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www.themusic.com.au
AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF MUSIC
+
THE DRUM MEDIA • 3
POWERED BY
POWERED BY STREET PRESS AUSTRALIA STREAMING THIS WEEK
WHITE RABBITS’ MILK FAMOUS
NY-BASED WHITE RABBITS DROP ALBUM #3, PRODUCED BY MIKE MCCARTHY (SPOON, …TRAIL OF THE DEAD, WHITE DENIM) AND FURTHER THEIR TAKE ON EDGY MELODIC INDIE ROCK.
OUT MARCH 9 ON MUTE
GUIDE
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NOW AT THEMUSIC.COM.AU
LAST WEEK YOUR DAIL LY SPA WAS FIRST WITH: • RADIOHEAD’S AUSTRALIAN TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT • A PREVIEW OF THE TEMPER TRAP ALBUM • STREAMS OF BLEEDING KNEES CLUB AND EVERY TIME I DIE ALBUMS
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THE DRUM MEDIA • 5
AUSTRALIA’S NO.1 STREET PRESS NOW AVAILABLE FREE AT THE TAP OF A SCREEN
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www.themusic.com.au Apple and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. 6 • THE DRUM MEDIA
THE DRUM MEDIA • 7
LIMITED EDITION 2CD VERSION WITH BONUS ACOUSTIC DISC OUT NOW Available At: Abicus (Cooks Hill), HUM (Newtown), Landspeed (Canberra), Phoenix Music (Potts Point), Redback Music (Wollongong), Red Eye Records (Sydney), Sandy’s Music (Dee Why), JB Hifi (All Stores)
APRIL 2012 NATIONAL TOUR
PLAYING: APRIL 21ST THE FACTORY, SYDNEY For tickets and information go to: www.facebook.com/passengerofficial
WWW.INERTIA-MUSIC.COM | WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PASSENGEROFFICIAL
8 • THE DRUM MEDIA
THE DRUM MEDIA • 9
10 th & th $PNF GF 11 Mar c FM UIF S FBM D h BN o BN #FFS (BSE FO
BSOJWBM TQJSJU
t %FMJDJPVT #SB[JMJBO GPPE TUBMMT t #SB[BT ##2 t )PVTF PG 'MBWPVST t (PVSN FU QBTUSJFT TBVTBHFT t *UBJQBSB #FFS #BS
4FMJOB T
10th .BSDI GSPN QN
t #SB[JMJBO %+T t i#MPDP EF $BSOBWBMw MJWF B %BODFST t #BUVDBEB $BQPFJS
PN BV
NPTIUJY D T U 5JDLF
CNR OF GEORGE + SWANSON ST
ERSKINEVILLE 3 DOORS FROM THE RAILWAY STATION
P 9565 1441 ROSEOFAUST@BIGPOND.COM
Tues
TRIVIA WITH KEVIN
Wed
$500 PRIZE POOL
Weekly Jackpot 7.30pm
Open Mic Night 7.30pm
BYO Instruments (PA Provided) Rock up to play
Thurs 8 Mar
OPEN MIC NIGHT 7.30pm THE SHADY Fri EXPEDITION 9 Mar + CLAIRE, VUPLE VULPES
FRI 9TH MAR
JOHN KENNEDY’S
‘68 COMEBACK SPECIAL 9PM
+ GUESTS
For Bookings
10 • THE DRUM MEDIA
james@thelaunchsquad.com.au | www.thelaunchsquad.com.au
9PM
SATELLITE V
Satellite V is a ďŹ ve-piece band that plays Rockabilly, Hillbilly and Jump Blues. They have been playing their special brand of Rockabilly for ten years combining their original music with the authentic sounds of the 50s to create a unique hybrid of Rock n’ Roll. If you like the infectious rhythms of Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Johnny Burnette or Roy Hall, then Satellite V will satisfy your need for dancing and rock n’ rhythms. Satellite V have played at many great Australian festivals including Greazefest, the Narooma Blues and Rockabilly festival, and Wintersun, while Tim (lead singer) has featured at The Summer Jamboree in Senigallia, Italy. The boys have released 3 CD’s, ‘Hail Bop’, ‘Satellite Boogie’, and ‘Hillbilly Safari’.
FRI 23RD MAR
+ THE EFFING SEA
DONI RAVEN AND THE Sat 10 Mar BLACKJACK WOLFPAC
FRI 16TH MAR
In his earlier bands JFK and the Cuban Crisis and Love Gone Wrong, John Kennedy mixed pop, rock, folk and country to write songs with country sounds and Inner West lyrics . He called his style Urban and Western. Elvis Costello was always an obvious inuence. But lately in his Sons of Sun recordings, Kennedy's been showing his preference for the the original Elvis. In their return to the Rose, John Kennedy's 68 Comeback Special will by playing Kennedy's Urban and Western hits along with tunes from Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison. Be ready to rock.
THE MITCHELL FINGERS TRIO
9PM
With a constantly expanding repertoire of music spanning from the 50s up till today’s hits’ The Mitchell Fingers Trio play any style which ďŹ ts the mood from Blues, Soul, Funk, Rock, Jazz, Electronic, Reggae, Clubbing Beats.
THE DRUM MEDIA • 11
th f e or ha m rperl hoy te
l
900 PRINCES HIGHWAY, TEMPE PH: 9559 6300 www.valvebar.com.au WED 7 7PM
THURS 8TH 7PM
FRI 9TH 7PM
SAT 10TH 12PM
SUN 11TH 12PM
“THE DARK”
SUPPORTED BY “VOODOO NEEDLES” AND “HIDING IN MEXICO”
WEST TIGERS HOME HEROES BAND COMPETITION
FEAT: “THE RUBIX” , “DSEVA FEAT DJ SKAE & JASE GRAY, “NUGWARDO” , “THE SHORT LIST” , “THE BEDLAMS” , “LIAM GALE & THE PONYTAILS” , “DREAM DELAY” , “MORDECHAI”
COFFIN SLAVE PRESENTS “BLACK JESUS” METAL SHOW WITH SUPPORT FROM: “INNSMOUTH” , “CONVENT GUILT”
DEADMAN INDUSTRIES PRESENTS DEADFEST ‘12
FEAT: “LAB 64” , “IMPERICAL” , “WAR FACTION” , “JADED EMPIRE” , “AMODUS” , “NA MAZA” , “TENSIONS ARISE” , “DOMINO” , “FOUNDRY ROAD” , “NOT ANOTHER SEQUEL JUST ANOTHER PREQUEL”
VIBRATIONS AT VALVE BAND COMPETITION
GRAND FINAL FEAT: INDUSTRY OFFICIALS JUDGING FINALS OF THIS AMAZING COMPETITION SUN 11TH 6PM
“RED SKY”
ROCK SHOW WITH SUPPORT FROM “BECOME THE CATALYST” , “DELINQUENT”
COMING UP: Wed 14 March: Rock Show feat: “Flood The Sky” , “Castlecomer” , “Chris Taylor” ; Thu 15 March: Rock Show with “Heathen Eyes” (NZ), “Prevailing Disorder” , “Still Waiting” and guests ; Fri 16 March: West Tigers Homeground Heroes Competition; Sat 17 March 12pm: St Patrics Special with “The Dirty Grotto” , “The Lints” , “Nicky D” , “Dubious Company” , “Head In A Jar” ; 7pm: Hard Rock Show with “Nobody’s Fool” , “Vanity Riots” , “Headless Children - W.A.S.P. Tribute”; Sun 18 March: 5pm - Punk Rock Show with “Six Fears Seven” , “As Rockets Fall” , “The Reprize”
For band bookings please email valvebar@gmail.com
Bistro open Lunch and Dinner !!
BAN WAN DS TED WEDNESDAY 7TH MARCH
Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band (US) + Spike Flynn
FRIDAY 9TH MARCH
Papa Pilko & The Binrats + Annie McKinnon Band + Golden Fear
SATURDAY 10TH MARCH
Classic Rock Show
(Eagles, Doobie Brothers & Best of West Coast Rock) Featuring: Barry Leef and Peter Northcote Band THURSDAY 15TH MARCH
Mick Harvey + Louis Tillett
SATURDAY 17TH MARCH
The Frocks present – Women In Uniform
12 • THE DRUM MEDIA
Tues 20/03 Beoga (Ireland) Wed 21/03 Noriana Kennedy, with Nicola Joyce & Noelie McDonnell (Ireland) Fri 23/03 Abigail Washburn & Kai Welsh (US) Sat 24/03 Pierre Bensusan (France) Sun 25/03 Chris Hillman & Herb Pedersen (US) Wed 28/03 Jez Lowe (UK) Thur 29/03 Battlefield Band Fri 30/03 Garvais Koffi & The African Diaspora With Pat Powell Thur 5/04 Rosie Ledet & The Zydeco Playboys (US) Fri 20/4 Davidson Brothers Sun 22/04 DIG IT UP – Celebrating 30 Years of recording from the Hoodoo Gurus
THE DRUM MEDIA • 13
FRIDAY 9
8.00PM $10.00(DOOR)
SATURDAY 10 8.00PM $12.00(PRE) $15.00(DOOR)
SUNDAY 11
6.00PM $10.00(DOOR)
WEDNESDAY 14
8.00PM FREE(FRONT BAR)
FRIDAY 16
8.00PM $15.00(DOOR)
SATURDAY 17 8.00PM $10.00(DOOR)
BMXICANS
+ DELOREAN TIDE + DOCTOR FUNGI + THE MECHANICS OF CREATION
DEFAMER
+ HELL ITSELF + GXSXD(JAPAN) + AUTOLYSIS
WILL & THE PEOPLE (UK) + THE EVERGREEN TRAIL + BEC SANDRIDGE
MUSO’S JAM MELODY BLACK
+ GRAVEYARD ROCKSTARS + VANITY RIOTS
BLACK LABEL
+ STAND ALONE + UGLY LITTLE SECRETS + MAD CHARLIE
COMING SOON:
DARKER HALF + DUMBSAINT + XIBALBA (USA) ‘GOBOOKEM.COM’
14 • THE DRUM MEDIA
THE DRUM MEDIA • 15
www.thebasement.com.au
The Home of Live Music Since 1973 THURSDAY 8 MARCH
ERIC BIBB (USA)
+ KRYSTLE WARREN (USA) + JAMES ECCLES TAKE A Deftly accomplished, soulful and gospel LOOK infused, folk-blues THE BASEMENT INTRODUCES:
SEA LEGS + WINTERS END Glorious indie pop and layered sounds.
TUE 6 MAR
BEN SOLLEE (USA)
WED 7 MAR
50 YEARS OF THE ROLLING STONES
FRI 9 MAR
Genre-bending cellist and vocalist with a percussive playing style
- A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Damien Lovelock (Celibate Rifles) presents a hand-picked set list
STORYLINES
SAT 10 MAR
JASMINE BETH (EP LAUNCH)
MON 12 MAR
Songs of the great troubadours, by our own troubadours
+ GENEVIEVE CHADWICK + FRANK SULTANA Languid jazz/folk sounds as Jasmine launches her debut EP
STEVE LANE & THE AUTOCRATS
+ HENRY FRASER + FANNY LUMSDALE A selection of upbeat and quirky sounds
ADAM COHEN (CAN) + GOSSLING The son of Leonard is a star in his own right
TUE 13 MAR WED 14 MAR
BLUESFEST @ THE BASEMENT IN APRIL: TUE 3RD: TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVENUE (USA), THU 5TH: GREAT BIG SEA (CAN), SAT 7TH: VUSI MAHLASELA (SA), MON 9TH: DAVID BROMBERG QRT (USA), FRI 13TH & SAT 14TH: MACEO PARKER (USA) 16 • THE DRUM MEDIA
$12 STEAK & ALE DEAL
TUE-FRI 12-3PM 45% -!2 7%$ -!2 4(5
-!2
&2)
-!2
3!4
-!2
RIOT HOUSE COMEDY TUESDAY’S
$5 PINTS
RIOT HOUSE COMEDY THE STUDY feat
MISS ELM
FINN WALLACE + LARISSA MCKAY
THE SKIMPS CRESENT COLLECTIVE + ROSELAND + SMAAL CATS THE ART + CELADORE BABY GRAND + TRUE LOVE CHAOS
URGE OVERKILL
15/03 DJ QUIK 16/03 BONES BONES BONES 17/03 LEO LIONHEART 22/03 DANCE KOOL 23/03 SPACETRIBE 24/03 SALSA REPUBLIC 29/03 VIENNA CIRCUS 30/03 CASTLECOMER 31/03 OSCAR MULERO
COMING SOON
THE DRUM MEDIA • 17
GIVEAWAYS
30
THE SANDRINGHAM HOTEL 387 KING STREET NEWTOWN / 9557 1254 S YEAR WWW.SANDO.COM.AU BOOKINGSCONTACT SANDO@ATOMICDROP.COM.AU WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THESANDRINGHAMHOTEL
DFA RECORDS PARTY NIGHT
$10 CAPITOL + MICHELE MADDEN (TOURETTES) + BLACKIE (THE HARD ONS)
LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and Pat Mahoney hit Sydney’s Metro Theatre Saturday night to curate the DFA Records after party, an exclusive trip into the best that New York City has to offer, with the pair promising to take you on journey through “a DFA-infused land of rare cuts, exclusive edits, unreleased reworks and LCDinspired bootlegs”. We have two double passes to the night, which kicks off at 10pm, to give away.
WED 7 MAR
THU 8 MAR
$15
PETULANT FRENZY PLAYS FRANK ZAPPA
FRI 9 MAR
"RAGGED COMPANY & ARTIST VOICE PRESENTS"
WILD FLAG
The new combo for Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein, Wild Flag, are coming to town and they’ll be introducing themselves and their mix of “Mod frenzy and psych-pop” in person Tuesday 13 March at the Manning Bar. We have two double passes to the show to give away.
ENDLESS BOOGIE (USA) SAT 10 MAR
"METAL EVILUTION PRESENTS"
STEVE GRIMMETT (UK) (THE VOICE OF GRIM REAPER / LIONSHEART / ONSLAUGHT / EMPIRES OF EDEN)
+ DARKER HALF + TABERAH + DRAGONSCLAW DOORS OPEN 7:30PM $35 PRE-SALE / $40 DOOR SALE TICKETS AVAILABLE AT WWW.HELLDOWNUNDER.COM
SUN 11 MAR
"I-94 BAR PRESENTS"
$10
25TH FLOOR + CHICKENSTONES + BIG AL CREED (UNPLUGGED) EVERY MON
“SANDO SKETCH CLUB”
EVERY TUES
“THE SONGWRITER SESSIONS”
COMING SOON
THE MEANIES SAT 17 MAR --- "ST PATRICK’S DAY WITH THE RUMJACKS" *** WWW.MOSHTIX.COM.AU *** FRI 23 MAR --- THE POOR *** WWW.MOSHTIX.COM.AU *** SAT 24 MAR --- "ROCK’N’ROLL MAYHEM 3” SAT 31 MAR --- LOS CHICOS (SPAIN) FRI 13 APR --- 78 SAAB FRI 16 MAR ---
STREET LEVEL BAR WED 7 MAR ---
OLD MAN CROW
+ MAVIS AND HER CHINA PIGS + $3 SCHOONERS OF SANDO LAGER THU 8 MAR ---
JOHNATHAN DEVOY
+ SPECIAL GUESTS
VIDEO JUKE BOX SAT 10 MAR --- DAVE TICE AND MARK EVANS FRI 9 MAR ---
4PM-7PM DJ KAKI 8PM-LATEDJ
LUCY DESOTO AND THE HANDSOME DEVILS MON 12 MAR --- UNHERD OPEN MIC TUE 13 MAR --- ADAM PRINGLE AND FRIENDS – FUNKY AS F#CK SUN 11 MAR ---
+ TOOHEYS $6 NEW JUGS (7-8PM)
----------------DJ’S BISTRO----------------OPEN 7 DAYS SERVING GREAT PUB FOOD ALL NIGHT
18 • THE DRUM MEDIA
T H E D R U M M E D I A I S S U E 1 1 0 0 T U E S D AY 6 M A R C H 2 0 1 2
DRUM MEDIA
TICKETS ON SALE NOW WWW.MOSHTIX.COM.AU
He goes by the name Alien, though his parents call him Jason D Lowe, and he wants to introduce himself e, so he’s given us five promotional giveaway packs, which include copies of his three albums and other goodies. Prizes need to be collected from the office.
HEAD TO THE DRUM MEDIA FACEBOOK PAGE TO ENTER
$35
+ RACK & RUIN
ONE UNIQUE ALIEN
WILD FLAG ON US
Giveaways – Check it out for free stuff and head to Facebook for more! The Front Line hits hard with industry fact and conjecture, plus Backlash and Frontlash. Foreword Line – the latest news on tours, releases and more. Die Antwood are loving the luxury of Australian tour hotels and the freebies that come with them. A charitable event led to the reformation of New Order. Find out who inspired them to reform. Swedish House Mafia have been working with plenty of world-class musicians and are hoping to finish a ‘proper’ album soon. Inspired by music of the Zulu people, Johnny Clegg discusses the illegality of his band’s lineup in South Africa. Roky Erickson talks religion, reading and working real hard. 36 Eddi Reader falls in love with songs that she meets. Known to indulge too much in melody and menace, Urge Overkill chat about their most recent release. Frontman of Endless Boogie is excited to visit Australia and has some crazy and wild expectations. Joelistics thinks travel is a good antidote to ignorance and recommends it to everyone. Adam Cohen’s music stands out on its own right despite his genes. Baro Banda can have their Gypsy stylings mix it with metalheads in Berlin. Don’t get lost at Future Music Festival this weekend. Map and Times are all available here. On The Record reviews new release albums and singles from Bruce Springsteen, Hilltop Hoods, VCMG and more. Chris Maric gets local with hard rock and metal in The Heavy Shit. Sarah Petchell brings us local and international punk news in Wake The Dead.
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LIVE
43 44 44 44
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FRONT ROW
This Week In Arts plans your week ahead; Andrew Lincoln discusses life with The Walking Dead; artists Maslen & Mehra snap sculptures Made You Look declares her love for Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries; version 1.0’s David Williams talks corruption in The Table Of Knowledge; Project X is reviewed; theatre director Alice Livingstone brings Ireland to Newtown Cultural Cringe wraps up the week’s arts news and whispers; Kate Gaul prepares Sydney for The New Electric Ballroom
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PUBLISHER Street Press Australia Pty Ltd GROUP MANAGING EDITOR Andrew Mast EDITOR Mark Neilsen ASSOCIATE EDITORS Michael G. Smith, Scott Fitzsimons FRONT ROW EDITOR Daniel Crichton-Rouse frontrow@drummedia.com.au CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Adam Curley CONTRIBUTORS Aarom Wilson, Adam Wilding, Alex Hardy, Amber McCormick, Anita Connors, Anthony Carew, Bethany Small, Brad Barrett, Brendan Crabb, Brent Balinski, Bryget Chrisfield, Celline Narinli, Chris Familton, Chris Maric, Craig Pearce, Cyclone, Dan Condon, Danielle O’Donohue, Dave Drayton, Fiona Cameron, Giselle Nguyen, Gloria Lewis, Guy Davis, Huwston, Ian Barr, Jake Millar, Jamelle Wells, James d’Apice, James Dawson, James McGalliard, Jessie Hunt, Justin Grey, Katie Benson, Kris Swales, Liz Galinovic, Liz Giuffre, Lucia Osborne-Crowley, Mark Hebblewhite, Matt O’Neill, Paul Smith, Paz, Pedro Manoy, Rip Nicholson, Rob Townsend, Robbie Lowe, Ross Clelland, Rod Hunt, Sarah Petchell, Sasha Perera, Sebastian Skeet, Sevana Ohandjanian, Shane O’Donohue, Steve Bell, Stuart Evans, Tim Finney, Tom Hawking, Troy Mutton PHOTOGRAPHERS Angela Padovan, Carine Thevenau, Chaz Webb, Cybele Malinowski, Josh Groom, Justin Malinowski, Kane Hibberd, Linda Heller-Salvador, Luke Eaton, Rod Hunt, Tony Mott ADVERTISING DEPT sales@drummedia.com.au
themusic.com.au
Viktor Krum asks you to Get It Together with the latest in hip hop. Dave Drayton gets Young & Restless with all ages goings on. Adam Curley muses on all things pop culture The Breakdown. Cyclone gives you urban and R&B news in OG Flavas. Michael Smith delivers some Blow with jazz and world music news. Go south as you enter Pedro Manoy’s Swamp Shack. Dan Condon features the world of blues and roots with Roots Down. Tom Hawking sends us a snapshot of life in the Big Apple with New York Conversation. Robbie Lowe gives you a dose of music that makes him tick with Lowerider’s house, progressive and techno vibes.
It’s all here: gig reviews, tour guide, what’s happening this week, charts, gig guide, random shit and more. Backstage and BTL – your guide to studios, recording, gear, courses and more. The Classies – need a singer/bassist/drummer/ any other service/product you can think of? Your answer is here. And on iflog.com.au.
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ART DEPT artwork@drummedia.com.au Dave Harvey, Matt Davis, Kieryn Hyde COVER DESIGN Dave Harvey ACCOUNTS DEPT accounts@streetpress.com.au GIVEAWAYS/GIG GUIDE Justine Lynch THE DRIVERS Grant, David, Julian, Ray, Paul, Al, Mark PRINTING Rural Press (02) 4570 4444 DISTRIBUTION distro@drummedia.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscriptions are $2.20 per week (Minimum of 12 weeks) – Send your details with payment to Subscriptions Dept, The Drum Media, PO Box 2440 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 (cheques/money orders to be made payable to Dharma Media Pty Ltd) ADDRESS Postal: PO Box 2440 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 Street: Level 1/142 Chalmers St Surry Hills NSW 2010 Phone (02) 9331 7077 Fax (02) 9331 2633 Email info@drummedia.com.au www.themusic.com.au The Drum Media is also available on iPad via the iTunes App Store
LEVEL 1, 354 BOURKE ST. SURRY HILLS O MARRYING TW
S
TEST PLEASURE
AND MUSIC
OF LIFE’S GREA
GREAT FOOD
BUY NOW AT
THUR 15 MAR
LIZOTTE’S SYDNEY
CHARITY EVENT: PLUTO JONZE
02 9984 9933 AWARDED BEST ENTERTAINMENT RESTAURANT IN SYDNEY
7 MAR
8 MAR 9 MAR 10 MAR 14 MAR
15 MAR 16 MAR 17 MAR 18 MAR
Drum Media & Lizotte’s presents Live and Local Truckstop Honeymoon Will & The People James Reyne Drum Media & Lizotte’s presents Live and Local Tim Hart (Boy & Bear) The Legendary Judy Collins Absolute 80s W O N Holly Throsby N PE
SUPPORTING
THE LEUKEMIA FOUNDATION
DOORS OPEN 6PM. FREE ENTRY ALL NIGHT. UNDERLIGHTS
THE SLIPS
8 MAR
9 MAR
10 MAR 14 MAR 15 MAR
16 MAR 17 MAR 20 MAR
TIGER TOWN, MATT SZTYK
DJ: F.R.I.E.N.D/S
MESSRS
JOHNNY ROCK & THE LIMITS
DJ: KYLE TAYLOR
GREY GHOST
8 MAR 9 MAR 10 MAR 11 MAR 13 MAR 14 MAR
15 MAR 16 MAR 18 MAR
The Legendary Judy Collins Will & The People James Morrison Ashleigh Grace James Reyne Mick Harvey (The Bad Seeds) Lizotte’s presents Live and Local Eddi Reader Quartet Absolute 80s Tim Hart (Boy & Bear)
Calling all artists for Live and Locals! Contact events@lizottes.com.au Lizotte’s Sydney 629 Pittwater Rd Dee Why
Lizotte’s Central Coast Lot 3 Avoca Dr Kincumber
Lizotte’s Newcastle 31 Morehead St Lambton
w w w . l i z o t t e s . c o m . a u
SAT 17 MAR
GREY GHOST
TIGER TOWN, GOLDSMITH
02 4956 2066
7 MAR
FRI 16 MAR
MESSRS
LIZOTTE’S NEWCASTLE AWARDED BEST ENTERTAINMENT RESTAURANT IN AUSTRALIA
SAT 10 MAR
THE SLIPS
02 4368 2017
The Legendary Judy Collins Lizotte’s presents Live and Local James Reyne Chris Byrne Mick Harvey (The Bad Seeds) Brandon Duff & Jesse Hutchin-O’Neill Tim Hart (Boy & Bear) Holly Throsby Eric Bibb
FRI 9 MAR
THE DEMON PARADE, IRON BAR HOTEL DJ: LANCELOT
LIZOTTE’S CENTRAL COAST 7 MAR
JAM PRESENTS
UNDERLIGHTS
O
6 MAR
SURES, JOHN VELLA + GUEST DJS
DJ: F.R.I.E.N.D/S
THE DELTA RIGGS
FRI 23 MAR
THE DELTA RIGGS
RED LEADER, JORDO DJ: JOHNNY GLEESON
COMING UP PIGEON, ADAM KATZ, STICKY FINGERS, KINGSWOOD, VAN SHE, FIRE!, SANTA ROSA, FIRE!, JOYRIDE (LIVE), THE LEISURE BANDITS
UPSTAIRSBERESFORD.COM.AU OR 8313 5050 FOR GIG INFO HAPPY HOUR BEFORE 8PM FRI & SAT. DINNER & SNACKS AVAILABLE
PRIVATE BOOTH & VENUE BOOKINGS 8313 5000 THE DRUM MEDIA • 19
THE
FRONT LINE
CHILDREN COLLIDE DRUMMER FALLS OUT WITH FRONTMAN
Children Collide’s drummer Ryan Caesar will leave the band now that his “endurance” for their frontman has run out. Announced in a candid press release, the band refused to hide the fact that tensions were becoming unbearable and that relationships had “disintegrated”. Their statement read, “To be honest and forthright: the relationship between band members Ryan and Johnny has over the years disintegrated... but
INDUSTRY NEWS WITH SCOTT FITZSIMONS frontline@streetpress.com.au
it’s come to a point where touring as a unit is no longer pleasant. And that is that.” The band will continue even though the identity of a replacement drummer remains unannounced. A farewell note from Caesar said, “The band cannot function as it should, or continue forward at all with the current tensions, and the situation – looked at from any perspective – can only be resolved by my leaving. I thank each and every person who has supported us thus far and those who have worked so hard for us. I’m eternally sorry that there was not more to give. I love you all. Ryan.”
CHILDREN COLLIDE
seats or general admission tickets breach the conditions of sale, as we would otherwise risk cancelling tickets purchased by true fans like the majority of you. As you can see when you go onto eBay, professional scalpers list tickets with vague details on seating locations but rarely ever get specific about seat or ticket numbers, as this information would allow us to track who they are and cancel their tickets.” They also asked for punters to alert them, if they feel they have specific details of tickets being sold illegally. “With that said, we are regularly scanning listings to look for tickets that we are able to cancel and will continue to do so up until the tour. If you come across a listing that specifies the exact ticket allocation (including seat numbers or exact GA ticket numbers) please send the page link to us at info@chuggentertainment. com and we will look into it immediately.”
DAVY JONES DEAD AT 66
Marcia Brady’s crush Davy Jones, singer with ’60s TV band The Monkees, has died age 66. Jones, known internationally for songs like Daydream Believer and I Wanna Be Free died at his home in Indiantown, Florida, from a heart attack. The Monkees are arguably the best known of all the created-for-TV pop groups spawned from the success of The Beatles. Their enduring popularity was largely down to the fact that they performed good songs written by songwriters like Neil Diamond and Tommy Boyce. Their fame grew to international levels and Jones even played himself in one Brady Bunch episode. Fellow bandmates naturally responded to his death, with Pete Tork posting on his Facebook, “It is with great sadness that I reflect on the sudden passing of my long-time friend and fellow-adventurer, David Jones. His talent will be much missed; his gifts will be with us always. My deepest sympathy to Jessica and the rest of his family. Adios, to the Manchester Cowboy.”
FLOOD THREAT CAUSED PLAYGROUND WEEKENDER’S CANCELLATION
As you’ll know last weekend’s Playground Weekender festival was cancelled after police and the State Emergency Service [SES] raised concerns over flooding. In its place, last-minute events were held across Sydney city venues for ticket holders. The three-day camping festival slated to take place at Wisemans Ferry, NSW, was to feature Chic Feat Nile Rodgers, Boy & Bear, Roots Manuva, UNKLE Sounds, Black Lips, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti and more. However as concerns regarding potential safety issues rose, organisers confirmed the festival had been cancelled. To be held at the Del Rio Riverside Resort, the SES told the festival, “The Bureau of Meteorology [BOM] have issued a flood watch for the Hawkesbury – Nepean Rivers systems, including your event location at the Del Rio Riverside Resort in Webbs Creek. The BOM predictions indicate moderate flooding but have not discounted the possibility of major flooding.” They added that under the State Emergency Service Act 1989, they direct “the Playground Weekender boutique music festival be cancelled... In the interests of public safety and as the emergency service responsible for storms and floods.” “We have been planning this event all year and were anticipating it as much as our guests were,” said promoter Andy Rigby. “The safety of the guests, artists and staff at the event and on their way to and from the event, is our main priority. Reluctantly we have followed advice that it would be unsafe to ask people to travel in these weather conditions, and as such the event cannot go ahead.”
MUSICIANS VS INDUSTRY AS FOOTY TEAMS ANNOUNCED Tom & Alex, Scott Dooley and more will face off against Damien Lovelock, Anthony Field and peers in the Reclink Community Cup. Front End Loader, The Meanies and The Celibate Rifles were revealed last week by theMusic.com. au as the acts performing at the Reclink charity Australian Rules game, which is coming to Sydney for the first time this year. Teams have now also been announced, The Sydney Sailors – featuring radio and industry personalities – and The Western Walers – made up of musicians. Initial team lists are as follows: The Sydney Sailors: Adam Spencer (ABC Sydney Radio) [captain], Alex Dyson (triple j Breakfast), Tom Ballard (triple j Breakfast), Scott Dooley (The Project, Channel 10), Merrick Watts (Triple M), Ryan Fitzgerald (Nova), Wippa (Nova), Neil Cordy (ex-Sydney Swans), Mike Willesee Jr (Sky News), Scott Fitzsimons (theMusic.com.au/The Drum Media), Kris Swales (Three Magazine, Street Press Australia), Brett Dayman (Street Press Australia), Max Easton (Brag), Rhys Muldoon plus
a host more, including 2SER and FBi Radio announcers. The Western Walers: Dan Sultan [captain], Damien Lovelock [co-captain], Anthony Field (The Wiggles), Sam Worrad (The Holy Soul), Cec Condon (The Mess Hall), Joel Beeson (Philadelphia Grand Jury), Geordie Malone (Kira Puru & The Bruise) and many more. Live music on the day – Sunday 18 March – will commence shortly after gates open at midday, while the game will commence at 2pm. Entry is $10, with children under 15 free.
CHUGG CALLS FOR ACTION AGAINST RADIOHEAD SCALPERS
Promoter Michael Chugg has called for federal ticket on-selling legislation as fans fume over scalpers dealing Radiohead tickets. Mirroring the pre-sale, tickets to Radiohead’s long-awaited shows ($130 each) were snapped up in minutes last Thursday. Almost instantly they appeared on auction websites at inflated prices – for up to $600 each. Infuriated fans – who also had to deal with websites that struggled under the huge traffic – took to social media to vent their frustrations and promoters Chugg Entertainment said that they were “very disappointed in the resale of tickets via eBay. We are doing what we can to police this, but unfortunately… it is difficult for promoters, ticketing agencies and venues to enforce.” Michael Chugg, owner of Chugg Entertainment, told Your Daily SPA that federal anti-scalping legislation should be introduced to curb the ongoing problem of inflated on-selling. “The response to these Radiohead shows is a perfect example of the ongoing issues with ticket scalping and Chugg Entertainment hopes that the voices of impassioned Radiohead fans will be heard.” He encouraged punters to be vocal, saying that he “implores the forum to continue so that both the federal government and state governments will pay attention and introduce enforceable anti-scalping legislation throughout Australia. On a higher level, concert promoters across the country, along with LPA [Live Performance Australia] need to be involved in driving a change.” Peak body Live Performance Australia have rejected those calls previously, as Suzanne Daley, LPA’s Director Policy & Programs told Your Daily SPA last October, “LPA does not support the introduction of legislation to combat ticket scalping as we consider that it will be difficult to enforce. Our focus is on consumer education – we want people to have a better understanding of the risks they take in purchasing from unauthorised onsellers, including having your ticket cancelled at the venue, not getting the seats you ordered or receiving fraudulent tickets.” Chugg Entertainment are endeavouring to ensure genuine fans purchase legitimate tickets and to clean out illegal ones. Their statement read, “We will not cancel a ticket unless we can determine with absolute certainty which exact
INDICA LAUNCHES IN AUSTRALIA
Canadian label Indica launched their first subsidiary outside of their home nation last week, with the Australian arm opening with Kim Churchill and Half Moon Run. The two artists will be the first to release records through the label, with Churchill’s Detail Of Distance due for Friday 6 April and Canada’s Half Moon Trio’s Dark Eyes slated for May. Label head Franz Schuller will team with Geoff Trio of Code One Entertainment for the artist management role, Rob Scott and Norman Parkhill from Source Music for publishing and sync expertise and Nicole Hart from Revolutions Per Minute for radio and publicity.
FRESKLY INKED
Sydney’s Strangers, managed by Shihad’s Tom Larkin, have signed to new Shock imprint Permanent Records. The band have been recording at Melbourne’s The Studios In The City recently and Permanent Records’ (and Shock’s) Leigh Gruppetta said today, “From the first time we saw Strangers live at BIGSOUND in Brisbane we knew they were something special. After meeting them it was obvious they were in it for the long haul. They have a brilliant team backing them and we couldn’t be more excited about the long-term prospects for these boys.” Electronic music agency Archery Club have added Anand Krishnaswamy as an Executive Director. In further news for the agency, Finnish disco-house producer Lenno has become their first international signing, while locals Doctor Werewolf, The Mane Thing have also signed.
VIVID LIVE DITCHES CURATOR, ANNOUNCES SUFJAN STEVENS
The Vivid LIVE program has ditched celebrity curators for the 2012 event. In the past the likes of Brian Eno, Lou
FINN JOINS INDUSTRY SHOWCASE
Neil Finn has joined the lineup for Sydney’s Song Summit music industry showcase as a keynote speaker. Along with theatre director and writer Wesley Enoch, they join delegates who will present the documentary, The Sun Came Out. The conference will be held Saturday 26 – Monday 28 May at the Sydney Convention Centre, Darling Hrbour.
ARIA CALL FOR “URGENT ASSISTANCE” OVER PIRACY
Amid encouraging 2011 wholesale figures, ARIA have called for “urgent assistance” to combat online piracy. ARIA’s wholesale figures for 2011 were released last week, indicating that there was a 20.46 per cent increase in the quantity of music sold last year, which equated to a slight decline of 0.34 per cent in dollar value. While music industry sales are still contracting, they’re doing so at a much slower rate. The total dollar value of sales in 2011 was $382,722,172, down on 2010’s $384,015,182. The good news for the industry is that according to the figures, the rise in digital sales is starting to offset the decline in physical sales to a notable level. Digital single track sales were up 38.23 per cent on 2010 in quantity to 68,473,070. Album sales jumped even more – up 45.93 per cent on 2010 to a total of 4,817,546 scans. ARIA CEO Dan Rosen described 2011 as “an extremely positive year for our industry and we enter 2012 with a great deal of momentum on all fronts.” But he did stress that online piracy is still a great burden to music, saying that the industry needs “urgent assistance” to help fight the trend. “While as an industry we are doing all we can to embrace the digital media landscape by offering music fans more options than ever before to get their music legally online, we require urgent assistance in the fight against the negative impact of illegal online piracy. We will continue our fight to protect the rights of artists and labels, ensuring money flows back for their creative work and to the grassroots of the music industry. We will work in good faith with the Government and ISPs for practical progress in the coming year.”
FRONTLASH
BACKLASH
Radiohead announced a tour, now a Coldplay tour announcement seems likely for November. The warmer months will be big this year if these are the first two cabs off the rank.
Do we need a “re-imagining” of the show? The original had the unique charm that only the early ‘80s could bring and a production today probably won’t have the same feel.
NICK CAVE
SCAPLERS
Gets honorary degree, poses for awkward photo just like everyone else that wears the cap and gown.
Unsurprisingly, a big tour such as Radiohead goes on sale and already scalpers are offering up tickets on online auction sites.
STADIUM SUMMER
music 20 • THE DRUM MEDIA
Reed and Modular’s Steve Pavlovic have curated the event – held in and around the Sydney Opera House – and attracted unique and one-off performances such as Eno’s improvised Pure Scenius sessions and The Cure’s world exclusive Reflections concerts, curated by Pavlovic. Today organisers for the festival announced that the current Head Of Contemporary Music at the Sydney Opera House, Fergus Linehan, will now take on the role of Festival Director for Vivid LIVE. The announcement also indicated that the festival has undertaken a project, “with the Barbican Centre in London and the Muziekgebouw in Eindhoven to commission three of the defining creative minds of New York’s current music scene – Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly and Bryce Dessner.” Linehan told Your Daily SPA last week that the move towards an internal curator gave them a better chance to represent what the Opera House were achieving throughout the year. He said that the old model was “a fascinating model in many ways… but now it makes sense for us to have something that is a more coherent part of what we do all year round.” He said that while the role will be similar, “It does make it quite different [when] you are specifically trying to realise an individual’s selections.” The festival now has the opportunity to plan events years ahead and cater for special events that need a festival context, for example a performance with an orchestra, which can be hard to pull off during the usual touring cycle. And Linehan claimed it would allow the Opera House to work with people they already have – including Pavlovic and Eno – again. He’s hoping to work with the former in 2012’s event. The full program for Vivid LIVE will be announced Thursday 15 March.
themusic.com.au
PRISONER
THE DRUM MEDIA • 21
FOREWORD LINE
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
TOUR NEWS DEVILDRIVER BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE
METAL DEVIL
DEAD TO ME
Devildriver are pure metal. The band has always based their musical ethic on three things: work hard, rock harder and kick as many arses as possible in the process. Since their inception, Devildriver have made a monstrous impact to the metal world with their thunderous grooves, haunting vocals and crushing live performances. You can now experience this metal madness Saturday 5 May for an all ages show at The Hi-Fi. Tickets are on sale this Thursday.
The Thursday 5 April Dead To Me/Cobra Skulls show will now be happening at the Central Coast Hotel in Gosford, Lamexcuse and Dangerous! supporting, and there are now also three secret shows happening on this tour – can’t say which falls in Drum territory as the only way to find out where and when is to join the Chopdog Promotions website mailing list. Demand for tickets to the forthcoming Friday 13 April Hordern Pavilion concert by those kings of the social network generation, One Direction, has been so great a second matinee show for that same afternoon at the Hordern has been announced. Tony Bennett’s performance at Tempus Two Winery in the Hunter Valley, scheduled for Saturday 14 April, has been cancelled due to scheduling conflicts, but in its stead, a further show has been added to his run at Sydney Opera House, where the veteran crooner will now also perform Thursday 12 April. Adelaide’s guitar goddess, Orianthi, has been invited to join US phenomenon Michael Bolton when he tours Australia in April on his Symphony Orchestra tour, which heads into Sydney Opera House Saturday 21 and Sunday 22. Rescue Ships and Boatfriends have been confirmed as the supporting acts when An Horse play the Oxford Art Factory Saturday 28 April. And no, it’s American Christian rocker Michael W Smith sharing the bill with fellow Americans Mercy Me and Ernie Haase & Signature Sound Wednesday 4 April at the Hillsong Convention Centre. Sam Sparro is bound to preview the odd track from his second album, Return To Paradise, which gets released locally Friday 25 May, when he hits the Oxford Art Factory stage Friday night, with guests Stereogamous and Veen. Former Dardanelles member Alex Cameron brings his new band Bad//Dreems, formed in his hometown Adelaide, to GoodGod Friday 16 March to introduce them and debut single, Chills. Boy & Bear’s Tim Hart has added three more shows to his current Architects tour, playing Lizotte’s Dee Why Thursday 15 March, Lizotte’s Kincumber Friday 16 and Lizotte’s Newcastle Sunday 18. Then it’s regroup for Boy & Bear UK/European touring through April. Sydney five-piece Strangers have been invited to join Closure In Moscow on their current national tour, which hits the Green Room in Canberra Thursday 15 March, Spectrum Friday 16 and the Cambridge in Newcastle Saturday 17. Gold Coasters Oceanics showcase their forthcoming second EP, Bright People, at FBi Social in the Kings Cross Hotel Friday 16 March. Clutching their new single, Tokyo, which they’ll be showcasing, Numbers Radio are the special guests of The Butterfly Effect when they take themselves around the nation in April, playing Panthers in Newcastle Thursday 10 May, the UNSW Roundhouse Friday 11, Waves in Wollongong Saturday 12 and the UC Refectory in Canberra Wednesday 16.
22 • THE DRUM MEDIA
Psychedelic rockers The Brian Jonestown Massacre, along with Danish indie-rock duo The Raveonettes, will be gracing our shores together for the first time this May. The Brian Jonestown Massacre will be touring in support of their forthcoming album, Aufheben, which will be released in Australia on Monday 30 April, whilst The Raveonettes will be touring their brilliant fifth album, Raven In The Grave. They’ll be hitting up Metro Theatre in Sydney on Thursday 17 May, ANU Refectory in Canberra on Friday 18 and Newcastle Leagues Club on Friday 25.
AMY MEREDITH
HOW’S TRICKS?
Crushworthy rockers Amy Meredith have scored the international support slot for UK pop sensation Jessie J on her national Australian tour, which hits Sydney this Thursday at the Hordern Pavilion. In addition to these shows, the band has also announced their very own headline shows as part of the Tricks Tour. Amy Meredith will be playing a string of shows with special guests pop/rockers New Empire. You can catch them at The Factory Theatre on Friday 20 April for an all ages show.
THE JEZABELS
JEZABELS RETURN
It’s been a huge summer for The Jezabels with the band’s gold-selling debut LP, Prisoner, a number of festival shows around Australia and a busy schedule of international touring across the US, UK, Europe, Asia and Canada, and now the band are returning home and have announced an Australian tour for June 2012. They’ll be playing an all ages show at the Hordern Pavilion on Saturday 9 June with support from LIGHTS and Snakadaktal.
YOU VOTED FOR PEDRO
That’s right, Pedro (from Napoleon Dynamite) is back and set to embark on a DJ tour of Australia. If you threw your Vote for Pedro shirt out six years ago, start trawling your local Vinnies now – you’ll want it back. The actor responsible for the classic portrayal of Pedro, Efren Raminez won’t be performing under his real name. We’ll get to see him in full Pedro character at Sydney’s Cobra Club (The Metro Theatre) for one night only on Saturday 7 April.
THIS SUMMER
Indie-dance outfit, RÜFÜS, are back with their new track, This Summer, from their soon to be released EP. Since the release of their debut self-titled EP in 2011, the band has been flooding airways and dancefloors and are now set to tour Australia. They’ll appear at The Cambridge Hotel in Newcastle on Friday 20 April and Spectrum on Saturday 21.
JUMP INTO THE POND
STONEFIELD MATT CORBY
WARM WINTER
Following the success of his single, Brother, in the triple j Hottest 100, along with a string of very successful and sold-out shows, Matt Corby is jumping back on the touring bandwagon with The Winter Tour, which will see him play in theatre venues around the country this June on returning from the US and UK where he’ll be spending some time touring and working on his debut album. This means that he may just be performing some new material come June. Joining Matt Corby for The Winter Tour will be sixpiece band Alpine. An allocation of tickets will be available for pre-sale to fans this Thursday, while tickets will go on sale for the general public on Friday.
HOODLUMS ON THE ROAD
Hoodlum Shouts deliver their first full-length dose of brooding singalongs with their debut album, Young Man Old Man, set to drop on Wednesday 28 March. With the release of their record the band will be hitting up the East Coast this April. You can catch them live on Thursday 19 April at the Transit Bar in Canberra, Friday 20 for an all ages show at Blackwire Records and Saturday 21 for an 18+ show at The Wall.
FUNKY INTERVENTION
Whitehouse will be releasing their debut album, A Funky Intervention, Friday 6 April, which will be preceded by an album launch on Thursday 22 March at Oxford Art Factory. They’ll be brining old school hip hop flavours with a funky ‘70s vibe to the OAF. The evening will be supported by C4 and Jess Beck.
Presenting good, old-fashioned rock’n’roll, mixed with psycho synths and wild showmanship, Australian band Pond have just released their new album, Beards, Wives, Denim, and are embarking on a national tour to support it. Having just returned from the US, their homecoming tour will no doubt be wilder than ever. They’re stopping off at The Standard on Thursday 19 April.
BITS OF 8-BIT
FEEL IT
The Feelers are set to return to Australian stages this April, premiering tracks from their upcoming album, Hope Nature Forgives, out in April. To coincide with the tour, the band have released their new single, Didn’t Want To Fall In Love, which will be showcased at The Great Northern in Newcastle on Friday 20 and The Beach Road Hotel on Saturday 21.
S-CLUB 7 RETURN
NUMBERS RADIO
DOUBLE BILL
Just in case you hadn’t guessed, the ‘90s are back with a vengeance and this year we’ll also see everyone’s favourite childhood popsters S-Club 7, who are back to prove that there ain’t no party quite like an S-Club party. Joining them for their national tour will be Big Brovaz, an R&B collective from London, who’ll bring their top five singles to Australia for the first time. The national There Ain’t No Party Australian Tour will hit the University of Wollongong on Thursday 31 May, followed by the UNSW Roundhouse on Friday 1June and Newcastle Panthers on Saturday 2.
Boy 8-Bit has announced national tour dates for March and April 2012. You can catch him live in Sydney on Saturday 31 March at the Garden Party at Ivy Courtyard. Doors open at 12pm and close at 7pm.
SANCHEZ ON DECKS
The Ivy is pulling out the big guns, announcing that American house DJ Roger Sanchez will be taking over the decks on Wednesday 25 April. The Grammy Award winner will be sampling his latest tracks along with favourite remixes.
TONITE TONIGHT
The Ivy will host an Easter Sunday event, featuring homegrown electro-pop duo Tonite Only, France’s Anro Cost and upcoming Aussie producer and DJ, Cassian in what is bound to be sell-out event. Also appearing on the night will Foniko, Wolfpack, Fear Of Dawn, Mike Gadget, Jagged Beatz, Dark Star, Digital Love, Glen Darby, Monty, Bilman, Daniel Wheeler, Lenden Kuris, Bravo, Le Den and Mother Funka’s. So spend your Sunday 8 April tearing wrappers of chocolate and your night tearing up the dancefloor.
themusic.com.au
FROLICK IN THE FIELD
Stonefield have lined up a tour in late April, just after the release of their forthcoming single, Bad Reality. The track was recorded by Melbourne rock Svengali Lindsay Gravina at Birdland Studios and all of the essential Stonefield ingredients are there: Amy Findlay’s soulful growl, the organs and the driving beat. Playing everywhere, from Byron to Queensland to Melbourne, Stonefield’s dates in Drum parts include a stop at The Patch in Wollongong on Thursday 26 April, The Standard on Friday 27 and The Cambridge Hotel in Newcastle on Saturday 28.
OPERATOR COLOUR
Operator Please’s Tim Commandeur and Chris Holland have teamed up for a new side project ,Colour Coding. The duo will be releasing their debut EP, Proof, Friday 16 March on iTunes via Inertia Access (Intertia’s new platform for unsigned artists). They will celebrate the release and collaboration with their debut live performance at Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory on Thursday 15 March alongside supports, Set Sail.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Melbourne musician Chet Faker has announced an East Coast tour in support of his debut EP, Terms And Conditions, set for April this year. Faker has carved out a unique style that fuses personal stories of love and loss with electronica and downtempo soul that hits home. Faker recently supported Toro y Moi and Washed Out in Australia and he’ll be returning to the US later this month to perform at SXSW. He’ll be back in the country in April and you can catch him in Sydney on Saturday 28 April at GoodGod with special guest Flume.
BEWARE! BAG RAIDERS ARE BACK After touring 16 countries last year, headlining Aussie festivals Parklife, Stereosonic and Good Vibrations, and working on the their latest record, Leave Them All Behind, in LA, electro duo Bag Radiers are returning home for a national tour this April in what will be their first Australian shows of 2012. The tour kicks off at the Australian Hotel and Brewery on Thursday 5 April, before heading to Wollongong’s OneFiveOne the same day. They’ll be at The Criterion on Friday 6 and The Ivy on Sunday 15.
THE RETURN OF DISCO
After taking a well-deserved four-month break, My Disco return to Australia this April for a run of dates throughout NSW and Victoria. Recently, the band toured around New Zealand, Serbia, Macedonia and other European countries and will be back in international waters to play shows in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur after their Australian tour dates. Their Australian tour celebrates the release of their very first music video for their single, Turn, as well as their third full-length album, released in October. You can catch them on Friday 13 April at GoodGod.
THE DRUM MEDIA • 23
FOREWORD LINE
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
SHOOGLING ALONG
THE NAKED & FAMOUS
Scottish supergroup Shooglenifty are returning to Australia this March/April with three studio albums under their belt and a whole new chapter of live material. They’ll be touring their latest recording project, Murmichan, which is a double album that they explain “explores the two aspects of the band... The first disc captures the energy of what we do in a live performance and the second disc allowed us to take advantage of total creative freedom in the studio.” They will be playing a bunch of shows across NSW on Tuesday 27 March at the Clarendon Guesthouse in Katoomba, Wednesday 28 at The Basement in Sydney and Thursday 29 at Great Northern Hotel in Newcastle. This is in addition to their National Folk Festival appearance over Easter.
M A R L E Y
NEW ORDER SUPPORTS
New Order have announced supports for their much anticipated Future Music Festival sideshows. After a ten-year hiatus, it’s no surprise that fans are eagerly awaiting for the band’s return to Australia. The Naked & Famous will be joining the bill on their Sydney show to add some more colour and flavour to the evening. They’ll be playing on Wednesday 7 March at the Hordern Pavilion.
ELECTRIC EMPIRE
THEY’VE GOT ELECTRICITY
Internationally successful powerhouse trio Electric Empire will take to Australian stages again this April, after sold-out nights in Japan and the UK. Having toured with Omar and Beverly Knight, as well as Aloe Blacc, the band is developing a cult following whilst maturing and developing their style. Their debut record made some noise both at home and overseas, with remixes by big names like Smoove and Chris Bangs. They’ll be poping into The Standard on Saturday 28 April. PLUTO JONES
JOHN FOGERTY
FOGERTY AT SUNSET
If you thought that Bluesfest announcements had ceased, think again. Bluesfest has announced a second John Fogerty Easter Monday Sunset Show at the festival. Festival director Peter Noble explains: “This time he will perform his Creedence Clearwater Revival album, Green River, in its entirety, as well as his ‘bonus’ set drawn from the canon of his solo and CRR hits. The special sunset performance will set the scene for Bluesfest’s closing night with many more wonderful artists to follow.” Along with this announcement, Bluesfest have also made some final additions to the already grand bill to include Slightly Stoopid, Weddings, Parties, Anything, The Hands, Claude Hay, Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission, Mason Rack Band, Daniel Champagne, Bobby Alu, Dan Hannaford, Round Mountain Girls, Mojo Bluesmen, Harry Healy, Blackbirds, Mick McHugh, Minnie Marks and Young Sounds Of Byron.
PUBLIC ENEMY
KIM SALMON AND SPENCER P JONES
MORE DUG UP
The Sydney leg of Dig It Up! will be adding a fourth venue. The Sly Fox Hotel on Enmore Road has agreed to open their doors to the Dig It Up! audience and will be hosting acts between 3–8.30pm on the day, along with the Enmore Theatre, Green Room and Notes. The addition of The Sly Fox comes with the addition of some more acts too, namely The Gooch Palms, Steve Wynn, Kim Salmon and Spencer P Jones. Dig It Up! will be held in Sydney on Sunday 22 April.
SETH LAKEMAN
BRIDIE BRINGS THE JAZZ
BEST MATES CO-HEADLINE
Seth Lakeman and Carus Thompson have announced that they’ll be co-headlining a national tour, as part of their appearance at this year’s Bluesfest. Leading folk musician Seth Lakemen has been ripping up Europe with major UK and European festival appearances and this year he’ll make his debut in Australia alongside his best mate and local, Carus Thompson. Now a veteran of the Australian touring circuit, Thompson has become one of our best folk songwriters, and has often toured Europe, where he met Lakeman in 2005. They play on Thursday 5 and Friday 6 April at Bluesfestand then The Vanguard on Tuesday 10.
HIP HOP ROYALTY RETURNS
COLD CHISEL
TINIE TEMPAH CANCELS
PLANS, NO PLANS
EIFFEL 65 AND N-TRANCE REVIVAL
Two of the ‘90s biggest-selling dance artists Eiffel 65 and N-Trance are back and ready to play their hits from back when the Nokia 3210 was cutting-edge technology and Y2K was going to destroy us all. You didn’t miss Eiffel 65’s hit single, Blue (Da Ba Dee), when it was played everywhere during the ‘90s and you probably won’t miss it again when they unite with N-Trance and perform live at the Fat As Butter Festival in Newcastle on Saturday 22 September and at the Coogee Bay Hotel on Saturday 29. 24 • THE DRUM MEDIA
SHEEPDOGS SUPPORT FOGERTY
Winners of the US Rolling Stone’s ‘Choose The Cover’ competition, The Sheep Dogs are back and set to embark on their Australian debut tour in support of John Fogerty in a string of upcoming Creedence Clearwater Revival shows this March and April. The Sheepdogs are the first unsigned band to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone, and their latest EP, Five Easy Pieces, debuted at #1 in their home country, Canada. They play Sydney’s Entertainment Centre on Tuesday 3 April.
Hip hop icons Public Enemy have announced a national tour as part of their headline slot at Groovin’ The Moo. They’ll be playing at The Metro in Sydney on Friday 11 May, before the release of two new studio albums this year, Most of My Heroes Still Don’t Have No Stamp, to be released in June, with The Evil Empire Of Everything to follow in September. Celebrate 25 years of uncompromising hip hop.
EIFFEL 85
Following a sold-out album launch at Notes last week, Bridie King and her trio have announced they’ll be playing a special performance as part of the Rosie Ledet and The Zydeco Playboys show on Thursday 5 April. A long-time fan and student of New Orleans jazz, pianist Bridie and her band will be the perfect addition to Rosie’s brand of danceable R&B and soul. It will also be Rosie’s first ever show in Australia, so don’t miss out on this very special performance.
Cold Chisel have announced plans for No Plans. Their first studio album in 14 years will be launched at their Bluesfest headline performance on Thursday 5 April ahead of its official release in stores on Friday 6. The album is titled No Plans and features 13 songs drawn from recording sessions across 2010 and 2011. The album also features the final recorded performances by drummer Steve Prestwich, who passed away in January 2011. Cold Chisel will also be performing at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney on Wednesday 18 April.
Promoters have announced that “due to circumstances beyond our control we would regrettably advise that the Tinie Tempah, Chase & Status and Zane Lowe show will no longer be taking place.” Though his sideshows have been cancelled, Tempah will still appear on the Future Music Festival bill that hits Sydney this Saturday 10 March. If you had tickets to the Sydney sideshow at the Hordern Pavilion on Tuesday 6, you can get a full refund and more information from Ticketek.
DIGITALISM TOUR
German electro-punk duo Digitalism is back and will be throwing down their distorted bass lines and thumping rhythms at their Groovin’ The Moo sideshow at The Hi Fi on Friday 11 May. The leaders of the indie-dance movement will only be playing four dates in Australia and will feature new tracks in their live set. They will be supported by Beni as well as more acts yet to be announced.
WWW.SUMMERFESTIVALGUIDE.COM.AU
themusic.com.au
SHAVE AID
The Leukaemia Foundation, along with Jam Music and Upstairs Beresford, bring you Shave Aid, a benefit concert to help raise much needed funds and awareness for the World’s Greatest Shave. The event will be hosted by Brendan Maclean and will feature performances by Pluto Jonze, Sures and guest DJ John Vella. All proceeds from this event will directly go to the Leukaemia Foundation to help support the 31 Australians who are diagnosed with blood cancer every day. Lose the locks and show your support on Thursday 15 March.
FROM BERLIN WITH LOVE
Efdemin, AKA German producer Phillip Sollmann, will be making his Australian debut on Friday 30 March playing an extended set in the intimate confines of the newly revamped venue One22. Bringing the rawness of house and techno music straight from the city that does it best (i.e. Berlin), Efdemin will be performing a set from 1am till sunrise. The event is strictly limited to 200 tickets to ensure an intimate experience for all in attendance.
ANTI EVERYYTHING
Heavy rock group Anti-Flag, direct from the US, will be taking aim at Australia this June. There’s plenty to be pissed about in 2012, so this seems the perfect opportunity to catch their anti-everything angry rock. Alongside them will be Virginia’s Strike Anywhere and Toronto’s Flatline. Both bands will be making their first trip to Australia. The lineup has been confirmed for Manning Bar on Friday 1 June and Wollongong UniBar on Saturday 2.
FIRESIDE CHATS
Tim Freedman, an Australian identity in his own right but best known as the lead singer of The Whitlams, has announced a solo tour for this May/June/July. Following up on several solo tours – including one six-night residency at The Vanguard, in which he grouped songs according to which girlfriend they were about – Tim Freedman hits the road again with Tim Freedman’s Fireside Chat, in which his skills as a raconteur will be indulged in an evening of grand piano, sweet melody and pointed opinions. He’ll be playing Drum parts Thursday 24 May at the Burning Log, Friday 25 and Saturday 26 the Brass Monkey, Friday 8 June Centro CBD Wollongong, Friday 29 Lizotte’s Newcastle, Saturday 30 Lizotte’s Dee Why, Sunday 1 July Lizotte’s Kincumber, Friday 6 and Saturday 7 at The Basement Circular Quay, Friday 27 Street Theatre Canberra, Thursday 2 and Friday 3 August the Clarendon Guesthouse and Saturday 4 The Vault.
LOVE IS IN THE AIR
Celebrations are in the air as 2012 marks the 40th anniversary of Australian music icon, John Paul Young’s stellar career. Together with The Allstar Band, John Paul Young will be marking the occasion with two very special performances in Melbourne and Sydney this coming May. You wouldn’t want to miss one of the most popular Australian artists of the ‘70s, so catch him live at The Capitol Theatre on Saturday 12 May. Tickets will be on sale for the general public on Monday 19 March. Punters will also receive a free live DVD with each ticket purchased.
THE DRUM MEDIA • 25
K! EE W XT NE Billions Australia presents
AUSTRALIAN TOUR MARCH 2012 WITH SPECIAL GUESTS OSCAR + MARTIN
MON 12 FACTORY THEATRE Tix from www.factorytheatre.com.au www.billions.com.au www.ilovestvincent
26 • THE DRUM MEDIA
Strange Mercy Out Now
FOREWORD LINE
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
BFFS Super Best Friends have announced dates for their Handshake EP Launch, with the EP set to drop on Thursday 22 March. The band is going from strength to strength, having recently scored triple j airplay and shared the stage with The Living End, Children Collide, Art Vs Science and more. They’ll be playing at the Kings Cross Hotel on Friday 30 March.
WELCOME TO WONDERLAND THE CRUEL SEA
RECLINK ROCK
Reclink will be hosting a series of fundraising concerts as part of Sydney’s first annual Reclink Community Cup, which will be held on Sunday 18 March at Henson Park, Marrickville. Along with the friendly AFL match between musicians and entertainment personalities, The Cruel Sea, Dan Sultan and The Ronson Hangup will be hitting up Sydney’s The Hi-Fi for a Rock For Reclink event on Thursday 15. These artists have donated their time to perform at Rock For Reclink in support of Reclink Australia and its mission to provide sport and arts activities to enhance the lives of people experiencing disadvantages in Australia.
TOO MUCH LOVE IS NOT ENOUGH
Having spent much of last year touring Australia, Kira Puru & The Bruise are hitting the road once more for their Love Is Not Enough tour along the East Coast this Autumn. The four-piece will be bringing their sullen, spine-tingling rock to Sydney on Friday 23 March at Goodgod. They’ll be supported by Blackwater Fever, known for their atmospheric and honest sound.
OCEAN NOISE
Brisbane’s local boys Oceanics are taking to the national stage to tour their second EP, Bright People, recorded in Sydney’s Albert Studios with indie producer Wayne Connolly (The Vines /Cloud Control). Oceanics take to the stage to play the Kings Cross Hotel on Friday 16 March, The Lansdowne Hotel on Thursday 12 April, Mum on Friday 13, Oxford Art Factory on Saturday 14.
360
TURN IT UP TO 360 Australian hip hop/rap gentleman 360 has announced The Flying Tour. The tour’s handpicked locations are designed to allow fans to get up close and personal to the man himself, rather than taking the intimacy out with stadium shows. The tour has also arranged to make specific all ages shows a part of, particularly with 360’s appearance at the enormous all ages event, Come Together on Saturday 9 June. Special guest with smash hit, Boys Like You, Gossling will be joining 360 on tour. 360 will play at Wollongong’s Waves on Friday 8 June, as well as Come Together.
Alison Wonderland takes off on her Welcome To Wonderland tour this week, bringing her eclectic party mixes to a whole new audience. After mixing at the Grammy Awards After Party, the Brit Awards After Party, Ibiza and everywhere in between, Alison’s Adele-into-Run-DMC, The Cure-into-Grandmaster Flash crazy mixes quickly became famous: Annie Mac described her as “the best party set I’ve heard in a long time.” You can enter Wonderland on Saturday 24 March at the Woodport Inn Gosford, Saturday 17 at the Secret Garden Festival and Saturday 31 at Oxford Art Factory, Saturday 14 at Trinity in Canberra and Friday 20 at King Street in Newcastle.
GETTING SIDETRACKED The Sidetracked Fiasco has released a brand new EP, Enter The Motivational Sasquatch, with an East Coast tour to follow. The Sydney-based funk-core band will be dropping their second EP on Friday. Catch them live on Friday 13 April at Town Hall Hotel, Saturday 21 at The Holy Grail in Canberra, Friday 27 at Dicey Riley’s Irish Pub in Wollongong and Sunday 29 at the Old Manly Boatshed.
THE INFIDELS ARE COMING
HERE AND THERE MUM and FBi Social present the increasingly infamous double-venue mini-festival Go Here Go There, which will feature some of the best new talent to come out of Australia. With 13 bands across three stages, punters will be able to catch their favourites at The World Bar and the Kings Cross Hotel, all with one ticket price. The event takes place on Friday 16 March and will feature Richard In Your Mind, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Sticky Fingers, Step Panther, Sure and many more.
Timothy Nelson & The Infidels have announced their first ever national tour. Though the Perth five-piece has toured extensively across Australia, this tour will be their first national tour. This tour follows the release of their debut full-length, I Know This Now, which received rave reviews and generous plays on radio across the nation. You can catch the WAMi Awardwinning outfit support Indy Warhol at The Lansdowne on Thursday 29 March or with The Bon Scotts and Even & The Brave at The Vanguard on Friday 30.
IN BRIEF Out Friday is the debut album, Home Again, for North Londoner Michael Kiwanuka, who started out as a session guitarist for Tinie Tempah’s producer Labrinth, while Britons, vocal group The Overtones also release their new album, Good Old Fashioned Love. Melbourne instrumental four-piece Margins release their second full-length album, Divide, Friday 16 March, on which day Belgian soul funkster Selah Sue releases her eponymous debut album locally, kiwi songbird Bic Runga releases her new album, Belle, The Shins deliver their Port Of Morrow album and Andrea Corr releases her new solo album, Lifelines. The debut album from Shivers member Jo Schornikow, First Time, Long Time, sees release Thursday 22 March, while Sunday 25 sees Melbourne singer/songwriter Simon Astley release his new album, City Lights, and the following day, Monday 26, sees the founder of legendary UK band, The Pop Group, Mark Stewart, release his new album, The Politics Of Envy. The self-titled debut album, a two-disc set in fact, from the 35-member hip hop collective called Quakers, based around three producers – Fuzzface AKA Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, 7-Stu-7 and Katalyst – is released Tuesday 27 March, while the following day Canberra four-piece Hoodlum Shouts release their debut album, Young Man Old Man. The new project, Storm Corrosion, for Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson and Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth, releases its self-titled debut album Friday 20 April and the same day sees Battles release a special remix edition of their Gloss Drop album of last year, plus the new album, This Machine, from The Dandy Warhols. Fresh out of Montreal, Canada, hardcore meets hip hop/house band Skip The Foreplay, release their Epitaph label debut, Nightlife, Friday 27 April, as will Santigold, who releases her new album, Master Of My Make-Believe, that day too.
James Walsh (STARSAILOR) SOLO ACOUSTIC TOUR THE TEMPO HOTEL www.oztix.com.au with ELLIOTTS ROOM
BYRON BAY Sun 18 March
THE GREAT NORTHERN www.oztix.com.au with ELLIOTTS ROOM
ADELAIDE Wed 21 March THE GOV www.thegov.com.au
THE ESPY www.oztix.com.au with JACKSON MCLAREN & THE TRIPLE THREAT
SARAH MCLEOD themusic.com.au
THE STANDARD www.moshtix.com.au
MELBOURNE Fri 23 March
PLUS SPECIAL GUEST
28 • THE DRUM MEDIA
SYDNEY Sat 24 March
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BRISBANE Fri 16 March
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WWW.BLUEBEAT.COM.AU
THURSDAY 8 MARCH
EVERY WOMAN FESTIVAL
Special event for International Women’s Day featuring ASTON, AMANDA EASTON, SALLY STREET, MAZ MAZAK and THE BLONDETTES. All proceeds go to support ovarian cancer research.
FRIDAY 9 MARCH
SASHA SIMONE & GRACE SENITULI & BAND Three big sets of late night funk, R&B, soul and dance, from 10pm til 2am.
SATURDAY 10 MARCH
PROFESSOR GROOVE & THE BOOTY AFFAIR FEATURING PAULA BAXTER
Three big sets of nonstop LIVE FUNK, 10pm - 2am. Special guest PAULA BAXTER brings her soulful vocals to the mix.
SONIC MAYHEM ORCHESTRA
MONDAY 12 MARCH AND EVERY MONDAY
FESTIVAL
Regular Monday night gig and late night jam session, with a spectacular 10-piece band, plus guest vocalists, followed by a free-wheeling jam session, every week. The Sonic Mayhem Orchestra is James Ryan (tenor, baritone, flute), Aaron Michael (flute, soprano, alto, tenor), Paul Cutlan (baritone, bass clarinet, clarinet), Martin Kay (alto, clarinet), Warwick Alder, Simon Ferenci and Dave Panichi (trumpets), Greg Coffin (piano), James Hauptmann (drums), Andrew Atwill (bass). Special guest vocalist is SALLY CAMERON from The Idea of North.
THURSDAY 15 MARCH
THE IDEA OF NORTH
Australia’s best jazz vocal group, winner of the ARIA award for Best Jazz Album and biggest selling act on ABC Classics & Jazz label for the past five years. As James Morrison says, ‘A cappella is sometimes thought of as being minimalist, but when you can sing and entertain like The Idea of North, a band would just get in the way’.
SATURDAY 17 MARCH
SUNDAY 11 MARCH 1-8PM
KING TIDE + SPECIAL GUESTS BLUE CANDY
Rocksteady royalty back in Sydney after a West Coast tour, dropping roots rock reggae, ska and soul from the aptly named Roots Pop Reggae album and beyond, including upcoming new songs. Set to test the Blue Beat subs with some bottom end magic, the Bondi reggae-got-soul sound that’s rocked Womadelaide, Peats Ridge, Sydney Festival Opening Night, Playground Weekender, Woodford, Reggaefest and loads more big stages. “From out of the fattest, deepest grooves come brooding horns, delay-warped keys and steady, muted slabs of electric guitar” (SMH). Guests BLUE CANDY bring a high octane mix of Latin, funk, hip hop and reggae from southwest and outer western Sydney.
THURSDAY 22 MARCH
EDDI READER QUARTET (UK)
Hit The Spot for a feast of food, film and music
Eddi and band will play music from across Eddi’s career. Long-time fans will recognise her experienced collaborators Boo Hewerdine, Alan Kelly and Ian Carr as stunning artists in their own right and the ideal musical foil. Reader’s rare blend of meltingly true vocals, towering romanticism and an astute pop sensibility make her a unique and powerful figure in contemporary British music. Returning to Australia by popular demand, now its Sydney’s turn to hear the Eddi Reader magic once more
COMING SOON
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thespot festival.com.au CNR PEROUSE RD/ST PAULS ST RANDWICK
SOUL SACRIFICE TRIBUTE TO THE MUSIC OF CARLOS SANTANA SAMBOSSA, CRAIG CALHOUN, EON BEATS PROJECT, CLAYTON DOLEY SOUL EXTRAVAGANZA
KITCHEN OPEN LATE FRIS AND SATS
DELICIOUS LATE NIGHT TAPAS Blue Beat is the perfect venue for Media, Tour and Record Launches, Functions and more. Give us a call.
THE DRUM MEDIA • 29
TRIPPING IN NEW YORK, STEALING IN AUSTRALIA
“OUR LABEL BOSS MADE US SIT ON HIS LAP” One of the big talking points prior to Ten$ion’s release was Die Antwoord’s departure from their label following a dispute (which may or may not have been manufactured). They claimed that Interscope were too involved in their new direction. The album was subsequently released on their own Zef Records. Ninja says that the unnerving midalbum satirical skit Uncle Jimmy, where the titular character entices band member Yo-Landi Vi$$er to sit on his lap and stay in his office so he can “keep her as a pet”, is based on a real person – Interscope Records boss Jimmy Iovine.
DIE ANTWOORD’S NINJA HAS FOUND OUT WHAT DUBSTEP IS, HAS IDENTIFIED WHAT SNOW IS AND IS SHOCKED AT THE CONTROVERSY MORMONS CREATE. SCOTT FITZSIMONS BELIEVES IT’S THINGS LIKE THESE THAT MAKE THE “RAP-RAVE” GROUP WORTH THEIR WEIGHT IN STOLEN HOTEL GEAR.
“O
kay, sweet, don’t be a faggot now.”
That’s how Die Antwoord’s Ninja, on the line from New York, signs off on out chat. It’s been a long day of rehearsals and experiencing the big city for the trio – also featuring co-vocalist Yo-Landi Vi$$er and DJ Hi-Tek – and Ninja, aka Watkin Tudor Jones, is in fine form. At the time the “rap-rave” group, as David Letterman put it recently, from South Africa’s Capetown, were about to release their second album Ten$ion, an equally demented and delirious collection of songs as their break-out debut $O$. Jones says it’s snowing. “Just a little, but it definitely is snowing. It’s not rain, because it’s big and white… this is the first time I’ve seen this, it’s tripping me out actually. I put it on my tongue.” The new experience could even inspire a future song, he says, quickly throwing some ideas around. “Yeah, I’m Dreaming Of A White Christmas and Hey Santa Claus You Cunt, Where’s My Fucking Bike? It’s a remix, we’ll bring it back.” Throughout the conversation, Jones is usually rambling on a topic. Extrapolating on small details that often take him off that topic, he knows how to dominate a conversation – not so much intimidating as controlling.
it’s when he’s at his finest. Die Antwoord are, after all, performance art. Jones has played a number of characters notorious in South Africa. He even has a child with co-star Visser named Sixteen. Not everyone’s in on this joke yet – of an overly Zef (South African’s answer to gangsta culture) rap group – and that’s part of what makes Die Antwoord so alluring. Especially when Jones holds his character so well. He’s been known to freeze-up when journalists take the ‘performance art’ angle and, when the story is so entertaining, it’s worth running with him. “We nearly got kicked out basically,” he continues of the Broadway experience. “They were saying we were talking but I didn’t fucking talk once, I was just laughing. Like, fuck, I basically laughed my balls out of my mouth. It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen since I was born, I couldn’t believe that they were allowed to do that. You would get assassinated for doing that type of production in South Africa, like, easily.” Given the controversy of the use of the word “faggot” in single Fok Julie Naaiers, which came accompanied with an explanatory video, surely Die Antwoord’s penchant for controversy matches that of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone?
“We just went and saw The Book Of Mormon,” he says, deciding that this is what we’ll be talking about next. “It’s a Broadway production; we don’t get Broadway in South Africa. It’s by the guys who made up South Park. Our hotel was actually mystically positioned like four steps away from the Broadway production The Book Of Mormon. That was fate – not any human intervention – and then we kind of freaked out and we tried to get tickets and we found out they were booked ‘til February 14, 2014 and we were, like, severely depressed.
“We didn’t know anyone was having a go at us. What did they say the fucking bastards? We made the video before they had a go at us. So they couldn’t say anything, because we were like, ‘What? Check out the Faggot video niggas, then everything will make sense’.”
“But then we sent an email to my one friend who knows the guys from South Park, they’re presently starting season 16 and they’re pumping our Ten$ion album at the South Park studios and once again destiny intervened and we got four tickets to the show tonight. They had to cancel some poor bastard and his posse’s tickets so that we could watch it. And it was pretty much the most controversial show I’ve ever seen since I was born and I can’t believe they haven’t been assassinated.”
“Yo-Landi, for this one song Baby’s On Fire, she only got the flow and pitch right, like, today. ‘Cause in the studio she does this very sexy, chilled intimate vibe, but live that sort of shit can die so it was difficult… While I’m doing the chorus to Baby’s On Fire she does this one dance move, she does the more cool, chilled version, I do the more epileptic fit version on the hook.
Was it any good though? “Yeah, it was above bloody average mate,” Jones says in an over-blown Australian accent. It’s enjoyable to let Jones rant on like this, because 30 • THE DRUM MEDIA
Preparing for tours around the world – Australia’s leg coming courtesy of the Future Music Festival – Jones says that the New York rehearsal rooms are treating them well. “They had mirrors and it was just like the best thing I’ve ever done. We were rehearsing so much, it was the coolest.
“Have you ever seen, like, Fame or Flashdance? It was like those sort of studios, we’ve never been in such fancy facilities before, to do a rehearsal. And we have a sound engineer, he’s from Colombia. He doesn’t deal cocaine or anything, he’s from Colombia though. He can’t come to Australia, which we were depressed about, because he’s the ultimate sound engineer/tour manager.
“He’s having a baby, it’s a girl, but he won’t tell us the name until it’s born, because it’s bad luck in South America to say the name before the child’s born, but it does have a name apparently, word on the street. His name’s Leo, not the baby, him, the guy, our tour manager. We’re gonna get another tour manager for Australia, which is traumatising. But Australian tours are really fancy upperclass sort of styles, so we’re not that worried. When we played the Big Day Out we stayed in the Versace Hotel [Australia’s first Versace is on the Gold Coast] and they have a fake beach and I stole everything from the hotel. I have a Versace towel, Versace slippers, Versace bed robe, Versace soap, Versace shampoo, Versace everything.” It’s not only the hospitality that gives them fond memories of Australia – like many artists, Jones attests that the band’s support here is amongst the best in the world. “Pretty much everyone’s psychotically into us, rather than anywhere else in the world, Australia went the most fuckin’ berzerk. He describes the crowd in Big Day Out’s “Boiling Room” as “Lord Of The Rings CGI. You don’t see that many people in front of you in real life, ever. It was the most psycho shows we’ve ever had ever… I can’t even understand it myself. I think it’s to do with Rodney Rude and Crocodile Dundee.” Ten$ion has since been released on the band’s own label,and it’s both an improvement on $O$ and Die Antwoord. Given that people know what to expect now they’ve been able to play up on the joke, push it further and even get the kids in with dubstep. “DJ Hi-Tek was fucking with this shit called dubstep. We didn’t really know the words, we thought it was like gangsta rap, like slow gangsta rap. And then he said, ‘No, that’s dubstep.’ We’re like, ‘Okay, whatever, that sounds cool.’ He’s like, ‘All the kids are into it.’ We’re like, ‘Okay, that’s cool.’ Then we were like, ‘Can you do an apocalyptic fuckin’ warzone end-of-the world?’ which is pretty much South African flavoured-dubstep. Otherwise just rap and rave, like gangsta rap styles. Like, hard up-in-the-club shit mixed with hi-energy rave.” WHO: Die Antwoord WHAT: Ten$ion (Zef Records/Co-Operative) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 9 March, Enmore Theatre; Saturday 10, Future Music Festival, Randwick Racecourse
themusic.com.au
“Yeah, Jimmy Iovine, from Interscope, the boss of Interscope. I can do Jimmy real good, that was actually me. I know it sounds like Jimmy but it’s actually me. Jimmy always used to like ask us in for herbal tea and stuff and ask Yo-Landi to sit on his knee and stuff and make little cute jokes at us all the time. So we thought it was quite funny to put in a skit.” He continues, “And then he didn’t want to put the skit on the album and that’s why we left Interscope. We were like, ‘That’s lame. We’re leaving your label now. Bye.’ That’s why we left Interscope, because they wouldn’t put Uncle Jimmy on the album.” Ninja said that he doesn’t know what Iovine – one of the biggest industry players in the American and even international music scene – thinks of the track since it made the album, “He doesn’t speak to us anymore, I don’t take his calls.” He adds that the skit “was funky, it was fresh. As I said, for us it was like the greatest skit in the history of hip hop music. When we made it it was like, ‘Fuck, this is funny’ and like cool and shit. Memorable. “People would be talking about it, we knew if we put it on it would be popular with the kids when they were like, ‘Oh, we’re not putting that on’, we were like, ‘Okay, you’re not our label, bye’.”
THE DRUM MEDIA • 31
THIRD ORDER IT SEEMED TO ALL AND SUNDRY THAT THE DREAM WAS OVER, BUT AS NEW ORDER’S DRUMMER STEPHEN MORRIS EXPLAINS TO STEVE BELL, SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO EMBRACE THE UNEXPECTED.
A
s recently as a few months ago not even the most ardent fans of UK electronic rock icons New Order could have contemplated seeing the band play live again. Not only had the outfit been inactive since late-2006, but founding members Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook – who, with drummer Stephen Morris had formed New Order from the ashes of Joy Division when that band’s frontman Ian Curtis tragically took his own life back in 1980 – had played out an acrimonious fall from each other’s grace in the press, and various members had at different times completely ruled out the prospect of New Order ever sharing a stage again. But what no-one banked on was that a charitable event would lead to a re-formed version of the band – without Hook, but with former keyboardist (and Morris’ wife)
Gillian Gilbert rejoining the fray alongside new bassist Tom Chapman (plus Phil Cunningham who’d replaced Gilbert in 2001) – playing two benefit gigs in Europe, and that those shows would go so well that it would reignite their spark and usher in a third phase for the incredibly influential band (they’d previously taken a hiatus between 1993 and 1998). “I am enjoying it, yeah,” the affable Morris offers from his UK abode. “It sounds like a bit of a cliché, but it really is a lot of fun. I wasn’t quite sure – it could have gone either way – but everyone’s enjoying playing. The main reason we got back together was because this friend of ours Michael Shamberg is ill with a brain disease, he’s had it for a while. He’s in America and he’s in a bad way really, so we decided to play two gigs for him. We just thought, ‘We’ll do these two gigs and raise a bit of money for him, and that’s it’ – we wanted to raise some money for him because he’s helped us out in the past – so we played the shows and it was fantastic! It was really wellreceived, we really enjoyed it and we’d put a lot of work into doing it and just thought it was so good we carried on.” That explanation makes the events which transpired seem so simple, but with the saga playing out so publicly it put a lot of pressure on the band, even for a group of people who had been through so much together in the past. “Umm, yeah,” Morris laughs loudly. “You’re just thinking, ‘I wonder how this will actually go?’ – it could have all gone horribly wrong – so yeah there was a lot of pressure, and we really did work out trying to get it right. It was great when it all came off like that. It’s hard work, but we’ve enjoyed it. I’ve enjoyed it a lot – more than I have for a long time. It’s great just getting out there and playing gigs. I mean I’ve been playing with Bernard in [side project] Bad Lieutenant – I’d had this idea that I was going to be a session drummer for a bit, and he was the only person who asked me to do any session drumming! It was a bit like taking coal to Newcastle, really – I was a bit disappointed, I thought I’d be playing on other people’s records, but there you go. “But the gigs we did as Bad Lieutenant were a lot of fun, and we could get back into just enjoying playing music again, which is something that you do lose if you’re stuck in the studio for a very long time – it’s kind of like a day in the office, and you forget that you’re suppose to enjoy doing it. “And it is different [with the new line-up]. I think it’s better in a lot of ways. I’d played [as a rhythm section] with Tom in Bad Lieutenant, and it’s kind of bounced off by having Gillian back, which is great – she’s really happy to be doing it again. The years when she wasn’t doing it I know were very hard for her, and she used to get upset watching me going off and doing gigs and leaving her at home – I found that hard as well. But she’s enjoying doing it again.” The messiness of the public spat with Hook was exacerbated by the fact that their shared past – overcoming the painwracked end of Joy Division to triumph once more with a new project – had seemed to nurture a gang mentality, an alliance which until recent times had seemed infallible. “You’ve just got to get on with it really,” Morris muses quietly of the schism. “I don’t really like falling out with anybody, but when you fall out with somebody that you’ve been in a band with for 30-odd years it’s even worse... I really don’t know. He’s kind of off doing what he wants to do, and we’re off doing what we want to do, and that’s fine. “I’m not denying that it is a shame. I kind of understand why it’s turned out like this... No, I can’t understand why it’s turned out like this,” he suddenly rails. “It’s sad, but it’s just how things have ended up. It’s a bit of a negative – the great thing about this [reunion] is that we just try to be positive, because everything just seemed to be a bit of a downer, the stuff that he was going on about in the press and everything. It’s great just to be actually doing something that’s a bit positive with New Order.” Negativity and line-up issues aside, if all and sundry are so pleased with how the shows have been going, could Morris imagine this revamped version of New Order writing music together down the track? “It’s kind of the next logical step, isn’t it?” he asks rhetorically. “But we’re just trying to take things a bit at a time, there’s no big master plan. We were halfway through a Bad Lieutenant record, it would be good to get that finished. But it is the next logical thing to sit down and try doing some stuff, and see how it goes. Plus there’s a release of outtakes from [2005 album] Waiting For The Sirens’ Call coming out, and they’re great songs. The idea when we did ...The Siren’s Call was that it could have been a double-album – well, actually a three-sided album – so we thought, ‘We’ll keep it and all we need to do is write a couple more songs and we’ll have another record’, so they should be coming out with a bit of luck sometime in the next couple of months. It would be good to get that out of the way, because it seems a bit weird sitting down to write a new record when you have an old one that’s never been out, so it would be good to get that out and then start doing new stuff.” WHO: New Order WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 7 March, Hordern Pavilion; Saturday 10, Future Music Festival, Royal Randwick Racecourse
32 • THE DRUM MEDIA
themusic.com.au
POWER PLAYERS DANCE MUSIC SUPERGROUP SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA ARE NOT SO MUCH SAVING THE WORLD AS TAKING IT OVER. CYCLONE MANAGES TO PIN SEBASTIAN INGROSSO DOWN FOR A QUICK CHAT.
T
he Swedish House Mafia (SHM) – DJ/ producers Axel “Axwell” Hedfors, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso – could be dance music’s first bona fide supergroup. They have the big tunes, big shows and big egos. Now SHM are heading to Australia for the first time as a trio and, while Ingrosso is amped about that, he’s less keen to do press for it. It’s obvious he wants this interview done with; Ingrosso typically starts speaking mid-question. His answers are truncated or vague. Nevertheless, the Stockholm native, himself last here for Stereosonic, confirms that SHM will basically be bringing the same extravagant One Night Stand ‘live’ show they staged at New York’s Madison Square Garden in December. “We always tweak it and make it better for every show,” Ingrosso says. They’ll chuck in fresh edits, or bootlegs and tracks.
To be fair, Ingrosso, a family man, has a lot going on. SHM officially launched circa 2008, the ‘Mafia’ bit a joke, but their origins are much older. Ingrosso bonded with Angello in childhood when they got into a scrap (Angello hit Ingrosso on the head with a baseball bat). They had something in common – both were outsiders. Ingrosso, who has Italian ancestry, was born in South Africa and Angello Greece (his late father is the one with the murky underworld connections). They’d eventually recruit Hedfors, who’d blown up globally with Feel The Vibe (‘Til The Morning Comes), the three collaborating in different configurations. The inaugural SHM tune was Get Dumb, with input from Dutchman Laidback Luke. They’d subsequently unleash One (Your Name) – Pharrell Williams gracing the vocal version – and Miami 2 Ibiza with Tinie Tempah, plus the album Until One. Until One served as a soundtrack to that “unofficial” Mafioso Christian Larson’s hilarious SHM documentary Take One, which The Guardian likened to This Is Spinal Tap. In it Ingrosso, SHM’s funniest (and most ironic) player, utters his slogan, “I’m going to fuck this nightclub in the pussy!” Today ‘Swedish House Mafia’ is a brand, the DJs even hosting their own Masquerade Motel events globally. As with his cohorts, Ingrosso
continues to actively pursue a solo career. All the SHM members have labels, with Ingrosso’s being Refune. And Ingrosso might just be feeling a little competitive as SHM’s least ‘famous’ DJ. Though the clique placed 10th in the 2011 DJ Mag poll, Hedfors himself is #12, Angello #23 and Ingrosso #26. SHM clearly has three strong personalities, but Ingrosso can’t describe how they interact – or who chips in what. “I mean, it’s hard for me to say,” he demurs. “I think you need to ask a fan that question... I don’t know, man. They’re my best friends.” SHM recently aired the dark, dubsteppy ‘versus’ Antidote with fellow Future Music Festival heavy hitters Knife Party, a new electro project from Pendulum’s Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen. “Steve was in Australia for Future Music [Festival] last year and he toured with Pendulum. They’d been to a lot of our shows – or Gareth has been to a lot of our shows – and they remixed Save The World and we loved the remix. We said, ‘We should do something together’. They started out with the track in Australia, then Steve sent it over to me and Ax in Sweden and we started to work from, like, London, LA, Sweden – back and forth. It took a while but, yeah, then we finished the record.” SHM presented what was marketed as their debut, Until One, in 2010. But, as Ingrosso admits, it was really a compilation of various productions, remixes or edits from SHM as a posse or individuals (including his own reworking of MGMT’s Kids). The group are slated to release a live set, One Night Stand, taking in 2011’s aforementioned mega-anthem Save The World, Antidote and SHM’s remix of Coldplay’s Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall. Yet Ingrosso says tersely, “No, it’s not coming out.” He doesn’t elaborate, though SHM’s local label EMI indicates that it’s been shelved. However, plans are afoot for a proper album. “We’re working on it and hopefully we’ll try to someday finish one.” SHM have teamed with big names in (urban) pop, like Pharrell. Would they record together again? “Of course,” Ingrosso replies. “We did work with him again, but there’s nothing that’s released. We will see what happens with that. We work with a lot of people, but we always try to work with different people for every track.” In
the meantime, SHM have been attached to will.i.am’s next solo album, #willpower. Ingrosso clarifies that he and Angello co-produced a track with the Black Eyed Pea and Alicia Keys, but it’s no SHM ‘collab’, per se. Pop, urban and house have all but converged. Some – cue Erykah Badu – worry that hip hop especially is losing its identity. “Music is music – that’s what I say,” Ingrosso responds dryly. Still, he holds that it’s now virtually mandatory for urban acts to be dancy. “They don’t have any other choice. If they wanna be played on the radio, if they wanna sell records, if they wanna be played on MTV, they need to have a 4/4 beat on the track and they need to follow the trend or they need to be in the future or otherwise they will fall. That’s exactly how it works.” At any rate, more than David Guetta, SHM have a macho hip hop swagger – and Angello is a former turntablist. Ingrosso reckons that the dance music revolution was inevitable. He’s not necessarily surprised at how big dance has become in the US – despite the fact that in the ‘80s, even the ‘90s, America’s black dance pioneers were unable to garner support, let alone exposure, at home, prompting them to look to Europe. The scene then was segregated. “I’ve been doing this for almost ten years and I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time and I always knew it – because the feeling I got when I first went to a big dance rave or something like that, I never felt at any other kind of concert in my life, except maybe U2 or
Coldplay, which has the same big, huge epic feeling. But I said to myself, the world needs to experience this – it can’t be an underground thing forever.” The ‘House’ in Swedish House Mafia is ultimately a misnomer as the group flirt heavily with power trance. Their blinged-out club music is a hybrid of everything from house to electro to progressive to trance. Moreover, Ingrosso has astutely dubbed Save The World “a stadium rock dance tune”. “We try to do different things all the time,” he states. Ironically, when quizzed on his favourite supergroup, Ingrosso needs the concept to be explained. He picks a patriotic example in ABBA, as iconic in Sweden as they are in Oz: “They’re huge – they’re king and queen.” But, alas, Ingrosso, in solo DJ/producer mode, has things to do, places to be – and the interview ends earlier than scheduled. Does the dude behind Calling (with his protégé Alesso) have new stuff to plug? “I’m working on it. I’m actually going to the studio tomorrow and this week to try to finish something before the Miami Music Conference in March. You never know what’s coming up before you go to the studio – I can’t really say what the name of the single is before I’ve made it – but, yeah, working, working...” WHO: Swedish House Mafia WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 10 March, Future Music Festival, Royal Randwick Racecourse
NEVER GIVE UP TO DESCRIBE THE CAREER OF SOUTH AFRICAN MUSICIAN JOHNNY CLEGG AS UNIQUE IS TO VASTLY UNDERSTATE HIS IMPRESSIVE ACHIEVEMENTS. ON THE EVE OF HIS RETURN TO AUSTRALIA HE DISCUSSES THE PAST WITH DAN CONDON.
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ince he was a 14 year old boy, South Africa’s Johnny Clegg has been enamoured by the music of the Zulu people. “I have a very vivid recollection of the first time I heard Zulu street guitar music,” he recalls. “I was fourteen and I had been learning guitar and the thing that struck me was that it was tuned and played completely differently. In fact, in some respects, they took the strings and changed them around and tuned them to get kind of a banjo effect. I was just amazed at the lack of regard for classical Western tuning or chords; there were no chords - it was just notes played against one another and that for me was just mind-blowing. When I heard that music I just wanted to find out how to play it and that started my journey.” In 1969 Clegg and friend and creative collaborator Sipho Mchunu formed Juluka, a mixed-race band, in the heat of apartheid South Africa. After six or seven years of playing traditional Zulu music, it was similarities Clegg heard between this and Celtic folk music that made him think about integrating this music with some Western elements. “That for me was really exciting and when that started to work I knew I was onto something and I knew we were creating a new music; we were creating a new way of expressing the South African experience in a crossover form. And for all the trouble that we got into we didn’t give up, because I think we knew that the moment we stopped, somebody else would jump in and take over. We started this thing and we wanted to claim it as our own and we were becoming known as musical innovators in our own country in a way that nobody had ever foreseen and a way that we never foresaw either. For all the pressures and the bad moments that we went through, there were amazing good moments that balanced it out. Also, we were young, I was a kid and we gave each other a lot of strength and we knew that we were doing something really different and really worthwhile, so that kind of outweighed a lot of the other pressures we went through.” The band’s initial popularity came strictly via wordof-mouth reports, as traditional publicity would have 34 • THE DRUM MEDIA
drawn attention to the highly illegal activity the band were engaged in – playing in a band with both black and white members. Of course as the band’s profile rose, so did a great deal of unwanted attention from South African authorities; reports of the band being physically beaten, having shows shut down and being censored across the country were common. “Most of our problems were censorship; we had shows closed down, we had our songs restricted on the air, we never really had much airplay – in fact we had no airplay for the first two albums – so we started as a live band in order to get our music out,” Clegg explains. “We didn’t give up our day jobs because it wasn’t possible at the time to make a living from crossover music in apartheid South Africa, so we were restricted. But we carried on and then on the fourth album we had a hit in England with Scatterlings Of Africa – that put us on the map and then we got offered a record deal by a British independent label who loved the song, we then toured England and suddenly things were happening. So for all the problems we experienced, there was always something promising itself if we kept on going.” Clegg says that as well as the passion to have their music heard, the fact that they didn’t know what living under any other regime was like meant they were not only unsurprised, but expecting the treatment they received at the hands of various authorities. “We had never really been outside South Africa, so this was the political system we understood; we didn’t expect anything else. We expected there to be problems – our expectations of what we were doing were that we were going to experience problems because that was the nature of the world we lived in. We also saw other people experiencing problems. We knew we weren’t the only ones, so we took comfort in that as well and I think that was also an important part in our psychology of going on.” Clegg was one of the true progenitors of marrying the music of an African culture with that of the West. It’s something that is becoming more and more common and Clegg is very clear when asked that he is in full support of anyone who is following in his footsteps.
“I believe that if a music form speaks to you, if you hear a song that speaks to you – even though you don’t understand the language and you don’t understand the instrument and you don’t understand the tuning – but it talks to you and moves you, that is another human society or culture which has managed to crossover purely through its music and I think it’s a wonderful thing that you take it and run with it and are influenced by it. Because it gives you a new life and a new shape; all cultures are human and as humans we should experiment and find ways to understand the multiplicity of human talent and forms of expression that we can create. In a funny way those forms live on in other songs and in other forms of expression, so there’s a global tapestry of music and interaction with those music forms.” One of the big shows Clegg plays on his Australian tour is the WOMADelaide festival, Adelaide’s version of the highly popular WOMAD festival that showcases a diverse range of world music in different locations across the planet. Clegg admits he’s feeling the sting of a changing music industry as much as anyone and considers an event like WOMAD to be a
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wonderful opportunity for artists, both established and burgeoning, who play music in a range of different styles to have a platform on which to showcase it. “Music in general is going through quite a traumatic transformation. The music business model is in serious problems, record companies are collapsing, young artists are finding it very difficult to get signed – it’s very difficult to get noticed. I consider myself very fortunate to have built up, over the past thirty years, an audience which I can play to and I think that any platform - WOMAD or other - that can provide some way of giving an artist a place to express themselves is worth its weight in gold. For crossover musicians and for musicians who are experimenting with other music forms that don’t come from their own culture, I think the WOMAD format is especially important to keep people like myself going.” WHO: Johnny Clegg WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 15 March, Enmore Theatre
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THE DRUM MEDIA • 35
SAME KIND OF DEAL ROKY ERICKSON DISCUSSES THREE R’S IN READING, RELIGION AND THE REAL HARD WORK OF PERFORMING LIVE THESE DAYS WITH DOUG WALLEN.
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GETTIN’ UP THERE, IT’S LIKE LIFTING PEOPLE AROUND AND PUTTING THEM CERTAIN PLACES... TO BE ON STAGE, IT’S REAL HARD ON ME.”
D
uring the second half of the 1960s, The 13th Floor Elevators, which he cofounded in 1965, aged 18, pioneered a brand of psychedelic garage rock that’s still capable of blowing minds today. Their most enduring anthems include the dank Reverberation (Doubt), the agitated epic, Slip Inside This House and the High Fidelityimmortalised classic, You’re Gonna Miss Me. At the centre of the Texas band was frontman Roger “Roky” Erickson, whose surreal lyrics and wobbly vocals gave his drug-saturated songs a dire edge. Long familiar to fans, Erickson’s life story post-Elevators is a tragic one. Having undergone electroshock therapy against his will at a psychiatric hospital in 1968, Erickson was arrested the following year for possessing one joint. Facing ten years in prison, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and was sent to state hospitals to face more electroshock therapy. He wasn’t released until 1972. He eventually started a new band, Blieb Alien, influenced by sci-fi and horror films. Renamed Roky Erickson & The Aliens, they made two albums in the early ’80s. But Erickson’s troubles hadn’t ceased and he struggled with psychiatric issues even as the Elevators’ legacy grew more and more influential. Subsequent generations of musicians sang the band’s praises and a 1990 tribute album featured Primal Scream, ZZ Top, The Jesus & Mary Chain, REM and Butthole Surfers. Fast-forward to today and Erickson has a slew of solo albums to his name. He was the subject of the documentary, You’re Gonna Miss Me, and in 2010 worked with fellow Austin residents Okkervil River on the redemptive album, True Love Cast Out All Evil. He’s now living without the use of medication and he’s coming to Australia for the first time to play Golden Plains. It’s quite a second act for him. These days, Erickson is more interested in reading widely and simply writing songs than touring like mad and playing the rock star. Still based in Austin and speaking by phone for one of his few Australian interviews, he first touches on religion versus psychedelic drugs (and music) as a form of transcendence. After all, his last album has gospel themes and closes with the song God Is Everywhere. “They always say it’s important, when you’re discussing drugs, to think of it as a group thing,” he explains. “Something that a lot of people would know about and discuss. First they’d have to discuss it and then they would know about it.” Does that mean religion is more of a private experience for him? “Well, they used to get together in religion,” he answers, “but religion is just whatever you know about it at the time. I have a bunch of books about religion I’ve been reading.” He mentions reading a few other times during the interview, confessing his fondness for Stephen King as well as books on philosophy and faith: “I study a lot about religion and I work on a lot of ideas I have with my reading.” Both heartbreaking and life-affirming, True Love Cast Out All Evil sees Erickson come out the other side of his personal ordeals with a survivor’s strength and wisdom. Produced by Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff and backed by the band’s sturdy folk rock, it ranges from distant-sounding demos to buoying string sections. Erickson’s songs for it are timeless jewels, stripping away the chaotic surface of the ‘Elevators for something purer and much more at peace with itself. Erickson did some gigs with Okkervil River, including at 2010’s South By Southwest. That doesn’t mean it came easily for the 64 year old, though. “It’s real hard work,” he confesses. “Gettin’ up there, it’s like lifting people around. Lifting them around and putting them certain places. They had different varieties of musicians with them that I played with. To be on stage, it’s real hard on me.” While he surely appreciates the fact that he still has an audience after all these years, Erickson still finds his live shows to be quite similar to each other. “That’s just something that, every time I do it, it’s the same dang thing. It just seems like the same kind of deal. It ain’t any different.” Laughing, he adds, “I go there to work hard and I come back and feel relaxed about it and that’s it.” The man doesn’t go out to see much live music himself these days, though he does watch the long-running concert series Austin City Limits on TV. And he doesn’t hide his fondness for the city he’ll always call home. “I like it a lot. I have different feelings about it. I like the capital building a lot and I like the University of Texas. I’ve been there a lot of times, shopping for books.” Again on the topic of books, he proudly cites his 1995 collection of lyrics, Openers II, published by Henry Rollins’ 2-13-61 imprint. Asked how prolific he is with writing, Erickson says, “I work at it a lot. I get a lot of pleasure out of writing.” As for recording, he mentions working at the Austin studio Wire Recording – he remembers the name because he likes Wire magazine. He cut a song there “called The Devil Was Creeping From The Cool Shadows Behind The Trees – or something.” For all of the work he’s done pushing the boundaries of garage and psych, Erickson’s latest work is more aligned with country and folk. Is that a lasting influence of his? “I haven’t heard country music in a long time. I like country music, but there’s just a lot out there.” How about gospel? “I love gospel. I like to listen to the radio here in Austin, to the religious songs.” Did he sing in church during childhood? “Yes,” he confirms. “I don’t know how often I went, but I did have to go to church and sing and read out of the prayer book.”
Erickson’s first brush with the guitar, meanwhile, came at age 12 or 13 thanks to his mother. “She thought I might enjoy doing it. So I taught myself and then she sent me down to a friend of hers that had taught her piano.” His mother gave Erickson something else he’s long been famous for – his nickname, a combination of his first and middle names (Roger and Kynard). Most children don’t relish monikers doled out by family members, but not so with Erickson. “I enjoyed it a lot,” he announces proudly. “I like the name Roger too.” So he answers to both of them? “Yes I do.” WHO: Roky Erickson WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 14 March, Factory Theatre 36 • THE DRUM MEDIA
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THE DRUM MEDIA • 37
AN OLD-FASHIONED WOMAN PROBABLY BETTER KNOWN THESE DAYS FOR HER RECORDINGS OF THE SONGS OF FELLOW SCOT, THE POET ROBBIE BURNS, EDDI READER IS STILL IN LOVE WITH THE WHOLE IDEA OF THE WELL-MADE SONG, AS MICHAEL SMITH DISCOVERS.
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MY LOVE OF SONGS SORT OF OVER-REACHES MY LOVE OF WRITING, SO I WRITE, YEAH, BUT I ALSO FALL IN LOVE WITH SONGS THAT I MEET.”
“I
did [Sings] The Songs Of Robert Burns [in 2003] and it was up for some kind of award here – Best Scottish Song or whatever it was – and somebody wrote in and said, ‘Yeah, but it’s a cover version’,” Eddi Reader begins in reference to an attitude in contemporary music that obviously perplexes her. “This is Ae Fond Kiss by Robert Burns, who died in 1796 and I just had to write in and go, ‘Yeah, because his version was much better…’ As if there was a version by him.” Throughout Reader’s career, which really kicked off on an international level in 1988 – the band Reader was then fronting, Fairground Attraction, hit number one in the UK with their first single, Perfect – she’s been as much an interpreter of songs as a writer of her own. It’s something that has obviously served a woman who feels she’s a folk singer first and foremost rather well over the past 30-odd years. “My love of songs sort of over-reaches my love of writing, so I write, yeah, but I also fall in love with songs that I meet. For example there’s a guy downstairs” – our conversation had come in a break between rehearsing for a UK tour – “called Declan O’Rourke, who wrote a song called Galileo, which I first heard nine years ago. It was just him and me sittin’ in the pub, everybody else is drunk and he pulled it out of the hat and started playin’ it on his acoustic guitar and I sobered up immediately, because it’s written in a very Bing Crosby-style way, Ink Spots or whatever. He’s, like, 27 at the time, I was 40 or something and I’m like, ‘Who wrote that? I’ve never heard it before and I kind of know all of them [laughs]?’ He said, ‘Oh, I wrote it.’ And I’m like, ‘What?!’ He says, ‘Yeah, people say it’s derivative…’, and I’m like, ‘Derivative of what? Gershwin? For fuck’s sake, that’s brilliant. If it is derivative of Gershwin, thank God. At last, people are actually focusing on construction of songs and not just going all right, just put a line in there and we’ll try and get some publishing money.’ “Unbelievably, people have this real snobbery about ‘covers’ now. They’d rather a Spice Girl wrote nonentity words over a mediocre melody than, ‘Go get a good song by that guy that might not have a great singing voice, but can write amazing poetry.’ I kind of spend a lot hoping to meet those people. I never like to hear tapes – I just like to experience it, get in front of somebody who’s singing it. And then there’ll be times when I’ll reach into my own brain and try and pull out ideas – and I have got quite a few. It’s just that I do love meetin’ a song that’s fully formed and ready. There’s more confidence in me when I have to sell it people. If I’ve found something that’s gorgeous, I want to tell people how great it is, whereas if I write it, I’m a bit shyer about tellin’ people how great it is. I’m not that good at that.” Reader eventually covered Galileo, which has also been recorded by Josh Groban among others, on her 2007 album, Peacetime, while his Love Is The Way became the title track of her 2009 album. While we’re on the topic of Gershwin, in 2009, Reader got herself a small role in the feature film, Me & Orson Welles, starring Zac Efron and Clare Danes. The film was set in 1930s New York, the time of Gershwin. “I kind of feel that things like that happen and you grab the opportunity and do it and enjoy it. Some people spend years trying to get on a Hollywood movie and all I had to do was get drunk at one of Jools Holland’s parties [laughs] and sing 1937 songs that my mother knows – and they phoned me up because that’s what they needed. They needed a singer that knew that kind of material. And it is surprising, you know. I’ve been brought up with that kind of music, because my mum loved Nat King Cole, so I always get surprised that not more people know that stuff and I mean I’m getting’ on now – I’m older than I was! – but certainly not the oldest… Madonna, cough cough. But certainly it’s bizarre, like, I talk to people that are 20 now and they haven’t had an experience of Cole Porter or… It’s weird that Jools could phone me up in Scotland and say, ‘You’re the only person I know that knows all that stuff’ [laughs].” Meanwhile Reader, who has been touring the past couple of years on the back of 2010’s Live In Japan, isn’t quite ready to cut a new studio album yet. “It’s been weird. I’m in a house with two teenage boys [her sons] – well one’s 20-odd, but we’ve space [she and her partner, Trashcan Sinatras guitarist John Douglas] for the first time because they’re older and stay out of the house and it’s a gift, but we haven’t managed to organise it. I mean we sit down with a guitar, but actually taking it seriously – what we have and what I have – that just takes another further step that I’ve not managed to take yet. There are ideas that I’ve put down in the studio, but I’m just not sure what kind of album I want to make apart from it’s got to be really beautiful. But I have this real desire to have massive orchestrations and I just need to find a way of doin’ that.” WHO: Eddi Reader WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 15 March, Lizotte’s, Newcastle; Friday 16, Southern Cross Club, Canberra; Saturday 17 and Sunday 18, Blue Mountains Music Festival, Katoomba; Wednesday 21, Lizotte’s, Kincumber; Thursday 22, Blue Beat; Friday 23, Camelot Lounge
38 • THE DRUM MEDIA
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YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY SINCE NAILING ONLY NAILING THEIR LIVE SHOWS AT THE TIME WHEN THE WHOLE THING WENT DOWN THE TOILET, URGE OVERKILL HAVE CONTINUED TO ENJOY THEIR SECOND COMING, SO MUCH SO THAT THEY RECENTLY RELEASED THEIR FIRST ALBUM OF NEW MATERIAL IN 16 YEARS. VOCALIST/GUITARIST EDDIE “KING” ROESER TALKS TO DOUG WALLEN.
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any people only know Urge Overkill thanks to Neil Diamond and Quentin Tarantino: their effortlessly cool version of Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon was immortalised by Pulp Fiction. Fewer know the Chicago band’s early stint on Touch & Go cutting albums with Steve Albini and Butch Vig or the fact that Urge Overkill have been reunited since 2004, having broken up in 1997. There’s one more chapter that shoild be mentioned – the major label era, which included both 1993’s power-pop masterpiece, Saturation, and 1995’s commercial dud, Exit The Dragon. Despite having been reunited eight years, during which time they put in a cracker of an Aussie tour back in 2006, it’s only last year they released the first new Urge Overkill album since Exit The Dragon. Titled Rock And Roll Submarine, their self-released sixth LP originally released locally by the now folded Other Tongues imprint (it’s now distributed by MGM), it firmly re-establishes the partnership of singer/guitarists Nash Kato and Eddie “King” Roeser as well as the glossy yet crunchy dynamics and instant classic-rock choruses that have defined the best moments of the band. All the same, it’s obviously been a long road. “For us it was worth the wait,” beams Roeser, talking not long before heading to Spain to play a festival near Madrid. Spain was one of the first places the band hit postreunion, with heartening results. “It really helped build up our confidence that we were really wanted,” he recalls. “[And] to keep going until we had a new record.” Marked by the bracing charms of Thought Balloon, opener, Mason/Dixon, and the T Rex-ish title track, Rock And Roll Submarine sees Roeser and Kato flanked by their current rhythm section of bassist Mike Hodgkiss and drummer Brian Quast. It’s also a return to the smaller recording budget of their Touch & Go years, as opposed to the high polish of their two Geffen albums. There’s still an uncanny convergence of melody and menace, but if anything there’s a darker, heavier feel to Roeser tunes like Little Vice and lead single, Effigy. The latter feels inspired by a life hard lived.
“We have been known to indulge a little too much,” Roeser admits. Even the band’s post-reunion US tour in 2004 wasn’t the best way to start off a new chapter: “I was in a less than ideal state. That was a bad time for me. Since then we’ve come a long way. We have pretty ambitious music and you’ve gotta be in top form to play it properly.” At long last, he adds, “The band’s really cookin’ now.” Roeser also points out the low points of Urge Overkill’s initial lifespan, despite graduating to the major leagues as well as touring with both Nirvana and Pearl Jam at pretty much the perfect time. “We weren’t quite ready for the big time when we did hit it. It was always inconsistent. We had mastered playing the small stage [but not] the big stage. I feel like we [only] really started to nail our live shows at the time when the whole thing went down the toilet, for various reasons.” About those reasons, Roeser recounts, “It was bad internal stuff. It was all internal; I’m not gonna blame anybody else. Even though being in the band wasn’t that fun towards the end – like 1996 or whatever – we finally had mastered the big stage and were finally about to do what we were attempting to do. But then we got the major-label plug pulled on us, as it were. It’s kind of a comedy of errors, with Urge.” Errors or not, Saturation was one of the best albums of the ’90s and since then has aged remarkably well. Even the overlooked Exit The Dragon has beautiful moments, like Kato’s ballad, View Of The Rain. And while Urge Overkill sat dormant, Kato made the great bubblegum solo debut, Debutante, released on Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard’s then-label Loosegroove, while Roeser pursued both Electric Airlines with his brother John and The Kimball Roeser Effect with The Jesus Lizard’s Jim Kimball. Neither really took off in the end, though. “We did a record-length demo,” he says of Electric Airlines. “That record’s actually floating around on the Internet. [But] the band kind of fell apart. Playing with my brother got to [where] it was gonna take its toll on our relationship.” Even still, his personal expectations for the project hadn’t
been that high from the start. “[The record] wasn’t an attempt to take over the rock world,” he admits. “I always believed an Urge record was coming, like, next year.” As for The Kimball Roeser Effect? Well, for starters, drummer Jim Kimball is “kind of a crazy guy”. There was some attention from Matador Records, but at the time the famed indie label was more focused on all the abstract electronica it was licensing from the English label Warp. That meant less room for a would-be rock throwback. With so much experience between them – they first started playing together after meeting at uni in the mid-’80s – it’s gratifying to hear Kato and Roeser’s new batch of songs on Rock And Roll Submarine, complete with the front cover’s familiar UO logo. Is there a story behind the band’s knack for branding? After all, that logo is as iconic to Urge fans as the lips and tongue are to Stones fans. “Getting into a band is just the mythology,” explains Roeser. “That’s what we always wanted. Preferably you can get a mythology around an entire record. You want each record to have as many layers of intensity as you can. It adds depth. It just comes from really living and breathing this thing for a long time. That’s all we thought about. It was an unspoken thing that our records should have some interrelation to itself and some reason for being.”
themusic.com.au
Even with the above hard-luck story and the dubious proposition that is any reunited band, though, few fans are doubting Urge Overkill’s reason for being right now. They’re just glad they’ve managed to survive at all. The fact that Rock And Roll Submarine actually lives up to the rest of the back catalogue is merely so much the better. Add in a tour of Australia – complete with a stop at Golden Plains and Adelaide Festival – and this is a boon that’s been a long time coming for followers of Kato and Roeser. Yes, against all odds, the future currently looks bright for our boys. Last October they opened for Weezer in their native Chicago and on New Year’s Day they sang America’s National Anthem at a Chicago Bears football game at the Metrodome. If those aren’t glaring signs of redemption and a second chance, then what on earth is? “Nash and I weren’t very prolific during the post-Urge years,” Roeser concludes, “but we were always working on stuff. Most of what you hear on [Rock And Roll Submarine] we came up with together. We didn’t drag a whole lot of old stuff into this record.” WHO: Urge Overkill WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 10 March, The Gaelic
THE DRUM MEDIA • 43
ROCK FOR AGES
HERE’S JOELY
ENDLESS BOOGIE’S PRIMAL FRONTMAN PAUL ‘TOP DOLLAR’ MAJOR TALKS TO STEVE BELL ABOUT THEIR LOVE OF OZ ROCK AND THROWING OUT THE RIFFS. The Endless Boogie credo is to never play shows unless they’re asked to, a statement of self-belief and detachment that would sink a lesser band from the outset, so it’s lucky that they are no normal band. It’s all in the throwback vibe of their music, a celebration of a bygone era when blues-rock ruled the roost and having a good time was a priority rather than an aside – especially on stage, where their massive, powerful jams and thumping riffs pummel the senses; all rambling guitars and joyous solos, locking into chunky grooves and simply refusing to let go. At times the vocals feel like an afterthought, but not in a bad way – this is about communal, visceral experience for all involved. They’re about to come down to Australia for the first time, but don’t think that as serious music collectors they don’t know much about our country (or our music scene at any rate). “Oh yeah we’re excited, big time!” enthuses frontman Paul ‘Top Dollar’ Major. “I’ve never been there and of course ever since I was a kid I’ve had this sense of Australia through the music. Just with what I know, I’ve been telling people ever since I saw it that that Sunbury film about the ’72 festival that it was the craziest and wildest festival I’ve ever seen! It seems like the one event in rock that’s the most like what I’m about, so we’re completely thrilled to be coming down.” The members of Endless Boogie have always expressed an affinity with old-school Aussie rockers like Lobby Loyde and Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, which speaks volumes about where they’re coming from as a band as much as it does about our oft-unheralded underground rock history. “Oh yeah, we’ve always, on and off – every once in a while – done our version of [The Aztecs’] Mama, which is just mind-blowing,” Major continues. “But then we look at the YouTube video of Billy doing it on that TV show [GTK in 1971] and then we think, ‘Oh man! I hope nobody saw him doing it, because it’s beyond our level of heaviness!’ Then of course [Lobby Loyde’s] The Coloured Balls are one of our favourite bands and
HIS LABEL BOSS CALLS HIS NEW EP INDIE DANCE RAP. JOELISTICS, HOWEVER, CALLS IT MUSIC. HE TALKS TO RIP NICHOLSON ABOUT THE DRAMATIC REINTERPRETATIONS OF HIS SONGS.
L right from the top bands from AC/DC and Rose Tattoo down to the more obscure bands – obscure from an American perspective – like Volcano and all those other Aussie bands that we’ve heard. So we’re jacked to be coming there and everyone that I’ve ever known from Australia has said, ‘We really rock down there.’ “Which is what we’re hoping, because we’ll get our thing going and when people start moving and that, it really fires us up and we go all the way, as far as we can. Until we’re dropping, it’s that vibe – there’s nothing better than being in a room where the whole vibe is that everybody wants to rock. We’re still a jam band essentially, which keeps us in the moment for one thing – we’re all really listening to each other and trying to merge into the same energy – so it’s exciting and it makes playing the shows a lot of fun. It would be dreadful to me if we had to play a show where we had this whole presentation worked out that you’re trying to repeat every night. Our thing is that we want to throw out some of the good riffs that people know and that, but still take it in the room where it goes that night. So every show is way different, but still Endless Boogie.”
WHEN & WHERE: Friday 9 March, Sandringham Hotel
Cohen’s musical career has been varied. He released a couple of solo records a number of years ago (Adam Cohen in 1998 and Melancolista in 2004), as well as Ex-Girlfriends (also in 2004) with rock band Low Millions, with whom he had moderate success. Since then however, despite the fact he’s “been busy”, he effectively withdrew from the music world, citing disillusionment as he mentioned earlier. We talk briefly about how it is to have Leonard Cohen as a father and he’s sage about it, accepting it (you certainly can’t change these things), and calls it more of a help than a hindrance. But there was always that expectation. Until now. 44 • THE DRUM MEDIA
The EP’s title track sparks a dancefloor spasm and in rhyme provides some levity to the tracklisting that centres so much on Voyager’s educating of society’s politically-ignorant. “The inspiration for The Shining came from this year’s New Year’s Eve. It was the first year in a long time that I wasn’t playing a gig and I went out and got very high and had an extremely good time. I don’t condone it, I don’t do it often, but I wanted to write about it.” Australia’s most uprooted MC, Ma heads back overseas in June to resume his European dalliance with German garage hip hop band Der Fall Böse, before he plants both feet down for the new TZU album later in 2012. “This will be the last tour I do for The Voyager material before I head back to TZU fold, so I’m putting a lot in to the show. We’ll be playing some of the more esoteric tracks off the record and generally enjoying the shit out of it all. It’s going to be special.” WHO: Joelistics WHAT: The Shining (Elefant Traks/Inertia) WHEN & WHERE: Friday 9 March, Annandale Hotel; Saturday 10, Great Northern Hotel, Newcastle; Sunday 11, Transit Bar, Canberra
TRANSNATIONAL GYPSY CREW BARO BANDA HAVE WOWED AUDIENCES THE WORLD OVER, INCLUDING A BUNCH OF BERLIN METALHEADS, WRITES IZZY TOLHURST.
E
“The first was disillusionment with my own career. The second was my father’s triumphant return to the stage. And the third one was fatherhood, my own, becoming a father myself – that feeling and connection,” he goes on slowly. “[Now] I walk to work with a sense of pride and a hop in my step, as they say. I used to have a lower-ranking position in the family business and now my office is on the upper floors. And if my music is in dialogue with my father’s, then I have something noteworthy and interesting to say, finally.”
Most recently Ma has released The Shining EP, remixing six of The Voyager’s best picks, plus a new original record. “It’s a collaborative affair. The remix artists are all friends or associates. There’s Damn Moroda and Count Bounce, which includes two lots of TZU members; Monkey Marc from Combat Wombat who I played a few shows with in Germany and Amsterdam last year. Rufus, who are a really exciting electronic threepiece from Sydney; Ishu, a producer from Melbourne who I worked with on the last tour and Dustin MacLean who helped me record a lot of the vocals on Voyager. All the producers killed it. No question.
inspired by some of the more aggressive electronic sounds coming out of Berlin. I didn’t want a bunch of wub wub dubstep remixes; I didn’t want anything too straight and defined. I wanted some dramatic reinterpretations of my original songs using experimental ideas drawn from cutting-edge electronic music.”
PROVING THEIR METAL
YEP, HIS DAD’S A DEADSET LEGEND, BUT ADAM COHEN TELLS SAMUEL J FELL HIS FAMOUS SURNAME HAS BEEN MORE HELP THAN HINDRANCE.
Cohen junior however, has come to a realisation. The realisation that while expectation will always flirt with you (sometimes from afar, sometimes right in front of your wife and children), there’s a way out, a way to tell her to stop; there’s a way to operate where expectation means nothing. “That’s very much true,” muses Cohen. “There were three [moments where I came to this realisation], ingredients to change.
“I love travel and I was brought up a traveller. My parents broke up when I was two, so when I was growing up in Sydney I used to spend two weeks with my dad, then two weeks with my mum. I did that until I was seventeen. I used to pack my bags every two weeks and shift house. I was born in Malaysia and spent a year growing up in Singapore. I’ve lived in Shanghai, Paris, Berlin and Tasmania.”
“With The Shining EP, I really wanted to head more in a dance music direction,” Ma explains his reworking of Voyager tracks. “Urthboy, who is the Elefant Traks label manager, called it ‘indie dance rap’; I call it music. Over the course of the last year I’ve been really
WHO: Endless Boogie
GREAT EXPECTATIONS xpectation can be a cruel mistress and she can take many forms. Whether it be expectation to carry off a nigh-on impossible task, the expectation that something you do this time will be better than last time, the expectation that you’ll live up to, perhaps, the Family Name. None more so than the latter then, has defined a large period of the life of Adam Cohen. For what could be crueller, what could possibly be more demanding (and indeed, almost futile) than the expectation that your musical career will in any way live up to that of your father, the one and only Leonard Cohen?
ast May, TZU MC Joel Ma (otherwise known as Joelistics) dropped The Voyager, a globe-trekking word for the wise conceived and written whilst riding the Trans-Mongolian Railway and living in the confines of a cold Paris winter. Here, Ma cogitated over his travels and wrote of the cultural awakenings life away had fed him. Since his last national tour, Ma has been residing in Berlin, Germany. “Travel is in the blood, I don’t know any different,” admits Ma, born to a Chinese-Australian father and an Anglo-Australian mother, who raps of growing up feeling disconnected from his own culture, almost on the cusp of foreign on his own soil. “I think travel is a good antidote to ignorance and I recommend it for everyone.
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hen Murat Yucel arrived in Australia 13 years ago, the Turkish-born singer and guitarist, who was raised listening to western music, found himself suddenly longing for the sounds of the homeland. “Being away from home, thousands of kilometres, I think does that to you and that’s sort of reflected in the music. That’s my role anyway, to bring the two together.”
We mentioned earlier that Cohen junior had come to a realisation. He outlined the reasons why and how. But the main booster? The recent release of his third solo record, Like A Man. This is a record, one that’s been a long time coming – that lowers that expectation (almost kills it stone dead, in fact) – because it’s the album he’s been ‘expected’ to make for years now. Like A Man sees Adam Cohen come to the realisation, it sees him gather himself up, and it sees him walk out of the shadow, into the light of his own making. It sees him as a musician in his own right, not just the son of a legend. When asked why he’s called Like A Man his “proudest artistic achievement yet”, he considers, “I’m not sure I can answer that without reiterating the word ‘pride’. I’m proud of it because it’s work that dignifies and honours a tradition from which I come. It’s a record that has the honesty and a signature that is altogether my own at the same time. It’s very much celebrating my father’s work, which has had a deep influence on me, and it’s also my proudest work because it’s so unexpected to me, that I would have ever made this record, and ever made it so well.” It’s almost as if Like A Man is a fresh start for Cohen, a springboard – one that could hurl him in any direction he chooses. Far away, it would seem, from that cruel mistress that is expectation. “[It’s a] giant sized adventure,” he sums up, and at this point, that’s all that matters. WHO: Adam Cohen WHAT: Like A Man (Cooking Vinyl) WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 14 March, The Basement
Now Yucel heads culturally diverse (and wildly fascinating) group Baro Banda, meaning “friendship band” in the Romany language. The group are headlining the upcoming Karavan! International International Gypsy Music Festival. Formed in Istanbul in 2006, Baro Banda essentially “started on stage” and had “actually never rehearsed together” when they first performed live, Yucel explains. Furthermore, with members living in a variety of countries around the globe (including Australia, Istanbul, Turkey and Mexico), the whole outfit rarely practice together and record production has previously been a long process given such distance. “We recorded an album in 2009 through to 2010, which took that long because of all the logistical difficulties,” Yucel explains. “Whenever we had to edit something we emailed it to each other, then sent it to the studio where the recording was done. But as you can see that hasn’t stopped us from doing it.” Despite this, and adding to the afore-conveyed enthusiasm, Yucel says that in the past five years the band have refined their sound and he is convinced they’re more “fiery” than ever. “It’s gathered more of a carnival, festival vibe,” he explains. “We’ve come to understand what each part can do better over the years and we experimented with that more. At the beginning it was all just a big jam, but later it started to shape a bit more. Originally we played with different instruments and different musicians. In the end we chose what was best and finalised our shape and sound,” he continues.
themusic.com.au
Informing Yucel that Australia’s gypsy music scene is a niche and relatively modest one, he speaks about being well-received by European audiences and says he’s always thrilled by the challenge of converting those seemingly not so hot on the genre. “In Turkey, the audience response has been great – that’s actually what made us start the band, it just happened from the amazing response. We thought, ‘We should keep doing this!’ We haven’t had any bad experiences, even in a heavy metal club in Berlin, which we were really worried about. We looked out at the audience and they were all in chains. We became convinced that we shouldn’t play; we thought they were going to hate us. Then it became a challenge and by the end of the show it was amazing to see all those heavy metal dudes dancing to gypsy tunes… it was great!” While such a rich example of diversity could understandably become a forum for discussions of global politics or peaceful interracial existence, Yucel suggests simply that the shared passion for music and fun was satisfying enough for Baro Banda. “The band members are very different socially, ethnically, in the languages we speak – and even the musical backgrounds. We come from almost extreme ends and meet in this musical common ground. We never try to restrain anyone on their performance; all the differences make the colour of music.” WHO: Baro Banda WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 10 March, Karavan! International Gypsy Music Festival, the Standard
Australian Tour
With support from THE RUMJACKS
The Manning Bar Sydney University Saturday 7th April 2012 (02) 9563 6000 Tickets available from www.manningbar.com
THE DRUM MEDIA â&#x20AC;˘ 45
46 • THE DRUM MEDIA
THE DRUM MEDIA • 47
SINGLES/EPS WITH ROSS CLELLAND
ON THE RECORD
PACKWOOD Packwood Independent
The tentatively plucked banjo that stuttered – and then started again – suggested another of the sincere but identikit folkery that seems the anti-fashion. But then, an orchestra swept through Sloan Great Wall and it became a clarion call. ‘Cinematic’ is an easy default word – in fact, they use it themselves. But this mix of the rural rustic with these odd outbreaks of grandiosity can be both gloriously atmospheric and somewhat confusing in what it’s trying to be. May he work it out, for when it works, it’s quite stunning.
SHADY LANE Dumb Hope Rice Is Nice
Former slightly whimsical acoustic troubadour Jordy continues his evolution to lo-fi electronicist band guise. The album under the banner last year perhaps caught he/they between the two styles. This settles into an almost strummy swing, with some one-finger keyboard noises underneath, and breezes down the street, only occasionally being hit by low-hanging branches. It still sounds as if it was recorded on laptop and/or reel-to-reel in a bedroom, with a mic in the toilet to grab the echo. Cheap and cheerful, but made with care.
GOTYE
Easy Way Out Eleven
Back in the day when those album things meant something, single after single were plucked from the dozen and each had to come with their own clever/quirky/expensive video. Our boy Gotye resurrects the traditions, but it’s a little hard – already having made the one song and image that made it into the wider consciousness in recent times. Easy actually isn’t. A somewhat brighter and sharper thing clocking in at under two minutes and a stop-motion-style clip that again has you involuntarily thinking ‘Peter Gabriel’. Again.
SPIRITUALIZED
BOWERBIRDS
CHIDDY BANG
DIE ANTWOORD
Dead Oceans/Inertia
Capitol/EMI
Zef/Downtown/Co-Operative
Great art often comes from dark places. It’s natural to find adversity more interesting than happiness, especially from an outsider’s perspective. The last 12 months have been unkind to Bowerbirds, but through that they’ve reached a place much stronger than before – with album number three under their belt. The Clearing is an album of intense emotional self-actualisation; a brave and invigorating record that attempts to crystallise their newfound commitment to life with each other.
Sometimes it’s tough to distance the music from the people who listen to it. “Oh that band? No, their fans are personality-lacking, sleeve tattoowearing, Tyler-aping yawnsters. I’ll pass.”
Die Antwoord have a long-standing reputation for being fearless when it comes to pushing the boundaries at the same time as being able to create incredibly potent music within the confines of their genre – and they certainly do not disappoint in this regard with the aptly-named Ten$ion.
The Clearing
Breakfast
The Clearing is cinematic in its approach in that it paints broad images and soundscapes with a rich palette. As the record is ostensibly a direct emotional response to things they’ve dealt with only recently (death, loss, relationships, impermanence and ultimately regeneration and reconciliation), the intensity and vibrancy is palpable. Lovers and bandmates Phil Moore and Beth Tacular have reached right into themselves to find the raw materials worthy enough to give form to their inspiration – and they’ve drawn out some stunning results. Lyrically it’s just as dense as previous records (they’ve always been pithy, sometimes to their detriment) although there’s a focus here that gives their words a lot more impact. Musically they’ve employed a broader range of instrumentation and it gives everything a wide-angle feel. Tuck The Darkness In builds to something reminiscent of Arcade Fire and This Year opens up with a military drum salvo towards the end much the same as Bon Iver’s Perth. They’ve had a lot on their minds, but ultimately The Clearing serves as a wonderful monument to the glass half full mentality. Highly recommended. Matt MacMaster
Chiddy Bang is a great example of this. The American hip hop artist caters to his fundamentally boring fanbase, who settle for instant pleasure without trying to dig any deeper. I would know – I am now one of them. Breakfast delivers the most immediately appealing rap music. After the (obligatory/unnecessary) Intro we hit the title track – a big plinky piano banger. Handclaps And Guitars, an aptly named collection of “oh-oh-oohs” with a straightforward chord progression, follows. Both of these songs and a number of others we don’t have time to discuss could have been singles. You can sing the choruses after the first time you’ve heard them. Chiddy’s raps are undemanding and inoffensive – and the beats are great fun. It’s Ray Charles though that has been selected as a single and it’s awful. Much too obvious and based on a clumsy conceit, it is the album’s worst track, behind even the mediocre Out 2 Space. Run It Back deserves close consideration. Though the hook is useless, the beat for the verses is insanely catchy, with videogame bloop-blips and perfect drums. When listening to the track, you will instantly want to rewind back to the verses again. Press rewind and, of course, you’ve ‘run it back’. Perhaps the joke is on all of us? Maybe the hook just sucks. Immediacy and longevity are almost mutually exclusive on this album. The best experiences after all are acquired tastes. Beneath Chiddy’s semicompetent raps and all the top 40-baiting cheese though, there are some great songs on Breakfast. James d’Apice
Ten$ion
The record is far from generic and instead is full of surprises, with the end of each track leaving one never quite sure what to expect from the next. The album opens with the understated but powerful Never Le Nkemise 1, which displays the group’s control over their craft with a heavy, slow beat that is steady and sustained and incredibly potent as a result. The pace and feel of the record quickens with the upbeat and fastpaced I Fink U Freeky, which perfectly compliments the opening track. This introductory build-up is interrupted somewhat by Hey Sexy, which has a certain hurried feel to it and as a result is considerably less catchy than the songs that precede it. However, the tone is revived with So What, one of the most exciting tracks on the album thanks to its heavy, steady beat and the vocals with which this is flawlessly combined. Another of the album’s weaknesses reveals itself in the mildly disturbing interlude, Uncle Jimmy, and DJ Hi-Tek Rulez, as the experimental nature of these tracks is not as successful as the other songs on the album. The album closes with an upbeat dance track whose title mirrors the opener and proves to be a very powerful way to end the record. While its elements do not fall together perfectly in every track, there is never a dull moment here and Ten$ion is an impressive, highimpact record and heavily satisfying as a result. Lucia Osborne-Crowley
Hey Jane
Domino/EMI There is only one J. Spaceman. This is either a blessing or a curse depending on your point of view. This preview to album #7 is identifiable as himself, if only because not many would offer a single of just on nine minutes. And although well drenched in lysergic numbness, the first movement rattles along in less orchestral sound than his last few appearances. Did someone say Velvet Underground? Or is that just because Jane’s involved in the title? It goes on and on, but surprisingly it always feels like it’s headed somewhere.
BUTTERFLY BOUCHER 5678! MGM
No, not the sequel to Feist/Buffalo’s 1,2,3,4, but a joyful and catchy affair, which suggests nothing of its author’s long settlement in Nashville. Although, add steel guitar and the world could be your prairie oyster, perhaps. In its happy stroll, this is the kind of music that should be coming out of an AM radio on a beach towel somewhere. However, a current measure of success is that it’s already been used in a couple of American TV shows. Placement over a package of NRL or AFL highlights could well happen.
JEREMY NEALE
Winter Was The Time Independent
Mr Neale is more usually lead singer of the rather good and recently reviewed pop combo Velociraptor. Under his own name, he channels things from another time, slightly more recent than Jurassic. This is pure early ‘60s Mersey-style pop through tinny speakers and cheap guitars well played. It’s all raggedy harmonies and choruses that everybody yells in unison. Purist retro of a sort that will probably find him a label and an audience in Portugal or Pasadena. Will be much loved by white guys of a certain age.
EMELI SANDÉ
LACHLAN BRYAN
VARIOUS/MINX
Virgin/EMI
Core/Sony
EMI
Scottish-born singer/songwriter Emeli Sandé has become an absolute phenomenon in the UK recently, but she isn’t an overnight sensation, not by any stretch. Her collaborations in recent years with the likes of Wiley and Professor Green and writing songs for a number of the UK’s top artists including Cheryl Cole, Leona Lewis and Tinie Tempah definitely influence this, her debut album, which is a rather lengthy mixture of 14 British soul and r’n’b tracks.
The opening song of Lachlan Bryan’s debut solo album, Unfortunate Rose, is a quietly mournful apology to the true love that got away. It sets up the rest of the album, which offers country music in a slightly edgier format they call ‘outlaw country’. Not that there’s really a lot of ‘outlaw’ going on here, but second track, Going Straight, does see the protagonist fresh out of prison, promising to stick to the straight and narrow and, again, apologises for the hurt he’s caused everyone.
Sydney DJ Minx aka Rachel Phillips seems to have recently burst out of nowhere, but you only need to scratch the surface to discover that this ambitious lady has been hard at work for over seven years. Minx certified her DJ status at the end of 2011 when she was crowned the winner of EMI’s inaugural She Can DJ competition. Now Minx has released a She Can DJ compilation that features her favourite club anthems and some of her own original tracks for that extra bang.
Our Version Of Events
Heaven is a punchy starter and the undisputable winner on the album. Massive Attack-style strings combined with drum’n’bass beats, cheeky trumpets and smackyou-in-the-face vocals gets the ears yearning for more. It’s a shame the rest of the album doesn’t continue this way. My Kind Of Love sounds ironically like a typical Leona Lewis track and is a perfectly decent r’n’b tune, but nothing groundbreaking. Stronger tracks on the album include Next To Me – a fun, catchy song about her long-term boyfriend that features invigorating gospel-style harmonies – and Mountains, which displays a much softer side to Sandé with tender vocals that show off her great vocal precision. Honesty and raw emotion is a theme that runs throughout the album and gives a sense of integrity to each song, like painful breakup ballad, Suitcase, which begs, “What changed so quickly? Answer me/ If you must kill me at least please tell me why...” Read All About It, Pt.III closes the album with a simple, pared-back version of the Professor Green hit with classic piano accompaniment. As far as debut albums go, Emeli Sandé smashes it, although a bit more variety next time please. Helen Lear
48 • THE DRUM MEDIA
Shadow Of The Gun
I’d Rather Sing In Churches (Cos I’m Tired Of Being In Bars) and Home Of The Blues offer more straightforward country stomps, picking up the pace a little. However on the whole, it’s the sadder and occasionally darker side of life that interests Bryan, whether he is couched in an old-timely country waltz, as with his duet with Kasey Chambers in Whistle And Waltz, or the slow, moody style of oblique murder ballad, Lily Of The Fields. The stories he tells could have happened anywhere – the Australian outback or rural Tennessee – since Bryan never includes any geographical reference points, which means his songs will translate to a US market easily enough if he chooses to tackle it – and why not? There’s quite a solid history of Australians successfully taking country back to Nashville as it were, not least by the aforementioned Kasey Chambers and the other main female vocal contributor to the album, Catherine Britt.
She Can DJ Presents Minx
Kicking off with Avicii’s anthemic Fade Into Darkness, Minx manages to add her own shine to the infamous tune with strategic bass and clever looping. The Benny Bennassi remix of Calvin Harris’ Feel So Close and Florence & The Machine’s Shake It Out make an appearance, as do Aussie twins Nervo with a Hook N Sling remix of their youthful tune, We’re All No One. Minx’s love of progressive house is clear and the influence of popular house styles alongside the artist’s at the forefront of the movement are evident in her own material. Minx teams up with Melbourne producer/DJ Nordean to produce one of the standout tracks on the compilation, You And I, that features the superb vocals of singer Erik Hecht, who chants feel-good lyrics over playful, dynamic beats. Another Minx original, Chances, encompasses a similar sense of euphoria, utilising a classic house sound of melodic keys and powerful strings.
Bryan has recreated a country music form with integrity, adding a sniff of a new dimension into the work already created in that genre. For the most part then, he’s created a solid collection here, some of which stands up pretty well against the rest of the current field.
It’s evident that Minx’s talent lies in her ability to mesh familiar sounds in an unpredictable way. There is always an element of surprise, which makes the listening experience an interesting ride. Minx delivers the goods with this compilation. It’s frisky, fresh and very likely to have fans frothing for more.
Michael Smith
Amber McCormick
themusic.com.au
is an aching waltz of a man who can’t find a place anymore. The raucous title track actually dates from when they knocked down the old Meadowlands Stadium. Old ways gone, new ways not there yet. It’s the turning point here too, as it goes looking for a Land Of Hope And Dreams. It’s a hymn and what may be Clemons’ last blue note peals through it. We Are Alive, as the closing track has it. Maybe that has to be enough. Ross Clelland
PETER BRODERICK
SUBLIME WITH ROME Yours Truly
FACT FILE
Bella Union/Co-Operative
Warner
Length: 11 tracks, 58 minutes
Merging the experimental and avant-garde with more traditional song form is a skill few musicians manage to pull off successfully. Broderick is one who has proven he can straddle the conceptual fence with his forays into classical composition, soundtracks, traditional folk and contemporary indie guitar-based music. He’s obviously a fiercely creative person and as such he has created a full web experience around the album with notes, lyrics and audio for each song, plus the facility for people to leave word, image, video and audio responses. Though this smacks of ‘concept album’, it isn’t one. Instead, it’s a wonderfully constructed and beautifully recorded album. The opener, I Am Piano, is centred around that instrument while drawing sparkling, dancing melodies from accompanying strings, Wurlitzer and celeste. It’s an introduction that delights in beauty and intimacy, both in sound and the themes of Broderick’s songs. At various points he sings about a romantic letter exchange, killing a bird in his car, remembrance of friends departed and tributes to inspiring influences and it feels like a love letter to all that has formed Broderick’s world. Though the predominant style is reverent folk of a contemporary slant, there are departures like It Starts Hear, which variously recalls Belgians dEUS and Massive Attack with its trip hop, low-slung bass and beats. Many songs start with minimal instrumentation and tentative vocals before blossoming into billowing pieces of music. Asleep and Colin are two songs that take the album’s template and stretch it into epic widescreen vistas with a swelling choir of voices, urgent strings, drones and field recordings. http://itstartshear.com is a concept, a bold idea yielding fascinating and moving music.
Overlooking everything offensive and cynical about trading on a dead man’s work after promising not to – Sublime members Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh originally called time on Sublime when singer/ guitarist/songwriter Brad Nowell died in 1996, only to reactivate in 2009 with new vocalist Rome Ramirez, but legally forced to use a different name – Yours Truly is terrible. Where Sublime had its swagger and uniqueness – a compelling if scrappy blend of reggae, ska, hip-hop and punk – and the gritty, often bleak stories about shooting DJs, smoking reefers, dogs running away and date rape, Sublime With Rome lacks so much. Nowell’s delivery was urgent and strained, but Ramirez’s is smooth and bland. It’s all laidback, safe, seediness-free summery reggae jams about girls and being at the beach and whatnot. Witness Lovers Rock, with godawful electronic flourishes, hideous, cheesy lyrics and Shaggy-esque vocals, all of which are so bad they could make a cadaver cringe.
Of course, fans of this will point out that this is a different band to Sublime. So why use that band’s name? At the guts of it, all the business about names wouldn’t matter if Yours Truly was halfway decent. And it sure as hell isn’t. Brent Balinski
Wrecking Ball Columbia/Sony
The American dream is buggered. Those blue-collar battler heroes that the Lord our Bruce voiced always seemed to have some hope – if only in the escape those ‘two lanes that could take us anywhere’ provided. They may have been beat-down, but here they really seem beat. This Depression is a changer. This is a dark, bitter Springsteen. While We Take Care Of Our Own comes on like a typical New Jersey anthem, maybe the title should come with a question mark. It chimes like the ‘old days’, but not quite. Some of the rhymes clunk a bit – but it wouldn’t be Springsteen unless there was a touch of cinematic melodrama amongst the real feeling. Things have changed. Springsteen is now over 60 – and mortal. Danny Federici and, more tellingly, Bruce’s alter-ego Clarence Clemons, have gone. And the band, the music, the life, will never be the same again. The core of The E Street Band is present, but there’s a lot of the Pete Seegar ‘folk’ album band as well. And a gospel choir. And even some loops and electronics. Many eras of Springsteen echo. Jack Of All Trades
DID YOU KNOW? • This is Bruce Springsteen’s 17th studio album. The record was produced by Ron Aniello with Springsteen and executive producer Jon Landau. A special edition of Wrecking Ball will VDand include two bonus tracks also be available and exclusive artwork and photography.
D
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
D
The second half of this disc is mostly jammy, duboriented stuff and features a guest spot by Wiz Khalifa, who shows up to burble something about rolling cigarettes on the wholly lamentable Can You Feel It.
Moods: Dark, bitter, angry LIVE
VD
http://www.itstartshear.com
• Jon Landau, who is also Springsteen’s longtime manager, explained The Boss’ search for a new direction and mood in his latest album: “Bruce has dug down as deep as he can to come up with this vision of modern life. The lyrics tell a story you can’t hear anywhere else and the music is his most innovative of recent years.” • Springsteen will make an appearance as the keynote speaker at SXSW 2012, which will then be followed by an extensive European and US tour with The E Street Band. • Over the course of his career, The Boss has earned a number of awards including 21 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him as the 23rd Greatest Artist of all time.
Chris Familton
themusic.com.au
THE DRUM MEDIA • 49
FURTHER MORE CARRY ON UP THE COMPILATIONS WITH LIZ GIUFFRE
Given that 2012 means Armageddon (don’t it?), it’s worth starting by getting on board with what will be Future Pop 3.0 (EMI). Over three discs the future does seem a little bit like history repeating, but a history where Sia’s Clap Your Hands, La Roux’s Bulletproof and The Ting Ting’s Hands are still going round is fine by me. (It’s also a case of good future for those who can’t be bothered to make an iTunes playlist – this writer is happy this has come to cure her laziness). On the other side of the future/past divide is yet another great Like A Version 7 Compilation (ABC/ Universal). While choosing between the best of these is like choosing between children, let’s face it, everyone actually does have a favourite (Art vs Science’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, The Vines’ Clint Eastwood, Sally Seltmann’s You’re So Vain and Eskimo Joe’s Somebody That I Used To Know). The disc includes, as has the last few, select performances on DVD as well – so you can watch and love it twice (the EJ one is particularly impressive as you see Kav’s fear when trying to scale the musical mountain this is Gotye). Also the latest in the Late Night Tales series of celebrityprogrammed mixtape things, this time Late Night Tales MGMT style (Balance Music/EMI). While the spoken word ending was, well, unnecessary (Paul Morley it may be, but still), the mix of knowns and unknowns like The Velvet Underground next to Dave Bixby is worth a listen. Another tribute collection (this time where new performances happen) worth noting is Note Of Hope: A Celebration Of Woody Guthrie (429/Universal). As well as an excuse to celebrate Guthrie’s centenary, it’s also a killer collection - especiall get your ears into Ani DiFranco’s version of Voice and Lou Reed’s The Dept I Owe. Gorgeous. Also catch the tenth anniversary of Daptone Records with The World Of Daptone Records (Daptone), featuring Ms Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings (five tracks out of 20), as well as The Sugarman Three and The Como Mamas. As you’d expect it’s a collection of songs that sounds that it’s from mid-twentieth century rather than from the first decade of the twenty-first, but also proof that there’s been lots bubbling away in that neck of the woods. A change of pass comes with 16 Songs For 16 Days (Obese), a compilation for “16 days of activism to stop violence against women”. It’s mostly upbeat
and hip hop beats driven, but with particular kudos to Miss Cheek’s Dancing In Darkness, a call to arms totally on target. Also on the ground up side of things is this year’s Stacked 2011 Compilation (Richmond), a mixture of experience, sure, but also with the kind of raw appeal that we don’t get too much anymore in an industry dominated as it is by shiny overproduction and autocorrection. Take note especially of opener, Red Skies, by Midnight Sun and Burn by Acoustic Diary (for the name of the band, if nothing else). The Putumayo World Music factory has churned out three newbies of late, Putumayo Presents African Beat, Putumayo Presents Latin Beat and Putumayo Presents Acoustic Café (Putumayo). This label, which has been around almost 20 years now, continues to provide well for those that like an audio Kontiki tour of world music, but I can understand how its apparent tokenism might not suit those wanting a bit more depth. Take as you will (they don’t bother me too much, although I do worry that they encourage me to consider vastly different traditions all in the same way). A bit more directed is the So Frenchy So Chic Unofficial Soundtrack To The 2012 French Film Festival (SBS/Cartell Music). Although still somewhat tokenistic, this collection’s tie to the fest gives it a bit more cred. Rounding off this compilation set is the epic double release which is the Justice Crew Party Mix CD/ DVD (Sony). Look, it’s trashy, but it makes me feel like Oscar The Grouch because I am so happy with it. Featuring some not entirely awful music to begin (read: stuff that’s modern daggy, not retro daggy), including the Crew’s Dance With Me, as well as Calvin Harris feat Kelis’ Bounce and one piece with genuine old school cred, Cypress Hill’s Insane In The Brain. Add to this mix, though, the DVD of clips, dance tutes and bloopers and, well, yes, trash heaven. It would be particularly easy to hang shit on the bloopers, but the collection of young blokes laughing nervously as they fluff their intros and do a playschool-like description of their craft to camera is actually quite sweet. And, in the interests of professionalism only, dear reader, this writer may have gotten her groove along to one or two of the tunes as well, just to make sure it works. See you on the dancefloor with my newlyacquired knee drops, douggies and floor drops.
ON THE RECORD VCMG
HILLTOP HOODS
Mute/EMI
Golden Era/Universal
Ssss
VCMG are Martin Gore and Vince Clarke, working together again after more than 30 years, since Clarke left Depeche Mode. Truly the result of man via machine, they only worked via file-sharing and email and didn’t meet up in person until the album was completed. Ssss carries the hallmarks of Gore and Clarke’s best known work in that it harnesses Clarke’s finely tuned pop nous and marries it with the darker and melancholically mechanistic tendencies of Gore and, for the most part, it works a treat. Shorn of any focus on lead singers, choruses and a visual aesthetic the music is given a blank canvas to state its case. First single, Spock, is a great indicator of the rest of the record, possessing a solid four to the floor beat and retrograde synth stabs that build a slightly ominous mood and tension before dancing melodies lead into an even more propulsive bleep and squelch-heavy section that recalls the best of Underworld. It is that balance between light and dark, hyper-melodies and clinical cyborg beats that makes the album succeed. Windup Robot is as playful as its title suggests, veering close to Chemical Brothers territory while Single Blip ever so slightly casts a cheeky glance back to Just Can’t Get Enough before it goes interstellar with trance chords blasts and descending synth drops. For the most part the rhythms VCMG employ are solid and precise, aimed squarely at the dancefloor, leaving the often complex melodic interplay above to impress the most. VCMG have taken the opportunity to indulge in their synth collections and give the listener a history lesson in digital dance music firmly within the context of now, or perhaps even the future. Chris Familton
Returning with their sixth studio album, Hilltop Hoods prove yet again why they’re one of our country’s most celebrated acts, offering well produced music full of intelligence, insight and soul. Opening with a short moody ballad titled The Thirst Part 1, MC Suffa explains the album’s context – great accomplishments have occurred, but also great setbacks. Broken relationships and new experiences are themes that permeate the album with the group conveying a renewed sense of energy, strength and maturity. The title track is aggressive, demanding attention; a brilliant mix of hard-hitting beats, powerful lyrics and intricate string arrangements. Lead single, I Love It, also incorporates these beautiful strings and the distinct vocals of Sia, who brings an intoxicating sense of warmth and playfulness to this upbeat song. Chali 2na of Jurassic 5 adds his own brand of magic to Speaking In Tongues, a jazzy tune that comments on discrimination and the power of music to succeed where language fails. Now That You’re Gone celebrates escaping a destructive relationship; it’s one of the more personal tracks on the album and places an optimistic spin on heartbreak. Good For Nothing is the album’s bad boy anthem featuring a killer guitar riff, cheeky rhymes and plenty of testosterone. And it wouldn’t be a hip hop album without a just touch of nostalgia, so The Underground takes a moment to glimpse back in time and appreciate the act’s formative years, with a guest verse by Horrorshow’s Solo proving to be particularly striking. Drinking From The Sun doesn’t break too much new ground, but it certainly keeps the bar high. Amber McCormick
I LOVE RETRO!
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Drinking From The Sun
380 MILITARY ROAD, CREMORNE BOOK ONLINE WWW.ORPHEUM.COM.AU themusic.com.au
THE DRUM MEDIA • 51
DON’T FEAR THE REAPER
The three-date Hell Down Under Tour is Steve Grimmett’s first visit to Australia. The shows will be filmed for a live DVD release. They’ll be playing at The Patch in Wollongong on Thursday 8 March, The Basement in Canberra on Friday 9 and The Sandringham on Saturday 10. We grabbed Grimmett briefly to have a quick chat about his career. You’ll be working with a band made up of Australians on this tour – have you worked with them before? No. I have only worked with Stu Marshall (Empires of Eden/Ex-Dungeon) for the last Empires of Eden CD and this trip is the first time meeting him in the flesh. I have never met or spoken to any of the other guys. How do some of the songs from the mid ‘80s and early ‘90s resonate today with both you and the fans? In perfect harmony. At every gig I play, most of the audience are younger than the songs I am playing, which tells me the songs stand the test of time! Can you say which band was your favourite to work with over the years and why? I have worked with many great people and bands, but the guys in Steve Grimmett’s Grim Reaper are great fun to work with. We are all in the music scene for the love of the music, as there is no money in it anymore, and we all have a laugh together while doing it. It’s like touring with your mates and getting paid for having fun! What prompted Grim Reaper to get back together and did you expect it to still be going? I was asked to do a few gigs in Europe and after discussing it with the guys in The Steve Grimmett Band, at the time, we decided to do them as Steve Grimmett’s Grim Reaper. My guitarist, Ian Nash, was influenced by Nick Bowcott, after playing with him several times. As a result he plays just like him. The drummer, Mark Rumble, and bass guitarist, Chaz Grimaldi, are not connected at all to the original lineup. How have you managed to maintain your voice over the years? God has blessed me with a voice that doesn’t need any maintenance. I haven’t needed to do anything. But don’t get me wrong, it still needs to rest after a gig and I don’t sing when I have a cold.
NO NEW ALBUM FOR ATD-I
After their 11-year hiatus, news of At The DriveIn’s reformation gave rise to rumours (and plenty of wishful thinking) of a new album. However the band’s guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez has ruled out the possibility completely. Rodriguez-Lopez told Kerrang! that the reunion was purely for the “nostalgia thing”, explaining that it is somewhat like “an old T-shirt that doesn’t fit me anymore, but when you put it on again, it feels nice. It’s as simple as that… Will there be a new album? No, no, no. At The Drive-In is more of a nostalgia thing – it’s songs we wrote when we were all in our twenties and we’re doing a couple of shows.” No Australian shows have been announced just yet, but the band has been announced to play at two big festivals, Coachella and Benicassim.
SHERWOOD DISBANDS
Indie pop-punk band Sherwood has called it quits via their Facebook page. After three full-lengths, the most recent of which was 2009’s QU, the Californian band blame geographical separation and busy lifestyles as the main cause of the break-up. The band also stated that there are currently no plans for a farewell show. The message reads: “Sadly, we can no longer maintain control over our lives and simultaneously carve out a place for Sherwood to exist inside of it. We are all living happily in separate cities and sadly admit that it is impossible for us to make this work. “It’s inevitable that at some point we all watch our dreams come to an end and are left with hopes that new dreams will rise from their ashes… We tried so hard to keep it going but sometimes life has its natural way of bringing things to an end.” The band goes on to further thank all their fans and all those involved in making Sherwood a success. You can read the entire (and lengthy) message on the band’s Facebook page.
NEW HOT WATER MUSIC ALBUM
The newly-reformed punk band Hot Water Music has announced that their latest album, Exister, will be released on 15 May. The album will be the band’s first full-length since 2004’s The New What’s Next. The release will follow a US tour that will hopefully lead to an Oz tour. The tracklist is also now available online. 52 • THE DRUM MEDIA
THE HEAVY SHIT Allllrighty then, everyone come back alive from Soundwave Week? It was intense to say the least. There were some brilliant performances and tantrums backstage as well as onstage. I saw some people whinge a bit on the old ‘Book about a timetable or a signing tent mix-up, but when you compare minor things like that to keeping over 1000 people organised on the road for two weeks, production, flights, accommodation, security, merch, food and everything else involved in the mammoth task of making sure YOU have a good time, a few fuck-ups along the way are both inevitable and also irrelevant in the overall scheme of things. In any case, I hope you had a good time! I’ve already got wind of some proposed acts for the 2013 event and as always, the bar is continually being raised… I really do appreciate it when you guys email me stuff – not just bands submitting gig listings for inclusion but actual feedback. A guy identified only as ‘John’ told me about a gig he attended recently and wanted to know as to when moshing went from just that to a few heroes punching and kicking everyone. I’m not one to detract from people enjoying themselves, but surely acting like a total bogan boofhead by punching on and involving people who are there to watch the band isn’t proper gig etiquette. I bet if you put these guys in the pit at a Slayer show back in their heyday they would shit themselves. Be kind to your fellow metal heads – If you want your head smacked in, pick someone bigger than you and invite them to the car park away from everyone else. With Soundwave in the rear view mirror it’s time once again to embrace the local scene and support your local bands and venues.
THURSDAY
One of the leading voices of ‘80s pure heavy metal was the great Steve Grimmett. Having been the singer for Grim Reaper, Lionsheart, Onslaught and Empires Of Eden, he has a pretty good resume for high note metaaaaal. Grimmett is in the country for the first time ever this week for three exclusive shows. He has hand-selected his band from the following kick-arse Aussie bands – Paindivision, Empires Of Eden, Dragonsclaw and The Amenta – no prizes for guessing who those guys are! Special guests will include the rising stars of Australian heavy metal Darker Half, Tasmanian power metallers
METAL AND HARD ROCK WITH CHRIS MARIC
SATURDAY
Steve Grimmett wraps up his mini-tour with a final farewell at The Sando toni-i-ight. It doesn’t necessarily have a lot of bands but the demographic kinda fits. The Day Of The Drags is on today and tomorrow out at the Sydney Dragway. If you’re into Nostalgia Nitro Funny Cars & Dragsters, Hot Rods, FEDs, Classics & Customs, HAMBsters, Muscle Cars, Blown Alcohol Sedans, Swap Meets and a Vintage Pin Up comp then head out there. Wes Pudsey & The Sonic Aces among others will provide the soundtrack. STEVE GRIMMETT Taberah and the most German-sounding Australian band ever, Dragonsclaw. Tonight Steve Grimmett hits The Patch in Wollongong.
FRIDAY
Psychedelic rockers Endless Boogie have been added to the Golden Plains Sixxx lineup. Forming in 1997 they played together for nearly four years before Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus coaxed them out of their rehearsal space to open for him in 2001. These days they apparently won’t even play a show unless somebody invites them to. Rock minimalism at its most casual, eh? Pitchfork said of the band ‘austere repetition and art noise that’s good for both the bong-water-soaked psychcognoscenti and the chili cook-off.” Check ‘em out at The Sando tonight. The Grimmett crew rolls through Canberra tonight, so head to The Basement for all your vocal-straining needs. Blatherskite return for their first gig of the year tonight with a new drummer and new tracks to show off. They will be at Newtown’s Town Hall along with their buddies from Nobody Knew They Were Robots and Mish. It’s a night of FREE dark and heavy prog for you right there. Black Jesus plays the best style of death metal in the vein of Repulsion, Napalm Death and Autopsy! They will be launching their new CD at The Valve Bar this evening. Check it out at the Coffin Slave merch stand. Along for the ride are Blue Mountains heavy hitters Innsmouth and Covent Guilt, who feature ex-members of Shackles.
WAKE THE DEAD
The ever-popular Valve Bar is hosting another mammoth day of metal. Deadfest 2012 will showcase all the Deadman Industries bands in the one place over 12 hours! A World Less Cruel, Amodus, Domino, Empirical, Foundary Road, Jaded Empire, Lab 64, Not Another Sequel, Just Another Prequel, Tensions Arise and War Faction will keep your ears busy until DJ BuDDha takes over at midnight. Meanwhile on the other side town at the Stag, Queensland’s Defamer will share the stage with Hell Itself, Autolysis and, all the way from Japan, GxSxD. It’s $15 entry. Battle Pope will be unveiling their debut album, The Holy Trinity: Bitches, Dicks And Gonorrhea, to a godless world this evening. The ceremony will begin at 7pm at Black Wire Records on Parramatta Road. The night will also mark the Sydney launch of Melbourne gore/grinders The Mung’s new album, Showering In Shit. I wonder if their mums are going into the shops and buy them up for a chat position? They will be joined by Canberra’s The Reverend Jesse Custer, Fat Guy Wears Mystic Wolf Shirt and Jesus Christ Posse.
SUNDAY
Those unruly boys in the Chickenstones are launching album number two, titled Hell Hath No Fury, at The Sando this evening. Made up from the remains of the Pannadolls, Hatemail and Fruitworld, the swampabilly/ horror-style that these guys play is always a stack of fun. Adding to the mess will be 25th Floor, who will pay tribute to Patti Smith, with Big Al Creed of the New Christs and Hell Crab City doing a solo set of punk faves. heavy@drummedia.com.au
PUNK AND HARDCORE WITH SARAH PETCHELL
Hey everyone. Soundwave and Sidewaves and all those associated shenanigans are finally over and I have survived (yay me!). So we can now return to our regularly scheduled column writing. I don’t know what makes promoters think that making announcements during Soundwave week is a good idea, but let’s start off this week with a whole bunch of incredible announcements! I may (or may not) have mentioned a few weeks ago that Canberra’s Hoodlum Shouts will be releasing their debut album, Young Man Old Man, through Poison City and HelloSquare Recordings on Wednesday 28 March. The album was recorded by Matt Voigt (The Dirty Three, Midnight Oil, The Nation Blue) and sees the band continue down the path of bold simplicity and lush melodies while maintaining a simultaneously melancholic and uplifting sound. The band will be hitting the East Coast this April in support of their killer debut, so you can catch them at an all ages show at Blackwire Records on Friday 20 April or at an 18+ show at the Bald Faced Stag on Saturday 21. Canberra, the hometown boys will play an 18+ show at Transit on Thursday 19. Also announced was San Antonio’s Bitter End will be hitting Australia for the very first time this May. If you haven’t heard of Bitter End, they’re a heavy hardcore band influenced by the metallic NYHC bands of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Their albums, Guilty As Charged and Climate Of Fear, have become staples for any modern hardcore fan. Joining them on this tour will be Perth’s BLKOUT, who I hear will have a new album of their own out sooner rather than later. Keep an ear out for more information to do with that release. In the meantime, you can catch the dual hardcore lineup on Sunday 20 May at the Bald Faced Stag for a licensed, all ages show. Unfortunately, there are no Canberra or Newcastle dates, so residents of these cities will unfortunately have to travel. Resist announced last week that they would be releasing the newest album by Richmond punk-rock troubadour, Tim Barry. The album is called 40 Miler and will be released on Friday 6 April through the Sydney-based label on both CD and vinyl. According to all reports, the album finds Barry taking his folk-country sound in a slightly different direction, opting for a more raucous and rocking approach on several tracks, with the addition
HOODLUM SHOUTS of more electric guitar, organ, piano and harmonica, as well as adding the vocals of fellow Richmond songstress Julie Karr. Make sure you check out the album when it’s released. New Tim Barry records are always a treat. Back to the tour announcements, Broken Hive and No Heroes Magazine announced that California’s Xibalba will be hitting up Australia also for the very first time this April. While not a well-known band, Xibalba have made a name for themselves in recent years by building a reputation as being one of the heaviest bands in modern hardcore. Originally signed to A389 Recordings, the band is set to release their new album, Hasta La Meurta, on the legendary Southern Lord records later this year. To give you an idea, think if Disembodied, Earth Crisis and Obituary had a baby, then Xibalba would be it. Joining them on tour will be Melbourne’s Warbrain, possibly one of Australia’s hardest hardcore bands. You can catch the tour when it hits The Loft in Newcastle for an all ages shows on Saturday 21 April, then at The Masonic Hall in Blacktown on Sunday 22. The tour then moves down the east coast to Melbourne and Adelaide before heading back to Sydney for an 18+ show at The Bald Faced Stag on Saturday 28, with an all ages show in Canberra on Sunday 29 at Morgan’s Basement. Tickets for selected shows are on sale now. Last up on the tour front is the MASSIVE, MASSIVE punk lineup that is Anti-Flag supported by Strike Anywhere and The Flatliners. Seriously, this is one of the biggest punk lineups to hit Australia in a really long time and it’s a tour that I am super excited for. Anti-Flag are touring
themusic.com.au
in support of their new album, The General Strike, to be released through SideOneDummy/SHOCK on March 23. The album sees the band expanding their sound into territory that sounds somewhat like Hot Water Music mixed with hardcore and some reggae. None of these bands are strangers to our shores, so the shows should be plenty of fun, so snag a ticket (on sale now) and head out to one of the shows. On Friday 1 June, the tour hits Sydney University’s Manning Bar for an 18+ show and then on Saturday 2 for another 18+ show at Wollongong UniBar. UK’s Architects have announced that they have just completed work on their fourth album, Daybreaker. The follow-up to the highly successful The Hear And Now, saw the band work with producers John Mitchell and Ben Humphreys at Outhouse Studios in Reading, the same team that worked on (my favourite record of theirs) Hollow Crown. The album is set for release via Century Media on what most likely will be May 29. Last up for this week, just a reminder that Every Time I Die’s newest release, Ex-Lives, is out now through Epitaph and it is one of the best records they’ve released in a while. Produced by Joe Baressi (Tool, Queens Of The Stone Age), the record moves effortlessly from punishingly heavy to some ridiculous riffs that sound like Awesome Andy has been taking cues from his other band, Trap Them, to some sweet, sweet vocal melodies. You know it’s going to be good, so just hit up your local record store and go get it! wakethedead@drummedia.com.au
GET IT TOGETHER Understanding politics (and Politics) tends to be beyond many homegrown rappers. Somewhere between the excessive use of the hashtag ‘#qanda’ on Twitter and the consistent, vague objection to the behaviour of the leaders of (at least) one of our major political parties, most rappers tend to get consumed by their own ignorance. That has never been true of The Herd though. Intelligent and well informed, they pick their topics well and handle them adroitly. Remember The King Is Dead? It was about John Howard’s demise. In the hands of lesser intellects it would have become an anthem for a new Prime Minister. Not for The Herd. They understood, even in those euphoric days, how difficult it is for a politician to make a genuine difference to people’s lives, and how important it is to continually challenge the status quo. Bravo, The Herd. On Wednesday 4 April, The Herd will again be coming to grips with an issue intelligently. Domestic violence is endemic in Papua New Guinea. On Wednesday 4, The Herd and Thundamentals are playing a fundraiser at Wollongong Uni for the non-profit organisation Rugby League Against Violence. It’s a chance for you to support a cause fundamentally important to so many. It’s a chance to see The Herd, again, at the vanguard on an important issue. Roots Manuva, a man who once defined English rap for those of us who don’t live on that island populated by confused rioters and inbred aristrocrats, has had a tough time of it lately. 2008’s Slime And Reason was the last time he got anyone very excited about the music he was making. Since then, it’s been a steady decline. He’s coming to Sydney on Thursday. Will it be a celebration of more than a decade of creativity? Will it be a rehash of recent mediocrity? Who knows. Importantly, Big Village’s MVP (for our money, at least) Tuka will be supporting. It’s happening at The Hi-Fi. Yes, yes. New DOOM teaming up with Jneiro Jarel. The album’s called JJ DOOM. It’s an amazing title. Jarel’s fine. And, you know, we can never take Madvillainy away from DOOM. It really is one of the best rap albums this century. No matter how pedestrian his flow, no matter how many body doubles he sends to concerts, no matter how many
BREAKDOWN To name Emma Russack’s debut album, Sounds Of Our City, the first great local release of the year says little about Australian music. Though it might satisfy some personal fanaticism (and it is there) or even be critically objective, there’s enough music coming from these parts – from all parts of these parts – to ward off such calls. Not to mention the usual shouts of “Patronising!” that accompany a distinction between the quality of Australian music and that of the rest of the world. And yet there is something about Sounds Of Our City (out through Spunk and launched with a tour through March and April) that needs to be identified by geography. It’s a Melbourne record. A great one. The album’s bond to its hometown is apparent in its title, which instantly recalls other musical considerations of city life: Paul Kelly’s Somewhere In The City or The Go-Betweens’ Here Comes A City, from their final album, 2005’s Oceans Apart. Like those songs, Sounds Of Our City is more about the relationships that happen within the maze of a city than about praising physical landmarks. Paul Kelly was pining for someone he knew was nestled, lost, in the lights and bars of a metropolis. The Go-Betweens’ Robert Forster was losing himself in a foreign city, distancing from an anonymous “you” – a lover? A friend? A family member? – as he travelled further into the tangle of buildings and traffic and people. Russack has more than one song to draw ties between the mood of city life and her connections to, or disconnection from, other people. What’s initially surprising then, given the concept-outlining title, is how little the features of a city are mentioned. “Tonight I’m gonna go out and get drunk/ Find someone to take me home,” she starts against a toedragging drum beat and a gnarled country guitar line on album opener, Tonight. But that could happen in any city, anywhere. On These Days, Russack sings of walking home from a party, but if that’s within the confines of a city it’s also in one of its pockets – such as, perhaps, Melbourne’s inner north, where Russack has graced a few stages this past year. More obvious are references to the suburbs – as on Reservoir – or a childhood that sounds and feels far away (Russack grew up in Narooma, NSW), from another time and place, as on He Was My Family.
HIP HOP WITH VIKTOR KRUM
YOUNG & RESTLESS As is the case on the first Thursday of every month, this Thursday the Chatswood Youth Centre is hosting all style dance sessions from 3-6pm. ‘All style’ meaning you can pop, rock, funk, groove, square and/or line dance, crump, pick up the change, put it down again (or ‘drop’ said change ‘like it’s hot’). Pretty much whatever tickles your fancy. You can jam, battle or just head on down to learn a few new moves. BYO music. Friday evening sees yet another instalment from the Courtyard Sessions at the Seymour Centre. This time punk/pop rock act The Sculptures will be providing the tunes from 6.30pm in an all ages-friendly, leafy outdoor setting. And it’s free. That, my friends, is a bargain.
THE HERD middling-to-poor raps he wants to release he will always have been part of one of the highlights of the naughties. This means (sadly?) that anytime he puts his name to anything we are going to have a little fanboy squeal and check it out. Let’s cross our fingers JJ DOOM is closer to his defining work than, say, 2005’s Mouse And The Mask collaboration with Dangermouse. We live in hope. We maintain that mocking publicists is like shooting fish in a barrel. There are only so many ways you can sound enthusiastic about things, after all. There are only so many words in the English language you can misuse. There is only so much cocaine you can snort. Et cetera. The excitement surrounding Obie Trice’s new album, Bottoms Up, out in April, was too much for one member of the second most respected profession (number two after ambos, obviously). “Trice has long been a favorite (sic) of rapper connoisseurs,” we learn. Rapper connoisseurs being, of course, rappers who are also connoisseurs of various things. “Many remember him from his cameo on Eminem’s single, Without Me.” Do they, though? Rappers who are also connoisseurs aside (their position is obvious), do Obie fans really look back on the three-second garbled shout-out at the start of a nine year-old-song as a career peak? I know there’s a real argument to be had about whether Obie reached his potential but – jeez – if that’s the best a person paid to get people excited about you comes up with, then let’s hope this next album is the one to blow. getittogether@drummedia.com.au
POP CULTURE THERAPY WITH ADAM CURLEY
Sunday arvo there are a couple of instrumental interstaters in the form of Perth’s smRts and Melbourne’s Faspeedelay playing an all ages gig at Blackwire Records. It kicks off at 3pm and said bands will be joined by locals Mere Women, Crouching 80s Hidden Acronym and Brain Drain. This Friday the Bondi Pavilion hosts the Indent Open Day (register at info@indent.net.au) from 11am – 4.30pm. With heaps of seminars, entertainment and info on offer for young people with an interest in the music industry we lined up Indent program manager Meg Williams and keynote speaker Gregg Donovan, co-owner/director of Wonderlick and manager of Grinspoon, Josh Pyke and Airbourne among others, for a few questions. So, the day is free – what’s the catch? MW: You have to learn something. If you don’t walk away from the day having picked up something new in the skill bank then we will… give you your money back. No, seriously, Indent – as a project of MusicNSW – is a not-for-profit so we exist to provide opportunities to everyone, and with a day themed on increasing access to the music industry for young people we’d be a bit hypocritical if we charged admission, right? What aspects of the music industry will be covered on the day? MW: The Open Day will be covering everything from the start. The open panel that features a booking agent, a label, a radio rep and an artist manager really has each corner of the industry covered and is a chance for you to ask them the big questions. Why did you want to be involved in Indent’s Open Day?
OG FLAVAS This column is penned by a robot – or so say Simon Cowell’s people. “If [the song] Shoulder To Shoulder doesn’t make you cry, then there must be androids amongst us...,” reads SYCO Music’s press blurb for new Brit soulstress Rebecca Ferguson, whose platinum debut, Heaven, has just surfaced in Oz. There were no sobs from OG, just, “Boy, doesn’t that dramatic piano ballad sound like Adele?” (Besides, who uses ‘amongst’ anymore?) Still, even the most cynical hack has to cheer Becky.
EMMA RUSSACK Melbourne – or inner Melbourne – can often feel like the eye of a storm; a place removed from anywhere else, existing on its own terms, but static and insular in that way, too. Russack didn’t grow up in Melbourne. Neither did I; every month there’s a new blow-in, a share-house addition or some newcomer making their mark on the city. Additionally, talk of escape ripples through bars and streets, particularly as summer ends: other places are never far from our minds. Nor are they from Russack’s album: Colombia, two songs in, reminds us that Melbourne, more so than many other cities I’ve lived in or been to, has its heart scattered across the globe. The song is also where Russack speaks of how it can feel to be stuck in Melbourne when others are elsewhere: “When I’m living in this city/ When winter stays much too long… It’s hard to forget that baby you’re gone.” Perhaps the strongest connection Sounds Of Our City makes to Melbourne, however, is through its sparse instrumentation and unadorned production. As Mess + Noise reviewer (and SPA writer) Doug Wallen has already pointed out, it has that in common with Teeth & Tongue’s recordings. But the approach is also shared by Twerps and by Adalita’s solo record of 2011. Russack sounds little like any of these acts and in fact takes many of her aesthetic cues from old American country’n’western. But there’s a cold minimalism shadowed by an ominous mystery something, as well as an unexplained attraction to the city and a desire to deliver the simple, unadorned experience of living in it. That, if anything, is the sound of Melbourne. breakdown@drummedia.com.au
Ferguson may have been discovered through a ‘reality’ talent show (The X Factor), but she’s an old-fashioned artist with an old-fashioned story making good oldfashioned music. She’s like Susan Boyle, but hipper. Cowell’s team know they’re onto something. In fact, Sony Australia is promoting Ferguson’s CD with a traditional print flyer booklet thing. OG’s arrived with a lovely hand-written note from an excited label rep. That nearly brought on tears... In today’s world of viral marketing, it’s typically about an anonymous, boring and forgettable link to something online. Pop-up pop. Certainly, Pixie Lott didn’t get this treatment with last year’s Young Foolish Happy. Ferguson hails from working-class Liverpool. She’s a single teen mum who was herself fostered out. Ferguson had all but given up on her dream of becoming a singer. But then, after several failed auditions for various programmes, she tried for 2010’s X Factor, performing Sam Cooke’s symbolic A Change Is Gonna Come. This time the “painfully shy, woefully under-confident” vocalist, with “her story of dignified resignation”, prejudice and poverty, metamorphosed into a recessionary star. SYCO predicts that Ferguson, now 25, will be “the voice of her generation”. Indeed, she possesses a remarkable voice – bluesy like Macy Gray’s and soulful like Heather Small’s, but with the expanse of Aretha Franklin. She doesn’t over-sing. Ferguson didn’t win The X Factor, coming second to Matt Cardle (who?). Yet runner-ups often enjoy the sustained careers – look at Jessica Mauboy. Unusually for a talent show prodigy, Ferguson, a trained legal secretary, has retained control over her career – and her narrative – by (co)writing her own songs. That’s credible. Regardless, SYCO hasn’t skimped on hiring big collaborators in Eg White, Fraser T Smith and Steve Booker, all of whom have, coincidentally, worked with Adele, Duffy or both.
themusic.com.au
ALL AGES WITH DAVE DRAYTON
SMRTS GD: A few years ago I used to be on the board from MusicNSW and I got exposed to Indent via my involvement with that. Indent has always been active at the grassroots level and the truth is there really isn’t much info out there for artists just starting out. Indent can help young acts find opportunities, make industry connections and arm them with real knowledge they can use. I wish something like this had been around when I was getting started. What are your thoughts on the state of live music for under 18 audiences? GD: I got my start in the business putting on all ages events in Canberra. It was easy back then because the local government had spent a lot of money on “youth centres”. We had venues in all major parts of town that let us put shows on with very low costs. In the major cities these days there doesn’t seem to be the same infrastructure and so we have to look to licensed venues for space. There are two big problems with this: 1. They are there to serve alcohol, so if you want to do a show in their room with no booze the costs are dramatic, 2. A lot of parents won’t let their kids go to these venues even if it’s for an under 18s event. The festivals and bigger theatre shows seem to be successful in this area these days, but it still leaves a massive void for developing events, artists and promoters. I think there are a lot of people willing to promote and attend under 18s events but we need more government support to do it properly. As keynote speaker, what will your presentation focus on? GD: The changing face of the music industry will be my main focus. It’s a new day and with new opportunities where artists have a lot more control over gaining a fanbase. I’m hoping to give new artists some tools to help them get a foothold in this exciting new industry. allages@drummedia.com.au
URBAN AND R&B NEWS BY CYCLONE
REBECCA FERGUSON Heaven has a charm missing from Leona Lewis’ music, even if the feel-good Fairytale (Let Me Live My Life This Way) is too obvious. As with Adele, Ferguson avoids contemporary sounds. Heaven is gloriously retro ‘90s. Think Lisa Stansfield, Gabrielle and Beverley Knight. SYCO’s presser states, “[Heaven] does not pander to fashion. It’s not a hybrid of every current hip musical genre, shaken around a bit and mixed into an amorphous lump.” However, that isn’t exactly true as the ‘90s revival – and return of a ‘raw’ authentic Brit soul – is as much a trend as electro-hop. Ferguson’s uptempo lead single, Nothing’s Real But Love, is the least inspired song here musically, being less gospel than MOR with its acoustic guitar – but lyrically it touches on the monotony of struggle. Way better is the follow-up, Too Good To Lose, an engaging beat-driven groove in the vein of Soul II Soul. Glitter & Gold is a throwback to M People’s Northern soul, minus the house. Xenomania were responsible for Sugababes’ vintage Round Round as well as Gabriella Cilmi’s Sweet About Me. Here, they contribute the tunefully twee Mr Bright Eyes. White’s dubby Fighting Suspicions, though not as ‘clubby’ as Emeli Sandé’s Heaven, harks back to Massive Attack’s Protection – with Ferguson emulating Grace Jones. It’s the album’s edgiest moment. Diamond To Stone evokes the high hip hop soul of Mary J Blige’s Share My World. It might have been produced by Jam & Lewis, not Smith. Then there’s Shoulder..., which really could be an Adele number. Not that Adele sees Ferguson as a threat. “She’s been such a support and said such lovely things about me,” Ferguson coos. So now Cowell has his own Adele – he’s happy. Ferguson is happy (she’s actually done a Walkers crisps campaign!). And Adele is happy. That’s one soulfully fractured fairytale. ogflavas@drummedia.com.au THE DRUM MEDIA • 53
ROOTS DOWN The fifth and final announcement of acts for the already wonderful Bluesfest bill this year has come through and it’s pretty damn exciting. To make up for the rather late cancellation of Roger Daltrey, the festival has announced that the awesome John Fogerty will play a second show on the final night of the festival, and this time around he will be performing the amazing 1969 record, Green River, in its entirety in a very special sunset show; just the thought of it is sending chills down my spine. Joining him in the final announcement are the reggae/blues/folk/punk/fusion of California’s Slightly Stoopid, Aussie legends Weddings, Parties, Anything in a Bluesfest exclusive show, The Hands, Claude Hay, Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission, Mason Rack Band, Daniel Champagne, Bobby Alu, Dan Hannaford, Round Mountain Girls, Mojo Bluesmen, Harry Healy, Blackbirds, Mick McHugh, Minnie Marks and the Young Sounds Of Byron. The playing times have been announced now as well and while there are a cavalcade of clashes, most of the acts on the bill are playing more than one set so you should be able to see pretty much everyone. There are still tickets available; hit bluesfest. com.au for more information on getting your hands on them. It happens at the Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm from Thursday 5 – Monday 9 April. The great Eric Bibb is once again returning to Australia for a series of dates over the next couple of weeks and I’ll bet there are thousands of people all across the country who just can’t wait. Bibb is here all the
TALES FROM BOHEMIA BLUES AND ROOTS WITH DAN CONDON
CLAUDE HAY time, sure, but he still manages to play absolutely jawdropping shows each and every time he visits. His latest record, Booker’s Guitar, released in 2011, is gorgeous and when he is out here on this tour he will be joined by his occasional partner in crime, Staffan Astner, who you may have heard on Bibb’s live record, Troubadour Live, which was also released last year. You can see them this time around at The Basement Circular Quay on Thursday, the Q Theatre at The Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre Friday 9, the Blue Mountains Music Festival Sunday 18, Lizotte’s Kincumber Tuesday 20, back to The Basement again on Wednesday 21, Lizotte’s Newcastle Friday 23 and then wraps it all up at Lizotte’, Dee Why Saturday 24. He has a new record, Deeper In The Well, due for release very soon, so you’ll no doubt hear plenty of new material at these shows, which is always exciting. I’m not one to get all that political in this column, but I do get a bit of a kick at how music is used in the US
Presidential Elections every four years. Current US president Barack Obama has endeared himself to many over the past couple of weeks with a couple of dynamite musical performances that would put Peter Garrett to shame. Firstly, in an appearance at the Apollo Theatre in New York, President Obama nailed the first line of the Al Green classic Let’s Stay Together that shocked and thrilled millions (the YouTube video has seven million hits). According to Billboard, sales of the song were up 490 per cent the following week! Then it got even better: a bunch of musicians gathered at the White House for an American Public Broadcasting Service special, Red, White And Blues, a concert celebration that will “honour the musical form” of blues and “explore those roots and pay homage to the great figures of the Blues and the songs they made famous by tracing the influence of the Blues on modern American music from soul to rock’n’roll”. What kind of artists got involved? BB King, Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger, Booker T Jones, Derek Trucks, Jeff Beck, Gary Clark Jr., Keb Mo, Shemekia Copeland, Susan Tedeschi, Trombone Shorty, Warren Haynes and Fred Wesley. Yep, massive. But the most prominent vocalist was yet to come; during a rendition of Sweet Home Chicago, Obama himself stepped up to the mic and, somewhat sheepishly, busted out a verse of the standard that’d put all of us to shame. You can watch the whole star-studded show right now at http:// video.pbs.org/video/2202801749.
Pugsley Buzzard – Camelot Lounge Paul Sun Trio – ArtHouse Hotel James Morrison – Lizotte’s Newcastle
A founding member of the Aliis, a group that performed with the late, great Hawaiian entertainer for decades, ukulele player Benny Chong is one of the most respected and influential jazz musicians in the business, and Wednesday night, he performs exclusively at The Vanguard in Newtown, with special guests Cameron Murray and Bosko & Honey.
TUESDAY
Showcasing his latest album, Las Torres del Sal (Vitamin), as well as favourites from his previous albums, one of Chile’s most popular exports, singer, songwriter, guitarist and social and environmental activist Nano Stern, plays the Camelot Lounge in Marrickville on Thursday night with his band The Sindicato, before heading off to WOMAdelaide.
WEDNESDAY
SATURDAY
SHARON SHANNON
Matt Keegan Trio + Whitesploitation – 505 James Valentine Quartet + Lily Dior – Golden Sheaf Gadjo Guitars – Camelot Lounge Vince Martin – Jazushi
The Wonderful Lives are part of a new breed of alt-folk rockers and launch their debut album, The Human Heart Will Take Your Life, at the Katoomba RSL this Saturday. Combining piano, cello, pedal steel, guitar, bass and drums, the band blends a heady mix of folk shanties, grimy rock dirges and bittersweet country tales. The group has been together since 2008 and features Lucas Preddley on vocals and piano and Tim Mahony on guitar and cello. Following her sold-out album launch at Notes last week, Bridie King has just announced that she’ll be the special guest, with her trio, of Rosie Ledet and her Zydeco Playboys, here for the Byron Bay Bluesfest, at Notes Thursday 5 April. King of course has always been both a great student and supporter of New Orleans and Louisiana music and the combination of the two groups should be 54 • THE DRUM MEDIA
John & Yuki – Calmsley Hill City Fair (morning), Well Connected Café Leichhardt Hannah James Band – Sound Lounge The Rescue Ships – 505 Six Degrees – 7pm Clovelly Beach (Australian Film Festival) Susan Gai Dowling – Jazushi Tété + Baby et Lulu – Clarendon Guesthouse Katoomba
SUNDAY
The Umbrellas – 505
THURSDAY
Judy Bailey Trio – Colbourne Ave Glebe Eastside Live presents Gypsy Dub Sound System – 505 Paul Sun Trio – Jazushi
FRIDAY
SIMA Artists In Transition presents the Jo Fabro Band – Sound Lounge The Rescue Ships – 505
THE SWAMP SHACK The remarkable Peter Rowan and his Bluegrass Band return to Sydney Wednesday for a special show at Notes. If you’ve yet to experience one of Rowan’s shows you’re in for a real surprise as he combines superb musicianship with a wonderful sense of humour and laconic storytelling. Rowan is a bona fide legend of the American bluegrass tradition, dating back to the early ‘60s with his role as the lead singer/guitarist with the father of bluegrass himself, Bill Monroe. A Grammy Award winner and five-time Grammy nominee, he has performed and recorded with the likes of Jerry Garcia, Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Flaco Jimenez, Peter Tosh and Steve Earle.
Your latest album, Bohemian, recalls the late ‘60s Californian music scene. Can you tell us what inspired this theme? I just released my new memoir, Sweet Judy Blue Eyes, named after the song Stephen Stills wrote for me in 1968. In the book, I tell many stories of my musical adventures in the ‘60s, and also the stories of how I found the songs I was recording on the album I made with Stephen playing. It was called Who Knows Where The Time Goes and included songs by Joni Mitchell, Ian and Sylvia, myself and others. I wanted Bohemia, which came out at the same time as the memoir, to include some of the songs that would take the story from my early recordings to the present time.
EIGHT IS ENOUGH
JAZZ/WORLD WITH MICHAEL SMITH
Karavan! The International Gypsy Music Festival takes over The Standard Saturday night with headliners Baro Banda, direct from Istanbul, Turkey, along with our own Crooked Fiddle Band, Stoli & The Black Train, Lolo Lavino and Trevor Brown putting in a DJ set.
Last in Australia five years ago, Israeli singer/songwriter David Broza, whose music is a fusion of the three countries in which he was raised – Israel, Spain and England – comes to the Parade Theatre, Kensington Monday 12 March, with special guest Lior.
This will be your second visit to Australia in two years. What was it that brought you back? I love singing in Australia. I was first here in 1965 and had always wanted to come back, but the decades rolled by and finally, a few years ago, I was able to return. On that trip I saw much of Sydney and did a concert in the Sydney Opera House, which, on my first trip in ‘65, had just been under construction. People at that time were freaking out about how much it was costing, with a sort of thermometer in the Harbour that had a rising line of red.
roots@drummedia.com.au
BLOW
Blue Beat in Double Bay hosts the second annual Every Woman Festival this Thursday, celebrating both International Women’s Day and some of our finest female artists including Amanda Easton and Sally Street.
Roots/folk performer Judy Collins is returning to Australia, playing Tuesday at Lizotte’s Kincumber, Wednesday Lizotte’s Newcastle, Thursday The Concourse Chatswood, Friday 16 March Lizotte’s Dee Why, Saturday 17 Blue Mountains Music Festival and Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 at The Basement Circular Quay. Here Collins answered a couple of quick questions before her visit.
The Swinging Blades – Marrickville Golf Club Edwina Blush Quartet – 1pm River Rhythms @ The Armory Wharf Yuki Kumagai Quartet – 2.30pm Illawarra Master Builders Club Maria Okunev & Tahu Matheson – 3pm Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre Penrith Michael Griffin Quintet – Summer Hill Hotel The Subterraneans – Town Hall Hotel Newtown blow@drummedia.com.au
ROCKABILLY/PSYCOBILLY/ALT.COUNTRY WITH PEDRO MANOY
THURSDAY
Eric Bibb is joined by Staffan Astner and Krystle Warren at the Basement, while the Fiona Boyes Hammond Trio take over the National Press Club in Canberra. At the historic Bells Hotel in Woolloomooloo you’ll find the very talented Chris Turner in solo mode.
FRIDAY
PETER ROWAN an irresistible lead into the Easter long weekend. It’s with great sadness that I report the death of the muchloved Louisiana Red, who passed away a few weeks ago in Germany aged 79. Local blues fans might remember his Australian tour of a few decades ago, when he thrilled fans with his classic downhome blues in the style of Muddy Waters, Elmore James and Robert Nighthawk. Red was renowned for his larger than life character and over the top performances, not to mention a slightly ribald sense of humour. Based in Europe for the latter part of his life, he will be very much missed.
WEDNESDAY Old Man Crow get together with Mavis & Her China Pigs at The Sandringham Hotel and Genevieve Chadwick is joined by Aimee Francis and Hannah & Josh at the Bedlam Bar in Glebe
Fresh from his success at the Memphis Blues Challenge, Don Hopkins is solo at Seabreeze Dining in Kiama from 6pm. Eric Bibb moves to the Q Theatre in Penrith and Isaiah B Brunt & John Maddox join forces at the Harmonie German Club in the ACT. Pugsley Buzzard & Band host a great night at the atmospheric Camelot Lounge, while Rip It Up promise to tear up the dance floor with their swinging rock’n’roll at Ashfield RSL Club and The Flamin’ Beauties let loose at the iconic Courthouse Hotel.
SATURDAY
Dave Tice & Mark Evans play their long-running evening spot at the Sandringham and Jack Derwin headlines The Entrance Leagues Club. Lloyd Spiegel is up from Victoria to play Camelot Lounge along with Tim Burnham. The Empire Hotel has an impressive bill with Steve Garry & The 21’s, The Midnight Ramblers and PJ O’Brien Band. swampshack@drummedia.com.au
themusic.com.au
Irish musician Sharon Shannon plays Thursday at The Factory Theatre, leading the way on accordion and whistle, her eight-piece band composed of acoustic and electric guitars, drums, bass, keyboards, fiddle and sax. She answered a few questions just before her tour: How do you think your brand of Irish music will translate to an Australian audience? I love coming to Australia to tour. The audiences are brilliant and seem to love my brand of Irish music. This time will be different, because it’s the first time I will be bringing my big band sound. Some of the band members are Australian, so this also will be a first for me. You’ve collaborated with so many big-name bands and musicians. Which of them made the biggest impression on you? Again, I love all different forms of music and it’s a great honour to play with all these great people. The latest was a collaboration with Jack L on the songs of Jacques Brel. I was very nervous about this as the French-style accordion on the originals is so much different from what I can do. However, the shows were great. You’re fronting such an enormous group of musicians. How did you pick them? Donogh Hennessy has been playing off and on in various bands with me for years. Likewise with Dessie Donnelly and of course Richie Buckley and I go back a long way. Gerry Paul, I’ve known for years but really it’s only been the last year he’s been part of the band. Matt, Brett and Hamish, I’ve never met.
MORE PENGUIN
With the UK’s Penguin Café performing at the City Recital Hall Angel Place this Wednesday, Drum asked band leader Arthur Jeffes about debut album, A Matter Of Life… and their most unusual festival experience (they’ve played Glastonbury, The Big Chill and more). Obviously, whatever you were going to compose for the ensemble was going to follow the exploratory contemporary classical approach of your father’s original ensemble. It felt like a natural thing to do given that I didn’t feel a strict museum-type reproduction of the pieces would be much use to anyone and we had to let the music breathe. That meant being creatively open to new ideas and reconfigurations of ideas already there... The nice thing for me is that I’ve found I have many of my dad’s habits, likes and dislikes, when it comes to this kind of thing, so for me we can be a little freer and explore our new ideas and at the same time I like it because it’s a way of feeling closer to my dad. So yes, when it’s working it does feel almost easy – sometimes. There must have been times when you’ve wondered how you got on a particular festival bill? We ended last summer at a festival where we went on between a NYC hip hop brass act (jumping on the stacks shouting at everyone to put their fucking hands up) and a cool African hip hop/dance collective (again, up on the stacks shouting). Then there was us with our (comparatively) quirky, eccentric, minimalist chamber music infused with bits and bobs from all over. Very funny but a little bit odd.
NEW YORK CONVERSATION LOWERIDER TALES FROM THE BIG APPLE WITH TOM HAWKING
NY Conversation pulled out every remotely pull-able stop to try to be the person to speak to David Lynch about his debut album, Crazy Clown Time. Not because Crazy Clown Time is a particularly brilliant album – it isn’t, although it’s entertainingly deranged at times – but because NY Conversation is the sort of Lynch fanatic who will, as previously chronicled in this column, actually find the house in which Lost Highway was filmed and then just sort of sit out the front gurgling for a while. Sadly, despite the frantic pulling of stops, no NY Conversation David Lynch interview was forthcoming. This is a shame because, apart from just basking in the great man’s presence and asking tentatively if he wouldn’t mind reading the weather for us, we would have loved to hear his take on what might be called, for want of a better term, the Lynchification of pop culture. Although Lynch himself hasn’t made a film since Inland Empire in 2006, his influence continues to be felt – perhaps not so much in the world of cinema, where fewer and fewer films seem to fall between the poles of megabudget blockbusters and cutesy low-budget indie, but definitely in the world of music. Tim Jonze wrote a fine piece in The Guardian a few months back about how the likes of Chelsea Wolfe, Dirty Beaches and (gulp) Lana Del Rey reference both the music of Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti, and also the director’s general aesthetic. Without meaning to blow our own trumpet, Ewing also makes a point that this column made our 2010 end-of-year wrap-up – that the two most prominent movements of the last couple of years, viz. chillwave and witch house, share both a sense of nostalgia and a palpable but indefinable sense of unease. This idea of some nameless horror lurking under an ostensibly idyllic surface – the ear in the grass of middle America – is, of course, quintessential Lynch. These ideas of a pervasive Lynch influence on popular culture aren’t new, of course – the late and great David Foster Wallace discussed them in “David Lynch Keeps His Head”, his spectacular 1996 essay for Premiere, in which he devoted an entire section to exactly what the term “Lynchian” meant (to wit: “a particular kind of irony where the very macabre and the very mundane combine in such a way as to reveal the former’s perpetual containment within the latter”). Meanwhile, there’s probably an entire erudite tome just waiting to be written about how influential the eerie atmospheric sound design for Eraserhead has been on the likes of everyone from Trent Reznor to Hype Williams (the band, that is, not the ‘90s video director).
SILENT DRAPE RUNNERS PIC: LEILA MORRISSEY Sadly, such an analysis is beyond the remit of this column, but the reason I’m writing about Lynch this month is that there’s just been a month-long retrospective of all things Lynchian at NYC downtown cultural centre 92YTribeca, including an appearance from Sheryl “Laura Palmer” Lee, a 20th anniversary screening of Fire Walk With Me and, most intriguingly, a live re-soundtracking of the Twin Peaks pilot by topically-monikered electronic duo (and friends of NY Conversation) Silent Drape Runners. The duo’s set mixed live vocals and a smattering of covers with what was essentially an eclectic and absorbing DJ set, matching contemporary tunes to scenes from the show (which played on a big screen throughout). It’s ambitious to take on the challenge of re-soundtracking a show that’s known almost as well for its music as it is for its iconic murder mystery and endlessly quotable dialogue, but as it turned out, the most striking thing about the whole event was just how much of today’s music sounded just perfect for Twin Peaks. Salem? Check. An a cappella cover of Dream A Little Dream Of Me sung over Oneohtrix Point Never’s Replica? Check. A drag remix for Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On, for Chrissakes? Yep. Worked a treat. A lot of this, of course, is down to the track selection and some pretty impressive mixing, but it’s also a measure of how DFW’s definition of Lynchian pretty much describes a whole swathe of popular culture these days, not to mention a whole lot of public life (take the Republican primary “race”, which is basically both as macabre and as mundane as it’s possible for anything to get, ever.) Not all of this can necessarily be put down to Lynch’s influence, of course, but it does emphasise the fact that he’s been making films that comment on and capture the fundamental weirdness at the heart of culture for the best part of 35 years. Which means that it’s a fine time to be revisiting Twin Peaks and the rest of his oeuvre – in 2012, it seems, the world is more Lynchian than ever. More NY Conversation at nyconversation.com
HOUSE, PROGRESSIVE AND TECHNO VIBES WITH ROBBIE LOWE
All the stars lined up perfectly for the John Digweed party at the Greenwood a few weeks ago. It was a great day that I’m sure will be remembered by many. Admittedly, it did have a major hurdle early, that being a pretty hectic mid-afternoon storm! The courtyard got a good drenching to say the least; everyone was a bit spooked out by it but luckily the sun shone through straight after and so did the crowd. I reckon there’s something about a storm in the afternoon. There’s a calmness in the air that seems to uplift everyone’s mood. People tend to go a little bonkers and so it was awesome! On the day, I played between special guests Butch and John Digweed. I felt a little like the meat between two very substantial slices of bread. When I started – having stepped on Butch’s drink sitting behind the decks on the stage floor – I brought the tempo down a fair bit. From there I gradually brought it back with some house-ier vibes and then deeper tech towards the end of my set. Tracks like Brett Johnson’s Sigh Of Relief, Atimpuri’s 000, Deetron’s The Maze and Soffy O’s Maybe A Dog really set the mood and platform well for Digweed. As usual and true to form, Diggers was spot on and his five-hour set went past so quickly! His total control and master programming never ceases to amaze me. The atmosphere in the courtyard was as good as it gets. Everyone was totally in the zone – it’s overwhelming seeing it like that. I’ve only experienced that a few times before, back when Danny Howells played in 2003 and Sasha in 2004. (I’m sure there have been other times but these two really stand out for me.) There was a lot of froffing, but it was warranted. On the same night, I played at the Spice Cellar. I know I brag heaps about the Spice Cellar, but this place is really going off at the moment. Every time I walk in I’m always greeted with a great vibe and bunch of people. In the past, Sydney has struggled to hold down a consistent venue that solely promotes good house music around the clock. Spice Cellar has definitely broken this trend and you’re guaranteed a good time with cutting edge music. It’s a comfortable room and it is very easy to lose track of time. Lately I’ve been playing a blend of
themusic.com.au
ROBBIE LOWE AND BEN KORBEL deep and tech house – and sometimes edgier house, depending on the time of night. Tracks like Ron Carroll & Super Funk’s Lucky Star (Hot Since 82 Remix), Martin Landsky’s The Composer, Shawn Q’s I Get Deep and Nick Muir & John Digweed’s 30 Northeast (Julien Jeweil Remix) have all been hitting the spot. And other tunes, like Franck Roger & Mandel Turner’s After All and Jay Tripwire’s Satompy, have been turning out to be anthems. Before I go, I mentioned a while back about Ben Korbel and myself joining up to do a special Face 2 Face mix for Pulse Radio. The good news is we just handed it to their office and it’s now streaming live on their website. It will also be available for download from Soundcloud soon enough too. Let’s just say what we thought would be a simple meetup with a few beers and mix-down turned out to be a lengthy process. It took a few late nights and green teas but we finally got there. The mix overall ended up being less of a ‘track each’ type scenario, as we agreed on every track, mixing and programming. If we weren’t both keen on a track, it got cut. We also paid a lot of attention to selecting what we thought had a timeless quality – nothing too obvious or currently trending. lowerider@drummedia.com.au
THE DRUM MEDIA • 55
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THIS WEEK IN
ARTS
TUESDAY 6 The Baker’s Dozen – an exhibition from 13 dynamic Australian women featuring large sculptures and installations amongst signature paintings and smaller studies to create an intimate viewing experience. Includes work by Vivienne Binns, Bonita Bub and Debra Dawes. Opening day. UTS Gallery until 5 April. Galerie pompom – debut exhibition, a group show, for this new commercial art space that aims to develop some of Sydney’s brightest artists. Part of Art Month. Opening night, 6pm. Galerie pompom, Chippendale until 1 April. Short Films Screening – an evening of short film works by Diane Busuttil, a physical performer, trained dancer, theatre- and filmmaker, whose latest works are titled Super Power and Fresh Fruit, which will be screened, and are about a trip into one woman’s imagination whilst she creates a world of fantasy that satisfies her desires in the sweetest of ways. Tap Gallery, 8.30pm. World Of Woman Film Festival – annual festival, dedicated to female filmmakers, now in its 18th year. Opening night film screening of Australian Shorts, followed by live music by Entangled Note. Dendy Opera Quays, 7pm. WOW Film Festival runs till 16 March.
WEDNESDAY 7 The New Electric Ballroom – directed by Kate Gaul, written by Enda Walsh. Set in a remote fishing village on the West Coast of Ireland, three sisters are haunted by days gone by at The New Electric Ballroom where bodies would move, men crooned, champagne flowed, and anything and everything was possible. A lyrical story about longing, broken hearts and the power of storytelling. Opening night, 7pm. SBW Stables Theatre until 31 March. Satchurated: Live in Montreal – a concert film featuring the amazing talents of world-renowned guitar virtuoso, Joe Satriani in 3D with 7.1 Dolby Digital sound. The concert was filmed in Montreal, Canada in December 2010 during Satriani’s The Wormhole Tour, supporting his studio album, Black Swans
And Wormhole Wizards. One night only. Hoyts Broadway and Penrith, and Greater Union Glendale. See cinemalive.com for details.
THURSDAY 8 Yo No Hablo Español – exhibition from photographer Christopher Morris exploring the banality of the everyday and giving it a sense of dignity, based around a trip to Mexico. His images capture the rugged nobility of the people and the land in which they live. Gallery 2010, Surry Hills, 6pm.
FRIDAY 9 Romantics Anonymous – directed by Jean-Pierre Améris, about a man and a woman who fall in love. Jean-René, the boss of a small chocolate factory, and Angélique, a gifted chocolate maker he has just hired. It’s an exploration into when highly emotional man meets a highly emotional woman. Chauvel Cinemas, 6.30pm.
SUNDAY 11 Playwriting: Breathing into brown paper bags in public toilets – the director of Babyteeth Eamon Flack talks to playwright Rita Kalnejais about where Babyteeth came from, what she’s learned as a playwright, and the process of putting it on stage. Part of the Sunday Forum Sessions. Belvoir St Theatre, 3pm.
MONDAY 12 Artist Talks – audiences will get the chance to get up close and personal with the artists and their new works at the Artists Talks, a new addition to Project Five’s programme. Jess Scully, creative director of Creative Sydney, will host as four street artists talk through their latest works and their style. 47 George St, The Rocks, 11am.
ONGOING Babyteeth – written by Rita Kalnejais, directed by Eamon Flack; a comedy about how good it is not to be dead yet. A group of ordinary(ish) Sydneysiders who go about their lives until the sobering moment when they realised that Milla will die before her 15th birthday; an exploration into the ‘violent sweetness of life’. Upstairs, Belvoir St Theatre until 18 March.
GIVEAWAYS
It’s hard to believe that Family Guy has been running for 11 seasons... but there you go - it has, and we’re celebrating by giving away DVDs! Thanks to 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment we’ve five copies of Family Guy: Season Eleven (DVD) to give away. However, for one lucky winner, we’ve also got a copy of Family Guy: The Complete Season 1-11 (DVD) to 56 • THE DRUM MEDIA
giveaway – that’s 31 discs, over 150 episodes, and it even comes with a double-sided poster. You’ll never leave your house again! (But if you do, the discs come with clips for your portable players, so you can still watch Family Guy. Phew.) For your chance to win the grand prize, or one of the five runners-up prizes, head to facebook.com/ drummediacom.
LEADER OF THE PACK GUY DAVIS TALKS TO ANDREW LINCOLN, STAR OF AMC’S NEW ZOMBIE TV SERIES, THE WALKING DEAD. Thee opening scene of The Walking Dead has small-town sheriff Rick Grimes, played by English actor Andrew Lincoln, shooting a little girl in the head. And things don’t really lighten up from there. It should be pointed out, however, that the little girl in question was one of the many, many, many zombies that give this rather grim but completely compelling TV series its title. And like every other zombie on the show, they’ll literally eat you alive if you don’t take them down first. It’s a nasty situation and The Walking Dead drops its audience smack in the middle of it. Developed by Shawshank Redemption writerdirector Frank Darabont, it’s a hard-edged series that doesn’t shy away from the blood and guts of the zombie genre (the second episode is literally titled Guts, and with good reason) but also brings
a surprising amount of sensitivity and soul to the table. A great deal of the credit must go to Lincoln, perhaps best known for his roles in This Life, Teachers and Love Actually (he was the chap in love with Keira Knightley, his best mate’s wife). Looking every inch the steely all-American lawman, he’s also deeply affected emotionally by the situation in which he finds himself - it’s hard not to be moved when he mutters “I’m sorry this happened to you” before he dispatches one of the walking dead with a shot to the head. And even though he’s thrust into a position of authority by the survivors he encounters, it’s a role he sometimes struggles to fill. He’s committed to doing the right thing but the normal rules no longer apply. “It’s an impossible situation,” says Lincoln. “It’s a world that is so extreme and there are no clear-cut
answers when it comes to right or wrong decisions. Rick is a reluctant leader – he only cares about his wife and his child. That’s what drives him, that they have some semblance of safety.” When asked about the appeal of post-apocalyptic sagas like The Walking Dead, Lincoln is quick to note that such tales have long connected with audiences. “They’ve always been intriguing, haven’t they? But they certainly seem more popular as of late. As far as The Walking Dead goes, there hasn’t really been a serialised horror story on TV before, not really an outand-out horror story. And I think that accounts for the popularity – there is this global swathe of horror fans, and people like to be scared, like that visceral feeling. “But it’s just a good story – when you strip away the civility and the manners and everything else, when civilisation has been taken away from you, there’s something very honest and raw and dramatic about that. Maybe people respond to the life-or-death stakes of it. And there’s
depth and detail in the stories of all the survivors.” The role of Rick Grimes has been Lincoln’s entry into the US market and he admits it’s an “extraordinary role” that he probably never would have been considered for in the UK. “In England, I’d been doing period dramas and romantic comedies, so I guess a lot of casting directors thought ‘Well, Andy does that...’. I’ve been working for eighteen years, and every so often you need to have a bit of a spring clean, even just to say to yourself ‘Well, it’d be interesting to try something like that.’ “When this script came to me, I auditioned on tape, doing an approximate Southern drawl. I was phoned the next day and I flew out to screen test. The decision was made very quickly. In that regard, it’s an extraordinary turn of events – it feels like I’m starting over.” WHAT: The Walking Dead WHERE & WHEN: Tuesdays, 8:30pm, on FX
TWO GOOD JAKE MILLAR SPEAKS WITH MASLEN & MEHRA ABOUT THEIR EXHIBITION OF PHOTOGRAPHED SCULPTURE (MORE ON THAT BELOW) OPENING TOMORROW AT CONNY DIETZSCHOLD. There’s a lot to be said for forming a partnership. In fact, history is full of great duos who joined forces for the best – just look at Abbott & Costello or Simon & Garfunkel or Kyle and Jackie O. Okay, so it can be hit and miss. But as their latest exhibition proves, Maslen & Mehra’s artistic alliance is happily one of the good ones. Hosted by the Conny Dietzschold Gallery in East Sydney, the pair’s latest exhibition draws on pieces from two sets of work – The Native and The Mirrored series. “These are bodies of work that were created over a number of years in many locations,” they explain in a email from London. “And it will be the first time any of this work will be shown in Australia.” Much of their work explores the relationship between the natural and the urban. By taking silhouettes of people or animals, turning them into mirrored sculptures and then photographing them out of their typical environment, they create
a fascinating contrast of settings. Among the work on display will be pieces currently included in collections around the world, including Tattinger Switzerland and L’Oréal Paris. “The juxtapositions that we create in natural and urban environments aim to quietly inspire in people a more equitable existence on earth,” they say. In terms of artistic influences, the pair draws not so much on fellow artists, as the world around them. “We respond to such a wide range of different artists, but no one in particular. Our main artistic influence is our relationship with the environment. We also spend a lot of time in anthropological museums, which has shifted our focus to culture in context of the environment.” Currently based in the UK, living and working from East London, Jennifer Mehra and Tim Maslen have been collaborating as Maslen & Mehra since they first joined forces for a project during the Sydney Olympic Games.
“We were offered an interesting public space in Sydney to exhibit during the Olympics and due to the unusual nature of the space, we thought it would be more powerful to present one installation. We’ve never looked back.” While being a solo artist may have its perks (you get to make all the decisions, for one), Maslen & Mehra have found working as a duo also has its perks. “You have a bigger skill set to draw on and you always have someone to bounce your ideas around with. Key to our collaborative practice is our determination to work with different media and materials, and develop our own methodologies for making work – whether this is photography or sculptural installations. “Our style is constantly evolving as we enjoy an experimental approach to our practice. For example, we
have now taken the methods that we employ in this series of work further by drawing on the mirrored sculptures before photographing them. There are two pieces in the Sydney exhibition that preview this new artwork.” As for the future, the pair’s artistic projects are set to take them not just overseas, but around the world. “Later this year we have an exhibition of new work at a contemporary art space in South London called OMT Gallery. We will then exhibit work from the same series in Istanbul in Chalabi Art Gallery curated by [contemporary Turkish artist] Denizhan Özer.” WHAT: Maslen & Mehra WHERE & WHEN: Conny Dietzschold Gallery Wednesday 7 March to Monday 30 April
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MADE YOU
LOOK
WITH BETHANY SMALL Major crush time: Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries. They are a duo who make video art/digital literature/ concrete poetry and I have been in love with them for years and 4A (Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, in Hay St - it’s nice) had a work by them in the first instalment of Edge Of Elsewhere, a show that has another part with another work by this excellent duo. This is one of those things that I can tell I will be spending A LOT of time in. The last one I used to stop in and stare at regularly, their website, has stolen hours of my life – retrofuturistic font, black-and-white with strategic colour flashes, text size and display speed, working with a kind of digital-jazzy soundtrack. The texts themselves are funny and insightful and good as a reminder of how language can be a thing that is made of shapes, and the works are pretty much hypnotic, especially in person and especially if you happen to maybe be in a particular mental state, not that I am advocating offlabel uses of painkillers or anything. (But it’s for art!) Thinking about bad habits, mental ones this time, this new Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries work, titled THE SLICKEST LITTLE KOREAN SCUMBAG DOWN UNDER, has made me feel totally guilty. Projected onto the whole of a big wall in a room where there aren’t any other pieces, and with strobey effects coming from the changes between black-on-white and white-on-black text, the words
FILM
themselves become interpretable as one side of a lovers’ dialogue, a lot of ‘you’re so good, you’re the best’ stuff and some onomatapoiesis (a portmanteau from rhetorical terms? I think that just upped my handicap in Critical Theory Bingo) and then it gets reassuring, all ‘you’re the only one,’ and so on, and up to this point I’d presumed it was a male voice because, I guess, and this is bad, that I tend to presume a masculine default in direct expression of desire, and also because years and years of canonical literature has resulted in my having been acculturated to the ‘male gaze’ in a narratorial sense. Basically because I personally am monstrously inhibited and quite well-read, and because of Society and Gender Norms and So On, I defaulted to “I guess that’s a dude?” without even realising it until, and this is where it gets horribly depressing rather than just regular everyday demoralising: all of a sudden the character/text starts talking about how its interlocutor is ‘the only one who matters’ and ‘even when I’m with them it’s nothing’ and it becomes clear that the text is being spoken by a sex worker and my brain then goes, “Ohhhh, it’s a lady!” and then “Ewww brain and society why are you this way?” I really am made uncomfortable by that set of thought processes and I need to go back and look at and think about it more and look at this, here is art challenging things in my consciousness.
BRINGING CORRUPTION TO THE TABLE JAMELLE WELLS TALKS TO VERSION 1.0 DIRECTOR DAVID WILLIAMS ABOUT THE TABLE OF KNOWLEDGE, THEIR DRAMATISATION OF THE 2008 WOLLONGONG INQUIRY INTO STAFF AND PROPERTY DEVELOPER CORRUPTION. In February 2008, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) began investigating allegations involving former Wollongong Council staff and property developers. A sensational public inquiry exposed sexual obsessions, envelopes full of cash and a group of powerful men who met each week around a plastic table outside a local kebab shop. Even though the inquiry ended with the council being sacked, only one person charged spent any time in jail. Others got suspended sentences, fines and good behaviour bonds. Some of the key players weren’t charged at all, even though the ICAC found they were corrupt. Working with Wollongong’s Merrigong Theatre, Sydney’s version 1.0 turned its forensic theatrical vision onto the scandal last year to produce a compelling interrogation of power, corruption and good governance in contemporary Australia. The Table Of Knowledge had two sell-out seasons in Wollongong with locals packing the theatre for forums to vent their anger before the shows. They justifiably felt ripped off by
officials who abused positions of power for their own benefit. Version 1.0 director David Williams believes a season opening at Carriageworks next week will have just as much meaning for Sydney audiences because local council corruption isn’t confined to one city. “Over the past decade or so nineteen councils in New South Wales have been sacked and there’s a line at the opening of the show stating that it could be about any of them,” he explains. “Sydney has its own local government officials who do shady things because greed and power can invade any organisation. After the Wollongong inquiry there was an ICAC inquiry that heard allegations an official used Burwood Council money to hire a private detective because he thought his wife was having an affair. There was also an ICAC report suggesting that 110 government organisations, including local councils, may have been involved in the corrupt procurement of goods and services. One guy was accused of corruptly procuring enough material to build a fence from Sydney to Bathurst and back.” The version 1.0 show is almost entirely written using the words of
the central characters as recorded in ICAC transcripts, including former town planner Beth Morgan and her high profile developer lover Frank Vellar. Williams says with the exception of former council general manager Rod Oxley, who ran for Mayor after the ICAC inquiry and came to the Table Of Knowledge opening night in Wollongong, he’s never met any of the characters in real life.
Williams, Yana Taylor, Arky Michael, Jane Phegan and Kym Vercoe. There’s been one cast change since the Wollongong season with Angela Bauer replacing Jane Phegan, who has other commitments.
“I don’t know them personally but in Wollongong as soon as their names came up people laughed. We were surprised by how strong the audience connection was with the show.”
Version 1.0 also has The Disappearances Project about the effects of long-term missing persons’ cases on families and communities, currently running in Adelaide. Past shows include Deeply Offensive And Utterly Untrue, which was based on the Cole inquiry into the Australian Wheat Board, and A Certain Maritime Incident, which covered the children overboard scandal.
The version 1.0 company has built its reputation on devising shows from inquiries and this one is the work of
WHAT: The Table Of Knowledge WHERE & WHEN: Carriageworks Tuesday 13 March to Saturday 24
sense that McPherson knows these men, he knows these people, this world, and yet he was only twentyfive when he wrote it. It’s one of his earlier works, but you have to keep jolting yourself because it’s such a mature work. It’s got such insight – the observation is so in tune.
They have a way of going through life, then Valerie comes and she shifts that. It’s the metaphor of the weir; something that stops a great force, and when it’s opened everything falls out. As a result they open up, become vulnerable to show their hurts.”
TALES AND ALES
REVIEWS
DIRECTOR ALICE LIVINGSTONE TELLS DAVE DRAYTON HOW SHE PLANS TO BRING A LITTLE BIT OF IRELAND’S WEST COAST TO NEWTOWN.
DOUBLE BILL: THE PRINCESS BRIDE AND DIRTY DANCING Unlike many other fantastical comedies of both its own time and now, The Princess Bride’s humour never falls into hammy territory. Born with the sweetest, and straightest of faces, its comedy comes naturally, and implies good character – much like it does the best in life. Unlike a lot of broader comedies today – an audience to which this film, mind, still effortlessly speaks – the people in this film are not defined by singular, repeatedly-mined characteristics, and neither do the characters act outside their well-defined personalities. The humour works because it’s delivered so matter-offactly, and it never bludgeons nor signposts its innuendo. The Princess Bride keeps true to its fantastical backdrop, too. There’s real nobility in its noble characters, and genuine fantasy and heart poured into its mythology and love story. The film is also rife with a lot of subtlety. In fact, that brings up a larger greatness about the film, and that is that it’s very self-aware, both in how it tells its story and, too, of the mediums it’s using to do so, and the requisite expectations people have of each. From something so deliberately sedate, then, comes its perfect pairing with a film that has an incredible sense of rhythm in
Dirty Dancing. From stillness, and po-facery – but still a touching love-story, mind you in Princess – we switch to a kinectic, fleshy and truly exuberant expression of passion and devotion in a fantasy. Rich with colour, and music, and that sumptuous tactility that you rarely find in films these days, Dirty Dancing shows you the flip-side of what Princess Bride did. While The Princess Bride used skill and extreme restraint to bring honesty to farce, Dirty Dancing achieves that through hot emotion; both films succeed tremendously because they’re smart, unabashed and honest explorations of fantastic love.
Conor McPherson’s words are going to be heard quite a bit on Sydney stages this year. This week his pub-centric play, The Weir, opens at the New Theatre and in July his Tony-nominated The Seafarer gets a run at the Darlinghurst Theatre. Unsurprisingly, Alice Livingstone, who is directing The Weir, is a fan: “I’m a huge fan of Connor McPherson.” Surprisingly, initial reactions to The Weir weren’t so crash hot.
WHERE & WHEN: Hayden Orpheum Sunday 11 March, 7pm
“I didn’t know the play. It had been programmed and [artistic director of New Theatre] Louis Fischer approached me to see if I would be interested in looking at it to direct. So I read it and went, ‘Oh well… It’s… nice…’” Livingstone pauses with great effect to impress her initial uncertainty. “I actually said to her, ‘Why are we doing this play?’ and she said, ‘Why aren’t we?’ and I thought, ‘oh, okay.’ I read it again, and it was that second reading – it’s deceptively simple, this play. But that reading was when it really started to hit me.
PROJECT X
“It’s because, in terms of plot, not much happens. Four men go to a bar and then after which, they leave.
WHAT: I Love Retro: The Princess Bride / Dirty Dancing
In the late ‘60s, the desperation of studio heads to reach out to the waning youth market was one of the key factors that resulted in the New Hollywood boom; the heyday of Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Bonnie & Clyde, Easy Rider, et al. In 2012, a similar impulse results in Project X, a celebration of dickhead culture so obnoxious it can be usefully used as a litmus test to discern the Worst People Ever. It’s produced by party-cinema maestro Todd Phillips
(The Hangover, Old School), written by various fratboy date-rapists and directed by The Simpsons’ dog-withattitude Poochie (the ‘kung fu hippy from gangster city’). Sporting a meaningless title that serves as little more than a catchy marketing hook and the promise of T&A, the film at least has the decency to get the worst out of the
It literally covers an hour and a half in a country pub at night, but what happens in that hour and a half is quite extraordinary and it’s a deeply and carefully concerned look at characters and how people interact. And also a study in loneliness and lost dreams and a sense of almost being adrift. And how important the comfort of strangers is. It very much has that quality that you get in the poetry of Yeats. It’s set on the west coast of Ireland, it’s isolated, and always has been the rural part of Ireland; it’s steeped in the supernatural.” Subsequent reads well and truly had Livingstone, and the rest of the cast – the four men propping up the bar; Patrick Connolly, Barry French, Lynden Jones, Peter McAllum and Amanda Stephens Lee as Dubliner Valerie – won over by McPherson’s knack for storytelling. “Sometimes you work on a play and you get weird bits and sticky bits and passages that don’t quite work and with this the first read was extraordinary, everyone just sat there, mesmerised by this beautiful language. It’s so well written and the characters are so finely drawn, the words just flow. You really get a
way first. Adopting that annoying but economic found-footage gimmick (that the recent Chronicle so cleverly subverted), the film is nothing if not watchable in a braindead way, once the Superbadvia-vomitcam-without-funny setup is behind and the party – held by three nerds yearning for popularity – gets out of control. Granted, that’s likely because the chances of onscreen
“These men that don’t show their deep hurts and live a life where they’re ganged up in a pub, they know each other, they know the buttons to push to get a reaction.
douchebag-death have increased. You could tune out and enjoy the playlist, but the litany of “faggots” that dominates the dialogue mostly drowns out the music. You could call Project X damaging, morally bankrupt, misogynistic, homophobic – but that’s precisely the indignant reaction it courts, daring one to lambast it at the
WHAT: The Weir WHERE & WHEN: New Theatre Wednesday 7 March to Saturday 31 March
risk of being labelled a killjoy or a prude. In many ways, the film’s a resounding success in what it sets out to achieve and has a purity that’s almost trainwreck-fascinating. Nonetheless, it’s objectively a piece of shit. IAN BARR WHERE & WHEN: Screening in cinemas now THE DRUM MEDIA • 57
FRONTROW@DRUMMEDIA.COM.AU
C U LT U R A L
CRINGE
WITH JAMELLE WELLS SBS reality series, Go Back To Where You Came From, has been nominated for a prestigious television award in the factual entertainment category. The Rose d’Or Festival in Switzerland presents awards each year for best television entertainment programmes. Those shortlisted have been picked from hundreds of entries from around the world. Other Australian shows that have recently done well at the awards include The Eternity Man, a musical tribute to Sydneysider Arthur Stace, and Chris Lilley for best Comedy Performance. Go Back To Where You Came From followed six Australians as they experienced the life of a refugee for 25 days. A former reality television contestant has pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of his ex-girlfriend by stabbing her as she was moving out of their Chippendale unit in 2010. Joel Betts, who is now 32, remains in custody until he is sentenced. He was a contestant on Australian Survivor and a presenter for Foxtel. After the 2011 success of Romeo And Juliet, seen by over 22,000 students across Australia including regional audiences, Bell Shakespeare’s travelling acting ensemble The Players is staging a schoolsdedicated production in 2012. A new troupe of actors will bring Romeo And Juliet back to Sydney and Melbourne audiences under the direction of Damien Ryan, who has directed and performed with Bell Shakespeare many times. It’s been re-set in the mid-20th Century in drought-stricken areas. Australian comedian Adam Hills is joining Britain’s television
commentary team for the Paralympics. The host of ABC television’s recently retired music trivia show, Spicks And Specks, was born without a right foot and often jokes about his disability during his stand-up routines. Hills has been named by Channel 4, the official UK broadcaster for the Paralympics. Local actors Cate Blanchett, Richard Roxburgh and Hugo Weaving have been nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for their performances in Uncle Vanya. The STC production has five nominations at the awards, which recognise artistic achievement on the stage in Washington. The Chekhov play, adapted by Blanchett’s husband Andrew Upton, is nominated for Outstanding Non-resident Production. Blanchett is nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a NonResident Production and Roxburgh for Outstanding Lead Actor. Hugo Weaving and Hayley McElhinney are nominated for Outstanding Supporting Performer in the Non-Resident category. The production got rave reviews in Sydney in 2010 before touring to Washington, DC last year. The original cast will reprise their roles for the Lincoln Center Festival in New York from July. Catherine de Zegher and Gerald McMaster, artistic directors of the 18th Biennale of Sydney, have unveiled programme highlights for the visual arts event, which opens in June. Titled all our relations, it will include works by more than 100 artists from Australia, New Zealand, Asia-Pacific, the Americas, Europe, South Africa and the Middle East. Nearly half will present works created for this exhibition. We’re told it’s based around themes such as migration, contamination, corruption
RARE BIT O’ WALSH DIRECTOR KATE GAUL DRAWS PARALLELS BETWEEN IRELAND’S PLAYWRIGHTS WITH DAVE DRAYTON. You know your Becketts and your Joyces. Hell, pretty much everyone with a passing interest in theatre does, and Kate Gaul reasons Enda Walsh – the man who penned The Walworth Farce, Disco Pigs and The New Electric Ballroom, which Gaul will direct for Griffin Theatre Co. – should be in the list too. “He writes in patterns in his plays, in The New Electric Ballroom certainly,” Gaul muses. “Certain words, certain phrases, certain stories are retold and even throughout the play, which is quite short, the context of the retelling is quite different. We are aware of the repetition, which we love – we love repetition in art, it’s a very powerful compositional tool – but what he does is really quirky, there’s always slight differences. “We all live in patterns. Beckett wrote about that too; we are inextricably trapped in this pattern called existence, ultimately, that is made up of very small patterns of things that we do. It’s pretty depressing, but it’s great stuff for these playwrights; it’s rendered in a really funny way in these plays.” Set in a small town on Ireland’s west coast, The New Electric Ballroom shows three women sharing stories with one another, using their tales to construct the world outside their claustrophobic existence and to
HAVE FRIENDS AND VISIT THEM AT NIGHT AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2012
“SMRTS IS THE SOUND OF WORLD MUSIC DYING AT THE HANDS OF GARAGE ROCK”
FRI 9 MARCH // LANSDOWNE HOTEL SAT 10 MARCH // THE TOWNIE SUN 11 MARCH // BLACK WIRE RECORDS HAVE FRIENDS AND VISIT THEM AT NIGHT OUT NOW ON VINYL LP AND DIGITAL DOWNLOAD THROUGH HEARTLESS ROBOT PRODUCTIONS
58 • THE DRUM MEDIA
redefine themselves beyond the images inevitably cast by gossip in a small town. “Of course, as people in the world, we retell our own histories all the time. You can retell lies and we start to believe, we start to lose track of what is real. We have these personal stories and we just keep retelling them, or, you can reinvent yourself. And this play is very much like that, it’s very much about identity and in terms of Irish plays it becomes very political. As a highly colonised people, the reclaiming of their own stories has been a very important force in their art. “It’s interesting. Irish plays are written in English although that wasn’t the first language of Ireland, but Oscar Wilde said something really witty about how to use the coloniser’s language back on them. He was very aware that he wasn’t writing in his own voice, but it becomes a political act, speaking and writing and retelling histories becomes a political act.” Gaul says it’s Walsh’s deft ability and confidence in wielding language as a weapon that gives his plays something that she feels is sorely lacking in Australian writing at the moment; long poetic monologues. By contrast, she says, “We’re quite inarticulate on stage. Again, I go back to Beckett. The plays are very text driven, there are just
huge slabs of monologues. These characters don’t stop talking. That language is very brutal too, Electric Ballroom’s a very funny play, but it’s a very violent play too, the way people use words. You have to say, ‘Well, why do they talk?’ Talk is part of knowing they exist, silence is peace is death.
what this breath is that comes out of us. In Enda Walsh’s play it’s not just words, the words carry gossip and we’re all marked; people are pigeon-holed by the words we use to describe them and that becomes their story for life.
“Minnie, in Beckett’s play, Happy Days, is just a talking head. He reduced the image of what we see on stage to just the talking head. It was really an extreme quest to say something about
WHAT: The New Electric Ballroom WHERE & WHEN: SBW Stables Theatre Wednesday 7 March to Saturday 31
TOUR GUIDE FEATURE TOUR
DFA AFTERPARTY
As well as touring with the Future Music Festival, James Murphy (pictured) and Pat Mahoney (LCD Soundsystem/DFA) will be headlining the DFA Records Official Afterparty, which is to be held at the Metro Theatre from 10pm Saturday 10 March, directly after Future Music Festival. The evening will feature extended sets from the LCD Soundsystem/DFA DJs, The Juan MacLean (UK), Benoit & Sergio (GER) plus more and will include rare cuts, exclusive edits, unreleased reworks and LCD-inspired bootlegs.
DRUM PRESENTS
MASTODON @ THE HI-FI PIC BY JOSH GROOM
MASTODON GOJIRA, KVELERTAK THE HI-FI 01/03/12
For a band with a solitary studio album, there was sizeable anticipation throughout the already swelling venue for Kvelertak. The Norwegians’ black metalinfused Turbonegro fare was aggressive and executed with intent, although variety not a high priority. A muddy mix (despite three axemen, guitars were largely lost in the shuffle) hampered their half-hour, but the buzz didn’t seem like it would be dissipating anytime soon. Audience adoration picked up noticeably for Gojira, with the reception bordering on fanatical. If Meshuggah and Morbid Angel had a child and Devin Townsend was godfather, the result would likely be these Frenchmen. Every note of the environmentalists’ pummelling progressive death metal was greeted with roared approval and numerous banging heads. Despite the immense precision of the musicianship, there was nothing fancy or charismatic about their delivery, which was simply ruthlessly efficient. The Heaviest Matter Of The Universe and Flying Whales crushed all before
them, built upon jackhammer riffs and machine-gun drumming. Hurry up with the new album, please. Gojira may have laid waste to everyone, but a faltering PA threatened to completely destroy the headliner’s set. Thankfully for the sake of Mastodon and the sold-out room, there was no such eventuality of the crowd having to go home early. A well-paced set emphasising latest disc, The Hunter, ensued, interspersed with a blistering Megalodon, dexterous Crack The Skye and the monumental one-two punch of Iron Tusk and March Of The Fire Ants. With guitarist Brent Hinds largely immobile due to a leg cast, bassist/ vocalist Troy Sanders exhibited greater energy and intensity than this reviewer had witnessed at halfa-dozen previous Mastodon shows. The crunch of Blood And Thunder and mass Creature Lives singalong closed out not only a great performance, but an extraordinary week of metal in Sydney.
NEW ORDER: Mar 7 Hordern Pavilion JESSIE J: Mar 8 Hordern Pavilion THE RAPTURE: Mar 8 The Metro DIE ANTWOORD: Mar 9 Enmore Theatre FUTURE MUSIC: Mar 10 Royal Randwick Racecourse KARAVAN!: Mar 10 The Standard JAMES MURPHY & PAT MAHONEY: Mar 10 The Metro WILD FLAG: Mar 13 Manning Bar I, A MAN: Mar 15 Kings Cross Hotel BLUE MOUNTAINS MUSIC FESTIVAL: Mar 16 – 18 Katoomba MICHAEL ROTHER: Mar 17 Oxford Art Factory ADAM ANT: Mar 23 Enmore Theatre JAMES WALSH: Mar 24 The Standard THE BON SCOTTS: Mar 29 Manly Boat Shed, Mar 30 The Vanguard, Mar 31 Grand Junction Hotel, Apr 1 Brass Monkey DEAD TO ME, COBRA SKULLS: Mar 30 ANU Bar, Mar 31 Annandale Hotel, Apr 3 Yours & Owls, Apr 4 Newcastle Leagues Club, Apr 5 Blush Nightclub JOHN HIATT: Apr 3 The Metro TROMBONE SHORTY: Apr 3 The Basement Circular Quay BUDDY GUY: Apr 4 Enmore Theatre BLUESFEST: Apr 5 – 9 Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm BLITZEN TRAPPER: Apr 5 Oxford Art Factory GREAT BIG SEA: Apr 5 The Basement Circular Quay KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD: Apr 5 The Factory YANN TIERSEN: Apr 5 The Metro FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS: Apr 7 Factory Theatre ALABAMA 3: Apr 7 Manning Bar SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM: Apr 7 The Hi-Fi ZIGGY MARLEY: Apr 8 The Metro DAVID BROMBERG BAND: Apr 9 The Basement Circular Quay CANDI STATON: Apr 11 The Basement Circular Quay BLEEDING KNEES CLUB: Apr 11 Beach Road Hotel, Apr 12 Transit Bar, Apr 13 & 14 (day) Oxford Art Factory, Apr 14 (eve) The Patch SEASICK STEVE: Apr 12 The Metro THE BEARDS: Apr 18 Great Northern Newcastle, Apr 19 ANU Bar, Apr 20 Manning Bar JAY & SILENT BOB: Apr 20 & 23 Enmore Theatre PASSENGER: Apr 21 Factory Theatre LAST DINOSAURS: Apr 21 Oxford Art Factory, Apr 22 Transit Bar DIG IT UP!: Apr 22 Enmore Theatre, Notes Live, The Green Room, Sly Fox SYDNEY COMEDY FESTIVAL: Apr 24 – May 12 various venues THE GUM BALL: Apr 27 & 28 Dashville BIG SCARY: Apr 27 Oxford Art Factory GOSSLING: Apr 27 Clarendon Guesthouse; Apr 28 The Basement Circular Quay, Apr 29 Brass Monkey
Brendan Crabb
themusic.com.au
FU MANCHU: May 3 The Hi-Fi ANDREW WK: May 10 The Standard THE MACCABEES: May 10 Metro Theatre PUBLIC ENEMY: May 11 The Metro GROOVIN’ THE MOO: May 12 Maitland Showground, May 13 University Of Canberra DEAD LETTER CIRCUS: May 23 The Patch, May 24 Zierholtz @ UC, May 25 The Hi-Fi, May 26 Entrance Leagues Club, May 27 Cambridge Hotel BOY & BEAR: May 30 State Theatre, May 31 Newcastle Uni, Jun 1 ANU Bar, Jun 2 Waves, Jun 17 Entrance Leagues Club COME TOGETHER: Jun 9 Big Top Luna Park
NATIONAL LOVERS JUMP CREEK: Mar 7 Yours & Owls, Mar 21 The Great Northern Newcastle, Mar 29 Beach Rd Hotel CELADORE: Mar 8 The Phoenix Canberra, Mar 9 The Gaelic, Apr 14 Chino’s ELI WOLFE: Mar 8 Low 302 HOLLY THROSBY: Mar 9 Clarendon Guesthouse, Mar 16 Annandale Hotel, Mar 17 Lizotte’s Kincumber, Mar 18 Lizotte’s Dee Why, Mar 22 Zierholz @ UC, Mar 24 The Gallipoli Club JOELISTICS, DIAFRIX: Mar 9 Annandale Hotel, Mar 10 Great Northern Newcastle, Mar 11 Transit Bar SAM SPARRO: Mar 9 Oxford Art Factory GIANTS OF SCIENCE: Mar 9 The Patch, Mar 10 The Square BETWEEN THE DEVIL & THE DEEP: Mar 10 Roxbury Hotel THE PEEP TEMPEL: Mar 10 King’s Cross Hotel AUDREY AULD: Mar 11 The Vanguard, Apr 1 Clarendon Guesthouse STICKY FINGERS: Mar 11 Front Bar Canberra, Mar 23 Cambridge Hotel, Mar 30 Upstairs Beresford STEVE LANE & THE AUTOCRATS: Mar 13 The Basement Circular Quay, Mar 14 Great Northern Newcastle, Mar 24 Grand Junction Hotel, Mar 25 The Front Bar I, A MAN: Mar 15 Kings Cross Hotel MOJO JUJU: Mar 15 The Vanguard, Mar 16 Chino’s, Apr 19 Yours & Owls, Apr 21 Baroque Bar CLOSURE IN MOSCOW: Mar 15 Green Room, Mar 16 Spectrum, Mar 17 Cambridge Hotel SET SAIL: Mar 15 Oxford Art Factory, Mar 18 Brass Monkey, Mar 25 34 Degrees South, Apr 12 Grand Junction Hotel OCEANICS*: Mar 16 Kings Cross Hotel, Apr 12 Lansdowne Hotel, Apr 13 World Bar, Apr 14 Oxford Art Factory HERMITUDE: Mar 16 Oxford Art Factory CANYONS: Mar 16 The Standard DANGEROUS!: Mar 16 The Patch, Mar 17 Spectrum, Apr 5 Gee Whiz, Apr 7 Northern Star Newcastle THE NECKS: Mar 18 Sydney Opera House Opera Theatre DIRTY THREE: Mar 21 Sydney Opera House Concert Hall THE GETAWAY PLAN: Mar 21 Clarendon Tavern, Mar 23 Hornsby RSL, Mar 24 Harbord Diggers SNAKADAKTAL: Mar 22 Transit Bar, Mar 23 Oxford THE DRUM MEDIA • 59
ALTER BRIDGE, STEEL PANTHER
TOUR GUIDE Art Factory, Mar 24 Northern Star CHILDREN COLLIDE: Mar 22 The Cambridge, Mar 23 The Patch, Mar 24 The Metro DALLAS FRASCA: Mar 23 The Junkyard, Mar 24 The Square MY FRIEND THE CHOCOLATE CAKE: Mar 23 The Basement, Mar 24 Street Theatre THE BARONS OF TANG: Mar 23 Cambridge Hotel, Mar 24 Red Rattler XAVIER RUDD: Mar 23 The Hi-Fi THE BLACKWATER FEVER: Mar 23 GoodGod MINX: Mar 23 The Mean Fiddler, Mar 30 La La Land, Apr 13 King Street Hotel THE GIN CLUB, TEXAS TEA: Mar 24 Spectrum ALISON WONDERLAND*: Mar 24 Woodport Inn, Mar 31 Oxford Art Factory, Apr 14 Trinity Bar Canberra, Apr 20 King St Newcastle JACK LADDER: Mar 25 Yours & Owls, Mar 27 Brass Monkey, Mar 28 Clarendon Guesthouse, Mar 31 Chino’s BALL PARK MUSIC: Mar 28 Bar On The Hill, Mar 29 Uni Bar Wollongong, Mar 30 The Factory, Mar 31 Transit Bar, Apr 1 The Factory THE BON SCOTTS: Mar 29 Manly Boat Shed, Mar 30 The Vanguard, Mar 31 Grand Junction Hotel, Apr 1 Brass Monkey SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM: Apr 7 The Hi-Fi BLEEDING KNEES CLUB: Apr 11 Beach Road Hotel, Apr 12 Transit Bar, Apr 13 & 14 (day) Oxford Art Factory, Apr 14 (eve) The Patch BLUEJUICE: Apr 12 Waves, Apr 13 The Metro THE BEARDS: Apr 18 Great Northern Newcastle, Apr 19 ANU Bar, Apr 20 Manning Bar PASSENGER: Apr 21 Factory Theatre LAST DINOSAURS: Apr 21 Oxford Art Factory, Apr 22 Transit Bar BIG SCARY: Apr 27 Oxford Art Factory GOSSLING: Apr 27 Clarendon Guesthouse; Apr 28 The Basement Circular Quay, Apr 29 Brass Monkey DEAD LETTER CIRCUS: May 23 The Patch, May 24 Zierholtz @ UC, May 25 The Hi-Fi, May 26 Entrance Leagues Club, May 27 Cambridge Hotel BOY & BEAR: May 30 State Theatre, May 31 Newcastle Uni, Jun 1 ANU Bar, Jun 2 Waves, Jun 17 Entrance Leagues Club
INTERNATIONAL
CHASE & STATUS: Mar 6 Hordern Pavilion JUDY COLLINS: Mar 6 Lizotte’s Kincumber, Mar 7 Lizotte’s Lambton, Mar 8 The Concourse, Mar 16 Lizotte’s Dee Why, Mar 19 & 20 The Basement DANIEL O’DONNELL: Mar 6 Newcastle Entertainment Centre, Mar 7 State Theatre, Mar 8 Royal Theatre UKULELE ORCHESTRA OF GREAT BRITAIN: Mar 6 Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, Mar 7 Newcastle City Hall BELINDA CARLISLE: Mar 6 West Leagues Club, Mar 13 Castle Hill RSL SPRUNG MONKEY: Mar 7 The Patch, Mar 9 Manly Fisho’s, Mar 11 Cambridge Hotel WILL & THE PEOPLE: Mar 7 Rock Lily, Mar 8 Lizotte’s Newcastle, Mar 9 Lizotte’s Dee Why, Mar 10 Hard Rock Café, Mar 11 The Wall SKRILLEX: Mar 7 Enmore Theatre THE CHECKS: Mar 7 Beach Road Hotel PENGUIN CAFÉ: Mar 7 City Recital Hall BEN SOLLEE: Mar 7 The Basement Circular Quay, Mar 21 Street Theatre, Mar 22 The Vanguard NEW ORDER: Mar 7 Hordern Pavilion JESSIE J: Mar 8 Hordern Pavilion THE RAPTURE: Mar 8 The Metro ROOTS MANUVA: Mar 8 The Hi-Fi STEVE GRIMMETT: Mar 8 The Patch, Mar 9 The Basement, Mar 10 Sandringham Hotel NANO STERN: Mar 8 Camelot Lounge SHARON SHANNON: Mar 8 The Factory FATBOY SLIM: Mar 8 Enmore Theatre A-SIDES: Mar 8 Sly Fox TETE: Mar 8 King’s Cross Hotel ERIC BIBB: Mar 8 & 21 The Basement, Mar 9 Joan Sutherland PAC, Mar 20 Lizotte’s Kincumber, Mar 22 Lizotte’s Newcastle, Mar 24 Lizotte’s Dee Why SVEN VATH: Mar 9 The Metro ENDLESS BOOGIE: Mar 9 Sandringham Hotel GROUNDATION: Mar 9 Manning Bar TAYLOR SWIFT: Mar 9 & 10 Allphones Arena 60 • THE DRUM MEDIA
ENMORE THEATRE 28/02/12
REAL ESTATE: Mar 9 The Standard DIE ANTWOORD: Mar 9 Enmore Theatre JAMES MURPHY & PAT MAHONEY: Mar 10 The Metro URGE OVERKILL: Mar 10 The Gaelic PETULA CLARK: Mar 10 State Theatre, Mar 23 Vikings Auditorium BON IVER: Mar 11, 12 & 13 Sydney Opera House Concert Hall DAVID BROZA: Mar 12 Parade Theatre Kensington ST VINCENT: Mar 12 Factory Theatre WILD FLAG: Mar 13 Manning Bar ADAM COHEN: Mar 14 The Basement ROKY ERICKSON: Mar 14 The Factory PAJAMA CLUB: Mar 14 Oxford Art Factory SYBREED: Mar 15 Cambridge Hotel JOHNNY CLEGG: Mar 15 Enmore Theatre FIRST AID KIT: Mar 15 The Standard DJ QUIK: Mar 15 The Gaelic EDDI READER: Mar 15 Lizotte’s Newcastle, Mar 16 The Southern Cross Club, Mar 21 Lizotte’s Kincumber, Mar 22 Blue Beat, Mr 23 Paddington Uniting Church PIETA BROWN: Mar 15 Camelot Lounge, Mar 16 Polish Club Canberra CHARLES BRADLEY & HIS EXTRAORDINAIRES: Mar 16 The Factory JANE BIRKIN: Mar 16 City Recital Hall AQUA: Mar 16 The Hi-Fi, Mar 17 Enmore Theatre MICHAEL ROTHER: Mar 17 Oxford Art Factory ARIL BRIKHA: Mar 17 One22 ADAM ANT: Mar 23 Enmore Theatre JAMES WALSH: Mar 24 The Standard DEAD TO ME, COBRA SKULLS: Mar 30 ANU Bar, Mar 31 Annandale Hotel, Apr 3 Yours & Owls, Apr 4 Newcastle Leagues Club, Apr 5 Blush Nightclub ANGELIQUE KIDJO: Apr 2 Sydney Opera House Concert Hall JOHN HIATT: Apr 3 The Metro TROMBONE SHORTY: Apr 3 The Basement Circular Quay JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE: Apr 4 Factory Theatre STEVE EARLE: Apr 4 Lizotte’s Newcastle, Apr 8 Factory Theatre, Apr 9 Concourse Chatswood BUDDY GUY: Apr 4 Enmore Theatre BLITZEN TRAPPER: Apr 5 Oxford Art Factory GREAT BIG SEA: Apr 5 The Basement Circular Quay KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD: Apr 5 The Factory YANN TIERSEN: Apr 5 The Metro VUSI MAHLASELA: Apr 7 The Basement Circular Quay FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS: Apr 7 Factory Theatre ALABAMA 3: Apr 7 Manning Bar ZIGGY MARLEY: Apr 8 The Metro DAVID BROMBERG BAND: Apr 9 The Basement Circular Quay CANDI STATON: Apr 11 The Basement Circular Quay SEASICK STEVE: Apr 12 The Metro MACEO PARKER: Apr 13 & 14 The Basement Circular Quay FU MANCHU: May 3 The Hi-Fi ANDREW WK: May 10 The Standard THE MACCABEES: May 10 Metro Theatre PUBLIC ENEMY*: May 11 The Metro
FESTIVALS FUTURE MUSIC: Mar 10 Royal Randwick Racecourse KARAVAN!: Mar 10 The Standard CMC ROCKS THE HUNTER: Mar 16 – 18 Hope Estate BLUE MOUNTAINS MUSIC FESTIVAL: Mar 16 – 18 Katoomba SHIR MADNESS: Mar 25 Bondi Pavilion BLUESFEST: Apr 5 – 9 Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm DIG IT UP!*: Apr 22 Enmore Theatre, Notes Live, The Green Room, Sly Fox THE GUM BALL: Apr 27 & 28 Dashville GROOVIN’ THE MOO: May 12 Maitland Showground, May 13 University Of Canberra COME TOGETHER: Jun 9 Big Top Luna Park SYDNEY BLUES & ROOTS FESTIVAL: Oct 25 – 28 Windsor * indicates new or amended listing this week
There are crowd favourites – and then there was Steel Panther. The sold-out venue was jampacked for the LA crew. Somewhere between a chubby David Lee Roth and a skinny Vince Neil, vocalist Michael Starr was the chief party starter, forming an able, decidedly non-PC stand-up comedy team with axeman Satchel. Bassist Lexxi Foxxx hilariously preened and pouted, even more so when not required for instrumental duties on ballad, Weenie Ride. While recycling a few jokes from their festival appearance, they added several songs not aired there alongside Community Property and Death To All But Metal. Uproarious singalongs and an inventive guitar solo filled with metal/hard rock hits completed their hour-long showing. Steel Panther have found a big ‘ole niche in their parodies of the spandex and hairspray anthems of the ’80s and it’s paying off. So popular were Steel Panther, attendance noticeably thinned prior to Alter Bridge kicking off. The crowd were less boisterous too, although the shift in vibe admittedly is in keeping with the US hard rock outfit’s no nonsense, noncomical approach. A less experienced band would have let it affect their performance, but the quartet didn’t seem bothered. Frontman Myles Kennedy’s voice was commanding and he also entertained the masses via a solo duel with fellow guitarist Mark Tremonti. The supercharged riffage of Metalingus and Ties That Bind got the floor moving and the anthemic Brand New Start and Isolation earned even greater crowd participation. Through no real fault of their own – it would be difficult to underline many shortcomings, other than the set arguably being a tad short at 80 minutes – they were upstaged somewhat, although presented with an unenviable task by playing a show with a band as hot as Steel Panther are currently. Hopefully it doesn’t delay a return visit, because those who remained weren’t disappointed. Brendan Crabb
COBRA STARSHIP, FOREVER THE SICKEST KIDS, THESE KIDS WEAR CROWNS, KILL HANNAH THE HI-FI 28/02/12
There was a little bit of “say what?!” going on when current chart regulars Cobra Starship were announced on the Soundwave bill. Their genre of choice, shiny dance-pop, hardly seemed to fit in with the metal and punkthemed festival but music, like life, is never quite so black and white. And the band seemed to enjoy giving the punkier pop from their first couple of albums a bit of a dust off. Kill Hannah were aiming for a darker, moodier brand of electro-rock, as evidenced by three of the members wearing Morphine T-shirts, though at times the band’s brand of rock seemed a little forced. Of tonight’s supports they were closer in line musically to Cobra Starship but furthest from the headliner’s fun-loving vibe. These Kids Wear Crowns were all about the fun, party-vibe. There was a lot of bouncing around from the Canadian six-piece who dropped a bit of Whitney Houston and Beyonce in amongst their own pop/punk nuggets. The four and five-person vocal attack and cheery Canadian dispositions were definitely the highlights of a peppy set. Forever The Sickest Kids toned down some the sugary sweetness but upped the anthemic nature of their choruses and like These Kids Wear Crowns were more than happy to have a bit of a chat. Singer Jonathan Cook even told everyone they were welcome to crash at his place if they were ever in Texas. Putting their best pop/punk foot forward, Cobra Starship kicked things off with The City Is At War. Singer Gabe Saporta made a dynamic focal point, allowing Ryland Blackinton on synth and guitar and keytar player and Saporta vocal foil Vicky T to occasionally let loose. For all Saporta’s sexy posturing though, the band have gotten very good at playing their sassy party jams. And even the very synthy, very dancey You Make Me Feel was welcomed by the young Soundwave crowd. Cobra Starship may straddle two seemingly incompatible worlds, but if they keep making the
themusic.com.au
kids dance like they did at this show, then maybe everyone will be having too much fun to care. Danielle O’Donohue
CATHEDRAL, PARADISE LOST, TURISAS FACTORY THEATRE 29/02/12
You want know about Turisas? Well, faces were painted, swords were waved and jigs were, um, jigged. It’s Turisas people – what else did you expect? Paradise Lost were a far more entertaining proposition than their (quite frankly) dismal Soundwave outing. Still, one gets the feeling that this is a band whose best days are far beyond them and vocalist Nick Holmes and his mournful sidekicks never rose above simply going through the motions. Only classic material like As I Die and Pity The Sadness generated any real energy. Cathedral, on the other hand, were an absolutely monstrous proposition. The only disappointing thing about their entire set was the absence of frontman Lee Dorrian’s bright purple skivvy. Blasting off with Vampire Sun, the band didn’t let up an inch as they segued into something old (Midnight Mountain) and then something new (Funeral Of Dreams). Cosmic Funeral shook the venue’s foundations and Carnival Bizarre was a fun reminder of the quirky doomsters mid-career ‘freak-out’ period. But as good as all these offerings were, it was an offering from the band’s Forest Of Equilibrium debut that set jaws dropping. With Ebony Tears, Cathedral reminded us that through all the flares and ‘70s disco doom worship, they remained at heart a true doom band. Dorrian even whipped out his crucifixes (a subtle tribute to Albert Witchfinder from the band Reverend Bizarre perhaps?) as he mournfully wailed his way through this stonecold doom classic. Everything after this was a mere formality, even the traditional Cathedral singalong standard, Hopkins (The Witchfinder General) couldn’t raise the bar any higher. Cathedral was such a unique proposition in the world of heavy music. That Australia played host to their final ever shows is something for which we should be thanking the gods of doom. Cathedral is dead: long live Cathedral. Mark Hebblewhite
BLACK LIPS, CIRCLE PIT, BED WETTIN’ BAD BOYS ANNANDALE HOTEL 04/03/12
Perhaps it was due to the horrid weather meaning goon-swilling in nearby parks was drowned out, but the crowd that turned up early to see Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys was impressive. The bratty four-piece played a blistering set of sloppy twominute jams. The sloppiness was not always intentional, because when they were tight they were a force to be reckoned with. A huge sound marred by awful vocal delivery by all involved, but BWBB could have themselves a huge future if they let their instruments do the talking. Circle Pit, a band with a much larger profile, were an ill fit as second support; a self-consciously fashionable filling between two slices of no-bullshit, swampy punk. Their sound’s a mishmash of grungy guitars, stoner grooves and swirling psychedelica – stadium-sized mood-pieces offset by weird and awkward discordant moments that from anyone other than Sonic Youth comes across as wankery. If Jesus & Mary Chain ever return to Australia, Circle Pit would be a good fit. Tonight, not so much. Finally, it’s absolutely rammed – and deafening – as Black Lips arrived on stage amidst spitting and swilling and launched straight into last year’s Arabia Mountain opener, Family Tree. The great thing about these guys is that they deliver each and every song as if their lives depended on it, punishing their guitars (and drums) every two minutes across a setlist 20 songs long – and their fratboy banter’s fucking hilarious. Wig-out interludes were a nice introduction to the set and bizarre sound effects (B-movie space sounds, gunshots) played killer to many of the songs. O Katrina! was thrown away early in the set, which largely comprised of 2007 album, Good Bad Not Evil, and its follow-ups 200 Million Thousand and Arabia Mountain. Bad Kids ended the show before they returned amidst a jazzy drum solo from Joe Bradley, with some more wiggingout and a superb rendition of Almighty Defenders’ (their collab with King Khan) Bow Down And Die. DCR
like watching a once-fit boxer shuffle around, drool and try to remember what it was they used be able to do. This Milo Kerrigan of metallic pop/punk still jumps about, though vocals are rarely in key and the pace massively outside the band’s comfort zone. Old gems like Speed Ball gave nostalgia pangs, but sadly also reminded of when the band was much better than it is now. Bad Religion, on the other hand, hold up well, despite a combined age of roughly 4,500. Singalong staples like Generator, No Control, Suffer etc. made up a huge chunk of the set – and so they should. The occasional lyric (lines like “10 million dollars on a losing campaign” and “10 in 2010”) reminded how dated a lot of it is, but Bad Religion have gone 30 years without changing very much about themselves and we don’t expect them to revise anything now. A couple of infrequently-played songs, like God’s Love and Hear It, kept things interesting. Mostly, there weren’t many surprises – just solid, simple playing, classics that everyone seemed to know the words to and a band that, despite their years, still sounded as great as it ever did. Brent Balinski
MATT CORBY, THE WINTER PEOPLE, EMMA DAVIS OXFORD ART FACTORY 27/02/12
The first of Matt Corby’s four sold-out Sydney shows seemed to draw some unlikely young fans out for their first live music experience. While their behaviour was cringe-worthy and occasionally downright rude, their enthusiasm was legitimate.
SLIPKNOT @ SYDNEY ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE. PIC: JOSH GROOM
SLIPKNOT, TRIVIUM
SYDNEY ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE 27/02/12 Frontman Matt Heafy and his Trivium cohorts are bordering on old hands at being an arena-opening act, actually looking increasingly like they belong on such a large stage. A swag of new material freshened up the Floridian quartet’s set, with Built To Fall and Caustic Are The Ties That Bind slotting neatly alongside the likes of 2005 track, Like Light To The Flies. Although a crowdpleasing hour, punters will get more bang for their buck via the metallers’ rumoured headlining run later in 2012. As appreciated as the openers were, make no mistake about it – this show was about the main event. Band in-fighting via Twitter and mixed messages to the fans about their future meant precisely zilch once the Slipknot juggernaut was unleashed. The Iowa nonet (with touring player Donnie Steele performing late bassist Paul Gray’s parts off-stage) wreaked their unique brand of havoc – stage diving, brandishing baseball bats, hydraulic drum risers and expansive pyro contributing to the spectacle. The more dedicated maggots also received some bonuses via select cuts (including Dead Memories and Everything Ends) not aired at their Soundwave festival appearance. Vocalist Corey Taylor paid tribute to Gray with an extended passage before dedicating Duality in his honour to widespread approval. The rabid crowd required little prompting for the Spit It Out mass sit-down, the
ritual seeming to have over-stayed its welcome by now. To be bluntly honest, this reviewer has never entirely bought what the metal superstars are selling on record, but the vitality and energy of their hour-and45-minute exhibition was difficult to deny. As for a new album occurring, well, it depends on who you ask. The physical bruises and cuts the band and audience members inflicted on each other will clear up quickly enough, but other wounds may require a little longer to heal before that happens. Brendan Crabb
BAD RELIGION, STRUNG OUT, STREET DOGS THE HI-FI 29/02/12
Emma Davis opened the evening with bittersweet melodies beautifully articulated in her lightly husky voice. Her simple accompaniment was effective and the double bass lent an earthy texture. Feel A Thing was a pretty closer and roused a timid singalong from the front of the house, however the audience spared her much less of their attention than deserved. A sharp start was missing for The Winter People, but once the atmospheric folk did build up, the mesh of styles was exciting. The double violin pedal notes added an awesome driving depth to the sound and the five-part vocals were a nice feature. They were finely polished in their delivery, with tight cuts and swelling cadences, but the rockier edge could have featured more. Opening alone on stage, Matt Corby cut straight to the chase, flexing his impressive vocal chords over sparse strums of his guitar. He slipped effortlessly between cascading falsetto, scratchy growls and a strong, clear chest voice that faded into a poignant quiver that left the room spellbound. With a loop pedal, he created thick vocal textures and once his band joined him onstage, their interaction was seamless. One song flowed into the next and while there seemed no clear structure, the progression was hypnotising. Although polished, Corby injected his music with a raw emotion that was powerful to experience in an intimate setting. He was forced to educate half the audience on the basics of gig etiquette, so obviously an encore was out of the question, yet crowd favourites Lonely Boy and Brother exceeded expectations.
Street Dogs opened with Rattle And Roll – and the tempo didn’t often come downwards. Despite Street Dogs’ exuberance and tidiness, the audience was sedate; vocalist Mike McColgan had to remind them – in the obligatory way that singers sometimes do – that “this is a punk rock show”. The snarling Hang ‘em High was a peak moment.
Alex Hardy
RYAN ADAMS, JASON ISBELL
The superb S&M paean, Ultimate Devotion, introduced Strung Out, who ran through plenty of songs from when they weren’t so tired. Nowadays, seeing Strung Out is
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE CONCERT HALL 28/02/12 Ex-Drive-By Truckers, now solo artist Jason Isbell managed to bring a perversely gentle power to his
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personal songs. Full of imagery, they were delivered with a relaxed country lilt that was totally engaging. As Isbell put it, he likes to have a good time playing sad music. Ryan Adams may have walked out to a rapturous welcome, but within 30 seconds he had everyone transfixed in mesmerised silence. The contrast in noise was stark and heightened by opening with Oh My Sweet Carolina, his most delicate song of the night, as his vocal revelled in the crystal clarity of the Opera House. This was also a very different Adams to the attitudeladen persona that he has built up over the years. There were jokes, witty comments, totally random musings and hilariously improvised songs. Obviously well aware of his reputation, Adams even jokingly apologised for making everyone laugh and promised he would try and keep up his villainous image. With the noticeably more relaxed approach coming off the back of his best-received work of recent years (his recent Ashes And Fire album), Adams was clearly rejuvenated. Always with a raggedy songbook aide memoire in tow, he performed a wide selection of songs, mostly on acoustic guitar but with occasional use of piano, across a near on two-and-a-half hour performance. The vulnerable environment of his first ever solo tour here exposed the sheer poetry of Sylvia Plath and Let It Ride and the bittersweet tones of Please Do Not Let Me Go and Everybody Knows to spellbinding effect. There was an added softness to his cover of Wonderwall whilst English Girls Approximately took things a bit more up-tempo. As he closed with the delightful Strawberry Wine, this was an extraordinary display of a master singer/songwriter in top form. Paul Smith
APHEX TWIN, HARMONIC 313, VICTIM ENMORE THEATRE 02/03/12
This reviewer is still having trouble really understanding what the hell actually happened at the Enmore Theatre, but there is one thing for certain – it was epic. For the first time in more than half a decade, Aphex Twin performed his own headline show in Sydney. Victim kicked things off with some low-down, grimey dubstep, hip hop and breakbeat, readying the crowd for the later onslaught of monstrous basslines and distorted kicks. Mark Pritchard (under his Harmonic 313 alias) then took things a little weirder and more experimental, contrasting Victim’s set beautifully with some jams from Underground Resistance, Carl Craig and DHS. As the room darkened and Aphex Twin’s familiar logo appeared on stage (unfortunately on two smaller panels rather than just a single large screen, which really killed the impact of the spectacular visuals), many wondered what was about to transpire. Aphex Twin aka Richard James is notoriously self-indulgent, which although is part of his charm, that same characteristic has at times worked against him. Not this time. Even though the crowd was lifeless and rude – and if anyone deserved a big “fuck you” and 80 minutes of static, it was them – James delivered a thoroughly danceable, but still decidedly weird and misanthropic set. Cut-up old school hip hop and breakbeats to start, some proper electro and wonky, aggressive techno (including Grandmaster Flash’s classic, Scorpio, and Nuclear Facelift by LAM) in the middle and then… speedcore and noise. Yep. Speedcore. And noise. X-103 and Noizefucker vs Paranoizer’s Icecream were about as brain-friendly as the final 20 minutes got and, while many chanted for an encore, one had to ask, “What the hell do you play as an encore after ten minutes of freeform noise?” Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Andrew Wowk
THE DRUM MEDIA • 61
BAKING
Melbourne indie-rock trio Celadore celebrate the release of their new single, Bakery, with a national tour. They’ll be playing in Sydney this Friday at The Gaelic.
HAVE YOU HEARD
HAVE YOU HEARD
SYSTEM OF A DOWN @ SYDNEY ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE. PIC: JOSH GROOM
SYSTEM OF A DOWN, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN
THURSDAY, SAVES THE DAY, CIRCA SURVIVE
Once again The Dillinger Escape Plan did not disappoint their fans on this outing, with a set noted for its frenzy. It’s nice to see a hardcore band these days not afraid of the odd guitar solo, showmanship, trips to the pit and plenty of mayhem. While some fans considered them the headliners and would have liked a little more, most were impressed with the non-stop, trash-tastic fest on offer. They climbed amp stacks, went for the long leaps and big jumps, they growled, screamed, flailed, spun and generally tore it all up – quite literally as it turned out, with a good old-fashioned stage smash-up, hurling mic stands and scattering the drum kit in trademark style.
Thursday fans arrived at the Metro with heavy hearts. It’s not often that Australian audiences get to provide the final farewell for their favourite international acts, but not long after this review is published, this band of New Jersey post hardcore innovators will be no more.
SYDNEY ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE 28/02/12
It’s fair to say the fans’ anticipation was high as the last time System Of A Down strode an Australian stage was back in 2005. Just when it was all getting too much, the lights dimmed, Prison Song’s chords were struck and the scrim fell amid huge roars. The show had it all: stage diving, frontman Serj Tankian’s funky dance moves, crowd surfers, clapalongs, synchronised arm waving, a steady hail of crap raining on stage and big howlalongs. The 26 numbers mixed big singles with crowd favourites including Chop Suey!, Aerials, BYOB, Lonely Day and Lost In Hollywood.
GRAVEYARD ROCKSTARS
METRO THEATRE 27/02/12
To make sure fans were left with some pretty solid memories, Thursday powered through a blistering set of early classics, but first Circa Survive and, in particular, singer Anthony Green proved a thrilling choice of opener, although one guy down the front wasn’t quite so appreciative. Eventually, after copping abuse for several songs, Green let fly with a tirade of his own and the pro-Circa crowd down the front forced Mr Negativity to the back so Green and his band could go back to layering waves of sound around a voice that has to be heard live to be believed. Saves The Day head-bopped through their poppyemo canon, giving older fans the nod with the gorgeous Anywhere With You, showing off some new songs and then providing a classic early-noughties emo singalong in set closer At Your Funeral.
Suite Pee, War? and Toxicity wound things up before closing out with Sugar. There wasn’t an encore, but one wasn’t needed. Let’s hope there’s truth behind the rumours of a new album, if only for another show like this one.
But it was Thursday’s night and their game-changing second album, Full Collapse, was the focus. Though the band has moved well past the naïve musicianship of Full Collapse over the nearly 11 years since its release, songs like Understanding In A Car Crash, Jet Black New Year and Standing On The Edge Of Summer were still emotionally charged and epic-sounding. Only two new songs, from their most recent album, No Devolucion, in No Answers and Turnpike Divides, made the cut, the rest, including a jaw-dropping rendition of For The Workforce, Drowning, were taken from 2003’s War All The Time. Singer Geoff Rickly said at one point, “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” True as it is, at least this Sydney audience was given a memory that will burn bright for a long time.
Fiona Cameron
Danielle O’Donohue
Strange as it sounds, System Of A Down brings an element of real whimsy to the stage, leaving the tension where needed and contrasting nicely with the heavier elements. It was a fairly stripped-down set-up, relying on the stagecraft of the band, select projections and a couple of big square light rigs that fell, rose and spun with massive dignity.
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SMRTS What do you think is your act’s greatest strength? Two drums, three guitars, lots of strong rhythms and heartbreaking melodies. If you could time travel back to any gig in history, which would it be and why? Albert Ayler at the Greenwich Village in 1967. Judging by the recording, it was the best show ever! What movie do you think your music would best accompany and why? A Page Of Madness, an amazing Japanese silent film from 1926. It would be awesome to do the riot in the cell scene. What are your plans for the immediate future? Touring the eastern states, launching the new album in Perth and playing In the Pines for RTR FM…
What do you think is your act’s greatest strength? Our live show – more blood’n’guts, coffins and bats than your average Hammer horror film. Our songs are rad as well! If you could time travel back to any gig in history, which would it be and why? 1977: The 100 Club in London. The Pistols, The Clash, what would later become Siouxsie & The Banshees and a whole lot of other great bands. I think it was a pivotal time in music, when people were sick of watching the boring, pompous prog-rock bands of the time and the cheesiness of disco. People wanted a bit of danger and something that the mainstream didn’t know about. What movie do you think your music would best accompany and why? I think our music would have sounded great in American Psycho. Our songs are almost as twisted as Christian Bale’s character; our lyrics are unsettling with black, comical overtones. What are your plans for the immediate future? We’re recording a single in a few weeks, which will be released to coincide with our next tour in June.
What is your favourite song lyric and why? “In workers’ grey towers we crumble behind thin walls…,” from Soviet Valves’ song, Crossover Angst, because it’s by my favourite lyricist, Milos Vukcevic.
What is your favourite song lyric and why? “The corpses all hang headless and limp bodies with no surprises and the blood drains down like devil’s rain we’ll bathe tonight..,” – Skulls by The Misfits. Mr Glen Danzig has a way with words that inspires me beyond belief.
Favourite “pick me up for a big night” drink? “Yellow Wasp” – Serbian plum brandy.
Favourite “pick me up for a big night” drink? A tall glass of bat’s blood.
Favourite hangover cure? Ramen noodles.
Favourite hangover cure? An even taller glass of bat’s blood.
For more info see: http://smrts.net
For more info see: www.reverbnation.com/graveyardrockstars
When and where are your next gigs? Friday at The Lansdowne Hotel, Saturday at The Townie, Sunday at Black Wire Records.
When and where is your next gig? Saturday at Black Cherry, The Factory Theatre. We can’t wait!
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THE DRUM MEDIA • 63
JUST VISITING
EP FOCUS
OLD AND LAZY
GROUNDATION Why are you coming to visit our fair country? Groundation is coming to play some new music off our seventh album, Building An Ark, to be performed at the WOMAD Festival. How long are you here for? We will be in Australia and New Zealand for 12 days in total. What do you like about Australia, in ten words or less? The people, the culture, the weather and the good vibrations. Any extra-curricular activities you hope to participate in? For sure... While in Australia, we plan to play some cricket and do my regular run. What will you be taking home as a souvenir? A musical instrument called a Bullroarer, and anything else that might come our way. Where can we come say hi and buy you an Aussie beer? Come to any of the Groundation shows and we’ll link up and share some good positive vibes. We’ll be playing in Sydney on Friday at The Manning Bar. For more info see: www.groundation.com
GET JAMMING
Music Street Jam is a free music jam held in premium cafés around Sydney with no stages, no mics and no egos… just music! Music Street Jam is open to all artists with no limitations on genre, age, race or skill level. Music Street Jams is being held Sunday at biancoNero Espresso Bar Randwick with more venues scheduled to begin through March, April and May. The event continues every second Sunday following. Artists interested in participating should just turn up to a scheduled Music Street Jam.
LITTLE BAMBINO
Swing by the Enmore’s Green Lounge this Thursday to catch three-piece indie-pop explosion Bambino Koresh. If you’re not charmed by the soaring harmonies and cute arrangements, you will be by charismatic frontwoman Leticia Nischang, late of bands like Sneeze and Sweet Thing.
BE GOOD FOR PAPA
Alternative blues outfit Papa Pilko & The Binrats have been making their way around the country and they play a new blend of blues and New Orleans-inspired sounds this Friday at Notes.
REMEMBER THE CLASSICS
Barry Leef, a guitarist and vocalist who’s had the honour of working with musicians like Frank Zappa, Elvin Bishop and Tom Jones, now leads an all-star band through a Classic Rock Show, with a setlist lifted straight from The Eagles, The Doobie Brothers and more. You’ll find the show this Saturday night at Notes in Enmore.
HOMEGROUND HEROES
Heat 2 of the competition to win the chance to play a 2012 Wests Tigers NRL home game, Wests Tigers Homegrown Heroes, takes over the Bridge Hotel in Rozelle Saturday night with Big Smack, The Presence, DJ Clint Dogg, Castlecomer, Plasticine Machine, Shadows At Play and Tenpenny Towers battling it for line honours. You can Facebook all the acts too. 64 • THE DRUM MEDIA
JASMINE BETH JASMINE BETH
AFTER THREE YEARS SPENT IN A WILDERNESS OF SONGWRITING, LINEUP CHANGES, WIPED HARD DRIVES AND BIRTHING CHILDREN, SYDNEY’S BETWEEN THE DEVIL & THE DEEP ARE FINALLY UNLEASHING THEIR DEBUT FULLLENGTH. BRENDAN CRABB VISITS HELL WITH VOCALIST JAY GLEESON.
How many releases do you have now? This is my first release. How long did it take to write/record? The oldest song on the EP is Summer Song, which I wrote over the course of a few months during 2008, partly in London and partly in New York. The newest one is The Botany Bay Song, which I wrote about a year ago. So the EP is a selection of the songs that I’ve written over the past four years.
It’s been suggested any band has a lifetime to write their debut album. Sydney punk/post-hardcore/rock band Between The Devil & The Deep have been anything but slow on the recording front during the past half-decade. An EP, split and 7” preceded their new, first full-length, Paper Spine, but the new record underwent a lengthy development process.
Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? I think that inspiration comes from all sorts of places… A compulsion to write is probably important. I think I feel most driven when I’m preoccupied by a particular story or by a particular feeling. What’s your favourite song on it? That’s a hard question. It’s difficult to be satisfied with your own songs. I love the way the band played on Full Moon. Will you do anything differently next time? Yes, in the sense that I’m always learning when it comes to music. Every new song, whether it’s one I’m writing or one I’m learning, means coming up with new ideas, new ways of looking at things, new possibilities for instrumentation. I’m intending for my next release to be a full-length album. Will you be launching it? I’ll be launching it at The Basement on Monday 12 March. Genevieve Chadwick and Frank Sultana will also play on the night. For more info see: www.jasminebeth.com
BACK TO THE ROOTS Bluegrass singer Peter Rowan is an American veteran of blues and roots with a cult following, one Grammy award and five Grammy nominations under his belt. He’s once again making the trip Down Under with his band and will be stepping into Notes in Enmore this Wednesday. Spike Flynn and will open the evening.
STORY TIME CCEntertainment presents its next Storylines, a show in tribute to storytelling songs and artists. From Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Neil Young to Elton John, Al Stewart and Billy Joel, the concert will be an elaborate series of rich, lyrical masterpieces, performed by six vocalists: Jason Walker, Suzy Connolly, Danielle Blakey, Lachlan Doley, Luke O’Shea and Sam Knock. You can catch the show at The Basement this Saturday.
BAND COMP The third heat of the Hard Rock Rising band competition will be held at Sydney’s new Hard Rock Café this Friday night. The competition will be judged by the managing directors of Damn Good Productions and Entertainment Marketing Group as well as the Director of Sony Music. This week’s heat will feature Verusive, October Range and John Bacon Blues, so get along and see what happens.
“Initially we wrote what was probably the majority of the record - we kinda demoed a lot of that,” frontman Jay Gleeson explains. “We listened to it and it just wasn’t that good, to put it in plain terms. Everything kinda sounded like a B-side of something we had done before. So we asked ourselves some pretty serious questions about what we wanted. Probably for us as a band we’ve always been pretty organic, so actually having a discussion about what the fuck we want to sound like – pinpointing some influences and stuff like that – and kinda took it from there, which was a cool thing to do. We just figured, looking at what we were listening to then is very different to what we were listening to five years earlier. So we down-tuned, I got off bass, just started singing and took it from there.” Drum jokes that it was almost their version of Chinese Democracy – scrapping numerous songs and ideas and starting again. Lachlan Mitchell (The Jezabels, I Exist) handled production duties, the result combining the band’s eclectic musical tastes, drawing from Fugazi, The Nation Blue, Poison The Well and Boston hardcore acts. “Yeah,” Gleeson laughs. “It was three years go to whoa, once you factor in stuff like writing twice as much material, member changes and stuff like that. But that was alright to end up with something that we’re happy with, whereas what we had before… If you’re not going to be happy with what you finish with then there’s not much point. It’s a diverse album. We got to be a bit experimental and try different
SWEET RELEASE Blues and roots guitarist Jasmine Beth will be performing a string of shows to accompany her debut release, due out later this month. This Wednesday, you can find Beth performing at Lizotte’s Kincumber, with her next Sydney appearance scheduled for the following Monday night at The Basement.
YAY TO GAY MARRIAGE If you’ve got plans for tonight, you might want to cancel them. The uncontested ‘Wedding Of The Year’ takes place tonight at Dr Sketchy’s at the Arthouse Hotel, between Mardi Gras stars and burlesque dancer Lauren LaRouge and Holly J’aDoll. Whether it’s to fight for marriage equality, or just to see the glitz and glamour, check in and check it out.
TO THE FUTURE Chinese Laundry will be hosting one of Future Music Festival’s official after parties this Saturday night. Headlined by UK outfit Chase & Status, the evening will also feature BBC Radio One’s new pin-up boy Zane Lowe, as well as German house superstar Ian Pooley, A-Tonez, Software, Bella Sarris and Morgan.
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stuff, so there are songs that fill different spots.” How was the transition from bass and singing to solely vocal duties? “Initially knowing where to put your hands was difficult; it might sound like a really basic thing. I remember reading a review from the first show we did as a fivepiece and they were really nice to us in that they were saying they thought we were sounding like we’d be pretty good, but we just needed to get used to that. It took me a bit, but it’s good and I’m definitely better off just doing just one thing. I’m no good at multi-tasking,” he laughs. The band will now hit the road supporting the new material, but will be selective in what shows they do. “We try not to over-play too much. We’ve got this run of shows over the next couple of weekends, then I head overseas for about six, seven weeks. When I come back, we do another run of shows and try and do a few more all ages and regional stuff. We’re anticipating playing through to the back end of the year. “We run some pretty precise strike missions as far as touring. We’ve never been a band that does a lot of on-road touring; probably when we were a lot younger we did, but it’s never really felt like it’s paid off. Plus I think we’re probably just old and lazy,” he laughs. “We do it to play it live. As much as this recording is probably the first thing we’ve put down that we’ve been really happy with, it’s stood up as its own thing and that’s brilliant, it’s still a vehicle for the live show.” WHO: Between The Devil & The Deep WHAT: Paper Spine (Green/MGM) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 10 March, Roxbury Hotel
DUB STEP WAR This Friday night, the Boss Bass Crew will be battling it out to try and desperately conquer all in the ultimate battle of dubstep, drum’n’bass and moombahton. Follow your ears and find the chaos at the Chinese Laundry this Friday night.
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE To launch their new album, Blue Mountains outfit The Wonderful Lives will be performing a free set at Katoomba RSL this Saturday that will also feature their much-loved singles Mary Lou and They Were Waiting For Me. Since the band has enjoyed more than their fair share of airplay on triple j Unearthed, 2SER and FBi, you wouldn’t want to miss this show.
ZEN POP This Friday, a group of veteran musicians straight from ‘80s underground cult bands like Wall of Noise, Underwater and The Last Metro, have teamed up as Zenzen Pop with a brand new set filled with new material. You’ll find them at The Square this Friday, playing tunes with a clear ‘80s influence which they’re bringing into the 21st Century.
SHE’S A WINNER This Saturday night, 2011 winner of the Jann Rutherford Memorial Award, Hannah James and her band take the SIMA Sound Lounge, unveiling a few exclusive tracks from the group’s soon-to-be released album.
JUST VISITING
HAVE YOU HEARD Which acts inspired you to produce your own music and why? Staff and management at the Melton Tip, who turn adversity into success every single day. Keep up the good work! What’s your wildest ambition for your music? To damage as many brains and earholes as possible Why should we come and see you? Watching grown men torture themselves for their own amusement is reason enough I think. How do you find the local live scene? Punishing… and that’s speaks for itself. What’s your greatest rock’n’roll moment? Benching 200kg of bricks and scrap for record title next year. Most validating don’t you think? For more info see: thetrueblackjesus.blogspot.com.au Next available at: Friday – Valve Bar With Innsmouth and Convent Guilt Saturday (Arvo) – Repressed Records Instore Saturday (Night) – The Patch Wollongong With Dead Boss and Temtris
‘Doe-eyed doo-wop girls straight out of the ‘60s, but with a little more attitude’ is an effective summary of The Fabergettes. After being featured on triple j Unearthed and gaining well-deserved attention from their self-released EP and single, Ding-Dong, their set at GoodGod Small Club this Friday should be well packed, so get along early.
BLACKNESS
BLACK JESUS Your music is…? One hundred per cent Scrap Metal
DOO WOP!
SPRUNG MONKEY Why are you coming to visit our fair country? We are here for the 20th Anniversary of the classic surf film, Momentum Tour.
Black Cherry will be in full force this Saturday night at The Factory Theatre. An evening devoted to the cream of Australia’s rock, swamp blues and rockabilly, The Delta Riggs, Graveyard Rockstars, Firebird and Brothers Grim & The Blue Murders are all on the bill. Throw in a selection of DJs, Rockabilly Rhino among others, and a few burlesque treats, and you’ve got yourself a show.
GOING OUT WITH A WHAM! With the announcement of a new Saturday party night on the cards, the World Bar’s Wham! has its days numbered. The night plans to go out with a bang though, so this Saturday night, get ready to bid farewell. Blaze Tripp, Kato, Shivers, Hannah Gibbs and Bentley will be tearing the walls of World Bar apart, purely for your enjoyment.
THE FULL KIT Falcona Friday swings around again this Friday night at Kit and Kaboodle. It’ll feature some of our city’s finest DJs including Rufus, Hansom, Hobophonics and Isbjorn. Come along if you’re in the mood for a raging party and a barely legal cocktail of electro, dance, rock and indie music.
How long are you here for? We will be in Australia until March 12. What do you like about Australia, in ten words or less? It’s a beautiful country with beautiful people, and always a great place to tour for us! Any extra-curricular activities you hope to participate in? Shopping, eating great food, like kebabs and pies! Also a bit of surfing for a couple of the guys. What will you be taking home as a souvenir? Trinkets for our chicks! Where can we come say hi and buy you an Aussie beer? March 7 at The Cabbage Tree Hotel in Wollongong, March 8 at The Marlin Hotel in Ulladulla, March 9 at Manly Fisho’s, March 10 at The Beachcomber Hotel, Toukley and March 11 at The Cambridge Hotel in Newcastle.
DON’T BE SCARED OF GIANTS
Brisbane quartet Giants Of Science made a giant impression on audiences when they took to the stage last year as part of a flood relief concert, sharing the stage with Front End Loader, You Am I, Mudhoney and A Perfect Circle. Giants of Science are back again this year, with shows in Wollongong and Sydney. You can catch them at The Patch in the ‘Gong on Friday, alongside Shifter, Bruce! and Handlebar. In Sydney, they’ll be supported by Lomera, The Turps and Skinpin at The Square in Haymarket on Saturday.
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THE DRUM MEDIA • 65
SINGLE FOCUS
EP FOCUS
WARTS AND ALL
ROCCO THUNDER What’s the song about? Thunder is about change and searching for the moment you have been waiting for. Then when you do find it, it strikes you down. Is this track from a forthcoming/existing release? This single was released in February along with a dance remix. We are working on material for a full-length album to be released late in 2012. How long did it take to write/record? ROCCO partner, guitarist and producer Chris Collins sent me the music and the concept came to me within minutes. The track itself has been a work in progress over the past couple of years. We were waiting for the right team to assist us in taking it to the next level, which we found. Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? Our (Chris and I) paths crossed when we were both going through a rough period in our lives. Making music and being creative really put us into full gear. What’s your favourite part of the song? The opening lyrics, “Waiting for a change to come…,” as this sums up the theme of the song and what it’s all about. The music has a sense of forward movement and excitement over what lies ahead. Do you play it differently live? There are a few versions of Thunder, so I’m sure we will surprise you in time.
ELI WOLFE CARDS ARE ON THE TABLE WHERE ONCE WERE TWO, NOW THE PEEP TEMPEL ARE THREE AND, AS VOCALIST/GUITARIST BLAKE SCOTT TELLS MICHAEL SMITH, PROUD PARENT OF A DEBUT VINYL ALBUM.
How many releases do you have now? Two. This new EP along with my debut self-titled album. How long did it take to write/record? I wrote the songs while on an extended tour last year promoting the first album. We recorded and mixed the EP in four days then had a morning to master with Zen-man Ben Feggans at 301. All up it took two weeks from laying down the songs to releasing the first single. Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? It really felt time for the songs to be captured and completed as far as a recorded piece of work goes. Emotively, they come from strong experiences felt while we were on the road. What’s your favourite song on it? I’m happy with all the songs and their captured performances. Will you do anything differently next time? The next EP will be recorded in LA soon, so a different place. But I’ll still be just playing and singing the songs as a live performance.
The single launch will take place at The Supper Club on Friday, with support from Divine Knights.
Will you be launching it? Just before recording I had been sorting a promo tour for the new EP along the east coast. I’ll be playing Low 302 Thursday 8, Park and Wallace Café and Restaurant Friday 9 and Commercial Hotel Sunday 11.
For more info see: www.roccoelectro.com
For more info see: www.eliwolfe.com or www.facebook.com/eliwolfe
Will you be launching it?
DEMONS
Melbourne stars Demon Parade are making the trip up to Sydney and will be hitting up Upstairs At The Beresford this Friday supporting triple j darlings Underlights. Iron Bar Hotel will be opening the night whilst DJ Lancelot will be closing.
GIRL POWER
Local artist Ashleigh Mannix draws on her influences like Stevie Nicks, Janis Joplin and Stevie Wonder in order to develop her very modern and powerful style. You can see it exhibited at The Brass Monkey this Thursday.
Very much the DIY guys, singer, songwriter and guitarist Blake Scott, drummer Steven Carter and new third member, bass player Stew Rayner – aka Melbourne’s rough and tumble workingclass rockers The Peep Tempel – already have two 7” vinyl singles to their name and they weren’t going to go changing to CD for their self-titled debut album, as Scott explains. “We recorded the record for vinyl – to two-inch tape – and really sorta slammed it down. That was the thing; we were going to have, if nothing else, a record that we were really proud of on vinyl. We got it pressed over in The Czech Republic on 180-gram vinyl – very, very happy. I mean, when it came back and we put it on, I honestly didn’t think it would be that much different. It was just, like, ‘Wow…’ That’s how we’d sorta been hearing it. I think it sounds really good on all formats, but with vinyl it’s just a different level. It’s just a little more cosy, you know what I mean? It feels like it’s snuggling up to you on a weird kinda way [laughs].” Neither Scott nor Carter, who until the recording of the album had happily been a two-piece since starting the project in 2009, had really done much beyond the odd few bits and pieces. The Peep Tempel was definitely the pet project they felt might have legs. “It’s where we really found our feet. The band really did start as just a couple of mates banging about and doing a couple of gigs – we did our first gig as a joke, wearing wigs and that sort of stuff [laughs]. With the bass player, when we decided it was time that, okay, we’re gonna make a record we knew that a lot of these songs are going to be better with bass.” Graveyard Train’s Matt Chow had recorded the duo’s two singles so he became the obvious choice for the album. “He’s very much a fantastic player,” Scott reckons. “He had a lot of creative
SWEPT AWAY WITH THE TIDE Reggae maestros King Tide will be hitting up The Brass Monkey this Friday night. Renowned for their high-energy shows and their smooth, perfect reggae, this is not a show to miss.
CHERRY BEATS A number of renowned DJs will be doing what they do at The Star every Friday as part of The Cherry DJ Series. Performing against a backdrop of Sydney Harbour views this Friday will see Anna Lunoe hitting up the decks with entertainment beginning at 6pm. No cover charge applies.
ALITHIA
EL MO
Following his successful string of performances at Woodford Folk Festival, Lyall Moloney (el Mo) is back on the road for an East Coast tour of Australia. You can catch him performing this Wednesday at Lizotte’s in Kincumber, Thursday at Brass Monkey, Friday at The Vanguard, Saturday at The Old Manly Boatshed and Sunday at The Vault. 66 • THE DRUM MEDIA
Having just come off supporting The Red Paintings and their own national tour at the end of last year, AlithiA is back with two shows in Sydney. They’ll be supporting headliners GRUN as well as Hawkmoth and smRts this Friday at The Lansdowne Hotel, and Shangai and smRts on Saturday at The Town Hall Hotel.
PRE DRINKS Pure Blonde will be presenting a Pre Future Music Festival Party with a stellar lineup of
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input but Graveyard Train have a fair bit going on, so he wasn’t able to commit to the gigging.” The other thing about The Peep Tempel is that there’s never been a point in their evolution where, as a two-piece, they contemplated heading down some ersatz Delta blues or White Stripes clone direction. Instead, they make a very inner-city punk-driven kind of working-class racket. “It’s a very inner-city record lyrically and a lot of it came from the feel of where we were living there in north Melbourne when we were writing the songs. It’s an interesting place – we had the halfway house across the road from us, while there are also people there with a lot of money, so it was quite an inspiring place, to watch the melting pot go on outside your window. It wasn’t so much direct stories about that but certainly inspired by that sort of feel. North Melbourne’s got a bit of history of, you know, villains and painters and dockers sort of thing and just the way it’s changed over the years has been quite interesting – you can still feel it there, if that makes sense. “I think the album’s got that sound because we were very, very careful not to over-think it when we were making the record and just went in there and sort of blasted it out a bit – as close as we could to a live performance – and it wasn’t always about the best vocal take or whatever, it was always what fitted best with the vibe. So it’s still got a few warts and everything on it.” WHO: The Peep Tempel WHAT: The Peep Tempel (Wing Sing) WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 10 March, Kings Cross Hotel
DJs in the Pure Blonde DOME at the festival to Cargo Lounge for one night only this Thursday. The evening will feature Anna Lunoe, Helena, Ping Pong DJs and more.
BRINGING JAZZ BACK Ever been at loose ends on a Monday night? Never again. The World Bar presents live open mic jazz every Monday night, followed by DJs until late.
HOBO LOVIN’ This Wednesday night at The World Bar, photography maestros HOBO will be exhibiting some rather naughty GIFs on the World Bar’s infamous projectors. Also on the cards for the evening, a team of HOBO’s handpicked DJs will be dropping beats until late with Blaze Tripp, Autoclaws, Joyride and more.
BELIEVE THE PROPAGANDA Thursday night sees the World Bar’s infamous party night Propaganda bring you musical royalty in Jake Stone, one of Bluejuice’s notorious frontmen. At his side, there’ll be the UK’s Chris Moody, Urby, Jack Shit and Dan Bombings.
GO TEAM HAVING RELEASED HER MOST RECENT ALBUM TEAM INTERNATIONALLY, HOLLY THROSBY TOOK THE OPPORTUNITY TO TOUR EUROPE AND THE UK THROUGH FEBRUARY BUT IS HOME FOR HER FIRST HEADLINE DATES IN ALMOST A YEAR, WHICH SEES HER PLAY FRIDAY AT THE CLARENDON GUESTHOUSE, KATOOMBA, FRIDAY 16 MARCH ANNANDALE HOTEL, SATURDAY 17 LIZOTTE’S KINCUMBER, SUNDAY 18 LIZOTTE’S DEE WHY, THURSDAY 22 ZIERHOLZ AT UC CANBERRA, FRIDAY 23 COALCLIFF COMMUNITY HALL AND SATURDAY 24 THE GALLIPOLI CLUB, NEWCASTLE. WE ASKED THROSBY TO KEEP AN O/S TOUR DIARY ALONG THE WAY AND HERE ARE THE RESULTS.
yoghurt for breakfast tomorrow. Luckily it’s -2 degrees! I will put the yoghurt on the windowsill overnight and it will be fresh as a daisy. 10/02/12, SHAKESPEARE’S BIRTHPLACE On the way to Brighton we visited Stratford upon Avon so Hollie could see the birthplace of William Shakespeare. All the rivers and puddles are frozen over. At the gift shop they sell Shakespeare action figures with removable quill pen and book. This is the happiest I’ve seen Hollie so far. She is a librarian by profession after all.
show was in a man’s living room in Ghent, which is a small town in Belgium. His name is Kris and he puts on these shows for 40 people in his house, with no PA. He fed us and we’re all sleeping upstairs. At first I thought I wouldn’t be able to sing loud enough, without a microphone, but I found my lungs. It sounded so nice watching Jordan and Hollie play like that, to these friendly, quiet Belgians (many of whom were huge fans of The Middle East and took lots of pictures of Jordan). Kris introduced us all individually with a short speech in Flemish. So yeah, I have no idea what he said.
12/02/12, BRISTOL: THE LOUISIANA Tonight we played at the Louisiana in Bristol. I saw Paul and Dan Kelly play in London when we arrived last week and they were saying after the show how they’d played at the Louisiana the week before and the owner of the pub, an Italian man called Giovanni, had cooked up a storm for them. We were so hungry when we arrived that I thought we might perish, but the kitchen was all closed up. We almost cried. But then I saw an old Italian man behind the bar and of course it was Giovanni. I told him how I’d heard such fine stories about his cooking and that word had spread to London and afar. His English wife rolled her eyes and shook her head and said, “Oh God, don’t tell him that”. And Giovanni got all puffed up and blushed a little and said, “I suppose I could open the kitchen and make something simple for you, signorina?” And that is how it turned out tonight that we ate like kings.
16/02/12, HAARLEM, THE NETHERLANDS: BOGGED Tonight Jordan was driving the van and took a left turn down the left side of a dual carriageway. And then he remembered we are in Europe and they drive on the right here. And then there was oncoming traffic. So he swerved onto the grassy median strip, to make a U-turn, but it turned out it wasn’t so much grass as mud. And now the giant van is bogged in the centre of the highway out the front of our hotel and Jordan is covered in mud. Postscript: None of the Hertz ‘after hours assistance’ numbers worked. Bree dialled them for ages. Dutch roadside assistance requires a special membership. The police came. A private towing company finally answered the phone. It was midnight. Everyone got covered in freezing mud. Jordan owes us all a lot of beer.
14/02/12, LONDON: THE LEXINGTON Our show at the Lexington tonight was the biggest of the tour so far. And, weirdly, there were hardly any Australians there. Usually when I play in London it’s full of ex-pats, but tonight I made some Australian jokes and no one laughed. Hollie and Jordan were both particularly good tonight. And after the show, Jordan performed a juggling act backstage. Literally. They gave us oranges on the rider and, man, you should’ve seen them fly! Columns, behind the back, reverse three-ball cascade. He’s very co-ordinated.
20/02/12, PARIS: LAST SHOW OF THE TOUR Last show of the tour tonight and it was one of the best, in Paris. It’s been great doing duo shows with Bree – she has a hilarious collapsible drum set-up, which is designed to weigh the minimal amount possible due to international baggage restrictions. A stompbox, a snare with a tiny frame drum and cymbal attached, a $99 MIDI keyboard that triggers samples from her iPhone and a loop station. We’ve been able to make a surprising amount of sounds. Jordan is heading to Germany tomorrow and Hollie is heading to Italy and Bree and I are heading back to Sydney in a few days. Luckily they are playing a few shows with me on my March Australian tour (Jordan in Sydney, Hollie in Newcastle and Coalcliff), because I am going to miss them.
Postscript: It WAS fresh as a daisy.
05/02/12, LONDON: SUB ZERO TEMPERATURES, BAND PRACTICE In a stroke of bad fortune, we arrived in London right at the point where Europe began freezing from the sky down. The coldest snap in decades. Many people have died east of here this weekend on the continent and now it’s snowing in London and Bree van Reyk (drummer extraordinaire) and I are holed up in an apartment in Stoke Newington, practicing our songs for this tour. But instead of practicing, we actually made an adorable little snowman on the balcony. He has a tiny tambourine for a crown and two brushes for arms. Postscript: It took him two days to melt. 07/02/12, GLASGOW: FIRST SHOW OF THE TOUR We met Hollie (Tiny Ruins) and Jordan (Jordan Ireland, formerly of the band The Middle East
BLUES MASTER
and now a man unto himself) at our first show in Glasgow. The venue is called Captain’s Rest and they serve burgers and everyone looks a bit pale. We have called this tour a Spunk Family Tour, because we’re all on Spunk Records, and we are friends, and by the end of the tour we predict we will feel like family. I haven’t seen Jordan play solo before, because these are his first solo shows ever. He is really, really good. His guitar playing is beautiful and his songs are so haunting. Tiny Ruins is also really, really good. I have toured with her before a few times in Australia. She played two new songs tonight and they’re stuck in my head. As happens a lot in the UK and Europe, the venue provides the accommodation. When we got back to the ‘hotel’ tonight, Bree and I found two pubic hairs stuck to the wall of the shower. I was too embarrassed to bring it up with the front desk. There is also no fridge in our room and I bought
15/02/12, GHENT: A SHOW IN A MAN’S LIVING ROOM We got the Eurostar to Brussels today and picked up a giant ten-seater van. We don’t want it, but it’s all they had at Hertz and we feel ridiculous, the four of us in this giant truck. Anyway, tonight’s
SUN?
International folk/blues master Eric Bibb will be hitting up The Basement in duo mode with Staffan Astner this Thursday, bringing his cocktail of influences from all over the world, mixed up into his own original sound.
Richard In Your Mind will be playing at The Lansdowne Hotel this Wednesday in support of their new video clip for She Took The Sun Away, off their latest record, Sun. Supports for the evening will be Lyar and Through The Forest Door. Free entry!
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THE DRUM MEDIA • 67
TUE 06 ADAM PRINGLE & FRIENDS: Sandringham Hotel, street level ASTHMATIX DJs, DJ WACKS: Kings Cross Hotel - Kings Cross FIVE COFFEES: Jurassic Lounge, Australian Museum - Sydney
BIG WAY OUT: 3 Wise Monkeys BRYAN FARLEY, STEPHEN HUNT, PETE LOVERIDGE, TIM CONNOLLY, ANNA FORBES, CAROLYN WOODFORTH: Royal Hotel - Bondi
JOHN CHESHER, GAVIN FITZGERALD, SENANI, SEAN RENFORD, TAOS: Coach & Horses Hotel - Randwick JOHN CLEESE: Civic Theatre - Newcastle KINETIC METHOD: Opera Bar Circular Quay
GLENN BRACE, SLIM PICKE: Twin Towns, Tweed Heads
CAPITOL, MICHELE MADDEN, BLACKIE (HARD ONS), ADAM BLACKSMITH: Sandringham Hotel, upstairs
HUE WILLIAMS: Jack’s Bar & Grill - Erina
DaNIEL HOPKINS: Taren Point Htl
LOUNGE LIZARDS: CLUB RIVERS
JAZZGROOVE feat, MATT KEEGAN TRIO, WHITESPLOITATION: 505 - Surry Hills
DANIEL O’DONNELL: State Theatre
LOVERS JUMP CREEK: Yours and Owls - Wollongong
JOHN CLEESE: Civic Theatre - Newcastle JOHN SANDOSHAM: Lobby Lounge Star City OMG!: Scruffy Murphys - Sydney PETER HEAD: Harbour View Hotel - The Rocks PHOEBE EVE, BORIS SLADAKOVIC, RUSSELL NEAL: Dee Why RSL ROXY RAY: Opera Bar ROXY RAY: Opera Bar - Circular Quay SEA LEGS, WINTERS END, DaNIEL HOPKINS: The Basement STEVE TONGE: Observer Hotel - The Rocks STEVE TONGE: Observer Htl THE ROAD CREW: 3 Wise Monkeys - Sydney THE ROAD CREW: The Three Wise Monkeys THEY CALL ME BRUCE: Maloney’s Hotel THEY CALL ME BRUCE: Maloneys Hotel - Sydney
WED 07
DAVID WHITE, NATHAN COLE, GREG SITA: Cookies Lounge and Bar North Strathfield DECEMBER: Jack’s Bar & Grill - Erina DJ PAULY: Marlborough Hotel - Newtown EMMA RUSSY, JOSEPH WITHIN THE SKELETON HORSE, ROWEN JONES: Valve Bar - Tempe FBI SOCIAL feat., LAUGH YOUR TITS OFF with, TOMMY DEAN, DANIEL TOWNES, PAUL WARNES, DAVE BLOUSTEIN, GARY BRADBURY, ZOE PELBART, ARNIE PYE: Kings Cross Hotel - Kings Cross GENEVIEVE CHADWICK, AIMEE FRANCIS, HANNAH & JOSH: Bedlam Bar - Glebe GENTLEMEN AND VAGABONDS, THE DAMNED HUMANS, + more: Annandale Hotel - Annandale HALFWAIT, VINCENT PHAM, JOSUE VILCHES, HELMUT UHLMANN: UTS Loft Bar
ADAM EATON, EMILY ULMAN: Old Manly Boatshed
HEATH BURDELL: Coogee Bay Hotel - Beach Bar
ANCHOR, PROMISES: Cambridge Hotel - Newcastle
IN PIECES: Orient Hotel - The Rocks
ANDY MAMMERS DUO: Maloney’s Hotel ANDY MAMMERS DUO: Maloneys Hotel - Sydney
JOEL CREASEY, FIONA O’LOUGHLIN: Harold Park Hotel - Glebe
LET ME DOWN JUNGLEMAN: Hamilton Station Hotel - Newcastle
LYALL MOLONEY: Lizottes MAI-ANH, MISS GRAY, LOIS MARES, GRANT WOLTER, DANE LLOYD, RUSSELL NEAL: Evening Star Hotel - Surry Hills MANDI JARRY: Northies, Sports Bar - Cronulla MARCH OF THE REAL FLY: Kings Cross Hotel (Late) MATT JONES: Mean Fiddle Htl, shed MATT JONES: Mean Fiddler Hotel - Rouse Hill MATT PRICE: Summer Hill Hotel - Summer Hill MEN WITH DAY JOBS, PAUL MCGOWAN, BLACK DIAMOND, CHE FISHER, DARREN BENNETT: Cat & Fiddle MEREWETHER FATS BLUES JAM: Great Northern Hotel - Newcastle MIKE BENNETT: Observer Hotel - The Rocks NEANDERTOWN: Artichoke Gallery Café - Manly NEW ORDER, THE NAKED AND FAMOUS: Hordern Pavilion OLD MAN CROW, MAVIS & HER CHINA PIGS: Sandringham Hotel, street level PETER HEAD: Harbour View Hotel - The Rocks REPLIKA: Scruffy Murphys - Sydney
SKRILLEX, PORTER ROBINSON: Enmore Theatre - Enmore
JOEL CREASEY, FIONA O’LOUGHLIN: Harold Park Hotel - Glebe
SPRUNG MU, THE GRAINS: The Patch - Wollongong
JOHN LEIGH CALDER, RAY ALLDRIDGE: Fountain 77 Restaurant, Glebe
STEVE TONGE DUO: O’Malleys Hotel - Kings Cross THE CHECKS: Beach Rd Htl Bondi UMBRELLAS: 505 - Surry Hills
JOSEPH TAWADROS TRIO: Red Rattler - Marrickville JUDY COLLINS: The Concourse - Chatswood LYALL MOLONEY: Brass Monkey
THU 08
MANDI JARRY: Dee Why Hotel - Dee Why
AARON WELSH: Artichoke Gallery Café - Manly ALEKS & THE RAMPS, SCRAPS: The Rails - Byron Bay AM 2 PM: Brighton RSL ANTHEMS OF OZ: Orient Hotel - The Rocks ASHLEIGH MANNIX, LYALL MOLONEY: Brass Monkey - Cronulla BIG BEN: Coogee Bay Hotel - Beach Bar CAMBO: Observer Hotel - The Rocks CHART BUSTERS: 3 Wise Monkeys - Sydney CHRIS TURNER: Bells Hotel - Woolloomooloo CRAIG MORRISON: Rooty Hill RSL DAVID AGIUS: Northies Cronulla Htl- Sport Bar ELEVEN ELEVEN, MAR HAZE, EAGLE & THE CHILD, KIND: Annandale Hotel - Annandale EVERY WOMAN FESTIVAL feat, ASTON, AMANDA EASTON, THE BLONDETTES, MAZ MAZAK: Blue Beat - Double Bay
MARTY from RECKLESS: Marlborough Hotel - Newtown MARTY STEWART: R.G McGees - Richmond MASSIMO PRESTI, MAI-ANH, RUSSELL NEAL: Kogarah Hotel MICHAEL MCGLYNN: Greengate Hotel - Killara PAUL SUN, MATT LAMB, CAMERON JONES: Jazushi - Surry Hills PETER HEAD: Harbour View Hotel - The Rocks REPLIKA: O’Malleys Hotel - Kings Cross SAM & JAMIE TRIO: Maloneys Hotel - Sydney SAM BUCKINGHAM: Red Lion Hotel - Rozelle SIREN LINES, JENNIFER HEARTACHE: Lansdowne Htl SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM, OWL EYES, PLUTO JONZE, ROCKING HORSE, THE BABY DOLLS: UniBar University of Wollongong
FATBOY SLIM, AJAX: Enmore Theatre - Enmore
SPRUNG MONKEY, THE GRAINS: Marlin Hotel - Ulladulla
GOOD STUFF: Scruffy Murphys - Sydney
STEVE GRIMMETT, DARKER HALF, TABERAH, DRAGONSCLAW: The Patch - Wollongong
GYPSY DUB SOUND SYSTEM: 505 - Surry Hills
STEVE TONGE: Harbord Beach Hotel - Harbord
HAYLEY SALES: Gymea Bay Hotel INSERT COIN(S): Oxford Art Factory, Live Art Space
TETE, HEY BIG AKI, BRETT WINTERFORD: Kings Cross Hotel - Kings Cross THE DAVE CARTER SHOW: The Standard - Surry Hills THE GOOD STUFF: Scruffy Murphys THE JAZZ FACTORY: Great Northern Hotel - Newcastle THE RUBIX, DSEVA feat DJ SAKE & JASE GRAY, NUGAWARDO, THE SHORT LIST, THE BEDLAMS, LIAM GALE & THE PONYTAILS, DREAM DELAY, MORDECHAI: Valve Bar - Tempe TOM TRELAWNY: Sackville Hotel - Balmain
FRI 09 ACHTUNG BABY-U2 SHOW: Heathcote Hotel - Heathcote AJ (TINA TURNER TRIBUTE), MISS ELM: Eastern Lounge - Chatswood 68 • THE DRUM MEDIA
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ALTITUDE: Scruffy Murphys - Sydney ANNA LUNOE: Cherry, The Star - Pyrmont BENN GUNN: Collingwood Hotel - Liverpool BERNIE SEGEDIN: Great Southern Hotel - Sydney BLACK DIAMOND HEARTS: Crows Nest Hotel (late) - Crows Nest)
FALCONIA FRIDAYS feat, RUFUS (DJ SET), HANSOM, HOBOPHONICS, ISBJORN: Kit & Kaboodle - Kings Cross FLAMIN’ BEAUTIES: Courthouse Hotel - Taylor Square FLYTE TRIO: East Leagues Club Bondi Junction
BLACK JESUS, INNSMOUTH, CONVENT GUILT: Valve Bar - Tempe
FUN MACHINE, CITIZEN SEX, SCOTDRAKULA, DJ AXTON FRICK: Kings Cross Hotel - Kings Cross
BLACK ROSE: Matraville Hotel - Matraville
FUNKY MUNKY: Belmore Hotel - Newcastle
BLATHERSKITE, NOBODY KNEW THEY WERE ROBOTS, MISH: Town Hall Hotel - Newtown
GANG OF BROTHERS: Blue Beat - Double Bay
BLONDE 182: Stacks Taverna Darling Harbour BOBBY C: The Mark Hotel - Newcastle BROTHERS GRIMM: Great Northern Hotel - Newcastle CALIFORNICATIONRED HOT CHILLI PEPPERS: Bull & Bush CALIFORNICATIONRED HOT CHILLI PEPPERS: Bull & Bush - Baulkham Hills CARBON COPY: Custom House Bar - City CARINA: Oasis on Beamish Hotel - Campsie CASSY JUDYCHAIR, HILLSIDE THEORY, REMO ST., RUSSELL NEAL: Mars Hill Café CLUB BLINK feat., RED FIRE RED, + SPECIAL GUESTS: Club 77 - William Street, East Sydney COUGAR DUO: Red Cow Hotel - Penrith CRAIG THOMMO: Royal Oak Hotel - Parramatta DAVE PHILLIPS: O’Malleys Hotel - Kings Cross DAVID AGIUS DUO: Cronulla RSL - Cronulla DIAFRIX, JOELISTICS: Annandale Hotel - Annandale DIE ANTWOORD, + SPECIAL GUESTS: Enmore Theatre - Enmore DIESEL: Taronga Zoo - Mosman DJ JEDDY ROWLAND, DJ ANDERS HITCHCOCK: Cohibar - Darling Harbour DJ MATT ROBERTS: The Watershed Hotel - Darling Harbour DJ TONE: Oatley Hotel - Oatley ENDLESS BOOGIE: The Sando ENDLESS SUMMER BEACH PARTY: Mona Vale Hotel ERIC BIBB, STAFFAN ASTNER: Joan Sutherland Perf Arts Centre, Penrith
GARY JOHNS: PJ Gallaghers Drummoyne GEN-R-8: Nelson Bay Diggers Club GIANTS OF SCIENCE, SHIFTER, BRUCE!, HANDLEBAR: The Patch - Fairy Meadow GIANTS OF SCIENCE, SHIFTER, BRUCE, HANDLEBAR: The Patch - Wollongong GOODNIGHT DYNAMITE: Observer Hotel (late) - The Rocks GREG LINES: Bligh Park Tavern GROUNDATION, BUDSPELLS, LOREN: Manning Bar, Sydney Uni - Camperdown GRUN, HAWKMOTH, ALITHIA, SMRTS: Lansdowne Hotel - Broadway HARD ROCK RISING feat, VERUSIVE, OCTOBER RAGE, JOHN BACON BLUES: Hard Rock Café Darling Harbour HOORAY FOR EVERYTHING: The Kyle Bay - Kyle Bay HYPE DUO: Crown Hotel - Sydney IGNITION: Mounties INCOGNITO: Cessnock Supporters Club INTIMATE LOUNGE MUSIC: Fairfield RSL, Supper Club
KP, MANDI JARRY: Brewery Bar, Novotel - Homebush KRISHNA JONES: Parramatta Leagues LET ME DOWN JUNGLEMAN: Yours and Owls - Wollongong LJ: Chatswood RSL - Chatswood LUKE DIXON DUO: Crows Nest Hotel (early) - Crows Nest LUKE ROBINSON: Castle Hill RSL - The Terrace LYALL MOLONEY: The Vanguard MACSON DUO: Unity Hall Htl MARK TRAVERS: Castle Hill RSL Cocktail Lounge MICHAEL MCGLYNN: Kirribilli Hotel - Kirribilli MICKEY PYE: Northies Cronulla Htl- Sport Bar MIKE MATHIESON, CHRIS ALEXANDER: Dooley’s - Lidcombe NICKY KURTA DUO: Albion HotelParramatta NOVA TONE: East Hills Hotel - East Hills ORIGINAL SIN - INXS SHOW: Wentworth Leagues Club ORIGINAL SIN - INXS SHOW: Wentworthville Leagues (Late) PAUL SUN, JESS DUNN, MONIQUE LYSIAK: Arthouse Hotel - Sydney PETE HUNT: Penrith Panthers - T.C’s PHIL SPILLER: Artichoke Gallery Café - Manly POSTCARDS: Hillside Hotel - Castle Hill RAPTURE: CLUB RIVERS REAL ESTATE, THE TWERPS, SURES: The Standard - Surry Hills RESCUE SHIPS: 505 - Surry Hills RIP IT UP: Ashfield RSL
ITCHY FEET: Hotel Jesmond - Jesmond
ROB HENRY: Observer Hotel - The Rocks
JAMES FITZG: Shelbourne Hotel - Sydney
ROCCO: The Supper Club, Oxford Hotel - Darlinghurst
JO FABRO BAND: Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre - Chippendale
ROCKIN’ EDDIE BAND: Belmont 16’s - Belmont
JOEL CREASEY, FIONA O’LOUGHLIN: Harold Park Hotel - Glebe
SAM & JAMIE DUO: Mean Fiddler Hotel - Rouse Hill
JOHN FIELD DUO: Harbord Beach Hotel - Harbord
SIMA feat, JO FABRO BAND: The Sound Lounge Seymour Centre
JOHN LEIGH CALDER, AARON BLAKEY: Jazushi - Surry Hills KING TIDE, UNCLE JED: Brass Monkey - Cronulla KIRK BURGESS DUO: Vineyard Hotel - Vineyard KNUCKLEHEAD ORCHESTRA: Town & Country Hotel - St Peters
SINGLED OUT: St Marys Band Club SPRUNG MONKEY, THE GRAINS: Fisho’s, Manly STEPHANIE JANSEN: Quakers Inn - Quakers Hill STEVE TONGE: Tall Timbers Hotel - Ourimbah TAKE A HIT: Kingswood Sports Club - Kingswood
THE DRUM MEDIA • 69
THE ANGELS TRIBUTE: Engadine Tavern THE BIG BANG: Exchange Hotel - Newcastle THE BUSINESS: Kincumber Hotel - Kincumber, Central Coast THE DEEP DUO: Coogee Bay Hotel - Beach Bar THE DUO: Duke of Wellington Hotel - New Lambton THE FABERGETTES, THE DREAMBOATS, BANG! BANG! ROCK N ROLL: GoodGod Small Club - Sydney THE HEADLINERS: Westmead Tavern THE POD BROTHERS: Gearins Htl Katoomba THE SCULPTURES: Courtyard Bar, Seymour Centre - Chippendale THE SHADY EXPEDITION, CLAIRE, VUPLE VULPES, THE EFFING SEA: Excelsior Hotel - Glebe TOM T DUO: Revesby Workers UNDERLIGHTS, THE DEMON PARADE, IRON BAR HOTEL, DJ LANCELOT: Upstairs Beresford Beresford Hotel VIAGRA FALLS: Orana Hotel - Blacksmiths WILDCATZ: Marlborough Hotel - Newtown ZOLTAN: PJ’s Irish Pub - Parramatta
SAT 10 AM 2 PM: Scruffy Murphys - Sydney AM 2 PM: Stacks Taverna - Darling Harbour ANGIE DEAN: Castle Hill RSL - Piano Lounge ANTOINE DEMAREST: Ettamogah Hotel (afternoon) - Rouse Hill BAND DOWN UNDER: Macarthur Tavern - Campbelltown
DAVE STEVENS: Observer Hotel (early) - The Rocks
CHICKENSTONES, 25TH FLOOR, BIG AL CREED: Sandringham Hotel, upstairs
DAVE WHITE EXPERIENCE: Crows Nest Hotel (late) - Crows Nest)
DAVE WHITE DUO: Northies, Northies Bar - Cronulla
DEADFEST ‘12 feat, LAB 64, IMPERICAL, WAR FACTION, JADED EMPIRE, AMODUS, NA MAZA, TENSIONS ARISE, DOMINO: Valve Bar - Tempe
DJ MICHAEL STEWART: Jacksons on George - Sydney DONI RAVEN THE BLACKJACK WOLFPAC, + GUESTS: Excelsior Hotel - Glebe DR LOVE: Cessnock Supporters Club ELEVATE: Huskission Hotel - Huskission ENDLESS SUMMER BEACH PARTY: Mounties - Mt Pritchard ENDLESS SUMMER BEACH PARTY: Mounties, Terrace Bar - Mt Pritchard FUNKY MUNKY: Warners at the Bay GEMMA: Observer Hotel (afternoon) - The Rocks GIANTS OF SCIENCE, SKINPIN, LOMERA, THE TURPS: The Square - Haymarket GILBERT WHYTE: Artichoke Gallery Café - Manly GUNS N ROSES TRIBUTE SHOW: Tall Timbers Hotel - Ourimbah
HAYLEY SALES: The Belvedere Htl
CREEDENCE & BEYOND: Blacktown RSL CREEDENCE & FRIENDS: Blacktown RSL - Blacktown DAN BEAZLEY: Waratah Rugby Union Club - Newcastle 70 • THE DRUM MEDIA
DJ TONE: Oatley Hotel - Oatley DOUBLE BARREL: Coogee Bay Hotel - Beach Bar DRIVE W/ PETER NORTHCOTE & VIRGINIA LILLYE: Bridge Hotel
DJ CHEEKY: Gymea Bay Hotel
BOOTY CALL: East Leagues Club Bondi Junction
CLAUDIO MEYER: Charlestown Bowling Club
DJ BRYNSTAR: The Watershed Hotel Darling Harbour
DIRTY DEEDS AC/DC SHOW: Everglades Country Club - Woy Woy
HAYLEY SALES: The Belvedere Hotel - Sydney
CARAMEL: Castle Hill RSL - Cocktail Lounge
DIAFRIX, JOELISTICS: Transit Bar Canberra ACT
DIAFRIX, JOELISTICS: Great Northern Hotel - Newcastle
BLUES BOMBERS: Orana Hotel Blacksmiths
CANDIDATE: Cohibar - Darling Harbour
DAVE WILCONS DUO: Overlander Hotel Cambridge Park
DAVID AGIUS: Castle Hill RSL - The Terrace
BETWEEN THE DEVIL & THE DEEP: Roxbury Hotel - Glebe
CAMBO: PJ Gallaghers - Drummoyne
BON IVER: Sydney Opera House
DAVE TICE & MARK EVANS: Sandringham Hotel, street level
HANNAH JAMES BAND: Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre - Chippendale
BROTHERS GRIM, FIREBIRD, DELTA RIGGS, GRAVEYARD ROCKSTARS, ROCK KARAOKE: Factory Theatre
GIG OF THE WEEK
HEATH BURDELL: Northies, Beach Bar (afternoon) - Cronulla HIT MACHINE: Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL HOORAY FOR EVERYTHING: Kingswood Sports Club HOORAY FOR EVERYTHING: Kingswood Sports Club - Kingswood I AM DUCKEYE, BEGGARS ORCHESTRA, MINUS HOUSE: Lansdowne Hotel - Broadway IGNITION: 3 Wise Monkeys JEFF DUFF & FRIENDS: Brass Monkey - Cronulla JJ DUO: 3 Swallows Hotel - Bankstown
GARY JOHNS: Mean Fiddler Hotel - Rouse Hill
FUTURE MUSIC FESTIVAL
Future Music Festival is back once more in 2012, presenting a huge range of musical styles that will see you dance across the day. DJ collective Swedish House Mafia, electronic whirlwind Aphex Twin (live), the legendary Fatboy Slim (pictured), UK award winner Tinie Tempah and Price Tag singer Jessie J will bring their expertise to the stage, while Chase & Status are on their first ever live tour and dubstep champ Skrillex plus indie favourites The Wombats and The Rapture return to our shores, as do South African oddities Die Antwoord. LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and Pat Mahony take to the decks and Paul Van Dyk returns to Australia for the first time in more than half a decade, plus there is the legendary New Order amongst many, many others. It’s all happening Saturday 10 March at Royal Randwick Racecourse.
JUS GORDON: Beauford Hotel - Mayfield KAFE KOOL: Fairfield RSL, Supper Club KARAVAN! Feat, BARO BANDA, STOLI & THE BLACK TRAIN, CROOKED FIDDLE BAND, LOLO LOVINA, TREVOR BROWN: The Standard - Surry Hills KIM & MICK: Royal Federal Hotel KIRK BURGESS: Manly Leagues Club - Brookvale LAWRENCE BAKER: Sir Joseph Banks Hotel - Botany LET ME DOWN JUNGLEMAN: Catalina Country Club LOVE THAT HAT: Belmont 16’s - Belmont LUKE AUSTEN DUO: Duke of Wellington Hotel - New Lambton LUKE DIXON: Rock Lily - The Star Casino - Pyrmont LYALL MOLONEY: Old Manly Boatshed MACSON DUO: Crown on McCredie MANDI JARRY DUO: Penrith Panthers, Terrace Bar - Penrith MARTYS PLACE: Wentworth Leagues Club MEMPHIS OUTLAWS: Campbelltown Catholic Club - Caf‚ Samba MIKE MATHIESON, CHRIS ALEXANDER: Revesby Workers - Revesby MILLENNIUM BUG: Penrith RSL, Showroom MUM, DREW MERCER: Shelbourne Hotel - Sydney NEXT BEST THING: Seven Hills RSL
NOISEWORKS, IAN MOSS, ROSS WILSON, RICHARD CLAPTON, DRAGON, CHOIRBOYS: Petersons
SHANGHAI, smRts, ALITHIA: Town Hall Hotel - Newtown
Winery - Armidale
SIMA feat, HANNAH JAMES BAND: The Sound Lounge Seymour Centre
PANORAMA DUO: Courthouse Htl PARTY VIBE: Coogee Bay Hotel - Beach Bar PAUL SUN, RAY MARTIN, CAMERON JONES: Organic Food Mkts - Riverside Girls High PEPPERMINT JAM: Marlborough Hotel - Newtown
SHARRON BOWMAN: Brewhouse - Marayong
SINGLED OUT: Orient Hotel - The Rocks SMELLS LIKE 90s: Oatley Hotel - Oatley SNAKETOWN RATTLERS: Penrith RSL, Castle Lounge SPIKE RYAN: Toukley RSL - Toukley
PETE GELZINNIS: Windsor Castle Hotel - Newcastle PETER HEAD: Harbour View Hotel - The Rocks PHONIC TRIO: The Stag & Hunter Hotel - Mayfield POSTCARDS: Harbord Beach Hotel - Harbord PROFESSOR GROOVE & THE BOOTY AFFAIR: Blue Beat - Double Bay
SPRUNG MONKEY, THE GRAINS: Beachcomber Hotel - Toukley ST JAMBIENCE: Mars Hill Café - Parramatta STEPHANIE JANSEN DUO: Ettamogah Hotel - Rouse Hill STEVE GRIMMETT, DARKER HALF, TABERAH, DRAGONSCLAW: The Sando
REBECCA FIELDING, ALAN WATTERS, ADAM KISS, BLACK DIAMOND, THE WILDBLOODS, HE&SHE, EMILY WONG, RUSSELL NEAL: Royal Exchange Hotel - Marrickville
SWINGSHIFT - COLD CHISEL SHOW: Lone Pine Tavern - Rooty Hill
RED HOT NUMBERS: Brighton RSL - Brighton
THE DEEP DUO: Parramatta Leagues
RESCUE SHIPS: 505 - Surry Hills
THE ELTON JACK SHOW: Juniors at the Junction - Maroubra
ROB HENRY: Northies, Sports Bar - Cronulla SCOTT DONALDSON: Mean Fiddler Hotel, Piano Man - Rouse Hill SEATTLE SOUND, GOODNIGHT DYNAMITE: Mean Fiddler Hotel - Rouse Hill
TED NASH: Newport Arms Hotel - Newport THE BLUES PIRATES: Jack Doogan’s Hotel - Bathurst
THE LONELY BOYS: Mercantile Hotel - The Rocks THE PEEP TEMPEL, THE GO ROLL YOUR BONES, CORPUS, THE GRAND LETHALS: Kings Cross Hotel - Kings Cross THE POD BROTHERS: Lithgow Htl
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THE SECRET CITY, OLIVER GOSS, HELMUT UHLMANN: Terrey Hills Tavern THE SLIPS, TIGER TOWN, MATT SZTYK, DJ KRISTY LEE: Upstairs Beresford - Beresford Hotel THE WINSTONS: Engadine Tavern THE WONDERFUL LIVES, EGG MALT: Katoomba RSL - Katoomba THIRD TIME LUCKY: Penrith Gaels
GLENN WHITEHALL: Oatley Hotel (afternoon) - Oatley HAYLEY SALES: Parramatta Leagues HIT MACHINE: 3 Wise Monkeys - Sydney HUNTER & SUZY OWENS: Marrickville Bowling Club JOHN FIELD DUO: Albion Hotel-Parramatta
JONATHAN LEE JONES: Kincumber Hotel - Kincumber, Central Coast KIRK BURGESS: East Leagues Club - Bondi Junction
URGE OVERKILL: The Gaelic
LIMITED EDITION: Orana Hotel Blacksmiths
SUN 11 AIMEE FRANCIS: Salisbury Hotel - Stanmore ALISON WONDERLAND: Beach Hotel - Byron Bay ANDY MAMMERS: Orient Hotel - The Rocks ANTOINE: O’Malleys Hotel - Kings Cross AUDREY AULD: The Vanguard - Newtown BLUES SUNDAY feat., MARK HOPPER: Artichoke Gallery Café - Manly
SCRATCH: Duke of Wellington Hotel - New Lambton SHANE MACKENZIE: Cohibar - Darling Harbour SPENCERAY: The Belvedere Hotel - Sydney SPRUNG MONKEY, THE GRAINS: Cambridge Hotel - Newcastle SUNDAY BEST: Great Northern Hotel - Newcastle THE HARBOUR MASTER: Tall Timbers Hotel - Ourimbah THE STARLINERS - GIRLS OF THE GOLDEN AGE OF ROCK: Petersham RSL THOMPSON GUNNERS: Riverstone Sports Hotel - Riverstone
TOM TRELAWNY: Oscars Hotel - Pyrmont
KURT WILLIAMS: Collaroy Beach Hotel - Collaroy
YUKI KUMAGAI, JOHN MACKIE: Well Connected Café/ Wine Bar - Glebe
SAM & HEATH DUO: Northies, Sports Bar - Cronulla
JOHNNY G & THE E TYPES: Botany View Hotel - Newtown
TRIO ROYALE: Exchange Hotel - Newcastle
WEST TIGERS HOMEGROUND HEROES: Bridge Hotel
RUSSELL NELSON: Woonona RSL
TIGER TOWN, THE FORMER LOVE, BEXLEY DE LION: Brass Monkey - Cronulla
KLASSIC BLAK, RYAN DALEY: Belmont 16’s - Belmont
VIP: R.G.McGees, Richmond
ROB HENRY, NEILL BOURKE: Observer Hotel (afternoon) - The Rocks
JOHN LEIGH CALDER, + FRIENDS: The Clarendon Hotel - Surry Hills
THOMPSON GUNNERS: Carousel Inn - Rooty Hill
VAN THE MAN - VAN MORISSON SHOW: Bull & Bush - Baulkham Hills
RED SKY, BECOME THE CATALYST, DELINQUENT: Valve Bar - Tempe (Early)
TURNER & SIMMONS: Forest Lodge Hotel - Glebe VIBRATIONS AT VALVE BAND COMP GRAND FINAL: Valve Bar - Tempe (Afternoon) YUKI KUMAGAI, JOHN MACKIE, PAUL FURNISS, JOHN SMITH: Illawarra Master Builders Club ZOLTAN: Peachtree Hotel - Penrith
MON 12
LUCY DE SOTO & THE HANDSOME DEVILS: Sandringham Hotel, street level
BERNIE: Observer Hotel - The Rocks
LYALL MOLONEY: The Vault - Windsor
BON IVER: Sydney Opera House
MANDI JARRY: Harbord Beach Hotel - Harbord
JAMES MULLER TRIO: 505 - Surry Hills
MATT PRICE, THE WHITE BROS: Ettamogah Hotel (afternoon) - Rouse Hill
JASMINE BETH, FRANK SULTANA, GENEVIEVE CHADWICK: The Basement
MICK JONES: Warners at the Bay MIKE BENNETT: Observer Hotel - The Rocks NICKY KURTA: Northbridge Hotel - Northbridge NOVA TONE: Riverwood Sports PETE HUNT: Waverley Bowling Club - Waverley PETER HEAD TRIO, + FRIENDS: Harbour View Hotel - The Rocks RECKLESS: Gymea Bay Hotel
JASMINE BETH, GENEVIEVE CHADWICK, FRANK SULTANA: The Basement Circular Quay MASSIMO PRESTI, MAI-ANH, RUSSELL NEAL: Kellys on King - Newtown SONIC MAYHEM ORCHESTRA, SALLY CAMERON BLUE BEAT: Blue Beat - Double Bay
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BEHIND THE LINES MAGNETIC ARCHITECTURAL BROUGHT TO YOU BY
WITH MICHAEL SMITH
MEET LION MOUNTAIN STUDIO
There’s a room in the Radio Skid Row building in Marrickville Community Centre that includes what was once a cupboard space that most likely housed an industrial stove when the original owners, the Australian Army, were using it. If you go there today, you’ll find a custom-built “cupboard music studio” – Lion Mountain Sound – set up and run for and by members of the newly-arrived Sierra Leonean community. Alex White, who coordinates the project, tells the story as the first fruits – a compilation CD, Sounds Of The Lion – are launched at Red Rattler this Saturday.
“We needed to find a space that could be accessed by a variety of people at various times so we decided to go with Radio Skid Row, which already had a strong connection with the Sierra Leonean community in Sydney. We ended up using the station boardroom so we needed to be able to put it away I guess and were lucky enough to find an old rotten cupboard, a brick enclosure with its own roof, that we’re able to stick everything in so the stuff’s safe from the boardroom.” White himself comes from an experimental noise music background and came to set up Lion Mountain through a youth project he was working with in Marrickville, setting up a different studio for them and learning about hip hop and beats in the process as that’s what his students wanted to know about, much as the Sierra Leone participants in Sound Of The Lion do. “I’m a Mac person and until recently a ProTools person, but most of our participants didn’t have Macs – they’re kind of used to PCs, though that’s slowly changing – and we wanted it to be as accessible as possible. As Windows-based computers are generally a little cheaper than their Apple counterparts we decided on using a PC running Windows 7 with Ableton Live [as the studio]. Everyone’s interested in making beats and then dropping vocals on them, so we’ve got a Rode NT5 microphone. A lot of the work we do there is on how to make a beat so we have a loose approach to song-making I guess. You can just start off with a beat and then keep adding elements and have it in a looping mode, then when we’re ready to switch over to songwriting, you can very easily click over to be able to view in Ableton Live and start building verse/ chorus structures and recording there as well.” A variety of volunteer producers including Seekae and Thomas William, many of them part of the Sydney-based electronic music 104 Collective, got involved and it’s the Collective’s Tobio, AKA Toby Burvill, who mastered the CD, which various participants have helped mix themselves. Performing at the launch of Sounds Of The Lion are The Sierra Sisters, Lantech, LL Bock, DJ Funzo, 48/4, O Squid, Sounds Revolution and more.
RED BULL ACADEMY INFO SESSION
Applications are currently being accepted for the chance by music-makers of all styles and levels of experience to attend this year’s Red Bull Music Academy, to be held over five weeks in New York City from September 30, with workshops, concerts, club nights and more. Applications close Monday 2 April, but to give you an insight into what it’s all about, 5.30pm Thursday, the Kings Cross Hotel is hosting a two-hour mini-Academy Information Session with Roots Manuva, who will share his personal and industry knowledge as well as an Ableton Live workshop with past Academy participant Dizz 1. You’re all welcome but obviously there are limited places so RSVP to lorna@redbullmusicacademy.com.
SONGWRITER SPEAKS: JAZZ IN FOCUS
Author and journalist Miriam Zolin will be joined by singer and composer Tina Harrod and pianist, composer and producer Stu Hunter in the next APRA Songwriter Speaks session at the APRA office in Ultimo, 6-7.30pm Thursday 15 March to discuss the influences, methods, experiences and highlights that have shaped their careers in the Australian jazz scene and beyond. Space is tight, so best to RSVP by Tuesday 13.
SOUND BYTES
Bill, Dance, Shiner, from Sydney guitar pop combo Bearhug was one of the last albums recorded at the now sadly defunct Big Jesus Burger Studios, with Tim Whitten (Powderfinger, Hoodoo Gurus, Augie March) producing. btl@streetpress.com.au 72 • THE DRUM MEDIA
LOVE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA FINDS STEPHIN MERRITT RETURNING SYNTHESISERS TO THE MAGNETIC FIELDS AFTER TEN YEARS OF EXILE. MATT O’NEILL SPOKE TO THE SINGER/SONGWRITER/PRODUCER ABOUT ASSEMBLING THE BAND’S ELEVENTH STUDIO ALBUM.
T
he catalogue of The Magnetic Fields is meticulous. Since the project’s late-‘80s inception, Stephin Merritt has been plotting and maintaining the band’s artistic trajectory on a level most musicians couldn’t even conceive. Love At The Bottom Of The Sea, for example, finds The Magnetic Fields revisiting synthesisers after ten years and three albums of avoiding the instrument – and Merritt knew it was coming as far back as 1999’s legendary triple-album, 69 Love Songs. “Since deciding to do a no-synth trilogy of albums after 69 Love Songs [2004’s i, 2008’s Distortion, 2010’s Realism], I knew that our fourth album after 69 Love Songs would be a return to synthesisers,” Merritt explains matter-of-factly. “You think that’s a long arc of planning? The spines of all of the albums actually form a symmetry – and that’s extending over twenty-two years now. So, really, twelve years and four albums is quite brief.” Such precision is almost necessitated by Merritt’s prolific work as a songwriter. The bandleader reputedly pumps out multiple songs on an almost daily basis – to the point where, in spite of being the sole songwriter and permanent member of The Magnetic Fields, Merritt is also responsible for the songs of The Gothic Archies, The 6ths and the Future Bible Heroes. Since 2002, he’s released four solo albums. He has recorded and released a total of 21 full-length albums since 1991.
he quips, “I’d just rather they be mine…”). The availability of material, coupled with his flair for long-term planning, has allowed him to adopt a relatively unique approach to production. With all of his material meticulously prepared prior to recording, Merritt employs the studio as an almost sculptural or deconstructionist tool.
contradiction of an artist – a songwriting classicist buried beneath walls of noise, an unrepentant romantic dressed in cynicism and irony – but the complementary division of his recording processes somewhat rounds out his character. In his utter glee for creating songs full of noise, you can hear the harmony between his head and his heart.
In many ways, The Magnetic Fields’ Love At The Bottom Of The Sea is the definitive example of the songwriter’s approach. The songs of the band’s eleventh studio album are not strikingly different in composition from those of any of their previous records – wry, witty, bittersweet meditations on romance, delivered in classical pop-rock configurations – but, through the recording process, Merritt has transmogrified each number with layer upon layer of abstract electronica and synth-noise.
“How do you go about creating the right kind of chaos? Well, it helps if you have the right tools,” the songwriter says of his own processes. “I have something called a CrackleBox, which is a small box with two electrical contacts. If you apply your thumbs to the contacts, you complete the circuit and it unleashes shrieking, static-y noises. There’s also Buchla’s Source of Uncertainty synthesiser module – which is exactly what it sounds like.
“My template was there would be the underlying Mondrian painting of the very simple song structures and, on top of that, there would be a Cy Twombly drawing with no discernible structure at all, looking like complete chaos and relating not at all to the simplistic Mondrian painting. I don’t generally pay attention to production-style when writing. I select a group of songs that sound good together and kind of go from there.”
“I have a lot of music sitting around, yeah. I never really start work on an album, if you get my meaning,” Merritt explains. “It basically just takes a long time to convince a record label to put out an album because other people are excruciatingly slow and like to take two years to release an album. Personally, I’d like to release two albums a year like back in the ‘60s. I write every single day, Irving Berlin-style.”
It’s interesting how such an approach dovetails into and expands upon broader understandings of Stephin Merritt. The singer/songwriter has always been a
Merritt has even self-produced each Magnetic Fields album (“If there’s going to be mistakes,”
“You know; when I was kind of looking at the synths to use on the record, my only criteria was that it made a sound I’d never heard before. You know, in the ‘80s, every single album had at least one sound on it that you’d never heard before in your life. The songs may have been terrible, but the sounds were amazing. With this record, I really wanted to fill it with sounds you’ve never heard before.” Love At The Bottom Of The Sea is out now through Domino/EMI
GEAR REVIEW
PRS SE CUSTOM 24 & SINGLECUT ELECTRICS
PRS SEs are the ‘Coke Zeros’ of the PRS range. Like Epiphone to Gibson or Squier to Fender, these guitars can give you a taste of the real deal at a fraction of the cost, making them ideal for beginners or the working man on a budget. The SE line is made in Korea with some serious ‘bang for buck’, with the range constantly expanding and features improving while providing more options to their customers with finer instruments as production techniques improve over time. In the spotlight are two guitars; the PRS SE Custom 24, which will be filling some big shoes, as many a guitarist including myself has salivated over the regal beauty and tonal bliss of the far more expensive US model; and the SE Singlecut, which tips its hat to another famous guitar company that guys like Slash are a fan of. First off, it’s great to see lovely flame maple veneers, the iconic PRS bird fret inlays and super cool headstocks on both guitars, reminding you that this is a real PRS and not just some random guitar manufactured under the name. The body and design of both instruments appears very true to the US models, with all the curves in the right places and a similar weight and feel to their overseas siblings. The first model I wrapped my hands around was the SE Custom 24. The neck was thin, wide and fast, the action insanely low and on the verge of fret buzz that was cause for some major shredding, until the fret buzz resulted in actual notes fretting out in some spots. Luckily, all the tools required for a quick setup were included, so I quickly unscrewed the truss rod cover, gave the truss rod two turns to the left to loosen it and thus problem solved. Action corrected, this guitar was very sleek, economic and
fast, which felt superb for soloing, the strings feeling like butter under my fingers. Guitarists who like a fast guitar with wide, flat necks will really love this guitar, as it can keep the shredders happy without having to sacrifice valuable tone lost in employing thin-sounding bodies, as the mahogany adds just the right amount of warmth and thickness to each note. A balanced and rich tone resulted from the pickups, providing a well-rounded sound that had its own identity but would be versatile enough for a variety of different styles. Guitar tones sounded great at bedroom levels plugged into my practice amp, however the pickups didn’t quite have the full-bodied sparkle of my Gibson Burstbuckers or the bark of my DiMarzio Super Distortion when plugging into a high-quality valve amp cranked up loud. Mild flaws were exposed at gig volumes, but upgrading and customising the pickups are part of the fun with mid-range guitars. Clean and overdriven sounds were equally appealing, but the real calling for this guitar is as a lead instrument, and throwing in the whammy bar and shaking up notes was what it was all about for me, as was doing my best Santana impersonation (insert favourite PRS player here) with a smooth, ‘liquidy’, ‘syrupy’, overdriven sound. Now if you’re into Mark Tremonti you need to check out the SE Singlecut. I thought the Custom 24 was pretty good until I tried the Singlecut, which was just superb. While both guitars had similar woods, pickups and hardware, they were completely different guitars in terms of tone, feel and, of course, looks. It’s not hard to see where this guitar gets its inspiration (perhaps a guitar that rhymes with Wes Gaul). With its distinct single cutaway, fatter D-shaped neck and thicker body, the Singlecut felt more comfortable in my hands and sounded a touch ‘meatier’ than the Custom 24. For me, a 22-fret neck was easier to
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navigate, and the 25” scale added greater tension to the strings than the more familiar 24.75” I’m used to playing. Notes seemed to resonate better due to the thick slab of mahogany and superb Stoptail bridge, with chords sounding lush and full of bloom. The Scarlett red finish over flame maple laminate was exquisite, making it appear far more expensive than you’d think, and the basis for a truly professional instrument. Both guitars held their tuning well, so the stock machine heads, nut and bridges were all fine as they were. Volume and Tone pots were smooth and toggle switches worked perfectly. If anything, the pickups on both guitars could have been upgraded, but doing so may have had a significant impact on the price tag and can be something a more serious player can look at later. Personally, I love PRS guitars. They look, sound and feel great and I’d say they take the best parts of modern and vintage design and produce instruments that are both classy, stylish and practical. The SE Custom 24 and Singlecut are both very practical instruments that will appeal to a lot of guitarists out there, due to great tone, looks and value for money. Reza Nasseri For more info, head to www.elfa.com.au. Originally published in Australian Musician.
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BTL - BEHIND THE LINES
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CD Replication 500/1000 500/1000 CD in Jewel Case with 8 page booklet and rear inlay Full colour, proofs, delivery and GST included $765/ $1320 500/1000 CD in Digi Pack with clear tray Full colour with matt cello or UV gloss finish, proofs, delivery and GST included $1270/ $1700 500/1000 CD in Card Sleeve Full colour $710/ $1050
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CD Duplication 50/100/200 50/100/200 CD in jewel case with 4 booklet and rear inlay Full colour, proofs, delivery and GST included $197/ $332/ $605 50/100/200 CD in clear sleeve with 4 page booklet, proofs, delivery and GST included Full colour $140/ $215/ $370
Barcoding available $44.00 inc www.AcmeMusic.com.au KevinW@AcmeMusic.com.au 07 3107 1688 - 02 9008 1177
REMOVALIST & DELIVERY MAN matt the mover
Too hungover to move your gear? ä 7DLORU PDGH GHOLYHULHV WR VXLW \RXU QHHGV ä 2QH RU WZR PDQ UHPRYDOV DYDLODEOH ä 6HUYLFLQJ WKH ,QQHU :HVW (DVWHUQ 6XEXUEV DQG 6\GQH\ &LW\
0412 823 595 www.mattthemover.com.au
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EMPLOYMENT ADMINISTRATION 15year old bass player looking to join metal or punk band. influences include metallica, slayer, megadeth, anthrax, pantera, ozzy osbourne/black sabbath and many more. email space1996@hotmail.com iFlogID: 16863 At STRINGS ‘N’ SKINS: You will find tuition for- Guitar, Bass, Drums, 5 String Banjo. Rock, Blues, Country, Jazz, Slide, Finger Picking, Music Theory. Sutherland Shire Contact Terry 0402 993 268 iFlogID: 17400
BEST VALUE FOR MONEY STUDIO The House of Medici is a fully equipped recording and rehearsal studio based in Leichhardt, Sydney. It has been custom built for recording music, sound scores, voiceover, audiobooks and infomercials. Equipped with the newest facilities, insanely cheap daily rates and the option of an ARIA-charting in-house engineer, the studio is open to beginners and professionals. For bookings and further information please contact Sam at 0403 260 360 or sam@houseofmedici. com.au iFlogID: 17450
DJ AVAILABLE- ANYTIME www.djzokithefab.com -0416306340 for any dj service club or home or birthday call anytime-GET A REAL DJ NOT MP3 PLAYER OR CRAPPY DOWNLOAD.......VINYL DJ ROCKS iFlogID: 16089 DJ for all occasions - Parties, Formals, Wedings. House, Electro,Dance, Hardstyle, Dubstep, R’n’B, Hip Hop. Other genre’s available on request. Latest Pioneer equipment and awesome lighting effects. Servicing the greater Sydney area. Inbox Jake at www. facebook.com/#!/pages/Dj-Splice or call 0423 255 668 iFlogID: 17540 DRUM KIT WANTED or cymbals, snares etc. Also interested in anything vintage, ph 0419760940 iFlogID: 13226
GOSPEL SINGERS Gospel singers experienced, to do lead vocals & harmonies for established gospel band based in south west sydney, styles include blues,R/ nb,rock,funk,contemporary, must be commited christian,willing to rehearse, & have a passion to serve the Lord. Email llabnes@hotmail. com iFlogID: 17550
HARD ROCK/BLUES GUITARIST looking for other musos to jam/start a band would like a drummer and bass player aged between 18-25 i have about 15 original hard rock songs i have recorded using a friends pro tools my influences are sabbath,acdc,ze ppelin,metallica,gunners and so many more if your keen contact Mitch 0423478128 preferably northern beaches area iFlogID: 17448 Newly formed original hard rock band looking for bassist. Inner West location preferred. Ages 16-20. Influences Thin Lizzy, KISS, Oasis, GN’R etc. Call Liam after 8pm on 0413 855 632 iFlogID: 17049 Pro singer wanted for an established 5 piece band Newcastle area covers and orginals hard rock,blues,pop,rocknroll. Exp band gigged with Angels, 2 booking agents Peter 4984 4731. iFlogID: 17156 Pro Singer wanted for an established 5 piece band Newcastle area. Hardrock,blues,pop,rocknroll covers and originals exp band gigged with Angels 2 booking agents,paid gigs Peter 4984 4731 iFlogID: 17366
ENTERTAINMENT FEMALE SINGER WANTED FEMALE SINGER WANTED TO HOST REGULAR KARAOKE NITE IN CITY. BUBBLY PERSONALITY AND GOOD PEOPLE SKILLS ARE A MUST AS WELL AS THE ABILITY AND KNOWLEDGE TO SING A WIDE VARIETY OF SONGS. GOOD MONEY FOR THE RIGHT PERSON. PLEASE SEND BRIEF BIO WITH PHOTO TO: proartman@bigpond.com iFlogID: 17457
VISIT IFLOG.COM.AU TO PLACE YOUR BOOKING NOW.
SALES & MARKETING People needed to send eMails offering a new music Book for sale. Must have own computer - payment by commission via Paypal. Contact Bill on (02) 9807-3137 or eMail: nadipa1@yahoo.com.au iFlogID: 13289
THE BUTLER MASTERING...
PROFESSIONAL BAND PHOTOGRAPHY
DRUMMER, LESSONS
OTHER darphi images is a film studio and requires help with finance. Each donation receives something in return, with investments starting at $5 for a credit in the film http://igg. me/p/59834?a=222791 iFlogID: 16914
PRODUCTION FREE SHORT FILM WORKSHOP ! Get Involved in all stages of short film creation for free.Each candidate will attend an interview to get selected into the group (Equipment trainingNo previous experience needed). Call: 0439590185 iFlogID: 17575
FOR SALE AMPS PEAVEY BANDIT 80WATT 12” GUITAR COMBO 2 channel.footswitchable.great fat tone. reverb/saturation etc.USA made.VGC.$350. Ph.0428744963. Cooroy iFlogID: 13019
These classic set of high end monitoring speakers are ideal for the studio, mastering, TV control rooms, mobile vans and broadcast. Excellent condition. $3950 ono. iFlogID: 17633
MUSIC SERVICES BAND MERCHANDISE Band Booking Agent wanted for historic venue in Kings Cross (capacity approx 85). El Rocco needs acts Tues-Fri,Sun Generous comission offered.Immediate start. Direct Enquiries to Paul at paul.elrocco@ gmail.com iFlogID: 17378
BOOKING AGENTS
SYDNEY LIVEHOUSE
OTHER
BUSINESSES
ONLINE BOOK BUSINESS WORK@HOME Turning over approx $100 a day and growing approx 10,000 books listed or in the process of listing on ebay another 10,000+ in boxes Shelving, ebay account, systems, Transitional training assistance and more!. Selling as I have another business that is taking off $39,500 neg 0421648558 iFlogID: 17331
CD / DVD Attention Musicians, Record Collectors, Universities, Libraries - new Book (print/ cdROM/direct download) compiling 100 years of popular music. GO TO www.plattersaurus.com web-site on how to buy. Enquiries: (02) 9807-3137 eMail: nadipa1@ yahoo.com.au iFlogID: 13287
DRUMS DRUM KIT WANTED or cymbals, snares etc. Also interested in anything vintage. Ph 0419760940 iFlogID: 13232
YAMAHA BIRCH CUSTOM
Yamaha birch custom absaolute for sale. 6 piece kit in green sparkle and yellow sparkle fade snare drum with Yamaha hardware. RRP $6500. Regretful sale $3000 Ono. Must sell. iFlogID: 17485
GUITARS FENDER PINK PAISLEY STRAT. genuine 1980’s.all original.in case.great tone/action/condition.very rare.$1500 ono. Ph.0428744963.Cooroy iFlogID: 13027
S.L.H. is a venue with a mission statement.....Reviving Sydney’s live music scene 1 gig band 1 fan at a time. We have recently launched our website www.sydneylivehouse.com. Bands that register their details using the site prior to March 11th will be considered for the bring it on festival which attracts 10,000 people annually. Located at 794 Parramatta rd Lewisham. There’s plenty of untimed on street parking, easier then parking in newtown thats for sure... bus stop at the door and train station within 5 mins walk. Add to that new and upgraded P.A. and lighting rig... Its all here ready for bands agents and managers to utilize. For further information and contact details please visit www.sydneylivehouse.com iFlogID: 17459
DUPLICATION/ MASTERING CD MANUFACTURING:Acme is Australias best price CD manufacturer. 500 CD package = $765.05: 1000 CD package = $1320.00 Short run also available.www.AcmeMusic. com.au KevinW@AcmeMusic.com.au iFlogID: 13117
HIRE SERVICES For as low as $100, you get a professional sound/pa mixer system with operator for the evening. Suitable for weddings, pub/ clubs band gigs, private parties etc. Infovision@yayabings.com.au. Contact Chris 0419272196 iFlogID: 15173
MANAGEMENT Manager Wanted for an exciting successful Composer/Performer, pop-rock Band/Show. Album on iTunes. Begin on commission, then wage+. Book performances, promotions and deals. Great opportunity. Phone Geoff, 99691179, Mosman. iFlogID: 17666
PA EQUIPMENT
MASTERING
CHEAP PHONIC PA PACKAGE
AMAZING MASTERING OFFER Fantastic world-standard Mastering doesn’t need to cost the earth. Have your next project immaculately crafted by legendary British engineer Paul Gomersall for just $69 a song!...why?! See gomersall.com for answers. iFlogID: 17602
Must sell ASAP Phonic 440W Powerpod 740 Mixer plus 2 X 150W Phonic Stage/Floor Speakers Ph: 0414 509 975 iFlogID: 17646
With the friendliest and best value mastering in the business we exist to serve you and your music. > Your audio will pass delicately through the best valve and solid state outboard equipment on earth, under the microscope of a world-class monitoring system and acoustic environment, and more importantly, will be... > Utilising a skilled engineer working with numerous Indie and Major Record Labels, including EMI Music, Silverback Records and Liquid US, with credits from major artists such as FAKER, The Art, Papa Vs Pretty, Melody Black & ex members of The Sex Pistols, Blondie, The Cult and The Ramones. > Our pricing is fixed and includes the provision of a Master Red-Book CD, Master DDP DVD, Master Reference CD and a high resolution project archive. > Plus, you are more than welcome to attend the mastering session! > Song - $80 / EP - $320 / Album - $600 > Contact us at; info@the-butler.com /or/ 0403 435 686 /or/ www.thebutler.com > Do your music, and your wallet a favour and drop us a line. iFlogID: 17440
++ play more chinese music - love, tenzenmen ++ www.tenzenmen.com iFlogID: 14468
MUSIC MERCHANDISE BUSINESS 1000+ shirts hoodies caps etc all 100% USA imported licensed band merch & Streetwear all contacts, racking, websites, advertising material, systems, Transitional training assistance and more!. Selling as I have another business that is taking off $24,500 neg 0421648558 iFlogID: 17329
TUITION ACCOMPLISHER SINGING TEACHER Northern beaches area. Ex cabaret, session, studio singer, music producer. Toured with Shirley Bassey and Perry Como. Totally experienced. Free assessment. Beginners and all ages. Peter Flanagan 9905 8742, 0414860118 iFlogID: 16861
GENELEC 1032 BI-AMP SPEAKERSX2
Let’s create the music clip,webcast,TVC or event production ,together.That will launch or reinforce Music,Art or Product onto the world stage...in vibrant HD ..Contact Grant gglproductions@bigpond.com to discuss your production project. iFlogID: 17670
Responsibilities include setting up/operation maintenance of professional pa (Supplied), and lighting gear at Pub gigs in Sydney and Central coast. Seeking LONG TERM COMMITMENT ARRANGMENT ONLY www.australiangnrshow.com More info- Ben 0438625750 iFlogID: 16941
Manager Wanted for an exciting successful Performer/Composer, pop-rock Band/Show. Album on iTunes. Begin on commission, then wage+. Book performances, promotions and deals. Great opportunity. Phone Geoff, 99691179. Mosman. iFlogID: 17664
STUDIO GEAR
CAMERA DIGITAL MEDIA & HD PRODUCTION
TRIBUTE SHOW NEEDS SOUND GUY..
PROMOTER All prices include GST
FILM & STAGE
Audio Mastering, mixing, recording. CD-R music & data duplication, cover artwork, colour disc printing, online global distribution. Full studio package deal for EP or full album projects. Enquiries ph: 02 98905578 iFlogID: 15156 Audio Mastering, mixing, recording. CD-R music & data duplication, cover artwork, colour disc printing, online global distribution. Full studio package deal for EP or full album projects. Enquiries ph: 02 98905578 iFlogID: 15162
Get your Band or Business Online Cost effectively and PROFESSIONALLY from $299 including Hosting and email addresses! Contact info@bizwebsites.com.au or see www.bizwebsites.com.au. iFlogID: 15452 Music publicity. Do you want to get noticed? Affordable exposure for your band by someone that actually cares! www.perfectlywrite.com.au Drop me a line! iFlogID: 15737 Need Help overcoming Performance Anxiety, Stage Presence, Writers Block? Waking Life Hypnotherapy - Specialist Hypnotherapists with 15 years music industry experience behind them Waking Life Hypnotherapy - Live the Dream iFlogID: 17179
WWW.BLISTMEDIA.COM Sick of seeing bands shittier than yours get all the media attention? iFlogID: 16964
Studio, live, candid or location shots with an experienced band photographer. Gigs, promos, album covers, artwork. Affordable prices, professional quality. Mobile: 0479060317 Email: admin@mattgphotography.com.au Web: music.mattgphotography.com.au iFlogID: 17374
POSTERS GOLD COAST BYRON BAY NORTHERN NSW Poster distribution for touring artists & bands. Fast, efficient & reliable service at a competitive price www.thatposterguy. com.au iFlogID: 17120
RECORDING STUDIOS AFFORDABLE SYDNEY PRODUCER Sydney-based producer with multiple industry contacts and experience in both band recordings and electronic/ midi sampling. Affordable rates for radio-ready recordings. I’m aware that you’re looking for the best result for the lowest investment, give me a call to discuss your requirements. Let me help you bring your musical vision to life! Call or email Joe Sharratt for enquiries: 0416 321 209 sharratt.j@gmail.com iFlogID: 17616
Music Studio available in Roselands. Sound engineer provided, industry standard equipment and radio ready sound for an affordable cost. www.lombardoentertainment.com. au see ‘Music Studio’ 0402022973 iFlogID: 17564 RECORDING STUDIO $30ph iFlogID: 17084 Recording Studio, Parramatta, $30hr casual rate. No kits! Singers, songwriters, instrumentalists for acoustic, world, classical genres specialist. 25+yrs exp, multi instrumentalist, arranger, composer, producer. Ph: 02 98905578, 7 days. iFlogID: 15152 Recording Studio, Parramatta, $30hr casual rate. No kits! Singers, songwriters, instrumentalists for acoustic, world, classical genres specialist. 25+yrs exp, multi instrumentalist, arranger, composer, producer. Ph: 02 98905578, 7 days. iFlogID: 15160
SEAN CAREY - PRODUCER
PA / AUDIO / ENGINEERING
PA SOUND SYSTEM FOR HIRE! 2000 W FRONT OF HOUSE, 650 W FOLD BACK, TOP GEAR, $280 WITHOUT ENGINEER PICK UP, $380 WITH DELIVERED, PARTIES/DJ’S/ BANDS PLEASE CALL STEVE 0400 606 650 iFlogID: 17608 Professional PA & Lighting for all occasions.1000watt - 20,000watt Tailored to your requirements.Ph 0417 268850 iFlogID: 17396 QUALITY PA HIRE with friendly, experienced operator. Vocal systems to full band rigs. All with lighting and at great rates. Corporate entertainment specialist. Graham 0418 423 463 platonic@bigpond.com iFlogID: 14573
STUMP LOVES TO BUMP I have better Ears than most of those P.A. Guys, so give me a call. 0414 255 542 - jacksongigs@gmail.com iFlogID: 17070 Sydney PA Hire: Best quality equipment, small to large 2, 3 and 4 way systems, packages for all occasions, competitive prices servicing Sydney and environs. Details; http://www.sydneypa.biz, Chris 0432 513 479 iFlogID: 13943
PHOTOGRAPHY Image is everything! If you have a band wanting to get ahead let me capture the next gig. High quality pictures say everything. http://roybarnesphotography.com/ 0414 243 811 iFlogID: 16994
Affordable drum lessons. I have a Bachelour of Music Education & Degree of Drumming. Music studio avavailable in Roselands or I can come to you. Beginners to advanced players of all styles welcome. 0402022973 iFlogID: 17560
ALT COUNTRY/ PUNK/BLUES/ FOLK!
Now I’ve got you’re attention, would you like to get guitar or steel tuition in any of the above styles? Learn from someone who knows & plays this music. Lead/rhythm, learn what you want straight up.Low on theory, high on pulling a great sound & playing style! Call Jeff 0412518070. iFlogID: 17662
ATTENTION: MUSIC CREATORS Contact me for your free chapter of my book “ Chord Voicing for Composers, Arrangers, Songwriters and Pianists”. The complete guide to advance harmony. jdmuspub@gmail.com iFlogID: 16950
BASS TUITION Qualified and experienced bass teacher, offering private tuition according to your needs and goals.Beginners to advanced students. Wide range of styles including Jazz, Rock, Funk, Latin. http://www.marcosgil.info/tuition.htm iFlogID: 17668 Beginners to Advanced Easy and Effective Singing lessong workshops include -Vocal scales - pitch and breathing excercises -singing and learning songs of choice -performance techniques -songwriting iFlogID: 16430 DRUM TUITION. Drum Tuitiojn in Stanmore with a Billy Hyde trained teacher. Dip Ed, Dip Drums. All levels and all styles taught. Beginner Welcome! Call Lee 0403307796. www.lee-carey.com iFlogID: 15519 Eastern Suburbs guitar/ukulele/bass/slide lessons with APRA award winning composer. Highly experienced, great references, unique individually designed lessons from Vaucluse studio. Learn to play exactly what YOU want to play! www.matttoms.com iFlogID: 16690
FLAMENCO GUITAR TUITION
For all your production needs, upto 20,000watt systems.Tailored to your requirements.Delivered,setup & operated by professional engineers. Loud ‘n’ Live Sound Systems Ph 0417 268850 iFlogID: 17398 P.A hire using top quality outboard gear; Lexicon, Allen & Heath, Sure 4.800, DBX drive-racks, 160SL compression, 4-way front-of-house, 3-way active fold-back. 30years+ experience in the music industry. 0414355763. iFlogID: 13264
Drum Lessons avaliable in Gladesville Teach all Levels,ages & experience.16 years experience. I studied at The Billy Hydes Drumcraft ,Obtained Dipolma in Drummming Mob: 0402 663 469 Michael iFlogID: 17025
Inner west,exp teacher studied in Spain tel:02 9517 1704 iFlogID: 17597
GUITAR LESSONS!
Sean Carey (ex Thirsty Merc) is the InHouse Producer/Engineer at TRACKDOWN Studios in Camperdown. Multi-platinum ARIA accredited Artist with over 10 years of production experience. Vintage guitars, microphones, gear and industry contacts! Get the most out of your songs! www.seancarey.com.au. Ph: 0424923888. iFlogID: 17384 Want to be a recording artist? We’re looking for singers/songwriters for recording & development. Contact studio@musicentourage.com or 02 4013 1977 iFlogID: 14616
Starting to learn the guitar, bass? or maybe you’re stuck in a rut and want to push through to the next level? Affordable and professional guitar and bass tuition in the Sydney inner west area. All styles, all levels. Jazz, Classical, Metal, Blues or whatever tickles your fancy. Equipped with a Music degree & Masters, the latest music tuition apps and music recording facilitates so you get the best results! Call Evan on 0434 266 406 or Email: wilkins.evan@gmail.com www.evanwilkinsmusic.com iFlogID: 17462
GUITAR LESSONS
Want to know what it takes to record a song? Book in an obligation free Q&A session in our recording studio at Five Dock. Visit www.musicentourage.com or email hookmeup@musicentourage.com iFlogID: 14478
REHEARSAL ROOMS SWEETLEAF REHEARSAL STUDIO MTDRUITT open 7 days, 3 rooms, aircon, food & beverages, Flat lug, Parking, PA & Lighting Hire Call - 9832-8890 iFlogID: 17546
REPAIRS GUITAR REPAIRS AND SETUPS Professional Guitar Tech and Luthier. Clients have played with Jimmy Barnes, Guy Sebastian, Human Nature, Short Stack, Moving Pictures etc. All repair work and setups. Call Timo 9484 4374 iFlogID: 17628
With experienced and fully qualified tutor. Who has 20 years of studio and live performance. Most styles including Rock, Pop and Jazz. Learn to play your favourite songs, practical theory, improvisation, proper technique, etc. etc. Beginners to advanced are welcome. In the convenience of your own home. Good results guaranteed. Phone Oles on 0407413143 or email olesguitarlessons@yahoo.com iFlogID: 17477
GUITAR TUITION BY MAL EASTICK Enrolling new students now for 2012. Tuition customised - beginners to professionals. Blues, rock, tone & theory my specialties. 39 years professional experience, national concert touring level, 4 Gold & 2 Platinum albums. Central suburban Sydney location. M: 0407 461 093 - E: mal@maleastick.com iFlogID: 15035
For a limited time. Free online and print classifieds Book now, visit iflog.com.au
GUITAR.BASS & UKULELE. Current professional performer and teacher for 30 years. Learn Chords, Scales/Modes, Arpeggios, Music Theory & Ear training. Learn your favourite guitarists songs and tunes. 0422 838 924 iFlogID: 17619
We are a friendly jazz band playing music to any style for romantic situations, weddings, anniversaries, small cozy clubs - very affordable. contact Chris 0419 272 196 ventura@yayabings.com.au iFlogID: 15177
SCHOOL OF ROCK - ZEN STUDIOS
MUSICIANS WANTED
LAP STEEL & GUITAR LESSONS
BANDS
Lap steel guitar/Dobro/Slide open tunings & standard guitar tuition by experienced live & recording musician. Let me get you playing great lap steel & slide quickly in any style. Beginner pedal steel lessons also available. Inner west location with relaxed & patient teacher. Phone Jeff 0412518070 iFlogID: 17659 Learn The Drums - Have fun and discover your rhythm. I’ve created a step by step program for you on learning how to play the drums, go to www.chrismccaig.com/ learn-the-drums iFlogID: 14503
MITCH FARMER
Drum Tuition.Professional all round live/ studio drummer with 28 yrs experience. All styles and topics covered. Beginners to Advanced levels welcome. Please call Mitch for rates/times available m.0418267852 e.mitch@mitchfarmer.com iFlogID: 17528
MUSIC PRODUCTION COURSE 6 WKS.
Music video production, live event filming, EPK’s, pro photography and more. Great rates for indi artists. Call Paul on 0412 222 111 or email paul@popfilms.com.au or visit www.popfilms.com.au iFlogID: 17273 School of Rock teaches students from primary school to high school, from anywhere in Sydney with any level of musical talent. School of Rock helps students form a suitable band based on each of their musical likes and level of experience. Classes run every day of the week (Weekdays: 4.30pm – 6.00pm, Saturday/Sunday: 8.30am – 10.00am) at $320/per term (including all teacher fees, room and instrument rental). Each term includes a free recording session @ Zen Studios and a live show at The Valve Hotel in Tempe. Contact Ash 0450406-201. www.schoolofrockinnerwest. com.au iFlogID: 16990
SINGING LESSONS
MUSIC VIDEOS offer a great way to gain exposure. Immersion Imagery has worked with a variety or artists and strives to offer quality & creative Music Videos. Visit www. immersionimagery.com email info@immersionimagery.com iFlogID: 13825
MUSICIANS AVAILABLE BASS PLAYER Bass player available. Mature, plenty of experience in Rock, Swing, Country, Blues and Pop. High standard and best equipment. I play Double Bass as well. Easy going. Ph 0434475785 iFlogID: 17293 Electric & upright bass. Good gear. Comfortable in most styles. Experience performing live and in the studio. Check out my website if you wanna hear more. http://www.wix. com/steelechabau/steelechabau iFlogID: 16159
DJ DJ AVAILABLE
A practical guide to computer based recording with the bulk of the course being hands on with no more than 2 students per work station. The course is software neutral. The software and platform take a secondary role to the concepts that are being taught. Six 3 hour lessons over six Saturdays @ $660. Students are able to use the teaching resources anytime during the six weeks course for free. Contact Zen Studios 02-9550-3977. www.zenstudios.com.au iFlogID: 16934
Singing lessons in a positive environment with a highly experienced and professional singer/songwriter. Lessons tailored to suit individual needs. Also beginners guitar. www.realvoice.net.au for more details. Inner West, Rosanna 0431 157 622. iFlogID: 17066
TEACHER TO THE STARS!
Learn to play the guitar. Or learn to compose &/or improvise on guitar. Most importantly, learn at your own pace, no pressure! Classical & other styles. 0402 630 243 www.pgtonline.net pgtonline@hotmail.com Parramatta area iFlogID: 15320
PIANO: BLUES, ROOTS & POPULAR
PICKS AND STICKS STUDIO. Private Guitar lessons from an experienced teacher. All levels, All ages, All styles. Improvising, Theory, Song Writing, Technique Seven Hills, Sydney. Call Dave 0410 963 972 or email davemormul@hotmail.com iFlogID: 16948
SINGING LESSONS Voice science is out there to help improve your singing quickly. One on one lessons in hi tech multi award winning studio with fully qualified singing and performance expert. First assessment FREE. Beginners and professionals. I will help you find your voice. www.avic.com.au studio - 9588 2184 mob - 0414 453 066 Stephen Baker MRA iFlogID: 16954
DJ for all occasions - Parties, Formals, Weddings..House, Electro, Dance, Hardstyle, Dubstep, R’n’B and Hip Hop. Latest Pioneer equipment and lighting effects. Call Jake’DJSplice’0423255668 or inbox www. facebook.com/#!/pagesDJ-Splice iFlogID: 17315
DRUMMER
DRUMMER Steve Ostrow, New York voice teacher and vocal coach who discovered and nurtured the careers of Bette Midler, Barry Manilow, Peter Allen, Stevie Wonder and countless others now Sydney City based and welcoming students on all levels; beginners, advanced and performers; Rock, Pop, Classical etc. For availability call on 0408461868. For a free e-copy of my book ‘On Becoming a Singer..A Guide To How’ email me on sostrow@bigpond.net.au. Lessons include the entire scope of singing... voice production, musicianship, interpretation, performance skills etc. I look forward to hearing from you. iFlogID: 17029
VocalHub - Sing like no one is listening! Singing lessons for vocal technique and care, audition tips and repertoire in a encouraging and supportive environment. Visit: http://www.vocalhub.com.au iFlogID: 17102 Specialised tuition from Don Hopkins, 2nd place win, International Blues Challenge, Memphis, 2012. Improvisation, piano technique, theory. Songwriting skills. Individual sessions. Beginners to advanced. Get to where you want to be. Spaces available now. 0425201870 donhopkins@me.com iFlogID: 17606
Dubstep to Drum&bass willing & able to adapt to your event. Low hourly rates. Everything negotiable. Easygoing, flexible entertainment. Call for a quote today. KN!VZ Entertainment Group Ph:0415680575 iFlogID: 16661
A1 PRO DRUMMER AVAILABLE for freelance gigs, tours etc. Extensive touring experience, gret time/tempo/groove, great drum gear and pro attitude. Sydney based but will travel. More info, ph 0419760940. www. mikehague.com iFlogID: 13230
Music tuition, classical / flamenco guitar, celtic harp, theory & harmony, arranging. 9am - 9pm, 7 days. Parramatta area. $40 hr, $30 half hr. Mature & patient. Harps for hire. Ph: 02 98905578 iFlogID: 15158
PARAMOUNT GUITAR TUITION.
METAL BASS PLAYER NEEDED FOR SOON TO BE WORKING SOUTH-SYDNEY BAND!! MUST BE EXPERIENCED AND DEDICATED, NO TIME WASTERS INFLUENCES INCLUDE LAMB OF GOD, METALLICA, SEPULTURA, SLIPKNOT, CALL MATT 0401728868 iFlogID: 17487
Wanted left handed electric guitar teacher Parramatta area, Contact John at... rodt1114@yahoo.com iFlogID: 16308
VIDEO / PRODUCTION D7 STUDIO MUSIC VID FROM $250 music vid $250. Live gig edits, multi angles, fr $125 a set, 1 live track $100. All shot in full HD. d7studio@iinet.net.au 0404716770 iFlogID: 13368
I’LL FILM YOUR BAND LIVE FREE
6 Video Cameras (2 x Hi-Def, 2 x 3CCD, 2 x 3D) Great for Live Videos/ Live Clips/Docos Pro Editing/PostProduction too Use for Social Media/ Youtube etc All Free Contact me for more details/previous Work iFlogID: 17406
Independant Music Producer available for Singers and Songwriters. Have you got a song in your head? Real guitars, bass,drums, piano plus much more Greg 0425 210 742 iFlogID: 17100 Kontrol Productions is a highly professional production company that specializes in the production of music video’s. We ensure that our products are of the highest industry standards. For enquiries www.kontrolproductions.com iFlogID: 13827
Session Drummer, 26-yo, Gigging + Recording exp; Prog, Punk, Rockabily, House or Hip Hop. Productive and Reliable, Quality gear and transport. 0425820547 - Sydney myspace. com/megagiant iFlogID: 17493
EXPERIENCE MALE DRUMMER Seeks covers band/ fill in work 60’s to 80’s looking for easy going people with a positive outlook. Age group 35 plus NO DRUGS ph Mark 0422 173 728 iFlogID: 17174 Experienced Soul / Reggae / R’N’B / Blues / Funk / Rock drummer (36yo) available for work preferably in Northern Beaches. Call Michael 0402 549 423 iFlogID: 17324 Professional drummer/percussionist/vibraphonist available for performances/recording. Toured with international acts such as Dianna Krall, David Campbell and Patrizio Buanne. Have huge range of instruments including vibraphone. More info at www. davekemp.info iFlogID: 17317 Professional mature-age Drummer/Vocals/ reads/back acts/shows - all styles including jazz - available for casual work. phone:(02) 9807-3137 eMail: nadipa1@ yahoo.com.au iFlogID: 16562 Professional mature-age Drummer/Vocals/ reads/back acts/shows - all styles including jazz - available for casual work. phone:(02) 9807-3137 Mob:0413-931-897 eMail: nadipa1@yahoo.com.au iFlogID: 17160 TOP INTERNATIONAL DRUMMER available. Great backing vocals, harmonica player and percussionist. Gigs, tours, recording. Private lessons/mentoring also available. www.reubenalexander.net iFlogID: 14261
ATTENTION ALL CHICK ROCKERS Auditions for bass players, drummers, guitarists. If you love L7, Hole, Bikini Kill, Magic Dirt, Steel Panther, heavy hard fast rock ‘n’ roll this is the band for you. Looking to tour with well-known USA band at end of year. Serious musicians only. Please call Mel 0401 017 275. iFlogID: 17577 Bass Player and Drummer wanted to jam/ collaborate with experienced Guitarist/ Songwriter.Influences include; The Black Keys, Hendrix,Led Zep and ZZ Top.For more info ph.0420 436 129 iFlogID: 17644
BASS PLAYER WANTED Have house, kids, want the music back. Older (not geriatric) band need bass player to complete 4 piece. We welcome ideas for original music. We still rock. iFlogID: 17657 Central coast band seeking a drummer for a four piece hard rock band needs to be over 18 and needs own gear for more information contact rhyseaquilina@gmail.com iFlogID: 16510
OTHER MARRACCA PLAYER Looking to join band. I’m alright. Influences Inc Charles Bukowski, Rodney Dangerfield, Christina Milian ect. jakeloveboatdean@gmail.com iFlogID: 17588
A fusion of Psychedelic Alternative Rock and Post Modern Punk, We Without drench hypnotic percussion and rolling bass lines with whirling distorted guitars, cinematic synth and stargazing vocals. Influences Include: Deftones, Kasabian, The Butterfly Effect, MUSE. Gigs booked, 2nd EP in pre-production. Call Chad on 0409991854 www.wewithout.com iFlogID: 17573
DJ
DJS WANTED IN SYDNEY
Seeking guitarist for John Kennedy’s 68 Comeback Special. Urban and Western songs and Sun Records covers. Costello and Presley influenced. Pop, rock, folk, country. Inner West based some interstate gigs. iFlogID: 17631
SINGER / GUITARIST
Singer / guitarist required for established 4pc covers band. Must have experience and be comfortable performing on stage. No preference for M/FM. Must have own transport. Styles include; KOL, Matchbox 20, Coldplay, Crowded House etc. Gigs booked. Phone Andrew 0423 024 337. www.oxygenband.com.au iFlogID: 17626 The Hornsby Inn is looking for talented local bands & musicians to perform on our Wednesday Open Mic nights with the opportunity of landing $ paid Saturday night gigs! email: info@hornsbyinn.com.au iFlogID: 16980 Untalented Libertines/BlocParty/SexPistols inspired singer/songwriter/guitarist seeks bandmates who are also inspired by these bands, willing to practice, prefer making originals rather than covers & who are easygoing. Inner West/Sydney, How bout it? iFlogID: 13790 young guitar player looking to start metal, punk band. influences include metallica, ozzy, black sabbath megadeth, trivium, bullet, anthrax, slayer slipknot and many many more. email space1996@hotmail.com if interested iFlogID: 17027
BASS PLAYER Bass Player wanted for Lure Distortion Playing Originals ages 18-25 Own transport and Gear Influences include White Stripes, Raconteurs, Smashing Pumpkins Nirvana Looking to Gig Located on Northern Beaches Contact Chris at cs_bowyer@hotmail.com iFlogID: 17677 BASSIST needed for experimental DUB project. New genre and sound being created. Require OPEN minded, politically raged Bassist. Asian Dub Foundation influence. www.soundcloud.com/yesterdays-cub (preview Demo) contact: lion_of_tomorrow@ hotmail.com iFlogID: 17446
ECLECTIC BASSIST WANTED Bassist with extensive experience both live and recording needed. Should be able to play a wide range of genres without hesitation (Soul/Funk, Punk/Rockabilly, Jazz, Metal, Hip Hop etc) A huge plus if you are a multi--instrumentalist. Double Bass especially. Please contact me on the details below and we can organise a time to meet over a coffee. Contact: nmur029@gmail.com 0421 8762 05 iFlogID: 17495 Established Sydney band need Bass Player ASAP. Tours booked, new EP recorded. Looking for good attitude, own gear & transport, keen to tour. Age 20-30. Please contact Sash on 0409579688 anytime iFlogID: 17057
HEAVY FOLK BASS PLAYER NEEDED!
If you know one of these Bass Players - Lee Mavers, Graham Maby, Colin Moulding, Dick Diamonde, Stu Sutcliffe, Klaus Vorman or Adam Clayton. With one Album out and a second on its way ts time, contact us at: seeloverrecords@yahoo.com.au. (Inner City Rehearsal) iFlogID: 17653
We are a management company seeking DJs with vision and openminded approach for future projects. Enthusiasm will be appreciated. Contact details including phone number with your email application please . 0451655694 iFlogID: 17591
DRUMMER 14-17 year old drummer wanted for new metal band, Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Misfits hard rock/thrash metal, has own gear, dedicated and not a time waster. iFlogID: 16384 aggressive solid drummer needed for band. have material written and demos recorded. rehearse in the wollonong area, keen to gig asap. age/sex/skill level not important. contact 0403508102 for demos iFlogID: 14021 Dead In Motion needs drummer. Heavyrock, metal, visual-kei influences. Preparing to gig, record EP, and photoshoot. double kick preferred. Age 18-25. Intermediate+ skill. Email Dead_In_Motion@hotmail.com for details and demos. iFlogID: 17231
DRUMMER NEEDED! Sydney’s most successful U2 covers band requires a drummer. They need to be experienced (especially with a click track), reliable, have own quality equipmernt & reliable transport, prepared to work regularly. Contact Adam 0414188275 iFlogID: 17642 Experienced drummer with a commitment to practice and regular rehearsals required for Melbourne-based alternative rock band. Influences QOTSA, Foo Fighters, Nirvana… www.myspace.com/mollydredd 0411 372 469 iFlogID: 16936 experienced energetic drummer wanted for sydney 3 piece. age 20-30. influences: ramones, damned, sabbath, nirvana, beatles etc. must be 100% committed as tour is imminent. call dee 0431317613 iFlogID: 17556
NEW AUSSIE BAND WITH EP
Join 3 band members as 4th. Live soon Central Coast Sydney AU East Coast. Sess. drum on EP out March, you can play http://www.reverbnation.com/garethmoeller own gear & transport. Nick 0433202193 iFlogID: 17368
Pro Drummer wanted for established 5 piece band Newcastle area. Hardrock,blues,pop,rocknroll covers and originals exp band gigged with Angels 2 booking agents Album 2012 peter 4984 4731 iFlogID: 17158
KEYBOARD
KEYBOARD/ GUITAR PLAYER WANTED
Sydney based melodic metal band seek experienced drummer to complete line up. Own kit and transport essential. For more information or to express interest please contact Rachel 0402722010. iFlogID: 17372
U2 SHOW DRUMMER WANTED Drummer wanted for U2 tribute show. Phone Sasha on 0431 567 058 iFlogID: 17387
GUITARIST 18 year old guitar player looking for another guitar player. Influences: GN’R, Aerosmith, Zeppelin, New York Dolls. Preferrably someone in the south (Shire). Call Tom on 0401722767 iFlogID: 13407
BLACK METAL
Tight, fast guitarist wanted for thrashing black metal attack!!! Think Absu, Melechesh, Blut Aus Nord. Call Gabe on 0437 158 418 on weekends to organise a jam. iFlogID: 17402
FREE RECORDING Audio students seeking bands to record & mix in a professional studio. Located in Sydney CBD. Must be able to play to a click track. Text 0433442255 iFlogID: 16983
GUITARIST 18 year old guitar player looking to form Rock N’ Roll band. Influences: Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, New York Dolls. Preferably in South. Call Tom on 0401722767. iFlogID: 13358
WE WITHOUT SEEK BASS PLAYER
Sydney band needs fun, passionate and creative drummer with own transport and gear. Established band who have been gigging regularly, with FBi Radio and Drum Media support. We have our own warehouse space for regular recording and rehearsing. Unique sound but with influences from QOTSA, Radiohead, Foo Fighters + many more. Check out www.TaylorKingMusic. com for sample music and details. Phone: 0415 608 779 iFlogID: 17604
BON JOVI THE SHOW
Bon Jovi The Show requires a guitarist that believes he is Richie Sambora. Desired Guitarist MUST be fluent in blues, slide, shred, acoustic guitar, and be a strong singer, most importantly a BON JOVI FAN. If this sounds like you please call Brett 0408 285 440. Must have own transport,”No time wasters’. Check us out @ bonjovitheshow.com.au or Facebook. iFlogID: 17532
Central Coast based Hard Rock originals band seeks a guitarist with a good sound and good gear 19-26 email underthecleff@gmail. com for more info. iFlogID: 16794
Dead In Motion needs rhythm guitarist. Heavy-rock, metal, visual-kei influences. Preparing to gig, record EP, and photoshoot. DropD or DropC. Age 18-25. Intermediate+ skill. Email Dead_In_Motion@hotmail.com for details and demos. iFlogID: 17390
FEMALE SINGER & DRUMMER Singer & drummer looking for a dependable Lead guitarist to form Cover band. Ability to play various styles, jazz, blues and sing harmonies ESSENTIAL. A good attitude, gear, transport expected. Ages 25-45 . Influences Funk, Soul and Rock. Call Julie on 0419606657 iFlogID: 17505 GUITARIST AND BASS PLAYER WANTED. Guitarist and Bass player required. Penrith Area .Mature Age.Regular social rehearsals. Music style ranging from 60’s pop to Swing Blues. 043 279 0076 iFlogID: 17569
GUITARIST NEEDED PRONTO
guitarist with decent effects setup and the ability to play a range of dynamics needed for band playing originals by singer songwriter alex dean. gigs booked and material already written and ready to go. music we like and may sound like: sonic youth, radiohead, nick cave and the bad seeds, grizzly bear, pj harvey, deerhunter. music can be heard at triplejunearthed.com.au/ alexdean if you have similar tastes and like the music you hear, please contact alex on 0409771952. **only people between the ages of 20-30 please.** iFlogID: 17579
GUITARIST WANTED Singer/songwriter looking to collaborate with a guitarist and/or keyboard player to perform covers and originals at small gigs around Sydney. An easy going personality and reliability are essential. iFlogID: 17481
QUIRKY FOLK BAND Lead guitarist wanted for inner west based quirky folk band. EP recorded and released last June. Must be willing to rehearse weekly and be available for gigs and festivals. Ability to sing backing vocal harmonies is desirable but not essential. Contact Susie at susiehurley@live.com or 0404 067 051 iFlogID: 17382
Working 80’s concept show with agenency gigs waiting require a Keyboardist that can play some guitar and backing vox, Good gear, weely rehearsal, transport committed .The show involves wearing some 80’s rock style gear. contactkickit@gmail.com - 0404 492 853 iFlogID: 17489
Post rock sleepmakeswaves,pelican, inspired band seeks keys, bass to complete lineup, rehearse zen st peters, call 0401056876. iFlogID: 17509 Sydney based Funk band who plays originals and covers seeks a keyboardist. Needs good gear and own transport. Contact rhyseaquilina@gmail.com. iFlogID: 17281
SINGER Christian funk band on the North Shore looking for 4 more male/female singers Own transport. Age 15 to 35 call Ben on 99444984 or snapper_watson@hotmail. com iFlogID: 17051 Energetic and charismatic singer wanted to front a newly founded hard rock band with a groove. Must have easy access to Bondi 2-3 times a week. Preferred age:18-26. Call Jonno-0412362425. iFlogID: 17483
EXP FEMALE ROCK VOCALIST
Experienced, rock VOCALIST needed for Sydney-based, agency-backed 5pc cover band playing in the Sydney scene for 12 years. Regular gigs. Must be a confident lead-vocalist & be able to sing harmonies. Pls contact via email andrea8884@gmail. com or Troy on 0400 275 154 for further details and audition dates. iFlogID: 17421 GOSPEL SINGERS WANTED for nondenominational music ministry to record triple-CD in Perth. World-class, passionate and devotional vocalists sought. View www. THE001Music.com for details. Jesus is KIng! Reverend Eslam. God Bless You! iFlogID: 13088
Fully Qualified & 8yrs Experience, Thai Massage $49/hr or Sensual Balinese Aroma $69/hr. In/Out calls, Male/Female Welcome. www.takecaremassage.com.au - By Anson 0433646338 iFlogID: 17428
GRAPHIC DESIGN FULL COLOUR BAND GIG POSTERS @ AMAZING PRICES 100 A4 full colour on Gloss = $40 100 A3 full colour on Plain = $50 100 A3 full colour on Gloss = $80 100 SRA3(32 x 45cm) full colour on Gloss = $80 WWW.BLACKSTAR.COM.AU iFlogID: 16754 Get your Band or Business Online Cost effectively and PROFESSIONALLY - from $299 including Hosting and email addresses! Contact info@bizwebsites.com.au or see www.bizwebsites.com.au. iFlogID: 15450 Get your Band or Business Online Cost effectively and PROFESSIONALLY- from $399 including UNLIMITED pages, Logos, Hosting and 5xemail addresses and much more! Contact info@bizwebsites.com.au or see www.bizwebsites.com.au iFlogID: 13864 Limited Edition mens tees and hoodies with a sense of humour. All hand-screened and numbered. monstrositystore.com iFlogID: 13611
YOUR NEXT ALBUM COVER... ...will look killer with the help of the award winning Wealth & Hellbeing Creative team! Turning your local look into an international standard release, working with bands/artists worldwide: www.wealthandhellbeing.com Ph 0405809066 iFlogID: 17358
OTHER 2 positions available for females 20 - 30 years. For rock music video shot in Brisbane. Must be attractive, sexy & alluring. Experience prefered but not essential. Send bio/ pics to info@earthgoat.com iFlogID: 17621
EARPLUGS FOR MUSICIANS Protect your hearing with custom moulded earplugs designed to reduce the level of sound without adversely affecting the frequency response of the music. Choose between 10,15 and 25dB attenuation. Fitted by professional audiologist, by appointment only. Ph 9387 3599 iFlogID: 15216
FREE OVERNIGHT SHIPPING
SINGER / BASS PLAYER NEEDED
Singer / Bass player or willing to learn , wanted 4 Bargo area. Newly formed rock band, no experience needed. More info call Bruce 0418610032 iFlogID: 17355
SINGER REQUIRED Working Rock covers band requires a semiprofessional singer/front man. Gigs waiting, agent backed. Call Len 0402 122 331. iFlogID: 17360
SINGER WANTED FOR SYDNEY GRUNGE BAND. Less than 24 years old please. influences: Silverchair, Nirvana, AIC, Sabbath etc Contact Daniel on 0403 885 433 for more info and demos. iFlogID: 13145 Star Management has a pop song library of orginal hit potentials which can be yours to own! Pick your song, write and record your voice and have it sent to leading industry people including record label A&R, music press, management, radio and more, or start from scratch with our leading studio producer. www.startmanagement.com.au iFlogID: 17562
WANT A RECORDING DEAL? Star Management can provide you with a Publicity Campaign that will deliver your music to over 1000 industry contacts including record label A&R, management, music press, music blogs and more. www. starmanagement.com.au and see ‘Publicity Campaign.’ iFlogID: 17558
SERVICES BEAUTY SERVICES CUSTOM MADE MUSICIAN PLUGS Musician Plugs come in four different filter choices to reduce the volume of loud music to a safer level. They will not distort the tonality of the music, rather simply reduce the volume ‘equally’ across all tones. Fitted by a qualified hearing professional we have a number of locations throughout Sydney as well as in the CBD. To make an appointment call 9223 0225. iFlogID: 17016
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Just like a real manicured bud, and now even stronger than real weed. Our exclusive Australian Hand Made Buds were created with the strongest legal synthetic legal highs. beautiful, high quality Buds 100% Money Back Guaranteed to get you Stoned! Also available HASH and other Highs. ONLY AVAILABLE ONLINE www.BestLegalHighs.com iFlogID: 17612 Get your Band or Business Online Cost effectively and PROFESSIONALLY- from $399 including UNLIMITED pages, Hosting and 5xemail addresses and much more! Contact info@bizwebsites.com.au or see www.bizwebsites.com.au. iFlogID: 13862
GOOD WITH YOUR HANDS? Good with your hands? Private massage job available $50/hr no experience necessary (sorry no dudes) anyway send your number and maybe a photo to partyfun@live.com iFlogID: 16750 If you want to use DRUGS, that’s your business If you want to STOP, we can help. Narcotics Anonymous 9519 6200 www.na.org.au iFlogID: 16217 Need to promote your restaurant, club and make it the place to go? Contact us now, because providing good entertainment is a personal skill. Chris 0419 272 196 ventura@ yayabings.com.au iFlogID: 15175
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