18.11.15 Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Brisbane / Free / Incorporating
WHO WILL TAKE HOME THE
ARIA AWARDS Our Annual ARIAs Form Guide
INSIDE: THE MUSIC INDUSTRY REACTS TO THE PARIS ATTACK
Issue
106
2 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER 2015
THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 3
PRE ORDER NOW IN HIS 50TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR MICHAEL CHUGG’S FIGHTS AND FLIGHTS 30 YEARS AT THE TOP DENIS HANDLIN ON THE CHALLENGES OF THE BUSINESS WHY RICHIE MCNEILL WALKED AWAY FROM
AMID #54 THE 2015
POWER 50
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4 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER 2015
JONSON STREET BYRONBAY FRI 20 NOV
GAY PARIS, THE BADLANDS SAT 21 NOV
BORNEO, DR GOODARD THURS 26 NOV
LAGWAGON FRI 27 NOV
JIMMY THE SAINT & THE SINNERS SAT 28 NOV
INFECTED MUSHROOM FRI 4 DEC
LIME CORDIALE SAT 5 DEC
RICHARD IN YOUR MIND FRI 11 DEC
GOONS OF DOOM SAT 12 DEC
OPIUO THURS 31 DEC
DRUNK MUMS, OCEAN ALLEY, DUMB PUNTS TICKETS AVAILABLE ONLINE WWW.THENORTHERN.COM.AU
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The Night Music Was Terrorised The mid-gig attack on the Bataclan theatre in Paris has shocked music fans around the world. We pay tribute to those who died, those who were injured and those who survived this most horrific event.
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A
s Australians woke up on Saturday morning and set about their usual weekend routines, information about terror attacks in Paris filtered through news reports, and information was shared/ commented on via social media. One of the series of coordinated shootings and explosions that were carried out across the French capital on Friday night took place inside the Bataclan theatre. Eagles Of Death Metal were mid-performance when four gunmen entered and opened fire around 9.40pm (Paris time). The Bataclan’s capacity is 1,500 and this concert was sold out. Given the usual volume and intensity of an Eagles Of Death Metal show, some fans initially believed the sounds they heard were part of the spectacle. A witness, identifying as one of the concertgoers, spoke to La Figaro (translation via Billboard): “It was chaos. I was on the right in the hall of Bataclan, a song by Eagles Of Death Metal was going to end, when I hear noises like exploding firecrackers, I see the singer removed his guitar, I turn I see a guy armed with an automatic weapon that shoots into the air. Everyone folds to the floor. From there, it is the instinct that takes over in each burst, we try to crawl as far as possible shooters.” As shots were fired randomly, fans panicked and tried to flee. Some climbed out of windows and gripped onto windowsills as hostages were taken. Of those trapped inside, one man implored police to act via Twitter: “I’m still in the Bataclan, 1st floor. I’m heavily wounded. Please police you have to launch an assault, there are still people alive here but they are killing them one by one.” Julian Pierce, a journalist at the Eagles Of Death Metal show, has described the chaos inside the concert hall (via ABC): “They didn’t shout anything. They didn’t say anything. They said nothing. They just shot. They just shoot. They were just shooting at people.” An Eagles Of Death Metal representative posted the following statement on the band’s Facebook page: “We are still currently trying to determine the safety and whereabouts of all our band and crew. Our thoughts are with all of the people involved in this tragic situation.” David Ian Hughes, brother of Eagles Of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes, posted a message on Facebook confirming his sibling was okay, “I spoke to him about an hour ago. The band is ok too. I hold out hope that as many people as possible make it out ok, as well.” Some members of Eagles Of Death Metal’s crew were still unaccounted for at this point. Patrick Smith, who lives near the Bataclan, told ABC News that the concert hall attackers held the “entire audience hostage for an hour”. He claimed that stun grenades were thrown inside the hall by police after one of the gunmen started shooting concertgoers after a stand-
off with officers. He added, “You saw the white flashes of the stun grenades and then there were a series of very big explosions.” He then speculated, “It may be that some of the hostage-takers... had suicide packs on and they blew themselves up.” Police confirmed that the Bataclan attackers blew themselves up with ‘suicide vests’ as police entered the venue. The Paris police prefect said the gunmen initially sprayed machine gunfire at a cafe outside the venue before entering the main hall. Three attackers died in the suicide blasts, the other was shot. Reuters reported that the death toll from the Bataclan attack was revised down to 87. The number of injured stood at 200. A brief statement released via Eagles Of Death Metal’s tour promoters Nous Productions stated that the band would return to the US immediately. Unsurprisingly, Eagles Of Death Metal have cancelled the rest of their European tour.
The Aftermath: •
French President Francois Hollande wants the ‘state of emergency’ he’s declared, during which public gatherings are banned until at least 19 Nov, extended to three months (although this requires parliamentary approval).
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Due to perform on the Bataclan theatre stage from 14 – 16 Nov, some members of Deftones were in attendance at the ill-fated Eagles Of Death Metal concert on 13 Nov, but left after a just couple of songs. Deftones have now cancelled the remaining dates on their European tour.
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Motörhead were scheduled to perform in the French capital on Sunday, but have now rescheduled and will return to play there in January instead.
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Although U2 were due to perform in Paris on 14 Nov, they instead spent the evening paying their respects by laying flowers near the Bataclan theatre.
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Due to perform in Paris on Monday, Foo Fighters have called off the remaining dates of their European tour, posting on Facebook that the decision was made “in light of this senseless violence”.
The Music Industry Responds “The latest terrorist attacks in Paris struck at the heart and soul of a free and open society. The targets were innocent people out cheering football teams, eating and drinking at restaurants and watching live music. These are the passions of our society, where we come to congregate, celebrate and share with our friends, family and community. At its best music inspires us. It is no wonder that a stirring rendition of the French National Anthem La Marseillaise rang out in the tunnels of Stade de France as a way for the French people to show their solidarity. Music touches our soul and helps bring us closer together. Music will continue to give solace to us all, giving voice to hope and to understanding. As we enter ARIA WEEK where we celebrate our own great artists and industry, ARIA and the entire Australian music industry stands united with our fallen colleagues in France. We extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those who passed. Amongst the many victims, our colleagues were senselessly killed doing their job. Their job was to bring great artists to the people, so for an hour or two at a live gig fans could have a dance, a drink and simply enjoy music together. In their memory we stand as one, united and steadfast. In the words of composer Leonard Bernstein, ‘This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, and more devotedly than ever before’.” Dan Rosen CEO, ARIA
“We are all shocked and saddened by the horrific attacks in Paris. We have been advised that our Universal family in France have sadly lost three of their own at the Bataclan Concert Hall. Our deepest sympathies go out to the victims, their families, their friends and everyone affected by these tragic events. The beautiful people of France are in our hearts.” George Ash President, Universal Music Asia Pacific
“The Australian Independent Record Labels Association extends its sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims of the attacks in Paris and Beirut. It hits particularly close to home for all music fans and industry for a rock concert to be the target of such a tragic event. This has always and will continue to be a domain that is synonymous with freedom and joy.” Dan Nevin CEO, Australian Independent Record Labels Association
Survivor Update: Emma Grace Parkinson ABC News reported that Emma Parkinson, a music fan from Tasmania, attended Eagles Of Death Metal’s concert at the Bataclan and was shot several times in the hip during the attack. Currently hospitalised in Paris, Parkinson is expected to make a full recovery. Isobel Bowdrey A young South African woman posted about her harrowing Bataclan experience on Facebook alongside a picture of the blood-stained shirt she wore to the concert. After pretending to be dead for over an hour inside the venue, Bowdrey survived although she admitted within her post, “The images of those men circling us like vultures will haunt me for the rest of my life”. John & Oscar Leader Australian man John Leader and his son Oscar hid next to the mixing desk before attempting their escape during a lull in the shooting. When the shooting restarted, the pair dropped to the ground again and waited for another opportunity to flee. Leader eventually pushed his son toward the exit, following a few seconds later. When he got outside, however, Mr Leader couldn’t find his son anywhere. Finally, he got through to Oscar on his mobile phone and they were reunited.
Identified Victims: Nick Alexander Eagles Of Death Metal’s merch seller, Nick Alexander from Colchester in the UK, was tragically killed during the Bataclan attack. In a statement, Alexander’s family said he died “doing the job he loved” and was “everyone’s best friend”. Thomas Ayad An international product manager for Mercury Records, Thomas Ayad, was among those killed at the concert. Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge confirmed Ayad’s death with a moving note that described Friday night’s events as “an unspeakably appalling tragedy”. Marie Mosser Marie Mosser, who worked with band The Vamps, was killed alongside Ayad. The Vamps posted on Facebook: “We want to pass on our deepest condolences to the families and friends of Thomas and Marie who were a huge part of The Vamps team in France and who tragically passed away Friday night in Paris. They will be sorely missed by us and all that knew them. Brad, James, Connor and Tristan.” Manu Perez Before walking into the Bataclan on Friday night, Manu Perez posted a picture on Facebook of two tickets for the gig. “Merci Thomas!” he wrote, linking the post to Ayad’s Facebook profile. At 9.03pm, the Parisian, who also worked for Universal, posted a second picture showing the crowd and the band on stage. On Saturday, the president of Universal Music France, Pascal Negre, tweeted to confirm that Perez, Ayad and Mosser were among the dead. William B Decherf William B Decherf, a French music journalist, was also among those killed at the show on Friday night. THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 9
Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
The Isaak Factor
After a 2015 spent solidly lodging himself back into the consciousness of Australian audiences, Californian crooner Chris Isaak has unveiled plans for an Australian tour in support of his thirteenth studio album First Comes The Night next April.
Chris Isaak
Epica Killswitch Engage
Wiley
In Full If you thought Soundwave had no more news to share following the release of their full line-up, you were wrong. Two bands will be playing albums in their entirety: Killswitch Engage with Alive Or Just Breathing, and Ill Nino with Revolution, Revolucion.
Screamfeeder
Wiley Bloke Prolific rapper Wiley has announced his debut headline tour of Australia for March 2016. The veteran artist, who co-founded seminal grime ensemble the Roll Deep crew with Dizzee Rascal, will be performing alongside crew mates DJ Target and Danny Weed.
10 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER 2015
Crowd It Out In September Screamfeeder went into the studio for the first time since 2005. The result of that is their new single, Alone In A Crowd – the first new material from the band in ten years. It’ll be released through Poison City and the tour takes in east coast cities and Adelaide.
High On Fire
/ Arts / L Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Winnerrrrs
Trophy Eyes
Following the announcement they’ve joined 123 Agency’s roster, Trophy Eyes have revealed their Road To Unify tour dates. Along with Senses Fail, the punk five-piece will be visiting stages across the east coast and Adelaide.
Epica Sounds Dutch symphonic metal band Epica have announced four antipodean dates for 2016. In support of their fifth studio album The Quantum Enigma, the six-piece will tour the east coast and Auckland from 16 – 20 Mar.
19 High And Heavy Heavy metal hellraisers High On Fire are coming to our country in February next year for a national tour, off the back of their latest release, Luminiferous, their most bizarre and furious record to date.
The number of ARIAs to be handed out at this year’s Awards (20 if you include Tina Arena’s Hall Of Fame gong).
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Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Groove’s Back
Groovin The Moo Maitland, 2015. Pic: Josh Groom
The dates and venues have been announced for next year’s Groovin The Moo. From 23 Apr, the festival travels to Maitland, Canberra, Oakbank, Bendigo, Townsville and Bunbury. Tix go on sale 2 Feb, after the line-up drops 28 Jan.
City Calm Down
Everybody Calm Down Favourite Melbourne sons City Calm Down are set to embark on a short south-east tour through Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide in support of their brand spankin’ new debut LP In A Restless House across next April.
The Cairos
Feels So Right The Cairos are back their self-released new single Love Don’t Feel Right, an accompanying video, and a national tour in January to boot. They’ll be playing a show in Melbourne and Sydney, and two in Brisbane.
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/ Arts / L Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Swan Takes Flight
Almost a decade since his last visit to Aussie shores, Swans bandleader Michael Gira has announced shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane next March, promising sets of stripped-back performances spanning his several musical ventures.
Nico & Vinz
That’s How We Messed Up Norwegian Afropop duo Nico & Vinz have announced new dates for their debut Australian tour following the cancellation of their previous planned shows due to conflicting commitments, moving the dates forward to next April.
Eazy As Pie
Maxi Priest
East-coast US rapper G-Eazy has planned a return to Aussie shores as a part of his When It’s Dark Out world tour next March, hitting up the east coast and Perth off the strength of his latest full-length LP.
Book Us A Maxi
G-Eazy
British-raised Jamaican Maxi Priest, widely regarded as an early pioneer of reggae fusion, will be bringing his R&B-influenced reggae jams all around Australia next February in support of his latest full-length Easy To Love. THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 13
Lifestyle Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Darling & Co
Gorgeous, Darling
Paddington’s got a new kid on the block. Say hello to Darling & Co, a new restaurant open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The extensive menu focuses on locally sourced, seasonal produce, and the drinks list include rosé, boutique wines, classic cocktails and craft beers.
Whether The Weather
Cacti. Pic: Peter Greig
Toronto’s The Weather Station have announced their first Australian tour. They’ll be appearing at Woodford Folk and Sydney Festivals, and have also announced headline shows in Melbourne and Brisbane in early January next year.
The Weather Station
Eatons Hill Hotel
Eatin’ At Eatons Eatons Hill Hotel has some new things to eat and drink on their menu. It all sounds tasty, but some highlights include duck spring rolls, spicy buffalo wings, oysters, crab and prawn salad, six kinds of burgers and gourmet pizza.
Ezekiel Ox
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e / Cultu Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good Having already been announced for A Day On The Green and their own Melbourne and Sydney gigs, Died Pretty have announced a Brisbane headline show as well – at The Triffid on 11 Mar.
Died Pretty
19TH NOVEMBER
YOWIE #8 W/ MILES BROWN (MELB) 20TH NOVEMBER
HAU “NO END THEORY” ALBUM TOUR Golden Program The Arts Centre Gold Coast have unveiled their 2016 Season, featuring music, dancing, live performance and acrobatics. Highlights include Sydney Dance Company’s CounterMove, comprising Cacti and Lux Tenbris; and Mary Poppins: The Broadway Musical.
21ST NOVEMBER
POOLHOUSE RECORDS PRESENTS: PEEZO - OLD SCHOOL FUTURISTIC 2 22ND NOVEMBER
ALL YOU NEED IS BEATLES TRIBUTE NIGHT FOR UNHCR SYRIA APPEAL 26TH NOVEMBER
PESCI’S W/ APES, BASKERVILLAIN, BLONDE ON BLONDE 27TH NOVEMBER
Tough As An Ox Ezekiel Ox is at it again, announcing an east coast tour of the nation, titled the Friends And Whanau Tour. Joining him will be New Zealand DJ Marze. The show will feature more than 300 samples from hundreds of artists, so you can bet it’ll be the ultimate mash-up party.
170.4
KITCHEN’S FLOOR – BATTLE OF BRISBANE LP LAUNCH || 28TH NOVEMBER
CULL – ALOFT ALBUM LAUNCH 29TH NOVEMBER
The amount, in $US million, that Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu Couché sold for at auction, making the painting possibly the most expensive early Christmas present ever.
STRICTLY SPEAKING #4 FEAT. MATHAS, MASTER WOLF, EMPH N TREATS AND BABEK
WWW.THEFOUNDRY.NET.AU THEFOUNDRY.OZTIX.COM.AU 228 WICKHAM STREET, FORTITUDE VALLEY
THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 15
Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Spot O’ Croquet?
The full line-up for Royal Croquet Club has been released, and it includes WAFIA, Touch Sensitive, Motez, KLP (DJ set), Romare, Flex Cop, Nora En Pure and George Maple providing punters chilled-out tunes.
Happy Bday
The Triffid
Dear Triffid
Atlanta’s Chan Marshall, who you might know as Cat Power, has announced a series of intimate solo performances next Feb. She’ll be showcasing new material as well as old faves.
The Triffid are celebrating their first birthday this month and also have a new menu to show off. It’s gourmet burgers (including their signature Triffid Burger at just 14 buckos), sliders, a hot dog, salads, small bites and handcut fries galore.
Rose For Charity There’ll be canapés and unlimited rosé at a cocktail-style event at Darling & Co on 28 Nov, 2.30– 5.30pm. The events is raising funds for Pink Hope, a charity that works to ensure every individual can assess, manage and reduce their risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
The Cat’s Meow
Thievery Corporation
A Steal
Rose Revolution
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Thievery Corporation make a return to Australia in Feb – their first visit in more than four years with a full live band. They’ll be celebrating their latest album, Saudade, performing on stages in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.
Arts / Li Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Blue In The Face
Brian Wilson
More acts have been announced for the Bluesfest line-up, including Brian Wilson, The Residents, Taj Mahal, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats and Shooglenifty.
James Franco must be so sad that he’s been trying to reach this level of bizarre for years and Shia just owns it effortlessly #allmymovies @simonemoann on Shia LeBeouf’s latest art project: a live-stream of himself watching all his movies over a three-day marathon.
Cat Power
Ardalan
Are We Worthy Worthy and Ardalan are coming Down Under on a double headline national tour this Dec comprising five epic club shows. They’ll be hitting up Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Perth.
THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 17
Awards
Aria Form Guide Taking the ARIAs with the utmost seriousness (and an ocean’s worth of salt), here’s who Hannah Story and The Music editorial team think will and should take home ARIA Awards this year – from Coutney Barnett’s clean sweep, to Tame Impala potentially pocketing both the Rock and Pop categories, to the continuing charms of Paul Kelly. Cover pic by Cole Bennetts. ALBUM OF THE YEAR Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit, Flight Facilities - Down To Earth, Hermitude - Dark Night Sweet Light, Tame Impala - Currents, Vance Joy - Dream Your Life Away Who will win? Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit Who should win? Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit Why? The ARIA lords could give it to Vance Joy, who lost out to Chet Faker twice last year. They could give it Tame Impala, who cleaned up with second album Lonerism back in 2013, or they could make the correct choice and give it to the standout artist of the year, CB. BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST OF THE YEAR Conrad Sewell - Start Again, Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit, Gang Of Youths - The Positions, Jarryd James - Do You Remember, Meg Mac - MEGMAC EP Who will win? Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit Who should win? Meg Mac - MEGMAC EP Why? CB has been selling out shows across the entire damn world this year - but arguably, she broke out with her double EP A Sea Of Split Peas last year. It’s Meg Mac who’s the real up-and-comer in this line-up with her beautiful self-titled debut EP and a lot of worthy buzz around her, although young’n Sewell made it to the top of the ARIA charts for the first time in June this year with single Start Again. BEST FEMALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit, Jessica Mauboy - Can I Get A Moment?, Meg Mac - MEGMAC EP, Megan Washington - There There, Sia Elastic Heart Who will win? Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit Who should win? Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit Why? Jessica Mauboy did not win this one last year for Beautiful, losing to Sia, and she probably won’t win this year either - which is a good thing too, this song coming up as a Spotify ad kept A sight probably to be repeated at this year’s ARIAs. Tame Impala interrupting my moping teenager at the 2013 ARIA Awards. Pic: Cole Bennetts. playlist. Sia won’t win this year 18 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER 2015
either, even if Elastic Heart is a CHOON. Neither will the two Megs, Washo and Mac, who, despite excellent records, just can’t match CB. Barnett is inimitable, however much the Yanks are now trying. BEST MALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR #1 Dads - Nominal, Daniel Johns - Talk, Guy Sebastian - Tonight Again, Jarryd James Do You Remember, Vance Joy - Dream Your Life Away Who will win? Vance Joy - Dream Your Life Away Who should win? #1 Dads - Nominal Why? Would be nice to see #1 Dads out with an ARIA win, but we see this one going to Joy, who didn’t stand a chance against Chet Faker last year. Maybe Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker should be in this category, hey? BEST GROUP OF THE YEAR 5 Seconds Of Summer - LiveSOS, AC/DC - Rock Or Bust, Hermitude - Dark Night Sweet Light, Tame Impala - Currents, The Preatures - Blue Planet Eyes Who will win? Tame Impala - Currents Who should win? Tame Impala - Currents or Hermitude - Dark Night Sweet Light Why? At least if Kev Parker had been in Best Male there’d be a contest! Here it seems like he’s destined to take out the top title, even though fellow nominee Hermitude are a worthy adversary: their gigs just keep getting bigger and bigger, and they’ve got a heap of festival slots coming up. BEST INDEPENDENT RELEASE Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit, Hermitude - Dark Night Sweet Light, Jarryd James - Do You Remember, Paul Kelly - The Merri Soul Sessions, Vance Joy - Dream Your Life Away Who will win? Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit Who should win? Courtney Barnett Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit Why? Behold the year of CB. She can’t take out Best Album and not take out this one sorry Vance Joy, Paul Kelly, Hermitude and Jarryd James. This contest was over before it even started. BEST ADULT CONTEMPORARY ALBUM John Farnham & Olivia Newton-John - Two Strong Hearts, Megan Washington - There There, Oh Mercy - When We Talk About Love, Paul Kelly - The Merri Soul Sessions, Szymon - Tigersapp Who will win? Szymon - Tigersapp Who should win? Oh Mercy - When We Talk About Love or Megan Washington There There Why? Oh Mercy and Megan Washington’s gut-wrenching records deserve some love, but are unlikely to get it. And Kelly took this one out last year with Neil Finn for Goin’ Your Way, he’s already a mainstay of the category. But a niggling part of us thinks that Szymon might
Some of this year’s ARIA Award nominees at the event launch. Pic: Peter Sharp
just have this one; there was a lot of buzz around this posthumous release from one of those tragic musical genius types... BEST BLUES & ROOTS ALBUM CW Stoneking - Gon’ Boogaloo, Marlon Williams - Marlon Williams, The Black Sorrows - Endless Sleep, The Waifs - Beautiful You, Tim Rogers & The Bamboos - The Rules Of Attraction Who will win? Marlon Williams Marlon Williams Who should win? CW Stoneking Gon’ Boogaloo Why? Marlon Williams was the talk of this year’s CMJ Music Marathon and he deserves a win, but boy would we love to see Stoneking nab the prize. Everyone loves Tim Rogers and The Bamboos, separately and together, but we don’t think they quite cut it in the blues category. BEST COUNTRY ALBUM Catherine Britt - Boneshaker, Lee Kernaghan - Spirit Of The ANZACs, Mustered Courage White Lies And Melodies, Shane Nicholson - Hell Breaks Loose, Troy Cassar-Daley Freedom Ride Who will win? Lee Kernaghan - Spirit Of The ANZACs Who should win? Shane Nicholson - Hell Breaks Loose Why? Nicholson’s record was joyous - a new beginning for the man post-split with last year’s Country Album winner Kasey Chambers (yes, for her own break-up record, what symmetry). Kernaghan meanwhile plays to country music’s sense of history and grandeur - what better way to honour the ANZAC Centenary than to hand Kernaghan an Award on a platter. BEST DANCE RELEASE Alison Wonderland - Run, Flight Facilities
- Down To Earth, Hayden James - Something About You, Peking Duk ft SAFIA - Take Me Over, RÜFÜS You Were Right Who will win? Peking Duk ft SAFIA - Take Me Over Who should win? Alison Wonderland - Run Why? Peking Duk took this one out last year (with a little help from Nicole Millar), pipping the much-loved RÜFÜS at the post. This year they’re likely to win again as Take Me Over is an earworm, but we kinda wish we’d see Alison Wonderland take the prize. She’s been wooing festival audiences all year and her first full-length is a super interesting dance epic. BEST HARD ROCK/HEAVY METAL ALBUM Born Lion - Final Words, In Hearts Wake - Skydancer, King Parrot - Dead Set, Northlane - Node, Thy Art Is Murder Holy War Who will win? Northlane - Node Who should win? King Parrot - Dead Set Why? It’s been a massive year for Northlane, with the release of Node, their first with new vocalist Marcus Bridge, promoted with a dripfeed marketing campaign hiding tensecond cuts of their songs across the web. Has anything so brutal as King Parrot’s Dead Set ever won an ARIA? The level of intensity reaches a whole new level and should be given the nod. Besides, we could only imagine what Youngy would say too if given a chance to head up to the podium. BEST POP RELEASE Conrad Sewell - Start Again, Jarryd James - Do You Remember, Sia - Elastic Heart, Tame Impala - Let It Happen, Vance Joy - Dream Your Life Away Who will win? Vance Joy - Dream Your Life Away Who should win? Vance Joy - Dream Your Life Away or Tame Impala - Let It Happen Why? Sewell’s single was an ARIA #1 and Elastic Heart would have best film clip in the bag, but Vance Joy deserves it more, and put in a more concerted campaign to win - his people committing to American-style voterattention marketing. Plus Riptide is still catchy as all heck. But Let It Happen is a pop-psych jam-out, and we wouldn’t even mind it if Tame took out the unlikely category.
BEST ROCK ALBUM Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit, Dead Letter Circus - Aesthesis, Gang Of Youths - The Positions, Tame Impala Currents, The Preatures - Blue Planet Eyes Who will win? Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit Who should win? Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit Why? Best Pop and Best Rock, Tame! Greedy. Everyone loved Currents, but they still can’t beat out CB - it’s the best album of all the genres, it’s gotta take out Best Rock. BEST URBAN ALBUM Citizen Kay - Demokracy, Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon, Seth Sentry - Strange New Past, The Meeting Tree - R U A Cop, Tuka - Life Death Time Eternal Who will win? Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon Who should win? Tuka Life Death Time Eternal Why? We’ve definitely got a big soft spot for Citizen Kay, but Tuka’s record was much more diverse than the other nominated releases just totally different to anything else we’ve heard all year. Hiatus Kaiyote on the other hand have been on the scene for a while releasing solid songs - but nothing that we see matching Tuka.
When & Where: 26 Nov, The Star Event Centre. Broadcast on Ten.
THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 19
Music
Loyal Followings
Lashes Symbol Of Peace For Paris, Jean Jullien
20 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER 2015
At just 28 years old, Aussie hip hop artist Kerser is dropping his fifth studio album and tells Neil Griffiths he believes he is the country’s top artist.
“I
feel like I’ve accomplished everything I said I would.... I’m at the peak of my career,” he says. “Every year I drop an album and the buzz keeps getting bigger.” While he boasts that he is one of the biggest music acts to come out of Australia, Kerser, real name Scott Barrow, doesn’t like to compare himself with other national acts. “I put myself in a lane of my own. I don’t think my music sounds like other people’s music, unless they’re biting me. I feel like I’m bringing a new sound and subject matter to rap about. There’s been street rappers, but there hasn’t been any artist in Australia that can say they’ve come from Campbelltown and actually made it. I’ve done what no Australian artist has done in Australia before and I didn’t have radio play and I didn’t have a hand in it until now.” Not only have his lyrics — which are often criticised for being misogynistic or based heavily around drugs and crime — stirred controversy in the past, but his fans have also earned themselves a reputation. In recent times, music stores around the country have sold Kerser’s records over the counter only, due to high rates of theft, and while Barrow doesn’t condone his fans’ actions, he refuses to condemn them either. “I don’t condone it, but I’ve been in the
position where I really wanted something and couldn’t get it. I don’t advise kids to steal, but I can’t contradict myself because when I was that age, I was stealing CDs from shops. I’m not going to contradict myself, I’m just keeping it 100% real. If they can’t afford it, rack it.” Barrow labels his fanbase as they most loyal of any artist in Australia. “Everything I’ve done is supported. They buy anything I put out, my merchandise goes crazy. They really jump on and support what I choose to do and they just stay loyal to everything I do. They’re not hip hop fans, they’re Kerser fans.” Though he says he was always destined to rap, Kerser admits that some of his musical tastes outside of the genre would surprise even his biggest fan. “I listen to Powderfinger, I listen to Ed Sheeran, I listen to the Nirvana Nevermind CD — I listen to a lot of other stuff,” he laughs. “Their music has a certain vibe that attracts me and calms me down. Kind of gives me a coastal vibe. I also listen to Pete Murray, that style I really like.” As for what the future holds, Kerser plans to continue to tour and release new material each year. “Ten albums in ten years — that’s the guarantee,” he says firmly. “I honestly think I can’t stop rapping. I can’t see myself stopping but once the ten comes I’ll see what position I’m in. We’re going to go on tour in February in most of the major cities and then we’re going to back it up with a regional tour. Then after that, it’s onto album six.”
What: Next Step (ABK/ADA)
THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 21
Music
True Rock’n’Roll “The last few years have been a mindfuck,” The Preatures’ frontwoman Isabella Manfredi tells Annelise Ball. “You can print that. You can open with that.”
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ut the mindfuckingly hectic pace sustained by this hardworking rock’n’roll band ain’t over just yet. Playing free unplugged shows across Australia every November weekend for Corona Sunsets, The Preatures will be stripping back songs, playing new material and shaking things up. “The boys will play acoustic guitars and bass, while Luke [Davison, drummer] will play just a snare,” explains Manfredi. “We haven’t really done anything like this before, so it’ll be a real challenge for us.” Sinking Coronas at some of Australia’s best beachfront venues doesn’t sound like an overly taxing task, but when Manfredi
They’re so angry they don’t give a fuck and don’t want to get involved.
wonders aloud how Whatever You Want and Rock And Roll Rave will go down acoustically, the struggle becomes much more real. “They’re the darkest songs in the set, and the most heavily produced,” she says. “I have no idea how they’re going to sound unplugged.” Don’t be dissuaded though, punters, there’s still plenty of perks on offer. “We’ve been writing new material, so we’ll probably throw in some new songs and do a few covers,” she says. “That’s the point of it all, to strip everything back and try something new.” Having loved the Victorian leg of their recent Cruel national tour, Manfredi now reminisces about dodgier times down south. “When we first started out, we used to stay at this really shitty backpackers place in Melbourne. I remember a guy waking us up once, at 6am after a show, just vomiting his guts up. That was our usual experience of Melbourne for a really long time.” Fortunately, the city somewhat redeemed itself (Frankston punters going to the Corona Sunsets gig at The Deck, do not ruin this) thanks to the perfectly suited surrounds 22 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER 2015
of 170 Russell and the party vibe on the streets. “We loved the gig at 170 Russell,” shares Manfredi. “It’s so cool, so ‘80s, I can totally imagine the Divinyls playing there. Venues like that suit us so well, they’re so seedy.” But, it was the laidback late night culture that really made Melbourne for Manfredi. “It was beautiful weather, everyone was out, and I saw a side of the city I’d never seen before. There was so much life on the streets.” In contrast, Sydney’s lockout laws seem to have killed the local vibe completely. “Sydney’s been neutralised,” says Manfredi, a Sydney local well placed to comment. “We used to have that scene on Oxford Street, and maybe Newtown, but it’s completely under attack now.” Manfredi notes an admirable sense of activism and participatory passion in Melburnians, who simply won’t stand for such nanny state nonsense. “I was chatting with a Melbourne friend about the laws, including the next phase, which says you cannot smoke outside venues at all, not even in beer gardens,” explains Manfredi, with evident concern. “My friend said, ‘They tried to pass that in Melbourne but people wouldn’t have a bar of it.’” The difference, Manfredi believes, is that Sydney people are just “too busy and too angry” to resist. “They’re angry because they’re too busy, and they’re too busy because they have to work so hard just to pay the rent. They’re so angry they don’t give a fuck and don’t want to get involved.” With four free Corona Sunsets gigs happening locally in Manly, Watsons Bay, Bondi and Mona Vale, let’s hope embattled Sydneysiders at least enjoy the free Preatures gigs and a sensible early beer or two. Hitting the regional spots on the Sunsets tour is something Manfredi is especially looking forward to. “On the Cruel tour, my favourite show was in Castlemaine. We played in this old Art Deco theatre, it was like a ‘70s high school dance in the greatest sense.” Without the trappings of a major live venue, Manfredi could simply take it all in. “There was no wings on the stage, so I just sat to the side, drank wine and watched the music. I loved it.” Conceding that greater success brings bigger performance venues that make it harder to connect with the audience, Manfredi admits she prefers a much smaller stage. “My favourite shows are club shows. That’s the reason why I love performing, that intimacy. I think the bigger you get, the harder it is to put on a true rock’n’roll show. You need energy, between people in close proximity, to create intimacy.” Noting that Manfredi often gets right up in the faces of front row punters at The Preatures gigs, she interrupts with a passionate, “That’s what I love! You make music to be with people. You make music because you’re lonely. I make music because I grew up being really lonely and had a completely broken teenage heart, and I just really wanted to be with people. “It’s a real performer who can create intimacy in a huge venue,” says Manfredi. “I prefer the dregs to be honest.”
When & Where: 21 Nov, Sandstone Point Hotel; 22 Nov, Coolangatta Hotel (arvo), Hotel Brunswick (eve)
Music
Healthy Rivalry
Rudimental, masters of modish drum’n’bass, and Disclosure, sleek nugaragers, are simultaneously dropping second albums. But Rudimental’s Kesi Dryden’s assures Cyclone, it’s all love.
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t could be the UK dance music equivalent of Michael Jackson’s infamous rivalry with Prince. “I’m excited by it - us and Disclosure are great friends,” he says easily. “We’ve always worked closely together. So us having albums that are coming out at a similar time kinda works well for both of us. We’ll continue to support each other and support good music.” Indeed, the acts united to launch June’s UK festival Wild Life. Dryden should be confident: We The Generation, led by the zesty Never Let You Go with Northern Irish troubadour Foy Vance, is a credible sequel to 2013’s Home. The Rudimental story begins in Hackney, East London, where Dryden grew up alongside Piers Agget and Leon Rolle. Forming a group, they eventually recruited Amir Amor. The quartet developed a hybrid of local pirate radio sounds - house, jungle and UK garage - influenced as much by their parents’ jazz, soul and funk collections. Signed to the indie Black Butter Records, Rudimental blew up with 2012’s Feel The Love, featuring newcomer John Newman - it was their first UK #1 and Australian smash. Waiting All Night, with Ella Eyre, a young UK Chaka Khan, again topped the chart (and won “British Single of the Year” at the BRITs). Rudimental’s debut Home received a Mercury Prize nom. Like Home, We The Generation. combines DJ sensibilities with live instrumentation. Rudimental sought established vocalists such
as Lianne La Havas, while Eyre and MNEK, their studio buddy, return. Yet Rudimental also introduce Will Heard and Anne-Marie, the latter the flagship artist on their strategic Major Toms label (named after their HQ). “With John Newman and Ella, it was amazing to have the opportunity to work with them,” Dryden reveals. “But, once they got signed by other labels, we haven’t really had the opportunity to work with them as much as we would have liked to. So keeping everyone in house through Major Toms means that we can continue that relationship and build on something and have something lasting.” Dryden hopes Major Toms will evolve into “the future Motown” - and be “a big family” and “a big movement”. Rudimental’s fam is already huge. Their mate Ed Sheeran sings multiple numbers on We The Generation, including the hit Bloodstream, initially heard on x. Rudimental’s take has been mistagged a ‘remix’, Dryden notes - it’s actually “the original version”, conceived in Los Angeles “a few years ago”. However, the greatest triumph on We The Generation is a cameo by the late Bobby Womack, the bittersweet New Day Coming among his final recordings. Rudimental met the soul legend when they performed on Later... With Jools Holland. “He came over to us and is like, ‘Guys, that was amazing.’” They discussed a studio session, but it never happened. “Luckily, his family had this song that he’d written just before he passed away and they said that they wanted to give it to us to work on. So that was a massive privilege.” Rudimental will be Sheeran’s “special guests” on his upcoming Australian stadium tour - and they have headline shows. They’re “superexcited”, Dryden says. “When we’re on stage it’s a big band - there’s 11 of us on there, we have a big party.”
So You Didn’t Get A Ticket To The ARIAs? That’s ok! You can catch the ARIAs on Ten (and check out our live coverage on Twitter, Periscope and Instagram). Here’s the answers to some FAQ. Who’s hosting the ceremony? Andrew G and James Mathison Osher Günsberg Who’s hosting the red carpet? Joel Creasey, Angela Bishop, Scott Tweedie and Liv Phyland Oh God, what does that all mean? Who are these people? You know who these people are! Günsberg hosts The Bachelor/ette – which should mean a totally unexpected appearance from Sam Frost, and hopefully the throwing of shade to anyone who crosses her. It means Creasey, who you remember from I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and his A+ comedy sets, will make wise cracks and be caught holding hands with BFF Chrissie Swan. It means Angela Bishop will continue to be Angela Bishop, effectively squashing the hopes and dreams of any wannabe Entertainment Reporter who dares to come within a kilometre radius (except you Richard Wilkins, you can be old hat together). I love it when middle-aged ladies try to flirt with One Direction. I just love it. This year she’ll have Ed Sheeran in her sights. And finally it means The Loop co-hosts Tweedie and Phyland will experience high ratings for the first time ever (SICK BURN). Flick back a few pages to read our ARIA Form Guide.
What: We The Generation (Warner) When & Where: 27 Nov, Eatons HIll Hotel
THE E MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 23
Award Show Performances Are Super Awkward
Music
Rap Or Instrumental?
Just super duper awkward. So you should get some friends around and drink when these things inevitably happen: Ed Sheeran will make mums’ hearts flutter everywhere. Conrad Sewell will sing [insert hit generic song here]. Flight Facilities will make you feel like your home is a festival parkland at 11.30pm, minus the muddy gumboots. No, all you have is carpet and PJs and whatever cheap brand of wine you could afford today. Well done, you. Hermitude will do something incredible – 90% of the audience will talk through it. You will use the Jarryd James set to go to the bathroom. Jessica Mauboy may or may not turn up – there may be another wardrobe dispute, this time with David Jones. Your buddy says ‘Who is Nathaniel?’ and then you spend ten minutes thinking of other names for baby boys you’d use for your first son. Peking Duk will bring the club vibes up to 11 and you’ll seriously consider getting on a bus to the Cross/Melbourne CBD/wherever people hang out in Brisbane. You wont make it. The Veronicas won’t sing that hit song from the ‘00s: cue outrage. Vance Joy may or may not sing Riptide, complete with choir, your BFF will shout out “I fucking love this song!”, then pass out. Tina Arena is actually immortal. Flick back a few pages to read our ARIA Form Guide.
24 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER NOVEMBE 2015
Ratatat’s Evan Mast speaks to Anthony Carew about the pros and cons of producing, and how a track for Jay-Z turned him back to making instrumentals.
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atatat’s recently released fifth album Magnifique marked the Brooklyn duo’s first in over five years. After spending most of the ‘00s on the promotional grind their first four albums made, released, and toured “back-to-back-to-back” - the band took a break following shows for 2010’s LP4, including a stint in Australia in early 2011 that marked their last dates before going on hiatus. “We took four years off touring,” says Evan Mast, Ratatat keyboardist/producer, who splits the duo with guitarist Mike Stroud. “Having that long break has made me really appreciate it more, now. Having people come out to your shows, having really young people, new listeners, and feeling their energy, it’s something that’s really amazing and that you shou always stop to appreciate.” In the years Ratatat were on the shelf, and off the road, Mast and Stroud kept working on music and chased something that had been a long-held goal: working as producers for big ticket rappers. They practised with old mixtapes (2004’s Ratatat Remixes Vol. I and 2007’s Vol. II) in which they sampled the likes of Jay Z, Missy Elliott and Dizzee Rascal over their own productions. It was part exercise in working out how to produce for rappers, part calling card for hopeful future collaborations. And, eventually, it paid off, big-time, with Mast producing 100$ Bill, a track Jay Z made for the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 monstrosity The Great Gatsby.
“I’d been a huge fan of Jay Z for a long time, so it was a huge thrill,” Mast says. “He’s a good person to work with because he’s really attentive and he doesn’t make you go through all these levels of management to talk to him or give you feedback. But the frustrating thing about working with a huge artist like that is that you don’t have as much control as you’d like. With that track, there ended up being things that happened to it after I’d done my part that I wasn’t too psyched about.” This experience lead Mast to feel a little jaded about producing for others, and plenty excited about returning to Ratatat’s signature, sinuous sound. “It’s fun to collaborate with people and work with rappers and vocalists, but at the moment it feels totally like a sideline, something I want to only do every once in a while,” he says. “The stuff that I’m most proud of, out of everything I’ve ever made in my whole life, has been instrumental. I think music has this extra timeless quality to it when there’s no vocals.” This means that Magnifique continues Ratatat’s 15-year rebellion against the notion that instrumental music is lacking a ‘topline’. “There’s a whole segment of the music industry that’s totally not interested in, or willing to accept, music without vocals,” Mast says. “Which is weird to me, [because] I grew up listening to pop instrumental music. I had a bunch of organ records from the Salvation Army, dudes like Earl Grant and Lenny Dee. Then Herb Alpert, Apollo 100, The Ventures, stuff like that. Most instrumental music now is more moody or experimental or soundtracky kind of stuff. There’s not really that much poppy instrumental music, you just don’t hear it. The last big instrumental pop hit was, what, the Beverly Hills Cop theme song?”
What: Magnifique (XL/Remote Control) When & Where: 2 Dec, The Tivoli
THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 25
What We’d Like To See At The ARIAs A wishlist if you will.
Music
Striking Out
Tim Rogers drunk on the ARIA stage, slagging off industry big wigs/tossers. Puppies on the red carpet, just loads of them. An all-puppy red carpet, plus Delta Goodrem dressed up as her character in Cats. Angela Bishop diving on Chris Isaak a la Amy Schumer on Kanye. Taylor Swift arriving as Ed Sheeran’s date – and Joel Creasey begging to be in her squad (along with Vance Joy). Chet Faker rolling up to the ceremony dressed in a towel. The Real Housewives Of Melbourne #FreeTheNipple. Tame Impala playing a very quiet secret set. A special appearance from Camilla and Charles – interviewed by Molly Meldrum. Daniel Johns jumping on stage in a fur coat and shouting, “Imma let you finish but Paul Mac had the best album of all time.” CW Stoneking actually showing up to the ceremony. Flick back a few pages to read our ARIA Form Guide.
26 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER NOVEMBE 2015
Disentangling oneself from a much-loved post-grunge indie rock band is only a struggle if you let it be. For Ben Ottewell, Gomez was and is a band he has much to be thankful for, so why shun it while touring his solo stuff, he tells Carley Hall.
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hen Ben Ottewell, the gruff-voiced singer from indie-rock stalwarts Gomez, calls in from his Brighton home it’s about 8 in the morning. With a wife and three kids at home, 8am would be a veritable sleep-in for the Englishman, if it weren’t for the rigours of touring. “Normally I would have been up for like three hours with the kids and stuff but I’m halfway through a tour so I’m a little sketchy,” Ottewell laughs. “I’m making coffee with an AeroPress, it’s like a big syringe that you make coffee with. You don’t need them, you guys have good coffee everywhere in Australia. It’s getting better here, mostly because of all the Australians.” When Gomez formed in 1996 from a bunch of old friends and university acquaintances, the planets aligned and placed the five-piece on a short road to success. Eternal crowd favourite Get Myself Arrested was the flagship of first album Bring It On, which dropped in 1998. It was the year Massive Attack gifted the world Mezzanine, Pulp proffered This Is Hardcore, and The Verve gave us Urban Hymns. But when it came to the Mercury Prize Award, none of them beat Gomez’s debut.
After years of touring and a bunch of equally as mesmerising albums, and with adoring fans in thrall, Gomez’s hiatus is still a sore spot for many. Having released two solo albums to much adulation, is it possible to shake the band’s presence when Ottewell is out on his own? “I don’t know really, I reckon it’s still like 80 per cent of people come and watch me play because of Gomez,” he admits. “But the thing is, Gomez was very ubiquitous at one point so I don’t mind it at all. “The thing is I’m really proud of those tunes and they’re just as much a part of me as some of the others. It’s always interesting for me to play some of the songs the other guys sang. Some of the tunes I just don’t remember! People try to catch you out by calling out something a little bit obscure, you know. They’re the sort of fans that I have.” Ottewell hasn’t ruled out a Gomez comeback for insatiable fans but for now he’s enjoying creating riff-heavy, bluesy croons via his solo work, with a new album on the way after a gig-filled year. But the same old trials of writing and performing remain. “I still have the same day-to-day struggle,” Ottewell laughs. “I’m essentially still writing from the same place. It’s like flexing that muscle again and trying to work it out. It sounds really clichéd and a bit Keith Richards but I just let songs come to me. There’s no real rhyme or reason to it. “But there’s a certain kind of honesty in playing acoustic, which I really relish, it’s quite a beautiful thing really. Or it can be, sometimes it’s horrible. But most of the time I manage to pull it off. There’s nowhere to hide, which is a good thing.”
When & Where: 20 Nov, Black Bear Lodge; 21 & 22 Nov, Mullum Music Festival
November THURSDAY
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19 OLIVER 20 HUNNTERMANN DARK 21 SYMPHONICA 26 BANFF HAMMERHEAD 27 DREAM ON 28 DREAMER THE MAINE 30 VULTURE CIRCUS, ACID ON ANDY, THESE GUYS
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BAPFF
What To Catch At BAPFF Now in its second year, the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival is expanding, already entrenching its place on the local cinematic cultural calendar. Though there’s a scattering of ‘classic’ features — from Mikio Naruse’s 1955 masterwork Floating Clouds to the renegade staple of Australian best-of lists, Rolf de Heer’s 1993 barney Bad Boy Bubby — the fest’s goal is to assemble a host of outstanding contemporary regional films, from the Middle East to Australia. Here are Anthony Carew’s highlights of BAPFF 2015. The Assassin (Taiwan, D. Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
The Assassin
Early Winter
The Assassin is a wuxia film — there’s sword fights, chases on horseback, palace intrigue, murders by cold blade — but it’s also a wuxia film by Hou Hsiao-Hsien. And, as ever, the minimalist tends to a kind of rapturous naturalism, camera sitting still at a distance, long-shot long-takes painting a portrait of vast environmental splendour, humans tiny figures within, lost in the world. Come for the sword fights, but stay for the endless shots of leaves rustling in the breeze. 27 Nov, Palace Barracks; 28 Nov, GOMA
Early Winter (Australia/Canada,
Atomic Heart (Islamic Republic Of Iran,
Atomic Heart
D. Ali Ahmadzadeh) Ahmadzadeh’s second film starts out with real-time realism: a pair of women drive around Tehran at the end of a night of drunken revelry. But a car accident tilts the film, unexpectedly, into a kind of nocturnal nightmare. It moves, thereafter, with dream-like dislocation, playing games with time, space, perception, and special guest appearances by dead Iraqi dictators, the film a sly, satirical mix of absurdist comedy, mounting anxiety and social commentary.
D. Michael Rowe) After two films made in Mexico, ex-pat Australian Michael Rowe moves North to Québec, casting Xavier Dolan standby Suzanne Clément in this cold, grim, ultimately unnerving portrait of a marriage in decline, Rowe showing his continued filmmaking fascination with family units and unerotic fucking. 21 Nov, Palace Barracks; 24 Nov, New Farm Cinemas
20 Nov, New Farm Cinemas; 26 Nov, Palace Barracks
The Look Of Silence (Indonesia, D. Joshua Oppenheimer) A companion piece to his astonishing The Act Of Killing, here Oppenheimer moves from the perps to the victims, losing some of the stranger-than-fiction absurdity as he does. It’s a look at the lingering effects of state-sanctioned violence; the filmmaker once again agitating for national healing and social change. 22 Nov, Palace Barracks
28 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER 2015
The Look Of Silence
BAPFF Mountains May Depart (China/
Mina Walking
Japan/France, D.
(Afghanistan, D. Yosef Baraki)
Jia Zhangke) Jia begins his latest feature in familiar form, delivering a symbolic parable on Mountains May Depart changing Chinese cultural values and the transforming of agrarian peasants into an indentured workforce, as embodied by a love triangle, in which two dudes — one rich, one poor — battle over the one girl. But in its third act, the film unexpectedly alights in Australia in 2025, its strange, sci-fi ish final reel an audacious, divisive act. 19 & 22 Nov, Palace Barracks
Mustang (Qatar/ Turkey/France/
Shot guerrilla-style on the streets of Kabul, Baraki’s debut picture channels classic Iranian cinema with its central premise: a 12-year-old girl, forced to peddle goods on the street by her junkie father, wishes she could just concentrate on school. When her grandfather dies, she’s set the Sisyphean task of organising his burial before sundown, met by resistance from overbearing male figures all the while. Martialing a non-professional cast headlined by Farzana Nawabi’s amazing lead turn, Mina Walking quietly mounts a searing look at life under oppressive, Mina Walking patriarchal law. 21 Nov, Palace Barracks
Germany, D. Deniz Gamze
Our Little Sister
Ergüven)
(Japan,
Ergüven’s beloved debut Mustang openly echoes The Virgin Suicides, giving us five sisters who incite moral panic in a Turkish seaside village by dint of their nascent adolescent sexuality. Their glowering locks them up in their family villa, and employs their grandmother to teach them in the ways of proper womanliness. In short, the house-as-prison becomes a “wife factory” and the first sisters are swiftly married off, before comedy, tragedy, and, eventually, a heroic jailbreak-escape breakout.
Our Little Sister
D. Hirokazu Kore-eda) Kore-eda’s tenth feature finds the auteur moving into outright crowdpleasery, rendering an idyllic portrait of small town, seaside Japanese life and oddball sisterhood, the film bookended with funerals, and filled with non-threatening comedy and musings on life.
21 & 22 Nov, Palace Barracks
26 & 27 Nov, Palace Barracks
Right Now, Wrong Then
A Young Patriot
(South Korea, D. Hong Sang-soo)
(China, D. Du Haibin)
The 17th Hong film is just like the previous 16: another study of male vanity, Korean social mores, bad drunken decisions and the artifice of artmaking. And, like so many of his films, it’s another diptych: in which the story is told once, then all over again; the slight differences a sly, incisive, comic commentary on the thrown-shade of social cues.
In Du Haibin’s fascinating documentary, a Mao-loving teenager stands as symbol of a new generation of nationalist Chinese millennials, proudly — and literally — waving the flag of communist patriotism. But when an imminent government development requires the demolition of the house he grew up in and the new house his parents are building, his idealism starts to waver, the struggle between individualism and nationalism embodied in the form of one increasingly dissolute kid.
21 Nov, Palace Barracks; 25 Nov, New Farm Cinemas
Right Now, Wrong Then
A Young Patriot
24 & 26 Nov, Palace Barracks THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 29
Bad Boy Bubby
To win one of three double passes to The Music’s screening of Bad Boy Bubby, head to theMusic.com.au/win.
Good... Or Bad? Rolf de Heer is no stranger to criticisim and confoundment when it comes to his films. He sepaks to Guy Davis about his experience of other’s experience of his films, and the upcoming BAPFF screening of his 1993 cult classic Bad Boy Bubby.
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ilmmaker Rolf de Heer knows a thing or two about extreme responses to his work. When his second feature, the trippy science-fiction drama Incident At Raven’s Gate was released in the UK in 1988, he was sent a bundle of reviews, the first of which began with the sentence “Australians make some very bad film and this is one of the worst.” “It was like a kick in the guts,” laughs de Heer. “They proceeded to justify that, and I was going ‘They’re right, they’re right!’ Gradually they got better, and the last one I read finished with ‘This film is a work of genius.’ They’re both about the same film; not one frame of the film is different. So it’s not about the film, it’s about the people who watch it. So I begin with the notion that I’m going to get a complete range of responses.” In a career that spans nearly three decades, de Heer has indeed received that complete range of responses, although they tend to veer towards the positive. But it’s safe to say that no film in his body of work has divided viewers — in terms of emotional and psychological response as well as critical reaction — as much as 1993’s Bad Boy Bubby. It’s the story of a man in his 30s (unforgettably played by Nicholas Hope) who, after spending his entire life imprisoned in one room by his unbalanced mother, makes his way into the outside world and embarks on a bizarre journey of self-discovery. Bad Boy Bubby is screening at the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival on 25 November, and de Heer is anticipating that the film will once again provoke and divide audiences. It’s a real Rorschach test of a movie, something the filmmaker discovered when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival back in the ‘90s. “Venice was the first time I ran across audiences who’d seen it, and I realised something was afoot,” he says. “The reaction to it was so personal, and I know any person’s response to a film is so much a function of who they are. But with this it was more so, whether
30 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER 2015
people liked it, hated it or could even cope with it at all. I got the feeling this was hitting a different kind of chord.” It’s even become something of a therapeutic tool, de Heer notes with amusement. “I got an email this morning from France, where the film is opening today in 23 cinemas, and they’re having a number of Q&As with psychoanalysts and psychiatrists,” he says. “It comes from the story of when it ran in Norway, where it had a tremendously long run when it was first released. It was the second highest grossing film of the year in Norway, beating all manner of American blockbusters. Apparently there was a psychiatrist who, every Friday afternoon, would load up a minivan with six of his clients — they’d see the film and then have a therapy session afterwards. This went on for months!” The range of reactions Bad Boy Bubby continues to inspire is something that seems to please de Heer: “That’s one thing I’ve learned about the film: any expectations people have are confounded because the film practically makes up its own mind what to do with you.”
Young Talent Time
What: Bad Boy Bubby When & Where: 25 Nov, Palace Barracks
Pic: Jess Bial
The star-power on hand in the debut feature from director Simon Stone is impressive, but it might just be a young newcomer who steals the film, as Danielle O’Donohue discovers.
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t takes a lot of moxie to turn up to a film set as a 16-year-old and out act a cast featuring Geoffrey Rush, Sam Neil and Miranda Otto but that’s precisely what relative newcomer Odessa Young has achieved with her performance in Simon Stone’s debut feature, The Daughter. Based on Stone’s theatrical adaptation of the Ibsen play The Wild Duck, at first glance The Daughter appears to be about two friends, Oliver (played by acclaimed Australian theatre actor Ewen Leslie) and Christian (American actor Paul Schneider), reunited when Christian returns home for his father’s wedding. But under Stone’s assured direction, it is Young who becomes the beating heart of this moving tale. Stone admits he didn’t know the power of Young’s performance until he’d captured it on film. “You absolutely don’t. It’s a leap of faith and you just have to take it.
Bifurcated Arrow Bangarra’s Stephen Page turned his dance work Spear into a film and knew he would be walking in two worlds. But he tells Paul Ransom, this is normal for Indigenous men.
“I
like to think that I knew what I was doing, but I was scared shitless,” says Stephen Page with a laugh. From someone who has been at the helm of the country’s premier Indigenous arts organisation, Bangarra Dance Theatre, for 24 years, it’s an admission you would not expect. However, even for a man who has created countless dance works, making a feature film represents a journey into the artistic unknown. When Page’s cinematic version of his 2000 stage work Spear illuminates the screen at the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival, it
“She got recommended to me. She’s in the right age bracket and she’s done a bit of work but while she was the right age she was just way too knowing and wise and self-confident. “We did a lot of auditions of various people and we were probably about a week out of starting the film and we still hadn’t found the girl and I was shitting myself, of course. Then Odessa’s agent rang and insisted we see her again. “We called her in, Ewen was there for the audition and I’d really set out quite clearly in an email what I needed to get a glimpse of and she came in and she’d completely transformed herself.” Young plays the daughter of the title, Hedvig, who is caught in the crossfire when Christian’s return uncovers long-held secrets. Leslie provides some early levity by spouting a stream of teen-speak in an effort to mortify his daughter. “Ewen was making sure he did whatever he could to embarrass Odessa, so that it felt like a genuine relationship. The relationship should feel weirdly like two teenagers hanging out with each other and it just happens that one of them is the father of the other one. That’s kind of what’s wonderful about the journey through the film. He always treats her like an equal... a wonderful thing and a dangerous thing.”
What: The Daughter When & Where: 22 Nov, Palace Barracks
will represent a cinematic homecoming for Queensland’s most acclaimed Indigenous arts powerhouse. Page explains the story of Spear as the struggle of Indigenous men “to have a foot in both worlds and to try and see how they can just surf the balance of that for the rest of their lives”. The leap from theatre to cinema perhaps allows the work’s deeper strands to reach out beyond Bangarra’s core dance and Indigenous demographic, touching upon notions of confused manhood. As many have observed, the very idea of manhood has been lost and/ or subverted; a phenomena keenly felt in the black community. “If we lived a pure men’s business, clear minded life, I just don’t think you would be able to identify the challenges that lie ahead. I just hope there’s a real resurgence of men coming together to ask those questions about what does it mean to be a man in the 21st century.” With Spear, these questions are especially poignant for Stephen Page. His son Hunter Page-Lochard dances the main role, and indeed over Page’s quarter century at Bangarra he has seen many young men come and go. “These are young males who are dealing with sexuality, violence, substance abuse, mental abuse and
a whole array of issues. Y’know, the film is stylised, so one of my questions was, ‘Am I covering up the reality of the situation here by putting them in this stylised film?’” The fact that it made its world premiere at Toronto Film Festival and its Australian debut at the Adelaide Film Festival is testament to the effectiveness of its vision. It remains, at its core, a dance work with sparse dialogue and very little in the way of popcorn cinema fare. “It’s probably even more minimal, even more of an internal narrative,” Page declares. “Y’know, because we would go in closer with the frame.” Translating the intuitive flow of live dance into the stop/start world of film is notoriously difficult. For Page the process began with clarity of purpose. “I tried to be as honest as I am in the making of a dance theatre piece. So, even though you’re working in the medium of film and the operation, or the creative process is a little different, the heart of the work, the essence of it, is unchanged.”
What: Spear When & Where: 24 Nov, Palace Barracks THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 31
Indie Indie
Lecia Louise
Superfeather
Her Affinity
Jake Whittaker
EP Focus
Have You Heard
Have You Heard
Single Focus
Answered by: Lecia McPhail-Bell
Answered by: Jack Richardson
Answered by: Josh Jones
Single title: Untrue
EP title: Per Te
When did you start making music and why? We were all child prodigies at the same prestigious kindergarten. After being repeatedly beaten, we found a vial of liquid acid and a bootleg copy of Hotlicks. Dropping hot licks became our obsession ever after.
When did you start making music and why? I started playing guitar from eight years old. Growing up we would always watch Video Hits and Rage in the morning on weekends. Seeing all the bands’ video clips made me want to do it!
What’s the song about? Someone who’s had enough of their lover messing them around by not committing and feels like they’re being untrue to themselves.
How many releases do you have now? One EP, one album, two singles and soon a new EP. Nearly five releases. Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? My 2014/2015 European and QLD tour was inspiring. I met and worked with wonderful musicians. This inspired me to push through chronic arm pain and finish my EP, even if I was in pain. What’s your favourite song on it? Let Your Guard Down was the hardest song to finish so I am most proud of this song. We’ll like this EP if we like: Mellisa Etheridge, Sheryl Crow, Samantha Fish, Chrissie Hynde, Alanis Morisette, John Mayer. When and where is your launch/ next gig? 14 Nov, 1-3pm, Paper Moon (solo); 21 Nov, 7-10pm, The Rails (trio). Website link for more info? lecialouise.com.au
Sum up your musical sound in four words? Multi-DirectionalPolyrhythmic-Psych. If you could support any band in the world - past or present who would it be? The Japanese producer Cornelius. He’s a dude who gets how to be progressive within a pop context without being pretentious. If you could only listen to one album forevermore, what would it be and why? The seminal future core album Rock Can Funk by Dale & The Dales. For its innovative use of recording techniques&#133; and for its pornographic cover art. Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date? I once found a half full pouch of tobacco at a house show we played and I was super stoked!!!! I really felt like I’d made it big that night! Why should people come and see your band? Where else ya gonna hear pulsating guitars and synth weaving polyrhythmic grooves on top of hypnotic bass lines and explosive drums? When and where for your next gig? 20 Nov at The Bearded Lady. Website link for more info? facebook.com/superfeather
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Sum up your musical sound in four words? Loud. Rocky. Catchy. Pop? If you could support any band in the world - past or present - who would it be? Probably have to say Bullet For My Valentine. They are one of my favourites and they play massive shows! If you could only listen to one album forevermore, what would it be and why? At the moment I think I’d have to say Sound Awake from Karnivool. It’s just an album I always go back to! So unique and their sound is massive! Check it out if you haven’t! Greatest rock ‘n’ roll moment of your career to date? That would probably go to ten-year-old me, playing the primary school talent show with Sam, our drummer. We played a medley of anything we knew. It finished with me sliding on my knees while playing the intro from Thunderstruck!
How long did it take to write/ record? It was initially written in around 30 minutes, by myself and keyboarder Toby Alexander, as a ballad. However in preproduction, myself and producer Brendan Anthony decided to give a more upbeat tempo. Love how it’s evolved. Is this track from a forthcoming release/existing release? This is my latest single, being released and promoted through my shows around Brisbane, Sunshine and Gold Coasts over the coming weeks and will be included on my forthcoming EP, being released early next year. What was inspiring you during the song’s writing and recording? I get inspired by working alongside great musicians and artists, and this song was an awesome collaboration with some of my favourite people. We’ll like this song if we like: Grooving along to some funk soul sounds.
Why should people come and see your band? We’re new, have a big sound with killer melodies and energetic live presence. Our music also appeals to all ages!
Do you play it differently live? We play it as close to as it is recorded, but we will sometimes throw in some extra solos and break downs if the crowd is up to participate.
When and where for your next gig? 20 Nov, The Zoo. Doors at 8pm.
When and where is your launch/ next gig? The Motor Room, 21 Nov and The Triffid, 22 Nov.
Website link for more info? facebook.com/heraffinity
Website link for more info: facebook.com/jakewhittakermusic
THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 33
Eat / Eat/Drink
Adam Chapman, Sirromet Wines
Sirromet Wines Chief Wine Maker Adam Chapman talks wine at A Day On The Green.
What’s the secret to a good drop of vino? You need to manage a good vineyard to the fruit style that you are trying to achieve, as 80% of great wine is made out in the vineyard.
A Day On The Green is as much about the wining and dining as it is about the music, so here we check out the food and drink sid de off thin ngs s. Michael Newton Michael Newton of Roundhouse Entertainment, promoter of A Day On The Green, talks food and drink at the festival. A Day On The Green is all about good food, fine wine and great music — what do these things look like to you? I would like to think it looks like any A Day On The Green show but those three things definitely make people happy wherever they are! Are you a red or white wine man? Either, but partial to a big Pinot. A Day On The Green champions BYO food to its concerts — in fact, you even have a ‘picnic of the day prize’! How do you decide who wins? Does it come down to choice of cheeses or is it more about imaginative ideas? We actually look around through the crowd to find a great picnic. People spend a lot of time making sure they eat well! We’ve seen some amazing spreads over the years.
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There is a selection of food available for purchase if people forget to pack the picnic basket — what sort of grub can we expect to find? It depends on the winery (we play at 14 different locations) but there is loads of variety. Everything from salt and pepper squid, to tacos, gourmet pizza and decent coffee. The vendors are all quality outlets from the local areas. We also have the Garden Bar option, which is an upgrade from your concert ticket to have an all-day barbie, private bar, toilets and a place to hang with your friends. What has been the weirdest foodstuff you’ve seen brought into A Day On The Green? A bottle of vodka up a roast chicken... Honest! What will be in your esky at this year’s A Day On The Green? I think I’ll eat at the food outlets — or ask my wife.
How long have you been doing brilliant things with the grape? 30 years. You are hosting A Day On The Green this year - have you got anything special planned for it? I shall be in a trade tent relaxing, talking to customers and movin’ to the sounds of the concert. Besides the wine, of course, what else does your winery offer? Wedding functions, trade events, wine education, three types of dining.
/ Drink Eat/Drink
Any wine recommendations for concert-goers? 14 VS Unwooded Chardonnay.
What’s the perfect food partner for your best-loved wine? Hervey Bay scallops with the 10 LS Chardonnay.
Vendors
If you could only drink one variety of wine for the rest of your life, what would it be? Chardonnay.
Didn’t pack enough food in your picnic basket? Don’t fret – there’ll be other food options at the venue. At Sirromet Winery, there’ll be the following truck and stalls set up for your snacking pleasure: • Wood Fired Pizza (woodfired pizzas, slushies) • Real Ice Cream (soft serve cones, sundaes, fresh fruit boat, milkshake and fruit smoothies) • Mr Naked Bean (coffee, hot chocolate) • Churros & Chocolate (Churros, bom bom churros and slushies)
• Red Rock Noodle Bar (variety of noodles, chicken fried rice, vegetarian noodles, spring rolls, dim sims, dumplings, pork buns) • Raesco Catering (hot chips, chickos, chicken strips, hot dogs, chicken & gravy rolls, pulled pork rolls, riblet rolls, hamburgers, chicken burgers) • Satay House (Malaysian satay, nasi padang, vegetarian delight, hot savouries, dim sims, chips, chicken goujon, dagwood dogs, burgers and gourmet sausages). Bon appetit!
Paul Kelly presents The Merri Soul Sessions will be playing at Sirromet Wines, 29 Nov. Picnic Suggestions A Day On The Green awards a prize for the best picnic of the day. Here are a few things to pack with your rug, guaranteed to make your picnic game strong.
Short and sweet Satisfy your sweet tooth with bite-sized beauties that are easy to sneak when no one is looking. Anything like rocky road, candied fruits, mini doughnuts, brownies or macarons is a must.
Share your cultures Keep your picnic cultured by considering something other than sambos - think snacks like sushi, dolmades, baklava, soba noodle salad, antipasto, homemade hummus, edamame... If you can introduce someone in your group to a cuisine they haven’t tried before, consider that a bonus.
A spin on a classic Grab your favourite picnic staple and give it a little twist! People will froth over anything unique, like pumpkin scones, blue cheese potato salad, quiche muffins, tandoori chicken or salad skewers. Just think outside the basket!
THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 35
Music
Never Really Left Mark Hebblewhite talks to frontman Joey Cape to talk lyrical inspiration, punk rock elitists and Soundwave.
“T
here’s a bit of a misconception about Lagwagon, that we somehow disappeared and then came back,” muses frontman Joey Cape after being asked about the gap between 2005’s Resolve and its follow-up 2014’s Hang. “We’ve always been at it with only short hiatuses. This band has never stopped or quit at any time, we’ve always been working even when we haven’t been putting out a lot of records.” Indeed, this will be Lagwagon’s second jaunt to Australia this year after an appearance at the 2015 edition of the Soundwave festival. But according to Cape, the band prefer smaller venues and headlining shows.
I guess you could say that Lagwagon takes its art seriously but we’re also careful not to take ourselves too seriously.
“To be honest... the Soundwave thing, I guess these big festivals in general aren’t really for us. We prefer playing inside a venue and we like to play at night. I’m not a huge fan of having to sing in the early afternoon. You also have to play much shorter sets than usual and I think we found that because we were playing so early that a lot of people who may have wanted to see us missed us. Of course you’re up against a range of different bands as well - but you know those are the things you accept when you play festivals.
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“The intention was always to come back for our own tour,” adds Cape, who reveals that the band have been practicing material from older records like Trashed and Hoss. “This time around we’ll have the time to play a full 22-song set and because we’ve been re-learning the older material we have a huge pool of songs to chose from. It’s funny because Lagwagon fans aren’t heavily weighted towards one particular album, so we have to be careful to mix things up.” Lagwagon have long been perceived as a happy-go-lucky proposition whose lyrics veer towards the irreverent and sophomoric. However, on closer inspection the band has always been quick to tackle raw human emotions and, on early classics like Island Of Shame, society’s rampant homophobia. “I must admit that in the past I’ve been frustrated with the perception that our band is this ‘silly’ band. In fact often I look at the lyrics I’ve written and I think ‘Damn they’re really negative, or really cynical.’ I think the misconceptions perhaps come from some of the album covers we’ve done which poke fun at ourselves and the fact that we really try and have fun when we play live shows. When you go through our catalogue there’s perhaps ten songs all up which are frivolous or silly but overall we tackle things of substance. I guess you could say that Lagwagon takes its art seriously but we’re also careful not to take ourselves too seriously.” One of Cape’s most enduring observations was made on Know It All, where he took on ‘underground music’ elitists. “Things have definitely changed since then,” offers Cape. “The media landscape has really changed and college radio doesn’t have the same power anymore. But what really bothered me then, and still does, are people who think music should follow strict rules, especially those who think you have to do certain things to be ‘punk rock’. I don’t need rules- music transcends rules and for one I can hear when the heart is there.”
When & Where: 26 Nov, The Northern, Byron Bay; 27 Nov, The Triffid
THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 37
Supanova
Napoleon Before Walt It’s been 11 years since Jon Heder mumbled his way into pop culture history but, with several projects on the go and a trip Down Under for Supanova Pop Culture Expo on the horizon, he still has a lot of love for the nerd who made his name, he tells Mitch Knox.
A
t 38, with a wife, children, and 11 years between now and when he first caught our attention as loveable misfit Napoleon Dynamite, Jon Heder is “content”. Even having revisited his breakthrough role in 2012 for a brief animated stint, Heder has kept busy over the years with a breadth of projects on screens large and small, in the flesh and as a voice. In particular, 2015 has shaped up to be a banner year on the actor’s calendar, with new film Walt Before Mickey - a biopic detailing the early years of Walt Disney (Thomas
I love the film, it’s still kind of my favourite film that I’ve done yet, and nothing can beat that...
Ian Nicholas), along with brother and business partner Roy (Heder) - given wide release overseas earlier this year, plus a handful of projects either already out, pending release or still in post-production. For Heder, the opportunity to be a part of examining the nascent years of someone such as Disney - “a national icon; you know, international, a global icon” - was too good to pass up. Describing his time on the film as “brief” but enjoyable, Heder explains that, as a result of Roy Disney having been a private person in life (he died in 1971), he wasn’t left with much in the way of preparation material for the role, although he does concede that could have been a
38 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER 2015
blessing in disguise, since nobody else knows what Roy was like either. “A lot of it was guesswork,” Heder laughs. “There’s not a lot on Roy as far as I was able to find, so yeah, I had to kind of go off what was just was in the book that the script was based on [2011’s Walt Before Mickey], and it didn’t get a ton into his character - just that he was always there to support his brother, a little bit more of the level-headed one... but it was great.” His role in Walt Before Mickey - brief however it may have been - marks another dramatic dabbling for Heder, who obviously made his mark early on with a string of comedic flicks in the wake of Napoleon Dynamite. Although he’s found a good balance now, he says he found it difficult to break free from the comedic mould mid-last decade. “It’s hard to say if I like one over the other,” he explains. “I think a good blend - you know, do some comedy, and do something a little heavier, and something lighter ... I certainly wouldn’t want to stick to one for the rest of my life. I enjoy kind of going back and forth. “Certainly, in the beginning, for quite a while, I was not receiving dramatic scripts; I was receiving a lot of comedy stuff,” he continues. “So it does not come easy - I definitely have to work a little bit more for it and do a little bit more searching and digging for that kind of stuff, but it’s definitely rewarding and I enjoy it quite a bit.” Despite the obvious impact Napoleon Dynamite and its titular character had on his career - or perhaps precisely because of it - Heder retains a deep affection for the character and his legacy in the annals of 21st century pop culture. “I think he’s great,” Heder says after some consideration. Despite the hesitation, it’s clear he means it. “I think it’s cool that still, to this day, people really respond to him, and to the character and love the movie, and I... you know, I’m proud of my work. I love the film, it’s still kind of my favourite film that I’ve done yet, and nothing can beat that... It’s a memory that will never be beaten. It was my first project; it was so memorable in that it was so close and personal to me, and you always hope to do projects that you enjoy throughout the years and throughout the rest of my life, and maybe I will; who knows? But I’m certainly glad and, like I said, proud of my work on that film, and hope that it will continue to last through the generations.” And, with everything he’s learnt over the past decade behind him, Heder knows better than to totally shut the door on the potential of revisiting the role that set him on the long and winding path to Roy Disney, however unlikely a prospect that might be (sorry, everyone). “If all the right ducks were in a row, as they say... if everybody got involved, then yeah, I would definitely be up for it,” Heder says of a Napoleon Dynamite sequel. “I think it’d be fun. I just don’t think that it will happen. “If it does, I mean, who knows? But it’s all about the director, you know, Jared Hess, the guy who wrote and directed the film - it’s kind of his call. And if he came to me and said, ‘Hey, I have a vision, I have a good idea; I think there’s something we could do here,’ then yeah, I would definitely at least strongly consider it, if not do it.”
When & Where: 27 - 29 Nov, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre
Supanova
De frosting
Nick Frost has built his career on making people laugh, featuring in a ream of comedic cult hits since he started acting in 1999. Mitch Knox has a chuckle. efore there was Spaced, there was still Nick Frost. The celebrated comic actor and long-time collaborator of fellow funnyman Simon Pegg may have only broken through to the popular consciousness in 1999, as part of the cast of cult UK comedy Spaced, created by Pegg and Jessica Hynes and directed by Edgar Wright, but for 29 years prior, there was still Nick Frost, and he had lived a life. To summarise and oversimplify: His elder sister passed away when he was 10; at 15, his parents’ furniture building business went under and the family lost their home; and his mother suffered a stressinduced stroke. To teenage Frost, the notion that before he turned 45 he would have rubbed shoulders with Hollywood elite and starred in movies and on television would be a crazy story – but it’s not the story that 43-year-old Frost wanted to tell in his memoir, Truths, Half-Truths & Little White Lies. Instead, he wanted to focus on the years leading up to 23 Meteor Street. “I think people imagine that I just popped into existence when we did Spaced 14 years ago and that was that, you know, but there was a whole life before that,” Frost explains on the phone from London. “I didn’t start
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acting until I was 29, and as you see in the book, it’s kind of riddled with drugs and pain and alcoholism, but also a lot of fun and laughter. And I think it was a story I wanted to write down before... not before it was too late, but I wanted to do it now while I remembered it all and while it was fresh. I didn’t just wanna write a ghost-written autobiography by a ‘celeb’, in inverted commas, which is just about their first-class flights and movie premieres and hobnobbing with the stars. “I think that’s all fine if you’re into that, but it makes a very crappy read. What I wanted to write down was, you know, a hard life.” Frost is ebullient about his sojourn to Australia for Supanova Pop Culture Expo this month, though he does admit that may partially be because he’s booked in some “cheeky” time to hang out with some old friends. Just keep an eye out for “the biggest, hairiest, most tattooed man on the beach, and that’s me”. Wait, most tattooed? “Oh, yeah, my top half is pretty much covered. I got a tattoo when I was 18, and it was a birthday present from a friend of mine. At that point, Celtic ink was in, so it was like a Celtic sun. He did literally four seconds and I passed out. I woke up and there were two tattooed giants putting a blanket around me, giving me some water [laughs]. “Part of me getting more tattoos was about, after my old man died, you know, it was literally a way to turn a mental pain into a physical pain and thus try and expel it, and it oddly worked.” Frost seems intent on keeping his attention ever forward. He tells The Music that he has just been approached to direct his first project. He’s “not allowed to say” what it is, “but it’s a short film” and “I jumped at the chance to do that”. “If I can write books and direct and have cool people around me, then that’s what I’d like to do.”
Three Aspects Of
Supanova Worth The Entry Worth The Entry Price Alone
The Cosplay Every convention, the standard of costumes on display at Supanova continues to send our jaws dropping ever-further into the ground, with some folks on the showroom floor priding themselves on putting on a memorable spectacle all their own.
The Aussie Talent Supanova is a great place to get up close and personal with local creators and actors making a splash at home and overseas, from renowned comics writer Tom Taylor and artist Wayne Nichols to The Hunger Games’ Stef Dawson and Arrow villain Matt Nable.
The Exhibits Between the comics, graphic novels, collector’s editions, prints, merchandise, props, photo ops, and everything else, it’s almost impossible to walk out at the end of the weekend without at least one new pride and joy.
Cashing In For
Chrissie
With the holiday season coming up, we’ve noticed that some rock stars’ close ones are trying to scrape in some extra moolah – in need of funds just like us regular folk, eh? Pulling in a meagre $2.4m for the Christmas fund, an early ‘60s Gibson acoustic guitar previously owned by John Lennon was sold at auction this past fortnight by a private seller. The guitar had been stolen from Lennon on Christmas 1963 and was unknowingly purchased by a London musician weeks later. One act of petty crime has given this lucky Londoner a very lavish Christmas. At the same auction, the dirty olive green cardigan worn by Kurt Cobain during Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance sold for loose change somewhere to the tune of $137,500, a bargain by comparison. I plan to pay for all my Christmas presents by selling my unwashed clothing too, much to the dismay of my friends and family. As any Elvis memorabilia that escapes the clutches of the mansionturned-museum that is Graceland will always fetch a high price, what better way would there be to expand the holiday budget than to sell off The King’s 24-carat gold leaf grand piano? Acquired by Hard Rock Café for $600,000, the instrument will be displayed in one of the chain’s landmark stores. Christmas Lunch at Hard Rock, anyone? Another Beatles clan in need of some extra eggnog cash, Ringo Starr will be auctioning off some of his most valuable Beatles artefacts this December, including the drum-kit he used on The Ed Sullivan Show (expected to fetch somewhere between $300,000-$500,000) and over 150 of the band’s recordings. Dylan Van Der Riet 40 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER 2015
Music
True To Form
Before a much-anticipated sequel arrives, Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society return to give Australia another dose of biker metal. Brendan Crabb goes on the blessed hell ride.
A
nswering the phone with a cheesy “hello there”, Black Label Society’s jovial vocalist/guitarist Zakk Wylde jokingly fills The Music in regarding preparations for the metallers’ upcoming Australian jaunt. “What I usually do is listen to the records, and whatever song it is that I find myself masturbating furiously to, I just go, ‘We should just include this in the set.’” Considering his itinerary, finding sufficient time for self-pleasure may be problematic for Ozzy Osbourne’s former shredder. Aside from Black Label Society duties, the grizzled American guitar hero’s schedule contains shows with his Zakk Sabbath covers act, and crafting Book Of Shadows II, due next year. The original 1996 solo album possesses special significance for many Wylde fans, capturing a decidedly introspective folk/ Southern rock angle. “There’s 28 songs, so it’s just a matter of putting in melodies, lyrics and everything else. So that’s where we’re at right now. On these breaks we’ve been taking I’ve just been doing my Black Label homework, listening to tunes and writing lyrics. Obviously it’s 20 years later, but it’s the same thing. Book Of Shadows is mostly acoustic-based and more on the mellow side, so it’s more in that vein.” Although flirting with less abrasive territory via the likes of Black Label Society’s The Song Remains Not The Same and Hangover Music Vol. VI, that band’s fire and
brimstone metal has been somewhat of a constant amid ever-changing heavy music trends. “Right now, you’ve got Disturbed, their album did really well on the charts. You also just had Five Finger Death Punch doing great, Iron Maiden. For everybody saying that metal’s dead, whatever. I don’t listen to any of that shit (commentary) anyway. Black Label’s gonna be doing what Black Label’s doing anyway. Whenever any of the bands in the genre do really well on the charts, it’s great for the whole community.” Of his faithful, Wylde remarks that it’s “one gigantic Black Label family, and we’re just basically the house band”. The loyalty elicited from their audience (divided into fraternity “chapters” worldwide) has been readily apparent, even during times such as the nu-metal era when instrumental prowess and especially the guitar solo were often eschewed. “It’s like that with basically anything and everything. Things are popular, then they go out of fashion and another 20 years later all of a sudden something’s popular again. I think it’s not just guitar, I think that’s how it is in fashion and anything in general. Every generation is like, we’d always had the best stuff. When we were growing up we had the best stuff, and this and that. Then you ask the generation before that and they say the same thing... The Sinatra generation had Sinatra, then when Elvis came out they were like, ‘Oh my God, this stuff sucks.’ And the Elvis generation, when The Stones and the Beatles came out were like, ‘What is this shit? We had good music.’ “I think it’s the same thing with every generation... That’s always the way it is. Every generation is always like, ‘we had the best shit. What the kids like nowadays is terrible.’ It’s funny, but that’s just the way it is.”
When & Where: 29 Nov, The Tivoli
Music
Break On Through Lucinda Williams talks to Chris Familton about challenging songwriting, freedom as an artist, and taking advantage of being on a roll.
S
ince her mother’s death in 2004, Lucinda Williams has found herself constantly writing and producing music at a much faster rate than ever before. As such, 2014’s Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone was a double album but as Lucinda reveals, much of her next album was also recorded at the same sessions. “We got on a roll and went in the studio, a small independently owned studio a comfortable distance form where we live. It was such a comfortable situation and we could come and go between touring, over a few months. We had such a good time and we had great musicians in there. We also cut some covers so it wasn’t
We cut like 40 tracks so we’ll have to sit down and decide what we want to put on the album.
all my songs. For instance on one occasion Lou Reed had just died the previous day and I’d always love Pale Blue Eyes so we just cut it. There was a lot of spontaneity that was really cool. We cut like 40 tracks so we’ll have to sit down and decide what we want to put on the album,” ponders Williams. Much of that flexibility and the creative control of her music comes from Williams and her husband/manager Tom Overby establishing their own record label Highway 20 Records. It was established initially to release Williams’ own music, but she hopes they can also sign other artists to the imprint. “We’d like to do that at some point. Were just getting it off the ground as it’s all new. We’re still with Thirty Tigers [marketing/distribution] but we wanted to have
our own control to do our own thing and sign other artists. That’s one of the differences now compared to when I was on Lost Highway who were owned by a major. At the end of the day I had a lot of creative freedom but for example when the West album came out I wanted that to be a double album. My mother had just died and I wanted all those songs to come out at the same time but they didn’t want to do that for business reasons. Now we can just do whatever we want. I cut a cover of an old gospel song recently with these two amazing reggae musicians and we just got on this roll. Along with our guys we just went on and on for 19 minutes and everyone was saying, ‘Don’t cut it, don’t cut it.’ I said, ‘We can’t put it on the album, it’s too long,’ and Tom said, ‘No, we’re putting it on.’ That’s going to be interesting, you could never do that in the past,” Williams enthuses. Williams is a keen collaborator and always involved in extra curricular activities like duets and tribute albums. One recent experience played an important role in creating another compositional tool that fed back into her songwriting process. “Last year I was involved with the tribute album to Karen Dalton [Remembering Mountains]. I had known about her and the guy who runs the label had all women involved and sent each of them lyrics that Karen had written. Some were finished, some weren’t. Many were just fragments but none of them had melodies. It was pretty challenging to go into something like that and arrange it and get a melody but I managed to do it. Shortly after that the Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone tracks were recorded and its title is a line from a poem of my dad’s. Tom was asking if there was any way I could work that into a song. The point is that because I’d already done the challenging Dalton thing I thought, ‘Yeah, I can do this, I’ve already had practice.’ I sat down with the poem and figured it out. That was a good exercise and now I’ve done another of my dad’s poems called Dust that I’ve turned into a song and we’ve recorded it for the next album. Now I felt like, ‘Wow, maybe I can do some more of these.’ It can be really quite difficult to sit down with a poem and turn it into a song because they are really quite different animals, you know.” Many songwriters thrive on the autobiographical and honest nature of their songs. Others clearly create fictitious worlds and scenarios, but for Williams there is no question that her songs must always be completely real. Nothing is ever held back. “No, not because they’re too personal. If I don’t release them it’s just because they haven’t worked out. I might carry them over to the next album. You never know why that is, sometimes it’s just timing. Nothing is ever too personal.”
When & Where: 29 Nov, A Day On The Green, Sirromet Winery, Mt Cotton
THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 41
Music
NYE Book Now
Unheavy Metal
Common People NYE Come one, come all to witness something great, and weird, at The Foundry on New Year’s Eve. Closing an old year by reviving a gone era of dance jams circa 2000, the Common People are staging a reunion that will have you dancing haphazardly like crazy club rats without fear of judgement. While everyone else is trying to set up a tent drunk at Falls, you can get your freak on to the likes of D.Black, Polar Bear and Jordan, plus a special guest DJ set by psych-pop swingers The John Steel Singers. And you don’t even have to clean up the next day.
$10 The Foundry Tickets at oztix.com.au
Sportsmen spew platitudes about proper preparation preventing piss poor performance, but German musician Volker Bertelmann - aka Hauschka - tells Steve Bell that the philosophy applies perfectly to piano as well.
P
Timmy Trumpet
NYD Foam Party It’s not just an old wive’s tale: more drinks cure hangovers. And what’s better to cure/delay a New Year’s Day hangover than a foam party? There’ll be bikinis, cocktails, a collection of Australia’s best DJs and more at Eatons Hill Function Centre! Get your groove back (or kick on) on Friday 1 Jan to the likes of Aussie house legend Timmy Trumpet, dance master Will Sparks, Mashd N Kutcher, Stafford Brothers, Odd Mobb, Arcane Echo, Benibee, Migs, Hynzey and more. Don’t know what a foam party is? Well… you’ll have to book tickets to find out!
From $29 Eatons Hill Hotel Tickets at oztix.com.au
42 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER 2015
utting foreign objects such as cloth, cutlery and ping pong balls in the strings of a piano to alter the sound is something you might imagine happening at the tail-end of an orchestra’s particularly drunken Christmas party, but it’s actually a quite highbrow artistic pursuit known as prepared piano. Dating back over a century, the practice was made famous by sonic explorer John Cage in the ‘40s and even utilised by John Cale on The Velvet Underground’s All Tomorrow’s Parties (he favoured a chain of paper clips). Probably the best known practitioner today is German musician Volker Bertelmann, who in the last decade has released roughly a dozen albums under the moniker Hauschka (most incorporating prepared piano). Despite classical training Bertelmann began his career in the electronic world, and stumbled upon prepared piano trying to fuse these two disparate worlds together. “Around the beginning of 2000 I was fascinated by the soundscape of electronic music,” he explains. “Especially at that time there was a lot of clicks and cuts and music that was very noisy and I really loved that - these abstract sounds. I was fascinated so I thought, ‘I want to have that in my
music as well, but I want to play my own instruments.’ In the beginning it was a little bit weird to work with a computer on stage to the point where I started wondering whether I can do that with an acoustic instrument, so I started to use material on the strings and that created in a way this kind of element that I’d been missing on the piano. “When I started the prepared piano I was very happy that I didn’t know about the other composers, because if I had known I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing. Now I think the musical theory of John Cage is awesome, about how music is sound and noise and everything else also. All noise can be music: there are rhythms and noises and we’re very influenced by nature, by birds and trees, and it’s a very interesting syncopation. That point of view is very influential to me.” Bertelmann explains that he favours informed guesswork when choosing objects to place into his piano. “I have a fair idea about things that I’m using now or have used, so I use them as a basic element of my preparations - but there’s always stuff that’s pretty random that moves me. Sometimes I’m completely wrong with my selections - one time I used these metal scouring pads and I thought that they’d sound really great and I put them in the piano and played something and nothing happened, the sound was still the same and the pads were just lying there like a piece of crap on the strings,” he chuckles. “I’d thought they’d create a metal sound but they weren’t heavy enough to influence the sound at all. Then other things that I’d thought would bring nothing to the sound reacted really nicely - for instance the ping pong balls, I never expected them to sound so beautiful as a preparation.”
When & Where: 20 Nov, Old Museum; 21 & 22 Nov, Mullum Music Festival, Mullumbimby
Please Steal Christmas
I
n the months before Christmas, when we don’t even care, Christmas decorations appear with a flair. Barely noticed, they creep into sight, with tinsel and bells and bows — what a fright! They’re in every store, adorn every aisle; the very sight of them raises Christmassy bile. On behalf of the sanity of Australia, we beg of you David Jones... The White Christmas theme that springs up in late August has to stop. And you there, 7-Eleven, those Christmas tree donuts are disgusting, and we’re still digesting the pumpkin ones from Halloween. And don’t think you can escape that easy, enthusiastic next-door neighbour. We see you with your $10,000 light installation trying to out-do last year’s street light extravaganza. Putting as many lights on the house as you can until it is discernable from space doesn’t make you a winner — it makes you light pollution. We’re saying “bah humbug!” We’ve gone full Ebenezer Scrooge. We are channelling the spirit of the Grinch to come down from Mount Crumpit and steal the bloody Christmas lights! There’s an overlap of plastic skeletons and Santa Clauses somewhere around 1 November (a display swap that would terrify small children in transit). Halloween has been marketed to us from the far US, and we’ve embraced it, we get that. We like dressing up and eating candy and it’s an excuse to get drunk in a skimpy mouse costume a la Mean Girls. But can we please deal with our hangovers in peace without the hammering, drilling and jingling of a million yuletide decorations being thrust up in
shopping malls around the country the following day? Seriously. Give us time to grieve the end of one holiday before ramming another down our throats. Speaking of ramming, since when is a car a viable Christmas gift? It can’t fit down the chimney, Ford. Believe it or not, we’re actually less likely to buy a brand new car if you’re singing, “I’m dreaming of a whiteeee Focusss” at us every commercial break. And you know what? We really do like Christmas and all the timings and trappings on offer, but by the time we actually get to the week before D-Day and start writing our letters to Santa (the new Mac lipstick, an endless supply of wine and Ryan Gosling naked in our Santa sack) we are sick of it entirely. Sick of the whole damn operation. And on a final note, why the fuck do you feel the need to put up Easter eggs the second the tinsel comes down?
all I want for
christmas is books Cats Postcards – Mesdemoiselles Three things we love: cats, postcards and colouring-in, all combined in a book. Never again pay to send loved ones a token from your living room. It’s also under $10 for you cheapskates. Hamlyn, $9.99 Natural Born Keller – Amanda Keller Amanda Keller injects comedy and nostalgia into her autobiography, allowing us a peek behind the screen and some seriously funny memories. Allen And Unwin, $29.99 Cross Justice – James Patterson Who doesn’t love a gripping thriller, and in the grisly murders and unseen plot twists of the Alex Cross library we trust. It’s also an excuse to pick up one (all) of the other 22 in the series. Random House, $32.99 Brynn Davies
THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 43
Album / E Album/EP Reviews
Fourteen Nights At Sea
Album OF THE Week
Minor Light Hobbledehoy
★★★★
Fourteen Nights At Sea don’t screw around. Where most post-rock bands get bogged down with lengthy build-ups, the Melbourne outfit open their third full-length with one of their strongest offerings to date in Teeth Marks. It begins with a thunderclap of exultant noise — all fiery guitars and tectonic shifts of doomy rhythmic progressions, at once beautiful and foreboding. The storm recedes so slowly that the fade into the more subdued second track Them Colonies is hardly noticeable, but the overarching theme is clear: these songs are epic, imbued with such emotional weight that the only words that do justice come from the language of landscape and natural disaster. The finest moment on the album is the nine-and-a-half minute closing track, Chiltern Justice. It’s a classic, cinematic post-rock number, built on the usual standards — the slow beat, the tense build, the waves of cascading tremolo guitars and a rousing crescendo — but it’s executed to perfection, every element perfectly placed for the most poignant emotional impact. The band might not be redefining their genre, but they’re breathing new life into a style mired by repetitive tropes and imitators. With Minor Light, Fourteen Nights At Sea put themselves in the same conversation as international heavyweights like This Will Destroy You and Explosions In The Sky. It’s one of the finest postrock records in recent memory. Matthew Tomich
Beat Happening
The Tongue
Look Around
Hard Feelings
Domino/EMI
Elefant Traks/Inertia
★★★★
★★★
Although far from a household name, it’s probably impossible to overstate the importance of Olympia, Washington trio Beat Happening on future generations of underground musicians. Citing everyone from The Cramps to The Modern Lovers as inspiration for their ramshackle, lo-fi indie pop, they were steadfastly anti-corporate from the get-go, peddling a sweet naivete aimed to confront and offend the rigid ideals of the then in vogue Pacific Northwest post-punk scene. The band favoured guitar and drums (sans bass) for their distinct sound, minimalist in nature but rife with primitive hooks and enticing repetitive melodies. They had no hits to speak of, but career retrospective Look Around shows that whether sung by Calvin Johnson (Bad Seeds,
2006 was The Tongue’s annus mirabilis, propelled by his debut EP Bad Education. Listening to a banging Bag Raiders beat delivered with a heavy dose of political consciousness we heard the last of the old school, and the first of the new. Teezy’s been with us for more than a decade now. But familiarity brings its own problems: ten years, three mixtapes, four albums in — are there any tricks The Tongue can show us that we haven’t seen already? Perhaps. Our hero is at his best walking the tightrope between contemporary relevance and respect for the past. “I’m the last one alive who can kick it like Q-Tip, like Gang Starr.” Our host is winking at us: he knows as well as we do that these artists peaked before The Tongue’s new fans were even born. Viewed in this light our
44 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER 2015
Red Head Walking, Bewitched, Indian Summer) or Heather Lewis (Foggy Eyes, Fortune Cookie Prize, Godsend, Noise) their songs were remarkably consistent over their career. In their lifetime (and beyond) Beat Happening would tour with Fugazi, release splits with The Vaselines and The Screaming Trees, be produced by everyone from The Wipers’ Greg Sage to The Microphones’ Phil Elverum, and influence a river of bands including Nirvana, Sleater-Kinney, Modest Mouse and Built To Spill. Rough, raw and incredibly influential. Steve Bell
host’s vision becomes clear. He is a rap custodian; an elder statesman here to educate and inspire. The album’s peak is the woozy swoon Mercy, where our host capitalises on Thundamentals MC Jeswon’s talent for hypnosis. The Rule closes proceedings and give us another clue about where The Tongue’s head is at: we hear “self preservation is the rule” repeated again and again. Perhaps that’s the lesson The Tongue has for us: keep ears and eyes open, learn what you can, teach what you’ve learned — but longevity is about being true to yourself. James d’Apice
EP Reviews Album/EP Reviews
NOTS
Newton Faulkner Arca
MofoIsDead
We Are NOTS
Human Love
Mutant
Brisneyland
Heavenly Recordings/ [PIAS] Australia
Liberator
Mute
MGM
★★★½
★★★
★★★★
★★★½
The debut from Memphis fourpiece NOTS is a chic, modern and synth-y approximation of old school Black Flag-esque punk that still gets messy when it should. Crammed into every opening of the record’s hasty 27-minute run, the dulcet tones of vocalist Natalie Hoffman snarling out every line hammers hard, even as the poppy synths cut some of the edge from the obliterating rhythm section. With lyrics and structure that preserve the spirit and traditions that the instrumentation does not, this is not the punk that their parents knew, but it is not far off.
Newtown Faulkner’s fifth studio album brings with it both the disbelief that he’s already at number five and the affirmation of his style. It’s a record that solidly states that he plays, writes and performs in certain way that is truly his. Somewhere halfway between percussive acoustic roots and electronic dance, Faulkner leads with one and follows with the other as if it is second nature to him. Opening track Get Free, Step In The Right Direction and the closing title track are highlights of the album.
Arca’s second long-player is yet another step into the hauntingly eerie but strangely beautiful corner of the electronic music universe he inhabits. Deep, heavy bass frequencies evoke a cavernous sense of space, but the industrial scale on which they are presented is intended to completely overwhelm. An underlying aggression is designed to instill a sense of fear and foreboding. In this future, the machines are definitely winning. Yet even in the most abrasive of aural environments, Arca allows voluptuous sound textures and melodies that drift and blossom to sensuous effect. A musical auteur of sorts, Arca is an important new voice in electronica.
Brisbane’s MofoIsDead have followed up their 2012 debut with six new cuts that pull back on their previous soaring hard rock style for a sharper experimentation in band dynamics with scattered instrumentation and grittier breakdowns. Led by the incredible style vocal of Paul Galagher, each track has a quirky sense of separation from the rest, be it the distorted riff and dirty bass lines of Semidrop, the frantic drum patterns of The Altruist, or the fantastic, dreamily subdued melody in Mournography. Brisneyland is a gleaming beacon of a band that appears to be on cusp of something spectacular.
Lukas Murphy
Dylan Van Der Riet
Mark Beresford
Guido Farnell
More Reviews Online Archie Roach Charcoal Lane 25th Anniversary Edition
theMusic.com.au
Grimes Art Angels
Listen to our This Week’s Releases playlist on
THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 45
Live Re Live Reviews
AC/DC, The Hives, Kingswood QSAC 12 Nov
AC/DC @ QSAC . Pic: Markus Ravik
AC/DC @ QSAC . Pic: Markus Ravik
AC/DC @ QSAC . Pic: Markus Ravik
The Brian Jonestown Massacre @ The Triffid. Pic: Stephen Booth
The Brian Jonestown Massacre @ The Triffid. Pic: Stephen Booth
Naughty By Nature @ Max Watt’s. Pic: Terry Soo
46 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER 2015
It’s 5.25pm and the line(s) to get into QSAC have already grown to about 100m long. It’s a warm Thursday afternoon and we’re all here to see a band that’s been making headlines for more than 40 years — the legendary AC/DC on their Rock Or Bust Tour. At 6pm precisely, Kingswood appear on stage. The Melbourne four-piece’s set is short — not much more than four songs — but it sounds great; nothing drowns out anything else. Their third song of the set, I Can Feel That You Don’t Love Me, is a particular highlight. However, Kingswood steadfastly refuse to work the stage. In an arena the size of this, it’s a problem. It’s not helped by the fact that the screens to the left and right of the stage are only showing a single stationary camera view of the band. Kingswood play a greatsounding set but, for all intents and purposes, it may as well have been on the radio. The lights soon go out and foreboding Jaws-like music fills the air. The stage lights burst on and Swedish rock stalwarts The Hives take the stage, resplendent in their white suit jackets. It’s immediately clear that The Hives are used to playing larger crowds; their lead singer, Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, is up and down the stage like an old pro. Almqvist’s singing doesn’t match Kingswood’s Fergus Linacre, but he more than makes up for it with stage presence. By the fourth song, Die, All Right!, Almqvist is prowling all over the stage and right down into the crowd, high-fiving the front rows — it’s a pleasure to watch. By Hate To Say I Told You So, he’s marching across the stage like a rock‘n’roll drill sergeant, taking the crowd through basic training. Once
again, the experience is marred by the bloody screens on the side of the stage. They are almost useless, except for augmenting the view of the people seated off to the side. The set ends with Tick, Tick... Boom!, a bunch of solos and the tiny white-suited
There’s Angus Young, rising up from beneath the stage like a horned demon from the underworld. ants bowing to the audience. Suddenly, the lights go dim and there’s a rumble in the crowd. Then, a cheer goes up. The screens come to life. There’s a moon landing. Flames. A meteor. Explosions. Roaring. Even fireworks! A figure on stage. It’s Angus frigging Young, looking sprightly in his bright-red schoolboy outfit. The crowd goes wild; AC/DC’s Rock Or Bust has commenced and it is glorious. The band follow up their opener with Shoot To Thrill; Young and lead singer Brian Johnson know exactly what they need to do to get the reaction they need. There’s something primal about this act. The band are electric. The cameras cut to the three towards the rear of the stage; Chris Slade’s sweaty, bald head is hovering above the drums, his arms madly thrashing away. Cliff Williams, his long grey hair draping over his shoulders, is just as assured on the bass as ever. Stevie Young on rhythm guitar is working hard out there, too, a sheen of sweat on his face. There are huge production elements to this performance. For Hell’s Bells, a giant bell above
eviews Live Reviews
the stage crashes in time to the music; right near the end of the main set, the giant, inflatable, busty Rosie figure comes to play for Whole Lotta Rosie. She’s two storeys tall on her side and gyrating like a gogo dancer. A particular highlight of the night is Angus Young’s tenminute solo in Let There Be Rock. At one point he’s standing on a raised stage in the middle of the mosh by himself, holding a rapt 45,000 or so people to attention. He’s showered in a hail of streamers from cannons below the stage. It’s. Fucking. Amazing. The band take a brief break while the crowd gets restless. A wave of stomping runs through the stands. Suddenly, there’s Angus Young, rising up from beneath the stage like a horned demon from the underworld blasting out the opening of Highway To Hell. Next, the rest of the band appears from the rear of the stage, Brian Johnson clad in a Brisbane Lions jersey. There’s flames shooting up from the side of the stage, the heat from them radiating all the way to the stands. This is the encore you’ve been hearing about. For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) is the finale. Johnson’s screaming lyrics, the wailing guitars, the thumping drums are magnified to the explosions of cannons from all over the stage. The song builds to an orgiastic crescendo of firearms and fireworks above the stadium. And... that’s it. One of the greatest bands of all time has just been right there on stage. Making mincemeat of your eyes, ears and mind for two hours and it’s all done. Now it’s back to reality and the bloody 90-minute wait for a bus. Sean Hourigan
The Brian Jonestown Massacre The Triffid 13 Nov
As Brisbane’s humidity thankfully relents, switching from unbearable to just extremely unpleasant, a horde of psych-rock fans stream into The Triffid’s main room while Martyr Privates kick off tonight’s entertainment. As all the bodies in the room start to prickle with sweat, the garagey trio offer up a tasty mix of pop, shoegaze and rock that sounds as laidback as it does fuzzed-out, and is likely to win them some new fans from tonight’s crowd. For a band whose image is almost entirely centred on frontman Anton Newcombe, it’s funny watching The Brian Jonestown Massacre walk onto The Triffid’s stage tonight. Joel Gion, a guy with the tightest
This band could really go anywhere with their music and it would come off sounding excellent. mutton chops you’ve seen this side of Easy Rider and two tambourines, is centrestage while Newcombe is over in a corner. From even their stage layout, BJM seem like they’re striving for weirdness. In this regard, their set does not disappoint. With a catalogue as long as a Director’s Cut version of any of the Lord Of The Rings movies, The Brian Jonestown Massacre can really go anywhere with tonight’s performance. And the crowd is
waiting for something crazy. So when the dudes demonstrate that they fully understand the merits of sticking to a crowdpleasing set and play plenty of material from the double-disc singles compilation the band released in 2011, it almost feels like the most unexpected thing they could do. But as much as the audience is expecting some kind of freak-out worthy of Dig!, the Brian Jonestown Massacre manage to stick to the script, and nobody seems to be complaining about that. Sure, there are pockets of lunatics in the crowd dancing like they’re in some ‘60s happening where the electric Kool-Aid acid does, or perhaps does not, pass the test. But there are also a lot of people using the breaks between the songs to talk with their friends about what the next round of mid-strength beer is going to be. For the most part, you get the sense that the band you’re witnessing is probably as deeply eccentric as their reputation, but tonight they’re channelling all of that weirdness into the music. Watching them on stage, it seems that this band could really go anywhere with their music and it would come off sounding excellent. As the band hits song after song after song, the inconsistencies of the large stylistic shifts to which they have grown prone in their latter day career melt away. The dreamy twangs of the three guitars buff and polish the quirks of the band’s prolific career into an ethereal haze, a haze that is both weird and wonderful. Tom Hersey
Naughty By Nature Max Watt’s 14 Nov
Eighties kids are out in droves to see Naughty By Nature tonight. Warm-up DJ Provokal plays some pretty cheesy R&B while the audience is milling about, with tunes from the likes of Boyz II Men and Shaggy. However, once it gets close to kick-off time, he amps things up and does exactly what a warm-up DJ should do. Fatman Scoop has the crowd cheering and jumping, and Provokal keeps it going through Eminem, that Dizzee Rascal & Calvin Harris joint, as well as more Shaggy. What really makes the crowd lose their shit though is the absolute stomper, Pharoahe Monche’s Simon Says. The hype doesn’t stop there, with ‘90s hip hop legends Naughty By Nature hyping the crowd up for a good ten minutes before stepping on stage. They start the proceedings with some banter before dropping a minimix of ‘90s hip hop including KRS-One’s Sound Of Da Police; it really is just a quick taste of ‘90s classics, and then they jump right into their most popular tune, OPP. It isn’t so noticeable during this, probably because the crowd is so loud, but there seems to be an issue with the microphones, with the band asking to turn them up. Once it finishes, it seems a chunk of people only came to see that one song and leave, opening up the floor a bit. Another mini-mix of tunes with DMX’s Party Up (Up In Here), House Of Pain’s Jump Around and surprisingly Men At Work’s Down Under. This kind of felt like pandering, especially considering there was an “Aussie Aussie Aussie, oi oi oi” at the end. Going through their collection of tunes is pretty enjoyable, although they rely on audience participation a bit much for this reviewer’s liking. Tunes like
THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 47
Live/Arts Reviews Live/Arts Reviews
Ghetto Bastard and Holiday get a playing, and littered throughout their tunes are more mini-mixes from the likes of Cyprus Hill, The Notorious BIG and even Tupac, doing a tribute to the late All Eyez On Me scribe that involves copious amounts of Hennessy.
More Reviews Online theMusic.com.au/ music/live-reviews
Marlon Williams @ Woolly Mammoth Northlane @ The Triffid My Own Pet Radio @ Black Bear Lodge
They really emphasise the diversity of sounds that were coming out during the ‘90s.
They also take some of the crowd up on stage when they play Hip Hop Hooray. The ‘90s were a so-called golden era of hip hop and it is no wonder why; with tunes like these guys have, nobody can deny the quality. While the sound may have let them down a bit, they really emphasise the diversity
of sounds that were coming out during the ‘90s. They are possibly underselling themselves a bit by playing so much of other people’s music within their set — but that’s not enough to stop it from being a great event. Paul Mulkearns
Naughty By Nature @ Max Watt’s. Pic: Terry Soo
Les Misérables. Pic: Matt Murphy
Les Misérables Theatre Lyric Theatre, QPAC to 10 Jan
★★★★★ One of the greatest stories ever put to music has become even stronger under the tutelage of Sir Cameron Mackintosh, whose revamped production of Les Misérables takes the epic tale to a whole new level. There’s a fantastic new set (expansive but economical), subtle computer animation,
48 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER 2015
a reworked score and even an edgier slant to the script (presumably to keep up with ever-evolving community standards), but at the end of the day the production is (as ever) a triumph because of Victor Hugo’s amazing tangled web expose of the human condition.
The strength of the Les Mis narrative lies in the decades-long (albeit distant) relationship between the noble Jean Valjean (Simon Gleeson) and his eternal antagonist Javert (Hayden Tee), whose black-and-white worldview is the chief source of his prey’s lifelong anguish. But while these roles are handled with aplomb, it’s the secondary portrayals such as those by Lara Mulcahy (Madam Thénardier), Kerrie Anne Greenland (Eponine) and Euan Doidge (Marius) which really make this a world class production. The saga touches upon so many facets of humanity - justice, compassion, fate, class division, unrequited love, the futility of idealism and ultimately redemption - and no musical has a better batch of songs with which to bring these conceits to life. An absolute must-see. Steve Bell
THE MUSIC 18TH NOVEMBER 2015 • 49
Comedy / G The Guide
Wed 18
You Am I
Anne McCue + Jen Mize: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley BJC Club Nite: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point
Woodford Folk Festival FT Courtney Barnett and more: 27 Dec-1 Jan Woodfordia
Florence & The Machine: Riverstage, Brisbane Pierce Brothers: Royal Exchange Hotel, Toowong
The Music Presents Mullum Music Festival: 19-22 Nov Mullumbimby
Aine Tyrrell + Sarah Carroll + Jackie Marshall: The Bearded Lady, West End Conrad Sewell + Aston Merrygold + Marcelo: The Triffid, Newstead
Corona Sunsets FT The Preatures: 22 Nov (arvo) Coolangatta Hotel, 22 Nov (evening) Hotel Brunswick
Thu 19
Lachlan Bryan & The Wildes: 28 Nov The Milk Factory
Montaigne: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley
Chilli Oats
A Day On The Green – Paul Kelly’s Merri Soul Sessions: 29 Nov Sirromet Winery
Andrew Shaw: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point
Bringing their tenth album Porridge & Hotsauce back home, after steady production in New York, You Am I gear up to grace the stage at The Triffid on 20 Nov.
Mew: 4 Dec Max Watt’s Father John Misty: 6 Dec Max Watt’s The Rumjacks: 6 Dec Jubilee Hotel Festival Of The Sun: 11-12 Dec Port Macquarie Bully: 12 Dec Woolly Mammoth Woodford Folk Festival: 27 Dec-1 Jan Woodfordia A Day On The Green – Hoodoo Gurus: 6 Mar Sirromet Winery
Asher Chapman: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads Hope Drone + Downfall Of Gaia: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Sunset Blush: Johnny Brown’s, Fortitude Valley Suzannah Espie: Junk Bar, Ashgrove Des Reid: Loving Hut, Mount Gravatt Nile + Unearth + Feed Her To The Sharks + Whoretopsy: Max Watt’s (formerly The Hi-Fi Brisbane), West End Screamfeeder: Miami Marketta, Miami
Nahko & Medicine For The People: 24 Mar Max Watt’s Bluesfest: 24-28 Mar Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm
Conrad Sewell
Bub-Kiss: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore
Matty Rogers: Burleigh Brewing, Burleigh Heads
Royal Croquet Club with Romare: Southbank (Cultural Forecourt), South Brisbane
DJ Lucian + DJ Massroom: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads
Outside the Academy + In Caves + Silent Feature Era + Trials: The Bearded Lady, West End Wolver + Vulture Circus + Acid On Andy + These Guys + more: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Yowie feat. Miles Brown + Enderie Nuatal + Deep Area + Beatrix: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley
In Defence + The Scam + Disparo + Hurricane Death: Chardons Corner Hotel, Annerley Oliver Huntemann: Cloudland, Fortitude Valley My Disco + Cured Pink + 100% + Multiple Man: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley
Mathas
Alla Spina + Woodstock Road + Tea Society: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane
St. Paul & The Broken Bones: 25 Mar The Triffid
Slip On Stereo + Sovereign + Mark Lowndes + Benjamin Maza: The Triffid, Newstead Elko Fields + Dangerpenny + Port Royal: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley
Farewell Conrad
Jam & Open Mic Night: Town & Country Restuarant & Motel, Nerang
Conrad Sewell is collecting ARIA nominations, releasing singles and playing shows all over Australia. Catch a performance by this promising 27-year-old artist at The Triffid on 18 Nov, before he treks off to New Zealand.
You Am I: Villa Noosa Hotel, Noosaville
Fri 20 The Preatures: Beach House Hotel, Scarness Suicide Swans + Old New York + Elba Lane: Beetle Bar, Brisbane Ben Ottewell (Gomez) + Buddy (USA): Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley Andrea Kirwin: Blackwater Trading Co, Moffat Beach Tiffany Rae Quintet: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point
50 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER 2015
A Good Type Of Math Mathas is in town to share his new tunes from Armwrestle Atlas, and will be performing a show at The Foundry this 29 Nov. The cherry on top is that there’s free entry!
Gigs / Live The Guide
Locky + Wasabi: Irish Murphy’s, Brisbane
Hau
Stan Walker + Scott Newnham + The Oneill Twins: Jupiters, Broadbeach Black Majic: Logan Diggers Club, Logan Central
Iamsu! + Bobby Brackins + Nic Nac: Max Watt’s (formerly The Hi-Fi Brisbane), West End Paris Lane + Andrew Mackey Duo: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane
Hau Are You? Breaking away from Koolism, Hau is out and about promoting his debut solo album with first single Kill.I.Am. With 20 years of performance experience under his belt, there’s no doubt he’ll raise the roof off The Foundry on 20 Nov.
Morgan Evans: Hamilton Hotel, Hamilton Solar Rush: Hamilton Hotel (Front Bar), Hamilton
Superfeather + Brainbeau + Noble Mashawa’s Umkancho: The Bearded Lady, West End Hau: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley Montaigne: The Grid, Toowoomba Alla Spina + Captain Sternn: The Nook & Cranny, Nambour
Hauschka + Andrew Tuttle: Old Museum, Fortitude Valley
Screamfeeder: The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba
Joel Adams: Old Museum (All Ages/5.30pm), Fortitude Valley
You Am I + Hits: The Triffid, Newstead
Warren Earl Band: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna Bart Thrupp: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore PLTS + Bugs: Solbar (Main Stage), Maroochydore
Royal Croquet Club with Flex Cop: Southbank (Cultural Forecourt), South Brisbane
Sampa The Great
DJ Graham Fisher: Story Bridge Hotel (Shelter Bar), Kangaroo Point
Wave Racer: Oh Hello!, Fortitude Valley
Preston: Sonny’s House of Blues, Brisbane Steve Grady: Habitat Restaurant & Bar, South Brisbane
Jon Whitten: Story Bridge Hotel (The Corner Bar), Kangaroo Point
Her Affinity + Wax Mammoth + Brief Divide + George Higgins + Peperine: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley Transvaal Diamond Syndicate + Claude Hay + Kallidad + The Floors + Mr Black & Blues + The Royal Artillery: Wharf Tavern (The Helm), Mooloolaba
Greatest Hits Sampa The Great will be a special guest alongside Ali The Great at Oddisee’s launch for The Good Fight. Catch them all on 26 Nov at Woolly Mammoth from 8pm.
Sat 21 The Bear Hunt + Guava Lava + Bad Bangers + Piss Pain + Cold Cuts: 4ZZZ (Carpark), Fortitude Valley Hanny J + The Black Market + Jodie Lawlor + The Cheapskates: Beetle Bar, Brisbane
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Comedy / G The Guide
Watch Your Step: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley
Bearfoot + Stu Harcourt: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore
Wave Racer
DJ Slice: Black Bunny Kitchen, Alexandra Heads
Royal Croquet Club with +George Maple: Southbank (Cultural Forecourt), South Brisbane
Matt Johnstone: Blackwater Trading Co, Moffat Beach
Sessions on the Green with The Wet Fish: Southbank, South Brisbane
Ingrid James Quintet: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point
The Very + Brad Lee: Story Bridge Hotel (Outback Bar), Kangaroo Point
Lyndon Kidd + DJ Jasti + DJ Nixd: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads
DJ James Brown: Story Bridge Hotel (The Shelter Bar), Kangaroo Point
Alice Lost Her Way + Not Sinking, Just Crashing + Nila Bonda + Fugitive & the Vagabond + Goatzilla: Chardons Corner Hotel, Annerley
Booka Shade: TBC Club (The Bowler Club), Fortitude Valley All You Is Beatles Tribute Night: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley
Long Knife + Zodiac + Sick People + Woodboot + Heavy Breather: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Smoking Martha + Speed Racer + The United States of Oz + Fox N Firkin + more: Currumbin Creek Tavern, Currumbin Waters Bubble Gum Pop feat. I Am Sam + DJ Nick Galea + Mandy Onassis + Sloprock + Arcane Echo + Penny L.A. + more: Family Nightclub, Fortitude Valley Brooksy & Co + Stewart Fairhurst : Hamilton Hotel, Hamilton
You Am I: The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba
Ride The Wave Wave Racer has a new EP called Flash Drive… and yes, you can buy it on car-shaped flash drives. Join this legend as he presents his visual and sonic entertainment at Oh Hello on 20 Nov. The Dirty Channel Acoustic Duo + Allensworth: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna The Preatures: Sandstone Point Hotel, Sandstone Point Matt Stillert + Agnes J Walker & The Cry Babies: Solbar (Main Stage), Maroochydore Chris Flaskas: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore Royal Croquet Club with KLP + Nora En Pure: Southbank (Cultural Forecourt), South Brisbane
My Disco
Your Disco Needs You My Disco have released their new record Severe. Get lost in the minimalistic and spatially defying record on 20 Nov at Crowbar, with guests Cured Pink, 100% and Multiple Man.
Locky + Berst: Irish Murphy’s, Brisbane Daryl James: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End
Ed & Eddy: Story Bridge Hotel (The Corner Bar), Kangaroo Point DJ Guy Salvage: Story Bridge Hotel (Shelter Bar), Kangaroo Point Zac Gunthorpe: Sunhouse, Coolangatta The Harpoons: The Bearded Lady, West End Kenta Hayashi + The Dialers: The Billabong, Kuranda Peezo + Gallu$ + Gratis Minds + Leeze The Kid: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley Brad Butcher + Pete Cullen + Sasha March: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane
4114: Logan Diggers Club, Logan Central
Footstomp Roots feat. Electrik Lemonade + The Peppercorn Queen + Jake Whittaker: The Motor Room, West End
The Badlands + El Bravo + White Lodge: Miami Tavern (Shark Bar), Miami
The Wet Fish: The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba
Zoophonic Blonde + Johnny Jump Up + Ger Fennelly: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane
Robert Forster + Halfway: The Triffid, Newstead
The Preatures: Noosa Heads Surf Club, Noosa Heads
DJ Black Amex + Dean Joseph: The Triffid (Beer Garden), Newstead
You Am I: Parkwood Tavern, Parkwood
The Buzzbees + Luna Sands + Fire & Whistle Theory: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley
Tame Impala + Mini Mansions + Koi Child: Riverstage, Brisbane
52 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER 2015
Aweminus + Culver + Nexu5: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley
Triffid Roots feat. Jake Whittaker + Sarah Carroll: The Triffid (Beer Garden/2pm), Newstead Rock n Roll BBQ feat. The Flangipanis + The Boho Mofos + Heads Of Charm + Pronto + Jack Flash + Teva: The Triffid, Newstead
Sun 22
Mon 23
Lachy Lane + Youngsmith + Tim Edward: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley
Play Jam: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End
Steele: Black Bunny Kitchen, Alexandra Heads
Tue 24
Andrew Jolly: Blackwater Trading Co, Moffat Beach
Little Desert + Occults + Last Chaos + Pleasure Symbols + Death Church: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley
Josh Hatcher: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point
Nick Cunningham + The Ruins: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley
Mark Pradella & The Late Shift Big Band: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point The Wandering Lost + Fionn Richards: Brisbane Powerhouse, New Farm Matt Stillert + DJ NuCache: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads Transvaal Diamond Syndicate + Claude Hay + Mr Black & Blues + The Royal Artillery + Barefoot Alley + Kallidad: Chardons Corner Hotel, Annerley The Preatures: Coolangatta Hotel (Downstairs), Coolangatta
Wed 25 Beneb + Standby Empire + Jimmy Fitz: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley Architraves: Ric’s Bar, Fortitude Valley Hypnolia: The Bearded Lady, West End
Ayla
The Front: Hamilton Hotel, Hamilton Ramjet: Irish Murphy’s, Brisbane Ger Fennelly: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane Mental Thrash feat. +Open Casket + Wartooth + Kaustic Attack + Asylum + Deraign: New Globe Theatre, Fortitude Valley A Day On The Green with +John Farnham + Noiseworks + Daryl Braithwaite + The Black Sorrows + Ross Wilson & The Peaceniks: Sirromet Winery, Mount Cotton
‘Til The World Ends Busting out with her new debut EP, When The World Ends, Ayla is playing a string of intimate shows. Join the buzz at The Milk Factory on 26 Nov.
Gigs / Live The Guide
Songwriter Wednesday feat. Jack Tully: The Triffid (Front Bar), Newstead
Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk
Press Start to Continue + Boss Fight + The Consouls: The Motor Room, West End
Alex Williamson: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley
Thu 26
Lagwagon + The Flatliners + Mixtape For The Drive: The Triffid, Newstead
Blackie (Hard-Ons) + Mark Zian: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley
DJ Fluent JB: The Triffid (Beer Garden), Newstead Down The Kings + Your Man Alex Smith + The Goldhearts + Ellie Jane: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley
OzManouche Festival feat. Quinlan Steffen Caravan + La Petite Manouche: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point Sue Anne: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads Des Reid: Loving Hut, Mount Gravatt
BYO Beard
Piratefest with Alestorm + Lagerstein + Troldhaugen: Max Watt’s (formerly The Hi-Fi Brisbane), West End
Beards, Brews & Blues Festival is back for 2015, and features Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk, James Grim’s Woodcutters, The Dawn Chorus and more. There’ll also be raffles, barbers battles and beer tastings. Wharf Tavern, 27 Nov.
The Goldhearts: Miami Marketta (Studio 56), Miami Trigger Warning + Son of Fallan: Ric’s Bar, Fortitude Valley Old Fashioned: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore
A Breach Of Silence + Down Royale + Misguided + Wornaway + Boston Blackout: Chardons Corner Hotel, Annerley
Rob Hirst + Sean Sennett + The Strums + Lucy Star Satellite: Sonny’s House of Blues, Brisbane
Rudimental + GRMM: Eatons Hill Hotel, Eatons Hill
Sparkspitter: The Bearded Lady, West End
Steve Grady: Habitat Restaurant & Bar, South Brisbane
Pesci’s Club Night with Apes + Baskervillain + Blonde on Blonde + more: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley Ayla: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane
Ham: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End
The Gonzo Show + The Bassethounds + Folklore: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley
Signature Duo + Andrew Mackey Duo: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane
Jam & Open Mic Night: Town & Country Restuarant & Motel, Nerang
Emma Nixon + Nicole Murray + Rebecca Wright: Queensland Multicultural Centre (QMC), Kangaroo Point
Agnes Blue: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore
Nowhere To Run Club Night: Beetle Bar, Brisbane
Pro Vita + Mar Haze: Solbar (Main Stage), Maroochydore
Robbie Miller + Asha Jefferies + Finley Miller: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley
Chris Todd: Story Bridge Hotel, Kangaroo Point
Brodie Graham: Blackwater Trading Co, Moffat Beach
DJ James Brown: Story Bridge Hotel (Shelter Bar), Kangaroo Point
Luke Morris: Boardriders Coolangatta, Coolangatta
The Strums: The Bearded Lady, West End
DJ Nato + DJ Benny: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads
Sat 28
I’m A Dreamer Hardcore-rock legends Dream On Dreamer are playing a gig to launch their new record Songs Of Soulitude. Don’t miss their fearsome tunes when they play at The Brightside, 28 Nov.
Voodoo Lust: Beetle Bar, Brisbane Slum Sociable: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley
DJ Slice: Black Bunny Kitchen, Alexandra Heads OzManouche Festival feat. +Hank Marvin Gypsy Jazz + Hot Club Swing: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point
Slum Sociable
DJ NuCache + DJ Solafreq: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads Sex Pistols/Ramones Tribute Show: Chardons Corner Hotel, Annerley Little Desert + Last Chaos + Occults + Pleasure Symbols + Death Church: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Fantasia feat. +Dave Winnel: Family Nightclub, Fortitude Valley
Socialise At The Lodge Jazz hop duo Slum Sociable are in town to promote their debut EP TQ. Catch them performing their new beats on 28 Nov at Black Bear Lodge.
Clint Boge + Coaster: Hamilton Hotel, Hamilton Andrew Taylor + Berst: Irish Murphy’s, Brisbane Worldsmallestfestival with Arbuckle + Scraps + Greg Brady & the Anchors + Louis Forster + James Harrison: Junk Bar, Ashgrove
Method: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna
Fri 27
In Essence: Burleigh Brewing, Burleigh Heads
Onyx + Snak The Ripper: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley
Jabba + Andrew Taylor: Irish Murphy’s, Brisbane
Seductive Soul: Logan Diggers Club, Logan Central
Oddisee + Sampa The Great + Ali the Great: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley
Beards, Brews and Blues Festival feat. Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk + James Grim’s Woodcutters + Transvaal Diamond Syndicate + The Dawn Chorus + Dan Hannaford: Wharf Tavern (The Helm), Mooloolaba
Tom Foolery: Hamilton Hotel, Hamilton
Punk Poets In The Beer Garden with Emmy Hour: The Triffid, Newstead
OzManouche Festival feat. Swing Dynamique + Ian Date: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point
Dream On Dreamer
Love Bites + Hammerhead + Rocket Train + Lady Crimson: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Battle of Brisbane LP Launch: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley Double Lined Minority: The Grid, Toowoomba
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Comedy / G The Guide
Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk: Lefty’s Old Time Music Hall, Brisbane
Mon 30
Smoking Martha
Chris Cornell: Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) (Concert Hall), South Brisbane
Pure Velour: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End Mantra Trio: Logan Diggers Club, Logan Central
The Maine + With Confidence + Set The Record: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley
Alter Ego + Ger Fennelly: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane
Tue 01
Citrus Jam: Ric’s Bar, Fortitude Valley
Chris Cornell: Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) (Concert Hall), South Brisbane
Nigel McTrutsy + The Floyd Family Breakdown: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna SoLar: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore
Kenta Hayashi + Jayne Welsh: The Bearded Lady, West End
The Dawn Chorus + Pop Cult + Ollie Jackson & the Natural Groove: Solbar, Maroochydore Ed & Eddy: Story Bridge Hotel (The Corner Bar), Kangaroo Point DJ Guy Salvage: Story Bridge Hotel (Shelter Bar), Kangaroo Point Ed Sheeran + Rudimental + Foy Vance + Passenger: Suncorp Stadium, Milton Holy Serpent + Hobo Magic + Lizzard Wizzard: The Bearded Lady, West End Dream On Dreamer: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Cull: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley Double Lined Minority: The Lab, Brisbane The Aston Shuffle: The Met, Fortitude Valley Lachlan Bryan & The Wildes: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane DJ Black Amex + Dean Joseph: The Triffid, Newstead The Last Waltz with Bernard Fanning + Jeff Lang + The Gin Club + The Wilson Pickers + Ian Haug + Jackie Marshall + McKisko + more: The Triffid, Newstead The Bennies + The Hard Aches: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley
The Aston Shuffle
Smokin’ Set aside 21 Nov in your diary because it’s going to be a big party at Currumbin Creek Tavern, with Smoking Martha, Speed Racer, The United States Of Oz, Fox N Firkin and many more throwing tunes at your face. The Coronas + Mick McHugh: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley
Soda Eaves + Jordan Ireland + McKisko + Ghost Notes: The Bearded Lady, West End
Sun 29
Dark Symphonica feat. Rise Of Avernus + Gods of Eden + The Strangers + more: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley
Death Church + Ripped Off + 100% + Hexmere + The Submissives: Beetle Bar, Brisbane
Strictly Speaking #4 feat. Mathas + Master Wolf + more: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley
Pat Tierney: Black Bunny Kitchen, Alexandra Heads
Shelley Segal: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane
OzManouche Festival feat. The Cope Street Parade + The Furbelows: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point
Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley
OzManouche Festival - Brunch feat. +Salon de Swing + Camaron’s Gypsy Trio: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point
Triffid Roots feat. Kyle Lionheart + SueAnne Stewart: The Triffid (2pm), Newstead
KLP
Like Queens The Royal Croquet Club is back, oh yeah! On 21 Nov, go check out the site at Cultural Forecourt, Southbank, and stay for tunes from KLP. Suss out the other acts playing on the line-up, too.
Barry Charles + DJ Massroom: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads Tyga + Trippa + Dezastar: Eatons Hill Hotel, Eatons Hill The Front: Hamilton Hotel, Hamilton Ramjet: Irish Murphy’s, Brisbane Sasta + Ger Fennelly: Mick O’Malley’s, Brisbane Francesca de Valence + Saint Hughs: Old Museum, Fortitude Valley
Every Day You’re Shufflin’ Duo The Aston Shuffle are set to deliver a performance at The Met on 28 Nov. Catch them playing all the house jams you know and love.
A Day On The Green with Paul Kelly & Merri Soul Sessions + Lucinda Williams + Kasey Chambers + Marlon Williams: Sirromet Winery, Mount Cotton The Tommyhawks + Kenta Hayashi: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore The Wet Fish: Stones Corner Hotel, Greenslopes One Eyed Pilots + Amos Pella: Story Bridge Hotel (Outback Bar), Kangaroo Point DJ Guy Salvage: Story Bridge Hotel (Shelter Bar), Kangaroo Point
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Montaigne
Wings Were Made To Fly Fearless heroine Montaigne is dropping into to Black Bear Lodge on 19 Nov, in ode to her new single Clip My Wings, a bold new tune produced by Tony Buchan, laced with the theme of self-belief.
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56 • THE MUSIC • 18TH NOVEMBER 2015