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VIVID LIVE 2013 FIRST ANNOUNCE
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Through eight albums that changed the face of popular music forever, the electronic music pioneers present their groundbreaking retrospective in 3D. Demand is expected to be high for Kraftwerk’s exclusive series of concerts. An online application process is now open to enable fair distribution of tickets to fans across time zones, states and countries.
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rock music news welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Nathan Jolly
five things WITH
JAMES FROM THE LOVE STREET PARADE Growing Up We had a hearty dosage of Sinatra and 1. Dean Martin happening and when Dad would
Music, Right Here, Right Now Sydney is really starting to find its own 5. thing. We are even still now, three years after
get home drunk he would crank that up so loud it would wake us all up and eventuate in mass family singalongs. Great memories! “When the moon hits your eye...”
the licensing changes, seeing this city establish a new live music culture, and it’s very exciting to see where it’s heading. Thanks to the hard work of John Wardle and many others, we are seeing what was once only a dream (a blossoming live music culture in Sydney) slowly becoming a reality. If you’re reading this, you obviously give a fuck about music on some level. Make sure that you keep getting out there to watch the great array of talent the Big Apple of Australia has to offer. Every head through the door of any venue, club, big bar, small bar and restaurant that has live music involved with its grand business plans helps in a big way that you might not realise. Stop staying at home and watching Hey Hey It’s Saturday re-runs. Daryl’s not coming back on TV, but he may be there partying with you and I on Mardi Gras night.
Inspirations My favourite musicians are generally those 2. that take the blues to new places. No matter if it’s The Stones, The Beatles, Hendrix, The Kinks – all the greats just work another way to play the I-IV-V. Brilliant! Your Band The fantastic assortment of guys in the 3. many bands that have come together for this one-of-a-kind Mardi Gras supergroup come from all kinds of musical backgrounds, but the one thing that unites us is jazz and blues. We’ve all, in various forms, played every kind of blues, jazz, cabaret, pop, rock, dirty house, and Russian trance gig you can think of. (OK, not so much the trance). For the Mardi Gras event we will be uniting on the front of everything paisley. The Music You Make This Mardi Gras you can expect nothing 4. but the hits you want to hear. It’s going to be ’60s and West Coast ’70s all night long. Fact!
What: Generations Of Love Mardi Gras Party With: The Love Street Parade (featuring members of Deep Sea Arcade, Guineafowl, Toucan, Meow Meow), Sheena Miss Demeanour, Christopher Hawkins, Pepper Grinde, Miss Rachael Rae and more When: Saturday March 2 from 5pm Where: The Standard / Lvl 3, 383 Bourke St (Taylor Square)
STONE ME
PUBLISHERS: Adam Zammit & Rob Furst EDITOR IN CHIEF: Adam Zammit 9552 6333 adam@peergroupmedia.com EDITOR: Dee Jefferson dee@thebrag.com 02 9690 2731 ASSISTANT EDITOR: Caitlin Welsh STAFF WRITERS: Benjamin Cooper, Alasdair Duncan NEWS: Nathan Jolly, Chris Honnery ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant GRAPHIC DESIGN: Alan Parry SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER: Tim Levy SNAP PHOTOGRAPHERS: Katrina Clarke, Kate Lewis, Ashley Mar, Daniel Munns COVER PHOTOGRAPH: Jenny Risher 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) ONLINE & SOCIAL MEDIA: Tanydd Jaquet AWESOME INTERNS: Natalie Amat, Katie Davern, Tanydd Jaquet, Mina Kitsos REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Nat Amat, Ian Barr, Simon Binns, Christie Eliezer, Chris Honnery, Nathan Jolly, Lachlan Kanoniuk, Jody Macgregor, Alicia Malone, Chris Martin, Jenny Noyes, Hugh Robertson, Rebecca Saffir, Jonno Seidler, Rach Seneviratne, Roland K Smith, Luke Telford, Rick Warner, Alex Sol Watts, Krissi Weiss, Caitlin Welsh, David Wild
Here are some fun facts about some of the acts playing at Stone Festival, the latest musical shindig happening at ANZ Stadium, April 20 and 21. Billy Joel: You can sing The Goo Goo Dolls’ ‘Slide’ over the top of Billy’s ‘Piano Man’, and it fits perfectly. Van Halen: the keyboard effect at the start of ‘Jump’ is actually the default sound on the organ they used. Jimmy Barnes: at his peak, he downed two bottles of vodka a day. Barnestormin’! The Living End: ‘Prisoner Of Society’ was the highest-selling Australian single of the ’90s. Good work everyone. Buckcherry: the best spoonerism ever. Ian Moss: used to turn up for Chisel gigs in the Cross without shoes on, ‘cos he was raised in outback NT. Icehouse: Iva’s wife appears in most of their clips. Guy Sebastian: Americans think he is cool, and he’s kinda pulling it off, too. Diesel: Married Barnesy’s wife’s sister. Lifehouse: Sang that ‘I’m falling even more in love with you’ diet-Pearl Jam song. Noiseworks: Kings Of Leon’s ‘Sex On Fire’ could slip onto their best-of, and you wouldn’t even notice it’s not the same band. Tickets on sale now. British India
SIXSIDDY
New Zealand rock band Six60 are returning to Australia in April, despite the difficulty that occurred during their last run of Australian primary school shows when they attempted to pronounce their band name to a group of giggling schoolkids and open-mouthed teachers (and teacher’s aides). Still, they’re determined to push past this, which is why they have booked a Metro show on April 26. They just signed a European deal with Sony, too, so this might be the last time they’re here for quite a while.
BRITISH INDIA
Last week or the week before (time is a man-made construct, babe) we went to Mushroom’s 2013 shindig in Melbourne, and amongst all the synthy so-hot-right-now, British India unleashed this furious blast of perfect power pop, and everyone was all “By gum, what was that glorious racket?” and now that the Guava Cruisers and smoke have cleared, it appears the song was ‘Summer Forgive Me’, the latest single from their forthcoming fourth LP Controller (out March 22). They launch it at the Metro on April 13. Tickets through oztix.com.au right about now.
RUNAWAY GIRL
Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this address 8a Marlborough Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 ph - (02) 9552 6333 fax - (02) 9319 2227
The Drones
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
SKA WARS
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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The Runaways were riot grrrl before most of the riot grrrls even existed, although this was mostly out of necessity, because their manager Kim Fowley is just the worst, most vile human ever, who we really hope is lying in agony in a bedsit bathroom with a broken hip and smashed out teeth as we type this (should have gotten one of those shower grip-mats). Anyways, Lita Ford, the awesome lead guitarist, is hitting Australia for the first time ever, playing the Factory Theatre on May 25.
THE DRONES
Now that Old Sydney Town has shut down we only have The Drones to remind us what the ye olde days of colonial Australia were like (fun fact: ‘ye’ has never been a word in common parlance, not even during the ye olde days), so it’s a good thing they have returned with their twenty-ninth studio album I See Seaweed, which is out digitally and on ye olde compacte disc from March 1, which is sooner than you think ‘cos February is that short month. They’ll be shuffling around the country, too, stopping in to the Opera House April 27, with support from King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
The year was 2003. The first animal had been cloned, space had been conquered, but still scientists felt there was more to achieve. So, under a cloak of darkness in St. Kilda, a group of explorers decided to see how many horn players they could fit on one stage, performing the ska-skank. Whether they succeeded in breaking the record and thrusting forward human endeavour doesn’t matter – the important thing was that this marked the birth of Melbourne Ska Orchestra, who routinely cram over 30 members onto stages around the country. Watch them brass the living shit outta the Metro Theatre on May 3, with AuSkas playing in support, and Mista Savona DJing.
ME ONL LB Y IN OU RN E
Explore Melbourne Zoo after dark in a world-ďŹ rst interactive experience. Selected evenings at 6.30pm. See website for dates.
Book today www.zoo.org.au/ianimal or phone 1300 966 784 Recommended for 16 years and over Created by The Border Project ART PROCESSORS
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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 WITH
CAT POWER
JOSHUA FROM RAT & CO. to BOC in terms of individuality when looking at production style. Although having a simple formula for making his music, Burial’s repetitive, hypnotic style of dance music never bores you. Your Band Who I enjoy playing with: 3. I’lls are a Melbourne based,
Growing Up Inspirations After growing up listening Boards of Canada are quite 1. 2. to mostly electronic, chillout easily my favourite influence. vibes in the ’90s, it is evident now that my childhood had a massive infl uence on my music style. Although mum and dad couldn’t pitch a note to save their lives, I would say I grew up in a very musical family.
They are gods of the lo-fi, synthheavy, beat-driven genre. I remember being 16 when I first heard of BOC and at the time, I enjoyed what I could hear, but I couldn’t really grasp what I was listening to. Burial is the only person that comes close
electronic three-piece, with a seven-track EP out that will blow any music enthusiast away. Who I enjoy producing with: 21-yearold Andrei Eremin, or “the boy genius” to those who know him. Based in Melbourne, he can turn a sound into anything you describe. Who are we: we’re a four-piece electronic group based in Melbourne; we’ve just released our debut album and are about to play shows in Sydney at Indie Shuffle Presents with Kilter and Lanterns, in Adelaide with Gold Panda (UK), and in our hometown. The Music You Make I find it very hard to describe 4. my own music so hopefully I can leave that up to the readers! Close to 90% of the recording was done over the past two years in my
various bedrooms in sharehouses across Melbourne. Then in August of 2012, I got the band together in the studio and recorded some live drums, more guitar and a little bit of vocals. The live set consists of a non-stop set with varying tempos, multiple instrument changes and an ambient visual light show.
5.
Music, Right Here, Right Now The Australian music scene is absolutely killing it at the moment. The fact that Flume, a 21-yearold Sydneysider can be “bigger than Bieber” in the Australian single charts is such a great sign for change away from the overproduced drivel of mainstream music from America and Europe. Some acts to look out for: Tornado Wallace (Melbourne); Oisima (Adelaide); Ta-ku (Perth); Kilter (Sydney); Charles Murdoch (Brisbane). With: Kilter, Lanterns, The Gate DJs Where: Indie Shuffle @ FBi Social, Kings Cross Hotel When: Saturday March 2
REDGUM BALL
The Tallest Man On Earth
If you’re going to get legendary Australian political folk band Redgum (also, someone should re-master the video for ‘I Was Only 19’; have you seen that grainy mess lately?) to play, you should definitely host them on ANZAC Day, which is what the organisers of The Gum Ball have done, although we suspect it’s less design and more accident. They join The Bird, Van Walker & Liz Stringer, Pony Face, The Re-mains, Howlin’ Steam Train, Cheap Fakes, Dashville Progress Society, Alex Bowen, Two Rivers Blues, The Harlots, Shaun Kirk and Sound From Earth as part of the third and final artist announcement for Gum Ball, which takes place at Belford, Hunter Valley from April 25-28, and also features Mia Dyson, Tumbleweed, The Beards, The Medics, Katalyst and loads more, including headliners, UK acoustic-Placebo-esque pop band Turin Brakes, who are playing a Sydney sideshow
Last year the eternally stellar Chan Marshall AKA Cat Power released Sun, her first album of original songs in six years, described as “the rebirth of Cat Power”. Now she’s heading back to Oz for Golden Plains Lucky Seven (and rocking a new ‘do – check the ‘Cherokee’ vid), but has managed to fit in a run of headline shows too, her first in Australia since 2010. We’ve scored a double pass to her Saturday March 2 gig at the Enmore Theatre, and you can be in it to win it – just send in your postal address and tell us which is your fave Cat Power album.
TIM ROGERS X BAMBOOS
What d’ya mean you haven’t bought tickets to Tim Rogers and The Bamboos’ The Rock ‘n Soul Medicine Show? It’s on not this Thursday but next Thursday (March 7) at the Hi-Fi and we’ve used up our Internet downloading all the seasons of The Nanny, so we are back down to modem speed which means we cannot access the online ticketing system. You had one job to do – well, two jobs, but feeding Fido isn’t a job, because she is your cat and I told you I wasn’t going to look after her. Let’s not panic, though, I have a copy of The BRAG right here, and aside from the phenomenal writing, and general attractiveness of the staff, I’ve noticed they have three double passes to give away to this show. Let’s win one by sending an email to freestuff@ thebrag.com with our favourite Tim Rogers song, and an impassioned paragraph on why this is so. I hear points are awarded on how much your answer sounds like the lyrics to a Tim Rogers song, so let’s throw in references to inner west buses and the like.
April 25 at Oxford Art Factory. Tickets still available (for both).
VON EHRICS
When I read the term ‘punkabilly’ I curl up into a ball, and curse Lewis Carroll for explaining to everyone what a portmanteau was (and inventing the term), then curse Walt Disney further for cartooning it – and also for those Nazi films he made back in the dubious ’40s. But Texan boogie-punks The Von Ehrics really are best described as punkabilly, which we blame more on their Texan roots than on their Stray Cats records. They’ve released four records, toured the US more than Springsteen, and are now bringing this cow-punk sound (cow-punk, that’s a much better description!) to the Bald Faced Stag on March 21, and it’ll only cost you $15, or ten packets of Twisties, assuming you get the small packets and they are purchased from a Coles or an IGA and not a Caltex.
Black Seeds
THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH
The tallest man on earth is Leonid Stadnyk from Ukraine, although he is not ‘officially’ recognised as such by the Guinness Book of World Records because he “refuses to be measured according to their standards”. This throws up a lot of questions. Firstly, what are their standards? Metric? Imperial? Thrust up against a doorframe by a mother in a floral dress as she skims a ruler through your hair and marks it with a Sharpie? What standards will he be measured by? Oxen, as in six-and-a-half oxen tall? Is that racist? Does Ukraine have oxen? Do they have a different name for them? (Swedish folk troubadour Kristian Matsson AKA The Tallest Man On Earth plays the Opera House on March 5.)
THE SOUND OF THE FELICE
BOOGIE ON
Endless Boogie sounds like the name of a band that would play at Hornsby RSL, opening with ‘Eagle Rock’, and ending with a version of Matchbox 20’s ‘3am’ – ya know, something for the kids? Turns out they are a rock band who take cues from classic Aussie bands such as The Saints, Masters Apprentices and The Aztecs. It makes for a throwback sound that isn’t throwback in that “we use the same synth as New Order” way, or that “here’s the riff from ‘Brown Sugar’ with lyrics about rock‘n’roll over it” way, but instead in a “these songs sound 8 :: BRAG :: 501 :: 25:02:13
like they’d slot right onto WSFM’s playlist” way. They’ll be playing Goodgod Small Club on March 27, and here’s a quote from their press release: “We like it dark and small with sweat bleeding from the walls.” Sounds like an OH&S disaster. Don’t tell Mum.
THE SECOND COMING
Back in 1992, Nirvana were doing stuff, but mainly everyone in Australia was caught up in Jesus Christ Superstar fever. The show ran for 82 nights, made over $40 million, sold over a quarter of a million soundtracks, and spawned roughly 400,000 crushes on Kate Ceberano. Well, the 2013 version is likely to do similar business, only those crushes will be on Andrew O’Keefe, who – aside from laying waste to convention with his excellent Deal Or No Deal hosting style – is playing King Herod in this production. Tim Minchin, Mel C (Tracksuit Spice) and Jon Stevens are also involved, although we imagine it’ll be the O’Keefe show, really. Tickets go on sale March 8 (Frontier presale from February 28) and so far there is a June 7 show and two June 8 shows (matinée; evening; theatre speak is so Victorian!), all at the Entertainment Centre, though as if this thing isn’t going to run all year…
BLACK SEEDS
When Rolling Stone calls you the best reggae band on the planet, Inner Circle start sending you threatening letters and ordering pizzas to your house, but you also end up getting a lot of work, which is why New Zealanders The Black Seeds keep ducking over to play shows in Australia. They’ll be back April 26 to play at Selina’s in Coogee, which is better known as the venue where Belinda Carlisle played last year, proving that all members of The Go-Go’s are ageless and timeless. Also, Bret from Flight Of The Conchords used to be in The Black Seeds. He’s done all right for himself, though.
The Black Seeds photo by David James
Simone Felice is one of those beloved twangy singer-songwriter types who records heartfelt songs in chicken coops and lonely churches (filled with the ghosts of people who believe in ghosts) and he is heading out to Australia, bringing along young Northern Territorian Jess Ribeiro because she is awesome and her homespun folksy stuff will suit the vibe Felice is going for. Grinspoon would have been a bad choice. Plus their big Marshall stacks would look out of place at the Vanguard, plus they are probably busy April 4, which is when this gig happens.
ADRIAN BOHM BY ARRANGEMENT WITH LISA THOMAS MANAGEMENT PRESENTS
ADRIAN BOHM PRESENTS
“Has the audience simultaneously weeping with laughter and nodding in agreement.”
★★★★ – HERALD SUN
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The Music Network
themusicnetwork.com
Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer
Tame Impala – “They’re wicked, their music has a freedom to it” – and wouldn’t mind collaborating with them on his next album, which already has team-ups with Pharrell and Tyler The Creator. * Angry Anderson abandoned plans to contest the Western Sydney seat of Greenway for the Liberal Party, but will try again in 2015. He admitted to The Australian that he didn’t have the numbers. On preselection day on March 9, he’ll be in Perth fronting Rose Tattoo as they open for Guns N’ Roses. * First he was Andrew G. Then he reverted to Andrew Günsberg. Now on his social media contacts he’s using his birth name Osher Günsberg. * Fanny’s in Newcastle, which closed on New Years Eve, returns as a nightclub under the name The Argyle House – the building’s original name in the 1850s. * The Voice’s huge ratings last year has got TV networks in a flurry. Rumours are that Australian Idol and PopStar are to be hauled out of the mothballs. Over in The X-Factor land, Mel B and Natalie Bassingthwaighte look like returning. The Daily Telegraph reckons that for Australia’s Got Talent, Nine Network has dumped Kyle Sandilands, Dannii Minogue and Brian McFadden,
THINGS WE HEAR * “Drummers are seriously ruining my week,” Soundwave boss AJ Maddah tweeted. Who could blame him? After Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker’s fright at flying, Six Feet Under pulled out because skinsman Kevin Talley had “a dirtbike mishap”. Then Anthrax ‘fessed up that their man behind the kit, Charlie Benante, will also not be arriving due to “personal issues” at home. He is replaced for the Oz dates by Jon Dette, ex-Testament, Slayer. The Vandals drummer Josh Freese (Nine Inch Nails, Guns N’ Roses, Devo) had to pull out due to work obligations in America. * But Frontier Touring were popping the cork over Tool. Second shows for Sydney and Melbourne were added after they sold out after just minutes on sale. * Meantime, Nikki Sixx was excited about Mötley Crüe’s rehearsals in LA before they head to Australia with KISS. “I gotta say, considering we haven’t played together since last year when we ended the KISS-Crüe co-headline tour, it sounded pretty damn tight... This is the longest and biggest tour we have done to date in Australia, and it’s gonna be a fucking blast, for sure...” * Frank Ocean reckons he’s a big fan of
marketing: their 2011 tour, with 350,000 tickets sold, is the highest-grossing tour ever by an Australian-based band. George Ash, president of Universal Music Australia, said, “John’s legacy of success at EMI, of finding and helping to develop so many incredible artists, speaks for itself and for him to come back to the label he helped to build into one of Australia’s best is not only exciting but critical to our vision for EMI.”
JOHN O’DONNELL TO HEAD EMI John O’Donnell returns to EMI Music Australia as its Managing Director on March 4. Based at EMI’s head office in The Rocks, he will oversee the EMI, Capitol and Virgin labels, as well as overseeing the creative direction for their Australian acts. O’Donnell was CEO of EMI from 2002 to 2008. When he left to set up his consulting company, he took over co-management of Cold Chisel with John Watson. He will continue this role while running EMI. One of the best A&R people in Australia, the one-time music journalist signed Silverchair, Something For Kate and Jebediah at Murmur/Sony. His EMI period enjoyed an unprecedented chart and sales run, with Empire Of The Sun, Silverchair, Angus & Julia Stone, Jet and Missy Higgins. He and Watson relaunched the Chisel brand with sharp
COMMUNITY RADIO AT RISK The heads of 37 community stations around the country with digital access have warned: “We’re at risk.” They need a minimum of $3.6 million per year to maintain digital radio services in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth. But the Federal government only committed $2.2 million per year from 2012 to 2016. By 2021 (eight
Just Announced
E HIFI 1300 THO M.AU THEHIFI.C
and Sharon Osbourne and Chris Isaak are close to signing on, with Timomatic, Victoria Beckham and Lily Allen also possibilities. * Rival promoter Andrew McManus set the cat among the pigeons when he posted on the day that the star-studded Stone Music Festival was announced that “something smells fishy” and warned about “unknown promoters”. Stone Music lashed back saying that was rubbish. But Baby Animals have pulled out just days after they were announced. They said on their Facebook that “it wasn’t feeling right to us,” explaining that “it all became too difficult, too quickly.” * The Beatles’ iconic Abbey Road album cover – the Fab Four walking on a zebra crossing – is being used by cops in Kolkata, India, to urge people not to jaywalk: “If they can do it, why can’t you?” goes the campaign. * BBC Radio apologised for inadvertently playing Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Hey Joe’, about a man shooting his girlfriend, immediately after a news report on the shooting death of athlete Oscar Pistorius’ girlfriend at his home. Meanwhile, Nova 100 Melbourne got complaints to the Anti-Defamation Commission after an 'ideal dinner guest' segment suggested Hitler as one.
years away) everything will go digital. The stations are asking community radio listeners and supporters to sign a petition at committocommunityradio.org.au for the Government to make up the shortfall.
MAYOR ROCKS OUT Mayor of Leichhardt, Darcy Byrne, has started a petition urging all councils in NSW to adopt a “good neighbour” policy with live music venues. It would end the “unnecessary” prosecution of venues, hold regular meetings between licensees and local residents to resolve noise complaints before they escalate into expensive court cases, and protect venues from newlyarrived neighbours making complaints. He is this week putting it to Leichhardt Council, and urging young people to put on the pressure. The petition is at http:// savenswlivemusic.good.do/petition/ petition-to-save-live-music-in-nsw/. They need 2500 signatures; they got 1880 in the first three days.
PEARL JAM JOINS 10 MILL. CLUB
28 Days
Born Of Osiris (USA)
Wed 24 Apr
Sat 18 May
FA ST SE LL IN G
SE LL IN G
FA ST
This Week
Bring Me The Horizon (UK)
Bullet For My Valentine(UK)
Mindless Self Indulgence (USA)
Richie Hawtin (UK) & Magda (GER)
Tue 26 Feb
Wed 27 Feb
Thu 28 Feb
Fri 1 Mar
FA ST
Coming Soon
Pearl Jam’s debut album Ten from 1991 has made the list of 10 million sellers in the U.S. It is the 22nd album to join the club since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991. In the week ending February 17, Ten had a burst of sales (4,000 copies) which pushed it over the line. It is the fourth album to hit 10 million since the start of 2012. In that time, Ten follows Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory, Usher’s Confessions and Adele’s 21. None of these have made it into the Top 10 biggest sellers since 1991. Top of the list is Metallica’s Metallica (1991) with sales of 15.86 million. Then comes Shania Twain’s Come On Over (15.53m), Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill (14.82m), Backstreet Boys’ Millennium (12.21m), The Beatles’ 1 (12.16m), The Bodyguard soundtrack (12.06m), Santana’s Supernatural (11.73m), Creed’s Human Clay (11.64m) Bob Marley & The Wailers’ Legend (11.26m), with *NSync’s No Strings Attached (11.14m) at #10.
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VILLAGE SOUNDS X CRUCIAL
George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic (USA)
Tim Rogers & The Bamboos Thu 7 Mar
Hungry Kids of Hungary
Otep (USA)
Fri 15 Mar
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Dinosaur Jr + Redd Kross (USA) Sat 16 Mar
Ensiferum (FIN)
FA ST
FA ST
Fri 8 Mar
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (USA) Sat 9 Mar
Mutemath (USA) Sun 24 Mar
Thu 25 Apr
Fri 5 Apr
Rae Harvey’s Crucial Music has moved its entire roster to Jessica Ducrou and Evan Davis’ booking agency Village Sounds. Crucial has The Living End, 360, Children Collide, Gyroscope and Hunting Grounds. Davis will oversee the bookings. Harvey, who set up Crucial 17 years ago, said, “I’ve known and respected Jessica for many years and have enjoyed working with Evan as an agent in the past. Village Sounds suggested a groundbreaking, modern and innovative partnership that perfectly suited Crucial Music and our artists – we’re absolutely delighted.” Crucial was booked through New World Artists, but after 360 pulled out in December, it dropped the entire roster.
SLAM UPS ANTE Example
(UK)
Fri 26 Apr
Enhanced Sat 27 Apr
(UK)
Norma Jean
(USA)
Fri 3 May
ENTERTAINMENT QUARTER, BUILDING 220, 122 LANG RD, MOORE PARK, SYDNEY
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After three years of fighting the good fight, SLAM (Save Live Australian Music) is upping the ante. The campaign is going national, which means it needs $10,000 a year from each state to cover costs. SLAM
is calling on live music fans to pledge as little as $10. In return they get downloads featuring Tim Rogers and Lee Ranaldo. Others are offering exclusive experiences – mentorships with Gareth Liddiard (The Drones), Steve Kilbey (The Church) and Richard Lloyd (Television); bonus gig tickets with the ‘On The Door’ package, and VIP show and afterparty passes for Tame Impala and Something For Kate; and Kate Miller Heidke, Dan Sultan and Marieke Hardy will host one-off ‘Dream Dinners’. See slamrally.org
HUB SIGNS ZEAHORSE Hub The Label has signed Sydney psych, punk and grunge band Zeahorse, whose debut album Pools is out mid-year. They formed four years ago in Lismore. “Zeahorse will blow your mind,” says Troy Barrott, Hub owner.
SONGL OUT SOON? Another music streaming service? Songl was set up by Sony Music Australia, Universal Music Australia and Southern Cross Austereo and has been in beta mode for the past year. Industry sources suggest a March launch, charging $8.99 a month for web streaming and $12.99 to include mobile streaming.
Lifelines Expecting: Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie, 37 and actor husband Josh Duhamel, 40, their first. Born: daughter Lula Rosylea for Bryan Adams and partner Alicia Grimaldi, their second. The ‘Lula’ comes from Gene Vincent’s old hit ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’ and the other bit is Cockney rhyming slang for “cup of tea”. Split: One Direction’s Niall Horan from model Amy Green after four months, as he’s too busy. And she dumped her boyfriend of four years to be with him. Married: Justin Tynan, who runs the Beresford Hotel in Sydney (and the Ivy and Slip Inn before), and ex-model Ajita Baumann. Injured: Rihanna scraped her knee against a club’s metal gate after some loon threw a bottle at her while ranting about Chris Brown. In Court: Chris Brown and Drake have filed counter-suits blaming each other for starting the brawl at the W.i.P. nightclub in New York City last June. They need a judge to decide who started it, as both are being sued by a French model for injuries he suffered during the brawl. Died: US country singer Mindy McCready shot herself on the porch of her home, a month after her boyfriend, music producer David Wilson, was also found dead on the porch from an apparent suicide. She had longstanding problems with booze and drugs, and her father initiated court moves to take her two children away as she was in no state to look after them. Died: Tony Sheridan, 72, the first to play electric guitar on British TV and who used the Beatles as his backing band on his 1961 single ‘My Bonnie’. Record store owner Brian Epstein hunted them down after a customer asked about the single, and ended up managing them. Died: the body of Kevin Ayers, founder of UK prog band Soft Machine, 68, was found in his south of France home, with a note “You can’t shine if you don’t burn.” He also worked with Brian Eno, Syd Barrett, John Cale and Nico, and in 2006 returned with an album after a 15-year hiatus. Died: El Gran Fellove, charismatic Cuban performer with original vocal stylings, 89, in Mexico.
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Clinton drew inspiration for the forthcoming album from YouTube and airport security. “Man, I just love all the stuff on YouTube!” he exclaims. “I get so many ideas from all the new shit I see online that sometimes my mind is just racing. But then I’ll hear some of the pop they’re playing on the radio and it’s just like ‘Stop playing all that French stuff. You’re boring me!’ What I want to hear is good music done well; it doesn’t matter if it’s very minimal type stuff because that is often the music that sticks in your head.” One change that Clinton heralds is the dominance of hip hop on the radio and in the wider cultural consciousness. It’s a situation that Parliament-Funkadelic helped to create over five decades, through their pioneering funk and soul music. “At some point things changed, and when it happened it was huge. Hip hop has become the pop music of today, absolutely,” he says. “Once again you got the parents kickin’ against it, telling kids they don’t like this hip hop track or that. But none of their opinions matter because now Jay-Z and Kanye are the biggest pop stars on the planet. You look at the influence of that whole Dirty South sound – that shit is everywhere, dominating all the beats. No one can stop it. It fills up my YouTube page every day!”
“I wanna know what happens to the little dope addict dogs. I mean, in some ways it’s the most undercover album I’ve done, but I just gotta know about those dogs.” Clinton is able to spend such a substantial amount of time trawling the internet because of his group’s unique approach to band practice. “We don’t like rehearsals, so we don’t really do ‘em,” he says. “Our members are all scattered around the country, and when we get together we have a lot of catching up to do, so the talking takes a lot of time. Plus we’ve been around for a while, and as far as I’m concerned we’ve been around long enough to know how to do our thing really, really well. We’ll play a song for eight minutes up on that stage, and when we get going it’s like nothing else. And it must be working, because we’re still getting new fans all the time.”
Member Of Parliament By Benjamin Cooper t’s rare to be left entirely flabbergasted by an interview. Over countless phone calls, Skype conversations and faceto-face encounters, I have never finished an interview by asking out loud, “What the fuck just happened?!” But after hanging up on a 15-minute call with George Clinton, I was at a total loss. The only way to return to some semblance of normality was by throwing my Mothership Connection LP on the turntable, and hoping like crazy that the smooth sounds of interplanetary funk might eventually bring me back to earth.
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Clinton founded doo-wop group The Parliaments in 1956 at the age of 15; they scored one major hit with ‘(I Wanna) Testify’ in 1967, when Clinton was also working as an in-house songwriter at Motown Records. By 1970, Clinton was running two separate entities: Parliament was the evolution of his earlier group and concentrated on RnB grooves, and Funkadelic was branded as the harder, psych-rock sister. Both released albums in 1970 – Osmium and Funkadelic respectively – but it wasn’t until
the addition of several members of James Brown’s live band in 1972 that things really began to take off. Bootsy Collins and The Horny Horns left The J.B.’s and took the collective in a new direction. The combination of Bootsy’s thumping bass and Clinton’s vocals was augmented by the tried and tested brass and woodwind strength of The Horns. The melting pot of such a surfeit of talent gave the world a new style: P-Funk. “I was excited at the time... because I think whenever you can feel people catching on, it’s exciting,” recalls Clinton. “I knew that parents everywhere hated what we were doing, and I knew that our sound threatened some people. Some places were saying we were X-rated, whatever that means. So I guess we used that to fuel us, but there was a lot more people who were just recognising what we were doing, and getting turned on to it. It’s always been about those people. They’re the most important ones.”
A significant part of the groups’ appeal was their creation of a unique mythology. Clinton and his cohort declared that they were ambassadors from another world, sent to Earth to provide enlightenment through a new kind of music. Bootsy and Clinton’s repartee encouraged the audience to view them as ‘alien’: different, but not dangerous. “I never thought we were weird,” Clinton says. “We’ve always done things like this, and people just keep wanting to listen and get involved... I can’t explain it. “At the moment we’re recording an album about dope dogs,” he tells me, “because that’s what we feel like doing.” Sensing my confusion, the funkfather adds: “You know how they’ve got those little dogs to sniff out drugs at the airport and everywhere? Well, what if those dogs went too far and got addicted to the drugs? I wanna know what happens to the little dope addict dogs. I mean, in some ways it’s the most undercover album I’ve done, but I just gotta know about those dogs.”
“We’ve been doing this a long time but the songs never seem old. Maybe we’re a little older,” he laughs, “but we still get people calling out for their favourite songs, and singing along. That love keeps us in the game and ready to go, you know? There’s nothing more important than that.” What: George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic Where: The Hi-Fi Sydney/ Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park When: Friday March 8 Also: Playing at Golden Plains Lucky Seven, Saturday March 9 – Monday March 11 at Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre, with Cat Power, Dinosaur Jr, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Purity Ring and loads more
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When we speak, the godfather of funk is sitting in a hotel room surrounded by members of his band and various industry types – all of them clamouring for his attention. “Don’t you worry about none of that noise,” he says. “Right now I’m talking to you, and that’s the only thing that matters. Los Angeles is always like this: there’s always ten billion people screaming, wanting a piece of you. It’s all good, man. We got nothing but time.”
It’s worth pointing out that Mr Clinton doesn’t really speak like anyone else. In some ways it probably doesn’t actually qualify as speaking. The sound that emanates from his throat and lips is mellifluousness in its purest form: words arrive and depart without the usual rush of sentences trying to take shape, probably because the speaker is relying on the rest of the world to make sense of his pronouncements.
The group’s enthusiasm for touring and recording seems certain to continue growing exponentially. Clinton says that’s due, at least in part, to their shared history, as well as the love they get shown whenever they perform.
T H I S
W E E K
A T
T H E
SIDESHOW. FEB 27TH
Y WEDNESDA
FURNACE & THE FUNDAMENTALS + R U F F L E F E AT H E R
(LIVE)
+SOSUEME DJS
+DEVOLA +BERNIE DINGO +HOBOPHONICS
FRESH HIP HOP & REGGAE PARTY
FRIDAYS FEATURING
MAR 1 FREE 8PM
>DJS: OMAR VARTS, RICHIE RYAN, CLOCKWERK, SUPERTRIVIA IA & SPECIAL GUESTS, 3PM
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 :: 501 :: 25:03:13 :: 13
Garbage Finding Your Voice By Alasdair Duncan
“I’ve had a lot of experience, for sure, and I’m very grateful... I’ve learned a lot along the way, but I’m fully aware of what a dummy I remain.” say. I’d always assumed that I just got lucky, that the press would only cover my band because they liked the fact that I was mousy.” It was only during an extended hiatus from the band that Manson realised her calling. “I had seven long years to sit and think about it, and I realised that since childhood, all I’ve ever done is music,” she says. “At that point, I realised it was really simple. I realised I don’t have to be famous, I don’t have to play a character, I just have to make music. I realised at that point that I’d never felt happier or freer or more confident.” It’s not too big a stretch to say that Manson and her bandmates are a self-deprecating bunch. It’s all right there in the band name, which, if you choose, you can read as a one-word review, an attempt to put themselves down before anybody else gets the chance. This can be both a blessing and a curse – it keeps Manson and her three boys grounded, although it sometimes gets them in trouble…
C
“When I start to sing, I come into my body,” Manson says. “It’s like my best version of myself – it’s my most open, honest, generous, fierce, furious
version of myself. I stop feeling scared. I have to confess that all through my life, I’ve struggled with insecurity and self-doubt and malaise, even… When I’m on stage, all of that just goes away. Everything comes into sharp focus. When I’m singing, I think, ‘This is my purpose’.” Strange though it seems, for all of Garbage’s success, it was only recently that Shirley Manson felt confident enough to call herself a musician. “For whatever twisted reason, I always felt like I was much less of an artist than anybody else,” she admits. “I felt like I wasn’t a real musician, and that I never had anything really worthwhile to
Manson still has her bad days, but she finds it easier to stay on top of them now. “If you’re born with those kinds of insecurities, I don’t know that they ever leave you,” she says, “but you learn to manage them. You learn to read the signals that these creeping thoughts are about to enter your brain – you learn how to switch them off faster and more effectively. They’re always there, but you can learn to turn the volume down and say ‘I’m not going to listen to that, because you’re going to take me down a really bad path – I’m going to listen to something more positive and jolly.’”
Last year, Garbage returned with Not Your Kind Of People, their first album since 2005’s Bleed Like Me. They were unsure how they’d be received after such a long break, but Manson realised that, in their absence, Garbage had been greatly missed. “This current tour has been a very emotional one!” she says with a laugh. “I think in part, that’s because we’ve been so inaccessible for so long. When people can’t get to you, they tend to yearn for you, you know?” The more shows the band announced, the more shows they’d sell out. “We’d never seen that happen before – we couldn’t believe it!” Manson says. “We kept asking our manager to go back and check if there’d been some kind of mistake. It started that way, and that’s how it continued. It’s been a magical year, and an incredible run.” With almost two decades of Garbage behind her, I ask Manson what she has learned, and if she has any final words of rock star wisdom to pass on. “Oh my God, no!” she says with a cackle. “I’m such a dummy. I mean, I’ve had a lot of experience, for sure, and I’m very grateful for all of it. I’ve learned a lot along the way, but I’m fully aware of what a dummy I remain. Hopefully when they put me in the earth I’ll have learned a little more along the way.” When: Wednesday March 6 Where: Star Event Centre, Star City And: Monday February 25 @ Metro Theatre (all-ages – sold out)
Smash Mouth Still Walkin’ By Alasdair Duncan
W
hen you think of Californian rockers Smash Mouth, you think of good times – bros cracking brewskis while chillaxed to the max. Singer Steve Harwell, an affable guy now into his forties, quite freely admits that his band’s main aim is to have a good time. Doing so hasn’t always been easy. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and I’m trying to correct those still today,” he says of his two-decade history with Smash Mouth. “I’ve had to apologise a lot in my career. I’m smarter now than I was when I was a kid – I’ve learned to take a step back and really think things through before I make a decision. The ‘I don’t care’ attitude has gotten me in trouble, but I’ve slowed down since then. I’m not the crazy guy I used to be. I take a lot of pride in what we have, and appreciate how good we have it. I try not to take my career for granted. There’s nothing like having your friends standing next to you on stage and you’re all smiling and kicking ass and having a blast.”
Early in their career, Smash Mouth scored big hits with ‘All Star’ and ‘Walkin’ On The Sun’; as young guys experiencing their first taste of big success, their instincts told them to party as hard and as long as possible. Harwell can’t help but cringe when he looks back on those days. “I used to go out there and play shows drunk, but I’m not doing that anymore,” he says. “Nobody benefits from it. It’s not fair to the fans, it’s not fair to the band – it’s not fair to anyone. We’re not getting all fucked up anymore. […] We have ups and downs, and there are still things that need to be patched up, but we’re not making a big deal of it. We take a lot of pride in playing great shows every night, and we want to keep doing that. We have a really big year – we’re going to be on the road a lot, and I’m really excited, because I love to work. I do bad things when I’m not working…”
Earlier this year, Smash Mouth took their first tentative steps into a whole new field of artistic endeavour: they published a cookbook. Entitled Recipes From The Road, it chronicles some of their favourite food from around the United States, as well as collecting stories about life on the road. “I’m a big food guy,” Harwell says, “and I have a lot of friends who are chefs or who own restaurants. Being on the road all these years, it seems like in every cool town or city we went to, there was always some crazy, funny thing that happened. When you’re on the road, you get tired of eating shitty food at truck stops and places like that, so when you get to a new town and check into your hotel, you ask around and find out if there’s a great steak joint or a great barbeque place nearby. If you go to one of those places as a band, people are often excited to have you there – the manager and the chef might want to meet you, so you end up making all these friends. When you’re back in town, of course you’re going to go back, because it’s your favourite place now.” Over the years, Smash Mouth did a lot of that, taking a lot of photos in the process. Finally, inspiration struck, and they decided to collect them all in the one place. “There’s a story for every town, along with the food,” he says. The book certainly covers a lot of culinary ground. “I love to barbeque, and I love a grill, and all that’s in there,” Harwell says. “I love brisket and ribs, and I love making fish tacos. I’m friends with the chef Guy Fieri, and he gave us a great fish taco recipe – it’s incredible.” An avid cook, Harwell says he will attempt pretty much anything. “The only thing I’m not good at is desserts,” he says. “I can get into a cookbook and make anything, but I can’t do sweets, man. Our book has everything from barbeque to
“I love brisket and ribs, and I love making fish tacos. I’m friends with the chef Guy Fieri, and he gave us a great fish taco recipe.” 14 :: BRAG :: 501 :: 25:02:13
Mexican to sushi to fine steaks and pastas and all the desserts you can think of, great cocktails. It’s really going down well.” Smash Mouth’s busy touring-and-eating schedule now includes their first-ever trip to Australia, and Harwell seems genuinely excited to be on his way. “In all our years of being together and with all the music we’ve made, we’ve never played in Australia before,” he says. The band have quite a big catalogue to draw upon, and have added another cover – Simple Minds’ ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ – to their already large repertoire. The idea of playing to an all-new audience is a big part of the appeal.
“I’ve probably played for all our American fans at least once, maybe twice,” Harwell says. “I’ve played thousands of times around this country in the span of 18 years. I’ve never been to Australia, so when we play one of the hits, it’s going to be like we’re playing it for the first time. It’s new for you guys, and it feels new for us, so that’s where the excitement’s coming in! That’s why I’m super stoked.” When: Friday March 15 Where: Rooty Hill RSL Club, Rooty Hill And: Saturday March 16 at the Mona Vale Hotel, Mona Vale
Xxxx photo by Xxx
onfidence is a hell of a thing – just ask Shirley Manson of Garbage. When you see her on stage, the firebrand Scottish singer seems to overflow with it. She stalks, she howls, she hollers, and she carries herself with the air of someone who is essentially unfuckwithable. She’s actually a little bit scary – just seek out the YouTube video of her excoriating a fan who dared to spit at the stage while she was performing on it.
“That [self-deprecating] tendency has been with us since the start, and it definitely keeps us from taking ourselves too seriously,” Manson says with a chuckle. “A little of that can be fun, but when it becomes too powerful, it can have a very negative effect. Before we took our big hiatus, we’d reached a point where it actually became destructive to the band.”
These days, if she’s feeling down, she looks to her dog for inspiration. “We don’t know exactly what breed she is, because she’s a rescue dog, but imagine a ginger Jack Russell with a big ridge up her back,” she says. “Right now, all she wants to do is have fun – she just wants to have fun and go for walks all the time, so I clip her leash on and off we go. It’s great.”
Bloc Party Four Play By Simone Ubaldi
THU 28 FEB FRI 01 MAR LET ME DOWN JUNGLEMAN LEPERS AND CROOKS RASCALS AND RUNAWAYS
S
ilent Alarm is barely seven years old, but it’s already cemented in the indierock canon. Full of sharp angles and turbulent emotions, distinctive melodies and driving beats, Bloc Party’s debut was one of the seminal records that exploded the boundaries between electronic and guitar music, paving the way for a generation of pill-popping, synth-rocking ‘alternative’ acts that play as comfortably at Big Day Out as they do at Future Music Festival. Singer Kele Okereke became an icon overnight, and Bloc Party began headlining festivals and major music venues around the world. So the band’s bassist, Gordon Moakes, is already a veteran of the global music scene, and while it’s tiring, he’s not taking it for granted. “I will always be grateful that we had the opportunity to do this,” says Moakes, phoning in from Japan at the tail end of a six-month stint of touring. He sounds drained, and ready for a break. “It’s exciting starting out when you’re feeling your way back and getting a feel for how you play together again and getting used to playing a whole new record. And then you just have to buckle in and get used to playing for months on end.” The pressure of a near-constant recording and touring schedule led the band to an awkward pause back in 2009. Shortly after the release of their third album, Intimacy, Okereke began telling journalists that Bloc Party may take a few years to produce another album – or may never record again; that at the very least, they would need to spend some time apart. The future of the band was uncertain, to say the least. Okereke went off to record a solo album, 2010’s critically acclaimed The Boxer; Russell Lissack joined Ash as their touring guitarist; Moakes formed a post-hardcore band called Young Legionnaire. By 2011, the music media was speculating that Okereke’s solo career spelled the end of Bloc Party – conjecture that was heightened by an NME report saying that the remaining members were recording together and looking for a new frontman. Okereke was actually recording with his old bandmates at the time, but wanted to keep it on the downlow because he “didn’t know how it would turn out,” as he told The Guardian last year. It turned out just fine, Moakes says. “I didn’t appreciate our connection until I’d gone and done something else, because actually I’d never played with another band,” he explains. “We’ve had lots of different drummers over the years, before we settled on Matt and the band took shape. But after that, a familiarity was established – they call it a marriage and it’s very much like that, like a family and everything. I think, having been away from it for a few years, you miss that niche that you carve out for yourself being that person from that band.” The recording sessions took place in New York in the northern winter of 2011/2012, with the new Bloc Party album released in August
“The way we left Bloc Party, it was very splintered, in many ways ... Things were up in the air in terms of the narrative of the band” last year. The fourth record from the UK quartet is called, simply, Four. Some critics labelled it a return to form; Moakes describes it as the band’s “most no-frills” album, and doubts they’ll make another quite like it. “Whatever happens in the future of this band, this one was a very important one for us to make. This is the record that most sounds like the band we are in a room and how we fit together as musicians,” Moakes says. “The way we left Bloc Party, it was very splintered, in many ways, from what it had been. Things were up in the air in terms of the narrative of the band, and you wouldn’t get to work out from the three records we had released where we were as people, and what the music said about us. I think this record has capped it all off, really.” It has been a pleasure to bring Four to the stage, Moakes says, even considering the drawbacks of a hectic touring schedule. “You settle into a routine with people and you can rely on them and you’re not surprised by what might happen on stage,” he says. “I’m always locking in between what Matt does and what Russell does, and that three-way relationship in the band is critical to everything we’ve written and every performance.” And for now, that is enough. The band will leave Japan and return home for a breather, then head out again for the rest of their world tour, including a visit to Australia for Future and a few sideshows. After that, who knows? The future is still a little foggy, the way Moakes tells it. There is an odd finality to the way he talks about Four, though he doesn’t rule out recording a follow-up some time soon. “I think we probably will. We’re writing even now. The plan for this summer was to put out a four-track EP and that’s probably still going to happen, so there’s definitely a forward line. But I definitely think we’ll take a year off again and go our separate ways for a bit. That will be a pattern of our music-making from now on.”
SUN 03 MAR TUE05 MAR
DIRECT FROM THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE
THU 07 MAR FRI 08 MAR T O R O Y M O I
JONTI AND YUKON SNAKES
CAPTIAN RECKLESS & LOST SOULS
Coming Up IN MARCH 17th SECRET IDENTITY – HEROES AND VILLAINS DO BURLESQUE 17th THE SNOWDROPPERS 23rd TUBA SKINNY
SAT 02 MAR
$20 / BURLESQUE / CABARET / BANDS / GO GO DANCERS PARADE VIEWING PLATFORM LIVE PROJECTION OF PARADE
When: Wednesday March 13 Where: Hordern Pavilion Also: Playing Future Music Festival on Saturday March 9 @ Royal Randwick Racecourse with The Stone Roses, The Temper Trap, Dizzee Rascal and heaps more BRAG :: 462 :: 14:05:12 :: 15
Popstrangers Flying North By Krissi Weiss
K
iwi psych/fuzz/pop act Popstrangers have been making a name for themselves since releasing the single ‘Heaven’ last year, with attention coming from the US, UK, Australia and NZ. After trudging along on the roster of seminal NZ label Flying Nun, they jumped ship and joined US label Carpark (home to Toro Y Moi, Beach House, Cloud Nothings) – and started getting noticed by all the right people. With their debut album, Antipodes, out on March 1, Popstrangers were also recently tapped to open for Dinosaur Jr. on their NZ tour; for a band that’s still learning to walk, things are moving quickly.
“Basically we were just working at a different rate to them – we wanted to get the album out as soon as possible and they wanted to wait – so we found Carpark in the US, and we were all on the same wavelength. Having the first single get picked up by a few places was really exciting for us – we didn’t have any expectations about what was going to happen. I guess that with any band it can happen either way. You can do well or you end up releasing an album and no one ever knows it exists.” New Zealand has been kind to Popstrangers thus far, but the boys are getting fidgety. The market is small and touring is an exhausting journey for any band in the Southern Hemisphere. “There’s a whole scene of alternative and noise and guitar music that’s being made here that’s alive and well, but
it’s not always seen,” he says. “I think people, like the media, particularly overseas and in Australia, see music in New Zealand as being dominated by the dub crossover scene and so they see that as being a more financially viable style of music to bring out to their country.” After the Australian tour, Popstrangers are heading north in search of change and opportunity. “When we get back we’ll be getting our visas sorted for the UK and then we’re pretty much relocating there,” he says. “To get a booking agent we need to actually be there, and for me, I’m just walking around in circles in New Zealand. […] It just seems
like the logical step and there’s a lot more interest over there with what we’re doing. Moving there probably won’t change the music we’re making but we want to be able to release music and play as many shows as we can and we need to be somewhere else to do that.” With: Bored Nothing and Bearhug Where: Goodgod Small Club When: Thursday March 7 More: Antipodes is out March 1 through Carpark/Spunk Xxxx
Singer Joel Flyger has joked that the band came together over a shared love of garage music and a shared hatred of shitty day jobs; he’s taking time out from his factory job when we chat. “We’ve always been able to get by on funding from the New Zealand government,” Flyger says. “Because the funding is based on mainstream releases, it’s like $10,000 for a single and we can do a whole album on that. With coming to Australia in a few weeks, we didn’t have enough money so I figured I’d do a bit of work again for that – but yeah, it’s not where I want to be.”
Antipodes has taken a while to see the light of day, and after the success of ‘Heaven’ and their recently released single ‘What Else Could They Do’, Flyger is more than ready for people to hear the album. “We had the album recorded and we were ready to release it, but the relationship with our label fell through,” he says. There are no hard feelings with Flying Nun, he hastens to add – things just didn’t fall into place.
Amy Rose Opening Up By Sharon Ye
T
he album art of Bondi-based Amy Rose’s EP Peel is much like the soundscapes it contains; the cover features a girl clad in an airy white gown, floating deep in the water. I’m told it’s Amy herself. Having grown up in a musical family, Rose says friends and family have helped nurture her talents. “Mum and Dad used to play and sing together,” she laughs. “It’s definitely always been a big part of our family.” But it took some time before she began creating that brand of dreamy, ambient pop she is now known for. “I’ve kind of always done it, but I guess I haven’t gotten out there much,” she admits. When asked what gave her the final push, she says, “Just growing up, realising life is short. And that I’m getting older. I needed to do what makes me happy.” Drawing inspiration from the likes of Feist, Imogen Heap and Active Child, Rose defines her sound as alternative pop. “Back in the day, The Postal Service was my big influence,” she adds, “and that sort of sound has always made me want to make music.” Talking about the title track of her EP, Rose explains that the concept behind the name is based on unravelling and opening up. “The concept of that song and the whole EP is just really about peeling back the layers of yourself and relearning to be vulnerable again after you’ve had a few bad relationships or a few experiences. So relearning that kind of childlike vulnerability that we’re all born with.” Rose says writing from experience fuels the songwriting process. “It’s always easier when you have something real to go by, it kind of steers it stronger. I think I always write from something that’s happened to me, or I know has
happened to someone else, or a state of mind that I’m in or whatever.” The EP was also largely the product of Rose’s freedom to experiment – “just trying different sounds I wouldn’t usually use, [being] a bit more risky with some things,” she says. “With ‘Peel’, it definitely started a lot more raw and organic sounding, but once we were actually recording, we decided to make it way more Imogen Heap-y.” Generally speaking, Rose says she has a fairly standard writing process. “Most of them, I usually sit down and get a melody idea, flesh it out with some lyrics and I usually work on my laptop and use a few sample sounds and get a really basic kind of structure going… I’ll play around on different sounds on Garageband, like real simple,” she laughs. But unlike many of her electro-pop contemporaries, Rose prefers to stick to tried and true basics. “The extent of my knowledge is Garageband and basic understanding of Protools and that’s about it,” she says. “I don’t know if it was hard but it made it challenging – that’s part of the fun, I guess.” Having released Peel in 2012, Rose says her primary focus now will be gigging around and consolidating her live performance, which features a revolving six-person band and the odd harp player – who is slowly becoming a staples of her live shows. “She didn’t actually play on the EP… and then I just asked if she’d be interested in playing one time, and she was like ‘Yep! Dope!’ and we just did a couple of rehearsals. It sounded awesome.” With: Gordi, Jess Dunbar When: Wednesday February 27 Where: The Vanguard / 42 King St, Newtown
Moon Duo Jammin’ By Benjamin Cooper
S
anae Yamada has moved around a lot recently. In her previous life she was a teacher in San Francisco, but nowadays she and partner Erik ‘Ripley’ Johnson – known collectively as drone outfit Moon Duo – reside in the northern city of Portland. “We’ve actually been very transient for the last couple of years. We were living in California, but it ended up being way too expensive to make music. We’d go on tour and we wouldn’t even be able to cover our rent, so we moved to Colorado, which was geographically gorgeous, but there wasn’t much else going on,” she says. Yamada and Johnson relocated from Colorado to Portland in August last year, just prior to releasing their third album, Circles. It’s their second release on influential New York label Sacred Bones (also home to The Men and Zola Jesus) and sees the duo refine the elements that distinguished preceding records Mazes and Escape. Keyboards and guitars create loops of sound that possess a depth and rhythm that is absent from the work of many other drone acts. Johnson’s snarling guitar playing – known to a wider audience through his other band, Wooden Shjips – is balanced by the locked-in groove of Yamada’s keys and drum machine looping.
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Having a permanent home in Portland has afforded the duo some advantages. “It’s really nice to be back on the West Coast, because it feels like the most laid-back part of the country. It’s also the most politically liberal, and generally the weirdest, which helps us feel at home. The isolation of the Rocky Mountains was something else, but I think it helps to have somewhere permanent to come back to... it makes us feel more settled. Then when we think about touring we can get more excited about something like coming out to Australia.” The band’s upcoming shows mark their second visit to local shores, having previously visited Australia in 2011 in support of Mazes. At the time they were special guests of Newcastle’s Sound Summit, but this tour promises even greater excitement. “We get to play with Dinosaur Jr. and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, which is massive. This is actually our first major supporting gig for bands that are so well known, and that we’ve been listening to for so long. I am probably going to refrain from packing my Dinosaur t-shirt for this tour,” she adds with a laugh. “Probably.” With: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion When: Saturday March 9 Where: The Hi-Fi / Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park More: Circles out now through FUSE.
Xxx photo by Xxx
“We came up with some of the ideas in Colorado, where the only music we saw live was a lot of questionably-executed reggae covers. I don’t think that kind of stuff had an influence on how we work, but you never know – there may be a strong reggae influence on our next album,” Yamada laughs. “Reggae is a very different kind of repetition to what we do, and I think we definitely use repetition in the way that we do because we enjoy it so much. There’s this concept that when something is repeated it’s the same, but not the same. The continuation of repeated playing makes it something new.
“The other part is, of course, the fascination with that whole idea of really locking into a groove, and then riding that groove as far as possible... seeing where it takes us,” she continues. “We are a little bit contained by the fact that we use a drum sampler on stage, rather than live drums, but the main thing is that the structure of the beat remains consistent. That way all we have to contend with is our own ability to improvise and create extended jams.”
John Merchant Master Class By Peter Hodgson
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rammy-nominated engineer and producer John Merchant has been involved in recordings by artists like Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Mika, Ronan Keating, Lenny Kravitz, R. Kelly, Toni Braxton, Celine Dion, and The Bee Gees. In fact, it’s his history with the latter – he started out as an intern at their Miami studio, Middle Ear, in the ‘80s – that brings him to Australia, on Barry Gibb’s current tour. But Merchant is also an educator, and Australian engineers and musicians can tap into some of his accumulated wisdom when he offers a masterclass at SAE campuses in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney in March. Before we get down to the nitty-gritty of our interview, Merchant has something he has to get off his chest. “Now, right off the bat, I’m just going to tell you… It’s the question that’s on everyone’s mind: did I in fact take performance-enhancing drugs? And I will admit to you, I did. And I did it just because the pressure is so great to succeed. Caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, I’ve done all of them. I want to come clean about that.”
the stock EQ in, say, ProTools or Logic, are spectacular! If you had an SSL [Solid State Logic mixing console], you had only one plugin, which was the EQ that was there!” Merchant identifies one particular mixing mistake which seems especially prevalent in the current climate: the tendency to rush into the “ear-candy” bits of the mix without getting the fundamentals right. “They just want to get to the fun, playful stuff. They’ll spend ten minutes on a static mix instead of the two or three hours that you really should invest. So a lot of times they understand what an EQ does and they understand a compressor, but they’re just too quick to jump to a conclusion and rush through the process. If you slow down a little bit and take a bit more time, just that one step will help you do better work.” What: John Merchant Masterclasses Where: SAE Sydney Campus, Surry Hills When: Wednesday March 6, 6pm Tickets: $35 General, $25 Student (via Eventbrite)
You may or may not get such candid advice at Merchant’s masterclass. “What I try to do is take some of the best moments of my university classes, the essential elements, and bring it to the talk,” he explains. “There will be some techniques and concepts. There will be some listening and discussion. I will be telling some stories – nothing too bad, but I will be telling some stories because they do help to bring these things to life. And certainly doing quite a lot of questions and answers.”
“There’s this feeling that mixing is a secret, or that there are tricks. I would contend that if you see the words ‘tips’, ‘tricks’ or ‘secrets’ in the title of the book, it’s probably bullshit.” Merchant will also listen to recordings by attendees (info on how to submit a track for consideration is provided when you purchase your ticket). “My idea with this is to demystify the mixing process,” Merchant says. “So many times, especially if you go to online resources – and I will not name [audio forum and advice site] Gearslutz – there’s this feeling that mixing is a secret, or that there are tricks. I would contend that if you see the words ‘tips’, ‘tricks’ or ‘secrets’ in the title of the book, it’s probably bullshit. If you ask a concert pianist what the secret is to being a great player, they’re going to look at you with deeply tired eyes and tell you they’ve been practicing for eight hours a day or more since they were three.” Merchant’s masterclasses also look at the fundamental ideas behind what makes mixes work: the process, the processing, and how you can apply these things to get good results. “One of the ways to do that is to look to more of the classic ways of applying those processes,” he says. “One of the things about the digital world is that there are way fewer restrictions. If you used an analogue EQ, for example, you had far fewer options available, and it meant that you had to apply more discipline when you used these things. You had a Q value of no higher than four, for example, on an EQ, whereas a Waves EQ can have a Q value of 100. That has some very serious sonic implications and if you’re not aware of that, sonically you’re doing irreparable damage to your audio. That’s one of the ideas we’ll talk about: getting pro results from your DAW [Digital Audio Workstation].”
Xxx xxxphoto photobybyJXxx xxxxx
And don’t get Merchant started on plug-ins built around preset signal chains, designed to make your recordings sound like those of a famous producer or engineer. “It won’t work with your song,” Merchant says. “The reason those settings worked for that producer on that song was because of the source tracks and because of the context within which they were being applied. There were a lot of things that made that set of parameters work for that person. “This isn’t intended to sound cruel, but you’re not one plug-in away from your mixes being perfect,” he adds. “It’s just not the case. I think most people are aware of that, but the marketing would tell you otherwise. I would almost say you would be better to not invest in any other plug-ins, and instead to invest the time in practicing with what you have. Just
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arts frontline
free stuff email: freestuff@thebrag.com
arts, theatre and film news... what's goin' on around town and more...
five minutes WITH
EDDIE SHARP year and it went well so I guess they felt they could trust me. It’s been an honour to be asked. I love P Space and what they do.
Installation by Julian Day
Y
What’s you training in performance/arts? I have very little training in performance or the arts. Sometimes I fear that it shows. I did go to art school though. For those of you unfamiliar with what an art school is: imagine a kindergarten or sheltered workshop for grown men and women who are unsure about their life choices. How did you get this gig? I curated an Erotic Fan Fiction Readings night for P Space last
WOODSTOCK DOWNUNDER
Fans of peace, love, and behind-the-scenes music docos, sit up and pay attention. A special screening of highlights from a new doco series Woodstock Downunder, following the 1973 Nimbin Aquarius Festival and the community it inspired, is taking over 107 Projects in Redfern on Sunday March 3. Special guests on the day include filmmakers (and founders of the Woodstock Museum in upstate NY) Nathan Koenig and Shelli Lipton, who’ll discuss the film, alongside Aquarius Festival co-directors Graeme Dunstan and Johnny Allen. Mosey on down at 2pm to relive the magic of The Age of Aquarius, and, total bonus, entry is via donation. 107projects.org
DOING LINES IN SURRY HILLS
Sydney artist, YouTube satirist (she was behind the Surry Hills-lampooning Scene &
You put a call-out for submissions; any surprises? I found out about Julian Day, who apparently I should have known about already. He is in the lineup and he is brilliant! His works are really funny, considered and they look beautiful. (see julianday. com). Also Shauna Winram, who was around in the Sydney early ‘90s performance heydays with The Post-Arrivalists. She is coming all the way from Canberra to talk about schizophrenia and the stolen generation. It’s an amazing and very personal piece. I’m really grateful she’s giving us
Heard) and “Stevie Nicks impersonator” Ash King is staging her debut exhibition Doing Lines, featuring portraits of music legends constructed using their own lyrics. The onenight-only exhibition is on Tuesday March 5 and will feature rock’n’roll hits turned up to 11, free Sailor Jerry cocktails and cider, while famous musos watch from the walls. What could be better than rock stars, live music and booze? Not much, we reckon. The fun kicks off at District 01 Gallery in Surry Hills from 7pm. See ashking.com.au for more.
THE WONDERFUL WRITERS OF OZ Back in the 1960s, Oz magazine was kind of like the Chaser of its day, but on crack; young upstarts like Bob Ellis, Robert Hughes, Richard Neville and Martin Sharp shocked the nation and got themselves in hot water after being charged with obscenity and targeted by pissed-off underworld figures.
The Gang
her time. She’s also funny, thank the lord. Any hints about what to expect on the night? Expect coffins, video, skeletons, installations, sacrificial rituals, death metal and Titanic mash ups. A lot of the acts seem to veer from the extraordinarily raw and personal to the very very silly. Which is perfect. What’s the theme about – Live And Let Die? It lends itself to subjects and forms that are quite personal. Also fun stuff like Satanism. In curating the night I was quite keen to get works that actually spoke to the theme and also added different perspectives on it. I’m really proud of how it’s come together. What: NightTime – Live And Let Die feat. Lucinda Gleeson, Shauna Winram, OKYEAHCOOLGREAT, Julian Day, Blaine Cooper, Katia Molino, Swell theatre company and surprise acts. When: Saturday March 2 Where: Performance Space @ Carriageworks More: performancespace.com.au / facebook.com/LNLSydney
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From the Visitor series
CHAUVEL CINEMATHEQUE
Chauvel Cinema has just dropped the program for its upcoming Cinematheque season; good news if you like cinematic surethings, not so much if you like The Hangover. They’re kicking off on Monday, February 25, with Nicholas Ray’s stylish They Live By Night – noir meets Romeo & Juliet meets road movie; the following Monday, March 4, you can catch pre-Exorcist William Friedkin, with the noirish Sorceror; on Monday March 11, the masochists among you can catch Cassavetes’ emotionally brutal Husbands (1970). Other season highlights include the Warhol/Morrissey camp classic Lonesome Cowboys, and Don ‘Dirty Harry’ Siegel’s Riot In Cell Block 11. For the full lineup, all screening Mondays at 6.30pm, see palacecinemas.com.au
If you like your cinema with a side-dose of social activism, the Big Picture Film Festival might be your cup of tea; founded by the Rev. Bill Crews, programmed by former Variety critic Eddie Cockrell, and endorsed by Stratts himself, it opens on Wednesday February 27 with a screening of Silence In The House Of God: Mea Maxima Culpa, by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (Enron; Taxi To The Dark Side), which examines molestation and official cover-ups in the Catholic Church. Other program coups include the Oscar-nominated documentary Five Broken Cameras, and the Australian Premiere of award-winning Russian documentary Anton’s Right Here, about a teen suffering from autism. BPFF runs from February 27 to March 5 at Event Cinemas, George Street; for the full lineup of films, checkout thebigpicture.org.au Ah, Sesame Street, the show that taught us learning CAN be fun (at least it seemed that way when there were brightly coloured puppets singing catchy songs). Join Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Grover and of course Elmo, as they “navigate a voyage through imagination” for fans of all ages, with an appearance from everyone’s favourite are-they-or aren’t-they couple Bert & Ernie. Sesame Street Presents: Elmo’s World Tour hits the Theatre Royal on Friday June 28 and Saturday June 29. Tickets are available now through Ticketmaster. Take a gander at SesameStreetPresents.com.au for all the deets.
Christoph Waltz and Jamie Foxx
When the magazine moved to the UK and moved its focus from satire to psychedelia, future luminaries like Germain Greer, Michael Leunig and Lillian Roxon were contributors. So Oz veterans aren’t short on stories – and you can hear some of those stories from founding co-editor Richard Walsh when he lands on a CBD edition of Late Night Library on March 20. Catch him from 8pm-9pm at Customs House Library, 31 Alfred St (book on 9242 8555); there’s also an exhibition of famous, often-controversial, always-brilliant Oz covers at the Library all through March.
THE BIG PICTURE
SESAME STREET IRL
Romance is hard, especially when it comes to planning the perfect date: you’ve got to think of it, execute it, turn up on time, and remember to invite your significant other. That’s a lot to think about, so we are making it all too easy for you, by giving away three double passes to (almost) any of the remaining sessions in the Moonlight Cinema season (not the NFT ones, dang) at Belvedere Amphitheatre, Centennial Park. Moonlight wraps up on March 31, but in the meantime there’s a whole mess of great films: the slightly sad/ slightly sweet Apatow-penned This Is 40; the intense, epic, stylised Tarantino film Django Unchained; or maybe the heartwarming, and true, redemption song that is Searching For Sugar Man. You can Google (or Ask Jeeves) the details and work out which one takes your date’s fancy, but do that in your own time, please. To enter, send us a photo of Paul Rudd to freestuff@thebrag.com and add a witty caption to it in the email.
DOUBLE TRIBUTE II
Nick Coyle, the very funny and floppy-haired fella you’ve seen prancing around stages with Pig Island, Club Cab Sav, and his solo shows Me Pregnant! and Double Tribute is back with… Double Tribute. For one night only Coyle will bring his comedy-show-play back from the dead at 107 Projects – one last hurrah before he takes it to London. He sings, he dances, he cries, he comedies – it’s all
VISITOR
Cheaper than a round-the-world ticket – and far more photogenic – Eamonn McLoughlin’s Visitor series documents tourists/visitors looking at stuff together – mostly, it seems, with their backs to the camera. It’ll be like that time you went to the Trevi Fountain in Rome but didn’t actually see it because of that family of built-like-a-brickshithouse Russians (and the fact you’re short) – but more insightful, and again, way more photogenic. McLoughlin is interested in how the act of observing relates to the thing being observed, and his latest series of photographs is infused with everything from quantum physics to Eastern philosophy and German Romantic painters. Check ‘em out at The General Store (Suite 201A, 77-83 William St, East Sydney), opening Friday March 1 from 6pm. general-store.net
based around themes of love, loss, mourning and infidelity, and promises to be a fun and sexy time. Turn up before 7pm (there are no bookings) on Sunday March 3 and hand over $15, and you’re in. 107 Redfern St, Redfern.
OCCUPY MICHAEL HING
You may have been offended or aroused by Michael Hing during one of his many appearances in places, including comedy club stages, comedy club audiences, podcasts, television’s Can of Worms or the bus stop. For some reason (probably because he’s the sharpest, funniest dude you’re likely to see in any of those places) he’s taking his show Occupy White People in places around the country, including The Factory Theatre during the Sydney Comedy Festival on May 8, 9 and 10. Tickets are available from the Factory’s website and you should probably go just to make sure he doesn’t make fun of you during the show.
Eamonn McLoughlin –Visitor series (2012) / Archival Lambda Print / 145 cm x 121 cm
And have you taken part in one before? I took part in a NightTime a few years ago as a member of a drunken choir. The brief was to get as drunk as possible in the greenroom with about 20 other people. Then we entered the space with iPods in our ears, singing along to the same track. It was an exhilarating and confusing experience. Looking back on it, I think I got too immersed in my role (drunk).
ou might remember Eddie from Mad Max Remix, his Erotic Fan Fiction nights, Imperial Panda Festival, or one of the many nights he’s curated around Sydney, including Late Night Library and the MCA Art Bar. He’s a born hustler of creativity. This week, he’s hosting Performance Space’s 14th NightTime – a night of one-off short works. The theme, in keeping with their current Season ‘Matters Of Life And Death’, is ‘Live And Let Die’.
MOONLIGHT CINEMA! TICKETS! WIN!
Alex Clapham & Penelope Benton
TEXT BY DEE JEFFERSON, KA TE BRITTON & LAUREN CARROLL HARRIS
MARCH 1 — MARCH 24 2013
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ith a gallery, ARI or pop-up space around every corner, every month is Art Month in Sydney. But officially, it’s just for March – and this year’s curators, creative duo Penelope Benton (Red Rattler) and Alex Clapham (Firstdraft/ Kudos) are turning the art dial to 11: talks, activities, art tours, collecting workshops, and a million shows, blossoming from the streets. Below, BRAG’s visual arts writers pick their hot tickets. For the full lineup, see artmonthsydney.com.au [TALKS] Jason Wing: 'Dynasty'
In Good Company: John Kaldor & Clark Beaumont
SYDNEY 2013 [TALKS]
Two’s Company: Creative Couples and Duos in Conversation. Sullivan+Strumpf, Zetland Wednesday March 6, 6-7.30pm, 2013’s Art Month is feeling [EXHIBITION]
Ben Quilty: After Afghanistan National Art School, Taylor Square February 21 – April 23 Archibald winner Ben Quilty’s mission is to make painting relevant and maybe even cool again, and in this mission he shines. His dripping, candy-coloured paintings resonate far beyond Australia’s small art world: his souped-up cars, greasy burgers and disembodied skulls are dedicated to the themes of colonialism, working class life in the suburbs and Australian
the love with a special focus on creative collaboration. Fitting, given not only the duo of Artistic Directors, partners and collaborative artists Penelope Benton and Alexandra Clapham, but also a steadily increasing interest in collaborative practice and interdisciplinary work across the arts. Two’s Company sees the duo masculinity in all its beery, bloodshot contradictions. They somehow manage to be smart, macho, sexy, political and a little disturbed all at once. Quilty’s last major show in Sydney was a striking piece of conceptual 21st century painting – a row of canvasses in which Captain Cook progressively morphed like melting icecream into the devil. In the wake of his role as Australia’s official war artist in Afghanistan and his ongoing obsession with modern masculinity, we’re keen to see how he tackles the experience of men at war in this next show. LCH
Ben Quilty: 'Captain S. After Afghanistan'
[TALKS]
For The Love Of God. Is Contemporary Art A Joke? Alaska Projects, Kings Cross Carpark Saturday March 16, 6-8pm These are the questions
we have all secretly asked ourselves, gazing emptyeyed around a fluorescent, white-walled gallery in Paddington, sipping a plastic glass of terrible wine amidst a group of cheap drunks dressed in black. What in the name of art is going on here? Couldn’t a threeyear-old make this? Is there
moderate a ‘performative dinner’ featuring some of Sydney’s most intriguing collaborators, including chef Kylie Kwong and artist Nell, sisters Emma and Katie Price from collective The Kingpins, artists Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, gallerists Ursula Sullivan and Joanna Strumpf of Sullivan+Strumpf, and Benton and Clapham. KB [TALKS]
If not, why not? Feminism in contemporary art Artspace, Woolloomooloo March 23, 2-5pm This panel is all the more relevant given last year’s Abbott vs. Gillard misogyny stoush. For all the art world’s avant-garde attitudes, it seems there’s still a way to go in terms of women’s representation. The legendary art collective Guerilla Girls has been pointing out for decades that female artists are embarrassingly under-represented in the collections of major galleries around the globe. They found that even where museums owned substantial amounts of female artists’ work, it was mostly stashed in the basement rather than on show. In crude economic terms: women’s art is less valuable than men’s. The most expensive artwork bought at auction is Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’, which sold for $120 million in 2012; the record for a female artist, Natalia Goncharova’s ‘Les Fleurs’, sold in 2008, is a puny $10.9 million. Artists and curators including Jess Olivieri and Kelly Doley of Brown Council will pin down what this all means for Sydney’s contemporary art scene. LCH
[EXHIBITION]
Yuanyang – feat. Jason Wing and others Art Atrium / 181 Old South Head Rd, Bondi Junction February 26 – March 23 Jason Wing has most recently become known for his confronting sculptural works, one of which hides a bronze bust of Captain Cook beneath a robber’s balaclava and is called 'Australia Was Stolen By
[EXHIBITION]
FriendsWithYou: Inner Vision In Between Mclemoi Gallery, Chippendale Until March 30 FriendsWithYou’s infectious brand of art is produced with one aim: to spread a message of Magic, Luck and Friendship. Their work, populated by brightly coloured paintings, sculptures,
Armed Robbery.' He also has a strain of Chinese heritage, and is among the most political and prominent Aboriginal contemporary artists working today. He's in this group show, curated by artist and activist Djon Mundine and Imogen Yang, and named after a popular Asian street drink that's comprised of three parts coffee and seven parts tea. Wings works draw on his bicultural background and are bound to be both hard-hitting and poetic – a winning combination. LCH
installations, playgrounds and performances, attests to this, as do their numerous fans, including Pharrell Williams, with whom the LA-based duo worked to produce his catalogues and music backdrops. As part of Art Month, new kids on the block MCLEMOI are hosting FriendsWithYou’s first ever Australian solo show, which promises to be a cornucopia of rainbows, smileys and other adorable riffs on Murakami’s Superflat movement. KB
something face-punchingly obvious about this show that only I am missing? “Is Contemporary Art a Joke?” promises a frank, personal, non-academic round-table discussion between Sydney art types and, we hope, a few answers to the eternal art world questions we’re usually too timid to ask. LCH Friends With You: 'I Melt For You'
Collector’s Space, 125A Kent St Saturday March 23, 6-8pm Continuing the theme of collaboration, this talk sees the inestimable John Kaldor in conversation with emerging performance duo Clark Beaumont, the youngest artists set to appear in Kaldor Public Art Project #27: 13 Rooms. The talk will explore the upcoming 13 Rooms (curated by MoMA’s Klaus Biesenbach and the Serpentine’s Hans Ulrich Obrist), Clark Beaumont’s artistic practice, and how the two young Aussies feel about being launched so suddenly into the spotlight by exhibiting side by side with some of the world’s most infamous artists. KB [ACTIVITIES]
Dance With David Capra MCA, First Fleet Park March 17, 2-3.30pm. David Capra refers to himself as an intercessory artist, an interesting spin on the whole pickle of participatory art; he is not an artist who demands participation, but who participates on your behalf with the aim of ‘healing’. This healing practice spans mediums – collage, performance, drawing and dance. Dance With David sees the artist bring his unique brand of dance to the masses in a work to be staged outside the MCA, featuring none other than yourself. Expect banner waving, movement and performance for all ages. KB [TALKS]
Tomorrow’s Thinkers: Valuing Art & Design From An Early Age Object Gallery, Surry Hills Friday March 1, 6.30-8.00pm, Creativity, imagination, selfesteem – engaging with art as a kid can deliver all kinds of wonderful. But can it also enhance cognition, critical thinking and learning? This talk explores some unexpected benefits of introducing art and design to kids. Speakers include Liane Rossler (Dinosaur Designs), Annette Mauer (Object / Design Emergency) and Heather Whitely Robertson (MCA). Hosted by Danielle Robson (Object). KB
rom the reprobates who brought you Fat Pizza, Swift & Shift Couriers and the Housos TV series, comes Housos vs. Authority – a road trip movie with no filter and no brakes. Shazza’s (Elle Dawe) estranged mum is dying, and seeing as her dole cheque won’t cover the trip from Western Sydney out to Alice Springs, certain compromises must be made… So Shazza, Franky (Paul Fenech) and Dazza (Jason Davis, AKA Jabba) are to drive a campervan containing a mysterious package out to the Red Centre, and one can only conclude that hijinks will ensue.
BRAG has five Housos vs. Authority prize packs to give away, each containing a signed Blu-ray, signed thongs and temporary tattoos. To be in the running, email freestuff@ thebrag.com with your postal address, and tell us your favourite road trip movie.
S AY W EA IV G
HOUSOS VS. AUTHORITY! WIN BRO! F WIN!
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Angels-Demons
[THEATRE] No Mercy By Simon Binns
[VISUAL ARTS] AES+F Return To Sydney By Kate Britton
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ccording to controversial Russian art collective AES+F, “children are not only beautiful, they are an enigma”. The children in question, the bewitching angel-demon figures that comprise the group’s Angels-Demons show, are certainly enigmatic: glossy black, averaging a metre in height, and featuring both angel wings and devil tails.
For AES+F, these questions are far from foreign ground. The collective are known for their overtly challenging work, which for some 25 years of their collaborative practice has explored questions of race, religion, media culture, fear, and commodified desire. Their mesmeric video work The Feast of Trimalchio, one of the most talked-about works at the 2010 Sydney Biennale, showcased to near-perfection the striking aestheticism and depth the quartet bring to what could easily become didactic or insincere work. The multi-channel video featured a surreal series of tableaux – strange figures full of desire, and engaged in scenes of excess, gluttony and decadence. Likewise, their Islamic Project, an interactive installation and performance work staged from 1996 – 2003, forced audience participants into direct, visceral confrontation with their own fears of a potentially non-Western future. The Islamic Project has been performed in two distinct ways – the first a ‘Travel Agency to the Future’ that encourages participants to explore visually the fears and misgivings of Western societies about Islam, and the second a meditative installation that serves as a kind of Bedouin tent: a place for quieter reflection, surrounded by traditional handmade carpets, Islamic images printed on silk, and traditional music. Both position
audiences in a similarly precarious position – simultaneously tourist, inhabitant, judge, and outsider. Like The Feast of Trimalchio and Islamic Project, Angels-Demons manages to walk a fine line between the purely aesthetic and the totally superficial; the sublime and the base. The confounding child-figures are both beautiful and somehow unfathomable, true objects of desire. Their blacker-than-black fibreglass surfaces are shiny to the point of reflection, giving them a strange and murky depth in spite of their Jeff Koons-like superficiality. These points of ambiguity are woven throughout the show, as the artists are quick to point out. “They are not only double nature creations, they have multiple natures”, they say, pointing out that the tails, associated in Western mythology with demons and devils, could just as easily be associated in Asian cultures with the dragon, a symbol of prosperity and luck. At the end of the day, their ambiguity is their greatest asset, because it forces us to choose for ourselves. Left: Angel-Demon #6 Below: Angel-Demon #4
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fter years of making a ruckus in car parks, lounge rooms and indie theatres across the country, Melbourne enfants terribles Sisters Grimm (Declan Greene and Ash Flanders) are hitting the main stage this month, bringing their anarchic, camp take on the ‘evil child’ genre of films, Little Mercy, to Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf 2. Little Mercy is centred around Virginia Summers, “a neurotic, agoraphobic housewife type, who is married to Roger Summers, a very successful community theatre director,” Flanders explains. “Their lives are great, they’ve got tonnes of money – being a community theatre director; they’ve got everything except a child. And then Mercy turns up on their doorstep.” This little gift from the universe seems to be the solution to all their problems, but as you can probably imagine, it quickly becomes clear that something isn’t quite right – and if you’ve seen The Exorcist or Rosemary’s Baby, you can probably guess what's wrong. “She kills people,” laughs Flanders. The first production of Little Mercy was in a car park under housing commission flats in Collingwood, with a set made from the junk they found there, and this DIY approach has been key to Sisters Grimm’s work. “What we’ve been doing for a while is creating these grand exercises in failure, where we try to take on a cinematic genre with really clearly defined boundaries and conventions and then try and approximate the kind of experience that offers [using] resources that are inappropriate for that task,” explains Greene. “In the past, poverty has been the main limitation – the shows are put together with whatever junk we can get our hands on… and miscasting friends of ours from the Melbourne alternative drag scene.” How then to keep the feel when you’re performing at Sydney’s biggest theatre? “We’re not going to pretend we don’t have a budget,” says Greene, “so what this production has been about is clearing the resources we have at hand, and mis-selecting and miscasting things.”
What: Angels-Demons When: Until April 13 Where: Anna Schwartz Gallery / 245 Wilson St, Darlington How much: Free entry
Ash Flanders
For example, the role of sweetly demonic eightyear-old Mercy will be played by 71-year-old Jill McKay. “She’s a sexy senior,” says Flanders with a smile. “She’s also in a video art piece at MOMA – an octogenarian version of the Sex Pistols and Jill’s Johnny Rotten,” offers Greene. “The more I heard, the more I thought she just sounds really game and that’s what we need in the room,” Flanders says. “She’s gamer than us,” agrees Greene. (Coming from a duo who once made a parody of Hannie Rayson’s The Swimming Club called The Rimming Club, that’s no small claim.) Way back in the mid-2000s, it was a frustration with the major theatre companies that fuelled Flanders and Greene’s creative process. “When we started out I was opening season
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For the artists, the strangely beautiful figures represent the uncertainty of our futures, the great mystery of what will come to be. Like our own paths as we move through life, these liminal children are unresolved in multiple ways – neither angel nor demon, but ‘angel-demon’. Their gender and ethnicity are also deliberately oblique. “They have not European faces because their future will be maybe not European – they have African, Asian faces,” say the artists.
Sisters Grimm
brochures for theatre companies, thinking 'This is fucked, I would never see any of this work',” recalls Greene. After half a decade of making shows and watching the industry shift, the pair feel like what they do is no longer on the fringes. “The culture’s catching up,” laughs Flanders. Performing at STC has meant they’ve had to figure out how to maintain that energy, but within the machine they were once raging against. “We can’t pretend that we’re still that angry about the way theatre operates in this country,” admits Greene. However audiences need not fear that the pair are moving away from the antagonistic camp aesthetic that has got them so much attention. “We always have something snarky to say,” declares Flanders. “We’re a gay theatre company, so we’re really trying to break the bitchy two-faced mould,” Greene manages to say with a straight face. What: Little Mercy by Sisters Grimm When: From March 7-24 Where: Wharf 2, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay More: Tickets $30 or less from sydneytheatre.com.au
Save Your Legs! [FILM] Just Ain’t Cricket By Chris Martin
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rendan Cowell is chewing on a grape in his hotel room and pondering what it means to mature from a boy into a man. “We’re just boys with beards really, aren’t we – men? There’s just that bit where you have to grow up because you cannot behave that way your whole life; you start to get called on it, and it starts to affect your life. You’ve got family and friends and jobs and things, you can’t behave like you did at high school… and as much as we want to hang on to our youth our whole life, you will not grow unless you challenge yourself as a man. That’s where these boys are at.”
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Stephen Curry’s turn as club president Ted Brown is instantly recognisable to anyone who’s played park cricket in Australia, where the game is held together by a special kind of tragic. As Cowell puts it, “Once you realise your athleticism is limited but you’re still dedicated to playing cricket, there’s probably something wrong with you.” But for Cowell, the funniest moments of the film belong to Stavros, portrayed with cocky vigour by Damon Gameau. “It’s hard to find actors who can play that kind of alpha male, because in Australia if you talk yourself up too much you get shot down pretty quickly. Damon seemed just to have this wonderful Stavros quality of going, ‘No, I’m the man,’ and it’s hilarious.” No Australian cricketer returns from India without a story about the locals’ rabid fascination with the game, and the same goes for Cowell. In one scene from the film, Ted is waved through airport security because the guard mistakes him for legendary Aussie batsman Ricky Ponting. Too good to be true? Cowell takes up the tale.
Stephen Curry and Brendan Cowell in Save Your Legs! “The second time I went [to India] I was being harassed the whole time, like, ‘Who are you? Are you David Boon?’ But then when someone said, ‘Are you Ricky Ponting?’ I said, ‘You know what? I am. I am Ricky Ponting.’ I went inside the hotel and came out an hour later – there were about a hundred people there waiting for my autograph, and I started running, and they were chasing me down the street”. Despite the perils of cricketing fame, Cowell – a handy batsman in his youth, boasting a highest score of 132 not out (“I lacked a little bit of focus, and then I found arts and women
and beer, and kind of veered off from sports when I was 14”) – is ready for a return to India on the Australian cricket team’s current tour, should he be required. “Let’s face it,” he says, “the majority of the squad’s pretty useless at the moment, they could do with a flashy numberfive batsman-cum-leg-spinner… yeah, definitely available. I think Michael Clarke might even have a hamstring problem, so I could captain as well, happy to do that.” What: Save Your Legs! – Dir. Boyd Hicklin When: In cinemas from February 28
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Cowell is referring to Ted, Rick and Stavros, the trio at the centre of Save Your Legs!, a uniquely Australian comedy about a team of thirty-something amateur cricketers who head to India for a shot at sporting glory and the last hurrahs before marriage, mortgages and babies. Their story is based on the mighty Abbotsford Anglers, a motley brigade wallowing somewhere in the abyss of Victorian park cricket until their subcontinental adventure became the subject of a 2005 documentary, also called Save Your Legs!. When star Anglers batsman and producer Nick Batzias met Cowell at the Sundance Film Festival and raised the idea of turning the story into a feature, Cowell was on board “in a flash”, signing up not only to portray team captain Rick, but to write the film as well.
“I went down and met the [players] and became friends with the families, and then we started a long process of, ‘How do we tell this story?’” says Cowell. “We took a while ‘til we really found the genre of the film, found the core of it, and then we were on our way.”
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Funny, aDDictive anD a little Bit Bizarre Totally original, yet with hints of everything from Monty Pytho
n
to The League of Gentlemen and The Mighty Boosh, THIS IS JINSY has all the makings of a new cult classic!
Film & Theatre Reviews Hits and misses on the silver screen and the bareboards around town.
■ Film
THE PAPERBOY In cinemas from February 28 The Paperboy is being released in Australia shortly after the Academy Awards are announced, and in many ways, its timing couldn’t be better. With worthy films like Zero Dark Thirty, Argo and Lincoln being celebrated, this unapologetically lurid late-’60s-set Southern Gothic noir – an adaptation of Pete Dexter’s 1995 novel by Precious director Lee Daniels – arrives on screens like a cannonball in the prestige swimming pool. It gained instant notoriety upon its Cannes premiere last year for a scene in which Nicole Kidman urinates on Zac Efron to relieve his jellyfi sh stings, and that outrageous moment turns out to be emblematic of the film as a whole. “If anyone’s gonna piss on him, it’s gonna be me!” declares Kidman’s dolled-up Charlotte Bess before doing her business, and her words might as well be Daniels’ own proud statement of intent. Alas, however admirable it is to see a film so unabashedly outré (albeit sometimes uncomfortably revealing of its director’s apparent fetishes and hang-ups), The Paperboy is for the most part an arrhythmic, inert mess. There’s a murder investigation at the film’s core, involving a Miami Times reporter (Matthew McConaughey) sent to uncover the truth behind the killing of a local sheriff in a small Florida town. The plot, however convoluted, turns out to be a loose foundation for the film’s overdetermined, sultry-grungy atmosphere. From the deliberately wonky zoom-lenses and ultra-grainy 16mm photography, to ■ Theatre
DREAMS IN WHITE Until March 23 / SBW Stables
Taking the real life disappearance of a rich CEO as its starting point, Dreams In White is an 80-minute exploration of authenticity and class. When property developer Michael Devine (Andrew McFarlane) goes missing, a curious double life is revealed. There are all the usual ingredients, the grieving wife, the no-bullshit cop and, of course, the sexy scandal, but in Duncan Graham’s tightly-written script, there is more going on beneath the surface. Rather than offer us a scandal at a distance, Graham and director Tanya Goldberg have tried to bring us into
the killer soundtrack of classic soul/RnB cuts, Daniels obviously has his sights set on making something that feels anachronistic in every way, but even his victory in that regard is questionable. Otherwise, it has all the dramatic urgency of a decomposing gator carcass, with slapdash and spatially disorienting editing working hard to make sure you know as little about who’s doing what to who and why – despite the efforts of Macy Gray, playing a maid, who spells out text and subtext alike in a graceless voiceover narration. The cast give it their all, with Kidman and the recentlyrevitalised McConaughey coming out best, but altogether it’s a long slog through the bayou for driftwood rewards. Ian Barr the world of the action, pitching camp in the security of a suburban lounge room, to begin with. We’re presented with characters and situations we’re comfortable with, but as the play goes on, the underlying tensions of the script become more apparent. The sense of unease when Devine and his daughter are alone is palpable, and when the actor playing a cleaner from western Sydney doubles as Devine’s wife’s psychologist, the issue of class distinctions is brought to the fore. This doubling of characters also contributes to one of the play’s other central themes, that of authenticity. As Devine’s double life is exposed in the wake of his disappearance, the authenticity of his relationships is called into question and this is highlighted by the majority of the actors doubling roles, with only Devine and his daughter Amy (Sara West) remaining static. Devine is obviously at the centre of the crisis, but it also seems that Amy knew more than she was willing to admit and that her father’s disappearance was less unexpected. Lucy Bell’s performance as Anna Devine is central to the show, eschewing melodrama for a much more real performance. Mandy McElhinney and Steve Rodgers also impress as they fearlessly shift between their roughened working-class and more frigid, but equally abrasive, upper-middle-class characters. An intriguing spectacle that will simmer in the mind long after the performance. Henry Florence
■ Film
CLOUD ATLAS In cinemas from February 28 The creative team behind Cloud Atlas put a lot of thought into the question of whether they could adapt David Mitchell’s complex novel for the big screen. The question of whether they should clearly never crossed their minds. The novel comprises a series of loosely-connected stories, the general idea being that the actions of one generation can shape the destiny of the next. The Wachowski siblings and Tom Tykwer – whose combined body of work includes such stylish and inventive fare as Bound and Run Lola Run – joined forces to take on this project, and poured considerable resources into it. Cloud Atlas is driven by a desire to tackle life’s big questions head-on. It’s bold, it’s whimsical … and it’s a clusterfuck of near-epic proportions, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
NEW ON DVD FEBRUARY 27
The story takes place in six distinct eras, in settings that include an old-timey sailing ship, a futuristic Korean metropolis and the English countryside of the present day. The characters in each story are different, but share a number of common traits; throughout each story, we see history repeat in slightly different configurations, as lessons from the past are learned and ignored. Rather than trust the audience’s ability to read between the lines and recognise common threads between these characters, the Wachowskis make the links as obvious as possible, by casting the same actors in each story. This decision destroys any kind of verisimilitude or grit that Cloud Atlas may have had. Where you should be drawn into the film’s world, instead, you’re pushed away, as you watch an elaborate game of ‘Pin The False Nose On The Actor’.
Tom Hanks and Halle Berry in Cloud Atlas Sometimes the transformations are funny – Hugh Grant brings a certain wounded dignity to the role of a tattooed cannibal. Often, though, they’re creepy and disturbing – in the Korean sequences, Jim Sturgess and Hugo Weaving wear prosthetics to make their eyes look more Asian. Seriously. If you genuinely can’t make your movie without putting half your cast in hideous yellow-face make-up for a large chunk of it, there are some questions you need to ask yourself. Specifically: ‘WHY?’ The film’s structure is nimble as it skips between one story and the next. The problem is that these stories collectively don’t amount to a whole lot. The dialogue is superficially profound, but after three hours of mush-mouthed platitudes about how we’re all connected, you realise you could get the same information from an inspirational poster on someone’s toilet wall. Cloud Atlas is a film with nothing meaningful to say, and the filmmakers sure take their sweet time in saying it. Alasdair Duncan
See www.thebrag.com for more arts reviews 22 :: BRAG :: 501 :: 25:02:13
Dreams In White photo by Brett Boardman
Andrew McFarlane and Sara West in Dreams In White
Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman in The Paperboy
Arts Snap
Street Level At the heart of the arts
At the heart of the arts Where you went last week...
WITH
LUKE SHIRLAW
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jurassic lounge: anti-valentine’s day
PICS :: TL
graf-artist turned photographer (for Sydney crew Hobogestapo), graphic designer and publisher, Luke is also Creative & Marketing Director for Ironlak spray paint – which makes him the perfect person to forge a partnership between Ironlak and his own street art mag, Artillery. They’re teaming up to launch the sixth issue of Artillery, which features work by Sydney’s KGB crew and old-school artist Caib KOC (both providing wallpieces for the launch), Frenchman Zoer, Brissie boys Anthony Lister and Sofles, and heaps more.
12:02:13 :: The Australian Museum :: College St Sydney
How did you get involved with Ironlak? I was living with the owner when he was trying to get Ironlak off the ground about about 10 years ago. I was working as a graphic designer, so it just happened organically that he would involve me to handle the design work, and eventually photography. For the first few years I was involved very minimally, as I was on my own path trying to run a little design studio and produce a music magazine titled Death Before Dishonour with my buddy Joel. After we got into a bunch of debt, I opted out of the business, joining Ironlak full-time shortly afterwards. Despite what people may think, it’s still such a small company – so I have a pretty diverse workload.
textaqueen: unknown artist
Who’s in this photo (pictured above) on the cover of Artillery #6? KGB crew; they’re a force to be reckoned with in Sydney. Many of the members are rooted in the traditional Sydney/New York style and they do a LOT of graffiti on a variety of surfaces. In addition to liking what they do, I’ve had some funny party experiences with a couple of them, so I thought they might have some funny stories to tell. The cover photo was actually MACH’s idea. We dressed them up in white onesies and filled two fire extinguishers with paint. The idea was to try and get a group shot while they were being bombarded with paint. However, as soon as they started to get covered, I realised that the shot wasn’t about the action but rather it was about how they looked once covered in paint. What: Artillery #6 Launch/Show When: Wednesday February 27 from 6pm Where: The TATE @ Toxteth Hotel / 345 Glebe Point Rd More: artillerymagazine.com.au
PICS :: TL
When and why did you start Artillery? Chapter One came out in 2003 so it’s certainly been a spasmodic journey (six chapters in nearly 10 years!). I guess I’ve always been obsessed with design, publishing and graffiti, so I wanted to make a graffiti publication with well-considered content, professional interviews, good photography and clean design.
When did you get into graf? I started painting graffiti in 1995 when I was still at school. It’s been a big part of my life ever since. I don’t paint anywhere near as much as I should, but I’m trying to do more this year.
Bunni Lambada photograph by Leather & Lace Creative
16:02:13 :: Sullivan+Strumpf :: 799 Elizabeth St Zetland
Arts Exposed What's in our diary...
BOWLESQUE Saturday March 2, 5pm ‘til late Coogee Bowlo / Dolphin St, Coogee. At some point, possibly in the wake of that movie about lawn bowls with Judith Lucy in it, barefoot bowls and a few mega-cheap beers at the local bowlo became one of the chillest options for hanging out with your mates. (Old people, the original hipsters, have been onto it for years.) This Saturday at Coogee Bowlo, you can spend your whole day rolling balls at other balls without shoes on, before heading inside for Bowlesque, the sweetly satirical burlesque take on bowlos and lawn bowling culture (with some classic fan and pole routines thrown in) performed by Bunni Lambada (Miss Burlesque Sydney 2012 – pictured), Sheena Miss Demeanour, Hedy Bella Nova, Mama La Roux, Maple Rose, Memphis Mae and heeeeaps more. There’s also bowlesque bingo, DJ sets from Neil “Izz” Ismail and Sakura, prizes for best bowling-themed outfits – and the barefoot bowls are free from 5pm. Tickets are $20 presale from schoolnightsocialclub.com. au, and $25 on the door.
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Album Reviews What's been crossing our ears this week...
ALBUM OF THE WEEK AUTRE NE VEUT Anxiety Spunk
Endearingly over-the-top pop that balances its unabashed sincerity with euphoric melodies and clever structure.
A couple of tracks are a bit flabby – like the clicking, pallid beats of ‘A Lie’ smushed under a screechy combo of synth and vocal, then drawn out too long on their own in the coda. The limits of Ashin’s voice only really grate when he overuses it, like in ‘Don’t Ever Look Back’, where he spends twice as much time in the very top of his register than anywhere else and it takes on an almost parodic level of falsetto anguish.
‘Play By Play’ is echoed beautifully by the other bookend, ‘World War’, which employs the same segmented structure, switching gears halfway through to close out the record with one soothingly repetitive motif. Caitlin Welsh
JIM JAMES
JOHNNY MARR
EELS
DARWIN DEEZ
Regions Of Light And Sound Of God Spunk
The Messenger Warner Music
Wonderful, Glorious E Works/Cooperative
Songs For Imaginative People Lucky Numbers/ Cooperative
The last time I saw Jim James perform live, fronting My Morning Jacket, he was wearing a cape. I remember thinking that it took a special kind of man to rock a cape. James’ debut solo record, Regions Of Light And Sound Of God, is the kind of album that takes a special man to make, but it doesn’t quite catapult him to superhero status just yet. Comprised of nine hypnotic and complex recordings, this record delivers the package we’ve come to expect from James over his some 15 years with MMJ: majestic rhythms, soaring, heavenly vocals, and psychedelic splendour. Album opener ‘State Of The Art (A.E.I.O.U.)’ is a hauntingly pretty track, but it’s also something pretty predictable from James. It’s smooth and at times sultry, but could just as easily open a MMJ album; though he plays all the instruments himself on this solo release, the sounds they make are somewhat familiar. Dripping in lovely vocal melody, ‘Dear One’ sounds like a luscious pop homage to Elliott Smith. The essential track here, though, is ‘A New Life.’ It will chill you and then defrost your bones until you’re a puddle in the sun. James delivers the first verse a cappella, singing “Hey, open the door, I want a new life / Hey, and here’s what’s more, I want a new life, a new life” before an extremely catchy, hippiecommune-style strum-and-drum emerges to accompany his angelic voice. Jim James has spent 15 years honing his skills as a master of psychedelic folk, and this album puts them on fine display. If you’re a MMJ fan, you will find comfort here.
Johnny Marr is a god. If you doubt that, listen to the intro of The Smiths’ ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’, or ‘How Soon Is Now?’ – surely only a divine being could make a guitar sound so sublime. Now that’s been established, let’s be objective about Marr’s new solo album, The Messenger. Disappointingly, God created a dud. It opens strongly enough, with ‘The Right Thing Right’, a song driven by a stomping Northern soul beat. It’s fun, but nothing that Paul Weller or Doves haven’t done better. As the album continues, a stronger New Wave influence is evident – Marr is revisiting the sounds of his preSmiths years. And it occasionally works, as on the funky, angular title track, which boasts the album’s best guitar solo. Yet there are too many bland, guitarled tracks that verge on MOR. The pub rock of ‘Upstarts’ is almost offensively dull. While listening I tried my damnedest to avoid fantasising about how magnificent a Marr/Morrissey reunion would be, but stale couplets like “The underground is overground / the overground will pull you down” really do make you long for even just the tiniest injection of The Grumpy One’s poetic turn of phrase. ‘Generate! Generate!’ tries harder, and at least makes you sit up and listen, but includes even more facile lyrics (“Generate! Generate! Generate! / You’ve got know-how, I got to know now / Calculate! Calculate! Calculate!”). You beg for it to offer more, but it never does, and in that respect it’s representative of the album as a whole. The Messenger is at best pleasant but instantly forgettable. Save your cash and put it towards the Smiths box set Complete instead.
Erin Bromhead
Mark Oliver Everett, AKA E, has been the nucleus of Eels since their debut album (as the actual band Eels) in 1996. Band members have come and gone, mostly at the behest of Everett, and through this revolvingdoor collection of musicians, E has kept the Eels sound inventive and eclectic. Wonderful, Glorious – the band’s tenth studio album – sees Everett loosening his grip on what has been his musical baby. He escaped his basement home-studio and went into a proper recording facility with no set plan. He, along with four other guys (who have, surprisingly, been a constant in Eels for the last few years at least), just had a jam, and the thirteen cuts on this latest album are the fleshed-out results. There’s no real set theme on Wonderful, Glorious, which is exactly how E wants it, it seems. Perhaps it’s his personal reaction to the focused direction of the trilogy of Eels albums released throughout 2009 and 2010 where themes of loss and rejuvenation were heavy in the mix. One does get a sense of resolution in this new LP, though. In album opener ‘Bombs Away’, E rasps “I’ve had enough of being complacent / I’ve had enough of being a mouse” over the backdrop of skulking bass and glitchy guitar noise, and the sense of inner strength reappears in the folky ‘On The Ropes’. However, it’s the building, joyous title track ‘Wonderful, Glorious’ that is the perfect summation of the album’s vibe. A lot of Wonderful, Glorious sounds like a patchwork of ideas pieced together, as a jam album should. But amongst the diverse sounds, there’s also a feeling of familiarity that comes with the songwriting skill of E.
In an industry that prioritises that certain aloof, detached, gives-no-fucks attitude that is often conflated with ‘coolness’, it’s difficult to know what to do with Darwin Deez. How can we, a generation hard-wired to be suspicious of outward displays of enthusiasm, contend with a man whose entire existence seems devoted to making other people smile? That same question is also raised by the music, which never ceases to be upbeat and uptempo, even when concerned with devastating breakups, or awful, self-centred girls. That technique worked well on his self-titled 2010 debut, and it succeeds again here thanks to a dramatically expanded sonic palette. Yes, everything still sounds like a dude in his bedroom, but now it’s a dude with fun toys to play with and an imagination that makes the most of them – just listen to those guitars in the chorus of ‘Redshift’. A particularly cruel Pitchfork review decried the “precious, homespun whimsy,” and snarkily suggested the band’s onstage dance routines are from the “How To Ace Your Wes Anderson Audition” guidebook. But I don’t hear that at all. Whereas Anderson’s oeuvre is deliberately, heavily stylised, Deez strikes me as almost uncomfortably honest. And so when others see insincerity in the whimsy, or denounce the rhymes and metaphors made possible only by weird, forced turns of phrase, my sense is Deez is just an awkward, jangly kinda guy. While there’s nothing as catchy as ‘Radar Detector’, ‘Constellations’ or, in fact, most of the songs on the debut, Songs For Imaginative People suggests that Deez has enough ideas, and enough charm, to create something spectacular very soon. Tremendous fun – just leave your cynicism at the door.
David Wild Rick Warner
Hugh Robertson
INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK VERONICA FALLS Waiting For Something To Happen Bella Union/Co-Op Partially spawned by the short-lived The Royal We, Veronica Falls released their self-titled debut album in 2011, showcasing an energetic young band completely in tune with the resurgence in jangle pop. On Waiting For Something To Happen, the London-based quartet have built on their proven melodic strengths with a bowerbird approach. Opener ‘Tell Me’ launches with a Krautrock pulse before finding itself
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somewhere in the territory of Television’s Marquee Moon, with the chiming notes of James Hoare’s guitar scaling a similar twisting path. Roxanne Clifford’s vocal turns are still reminiscent of ’90s shoegaze-pop darlings Lush, but she’s also developed a nuanced warmth, most apparent in the understated line from single ‘Teenage’ – “Driving late at night / I let you listen to the music you like” – and its lyrical echo of The Smiths’ ‘There Is A Light...’ ‘Shooting Star’ is based around a rolling riff inspired by the Nirvana/Pixies pages of the ’90s alt-rock playbook. The charging ‘If You Still Want Me’ begins like Wire’s ‘Outdoor Miner’ (a masterclass in pop songwriting that Lush once
covered), left-turns via early Stone Roses into a New Order bassline, and ends up being the track closest in spirit to the debut’s gritty ‘Beachy Head’. The album’s highlight, however, comes at the halfway mark, with the melodic hook of ‘My Heart Beats’ transcending all influences to triumph as a standalone gem. Seemingly constructed from a grabbag of vintage clothes, music clips shot on Super 8 and long fringes, Veronica Falls know how to write songs that combine genuine charm with cherry-picked references from the past. The results will roll around in your head for days. Chris Harms
Autre Ne Veut photo by Jody Rogac
Anxiety, the second full-length from producer/vocalist Arthur Ashin, is bedroom RnB with a life-size Prince poster on the wall. Aside from ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ (not a Whitney cover, but a must for Yeasayer fans), it’s slow-jam city: falsetto, new-age keys, all of the feelings, none of the self-consciousness or irony.
But Ashin’s heartfelt maximalism works far more often than it doesn’t, and never better than in opener ‘Play By Play’: a full minute of gentle, cheesy synth flourishes and Ashin crooning “And I said / baby”, before a short verse, a pulsing pop bridge for Robyn to envy, bursting into a sparkling pile of glassy percussion, Purple Rain female backup vocals, and Ashin pouring everything he has into it. “I just called you up / to get that play by play by play / Don’t ever leave me alone” – over and over, at once needy and bombastic. The repetition and variance is hypnotic; it’s one of the best songs of the year so far.
DAWN MCCARTHY & BONNIE ‘PRINCE’ BILLY What the Brothers Sang Spunk The brothers of the title are the Everly Brothers, and this is Dawn McCarthy (of Faun Fables) and Will Oldham’s reimagining of some of their recordings. Just don’t expect to hear a cheesy cover of ‘Wake Up Little Susie’. The Everly Brothers contributed as much to the Great American Songbook as George Gershwin or Jimmy Webb, and even though many will not be familiar with tracks like ‘Empty Boxes’, the quality of their craft is apparent. McCarthy and Oldham and a stellar lineup of session musicians treat every song with respect, without ever sounding nostalgic for the ‘50s and ‘60s. The outcome is pleasing. McCarthy and Oldham effortlessly put their own spin on the Everly Brothers’ famous harmonies and their two voices work particularly well together. On the lovely ‘Devoted’, perhaps the best-known track of the 13 here, the two sing every word together as a cello leads – Oldham low, McCarthy high. The overall sombre tone is in keeping with what we’d expect from Oldham’s Bonnie ‘Prince’ alter-ego, but the highlights are the up-tempo numbers. Oldham actually sounds like he’s enjoying himself on the rocking ‘Somebody Help Me’, until McCarthy steals the scene with her best Pat Benatar impression for a single verse. A killer guitar solo completes the track, which could have been lifted straight from Band Of Horses’ last album. ‘Milk Train’ features a similarly sturdy wall of sound, but showcases a sweeter quality to McCarthy’s exquisitely malleable voice. What The Brothers Sang is a loving reworking of lesser-known recordings by two of rock‘n’roll’s early greats. Fans of Americana, at least, should check it out. David Wild
OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week... LOCAL NATIVES - Hummingbird MAX RICHTER X VIVALDI - The Four Seasons NIGHT BEDS - Country Sleep
VARIOUS - Def Jam 10th Anniversary THE BLACK ANGELS - Passover
BRAG :: 501 :: 25:03:13 :: 25
live reviews what we've been to see... PHOTOGRAPHER : KATE LEWIS
NORAH JONES, CORY CHISEL The State Theatre Friday February 15 Norah Jones might as well have walked onto the stage with a middle finger raised to the well-dressed, middle-aged audience. To start her trio of sell-out State Theatre dates, she unapologetically launched into three consecutive songs from new album Little Broken Hearts, each of them brooding, deliciously bassheavy, and not a bit like ‘Don’t Know Why’. The irony is that these new songs, although often met with bemusement, were much more entertaining. The influence of Jones’s writing partner and producer Brian Burton (AKA Danger Mouse) is obvious: with plenty of reverb and the bass high in the mix, you could have been listening to the Black Keys (also Danger Mouse collaborators) – save for Jones’s ever-sweet, smoky voice, that is.
The best of these songs – and the entire show – was ‘Miriam’, a murderous message to a love rival. With the stage beautifully lit in pink and white, and origami birds strung from the rafters, the four-piece band played softly and worked up cinematic levels of tension as Jones, looking deceptively pretty and petite in her LBD, sang, “Oh Miriam / That’s such a pretty name / And I’ll keep saying it / Until you die”. Afterwards, she seemed miffed at the silence. “Are you scared?” she asked. Although the newer material was given the lo-fi Southern rock treatment, the rest of the show had much more of a country flavour than anticipated – a tone set by support act Cory Chisel and his Americana-heavy sound (which was nothing to write home about). Brandnew track ‘Hey You’, with its three-note bassline, could have been penned by Johnny Cash; Chisel later joined Jones for a cover of Gram Parsons’ ‘Hickory Wind’; and for an underwhelming encore, the band gathered, family-band style, around a single microphone to perform ‘Sunrise’ and, ultimately, a lacklustre ‘Come Away With Me’. Norah Jones has a tremendous voice, no doubt about it. But there was a sense that she never quite saw eye-to-eye with an audience who seemed to have little interest in her adventurous newer songs. “Don’t you miss the good old days?” Jones sang in ‘Say Goodbye’. I don’t. It seemed like everyone else did. David Wild
GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR, PIMMON Enmore Theatre Thursday February 14 Pimmon’s sound has changed a considerable amount over the last couple of years, almost as though he’s found a way of seeing directly through to his true musical self rather than obscuring it in blasts of digital static and distortion. This year’s collaboration with Fabio Orsi proved to be a gorgeous, lilting, almost romantic piece of work, and we’re given snatches of that sentiment tonight. While his solo albums can be prickly, unforgiving things, this set goes to great lengths to give the listener some narrative. It shifts through varied sonic climes – one minute, we’re wading through a bog littered with gnarled stumps while electric fireflies incandesce above us; the next we’re lost in a sheet of white noise; and then we’re swooning in a crimson swathe of harmonic texture, shifting glacially through chord cycles that ache with longing and beauty. If you think you don’t like ‘experimental’ music, make sure you see this man play live.
PHOTOGRAPHER : ASHLEY MAR
26 :: BRAG :: 501 :: 25:02:13
Godspeed You! Black Emperor wander on stage one by one to a familiar drone, each
adding to a burgeoning melancholic chord that leads into ‘Mladic’, the opener from last year’s Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! It feels like watching a rehearsal, so informal is the way they start the set, and this pervades the whole piece – its details are lost in a washy mix, its lackadaisical air barely dispelled by the rousing minor-key canon riffs that close it. They follow this with ‘Moya’ and the palpable tension of the opening double bass/violin refrain is promising – once the main theme hits home with its loping dual bass riff, it finally feels like Godspeed have arrived. The first half of the set is rounded out with two pieces from Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven, but the latter hour-and-a-quarter is given over to entirely new material, similarly slow-burning but bursting with a clear-eyed intent that could almost be described as optimism. It’s heavy and majestic, but lacks the weighty portentousness that’s come to characterise the band for many. More importantly, it hints at the possibility that we may see a new album before long – an exciting prospect. Luke Telford
live reviews
up all night out all week . . .
what we've been to see...
The Day/Night Chemist on Enmore Rd is more commonly known as a methadone clinic, but tonight it has become the largest earplug distribution hub in the known universe – or at least the Inner West. The ‘concert’ is Ireland shoegaze legends My Bloody Valentine’s first Sydney show in over twenty years, and precautions are necessary. There’s a scene in This Is Spinal Tap in which they are pejoratively billed as ‘England’s Loudest Band’ – as if this is their only selling point. For My Bloody Valentine, however, it is not a selling point, it is a self-evident truth. Volume is key to the experience, which is as much a sensory rush as a musical one. Rock bands want their guitars to be loud; My Bloody Valentine need them to be. Which is why, for the first half of the set, people were actually complaining that The World’s Loudest Band weren’t loud enough. Ten minutes into the holocaust section that tears apart set closer ‘You Made Me Realise’, these same people were possibly rethinking their stance...
SARAH BLASKO & THE SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL ORCHESTRA Sydney Opera House Sunday February 17 Sarah Blasko’s stunning 2012 release, I Awake, is the feature of tonight’s performance – the album was written and recorded with the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra, but their place is taken here by the 40-piece Sydney International Orchestra and conductor Roland Peelman. By way of prelude, the show opens with a few orchestral explorations of the Blasko back catalogue. ‘All I Want’ and ‘Bird on a Wire’ both benefit from light string, brass and reed augmentation; despite the mass of musical talent behind her, including a further four members of her own band, Blasko’s voice and the subtleties of her songwriting remain the focus. This puts our beloved chanteuse in a special position on the Concert Hall stage, one she says she’s forever dreamed about. And how could you disagree? From the outside, this building looms large on the harbour foreshore and in local artists’ careers; in fact, it’s an extraordinarily intimate setting where nothing and no-one can hide – even the drummer’s whispered count-ins reverberate through the room. The place demands only the best of performers and, though she’s
THE PRESETS Enmore Theatre Tuesday February 12 The Presets have always been a band with a dual identity. They are tailor-made for festivals, for that moment when the beat drops and 30,000 people lose their minds; but they are also masters of the studio, and fill their albums with tremendous nuance, and densely-layered tracks you can spend weeks unwrapping. This is their first solo headline tour since releasing the much-acclaimed album Pacifica – itself a significant shift away from the gargantuan Apocalypso, a party album that more or less guaranteed the band an open invitation to every Australian music festival for the rest of time. Pacifica is a more detailed, densely packed affair, with smaller drops, deeper grooves and songs that unfurl rather than build and release. The most interesting thing about this show was seeing the ways in which their back catalogue has been re-imagined to fit with the new, clubbier Pacifica sound. Opening the set with the pulsing ‘Push’ established the mood of the evening, with old favourites like ‘Girl and the Sea’ and ‘This Boy’s In Love’ taking on a menacing intensity when removed from the wideopen euphoria of a festival.
But the aforementioned ‘holocaust section’ during closer ‘You Made Me Realise’ was the real performance piece of the set, with a cacophonic din pushing everything (and everyone) to the limit for fifteen minutes of pure sound. It was disorientating, excessive, punishing and when it lifted, it was blissful and restorative. Nirvana were praised in 1991 for their soft/loud dynamic, but Shields and co. were the real sonic explorers during that banner year. It’s good to see that, 22 years later, they are as uncompromising as ever. Nathan Jolly
evidently a little nervous, Blasko is just that. She moves across the stage with an elegant urgency, nailing all the notes in her parts – no, really, all of them – and highlighting her unique ability to steer songs in expected directions. ‘No Turning Back’, for instance – with the bones of this song, most writers would produce a lounge-pop hit, but Blasko comes up with a combination of jazz balladry and music-hall horror. The power of the orchestra itself is barely released until halfway through I Awake, but when it is, the effect is sublime. ‘Here’ is treated with just ukulele, vocals and a swelling, tumbling string section that brings extended applause from the audience and Blasko herself. It’s an old orchestral trick, but never one that gets tired. Nonetheless, what really counts tonight is the fact the Sydney International isn’t just summoned to manufacture an illusion of depth and drama in otherwise plain compositions. Invariably, Blasko’s smartest tunes – ‘Sleep Awake’, ‘All of Me’ – are the ones that get the best arrangements. The album setlist is bookended by a frenetic ‘I Awake’ and a volcanic ‘Not Yet’, but it’s the more delicate beauty of the performance as a whole that brings the audience to its feet for the final ovations.
clubfeet
16:02:13 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford St, Darlinghurst 9332 3711
keb darge's rockabilly-all-nighter It’s called: Keb Darge’s Rockabilly All-Nighter It sounds like: The world’s greatest 7” collection of ’50s party jams, unleashed on the Goodgod dancefloor. Who’s playing: Keb Darge, all the way from Scotland, with warm-up from our own Silky Doyle. Three songs you’ll hear on the night: We can’t predict what gems the Wild Scotsman is going to pull out! And ones you definitely won’t: Downers, bummers, iPods. Sell it to us: Keb Darge is perhaps the world’s finest purveyor of rockabilly, surf, and RnB, taking his legendary collection of 7” singles to dancefloors around the world for his infamous parties. And for one night only, he’s bringing it to Sydney! The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Hearing your new favourite song, over and over. Crowd specs: Folks who love to dance to pure, honest, fun music. Wallet damage: $15 (+bf) or $20 on the door Where: Goodgod Small Club / 55 Liverpool St, CBD When: Saturday March 2, from 11pm
Chris Martin
It simply wouldn’t be a Presets show without a few of those festival moments, and this was a hyped-up crowd just waiting for an excuse to cut loose. Surprisingly, two of the biggest moments came from Pacifica tracks: the climactic drop during ‘Promises’ had the whole crowd heaving and sweating as one, and the seashanty swagger of ‘Ghosts’ saw everyone bellowing along with the wordless chorus. But undoubtedly the highlight of the night came three-quarters through the set, when three seamless transitions between ‘I Go Hard, I Go Home’ to ‘Youth In Trouble’ to ‘My People’ meant close to fifteen minutes of unrelenting energy, neatly meshing all three albums’ biggest party anthems. And even though ‘My People’ has been reworked to fit the new sound, and stripped somewhat of its terrifying, growling synths, the crowd still knows every second of it. “After all these years," said Julian Hamilton through a layer of sweat, “we’re still not sick of playing that song.” That’s good news; if nothing else, tonight showed that Sydney loves The Presets like an old friend, and will stick with them through face-melting techno and sparkling festival pop alike.
i am giant
PICS :: KC
“Are you going to the concert as well? Every time I see a young couple or group coming in, looking lost, I just say, ‘earplugs are there.’”
‘I Only Said’ and ‘When You Sleep’ opened proceedings, the two pop centerpieces of Loveless and the songs that rely the least on sheer volume to attack. The EP tracks, easily the most underrated and thrilling material in the band’s canon, but usually overshadowed by the sheer weight of Loveless, punctuated the set nicely and provided a sense of dynamics – and a point of difference – that may have been missing had the band leant on Loveless more. The set list was perfectly paced, with ‘hits’ like ‘Only Shallow’ (the one that sounds like dinosaurs fighting) and Soon (the Madchester-y one that Eno rightly called “the vaguest music ever to have been a hit”) pressing against EP and Isn’t Anything tracks.
PICS :: TL
Enmore Theatre Monday February 18
party profile
MY BLOODY VALENTINE
snap sn ap
15:02:13 :: Goodgod Small Club :: 53-55 Liverpool St Chinatown 8084 0587
Hugh Robertson :: S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS LEY ASH :: IS LEW KATE :: RKE CLA
ASH BERDEBES :: KATRINA
BRAG :: 501:: 25:02:13 :: 27
snap sn ap
the townhouses
PICS :: TL
up all night out all week . . .
elana stone
PICS :: KC
14:02:13 :: FBi Social :: Kings Cross Hotel 248 William St 9331 9900
15:02:13 :: Brighton Up Bar :: Level 1/77 Oxford St Darlinghurst 9572 6322
the british blues
jens lekman
It sounds like: Fleet Foxes, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Boy & Bear… Who’s playing: The British Blues, OXBLVD, and Huckleberry Hastings Sell it to us: Born in bedrooms and backyards, five-piece The British Blues bring groove back with their indie-folk sound. Setting sights on Sydney’s folk scene, the group follow tradition with polished, beautiful lyrics on top of ultra-lush, near-psychedelic drifts. The British Blues’ debut EP, to be released early next year, features ‘Slow Your Mind’, ranked in the top 10 in triple j’s Unearthed Indie charts. The group plan to tour the East Coast in the next few months – they will definitely please your ears, move your feet and be a band to watch. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Deep, cavernous three-part harmonies. Crowd specs: Indie folk (We see what you did there –Ed.) Wallet damage: $5 Where: Brighton Up Bar / 1/77 Oxford St, Darlinghurst When: Wednesday February 27, 8pm
PICS :: TL
party profile
It’s called: The British Blues @ Brighton Up Bar
julia stone
PICS :: AM
14:02:13 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford St, Darlinghurst 9332 3711
mammals
PICS :: TL
14:02:13 :: St Stephen's Uniting Church :: 197 Macquarie St Sydney 9221 1688
16:02:13 :: FBi Social :: Kings Cross Hotel 248 William St 9331 9900 28 :: BRAG :: 501 :: 25:02:13
:: S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS LEY ASH :: IS LEW KATE :: RKE CLA
ASH BERDEBES :: KATRINA
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WWW. LIZOTTES.COM.AU BRAG :: 501 :: 25:03:13 :: 29
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Motion City Soundtrack
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 28
The Factory Theatre, Marrickville
Motion City Soundtrack (USA), The Early November (USA), Deaf Havana (UK) $45.10 (+ bf) 7.30pm all-ages MONDAY FEBRUARY 25 ROCK & POP
All Time Low (USA), Polar Bear Club (USA), Chunk! No Captain Chunk! (FRA) The Factory Theatre, Marrickville sold out 7.30pm all-ages Broadway Unplugged The Vanguard, Newtown free 7pm Duff MaKagan’s Loaded (USA), Danko Jones (CAN) Manning Bar, University of Sydney, Camperdown $44 (+ bf) 8pm Garbage (UK/USA), Private Life Metro Theatre, Sydney sold out 7.30pm all-ages Glenn Lumanta, SoulTown The Basement, Circular Quay $20 (+ bf) 7.30pm Slayer (USA), Anthrax (USA), Kingdom of Sorrow (USA) Big Top Sydney, Luna Park, Milsons Point $83.10 7.15pm Sleeping With Sirens (USA), Woe Is Me (USA), Memphis May Fire (USA) The Hi-Fi Sydney, Moore Park $56.10 7.30pm The Wonder Years (USA), Such Gold (USA), Living With Lions (CAN), Versus the World (USA) Annandale Hotel $44.50 8pm
JAZZ
Latin & Jazz Open Mic Jam The World Bar, Kings Cross free 7pm The Lunch Mothers, The Green Mohair Suits Venue 505, Surry Hills $10 8pm The Monday Jam: Danny G Felix and the Monday OGs Ginger’s, The Oxford Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9pm
30 :: BRAG :: 501 : 25:02:13
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Helmut Uhlmann, Pete Akhurst, Chris Brookes, Massimo Presti Kellys On King, Newtown free 7pm
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 26 ROCK & POP
Bring Me The Horizon (UK), Pierce The Veil (USA) The Hi-Fi Sydney, Moore Park $56.10 7.30pm Co Pilot Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9pm Goon Squad Scruffy Murphy’s, Haymarket free 10pm Linkin Park (USA), Stone Sour (USA) Sydney Entertainment Centre, Darling Harbour $109.30 7.30pm Puscifer (USA) Enmore Theatre $79.70 8pm Sick Of It All (USA), Madball (USA), Vision Of Disorder (USA) The Factory Theatre, Marrickville $45.10 (+ bf) 7.30pm all-ages Sum 41 (CAN), Billy Talent (CAN) UNSW Roundhouse, Kensington $57.20 (+ bf) 7.30pm all-ages Sylosis (UK), Six Feet Under (USA) Annandale Hotel $44.50 8pm Tomahawk (USA) Metro Theatre, Sydney $67.30 7.30pm all-ages
JAZZ
Old School Funk & Groove Night Venue 505, Surry Hills free 8pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Angelene Harris Five Dock Hotel free 7.30pm Darren Bennett George IV Inn, Picton free 7.30pm Peach Montgomery, Bonnie Kay Newington Inn, Petersham free 7pm
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 27 ROCK & POP
Aimee Francis, Sons Of Mercury Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont free 7pm Amy Roce, Gordi, Jess Dunbar The Vanguard, Newtown $15.80 8pm Barry Gibb, Audio Vixen Sydney Entertainment Centre, Darling Harbour $99.90-$199 8pm Both Sides Now – The Music of Joni Mitchell: Billie McCarthy, Lauren Easton The Basement, Circular Quay $20 (+ bf) 7.30pm The British Blues, Oxblvd, Huckleberry Hastings Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst $5 8pm Bullet For My Valentine (UK), Cancer Bats (CAN), Miss May I (USA) The Hi-Fi Sydney, Moore Park $63.80 7.30pm all-ages Furnace & The Fundamentals, Rufflefeather, Sosueme DJs, Devola Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm Gang of Youths, Go Away Everyone, The Fixators Candys Apartment, Kings Cross 8.30pm James Parrino
JAZZ
Benny Chong Venue 505, Surry Hills $10$15 8pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Angelene Harris, Lily Ray, Chich, Frankie Francis Cat and Fiddle Hotel, Balmain free 7pm Helmut Uhlman UTS Loft, Ultimo free 6pm Larissa McKay Old Manly Boatshed free 9pm TAOS, John Chesher, Gavin Fitzgerald Coach & Horses Hotel, Randwick free 7pm
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 28 ROCK & POP
Black Island, Yes I’m Leaving, Ramps, Shark Arm Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst $5 8pm Buke & Gase (USA) The Vanguard, Newtown $30 8pm Charge Group, Catherine Traicos and the Starry Night The Green Room Lounge, Enmore free 6pm Coop De Ville Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont free 7pm DragonForce (UK), The Sword (USA) Metro Theatre, Sydney $43.50 7pm all-ages Electric Sea Spider, Nakagin, Spoonty The Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomooloo $7 7pm The Exiles, The City Lights, Buddy Glass The Union Hotel, Newtown free 8pm The Festival In Your Lounge Room: Dead In A Second, The Arsonist, DJ Steak The Factory Floor, The Factory Theatre, Marrickville $12 (+ bf) 7pm Gary Johns Duo, James Parrino Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 4.30pm Hobo Bordeaux Moonshine, Hotel Steyne, Manly free 5pm Hot Damn! Back To School Party: Wake The Giants, Divide & Conquer, Highways, Breakaway, With Confidence, Hot Damn DJs Spectrum, Darlinghurst 8pm Jeremy Harrison Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Karavan 2013 – International Gypsy Music Festival: The
New York Gypsy All Stars (USA), The Margaret Street Project, The Woohoo Revue The Basement, Circular Quay $45 (+ bf) 7.30pm Let Me Down Jungleman, Lepers and Crooks, Rascals and Runaways The Standard, Surry Hills $10 8pm Mindless Self Indulgence (USA), The Blackout (UK), Cerebral Ballzy (USA) The Hi-Fi Sydney, Moore Park $45.10 7.30pm all-ages Motion City Soundtrack (USA), The Early November (USA), Deaf Havana (UK) The Factory Theatre, Marrickville $45.10 (+ bf) 7.30pm all-ages Periphery (USA), Crossfaith (JPN) Annandale Hotel $44 8pm Romy, Moonbase Commander, Simo Soo, Black Vanilla FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $10 8pm Souled Out Scruffy Murphy’s, Haymarket free 10pm Steve Tonge Coogee Bay Hotel free 9pm Vimana & The Jazz Bogans, Everywhere But Here Valve Bar & Venue, Tempe 7pm The Wedding Present (UK) Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $40 (+ bf) 8pm
JAZZ
Daniel Weltlinger: A Tribute To Django Reinhardt Camelot Lounge, Marrickville $25 (+ bf) 7pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 8pm Slowpoke Rodriguez Venue 505, Surry Hills $15 8pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Andrew Denniston, Pete Akhurst, Brad Myers, Pat O’Connor, Thomas Stefoulis, James Donnelly, Stevie Pounder, James Seymour Brewhouse, Darling Harbour $15 8pm Daniel Hopkins Olympic Hotel, Paddington free 7.30pm Mars Open Mic: John Chesher Mars Hill Café, Parramatta $15 7pm Peach Montgomery, Bonnie Kay Forest Lodge Hotel, Glebe free 7.30pm
FRIDAY MARCH 1 ROCK & POP
Ball Park Music, New Gods, Lime Cordiale, Professor Manning Bar, University of Sydney, Camperdown $25 (+ bf) 8pm The Cat Empire, Flap Metro Theatre, Sydney sold out 8.30pm Confection Rock Lily, The Star, Pyrmont free 8.30pm Dappled Cities, The Ruminaters Candys Apartment, Kings Cross 8pm Deniz Tek, Leadfinger, Ultra Bullit (FRA), The Wardens The Square, Haymarket $20 8pm Dlinkwnt, The Glamma Rays, Beth Dressed The Standard, Surry Hills $20 8pm Ed Sheeran (UK), Passenger (UK), Gabrielle Aplin Sydney Entertainment Centre, Darling Harbour $91.70 7pm Furious Five Engadine Tavern 9pm
Gung Ho, Jeremy Neale, Driffs FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $10 8pm Hey Baby, Picture Perfect, Shakra Valve Bar & Venue, Tempe 7pm Ignition Scruffy Murphy’s, Haymarket free 10pm Mary & The Banks The Basement, Circular Quay $15 (+ bf) 7.30pm Michael Platter and The Exit Keys, Goldenstone, The Royal Baccarats, Golden Fear Roxbury Hotel, Glebe 7.45pm MUM: Prints, Crass Creatures, Rayon Moon, Fire Saint, Acid Stag DJs, MUM DJs The World Bar, Kings Cross $10-$15 8pm Papa Pilko & The Bin Rats, The River & The Road, Big Blind Ray The Vanguard, Newtown $18.80 8pm Playwrite, Castlecomer, Sons Of The East, DJ S. Kobar Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills free 6pm SheSed Customs House Bar, Circular Quay free 7pm The Shuffle, Flagfall Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Stormcellar Lakes Hotel, The Entrance free 8.30pm The Wedding Present (UK) Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $40 (+ bf) 8pm
JAZZ
Marsala Camelot Lounge, Marrickville $25 (+ bf 7.30pm Mike Cooper, Chris Abraham Duo The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $10-$20 8.30pm Waiting For Guiness Venue 505, Surry Hills $16 (conc)-$21 8pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Arlo Guthrie (USA), Sarah Lee Guthrie (USA) Everest Theatre, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $55-$88 7.30pm all-ages Brad Myers Mr Big Stuff, Maroubra free 7pm Peach Montgomery, the Drifting, The Barrel House Duo, SugarSun, Koranic Cat and Fiddle Hotel, Balmain free 8pm
SATURDAY MARCH 2 ROCK & POP
24: Elephant’s Laundry, Gap-Theory, Arms Attraction, A Girl’s A Gun, Tranzphat, The Flying Fists of Fury, Woodford, Vanessa Heinitz, Elia The Square, Haymarket $15 7pm The Bart Willoughby Band, The Paranoia Club Goodgod Small Club, Sydney $15 7.30pm The Cat Empire, Flap Metro Theatre, Sydney sold out 3.15pm all-ages The Cat Empire, Flap Metro Theatre, Sydney sold out 8.30pm Cat Power (USA), Mike Turner Enmore Theatre $69.10-$82.10 7.15pm Cold Chisel Show South Hurstville RSL Club free 9pm The Crooked Fiddle Band, The Main Guy and The Other Guys, Galleri
Motion City Soundtrack photo by Anthony Saint James
pick of the week
Coogee Bay Hotel free 9pm Kyuss Lives (USA), Orange Goblin (UK), Red Fang (USA) Metro Theatre, Sydney $67.30 7pm Lonely Boys Scruffy Murphy’s, Haymarket free 10pm Low Fi Cowboys, Fish Tank Party, Michael Platter & The Exit Keys, The Royal Baccarats Valve Bar & Venue, Tempe 7pm Mark Travers, Stephanie Jansen Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 4.30pm Of Mice & Men (USA), Chelsea Grin (USA), While She Sleeps (UK) The Factory Theatre, Marrickville $45.10 (+ bf) 7.30pm all-ages Royal Chant FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel free 1pm Sunken Seas (NZ), The Shocking and Stunning, Brackets Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst $10 9pm
g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com The Cambridge, Newcastle $15 8pm DC3 The Factory Floor, The Factory Theatre, Marrickville $15 (+ bf) 8pm Deep Purple (UK), Journey (USA) Sydney Entertainment Centre, Darling Harbour $99$135 7pm Deerhoof (USA) Annandale Hotel $33 8pm Deniz Tek, Leadfinger, The Delta Lion The Great Northern, Newcastle $15 9pm Edith Grove & the Crawdaddies Gladstone Park Bowling Club, Balmain free 7.30pm English Dogs (UK), RUST, Bastard Squad, Rukus, Bladder Spasms Valve Bar & Venue, Tempe $30-$35 7pm Gang Of Brothers The Basement, Circular Quay $25 (+ bf) 7.30pm Generation Of Love: The Love Street Parade The Standard, Surry Hills $20 5pm Indie Shuffle Presents: Rat & Co, Kilter, Lanterns, The Gate DJs FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $15 8pm Making, Sunken Seas (NZ), Grun, DJ Lotion Black Wire Records, Annandale $10 7.15 all-ages Party Anthems Paragon Hotel, Circular Quay free 9pm Reel! B!g Dog: Dave Mason, Dog Trumpet, B!g The Vanguard, Newtown $28.80 8pm Rock Monster Oatley Hotel free 8.30pm Vanity
Scruffy Murphy’s, Haymarket free 10pm Velvet Hammer: Mojo-Juju, Camp David, Twincest, Glory Hole, Ben Drayton, Annabelle Gaspar, Avra Cybele, Spanky, Chris Lego, Fingertips, Simon Hunt, HipHopHoe Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $40 (+ bf) 10pm
JAZZ
Chris Gudu Camelot Lounge, Marrickville $20 (+ bf) 7.30pm Jonathan Zwartz Band The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale $10-$20 8.30pm Kafe Kool Supper Club, Fairfield RSL Club free 7pm Lily Dior & The Soul Contendors Venue 505, Surry Hills $16 (conc)-$21 6pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 5pm Yuki Kumagai, John Mackie Well Co. Café / Wine Bar, Leichhardt free 7pm
SUNDAY MARCH 3 ROCK & POP
Beach Crossings – Pacific Footsteps: Mike Cooper The Randwick Literary Institute $15 6pm The Cat Empire, Flap Metro Theatre, Sydney $60 8.30pm
Dom Turner & Supro Botany View Hotel, Newtown free 5.30pm Manalion Moonshine, Hotel Steyne, Manly free 3pm Monte Cassino, Cameron Lawler, James Fitch, Joe & Eliza Matthews Valve Bar & Venue, Tempe 2pm Rocking Horse and The Baby Dolls, The Beehives The Vanguard, Newtown $15.80 8pm
JAZZ
The India Flamenco Project Camelot Lounge, Marrickville $25 (+ bf) 6.30pm Mulatu Astatke (Ethiopia), The Black Jesus Experience, The Liberators The Standard, Surry Hills $38.50 8pm The Peter Head Band Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 4pm Sirens Big Band The Basement, Circular Quay $15 (+ bf) 6pm Yuki Kumagai, John Mackie, Paul Furniss, John Smith Souths on Charmers, Redfern free 2.30pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK Elevation U2 Acoustic Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 4.30pm Joanne Hill Corrimal Hotel free 6pm Kick Start Duo Oatley Hotel free 2pm Peach Montgomery, Bonnie Kay Salisbury Hotel, Stanmore free 2pm
wed
(9:00PM wed Stephanie Mark 12:00AM) 20 Co Pilot 27 + 26 Feb Feb (9:00PM-12:00AM) Feb Jansen (4:30PM - 7:30PM) Travers
tue
thu
James Parrino + Gary Johns Duo 28 (4:30PM - 7:30PM) Feb (9:00PM - 12:00AM) fri
Soul Principle + Reckless 01 Mar (4:30PM - 7:30PM)
(9:30PM - 1:30AM)
sat
Peter Hunt + Souled Out 02 (4:30PM - 7:30PM) Mar (9:00PM - 12:00AM) sun
U2 Elevation 03 Mar
(4:30PM - 7:30PM)
+ Outlier Trio (8:30PM - 12:00AM)
St Patrick’s Day Festival Upstairs from 8am!
sun
Irish
($45)
17 +Breakfast bottomless Irish Guiness Mar
+ The
Killarney Trio LIVE 8:00AM – 12:00PM
Stringy Bark ................................... 8:00AM-10:30AM The Blarney Boys + Fiddle .....11:00AM-1:00PM U2 Elevation ..................................... 1:30PM-4:00PM The Moonshiners .......................... 4:30PM-6:30PM Dublin Up......................................... 7:00PM-10:30PM Lonesome Train.............................11:00PM-1:00AM + PARTY DJ TILL L ATE
BRAG :: 501 :: 25:02:13 :: 31
gig picks up all night out all week...
Slayer
Charge Group, Catherine Traicos and the Starry Night The Green Room Lounge, Enmore free 6pm Romy, Moonbase Commander, Simo Soo, Black Vanilla FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $10 8pm
MONDAY FEBRUARY 25
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 27
Slayer (USA), Anthrax (USA), Kingdom of Sorrow (USA) Big Top Sydney, Luna Park, Milsons Point $83.10 7.15pm
Bullet For My Valentine (UK), Cancer Bats (CAN), Miss May I (USA) The Hi-Fi Sydney, Moore Park $63.80 7.30pm all-ages
The Wonder Years (USA), Such Gold (USA), Living With Lions (CAN), Versus the World (USA) Annandale Hotel $44.50 8pm
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 26
Gung Ho, Jeremy Neale, Driffs FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $10 8pm
Generation Of Love: The Love Street Parade The Standard, Surry Hills $20 5pm
MUM: Prints, Crass Creatures, Rayon Moon, Fire Saint, Acid Stag DJs, MUM DJs The World Bar, Kings Cross $10$15 8pm
Indie Shuffle Presents: Rat & Co, Kilter, Lanterns, The Gate DJs FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel $15 8pm Making, Sunken Seas (NZ), Grun, DJ Lotion Black Wire Records, Annandale $10 7.15 all-ages
The Wedding Present (UK) Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $40 (+ bf) 8pm
SATURDAY MARCH 2
FRIDAY MARCH 1
Cat Power (USA), Mike Turner Enmore Theatre $69.10-$82.10 7.15pm
Ball Park Music, New Gods, Lime Cordiale, Professor Manning Bar, University of Sydney, Camperdown $25 (+ bf) 8pm Dappled Cities, The Ruminaters Candys Apartment, Kings Cross 8pm $25 (+ bf)
Deep Purple (UK), Journey (USA) Sydney Entertainment Centre, Darling Harbour $99-$135 7pm Deerhoof (USA) Annandale Hotel $33 8pm Deerhoof
SUNDAY MARCH 3 The Cat Empire, Flap Metro Theatre, Sydney $60 8.30pm Mulatu Astatke (Ethiopia), The Black Jesus Experience, The Liberators The Standard, Surry Hills $38.50 8pm Mulatu Astatke
Of Mice & Men (USA), Chelsea Grin (USA), While She Sleeps (UK) The Factory Theatre, Marrickville $45.10 (+ bf) 7.30pm all-ages Royal Chant FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel free 1pm
Bring Me The Horizon (UK), Pierce The Veil (USA) The Hi-Fi Sydney, Moore Park $56.10 7.30pm all-ages
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 28
Linkin Park (USA), Stone Sour (USA) Sydney Entertainment Centre, Darling Harbour $109.30 7.30pm
Black Island, Yes I’m Leaving, Ramps, Shark Arm Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst $5 8pm Xxx
32 :: BRAG :: 501 : 25:02:13
BRAG’s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture
brag beats free stuff
dance music news club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Honnery
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM
SAMPOLOGY
five things WITH
MANO LE TOUGH (BERLIN) throughout my life has had a huge impact on how I think of music now. There is an openness and curiosity there that is due to my youth. Inspirations The Beatles – I have been a fan since 2. childhood, too many good songs. Radiohead, their experimental side has always appealed to me. Steve Reich – his use of minimalist concepts and processes led to some breathtakingly beautiful results. DJ Koze – his sound design and weirdness opened my eyes to the possibilities in house and techno. . Your Crew I do a lot of stuff with my friends The Drifter and Baikal. We do the label Maeve together. And I do the Passion Beat parties with The Drifter in Berlin.
3.
The Music You Make I just released my debut album on 4. February 22 on Permanent Vacation. I play what can be described as melodic, emotional house and techno. I often play with the Innervisions and Life and Death crews around the world and I play a lot at Berghain/ Panorama Bar in Berlin. Music, Right Here, Right Now I think the music scene is in a pretty 5. good place at the moment. There seems to be a general openness in the music scene which I think is a very positive thing. It’s always a good sign when you can find exciting new records to buy every week. Recently I have been impressed by Barnt, Baikal, Innervisions, DJ Koze, New Jackson, and Wraetlic.
Growing Up I grew up in a seaside village in Ireland 1. called Greystones. I was into music from my childhood. I started playing instruments early on, which has helped me a lot as a producer and songwriter. Having a varied music taste
With: Ben Korbel, Kali, Jordan Deck, Morgan, Mike Witcombe, Phil Smart, Matt Aubusson, Slow Blow, B2B, and Marc Jarvin. What: Picnic & Strange Fruit’s Mardi Gras Extravaganza Where: The Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway When: Saturday March 2
Sampology will perform a free show at the Beach Road Hotel in Bondi this Saturday, March 2, with support from Shantan Wantan Ichiban, Bernie Dingo and Hobophonics. For anyone unacquainted with Sampology, the extremely condensed version is that he’s a DJ, AVDJ and producer who has remixed Pnau, toured internationally with Australian theatre company Strut & Fret and has performed at the Big Day Out, both with bands and as a solo artist, since the tender age of 17. Sampology continued his BDO tradition this year, and is preparing to embark on a March/April tour to North America and Canada by exposing himself to the international revellers at the Beach Road. Best of all, coz we’re always broke – it’s FREE.
DANIEL BORTZ
Daniel Bortz will perform Down Under for the first time next month, headlining Bad Apple at The Abercrombie on Saturday March 23. Bortz mines his own field when it comes to creating or selecting music for the dancefloor, and isn’t afraid of throwing in a bootleg or two – always risky for someone who also has an underground following. Not that Bortz himself is perturbed by this. “I get a kick out of hearing an RnB sample in a different guise, in converting my own tastes in music for the dance floor. Bootlegs in particular give me an opportunity to make some of my favourite songs danceable,” he says. Bortz’s re-working of James Blake’s Feist cover ‘Limit to Your Love’ was one of the anthems of the European summer, and provided a gateway for a broader audience to discover his releases on Munich label Pastamusik and the Berlin-based Suol imprint. There’d be short odds on it being played by Bortz at an appropriately climactic point of his Sydney set.
Jamie Lidell
JAMIE LIDELL
If you like your funk electrified and/or your electro funky there’s something here for you. Nashville (via Cambridge and New York) producer/singer/future-soul man Jamie Lidell is back with a new album, following up from 2010’s experimental Compass. After heading to Music City USA to get some space, he made friends with the Black Keys, who listened to early versions of his new retro-infused dance numbers. We’ve got three copies of his latest effort Jamie Lidell, out through Warp/Inertia up for grabs, so to win, tell us the name of one of the album’s tracks.
Ellie Goulding
FANTASTIC MR FOX
Genre-bending UK beat proponent Fantastic Mr Fox hits Goodgod Small Club for an exclusive Sydney show on Friday March 1, presented by Low Motion and Until Further Notice. Fantastic Mr Fox’s distinct take on garage, bass, house and grime sounds has received props and support from the likes of Untold, Jamie XX and Martyn, and lead to releases on tastemaker labels such as Hemlock Recordings and Black Acre. Joining Fantastic Mr Fox on the night will be DJs Max Gosford, Preacha, Bad Ezzy and Wordlife’s Kato. This commences at 11pm, following Gold Panda’s sold out performance at the same venue.
SUBSONIC END OF THE LINE Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk photo by Boettcher
KRAFTWERK HEADLINE VIVID LIVE
German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk have been announced as headliners for this year’s Vivid LIVE festival, and will perform their ‘Kraftwerk – The Catalogue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8’ showcase at the Sydney Opera House across four nights from May 24-27. Each individual concert will be dedicated to one of their eight studio albums, which will be performed in order of their release, commencing with Autobahn (1974) followed by Radio-Activity (1975), Trans Europe Express (1977), The Man Machine (1978), Computer World (1981), Techno Pop (1986), The Mix (1991) and finally 2003’s Tour de France, alongside additional compositions from their back-catalogue. Touted as a “3D multimedia performance,” each performance will showcase the artwork of long-term Kraftwerk collaborator Emil Schulz; audience members will be given 3D glasses to observe the group’s only original member, Ralf Hütter, performing alongside the current lineup, which is made up of members who’ve joined Kraftwerk at various stages over the last 30-odd years. Due to the expected high demand for the ‘live retrospectives,’ tickets will be allocated via an online application process that runs from February 25 to March 1 and can be accessed through the Opera House website.
Highly touted German DJ Nico Stojan, a resident at renowned Berlin nightspot KaterHolzig (which is basically Bar25 reincarnated), will headline Subsonic’s first event of this year, their Easter End of the Line bash at The Abercrombie on Saturday April 1. A regular selector at clubs as Cocoon, Watergate and Panorama Bar who has released on labels such as Highgrade, Stil vor Talent, Connaisseur and Philip Bader’s Dantze imprint, Stojan has also collaborated with the likes of Pele, Nicone, Acid Pauli and Bader throughout his career. Also a classically trained saxophone player, he recently threw down at the Subsonic Music festival, beguiling dancers with his charismatic take on house and techno sounds. A lengthy support cast of DJs, including yet-to-beannounced internationals, will also be spinning across two rooms of the Abercrombie. $20 first release tickets are available online.
DJ LORD
Renowned turntabilist Lord Aswod, who goes about his business under the humble pseudonym of DJ Lord, will spin for free at the Newtown Hotel on Saturday March 16. Lord joined legendary rap troupe Public Enemy on their 40 World Tour back in the late ’90s, and soon after was given his own performance segment within the Public Enemy live show. While DJ battles and hip hop have been at the foundation of his career, Lord is also widely recognised in the DnB arena, with his exploits documented in the Criterion Collection DVD DJ Lord: The Turntablist Chronicles, which was released back in the sweaty spring of ’04 and, criminally, snubbed by the Cannes Film Festival.
ELLIE GOULDING
Arresting electro pop performer and fascinating haircut-haver Ellie Goulding will be in the country this March to play a round of shows as part of Future Music Festival. Sydney fans, however, are in luck, as Goulding has just announced a one-off sideshow at The Metro on Friday March 8. Goulding’s debut, the gauzy and beautiful Lights, arrived in 2010 – it established her as one of the UK’s most promising singer-songwriters, and its gorgeous title track may well remain her signature track. The followup, Halcyon, was released last year, and continued to explore strange and beautiful electronic avenues, featuring collaborations with the likes of Justin Parker and Tinie Tempah. Goulding dated dubstep producer Skrillex for several months – possibly drawn in by the one haircut in the world more interesting than hers – and appears on his track ‘Summit’. Goulding’s last show, in November of last year at the Oxford Art Factory, sold out in next to no time – be sure to get in quickly to avoid disappointment.
BRAG :: 501 :: 25:02:13 :: 33
dance music news
free stuff
club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Honnery
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM
five things WITH
Chiddy Bang
KINGSLEY & TODD AKA MAGIC BIRD our old time favourites. It’s too hard to pinpoint the first time I heard any of their records; it’s weird, I feel like I’ve always known them. Your Crew TODD: With music, we 3. spurred each other on when we were younger, going out, clubs, raves – that’s helped shape where we are now, in a way. These days, we find ourselves pretty immersed in the scene at Chinese Laundry – we have a residency there – but we still bust our balls in our 9-5s to make ends meet. The Music You Make KINGSLEY: We’re pretty 4. [immersed] in our deep/tech
Growing Up KINGSLEY: Neither of 1. us really ever had a musical
Inspirations TODD: We both grew up in 2. the ’90s, so we were surrounded
household. That’s something we discovered by ourselves. I got my turntables at 16 – that’s where it all started for me.
by hip hop and soul. To name just a few: Prince, Michael Jackson, Q-Tip, Al Green – all these guys form just a few of
POTBELLEEZ SINGLE + TOUR
In support of their new single ‘Saved In A Bottle,’ The Potbelleez will set off on a national run of tour dates that includes a performance at The Roxy in Parramatta on Friday April 19, and concludes with a May 4 slot at ivy’s Pacha party. The trio’s latest ditty was apparently written during their recent stint in Paris, London and Norway – listen closely to discern the European influence. The Potbelleez remain best known for their breakthrough cut ‘Don’t Hold Back’, though in a recent interview an unidentified member of the group asserted, “We have definitely
house. So far we’re working on two originals with ‘Fall Away’ and ‘Do You Wanna’ (stay tuned!). If you make your way to a Magic Bird set you’ll probably hear us drop tunes like Dusky – ‘Calling Me’, Justin Martin & Eats Everything – ‘Feather Fight’, 24 Hour Experience – ‘Allnighter’ and James Dexter – ‘System
Check’... those bad boys are on high rotation at the moment. Music, Right Here, Right Now 5. KINGSLEY: These days, music itself is increasingly becoming more accessible, which I guess has its pros and cons. I think this is pushing artists to really create their own fresh and original sound in order to succeed with any longevity. These days too many people are chasing the fame and think they can be the next overnight success. It’s not about that. The most important thing for any artist is to make sure they don’t change anything for anyone. You have to do your own thing, and you need to have perseverance. Acts like Disclosure, Pleasurekraft, Soul Clap, Audiojack, and Dirty Bird – these guys are examples of that. With: Special headliners TBC Where: Official Future Music Festival AfterParty @ Chinese Laundry When: Saturday March 9
progressed and heightened our big room, big melodies signature.”
MOVEMENT
Just when you thought Australia’s music scene had gone up in flumes and tripped over the laces of shoegazing, Nas (AKA the god of hip hop) waved his magical microphone and summoned his luminary disciples to the rescue. On Friday April 26, Live Nation and Niche productions will host the hip hop shindig of the year – the Movement festival. Fusing local heavyweights with international bigwigs, the bash will see internationally lauded artists 2 Chainz, Chiddy Bang, Joey Bada$$, Angel Haze, Spit Syndicate and Thundamentals throwing down at the Hordern with cataclysmic beats. Oh, and multi-platinum, record-shattering Aussies Bliss N’ Eso will be premiering hits from their new album. No biggie. We have three double passes to give away, just tell us which Nas song you’ll lose your snapback to.
Flume
CAKES TURNS 1
This Saturday, March 2, local party brand Cakes will celebrate its first birthday with an appropriately lavish bash, featuring a DJ lineup that will spread into every orifice of the World Bar. Sweden’s Savage Skulls will be throwing down, ahead of Go Freek, Kid Crookes, Heke, Taylor Wolf, Nanna Does Smack, snilluM, Pablo Calamari, Mars Monero, Temnien, Deckhead, Christian Caetano and S-Bend vs Symphonik. Entry is free before 8pm, and $15 before 10pm.
FLUME
Absurdly young, handsome and talented producer Flume continues his meteoric rise – perhaps someone should tie his leg to something lest he float into space and take his ethereally glitchy beats with him. The man known to his postman as Harley Streten has just announced his first-ever national headline tour, which will bring him to – seriously – the flipping Hordern Pavilion, on April 30. Support will come from his good buddy Chet Faker – we can only assume some onstage collabs are in store. Tickets are on sale from flumemusic.com at 10am, this Friday, March 1.
DJ RAHAAN RICHIE HAWTIN + MAGDA
Two of the pioneers of minimal techno, Richie Hawtin and Magda, will play a Future Music Festival ‘One Night Only’ sideshow on Friday March 1 at The Hi-Fi Sydney (formerly The Forum). For the uninitiated, Hawtin is the man behind the Minus record label, and in addition to his DJ and production prowess is a certified as a sake sommelier. (“Get back to the music!” I hear readers despair.) Hawtin is also renowned for: his asymmetric haircut, his output under his Plastikman moniker and posting Facebook photos that usually feature his private jet. The Canadian DJ released one of the best mixes of the noughties in Closer To The Edit, though he has competition on that front from Magda’s She’s A Dancing Machine. Indeed, Magda has firmly established herself as one of the premier female techno DJs on the techno circuit, even though her production career has only yielded one LP, From the Fallen Page. Formerly one of the faces of Minus, the Polish-born Magda absconded from the Minus stable a few years back to set up her own label, Items & Things, together with Marc Houle and Troy Pierce. This double-header will run from 9pm-2am, with $45 presale tickets available online.
34 :: BRAG :: 501 :: 25:02:13
Chicago DJ and Producer DJ Rahaan will spin at the forthcoming Spirit Of House party, an outdoor, afternoon affair that will be held at Tipple Bar (28 Chalmers Street, Surry Hills) from 1pm on Sunday March 24. Rahaan has been playing everything from disco and funk to Chicago house since back in the ’80s, and will be playing a set that showcases his musical roots and the inspirations that have shaped him as a DJ and producer. Local support will come from Frenzie, Gian Arpino, Phil Toke and the Soul Of Sydney DJs, with first release tickets starting at $10.
OSUNLADE
Soulful house proponent Osunlade, the man behind the Yoruba label, will perform a set
at Goldfish on Saturday March 9. Osunlade, who is a devotee of the African tradition known as Ifá, can often be seen with a long piece of bone jewellery through his nose, and he’s reported to have produced music for Sesame Street when he was first starting out. A straight-shooting chap, he released what he claimed would be his final house LP back in 2011 with Pyrography, which spawned tracks that attracted remixes from Innervisions kingpins Âme and Dixon. “I just got tired of it,” Osunlade said recently. “It’s a natural transition though, I’m in a different phase of my life and I’ll always love house music, I’ll always release it, but creating it myself – I’m tired of it. It’s not inspiring me personally – there’s other things that I want to do.” Osunlade will be supported by the likes of Phil Toke and Matt Cahill. Doors open at 9pm.
Flume photo by Wilk
Magda
kwp!CPR11772
BRAG :: 501 :: 25:03:13 :: 35
Zane Lowe Third Time’s A Charm By Simon Hampson
B
BC Radio 1 Drive presenter and DJ Zane Lowe is on his way back to Australia for Future Music Festival for the third year running. “People are probably thinking: ‘Oh my God, not again! I hated you the first year, what are you doing back for the third year?!’” he says with a laugh, on the line from his North London home.
But last year Lowe had a breakthrough at Future. “I didn’t play the festival style stuff; [instead] I played a fairly bass-heavy set. It felt like I could come over for the festival for another year to drive the point home. I did some really good work last year but I wasn’t sure how it would pan out.” The Prodigy then provided the answer when they asked him to be part of their Warriors Dance Arena in 2013. “The Prodigy kind of exist in their own universe, you know?” he says. “They bypass anything like trends. That’s why their last album was so incredible for them and their fans. They used all the sounds they made famous and updated them but it didn’t sound like anything out there. Their music is timeless, not timely, and that’s why they continue to be such a draw.
Lowe’s sets are not about ego, just good times – and he’s under no illusions about who the Warriors Dance crowd will be there to see. “Hopefully there will be some awareness about what I do and people in the crowd who will be up for it and want to jump around,” he says. “Even if they just want to get there early for The Prodigy, then I’ll try to make that wait exciting for them.” The Warriors Dance Arena is part of the introduction of artist-themed and curated stages at Future Music Festival. It’s an evolution that Lowe sees in a positive light – even if it confused him at first. “I think festivals are going through an interesting time,” he reflects. “For example, last year Coachella decided to do it across two weekends with identical bills. I think a lot of people took notice of that. It was a very simple shift but people realised that it doesn’t have to be the typical three-day weekend. I think if you can just make a simple shift in the way it’s perceived then all of a sudden it’s fresh again. I think Future have done that their way.” With: The Prodigy, Avicii, Boys Noize, Steve Aoki, Dizzee Rascal and heaps more Where: Future Music Festival @ Royal Randwick Racecourse When: Saturday March 9
Zeds Dead
Xxxx photo by Xxxx
So why is Lowe coming back for the trifecta? “To be honest, it was The Prodigy that swung it for me. I always want to come back and I love the festival. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t concerned about whether there is an impact about doing it three years running,” he says. “I sort of felt it was okay because the first year I played I was just such an unknown – no one knew who I was. I was playing before Pendulum in Australia – tough gig, you know. As much as I’m friends with those guys, anyone who has any sense of logic will say that there are going to be a lot of people who just want you to get offstage and make way for those guys!”
“Combine that with the fact they are the most ferocious live dance act ever,” Lowe adds. “I mean, there are others who are better at different things – to me, The Chemical Brothers are the best at what they do, Underworld are the best at what they do, Skrillex is the best at what he does right now. To me, though, no one goes to war like The Prodigy on stage.”
Declassified Sounds By Jo Campbell
C
anadian schoolboys Dylan Mamid (AKA DC) and Zach Rapp-Rovan (AKA Hook) used to while away the hours making old-school hip hop beats in Mamid’s parent’s garage under the moniker Mass Productions, releasing one album, Fresh Beets. Ten years on, they’ve discarded hip hop for a new, bassheavy sound and a new name – Zeds Dead (yes, it’s a Pulp Fiction reference). “We were kind of just making one style of hip hop, more or less,” Mamid explains from his Toronto studio. “Then it just got to a point where we started listening to all sorts of different types of music. We were huge hip hop heads but then we started getting into drum’n’bass and electro house and wanted to start doing different electronic stuff […] so we thought we’d create a group that could use all of those different sounds.” This change in direction has seen the duo dropping some twisted, heavy bass, messing with glitchy noises and turning up the BPM for a sound that could be – and has been – called dubstep. But to Mamid, the idea of genre is redundant. “Our first tracks that were really big and popular were dubstep but for us, it just happened to be one place along the way,” he says. “And obviously, we still make it but when we started Zeds Dead, we never had the intention of just making dubstep. It’s kinda just a musical journey, we keep moving. “It’s funny,” he adds, “because we started the group because we wanted to be a group that did different stuff, not just one style of hip hop, and now it’s like we are almost coming back to making hip hop as Zeds Dead, with the skills that we have learned through becoming electronic music producers and the maturity that’s come along with it.” Another thing the pair have developed is Bassmentality, a club they founded with The Killabits, which started as a string of underground parties and soon turned into a force to be reckoned with.
“We had just started DJing and were just starting to get a buzz around Toronto, and wanted a place to play where we didn’t have to play dirt cheap for promoters at shitty parties – where we could control the environment and hone our skills,” explains Mamid. “We made it free – we just wanted to have a good party, it wasn’t about wanting to be promoters and make money, we just wanted to become comfortable with rocking crowds. And it sort of just grew along with the scene – and as Zeds Dead grew, so did Bassmentality. It was cool, and before we knew it, it got super crazy.” “Super crazy” is a term that could easily be used about their new instrumental EP Hot Sauce (out through Mad Decent), which is full to the brim with jarring breaks and electrodisco vibes. “It’s the most experimental EP that we’ve done so far. We almost called it The Experiment In Bass, because there’s different kinds of sounds that we’re messing with. Three of the five tracks in there, I wouldn’t know how to classify or put a genre name on. Some of it is somewhat similar to our last EP, particularly ‘Rumble In The Jungle’. There’s some 135BPMs and weird sort of house-inspired tracks, but apart from that I can’t really classify it.” Zeds Dead are heading to Australia for the Future Music Festival tour, where Mamid says he and his partner in crime will be getting hard and dark with their live set. “It’s really intense with lots of energy. It definitely errs on the harder side of things; we like to mix it up a lot and throw as many different genres in there and basically just rock out and have a party.” With: Azealia Banks, Boys Noize, Steve Aoki, Dizzee Rascal, Bloc Party and more Where: Future Music Festival @ Royal Randwick Racecourse When: Saturday March 9
Madeon Future Music Prodigy By Andrew ‘Hazard’ Hickey
C
racking the UK Top 40 and touring with Lady Gaga would be a pretty big deal for any artist, let alone someone who is 18 years old. You wouldn’t think so though, after speaking with the man in question, Hugo ‘Madeon’ Leclercq. In the midst of his Gaga road trip, the baby-faced native of Nantes, France revealed himself to be a careerdriven force, relaxed and ready for what lies ahead. Having already played to thousands at Coachella and the Ultra Music Festival in Miami, he is no stranger to large crowds – although the level of production on his current gig is some next-level shit.
own work, he doesn’t see the benefit in playing a crowd-pleasing set purely for the adulation and instant recognition.
“The production and overall scale of every single show has been gigantic. It’s been a lot of fun and surprising for me,” he says. Performing for throngs of “little monsters” not educated in EDM has clearly also been an eye-opener: “I’ve played every night in arenas to a non-electronic crowd and it’s actually very different – but very satisfying. People are paying attention to what you do and reacting to everything.”
A typical set may include his energy-packed remix of Blur’s ‘Song 2’, getting the crowd to join in on the “woo hoo!”, before he drops into a lesser known groove. “It’s very cool to be able to do both and I try to balance it in a way that keeps it exciting,” he says proudly. “I do 40-minute sets, so I have enough time to structure something that is snappy and efficient.”
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While he aims to educate his audiences, Leclercq understands the importance of a concise set: “Many people of my generation have a shorter attention span, so I’d rather make it tight than play a boring, self-indulgent set.” His fusion of commercial and more underground elements is easy on the ears, and has made Madeon a household name, – but it’s
an approach that came naturally. “I’m a big fan of pop but I’m also a big fan of producers that are not the most well-known, so my music is a combination of both,” he explains. “It’s not sitting down and trying to strategically balance the two for commercial success – it’s more about a genuine love for pop music elements as well.” Continuing his worldwide journey, Leclercq will be making his return to Australian shores, following a set at Stereosonic back in 2011, performing at Future Music Festival. After spending some time in Canada recently, his
enthusiasm for getting over to a warm climate is another motivating factor. “I miss the summer, so thanks for being behind, guys,” he says with a chuckle. “I want sun and people sweating in the heat in the middle of the day.” With: Avicii, Fun., Boys Noize, Steve Aoki, Dizzee Rascal, Rita Ora and heaps more Where: Future Music Festival @ Royal Randwick Racecourse When: Saturday March 9
Xxxx photo by Xxx
Leclercq has made the wise decision to avoid pandering during his sets, relying on his intuition and skills as a DJ. “I made a point when I started to tour that I really wanted to be able to play anything, playing a set that is very much mine and playing songs that I actually love.” As a DJ with long-term ambitions for his
“The easy thing would be to pander and play a very commercial set and get a reaction,” he says. “But then those fans get to your real shows and they can’t connect. I want to get fans and people who are interested and know what I’m about. [On the Lady Gaga tour] I’ve been playing a pretty similar set to what I would at a festival, trying to include a couple of recognisable moments, so the audience can follow.”
presents
Eli Verveine SWITZERLAND TARDIS
SUPPORTED BY TRINITY & MAGDA BYTNEROWICZ 11 TIL LATE FRIDAY 8TH MARCH 2013 GOODGOD SMALL CLUB 55 LIVERPOOL ST, SYDNEY $15 1ST RELEASE $20 2ND RELEASE $25 3RD RELEASE / DOOR RESIDENTADVISOR.NET
picnic & strange fruit present
a mardi gras extravaganza
with mano le tough saturday 2nd march the abercrombie, broadway 2pm until forever early bird $15 1st release $20 2nd release $25 www.residentadvisor.net
and supported by kali jordan deck ben korbel morgan mike witcombe phil smart matt aubusson slow blow b2b marc jarvin
15 hour party over 2 rooms
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Deep Impressions Underground Dance And Electronica with Chris Honnery
Ivan Smagghe
H
ow’s this for a lineup: Ivan Smagghe, Superpitcher and Rebolledo (under their Pachanga Boys moniker) are all playing at Picnic’s Easter Thursday party at the Abercrombie. If anyone was feeling blue about summer’s fast-approaching end, this certainly provides a remedy for your seasonal ennui, as it is one of the best lineups Sydney has seen since… OK, so we’re not anywhere near as deprived of quality international club acts as we were a decade ago (on that note, Richie Hawtin and Magda will play a Future Music Festival sideshow on Friday March 1); but even so, it’s impossible not to get excited about Smagghe being lured Down Under for the first time since early ’06, if my memory of those days can be trusted (that’s a considerable if). Smagghe is a Parisian DJ who is willing to experiment and take risks, and possesses the rare ability to consistently dig up esoteric material and introduce listeners to acts that would have otherwise been overlooked, without ever falling into the trap of being eclectic purely for the sake of eclecticism. Smagghe is renowned for his production work as part of Volga Select and Black Strobe, and has worked with The Hacker and Danton Eeprom under the moniker ‘La Horse’. In recent times he’s been collaborating with Tim Paris as It’s A Fine Line. When asked what sort of music attracts him, Smagghe stipulates that he’s into individuals, rather than genres or trends, observing: “The death of dull house and the ridiculousness of the Bloody Beetroots/
LOOKING DEEPER
Richie Hawtin
FRIDAY MARCH 1 Richie Hawtin + Magda The Hi Fi
SATURDAY MARCH 2 Dino Sabatini One22
SATURDAY MARCH 9
HAHA pres. UTR#22 Holland St Studios
THURSDAY MARCH 28
Ivan Smagghe + Pachanga Boys The Abercrombie
Pachanga Boys Crookers side of youth rave music may create a gap that’d suit me, between the newly bored electronic geek and the newly grown-up rave kid.” As A&R at the Parisian label Kill The DJ, home to the likes of Chloé, Smagghe has also chalked up timeless mixes such as his Death Disco outing and a Fabric compilation to go with his criminally underrated Cocorico club mix – which is quite difficult to find but is definitely worth the effort – and his Live At Robert Johnson Vol. 3 release, which was controversially pilloried by RA in its review. When I later confronted someone who works at the source about the (severely misplaced) criticism, they dismissed it as all part of keeping the geeks and trainspotters on their toes – I suppose I walked straight into the trap! But I’ll go into battle for Ivan any day; his flair for fusing trippy techno, eccentric disco and oddball post-punk records separates him from other DJs in the game. However, Superpitcher is one of the few who can compete with Smagghe on that front. Be prepared for an aural magical mystery tour to kick off your Easter weekend. Following on from Jozif’s recent addition to the Balance canon, it has been announced that Matt Edwards, AKA Radio Slave, is mixing Balance 023. While the Rekids label boss is recognised for his output across a range of monikers, including The Machine and Quiet Village alongside Joel Martin, his work as Radio Slave is generally crafted with the darkest crevasses of the dancefloor firmly in mind. Edwards’ productions as Radio Slave are slow-burning techno epics, fusing subtle rave and Detroit influences with a template that is all about an ongoing explorations of repetition and subtle grooves. I expect this mood to be channeled in his Balance mix, as Edwards generally sticks to a similar formula when in Radio Slave mode, whether working around the vocal ramblings of the techno dilettante P Diddy – check out his 37-minute refashioning of Diddy and DJ Hell’s collaboration ‘The DJ’ – or his deep and jacking take on M.A.N.D.E.A.R.’s facetious cut ‘Buddies’. No details are available about Balance 023 at this stage, but do we really need them to flag this as a mix you must track down? No, sir!
Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through deep.impressions@yahoo.com 38 :: BRAG :: 501 :: 25:02:13
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club guide send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com
club pick of the week FRIDAY MARCH 1
Richie Hawtin
The Hi-Fi Sydney, Moore Park
One Night Only Richie Hawtin (UK), Magda (USA), Murat Kilic $60.50 9pm MONDAY FEBRUARY 25 Scruffy Murphy’s, Haymarket Mother Of A Monday DJ Smokin’ Joe free 7pm UNSW Roundhouse, Kensington Cypress Hill (USA) $73.70 (+ bf) 7.30pm all-ages The World Bar, Kings Cross Latin Jazz DJs free 7pm
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 26 Establishment, Sydney Rumba Motel Salsa DJ Willie Sabor free 8pm Scruffy Murphy’s, Haymarket I Love Goon Resident DJs free 7pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Coyote Tuesday Resident DJs 9pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Jam Jam DJs free 8pm
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 27 Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Hobophonics, Bernie Dingo, Furnace & The Fundamentals, Rufflefeather, Sosueme DJs, Devola, DJ Rumfoord, Rave Doss free 8pm The Lewisham Hotel Garbage 90s Nights Resident DJs free 7pm The Ranch Hotel, Epping Hump Wednesdays Resident DJs 8pm Whaat Club, Potts Point Whip It Wednesdays Vertigo DJs free 9pm The World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall Leah Mencel, Pop The Hatch, Big Deal Gillespie, Jack Bailey, Dude Dempsey vs King Lee, Brothers Grimm, Fingertips, Zwelli, J.I.A., G-Rad $5 8pm 40 :: BRAG :: 501 :: 25:02:13
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 28 Ching-A-Lings, Darlinghurst Paper Plane Project free 6pm The Colombian Hotel, Darlinghurst Mardi Gras Glamour Pour Le Hammer Glitta Supernova, Devola, Sext Galexy, Gaff E, Regrette Etcetera, Ann Ominous, Jack Shit, Xaviere Van Camp, Scottie Lupton, Beatrix, Smithers, Apocalypstik 8pm The Cool Room, The Australian Brewery, Rouse Hill We Love Thursdays Feenixpawl, Troy T, DJ Big Will 8pm Exchange Hotel, Darlinghurst Hot Damn! Back To School Party Hot Damn DJs 8pm FBi Social @ Kings Cross Hotel Romy, Moonbase Commander, Simo Soo, Black Vanilla $10 8pm Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Vice Party Oisima, Astral People DJs, Nick Bennett free 8pm Marquee, The Star, Pyrmont OPM Carnival DJs $30 10pm The Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomooloo The Finer Things Soiree 008 Electric Sea Spider, Nakagin, Spoonty $7 7pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Loud Resident DJs 8pm Sydney Tower, Sydney Top Kitty Glitter, Alex Taylor, Stephen Craddock, Danny Verde sold out 7pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Swag Resident DJs $10 9pm Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills The Herbaliser DJs (UK), DJ Hudge, Deejay Mathematics, Frenzie, JC $30 (+ bf) 7pm Whaat Club, Potts Point Chakra Robust, Camo free 9.30pm
The World Bar, Kings Cross Propaganda O-Week Party Lewi McKirdy, Bradley Rogers, Moody (UK), Becci Hearts, Dan Bombings free (student)-$5 9pm
FRIDAY MARCH 1 And, Bondi Junction Start:Cue 04 Little Fritter, Adam Proctor, Alister Hearnshaw, Ross ‘Bravo’ Ashman, Tommy Rutherford, Dyson, RickStar 9pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Fresh Fridays Reggae Party Jah Stifyd, Lola Siren, Georgia, DJ Greg Perano free 8pm Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst Deadbeat and Hazy, Mute Oblivion, The Mountain Men, Decypher Us, Daniel At Peace $5-$10 8pm Candys Apartment, Kings Cross Smash Bang Pow Trap Stevens, Chick Flick, Harper $10-$15 8pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Aeph (UK), Doctor Werewolf, Blackmale, Vertigo, Commit, Bless The Mess, Them Kids $20-$25 10pm Cohibar, Darling Harbour Gimme Five Toby Neal, Mike Silver free 5pm Enmore Theatre Rita Ora (UK), DJ Fresh (UK) $79.90 7pm Goodgod Front Bar, Sydney Yo Grito! Yo Grito! DJs free 9pm Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Fantastic Mr Fox (UK), Preacha, Max Gosford, Bad Ezzy, Kato $20 (+ bf) 11.30pm Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Gold Panda (UK), Fox & Sui, DJ Prize sold out 8pm The Hi-Fi Sydney, Moore Park One Night Only Richie Hawtin (UK), Magda (USA), Murat Kilic $60.50 9pm Home Nightclub, Darling
Harbour The Guestlist Resident DJs 9pm The Imperial Underground, Erskineville DILF The DILF DJs, Stephen C, Nelson De Sousa, Alex Taylor sold out 10pm Jacksons On George, Sydney DJ Aron Mana, Resident DJs free 9pm Marquee, The Star, Pyrmont Fear of Dawn $20 10pm Oatley Hotel We Luv Oatley Hotel Fridays Back To Uni Party DJ Kristiano, DJ Anthony K free 8pm Omega Lounge, City Tattersalls Club, Sydney Unwind Fridays DJ Greg Summerfield free 5.30pm Oxford Hotel, Darlinghurst 4 Floors Of Fur Nathan Mahon, Brett Austin, Richard Bolt, DJ Man free 9pm Phoenix Bar, Darlinghurst The Coven: 2013 Year Of The Dead Karma Coma, Flick The Bean, Censored, Everto, Neon Youth, Jor Ja vs Komofski, Lady K, Discord 10pm Q Bar, Darlinghurst Teen Spirit 3rd Birthday Teen Spirit DJs $5-$10 10pm The Ranch Hotel, Epping Retro Fridays Resident DJs 9.30pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross MILF 007 Casino Royale Willi, Nemz, Alex Borello, Daniel Berti, A Stylez, MC Rocamic 10pm The Watershed Hotel, Darling Harbour Bring On The Weekend! Candidate, DJ Matt Roberts free 5pm Whaat Club, Potts Point Think Fridays Discobusy, Peeping Tom $10 9pm The World Bar, Kings Cross MUM Acid Stag DJs, Prints, Crass Creatures, Rayon Moon, Fire Saint, MUM DJs $10-$15 8pm
SATURDAY MARCH 2
SUNDAY JUNE 24
Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway A Mardi Gras Extravaganza Mano Le Tough (IRE), Kali, Jordan Deck, Ben Korbel, Morgan, Mike Whitcombe, Phil Smart, Matt Aubusson, Slow Blow vs Marc Jarvin $15-$25 2pm Allphones Arena, Sydney Olympic Park Masters Of Hardcore Australia 2013 Angerfist (NL), Outblast (NL), Korsakoff (NL), Noize Suppressor (ITA), Drokz (NL), Catscan (NL), Negative A (NL), Hellsystem (ITA), DayMar (NL), Lowroller, Tymon (NL), Decipher & Shinra, Dyprax, Miss K8, Meagashira, Re-Style, The Saint, MC Tha Watcha, MC D $89-$139 9pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Falcona Saturdays Sampology, Shantan Wantan Ichiban, Bernie Dingo, Hobophonics free 8pm Bedlam Bar & Food, Glebe Ain’t It Funky DJ Pactman, Migz, Hugh Morgan free 8pm Bella Vista, Man O War Steps, Circular Quay High Flyers Day Cruise Tom Novy (UK), Shortee Blitz, Karl Prinzen, Nicc Johnson, DJ Hudge, DJ Obliveus, Submarine DJs $55-$75 12pm Burdekin Hotel – The Viper Room, Darlinghurst All About The Music – Mardi Gras Party Nick Arbor, Punk Ninja, Thomas Knight, Raissa, ScrubAzz, Luffafly free 9pm Candys Apartment, Kings Cross Shake Shake Shake Sherlock Bones, 2Dope 4Wordz, Robust, Stalker, Nintempo, Durty Mindz, Justin R, Royal
Flush, Random Knights 8pm Chinese Laundry, Sydney Huxley (UK), What So Not (Flume & Emoh Instead), A-Tonez, Fingers, Jace Disgrace, Katie Valentine, Whitecat, Antoine Vice, About Jack, King Lee, Athson $25$30 9pm Club 77, Darlinghurst Starfuckers Starfuckers DJs 10pm Cohibar, Darling Harbour Yellow Sox Candidate free 8pm Coogee Bowling Club Bowlesque Izz, Sakura $20$25 9pm The Factory Theatre, Marrickville Shadybaby Shadrack (Sierra Leone), Scrim, Flim Pee, Bock, Dovy Dovy, Terro Dee, MC Linda, DJ Daddy, DJ Kwame $60 10pm Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale Reload! 2nd BDay Typhonic, Murda1, Inna Riddim, Juzio, Teefreqs, Highly Dubious, Schmee-J, Aggro, Will Paula, Thierry D, Kye, Rayjah 45, Swarmy, Brinks, Sarm, Dialectrix, D-Tech, Spex, Rush $5 9pm Goldfish, Kings Cross Agoria (FRA), Matt Cahill, Jaded, James Petrou, Johnny Gleeson $20 6pm Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Keb Darge’s Rockabilly AllNighter Keb Darge (UK), Silky Doyle $15 (+ bf) 11pm Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour Homemade Saturdays Resident DJs $20-$25 9pm Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park Mardi Gras Party Land 2013 Heather Small (UK), Delta Goodrem, The Presets, Crystal Pepsi (USA), Wayne G (UK), Bimbo Jones (UK), Garcon Garcon, Stereogamous feat. Shaun J. Wright, Feenixpawl, Hi Fashion (USA), Mitzi Macintosh $117.30 (conc)$156.30 10pm Ivy, Sydney Pacha Special Guest TBA, Ember, John Glover, Baby Gee, Mo’ Funk, Matt Nugent, Pat Ward, Finger, Kato, Pablo Calamari, Deckhead, Shantan Wantan Ichiban, E-Cats, Adam Bozzetto, Program $40 6.30pm Jacksons On George, Sydney DJ Rain Julz, DJ Simon Laing, DJ Michael Stewart free 9pm The Lady Rose Boat Cruise, Circular Quay Hyper Dance Thomas Von Party (CAN), The Finger Prince, CSMNT vs Jensen, Vivi vs Marigliano, Loose Change Deejays, Jack Bailey, Brown Bear, Academy, Neon Ivy, Sex Educationm Lo Tek $35 (+ bf) 12pm Marrickville Recreation Centre, Marrickville Mad Racket: Ooh Ahh Mardi Gras! Magda Bytnerowicz, Ken Cloud, Jimmi James, Simon Caldwell, Zootie $25 10pm One22, Sydney Dino Sabatini (GER), Asger Jorn, Jordan Peters, Gareth Psaltis $15-$25 Oxford Hotel, Darlinghurst House Of Mince Hot Mess Party Zebra Katz (USA), Le1f (USA), Mike Q (USA), Hannah Holland (UK) Jonny Woo (UK), John Sizzle (UK), Ma Butcher (UK), A Man To Pet (UK) Kiti, Lovertits, MC Gaffe $50 (+bf) 10pm Phoenix Bar, Darlinghurst Halfway Crooks Levins, Franco, Elston $10 10pm Phoenix Bar, Darlinghurst Up Dayclub Resident DJs 5am Power Cuts Nite Club, Broadway Ecstasy Party Night Saturdays Flexz, Kwame, Ziggy, Iha Jah, Teddy V $15 10pm Q Bar, Darlinghurst Girlthing Mardi Pardi 2013 Architecture In Helsinki (DJ
Set), Ajax, Leah Mencel, NatNoiz, Cunningpants, Tigerlily, Astrix, BenLucid, Kristy Lee, Grouse DJs, Lady Bones DJs, Fingertips, Twincest, Miss Adventure, Miss Beats, Girlthing DJs sold out 6pm Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross The Suite Scott & Vicky (UK), Dim Slm, J Smoove, Discokid, Vixen 8pm The Soda Factory, Surry Hills Soda Saturdays Greg Wilson (UK) $15 9pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Lovebirds (DE), Robbie Lowe, Murat Kilic, Carlos Zarate, Marc Jarvin $25 10pm Tonka Bar, Darlinghurst Swagger Gay-Z, DJ Booth $20 10pm Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross Trademark Saturdays Troy T, Cadell, Nacho Pop, Joey Kaz, Jason K 9pm The Watershed Hotel, Darling Harbour Skybar Saturdays Resident DJs $20 9pm Whaat Club, Potts Point After Dark Robust, Camo, Vespa $10-$15 8pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Cakes Go Freekm Kid Crookes, Heke, Taylor Wolf, Nanna Does Smack, Snillum, Pablo Calamari, Mars Monero, Temnien, Deckhead, Christian Caetano, S-Bend vs Symphonik $15-$20 8pm
SUNDAY MARCH 3 Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway S.A.S.H Sundays – Finely Tuned Brohn, Gabby, Mia Lucci, Bella Sarris, Matt Weir, Kerry Wallace $10 2pm Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Omar Varts, Richie Ryan, DJ Andy Glitre free 3pm The Beresford Hotel, Surry Hills Beresford Sundays Resident DJs free 3pm Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill The Sunday Sesh Charlotte and James (UK), Troy T, DJ Big Will, Koffee 1pm Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour Finale Sharon Von Needles (USA), Danny Verde (ITA), Jodie Harsh (UK), Mike Kelly (GER) vs Sista P, Kitty Glitter, Alex Taylor, Jonny M (UK), Stephen Craddock, Justin Scott, Daniel Slater, Chip, Adam Love, Half Nelson $55 (+ bf) 10pm Ivy, Sydney Soul II Soul Sound System (UK), Jazzie B, Caron Wheeler, MC Chickaboo, Eric Powell $35 5pm Jacksons On George, Sydney Aphrodisiac Resident DJs free 5pm Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross Easy Sundays Resident DJs free 10pm Oatley Hotel Sunday Sessions DJ Tone free 7pm Oxford Hotel, Darlinghurst Gilligan’s Recovery Gilligan’s DJs 9am Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Sapphire Sundays Miss Sapphire 2013 Resident DJs 8pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Spice After Hours Robbie Lowe, Murat Kilic $25 4am The Watershed Hotel, Darling Harbour DJ Matt Roberts free 2pm The World Bar, Kings Cross Soup Kitchen Manjazz, Nacho Vossler, Brown Bear, Jack Bailey, The Soupy DJs free 8pm
snap
club picks
up all night out all week . . .
up all night out all week...
MONDAY FEBRUARY 25
Korbel, Morgan, Mike Whitcombe, Phil Smart, Matt Aubusson, Slow Blow vs Marc Jarvin $15-$25 2pm
UNSW Roundhouse, Kensington Cypress Hill (USA) $73.70 (+ bf) 7.30pm all-ages
Chinese Laundry, Sydney Huxley (UK), What So Not (Flume & Emoh Instead), A-Tonez, Fingers, Jace Disgrace, Katie Valentine, Whitecat, Antoine Vice, About Jack, King Lee, Athson $25-$30 9pm
FRIDAY MARCH 1 Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst Deadbeat and Hazy, Mute Oblivion, The Mountain Men, Decypher Us, Daniel At Peace $5-$10 8pm Enmore Theatre Rita Ora (UK), DJ Fresh (UK) $79.90 7pm Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Gold Panda (UK), Fox & Sui, DJ Prize sold out 8pm
SATURDAY MARCH 2 Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway A Mardi Gras Extravaganza Mano Le Tough (GER), Kali, Jordan Deck, Ben
Oxford Hotel, Darlinghurst House Of Mince Hot Mess Party Zebra Katz (USA), Le1f (USA), Mike Q (USA), Hannah Holland (UK) Jonny Woo (UK), John Sizzle (UK), Ma Butcher (UK), A Man To Pet (UK), Kiti, Lovertits, MC Gaffe $60 (+bf, final release) 10pm Phoenix Bar, Darlinghurst Halfway Crooks Levins, Franco, Elston $10 10pm The Spice Cellar, Sydney Lovebirds (DE), Robbie Lowe, Murat Kilic, Carlos Zarate, Marc Jarvin $25 10pm
SUNDAY MARCH 3 Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway S.A.S.H Sundays – Finely Tuned Brohn, Gabby, Mia Lucci, Bella Sarris, Matt Weir, Kerry Wallace $10 2pm
slowblow
15:02:13 :: Goodgod Small Club :: 53-55 Liverpool St Chinatown 8084 0587
propaganda o week party It’s called: Propaganda O Week Party It sounds like: Shit’s gonna get cray. Who’s spinning? Lewi McKirdy (triple j), Mood y (UK) and Bradley Rodgers (QLD). Three songs you’ll hear on the night: Foals – ‘My Number’; Haim – ‘Don’t Save Me’; Tame Impala – ‘Elephant’.
numbers feat jackmaster
Sell it to us: Lewi McKirdy joins the Propaganda indie bangers at you! Moody also joins us fresh team to throw party anthems and from Blighty – come and check out why this guy is one of the most in-demand DJs in the UK. Gold Coaster indie chap Bradley Rodgers is on hand too; Room 2 will be POPaganda and Room 3 is HIP HOPaganda – go explore! Plus $5.50 Coope rs Pale and $5 Carlton Drys all night long. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Panda s, no pants and massive bangers. Crowd specs: Copious amounts of students lapping up their last moments of freedom before they are knee-deep in textbo oks… Wallet damage: $5 from 10pm, free for stude nts Where: The World Bar / 24 Bayswater Rd, Kings
Cross
When: Thursday February 28
03 MARCH Brohn Gabby Mia Lucci Bella Sarris Matt Weir Kerry Wallace DOORS OPEN 2PM THE ABERCROMBIE
macklemore & ryan lewis
PICS :: KL
Sundays
15:02:13 :: The Enmore Theatre :: 118-132 Enmore Rd Newtown 9550 3666 :: S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS LEY ASH :: IS LEW KATE :: RKE CLA
ASH BERDEBES :: KATRINA
BRAG :: 501 :: 25:02:13 :: 41
PICS :: AM
Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills The Herbaliser DJs (UK), DJ Hudge, Deejay Mathematics, Frenzie, JC $30 (+ bf) 7pm
Marrickville Recreation Centre, Marrickville Mad Racket: Ooh Ahh Mardi Gras! Magda Bytnerowicz, Ken Cloud, Jimmi James, Simon Caldwell, Zootie $25 10pm
PICS :: AM
The World Bar, Kings Cross Propaganda O-Week Party Lewi McKirdy, Bradley Rogers, Moody (UK), Becci Hearts, Dan Bombings free (student)-$5 9pm
Goodgod Small Club, Sydney Keb Darge’s Rockabilly All-Nighter Keb Darge (UK), Silky Doyle $15 (+ bf) 11pm
party profile
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 28
snap up all night out all week . . .
mano le tough party profile
It’s called: Picnic and Strange Fruit present a Mardi Gras extravaganza with Mano Le Tough It sounds like: Absolute fucking heaven. Who’s playing: Mano Le Tough (Berlin), Ben Korbel, Kali, Jordan Deck, Morgan, Mike Witcombe, Phil Smar t, Matt Aubusson, Slow Blow, B2B, and Marc Jarvin. Three songs you’ll hear on the night: Roisin Murphy – ‘Simulation’ (Mano Le Tough Remix); Mano Le Tough – ‘In My Arms’ ; Sasse – ‘On My Mind’ (Mano Le Tough Remix). And one you definitely won’t: Things you’ll hear anywhere average. Sell it to us: We definitely subscribe to the “our parties should sell themselves” approach but if you insist: NIGHT OF YOUR LIFE. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: There will be no leaving… So maybe some midafternoon reminiscing? Ummmmm, NIGHT OF YOUR LIFE. Crowd specs: As wearers of glasses, we can at least vouch for some Pradas. Wallet damage: Minimal. $25 presales online at Resident Advisor; a little more on the door, capacity allowing! Where: The Abercrombie Hotel, Broadway
propaganda
PICS :: AM
When: Saturday March 2
rebel rave
PICS :: AM
14:02:13 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700
big dumb kid
PICS :: KC
16:02:13 :: Sydney College Of The Arts :: Rozelle Hospital Lilyfield 9351 1000
bass mafia
PICS :: AM
bicep 15:02:13 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex St Sydney 8295 9999 42 :: BRAG :: 501 :: 25:02:13
PICS :: KC
15:02:13 :: FBi Social :: Kings Cross Hotel 248 William St 9331 9900
15:02:13 :: Civic Underground :: 388 Pitt St Sydney 8080 7000 :: S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHO) OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER MAR :: DANIEL MUNNS LEY ASH :: IS LEW KATE :: RKE CLA
ASH BERDEBES :: KATRINA
速