ISSUE NO. 579 SEPTEMBER 10, 2014
FREE Now picked up at over 1,500 places across Sydney and surrounds. thebrag.com
MUSIC, FILM, THEATRE + MORE
INSIDE This Week
BONJA H
Rock is the way forward for the Melbourne foursome.
HILLTOP HOODS
NIGH T MO V E S
Director Kelly Reichardt fi lms a plot about a plot.
JO A N A R M AT R A DING
This could be the last chance to catch a true veteran.
OUT O F JOE BON A M A S S A
The gifted guitarist is coming our way with a new show.
Plus
TREVOR NOAH PRONG NIGHT BEATS
WED 10TH SEP
%"'5 16/, 53*#65& 4)08 + Dave Rennick + SAVILLE FFREE REEEE
8PMM
THE B LUE
ThE
OCeAn aT tHE eNd TOur WItH sPEciAL guEStS
WEDNESDAY 15 OCTOBER THE ENMORE BOOK NOW AT TICKETEK.COM.AU NEW ALBUM
ThE oCEan AT tHE eNd OUT NOW
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lorne marion bay byron VICTORIA
TASMAN IA
NEW SOUTH WALES
dec 28 2014
dec 29 2014
dec 30 2014
jan 01 2015
jan 01 2015
jan 03 2015
Until U n til
Until
Until
IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
ALT-J ÁSGEIR BIG FREEDIA THE BLACK LIPS BLUEJUICE COLD WAR KIDS DAN SULTAN DMAs GEORGE EZRA GLASS ANIMALS JAGWAR MA JAMIE XX JOEY BADA$$ JOHN BUTLER TRIO KIM CHURCHIL 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 LIVE TYCHO VANCE JOY WOLF ALICE BOOGIE NIGHTS
ALISON WONDERLAND BADBADNOTGOOD CLIENT LIAISON DJ WOODY PRESENTS ‘HIP HOP IS 40’ AV SHOW SALT N PEPA TWERKSHOP COM E DY
DAMIEN POWER DANIEL TOWNES HARLEY BREEN LUKE MCGREGOR TOMMY DASSALO URZILA CARLSON
tickets on sale now fallsfestival.com
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rock music news welcome to the frontline: the latest touring and music news...with Chris Martin, Tyson Wray and Lauren Gill
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THE BRAG
speed date WITH
THE MERCY KILLS Your Profile Current Playlist We like a bit of dirt. We like a bit of sleaze. We are listening to DZ Deathrays, The 1. 4. We love to kick it out live. Wildhearts, Bleeding Knees Club, Nine Inch
2.
Keeping Busy We have been so flat out. Recording our latest EP titled Paradise Motel and supporting Courtney Love for her Australian tour has been amazing. We love getting our hands dirty, creating our own merchandise, screen printing t-shirts, making earrings, badges and other cool stuff. It keeps us busy when we’re not out playing shows. We’ve got a new video clip coming out soon and we’re always writing. Looking forward to getting out there and gigging lots over summer. Best Gig Ever It’s hard to pick out the ‘best’ single 3. show as we have played with many amazing bands. Sharing the stage with bands that have influenced us such as Misfits, Killing Joke and Courtney Love always feels like the best gig we have ever played. If we had to name one, the Enmore Theatre supporting Courtney Love was certainly a standout show: a killer crowd in an amazing venue.
Nails, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Jen is stuck in the ’80s with INXS and The B-52s. Currently we are listening to the guy in the next hotel room singing in the shower… We have been to some great gigs in the past few weeks; we have some pretty amazing bands in Australia. Your Ultimate Rider Well, we all have different needs. A 5. masseuse for Nathalie, Slurpee machine for Josh, Jen requests Steve Tyler as barman, and Mark E. wants a little of everything. We actually have a lyric in ‘Don’t Give It Up’ that says, “Tyler on the rider,” because Jen wants to shag him and Josh wants to shag his rider [laughs]. What: Paradise Motel out now With: Bandintexas, Tequila Mockingbyrd Where: Frankie’s Pizza When: Sunday September 14 xxx
A NEW YEAR’S PARADISE
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: Lauren Gill, Roger Ma, Debbie Shankar, Tyson Wray ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant PHOTOGRAPHERS: James Ambrose, Katrina Clarke, Amath Magnan, Ashley Mar
GIG & CLUB GUIDE COORDINATORS: Emily Meller, Debbie Shankar - gigguide@ thebrag.com (rock); clubguide@thebrag.com (dance, hip hop & parties)
The Black Keys
SO FRENCHY SO CHIC
So Frenchy So Chic is returning in 2015. A celebration of French music (and fine champagne), the picnic for lovers, musicians, families and friends will feature performances from Emilie Simon, The Dø, La Femme and Francois and The Atlas Mountains. It all goes down on Saturday January 17 at St John’s College, Camperdown.
EVEN BLURSTIER TIMES
Ahead of its Sydney debut, Queensland festival staple The Blurst Of Times has added a few more acts to its Factory Theatre lineup. Velociraptor, The Creases, Bob Log III, Bloods, Apes, Bearhug and more join a bill that already includes the likes of DZ Deathrays, Hard-Ons, Jeremy Neale, Step-Panther and heaps more. Be there on Saturday October 25.
THE BLACK KEYS
Already revealed as the headliners for the gargantuan 2015 Bluesfest, The Black Keys have added a slew of Australian dates to their upcoming visit. The tour will see the duo return to Australia following the release of a successful eighth full-length album, Turn Blue, which debuted at number one on both the Billboard 200 and ARIA Charts and is the band’s highest-charting album to date internationally. Catch The Black Keys on Friday April 10 at Qantas Credit Union Arena and on Saturday April 11 at Bimbadgen Winery, Hunter Valley for Rolling Green. Tickets go on sale Thursday September 11.
AWESOME INTERNS: Roger Ma, Debbie Shankar, Jacob Mills
SHIHAD RETURN
REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Nat Amat, Ian Barr, Prudence Clark, Keiron Costello, Marissa Demetriou, Christie Eliezer, Blake Gallagher, Fergus Halliday, Cameron James, Tegan Jones, Lachlan Kanoniuk, Mina Kitsos, Emily Meller, Adam Norris, Kate Robertson, Erin Rooney, Raf Seneviratne, Leonardo Silvestrini, Amy Theodore, Rod Whitfield, Harry Windsor, Tyson Wray, Stephanie Yip, David James Young
Shihad have announced a run of shows in support of their new album, FVEY. Released in August, the LP debuted at number one in New Zealand. The upcoming tour will see the band unleash tracks from FVEY for the first time around Australia. Shihad will hit the Metro Theatre on Saturday October 25.
Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this NEW address 100 Albion Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 ph - (02) 9212 4322 fax - (02) 9319 2227
Katy Steele
DEADLINES: Editorial: Thursday 12pm (no extensions) Artwork/ad bookings: Friday 5pm (no extensions) Ad cancellations: Tuesday 4pm Published by Furst Media P/L ACN 1112480045 All content copyrighted to Cartrage P/L / Furst Media P/L 2003-2014 DISTRIBUTION: Wanna get the BRAG? Email distribution@ furstmedia.com.au or phone 03 9428 3600 PRINTED BY SPOTPRESS: www.spotpress.com.au 24 – 26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville NSW 2204
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After a wildly busy winter, The Delta Riggs have announced a national album launch tour for this November. The announcement comes following their national tour supporting Kasabian last month and a buzzworthy performance on triple j’s Like A Version. They’ve also just released another psychedelic feast of a clip for their current single, ‘The Record’s Flawed’. Catch them at Newtown Social Club on Thursday November 20.
MAXWELL AIN’T MAD
US singer-songwriter Maxwell has confirmed a lone Sydney sideshow on the back of his Soulfest appearances around the country. Maxwell made his name with hits like ‘Sumthin’ Sumthin’’, ‘Ascension’, ‘Pretty Wings’ and ‘Lifetime’, but this will be his first-ever Australian tour. In support at his Enmore sideshow is Leela James, Maxwell’s countrywoman out of Los Angeles. Maxwell plays the Enmore Theatre on Tuesday October 21. Tickets go on sale Monday September 15.
EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher, editors or staff of the BRAG. ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Luke Forrester: accounts@furstmedia.com.au ph - (03) 9428 3600 fax - (03) 9428 3611 Furst Media, 3 Newton Street Richmond Victoria 3121
THE DELTA RIGGS
Sam Smith
SAM SMITH
Sam Smith is set to bring his highly anticipated In The Lonely Hour tour to Australia next year. Since bursting onto the scene as the guest vocalist on Disclosure’s breakthrough track ‘Latch’, and then featuring on Naughty Boy’s hit single ‘La La La’, last year Smith released his Nirvana EP and followed it up this May with his debut album In The Lonely Hour, which went platinum in the UK and gold in Australia and New Zealand. Catch him on Monday April 27 at the Hordern Pavilion.
HAVE A LITTLE FAITH
KATY STEELE
Katy Steele calls New York home these days, but she’s returning to Oz for a special show at The Basement next month. With full band and choir backing, the Little Birdy frontwoman will preview new songs from a forthcoming solo release, due in 2015. See Steele in Sydney on Thursday October 9.
UK performer Paloma Faith will make her maiden voyage to our shores in May. The tour follows the March 2014 release of her third album A Perfect Contradiction, which features collaborations with the likes of Plan B, John Legend and Pharrell Williams. She’s currently enjoying the success of the album’s lead single and her first number one hit, ‘Only Love Can Hurt Like This’, which peaked on the ARIA charts back in July. Paloma Faith will play the Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House on Sunday May 10. Tickets go on sale at 9am Friday September 12. thebrag.com
The Black Keys photo by Danny Clinch
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Lost Paradise, the New Year’s festival being held in Glenworth Valley at Peats Ridge, has announced a bumper lineup for its 2014/15 debut. Boy & Bear, AlunaGeorge, The Preatures, Ball Park Music, Sylvan Esso, Pond and Badbadnotgood lead a diverse schedule of artists that’ll celebrate the New Year just north of Sydney. Alongside the music will be food, yoga, art and guaranteed good times. Lost Paradise is on Tuesday December 30 – Thursday January 1.
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live & local
free stuff
welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town...with Chris Martin, Roger Ma and Lauren Gill
speed date WITH
ANTISKEPTIC
LUCY WISE Your Profile Lucy Wise Trio have a 1. contemporary folk sound, mixing storytelling with intricate musical textures. In this lineup I join musical forces with Chris Stone (violin) and Holly Downes (double bass) from The String Contingent. I love to write stories about people I’ve met, conversations I’ve had, peoples’ hopes for the world. Two big inspirations for me are Joni Mitchell and The Punch Brothers. My band’s favourite thing to do on our tours is play acoustic house concerts. What do I look for in a fan? A good old yarn after the concert! Keeping Busy Lately I’ve been writing a 2. lot of new songs, getting excited
Gig Ever My favourite gig ever was at 3. Best
MICK BLOOD BENEFIT GIG
Australia’s underground punk rock scene is rallying a benefit concert, Blood Bank, to raise funds for Mick Blood, vocalist of the influential 1980s Australian punk band Lime Spiders. Blood’s life was turned upside down in June this year when an altercation in a pub in his new home of Newcastle landed him in hospital with serious head injuries. Left with brain damage, Blood faces a long road of rehabilitation and recovery. An all-star benefit show is lined up at The Bald Faced Stag on Saturday September 27. Lime Spiders will be headlining the night with an array of surprise guest singers stepping in for Blood. Also appearing are Psychotic Turnbuckles, But Jacques, The Fish?, Spurs For Jesus, The Amazing Woolloomooloosers, The Dubrovniks, Hey! Charger, 25th Floor, 77 Sunset Strippers and Big Charlie.
Bagster
A bunch of the finest acts in Australia’s punk rock scene will come together for Gingerfest, a fundraiser in memory of Canberra music identity Nicholas Sofer-Schreiber AKA The Ginger Ninja. 28 Days, Bagster, Totally Unicorn, Lindsay ‘The Doctor’ McDougall (acoustic), Born Lion, Clowns, Hightime, Super Best Friends, Lincoln Le Fevre (acoustic), Punk Rock Hillbilly and Revellers are all on the bill, with proceeds going to Vision Australia. Gingerfest is at the Factory Theatre on Saturday December 6. Tickets go on sale Friday September 5.
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Current Playlist I went to see Gina Williams 4. and Guy Ghouse at The National Folk Festival this year and was completely blown away – if you haven’t seen them yet, you must! My current playlist is Gina and Guy’s album Kalyakoorl, The Goat Rodeo Sessions, Elbow, Ray Charles and Lake Street Dive’s latest album, Bad Self Portraits.
Antiskeptic
Ultimate Rider A wood-fired hot tub. 5. Your Who: Lucy Wise Trio, Ari & Mia Where: Mofo at The Record Crate, Glebe When: Friday September 19
Sarah McLeod
LIVE ON THE DECK
Vicinity Dining’s Live On The Deck event has locked in The Button Collective and Sarah McLeod for two intimate Sunday sessions this month. Live On The Deck kicked off to a flying start with Lepers And Crooks opening the series in August. The showcase continues with sea-shanty-singing The Button Collective on Sunday September 14. And local singer/ songwriter McLeod (The Superjesus) is set to headline an intimate acoustic session the following Sunday September 21.
C’MAN & JUZZLIKEDAT
Surry Hills’ Play Bar will host a night of dancefloor jazz, hip hop, funk, soul, disco and more courtesy C’Man and Juzzlikedat this Saturday September 13. The fellas are already known to good-time-lovin’ punters at the Tatler, Café Lounge, The Basement, Oxford Art Factory and more, with C’Man establishing his name around town over the last decade and Juzzlikedat operating out of the Le Garage space. They’ll be joined by Play Bar regular Benny Hinn.
Bruiser EP last year. The Fabergettes will be joined by mates Food Court, Disgusting People and The Bad Bitch Choir for one raucous night at Brighton Up Bar on Saturday October 4.
STRONG LIKE AN OX
INDIE NIGHT WEDNESDAYS
Ezekiel Ox, the former voice of defunct underground heroes Full Scale, Mammal and The Nerve, has unveiled an extensive tour in support of his debut EP, Raw Styles. Since announcing his solo ambitions in January, Ox has enjoyed success opening for the likes of Boots Riley, King Of The North, Sietta and Tim McMillan. During this time he recorded Raw Styles, which was recently picked up by Bird’s Robe Records and will be officially released to coincide with the upcoming tour. Joining him on the road will be Melbourne’s The Twoks. Ox will play The Vanguard on Thursday November 6.
THE FABERGETTES
The Re-Mains are set to play a free show at Coogee Diggers as part of their Winter North Coast Run. Since 2001, Nimbin’s country rock’n’rollers have played at just about every festival, outback bar and inner city dive in the country. With seven albums already under their belt, their upcoming tour is in support of their latest EP/mini-album In The Valley, which features five new songs. The Re-Mains head to Coogee on Friday September 12.
The regular Wednesday night event at historic CBD venue Marble Bar is putting on one of its best lineups yet this Wednesday September 10, with Andy Golledge, Leroy Lee and Colin Jones & The Delta Revue taking care of business. Golledge and Lee are singer-songwriter types cut from a similar cloth, with Lee claiming support slots for the likes of Missy Higgins, Lior and Lisa Mitchell on a growing CV. Meanwhile, Jones and crew will round the night out with raspy blues goodness.
The Fabergettes and friends are set to rock out Brighton Up Bar for the launch of their new single, ‘Ready To Go’. It’s the first taste of new music from the trashbag pop foursome since delivering the much-lauded Big
ALL THAT REMAINS
thebrag.com
Sarah McLeod photo by Brett Stanley Photography
GINGERFEST
The Mussel Inn, Onekaka, New Zealand with Lucy Wise & The BGollies. A handcrafted wooden brewery filled with great people and food, in a beautiful place. My most exciting gig was playing solo to 1,200 people at Sidmouth Folk Week, UK in 2013 (I was pretty nervous!).
Melbourne foursome Antiskeptic are back on the scene with Stare Down The Ocean, their new album due Friday September 19. It’s nice to know they’re a band in demand: upon Antiskeptic’s return, their fans pitched in $20,000 for new recordings. The single ‘Hey Dissident’ got plenty of love and it’s just kept on coming for latest cut ‘When The Night Comes In’. After six years away, Antiskeptic are stepping out on a fi vedate tour, starting in Sydney (and also hitting Newcastle’s Small Ballroom on Friday September 26). Joining them at Newtown Social Club on Thursday September 25 are Young Lions and Cambridge, and you could be there too – we’ve got three double passes up for grabs; just head to thebrag. com/freeshit and tell us your favourite Antiskeptic song for the chance to win.
Xxx
about making another recording. My band is about to go on a September east coast tour with an Americana duo from the US, Ari & Mia, and then starting from October we’ll be playing a bunch of the Australian music festivals.
Lime Spiders
head to: thebrag.com/freeshit
Image: National Archives of Australia: B942, Slide 66
FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE: THE QUARTER ACRE BLOCK PARTY
ARMCHAIR APOCALYPSE
BODIES IN URBAN SPACES
19 SEPTEMBER – 12 OCTOBER Various lounge rooms around the city.
FRIDAY 10 OCTOBER – SATURDAY 11 OCTOBER / 12.30PM Various locations throughout the city. Meet at Archibald Fountain.
Turn off the TV. Shut down the computer. Rock Surfers Theatre Company is coming to your lounge room – or one nearby! This Bondibased troupe is stepping out of the theatre and into your home, with three new shows ready to order straight to your door. Invite yourself to a stranger’s home for an intimate night of hilarious and heart-wrenching comedy.
19 SEPTEMBER / 5PM – 10PM Martin Place, Sydney.
Australian chef and passionate sustainable food advocate Jared Ingersoll is on barbie duty and boutique winemakers Cake Wines are running the bar. Enjoy live music from The Morrisons, Bustamento and Hot Potato Band. Double J have made us a special BBQ mix and there’s even a slide show. So settle in for the night, or kick on to the neighbours’ – with galleries and museums across the city taking part in the festivities and opening their doors ‘til late! Continue the party at the Artists’ Market at the State Library, Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW, Aztecs at Australian Museum or Customs House late night library. Our house is your house, so grab your mates and join us for a chilled night of songs, snags and shenanigans in homage to the disappearing great Aussie backyard.
19 SEPTEMBER – 5 OCTOBER / 11AM – 6PM Queen Victoria Building Forecourt, George and Druitt streets.
Image: Lisa Rastl
Brush your hair, straighten your tie and polish your shoes – Us is a temporary photo studio where you can be part of a group photo with people you’ve never met before or your best friend. Once your picture has been snapped, you’ll be given your own copy to take home. All photos will also be posted to Tumblr. Check usphotographs.tumblr.com to see your face.
Slip on your thongs, give your best loud shirt and stubbies a quick press, and join us for a backyard barbie in Martin Place to celebrate the launch of Art & About Sydney! We’ve mowed the lawn, set up the table tennis, decorated the hills hoist and put out the best garden furniture to recreate a suburban backyard slap bang in the middle of the city.
US
Squeezing brightly clothed people into nooks and crannies, artist Willi Dorner plays with our perceptions of space. What was once a gap between two buildings now houses toylike bodies, in a game of sardines like no other.
HERE, NOW
NEON NOMADS
19 SEPTEMBER – 12 OCTOBER 307 Pitt St, Sydney.
19 SEPTEMBER – 12 OCTOBER Hyde Park south.
Using striking colour and bold typography, Numskull’s large-scale mural project for Art & About Sydney is a call to stillness in a fast-paced world, challenging all of us to slow down and start appreciating the moment.
Hyde Park south is home to an urban camp with one eye on the digital age and the other on a more nomadic past. Glowing tipis covered in LED art, film, sound, animation and text, in a shared space created by artists with a love of the tipi and all it symbolises – refuge, hearth, and a nostalgia for a simpler life.
Image: Numskull The future depends on today (2013) 32.5m x 2.65m acrylic and aerosol paint on plywood Commissioned by Newcastle Art Gallery in conjunction with 2013 Hit the Bricks Festival, Newcastle, NSW
TROLLEYS
Image: Irven Lewis
VARIOUS DATES AND TIMES Please see website for complete list. Martin Place, Customs House Square, Pitt Street Mall, Hyde Park north. Part dance. Part spectacle. Part ballet. Five shopping trolleys appear in a public space. Two fall in love. One grapples to find a friend. And three ignite in a dance of anarchy over a breath-taking, high-octane twenty-minute performance from the always-thrilling Shaun Parker & Company.
EXPLORE THE FULL PROGRAM AT ARTANDABOUT.COM.AU Proudly produced by
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Industrial Strength Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer
THINGS WE HEAR * Why is Telstra keeping mum about the launch date of its Beats streaming platform even though Beats CEO Ian Rogers has been meeting with labels and media? * Which PR firm held its own awards of its fave media people (the most approachable, the journalist that best featured our client, you get the picture)? There was a social media backlash, including from media winners, and the company decided not to do it again. * What did Courtney Barnett do when she set a target of $5,000 in a crowdfunding campaign to put together a compilation CD of acts from her Milk Records and ended up with $22,000? She’ll donate 10% of the proceeds to
the Wilderness Society, she told The West Australian. * Applications for the Carlton Dry Global Music Grant numbered a record 130. * Gene Simmons confirmed KISS will definitely return to Australia as part of their 40th anniversary world tour. * Jimmy Barnes scored his tenth solo number one album on the ARIA chart with 30:30 Hindsight debuting at the top this week, and going gold. The Beatles have the most number one albums in Australia with 14, followed by U2 with 11 and Madonna also with ten. * After Sheppard’s European tour in July, the ‘Geronimo’ single (quadruple platinum in Australia) went top ten in Ireland, Italy and Poland, was the third mostplayed video in Spain and landed on national radio in Denmark and Germany. It also hit the iTunes top ten in NZ, Indonesia,
TECH GIANTS REJECT AUSSIE ANTI-PIRACY PROPOSALS
Tech giants such as Pandora, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Samsung have turned a cold shoulder to the Attorney-General George Brandis’ proposed law reforms that purport to punish copyright infringers. The Australian Government’s proposal is in response to complaints from the entertainment industry and involves a system that slows or cuts off internet access of those who keep downloading illegally despite warnings. In a submission on the proposed reforms, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) sniffed that there is no proof a graduated response system works. Instead, it suggests that music, movie and TV companies consider why folks turn to illegal downloading – like high prices and availability of lawful content in Australia. Communications Alliance head John Stanton called it “Hollywood again trying to play Australia as a pawn�.
Malaysia and the Philippines. Last week it jumped from #107 to #62 in the Mediabase National Alternative charts in the US where they’re playing in September and November. Meantime, The Griswolds’ ‘Beware The Dog’ joined Vance Joy’s ‘Riptide’ in the top ten on the American Alternative Songs chart. * WA police are investigating an alleged incident at an Amity Affliction gig at Red Hill Auditorium where a bouncer told a girl to flash her chest if she wanted to go in, according to eyewitnesses. The security company, Ace Security & Event Services, said the girl (whom police are asking to contact them) had gone to her car to get a jumper and lifted her jumper to show her t-shirt, which the bouncer recognised and allowed her in. The Amity Affliction were “shocked and
MUSICNSW PRESENTS RADIO SEMINAR
For those wanting to get into the radio industry, MusicNSW has gathered six radio hotshots to offer tips on making good radio and sustaining a career. The speakers are triple j’s Linda Marigliano and Tom Tilley, Merrick Watts (2Day), Georgina Ingham-Myers (Nova), Johanna Roberts (FBi) and Jess Scully (2SER). Music NSW’s Jake Stone will host. Air Check is on Thursday September 18 at Customs House in Circular Quay, 10am-12pm. It is free but numbers are limited to 40, so send your full name to jake@musicnsw.com by 5pm Monday September 15.
IN THE GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS
A few rock names are among the new additions to the Guinness Book Of World Records. They include Metallica for being
appalled� and have written to the gig promoter. The bouncer could lose his licence if found guilty of inappropriate behavior. * The Great Southern Blues Festival gears up in Narooma during the long October weekend and Neil Mumme expects crowds to hit 15,000. The event pumps $8 million into the local economy and gives money to local charities. * US guitarist Ted Nugent says he tried to warn Bon Scott, Jimi Hendrix and Keith Moon off drugs. “They all thought I was an idiot. They called me an asshole and a loser because I wouldn’t drink and puke and drool. I didn’t take it personally – I knew drugs had destroyed their sense of logic and their sense of decency. ‘No, I don’t want any of that Bon, and why you’re killing yourself, I’ll never understand. If I had your voice, I’d rule the planet.’�
the only band to perform on all seven continents in a year, including Antarctica last December; One Direction for being the first band to debut at number one in America with their first three albums; Miley Cyrus for Most Searched-For Pop Star on the Internet; Shakira for Most ‘Liked’ Person on Facebook (100 million fans) and first to reach 100 million ‘likes’ on Facebook; Katy Perry for most Twitter followers (52,463,838); and Eminem for most words in a hit – ‘Rap God’ had 1,560 in six minutes and four secs.
TAMWORTH SONGWRITERS ASSOCIATION COMPETITION
This year’s Tamworth Songwriters Association (TSA) competition has introduced new rules including allowing backing tracks for novices and an International Section for unreleased songs from writers outside Australia and local writers who work with international co-writers. Check tsaonline.com.au for the categories.
THE VOTE THAT ROCKED
E HIFI 1300 THO M.AU
THEHIFI.C
Just Announced
Rose Tattoo’s Gary ‘Angry’ Anderson was unanimously elected as the Nationals candidate for the New South Wales seat of Cessnock. “The National Party has the right morals, the right work ethic and a strong focus on regional and rural areas,� he said. Meantime, Melbourne band The Basics have not yet registered their political party called Basics Rock’n’Roll Party (BRRP). Gotye (Wally de Backer) said that while he and bandmates Kris Schroeder and Tim Heath are still interested in registering, the candidate would be bassist Schroeder, contrary to various reports that Gotye himself would be running.
ALBERTS GETS BUTLER’S SYNC RIGHTS Sat 20 Sep
Tue 25 Nov
Bohemia Live
Nahko & Medicine For The People
This Week
Coming Soon
Fri 12 Sep
Sun 14 Sep
El Gran Combo
Rise of Brotality feat. The Ghost Inside, I Killed The Prom Queen + more
Thu 25 Sep
Good Life U18 feat. J-Trick, Slice N Dice, Tigerlilly, Toneshifters + more
Sun 5 Oct
Dead Kennedys
Sat 18 Oct
Sat 27 Sep
Rebel Souljahz (USA)
Drum & Bass Tour feat: The Upbeats,
Mon 29 Sep
Industry Rebooted 9
Fri 7 Nov
ENTERTAINMENT QUARTER, BUILDING 220, 122 LANG RD, MOORE PARK, SYDNEY
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Alberts has secured the sync licensing rights in Australia to John Butler songs through his publishing company Family Music. His manager Phil Stevens said, “Alberts have proved themselves over the last few years as being exceptional in the realm of delivering music for film, TV and advertising�. Two years ago, music used on a US yoghurt ad seemed to rip off Butler’s song ‘Zebra’.
YOUTUBE ATTRACTS ONE BILLION MONTHLY USERS
YouTube attracts one billion monthly users, who devour six billion hours of video (mostly games, comedy and music), with 40% of those consumed on mobile devices. According to Tubefilter and OpenSlate, the top 100 YouTube channels’ views grew 80.5% in the last year. The channel with biggest gain was Swedish gamer Felix Kjellberg (PewDiePie) with 438.9 million views and 29.47 million subscribers.
CHOIRBOYS DO AC/DC ALBUMS LIVE
Choirboys’ Mark Gable quips, “I love being in Choirboys, but I’ve always wanted to be in AC/DC – this is my chance.� To celebrate the 40th year of Bon Scott joining AC/DC, Choirboys are performing High Voltage and Highway To Hell cover to cover. They’re doing two shows each at Cherry Bar (Melbourne), The Basement (Sydney) and New Globe Theatre (Brisbane) through November.
Lifelines Hospitalised: Jimmy Barnes for emergency back surgery after complications for an earlier back procedure. Hospitalised: Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx for a double hernia operation. In Court: CeeLo Green pleaded no contest to one felony count of furnishing ecstasy to a woman during a 2012 dinner in Los Angeles. He was up on a rape charge, and caused outrage with the reprehensible tweet: “Women who have really been raped REMEMBER!!!� while trying to explain sex with a “passed out� woman was consensual. Sued: KISS, by an Indiana security guard who says he slipped on the stage and injured himself after they “foolishly� sprayed water and confetti on it. Sued: Kendrick Lamar by US jazz players Eric Reed and Willie Jones III, formerly with Black Note, who claim his 2011 hit ‘Rigamortis’ took from their 2010 track ‘The Thorn’. Jailed: former Geelong nightclub operator Mark Currie, 37, (Vinyl Bar, Rumours) for six months after pleading guilty in Geelong Magistrates’ Court to charges of possessing cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis, dealing in the proceeds of crime and possessing prohibited weapons. Jailed: a 31-year-old Kentucky fan of thrash band Exodus, for eight days, and facing charges of making terrorist threats, simply for posting online the lyrics of their song ‘Class Dismissed’ about a school massacre. Died: Aussie country music singer and songwriter and disability advocate Colin James, 76. Wheelchair-bound at the age of five after contracting Still’s disease, a debilitating form of rheumatoid arthritis, he got an Order of Australia and was inducted into South Australia’s country music hall of fame. Died: Jimi Jamison, 63, former singer for Survivor and Cobra, of a heart attack. He sang Survivor hits ‘The Moment Of Truth’ and ‘Is This Love’. Died: New Orleans bounce star and queer rap pioneer Nicky Da B, (Nickesse Toney) 24, after a brief illness. He had hits with ‘Hot Potato Style’ and on Diplo’s ‘Express Yourself’ and was in Australia in 2012 for Vivid’s Goodgod Danceteria party. Died: Australian jazz drummer Alan Turnbull, 71, from a heart attack. Born in Melbourne, he turned pro at 14 before moving to Sydney in the late 1960s to work with Don Burrows and play with virtually every international jazz act that toured. He mentored and taught many generations of players. Died: Australian jazz singer Kerrie Biddell, 67, after a severe stroke. Starting out in pop band The Affair in the late ’60s, she turned to jazz, performing with the Daly Wilson Big Band, cutting solo records, hosting her own ABC radio show Kerrie Biddell And Friends and teaching at the Conservatorium of Music. Died: Australian band and event lighting engineer Rob ‘Robbie’ Oswald of Phase Shift Productions, after a battle with cancer. A fund is set up for his two young children, at the Rob Oswald Fund, BSB 035-045, account 315727, or email Graeme McHugh at graz@ phaseshiftproductions.com. Died: Sydney celeb agent Mark Byrne, 45, of a heart attack.
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MEGAN WASHINGTON CONFLICT RESOLUTION BY CHRIS MARTIN
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t’s a gloomy Tuesday morning at the Universal Music offices in Surry Hills, but Megan Washington is in a determined mood. Her second album, There There, is out in a matter of days, and the Port Moresby-born songwriter says it’s time to start a new chapter in her career. “This whole record is a consolation,” she says. “And the very idea of a consolation implies a tacit acknowledgement of the conflicts before there can be the consolation, you know what I mean? And I had to deal with a lot of shit from my past – well, I wanted to deal with it, and I think subconsciously that’s probably why I made this record. I think a lot of those narratives and a lot of those dramas are finished and can be written about from a finite, ‘And therefore, here is the song, thanks for your time, and let’s all go to the pub.’” If this is Washington’s closure, it has been a long time in the works. She released her debut studio album, I Believe You Liar, in 2010 – a collection of keys-infused alt-pop that saw her win ARIA Awards for Best Female Artist and Breakthrough Artist that year – then followed it up with the mini-album Insomnia, a dark and troubled portrait of a musician in turmoil. It wasn’t the triumphant, radiofriendly second release designed to capitalise on the goodwill of the first (“I just fucking wrote Insomnia, so I put it out,” she says). There There has taken as long as it needed to take.
“I felt ever since about 2011 that I was sort of looking for something, but I didn’t know what I was looking for,” says Washington. “Just quite a Lynchian sort of idea. And I was just looking for someone to work with. I went across to London in 2012, and wrote with a whole bunch of people there, and I went back again at the beginning of 2013 and it was only then when I met Sam [Dixon, producer] that I kind of went, ‘A-ha, now I have all the bits,’ and he was hugely influential in this record and quite influential to me artistically and in my personal life as well as musically. I didn’t really have the interest in doing it before I did it, because I didn’t have anything to write about, and there was a lot of natural resolution that came as part of writing this album, and I probably wasn’t ready for that either.” In truth, this has been a year of new starts for Washington, who continues to split her time between Australia and the UK. In May, she delivered a TEDx talk at the Sydney Opera House revealing her lifelong battle with stuttering. That sprouted an episode of Australian Story, profiling a singer who’d grown to prominence in the Australian contemporary music sphere while managing to conceal her debilitating condition from all but those close to her. At the start of 2014, did Washington envisage making all this public? “Even at the start of the day that I did it, I didn’t envisage myself doing it,” she says. “I still can’t really believe that I did it, actually – I’m
still a bit like, ‘Fuck!’ If someone asked me again to do that right now, I’d be like, ‘No fucking way.’ At the time, I’d just split up with my old manager and I was feeling really raw. And so I just thought, ‘I’ll do it,’ because… like, you do weird shit after a break up, you go skydiving or cut all your hair off, and splitting up with him was very much like a break up, so I did some crazy shit. I kinda wanted to push the boat out a bit and see. Weirdly, since I did that, my speech has gotten much worse. I hoped it would be this sort of holistic balm … dunno.” The new-look Washington is evident in name, as well: There There will be her first release under her full name, Megan Washington, as opposed to the surname-only moniker applied to her earlier work. She wanted to draw a line between the Dixon-produced material, recorded in London, and that which she’d written with Australian producer John Castle. “Up until I made this record, every single thing that I released with John Castle was just me and him. So in my head, that’s kind of a band; me and him. And I would like to make more work with him in the future, and that will be Washington also, because he has such a sound and such a style and such a unique voice that what I was was very much made up of parts of him. So it just didn’t seem energetically or karmically accurate to call this music Washington as well. And Sam and I, I don’t know; it was just a different… Sam felt less like a
bandmate and more like a midwife. He really helped me bring this thing into the world, but he didn’t flavour it very heavily in anything particularly. He was very helpful in helping me to decipher what I wanted.” Full name or not, Washington the artist has changed aplenty since her days as a jazz singer, much talked about in those circles for her work with renowned pianist and composer Paul Grabowsky. “When I was singing lots of jazz, I loved it, and actually my work with Paul was a great segue into doing what I’m doing now – but it was other people’s stories,” she says. “And singing other people’s stories did not satisfy me. It really satisfies some people, but I’m not a singer, I’m a writer as well.” She remains grateful to Grabowsky for encouraging her lyrical voice, although her earliest songs perhaps weren’t as developed as the ones she writes these days. “There were some real shockers,” she laughs. “I still remember them as well – there was a song that was called ‘Peppermint Tea’, and the opening lines were, ‘Peppermint tea, 90 minutes of me, talking about me’. It was like Dr. Seuss had an aneurysm and wrote a shitty pop song. “I’m quite happy I moved away from that,” she continues. “[But] becoming a songwriter, I still don’t think that I’ve… I’m never going to be like, ‘Yep, that’s me, I’m done, I’ve reached it, I’m amazing now.’ Because as you learn how to do
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For now, There There continues a pattern of growth in Washington’s career that she’s sure isn’t over just yet. On new album tracks like ‘Limitless’, ‘My Heart Is A Wheel’ and ‘One For Sorrow’, she’s learnt the ability to write whenever and wherever she feels like it, rather than waiting for the muse to strike – and that’s bound to bring us a different Washington from here on in. “Remember when you were a teenager and it didn’t matter where you were?” she asks. “You were sort of consumed with the rage and the fury of your existence, and everything was really meaningful, and everything that everybody said was profound – it didn’t matter where you were, it’s just who you were, and then you grow out of it. So I think this record is quite literally a historical record of who I was at the time that I was writing it, but I’m certainly not that person anymore. “I think after this I’m done with putting my heart out there. I think I’d like to make a party record, I really would. I’d like to make a disco record.” What: There There out Friday September 12 through Mercury/ Universal And: Appearing at Falls Festival, Lorne and Byron Bay, Sunday December 28 – Saturday January 3 xxx
“MUSIC’S LIKE A REALLY FUN VIDEO GAME WITH HEAPS OF LEVELS THAT I’LL JUST NEVER FINISH. LIKE CANDY CRUSH. IT’S JUST ETERNAL. EVERY TIME I THINK THAT I’VE ARRIVED SOMEWHERE I GO, ‘OH FUCK, THERE’S THIS WHOLE NEW WORLD WITH A NEW BOSS.’”
it, you become more aware of the things that you don’t know. Music’s like a really fun video game with heaps of levels that I’ll just never finish. Like Candy Crush. It’s just eternal. Every time I think that I’ve arrived somewhere I go, ‘Oh fuck, there’s this whole new world with a new boss.’”
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Joe Bonamassa Six-String Devotion By Adam Norris
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ho doesn’t enjoy a serenade? When I speak with Joe Bonamassa he is kicking back on his patio, answering scores of questions with the amused patience of someone who has long grown accustomed to the inevitable media dredge that accompanies a new album. While his focus is chiefly on the interview, every now and again his attention wavers to the Gibson he constantly plays and conversation will pause while a particular run of notes is teased out. When one thinks of the blues, the prevailing image seems to be of a dimly lit figure sitting on a fire escape in some New York City back alley, wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night and smoking crumpled cigarettes while a lonesome melody drifts from the street below. Their heart is broken, their coat is torn, instrument in hock; the tried and true ingredients. For Bonamassa, however, the reality is not quite so despairing. “Well, I can only speak for myself, and I don’t really get out much,” he happily admits. “But I’m a guitar nerd. Right now I’m wearing a Fender shirt, playing a Gibson Les Paul, and on the computer screen in front of me I’m on a guitar site looking to buy something. That’s basically me in a nutshell. It’s not exactly Hollywood. Though I am meeting my keyboardist later and the drummer from KISS, my guitar tech, and we’re all going to the Rainbow. We’re going to sit there with other pretend rock stars, and we’re going to pretend that we’re pretend rock stars. It’s kind of a third-tier thing. There’s actual rock stars, then the pretend rock stars who hang out at the Rainbow, and then there’s us. But that’s it! After that we’ll all come back to the house and geek out. No fire escape.”
“Most people want to romanticise performing, make it deeper than it really is,” says Bonamassa. “I’m often asked what I’m thinking when I’m onstage playing, and half the time I’m thinking about where I want to go to lunch the next day, and the other half I’m thinking about what guitar shops I’m going to hit if we have time off. I mean, there’s a deep music meaning to a lot of this stuff, but a lot of it is ingrained into your DNA, so your focus when you’re up onstage, or writing or recording, well, your mind can wander, just like in anything else. It’s amazing what muscle memory can do, you know,” he laughs. While he has been chalking up the accolades for years now (including 12 number one Billboard Blues albums, more than anybody else – Clapton, Vaughan and B.B. King included), Bonamassa only found himself with his first Grammy nomination last year for his second album recorded with Beth Hart, Seesaw. “Well, the whole thing was a real honour. We lost to Charlie Musselwhite and Ben Harper, and both of those guys are just legends at what they do so that wasn’t a problem at all. The winner gets the Grammy, but everyone who is nominated is sent this really nice Tiffany medal of honour that says, ‘Congratulations, you’ve lost to somebody who is better and whose star shines brighter than yours!’” he laughs. “It’s really cool, but the thing that I was mostly thrilled about was the fact it was great for Beth Hart, who has been criminally underrated her entire career, and it’s her first Grammy nomination too. We didn’t
win, but we didn’t go down without a fight. Though I also knew that Ben and Charlie were going to be playing on the night, so I thought, ‘Nope, not moving anything off the mantelpiece just yet. Keep that little Fender catalogue right where it is.’” He breaks off to play another riff, and I’m content just to listen; several times throughout this interview I feel like a fly on the wall. There is never the sense of Bonamassa being guarded about his music, or cagey about his inspirations and processes behind whatever magic makes it all work. In the end, he just seems like a guy who has found a way to keep doing what he loves. “I don’t have any fears about what I do because I’m really just a musical nomad,” he says, then thinks for a moment. “I don’t fear that whatever reputation I have now will be tarnished if I decide to throw a curveball, because I’ve already been throwing curveballs my whole career. It only ever matters to me, to what I think. The fans, you know, the fans basically will tell you very quickly if they like your work or not. I mean, you’re always going to get the token asshole who’s going to dislike everything you do, and always be that constant contradiction to anything you have to say. If the sun is shining, it’s actually raining. That kind of thing. But you’ll always get an immediate reaction from the fans whether they like something or not. “You always have to please yourself, but I have to think about them as well. You never want to be that artist who’s up there lamenting, ‘Oh, if only they knew the real me.’ Well, this is the real me. Fender shirt, playing a nice guitar. I’m a nerd who plays blues. And that’s OK.” What: Different Shades Of Blue out Tuesday September 23 through J&R Adventures Where: State Theatre When: Sunday September 14
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As guitar geeks go, Bonamassa would have to be sitting pretty close to the top. Counting live releases he now has 22 albums
under his belt, and owns 125 guitars. Of those, there are some which are played once and then never venture out from their case again. Others are played every day. Like many guitarists, the impression you have of their relationship with their instrument is that it’s an extension of themselves, like a detachable limb.
Prong One And The Same By Augustus Welby decade, but Victor is now focusing on Prong full-time. Album number eight, Carved Into Stone, came out in 2012, then Ruining Lives followed in April this year. Interestingly, with regards to these two records, Victor’s erstwhile dissatisfaction has flipped completely. “Carved Into Stone is excellent and I think Ruining Lives is excellent,” he says. “[Ruining Lives] has got some of the best songs I’ve ever written with Prong. In my opinion, it rates there as one of the best. There wasn’t that many problems making it and when things are very positive and everything’s moving smoothly, a lot of times you come out with something good.”
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ince forming in New York City in 1986, Prong have released nine albums and left an indelible impact on modern metal. For anyone who’s just tuning in, searching for Prong’s ‘classic’ release or wondering whether the edge has dissipated by now, frontman and lone mainstay Tommy Victor has some tips. “Scorpio Rising I think’s crap, and Power Of The Damager has some good songs on it but the production 14 :: BRAG :: 579 :: 10:09:14
wasn’t that great. Prove You Wrong; I was not crazy about the way it sounded. Again, I thought there was some good material.” Of course, who’s to say Victor’s an appropriate point of authority? Sure, he’s been Prong’s major songwriting force all along, but that doesn’t make him an infallible adjudicator of the band’s history. “My general perception of things are usually wrong,” he says. “Going back
ten years I was like, ‘I can’t write any more Prong material.’ I’m easily discouraged or I get negative real fast. It’s only when I get in there and start realising that it can be done, that’s when I’m like, ‘I’m OK – I can do this.’” This realisation explains the group’s recent career resurgence. After a seven-year release drought, Prong relaunched in 2002 with Scorpio Rising. Band activity remained fairly intermittent for the rest of the
While Prong are conveniently classed as a hard rock act, over the last 28 years the band has traipsed widely through the heavy spectrum. The forthright technicality of recent years is a sidestep from the hardcore thrash sound of Prong’s earliest material and the industrial grooves heard on 1994’s commercial crossover Cleansing. Perhaps this amorphous quality has something to do with the fact that members have come and gone almost as frequently as records have been released. Either way, retreating to self-criticism, Victor doesn’t view the characteristic diversity as a major asset. “I’m not really worried about repeating myself,” he says. “I almost want that to happen, because that’s something that Prong has been lacking. We haven’t repeated
ourselves and people don’t know what to expect. It almost becomes arrogant, in a way.” Presumably this is another factor contributing to the frontman’s enthusiasm for the latest two offerings. The records play as companion pieces, propelled by a similar energy and compositional boldness. Still, that’s not the result of intra-band stability. “Alexei [Rodriguez], who was the drummer on Carved Into Stone and was drumming live for several years, he had to get a regular job. Now Art [Cruz, drums] and Jason [Christopher, bass] have been around for a couple of years. I’d love to keep them around, but you never know what happens. Prong doesn’t make extraordinary amounts of money and it’s something that I take day by day.” Nevertheless, throughout all this reshuffling, Victor’s driving presence makes it all cohere under the Prong banner. “My guitar playing is Tommy Victor guitar playing, my vocals are me, so I don’t really worry about comparing to others and competing with other bands anymore. If I’m there, if I’m alive, I can do it – it’s still Prong.” What: Ruining Lives out now through SPV/Steamhammer With: Segression Where: Metro Theatre When: Wednesday November 19 thebrag.com
Bonjah A Wild Ride By Augustus Welby
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he union of art and business isn’t always pleasant. Some artists find the very notion of commerce confounding, and there’s no shortage of those who’ve had their creative enthusiasm damaged by inauspicious industry encounters. So perhaps, for the artists who are prepared to go there, the safest option is to handle the managerial matters internally.
making such complaints is miniscule. The album debuted at number 41 on the ARIA charts and it’s been popping in and out of the AIR (independent charts) Top Ten since release. The majority of gigs on their current tour have sold out in advance.
This is the approach taken by Melbourne-based four-piece Bonjah. To be precise, the band is managed by bass player David Morgan and guitarist Regan Lethbridge. While Bonjah have always held a reasonable level of autonomy, the decision to take complete control basically came through necessity.
“Going around the country [on previous tours], we never really had the shows sell out, so we weren’t expecting too many to sell out,” Morgan says. “It’s just blown us away. We knew that the album was going to be a bit of a new sound, so it’s part and parcel that it would attract some new listeners. But we definitely weren’t really thinking about that when we were writing and recording the album.”
“We had a manager for a while but unfortunately it didn’t quite work out,” Morgan says. “So we took the reins back three years ago and figured that we were doing a good enough job on our own, so we just kept doing it. It seems to be working really well so far, so we’ll definitely keep it up.”
Beautiful Wild is the most straightahead rock album in Bonjah’s catalogue. It’s not bereft of dynamic scope – for instance, the title track and latest single is a midtempo slow-burner – but by and large, the songs are more upfront than anything the band has done previously.
Indeed, things have been going quite well for Bonjah of late. As we speak, the band is halfway through a three-month national tour in support of third record Beautiful Wild. After attracting plenty of interest with the pre-release singles ‘Evolution’ and ‘Blue Tone Black Heart’, the album has enjoyed a particularly amorous response since its release this April.
“I think with this particular album we’ve actually finally found our sound,” Morgan says. “Our first album [Until Dawn] that we released, we didn’t really know what it was and it didn’t really have cohesion to it. We didn’t know exactly the style of music that we wanted to play. Our second album [Go Go Chaos], at the time we were happy with it and we’re still proud of what we created, but the sound as a whole wasn’t quite what we were after. [This time] we’ve found a direction that we really want to go that’s more cohesive.”
“General feedback on the album is just that a lot of people really like it,” Morgan says. “Our fans seem to be really enjoying it. [But] there’s no doubt there’s some people out there saying, ‘Why don’t you play more reggae, like the old days?’” Beautiful Wild’s sales performance suggests the percentage of fans
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While Bonjah are at last comfortable in their own skin, this stylistic transition didn’t occur with a simple click of the fingers. Rather, following 2011’s Go Go Chaos, the band
embarked on a lengthy songwriting process. After experimenting with some less satisfying options, Morgan says the move into this rock-heavy sound found unanimous support. “I remember when we first jammed ‘Evolution’. We just jammed it in a rehearsal room and after it we all just started cracking up laughing. We were so stoked on jamming some rad rock song. We were just like, ‘Yeah, this is what we want to do. This is the road that we want to head down.’” To properly capture the enhanced gusto on tape, Bonjah enlisted the services of local production wiz Jan Skubiszewski (AKA Way Of The Eagle). Morgan explains how integral Skubiszewski’s input was for fleshing out the record’s overarching vision. “The good thing about working with a producer is that they bring to the table an outsider’s perspective. They’re outside of our little bubble that we’re in. It was great with Jan – he helped us a lot with steering it all in the right direction. He just had that fine balance of knowing when to fuck with a song and when to just let it be what it is.” So, with Bonjah now inhabiting ideal stylistic surroundings, plus a successful album under their belt and ever-growing crowd numbers, it looks like Morgan and Lethbridge’s management is serving the band exceedingly well. However, it’s not always easy to cast aside managerial concerns and simply enjoy being a rock’n’roll animal. “You get so involved in the operations and strategies and direction and, ‘What’s next? What’s next?’” says Morgan. “You do have to force yourself to switch all of that off and just go, ‘Look, we’re in the
moment right now to play music, let’s just bloody enjoy it.’” Despite this, he assures that the dual responsibilities aren’t going to stamp out his passion for the music. “I don’t think that would ever happen. We love playing in a band and love creating music. And we enjoy the management stuff as well. It’s not like it’s actual work. It’s fun.”
What: Beautiful Wild out now through Inertia With: Timberwolf, Lester The Fierce Where: Newtown Social Club When: Friday September 19 And: Also appearing at the Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle on Saturday September 20
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Night Beats Versus The World By Jody Macgregor
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ustralia is enjoying a resurgence of psych and garage rock in the wake of bands like Tame Impala, Pond and King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard, but we’re not the only part of the world in the mood for swirling guitar textures and reverb. In the US, the scene centres on the annual Austin Psych Fest, where Night Beats have been regulars, performing there over the last four years. “We’ve gotten to see it grow from a pretty intimate thing to a big festival on this ranch,” says drummer James Traeger. “I’ve never had a better experience at a festival because festivals can go so poorly, just cause the organisation is terrible; the people involved, like the staff can be very much just doing a job. But at Austin Psych Fest everyone is there to really make the scene happen, make the festival the best that it can be.” Two-thirds of Night Beats, Traeger and frontman Danny Lee Blackwell, are Texas natives. The state has been home to many of America’s classic psych bands, like The 13th Floor Elevators and The Golden Dawn, but Traeger and Blackwell have relocated to Washington. “We met back in Dallas where we went to middle school and high school together. We started playing music,
man, I must have been 15 years old, and we played all through high school.” But after school they separated, pursuing studies and bands in different cities – Traeger in Austin and Blackwell with a prototype version of Night Beats in Washington, “but that wasn’t working out for whatever reason, whatever vision he had. We were on the phone talking and I had the same problem with my band down in Austin, and so we decided to give it another shot. If I came up to Washington – we made the deal – if we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do this and give everything we had to it. Within six months we had started touring and we had picked up Tarek [Wegner, bass], and since we started touring we haven’t stopped.” Night Beats’ non-stop touring has included two trips to Europe and one to South Africa, captured in a documentary by Roundabout Films that shows how well received they were by ecstatic crowds in Johannesburg and Cape Town. “When we went to South Africa we had no idea what to expect,” says Traeger. “The people there just went fuckin’ crazy. It was cool. Sometimes you feel like an ambassador, you know, American rock’n’roll going to places that don’t usually get that kind
of music or that kind of entertainment. Places in the States that have so much music just constantly poured into them like LA and New York and Austin, when we were first going there, they get so much of it that maybe they don’t go crazy, but nowadays when we play those places they’re some of our best shows. It’s on and off at a lot of places, but that South Africa thing
specifically, that really blew me away.” Night Beats are heading to Australia next, and it’ll be their first time here. Traeger says it’s putting him one step closer to his goal of playing every continent on Earth. “After Australia I think the only one we have left is South America before Antarctica. We might have to settle for six but I don’t
think we will.” Metallica recently played at a research station in Antarctica, so it’s certainly possible. “They had a good 20 years before us and we’re working on touring for four years now and getting five of seven done, so we got a good pace goin’.” Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Sunday September 14
Joan Armatrading One Last Chance By Augustus Welby
all these years, it’s worth noting that the non-stop application to her vocation is largely unrivalled. She points out that the day-to-day workload of other music industry lifers doesn’t quite match up. “People say, ‘OK, Tony Bennett’s still on the road, B.B. King is still on the road,’ but they’re not on the road in the way that I am. They’re on the road, they do a couple of shows then take a huge amount of time off and then do another show. “My tours are very long. They’re a year to 18 months; a short tour is six months. There’s not huge breaks. When it’s going on for 18 months, it goes on for 18 months.” However, for music fans who are yet to witness the Joan Armatrading live experience, opportunities to do so will soon diminish signifi cantly. After a celebrated appearance at 2013’s Bluesfest, Armatrading returns to Australia later this year for a run of intimate theatre shows. These shows are part of the singer’s Last Major World Tour. “I’m 63 now, I’ll be 64 at the end of the year,” she explains. “If I did it in the pattern I have – which is tour, record, tour – it would mean that by the time I did the next tour I’d be 67. I don’t want to be on the road in that way all this time and think, ‘Why am I on the road now? I don’t like this, I’m tired.’ I want to enjoy it all the time.”
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f you haven’t seen Joan Armatrading play live anytime during the last 42 years, it’s not been for lack of opportunity. The West Indian-born, British-raised singer and guitarist launched her career in 1972 with the record Whatever’s For Us. Henceforth, she embarked on a run of unparalleled productivity, which still hasn’t ceased.
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Armatrading’s compulsive creative bent has resulted in a total of 20 studio albums, the most recent being 2013’s Starlight. Despite averaging one record every two years for 42 years, she’s rarely been absent from the touring circuit. This level of activity might sound utterly exhausting, but
Armatrading has never given much thought to reducing her workload. “I’ve always been in charge of my musical career,” she says. “When I toured, I toured because I enjoyed what I was doing. I don’t need somebody to tell me to tour. I know my capabilities, I know what I enjoy and I know what my stamina is.” Even if it’s been Armatrading controlling her own destiny for
“The tours will be shorter,” she explains. “It doesn’t mean I won’t ever come to Australia. It just means I won’t do as many shows. “I’ve always been enthusiastic,” she adds. “That’s exactly why I’m doing what I’m doing now, which is the last major tour that I know I enjoy still. I don’t want to get to a stage where, having done it in this fashion, I don’t want to do that the next time.”
In fact, flicking through Armatrading’s greatest hits, it’s almost like listening to a ‘various artists’ compilation. Folk became folk-pop, which developed into more commercially slanted pop-rock. Then there have been forays into straight-ahead rock and a recurring embrace of blues and jazz. Armatrading hasn’t constantly shifted genres with hopes of reeling in big money, using whatever bait necessary. Rather, it’s simply been a result of her unfettered artistic perspective. “I just do what I want,” she says calmly. “I’m an eclectic writer, so I like to write different things. The record company’s never said to me, ‘Joan, it’s time to make a record.’ It’s always been me saying, ‘OK, here’s my record.’ Because the record company wouldn’t know what I was doing, they wouldn’t be able to say, ‘Well you can’t do that, because last time you did this.’ They just kind of got what they got.” Having that level of artistic autonomy is mighty unusual. Even though Armatrading has always safeguarded herself against record company demands, her stylistic changeability could easily have scared off listeners. But it’s unlikely that we’d still be talking about her today if she hadn’t secured a loving fan base. “I’m lucky with my fans,” she says. “Without the fans, there’s no way I would have a 42-year career. My fans obviously enjoyed what I was doing as well and enjoyed the different changes that they were getting. So they played a big part in this long career that I’ve had.” Where: Enmore Theatre When: Wednesday December 10 thebrag.com
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“I can’t give up writing. It’s what I was born to do,” she says. “It’s not even me being determined.
It’s just that I like to write songs, so I write. Once you’ve written the songs, it’s nice to get people to hear it in that live situation and feel that atmosphere.”
Before panic sets in and fl ights are booked to the UK in order attend the fi nal shows of the Last Major World Tour next March, Armatrading clarifi es that this won’t be her fi nal tour ever. She’s hardly the sort of person who’d give up the ghost.
Back in the 1970s, Armatrading’s nascent releases – which gained helpful support from legendary BBC radio DJ John Peel – featured an acoustic folk sound and immediately highlighted her idiosyncratic guitar playing. This early work justifies comparisons to the likes of Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne, but Armatrading didn’t keep walking that stylistic avenue for long.
Wunder Wunder A Side Of Horror By Augustus Welby “For me it’s a standalone project that I’m very focused on,” says Shanahan. “It’s got its own merits, its own sound and we want to continue making it that kind of thing and keep focusing on this and putting albums out.”
However, it was soon clear an entirely new project was necessary. Despite their determination in reaching this decision, they have maintained a relaxed creative approach.
Miami Horror started roughly eight years ago as a one-man electronic project by Plant. Shanahan entered the fold at the tail end of the recording process for 2010’s debut album, Illumination, primarily helping out with production. He’s since become an integral member of the band’s touring lineup, but prior to Wunder Wunder he and Plant hadn’t worked together in a songwriting capacity.
“It’s definitely a very organic process, where songs will just pop up and then we fit that in,” Shanahan says. “That was a big thing, just allowing it to flow, as opposed to sitting down and being quite strategic. You can be conceptual with things, but it was more about connecting to a flow; quieting your mind down and just letting songs come to you and not stressing. That’s where a lot of good creativity comes from.”
“We also did a remix album for Miami Horror called Lucid Stream and that’s where we started to realise we both like similar sounds,” he explains. “So [realising that] made us want to do something on this line, that’s a bit more band-orientated and songorientated.”
This Zen-like songwriting approach is evidenced on Wunder Wunder’s new album, Everything Infi nite. The record possesses a dreamy haze, which has its roots in ’60s and ’70s psychedelic pop. Additionally, it bears semblance to 2013 releases from kinsmen Jagwar Ma and Cut Copy. However, Shanahan says the direction of Everything Infi nite was largely the product of playful imaginings, rather than concerted stylistic aims.
Once Shanahan and Plant identified their symmetrical sensibilities, the Wunder Wunder project began to evolve. However, the pair’s earliest creative dabblings were conducted without much conceptual intent.
P
erhaps you’re thinking that these two chaps from Wunder Wunder look strikingly familiar. Well, that’d be because the band’s constituent members, Ben Plant and Aaron Shanahan, are also members of
Melbourne electro/indie-pop act Miami Horror. By virtue of the duo’s involvement with another band, Wunder Wunder has largely been touted a side project. But that shouldn’t imply the members aren’t fully invested in it.
“It started off with Ben writing a little thing for ‘Coastline’ and I just sung over the top of it,” Shanahan recalls. “I was doing drums in Miami Horror and I was wanting to get off that and do songwriting. I used to be a guitarist and I produced with Miami Horror, so I had a craving and an interest to get back into it. I sung over the top of that and I was like, ‘Oh, that sounded good,’ and things just kept popping up – little ideas, little songs.”
“There’ll sort of be a character and a colour to it,” he explains. “So a synth might sound like a little fat man or it might sound like a weird little creature or a guitar might sound like a dream. [It’s about] just making sure that you don’t stop an idea from going where it wants to go – you allow it to go into directions and play with it and enjoy it. It’s almost like the idea’s taking you for a ride. That’s probably one of my favourite things to do – just get lost and taken away for a while.”
At first, Plant and Shanahan considered using some of this material for Miami Horror’s forthcoming second album.
Speaking of getting away, Miami Horror formed in Melbourne but for the last couple of years have been based in Los Angeles. These days,
the band functions as a four-piece collaborative unit, rather than an outlet for Plant’s creativity alone. The outcome of this transition will be showcased on the group’s second album, which is due for release early next year. Shanahan explains how important the move overseas was for inspiring his newfound creative vigour. “Having gotten away from Melbourne and some of the people I know, it’s good to go somewhere and remove yourself from the past and what you think you are. Los Angeles and California is a very dreamy, laidback place, so it all came together to make this project. I feel like the whole thing represents a blooming for me, as a songwriter and going away to Los Angeles and getting my confidence up. Now that I’ve realised that and we’ve made this album, I feel really strongly about it.” Thankfully, they haven’t forgotten their roots. Both members of Wunder Wunder have just returned to the Southern Hemisphere and will make their Australian live debut next week. While it’s still a very new project, Shanahan says they’ve already spent plenty of time getting acquainted with the stage. “We’ve been playing in America for a year. We did a tour with Washed Out and Crystal Fighters. We’ve been really able to develop that energy live. We’re really excited to bring it here because we’ve got the show all sorted out. The energy of it is much more enthusiastic – it’s not just us standing around thinking we’re cool. We like to put a lot of positive vibes into the room.” What: Everything Infi nite out now through Shock Where: Beach Road Hotel When: Wednesday September 17
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Spod Radness To Sadness By Adam Norris
F
irst things first: Spod is a damned funny guy. Self-deprecating and insightful in equal measure, the Sydneysider has been in the music game for over a decade now, and with the release of his new record, Taste The Sadness, he has rather unexpectedly come full circle. Written as a direct response to 2003 debut album Taste The Radness, the release is a graver collection than most would be anticipating. The electroclash is largely absent, replaced with piano-sad ballads ruminating on aging friends and abandoned aspirations. Upbeat stuff, in other words.
Despite the bittersweet tone that infuses his recent material, Spod turns out to be a pretty chipper guy. He has been sick for a while lately – “The first survivor of ebola,” he wryly observes – but jumps into each question with enthusiasm. Juxtaposed with his rather sombre voice, it makes a strange impression; he somehow manages to sound both delighted and depressed at the same time. “Spod was actually started with me and my friend,” he recalls. “It seemed like a cool name for a band when you’re just two drunk young
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guys. But the other guy left, and I figured, ‘Well, I might as well just become the whole band.’ Since then there have been all these other meanings for Spod emerge. If you Googled ‘Spod’ now, the latest are these disgusting photos of what looks like a missile with holes all through it, and you fill it up with gunk and use it to lure fish. That’s the latest Spod sensation, but I was there first! You see it at my shows now. Everybody just puts fish in missiles and swings them around my head.” Which is exactly the kind of audience interaction that has been missing from Sydney gigs (though sneaking salmon past security could prove problematic). Though he does have tongue firmly in cheek (we assume), Spod’s gigs have certainly developed a reputation as strange and energetic affairs – if somewhat toned down from his early days. As a result, his onstage persona, though not totally removed from his real-world self, has almost taken on a life of its own. “I think it’s a nice way to allow yourself the liberty to perform how you honestly feel. Especially in the older days, I wouldn’t get up there and just give a straight performance. It was all really intense and I’d lose my mind a bit. It allows you that separation from yourself to disappear into what you want to be doing. That’s kind of the way I always planned it. You slip into it and become this hyper-realised version of yourself or what you’re trying to project. I would always do these intense party sets, and you know, often you can get up and [perform], then come offstage and find yourself thinking, ‘What in the hell did I just do up there? Should I feel bad about it?’ But it’s really all just one nugget of your personality that you chose to amplify. And then you go and hide and try not to look anyone in the eye for a while. Change back into civilian attire and try not to get bashed.”
“I don’t really see the point in doing something unless you have something to say.” Recently Spod recorded a video message lamenting the aging of his friends and the incumbent responsibilities of raising a family, holding down a job, and all of those other hallmarks of ‘grown-up’ life. These concerns are at the very heart of Taste The Sadness, and while he is not quite ready for the grave, Spod is acutely aware of the impact that age has on his music. “Everything I was doing when I was young was about being youthful, you know? Not that I’m a complete old man now – Old Man Spod with his walking stick. But I love the idea of being the party guy back when he started, and now ten years down the track wondering, ‘What do you do?’ Especially if you’re not a huge commercial success, if you’re just doing something for your own artistic reasons. You have to chase what you think you need to be saying. People are coming to my shows now not knowing about my history, but they’re younger people and I guess I’m bringing a bit more honesty to it, rather than being that guy who’s all, ‘Hey, I’m still just like you guys, let’s party!’ That is the true sadness.”
IN CINEMAS OCTOBER 2 On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) reports that his beautifu wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick’s portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior has everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?
WEDNESDAY 1 OCTOBER 6pm - THE FUN STARTS! Pre-film activities | 7pm - Film starts STANDARD TICKET $25* TICKETS $27*
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Perhaps at the end of the day the real fear is relevance. Not being concerned with what you have achieved (or fucked up) in the past, but with the value of what you are doing in the here and now. It is likely a concern that sits at the core of most of us, to some degree: the enduring terror of purpose. “I don’t really see the point in doing something unless you have something to say, and also I’m pretty slow at cultivating ideas. I like to be sure of what I’m doing, but I always wanted to make a kind of ‘adult’ record. I think it’s kind of hilarious, the idea you have of being an adult when you’re a kid. You think it’s such a bad thing, but it’s so much easier than being in your earlier twenties. There’s so much more to say and do. When I was in my twenties and I’d hear someone in their thirties talking about how great it is to be an adult, I thought they were just trying to make themselves feel better for being old. At the end of it, I just like to challenge the people who have liked me; I try not to do the same thing. But I think it all falls into the same world. I think I just tried to make ten points at once. Am I rambling about nothing? I really am Old Man Spod.” What: Taste The Sadness out now through Rice Is Nice/Inertia With: Justin Heazlewood Where: Lansdowne Hotel When: Friday September 19 thebrag.com
BRAG’s guide to film, theatre, comedy and art about town
arts in focus
night moves in the face of danger
also inside:
INDIE GEMS / T R E VOR NOA H / A R T S NE W S / A R T S GI V E AWAY / RE V IE W S
Ben Affleck in Gone Girl
E
vent Cinemas’ regular Chicks At The Flicks event is back in October, and the month kicks off with an advance screening of David Fincher’s thriller, Gone Girl. The film sees Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) make a panicked report to police that his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) has gone missing on the eve of their fifth anniversary. The image of their beautiful marriage comes crumbling down as the police and public start to believe Nick has murdered his wife.
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If that’s all a bit heavy, fear not; Chicks At The Flicks makes for a girly-friendly time at the cinema, with a free goodie bag full of food and beauty products, plus lucky door prizes and more.
S AY W EA IV G
GONE GIRL! CHICKS AT THE FLICKS! WIN MOVIE DOUBLES! We’ve got three double passes for you and a girlfriend to see Gone Girl at Chicks At The Flicks on Wednesday October 1 at Event Cinemas George St. To be in the running, head to thebrag.com/freeshit and tell us your favourite chick flick.
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five minutes WITH
Kate Hudson and Zach Braff in Wish I Was Here
JEKYLL X JAMES dream? None of the above. It was destiny. The show is pitched as a mash-up of different genres – what should the audience expect? Beatboxing. Dirty guitars. Highenergy music and comedy, side by side. In Melbourne, we were described as “Mighty Boosh meets Flight Of The Conchords”, which is flattering. To them.
A beam of energy came to us in the night and suggested the title. Was it God? An alien? A shroom
What is it about working in a duo that makes you more comfortable than going it alone? Busted! You haven’t done your research! We’re actually both solo performers who enjoy collaborating with each other. How dare you not Google our individual names. Shame on you. Shame on the BRAG. Shame on Australia. Now come watch our fucking show, please. What: Cactus Blastus as part of Sydney Fringe Festival 2014 Where: Factory Theatre When: Thursday September 18, Saturday September 20 and Sunday September 21
Geoffrey Rush in King Lear
WISH I WAS HERE
“You gotta hear this one song – it’ll change your life, I swear.” It’s the Zach Braff line from Garden State that summed up so many of his feelings – and ours – during his debut feature, and now, ten years later, Braff is back with Wish I Was Here. This time Kate Hudson joins him in a funny, moving and occasionally chaotic tale about two parents struggling to pay their kids’ way through school and taking refuge in fantasy. As we’ve come to expect from a Braff film, the soundtrack is top-notch, this time featuring The Shins, Bon Iver, Cat Power and Coldplay. Wish I Was Here opens in cinemas on Thursday September 18. We’ve got ten in-season double passes to give away – for your chance to win one, head to thebrag. com/freeshit and tell us which song changed your life.
STC 2015 SEASON UNVEILED
Details have been locked in for Ralph Myers’ fifth and final season at Belvoir St Theatre next year. Local dramatic talents and those from further afield will come together as Belvoir introduces seven new Australian plays. Angela Betzien’s Mortido, Matthew Whittet’s Seventeen and Nakkiah Lui’s Kill The Messenger will feature in the Upstairs Theatre. For more details, head to belvoir.com.au.
Cate Blanchett, Richard Roxburgh, Hugo Weaving and Geoffrey Rush are among those who’ll feature in Sydney Theatre Company’s 2015 season. Artistic director Andrew Upton launched the STC season program, brimming with plays by Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Tennessee Williams and Virginia Woolf, alongside new writing by local and international playwrights. Weaving will star in Beckett’s Endgame (April-May); Roxburgh and Blanchett will feature in an Upton adaptation of Anton Chekhov called The Present (AugustSeptember); and Rush will make his return to STC for the first time in 22 years to play the titular role in King Lear (starting November). For the full STC 2015 program, visit sydneytheatre.com.au.
CAIT HARRIS
Glory Be, Sounds Divine is the title of this year’s one-woman show by Californian comedian Cait Harris, whose quirky and fresh take on unusual situations promises to leave her audiences in tears. Harris is a regular favourite at the Story Club nights in Redfern, and brings her characters to the Factory Theatre as part of the Sydney Fringe from Thursday September 11 – Sunday September 14. Nathan O’Keefe in Masquerade
NATIONAL YOUNG WRITERS’ FEST
Masquerade photo by Kris Washusen
BELVOIR REVEALS 2015 PROGRAM
What’s the strangest gig you’ve ever played? We’ve played in crowded bars, in libraries, in parks in the afternoon for parents and kids. But in March this year, we did our hour show in a tent at a Fringe Festival. Keith Urban was playing a few hundred metres to the right, a brass band to the left, and our audience was drunk after a day of watching V8 cars race. It was insane. The only way to describe it is to say, it was like doing comedy in a tent to drunken V8 fans between Keith Urban and a brass band.
If Jared Jekyll is ‘Jekyll’, does that make Cameron James ‘Hyde’? Who’s the more evil? Jared is both Jekyll and Hyde. Cameron is the potion that turns him from one to the other (That’s actually quite beautiful, if you think about it...).
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ow did you come up with the title of your new show, Cactus Blastus?
head to: thebrag.com/freeshit
Force Majeure’s Ally Garrett in Nothing To Lose
The 17th National Young Writers’ Festival will descend again on Newcastle next month, with a long list of attendees now confirmed. Over 80 artists will be in town to celebrate the written and spoken word, including Benjamin Law, Lawrence Leung, Clementine Ford, Genevieve Fricker, Steph Harmon, Patrick Lenton, Omar Musa and Luke Ryan. The annual ball this year is ‘intergalactic space’ themed. The National Young Writers’ Festival is on in Newcastle from Thursday October 2 – Sunday October 5. For the full program and venue info, head to youngwritersfestival.org.
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BEAMS FESTIVAL 2014
The Chippendale Creative Precinct will light up again this month for Beams Arts Festival, with the full program now confirmed. Over 120 exhibits, from visual and site-specific installations to multimedia and interactive works, film projections and digital projects, live performance and of course light and animation will take over Chippendale on the evening of Saturday September 20. Featured artists include John Wright and Vincent Buret, who exhibited at VIVID Sydney this year, plus Julia Kennedy Bell, Jan Cleveringa, Viera Sofanova and many more.
NOTHING TO LOSE
Sydney Festival has announced another one of its acts for the upcoming 2015 cultural showcase. Nothing To Lose is a new Australian dance theatre work by Force Majeure commissioned by Sydney Festival and Carriageworks. This new work aims to challenge the dominant perception of what a dancer’s body should look like, in an undaunted exploration of large bodies in motion. Nothing To Lose will show from Thursday January 22 – Saturday January 24.
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Nothing To Lose photo by Toby Burrows
Kit Williams’ book Masquerade will come to life during Sydney Festival next year, as the Griffin Theatre Company steps up to the Sydney Opera House. Masquerade is a tale for audiences young and old, about the bumbling Jack Hare and his race to deliver a message from the moon to the sun. Playwright Kate Mulvany and directors Sam Strong and Lee Lewis will bring the story to the Opera House with actor Helen Dallimore (Wicked). Masquerade is playing at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House from Friday January 9 – Saturday January 17.
National Geographic Live is presenting Bryan Smith live onstage next month in Sydney. Behind every great National Geographic story there is a great storyteller, and extreme sportsman, conservationist and award-winning filmmaker Smith will present a behind-thescenes look at his adventures at the Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House for one night only on Saturday October 11.
Night Moves
Night Moves
[FILM] A Point Of Plot By Ian Barr
“I
’m not focused on big plans, I’m focused on small plans,” says an activist in an early scene from Kelly Reichardt’s latest film, Night Moves. It’s probably a stretch to suggest that because this minor character is a filmmaker, she’s also a standin for Reichardt herself; nonetheless, her words nicely encapsulate the modest essence of Reichardt’s filmography. Night Moves might be the ‘biggest’ of her five features to date, but it’s still a film whose story pivots on an explosion that’s heard only as a faint, off-screen rumble. While the film – concerning three Oregonian amateur eco-terrorists (played by Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard) and their scheme to detonate a hydroelectric dam – is politically charged by default, it’s less a polemic than a methodical, low-key framing of the ‘is terrorism ever justified?’ argument. “I can almost argue the side of everybody in the film to some degree,” Reichardt suggests. “For me, it’s completely a character film, and [co-writer Jon Raymond] and I tried to put our own politics aside for this, and tried to follow the path of these three characters that we had in mind … we tried to really focus on the characters and what their politics would be, and not our own.”
Of all Reichardt’s films (which include 2005’s Old Joy, 2008’s Wendy And Lucy and 2011’s Meek’s Cutoff), Night Moves has the heftiest plot, though that’s a by-product of it being a film about a plot. As ever, mood and atmosphere are key, with the evocative rural Oregon locations and perpetually overcast skies playing a large role in abetting the temperament of Eisenberg’s guilt-ridden, paranoid antihero. The film’s ending – as audaciously ambiguous as that of Meek’s Cutoff – confirms that Reichardt is as interested in leaving her audience suspended in that mood, even if it comes at the expense of conventional narrative satisfaction. It’s this quality, among others, that distinguish her as a truly independent filmmaker in an era when the term has been increasingly devalued. When I ask about the 11-year gap between her 1994 debut feature River Of Grass and the follow-up, Old Joy, her answer highlights the fallacy of the Tarantino heyday being a boon for all stripes of independent cinema. “During that time, what happened? Reservoir Dogs happened, Pulp Fiction happened – there weren’t many women making films then anyway, so it was a really hard time in that respect, but then it was triply hard once those films came out. It kinda sealed the deal for a while, as far
Indie Gems Film Festival [FILM] West Of Centre By Adam Norris
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ow in its fifth year, the Indie Gems Film Festival has long been luring audiences to Sydney’s west with the promise of quality film. From tent-pole features like The Babadook, The Rover and opening night English/Hindi thriller Blemished Light, to a brace of short films and student submissions, the festival promises to showcase some of the most diverse cinema you’re likely to see this year. Artistic director John L. Simpson is committed to a program that has something for everyone, and it all goes back to the very first time he discovered the magic of the movies. “The first movie I ever saw at the cinema was a Doctor Who film, sometime around the late ’60s,” Simpson recalls. “I would have been about five and went with my brother. It was exciting and terrifying all at once. I can still see the Daleks, and they were absolutely horrifying!” he laughs. “Now though, you look at them, obviously made just from bits and pieces left around by the BBC – floor stands, a plunger – it doesn’t really strike you as all that much. But of course as a child, seeing these things come together made it seem like something real, something that was invading from the screen. It’s absolutely the magic of the movies, that transporting yourself to another world, something that makes you think and feel.” Despite lying just over 20 kilometres from the CBD, Parramatta remains an oddly distant suburb for many Sydneysiders. Even with the strong reputation of the Riverside Theatre, much of the city’s creative focus tends not to drift very far from the coast, and Parramatta is too often overlooked as the vibrant, culturally diverse entertainment hub that it is. Changing this artistic blind spot is one of Simpson’s enduring struggles. “What we learn every single year in Parramatta is that you can never underestimate an audience,” he says. “They are sophisticated, they are film literate, and so culturally diverse. While in the Blemished Light
cafes of Bondi they might know all about American and European cinema, but when you go out to Parramatta, there are people who know the width and breadth of Indian cinema, they know Chinese cinema. The lovely cultural mix that you get there is far broader than anywhere else. You really only need to walk down Church Street in Parramatta and look at the different restaurants. Go on a Friday night and see the range of ethnicity, the amazing cuisine, the Lebanese and Egyptian restaurants with those hookahs, those scents of apple tobacco. I just get goosebumps. I love those extraordinary cultural sights, and for me that’s quite a strong visual metaphor for the festival. It’s what makes me really excited when people submit their short films to Indie Gems, because they’re often bringing us into their home and culture, and there’s this great sense of cultural sharing that happens through the festival.” With its mix of features, documentaries, student film and shorts, it is difficult to imagine someone walking away from Indie Gems feeling left out. Horror, slapstick, drama; the festival has it all. Not that you can simply throw a bunch of films together and hope they all fall into place – the curation of the program has been meticulously crafted. “I believe it’s about getting the balance right, so I try to accommodate lots of different tastes,” says Simpson. “There’s a lot of suspense and drama in the programming this year, but I think that has more to do with the zeitgeist. Throughout the width and breadth of the festival, particularly in the shorts, we go from comedy to quite heartfelt social issues – it’s really our opportunity to show people a plethora of difference.” What: Indie Gems Film Festival Where: Riverside Theatre, Parramatta When: Thursday September 11 – Sunday September 14
as trying to make films that had different shapes or stories or different methodologies.” Or, more succinctly, “If you were trying to do something without a tonne of popular music and blood.” Reichardt also displays a healthy sense of cynicism regarding the reason behind her recently increased productivity. “I think in some ways age has finally trumped being a woman, like I’m old enough now – ‘She’s the oldest person on the set, we’ll listen to her’”, she laughs. “I’m not that social a person, and when I have a film, that makes me be social,
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What: Night Moves (dir. Kelly Reichardt) Where: In cinemas Thursday September 11
Trevor Noah [COMEDY] Lost In Translation By Stephanie Yip
W
hen South Africa’s Trevor Noah was younger, the notion that he would one day become a world-renowned comedian was unthinkable. This is not because his Swiss father was bred into a culture whose closest understanding of the profession was a “clown”. Or because it was his friends’ idea, not his, that Noah put his hand up at an open mic night they just “happened to be at” that caused him to fall in love with performing. (Both true stories, by the way.) No, it was because it wasn’t until recently that comedy was permissible in South Africa. “[Comedy] was illegal until 1994,” says Noah. “We couldn’t speak up against the government – you’d get arrested for doing that. Any gathering of people who’d do that was highly likely to get arrested, so that’s why comedy was not a big thing. It was just something that could not happen.” But now? “It’s changed completely,” he says. “That’s the wonderful thing.” Like Noah’s culturally responsive breed of stand-up, which is returning to Australian shores on his Lost In Translation tour in October, South African comedy is a very new, very different, but very exciting scene to belong to. “It’s a totally different world from what most people are used to comedy being,” Noah says. “The rules are very different, which is nice to see. Each place has its own style, its own dynamic. What’s crazy in Africa is that the comedy scene hasn’t been dictated by Western comedy. So it’s really been its own beautiful machine and it’s taking shape in a different way. It’s really nice to watch it evolve.” The same can be said for Noah’s shows, which began as any young performer’s shows would: with material harbouring a restricted view of the world. “I had no world experience and no life experience, so obviously the material was based around the fundamentals of a 20-year-old life. That was sex, alcohol and parties,” he says. Now, with Noah aged 30, all three have pretty much been stricken from his show, replaced with an acerbic wit and a racially challenging script. “Over the years I’ve grown as a comedian in terms of trying to find my voice, speaking more about what I think, and incorporating more about what’s happening around me,” he says. Noah achieves this by spending long days in the cities he’s performing in, interacting with the people as much as possible so that he can communicate with his audience effectively. “I try to remain conscious of the place that I’m in. I read the news, walk around the city and see what’s happening around me.” It’s such a natural, everyday process that by the time he’s onstage it feels more like “hanging out with friends” than performing. “You just relay the story to your friends, who are now your audience,” he says. And hope they see the “funniness” in the tale too.
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and I like the idea of every couple of years just going somewhere where the elements are hard, and getting as far off the grid as you can, and just trying to make something with a bunch of people that you’re into, and everybody’s putting all their creative juices together. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to do in life, to have those experiences.”
Now, I reckon I can see that funniness in his aptly titled Lost In Translation show already (lip my stockings, anyone?) – but according to Noah, I’m tragically amiss. “I think the show is going to be more than that,” he says. Because, aside from making people laugh, this comedian has another objective in mind for his shows: “You try and find something progressive to the point where you’re talking to an audience that agrees with you or challenges you enough to find the common ground on topics you’re discussing.” So the show’s not really about language that’s lost in translation. “It’s about everything that’s lost in translation,” Noah says. “Things lost in translation in relationships, between parents and children, between governments and their citizens. It’s a much broader concept than a cultural lost-in-translation.” What: Lost In Translation, as part of Just For Laughs 2014 Where: Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House When: Tuesday October 14 and Wednesday October 15
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Film & Theatre Reviews Hits and misses on the silver screen and bareboards around town
Wish I Was Here
The God Of Hell ■ Film
■ Theatre
In cinemas Thursday September 18
Playing at the Old Fitzroy Theatre until Saturday September 13
WISH I WAS HERE Wish I Was Here is a film that’s easy to recommend. Though the humour and dialogue occasionally fall short of the mark set by his previous effort Garden State, Zach Braff’s Kickstarter-funded comedydrama is well made and feels, in places, sincerely heartfelt. Like in Garden State, Braff handles both the director’s chair and lead role as struggling actor and husband Aidan Bloom. The film’s primary narrative centres on the important decisions – both personal and professional – Aidan faces when his father (Mandy Patinkin) is diagnosed with cancer and can no longer afford to financially support the enrolment of Aidan’s children at a private Jewish school. There are a lot of great performances here, with Aidan’s daughter Grace (Joey King) and wife Sarah (Kate Hudson) stealing more than a few scenes. A number of Braff’s friends and former co-stars (notably Jim Parsons and Donald Faison) make brief albeit fun appearances. Josh Gad also offers a strong contrast as Aidan’s brother Noah, and while Braff’s own performance is quite strong, its similarity to his previous roles may irk some audiences. Where Garden State was about unravelling the layers people build to protect themselves emotionally, Wish I Was Here seems concerned with characters who struggle to realise their own potential before it’s too late. It’s a nice evolution of the themes Braff dealt with in Garden State and the scoring in the film really helps it carry the appropriate emotional weight. That said, the strongest moments and metaphors sometimes fall flat due to an oddly timed gag or weak dialogue.
ES & PRITZIM E H M I H S A S ’ O I IO C IN ,,5500 STUD NEY 0 D 0 Y 0 S , $7 H FOR ORES $ 25IP NT I UIPME EARC C Q S S E E C D IC H T AN IN MUS ING B ,500 IN WIN0N0 CASH I $7,5 ST U OTTE
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Zach Braff might have made his dream film, but it’s still one with strengths and weaknesses like any other. Though occasionally self-indulgent, Braff’s filmmaking style remains compelling and, at its best, genuinely resonant.
Fergus Halliday
Sam Shepard’s The God Of Hell depicts The Great American Dream as a clichéd nightmare. Set in rural Wisconsin, cattle farmers Emma (Vanessa Downing) and heifer-obsessed Frank (Toni Poli) lead a seemingly insular and uneventful life tending to their beloved cattle and plants. However, as the dripping of the indoor plants ominously suggests, their property and quiet, innocent lives are under threat through the presence of an unexpected visitor or two. Haynes (Jake Lyall) is hiding in their basement and appears to be on the run. Exactly from whom or what he’s running is never disclosed, but Lyall’s jittery and uneasy presence leads us to believe he hasn’t had an easy time. The fact he also emits blue, static flashes of lightning whenever he’s touched is also cause for alarm. Nevertheless, Emma and Frank let him stay, and their unfailing hospitality truly is the essence of the wholesome country America. Government agent Welch (Ben McIvor) is another unwelcome visitor. Exuding patriotism and arrogance, his sickly sweet falseness in attempting to win over Emma’s trust is later exposed as just a front and his more sinister motives are eventually revealed. The God Of Hell is a timely play that explores worldwide themes of terrorism, national security, patriotism and corporate farming. It all comes together seamlessly, as the characters and even the story itself seem real, as though plucked from the familiar newspaper headlines on government secrecy, David Hicks, torture, war and of course money and power. In a disturbing yet bleak comedic manner, Shepard confronts the plight many modern-day farmers have against corporations and explores a new, slightly dangerous form of flag-in-yourbackyard, sticker-on-your-car patriotism that we have become all too familiar with. Thanks also to a skilled cast that works together to create a sense of unease and anxiety, The God Of Hell is an entertaining yet extraordinarily realistic and horrifying reflection of our ever-changing world. Prudence Clark
See www.thebrag.com for more arts reviews
Arts Exposed What's in our diary...
Oz Comic-Con Sydney Exhibition Centre, Glebe Island, Saturday September 13 and Sunday September 14
TO ENTER VISIT ROCKLILY@DFPRODUCTIONS.COM.AU COMPETITION STARTS FROM 7PM THURSDAY 4 SEPTEMBER
LEVEL 1, THE STAR, 80 PYRMONT ST, PYRMONT open FROM 2PM
Full terms and conditions available at star.com.au The Star practises the responsible service of alcohol. Guests must be aged 18 years or over to enter the casino. Think! About your choices. Call Gambling Help 1800 858 858 www.gamblinghelp.nsw.gov.au
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The popular Oz Comic-Con event comes to Sydney for the very first time this weekend, and the organisers haven’t held back when it comes to delivering a bumper lineup of guests. Orlando Bloom and William Shatner lead the line, which should keep fans young and old satisfied (unless they’re in the Bieber camp, of course), alongside Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Nicholas Brendon and Emma Caulfield, Stargate SG-1 stars Chris Judge and Corin Nemec, Game Of Thrones’ Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo) and many more. Day tickets start at $30, and weekend passes are available from $50. For bookings and more info, head to ozcomiccon.com. thebrag.com
The God Of Hell photo by Gareth Davies
NSIG
AND NED B
THE GOD OF HELL
1.
Sunday might traditionally be the day of rest – and it sure feels like it should be after a big night out – but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the last of the weekend. We’ve put together a few hot tips around town to make every Sunday a Fun Day, so you needn’t spend it all in bed like a big softie.
City Amusements
3.
Venue Name: City Amusements What to see and do: Huge arcade arena, bumper cars, laser skirmish – what else do you need? Unlimited bumpers and laser skirmish $15pp from 6pm. For our ears: Latest tunes playing through our state-of-theart sound system.
Bloody Sunday Venue Name: Venue Name: Annandale Hotel It’s called: Bloody Sunday What to see and do: Breakfast goes till 12:30pm on this day of rest, with buckets of hash browns, breakfast toasties and your usual brekkie favourites on offer. If you’re more of a burger lover, don’t skip the double beef burger or his Southern fried chicken friend. Choose between our cozy booths or the sunny courtyard and swap between coffee and craft beer depending on your mood (or stomach).
What’s the highlight: How much fun you have running around like a kid! Seriously, who thought winning tickets, running around shooting each other and driving like a loon was so much fun? Cost: Entry is free – load your money onto a card and the more you load the bigger the bonus! $20 bucks gets you $27, $30 gets you $40. Where: Level 3, Market City Shopping Centre, Haymarket When: Unlimited kicks off from 6pm
For our ears: Live bands play from 3 till 6pm on Sundays and soulful blues and Americana is the word. With artists such as PJ O’Brien, Ray Beadle and Adam Pringle over the coming weeks, you’ll be spoiled for choice. Bevvy of choice: There’s coffee and milkshakes on offer from Snuffy Jenkin’s courtyard, but for some real hair of the dog try our Bleeding Maria, Bloody Mary’s tequila-spiked sister, to really get your head off the table. What’s the highlight: Alcohol from 8am – what’s not to love? Not to mention letting your morning slip into afternoon with only the tunes of blues artists to distract you. Cost: No entry cost, breakfast between $5-$15, with drinks between $20-$30. Where: 17-19 Parramatta Road, Annandale Time: Open from 8am
2.
Sydney Rock ’n’ Roll & Alternative Market Venue Name: Manning Bar & House, University of Sydney It’s called: Sydney Rock ’n’ Roll & Alternative Market
4.
What to see and do: A market and gig in one boasting an awesome lineup of bands and DJs, a vast array of stalls selling unique, alternative and vintage clothing, accessories, music, posters, DVDs, collectables plus more. For our ears: Next market features great rockabilly delinquent Pat Capocci, the hyper rowdy grit pop of Twin Beasts, The Drey Rollan Band, That Red Head plus DJs. Food and bevvy of choice: Young Henrys have taken over the chill Tiki Bar courtyard – tuck in to international food while
grooving to tunes from DJs. A fully stocked bar awaits upstairs in the Manning Bar band room. What’s the highlight: The September market is presented as part of Sydney Fringe 2014. Swing dancing classes are on offer. Bruce Elder and Melinda Hodgins will teach beginners to cut a rug on the dancefloor straight after class. $10 cost includes market entry. Book via enquiries@swingoutsydney.com. Cost: $5 cover charge gains you entry to the markets and the whole day’s non-stop entertainment. Kids under 12 free. When: Held every two months, the next market is Sunday September 14, 10.30am-5.30pm.
Unlimited
5.
Venue Name: Kingpin Bowling It’s called: Unlimited
Sunday LIVE Venue Name: The Argyle
Rock ‘n’ Roll Market photo by Rod Hunt Photography
It’s called: Sunday LIVE What to see and do: Cure your hangover. Grab an area in the courtyard, get some Vitamin D, slurp a Bloody Mary and chow down on a breakfast pizza. For our ears: Cruisy tunes for Sunday hangovers, with a rotating lineup of local acoustic talent including Erin Marshall, Gemma Lyon, Joe West and Steve & Anthony Duo.
What to see and do: Unlimited bowling and laser skirmish from 7pm ($30pp), pool, fully stocked bar including great cocktails and delicious food options, including our version of what a hot dog should be – the Kingpin Splitter Dog! For our ears: Latest tunes playing through our state-of-theart sound system – watch your favourite tunes on our huge projector screens on each lane. Bevvy of choice: Bowl to you drop cocktail – a sweet floral mix of Bombay Sapphire gin, Maraschino liqueur, shaken with lavender syrup juice and lemon juice and served with an orange twist!
What’s the highlight: How quickly and smoothly our hangovers dissipated from the night before.
What’s the highlight: How awesome your bowling score was – particularly after a few cocktails. How many times you shot your boyfriend and how many times he didn’t shoot you! How it was nothing like your traditional bowling alley – more like a nightclub with bowling lanes.
Cost: Free entry. $15 Breakfast pizzas. $25 Bloody Mary cocktail jugs.
Cost: Entry is free – unlimited deal is $30pp, cocktails start at $15 and the Kingpin Splitter Dog is $15.
Where: 18 Argyle Street, The Rocks
Where: Level 3, Harbourside Shopping Centre, Darling Harbour
When: Every Sunday from 1pm
When: Sundays from 7pm
Bevvy of choice: A Bloody Mary cocktail jug.
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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
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,
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
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
bar
OF
CASABLANCA SYDNEY
Frankie’s Pizza 50 Hunter St, Sydney CBD Mon – Sun 4pm-4am
TH
EK
A Work In Progress 50 King St, Sydney CBD (02) 9240 3000 Mon – Fri noon-late; Sat 5pm-2am
The Rocks (02) 9247 2229 Mon – Sun 10.30am-midnight
E
WE
16 CROSS STREET, DOUBLE BAY (02) 9328 4411 FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, 8PM–3AM
Wed 5pm-1am; Thu 5pm-2am; Fri 5pm-5am; Sat 6pm-5am Grain Bar 199 George St, Sydney CBD (02) 9250 3118 Mon – Fri 4pm-1am; Sat noon-1am; Sun noonmidnight 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
Tell us about your bar: Casablanca is one of Sydney’s newest exclusive night spots in the Eastern Suburbs offering a premium product and entertaining Sydney’s celebrities, socialites, VIPs and frequent partygoers. Whether it be exclusive booth hire with bottle service, an exclusive function for 400, an intimate dinner or a fabulous night out, Casablanca offers it all. What’s on the menu? A delicious selection of sharing plates carefully handcrafted by our Michelin Star head chef Nelly Robinson. From the garden, paddock and to the sea we have a delightful array of share plates that all guests are sure to enjoy. We recommend our triple-cooked potatoes with Moroccan glaze from the garden, our roast BBQ sirloin in dijon and truffle from the paddock, and our kingfish sashimi with avocado mousse and lemon marmalade from the sea. Care for a drink? Why not order a bottle of Belvedere Vodka to your table with your selection of mixers from the bar, and have your very own waitress serve you for the night. Sounds: Our house DJs play a great selection all night of house, hip hop, R&B, dance, some old and some new music that keeps guests dancing all night. Highlights: Our VIP sunset lounge sets the scene in our venue for a fun-filled night – mix that
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with our beautiful, professional staff that have come in from around the world, and the best venue and offering Sydney has seen for a very long time, and you’re sure to have a night to remember at Casablanca. The bill comes to: Enjoy our set taste menu for $30 per person and a bottle of Belvedere Vodka for $350 including your own waitress for the night and all your mixers. The bill for a table of five would come to $500. Website: casablancasydney.com
Small Bar 48 Erskine St, Sydney CBD (02) 9279 0782 Mon – Fri noonmidnight; Sat 5pm-midnight The Spice Cellar Basement 58 Elizabeth St, Sydney CBD (02) 9223 5585 Mon – Sun 4pm-late 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
Papa Gede’s Bar Laneway at the end of 348 Kent St, Sydney CBD Mon – Sat 5pm-12am
Cornerstone Bar & Food 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh (02) 8571 9004 Sun – Wed 10am-5pm; Thu – Sat 10am-late
Ramblin’ Rascal Tavern 199 Elizabeth St, Sydney CBD Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4pm-10pm
Corridor 153A King St, Newtown 0422 873 879 Tue – Fri 3pm-midnight; Sat 1pm-midnight; Sun 1-10pm
Rockpool Bar & Grill 66 Hunter St, Sydney CBD (02) 8078 1900 Mon – Sat lunch & dinner
Cottage Bar & Kitchen 342 Darling St, Balmain (02) 8084 8185 Mon – Wed 5pm-midnight; Thu – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm
The Rook Level 7, 56-58 York St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 2505 Mon – Fri 4pm-late; Sat 4pm-late
Different Drummer 185 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9552 3406 Mon – Sat 4.30pm-late
Shirt Bar 7 Sussex Ln, Sydney CBD (02) 8068 8222 Mon –Wed 8am-6pm; Thu – Fri 8am-10pm Since I Left You 338 Kent St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 4986 Mon – Wed 5pm-10pm; Thu – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat 6pm-midnight
Earl’s Juke Joint 407 King St, Newtown Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4-10pm Freda’s 107-109 Regent St, Chippendale (02) 8971 7336 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri noon-midnight; Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4-10pm
The Green Room Lounge 156 Enmore Rd, Enmore (02) 8021 8451 Wed 5pm-late; Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 5pm-1am; Sun 5-10pm Hive Bar 93 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville (02) 9519 9911 Mon – Fri noonmidnight; Sat 10am-midnight; Sun 10am-10pm Kelly’s On King 285 King St, Newtown (02) 9565 2288 Mon – Fri 10am-3am; Sat 10am-4am; Sun 10am-midnight 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 Mr Falcon’s 92 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9029 6626 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sat noon-midnight; Sun 2-10pm Newtown Social Club 387 King St, Newtown (02) 9550 3974 Mon – Sat noonmidnight; Sun noon10pm The Oxford Tavern 1 New Canterbury Rd, Petersham (02) 8019 9351 Mon – Thu middaymidnight; Fri – Sat midday-3am; Sun midday-10pm The Record Crate 34 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9660 1075 Tue – Wed 11am-10pm; Thu – Fri 11am-midnight; Sat 10am-midnight; Sun 11am-10pm The Royal 156 Norton St, Leichhardt (02) 9569 2638
Mon – Thu 10am-1am; Fri – Sat 10am-3am; Sun 10am-midnight Timbah 375 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9571 7005 Tue – Thu 4-9pm; Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 2pm-midnight; Sun 2-8pm The Workers Lvl 1, 292 Darling St, Balmain (02) 9555 8410 Wed – Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 5pm-3am; Sun 2-10pm ZanziBar 323 King St, Newtown (02) 9519 1511 Mon – Thu 10am-4am; Fri 10am-6am; Sat 10am-5am; Sun 10am-12am
121BC 4/50 Holt St, Surry Hills (02) 9699 1582 Tue – Thu 5-11pm; Fri – Sat 5pm-midnight Absinthe Salon 87 Albion St, Surry Hills (02) 9211 6632 Wed – Sat 4-10pm Backroom 2A Roslyn St, Potts Point (02) 9361 5000 Bar H 80 Campbell St, Surry Hills (02) 9280 1980 Tue – Sat 6pm-late The Bearded Tit 183 Regent St, Redfern (02) 8283 4082 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sat midday - midnight; Sun midday - 10pm 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; thebrag.com
COCKTAIL OF THE WEEK Pour it in your mouth-hole... (responsibly).
GREEN TEA MOJITO @ THE ROYAL 156 NORTON STREET, LEICHHARDT Origins: First discovered in the Cuban province of China, named after the Latin gods Greenus Teaus and his bartender/lover Mo. Ingredients: White rum, sugar, lime, mint, green tea, dash of soda water. Method: Build in a glass and stir. Glass: Double old fashioned glass. Garnish: Mint and love. Best drunk with: The Royal salt and pepper squid with fresh herbs and lime mayonnaise. During: Springtime. While wearing: Something sexy. And listening to: Angus & Julia Stone. More: theroyalleichhardt.com.au
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
5pm-midnight; Sat 10am-3pm & 5pm-midnight; Sun 10am-10pm Gazebo 2 Elizabeth Bay Rd, Elizabeth Bay (02) 9357 5333 Mon – Thu 3pm-midnight; Fri – Sun noon-midnight The Hazy Rose 1/83 Stanley St, Darlinghurst (02) 9357 5036 Tue 3-11pm; Wed – Sat 3pm-midnight; Sun 3-10pm
Darlie Laundromatic 304 Palmer St, Darlinghurst (02) 8095 0129 Wed – Sun 5-11pm
Hello Sailor 96 Oxford St, Darlinghurst (02) 9332 2442 Tue – Sun 5pm-1am
Eau De Vie 229 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst 0422 263 226 Mon – Sat 6pm-1am; Sun 6pm-midnight
The Hills 42 Chalmers St, Surry Hills (02) 9212 3814 Mon – Sun midday-2am
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 thebrag.com
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 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 Wild Rover 75 Campbell St, Surry Hills (02) 9280 2235 Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun noon-10pm
The Norfolk 305 Cleveland St, Surry Hills (02) 9699 3177 Mon – Wed noonmidnight; Thu – Sat noon-1am; Sun noon10pm
The Winery 285A Crown St, Surry Hills (02) 9331 0833 Mon – Sun noonmidnight
The Passage 231A Victoria St, Darlinghurst (02) 9358 6116 Mon – Thu 5pm-late; Fri – Sun noon-late
Anchor Bar 8 Campbell Pde, Bondi (02) 8084 3145 Tue – Fri 4.30pm-late; Sat – Sun 12.30pm-late
Play Bar 72 Campbell St, Surry Hills (02) 9280 0885 Wed – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 3-10pm
Bondi Hardware 39 Hall St, Bondi (02) 9365 7176 Mon – Wed 5-11pm; Thu 5pm-midnight; Sat 10am-midnight; Sun 10am-10pm
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 Santa Barbara 1 Bayswater Rd, Kings Cross (02) 9357 7882 Wed 6pm-1am; Thu & Sat 6pm-2am; Fri noon-2am
The Bucket List Shop 1, Bondi Pavilion, Queen Elizabeth Drive (02) 9365 4122 Mon – Sun 11am-late The Corner House 281 Bondi Rd, Bondi (02) 8020 6698 Tue – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 3-10pm Fat Ruperts 249 Bondi Rd, Bondi (02) 9130 1033 Mon – Fri 6pm-late; Sat 4pm-late; Sun 4-10pm The Rum Diaries 288 Bondi Rd, Bondi (02) 9300 0440 Tue – Sat 6pm-midnight; Sun 6-10pm
Speakeasy 83 Curlewis St, Bondi (02) 9130 2020 Mon – Fri 3pm-late; Sat – Sun noon-late Stuffed Beaver 271 Bondi Rd, Bondi (02) 9130 3002 Mon – Sat noonmidnight; Sun noon10pm
The Bay Jam Bar 2A Waters Rd, Neutral Bay 0407 454 0815 Tue – Fri 11am-midnight; Sat – Sun 7am-midnight Firefl y 24 Young St, Neutral Bay (02) 9909 0193 Mon – Wed 5-10pm; Thu 4-11pm; Fri – Sat noon-11pm; Sun noon9.30pm The Foxtrot 28 Falcon St, Crows Nest Tue – Sat 5pm-3am; Sun 5-10pm Harlem On Central Shop 4,9-15 Central Ave, Manly (02) 9976 6737 Tue – Sun 5pm-midnight Hemingway’s 48 North Steyne, Manly (02) 9976 3030 Mon – Sat 8am-midnight; Sun 8am-10pm 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 Jah Ba Shop 7, 9-15 Central Ave, Manly (02) 9977 4449 Tue – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm 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 Manly Wine 8-13 South Steyne, Manly (02) 8966 9000 Mon – Sun 7am-late The Mayor 400 Military Rd, Cremorne (02) 8969 6060 Tue – Fri 10am-late; Sat 8am-late; Sun 8am-10pm 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 noon8pm 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
Shady Pines Saloon Shop 4, 256 Crown St, Darlinghurst Mon – Sun 4pm-midnight The Soda Factory 16 Wentworth Ave, Surry Hills (02) 8096 9120 Mon – Wed 5pm-late; Thu 5pm-2am; Fri – Sat 5pm-5am Sweethearts Rooftop 33/37Darlinghurst Rd, Potts Point (02) 9368 7333 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sun noon-midnight Tio’s Cerveceria 4/14 Foster St, Surry Hills Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4-10pm Unicorn Cellar Basement, 106 Oxford St, Paddington (02) 9360 7994 Tue – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm Vasco 421 Cleveland St, Redfern 0406 775 436 Tue – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 5-10pm The Victoria Room Lvl 1, 235 Victoria St, Darlinghurst (02) 9357 4488 Tue – Fri 6pm-midnight; Sat noon-2am; Sun noonmidnight BRAG :: 579 :: 10:09:14 :: 27
Album Reviews What's been crossing our ears this week...
ALBUM OF THE WEEK VANCE JOY
components of melody, vocals and lyrics. Any addition to this, like the brass in ‘We All Die Trying To Get It Right’, is a carefully considered supplement to this balance.
Dream Your Life Away Liberation
Finding a place in the crossover between commercial radio and quality folk is a difficult endeavour. Filled to the brim with easy-listening folk songs, Vance Joy’s debut album Dream Your Life Away successfully accomplishes this tricky feat.
Josh Thorburn
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The Xxxxconsistency of Vance Joy’s debut will make it a favourite among many.
Following the hugely popular ‘Riptide’, Dream Your Life Away is one of the most anticipated albums of the year. Thankfully, it lives up to expectations. It works as an album due to its simplicity: each track is reduced to its core
Essentially, this is the album everyone in the family will agree to listen to on a long car drive. But it’s not without flaws. ‘First Time’ is upbeat and catchy, but is far below the standard of the rest of the record. Thankfully, though, album highlights ‘Red Eye’, ‘Georgia’ and single ‘Mess Is Mine’ get the album well and truly back on track. Closer ‘My Kind Of Man’ is splendid – a fitting end to the album and one of Joy’s best tunes to date, possibly heralding a newfound maturity.
JOE BONAMASSA
SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO
THE DEAD LOVE
BRIGGS
COLDRAIN
Different Shades Of Blue J&R Adventures
Whorl Anti/Warner
Transitions Independent
Sheplife Golden Era
The Revelation VAP/Sony
This being his 11th solo album of blues rock in just 14 years, Joe Bonamassa could be forgiven for running out of new ways to express his prodigious guitar talents. Thankfully, Different Shades Of Blue finds the 37-yearold American axe-slinger in top form and showing once again why he’s one of the hottest six-string shredders in the world today.
Those who fondly remember Simian Mobile Disco for the duo’s radioready offerings, be prepared for an entirely new experience. Recorded live at Joshua Tree in California with the aid of only a sequencer and a synth each, Whorl is a decidedly darker outing that gently takes you by the hand and then drags you along for the ride.
Transitions is the slick debut album from Sydney trio The Dead Love, and pays homage to their grungy alt-rock roots with a fresher, more polished vibe.
Briggs is a singular figure in the Australian rap scene – he comes correct, has talent, has vision and is an extremely affable artist. One may suggest that Golden Era’s cigar-smoking sharp-shooter may have overtaken SPC Ardmona as the number one export for Victorian regional centre Shepparton.
Japan’s Coldrain had the prestige of being the very first band officially announced for next year’s Soundwave Festival. Does their music justify this type of hype?
This is the Grammy nominee’s first album to feature all original material, a significant step for a blues rock purist. Not that the influences aren’t as glaringly obvious as usual; the hands of Clapton, Page and Rory Gallagher are all over this record, and that can only ever be a good thing. At the top of the pile for rock riffage is second track ‘Oh Beautiful!’, which rivals anything found on Led Zeppelin II, while ‘Heartache Follows Wherever I Go’ brings the melancholic blues, and there’s even a Queen-esque ballad to keep things varied with ‘Never Give All Your Heart’. Bonamassa is often labelled as Eric Clapton’s natural successor, although Clapton himself probably wouldn’t take kindly to that, given he’s still putting out records himself. In saying that, it’s a fitting sentiment, and this record will only serve to reinforce it. Paul McBride
Packed to bursting with grumbling bass and synth lines that jab, stab and whirl themselves around the base of your brain, this album sees the producers push the boat out in terms of creativity. Listening to each track come slowly to life, built from the ground up, works stunningly in many parts of the album, but is vastly underwhelming in others. Opener ‘Redshift’ gets things off to an awkward start. An attempt at building drama and suspense quickly becomes indulgent and uninteresting. Tracks such as ‘Calyx’ keep things on point with a nice melodic edge. Overall, Whorl certainly requires patience and the absence of vocals lends a curious eeriness. Calling this record a ‘psychedelic’ experiment sells it tragically short. Simian Mobile Disco have extended themselves well past their previous repertoire with some undeniably dance-ready tracks.
The Dead Love craftily weave classical piano, horns and electronic elements into their high-voltage, nofrills brand of rock. Produced in the heart of America’s live music capital Austin, Texas, by Chris ‘Frenchie’ Smith (Jet, The Dandy Warhols), Transitions is a fun, well-balanced album that takes you on a floorstomping journey. It’s jam-packed with charging anthems like ‘Shine’ and ‘The Desert Sun’ that will have your tongue wagging to sing along. Stevie Knight’s husky vocals soar with convincing emotion and draw you into his band’s hypnotic arms. There’s a distinct rawness and attitude underpinning the album, and tracklist highlights ‘Zombie Ghost Town’ and ‘No Secrets’ are sure to get your blood pumping with their throttling riffs. You’re hurtled through the intense anarchy of whiskysoaked evenings to the more introspective moments that shape everyday life. Need a dose of soul in your rock’n’roll? The Dead Love are the real deal. Kylie Finlay
Marissa Demetriou
ROBYN HITCHCOCK The Man Upstairs Yep Roc
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The Man Upstairs sees Hitchcock mutter and croon his peculiar way through some originals and cover versions of the likes of Roxy Music, The Doors and The Psychedelic Furs. ‘The Ghost In You’ is unlike the original post-punk carnival and
At its heart, Sheplife is thoughtful and contemplative, yet pulling no punches is the big beat defiance of opener ‘Let It Be Known’. “Fuck ’em all if they thought they could tame me,” roars Briggs with urgency, aggression and pride. As an album, Sheplife represents identity. ‘Purgatory (Let It Go)’, ‘Let You Down’, ‘My People’ and ‘The Hunt’ see Briggs find strength in his indigenous heritage; the latter enabling a meaningful collaboration with renowned artist Gurrumul. In his own words, Briggs has put his “tribe on his arms and Shep’ on the map”. He’s representing the most significant turning points and people in his life, and he’s doing it with style. John Donaldson
INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK Now up to his umpteenth recording, Robyn Hitchcock remains the type of musician fans scurry to obtain the latest recording of. But this simple task is not very easy because his recordings are not held by the usual stockists. Nevertheless, like Billy Childish, Hitchcock remains prolifi c in adversity and continues his quest for cosmic thrills in the way you would expect a left-ofcentre folkie troubadour to do.
The man mountain is back to salute his cultural heritage, praise family and bear witness to all things Shep’. A reflective account of where he’s been, where he’s at and what he stands for, this follow-up to 2010’s magnificent debut The Blacklist is Adam Briggs all grown up.
‘San Francisco Patrol’ is a headheld-low lament of an introvert awaiting the sunset. The drawl of ‘Trouble In Your Blood’ and ‘Somebody To Break Your Heart’ sees our hero lying like a knight on his bed, hands folded across his chest. He fought the good fight and gave it his best shot. The cover versions are stubbornly iconoclastic and eccentric. The Man Upstairs is exquisite in many ways and topical in others, leading to the assumption that Hitchcock should be regarded not so much as an infl uence but an inspiration.
For starters, you have to be good at what you do to play Soundwave. And whether you like this style of music or not, these guys are very good at what they do. In fact, they suit the Soundwave demographic almost to perfection. The melodic metalcore sound is arguably the biggest thing in heavy music right now and these guys have the formula down pat. It’s heavy where it needs to be, and virtually all of the choruses soar to the very heavens in true melodic style. If you didn’t know these guys are Japanese, you would think they’re American – their sound, the production polish, the singer even uses an American accent. It’s all geared up to appeal to American metalcore audiences. Yes, it’s production-line stuff, but it’s good production-line stuff. The ‘true’ metalheads will bitch and moan about them of course, but these guys will no doubt play a bunch of kick-arse sets for the Aussie punters next year and head home with a heap of new fans under their belt. And that’s all that really matters. Rod Whitfi eld
OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week... THE MAGIC NUMBERS - The Magic Numbers CROWDED HOUSE - Woodface BORED NOTHING - Bored Nothing
THOM YORKE - The Eraser KANYE WEST - Late Registration
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live reviews
up all night out all week . . .
What we've been out to see...
BOB DYLAN
State Theatre Wednesday September 3 The tickets for tonight’s concert explicitly state, “Bob Dylan performs the entire show,” as if to reassure fans that the 73-year-old immortal won’t disappear halfway through for a pee break and never return. It’s an unusual disclaimer, but understandable too; anecdotal evidence over recent years suggests one never knows which version of Dylan will turn up on any given night. And anecdotal evidence is all we have, given the ban on photography and perpetual secrecy with which Robert Allen Zimmerman goes about his business. So it’s no surprise when Dylan emerges onto a dimly lit stage, standing small beneath a wide-brim hat and blazer jacket. Around him is a half-circle of various sized microphones, seemingly to pick up every last whisper of breath that emerges from his mouth. It’s the voice of a man who’s been down a long, long road, and felt every bump along the way.
By the time it comes to encores, much of the patiently seated theatre crowd has charged to the front to witness a hero close-up – it’s difficult from the back, given the softness of that light – and Dylan bids farewell with a piano-led ‘All Along The Watchtower’ and a gentle ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’. The rearrangements are no doubt to sustain Dylan’s own artistic interest, but perhaps to protect his voice as well. Then again, the marvel of Bob Dylan has never been his voice, but that he still has something so urgent to say. Chris Martin
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graveyard rockstars + minge dynasty
The five-piece band locks into step immediately on ‘Things Have Changed’, instruments routed through gorgeous vintage amps, though Dylan himself won’t pick up a guitar tonight – he’s either front and centre with one hand grasping the microphone stand and the other limp by his side, or seated at the baby grand piano stage left. The occasional jolt of energy comes via a harmonica solo, but most of all it’s the songs that do the talking.
‘Workingman’s Blues #2’ is a highlight of the first half, and while Dylan’s lyricism is difficult to understand through his rasps on the earlier songs, here he sounds determined. The legendary folk troubadour became more of an electric country-blues balladeer long ago, and the performances are designed to match – this is no arena show, and perhaps that’s why he’s been criticised in the past, but it matters not in a venue sized this perfectly. Likewise, the first real hit in the setlist, ‘Tangled Up In Blue’, is a near-unrecognisable rewrite of its former self, driven now by the rhythm section. But there’s no impression that Dylan wants to be anywhere else but here tonight, and that’s what counts the most, especially when it comes to relaying newer tunes like the forthright ‘Pay In Blood’ or the delicate ‘Forgetful Heart’.
07:09:14 :: Frankie’s Pizza :: 50 Hunter St Sydney
PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR
BIFFY CLYRO
Enmore Theatre Friday September 5
the amity affliction
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Even if it wasn’t for the gigantic poster of Simon Neil hoisted high outside the Enmore, any visitor to Newtown on this Friday might have guessed Biffy Clyro were back in Sydney. There were so many Scottish accents, it’s surprising that anyone’s left back in Edinburgh and Aberdeen and Ayrshire to give a shit about the upcoming independence referendum. Aye, it was a very Biffy kind of night.
04:09:14 :: The Hordern Pavilion:: 1 Driver Ave, Moore Park 9921 5333 OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER
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S :: KATRINA CLARKE :: ASHLEY
Neil’s voice and ear for a killer riff, while also giving the crowd a chance to let off some steam before they got in a chance for a wee sing-song with ‘That Golden Rule’ and ‘The Captain’. Beneath the heavy riffs and hard graft it’s easy to miss that Neil has penned some mega songs. He has the confidence of a man who knows it and but also carries an obvious appreciative grace, most apparent with the reaction to (probably his biggest royalty-maker) ‘Many Of Horror’.
There was chanting. There was beer (but not a can of Tennent’s to be seen). There were tattoos, of course, and no shirts, at least not on the backs of Neil and the Johnston twins onstage. There were many excellent songs, mainly taken from the band’s three most recent albums. But as good as Biffy Clyro were, it didn’t quite fully rock. Bassist James Johnston nailed it when he noted how ironic it was that a bloke with crutches was jumping around the most.
We were reminded best when he was alone onstage for a touching acoustic version of ‘God And Satan’, which was only bettered when he returned solo again for ‘Machines’ during the encore. After a tame mosh pit had dissolved, the crowd confirmed it was mainly comprised of big softies when it collectively urged Neil, “Take the pieces and build them skywards,” in response to his devastating admission: “I’ve started falling apart / I’m not savouring life.” After gearing up to rock, it was a surprise that this tender moment proved most powerful.
‘Different People’ from 2013’s Opposites was a good choice of opener, showing off
David Wild
MAR ::
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ARCHITECTS, STRAY FROM THE PATH, HAND OF MERCY
could barely be heard over the rabid crowd screaming every word back.
Oxford Art Factory Tuesday September 2
When Hand Of Mercy emerged, they immediately broke into a track that directly lifted the riff from ‘Frantic’, the track that opens Metallica’s most maligned and universally hated LP, St. Anger. When you’re kicking off by ripping off Metallica at their worst, it’s not going to get any better from there on out – and Hand Of Mercy made absolute sure of that. They may have brought a new lead vocalist to the forefront, but it was essentially the musical equivalent of putting a new hat on Malibu Stacy – it’s still the same plastic, lifeless product for tween girls to swarm to. It was telling that a siren wail welcomed Stray From The Path onstage, as a smallscale riot followed from the second they began. Vocalist Andrew Dijorio was not in a mood to be messed with, constantly on security’s backs ensuring that they didn’t go overboard. It was difficult not to get caught up in the moment, as the band’s unapologetic take on brash, defiant hardcore sent out a surge of energy that was reciprocated tenfold. By the time closing number ‘Badge & A Bullet’ rolled around, Dijorio’s anti-authoritarian bark
HIP HOP / RAP COMPETITION
This intimate inner-city venue trumped the trek out to the cavernous Hordern Pavilion, while the 18-plus age restrictions meant not having to deal with first-timers and angsty teens. Best of all, being here meant not having to give The Amity Affliction money. For Architects fans, everything about this show, on paper, was perfect. As if to immediately prove this point, the Brighton natives tore through opening number ‘Gravedigger’ with the kind of ferocity that would suggest they were never to play another show again. It did not let up from that point for a moment – whether it was one of the many tracks from their recent Lost Together // Lost Forever LP or older favourites like ‘Early Grave’ and ‘Follow The Water’, the momentum never dropped either onstage or off. Vocalist Sam Carter constantly reminded the crowd of the band’s collective gratefulness – and, rather than come off as pandering, it was an aspect of the show that established a true bond between Architects and those who paid to see them. From go to whoa, this was a tightly executed and consistently riveting performance from one of the finer bands within this spectrum.
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whitechapel
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05:09:14 :: Manning Bar :: Manning Rd, Camperdown 9563 6000
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BRAG :: 579 :: 10:09:14 :: 31
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send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com
pick of the week
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 13
King Tide
Factory Theatre F
One Drop Rankin Riddim King Tide + The Protesters + The Strides + Kinsky + DK And The Rising Sun + Midnight Tea Party + ForeignDub 5pm. $45. WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 10 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Mitch Anderson & His Organic Orchestra Coopers Hotel, Newtown. 8:45pm. free. The Foots Ruby L’otel, Rozelle. 8pm. free.
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Gang Of Brothers Jam Night Spring Street Social, Bondi. 9pm. free. Lionel Cole Imperial Hotel, Paddington. 8pm. free.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
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THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 11 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
G.O.D. Town & Country Hotel, St Peters. 10:30pm. free. The Folk Informal - feat: Angharad Drake + Imogen Bel + Amela + Catgut FBi Social, Kings Cross. 8pm. $10.
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Lionel Cole
The White Horse, Surry Hills. 8pm. free. David Rose - Vignettes The Newsagency, Marrickville. 7pm. $17.20.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
Alex Hopkins Wenty Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 9pm. free. Alkemie Night - feat: Live Music + DJ Sudek Spring Street Social, Bondi. 9:30pm. free. Anthems Of Oz Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9:30pm. free. Black Diamond Hearts Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 10pm. free. Cannibal Corpse Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $66.27. Castlecomer + Sons Of The East + Kid Zeus Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7:30pm. $15. Coke & Sympathy - Rock’n’ Roll Cabaret The Vanguard, Newtown. 6:30pm. $23.80. Dai Pritchard Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 10pm. free. Dave White Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney. 9:30pm. free. Evie Dean
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 12 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC
David Rose - Vignettes The Newsagency, Marrickville. 7pm. $17.20. Flamenco Del Mar Optus Centre, Macquarie Park. 12pm. free. Jazz Hip-Hop Freestyle Sessions Foundry616, Ultimo. 11:30pm. free. Jimmy Rigg + Fetta James + Lucy Hall Venue 505, Surry Hills. 8:30pm. $17.20. Jungle Bones + Mvkrs + Blue Shoes + More Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 9pm. $10. The Vampires Seymour Centre, Chippendale. 8:30pm. $22.20.
ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Brian Campeau Old 505 Theatre, Surry Hills. 9pm. $17.20. The Relics + The Casettes Town & Country Hotel, St Peters. 7:30pm. free. The Slowdowns Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 8pm. free.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
Alex Hopkins Wenty Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 9pm. free. Andy Bull + New Navy Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle. 8pm. $23.50. Armchair Travellers Duo Dooleys, Silverwater. 6pm. free. Backlash Penrith Gaels, Kingswood. 8pm. free. Ben Finn
Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill. 9:30pm. free. Big Rich Vineyard Hotel, Vineyard. 9:30pm. free. Blake Tailor Hornsby RSL, Hornsby. 7pm. free. Brad Johns Time & Tide Hotel, Dee Why. 7:30pm. free. Cam Nacson Mona Vale Hotel, Mona Vale. 5:30pm. free. Cambo Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 6pm. free. Cath & Him St George Leagues Club, Kogarah. 9pm. free. Christie Lamb Duo Panthers, Penrith. 7:30pm. free. Coke & Sympathy Rock’n’Roll Cabaret The Vanguard, Newtown. 6:30pm. $23.80. Dave White Experience Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 10:30pm. free. Die! Die! Die! Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $15.30. DJ Marty Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 9pm. free. Double Barrel Horsley Park Tavern, Horsley Park. 7pm. free. El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico The Hi-Fi, Moore Park. 8:30pm. $54.50. Evie Dean Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 7pm. free. Gareth Jay Wentworth Hotel, Homebush West. 9:30pm. free. Geoff Rana The Grand Hotel, Rockdale. 5:30pm. free. Glenn Esmond Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee. 10:30pm. free. Green Day Show Towradgi Beach Hotel, Towradgi. 12:30pm. free. Greg Agar Campbelltown Catholic Club, Campbelltown. 6pm. free. Grove Street + Backyard Soccer + Ego Monkey + Noyes Hermann’s Bar, Darlington. 7pm. free. Heath Burdell Harbord Beach Hotel, Harbord. 7pm. free. Hooray For Everything Springwood Sports Club, Springwood. 8:30pm. free. Howling Bells Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $36.80. Jackson Holt Mona Vale Hotel, Mona Vale. 9pm. free. James Fox Higgins Duo Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill. 8pm. free. Jamie Lindsay Cyren Restaurant , Darling Harbour. 6pm. free. Klay Vetter Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 9pm. free. Live Music At The Royal The Royal, Leichhardt. 9:30pm. free. Luke Zancanaro Parramatta RSL, Parramatta. 5pm. free. Main Beach + Wolf Cola + New Lovers + Bad Vibes FBi Social, Kings Cross. 8pm. $10. Marty Simpson Penrith Rsl, Penrith. 8pm. free. Marty Stewart Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale. 9:30pm. free. Matt Jones Ingleburn RSL, Ingleburn. 9pm. free. Matt Lyon Quakers Inn, Quakers Hill. 8pm. free. Meg Mac + Rainy Day Women + Eleanor Dunlop Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $15.
New Delhi Liamas + Cherokee Rose + Starr Witness Ruby L’otel, Rozelle. 8pm. free. Panorama Duo Courthouse Hotel, Darlinghurst. 10pm. free. Patrick Fahey AKA DJ Podgee Town Hall Hotel, Balmain. 7:30pm. free. Picture Perfect Colonial Hotel, Werrington. 9pm. free. Q Sound Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci. 8pm. free. Rob Eastwood Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill. 6:30pm. free. Rob Henry Town Hall Hotel, Balmain. 4:30pm. free. Rock Solid Duo North Sydney Leagues Club, Cammeray. 9:30pm. free. Rose Carleo The Oriental Hotel, Springwood. 8pm. free. Rosenthorne Optus Centre, Macquarie Park. 4pm. free. Salsa Kingz Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8:30pm. free. Sam Newton Chatswood RSL, Chatswood. 5pm. free. Spring Break Down + Counterattack + Bombs Over Brunswick + Ether Rag + Cult Killers + Alf Stewart + Frame 313 + Dispolar + The Holliday Project Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10. Stormcellar Shady Pines, Darlinghurst. 4pm. free. Sweet Lil Rider Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 7:30pm. $14.70. Ted Nash Fortune Of War, The Rocks. 8pm. free. The Jaded Vanities Burlesque The Vanguard, Newtown. 6:30pm. $36.80. The Khats Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 8:30pm. free. The Kite String Tangle + Flamingo + Twin Caverns Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm. $21.50. The Loaded Six Strings Crown Hotel, Camden. 8pm. free. The McClymonts + The Adam Eckersly Band Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8pm. $40. The Re-Mains Coogee Diggers, Coogee. 8pm. free. Throwing Copper + Foo Fighters Cover Show Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills. 10pm. free. Tim Conlon Duo Windsor Leagues Club, Windsor South. 9pm. free. Tina Arena The Star Event Centre, Pyrmont. 8pm. $81.50. Unity Floors & Chook Race Standard Bowl, Surry Hills. 8pm. free. VIP Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 9pm. free. Zac And Ben The Belmore Hotel, Maitland. 9:30pm. free. Zoltan Adria, Sydney. 5pm. free. Zoltan PJ Gallagher’s, Leichhardt. 10pm. free.
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 13 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC David Rose - Vignettes The Newsagency,
thebrag.com
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Coke & Sympathy - Rock’n’ Roll Cabaret The Vanguard, Newtown. 6:30pm. $23.80. Dead Brian Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10. Fat Bubba’s Chicken
Wednesdays Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 5pm. free. Greg Coffin Trio + Joel Jenkins Trio Venue 505, Surry Hills. 8:30pm. $16.30. Happy Hippies Ettamogah Hotel, Kelly Ridge. 6:30pm. free. Shredders Lair Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale. 6pm. free. The Lazys Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 9pm. free.
Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill. 7:30pm. free. Glenn Esmond Fortune Of War, The Rocks. 7pm. free. Greg Agar Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 7:30pm. free. Jamie Lindsay Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 7:30pm. free. Jay Parrino Dee Why Hotel, Dee Why. 7pm. free. Neck Deep + State Champs Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 7pm. $30.50. Nicky Kurta Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 7:30pm. free. Rosie Henshaw Old 505 Theatre, Surry Hills. 9pm. $17.20. Sarah Paton Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm. free. Tchami Soho Bar, Potts Point. 8pm. free. The Late Night Soda Social Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 5pm. free. The Mess Up Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale. 8pm. free. The Mumps + Wild Anus Hotel Hollywood, Surry Hills. 8pm. free. Tim Conlon Duo Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 9pm. free. Tina Arena The Star Event Centre, Pyrmont. 8pm. $81.50. Twin Ages + Release The Hounds + Angry Beige + Stone Desert Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10.
g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Andy Bull
Marrickville. 7pm. $17.20. One Drop Rankin Riddim Spring Fest 2014 - feat: King Tide + The Protesters + The Midnight Tea Party + DK & The Rising Sun + Kinksy + The Strides + DJ ForeignDub Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 5pm. $45. Reid Between The Lines Seymour Centre, Chippendale. 8:30pm. $22.20. Sonido + Martinez Venue 505, Surry Hills. 8:30pm. $22.20. Souled Out Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 10pm. free.
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ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
Damian Wright Venue 505, Surry Hills. 9pm. $17.20. Grove Street Town & Country Hotel, St Peters. 7:30pm. free. Paul Hayward And Friends Town & Country Hotel, St Peters. 4pm. free.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
3 Way Split South Hurstville RSL Club, South Hurstville. 9pm. free. Abbalanche Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill. 7:30pm. $22. Aeriae + Simon Mann + Alphatown + Squarepeg + Chris Bell + Xxx Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 7pm. $10. Alana Ellery AKA DJ Alana Town Hall Hotel, Balmain. 8pm. free. Alex Cameron (Seekae) Residency Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale. 9pm. free. Alex Hopkins Stacks Taverna, Sydney. 5pm. free. Alex Hopkins New Brighton Hotel, Manly. 10pm. free. Am 2 Pm North Sydney Leagues Club, Cammeray. 9:30pm. free. Andy Bull + New Navy + Vigilantes Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $28.70. Andy Mammers + Crash Avenue Campbelltown Catholic Club, Campbelltown. 9:30pm. free. Angie Dean Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill. 6:30pm. free. Ben Finn Trio The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill. 9pm. free. Cara Kavanagh + Mark Oats Duo PJ Gallagher’s, Leichhardt. 10pm. free. Com Truise Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $38.90. Craig Thommo Sir Joseph Banks Hotel, Botany. 7pm. free. Darren Johnstone
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Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill. 9pm. free. Darren Percival Rooty Hill RSL Club, Rooty Hill. 7:30pm. $35. Dave Phillips Harbord Beach Hotel, Harbord. 7pm. free. DJ Mounties, Mount Pritchard. 10pm. free. DJ Marty Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 9pm. free. Elevation - U2 Show Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 10pm. free. Evie Dean Panthers, Penrith. 5:30pm. free. Fast Times At Filchil High Freda’s, Chippendale. 4pm. free. Felicity Robinson The Belvedere Hotel, Sydney. 8:15pm. free. Foxy Penrith RSL, Penrith. 9pm. free. Geoff Rana Greystanes Inn, Greystanes Inn. 8pm. free. Glenn Esmond PJ Gallagher’s, Moore Park. 7:30pm. free. Half Nelson Huskisson Hotel, Huskisson. 8pm. free. Heath Burdell Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 7pm. free. High Rollers Big Band Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8:30pm. free. Hooray For Everything Pittwater RSL, Mona Vale. 8pm. free. Jalapeno Deluxe Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci. 8pm. free. James Englund Duo Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee. 12am. free. Juke Baritone Shady Pines, Darlinghurst. 4pm. free. Klay Cookie’s Lounge Bar, Strathfield North. 8pm. free. Little Coyote Ruby L’otel, Rozelle. 8pm. free. Luke Dixon Duo The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill. 6pm. free. Luke Zancanaro Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 4pm. free. Mandi Jarry Cronulla RSL, Cronulla. 7pm. free. Matt Lyon Kelly’s On King, Newtown. 9:30pm. free. Melody Rhymes Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 10pm. free. Old School Band Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills. 9:30pm. free. Oliver Goss Wentworth Hotel, Homebush West. 9:30pm. free. One Man And His Orangutan Crown Hotel, Camden. 9pm. free. Panorama Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9:30pm. free. Party Mode Panthers, Penrith. 8:30pm. free. Patrick James + Winterbourne Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $23.60. Rachel Fahim Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 9pm. free. Rapture Padstow RSL Club, Padstow. 6:30pm. free. Riz Hallowes Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 5:30pm. free. Rob Henry Time & Tide Hotel, Dee Why. 7:30pm. free.
Rock Solid Duo Springwood Sports Club, Springwood. 8:30pm. free. Sharron Bowman Brewhouse Marayong, Kings Park. 8pm. free. Sons Of Mercury Crows Nest Hotel, Crows Nest. 10:30pm. free. Sound City Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 8pm. free. Sounds Like Sunset + Ramps Vintage Night Club, Sydney. 8pm. free. Steve Tonge Duo Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 9pm. free. That Other Band Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill. 8pm. free. The Heretics Shady Pines, Darlinghurst. 6pm. free. The Lonely Boys The Mercantile Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm. free. The White Brothers Ettamogah Hotel, Kelly Ridge. 7pm. free. Tim Conlon Duo PJ’s Irish Pub, Parramatta. 9:30pm. free. Tres Hombres The Belmore Hotel, Maitland. 9:30pm. free. Victoria Avenue Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill. 10:30pm. free. Whitley + Tom Cooney + Sleep Decade Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $30. Wildcatz R.G. McGees, Richmond. 9pm. free. Zoltan Le Pub, Sydney. 9pm. free.
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 14
Waverley Bowling Club, Waverley. 2pm. free. Matchbox Band Penrith RSL, Penrith. 2pm. free. Matt Jones Duo Commodore Hotel, Mcmahon Point. 2pm. free. Matt Price Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 3pm. free. Mick O’Shea & Friends Ruby L’otel, Rozelle. 8pm. free. Monster Stomp + Ringblower + Clinic 13 Hotel Hollywood, Surry Hills. 4pm. free. Night Beats Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $23. Peter Kinch Parramatta Leagues Club, Parramatta. 12pm. free. Ron Ashton Ramsgate RSL, Sans Souci. 2pm. free. Sabbath Sessions - feat: Bandintexas + The Mercy Kills + July Talk + Holly Who + Tequila Mockingbird Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 4pm. free. School Of Rock - feat: Young Rockers Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 12pm. $10. Selfish Act + Dispolar + Unbranded Animals + Dead In The Futter + Ever Conscious + More Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 4pm. $10. Sydney Rock ‘n’ Roll Alternative Market Manning Bar, Camperdown. 10:30am. $7.20. Tears Dry On Their Own (Remembering Amy Winehouse) - feat: Alice Terri + Billie Mccarthy + Ines
The Basement, Circular Quay. 7:05pm. $30. The Happy Hippies Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills. 2pm. free. The Jaybirds Time & Tide Hotel, Dee Why. 1pm. free. The Mezcaltones Botany View Hotel, Newtown. 7pm. free. The Mondays The Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill. 1pm. free. The Rise Of Brotality The Hi-Fi, Moore Park. 7pm. $54.50. Three Wise Men Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 4pm. free. Victoria Avenue Ettamogah Hotel, Kelly Ridge. 1pm. free.
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 15 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Latin & Jazz Jam Open Mic Night World Bar, Kings Cross. 7pm. free. Motown Mondays - feat: Soulgroove The White Horse, Surry Hills. 8pm. free.
ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 16 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Greg Agar Cock & Bull, Bondi. 7pm. free. Jazzgroove - The Fantastic Terrific Munkle + New Mexico Foundry616, Ultimo. 8pm. $17.20. Old School Funk & Groove Venue 505, Surry Hills. 8pm. free. Swingtime Tuesdays The Basement, Circular Quay. 7pm. $9.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
Devon Sproule The Vanguard, Newtown. 7pm. $18. Live & Originals Bar 34 Bondi, Bondi Beach. 8pm. free. Triumphant Tuesdays - feat: Dave Eastgate Karaoke Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 8:30pm. free.
ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Blues Tuesdays Spring Street Social, Bondi. 7:30pm. free.
Angus & Julia Stone + Vancouver Sleep Clinic Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 8pm. $64.79.
JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Wildrice Duo Dee Why RSL, Dee Why. 2pm. free.
ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK
Joe Bonamassa State Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $99. Angus & Julia Stone + Vancouver Sleep Clinic Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 8pm. $64.79.
INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS
Alex PJ’s Irish Pub, Parramatta. 2pm. free. Andy Golledge + Good Corn Liquor Shady Pines, Darlinghurst. 6pm. free. Carl Fidler Observer Hotel, The Rocks. 8pm. free. Dan Spillane Harbord Beach Hotel, Harbord. 6pm. free. Dick Diver + Bed Wettin Bad Boys + Ghastly Spats The Vanguard, Newtown. 4pm. $15. Drew Panthers, Penrith. 2pm. free. El Duende Town & Country Hotel, St Peters. 3pm. free. Glenn Esmond Duo Northies Cronulla Hotel, Cronulla. 6pm. free. Happy Hippies Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills. 2pm. free. JJ Duo Parramatta Leagues Club, Parramatta. 4pm. free. Marty Stewart
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fri
12 Sep
(4:30PM - 7:30PM)
(9:30PM - 1:30AM)
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
sat
13 Sep
SUNDAY AFTERNOON
sun
(4:30PM - 7:30PM)
14 Sep
(8:30PM - 12:00AM)
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15 Sep
16 Sep (9:00PM - 12:00AM)
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gig picks
up all night out all week...
Cannibal Corpse
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 11 The Folk Informal - feat: Angharad Drake + Imogen Bel + Amela + Catgut FBi Social, Kings Cross. 8pm. $10. Cannibal Corpse Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $66.27. Castlecomer + Sons Of The East + Kid Zeus Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7:30pm. $15.
Main Beach + Wolf Cola + New Lovers + Bad Vibes FBi Social, Kings Cross. 8pm. $10. Meg Mac + Rainy Day Women + Eleanor Dunlop Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $15 The Jaded Vanities Burlesque The Vanguard, Newtown. 6:30pm. $36.80. Tina Arena The Star Event Centre, Pyrmont. 8pm. $81.50.
Neck Deep + State Champs Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 7pm. $30.50.
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 13
Rosie Henshaw Old 505 Theatre, Surry Hills. 9pm. $17.20.
Andy Bull + New Navy + Vigilantes Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $28.70.
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 12 Jimmy Rigg + Fetta James + Lucy Hall Venue 505, Surry Hills. 8:30pm. $17.20. The Vampires Seymour Centre, Chippendale. 8:30pm. $22.20. Die! Die! Die! Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $15.30 El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico The Hi-Fi, Moore Park. 8:30pm. $54.50. Howling Bells Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $36.80. The Kite String Tangle + Flamingo + Twin Caverns Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm. $21.50. Tina Arena
Com Truise Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. $38.90. Patrick James + Winterbourne Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $23.60 Whitley + Tom Cooney + Sleep Decade Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $30.
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 14 Joe Bonamassa State Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $99. Angus & Julia Stone + Vancouver Sleep Clinic Sydney Opera House, Sydney. 8pm. $64.79. Dick Diver + Bed Wettin Bad Boys + Ghastly Spats The Vanguard, Newtown. 4pm. $15. Night Beats Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $23. Tears Dry On Their Own (Remembering Amy Winehouse) feat: Alice Terri + Billie McCarthy + Ines The Basement, Circular Quay. 7:05pm. $30. The Rise Of Brotality The Hi-Fi, Moore Park. 7pm. $54.50.
Angus & Julia Stone
Tina Arena photo by Cybele Malinowski
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BRAG’s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture
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free stuff
club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Martin, Lauren Gill and Debbie Shankar
he said she said WITH
head to: thebrag.com/freeshit
Mefjus
CASSETTE
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lesson when I started! I met Matt Weir through Gabby years ago and always loved his energy. Le Brond, Mike Witcombe, Morgan, Slow Blow guys, Steven Sullivan… there are so many good crews, it’s hard to mention them all, but Sydney club life is definitely a lot more fun and inspiring with all these people in it. It’s the first-ever S.A.S.H Sleepout this year – what will the vibes be like at the weekend getaway? So excited! S.A.S.H is easily one of my favourite parties to play and so many people I love are involved so it’s going to be really fun to share this new experience together.
T
ell us about your sound – what kind of music do you produce? House! I like funky tech and house sounds with a deep groove. It can be fast or slow as long as I can groove to it. The stuff I’m making is an upbeat mixture of simple clean beats and basslines with some percussion and drums and creepy or abstract vocals. I’m a big fan of artists like Alex Fuente, Samu.l, Chris Lattner, Fredy & D’Joseph, Marco Carola and German Brigante.
Who inspires you to make the music you make? The artists above, and so many more. Who’s in your crew? My wifey and partner in crime Sam Francisco, Marc Jarvin, Robbie Lowe and Murat (Spice crew) are all guys I love and admire. The S.A.S.H crew are good friends and also people I look up to musically (Gabby, Matt Weir and Kerry Wallace). Gabby has been my homie for a long time and actually gave me a DJ
Who from the S.A.S.H Sleepout are you looking forward to seeing most? I’m excited to listen to some peeps I haven’t heard play before like Francis Harris, Sammy Dee and also some locals I don’t know. I’ve seen Nico Stojan, Nick Curly and of course, all my buddies mentioned above, so I know they have got the goods so I’m always pumped to see them again! What: S.A.S.H Sleepout With: Nick Curly, Nico Stojan, Rodriguez Jr, Sammy Dee, Francis Harris, Marc Poppcke and more Where: Hunter Valley When: Friday September 19 – Sunday September 21
Cosmo’s Midnight
CRITICAL SOUND
The Critical Music brand is touring three of its hot artists around the country this month: Kasra, Enei and Mefjus. Kasra created Critical Music in 2002 from a front room in North London, and it’s grown to be one of the most successful indie labels in the UK today. Enei, AKA Alexey Egorchenkov, got his taste for DnB as a youngster in St. Petersburg, while Mefjus hails from nearby Austria. The trio comes to World Bar on Wednesday September 17.
TIJUANA CARTEL
Tijuana Cartel’s latest offering, 24 Bit Guitar Orchestra, is a varied beast. Released this month through MGM, it’s a kaleidoscopic journey through heavy synth, world music beats and strapping guitar lines. The vocals this time are sparse, as Carey O’Sullivan explains: “We’ve let the music speak for itself on this one. There’s another almost locked up for early next year that brings Paul [George]’s vocals back into focus.” Their album launch tour will be a special experience, no doubt, and it takes in Oxford Art Factory on Thursday September 25. We’ve got two double passes to give away – for the chance to win one, head to thebrag. com/freeshit and tell us how you’d get to Tijuana if you had the chance.
plus locals Declan Esau, Daniel George and Grand Jete on support. Once again, it’s at a secret location, with no lockouts. For a taste of what’s to come, check out the sweet beats from Mantra Collective on FBi Radio, Fridays 1am-3am, or FBi Click, Tuesdays 6am and 6pm. And yes, it’s 100% BYO. The event is Saturday October 4 at an undisclosed location. Tickets are strictly presale from Pulse Radio.
VANFEST
Forbes Showgrounds will host Sydney party kids Bag Raiders and Van She this year as part of Vanfest. It’s shaping up as the biggest party ever seen in central west New South Wales, with acts covering the musical spectrum from indie-pop to dance and beyond. House duo Bag Raiders and fellow Sydney trio Van She will make the trip, after their announcements on the bill came in time for the tickets’ on-sale date. Nice one. Vanfest is on at the Forbes Showgrounds on Saturday December 6.
SLUMBERJACK PULLEN NO PUNCHES
In what’s got to be some sort of record, Detroit techno legend Stacey Pullen will return to our shores for the 15th time in 16 years this October. An innovator from the second wave of Detroit techno, Pullen is known for his signature atmospheric electronic sound and his lengthy experimental DJ sets. He’ll play at the Greenwood Hotel on Sunday October 5.
MANTRA COLLECTIVE
This October long weekend, Mantra Collective is back with its infamous warehouse experience. The regular parties have ignited a loyal following thanks to the brilliant atmosphere and music selection. Leading the way this time around are Mantra Collective DJs Aboutjack, Space Junk, Whitecat and Antoine Vice on headline duties
Perth duo Slumberjack have announced a run of tour dates on the back of their latest single, ‘Felon’. The release comes ahead of the pair’s debut EP, which cites influences from the likes of Skrillex and Timbaland. Slumberjack will play The Wall at World Bar on Wednesday September 24.
PAINT THE TOWN RED
Sydney’s biggest paint party is back this month, and we don’t mean the Colour Run. Home Nightclub is trucking in a few hundred litres of UV paint for the Homemade Paint Party on Saturday September 20, so dress tight and white and get prepped for a splash of fluoro. Catch Social Hooliganz and Cash Maraud, alongside Home’s regular residents spinning anthems, electro, trap, R&B, hip hop and house. Darling Harbour will never be the same.
Hau
OUIJA BEATS
Football, Feasts & Funerals. That’s the title of Hau’s latest mixtape, a tribute to his Tongan heritage and culture that’s pumping with homegrown beats. The Koolism frontman and voice of all things hip hop on triple j was born in Australia to Tongan parents, and his new mix includes original productions by the likes of Sensible J & Dutch, Ta-ku and Pro/Gram. Krystal Diola and Benny Hinn will support Hau’s launch gig at Play Bar on Saturday September 20.
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The debut Ouija Beats party will take over Luna Park for Halloween this year. Cosmo’s Midnight, Basenji, Panama, Northeast Party House, Willow Beats, Olympic Ayres, Twin Caverns, Astral People DJs and Moonbase Commander will be responsible for the ghouly tunes, as Sydney Harbour goes spooky for Halloween 2014. There’ll also be circus performers and plenty of Halloween spirit. Ouija Beats turns the Big Top, Luna Park into a haunted house on Friday October 31.
HAU MIXTAPE LAUNCH
thebrag.com
BRAG :: 579 :: 10:09:14 :: 35
John 00 Fleming The Doyen Of Trance By Denver Maxx
Off The Record Dance and Electronica with Tyson Wray
Ten Walls
O
ne of the most exciting emerging artists in the contemporary deep house scene, Ten Walls will make his Sydney debut this November. First rising to prominence in 2013 after dropping his Gotham EP on Berlin’s seminal Innervisions label (of which the title track was one of the most ubiquitous releases of the year), the Lithuanian’s two following EPs Requiem and Walking With Elephants have seen him go from strength to strength. He’ll be performing his live show at Oxford Art Factory on Friday November 14. Highly recommend.
J
ohn 00 Fleming is a certifi ed legend of the global trance scene. Growing up in the UK, he was at the forefront of the development of trance music from an underground dance abstraction to a full-blown mainstream genre. Having established his own trance label in 1998, J00F Recordings, Fleming grew with the genre and in 2014 is still a powerhouse on the scene, with his Global Trance Grooves podcast and his global tour playing eighthour-long J00F sets. Ahead of his Australian visit, Fleming begins by grappling with the fact that Australia was once behind in the development of dance. “There have been various changes since the early days of dance music,” he says. “I think there were multiple reasons why Australia and other territories were behind, because you had a physical product like a CD or mix compilations – [as a label] you could only hit certain territories at certain times because you only had certain stock and you could only handle the press and media [of a specifi c territory] at one time. So you would focus on Europe, then North America, then South America, then Australia – not necessarily in that order, but me running a label, that is how you would target it. “By the time you got to Australia, whether it was first or last, that predicted when that release would be getting played in clubs, on radio. And I think the music magazines worked in the same way, where they’d hit where they would sell the most first, and they’d dedicate the exports three to four months down the track, so that’s when you guys [in Australia] would get it.” Technology has allowed the tyranny of distance to be overcome, but it hasn’t all been for the better. “I felt years ago that Australia defi nitely mirrored the UK scene,” says Fleming, “but if you fast-forward to today, I think that you have a more generic scene; that is really sad. Everyone knows what is going on, up to date with Twitter, Facebook and mixes. I really miss that Melbourne used to have its own scene completely different to Sydney. In the UK, you had different scenes in the north and the south. Spain had its own great club culture. Belgium had its own scene. The east coast of the States was different to the west coast of the States, but now this generic EDM sound is huge – not that I am a fan of it. It is just this big mainstream sound that is around the world.”
36 :: BRAG :: 579 :: 10:09:14
“Say with techno, you had all these different fl avours – Richie Hawtin had his sound from Canada, North America, and then you had Dave Clarke, who had his sound that was from Europe, and then you had Carl Cox. If you mentioned a DJ’s name you could defi ne where that sound was born, and there was generally a story behind it, like [at] a club – this goes back to the Pump days when Pump took off and you had certain clubs in South London who were supporting it … You had the Northern Exposure nights that were Sasha and Digweed. You had Bristol sound. And that’s gone, which I feel is a sad thing.”
Speaking of Future Classic, Sydney lads Seekae will drop their third full-length album The Worry via the label this Friday September 12. If you can’t wait until then, Resident Advisor is hosting an exclusive
Tour rumours: I’m told that we can be expecting a visit from one of Detroit’s finest (and my personal all-time favourite producer) Kenny Dixon Jr. AKA Moodymann this summer, as well as the four-man DJ club collective Horse Meat Disco, while rising techno luminary Mary Velo is said to be making her debut voyage Down Under next month. Romanian DJ Raresh has been revealed as the selector for 78th edition in fabric’s CD mix series. His call-up follows mixes from his [a:rpia:r] label cohorts Petre Inspirescu (fabric 68) and Rhadoo (fabric 72). fabric 68 will feature tracks from the likes of Renato Figoli, Amir Alexander, Dilated Pupils and Andy Kolwes, and will be released on Monday October 20. Best releases this week: Dopplereffekt and Objekt have teamed up to release Hypnagogia on Life of Leisure, and Objekt’s B-side ‘Ganzfeld’ is arguably the best cut the Berliner has ever produced. Other highlights include DJ Fett Burger & Luca Lozano’s Hands of Doom (on Sex Tags UFO), Portable’s Sportable (on Perlon), Roman Flügel’s Happiness is Happening (on Dial) and Ital’s full-length release Endgame (on Planet Mu).
Seekae
However, Fleming is doing his bit to keep it real. His latest mix is with legendary UK DJ Guy J, and it’s a deeper brand of dance. “I have always played pretty deep, so if anything I am getting back to my roots and I am allowing myself to do that on the J00F edition tours that I am taking around the world, where I do extended sets. Because where I was struggling for a little while was that when EDM exploded I hadn’t changed what I did – I always played deep, but with this EDM thing everyone was playing fullpelt big room sounds. Even in my trance scene that I born and bred and I love, I was struggling to play alongside these guys who had taken the EDM route, so when I was playing alongside these guys they were just full-power radio tracks with vocals and big crescendos, and when I came on it would just go fl at. So I ended up having to play high-energy stuff to keep up with them, but then I was getting tagged as full-on psytrance which is only a small part of what I do musically, and the rest of that deep stuff was getting missed out.” In line with his mantra, Fleming promises to keep things fresh when he returns to Australia in November for Earthcore. “At Earthcore I will be feeding off the crowd and playing all the good music [I’ve] found,” he says, “maybe even as recently as that day.” What: Earthcore 2014 With: Hallucinogen, Shpongle, Boris Brejcha, Da Vinci Code and many more Where: Pyalong, Victoria When: Thursday November 27 – Monday December 1 And: Also appearing at Chinese Laundry, Saturday September 13
RECOMMENDED FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 19 DJ Dodger Stadium Goodgod Small Club
SUNDAY OCTOBER 5 Hernan Cattaneo Greenwood
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23 Stimming The Spice Cellar
SATURDAY FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20 OCTOBER 17 Butch Chinese Laundry
Peter van Hoesen The Imperial Hotel
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 28
FRIDAY OCTOBER 3
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 14
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 29
SATURDAY OCTOBER 4
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 22
Basenji Civic Underground
LXURY The Imperial Hotel
Ten Walls Oxford Art Factory
Powell The Imperial Hotel
OutsideIn Manning House, Sydney University
Âme TBA
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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It seems only appropriate at this juncture to ask Fleming if he is disregarding the muchlauded ‘Melbourne Sound’ – a phrasing of hard dance that has seen Will Sparks become an international superstar.
“That hard dance sound? I don’t think that it is unique to Melbourne,” Fleming says. “I can name you loads of cities where it is. I am aware of him [Sparks], and it’s not unique to him and it is not unique to Melbourne and that’s unfortunately where it’s gone wrong.
It’s been a while between drinks, but thankfully Future Classic’s all-night party Adult Disco is returning next month. Leading the charge behind the decks will be the UK’s LXURY. The South London DJ/producer first burst upon the scene in July last year with his debut track ‘J.A.W.S’, which was co-produced with Disclosure, and has since turned out remixes for the likes of Jungle, Chvrches and Hot Natured and released his Playground EP through European label legends Greco-Roman. It goes down on Saturday October 4 at the Imperial Hotel from 10pm until very, very late.
stream of the entire record all week. Top marks.
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club guide g send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com
club pick of the week Kanye West
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 12
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 13
Qantas Credit Union Arena
Kanye West + Pusha T WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 10 CLUB NIGHTS
Autoerotique Play Bar, Surry Hills. 6pm. free. DJ Tom Kelly Goldfish, Kings Cross. 9pm. free. The Wall World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. $5. Whip It Wednesdays Whaat Club, Kings Cross. 9pm. free.
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 11 HIP HOP & R&B
Free The Beats Venue 505, Surry Hills. 6pm. free. Joyride Lo-Fi, Darlinghurst. 6pm. free.
CLUB NIGHTS
EK 11.09 - feat: Ladyshave The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 7pm. free. Fear Of Dawn Goldfish, Kings Cross. 8pm. free. Full Up! - feat: Mikey Glamour + Nick Toth + Jimmy Sing + Prince Andrew + Guests Goodgod Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. free. Goldfish And Friends - feat: Regular Rotating Residents Goldfish, Kings Cross. 10pm. free. Hot Damn Spectrum, Darlinghurst. 9pm. $10. Loopy - feat: Drty Csh +
38 :: BRAG :: 579 : 10:09:14
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 12 HIP HOP & R&B
DT3 Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $11. Exile Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale. 9pm. free. Hustler Fridays - feat: MC Shaba Hustle & Flow, Redfern. 7pm. free. Kanye West + Pusha T Qantas Credit Union Arena, Darling Harbour. 7:30pm. $101.85.
CLUB NIGHTS
Argyle Fridays - feat: Resident DJs The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. free. Bassic - feat: Akouo + Promnite + Spenda C + Front 2 Back + Astrix + Sippy + Robustt Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. free. El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 10pm. free.
Masif Saturdays Space, Sydney. 10pm. $25. Pacha Sydney - feat: Ivan Gough + Jebu + Ben Morris + Baby Gee + Fingers + Nanna Does + Samrai + Danny Lang + Sushi + DJ Just 1 + Matt Nugent + Skoob + Devola + Dylan Sanders + Elroy + Trent Rackus + Pat Ward Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 6:30pm. $37.90. Sienna Saturdays - feat: Resident DJs The Establishment, Sydney. 9pm. free. Soda Party With Bianca Del Rio - feat: Mitzi Macintosh + Alex Taylor + Russ And Dan + Brendan Terry The Hi-Fi, Moore Park. 9pm. $17.90. Soda Saturdays - feat: Resident DJs Playing Disco And Funk Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 5pm. free. Spice 13.09 - feat: Ant J Steep Vs Murat Kilic + Steven Sullivan The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 10pm. $25.
The Establishment, Sydney. 8pm. free. S.A.S.H Sundays Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 2pm. $10. Sunday Sessions - feat: Cadell + Tom Kelly + Ocky Goldfish, Kings Cross. 4pm. free. Sunday Spice 14.09: Colour Sessions - feat: Robbie Lowe + Tim Culbert + Garth Linton + Rabbit Taxi + Tom Witheridge The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 9pm. free. Sundays In The City - feat: Various DJs The Slip Inn, Sydney. 12pm. free.
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 14
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 16
CLUB NIGHTS
La Fiesta - feat: Samantha Fox + Agee Ortiz + Av El Cubano + Resident DJ Willie Sabor
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 15 CLUB NIGHTS
Crab Racing Scubar, Sydney. 7pm. free. Mashup Monday - feat: Resident DJs Side Bar, Sydney. 8pm. free.
CLUB NIGHTS
Chu World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. free.
send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com
7:30pm. $101.85. Daschwood + Generous Greed + Guest DJs The Backroom, Kings Cross. 10pm. $12. Pool Club Thursdays - feat: Resident DJs Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 5pm. free. Soda Party With Bianca Del Rio - feat: Mitzi Macintosh + Kitty Glitter + Russ & Dan Arq Nightclub, Darlinghurst. 10pm. $25. The World Bar Thursdays World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. free.
Play Bar, Surry Hills. 6pm. free. Cakes - feat: 4 Rooms Of Live Music + DJs And International Guests World Bar, Kings Cross. 8pm. $10. Corrosion Monthly Goth Club Night - feat: DJ Xerstorkitte + Vodoo + Daze + More Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 9pm. $10. EC Twins 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. Infamous Saturdays - feat: Live DJs Scubar, Sydney. 7pm. free. Keinemusik Showcase Sydney - feat: Adam Port And &Me + Mantra Collective + Casting Out + Locus Cadre + Braille + Benji & Statz Imperial Hotel, Erskineville. 9pm. $30. Lndry - feat: John 00 Fleming + Mak & Pasteman + Luke Chable + Natnoiz + Set Mo + Fingers + DJ Just 1 + King Lee + Helena Ellis Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $32.80.
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. Goodwill Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $18.40. Loco Friday - feat: Various Live Bands And DJs The Slip Inn, Sydney. 5pm. free. Red Eddy + Jason H + Benny Hinn Play Bar, Surry Hills. 6pm. free. Soft&Slow 12.09 - feat: Adi Toohey + Andy Webb + James Cripps The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 10pm. $15. Tchami + Natnoiz + Nukewood + Eratik + Rossie Rocco + Bronx Soho Bar, Potts Point. 10pm. free. Thank Funk It’s Friday The Ranch, Eastwood. 9:30pm. free. Voodoo Sydney Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 8pm. $25.
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 12 DT3 Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $11. Goodwill Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $18.40. Soft&Slow 12.09 - Feat: Adi Toohey + Andy Webb + James Cripps The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 10pm. $15. Tchami + Natnoiz + Nukewood + Eratik + Rossie Rocco + Bronx Soho Bar, Potts Point. 10pm. Free.
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 13 C’man + Juzzlikedat Play Bar, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free.
Pacha Sydney - Feat: Ivan Gough + Jebu + Ben Morris + Baby Gee + Fingers + Nanna Does + Samrai + Danny Lang + Sushi + DJ Just 1 + Matt Nugent + Skoob + Devola + Dylan Sanders + Elroy + Trent Rackus + Pat Ward Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 6:30pm. $37.90. Soda Party With Bianca Del Rio - Feat: Bianca Del Rio + Mitzi Macintosh + Alex Taylor + Russ And Dan + Brendan Terry The Hi-Fi, Moore Park. 9pm. $17.90. Spice 13.09 - Feat: Ant J Steep Vs Murat Kilic + Steven Sullivan The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 10pm. $25.
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 14
EC Twins Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $28.60.
S.A.S.H Sundays Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 2pm. $10.
Lndry - Feat: John 00 Fleming + Mak & Pasteman + Luke Chable + Natnoiz + Set Mo + Fingers + Dj Just 1 + King Lee + Helena Ellis Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $32.80.
Sunday Spice 14.09: Colour Sessions - Feat: Robbie Lowe + Tim Culbert + Garth Linton + Rabbit Taxi + Tom Witheridge The Spice Cellar, Sydney. 9pm. Free. John 00 Fleming
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 13 HIP HOP & R&B
Def Manic + DJ Yannick Fbi Social, Kings Cross. 8pm. $15. Kanye West + Pusha T Qantas Credit Union Arena, Darling Harbour. 7:30pm. $101.85.
CLUB NIGHTS C’Man + Juzzlikedat
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live reviews
up all night out all week . . .
What we've been out to see...
Hordern Pavilion Friday September 5
A few years ago, the term ‘Aussie hip hop’ was enough to evoke fear in the heart of music’s cognoscenti, its early forms seeming to impersonate American counterparts with cringeworthy slang and an all-too-familiar ’Strayan drawl. But with the Hordern packed to the brim at this evening’s outset, hundreds of spectators occupying prime floor positions, it’s clear a lot has changed. The bill for Aussie hip hop top gun 360’s Utopia tour is promising, comprising local acts Miracle and Pez with a sprinkle of international flair in LA rapper Hopsin (whose appearance was the result of a successful social media campaign by 360 himself), and award-winning Englishman Lunar C. By the time Lunar C opens the show, there’s already a tangible buzz in the room. Miracle follows with another short set, his slick new cuts paving the way for Pez’s bangers that send the all-age audience nuts. Next up is Hopsin, who’s evidently chuffed at his appearance being demanded by 360’s devotees. So much so that he proceeds to crowd-surf one song in. Insisting he stand up on a crowd member’s shoulders for the second song, he spits out the typically
abrasive star-spangled bitches-and-hoes brand of hip hop, which in this lineup, sticks out like a sore thumb pointed downwards. “Holy shit, fools tryna kill me!” he shouts into the mic as an audience member grabs him in a headlock. Scrambling back onto the stage, he replaces the shoe he’s lost while his DJ awkwardly tries to provide some casual banter. “That’s the last time he comes to Australia,” I hear someone snicker behind me. To everyone’s relief, the man of the moment saves the day. Commanding the stage with the first track from Utopia, the middle-finger-to-haters ‘Still Rap’, 360’s flow is elevating and all present are ecstatically caught in it. Injecting old favourites like ‘Run Alone’ into fresh tracks from the new album (that everyone, evidently, already knows the lyrics to), ’60 catapults through his set, with Lunar C, Pez and Miracle joining him onstage for collaborative tracks and adding kerosene to the sonic fire. “When I started rapping, it wasn’t cool. If anyone tells you you can’t do something, tell them to suck a dick and fuck off!” he declares, to screams and fist pumps. Melburnian pop performer Gossling emerges to help close the show, with her sweet vocals on ‘Boys Like You’ intoxicating in the mix. 360’s tracks aren’t your standard feel-good fare; they’re more feel-invincible. Mina Kitsos
kilter
PICS :: KC
360, HOPSIN, PEZ, MIRACLE, LUNAR C, GOSSLING
05:09:14 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford St Darlinghurst 9332 3711
KE PHOTOGRAPHER :: KATRINA CLAR
Newtown Social Club Saturday September 6 Modular’s most promising talents Movement took to the stage at Newtown Social Club for the first of a string of soldout Australia shows. Hype for this Sydney outfit is at a crest right now, having just been added to Banks’ upcoming North American tour dates and, even more notably, the lineup for Pitchfork Music Festival in Paris. Vocalist Lewis Wade sounds incredible on the recordings – a deep, soulful husk over sparse beats in a marriage not unlike SBTRKT and Sampha. Comparatively though, Sampha’s voice is more delicate than Wade’s, and the incredible power in Wade’s vocals come through in a live setting. Using two microphones doused in reverb and delay, it’s clear why Movement have made such huge strides so quickly – Wade’s voice is one of the most special things in Australian music right now. The group’s nocturnal, sexual sound shimmered through the intimate Newtown Social Club; the minimal lighting and closeness of bodies giving the impression
that this could turn into an accidental 300-person orgy at any point. Singles ‘Us’ and ‘Like Lust’ were highlights, both the best-performed and received songs of the evening. The repetition of the lyric, “Could you come on over, when this feels like lust?” and the gorgeous build of layers and beats around it made for a really beautiful atmosphere in the room. An odd outlier in the night happened during the outro of Movement’s newest track, ‘Ivory’. The studio version has a guitar solo at the back of the mix, like a distant flurry that you could almost be imagining – but its live reincarnation was off key, out of time and overbearingly loud. It disappointingly snapped the crowd out of the cocoon of chill that the band had so successfully wrapped us in. Their live show still has creases that need ironing, but this seems to stem from the fact that they’ve blown up so quickly and they haven’t had time to craft their live set. Even so, it was a damn good performance off the back of the vocals alone. At the rate they’re going, Movement will soon be the country’s newest, biggest export. Raf Seneviratne
INA CLA RKE :: AMATH S :: JAM ES AMB ROS E :: KATR OUR LOV ELY PHO TOG RAP HER :: MAR LEY MAG NAN :: ASH
thebrag.com
yum yum
PICS :: KC
MOVEMENT
05:09:14 :: Play Bar :: 72 Campbell St, Surry Hills 9280 0885 BRAG :: 579 :: 10:09:14 :: 39
“electric elements presents”
Hand That MC A Mic #4 Electric Elements / Sleepwalkers / Beastside / Decypher Us / CASA and Jae Moon
Friday October 3rd Doors at 8pm Brighton Up Bar 77 Oxford St Darlinghurst Tickets $10
PLUS the 6 winning MC's - Azza D / Common Class / Lukey Towers / Hades / Risby Raps / Wilso MC www.facebook.com/electricelements Tickets available from www.gobookem.com 40 :: BRAG :: 579 :: 10:09:14
BRAG :: 579 :: 10:09:14 :: 41
snap up all night out all week . . .
party profile
SNAPBACK spring break
It’s called: SNAPBACK Spring Break It sounds like: If Iggy and Azealia didn’t have beef, and played B2B sets. Acts: Astrix, Fingertips, DJ Lou Lou.
Three songs you’ll hear on the night: Quee nB Jackson – ‘If I Was Your Girl’ (Kaytranada remix – ‘Drunk In Love’, Janet ), and all of Drake. And one you definitely won’t: ‘Khe Sanh’. Sell it to us: Chill vibes, good music and friend s. Exactly what you need midweek. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: That spont aneous twerk battle around 11:30. Crowd specs: Newtown queer, uni kids, a little bit of everything. Wallet damage: Free entry, $5 voddies 8-10p m, $5 Schnapback shots all night. Where: Newtown Hotel When: Wednesday September 24
PICS :: AMT
samual james + zac waters
PICS :: JA
rave of thrones
s.a.s.h sundays
03:09:14 :: Beach Road Hotel :: 71 Beach Rd Bondi Beach 9130 7247 42 :: BRAG :: 579 :: 10:09:14
PICS :: AM
06:09:14 :: Marquee :: The Star Sydney Pyrmont 9657 7737
07:09:14 :: Home :: 101/1-5 Wheat Rd Darling Harbour 9266 0600 INA CLA RKE :: AMATH S :: JAM ES AMB ROS E :: KATR OUR LOV ELY PHO TOG RAP HER :: MAR LEY MAG NAN :: ASH
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