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BRAG :: 566 :: 11:06:14 :: 3
rock music news welcome to the frontline: the latest touring and music news...with Lauren Gill and Gloria Brancatisano
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THE BRAG
five things WITH
CANDY CUNNINGHAM FROM KIM KILLSPEED garden and listening to her belt out ‘Amazing Grace’. She was so loud and strong and beautiful. Next I remember driving around in my friend’s Kingswood, singing our bleeding hearts out to Celine Dion’s ‘Think Twice’ followed by ‘Enter Sandman’! Inspirations I love very introspective, 2. refl ective songs. Nick Drake’s
Up The musical memory that 1. Growing
sticks out the most for me is being eight, sitting with my nanna in her
albums Pink Moon and Five Leaves Left are just beautiful, as are José González’s Veneer and In Our Nature. I love escaping with Lamb and Portishead on long drives. In terms of what inspires me to write, a lot of it comes from everyday things, like birds singing a certain tune or seeing a friend I haven’t seen for ages. Most of it is feelings that I can’t express any other way, other than writing them in a song.
Your Band Our band is a bit different. Andy 3. met Bruce through drum lessons. One day they started jamming and thought, ‘Hey, this might work.’ I responded to an ad for a singer, then when I met Andy we realised he knew some friends of mine, so it was a really easy match. In terms of music style, I prefer to write soft, ethereal type songs. Bruce has a real bluesy vibe to his playing. Andy is more rock and uptempo and Steve our drummer is a real drum and bass cruiser. It just kind of works itself out. The Music You Make I do a lot of the songwriting. 4. Actually, Andy and Bruce write too. My songs usually start in my bedroom or sitting in the sun, playing open strings on my acoustic. I focus a lot on the meaning of the music and the lyrics, more so than the technical stuff. I’ve had no music training. The
guys usually take my songs and turn them into something. Lately I have been coming up with really trippy, repetitive-type sounds, but I would stop short of saying it’s psychedelic. Music, Right Here, Right Now Everyone says it’s tough 5. to get gigs. Well, supposedly it’s not as easy as it used to be and there is definitely less money to go around. The problem is not with the musicians. There is so much talent in Sydney. And the problem is not the venues. The real problem is that people are not going out to see live music as much anymore. But you need to make the most of what’s out there. Where: Rosehill Hotel / Winter Magic Festival, Katoomba / Ruby L’otel When: Friday June 13 / Saturday June 21 / Friday June 27
LITTLE DRAGON
MANAGING EDITOR: Chris Martin chris@thebrag.com 02 9212 4322 ONLINE EDITOR: Tyson Wray ONLINE COORDINATOR: Emily Meller SUB-EDITOR: Georgia Booth STAFF WRITERS: Alasdair Duncan, Jody Macgregor, Krissi Weiss, Augustus Welby NEWS: Gloria Brancatisano, Lauren Gill, Chris Honnery, Amie Mulhearn, Tyson Wray ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant PHOTOGRAPHERS: James Ambrose, Ashley Mar ADVERTISING: Georgina Pengelly - 0416 972 081 / (02) 9212 4322 georgina@thebrag.com ADVERTISING: Les White - 0405 581 125 / (02) 9212 4322 les@thebrag.com PUBLISHER: Furst Media 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 GIG & CLUB GUIDE COORDINATORS: Nic Liney, Emily Meller - gigguide@thebrag.com (rock); clubguide@thebrag.com (dance, hip hop & parties) AWESOME INTERNS: Erin Rooney, Amie Mulhearn, Nic Liney REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Nat Amat, Ian Barr, Keiron Costello, Marissa Demetriou, Rachel Eddie, Christie Eliezer, Blake Gallagher, Chris Honnery, Cameron James, Tegan Jones, Lachlan Kanoniuk, Pamela Lee, Alicia Malone, Adam Norris, Daniel Prior, Kate Robertson, Amy Theodore, Leonardo Silvestrini, David Wild, Harry Windsor, Stephanie Yip, 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.
Hot on the heels of the release of their latest highly acclaimed LP, Nabuma Rubberband, Little Dragon have locked in a pair of Australian headline shows this August. Their fourth album features hits ‘Klapp Klapp’ and ‘Paris’ alongside a myriad of tunes that show off the Swedish quartet’s penchant for soulful electropop infl uenced by the likes of Prince, Frank Ocean and Outkast. Little Dragon will play Oxford Art Factory on Tuesday August 19.
Courtney Love
Alongside the recent news that Courtney Love wants a glittery silver rose named after her and that she’s found the missing Malaysian Airlines plane, the former Hole frontwoman has announced that she will hit our shores for her first ever solo tour this August. The announcement comes on the back of the release of her double A-side single ‘You Know My Name’/‘Wedding Day’. It was released to celebrate her recent UK tour, hailed by critics as “potty mouthed and captivating”. See Love on Friday August 22 at Panthers, Newcastle and Sunday August 24 at the Enmore Theatre.
JEFF LANG
To celebrate the release of the 15th studio album in his illustrious career, Jeff Lang comes to Sydney this week on his national tour. The Geelong native has featured at festivals, pubs, clubs and venues right around the world. Now, to launch his latest album, I Live In My Head A Lot These Days, he’s playing in every corner of the country on a 20-stop tour. Catch Lang at The Brass Monkey on Thursday June 12; Lizotte’s Kincumber on Wednesday June 25; Lizotte’s Dee Why on Thursday June 26; The Basement on Friday June 27; Camelot Lounge on Saturday June 28; and Lizotte’s Newcastle on Sunday June 29.
KEVIN MARK TRAIL
The name might not strike you as immediately recognisable, but you’ll know Kevin Mark Trail’s voice from his work with The Streets. These days he’s a solo performer, and has relocated from the UK just across the ditch to New Zealand. “In the UK people aren’t as open and [music is] in some ways a pretentious business there,” he told us in a recent interview. It means it’s a short trip our way to The Bunker at Coogee Diggers this Saturday June 14, where Trail will perform songs from his latest album, The Knight, and his already completed next release, The Traveller.
WHEN LOVE COMES TO TOWN
THAT’S A LOT OF PILOTS
US musical chameleons Twenty One Pilots have locked in a brief tour of Australia this August. The duo – it seems ‘Two Pilots’ wasn’t such a catchy band name – supported poppunkers Paramore this year on their arena tour Down Under. But Twenty One Pilots aren’t so easily categorised, flip-flopping between rock, pop, hip-hop and jazz. On the back of breakout single ‘Car Radio’, they’ve played festival dates around the world, from Lollapalooza to Bonnaroo and back. Catch ’em at the Metro Theatre on Saturday August 9. Tickets go on sale 9am Friday June 13.
GOT MOJO?
The charismatic Mojo Juju kicks off an east coast tour this week before going into hibernation to record a second solo album. The former frontwoman of The Snake Oil Merchants is peddling her own material these days, and you can expect an inked-up combination of rock’n’roll, blues, jazz and country. Frank Sultana is coming along for the ride, stopping in at Lizotte’s Newcastle on Wednesday June 11; The Vanguard on Thursday June 12; Katoomba’s Clarendon Guesthouse on Friday June 13; and Lizotte’s Kincumber on Sunday June 15.
Spiderbait
Kevin Mark Trail
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SPIDERBAIT RETURN TO THE ROAD
For the first time in a decade, Spiderbait will be heading off on a national headlining tour this August. Playing shows in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne, the trio will hit the road with seven albums’ worth of music including last year’s self-titled release, which they have yet to tour. Before their headline dates in August, the band will also play the sold-out Splendour In The Grass festival. Spiderbait take over the Metro Theatre on Friday August 8. Tickets go on sale Tuesday June 17.
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live & local
free stuff
welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town...with Chris Martin and Amie Mulhearn
head to: thebrag.com/freeshit
five things WITH
HANNAH ACFIELD FROM THE ACFIELDS Lovely’ was playing on the radio. So we have this lovely bond (even if Stevie is unaware of it). All kinds of music are inspiring. The last two records Dan and I both love are from Lydia Cole (NZ) and Bahamas (Canada).
3.
Growing Up Our parents both play music 1. and our house was filled with music. Sometimes we had a TV and other times we didn’t so there was always music playing. Mum and Dad didn’t push us to play instruments, it was a natural evolution. Guitars, bass guitars and all kinds of instruments were
always lying around. I remember our grandfather teaching me how to play ‘Blue Moon’ on piano, which was special.
Your Band We’re siblings who both love singing harmonies together. Folk is halfway for the both of us. Dan writes rockier songs and I’d be more country so it’s a nice middle ground. It’s natural for siblings to disagree, right? Oh, and we live in different cities – me in Melbourne and Dan in Brisbane. That makes rehearsals interesting! Normally it’s an intense all-day practice before the gig. For a tour it’s way easier.
Inspirations The Music You Make Stevie Wonder was on high 2. Our debut album (due to 4. rotation when we were kids and I be released in late September) still love his music. The story goes that just as I was born ‘Isn’t She
was recorded in various places including a house on
the Mornington Peninsula. We produced it ourselves and hired engineer Robin Mai to make sure it was recorded well. By far it’s the best thing we’ve done together and separately. Turning A Page is an EP we released in late 2012, initially bit of an experiment in recording together. We were both solo performers for a long time and have five cumulative EPs between us. Music, Right Here, Right Now 5. We just played two joint shows with The April Maze, who are amazing – they’ve certainly inspired us. There are so many talented local musicians, I try to see as much local live music as possible to inspire me. Where: Mars Hill Cafe, Parramatta When: Saturday June 14
SHELLEY SEGAL
Melbourne singer-songwriter Shelley Segal graciously invites us to escape with her. It’s An Easy Escape, and so is the title of her third album, released last week. ‘Morocco’, its lead single, came out of the singer’s own escape to Marrakech and Essaouira, where she says she was initially “blown away” by the physical and natural beauty of the country before a darker side to life there emerged. You can’t tie Segal down – over the last two years, she’s been on eight tours across America and Europe. For now, she’s stopped in at home, and will play The Vanguard on Thursday June 26. We’ve got five double passes to give away to her An Easy Escape launch show. To be in the running to win one, head to thebrag. com/freeshit and tell us the place you’d go to escape.
xxx
Double Lined Minority
DOUBLE LINED MINORITY
Gold Coast pop-punkers Double Lined Minority have dropped their new single, ‘White Flag’, and are set to fly said flag on a Sydney date this August. Valve Bar at the Agincourt Hotel will be their host on Saturday August 2, where the foursome will be joined by Divide & Conquer and Kiss Me. You may have caught Double Lined Minority on their Big Day Out appearances in 2012 and 2014, or supporting Smash Mouth, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus or Razorback. If that’s not a CV, nothing is.
JACK ELIAS
Self-described “black star of folksong poetry” Jack Elias is gearing up to launch his vinyl-only release, Chopping Board, at an intimate venue in St Peters. The Lebanese-Australian performer has quite the turn of phrase, so the record is
sure to be full of witty observations on God and melody. Joining the lounge room show at Unit 6/1-7, Unwins Bridge Rd are Broadcasting Transmitter, Wild Cat Falling and Simon Alexander Craw (of Psychonanny and The Babyshakers).
The Kava Kings
SKA FACE
Ska Face is here to inject some much-needed ska into Sydney’s live music scene. Describing itself as an extravaganza of live music, the event will celebrate the sensenumbing tunes from a collection of Sydney’s most popular ska bands. Gypsy ska lads The Kava Kings will be leading the evening’s proceedings, with some help from Angry Little Gods, Midnight Tea Party and The Prospects. Polish your dancing shoes and start your warm-up, because this is sure to get your feet stomping all over the dancefloor. AC presents Ska Face on Thursday June 26 at Goodgod Small Club.
Mar Haze
LEWISHAM HOTEL
Following up the weekend’s excellently named Bangers & Thrash show, the Lewisham Hotel rocks on this week. The Big Blind Ray Trio kicks off the weekend on Friday June 13, fronted by a man in ‘Big Blind’ Ray who thrives on traditional, dangerous blues sounds and can sure handle a harmonica. It’ll be a different vibe altogether on Saturday June 14 when the fourth Pugs Day Out festival takes over the venue, featuring street punk bands from around the country. Headlining are none other than T.H.U.G, joined by Plan Of Attack, Rust, The Corps, Footsoldier, Stanley Knife and more. But it doesn’t stop there – on Sunday June 15, Brisbane post-hardcore outfit First Sight will headline an all-ages show.
SUPER MASSIVE
MAR HAZE
Sydney surf rockers Mar Haze return to their local stages this week as they near the end of a tour that’s taken them up and down the east coast multiple times. In their short career, Mar Haze have shared bills with the likes of Ash Grunwald and The Beautiful Girls, and they’ve just released their new single, ‘Leave It To Me’. They stop in at Upstairs Beresford this Saturday June 14 where Bec Laughton is launching her EP alongside Castlecomer.
6 :: BRAG :: 566 :: 11:06:14
Super Massive are spreading their electrolaced funk to the dancefloor for free this weekend. With a debut album due for release in the coming months, the duo will give local audiences a chance to preview their latest material while they make their final touches on the record. The band is the synth-tastic product of collaboration between ex-Machine Gun Fellatio drummer/composer Glenn Abbott and singer-songwriter Malina Hamilton-Smith. Adding to the vibes on the night will be US DJ Misterlazy. Catch them at the Captain Cook Hotel on Saturday June 14.
STANDARD FUN
The bands, beers and bowling continue at Standard Bowl this month, and the lineup of live music this week is sure to please. Main Beach and Pinheads light up the night of Thursday June 12, with the boys from the Beach promising all the surf rockin’ times that their name suggests. Come Friday June 13 it’s Fox & Fowl’s turn (as distinct from Boy & Bear, Wolf & Cub and Bears With Guns – what is this, Noah’s Ark?), having released their debut EP in April and reportedly recovered from the injuries they sustained on a jumping castle during the filming of their latest music video. Then the Visions party crew (Deep Sea Arcade and friends) take over Saturday June 14, having roped in headliners Buzz Kill, plus North Arm, Noire, Sudek DJs, Jake Stone (DJ set) and Rare Finds DJs.
FRANKIE’S, HELL YEAH
Frankie’s Pizza gets down to business this week. The business of a rocking good time, that is, with a bumper lineup kicking off Wednesday June 11 when Hey Horze hit stage. The always exciting 10 O’Clock Rock set this Thursday June 12 features HailMary, while Sunday June 15 is – wait for it – Frankie’s Hardcore Sausagefest. All are welcome, of course, especially if you’re into the hardcore goodness provided by Heiress, Bare Bones, Grizzly Adams, Arteries, Those Things!, Gvrlls and Death Valley. thebrag.com
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BRAG :: 566 :: 11:06:14 :: 7
Industrial Strength Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer
THINGS WE HEAR * Despite a report in USA Today last week, Trent Reznor will remain with Beats Music as its chief creative officer once Apple completes its US$3 billion acquisition. * Midnight Oilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rob Hirst was in panic mode when an Indonesian volcano stopped all flights from Darwin. He heard that Doc Neeson was slipping away but he made it back to spend time with the Angels singer. * Is Lachlan Murdoch quietly sounding out the possibility of selling Nova? * Indie label association Worldwide Independent Network took its complaints of YouTubeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;strong arm tacticsâ&#x20AC;? over deals to the European Commission. * Singer Craig Nicholls has
put together a new version of The Vines with Tim John (The Griswolds) and drummer Lachlan West (Something With Numbers). An album is on the way. * A new study by IAB Australia and Nielsen indicates there are over 18 million users on mobiles and 11 million users on tablets in Australia. * Contrary to reports, Kylie Minogue has not left the Parlophone label after the lukewarm sales of her last album. * Online pranksters The Janoskians, whose webisodes have notched up 110 million views globally, have signed with US filmmaker Lionsgate to develop a feature film around their activities. * Evermoreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Jon Hume appears on vocals for enigmatic duo Denzal Parkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;One Way Homeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; single, which premiered on Pete Tongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Essential Selection BBC
US PREDICTION: LIVE MUSIC, MUSIC STREAMING UP The US music market has received good news from a PricewaterhouseCoopers report. It is expected to grow from US$15.1 billion in 2013 to $16.5 billion in 2018. The live music sector, already the largest segment, will gain a greater share of revenue. It will be worth $10.5 billion, or 63.7% of the entire music business, up from a 58.7% share in 2013. Music publishing will hold its own as publishers work actively on their catalogues, especially in getting songs placed in movies, ads and TV. The highest growth rate will come from music streaming, growing at 14.5% per year for five years, from last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s $848 million of revenue to $1.67 billion in 2018. By 2018, streaming will account for 36.9% of digital revenues, 27.8% of recorded music revenues and 11.1% of total music revenues. This growth will affect
Radio 1 show. * The reunited Faith No More are hinting theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll record new material. * Olly Murs was the most-played pop star of 2013 in the UK, based on TV and radio airplay, ads, pubs and clubs. The most-played pop track of the year was Daft Punkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Get Luckyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers, followed by Robin Thickeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Blurred Linesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, also featuring Williams and T.I. * Korean rapper Psyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Gangnam Styleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; has surpassed two billion views on YouTube since its 2012 release. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s had 100 million views in 2014 alone. * Wollongongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s latest venue Washed Out launched on the weekend, at the Grand Hotel in the space previously known as Barcode. It fuses music, art and live acts and a huge mural created by local artists. * The Virginia medical examinerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office says Dave Brockie, the
downloading, which is already flat and will remain so for the next five years. According to Billboard, the year so far has seen total streams up 37.6% and digital downloads down 12.3%. However, what will prevent downloads from dropping too drastically will be the continued strength of live music, new music fans starting to spend, and strong releases from acts.
AUSTRALIAN OWNERS OF CAFĂ&#x2030; DEL MAR HEADING TO COURT? After launching last year at Sydneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cockle Bay Wharf, the future expansion of the CafĂŠ del Mar in Australia might be held up. There had been some rumblings about who actually owned the Australian rights. But recently when major shareholder Michael Vale went public about opening an outlet in Melbourneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s St. Kilda this year, managing director John Zappia told SmartCompany that Vale had been removed as a director and had no right to speak for the
frontman for the heavy metal band Gwar, died in March of an accidental heroin overdose. * Moving: Brisbane producer Jordan De Pas is shifting to Berlin. His new single â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Paradiseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; features Georgia Potter on vocals. Darwinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Dr. Elephant (fronted by Damien Wicks) are moving to Cairns. * The Houston Foundation Festival, which highlighted Australia this year, has gone bankrupt. * Corey Hart moved a Canadian show back a week, affecting the schedule of fans from overseas. An Australian fan who couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss her return flight was invited to attend a rehearsal and meet him. He also rang the boss of a Boston fan to ask if she could take the day off. * Wendy Matthews told ABC that her six ARIA awards are holding up a shelf of cactus plants in her home.
brand. He said the issue was in the hands of the lawyers.
SOUNDWAVEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S WA PROMOTER IN STOUSH Soundwaveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s WA promoter Altered State has been declared insolvent in a Federal Court judgment, The West Australian newspaper reported. The move to wind up the company was started by Soundwave founder AJ Maddah after a dispute over $340,000 allegedly owed in bar takings. In documents tendered in court, the deal was that Maddah would get 70% of the bar profits at Claremont Showgrounds from brothers Chris and Ken Knight who run Altered State. Altered State paid one instalment of $350,000 but not a second one, arguing it is owed almost $500,000 from Soundwave for unpaid expenses and management fees from previous festivals.
REPORT: NSW VENUES ASSAULTS DOWN
E HIFI 1300 THO M.AU
THEHIFI.C
Just Announced
Coming Soon
Sat 16 Aug
Fri 20 Jun
UNDRGRND
Band of Skulls (USA)
New data by the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research show that assaults in licensed venues in NSW were down in the 24 months to March 2014. They dropped 15% in the Sydney Local Government Area, 30% in Kings Cross, and 5.6% across the state. The Australian Hotels Association (AHA) NSW says these independent figures justify what it always said â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that assaults were already dropping as venues worked closely with police, and there had been little need for the Governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1am lockouts and 3am closings. The AHA NSWâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s director of policing John Green observed, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Unfortunately, the work of the venues never seems to be acknowledged, with more and more blanket measures imposed on all venues instead of targeting the rogue operators. Assault rates in and around licensed venues are at their lowest levels since the 1990s and we need to see some acknowledgement of that fact.â&#x20AC;?
DAN SULTAN STEPS UP FOR GO FOUNDATION
Fri 27 Jun
Sat 28 Jun
Sat 5 Jul
The Crimson ProjeKCt
First Soundz feat. DJ Maveriq, Sequel, URKii + More
Bell X1
Dan Sultan is the inaugural ambassador of the GO Foundation, which seeks to empower indigenous children through education, providing students with scholarships for quality schooling and assisting with associated expenses. The scholarships are awarded to children who would not otherwise have access to such opportunities. Sultanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role will see him promote GO in his day-to-day life and mentor students involved with the group.
THE LAZYS SIGN US DEALS
Fri 11 Jul
Wed 23 Jul
Wed 13 Aug
Tankard (GER)
Kelis
Hanson
Sat 23 Aug
Sat 27 Sep
Sat 22 Nov
Kid Ink
Rebel Souljahz (USA)
Toxic Holocaust & Iron Reagan
Blistering shows by The Lazys at Canadian Music Week last month proved a turning point for the NSW band. Ralph James, president of US bookers The Agency Group, signed them for representation. The Lazys return to play the US and Canada in October, after a September run in Australia behind the release of their new album. Also at the Canadian shows was Larry Wanagas of Bumstead Productions (Tim Chaisson/ The Trews) who signed a co-management deal (with Geoff Trio of NSWâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Code One) and will represent The Lazys outside of Australia and New Zealand. He declared them â&#x20AC;&#x153;the best new band that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve seen in years.â&#x20AC;? Another fan is producer Garth Richardson (Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nickelback) who exclaimed, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I love this band and this could bring rock back big time.â&#x20AC;?
UNIVERSAL MUSIC AUSTRALIA RESTRUCTURES George Ash, Universal Australasia president, has restructured the company to bring together its international and Australian marketing, strategic, promotions, classics and jazz, and A&R teams. The old Mercury/ Island set-up that housed various labels will now be one (except for EMI, which is run as a standalone by John Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Donnell). Executive vice president of A&R, Universal and Island Records Australasia Michael Taylor and head of marketing Darren Aboud are now joint managing directors. Ash commented, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Both Mike and Darren are true music people who have forged entrepreneurial and creative visions for our company.â&#x20AC;?
SHAZAM, APPLE INTEGRATE Apple will integrate Shazam into its mobiles and tablet systems, it confirmed at its Worldwide Developers Conference. Users will be able to ask Siri to identify a particular track being played. The conference was also used to introduce its latest employee, Dr. Dre (after Apple bought his company Beats for $3 billion). Dre made an appearance, quipping, â&#x20AC;&#x153;What time should I show up for work?â&#x20AC;? Shazam is also working with record companies on mobile retargeting, where advertisers know which users show interest in a track or musical style, and target them. Labels will also advise users of upcoming releases by specific acts. According to Ad News, this was tried in Australia by Sony for Nathaniel Willemse, who created a video thanking fans for their support: it was tagged 240,000 times by 169,000 different devices. Shazamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Australia and New Zealand director of sales Steve Sos also told Ad News that it is extending into cinema, where fans can buy soundtracks with a click and connect with advertisers. According to Sos, Shazam has 9.5 million users registered in Australia, with 2.5 million of those active each month. Globally it has 450 million users and 90 million active monthly users.
FUTURE CLASSIC SIGNS BASENJI Sydney producer Basenji has signed a recording and publishing deal with Future Classic. He has just completed his first remix for Perthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sable. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re keeping the finer details of this one mysterious for now, but we can promise you that some new tunes are around the corner,â&#x20AC;? the label announced.
Lifelines Married: Melissa Etheridge and Linda Wallem at a ranch in California. Both 53, they started dating in 2010 after knowing each other for a decade. Hospitalised: rock legend Jim Keays of Masters Apprentices fame, with pneumonia due to complications from his seven-year battle with multiple myeloma. He had just performed a fundraiser for the Myeloma Foundation. Injured: Marianne Faithfull broke her hip after a fall during a Greece holiday. Arrested: a 25-year-old man faces court on June 17 charged with the assault of Perth guitarist Sacha Tostevin on a Subiaco street. Tostevin, who plays with Aaagh Bats! and The Silence In Between, was in an induced coma. Died: US executive Tom Rounder, 77, of surgery complications. He produced the first American rock festival (Magic Mountain in June 1967 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; before Monterey Pop â&#x20AC;&#x201C; starring The Doors and Jefferson Airplane) and co-created the internationally syndicated American Top 40 with Casey Kasem. Died: maverick US chemist Alexander Shulgin, who created 200 psychedelic drugs including ecstasy in 1976 (as a treatment in marriage guidance), 88, of liver cancer. Died: Doc Neeson, legendary frontman of Aussie rockers The Angels, after a battle with brain cancer. He was awarded the Order of Australia medal last year, and passed away aged 67.
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PURE DYNAMITE BY ALASDAIR DUNCAN
decade on from the release of Napoleon Dynamite, the title character still feels like one of the most defiantly odd characters ever committed to film. With his tight perm, awkward mannerisms and serial killer glasses, Napoleon is one of cinema’s most enjoyable weirdos. For Jon Heder, who played the role, Napoleon was his first major acting job. “To me, it wasn’t just any other gig,” he explains with a laugh. “I had nothing to compare it with at all. When I stepped onto the set, it really felt like my destiny.” Even though Napoleon was created by writers Jared and Jerusha Hess, Heder felt a strong personal connection with the character. “I really felt close to him,” he says. “I immediately felt like I saw eye-to-eye with this character, and a lot of him comes from me when I was growing up.” When the film came out, Napoleon was celebrated as a champion of freaks and weirdos, and I ask Heder how he feels about this continuing legacy so many years on. “I think it’s great,” he says. “I mean, the fact that I’m able to do conventions a decade after the movie came out shows that people are still talking about it, they still love it and feel very passionate about it.”
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Napoleon Dynamite has permeated pop culture in a way that few other films manage, and I wonder if Heder still sees a lot of “Vote For Pedro” shirts when he’s out and about. He laughs at the thought. “To be honest with you, I hang out at home a lot, I have kids, so I don’t see much of what anybody is wearing. I don’t get out very much.” Having said that, Heder is still approached a lot about his role in the film. “That happened a lot when it came out, and these days it’s a different conversation, because these days, people come up to me and say, ‘Oh yeah, I remember growing up on that film.’ I’m always like, what do you mean, ‘growing up’? It was only ten years ago!” For many people, Napoleon Dynamite is a pick-me-up, a film they come back to and watch again on down days for lines like, “Tina, come get some ham!” I’m interested to know if Heder himself has a movie like that, one he returns to when he needs a little cinematic boost. He ponders this for a while. “You know, I think that if I had to pick one of those for myself, it would be
the comedy series Kids In The Hall,” he says. “Whenever I need to kill a half hour during lunch, or have some quiet time, I go back to that. I don’t know that I use movies or TV shows as pick-me-ups, but if ever I need a good laugh, I always go back to that. It speaks to me and I love it.” Heder’s accomplishments in comedy go well beyond Napoleon Dynamite – he even had the chance to star alongside Will Ferrell in the ice skating comedy Blades Of Glory. “That was amazing,” he says, “a dream come true. I spent a lot of my formative high school and college years watching Will Ferrell, and I never would have imagined a few years later we’d be doing a movie together. It was quite a shocker.” The experience of working with Ferrell taught Heder more about his craft, though he finds it hard to quantify. “You always soak something up from the people you work with,” Heder says. “It’s hard to put in words, but it was great just watching him improvise, watching him think, and I took a lot away from that, as I do from each project and each actor I work with. He definitely helped me a lot, that’s for sure.” Heder also hosted an episode of
Saturday Night Live in 2005, the one that featured the return of Ashlee Simpson, having a second crack at being musical guest after her stunning lip-syncing debacle. Heder says he just tried to keep his head down and get on with things. “That didn’t really affect me too much to be honest,” he says. “I figured she had her own stress to figure out, so I just focused on not screwing up on live television on one of the most popular shows of all time, and I was working alongside incredible people like Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis and Andy Samberg right as they were getting their start. I thought it would be stressful, but it was a real rush, and I’d go back and do it again any time.” Two years back, Heder revisited the character of Napoleon Dynamite in a short-lived animated series, and I ask how he feels now looking back on that experience. “It was great,” he says. “In some ways, the series was our answer to a lot of people’s questions about whether there’d be a part two. I always wanted to do that, but it’s a matter of waiting until the stars align and everyone’s in the right place. It might be too late for that now, but it was very cool to be able to do the animated series, to bring all the old people back together, to bring the characters to
life again in a different way, and to be able to see all the incredible stuff the animators brought to the table. I was really bummed that we only got one season, and I guess there’s still a chance we might be able to do more, but it was a great experience.” This week, Heder is in Sydney for the Supanova convention, meeting fans and talking all things Napoleon, Blades and beyond. Though conventions are a relatively new prospect for him, he is still excited. “I haven’t done many things like this, to be honest,” he says. “I just started going to things like this last August, and I’ve done a few since. They’re a lot of fun. It’s a great way to connect with fans. I’m not that good with social media – I’m not into Twitter or Facebook, so I like doing conventions, because they feel very old-fashioned. They take you back to the days of fan clubs, and they offer you a great way to talk with the fans one-on-one. You connect with people, and they’re usually really cool and you have a great conversation. I love it, it’s great, and it’s definitely fun because it’s something way out of the ordinary, it’s not something I’d get to do on a normal day.” What: Supanova Pop Culture Expo 2014 With: Stan Lee, Nikolaj CosterWaldau, Ming-Na Wen, Rose McGowan and more Where: Sydney Showground, Olympic Park When: Friday June 13 – Sunday June 15
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Personally, Heder most enjoys seeing the movie’s appeal extend across generations. “I talk to people who didn’t have kids when it came out,” he says, “or whose kids were too young, and they now say that
they’ve been able to show it to their kids, that they watch it together. I think that’s really great.”
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First Aid Kit Silver And Gold By Rhys McRae
I
f you were asked about your ideas on Sweden’s folk music scene you’d probably conjure images of some guy in tiny green overalls blasting notes through a giant horn. Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg, who make up First Aid Kit, defy this idea with bittersweet, Americana-tinged folk that could easily have come out of the dustbowls of Texas. Since 2008 they’ve been riding the wave that brought folk music back to the attention of the masses and are currently in the midst of touring their new album, Stay Gold. Talking on the phone from Arizona, Klara is philosophical about the rise of folk in recent years but argues that the genre never really went away. “A lot of the music that’s now popular is stuff like house music. It’s music that doesn’t really have anything to do with the human voice,” Söderberg says in her adopted American twang. “It’s music to move your feet, not your heart, really. I think people long for something more simple. It’s a longing for the human voice. It’s also just the kind of music that’s always around because it’s so simple; it’s a timeless genre. People just sing about their lives and what they’re going through.” If you’ve been listening to the radio recently, chances are pretty high you’ve run into First Aid Kit’s song ‘My Silver Lining’. Its introductory violin line makes it instantly recognisable, and as the opener for their third album, immediately sets the scene for the yearning tone that carries through the release. In the first verse Klara sings of wanting to be taken to a place where there’s music and laughter to forget her search for the answers to life’s big questions. “Take me to some place where I don’t have to think and just sort of be, which is such a hard thing to do, to just kind of enjoy,” she
says. “That’s a thing that’s also been a theme with Stay Gold – how you can’t really appreciate everything that’s going on. You sort of look back at things and think, ‘I was happy then.’ It’s a strange thing.” The booming popularity of ‘My Silver Lining’ probably has much to do with these universal themes. “I was sitting in Johanna’s apartment last year,” Söderberg explains. “I was just sitting there in the living room and just started playing that first verse, and I started singing those first lyrics to the song and just kept going for a long time. I was wise enough to record it on my phone. We had to pick out lyrics from there and that’s how it started.” This July will be the third time the sisters have come to our shores, with the last tour in 2012 taking in the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne’s Forum Theatre. Söderberg is humble about the band’s popularity in such a distant land, and she isn’t shy about admitting her thrill at selling out shows here. “[The 2012 shows] were amazing, they were incredible. Right now the one thing I’m thinking of is that we got to hang out with some kangaroos. That was cool, but also playing the shows. We always felt like we’ve got a lot of love from Australia, which is amazing. “I remember when we played our first shows in Australia, they were these huge, sold-out shows; it was crazy. We’d never been there before and it’s very, very far away. And there’s people that want to come to our show, it’s a cool thing. It’s a cool thing that anyone wants to come to our shows, ever.”
Aside from performing at the 2014 edition of Splendour In The Grass, the sisters will be playing at somewhat smaller venues this time, with a Sydney sideshow booked at the Metro Theatre. Folk and country are intimate types of music that are best enjoyed in smaller rooms where the singer doesn’t need to scream their stories. “We’re probably going to come back later on and perhaps do something bigger,” says Söderberg, “but [it’s] also because we really enjoy playing
smaller venues. We like the intimate feel, and you can look at everyone in the audience. “It’s just when you’re playing an intimate song and singing lyrics that mean a lot to you, or are emotional, you can see someone in the audience and they’re singing along too. Looking into someone’s eyes is a really powerful thing. When you’re in a bigger room and you can’t see anyone it’s a different feeling. You can’t really have a connection in that same way.”
What: Stay Gold out now through Columbia/Sony With: Marlon Williams Where: Metro Theatre When: Tuesday July 29 And: Also appearing alongside Outkast, Two Door Cinema Club, Lily Allen, Interpol, Foster The People and many more at Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands, Friday July 25 – Sunday July 27
Supersuckers Spaghetti For Breakfast By Rod Whitfield
E
ddie Spaghetti, frontman, bassist and founding member of legendary American punk/ rock/country outfit Supersuckers, believes the band has toured Australia up to four times over the course of its illustrious 25-year history, but the first memory that comes to mind of previous trips is a rather unfortunate one. “We had a run-in with a cyclist one time we were there,” he recalls. “We were in Melbourne, and there was some sort of cycling event going on. This guy came rolling up on a tenspeed bike, somebody opened the door on the driver’s side and BOOM! The guy just went fuckin’ flying man; it was awful. He wasn’t OK. I think he broke his arm. We’ll have to look him up when we come back, check out his well-being.” The band is returning to Australia this month, and despite the cyclist incident being a less than pleasant memory, Spaghetti is looking forward to touring Down Under again. “We love getting to go down there, it’s a rare treat,” he says. He holds nothing back when asked what Aussie punters can expect. “You’ll get a full-on, non-stop, knock ’em down, drag ’em out, rock’n’roll party in the streets,” he says gleefully. “You better wear your clean underwear, ’cause we’re gonna rock your pants right off you!”
“We actually do a pretty good job,” he
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Despite all the full-on, non-stop shows they’ve played around the world, Spaghetti says it doesn’t at all feel like his band has been around for a quarter of a century. “I can’t even believe that’s true. When you do the math it’s hard to believe that it adds up like that. It just sounds like so long.” One main reason for his incredulity about the band’s duration is that he prefers to look toward Supersucker’s future, rather than reflect on the band’s long and decorated history. “I don’t spend a lot of time looking at the past,” he says. “It’s nice to look back and see the legacy of quality rock’n’roll music we’ve put out over the years, but other than that, there’s not much reason to look back. There’s not a lot of gloating to be done on my behalf – I’m always looking for something better around the corner.” Supersuckers have always been a band that keeps on keeping on, living up to that old saying, ‘slow and steady wins the race’, rather than being one that burns brightly for a few years until eventually fizzing out. “We’re kinda like a shark, we have to keep swimming to survive,” Spaghetti says. “I just feel the lack of real big success keeps us hungry enough to keep on trying. We’re like that slow desert tortoise that’s always gonna be around.” What: Get The Hell out now on Acetate Records Where: Hermann’s Bar When: Friday June 20
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Since their earliest incarnation back in the late ’80s, Supersuckers have released more than ten studio albums, but as Spaghetti explains, the band tries its best to cover as much of its back catalogue as it can in the current live set – although he finds it impossible to please every fan.
says. “We play at least a song or two from each record. I would say it’s a real crowd-pleasing set. I would think the crowds come to a Supersuckers show and they leave awfully pleased.”
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The Bronx Seeing Double By Lachlan Kanoniuk on its own terms. “I remember when we were doing our second record,” says Caughthran. “It was our first-time brush with major label publishing and all that shit, and we get this call from Burger King asking us to write a song for these chicken fingers, saying they’ll have us in masks so nobody will know that it’s us, playing amongst skateboarders and moshpits and all that. We were in the process of doing the second Bronx record, and it was a fucking lot of money for some broke dudes, like 80 thousand [dollars] or something like that. Which is a fuckin’ good chunk of change for some scrappy dudes like us – it would have helped out a lot. We had this B-side that wasn’t gonna make the record so we entertained it for a bit, laughing our asses off writing these lyrics about chicken. We recorded a demo of this Bronx song with these fuckin’ chicken lyrics. Then we just said, ‘Fuck it, this is wrong, there’s no way.’
S
itting behind a desk at his home in Huntington Beach, California, the lead singer of LA punks The Bronx, Matt Caughthran, is “working on a few Bronx songs” for a secret project – “It’s gonna be about four to fi ve new tunes, that’s all I can tell you.” It’s a promising sign, hinting at a swift follow-up to the fourth self-titled Bronx album, released last year. Returning his band to Australia in punk guise, as opposed to its Mariachi El Bronx format (which itself has released two records), beach-hardy Caughthran is set on bringing the heat to the
“I guess the biggest fear for me is when people stop showing up,” he says, in spite of the band’s enduring popularity. “To this day, we could do a street somewhere we all grew up in, in a fuckin’ hundred capacity club, and have all of our friends and the entire world say that they’ll be there [and] there’ll still be a point where I think, ‘What if nobody shows up?’
tunes ’til the day I die, regardless. But there’s always that thing – it’s not necessarily relevance, but music is such a great community, a source of humanity, I would be pretty bummed to miss that … Shows mean a lot to me, I love meeting people and sharing music with people. I don’t want that to ever stop. I could sit here and make music in the studio and put it out and be happy, but I wouldn’t really be happy. I don’t want to be just a studio musician.”
“Now we’ve fi gured out how to exist as musicians, I’ll be cranking out
Since The Bronx’s inception, the band has managed to do things
Antipodean winter – as long as the crowds come along.
“Our manager was like, ‘Hey, if you do this, it’ll be aired a few times, you’ll get paid, nobody will ever know it was you guys.’ It was funny, they got another band to do it, it aired for two weeks, then Slipknot sued because the masks were a character likeness, and they pulled the commercial off the air. That was our first experience with stuff like that. But from day one, if it feels like a scam or compromise in what we wanna be or what we wanna do, we don’t do it. Everything we do in this band is because we wanna do it. If we do a corporate gig as El Bronx for a tequila company, or Bronx doing rum shows, everything we do feels right for us. We go by our own meter; we’ve said ‘yes’ to some things, we’ve said ‘no’ to some things.” With Mariachi El Bronx establishing themselves as a formidable touring force in their own right, Caughthran explains that entering the dichotomous headspace of the two acts has become easier over time. “It was
“Music is such a great community, a source of humanity, I would be pretty bummed to miss that ... I don’t want that to ever stop.” really hard for a while. I was struggling with it for a good two years, where it was hard for me to get comfortable because the balance between the two was so jagged. It was hard to get grounded creatively. After this third El Bronx record that we’ve just finished up, I feel a lot better. I’m in a really good spot between the two bands in terms of mentality; writing between the two, I’m in a good spot. The trick is, as with a lot of creative stuff, you don’t try to fight it.” After revealing Mariachi El Bronx III will be out this September, Caughthran promises there will be more in the way of Bronx material on the horizon. “We’re moving at a pretty quick pace these days; we’re looking at some cool ideas floating around for Bronx right now, something cool and a little bit different for our next release. So we shall see. As far as music in general – whether it’s gonna be an EP, album, double album, a fuckin’ quadruple live LaserDisc – whatever it’s gonna be, it’s gonna be something. We’re flowing right now; we’re in a spot where making music doesn’t feel like a job. We’re cracking out tunes for the hell of it, and it feels good.” What: The Bronx (IV) out now through Hobbledehoy/MGM With: High Tension, Born Lion Where: Metro Theatre When: Friday June 20
Peabody 20 Candles By Augustus Welby while to fi nd their feet creatively and that’s just what happened with us.”
catalogue isn’t overwhelmingly voluminous, but some tunes escape easy recollection.
A turning point came in 2002 when Peabody was introduced to Jamie Hutchings of Bluebottle Kiss, who went on to produce the group’s first three albums.
“Weirdly, for ‘Got You On My Radar’, one of the reasons we haven’t played that for so long is I simply forgot how to play it,” Brayovic admits. “We’d lost the piece of paper with the tuning on it and I just couldn’t remember the chord shapes. Then I was cleaning up my computer and all of a sudden I came across a tab that I had made for a guitar player magazine in 2005. So there it was in front of me – how to play the song again.”
“That was the first time we really had some external infl uence from someone who knew what they were doing. He scaffolded us a little bit, if you will, and then we were much more confi dent by the time The New Violence came about.” Indeed, 2005’s The New Violence still conveys teeth-baring indie rock fl air today. It’s no surprise Brayovic feels particular affection for this period. “We’d released two albums that were pretty well received and had got a lot of airplay,” he recalls. “Every second week we were out of Sydney, we were going all over Australia. It was just fun – the three of us in a van for at least a couple of years. We were playing festivals, we were getting good supports, all that sort of thing.”
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“I remember saying to Ben when we were still in high school, ‘There’s no way I’m going to be doing this when I’m 30,’” Brayovic says. “30 was just so old when we were 18.” During Peabody’s 20 years, Brayovic and Chamie have never been hell bent on attaining superstardom. Instead, the focus
has been making music they could confi dently stand behind. As a result, the band was almost ten years old when its debut LP Professional Againster came out. “I guess we weren’t in a hurry in those days and we were happy playing gigs, and we recorded a couple of EPs,” Brayovic says. “Sometimes people take a little
Peabody’s 20th anniversary show is set to provide a comprehensive career retrospective. Former drummer Graeme Trewin is even coming back to perform tracks from the first two LPs. Since Trewin’s departure in 2007 there have been two more Peabody albums, both featuring drummer Jared Harrison and guitarist Tristan Courtney-Prior. The band’s
“We’re not going to let things like everyday life get in the way of us doing this, because then you start to wonder, ‘Well, why were we doing it in the first place?’ It wasn’t so we could make a living. It was because it’s the best feeling in the world to rock out with your friends. And it still is. I can’t wait until I strap on a guitar and play music with three of my best friends.” xxx
his weekend, Sydney indie rockers Peabody take over Erskineville’s The Roller Den to celebrate their 20th anniversary. Aside from a few lineup changes, it’s been 20 years with no interruptions and no major controversies. This milestone far surpasses the goals that vocalist/guitarist Bruno Brayovic and songwriter/bassist Ben Chamie had at the band’s inception.
Brayovic and Chamie have actually held down day jobs throughout Peabody’s 20-year run. Not cracking into the big time might be disappointing from a fi nancial point of view, but it means that Peabody still offer their core members an invigorating redemption from the conventional world.
With: Further, Spod Where: The Roller Den When: Friday June 13
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Earth Around The World By Rod Whitfield
“T
he weather in Melbourne was crazy!”
A quarter of a century into their career, Washington-based heavy/drone band Earth are visiting Australia for just the second time, with their first tour being only a year and a half or so ago. Main man Dylan Carlson’s first thought when asked if he had any standout memories of the 2012 trip was that of the southern city’s changeable climate. However, a few other memorable and important things did happen on that debut jaunt. “It was really hard to dress for, I think everyone thinks that Australia is always going to be sunny and warm,” he laughs. “And then there were lots of airports because you have to fly everywhere. But then we saw some old Australian cars, which were good to see. And actually, one of the new songs on the latest record was written in Perth, so that was important. We had a really good time on that tour.” Carlson and the band return to our shores this month, and he promises a show that emphasises the doomy dredginess of Earth’s sound even more than their records do. “I think, unlike a lot of bands, where they play faster live, sometimes our songs sort of slow down a bit live,” he says. “And then they’re usually a little longer than the album version. We’re touring as a trio again, a power trio. It gives us a little more room to step out.” Following Earth’s 2012 release, Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light II, they’re preparing to unleash Primitive And Deadly in the second half of this year. Carlson gives us a taste of what to expect. “The new album is definitely more hard rock than the previous albums have been,” he says. “It’s somewhat of a return to form, I guess, in a lot of ways. It had some vocals, which will not be with us live unfortunately, so it’ll be all instrumental versions.”
Carlson adds that despite Earth now having a very extensive back catalogue, they’ll be focusing strongly on the latest material on their upcoming Aussie tour. “The bulk of the live set will be the new record,” he says. “We only do a couple of older songs; we’ll just pull out a few jams from the past.” Carlson founded Earth in 1989, and actually seems a little in denial about how long the band has been around. “I guess it is 25 years now,” he says. “I don’t really think about that too much! It’s kinda funny, because back in the old days if a band had been around for that long it seemed… like, the only bands that lasted that long were Zeppelin, and even they only lasted ten or 12 years, so it’s kinda funny now!” Carlson prefers to look forward than back, and is enjoying keeping busy creating the next Earth record. “Yeah, definitely. It kinda comes in waves, depending on what I’m doing at the time. If I have a lot of downtime I write a lot more, although we always seem to come up with stuff during soundchecks too, and practice. There’s always something going on.” Carlson also likes to stay very active in the live scene, both with the band and without, and the rest of 2014 is looking very hectic for him, with a Japanese tour underway before the Aussie tour, UK and Europe afterwards. Plus possibly more… “Yeah, we have a short break in July,” he says, “although it looks like I might be doing a solo thing, opening for Wolves [In The Throne Room] in the States. We’ll see if that happens. If not, I’ll have July off – I need it!” With: We Lost The Sea, Dead China Doll Where: Manning Bar When: Thursday June 19
Straight Arrows Out For Revenge By Adam Norris
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hen I speak with Owen Penglis from Straight Arrows, he is not, contrary to speculation between myself and their publicist, sitting in a tree with a bottle of tequila. Nor is he riding a horse through a hotel window, our second option. Instead he is reading a book while quietly sipping a cup of tea. It’s quite nice, he assures me, and for a moment I wonder if I have the right Owen. Then again, they are on the verge of their second album release. Maybe the band has mellowed with age? Penglis laughs. “No way. In the beginning, I was kind of just going around being a fuckwit at that point of my life. I got kicked out of a few bands, one of my housemates moved out, I was a mechanic and my work shut down. So I just thought, ‘Fuck it, might as well try and write some songs.’ I borrowed a four-track cassette recorder off a friend, and after a couple of months, when I had a song that I wasn’t embarrassed to show to people, I called up my friend Al [Grigg] and asked him if he wanted to be in this band that was going to be revenge for getting kicked out of all these other bands.” His motivations seem simple enough. In short order the revenge band was formed including, most impressively, a drummer who at the time didn’t actually know how to play drums. “We were just making it up as we went along. I never would have imagined we’d reach a point of recording a second album, let alone a first. Our main goal at the start was to release a seven-inch, and that’s it. I mean, we were all really shitty players as well. I was absolutely no guitarist, the drummer had only just learned to play, Angie [Bermuda] hadn’t played much bass before and Al had played guitar, but never like this. We were just beating the shit out of things.
It was really just a chance to hang out, have some fun, maybe get some free drinks out of it. Figure the rest out on the way.” As plans go, it has worked remarkably well for the band. From playing backyard gigs and small-scale venues, Straight Arrows have since been invited to perform at the Sydney Opera House and Town Hall. The story behind their first gig at the Newtown Hotel, however, is as colourful as they come. “Ha! The Newtown Hotel. It was this really nasty gay bar, with this upstairs area where dudes would go to hook up. There were all these booths up there, stuff like that. But this friend of ours organised a show there, and she was into girls, and they were all like, ‘You have to be gay to hire this venue,’ and she was all, ‘Yeah, I love muff,’ so they were cool about it. It was really loose up there, it was cool. I guess it’s shut down now so it doesn’t matter, but back then any ages could get up there. You’d have all these 15, 16-year-olds up there; people were bringing their bongs and stuff.” After playing some of the most prominent venues in Sydney, are the days of house parties and warehouse gigs over? “Fuck no! We play parties whenever we can; they’re the best kind of shows. Everyone’s there to have a good time, everyone’s loose, you can bring your own booze so you don’t leave broke. We love it. Hit us up!” What: Rising out Friday June 13 through Rice Is Nice With: TV Colours, Spirit Valley Where: Newtown Social Club When: Saturday June 14
My Friend The Chocolate Cake Old Worlds And New By Daniel Conaghan
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elbourne folk rockers My Friend The Chocolate Cake have had an impressive career, with seven albums spanning 25 years. Cellist Helen Mountfort has been with the band since its beginnings, and seemed destined for a career in music from an early age.
My Friend The Chocolate Cake photo by Pierre Baroni
“Apparently my dad took me to a concert when I was three and I heard the cello and said, ‘That’s what I’m gonna do.’ And I was completely obsessive about it as a child, in a probably quite unhealthy way. So it was definitely all I was ever going to do,” Mountfort says. “I grew up just playing classical music but then I found other music in my late teens and knew it was what I wanted to do. And I’ve had the pleasure of using a traditional classical instrument in a non-classical way and it’s been fantastic, [I’ve] loved it.” Cake were born after the disbanding of ’80s rockers Not Drowning, Waving. That band contained future members of Cake, including the founding members Mountfort and David Bridie. Mountfort notes several reasons for the break up of the earlier group. “I think a big factor was that thebrag.com
we were having more band meetings than rehearsals, and when that starts to happen you’re in trouble. Because it means there’s too much stuff, other than the music, taking priority, and I think at the end of the day that was probably it. “But [Not Drowning, Waving] really was a big band, had a big sound, a lot of instruments, a lot of production, so it was never a band that was easy to tour or cheap to tour. It’s really hard to keep a band like that surviving in Australia with not a lot of places to play or huge audiences.” Cake have played in a wide variety of venues, but the one that stands out most is clear to Mountfort. “The Spiegeltent has been the most important venue for us. They’re 1930s Belgian dancehall tents, tents that have got solid wooden floors. They’re quite a solid structure; they take days to put up. But they tour them all around the world. We first played Spiegeltent at the Edinburgh Festival, so they’re like little magic worlds. You go into a tent but there’s chandeliers and glam inside, stained glass. “It’s kind of weird though, because we played in the Spiegeltent in Edinburgh and then we’d walk
outside and there’s the castle and the whole of Edinburgh. Then two weeks later we played it in Melbourne, and it’s exactly the same inside, but it’s a different city outside. It’s been quite an important part of our career. There’s about six of them that tour the world and they hold about 300 or 400 people, and they’re incredible – they have such a sense of history in them, just to think about the people that would have been in them, performing in them back in the ’30s. They’re very glamorous with an oldworld feeling, which really suits Cake.” With a career as long as they’ve had, Cake have seen a large evolution in technology, and they’ve embraced it. “It’s been kind of fun – we put out our very first album in ’89, which was on CD, not vinyl, which was kind of a transition point, and I didn’t even have a CD player at the time. They were a pretty new thing, so that’s how long we’ve been around. Now people are mostly downloading stuff. We use Facebook all the time; we have a really active Facebook page. It’s an incredibly handy way of keeping in touch with fans.” Where: The Basement When: Sunday June 15
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arts frontline
free stuff
arts news...what's goin' on around town...with Amie Mulhearn and Chris Martin
head to: thebrag.com/freeshit
five minutes WITH
BRUNO CHARLESWORTH, PRODUCER OF GOOD VIBRATIONS Steven Soderbergh, including the Oceans Eleven trilogy.
Good Vibrations
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AFTA-nominated indie film Good Vibrations tells the story of Belfast music legend Terri Hooley, but Australian producer Bruno Charlesworth offers a local link. We caught up with Charlesworth to learn all about it.
What was the punk scene like in Belfast at the time, and how is it represented in the film? From what I know there were a lot
What input did the real-life Terry Hooley have into the film? Terri Hooley is an amazing character in real life and very generous to let us take his life and make a film. Although it is largely based on his stories (some of which may not be entirely true!), we didn’t let the truth get in the way of a good story. What: Good Vibrations (dir. Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn) When: In cinemas Thursday June 12
RONNY CHIENG
After slaying the crowds at Sydney Comedy Festival this year – actually, he’s been slaying them around the globe for a couple of years now – Ronny Chieng has announced encore shows at the Enmore Theatre. Chieng’s comic persona draws on his real-life education in law, and why that makes him such a good arguer – though his parents’ reactions to his new choice of career are mixed. This year he won the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s prestigious Directors’ Choice Award, as well as the Best Of The Fest (Local) Award in Sydney. Chieng brings his Chieng Reaction back to town for two shows on Saturday June 28, and we’ve got five double passes to give away to the late slot. For your chance to score one, head to thebrag.com/freeshit and tell us what career your parents always hoped you’d choose.
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How did you come to be involved with Good Vibrations,
the BBC and Andrew Eaton? Funnily enough I met David Holmes, the composer and one of the major driving forces of the film, through a mutual friend in Paris. It was one of those strange connections that started by total chance. I knew David’s work as a recording artist and composer of a bunch of films for
What can you tell us about the film’s background and its story? The film is set in Belfast and as you know is based on a true story of Terri Hooley and his record store at the end of the ’70s. I knew most of the songs in the film and certainly The Undertones loom large in my memories of the time. The fact that such an iconoclast as Terri Hooley could approach the insanity of the time in Northern Ireland with such optimism and a conviction that music could form a bridge and take kids away from the mania and lunacy of the religious/cultural divide hooked me straight into the story.
of similarities in the sweaty music bars around the world no matter where you were. It reminded me of the Crystal Ballroom days (in Melbourne) … The setting in Belfast makes that escape all the more important when every day is otherwise punctured with horror and chaos.
SAMUEL QUINTEROS
The new exhibition by painter Samuel Quinteros, entitled Wotan, erwache!, is opening on Wednesday June 25 at Galerie Pompom. The exhibit explores and responds to Richard Wagner’s cycle of operas, Der Ring Des Nibelungen. Creating an eerie aesthetic of pastel colours and textured layers with oil on canvas, Quinteros takes a playful approach to depicting epic classical scenes with a modern twist. Having graduated from COFA with honours, this is the next step for the young artist as he undertakes a residency with Curwoods Lawyers.
Red Bull Flying Bach
LIGHT AND SHADOW AT VERGE
Hugo Weaving in Macbeth
MACBETH AT STC
Hugo Weaving will play the murderous Macbeth in the Sydney Theatre Company production opening next month. The celebrated Australian actor stars at the centre of an ensemble cast in Shakespeare’s famous play, alongside the likes of Melita Jurisic, Robert Menzies, John Gaden and Paula Arundell. The Sydney Theatre will be reoriented for the production, with the audience seated on the stage itself and the empty auditorium looming as a spooky backdrop. Kip Williams directs. Macbeth plays at the Sydney Theatre from Monday July 21 to Saturday September 27.
A group of established architects has teamed up with some young faces for Light And Shadow, an experiment in intergenerational creativity. The story begins with six Australian architecture students who were studying at the University of Sydney in 1960, and came together for an exhibition. Fast-forward 54 years and the same group of now-established architects is back together with a fresh crop of artists. The exhibition will explore the themes of light and shadow through a series of paintings, sculptures and mixed media works while also offering an insight into the generation gap. The exhibition starts up Wednesday June 11 through Friday June 27 at the University of Sydney’s Verge Gallery on City Road.
BLACKARTPROJECTS
Blackartprojects presents exhibitions by Ash Keating and Heidi Yardley this month. Natural System Response is the latest show for Keating, who employs a vast range of materials and techniques in an attempt to mimic some of the earth’s natural processes in visual art – like the laying of earthly pigments over glossy surfaces for a run-off effect. Meanwhile, Yardley’s Unfamiliar presents a series of drawings fused into collages, set to challenge audience
BACH-ING MAD
In 2013 it sold out shows in Sydney and Melbourne, and now Red Bull Flying Bach is returning to Australia for its first nationwide tour. Bringing together the worlds of classical music and urban dance, Red Bull Flying Bach sees the dance style of fourtime world champion breakdance crew Flying Steps fused with iconic compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. This may be the only place you will witness a piano, harpsichord and electronic beats together with head spins, power moves and ballet steps. Red Bull Flying Bach is showing at the State Theatre from Tuesday September 9 – Friday September 12.
perceptions of the nature of collage. The exhibitions continue until Saturday June 21 at Chalk Horse in Darlinghurst.
NIDA JUNE PRODUCTIONS
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Orphans, by Tony Award-winning playwright Dennis Kelly (who co-wrote Matilda with Tim Minchin), will come under the direction of Dan Graham at The Old 505 Theatre next month. The play challenges family ties when they’re put under the stresses of the urban contemporary landscape – a theme as applicable in Sydney, says Graham, as to its original setting. The production features Fiona Boidi, Thomas Unger and James Collette, and plays from Wednesday July 2 – Sunday July 20.
FROM THE LAND
From The Land is a celebration of the cultural richness that saturates this land thanks to indigenous Australians. Aboriginal spirituality is entrenched in every different landscape in this country, yet there is a one-ness in spirituality that is unique to the culture. Join the likes of Billy Stockman, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Gloria Petyarre, Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula and many more as they honour indigenous spirituality through a series of contemporary indigenous art. The show opens Wednesday June 25 and continues until Sunday July 13 at the Incinerator Art Space in Willoughby. thebrag.com
Kandahar Gate photo by Maja Baska © NIDA 2014
Jack Ellis and Xanthe Paige in Kandahar Gate
A series of teacher- and studentproduced plays will show at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) this month. One is the premiere on Tuesday June 17 of Kandahar Gate, directed by NIDA head of acting Jeff Janisheski. The play follows the experience of Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, taking an abstract approach to a politically charged subject matter. Written by Stephen Sewell, one of Australia’s most acclaimed playwrights, it looks at death, war and the feverish experience of soldiers today. Also on the NIDA schedule this month are The Greeks (Hecuba, Agamemnon, Electra), Much Ado About Nothing, In The Blood and The False Servant. For the full schedule, visit nida.edu.au.
DENNIS KELLY’S ORPHANS
Official Selection
Opening Night Film
Seville European Film Festival 2013
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2013
Audience Award Best Feature Film
Outstanding Debut Writer, Director or Producer
Belfast Film Festival
2014 BAFTA Nominee
Official Selection London International Film Festival 2013
Audience Award Best Irish Feature Galway Film Fleadh
“GOOD VIBRATIONS isn’t a ‘feel good’ film, it is a feel great’ film.” T H E H O L LY W O O D N E W S
“Magic... My Favourite Film of the Year.” MARK KERMODE, THE GUARDIAN
“Impassioned, Funny and Monumentally Likeable Myth-making.” TOM HUDDLESTON, TIME OUT
IN CINEMAS JUNE PALACE NORTON ST, VERONA
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GEORGE LAZENBY
ARTS FEATURE
The Other Fella By Chris Martin
George Lazenby as James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
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any people recognise him as ‘the Aussie James Bond’. Most people wouldn’t recognise him at all. George Lazenby, born in Goulburn, New South Wales, was the boy from the country who became – for a fl eeting moment – the biggest fi lm star in the world. The story goes that Lazenby, a male model and non-actor who would replace Sean Connery as 007 in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, was discovered by producer Albert Broccoli in a London barber shop and invited to audition for the role. “The Broccoli story was bullshit,” Lazenby says down the phone from his home in Santa Monica, California. At 74 years of age, he remains an enthusiastic character, and you get the feeling he’s used to holding a crowd – something he’s done time and time again since his sole appearance as Bond. “I’ll tell you how that happened – when I was up for Bond [already], I knew Kurt the barber where Broccoli went to, and Sean Connery went, to cut their hair. I had a French haircut – I had sideburns, I looked like a French guy ’cause I was modelling in France.” Hearing ahead of his
audition that Connery went to Kurt’s, Lazenby did the same, and though the producer was sitting in the shop at the time, they didn’t meet. “Apparently when I walked out, Broccoli said, ‘That guy would make a good Bond. He looks like a successful businessman’ – that was the line – and when Broccoli went back to Kurt after I got the job, he said, ‘You know that guy you said would make a good Bond – that’s the guy you got!’ And Broccoli said, ‘What?!’ And then they used that line, that I was discovered in a barber shop.” Bond fans’ obsession with the legend of Lazenby’s casting is no surprise – OHMSS is counted by devotees as one of the strongest fi lms in the entire 23-fi lm series, even if Lazenby was the first alternative to Connery’s legendary portrayals. In fact, perhaps the most celebrated line of Lazenby’s Bond is when, spurned by the customary Bond girl, he quips, “This never happened to the other fella.” “That was my line,” Lazenby explains. “When I was doing the stunts, hanging 3,000 feet off the ground on a wire or jumping out a
helicopter 20 feet off the ground, I said, ‘Bet you the other fella never had to do this.’” It’s true, he adds – Connery would call for a stunt double at the slightest hint of danger. OHMSS director Peter Hunt told Lazenby to repeat the line to camera and it made the cut, though it’s long been understood the pair had a poor working relationship. “I remember someone telling me,” says Lazenby, “someone said, ‘Peter, do you think he should be jumping out of the helicopter?’ Because every time someone else jumped out it would go up about fi ve feet, and I was the last one out. And [Hunt] said, ‘Geez, if we kill him, we get another shot!’” As a lad growing up in Goulburn and then Queanbeyan, near Canberra, Lazenby first saw Bond onscreen in 1962’s Dr. No, and immediately knew – like any other impressionable young man – that he’d love to be Bond in real life. However, he nearly didn’t make it through childhood at all. “I grew up as a sick child, I was only 18 months old and I was peeing backwards into my kidney – it took them 168 surgeries at St. Vincent’s Hospital to fi gure out that I was doing that … I grew up thinking I
wouldn’t be here very long. So it gave me a different attitude to life, I guess. Not too many people know that. I’ve only got half a kidney, would you believe?” It hardly suits the narrative of the playboy who supposedly fi t the character of Bond more for his lifestyle than his acting skills. And while he went against doctors’ orders not to drink – “I drank myself under the table for about 15 years,” he laughs – Lazenby wasn’t the ladies’ man legend perceives him to have been. “I was a bit rough and ready before Bond,” he says. “They refi ned me a lot.” Ultimately, Lazenby didn’t feel comfortable with the acting lifestyle either. “I’d never been an actor, never met an actor, and they took a liking to me. So they changed my accent, they changed my walk, they taught me how to act, I suppose – and then it was the hardest work I ever did in my life … I thought, ‘What the hell am I doing this for?’ I had much more fun before I was Bond,” he chuckles. These days, Lazenby spends his time on the golf course, and appearing occasionally on TV shows
like the US sitcom Legit. He’s writing an autobiography, which rumour says will be titled The Other Fella – “It could be called that, and it could be called something else” – and will visit Sydney as part of the Supanova convention this week. But the question that Bond fans always come back to is just how an untrained actor, raised in Australia and working as a model in Europe, convinced the filmmakers at audition that he was the man to play the world’s most famous secret agent. “I went and got a suit where Connery got his; I had a Rolex watch,” Lazenby says. “I walked in and leant against the wall and I looked at the casting director, and he looked back at me and said, ‘Who are you?’ And I said, ‘I heard you were looking for James Bond.’” What: Supanova Pop Culture Expo 2014 With: Stan Lee, Nikolaj CosterWaldau, Jon Heder, Ming-Na Wen, Rose McGowan and more Where: Sydney Showground, Olympic Park When: Friday June 13 – Sunday June 15
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usic has the power to unite generations. This was perhaps no truer than the Belfast music scene under the influence of Terri Hooley in the 1970s. Hooley’s record shop, Good Vibrations, became a label and a way of life – responsible for bands like The Undertones, Rudi, The Outcasts and more, all against the violent backdrop of the Troubles. Because while others made their points with guns and bombs, Hooley’s revolutionary statement came out of the grooves of a seven-inch single.
The BAFTA-nominated indie flick Good Vibrations charts Hooley’s story, and explores how a humble son of a radical socialist father gave rise to the Irish alternative music scene of the ’70s. The film stars Game Of Thrones’ Richard Dormer under the direction of Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn, with a soundtrack by David Holmes (Out Of Sight and the Oceans 11 trilogy). It opens nationally on Thursday June 12. We’ve got ten in-season double passes to the national release of Good Vibrations. For your chance to win one, head to thebrag.com/freeshit and tell us which song you’d pick to soundtrack a revolution. 18 :: BRAG :: 566 :: 11:06:14
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S AY W EA IV G
GOOD VIBRATIONS! TERRI HOOLEY! DOUBLE PASSES! WI
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Terry Molloy
M.Rock
[TELEVISION] Davros Unmasked By Tegan Jones
[THEATRE] Rebel Yell By Adam Norris
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n theatre circles, Lachlan Philpott is known as the “rebel playwright”, which is a pretty nice moniker even if it makes it sound like he beats up old ladies in the foyer for their pension cheques. He’s an outspoken supporter of writers’ rights in Australia, and has found enough critical success to be invited around the globe to showcase his work; on the heels of his latest play, M.Rock, he is off to San Francisco and then Scotland.
M.Rock’s Valerie Bader
Terry Molloy in Doctor Who
When asked whether he is empathetic to Davros, Molloy asserts, “You have to have compassion for a character you’re playing. People ask, ‘What’s it like playing an evil character?’ and I reply with, ‘Who’s to say what is evil?’
“The nature of planning and living as a playwright – or at least trying to – is that you have to pursue opportunities overseas,” he explains in what can only be described as an entertaining torrent of words. “Last year I had more work go on outside Australia than I did inside. It all sounds very glamorous, and while it’s exciting in one way it doesn’t come from wanting to be some international jet-setter. It’s not like you’re making enough money to be able to do anything while you’re in these places; you’re counting your money all the time. The excitement of travelling on a shoestring budget isn’t actually that exciting.”
“When you look at The Revelation Of The Daleks, Davros has solved the problem of starvation throughout the galaxy. Sure, they’re using dead bodies to feed them, but he can’t see the moral problem there.” He laughs. “The only problem he sees is the consumer resistance if people found out. Obviously there is the other side of it in that he is using some of the bodies to create Daleks in order to dominate the universe, so he slips there. “From his point of view, and I had to play it like that, it’s perfectly reasonable. He thinks, ‘What are you getting hung up about? What’s your problem? I’m doing good here. I’m called The Great Healer, not The Great Destroyer.’ So I always tried to play him so that people would have a little sympathy for Davros.”
As well Philpott should know, having spent a great amount of time in Berlin researching M.Rock. The play follows the journey of the elderly Mabel, who leaves the comforts of home to track down her missing granddaughter somewhere in the Berlin club scene. It is based, in part, on the surprise career of 74-year-old DJ Ruth Flowers. “I wanted to understand having an old woman who defi es expectations and does something really crazy onstage. I guess also it gave me an excuse to go to Berlin to do some ‘research’. I was curious about their club scene, which is kind of legendary, and like a lot of scenes that become that prominent, they become overly popular and lose their edge. And also because the Australian theatre industry, particularly in Sydney, seems to be obsessed with German culture and emulating that Berlin aesthetic. I wanted to fuck around with that, to not be quite so highbrow about that culture but try to play around with it.”
And what of his reputation? The rebel playwright? “It probably comes down to the fact there are a lot of playwrights thinking the same things but don’t have the courage to say it. That’s because we work in a very small system where if you speak up and say what you think, it can often mean that people feel challenged about working with you. It’s a shame and I’ll never understand it, because the role of the artist in many ways is to be a provocateur. Some artists can be really meek and we don’t do ourselves any favours when we come across as being gutless or passive within the industry, so I guess I’m often the person who stands up and says what they think. Afterwards I’ll have people say, ‘I’m glad you said that.’ Which is nice, but it makes you want to say back, ‘That’s great. I wish you’d stood there and said it, too.’” What: M.Rock Where: Wharf 2, Sydney Theatre Company When: Thursday June 12 – Saturday June 28
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everal actors have worn the mask of Davros in Doctor Who across the decades, but one of the most prolifi c is undoubtedly Terry Molloy. In addition to being the longest-serving creator of the Daleks, he also voiced the character during the iconic 2006 miniseries I, Davros, which explores his origin story. Molloy was given his chance in 1984 when he assumed the role of Davros opposite Peter Davison and the character who gave this writer her name, Tegan Jovanka. “Doctor Who started when I was 16 years old so I was at the key age of watching that program,” says Molloy. “I watched it through the Hartnell and Troughton years, but then I went off and started to do other things and started to lose touch with it. In fact, when they offered me the part of Davros I didn’t have a clue who the character was. So the director sat me down in front of Michael Wisher’s initial 1975 portrayal and said, ‘Look, this is it. Do you want to do it?’ and it was as simple as that.” Although the role has now been taken over by Julian Bleach, Molloy has no issues with passing the fi gurative mantle, particularly due to his multi-decade
Molloy says there are crucial similarities between the Doctor and Davros. “For me, the fascinating thing is the mental chess game, the psychological battle between the Doctor and Davros. They know that they’re intellectually equal and they both know they’re alone. They are the one of their kind. In fact, in one of the big fi nishes Davros admits to the Doctor that he is the closest thing that he has to a friend, which is an amazing thing to say, because they’re mortal enemies.” Despite the infamy of the role, Molloy has by no means been restricted to or typecast as Davros. In addition to playing Mike Tucker in BBC Radio 4’s The Archers since 1973, he is also a producer and a director. “I suppose I have a low threshold for boredom. I do something and think, ‘Well, that was good, now let’s do something else.’” What: Supanova Pop Culture Expo 2014 With: Stan Lee, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Jon Heder, Ming-Na Wen, Rose McGowan and more Where: Sydney Showground, Olympic Park When: Friday June 13 – Sunday June 15
M.Rock photo by Michele Aboud
In a curious break from theatre norms, the production features DJ Johnny Seymour onstage for its duration. Philpott’s original ambition was to stage the play at an actual nightclub, which strikes me as one of the most ingenious approaches to acquiring new theatre audiences that I’ve heard in some time. “The idea would have been to stage the play before the club really gets started, and then people can stay and dance. Everyone liked that idea, but logistically it was too difficult to do.”
portrayal. “I was the third person to play Davros and I’ve actually played him 17 times. Three times on television, once onstage and the rest on audio. So I think I’ve gotten a bit of a track record for him over the years. I probably know too much about the character now.”
Shadowland [PERFORMANCE] Light From Darkness By Adam Norris Shadowland
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Michael Tracy suggests, the end result is like something from a dream. Images combine to form unexpected, fleeting figures, while the story itself is carnival-like and strange. Suffice to say, it sounds like a hell of a show. “It’s a coming-of-age story of a girl who is leaving her family for the first time, a young
“After 40 years we’re still finding things the human body can do that we hadn’t thought of before. You’d think that there’s a finite number of positions that the body can go into and ways it can move, but the kinds of interactions between people, the meaning and the sense of it can be infinite. We have several rotations of cast just to keep people fresh and keep the performance alive. Each combination changes the story a little, so on a given night you can see quite a different story from the night before.”
The dreamlike description seems very appropriate. After all, when we are first exposed to shadow play in our lives it is usually on the verge of sleep, as a family member demonstrates how to fashion a bestiary of moving images on our bedroom walls. Pilobolus takes the idea further.
The blend of dance and shadow allows this strange magic to come to life, with the possibility of endless interpretation and revelation. After all, the best kind of legerdemain is when you are entertained and hoodwinked simultaneously.
“We’ve long been known for combining bodies into elusive imagery, things that might just as easily appear to be a tree or an animal as much as human beings onstage,” says Tracy. “But now with these projections, it’s pretty amazing to see 12 people roll onto the stage and form a shape that suddenly emerges as a giant elephant that carries on through the rest of the scene. Even though I’ve seen it a hundred times now, it’s still just as fun. And it’s demanding. You’d think things like this would be relatively simple, like a child’s game. But it’s hard work, and the dancers rehearse every day to make sure the shapes look good and can be understood.
“Shadows are an illusion made by the body, whereas dance is just the body itself. In combining them, you have an image that is quite believable that still somehow seems to shift before your eyes, the same effect you would get at a magic show … So that’s why we’ve included these shadows that tell this strange story, where the simplest movement between two or three people can tell a different kind of story with a different kind of power.” What: Shadowland Where: State Theatre When: Tuesday June 17 – Friday June 20 thebrag.com
Shadowland photo © Emmanuel Donny
C
hances are you’ve seen advertisements for Shadowland floating around the city for a while now. On the back of cabs and the walls of bus shelters, something that looks like a person… but not quite. Something both monstrous and intriguing. The production is a stunning collaboration between dancer and image, shadow and form, and as artistic director
person trying to find herself,” Tracy tells me, fitting for a man who was born in Florence, grew up in New England, and now directs dance company Pilobolus around the world. “And it’s told through techniques of shadows, these huge projections of 12 dancers behind a large screen. It doesn’t have text, but it still has a clear narrative that runs through the show, this story that is funny and scary and interesting. It’s kind of a fairytale, with a dreamlike quality that tells the story of this girl’s misadventures.”
Film Reviews Hits and misses on the silver screen around town
Nicole Kidman in Grace Of Monaco
Rous Mony and Sang Malen in Ruin
At Berkeley ■ Film
■ Film
AT BERKELEY
RUIN
Showing at Sydney Film Festival on Saturday June 14
Showing at Sydney Film Festival on Wednesday June 11
As befits the grand old man of the American documentary, Frederick Wiseman has two films at this year’s SFF: National Gallery, about London’s National Gallery, and At Berkeley, a bottom-down peek into the most venerable public university in the United States. The distinction between public and private is one of the film’s principal subjects, as administrators at the University of California, Berkeley struggle to maintain quality in the face of cuts to the state budget, and must fend off the likes off Yale and Harvard, who can offer faculty stars double the money.
Ruin, the new fi lm from Hail’s Amiel Courtin-Wilson and Michael Cody, is the most beautifully shot dirge you’ll see all year. Made in Cambodia with a minimal crew and not much of a script, it follows a prostitute on the run with a young factory worker. Before they meet, Sovanna (Sang Malen) gets beaten by her pimp, who then locks her in a toilet and tells her he’s going to cut off her hands when he returns. Instead, she electrocutes him and bolts. Meanwhile, Phirun (Rous Mony) has been fired from his job for fi ghting with a co-worker. Without dialogue for long stretches, the fi lm is elliptical on how they meet. Sovanna just seems to fall into step with Phirun, a surprising development given her perpetual, and justifi ed, fear of sexual violence.
Wiseman doesn’t conduct interviews, but takes us inside classrooms and board meetings as everything from the poetry of Thoreau to the racial politics of forming study groups is thrashed out. Hyper-articulateness is the norm, and Wiseman as both director and editor lets the discussions play out. After each scene he cuts away to sprinklers on the lawn, students riding their bikes to class, cement mixers laying cement and even, at one point, the moon. The comprehensive approach is often engaging, even inspiring, but inevitably uneven. We’re treated to a hockey game, some student am-dram, a library sit-in at which students protest university fee hikes, and the film succeeds in creating a mood, a reverie, if not a momentum. It’s formless, and, at four hours long, one starts to glaze over whenever we’re dropped into yet another meeting of the executive in which they lay out budgetary shortfalls. Finally, though, that’s the point, and Wiseman’s concern for the place and admiration for its custodians is evident. As one of the great public universities, Berkeley is a symbol of an America where social mobility is possible, an American cornerstone that increasingly looks like a fading dream. At Berkeley’s berth at the SFF couldn’t have come at a more apposite time.
And it’s the bouts of sexual violence that linger in the memory. Two such scenes are followed by bloody retribution. The last and most unpleasant features a pallid Englishman who makes Sovanna do star jumps and bark like a dog before he rapes her. Then she pounds his head in with a brick. Scenes like this are interspersed with impressionistic tableaus of Cambodian oases, and of our couple throwing moony looks at each other. The fi lm ends in a romantic idyll reminiscent of the one that closes Samson And Delilah, in which the brutalised fi nd solace in the land, and in one another. Beautiful-looking fi lms about degradation run the risk of jarring, especially when the fi lmmakers are tourists. But the problem with Ruin is not so much its polish as its strange combination of horror and dreamlike languorousness. Courtin-Wilson and Cody made it up as they went, responding to their surroundings, and it shows. Absolute freedom can lead to truth; more often it ends in cliché.
■ Film
disappointment after the success of Dahan’s 2007 Edith Piaf biopic, La Vie En Rose.
GRACE OF MONACO In cinemas now Grace Of Monaco, the latest film from French director Olivier Dahan, gives a fictional account of a period of crisis in the life of Grace Kelly. Dahan’s film has already been surrounded by a lot of controversy, with the Monacan royal family withdrawing their support (citing its historical inaccuracy) and Harvey Weinstein, the film’s US distributor, openly disputing Dahan’s final cut. Having now seen the finished project, it is safe to say that the surrounding controversy is much more exciting than the movie itself; a real
The film opens with Nicole Kidman’s Grace in a crisis of identity. Having left her career in Hollywood to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco, Grace is offered a role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie, and is left torn between her former life and her current responsibilities as wife, mother, and Princess of Monaco. Parallel to this runs the narrative of Monaco’s struggle against France, and specifically Charles de Gaulle, to retain its independence. Kidman and Tim Roth do their best as Grace and Rainier, but the cheesiness of the script is a sizeable
obstacle. The screenwriter clearly took pains to spell absolutely everything out to his audience, a particularly cringeworthy example of this coming with a character instructing Grace that she move to Monaco to “play the greatest role of her life”. We get it, guys. The costumes are lovely, as well as the scenery, but the whole film appears to have been shot using some kind of Instagram filter, which is a little distracting. By the end it is hard to care about either storyline, and the film finishes with an incredibly kitsch montage that throws in Allegri’s Miserere to try and seem profound, but just comes off as cheap instead. Louisa Bulley
Secret Sounds & Handsome Tours present
Harry Windsor
xxx
Harry Windsor
See www.thebrag.com for more arts reviews
Arts Exposed What's in our diary...
The Factory Riverside Theatre, Wednesday June 18 – Saturday June 21 Described as New The Factory Zealand’s first-ever Pacific musical, The Factory is coming our way to depict the story of the Samoan migrant experience. The Kila Kokunut Krew’s 14-strong cast is directed by Anapela Polataivao, and joined by a sevenpiece live band as they explore a young Samoan woman’s journey to NZ and beyond. It’s a critically acclaimed tale of the search for a better life – and one that’s close to home in more ways than one for Australian audiences. Expect a musical full of funk, romance and big dreams. Tickets start at $31, and are available from riversideparramatta.com.au. thebrag.com
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BRAG :: 566 :: 11:06:14 :: 21
BARS SMALL
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Assembly 488 Kent St, Sydney CBD (02) 9283 8808 Mon – Fri noon-midnight; Sat 5pm-midnight
Frankie’s Pizza 50 Hunter St, Sydney CBD Mon – Sun 4pm-4am
The Australian Heritage Hotel 100 Cumberland St, The Rocks (02) 9247 2229 Mon – Sun 10.30am-midnight
Gilt Lounge 49 Market St, Sydney CBD (02) 8262 0000 Tue – Wed 6pm-midnight; Thu & Sat 6pm-2am; Fri 5pm-2am
BAR100 100 George St, The Rocks (02) 8070 9311 Mon – Thu noon-late; Fri – Sat noon-3am; Sun noon-midnight Bar Eleven Lvl 11, 161 Sussex St, Sydney CBD (02) 9290 4712 Thu 4-10pm; Fri 4-11pm; Sat 3-11pm The Barber Shop 89 York St, Sydney CBD (02) 9299 9699 Mon – Fri 2pm-midnight; Sat 4pm-midnight The Baxter Inn Basement 152-156 Clarence St, Sydney CBD Mon – Sat 4pm-1am
Grandma’s Basement 275 Clarence St, Sydney CBD (02) 9264 3004 Mon – Fri 3pm-late; Sat 5pm-late The Fox Hole 68A Erskine St, Sydney CBD (02) 9279 4369 Tue – Fri 5pm-midnight The Grasshopper 1 Temperance Ln, Sydney CBD (02) 9947 9025 Mon – Wed & Sat 4pm-late; Thu – Fri noonlate The Lobo Plantation Basement Lot 1, 209 Clarence St, Sydney CBD 0415 554 908 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri 2pm-midnight; Sat 4pm-midnight
Ramblin’ Rascal Tavern 199 Elizabeth St, Sydney CBD Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4pm-10pm Rockpool Bar & Grill 66 Hunter St, Sydney CBD (02) 8078 1900 Mon – Sat lunch & dinner The Rook Level 7, 56-58 York St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 2505 Mon – Fri 4pm-late; Sat 4pm-late Shirt Bar 7 Sussex Ln, Sydney CBD (02) 8068 8222 Mon –Wed 8am-6pm; Thu – Fri 8am-10pm Since I Left You 338 Kent St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 4986 Mon – Wed 5pm-10pm; Thu – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat 6pm-midnight
Mojo Record Bar Basement 73 York St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 4999 Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 5pm-midnight
Small Bar 48 Erskine St, Sydney CBD (02) 9279 0782 Mon – Fri noon-midnight; Sat 5pm-midnight
Goodgod Small Club 53-55 Liverpool St, Sydney CBD (02) 8084 0587 Wed 5pm-1am; Thu 5pm-2am; Fri 5pm-5am; Sat 6pm-5am
The Morrison 225 George St, Sydney CBD (02) 9247 6744 Mon – Wed 7.30am-midnight; Thu 7.30-1am; Fri 7.302am; Sat 11.30-2am; Sun11.30am-10pm
The Spice Cellar Basement 58 Elizabeth St, Sydney CBD (02) 9223 5585 Mon – Sun 4pm-late
Grain Bar 199 George St, Sydney CBD (02) 9250 3118 Mon – Fri 4pm-1am; Sat noon-1am; Sun noonmidnight
Palmer & Co. Abercrombie Ln, Sydney CBD (02) 9240 3172 Mon – Wed 5pm-late; Thu – Fri noon-late; Sat – Sun 5pm-late
The Glenmore 96 Cumberland St, The Rocks (02) 9247 4794 Mon – Thu, Sun 11am-midnight; Fri – Sat 11am-1am
22 DARLINGHURST ROAD, POTTS POINT PH: 9035 8888 OPENING HOURS: 12PM - LATE DAILY
Stitch Bar 61 York St, Sydney CBD (02) 9279 0380 Mon –Wed 4pm-midnight; Thu – Fri noon-2am; Sat 4pm-2am
bar
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Spooning Goats 32 York St, Sydney CBD 0402 813 035 Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight
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Papa Gede’s Bar Laneway at the end of 348 Kent St, Sydney CBD Mon – Sat 5pm-12am
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Bar-racuda 105 Enmore Rd, Newtown (02) 9519 1121 Mon – Sat 6-midnight Blacksheep 256 King St, Newtown (02) 8033 3455 Mon – Fri 3pm-midnight; Sat midday-midnight; Sun midday-10pm Bloodwood 416 King St, Newtown (02) 9557 7699 Mon, Wed –Thu 5pm-late; Fri – Sat noon-late; Sun noon10pm Cornerstone Bar & Food 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh (02) 8571 9004 Sun – Wed 10am-5pm; Thu – Sat 10am-late Corridor 153A King St, Newtown 0422 873 879 Tue – Fri 3pm-midnight; Sat 1pm-midnight; Sun 1-10pm Cottage Bar & Kitchen 342 Darling St, Balmain (02) 8084 8185 Mon – Wed 5pm-midnight; Thu – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm Different Drummer 185 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9552 3406 Mon – Sat 4.30pm-late Earl’s Juke Joint 407 King St, Newtown Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4-10pm Freda’s 107-109 Regent St, Chippendale (02) 8971 7336 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri noon-midnight; Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4-10pm
Tell us about your bar. Located in trendy Potts Point, this beautifully handcrafted, New Orleansinfl uenced bar provides good oldfashioned American hospitality. Synonymous with style, sophistication and impeccable service, The Bourbon is one of the few remaining intimate live soul/funk music venues in Sydney. Every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights feature some of Australia’s hottest upcoming artists – an infusion of funk, soul and rock with a touch of Motown. Potts Point’s best kept secret. What’s on the menu? Highly recommend the signature Jambalaya – a spicy New Orleansinfl uenced risotto. Late-night supper menu ’til late. Care for a drink? From the Bourbon creation signature
22 :: BRAG :: 566 :: 11:06:14
list: Maple Rose Sour. Bulleit Bourbon infused with rosemary, fresh cloudy apple and lemon juices, with green chartreuse, maple syrup and chocolate bitters. Sounds? Live music: an infusion of funk, soul and rock. Highlights? The sexiest venue in the Cross featuring some of Australia’s best young talent. The BRAG readers receive a complimentary drink with any meal purchase. Contact venue for more details. The bill comes to: Cocktail jug specials from $30, signature steaks from $24. Website: thebourbon.com.au
The Green Room Lounge 156 Enmore Rd, Enmore (02) 8021 8451 Wed 5pm-late; Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 5pm-1am; Sun 5-10pm Hive Bar 93 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville (02) 9519 9911 Mon – Fri noonmidnight; Sat 10am-midnight; Sun 10am-10pm Kelly’s On King 285 King St, Newtown (02) 9565 2288 Mon – Fri 10am-3am; Sat 10am-4am; Sun 10am-midnight Kuleto’s 157 King St, Newtown (02) 9519 6369 Mon – Wed 4pm-late; Thu – Sat 4pm-3am; Sun 4pm-midnight
The Beresford 354 Bourke St, Surry Hills (02) 8313 5000 Mon – Sun noon-1am
Hello Sailor 96 Oxford St, Darlinghurst (02) 9332 2442 Tue – Sun 5pm-1am
Mary’s 6 Mary St, Newtown Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm
Black Penny 648 Bourke St, Redfern (02) 9319 5061 Tue – Sat noonmidnight; Sun noon11pm
The Midnight Special 44 Enmore Road, Newtown (02) 9516 2345 Mon – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 4-10pm
Button Bar 65 Foveaux St, Surry Hills (02) 9211 1544 Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight
Hinky Dinks 185 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst (02) 8084 6379 Mon – Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 3pm-midnight; Sun 1-10pm
Miss Peaches 201 Missenden Rd, Newtown (02) 9557 7280 Wed – Sun 5pm-midnight
Café Lounge 277 Goulburn St, Surry Hills (02) 9016 3951 Mon – Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sunday 4-10pm
The Little Guy 87 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9200 0000 Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 1pm-midnight; Sun 3-10pm
The Moose Newtown 530 King St, Newtown (02) 9557 0072 Wed – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 5-10pm Mr Falcon’s 92 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9029 6626 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sat noon-midnight; Sun 2-10pm Newtown Social Club 387 King St, Newtown (02) 9550 3974 Mon – Sat noonmidnight; Sun noon10pm The Oxford Tavern 1 New Canterbury Rd, Petersham (02) 8019 9351 Mon – Thu middaymidnight; Fri – Sat midday-3am; Sun midday-10pm The Record Crate 34 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9660 1075 Tue – Wed 11am-10pm; Thu – Fri 11am-midnight; Sat 10am-midnight; Sun 11am-10pm The Royal 156 Norton St, Leichhardt (02) 9569 2638 Mon – Thu 10am-1am; Fri – Sat 10am-3am; Sun 10am-midnight Timbah 375 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9571 7005 Tue – Thu 4-9pm; Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 2pm-midnight; Sun 2-8pm The Workers Lvl 1, 292 Darling St, Balmain (02) 9555 8410 Wed – Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 5pm-3am; Sun 2-10pm ZanziBar 323 King St, Newtown (02) 9519 1511 Mon – Thu 10am-4am; Fri 10am-6am; Sat 10am-5am; Sun 10am-12am
121BC 4/50 Holt St, Surry Hills (02) 9699 1582 Tue – Thu 5-11pm; Fri – Sat 5pm-midnight Absinthe Salon 87 Albion St, Surry Hills (02) 9211 6632 Wed – Sat 4-10pm Backroom 2A Roslyn St, Potts Point (02) 9361 5000 Bar H 80 Campbell St, Surry Hills (02) 9280 1980 Tue – Sat 6pm-late
The Carlisle 2 Kellett St, Kings Cross (02) 9331 0065 Thu – Sun 6pm-late The Carrington 565 Bourke St, Surry Hills (02) 9360 4714 Mon – Sun noonmidnight; Sun noon10pm Ching-a-Lings 1/133 Oxford St, Darlinghurst (02) 9360 3333 Tue – Wed 6pm-11pm; Thu 6pm-midnight; Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat 6pm-midnight; Sun 4pm-10pm The Cliff Dive 16-18 Oxford Square, Darlinghurst Wed – Sun 6pm-4am The Commons 32 Burton St, Darlinghurst (02) 9358 1487 Tue – Sun noon-late Darlo Bar 306 Liverpool St, Darlinghurst (02) 9331 3672 Mon – Sun 10am-midnight Darlie Laundromatic 304 Palmer St, Darlinghurst (02) 8095 0129 Wed – Sun 5-11pm Eau De Vie 229 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst 0422 263 226 Mon – Sat 6pm-1am; Sun 6pm-midnight The Flinders 63-65 Flinders St, Surry Hills (02) 9356 3622 Tue – Thu 5pm-3am; Fri – Sat 5pm-5am The Forresters 336 Riley St, Surry Hills (02) 9212 3035 Mon – Wed noonmidnight; Thu – Sat noon-1am; Sun noon10pm Foley Lane 371-373 Bourke St, Darlinghurst Mon, Wed – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat 10am-3pm & 5pm-midnight; Sun 10am-10pm Gazebo 2 Elizabeth Bay Rd, Elizabeth Bay (02) 9357 5333 Mon – Thu 3pm-midnight; Fri – Sun noon-midnight The Hazy Rose 1/83 Stanley St, Darlinghurst (02) 9357 5036 Tue 3-11pm; Wed – Sat 3pm-midnight; Sun 3-10pm
Hollywood Hotel 2 Foster St, Surry Hills (02) 9281 2765 Mon – Wed 10am-midnight; Thu – Sat 10am-3am Hustle & Flow Bar 105 Regent St, Redfern (02) 9310 5593 Tue – Sat 5pm-midnight Jekyll & Hyde 332 Victoria St, Darlinghurst (02) 9360 5568 Wed – Fri 4pm-late; Sat 8.30am-late; Sun 8.30am-evening Li’l Darlin Darlinghurst 235 Victoria St, Darlinghurst (02) 8084 6100 Mon – Sat 5pmmidnight Li’l Darlin Surry Hills 420 Elizabeth St, Surry Hills (02) 9698 5488 Mon – Thu noon-3pm & 5-11pm; Fri – Sun noon11pm Lo-Fi 2/383 Bourke St, Darlinghurst (02) 9318 1547 Wed – Sat 6pm-late The Local Tap House 122 Flinders St, Surry Hills (02) 9360 0088 Mon – Wed noon-2am; Thu – Sat noon-1am; Sun noon-11pm Love, Tilly Devine 91 Crown Ln, Darlinghurst (02) 9326 9297 Mon – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 4-10pm Low 302 302 Crown St, Surry Hills (02) 9368 1548 Tue – Sat 5pm-2am; Sun 6pm-2am Mr Fox 557 Crown St, Surry Hills 0414 691 811 Mon –Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun noon-10pm The Norfolk 305 Cleveland St, Surry Hills (02) 9699 3177 Mon – Wed noonmidnight; Thu – Sat noon-1am; Sun noon10pm The Passage 231A Victoria St, Darlinghurst (02) 9358 6116 Mon – Thu 5pm-late; Fri – Sun noon-late Play Bar 72 Campbell St, Surry Hills (02) 9280 0885 Wed – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 3-10pm Pocket Bar 13 Burton St, Darlinghurst (02) 9380 7002 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 4pm-1am; Sun 4pm-midnight
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Queenie’s Upstairs Forresters Cnr Foveaux and Riley St, Surry Hills (02) 9212 3035 Tue – Sat 6pm-late
COCKTAIL OF THE WEEK Pour it in your mouth-hole... (responsibly).
Roosevelt 32 Orwell St, Potts Point 0423 203 119 Tue – Sat 5pm-midnight Santa Barbara 1 Bayswater Rd, Kings Cross (02) 9357 7882 Wed 6pm-1am; Thu & Sat 6pm-2am; Fri noon2am Shady Pines Saloon Shop 4, 256 Crown St, Darlinghurst Mon – Sun 4pm-midnight The Soda Factory 16 Wentworth Ave, Surry Hills (02) 8096 9120 Mon – Wed 5pm-late; Thu 5pm-2am; Fri – Sat 5pm-5am Sweethearts Rooftop 33/37Darlinghurst Rd, Potts Point (02) 9368 7333 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sun noon-midnight Tio’s Cerveceria 4/14 Foster St, Surry Hills Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4-10pm Unicorn Cellar Basement, 106 Oxford St, Paddington (02) 9360 7994 Tue – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm Vasco 421 Cleveland St, Redfern 0406 775 436 Tue – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 5-10pm The Victoria Room Lvl 1, 235 Victoria St, Darlinghurst (02) 9357 4488 Tue – Fri 6pm-midnight; Sat noon-2am; Sun noon-midnight The Wild Rover 75 Campbell St, Surry Hills (02) 9280 2235 Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun noon-10pm The Winery 285A Crown St, Surry Hills (02) 9331 0833 Mon – Sun noonmidnight
Anchor Bar 8 Campbell Pde, Bondi (02) 8084 3145 Tue – Fri 4.30pm-late; Sat – Sun 12.30pm-late Bondi Hardware 39 Hall St, Bondi (02) 9365 7176 Mon – Wed 5-11pm; Thu 5pm-midnight; Sat 10am-midnight; Sun 10am-10pm The Bucket List Shop 1, Bondi Pavilion, Queen Elizabeth Drive (02) 9365 4122 Mon – Sun 11am-late
RICK JAMES @PAPA GEDE’S BAR LANEWAY, 348 KENT ST, SYDNEY Origins: Similar to a whisky sour but with a touch of fruit – we like to say that it’s super-smooth for scotch ‘superfreaks’. Geddit? It was created by owner Micky D to honour both lovers of scotch, apples and Dave Chappelle. Ingredients: Scotch, peach liqueur, freshly pressed apple juice, lemon juice, chai spice syrup, a teensy bit of egg white. Method: Add it all to the cocktail tin, shake vigorously to agitate those fluffy egg whites, double strain and serve straight up in a… Glass: Pewter goblet. Garnish: None needed. Best drunk with: A sense of humour, or someone who can do accents. During: A hilarious anecdote. While wearing: Some swag. Or anything that goes with a goblet. And listening to: ‘Super Freak’ (obviously) or any other funk/ soul classic. More: papagedes.com @papagedesbar
The Rum Diaries 288 Bondi Rd, Bondi (02) 9300 0440 Tue – Sat 6pm-midnight; Sun 6-10pm Speakeasy 83 Curlewis St, Bondi (02) 9130 2020 Mon – Fri 3pm-late; Sat – Sun noon-late Stuffed Beaver 271 Bondi Rd, Bondi (02) 9130 3002 Mon – Sat noonmidnight; Sun noon10pm
The Bay Jam Bar 2A Waters Rd, Neutral Bay 0407 454 0815 Tue – Fri 11am-midnight; Sat – Sun 7am-midnight Firefly 24 Young St, Neutral Bay (02) 9909 0193 Mon – Wed 5-10pm; Thu 4-11pm; Fri – Sat noon11pm; Sun noon-9.30pm The Foxtrot 28 Falcon St, Crows Nest Tue – Sat 5pm-3am; Sun 5-10pm
The Corner House 281 Bondi Rd, Bondi (02) 8020 6698 Tue – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 3-10pm
Harlem On Central Shop 4,9-15 Central Ave, Manly (02) 9976 6737 Tue – Sun 5pm-midnight
Flying Squirrel 249 Bondi Rd, Bondi (02) 9130 1033 Mon – Fri 6pm-late; Sat 4pm-late; Sun 4-10pm
Hemingway’s 48 North Steyne, Manly (02) 9976 3030 Mon – Sat 8am-midnight; Sun 8am-10pm
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Honey Rider 230 Military Rd, Neutral Bay (02) 9953 8880 Tue – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4-10pm In Situ 1/18 Sydney Rd, Manly (02) 9977 0669 Mon 9am-6pm; Wed – Sun 9am-midnight The Hunter 5 Myahgah Rd, Mosman Mon – Tue 5pm-midnight; Wed – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm
Miss Marley’s Tequila Bar 32 Belgrave St, Manly (02) 8065 4805 Mon – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 5-10pm Moonshine Lvl 2, Hotel Steyne, 75 The Corso, Manly (02) 9977 4977 Thu – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 3-11pm The Pickled Possum 254 Military Rd, Neutral Bay (02) 9909 2091 Thu – Sat 9pm-1am
Jah Ba Shop 7, 9-15 Central Ave, Manly (02) 9977 4449 Tue – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm
SoCal 1 Young St, Neutral Bay (02) 9904 5691 Mon – Tue 4pm-midnight: Wed – Thu midday-1am; Fri – Sat midday- 2am; Sun midday-midnight
The Local Bar 8 Young Ln, Neutral Bay (02) 9953 0027 Mon 5-10pm; Tue – Wed 8am-10pm; Thu – Sat 8am-midnight; Sun 8am-10pm
The Stoned Crow 39 Willoughby Rd, Crows Nest (02) 9439 5477 Mon – Sun noon-late
Manly Wine 8-13 South Steyne, Manly (02) 8966 9000 Mon – Sun 7am-late The Mayor 400 Military Rd, Cremorne (02) 8969 6060 Tue – Fri 10am-late; Sat 8am-late; Sun 8am-10pm
White Hart 19-21 Grosvenor St, Neutral Bay (02) 8021 2115 Tue – Thu 5pm-late; Fri 4pm-late; Sat 2pm-late; Sun noon-8pm
Your bar’s not here? Email: chris@thebrag. com!
BRAG :: 566 :: 11:06:14 :: 23
Album Reviews What's been crossing our ears this week...
ALBUM OF THE WEEK FISHING
Shy Glow Create/Control The first thing you think when you hear Fishing’s debut release Shy Glow is: ‘Why didn’t they release this in summer?’ Bouncy and energetically laidback, it’s the perfect soundtrack for an Australian summer, and that might be the biggest reason why it misses a lot of people’s ‘album of the year’ lists: its winter release. The second thing you’ll think is how good this duo has become since its first release in 2010. The time spent remixing, supporting, performing and being generally awesome all-rounders in the
Fishing aren’t trying to make a brand new sound, they’re just trying to make really good music, and they’re succeeding. From the cute and friendly opener ‘Recoup’ to the energetic bounce of ‘Swimmer’ and the invigorating and seductive ‘Choy Lin’, there is every hint of a band with great things to come. Daniel Prior
xxxx
Time and work are the keys to Xxxx success, and they’ve paid off well for Fishing.
music scene has clearly paid off. With a sly and charming sound, Fishing shake out the samples and mix them beautifully with synthesised sounds, creating almost instrumental-pop-dance music. The album is also fresh, which is a wonderful thing for a band to accomplish when most synth- and sample-based groups utilise the same beats and techniques over and over until the music becomes utterly dull.
KASABIAN
POPSTRANGERS
FIRST AID KIT
MINK MUSSEL CREEK
THE PANTS COLLECTIVE
48:13 Columbia/Sony
Fortuna Spunk
Stay Gold Columbia/Sony
Mink Mussel Manticore Spinning Top/ADA
The Pants Collective Create/Control
Sporting perhaps the least imaginative album title and cover ever, Kasabian’s fifth album serves up more of the electro-infused arena rock they’ve become known for. It’s a formula that’s showing signs of getting tired here, but a handful of tracks are as catchy as anything they’ve done this decade.
On their second album Fortuna, Popstrangers plot their movements according to the sounds of 1980s British indie pop, and actually do so with more conviction than any British band in recent memory. That indie pop movement looked past the prevalence of post-punk and took cues from ’60s girl groups and the smartsy New York underground. The New Zealand four-piece follows suit and makes the trip sound effortless.
Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg’s third album Stay Gold is vivid and masterful. They have continued to build their skill alongside layers of production with each record, and this one is lovely yet wistful in such a way that it never strays into saccharine territory.
Mink Mussel Creek are one of the most mythologised lost acts of recent Australian history. They were the immediate ancestor of Tame Impala and Pond, with a debut album, Mink Mussel Manticore, that never saw the light of day when they were together in 2007-08.
The Pants Collective is the solo product from Living End drummer Andy Strachan. His first foray into band leading is an accessible listen, but it rarely seems interested in pushing the envelope. This debut EP hews closely to the attitude and aesthetic scope of The Living End, but it doesn’t necessarily sound like the output of Strachan’s day job.
Single ‘My Silver Lining’ is mournful and rich, its string line recalling the warm desolation of a Morricone score. The title track blends the melancholy of insightful lyrics with a showcase of flawless harmonies, a theme continued in ‘Shattered & Hollow’. ‘Waitress Song’ subverts a classic pop adage with lyrics like “Girls they just want to have fun / And the rest of us hardly know who we are,” laid over cascading strings. ‘Fleeting One’ sees those strings bloom into even airier territory, but once again it’s the lyrics that keep it from floating away.
At last, the long-lost record is getting a digital and vinyl release. It features the joined forces of Kevin Parker (Tame Impala), Nick Allbrook (Tame Impala, Pond) and Joe Ryan (Pond), plus a few others. And as you can guess, it’s another triumph for psychedelic rock and the city of Perth.
‘Bumblebee’ is the kind of upbeat, chant-along rocker destined for prime airing in their festival setlist, while ‘Stevie’ is the highlight of the album, a brooding force that manages to get away with a chorus (“All the kids say, / ‘Live to fi ght another day’”) destined for use in a Hollywood blockbuster. Penultimate track ‘Bow’ is another stadium-filling anthem that plays to the band’s strengths, but outside of these three 48:13 is largely uninspiring. Lyrically, the album is dominated by the sort of vague arena rock platitudes about inequality and the wrongs of the world today that suggest a half-hearted aim to be a ‘serious band’. The worst offenders here are ‘Eez-eh’ and ‘Glass’, which closes with a lengthy and incongruous call to arms from spoken-word artist Suli Breaks.
Fortuna is a melodically eloquent sojourn through guitar pop, but there are leavening portions of dissonance and nervous tension. ‘Sandstorm’ starts off sensible and academic, only to widen into a paisley-shirted chorus. ‘Don’t Be Afraid’ confronts with a Swans-like guitar grunt before exhaling into a chord-ringing refrain. Lead single ‘Country Kills’ is as oddly angular as Morrissey’s jawline and features the apt chorus hook, “Oh my country will kill me now / Well, whatever”. Generally speaking, the record’s lyrical interests don’t jump out as prescient dissections of the zeitgeist. Instead, the vocals comfortably entwine with the roomy arrangements.
At ten tracks long, the album feels over a little too soon. Final song ‘A Long Time Ago’, echoing Simon & Garfunkel, is gorgeous, but not as stirring as The Lion’s Roar closer ‘King Of The World’.
On 48:13, Kasabian have bolstered their live setlist with a few genuinely good singles, but most of the rest of the album will quickly be forgotten.
Fortuna mightn’t be bold enough to inspire a movement of its own, but it is a well-studied exercise in reprisal – and a stimulating one at that.
Stay Gold is languid and somehow actually sounds drenched in dappled gold light, but the melancholy of the lyrics gives it depth and weight to keep it within reach.
Keiron Costello
Augustus Welby
Natalie Amat
It all starts with some downright explosive chords in the 13-and-ahalf-minute opener ‘They Dated Steadily’ before mellowing into more typical fuzzy riffs on the slow burner ‘Meeting Waterboy’. The seven tracks rarely dip below six minutes in length, leaving ample space for experimental jams, but with song titles as tongue-in-cheek as ‘Cat Love Power’ and ‘Makeout Party Girls’, it still feels very selfaware. Rest assured Mink Mussel Manticore is well worth the wait for long-time fans, with room for latecomers to join the shindig as well.
The seven-track release begins with the cartoon-like garage blues of ‘Secrets’, before getting more debauched (and less effective) on chunky rocker ‘It’s Gonna Be Fine’. It gets more interesting when Strachan shifts into gears he’s less familiar with. ‘You’ll Never Know’ dons a hazy ’90s pop-rock visage, while two-faced EP closer ‘Hometown’ evolves from a neo-reggae experiment into a pub rock anthem. Strachan’s voice is by no means laughable, but it’s not a striking feature. Accordingly, nothing of lingering curiosity is said during the set’s 24-minute run time. Nevertheless, Strachan does show promise as a songwriter. These songs would surely benefit from someone with pronounced on-record character revving them up. Similar to how films that don’t require particular patience or attention to detail are the most suitable for in-flight viewing, this is easy to digest, but it mightn’t have you raving to your friends at journey’s end.
Amie Mulhearn
INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK “I’m a fan of country music,” declared Mary Gauthier at a gig in Melbourne some years ago, “before they fucked it all up.” Gauthier’s assessment of the quality of country music genre was as astute as it was profane: there’s good country, and shit country, and sometimes the turgid dross obscures the brilliant material that led country out of the backblocks of the US and into mainstream consciousness.
TRACY MCNEIL Nobody Ever Leaves Independent
24 :: BRAG :: 566 :: 11:06:14
Tracy McNeil has one foot safely planted in good country music; her new record, Nobody Ever Leaves, has the other foot swirling around in southern rock territory and a firm grip on a denim-clad pop sensibility. You can hear it all in the opening track, ‘Wildcats’,
while the subtle elegance of ‘City Lights’ is Fleetwood Mac without the coked-out self-indulgence. ‘Swinging’ is the honest singersongwriter country track for anyone who’s ever pondered the excellence of Lucinda Williams; ‘Sleep In Your Eye’ slugs back a few glasses of bourbon and rides the resulting wave of Dutch courage with Californian rock abandon. And fi nally there’s ‘A Little More Like Love’, a touching love song for this and probably any age. If you’re a fan of good music, Nobody Ever Leaves is for you. If you’re not, then you’re on your own.
Augustus Welby
OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week... NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS - Murder Ballads LIZZY MERCIER DESCLOUX - Press Color PIXIES - Indie Cindy
LED ZEPPELIN - Led Zeppelin II SZA - S
Patrick Emery thebrag.com
BRAG :: 566 :: 11:06:14 :: 25
snap sn ap
live reviews
up all night out all week . . .
What we've been out to see...
WHITE LUNG, UPSET, BLOODS Factory Floor Thursday June 5 By the time you read this, Sydney trio Bloods will have finished work on their debut album. The early arrivals to the Factory’s downstairs room were lucky enough to get a sneak preview of what’s to come, and were all the better for it. The band leans on the brisk and brattish side of garage rock, all girlmeets-boy giddiness and teenage kicks. It threatens to fall apart at the seams at any given moment – especially when bassist Sweetie Zamora can’t remember how to play the bassline on current single ‘Want It’. However, instead of being detrimental, it adds a certain charm to proceedings.
PICS :: AM
white lung + upset
“Everything feels like it’s slanted on one side,” mused Ali Koehler hazily some two songs into her set. The former Best Coast drummer’s new project, Upset, made their Australian debut this evening, albeit on admittedly shaky foundations. With jetlag dragging the band down, flubs and forgetfulness were inevitable – at one point, drummer Patty Schemel even had to ask her bandmates how a song started. Regardless, the band was in good spirits, and once they got on the proverbial right foot, the rest of the set felt effortless. It’s also worth mentioning that Upset only used 31 minutes of their allocated 45 – ensuring that every moment they played counted.
A screech of guitar, a flurry of drums, a rumble of bass, a roar from the microphone – so began the first-ever set from Vancouver’s White Lung in Australia. Similar to Upset, the acerbic post-punks wasted precious little time onstage, tearing through a dozen songs in just over half an hour. The strain of the flight hadn’t quite hit the band as badly as its predecessors, allowing for the tightest set overall. Older favourites struck a chord with the front-row devotees, while tracks from their forthcoming Deep Fantasy showed a great deal of promise and a bold step forward for the band. A small turnout could have easily kept morale down and plagued the evening, but each band’s efforts made a very fun evening out of the miserable rain. David James Young
05:06:14 :: Factory Theatre :: 105 Victoria Rd, Marrickville 9550 3666
wed
thu
11 June
12 June (9:30PM - 12:30AM)
(9:30PM - 12:30AM)
fri
(4:30PM - 7:30PM)
(9:30PM - 1:30AM)
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
SUNDAY AFTERNOON
nai palm
PICS :: AM
13 June
05:06:14 :: Newtown Social Club :: 387 King St Newtown 1300 724 876
sat
14
(4:30PM - 7:30PM)
June
sun
15
(4:30PM - 7:30PM)
NAI PALM, CLEVER AUSTIN
June
(8:30PM - 12:00AM)
(9:30PM - 1:15PM)
mon
Newtown Social Club Thursday June 5
tue
16
17
June
June
(9:00PM - 12:00AM)
(9:30PM - 12:30AM)
The intriguing frontwoman for the Grammy-nominated Australian future soul band Hiatus Kaiyote took to the newly opened Newtown Social Club for a solo show. Nai Palm delivers honesty and soul through her storytelling, with no more accompaniment tonight than her guitar. The night was a family affair with support from Hiatus Kaiyote’s drummer Clever Austin. Although Newtown Social Club, with its new fi t and low stage, provided a backdrop that would suit the full band lineup, for an intimate solo set the atmosphere wasn’t ideal. However, that’s where the criticism of Nai Palm’s solo show ends.
26 :: BRAG :: 566 :: 11:06:14
It goes without saying that there is something special about this ethereal woman, who’s become somewhat of a leader of the Australian nu-soul movement. With fans such as neo-soul queen Erykah Badu and collaborations with artists like Taylor McFerrin under her belt, Palm is a force to be reckoned with. To captivate an audience is a gift in itself, and one that worked in Palm’s favour. Her songs have ebbs and flows; they are textured and coloured sonically, with the ability to send the listener off into reverie. These textures, along with those soulful vocals which effortlessly floated over her guitar riffs, allowed Palm to grab the audience’s attention and hold tight for the duration of her set. Kristie Nicolas
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ellie goulding
PICS :: AM
up all night out all week . . .
royal blood
PICS :: AM
03:06:14 :: The Hordern Pavilion:: 1 Driver Ave Moore Park 9921 5333
03:06:14 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford St Darlinghurst 9332 3711 OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER
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:: ASHLEY MAR ::
BRAG :: 566 :: 11:06:14 :: 27
g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com
pick of the week
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Alturas Foundry616, Ultimo. 8pm. $21.50. Cole Soul And Emotion feat: Lionel Cole The White Horse, Surry Hills. 8pm. free. Spring Street Social - feat: Taking Berlin + LiveLatin Sessions + Latin Kaos Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 6:30pm. $5.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
SATURDAY JUNE 14
Bastille
Hordern Pavilion
Bastille + Foxes + Alison Wonderland 7pm. $72.90. WEDNESDAY JUNE 11 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC
Gang Of Brothers Jam + Hounga + Juanita Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 9pm. free. Lionel Cole Imperial Hotel, Paddington. 8pm. free.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
City Slickers Band Competition Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $15. Concert On The Park feat: Wayne Horsburgh Campsie RSL, Campsie. 1pm. free. Fat Bubba’s Chicken Wednesdays Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 5pm. free. Glass Ocean The Vanguard, Newtown. 8pm. $18.80. Glen Esmond Playing Americana Fortune Of War, The Rocks. 7pm. free. Greg Agar Duo Ettamogah Hotel, Kelly Ridge. 6:30pm. free. Joe Echo Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney. 28 :: BRAG :: 566 :: 11:06:14
9pm. free. Lionel Cole And The Family Business Venue 505, Surry Hills. 7:30pm. $20. Little Odessa Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 6pm. free. Mark Travers Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9:30pm. free. Matt Jones Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill. 7:30pm. free. Nicky Kurta Summer Hill Hotel, Summer Hill. 7:30pm. free. Sarah Paton Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 9:30pm. free. Seniors Concert - feat: James Cassar + Milton Ward Belmont 16s, Belmont. 6pm. free. Songsonstage - feat: John Chesher + Pete Scully + Paul McGowan + Gavin Fitzgerald + Charli Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 7pm. free.
ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK C.W. Stoneking + Kira Puru St Stephen’s Uniting Church, Sydney. 7pm. $62.50. Mitch Anderson & His Organic Orchestra Coopers Hotel, Newtown.
8:45pm. free. Musos Club Jam Night The Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt. 8pm. free. Pulp Kitchen And Folk Club - feat: Live Rotating Folk Bands Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 5pm. free.
THURSDAY JUNE 12 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
Gay Paris + Gypsies & Gentelmen Moonshine Cider & Rum Bar, Manly. 9pm. free. Live Music Thursdays Bar100, The Rocks. 5pm. free. Marlene Cummins Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7:30pm. $10. Musos Club Jam Night Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill. 8pm. free. Songsonstage - feat: Peach Montgomery + Guests Forest Lodge Hotel, Forest Lodge. 7:30pm. free. Songsonstage - feat: Hris Raicevich + Wenzel Carmichael + Bradley Primmer + Jess Porfi ri + Jack Martin + PJ Connolly Ruby L’otel, Rozelle. 7:30pm. free.
Battle Of The Bands Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 7:30pm. $15. British India + Sea Legs + The Pipes Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7pm. $28. Carl Fidler Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 4pm. free. David Agius Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill. 8pm. free. Gerard Masters Dee Why Hotel, Dee Why. 7pm. free. Greg Agar Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 7:30pm. free. Greg Byrne Duo Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 9pm. free. HailMary Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 10pm. free. Ignition - SB Three Wise Monkeys, Sydney. 10pm. free. Jamie Lindsay Adria, Sydney. 5pm. free. Main Beach + Pinheads Standard Bowl, Surry Hills. 6pm. free. Mojo Juju The Vanguard, Newtown. 6:30pm. $28.80. Renae Stone Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 7:30pm. free. Stone Cold Fox + W.A.C.O (Womens Auxiliary Choir) + Guests Hotel Hollywood, Surry Hills. 8pm. free. The Chosen Few Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9:30pm. free. The Folk Informal - feat: Enola Fall + Karl Christoph + Benjamin James Caldwell + Direwolf FBi Social, Kings Cross. 8pm. $10. The Late Night Soda Social Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 5pm. free. The White Brothers New Brighton Hotel, Manly. 10pm. free. Vent Presents: Cypher Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. free.
FRIDAY JUNE 13 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC
Baz Venue 505, Surry Hills. 6pm. $16. Chaika Foundry616, Ultimo. 8:30pm. $11. Jazz Hip-Hop Freestyle Sessions Foundry616, Ultimo. 11:30pm. free.
ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
Acoustic Dave Cookie’s Lounge Bar, Strathfield North. 8pm. free. Big Blind Ray Trio
Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham. 8:30pm. free. Live Music Fridays Bar100, The Rocks. 5pm. free. Songsonstage Rosehill Hotel, Clyde. 7:30pm. free. Spookyland + Atlas B Salvesen + The Tambourine Girls FBi Social, Kings Cross. 8pm. $10.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
Midnight Drifters Belmont 16s, Belmont. 7pm. free. 80s Flashback Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills. 9:30pm. free. After Party Band Campbelltown Catholic Club, Campbelltown. 9:30pm. free. Almost Joe Breakers Country Club, Terrigal. 8:30pm. free. Angie Dean Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill. 6:30pm. free. Ben Finn Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill. 9:30pm. free. Ben Finn Trio The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill. 9pm. free. Benn Gun Duo Crown Hotel, Camden. 8pm. free. Big Radio Dynamite Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8:30pm. free. Brad Johns Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 9pm. free. Brad Johns Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 4pm. free. British India Tattersalls Hotel, Penrith. 8:30pm. free. Cara Kavanagh + Mark Oats Duo PJ Gallagher’s, Leichhardt. 9pm. free. Cath & Him Hornsby RSL, Hornsby. 8pm. free. Darren Johnstone Kirribilli Hotel, Milsons Point. 8pm. free. Dave Phillips Greystanes Inn, Greystanes Inn. 8pm. free. Dave White Experience Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 10:30pm. free. Dave White Trio Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 9pm. free. David Agius Ingleburn RSL, Ingleburn. 9pm. free. Evie Dean Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 7pm. free. Fox & Fowl Standard Bowl, Surry Hills. 6pm. free. Greg Agar Mona Vale Hotel, Mona Vale. 5:30pm. free. Greg Byrne And Andre Kaman Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill. 8pm. free. Heath Burdell The Grand Hotel, Rockdale. 5:30pm. free. Heath Burdell Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill. 9pm. free. Hello Cleveland Time & Tide Hotel, Dee Why. 9:30am. free. In Hearts Wake + Dream On Dreamer + Being As An Ocean + Sierra The Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt. 8pm. $30. James Englund New Brighton Hotel, Manly. 10pm. free. Jamie Lindsay PJ Gallagher’s, Moore Park. 7:30pm. free. Jess Dunbar Sir Joseph Banks Hotel, Botany. 7pm. free.
JJ Duo Springwood Sports Club, Springwood. 8:30pm. free. John Waters: Looking Through A Glass Onion - Up Close & Personal Panthers, Penrith. 7:30pm. $45.50. Jon Stevens Mounties, Mount Pritchard. 8pm. $35. Keith Armitage Brewhouse Marayong, Kings Park. 8pm. free. Krishna Jones Panthers, Penrith. 8pm. free. Live Music At The Royal The Royal, Leichhardt. 9:30pm. free. Luke Dolahenty Mona Vale Hotel, Mona Vale. 9pm. free. Matt Jones + Bruce Thorburn PJ Gallagher’s, Leichhardt. 9pm. free. Matt Jones Band Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 10:30pm. free. Matt Price Parramatta RSL, Parramatta. 5pm. free. Matt Price Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 9pm. free. Matt Price Duo Kings Cross Hotel, Kings Cross. 11:30pm. free. Melody Rhymes Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 5:30pm. free. New Empire Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $23. Overtone Exchange Hotel, Darlinghurst. 8:30pm. free. Pat O’Grady Chatswood RSL, Chatswood. 5pm. free. Peabody The Roller Den, Erskineville. 8pm. $18.90. Pop Fiction Duo Pittwater RSL, Mona Vale. 8pm. free. Rapture Sutherland United Services Club, Sutherland. 7:30pm. free. Renae Stone Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 7pm. free. Renae Stone Time & Tide Hotel, Dee Why. 7:30pm. free. Rick Fensom Harbord Beach Hotel, Harbord. 7pm. free. Rob Henry Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 6pm. free. Rock Solid Duo North Sydney Leagues Club, Cammeray. 9:30pm. free. Ryan Thomas Avalon Beach RSL Club, Avalon. 8:30pm. free. Sam Joole And The Sting Rays Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 10:30pm. free. Sons Of The East + Anna O + Betty & Oswald + DJ Kristy Lee Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills. 6pm. free. Stone Cold Suns Vineyard Hotel, Vineyard. 9:30pm. free. Swingshift - Cold Chisel Show Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills. 10pm. free. The Holidays + Thief Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7:30pm. $19. The White Brothers Ettamogah Hotel, Kelly Ridge. 7pm. free. Tim Shaw Harbord Beach Hotel, Harbord. 7pm. free. Two Minds Albion Hotel, Parramatta. 9pm. free. Us Too Duo Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci. 8pm. free. Victoria Avenue Kirribilli Hotel, Milsons Point. 8pm. free. Victoria Avenue
thebrag.com
gig picks
g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill. 6pm. free. White Bros Quakers Inn, Quakers Hill. 8:30pm. free. Zoltan Australian Hotel And Brewery, Rouse Hill. 10pm. free.
SATURDAY JUNE 14 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
Bandsonstage Hampshire Hotel, Camperdown. 8pm. free. Finn George IV Inn, Picton. 8pm. free. Miners + Deep Space Supergroop + Dr. Goddard FBi Social, Kings Cross. 8pm. $10. Paul Hayward Town & Country Hotel, St Peters. 4pm. free. Spring Street Social - feat: Extension Chords Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 10:30pm. free. Wagons Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $25.
Xxx
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Arrebato Ensemble Venue 505, Surry Hills. 6pm. $20. Celtic Illusion Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8pm. $35. Dahlia Dior + Edith Piaf & Friends Foundry616, Ultimo. 8:30pm. $27.50.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
Hornet Exchange Hotel, Darlinghurst. 8:30pm. free. Am 2 Pm North Sydney Leagues Club, Cammeray. 9:30pm. free. Bastille + Foxes + Alison Wonderland Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park. 7pm. $72.90. Bec Laughton + Castlecomer + Mar Haze + DJ Bobby Gray Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills. 6pm. free. Big Way Out Three Wise Monkeys, Sydney. 10pm. free. Big Yard Big Band Penrith RSL, Penrith. 2pm. free. Bounce PJ’s Irish Pub, Parramatta. 9:30pm. free. Carcass Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $64. First Sight Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham. 2pm. $10. Geneveive Chadwick Huskisson Hotel, Huskisson. 8pm. free. Glenn Esmond Fortune Of War, The Rocks. 3pm. free. Glenn Esmond Crown Hotel, Camden. 9pm. free. Guess Who Duo Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale. 9pm. free. Hue Williams Club Ashfield, Ashfield. 8pm. free. JJ Duo Kelly’s On King, Newtown. 9:30pm. free. Joe Echo Duo The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill. 1:30pm. free. Kevin Mark Trail Coogee Diggers, Coogee. 7pm. $13.30. thebrag.com
La Revolution - A Bastille Day Concert City Recital Hall, Sydney. 7:30pm. $40. Macson Courthouse Hotel, Darlinghurst. 10pm. free. Mad Cow Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci. 8pm. free. Pug’s Day Out Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham. 1pm. $25. Renae Stone Mill Hill Hotel, Bondi Junction. 3pm. free. Rock Monsters Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill. 8pm. free. Ryan Thomas Panthers, Penrith. 7pm. free. Safia Spectrum, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $15. Salsa Kingz Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8:30pm. free. The Kamis Penrith RSL, Penrith. 9pm. free. The Sounds Of The Supremes - feat: 70s/80s ‘Supreme’ Kaaren Ragland Belmont 16s, Belmont. 8:30pm. free. Victoria Avenue Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 4pm. free. Video DJ Shayne Alsop AKA Sloppy Mounties, Mount Pritchard. 8pm. free.
SUNDAY JUNE 15 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC RLD MUSIC Lily Vamos + Bella Hemming + Paz Riley Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 7:30pm. $10.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
David Agius Family Inn Hotel, Rydalmere. 6pm. free. Dennis Wilson Campsie RSL, Campsie. 2pm. free. Frankie’s Hardcore Sausagefest Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 4pm. free. Jamie Lindsay Harbord Beach Hotel, Harbord. 6pm. free. Jess Dunbar Pritchards Hotel, Mount Pritchard. 1pm. free. Luke Dolahenty Campbelltown Catholic Club, Campbelltown. 6pm. free. Mandi Jarry Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 3pm. free. Mark Travers Ettamogah Hotel, Kelly Ridge. 1pm. free. Marty Stewart South Hurstville RSL Club, South Hurstville. 2pm. free. Matt Price Campbelltown Catholic Club, Campbelltown. 1pm. free. Raoul Graf Western Suburbs Leagues Club, Leumeah. 12pm. free. Rob Henry Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 8pm. free. Ron Ashton Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci. 2pm. free. Ted Nash Oatley Hotel, Oatley. 1pm. free. The Chosen Few Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 6pm. free. The Jaybirds Time & Tide Hotel, Dee Why. 1pm. free.
up all night out all week... Three Wise Men Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 4pm. free. Viktoria Bolonina The Vanguard, Newtown. 6:30pm. $18.80.
C.W. Stoneking
ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
Brent Murphy Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool. 3pm. free. Chill Out Sundays Scubar, Sydney. 7:30pm. free. Country At The Bowlo Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville. 4:30pm. free. Finn Ruby L’otel, Rozelle. 6pm. free. Intimate Sessions Paragon Hotel, Sydney. 6pm. free. Live Music Sundays Bar100, The Rocks. 1pm. free. Menagerie - feat: Eddie Boyd + Lucky Luke And His Shooting Stars + The Broken Hart Band The Welcome Hotel, Rozelle. 4pm. free.
WEDNESDAY JUNE 11
Wagons
C.W. Stoneking + Kira Puru St Stephen’s Uniting Church, Sydney. 7pm. $62.50.
THURSDAY JUNE 12 MONDAY JUNE 16 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
Songsonstage - feat: Tuart Jammin + Chris Brookes + Massimo Presti + Rick Taylor Kelly’s On King, Newtown. 7:30pm. free.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
Sammy Baker Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. free. Steve Tonge Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm. free.
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Happy Monday Games Night W/ Live Jazz Venue 505, Surry Hills. 6pm. free. Latin & Jazz Jam Open Mic Night World Bar, Kings Cross. 7pm. free. Mambo Mondays Bar100, The Rocks. 5:30pm. free. Motown Mondays - feat: Soulgroove The White Horse, Surry Hills. 8pm. free. Reggae Monday Civic Underground, Sydney. 10pm. free.
British India + Sea Legs + The Pipes Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7pm. $28. Marlene Cummins Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7:30pm. $10. Mojo Juju The Vanguard, Newtown. 6:30pm. $28.80. Spring Street Social - feat: Taking Berlin + Livelatin Sessions + Latin Kaos Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 6:30pm. $5.
FRIDAY JUNE 13 Fox & Fowl Standard Bowl, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free. In Hearts Wake + Dream On Dreamer + Being As An Ocean + Sierra The Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt. 8pm. $30.
SATURDAY JUNE 14 Bec Laughton + Castlecomer + Mar Haze + DJ Bobby Gray Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free. Carcass Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $64.
New Empire Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $23.
Pug’s Day Out Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham. 1pm. $25.
Peabody The Roller Den, Erskineville. 8pm. $18.90.
Wagons Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $25.
Sons Of The East + Anna O + Betty & Oswald + DJ Kristy Lee Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free.
SUNDAY JUNE 15
The Holidays + Thief Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7:30pm. $19.
Frankie’s Hardcore Sausagefest Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 4pm. Free. The Holidays
TUESDAY JUNE 17 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Swingtime Tuesdays The Basement, Circular Quay. 7pm. $9.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
Bridie O’Brien + Kinsky The Vanguard, Newtown. 6:30pm. $28.80. Rob Henry Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 5pm. free.
BRAG :: 566 :: 11:06:14 :: 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
WITH
Hardwell
CHROME SPARKS
Growing Up When I was two, my parents couldn’t get 1. me to stop banging on the table when we
did a bunch of classical music recitals and competitions as a marimba duo.
were eating. For some reason, they thought it was a good idea to get me a drum set so that I could get it all out. Didn’t work out too well for them, as I preferred the drums to the table. Neither of my parents are musical, though my dad can play some songs on guitar and used to do some community musical theatre. Even so, they supported all of my farfetched musical desires.
The Music You Make And Play I feel like my music is a bit all over the place, but I think that most people feel that way, as it’s impossible to see your art from an unbiased vantage point. When I do DJ sets, I definitely keep it more dancey… I don’t think I could ever imagine myself DJing some of my music, like ‘Send The Pain On’, it’s just too slow!
2.
Inspirations Some musicians who have made the biggest impact on me are Bibio, Aphex Twin, Boards Of Canada, Dirty Projectors, James Blake, Beach House and Jai Paul. I used to stay up late listening to the self-titled James Blake LP when that first came out, crying about how amazing it was and selfishly tying it into how I would never be able to achieve something that beautiful.
Your Crew First off, I have the most amazing 3. roommates ever. There are three of us in the apartment. One of them is a drummer/ producer as well who always knows about the best music gear, and the other is into fashion and always knows about the best parties. Bill, my buddy who’s really the only permanent fixture in my live set-up, has been a friend and collaborator since we were 16. He did some of the first Chrome Sparks shows with me when I was still in high school. We also
KID SUBLIME
Amsterdam’s Kid Sublime will headline an inner west BYO warehouse party on Saturday July 26. The moniker of Jacob Otten, Kid Sublime was originally part of Rednose Distrikt before leaving the group in late ’03 to concentrate on his solo career. He has since built up a reputation as a fellow who creates “soulful house music with a b-boy attitude”, headlining Sydney party institution Mad Racket on a previous visit to our shores. He’ll be joined on the bill by Adelaide’s Inkswel, who has notched up releases on renowned labels such as Wolf Music and Rush Hour while also busying himself with side projects including Uglyink and Earlybird Soul System. Support will be provided by DJs Edseven, Henry Compton and Fred Tectonic, with early bird tickets on sale from lioness.net.au.
SOLARSTONE PRESENTS PURE TRANCE
4.
Music, Right Here, Right Now Music is great right now, music was 5. always great, and music will always be great. I hate hearing people complain about “‘music these days” or things like that. It’s not that the music is getting worse, it’s that you’re too lazy to find the good shit! Spend some time on SoundCloud, dig for the best YouTube playlists; you can do it all from your fucking bed, you don’t even need to ‘dig’ through those ‘crates’, just take a minute to look. No complaining. What: Goddess out now through Future Classic Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Friday July 25 And: Also appearing alongside Outkast, Two Door Cinema Club, Lily Allen, Interpol, Foster The People and many more at Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands, Friday July 25 – Sunday July 27
MINISTRY OF SOUND AT PACHA
Ministry of Sound will launch their Electro House Sessions at Pacha at the Ivy on Saturday June 14. The fiesta will be headlined by the two DJs who each mixed a disc on the recent compilation: Dave Winnel and Tom Piper. Ben Morris, Glover and Trent Rackus are among the many local selectors also set to spin, with tickets available via pachasydney.com.
KID INK
Los Angeles rapper, producer and performer Kid Ink will bring his My Own Lane tour to Sydney with a performance at The Hi-Fi on Saturday 23 August, and has now announced his supports – Fortafy and Savo. Kid Ink broke out via his 2012 independent album, Up & Away, and has followed it up with his full-length debut, My Own Lane.
AVIVAA
Local duo Aviva Payne and Matais Coulter, collectively AViVAA, will be launching their single ‘XX’ at No Dice Paradise at Oxford Art Factory on Saturday 14 June. Praised for their “indieelectronic wooziness and amorous beauty”, AViVAA fuse deep bass sounds and intricate vocal harmonies throughout their productions. They will be joined by Camella, Spirals, ‘FM’ and Audient, with entry $10 on the door.
COOLIO
Iconic Grammy Award-winning rapper Coolio will perform in Sydney on Wednesday August 6. He of ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ fame has made the transition from performer to actor in the years since his smash single, proving his versatility in recent times with the release of his own cookbook, Cooking With Coolio, which contains recipes for his very own “ghetto cuisine”. The venue for Coolio’s Sydney performance is yet to be announced, so keep your ears – and eyes – open.
TRENCH FT PFIRTER
South American techno figurehead Pfirter commands top billing for Trench’s first birthday party, a warehouse romp on Saturday June 21. The Argentinean has released on labels like CLR, Stroboscopic Artefacts and his own MindTrip Music imprint, while his DJ sets explore the various subgenres of techno and feed into his studio output. In addition to Pfirter’s three-hour set, local DJs Jordan Peters, Qu-Zen, Gabriel Fernandes and DJ Torso will also be peddling beats, with $25 presale tickets available online.
NIC FANCIULLI
Saved Records main man Nic Fanciulli, who has also released under the guises of Skylark and Buick Project over the years, has mixed the next instalment in Defected’s In The House series, released last week. The compilation spans two discs and juxtaposes material from Erykah Badu and Thom Yorke Alison Wonderland
HARDWELL TOUR
I am Hardwell, hear me roar! The latest Dutch DJ to be voted the world’s number one DJ in DJ Mag’s poll is bringing his acclaimed I Am Hardwell world tour to Australia for three outdoor shows over the October long weekend. The catch is, specific details are yet to be revealed. But in the wake of Hardwell’s performance at Future Music Festival, you ought to clear your long weekend plans – if you’ve made any four months in advance, that is.
with cuts from the likes of Daniel Wang and Shlomi Aber. The mix was apparently in the works for over six months, with Fanciulli explaining, “When you are producing a compilation nowadays you have to give something special to the people that are buying the compilation.”
PLASTIC CIRCUS
Plastic Circus will celebrate the winter solstice on Saturday June 21 at a secret inner west location. DJ Stephen Kay is headlining proceedings, a man who has played parties as far afield as Rio De Janeiro, Lebanon, Morocco, Thailand and England and launched his own label Plastic Recordings upon returning to Sydney. Kay will be flanked by the pairing of Brendon Mew-Sum and Andrew McQueen (collectively Cheatz) and Germany’s Rauschware, who melds deep and tech house, minimal techno, acid and experimental electro in his DJ sets.
ALISON WONDERLAND’S RURAL JUROR TOUROR
Directly off the back of her soldout Warehouse Project tour, local lass Alison Wonderland has announced a run of regional rural dates across NSW over the next few months, including shows in Wollongong, Newcastle and Coffs Harbour. Anyone unsure of Alison’s prominent standing in the national music milieu need look no further than her new single, ‘I Want U’. The track recently topped the Hype Machine charts, got added to rotation at triple j and amassed over 300k SoundCloud spins in less than a month. She plays Argyle House in Newcastle on Saturday June 28 as part of the Rural Juror Touror – one for the 30 Rock fans. xxx
Trance pioneer Solarstone will bring his Pure Trance concept to Sydney with a party at Home Nightclub on Friday July 18. The host headliner will be joined by two fellow internationals: Italy’s Giuseppe Ottaviani and Irish producer Sneijder. Ottaviani is the driving force behind the renowned group Nu NRG and has worked with none other than Paul van Dyk. Sneijder, meanwhile, is a highly touted prospect who will be representing the young bloods. 30 :: BRAG :: 566 :: 11:06:14
Coolio
Chrome Sparks photo by Landon Speers
five things
thebrag.com
Phantogram The Mashup Generation By Cameron James
“As an artist it’s your duty to mess around and have fun with what you’re doing. And be exposed to all kinds of music.”
H
ip hop. Post-punk. Soul. EDM. Rock. Trip hop. Synthpop. Try describing New York band Phantogram’s sound to a friend, and you’ll end up choking on hyphens. “I don’t know of many people who just listen to one genre of music,” says one half of Phantogram, Josh Carter. “And if they do, they must be pretty boring.” Phantogram are a band for today, for people who grew up with both Public Enemy and Yeah Yeah Yeahs posters on their walls. Their sound seems purpose-made for iPod shuffle; seamlessly shifting between grimy beats, wailing noise and beautiful melodies. Not just between tracks, but between verses. Phantogram make music for the mashup generation. “People my age have been exposed to so many different kinds of music. And I think that they wanna hear things that are more fresh,” says Carter. “As an artist it’s your duty to mess around and have fun with what you’re doing. And be exposed to all kinds of music.” By all accounts, Carter and his creative other half Sarah Barthel created Phantogram in a vacuum. Starting in 2007, the duo would play
bits and pieces of songs for each other, weaving them into full tracks in the process. Up until the release of their debut album, Eyelid Movies in 2009, they’d never played a single live show. Their sound is their sound. It came from within them, and nowhere else. Rather than attempt a multihyphenate genre-mashing descriptor, Carter sticks with the simple “experimental pop” when asked what Phantogram do. And luckily for us, the pair is bringing its experimental pop to our shores for Splendour In The Grass in July. “You’re going to get some highenergy performances out there, man,” Carter says. In the US, Phantogram have become as known for their live shows as their dynamic recordings. Their last tour boasted an insane light show, co-designed by Barthel. Carter isn’t sure if they’ll be able to bring all that production to our faraway land, but assures us that we’re in for something special regardless. “It will be very visual, very energetic, and emotional as well,” he says. “We wanna give people an experience that’s more than just seeing a band. We want to connect with our audience.”
So, how do US indie darlings prepare themselves for a tour to the other side of the planet? “We pack lots of socks and underwear,” Carter deadpans. Ahh. There’s that Brooklyn humour. “We’ve never been to Australia before, so we have to humble ourselves,” he continues. “We’re doing pretty well in the States, but out there we’re playing for a brand new audience. So we have to introduce ourselves by putting on a great Phantogram show.” Phantogram are doing more than “pretty well” in their mother country. This year’s album, Voices, hit number three on the US alternative charts. In the five years since their debut, Phantogram have gone from jamming in a barn to playing the Hollywood Bowl. They’ve found loyal fans not just at their packed-out shows, but amongst their heroes as well. In what must be the biggest mark of a band transcending its humble beginnings, the duo has been sought out not only to play alongside The Flaming Lips, but to write three songs with Big Boi from Outkast. “Outkast and the Lips, these are bands I grew up listening to,” Carter begins. “And now I talk with them on a regular basis, and they’re fans of mine? My mind is blown.
“What I take out of working with artists like that is a sense of confidence. Confidence to create and not worry too much about what you’re creating. Just do you, and don’t limit your sound.” Limitless creativity. That’s something that many artists strive for. But what does that mean for an experimental pop band? Carter and Barthel have so far used their interests in design and imagery to craft a striking and singular visual look to accompany their cinematic sound. “Music has always been very visual for me. It’s hard to fully describe. When I write, I’m writing a piece based on a short movie, or vignette, in my head. I picture shapes, colours, and scenarios moving with the music.” Phantogram plan on using these short films that exist in their heads to craft videos for their music. And like their songs, most of these images are shadowy and sinister like a film noir scene. Carter professes a love for “subject matter [that] can be very grim or sad”. “It doesn’t mean we’re sad people,” he laughs. “Darkness is just interesting to us.”
Through the darkness, the future looks bright for Phantogram. After all, how many indie bands get to make a fan out of Wayne Coyne or Big Boi? How many get to fl y to the other side of the earth to play for a whole bunch of strangers at Splendour In The Grass? Not many. And after the killer live shows, and as the fan base builds, what’s next for Phantogram? “As a young band it’s important to just focus on writing good songs,” Carter says. “But I’d defi nitely like to make a concept record at some point. It doesn’t have to be super crazy, but I still listen to Dark Side [Of The Moon], Sgt. Pepper’s, The Soft Bulletin. That would be cool.” What: Voices out now through Universal With: Mas Ysa Where: Metro Theatre When: Thursday July 24 And: Also appearing alongside Outkast, Two Door Cinema Club, Lily Allen, Interpol, Foster The People and many more at Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands, Friday July 25 – Sunday July 27
Have you heard?
thebrag.com Extra bits and moving bits without the papercuts thebrag.com
BRAG :: 566 :: 11:06:14 :: 31
club guide g send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com
club pick of the week
SATURDAY JUNE 14 Robbie Lowe
The Spice Cellar
Robbie Lowe + Marc Jarvin + Le Brond + Cassette + Onn 10pm. $25. WEDNESDAY JUNE 11 CLUB NIGHTS
DJ Tom Kelly Goldfish, Kings Cross. 9pm. free. The Wall - feat: Various Local And International Acts World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. $5. Whip It Wednesdays - feat: Various DJs Whaat Club, Kings Cross. 9pm. free. xxx
THURSDAY JUNE 12
HIP HOP & R&B
Bandsonstage - feat: Andrew Denniston + Guests Hampshire Hotel, Camperdown. 7:30pm. free. Free The Beats Venue 505, Surry Hills. 7:30pm. free.
CLUB NIGHTS
$5 Everything Scubar, Sydney. 5pm. free. Fear Of Dawn Goldfish, Kings Cross. 8pm. free. Hot Damn Spectrum, Darlinghurst. 9pm. $10. Kicks World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. free. Lights Out Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 8pm. free. Loopy - feat: Drty Csh + Daschwood + Generous Greed + Guest DJs The Backroom, Sydney. 32 :: BRAG :: 566 : 11:06:14
10pm. $12. Pool Club Thursdays - feat: Resident DJs Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 5pm. free. The World Bar Thursdays World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. free. Thursday Spice - feat: Ghostly DJ + Zeus + Benji + Amp Rose + T.Hanks + Charlie Jones + Inlieu The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 9pm. free.
FRIDAY JUNE 13 HIP HOP & R&B
Jazz Hip-Hop Freestyle Sessions Foundry616, Ultimo. 11:30pm. $5. Jess Dunbar Novotel, Darling Harbour. 5:30pm. free.
CLUB NIGHTS
Angel Awake + Lillye + Scatterfly + Hot Angel The Vanguard, Newtown. 7:30pm. $18.80. Argyle Fridays - feat: Resident DJs The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. free. Dave Mac Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 9pm. free. DJ Marty Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 9pm. free. El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 10am. free. Factory Fridays - feat: Resident DJs Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 5pm. free. Foreigndub + Inner West
Reggae Disco Machine Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 10pm. $15. Fridays - feat: DJ Morphingaz + Grant Lewers + Pistolshrimp + Bernie Dingo + Stacie Todo + Kit Lennon + Toby Neal + Sam Wall + Benny B Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 8pm. free. Frisky Fridays Scubar, Sydney. 5pm. free. Hydraulix + Oski + Blackjack + Hatch + Dibby Dibby Soundsystem Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. free. Loco Friday - feat: Various Live Bands And DJs The Slip Inn, Sydney. 5pm. free. Moonshine Fridays Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 7pm. free. Soft&Slow 13.06 - feat: Jamie Lloyd + James Cripps + Pink Lloyd The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 10pm. $15. Stigmata Promotions Presents Jason Slaughters The Valve Bar - feat: Viscera + Gutter Tactic + Nekrology + Inhuman Remnanats + Manslaughter Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 7pm. $10.
SATURDAY JUNE 14 CLUB NIGHTS
Boney M + Maizie Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $67.90. Cakes - feat: 4 Rooms Of Live Music + DJs And International Guests. World Bar, Kings Cross. 8pm. $10.
DJ Marty Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 9pm. free. El’ Circo - feat: Resident Circus Act Performers Slide Lounge, Darlinghurst. 7pm. $109. El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 10am. Free. FBi Hands Up! - feat: DJ Clockwerk + Special Friends With Benefits FBi Social, Kings Cross. 11:30pm. free. House Party - feat: Cheap Lettus + Chris Fraser + Andrew Wowk + Visual Lies Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. free. Infamous Saturdays - feat: Live DJs Scubar, Sydney. 7pm. free. MarLo + Emma Hewitt Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $25. Masif Saturdays Space, Sydney. 10pm. $25. Motherslug + Summonus + Kaleidoscope + Witch Fight Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 11pm. $10. My Place Saturdays Bar100, The Rocks. 8pm. free. No Dice Paradise - feat: Camella + Avivaa + Spirals + FM + Audient Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $10. Pacha Presents Mos Electro House Sessions - feat: Tom Piper + Dave Winnel + Glover + Ben Morris + Spenda C + Fingers + Danny Lang + Jace Disgrace + DJ Lust 1 + Devola + Reelax + Dylan Sanders + Delron Cream + Trent Rackus + Pat Ward Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 6:30pm. $30. Rapture Pittwater RSL, Mona Vale.
8pm. free. Red Bull Music Academy feat: Jay Daniel Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 11pm. free. Rock Solid Duo Parramatta RSL, Parramatta. 7:30pm. free. Sienna Saturdays - feat: Resident DJs The Establishment, Sydney. 9pm. free. Soda Saturdays - feat: Resident DJs Playing Disco And Funk Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 5pm. free. Speakeasy 02 - feat: Inkswel + Ken Cloud + Boom Boom DJs + Pharley + U-Khan + Jeremiah + Nikolai Imperial Hotel, Erskineville. 10pm. $16.50. Spice 14.06 - feat: Robbie Lowe + Marc Jarvin + Le Brond + Cassette + Onn + Guests The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 10pm. $25. Super Massive Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington. 8pm. free. Visions - feat: Buzz Kull + North Arm + Noire + Deep Sea Arcade DJs + More Standard Bowl, Surry Hills. 8pm. free. Wildcatz Epping Hotel, Epping. 10pm. free.
HIP HOP & R&B
Allday + Jackie Onassis Metro Theatre, Sydney. 4:45pm. $20. Allday + Jackie Onassis Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $23.50. Kevin Mark Trail Coogee Diggers, Coogee. 8pm. $13.30. Reign Sydney - feat: Timomatic The Establishment, Sydney. 8:30pm. $25.
SUNDAY JUNE 15 CLUB NIGHTS
A Gentleman’s Agreement Presents Storm Of Genres feat: DRS + Dirty + Darkness Reigns + Ready For The Fall + The Kids Don’t Like It Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 3pm. $10. La Fiesta - feat: Samantha Fox + Agee Ortiz + Av El Cubano + Resident DJ Willie Sabor The Establishment, Sydney. 8pm. free. S.A.S.H Sundays Flyover Bar, Sydney. 2pm. $10. Sunday Sessions - feat: Cadell + Tom Kelly + Ocky Goldfish, Kings Cross. 4pm. free. Sunday Spice 15.06 - feat: Declan Esau + Ghostly DJs + Fat Tony + Amanda Louise The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 9pm. $10. Sundays In The City - feat: Various DJs The Slip Inn, Sydney. 12pm. free.
MONDAY JUNE 16 CLUB NIGHTS
Crab Racing Scubar, Sydney. 7pm. free.
TUESDAY JUNE 17 CLUB NIGHTS
Chu World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. free.
p send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com
Jamie Lloyd
FRIDAY JUNE 13 Foreigndub + Inner West Reggae Disco Machine Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 10pm. $15. Hydraulix + Oski + Blackjack + Hatch + Dibby Dibby Soundsystem Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. Free. Soft&Slow 13.06 - feat: Jamie Lloyd + James Cripps + Pink Lloyd The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 10pm. $15.
SATURDAY JUNE 14 House Party - feat: Cheap Lettus + Chris Fraser + Andrew Wowk + Visual Lies Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. Free. Kevin Mark Trail Coogee Diggers, Coogee. 8pm. $13.30. MarLo + Emma Hewitt Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $25.
Kevin Mark Trail
No Dice Paradise - feat: Camella + Avivaa + Spirals + Fm + Audient Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $10. Pacha Presents Mos Electro House Sessions - feat: Tom Piper + Dave Winnel + Glover + Ben Morris + Spenda C + Fingers + Danny Lang + Jace Disgrace + DJ Lust 1 + Devola + Reelax + Dylan Sanders + Delron Cream + Trent Rackus + Pat Ward Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 6:30pm. $30. Speakeasy 02 - feat: Inkswel + Ken Cloud + Boom Boom DJs + Pharley + U-Khan + Jeremiah + Nikolai Imperial Hotel, Erskineville. 10pm. $16.50.
SUNDAY JUNE 15 Sunday Spice 15.06 - feat: Declan Esau + Ghostly DJs + Fat Tony + Amanda Louise The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 9pm. $10.
thebrag.com
Deep Impressions Dance And Electronica with Chris Honnery
I MAG I N E BE I NG MAD E TO
Caribou
FEEL L IKE CRAP JUST FOR
C
anada’s Caribou (formerly ‘Manitoba’), the brainchild of Dan Smith, has announced details of his next album Our Love, the much anticipated follow-up to 2010’s wonderful Swim album. Swim set out to create “dance music that sounds like it’s made out of water rather than made out of metallic stuff like most dance music does”, and spawned a remix album replete with reworks from heavy-hitters like James Holden, DJ Koze, Junior Boys and Gavin Russom. Smith subsequently unveiled his Daphni alias, releasing the Jiaolong album before dropping a recent collaborative EP with Domino Records’ Owen Pallett. That more or less brings us up to the present, as we wait for the arrival of Smith’s third album as Caribou in early October. Our Love is reportedly Caribou’s most soulful album to date, and features guest spots from the aforementioned Pallett and Canadian starlet Jessy Lanza, who enjoyed a breakout year in 2013. As one would expect, the album traverses an eclectic melting pot of influences, with the press release detailing a mix of “digital pop production, hip hop inspired beats, muted house basslines and a love of shuffling garage”. Best of all, we have a touchstone in the form of album opener ‘Can’t Do Without You’, which Smith has uploaded online. It’s a gem. Bring on the album! Unheralded techno trier Richie Hawtin – I kid, I kid – has released a new album as Plastikman, EX. The album is Hawtin’s first since 2003’s Closer and was recorded at New York’s iconic art museum, the Guggenheim, in a performance orchestrated by fashionista supremo Raf Simons. Hawtin takes over the narrative from here: “By accepting Raf’s offer to perform at the Dior event at the Guggenheim I knew I’d set myself up to a huge challenge… I locked myself away in a series of intense studio Richie Hawtin
sessions and quickly recorded enough new material for the performance and realised I might also have enough for a complete new album. The music came out of me effortlessly as I was very inspired by the opportunity to play in this beautiful architectural space renowned more for art than music. The location also allowed me to step far away from the dancefloor, giving me a huge amount of freedom to EXplore any sonic ideas that I had.” Hold it right there. Does everyone get the basis for the album title? Good. As one would expect from Richie, there’s plenty of effort and a few gimmicks that have gone into the packaging of the release. However, I’m guessing you’re already sold without having to delve into the intricacies of Hawtin’s portable bass system, the ‘SubPac’.
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
Veteran UK DJ Pete Herbert returns Down Under this month and will headline Tatler on Friday June 20. Equipped with a record collection spanning leftfield Balearic disco, house, Italo and plenty more, Herbert is a regular at world-renowned clubs like Fabric. He’s also a celebrated producer, working with Phil Mison under the moniker Reverso 68, releasing on Eskimo Recordings and remixing the likes of Grace Jones, Royksopp and The Glimmers, while he co-runs his own label Maxi Discs together with Dicky Trisco. Herbert has been involved in various projects, using different aliases to keep punters guessing. However, if you do some digging, you’ll find Herbert’s fingerprints are all over Bakazou, Cuica, Frontera L.S.B. and Challenge, where he works with Tim Paris of It’s A Fine Line notoriety. “The aliases came about more from working with different people for each individual project,” Herbert reflected recently. “For sure, the longer you work at trying to make some music, you pick up certain techniques, or tricks that you like, and they help give your work a certain sound, or signature, quite often by mistake perhaps.”
LOOKING DEEPER FRIDAY JUNE 13 Jamie Lloyd The Spice Cellar
SATURDAY JUNE 14 Ken Cloud The Imperial Hotel
FRIDAY JUNE 20 Pete Herbert Tatler
SATURDAY JUNE 21 Pfirter Warehouse party
Direct all Deep Impressions-related feedback, praise, vitriol and other proposals to deep.impressions@yahoo.com. thebrag.com
BRAG :: 566 :: 11:06:14 :: 33
snap up all night out all week . . .
speakeasy party profile
It’s called: Speakeasy It sounds like: A cosmic journey through the various subgenres of underground house and techno music. Acts: Inskwel (Wolf Music/Rush Hour), Ken Cloud (Mad Racket), Boom Boom DJs, Nikolai, Jeremiah, Pharley and U-Khan. Three songs you’ll hear on the night: Inksw el Drum Ensemble – ‘Send A Prayer (Pt. 2)’; Andra – ‘LFO Bounce’; Motor City s – ‘Running Late’. And one you definitely won’t: Queen – ‘Radio Ga Ga’ (we save that for the after-afterparty) Sell it to us: When the drinks stop flowing and the lights turn on in clubs across the CBD, there is a place you can go that will welcome you with open arms and a stiff drink all morning long. Situated in a club outside of the lockout zone, you can come and go as you please and party ’til dawn to the best underground music from Australian and international DJs. That place is Speakeasy. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: If we do our job right, you will still be there in the AM. All of it. Crowd specs: A relaxed and cool atmosphere with like-minded people with a developed taste for electronic music who want to get away from the commercial chaos that plagues our local clubs today. Wallet damage: $20 before midnight, $25 after. Where: Imperial Hotel, Erskineville
thief
PICS :: JA
When: Saturday June 14 from 10pm
04:06:14 :: Beach Road Hotel :: 71 Beach Rd Bondi Beach 9130 7247 OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER
MAR :: S :: JAMES AMBROSE :: ASHLEY
party profile
ciroc city
PICS :: AM
vivid live/spice spektrum: love is the message
It’s called: Ciroc City
It sounds like: R&B, hip hop mixed in with mashup for all your party music requirements. Acts: Hosted by rapper eGasm and tunes played by the likes of DJs Mo, Mixking, Alo and Ron Dawg. Three songs you’ll hear on the night: Iggy Azalea – ‘Fancy’; Kid Ink – ‘Main Chick’; R Kelly – ‘Bump N’ Grind’. And one you definitely won’t: ‘Who Let The Dogs Out?’ Sell it to us: O2 Nightclub is your destination for a night of good party tunes, great cocktails and friendly service, catering to all bookings large or small. Located at 163 Oxford Street, equipped with state-of-the-art Funktion 1 sound system, balcony area, funky bars, VIP booth s, LED lighting and graffiti art. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: In the morning you will reminisce about the awesome vibe and dancing ’til your feet get sore. Crowd specs: The crowd is a good mix of ages and faces. Wallet damage: Your wallet damage will be well below average with free entry ’til 11pm on the guest list and cocktail specia ls all night. Where: O2 Nightclub, 163 Oxford St, Darlin ghurst When: Every Saturday night
05:06:14 :: The Spice Cellar :: 58 Elizabeth St Sydney 9223 5585 34 :: BRAG :: 566 :: 11:06:14
thebrag.com