ISSUE NO. 576 AUGUST 20, 2014
FREE Now picked up at over 1,500 places across Sydney and surrounds. thebrag.com
MUSIC, FILM, THEATRE + MORE
INSIDE This Week
C OUR T NE Y L O V E
“I don’t want to talk to the media about anything.” This will go well.
2O,OOO DAYS ON EARTH
HILLTOP HOODS
R AV E OF T HRONE S
Kristian Nairn, AKA Hodor, on his double life as a DJ. Hodor.
T HE INBE T W EENERS 2
Will, Simon, Neil and Jay’s latest Aussie adventure.
A NBER L IN
It’s their final world tour, and they want to give thanks to Australia.
Plus
NICK CAVE: A TA LE TO TELL
BROODS VELOCIRAPTOR SEEKAE
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ticket ballot closing monday 25 august fallsfestival.com
BRAG :: 576 :: 20:08:14 :: 5
rock music news welcome to the frontline: the latest touring and music news...with Chris Martin and Tyson Wray
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DAVE CROWE AND COLIN LILLIE FROM SHADOWS ON BLUE stash of Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding and Celtic folk.
was growing up in Scotland, she was into every genre. She wasn’t afraid to listen to any style of music and this has rubbed off on me. I’m not afraid to try different styles, at least once.
Your Band DC: Shadows On Blue is 3. myself and Coin Lillie, but we
DC: My childhood was full of music. My granddad is a super-talented pianist and was a big inspiration for me growing up. Inspirations DC: My parents loved ’70s 2. pop music, so I grew up listening to Elton John, The Bee Gees and The Carpenters. I have always loved iconic ’80s rock bands like Icehouse, early U2, INXS – these bands have had a big infl uence on Shadows On Blue’s music. CL: I was really into metal when I was younger, but I had a secret
Karen O
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: Fergus Halliday, Nic Liney, Emily Meller gigguide@thebrag.com (rock); clubguide@ thebrag.com (dance, hip hop & parties) AWESOME INTERNS: Amie Mulhearn, Nic Liney, Fergus Halliday REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Nat Amat, Ian Barr, Prudence Clark, Keiron Costello, Marissa Demetriou, Christie Eliezer, Blake Gallagher, Cameron James, Tegan Jones, Lachlan Kanoniuk, Mina Kitsos, Emily Meller, Adam Norris, Daniel Prior, Kate Robertson, Erin Rooney, Leonardo Silvestrini, Amy Theodore, Rod Whitfield, Harry Windsor, Tyson Wray, Stephanie Yip, David James Young
The Music You Make DC: Our sound is a bit hard 4. to pin down – but people have mentioned U2, Mumford & Sons with the modern elements of Future Islands and The Horrors.
Music, Right Here, Right Now 5. DC: People often assume we feel isolated being based in Alice Springs – but it’s not the case! We have such an incredibly strong, rich, vibrant music community in the NT that supports us and keeps us incredibly busy. Our studio is working overtime producing for artists around Australia and internationally and we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Where: Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville When: Friday August 22
The 1975
PARTY LIKE IT’S 1975
British indie rockers The 1975 just can’t get enough of Australia. They’ve announced new tour dates hot on the heels of their recent visit for Splendour In The Grass, which was also accompanied by four sold-out sideshows. Their 2015 tour will see them play their biggest headline dates of Australia thus far, including at the Hordern Pavilion on Saturday January 17. Tickets go on sale 9am Friday August 22.
MANAGING EDITOR: Chris Martin chris@thebrag.com 02 9212 4322 ONLINE EDITOR: Tyson Wray ONLINE COORDINATOR: Emily Meller SUB-EDITOR: Emily Meller STAFF WRITERS: Adam Norris, Krissi Weiss, Augustus Welby NEWS: Gloria Brancatisano, Lauren Gill, Nic Liney, Amie Mulhearn, Tyson Wray ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant PHOTOGRAPHERS: Amath Magnan, Katrina Clarke, Ashley Mar
perform either as a duo or as a full five-piece band. We work with some amazing musicians in Alice Springs, in particular our good friend Ben Allen (Broadwing). Our current tour is supported by an NT Government grant, which is a huge achievement for us. We are really proud of our work as producers as well as live performers – we record and mix in Alice Springs and our music is getting major national airplay.
CL: Our national tour will be as an acoustic/synth duo, which represents the folk rock versus electronic approach to our style. It’s a very honest, truthful, passionate mix, just like Alice Springs, and leaves space for the imagination to drift.
KAREN O ALBUM PARTY
Karen O’s debut solo album, Crush Songs, is set to launch with a series of intimate listening parties around the globe as part of Sofar Sounds – including one date in Sydney. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman’s solo release is due out on Friday September 5, but Sydney fans can get the first listen at Sofar Sounds’ event on Wednesday August 27. Sofar Sounds is an international movement that brings artists and fans together in secret, intimate settings every month, and August’s gig will feature a number of live performers. For the chance to attend, register at karenomusic.com/ sofar.
Sunnyboys
ROWLAND S. HOWARD ANTHOLOGY
While Nick Cave occupies our cover this week, one of his former collaborators and a bona fide icon of Australian songwriting and guitar playing, Rowland S. Howard, is being remembered with a new anthology release on Liberation. Six Strings That Drew Blood will be out on CD and vinyl on Friday October 24, marking what would have been Howard’s 55th birthday – he died in 2009 of cancer. Howard, who played in These Immortal Souls, The Boys Next Door and more, is repeatedly cited by Aussie musos as an inspiration, and the new 32-track collection will celebrate a fine legacy.
MULLUM MUSIC FESTIVAL
The 2014 edition of the Mullum Music Festival will take place in November, with a lineup covering four days, 12 venues and over 120 performances and workshops. Aussie icons The Church have been announced to headline the festival, joined by Saskwatch, Husky, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mia Dyson, Nahko, Marlon Williams and many more. Mullum Music
Festival 2014 runs from Thursday November 20 – Sunday November 23. For the full lineup and tickets, head to mullummusicfestival.com.
SO KEEN
UK singer-songwriter Ryan Keen has added a solo Sydney show alongside his support slots on the current Kate Miller-Heidke tour. Keen released his debut album Room For Light in December last year, and is a star on the rise is his home country, having already shared stages with the likes of Ben Howard, Ed Sheeran and Newton Faulkner. Check out Keen’s acoustic folk stylings at The Vanguard on Monday September 1.
JIMMY TOUR WORLD
Jimmy Eat World are returning to Australia. After the band’s appearance Down Under earlier this year at Soundwave, they’re coming back for the Futures 10 Year Anniversary Tour, which will see them celebrate the birthday of their seminal fifth studio album Futures. Catch ’em on Saturday November 22 at the Enmore Theatre with support from My Echo. Tickets go on sale to the general public at 10am Friday August 22.
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SUNNYBOYS RETURN
Following their national tour earlier this year, Sunnyboys are coming back to Sydney and Newcastle in November. The ’80s icons have returned to the stage in support of their remastered debut album and Our Best Of releases, and their Newcastle date will be their first headline appearance in the region in 20 years. See Sunnyboys at the Factory Theatre on Wednesday October 8 and Newcastle Panthers on Friday October 10.
FALLS FESTIVAL
The Falls Music & Arts Festival has dropped a huge lineup for its 2014/2015 incarnation. The event will feature Alt-J, Big Freedia, The Black Lips, Bluejuice, Cold War Kids, DMA’s, Glass Animals, George Ezra, Jagwar Ma, Jamie xx, Joey Bada$$, John Butler Trio, Kim Churchill, The Kite String Tangle, Milky Chance, Movement, The Presets, Remi, Röyksopp & Robyn, Run The Jewels, Safia, SBTRKT, Spiderbait, Sticky Fingers, The Temper Trap, Tensnake, Tkay Maidza, Todd Terje, Tycho, Vance Joy, Wolf Alice, Alison Wonderland, Badbadnotgood, Client Liaison and Salt N Pepa with more to be announced. Falls will take place in Lorne from Sunday December 28 – Wednesday December 31, Marion Bay from Monday December 29 – Wednesday December 31 and Byron Bay from Tuesday December 30 – Friday January 2. The ticket ballot is open now at fallsfestival.com.au.
thebrag.com
Shadows on Blue photo by Justin Brierty (courtesy of the Centralian Advocate)
Growing Up CL: My mother had the most 1. eclectic music collection when I
“ONE OF THE MOST DRA MATICALLY THRILLING AND EMOTIONALLY SATISFYING TIME-TRAVEL MOVIES OF THE PAST SE VERAL YEARS.” ROB HUNTER - FILM SCHOOL REJECTS
ETHAN HAWKE S A R A H SNOOK NOAH TAYLOR
A
T O
S A V E
T H E
H E
F I L M
B Y
T H E
S P I E R I G
B R O T H E R S
F U T U R E
M U S T
T H E
R E S H A P E
P A S T
+++++ “ E N T H R A L L I NG F R OM
START TO FINISH.”
- TH E E XA M I N ER
Strong sex scene and violence
BRAG :: 576 :: 20:08:14 :: 7
live & local
free stuff
welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town...with Chris Martin, Lauren Gill and Amie Mulhearn
head to: thebrag.com/freeshit
speed date WITH
MICHAEL COOPER FROM WITHOUT PARACHUTES to find that level of musicianship anywhere. Your Band Without Parachutes is a 3. three-piece made up of Bob
1.
is something that still sticks with me today. Inspirations My favourite musicians have 2. to be Drew Goddard and the rest of the cats from Karnivool. The first time I saw them was at an afternoon matinee show in 2006 just after they had dropped Themata. There were about 40 people in Manning Bar and I remember leaving that wondering why they weren’t the biggest band in the world. They’re just so tight and so huge live. You’d struggle
The Music You Make Our music is a combination 4. of heavy rock and electronic sounds. You can never have too many riffs in our book, so there is a lot of in-between-song jamming on riffs and general chaos. Will
5.
Music, Right Here, Right Now I was lucky enough to study in Melbourne last year. Now that’s how live music should be. Sydney in comparison is obviously is in a bit of trough with the closure of venues, lockouts and all that. All I can say is that when you hit the bottom you can only go up, and while the scene is small it’s dedicated and good things are happening. Where: Frankie’s Pizza When: Wednesday August 27
COURTNEY LOVE
The inimitable Courtney Love comes to town this week, promising to wreak havoc all up in the Enmore Theatre on Sunday August 24. The ever-outspoken former Hole frontwoman is on her first solo Australian tour, and her show is as unpredictable as ever – already one goof at her Adelaide gig drew her wrath for throwing a beer can her way, as did our writer for more innocent reasons (check out our interview on page 14). It’s tough love when it comes to Courtney, and that’s why you can’t take your eye off her onstage. We’ve got two double passes up for grabs to her Sydney show – for your chance to win, head to thebrag. com/freeshit and tell us your favourite Courtney Love moment.
Xxx
Growing Up Growing up I spent a lot of time at my grandparents’. Pop played the cello and piano and had all these kooky ’50s rock’n’roll remix albums. Imagine ‘Rock Around The Clock’ redone on a Casio keyboard. As a four-year-old that was pretty badass. My old man was a big ’70s heavy metal and Aussie pub rock fan. I remember the first time he got his Led Zeppelin IV record out to show me. The riff in ‘Black Dog’ made me want to shit my pants. I think that early introduction into loud guitars and drums with big riffs
Stewart (drums), Will Cruger (guitar, vox) and me, Michael Cooper, on bass. Rob and I met in high school and have been playing together for about ten years. Will found us about five years ago through mutual friends and we have floated around lineups and bands in the Wollongong/Sydney area together since. Our tastes can sometimes clash massively. Robbie loves everything from The Paper Kites to Korn. Will loves anything English from Coldplay and London Grammar to Muse. I like my music dirty – Future Of The Left, The Bronx and QOTSA are up there as my favourites.
has a pretty versatile, clean-hitting voice. Most of the songs revolve around his vocal melodies. They can be anywhere from epic tenminute-long Aussie prog rockinfluenced songs to snappy threeminute synthpop tunes. We have been recording with Nick DiDia at Studios 301 in Byron Bay. Our EP was recently finished and should be out in the coming months. Working with an absolute legend and master like Nick was out of control.
Revolution Incorporated
TALKING ’BOUT A REVOLUTION
Sydney reggae groovers Revolution Incorporated will launch their new single next week. ‘Little Dub’ promises a little taste of dub in Revolution Inc’s distinct style, with support at the launch gig from FBi Radio DJ Foreigndub and live reggae art by Adam Toonfield. Be part of the good vibes at Oxford Art Factory’s Gallery Bar on Saturday August 30.
BULL & BUSH
Out Baulkham Hills way, the Bull & Bush Hotel is working hard at building the local live music scene. Every Thursday night, the venue is putting on original bands, and this week (Thursday August 21) is no different, with a lineup featuring Surroundings,
Spheres, Castles, Emergency Syndrome and Amber Trace. Next Thursday August 29 it’s 30Three, Roar Of Lions, Second Nation and Lou Goryl. Plenty to get excited about there, and there’s a DJ mixing in the beer garden every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night as well.
Lepers & Crooks
The Peep Tempel
THE PEEP SHOW
The Peep Tempel have announced they will release their second album, Tales, this October. To celebrate, the band will be heading off on a national tour. The three-piece has explored some new territory on this release – while the signature humour is still on show, it has taken somewhat of a darker turn. The boys will be taking this sound on the road, kicking things off in Sydney at the end of September and finishing up eight stops later in Melbourne. Be there when The Peep Tempel take over Frankie’s Pizza on Thursday September 25 and The Lansdowne on Friday October 24.
IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL
Marrickville will host the debut edition of Young Henrys Small World, a street festival of tasty beer and rockin’ tunes. Tumbleweed, The Snowdroppers, The Delta Riggs, Little Bastard, True Vibenation, Steve Smyth, Pat Capocci, The Upskirts, Richard In Your Mind, Bloods and Royal Tennyson are on the music lineup, boosted by food vendors and local artists. It’ll be a celebration of all that makes life good as we enter the warmer months. Small World is on Saturday September 20 at Jabez Street, Marrickville.
YO GRITO TURNS THREE
LIVE ON THE DECK
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SONS OF THE EAST
Three-piece indie-folksters Jack Rollins, Nic Johnston and Dan Wallage – jointly Sons Of The East – headline Saturdays In The Rex at the Beach Road Hotel this Saturday August 23. The band came together in mid-2011 and has regularly toured up and down the east coast, blending keys, guitar, banjo and vocals to great effect. In support will be The Grease Arrestor.
ELLIS & FRITZ
Americana artist Robert Ellis and alt-country singer Jonny Fritz will team up for a tour together this October. The pair is headed to our shores for the new Americana festival Out On The Weekend. This will mark Ellis’ third trip to Australia, having toured here twice in 2013 with Justin Townes Earle and later with Cory Chisel. He’s earned widespread acclaim for his debut album Photographs and its follow-up The Lights From The Chemical Plant, while Fritz’s debut album Dad Country found critical approval and is set to be released in Australia soon. See Ellis and Fritz at Newtown Social Club on Tuesday October 23. thebrag.com
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Live On The Deck is a brand new weekly live music event coming to Sunday arvos. The concept is quite simple: take one sun-soaked deck, bring on board some local musicians, add alcohol (responsibly) – and you’ve got Live On The Deck. Launching the event will be anthemic rock five-piece Lepers & Crooks with help from Dosey Smith. Future Sundays will feature sets from Sarah McLeod and The Button Collective as well as a monthly open jam session. Live On The Deck is at Vicinity Dining in Alexandria starting this Sunday August 24.
Over the last three years Yo Grito has become a staple at Goodgod Small Club and is the venue’s longest-running weekly party. Yo Grito is a night dedicated to the dancefloor – a wild blend of ’60s garage, punk, psych, surf, rockabilly, boogaloo, soul and other worldly delights. To celebrate its birthday, Yo Grito will be hosting its annual Dance Off Competition with some sweet records, drinks, and heaps of denim goods up for grabs thanks to Levi’s. Judges include the infamous Jay Katz plus Daniel Darling from The Dandelion, music editor of Sneaky magazine Luen Jacobs and I Oh
You Records’ Johann Ponniah. Yo Grito’s Third Birthday is on Friday August 22 at Goodgod Small Club.
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Industrial Strength Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer
THINGS WE HEAR * Is a book on the late Doc Neeson already in the works? * Which PR company rushed out a media release that got its name wrong? * Courtney Love to the idiot who flung a projectile at her during her Adelaide Thebarton Theatre show: “In 20 years no-one’s thrown a beer can at me except for you fucker, your weenie must be this big‌!â€? * Spotify’s new partnership with BandPage enables musicians to sell their merchandise, secret shows and other experiences on their Spotify channel. * Talks between the Recording Industry Association Of America and the global industry’s IFPI could see albums released simultaneously around the globe on the same day (Fridays) in a bid to cut down on piracy. At the moment, the UK releases them on Mondays, the US on Tuesdays and Australia on Fridays, allowing music to be sold illegally a few days before. * Flume finished off his soldout North American tour last week. It included more than 20 festival and headline gigs including Lollapalooza and Red Rocks, and three sold-
out shows at Terminal 5 in NYC and Club Nokia in LA. * After ten years, four albums, 1,000 gigs and an ARIA nomination, Adelaide’s Lowrider play their final show on November 21 before an indefinite hiatus. * Gene Simmons’ nonsense about depressed people that got KISS banned from Triple M was not the only flare up he had last week. The Black Lips called KISS’ music “misogynistic� and “sexist�, and Simmons retorted that their name is “racist�. * Sam Smith denies rumours he’s recording the next James Bond theme. * Amy Lee reckons she has no plans to play with Evanescence in the future. * Death Cab For Cutie guitarist Chris Walla has left the band. * Paul Kelly might be a household name in some parts of Australia. But in Broome, when he wandered off for a walk along Cable Beach with a West Australian reporter and returned to the club without an ID tag, he was stopped by the club security. The bouncer was red-faced, and Kelly graciously told him “[you were] just doing your job� before going on to play to 2,500 fans.
LIVE PERFORMANCE SECTOR REACHES RECORD REVENUE AND ATTENDANCE New figures revealed this week by Live Performance Australia (LPA) showed that
* The Gold Coast Bulletin ran a piece on residents of Gold Coast’s Parkway Drive, who are fed up with fans of the Byron band pilfering the street sign countless times. One sign was cut from the post with an oxy torch after a week in place. * Queanbeyan gets its first river festival on October 11, which will include live bands. * Sheppard are in the UK for three weeks promoting themselves (including a set at the V Festival) and then in September head to the US to meet their new manager Scooter Braun (Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Cody Simpson) for their first face-to-face. * Illy’s follow-up to the goldcertified Cinematic won’t come out until late 2015. * The video for Boy & Bear’s new single ‘Old Town Blues’ will feature footage from their global adventures. Last month they played on Conan O’Brien’s TV show. In the US ‘Southern Sun’ was the number two most added track on release, fifth most added to college radio and the number one most added track to noncommercial radio. Their album Harlequin Dream spent 11 weeks in the Billboard Heatseakers chart.
Australia’s live performance sector had a record year in 2013 as consumer confidence grew. LPA’s annual Ticket Attendance & Revenue Survey 2013 – which covers contemporary music, musical theatre, opera,
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comedy, classical and children’s – posted a record $1.479 billion in revenue (up 22.7% from 2012) and a record 17.93 million tickets sold, constituting a 10.2% rise. Contemporary music and musical theatre remain the largest sectors, generating 42.5% of the revenue at $628.1 million – a 30.3% rise. In real terms, New South Wales’ across-the-board live performance industry contributed 33.6% of the nation’s revenue with a value of $497.46 million, and 32.7% of the attendance with 5.87 million tickets sold. But per capita, Victoria and Western Australia did better. NSW and Victoria combined had a revenue of $970.98 million, or approximately two-thirds of the entire Australian live performance industry. For our full report, go to thebrag.com.
AUSTRALIA COUNCIL GRANTS Among the national music associations and talent sharing in $1.5 million worth of Australia Council grants were Sydney Improvised Music, Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra and Jazzgroove Association, who got $50,000 each, and Campbelltown Arts Centre ($49,776). Funding for new recordings went to Dan Kelly ($20,000), Grey Wing Trio ($13,160), SPOD ($10,562), Eve Klein ($10,260), Sandra Evans & Bobby Singh ($10,000) and Three ($6,000), while Diaspora Music got $30,000 to present Diesel N Dub which reinvents Midnight Oil songs in dub reggae. The Now Now got $30,000 for the 14th Festival of Exploratory Music and Arts 2015 and Seymour Theatre Centre $25,000 for New Wave: Sound 2015 (for Vivid Sydney).
UNDR CTRL AGENCY LAUNCHES Former Modular booking agent Paul Stix has officially launched a booking, touring and events agency called UNDR ctrl, although it’s been quietly working behind the scenes for some time. It has 27 artists, including Canyons, Van She, Bag Raiders, triple j Unearthed act Albert Salt and teen producer Just A Gent.
CUNNINGHAM JOINS NATIONAL LIVE MUSIC OFFICE Damian Cunningham has joined the National Live Music Office as director of audience and sector development. He will work with the government, music industry and hospitality sector to increase gigs for musicians and help grow the venue-based live music industry. Cunningham has previously worked in bookings and logistics at Big Day Out, Splendour In The Grass, Peats Ridge and the Newtown Festival, and ran his own live music services company, Elastic Entertainment.
DAN SULTAN BIG WINNER AT NIMAS Dan Sultan took three wins at the National Indigenous Music Awards in Darwin. He got song of the year (‘The Same Man’), album of the year (Blackbird) and cover art (for Blackbird with artist Ken Taylor). Jessica Mauboy won artist of the year, Briggs the new talent and East Journey for video clip, and Munkimuk was inducted into the NIMA Hall of Fame. Among the highlights of the event were Sultan playing with full band and a horn section, and a hip hop showcase with Philly, Jimblah, Last Kinection and Briggs.
CMC ROCKS LEAVES HUNTER FOR QLD
Coming Soon
Thu 28 Aug
Sat 6 Sep
Rave of Thrones feat. Kristian Nairn aka Hodor
DevilDriver & Whitechapel
Fri 12 Sep
Sat 27 Sep
El Gran Combo
Rebel Souljahz (USA)
After four years at the Hunter Valley’s Hope Estate, the three-day CMC Rocks event will move to an “expandable� site in Ipswich, Queensland, next year. It drew 8,000 fans this March; 35% from outside NSW. It will change its name to CMC Rocks QLD. It is believed the new site, between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, offers fans more travel and accommodation options. Next year’s event will be headlined by Lady Antebellum and Troy Cassar-Daley and be held from Friday March 13 – Sunday March 15.
TURN YOUR DEMO INTO A HIT
Sun 5 Oct
Sat 18 Oct
Dead Kennedys
Drum & Bass Tour feat: The Upbeats,
ENTERTAINMENT QUARTER, BUILDING 220, 122 LANG RD, MOORE PARK, SYDNEY
10 :: BRAG :: 576 :: 20:08:14
Want to turn your demo into a hit single? A two-hour seminar called Get Smart Take Two: Production and Publicity will show you how. Studio engineer Alex Gooden walks you through mixing and mastering it, and Melody Forghani from PR agency Bossy explains how to get it on radio. The talk is on Tuesday August 26 at Bankstown Arts Centre. It’s free, but RSVP at taketwo. eventbrite.com.au.
FBI FINALISTS FOR NORTHERN LIGHTS FBi Radio’s move to make its Northern Lights competition national this year paid off.
Of ten finalists, two were from NSW – Hubert Clarke Jr. and The Walking Who. From Victoria were GL, Wzrdkid, Lucianblomkamp, Shunya, Jasia and White Hex. From WA were Kucka and from QLD Airling. A band and a solo artist will play the Iceland Airwaves Festival in November, spend a day in the studio and network with international industry folk. A free compilation of tracks from the finalists will be available for download from FBi’s website.
$15,000 RECORDING GRANTS The PPCA and the Australia Council are offering $15,000 recording grants to make new music. The deadline is Tuesday November 25 – go to australiacouncil.gov.au/grants. You must register for free with the PPCA under its Artist Direct Distribution Scheme (see ppca. com.au). Last year’s inaugural recipients were Courtney Barnett, Ben Salter, The Grigoryan Brothers, Lance Ferguson and Ainslie Wills.
CHICH RECORDS THE OLD WAY When it came to making his first album, I’m Alive, Sydney soul revivalist Chich (ex-Green Room) took a leaf from his inspirations – cutting it live, at Leichhardt’s Love Hz. “The wonderful soul records of the ’60s and ’70s were recorded live, sounded great and were perfect despite their imperfections,� he said. Chich was so nervous about recording live (he hadn’t played with a band for ten years) that he was literally sweating and had to keep drying off. The band includes guitarist Simon Morel who’s also pulling manager duties. Before recording, Chich toured Europe, playing Barcelona with a Japanese Jimi Hendrix, recorded an EP (Konacno) in Zagreb, Croatia with local musicians and entered the Eurovision Song Contest for Croatia with a Croatian singer. I’m Alive is launched on Sunday August 31 at The Vanguard.
COPYRIGHT SEMINARS Each year, the Australian Copyright Council presents a seminar series aimed at the general public, libraries, lawyers and educational organisations. They’re entertaining and knowledgeable. Working With Copyright features speakers Naomi Messenger, James Cheatley and Nathan Webster, and will be held Monday September 1 – Wednesday September 3 at the Christie Conference Centre. For more info visit copyright.org.au.
Lifelines Dating: the romance between Coldplay’s Chris Martin and actress Jennifer Lawrence is heating up. Injured: Kings Of Leon drummer Nathan Followill broke his ribs after an idiot ran in front of their tour bus in Boston, causing it to slam on its brakes. Ill: Celine Dion is cancelling shows to look after her husband RenÊ AngÊlil, who is recovering from surgery for throat cancer. In Court: Glenn Danzig’s lawsuit against former Misfits bandmate Jerry Only for selling Misfits merchandise without his permission was thrown out. Danzig alleged they signed a contract in 1994 about profits from Misfits’ famous fiend skull logo, but the judge said he couldn’t prove the case. In Court: an Adelaide District Court jury found Red Square manager Antony Tropeano and two staffers guilty of bashing AFL player Jared Polec’s brother Daniel after a dispute on the dancefloor. Sentencing is next month. In Court: Melbourne DVD and games pirate Phong Ly, 34, was jailed for eight months at the Victorian County Court after cops found over 60,000 counterfeit products at his home and businesses in Clayton. Died: US producer Rick Parashar, 50, of a blood clot. Aside from Pearl Jam, Bon Jovi, 3 Doors Down and Nickelback he worked with Aussies Alex Lloyd and Melbourne band Juke Kartel.
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departure, Bargeld says in cold, clinical and Teutonic style, was that he could no longer balance being in two different bands – it had nothing to do with creative differences or personal conflict. For the filmmakers, Bargeld’s appearance in the film “represented the idea of moving on”. “Their collaboration had been a close and special one,” Forsyth says, “and after it ended they’d never properly discussed why – Blixa just left the band. So we hoped that bringing them back together might spark a conversation around that event and some of these ideas. On set, they felt like two old friends meeting again.” 20,000 Days On Earth has as its implicit quest an investigation of Cave’s basic artistic inspiration. Cave has suggested previously that “inspiration is a word used by people who aren’t really doing anything”. It’s a sentiment that seems to be borne out in Cave’s commentary in the film: he challenges the notion of a muse in the caricatured sense of the term. Cave’s exploration of religion – which can be witnessed to varying degrees in songs such as ‘The Mercy Seat’, ‘The Witness Song’ and ‘Into My Arms’ – is explained pithily as a counterweight to his drug use.
PORTR AIT OF AN ARTIST BY PATRICK EMERY
Forsyth and Pollard acknowledge Cave’s relationship with religion “as always [being] a complex one”. In that context, Cave’s cursory dismissal of religion as a source of creative interest wasn’t a surprise to Forsyth. “After a recent screening in New York someone asked if the film once and for all answers the question of whether he believes in God. His answer was that this is how he felt on that day. That pretty much seems to sum up Nick’s feelings on religion.” By the end of the film it’s not clear whether the viewer has any more understanding of who Nick Cave is or where he’s going. His kitchen table dialogue with creative partner Warren Ellis is reminiscent of two old men trading tales of sporting battles of yore; when Cave describes the scene at a Birthday Party show in the early 1980s – at which a urinating German fan provoked the violent ire of the band’s late bass player Tracy Pew – it’s with a mixture of amusement and adult reflection.
I
n late 1983, Nick Cave arrived back in Australia, four years after he and his fellow members of The Birthday Party had left Australian shores to pursue the band’s career in Europe. With The Birthday Party having imploded under the weight of Cave and guitarist Rowland S. Howard’s competing creative desires – and copious drug use – Cave sought to exploit the mythology that had evolved around his enfant terrible gothic punk persona. Interviewing Cave for Stiletto magazine, writer Clinton Walker, who’d rubbed shoulders with his subject in the halcyon days of Melbourne’s Crystal Ballroom venue in the late 1970s, probed Cave on his next creative move and his relationship to the world around him.
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Forsyth and Pollard had originally worked with Cave when he’d approached them to produce some film clips for Cave’s 2008 album with The Bad Seeds, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! The film is a narrative conceit of a day in Cave’s life, from the moment of waking to the drawing of the curtain after a typically explosive Bad Seeds live show. Rather than explore Cave’s role in creating or challenging his own mythology, Forsyth says, “We wanted to portray Nick as someone who tells stories, constantly churning everything through the mill of the imagination.” “We like the idea that our rock stars should be beyond our grasp, that they should be reaching for something greater,” adds Pollard. “We also wanted to speak to bigger ideas, to probe universal themes like creativity and mortality.” Cave was interested in the concept of the film, and a willing editorial
contributor and participant: the film’s opening dialogue commences with Cave intoning, “At the end of the 20th century, I ceased to be a human being” – a line taken from Cave’s songwriting notebooks. Subsequent lines of dialogue were developed after Forsyth and Pollard sent Cave topics by email, to which Cave would reply with his musings. The film is punctuated by a series of conversations held in Cave’s car featuring other performers querying Cave about aspects of his art and life – there’s former Bad Seed Blixa Bargeld, actor Ray Winstone and one-time collaborator Kylie Minogue. “The idea we had was to use the car as a sort of imaginative space, a place where we could manifest the inside of Nick’s head,” Pollard says. “The car gives us this pure and simple narrative device. It keeps the ‘journey’ of the day moving forward, but they also gave us these chances to spin off into a more creative realm. So we see these conversations like figments of Nick’s imagination.” The brief moments with Bargeld, the brutally enigmatic German artist whom Cave worked with for 20 years, are particularly fascinating. Bargeld, who once described Cave on English television as “the
“NICK CAVE IS ONE OF THOSE ARTISTS THAT THERE ARE LOTS OF PRECONCEPTIONS ABOUT. HE’S OFTEN THOUGHT OF AS SOMEONE DARK AND SERIOUS, BUT HE’S ACTUALLY A FUNNY AND OPEN PERSON … THE HUMOUR SEEMS TO HAVE BLED INTO HIS SONGWRITING.” greatest songwriter of the [20th] century” (Cave responded by referring to Bargeld as “immutable, godlike”), is typically frank in explaining his departure from The Bad Seeds – an explanation that apparently Cave had not previously sought, nor Bargeld had ever offered. The reason for his
But to interpret Cave as pathologically intense or perennially serious is superficial at best. “Nick’s one of those artists that there are lots of preconceptions about,” Forsyth says. “He’s often thought of as someone dark and serious, but he’s actually a funny and open person. Maybe that’s something the fans have become used to in recent years, and the humour seems to have bled into his songwriting. But anyone less familiar with Nick’s work might not be expecting that.” Forsyth and Pollard make no excuses for leaving the door open for further enquiry. “We were determined to portray the Nick we know, and we feel pretty confident that we’ve done that,” Pollard says. “It’s an honest film, and contains a great deal of truths. That doesn’t mean that all the facts and figures are correct. Part of being a fan is a thirst to know more, and we’re sure fans will have many more questions that the film doesn’t answer.” What: 20,000 Days On Earth (dir. Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard) Where: In cinemas Thursday August 21 xxx
“I’m sort of doubting the value of the creative process,” mused Cave at the time. “I’ve always sort of qualified my life in terms of, ‘At least I’ve got these records, I’ve done this, I’ve done that…’ It’s a load of bullshit. I don’t want to be too precious about it but I find myself leading exactly the same lifestyle as all the people around me, who I thought were totally directionless and lost individuals, and excusing myself from that because I made records.”
30 years later, and it’s hard to reconcile the latent self-doubt in Cave’s past observations with the accomplished musician, poet and performer – and prodigious worker – who forms the subject of Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s dramadocumentary feature, 20,000 Days On Earth.
The truth – if such an abstract concept has any relevance to Cave – is that he is, like so many artists, a well of contradictions. In the latter days of his tenure in The Birthday Party, Cave attempted to explain the confrontational aspect of his stage demeanour: “You’re placed in such an extreme atmosphere, there’s so much focus on you, [that] it’s a matter of pulling out the innermost, inner personality you may have, wearing that in exchange for your day-to-day exterior.”
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Rusty Pinto Permanent Style By Nic Liney
R
usty Pinto strikes you as the kind of guy who knows exactly what he wants – he’s got a discerning ear that can sort through bullshit at rapid pace. This innate tendency, along with a passion for all things blues and rockabilly and a voice that is robust and flexible, has led Pinto on a kaleidoscopic career path, taking his blend of blues to the other side of the world and back again. Perhaps it was a natural outcome for a guy who grew up within arm’s reach of an old acoustic and exposed to a steady stream of Mum’s favourite country numbers. But Pinto’s musical inspirations were entirely his own. “You always tend to avoid what your mum is into,” he says, and instead a hybrid diet of blues, rock and jazz nourished his sensibilities. Little Richard holds a special place for him, as well as the usual gems: Elvis, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley. The result was an eclectic blend of styles. Internationally recognised as a top-tier blues and rockabilly wailer, Pinto has been doing his thing for quite some time. He originally fronted Perth rockabilly sensation Rusty And The Dragstrip Trio before breaking off to pursue a solo career. The band’s earlier records like I Ain’t Ready are vibrant, no-nonsense rockabilly, but they’re not exactly emblematic of Rusty’s individual sound.
Courtney Love Off Limits By Tyson Wray
“T
he schedule has changed. I’ve got Courtney Love on hold. Can you speak to her in 30 seconds?” Sweet Jesus! If there was one phone call I wasn’t expecting to be woken up by after a rather heavy Friday night out, it was this. One of the most polarising, fascinating and downright intriguing names in the contemporary music industry, Courtney Love Cobain is an intimidating interviewee at the best of times, let alone in a state of haze at 9am. Although it could be argued that’s exactly the state of mind you should be in when speaking to the former frontwoman of Hole, widow to one of the most infl uential names in rock history and the Rolling Stone-certifi ed “most controversial woman in rock’n’roll”. Arguably, Love is as famous for her music as she is her mercurial temperament. In 1992, she took aim at journalist Lynn Hirschberg after an interview in Vanity Fair led to the revelation she’d been taking heroin while pregnant with daughter Frances Bean. Following its publication, Bean was taken away by child services. Hole then released a bootleg titled ‘Bring Me The Head Of Lynn Hirschberg’. Love blamed Hirschberg for the death of Kurt Cobain, and at an Oscars afterparty in 1995 she attempted to impale her with Quentin Tarantino’s statuette that he’d been awarded for Pulp Fiction. Not wanting to be on the receiving end of her well-documented wrath, I began by outlining what sort of questions writers should tread lightly upon when speaking to her. “Oh, man, I have a few,” she says. She’s speaking to me from a hotel in Tokyo, where she’s embarked on a last-minute holiday before heading Australia’s way.
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“OK then, let’s leave this completely open. What would you like to talk about?” “Nothing.” “Oh.” “I don’t want to talk to the media about anything.” “Why?” “Why? Why?! Because it’s none of your fucking business. My personal business is not your fucking business. That’s fucking why. How about that? I’ll talk about the tour. I’ll talk about my new single. I’ll talk to you about my rock show. That’s it.” “OK, fair enough.” “Good.” [Crosses out the entirety of my list of 20-odd questions.] “Well then, I suppose we should best talk about your rock show.” This month sees Love descend on Australian shores for her debut solo tour. Having toured in the past with Hole, her 2014 visit follows the release of her double A-side single ‘You Know My Name’/‘Wedding Day’, which the UK’s Telegraph described as “potty mouthed and captivating”. “I’ve been to Australia a few times since I last played there, but just for friends and stuff,” she says. What should people expect from this visit? “I don’t know. We’ll see when I get there, I guess. I have a great band that I love who are really good and really tight. I’m probably not going to play many shows after this because I want to really focus on my acting. So come and get it while you can.”
Indeed, Love’s adoration of acting has seen her add yet another string to her bow – most recently being cast in a recurring role in the seventh and fi nal season of the FX series Sons Of Anarchy. “I love the show and I love the producers of it,” she says of the program that depicts an outlaw motorcycle club operating in a fi ctional town in California’s Central Valley. “I’m playing a kindergarten teacher. I’m really excited about it. That’s what I really want to focus on for the rest of the year, then I’ll look towards making an album.
His solo ventures have seen him haul his guitar around the globe, from Las Vegas to Sweden, Germany and Italy. In all these
In late 2012, Pinto formed a brand new trio, Shotdown From Sugartown, with fellow Perthians Jon Matthews and Jay McIvor. The band took to busking in the streets to develop its style – a return to traditional rockabilly and honky-tonk blues roots. The most important concern for the group was to have fun doing it, and it’s worked wonders. Pinto says there’s “a completely different energy” these days. “Everyone’s on the same wavelength, no-one has a go at each other,” he says. It can be hard to fall into sync after six years as a solo artist, but in Pinto’s words, “It’s my favourite project so far.” And what about the quiffs and Dickies that the fashionistas have eagerly snatched up in recent years? There have been a few moments of confusion, laughs Pinto. “Sometimes someone looks like a rocker and you go up to them and say, ‘Hey man, what do you think about this band? And they reply, ‘I actually don’t like that kind of music at all.’” Pinto chuckles at the thought – he doesn’t mind the fad, as fashion will move onto something else in a few years’ time, but he’ll still be hanging around, doing his thing. In the meantime, Shotdown From Sugartown are recording their debut album. It’s hard work for Pinto, as he maintains the autonomy that has defined his career, right down to the mixing and production. A project’s only worth doing these days, he says, if “it’s all on you”. What: Fifties Fair 2014 With: Pat Capocci Where: Rose Seidler House When: Sunday August 24
“[2014 has] been mostly fi lled with highlights. I’ve started acting again, which is really good. I’m currently working on a play in New York. I’ve played some really good shows and I’ve also started working on designing for a clothing line. Other than that, I’ve just been hanging out with my daughter a lot, which is great. In terms of lowlights, I don’t really like living in LA very much. It’s pretty boring.” It’s at this point when Love’s interest in continuing the interview has dwindled. She’s quite obviously becoming irritated; it’s time to wrap things up. At the risk of cliché, I close out the interview by asking if there’s anything left she’d like to tell me about her Australian tour. “I can’t wait to play there, I can’t wait to rock it out. It’s going to be the last time I play a rock show in a long time.” Xxxxs photo by Xxxx
“‘What’s the biggest misconception about you?’ That’s not my job to answer that. You answer that. I’m not answering that fucking question! That one always bugs me. Then there’s just the usual mind-numbing crap that I’m always asked.”
“‘What’s the biggest misconception about you?’ That’s not my job to answer that. You answer that. I’m not answering that fucking question!”
“I was 18 when we started, and the guys I was playing with were a lot older than me … [they were] saying, ‘This is what you should do, this is what you should sound like.’” Pigeonholing music wasn’t Pinto’s strong suit, so he went it alone. “I don’t really see the need to play just one style. Being a solo artist gave me a lot of direction and a lot less restrictions.” As Pinto says, it all comes down to knowing what you want.
places, Australian rockabilly has fared pretty well. Pinto puts it down to an act of tacit rebellion. “Since we’ve had so much Americana in our face, Australia has kind of had to react to it and create their own sound,” he says. It’s an element that comes on strong in Pinto’s own music.
I’m going back to bed. With: The Mercy Kills Where: Newcastle Panthers / Enmore Theatre When: Friday August 22 / Sunday August 24 thebrag.com
Broods Nott Like The Other By Mina Kitsos
I
t was only ten months ago that Caleb and Georgia Nott uploaded a song to their SoundCloud account under the name Broods. Little did the siblings know that ‘Bridges’ would send the internet ballistic, tee up a number of record deals with distinguished music labels including Capitol Records and Polydor, and summon a cult following of fans almost overnight. Since then, the New Zealand-born pair has been set on overdrive, releasing a Broods EP, headlining shows on the other side of the globe and gracing international festival stages. Despite all this, Georgia is bright-eyed and pragmatic in her response to their jaw-dropping success. “It’s a bit too much to absorb if you try and take it all in at once. We were always doing music but we’d never actually sat down and thought, ‘Let’s actually try and make it as musicians.’ We didn’t even really think that when we started Broods.” Aged 20 and 21 respectively, Georgia and Caleb’s decision to work together professionally is still a fresh resolve. Although they dabbled in projects through high school, it was never their intention to join forces and become Broods, a name well suited to their brooding sonics. “We didn’t decide together until the start of last year,” says Caleb. “I was full-time studying industrial design and Georgia was working, but not really doing her job,” he playfully chides. “Georgia tried to study music. She lasted three weeks.” Georgia, however, is quick to defend herself. “I don’t like being told what to do,” she explains. “We’re self-taught. [In high school] we had this music teacher. He was all about performance and being a good musician rather than being theoretically clued up.” That music teacher, she says, was pivotal in carving out their interests and prompting their pursuit of a career in music, having redesigned the entire
course with an emphasis on songwriting. “[It’s] all just because of this one dude that decided he was gonna fuck shit up,” she laughs. The disarming fusion of synth-driven atmospherics and stomping beats on Broods’ debut EP had another influence – the hand of producer Joel Little, who rose to prominence as he joined Lorde onstage at the Grammys to accept a golden gramophone for Pure Heroine. With their collaboration predating Lorde’s success, Caleb says the ripple of events is still hard to comprehend. “That’s so weird – people referring to him as a crazy big producer. He’s been working his arse off for ten years, doing odd jobs, so it’s so cool to see him have that success. He’s such a honey.” As for distinguishing Broods’ sound from their fellow Kiwi, Caleb is quick to point out that Little’s work is tailored to his subjects. “He builds a sound around the artist,” Caleb says. So it was an easy decision, says Georgia, to enlist Little’s help once again on their debut LP, Evergreen. “We’re kind of all dreams and no knowledge of how to work a computer. My demos on GarageBand are like – my percussion is me hitting the mic with my finger. I did this one thing where I was like…” She pulls her knee to her chest and rubs it with the palm of her hand, creating a slow, scraping sound. “I was just making weird noises with my clothes,” she giggles. Caleb rises to his feet, one hand simulating pulling a drawstring. “One song on the album has one pair of my pants – you pull it and it makes this ‘pop’ noise. I was just sitting there and Joel goes, ‘Should we record that?’” “That’s what happens when we’re in the studio for five weeks straight,” laughs Georgia. “‘Oh my God – this is genius! Let’s record our clothes!’”
With ‘Bridges’ now comfortably sitting on over four million Spotify streams, and Broods’ new single ‘Mother & Father’ shooting straight to number one on the Hype Machine charts, it’s a good thing that time together isn’t taxing. “We’re constantly doing stuff and it’s full-on,” says Georgia. “When we’re under pressure, it’s all about protecting each other and making sure that we’re OK,” she says, Caleb nodding firmly in agreement. When it comes to songwriting, Georgia says that Broods’ signature vulnerability comes naturally in the studio. “It’s not an unusual thing for
the other person to know what we’re going through, even when it comes to relationships and that kind of personal stuff.” That “personal stuff” has now, to their credit, been sung along to in stadiums around the world, with coveted support slots alongside pop royals Ellie Goulding and Haim seeing Broods win audiences in Canada, the USA and the UK. Just recently, the duo sent crowds wild at Splendour In The Grass, before tending to a string of sold-out sideshows. “Our goal was to be able to play shows in Australia, and
we’re playing everywhere,” gushes Georgia. “It’s weird when you go over to the other side of the world and people are singing your songs back to you. It’s like, ‘How the hell do you even know that?!’” The two don’t seem fazed in the slightest, though. Georgia eyes Caleb, as though half-expecting him to fi nish her idea. “I think you’ve kind of just got to run with it,” she says. What: Evergreen out Friday August 22 through Universal
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DragonForce Same Same But Different By David James Young
“I
’m sick and tired of people saying that we’ve put out 11 albums that sound exactly the same,” AC/DC guitarist Angus Young once said. “In fact, we’ve put out 12 albums that sound exactly the same.” At this stage in their career, one could safely assume that the UK’s premier power-metal posterboys DragonForce have found a similar degree of comfort within their own discography. With no dramatic reinventions or succumbing to trends, it’s no secret that what you see is what you get with them.
“I don’t think we’re quite exactly the same as AC/DC,” laughs Sam Totman, one of the band’s two guitarists, as the aforementioned quote is relayed to him. “I think that’s really cool, though – if I like a band, then I like them for what they are. I want them to be the same. That’s why I still like AC/DC – you know what you’re going to get. If you want something different, you listen to a different band. We always thought about that in the beginning of the band – you can either change all over the place like Metallica or something, or you can keep getting better at the one style. At the same time, it’s not as if we don’t like playing this music – we genuinely like playing the music that we play. We’re not sick of it yet.” Conversation continues onto how DragonForce – now into their 15th year as a band – have worked on the balance of keeping their music within the same style and yet still fresh and inspired. It comes down to the band
essentially creating variations on a theme. “Even within the songs, we like to keep the things about the band that we like that people seem to like as well – the big choruses, the catchy guitar stuff, the big choirs, stuff like that,” says Totman. “At the same time, with each album, we always like to experiment with certain sections here and there. So it’s kind of the same, but we think there’s enough in each album to make it different from the last one.” This month sees the release of the band’s sixth album, Maximum Overload. It’s also the final album to feature drummer Dave Mackintosh, who joined in 2003 and played on each DragonForce record with the exception of their debut, Valley Of The Damned. Although Mackintosh was swiftly replaced by new drummer Gee Anzalone, Totman was still sad to see him go after over a decade of performing with him. “He just wasn’t into the touring as much anymore,” he says. “We’re still really good friends with him, there’s no drama or anything. He spoke to Herman [Li, guitar] the other day and told us that he’d seen our tour dates and was so relieved that he was gonna be sitting in the backyard with a beer instead of out there with us. It’s a bummer when someone leaves, but you can’t expect someone to do something forever – especially if their heart isn’t in it.” As for Anzalone, his invitation to join the band mimicked that of Journey’s current vocalist Arnel Pineda – he
was discovered online. “We saw him playing on this video about three years ago,” recalls Totman. “We were just looking up drumming clips because we were bored, and me and Fred [Leclercq, bass] were like, ‘Oh, man! This guy is amazing!’ He was playing one of our songs, one of our faster ones, and he was doing it with no trouble at all. We were joking that if Dave ever left, we could just get this guy to play for us – and then it actually happened!”
to close out the album. It begs the question as to what’s going on with DragonForce’s iPods – what is the band or artist that the guys are into that no-one would expect? “I like a lot of pop-punk stuff, like Blink-182 and NOFX,” says Totman. “I’ve always liked that sort of stuff – I’ve been listening to it for 20 years. I’ve even let some of it slip into the music at points – I swear I’ve been writing guitar parts sometimes and it’s sounded like The Offspring!”
On the theme of ‘same same but different’, it’s worth mentioning that Maximum Overload is the first DragonForce album to feature a cover. The band has done its own take on Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring Of Fire’
The obligatory discussion of a potential Australian tour flies by – “We always end up back there with every record,” says Totman, “so we’ll probably get there next year” – but then our chat moves into far more important territory:
Anberlin
video games. Of course, many will have been exposed to the music of DragonForce through what is essentially the boss level of a particular music-based game from a few years ago. It’s also been noted that the members of DragonForce themselves aren’t particularly great at that game, so the interview ends with this: what’s one game that Totman could kick anyone’s arse at? “I don’t really like playing against other people – I’m much better playing on my own,” he says. “I could beat anyone at Donkey Kong, though – that’s for sure.” What: Maximum Overload out Friday August 22 through 3Wise Records
in full swing and it sends the band back to Australia early next month. Anberlin have been cherished by Australian audiences since the early days of their career. As a result, they’ve made the trip Down Under more than ten times. “Australia’s one of our favourite places to tour,” Young says. “Even when we weren’t that noticeable in America, Australia always welcomed us. You can’t really talk about Anberlin as a band, and our touring career, without bringing up Australia. We feel very, very close to Australia.”
The Last Lap By Augustus Welby
Those frequent Australian visits have slotted in around non-stop US touring, as well as successful experiences in Europe and South America. Oh, and let’s not forget the seven albums they’ve released. It seems like Anberlin’s 12-year history has been entirely rest-free. Despite this non-stop motion, when the band started out in the small town of Winter Haven in Florida back in 2002, there was no overriding career objective.
I
n January 2014, Anberlin announced that this would be their last year of operations. Contrary to the cause of most breakups, it wasn’t utter exhaustion or artistic differences that instigated the split. Rather, as Anberlin drummer Nathan Young tells it, the five-piece wanted to wrap things up while the band was still in good shape. “We had a sit down and it just felt like the right timing. We’ve always said that we wanted to go out on a high note. We didn’t want to just fizzle out and break up. We wanted it to be a big decision and something that we all discussed.”
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“No band lasts forever, so we knew that the end was inevitable at some point. What we did know is that we always wanted to go out on our own terms. We just didn’t know when we’d make that call. There’s obviously mixed emotions but it’s something that we were able to control. We talked about it well over a year ago but we just didn’t announce it until the beginning of this year.” Before ceasing activity, Anberlin had a couple of important tasks to take care of. First of all, there was a seventh and final album to make. Released last month, Lowborn perpetuates the artistic progression seen throughout Anberlin’s 12-year career. It seems the impending cut-
off point gave them an enhanced creative freedom. “We could have realistically gone back and found a bunch of B-sides off our last few records, but we didn’t want to do that,” says Young. “We wanted it to sound like we’re still progressing and still wanting to make good music. It was really cool to have that mindset of, ‘It’s our last album, so let’s do whatever we want.’ “Obviously there’s pressure,” he adds. “Wrapping our head around the fact that it is our final album is pretty nuts. But I think it was really cool to try to have a fearless attitude towards doing whatever we want. It’s one of those things – like, if people aren’t into it they can go back and listen to our other six albums. For us it was a goal of doing something different and really pushing ourselves.”
While Young emphasises the band’s determined forward drive, knowing that Lowborn would be its last album surely imposed unique challenges. Questions such as, ‘Should it be a distillation of the entire back catalogue?’ and, ‘How do we effectively pen our swansong?’ inevitably beckoned. “I think that you can listen to it and hear a mix of all of our records,” Young says. “But more than that, we wanted to not make it sound like a final album, where it sounded like that’s all we were trying to do. We didn’t want to make Vital part two or Cities part two or anything like that. We wanted to have this record stand on its own and sound like a progression.” After completing the album, the next order of business was embarking on a global farewell tour. The plainly titled Final Tour is now
The rapid ticket sales for their final gigs in Australia prove people are still madly interested in Anberlin. Thus, having surpassed its major ambitions, Young says the band will wrap up proceedings wearing a big smile. “We couldn’t ask for anything better. Being able to finish our last show and go home and just sit back and look at what we’ve done, I feel like it will be such an amazing feeling. I don’t know of any band that has done that, so for us it will definitely be a really great accomplishment.” What: Lowborn out now through Tooth & Nail/UNFD With: The Getaway Plan Where: UNSW Roundhouse When: Sunday September 7 thebrag.com
Xxx photo by xxx
Anberlin’s rationally motivated conclusion is quite unique for the rock’n’roll milieu, in which acts often persist past their use-by date or members end up hating each other. Speculation about whether this
mediated explanation is a coverup of messier circumstances is unavoidable, but Young stresses it wasn’t an arbitrary decision.
“Our goal was just to play music and to tour,” Young says. “Once we did that we’d already accomplished everything that we wanted to do. Everything else is kind of extra. That’s not to say that at times it wasn’t maybe too much. At times I got burnt out, for sure. But at the time, doing it, you don’t know how long it will last. We wanted to take advantage of people still caring and still wanting to hear our music.”
Patent Pending Mario In Disguise By Jody Macgregor
I
nstead of announcing its big-deal headliners first, Soundwave Festival likes to start with the mid-list. It begins by revealing the bands who will get most excited at being among the first to make the cut, and whose devoted fans will make the most noise about it. It’s definitely worked with Patent Pending, a New York poppunk group whose frontman Joe Ragosta was extremely stoked to be the second act announced on the bill. “People in America talk about it all the time as if, ‘One day, we will go to Soundwave,’” he says. “It’s such a huge deal for Americans, you have no idea. And two: our guitar manager tour manages the band Zebrahead, so he’s actually been to Soundwave a couple different times, and the stories he comes back with are so fuckin’ awesome. I just can’t fuckin’ wait.” Patent Pending may be a Blinkcore gang of punks who specialise in fast-paced songs about girls who’ve let them down, but they branch out into positive-vibe anthems, attacks on the douchebags of the world, and one entire song about how emo kids should just cheer up (it’s called ‘Cheer Up Emo Kid’). “A festival that can have Blink and Metallica is the perfect festival for us because our music is so differentsounding song to song,” says Ragosta. “Every single song is totally different. We played Download Festival; we were the only band that wasn’t metal that day. The only one. And we were terrified, cause we were like, ‘Oh my God, these people are gonna fucking hate us,’ and it ended up being incredible. It was one of the best days ever.” One of the oddest songs in the Patent Pending catalogue is ‘Hey Mario’ from their 2013 album Brighter, a song about the relationship between video game characters Mario and Princess Peach, complete with coin-collection bleeps used to cover the swearing. Ragosta came up with the idea for the song after playing a show in Glasgow that climaxed with one of their songs about girls who let you down – ‘I Already Know (She Don’t Give A Shit About Me)’, at the end of which everybody in the crowd yells the finale, which is the title of the song. “I look at the crowd, the crowd is really excited, and I say, ‘That song is about Princess Peach!’ And no-one laughed. I was like, ‘Fuck you guys, that’s funny.’”
“…Then we walked offstage and came back dressed as Mario, Luigi, Toad and Wario, with the moustaches.”
we’re playing our normal set and then we walked offstage and came back dressed as Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Toad and Wario, and performed three of the songs as Mario & The Brickbreakers, like with the accents and the moustaches and everything.” It’s a gag they’ll hopefully be repeating when they’re in Australia for Soundwave (which will also be their first-ever trip here). They might work up a sweat in those outfits, though. “The best part about being in the band Patent Pending is that there are no rules except for ‘stay hydrated’,” says Ragosta. “It’s a very exciting thing to have this many people finally be in on the joke that we’re doing. Normally we’re joking around with ourselves, but now people are paying attention. This Mario & The Brickbreakers thing is such an insanely harebrained scheme that now that people have it, it’s hilarious to me, and I love it.” What: Soundwave 2015 Where: Sydney Olympic Park When: Saturday February 28 and Sunday March 1
MARCH IN AUGUST FOR A BETTER GOVERNMENT NOW!
As soon as Ragosta got offstage he wrote the chorus of ‘Hey Mario’ (“Mario, you’re a nextlevel bro / But the Peach been cheating, and you know I ain’t talking code”) and sang it into his phone. A month later he chanced across that recording and turned it into a song that, to the band’s surprise, took off in England. “We never had a song take off in that way where it’s on the radio and they’re talking about it on TV and stuff like that,” Ragosta says. To capitalise on that success they decided to make a video for it – a project that quickly grew out of hand. “My brother was like, ‘Yo, you should make an entire Behind The Music as if Mario was in a band and he wasn’t a superhero.’ So we got everyone together, we got costumes made up, we were like, ‘We’ll just do a quick five-minute thing,’ and then it turned into a fullblown movie.” The movie hasn’t been released yet, but the trailer’s on YouTube and it lives up to the promise, with Ragosta playing Mario as a rock star spiralling out of control into mushroomfuelled depravity. “It’s a full-blown mockumentary about this band that never existed, and what happened was, as that was happening we had to talk about this career this band that never existed had, and we were talking about these fake songs. We were saying, ‘How funny would it be if there was a song called ‘Boom Boom Pass The Mushroom’?’” Following through on the joke, the band travelled to Nashville and spent five days recording a minialbum under the pseudonym Mario & The Brickbreakers, with songs like ‘Rainbow Road’, ‘My Princess Peach’ and, yes, ‘Boom Boom Pass The Mushroom’. “It’s one of the dumbest things we’ve ever done,” Ragosta says with pride. It’s also one of the most successful, again resonating for some reason particularly well with the English – it debuted at number 17 on the UK iTunes chart, “which is fucking hilarious to us”, he says. “This weekend was the first time we played shows since that album came out, so thebrag.com
SUNDAY AUGUST 31ST 1PM, HYDE PARK SYDNEY
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Velociraptor Ganging Up By Jody Macgregor of man behind him, singing: “All the lovers you have doomed / And the leeches fi ll the room, the room.” Uncharacteristically, it sounds like a bad trip. “I think ‘Leeches’ is everybody’s favourite song on the record actually. We probably would have done an album like that – if we did another release it would be very much down that path. It’s fun to do a variety of stuff, I think.” Immediately after ‘Leeches’ comes ‘One Last Serenade’, opening with Neale and guest vocalist Sweetie Zamora from Bloods singing, “It’s OK, it’s OK,” – which is exactly what you need to hear at that point. An old-fashioned pop duet complete with plenty of “ooh ooh ooh”, it’s a romantic turn. Neale has wanted to put Zamora on a Velociraptor song ever since they shared the stage with Bloods while both bands were supporting DZ Deathrays. “We met them then, and they’re top people. Then we listened to their stuff in the van and just loved Sweetie’s voice. She had that song on the Golden Fang EP that Bloods did called ‘Into My Arms’ which, gosh, her voice is out of control. Gotta put that on a record.”
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eremy Neale, frontman of Velociraptor – a band with enough members they could give up music and successfully invade a small European nation, possibly Belgium – was recently a speaker at a music conference aimed at young people looking to get into the music business. What kind of lessons could the musicians of tomorrow learn from Velociraptor? What mistakes have they made that others should avoid? “Probably everything the band’s ever done,” Neale says. “It’s hard to say. Velociraptor’s a unique example because I guess a lot of people might write off the recorded works but then they’ll see us live and have a really good time.” He impersonates a potential audience member, reacting to their music: “‘It’s
really different, I thought they were clean and polished and I really enjoyed the rambunctiousness of the live show,’ or whatever. It’s like we always have to attack at two angles, which means touring has to be a thing we do, but touring is such an expensive thing for us to do. It’s a financial pitfall, but it’s also essential. I can’t use Velociraptor as a way to tell people what to do except maybe not to form a gigantic band.” There are advantages to having a platoon-sized band, though, and one is having a lot of different viewpoints on each song. When it came to recording their self-titled debut, following on from their 2012 minialbum The World Warriors, having a throng of opinions pushed them in a different direction. “When everything was just, like, three power chords and
drums and vocals on a demo, the initial vibe, what it was aiming towards, was a very ’80s Ramones ‘Pet Sematary’ vibe,” Neale says. “But once they were taken to the studio and once everyone did their thing to them we got in the studio mindset, which was like, ‘Let’s play with this and see what happens.’ I think things got quite far removed in a way. But it was good, it was interesting. What could have been a very straight-up record has now got peaks and dips.”
One of the last songs written for the album was ‘Sneakers’, which turned out to be its finale, with Neale begging for one more chance. It feels like a conclusion to all their songs about girls, showing these cycles of love and loss are never going to end but just repeat in new configurations. It’s the song that plays over the credits as our hero runs off after his love interest once again, singing: “I put my sneakers on, I leave the house in a rush.”
A song like ‘Leeches’ is either one of the peaks or one of the dips, depending on how you look at it. Though surrounded by upbeat Kinksy garage-pop, it finds Neale in a baritone, lamenting broken people. Echoing vocals from several of the other boys in Velociraptor form a wall
“I wrote that line because I always run late for everything,” says Neale. “I just figured a lot of people would do the same thing. I’m that guy that just gets distracted by a million things and then doesn’t leave until right on the exact time if I had an optimum trip it would take me to get somewhere. If it was a
“Touring has to be a thing we do … I can’t use Velociraptor as a way to tell people what to do except maybe not to form a gigantic band.” 25-minute drive I wouldn’t put traffic in the equation, I’m just like, ‘Yeah, I’ll leave 25 minutes before’ and there’s always something and you get there 15 minutes late. It’s the song for the ADD kid in all of us.” There’s a touch of the ADD kid in Neale, who performs solo as well as in Tiger Beams, Lovely Legs and Running Gun Sound, each an outlet for a different style. While Velociraptor started out loud and loose, as their gloriously ramshackle live show still proves, their recordings have become more like melancholy Merseybeat pop. “When the band started, no-one had responsibilities, everybody didn’t have to do anything. Now everyone’s gotta work full-time to survive, it’s why maybe it’s more mature. It’s got a bit sadder, it’s got a bit more real-world heaviness to it in parts because that’s what real life is I guess. It’s not just a drunken party. But sometimes it can be.” What: Velociraptor out Friday August 22 through Dot Dash/ Remote Control With: Bloods, Spookyland, Paul Conrad Where: Friday August 22 Where: Newtown Social Club
at
starring
50 HUNTER STREET SYDNEY CBD. DOORS 9PM
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THE DARK HAWKS (NSW)
BRAG’s guide to film, theatre, comedy and art about town
arts in focus the
2
inbetweeners a long road home
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WOLF LULL ABY / FESTIVAL OF DREAMS / ARTS NEWS / ARTS GIVEAWAY / REVIEWS thebrag.com
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arts frontline
free stuff
arts news...what's goin' on around town...with Chris Martin, Amie Mulhearn and Nic Liney
head to: thebrag.com/freeshit
five minutes WITH
MATTY B
range of people but there are also times when I feel quite isolated. Without drawing on stereotypes, Newcastle must have its fair share of philosophers and bogans alike? Ha, no doubt about it. Newcastle has its share of bogans; it’s a place built on mining and rugby league. However, it’s also evolving and growing a strong arts scene as a counterculture to that. I love performing in an environment where there are both coal miners and hipsters and realising that they essentially find the same things funny.
Your new album is called Philosophical Bogan – how autobiographical is the title? The album title is a reflection of a juxtaposition that I often feel in myself. There are many parts of the Australian culture that I think are wonderful but that is also balanced out by a deep concern for where we are heading. The title is autobiographical in the sense that I like to see myself as being accessible to a wide
Eddie Izzard
How did you become involved in comedy? Largely by accident. I was at a comedy club one night and there was a free spot going; my mates thought it would hilarious to watch me humiliate myself. So I jumped up there, absolutely sucked and they had a good laugh. After that experience I thought to myself, “If I actually prepare something, I might be halfway decent at this.” Apart from your solo sets, you’re part of a show called Three Blokes Telling Jokes – what can you tell us about that? Three Blokes is a concept that myself and a couple of mates came up with because we really wanted to do a festival show where the emphasis is on the craft of joke
will work the mirror into their entries this year, but the festival is certain to again deliver some spectacular shorts to Sydney fans. Meanwhile, the new #Tropvine competition is also open, meaning anyone and everyone can enter a six-second film. Tropfest entries are open until Thursday October 2, while #Tropvine entrants must submit by Sunday September 21. Tropfest 2014 will screen at Centennial Park on Sunday December 7.
writing and telling. A lot of festival shows are themed and rely on narrative and a range of other techniques to structure an hour-long performance. With Three Blokes you get three different comedians and three different styles of stand-up but all of that comes with emphasis being on banging out a lot of punchlines. What is it about Australians that makes us love to laugh? Probably because we have a culture of not taking ourselves too seriously. I can perform in Queensland and do my joke where I call them fuckwits, I can perform in Victoria and do my joke where I insinuate they are pretentious, latte-sipping morons and the jokes get the same reaction as when I do them anywhere else. I like that as Australians we put funny before our own self-regard and are willing to laugh at our own flaws. What: Philosophical Bogan as part of Sydney Fringe Festival 2014 Where: Factory Theatre When: Wednesday September 24 / Friday September 26 And: Three Blokes Telling Jokes plays at the Factory Theatre on Wednesday September 10 and Friday September 12, as part of Sydney Fringe
EUROPE
There’s nothing like the flair of an international romance. Michael Gow’s comedy Europe follows Douglas, who isn’t the first young Australian to fall in love with a European beauty, but his comes with complications. See, Barbara is a touring actress who plays her part in getting the fling going, but isn’t so thrilled when Doug pursues her back home. This production, by independent theatre company Slip of the Tongue, stars Pippa Grandison (Wicked, Mary Poppins) and Andrew Henry (Frankenstein) and is part of the Seymour Centre’s Reginald Season 2014. Europe is playing from Wednesday September 10 – Saturday September 27, and we’ve got two double passes to catch the preview on Wednesday September 10. For your chance to win one, head to thebrag.com/freeshit and tell us why you’re in love with Europe.
Europe photo by Kurt Sneddon, Blueprint Studios
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ewcastle comedian Matty B is busy on the circuit, having recently released his album Philosophical Bogan and been preparing for solo and group shows. We caught five with the man himself.
Europe
The Vegetable Plot
ANYTHING GOES
All aboard the SS American: Cole Porter’s musical comedy Anything Goes will return to Sydney in 2015. Producer John Frost and Opera Australia’s Lyndon Terracini are preparing a new Australian production of the hit play that recently returned to Broadway and won multiple Tony Awards. The musical features some of Porter’s biggest hits in a hilarious tale of antics on the ocean. Anything Goes will play at the Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House from September 8 – October 31, 2015.
HOWIE THE ROOKIE
JUST FOR LAUGHS
One of the biggest names in UK comedy, Eddie Izzard, will be in Sydney to host this year’s Just For Laughs Gala. Just For Laughs Sydney will be Izzard’s exclusive Australian engagement, and he joins a bill that already includes Bill Bailey, Rhys Darby, Trevor Noah and more. Freshly added to the lineup are Reggie Watts, Caroline Rhea and Hannah Gadsby. Izzard will host the Just For Laughs Sydney Gala on Saturday October 18 at the Sydney Opera House. Just For Laughs runs from Tuesday October 14 – Sunday October 19.
Much-loved Australian actor Toby Schmitz is returning to Australia to direct a limited season of Howie The Rookie, the surreal, grotesque and humorous play by the Irish playwright Mark O’Rowe. Schmitz will bring to life a world revolving around a scabiesinfested mattress, a Siamese fighting fish and an array of components of Dublin’s underworld. Schmitz, who is currently based in South Africa where he is filming Michael Bay’s hit pirate drama series Black Sails, was last seen in Australian theatres in 2013, when he starred in Belvoir’s Hamlet. Howie The Rookie will be playing at the Old Fitzroy Theatre from Tuesday September 30 – Saturday October 25.
THE VEGETABLE PLOT
A new musical opening at the Sydney Fringe Festival this year will bring a fresh meaning to ‘grassroots theatre’. Details have ‘leeked’ to the press of The Vegetable Plot, a musical all about the green things in life, sprouted from the mind of comedic songwriter Luke Escombe. It’ll star Escombe and the singers from All Our Exes Live In Texas – Hannah Crofts, Georgia Mooney, Katie Wighton and Elana Stone – plus Lionel Cole (The Voice) and more. Chew down on The Vegetable Plot at 5 Eliza in Newtown on Saturday September 20 and Sunday September 21.
JAPANESE FILM FESTIVAL
LET’S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN
TROPFEST ENTRIES OPEN
Entries for Australia’s favourite short film competition, Tropfest, have been declared open – and this year’s Tropfest Signature Item is ‘mirror’. It remains to be seen how filmmakers 20 :: BRAG :: 576 :: 20:08:14
Rurouni Kenshin
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Eddie Izzard photo by Amanda-Searle
The new Australian production of The Rocky Horror Show has locked in a Sydney season for 2015. Television and theatre star (and occasional stand-up comic) Craig McLachlan stars as Frank N Furter in Richard O’Brien’s production, which has already played sell-out seasons in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. The Rocky Horror Show has held cult classic status since its debut in London in June 1973. Wanna do the time warp again? See The Rocky Horror Show at the Lyric Theatre from April 2015.
The 18th annual Japanese Film Festival will tour nationally around Australia this year, sharing the latest in Japanese contemporary cinema. The festival is the largest Japanese film festival outside of Japan. The 2013 event attracted 25,000 moviegoers nationwide. This year, the festival will expand into New Zealand and feature over 45 contemporary films as well as a classic series and a mini-JFF in some smaller destinations. While we’re still waiting on the full program, we can tell you that the live action adaptation of popular manga series Rurouni Kenshin will screen at the festival as a trilogy. The Sydney leg of the Japanese Film Festival 2014 will run from Thursday November 13 – Sunday November 23 at Event Cinemas (George Street and Parramatta) and the Art Gallery of NSW.
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Wolf Lullaby
Lisa Williams
[THEATRE] Casting Shadows By Tegan Jones
A central question is why people are so unsettled by the idea of a child committing murder. Louise says, “In an ideal world children are perceived as innocent and so it makes people ask, ‘Why is an innocent child doing such a horrific act?’ It goes beyond what we’d like to comprehend.”
Festival Of Dreams [NEW AGE] The Spiritual Side By Tegan Jones
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he inaugural Festival Of Dreams is set to open at the Hordern Pavilion this month. The weekend of spiritual stimulation will feature internationally renowned medium Lisa Williams, Feng Shui expert Master Siou Foon Lee and Australian psychics Debbie Malone and Harry T, among many others. There will also be a myriad of stalls and exhibitions that the spiritually inclined can enjoy. Organiser Rosie Shalhoub talks about the festival and why it’s a necessity for the modern spiritual industry. “For me it’s more of an empowering sort of a festival,” she explains. “It’s really about giving hopes and dreams to people. It’s a festival that’s never been seen before; it’s something that’s really different.” Considering the abundance of television and online psychics, many of whom have their validity and motivations brought into question, it may be difficult for some to believe in the legitimacy of the Festival Of Dreams. This is exactly why Shalhoub created the festival in the first place.
“When I was going out to other festivals I really felt that there was a lack of authenticity. With my shop I get to see psychics all the time and customers coming in. People really have some massive heartache in their lives and there’s that space in the industry where people can get ripped off. But the mediums who work for me aren’t on Facebook, they don’t have websites, they’re
Shalhoub’s store, Embrace, located in Westfield Miranda, will also have a stall at the festival. In fact, the atmosphere and community that has been built around the shop itself seems to have been a large motivation for the Hordern event. “At Embrace we like to say that we sell hopes and dreams,” she says. “It’s a spiritual store but it’s also very mainstream. You don’t walk past and see that everything is purple and gothic. It’s very clean and classy; anybody and everybody will walk in because it’s very warm and inviting. We have so many customers who have become friends; it’s a real social atmosphere. For the girls that work there, it really isn’t a job for them.” In addition to the aforementioned high-profile names attending the festival, visitors can expect a wide variety of exhibits that will cater to a range of different tastes and interests. “We’re going to have an amazing Dream Pool of psychics and over 80 exhibitors in all areas of health, fitness and spirituality and 60 workshops and seminars that are free. You’ll also find different kinds of faiths represented, as well as motivational coaches and speakers. When people walk out we want them to feel very uplifted and empowered. We also want to be more open to more mainstream people. I’d love to see mums and dads and thirty-year-old men who would prefer to be having a drink at the pub.” What: Festival Of Dreams Where: Hordern Pavilion When: Saturday August 23 and Sunday August 24
L
ike all great art, Hilary Bell’s Wolf Lullaby is a play that forces audiences to think and reflect. Set in a desolate Tasmanian country town, the plot revolves around the murder of a young child for which, quite disturbingly, the prime suspect is a nine-yearold girl. Inspired by real-life child murder cases such as those of James Bulger, Derrick Robie and Mary Bell, audience members will walk away questioning everything they thought they knew about themselves and the society that we live in. Director Emma Louise talks about the play, as well as its emotionally important themes. “Wolf Lullaby follows the lives of four characters in the aftermath of a senseless murder of a child,” she explains. “It asks the audience to ask questions of themselves. It’s all too easy when these bad things happen, such as a child murdering a child in this instance, to blame it on something. Whether it be what they watch on TV or simply saying, ‘That child is just evil,’ we tend to avoid turning the mirror on ourselves and looking at what sort of role we play as a community in creating a world where this sort of stuff happens.” So stark are the questions that the play poses, people will be forced to inwardly reflect on their own morality. “Is there intrinsic evil in the world? Could we all be perpetrators? What’s to blame? What
Although this is Louise’s directorial debut, it isn’t her first encounter with Wolf Lullaby. “I experienced the play 12 years ago at uni where I was fortunate Wolf Lullaby enough to work on it. I loved it then, love it now.” Directing is a different matter, of course. “It has been a real learning curve, because when I first explored it I was playing a particular character and really looked at it from that one perspective. As a director, I’m now looking at it from all four angles. That’s another great thing about the play; despite everything, all four characters are really lovable in many ways, but then you hate them as well.” Although the director has stayed true to the original script, she has added an interesting psychological dimension. “What we’ve explored in this production is Jung psychology,” she explains. “He talks about the idea of ‘the shadow’, which is the unknown, dark side of our personalities. It’s whatever we deem evil, inferior or unacceptable that we deny in ourselves. That all becomes part of the shadow and we have to constantly keep that in check and balanced with our conscious ego in order to stay healthy. If you look at it that [way] we all have the shadow or a dark side, and I guess you have to ask what would happen if that did become unbalanced. In this case, it does, and the wolf is the embodiment of that.” What: Wolf Lullaby Where: New Theatre When: Until Saturday September 13
The Inbetweeners 2 [FILM] Boys Will Be Boys By Adam Norris “I’m not sure if we’re a part of that evolution,” Buckley suggests, who, although arguably the most thoughtful of the group, is also the most likely to be talked over. “Devolution?” Bird suggests. “What’s great about comedy,” Buckley continues, “is that there are people like us who are trying to break the mould. Try and get as much poo on film as possible.” The Inbetweeners 2
F
or many years, British comedy was content to raise a knowing eyebrow and waggle its naughty bits (thank you, The Full Monty) without ever crossing the line between suggestion and outright, in-yourface crudity. There has been nothing that caters to a British generation exposed to the savoury delights of American Pie, or even a Superbad for that matter. That was, of course, before The Inbetweeners. We meet in Bondi before a large picture window, where The Inbetweeners themselves – Will (Simon Bird), Jay (James Buckley), Simon (Joe Thomas) and Neil (Blake Harrison) – have an inspiring view of sand, surf and countless shrivelled old men jangling past in fluorescent Speedos. It’s a 22 :: BRAG :: 576 :: 20:08:14
handy metaphor for the evolution of comedy, and the question of whether the group sees themselves as part of a noble tradition or instead as a product of their times is something they have all given thought to. “It’s probably both, is the real answer,” says Thomas, certainly the most vocal of the four. “Sometimes you’ll get a comedy which sort of changes everything, like The Office, which was hugely imitated after it came out. But even then, that’s a lot like Alan Partridge.” “And even that is influenced by John Cleese in Fawlty Towers,” Bird says. “I think there’s definitely a through-line, but I’m not exactly sure where we stand in it all.”
He’s not kidding, either. The fecal content of The Inbetweeners 2, their second feature film, is only eclipsed by a spate of projectile vomiting that would make F.W. Darlington proud. Part of the movie’s appeal – beyond the genuinely committed performances from the cast – is the quick realisation that this story has the potential to go absolutely anywhere. The sky (or sewer) is the limit. “I think despite the grosser elements in our film – which are really quite high – there is another important element, which is to do with inadequacy in young men.” As Thomas says this, the other three all nod in unison. “Teenagers and students. When you’re just not up to the task of fitting in, when everyone else around you seems cooler somehow. Feeling that you’re not quite there, that you’re a little bit behind where you should be in life. That is as
important to the show as the poo.” In a rapid-paced film like The Inbetweeners 2 it is amusing to imagine the hijinks and gaffes that never made it into the final cut. This, however, is not entirely the case. “There’s definitely more improv in this film than there has been in our previous outings.” It’s the first time I’ve heard Harrison talk, and I still haven’t quite shaken the affable ditzyness of his character, Neil. “But ultimately, it’s written by Iain and Damon, who are just great comedic writers and who go through so many drafts making sure that every joke lands and that they’re perfect for us.” “Whenever people meet us they’re kind of disappointed that we don’t have any jokes,” Thomas laughs. “Iain and Damon write these great jokes for us. We don’t have these oneliners to constantly drop when we’re on our own. I mean, our characters are not impressive, so trying to live up to them is probably not that hard. They’re not heroic, they’re just kind of standard people.” “Though we can pull off being awkward,” Bird is quick to assure. “Oh, we’re quite good at that.” What: The Inbetweeners 2 (dir. Iain Morris and Damon Beesley) Where: In cinemas Thursday August 21
thebrag.com
Lisa Williams photo by Jean-Mathieu Bérubé
“I’m an ex-professional psychic and have worked in the industry for over 25 years. I’ve watched the lack of integrity that’s happened over time. I just felt like there was something missing in this multi-billion-dollar industry; it was becoming really commercialised. I really want to bring back that authenticity and bring back the love that I feel that’s missing. Myself and my team have personally handpicked people that we feel will be there for that.
just people who want to help others and just go home to live their lives. They couldn’t care less if they were famous or on a TV show. They’re very genuine in what they do.”
Wolf Lullaby photo by Bob Seary
do we do when there is no answer? What would we do in this situation?” asks Louise. “It poses so many questions, without providing answers, because there are no easy answers. It really is left up to individuals to go away thinking. That’s what I really love about this play.”
Film & Theatre Reviews
five minutes
Hits and misses on the silver screen and bareboards around town
Joan, Again photo by Katy Green Loughrey
WITH Tom Hardy in Locke
Joan, Again ■ Theatre
LOCKE
Playing at the Old Fitzroy Theatre until Saturday August 23
In cinemas from Thursday August 28
Remember learning about Jeanne d’Arc in history at school? The 17-year-old illiterate peasant, who in 1429 led the French army that raised the Siege of Orleans and two years later, following a bout of both victories and losses, was burned on a stake? Well, believe it or not, in the 20 years following her death, there were at least four ‘Joan’ impostors (who clearly had their work cut out convincing people they had been saved from a burning pyre by the archangel Michael). This is where Paul Gilchrist’s play, Joan, Again, begins. Taking the audience back in time to a war-ravaged France and the suspicions and disdain the majority of the peasant class felt towards the church, Joan, Again is a slice of revolutionary history. Claiming to be Joan of Arc, Sylvia Keays goes about convincing her admirers and skeptics that she is the real deal. Unsurprisingly, however, she is met with a great deal of disbelief and cynicism for her claims – a story that beautifully unravels thanks to Gilchrist’s narrative talents. Through sharp and at times poetic dialogue, the play explores the danger of stories and challenges the traditional beliefs that society (both past and present day) harbours in regards to religion and spirituality. Keays’ powerful soliloquies and commanding onstage presence are captivating and the rustic set and historical costumes really do take you back in time.
Intimate Letters photo by Jack Saltmiras
■ Film
JOAN, AGAIN
The relatively large cast, featuring Kit Bennett, Jamie Collette, Ted Crosby, Kitty Hopwood, Lynden Jones, Bonnie Kellett, Dave Kirkham and Helen Tonkin, all works fabulously together and cleverly melds the play’s serious undertones and tongue-in-cheek humour, with even a little bit of sordidness thrown in for good measure.
Locke may not be a film for everyone. Its 85-minute span is a void of few camera angles and explosions as the action within the four walls of Ivan Locke’s Londonbound BMW is captured almost exclusively from behind the wheel, gazing into the protagonist’s eyes. It’s claustrophobic, unnerving and extraordinary. Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises) plays Locke, a dedicated, dependable site manager who is on the verge of completing one of the biggest construction projects of his career and should be suitably satisfied. Instead, he is in transit, hurtling along a darkened freeway from Birmingham to London, breathlessly juggling work, family and relationship commitments via his hands-free mobile device as he races to meet a woman he barely knows who lies waiting alone in a hospital bed. This trip will ultimately put Locke’s career on a precipice. Hardy, free from the constraints of the mask he made famous as Bane, gives an outstanding performance – almost entirely from the shoulders up. Locke’s greatest battle may be against himself, and Hardy’s comforting Welsh accent belies a character on the verge of breakdown – he feigns calm and control whilst always making clear that, inside, his character is falling apart. Writer/director Steven Knight is particularly adept in building suspense – the film often evokes his 2001 effort Dirty Pretty Things, centered around an organ harvesting ring that operates amongst migrant workers in a London hotel. This time around, Knight’s film is taut and the absence of face-to-face contact leaves Locke in two minds – he’s a dismissive father and husband who still maintains the need to ‘do the right thing’ by this woman.
With lines such as, “God’s style is, like, not being here,” and “The desire for fame is a form of suicide,” Joan, Again is a clever adaptation of a fascinating piece of history that leaves you questioning the seemingly impossible and counting your lucky stars we don’t burn influential people on stakes in Australia.
Locke feels as though the viewer has travelled through a vortex with the lead character. There’s a certain hypnotic malaise that presents itself as the dashboard is illuminated with street lights and the oncoming traffic. The character has built his own self-contained pressure chamber, whilst the final destination is anyone’s guess. He is no longer the person he once was.
Prudence Clark
Tim Armitage
SUSANNA DOWLING OF INTIMATE LETTERS
T
he Australian Chamber Orchestra has teamed up with Bell Shakespeare to present Intimate Letters, featuring the composer Janácˇek’s piece of the same name. Alongside the music, actors Marshall Napier and Ella Scott Lynch will read Janácˇek’s writings. We asked assistant director Susanna Dowling about the concert. How did the collaboration between the ACO and Bell Shakespeare come about? In 2012 the ACO and Bell Shakespeare staged a pop-up concert in Pier 2/3 featuring the Janácˇek piece and the letters. It was originally an idea of principal cellist Timo-Veikko Valve. The collaboration worked really well so it was decided this year to extend the concert to include music and letters from Smetana and Mozart, and to tour it nationally. For those who aren’t familiar with the background, how does Janácˇek’s music relate to the letters of the title? In his 60s, Janácˇek met a young woman, Kamila Stösslová, on holiday. He became completely obsessed with her, and over the next 11 years until his death, he wrote her more than 700 letters. The relationship was extremely passionate, but it was unlikely it was ever consummated as they were both married and lived in different towns. As people started to criticise this
Intimate Letters obsession, Janácˇek decided to write the piece Intimate Letters – to tell the world how much she meant to him, and how she inspired him to write his most passionate music. From a production point of view, it must be exciting to be able to have the added dimension of music behind the actors’ words? Yes, it’s always incredible to hear live musicians. The letters are really just a way of enhancing the music – the music is still the most important part of the performance. How much scope do the actors have to interpret the letters through performance? We’re keeping it simple,
so as not to distract from the music. We see it a little like an oratorio – the actors are another set of instruments adding to the piece, as it were. They will characterise the letter writers to some extent, and tell the story behind the music so that when you listen to the music, you have a sense of what was going on in the composer’s life at the time. What: Intimate Letters Where: Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House When: Sunday August 24 And: Also playing at City Recital Hall Angel Place, Tuesday August 26 – Saturday August 30
See www.thebrag.com for more arts reviews
Arts Exposed What's in our diary...
Sun Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, Wednesday August 27 – Saturday August 30
Sun photo by Gabriele Zucca
Sun
UK contemporary artist and choreographer Hofesh Shechter returns to Australia this month with Sun, his follow-up to 2009’s celebrated Political Mother. The Israeli-raised Shechter promises a show that deals “with the aftermath of a colonial world and the fallout of colonisation”, which is sure to resonate with Australian audiences as it did with those in Shechter’s adopted homeland. Tickets start at $49. For bookings and more info, head to sydneyoperahouse.com.
thebrag.com
BRAG :: 576 :: 20:08:14 :: 23
BARS SMALL
B R A G ’ S G U I D E T O S Y D N E Y ’ S B E S T W AT E R I N G H O L E S
A Work In Progress 50 King St, Sydney CBD (02) 9240 3000 Mon – Fri noon-late; Sat 5pm-2am Ash St Cellar 1 Ash St, Sydney CBD (02) 9240 3000 Mon – Fri 8.30am-11pm Assembly 488 Kent St, Sydney CBD (02) 9283 8808 Mon – Fri noonmidnight; Sat 5pm-midnight The Australian Heritage Hotel
100 Cumberland St, The Rocks (02) 9247 2229 Mon – Sun 10.30am-midnight Balcony Bar 46 Erskine St, Sydney CBD (02) 9299 3526 Tue – Fri noonmidnight; Sat 5pm-midnight 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 Bulletin Place First Floor, 10-14 Bulletin Place, Circular Quay Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 5pm-midnight deVine 32 Market St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 6906 Mon – Fri 11.30am-11.30pm; Sat 5.30-11.30pm
Frankie’s Pizza 50 Hunter St, Sydney CBD Mon – Sun 4pm-4am Gilt Lounge 49 Market St, Sydney CBD (02) 8262 0000 Tue – Wed 6pm-midnight; Thu & Sat 6pm-2am; Fri 5pm-2am The Glenmore 96 Cumberland St, The Rocks (02) 9247 4794 Mon – Thu, Sun 11am-midnight; Fri – Sat 11am-1am Goodgod Small Club 53-55 Liverpool St, Sydney CBD (02) 8084 0587
SPRING ST SOCIAL OF
bar TH
EK
110 SPRING ST, BONDI JUNCTION TUESDAY – SATURDAY, 4PM-3AM
E E W
Wed 5pm-1am; Thu 5pm-2am; Fri 5pm-5am; Sat 6pm-5am
Mon – Fri noonmidnight; Sat 5pm-midnight
Grain Bar 199 George St, Sydney CBD (02) 9250 3118 Mon – Fri 4pm-1am; Sat noon-1am; Sun noon-midnight
The Spice Cellar Basement 58 Elizabeth St, Sydney CBD (02) 9223 5585 Mon – Sun 4pm-late
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 noon-late The Lobo Plantation Basement Lot 1, 209 Clarence St, Sydney CBD 0415 554 908 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri 2pm-midnight; Sat 4pm-midnight Mojo Record Bar Basement 73 York St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 4999 Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 5pm-midnight 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 Mr Tipply’s 347 Kent St, Sydney CBD (02) 9299 4877 Mon – Sun 10am-late Palmer & Co. Abercrombie Ln, Sydney CBD (02) 9240 3172 Mon – Wed 5pm-late; Thu – Fri noon-late; Sat – Sun 5pm-late Papa Gede’s Bar Laneway at the end of 348 Kent St, Sydney CBD Mon – Sat 5pm-12am
Tell us about your bar: Spring Street Social is a novel addition to the bustling streets of Bondi Junction. Inspired by the golden age of cure-all elixirs, Spring St takes you back to a time of rustic chemists and homespun apothecaries. The discretely placed door, amidst a hive of shopfronts, leads you to a newly transformed laboratory of live music, inventive cocktails, crafted brews and tasteful recipes.
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
What’s on the menu? With a kitchen soon to be open to 3am, we have an exceptionally broad food offering with over 12 different sliders, short beef ribs, lobster bake, pulled lamb belly just to name a few.
The Rook Level 7, 56-58 York St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 2505 Mon – Fri 4pm-late; Sat 4pm-late
Care for a drink? Our three favourites would have to be Tinge Of The Ginge – Zubrowka vodka shaken with citrus, fresh apple juice, cinnamon agave nectar and King’s Ginger liqueur; Dr. Goodgat – camomile, honey and vanilla infused vodka shaken with citrus, orange blossom water and a touch of cream; and Snake Oil – Buffalo Trace bourbon, Old Fashioned bitters, Five Spice infusion.
Shirt Bar 7 Sussex Ln, Sydney CBD (02) 8068 8222 Mon –Wed 8am-6pm; Thu – Fri 8am-10pm
Sounds? We have live music every night – blues Tuesday, funk/soul Wednesday, Thursday original/acoustic, Friday/Saturday rock’n’roll/swing.
space to come and enjoy time with friends, while enjoying exceptional food and drink. We’re super-friendly, come and hang out.
Highlights: Our speakeasy atmosphere is the perfect
Phone number: (02) 8065 2998 Website: springstreetsocial.com.au
24 :: BRAG :: 576 :: 30:08:14
Spooning Goats 32 York St, Sydney CBD 0402 813 035 Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight Stitch Bar 61 York St, Sydney CBD (02) 9279 0380 Mon –Wed 4pm-midnight; Thu – Fri noon-2am; Sat 4pm-2am Tapavino 6 Bulletin Place, Circular Quay (02) 9247 3221 Mon – Fri 11am-11.30pm Uncle Ming’s 55 York St, Sydney CBD Mon – Fri 11am-midnight; Sat 5pm-midnight York Lane York Lane, Sydney CBD (02) 9299 1676 Mon – Wed 6.30am-10pm; Thu – Fri 6.30pm-midnight; Sat 6pm-midnight
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
(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 Knox Street Bar 21 Shepherd St, Chippendale Tue – Thu 4pm-l0pm; Fri – Sat 4pm-11pm; Sun 2pm-9pm Kuleto’s 157 King St, Newtown (02) 9519 6369 Mon – Wed 4pm-late; Thu – Sat 4pm-3am; Sun 4pm-midnight The Little Guy 87 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9200 0000 Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 1pm-midnight; Sun 3-10pm Mary’s 6 Mary St, Newtown Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm The Midnight Special 44 Enmore Road, Newtown (02) 9516 2345 Mon – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 4-10pm Miss Peaches 201 Missenden Rd, Newtown (02) 9557 7280 Wed – Sun 5pm-midnight The Moose Newtown 530 King St, Newtown (02) 9557 0072 Wed – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 5-10pm
Cornerstone Bar & Food 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh (02) 8571 9004 Sun – Wed 10am-5pm; Thu – Sat 10am-late
Mr Falcon’s 92 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9029 6626 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sat noon-midnight; Sun 2-10pm
Corridor 153A King St, Newtown 0422 873 879 Tue – Fri 3pm-midnight; Sat 1pm-midnight; Sun 1-10pm
Newtown Social Club 387 King St, Newtown (02) 9550 3974 Mon – Sat noonmidnight; Sun noon10pm
Cottage Bar & Kitchen 342 Darling St, Balmain (02) 8084 8185 Mon – Wed 5pm-midnight; Thu – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm
The Oxford Tavern 1 New Canterbury Rd, Petersham (02) 8019 9351 Mon – Thu middaymidnight; Fri – Sat midday-3am; Sun midday-10pm
Different Drummer 185 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9552 3406 Mon – Sat 4.30pm-late
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
Earl’s Juke Joint 407 King St, Newtown Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4-10pm
Since I Left You 338 Kent St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 4986 Mon – Wed 5pm-10pm; Thu – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat 6pm-midnight
Freda’s 107-109 Regent St, Chippendale (02) 8971 7336 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri noon-midnight; Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4-10pm
Small Bar 48 Erskine St, Sydney CBD (02) 9279 0782
The Green Room Lounge 156 Enmore Rd, Enmore
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 Beresford 354 Bourke St, Surry Hills (02) 8313 5000 Mon – Sun noon-1am Black Penny 648 Bourke St, Redfern (02) 9319 5061 Tue – Sat noonmidnight; Sun noon11pm Brooklyn Social 14 Randle St, Surry Hills 0451 972 057 Mon – Sun 12pm-2am Button Bar 65 Foveaux St, Surry Hills (02) 9211 1544 Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight Café Lounge 277 Goulburn St, Surry Hills (02) 9016 3951 Mon – Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sunday 4-10pm 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, thebrag.com
COCKTAIL OF THE WEEK Pour it in your mouth-hole... (responsibly).
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
THE BARRYMORE @ WOOLWICH PIER HOTEL Origins: Once we started getting creative with our fresh juice cocktails we played around with quite a few. This was an in-house favourite amongst our cocktail bartenders. The history behind the name comes from an old famous English comedian Michael Barrymore – all our cocktails have an English theme. Ingredients: 30mL Belvedere vodka, 15mL Licor 43, 1 bud ginger, 1 green apple. Method: Build with ice to the brim to chill glass, pour 30mL of Belvedere vodka and 15mL Licor 43 over ice, juice the green apple and ginger together, pour out juice over ice to the top and garnish with mint sprig. Glass: Double rocks glass. Garnish: Mint sprig. Best drunk with: Our beef brisket, pork belly sliders. During: Warm summer evenings. While wearing: Cuban hat, Hawaiian shirt and thongs. And listening to: Santana. More: woolwichpierhotel.com.au
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 thebrag.com
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 Hello Sailor 96 Oxford St, Darlinghurst (02) 9332 2442 Tue – Sun 5pm-1am Hinky Dinks 185 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst (02) 8084 6379 Mon – Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 3pm-midnight; Sun 1-10pm 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 noon-11pm 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
Pocket Bar 13 Burton St, Darlinghurst (02) 9380 7002 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 4pm-1am; Sun 4pm-midnight Queenie’s Upstairs Forresters Cnr Foveaux and Riley St, Surry Hills (02) 9212 3035 Tue – Sat 6pm-late Roosevelt 32 Orwell St, Potts Point 0423 203 119 Tue – Sat 5pm-midnight
(02) 9357 4488 Tue – Fri 6pm-midnight; Sat noon-2am; Sun noonmidnight
The Rum Diaries 288 Bondi Rd, Bondi (02) 9300 0440 Tue – Sat 6pm-midnight; Sun 6-10pm
The Wild Rover 75 Campbell St, Surry Hills (02) 9280 2235 Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun noon-10pm
Speakeasy 83 Curlewis St, Bondi (02) 9130 2020 Mon – Fri 3pm-late; Sat – Sun noon-late
The Winery 285A Crown St, Surry Hills (02) 9331 0833 Mon – Sun noonmidnight
Stuffed Beaver 271 Bondi Rd, Bondi (02) 9130 3002 Mon – Sat noonmidnight; Sun noon10pm
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
The Bay Jam Bar 2A Waters Rd, Neutral Bay 0407 454 0815 Tue – Fri 11am-midnight; Sat – Sun 7am-midnight
Jah Ba Shop 7, 9-15 Central Ave, Manly (02) 9977 4449 Tue – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm
Bondi Hardware 39 Hall St, Bondi (02) 9365 7176 Mon – Wed 5-11pm; Thu 5pm-midnight; Sat 10am-midnight; Sun 10am-10pm
Firefly 24 Young St, Neutral Bay (02) 9909 0193 Mon – Wed 5-10pm; Thu 4-11pm; Fri – Sat noon-11pm; Sun noon9.30pm
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 Bucket List Shop 1, Bondi Pavilion, Queen Elizabeth Drive (02) 9365 4122 Mon – Sun 11am-late
The Foxtrot 28 Falcon St, Crows Nest Tue – Sat 5pm-3am; Sun 5-10pm
Manly Wine 8-13 South Steyne, Manly (02) 8966 9000 Mon – Sun 7am-late
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
The Mayor 400 Military Rd, Cremorne (02) 8969 6060 Tue – Fri 10am-late; Sat 8am-late; Sun 8am-10pm
Anchor Bar 8 Campbell Pde, Bondi (02) 8084 3145 Tue – Fri 4.30pm-late; Sat – Sun 12.30pm-late
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 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 Stoned Crow 39 Willoughby Rd, Crows Nest (02) 9439 5477 Mon – Sun noon-late White Hart 19-21 Grosvenor St, Neutral Bay (02) 8021 2115 Tue – Thu 5pm-late; Fri 4pm-late; Sat 2pm-late; Sun noon-8pm Wilcox Cammeray 463 Miller St, Cammeray (02) 9 460 0807 Tue – Thu 4pm-11pm; Fri - Sat 11am-11pm; Sun 11am-10pm
Your bar’s not here? Email: chris@thebrag. com
Santa Barbara 1 Bayswater Rd, Kings Cross (02) 9357 7882 Wed 6pm-1am; Thu & Sat 6pm-2am; Fri noon-2am 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 BRAG :: 576 :: 30:08:14 :: 25
Album Reviews What's been crossing our ears this week...
ALBUM OF THE WEEK DIE! DIE! DIE!
SWIM Black Night Crash/MGM
‘Overlooked’ and ‘underrated’ are, sadly, two terms that are liberally yet justifiably applied to the discography of Die! Die! Die! Despite accolades for their exceptional live shows and consistently engaging albums, they never seem to quite reach the heights they deserve. To many, Die! Die! Die! are a sleeper. So, to them – and every other fan of modern post-punk and forward-thinking, interesting guitar music – this must be said: wake up. Now. Die! Die! Die! have delivered the single best album of their career. That potential from their
Whether this is your first time or your fifth time, prepare to be stunned and enthralled by what you find on S W I M. Things for this band will never be the same again. David James Young
xxx
It’s Xxxx time to take notice of Die! Die! Die! – if you haven’t already.
early material? Realised. The progressions made on Form and Harmony? Expanded beyond your wildest dreams. Sonically, it’s white-knuckle levels of intensity from go to whoa, with piercing cries and knife-edge guitar matched up to pummelling drums and earthrumbling bass. Not a single track drops below exceptional, its emotional spectrum never loosening its grip. This is a band that has gone above and beyond the call of duty to deliver its defi nitive album.
HILLTOP HOODS
TY SEGALL
ROYAL BLOOD
BROODS
SOUNDS LIKE SUNSET
It’s telling that the very first words out of Hilltop Hoods’ mouths on their seventh album are “We’re still here”. Walking Under Stars sees them staring down mortality – not only in terms of the group’s expiry date (‘I’m A Ghost’, ‘The Thirst, Pt. 5’), but through personal turmoil and triumph.
The main talking point behind Manipulator is the difference in making this album compared to Ty Segall’s others. It took the longest time to make, he used a proper studio, did multiple takes. He even incorporated a string section.
Royal Blood are a couple of boys from southern England, burly in both physique and on-record presence. Diverting from the regular rock two-piece setup – six strings and a drum kit – axeman Mike Kerr thrashes a bass guitar. He sends the bass through multiple amplifiers and distortion peddles, creating an alarming aural melee. Consequently, Royal Blood’s non-stop big riffs are forcefully stuffed in your face.
For the bulk of Evergreen, Auckland brother-sister duo Broods deal a similar brand of ethereal goth synthpop to London Grammar. The pair’s best moments play up the contrast between Georgia Nott’s ethereal vocal harmonies and brother Caleb’s elaborate electronic backdrops. The overall effect is a sturdy, if familiar-sounding debut of danceable energetic tracks with the injection of a dark twist.
After years in the wilderness, surfacing every once in a while for a show or two, Sydney via Gosford’s Sounds Like Sunset have finally got off the pot and made a new record, their first since 2005’s Invisible. It’s a particularly long slumber to wake up from, but when you’re making music as washed-out and hazy as this, then it’s a much more gentle ease back into the swing of things.
Royal Blood attach themselves to the sultry riff-rock tradition that spans from Black Sabbath to Queens of the Stone Age, with the odd sleepover in Pantera’s basement and Jack White’s loft. The sexual masculinity genetically bound to this league of intelligent ‘RAWK!’ is essential to its appeal. Royal Blood have convincing chops – with bold riffery and Kerr’s sometimes dazzling high register – but they haven’t nailed the art of primal seduction. Nevertheless, Ben Thatcher’s bullishly fierce drumming commands plenty of movement. The riffs frequently suggest that a stranger’s head is an appropriate target for your own. If that’s not your style, the solid grooves impel mass shimmying onto the dancefloor.
The bouncing vocals allied with vibrant sonic textures in ‘Mother & Father’ set a luminous, mildly foreboding tone, furthered by hints of sketchy experimentation in ‘Everytime’. A scatter of shuddery synths in ‘Bridges’ alongside gradual sheets of stuttered beats in ‘Never Gonna Change’ set these tracks chief among the rest. Broods particularly shine on delicate ballad ‘Medicine’, illustrating the duet’s ability to downplay the somewhat heavy-handed feel and allow room for air in their sound. The track is lightened with a downtempo melancholy melody, especially flattering to Georgia’s elusive vocals.
For those that weren’t around the first time, the trio makes shimmering, introverted indie that’s equal parts classic shoegaze (The Jesus And Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine) and jangle-pop (The Posies, Big Star). This hasn’t shifted dramatically between Invisible and now – and, frankly, it didn’t really need to. We Could Leave Tonight is warm and inviting, hardly outstaying its welcome at a lean 35 minutes. Admittedly, the similar vibe of the majority of the tracklisting (save for an acoustic detour towards the end) does make the songs blend together after a time. Even so, what they’ve offered up is a perfectly serviceable, perfectly enjoyable left-of-centre guitar album.
Walking Under Stars Golden Era
MC Pressure (AKA Daniel Smith) openly discusses his nine-yearold son’s battle with leukaemia on several tracks, most notably the emotive solo ballad ‘Into The Dark’, which stands as one of the most resonant and powerful moments the Hoods have ever recorded. Elsewhere, Brother Ali and Dan Sultan certifiably nail their guest spots on ‘Live And Let Go’ and ‘Rumble, Young Man, Rumble’ respectively, but never overshadow the Hoods themselves. Pressure, Suffa and DJ Debris perform – collectively and individually – as vitally and boldly as ever, delivering outstanding flows over snappy, atmosphere-driven beats. Don’t call it a comeback – the Hoods have, indeed, been here for years. What you can call it, however, is one of the year’s finest hip hop releases, regardless of nationality.
Manipulator Drag City/Spunk
Was this added professionalism to Segall’s approach worth it? Yes and no. The album easily has the best sound of any Segall album. And with its relative sprawl (17 tracks over 55 minutes), the album acts as an ideal starting point for Segall curios, incorporating elements of all of his past successes – the sludge of Slaughterhouse, the introspection of Sleeper and everything in between. But the advances on this album aren’t that remarkable compared to his other work, and if he hadn’t slaved away on these 17 tracks, we might have had four more albums by him now. Still, there’s not much reason to grumble. As with his other albums, the album acts like a children of the Children Of Nuggets sampler, each track being its own little perfect psychedelic gift to the world, be it the anthemic notions of ‘The Singer’, or the 12-string chase scene of ‘The Clock’.
Royal Blood Warner
Evergreen Universal
We Could Leave Tonight Tym
2014 marks 20 years since Hilltop Hoods formed, and releases as consistent and enthralling as this indicate they are far from done.
So for all the hullabaloo, it’s basically just another Ty Segall album filled with great tracks. But there are more of them this time, so this one’s better.
Royal Blood is a hell of a lot of fun, there’s no doubt about that. However, while it proves Royal Blood are dexterous reappliers, they aren’t compelling storytellers in their own right.
It doesn’t always work, but in short, Broods’ knack for durable hooks demonstrates they can transcend the confines of gloomy synthpop. It’s quality songwriting with better production and poppiness in all the right places.
David James Young
Leonardo Silvestrini
Augustus Welby
Kiera Thanos
INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK It doesn’t feel like all that long since we last heard from J Mascis – the one-two combo of his 2011 LP Several Shades Of Why and Dinosaur Jr.’s fantastic 2012 effort, I Bet On Sky, were more than enough to tide fans over. Then again, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having a surplus of Mascis’ work in the world. Following a killer cameo on Fucked Up’s Glass Boys, he has put together a quaint, serene album that’s a world away from his amp stacks and pedal boards.
J MASCIS
Tied To A Star Sub Pop/Inertia
26 :: BRAG :: 576 :: 20:08:14
Though there is an occasional fl utter of drums and the hum of electric guitar feedback, the central focus here is Mascis’ vocals and acoustic guitar. He
weaves his hazy storytelling through his mewling lower range and quivering falsetto, guided by impeccable guitar work that seamlessly transitions into unplugged mode. It’s a striking contrast, but that may well also be the point – Tied To A Star demonstrates the versatility and myriad abilities of the man behind the silver mane. Even as he approaches 50, there’s a lot of life left in J Mascis. Tied To A Star is a quiet record that deserves to be played nice and loud – and often, too.
We Could Leave Tonight has its time, its place and its own carved-out niche. It’s as comfortable a comeback as one could ask for. David James Young
OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week... THE SPECIALS - The Specials ROBBIE WILLIAMS - Life Thru A Lens DAN SULTAN - Blackbird
JAGWAR MA - Howlin’ BECK - Song Reader
David James Young
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ROG ERS ER KIT ES HU S KY 14 F ME GM E AT AC U DO RE FO O 34 ZEN F SHO ILM DA SO S N R T DW FO F ILM UTD INE OO E VEN S RA TS CT I VIT IES PA P
NOW ON SALE AT DUNGOGFESTIVAL.COM.AU
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live review
up all night out all week . . .
What we've been out to see...
TONI CHILDS, GEORGIA MOONEY The Basement Sunday August 17
kate miller-heidke
PICS :: AM
16:08:14 :: Foundry616 :: 616 Harris St Ultimo 9211 9442
15:08:14 :: The Concourse :: 409 Victoria Ave Chatswood 9411 8144 28 :: BRAG :: 576 :: 20:08:14
Mooney performed a solo set hallmarked by gorgeous vocals, adroit piano and stirring lyrics. Alone onstage (with the exception of large cardboard statues – lion, penguin, giraffe – scattered about in the most unlikely animal alliance since the Ark) there was an intimacy to her songs that had chatter throughout the room instantly stilled. From Robin Williams-dedicated ‘Going Home’ to the haunting set stand-out, ‘Birthday’, Mooney performed with such charm that even the occasional slip-up was made all the more endearing (the advice to herself mid-song, “Don’t freak out”, being a case in point). A rich, evocative performance.
You don’t expect a singer to be ecstatic in every performance, of course, and it is true that she was playing for a suddenly cold audience – it was not until ‘Dreamer’ several songs in that they finally began to engage. But after repeated statements denigrating the crowd for being from Sydney (which was no doubt intended as gentle chiding but came across as conceit) whenever they displayed reluctance to join her onstage or thrust their pelvises during ‘Zimbabwe’, to forgetting the words and starting Emmy Award-winning song ‘Because You’re Beautiful’ over again three times, to insisting that domestic violence can only be stopped after women first stop hurting themselves, which is wellintentioned but extremely problematic – after all of this, I had lost faith. Childs’ voice is as outstanding as ever, and the passion for her words can be felt as much as it can be heard. The majority of her act, however, was an awkward, underwhelming show that may once upon a time have been something quite moving. Adam Norris
frankie’s heavy metal hoo-ha PICS :: AM
danny g proyecto 5
PICS :: KC
When AC/DC first began touring – or so the story goes – they found themselves enlisted as the opening act for a variety of established bands. However, they were soon dropped from the bill after managers began realising they were stealing the show from acts they were supposed to be supporting. While Georgia Mooney is about as far from Bon Scott as you can get, the lineup at The Basement delivered that rare instance of a support proving much more nuanced and engaging than the main.
Toni Childs is a tremendous vocalist and the sincerity behind her songs is undeniable. Sadly, her set was characterised by conflicting spiritual observations, forgotten lyrics, haughtiness, and a band that looked like it was ready to fall asleep.
17:08:14 :: Frankie’s Pizza :: 50 Hunter St Sydney
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sleepmakeswaves
PICS :: KC
up all night out all week . . .
dappled cities
PICS :: KC
16:08:14 :: Manning Bar :: Manning Rd, Camperdown 9563 6000
16:08:14 :: The Lansdowne Hotel :: 2-6 City Rd Chippendale 8218 2333 OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER
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S :: KATRINA CLARKE :: ASHLEY
MAR ::
BRAG :: 576 :: 20:08:14 :: 29
g g guide gig g
send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com
pick of the week Courtney Love
7:30pm. free. Hollywood Nights - feat: Golden Fear + Matt Lyons + Dominic Youdan Hotel Hollywood, Surry Hills. 8pm. free. Loretta D’Urso Forest Lodge Hotel, Forest Lodge. 7:30pm. free. Merri Creek Pickers & The Rechords + Lacey Cole & The Lazy Colts Moonshine Cider & Rum Bar, Manly. 9pm. free.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
SUNDAY AUGUST 24 Enmore Theatre
Courtney Love + The Mercy Kills 8pm. $99.90. WEDNESDAY AUGUST 20 INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
City Slickers Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $15. Fat Bubba’s Chicken Wednesdays Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 5pm. free. Jake Clemons Lizotte’s, Dee Why. 8pm. $35. Karl S. Williams Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 7pm. $10. Knapsack + Ceres + Oslow Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7pm. $28. Sam And The Bird + Jess Dunbar + Ainsley Farrell The Vanguard, Newtown. 8pm. $13.80. Shredders Lair Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale. 6pm. free. True Vibenation Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. free.
ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
30 :: BRAG :: 576 :: 20:08:14
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Alice Terry Quartet Venue 505, Surry Hills. 7pm. $10. Gang Of Brothers Jam Night Spring Street Social, Bondi. 9pm. free. Lionel Cole Imperial Hotel, Paddington. 8pm. free. Musos Club Jam Night Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt. 8pm. free. Tina Harris Delicatessen Foundry616, Ultimo. 8:30pm. $21.50.
8pm. free. Tricia Evy Foundry616, Ultimo. 8:30pm. $27.50. Will Vinson Quartet + James Muller Venue 505, Surry Hills. 7pm. $20.
ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
Chris Raicevich + Emma Wolthers Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale.
THURSDAY AUGUST 21 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Cole Soul And Emotion feat: Lionel Cole The White Horse, Surry Hills. 8pm. free. Musos Club Jam Night Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill.
Jonathan Boulet
FRIDAY AUGUST 22 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Jazz Hip-Hop Freestyle Sessions Foundry616, Ultimo. 11:30pm. free. Will Vinson Quartet + James Muller & Jo Lawry Venue 505, Surry Hills. 7pm. $25.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS After Dark Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 10pm. free. Alex Hopkins Wenty Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 9pm. free. Anathema Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $74.70. Andy Golledge + The Mountains Standard Bowl, Surry Hills. 8pm. free. Andy Mammers Duo Kirribilli Hotel, Milsons Point. 8pm. free. Angelena Locke Chatswood RSL, Chatswood. 5pm. free. Big Rich Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale. 9:30pm. free. Black Diamond Hearts Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 10:30pm. free. Bounce PJ’s Irish Pub, Parramatta. 9:30pm. free. Brad Johns
Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 6pm. free. Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers Show Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills. 10pm. free. Cath & Him St George Leagues Club, Kogarah. 9pm. free. Charmers + Shadows On Blue Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 5pm. $10. Darren Johnstone The Oriental Hotel, Springwood. 8pm. free. Drawcard + Kiss Me! + Divide & Conquer + These Four Walls Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt. 8pm. $15. Drew Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool. 4:30pm. free. Ebony And Ivory Panthers, Penrith. 8:30pm. free. Elevation U2 Tribute Padstow RSL Club, Sydney. 8pm. free. Experience Jimi Hendrix Concert Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 7pm. $85. Fun House Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci. 8pm. free. Funkified Vineyard Hotel, Vineyard. 9:30pm. free. Glass Towers + Crea + Elliot The Bull + Blue River Saga Tattersalls Hotel Penrith, Penrith. 8:30pm. free. Glenn Esmond Crown Hotel, Camden. 8pm. free. Greg Agar Mona Vale Hotel, Mona Vale. 5:30pm. free. Heath Burdell Harbord Beach Hotel, Harbord. 7pm. free. Jake Clemons + Jordan Millar The Basement, Circular Quay. 8pm. $35. Jellybean Jam Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8:30pm. free. Jess Dunbar Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 5:30pm. free. Joe Echo Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 7pm. free. Krishna Jones Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill. 9:30pm. free. Leon Fallon Ingleburn RSL, Ingleburn. 9pm. free. Live Music At The Royal The Royal, Leichhardt. 9:30pm. free. Marc Malouf Duo Rock Lily, Pyrmont. 6pm. free. Mark Oats And Matt McHugh Duo PJ Gallagher’s, Leichhardt. 10pm. free. Marones - Ramones Tribute Show Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 9pm. $10. Matt Jones Duo Colonial Hotel, Werrington. 9pm. free. Matt Price Parramatta RSL, Parramatta. 5pm. free. Matt Price Duo Kings Cross Hotel, Kings Cross. 10:30pm. free. Melody Rhymes The Grand Hotel, Rockdale. 5:30pm. free. Muddy Feet Time & Tide Hotel, Dee Why. 7:30pm. free. Pop Fiction Duo Pittwater RSL, Mona Vale. 7:30pm. free. Sound City Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 8pm. free. Steve Tonge Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 9pm. free. The Angels Mounties, Mount Pritchard. 8pm. $40.
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xxx
Chris Raicevich The Loft (UTS), Ultimo. 6pm. free. Loretta D’Urso
Leichhardt Bowling Club, Leichhardt. 7:30pm. free. Mitch Anderson & His Organic Orchestra Coopers Hotel, Newtown. 8:45pm. free.
10 O’Clock Rock Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 10pm. free. A Team Duo Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 9pm. free. Alex Hopkins Open Mic Night Wenty Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 9pm. free. Alex The Kid Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10. Alkemie Night - feat: Live Music + DJ Sudek Spring Street Social, Bondi. 9:30pm. free. Benjalu Brass Monkey, Cronulla. 8pm. $15. Black Diamond Hearts Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 10pm. free. Busby Marou Collector Hotel, Parramatta. 8pm. $20. Cambo Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm. free. Dan Spillane Dee Why Hotel, Dee Why. 7pm. free. Dee Donavan Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 12pm. free. Dot Cooper Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 12pm. free. Favourites At The Flinders feat: Jam Hound James Flinders Hotel, Surry Hills. 8pm. free. Gerard Masters Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 8pm. free. Glenn Esmond Fortune Of War, The Rocks. 7pm. free. Greg Agar Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 7:30pm. free. Grooveworks Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 12pm. free. Jake Clemons Lizotte’s, Newcastle. 8:35pm. $35. James Black Duo Nag’s Head Hotel, Glebe. 8:30pm. free. Jamie Lindsay Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill. 7:30pm. free. Jonathan Boulet Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $12.
King Buzzo + Blackie Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $38.50. Like Thieves Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $23.60. Mandi Jarry Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 7:30pm. free. Mi-Sex Lizotte’s, Dee Why. 8pm. $54. Roland Storm Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 12pm. free. The Angels Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 8pm. $40. The Late Night Soda Social Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 5pm. free. The Lazy’s Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 8pm. free. The Owls UNSW Roundhouse, Kensington. 8pm. free. The White Brothers New Brighton Hotel, Manly. 10pm. free. Victoria Avenue Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney. 9:30pm. free.
g g guide gig g
send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Tim Conlon Duo Mona Vale Hotel, Mona Vale. 9pm. free. Tom And Dave Show Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill. 8pm. free. V.I.P. Moorebank Sports Club, Hammondville. 9:30pm. free. Velociraptor + Broods + Spookyland + Paul Conrad Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $16. Victoria Avenue Adria, Sydney. 9pm. free. War Of Attrition Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. free. White Bros Quakers Inn, Quakers Hill. 8pm. free.
SATURDAY AUGUST 23 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Paul Hayward & Friends Town & Country Hotel, St Peters. 4pm. free.
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Finn George IV Inn, Picton. 8:30pm. free. Jo Lawry Venue 505, Surry Hills. 7pm. free.
Xxx
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
After Party Band Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill. 10:30pm. free. Alex Hopkins Kirribilli Hotel, Milsons Point. 8pm. free. Andy Mammers Harbourview Hotel, The Rocks. 7pm. free. Angie Dean Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill. 6:30pm. free. Awakened + Friend Or Foe Tattersalls Hotel Penrith, Penrith. 8:30pm. free. Benn Finn Trio The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill. 9pm. free. Bird Yard Big Band Penrith RSL, Penrith. 2pm. free. Black Diamond Hearts Rock Lily, Pyrmont. 9:30pm. free. Blake Tailor Panthers, Penrith. 5:30pm. free. Bloods Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale. 8pm. free. Bud Petal & Calamity Paladin Hibernian House, Surry Hills. 7pm. free. Cara Kavanagh And Mark Oats Duo PJ Gallagher’s, Leichhardt. 10pm. free. Carl Fidler Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 4pm. free. Cath & Him Dee Why RSL, Dee Why. 9pm. free. Christie Lamb Duo Ettamogah Hotel, Kelly Ridge. 7pm. free. Cover Me Crazy Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 10:30pm. free. Craig Thommo Sir Joseph Banks Hotel, Botany. 7pm. free. Creo + Them Bruins Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $15.30. Danger!Bus Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 9pm. $10. Elevate Manly Leagues Club,
thebrag.com
Brookvale. 9pm. free. Elvis To The Max Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8pm. $50. Experience Jimi Hendrix Concert The Cube, Campbelltown. 7pm. $40. Eye Of The Tiger Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill. 8pm. free. Flyte Panthers, Penrith. 9pm. free. Glenn Esmond Fortune Of War, The Rocks. 3pm. free. Jamie Lindsay Duo The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill. 6pm. free. Joe Echo PJ Gallagher’s, Moore Park. 7:30pm. free. Josh McIvor Time & Tide Hotel, Dee Why. 7:30pm. free. Keith Armitage Brewhouse Marayong, Kings Park. 8pm. free. Lets Groove Tonight Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8:30pm. free. Mad Cow Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci. 8pm. free. Mandi Jarry Le Pub, Sydney. 9pm. free. Masterpiece Campbelltown Catholic Club, Campbelltown. 9:30pm. free. Matt Jones Stacks Taverna, Sydney. 5pm. free. Matt Jones Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 9pm. free. Melody Rhymes Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 7pm. free. Mezko + Strangers From Now On + Esc FBi Social, Kings Cross. 8pm. $10. Michael McGlynn New Brighton Hotel, Manly. 10pm. free. Neil Diamond’s Hot August Night By Peter Byrne Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $79. Oliver Goss Huskisson Hotel, Huskisson. 8pm. free. Outlier Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 10pm. free. Paul Hayward Town & Country Hotel, St Peters. 2pm. free. Reckless Town Hall Hotel, Balmain. 10pm. free. Redlight Ruby Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 9pm. free. Rob Henry Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 5:30pm. free. Simply Bushed Colonial Hotel, Werrington. 9pm. free. Slaughterfest VII - feat: Sumeru + Snakes Get Bad Press + Broozer + Dead Architect + Mish + Arteries + Not Like Horse + Hawkmoth + Legions + Witch Fight + Vile Ways + Hypergiant + The Holiday Project Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 12pm. $20. Soundproofed Penrith RSL, Penrith. 9pm. free. Steve Tonge Australian Hotel And Brewery, Rouse Hill. 7pm. free. Ted Nash Fortune Of War, The Rocks. 8pm. free. The Dead Love Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $18.50. The Field Duo Greystanes Inn, Greystanes Inn. 8pm. free. The Filthy Teens Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham. 8:30pm. free. The Loaded Six Strings Crown Hotel, Sydney. 9pm.
Kingswood
Night World Bar, Kings Cross. 7pm. free. Motown Mondays - feat: Soulgroove The White Horse, Surry Hills. 8pm. free.
TUESDAY AUGUST 26 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC
free. The Pretty Littles + Callithump Standard Bowl, Surry Hills. 8pm. free. The Tribe South Hurstville RSL Club, South Hurstville. 9pm. free. Toxic Dolls Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills. 9:30pm. free. Upload Tour - feat: BriBry + Luke Cutforth + Veeoneeye + Patty Walters Metro Theatre, Sydney. 4:45pm. $18.50. Video DJ Sloppy Mounties, Mount Pritchard. 10pm. free. Zoltan Adria, Sydney. 4pm. free. Zoltan Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill. 9pm. free.
SUNDAY AUGUST 24
Matt Price Panthers, Penrith. 2pm. free. Mick Aquilina Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci. 2pm. free. Midnight Drifters Penrith RSL, Penrith. 9pm. free. Sarah Paton Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 8pm. free. Sharron Bowman Ettamogah Hotel, Kelly Ridge. 1pm. free. Skyscraper Overlander Hotel, Cambridge Park. 3pm. free. Steve Tonge Harbord Beach Hotel, Harbord. 6pm. free. The Blaggards Time & Tide Hotel, Dee Why. 1pm. free. The Mondays The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill. 1pm. free. The Mountains Beach Road Hotel, Bondi
Beach. 8pm. free. Three Wise Men Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 4pm. free. Tom And Dave Show Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills. 2pm. free. Tori Darke Pritchards Hotel, Mount Pritchard. 1pm. free. Welter Botany View Hotel, Newtown. 7pm. free.
MONDAY AUGUST 25 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Jazz Jam And Games Night Venue 505, Surry Hills. 7pm. free. Latin & Jazz Jam Open Mic
Old School Funk & Groove Venue 505, Surry Hills. 8pm. free. Swingtime Tuesdays The Basement, Circular Quay. 7pm. $9.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
Declan Kelly + Fox + Benfield + Jason Neptune Bar 34 Bondi, Bondi Beach. 8pm. free. Kingswood Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $25.50. Pentatonix Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7pm. $49.90. Todd Sibbin + Todd West Record Crate, Glebe. 8pm. free.
ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
Blues Tuesdays With Ray Beadle Spring Street Social, Bondi. 7:30pm. free.
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Yuki & John + Paul Furniss + John Smith Illawarra Master Builders Club, Wollongong. 2:30pm. free.
ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
Elevation U2 Acoustic Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 4:30pm. free. Menagerie - feat: Alice Terry + Liam Caulfield + John Tennyson The Welcome Hotel, Rozelle. 4pm. free.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
A Team Duo Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm. free. Bad Vibes Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 1pm. $10. Courtney Love + The Mercy Kills Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $99.90. Daggerz + TopNovil + Chaz H. Scully + Everything I Own Is Broken + Cap A Capo Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 4pm. free. Dave White Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 3pm. free. Jess Dunbar Woolwich Pier Hotel, Woolwich. 2pm. free. Live On The Deck Launch feat: Lepers And Crooks + Dosey Smith Vicinity Dining, Alexandria . 3:30pm. $5. Matt Jones Duo Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 6pm. free.
wed
thu
20
21
Aug
Aug
(9:30PM - 12:30AM)
(9:30PM - 12:30AM)
fri
22 Aug (4:30PM - 7:30PM)
(9:30PM - 1:30AM)
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
SUNDAY AFTERNOON (4:30PM - 7:30PM)
sat
23
sun
(4:30PM - 7:30PM)
Aug
24 Aug
(8:30PM - 12:00AM)
(9:30PM - 1:15AM)
mon
25 Aug
(9:00PM - 12:00AM)
tue
26 Aug (9:30PM - 12:30AM)
BRAG :: 576 :: 20:08:14 :: 31
gig picks
up all night out all week...
Bloods
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 20
Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $16.
Knapsack + Ceres + Oslow Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7pm. $28.
SATURDAY AUGUST 23
True Vibenation Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. Free.
Bloods Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale. 8pm. Free.
THURSDAY AUGUST 21 Benjalu Brass Monkey, Cronulla. 8pm. $15. Busby Marou Collector Hotel, Parramatta. 8pm. $20. Jonathan Boulet Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $12. King Buzzo + Blackie Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $38.50. Like Thieves Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $23.60. Mi-Sex Lizotte’s, Dee Why. 8pm. $54.
FRIDAY AUGUST 22 Anathema Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $74.70. Drawcard + Kiss Me! + Divide & Conquer + These Four Walls Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt. 8pm. $15. Jake Clemons + Jordan Millar The Basement, Circular Quay. 8pm. $35. Velociraptor + Broods + Spookyland + Paul Conrad
Creo + Them Bruins Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $15.30. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard + The Murlocs Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $28. The Dead Love Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $18.50. The Pretty Littles + Callithump Standard Bowl, Surry Hills. 8pm. Free.
SUNDAY AUGUST 24 Daggerz + Topnovil + Chaz H. Scully + Everything I Own Is Broken + Cap A Capo Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 4pm. Free. Live On The Deck Launch - feat: Lepers And Crooks + Dosey Smith Vicinity Dining, Alexandria . 3:30pm. $5.
TUESDAY AUGUST 26 Kingswood Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $25.50. Pentatonix Metro Theatre, Sydney. 7pm. $49.90. Velociraptor
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BRAG’s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture
brag beats
inside:
plus: + club guide + club snaps + weekly column
seekae
rave of thrones hodor on the decks
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brag beats
BRAG’s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture
dance music news
five things
club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Martin, Nic Liney and Amie Mulhearn
WITH Bombs Away
LEOCH
Marc Jarvin
Growing Up I grew up in Uruguay listening to my 1. parents’ record collection – Mum was into Brazilian music and The Beatles and Dad into jazz and experimental stuff. There was always music at my house – Mum used to play violin, Dad the sax and both my sisters are piano teachers. At the age of 15 I got my first six-channel mixer, amps and 18” speakers. The whole neighbourhood used to hate me at siesta time.
Weiss
START:CUE FT WEISS
The good folk at Start:Cue are back with an international headliner for their August party. UK producer Weiss has been rising through the ranks under the watchful eye of Toolroom Records. With singles ‘My Sister’ and ‘The Guitar Man’ making waves on the Beatport charts, Start:Cue reckon it’s time to unleash him on Sydney over two floors on one big night. Support will be from Adam Proctor, Ross Ashman, Rickstar, Tommy Rutherford, Ben Nott, and DCW and Jay La Faber. Start:Cue 017 is on Saturday August 23 at The Vault Hotel.
THE ART OF RAVE
Sydney rave troupe Motorik! wants to enlighten you to the art of rave. To celebrate the collective’s third birthday, it’s hosting a massive retrospective exhibition, showcasing the highs (and lows) of its infamous forays. The aptly titled The Art Of Rave exhibition will be curated by the Motorik Vibe Council alongside long-term collaborators Babekühl and photographer Sam Whiteside of Voena. The free exhibition is being facilitated as part of the #JDFutureLegends series from Jack Daniel’s, a new initiative that aims to champion unique music projects and the stories behind them. The Art Of Rave will be showing for one weekend, Friday August 29 – Monday
September 2, at Salerno Gallery in Glebe. Check out the customary haze of strobes, fun and techno from a completely new perspective.
UNDR CTRL
Former Modular booking agent Paul Stix has launched a new booking, touring and events agency, UNDR ctrl, and will host a launch party next month. Already UNDR ctrl claims Bag Raiders, Van She, Lancelot, Wordlife, Canyons, Just A Gent, Albert Salt, Ara Koufax, Pelvis and Jawz on its list of clients, and has thrown its Strictly Vinyl parties at The Cliff Dive. Get around the launch at The Backroom on Friday September 19.
Tommy Four Seven
MORE FUN WITH PICNIC
A few months ago the team at Picnic served up a big bowl of fun in the form of a massive warehouse party. They’re set to do it again this month, bigger and better than before. They’ve bundled up some of their favourite spinners, locked in a ridiculously epic space (with a magic sound system) and even partnered with an awesome ride-sharing company to help you with the travelling. Marc Jarvin, Kali, Adi Toohey and Valerie Yum will provide the tunes, and the event is completely BYO, so grab your goodies and fill your pockets deep. (More) Fun will be going down on Saturday August 30 at a warehouse near you. The venue will be disclosed nearer to the date, so purchase your tickets from Resident Advisor and keep your ear to the ground.
Robert Babicz
Inspirations My favourite band is Pink Floyd – I 2. just love their sound, lyrics and concepts. The first time I heard them was back at home; my older sister used to have their tapes. In electronic music I love what Robag Wruhme, DJ Koze and Stimming do, also the whole Innervisions crew. Your Crew I just moved to the forest 15 minutes 3. from Byron Bay to focus mostly on electronic music production and I am also doing a Bachelor in Audio at SAE so I’m quite new in town. In Sydney my crew was Significant Others; I used to throw a weekly party every Friday night that lasted two amazing years till I decided to come here. My girlfriend Adaja AKA Negra is an amazing singer and we work together quite a lot, she is my inspiration. The Music You Make And Play I love music in general; in my DJ sets 4. I like to play a bit of everything and try not to fall under only one genre. At Spice I’m thinking of playing a melodic set with a story behind it. Not just banging tracks – ones that take everybody on a journey. I am also very excited about a live set that I am creating for Subsonic Music Festival; it’s going to be all about nature and organic sounds. My latest release is coming out on Buxton Records in a compilation of slow tempo music with artists from all over the world. Music, Right Here, Right Now I believe the electronic music scene is 5. growing and that’s really cool – everybody is
ROBERT BABICZ
TOMMY FOUR SEVEN
Born in the UK and now plying his trade in the world capital of dance music, Berlin, DJ and producer Tommy Four Seven will make his way to the Southern Hemisphere next month for a new two-date Australian tour. Tommy Four Seven works out of his own studio, presumably buried somewhere in a bunker near the remains of the Berlin Wall, and from there has catapulted to prominence on Chris Liebing’s CLR label. His 2011 debut album Primate got the ball rolling, and he once notched up a 12-hour set at Berlin’s famous Berghain nightclub – but you can catch Tommy Four Seven at Chinese Laundry on Saturday September 6.
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Polish producer, engineer and DJ Robert Babicz will return to Australia next month. Babicz is a bit of a favourite with fans Down Under and overseas – he resides these days in Cologne, from where he crafts his wares for his own label Babiczstyle. He’s also released his brand of electronica under the aliases Rob Acid, Sontec, Alton Inc, Alton Warrior and Dicabor. Sydney dancers will be pleased to see a familiar face at The ArtHouse on Saturday September 6.
a DJ these days but that’s OK too. You have to believe in yourself and unless you have an amazing agent that is going to promote you all around, you need to stand up for yourself, get out there and chase gigs. I see people with the most amazing music skills but with poor self-promotion making music at home, and people with little experience getting really successful because they know how to market themselves. Make sure you have all your promotion tools covered: Facebook page, SoundCloud, et cetera, and most importantly, get involved in the parties, go out, meet the organisers, the people and have a good time. With: Shivers*, Space Junk Where: The Spice Cellar When: Saturday August 23 And: Also appearing at S.A.S.H Sleepout, Friday September 19 – Sunday September 21, and Subsonic Music Festival, Friday December 5 – Sunday December 7
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Rave Of Thrones The Iron DJ By Erin Rooney
K
ristian Nairn is a gentle kind of guy. Best known for his portrayal of Hodor, the large, simple-minded but fiercely loyal stable boy to the Stark family on HBO’s Game Of Thrones, he draws on the shyness from his teenage years when he’s acting. Yet for someone who plays a character who only ever says his own name (that now iconic line, “Hodor”), Nairn is surprisingly talkative. And what many fans of the show may not know about the actor is that when he’s not on set filming, he’s spinning discs in nightclubs around the world. “I fell into that,” Nairn says. “I was working onstage in a local club and a DJ rang in sick one night. I’d studied DJing at a music college and offstage I had a vast music collection, so I volunteered to fi ll in, and from that night on I’ve just worked as a DJ. And it went very well, obviously.”
Seekae Voice Of The Voiceless By David James Young
A
fter two albums without a single word uttered, Sydney trio Seekae have opened both their minds and their mouths for The Worry, a record that – for many – will be seen as a notable sonic risk. The group’s third LP sees it not only adding vocals to the fold, but delving into wider, more atmospheric beats. Although it may come as a surprise, Alex Cameron feels as though it’s a logical progression – especially when it relates back to the band personally. “People often feel surprised by a band changing direction,” he says. “The time between records isn’t necessarily translated – when you’re talking about three years between records, that’s a long time in a person’s life in any instance. People can shift politically, religiously, creatively. For a band like us, that wants to be making things from our own perspective, it’s not surprising to me that the sound is new, in a way.”
The Worry is the group’s long-awaited follow-up to 2011’s +Dome record. The changes in the band members’ personal lives in that time are refl ected in what they’ve created. “We’ve all been through various shifts in the way we live – we’ve changed cities a few times and shifted relationships,” Cameron says. “The paths have changed slightly for us and we’re all maturing at this stage. For now, anyway, we’re becoming a little more secure in the way that we view the world. That’s kind of led to the desire to want to say more with the songs lyrically. We still have a great love for instrumental music, but it was just something that happened naturally. Going through changes and becoming different people has led to creating different music.” thebrag.com
Seekae first began incorporating vocals into their performances a couple of years ago – at first sporadically, then with a more regular flow of consistency. Although the trio is quite comfortable with the idea now, there was a period when singing was quite the daunting task. “It was pretty nerve-wracking – it was kind of like playing a first gig,” recalls Cameron of the first time the band used vocals in its set. “You get used to a certain comfort, a certain muscle memory and past performances to know that you can do it. When you’re singing for the first time – even if you’ve been singing for years and you’re singing something for the first time – there’s something unnerving about it, almost childlike. “I think what we constantly chase as creative people is being looked at as an amateur rather than a professional in our creative endeavours,” he continues. “I like the idea of doing something new and forcing myself to inject emotion and passion into it rather than professional skill. This isn’t to say that we’re not skilled musicians, but we like to find elements to work on where we have a little prior experience and then work on it for a few years. That way, it stays new to us and to the people that listen to the music.” A sabbatical between +Dome and The Worry saw Seekae – Cameron, George Nicholas and John Hassell – each working individually on various projects and compositions. Most notably, Cameron released a solo album, Jumping The Shark, for free online. The trio’s time apart did not hinder the collective creative process of the band itself – rather, it restored their confidence in their own abilities. “It’s never been a negative thing,” Cameron says. “Any conflict has been resolved
by pointing out that it’s a positive thing that we’re still creating. I think it also helps to know that what we all do individually is so vastly different. It does breed a certain confidence knowing that I can give an idea or a passage of music to George and he can set it on its own path. That works in all different directions – John could give me something, too, or vice-versa. Some parts were challenging – this did take 18 months of work to get done. Each track had its own breakthrough moment, so I feel strongly about each of the tracks on there.” The album is weeks away from release, and both nerves and anticipation are high in the Seekae camp. Even as The Worry approaches, Cameron stresses that it’s important to stay honest with yourself. Overnight success isn’t coming – after all, it never has for Seekae.
Nairn’s musical journey began from the moment his mum sat him down in front of the piano at three years old, and has since spanned from playing the pipe organ for The Phantom Of The Opera during high school to listening to heavy metal and finding an interest in dance music. DJing gave him a way of interacting with other people through music. “It’s enjoyable to have a conversation musically with the crowd. I love changing music genres in house music. I mean, I always play house music, but I like to change the style. I love the sort of emotional rollercoaster that you take them on with you.” Though Nairn has noticed that deep house is a popular trend amongst other DJs at the moment, he isn’t scared to shake things up a bit. “All of my mixes are so different – I don’t like to stick to one genre of
house. Sometimes you want a bit of cheesy EDM, you know what I mean? But it doesn’t mean you can’t stick it in with a bit of progressive or a bit of deep house. And if you’re a good DJ you can do that. It’s not a problem, but my house is so varied, because I’ve played it all over the years – so why not?” With a music career spanning far longer than his acting career, Nairn has been DJing for 20 years. Yet despite his vast experience – longer than some of his Game Of Thrones fans’ lives – he still fi nds that people are shocked to hear about the other side of his persona. “All of a sudden, you say one word in a popular show, and everyone wants to see a DJ! It’s really bizarre to me, but I’m happy to go with it.” Nairn is very loyal to his homeland of Northern Ireland, but says that its nightlife isn’t one of its fi nest qualities due to the strict liquor licensing laws that have had a strong impact on the nightclub and theatre industries. He describes one of the advantages of the exposure from Game Of Thrones as being the opportunity to travel to many different countries, playing sets in all sorts of atmospheres. And after learning on a recent promotional visit to Australia that there was signifi cant interest in a DJ tour, Nairn is bringing a Game Of Thrones-themed show to our shores with his upcoming Rave Of Thrones tour. It accompanies the release of Nairn’s new single ‘Where You Are’ with Kash Simic and featuring Amanda Wilson (best known for her work with Avicii). Nairn is just excited to see how the crowd will engage with the track as part of the wider performance, which in his words, will be “dramatic
and dark, but with a sense of humour”. Though he won’t be dressing in full Hodor attire this time (“I’m not wearing that outfi t, it’s hot enough!”), attendees will be expected to get into costume. He may not be in his full rabbit skins for the tour, but that doesn’t mean Nairn won’t be channelling some of Hodor’s qualities. “I think he’s actually a beautiful person. He has a very pure soul, which is lovely to play, because I always say that if people were a bit more like Hodor – but maybe a little more verbose! – the world would be a better place.” Without being biased, of course, Nairn says that his work with Isaac Hempstead-Wright (who plays Bran) has been one of his favourite Game Of Thrones storylines so far. And when discussing one of the more dramatic scenes they shot together for the fi nale of the fourth season of the show, Nairn admits that he got a little bit choked up. “We’re all emotionally involved in our characters, mostly because we’re all good friends and Isaac is like my little brother, and, you know, there’s defi nitely an emotional attachment there so you can see that.” But despite Game Of Thrones’ notorious reputation for killing off its most-loved characters, Hodor and Bran have managed to survive it all in the face of adversity. Nairn says that if anything can be learned from this, it’s that the other characters should take a page from Hodor’s book: “Keep their heads down and don’t say much.” With: Rave Of Thrones With: Ego Where: The Hi-Fi When: Thursday August 28
“We get behind all of our records and work them, and we believe in them,” says Cameron. “That’s what makes them travel. Our first record could have easily disappeared, but we put work into it. That’s what pushes us – if it takes two or three tours or even two years to sink in, we’re going to be right behind it. My hope is that people give this record time, like people did with the last record. That was a slow burn – we ended up touring four times on the back of it. It wasn’t as though we toured it once and the record died – it lived because people came to support it. As humble as that success was, it meant a lot to us. We hope the same for this one.” What: The Worry out Friday September 12 through Future Classic With: Jonti, That Feel Where: Metro Theatre When: Saturday August 23
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club guide g send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com
club pick of the week Seekae
+ Dusty Fingers + Count Gonzales + Flashback Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 9pm. free.
SATURDAY AUGUST 23 HIP HOP & R&B Kid Ink + Fortafy + Savo The Hi-Fi, Moore Park. $60.
CLUB NIGHTS
Cakes - feat: 4 Rooms Of Live Music + DJs And International Guests. World Bar, Kings Cross. 8pm. $10. Candyland Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $28.60. El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 10pm. free. El’ Circo - feat: Resident Circus Act Performers Slide Lounge, Darlinghurst. 7pm. $109. Frat Saturdays - feat: DJ Jonski Side Bar, Sydney. 6pm. free. Jägermeister Spice Presents Leoch - feat: Shivers* + Space Junk The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 10pm. $25. Lndry - feat: Clive Henry + Kid Kenobi + Kerry Wallace + Samrai + Matt Ferreira + Front 2 Back + DJ Just 1 + King Lee + Nine Lives
SATURDAY AUGUST 23 Metro Theatre
Seekae + Jonti WEDNESDAY AUGUST 20 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.
THURSDAY AUGUST 21 HIP HOP & R&B
Hip Hop Thursdays - feat: Planet Crushers + DJ Lopez + Eith Tattersalls Hotel Penrith, Penrith. 9pm. free. Joyride Lo-Fi, Darlinghurst. 6pm. free.
CLUB NIGHTS
Fear Of Dawn Goldfish, Kings Cross. 8pm. free. Glide Tribute The Vanguard, Newtown. 8pm. $18.80. Goldfish And Friends - feat: Regular Rotating Residents Goldfish, Kings Cross. 10pm. free. Hot Damn
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FRIDAY AUGUST 22 HIP HOP & R&B
Hustler Fridays - feat: Mc Shaba Hustle & Flow, Redfern. 7pm. free. Jazz Hip-Hop Freestyle Sessions Foundry616, Ultimo. 11:30pm. $5. Rise - feat: Remi + Mantra + Briggs + Grey Ghost + Dylan + Joel & Mistress Of Ceremony Oxford Art Factory,
SUNDAY AUGUST 24
The Establishment, Sydney. 8pm. free. S.A.S.H. Sundays - feat: Marcotix + Brohn + Jake Hough + Jay Smalls + LeOCh + Tristan Case + Aaron Andrew + Cris Birlanescu + Matt Weir + Kerry Wallace Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 2pm. $10. Sunday Sessions - feat: Cadell + Tom Kelly + Ocky Goldfish, Kings Cross. 4pm. free. Sundays In The City - feat: Various DJs The Slip Inn, Sydney. 12pm. free.
MONDAY AUGUST 25 CLUB NIGHTS
Crab Racing Scubar, Sydney. 7pm. free. Mashup Monday - feat: Resident DJs Side Bar, Sydney. 8pm. free.
TUESDAY AUGUST 26 CLUB NIGHTS
CLUB NIGHTS
La Fiesta - feat: Samantha Fox + Agee Ortiz + Av El Cubano + Resident DJ Willie Sabor
Chu World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. free.
send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com
THURSDAY AUGUST 21
8pm. $28.70. Spectrum, Darlinghurst. 9pm. $10. Jonkanoo (Full Up!) - feat: Mikey Glamour + Nick Toth + Jimmy Sing + Prince Andrew Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. free. Kicks World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. free. Loopy - feat: Drty Csh + Daschwood + Generous Greed The Backroom, Kings Cross. 10pm. $12. Pool Club Thursdays - feat: Resident DJs Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 5pm. free. Rimbombo - feat: Benj + Statz The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 7pm. free. The World Bar Thursdays World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. free.
Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. free. Masif Saturdays Space, Sydney. 10pm. $25. Pacha Sydney - feat: Will Sparks + Tigerlily + Glover + Nukewood + Spenda C + Fingers + Danny Lang + Deckhead + Heke + Just 1 + Jace Disgrace + Oakes And Lennox + Skoob + Devola + Stu Turner + Trent Rackus + Pat Ward Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 6:30pm. $53.20. Seekae + Jonti Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $28.70. 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. Start:Cue 017 - feat: Weiss + Adam Protor + Ross Ashman + Rickstar + Tommy Rutherford + Ben Nott + DCW & Jay La Faber The Vault Hotel, Sydney. 9pm. $10.
Kid Ink
Glide Tribute The Vanguard, Newtown. 8pm. $18.80. Darlinghurst. 8pm. $27.70.
CLUB NIGHTS
Argyle Fridays - feat: Resident DJs The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. free. Bassic - feat: Gladiator + Hydraulix + Acaddamy Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. free. El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 10pm. free. Factory Fridays - feat: Resident DJs Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 5pm. free. Feel Good Fridays Bar100, The Rocks. 5pm. free. Frisky Fridays Scubar, Sydney. 5pm. free. G-Wizard Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $18.40. Glide Tribute The Vanguard, Newtown. 8pm. $18.80. Heavenly Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 11pm. $10. Loco Friday - feat: Various Live Bands And DJs The Slip Inn, Sydney. 5pm. free. Soft&Slow 22.08 - feat: Andy Webb + Jamie Lloyd + Pink Lloyd The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 10pm. $15. Thank Funk It’s Friday The Ranch, Eastwood. 9:30pm. free. Voodoo Sydney Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 8pm. $25. Yo Grito - feat: King Opp
Jonkanoo (Full Up!) - feat: Mikey Glamour + Nick Toth + Jimmy Sing + Prince Andrew Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. free.
FRIDAY AUGUST 22 Rise - feat: Remi + Matra + Briggs + Grey Ghost + Dylan + Joel & Mistress Of Ceremony Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $27.70. Bassic - feat: Gladiator + Hydraulix + Acaddamy Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. free. Heavenly Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 11pm. $10. Soft&Slow 22.08 - feat: Andy Webb + Jamie Lloyd + Pink Lloyd The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 10pm. $15. Yo Grito - feat: King Opp + Dusty Jamie Lloyd
Fingers + Count Gonzales + Flashback Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 9pm. free
SATURDAY AUGUST 23 Candyland Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $28.60. Kid Ink + Fortafy + Savo The Hi-Fi, Moore Park. $60. Lndry - feat: Clive Henry + Kid Kenobi + Kerry Wallace + Samrai + Matt Ferreira + Front 2 Back + DJ Just 1 + King Lee + Nine Lives Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. free. Start:Cue 017 - feat: Weiss + Adam Protor + Ross Ashman + Rickstar + Tommy Rutherford + Ben Nott + DCW & Jay La Faber The Vault Hotel, Sydney. 9pm. $10.
SUNDAY AUGUST 24 S.A.S.H. Sundays - feat: Marcotix + Brohn + Jake Hough + Jay Smalls + LeOCh + Tristan Case + Aaron Andrew + Cris Birlanescu + Matt Weir + Kerry Wallace Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 2pm. $10.
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Off The Record Dance and Electronica with Tyson Wray
Todd Terje
o the Falls Music & Arts Festival has dropped its 2014/15 lineup and there is some seriously heavy electronic talent on the bill. One name sure to get the disco heads salivating is the return (and first-ever Australian festival appearance) of Norwegian luminary Todd Terje, whose all-conquering and omnipresent ‘Inspector Norse’ was basically played in every damn DJ set around every damn town back in 2012, which was when he last visited. He’ll be performing live this time around following the release of his debut album, aptly titled It’s Album Time. Other hot tips are Tycho and Tensnake. Stay tuned for Sydney club shows to be announced.
S
Also announced last week was the Meredith Music Festival lineup, which will see the return of Ukrainian deep house demigod Vakula and James Holden (whose Balance 005 still stands as one of the finest mix CDs ever released.) They’ll both be announcing Sydney shows soon. It looks like we might be seeing the first album since 2001 by the almighty Aphex
Twin very soon. We’re still awaiting ‘official’ confirmation, but over the weekend there was a goddamn blimp with his logo on it flying over London. Reports came when several users of Twitter started posting photos of it, and then his logo was spotted spray-painted outside of Radio City Music Hall and various other locations in New York. Stay tuned. Tour rumours: word on the grapevine is that in January we’ll be seeing visits from Hudson Mohawke and Fatima. I’m also told that The Gaslamp Killer will be traipsing our way in February/March, but that’s friggin’ way too far away to think about. Currently in the midst of a ridiculous touring schedule that has seen him play sets at DC10 Ibiza, Watergate Berlin and festivals all over Europe, Germany’s Butch will return to Sydney next month. Most recently he’s been heralded as the “second most charted DJ of all time” on global electronic music bible Resident Advisor. He will hit Chinese Laundry on Saturday September 20. Already announced for the launch party for Victoria’s Strawberry Fields festival, British-born, Berlin-based DJ and producer Tommy Four Seven has locked in his only other Australian show in Sydney. He’s a core member of Chris Liebing’s renowned label CLR, and will bring his fine-tuned concoction of house and techno to Chinese Laundry on Saturday September 6.
ISSUE 137 - JUNE 2014
)$6+,21 )$6+,21 )$6+,21 -2851$/ -2851$/ -2851$/ ISSUE 137 - JUNE 2014
ISSUE 137 - JUNE 2014
MELBOURNE - SYDNEY - BRISBANE - ADELAIDE - PERTH
MELBOURNE - SYDNEY - BRISBANE - ADELAIDE - PERTH
Aphex Twin’s blimp
Best releases this week: Kettenkarrussell’s Easy Listening on Giegling, Rezzett’s Zootie on Trilogy Tapes and Daze’s Lips on Lobster Theremin. A mysterious producer by the name of Road Hog has put up an album (roadhog.bandcamp.com) titled D.W.B. and it is killer. I’m led to believe that it’s actually a moniker of Galcher Lustwerk, whose 100% Galcher tape from last year (comprised of purely original productions) was easily the stand-out mix of 2013.
MELBOURNE - SYDNEY - BRISBANE - ADELAIDE - PERTH
) ) 5 5 ( ) ( ( 5 ( ( (
RECOMMENDED SATURDAY AUGUST 23 Clive Henry TBA
Seekae Metro Theatre
SATURDAY AUGUST 30
Astral People’s 3rd Birthday Goodgod Small Club
SUNDAY AUGUST 31 Alexis Raphael Home Nightclub
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 6
The ArtHouse
Butch
Tommy Four Seven Chinese Laundry
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 20 Butch Chinese Laundry
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 22
Clearer Skies Clearer Skies Clearer Skies
Âme TBA
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 29 OutsideIn Manning House, Sydney University
Robert Babicz
FA S H I O N & L I F E S T Y L E & M U S I C FASHION JOURNAL #138 #137 ON STREETS NOW !
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NEW NEW NEW FASHION JOURNAL WEBSITE...
Got any tip-offs, hate mail, praise or cat photos? Email hey@tysonwray.com or contact me via carrier pigeon. thebrag.com
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