Brag#543 by The Brag

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SATURDAY 8 FEBRUARY IVY 12pm-8pm

MOSHTIX.COM.AU BRAG :: 543 :: 16:12:13 :: 5

rock music news welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town...Chris Martin, Mina Kitsos and Callum Wylie

like us:

@TheBrag

THE BRAG

five things WITH

SIMON DAY Growing Up My first childhood music 1. memory is getting a seven-inch

The Music You Make Think Ratcat meets The Art. 4. We will be playing a bunch of

of ‘Martian Hop’ by the Ran-Dells. It’s quite silly but the melody and backing vocals are inspired. Maybe this is why I believe in aliens… My parents were not particularly musical, though my father bought me my first guitar on my 15th birthday. As a musician now, I like exploring harmony and interesting sounds.

Ratcat songs as well as a bunch of new songs, nicely fuzzy and loud.

Inspirations My favourite musicians 2. are the ones who do it on their own terms, independents who persevere in their art. Your Band The band consists of myself, 3. Azaria and KJ who also play in The Art. Azaria and I have written songs together and I produced his first The Follow EP. We have been working together on and off since 2004.

ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant GRAPHIC DESIGN: Alan Parry PHOTOGRAPHERS: Daniel Boud, Liam Cameron, Katrina Clarke, Ashley Mar, Jack@Life Without Andy, Pat Stevenson@Wearehobo ADVERTISING: Bianca Lockley - 0412 581 669 / (02) 9212 4322 bianca@thebrag.com ADVERTISING: Les White - 0405 581 125 / (02) 9212 4322 les@thebrag.com PUBLISHER: Rob Furst MANAGING DIRECTOR, FURST MEDIA: Patrick Carr patrick@furstmedia.com.au, (03) 9428 3600, 0402 821 122 DIGITAL DIRECTOR/ADVERTISING: Kris Furst kris@furstmedia.com.au, (03) 9428 3600

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Nat Amat, Marissa Demetriou, Christie Eliezer, Chris Honnery, Cameron James, Lachlan Kanoniuk, Jody Macgregor, Alicia Malone, Daniel Prior, Amy Theodore, Raf Seneviratne, Leonardo Silvestrini, Rick Warner, Krissi Weiss, Augustus Welby, David Wild, David James Young Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this NEW address 100 Albion Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 ph - (02) 9212 4322 fax - (02) 9319 2227 EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher, editors or staff of the BRAG. ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Luke Forrester: accounts@furstmedia.com.au ph - (03) 9428 3600 fax - (03) 9428 3611 Furst Media, 3 Newton Street Richmond Victoria 3121 DEADLINES: Editorial: Wednesday 12pm (no extensions) Artwork/ad bookings: Thursday 12pm (no extensions). Ad cancellations: Tuesday 4pm Published by Furst Media P/L ACN 1112480045. All content copyrighted to Cartrage P/L/ Furst Media P/L 2003-2013 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

6 :: BRAG :: 543 :: 16:12:13

What: The Simon Day Project Where: Frankie’s Pizza When: Sunday December 22

The Rocks is hard to beat as a venue for Australia Day celebrations. After all, it’s where our nation (as we know it) began to grow – here was a colony of convicts, fighting over rum and visiting sailors’ jewellery; a game of survival in which the fittest managed to scale their way up to the high ground of Gallows Hill from the Suez Canal whence they came. OK, it wasn’t the most glamorous of beginnings. But Sunday January 26 will see The Rocks host a free afternoon festival with music from The Bamboos, Tijuana Cartel, Emma Donovan and The Putbacks, Microwave Jenny, Jones Jnr, Ngaiire and a performance from Sketch the Rhyme. There’ll also be a Karaoke Stage, but if you head along to do ‘Khe Sanh’ like everyone else, you may well be strung up and flogged. Just like the good old days.

EDITOR: Chris Martin chris@thebrag.com 02 9212 4322 ARTS EDITOR: Lisa Omagari lisa@thebrag.com 02 9212 4322 STAFF WRITERS: Alasdair Duncan, Jody Macgregor, Krissi Weiss NEWS: Chris Honnery, Chris Martin, Mina Kitsos, Callum Wylie

AWESOME INTERNS: Mina Kitsos, Callum Wylie, Tahlia Pritchard, Xiaoran Shi, Julienne Gilet, Thea Carley

so I’m not really sure if I know the scene. In the last 12 months some of the bands I’ve seen are Wolfmother, The Preatures, Kirkvoids, Seabourne, Spirit Valley, The Wednesdays, Bob Evans, Maux Faux, The Cambodian Space Project and a bunch of others but I forget all their names. I have also seen this year Nick Cave, Killing Joke and Guitar Wolf. All these bands inspire me ’cause they have passion for making their own music.

AUSTRALIA DAY AT THE ROCKS

John Butler Trio

GIG & CLUB GUIDE COORDINATORS: Callum Wylie, Thea Carley, Julienne Gilet, Mina Kitsos gigguide@thebrag.com (rock); clubguide@thebrag. com (dance, hip hop & parties)

Music, Right Here, Right Now 5. I mostly see my friends’ bands,

PEACE AND LOVE WITH THE WAILERS

JOHN BUTLER TRIO

John Butler Trio have locked in a national tour to take them through late March and April next year. The Trio’s sixth album, Flesh & Blood, is due out on Friday February 7, and the tour will be their first extensive run of Australian dates for four years. JBT fans around the country will get their first look at new drummer Grant Gerathy, following the band’s recent run of smaller introductory gigs. Support on the tour will come from Brisbane’s Emma Louise. See them at the Hordern Pavilion on Friday April 11.

The Wailers are keeping the Bob Marley dream alive, returning for Bluesfest next year, and now they’ve added an Enmore Theatre sideshow for Sydney fans. They’ll be jammin’ our way on Saturday April 19 with that endless run of hits – ‘I Shot The Sheriff’, ‘Exodus’, ‘One Love’, ‘Redemption Song’, ‘Get Up, Stand Up’, ‘No Woman, No Cry’, and every other reggae song anyone’s ever imitated. Joining them are Sly & Robbie and the Taxi Gang, featuring ‘the world’s greatest rhythm section’ – because without a good one of those you ain’t goin’ nowhere.

NGAIIRE SUMMER TOUR

Ngaiire is the name on everyone’s lips, and for good reason. The next superstar of Aussie soul is in the midst of a tour with Alicia Keys and John Legend, fresh from the release of her debut album, Lamentations. Now she’s announced an extensive summer run, including two more dates in Sydney. Catch her celebrating Australia Day at the Rocks, or at the Oxford Art Factory on Saturday March 15.

EDDIE VEDDER SOLO DATES

He’s the original and the best: Eddie Vedder, the man who inspired a million gravelly voices, has added a run of solo dates alongside Pearl Jam’s appearances on the Big Day Out. Don’t blame him for Scott Weiland, Chad Kroeger or Rob Thomas – Vedder wasn’t to foresee any of those pale imitations. Nay, this was a tortured boy from the outskirts of Illinois who sent in a demo cassette to some rockers out west, and wound up fronting arguably the most influential alt-rock band of the ’90s, ’00s and now. As a solo artist, Vedder has played a central role in film soundtracks including I Am Sam and Into The Wild, for which he won a Golden Globe to go with all those Grammys. Now, Vedder’s back to play the State Theatre on Tuesday February 11, before a special date at the Sydney Opera House on Thursday February 13. Tickets go on sale at 10am this Wednesday December 18.

The Superjesus

THE SUPERJESUS

What better way to celebrate Australia Day than with one of the most iconic Aussie acts of the ’90s, The Superjesus? Sarah McLeod and co. returned to the stage on their Reformation tour earlier this year, and they’ve announced another run of east coast dates around the sunniest national holiday of all. The whisper is they’ll have some new material to showcase as well. The Superjesus play the free Australia Day concert at Garrison Point in Bankstown on Sunday January 26.

thebrag.com

BRAG :: 543 :: 16:12:13 :: 7

rock music news

free stuff

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town...with Chris Martin, Mina Kitsos and Callum Wylie

speed date WITH

head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

AUDIO-TECHNICA

CONNER MOLANDER FROM HALF MOON RUN What Do You Look For In A Band? The only way for a band to sustain itself is to stay honest, and 1. keep making music for the joy of it. We are working to achieve an enduring, creative career with a balanced, healthy life. Keeping Busy We’ve been touring pretty much incessantly for the past 2. 18 months. We visited Europe five separate times in 2013, and played some big festivals (Glastonbury, Lollapalooza, Reading and Leeds). We’re looking forward to taking a bit of time off in 2014 to write some new material – we’ve been itching to get creative again. Best Gig Ever I think it’s a big tie between about five or six gigs. We’ve 3. had amazing headlining shows in Montreal, London, Paris and Amsterdam, and some of the festival shows have been similarly outstanding. A really great gig has the unique feeling that something special is taking place. The energy in the room gets very intense. Current Playlist It’s actually a bit tougher to find new music when you’re 4. constantly travelling, but recently we’ve enjoyed the new albums by Jon Hopkins, London Grammar, James Blake and Feist. Your Ultimate Rider We’re pretty easy… we like to have fresh fruit and vegetables 5. on the rider. Beer, water, juice, protein bars – nothing too finicky.

Those sonic maestros at Audio-Technica are bringing the Christmas gift goodness. The newly designed shape of their CKM55 inner ear headphones reduces unwanted vibrations (whilst retaining all the good vibes, of course), with a sleek fit that improves sound isolation and comfort. The style-friendly ES55 ear suit headphones, likewise, are efficient and compact – weighing only 88 grams, they’re great for people on the go. We’ve got a pair of each up for grabs – to be in the running, visit thebrag.com/freeshit and tell us what song will be soundtracking your summer.

KINGSWOOD & CALLING ALL CARS

Old mates Kingswood and Calling All Cars have lined up their Life’s A Beach tour for the summer – after all, what better summertime tour buddies than another rock’n’rollin’ band? Melbourne foursome Kingswood have been working hard in Nashville towards their debut album, set for release in early 2014. Calling All Cars, meanwhile, recently snuck back onto the scene under the pseudonym Werewolves, after the new single of the same name. Together, they’ll hit the Mona Vale Hotel on Friday January 3, The Entrance Leagues Club on Saturday January 4 and Newcastle’s Cambridge Hotel on Sunday January 5. We’ve got a double pass on offer for each gig – just head to thebrag.com/ freeshit and tell us your dream tour buddy.

Maybe one day we’ll start getting more specific but for now we like to keep it simple. With: Tigertown Where: The Standard / Brass Monkey When: Saturday January 11 / Tuesday January 14

LUCA BRASI

Tasmanian punk rock devils Luca Brasi are set to unleash their second album By A Thread next March with an Australian east coast tour. Since forming in 2009, the fourpiece has raided venues with their visceral live shows, pedalling riff-drenched punk rock with a fervour that scored them a spot in triple j’s Short Fast Loud midyear report. The release of seven-inch Tassie, the follow-up to 2011’s blazing Extended Family, saw a more realised sound that cemented Luca Brasi’s place in Australian punk. The band’s latest effort melds vocalist Tyler Richardson’s lyrical mastery with Tom Busby’s signature guitar dexterity, pulsing with a youthful charm and mixed by production kahuna Matt Bayles, who has lent his hand to Pearl Jam, Murder City and Isis. Luca

Kingswood & Calling All Cars

Brasi are set to premiere tracks from their new album, including explosive lead single ‘Borders and Statelines’, at Hermann’s Bar on Saturday March 15 and Beatdisc Records (all ages) on Sunday March 16. Support from Postblue.

SIX60

After their debut self-titled album from 2010 went three times platinum and won them a slew of gongs at the New Zealand Music Awards, including Best Group and Single of the Year, Six60 have cemented themselves as one of the biggest acts coming out of NZ today. They’ve been touring the world, and now the five-piece is releasing an exclusive iTunes session this December. To coincide, the band will be playing around Australia in February next year. Catch the Sydney leg at The Hi-Fi on Friday February 28.

THE SMITH STREET BAND

If they’re not already your favourite Aussie punk rockers, they should be. The high-energy, sweat-soaked Smith Street Band have announced a tour in March next year to prove it. “Don’t fuck with our dreams,” announced their EP of that name earlier this year, and the Wil Wagner-fronted Melbourne four-piece look like they really are living the dream every time they step onstage. They stick to a DIY motto – if the fans want them to be somewhere, they will be, says Wagner – and so they’re heeding our call yet again. They’ll be supported by US quartet The Menzingers, returning to Oz for the third time in as many years, and Grim Fandango. See them at Newcastle’s Small Ballroom on Friday March 28, or playing both an all-ages and 18+ show at the Annandale Hotel on Saturday March 29.

Hanni El Khatib

HANNI EL KHATIB The Smith Street Band

Californian crooner Hanni El Khatib will fill the Annandale with his signature garage rock in January, following the release of his sophomore album Head In The Dirt earlier this year. After debut LP Will The Guns Come Out shot through charts in 2011, the singer-songwriter met The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach in Paris before setting to work in Auerbach’s studio in Nashville. Channelling a raw, instinctive approach, HEK forged 11 tracks inspired by the history of rebel music. The result is a mix of foot-tapping rhythm, soul-infused blues, ‘dub-adelic garageland’ and gripping riffs, with the intoxicating ‘Penny’ and head-bopping ‘Family’ in the mix. After serenading audiences at Southbound and Falls, HEK will hit up Sydney joined by psychedelic punk outfit White Denim. The Texans are also launching their highly anticipated fifth album, Corsicana Lemonade, featuring Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. HEK and White Denim play the Annandale Hotel on Tuesday January 7 with Greta Mob.

LACHLAN BRYAN AND THE WILDES

Gaining serious critical acclaim in the altcountry scene as well as commercial success in the ARIA charts, Lachlan Bryan is cementing his place as one of Australia’s premier country songwriters. Attracting comparisons to the likes of Paul Kelly and Nick Cave, Bryan’s most recent release Black Coffee has been his most successful album yet, culminating in a Golden Guitar nomination for Alternative Country Album of the Year. Bryan has been on the road almost constantly for the last couple of years, but he’s chomping at the bit to tour this record with his backing band The Wildes. “These songs were recorded live, they were written to be played live, doing it live is what this album, and this kind of music is all about,” he said. Fair call. Catch

8 :: BRAG :: 543 :: 16:12:13

Bryan and band at Name This Bar on Friday February 14.

XMAS WITH THE STANDARD

A festive weekend at The Standard kicks off with the Merry Jerry Christmas on Thursday December 19, featuring The Delta Riggs, Civilians and The Maze, but that’s only where the fun begins. Friday December 20 will see Dream Delay hit the stage, a Sydney threepiece which formed on 11/11/11, and that kind of omen can only bring good fortune. In support will be Ginger & Drum and Date Night At The Museum. Finally, the Big Village Christmas Party goes down on Saturday December 21, featuring a bumper hip hop lineup: Suburban Dark, Reverse Polarities, Rapaport, Tenth Dan & Grub, Roleo, Klue and Migz. thebrag.com

THE

WAILERS SLY& ROBBIE BITTY McLEAN WITH SPECIAL GUESTS

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LEFT OF CENTRE BLOOD MAKES NOISE TOMS DINER NEVER WEAR WHITE

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Industrial Strength Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer

THINGS WE HEAR * Museâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Matt Bellamy has revealed: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got two cats called Kim and Kanye.â&#x20AC;? * In Perth, $200 Rolling Stones tickets are going for up to $3,700 each. * No, Metallica were not the first band to play Antarctica â&#x20AC;&#x201C; which they did to 100 spectators (contest winners, research station scientists from Russia, South Korea, China, Poland, Chile, Brazil and Germany, and the ship crew), wearing headphones inside a transparent dome on Argentinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Carlini base. The first gig was in 2007 by the indie rock group Nunatak, consisting of climate change researchers.

* The two-day format Stereosonic drew 400,000 people over ten shows, the festivalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s John Curtin told us. * Mix 106.5FM Sydney is changing its name to KIIS and to a more pop format. Shows like Tim â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Rossoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Rossâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; drive slot will be syndicated to Melbourne, alongside The Kyle & Jackie O Hour at 6pm and On Air With Ryan Seacrest from 7-9pm, both broadcasting to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. * The winner of ABCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Exhumed contest, after the final held at Sydneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rooty Hill RSL on Thursday night, was Kalgoorlie reggae seven-piece Jahsifik. * Toto keyboard player David Paich slammed CBSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; use of his bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hit â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

during a broadcast of the Nelson Mandela memorial service. He said the network should have used South African indigenous music out of respect. * Canberraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 127-capacity Durham Castle Arms is the latest venue to run into troubled waters, its manager Adrian Moran told the Canberra Times. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s laid off staff and begged his landlord to reduce the rent, and blames current laws where a small venueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s licensing fees are the same as a large oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. * Model Miranda Kerr wants to be a singer and has apparently done backing vocals on a track for a Warner Music album by Bobby Fox, who plays Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys.

SUGAR MOUNTAIN DOTS WITH MUSHROOM

WANNA PLAY WITH MGMT AT FALLS?

Fresh from its buy-in of Future Music, Mushroom Group bought into Melbourne music/arts festival Sugar Mountain. It was set up in 2011 by the team of Tig Huggins, Pete Keen, Brett Louis and Nicci Reid. Frontier Touring promoter Gerard Schlaghecke and Mushroom Group executive director Matt Gudinski will spearhead the groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s involvement.

A ticketholder at each of the Falls Festival shows will have the chance to go onstage with MGMT â&#x20AC;&#x201C; to play a monstrously huge cowbell which appears on the video for â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Your Life Is A Lieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. The first night of each Falls features a fancy dress affair called Boogie Nights. This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s theme is Intergalactic. Whoever wins the dress-up contest gets to go onstage with the band.

BOY & BEAR GO GOLD

ENT CENT LOSES GENERAL MANAGER

Boy & Bearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s second album Harlequin Dream, which debuted at number one on the ARIA chart, has gone gold after selling 35,000 units. Their first, Moonfire, went platinum. The video for new single â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Harlequin Dreamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; was filmed in Palawan in the Philippines by Kris Moyes two weeks before Typhoon Haiyan hit. The places and people in the video are safe because of the surrounding mountains, but the band has asked fans to donate to victims via UNICEF, Oxfam, the Australian Red Cross and Save the Children Australia.

SPOTIFY, RDIO EXPANDING SYDNEY TO ADOPT LIVE MUSIC PROPOSALS In a major win for live music, the City of Sydney has voted to adopt key points from the draft action plan Live Music Matters: Planning For Live Music And Performance In Sydney. These will be monitored by the APRA AMCOS National Live Music Office (NLMO). The NLMO said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;This marks one of the most significant and positive steps forward for live music in New South Wales since the 2007 Liquor Act reforms.â&#x20AC;? It proposes allowing young people to use the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s town halls after hours for free band rehearsals, including the Ron Williams Centre in Redfern, the Harry Jensen Activity Centre in Millers Point and the Green Square Community Hall. Other initiatives would see it developing a free mediation service for complaints about live music, getting the NLMO to collect data on audiences and participation to determine the health of the live music scene in Sydney, increasing

access for bands and road crew to load and unload at venues without being fined, as well as creating a live music performance series for young people and increasing the number of all-ages events.

ONELOVE, TWO NEW DIVISIONS Dance music label ONELOVE will launch music publishing and artist development divisions in early 2014, CEO Frank Cotela has announced. In the meantime, he appointed Bev Malcolm as its Sydney-based Marketing & Promotions Director. Malcolm will report to Cotela in Melbourne and work alongside the A&R and International licensing team headed by Matt Nugent and A&R Ant Celestino. Malcolm was for six years Marketing & Entertainment Manager at Home nightclub (for Pacha, Sublime and Mobile Home) and most recently A&R and Commercial Development Manager at EMI Music, whilst operating as head promoter for Stereosonic Sydney.

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Streaming services Spotify and Rdio last week continued their battle for more subscribers. Spotify launched a new free streaming service for mobile devices, an exclusive deal with Led Zeppelin, and set up in 20 new countries. Mobile users can stream playlists for free as long as the songs are shuffled randomly. Those who want to pick their own songs and albums must pay a premium. Rdio, which launched its free mobile service in October, said its monthly active user growth from countries outside the US has leapt from 30% at the start of 2013 to 57%. Last week it too launched in 20 new countries, bringing the total to 51.

YES WE BLOODY KNOW ITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CHRISTMASâ&#x20AC;Ś If your ears have turned to blobs of jelly from the Christmas jingles blaring out whichever way you turn, spare a thought for the musos making money from it. Slade singer Noddy Holder is expected to make A$1.44m this year from 1973â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Merry Xmas Everybodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; through UK royalties from radio, TV, jukeboxes and shop plays as well as compilation album sales. The Poguesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Fairytale Of New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is due to rake in $940k and Mariah Careyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;All I Want For Christmas Is Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; $820k. Prezzybox reports other UK high earners in the silly season include Wham!â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Last Christmasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ($540k), Cliff Richardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Mistletoe And Wineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ($178k), Band Aidâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Do They Know Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Christmas?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; ($140k), Shakinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Stevensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Merry Christmas Everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ($97k), The Pretendersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;2000 Milesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ($80k), East 17â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Stay Another Dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ($54k) and Jona Lewieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Stop The Calvaryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ($24k). Meanwhile, Cliffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Mistletoe And Wineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; has been banned from Costa Coffeeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1,600 shops over the Christmas period after customers named it the most hated Christmas song of all time.

WILLIAMSON QUITS AS CMAA PRESIDENT

Groundation

Six60 (NZ)

Fri 7 Feb

Fri 28 Feb

Crystal Fighters (UK) The Crimson Thu 9 Jan ProjeKCt Fri 10 Jan

Eyehategod

The Brian Jonestown Massacre (USA) Thu 19 Dec

Earthless (USA) & The Shrine (USA)

Wehrmacht (USA) Grave (SWE) Primate (USA) Sat 11 Jan

Rotting Christ (GRE)

Supernova U18s Headhunterz

Toro Y Moi + Portugal The Man

Thu 23 Jan: U18s

Wed 29 Jan

TnT, Frequencerz, + More

Dark Tranquillity (SWE)

Kylesa (USA)

Sat 15 Feb: U18s

Sat 29 Mar

Robert Glasper Exp & Roy Ayers & Lonnie Liston Smith

Darkside

Sat 18 Jan

Wed 02 Apr

Sat 8 Mar

Thu 3 Apr

Sat 4 Jan

Fri 17 Jan

Kerser Sat 8 Feb: All Ages

Skid Row & Ugly Kid Joe Sun 27 Apr

Toxic Holocaust & Skeletonwitch

Children of Bodom

Sat 26 Apr

Fri 9 May

John Williamson has quit as President of the Country Music Association of Australia (CMAA) after ten years â&#x20AC;&#x201C; saying that its Golden Guitar awards have become too American. Williamson was not happy that, rather than honouring true blue original acts, the finalists for the album of the year category include Troy Cassar-Daley and Adam Harveyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hit album The Great Country Songbook (of mostly US covers), or that US-based Keith Urban is up for male performer. Williamson has been replaced by Dobe Newton of The Bushwackers. Cassar-Daley and Harvey have, for the sake of harmony within country music, since pulled out of the awards. The row underlined a problem that has divided Australian country music. Does it become more glamorous for a wider mainstream audience, or continue, as Williamson says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;nurturing what Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson startedâ&#x20AC;??

MAYER, NIN CHANGE THEIR MR. TEN PER CENT On the eve of Australian visits, two international acts have changed management. John Mayer split from Michael McDonald after 13 years. They worked together before Mayer became a star. Nine Inch Nailsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Trent Reznor said ta-ta to Jim Guerinot of Rebel Waltz (The Offspring, Gwen Stefani, Robbie Robertson, Josh Freese) and within 24 hours shackled himself to Silva Artist Management alongside Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Ryan Adams and Beck.

Steve Romer, outgoing General Manager of the Sydney Entertainment Centre, leaves the venue after four years. During that time, he took the 30-year-old arena â&#x20AC;&#x201C; which is to be demolished as part of a $1 billion revamp of Darling Harbour â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from number 37 to number two in Billboardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rankings of venues with a 10,000 to 15,000 capacity. Romer is returning to the Gold Coast.

Lifelines Split: Madonna, 55, and backup dancer Brahim Zaibat, 25, after three years. The split was either because (a) he signed up for the French version of Dancing With The Stars, which she thought cheesy; (b) their careers drove them apart; or (c) Madge and ex-husband Sean Penn palled up after a charity visit to Haiti. Injured: a female punter in Darwin got punched in the face by a member of a band after an argument about a song she requested and which the band was reluctant to play. Whether they get re-booked to the pub remains to be seen. In Court: Gold Coast police have issued warrants for the arrest of Erika Ann Silvester, 23, who twice in two weeks failed to front up to the Southport Magistrates Court. She faces ten charges of advertising tickets to music festivals on online classifieds site Gumtree, earning thousands of dollars and sending ticket reference numbers which later proved to be false. Sued: Ariana Grande over megahit â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Wayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; because it used the spoken phrase â&#x20AC;&#x153;What weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re gonna do right here is go back, way back, back into timeâ&#x20AC;?. This apparently first emerged in 1972 track â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Troglodyte (Cave Man)â&#x20AC;&#x2122; by US disco funk group The Jimmy Castor Bunch. The phrase has been used in works by N.W.A and Christina Aguilera, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be interesting to see if a small and oft-used phrase constitutes an infringement of copyright. In Court: the children of late New York Dolls guitarist Johnny Thunders are fighting over control of his estate. When he died in 1991 he had just US$4,000. But his sister Mariann Bracken built it up to $160,000 until she died in 2009. The estate was to be administered by Jamie Michelle Susanne Genzale, Thundersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; daughter by a Swedish groupie. But two of Thundersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sons by a different mother, Vito and Dino Genzale, have blocked that. The two did time for drug dealing, robbery, theft, indecent exposure and assault, according to the New York Post, and have hired a private investigator to find their mother. Died: Richard Coughlan, drummer with British prog group Caravan, after a long illness. Died: leading US jazz guitarist Jim Hall, 83, who strongly influenced proteges as Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell. In 2004, Hall became the first of the modern jazz guitarists to be named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s highest jazz honour. Died: Milton Olin Jr., 65, one-time COO of online file-sharing service Napster, after being struck by a sheriffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s patrol car while riding a bicycle in Los Angeles.

ENTERTAINMENT QUARTER, BUILDING 220, 122 LANG RD, MOORE PARK, SYDNEY

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here are some international acts – from Gomez to Lyrics Born and back – that you just can’t keep out of Australia for too long. The love is too great, the incentive to return too strong to ignore. De La Soul are definitely one of the finer examples, having performed to countless sold-out crowds and packed-out festivals here for over two decades. Simply put, it’s like this: even if you have never seen De La Soul live, there is a very good chance that somebody you know has. It’s a relationship that is very much understood and appreciated by De La Soul themselves, who are returning yet again for some end-ofyear club shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. For Kelvin ‘Posdnuos’ Mercer, one of the group’s two MCs, it’s a matter of mutual appreciation. “We’ve been coming out to Australia since the late ’80s, all the way back when we had our first record out,” he says. “Australia responded to us immediately. We’ve always loved coming back, too, because the three of us really love to travel. Even though it’s so far away, and we could have easily travelled four or five hours instead to play somewhere on the [US] mainland, or even six hours over to somewhere in Europe, Australia has always made the choice to do those longer flights worth it. They make you feel like you’re at home even though you’re about as far away as you can possibly be.”

KEEPIN’ THE FAITH BY DAVID JAMES Y OUNG

The last time Mercer, Dave Jolicoeur (AKA Trugoy the Dove) and Vincent ‘Maseo’ Mason embarked on one of these long hauls our way, they came twice within the space of a year. Not only did they perform as the opening act for Gorillaz’ first and only headline tour of Australia in 2010, they also did a run of their own headlining dates a matter of months later to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of their classic second album, De La Soul Is Dead. Despite its legendary status in the world of hip hop – an honour also bestowed to their 1989 debut, 3 Feet High And Rising – Mercer insists that never in their wildest dreams could they have anticipated the reactions people have had to their music over the years. “It really is nothing short of surreal,” he says, reflecting on the impact those anniversary shows had on him and his bandmates. “When I think back to certain songs, we were just going through the motions. Obviously, we were having a good time with it and everything, but when we’re performing songs like ‘Me Myself

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And I’ or ‘Say No Go’ I’ll start to realise just how much effort we really put into this music. There is a lot more to it than I had led myself to initially believe. “The craziest thing about performing these songs for so long is people coming out to the shows and singing along to them years later, and then different people doing the same years after that. People that you can tell obviously weren’t even born when we first released these songs – they know the words! It’s just amazing. It makes you think back to when we first made those songs… you just have no idea where that process is going to lead.” De La Soul have toured Australia – not to mention the world at large – in many ways, shapes and forms. They’ve taken their performances from the sweatiest of nightclubs to the grandest of theatres, from the streets of the CBD to the regional locations on Groovin The Moo, and in their traditional set-up or with a 13-piece backing band. It begs the question whether exploring so many kinds of performance has changed the way the group – and Mercer in particular – look at the original recordings. “Oh, for sure! We’ve done TV shows where we’re just performing to a track, and when you’re watching things like that back you start to notice that the way you deliver the song now barely even resembles how you did it in the first place. Whenever we play ‘The Magic Number’ or ‘Eye Know’ or a song like that, you really start to notice the little differences. We’ll pronounce or say a word differently, or replace this word with that word. You change the kind of cadence of the song when you’re performing it live. We definitely notice those kinds of things.” As somewhat of a heritage act in the realm of hip hop, De La Soul face a potential double-edged sword. Their classic 3 Feet High and De La Soul Is Dead albums have forever cemented their legacy in the annals of musical history. But it would certainly appear that there are some fans who live and die by those records, and who have received with scepticism any material that has come since. Thankfully, Mercer feels it’s a minority issue amongst the De La Soul audience. “We see people before and during the show that will call out certain albums, or hold them up in the air – even a certain single might come up. I think we’ve mastered knowing where to take our performances, directionwise. We’ll see or hear that one person is

really here for one thing, and then see that this person is there for that, y’know? That’s the way that we’ve been doing it for years. In turn, we’ll also have people coming up to us and saying that they didn’t even know about [2004 album] The Grind Date; or they’ll be like, ‘You guys did an album with Nike? Let me get it!’ That’s where we’re at. We have a lot of fun with the crowd – even if they’re waiting for their moment, we still give them plenty of fun along the way. We include everyone that comes to our shows.” Even still, Mercer goes out of his way to point out that he fully understands how and why fellow ‘heritage’ acts get frustrated with the weight of expectation placed on the particular era of the discography that the crowd is most interested in – particularly if those artists are doing their best to remain contemporary. He’s seen it happen too many times before, which is exactly why he works hard to keep both the band and the audience satisfied with the end product. “Whether you’re a legendary artist, someone who’s been around for years – LL, Beastie Boys, whoever have you – or you’re somebody new, you have to entice your crowd. It doesn’t matter if it’s something old, something new – hell, it could just be a beat. The entire show is peaks and valleys – it’s up to you whether you want to start out with something they love or if you want to try out something brand new. It’s a matter of figuring out how you want to go about your attack on the crowd.” With: DJ Yoda, Mike Who Where: Metro Theatre When: Saturday December 28

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Deafheaven Shades Of Black By David James Young

eavy metal – both with its wide musical spectrum and as a subculture unto itself – is a peculiar beast. It’s safe to say that no-one – whether they be a fan, a critic or merely a spectator – could have quite predicted this outcome: that the year’s most talked-about, critically acclaimed album within the metal world was a seven-track black metal release with a pink cover made by some relatively clean-cut and unassuming Californians. Not even the band responsible for the album in question, San Francisco’s Deafheaven, had any idea just what kind of impact Sunbather would have. “It’s definitely left us very surprised,” says George Clarke, the band’s lead vocalist and co-founder alongside guitarist Kerry McCoy. “It’s nothing that we could have really anticipated or expected. At the same time, above anything else, I’m just really appreciative of the support that we’ve gotten from any direction. It’s crazy and really cool that so many publications that aren’t necessarily open to metal music, or don’t really have a focus on it, were really positive about what we do and were really open to our record – I’ve had a really good time with it.” Sunbather was written by Clarke and McCoy as a duo, although by the time it was recorded and released the band had expanded to a quintet. Deafheaven welcomed guitiarist Shiv Mehra, bassist Stephen Clark and drummer Daniel Tracy to the fold in 2013 – and Clarke feels they have assimilated well within the group. “They’ve handled it wonderfully,” he says. “That was one of the biggest accomplishments for us

“It’s crazy and really cool that so many publications that aren’t necessarily open to metal music, or don’t really have a focus on it, were really positive about what we do and were really open to our record.”

this year – solidifying this new lineup and picking people that are really dedicated, talented and enjoy making music. I’m really looking forward to working with them more and more into next year and after that.” The album is a visceral, unforgiving listen, drenched in feedback and sprawling progressions. The vocals are often cloaked behind the force of the music itself. It’s not for the easily distracted, either – some tracks on the album go for as long as 15 minutes. There are plenty of descriptive terms to be bandied about when it comes to Sunbather, but ‘user-friendly’ and ‘accessible’ certainly aren’t ones that immediately come to mind. Its failure to comply with a single mould within the confines of metal can be traced to the band’s interest in sounds and musical styles outside the proverbial square – namely, the shoegaze movement; with bands like My Bloody Valentine, Chapterhouse and Slowdive serving as an inspiration. “That style of music is a really large influence on us,” says Clarke. “It always has been. I think that we were able to blend it in a really smart way on this album. It was a very conscious decision to include that element, and I think that we pulled it off. We just write things that we like – and we happen to like a lot of different styles of music. It’s just a natural outcome of writing songs.”

Clarke is also calm when responding to a relatively small yet vocal backlash from various purists, questioning just how ‘metal’ an album like Sunbather is. “No-one’s ever going to write an album that every single person likes,” he says nonchalantly. “There’s always something to attack or resist when it comes to music, and that’s okay. I don’t think much of it – that’s just how it goes. I went into making this album knowing that.” The aforementioned pink cover art of Sunbather was inspired by what one sees when they stare at the sun and close their eyes. It was designed by Nick Steinhardt, who plays guitar for fellow genre outsiders Touché Amoré. The cover drives a visual aspect behind the music itself, lending a vivid imagery to the already provocative soundtrack – but don’t expect anything similarly stunning on the eyes when it comes to the band’s live performances. Clarke is quick to point out that although a lot of thought went into how the album itself looks – arguably, almost as much as to how it sounds – a Deafheaven show is definitely a ‘what you see is what you get’ kind of deal. “The art aspect – at least up until this point – has been separate from our live show. The show is definitely a lot more focused on the

sound and the presentation of the songs themselves, as opposed to an overbearing visual accompaniment. We definitely have a large focus on aesthetics – it just doesn’t play into our live show super heavily.” January will see the band touring Australia for the first time ever, bringing the songs from Sunbather (as well as their 2011 debut, Roads To Judah) to life across a slew of intimate club shows. Anticipation is high among local fans – and Clarke himself is intrigued and very ready to kick off 2014 Down Under. “We’re just very excited to be travelling somewhere new,” he says. “We always love experiencing new culture and visiting new cities. From what I’ve been told about Australia, it seems really exciting. Shows seem to do really well there, and people that I know in bands always talk about what a great time they have over there. I think it’s going to be a really positive experience – we’re so happy that we finally get to go.” What: Sunbather out now through Deathwish Records Where: Annandale Hotel When: Thursday January 9

John Grant The Friendly Ghost By Augustus Welby

eleased in March this year, John Grant’s second solo LP, Pale Green Ghosts, is a major deviation from his previous work. On the new record, Grant makes a largely unprecedented manoeuvre into the world of electronics. Although Pale Green Ghosts showcases a sonic makeover, Grant reveals that the record’s slinky electronic exterior was no whimsical dalliance. “I’ve always loved electronics, synthesisers and synthesiser music,” he says, “and I’ve always been a big connoisseur of that type of music, so I knew that I wanted to bring that to the fore in this record.” Following the 2004 dissolution of The Czars (the group he lead for ten years), Grant took some time away from music to re-evaluate his creative ambitions. The stylistic extension displayed on Pale Green Ghosts, and before it, 2010’s Queen Of Denmark, shows that operating as a solo artist has largely freed Grant from constraints. “That’s one of the reasons that I felt like I needed to go solo, because it just wasn’t fair for me to be in a band where I didn’t want there to be a democracy. I wanted to do my vision and I shouldn’t have been in a band in the first place.” However, being the undisputed commander of any solo enterprise also places a weight of responsibility on that individual. Despite his

admitted adoration for electronics, Grant admits he was somewhat apprehensive about making the musical leap for this record. “Of course there was a part of me that worried about what some people would think. Sometimes I would lay awake at night and think, ‘Are people going to love it or are they going to hate it?’ Then when I went into the studio the next morning I would ignore that and just do whatever the fuck that I wanted to do.” Although he is clearly enjoying being his own boss, Grant’s two solo LPs haven’t been completely solitary assignments. He drafted in Texan friends Midlake to help realise the comparatively pastoral Queen Of Denmark, while Icelandic producer Biggi Veira facilitated Pale Green Ghosts’ dark electronic movements. But perhaps the most venerable guest Grant has had in the studio is Sinead O’Connor. The Irish singer provides backing vocals to many Pale Green Ghosts tracks, including the single ‘GMF’, and Grant still speaks with disbelief about her appearance on the album. “It was something that I never thought I would experience and it was amazing. She’s a good example of somebody who is very gracious and surpasses any expectations that you might have had.” The life of a musician can be very unstable and sometimes the

rewards will seem inscrutable, but to collaborate with an idol is a concrete reminder to Grant of the unmatched opportunities the vocation offers. “She’s very real and very warm and very funny and down to earth. Everything has been worth it just for that, you know – just to get to know her has been a really big deal for me.” Evidently, Grant’s music is widely esteemed by many other contemporary artists and fans alike, and he’s always appreciative for the response. “I definitely see very, very concretely that what I do resonates with certain people, because they come up to me and tell me about it. A lot of people say to me, ‘Oh, you’ve probably heard this a million times,’ or, ‘God, I’m so sorry, this is probably really stupid,’ and I always say to them, ‘I’ve never met you before and the fact that my music resonates with you, that’s not something that I ever tire of hearing.’ I’m always very humbled and feel honoured when somebody says that to me.” What: John Grant and John Murry at Sydney Festival With: Darren Sylvester, Matt Vaughan (DJ set) Where: Paradiso at Town Hall When: Thursday January 16 And: Pale Green Ghosts out now through Bella Union/Universal xxx

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Future Of The Left Generational Change By Krissi Weiss

hatting to Andrew ‘Falco’ Falkous, frontman for angular Welsh alt-rockers Future Of The Left, makes you instantly feel like you’re in a tiny Cardiff pub, downing a pint and watching a football game. Falco is known (and occasionally lambasted) for being brutally honest, and in a saccharine industry of product placement and the two-week record cycle, maybe his down-to-earth nature is just jarring. Or maybe, if you remember what it’s like to have a human conversation, he’s a breath of fresh air. It’s virtually impossible to keep him focused on business questions – current tours, this year’s album How To Stop Your Brain In An Accident, press release regurgitation – but the guy’s got plenty to say.

For a moment he talks shop, discussing the band’s recent British tour and their plot to return to the US sometime soon. “It’s quite difficult to get to America, but a band of our size can usually find a way to get over there and not lose money,” Falco says. “That’s always the insane dream anyway. It’s just an incredible experience overall, so even if it’s just a month a year, the experience of the States is a wonderful thing. Other than that, I’ve just been fuckin workin’, I’ve been disappointed but enriched by the cricket, drinkin’, runnin’, injuring myself running, having a toothache – the usual things.”

“It’s strange how people’s entertainment choices don’t represent who they are. So often in life the correlations are clear, but not always. I guess there are exceptions – I’ve never been headbutted by a Keane fan.”

should be, for better or worse, a work of art. A live show is a different thing; a live show, for me, is entertainment. You go up there and play the hits and make them more interesting – it’s an hour-anda-half assault where you’ll hopefully leave people bewildered.” Still, the Australian audience occasionally leaves Falco bewildered himself. “Australian crowds can go either way,” he says. “Some of the best shows I’ve ever had have been in Oz, but we’ve also had some of the most weirdly cantankerous. My theory – well, our theory – is that if you go onstage too late on a weekend night in Australia, people are too drunk. Not every fucker in the room, but the kind of people that shout shit out are too drunk. It’s very easy to get an Australian crowd onside – wherever you are, you say that place name and say they’re a bunch of c*nts there and everyone cheers. That’s really nice but that doesn’t work anywhere else. It really didn’t work in LA.” What: How To Stop Your Brain In An Accident out now through Prescriptions/Remote Control Where: Annandale Hotel When: Friday January 3

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS

After a successful crowdfunding campaign, FOTL released How To Stop Your Brain In An Accident in October to an eager audience. Measuring the album’s success so far is something that Falco finds a strange process. “It’s hard, in a way. A person, unless they’re a close friend or someone whose views you value intensely – well, it’s sad to say their opinions aren’t really that important. But I guess album reviews have been good, even though the influence of album reviews [has lessened] compared to 20 years ago when that was a big gateway for a band and how much they’d get listened to – I guess they have some influence. On that basis, and on the basis of the audience response, it’s gone fairly well. Most people liked it, but then there are people out there that just don’t fucking like things. You ask them why and they’re like, ‘I just don’t.’” Is this a criticism on the state of keyboard activism, Reddit-style hatefests and internet communication in general? “Absolutely, but the problem with criticising the internet in any way, or the morals of the internet, is that instantly – even with a fully functioning brain – it makes you sound like an 85-year-old man who’s just retired from 70 years as a weaver. But yeah, I’m 38 years old and much of the internet flowered on the heels of my generation, and the people who drive the internet are teenagers, basically. The people who follow the teenagers are those desperate people who desperately want to appear relevant … Something I find really interesting in all of this is how aggressive some fans can be of bands whose music isn’t aggressive at all. Some of the most aggressive people I’ve ever met are Stone Roses fans. Why is that? Why does ‘After all she’s a waterfall’ translate to ‘I’m gonna fuck you up mate’? Yet a bunch of guys who listen to death metal somehow translates to them in a circle pit going, ‘Oh I’m sorry, did I get in your way?’ It’s really bizarre. It’s strange how people’s entertainment choices don’t represent who they are. So often in life the correlations are clear, but not always. I guess there are exceptions – I’ve never been headbutted by a Keane fan. But of course our fans are just lovely.” With a growing following, though, often comes an increasing disconnect between artist and audience – but Falco says the relationship is more complicated than that, especially in the live environment. “There’s sometimes a lot of entitlement in music and art, and bands shouldn’t expect anything from their fans – and I use this term with the greatest respect just because if someone called me a ‘fan’ of something I’d punch them; it’s not the power position in that relationship, let’s face it. And all a fan can expect from a band is the record a band wants to make. A record thebrag.com

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Misfits

Only The Horror By Joshua Kloke

isfits have become so synonymous with punk music that if one were to nominate an official logo to represent the genre, the band’s infamous ‘Crimson Ghost’ skull face would likely run away with the crown. It is as recognisable as any other motif in the history of punk, and serves to unify fans of the New Jersey-based band across the world. And while the Crimson Ghost made its debut on the cover of the band’s 1979 single ‘Horror Business’, the logo isn’t used in memoriam. Not even close, according to bassist/ vocalist Jerry Only, the lone surviving member of the original Misfits. “We’re going into our 30th year,” says the 54 year old, speaking on the phone from the band’s touring van on an interstate highway between Pittsburgh and North Carolina. It’s likely the same interstate Only has driven a thousand times throughout his many years as a touring musician. “We’re going to try and stick around until 50. If I can keep a healthy body and mind I think I can do it.”

Only remains incredibly bubbly and upbeat throughout our conversation, considering I’m at the tail end of two hours’ of phoners he’s logged throughout the evening. He answers questions in great detail and often gets lost along his own tangents. Yet there’s a ceaseless energy in his voice, one that bodes well for the future for Misfits fans. “If I can keep a healthy body and mind I think I can try and double our catalogue in 13 years. This is my cram time,” he says pointedly. “We’re a punk band so it’s a physical job; once you hit 60 you’re pushing it. But I’ve got all my tools, I want to write some really great stuff and go out with a bang. I’ve got one more decade in me, I’ll tell you that.” There are traces of naivete in his logic, especially given that Misfits have only released three studio albums in the last 12 years. Of course, this can be forgiven; few musicians his age display the same sky-high levels of enthusiasm towards recording and touring.

Only hasn’t settled into a comfortable groove, either. At the turn of the century, the long-time bassist took over vocal duties for the Misfits. And he hasn’t turned back. “It’s funny, I can’t play without singing now but beforehand I couldn’t sing while I would play,” he laughs. “It was a big transition for me but it helped me grow as a musician. It forced me to pay more attention to my breathing and my concentration. With that comes focus that I can use everywhere. I’m discovering my limitations but I’m figuring how to twist things around as well.” That focus comes into play when discussing what is truly important to Only and the Misfits legacy. Commercial success has largely eluded the band but he remains unaffected. For Only, happiness stems from the personal connections he maintains with his fans. And he has no intentions of altering this aspect of Misfits, regardless of how long he continues with the band.

“I’m happy with the band because we’re legendary but we’re still underground. One of the things that makes us legendary is that we’re not a commercial success. We’re not out there playing to 50,000 people, we’re playing to 500 or 1,000 people and we have that personal connection with people. “We hang out with our fans after

the shows, take the photos, find out what they like and don’t like. You can learn a lot from your fans, the people you’re trying to hard to entertain. We try to keep it humble.” With: Graveyard Rockstars, Horrorwood Mannequins Where: Factory Theatre When: Saturday January 18

Clutch Rockin’ All Over The World By David James Young

usic aficionados will see plenty of bands coming and going in their time, so whenever an artist reaches double digits in any regard it’s a commendable and respectable effort. Heavy Maryland four-piece Clutch spent their 23rd year as a band in 2013 releasing and touring their tenth studio album, Earth Rocker. Their first studio release in four years, the album was a welcome return for Clutch to their cult-like fanbase – high on blazing guitar licks and hellhound vocals, low on filler.

Mick Harvey Intoxicated Man By Rachel Eddie

ick Harvey is best known as a former Bad Seed, the right-hand man to Nick Cave for the better part of 35 years. But for all the stardom, one of the Oz rock scene’s elder statesmen is making breakfast when I speak to him on a Monday afternoon. “I hope that’s not too revolting for you,” he laughs. Beyond the spotlight, the multi-instrumentalist Harvey has brought much more to the music world than the mainstream might realise. “I don’t know how many albums I’ve made as a producer, or the albums I’ve made with bands. It must be more than 50, or maybe 60 or something,” Harvey says with an awkward pride. Aside from his partnership with Cave – which spanned The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party and The Bad Seeds – he’s scored handfuls of films, released six solo records and produced many of PJ Harvey’s. But Mick concedes that he’s hardly a songwriter. “A lot of people misunderstand that, because [they think], ‘What are you talking about? You’ve written a lot of songs!’ And I kind of have written songs. But if you look to about ten years ago, [it was] barely any. In terms of writing the music to a song, then yeah; because I’m a composer. But songwriters are people who are just always writing songs. That’s their vocation. That’s not my vocation. I make music. So if I’ve written some songs along the way, then that’s a bonus.” And since Harvey didn’t even pen the first of his own solo releases, he kind of has a point. 1995’s Intoxicated Man and 1997’s Pink Elephants translated and reinterpreted the Serge Gainsbourg originals for English-speaking audiences. Now, almost 20 years on, nostalgia for the French provocateur will once again be relieved as Mute Records reissues Harvey’s efforts as a double album. And finally, we’ll get to see them played live on Australian soil.

The album picks up where its predecessor, 2009’s Strange Cousins From The West, left off. This isn’t a coincidence, either – despite the lengthy gap between albums (the longest they’ve ever had in their discography), Sult traces the writing of Earth Rocker right back to the months after Strange Cousins was released. It was more or less a matter of life getting in the way – extensive touring lead to extensive breaks so the band members could spend time with their families. “For us, it didn’t feel like this huge gap between releasing new albums. We just kind of lost track of the time. There’s definitely a lot of fresh stuff on Earth Rocker, though. We’re constantly writing new material, we’re always throwing out new ideas. We might dump it, we might keep it. You never know what’s going to happen.”

Australian audiences will get their chance to hear Earth Rocker for themselves when the band returns in February for the Soundwave Festival. It was the same festival where Aussies last saw them back in 2010 – and Sult enthuses that the whole group is raring to return. “It’s always been absolutely amazing coming over there – I don’t think we’ve ever had a bad show over there,” he says. “This will be our sixth time, and every time we’ve gone over it’s been an amazing experience. Even the days off are fun!” Before he can go any further, Sult is cut off by his young son asking an indecipherable question. Excusing himself, Sult offers a solution to whatever the problem was – “Just flush it!” he says – and then returns to wrap up. Clutch: Overlords of riffs, interviews and parenting. What more could you want? What: Soundwave Festival 2014 With: Green Day, Avenged Sevenfold, Alice In Chains, Placebo, AFI, Korn, Newsted and more Where: Sydney Olympic Park When: Sunday February 23 And: Clutch play the Metro Theatre on Thursday February 20

Playing alongside a six-piece band, Harvey will revisit the records at Paradiso at Town Hall for Sydney Festival. These Gainsbourgturned-Harvey creations have an air of majesty to them. But though he says he’s “never felt like being in The Ramones,” Harvey’s discography proves diverse; sometimes with the serenity of his later works, other times with the racket of The Birthday Party. “The only notion of what I’d do next is that it’d be a much more upbeat, bandoriented kind of thing. I’m never far away from those sorts of things. I’ve continued to make music all these years, which is kind of odd in a way, but also kind of really great.” What: Sydney Festival 2014 With: Alex Cameron Where: Paradiso at Town Hall When: Sunday January 19 thebrag.com

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“It seemed like an appropriate time to actually get out there and perform the material,” he says. “When the albums came out back in the mid-’90s, I’d played no shows for it at all and it was a very conscious decision. I was sick to death of it by that time. I’d worked so long and hard on the recordings that the thought of going out on the road and having to…” he pauses. “If I’d done shows when the albums came out it would have been a struggle to make them and to not lose a lot of money. And they would have turned into tribute nights too. Which I wasn’t interested in doing after the amount of time I’d spent working on the material. But now, I don’t mind. They can be anything, I don’t really care. I’m fine about doing it now, it should be quite funny [laughs]. Hopefully there’ll be finished copies [of the re-issued albums] in Australia by the time I finish the show.”

“The fact that we were able to release our tenth album this year was such a highlight for us,” says Tim Sult, the band’s lead guitarist and a founding member. “People seem to be really into it. We can go out and play shows where we play all 11 of the new songs that we’ve written. The fact that we can keep going out and doing what we do after all these years – I’d say it’s the highlight of my career. It’s not like we’re a band who people only like the first few albums of, you know? We’re lucky to be able to continue to write songs that people react to and take to heart.”

In the spirit of keeping things fresh, Clutch released a special edition of Earth Rocker last month as a double-LP picture disc set. Entitled Earth Rocker Live, the set consists of the album itself and a recreation of its tracklisting using recordings from live shows. “Our drummer JP [Jean-Paul Gaster] cherrypicked the best live versions of each of the songs on the album,” says Sult. “Basically, you’re getting two different versions of the album – how we recorded it, and how we’re playing it live. It looks really cool, too – our art director, Nick Lakiotes, really knows how to capture the aesthetics of what we do.”

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arts frontline

free stuff head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

arts news...what's goin' on around town...with Mina Kitsos and Lily White

five minutes WITH

ome January next year, Flickerfest will deliver some reel goods for its 23rd year. The BAFTA and Academy Awardaccredited short film festival showcases material from some of the world’s best new writing, directing and acting talent, opening up a filmic dialogue in a global context. We caught five with festival director Bronwyn Kidd to get the low-down on what to expect next year. How did you go about curating next year’s program? Curating Flickerfest 2014 was, as always, like constructing a huge jigsaw puzzle. We received over 2100 entries from around the world so it took many months to whittle the program down to approximately 500 films. It’s all a huge labour of love but one that is extremely worthwhile when you unearth the amazing short film gems that we’re able to share with the Flickerfest audience for the first time.

BRONWYN KIDD

Can you share a few of your festival highlights? Vote Yes by director Nick Waterman is a very moving and uplifting film about an extremely important period of change set in May 1967, focusing on Australia’s referendum on Aboriginal rights. Tango Underpants is also really fun. It follows Carolyn, a young Australian backpacker who travels to Buenos Aries where she discovers the wonders of Tango and the importance of wearing the right underwear! Both of these are world premieres. In the international section, That Wasn’t Me from Spain is an incredibly hard-hitting, but insightful story about a child soldier in the Congo. Then there’s And Butter Lamp, a Chinese-French co-production about a young photographer and his assistant who suggest to Tibetan nomads that they take their picture. I also really like The Ringer because I’m a huge fan of director Chris Shepherd and Letters From Pyongyang offers a moving look at North Korea. How important is Australia’s short film industry in a global context and what excites you about it? Supporting our own storytelling on screen and sharing this with the world is of vital importance to who we are as a nation. Of equal importance is also support of Australian audiences for our own film. All of this ensures that our screens are not just taken up with big budget Hollywood blockbusters and that our industry can be sustained. I’m excited by our unique and very independent view of the world and the ultimate humanity that is coming

What is the significance of Flickerfest being Academy and BAFTA recognised? It’s a great honour to be Australia’s only Academy Accredited and BAFTA recognised short film festival. These honours recognise the quality of our short film competition both at home and on a global stage. You’ve been programming Flickerfest for 17 years. How has the festival evolved and where do you see its future? When I started way back in 1997 screened stills on 35mm film, had around 200 entries and 3 touring venues. There’s been a dramatic shift in both the way that filmmakers consume films and how they are made. Technology has made short filmmaking more accessible to a wider range of people both as audience members across our extensive 50-venue national tour and the filmmakers who are making the films. We have seen our festival grow dramatically in entries and audience and I think that Australia’s passion for embracing short film is greater than ever. What: Flickerfest 2014 Where: Bondi Pavilion When: January 10-19, 2014 More: flickerfest.com.au

BEIJING SILVERMINE Professional jokester, Stephen K Amos, is headed Down Under to bring the LOLs at next year’s Sydney Comedy Festival. Amos will take the stage on Tuesday May 6 at Enmore Theatre with his new show, What Does The K Stand For? Revolving around hilarious childhood stories, the stooge is set to delight audiences with standup that’s highly personal, original and quirky. For further details visit sydneycomedyfest.com.au.

On Saturday January 11, 4A Centre For Contemporary Asian Art will launch an exhibition of photographs from the Beijing Silvermine archive curated by collector Thomas Sauvin. Beijing Silvermine will provide a unique portrait of the Chinese capital and the life of its inhabitants in the decades following the Cultural Revolution. Story goes: In 2009, Sauvin was conducting research into buying and collecting negatives when he came across Xiao Ma, a man who stockpiled negatives to recycle for their silver nitrate content. Thereafter, Sauvin struck up a deal with Ma to buy these negatives by the kilo. And so evolved Beijing Silvermine allowing us to witness the intimate and public lives of ordinary Chinese people during a period of immense social change. Head to 4a.com.au for more information.

BYOB SYDNEY

Curator Susan Bui and Archive Space want us to celebrate the new world we live in and consider the future of computing. BYOB, created by German creative Raphael Rozendaal, is an ongoing project delivering one-night exhibitions showcasing artists and their projectors. The idea here is to explore notions of ‘image’ and how they change the increased flexibility of portable projection. The good news? You’ll get the chance to suss this out yourself when BYOD comes to Sydney on Friday December 20. Artists representing include David Manley, Lisa Sammut, David Greenhalgh, Liam Ambrose, William Bennett, Katrina Stamatopoulos, James Nguyen, Ari Zainal, Optic 18 :: BRAG :: 543 :: 16:12:13

Horror-comedy romp, 100 Bloody Acres, follows the Morgan brothers on their quest to savour their organic fertiliser business. The catch? Said fertiliser requires secret ingredients: road kill and the blood and bones of dead car crash victims. But the thing is, the pair are running low on supplies and have never killed themselves. That is of course, until they meet three 20-something travellers, Sophie, James and Wes. Damon Herriman and Angus Sampson (replete with hearty chinstrap beard) lead an ensemble cast in this gory tale of man’s quest to deliver big. To celebrate the release of 100 Bloody Acres on DVD, BRAG’s giving away five copies. Just head to thebrag.com/ freeshit and tell us what secret ingredient you’d use in a fertiliser and why.

IMB SUNSET CINEMA

Crowned winners of Australia’s Got Talent 2013, funk hunks Uncle Jed will take the stage for the opening night of freshly-dubbed IMB Sunset Cinema North Sydney at North Sydney Oval on Thursday January 17. The iconic site hosted the nation’s first-documented outdoor cinema way back in 1909. Over 100 years later, punters can expect thousands of fellow outdoor cinemagoers and one seriously massive hi-tech screen. Running five nights a week until Tuesday March 5 a menagerie of cult classics and huge blockbusters will grace the silver screen including The Hobbit, Anchorman 2, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Dirty Dancing, Top Gun and Grease. Also on the lineup? Live music, beanbags, gourmet food stalls and a bar. Head to sunsetcinema.com.au for more information and tickets.

STEPHEN K AMOS

100 BLOODY ACRES! DVDS! WIN!

Circus Oz photo by Rob Blackburn

IMB Sunset Cinema

forward in the stories of our next generation of filmmakers.

Soup, Bryden Williams, Daniel Connell, Eric Davidson and Haidee Ireland. Visit archivespace.com.au for more information.

BARD ON THE BEACH

Four hundred and fifty years of poetic charm later, Shakespeare’s spellbinding tragedies live on through Bard On The Beach – a series of performances under the summer night sky. Kicking off on Friday January 10, Bard On The Beach will present Willy’s The Taming Of The Shrew and the stunning tear-jerker, King Lear. Setting up stage at Balmoral Beach Band Rotunda, the shows will run every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night until Sunday March 2. Make sure you pack a blanket, a picnic basket full of goodies and some tissues. Date optional. For uncomplicated dates and times, visit bardonthebeach.net.

HEAD ON PHOTO FESTIVAL 2014

Sydney’s favourite photography festival, Head On Photo Festival, will return next year from May 12 through June 8. Inhabiting art galleries, public spaces and community sites, the festival will present a dynamic lineup of exhibitions, educational workshops and talks. “We are thrilled that we can once again bring a dedicated photography festival to Sydney, with an expanded interactive program that will cover topics across areas such as education, training and development that connects enthusiasts and professional photographer in an inspiring environment,” said Festival Director Moshe Rosenzveig. Head On will expand overseas in 2014 to China, US and New Zealand. For more information visit headon.com.au.

Shane Witt in Cranked Up

CIRCUS OZ: CRANKED UP

Come January, Circus Oz will return to Tumbalong Park in Darling Harbour to present its latest show, Cranked Up, from January 1-27. And y’all know Circus Oz has been around the traps for yonks, but don’t expect to see the same acts that you saw way back when you were a little tyke. The trapeze-flying, tightropewalking, acrobats, clowns and jugglers will delight audiences with all new larrikin humour and nail-biting feats. New additions to the team include indigenous provocateurs Mark Sheppard and Dale Woodbridge. The ensemble prides itself on being an animal-free act boasting live musical accompaniment. Head to ticketmaster. com.au to secure your tickets.

SAMUEL HODGE AT ALASKA PROJECTS

Sydney-based photographer, Samuel Hodge, will present a body of new work at Alaska Projects from January 8-26. In his third solo exhibition at Alaska, Hodge will explore portraiture, humour, fashion and longing. The artist primarily works as a photomedia practitioner and has exhibited in several artist run initiatives including MOP, Chalkhorse and Firstdraft. Hodge’s works can be described as casual observations of everyday life complete with natural imperfections; just as real life is often unclear, this too is materialised in the artist’s photos wherein lens focus is not a primary concern. Head to alaskaproject.com for further information. thebrag.com

Great White Shark 3D [FILM] Out Of The Blue By Kate Robertson

Forget the famously foreboding music that is probably inadvertently cycling through your mind right now – what unfolds in this documentary is a thoughtful consideration of what we do and don’t know about these marine creatures. Great White Shark 3D was shot over three years using a high-speed and high-resolution digital camera. The team travelled to multiple Great White hotspots: Guadalupe Island in Mexico, Stewart Island south of New Zealand, the Californian coast and South Africa where they captured the Great White breaching for the first time in 3D.

Luke Cresswell after he saw a video of them swimming with sharks without a cage at the London Dive Show. Though filming had already finished, Cresswell resolved that these men could further the documentary’s message by reiterating that Great Whites are not monsters. Combining his expert knowledge of shark behaviour and his record-breaking world champion talent as a freediver, Winram tags, films and even takes tissue samples of sharks while holding his breath (which he can do for eight minutes!). “The only issues we’ve ever had with Great Whites were due to mistakes made, usually by members of the crew,” says Winram. “[Sharks are] highly sensitive to small amounts of blood, to motion in the water, to electrical fields.” But there remains the need to be cautious of course – freedivers never swim alone and are constantly vigilant. Winram believes sharks are unfairly represented in the media: “What really catalysed this terror was the film Jaws and from there it continued to snowball with programming like The Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.”

Winram and his friend and colleague, Fred Buyle, were approached by the film’s co-director

The moral of the story is: despite how much we fear Great Whites, it’s really us humans who

Great White Shark 3D photo by Fred Buyle

reat White Shark 3D is a beautifully shot documentary exploring the fearful and fascinating species at the top of the oceanic food chain. “Our mission”, insists codirector Steve McNicholas, “is to change peoples’ attitudes toward the Great White … it’s not the menacing, evil predator it’s made out to be”. BRAG spoke to Great White Shark ambassador William Winram about this apex predator and his role in the documentary.

Great White Shark 3D pose the greater danger to them. Executive Director of WildAid, Peter Knights, notes, “over one-third of all open ocean shark species are endangered and up to 73 million sharks are killed by fisherman every year to make shark fin soup.” And there’s still a lot about Great Whites that remains unknown. “We don’t know a lot about the breeding, we don’t know where they give birth, [but] we know more and more about their hunting patterns,” says Winram. “They’re a difficult animal to study, but we’ve learnt a lot by freediving, sitting at the bottom and watching them swim around with sea lions and tuna fish to see how they interact.”

With ethereal footage of the sea, incredible action shots and narration by the British actor Bill Nighy, this documentary will both mesmerise and educate. “If the Great Whites were as they are portrayed in Jaws or in Shark Week, I wouldn’t be able to do what I do,” says Winram. What: Great White Shark 3D Where: IMAX Darling Harbour When: From Thursday January 9 More: greatwhiteshark3d.com

The Dreamer Examines His Pillow [THEATRE] Domestic Drama By Alasdair Duncan The story of the play concerns a dysfunctional couple, Donna and Tommy, who have just broken up, but cannot stay out of each other’s orbits. “They’re grappling with a lot of fears and desires,” Pontaks explains. “It starts with her coming to his house to confront him because she thinks he’s been hitting on her sister, and from there, all their shit starts to fly around the room, things go from ‘I hate you’ to ‘I love you’. There’s passion and rejection. She wants him to wake up to himself, but it’s not happening, she doesn’t know what to do with him, so she goes to see her dad …”

The Dreamer Examines His Pillow

he Dreamer Examines His Pillow is John Patrick Shanley’s story of love gone bad in the New York of the 1980s. It is one of the earliest works by Shanley, the Bronx native-turned-Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright, and it doesn’t pull any punches. Vashti Pontaks, director of the upcoming Sydney production, is giddy with excitement when she contemplates the work.

“Shanley’s script is pretty amazing stuff to be exploring,” she says, “because his writing is so incredible. It’s really raw and beautiful and poetic. It’s great to explore that with the actor, it’s quite a brave text, and it’s been a great process. There’s a lot of thoughtprovoking, rich, intense stuff in there, and that’s where the beauty is. It’s full-on but very rewarding.”

The Railway Man

Donna’s dad is a tough customer. “She wants him to come around and talk to Tommy, to beat him up, to do something to try and get through to him,” Pontaks says. “So in the next part of the play, she goes to visit her dad to talk the whole situation out with him, and then that’s a whole other thing in itself. There’s a lot of mirroring in the play, the issues she has with her boyfriend are the same ones her dad had with her mother, who has now passed away. You see these ideas of problems coming down through the generations. She finally gets through to him, asks him to please go and talk to her boyfriend and save the day, and then things get really interesting.” For Pontaks, the true beauty of the play lies in Shanley’s rich dialogue. “To steal some of the words from the play, what I like about Shanley is that he expresses the ordinary and the extraordinary together,” she says. “He comes from

The Bronx, and he saw Cyrano de Bergerac at a young age and was amazed by the poetry in it, and he’s spoken since about how in his writing, he tries to express both his roots and his love of the poetic. I think everyone in life has that – moments where we experience the mundane, the ordinary, the everyday, but there’s something else there, something amazing. That’s what attracts me to his writing, really.” Given The Dreamer Examines His Pillow’s setting, actors Ainslie Clouslton, Scott Lee and Peter McAllum have had to brush up on their Bronx accents. “They saw accent coaches before we started the rehearsal process, refining and working to get them just right,” she says. “The two main actors we have, just in general, do a lot of voice work, so they’re professionals in that sense. Peter, who plays the dad, he’s been acting for quite a long time so he knows accents really well. Everyone has their tapes, they’ve watched videos,” she continues “You just can’t do this play without the accents, because Shanley writes how people speak, you know? For example, ‘yellow’ is written as two separate words. The script is full of details like that, and it’s just amazing.” What: The Dreamer Examines His Pillow Where: TAP Gallery, Darlinghurst When: Until December 21 More: tapgallery.org.au

Tanroh Ishida, Colin Firth in The Railway Man

[FILM] Time past, present and future By Harry Windsor

onathan Teplitzky’s four films to date constitute a body of work with a markedly split personality. His first two features, Better Than Sex and Gettin’ Square, were light-hearted farces, funny and romantic. The first was a chamber piece in which David Wenham and Susie Porter fell for each other over the course of a lazy weekend in bed. And the latter was basically a cockney crime caper transplanted to Surfer’s Paradise, with Timothy Spall lending a bit of authentic East London, gold-chained heft. Since then, however, Teplitzky’s career has changed tempo. His last film, Burning Man, was emotional but unsentimental, and blessedly uncool. The genealogy of the filmmaker may have been visible – another love story, for starters – but the film was harsher, tougherminded. That flintiness has carried over to his latest, The Railway Man, starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman, which tells the true story of Eric Lomax (Firth). As a young man Lomax was captured by the Japanese and put to work on the Thai-Burma railway. He was also tortured, and emotionally crippled by the experience for decades afterwards. It’s a plum role and for the director there was only one choice. “The first thing I did when I got involved was to send the script to Colin, and he came on very quickly because he loved what the film was trying to do, and in particular the character.” And Lomax is in some respects a thebrag.com

patented Firth type: the emotionally repressed, starchy but fundamentally decent Brit. The wrinkle here is that Lomax is also a man capable of homicidal fury, an ex-POW bent on revenge. As with Burning Man, Teplitzky chops up the narrative. We hop between Lomax as a young soldier and Lomax in present day decades later, scouring train timetables at the local veteran’s club and interrogating train conductors about brake shoes. As Teplitzky puts it, “it’s about time and memory and changes in time, [so] it was important to move back and forth seamlessly between those two so that the memory of Eric’s younger self was as potent as if it was happening in the here and now.” Lomax’s obsession with trains is therefore a neat metaphor, but one that, mercifully, isn’t belaboured. Indeed the understated approach is the name of the game throughout, most affectingly in a climactic scene in which Lomax confronts the Japanese man who tortured him as a young soldier. Teplitzky cannily casts Hiroyuki Sanada in the role, an actor typecast in his English-language films as the embodiment of grace and dignity and quiet strength – a kind of Japanese Morgan Freeman. As Teplitzky himself admits, it’s a scene that, done wrong, could very easily be pat. “We worked very hard at it. It’s so easy in a scene like that to put too many words into it, and my instincts suggested that the simpler we

kept it, the more we pared it back to its bare bones, the better it would be. You want the emotion of it, and not the intellectualisation of it to take over.” The tension when the two meet is palpable, in no small part due to how convincing Firth makes Lomax’s pathology, bordering on mania. There’s a shocking scene early on where he attacks a debt-collector with a Stanley knife, and the trancelike rage is horribly persuasive. According to the director, the uncertainty in the audience’s mind as to what might happen when Lomax and Nagase, his torturer, meet was mirrored in Lomax himself. “I asked him

if he really would have killed Nagase. He said ‘yes, I would have.’” I won’t spoil what happens, but there’s an illogic, a lack of neatness to the scene that rings true. Teplitzky then gives us another, fearfully compressed version of the same scene, only this time Kidman looks on with dewy eyes; it’s a baffling move, not least in terms of pacing. Yet while it may be overkill, it’s not quite fatal. As the credits roll, the sight of Firth with eyes like hot saucers, full of bloodlust, lingers, a vivid rejoinder to the lie that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. What: The Railway Man opens in cinemas on Thursday December 26

BRAG :: 543 :: 16:12:13 :: 19

Film Reviews Hits and misses on the silver screen around town

■ Film

NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON

seamlessly with decent performances from the Euro-star cast (the Portugese accents are a treat, particularly Bruno Ganz as a wheezing, alcoholic pharmacist). For those with no invested interested in the novel, the film is just like the protagonist: inherently dull, lacking in imagination and yet efficient; but if you’re in the mood for some Old World escapism then this might be a treat.

Jeremy Irons as Raimund Gregorius In cinemas now

Larry Lai

Drifting at a slow pace CityRail commuters would be accustomed to, Bille August’s Night Train To Lisbon possesses a vanilla charm that is unlikely to raise your pulse rate.

■ Film

The historical period drama meets lovetriangle ‘thriller’ is an adaptation of the international best-selling novel of the same name by Pascal Mercier and despite August’s best attempts to inject contemplative profundity, Mercier’s philosophical meanderings whimper away in the picturesque backdrops of Switzerland and Portugal. In an ensemble cast boasting some of Europe’s finest actors, Jeremy Irons stars as Raimund Gregorius, a placid classics teacher in a Swiss high school whose life is changed when he saves a young woman from jumping off a bridge. After she disappears and leaves her coat filled with a book by a mysterious writer named Amadeu de Prado and a ticket for the night train to Lisbon, Raimund impulsively boards the train and starts gradually unravelling the life story of the novel’s author. The camera navigates through the streets of Lisbon, giving a tourist-like tour resplendent with softly-lit shots of cobbled laneways and Portugese architecture. The cinematography is easy on the eye, particularly during the film’s flashbacks to Portugal’s period of political turmoil during which Irons’ character becomes increasingly intrigued in the life of Amadeu (the wide-eyed Jack Huston) who tragically dies on the day Portugese dictator Antonio Salazar was deposed in 1974.

One aspects of August’s slow-paced film that may annoy or engage you is Raimund’s voiceover insights which give a whole new meaning to Philosophy 101: “We live here and now everything before and in other places past, mostly forgotten.” And yet, despite these banalities, the story moves

In cinemas December 26 Based on an investigative book by BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith, Philomena is a poignant yet entertaining drama that will infuriate, anger and evoke chortles of sniggers. Directed by Stephen Frears, the film brings attention to a generation of children during 1950s Ireland taken from young, vulnerable Irish women by the Catholic Church. After years of worrying over the fate of her son, Philomena Lee (Judi Dench) decides to finally track him down. Aided by Martin, an insufferably foppish and cynical journalist (Steve Coogan) who begrudgingly takes on the ‘human interest’ story, the odd couple slowly put the pieces together behind her son’s life. Unsurprisingly, the grave subject matter and no-holds-barred depiction of the Church’s practice of selling these children to America has caused controversy in the US for its alleged anti-Catholic, anti-Republican undertones. Though, the film isn’t afraid to point the finger at the harsh treatment of Philomena and the Church’s attempt to erase the past, Philomena also shows the necessity of forgiveness and compassion; having Dench play the protagonist definitely helps with another convincing performance. The low-thrills cinematography and stockstandard narrative means there is a slight TV drama feel to Philomena, but the film’s sentimentality never feels forced. The palpable chemistry between Dench and Coogan is the centrepiece, with the script, co-written by Coogan with Jeff Pope, always sparkling with a warm humour.

AMERICAN HUSTLE In cinemas now A prefacing title card that reads “Some of this actually happened” sets the flippant tone for American Hustle, writer-director David O. Russell’s (Silver Linings Playbook) bawdy fictionalisation of the 1978 Abscam sting operation, in which the FBI teamed up with con artists to bring down corrupt politicians. The film then opens with leading con man Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) – gut exposed, and all but superimposed arrows pointing at evidence of another of Bale’s stunt-like onscreen physical transformations – meticulously applying a combover to his balding head, in a scene that belabours the film’s soon-to-be-exhausted idea that this is a world, and a film, about keeping up appearances above all else. Less calculated a thematic metaphor is Russell’s shameless aping of Goodfellas, especially in the opening scenes, which include an ‘ever since I was a kid…’ flashback, followed by the blossoming affair between Rosenfeld and fellow grifter Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), related in duelling voiceovers a la Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco’s in Scorsese’s

Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale in American Hustle film (Jennifer Lawrence, playing Rosenfeld’s loosecannon wife Rosalyn, also recalls Sharon Stone in Scorsese’s Casino). Bale, hamming it up in a blatant De Niro impersonation, at one point guides FBI agent and sting operation cohort Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) through an art gallery, pointing out a forged Rembrandt, before posing a question that extends beyond the film’s narrative. “People believe what they want to believe, because the guy who made this was so good, that it’s real to everybody. Now who’s the master? The painter or the forger?” American Hustle is preoccupied with alluring surfaces and showmanship, and momentary diversion, immersing you not in the ’70s but rather ‘The ’70s’, with on-the-nose period-specific music cues, hairstyles, wardrobing et al, creating a thick nostalgic fog. It’s

an exercise that’s largely self-reflexive, but no less exasperating for being in on the joke. Most detrimentally, the pervasively smarmy tone precludes any emotional investment or resonance regarding its numerous reveals and reversals, with Bale’s fraught friendship with his target, New Jersey major Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) being particularly told-but-not-shown. Still, the humour mostly lands (Louis C.K. FTW), and the performances from the ensemble cast – captured with a prowling, ADD steadicam that generates suspense based on whether it’ll knock someone out at any moment – are boisterously entertaining, though only Adams brings a semblance of depth to her role. It’s finally less a magnificent fraud than an elaborate combover. Ian Barr

Giveaway head thebrag.com/freeshit What'sto: been on our TV screens this week

S AY W EA IV G

The protagonist starts with Amadeu’s conceited sister, Adriana (Charlotte Rampling) who still lives in the family home. Connecting the dots between the key people in Amadeu’s life, Raimund also finds a love interest, but the true driver of the film lies in the flashback vignettes of Amadeu’s youth as a magistrate’s son, and then his time as a passionate idealist and doctor.

PHILOMENA

■ Film

With the Christmas season around the corner, Philomena rises above the pitfalls of just focusing on the pain and suffering caused by the Irish Catholic Church. By showing the importance of forgiveness and compassion, Philomena will capture your heart and bring out the handkerchiefs. Larry Lai

See www.thebrag.com for more arts reviews

Arts Exposed What's in our diary...

Yirrkala Drawings In 1947, anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt had senior ceremonial leaders at Yirrkala in North East Arnhem Land produce hundreds of crayon drawings on paper. The Art Gallery of NSW’s Yirrkala Drawings presents 81 drawings that detail the complexities of Yolngu life. Gallery-goers can expect to be enlightened on the knowledge and law of those who inhabited the Yirrkala region. The exhibition includes works by men who became leading artists including Mawalan and Wandjuk Marija, Munggurrawuy Yunupingu, Narritjin Maymuru and Wonggu Mununggurr. The descendants of these artists also continue to produce traditional artworks and a selection of their larrakitji from the Gallery’s collection will be exhibited alongside the drawings. For further details head to artgallery.nsw.gov.au. 20 :: BRAG :: 543 :: 16:12:13

DOUBLE PASSES!

ondi’s favourite short film festival, Flickerfest, is turning 23 in January and it wants you to help celebrate the occasion. For the very first time, Flickerfest 2014 will include the special FlickerClips Showcase, a unique collection of some of the best music video clips from Australia and abroad. The showcase will feature some of the greatest collaborations between bands and filmmakers – think Nash Edgerton and Bob Dylan, Toby Angwin and Spiderbait, and Lorin Askill and Flume/Chet Faker.

Toby Angwin and Spiderbait’s collaboration, ‘It’s Beautiful’.

On Saturday January 18 the FlickerClips Showcase will grace the silver screen at Bondi Pavilion. We’re giving you the chance to get in on the action by giving away ten double passes. Just head to thebrag.com/freeshit and tell us what band and filmmaker you’d like to see collaborate and why.

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Flickerfest 2013 Bondi Pavillion photo by Shane Rennie

Art Gallery of NSW, Art Gallery Road, The Domain Until February 23, 2014

FLICKERCLIPS SHOWCASE!

Polaroid Z340 Instant Digital Camera A classic Polaroid with the flexibility of digital; select photos for instant prints or simply upload online. RRP: AU$439.95 Order online at polaroid.com.au

xmas gift guide

Yamaha NX-P100 Stream music or make handsfree calls with this rechargeable, splash-proof wireless speaker. RRP: AU$199 Contact your local store for stock availability

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Kraken Forged Edition Headphones Intricately designed with aircraft-grade aluminum, 40mm bass-heavy drivers and an in-line microphone for avid musos and gamers alike. RRP: AU$399.95 Order online at razer.com

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GIFTED

Yamaha PDX-B11 Wirelessly stream your summer soundtrack from your phone, laptop or Bluetoothcompatible device. RRP: AU$149 Contact your local store for stock availability

Stance Socks These babies will have NBA legends and iconic teams walking in your shoes this summer. RRP: AU$19 For stocklist info call 1800 655 154

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YOU ARE SO

▲ ▲ ▲

Bored of the same old junk year in, year out? Us too, so we’ve shortlisted the best Christmas gear with all the cheer. Here are team BRAG’s gift ideas for him and for her. You’re welcome.

Budgy Smugglers Proudly represent Down Under with Aussie-made Smugglers for him and Smugglettes for her. RRP: From AU$39.95 Order online at budgysmuggler. com.au. Enter the coupon ‘early’ to receive free express postage for any order placed before Dec 20.

We Are Alive: A Portrait Of Bruce Springsteen The rock icon’s public successes and private failures across four decades of music in America, told by award-winning journo David Remnick. RRP: AU$19.95 Stockists: Better Read Than Dead, Dymocks George Street, Gleebooks

BRAG :: 543:: 16:12:13 :: 21

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

CHIC FT. NILE RODGERS Sydney Opera House Saturday December 7

Undoubtedly one of the best music stories of 2013 has been the career renaissance of Nile Rodgers. The man responsible for hits by a plethora of superstar acts, as well as with Chic – the group he co-founded with the late Bernard Edwards in 1977 – has had a spectacular 18 months in which he has been cleared of prostate cancer, played over 100 shows across the globe and scored some of the biggest hits of his career (thanks to a couple of French fans who like wearing colourful helmets). Chic’s Sydney Opera House debut opened on a somewhat low-key note, with Rodgers nonchalantly walking on and expressing his bewilderment at the fact that even the seats at the back of the stage were full. Greeted by a rapturous and lengthy reception before playing a note, the band repaid the admiration with a punchy opening burst of signature tracks ‘Everybody Dance’, ‘Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)’ and ‘I Want Your Love’. Much of the set was dedicated to material either written, produced or played on (or a combination of the three) by Rodgers,

STEEL PANTHER, BUCKCHERRY, FOZZY

including tracks made famous by Sister Sledge (‘He’s The Greatest Dancer’, ’We Are Family’, ‘Lost In Music’), Diana Ross (‘I’m Coming Out’, ’Upside Down’), Duran Duran (‘Notorious’), Madonna (‘Like A Virgin’), INXS (‘Original Sin’) and David Bowie (a showstopping version of ‘Let’s Dance’).

Hordern Pavilion Saturday December 7

American hard rock outfit Fozzy opened Steel Panther’s Spreading The Disease tour with some tight tunes. Chris Jericho is an energetic frontman with cookie-cutter Bold and the Beautiful looks: golden locks, bulging biceps and an enviable Californian tan. And did someone say WWE pro wrestling champion? Defeating The Rock seems to have turned Jericho into a natural crowd-pleaser when it comes to schmaltzy melodrama. It complemented the general hammedup vibe that slapped you in the face throughout the night. Fancy dress soared to outrageous levels all around.

The tremendous euphoria in the air during the first 90 minutes of the show rose even further in the last half hour when the band launched into ‘My Forbidden Lover’, a triumphant ‘Le Freak’ and an absolutely jubilant ‘Good Times’, which saw the stage overtaken by dancing audience members and Rodgers performing his own version of The Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ (which sampled the ‘Good Times’ break). In place of an encore, the band remained onstage as the sound of Rodgers’ defining musical statements of 2013 – Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ and ‘Lose Yourself To Dance’ – filled the Concert Hall over the PA. Very few people headed for the exit, instead choosing to clap and dance in a great communal celebration. The Sydney Opera House has played host to quite a few parties in its 40th year but none as jubilant or life-affirming as this. Michael Hartt

:: PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR

Their lyrics may catapult your eyebrows off your forehead but the shock horror value and political incorrectness are exactly what make Steel Panther so clever and hilarious. Maybe it was the hairspray fumes, but the band had the crowd high as hell on their scandalous hijinks. Satchel (Russ Parrish) is a phenomenal guitar player, and belted out some technically brilliant solos on his rad electric green guitar. Lexxi Foxxx (Travis Haley) was sharp and glamorous on bass and sported the most fabulous pair of hot pink sequin and tassel flares I have ever laid eyes on. Foxxx plays the perfect caricature of a Hollywood airhead and spent much of the set posing like a pro and correcting his make-up in his stage-side vanity unit. Drummer Stix Zadinia (Darren Leader) thundered flawlessly on drums and showcased his softer musical talents on piano for the ballad ‘Weenie Ride’. We also got a sneak peek at two killer new songs from their upcoming album.

D PHOTOGRAPHER :: DANIEL BOU

PHILADELPHIA GRAND JURY VS FEELINGS The Standard Saturday December 7

Even though Sydney trio Philadelphia Grand Jury released just one LP before they split up barely two years ago, the reformation of the band’s ‘classic’ lineup has generated the type of fevered anticipation usually reserved for a reunited rock superforce. However, the swell of exclamation the Philly Jays elicited in their 2009-2011 heyday – thanks to a ceaseless stream of sing-along singles and a live show rich in humour and beard-shaking extroversion – certainly accounts for the eager buzz in The Standard tonight. Touring as Philadelphia Grand Jury Vs Feelings (Feelings is the recent, somewhat lukewarm solo work of frontman Simon Berckelman, and the ‘Vs’ surely a nod to drummer Dan Williams’ other band Art vs. Science), tonight’s show was split into two separate sets. Although the Feelings record dropped just last month, the group was astute enough to recognise that the packed hometown crowd pined chiefly for the songs from 2009 tour de force Hope Is For Hopers. Thus, Feelings and Philadelphia Grand Jury songs sat side-by-side in both sets, and they even threw in a few new numbers. Now, apologies for sounding absolutist or nostalgic but there’s no question that 22 :: BRAG :: 543 :: 16:12:13

I wasn’t completely sold on the second act, Buckcherry. Their performance and songs were a little vanilla for my taste but they did a great job of warming up the audience. As soon as Steel Panther hit the stage, the crowd was thrown into a debauched and humorous twilight zone of metal goodness. The rambunctious lead vocalist Ralph Saenz plays his onstage persona Michael Starr with just the right balance of parody and professionalism. The banter amongst the band was incredibly entertaining and had the crowd screaming with laughter. “Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t paint the Sistine Chapel in a fucking day, guys!”; “Who loves pizza and pussy?!”

the material released under the Philly Jays banner is superior. Feelings’ songs employ similar staples to PGJ’s but they’re lacking the essential element that makes these tunes stretch from ‘OK, fine’ to ‘hell yeah!’ Namely, they’re lacking the headbopping vigour of three guys in a room having a damn good time and wielding a vat of contagious pop. The band remains a ramming live force – explosive energy and amusing onstage gestures (crazy eyes from bearded bass-playing giant Joel Beeson, puppet-like aerobic drumming from Williams and an unsettling amount of cheeky winks/smirks from Berckelman) added further bombast to crowd favourites such as ‘Save Our Town’ and ‘Ready To Roll’. The Feelings songs, however, couldn’t quite be redeemed by the onstage frivolity and largely felt like solid-yet-flat mimics of the PGJ material. This was no great issue, though, because Hope Is For Hopers highlights such as ‘Growing Up Alone’ and the anthemic ‘Wet Winter Holiday’ widely lifted hands in the air and lungs into screaming exertion.

’80s glam metal has long been the poster boy for excess and ridicule and this was a fantastic tribute – or rather, a complete lampooning of the genre executed with ingenious skill and style. Steel Panther are a sensational act at the height of their talents. Kylie Finlay

The good times roll on, so now let’s hope with the three back together they can imbue their newer material with the same eccentric glee that made Philadelphia Grand Jury one of the country’s most exciting bands. Augustus Welby thebrag.com

for Live and Localsau! Calling all artistsplay entertainment.com. Contact: chris@fair

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ASTLE LIZOTTE’S NEWC

JAN e – Burlesque 4 Ray Beadle Champagne Revu usive EP Ms Murphy – Excl JAN 18 & Cabaret Show 5 Preview Show DEC gajang Casual s 19 GANG Ben Caplan & The JAN rcival & Friend Pe en rr Da DEC 7 Smokers DEC tmas Special 20 21 – The Chris mmy Dean ovie Festival JAN Australian Surf M featuring To 8 DEC (9 Piece Band) JAN 22 Bakoomba mes Osborn 9 Ja & r ye Ge e DEC Rene JAN 27 Her Swing Band The Beatnix 10 DEC aram JAN Joe Robinson 28 Max Sh 11 Lizotte’s – @ t gh Ni ie ov M DEC ure Show JAN A Celebration – lly 29 The Rocky Horror Pict 12 The Music Of Paul Ke rs ga Ci DEC The Bondi JAN ginn (Denmark) 31 NYE with 14 Afen s JAN The Black Sorrow DEC

Lizotte’s Sydney 629 Pittwater Rd Dee Why

Lizotte’s Central Coast Lot 3 Avoca Dr Kincumber

Lizotte’s Newcastle 31 Morehead St Lambton

WWW. LIZOT TES.COM.AU BRAG :: 543 :: 16:12:13 :: 23

snap sn ap

the upskirts

PICS :: AM

up all night out all week . . .

bearhug

PICS :: LC

06:12:13 :: Brighton Up Bar :: 1/77 Oxford St Darlinghurst 9361 3379

dubhouse

PICS :: KC

06:12:13 :: The Standard :: 3/383 Bourke St Darlinghurst 9660 7953

06:12:13 :: Brighton Up Bar :: 1/77 Oxford St Darlinghurst 9361 3379

N :: KATRINA CLARKE :: ASHLEY S :: DANIEL BOUD :: LIAM CAMERO OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER REHOBO WEA @ N ENSO STEV PAT :: :: JACK @ LIFE WITHOUT ANDY

24 :: BRAG :: 543 :: 16:12:13

MAR

junk

PICS :: KC

battleships

PICS :: LC

07:12:13 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford St Darlinghurst 9332 3711

07:12:13 :: Oxford Art Factory (Gallery Bar) :: 38-46 Oxford St Darlinghurst 9332 3711 thebrag.com

snap sn ap

up all night out all week . . .

rose tattoo

PICS :: AM

THU 19 DEC FRI 20 DEC 08:12:13 :: Frankie's Pizza :: 50 Hunter St Sydney

SAT 21 DEC FRI 28 DEC

PICS :: AM

louis london

SAT 4 JAN THU 9 JAN

NICOLE MILLAR SWEETLAND JAYSWAYS

06:12:13 :: Goodgod :: 53-55 Liverpool St Sydney 8084 0587

N :: KATRINA S :: DANIEL BOUD :: LIAM CAMERO OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER ENSON @ WEAREHOBO STEV PAT :: ANDY OUT WITH :: JACK @ LIFE

CLARKE :: ASHLEY MAR

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

METZ, TV COLOURS, BATPISS Goodgod Small Club Wednesday December 4

With a band name like Batpiss, you get an idea of what to expect. Relentless in a tidal wave of heavy basslines and inaudible lyrics, the Melbourne three-piece made the Sex And The City trivia night happening in the front room seem a distant planet away. Switching between intricate melodies and power chords, the volume seemed to be getting louder during TV Colours’ set. As the second act of the night (handpicked by Metz themselves), they levelled the stage completely in preparation for Metz’s maiden voyage to Australia. The Canadian three-piece stocked up on beer and drumsticks for their first Sydney performance, and opened with the audio assault of ‘Negative Space’. It was three songs into their set before I recovered to realise what had just happened. As the audience bopped along politely, lead singer Alex Edkins advised that if you felt like dancing, now was the time to do it. Once the opening chords of ‘Get Off’ rang out, it was as if the crowd had

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finally been given permission to lose its shit. Full glasses of beer were thrown in the air as a swarming moshpit of blackshirted, amped-up aggression formed on the dancefloor. “That’s more like it,” Edkins declared. Dedicated to the drinkers in the audience (which was apparently everyone), ‘Wasted’ continued the charge of wild arm-flinging chaos that Metz commanded. Later, just as the last chord of ‘Sad Pricks’ distorted into silence, so did the electricity. There was a slight tone of victory when bassist Chris Slorach announced that they had “lost the whole fucking stage”. Once the power returned, the title of new track ‘Can’t Understand’ was, fittingly, the only phrase I could make out over the wall of distortion. It’s a small miracle how well the orchestrated chaos of Metz was captured on their self-titled album. And while they completed their destructive set with ‘Wet Blanket’, the crowd went out all guns blazing. The stage was literally torn apart as a stage crasher was sent back into the crowd, tearing down a light in the proceedings. No better way to finish.

Coming Up 11th 17th 5th

IN FEBRUARY

HALF MOON RUN BABYLON CIRCUS PARQUET COURTS (USA)

GALLERY BURLESQUE / HALF MOON RUN / XXYYXX / BABYLON CIRCUS / AUSTRA JULIA HOLTER / ASTON SHUFFLE

Tanydd Jaquet

BRAG :: 543 :: 16:12:13 :: 25

g g guide gig g

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com

pick of the week Little May

FRIDAY DECEMBER 20

5pm. free. Songsonstage - feat: Stuart Jammin + Guests Avalon Beach RSL Club, Avalon. 7:30pm. free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Chris Stretton Stamford Grand, North Ryde. 5:45pm. free. City Slickers Band Competition Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 7pm. $15. Mark Travers Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 6pm. free. Musos Club Jam Night Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt. 8pm. free. Rhythm Section Xmas Party - feat: The Widowbirds + Lloyd Spiegel + Claude Hay + Paul Greene + Lachy Doley + Cass Eager + Eddie Boyd & The Phatapillars + Marshall Okell & The Pride The Vanguard, Newtown. 8pm. $22. Uni Bar100 Bar100, The Rocks. 9pm. free.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 21

THURSDAY DECEMBER 19 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Live Music Thursdays Bar100, The Rocks. 5pm. free. Songsonstage - feat: Peach Montgomery + Guests Forest Lodge Hotel, Forest Lodge. 7:30pm. free.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Cole Soul And Emotion feat: Lionel Cole The White Horse, Surry Hills. 8pm. free. For Eva (An Eva Cassidy Story) - feat: Lauren Dawes + Aaron Flower + Jono Brown + Shannon Stitt + Ross Ferraro + Nic Jeffries The Oxford Hotel, Darlinghurst. 7pm. $30.

Brighton Up Bar

Little May

+ Bad Pony + Direwolf

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Alex Hopkins Open Mic Night Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 7:30pm. free. Baby Doll Arms + Royal

Chant + North Korea & Shenyang Sadists The Red Rattler Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $10. Benn Gunn Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee. 10pm. free. Brendan Deehan Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm. free. Dan Spillane Dee Why Hotel, Dee Why. 7pm. free. Glenn Esmond Peakhurst Inn, Peakhurst. 7:30pm. free. Greg Agar Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney. 9:30pm. free. Heath Burdell Australian Hotel And Brewery, Rouse Hill. 9:30pm. free. Joe Echo Duo Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9:30pm. free. Klay The Mercantile Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm. free. Matt Price Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill. 7:30pm. free. Merry Jerry Christmas feat: The Delta Riggs + Civilians + The Maze The Standard, Surry Hills. 8pm. $15. Musos Club Jam Night Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill. 8pm. free. Scott And Charlene’s Wedding Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $15. Smotherbox - feat: On The Stoop + Huskarl + Crazy Baby Boogie Bananas Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10. Steve Tonge Duo O’Malleys Hotel, Kings Cross. 9:30pm. free. Ted Nash Fortune Of War, The Rocks. 7pm. free. The Brian Jonestown Massacre + The KVB The Hi-Fi, Moore Park. 8pm. $70.10. Track City Band Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 10pm. free. Victoria Avenue Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 7:30pm. free.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 20 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Flamin’ Beauties Mortdale Hotel, Mortdale. 9pm. free.

Live Music Fridays Bar100, The Rocks. 5pm. free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Altitude Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 10pm. free. Ben Finn Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill. 9pm. free. Black Diamond Hearts Rock Lily, Pyrmont. 10:30pm. free. Brendan Deehan O’Malleys Hotel, Kings Cross. 8pm. free. Cam Nacson Mona Vale Hotel, Mona Vale. 5:30pm. free. Carl Fidler Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm. free. Champagne Jam - Open Mic Night Dundas Sports Club, Dundas. 7:45pm. free. Chris Paton Trio Kirribilli Hotel, Milsons Point. 8pm. free. Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes + Miles & Simone The Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $35. Craig Thommo Commercial Hotel, Parramatta. 6:30pm. free. Dave Phillips Mona Vale Hotel, Mona Vale. 9pm. free. Dave White Experience New Brighton Hotel, Manly. 11pm. free. DNA Vineyard Hotel, Vineyard. 9pm. free. Double Barrell Horse And Jockey Hotel, Homebush. 7:30pm. free. Dream Delay + Ginger & Drum + Date Night At The Museum The Standard, Surry Hills. 8pm. $15. East Coast Band Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 10:30pm. free. Fallon Bros Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 10:30pm. free. Gary Johns Duo Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill. 8pm. free. Green Day Show Pioneer Tavern, Penrith. 9pm. free. Hooray For Everything Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci. 8pm. free. Jakubi + Kita + Brett Hunt + Kato Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills. 6pm. free. James Fox Higgins

8pm. $15. MONDAY DECEMBER 16

SSA Christmas Concert feat: John Chesher + Pete Scully + Chris Brookes Kelly’s On King, Newtown. 7pm. free.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Motown Mondays - feat: Soulgroove The White Horse, Surry Hills. 8pm. free. Reggae Monday Civic Underground, Sydney. 10pm. free.

26 :: BRAG :: 543 : 16:12:13

Frankie’s World Famous House Band Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 9pm. free. Sammy Baker Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9:30pm. free.

TUESDAY DECEMBER 17 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Songsonstage - feat: Angelene Harris + David Aurora Hampshire Hotel, Camperdown. 7:30pm. free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Gordi Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 8pm. free. Mac DeMarco + Scotdrakula + Jesse Davidson Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $25.50. Nick Kingswell Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9:30pm. free.

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 18 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Pulp Kitchen And Folk Club - feat: Live Rotating Folk Bands Soda Factory, Surry Hills.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre

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Brian Jonestown Massacre photo by Sasha Eisenman

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

g g guide gig g

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com

Deep Sea Arcade

Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 7pm. free. Jamie Lindsay The Ranch Hotel, Eastwood. 5:30pm. free. Jess Dunbar Novotel, Darling Harbour. 5:30pm. free. Joe Echo + Mark Oats Duo PJ Gallagher’s, Sydney. 9pm. free. Jonathan Jones + Reckless Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 4:30pm. $5. Keith Armitage Greystanes Inn, Greystanes. 5pm. free. King Parrot + Gay Paris The Annandale Hotel, Annandale. 8pm. $18.40. Kurt Williams Chatswood RSL, Chatswood. 5:30pm. free. Kye Brown Cock ‘N’ Bull, Bondi Junction. 8pm. free. Little May + Bad Pony + Direwolf Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $15. Live Music At The Royal The Royal, Leichhardt. 9:30pm. free. Luke Dixon Trio Australian Hotel And Brewery, Rouse Hill. 9pm. free. Luke Dolahenty Duo Ettamogah Hotel, Kellyville Ridge. 8:30pm. free. Luke Robinson Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 6:30pm. free. Matt Price Massey Park Golf Club, Concord. 7pm. free. Michael Duchesne Parramatta RSL Club, Parramatta. 5pm. free. Nathan Cole Abbott’s Hotel, Waterloo. 7pm. free. Nicky Kurta Cronulla RSL, Cronulla. 4:30pm. free. Noel Davies Stamford Grand, North Ryde. 6pm. free. Party Central Three Wise Monkeys, Sydney. 10pm. free. Punk For Paws - feat: Nudist Colonies Of The World + Old Time Glory + Two Faced + Kang + 51 Percent + Handball Deathmatch + No Further Questions + That’s The Last Straw Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10. Renae Stone Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill. 5pm. free. Riz Hallowes

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The Grand Hotel, Rockdale. 5:30pm. free. Sarah McLeod (The Superjesus) + Cat Vas (The X Factor) + Mark Scott + Wolfie Tattersalls Hotel Penrith, 8:30pm. free. Steve Tonge Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 9pm. free. The Exes The Overlander Hotel, Cambridge Park. 7pm. free. Thunderstruck - The AC/DC Show Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills. 10pm. free. Victoria Hotel New Brighton Hotel, Manly. 10pm. free. Zoltan Pittwater RSL, Mona Vale. 7pm. free.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Allensworth Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham. 8pm. $12.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 21 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Yuki Kumagai + John Mackie Well Co. Cafe And Wine Bar, Leichhardt. 11am. free.

ACOUSTIC/ COUNTRY/BLUES/ FOLK

Bandsonstage - feat: Peach Montgomery + The Count’s Trio + Fields Of Mars Hampshire Hotel, Camperdown. 7pm. free. Live Music Saturdays Bar100, The Rocks. 4pm. free. Paul Hayward + Friends Town & Country Hotel, St Peters. 4pm. free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS AJ The Winston, Winston Hills. 6pm. free. All I Want For Christmas Is - feat: Sounds Like Sunset + Patch Work Girls + Moon Over Wires The Lansdowne Hotel,

Chippendale. 7pm. free. Altitude Moorebank Sports Club, Hammondville. 9pm. free. Anything But Arnold Rock Lily, Pyrmont. 9:30pm. free. Bounce Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 10:30pm. free. Cambo Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 10:30pm. free. Cara Kavanagh And Mark Oats Duo PJ Gallagher’s, Leichhardt. 9pm. free. Dave White Experience Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 10:30pm. free. David Agius Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 7pm. free. Dirty Deeds - The AC/DC Show The Lucky Australian Hotel, St Marys. 8:30pm. free. Electric Anthems Trio Paragon Hotel, Sydney. 9:30pm. free. Fallon Bros The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill. 9pm. free. Gemma Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 4:20pm. free. Geoff Rana Australian Hotel And Brewery, Rouse Hill. 10pm. free. Jake Mcdougall Duo Riverwood Inn, Riverwood. 8pm. free. Jconnexion Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill. 8pm. free. Jess Dunbar The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill. 6pm. free. Jimmy Bear + Endless Summer Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 4:30pm. $5. Joe Echo PJ Gallagher’s, Sydney. 7:30pm. free. Leon Fallon Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 3:30pm. free. Lime Cordiale + Kidd Shame + Jordan Sly + DJ Bobby Gray Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills. 6pm. free. Little May + Bad Pony + Direwolf Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $15. Lo Roberts Duo Abbott’s Hotel, Waterloo. 8pm. free. Luke And Ben Duo Greystanes Inn, Greystanes. 9pm. free. Luke Dolahenty Duo

Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 9pm. free. Mike Votano Duo Kirribilli Hotel, Milsons Point. 8pm. free. Nathan Cole Botany View Hotel, Newtown. 7pm. free. Nicky Kurta Harbord Beach Hotel, Freshwater. 8pm. free. Nunchukka Superfly - feat: Dead + Bruce! + Yes I’m Leaving Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $15. Old School Band Ettamogah Hotel, Kellyville Ridge. 9pm. free. Partisan Code + Special Guests Tattersalls Hotel, Penrith, 9pm. free. Pop Fiction The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill. 10pm. free. Renae Stone Cock ‘N’ Bull, Bondi Junction. 7pm. free. Rob Henry Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm. free. Rock Fossils Oatley Hotel, Oatley. 8:30pm. free. Sydney Dime Show feat: Hematic + Harmony Of Hate + Drillsaw + Enfield + Cryptic Scorn + Carbon Black + Freelance Fuckwitts + Atomesquad + Moustache-Ant + Dead-Life + Terrorential Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 2pm. $10. The Exes Engadine Tavern, Engadine. 9:30pm. free. The Starliners Blacktown Workers Club, Blacktown. 8:30pm. free. Two Minds Duo

Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 9pm. free. Visions - feat: Deep Sea Arcade + Shining Bird + The Tsars + The Preatures DJs Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $13.20.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 22 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Peter Head Band Harbourview Hotel, The Rocks. 7pm. free. Yuki Kumagai + John Mackie Cronulla RSL, Cronulla. 12:30pm. free.

ACOUSTIC/ COUNTRY/BLUES/ FOLK

Intimate Sessions Paragon Hotel, Sydney. 6pm. free. Live Music Sundays Bar100, The Rocks. 1pm. free. Mike Miller Oatley Hotel, Oatley. 2pm. free. Sunday Blues And Roots The White Horse, Surry Hills. 5pm. free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Alex Hopkins Mill Hill Hotel, Bondi Junction. 3pm. free. Christmas Party! - feat: The Cairos + Jenny Broke The Window + Go Mason Go + Will And The Indians + The Citizens

mon

The Lair, Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7pm. $17. Dan Spillane The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill. 1pm. free. Dave Agius Duo Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 6pm. free. Dave White Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill. 3pm. free. Daybreak Showcase Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 12pm. $10. Heath Burdell Horse And Jockey Hotel, Homebush. 3:30pm. free. James Fox Higgins Harbord Beach Hotel, Freshwater. 6pm. free. Luke Dixon Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee. 8:30pm. free. Mark Travers Ettamogah Hotel, Kellyville Ridge. 1pm. free. Mojo + Ed & Astro Trio Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 4:30pm. free. Nicky Kurta Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 3pm. free. Rob Henry Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 8pm. free. Sammy Baker Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. free. Sound Of Immortals feat: Chronic + Under Construction + Darkness Reigns Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 4pm. $10. The Frocks The Sly Fox, Sydney. 5pm. free. The Remains Botany View Hotel, Newtown. 7pm. free. Three Wise Men Observer Hotel, The Rocks.

tue

16 Dec

17 Dec (9:00PM - 12:00AM)

wed

(9:30PM - 12:30AM)

thu

18 Dec

19 Dec (9:30PM - 12:30AM)

(9:35PM - 1:30AM)

fri

20 Dec (4:30PM - 7:30PM)

(9:30PM - 1:30AM)

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

sat

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

Dec

(9:30PM - 12:30AM)

SUNDAY AFTERNOON sun

22 Dec

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

(8:30PM - 12:00AM)

BRAG :: 543 :: 16:12:13 :: 27

gig picks

up all night out all week...

The Delta Riggs

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The Brian Jonestown Massacre + The KVB The Hi-Fi, Moore Park. 8pm. $70.10.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 20 Clairy Browne & The Banginâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Rackettes + Miles & Simone The Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $35.

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Dream Delay + Ginger & Drum + Date Night At The Museum The Standard, Surry Hills. 8pm. $15. King Parrot + Gay Paris The Annandale Hotel, Annandale. 8pm. $18.40.

TUESDAY DECEMBER 17

SATURDAY DECEMBER 21

Mac DeMarco + Scotdrakula + Jesse Davidson Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $25.50.

Lime Cordiale + Kidd Shame + Jordan Sly + DJ Bobby Gray Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free.

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 18 Rhythm Section Xmas Party - feat: The Widowbirds + Lloyd Spiegel + Claude Hay + Paul Greene + Lachy Doley + Cass Eager + Eddie Boyd & The Phatapillars + Marshall Okell & The Pride The Vanguard, Newtown. 8pm. $22.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 19 Merry Jerry Christmas - feat: The Delta Riggs + Civilians + The Maze

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The Standard, Surry Hills. 8pm. $15.

Nunchukka Superfly - feat: Dead + Bruce! + Yes Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m Leaving Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $15. Visions - feat: Deep Sea Arcade + Shining Bird + The Tsars + The Preatures DJs Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $13.20.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 22 Christmas Party! - feat: The Cairos + Jenny Broke The Window + Go Mason Go + Will And The Indians + The Citizens The Lair, Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7pm. $17.

Jenny Broke The Window

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28 :: BRAG :: 543 : 16:12:13

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BRAGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture

brag beats also + club g : + club s uide na + weekl ps y column

inside

matmos

mount kimbie

toro y moi

Toro Y Moi photo by Andrew Paynter

eric prydz

many sides of chaz

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BRAG :: 543 :: 16:12:13 :: 29

brag beats

BRAG’s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture

dance music news club, dance and hip hop in brief...with Chris Honnery

five things WITH

Jaytech

HATCH

JAYTECH

Canberra producer James Cayzer, AKA Jaytech, will play a Sydney show on Friday December 27 at Genesis (Home Nightclub). Since dropping his debut track at the age of 16, Jaytech has released some luscious progressive cuts over the years, many with regular production partner Matt Rowan, and has continued to grow in stature on the world stage, supporting the likes of Above & Beyond. With a discography featuring his 2008 debut LP Everything Is Ok and his most recent album Multiverse, along with mixes for the Anjunadeep compilation series, Jaytech has developed a distinct take on progressive house sounds, which he will showcase on his next artist album due for release next year. “My next artist album is going to be a space opera in an electro-progressive style, taking all of my melodic and dancefloor elements of the past and fusing them with a new wave of modern sounds,” said Cayzer. “Embracing technology and keeping a positive frame of mind have always been two core values of mine, and they will be coming together to tell the story on this next project.”

FLOATING POINTS SECRET CBD SHOW

Eglo Records co-founder Sam Shepherd, AKA Floating Points, will play in a secret CBD courtyard on Sunday December 29. Shepherd has been behind some of the most endearing club tracks of the past few years, starting with the sexy slo-mo house of ‘Love Me Like This’, which was likened to a cross between Flying Lotus, The Field and Daft Punk, and his celebrated double EP, Shadows. More recently, Shepherd has recorded his 14-member strong ‘Floating Points Ensemble’ for a BBC Maida Vale session, resulting in him winning best ‘Maida Vale Session’ at Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards. With a sonic palette that traverses house, hip hop, dubstep, techno, jazz and classical sounds, dancers can expect Floating Points to serve up an eclectic array of deep and soulful music selected from disparate genres. The party kicks off at 3pm, and will also feature DJ sets from Huwston, Ben Fester vs. Preacha and Andy Webb. Crazy P Soundsystem

NORMAN JAY

Growing Up Growing up, my parents 1. bought me a violin for my

an adrenaline rush and it keeps me motivated.

Music, Right Here, Right Now 5. With electronic music at an all-

fifth birthday – for years I was made to study classical music, which I never really connected with but gave me some foundation to build from. My family has a long history of music of many different styles. For me personally, it was when I discovered hip hop culture in my early teens that [it] sparked my passion for music and arts, and being amazed that people could make a living doing something they loved doing!

Your Crew I’m part of a collective 3. known as the Boss Bass

time peak I feel it has opened people’s ears to a whole new spectrum of music and styles. I think as an artist these days the most important thing is to stay true to yourself and do what comes naturally. With styles and trends evolving so quick these days, it’s easy to get caught up in someone else’s hype.

Inspirations Inspiration comes 2. to me through new experiences, digging for music, travelling, watching other amazing artists in their zone. I am always most motivated when I get offstage; seeing the crowd enjoying themselves and appreciating the music is

30 :: BRAG :: 543 :: 16:12:13

crew; we are a bunch of great mates and we have been hosting our party monthly for the past two years at its home, Chinese Laundry. Most of my friends are either musos or artists so we are always exchanging our ideas and collaborating.

The Music You Make Currently I have been focusing on writing music for my live show – I come from a performance background so it seems like the next natural step in my musical journey. It’s a mixture of electronic and organic sounds and beats. In my DJ sets I usually vibe off the crowd and try to take them on a journey. Boss Bass nights are all about fun and lots of energy and we like to keep the intensity high.

Two acts that I have seen recently which have really inspired me are I Am Legion at Stereosonic, and Shigeto at Astral People’s party, both bringing a new live element to electronic beats. What: Boss Bass With: Hydraulix, Phaseone, Chenzo, Judson, Kemikoll, Visual Lies Where: Chinese Laundry When: Friday December 20

CRAZY P SOUNDSYSTEM

Crazy P Soundsystem has been added to the lineup for Space Ibiza New Year’s Day party at The Greenwood. Crazy P Soundsystem comprises Crazy P(enis) members James Baron and Danielle Moore, and will combine live performance with a DJ set, though crowd favourite Hot Toddy will surely be missed in some quarters. The Manchester musicians originally rose to prominence as Crazy Penis, but now work under the decidedly more ‘PG’ moniker Crazy P. Having established themselves in the late ’90s with smooth instrumental house cuts such as ‘You Are We’, the band undertook a stylistic shift over what was largely influenced by the recruitment of Moore for 2002’s The Wicked Is Music. That album, and the ensuing LP A Night On Earth, showcased sounds that could be more easily adapted in a live setting, while their subsequent move to 20:20 Vision could be seen as an attempt not to stray too far from their dancefloor roots. Crazy P Soundsystem join the likes of Kerri Chandler, Carl Craig and Mathew Jonson, who will also be throwing down.

House icon Norman Jay will headline a New Year’s Day romp at Bondi’s Beach Road Hotel on the first afternoon and evening of 2014. Jay is recognised as a key figure in setting up London’s original pirate radio station, Kiss 100, and holds a reputation as someone who knows how to soundtrack a party. He’ll be joined by DJs Angelo Cruzman of Bang Gang notoriety, Saville, Mando, Bernie Dingo and the Bondi House DJs. Presale tickets are currently on sale.

BRANDT BRAUER FRICK FOR DJ KICKS Berlin trio Brandt Brauer Frick (BBF) will mix the next instalment in the long-running DJ Kicks compilation series. The mix was recorded from the trio’s after hours set at renowned Berlin nightspot Watergate, in which they apparently used vinyl and dub plates. It includes three new tracks that the trio recorded for the release, along with cuts from the likes of Theo Parrish, Cosmin TRG and Dean Blunt. Musicians first and foremost, the BBF have no problems confessing to their lack of DJ prowess, but claim that their lack of DJ experience creates a more organic experience. “Because we mixed it live there are mistakes and flaws, some rougher transitions in there. We are not super technical DJs. We like it when you hear those imprecisions because it’s human. It feels like someone is behind the mix, rather than a computer.” That line always rang hollow when I tried it on. Anyhow. The BBF’s DJ Kicks compilation will be released at the end of February.

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dance music news

free stuff

club, dance and hip hop in brief...with Chris Honnery

head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

five things WITH Growing Up Michael Jackson! I had the jacket, the 1. records, the VHS tapes, the posters and the collector cards. I was obsessed! My mum made me the whole outfit to do a performance at my grandparents’ church when I was about six or seven – I killed it, I threw my hat into the crowd and grabbed my dick. Inspirations In music – Quincy Jones, Dr. Dre, 2. Timbaland, James Blake, Jamie xx, Cajmere, Daft Punk, Gonzales, and I really do think Kanye West is a genius even though he feels the need to say it all the time… these are the obvious, I suppose. Overall my inspiration comes from a lot of places; art, fashion, architecture – I think if you surround yourself with amazing things and inspirations you’re more likely to make amazing things. Your Crew The Bang Gang is my family, my 3. beginning and my end. Ajax is still my brother along with Dangerous Dan, Jaime Doom, Gus da Hoodrat, my studio partner in crime Kim Moyes, Sneaky Sound System, Flight Facilities, Cassian, the Survivor crew in Melbourne, Wordlife, Harvard Bass, Jens Moelle, the Bromance crew in Paris, Riton.

JURASSIC 5

Pioneering US hip hop troupe Jurassic 5 are touring Australia in 2014, and will perform at Enmore Theatre on Wednesday March 19. After officially disbanding six years ago, the six-piece recently reformed for the Coachella Festival, and are now once again heading back Down Under. Presale tickets went on sale on Friday December 13, so get on this!

SUBSONIC PIRATES OF THE UNDERGROUND VII

Following on from their Festival, the crew behind Subsonic Music will continue another of their much-loved annual summer traditions this

BASS BOUTIQUE

Bass Boutique is being touted as one of the best showcases of bass music that Sydney has to offer, and with good reason. The launch party at the Ivy is just the first in a series of shows to be performed at a variety of venues across the city, with a slew of the biggest and best bass artists from around the globe set to play. The Saturday December 28 event sees England’s Plump DJs and producer Wilkinson headlining alongside a raft of locals and internationals. Plump DJs have taken the world by storm with their individual sound gaining them respect from some of the biggest producers and artists including Mark Ronson and Moby, whilst Wilkinson, since signing to Ram Records, has gained similar international acclaim, culminating in his winning of the Best Breakthrough Producer category at the UK’s National D&B Awards in 2012.

BENI

That’s my crew that got me into music and keep me in it. Apart from them, I just hang out with my girlfriend. The Music You Make Generally house I guess – that’s the 4. base of it and it goes in and around from there. I love the vibe and sound of Chicago house, so that is a major inspiration, but I also grew up listening to rap and R&B so that’s always in the back of my mind. Music, Right Here, Right Now Honestly, music right here and now 5. is at a strange place. If I wanted to go out

We have three double passes to give away to Bass Boutique’s launch party –for your chance to win, head to thebrag.com/freeshit and tell us why you’re totally addicted to bass.

in Sydney I couldn’t because the scene is fucked. Apart from the odd Motorik party there is nothing! Melbourne has Survivor!, Revolver and the House de Frost weekly – I really feel Sydney is lacking. EDM is horrible but every cloud has a silver lining and you can see the origins of proper house music coming back in a big way. What: Love On The Run / Summer’s Gone out now digitally Where: Cakes at World Bar / Ministry of Sound Classics at Ivy When: Saturday December 28 / Wednesday January 1

Saturday with their Pirates Of The Underground VII boat party, which will set sail from Rose Bay Wharf at 2pm. A number of internationals have hung around after the festival and will play at the event. Think Red Robin, D-sens, Turmspringer and Philip Bader. Bader was a resident at the adored – and now unfortunately defunct – Berlin Bar25, and has been involved in partnerships with Heinrich & Hertenfellner’s Sascha Braemer. Robin is another renowned Berlin selector, while Turmspringer is a regular at one of the city’s more intimate club spots, Golden Gate. Presale tickets are currently on sale for $60 with a surcharge to be enforced for anyone who doesn’t embrace the pirate fancy dress theme.

Remi

Funkagenda

RAY OKPARA JOINS S.A.S.H NYD

German producer Ray Okpara has been added to the already bourgeoning lineup for S.A.S.H’s New Year’s Day bash at The Abercrombie, which will commence at midday. Okpara has been a key figure in Germany’s house scene for over a decade, gaining exposure off the back of releases on labels such as Cécille, Oslo and Get Physical circa 2008 during a time when Mannheim house was particularly in vogue. Okpara joins internationals such as Manchester’s Trus’me, whose acclaimed 2007 debut album Working Nights drew comparisons to Moodymann, Detroit native Wadsworth and East Londoner Kane, who’ll take to the decks alongside a slew of local acts.

Ray Okpara

FUNKAGENDA

LA-via-UK house producer Funkagenda will spin at Marquee on Saturday January 25. Cutting his teeth with releases on labels likes Subliminal, Defected and Azuli, Funkagenda has also remixed heavyweights such as Basement Jaxx, Moby, Fatboy Slim and Underworld. He has also proven his, lets call it ‘diversity’, by contributing to the Black Eyed Peas album The E.N.D, which won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album. However prospective attendees of Funkagenda’s forthcoming show can expect him to deliver a set imbued with a “melodic big room house sound”.

REMI

The Winner of triple j’s coveted Unearthed Artist of the Year, Melbourne’s Remi will headline Goodgod Small Club on Friday February 14. The artist introduced himself to listeners via the release of two EPs, ‘Childish’ and ‘Five Beats I Love’, prior to completing his first album Regular People Shit in 2012. He continued the momentum by dropping his track ‘Sangria’ in May of this year, a track lifted off his ‘F.Y.G ACT: 1’ mixtape, which featured an eclectic mix of jams from the likes of Gang Starr and Kaytranada juxtaposed with Remi’s own original track, all produced by Sensible J x Dutch. Remi also recently laid down a cover of the Avalanches’ ‘Since I Left You’ for triple j’s popular Like a Version segment. Remi’s show will follow on from the imminent release of his new single ‘Livin’, and he is also set to support Illy on his national tour this coming March.

thebrag.com

TENSNAKE

Hamburg producer Marco Niemerski, AKA Tensnake, will release his debut album, Glow, in March next year. The LP features collaborations with two heavyweights who recently toured Australia: Subsonic headliner Nile Rodgers and production maestro Stuart Price, AKA Jacques Lu Cont, who has produced the likes of Madonna

and the Pet Shop Boys. It is the Rodgers collaboration, ‘Love Sublime’, which will be the album’s first single. Also featuring Australian vocalist Fiora, ‘Love Sublime’ will be released as an EP with remixes from Duke Dumont and the erudite tastemaker Ewan Pearson. Could this be Niemerski’s next ‘Coma Cat’? Stream the single online and find out for yourself. BRAG :: 543 :: 16:12:13 :: 31

Eric Prydz

No Safety Net By Jessica Darnell

lectro-dance artist Eric Prydz may be afraid of flying, but that won’t stop him visiting Australia for the first time ever as a Future Music Festival headliner. “I’ve been to a lot of other places, but I haven’t been to Australia. So that alone is a pretty good reason to finally come and do this tour with Future,” he says. This run of Australian dates will see Prydz unveil the EPIC (Eric Prydz In Concert) touring experience for the first time Down Under. “EPIC was a live show we started working on a few years back and we started out doing it in the UK,” he explains. “It wasn’t really something that we toured with; it’s bigger than a jumbo jet, it’s a massive structure, a lot of holograms and projection mapping. “I did the EPIC 2.0 as we call it – which is the updated version – which is technically so much more advanced and logistically it’s now tourable. So we just did two shows in New York and one in LA. It’s kind of hard to explain, but anyone who wants to know what it’s like can probably go on YouTube and check it out. It’s really cool.” When it comes to the live performance, don’t expect a pre-synced show from Prydz. Rather, this man enjoys performing without the aid of a

safety net. “I just think it’s more fun. A lot of these big production shows that people do now are all pre-synced, because they need to sync with the fireworks, the cannon, the visuals, the lasers and the this and the that. “It’s basically what everybody does – they have everything pre-programmed and they go and press ‘play’, which I’m absolutely fine with. I don’t really care if it’s really hard for them to produce what’s coming out of the speakers or not. I only care about what I see. “But for us as a team doing EPIC, we just thought it would be so much more fun and challenging for ourselves [to do it live]. And it’s also going to be more fun for the people that come and see it because each show is going to be unique. More like when you do a normal club set, when you go and take the night as it comes.” Prydz has found incredible success with hits such as ‘Call On Me’ and his popular remix of Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)’, entitled ‘Proper Education’. Although Prydz’s success has given him the opportunity to produce his own music without any trouble and tour (just about) the entire world, it has also put pressure on the artist to continuously

reinvent himself. Not that he reads the comments anymore. “It was a few years ago,” Prydz says. “I can’t even remember what record it was; it was one of the new records on Pryda. We uploaded a clip to YouTube and obviously people go and comment and it was this one guy, I can’t remember the exact phrasing now, but what he wrote was like: ‘Yeah, it’s really good, but it’s nothing groundbreaking. I expected more.’ Each time I release a record it needs to be ‘groundbreaking’. I need to redefine music in every new release, according to this guy. So after that I was like, ‘You

Matmos On The Edge By Daniel Prior

here are very few bands around now who dare to dream and explore the unknown quite as much as Matmos. The Baltimore-based electronic duo is one of the few trailblazing acts still searching and experimenting, seeking a new sound in contemporary music. Since releasing their self-titled debut album in 1997, Matmos have cemented their reputation amongst the avantgarde, thanks largely to their use of highly unusual sound sources in their recordings.

Mount Kimbie Fault Less Duo By Augustus Welby

he prelude to Mount Kimbie’s second record, Cold Spring Fault Less Youth, was marked by massive levels of anticipation. The UK production duo’s 2010 debut, Crooks & Lovers, garnered the stamp of approval from tastemaking publications Pitchfork, NME and Vice and thrust the delicate post-dubsteppers onto the global festival trail. During the three years between albums, Mount Kimbie were also added to the ranks of prestigious UK electronic label Warp Records, bringing them to the attention of even more expectant ears. One half of the band, Dominic Maker, reveals that all this adulation became a creative obstacle. “We didn’t expect the reaction people had to Crooks & Lovers,” he says. “After we released it we toured for two years and didn’t write a thing at all during that time. To be honest, when we eventually got into a studio and began to start writing again, we found we had forgotten our methods.” Although writer’s block is never a welcome occurrence, combating this creative impasse inadvertently allowed Mount Kimbie to forget about the heightened public expectations. “Looking back on it now, that was quite a blessing, but at the time it was unsettling,” says Maker. “We spent a lot of time in the studio working hard with no results. This was our prime concern and deflected our attention away from dwelling on the situation we were in as a band.”

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“The tracks were only 40-second loops when Archy came in to our studio to listen to what we had been doing. We had been fans of his work as Zoo Kid for a long time and we always talked about wanting him to be involved in Mount Kimbie one way or another. It felt good working with such a strong voice and we all worked together on the trajectory of those two tracks.” Cold Spring Fault Less Youth also features vocals from the band’s two constituent members, which is a further expansion upon their debut. Mount Kimbie have now unveiled a pair of critically esteemed records, both untarnished by prevalent commercial demands, and Maker says they’re firm believers in the artistic credentials of the album format. “In our experience, when we become truly unconcerned with the outside world and focus entirely on creating an album’s worth of songs, we find our best ideas. I feel that intensity would be lost if people stopped writing albums. You need more than a few sentences to truly tell a story.” What: St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival With: Chvrches, Haim, Jagwar Ma, Earl Sweatshirt, Danny Brown, Daughter, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Parquet Courts, Lorde and more Where: Sydney College of the Arts, Rozelle When: Sunday February 2 More: Mount Kimbie also headline the Metro Theatre on Wednesday January 29 And: Cold Spring Fault Less Youth out now through Warp

“Our reputation is to be outrageous, but we’re doing it for an aesthetic sense. These weird objects just fall into our laps now, and we think, ‘Oh yeah! We can use this!’ I mean, what other band have bovine insemination equipment lying around?” Despite their nuanced approach to work, Matmos have been praised for the accessibility of their music. It seems quite contradictory that a band which creates music with amplified crayfish nerve tissue, liposuction surgical tools and bovine insemination equipment could apply pop sensibilities at the same time. The truth is that the band is split about which direction in which to take the music – Schmidt driving into the experimental and the unknown, while Drew Daniel fights for the pop approach. “We’re in constant conflict about this. Drew loves pop music, but I couldn’t care less; I have a much slower metabolism for that kind of music. I’ve got nothing against it, but I would rather we head in a stranger direction, and Drew pushes in a more pop direction. It’s that conflict which drives what we do.”

What: Future Music Festival With: Deadmau5, Hardwell, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Phoenix, Kaskade, Knife Party, Rudimental, Sub Focus, Porter Robinson, Paul van Dyk and more Where: Royal Randwick Racecourse When: Saturday March 8

“Our reputation is to be outrageous, but we’re doing it for an aesthetic sense … I mean, what other band have bovine insemination equipment lying around?” The creative and experimental nature of Matmos has even seem them transcend the world of music, collaborating with visual artists, playwrights and choreographers, from Daria Martin to Young Jean Lee. “We’ve been lucky and have had such amazing people approach us and ask to help out with what they’re doing. They’ve always been very different from us, which allows us to be ourselves. It’s sometimes a stretch and a challenge to work with us, but they’ve been forgiving with our approach. They come to us and it’s been great fun. “On the other side, when we ask people to work with us, it’s like we’re asking a neighbour to help with some home repairs. A lot of the people we’ve worked with are people we know, people I met at a bar.” Schmidt reflects on a time working with an orchestra in Europe, when the conductor was shocked to discover that neither he nor Daniel can read sheet music. “We make it up as we go along. We were never trained in music composition and never learnt to read sheet music, so people have been surprised by us and our approach, but we somehow manage to find a way to make it all work and some amazing stuff has come out of these collaborations. It always comes together with relative ease and just feels natural.” Ahead of their upcoming performances in Australia, including a date at Sydney Festival, the creative juices are flowing – and Matmos are dreaming up something special. “The big difference between live and recorded music is that it’s much easier to be original and acceptable live,” says Schmidt. “We prefer that the audience doesn’t know the process of creation. With an album, they can study it and work out how we made our music, but performing live requires a more immediate digestion of the music. We like our audience to be smart enough to roll with the punches and not need an explanation for what we’re doing – immediate satisfaction rather than a subject of study.” What: Sydney Festival 2014 Where: City Recital Hall, Angel Place When: Wednesday January 15 And: Drew Daniel’s The Soft Pink Truth also appearing at Paradiso Lates, Sydney Town Hall, Thursday January 16

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Matmos photo by James Thomas Marsh Xxx

When Maker and Mount Kimbie cohort Kai Campos signed with legendary label Warp, they joined the likes of Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin and TNGHT on a roster of such prevailing integrity that attention is inevitably drawn towards its artists no matter who they are. “Signing to Warp was a huge moment,” Maker says. “Hotflush [Recordings] had been fantastic, [but] we didn’t have a home for our music for a while after we finished our contract with them. Then suddenly we had a few offers on the table from bigger labels and it was difficult making decisions and thinking about the future. We instantly knew Warp was a suitable home for us. The label has such a rich history in electronic music and there was no pressure to do anything we didn’t want to do.”

Gruff young Londoner King Krule (AKA Archy Marshall) provides vocals for two Cold Spring Fault Less Youth tracks, including the single ‘You Took Your Time’. The contrast between Marshall’s gravel-mouthed voice and Mount Kimbie’s tonal fragility introduced a new colour to the band’s palette. Maker explains that although he and Campos reached out to Marshall at first, the songs were developed collaboratively.

“When things first started, we were just using things that were laying around our house,” says M.C. [Martin] Schmidt. “We try to always choose inspirational items, but the music on the first album came from the crap lying around, like the door to our room and a tie.

know what? I’m just going to do what I’ve always done – I make music for myself and if others like it, then great; if not, then go listen to something else.”

Toro Y Moi Keeping It Chill By Alasdair Duncan

hen we speak, Toro Y Moi (AKA Chaz Bundick) is in a van speeding down the highway towards Los Angeles, where he and his band will be performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! the following night. Bundick is at the tail end of a long run of shows, and this is one of his last stops before taking a break over the holidays ahead of the Big Day Out. He’s a man in demand and is clearly feeling the strain of life on the road. His last album, Anything In Return, was his biggest yet, taking the woozy melodies and hazy electronics of Toro Y Moi to an all-new level. A higher profi le, however, means lots of touring, and lots of touring makes for a tired Toro.

Toro Y Moi photo by Andrew Paynter

I try to get the conversation started with a little light chat about video games – scratch the surface of most electronic musicians and you’re likely to fi nd a nerdy suburban teen who spent the better part of the 2000s huddled over a PS2. I ask Bundick if he was much of a gamer in that era, and if perhaps any key elements of video game soundtracks might perhaps have worked their way into the music he makes now. “Was I a gamer?” he asks. “No, not really. I mean, I had a PlayStation growing up, but that’s

about it. If anything, I’d say I was more into sports; football and things like that. I didn’t really start listening to electronic music until college, though.” Fair enough. We’re probably not going to be trading any anecdotes about Final Fantasy X, so I press on in a different direction. Anything In Return has way more of a loose, R&B and hip hop sound than anything Bundick has recorded before, and I wonder if he was listening to a lot of that music when he started work on the record. “I was, yeah,” he replies. “I was listening to a lot of TheDream, and a lot of Kanye, and a lot of older stuff too, stuff from the ’90s.” Would he one day be interested in producing for a Kanye or a Kendrick Lamar? “Yeah, that’s never really been proposed, but I’m down for working with anybody as long as I’m into their stuff.” Anything In Return is that little bit bolder, that little bit louder than the music that Bundick has made in the past. “I was really just thinking about fi nding groovy beats and making fun songs,” he says. One particular thing on his mind, however, was the need to play the songs live. “Whenever I’m making music in the studio, I’m always thinking about how it’s going to

“Whenever I’m making music in the studio, I’m always thinking about how it’s going to be performed. I mostly focus on sonics, so it’s sort of fun to think of ways to make the music sound good live, the way it does on the record.”

be performed. I mostly focus on sonics, so it’s sort of fun to think of ways to make the music sound good live, the way it does on the record.” In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Bundick said he was starting to feel a little bit bored of electronic music – that it was beginning to feel more like work than the hobby it has always been, and that he was contemplating

making a different kind of record altogether. It’s a new direction that Bundick expects to embark on soon. “I think there are always lots of sounds that I still want to experiment with. It’s hard to say right now, but I am always open to trying new things in different genres.” So is he working on anything right now? “Nothing in particular,” he says, “I’m just working on relaxing right now – that’s defi nitely in the works.”

What: Big Day Out With: Pearl Jam, Arcade Fire, Beady Eye, Snoop Dogg AKA Snoop Lion, Major Lazer, Flume, Tame Impala, Bliss n Eso and more Where: Sydney Showgrounds When: Sunday January 26 And: Toro Y Moi will be joined by Portugal. The Man for a sideshow at The Hi-Fi on Wednesday January 29

PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS

THURSDAY 2 JAN METRO THEATRE ALL AGES FRONTIERTOURING.COM TOMODELL.COM

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‘LONG WAY DOWN’ THE STUNNING DEBUT #1 UK ALBUM’

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

SATURDAY DECEMBER 21

SATURDAY DECEMBER 21 HIP HOP & R&B

The Big Village Christmas Party - feat: Suburban Dark + Reverse Polarities + Rapaport + Tenth Dan & Grub + Roleo + Klue + Migz The Standard, Surry Hills. 8pm. $15.

CLUB NIGHTS

Ben Morris + Strange Cloud DJs + Matt Cahill + Tom Kelly + Johnny Gleeson Goldfish, Kings Cross. 9pm. $15. Cakes! World Bar, Kings Cross. 7pm. $10.

Alex Metric

Christmas Garden Party feat: DJ Snake + Alex Metric + Marten Horger + Midnight Juggernauts (DJ Set) + Kilter + Lancelot Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 12pm. $59. FBi Hands Up! - feat: DJ Clockwerk + Special Friends With Benefits FBi Social, Kings Cross. 11:30pm. free. Kid Kenobi + Midland + Ember + A-Tonez + Jace Disgrace + Whitecat + U-Khan + Sang + Fingers + DJ Just 1 Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $30. Masif Saturdays Space, Sydney. 10pm. free. Soda Saturdays - feat: Resident DJs Playing Disco And Funk Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 5pm. free. Spice - feat: Oskar Offermann + Murat Kilic + Robbie Lowe + Dean Relf & Guests The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 10pm. $20.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 22 CLUB NIGHTS

Exit (The Weekend) - feat: Claire Morgan + Ben Drayton + Lovertits + Betty Grumble The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 9pm. $10. Martini Club And Friends feat: Ocky + Tom Kelly Goldfish, Kings Cross. 10pm. free. S.A.S.H Sundays The Abercrombie, Broadway. 2pm. $10.

Suburban Dark

The Standard

The Big Village Xmas Party Suburban Dark + Reverse Polarities + Rapaport + Tenth Dan & Grub + Roleo + Klue + Migz

p send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com

Das Moth

8pm. $15. MONDAY DECEMBER 16 CLUB NIGHTS

DJ Mattia Goldfish, Kings Cross. 11pm. free.

TUESDAY DECEMBER 17 CLUB NIGHTS

Chu World Bar, Kings Cross. 7pm. free. DJ Robin Goldfish, Kings Cross. 11pm. free.

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 18 HIP HOP & R&B

The Wall - feat: Resident DJs

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World Bar, Kings Cross. 8pm. $5.

CLUB NIGHTS

DJ Tom Kelly Goldfish, Kings Cross. 11pm. free. Marcus Worgull The Abercrombie, Broadway. 8pm. free. The Supper Club - feat: Resident DJs Kit & Kaboodle, Kings Cross. 10pm. free. Whip It Wednesdays - feat: DJs Camo + Snillum + Jaimie Lyn Whaat Club, Kings Cross. 9pm. free.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 19 CLUB NIGHTS

Goldfish And Friends - feat: Regular Rotating Residents Goldfish, Kings Cross. 10pm. free. Loopy - feat: Drty Csh + Daschwood + Generous Greed + Guest DJs

The Backroom, Sydney. 9pm. $10. Propaganda - feat: Hugh Harris from The Kooks (DJ Set) World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. $10.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 20 CLUB NIGHTS

Argyle Fridays - feat: Resident DJs The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. free. Boss Bass - feat: Hatch + Hydraulix + Phaseone + Chenzo + Judson + Kemikoll + Visual Lies Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 10pm. $20. DJ Degustation 20.12 - feat: Michelle Owen The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 7:30pm. $55. Double Up? Jungle Ting - feat: Future + Vision (Rudeboy On The Mission) + Jnr + Lewba + Fkna + Billy Green + Kleva1 + MC

FRIDAY DECEMBER 20

Ben Morris + Strange Cloud Djs + Matt Cahill + Tom Kelly + Johnny Gleeson Goldfish, Kings Cross. 9pm. $15.

Boss Bass - feat: Hatch + Hydraulix + Phaseone + Chenzo + Judson + Kemikoll + Visual Lies Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 10pm. $20.

Christmas Garden Party - feat: DJ Snake + Alex Metric + Marten Horger + Midnight Juggernauts (DJ Set) + Kilter + Lancelot Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 12pm. $59.

Soft&Slow 20.12 - feat: Das Moth The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 10pm. $10.

Kid Kenobi + Midland + Ember + A-Tonez + Jace Disgrace + Whitecat + U-Khan + Sang + Fingers + DJ Just 1 Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $30.

Tim Sweeney + D&D + Edseven Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 11pm. $25.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 21 The Big Village Xmas Party - feat: Suburban Dark + Reverse Polarities + Rapaport + Tenth Dan & Grub + Roleo + Klue + Migz The Standard, Surry Hills. 8pm. $15.

Spice - feat: Oskar Offermann + Murat Kilic + Robbie Lowe + Dean Relf & Guests The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 10pm. $20.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 22 S.A.S.H Sundays The Abercrombie, Broadway. 2pm. $10.

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Xxx

club pick of the week

Antic Honda Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 9pm. free. Elâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Circo - feat: Resident Circus Act Performers Slide Lounge, Darlinghurst. 7pm. $109. Factory Fridays - feat: Resident DJs Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 5pm. free. Mashed Fridays - feat: DJ Tone Oatley Hotel, Oatley. 8pm. free. Soft&Slow 20.12 - feat: Das Moth The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 10pm. $10. Tim Sweeney + D&D + Edseven Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 11pm. $25.

Deep Impressions Dance And Electronica with Chris Honnery

D’julz

rench producer Julien Veniel, who makes music as D’julz, will release a mixed, digital-only compilation called This Is Bass Culture: 4 Years Of Bass Culture Records early next year. A resident DJ at renowned Paris techno hub the Rex Club, D’julz released one of my favourite club EPs earlier in 2013 with Special Day on the Circus Company imprint. Comprising three hypnotic, slightly cosmic cuts of robust house, each track on the EP is laden with evocative, off-kilter melodies that separates them from the generic tech house flooding the market, while Veniel’s knack for creating a stupendous bassline ensures that all three tracks boast strong dancefloor potential. The DJ is no newcomer to the scene, releasing on labels such as 20:20 Vision, Ovum and Dessous since starting out in the early ’90s, but I’d recommend that anyone uninitiated with Veniel’s productions start with Special Day and work back through his discography from there. His forthcoming mix is concentrated on tracks released on his Bass Culture label throughout its four-year existence. The likes of DJ Qu, Cassy and Anonym all feature, while there’s also a trio of unreleased cuts thrown in, including a D’julz-Cassy collaboration. There’ll undoubtedly be many mixes that arrive in the New Year enveloped by far more hype than D’julz’s latest, but I’m confident that those of you who seek out this compilation will be far from disappointed.

Mad Racket will return to its spiritual home of Marrickville Bowling Club for its New Year’s Eve bash, which will be headlined by Detroit producer Leonard Strickland, AKA Big Strick. The cousin of Motor City luminary Omar-S, Strickland has established himself as a formidable producer in his own right through the release of his albums Resivior Dogs [sic] and his 2011 debut Detroit Heat. Of course, Strickland has made the most of his family connection with Omar-S, releasing a number of EPs on his cousin’s FXHE label, including Hustler, which featured ‘Old E 800’, a visceral house cut that was grittily remixed by Omar-S. Big Strick’s forthcoming tour to Australia will be his first trip Down Under, and he’s certainly in the right hands playing with some of Sydney’s most respected veteran DJs at Mad Racket NYE. German producer Stephan Laubner, who makes dubby machine funk as STL, will release his 14th album on the Smallville label in January. At Disconnected Moments will mark the first time Laubner has entrusted another label with releasing his album, having released all his previous STL LPs

through his own Something imprint. It’s not as if Laubner hasn’t affiliated with other labels throughout his career though; he previously released his Silent State EP on Smallville in 2009, having initially made his mark through his output on the hallowed Perlon imprint. It was on Perlon that Laubner shared a split 12” with Ricardo Villalobos and Dandy Jack back in 2000, recording as Ric Y Martin, a guise he has subsequently resurrected for remixes of Luomo. The forthcoming STL album features ‘Silent State’ from Laubner’s debut Smallville EP, along with ten new tracks that adhere to the immersive deep soundscapes that characterise the STL oeuvre. For anyone who missed it, Italian producer Paolo Lodde recently released his latest album as Dusty Kid, III. Coming in at nearly two hours, the release is a techno opus that Lodde constructed using analogue synthesizers and Ableton software, drawing on his classical musical training throughout the process. III is designed to be consumed in a single listen rather than as separate tracks, and is available online as a free download in this format. “2013 was important because ten years before, I released my first track ever under the alias Dusty Kid,” Lodde said. “I had to do something for the people that were following my music for such a long period so I thought that a free album could be a nice gift to share my gratitude.” It’s fair to say Lodde rose to the occasion to celebrate ten years of Dusty Kid – there are no excuses for not snapping up III, stat!

LOOKING DEEPER

FEEL L IKE CRAP JUST FOR

FRIDAY DECEMBER 20 Tim Sweeney Goodgod Small Club

SATURDAY DECEMBER 21 Oskar Offermann The Spice Cellar

Subsonic Pirate Party ft Philip Bader + Red Robin Boat Cruise Departing from Rose Bay Wharf

TUESDAY DECEMBER 31 Big Strick Marrickville Bowling Club

Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through deep.impressions@yahoo.com thebrag.com

I MAG I N E BE I NG MAD E TO

BEING

LEFT

H A N D E D.

Okay, that’s hard to imagine? But being gay, lesbian, bi, trans or intersex is no different to being born left handed, it’s just who you are. So stop and think because the things we say are likely to cause depression and anxiety. And that really is pretty crap. GO TO LEFTHAND.ORG.AU TO WATCH THE VIDEO

STOP t THINK t RESPECT

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live review What we've been out to see...

INSANE CLOWN POSSE, BOONDOX, BIG HOODOO, KIDCRUSHER

soft & slow

The Hi-Fi Saturday December 7

Walking into The Hi-Fi, I’m greeted by a sea of painted faces and ICP insignia – both on merchandise and tattooed onto the skin of hardcore fans. With a band as polarising as the Posse, there’s a certain level of authenticity felt in the crowd; no fair weather fans here, just a thousand folks who are, without a fraction of doubt, down with the clown. Despite this, there’s an overwhelming sense of egalitarianism present. Free of posturing or any air of elitism, punters are here simply to embrace a collective identity that’s more often than not a prime subject of derision. You want to talk underground? Counterculture? Juggalos are the definition of an outlier, and with that comes a sense of family. Warming up the crowd, openers Kidcrusher, Big Hoodoo and Boondox imitate the aesthetic and style of ICP while toning down the more theatrical elements. It’s enough to get patrons excited – the fact that many are able to recite each artist’s lyrics back at them is testament to ‘horrorcore’ as a legitimate genre in and of itself. Circus music blares over the speakers as J and Shaggy take the stage armed with a small crew of clown-masked provocateurs. There’s no DJ, nor live instruments to be found, and if we’re being honest, there’s no pretense of ‘musicianship’ either – Insane Clown Posse are, first are foremost,

06:12:13 :: The Spice Cellar :: 58 Elizabeth St Sydney 9223 5585

performers. And perform they goddamn do. Over the next hour and a half, the colourfully intense stage show becomes impossible to look away from. It’s soon apparent this is no half-arsed hip hop show – this is the works. As J and Shaggy work through a back catalogue spanning a dozen albums, they demonstrate both their battle-forged chemistry as well as undeniable knack for enthralling a crowd. Props, handled by their masked stagehands, are aplenty. For ‘Chicken Huntin’’, the help douse the crowd in feathers. For ‘Fuck The World’, they bring out two figures in cloaks to stand on either side of the stage, completely frozen but for their middle fingers raised. This all adds to the sheer chaos and revelry of what’s going on. Oh, and yes, there’s Faygo. Gallons upon gallons of Faygo – or at least its Aussie equivalent. As bottles fly from the stage across the venue, there’s an inexplicable sense of solidarity. We are the drenched, we are the sticky, we are family. “For years, they’ve been hoping we die, praying we would die,” declares Shaggy 2 Dope between songs. “We’re not dead yet, motherfuckers!” Regardless of one’s thoughts on their music or lifestyle, the entity that is Insane Clown Posse and their fanbase are alive and kicking – and what’s more, they know how to have a damn good time. Blake Gallagher

s.a.s.h sundays

PICS :: AM

“The most hated band in the world” would be a tough cross for any band to bear. Regardless, for Detroit duo Insane Clown Posse, it’s a label they’ve worn with pride for over two decades now. Ten years since they last paid a visit to their cult-like Juggalo following in Australia (a fanbase as devoted as they are maligned), it was high time for Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope to bring their touring carnival of darkness, hip hop and orange-flavoured soft drink back to our shores.

PICS :: AM

up all night out all week . . .

08:12:13 :: The Abercrombie Hotel :: 100 Broadway Ultimo 9280 2178 PHOTOGRAPHER : ASHLEY MAR

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MAR N :: KATRINA CLARKE :: ASHLEY S :: DANIEL BOUD :: LIAM CAMERO OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER OBO REH :: PAT STEVENSON @ WEA :: JACK @ LIFE WITHOUT ANDY

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beach ball

PICS :: PS

up all night out all week . . .

yacht club djs

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08:12:13 :: Beach Road Hotel :: 71 Beach Rd Bondi 9130 7247

07:12:13 :: The Abercrombie Hotel :: 100 Broadway Ultimo 9280 2178 MAR N :: KATRINA CLARKE :: ASHLEY S :: DANIEL BOUD :: LIAM CAMERO OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER OBO REH WEA @ N ENSO :: PAT STEV :: JACK @ LIFE WITHOUT ANDY

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07:12:13 :: The Goldfish :: 111 Darlinghurst Rd Potts Point 8354 6630

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armin van buuren

05:12:13 :: Marquee :: The Star 80 Pyrmont St Pyrmont 9777 9000

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PICS :: KC

goldfish 5th birthday

05:12:13 :: Kikoff Fraser Park :: 100 Marrickville Rd Marrickville

doctor p

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musica copa

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up all night out all week . . .

06:12:13 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex St Sydney 8295 9999 N :: KATRINA S :: DANIEL BOUD :: LIAM CAMERO OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER ENSON @ WEAREHOBO STEV PAT :: ANDY OUT WITH LIFE :: JACK @

CLARKE :: ASHLEY MAR

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TRIPLE J, MAX, BRAG & JARRAH RECORDS PRESENT

JOHN BUTLER TRIO WITH SPECIAL GUEST EMMA LOUISE WEDNESDAY 9 APRIL CIVIC THEATRE NEWCASTLE Licenced / All Ages. Tickets available from Ticketek | www.ticketek.com.au | 132 849

FRIDAY 11 APRIL HORDERN PAVILION SYDNEY Licenced / All Ages. Tickets available from Ticketek | www.ticketek.com.au | 132 849

SATURDAY 12 APRIL ROYAL THEATRE CANBERRA Licenced / All Ages. Tickets available from Ticketek | www.ticketek.com.au | 132 849

SUNDAY 13 APRIL ANITA’S THEATRE THIRROUL Licenced / Over 18. Tickets available from Ticketmaster | www.ticketmaster.com.au | 136 100

TICKETS ON SALE NOW www.johnbutlertrio.com FLESH & BLOOD ALBUM OUT 7 FEB 2014

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