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BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10 :: 3
SIDESHOWS
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New album THE RUNAWAY Out July on Heavenly/Cooperative MY BEST FRIEND IS YOU out now on UMA www.getmusic.com.au/katenash
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4 :: BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10
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rock music news
welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on, down and around town. By Nathan Jolly
he said she said WITH
NAT FROM THE BANK HOLIDAYS (WA)
M
y mum went to Fleetwood Mac, ELO, Bob Dylan and Lou Reed shows with me in utero - so they were my pre-birth musical experiences. My parents never really played instruments, but they were teenagers in the 1970s so I grew up with a lot of late-70s music around. As a kid I loved Elton John’s early records. When I was nine years old my dad and I went to see Elton John with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Perth Entertainment Centre. The show was awesome - we went to see Billy Joel the next year at the same venue... Counting all my dad’s Bruce Springsteen LPs, or just looking at the albums and reading the covers - there are a lot of childhood memories that come to mind. I was really frightened of listening to Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ as a six year old, due to the scary Vincent Price monologue and maniacal laugh that closes the
song. I once ran of the house when that came on. Even though I play guitar, my favourite musicians are drummers or songwriters. Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips, his drumming on The Soft Bulletin is incredible. The first time I heard ‘Race For The Prize’ I lost my mind, and still do every time I hear it… I could talk about drummers all day. Aside from the drummers, I wish I could sing like Colin Blunstone of The Zombies. His voice is a marvel. James and I have been friends since we were young kids, for over 20 years. We’ve been through a lot of music and general life in that time, so we understand each-other pretty well. That’s handy, as we write the majority of the songs and can be stubborn about how they should turn out. Bekk and James are married, so they have a certain special relationship too! We have a strong commitment to making our own merchandise and staging, so when Stuart joined us three years ago to play drums, he earned his stripes by crafting massive stage decorations for a show we were doing at the time. From that point, he instantly became part of the gang.
ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant GRAPHIC DESIGN: Bye-rina Belova SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER: Tim Levy SNAP PHOTOGRAPHERS: Ashley Mar, Sofii McKenzie, Rosette Rouhana, Daniel Munns, Patrick Stevenson, Jeremy Bowring, Julian De Lorenzo, Renee Rushbrook Jacquie Manning COVER DESIGN: Sarah Bryant
Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this address 153 Bridge Road, Glebe NSW 2037 ph - (02) 9552 6333 fax - (02) 9552 6866 EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Publisher, Editor or Staff of The Brag. ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Stephen Forde : accounts@furstmedia.com.au ph - (03) 9428 3600 fax - (03) 9428 3611 Furst Media, 3 Newton Street Richmond Victoria 3121 DEADLINES: Editorial Wednesday 12pm (no extensions) Art Work, Ad Bookings Thursday 12pm (no extensions) Ad Cancellations Tuesday 4pm Published by Cartrage P/L ACN 104026388 All content copyrighted to Cartrage 2003 DISTRIBUTION: Wanna get The Brag? email distribution@furstmedia.com.au or ph 03 9428 3600. PRINTED BY SPOTPRESS: www.spotpress.com.au 24 – 26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville NSW 2204
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Who: The Bank Holidays What: Sail Becomes A Kite is out this week on Lost & Lonesome
BEN FOLDS FT. HORNBY
EDITOR: Steph Harmon steph@thebrag.com 9552 6333 ARTS EDITOR & ASSOCIATE: Dee Jefferson dee@thebrag.com 9552 6333 STAFF WRITER: Jake Stone jake@thebrag.com NEWS CO-ORDINATORS: Chris Murray, Chris Honnery
REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Joshua Blackman, Mikey Carr, Bridie Connell, Bridie Connellan, Oliver Downes, Tony Edwards, Christie Eliezer, Murray Engleheart, Chris Familton, Lucy Fokkema, Mike Gee, Alice Hart, Kate Hennessy, Chris Honnery, Nathan Jolly, Amelia Schmidt, Romi Scodellaro, Xanthe Seacret, Jonno Seidler, RK, Luke Telford, Caitlin Welsh, Beth Wilson, Alex Young
Over in Perth there are a bunch of great bands going around that have yet to get their dues outside of Western Australia. 6s & 7s have just released their debut album, which has been many years in the making, and deserves to be heard by a lot of ears. We need more smaller venues that can comfortably hold less than 200 people. That’s a really important thing for bands who’re just starting out - and more intimate experiences often make for more enjoyable shows.
in June, and now that you’ve all had time to absorb it, they’re taking it on the road to blast it at you from a short distance. The band hit Sydney on August 8, where they will play the Vanguard with Shady Lane and The Winter People. And when pretty singer Sarah-Jane Wentzk glances in your general direction during the set, she is definitely checking you out.
PUBLISHERS: Adam Zammit & Rob Furst EDITOR IN CHIEF: Adam Zammit 9552 6333 adam@peergroupmedia.com
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The basics of the album were recorded at the ABC Studios in Perth, in a huge wooden room with fantastic sound. Everything sounded huge and spacious in there, which really influenced the direction that the new album took. We often get slapped with a 1960s tag, which can be attributed to our vocal harmonies, but I think our sound has slowly moved away from that since our first two EPs. To my ears, the new album sounds closer to something like Fleet Foxes than it does The Beatles.
Parades
HAPPY BOAFDAY
Oxford Art Factory has been home to loads of incredible parties over the past three years. And while we aren’t suggesting that their 3rd birthday party on August 20 will top that time Lady GaGa performed, or that other party you are thinking of, it will definitely top both of those occasions. What. The lineup itself is enough to celebrate, with Parades, Howl, Guineafowl, Circle Pit, Traps, The Joysticks, Rapids, Whipped Cream Chargers, Sticky Fingers, La Mancha Negra, Puta Madre Brothers, Mother & Son and Dark Bells all playing sets, so the fact that entry is free should be enough for you to get up from your seat/stool/bean bag and do a heel-click… Nice heel-click, you guys!
[V]EMPER [V]RAP
The Vines, The Go-Betweens, The Birthday Party, The Strokes, The White Stripes… The Temper Trap are in good company when it comes to bands who need to break in the UK before their homeland will give them the time of day. Now they’re back in Australia and playing Sydney Town Hall as part of an exclusive event for Channel [V]. It’s on Monday July 26 and if you haven’t seen them live get in before they blow up huge. Oh wait…
SALLY SELTMANN LAUNCH
Sally Seltmann is another one of those artists that gets critical acclaim tossed at any utterance she releases on record. Luckily (for the critics’ reputations), everything she releases is worthy of praise. Her latest album Heart That’s Pounding is being launched Friday July 23 at Oxford Art Factory, and Parades and Kyu are playing as well – because you need at least three or more killer acts in order to justify your time away from World Of Warcraft.
BUCK COMES BACK
Despite having a name that sounds like a ska-punk band who’d feature on the Can’t Hardly Wait soundtrack, Buck 65 has carved out a twenty-year career in the international world of wordy-nerdy-rap-meets-hip-hopmeets-roots-meets-Tom Waits - and he’s
Ben Folds is awesome. Fact. The reason I’m reminding you of this fact is that he has just collaborated on an album with Nick Hornby, writer of About A Boy, Hi- Fidelity, and the paedo classic An Education. Folds sings and provides the music while Hornby brings da wordz (no doubt how Folds described the collaboration). They also got Paul Buckmaster to arrange the strings, and seeing he’s responsible for the orchestration on albums by Bowie and Elton John, we’re pretty sure this is going to be amazing. Folds also recorded on 2-inch tape and specified that this project (Lonely Avenue) is meant to be listened to only on vinyl. It comes out September 24 on glorious vinyl, tacky CD, and embarrassing digital. True lovers can get the deluxe edition, which features four short stories by Hornby…
releasing a series of digital mini albums called 20 Odd Years to celebrate each one of them. He came here a few years ago and did a spine-tingling version of ‘The Floor’ – lets hope he does it again when he plays the Factory Theatre on September 17.
OLD MAN RIVER
Old Man River first came on to my musical radar as a member of Nations By The River, which featured Luke Steele, those two Gelbison lads, and a guy by the name of Old Man River. The album sold about a dozen copies despite featuring some great tunes, and Old Man River retreated in anger and vowed to never speak to anyone about the project again [citation needed]. I guess what I’m trying to say is that Old Man River is releasing his second album Trust on August 13, and will play you some songs when he supports Basement Birds (another supergroup – see? it all comes full circle) August 20 at the Enmore.
PRINCESS ONE POINT FIVE
What happened to the good old days when artists waited five years to release a mediocre ten-song follow-up to an album they’d been touring for three years? Well, those good old days sucked, and Princess One Point Five agree. They are way too young to be onto their fourth album already, but time makes fools of us all. What Doesn’t Kill You came out
Cabins
CABIN FEVER
Cabins and Step-Panther are two of the best Sydney bands around these days, so it was a slice of good fortune to find that rather then leave my bedroom on two separate occasions to catch each band, I could cram all of my awkward stilted socialising into one daunting evening August 20 at Melt Bar, Sydney. The night is the kick-off of Cabins’ very first east coast headline tour, which is happening in support of their debut “mini-album” Bright Victory - less songs than a standard album but more than an EP, okay?
GIG OF THE WEEK
HALFWAY CROOKS
That's right! It's been two months since the last one and since then CAPTAIN FRANCO, LEVINS and SPRUCE LEE have been bed ridden in preparation for the next HALFWAY CROOKS at Phoenix! OK, we lie. Franco has been hitting the gym three times a week for some tight medicine ball workouts, Spruce has sold three of his seven helicopters on eBay and Levins has come up with this mathematical equation: Rap + DJs x nice crowd breakdancing = Halfway Crooks Come and be a part of the equation! We invite you! HALFWAY CROOKS Captain Franco Levins Spruce Lee Saturday 24 July - 10pm
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BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10 :: 7
rock music news
free stuff
welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on, down and around town. By Nathan Jolly
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM
five things WITH
GLENN AND JODIE FROM COLLEGE FALL
Growing Up [Glenn]: I remember my 1. sister playing me ‘Freak Scene’
Australia, developed through an appreciation of the American indie movement and a passion for writing gritty, heart-on-yoursleeve songs. [Jodie]: We make indie pop. Our live show is a four piece with biting guitars and dual vocals. My voice is girly sweet and Musto’s is dark and angsty. We sometimes tell weird and humorous folklore stories at shows.
by Dinosaur Jr when I was about ten years old. It was at that moment I knew I wanted to spend my life writing songs with that kind of emotional honesty. [Jodie]: I loved music when I was little. I remember watching a Disney movie with a Diana Ross song that rolled over the end credits, and I loved it so much I rewound it almost a hundred times to listen to it over and over. It was VHS of course, so it took forever. Didn’t stop me though… Inspirations [Glenn]: I am a massive 2. fan of Guided By Voices. Their ideas have always perfectly blended great pop and unique delivery. I just love how they had put out about eight albums before anyone had ever heard of them. They always did whatever they wanted with their music, and never really cared about who liked it. I love the purity in that. [Jodie]: Right now I’m massively inspired by a guy named William Fitzsimmons. I love the honesty and pain in his songs. Emotion is what I love in music - I aspire to write songs as devastatingly beautiful as he does.
3.
Your Band [Glenn]: Jodie Lee and I come from
quite different places musically, but we found a real connection with our love of writing honest and emotional songs. I wish it was all we did with our lives, but unfortunately I have to don the occasional monkey suit to keep the wolves away. [Jodie]: College Fall is our band, Glenn Musto and myself. We met over the phone when he asked me to audition for his previous band, Showbag. I got the gig and here we are still writing songs together, eight years later. The Music You Make [Glenn]: Our sound emanates from our 4. roots on the western wastelands of outback
BRIAN GERSHWIN
Philadelphia Grand Jury
PHILLIES GO SURFING
Remember when Frente played at the Summer Bay Surf Club? It was when Shane met Angel! A similar thing might happen on Saturday July 24 at the Beach Road Hotel, when Philadephia Grand Jury and Ernest Ellis play. It only costs $15, which means it is likely to sell out quickly - and the Purple Sneakers DJs will be playing tunes too, in case you are the type that needs constant entertainment… Which, let’s face it, you are.
HERE WE GO INSTORE
Well, Friday night was a bust. We weren’t allowed in the Townie, Zanzibar was, well, Zanzibar - and Kelly’s karaoke was too depressing to imagine. Luckily in a few hours Red Eye Records will rescue our weekend by hosting Here We Go Magic in an amazing free all-ages instore. (Assuming of course it’s exactly a few hours until 2pm on July 24 when you read this...) If you haven’t gotten tickets to Grizzly Bear, this is your only chance to see ‘Magic in Sydney. If it ain’t baroque…
Anonymity is a great thing. It allows people all around the Internet to share, share and overshare
Former front man of The Verve, Richard Ashcroft has returned with an even more stadium arena-friendly sound than ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ – probably the best song to accompany footage of slowmotion running, period. Ashcroft and his distinctive larynx have been aided in their comeback by the bombastically, epically named backing band, The United Nations Of Sound. After a brief solo stint, Ashcroft is part of a band again, and this album shows the Verve singer pushing himself creatively through a myriad of genres whilst still reminding us of that nostalgic, heartstring-tugging Verve-esque sound. To win one of five copies of RPA & The United Nations Of Sound , tell us the name of one of Ashcroft’s solo albums.
Music, Right Here, Right Now 5. [Glenn]: What’s not to love
- anything from sex stories (see Confessions Of A Call Girl) to how anything that isn’t the b-side to a limited edition 7” is shit (see Mess and Noise). Mindy Sotiri is willing to lay it all down on the line and put a face to it too, with the release of her latest album Divorce Songs and its launch at the Sandringham on July 25. The record melds romance with child-rearing, fighting with sleep deprivation and chronicles the break-down of her marriage in a way that’s tender, stark and honest, and not at all as hilarious as The Break Up.
TRUE WIFE CONFESSIONS
RPA & THE UNITED NATIONS OF SOUND
I have heard, over the years, Brian Wilson describe Pet Sounds, ‘Good Vibrations’, the intro to ‘Californian Girls’ AND SMiLE as “the most spiritual project” he has ever worked on. Now there is a fifth contender, and while it doesn’t reach the dizzying heights of Mike Love’s solo outing Looking Back With Love, Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin is still an amazing meeting of minds. While he didn’t put his piano in a sandpit or live in a giant tent in his living room during the recording, he has nonetheless managed to harness his genius and tastefully record some Gershwin classics. He’s also written two new songs based on melody extracts left over from when Gershwin so selfishly died. Out August 27.
EVERETT TRUE SUPPORTS KATE NASH
about being a musician right now? It’s so much easier to ply your own trade, and travel around the world with your music. All you need is a little motivation, and a computer. [Jodie]: There are some really good Aussie bands around - I saw two good friends, Chuck Jenkins and Sam Buckhingham, last year at the Vanguard in Newtown. Both great shows, and the venue is just beautiful too. Who: College Fall What: The Curse Of Us is out now through Varsity Where: Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills When: Friday July 23
AMANDA PALMER, RADIOHEAD AND A UKULELE
Amanda Palmer always reminds me of Twin Peaks, which is due to both the Palmer in her name, and her debut album title - Who Killed Amanda Palmer. Her work with Dresden Dolls has shown that she is slightly odway - an assumption furthered by the online release on July 20 of her EP, Amanda Palmer Performs The Popular Hits Of Radiohead On Her Magical Ukulele. Those of you who haven’t already flung BRAG into a corner and raced to your computer can give the EP a taste by streaming Idioteque from amandapalmer.net or by purchasing the track for 50c. That’s that price of a Fizzer (confectionary prices accurate at time of publication).
SOHO RIGHT NOW
Grunge-plunderers Violent Soho should call their album From Brisbane to Brooklyn in honour of their geographical climb, but instead they insist on keeping the self-titled thing going. They’re playing on Friday July 23 at the Annandale, with Scul Hazzards and Butcher Birds - a very well-suited bill. Catch them before grunge is big again, so you can be that guy. Bleach isn’t better.
Richard Ashcroft
SIRENS OF VENICE
Gersey recently re-formed to play a series of supports with Pavement, who are officially the greatest band of all time ever. But this reformation will be far from front-man Craig Jackson’s mind as he releases the self-titled debut from his new project, The Sirens Of Venice. The group started as a songwriting project between him and his wife Camilla, before expanding into an eight-piece juggernaut (see: Arcade Fire). They’re playing their album launch at Spectrum this Saturday July 24… Hop to.
STOP! HANLON-TIME.
Ever since Falling Aeroplanes beamed in from space, Darren Hanlon has been widely known as one of the most charming and affable singer/ songwriters in the country. This may change upon the release and subsequent fawning over his fourth album I Will Love You At All, which is sure to set off an ego-explosion resulting in a career-destroying triple-disc concept album... Right? Until then, you can catch him August 13 at The Factory. Support is the lovely Shelley Short who, if you haven’t heard yet, you really should Google. Or MySpace. Or Encarta.
Tame Impala
Rock journalist Everett True once wheeled Cobain out in a wheelchair at a packed out Reading Festival in one of the truly iconic moments of the flannelette-riddled ‘90s. Nowadays he lives in Brisbane and writes (and does) pretty much what he damn well pleases. Recently, he’s formed a group named The Thin Kids and has nabbed himself a Kate Nash support. August 5 at the Metro Theatre should prove very interesting for this reason… Will any reviewers dare to pan them? Stay tuned.
PROGFEST
July 31 is the one day this year where you can wear that tie-dyed shirt with the vulture/snake/ eagle on it in public and not only will you not get ridiculed, but you won’t even be the most ridiculously attired person in your vicinity. For Progfest hits the Annandale Hotel on that very day, and from 1pm all traditional song structures will be thrown to the wind as we set sail on a sea of excess. Eleven hours of prog (which amounts to about twelve songs by my calculations) will be provided by Breaking Orbit, Ne Obliviscaris, Sleepmakeswaves, Shanghai, Pirate, A State of Flux and Anubis and plenty more. Tickets available now from the venue.
TAME IMPALA TOUR
Fresh from their US jaunt supporting MGMT, where I am quite sure they amassed a large number of new appreciators of their bombed out-take on psych, Tame Impala have announced a national tour this October. Bam! BAM!
“Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.” - ORSON WELLES 8 :: BRAG :: 371 : 19:07:10
BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10 :: 9
free stuff
dance music news welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... With Chris Honnery onthefly.com.au
PROGFEST
five things WITH TEN THOUSAND Growing Up I used to collect images of Fred 1. Durst in a word document that had a title page filled with word art. The document was password protected and locked in a password protected .zip file which I kept on a floppy disc – as was done at the time – in a small draw, the lower of the two that sat on the right-hand-side of my desk. Every time I used the Internet, browsing various Limp Bizkit related websites, I would expand the collection. The floppy discs eventually filled the draw and I decided enough was enough. I moved them into a box in my wardrobe and moved on with my life. Inspirations There are lots of people who inspired 2. me to write the music I currently write. There are the Australian chipmusic titans like little-scale, cTrix, Dot.AY, Derris-Kharlan and so on, and international chipmusic legends too numerous to mention. Then there are the Sydney locals that make all the difference, like Emergency! Emergency!, Simo Soo, Totally Unicorn, Yeah Bears! and every band that spawned from or near them… Your Band The band is just me, and it’s not 3. very good. Literally, it’s a Nintendo Game Boy, a microphone and a fucking terrible pseudonym. Think Fred Durst with a Game Boy instead of a backing band. Then think of a singer that is a bit more harsh on the ears and prettier in the face than Durst
Röyksopp
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM
FREE MEN & THEIR FAMILIES
(seriously, have a gander at the guy’s Wikipedia page). I find being in a band by yourself means you can do whatever the fuck you want to do. You can change tack and not ruffle feathers. On the down side, the weight of bringing people to shows is all on you. PLEASE COME TO MY SHOWS. The Music You Make To try and describe what I do, I 4. would generally steer people to YouTube
Probably our favourite part about progressive music and progressive bands would be their progressive names, and this Saturday’s Progfest at The Annandale Hotel does not disappoint. The bands on the line-up include Breaking Orbit, Ne Obliviscaris, Sleepmakeswaves, Shanghai, Pirate, A State of Flux, Anubis, Arcane, Space Project, Paradigm, Slimey Things, Godswounds and Mish; wicked names, wicked names. These are bands that don’t just think outside the square – they think outside the dodecahedron. We have five double passes to give away to this 11-hour prog marathon on July 31, to win just tell us the name of a song on Breaking Orbit’s MySpace.
to have a look. But in words, I guess I yell over a Game Boy backing track that I pre-programmed. There is energy, lots of cussin’ and I tend to single out people in the audience and make them feel very uncomfortable. Somehow my live shows go for about three times as long as the sum total of my music, so I guess I am as fit as a cop. I’ve haemorrhaged two EPs in half a year – MKE OR BRK and Another – which are pretty-well mirror images of each other. If you want to have a listen, it is easy - just head to my website and download a low quality version, or buy it if you’re not a cheap motherfucker.
Breaking Orbit
Music, Right Here, Right Now Man, there are a few great people 5. pushing experimental and abrasive music. There are some warehouse venues that are really supportive, as are all the people that go to them. The Birds Robe crew also push really hard to get people coming to interesting shows; I think they’re making something of Sydney, and it’s great to be a part of it.
RÖYKSOPP RETURN
Norwegian duo Röyksopp will release a new album, Senior, in September - a follow-up to 2009’s Junior.The entirely instrumental LP is more introspective and free form than its poppier antecedent, and is described by the pair as follows: “The two albums have a kinship, in that they represent Röyksopp’s two very different artistic expressions. Junior - with emphasis on vocals, accessible melodies and harmonies, has the energy, the inquisitive temper and confident ‘heyho, let’s go!’ attitude of youth, whereas Senior is the introverted, dwelling and sometimes graceful counterpart, brimful with dark secrets and distorted memories, insisting ‘I’m old, I’ve got experience...’ Senior is furthermore an album about age, horses and being subdued - with devils breathing down your neck.” Give me the serious Röyksopp of their debut LP over their more exuberant ‘younger’ side any day… now, how about an Australia tour please, fellas?
Who: Ten Thousand Free Men & Their Families What: Another EP is out July 24 Where: Find out from 10kfreemen.com When: Saturday July 24
Manuva and his Big Dada label prior to the release of Manuva’s Slime & Reason album, to see if he could craft a dub version of the lead single, ‘Buff Nuff’. The label were so taken by what they heard that they commissioned a series of mixes that became the bonus disc for the limited edition version of Slime & Reason. The responses were overwhelmingly positive – especially from the always-excitable Tony E – so Big Dada asked Tom if he would be up for expanding the work into a full album. Thus ends the fable of Roots Manuva meets WrongTom…
SPICE
Sydney after-hours institution Spice rolls on this Sunday morning with local tech ‘enfants terribles’ (it was Bastilles Day at the time of writing!) Diatribe throwing down in the aptly named, windowless new area, ‘The Black Box’. Having showcased a fusion of tribal, minimal and psychedelic pop cuts on their most recent outing supporting Stephan Bodzin, Diatribe will continue down the yellow-brick road of 4/4 obscurity while local favourite Robbie Lowe and Beef Records’ Schwa spin up on the terrace. The beats commence at 5am at Home Nightclub, making this a test of moral fortitude – but one worth the sacrifice!
GENERIC PARTY MAD RACKET
Iconic club brand Mad Racket will once again take over Marrickville Bowling Club on Saturday July 31 with an all-local, circusthemed bash. Ha Ha’s Dean Dixon and Dave Fernandes will be joining resident DJs Zootie, Jimmi James, Ken Cloud and Simon Caldwell in disco mode, with the Ha Ha lads given a welcome headline slot having mainly warmed up for internationals over the years. Tickets can be procured for $25 from the ever-reliable Murphdog at his quirky bazaar on Bourke Street, Spank Records.
KANO
UK rapper Kano steps it up with his impending fourth album, Method to the Madness. Out in September, the release features an illustrious cast of guests, including self-aware party boy Wiley, Hot Chip, Chase & Status, Boys Noize, Vybz Kartel, Diplo and Damon Albarn. Sonically, Method to the Madness is built on hip-hop foundations and incorporates dancehall, grime and synthetic, electronic sounds throughout, shaping it as a crossover hit – surely the kiss of death, I know! The album will be preceded by the release of the single ‘Upside’, due for release on August 23.
INDEX
Montreal’s Scott Monteith, aka Deadbeat, headlines the next Index - a bash dedicated to the intersection between dubstep and techno - at Phoenix Bar this Friday. Monteith has chalked up productions on Mathew Jonson’s Wagon Repair label, and played back-to-back with Rusko on his last tour of Australia. This time around Monteith will be solo behind the decks, fresh from purportedly ‘destroying it’ at Canadian electronic showcase Mutek. Doors open at 10pm.
ROOTS MANUVA VS WRONGTOM
A ‘new’ Roots Manuva album, Roots Manuva meets WrongTom, will be released in September, complete with artwork from Tony McDermott, the man responsible for the illustrations on Greensleeves classics by Mad Professor and the famous Carnival of Reggae 12” sleeve. The album is largely a series of re-works by WrongTom, whose previous credits includes work for Lynval Golding’s Pama International, Trojan Records and his ‘Staines homeboys’ HardFi. Apparently WrongTom approached Roots
After a raucous birthday bash with special guests Renaissance Man last month, the Generic Collective return to Oxford Art Factory this Friday July 23. Melbournian bass duo Slap & Dash, who have released on the Scattermusic label, will be performing a live four-turntable, two-mixer set. Not to be outdone, Sydney stalwart and Soul Sedation pinup Wax Motif will be representing the local crew along with the Generic residents, who’ll be jumping from hip-hop to techno and dubstep with insidious irreverence. Entry is a mere $15 on the door.
FERRY DROPS OLYMPIA
Why do I have a bad feeling about this? One of the all-time greats, lothario crooner Brian Ferry of Roxy Music fame, will release a new album Olympia through Virgin Records in October. The LP features eight new songs, including Ferry’s adaptation of Tim Buckley’s ‘Song To the Siren’ and a version of Traffic’s ‘No Face, No Name, No Number’, along with collaborations with The Scissor Sisters and the previously released ‘Shameless’ with Groove Armada. Olympia also contains tracks that Ferry aficionados cynically describe as “7-year-old rejects” such as ‘You Can Dance’ and ‘Alphaville’. Despite statements in the press to the contrary, this doesn’t look like ‘Ferry’s dance album’; rather, I fear the worst prog rock!
Anonymeye
NEW WEIRD AUSTRALIA
Stuart Buchanan’s emerging label New Weird Australia presents the next event in its 2010 series this Friday at the Red Rattler in Marrickville with performances from five experimental Australian groups. Renowned folk-influenced Brisbane musician Anonymeye will be taking to the stage along with Perth duo Erasers, who explore primitive and tribal beats in their music. Ambrose Chapel, Textile Audio and TR-I0 will also be playing, but rather than continuing to attempt to clumsily describe the obscure sounds of each of these acts I instead suggest you head online to newweirdaustralia. bandcamp.com, where you can download a free five-track EP featuring all artists from the show, to get a better idea of what they’re about. Entry is $10 on the door.
“My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people.” - ORSON WELLES 10 :: BRAG :: 371 : 19:07:10
TIM ROGERS
‘SALIGA’ SONGS FROM
July 28-31 The Studio Tickets from $39* A piercing treatise on the seven deadly sins, with You Am I’s frontman joined by a seven-piece band with juicy tales from the rock’n’roll morass. Saligia is a group of sinfully seductive songs written by Tim and his accomplice, Melanie Robinson.
THE MIDDLE August 1 Playhouse Tickets from $49* The multi-talented Eddie Perfect is joined by the ever-innovative Brodsky Quartet and musicians from The Australian National Academy of Music - with a cycle of songs about growing up in middle class Mentone.
* TRANSACTION FEE OF $5–$8.50 APPLIES TO ALL BOOKINGS
02 9250 7777 SYDNEYOPERAHOUSE.COM
HOUSE CABARET/ /OLD SCHOOL TO NEW COOL. BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10 :: 11
dance music news
free stuff
welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... With Chris Honnery onthefly.com.au
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM Scuba
he said she said WITH
DJ CASSETTE
that really helped foster my love for music and rhythm from a young age. I’m most inspired by artists making the music I love to listen to and play out at clubs and festivals. Some of my favourite acts and producers at the moment are Riva Starr, Sound Pellegrino, Renaissance Man, Mastic Soul, Fake Blood, Douster, Mowgli, MJ Cole, Solo, Drop the Lime, A-Trak, Round Table Knights, The XX, Tensnake and Classixx. In one of my sets you could hear a number of different genres: house ,techno, hip hop, UK funky, samba and disco, all usually with a contagious funky bassline and tropical vibe. Any and all of the artists I mentioned above would get a look in. I’m currently working on some of my own remixes and edits as well as finishing up two new mixtapes. One is a straight up club mix called Express Train To Peak Hour, with all of my current favourite club tracks. The other is a more mellow disco-electronica mix called Who’s Going To The Afterparty? - where you’ll hear everything from Classixx, The Twelves and Tensnake to Talking Heads and Harry Belafonte. ENJOY!
M
y mom was really into a lot of old rock, jazz, soul and funk – which has resonated with me to this day. Billy Withers, Harry Belafonte, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, Boz Scaggs, Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and many more… She also encouraged me to learn ballet & dance – which I stuck with for at least twelve years. I think
A lot of the people I met through working at Fuzzy, onthefly and FBi radio inspired me to start DJing. Many still remain great friends, and I’m proud to say I feel a nice camaraderie and mutual respect with most of the DJs and a lot of promoters I know in Sydney. We all love music and work a small circuit, so we run into
Lady Chann
each other and party together often. Some of my first DJ gigs were with my homeboys/girls Kato, Levins, Hoops, Jimmy Sing, Tha Fizz, Ro Sham Bo, Magic Happens, Kali (Picnic), Anna Lunoe and Spruce Lee (now Toni Toni Lee). All these guys still remain close friends, and have been behind the success of some of my favourite parties like Wham! @ World Bar, United Colours, Goodgod Small Club and many more. Recently, I’ve also begun gigging & collaborating with DJ Gabby under the alias LADYLOVE, which has been really fun. Watch this space! I think Sydney has so many talented producers emerging at the moment. It’s really exciting. Acts like DCUP, Cassian, Yolanda Be Cool, Wax Motif, Act Yo Age, Flight Facilities and Toni Toni Lee are all making some great stuff. I’m as inspired by all these guys as much as anyone from overseas. I’m also really excited about the growth of Aussie record labels: Sweat It Out, Future Classic, Yes Yes Records, Bang Gang 12” and Scattermusic are all releasing great stuff. A lot of people complain about the lack of diversity in Sydney’s club scene, but there’s a real energy running through Sydney that you just don’t get in a lot of other places. People love to party and aren’t afraid to dance! Who: DJ Cassette Where: Wham! @ World bar When: Saturday 24 July
SCUBA
Dubstep emperor Paul Rose (a.k.a Scuba) is the curator of esteemed label Hotflush Recordings – a label that has moulded and pioneered the past, present and future of dancefloor-friendly music, and churned out some of the most original and dynamic electronic acts, including Joy Orbison, Ramadanman, Mount Kimbie, Untold... Enough about his label pals though; Scuba has been creating his own wonky beats since ’08, and will be hitting The Civic Underground on July 23 off the back of his 2010 album Triangulation. We have one double pass to give away - to witness this seamless symbiosis of the hectic with the serene, tell us the name of Scuba’s debut album.
JAMES HOLDEN
James Holden is heralded in his press release as a ‘British techno sorcerer and psychedelic shaman’ – probably the best job description EVER. No one is attributed such a kick ass description without the talent to back it – and this guy is as ‘sorcery’ and ‘psychedelic’ as they come, having remixed the likes of Caribou, Mogwai, Depeche Mode... He comes to Oz with his instalment of the DJ KiCKS mix series, and will be on the decks at Chinese Laundry on July 24. To win the one double pass we are giving away, name an artist that Holden has remixed – apart from the ones we’ve already mentioned!
CHEMICAL BROS ANNOUNCE TOUR
On the back of the release of their new album Further, the UK production pairing of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, better known as The Chemical Brothers, are touring Australia - and will play the Sydney Entertainment on Thursday March 10, 2011. (We’re going off early here!) The Chems’ live show is the stuff of club folklore – “you can totally feel that bass going through you, man” – and will also incorporate cuttingedge visuals courtesy of long time Chems’ multimedia collaborators, Adam Smith (Flat Nose George) and Marcus Lyall. Tickets on sale from Thursday Aug 5...
BOUNDARY BONDS WITH... ENTERTAINMENT EXTRAORDINAI BEACH ROAD HOTEL
GOODGOD REOPENS
Beloved late-night institution Goodgod Small Club, located on Liverpool St in the ‘Spanish Quarter’ of the CBD, reopens its doors this Saturday with a set from UK Dancehall Queen Lady Chann. Chann has been submerged deep in the studio, working on tracks for her debut album this year; first out of the gate is ‘Sticky Situation’, a collaboration with UK producer Sticky that is already turning heads and clutching hips – oh stop it! Her press release describes Chann as “a true microphone controller”, with “her husky voice and trademark flow setting her apart from the pack, and tearing up the hottest clubs across the UK and beyond.” The local support is out in force for this one, with a lineup that includes Killa Queenz, Jimmy Sing and Moriarty, Bad Ezzy and MC Shantan Wantan Ichiban. Entry is $20 on the door from 9pm.
DFA’S EXHIBITION
To coincide with LCD Soundsystem’s Australian tour this month, James Murphy’s DFA label is hosting a visual retrospective of artwork associated with the label, entitled ‘That’s Cool But Can You Make It More Sh*t?’ Pieces by Bureau and DFA Art Director Michael Vadino will be on display, along with work by other contributing artists. Vadino explains the name of the exhibition, stating, “It fits with the philosophy. It’s always come from this place of… nothing should be too perfect... nothing was ever meant to be precious. It’s all contemplated and purposeful but it needs to look more... shitty...” Vadino will also be bringing a selection of exclusive material from James Murphy’s collection, along with the original lightning bolt sketch of the DFA label’s logo, a selection of DFA’s commercial artwork, tour posters and invites for DFA parties around the world. The exhibit will be open to the public from Wednesday July 28 until Tuesday August 3, 11am to 6pm daily, at the Tom Dunne Gallery 11 Little Burton Street in Darlinghurst.
NEW CUT COPY CUT
Melbourne synth-pop band Cut Copy have a new song, ‘Where I’m Going’, which is currently available online as a promo for their as-yet-untitled third album, due out early next year. ‘Where I’m Going’ is described by the band as “the kind of track Brian Wilson would’ve written if he took ecstasy and hung out in 60s London instead of California.” Frontman Dan Whitford told listeners to expect “a repetitive, hypnotic, rhythmic aspect to a lot of the tracks…” Joining the dots, it seems like ecstasy could be the common motif for LP3! Head to cutcopy.net to procure your copy of the song, which should help you pass the time as you sit idly in your bedroom, alone and disenchanted, waiting for Cut Copy to return from overseas and entertain you. It’s not long now.
JAMES HOLDEN IN SYDNEY
Revered English experimental tech producer DJ/producer James Holden plays an extended 4-hour set at Chinese Laundry this Saturday. The Border Community main man has refined his sound of late, remixing the likes of Caribou
The Chemical Brothers
and Radiohead and focusing on the point of intersection between rock and electronica. His new DJ Kicks mix encapsulates this shift in sound, traversing cuts from Caribou and Legowelt along with tracks from labelmate Luke Abbott – primed to release his debut artist LP later in the year – and even a new Holden track, ‘Triangle Folds’, which is currently floating about online as a free promo download. Support is lead by local lass DJ Trinity, with entry $15 before 10pm. And I interviewed him on page 21…
“I don’t pray because I don’t want to bore God.” - ORSON WELLES 12 :: BRAG :: 371 : 19:07:10
SALLY GILBERTRE,
That’s a hell of a job title! What do you actually do? Where do I begin… Well, everyone knows me here as “that chick with the beer tickets.” Seriously though, I help with the day-to-day running of the Beach Road’s entertainment sector aka The Arts n-Crafts Dept. I also help put togetherour quarterly magazine, Public. We’re creating a permanent Artspace in our Regis Room, which is really exciting. On Sundays you can see me pretend to DJ (Song Select really) in the Beach Road Public Bar; the first person to name the song/artist gets a beer, which drastically diminishes the possibility of things being thrown at us… Best part of the job? The variety. I get to see bands, get them drunk and occasionally take them surfing… Did I mention free drink tickets? How did you gain experience for your role? I was exposed to the music industry through some international tours with friends, moonlighting as merch girl. Had some crazy, amazing experiences - the love of being around live music was ingrained in me from there. Everything I have learnt is from on-the-job experience, and the amazing people I’ve been surrounded by. Best live acts you’ve seen in the past 6 months? At Beach Road? Hmmm tough one… Tame Impala, Frightened Rabbit, Cloud Control… Coachella was crazy amazing - Faith No More, Them Crooked Vultures, Beach House, Jay Z & Beyonce, Thom Yorke, The Temper Trap, Local Natives… List is endless!
BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10 :: 13
Industrial Strength
themusicnetwork.com
Industry Music News with Christie Eliezer
ALICE FENTON JOINS FBI
Alice Fenton joins Sydney’s FBi Radio 94.5FM on August 9 as Creative Director. She will integrate the station’s content online and help grow its Sydney Music, Arts and Culture Awards (SMAC) and Still Life Art Auction. After working in ad agencies Arcade Creative and STW, she was editor at TwoThousand.com.au.
VIRGIN MOBILE SPONSORS SPLENDOUR… WHERE’S V FEST?
Virgin Mobile will sponsor the 10th Splendour In The Grass, for the first time. Its customers will get VIP experience — glamorous bathrooms known as The Posh Pit, an express queue at the Saloon Bar and a phone-charging venue, which sells pre-paid credit. Non-customers have access to the Virgin Mobile shuttle buses to get around the 5km festival and camping ground, and 1000 free branded tents… They’ll also team up with News Ltd sites to stream The Temper Trap’s set at 9.15pm on Friday July 30. In its media release, the company said it “previously had sponsorship deals with V Festival” — suggesting V has been quietly abandoned. But a spokesperson told “B&T Today” that “Virgin Mobile’s support of Splendour in the Grass is not a replacement strategy for V Fest” and that Virgin Management is still in talks with other promoters…
PRODIGY “MOST INFLUENTIAL”
The Prodigy were voted the most influential dance act in a survey by UK GlobalGathering dance festival. They got 29% of the vote, beating Daft Punk and Faithless. Also in the Top 10 list were Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers and Carl Cox. GlobalGathering draws 50,000 fans each year.
GYMS APPEAL MUSIC FEES HIKE Industry association Fitness Australia has formally appealed against the 1500% fees hike for playing music in gyms. It claims the Copyright Tribunal did not “properly” follow legal procedures when it made its decision, and decided only on a “maximum fee” rather than asking whether the hike in fees was “reasonable in the circumstances within… the Copyright Act.” The fees go from 96.8 cents, capped at $2,654 a year, to $15 per fitness class. This would mean that an average sized
Life lines Engaged: Almost three years after his wife of 30 years Deborah filed for divorce for his womanising, Carlos Santana (63) proposed to his drummer Cindy Blackman, during a show in Chicago. Split: Christina Milian and The Dream, after a 10-month marriage, following published photos of him canoodling with his PA on a beach. Split: Kelly Osbourne and model Luke Worrall who got engaged last March, after she heard he’d been tomcatting around. Injured: Slash’s bassist Todd Kerns had an eye haemorrhage on the flight to the UK, and was told hours before their Glastonbury set that he could lose his sight permanently. Injured: Jon Bon Jovi tore his calf muscle while leaping around the stage in New Jersey, but limped back to do the encore. They won’t cancel any shows. Jailed: The UK music industry expressed glee that a father and son team who sold pirated music to North England clubs got a jail sentence. Died: US gospel singer Walter Hawkins, 61, pancreatic cancer. Died: Tuli Kupferberg, poet, cartoonist and co-founder of US radical politics band The Fugs, 86, after a series of strokes.
centre with 1500 members running 30 classes a week, would go from paying $1510 a year to $23,400. Fitness Australia, which represents 1200 gyms, says most gyms can’t afford it. CEO Lauretta Stace says that many gyms have since May switched to cover versions of hits so they won’t have to pay the fees, and hopes that the music industry comes to its senses.
DIGITAL RADIO HITS CANBERRA
After a soft launch last week, digital radio tests in Canberra will switch to full power this week. Tests are being carried on 2CA, 2CC, 104.7,106.3 and SBS. Radio Canberra Pty Ltd, which operates classic hits 2CA and talkback 2CC, last week launched a new digital radio station called My Canberra Digital. Canberra FM is also to announce its new stations soon.
RIGBY LAUNCHES BOUTIQUE LABELS
Former Warner Music Australia (WEA) Managing Director Robert Rigby has relocated his management company Ambition Entertainment from Brisbane to Sydney, and launched four new boutique record labels. Little Tribe will cover rock, alt-rock and indie pop, Rush Hour will focus on dance music, Fanfare is for crossover and adult contemporary, and Kittygroove will cover mainstream pop. More genre-specific labels will be launched in the future. He’s brought in new partners including former Warner Music Australian Chairman Brian Harris, MGM Director Sebastian Chase and Central Station Records co-founders Morgan Williams and Giuseppe (Jo) Palumbo.
TRIPLE M REUNION
The Triple M 30 Year Reunion is on Monday August 2 at the Royal at Five Ways (the Public Bar, Royal Hotel) 237 Glenmore Rd, Paddington from 5.30pm. RSVP to: 2MMMreunion@gmail.com
MORE NAMES FOR ONE MOVEMENT
The third round of speakers for One Movement For Music Perth has been announced. It will be headed by Troy Carter, founder, chairman and CEO of the Coalition Media Group which manages Lady Gaga. Other internationals confirmed include Dave Curtin (Managing Director/Founder, DeepMix, USA), James Foley (Record of the Day, UK), Tak Furuichi (International A+R, JVC Victor Entertainment Inc, Japan) and Taichi Inoue (President, Surfrock International, Japan). Local speakers include Lars Brandle (Billboard), Brett Cottle (APRA), Shaun James (XYZ Networks), Dylan Liddy (Blue Max Music), Mark Pope (ARIA Award Director), Mark Poston (EMI Australasia), Phil Stevens (Jarrah Music), Kathy McCabe (Daily Telegraph), Carney Nir (Secret Service Digital), Adam Zammit (Peer Group Media), and Leigh Treweek (Street Press Australia).
BUSKING FOR CHANGE
‘Busking For Change’ is a charity gig started by Josh Pyke, with the inaugural event last year raising over $11,600 for the Indigenous Literacy Project (ILP). The ILP is a partnership between the Australian book industry and The Fred Hollows Foundation, and aims to help raise urgently-needed funds to address the literacy crisis in remote indigenous communities. Pyke is holding another fundraiser at the Annandale on August 27 with Holly Throsby and Boy and Bear. Pyke says that education is crucial to someone making choices for their future. He says, “By Year 7 schooling, only one in five indigenous children from remote communities can read and write at the accepted minimum standard. This is a massive problem, which can be quantifiably changed by the programs run by the Indigenous Literacy Project.” If you want to donate, go to www.buskingforchange.com
AMRAP LAUNCHES BLOG
Amrap (the Australian Music Radio Airplay Project) has launched a blog called ‘Amrap Discovered’, to showcase emerging and established artists to the public. It will have videos and biographies of the acts creating the biggest waves in community radio. The blog will include a weekly chart of the tracks most ordered by the 50 stations and 700 broadcasters who source music from AirIt for airplay. Since AirIt was launched last October, 10,000 tracks from 1000 acts have been ordered for airplay by community radio stations, says Amrap manager Chris Johnson. See www.amrap.org/blog
NSW AIDS SONGWRITERS CAMP The NSW Government has donated $5,000
to help a new Tamworth initiative called the Nundle Songwriters Camp. Put together by Joan Douglas and David Woodward, it will allow writers to meet and write together. The project has the support of the Country Music Association of Australia and Tourism Tamworth. The money came from a one-off grant of $2,200 from Premier Keneally, with $3,300 from Minister for Tourism Jodi McKay through Tourism NSW.
THINGS WE HEAR
* Are the Gorillaz looking at dates in Oz? The Mystery Jets reckon they might be here in January… * The official line from Scissor Sisters is that Kylie will not join them onstage at Splendour. Really? * Two live music showcasing venues are up for sale — the Vanguard in Sydney’s Newtown for $3.1 million, and the Royal Derby in Melbourne. * Following speculation that Poison singer Bret Michaels seemed to recover very quickly from his serious medical emergencies and that it was a PR stunt, Michaels’ camp issued comments by his doctor and neurosurgeon, saying that the claims were not exaggerated. * Are Chris Brown and Rihanna friends again? After Brown started crying and snivelling during his Michael Jackson tribute at the BET awards, Rihanna texted him and they’re back talking… * Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz has officially unveiled his new group, Black Cards. * In a stunt for Will Ferrell’s comedy video site Funny Or Die, Jewel got disguised as an frumpy office worker and sang her own songs at a karaoke bar.
ABC TAKES TOP AWARD
ABC Shop was awarded Online Retailer Of The Year at the inaugural Online Retail Industry Awards, as well as Best Multichannel Retailer for 2010.
TALENT DEVELOPMENT MASTERCLASS
The Talent Development Project (TDP) Master Class was set up by musician and producer John Foreman, to teach young musicians how to get into the music biz. It’s held on Wednesday July 28th at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Among those sharing tips and experiences are Sony Music’s Jay Dee Springbett, singer songwriter Felicity Urquhart, Australia’s Got Talent winner Mark Vincent and agent Tony Grace among others. See talentdevelopmentproject.org.au
RECORDING STUDIO TOUR
The NSW chapter of the Music Managers Forum holds a recording studio tour on August 2. It starts at 7.30pm at the Agincourt Hotel, 871 George St (corner of Harris Street). It’s free for MMF members, $5 for students and APRA members, and $10 for the public. See www.mmfaustralia.com.au
TALKING TO GIBSON
Gibson Guitar has set up a new forum 4henry.gibson.com, which allows guitarists and fans to speak directly with Gibson’s Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz. The forum will be a venue for serious discussion
on topics ranging from guitars to marketing and business ideas. “I would love to get suggestions,” said Juszkiewicz, “from how the company works, to what products you would like to see from us.”
KYLIE SETS CHART RECORD
When Kylie Minogue debuted at #1 in the UK with her Aphrodite album, she became the first solo artist to ever have four #1 albums there in four different decades. She has had seven albums top the UK charts since 1988.
›› TMN TOP 40 The top 40 most ‘heard’ songs on Australian radio. TW LW TI HP P1 P2 P3 ARTIST
TRACK
LABEL
1
1 10 1 15 29 54 KATY PERRY FT. SNOOP DOGG
CALIFORNIA GURLS
CAP/EMI
2
6
7
2 18 40 76 UNCLE KRACKER
SMILE
ATL/WMA
3
8
8
3 12 26 53 ENRIQUE IGLESIAS FT. PITBULL
I LIKE IT
INT/UMA
4
2 11 2 18 43 72 SCOUTING FOR GIRLS
THIS AIN’T A LOVE SONG
SME
5
4 13 4 12 27 46 DAVID GUETTA & CHRIS WILLIS FT. FERGIE & LMFAO
GETTIN’ OVER YOU
VIR/EMI
6
3 11 2 12 24 49 B.O.B FT. HAYLEY WILLIAMS
AIRPLANES
ATL/WMA
7
5 12 3 14 27 47 TAIO CRUZ
BREAK YOUR HEART
ISL/UMA
8
7
7 11 27 43 TRAVIE MCCOY FT. BRUNO MARS
BILLIONAIRE
ATL/WMA
9 15 43 66 TRAIN
IF IT’S LOVE
SME
10 21 3 10 13 23 46 MICHAEL PAYNTER
LOVE THE FALL
SME SME
9
9 10 7
11 13 6 11 13 28 55 ADAM LAMBERT
IF I HAD YOU
12 16 3 12 13 33 52 MAROON 5
MISERY
A&M/UMA
13 50 2 13 11 22 44 EMINEM FT. RIHANNA
LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE
INT/UMA
14 15 13 14 14 30 49 PARAMORE
THE ONLY EXCEPTION
ATL/WMA
15 11 10 11 16 45 76 THIRSTY MERC
MOUSETRAP HEART
MUSH/WMA
16 12 19 6 17 46 60 JET
SEVENTEEN
VIR/EMI
17 9 15 1 14 25 46 USHER FT. WILL.I.AM
OMG
SME
18 14 13 11 12 28 56 AMY MEREDITH
LYING
SME
19 18 20 6 18 44 75 JOHN BUTLER TRIO
CLOSE TO YOU
JAR/MGM
20 27 9 20 11 24 43 3OH!3 FT. KE$HA
MY FIRST KISS
ATL/WMA
GYROSCOPE
BABY, I’M GETTING BETTER
UMA
LADY GAGA
ALEJANDRO
INT/UMA
CHRISTINA AGUILERA
I HATE BOYS
SME
21 32 8
21 13 25 41
22 20 16 1 23 30 3
16 31 51
23 11 26 55
24 19 19 2
15 41 59
ADAM LAMBERT
WHATAYA WANT FROM ME
SME
25 25 22 1
19 50 62
TRAIN
HEY, SOUL SISTER
SME
26 23 17 4
14 44 71
UMA
VANESSA AMOROSI FT. SEANY B
MR. MYSTERIOUS
27 31 7
27 13 23 47
MILEY CYRUS
CAN’T BE TAMED
HOL/UMA
28 22 8
22 9
BRIAN MCFADDEN
CHEMICAL RUSH
ISL/UMA
29 24 23 7
26 52
19 42 55
30 36 5
30 12 31 54
31 28 6
28 13 38 58
32 26 13 11 12 44 61 33 17 13 6 34 39 8
13 26 54
34 12 22 39
LIFEHOUSE
HALFWAY GONE
GEF/UMA
JOHN BUTLER TRIO
REVOLUTION
JAR/MGM COL/SME
JOHN MAYER
HALF OF MY HEART
POWDERFINGER
SAIL THE WILDEST STRETCH UMA
KE$HA
YOUR LOVE IS MY DRUG
OU EST LE SWIMMING POOL
DANCE THE WAY I FEEL
HUS/UMA
35 35 14 3
14 26 51
JASON DERULO
RIDIN’ SOLO
WB/WMA
36 33 18 2
14 27 47
B.O.B FT. BRUNO MARS
NOTHIN’ ON YOU
ATL/WMA
37 34 12 16 14 24 45
YOLANDA BE COOL & DCUP
WE NO SPEAK AMERICANO
CSR/UMA
38 40 4
BRANDON FLOWERS
CROSSFIRE
ISL/UMA
32 63
STAN WALKER
UNBROKEN
SME
40 44 23 12 13 38 53
ROB THOMAS
MOCKINGBIRD
ATL/WMA
38 11 26 49
39 29 13 17 8
“Now we sit through Shakespeare in order to recognize the quotations.” - ORSON WELLES 14 :: BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10
SME
BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10 :: 15
his soup. If you’ve been lucky enough to get your hands on a copy of their third release, you can understand why Laurence and Dave would be so anxious and/or excited. Never a band to bank much on tradition, Church With No Magic spits in the face of even the most out-there moments on O Soundtrack. Sculpted from raw takes laid down over four days of studio jamming, and for the first time finding room for vocal hooks amongst the thick, experimental complexities, they’ve found themselves treading some pretty bizarre sonic terrain.
I
’m sitting in the dining room of Dave Miller’s Surry Hills terrace and across from me, over my still-steaming bowl of homemade minestrone, sits Laurence Pike. With Laurence’s brother Richard, in the UK at present, they are PVT: Sydney’s very own live-electronica pioneers. We’ve spent the first portion of the evening joking around, as we sheepishly avoid the pending discussion of their latest album - Church With No Magic. Garnering praise the world over with the release of 2008’s O Soundtrack My Heart, PVT (then ‘Pivot’) were the first Australian band to net a deal with legendary UK avant-garde electronica imprint Warp Records, whose proud roof they share with Battles, Jamie Lidell, Flying Lotus and Autechre. The album won them accolades in all the right places abroad and, of course, locally - it was touted FBi Radio’s ‘Most Important Sydney Album Of The Decade’. So the tension and anxiety around the release oftheir follow-up is understandable. “I’ve been drinking a lot,” drummer Laurence informs me. “I’m not sleeping very much, either.” He looks weary in the eyes and face, and his usually chipper demeanor is all but gone. He’s holding an ‘I Heart NY’ mug in front of him and, by the look of satisfaction that creeps across his face with each sip, it’s safe to say that he’s not drinking tea… Dave, the band’s live sampler, programmer and tech-nerd extraordinaire, seems to be dealing with things a lot better; he earnestly professes his excitement over the album’s release, before insisting I help myself to a second serving of
“It’s kind of hard to explain to someone,” says Laurence, with a sombre chuckle and sigh. “It’s like, we go into the studio with no preconceptions and we play for four days, and then we sort of find the focal points, take them, refine them into songs, and edit them.” Of the 20-or-so tracks that they mixed, only ten made it onto the album. According to Laurence, there were dozens more ideas that could have made the final cut, too. The decision to take such a seemingly difficult approach to recording stemmed from the band’s drive to capture real creative energy as it happened, rather than contaminating their pure ideas with regrettable hindsight. “You just don’t get the same feeling or mistakes or reactions by mimicking what you’ve played a minute before,” Dave elaborates, sitting back in his chair, relaxed and slightly aloof. “It’s that old adage,” Laurence chimes in. “The engineer records the first take because that’s usually when the purest shit happens. So I guess, unintentionally and just by the virtue of the way we work, the album is sort of an album of first takes.” You’d never guess it though. Listening to Church With No Magic, one is immediately taken by how considered and well-put-together everything sounds. The thunderous drumming blends in seamlessly with the expansive synths and moody vocals, each song begging the question of how only three people could create something so layered and intricate. “Most of the songs started with a seed of an idea, and we’d just improvise and build upon that,” says Laurence, as he tops up his mug. “We’d be playing, tracking what we were playing, and tracking what Dave was sampling live - so it was very interactive. At times there were essentially between six to fifteen of us playing at once. It was pretty weird.”
PVT thrive on weird; what their approach lacks in ease and functionality it makes up for by facilitating odd-ball moments of creativity. “If we tried to sit down and write most of the songs the way they are on this record, they would never have turned out like they have,” Laurence says. He uses the album closer, ‘Only The Wind Can Hear You’, as an example – almost all of the synth lines (and a lot of the drums) are loops taken from an earlier part of a jam, chopped off and turned into a song. “There is no way we would’ve come about doing a song like that were it not for the process,” Dave concludes. While this style of working is obviously quite well suited to the band’s own personal rhythms, for engineer Burke Reid the process seems like it would have been a tedious one. “We would just record for hours and hours, just jams, and shit like that,” Laurence informs me with a chuckle. “I can imagine as the engineer you’d just be thinking, ‘This is bullshit. What the fuck are these guys doing?’” Dave gets up to answer the door, leaving Laurence and I alone at the table. We’re amusing ourselves by coming up with names for his upcoming psychedelic-tribal-folk-electropop side project. “‘Crystal Bear’ is good, but now I’m thinking ‘Crystal Bells’ - bear bands are so 2009,” he laughs. Filling his mug once more and settling back down into his chair with a sigh and a groan, things turn a little more serious as the discussion shifts to the overwhelming wave of fashion bands currently dominating the music scene. “It’s this whole idea that artifice is more important than actual art,” he remarks in a tone of ironic resignation. Rejoining the conversation, Dave offers his view. “I think that certain bands probably get more attention because they look a certain way, or they come from a certain scene, or they fit a certain mould or whatever. I get really weirded out that there are these bands who seem to be hugely popular, and yet they don’t really have that many ideas.” “Our focus,” Laurence says, “has always been on having something to say, or wanting to say something - as opposed to fulfilling people’s expectation.” He’s not implying the band have any political or social agenda to push; the musical statements Laurence refers to have more to do with the sonic identity of the band. Yet with an album title like Church With No
Magic, one could be excused for thinking the band are doing a Dawkins, no? “There aren’t so much questions of religion on the record,” Laurence clarifies. “It’s more an exploration of the ideas of how and what and where people worship things in contemporary life. “It’s not a concept record though; it’s more of the moment. Lyrically there are probably a few running themes, sure, but it’s not Dark Side Of The Moon. And we don’t intend it to be highbrow in any way. I think the music’s thoughtful and it’s got depth, but in the end I think they’re still good songs that can be enjoyed emotionally.” And this is what makes Church With No Magic such a remarkable release; this dual depth and immediacy. By no means a party album, there’s still enough here to keep your everyday fan engaged, and enough depth to keep a jaded journo drooling. It’s a rare feat for a band to produce a record like this, and the result is testament to the band’s process. It’s that spark of energy found in the moment which gives PVT the magic that their title claims they lack. Who: Pivot What: Church With No Magic is out now through Warp Where: Manning Bar When: Saturday August 21
“When you are down and out something always turns up - and it is usually the noses of your friends.” - ORSON WELLES 16 :: BRAG :: 371:: 19:07:10
MISSY ELLIOTT GROOVE ARMADA SOULWAX CHIDDY BANG MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS OU EST LE SWIMMING POOL YOLANDA BE COOL VS DCUP DAN BLACK BAG RAIDERS
THE DANDY WARHOLS KELE (BLOC PARTY) CUT COPY DARWIN DEEZ THE WOMBATS WOLF GANG WASHINGTON GYPSY & THE CAT DELOREAN
35( 6( 17 6
681'$< 5' 2&72%(5 0,''$< 30 .,33$; /$.( 0225( 3$5. 6<'1(< 7,&.(76 21 6$/( 12: 7,&.(76 ,1)2 7 &V 3$5./,)( &20 $8
MIX MASTER MIKE JACK BEATS BUSY P SINDEN BRODINSKI DJ MEHDI UFFIE AC SLATER THE GLITCH MOB AJAX
HOLY GHOST! MEMORY TAPES CLASSIXX NEW YOUNG PONY CLUB JESSE ROSE GRUM THE SWISS FLIGHT FACILITIES ANNA LUNOE & MANY MORE BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10 :: 17
Sarah Blasko Coming Home By Romi Scodellaro
S
arah Blasko finds it hard to think of herself as a musician. “It’s because I’m not great at any one instrument. I play guitar and I play piano, and I just kind of dabble in things and use them to write songs,” she explains. “So I do struggle.” The sentiment is sweet and modest, but the world seems to disagree. Her ‘kind of dabbling’ has created three stellar albums, the latest of which was released midlast year. As Day Follows Night is her highest charting Australian release to date and to celebrate, she’s releasing a limited edition of the album with a bonus live disk - and heading back home for an October tour. When I talk to Sarah she’s in New York, doing “a radio-y tour” to promote the album. She tells me that the hardest thing about being on the road so often is not being able to settle down. “You don’t realise just how completely relaxing it is to be in a familiar place. It’s not until you get home that you realise how tired you are; you’re just exhausted. I dream of having a normal job where I just go there every day, and I have a boss.” I suggest this would probably be great for about a week... “And then I’d hate it,” Sarah agrees. “But it can be nice to be home.”
This idea of ‘home’ comes up repeatedly in our conversation. She tells me that familiar smells make her feel grounded when she’s away. “For me, it’s really natural oils and moisturisers or something that smells like lavender - I just love those kinds of things. It sounds really hippy!” Perhaps, but it makes sense that Sarah would need a degree of portability in her idea of home. Often quoted saying she likes to put herself out of her comfort zone while creating her music, she’s recorded her three albums in markedly different places – Hollywood, New Zealand and, most recently, Sweden. “A friend of mine mentioned the slightly perfectionist streak of people that he’d worked with in Sweden, and their dedication to really pure sounds,” she says. “I really love the idea of a record being a bit like an adventure.” Since then she’s been doing promo, touring, and has even picked a new place to call home: London. She moved there five months ago, and plans to stay for at least a year. “And then, we’ll see. I’m kind of enjoying the idea of it being quite a permanent move.” I’ve loved seeing Sarah quite frequently round old Sydney town, and express sadness that so many greats seem to be moving so far away. “But I’m coming to visit!” she says reassuringly. Sarah will in fact be back in October to play her old favourite, the Enmore Theatre – she tells me that the first time she played the venue was a dream come true. “That was a really big thing for me, because I’d always dreamt of playing there. It was really wonderful.” At the October show it seems she’ll be looking to relive that feeling, by treating the audience to a more retrospective set. “I’m looking forward to playing songs I haven’t played in a long time,” she says. “I feel that now, with three albums, I can really pick my favourite ones and bring them back out, and find a new way of playing them that kind of fits in with the aesthetics of what I’m doing now.”
SECRET SOUNDS PRESENTS
“You don’t realise just how completely relaxing it is to be in a familiar place. It’s not until you get home that you realise how tired you are; you’re just exhausted. I dream of having a normal job.” Sarah also welcomes the opportunity to look back over her work, rather than simply focusing on the future. “I’ve started writing some stuff, and it seems to be quite minimal,” she says. “I don’t know where it’ll head; I can sort of feel what I’m looking for, but I don’t know quite how to put it into words. I’ve started a little bit, but I fear that if I go too far down that track I’ll lose enthusiasm for what I’m doing now - which has to be about this album. But I’d love to record a new one next year.”
WITH SPECI CIALL GUE UESTS
CLOUD CONTROL
FRIDAY JULY 30 METRO THEATRE Tickets from venue: Ph 02 9550 3666 or www.metrotheatre.com.au or Ticketek Ph: 132 849 or www.ticketek.com.au
TICK TS ON TICKETS SALE NOW New album THE RUNAWAY Out July on Heavenly/Cooperative
18 :: BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10
In the meantime, Sarah’s keeping herself busy reading up on, of all things, neuroplasticity. As though she needed another string to her bow… “I’m going through this thing where I’m interested in the brain. I’m just so fascinated by all the quirks,” she tells me, before launching into an explanation of how my brain might rewire itself if I were to go blind, so that the parts of my brain associated with hearing would assist me with sight. “When you read something like that, you feel like your brain and your body really are just like a machine. All these wires can go wrong and the idea that it could be rewired and adapt itself is mind-blowing.” Sarah is calm, thoughtful and precise when she speaks, but her voice quickens when she talks about something that excites her. Her music and the power of the brain get the tick, and so does the topic of shuffling. Telling me she has a confession, she drops her voice theatrically. “I’m a bit of a shuffler these days,” she reveals. She tells me she worries about how modern impatience effects the way we listen to music. “I always think about the order so much when I’m putting an album together, so it’s sort of sad for me to think that maybe people don’t listen to it like that. I think when people are constantly shuffling and changing, it’s such a restless way to live - you’re not fully enjoying something. I kinda hate myself for ever pressing shuffle!” Who: Sarah Blasko What: The tour edition of As Day Follows Night is out now through Dew Process When: Friday October 29 Where: The Enmore Theatre
Frightened Rabbit Not So Frightened Anymore By Tom McMullan
G
lasgow’s Frightened Rabbit write the sort of awkwardly personal songs that transform a humble break-up album (their second, The Midnight Organ Fight) into your favourite record of 2008. Or, at least, they used to. In the grand tradition of the-record-thatfollows-a-critically-successful-break-up-album, 2010’s The Winter Of Mixed Drinks sees the band venturing into broader lyrical and musical territories, populated by contentment and a realisation that perhaps the world is bigger than a failed relationship. Led by optimistic first single ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’, The Winter Of Mixed Drinks gained Frightened Rabbit a wider audience than ever before - and a billing at Splendour In The Grass later in the month, with sideshow dates in Melbourne and Sydney. For a band that seems to be on the up and up, I wonder whether the name Frightened Rabbit - taken from the nickname songwriter Scott Hutchinson’s mother used for her shy, awkward son - is appropriate anymore. Scott’s younger brother Grant, who plays drums for the band, thinks it is and it isn’t. “Scott came up with that name to describe himself, and yeah - it’s odd now that under that name we play to sometimes 1400 people,” Grant tells me from his home in Glasgow. “But there’s a subtle difference between the people you see onstage and the people you see offstage - and Scott’s still a very personal person, definitely very shy. We still very much describe Scott as a Frightened Rabbit in his social life.”
life. With that in mind, I’m interested to know if there are any indications as to how album number four might sound… “Ah, well, who knows? We don’t talk about personal things like relationships or whatever; he leaves that to put in his songs, to tell everyone,” Grant laughs. “This is the thing - Scott is in a loving relationship now and he’s very happy in his life at the moment, but he’s got this constant level of cynicism that’s never gonna leave. He’s got this black humour that he likes to use in his songs. I don’t think he’ll ever drop those things to write about how much he loves his life or his girlfriend. “I just hope he doesn’t have another horrendous break-up, ‘cause although it made a good album, it didn’t make a very happy person.” Who: Frightened Rabbit What: The Winter Of Mixed Drinks is out now When: Tuesday August 3 Where: Factory Theatre More: Splendour In The Grass 2010
“Scott is in a loving relationship now, and he’s very happy. I just hope he doesn’t have another horrendous break-up,‘cause although it made a good album, it didn’t make a very happy person.” Did their mother call Grant a Frightened Rabbit also? “No, I was quite the opposite – More the bull in the china shop, I would say,” Grant replies. “Scott was older, but he had this way about him. I enjoy being social and interacting with people, and Scott is basically the polar opposite of that. It sounds like I’m boasting, but I could beat Scott up!” he laughs. Speaking of beating, the intensity of Grant’s drumming when Frightened Rabbit play live can be startling - especially considering how soft their music sounds on record. He explains why he hits his kit so hard in a pretty straightforward way: “If someone puts something in front of you and tells you you’re allowed to hit it, I think you should hit is as hard as you can. I’m a very placid, laid back person, probably because I get everything out on stage.” I ask him what he thinks about while he’s drumming. “With some of the songs, I close my eyes and imagine myself walking, or running - depending on what song it is - through this sort of urban landscape,” he explains, “and each thing that I pass is a part of the song, and I get to the end and it’s kind of like being in a dream. You know that moment when you’re about to arrive somewhere and you just wake up, or something’s about to happen and you wake up before it does? I kinda get that feeling a lot of the time. But sometimes I close my eyes, and it’s just black,” he laughs. Moving for the sake of moving is a constant theme throughout The Winter Of Mixed Drinks, especially evidenced in ‘Swim Until You Can’t See land’, in which Scott imagines himself swimming into the horizon, away from the afore-mentioned failed relationship. The particularly sunny metaphor always struck me as odd, coming from a man who grew up in Scotland. “Yeah, well when Scott wrote that album he wrote it by the sea, in an isolated town in Scotland,” Grant explains. “He’s not the sort of person that would go out to sea, but one of the themes of the record is testing yourself, taking yourself to the limit and seeing if you can bring yourself back from that.” So how’s this kind of ‘swimming’ going for the rest of the band? “Yeah, it’s going great. You can say this about any band, that you just have to throw yourself into it, and put yourself out there - and just hope that people start taking notice of it, and that it all works out.” The content of Frightened Rabbit’s music seems intrinsically tied to Scott’s personal BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10 :: 19
K-OS Kheaven’s Original Sound By Liam Pieper
K
heaven Brereton, AKA k-os, is a Canadian/Trinidadian musician who, raised by Jehovah’s Witness parents, grew up with a mess of cultural and musical influences. His own sound is understandably hard to pin-down - but that’s the way he likes it. “I always start out like a guy with a mission to make a rap record, or a reggae record, or a rock record or whatever, but I get sidetracked after one song. So I start on the next one,” explains k-os. The name is an acronym for ‘Knowledge Of Self’ or, if you like, ‘Kheaven’s Original Sound’. “I’ve been working on a mixtape since we’ve been on tour, which will be out on July 23 as a free download. It’s all kinds of different music; musically schizophrenic,” he grins. “The way I write is kind of like a guy on a road trip,” he says. “Playing with the radio. Some people are content to have it on just one station, and that’s cool, but I like to change channels all the time. I want to hear some Fleetwood Mac, now I want some RunDMC, now, oh man, here’s this old funk track...” he laughs. k-os’ music, as wildly eclectic in its scope as it is, has meant that the record-buying public haven’t always known what to make of him. Ever since releasing his first LP Exit in 2002, a record that included acoustic piano ballads and reggae tracks alongside more classic hip hop bangers, labels and radio stations have been scratching their heads over how to market him. His breakthrough track in Australia was ‘I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman’, which sampled the indiepop stars Phantom Planet’s ‘California’, best known as the theme song to The OC. The song is all very romantic, and I can’t help but wonder if it worked. Has he met Natalie Portman off the back of the track? “I spend pretty much all my time divided between the two coasts in Canada, so it’s not like I’m
going to meet her - unless she comes and tracks me down,” he laughs. “She was here for the Toronto Film Festival a little while ago, and some friends of mine interviewed her and played her the track. She got all blushy and they called me and were like, ‘You have to come down here right now.’ But I was like, really? What am I gonna say? ‘I’m the guy who wrote a song about you, ummm... hi?’ It’s a bit weird.” Jokes aside, it’s clear that k-os has spent time thinking about the effect that talent, education and celebrity can have on a person - he himself spent some time out of the public eye after his first flush of success earlier this decade, with rumours that he’d quit the industry altogether. “As an artist, you have to keep some level of sanity in the way you relate to the world around you,” he tells me. “Whether you’re Bob Marley or Bob Dylan or John Lennon, the greatest artists are the ones who stay mindful of what they are to the world. That’s when an artist becomes a philosopher.” This statement veers a little close to what I’d politely call overly introspective, but that’s the core of k-os’ music. He’s an artist who thinks deeply about what’s going on in the world around him, with an ear for beats and a talent for playing a multitude of instruments. No matter how esoteric and obscure his subject matter becomes, it’s always carried by reliably awesome music. “At the moment, I’m really inspired by beats. I can make organic music, but it tends to be more obscure than what I’m working on now. There’s an originality to what I do when I produce on my own. I’ve got some amazingly talented musician friends, and I tend to lean on them to make my ideas work.” Who: k-os What: Yes! is out now through Shock Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Wednesday August 4 More: Splendour In The Grass 2010
Boys Boys Boys! Do The Prawn Dance By Briony Jones
W
ho said cheesy, catchy pop had to stay in the ‘90s? With shimmering all-girl vocal harmonies, infectious pop riffs and a uniquely colourful stage show, Boys Boys Boys are a time warp, capturing everything that you loved about the daggy pop anthems of the ‘90s. It’s sugary sweet and, according to leading lady Bridget Turner, is all about making you dance. “[We’re] just trying to stick to having fun,” Turner says, with a smile in her voice. “Anything that can possibly make you dance.” Born in a retro burger diner in Australia’s West, Boys Boys Boys! began as three girls chasing a simple dream. “It’s really quite dorky,” she confesses, giggling. “We used to have control of the diner’s CD changer, and we used to put all of our stuff in there. We were just into daggy pop, and then we decided that we wanted to make our own daggy pop… I wish we had an exciting story to tell.” However ‘dorky’ they may have started out, Boys Boys Boys! are now a central part of Perth’s music scene. The three girls have been joined by three boys, and together they’re proving that there’s still a place for fun-filled pop tunes. But with their mixed-gender line-up, the band name and song content leaves some wondering how it all fits together… “Initially it was all girls and we just wanted to write songs about boys,” Bridget explains. “So most of the songs are about boys - and because we are such a strong female lineup, the poor boys have to sing about boys,” she laughs. But with two singles, a debut album and a host of West Australian Music Industry (WAMI) award nominations under their belts, it’s doubtful that anyone in the band would be complaining. And for the metaphorical icing on the cake, first single ‘Seeya Later Lovie’ featured in two television
commercials and on US TV show, 90210. “I tell you what, someone is looking out for our band,” she chuckles. “Can you imagine the song you write getting on 90210? It just - it blows your mind, it really does. And it’s just hilarious. Bridget gushes as she talks me through the episode they got to soundtrack. “It was amazing. They were playing lacrosse and then it kind of did a wipe, our song started playing and then it moved to two girls at the cafeteria and they were bitching. It was like, the most amazing teen comedy scene ever. It was so American, and it was wonderful.” So after taking the west by storm, the band is just about to embark on their first trip to the east coast of Aus. And they’re bringing all of their light-hearted, up-beat and fun energy with them. “It should be about fun because you know, when you’re in a band, it can get heavy,” she says. “You should just keep enjoying it, because you put so much into it.” So with such a refreshingly positive attitude, what can punters expect from the infamous Boys Boys Boys! stage show? “We do a lot of synchronised dancing, and we have an interactive kind of thing - we do a prawn dance, where the audience has to pretend to be a prawn,” she laughs. “But, if only one person does the prawn, then the prawn just fails! So we’re hoping that it’s going to go off... We’re going to cut sick and do the prawn dance.” Who: Boys Boys Boys! What: Yes is out now through Inertia Where: Mum @ World Bar When: Friday July 23
Two Door Cinema Club
Like Kids At Christmas By Alex Young
A
springy debut, Tourist History. Packed with shoe-gaze pop melodies, catchy hooks and lyrics of hope and optimism, the album documents how the band have progressed as people over the past two years - from bored schoolboys living in Irish tourist-hotspot Bangor, to experienced and fully-fledged travellers. This evolution, Baird explains, is captured in the title. “We wrote all of the songs there [Bangor]; we wanted to reference that. It’s kind of about having to leave this tourist town where we lived, and then becoming tourists ourselves every place we go”.
fter just ten minutes spent chatting with Kevin Baird, bassist of Ireland’s indieelectronic pinup Two Door Cinema Club, I’m feeling like an over-aged, under-achieving failure. With no members yet 21 years old (although it’s Kevin’s birthday on the date of their Sydney show), the trio have signed to French electronic powerhouse Kitsune Music (Hot Chip, Foals, La Roux) with a successful debut Tourist History, have played Glastonbury two years in a row, and are bang smack in the middle of what is an essentially an 18-month tour: 60 plus dates of which still remain this year. To top it all off, Baird is polite, funny, and really fucking nice – so I can’t even properly hate him. A trait of unfailing and exuberant enthusiasm is easily detected through Baird’s thick accent as he happily mocks the band’s hectic schedule looming on the group’s MySpace page. “I’ve never seen something so ridiculous! You scroll… then you keep scrolling… then you keep scrolling… then you keep scrolling… then some more… then there’s still another two more scrolls after that!” he laughs. Describing the band’s London apartment as a place to “sleep for one night, wash clothes” and not much more, the bassist does admit the exhaustingly repetitive startstop nature of touring has proved that it ain’t all so glamorous. But the drive and motivation of the trio – all of whom rebelled against external expectations so that they could pursue music – cannot be questioned.
“It’s our challenge.” Kevin is earnest. “We may be tired or sick, but as soon as you go on stage and there’s people waiting for you to play, something just clicks...” He gushes that the band will be “like kids at Christmas” upon arrival in Australia for Splendour In The Grass this month, and with the announcement this week that demand has seen their sideshow venues upgraded, he lays down expectations for fans.
“When you play a show, you may have played the show the night before, then the night before that. But for all these people, it’s the first time they’ve ever seen us and you really have to make it special for them, ‘cause they want it to be special. And we want to do that for them.” The constant touring and live experiences are what formed the idea behind the group’s
Yet while they might be constantly on the move, expect the band to remain on the radar. “We told ourselves during the first album that getting the second one written – that’s when you need to work your hardest”, Baird says. So whether it’s another gig, another country, or a day-off used to write songs, you can expect Two Door Cinema Club will be hard at it - somewhere. Baird is frank. ”We just want to really really sacrifice these years… Work hard and get ourselves to the point that we want to be!” ...Meaning they’re not there yet? What else is left to conquer? Who: Two Door Cinema Club What: Tourist History is out now Where: Manning Bar When: Monday August 2 More: Splendour In The Grass 2010
“Nobody gets justice. People only get good luck or bad luck” - ORSON WELLES 20 :: BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10
James Holden Crossing The Border By Chris Honnery
“I
tend to get quite bored with music that’s just made in a club, and is very functional,” James Holden admits. He’s bemoaning the extraneous introductions of club tracks that exist purely so “not very talented DJs” are able to mix them. “Why do we to have suffer that? Why do we have to sit through those bits? It’s unnecessary!” he laments with a chuckle. “When I’m in a club, I just try and play music that I would think is good if I was in the audience. [My style] has moved away from traditional dance music a bit, but still it’s trying to keep a groove the whole time and build a dynamic. It’s still lots of things that techno has always been about; it’s just that I got better at it”.
Since his debut release as a teenager, Holden has explored techno, progressive, ambient and even shoe-gaze rock influences in his productions and DJ sets. A forthright critic of his own output, Holden ranks his new DJ Kicks compilation ahead of his Balance and At The Controls installments, as the most precise distillation of his sonic sensibility to date. “When I listen back to it, it feels more coherent, like I somehow made the point I was trying to make with the other ones, [but] more effectively,” Holden reflects. “It’s still basically doing the same thing I’ve always been doing, putting these different styles together and making them feel like they’re one - but on this one I actually feel like it’s all one.”
“Producing on a laptop, and being able to release a record without needing the money to invest in vinyl - these should be great things. But there has to be some sort of evolution in how we find music and how people put it out.”
Considering the scope of the music collated on the DJ Kicks album, the synthesis and coherence Holden speaks of is no simple accomplishment. From material by Caribou and Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) to cuts by Legowelt, the compilation breaks down conventions of what should be played in a nightclub and what should be listened to through headphones. “There’s a middle ground between electronic and rock that’s really interesting,” Holden explains. “Like the Caribou album and the Four Tet album, people who are really on the edge of both things, making records that you can dance to, [although] they haven’t really evolved in the dance scene. I really like the hypnotic, trippy, repetitive stuff that you get lost in, and I don’t think I can ever see myself going away from that.” Having completed his most accomplished mix to date, Holden is now concentrating on a follow-up to his 2006 debut, The Idiots Are Winning. “I spent a couple of years where I got really annoyed by the music that people saw as related to [my record label] Border Community,” he admits. “People were just doing copies of [Nathan Fake’s] ‘The Sky Was Pink,’ and it really put me off that sound. I started to really hate the ‘computer techno’ sound.” The surfeit of ersatz imitations lead Holden to contemplate and redefine his sound, a process that he only now feels is complete. “I spent two years changing what I did in the studio, trying new approaches, switching to all-analogue production,” Holden says. “It took two years in the wilderness. With [new cut] ‘Triangle Folds’, the Caribou remix, the Mogwai remix and the Radiohead remix I feel like I’ve got there now. I’ve found the way to make the music I always liked, but to do it in a way that doesn’t [go around] in circles.” Now he feels it’s time to do something of his own. “I don’t know when it’s going to happen though,” he adds wryly. “I’m not promising anything soon.”
to invest in vinyl - these should be great things. The only reason I have a career and can make music is [because of] free software and a cheap PC; but there has to be some sort of evolution in how we find music and how people put it out, just to cut through this mountain of stuff that’s unnecessary. I’d like to think that because it doesn’t cost you anything to make an MP3 release, people can be a bit more adventurous,” Holden suggests. He thinks it will probably take five more years for things to settle down. “It always takes people a while to react to massive technological change.”
Holden’s inventive, analogue-based approach to production contrasts with the proliferation of generic tracks in the dance market. “It’s hard to talk about it without being really negative,” he says. “Producing on a laptop, and being able to release a record without needing the money
Until then, Border Community will remain a rare bastion of creativity drowning in a sea of banality - a refuge for producers like Luke Abbott, Nathan Fake and Holden himself to operate at the intersection of different genres, and challenge the stale blueprints that corrode
the club scene. “I don’t really care what goes on in the middle of the dance scene, to be honest,” Holden says, his tone laced with a fervor that affirms he is far from a detached production recluse either. “We can carry on doing what we’re interested in, and there are enough people in the world to find it interesting that we can just do it. It’s sort of healthy for the scene too; I don’t think monocultures produce good music. When producers try and fit in with the monoculture… well, that’s what happened with minimal techno, and that’s why it’s basically dead now.” Who: James Holden (UK) What: James Holden: DJ KiCKS is out now When: Saturday July 24 Where: Chinese Laundry
A P P E A R I N G E X C L U S I V E LY AT PA R K L I F E A L O N G S I D E :
KELE (BLOC PARTY) . THE DANDY WARHOLS . MIDNIGHTJUGGERNAUTS DARWIN DEEZ . BAG RAIDERS & DOZENS MORE SUNDAY 3rd OCTOBER /// TICKETS: PARKLIFE.COM.AU
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Delta Spirit Keep Moving By Caitlin Welsh
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n the phone from South Carolina, Delta Spirit frontman Matt Vasquez is in, well, high spirits. So much so, in fact, that the audible good times in the background make me feel guilty for dragging him away. But he sounds happier than a pig in mud; he speaks at length, in easy fragments, with lazy California vowels and occasional hints of a Texan twang. “We’re just havin’ some barbeque, drinkin’ some beers, smokin’ some cigarettes… Me and my boys just waitin’ for the show to get started.”
The band are touring the States in celebration of their sophomore LP, History From Below - taking their mongrel-Americana folk-rock show everywhere you care to name. And the South clearly agrees with them. “We’re down South, this shit’s fun! It’s so human. You get fireflies and squirrels and raccoons and armadillos and possums… And gross people that don’t do their laundry, ever.” The previous weekend, they’d managed to find themselves in the nation’s capital for Independence Day: “It was brilliant,” Matt says. “It’s my favourite holiday – uh, random fact – yeah, we were in DC. We played the 3rd biggest show we ever played, brought out 1100 people at the 930 Club in Washington DC… And then the next night, our bass player, his sister works at the
Smithsonian. And so we watched the fireworks over the Washington monument, standing on top of the building. Amazing.” He pauses, and then asks, “Do you guys have a day like that, in Australia? Like an Independence Day?” Sadly, no, I reply. “You guys don’t have, like, a ‘Fuck England’ Day? I guess you guys are still friends - that’s maybe more of an American thing.” The other American thing, I note, is their enthusiasm for the endless holidays that pepper their summer. “People love the threeday weekend!” Matt agrees. “And people save up their money to go on trips, you know? To Disneyland, or Orlando, or go catfish noodling, or just hang out. It stimulates the economy, the day off; it’s good. And people need to rest!” I can’t help but wonder... Not only if I heard him right about the catfish (what?), but also if Delta Spirit maybe need some rest. A month into their “fourteenth or fifteenth” national tour, Matt reckons they’ve had four days off so far. “You drive six hours, you play your show, you have a blast, you drink a lot, you go straight to bed, you wake up at six o’clock in the morning and you drive seven hours again.
When you feel like you’re going crazy, that’s when the band starts to really gel. That’s usually a good thing, you know? You get one day off, you take a breath, and you do it all over again - and it’s fun. “The next night, if you don’t feel like playing before the show, the second you step onstage you always feel like playing. You always do. It’s so fun!” Dispatches from the current tour suggest that the new material makes an excellent contribution to their raucously intimate sets. And before we ring off, he assures me that an Australian tour is on the cards for later in the year. Travelling, constant movement, seems to emerge as a theme with this band. Delta Spirit’s beatsmith Brandon Young originally found an 18-year-old Vasquez busking on a bench at 2am (hey, it worked for Rod Stewart) - and Matt claims to love talking to hobos (“They have better stories!”). The band tours with compulsive regularity, and their sound travels almost as widely. When I ask if History’s threadbare country-rock feels like a kind of home, Vasquez won’t even entertain the idea... “I feel like this is where we’re living today. And perhaps we’ll live someplace else tomorrow.”
Who: Delta Spirit What: History From Below is out now on Dew Process
Super Wild Horses Sounds Like Teen Spirit By Alexi Sebastian
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elbourne garage duo Super Wild Horses have tried to relive their adolescence through their debut album, and the result is a nod to a misspent youth. “It turned out that a lot of songs we’d been writing were reflections of our teenage years growing up together,” says Amy Franz, sharer of vocal, guitar and drum duties with Hayley McKee. “So we’ve called it Fifteen.
Gosteleradio Popaganda By Jaymz Clements
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or a band named after the primary mode of state-controlled communication across the late Soviet Union, the music of Melbourne’s Gosteleradio is surprisingly free and expansive. Great Deeds Against The Dead showcases an alluring and exquisite baroque psych-pop on one of the finest Australian releases of the year. Not bad for a debut. The record was crafted in the home of brothers Ben and Josh Strong following the petering-out of their former band Plug-In City, before TTT’s Marty Umanski was drafted in to play drums. The result is a dazzlingly conceptualised piece of art – and it all started with a song. “Other people might have this experience,” Ben tells me over a pub lunch, “but you write a song and then think, ‘I want to write an entire album of music like that’. The song for us was ‘Guillotine’. We loved the sound of it – so widescreen and lush.” So, rather than making an songs that would fit into a genre, they made an album that fit around a song. Another move which helped push their creative expression in new directions was the writing process itself – they didn’t write the stuff to play it live. Ben explains, “If you’re writing as band that plays lots of shows, you’re always aware of how something will come across live. We didn’t have that concern - as we weren’t planning on playing any shows for a long time. When we were writing, we didn’t even have ‘Sticks’ [the nickname they’re trying to attribute to Marty…] yet, so we weren’t thinking about how it would come across. We were just writing stuff we, well, liked,” he nods, and Josh adds, “stuff that we’d want to listen to.” There were a number of other catalysts impacting the album which simply came about through chance. For instance, neither brother wanted to be the front-man. “That’s why there’s so many harmonies,” says Ben. Not having a real band or any real time pressures gave the pair a whole lot of freedom, too – “It was just us getting
into our own headspace,” Ben tells me. “Also,” begins Josh, tentatively, “due to a technical problem, we lost the first version of the album three days of sessions – so we did it all again.” Wait. They lost the entire album? And they didn’t flip out? “Yeah, you guys took it really well,” says Marty, nodding. “It was horribly depressing,” admits Ben. “It sort of felt like the record was cursed, that it wasn’t meant to be made. But at the same time, there were positives to come out of it... We got a second chance to make it, and there were things that we got much better the second time ‘round,” says Ben, and Josh agrees: “Big time. It made a big difference.” Great Deeds of the Dead also differs from most releases in its subject matter; the songs touch on historical moments and philosophical curios not usually covered in the canon of pop. Ben would go to Josh with a melody, and Josh would reply with a story of historical significance. “We really liked that approach, so we kept up with that theme,” Josh says. “You don’t always have to write about girls and heartbreak.”
“When we’re hanging out, we still kind of feel like we’re not growing up, by playing in a rock band,” she continues. “Doing all of that at this stage in our lives - it feels kind of juvenile and a youthful thing to do.” Indeed, the band had quite a delayed induction into the Melbourne music scene. “We came in on it pretty late,” Amy explains. “For me I was 27 - that really stereotypical rock n’ roll age where a lot of greats died. I hadn’t had the guts to do anything - and I thought, ‘I’ve got to get over this fear of performing and give it a go, or live to regret it’.” The only problem left was that both Amy and Hayley’s first instrumental preference was to drum, and not strum. “Neither of us are guitar players,” Amy says. “We thought ‘well one of us has got to play some kind of melodic instrument’. So we figured we’d just split the duty between us and see how we go.” Amy plays half the set on drums and then switches to guitar. “What we’re doing at the moment is probably what a lot of people who play music went through in their teens in their bedrooms, without really gigging around much. We’ve come to it late, and are learning on stage as we go - which is actually a really fun way to do it!” Having high-schooled together in Perth, Franz and McKee were both raised in musical families;
Recorded on reel-to-reel by Melbourne garagerock luminary Mikey Young (Eddy Current Suppression Ring), their first full-length release, Fifteen, demonstrates a more melodic edge to the band than their EP. “When we recorded the 7”, we really wanted a big boom-y kind of overdrenched sound, probably partly to hide our vocals a bit,” Amy admits. They were both pretty self-conscious about their skills, but they’re over that now. “With this one we wanted to get a cleaner, poppier sound.” Helped along by income from the Bonds ad, Super Wild Horses are set to leave in September for three weeks of American dates. “We got asked to play the Goner Fest,” Amy says. Put together by garage-punk label Goner Records, Goner Fest is a four-day-long festival hosted in pubs and record stores in Memphis and with fellow Australians UV Race and Total Control, Super Wild Horses were one of the first bands to be announced. Catch them at their album launch before they go...
When Ben asked TTT’s guitarist Marty to try his hand at drums, the live line-up was solidified and the strange, hard-to-pinpoint Gosteleradio were ready to give it a go. “I like it because there’s not one definable style to the music, so it’s not limiting in any way,” Marty concedes and Ben adds, “I might sounds like a fuckwit – and I usually do - but you can’t make music worrying about what other people will think… it beats the shit out of you. We know that it might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but that’s a good thing as well.” Who: Gosteleradio What: Great Deeds Against The Dead is out now Where: Oxford Art Factory When: Friday July 23
“I started at the top and worked my way down.” - ORSON WELLES 22 :: BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10
Hayley’s brother Joseph plays in London-viaPerth group Snowman while Amy, who toyed with trumpet and piano in class, has family members versed in jazz and RnB. But the duo’s own musical statement wasn’t written until 2008, when the gals paired up as Super Wild Horses. They kicked things off soon-after with an ultra lo-fi self-titled 7” EP, recorded on raw 4-track in a warehouse. It features the Ronettes-on-Ritalin cut ‘Standing On The Corner’, now the jingle in a Bonds television commercial. “We added some extra tracks to the song - they had a few requirements because of the number of people they had in the ad, and the sound they needed to get,” Amy tells me. “It was just a really fun thing to do!”
Who: Super Wild Horses What: Fifteen is out on July 23 on Aarght!/Shock. Where: Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills When: Saturday July 24
THURSDAY 22ND JULY WOLLONGONG @ HARP HOTEL
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FRIDAY 23RD JULY
NEWCASTLE @ CAMBRIDGE HOTEL
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BEATS WORKING + SKRYPTCHA PRE-SALE TIX $12 OR $15 ON THE DOOR
SATURDAY 24TH JULY SYDNEY @ THE GAELIC HOTEL
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THUNDAMENTALS + SKRYPTCHA PRE-SALE TIX $15 OR $20 ON THE DOOR
SUNDAY 25TH JULY SYDNEY @ LIVE AT THE WALL
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SKRYPTCHA + DAILY MEDS PRE-SALE TIX $15 OR $20 ON DOOR (ALL AGES)
TIX AVAILABLE FROM: SPITSYNDICATE.OZTIX.COM.AU
THE NEW ALBUM “EXILE” OUT NOW ON OBESE RECORDS
WWW.SPITSYNDICATE.COM
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The Magic Numbers Keep It In The Family By Mike Gee
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his a tale of two siblings. Well, two sets of two siblings - but much of it concerns just the one. Romeo and Michele Stodart were born in Trinidad, but ended up in New York after the family fled an Islamic coup in 1990. Six years later and they’d moved to the London suburb of Hanwell - to neighbour the Gannon family and their own two children, Sean and Angela. While the boys formed a couple of bands over the next few years, all four finally came together in 2002 - as The Magic Numbers. We’re on the eve of the release of The Magic Numbers’ third album The Runaway, and it’s possible to say that this is going to be one of the albums of the year. When I first heard the record, it had the kind of impact I got the first time I listened to Sigur Ros or Godspeed You! Black Emperor. It embraces a different kind of beauty though; a rock album with a quiet, genteel inner-spirit that drifts through mood changes, desperately trying to communicate its struggles, its joys and its anguishes. It’s full of all of the seasons and all of the moods, distinguished by underplay, delicacy and the sweep of strings never overdone - the late Robert Kirby, who worked on Nick Drake’s Five Leaves Left, worked on some of the arrangements.
This is an album about love, but in it you will find musical hints and cadences drawn from five decades worth of music. Some achievement. Romeo is in Shepherd’s Bush, London, on a cold wet night. He too is very pleased with The Runaway, and tells me the story of how it all came about. “We took some time out, and we took our time with the record,” he says. “We made sure there were a lot of songs. The ones that made it onto the album created a mood, so there’s a sound throughout - it’s the first time we’ve got it right. There were great songs on the first two albums, but this is the first time I’ve listened to one of our records and haven’t found any holes. I probably will in six months. But for now …” Many bands never get halfway up the mountain, let alone reach its peak; others sprint up and slide down just as fast. After eight years together, The Magic Numbers seem pretty secure at the top of their game... So what’s the secret? “I think for us it was looking at the group in a different way,” Romeo says. “The first two albums were band-on-themove records. This time I didn’t want the guitar to drive the songs anymore, I wanted to use different instruments, so I wrote a lot more on the piano.” Having more time and their own studio gave the band a chance to experiment. “There was real atmosphere in the studio, and eventually we came to a new place for the group.” Some of that comes down to the help of Valgeir Sigurðsson, who co-produced the album with Romeo. His credits tell their own story: Bjork, Mum, CocoRosie, Bonnie Prince Billy - artists of imagination who deliver music with space that is sensory, and sublime. “He helped with textures, and rhythmically. We had started recording and were about halfway through - and we were fans of the Mum records - when we called him, and said we’d like to work with him.” The band played Sigurðsson everything they’d done, and from his comments it was obvious that he was the right guy. “He’d never worked with a band before,” Romeo continues, “and he’d always worked in a studio in Iceland. Now he’s moved to London and lives near Angela.”
“We fight a lot in the studio. We’re siblings, and completely crazy perfectionists. We only have to look at each other and we go off, and then there’s a bad vibe for three days. It can get pretty intense.” Apparently it wasn’t just Sigurðsson’s ears and talent that helped on The Runaway. The man himself helped keep the band together, too and it’s here that the interview gets particularly interesting. “He had a calming effect in the studio, particularly between me and my sister, Michele.” So the siblings tend to argue? “Yes. We fight a lot in the studio. We’re siblings, and completely crazy perfectionists. Sometimes we’re saying the same thing and want the same thing, but want to go there different ways. Then we only have to look at each other and we go off, and then there’s a bad vibe for three days. We don’t even look at each other,” he admits. “She knows all my bad points, and isn’t afraid to keep telling me about them. It can get pretty intense.” On the road, it’s apparently a little better. Romeo says Michelle will tell him that he messed up in a song or that his singing is crap, but that’s it; they get drunk and it doesn’t matter much anymore. In the studio it’s something else. “It got to the point that when we finished touring the second album in 2007, we needed to step away.” Despite all of that, Romeo maintains he couldn’t imagine what the band would be like without his sister. “She helped me with the lyrics as well this time; and I felt comfortable playing her the songs at that stage, when they were only 70-75% done.” Michele is also a mum now, with a two-year-old daughter Maisy. And while she might be too young to join the band for this year’s Splendour In The Grass, you can expect to see a toddler from side of stage at their future shows. “She’s going to be a rock’n’roll baby for sure; she’ll definitely be coming on some of the tours…” Who: The Magic Numbers What: The Runaway is out on July 23 When: July 30 Where: The Metro Theatre More: Splendour In The Grass 2010 24 :: BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10
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arts frontline
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arts, theatre and film news... what's goin' on around town and more...
brushstrokes WITH PHOTOGRAPHER
W
What was your first camera? The first camera I ever took a photo with at a gig was a Canon Digital IXUS 40, a little 4-megapixel point-and-shoot camera. I snapped Interpol from way back in the crowd when they played the Enmore Theatre in 2005, and miraculously came away with a few shots that I quite liked. The encouraging results inspired me to splash out and get a Canon 300D digital SLR. What's your camera of choice these days? These days I lug around a Canon 5DMkII, and a few lenses - my Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L, 50mm f/1.4, and 85mm f/1.8 are always in my bag. Having been raised on digital cameras, I’m now going back and discovering film - I have a very old Canon AE-1 program SLR, and a rickety old Polaroid SX-70 from 1975 that I occasionally take out and about.
LCD ART SYSTEM STENCIL + ART = $$
What_the_hells. You can win money for making stencils? If only we paid attention in art class… The Australian Stencil Art Prize (ASAP) is calling for entries. Now in its second year, the competition has a $2000 cash price attached, ka-ching! In addition, Avant Card will select one lucky finalist’s stencil artwork to win a national print run of 20,000 cards (that’s $8000-worth of exposure). Artists this year can also enter stencil artworks on canvas, board and multimedia surfaces. Paper and cardboard aren’t accepted. Finalists will be exhibited at Oh Really Gallery in Sydney from November 11-21. The deadline is August 1, and you can find out more, and enter online, at australianstencilartprize.com
When LCD Soundsystem tours Australia this month, the incredible stage show and dapper attire won’t be the only thing on display. LCD Soundsystem and DFA will also present a retrospective exhibition of their artwork, interestingly titled That’s Cool But Can You Make It More Sh*t? The exhibition will be open from July 28 - August 3 at the Tom Dunne Gallery in Darlinghurst. On display will be the works of DFA Art Director, New Yorkbased Micahel Vadino, and work from James Murphy’s personal collection. The exhibition will be open from 11am-6pm daily.
GRAPHIC COMPETITION
From August 7-8, GRAPHIC will take over Sydney Opera House, with a lovefest of graphic storytelling, comics, animation and illustration. The weekend line-up for talks, workshops and screenings includes Kevin Smith, Neil Gaiman, Shaun Tan and Eddie Campbell. But the other killer twist is a competition being run by in conjunction with Screen NSW: the Graphic Animation Competition, which holds a cash prize of $20,000, is up to Round 3 – the final round - of its rigorous selection process. The five finalists include one Canadian, one Melburnite, and four Sydneysiders: Dave Carter (for The Catts), Claire Orrell and Joe Perkin (Space Badger) and James Cowen (Junior). Watch ‘em and vote, at graphic.sydneyoperahouse.com
Portraits, candid or landscape...? I started out taking live music pictures pretty much exclusively, but in the last few years I’ve dabbled with food photography (mostly published on Lee Tran Lam’s blog The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry), studio portraiture, as well as just capturing unique events around town - party pictures for Even Books, dapper folk dressed up for the Sydney Tweed Ride, filmmaker interviews for Popcorn Taxi among others. Ultimately, I’d say that I’m definitely more of an observational, flyon-the-wall photographer than one who likes to control all aspects of a shoot. What's your day job? I’m a supervisor in the live-action film visual effects department at Animal Logic. Broadly speaking, my role is to work with film productions to help plan and execute creative digital visual effects solutions for their shots. What's one of your favourites exhibition? One of my best experiences shooting a gig was the Pnau show at the Enmore Theatre in April 2008. It’s the only time I’ve ever been allowed to shoot an entire show from start to finish (usually there’s a 3-song rule strictly enforced), and it was a photographer’s dream - people in crazy costumes dancing, enormous balloons bouncing around all over the audience, the best lighting you could ever hope for, and a friendly crowd.
WHEDON-VERSE
Sydney Opera House, could you get any cooler? Off the back of their killer GRAPHIC Festival line-up, the folks down on the water have just announced An Afternoon with writer/ director Joss Whedon, to take place on Sunday August 29 in the Concert Hall. Tickets go on sale this Friday July 23, and if you listen to us, you’ll buy first, and ask questions later. Whedon is one of the smartest purveyors of popculture in the business, with the ability to mash up brilliant storylines, sassy dialogue and ball-busting female heroines into gleefully entertaining series like Buffy, Firefly, Angel, and Dollhouse. If you’re interested in storytelling, writing, popculture, language, history, and awesomeness, this is for you. sydneyoperahouse.com 26 :: BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10
Shit is happ’nin at Serial Space, our favourite Chippendale warehouse. To start with, this coming Tuesday July 27 sees the return of Dorkbot, which all people who enjoy doing weird creative things with electricity should definitely attend. Get nerdy, you know you want to, uh huh - dorkbot.org/dorkbotsyd It’s also call-for-submissions time at Serial Space, with several exciting ‘opportunities’ presenting themselves: The Next Great Debate series is seeking topic suggestions and debaters – so if you have a hot topic itch-itch-itching to get out and be debated by Sydney’s most sensational, scorching and irrational debaters OR you want to chance your luck in Serial Space’s ring of oratory fire, email serialspacegallery@gmail.com with either TOPIC or DEBATER in the subject heading, and your pitch. Finally, applications of interest are open for hosting one of Serial Space’s workshops (topic of your choice), AND for presenting as part of their September ‘philosophy workshop’, which will cover contemporary interpretations of Michel Foucault’s 'dispositif’ and Giorgio Agamben’s ‘apparatus’. Those ‘uns are due July 30, so get crackin, and head to serialspace.org
Nick is a unique, but affable teen with a taste for the finer things in life - like Sinatra and Fellini - who falls hopelessly in love; in the interests of ‘getting the girl’ he develops a rebellious alter ego: Francois. With his ascot, his moustache and his cigarette, Francois will stop at nothing to be with his girl, leading Nick on a path of hilarious destruction. Thanks to Roadshow, we have five copies of Youth In Revolt up for grabs; to get your hands on one, tell us the name of the director (and your postal address).
What: FBi presents: Stealing the Setlist When/ Where: July 23 - 29 @ MART Gallery, 156 Commonwealth St, Surry Hills
MELBOURNE FESTIVAL
Since planes enable you to travel interstate in a matter of mere hours, why not book a flight for October, to catch this year’s Melbourne Festival. It’s like Sydney Festival, except it’s in Melbourne – and of course, due to ongoing interstate rivalry, we have to say it’s not quite as good. Although it might be… Highlights this year include Hotel Pro Forma’s awe inspiring, large-scale operatic spectacle, Tomorrow, in a year, featuring the groundbreaking music of electro-pop masters The Knife; Bill Viola’s The Raft, Fire Woman and Tristan’s Ascension; AES+F’s The Feast of Trimalchio (Russia); the Australian premiere of Robert Lepage’s The Blue Dragon, a stunning and intriguing love story told with his trademark visual mastery; and Toneelgroep Amsterdam are bringing their dynamic technological theatrical treatment of the classic 1977 John Cassavetes’ film Opening Night. There’s even some Beckett. Head to melbournefestival.com.au
FRONTAL LOBE DEF
Up-n-comers in the graffiti scene WoesOne and Giels Fish are debuting at World Bar next week, with their show Frontal Lobe Def. The title refers to the notion that excessive substance abuse damages the frontal lobe of a person’s brain... damages the frontal lobe of a person’s brain... Har. But in a bit of punning
cheekiness, they’ve traded ‘death’ for ‘def’, which is also a graf term relating to a ‘wild or extravagant look’. Giels is just 19-years-old and a tattoo artist, and WoesOne is either a bit older, or had a really wack childhood, since he’s been writing graffiti in and around Sydney for 10 years. Either way, we like the look of their stuff, and if you want to check out some fresh blood, put July 28 at the World Bar (24 Bayswater Rd, Kings X) in your diary, and get there at 8pm for the hour of free champers.
LION PIE LAB
Lion Pie is a new production company that’s sort of like an incubator for talent, to connect local creatives and technicians with people who have money, a profile, industry knowhow. Lion Pie launches officially on July 24 at FraserStudios, Chippendale – followed on Sunday July 25 by The Lab: an initiative designed to give independent artists and emerging collectives the opportunity to trial and to generate interest in their ideas within a collaborative workshop environment over the course of a day (12-9pm). Expect to see new and developing ‘works in progress’ in the areas of film, new media, writing and live performance. Actually, this sounds a whole lot like Underbelly Arts: Public Lab + Festival. But since Sydney can’t have too much support for artists, we’re okay with that. To see the line-up of artists, head to www.lionpie.com
RUG TRIP FILMS
SERIAL SPACE NEWZ
‘Tiger’ by 23rd Key
Teenage antihero Nick Twisp moves from the pages of the beloved novel to the screen, in this comedy starring our favourite geek, Michael Cera.
WILL REICHELT
What’s your background/training? I’m pretty much self-taught. I remember taking my camera to the Laneway festival in 2006 and shooting extremely energetic performers like Nathan Hudson from Faker and Tim Harrington from Les Savy Fav, and suddenly realising I was getting a huge kick out of the challenge of capturing something so unique. I took some pictures at Sydney Festival’s Becks Bar shows that year, and a friend encouraged me to submit them to BRAG, which they published. After that, I started taking photos pretty regularly at shows all over the place. I got pretty obsessed with it for a while - there was a period where I was seeing at least a couple of bands a week. The only proper training I’ve had is a 10-week studio lighting course at ACP that I took last year.
ill’s doing his part to support FBi, with an upcoming show of ‘Indie Electro Portraits’: Kirin J Callinan selling his DNA for 50c a pop at the merch stand; PVT filming the crowd with futuristic headsets; Julian from The Presets dancing with his goldsparkle sneakers; Spod racing through the Hopetoun Hotel, plastering loveheart Post-It notes on the crowd… All works, including prints, catalogues and postcards, will be for sale, with all profits going to FBi 94.5FM.
YOUTH IN REVOLT
The Six Dollar Fifty Man (NZ)
Missed Flickerfest this year? Damn you. You’re a bad person. Don’t worry, you can kill two Karma Birds with one Cinema Stone, by getting yourself a ticket to Rug Trip, a screening of award-winning shorts from Flickerfest Film Festival – and a fundraiser for the Carpets for Communities charity. C4C is all about breaking the poverty cycle for women and children in Cambodia, by providing them with carpet-making supplies, equipment and vocational training; the resulting rugs are then sold for prices that guarantee their living wages. Films screening include the award-winning audience favourite Franswa Sharl, best short doco Wagah, and our personal favourite (and winner of the Coopers Award for Best Short Film) The Six Dollar Fifty Man, about a plucky 8-year-old who fulfils his comic-book fantasy of revenge against playground bullies. Wednesday July 21 @ Chauvel Cinema. All the deets at www.carpetsforcommunities.org/ filmfestival
Myles Barlow Reviewing your life, one misadventure at a time. By Oliver Downes
E
merging from the gelatinous quagmire of television comedy, Review with Myles Barlow has quickly proven itself one of the most entertaining and original Australian comedies to grace our television screens in recent years. Each half hour episode sees the earnest Myles responding to letters from a curious public by purposefully undergoing all manner of human experience – such as compulsive theft, voyeurism, acrimonious divorce, and sex with a male prostitute – before offering a critical analysis and star rating. Myles’ 'real world' alter ego Phil Lloyd is in good spirits when we catch up, excitement at the impending airing of Review's second season being eclipsed by his status as a newly fledged father – having a month-old baby “kind of puts everything else into total perspective,” he informs me. As with so many great ideas, Review was born out of a booze-fuelled evening, shared by Lloyd and his longtime writing partner Trent O’Donnell. “I started giving things a rating” he explains, “[like] a stain on the carpet, I gave it a stupid analytical dissection and a star rating. In our drunken state we thought it was pretty funny and we thought, well wouldn’t it be funny if there was a guy who applied the whole arts critic rating framework to real life objects. So we started doing that then we took it to experiences and it snowballed from there.” From these innocuous beginnings, the pair took the idea to Sydney-based Starchild Productions, developing four initial sketches under their own steam, before pitching a pilot to the various Australian broadcasters - Auntie being the only one savvy enough to take the bait. Season one yielded paydirt, their efforts being rewarded with critical praise, a couple of AFI awards and the enduring buzz of word-of-mouth recommendations. Says Lloyd, “it’s always a worry, when you go out on a limb and do your own thing, whether everyone else will find it funny or not; so it was heartening to get a good response.” As with shows such as The Office, The Thick of It or Summer Heights High, Review employs a fly-on-thewall mockumentary style, generating laughs through the excruciating situations that Myles determinedly braves. Segments have an eerie tendency to end in acts of gross inebriation, unforgiveable duplicity, utter degradation, or some happy combination of all three. “I’m a fan of all those comedies,” admits Lloyd. “We don’t try to emulate anything, but we are fans of that stuff so it probably comes through in our work. That’s certainly my favourite
kind of comedy, that’s got some teeth and is sort of a bit awkward and uncomfortable, and that’s certainly what we try and do with Review. A lot of the feedback is that it’s sometimes really hard to watch - which we take as a compliment.” Although Review is often as painful as funny, Lloyd is adamant that being ‘controversial’ for its own sake was never the goal. “If we go there it has to be justified, even if it’s very dark … Sometimes we can be gratuitous, but hopefully it’s funny because its gratuitous; it’s so ridiculously extreme and over-the-top that it’s stupid; it’s funny because he shouldn’t have gone that far.” Pushing things to the limit might well be the duo’s unspoken mantra; it’s also the underlying principle of Myles Barlow's elaborate metaphors, which meander off on tangents of their own. “They’re the hardest bit to write because they’re so verbose and absurd and often nonsensical” explains Lloyd, “they take a lot of work, we’ll write them and rewrite them over and over – it’s all about the language… "[Also] there’s a certain absurdity about having an expert give something a rating out of five stars and telling you how good something is. I guess we play on that, that’s kind of the character of Myles, why he’s ridiculous at times and why his summations are…" he pauses to reflect, before admitting, "Maybe we are having a little dig there; not consciously though.” In a case of art imitating life, season two features Myles starting his own cult (promising his disciples salvation through ‘the five stars towards enlightenment’), enjoying the dubious thrill of being a B-Grade celebrity, and acting out the popular fantasy of killing Kyle Sandilands. A more generous budget has also enabled Myles, already a man of the world, to become much more of a globetrotter, his critical dedication taking him to India, Europe and the United States. While obviously pleased with the fruits of his labour, Lloyd is unassuming about the show’s future. “I think the concept holds up okay. I think it’ll hold up as long as he’s doing new and interesting things, but that’s the trick with anything I guess, coming up with new ideas that have enough legs to sustain it. I wouldn’t want to keep pushing it so that everyone gets tired of it.” With a show that hits the mark as consistently as Review, this isn’t likely to happen anytime soon. What: Review with Myles Barlow – Season 2 When: Episode 1 screens Thursday July 22 at 9.30pm, ABC2 More: abc.net.au/review
Myles Barlow: going where no other critic has dared...
LIVE MUSIC THURS, FRI & SAT NIGHTS THROUGHOUT JULY, 6 - 10.30PM
INDOOR ICE SKATING 45 min session $12.50 – 16.50 16m x 9m, Open in all weather Book now at winterland.com.au or 1300 723 038
Free entry - no cover charge 22nd - Jazz with Charlotte Jane & John Hardeker Direction
ART & DESIGN MARKET STALLS Curated by The Finders Keepers.
23rd - Disco with Loin Brothers (Future Classic)
LIVE MUSIC 18 live music events featuring over 100 local & emerging musicians & bands
24th = Karaoke Classic & Tragics - your turn on stage! 29th - 2SER Unsigned Bands Night
BAR & CAFÉ WINTER TREATS
30th - Disco with Simon Caldwell (Future Classic)
FREE ENTRY (only pay for ice skating) CarriageWorks, 245 Wilson St Eveleigh Train: Redfern or Macdonaldtown See website for calendar, times & details
WINTERLAND.COM.AU
Winterland is supported by
CarriageWorks is supported by
29th - 31st - Exchange for Change Presented by Oxfam Australia & CarriageWorks The festival for a fashionable world without poverty. including Rethreads: A giant FREE clothes swap & heaps of other events, talks & seminars Times vary. See carriageworks.com.au for all the info.
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Jemaine Clement [COMEDY/DVD] A gentleman, and a Bronco. By Paul Fischer
jackets and vests, and pretend I’m wearing a monocle, and for some reason, I had these delusions of grandeur – so I had practice, in my own way. Do you sympathise with Chevalier at all? I guess I’m becoming an actor, because I feel myself saying these things that actors always say on ‘Making Of’s, [like] “I think of him as a sympathetic character”. But that’s true. I think of him as someone who’s just sort of – early success trapped him, and he’s quite depressed about it, and – you know, he doesn’t know what to do now.
Jemaine Clement is Dr. Ronald Chevalier, in Gentlemen Broncos
F
rom the early ‘90s onward, multi-talented New Zealander Jemaine Clement has been racking up credits as an actor, screenwriter, TV-show creator, and executive producer, with a strong genre emphasis on eccentric comedies, such as Tongan Ninja and Taika Waititi's Eagle Vs Shark. Unexpectedly perhaps, he cemented his comedy profile in 2007, with the quirky HBO series Flight of the Conchords, which followed his adventures with long-time friend Bret McKenzie, as an indie-folk duo trying to make it in New York City. Later this year Clement appears as the voice ‘Jerry the minion’, in Despicable Me; in the meantime, he appears in Gentleman Broncos,
the new oddball-indie comedy from Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre). The film received mixed reviews, and goes straight to DVD in Australia – but Clement seems to have emerged unscathed, taking yet more comedic kudos for his leading performance as Dr. Ronald Chevalier, a washed-up sci-fi writer with ego to spare. Did you see this as an opportunity to play a different type of character? I guess as an actor, yes. But [laughter] – I might have put on voices like that as a kid and I remember my parents being dismayed. They were both factory workers, and sort of hippies as well. So, you know, I’d try and get, like, tweed
What was the attraction of doing this movie? I thought the script was really funny, and original. I was between the first and second season [of Conchords] when we were gonna shoot, I just happened to have a couple of weeks off… And so, actually, in another way, I was sympathetic to Ronald Chevalier, in that I had to write, or co-write, another 20 comedy songs and another season of a sitcom. And – you know, when you think you’ve done everything. So I related to that. Did you have any expectations when you guys did Conchords? Yeah. We expected them not to take the show. So what is your reaction to its cult-like status amongst Americans? Well, it’s made the live shows a really pretty amazing experience for us, because we started off playing to… about ten people a week – for
a very long time. It was slowly built up, but not to a big degree, before we started touring. Our smallest audience…was literally zero. We replicated it in the show, where we started off, and there was one person in the audience. And when the lights turned on, they weren’t there; they’d left. And that was our audience low point. [But] our biggest audience was, like, 20,000 people. Where did you and Bret meet, originally? The usual comedy story. We met at university. And we were actually flatting together, in this decrepit old building with some other people. We’d both quit university, and we had a lot of time off, and we both wanted to learn guitar. We’d already played some other instruments, and I played a little bit of bass, but not with any musical knowledge backing it up. But we both had guitars, and we started to learn some songs, and – we started to make up songs. And making them up took over. And now the show has wrapped up - what kinds of ambitions do you have, in terms of your career? My ambition is kind of going backwards. I’d like to do some gigs in small theatres, and do little shows, and make short films that no one’ll watch. What: Gentlemen Broncos, Dir. Jared Hess When: Available from July 14 through 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Saligia [CABARET] Tim Rogers covers the seven deadly sins. By Oliver Downes
I
f you wanted a tour of the seven deadly sins, you could do worse than You Am I’s notoriously unruly frontman, Tim Rogers. “In the few hours I’ve been up this morning I’ve committed variations on at least five of the seven, and that’s just in waking up, replying to requests and getting a cup of coffee with my daughter,” the singer says with good humour. Rogers has had his fingers in a diverse array of pies over his twenty years in music, his duties as You Am I’s chief roustabout being interrupted by four solo records, the Tex Perkins collaboration T’N’T, a pair of film soundtracks (Idiot Box, Dirty Deeds) as well as various other musical projects and minor television roles. Last year he made his stage debut in Malthouse Theatre’s production of the German classic Woyzeck, in which he utilised his musicial talents in the role of 'the Entertainer'. With Saligia (the word is an acronym of the Latin names of the cardinal sins), Rogers delves deeper into the performance side of his persona. The show – a self-confessed “masterpiece” – was conceived after he was approached by the Adelaide Cabaret Festival to put together a performance. Rather than arrange existing songs, Rogers decided to write a set of new, thematically united, material. “I thought it would be an opportunity to try something I hadn’t really done before, [namely] developing a character, being anyone other than myself” he explains. “I just wanted to write differently; to write songs that are using texts about history rather than just dredging out your own experience is really liberating.” When his long-time musical collaborator Melanie Robinson suggested the seven deadly sins, he leapt at the idea. “The most common thing that happens when I’m discussing this show with anybody, they get this kind of cockeyed look and go, ‘oh gee, well you’d know all about that!’ There seems to be this presumption that naughty, lascivious behaviour is where sin lies, but it’s actually more
about how you see yourself in relation to other people and how you interact with people regularly – it’s not about being tied up and flogged while being intravenously administered outrageous drugs and being blown by a goat, it’s more about everyday behaviour – that’s more where the fascination lies.” Saligia is also a musical departure for Rogers, the songs being heavily influenced by sources as diverse as Egyptian jazz, Serbian folk and Greek rebetica and arranged for a six piece acoustic ensemble. Considering the divergence from the more familiar ground of rock, was there a sense of trepidation in presenting the finished show in Adelaide? “It was daunting to write something like this, particularly with the way that this year’s gone … I thought it might be underwritten. Then about halfway through I thought ‘we’re really pulling this off!’ It’s really fun and emotional and far more sentimental than I would’ve thought – it’s not all a big laugh. It’s far more of a complete package.” With a further series of performances scheduled at the Opera House later this month, Rogers is excited at the prospect of expanding the show down the line, developing characters, incorporating additional singers and possibly releasing a recording. “I think that it’s a strong concept” he says. “I wasn’t that confident about the songs before we went to Adelaide but after that I kinda am. This is the kind of thing that would be possibly tempting for people I don’t normally associate with or play music with and I’m really surprised and enthused by that.” What: Saligia When: July 28-31 Where: The Studio, Sydney Opera House More: sydneyoperahouse.com/housecabaret
From L-R: Nick Coyle, Anna Houston, Virginia Gay and Janie Gibson
Rommy
[THEATRE] Nick Coyle gets off Pig Island and into the sewer. By Dee Jefferson
I
n a Sydney Theatre scene dominated by NIDA graduates, Nick Coyle has been straddling the divide between warehouse cabaret and independent theatre venues for the past four years, as part of performance trio Pig Island, and as the playwright of works such as Hammerhead (is Dead) (Griffin, 2009) and Kittenbone Bridge (Wharf2Loud/STC, 2007). Taking childhood play as their inspiration, and ‘devised theatre’ as their method, his charming, absurdist comedies have been like a delightfully bent breath of fresh air. Coyle's latest work is set in a sewer, where two insane sisters and a memory-impaired visitor from the future meet, under the auspices of Rommy, their ‘volatile subterranean god’. “[The sisters] have been down there for so long – and I liked the idea that one of them - the meaner, dominant one - was keeping the other one in check by using this made-up god, as a power thing,” Coyle explains. Although his work seems eclectic if anything, Coyle is wary of anything resembling a comfort zone. “I definitely don’t want my stuff to be repeating things, and I think there’s a danger of that happening subconsciously,” says the writer/ director. Part of his strategy in this instance was to create the work around an all-female cast: Virginia Gay (All Saints), Anna Houston (Hammerhead Is Dead) and Janie Gibson (Whale Chorus, Underbelly 2008) – three very funny women. “They’re like planeteers,” Coyle improvises, (referencing ‘90s animation series Captain Planet) “in that they’ve all got their own power, you know? Together they make Captain Theatre. I’ve worked with Anna before [in Hammerhead]; I went to uni with Virginia, and I’ve wanted to work with her for a while; and I’ve seen Janie do a few spoken-y word performance pieces, which have been amazing. They’re all really different, and they make the play way more than the sum of its parts.” Apart from the all-female cast, Rommy departs
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from Coyle’s previous works by putting each actor in a distinct and consistent role, following a single narrative strand, and set in a single location. “It’s more of a complete story – I hope; that’s the plan. A story that people can follow, and feel for the characters; there’s more of a traditional arc to it.” So far, Coyle’s work has been blissfully unaffected by formal constraints – which is part of its appeal. After popping his playwriting cherry as part of Sydney University Dramatic Society (SUDS) – at the expense of his arts degree, it must be said – he has continued to develop his craft through practise, rather than training. “I think [NIDA] is really good if it’s for you, but I don’t think I would have the patience to do it,” Coyle admits. “I don’t want to talk about it, I just want to do it.” At the same time, he has found that with time and practice, comes a certain sense of selfinterrogation. “But I’m trying to ignore that feeling; I’m trying to be like, ‘just do what you want; do things that you are proud of, that you like, with people you respect' – and try and block out the extraneous stuff. Because I think that stuff is dangerous; If you start analysing your intentions, and your career trajectory – all that stuff – I think it can kind of poison the experience.” When he’s not making theatre, Coyle subsists on “the occasional crappy job, and the very rare commission”; currently, he’s working on a radio play for the ABC. “I watch a lot of TV; I like to walk around Broadway – there’s a great pet shop I go into there, with Claudia [O’Doherty, of Pig Island]; they’ve recently got some Indian Squirrels as pets – but they’re $1000 each; who’s gonna buy them?” What: Rommy, By Nick Coyle When: Runs until August 7 Where: Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomooloo Tickets: $17+bf at rocksurfers.org
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Arts Snap
Film & Theatre Reviews
At the heart of the arts Where you went last week.
What's hot on the silver screen and the bareboards around town.
■ Theatre
had chosen a more genetically desirable mate, he wonders?
Until August 1 / Belvoir St Downstairs
With no voyage of the Beagle and little scientific theorizing or evidencegathering, Creation is weighed down by its fragmented structure and insistence on giving everything a dramatic spin. Nonetheless, the central performances by Connelly and Bettany are superb. She has become very adept at this kind of intense character (she played a similar in A Beautiful Mind), while her real life hubby is impressive as the tortured scientist. At least he mopes over issues more pressing than Bella Swan’s; but it doesn’t stop you from wishing he were more like his fictionalized counterpart from the underrated Master and Commander.
DIRTY BUTTERFLY
PICS :: TL
predators preview
British-Jamaican playwright Debbie Tucker Green created an interesting puzzle with Dirty Butterfly, turning a simple story of domestic violence into an unfolding mystery; the audience must follow the dialogue between three neighbours – Jo, Amelia and Jason – to find out not only what dreadful fate has befallen Jo, but what part and perspective each of her two neighbours took. For me, the greatest accomplishment of this play is the skill with which Tucker Green feeds us details; the fact that the dialogue is delivered in a kind of interriffing of slang means that our brains have to stretch themselves to keep up – particularly in the first act, which bends the rules of time and space to present a ‘theoretical’ or ‘possible’ conversation between three people (the conversation they wish they’d had, perhaps).
underbelly arts lab
PICS :: TL
06:07:10 :: Chauvel Cinema :: Cnr Oxford St & Oatley Rd Paddington 93615398
11:07:10 :: Chippendale Arts Precinct :: Kensington Street, Chippendale
I think the point of all this technical ingenuity is to uncover the complicated responses that people have to domestic violence situations (Tucker Green also appears to be subverting comfortable racial stereotypes by stipulating that Jo be ‘white’, and her neighbours ‘black’). Jason has become hooked on listening to the fighting and fucking between Jo and her abusive husband – in the way that other people get hooked on TV serials; Amelia, on the other hand, sleeps on her downstairs sofa, turns the radio up, and leaves the house early every morning – anything to not hear. By being ‘witnesses’, both are involved – whether they like it or not. How they deal with that is the emotional meat of the play. Director Wayne Blair (The Removalists, STC 2009; Ruben Guthrie, Company B 2009) has definitely brought Tucker Green’s puzzle to life, making sense of a script that, on the page, is bewildering. At the end of the day, this is a play that leaves me slightly cold, and there’s probably nothing that this production could have done to change that. My only reservation about the performances by Zoe Houghton, Dorian Nkono & Sara Zwangobani was the feeling that Tucker Green’s slang was ‘acted’, rather than natural – and this perhaps adds to the sensation of sitting through an interesting technical and intellectual exercise, rather than a harrowing emotional ordeal.
absolut side street sydney
PICS :: TL
Dee Jefferson
08:07:10 :: Sugarmill :: 37 Darlinghurst Rd Kings Cross 93687333
Arts Exposed What's on our calendar...
BLACK CHERRY 24 JULY SAT
The Factory Theatre, Enmore
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lack Cherry is back this Saturday, with its trademark mix of burlesque bombshells, bands, and beats, serving up everything from punk to rockabilly, garage, soul, ska, alt-country, blues, swamp, glam & alternative; on the performance front, Sydney sex-bombs Briana Bluebell and Lauren LaRouge will be strutting their stuff, and Melbourne’s Tana Karo (aka Tank) will be mixing her special brand of onepoint aerial trapeze with a little ‘clothes burning’ routine… Live acts include The Snowdroppers and The Rumjacks, with Toz Riot (Bris) on the decks. And apparently if you get for the 8-9pm happy hour, there are yummy cocktail creations from the good folk at Green Fairy Original Czech Absinth. blackcherrypresents.com.au 30 :: BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10
■ Film
CREATION Released July 15. It’s disappointing that a film about arguably the most important idea in science isn’t more polemic. The faith vs. science debate prompted by Charles Darwin’s treatise on evolution by natural selection – 1859’s On the Origin of Species – gets some airtime in this well-acted but stately drama from Jon Amiel, but there’s little of the awe and grandeur of the natural world that Darwin described. We get glimpses of it, such as when Darwin (Paul Bettany) interacts with an Orangutan named Jenny who, unhappy with her visitor’s musical prowess, snatches the harmonica from his mouth and mumbles out a tune on her own. Instead, most of the running time is given to a dreary melodrama revolving around his daughter Annie (Martha West), who he lost to Scarlett fever when she was 10. Through flashbacks and ghostly visitations from beyond the grave, it’s suggested his guilt over her death is the main reason it took him 25 years to publish his groundbreaking tome. Darwin is well aware of the magnitude of his ideas, and also conflicted by his deeply religious wife, Emma (Jennifer Connelly). “Do you not care that you and I may be separated for all eternity?" she pleads. Emma also happens to be his first cousin – would the bubbly Annie have survived if he
Creation could have done with some of that film’s seafaring spirit. “There is grandeur in this view of life,” wrote Darwin; but there’s not too much of it here. Joshua Blackman ■ FILM
GREENBERG Released June 22.
Noah Baumbach has carved out a niche for himself examining the angst of being rich and white. Not as whimsical as Wes Anderson creations, Baumbach’s characters have a better awareness of their tics and neuroses. This more realistic approach makes his characters often unlikeable, setting up a much harder comedy to sell to audiences. With his latest film, Greenberg, and the unpleasant title character played by Ben Stiller, Baumbach has given himself his toughest challenge to date. Roger Greenberg is a fortysomething, neurotic, self-centred jerk, who comes to L.A. to house-sit for his successful brother, Philip (Chris Messina) whilst he vacations with his family. Roger, recently released from a psychiatric unit, tries to use this time to reconnect with old friends and get his life in order, but as the film shows he is painfully out of his depth. Rather inexplicably, twentysomething Florence (Greta Gerwig), Philip’s personal assistant, falls for Roger. It seems that maybe these two people, who are both treading water, might be a love match. While Stiller’s performance is good, the film’s central character is far less engaging than the supporting cast. Gerwig as Florence is a revelation. She almost makes you believe that someone as lovely and kind as Florence could fall for someone as truly charmless as Roger Greenberg. Also excellent is Rhys Ifans as Ivan Schrank, Greenberg’s supportive and tolerant friend. Ifans gives a fantastically understated performance, showing a character who has lived with similar disappointments to Roger, yet has managed to remain a happy functioning person. Greenberg was written by Baumbach with his wife Jennifer Jason Leigh, who also has a small part in the film as Roger’s 'girl that got away', Beth. While the film is funny, clever and well-written it is also oddly unemotional. With an unrewarding central character the film lacks the ability to connect with audiences, many of whom will not want to spend time with the obnoxious Roger Greenberg. This is definitely a film for the already-Baumbachconverted. Beth Wilson
See www.thebrag.com for more arts reviews
DVD Reviews What's been on our TV screens this week The Good, the Bad, and the Damn Ugly...
EDGEPLAY: A FILM ABOUT THE RUNAWAYS Shock Entertainment Released July 7
It’s perhaps not strictly fortuitous that the 2004 documentary Edgeplay is being re-released on the eve of the big budget revisionist Hollywood film The Runaways, featuring Twilight starlets Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning - in what are actually good performances, despite the bad press their involvement in the film will attract from some quarters. But I digress. If you want to experience that film without any prior knowledge then you probably should avoid this candid, tell-all story of the band, as it really leaves no stone unturned. Considering Joan Jett declined, or perhaps wasn’t asked (unlikely) to be a part of this film, the fact that it gives such a thorough insight into the band is a pleasant surprise. And Jesus, weren’t the poor girls from The Runaways victimised! This documentary caused (or at the least raised) controversy for a number of reasons, most notably for the girls’ claims about divide-and-conquer tactics and sexual assault by their manager, Kim Fowley (who comes across, quite rightly, as a total prick in this film). Former bassist Victory TischelerBlue directs this film, which gives it an intimate, insider feel, without seeming one-sided or selfcongratulatory.
FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN
Madman Entertainment Released July 14 Set in the present, with flashbacks to 1975, Five Minutes of Heaven centres around two men whose lives are inextricably entwined, after one (a Protestant) kills the older brother of the other (a Catholic). 30 years later, a television show formulated around the ideal of “reconciliation” tries to bring Joe Griffin (James Nesbitt) face to face with his brother’s killer, Alastair Little (Liam Neeson). The story is based around the true story of two men who are still alive; coincidentally, the two leading men grew up in the same area, albeit on opposite sides to the religious fence from those they play in the film. Oliver Hirschbiegel has almost unanimously made films about the most daunting aspects of humanity – from his breakout festival hit The Experiment (2001), based on the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971, to his major international hit Downfall (2004), following the last days of Adolf Hitler. The one blip on his radar, in fact, is his 2007 remake of the 50s sci-fi classic Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, which was slammed by critics and audiences alike.
At times Edgeplay gets a little voyeuristic; we see real anger, real tears, and large sections seem like emotional purging, split by retrospective clips and interviews. But it's certainly captivating, tells the whole story, and is the perfect Runaways compendium for those who find Hollywood biopics a little heavy handed.
In this mostly strong slate of work, Five Minutes of Heaven feels like one of Hirschbiegel’s weaker works; it’s also his least ‘cinematic’, feeling like it might be made for television. Its main flaws, however, are some hammy over-acting by Nesbitt, who goes too far into his ‘paranoid neurotic’ shtick, and the tendency to over-write the last part of the film, when the content warrants a light touch. Extras include a fascinating interview with Hirschbiegel, done for ABC’s At the Movies.
Nathan Jolly
Dee Jefferson
Street Level With director Wayne Harrison
B
efore Andrew and Cate, there was Robyn Nevin; before her, it was Wayne Harrison in the hot seat of Sydney Theatre Company’s Artistic Director, from 1990-1999. Since then, Harrison has worked as a theatre producer and director here and in London, including Creative Director of the New Year’s Eve Celebrations on Sydney Harbour from 2005 to 2007, and producer of Tap Dogs, Slava’s Snowshow, and Fosse. His current project, Macquarie, highlights Sydney’s ongoing obsession with land, politics and power, based on Alex Buzo’s award-winning play about ‘The Father of Australia’, Governor Lachlan Macquarie. What’s your background/training in theatre? My mother was a performer on the Tivoli circuit; my father was a jockey - so i grew up in theatres or on racecourses. Like my mother, I was a child performer, but gave up acting etc to become a mature age student at UNSW, graduating from the school of history. From there I became a theatrical literary manager, then director and artistic director. True to form, I remain a theatre practitioner who gambles.
How do you our theatre landscape has changed since your time at Sydney Theatre Company? The main differences are: we very obviously live in the age of celebrity and every show these days needs to be an event. Festival culture is dominant. At the same time, we have seen the demise or eclipse of all the regional theatre companies in NSW - so work is harder to come by; and a lot of it is now co-operative, which means professional actors are working for next to nothing, subsidising the industry. What is Macquarie about, and what makes it a compelling story? It’s about the fifth governor of NSW, Lachlan Macquarie, but told with a bit of dramatic license. It was written 40 years ago by my old friend Alex Buzo. I liked the challenge of finding a way to make it accessible and compelling for a contemporary audience. Have you worked with the Alex Buzo company before? I am on the Buzo company advisory board, but this is the first time I’ve directed for the company. I directed the premiere of Alex’s Shellcove Road at Marian Street (now defunct) in 1989, and I appeared in a production of his The Roy Murphy Show at UNSW, too long ago to remember. What else are you working on in 2010? I’ve got Just Macbeth presently playing at the SOH - it transfers to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August; before I leave for the UK I’m directing David Campbell’s Broadway Concert tour which opens at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne on July 31 before coming to the SOH as part of a national tour.
What: Macquarie, by Alex Buzo When: Runs until July 31 Where: Riverside Theatres, Parramatta More: riversideparramatta.com.au Xxx
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Album Reviews
What's been crossing our ears this week...
ALBUM OF THE WEEK BIG BOI
Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty Def Jam/Universal
This is an album long overdue for Big Boi - the man who has arguably been living in the long, skinny shadow of his OutKast partner in crime since the phenomenal success of Speakerboxx/The Love Below. Just as he had some great hooks and rhymes back then, which still continually finished second behind Andre’s ‘Roses’ and ‘Hey Ya!,’ so too does that cheerful, dirty Big Boi spirit come through now. He’s confident, he’s assured, but he’s still one step away from what could be his ultimate chart destroyer. Hey, that’s what time is for...
While this record may not be the revelation that Pitchfork is making it out to be, it's Antwan Patton’s statement of intent proof once and for all that he’s well worth his salt in the duo that spawned him. While he’ll never be able to master the freak-outs of Andre 3K, bass-heavy party-starting tracks like ‘Daddy Fat Sax’ and ‘Shutterbug’ set out to blaze their own trails of weird.
THE BOAT PEOPLE Dear Darkly Brisbane’s The Boat People have a lot in common with fellow indie-popsters Dappled Cities. Both groups have built dedicated local followings in their respective capitals, garnering critical acclaim for music that combines intelligent lyrics with poppy, upbeat tunes - while always just falling short of broader commercial success. With Dear Darkly, the Boaties seem to have arrived at a similar point to that reached last year by the Sydneysiders with Zounds, producing not only their most mature and ambitious statement to date, but also one with the most potential for wider recognition. There’s a sense of self-possessed assurance at work here – especially with tracks like opener ‘Under The Ocean’ or ‘Live In The Dark’, which are buoyed along by effortlessly hummable melodies, and shimmeringly consonant textures. Lyrically the album conjures an all-too-familiar world of weekends spent with a slab of beer for company, and evenings of television and takeaway - reflecting relationship stagnation and malaise with lines like “you’re an antidote to an ugly world” (‘Antidote’) balancing the weariness of “things used to be terrific / now they’re barely anodyne” (‘Soporific’). Songwriters Robin Waters and James O’Brien are confident enough to throw in the odd experiment, ensuring that things never get dull. But they don’t always hit the mark. First single ‘Echo Stick Guitars,’ for example, is as likely to piss off as many as it charms, its absurdly bouncy videogame-chant being a dalliance with electro that quickly wears thin. The compulsively danceable ‘Dance To My Pain’ or ‘Too Much In My Mind’ are more effective. A laid back collection of thoughtful pop goodness that generally succeeds on its own terms. Oliver Downes
Jonno Seidler
M.I.A
THE ROOTS
DAN KELLY
/\/\ /\Y/\ XL Records
How I Got Over Def Jam/Universal
Dan Kelly’s Dream Shock
I’ve always found the first few listens of any M.I.A album to be a confronting, jumbled mess. With Kala, and Arular before it, the cohesiveness and straight up originality revealed itself the more time you spent with it – and live, they become something else all together. Club staples like ‘Galang’, ‘Bucky Done Gun’, ‘Boyz’ and the now ubiquitous ‘Paper Planes’ still sound fresh, some several years later. I don't think there is one single track on this new album that will sound anywhere near as good as those tracks do/did. There’s too much reliance on glitchy wigged-out sounds on /\/\ /\Y/\, and with headphones on, the album feels like it is drilling straight into your skull. The production has trampled all over the ideas and taken absolute centre stage - but then, I’m not too sure that Maya’s ideas are that strong anyway. Take ‘Teqkilla’ for instance – M.I.A drops the name of nearly every booze-brand in rhyming couplets to an 8-bit freakout, and it’s really kind of lame. On ‘Story To Be Told’ Maya sings “all I ever wanted was my story to be told”, with her vocal buried so deep in the mix you can’t hear if she’s being sincere or not. The track instead belongs to producer Rusko, who creates a threatening helicopter sound using a phaser and toggle. That really illustrates the problem with the album: it doesn’t feel like this is M.I.A’s. It feels like she’s guested on a dozen tracks by the most progressive and experimental producers in the world, who have disregarded her lyrical and rhythmic power and flow. This is all style and no substance – and considering its weakness in her catalogue, it’s troubling that it’s self-titled… Kirsty Brown
One thing you can hand to Patton is that he’s great value for money; each of his songs has enough catchphrases to put Soulja Boy out of a job, and more musical ideas than the entire Idlewild musical OutKast put together a few years back. Big Boi is also a gifted communicator and organiser; the talent he pulls together for this album is nothing short of extraordinary (George Clinton, T.I. - fresh from house arrest…), and he plays each of his guests to their strengths. His turn with Janelle Monae, the girl-wonder he discovered and signed, signals the third chapter in a partnership that may even outlast Outkast. Big Boi has the kind of voice that I personally will never get sick of, even if it’s swirling in a whole lot of messy P-Funk and G-Funk throwbacks.
For anybody who pays serious attention to hiphop, The Roots have become the new gold standard. After nearly two decades in the game and nary a foot wrong in their entire career, The Roots (or, to be more precise, ?uestlove and Black Thought) are now in a position where they could do whatever they want and people would still love it. So it’s to their credit that rather than going completely bananas, Jimmy Fallon’s favourite house band have largely stuck with the live instrumentation, jazzy inflections and smooth rhymes that made them so popular in the first place. Unlike most rap/crossover albums, where a plethora of guest stars diminish the core product, The Roots work from the inside out - so that even Conor Oberst’s Monsters Of Folk sound like they completely belong on the record. That takes considerable skill. This album is not without its weak points; the weakest of which is Joanna Newsom on 'Right On' who, sans harp, plainly sticks out like the balls on the world’s largest dog. John Legend’s cut is surprisingly bland, too. But all of it is lifted by the frankly beautiful drumming of ?uest, who invokes the rhythm sections of James Brown’s heyday, and manages to innovate and amaze without ever getting in the way. Sonically, this is a great companion to some of A Tribe Called Quest’s earlier work and, while it’s not their greatest, it’s still pretty great. That’s why The Roots are where they are; they’re consistent, they’re tight and they can do with drums, keyboards, bass and voices what many of their contemporaries are struggling to do in the studio.
I’m told on good authority that Dan Kelly used the ‘children cheering’ sound on Garageband in every single song on this album. I like the idea. I wish I had a team of screaming children to help me along sometimes – but until then, an album like Dan Kelly’s Dream will probably work just fine. Leading single ‘Bindi Irwin Apocalypse Jam’ was, in my opinion, kind of under-appreciated on account of the kooky name. The same funny/strange storytelling from the track infects the rest of this album, from a song about Dan’s fantasy of Djing classical music for iced-up junkies to the title track; a mystical, almost spoken-word jam over a mesmerising bass-line. Every song is a story; at times funny, at times touching, but always catchy and bound to make you smile. There are noticeable pop culture references throughout – from Harry Potter to Paul Simon to American Apparel, and of course that terrifying Irwin lizard-child. It jars a bit at first, but then it works; a crossing of imagination, escapism and reality. Opener ‘The Decommissioner’ will charm anyone who misses the Aussie pop-rock of the mid-90s, but ‘I Was A Classical DJ at Dandenong Station’ has got to be the next single. It starts with a ridiculously catchy, simple riff, and builds into Kelly’s typical sprawling never-ending-pop-song-climax-style build up, to pull back a bit for some call and response with his choir of backup singers. (“I coulda tried my hand at anything”/He’s super confident at everything!)
We won’t be getting over them any time soon.
For some it might sound messy, but who said pop songs all had to go verse-chorus-verse? I much prefer Dan’s complex trips through the inner-workings of his colourful mind…
Jonno Seidler
Amelia Schmidt
BEACH FOSSILS Beach Fossils Popfrenzy Beach Fossils’ selftitled debut technically ticks all the right boxes. Recorded last year by South Carolina’s Dustin Payseur from the comfort of his new Brooklyn bedroom, it’s an immaculatelyassembled and disciplined collection of low-fi pop - drenched with the kind of day-glo nostalgia that’s going down so well at the moment. The album’s strength is the unaffected simplicity of Payseur’s song-writing, which beguiles with a combination of deceptively uncomplicated riffs and naïve lyrics, evoking a craving for uncontained spaces and sunny afternoons wiled away in undisturbed indolence. It’s quite similar in this sense to label-mates Best Coast: but where Bethany Cosentino’s songs are endearing in their unadorned candour, Payseur’s have a tendency to wallow in a maudlin yearning for escape. Not that there's anything wrong with that; but after a while a sense of uniformity begins to set in, the emotions evoked on a song like ‘Lazy Day’ (remembering a day spent lolling around outside) being strikingly similar to those suggested by ‘Vacation’ (skipping town to a place where “the trees and sky collide”) or ‘Golden Age’ (“everything’s blue from the top of the sky to underneath you”). The lyrical consistency isn’t helped by the interchangeable feel of the music - Payseur’s reliance on the loop pedal to develop songs dooms them to becoming rigorous little exercises in knitted guitars. Not even his attractively reverb-saturated vocals prevent them from becoming dully repetitive. While Beach Fossils is a goodenough listen, the album’s wistful charms are quickly forgotten after a few spins. Oliver Downes
INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK
OFFICE MIXTAPE
SEAGULL
Wondering what the 'experts' listen to? Here's the music that drives The Brag... for this week, anyway.
Council Tree Two Bright Lakes
Words like “minimalist” are bandied about a lot in relation to Melbourne’s Seagull (aka Chris Bolton, backed here by a three-piece band), but I’m not so sure. It’s not Pet Sounds to be sure, but there’s something going on in every single moment. If you’re listening hard enough, there are subtle and gorgeous treats; tiny, fibrous guitar-string scrapes that sound like distant
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birdsong. The austere, picked-out trickle of notes and brushed snares that flow through ‘Tea’ evoke Japanese gardens and grey skies. ‘Bell’ builds with plinky notes like Nintendo raindrops and a sustained rumbling that could be distant trains or a woolly jumper over the microphone. These sounds are abstracted, but so evocative you have to try to name them. Kishore Ryan’s inventive percussion is unobtrusive, but easily recognised from his terrific work in Kid Sam once you know it’s the same guy. Bolton must have made his peace with sounding like Thom Yorke long ago, because
he doesn’t shy away from employing that distinctive quaver, unsettling and soothing by turns. At one point, at the end of ‘Judge’, a multi-tracked vocal disintegrates until there’s only one Bolton singing, and he holds it limply until you hear him physically run out of breath. He repeats his simple, cryptic lyrics like mantras, in between sparse builds and pieced-out breakdowns that echo the off-kilter, DIY bedroom grunge Scout Niblett trades in. While I often can’t catch the words, I don’t quite mind – for better or worse, it’s the sounds that carry more meaning here. Definitely a headphones record. When you allow it to envelop you, it’s transportive. Caitlin Welsh
MEMORY TAPES - Seek Magic BUCK 65 - Secret House Against The World TISM - Machiavelli And The Four Seasons
FREELANCE WALES - Weathervanes HOLY FUCK - Latin
Single Reviews
Vinyl
Record Review
By Jacob Stone
SINGLE OF THE WEEK
13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS
BORN RUFFIANS Nova-Leigh
The Psychedelic Sounds Of… [Re-issue] Sundazed Records
Really interesting guitar production from this Canadian indie post-pop/ rock group - slightly pitch-adjusted and varispeed-warped, to push the tuning all over the place. The Ruffians boil arrangements down to their bare minimum (like our own Philly Jays), with drums only occasionally joining the rhythm guitar, and the vocal brazenly exposed. The song cuts in and out, threatens to stop and then leaps into focus without warning. It’s really interesting because you can hear each individual addition, from the sizzle of the hi hat to the buzzing synth bass. It might run a bit long, but it’s great - a taut little composition.
VILLAGERS
Ships Of Promises
SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA
Fellow High Fidelity dorks will notice two things upon dropping the needle on this album: that ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me’ is the blistering first track from the film, and that it ought to be way up there on the fellas’ list of great 'Track One, Side Ones'.
LAURA MARLING
HELLO SATELLITES
BASEMENT BIRDS
Like most of the ‘new-folk’ phenomenon, Laura Marling can be a bit of a put-on - a combination of 60s Laurel Canyon folk and a dank, self-serious Englishness that grates on me. But in a world of fakes, she gives good gravity. Marling gets a bit Mumford & Sons in the arrangement here - banjo and stomp box underpin a straight folk tune about the difficulty of accepting the undesirable side of your personality. I like her guts and willingness to talk about adult things in a pop music context, and I really like the uncompromising nature of the music. Quality without fanfare, a somewhat forced sense of maturity, and a spare but ultimately satisfying melody.
Electronic folk from Melbourne’s Two Bright Lakes signee, Eva Popov. It’s fiddly and twinkly in all the right ways, and shares a minimal, melodically atonal quality with label-mates Otouto. But this is much better. Tiny glockenspiel and string accompaniment flit past Popov’s mournful voice, while a tinny drum kit, treated to sound like a machine, tics and whirs. The bass is almost funk, but it’s still muted and tiny like everything else - until a great storm brews behind her romantic dissatisfaction, and the dam bursts in a rush of strings and synthesizer. “My lover at the window, scratching to get out...” Angst and love slowly dissolve against one another. Popov paints herself as a faux-nervy, potentially narcissistic girlfriend; but she’s a talented singer/songwriter.
Josh Pyke, Kevin Mitchell, Kav Temperley and Steve Parkin - four of Australia’s most decorated pop/rock and folk musicians - combined to make not exactly what you expect. It’s high-sheen, well-constructed pop-folk, spiked with an interesting undercurrent of self-hatred. Judging by the lyrics, one of these guys hates the person they’ve become and the life they’ve set up for themselves. And the lyrics are dark and candid as a result. “’Hold me in your heart, and you will find I am the great deceiver.” The melodic hooks are mild but effective, and the song has the kind of momentum to make it a favorite of midafternoon commercial radio; but the spotless writing and studio mastery render it a little toothless, too.
Rambling Man
Building A Wall
Not The One
One (feat. Pharrell) Irishman Conor O’Brien is an interesting songwriter half folk, half rock and half mathy dance. The tension here is palpable, with the majority of the tune grinding away in a minor key and heading toward a major climax that never quite arrives. By the 1min 30sec mark we’re still bulging with angst, and O’Brien resolutely holds things at bay with false crescendos and all manner of production tricks. Unfortunately, when the crux does arrive, relief isn’t given appropriate voice and somehow you feel let down. It’s alright I guess, but I want more of a tune. There’s nothing in the indie folk rulebook that says a song has to be drudgery to be legitimate.
Does anyone else think Pharrell is whoring himself out a little too much lately? Well it doesn’t matter so much here, since this whole production is such a contrived and intensely commercial electro-house project that you can’t help but enjoy it. Except for the vocal, which is obvious, cheap, and would have taken five seconds to record - not worth the paycheck, Pharrell. The track itself is a big, reverbdriven Italian-style techno tune that makes a meal out of the spare synthesiser arrangement at its core. Very 90s - it could be Technotronic on steroids. But the vocal makes this pretty tacky stuff, and the instrumental is better than that...
As patchy as Sounds… is at times, they know how to start a side. ‘Miss Me’ is a masterpiece of garage-psych and straight-up, fuckyou rock’n’roll. Side B also opens with a cracker in ‘Fire Engine’ - all vocalised klaxons and landlocked surf-rock riffs. A song like that can get lost in the middle order of a CD, but here it’s allowed to explode back out with all the impact of its more famous flipside counterpart. Sundazed also did well to reissue the original mono recording: it feels like a direct communication from musicians who were both very much of and ahead of their time. It’s a bracing, entertaining, mindexpanding, dynamic and creepy listen, especially with an 18-year-old Roky Erickson channeling Screamin’ Jay Hawkins at times, insisting “You don’t know how young you are”. Erickson – whose exploits in the world of late-sixties psychiatric “care” make for skin-crawling reading – released a new album earlier this year with fellow (though younger, of course) Austin institution Okkervil River, so it’s as good a time as any to hear where he began. Caitlin Welsh
“’American Slang’ is the sound of a band on the brink of big things. ‘The ’59 Sound’ showed what is was capable of. ‘American Slang’ takes that promise and delivers an absolute classic. Most acts couldn’t put together 10 songs this great on a career-spanning compilation.” THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN (FEATURE ALBUM) “Perhaps the only difference between ‘American Slang’ and ‘The ‘59 Sound’ is that this, the band’s third album, is better, the constant roadwork and closer attention to songwriting working in their favour. It’s why every track here boasts a sing-along chorus that can raise the spirit.” AUSTRALIAN ROLLING STONE Review “The Gaslight Anthem continue to shed light on our struggles, our aspirations and our choices in the most compelling of ways, one that is scantly touched upon any more honestly.” BEAT (VIC) ALBUM OF THE WEEK
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live reviews What we've been to see...
Richard In Your Mind
RICHARD IN YOUR MIND, KYÜ Spectrum July 3 2010
A LOVE IN FRIDAY 23RD JULY - BBS BONDI ------------------------------------midnight youth s.kobar bricks of berlin j.pinkus endub small fry & rubio $5 rose $10 jugs of beer rug up and get down sellslikeroses.blogspot.com
FOR LEASE SURRY HILLS WORKSPACE Renovated Terrace Whole Floor - Street Level on Albion Street near corner of Riley. Approx 70sqm. High Ceilings, Wool Carpet, Deck, Security Grills etc. Next door to a cool café and Frog Hollow Reserve. 2 min walk to Central Station and on main Sydney Bus Route Suit small office space, creative, PR shop, web designer, admin, showroom, professional, agency, fashion business, audio services, music industry $1600 per month, inclusive of GST, rates, water and building insurance. Electricity, bathroom and kitchen on share arrangement with one other commercial tenant on first level upstairs. Phone Rob 0409 535 673
Parades are starting to look like the absurdly young Sydney counterpart to Canadian genius-incubator collective Broken Social Scene... Their most famous member, Jonathan Boulet, is on Kanye West’s iPod; and now they’ve added Freya Berkhout and Alyx Dennison as the next rising stars. Kyü, as Freya and Alyx are known when in duo form, put on a mesmerising live show. The harmonies are astonishing – harsh and delicately beautiful at the same time, folding over and around each other’s voices like a sonic hall of mirrors. The young pair have a great sense for performance, without being showy. Try and keep track of who’s singing! Watch as they play glockenspiel, drums and synth at the same time! Witness them use their sternums as percussion! I felt as though they were communing with something I couldn’t see, and I blinked like a startled bunny when the set finished. Perhaps the most obvious comparison is if Bjork were two people instead of, well, however many people Bjork feels she is; I could also namecheck Dirty Projectors, but comparisons just get boring. Go see them. My main gripe with Richard In Your Mind on record is that they can sound awfully distant, tootling away off in their own magical party world with liquorice koalas and pop-rocks beaches. But when you see them live, you get to visit the party world – and tonight it’s decked out like an tropical island, with ducks painted like parrots, flower-decked peace signs and an oil-based light show. Richard Cartwright, by day a mild-mannered indie musician, morphs onstage into a self-effacing guru of nerdy sleaze and creamy-centred psych-dub. It takes real stage presence to divert attention from the mercurial Brent 'Spod' Griffin, even when he’s off in the back corner playing with samplers, but Cartwright does it – and he does it even without the giant, lamp-eyed, demonic rabbit head he dons towards the end of the show. “How cool is peace?” he asks of the packed, rapt bar, before answering himself with a giggle: “Quite cool.” Although his reedy voice isn’t spectacular, it suits the party-mystic vibe to a T - whether he’s being dusted with confetti during old favourite ‘The New Sun’ or dropping the white-boy beats of ‘Make It Chill’ - the highlight of the set. Cartwright might be the closest thing we have to Beck, with his uncanny ability to blend the bizarre with the catchy-as-fuck. And ‘Tiny Colossus Face’ nails a Thirteen Tales-era Dandies vibe with its perfect mesh of towering guitar fuzz and echoing vox. Tame Impala wish they were this rad. And on another note: If Jeff Buckley rose from the dead for exactly as long as it took for him to sing ‘Hallelujah’ once through for them and only them – Sydney audiences would still fucking talk over him.
Caitlin Welsh
THE SOFT PACK, CABINS Oxford Art Factory Wednesday July 7
Listening to New Zealand’s The Soft Pack through stereo speakers, I was easily enthused by the idea of experiencing their easygoing indie rock live. Their my-mate’sband aesthetic and promisingly tight song arrangements led me to expect a night of churning engagement, and a house partylike atmosphere involving mongrels and hipsters alike. But it was not to be. Upon arrival I was given a sticker, which always makes me deeply suspicious. Nevertheless I forged ahead, visited the bar, checked out the filling crowd and settled in to wait, while Cabins prepared to take to the stage. This Sydney four-piece offered a
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droning medley of melodic grunge that at times reminded me of Queens of the Stone Age or - and I hesitate to say this - Tom Waits at his most accessible. They held the crowd enraptured in a joyous glum, and when they’d finished I was spellbound enough to immediately drift over to the merch table and buy their debut, Bright Victory. I’ve no doubt that, given the right circumstances, The Soft Pack can engage a crowd. But on this night, through the judging ears of an audience already satisfied, this San Diego foursome lacked presence, and lost their crowd. Individually they looked as if they’d succumbed to either apathy or exhaustion; as a whole their set was loose and nonchalant. The Soft Pack write catchy songs, the kind you recognise after only a couple of listens, and when they’re played live you’re happy to know the words. Hell, you might even dance. It’s an expectation that these songs will be played faithfully, or at least well. But what I heard was a little mediocre, a little boring, and not at all reconcilable with the music I’d heard at home that very afternoon.
Jack Gabriel
THE CHEMIST, JOYSTICKS Oxford Art Factory Thursday July 8
CATCHY. This review could finish there really, with a little head-bop to punctuate, but in the interests of appropriate props a few more words couldn’t hurt… Perth’s The Chemist greeted early arrivals with a beat-heavy stroll of dirty bass lines and head-shaking melodies. Dark howling pop, the vigorous stance of front-man Ben Witt proved a captivating force for the early hours of such a wintry Wednesday. With a squalid 60s bop of classic sleaze, the foursome launched the creepily wailing sounds of ‘Stars’ and ‘Don’t Look Down’ to the delight of the crowd. With vocal howls and a gritty blues swagger, this was music to alternate head and hip side-sways. Another 30ml shot, if you please,.. Beer-sips later, Sydney four-piece Joysticks were ready to wow. Projections featuring the rusty spoons of Dave Firth's animation series Salad Fingers supplement the infectiously dark groove of ‘It Makes Me Sick’ - a killer track that has seen the foursome compared to UK psych-poppers The Horrors - but hell if you’ve got a haunted house keyboard riff that won’t quit, keep those ghouls afloat. In a Paul & John gesture of musicofriendship, the harmonic fusion between leads Tom Riordan and Edwin Morehead proved nothing short of compelling - the beauty of this tight foursome lies in their ability to keep things simple yet downright attractive. With the towering keyboardist Shea Duncan toting a Jack Ladder-vibe and the skinniest tie this side of Hush, the rolling tunes of ‘Bushfire’ sent the four-piece into a lush post-punk disco spin. The few punters brave enough to take the d-floor burned some holes in their boots. On such a drizzly mid-week evening, the atmosphere conjured by this tightly woven kit proved a toastily surreal escape from the winds outside. In front of a depressing projection of sweetly-drowning animated clouds, a rendition of ‘Radiation’ sent a disco-Kinks ambience seeping into the lounge leather. Such weather treatment was amplified with ‘More Bad News from Mexico’- a sinister number hurling rain, hail and danceability at onlookers. The decision to bust-out an older tune not only allowed the quartet to reveal their grungy underbelly and Cops-esque roots, but revealed how goshdarn-tight their current line-up is. With an effortless drawl of pensive pining, the slumping ‘Purple Berries’ was left until the final throngs of the set. An apathetically jaded bass-heavy amble of a tune, this little ditty proved to be a frown in song form as, sure enough, these boys were sorry, love, for the way it ended. Paired with ‘Mama Say’, the foursome echoed around the cavernous space in a neatly spooky bookend to one gunner of a set. This is gin, this is cigarettes, this is swaying in the light of 3am, this is just plain grand. Someone sign these lads before the ghouls steal their souls.
Bridie Connellan
MACQUARIE GROUP, RIVERSIDE THEATRES AND THE ALEX BUZO COMPANY PRESENT
DIRECTED BY WAYNE HARRISON
A visionary leader. A city obsessed with land, politics, and power. The daring retelling of an Australian classic.
15-31 JULY
RIVERSIDE THEATRES
CNR CHURCH & MARKET STS PARRAMATTA
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The Minor Chord
The All Ages rant bought to you by Indent.net.au. By Melody Forghani
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Consider yourself a decent songwriter? Well hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your chance to have your stuff heard by world-recognised recording artists, as well as many major and indie record label presidents. Warning: the list of judges may blow your mind. Admittedly the most high-profile and prestigious line-up the competition has had yet, the judges include Peter Gabriel, Tom Waits, Steve Winwood, Kings of Leon, Rihanna, Ben Harper, Train, Timbaland, McCoy Tyner, and Kelly Clarkson.
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ALL AGES GIG PICKS SATURDAY JULY 24
The Nest with The Foreign Electric Megaphon Studios
SUNDAY JULY 25
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Screaming Sundays with Chasing Amy Annandale Hotel
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Ready for your next dose of Screaming Sundays? At its usual home of The Annandale Hotel on Sunday July 25, you can experience the likes of Chasing Amy with City Lights Fade, Because They Can, The Sidetracked Fiasco, Here Goes Nothing, Brainwashed, and Without Reason. If you like Blink 182, Motion City Soundtrack, Panic At The Disco or Kisschasy, then chances are you will like the headlining pop/punk act, Chasing Amy. Despite having only formed a year ago, and an average band-member age of 16, Chasing Amy are no strangers to the stage â&#x20AC;&#x201C; theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve played a hell of a lot of small local gigs over the last year. To get your hands on a copy of their demo CD, you gotta head out to the show!
THE TEMPER TRAP AND [V] Channel [V] continues to bring all-ages live events to you, upping the ante every time. This time, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s with the announcement of a free, all-ages [V] event with Aussie favourites The Temper Trap. With the recent success of their debut album Conditions, the boys are set to return home this month for a national tour, shaking up the stage of Sydneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Town Hall next Monday July 26 for this special all ages show. This performance is exclusively for Channel [V], to an intimate crowd of 300 people. If you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to miss out, keep your eyes peeled for more information (and the chance to win tickets) at www.vmusic. com.au
The International Songwriting Competition is not just an arena for professional songwriters, but amateur writers as well. There are 22 categories that you can enter, representing all genres of popular music. Past winners have gone on to win Grammys, but donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t let that freak you out - to level the playing field for unsigned artists, the competition has added an Unsigned Only category, open to songwriters and artists that are not signed to a major label record deal or publishing company. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an excellent opportunity for unknown artists to compete against others on a similar level. Apart from the chance to secure publishing deals, smaller label deals, licensing deals, and distribution deals as well as building up a fan base and getting gigs and recognition from the industry, the International Songwriting Competition is also giving away more than $150,000 in cash and prizes to be shared among winners... Entries will be until October 6, so head to www.songwritingcompetition.com
2! 0!2
SCREAMING SUNDAYS
The Temper Trap Channel [V] / Sydney Town Hall
SATURDAY AUGUST 14 Senses Fail The Factory Theatre / Enmores
Buddy Nielsen of Senses Fail
SENSES FAIL AT THE FACTORY THEATRE
Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s safe to say that The Factory Theatre are big supporters of all-ages gigs - the most recent example being FBi Sydney Sounds Like Choose Your Own Adventure. This month is no different, with American hardcore punk band Senses Fail to be performing an all-ages affair on August 14. This band is a product of the modern age, having formed in 2001 after Buddy Nielsen posted an advertisement online to recruit members. Taking their musical influences of punk and hardcore and mixing it with an array of poetry, literature, religion, eastern philosophy and spirituality to create their own unique sound, Senses Fail are sure to bring you one enlightening and entertaining show. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss out on this one. Tickets are available through the venue, for $43 + bf. Hear more from The Minor Chord on FBi 94.5fm, every Wednesday from 5pm.
Send pics, listings and any info to minorchords@thebrag.com 36 :: BRAG :: 371:: 19:07:10
Senses Fail photo by Michelle Salope
RADIOACTIVE MEDIA CONFERENCE
The second series of The Nest is happening this Saturday July 24 with some of Sydneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s finest indie outfits: The Foreign Electric, The Momos, and Indigo Rising. The Nest, hosted by the gracious Megaphon Studios in St Peters, boasts all Sydney music all the time; so not only are you supporting Sydneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s local live music scene for cheap ($10!), but all shows are filmed and recorded - meaning your support becomes part of local music history.
Remedy
More than The Cure since 1989 with Murray Engleheart
SWANS REUNITE
The reunited Swans, once believed to be the heaviest and most earth’s-crust-grindy slow-moving band on the planet, have a new album out in September called My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky. It’ll coincide with a US tour that will be typically punishing stuff - but we ain’t so sure about the tone of the entire release. With guests on the recording like hippy folkie Devendra Banhart (whose career 'head Swan' Michael Gira has been guiding through his Young God label), and Mercury Rev’s cosmic cowpoke Grasshopper, we’re a bit puzzled about exactly what the new Swans will sound like. But then some of the song titles include ‘Reeling The Liars In’ and ‘You Fucking People Make Me Sick’, so it's anyone’s guess.
ROTTEN BOOK
John “Rotten” Lydon is talking about doing a second book, the follow up to his killer autobiography, Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs. Not quite sure what he’ll write about this time though. Maybe just a 300 page textbook on moaning? Hey, we’d buy it.
THE POP GROUP REFORM
Brit noiseniks The Pop Group really truly were a crucial influence on The Birthday Party’s entire thing – and now they’ve reformed. The original members too. They’ll be doing Italian and UK dates in September.
PETER HOOK WITH CHOIR AND ORCHESTRA
It seems the whole Joy Division thing is getting bigger by the week. JD anchor cable bassist Peter Hook is now going to perform the entire Unknown Pleasures slab at August’s Vintage At Goodwood festival in the UK - and he’s doing it with a choir and orchestra. This might have to stop soon we reckon. Not sure it’s what the Gods originally intended.
?
According to Jason Bonham on musicradar. com, the Led Zeppelin reunion world tour (of which he was to be the beat-keeping part) was much closer to a reality without
Robert Plant than people realise. He wouldn’t say who the replacement was going to be, and maybe the fact the whole thing fell in a heap was a blessing in disguise. After all, the new guy might have been Aerosmith’s Steve Tyler. That simply wouldn’t do. At all.
RIP TULI
Tuli Kupferberg, a co-founding member of pre-pre garage punk rockers The Fugs has died at the age of 86. That might have make him the world’s oldest punk. Next to Suicide’s Alan Vega, that is.
7000 TONS OF METAL CRUISE
Last week we told you about the holiday resort gig for Gov’t Mule; this week we bring word of a slightly different trip. The 7000 Tons Of Metal cruise that’s happening in January has 20 acts lined up so far, including Death Angel, Exodus, Fear Factory, Obituary, Saxon, Sodom, Testament, Trouble and Uli Jon Roth. The good ship metal sails from Miami to Mexico. We just hope that the lifejackets aren’t also of the full metal variety.
NEUROSIS
The Roadburn Festival seems to be becoming the new Budokan, with Neurosis set to release Live At Roadburn 2007 on August 30. Also to mark the band’s quarter century birthday is the August reissue of their 1993 album, Enemy Of The Sun.
ERIC CLAPTON’S GUITARS FOR SALE
Here’s something for those listeners who, as we read recently, are opting to dump their superannuation to get their hands on rare guitars. Eric Clapton’s guitars and amps are going under the auctioneer’s hammer next year in New York, with proceeds to the Crossroads Centre, Antigua. There’ll be over 100 items up for grabs, with the top reserve price - i.e. the starting price - being around $30,000. Included in the sell-off is a Marshall amp used during the Derek and the Dominos’ Layla sessions.
6$7
-8/ <
Fear Factory
ON THE TURNTABLE
“Brisbane-reared, Brooklyn-based” noise merchants Violent Soho (and does being able to throw in the word “Brooklyn” pump up the cred or what?) are back home, to hit the road on the back of their self-titled slab. The single ‘Jesus Stole My Girlfriend’ has scored some solid support on radio here, as well as hitting Billboard’s Top 40 Rock Songs chart, and the Canadian Top 20. For the local dates they’ll be joined by Scul Hazzards and Butcher Birds. On July 23 they’ll all be at the Annandale with Little Lovers. The Nation Blue and A Death In The Family tour hits town this week. On July 23
they’re at the Sandringham with Grand Fatal. A new act we mentioned a while back called Melody Black is finally up and running. It’s Leeno Dee (Candy Harlets, Jerk, Ink), Tubby (Killing Time, Massappeal), Phil (ex Candy Harlots) and Johnathan (ex-Jerk). They’re to do an album soon, and have their first show on August 20 at the Sandringham in Newtown. Thee Wylde Oscars, The Unheard and The Escapes are at the Town and Country Hotel, St Peters on August 7.
Send stuff for this column to remedy@ozemail.com.au by 6pm Wednesdays. All pics to The Brag please. www.myspace.com/remedy4rock
TOWNHALL STEPS
STICK MIKE TY LIGHTS FADE CITY C BRADEN EVANS
PARTY ROOM ART VS SCIENCE PRE TOUR PARTY
ALTERNATIVE ROOM PARKWAY DRIVE TRIBUTE
ore
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ick
t ree
SPACE above Shark Bar 127 LIVERPOOL ST, CITY last night at Space THY ART IS MURDER (album launch)
RESIST THE THOUGHT ELECTRIK DYNAMITE
SATURDAY 7 AUGUST
TOUR AND INDUSTRY NEWS
LIVE
SATURDAY 3 1 J U LY
On the Remedy turntable is Aerosmith’s cracking self-titled debut. Tagged as ‘America’s answer to The Stones’, these guys were on fire from the get go; great songs, great swinging arrangements (that reminded us of The Stooges when we first got a copy back in the early seventies), and Steve Tyler sneering and snarling rather preening. Also spinning is Champion Jack Dupree’s New Orleans Barrelhouse Boogie and The Shake Up’s …If You Have No Shame - which is Brit pop punk from another era done damn well. The Sydney trio’s effort was produced by Jim Diamond of Dirtbombs fame, and mixed by John Agnello (Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr), which speaks volumes.
SFX GRAND RE OPENING ST JAMES HOTEL 300 metres up the road from Space (venue upgrade)
want to make friends & money, get free drinks and get paid to party? email sfx@tarantulamusic.com.au for info
BRAG :: 371:: 19:07:10 :: 37
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09:07:10
PICS :: RRU
ash grunwald
the soft pack / cabins
PICS :: RR
up all night out all week . . .
07:07:10 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711
:: The Metro Theatre :: 624 George St City 92642666
It’s called: Grizzly Bear DJs @ Purp le Sneakers It sounds like: The illegitimate love child of Grizzly Bear and Courtney Love. DJs/live acts playing: Grizzly Bear DJs + Nick Findlay + Fantomatique The Landlord + Johnny Segment + + Kill Kitty Munroe + WACKS Sell it to us: Ok So we have Grizz ly Bear, you may know them? They ’re the guys who sell out all their shows and are playing Splendour? Then we have you. Somewhere in the narrow corri dors of the Gladstone or on the pack sweat pit of a dance floor you may ed out just rub shoulders…or you could just face while you bump and grind with eat a stranger like it was an Olympic spor Choice is yours really. t. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: You’ll probably wake up with a Yogi Bear tattoo due to a slight misunder stan “GWIBBLY BEAR! BESSED NIE AVA ding at the tattoo parlour as you slur !” Crowd specs: Everyone from your ‘50s pin up girl to the bearded mou ntain man, and every indie kid and awkw ard geek in between. Wallet damage: Free before 8pm or $12 after (which is 60 x 20cent pieces if anyone feels like pulling that prank again) Where: The Gladstone Hotel, 115 Regent St. Chippendale When: Friday July 23 / 7pm til late
feral media showcase
PICS :: AM
party profile
purple sneakers
british india sideshow wednesdays 07:07:10 :: Beach Road Hotel :: 71 Beach Road Bondi 91307247 38 :: BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10
PICS :: RRU
09:07:10
PICS :: TL
10:07:10 :: Carriageworks :: 245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh 85719099
:: The Gaelic Theatre :: 64 Devonshire St Surry Hills 92111687
) :: ASHLEY MAR :: S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHOHBROOK :: MAJA BASKA :: OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER RUS EE REN :: ICK STEVENSON ROSETTE ROUHANNA :: PATR ERT :: SHANTANU STARICK ANDREW VIDLER :: JAMIE GILB
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08:07:10 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700
PICS :: MB
teenage kicks
PICS :: AM
up all night out all week . . .
purple sneakers
09:07:10 :: The Gladstone Hotel :: 115 Regent St Chippendale 96993522
paradise city
cheap fakes
It sounds like: You stumbled drun kenly into a Ramones gig at CBG Bs! DJs/live acts playing: This mon th it’s Contraban & Spaceticket with our resident rockophile DJ Diirt y. Sell it to us: Can’t contain the fires indulge in some midweek screamin of RAWK till the weekend? Then g guitars, cheap drinks and tight Paradise City! jeans at The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Walking to work the next mor humming the guitar intro to GNR ning ’S ‘Night Train’! Crowd specs: More big hair and makeup than your average wee kend on Sunset Strip in 1988 and that’s just the guys. Wallet damage: $5 Where: Q Bar / Oxford Street, Darl inghurst When: Wednesdays monthly - next on July 28
PICS :: TL
party profile
It’s called: Paradise City
club blink
PICS :: RRU
09:07:10 :: Macquarie Hotel :: 42 Wentworth Ave Surry Hills 82628888
jinja safari
PICS ::SS
09:07:10 :: Agincourt Hotel :: 871 George St City 92814566
09:07:10 :: Spectrum :: 34 Oxford St Darlinghurst 93316245
) :: ASHLEY MAR :: S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHOHBROOK :: MAJA BASKA :: OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER RUS EE REN ICK STEVENSON :: ROSETTE ROUHANNA :: PATR ERT :: SHANTANU STARICK ANDREW VIDLER :: JAMIE GILB
BRAG :: 368 :: 28:06:10 :: 39
g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com
pick of the week
TUESDAY JULY 20 ROCK & POP
THURSDAY JULY 22
The Holy Soul
The Holy Soul, The Stabs, The Maladies, Whipped Cream Chargers Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $12.80 (presale) 8pm MONDAY JULY 19 ROCK & POP
Bernie Segedin The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Carribean Soul Paddy Maguires, Haymarket free 8.30pm DC Brooklyn Hotel, Sydney free 6.30pm Jim Gannon Dee Why RSL, Auditorium free 6.30pm Now Now Series: Soft Toys, Kraig Grady, The Henson Park Chorale Serial Space, Chippendale $8–$10 7pm Original Band Night Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Strike Anywhere (USA), Paper Arms Caringbah Bizzo’s 8pm Unherd Open Mic: Derkajam Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm
Singer Songwriter Night Vic on the Park Hotel, Marrickville $5 8pm
JAZZ
Adam Ponting, James Muller 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 8.30pm Drumscene Live: Steve Smith, Michael Barker, Derek Roddy The Basement, Circular Quay $45
ACOUSTIC/FOLK
Dinki Di Acoustic The Hive Bar, Erskineville free 8pm Songsalive!: April Sky, Massimo Presti, Lee Cass, Josh Singer, Matt Gerber, Salome Cerda-Vargas, Russell Neal, Helmut Uhlmann Kellys On King, Newtown free 7pm Songwriter Sessions Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills free 7.30pm
COUNTRY
Camden Valley Country Music Club Hope Christian School, Narellan free 7pm
Andy Mammers Coogee Bay Hotel free 9pm Bno Rockshow Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Crushed Ice Bankstown Trotting Club free 7.30pm DC Bligh Hotel, Sydney free 5.30pm Jo Vill Windang Bowling Club free 6pm Lichens, Blake Bayer, Black Widow, Summonus, Justice Yeldham Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Matt Ralph Band, Nick Arnold, Under the Purple Tree, Paul Prestipino The Basement, Circular Quay $15 (+ bf) 8pm Mitchell Anderson Band Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 7pm Open Mic Jamberoo Pub free 8pm Open Mic Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre, Nowra free 8pm Paki & Kelly & Marsh Illawarra Yacht Club, Warrawong free 8.30pm Rikki Organ City Diggers, Wollongong free 8pm Rob Henry The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Shane Flew Dee Why RSL, Auditorium free 6.30pm Steve Tonge O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm Strike Anywhere (USA), Paper Arms Live at the Wall, Leichhardt $26 8pm They Call Me Bruce Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm
JAZZ
Club Jazz Open Mic Night The Manhattan Lounge, Sydney free 6.30pm Delilah, The Bob Gebert Trio Goldfish, Kings Cross free 9pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 5pm Tina Harrod, Roil 505 Club, Surry Hills $8–$10 8.30pm
ACOUSTIC/FOLK
A Little Lunch Music: V’Vaci Early Music Ensemble, Neal Peres Da Costa City Recital Hall, Sydney $10 12.30pm Drum Tao Civic Theatre, Civic Precinct Newcastle $69.90 (child)–$99.90 (adult) 8pm Tuesday Night Live: The Simple Truth, Pasqual Black Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm
COUNTRY
Steel City Country Music Club Club Macquarie, Argenton free (member) 7.30pm
WEDNESDAY JULY 21 ROCK & POP
Andy Bull Raval, Surry Hills $12 (+ bf) 8pm Andy Mammers Duo Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm Bernie Hayes Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm
Dumbsaint, Godswounds, The Lander Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $10 8pm Funpuppet Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Gemma The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 8.30pm Hailer, Fisherking, The Tourist The Gaelic Hotel, Surry Hills free 8pm Heath Burdell The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9.15pm Jager Uprising: Debbie, Black Hats, Life Recycled, Harvey Swagger Band Annandale Hotel $8 7.30pm JP O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm King Brothers Trio Macquarie Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Live n Local: Pritchard & Rose, Dan March, Meags Hill, Chelsea Reed Lizotte’s Restaurant, Lambton $13.50 7pm Lucy Sassoon Dee Why RSL, Auditorium free 6.30pm Mandi Jarry Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 7.30pm Massema, The Mophones, Arbori, Jessica Santose Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10 8pm Matt Saxon Queens Wharf Brewery, Newcastle free 10pm Muso Jam Night Live at the Wall, Leichhardt free 7pm Nicky Kurta Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel free 8pm No Art, Eraser Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Sideshow Wednesday: Lost Valentinos, Alter Ego Mania Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm Strike Anywhere (USA), Paper Arms Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle West $26 (+ bf) 7.30pm Surfing Suits’ SurfAid International Fundraiser: Eli Wolfe, Chase The Sun Hugos Lounge, Kings Cross $20 6.30pm The April Maze The View Factory, Newcastle free 7pm The Falls, Kent Eastwood, Achoo! Bless You Hotel Hollywood free 8pm The Revenant Club III: Great Earthquake, Loene Carmen, Myth & Tropics, Leroy McQueen & The Gussets, Moody Kee Jams Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $5 8pm YourSpace Muso Showcase Town Hall Hotel, Newtown free 7pm
JAZZ
Alisa Fedele, Mardi Pannan, Imogen Harper, Chelsea Gibson The Vanguard, Newtown $14 (+ bf) 6.30pm Darryl Beaton Band Civic Underground, Sydney free 10pm John Redmond Trio The Manhattan Lounge, Sydney free 6.45pm Kevin Hunt 505 Club, Surry Hills $10 8.30pm Robyn Pinson Trio Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL free 9.30am Salsa Lounge: Afrocuban Latin Jazz Collective Goldfish, Kings Cross free 9pm Steve St Clair, Emily Garth, Robert Smith Trio City Diggers, Wollongong free (member)–$5 2pm
ACOUSTIC/FOLK
Open Mic Fubah on Copa, Copacabana free 7pm
Songsalive!: Rubicon Rising, Ken Stewart, Tess & Baz, TAOS Coach & Horses Hotel, Randwick free 7pm Songsalive!: Russell Neal and guests Harbourview Hotel, the Rocks free 7pm
THURSDAY JULY 22 ROCK & POP
All You Can Eat Burlesque: Kira Puru & The Very Geordie Malones The Vanguard, Newtown $20 (show only)–$49 (dinner & show) 8pm Anatta, Oversky, Macchiato The Harp, Tempe $10 7.30pm Blox, Paper Champion, Amberdeen Annandale Hotel $10 7.30pm Blu FM Band Competition Hotel Gearin, Katoomba free 8pm Brittle The Grand Hotel, Wollongong 8pm Cambo The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 9.30pm Entropic Macquarie Hotel, Sydney free 8pm G3 Marble Bar, Sydney free 8.30pm Gemma O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 9.30pm Golden Staph, Peewee Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Hot Damn!: Sienna Skies, The Storm Picturesque, I The Hunter, Of Whispers, Hot Damn DJs Spectrum, Darlinghurst $10–$12 8pm Howard Collins Woollahra Hotel free 7.45pm Ian McCrae Big Band, Donnie Sutherland Smithfield RSL free 8pm Jefferson Groove The Tea Gardens Hotel, Bondi Junction free 6pm Johnathon Devoy Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 8pm Keith Armitage Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm King Tide Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 8pm Lionel Robinson Dee Why RSL, Auditorium free 7pm Michael McGlynn Greengate Hotel, Killara free 8pm Mick Buckley Camden Valley Golf Resort, Catherine Field free 6.30pm Midnight Youth (NZ), Tales in Space, Nick Van Breda Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10– $12 8pm Nightshift Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Rockabilly Frenzy: Laurie Rix & His Side Kix Cat & Fiddle Hotel, Balmain $10 8pm Ross Ward (Solo) GJ’s Coffee Lounge, Cronulla Mall free 6.30pm Sam & Jamie Show Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 9.30pm Sharron Bowman PJ Gallagher’s Parramatta free 9pm St Leonards Raval, Surry Hills $15.90 (presale) 7.30pm State of Grace, Jarrod McAuley Queens Wharf Brewery, Newcastle free 9pm Steve Tonge Cronulla Sharks free 9.15pm The Bayonets for Legs, Black Bear Woods, Sleepyhands Melt Bar, Kings Cross $7 8pm The Holy Soul, The Stabs, The Maladies, Whipped Cream Chargers Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $12.80 (presale) 8pm The Medicated Youth, True Love Chaos, Phonicair
“I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can’t stop eating peanuts” - ORSON WELLES 40 :: BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10
gig guide send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com
Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $10 8pm The Snowdroppers, Seven Steady, Iron Jack Gaelic Theatre, Surry Hills $10 8pm The White Bros The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 9.15pm They Call Me Bruce Club Five Dock, Five Dock RSL free 7pm TV Party: Live Bands: The Dirty Secrets, The Brutal Poodles, The Zebs, DJs: Cunning Pants, Lonewolf + more! Candys Apartment, Kings Cross $10/$15 8pm White Bros New Brighton Hotel, Manly free 10pm - late
JAZZ
Didi Mudigdo Jazushi, Surry Hills free 7.30pm Funkquarter Goldfish, Kings Cross free 9pm Jazz Factory The View Factory, Newcastle free 7pm Latin Night 505 Club, Surry Hills $10–$15 8.30pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 5pm Winterland: Charlotte Jane, John Hardeker Direction CarriageWorks, Eveleigh free 6pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Bacon & Cabbage, TeeJay Cock ‘n’ Bull Tavern, Bondi Junction free 9pm Bandaluzia Flamenco Lizotte’s Restaurant, Lambton $23 7pm Dennis Aubrey’s Songwriters Night @Newtown RSL free 7pm
Lucie Thorne, Hamish Stuart, The Millers Tale, The Rescue Ships Notes Live, Enmore $18.90 7pm Open Mic Nite: Kent Daniels Shenanigans, Maitland free 7pm Songsalive!: April Sky, Helmut Uhlmann and guests Henry Lawson Club, Werrington County free 7.30pm Songsalive!: Ben Osmo, Andrew Denniston and guests Pittwater RSL, Mona Vale free 7.30pm Songsalive!: TAOS and guests Red Lion Hotel, Rozelle free 7.30pm
COUNTRY
Sara Storer, Greg Storer Clarendon Guest House, Katoomba $32 (show only)–$70 (dinner & show) 7pm
FRIDAY JULY 23 ROCK & POP
All You Can Eat Burlesque: Kira Puru, Kira Puru & the Very Geordie Malones The Vanguard, Newtown $20 (show only)–$49 (dinner & show) 8pm AM 2 PM Brewhouse At St Marys, St Marys free 9.30pm Andy Mammers PJ Gallagher’s Drummoyne free 10pm Angelgear Blackbutt Hotel, New Lambton free 8.45pm Aussie Foo Fighters Show Engadine Tavern free 9.30pm Ben Finn Collaroy Services Beach Club free 7.03pm Black Diamond Heart Club Crows Nest Hotel free 10.45pm
Bon Jovi Show Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Brittle Ivanhoe of Manly 8pm Brown Sugar Marble Bar, Sydney free 9.30pm Chris Byrne Docks Hotel, Darling Harbour free 7.30pm Club Blink: Horrorwood Mannequins, Mind At Large, No Peace For Charlie Agincourt Hotel. Ultimo $12 Cyber Crystals Cardiff Panthers free 8.15pm Daniel Lissings Crows Nest Hotel free 6pm David Agius PJ Gallagher’s Parramatta free 8.03pm DJ Danc, The Rebel Rousers Belmont Hotel free 8.30pm Doc Halliday The Brewery, Novotel Sydney Olympic Park free 5pm Double Whammy Rocksia Hotel, Arncliffe free 9pm Drew McAlister Parramatta RSL free 5pm Eli Wolfe Caves Beach Hotel free 8pm Ernest Ellis, Paper Moon, Citizen Of The Sea, Video Games The Grand Hotel, Wollongong $10 (at door) 8.30pm Fabulous Diamonds, Naked On The Vague, Southern Comfort Spectrum, Darlinghurst $12 (at door) 8pm Funhouse, Fallon After Dark Bar, Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL free 10pm Funktion Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills free 10.30pm Gosteleradio, The Jewel & The Falcon, Sleep Debt, Guineafowl Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Gyan, Tanya Sparke
TUE 20 JUL
WED 21 JUL
Fabulous Diamonds Clarendon Guest House, Katoomba $25 (show only)–$63 (dinner & show) 7pm Halfway (CD launch), Dan Brodie, Glenn Thompson, College Fall Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills $15 8pm Happy Hippies Ettamogah Pub, Rouse Hill free 7pm Heath Burdell Greengate Hotel, Killara free 8pm Hip Not Hop Hillside Hotel, Castle Hill free 7pm Idol Karaoke Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill free 8pm Instant Replay Celebrity Room, Blacktown RSL Club free 8pm Jeff Duff Trio Kirribilli Hotel free 8pm Jonathan Jones The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 5pm Luke Dixon Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm
Mandi Jarry Lily’s Restaurant, Bar & Function Centre, Seven Hills free 8pm Marissa Sarocca, Gilbert Whyte, Thomas Bayfield The View Factory, Newcastle free 7pm Matt Jones Customs House Bar, Sydney free 7pm Mick Buckley Empire Hotel, Annandale free 7.45pm Mick Vawdon Macquarie Hotel, Liverpool free 4.30pm Midnyt Sun Sydney Rowing Club, Abbotsford free 7.30pm Misbehave Warners Bay Hotel free 9pm MUM: Boys Boys Boys! The World Bar, Kings Cross $10 (guestlist)–$15 9pm
ROCK-STEIN TRIVIA
FREE ENTRY
MC - HAMISH ROSSER (THE VINES) FREE ENTRY
THE STUDY ft
HAILER + FISHERKING + THE TOURISTS RADAR RADIO + theLBLM.com presents FRESHLY CUT
THU 22 JUL
FRI 23 JUL
SAT 24 JUL
SNOWDROPPERS + IRON JACK + SEVEN STEADY PETER STEELE TRIBUTE ft THE VEIL + NEMESPHYXIA + MYREATH DJ B.M.G. + DJ BRANDY
SPIT SYNDICATE + THUNDAMENTALS + SKRYPTCHA COMING SOON
SAT 31 JUL
SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
MON 02 AUG
FANFARLO
TUE 03 JUL
DELPHIC
WWW.THEGAELIC.COM EVENT EVENT &&FUNCTION FUNCTIONBOOKINGS: BOOKINGS: clayton@selectmusic.com.au danielle@thegaelic.com BAND BANDBOOKINGS: BOOKINGS:clayton@selectmusic.com.au clayton@selectmusic.com.au
BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10 :: 41
gig guide send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com
Grizzly Bear New Weird Australia: Anonymeye (Brisbane), Erasers (Perth), Ambrose Chapel (Brisbane), Textile Audio (Blue Mts), Tr-Io : Lukasz Karluk & Gentleforce (Sydney) Red Rattler, 6 Faversham Street, Marrickville, NSW $10 7.30pm Purple Sneakers: Grizzly Bear DJs, Nick Findlay, Fantomatique, Kill The Landlord, Johnny Segment, Kitty Munroe, Wacks Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale free–$12 7pm Rebecca Johnson Band Jewells Tavern, Newcastle free 8pm Reckless The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free– $5 9.15pm Robin Lee Sinclair Smithfield RSL free 7pm Sally Seltmann, Parades, Kyu Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $20 (+ bf) 8pm Sosueme: Mrs Bishop, Flatwound, Alison Wonderland, Hansom, Mike Who, Cosmonaut DJs, Devola, Mush, Leonid Technolgic Q Bar/34B, Darlinghurst $10 8pm Spectacular Feets Iron Horse Inn, Cardiff free 6.30pm The Earth Republic, Vote For Mary The Basement, Circular Quay 9pm The Nation Blue, A Death in the Family, Grand Fatal Sandringham Hotel, Newtown 8pm The Potbelleez Main Room, Woodport Inn, Erina 8pm The Rock and Roll Revolution: The Screaming Jets, Domenica, Ceremony, Skarlet Blue, The Next, The Driving Conditions, Highway Blonde, Ruby Tigers Metro Theatre, Sydney $50 8pm The Tom & Dave Show O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 8pm The Unexpected Trio Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel free 7pm The Urge Kent Hotel, Hamilton free 10pm The V Dubs Hotel Delany, Newcastle free 9pm The Veil, Nemesphyxia, Myraeth The Gaelic Hotel, Surry Hills $15 8pm The Wharf Sessions: The Snowdroppers The Wharf Theatre, Walsh Bay free 10pm Two Pianos Club Five Dock, Five Dock RSL free 8pm Usual Suspects Hawkesbury Hotel, Windsor free 7.45pm Viagra Falls Fire Station Hotel, Wallsend free 8.30pm Violent Soho, Scul Hazzards, Butcher Birds, The Little Lovers Annandale Hotel $15 (+ bf)–$25 (incl CD) 8pm Wildcatz Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 10.30pm Winter Fun & Games Miranda Hotel free 6pm 42 :: BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10
Zoltan Penrith Panthers free 7.30pm
JAZZ
Ben Winkelman Trio 505 Club, Surry Hills $10–$15 8.30pm Bridge City Jazz Band Club Ashfield free 7.30pm Full Swing Quartet Lane Cove Golf & Country Club, Northwood free 7.30pm Peter Head Harbour View Hotel, The Rocks free 5.30pm Strictly Bassey: Jennifer Green Lizotte’s Restaurant, Lambton $30 (show only)–$70 (dinner & show) 7pm Topology, Misinterprotato The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale 8.30pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Adam Roycroft, DJ Black Jade Tavern, Haymarket free 7pm Songsalive!: Russell Neal, Andrew Denniston and guests Casa di Musica, Enmore free 7.30pm
COUNTRY
Macarthur Country Music Club Wests Campbelltown Tennis Club, Leumeah free 7pm Sara Storer, Greg Storer Notes Live, Enmore $31.70 (presale) 7pm
HIP-HOP
Dust Tones: Ozi Batla, The Last Kinection, DJ Ology, Shantanwantanichiban Beach Road Hotel, Bondi free 8pm
SATURDAY JULY 24 ROCK & POP
031 Rockshow Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 8pm A Magical Charity Christmas Concert Revesby Workers Club $65 (dinner & show) 6.30pm Alberta Cross (USA), The Vasco Era, Cabins Annandale Hotel $38.50 (+ bf) 8pm All You Can Eat Burlesque: Kira Puru, Kira Puru & the Very Geordie Malones The Vanguard, Newtown $20 (show only)–$49 (dinner & show) 8pm Andy Mammers Cronulla Sharks free 8.45pm Anna Salleh’s Bossa Boots Berkelouw Wine Bar, Leichhardt free 7.45pm Back On The Block - The Music of Michael Jackson & Quincy Jones: James Tuialii, John Bettison, Glenn Cunningham, Sarina Jennings, Chrissy Moy, Bill Risby, Chris Kamzelas, Franco Raggatt, Victor Rounds, Kere Buchanan,
Sunil De Silva, Angus Gomm, Stewart Kirwan, Anthony Kable, Andy Bickers The Basement, Circular Quay $25 (+ bf) 9.30pm Ben Finn Waterworks Hotel, Botany free 9pm Betty Airs, Border Thieves, Yae!Tiger The Gate, Ryde $5 (guestlist) 7.30pm Black Cherry: The Snowdroppers, The Rumjacks, The Go Go Haunters, The Licks, Tank, Lux St Sin, Briana Bluebell, DJ Toz Riot, Frazer, Ruby Riot, CeeCee, Nathan Deviant The Factory Theatre, Enmore $15 (+ bf) 8pm Celadore, The Decorated Generals Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm Chartbusters Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club, Bondi Junction free 9pm Cutaway Duo North Ryde RSL Community Club free 8pm Daily Meds, GrandMasterMonk The Town Hall Hotel, Newtown. free 9pm Dave Feint Lake Macquarie Tavern, Mount Hutton free 7.30pm Dave Stevens The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 5pm David Agius PJ Gallagher’s Parramatta free 10pm Doc Halliday Sir Joseph Banks Hotel, Botany free 7pm Drew McAlister Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel free 4pm Eager 13, Acid Wagons of Death, Acid Vision, Under the Influence The Harp, Tempe 8pm Formula Catherine Hill Bay Hotel free 1.30pm Gary Johns The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 4pm Gold Cadillac, The Lairs Wickham Park Hotel, Islington 8pm Greg Patillo & Project Trio (U.S.A) Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music $15 (conc)–$30 (adult) 6pm Grizzly Bear (USA), Here We Go Magic (USA) Enmore Theatre $60.50 (B Res)–$72 (A Res) 7pm Gyan, Tanya Sparke Notes Live, Enmore $25 7pm Highway To Hell Belmont Hotel free 9pm Honkey Chateau Regents Park Sporting & Community Club free 7.30pm House Cabaret: The Friends Series: Perry Keyes The Studio, Sydney Opera House $29 (conc)–$49 8pm Ignition Bull & Bush Hotel, Baulkham Hills free 9.30pm Kasabian (UK) Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park $79.15 (+ bf) 7pm Kate Ballantyne Adamstown RSL free 7.30pm King Tide Brass Monkey, Cronulla 8pm Latin Company Grand Hotel, Newcastle free 9pm Mad Cow, Dirty Deeds AC/DC Show Celebrity Room, Blacktown RSL Club free 10pm Mark Da Costa & the Black List Crows Nest Hotel free 10.45pm Mark Travers PJ Gallagher’s Parramatta free 8.30pm Marty Stewart The Belvedere Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Me Vs You Live at the Wall, Leichhardt $10 8pm Memphis Outlaws Club Liverpool free 7.30pm Mick Buckley Crowne Plaza Terrigal free 5pm Mr James Smithfield RSL free 8pm Next Best Thing Dooleys Lidcombe Catholic Club free 5pm Nicky Kurta Brewhouse At St Mary’s, St Marys free 7.30pm Original Sin INXS Show Wentworthville Leagues Club free
Philadelphia Grand Jury, Ernest Ellis, Purple Sneakers DJs Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach $15 8pm Pop Fiction, Matt Jones Penrith Panthers free 9.30pm Radio City Cats Marble Bar, Sydney free 10.30pm Reckless Trio Maloney’s Hotel, Sydney free 10pm Rob Henry Duo Harbord Beach Hotel free 8pm Ross Ward (Solo) The Vault 146, Windsor free 7pm Rozelle Markets: Sy Browne, Michael Bianchino Rozelle School free 12pm Saturday Night Live, 3 Stripe Ave Oatley Hotel, Oatley Free 8pm SFX: Town Hall Steps, StickMike, City Lights Fade Space, Sydney $12 8pm Shape, Bread, The Half Empties Hornsby Inn free 9pm Singled Out The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free–$5 9pm Skii Harvey The View Factory, Newcastle free 7pm Sky Bar Watershed Hotel, Darling Harbour free 9.30pm Solid Gold Iron Horse Inn, Cardiff free 9pm Steve Tonge The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 4pm Super Groove Hotel Delany, Newcastle free 9pm Super Wild Horses, Dead Farmers, Golden Staph, Straight Arrows Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills 8pm Sydney Harbour Cruise: Elvis Tribute Show Pyrmont Bay Wharf $39 11.45am The Julius Set, Rhymada, Havex, Fortune Fails Caringbah Bizzo’s 8pm The Kamis Fairfield Hotel $20 7pm The Nest: Indigo Rising, The Foreign Electric, The MoMos Megaphon Studios – Building 8/ 70 Edith St, St Peters $10 8pm The Nevilles Marlborough Hotel, Newtown free 10.30pm The Rebel Rousers Halekulani Bowling Club, Budgewoi free 7.30pm The Supreme Motown Show Padstow Bowling & Recreation Club The Wilson Pickers, Melanie Horsnell Raval, Surry Hills $26.10 (presale) 8pm Trash: Shinto Katana, Hand Of Mercy, Aftermath, Elergy Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo $10 (guestlist)–$12 9pm Troy Kemp, Ally B, Matt Saxon, Kolider Queens Wharf Brewery, Newcastle free 3pm
JAZZ
Bernie Segedin Sydney Rowing Club, Abbotsford free 3pm Geoff Davies Heathcote Hotel free 8pm Ross Ward Vault 146, Windsor free 7pm Santa’s Got Soul: Cass Eager, Chase The Sun Clarendon Guest House, Katoomba $73 (dinner & show) 7pm Soul Deep, DJ Nick The Tea Gardens Hotel, Bondi Junction free 7pm Sugar & Soul: Johnny Gleeson, Tom Kelly, Ross Middleton Goldfish, Kings Cross free 9pm Susan Gai Dowling Duo Jazushi, Surry Hills free 7.30pm The World According to James The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Chippendale 8pm Tice & Evans, Kaki Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown free 4pm Waiting for Guinness, The Barons of Tang The Red Rattler Theatre, Marrickville $15 8.30pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Songsalive!: Daniel Coates, Clem Gorman, Ben Osmo, Shane Coombe, Merilyn Steele, Russell Neal
Cat and Fiddle Hotel, Balmain free 2pm Songsalive!: Russell Neal and guests Grumpy’s Inn, Hurlstone Park free 8pm Tess Green Fubah on Copa, Copacabana $6.50 8pm The Troubadour Folk & Acoustic Music Club: Out of the Blue CWA Hall, Woy Woy $7 (conc)–$10 7pm
COUNTRY
Gina Jeffreys Lizotte’s Restaurant, Lambton $35 (show only)–$75 (dinner & show) 7pm Lee Kernaghan Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre, Nowra $34.90–$59.90 8pm
HIP-HOP
Lady Chann, Killaqueenz, Moriarty, Jimmy Sing, Judgement, Bad Ezzy, Shantanwantanichiban Goodgod Small Club, Sydney $20 9pm Spit Syndicate, Thundamentals, DJ Joyride The Gaelic Hotel, Surry Hills $15 + bf 8pm
SUNDAY JULY 25 ROCK & POP
2 Of Hearts Harbord Beach Hotel free 6pm Alberta Cross (USA) Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle West $35 (+ bf) 7.30pm Andy Mammers Duo Peachtree Hotel, Penrith free 6pm Antoine O’Malley’s Hotel, Darlinghurst free 4pm Bernie Segiden The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 3pm Big Way Out Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney free 8pm Blues Sunday Artichoke Gallery Cafe, Manly 7.30pm Bondi Cigars Beaches Hotel, Thirroul free 5pm Brian Gillette Smithfield RSL free 6.30pm Charity Turner Brass Monkey, Cronulla 8pm Dave White Cronulla Sharks free 2.30pm David Agius Duo Ettamogah Pub, Rouse Hill free 1pm Dead Rabids, Bunt, Screemin’ Bobcatz Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills free 5pm Drive: Peter Northcote Bridge Hotel, Rozelle $10 3.30pm Grizzly Bear (USA), Here We Go Magic (USA) Enmore Theatre $60.50 (B Res)–$72 (A Res) 7pm Gyan Lizotte’s Restaurant, Kincumber $25 8.30pm House Cabaret: The Friends Series: Perry Keyes The Studio, Sydney Opera House $29 (conc)–$49 8pm In Pieces The Orient Hotel, The Rocks free 4pm Jamie Gateshead Tavern free 2pm Klassic Blak Ettalong Bowling Club, Ettalong Beach free 2pm Kym Campbell Docks Hotel, Darling Harbour free 5pm Marshall & the Fro, Genevieve Chadwick Davistown RSL $10 12.30pm Marty The Brewery, Novotel Sydney Olympic Park free 12pm Matt Jones Miranda Hotel free 5pm Mike Nennett The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 9pm Open Mic Night Excelsior Hotel, Glebe free 4.30pm Out of the Blue The Entrance Sails Stage free 11am Peter Cousens, Anne-Maree McDonald
gig picks
gig guide send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com
City Recital Hall, Sydney $27.50 2pm Radio Social The World Bar, Kings Cross free 5pm Reckless Cronulla Sharks free 6pm Rob Henry The Observer Hotel, The Rocks free 5pm Rockin the Kasbah The Gaff, Darlinghurst free 5pm Roll Again Catherine Hill Bay Hotel free 1.30pm Rozelle Markets: Patchy Blue, Nuages & the Swing Collective Rozelle School free 10am RPM, Dubbly, A.G.T, A-mez, DJ E Queens Wharf Brewery, Newcastle free 12pm Samba Groove Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach free 6pm Sheena Wilbow, Timothy Woon Smithfield RSL free 2.30pm Songwriters Live Paddy Maguires, Haymarket free 6.30pm Super Wild Horses Repressed Records, Newtown free 3pm The Beatville Boys The Orient Hotel, The Rocks The Carpe Idiotus Duo Club Five Dock, Five Dock RSL free 12pm The Sun Chasers, Mick Hanna, Ben Romalis Fringe Bar, Paddington $8 6pm The Wilson Pickers Hotel Gearin, Katoomba 8pm True Wife Confessions in Newtown: Mindy Sotiri, Genevieve Maynard, Blazey Best
up all night out all week...
Sandringham Hotel, Newtown $10 7pm Two Minds Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel free 3pm Viagra Falls Premier Hotel, Broadmeadow free 4.30pm Wards Xpress, Jim Finn Tudor Hall Hotel, Redfern free 4pm Williams Brothers PJ Gallagher’s Parramatta free 8pm Zoe K & the Band of Lost Souls, The April Maze Wickham Park Hotel, Islington 8pm Zoltan Penrith Panthers free 4pm
JAZZ
Best Boys Sydney Rowing Club, Abbotsford free 3pm Danny Sun & the Groove Conformers Woollahra Hotel free 6.30pm Don Hopkins, Tim Shaw Collaroy Services Beach Club free 4pm Janet Seidel Trio Rocksalt, Menai free 12pm Martini Club, Johnny Gleeson Goldfish, Kings Cross free Shawnuff Quartette Oatley Hotel free 2pm Slide McBride Sydney Flying Squadron 18 Footer Sailing Club, Milsons Point free 2pm The House of Blues: Matt Black & the Phat Cats Town Hall Hotel, Newtown free 6pm The Rocks Aroma Festival: TaikOz, The Arrebato Ensemble, Eddie Bronson Trio, Marsala, The
Somethings, Annique Azure & C’est la vie, Doc Jones & the Lechery Orchestra, Bobby Singh, The Barons of Tang, Son Veneno The Rocks free 10am Under Construction Vault 146, Windsor free 1pm Yuki Kumagai, John Mackie, Tony Burkys, Jiri Kripac, Bob Gillespie Central Coast Leagues Club, Gosford free 2pm
Andy Bull
SATURDAY JULY 24 Alberta Cross (USA), The Vasco Era, Cabins Annandale Hotel $38.50 (+ bf) 8pm Philadelphia Grand Jury, Ernest Ellis, Purple Sneakers DJs Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach $15 8pm Super Wild Horses, Dead Farmers, Golden Staph, Straight Arrows Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills 8pm
ACOUSTIC & FOLK
Acoustic Sets: Anthony Hughes Oatley Hotel Free 1pm Bacon & Cabbage, Mark Oats, Dan Lissing Cock ‘n’ Bull Tavern, Bondi Junction free 5pm Colene Crawford Fubah on Copa, Copacabana free 2pm Kelly’s Heroes P.J. O’Brien’s, Sydney free 7pm No Messin’ Band The Shannon Hotel, Chippendale free 5.30pm
COUNTRY
Belrose Country Music Club Belrose Bowling Club free 2pm Blacktown Country Music Club Day: Des Morgan, Natalie Foley, Greg Bain, Max Talbot, Bec Hance, Karen Lynne St Marys RSL $10 11am Blue Grass Arvo: Cash Only Marrickville Bowling and Recreation Club 8pm Dear Orphans, Indigo Belle, Jennifer Concannon The Vanguard, Newtown $12 (+ bf) 6.30pm
Violent Soho, Scul Hazzards, Butcher Birds, The Little Lovers Annandale Hotel $15 (+ bf)–$25 (incl CD) 8pm
SUNDAY JULY 25 WEDNESDAY JULY 21 Andy Bull Raval, Surry Hills $12 (+ bf) 8pm Surfing Suits’ SurfAid International Fundraiser: Eli Wolfe, Chase The Sun Hugos Lounge, Kings Cross $20 6.30pm
Grizzly Bear (USA), Here We Go Magic (USA), Kid Sam Enmore Theatre $60.50 (B Res)–$72 (A Res) 7pm Sally Seltmann
FRIDAY JULY 23 Fabulous Diamonds, Naked on the Vague, Southern Comfort Spectrum, Darlinghurst $12 (at door) 8pm Gosteleradio, The Jewel & the Falcon, Sleep Debt Gallery Bar, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst free 8pm New Weird Australia: Anonymeye (Brisbane), Erasers (Perth), Ambrose Chapel (Brisbane), Textile Audio (Blue Mts), Tr-Io : Lukasz Karluk & Gentleforce (Sydney) Red Rattler, 6 Faversham Street, Marrickville, NSW $10 7.30pm Sally Seltmann, Parades, Kyu Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst $20 (+ bf) 8pm
wed
21 July
(9:15PM - 12:15AM)
thu
22 July
(9:15PM - 12:15AM)
fri
23 July (9:15PM - 1:00AM)
(5:00PM - 8:00PM)
SUNDAY AFTERNOON
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
sat
24 July
sun
SATURDAY NIGHT
(9:00PM - 12:00AM)
25 July
SUNDAY NIGHT
(8:30PM - 12:00AM)
BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10 :: 43
club guide send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com
club pick of the week James Holden
SATURDAY JULY 24
Gasworks Nightclub, Albion Hotel, Parramatta DJ Fresh free Goldfish, Kings Cross The Salsa Lounge Latin Mafia Sound System free Scary Canary, Sydney Wet Wednesdays DJ Lews Lewi, Ahshit, Ryzie-Ry, Down & Out free Sly Fox, Enmore Queer Central Sveta, DJ Beth, DJ Bel free Tao Ultra Lounge, Sydney Tropical Sounds The Latin Mafia $5 The Argyle Hotel, Rocks SWAT free The Eastern, Bondi Junction John Glover, Tenzin, Here’s Trouble, Cassian, U-Go-B, Steve Frank, Mistah Cee, Kavi-R free The Gaff, Darlinghurst New Generation Franny, Alex, Triky, Electroholics, Con-x-ion, Psygnosis, Calico, Kermy, Deceptikon free The Lincoln, Kings Cross Kareem the DJ free (guestlist) The Sugarmill, Kings Cross Battery Operated DJ Matt Hoare free World Bar, Kings Cross The Wall/SUGD free
THURSDAY JULY 22
Chinese Laundry, Sydney
DJ Kicks Tour feat. James Holden (UK), Jeff Drake, Ember, Murray Lake, Club Junque, DJ Trinity, A-Tonez, Mike Hyper, Wedding Ring Fingers, The Audiophilez. Hosted by MC Adam Zae $15/$25 MONDAY JULY 19 202 Broadway, Chippendale Hospitality Crew free Empire Hotel, Potts Point Bazaar HBK, I Low free One World Sport, Parramatta Ricky Ro free Soho, Kings Cross Comedown free The Sugarmill, Kings Cross Mondays James Rawson (live), Kavi-R free V Bar, Sydney Monday Mambo Mambo G $5–$10
TUESDAY JULY 20 Cruise Bar, Circular Quay DCE Salsa Lessons $20 Establishment, Sydney Rumba Motel DJs Willie Sabor and guests free Martin Place Bar, Sydney 44 :: BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10
Louis M, Sammy free Metro Theatre, Sydney B.o.B (USA) with special guests $59.90 Oatley Hotel Suburban Alternative DJ Mini Mullet free Opera Bar, Circular Quay DJ Jack Shit free The Gaff, Darlinghurst Coyote Tuesday Kid Finley, Pee Wee Pete free–$5 World Bar, Kings Cross Pop Panic Karaoke, Daigo, Shipwreck, M.I.T free
WEDNESDAY JULY 21 Bank Hotel, Newtown Girl’s Night DJ Beth Yen free Cruise Bar, Circular Quay Rockstar free Establishment, Sydney Mid Week Hurdle Nic Phillips, Craig Patterson free Fringe Bar, Paddington F.R.I.E.N.D/s $5 VIP/$10 door
202 Broadway, Chippendale Basic Foreign Dub, Headroom, Space is the Place, Void free Cargo Bar, King St Wharf Thursday I’m In Love free Ching-a-lings, Darlinghurst D & D’s Beat Kitchen Dave Fernandes, Dean Dixon free Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool After School Detention DJ Rangi, Mac, K-Note MC Buddy Love free Cruise Bar, Circular Quay DJ Dwight ‘Chocolate’ Escobar free Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown Brett Hunt free Dug Out Bar, Burdekin Hotel Speakeasy Magda, Dave Fernandes Empire Hotel, Potts Point Episodes DJ Schoder, Wanted, Zahra, Jason K, Johar free Gasworks Nightclub, Albion Hotel, Parramatta Da Bomb with DJ Fresh free Goldfish, Kings Cross The Funk Quarter Phil Hudson, Phil Toke, Dave 54, Michael Wheatley Harp Hotel, Wollongong Spit Syndicate Home Terrace, Darling Harbour Unipackers RnB, Top 40, Electro $5 Hotel Chambers, Sydney Timewarp Retro DJs free Judgement Bar, Taylor Square Judgement Night Sex Worker & Ymerej, weekly guests free Kinselas Hotel, Darlinghurst Simon Alexander free Lady Lux, Kings Cross Notorious Thursdays Die Pritti, Jimmy 2 Sox, Stick Man free Mansions, Kings Cross Van Sereno and Cavan Te live on rotation free Martin Place Bar, Martin Place Thursdays at MPB Louis M free Q Bar, Darlinghurst Hot Damn! DJ Sarah Spandex, Mark C, Heart Attack $10–$12 Sapphire Suite, Kings Cross Flaunt Nacho Pop, Diaz, Eko, Tom Piper, R-Son, Zero Cool free Shelbourne Hotel, Sydney The Social Club Beth Yen free The Eastern Hotel, Bondi Junction Sneaker Husky, Ant Best Shy, Travis Hale, Dave Rizzle, Yogi free The Rouge, Darlinghurst Surprise Surprise Astrix, SMS, Ember, Lights Out, Tom Piper World Bar, Kings Cross Teenage Kicks free
FRIDAY JULY 23 Artspace, Woolloomooloo Biennale of Sydney: SuperDeluxe Hair Stylistics, Robin Fox free Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach Dustones Ozi Batla, The Last Kinection, DJ Ology, Shantanwantanichiban free
Pee Wee Ferris
Candy’s Apartment, Kings Cross Liquid Sky Itchy & Scratchy, Jackpop, Kyro & Bomber, The Multipliers, Diskoriot, Scratch & Sniff, Tongue in Cheek, Skinny + more! $10/$15 CarriageWorks, Eveleigh Winterland Friday Nights Loin Brothers 6-10pm free Chinese Laundry, Sydney Logistics (UK), Morphee & Vesper, Linken & Vertigo, Sushi, Riggers, Adam Lance, Dave Winnell $15 Civic Undergound, Sydney Scuba (Germany), Mark Pritchard, Simon Caldwell, Johnny Faith, Monkfly $10 (before midnight) / $15 Collector Hotel, Parramatta Corner Shop Tikelz, DJ Browski, J Lyrikz, Naughty, Gunz free Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool Fuego DJ Mac, Don Juan, K-Note, Asado, Dennis Tha Menace, The Empress MC, MC Seba Dug Out Bar, Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst Co.Deep Whitey, Murda1, Ritual, Fire, Alf, Missree free Establishment Hotel Carnival La Fiesta Sound System and Special Guest DJs all night free Fanny’s of Newcastle Gangster Party $15 (presale)–$20 (at door) Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale Purple Sneakers Grizzly Bear DJs, Nick Findlay, Fantomatique, Kill The Landlord, Johnny Segment, Kitty Munroe, Wacks $12
Scuba
Goldfish, Kings Cross Sugar & Soul Phil Hudson, Paul Hatz, Agey, Danny De Sousa, Matt Cahill, Tom Kelly free Home The Venue, Darling Harbour Sublime 14th Birthday - Galaxy Quest Peewee Ferris, John Ferris, Suae, Pulsar, Scotty G, X’Dream, Matrix, Nasty (ACT), Big Dan, Scar (UK), Chaos (UK), Weaver, Haze, Dover JTS, Team Rocket, Nik Import, Morphee, Desto, Vesper, Linken, Vertigo, Sariss, Finesse, G-Flux , MC Losty, MC Tempo (UK) $25 (final release/$20 (second release)/$15 (members) Hunter Bar, Sydney Steve Hill, Amber Savage, Suae, Pulsar, Hardforze, Convict, Arbee, Yoshi, Xdream, Keely Vs Dbs, JT Stanhope Kinselas, Taylor Square Toby Wilson free Kit & Kaboodle, Darlinghurst Falcona Fridays Falcona DJs plus regulars includ. Elaine Benes, Hobogestapo, The Gameboys $10 Live House, Lewisham Abduction $5–$10 Mansions, Kings Cross Nick Polly, Little Rich, Nick T, Stevie S, Adrian Allen free Middle Bar, Kinselas, Darlinghurst Flavours on Friday MC Q-Bizzi, C-Bu, Trey, Mike Champion, Naiki, Tekkaman $20 Oatley Hotel We Love Oatley Hotel Fridays DJ tone free
club guide send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com Omega Lounge, Sydney Unwind Greg Summerfield, Matt Brunton free Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Generic Collective Generic DJs, Wax Motif, Slap Dash Phoenix Bar, Darlinghurst Index Deadbeat, Mark Pritchard, Westernsynthetics, Prize, Sofie Loizou, Swindle, Sub Bass Snarl $15-$20 Q Bar, Darlinghurst Sosueme Mrs Bishop, Flatwound, Alison Wonderland, Hansom, Mike Who, Cosmonaut DJS, Devola, Mush, Leonid, Technologic $10 on the door Queens Wharf Brewery, Newcastle Unite free Raval, Surry Hills Listen Hear Huwston, Micah, James De La Cruz, Chris Coucouvinis free Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross Sapphire Fridays Miss Match, Rob Morrish, Dave 54, Kate Monroe, Chiller $10 Soda Bar, Golden Sheaf, Double Bay Mike Who, Mr Glass, Brynstar free SoHo, Potts Point Uni Jam free Spectrum, Darlinghurst Silent Alarm Silent DJs $5 St James Hotel, Sydney One Night in Cuba Mani, Yemaya, Nandez, Av El Cubano $15 Tank Nightclub, Sydney RnB Superclub Def Rok, Eko, G Wizard, Lilo, Troy T, MC Jayson The Argyle Hotel, Rocks John Devechis, DJ Heidi, Cadell free The Lincoln, Kings Cross The Scene Charlie Brown, Samari
The Rouge, Kings Cross Shock Horror Threesixteen, Josh Flanagan, Ember, Steve Lind, Tag Team free on guestlist before 11pm The Roxy Hotel, Parramatta Roxy Fridays $10, free for members Watershed Hotel, Darling Harbour Warped free World Bar, Kings Cross MUM $10
SATURDAY JULY 24 202 Broadway, Chippendale Headroom Monk Fly, Jonny Faith, Know-U, Suburban Dark, Elliot $15 Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo Trash DJ M!Veg, DJ Absynth $12 Artspace, Woolloomooloo Biennale of Sydney: SuperDeluxe Rice Corpse free BB’s, Bondi Beach Wildlife DJs Mesan, James Roberts, Adriano Giorgi, Dinseh Sundar, Matt Singmin, Chris Kyle free Candy’s Apartment, Kings Cross Ritual SMS, Lights Out!, Teez, D.U.I, Stik, Terror Tee, EO, Beat Boy and more $15 /$25 Carmen’s Nightclub, Miranda The Bang Gang Deejays, Paysee free–$15 Chinese Laundry, Sydney DJ Kicks Tour feat. James Holden (UK), Jeff Drake, Ember, Murray Lake, Club Junque, DJ trinity, A-Tonez, Mike Hyper, Wedding Ring
Killaqueenz
FREE
PRESENTS Fingers, The Audiophilez. Hosted by MC Adam Zae $20 Civic Underground, Sydney Adult Disco Cadillac (Melb), Youth (Bris), Frames, Hentai (Disco Punx), Andy Webb, McInnes, Future Classic DJs $10/$20 Clarence Hotel, Petersham Caesars Sandy Bottom, Justin Scott, DJ Chip free Collingwood Hotel, Liverpool Pop Fiction, Zoltan free Cricketer’s Arms, Surry Hills Pod War free Cruise Bar, Circular Quay DJ Simon Neal, Ben Vickers free Docks Hotel, Darling Harbour Fabulous Nino Brown, Don Juan, Samrai, Tikelz, Solz, Lil B, Robbie Knotts, Broski, Shruggz, MC Q-Bizzi, MC Mike Celekt, Aga, Akay, Dimi K, Yanni-B $20 Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown Kaki $20 Eastern Hotel, Bondi Junction I Love Saturdays Zannon, Tony Shock, Matt Ferreira, Tass, Akay, Don Juan, Dante Rivera, Dennis Agee, Willie Sabor, Oscar Cadena free Gasworks Nightclub, Albion Hotel, Parramatta DJs Matt Hoare and Andy Marc $10 Goldfish, Kings Cross Abel, Tom Kelly, Phil Hudson, Ross Middleton on Sax free Goodgod Small Club, CBD Lady Chann, Killaqueenz, Moriarty, Jimmy Sing, Judgement, Bad Ezzy, Shantanwantanichiban $20 Hollywood Hotel, Surry Hills ..THAT KEEN! Cuatro! Radar, BJ, NYDRay, Deeshco free Home The Venue, Sydney Homemade Saturdays The 808s, Aladdin Royaal, James 'Saxman' Spy, Matt Ferreira, Hannah Gibbs, Tony Venuto, Dave Austin, Flite, LKO, Seiz, Uncle Abe $20 VIP/$25 door Hotel Sweeney's, Sydney Hard As Hell DJ Alex B, Spellbound, DJ Peter, DJ Gaga, Pugsly, Little John, DJ Spir@l, The Saint, DJ Buddha, H.S.B. (Hardstyle Boiz), DJ Skitzy, The Khemist, Napoleon, Refresh, Catzeyez, Satanism, Fulla, Tha Kid, Blocka, Nik Import, Convict, Paulie MC, MC Mest Ivy, Sydney Pure Ivy Mink & Tass $20 Jacksons On George, Sydney Leno, Aladdin Royaal free Kinselas, Taylor Square Brynstar, Shaun Keble, Yin Yang, Beth Yen and Matt Hoare free Mansions, Kings Cross Reckless, Little Rich, Shaun Keeble, Nick Polly free Martin Place Bar, Sydney Bamboo Eko, Nude-E, Mirage, Shorty, Ace, Moto, Qrius, IllDJ $5 Mean Fiddler, Rouse Hill Fiddler Bar DJ Bobby Dazzler free Melt Bar, Kings Cross Kontrast Simon Caldwell, Joey Kaz, Joey Tupaea, Even, Shepz, Tim Redmond $15–$20 Opera Bar, Circular Quay Krishna Jones free Shelbourne Hotel, Sydney Shipwreck, Daniel Nall, Leon Pirello $10 after 10pm Space Nightclub, Sydney SFX DJs Bzurk, Absynth, Snowflake $10 Spectrum, Darlinghurst
THE LAST KINECTION • OLOGY SHANTAN WANTAN ICHIBAN
FRIDAY JULY 23RD
PHILADELPHIA GRAND JURY PURPLE SNEAKERS DJS ERNEST ELLIS
SATURDAY JULY 24 TICKETS $15 FROM
OR ON THE DOOR
ALSO SHOWING IN THE REX 4(% */9 &/2-)$!",%
JINJ A S AFAR I
THE TEMPER TRAP DJ’S
WED 4/8
WED 21/7 WED 28/7
BRITISH INDIA SAT 7/8
BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10 :: 45
club guide
Deep Impressions
clubguide@thebrag.com P*A*S*H Goldfoot, DJ Knife $7 Stonewall, Darlinghurst Greg Boladian, Nick J free The Argyle Hotel, Rocks Charley Bo Funk, Dante, Phil Hudson free The Bank Nightclub, Kings Cross Sin City Don Juan, DJ Willie, Mista Kay, MC Q-Bizzi The Dolphin Hotel, Surry Hills DJ Chris Skinner, DJ Carl O’Brien free The Gaff, Darlinghurst Perfect Day Resident house DJs Mark Alsop, DJ Chip, DJ Murray Hood, DJ Miss Match, DJ Brett Austin, DJ Scotty Tanner, DJ James Tobin, DJ Man and DJ Dirty Dan free The Manhattan Lounge, Martin Place Hushhh... DJs Stunna, Sonny, Special K $10 after 9pm The Venue, Double Bay Pure House Ben Morris, Illya, Robbie Lowe, Matt Mandell, Ollie Brooke, Matt Roberts, Simon Caldwell, Kato, James Taylor, Lummy, Mitch Crosher, Phil Smart Tonic Lounge, Kings Cross Still Struttin’ Gian Arpino + regulars $15 Trademark Hotel, Kings Cross hush free on guestlist Verandah Bar, Sydney The Booty Bar George B, Nasser T, Lenno, K Sera Watershed Hotel, Darling Harbour Paul Moussa free
Underground Dance and Electronica with Chris Honnery
SUNDAY JULY 25 Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Bondi Cultura Samba Groove free Colombian Hotel (Downstairs), Darlinghurst Hotrod Sunday Sandi Hotrod & G.I Jode free Colombian Hotel (Upstairs), Darlinghurst The Deep Disko Phil Hudson, Dave 54, Ollie Brroke free Docks Hotel, Darling Harbour Salsa Caliente Sabroson, DJ Vico free Downstairs, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown DJ Metal Matt, Louis Tillett free Goldfish, Kings Cross Martini Club Live DJs Illya, Johnny Gleeson, Miss Match, Jack MCCord and Tom Kelly free Home Terrace, Sydney Spice After Hour $20/$10 Hotel Chambers, Sydney La Chambre Rouge X-Tof, DJ XL, Trey, Twinz $20 Ice Bar, Sydney The Kitsch Sound System, Phil Hudson, Chloe West, Mark Matthews free Kings Cross Hotel Jammin Sundays free Kinselas Hotel, Darlinghurst The Fifth Dimension free Oatley Hotel Sunday Sessions DJ Tone & Friends free Phoenix Bar, Exchange
Hotel, Darlinghurst Loose Ends Resident DJ Matt Vaughan & Regular guests Including Seymour Butz, Mark Murphy, Stephen Allkins, AvraCybele, Ben Drayton, Sveta, The Loin Brothers Free Entry From 10pm Sapphire Suite, Kings Cross Random Sundays Mike Rukus, Tom Piper, James Taylor, Matt Nukewood, Goodfella, Adam Lance, RobKAY free (guestlist)–$15 The Argyle Hotel, Rocks Cadell free The Bank Nightclub, Kings Cross Soul On Sunday Nino Brown, Don Juan free The Beresford Hotel, Surry Hills B Side free The Bunker Bar, Kings Cross Marco Resmann free The Rouge, Kings Cross Cheap Thrill$ M&M Bend, Matt Nukewood, Tenzin, Barfly free The Roxy, Parramatta Sunday Social $10, free for members The Sugarmill, Kings Cross Neighbourhood Kate Munroe free Trademark Hotel, Darlinghurst Soul on Sunday Nino Brown, Don Juan Watershed Hotel, Darling Harbour Miss Gabby free
club picks up all night out all week...
Logistics
Super Flu
This Week’s Episode: For Those Who Wait
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ne of the tragedies of the Icelandic volcano was that it threw Australia’s clubbing schedule into utter disarray, and there was nothing more disconcerting than the cancellation – or rather postponement – of Frenchman Agoria’s debut tour down under. Thankfully, the powers that be have been working frenetically behind the scenes to organize a return trip post haste, and I can now confirm that Agoria will headline Plantation on Saturday September 4 alongside Super Flu (the duo of Feliks Thielemann and Mathias Schwarz). Agoria has always ranked as one of the more interesting figures in the underground scene, releasing the acclaimed LP Blossom, which included a collaboration with Bristol’s Tricky and attracted a remix from Michael Mayer, and more recently scored the soundtrack to the film Go Fast. As a DJ, both his At The Controls and under-appreciated Cute And Cult mixes are necessary pillars in the collection of any serious dance music aficionado – or avid Deep Impressions reader – and he has arguably surpassed those efforts with his latest double CD Balance 16 - a contender for mix of the year along with offerings from Dinky and James Holden. Self-described as “a manifesto of my passion for music and for mixing”, both discs of the compilation build upon the motif of equilibrium and come full circle, starting and finishing with the same tracks and spanning material from The Field and Efdemin, alongside cuts from LCD Soundsystem, Avril and Deep Impressions poster-boy Shit Robot. The preceding Saturday, Detroit’s Shaun Reeves throws down at the same venue, a gig which is highly recommended for anyone who was taken by Seth Troxler on his visits Down Under over the past few months. Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker and Kompakt’s Matias Aguayo, who starred at last year’s Pirates of the Underground boat cruise in December, are among the guest artists contributing to the forthcoming LP from Discodeine. “Who is Discodeine?” slurs the soporific stoner up the back of the class. To get you up to speed pal, Discodeine is a Parisian outfit comprised of disco-edit extraordinaire Pilooski, Morando (AKA Pentile) and Cédric Marszewski.
Thus far they’ve had several releases on D*I*R*T*Y sub-label Dark & Lovely, most recently ‘Singular’, which features vocals from Aguayo, who has garnered acclaim as a solo artist while also helming his own Comeme imprint. ‘Singular’ will appear on the LP along with productions featuring contributions from Cocker and Baxter Dury (son of Ian), with more details to be released soon. D*I*R*T*Y tell us to “expect pop music, analogue basslines, steel drums, weird disco and more”. Rumours also abound as to Aguayo’s possible return to Australia later this year, but that’s yet to be made official [oooh, ahhhh…] German tech producer Marc Romboy, of the Systematic label, is someone who will definitely return to Sydney next month. Having played a blinding set at Deep As Fu*k’s Easter bash alongside Minilogue last year, this time around Romboy will be playing at Chinese Laundry. Always a favourite with Aussie punters, Romboy has been buried in the studio with Rodriguez Jr of late, releasing new EP Lac De Nivelles, which includes a remix from UK house maestro Glimpse. Seek it out, yo… With Matthew Dear having just released a new LP – watch for a review in next week’s publication – his Spectral Sound label has also released a new compilation, creatively titled (wait for it) Spectral Sound. The compilation includes tracks from the likes of Lee Curtiss, Osborne and Wolf & Lamb coowner Gadi Mizrahi, and is available through Stomp in Australia. Dear himself features on multiple occasions, under his alternate monikers Jabberjaw and Audion, along with a collaboration he did with Seth Troxler. Meanwhile, back in the studio, Dear’s other label, Ghostly International, seems more than satisfied to leave the club output to Spectral, as it has teamed up with New York’s Wordless Music for what will be the label’s first ever ‘classical’ music project. The release is a recording of Terry Riley’s pioneering minimalist piece In C, performed by the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC on November 8, 2009. `Comprised of 53 brief musical 'cells', each lasting between half a beat and 32 beats, In C was originally composed in 1964 and is generally viewed as one of the most important works of the 20th century, having been cited as an influence by everyone from Steve Reich to Jeff Mills. It’s not all about four-to-the-floor after all.
LOOKING DEEPER SATURDAY JULY 24 James Holden (UK) Chinese Laundry
SUNDAY JULY 25 Diatribe @ Spice Home Nightclub
FRIDAY JULY 23 CarriageWorks, Eveleigh Winterland Friday Nights Loin Brothers 6-10pm free Chinese Laundry, CBD Logistics (UK), Morphee & Vesper, Linken & Vertigo, Sushi, Riggers, Adam Lance, Dave Winnell $15 all night
46 :: BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10
Civic Undergound, CBD Scuba (Germany), Mark Pritchard, Simon Caldwell, Johnny Faith, Monkfly $10 before midnight, $15 after
(Melb), Youth (Bris), Frames, Hentai (Disco Punx), Andy Webb, McInnes, Future Classic DJs $10/$20
SATURDAY JULY 24
Goodgod Small Club, CBD Lady Chann, Killaqueenz, Moriarty, Jimmy Sing, Judgement, Bad Ezzy, Shantanwantanichiban $20
Civic Underground, CBD Adult Disco Cadillac
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 4 Agoria Plantation
SATURDAY OCTOBER 23 Circo Loco Greenwood
Diatribe
Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through deep.impressions@yahoo.com.
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Soul Sedation
up all all night night out out all all week week .. .. .. up
Soul, Dub, Hip Hop & Bottom Heavy Beats with Tony Edwards
The Transatlantics
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aybe you’ve heard or maybe you ain’t, but murmurings of a new Surry Hills venue are afoot. There’s set to be good, credible music played by good, credible and not to mention hardworking DJs and musicians – with beer and food rumoured to be a part of the equation. Keep your ears to the ground; early word is the venue might set something of a new tone for Sydney… Adelaide funk soul outfit The Transatlantics are headed this way to bless us with their album launch. On the night you’ll hear DJ support from NY’s Kon of Kon & Amir fame – the US duo who’ve made a name for themselves as some of the dustiest crate diggers out there – as well as from Sydney’s Soulshaker DJs. We’re talking funk, soul, and rare groove in the house – and it all happens at The Basement, Saturday August 21. On the party breaks front, Jalapeno’s Kraak & Smaak have a new album just over the horizon. The first single to emerge is club anthem ‘Dynamite’. In essence, it’s straightforward and fairly large, and for my mind channels the Fat Boy Slim-era Big Beat movement circa 2000.
One’, a dope and uplifting track, you’ll find T3 of Slum Village. Which brings us to: There’s a new Slum Village LP on the way. Album six for the Detroit collective, Villa Manifesto will arrive next month, and is being billed as both a “reunion and memorial album” for the late great J Dilla. It features production from Young RJ, Mr Porter, Hi-Tek and Dave West as well as live drums from ?uestlove, and vocal contributions from Phife and De La Soul. As you can see, it’s a record that won’t want for talent. Japanese electronic maestro Kay Suzuki’s Opening EP has also recently emerged. It’s an album of broken beat and deep soulful house-styles informed with funk, soul and hip hop perspectives. Featuring production from the UK’s AtJazz and Dominican vocalist Ezel, the album is a worldwide affair. If you like the Sonar Kollektiv output, then you’ll love this one.
diafrix / ozi batla / nikita
PICS :: TL
Soul Sedation goes live every Wednesday night on Bondi FM (88.0 or bondifm.com.au). Tune in 10pm 'til midnight to hear a deep and soulful selection of the tunes covered here, and plenty more that I don't have room for.
09:07:10 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711
One of Soul Sedation’s favourite live Sydney acts, Flatwound, will play Sosueme this coming Friday July 23. Expect raw, sweaty bass-driven live electronic disco. And keep your ears peeled for their new single ‘Tickle Me Disco’ on SWAT records. Chances are you’ll want to head to the Civic Underground afterwards to hear what Scuba has to offer up, on that mammoth sound system. Soul Sedation will see you there…
On support duty for the upcoming and highly anticipated A Tribe Called Quest show, De La Soul’s Maseo will also be appearing for a side show of his own at Chinese Laundry the Saturday after the gig, August 14. In associated Laundry news, DJ Marky will join us from Brazil next month. You’ll be able to hear him tear through a three hour set the night before, on August 13. South American drum n bass jump up!
fbi cuddle puddle
PICS :: TL
LA beatsmith Dâm-Funk remains prolific with a new tune ‘A Day At The Carnival’. This one’s included on the Proximal label compilation, Proximity One: A Narrative of a City - which also includes Daedelus and Shlomo.
09:07:10 :: Oxford Art Factory :: 38-46 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93323711
French producer Onra’s Long Distance full-length album has been gathering momentum in the future beat, hip hop and boogie communities. Guesting on ‘The
Kraak & Smaak
ON THE ROAD FRIDAY JULY 23
WEDNESDAY AUG 11
FRIDAY JULY 23
SATURDAY AUGUST 14
A Tribe Called Quest The Hordern Pavilion
Scuba Civic Underground
Maseo Chinese Laundry
SATURDAY JULY 24
SATURDAY AUGUST 21
Funkdafied Warehouse Party TBC
SATURDAY JULY 31 Jazz Rooms The Basement
Transatlantics, Kon The Basement
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 3 Horrorshow Gaelic Theatre
Send stuff for this column to tonyedwards001@gmail.com by 6pm Wednesdays. All pics to The Brag (art@thebrag.com).
sosueme
PICS :: TW
Flatwood Sosueme
09:07:10 :: Q-Bar :: 34-44 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93601375 ) :: ASHLEY MAR :: S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHOHBROOK :: MAJA BASKA :: OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER RUS EE REN :: SON VEN STE ICK ROSETTE ROUHANNA :: PATR ERT :: SHANTANU STARICK ANDREW VIDLER :: JAMIE GILB
BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10 :: 47
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up all night out all week . . .
a love in
party profile
It’s called: A Love In It sounds like: Love song dedicatio ns with Richard Mercer, but with music and without Richard. better Who’s spinning? Bricks of Berlin, Midnight Youth, S.Kobar, Rubio. Sell it to us: A bunch of loved-up kids laughing with new friends, danc to sexy songs, drawing on each ing other, drinking cheap wine, watc hing your favourite movies, getting down... Three records that’ll rock the fl oor: Smashing Pumpkins, Peaches, Bloody Beetroots The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Not much really, but sharpied face or limbs might be a reminder. and/ Crowd specs: Supermods, hust lers and love junkies. Wallet damage: Anywhere betw een 5 and 500. Where: BB’s / 157 Curlewis Stre et, Bondi Beach
infusion
PICS :: AM
When: Friday July 23
wham
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09:07:10 :: Annandale Hotel :: 17 Paramatta Rd Annandale 95501078
hot damn
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10:07:10 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700
the wall
PICS :: RRU
08:07:10 :: Spectrum :: 34 Oxford St Darlinghurst 93316245
07:07:10 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700 48 :: BRAG :: 371:: 19:07:10
) :: ASHLEY MAR :: S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHOHBROOK :: MAJA BASKA :: OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER RUS EE REN :: SON VEN ICK STE ROSETTE ROUHANNA :: PATR ERT :: SHANTANU STARICK ANDREW VIDLER :: JAMIE GILB
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mum
PICS :: JG
up all night out all week . . .
starfuckers
PICS :: AM
09:07:10 :: World Bar :: 24 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93577700
10:07:10 :: Club 77 :: 77 William St Kings Cross 93613387
scuba It sounds like: a special night of bass-heavy, genre-bending soun techno and dubstep. ds of Who’s spinning? Scuba, Mar k Pritchard, Simon Caldwell, Jonn y Faith & Monk Fly. Sell it to us: Scuba – head of dubs tep institution Hot Flush Recordin - makes his Sydney debut with gs som night of sounds and beats like the e of our city’s finest DJs, for an epic Civic has never seen before. The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Soaking up the sounds of techno and dubstep.
adult disco
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party profile
It’s called: Scuba (BERLIN/UK)
10:07:10 :: The Civic Hotel :: 388 Pitt St City 80807000
Crowd specs: Anyone up for the hottest dubstep night of the wee k Wallet damage: $22.50 +bf pres ale Where: The Civic Hotel
the palace
PICS :: MB
When: Friday July 23
candy’s apartment
PICS :: AV
10:07:10 :: The Palace :: 169 Dolphin St Coogee 96642900 ) :: ASHLEY MAR :: S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHOHBROOK :: MAJA BASKA :: OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER RUS EE REN :: SON ICK STEVEN ROSETTE ROUHANNA :: PATR ERT :: SHANTANU STARICK ANDREW VIDLER :: JAMIE GILB
09:07:10 :: Candy’s Apartment :: 22 Bayswater Rd Kings Cross 93805600 BRAG :: 371 :: 19:07:10 :: 49
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pants
PICS :: AM
up all night out all week . . .
09:07:10 :: Melt :: 12 Kellett St, Kings Cross 93806060
It’s called: Goodgod Re-Opening Bashment! It sounds like: Dancehall and hip-h op with that new new UK Funky. DJs: Lady Chann (UK) and Killa queenz live, Bad Ezzy (Hoops), Mori Sing (Ro Sham Bo), Judgement and MC Shantan Wantan Ichiban arty & Jimmy on hosting duties. Three records you’ll hear on the nigh Roska – ‘Squark’; Vybz Kartel – ‘Clar t: Killaqueenz ft Lady Chann – ‘Double Up’; ks’ And one you definitely won’t: Evan escence – [insert track name]. Sell it to us: What other club in Sydney would have an opening party lady rap and dancehall attack? It’s with an allbeen months since Goodgod was down – so there’s a helluva lot of abruptly closed dancing feet lining up for this one. A cranking new NEXO soundsystem is in the build ing flown in from London… boom town and South Rakkas Crew’s ally Lady Chann has !
The bit we’ll remember in the AM: Three of the world’s hypest fema down the house! le MCs burning Crowd specs: Booty on the floor. Wallet damage: $20 on the door . Where: Goodgod Small Club, 55 Liverpool St. City When: Saturday July 24, 9pm – 4am
f.r.i.e.n.d.s
PICS :: AM
10:07:10 :: Q-Bar :: 34-44 Oxford st, Darlinghurst 93601375
party profile
ghettodisco
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goodgod small club
falcona fridays
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07:07:10 :: Fringe Bar :: 106 Oxford Street Paddington 93605443
09:07:10 :: Kit & Kaboodle :: 33-35 Darlinghurst Rd Kings Cross 9368 0300 50 :: BRAG :: 371:: 19:07:10
) :: ASHLEY MAR :: S : TIM LEVY (HEAD HONCHOHBROOK :: MAJA BASKA :: OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER RUS EE REN :: SON VEN STE ICK ROSETTE ROUHANNA :: PATR ERT :: SHANTANU STARICK ANDREW VIDLER :: JAMIE GILB
SPRING TOUR - OCTOBER 2010 WITH JOHN STEEL SINGERS & FELICITY GROOM
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