, and home and country”, something he saw as an asset and which audiences have responded well to, but which distributors were scared of.
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“It was based on a character that I grew up with, just as a starting point,” Donovan says of the premise. “There was a guy who ended up dying in a SWAT team stand-off, years after I moved away. He and his brothers lived across the street and there were always bikers and keg parties and screaming and yelling and the cops being called, and them getting busted, and gun-play… All kinds of craziness.” Donovan cast David Morse (best known for his bad-guy roles in The Green Mile and
The Crossing Guard) in the complex role of next-door neighbour Gus, a 50-something ex-con who as a teenager was friends with Robert’s elder brother, a US Marine. “I had wanted David from the very beginning,” says the director, “but because it was my first film, we had to do a little bit of a dance with [other] names, to see if we could get a ‘big name’ – and thankfully that didn’t happen! Despite being an actor himself – or perhaps because of it – Donovan was cautious about casting a big name. “One of the things that I was conscious of was: if you think about any American actor who is in his mid-to-late 50s who is a ‘name’, they were or are probably at one point a movie star. So what kind of mood are they going to be in? And [there was] the fear of them wanting to take control, and coming on set and having an agenda, and them being afraid, and vulnerable. And those are the people who lash out, the ones that are vulnerable, because they’re not a movie star anymore and now they’re dealing with this indie thing. So even if they had this incredible reputation, and they had Oscars or whatever (and some of the people we were looking at did), I assumed that they were going to eat me for breakfast. But I just had a sense that David would not do that, and I was right. He had no agenda except making the best film possible, and he totally supported me. He’s a very generous, loving guy.” On his own craft, which he has been developing since he discovered acting at high school, Donovan says, “This can’t be a choice. You can’t want to be an actor – you have to be an actor. It has to be an act of survival. So to people who say, ‘I want to be an actor’, I just stop them. It doesn’t work that way.” What: Collaborator When: Now showing at Chauvel Cinemas
[PERFORMANCE] Cabaret Creeps By Krissi Weiss
L
ondon-based part-cabaret, part-comedy, part-catwalk musical freak show Bourgeois & Maurice (known as George Heyworth and Liv Morris to their friends, family and probably the tax office) have been added to the ever-eclectic and perpetually-surprising Harvest Festival arts lineup. When chatting to an act like this, you never know if you’re going to get the unmasked creators or the chaotic characters; thankfully, I get the former, and Heyworth and Morris are a bundle of warmth, coupled with costume-free honesty.
it, they’re totally up for it. In a theatre, the crowd are a lot more stuffy: they’re sitting there waiting for something to happen. Whereas when you get to a music festival the people are just like, ‘Raar!’ straight away.”
The pair confesses that they’ve seen first-hand how the character-driven interview can go awry. “Liv’s character doesn’t say much and my character only lies,” Heyworth says, as they both laugh. “We did a TV interview with this woman and somehow she didn’t realise that we were in character and I don’t think she knew what our characters’ back-story was. So she kept asking questions that were impossible to answer, then she asked us how we met and we said we were brother and sister and then…” Heyworth trails off and Morris picks up the story. (The endearing way they finish each other’s sentences is testament to the chemistry they share as performers.) “She was like ‘Oh that’s so cool, that’s so great’, ” Morris says, continuing the story through bouts of laughter. “And then she asked how our family felt about our work and, well, our characters’ backstory is that they accidently killed their parents as children, and we said, ‘Oh well, they’re dead.’ She looked horrified and she was like, ‘Oh god, I’m sorry! We can cut that out. Do you want us to cut that out?’ We just carried on and told her it was fine.”
Media tastemakers Time Out and The Guardian in the UK have praised the work of B&M, but the pair are aware that they can divide an audience. “We’ve been lucky. We can be a polarising act,” Heyworth says. “We can be political but obviously there’s a sensibility running through what we’re doing... and not everyone can relate to a man in a pink gimp suit.”
For performers that are used to an intimate theatre environment, Harvest initially appears to be a strange place for Bourgeois & Maurice to perform, but the pair are no strangers to the festival circuit and coming to life in a field of alternative mental states. “We love it,” they exclaim simultaneously. “Honestly, we’ve done quite a few music festivals in the UK and they’re just so much fun,” Morris continues. “It’s just a different mentality. A wasted, pilling crowd are just up for
“The thing is, we feed off the crowd, so the more high they are, the more we feed off that,” Heyworth chimes in. “I think it’s always been music festival gigs where we walk off stage and can’t believe that we just did that. It’s just really fun.”
“We always try and make stuff and write songs that we like,” Morris says. “We try to make each other laugh and creep each other out. In a way, if you start considering the audience too much, you can dilute the material. It’s always about how we relate to ourselves.” Even being dubbed a “cabaret act” seems like a foreign label to the pair; their focus seems to be simply to laugh and, hopefully, bring others along for the ride. “Liv was saying before, we get bunkered into the genre of cabaret but we don’t even know what that is,” Heyworth says. “We definitely didn’t have an interest in cabaret when we started. We have an interest in performing and making people – and each other – laugh.” What: Bourgeois & Maurice With: The arts lineup of Harvest Festival features Briefs, Trixie Little And Evil Hate Monkey, The League Of Sideshow Superstars, Rapskallion, Erotic Fan Fiction and loads more Where: Harvest Festival @ Parramatta Park When: Sunday November 17
Cockatoo Island Film Festival [FILM] The Magic Of Cinema By Alasdair Duncan
T
he Cockatoo Island Film Festival is a brand new cinematic experience for Sydney, boasting a huge program (it’s the largest competitive film festival in the country), and set at one of the city’s most picturesque landmarks. “We looked at a lot of different locations around the country before we came across the gem of Sydney Harbour, Cockatoo Island,” explains Deputy Executive Director Allanah Zitserman. “I really like the idea of creating a bubble, where everyone at
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the festival is there for the same all-inclusive experience – and when we took our first trip to Cockatoo Island, it was an epiphany. It’s one of the most cinematic locations you could possibly think of,” she continues. “It’s drenched in Australian history, from convict times to the time it served as a shipyard during the first and second world wars. Not only that, it’s right in the middle of the harbour, with the bridge as a backdrop. It’s a quintessentially Australian experience.”
One of the festival highlights is undoubtedly an Australian film, Dead Europe: adapted from the novel by Christos Tsiolkas, author of The Slap, it tells the story of a man’s trip to his father’s birthplace in Greece, and the secrets he uncovers along the way. A number of our most acclaimed filmmakers will also be right there on site, sharing their wisdom and expertise through a series of talks and lectures. “We’ve got Jane Campion doing a master class on her new television series Top Of The Lake,” Zitserman explains, “and Peter Weir doing a master class on his relationship with his composer Burkhard Dallwitz.” Gregor Jordan, Donald McAlpine, and
the creative team behind the music for TV show Rake will also be there, amongst many others. “Having the best of the Australian film industry be a part of this is extremely exciting for us,” Zitserman continues. “It’s a way for people to come face-to-face with our greatest filmmakers and really be inspired by them.” True to the vision of creating an all-inclusive experience, the festival isn’t just about films. From Thursday to Saturday evening, there’s a program of musical acts that includes locals Jinja Safari, Bluejuice and Matt Corby, and international hip hop legends Arrested Development. “Isn’t it fabulous?” Zisterman asks excitedly of the music program. “A festival, in the true sense of the word, is a place for people to come together and be inspired and entertained, and to party together. Music is such an important component of the festive experience that for us, there was no question about having music. There’s also a pop-up nightclub, so people can watch films, then they can go and talk about them over a drink, or they can just dance the night away, and really connect. You can go from your ordinary life and escape to an extraordinary world.” What: The Cockatoo Island Film Festival When: Wednesday October 24 – Sunday October 28 Where: Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour More: Full program, festival map and tickets from cockatooislandfilmfestival.com
Cockatoo Island image courtesy of Sydney Harbour Federation Trust
The festival’s program features appearances from a variety of local and international filmmakers, from independent up-and-comers through to legends like Paul Thomas Anderson, whose new film, The Master, will have its Australian premiere at the festival. “The Master is the most exciting film out there in the world right now, and Paul Thomas Anderson is considered one of the top five filmmakers of his generation,” Zitserman says. The film, which stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix, is a pretty serious coup for a festival in its first year, but Zitserman is just as excited about some of the first-time filmmakers on the bill. “What’s great is that we have an incredible generation of new, young filmmakers coming through in the competition strand of the festival,” she says. “They’re making films with really strong storylines, and they have the kinds of voices that can reach audiences.”
Film & Theatre Reviews Hits and misses on the silver screen and the bareboards around town.
To Rome With Love
Arts Snap
At the heart of the arts Where you went last week... Photos by Tim Levy
Lado (Benicio Del Toro) and – cue heroic flourish – a rescue mission begins. Just like Steven Soderbergh’s critically acclaimed 2000 US/Mexico drug film Traffic, this has one hell of an ensemble cast. Kitsch’s ex-Navy Seal has the requisite brooding presence that rubs perfectly against John Travolta’s bent DEA official, and Emile Hirsch even has a sneaky cameo, albeit in a relatively contrived role as the duo’s financial adviser Spin. His appearance facilitates the robbery of some drug bagmen – a move that only really makes sense as an outlet for Chon’s violent urges.
■ Film
TO ROME WITH LOVE In cinemas now All roads lead to Rome, goes the saying, and Woody Allen’s latest film (and the third in a series of love letters to cities other than his adored NYC) is loosely themed around the roads we don’t take in our lives: the alternate realities we dream about (or regret) following. Two young Italian honeymooners are separated and beset by temptation; an American architect (Alec Baldwin) runs into a strangely familiar young man (Jesse Eisenberg); a desperately ordinary office worker (Roberto Benigni) finds himself suddenly and inexplicably famous; a young American woman (Alison Pill) meets and becomes engaged to an idealistic Roman, and when her psychoanalyst mother (Judy Davis) and retired opera producer father (Allen) visit to meet his parents, Allen’s inability to let go of his working life intrudes on the Italian family’s happy home life. Allen’s portrayal of Americans overcome with the romantic mania supposedly rampant in the Italian capital (and wildlygesticulating Italians who apparently operate under that mania 24/7) are quite fun, but the stories are mostly silly, undercooked and irritating, as if Allen picked a few discarded plots and shoehorned them into one film under the guise of narrative whimsy. Eisenberg’s timid young architecture student falls for his girlfriend’s hyper-pretentious best friend (Ellen Page), as they visibly convince themselves that they are young and in Rome, so they must have an affair. At the risk of sounding like a prude, in this story (in fact, in all but one of the four) Allen presents cheating as a fun, romantic activity, without even bothering to link it properly to stereotypes about Europeans and adultery. Not to mention that instead of being true characters, every woman is a prize, a plot device, an obstacle to fun and fulfilment, and/or a passive figurine with little agency. We watch these characters wander about the roads their lives have taken, but by the end of the film you’re so pissed off at them you don’t care what they do. Caitlin Welsh ■ Film
SAVAGES
Sex With Strangers photo Brett Boardman
In cinemas October 18 Lover Ben and fighter Chon have got a special thing going on. In veteran director Oliver Stone’s Savages, the two friends, the former played by Kick-Ass’ Aaron Taylor-Johnson and the latter given bristling physicality by the exceedinglyripped Taylor Kitsch (of TV’s Friday Night Lights), are in a partnership growing the finest organic marijuana in southern California, and they’re also both romancing Blake Lively’s fairly uninterested O. Everything is all doobies and sour Skittles in Laguna, until Elena (Salma Hayek)’s big bad Baja cartel shows up from Mexico, demanding a cut. When the boys don’t go for it, O gets kidnapped by Elena’s main henchman
A warning, though: this is not Natural Born Killers, Stone’s masterful exercise in brutality amidst the road trip of the American dream. There’s a lot of flesh and blood, with some trimmings of overt orgasming, but that’s probably about where the similarity ends. Stone has maintained his hyperactive attention to detail in the editing suite, so that we’re smothered in lush colours and diverted to a frustrating not-quite ending. Unfortunately, being technically thorough is no excuse for training the camera too rigidly on the bronzed skin of your three young leads: throughout the second half of the film we return with inexplicable regularity to the sight of a sweaty Lively imprisoned in an actual cage. It seems that after yelling such didactic commands at his cameramen, Stone had only just enough energy left to extract entirely uninspired performances from a talented cast. Benjamin Cooper ■ Comedy
AZIZ ANSARI
harriet birks
10:10:12 :: M2 Gallery :: 4/450 Elizabeth St , Surry Hills
caleb reid & siena white 11:10:12 :: Studio W :: 6 Bourke St, Woolloomooloo
Buried Alive at Just For Laughs Sydney Opera House Friday October 12 Aziz started his set by doing something that’s probably never been done at the Opera House before (well, that I know of): he busted onto the stage to Kanye’s remix of an ‘n-word’-heavy Chief Keef jam (that’s that shit I do like). It was a pretty epic intro for a dude who’s a pretty huge part of the new-school era of comedy, which is all about putting out your own material and never touring the same special twice. Buried Alive is probably Aziz’ most cohesive set to date: his shows have typically been a series of observations and stories (e.g.: the Darwish/Kanye anecdote) cobbled together without any huge, overarching theme. Aziz is pushing 30, and the idea of settling down and having babies seems fucking ridiculous in a world where “dick pics” are considered courtship, so most of the show involves him flipping out about the idea of committing to one person forever, or being “buried alive” by responsibility (ouch). The show doesn’t have the most original subject matter, since comedy’s always been the kind of profession that attracts perennial children (I mean, in his prime, Jerry ‘Date-Every-Emerging-Actress-OfThe-‘90s’ Seinfeld was about as mature as Aziz’ 14-year-old cousin Harris), but Aziz’ approach to the idea is refreshing nonetheless. He interacts with the audience about their marriage proposals and dealing with being single, asking the crowd to clap if they married someone they’d known for less than three years before laughing at them and saying, “I’m laughing because you’re getting divorced. I’ve had sweaters for two years then been like, ‘What the fuck am I doing with this? I hate this sweater!’” There were a couple of low-brow bits (e.g. when he says he must’ve been so cute as a kid that he frightened off paedophiles), but they were balanced out by some sweet anecdotes, like the one about a married friend who met his wife by chance in the carpark of Bed, Bath & Beyond, injecting a bit of hope into our otherwise cynical, 20-something disdain for domesticity. Dijana Kumurdian
See www.thebrag.com for more arts reviews
sydney rides festival
13:10:12 :: Street Fair & Woop! Rolling Festival launch:: various locations
Arts Exposed What's in our diary...
HALLOWEEN ROLLER DISCO The Roundhouse, UNSW Saturday October 27, from 7pm We don’t know about you, but we’ve always kind of wanted to do the ‘Thriller’ dance on roller skates (whether we’d actually pull this off is a different story). Rollergirl’s Roller Disco: Halloween Edition is offering all you budding derbyists a chance to drink, skate and dance, as well as giving you an excuse to incorporate those knee socks and the booty shorts in the back of your wardrobe into your spooky-season costume. Is there anything scarier than a zombie skank on wheels? Doubt it. The usual dorky rollerrink tunes will be replaced by party jams Baker x Crisis provided by Temnein, Robopop DJs, Catlyf and AHC, with ghoulish live art provided by artwolf Crisis and black-metal warlock Baker, who are also designing custom skates that can be won on the night. Skates are available to hire or you can BYOS. Get your tickets before they sell out from rollergirlpromotions.com.au BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12 :: 29
Album Reviews What's been crossing our ears this week...
ALBUM OF THE WEEK LISA MITCHELL Bless This Mess Warner
Filled with piano and lush, warm strings, Bless This Mess is dappled with variety and depth. This is Lisa growing up, and the songs are richer for it.
It’s been a few years between drinks for pop-folk favourite Lisa Mitchell, but in taking time to put it together, her second album Bless This Mess is a more confident and stylistically diverse collection than her previous releases. The production of Dann Hume (one third of Evermore) allows each song its own character – from eclectic gypsy tale to mournful ballad or catchy pop ditty – with a consistency and voice that holds the record together. Opener ‘Providence’ features swelling instrumentation with echoes of Arcade Fire, which descends into the chanting style of Karen O’s Where The Wild Things Are soundtrack. The songs show Lisa more confident in her instrumentation:
SOMETHING FOR KATE
KREAYSHAWN
Since their initial popularity in the late ’90s, Something For Kate are yet to find success beyond the usual expectations of an Australian indie band. Their records are consistently good, but they don’t seem to have earned the kind of commercial and critical respect that the quality of their work demands. On Leave Your Soul To Science, their first studio release since 2006’s Desert Lights, Something For Kate make an attempt to break a little piece of new ground for themselves. Although it’s not always successful here, their decision to branch out bodes well for their sound on future releases. This time around, Something For Kate have diverted slightly from their usual emotive radio rock to a more subtle, electronically influenced indie sound, though they don’t stray too far from the big-hook choruses and lovesick lyrics they’ve become renowned for. ‘Survival Expert’ is the real banger on the album and the obvious single. It’s sorrowful and radio-friendly without being corny, a rare quality that the band have displayed with panache over the years. If you were to forget who you were listening to, ‘Miracle Cure’ could be Hunters & Collectors playing an Interpol song. The dense, dreamy echo-chamber harmonies are counterbalanced with a big shoutalong chorus, a little touch of pub rock grunt to save it from being dismissed as fluffy. ‘Survival Expert’, the album’s centrepiece, lacks punch when compared with a track like ‘Cigarettes And Suitcases’ – but what they lose in rock points, they make up for in pop subtlety. This could be remembered as an interesting point in the band’s career, the slightly off-kilter record they made on their way to getting it just right.
NO DOUBT
Somethin ‘Bout Kreay Columbia/Sony
Leave Your Soul To Science EMI
It would be easy to write off Somethin ‘Bout Kreay as a whole bucket of WTF (and the final death knell sounding for the English language), but I really tried to look beyond track names like ‘K234YS0NIXZ’. For my efforts, I was rewarded with lyrics like “Hey bitch do you really, really, really wanna go hard? Go in the crib steal your step father’s credit card”. Turns out this album is just a total shit show. Kreay makes her thesis about one’s vehicle being representative of one’s social standing clear on ‘Blasé Blasé’, in which she extrapolates: “No you can’t afford this, you’re in a Ford bitch” over a Missy Elliot-lite beat. ‘Ch00k Ch00k Tare’ shouldn’t even warrant a mention at all beyond AVOID HEARING THIS SONG AT ALL COSTS, and viral hit ‘Gucci Gucci’ should have stayed just that; including it on this album might drive sales, but it drags this track down to the others’ subterranean level. And we’re only three songs in. This album has 13 freaking tracks! It’s a marathon in crap music. ‘Left Ey3’ is a clever concept I guess, but the problem with name-dropping ladies with talent is that it emphasises how little you have in comparison. Also to avoid: Auto-tuned nightmares ‘BFF (Bestfriend)’ and ‘Luv Haus’, which make T-Pain sound like Stevie Wonder. Actually, avoid is the blanket rule for this whole album. Somethin ‘Bout Kreay is what happens when record companies throw fistfuls of cash at a brat with an internet hit in the hope that it will translate views into dollars. Fair enough if you’ve been tempted to listen – but you’ve also been warned. Natalie Amat
Rob Wilson
gospel-style piano and warm brass are new elements of her sound, and the songs are betteroff for them. “Still filling my space, still finding my place,” she sings on ‘So Much To Say’, and you begin to get an idea of what that place will be. Her voice is stronger for the most part, too, retaining its fragility only in moments that require more intimacy. First single ‘Spiritus’ is a slice of joyous, sunny pop and the title track is also a standout, with Lisa going electric in a departure from the acoustic sound of her 2009 debut album Wonder. ‘The Present’, which features vocals from Clare Bowditch and Georgia Fair’s Jordan Wilson, sounds like it’s straight off the Magical Mystery Tour, but acoustic folk-driven songs still abound, like ‘The Land Beyond The Front Door’, another highlight. Natalie Amat
Push And Shove is No Doubt’s comeback after nearly a decade away, but it doesn’t make any concessions to current pop music trends. There are no Nicki Minaj guest spots to be found here, and there’s no talk of party rock anthems or being on the floor – this is a No Doubt album through and through. A collection of shiny dancehall and new wave-inspired pop songs, Push And Shove bounces along on bright, catchy hooks, and on Gwen Stefani’s brash delivery. Stefani is not the world’s strongest vocalist, but there are two types of songs she does very well: the upbeat ones where she struts and preens, boasting about how cool and untouchable she is, and the slower ballads where she pines for the simpler things like true lurve. Wisely, the album sticks to these two. The more bombastic tendencies come out on the opening run of tracks – there’s ‘Settle Down’, with its loping beat and weirdly irresistible melody, and ‘Looking Hot’, which hits you full in the face with its blasting horn section before veering into dub interludes. The ballad-ier tracks draw on the same kind of ‘80s melodrama that Stefani explored on her solo albums, and ‘One More Summer’ and ‘Dreaming The Same Dream’ sound like direct descendants of songs like ‘The Real Thing’. Some of the best moments come near the end: ‘Sparkle’ nods at the band’s ska roots and comes complete with a stick-in-your-head chorus, while ‘Heaven’ is bouncy and infectious. Push And Shove is not as energetic as Tragic Kingdom or as effortlessly cool and catchy as Rock Steady, but No Doubt’s party spirit remains intact, and they sound like nobody else in pop right now. Alasdair Duncan
Black Rabbits Universal
Black Rabbits is the quintessential pop-rock album. You should have expected it – Grinspoon have been skipping faster and faster down that path ever since Thrills, Kills And Sunday Pills. Brutish rock screams have transformed into reflective melodies; distortion has faded into clean. The production values are outstanding. Dave Schiffman, engineer and producer extraordinaire, works the same magic on this record as he has previously with The Mars Volta, The Bronx and Weezer. Name drops don’t stop at Schiffman’s resume, though – Chris Cheney and Tim Rogers both make appearances on the album. ‘Passerby’ opens with THAT ‘Edge Of Seventeen’ guitar riff, melting into a polished, radio-friendly single that crosses the ever-blurring commercial/ triple j playability border the same way that ‘Chemical Heart’ did. The album progresses into an even more popfriendly collection of tunes, fraught with obligatory "ooh"s and "aah"s, and the type of hi-hat-heavy grooves commonly associated with Britpop (‘Beaujolais’ is a perfect example). Only in track five, ‘Carry On’, do we get the first taste of a minor chord, and a brief nod toward ‘old Grinspoon’ in a fleeting guitar lick after the first chorus. If Black Rabbits were in fact released by a quartet of skinny, Ray Ban-clad British adolescents, it would probably be hailed as the best album of 2012. If Grinners fans don’t praise it as such, it’s because they’re still grumpy over New Detention not being another Guide To Better Living. And if this is the case, I say to you: build a bridge, get over it, and come to appreciate what is actually a showcasing of pretty decent songwriting. Still not satisfied? Stick to Parkway Drive. Grinspoon aren’t what they used to be. But is that necessarily a bad thing? Sheridan Morley
INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK SOLID LIGHT
Passwords Independent I do enjoy local releases that fly in the face of oh-so-neat genre packaging. By now, artists decrying the value of genrespecific music is almost a genre in itself, so it’s nice to experience someone just shutting up and getting down to whatever warped sonic idea enters their head. Passwords, the bedroom brainchild of Melbourne-based artist Solid Light (Dan Steele to some), is an eclectic affair, 30 :: BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12
and it’s mostly thanks to the fact that the record is only somewhat steeped within the realm of electronic composition – making the branching out all the more effective. Guitars, vocals and either organically hit or mapped drums (I’m not sure which, which is awesome in itself) pepper a soundscape of programmed blippery (‘Getting Excited’) as often as cold, precise sequencing coalesce to form the root of, when it comes down to it, blues- and soul-driven numbers (‘Is Real’). Each of these tracks are terribly unique from one another; I’d prefer to call this a collection rather than an album. Highlights include an absolutely hilarious breakdown in ‘El Deporto’: after insistent
pulse and vocoder give way to brokendown hollers, hoots and handclaps, a 30 second genius sidestep of lazy tropical beats and horns once again give way to the former synthetic pulse, now more reminiscent of a surging futuristic monorail with neon blue lights. There’s a sublime vocal delivery from Ms Clancy Milne, one of Melbourne’s lesser-known auditory delights, on ‘Opium Den’ – a track whose sluggishness, amazingly, enhances its beauty. All the way through Passwords, you’re either treated to deceptively upbeat slow-jams or puzzlingly relaxing house jaunts. Not a bad thing! Matt Panag
GYPSY & THE CAT
GRINSPOON
Push And Shove Interscope/Universal
The Late Blue Universal Gypsy & The Cat’s debut, Gilgamesh, hit a very particular musical sweet spot when it came out two years ago. Songs like ‘Jona Vark’ and ‘Time To Wander’ had just enough dreamy, washed-out indie cred that they caught on with the triple j crowd, but their bouncy hooks and infectious choruses made them big crossover hits on commercial radio. The prospect of mainstream success, however, seemed to spook the pair (check out the video of them looking miserable while playing Hungry Hungry Hippos with a selection of competition winners at Future Music Festival). The Late Blue is the follow-up to that successful debut, and comes across as something of a rejoinder to it: ‘we’re not here to pump out more synth pop’, it says, ‘we’re here to make art’. The album seems almost deliberately designed to confront casual fans who might have nodded their heads along to ‘Time To Wander’ on the radio; it’s a dense and strange listen, swapping the synths out for live instrumentation, messing with the song structures, and turning its nose up at anything as mundane as radio play. When writing these songs, Lionel and Xavier immersed themselves in the psychedelic rock of bands like The Zombies and Spacemen 3, and it shows in the shifting time signatures and the trippy instrumental passages. It was a risky move to take, but the pair are skilled enough musical craftsmen that it pays off. Tracks like ‘Only In December’ and ‘Broken Kites’ are light on instant gratification, but maintain the hazy, dreamy pop feel that made Gilgamesh so appealing. It’s anyone’s guess how well this new direction will be received, but The Late Blue has a real appeal. Alasdair Duncan
OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week... FOUR TET - DJ Kicks LAURA VIERS - July Flame GOOD HEAVENS - Strange Dreams
DIRTY VEGAS - Dirty Vegas DISCO NAP - Running Red Lights
T H I S
RES EATEST PLEASU O OF LIFE’S GR MARRYING TW
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Lizotte’s Sydney 629 Pittwater Rd Dee Why
Lizotte’s Central Coast Lot 3 Avoca Dr Kincumber
Lizotte’s Newcastle 31 Morehead St Lambton
WWW. LIZOT TES.COM.AU
FA C E B O O K . C O M / B E A C H R O A D H O T E L BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12 :: 31
live reviews what we've been to see...
KIRIN J CALLINAN, SCATTERED ORDER, FOUR DOOR Oxford Art Factory Thursday October 11 “Welcome to my big show!” Kirin J Callinan announced to his audience. Fundraising for a series of CMJ gigs in New York with Terrible Records (Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear’s label), Oxford Art Factory was Kirin’s last performance in Sydney for 2012 before he headed abroad the following day. Supported by Scattered Order and Four Door, the evening set out like layers of a twisted dream. The duo of Four Door began their set fully equipped with matching white flatcaps and bomber jackets. The Moog and Korg duet welcomed the growing audience with dark electronic beats and a hint of Australianflavoured samples, featuring the occasional light-hearted voice-manipulation banter between songs. Images of tanks filled the back wall as
post-punk band Scattered Order slowly dragged the audience into a carefullycrafted soundtrack of someone else’s nightmare. Absorbed into the visuals of old film footage and psychedelic patterns, by the end of their set the dimly-lit musicians had stolen the last half hour of your life – and in a hypnotised state, you were totally fine with that.
night feel almost too human. It was a display of pure, raw energy that you could lose yourself in. Performing as a three-piece band, we were given something to move to, rather than to just stare at in awe. Half-grinning into the microphone Kirin thanked his audience for turning up. “He’s a fucking sweetheart,” said a voice behind me.
DRUNKEN MOON FESTIVAL: BROTHERS GRIM & THE BLUE MURDERS, GAY PARIS, MOTHER AND SON, HOWLIN' STEAM TRAIN, PAPA PILKO & THE BINRATS
Bursts of Kirin J Callinan’s signature guitar sound escaped from behind the stage curtain as the main act prepared. Such anticipation. The curtains opened and the theatrics began: Kirin stood centre-stage staring at his audience, as the almost-faceless bassist and drummer lurked long-haired and shaded in the background.
Technical difficulties made an appearance, as a “dodgy cable” left Kirin’s guitar voiceless. Just when things started to look bleak, Kirin countered the silence by telling the story behind his eclectic merchandise while he scrambled around on stage for a spare lead. (I for one now own a red Bic lighter with his name printed on it.) Plugged back in, Kirin’s striking stage persona instantly magnified to make up for lost time. A raw, guitar-less, and by this point shirtless rendition of ‘The Toddler’ is a highlight that will linger in my mind. Intense.
As Papa Pilko & The Binrats hit the stage at Drunken Moon Festival on Saturday, I was being ambushed by a gang of youths in Victoria Park (a pleasant side-effect of gigs at Manning Bar). Their quest to find a house party (“or at least a cigarette, miss”) meant that I was M.I.A when, by ALL accounts, the openers were slogging out a brilliant live show. Happily, they set the pace for what was to come.
The first time I saw Kirin live, he was a solo supernatural phenomena. The rugged mountain backdrop of that Camp A Low Hum gig may have helped, but having company on stage tonight, within the four dark walls of Oxford Art Factory, made the
TORTOISE, THE LAURELS, SLEEPMAKESWAVES The Hi-Fi Thursday October 11 Sleepmakeswaves are an excellent band – cohesive, well equipped, and with deft arrangements – but tonight’s set confirms suspicions that they’re in the lamentable business of paring the epic instrumentalism of post-rock down to its most predictable constituents. They sound a bit like Explosions In The Sky, from around when that band seemed like the genre’s death knell for all their own brazen mimicry. Their redeeming quality is their muscularity – despite the softer passages, this is a sinewy, superlative rock band, not afraid of flexing and gritting its teeth. But phallic posturing was never the point with this kind of music, anyway. The Laurels’ beautiful wash of shoegaze pop is proper comfort food for those who still pine for spacey ‘90s guitar songs. It takes a while for them to warm into their sound (or for their amps to reach the appropriate tone-melting temperatures), but once they get there, you only need a couple of songs before their affability starts to wane. Their
Tanydd Jaquet
apparent reverence for groups like Ride or Slowdive is endearing at first, but slowly begins to feel like a non sequitur – they don’t add anything to that sound, so what’s the point beyond willful nostalgia? Tortoise are the luckiest band on the bill. Their nostalgia is for an age they pretty much defined – much of their extraordinary back catalogue is singular, irreducible. They seem relaxed, tonight, almost tired. Their last live review in BRAG noted that they’re pretty Dadlike, and the twisting prog-fusion of opener ‘High Class Slim Came Floatin’ In’ feels particularly goofy in light of that observation. But the luscious harmony and cerebral pragmatism of tunes like ‘The Suspension Bridge At Iguacu Falls’ and ‘Stretch’ still sound spritely despite the group’s fatigue. ‘Gigantes’ on the other hand burns very brightly, building its precarious dulcimer pattern and double-kit action into cavernous shapes that reach right to the ceiling. Though there are moments when the set threatens to falter under the weight of its arrangements – ‘Dot/Eyes’ veers into seriously silly noodling – the tone is one of bombast and magnitude. As such, an hour and a half of Tortoise is more than enough. Luke Telford
Manning Bar, Sydney University Saturday October 13
First heard was the sheer power of Howlin’ Steam Train. Fast, complex drums and blues harp echoed down the stairwell; and upon entry, the resounding thump of boots shook the dancefloor, and grew louder and stronger through Mother And Son’s set as their unique brand of surfabilly reverberated from the stage. As the extent of Jackson Firebird’s talents became clear through the first song, so too did the necessity for their long pre-set sound-check. Dale Hudak began by throwing himself into a bottlebin on the floor, sweat dripping from his unruly locks, delivering an irresistible rock beat as Brendan Harvey expertly threaded delicious licks through power chords. Hudak later moved to the kit, showing great versatility in pitch-perfect backing vocals. If there’s anything we can learn from Gay Paris, it’s this: if all else fails, get naked. Thankfully, all else never fails during their shows. Luke’s relentless thrusting leaves you seasick (thrustsick?) in the best possible way; Dean and Lachlan sprint forward to their backing mics, causing that feeling of watching an action movie in 3D; Adam’s heavy drums hold the chaos together admirably. There’s something to be said for a band whose musicality can maintain the audience’s attention while the vocalist has his hand down his pants. The feet of Brothers Grim And The Blue Murders are firmly planted in dirty blues, though the feet of their crowd were unable to keep from dirty-dancing through an explosive set – visually exciting, emotionally affecting, and musically jaw-dropping. James Grim topped off the event with a stunning vocal performance, culminating in inviting every band up for a group rendition of ‘Dirty Dog’. Grim interjected between songs to urge the crowd to continue supporting their local musicians by buying CDs and T-shirts, going to gigs, and supporting crowdfunding efforts. If every gig was as wellexecuted as the Sydney leg of Drunken Moon Festival, his wishes would surely be easily fulfilled. Sheridan Morley
OUR PHOTOGRAPHER :: TIM LEVY
32 :: BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12
party profile
the preatures' ep launch It’s called: The Preatures – Shaking Hands EP launch It sounds like: You took your favourite Pretenders T-shirt, chucked it in the wash with your Lou Reed T-shirt and that ratty Buddy Holly one you stole from your girlfriend, but you didn’t check the washing instructions (idiot), and they all melded together into some sort of purple, tie-dyed, rock‘n’roll Frankenstein that just ruined three good T-shirts and a washing machine. Acts: The Preatures, Jeremy Neale, GROUP. Sell it to us: Magic bands, magic dance. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Becoming Jimmy Manson’s girlfriend. Crowd specs: That cute girl who lives next door to you told me she was coming, so that’s a plus. She also told me that you might be in with a chance if you do. Wallet damage: Presale $12 (+bf) / $15 on the door Where: Goodgod Small Club When: Friday October 26
snap sn ap
mum
PICS :: EO
up all night out all week . . .
dick diver
PICS :: JA
12:10:12 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 9357 7700
maroon 5
PICS :: PX
13:10:12 :: FBi Social :: 244-248 William Street Potts Point 9331 9900
13:10:12 :: Sydney Entertainment Centre :: 35 Harbour St Darling Harbour 9320 4200
N :: NOHMON ANWARYAR :: JOVA S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: ROSETTE ROUHANNA :: OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER NS OWE ELKE :: MAR LEY RKE :: ASH ATANOCKOVIC :: KATRINA CLA IER :: SAM WHITESIDE :: PEDRO XAV
BRAG :: 485:: 22:10:12 :: 33
snap sn ap
something for kate
PICS :: TL
up all night out all week . . .
everclear
PICS :: RR
12:10:12 :: Metro Theatre :: 624 George St Sydney 9550 3666
the paper kites
PICS :: TL
12:10:12 :: The Hi-Fi :: 122 Lang Road Moore Park
12:10:12 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford St, Darlinghurst 9332 3711
It’s called: The Standard’s first birthday! It sounds like: The best first birthday party you’ve ever been to, minus the Woman’s Day cake. Who’s playing? Papa Vs Pretty, Fishing, Palms, Shady Lane and Falcona DJs. Sell it to us: It’s a birthday party! It’s a great lineup of some of Sydney’s best bands, artists and DJs. Come early for the free booze, catch a game of drunken Ping Pong, and eyeball a mural commissioned by Roachi and Clams of the Lo-Fi Collective. Come and help us celebrate the wild and fun year we’ve had so far, hosting some of the best local and international talent. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: You’ll probably remember just as much as you remembered the day after your 1st birthday. But that’s what friends (and cameras) are for. Crowd specs: All of your mates.
kittens
PICS :: SW
06:10:12 :: Q Bar :: 2/44 Oxford St Darlinghurst 9360 1375
Wallet damage: $10 Where: The Standard, Surry Hills When: Thursday October 25
fearless vampire killers
PICS :: TL
party profile
the standard's 1st b'day party
tzu
PICS :: JA
12:10:12 :: FBi Social :: 244-248 William Street Potts Point 9331 9900
13:10:12 :: The Standard :: 3/383 Bourke St Darlinghurst 9331 3100 34 :: BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12
N :: NOHMON ANWARYAR :: JOVA S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: ROSETTE ROUHANNA :: OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER NS OWE ELKE :: MAR LEY RKE :: ASH ATANOCKOVIC :: KATRINA CLA IER :: SAM WHITESIDE :: PEDRO XAV
BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12 :: 35
g g guide gig g
send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com
pick of the week Papa vs Pretty
THURSDAY OCTOBER 25
The Standard, Darlinghurst
The Standard’s First Birthday:
Papa vs Pretty, Fishing, Palms, Shady Lane $10 (+ bf) 8pm MONDAY OCTOBER 22 ROCK & POP
The Black Keys (USA), Royal Headache Sydney Entertainment Centre, Darling Harbour sold out 7pm Cambo The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Hot Chelle Rae (USA), Cher Lloyd, 5 Seconds of Summer Enmore Theatre $89.90 (+ bf) 8pm Light The Night 2012: Rob Mills, Jan van de Stool City Recital Hall, Sydney $55– $110 7.30pm Willy Mason (USA), Rohin Jones The Vanguard, Newtown $36.80 8pm
JAZZ
Brian Campeau Trio 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 8.30pm John Hill Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm Monday Jam: Danny G Felix
The Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Russell Neal, Massimo Presti, Chris Brookes Kellys On King, Newtown free 7pm
TUESDAY OCTOBER 23 ROCK & POP
The Black Keys (USA), Royal Headache Sydney Entertainment Centre, Darling Harbour $99.90 (+ bf) 8pm The Dahlias Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm Ensemble Offspring Sydney Opera House $25 (conc)–$45 8pm all-ages Mandi Jarry Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 8.30pm Nick Van Breda, Mo Mayhem Botany View Hotel, Newtown free 7.30pm Reality Bites, The Jerks, Old Spiced Boys
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 24 ROCK & POP
2 Way Split The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9pm Andy Mammers Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free Bad Valley, Wheat Fields, Mystic Flare, The New South Valve Bar & Venue, Tempe 7pm Cabins FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst free 1pm Dan Lawrence The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm Dereb The Ambassador Macquarie Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Gang Of Brothers, Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont free 7pm Geoff Rana Summer Hill Hotel free 7.30pm Isaac de Heer The Vanguard, Newtown 8pm Jay Parrino Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm Josh McIvor Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill free 6pm Kingswood, The Walking Who, The Chitticks Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Musos Jam Night Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt free 8pm Nick Kingswell Northies, Cronulla free 7.30pm Replika Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 11pm Steve Tonge Duo O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm The Trews Brass Monkey, Cronulla $23.50 7pm TrickFinger Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7.30pm
JAZZ
The Dixie Ticklers The Basement, Circular Quay $20 (+ bf)–$74.80 (dinner & show) 7.30pm The Felas 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 (conc)–$15 8.30pm
COUNTRY The Three Wise Monkeys, Sydney free 9pm Rob Henry The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm
JAZZ
Ian Blakeney Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm Jazzgroove: The World According to James, Briana Cowlishaw 505 Club, Surry Hills $8 (conc)–$15 8.30pm The World in the Basement: Carrie Lakin, Reyes De La Onda, Edema Ruh, DJ Brent Clough The Basement, Circular Quay $15 (+ bf) 7.30pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Blake Saban Three, Darren Bennett George IV Inn, Picton free 7.30pm Carolyn Woodorth, Samantha Johnson Taverners Hill Hotel, Leichhardt free 7pm Russell Neal, Peter Williams Harbourview Hotel, The Rocks free 7pm
Kasey Chambers, Shane Nicholson Lighthouse Theatre, Macquarie University, Macquarie Park 8pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Adrian O’Shea, Gavin Fitzgerald, James Stewart Keene, John Chesher, Sean Renfold Coach & Horses Hotel, Randwick free 7pm Blake Saban, Samantha Johnson, Greg Sita Cookies Lounge and Bar, North Strathfield free 7.30pm Folk Club Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Helmut Uhlmann UTS Loft, Broadway free 6pm Nick Saxon Blue Beat, Double Bay $15 (+ bf) 7pm Russell Neal, Stafford Sanders Cat and Fiddle Hotel, Balmain free 7pm
THURSDAY OCTOBER 25 ROCK & POP
Ball Park Music, Loon Lake Metro Theatre, Sydney $33.20 8pm all-ages
Bang!: Cabins, Hattie Carroll, The Upskirts, Train Robbers Annandale Hotel free (early bird)–$10 7pm Carmen Smith, Diana Rouvas Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $35 8pm Catherine Traicos The Green Room Lounge Bar, Enmore 8pm Chris Mallory Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7.30pm Cockatoo Island Film Festival: Arrested Development (USA), Alison Wonderland, The Backhanderz, Devola Cockatoo Island, Sydney $35$50 (+ bf) 6pm Crooked Saint, Ashleigh Mannix Old Manly Boatshed 8pm Dave White Duo The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9pm Easy Star All-Stars (USA), This Version Rock Lily, Pyrmont free 7pm Elevate Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm The Floors, Blind Valley, Frank Sultana & The Sinister Kids The Red Rattler Theatre, Marrickville 8pm The H.P Coronados Harold Park Hotel, Glebe free 7.30pm Hot Damn!: In Hearts Wake, Sienna Skies, Shinto Katana, Hallower Spectrum, Darlinghurst 8pm Immortal Band Comp Valve Bar & Venue, Tempe 7pm Kirk Burgess Duo Sackville Hotel, Balmain free 7pm Mammals, Lanterns, The Kite String Tangle Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Papa Vs Pretty, Fishing, Palms, Shady Lane The Standard, Darlinghurst $10 8pm The Phonies, Big Village Guests Macquarie Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Puro Instinct, Day Ravies, Buzz Kull The Square, Haymarket 8pm Ray Beadle & The Hightones, Jill Barber (CAN) Brass Monkey, Cronulla $28.60 7pm Saint Lou Lou, Movement, Gnome Goodgod Small Club, Sydney $15 (+ bf) 8pm The Songwriters Circle: Steve Balbi, Matthew Barber (CAN), Nicholas Roy, Asa Broomhall The Vanguard, Newtown $20.80–$55.80 (dinner & show) 8pm Strangers, King Of The North Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Sydney Blues & Roots Festival: Stray Roots, Windowbirds, Mason Rock, Two Girls Will, 8 Ball Aitken, Bones Atlas, Mojo Bluesmen Various Venues, Windsor $79 (day ticket)–$149 (whole event) 12pm Wheat Fields, The Hadron Colliders, Pete Jongma Sydney Livehouse @ Lewisham Hotel $10 8pm
JAZZ
James Valentine Quartet The Basement, Circular Quay $25 (+ bf)–$79.80 (dinner & show) 7.30pm Jazzgroove Summer Festival: Sean Coffin, Jonathan Zwartz, Tim Firth, Mike Gordon, Ken Allars Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills free (member)–$5 9pm
The Kim Lawson Trio, Brendan Clarke Quartet 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 (conc)–$15 8.30pm Lionel Robinson Dee Why RSL Club free 6.30pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Andrew Denniston, Spencer McCullum, Nick Domenicos, Dora Zhou Kogarah Hotel free 7pm Daniel Hopkins, Sean Renfold Olympic Hotel, Paddington free 7.30pm Helmut Uhlmann Mars Hill Café, Parramatta free 7.30pm Joanne Hill Corrimal Hotel free 7.30pm Russell Neal Forrest Lodge Hotel, Glebe free 7.30pm
FRIDAY OCTOBER 26 ROCK & POP
Amodus, The Zoo City Lads, Evil Ugly, Fatal Effect, Foundry Road Valve Bar & Venue, Tempe 7pm The Angel Affair, The Veil, Christopher Lee, The Elliotts Sydney Livehouse @ Lewisham Hotel $12 8pm Arbori Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 7.30pm Barbara Blue (USA), Mojo Webb Notes Live, Enmore $28.60 7pm Bno Rockshow Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 10.30pm The Broderick, In Trenches, Civil War, Snakes Get Bad Press, Safe Hands The Square, Haymarket $12 8pm Cavan Te, DJ Smithers Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont free 7pm Cockatoo Island Film Festival: Bluejuice, Jinja Safari Cockatoo Island, Sydney $35$45 (+ bf) 6pm all-ages Crooked Saint, Smoke & Silver, Ashleigh Mannix, Bernie Dingo Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills free 6pm Dallas Frasca Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt 8pm Floyd Vincent & The Childbrides, Marshall Okell Camelot Lounge, Marrickville $15 (conc)-$25 7pm all-ages Gang of Brothers Macquarie Hotel, Sydney free 8pm GTS Engadine RSL & Citizens Club free 8pm In Hearts Wake Masonic Hall, Blacktown 8pm Jay Sean (UK), Justice Crew, Young Men Society, Faydee Enmore Theatre $55.60 (+ bf) 7pm all-ages Keepin It Real Customs House Bar, Sydney free 5pm La Femme: Mylee Grace and the Milkshakes, Bec and Ben, Lourdes, Warchief Annandale Hotel $10 8pm MUM: Demon Parade, Willowbeats, The Darkened Seas, The Grease Arrester, Moonbase Commander, The Tight String Tangle, Simo Soo, Wolfden DJs The World Bar, Kings Cross $10-$15 8pm The My Tys Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm
“The sugar coated pill is getting bitterer still. You think your country needs you but you know it never will” - ELVIS COSTELLO 36 :: BRAG :: 485 : 22:10:12
g g guide gig g
send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Nightmare On King Street: The Heavies, Bain Wolfkind, Bang Bang Rock And Roll, The Electric Vogues The Vanguard, Newtown $18.80 8pm Outlier Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10.30pm Papa Pilko & The Bin Rats Coogee Diggers 8pm Peter Northcote The Basement, Circular Quay $25–$79.80 (dinner & show) 7.30pm The Preatures, Jeremy Neale Goodgod Small Club, Sydney $12 (+ bf) 8pm Red Remedy, We Without, Ape BC, Gravity Take Over The Lanadowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Roots Spectrum, Darlinghurst $10 8pm The Roxbury Halloween Party The Roxbury Hotel, Glebe 8pm Sabotage: The Desert Sea, Lanrae, Adam George, Sabotage DJs The Forbes Hotel, Sydney $10 9pm Soho Strays, Darren Coggan, Mimesis The Manly Fig $12 (student)–$15 7.30pm The Song Writers Circle: Steve Balbi, Matthew Barber (CAN), Nicholas Roy, Asa Broomhall, Maples Brass Monkey, Cronulla $17.85 7pm The Stage Door Johnnies The Factory Theatre, Enmore 8pm Step-Panther Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst 8pm Sydney Blues & Roots Festival: Superheaveyweights, Benjalu, Lloyd Speigel, Mason Rock, Chase The Sun, Nat Col & The Kings, Dave Tice Band, Shaun Kirk, Mark Cashin & The Ill Husseys, Morgan Joanel, Backsliders, Glenn Cardier And The Sideshow, Charlie A’Court (CAN), Halfway Homebouy, Claude Hay, Jim Conway Big Wheel, Lyall Moloney, Blake Saban, Two Girls Will Acoustic, Blind Lemon, Stray Roots, Microwave Jenny, Calling Mayday, Mojo Bluesmen Various Venues, Windsor $79 (day ticket)–$149 (whole event) 12pm Tara Simmons, Pluto Jonze, Rainbow Chan FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst 8pm Thurston Moore (USA) The Hi-Fi, Moore Park $58 (+ bf) 8pm Tin Sparrow, Jessica Cerro, Dirt Farmer The Standard, Darlinghurst $12 8pm Wednesday 13 (USA), Darkc3ll Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown $37.40-$44 (+ bf) 8pm
JAZZ
Grabowsky/McGann Quartet The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $15 (student)–$30 8.30pm Blaxploitation III: The Booty Affair Blue Beat, Double Bay $20 (+ bf) 7pm Phil Slater 505 Club, Surry Hills $15 (conc)–$20 8.30pm Willie Colon With Fonseca (USA) Big Top Sydney, Luna Park, Milsons Point $50 (conc)-$75 7.30pm Yuki Kumagai, John Mackie Well Connected Cafe, Glebe free 8pm
SATURDAY OCTOBER 27 ROCK & POP
031 Rockshow Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 10.30pm Anthems Of Oz St Marys Leagues Club free 9pm Ball Park Music, Loon Lake Metro Theatre, Sydney $33.20 8pm all-ages Barbara Blue (USA), Mojo Webb Brass Monkey, Cronulla $21 (+ bf) 8pm Billy Bragg (UK), Jordie Lane Enmore Theatre $86.30 8pm Black Cherry Halloween: Mikelangelo & the Tin Star, Los Capitanes, Captain Reckless & the Lost Souls, Neon Heart, Graveyard Rockstars, C.O.F.F.I.N, Jungle Rump Rock N Roll Karaoke, Rockabilly Rhino vs Wolfman Dan, The Black Cherry DJs The Factory Theatre, Enmore $20 (+ bf) 8pm Blacklevel Embassy, Further, Ramps, Chroma Blackwire Records, Annandale $10 6.30pm all-ages British India Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor $20 (+ bf) 8pm Charlie Musselwhite (USA), Hip Sister The Basement, Circular Quay $50 (+ bf)–$104.80 (dinner & show) 7pm ChildFund Charity Band Evening: Liam Gale and the Ponytails, Iluka, Lincoln Davis, The Mixed Bag, Mem Davis and the Kindred Spirits Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel, Woolloomooloo $25 7pm Citadel Records – 30th Anniversary: The Domnicks, Deniz Tek (USA), Penny Ikinger Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $20 8pm Cockatoo Island Film Festival: Matt Corby, Sures Cockatoo Island, Sydney $35$45 (+ bf) 6pm all-ages Confection, Josh Beagley Opera Bar, Circular Quay free 8pm Creedence And Friends Richmond Inn free 10pm David Campbell North Sydney Leagues Club, Cammeray $55 (+ bf) 7.30pm Dollar Bar, Little Lovers, Beef Jerk, The Warm Feelings The Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale free 8pm Enter the Ninja, Chasing Ora, Mayfair Rising, Tiffany Britchford Sydney Livehouse @ Lewisham Hotel $12 8pm FBi’s Halloween Party: The Upskirts, Corpus, Gunface, The Si Claros, FBi DJ Matt ‘Fear’boom FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $10 8pm The Fighting League, Oily Boys, Black Coffee, NS Mayhem, Snotty Babies The Square, Haymarket $10 8pm The Furious Five Jannali Inn free 8pm Hell-Oween Party: Lab 64, Not Another Sequel Just Another Prequel, Domino, Atomesquad, Upside Down Miss Jane Valve Bar & Venue, Tempe Joe Robinson, Minnie Marks The Vanguard, Newtown $23.80–$58.80 (dinner & show) 8pm Katie Noonan, Karin Schaupp City Recital Hall, Sydney $47 8pm all-ages Kevin Borich Express Penshurst RSL Club $20 8pm Kittens: Kittens DJs Spectrum, Darlinghurst 8pm The Noxs, DJ Urby Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont free 6.30pm
Progfest: Ne Obliviscaris, Anubis, Quiet Child, Glass Empire, Three Wise Monkeys, No Home For Heroes Annandale Hotel $20 1pm Rapids, I Am Apollo, Tin Can Radio, Kristy Lee Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills free 6pm Rolling Stoned Oatley Hotel free 8.30pm SFX: The Sunny Side Up, Wake The Giants, Sunsets, Bzurk, Absynth, Markm, Amy, Fluxx, KillPOP DJs St. James Hotel, Sydney 9pm Stone Parade Lizotte’s Restaurant, Dee Why $20 8pm Stormcellar Bells Hotel, Woolloomooloo free 7.30pm Surrender The Sun, Bellursia The Roxbury Hotel, Glebe $12 8pm Surry Hills Festival: Fire! Santa Rosa Fire!, The Tongue, Tijuana Cartel, Canyons (DJ set), Alison Wonderland, Keyim Ba, Madhu, Nantes, Purple Sneakers DJs, Slow Blow, Softwar, Steve Smyth, The Liberators, Mojo Juju, Sosueme DJs, True Vibenation, Jordie Lane, Jordan Leser, Valley of Kings, Charlie Gradon, Johnsong, Bastian Fox Phelan, Bity Booker Prince Alfred Park, Surry Hills (donation) 10am Sydney Blues & Roots Festival: The Angels, Lanie Lane, Mia Dyson, Lachy Doley, The Lazys, Pete Cornelius, Benjalu, Billy TK Junior (NZ), The Trews, Jesse Morris, 8 Ball Aitken, Asa Broomhall, Mojo Juju, Frank Sultana & The Sinister Kids, Daniel Allars, Marshall Okell, Lloyd Speigel, Jim Barber (CAN), Nicholas Roy, Dexton Monaghan, Eli Wolfe, Cass Eager & The Velvet Rope, Lyall Moloney, Glenn Cardier and the Sideshow, Widowbirds, Matthew Barber (CAN), Boris Hunt, Shaun Kirk, Claude Hay, Genevieve Chadwick, Minnie Marks, Charlie A’Court (CAN), Chris E Thomas, Max, Tyran Hall, Alex Chudnovsky, Aiden Abbey, Mojo Juju, Darren Jack Hammond Trio, The Childs, Penny & The Mystics, Owen Campbell, Dr Dons Double Dose, Microwave Jenny, Bonez, Bob Piggot, Steve Smyth, Matt Loyns, Ashleigh Mannix Various Venues, Windsor $79 (day ticket)–$149 (whole event) 12pm Transition Engadine RSL & Citizens Club free 8pm Upskirts, Corpus, Gunface, Si Claros FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst $10 8pm We All Want To, Hailer, Narrow Lands Brighton Up Bar, Sydney $15.30 8pm Yum Brighton RSL Club, BrightonLe-Sands free 8pm
JAZZ
Craig Calhoun (USA) Blue Beat, Double Bay $20 (+ bf) 7pm Jazz Nouveau Supper Club, Fairfield RSL Club free 7pm Joe Chindamo, Zoe Black The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $15 (student)–$25 8.30pm Sonido 505 Club, Surry Hills $15 (conc)–$20 8.30pm Yuki Kumagai, John Mackie Well Connected Café & Wine Bar, Leichhardt free 7.30pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Dane and Aaron Cookies Lounge and Bar, North Strathfield free 8pm Hayley Sales The Beldvedere Hotel, Sydney free 9pm Russell Neal Crown on McCredie Hotel Motel, Guildford free 8.30pm
SUNDAY OCTOBER 28 ROCK & POP
Benjalu Moonshine, Hotel Steyne, Manly 8pm Billy Bragg (UK), Jordie Lane Enmore Theatre $86.30 (+ bf) 8pm Continental Robert Blues Party Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont free 2pm Elliot the Bull Old Manly Boatshed 8pm The Getaway Plan The Hi-Fi, Moore Park sold out 6pm all-ages Hand Of Mercy Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt 8pm all-ages Harmonate Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 3pm In Hearts Wake, Sienna Skies, Shinto Katana, Hallower, Hand Of Mercy, Outsider Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt 2pm Mark Seymour, Ollie Brown The Vanguard, Newtown $31.80–$66.80 (dinner & show) 8pm Massonics, Milkmaids, The Nice Folk, The Dark Clouds Valve Bar and Venue, Tempe
Purple Doves - Prince Tribute, Rocco Valve Bar & Venue, Tempe 5pm Shellac (US), Blacklevel Embassy Metro Theatre, Sydney $35 8.30pm Suite Az, DJ Kitsch78 Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont free 8.30pm Sunday Blues Jam: Mark Hopper Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly free 8pm Sydney Blues & Roots Festival: Ian Moss, Charlie Musselwhite (USA), Ray Beadle Band, The Trews, Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band, 8 Ball Aitken, Billy TK Junior, Joe Robinson, Lyall Moloney, Penny & The Mystics, Michael Peter, Caravana Sun, Barbara Blue (USA), Jill Barber, Laura Zarb, The Bakers Digest, Genevieve Chadwick, Dylan & Co, Mogan Joanel, Blind Lemon, Lake Nash, Shaun Kirk, Charlie A’Court (CAN), Dave Tice & Mark Evans, Oxford, Bity Booker, Two Girl Will, Ashleigh Mannix, Matthew Barber (CAN), Lachy Doley, Sam Buckingham, Hat Fitz & Cara Robinson, Petulant Frenzy Play Frank Zappa, Pete Cornelius, The Darren Jack Hammond Trio, Mason Rock, Ray Beadle, Steve Balbi, Dr Dons Double Dose, Alex Chudnovsky, Brett O’Malley, Eli Wolfe, Benjalu, Claude Hay Various Venues, Windsor $79 (day ticket)–$149 (whole event) 12pm Sydney Blues Society Botany View Hotel, Newtown free 6pm
Van Hoorn, Driffs, Claudia Aphrodite Brass Monkey, Cronulla $19.90 7pm Wildseed Marrickville Bowling Club free 4.30pm
JAZZ
Bernie McGann, Paul Grabowsky Riverside Theatres, Parramatta $22 (student)–$40 5pm The Dixie Ticklers (UK) Camelot Lounge, Marrickville $30 6.30pm Free Jazz Sunday: Emma-Louise Birdsall, Baby et Lulu, The Jonathan Zwartz Quartet, The Air Benders Cockatoo Island, Sydney free 1pm Greg Poppleton & His Bakelite Broadcasters Empire Cinema, Bowral $15 (student)-$25 1.30pm Sunday Arvo Jazz Harold Park Hotel, Glebe free 3pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Anthony Hughes Oatley Hotel free 2pm Don’t Think Twice: Iluka, We Are The Birdcage, Ross Henry Annandale Hotel free 4pm Russell Neal Matraville Hotel free 6pm Sanitys Collision, Naomi Crain Cookies Lounge and Bar, North Strathfield free 6pm Shoot the Moon Salisbury Hotel, Stanmore free 2pm U2 Elevation Acoustic Show The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 4.30pm
wed
24 Oct
(9:00PM - 12:00AM)
thu
25 Oct
(9:00PM - 12:00AM)
fri
26 Oct
(5:00PM - 8:00PM)
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
SUNDAY AFTERNOON
(4:30PM - 7:30PM)
(4:30PM - 7:30PM)
sat
27 Oct
(9:30PM - 1:30AM)
sun
SATURDAY NIGHT
(9:00PM - 1:30AM)
28 Oct
SUNDAY NIGHT
(8:30PM - 12:00AM)
BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12 :: 37
gig picks up all night out all week...
Jenny, Bonez, Steve Smyth, Ashleigh Mannix and more Various Venues, Windsor $79 (day ticket)–$159 (whole event) 12pm
The Black Keys
Thurston Moore
FRIDAY OCTOBER 26
Blacklevel Embassy, Further, Ramps, Chroma Blackwire Records, Annandale $10 6.30pm all-ages
Cockatoo Island Film Festival: Bluejuice, Jinja Safari Cockatoo Island, Sydney $35-$45 (+ bf) 6pm all-ages
MONDAY OCTOBER 22 Willy Mason (USA), Rohin Jones The Vanguard, Newtown $36.80 8pm
TUESDAY OCTOBER 23 The Black Keys (USA), Royal Headache Sydney Entertainment Centre, Darling Harbour $99.90 (+ bf) 8pm
THURSDAY OCTOBER 25 Ball Park Music, Loon Lake Metro Theatre, Sydney $33.20 8pm all-ages Bang!: Cabins, Hattie Carroll, The Upskirts, Train Robbers Annandale Hotel free (early bird)–$10 7pm
MUM: Demon Parade, Willowbeats, The Darkened Seas, The Grease Arrester, Moonbase Commander and more The World Bar, Kings Cross $10-$15 8pm
Cockatoo Island Film Festival: Arrested Development (USA), Alison Wonderland, The Backhanderz, Devola Cockatoo Island, Sydney $35-$50 (+ bf) 6pm
Step-Panther, Bad Dreems, Bored Nothing Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst 8pm
Saint Lou Lou, Movement, Gnome Goodgod Small Club, Sydney $15 (+ bf) 8pm
Tara Simmons, Pluto Jonze, Rainbow Chan FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel, Darlinghurst 12 (+ bf) 8pm
Sydney Blues & Roots Festival (October 25-28): The Angels, Ian Moss, Charlie Musselwhite, Lanie Lane, Mia Dyson, Lachy Doley, Ray Bidel, The Trews, The Lazys, Nat Col & The Kings, Chase The Sun, Superheavyweights, Pete Cornelius, Benjalu, Billy TK Junior (NZ), The Trews, Jesse Morris, 8 Ball Aitken, Mojo Juju, Frank Sultana & The Sinister Kids, Jim Barber (CAN), Nicholas Roy, Widowbirds, Matthew Barber (CAN), Claude Hay, Genevieve Chadwick, Minnie Marks, Charlie A’Court (CAN), Penny & The Mystics, Microwave
Thurston Moore (USA) The Hi-Fi, Moore Park $58 (+ bf) 8pm
vs Wolfman Dan, The Black Cherry DJs The Factory Theatre, Enmore $18 (+ bf) 8pm
Tin Star, Los Capitanes, Captain Reckless & The Lost Souls, Neon Heart, Graveyard Rockstars, C.O.F.F.I.N, Jungle Rump Rock N Roll Karaoke, Rockabilly Rhino
Surry Hills Festival: Fire! Santa Rosa Fire!, The Tongue, Tijuana Cartel, Canyons (DJ set), Alison Wonderland, Keyim Ba, Madhu, Nantes, Purple Sneakers DJs, Slow Blow, Softwar, Steve Smyth, The Liberators, Mojo Juju, Sosueme DJs, True Vibenation, Jordie Lane, Jordan Leser, Valley of Kings, Charlie Gradon, Johnsong, Bastian Fox Phelan, Bity Booker Prince Alfred Park, Surry Hills (donation) 10am We All Want To, Hailer, Narrow Lands Brighton Up Bar, Sydney $15.30 8pm Los Capitanes
Tin Sparrow, Jessica Cerro, Dirt Farmer The Standard, Darlinghurst $12 (+ bf) 8pm
SATURDAY OCTOBER 27 Billy Bragg (UK), Jordie Lane Enmore Theatre $86.30 8pm Black Cherry’s 6th Birthday Halloween: Mikelangelo & the
TUESDAY OCTOBER 23RD
THURSDAY OCTOBER 25TH
SATURDAY OCTOBER 27TH
YOUNG CENTENARY FOUNDATION
FEATHER WEIGHT THURSDAY
FBi’S
LIVE DEBATE:
SON OF THE EAST MATTY TOOK CHARLIE GRADON
“WE ARE LIVING LONGER, BUT
8PM // $10 AT THE DOOR
ARE WE LIVING BETTER?”
FRIDAY OCTOBER 26TH
6:30PM // FREE
TARA SIMMONS PLUTO JONES
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 24TH
LUNCH BREAK Presented by ALBERTS
RAINBOW CHAN
8PM // $12 + BF FROM OZTIX // $15 AT THE DOOR
ROBOPOP
CABINS
HALLOWEEN SPECIAL
1PM // FREE // BROADCAST ON FBI 94.5
11:30PM // FREE
level 2, kings cross hotel 38 :: BRAG :: 485 : 22:10:12
w/ Robopop DJs
HALLOWEEN PARTY: THE UPSKIRTS CORPUS GUNFACE THE SI CLAROS FBI RADIO DJS 8PM // $10 AT THE DOOR
HANDS UP! HALLOWEEN SPECIAL Willow Beats & Tokyo Denmark Sweden DJs 11:30PM UNTIL THE DEATH // FREE
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dance music news
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on the record WITH
CHRIS DUCKENFIELD (UK)
important ones that I remember playing to death were the Streetsounds Electro compilations. The import 12-inches were out of my pocket money budget, so these handy comps were a must for any self-respecting wannabe B-boy. The Last Record I Bought: I buy lots and lots of music, so today’s 2. purchases: Tame Impala and Moon Duo albums, a Beaner 12-inch on Work Them and a dub 7-inch on ZamZam. I really like Tame Impala and Moon Duo for similar reasons, really; the rock stuff I usually go for is of a more psychedelic bent, and both these bands do that so well. It’s something for long, autumn bike rides or train journeys. The Beaner 12-inch is a brilliant house cut with a nagging and off-kilter piano line, the kind of stuff I’m always looking to pick up for those Saturday night moments. The ZamZam 7-inch is just a wonky dub record. I’m also very partial to wonky dub. The First Thing I Recorded: When I worked for Warp in the early 3. ‘90s, the owners of the record label very kindly
The First Record I Bought: It’s hard to pinpoint a specific purchase, 1. as I was often buying cheap 7-inch singles – soul and Motown stuff mostly. But the most
Smoke DZA
offered me and my then-DJ partner Richard Benson some studio time at the infamous Fon Studios here in Sheffield. Like most addled dance music kids, I just rolled up in there with a bag full of records I wanted to sample, and the then-engineer Phil Jones did his level best to realise our naively implausible and extravagant ideas. It did get released (RAC – National Breakdown EP), kind of early
breakbeat-type rave stuff. No point in getting a cringe on about it really; it made perfect sense at the time, even if it hasn’t aged all that well! The Last Thing I Recorded: The last track I made was a thing called 4. ‘CD vs CD’. I rustled up a mid-tempo house thing, which samples an Etta James vocal and utilises a big, clanking riff. It was made with the Electric Elephant festival in Croatia very much in mind. One of my favourite up-and-coming producers, Chicagodamn, very capably handled the remix. We sold quite a lot by today’s standards, and it’s one of the rare things I’ve done that I actually play a lot, and which I was pretty happy with. I reckon I manage about one track a year these days, so it’s pretty important that they’re good ones 5. The Record That Changed My Life: Oh god, one of those impossible questions to answer. In terms of club tracks, if I’m honest, Adonis’ ‘No Way Back’ and A Guy Called Gerald’s ‘Voodoo Ray’ are the closest you can get to timeless and definitive exercises in simple, dancefloor beauty. They taught me that less is more, and they still sound as fresh as the day they were made. With: Jimmi James, Zootie, Ken Cloud, Simon Caldwell Where: Mad Racket’s 14th birthday @ Marrickville Bowling Club When: Saturday October 27
SMOKE DZA
Self confessed ‘cool guy’ Smoke DZA can count hip kids A$AP Rocky and Schoolboy Q among his collaborators – and now the hazy Harlem rapper is making his way Down Under for the first time. The ‘Kush God’ will be playing his OutsideIn Festival sideshow on Wednesday November 14 at Goodgod Small Club, throwing in several references to ‘purple’ and ‘loko’ no doubt. And with support from the Halfway Crooks crew Captain Franco & Levins, plus Monchichi, Terrible Twinz, Mike Who and Astral Huggz, this ain’t your nana’s rap show. We have two double passes up for grabs; to score one tell us the name of DZA’s record.
HORSE MEAT DISCO Pearson Sound
Sydney favourites Horse Meat Disco are returning to Picnic for the fourth time on Friday November 2 at Goodgod Small Club, after having thrown down at the Picnic birthday earlier in the year. Building upon the reputation of the parties in London, which are known for their wide-ranging music policy, focus on production details and outrageous polysexual crowd, the Horse Meat troupe have also released three lauded compilations on !K7 Records, with a fourth on its way. Marcus King, Steele Bonus and Andy Webb will also be peddling tunes, with presale tickets $20 from Resident Advisor, or $30 on the door.
Mark Ronson
Maya Jane Coles
SUBSONIC MUSIC FESTIVAL: MORE NAMES ANNOUNCED
PEARSON SOUND, BEN UFO, PARIAH, XXXY & SLOW MAGIC
40 :: BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12
MICHAEL MAYER ALL NIGHT MANTASY
A rumour that was circulated in Deep Impressions a few weeks back can now be officially confirmed: Kompakt Records co-founder Michael Mayer will return to Sydney and play an all night set at Oxford Art Factory on Saturday December 1. Having put in some marathon performances in his previous Sydney gigs – namely Livewire in ’08 alongside Superpitcher (as Supermayer), and at Subsonic 2010 – Mayer will have at least eight hours to gradually work his way through his vast record collection this time around. As a DJ, Mayer is a one-man institution, responsible for classic compilations such as Fabric 13 and the aptly named Immer trilogy (‘immer’ meaning ‘always’, as in ‘timeless’, in German), which were all characterised by masterful sequencing and track selection that spanned everything from peculiar pop and off-kilter space disco to micro house and minimal techno. Mayer’s tour will follow the release of his long-awaited second artist album, the horrendously titled but otherwise laudable Mantasy, which is officially released as of this week on Kompakt.
FIELD DAY 2013
The lineup for Fuzzy’s annual New Year’s Day romp in The Domain, Field Day, has been announced – and if there’s not something there for you, you’re damn hard to please! Erol Alkan, Two Door Cinema Club, Hot Chip, SBTRKT (live), Mark Ronson (DJ set), The Vaccines, Disclosure (live), Krafty Kuts & A-Skillz, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Fake Blood, Booka Shade (live), DJ Nu-Mark, Django Django, Adrian Lux, Maya Jane Coles, Coolio, Icona Pop (live), AC Slater, Danny Daze, AraabMuzik, Van She, Breakbot (live), Jesse Rose, Jaguar Skills, Hudson Mohawke and Scuba will all be performing. Presale discounted tickets go on sale from Monday October 22 for $118, with general release to follow on Thursday. For any high rollers who want to celebrate the first day of 2013 in more opulent fashion, VIP tickets – which entitle purchasers to benefits such as massages and cocktail bar privileges – are also available; check fielddaynyd.com.au
SBTRKT
Erol Alkan
Pearson Sound photo by Jimmy Mould
Astral People and Niche Productions are hosting a bash on Friday December 28 which should tempt many electronic and bass music enthusiasts to celebrate the New Year early, with Pearson Sound, Ben Ufo, Pariah, Xxxy and Slow Magic all set to perform in a huge night at The Metro Theatre. Pearson Sound is the moniker of David Kennedy, a fellow who has been at the forefront of bass music’s stylistic shifts, releasing an acclaimed Fabriclive compilation, remixing and opening for Radiohead in New York, and collaborating with Boddika and Joy Orbison. Hessle Audio co-founder Ben Ufo has flown somewhat under the radar while introducing the world to the likes of Blawan and Elgato, while emerging prodigy Pariah has moved towards more techno-influenced sounds since transcending the dubstep scene with his debut 12-inch Detroit Falls/ Orpheus back in 2009. Xxxy’s music incorporates bass, garage, dubstep and glitch soundscapes, while Slow Magic is an enigmatic US producer who makes music he describes as ‘dreamwave’. Early bird tickets go on sale this Tuesday October 23; you can get one from The Metro Theatre’s website.
More names continue to emerge for this year’s Subsonic Music Festival, which will take place in the idyllic surrounds of the Riverwood Downs Mountain Valley Resort at Barrington Tops over the weekend of December 7–10. Adultnapper, Blue King Brown, Africa Hitech, Catz ‘N Dogz, DJ Kentaro, Eprom, Secret Cinema, Acid Pauli, Worthy, Christian Martin, The Bird, Ryan Davis, Nu, True Vibenation, Nico Stojan, Parker, Dov, Red Bantoo and Svelt will all perform throughout the weekend, with the music running 24 hours (in contrast to the paternalistic 10pm curfew that characterises most ‘inner city’ festivals we have in Sydney). For the uninitiated, Subsonic is a custom-built lifestyle festival that is held in a world heritage site on the banks of a river 2.5 hours north of Sydney – and it’s a BYO 18+ party. Head to subsonicmusic.com.au to grab your $155 presale ticket.
THE SPICE CELLAR
‘ANIMAL INSTINCT’
STRIC T DE D. RE . . . C. .O. . . . . . . .SS ANIMALS ONLY
MURAT KILIC ROBBIEW LOWE NIC SCALI YOKOO GABBY
SAT 27 OCT | 23:00 ANDRAS FOX ( MELB )
JAMES TAYLOR MATT WEIR MORGAN STEVEN SULLIVAN THESPICECELLAR.COM.AU
BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12 :: 41
dance music news
free stuff
club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Honnery
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM
five things WITH
Snap!
ROMAN WAFERS Growing Up All of my pocket money 1. went on CDs, mostly on stuff
Your Crew When I’m not spinning solo, I play 3. with my DJ partner Misha under the name
I'd hear on triple j or RRR (the FBi of Melbourne). By the time I was around 15, I had the internet at home. This was when my musical universe really started to expand, and I began to discover things for myself. Websites like Tigersushi and Jahsonic were very formative; I’d say they laid down the basis of what I still dig today.
Bamboo Musik; we have a pretty good party in Melbourne that goes by the same name. We’re focused on pushing a new interpretation of the dance classics genre and “long set” DJ styles.
Inspirations I will forever be indebted 2. to Kraftwerk for all of their beautiful melodies, and Yello’s first three albums for their sheer brilliance: stupid, very serious and very good – dangerous! There are plenty of producers past and present that I enjoy, but coming from a 12-inch world many of them have limited outputs. The history of dance music is a constant inspiration. I generally survey a scene, choose the best bits (for me, anyway), and then move on and try to connect these pieces to the next. Last time I checked, I was digging first wave tribal house.
The Music You Make At the moment I'm working mostly 4. on house (4/4 based) productions, but I’d like to think that’s due to the constraints of my limited studio resources and, being a working DJ, the desire to play my own tracks in the club. Maybe when I’m older and live outta the city I’ll turn to floating pastoral keyboard music a la Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Music, Right Here, Right Now The scene is cool in Melbourne, with 5. loud sound systems, drugs readily available, and young people dancing all night long, but my mind never really leaves Roman’s World... Out of the club, if an outta-towner asked what band they had to check in Melbourne right now, I'd say Standish/Carylon. With: DJ Junglesnake, DJ Dreamcatcher, Slow Blow, Softwar Where: Slow Blow Halloween @ Goodgod Small Club When: Friday October 26
FACT will host an open air Mobilee Records showcase at The MCA on New Year’s Eve headlined by Greece’s And.Id and Germany’s Martin Landsky. In addition to his decade-long affiliation with Mobilee, Landsky’s discography stretches across many other renowned German labels, from the deep dub house of his own Efforil/Intim imprint, through to his output on Dessous and Poker Flat. And.Id’s live show integrates a mixture of well-known and unreleased productions, loops, and live trumpet to create a result his press agent creatively describes as “body moving, and mind grooving.” First release tickets are available online for $250, with dinner included in the ticket price. And of course you can’t really put a price on watching the fireworks from such a vantage point, can you?
SUBSONIC BOAT PARTY
With the countdown to the festival in full swing – see the appropriate news item on
If you were around in the ‘90s, you probably went to some form of rave, dance party or themed birthday party (where musical chairs/ the latest dance craze was involved) and heard the mantra “Rhythm is a dancer, it’s a source of passion, you can feel it in the air”. If so, you’ve probably kept some fluoro glow-sticks, a midriff top and some wicked light-up sneakers in a special box marked ‘The Golden Days’, yes? Yeah, we thought so. Luckily Archery Club and Falcona are giving us a second chance to relive the ‘90s at Rhythm Is A Danceparty, featuring Eurodance supergroup SNAP! this Saturday October 27 at The Standard. There’ll be some of Sydney’s best party-starting DJs in support, including Teen Spirit and Sosueme. We have two double passes to give away; just tell us the name of SNAP!’s other hit fusion track. that – the Subsonic crew are embarking on their annual Halloween Harbour Cruise this Saturday October 27. The boat party will comprise a headline triple bill of Germany’s Tim Bruggemann, better known for his output as Didier de la Boutique and Turmspringer, Lisbon’s after-hour king Felix Da Cat and Burning Seed-founder Phil Smart. A mainstay in Berlin’s underground club scene, Bruggemann regularly spins as half of Turmspringer at the Berlin techno ‘casualty ward’ that is Golden Gate nightclub. He’s also the driving force behind Tonkind records, a Berlin-based label that’s released tracks from previous Subsonic headliners like Philip Bader, Nico Stojan and Alexkid. A hefty support cast of local DJs are slotted to perform over two levels of the vessel, with the party scheduled to run from 1:30pm–10pm. Presale tickets are on sale through Resident Advisor, and aspiring dancers should note the ‘Fetish Freaks And Fantasy Tweaks’ costume theme – which takes me back to BRAG’s last staff party...
Hot Chip Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
HOT CHIP SIDESHOW
In addition to playing at Field Day, London-based five-piece Hot Chip will perform a sideshow at The Enmore Theatre on Tuesday January 8. Hot Chip were recently responsible for the LP In Our Heads, one of the best albums of this year, which will be rereleased next month as an expanded double-CD edition. A worthy entrant to the bourgeoning Hot Chip cannon, In Our Heads traversed RnB, folk-rock, electro, hip hop and house influences, with memorable cuts such as ‘Flutes’ and ‘Look At Where We Are’ showcasing the effortless musicality that the group is renowned for. The bonus disc will feature a mix of demos, remixes by Optimo, Caribou’s Daphni alias, Charlie Fracture and Major Lazer, along with “rare studio tracks” ‘Jelly Babies’ and ‘Doctor’.
SMOKE DZA
Astral People and Halfway Crooks are teaming up to host Harlem-born rapper Smoke DZA on Wednesday November 14 at Goodgod Small Club in what will be his first tour of Australia. Since ‘09, Harlemite DZA has toured with the likes of Method Man and Juicy J, and released a slew of acclaimed mixtapes and albums, the most recent of which was Rugby Thompson, which dropped earlier this year. Rugby Thompson is a collaboration with French Montana/RiFF RaFF super-producer Harry Fraud, and features Curren$y, Action Bronson, and Domo Genesis. A sumptuous support cast featuring Halfway Crooks residents Captain Franco & Levins, Monchichi (live), Terrible Twinz (Live), Mike Who and Astral Huggz will also be performing on the night. $17 tickets are available online.
WORD PLAY EMCEE COMPETITION
Reflex Events are hosting an Emcee competition at The Roxbury Hotel in Glebe on Thursday November 1, which doubles as a fundraiser for the Sydney Cochlear Implant 42 :: BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12
Centre, a charity for the hearing impaired. With the likes of DJ Prolifik, ER, Hometeam and Barnzy & Mute MC performing in between rounds, the night will feature a mix of aspiring and established talent. The competition will have a head-to-head knockout format throughout the best of three rounds, with the crowd reaction having a significant influence as part of the judging criteria. $10 presale tickets are available online, otherwise it’s $15 on the door.
CAUSE/EFFECT
Speaking of good causes: on Saturday December 15, The Greenwood Hotel will host Cause/Effect, a charity event in support of MS Australia that features a lengthy local lineup which includes Infusion performing live. Robbie Lowe, Jamie Stevens, Ben Korbel, Simon Caldwell, Paul Flex Taylor, Ken Cloud, Andy Glitre, Daniel Crocetti, Tim Culbert, Carlos Zarate, Illya, Toby Neil and John Ferris are among the local DJs who will also be spinning, and urban artists Phibs & Sach will be doing live art through the day. You need to buy a presale ticket to get in; hit facebook.com/ causeeffectevent for further details.
MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS TOUR
Seattle duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis will headline Oxford Art Factory on Friday February 15. The duo released their debut album, The Heist, earlier this month, and the LP recently reached the top spot of both the US and the Australian iTunes Hip Hop/Rap Charts. Macklemore dropped his first mixtape back in ‘05, but it wasn’t until he began to collaborate with Ryan Lewis in 2009 on The VS. EP and its counterpart, The VS. Redux, that he started to garner mainstream buzz. (On one of his breakout tracks, Macklemore used his experience with substance abuse as the basis for ‘Otherside,’ which samples the Red Hot Chili Peppers song of the same name.) An album constructed more like a folk or spoken word LP, The Heist shapes up as one of the sleeper hits of this year. Tickets to the pair’s maiden Sydney performance are currently available online.
hotchip photo by Steve Gullick
FACT MOBILEE NYE
SNAP!
Arrested Development At The Crossroads By Joshua Hayes
“T
o be honest, we weren’t even sure if we’d make it 20 years. And the fact that we did we were excited about,” says rapper Todd Thomas, aka Speech. Speech is a member of legendary Atlanta hip hop group Arrested Development, who are heading our way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their classic debut album: 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days In The Life Of…. “I think what we’re really encouraged about is how much it means to the fans that we’ve stuck to our guns, as far as the style of music that we make goes, over these last 20 years.” Their particular style of music – raps laced with positive messages; beats incorporating bluesy live instrumentation – was the antithesis of the gangsta rap that was dominating hip hop in 1992. Arrested Development were sat amongst the vanguard of alternative voices emerging in the genre, including the Native Tongues collective on the East Coast, and The Pharcyde and the Hieroglyphics Crew on the West. Their debut record was certified four times Platinum in the States, spawned the hit singles ‘People Everyday, ‘Tennessee’ and ‘Mr. Wendal’, and earned the group two Grammy Awards. Unfortunately they failed to capitalise on their growing momentum with the album’s follow-up: 1994’s Zingalamaduni was released to a mixed response, and the group broke up soon after.
Xxx photo by Xxx
Arrested Development reunited a few years later and continued to tour and release albums for a smaller but dedicated fan base that included many Australians, making the band regular visitors to our shores. Their latest effort, Standing At The Crossroads – recently released as a free download on their website – was largely recorded while touring Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Bali. Thomas says that recording in this corner of the world, as opposed to in America, had a strong effect on the album. “There’s a certain musical aesthetic
that you don’t get when you’re in the States, [which] allowed us to open up a little bit more,” he says, citing tracks like the Fela Kuti-sampling ‘Soul Sister’ and the Ravi Shankar-sampling ‘Raga In Coolangatta’ as examples. “It just had a totally different energy to what we would have done if we did the same record in America... We really just went different places that I think we normally would not have gone, because we were on the road.” The record also comes after a few turbulent years for the group. Their ‘spiritual elder’, Baba Oje, suffered a stroke and had to stop touring, while singer and dancer Eshe left the group to return to school. Thomas says the 80-year-old Baba is recovering with his family but is unlikely to return to the stage, where he had earned the distinction of being the oldest man in hip hop. Despite the changes, Thomas says the group’s new lineup is set for the busy year of touring they’re engaged in. Thomas is joined onstage by vocalists One Love, Tasha Larae and Farina, drummer Smoke, guitarist JJ Boogie, and Za on bass. Their 20th anniversary show promises to be a stand-out performance – even for fans who have caught one of their many gigs in Australia over the years. “This show is going to be very unique; we’re really going to celebrate a lot of the classics, and we’re bringing people back to how it was in the ‘90s, and paying a huge tribute to the golden era of hip hop,” Thomas says, adding that the show will celebrate another milestone – his 44th birthday. “We’re going to [perform] stuff that we’ve released all throughout our career. This show to me feels more like a party than any of our other shows that we’ve done before.” The 20th anniversary shows they’ve performed to date have helped re-assure Thomas of Arrested Development’s place in hip hop history. “I feel more clearly about [our legacy now] than I ever
“This show is going to be very unique; we’re going to celebrate a lot of the classics, and we’re bringing people back to how it was in the ‘90s, and paying a huge tribute to the golden era of hip hop.”
have before, because there’ve been times when I wasn’t sure of our impact,” he admits. “For the 20th year anniversary, the crowds have been really surprising us with clarity about what we mean to them, what the music has meant to them over the years.” In addition to the group’s impact on its fans, they also helped put America’s South on the map, more than a decade before the region would go on to dominate hip hop. “I think that we opened doors for groups like Goodie Mob or OutKast. Being from this side of the world really helped a lot of other groups get recognised by major labels.” Standing At The Crossroads is a fitting title for the band’s latest effort; Thomas says that Arrested Development are only concentrating on their current tour, and haven’t been recording new material or anticipating what comes next after their anniversary tour. “We’re not even focused on next year, much less the years
ahead. At this point the only thing that I’m focused on is this anniversary, and making sure that this is everything it should be,” Thomas says. “We don’t know what’s going to happen next year – I mean, we’re just not sure – and I’m just liking that fact; I’m liking the fact that I’m not planning ahead, that we’re just sorta living in the moment, [and] that the moment is 20 years in the game.” What: Standing At The Crossroads is out now With: Alison Wonderland Where: Cockatoo Island Film Festival – Concert Series @ Cockatoo Island When: Thursday October 25 More: For the full lineup of the Concert Series, which runs from October 25-27, head to cockatooislandfilmfestival.com
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Native Ryme
Liknuts
Bigger Than A Banger By Benjamin Cooper
Legends Reborn By Natalie Amat
W
ith their powers combined, two legendary hip hop crews have created a new supergroup. Tash, J-Ro and DJ E-Swift of West Coast party marshalls Tha Alkaholiks, and JuJu and Psycho Les of East Coast sample lords The Beatnuts have teamed up to bring the world killer jams (as well as an amusing band name) in Liknuts. Tha Alkaholiks came into being in LA during the ‘90s, when the Likwit Crew – with members like Xzibit, Defari, King Tee and Lootpack – were pretty major players in the scene. It’s an experience that DJ E Swift says stays with you for life. “There is nothing like being around the golden days of hop hop in LA in the ‘90s. Not saying today ain’t all good, but to understand and appreciate it you really had to be there and experience it for yourself. Despite a few ups and downs along the way we’re still all family, and it’s Likwit ‘till the end.” They still get the gang together to relive the magic once in a while, too. “Everyone’s still cool: me, J-Ro, Tash, King Tee, Xzibit, everyone. We was just all together at Rock The Bells performing, and shit was crazy! I mean everyone’s got their own thing going on here and there, but in the end it’s still all good.” Legend has it that the other half of Liknuts, The Beatnuts (then playing under the moniker Beat Kings), got their start when they were crate-digging and ran into Afrika Bambaataa, who introduced them to the Native Tongues crew including De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and Jungle Brothers. Apparently Mike Gee and Afrika Baby Bam of Jungle Brothers declared that Beat Kings weren’t in fact kings, but rather “nuts” for their comical nature and the way they carried so many records to their gigs. The name stuck.
The first track from their combined effort is the grumbling ‘Grumpy Crocodile’, which ruminates on the youthful bravado and inexperience that characterises much of hip hop today, while still managing plenty of egotistical references to sex, drugs, and violence. It’s an exercise in restraint beat-wise, with sparse production allowing the often-outlandish lyrics to take the spotlight. The next drop is ‘Bang’, a hazy, hedonistic ode to partying, with an earworm hook. As far as the production-versus-lyrics debate, JuJu says, “They both play an important role. There’s a lot of niggas around that spit so nice on a track and the production lets them down, or it can be the other way around – you hear a track and think, ‘Damn, if only that nigga spat a little nicer that woulda been a hit’. You really need both ingredients to bake the perfect cake.” Liknuts are about to embark on their first Australian tour, and along for the ride are hardcore-Queens-dudes Onyx and their ruthless rhymes. Onyx’s Sticky Fingaz is pretty modest about how it all came about for his crew: “Jam Master Jay got our demo and out of like 15 songs he picked one song and said, ‘Give me ten more like this.’ He brought in Russell Simmons and they gave us a single deal, which turned into an EP deal, which turned into a album deal, which turned into legends… and the rest is history.” These guys are old school, nasty, and they know how to rock a room. With so many hip hop legends under one roof, it’s safe to say things are going to go nuts. Who: Liknuts and Onyx Where: The Metro Theatre When: Wednesday October 31
W
ell before Oz hip hop was capturing mainstream and commercial attention – before the likes of Hilltop Hoods and 360 were spinning on high rotation – there were a slew of local crews slinging their spits. One such collective earning accolades in the ‘90s was Native Ryme. Formed in 1994, and known then as Native Ryme Syndicate, the group became the first Australian rap/hip hop act to win a certified national music award when they scored the 1998 Deadly for Most Promising New Talent. But after several major tour supports, including for Naughty By Nature in 2004, Native Ryme bucked at a number of US recording offers in order to focus on their work with Indigenous communities. After an eight-year break, Native Ryme are finally back with their debut album, The Debut Recordings Volume 1, which encompasses the group’s 18-year lifespan. “We love where we are as artists right now,” lead rapper Cameron Callope, aka C-Roc, tells me. “We are writing the best material we have ever written and we’ve sourced co-producers from all over the world to help compose the music. The fire is burning again.” According to C-Roc, the group’s break from the public eye was essential after they lost focus as artists. “We [were] on the wrong track for a while because we thought that was expected of us, but we found that it was only hindering us as artists. We questioned why we were doing it, and when we started to question we knew it was time to take a break.”
Along with their rural community work, Native Ryme also use their music to broadcast social issues. “This album is a reflection of the human struggle. It talks about domestic violence, the high percentage of Indigenous men in custody. We are Indigenous guys with Indigenous backgrounds so some of the tracks are going to be about that, but it’s talking about all human and common struggles.” C-Roc understands he’s in a privileged position to reach a variety of audiences, but he’s not taking anything for granted. “Change can’t come about through silence; change comes about through dialogue. We need to ask questions – we can’t just be dismissive and [not] address the real issues at hand.” Ahead of their impending tour, C-Roc can hardly contain his excitement about performing on stage again. “People wonder why Native Ryme can go away for eight years and people still love us. It’s because we took our music to the people and we never demanded anything from them. We gave freely with no hidden agendas, and that’s why in 2012 we have the support now that we have always had. Native Ryme are the people.”
The time away from the stage wasn’t spent carelessly; each member returned to their roots, working towards bettering their community while re-evaluating their own lives. “We like being an example, [to show people] that you don’t need to come from anything material or external to excel as a human being, a musician, or anything else.” The group has visited remote areas of Australia during the last eight years, designing anti-violence and anti-drug music mentorship programs. “We knew there was a growing gap between Indigenous youth and elders, and it was becoming a major problem throughout the country. These programs brought people together to build a bridge of common ground and communication. A lot of them were really successful.”
What: The Debut Recordings Volume 1 is out now Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Thursday October 25
SNAP! Bigger Than A Banger By Benjamin Cooper
P
enny Ford is happy to report that she is “very much at home in Frankfurt.” The American singer first moved to the German city to join Europop superstars SNAP! in 1989, and following a period living in the United States she relocated back to the Hessian capital in 2007. “It’s really a wonderful city,” she enthuses. “I can’t think of a better place to be based in Europe, and of course the others are here too.” The others in question include Benito Benites (aka Michael Munzing) and John ‘Virgo’ Garrett III (Luca Anzilotti), who formed the group in 1989, and Ford’s fellow performer Benjamin Lowe. The loss of original frontman Turbo B is more than made up for by the energy of the youthful Lowe, a rapper whose presence is vital to the live show, and who still manages to astonish Ford. “Ben is a really swell guy – I can tell you, the ladies are going to love him! Seriously though, he’s just such a joy to work with, and he really understands how important these songs are to people. There’s a huge responsibility to songs like ‘The Power’ and ‘Rhythm Is A Dancer’, because people remember where they were when they first heard them. I think people want to connect back to that. “You are holding someone’s childhood memories, which is a big deal,” she continues. “Some of the stories we hear are amazing: I’ve had a lot people write to say that our music helped them stay strong and get through their time in prison. Recently a young solider said he’d been stuck down a foxhole in Afghanistan
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for what felt like years, and he was barely able to breathe. ‘The Power’ got him through. I mean, it’s so much bigger than a club banger.” Ford tells me that since SNAP! re-entered the touring cycle after a break-up in 1996, they’ve seen a lot of fans bringing their kids to the shows. “It’s a wonderful thing, because the show becomes a meeting of people, and it goes back to simpler times I think. People can sense that we’re reaching back for those simpler times, so they go on that journey with us. It’s my personal preference to evoke a lot of emotion, but also pay respect to our songs.” Ford is adamant that her group’s shows will stand out from the recent slew of tours from 1990s pop bands. “I’ll probably drop some Nicki Minaj to warm up the crowd,” she laughs. “I like to open up the show to people of all ages and all types, because that’s just who we are. We’re totally committed to the fans and the music, and to be honest, we haven’t stopped working since I came back to Europe and the group five years ago. We’ve really worked year round for the last five years, and I know we were all working on various things before that too.” “We’re not making a comeback, because we’ve been working hard for so many years and having such a great time with our fans along the way. It’s a rare occasion where we have the opportunity to stop and do something normal, like vacation. [But] we know we’re so fortunate to be making
music, and to have the fans’ love. It’s really such a gift. But besides all of that, it’s never stopped for us,” she insists. “I guess the ‘90s have had a resurgence, but our songs have always had a presence – think about how many times you’ve heard ‘The Power’ in a film or ad!”
With: Teen Spirit DJs, Sosueme DJs, The Hump Day Project, Shantan Wantan Ichiban Where: Rhythm Is A Danceparty @ The Standard When: Saturday October 27
xxx photo by xxx
While Native Ryme are looking forward to getting back on stage, there’s no denying that the Australian urban scene has changed dramatically since the early ‘00s. C-Roc admits he did not always see this as a change for the better, even fuelling a couple of public beefs. “In the past I had issues about other hip hop groups like Hilltop Hoods. But I realised that we were being imbeciles. It’s like multiculturalism: just because something is different, doesn’t mean it’s bad. Now that the dust has settled, we have great admiration for these other groups who singlehandedly grew the Australian hip hop scene. It’s so ripe and beautiful now.”
Deep Impressions Underground Dance And Electronica with Chris Honnery
Patrice Scott
O
ne of Detroit’s foremost deep house and techno artists, Patrice Scott, will headline Phoenix bar on Friday November 23. As a producer, Scott is known for the deep, vintage shades of melodic house that he has released predominately through his own label, Sistrum Recordings. Not a man to say more than he needs to, Scott’s philosophy is simple. “I prefer quality over quantity,” he avows. “If I feel like I have music that is ready to be heard by the masses then it will be released. If I feel it is not ready then nothing will come out.” So far this year, Scott has put together featured mixes for online taste-making institutions such as Resident Advisor and Little White Earbuds, while he’s also dropped an EP, Orbital Bliss, which explored “the sinewy space between house and techno”. For an indication of Scott’s considerable talents, you only have to cast your eye over the list of fellows who chart his releases: Levon Vincent, Efdemin, Lawrence and Fred P – the club cognoscenti, in other words. Scott will be supported by Magda Bytnerowicz and Matt Costain, with presale $20 tickets available online.
Berlin-based label Sushitech will revisit revered Detroit veteran Delano Smith’s debut album, An Odyssey, with a remix 12-inch featuring reworks from Planet E mainman Carl Craig (‘Midnight Hours’) and Youthville instructor Mike Huckaby (‘What I Do’). The release will hit shelves on the first day of November, which coincides nicely with Delano’s long awaited Sydney performance at Goodgod Small Club on Saturday November 3. Incredibly Smith only released his first album, An Odyssey, earlier this year (albeit after many singles), despite having been DJing since the late ‘70s. Smith started out as a protégé of the late Ken Collier, a cult figure whose impact upon the Motor City is sometimes compared to Ron Hardy’s influence on the Chicago scene, consorting with future major players like Jeff Mills and Mike Grant. Despite taking a hiatus during the ‘90s, Delano Smith returned to the club realm in the early ‘00s, where he moved away from being a specialist DJ and started to release productions on labels such as Kolour Recordings, Third Ear, Still Music, and his own Mixmode Recordings.
LOOKING DEEPER
This week’s column certainly has a very Detroit flavour to it, so let’s keep the theme going. Motor City producer and FXHE Records main man Omar-S has revealed he has a new album on the way, tentatively slated for release very early next year. Not many details can be confirmed about the forthcoming LP, which will follow last year’s modestly titled It Can Be Done, But Only I Can Do It (a great album with a crap cover). While Omar-S’ imminent record is untitled as of the moment, I can confirm that he will drop a new two-track 12-inch, Triangulum Australe (Say It In Space), as an appetiser. While on FXHE, the label is about to release a two-track collaboration between Kassem Mosse and Aaron Fit Siegel that sees the Leipzig icon return to FXHE after his ‘578’ track (as Gunnar Wendel) was re-recorded and reissued by Omar-S way back in 2010.
Luke Slater
SATURDAY OCTOBER 27
Turmspringer, Felix Da Cat Subsonic Halloween Boat Party Steve Rachmad, Defined By Rhythm, Dave Stuart, Ben Dunlop One22
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 23 Patrice Scott Phoenix Bar
TUESDAY JANUARY 1 Luke Slater The Abercrombie
While Steve Rachmad may not be from Detroit (he’s Dutch, for the record), his musical output is definitely in keeping with the techno heritage of the Motor City. Rachmad remains best known for his debut LP The Secret Life Of Machines, released under his Sterac moniker back in the winter of ‘95. An album that captured the Detroit techno zeitgeist – think melodic, machine-made soul – The Secret Life Of Machines received an overdue re-release recently, which emphasised just how well the album stands the test of time. The reissue was accompanied by a release of remixes, which featured many vaunted “next-gen” club producers reworking tracks from Rachmad’s landmark LP. Dutchmen Joris Voorn and 2000 And One provided remixes for the compilation/tribute album, alongside reworks from Joel Mull, Samuel L Session, Vince Watson and the one and only Ricardo Villalobos (who’s Australiabound for next year’s Future Music Festival… I have very mixed feelings about that). Rachmad headlines One22 this Saturday courtesy of Disconnected and Shrug, with support from Defined By Rhythm, Dave Stuart and Ben Dunlop.
Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through deep.impressions@yahoo.com BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12 :: 45
club guide send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com
club pick of the week FRIDAY OCTOBER 26
Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Native Ryme, Indigenous Intrudaz, Sneak1, D.T.A Mob $22 (+ bf) 8pm The Precinct Nightclub, Cockatoo Island Cockatoo Island Film Festival Halfway Crooks $15 (+ bf) 10pm Q Bar, Darlinghurst Hot Damn Hot Damn DJs $15-$20 9pm The Roxbury Hotel, Glebe Prolifik $10 7.30pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Rewind Dim Slm, bobby Digital, Big Bee! 8pm Strike Bowling, Chatswood The Alley DJs free 8pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Swag Resident DJs $10 9pm The Village, Potts Point Salt 004 Gardland, Swampy, Skeleton Collective, Zyklus free 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Propaganda Propaganda DJs, Spice Cube DJs free (student)-$5 8pm
Friday I’m In Love Resident DJs 11.30pm The Precinct Nightclub, Cockatoo Island Cockatoo Island Film Festival Gossling, Future Classic DJs $15 (+ bf) 10pm Space Nightclub, Sydney Zaia Resident DJs 9.45pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney The Residents Steven Sullivan, Andy Webb, Pink Lloyd, Dreamcatcher $10 10pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Trademark Membership Card Collection Night MC Deekay 9pm The Watershed Hotel Bring On The Weekend! DJ Matt Roberts free 5pm The Watershed Hotel Vanity Fridays – Halloween Resident DJs $20 10pm The World Bar, Kings Cross MUM Demon Parade, Willowbeats, The Darkened Seas, The Grease Arrester, Moonbase Commander, The Tight String Tangle, Simo Soo, Wolfden DJs $10-$15 8pm
FRIDAY
OCTOBER 26
Madlib
Metro Theatre, Sydney
Madlb Medicine Show
Madlib (USA), J-Rocc (USA), Egon (USA), $45 (+ bf) 9pm MONDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
OCTOBER 22
OCTOBER 24
OCTOBER 25
Scruffy Murphy’s Haymarket Mother Of A Monday DJ Smoking Joe free 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Latin Jazz DJs free 7pm
TUESDAY
OCTOBER 23
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Civic Underground, Sydney Young Gifted & Broke Showcase Home Brew (NZ), Lui T, Lucky Lance, Suff Daddy, DJ Substance, DJ Kas3, True Vibenation, Shantan Wantan Ichiban $25 9pm Colombian Hotel - Upstairs, Darlinghurst Glamour pour le Hammer Jack Shit, Fingert!p$, Apocalypstik free 9pm The Cool Room, Australian Brewery, Rouse Hill We Love Thursdays Resident DJs 8pm Goodgod Front Bar, Sydney Hi-Beams #1 Cliques, Gardland, Prize free 9pm Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney Greenwood Thursdays Resident DJs free 8pm Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Resident DJs free 8pm
OCTOBER 27 Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway Strange Fruit Strange Fruit DJs free 9pm The Albion Hotel, Parramatta Miller City Sessions Gavyn Mytchel (UK) $12 9.30pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach Falcona Saturdays Flagrant, Sufur, Shantanwantanichiban free 8pm Bella Vista Boat, Man O War Steps, Sydney Opera House High Flyers Day Cruise Marshall Jefferson (USA), DJ Hudge, Nicc Johnson, Karl Prinzen, Patrick Curda, JC, Koolade, Frenzie, Terry A $65-$75 (+ bf) 12pm Big Top Sydney, Luna Park, Milsons Point Magique Halloween Circus 2012 DJs $65.20 6.30pm Candy’s Apartment, Kings Cross Ritual Sherlock Bones, Rat Sandwich, Lumberjacks vs Stalker, Audiotrash vs Jake Culmone, Chivalry vs DJ Deluxx vs Grizzly 9pm Cargo Bar, King St Wharf Kick On Resident DJs free 6pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Matrix (UK), Futurebound (UK), Smooth, Walden, What So Not, A-Tonez, John Glover, Bassriot, Fingers, King Lee, Mr Belvedere, Glen Darby $20-$25 9pm Club 77, Darlinghurst Starfuckers Grave Rave Starfuckers DJs 10pm Cohibar, Darling Harbour Yellow Sox DJ Toby Neal free 8pm Establishment, Sydney Sienna 4th Birthday Troy T, Def Rok, Jonesy 9pm Fakeclub, Kings Cross Tropo Nights Halloween Party Moonchild, Mattrad, Passions, Cosmo & Paat, Brothers Grimm, Taylor Wolf, Nacho Vossler, Singha, Diego Slim, Hello Goodbye $15 9pm FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel Hands Up Halloween Special Willow Beats, Tokyo Denmark Sweden (DJ set) free 11.30pm Goldfish, Kings Cross Hedkandi Halloween Ball Levi 5star, Phil Hudson, Frankie Romano, Lavida, Shaun Warner, Tim Whitney, Agey 6pm
Madlib photo by Chris Woodcock
Establishment, Sydney Rumba Motel Salsa DJ Willie Sabor free 8pm Scruffy Murphy’s, Haymarket We Love Goon Tuesdays DJ Podgee, DJ Smoking Joe free 8pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Coyote Tuesday DJ Spin Off $10 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Jam Conrad Greenleaf, Jonno, Cristof, Ali free 8pm
Epping Hotel DTF Resident DJs free 8pm The Ivy, Sydney Salsa At Ivy DJ Dwight ‘Chocolate’ Escobar free 7pm The Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale Frat House Wednesdays Mean Dartin, Camo, Ra Bazaar free 5pm The Marquee, The Star, Pyrmont Assembly Wednesdays Van She Tech 8pm The Ranch, Epping Hump Wednesdays Resident DJs free 8pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Cream Resident DJs 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall E-Cats, Pipemix, Skinny, Kovacs, Mitch Lowe, Brown Bear $5 9pm
169 Oxford St, Darlinghurst Warp Speed – Sounds of Stereo Party Warm Up Party DJ Bzurk 9pm Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway Totally Barry Bad Barry DJs free 9pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach Modular Fridays Van She Tech, Ariane free 8pm Candy’s Apartment, Kings Cross Liquid Sky Chick Flick, 2busy 2Kiss, Nightmare, SMS $10 9pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Boss Bass Crushington (NZ), Pop The Hatch, Autoclaws, Kombat, Hydraulix, Bruxism, Who Am I $15-$25 9pm Civic Underground, Sydney Volar Volar DJs 10pm Cohibar, Darling Harbour Gimme Five Shamus, DJ Anders Hitchcock free 8pm Club 77, Darlinghurst Club Blink Halloween Back Part 1 Blink DJs 9pm Goodgod Front Bar, Sydney Yo Grito! Yo Grito DJs free 9pm Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Slow Blow Halloween Party Roman Wafers, DJ Junglesnake, DJ Dreamcatcher, Softwar, Valerie Yum $5-$10 11pm Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour Home Fridays Pee Wee Ferris, MC Suga Shane 8.30pm Ivy Poolclub, Sydney Moonshine Simon Caldwell, Alley Oop, YokoO, Magic Happens 9pm Jacksons On George, Sydney DJ Ivan Drago, DJ Rain Julz free 9pm Metro Theatre, Sydney Madlb Medicine Show Madlib (USA), J-Rocc (USA), Egon (USA) $45 (+ bf) 9pm Nevada Lounge, Darlinghurst DJ Hayden free 6pm Nevermind, Darlinghurst Swagger Zombie Swagger DJs 10pm Oatley Hotel We Love Oatley Hotel Fridays DJ Tone free 8pm One22, Sydney Double Up? SpinFX, Andrew Wowk, FKNA, Kleva1, Billy Green, MC Antic $10 9pm Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst
SATURDAY
Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Diafrix, Allday $15 (+ bf) 8pm Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Hip Hop Halloween Bad Ezzy, Shantan Wantan Ichiban, Levins $5-$10 11pm The Green Room Lounge, Enmore Vinyl Solution DJ Nic Dalton free 7pm The Hi-Fi Sydney, Moore Park District 7 Music Festival Tuneboy (ITA), The Pitcher (NL), Slim Shore (NL), Tonshifterz $39 (+ bf) 2pm Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour Homemade Brooke Evers, Aladdin Royaal, Matt Ferreira, James ‘Saxman’ Spy, Suga Shane MC, Venuto, Dane Dobre, John Young, I.K.O, Flite, Seiz, Dave Austin, J-Reyes, Kidd Kaos MC $20-$25 9pm Ivy, Sydney Ivy Saturdays Christian Luke, Matt Nugent, Trent Rackus, Chris Fraser, Ember, Joe Redd, Super C, Stu Turner $20 8pm Jacksons On George, Sydney DJ Simon Laing, DJ Michael Stewart free 9pm Macquarie Hotel, Sydney Arabesk free 8pm Marrickville Bowling & Recreation Club Mad Racket’s 14th Birthday Chris Duckenfield (UK), Jimmi James, Zootie, Ken Cloud, Simon Caldwell $40 (+ bf) 10pm Nevada Lounge, Darlinghurst DJ Hayden free 6pm No Vacancy Lounge Club, Potts Point Horror Hotel Halloween Party Recess, Oh Glamm 9pm One22, Sydney Steve Rachmad (NED), Defined By Rhythm, Dave Stuart, Ben Dunlop $15-$25 10pm Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Saturday I’m Pregnant Resident DJs 11.30pm The Precint Nightclub, Cockatoo Island Cockatoo Island Film Festival Saskwatch, DJ Huwston $15 (+ bf) 10pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross The Suite Jo Funk, Dim Slm, Troy T, J Smoove, Discokid, Steve S, Bobby Digital, Big Will, Six Fingers 8pm Space Nightclub, Sydney Masif Halloween The Prophet (NL), Steve Hill, Suae, Pulsar, S Dee, HSB, Amber Savage, Arbee, The Strangerz, Matrix, Kamikaze, Hardforze, XDream, VLN, MC D, The Khemist, Astraz, Rhee, Tezzr, Dillytek, Tha Kid, Alterior Motivz, Ivor, Radio Rockerz, Midshifter, Malfunction, Lihan, D-Activate, Convict, Mack Da Ripper, MC Napsta $35 (+ bf) 10pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney The Spice Cellar’s 1st Birthday – Your Animal Instinct Andras Fox, Murat Kilic, Robbie Lowe, Nic Scali, Matt Weir, James Taylor, Steven Sullivan, Morgan, YokoO $20 10pm The Standard, Darlinghurst Rhythm Is A Danceparty! 90s Party Snap! (GER), Teen Spirit DJs, Sosueme DJs, Hump Day Project, Shantan Wantan Ichiban $20 (+ bf) 8pm St James Hotel, Sydney Project SFX The Sunny Side Up, Wake The Giants, Sunsets, Bzurk, Absynth, Markm, Amy, Fluxx, KillPOP DJs 9pm Sydney Harbour Cruise, Rosebay Wharf
snap
club guide
up all night out all week . . .
send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com
SUNDAY
OCTOBER 28 Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway S.A.S.H Sundays Secret Guest (GER), Nic Scali, Pow! Pow! (Live), Will Allan, Kerry Wallace, Matt Weir $10 2pm The Beresford Hotel, Surry Hills Beresford Sundays Resident DJs free 3pm Hugo’s Lounge, Kings Cross Sneaky Sundays DJs 8pm Ivy Poolclub, Sydney Marco Polo International Guest (FRA) $15 (+ bf) 1pm Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Easy Sundays Resident DJs 8pm Oatley Hotel Sunday Sets DJ Tone free 7pm The Old Library, Cronulla
Edition Noir Sunday Sessions DJ Murray Lake 6pm Q Bar, Darlinghurst Daydreams Daydreams DJs 4.30am Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Sapphire Sundays Dim Slm, Troy T, Bobby Digital 8pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Spice After Hours Murat Kilic, James Taylor, Steven Sullivan $20 4am Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Sinister Sundays Jack Bailey, Steve Frank, Pat Ward, Tigerlily, Thieves, August, Matt Ferreria free 10pm The Watershed Hotel Afternoon DJs DJ Brynstar free 2pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Soup Kitchen Sam Whiteside, Happy Hobo, Aaron Robins, Detnum, Deli, Cotolette free 7pm
club picks
ame
up all night out all week...
The Marquee, The Star, Pyrmont Assembly Wednesdays Van She Tech 10pm The World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall E-Cats, Pipemix, Skinny, Kovacs, Mitch Lowe, Brown Bear $5 9pm
THURSDAY OCTOBER 25 Civic Underground, Sydney Young Gifted & Broke Showcase Home Brew (NZ), Lui T, Lucky Lance, Suff Daddy, DJ Substance, DJ Kas3, True Vibenation $25 9pm Goodgod Front Bar, Sydney Hi-Beams #1 Cliques, Gardland, Prize free 9pm Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Native Ryme, Indigenous Intrudaz, Sneak1, D.T.A Mob $22 (+ bf) 8pm The Precinct Nightclub, Cockatoo Island Cockatoo Island Film Festival Halfway Crooks $15 (+ bf) 10pm
FRIDAY OCTOBER 26 Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach Modular Fridays Van She Tech, Perfect Snatch free 8pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Boss Bass Crushington (NZ), Pop The Hatch, Autoclaws, Kombat, Hydraulix, Bruxism, Northie, La Tech, Bocue $15-$25 9pm
13:10:12 :: The Spice Cellar :: 58 Elizabeth St Sydney
Ken Cloud, Simon Caldwell $40 (+ bf) 10pm One22, Sydney Steve Rachmad (NED), Defined By Rhythm, Dave Stuart, Ben Dunlop $15$25 10pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney The Spice Cellar’s 1st Birthday – Your Animal Instinct Andras Fox, Murat Kilic, Robbie Lowe, Nic Scali, Matt Weir, James Taylor, Steven Sullivan, Morgan, YokoO, Gabby $20 10pm The Standard, Darlinghurst Rhythm Is A Danceparty! 90s Party Snap! (GER), Teen Spirit DJs, Sosueme DJs, Hump Day Project, Shantan Wantan Ichiban $20 (+ bf) 8pm Sydney Harbour Cruise, Rosebay Wharf Necro Tech Halloween Boat Cruise Didier DLB (GER), Felix Da Cat (GER), Phil Smart, Uone, Franchi Brothers, YokoO, Kerry Wallace, Ezquiel Da Silva, Marcotix $60-$70 1.30pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Cakes Emoh Instead, Chris Arnott, Jack Bailey, Valentino, Mike Hyper, Tigerlilly, Rubio, Kraymer, Bentley, Alistaire Erskine, $15-$20 8pm
SUNDAY OCTOBER 28 Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway S.A.S.H Sundays Secret Guest (GER), Nic Scali, Pow! Pow! (Live), Will Allan, Kerry Wallace, Matt Weir $10 2pm
fc@gg
PICS :: AM
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 24
PICS :: AM
Necro Tech Halloween Boat Cruise Didier DLB (GER), Felix Da Cat (GER), Phil Smart, Uone, Franchi Brothers, YokoO, Kerry Wallace, Ezequiel, Marcotix $60-$70 1.30pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Trademark Satudays Daniel Berti, Billy B, Albie Smiles, Troy T 9pm UNSW Roundhouse, Kensington Halloween Roller Disco Robopop DJs, Temnein, Catlyf, AHC $10-$28 (+ bf) 7pm The Watershed Hotel Watershed Presents… Skybar – Spooked Resident DJs $20 9pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Cakes Emoh Instead, Nukewood, Chris Arnott, Jack Bailey, Valentine, Mike Hyper, Tokoloshe, Bentley, Alistaire Erskine, Luke Hopkins $15-$20 8pm
12:10:12 :: Goodgod Small Club :: 53-55 Liverpool St Chinatown 8084 0587
Chris Duckenfield
Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Slow Blow Halloween Party Roman Wafers, DJ Junglesnake, DJ Dreamcatcher, Softwar, Valerie Yum $5-$10 11pm
Chinese Laundry, Sydney Matrix (UK), Futurebound (UK), Devola, Walden, What So Not, A-Tonez, John Glover, Bassriot, Fingers, King Lee, Mr Belvedere, Glen Darby $20-$25 9pm Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Diafrix, Allday $15 (+ bf) 8pm Marrickville Bowling & Recreation Club Mad Racket’s 14th Birthday Chris Duckenfield (UK), Jimmi James, Zootie,
halfway crooks
PICS :: PX
SATURDAY OCTOBER 27
13:10:12 :: Phoenix Bar :: 34-44 Oxford St Darlinghurst Sydney 9331 3100 N :: NOHMON ANWARYAR :: JOVA S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: ROSETTE ROUHANNA :: OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER NS OWE ELKE :: MAR LEY ASH RKE :: ATANOCKOVIC :: KATRINA CLA IER :: SAM WHITESIDE :: PEDRO XAV
BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12 :: 47
snap
12:10:12 :: The Spice Cellar :: 58 Elizabeth St Sydney 9223 5585
sash sundays
PICS :: AM
otologic
PICS :: AM
up all night out all week . . .
slugabed
PICS :: AM
14:10:12 :: The Abercrombie Hotel :: 100 Broadway Ultimo 9211 2178
rudimental
PICS :: AM
13:10:12 :: One22 :: 122 Pitt St Sydney
steve aoki
PICS :: AM
13:10:12 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex St Sydney 8295 9999
N :: NOHMON ANWARYAR :: JOVA S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) :: ROSETTE ROUHANNA :: OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER NS OWE ELKE :: MAR LEY RKE :: ASH ATANOCKOVIC :: KATRINA CLA IER :: SAM WHITESIDE :: PEDRO XAV
48 :: BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12
hot damn
PICS :: SW
12:10:12 :: Enmore Thearte :: 118-132 Enmore Road Newtown 9550 3666
04:10:12 :: Spectrum:: 34-44 Oxford St Darlinghurst Sydney 9331 2956
BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12 :: 49
snap
propaganda
PICS :: DM
up all night out all week . . .
one love bass explosion
PICS :: AM
11:10:12 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 9357 7700
collarbones
PICS :: TL
12:10:12 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex St Sydney 8295 9999
12:10:12 :: The Standard :: 3/383 Bourke St Darlinghurst 9331 3100
hi-beams Acts: Cliques, Gardland, Prize Two songs you’ll hear on the night: Cliques – ‘Aut’, and Gardland – ‘Jaws’ And one you definitely won’t: Never say never. Sell it to us: This is your chance to hear music you won’t hear anywhere else. HiBeams is all about inviting those DJs and producers around us with a depth to their craft that we rarely get to hear on the dancefloor. Our aim is to create a free and open-minded environment for the tastemakers we know to prepare and play the sets they find liberating and rewarding. We’re putting them on centre stage and pulling the decks out to the middle of the front bar floor.
garcon garcon
PICS :: PX
party profile
It’s called: Hi-Beams at Goodgod Small Club It sounds like: Incredibly new and interesting electronic music.
13:10:12 :: Brighton Up Bar :: Level 1/77 Oxford St Darlinghurst 9331 5153
The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Sydney’s brightest producers and DJs stepping up to play incredible one-off performances. Crowd specs: People who want newness. Wallet damage: Always free. Where: Goodgod Small Club
wasted years
PICS :: SW
When: Thursday October 25, and every Thursday after that!
sos haus rave
PICS :: PX
06:10:12 :: Q Bar :: 34-44 Oxford St Darlinghurst Sydney 9331 2956
13:10:12 :: Goodgod Small Club :: 53-55 Liverpool St Chinatown 8084 0587 50 :: BRAG :: 485 :: 22:10:12
N :: NOHMON ANWARYAR :: JOVA S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER NS :: ROSETTE ROUHANNA :: OWE ELKE :: MAR LEY ASH :: RKE ATANOCKOVIC :: KATRINA CLA IER :: SAM WHITESIDE :: PEDRO XAV
PREMIERES
OCTOBER 24
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