06.07.16 Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Brisbane / Free / Incorporating
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121
2 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
THE RETURN OF SUGAR MAN
WITH SPECIAL GUEST
ARCHIE ROACH*
SAT 12 NOV • BRISBANE, CONVENTION & EXHIBITION CENTRE TUE 15 NOV • SYDNEY, STATE THEATRE XAVIER RUDD, ARCHIE ROACH, SAT 19 NOV • HUNTER VALLEY, BIMBADGEN RUSSELL MORRIS & MARK WILKINSON MON 21 NOV • HOBART, DERWENT ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE FRI 25 NOV • MELBOURNE, PLENARY TUE 29 NOV • ADELAIDE, THEBARTON THEATRE SAT 10 DEC • PERTH, KINGS PARK & BOTANIC GARDEN PLUS
*ARCHIE ROACH NOT APPEARING
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THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 3
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4 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
SLEEPMAKESWAVES
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THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 5
Lifestyle Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Internal Grace
Canberra outfit SAFIA are gearing up for the long-awaited release of their debut album Internal, and to celebrate the trio have announced an expansive tour of Australia September and October.
Safia
70 The age AC/DC singer Bon Scott would have been had he still been alive, with his birthday on 9 Jul. Good Boy
Walk The Line Brisbane indie-rockers Good Boy have released the new video clip for Poverty Line, and to coincide with its release the three-piece have also unveiled a massive east coast tour throughout October. 6 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
Panic! At The Disco
e / Cultu Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Last Call
Yellowcard
Pop punk icons Yellowcard have announced their final world tour after news of their disbandment earlier this week. The quartet’s last Australian leg will kick off next February for five dates, and one last album to say goodbye is due out this September.
TUE 12 JUL
DMA’S
Gavin James
TUE 16 AUG PIERCE THE VEIL
Havin’ Gavin
No Time To Lay Down Capping off a massive year, Sydney Britpop revivalists DMA’S have announced they’ll be hitting the road again for a four-date national tour. They’ll visit Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane with support from Bad//Dreams.
TOTALLY 80ÊS
FT. MARTIKA, BERLIN, LIMAHL, KATRINA, PAUL LEKAKIS & MORE...
FRI 26 AUG
Irish singersongwriter Gavin James has been causing a commotion in the UK of late and is heading to Australia for the first time to showcase his tunes. James will bring his debut album Bitter Pill along for the ride to play four shows throughout September.
HIGH SCHOOL REUNION
SAT 3 SEPT 90ÊS MANIA
WED 14 SEPT
METHODMAN REDMAN
THUR 6 OCT
MAYDAY PARADE
FRI 14 OCT L7
FRI 28 OCT
BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE
SAT 29 OCT
THE DANDY WARHOLS Rodriguez. Pic: Josh Groom
SUN 30 OCT STEVEN WILSON
FRI 4 NOV VENGABOYS
SAT 5 NOV KIM WILDE
FRI 11 NOV TECH N9NE
18 & 19 NOV ARJ BARKER
SAT 26 NOV
JOHN WILLIAMSON
FRI 2 DEC BASSHUNTER
Keep Calm And Panic! Panic! At The Disco have announced an Australian tour in January to celebrate their fifth studio album Death Of A Bachelor and the ten-year anniversary of their debut album A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out.
Lay On The Rod Rodriguez, the Sugarman himself, has announced his return to Australia. The singer-songwriter will visit our shores in November and December and will be joined by our own living legend Archie Roach at each show.
TUE 31 JAN
PANIC AT THE DISCO
(07) 3325 6777 TICKETS & INFO GO TO: EATONSHILLHOTEL.COM.AU EATONSHILLHOTELPAGE 646 SOUTHPINE RD EATONS HILL
THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 7
Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Moon B
I Love Life
Mini-festival I Love Life is returning for its second year. There aren’t going to be any terrible twos either, with a line-up of High Tension, Camp Cope, Pity Sex and more all headed up by The Bennies.
Moon B
Ooooooo~! ABC’s new four-part drama series Barracuda is set to premiere this Sunday. Set in ’96, the golden age of Aussie swimming, the show revolves around 16-yearold Danny Kelly’s quest for Olympic gold. Yeo
Yeow! Melburnian songwriter and producer Yeo has penciled in his final headline gigs for the year. With his new single Got No Game, Yeo will embark on short east coast tour throughout September. 8 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
Arts / Li Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Moon B
Hellions Bellions
Sydney hardcore outfit Hellions have released what will be their most intricate album to date. Opera Oblivia is structured like a theatrical presentation, and will be presented alongside a headline tour next month. Moon B
Bigger Than Big The 15th annual BIGSOUND festival and conference has unleashed its massive line-up ahead of the Brisbane event this September. The mammoth festival will feature Sampa The Great, Loose Tooth, Alex Lahey, Olympia and heaps more.
I’m not an avid reader of food magazines, but if Toast On A Paper Towel Monthly ever comes out, you bet I’d like a subscription. @LizHackett
Moon B
Lordy Having just performed a wave of shows overseas, Sydneybased sweetheart Gordi has announced she’ll be returning home for a headline east coast tour this August. The homecoming coincides with the release of new single Wanting.
THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 9
Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
theMusic.com.au: breaking news, up-to-the-minute reviews and streaming new releases
Watch
Nathan Fillion
Yourselves Purplebellies It has been announced that Lucy Hale from Pretty Little Liars, Jason ‘Jay’ Mewes, Back To The Future’s Claudia Wells and Firefly main man Nathan Fillion will headline the Supanova Pop Culture Expo line-up.
David Bowie: The Man Who Stole The World
David Bowie: The Man Who Stole The World David Bowie: The Man Who Stole The World is being released on 6 Jul. Previously unavailable in Australia, the documentary explores Bowie’s world-changing career through exclusive footage and interviews. 10 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
Arts / Li Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
La Boite HWY
La Boite HWY
La Boite Theatre Company are holding HWY from 11 – 23 July. Featuring Michelle Law, Maxine Mellor and more, HWY is a festival for independent artists that allows new works to develop through readings, showings, demonstrations and lectures.
Drunk History
Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds
The Dollop Podcast, a delightfully disturbing history show by US comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds makes a triumphant return in September with the Down Under 3 series and special guests Wil Anderson and Justin Hamilton.
19 The number of years Yellowcard have been together but are now calling it a day, with one final Australian tour just announced.
Ivey
Shakabrah Local talents Peach Fur, Ivey and Von Villains have been tapped to join headliners Drapht, Dune Rats and Spit Syndicate at Shakafest come August to celebrate Queensland’s music, graffiti and skate culture. THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 11
Music
HERO WORSHIP
While mourning the loss of his “favourite American” Muhammad Ali, intrepid traveller Henry Rollins tells Bryget Chrisfield about a time in North Korea when some “friendly Australians” nearly blew his cover. Cover and feature pics by Cole Bennetts.
12 • THE H MUS MUSIC IC • 6TH TH JULY ULY 2016 2016
A
sk Henry Rollins any question at all and you count on one thing: his answer will never be boring. When asked where we find him at this particular point in time, the musician, actor, world traveller, spoken word artist, television and radio host replies, “I’m in Los Angeles. I’m in my office. It’s Sunday evening at 17:22 hours.” Muhammad Ali passed two days before our chat and Rollins admits the late boxer/activist has been on his mind “all weekend”. “He was my favourite American - my favourite living American - just ‘cause he was the bravest person I never met. I mean, forget the boxing - that’s all just, you know, great; but what he said and the fact that he stood up to a very racially harsh America with no hesitation, and with great articulation and bravery that I hope I never have to be called upon to have. You can’t thank him enough and it’s amazing no one put a bullet through that guy ‘cause, you know, he would’ve been in line.” Rollins puts Ali in the same league as the late Martin Luther King (“he was like that, but bolder”): “he didn’t come on with the niceties of Dr King; he was way more pugilistic, if you will. And the fact that, you know, [J Edgar] Hoover didn’t get him assassinated? I mean, he is a miracle.
“And sadly, I don’t think America got as much from him as they could have. We should have listened more. I would like to think I got it, but I would like if more of my fellow Americans really got a lesson from him. Like, for instance, my father - who is 90 and I haven’t seen him for, like, 30 years. But my father never spoke his name. After he became Muhammad Ali? No. And I remember as a little boy on the public bus coming home from school, in the back of the bus there’s two white men arguing and I just heard someone murmur the words ‘Muhammad Ali’ and then, really loudly, a guy said, ‘You mean Clay? You mean Clay?’ And the guy yelling ‘Clay!’ was PISSED OFF! And I was, like, you know, 11 or whatever and I’m like, ‘Wow, a fight’s about to start and they’re fighting over Muhammad Ali!’ ‘Cause I was a young person when he became Muhammad Ali, I kind of know him as Muhammad Ali, but when he changed his name and said no to Vietnam and, ‘No Viet Cong ever called me nigger,’ which is a quote of his, guys like my father - you offended my dad down to his DNA. And so there’s people that he made lifelong enemies of, like, my dad - I don’t know the guy, really, but I’m sure if he’s still alive, you say, ‘Muhammad Ali’ and he’d say, ‘Good riddance’. He’s what my dad would tell you is part of a problem in America.” When he’s not touring, Rollins loves to travel, which he refers to as “achievable magic” in one of his must-read LA Weekly columns. “It’s interesting, you know,” he ponders. “If you wanna be a world traveller and be an American, you have to carry the mantle of decades of very iffy foreign policy. Like, when you’re in Iran, you’re an American;
you’re partially responsible for Operation Ajax... you know, getting [Mohammad] Mosaddegh deposed - the Prime Minister of Iran. They see you as, ‘Oh, yeah! You’re related to people who are not so cool’. And it’s a tricky, nuanced performance being an American in Middle Eastern countries, in any Islamic country, no matter who your president is. And I’ve done that through three administrations now.” Technology enables Rollins to file articles from remote destinations the world over and he marvels, “From the edge of the Antarctic Peninsula I made my deadline at the LA Weekly!” It was emailing images and writing from China that proved “the trickiest”, he enlightens. “I had to sit outside a frozen yogurt store that left their internet on and hide from the road, ‘cause if the Chinese police see some weird tattooed Westerner sitting at 4am with a laptop, there’s no way they’re not coming over to say, ‘Hey man, what are you doing?’ And I can’t say, ‘Waiting to be first in line for yogurt’. And so I had to find a way to basically bounce the images back to my office and from the office to London.”
Rollins is especially “careful” when travelling through Central Asia having been “watched almost every day” during a trip to Burma “last year or year before last”. “When I was in North Korea, any time I left my hotel room I was being checked out,” Rollins tells. “I was being evaluated, absolutely. You just have to keep your story straight, because I can’t be a movie actor, rockstar, or whatever I am in North Korea. I was brought in there; my visa said ‘business man’. And my tour guide immediately said, ‘Whaddaya do for a living?’ And I said, ‘Um, I’m a book editor,’ which is true, I edit my own books. ‘And what kind of books do you edit?’ “’Really boring ones,’ which is a fair assessment of my written work,” he teases. “But an hour later, he asked me again. I’m like, ‘Oh, I see, you’re a detective; you’re looking for my story to change’. And being kind of prepared for that, and having spent some time in Iran where the same thing happened, I was ready.” Even though Rollins was “grilled”, he “smelled it a mile away”. “And I kept my story straight,” he continues. “But one of the only things that screwed me up, in North Korea, was Australians. Thanks a lot! Because there was an Australian tour group there, so they were like, ‘[Puts on a pretty impressive Aussie accent] Hey, Henry! How ya garn?’ And my tour guide, who was feigning bad English, he went from ‘Uh, Henry, hello,’ to, ‘Why do those people know you?’ “And I was like, ‘Wow!’ And when we were walking up to the Joint Security Area - that blue room where the north and south meet - I went up to one Australian and I said, ‘Look, here’s my problem: I’ve got these guys breathing down my neck, you guys are being friendly Australians who know who I am, can you please have a word with your fellow Australians and just pretend you don’t know me for the rest of this trip and I’ll see you in Sydney, or wherever you live?’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, no problem’. And I basically walked next to a guy, with my back to my tour guide, and pretended I wasn’t talking to him. And he said, ‘Yeah, I got it,’ and I just kind of walked away from him like I wasn’t talking to him in the first place. And he talked to his people and they all calmed down. It was, you know, tense; it made me nervous.” After acknowledging 2016 has been “a rough year for people that a lot of people admire all over the world dying”, Rollins revisits Ali. “When a guy like that goes, you know, you had stock in him, you invested in what he was and so part of you goes away too. And it just shows you that you have humanity; that someone you don’t know can have an effect. And it’s inspiring! It makes you maybe wanna be that for someone else.”
If the Chinese police see some weird tattooed Westerner sitting at 4am with a laptop, there’s no way they’re not coming over to say ‘Hey man, what are you doing?’
When & Where: 14 & 15 Sep, The Tivoli
DEARLY DEPARTED Henry Rollins pays tribute to some legends gone too soon, including “long-time pal” Lemmy Kilmister.
He’s lost many close friends way too soon over the years and Henry Rollins points out, “A lot of people from the LA music scene, you know, heroin and speed got ‘em. A buddy of mine [Joe Cole] who was shot and killed right next to me – he was murdered, that wasn’t even an overdose; that was just murder. That has definitely, you know, impacted my life, in ways I understand and probably more ways that I don’t.” More recently it’s been cancer that has claimed the lives of some of his friends and Rollins laments, “A buddy of mine I grew up with, a punk rocker from Washington, DC, John Stabb of the great Washington punk band Government Issue; John passed away a couple of weeks ago. The drummer of The Rollins Band [Jason Mackenroth] just passed away late last year, beginning of this year and a guy I did a couple of movies with, Don Francks, the great Canadian actor, he passed a few of weeks ago.” Lemmy Kilmister was also “a long-time pal” of Rollins, who describes the late Motorhead frontman as “a really amazing guy… funny, smart, honest, superfriendly”. “But he had a good time. I mean, you know [laughs] he did exactly what he wanted, trust me.” THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 13
Music
Life After Delonge Mark Hoppus tells Neil Griffiths why Blink-182 are back. For good this time.
“T
om. Is. Out.” That was the email sent from Tom Delonge’s manager to his fellow Blink-182 band members at the end of 2014 , just a week before they were set to finally get in the studio together to record a new album. For the second time in ten years, the co-founding member of the seminal punk group had split, leaving fans to assume this really was the end. But now, over a year later, the San Diego-founded group are set to release their seventh studio album, California; the first record without Delonge and the first to feature new recruit and Alkaline Trio frontman, Matt Skiba. “Everybody in the band is really happy, everybody is really proud of the album, everybody is excited to play music,” Hoppus says.
I think that [California] pulls from old Blink, I think it pushes Blink forward.
“When we were recording the album, we were so oked on the recording process and the songwriting stoked ocess and everybody’s enthusiasm and everybody process ving ideas and pitching in. All hands were on deck. I having uldn’t have asked for a better writing process.” couldn’t Following Delonge’s departure in January last year, oppus and drummer Travis Barker had to make a big Hoppus cision about the future of Blink-182. With a show decision d b k d for f March, M h they h made d the h callll to bring bi already booked in Skiba (a friend from way back) simply to honour their commitment to the gig. The response by fans at the show was enough for Hoppus and Barker to decide that the future of the band included Skiba.
14 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
“It was really Skiba or no one else, he was the only one that we talked about,” Hoppus explains. “He has such a great voice and such a great temperament and [is] so talented and such a great guitarist that it just seemed like the perfect fit from the first time we that we even started talking about it. Matt was very gracious to fill in with those shows and it just meshed immediately.” The three got in the studio earlier this year with renowned punk producer John Feldmann and the result is an album that emphasises what Blink-182 is all about – fast, catchy punk music. Hoppus agrees that California could fit perfectly between the band’s 2001 album Take Off Your Pants & Jacket and their career-defining untitled record released in 2003. “I think that’s a fair assessment,” Hoppus says. “I think that [California] really goes back to all the stuff that we love about Blink-182 and have been trying to do for the past ten years. I think that it pulls from old Blink, I think it pushes Blink forward. I think that’s probably the best assessment of where it should sit in the timeline.” Hoppus, Barker and Delonge all agree that untitled is their best work, but the 44-year-old bassist believes California “stands even” with the acclaimed work. “Untitled I’m really proud of because we pushed ourselves to be different and pushed ourselves to do different ideas and this one I feel we did the same thing. But we also went back to what Blink is all about. “I hold these records with equal pride, I think.” In the last year, Delonge has been adamant that he never quit the band and even denied a press release sent from the Blink camp announcing his departure was true. Since then, the Angels & Airwaves singer has diverted his focus to his multimedia company To The Stars. Shortly after Skiba’s inclusion in the band was confirmed, Delonge released a statement hinting that he does have a future in Blink-182. Most recently, he announced that he has rekindled his friendship with Barker and has even suggested that they are talking about recording and touring together. Hoppus claims this is all news to him. “I don’t know what [Delonge] is talking about because I haven’t spoken with him at all about recor recording and To one time touring,” Hoppus says. “I’ve spoken with Tom since 2014 and it was totally genial enough and it was fine. But it’s not something that we’re even talking about.” Outside of Blink-182, Hoppus keeps him himself busy with o several projects. Not only does he run his own clothing prod line, Hi My Name Is Mark, but has also produced albums for a number of fellow punk acts including Fall Out Boy, a Paws. New Found Glory, Motion City Soundtrack and Blink have just kicked off a US tour in support s of the new album and while he hopes to come to Australia in the near future, Hoppus admits that it all co comes down to when Barker is ready to board a plane, w who has been 2 resistant to fly since a fatal plane crash in 2008 that killed four passengers and left Barker with burns to 65% of his body. “We are looking into and Travis is loo looking into the Aust possibility of taking a boat from LA to Australia, which is a very long trip, but it’s something that we are looking into,” H “H f ll we can make k it i work.” Hoppus says. “Hopefully
What: California (Vagrant)
Film
Balance Goldstone director Ivan Sen tells Anthony Carew how he took a genre we’re all used to and gave it “a dose of social, cultural complication”.
Even if you’re making a genre movie, it has to have a deeper meaning. I’m taking stepping stones towards trying to redefine what genre means.
T
hree years ago, Ivan Goldstone Sen opened the 2013 Sydney Film Festival with Mystery Road, a policier that used the murder investigation genre to explore sociological issues. Its dead girl was Indigenous, its script a broadside against the treatment of Aboriginals by police, inspired by the fact that cases involving missing or murdered Aboriginal women including two distant cousins of the filmmaker - are rarely pursued with much zeal. Its lead detective, Jay Swan, was played by Aaron Pedersen, this not-quite-hero a mixed-race ‘turncoat’ - a modern-day tracker too black for the local police force, too white for the local aboriginal community. Being caught between two worlds is a feeling both the filmmaker and his star know well from their own lives, which inspired Sen to keep exploring the same character. Now, Goldstone will open this year’s SFF, bringing things back full circle. “That first screening [of Mystery Road] in Sydney,” Sen recounts, “the audience reacted really well, and I was just standing up the back, and I just felt like there was something missing from this idea of this Indigenous detective in this desert landscape, trying to achieve this dream of universal justice in this small town, where he’s up against the establishment, as well as his own community. I felt like it was missing this emotion, this... feeling, that’s not something that I can totally articulate. So, right after the first screening I felt that I wanted to do another one. But I didn’t really pursue it until Aaron Pedersen called me up and encouraged me to write another film. He was just as keen to keep exploring Jay Swan and his world.” In Goldstone, Sen explores the lead character in a deeper fashion, describing the film as a “spiritual journey” in which its central cop “reclaims his identity, his culture, his past”. Again, these sociological ideas, which have deep resonance in Australian culture, are explored through the prism of genre. With another impressive cast - including Alex Russell, David Gulpilil, David Wenham, Jacki Weaver, Kate Beahan, and Michael Dorman - on side, Sen sought to go beyond what he did last time. “Goldstone takes things further: it takes in more cultural perspective, but there’s also more generic thriller elements, there’s much more tension and a faster pace than Mystery Road,” Sen says. Goldstone also takes things further in terms of its location. It was shot in Maryworth, “deep into Western Queensland,” three hours west of Winton, where Mystery Road was shot. It’s an area that, Sen says, has “never been filmed before”. How come? “Because there’s literally
nothing there,” he laughs. “That’s why people haven’t filmed there. There’s no power, there’s no water; there’s one pub that runs on a generator. We basically had to build a town there, which took most of the budget for the film. It was the most intense, emotional shoot I’ve ever had. The whole crew got so close. The land is very, very strong there. It’s strikingly beautiful, an area that is naturally treeless plains, it’s never had trees, so there’s something beautiful about its sparseness. We were all stuck out there together, and everyone connected with what we were doing, and with the land.” Though he’s made fiction features about wayward Aboriginal youth (2002’s Beneath Clouds, 2011’s Toomelah), documentaries about ‘lost’ black women (2004’s Who Was Evelyn Orcher?, 2007’s A Sister’s Love), and even experimental essay-movies about Area 51 (2009’s Dreamland), Sen believes he’s now found his calling: making genre movies shot through with social themes. “When you make a film like Mystery Road, it’s interesting,” he says. “Some people are just there for the gun battle. Which is fine. But then, hopefully, they take on board that cultural perception that underpins the fabric of the action. Then you’ve got people who are interested in Indigenous films, but who might not normally go to genre movies. The trick is, then, balancing that so you don’t [alienate] either audience. I pushed myself way more with [Goldstone] than I pushed myself in the past, to try and make sure that I do connect with a wider audience with this one. “Even if you’re making a genre movie, it has to have a deeper meaning. I’m taking stepping stones towards trying to redefine what genre means. By putting this Indigenous perspective, this conflicted Indigenous perspective, in the middle of something that is a Western, that is a thriller. It’s taking a genre that we’re all used to and giving it a dose of social, cultural complication. It’s pumping it full of this real-life meaning, which has come from my life, and Aaron Pedersen’s life, and the life of a lot of people in this country.”
What: Goldstone
THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 15
Credits Publisher Street Press Australia Pty Ltd Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast National Editor – Magazines Mark Neilsen
Music
Still Marching
Editor Mitch Knox Arts Editor Hannah Story Gig Guide Editor Justine Lynch gigs@themusic.com.au Contributing Editor Bryget Chrisfield Editorial Assistants Brynn Davies, Sam Wall Senior Contributor Steve Bell Contributors Anthony Carew, Ben Preece, Benny Doyle, Brendan Crabb, Caitlin Low, Carley Hall, Chris Familton, Clare Armstrong, Cyclone, Daniel Cribb, Danielle O’Donohue, Dave Drayton, Dylan Stewart, Georgia Corpe, Guy Davis, Jake Sun, Joel Lohman, Liz Giuffre, Madeleine Laing, Mark Hebblewhite, Neil Griffiths, Paul Mulkearns, Peter Laurie, Rip Nicholson, Roshan Clerke, Sam Hobson, Samuel J Fell, Sean Capel, Sean Hourigan, Tom Hersey, Tom Peasley, Tyler McLoughlan, Uppy Chatterjee Photographers Barry Schipplock, Bec Taylor, Bobby Rein, Dave Kan, Freya Lamont, John Stubbs, Kane Hibberd, Markus Ravik, Stephen Booth, Terry Soo Sales Trent Kingi sales@themusic.com.au Art Dept Ben Nicol, Felicity Case-Mejia Admin & Accounts Meg Burnham, Ajaz Durrani, Kathy Zhu accounts@themusic.com.au Distro distro@themusic.com.au Subscriptions store.themusic.com.au Contact Us Phone: (07) 3252 9666 info@themusic.com.au www.themusic.com.au Street: The Foundry, 228 Wickham St, Fortitude Valley, QLD 4006 Postal: Locked Bag 4300 Fortitude Valley QLD 4006
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16 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
Marta “Martika” Marrero got her own theme song from Prince. Ahead of Australia’s Totally 80s tour, she tells Cyclone some of the highlights between now and then.
M
arta “Martika” Marrero went from recording the US #1 power ballad Toy Soldiers to teaming with Prince for the enduring Love... Thy Will Be Done. Then she mysteriously retreated from popdom. But now the Cuban-American songstress is bound for Australia’s Totally 80s tour. Marrero will perform with a local band assembled by Wa Wa Nee’s Paul Gray, teasing, “They have requested the biggest singles.” The Californian was a child star, appearing on the television show Kids Incorporated before embarking on a music career. Marrero’s eponymous debut came out via Sony in 1988. The teen had penned Toy Soldiers about a friend battling drug addiction. Marrero also transformed Carole King’s I Feel The Earth Move into a dance track. For her second album, she approached Prince to collaborate, culminating in Love... Thy Will Be Done. Pre-interview, Marrero’s management clarifies details about her connection to Prince, stating that “Martika was NEVER in a relationship with Prince”. The singersongwriter had already commenced work on 1991’s LP when, accompanied by her
momager, she met Prince at Paisley Park in Minneapolis. “It was pretty amazing, ‘cause I was such a huge fan. To even go to ‘Paisley Park is in your heart’ was just amazing to me — and the fact that, when I got there, he was like, ‘Welcome to Paisley Park’ and handed me a sheet of paper with the lyrics for Martika’s Kitchen on it, I was just so blown away. I’m thinking, ‘The guy wrote me a theme song!’” That song became her second album’s funky title track. Though Marrero had hoped that they’d share a session, most of the collab happened remotely. “In a way, it was fine because we didn’t know each other,” Marrero reasons. “You’re more comfortable on your own.” Prince set music to words from her notebook, sending tracks back to Los Angeles. He turned “a prayer” Marrero wrote into “a beautiful hymn” — Love... Thy Will Be Done. Shockingly, Martika’s Kitchen — featuring a duet with Celia Cruz, Queen of Salsa — didn’t even crack the US Top 100. Marrero all but quit the biz. In later years Marrero began a Chicago house album, The Mirror Ball, airing the Toy Soldiers-riffing Flow With The Go. But she shelved it following a family loss. “I just got completely out of the zone we were in with that project,” she says. “Unfortunately, I don’t know if I’ll ever come back around to that or not, ‘cause you just move on.” Today Marrero is unsure about a full comeback. But she has relaunched her website — complete with merch line. “It’s kinda hard to pick it up after so long. I’m not really basically career-driven like I was back when I was a teenager. When I was a teenager, I wanted to take over the world.”
When & Where: 12 Jul, Eatons Hill Hotel; 14 Jul, Jupiters, Broadbeach
JULY 7TH
WOLVER “GENEVA” SINGLE LAUNCH JULY 8TH
THE FOUNDRY KARAOKE EXTRAVAGANZA #2 JULY 9TH
SIMI LACROIX’S DEPENDANTS DAY PROM JULY 10TH
DISPOSSESSED JULY 14TH
PRO VITA (FRONT ROOM) JULY 14TH
FEELSCUB (BACK ROOM) JULY 15TH
BIG WHITE – PRESENTED BY LOADED, SOCIETY OF SOUND & SAILOR JERRY JULY 16TH
BRISBABES #4 JULY 17TH
SUNDAY CRUDDY SUNDAY WWW.THEFOUNDRY.NET.AU THEFOUNDRY.OZTIX.COM.AU 228 WICKHAM STREET, FORTITUDE VALLEY
ANS THE BANDS THE IN OCALS THE BLOGS TH PRODUCERS THE CLUB STIVALS THE GROUPIE HE TOURS THE FANS T THE BLOGS THE ENCO THE CLUBS THE REMI OUPIES THE ALBUMS NDUSTRY THE LOCALS CALS THE BLOGS THE RODUCERS THE CLUBS TIVALS THE GROUPIES THE BLOGS THE ENCOR THE CLUBS THE REMIX OUPIES THE ALBUMS T DUSTRY THE LOCALS T STRY THE LOCALS THE B THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 17
Music
Frontlash Abbe Will Rock You
Haunted House
Just one of the talented artists to win us over big time at the weekend was WA-bred chanteuse Abbe May – see a full rundown of the show, and more, in our Live section.
Bravo, BrisFest A standing ovation for Brisbane Festival’s live music curation, please - Kim Gordon, george, Custard, Robert Forster, Mick Harvey and more hit the Spiegeltent this September.
Lashes Hooray For Hutch
Per The Guardian, Triffid co-owner Scott Hutchinson has lent his support to “bankroll whatever is necessary” to take on Qld’s new liquor & lockout laws. Time to organise, people!
Abbe May
Backlash Back In Fashion
It’s been ten years since End Of Fashion’s debut album! It’s also been two years since their frontman flipped out at triple j and blamed it for the band’s eventual failure.
Thanks, Science
A new study says if you drink caffeine, your ears won’t recover as well from all the damage you’ve inflicted on them from years of gig-going as if you didn’t drink caffeine.
Please Explain ...One Nation? Again? Really?
18 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
Big White’s Jack Wotton tells Brynn Davies about the ghost story he lives every day.
G
hosts are something rarely seen. For Jack Wotton, the spirits that haunt the house he shares with his fellow Big White band members exist as a “feeling” rather than a physical entity. “There are energies in the house, like, if the air has stayed still for too long and no one’s moved through it, and then when you do go through your house it’s quite close to solid and a bit icy. When I first moved in... there hadn’t been anyone living in the back house for a month. I remember the first night walking in, it was dark, which didn’t help, and there was a strange energy. I’ve noticed it since. You don’t really wanna be on one side of the house alone. It’s a bit etch,” Wotton describes with a shiver. The sharehouse has a history that could be attributed to such paranormal energies - beginning as a surgery, it was subsequently transformed into a brothel, a boarding house, a “houso” block and “now it’s a sharehouse for hopeless people in their early to mid 20s. It’s a bit of a madhouse, it’s falling to bits”. Living with five bandmates sounds like a recipe for trouble - how many bands have fallen apart from rising tension in the confined space of a tour bus over the years? But Big White are “kind of like a - for the lack of a better cliche - a family I suppose”, he says bashfully. “I was in London recently and we ran into our mates from Hockey Dad, and their manager was like ‘So you’ve been on tour for a while now, are you guys
still friends?’” he laughs. “And I was like, ‘I wouldn’t say we’re more than friends, I’d say we’re beyond friends.’ We already love each other, but I guess we kind of learnt to get along. When you’re cleaning up after someone or they’re cleaning up after you... you kind of learn to be civil.” They must have it down pat - even splitting the songs evenly between their three singers for live gigs sounds like it’s done without protest. It’s outsiders that’s the problem. “Every, I’d say, two out of the three reviews that we get have said ‘Nicholas Griffith’s singing on Teenage Dream blah blah...’ and they always muck it up, every time. And how do you know? You gotta look at a picture of someone and go ‘He looks like he has a deep voice/he looks like he yelps like a puppy.’ Everyone’s got their favourites... You don’t wanna get caught on the Ringo side of things, that’s for sure!” After covering “9,200 miles” of touring in America, and multiple dates across Europe, Big White have become a little more worldly. Wotton reckons that “rock’n’roll is still alive” in the USA, observing bands like their own “constantly touring... They link up all these circuits, it’s crazy. There’s an optimism”. As for Europe, “There’s a lot more venues [than Sydney]. And Europe is completely different - the way you get treated as an artist. I was just saying to a friend: you get fed you, get watered, you get bedded, you get paid well. Europe’s next level in that sense, they’re really organised. Europe is like ‘wow’, a bit of gratitude.”
When & Where: 15 Jul, The Foundry
Music
Entire Concepts Chris Emerson gives Brynn Davies the low-down on his collaboration with Toto and Skrillex and writing a narrative about the What So Not project.
C
hris Emerson is one of those friend-of-a-friend type of guys, which tends to happen when you both grow up on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. “[I’m from] Dee Why,” he laughs, “the hood of the Beaches.” After splitting from fellow Peninsula producer Harley Streten last year, Emerson has pushed the What So Not project in his own direction, landing feet firmly first as a solo act. “In terms of producing by myself, that was definitely a daunting thing because I had to work very, very hard across probably the last five years to get myself to a level where I was completely confident in my own ability,” he explains. Although Emerson seems like a confident, chilled out guy on the phone — articulate, open and extremely amicable — his honesty about becoming plagued by self-doubt is an endearing attribute that reveals itself throughout our chat. We finally have a reason What So Not’s hotly anticipated collaboration with Skrillex and Toto hasn’t dropped. “It’s definitely not curled up and died, I just haven’t finished it,” he confirms. “To be honest — and I’ve never told this to anyone except here, right now — I was so daunted by what we created in that room that I needed to get my skills up significantly so that I could create all that the song could be. Those guys are some of the most phenomenal musicians I have ever worked with in my life. I think I’m about ready to come back into it and make something of it.” Before the Toto project comes off the back burner, he’s getting set to release the follow up to 2015’s Gemini EP. “Funnily enough, there’s a significant amount of songs in there now that it could almost be called an album, but I’m not going to call it an album,” he reveals with a laugh. Impatient fans will have to hold on a while
I was so daunted by what we created in that room that I needed to get my skills up significantly so that I could create all that the song could be.
longer — What So Not’s debut record won’t come about until he finishes the “narrative” he’s writing — a kind of musical autobiography and mythology. It’s a concept that seems to go hand in hand with a lot of dance acts — think Daft Punk and Gorillaz. “I mean, what’s the point?!” he impassions. “What’s the point if it’s not going to really mean something? It’s gotta be more than a song; you gotta create entire worlds, you gotta create entire concepts.” At the moment he’s taken to jotting down a literal tale about “where I’ve been and where I am right now”: “I kind of funnily enough wrote my own narrative. I ran out of the shower with this entire melody and chord pattern in my head and then just sang it in my phone, jumped back it the shower, ran to the gig, and then the whole way to the gig I suddenly had this whole narrative as well. I wrote this sort of, like, this whole story out in my notes in my phone... It’s going to be the title track for the next body of work, so it should come out around about the time I’m in Australia.”
When & Where: 9 Jul, Max Watt’s
THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 19
Music
FRONT BOT TOMS DROP HOMAGE
TO ICONIC MOVIES The Front Bottoms released a new video for their track Ginger. Did you spy the references to the following films in there? Back To The Future – there’s Doc, Marty and the Delorian The Breakfast Club – running amok in the hallway by a Judd Nelson-esque character Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – it wasn’t Twist And Shout, but there was singing on the back of a truck Say Anything – holding that boombox aloft Risky Business – sliding around in one’s tighty whities ET – a blink and you’ll miss it hooded figure riding a bike with a basket A Clockwork Orange – the white outfits, the eyeliner, cane and hat all make an appearance
20 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
Battle Hammer Doom
Liverpudlian doom Neanderthals Conan are back to drop their sizeable bottomend sound on unsuspecting Australian audiences. Mark Hebblewhite cornered main man Jon Davis for the lowdown.
“T
his is the first time I’ve ever said g’day to an Australian without completely taking the piss,” laughs Davis as the The Music is connected through to his hometown of Liverpool, England. It soon becomes apparent that after their first jaunt to our shores in 2014 (in support of the superb Blood Eagle LP) that Davis harbours a reservoir of good will towards all things Australian. “I was amazed at how at home we felt in Australia — a lot of similarities to back home but without a lot of the bad things that come with it (laughs). On a musical level all the interactions we had were phenomenal. People looked after us well, the bands we toured with were amazing and the crowds really got what we were about. We can’t wait to come back.” Since bursting eardrums way back in 2010 with the bludgeoning Horseback Battle Hammer EP Conan have developed a well earned reputation as one of the most exciting and consistent bands in today’s doom movement. The reason for this acclaim is simple: unlike many bands, they realise it’s not enough just to play slow.
For Conan riffs actually matter. “Having a bit of mix is important I think,” offers Davis. “We love the whole ‘low and slow’ approach but we also have some more upbeat moments. We think about the crowd and I often wonder how a crowd of neutral punters would take a band who just play one tempo the whole gig. How interesting would it be for them? “In the modern music industry you have to take a few risks to get people’s interest. We haven’t got more upbeat deliberately but we’ve definitely changed things up a bit on our records — especially on the new one. I’m also a big believer in ensuring that the musicianship is always top notch: look at a band like Samothrace — they play slow but the songs are always interesting and well written — and that’s what we try and do.” Despite their ongoing success Conan have (band member-wise) suffered from ‘revolving door’ syndrome with only Davis himself surviving from the original 2006 incarnation. But, as Davis himself admits, in today’s music world this is par for the course. “The reality is that when you are in a band like ours that tours so much — we did 150 shows last year — the pool of available musicians becomes smaller and smaller. You simply have to be available to do those shows and we’ve had members in the past that just couldn’t due to their personal and work commitments, which I totally understand: people have lives. Even I don’t make a living solely from being in this band — I do some tour management work and have a studio and a record label. That’s just how it has to be if I want to survive.”
When & Where: 14 Jul, Crowbar
THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 21
Film
s e s a e l e R
This Week’s Releases
A Phony Art Form
The Avalanches Wildflower Modular/EMI
The Julie Ruin Hit Reset Hardly Art/Inertia
Kylie Auldist Waste Of Time Freestyle Records
Aphex Twin Cheetah Warp/Inertia
22 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
John Carney, director of Sing Street, explains to Anthony Carew that films are bad.
“B
y definition, films are bad,” says John Carney. The Irish filmmaker is talking a week before his public diss of Keira Knightley — with whom he worked on 2013’s Begin Again — made headlines, but he’s clearly in a prickly mood, critical of everything from himself (“I’m 44 and not very cool”) to the state of cinema. “It’s a phony business, it’s a phony art form,” Carney says. “Shooting out of sequence, people dressing up in other people’s clothes and delivering lines they didn’t write and that they don’t mean. By definition, films should be a car crash. They’re not a poet sitting down to write what’s on their mind. They’re not a painter sitting down in front of an easel. They’re not a writer sitting down in front of a laptop. They’re 100 people out on a set trying to remember what a writer who isn’t even there did five years ago, with a producer screaming at them because the money is running out, and actors uncomfortable in their skins and other people’s clothes. That’s a disaster, actually. You’d be amazed that that is ever any good.” Yet ‘authenticity’ was what was hailed in Carney’s breakout fourth feature, 2007’s Once, a tale of Irish buskers making an album, that crashed the 2008 Oscars and led Carney to America. There, he made Begin Again, another film about writing songs, though one more conventional and commercial. He’s returned to Ireland for his latest film, Sing Street, which continues
the musical theme, telling the story of a crew of high school friends forming a band in 1980s Dublin, inspired by his own experiences. “It wasn’t like the starting point was to tell my story,” Carney says. “I saw a schoolkid on a train in London, wearing a school uniform, and he was carrying his guitar over his shoulder. And I remember taking that journey a lot when I was a kid: on my way from school, on my bike, back to band practice. I thought that would be an interesting idea for a film: the greyness of being in school juxtaposed with the joy and fun and colour of being in a band. How opposite those two lives are.” The film is filled with period music — The Cure, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet — close to Carney’s heart. “Each song represents a certain period of my upbringing, or a certain memory, or a certain flashback, or a certain girl, or a certain night or weekend,” he says. He’s drawn to depicting music-making on screen because “cinema really suits music in an amazing way... Cinema started off with music, from the beginning. When there was no sound, the first thing they had was a pianist playing along”. But as much as Carney loves pop songs in films, traditional scores sit alongside Knightley on his shitlist. “Score, nowadays, feels dated; like a remnant of the silent era. Putting scary music next to scary things, or happy music next to happy things, I think that’s really cliched and hackneyed. I can’t believe that people still do that.”
What: Sing Street
In Focus Bello Winter Music
After a successful debut last year, Bello Winter Music festival returns from 7 to 10 Jul. Following a similar format to its sister festival Mullum Music Festival, Bellingen’s clubs, cafes, churches and halls will host over 100 performances for a range of performers including Willie Watson, Kylie Auldist, Mojo Juju, Sahara Beck, L-FRESH The LION and many more.
THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 23
Indie Indie
Ivey
Halcyon Drive
W
G
old Coast indies Ivey didn’t always trade in shimmery, east coast guitar-pop. According to guitarist and vocalist Lachlan McGuffie the “band originally began as a garage-rock outfit in 2010 with myself, my brother Matthew McGuffie and neighbour Dante Martin”. Skip to 2013 though, when vocalist Millie Perks joined the roster, and “the band then became Ivey, and we started writing original music together, and we have not stopped since”. The result is a growing collection of increasingly catchy grooves. Their latest single, All Things Good, was recorded “in Airlock [Studios] with Konstantin Kersting”, says McGuffie. “We’d met Kon a few times around the Brisbane music scene, and also through supporting his band, The Belligerents. It all kind of fell into place, we all worked really well together, and it was a very easy, relaxed studio session.” Can we look forward to more pop gems from these sessions in the near future? “This will be a standalone track,” shares McGuffie. “We are compiling a lot of songs at the moment, and we wanted to release one of them while we are sorting out the next EP. Currently we have enough songs to easily release two EPs, but we’re trying to take our time.” Ready access to sun ‘n’ surf probably doesn’t hurt, but by their own admission the young band’s refreshingly patient, almost Zen approach stems from their connection with each other. “It’d be hard to find a time when things aren’t working,” says McGuffie. “I mean, Matt and I are brothers, Dante is our next door neighbour and best mate of 12 years and Millie is like our little sister. Everything just seems to click, funnily enough.” When & Where: 8 Jul, Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise; 16 Jul, The Foundry; 19 Jul, Night Quarter, Helensvale; 27 Jul, Shakafest, Miami Tavern 24 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
hen Michael Oechsle made a few tracks in his hometown of Melbourne, he never expected it to become anything other than a small personal project. “I tentatively chose to share a few of those tracks with close mates including Max [Pamieta] and he was like ‘Well, let’s bloody play them live then!’ So it’s just grown from there into our little baby,” explains Oechsle, who is the lead vocalist and guitarist of two-piece Halcyon Drive. Their follow-up EP to debut Cruel Kids is Untethered, a blend of “intellectually heartfelt pop” and indie-soft-rock. “We worked with Steven Schram [San Cisco, Cat Empire] on this EP again, and he suggested the idea of setting up our own space to record. So we shacked up in a beautiful old mud brick in the Otways forest last year for a couple of weeks to knock it over.” “The ‘studio’ location itself was just stunning, and being immersed in that every day was particularly inspiring,” muses Oechsle. Being a two-piece, the band ran up against some creative differences
while shacked up in the woods working on Untethered. “I like to think we toe the line between [perfection and vibe when recording]. Max is a very — sometimes frustratingly so — detail-oriented dude, and I tend to be more about the vibe. So we get a good balance even if that takes a few hefty arguments!”
When & Where: 8 Jul, Soulbar, Maroochydore; 9 Jul, Grand Central Hotel; 10 Jul, Broadbeach Tavern
The Fall Of Troy Answered by: Thomas Erak Why are you coming to visit our fair country? Kangaroo meat. Also, music, love, money, fear, ego, sun, an airplane, Lost, Chris Lilley, Jonah Takalua and fate. Also, you guys call motorcycle gang members bikies, which makes them sound so cute. Is this your first visit? We played Soundwave and a couple sideshows back in 2008. So it’s been a while. How long are you here for? Three shows in five days. We’ll play as many notes as possible while we’re here. Also, possibly our new album. What do you know about Australia, in ten words or less? Kangaroos, koalas, Chopper. Also great people. Any extra-curricular activities you hope to participate in while here? Would love to go to Uluru, swim in the ocean, hold a koala. But mostly, eat kangaroo (or feed one). What will you be taking home as a souvenir? Lucas’ Papaw Ointment and sand.
Where can we come say hi, and buy you an Aussie beer? 5 Jul, Max Watt’s, Melbourne; 6 July, Manning Bar, Sydney; 7 Jul, Max Watt’s, Brisbane. Website link for more info? thefalloftroy.com
THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 25
Eat / Drink Eat/Drink
Salted Choc Slice Twisted Faves
Choc Pineapple Tim Tams
Toffee Apple Tim Tams
Uppy: Some actual salt flakes would be delicious, but the texture of the salted choc cream is nice. Hannah: That was amazing. Brynn: Leave the hard biscuit - give me the salted choc cream. Mark: The salt needs to cut through something sweeter than just chocolate. Leaves a salt aftertaste. Sammy: It was just the flavour of salt, it wasn’t actual salt. I need some actual flakes in there. Georgie: Needs more salt. Neil: It’s a nice taste, but it felt like a bag of salt dumped in my mouth.
Neil: Dislike times three. It’s like someone left my Tim Tam in a jar of cordial for an hour. Sammy: Smells like shampoo. The biscuit overpowers the pineapple. Brynn: Crunchy pineapple snack. Mark: Leaves a sickly sweet aftertaste. Georgie: It tastes like a weird pina colada. Hannah: This tastes bad and Arnott’s should feel bad. Uppy: Fucking gross.
Uppy: The fake toffee apple is overpowering. Brynn: More like poison apple. Hannah: Why? Neil: Weird aftertaste. Georgie: It’s yum. Mark: Spot on interpretation of toffee apple flavour, but doesn’t work in a Tim Tam. Sammy: I could just taste toffee, I couldn’t taste much apple.
The verdict: Stick to the originals. Double Coat Tim Tams will never betray you.
We’r ’r ex ’re xpe pert snack ck kers he he e at Th here T he Music,, and Arnott Musi Mu tt’s ’s hav ve ne ew bi bis scuit sc flavou ou urs s (Toffee ffee App pple e, Sa alt lted d Cho oc, c, Choc oc Pin ine eapp eap pple le). ). To be e fra ank k we’re e’re e hun hu ngry pre ngry etty tty much alll of th the tim me so we thought we’ we e’d d give ve e ‘‘em m a trial al tas aste. A ta tast stte tes st if yo st you wiill ll..
26 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
All gig and music news at your fingertips.
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The Essential Albums of 2016 So Far The Music team attempt to pinpoint what albums so far this year have been reverberating in our minds, and on replay on our stereos, and why.
I
t’s a close contest – there’s almost too many to choose from, with debuts, follow-ups and surprise drops from some of our favourites and standout albums from some artists we hadn’t heard of before. Let’s get started. Beyonc e – L em on ade
Beyonce reinvented pop music when she dropped visual album Lemonade – at least that’s what Garbage’s Shirley Manson reckons: “Suddenly we saw the barrier shift and the glass ceiling break a little.” The list of collaborators sums the record up pretty well: from Kendrick Lamar to James Blake to Jack White. It’s a list of artists at their peak in 2016, only to be trumped by Queen Bey, who, in this cross-genre exploration of infidelity, takes on so much more: Black female identity, friendship and police brutality. L adyha wke – W i ld Th i n gs Pip Brown’s eclectic debut seemed inescapable in 2008, nailing a synth-pop sound that felt fresh and classic all at once. Then Anxiety ditched the synths and rode a fuzzed out guitar into pop-rock territory. Brown has since opened up about the less than stellar place her mental health was during the period, struggling with expectation, self-medication and the public eye. It’s something she has addressed in the interim and from the first joyous note.
Radiohe ad – A M o on S h aped P oo l First Radiohead removed themselves from the interwebs. Then they released that weird claymation bird .GIF. Then they dropped two singles: Burn The Witch, the source of aforementioned .GIF, and the Paul Thomas Andersondirected Daydreaming. Since then we’ve been bestowed a record that continues to push at the boundaries of alternative music, especially in terms of its distribution: a special edition of the record even comes with a piece of the original master tape from their recording sessions.
Dra ke – V iews Our sensitive hero Drake may not be rewriting the rap songbook with his fourth studio record, but he’s certainly having a bit of fun – see One Dance and last year’s unmissable Hotline Bling. With the rest of Views Drake continues with what he first nailed on Nothing Was The Same, and mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late: searing one-liners dripping with feeling and personal stories that make you want to hug him, all drawn together by his rapped/sung melodies. 28 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
F l u m e – Ski n Breaking away from What So Not at the end of 2015 evidently served Flume well, chucking banger after banger onto his LP Skin with a marching band of feature artists and collaborators, who weave their individual flavours into the Sydney wunderkid’s euphoric hooks and spacey synths. The likes of Tove Lo, Vic Mensa, Kai, KUCKA, Vince Staples, Allan Kingdom, Raekwon, Little Dragon… *pauses to catch breath* … MNDR, Beck pushed the 16-track epic to the top slot on the ARIA Australian Top 100 Albums in June. Ngaiire — Blastoma All hail Ngaiire. The Papua New Guinean is on her way to becoming Australia’s answer to Queen Bey – powerful, sensual, soulful and heartfelt on Blastoma – named for her childhood battle with cancer. It’s a form of memorial to the trials that shaped her. She pushes all the boundaries – of neo-soul, of introspection – cracking open any protective mechanisms to allow us to observe her past pains and recent heartbreak. It’s both a show of personal strength and of her musical prowess. She drifts effortlessly between electro-pop overtones and minimalist tracks, with every number vying as an incomparable favourite. Sa v a g e s – A d o r e L i f e Savages killed it with their debut album. Then The Answer – our first taste of the band’s follow-up long-player, Adore Life – dropped last October, all menacing riffs and stalker chorus vocals (“If you don’t me/Don’t love anybody”), and we salivated. Second single Adore and Mechanics tame Savages ever so slightly while showcasing Jehnny Beth’s soaring vocals (see TIWYG to experience the polar opposite). We’re still licking our wounds from their recent tour cancellation and ache to hear these album tracks as they were made to be experienced: live.
Paul Dempsey – Strange Loop Paul Dempsey is one of the foremost artists on the Australian musical landscape, and has been for more than 20 years. The man is a creative machine, looming large (tall and lanky) on our stages or hiding away (behind his fringe) in the studio, capturing a particularly Australian sense of malaise, but also of hope, this time armed not with the firepower of his electric guitar, but with gentle acoustic guitar lines and his inimitable voice. Strange Loop builds on the catchy pop hooks of Everything Is True to make a record
that is at once more complex, more moving, and more true than what’s come before. Vi o l e n t So h o – Wa c o Brisbane’s Luke Boerdam, James Tidswell, Luke Henery and Michael Richards are the undisputed kings of the Australian music scene, selling out huge theatres across the country, and debuting at #1 on the ARIA charts with Waco. First single Like Soda reminded us how expertly crafted the heavy riffs and Boerdam’s snarling vocals are, confirming just why this band have cultivated a rabid fan base, especially since second record Hungry Ghost. And the lawn bowling video clip is priceless. This record is both high energy and nuanced, Boerdam carefully deliberating more over the songwriting, to create a more mature sound – without sacrificing any of the fun. Ja c k G a r r a t t — P h a s e Jack Garratt moved through his straight blues project and came out the other side with Phase.
King Gizzard & The Li zard Wi zard – Non ago n In fi ni t y The fact that Nonagon Infinity runs in a continuous loop is reason enough to leave King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s eighth album in the car stereo playing over and over and doing its thing. From the very first Robot Stop kick drum, you’ll be hooked. Those crazy synths, thwacking drums and mantra vocals make Mr Beat irresistible. They’ve been at it for six years now, but the septet’s trademark unhinged tempos and unconventional melodies remain. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have already programmed rage and the whole planet is now taking notice. D avid Bow ie – Bla c k s tar The master of dropping albums out of thin air (The Next Day, 2013), Bowie released what producer Tony Visconti described as the late legend’s “parting gift” for fans – his 25th and final studio album Blackstar – on 8 Jan (Bowie’s 69th birthday). Bowie’s death two days later shocked the world. The macabre imagery (see: Lazarus’ film clip) and lyrical references to death make for a harrowing listening experience since the album was recorded while Bowie was battling liver cancer: “Something happened on the day he died...” (Blackstar). The Je zabels – Synt h i a In an interview with The Music Hayley Mary said, “I think what we’ve tried to do is make a face for the music… sometimes I think of lyrics and words as the face to the body as the music.” And what an amazingly expressive face and physicality Synthia has. It’s completely unwavering, in its sexuality and frustration, its aural exploration and sweeping melodies. Every step from the synth and pitch-warped spoken word opening minutes of Stand And Deliver to closer Stamina’s rare “lightness of touch and sentimentality” puts them leagues ahead of the pack.
There are slips, but more tepid cuts like Far Cry are more than saved by the mind-melting Synesthesia Pt III and the bouncing Breathe Life. These moments see Garratt putting his best foot far down the path to something fresh and chimeric, some blues-electronic hybrid with soul stitching. If this loop-driven, “self-written, self-performed, selfrecorded, and largely self-produced debut album from the Buckinghamshire native” doesn’t make your top lists on its own merits, and it should, then it should at least have you itching to see what Garratt is going to do next. Anohni – Hopelessness Right from those first echoing keys, before the arrhythmic drum starts beating and Anohni’s signature warble pleas to be drone bombed “into the sea”, you’re engulfed in Hopelessness. Ominous but catchy electronica from producers Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mohawke layered over humanity’s manifold crimes makes for a deadly strike at the political zeitgeist. Acidic lines like Crisis’ childishly repetitive apologies (“If I filled up your mass graves… I’m sorry”) burn with anger and thumping beats quickly start to resemble measured artillery fire. Lou Reed said when he heard Anohni he knew he was in the presence of an angel and she has shown herself again in 2016 to be a divine messenger bearing ugly truths.
To read the full list head to theMusic.com.au. THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 29
Music
TV Is The New Music
Not only did season four of Orange Is The New Black get the Netflix drama back on the rails but this year’s closing credits music has excelled. Here’s our faves (oh yeah... SPOILER ALERT):
Hand In Mine — Jonathan Rado Can you now hear the Foxygen dude’s fun folk tune from 2013 without thinking of severed body parts?
Cook Me — Izabo Of course this 2003 wonky funk track by a former Israeli Eurovision contestant is the perfect song to follow some DIY branding.
Fuck You — The Bug ft Warrior Queen What! The producers found a song angrier than the opening theme. Harsh industrial dancehall from Ninja Tune artist.
30 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
New Era
Anthony Carew chats to Roisin Murphy about branching out to make something more “grown up” than “bangin’ house” on Take Her Up To Monto.
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oisin Murphy figures she has two kinds of fans. “There are people who just want me to do bangin’ house all the time,” says the 43-year-old Irish singer, those drawn to her ongoing Boris Dlugosch collaborations and the ultra-glossy dance-pop she paraded on 2007’s Overpowered. Then there are the others, up for following Murphy no matter where her oddball whims take her — those who loved late period Moloko and her solo debut, 2005’s Ruby Blue. It’s the latter who’ll be delighted by her fourth solo LP, Take Her Up To Monto, whose mercurial songs amount to Murphy’s most experimental effort yet. “We weren’t sure when we were making this record whether it was the right thing to do for our fanbase,” Murphy says, “but I didn’t want to make bangin’ house this time, or make something as straight pop as Overpowered. I wanted to make this more complex, grown up, experimental thing. And you have to make the music that’s natural for you to make; there’s no point kicking against stuff, because then you just end up with something that sounds watered down.” Take Her Up To Monto was recorded at the same time as last year’s Hairless Toys, which marked Murphy’s comeback after a long stint spent raising kids and “just living life”. After recording 2014’s Italian-language EP Mi Senti with her boyfriend Sebastiano
Properzi, she threw herself back into music making. Murphy got together with former Moloko collaborator Eddie Stevens, whom she’s worked with for 20 years in various guises. “Years ago, we started a band called Eggs Rated, and it was just absolute filth,” Murphy remembers. “We buried that a long time ago; hopefully no one’ll ever find it and realise what perverts we are.” Once the pair got together to write songs they came so thick and fast “we were just spurting them out”, Murphy says — they knew they’d be making two albums at once. “We conceived them from the start of recording as sibling records. Hairless Toys is more the nice sister, whereas Take Her Up To Monto is the more extreme, complicated one. The arrangements are quite complicated — there’s many, many twists and turns, big epics. There’s emotional extremities in the lyrics, which are a bit more personal. It was just a bit more pointy in all directions.” Making these two LPs has meant that Murphy’s comeback has been hectic, the last two years non-stop creative work. She’s made all of the music videos, the artwork, does much of the social media, and her live shows have become a parade of costume changes. “Everything around the music making situation is much more do it yourself, these days,” Murphy says. “Being a pop video director for other people is really hard: no money, loads of treatments, not getting jobs, and it can be very uncreative if you don’t have complete carte blanche. But, doing videos for myself, I can do what I want no matter how weird the idea. My house is full of stuff. I’m constantly unpacking, repacking, unpacking, repacking. Editing, editing, editing. Editing imagery, editing clothes, editing props. It’s just a constant stream of different kinds of creativity. The more you do, the more you get out of it. The more you feed the monster, the bigger it grows.”
What: Take Her Up To Monto ([PIAS] Australia)
Music
Lifelike
The Bride is Bat For Lashes’ most ambitious project to date. Natasha Kahn explores the album’s themes with Tyler McLoughlan.
T
hrowing herself into researching a film idea that ultimately became her fourth album, Natasha Kahn began The Bride with a tracklist, fleshing out the character-driven story arc title by title as though writing a book. Following The Bride as she prepares for marriage and deals with the unfolding tragedy of losing her husbandto-be on the way to the church, Kahn’s imaginative exploration of waiting to be made whole by another is filled with deep and dark reflections of love. “When I looked back towards the end I realised that it was definitely a metaphor for relationships and some of my ideas about, you know, moving from a romantic ideal and then to better that romantic idea in order to move into something deeper - whether it’s self love or just losing the idea of someone answering your everything and just being more realistic. And understanding that love is kind of, if it just stays in that sort of really heightened superficial space it can’t really get that deep,” says Kahn. Through her gentle and sweetly spoken British accent, Kahn explains her relationship with The Bride. “I definitely accessed her when writing the music and singing, and I located an area of my heart and soul to explore her as a character - well, not even a
character, but just an aspect of myself. And I like calling her The Bride because I didn’t want to call her Natasha or another name. She’s just an idea I suppose, and she’s definitely very much a part of me and sort of heightened aspects of me.” Much of the enjoyment of The Bride comes from tapping into the energy of Kahn’s creativity, and her dedication to fully exploring the musical and literary themes through visual mediums too, Kahn becoming her storytelling device on stage. “I think that’s kind of been brought into reality by doing these church shows and coming down the aisle in my black veil and bouquet, and throwing it in the audience and stuff - I didn’t realise how fun it was gonna be to interpret these songs with my band, who are amazing musicians, so that’s a thrill. And then just seeing the audience and how much they’re going along with the story, and how present and invested they are emotionally is really touching. It is really fun; sometimes it makes real life harder to live,” she says with a chuckle, “because you can just escape into your own world, and I think probably a lot of artists - like if you’re an obsessive painter or musician - sometimes the world’s so raw and hard to be in, and that is your escape or your place to go where it feels most real, or you feel most yourself or something. I suppose it is akin to a bit of a spiritual experience and a place where you touch sort of higher realms. It’s addictive and it is beautiful and it’s also a very good way of becoming self-aware and working through stuff. So I think for me it provides lots of things ‘cause I take it as like a life challenge and responsibility in a way, my responsibility to make good work.”
What: The Bride (Parlophone/Warner)
Butter Me Up Leah Senior
At Bread & Butter at the Bellingen Golf Club on Sunday 10 July, a handpicked selection of artists from Bello Winter Music perform unlikely duets.
Elana Stone & Jo Jo Smith Elana on Jo Jo She’s an amazing singer and guitarist and she plays the absolute Christ out of the drums. Jo Jo about Elana I have wanted to sing with Elana since the first time I heard her voice.
William Crighton & Claire Anne Taylor Claire about William I am expecting something raw and emotive to come of our duet. William about Claire I honestly don’t know but I know it’s going to be fun.
Leah Senior & Madeline Leman Leah about Madeline Maddy and I started out songwriting together. We live together and share influences. Madeline about Leah Leah Senior is my favourite Australian folk artist right now. THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 31
I N D U ST R Y WATCH Here are some of the wheelings and dealings in the past week or so in the music industry.
Music
Hands Off The Honey Pot
K U C KA has signed to new management company incgnto
P EK ING DUK have inked a global publishing deal with BMG
CERES signed to New World Artists
NATHANIEL signed to booking agents 123 Agency
WISHES The Sydney producer and multi instrumentalist recently signed to international electronic label Ultra Music.
SXSW the music conference has opened early submissions for its 2017 event
FALLS FESTIVAL is making its WA debut
32 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
Wild Honey frontman Thom Moore fills Brynn Davies in on the challenges of being an up-and-coming band: from line-up changes to small audiences.
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hom Moore from Sydney’s Wild Honey talks easily about the multitude of line-up changes to the group since their inception early last summer, when he and Julian Sudek worked in Moore’s bedroom to produce their breezy self-titled debut EP. Sudek left the group to work on his duo World Champion. Moore, suddenly solo, picked up their current guitarist Adam Della-Grotta when he “saw him at a party and he was really snappily dressed. He looked like what I envisaged the ideal Wild Honey audience member to look like”. The process that led to the final line-up of five is something Moore calls “a fluid project”. “We initially had [Thom Eagleton] playing keyboards, playing organ, and now he plays drums which is his main instrument... [Previously] we had another drummer who was like a session drummer,” Moore explains. Their original bass player “who isn’t in the band anymore, thought [Eagleton] was a bit slow, like, not the right vibe on the kit”, when the band “went to audition new drummers just before [the other drummer] joined”. Once the bass player “was out of the picture” and the session drummer became unavailable for a few dates, Moore passed the role on to Eagleton.
“The drummer was definitely hard... because he wanted to stay in the band but he wanted to be paid per show... And we basically got to the stage where everyone in the band wasn’t taking any money — everyone was pulling that in to pay for things like petrol, to pay for things like photo shoots and video clips and things like that. But every show we were paying him, and that was adding up. We asked him if he wanted to join and the reality of paying $350 rent in Sydney meant that he couldn’t afford to be working one or two nights a week with the band and not being paid for it... The reality of the situation was that he couldn’t make the sacrifices that all of us were making.” As a new Sydney act Wild Honey were getting paid “$150 to do a show. And there will be five of you. And so if you go and then pay a drummer sort of $50, then you’re left with $100”. With Sydney’s current lack of venues in comparison to Melbourne — a move the band contemplated — it was a tough decision to make. “It’s a very hard thing to make work, so you kinda have to all take your hands out of the honey pot,” he laughs. “In order for there to be opportunities [for new bands] there needs to be audiences as well. And I feel like it’s an interesting one with all those protests and things like that — I saw so many people when we went down [to the Keep Sydney Open rally] and I wish I saw that many people at the gigs I go to! Not just ours, but other bands starting off that you go around to and they’re having trouble getting 150 people to a gig. “We really do work hard at it and, you know, a lot of the time you’re kinda hitting your head up against a wall trying to make opportunities present themselves.”
When & Where: 14 Jul, Beach Hotel, Byron Bay; 15 Jul, The Flying Cock; 16 Jul, Imperial Hotel
Music
Rockin’ The Concert Hall Ben Folds talks with Chris Familton about the current collaborative project he has termed ‘chamber rock’ and his personal and professional connection to Australia.
I
I like living day to day, running around and being in different places and coming across different influences.
n composition and performance the piano is one of the few instruments that works effectively and consistently across the spectrum of musical genres, from blues to jazz, rock to classical. In the indie-rock world one of the artists it is indelibly linked to is Ben Folds. In recent years Folds has been progressively widening his musical palette to include classical composition and his latest project came about when he’d written a piano concerto but “hadn’t thought what I was going to do with it so I thought I should flesh it out with some other pieces of music that I had in mind”. Initially his idea was to work with a number of different chamber groups but when he met with the sextet yMusic, “I didn’t want to work with anyone else. They’re an incredible group of musicians who create different sounds. They’re like a sports car with incredible acceleration that hugs the road versus an orchestra, which is like a big cruise ship. This suddenly felt like a rock band and I wanted to write lyrics, so it quickly headed off in that direction.” The end result was last year’s album So There, which finds both parties on equal creative footing and Folds retaining the energy and musical irreverence that has always been a hallmark of his songs. “I think that’s just what comes out. I was aware of not wanting to be too terribly formal just because there’s a classical group beneath me. I didn’t want to compromise my voice, that didn’t interest me,” Folds stresses. “When I’m in the studio it has to really be something that will hold my interest. As soon as I go down a road trying something, blending one kind of music with another kind, I can suddenly get so tired of that so quickly and don’t want to keep making that kind of music. It comes down to — if it is exciting me then we keep moving forward. I think that’s always been my way of operating.” Many of Folds’ fans share a willingness to follow him through his different projects, filling seats in recital halls when he performs with yMusic and mixing with the classical crowd when he joins an orchestra. That desire to find a balance between his audience, musical styles and performance formats is one that fascinates him. “It’s a unique rock show and you can also look at it as a unique classical show. There’s a place where classical and pop crossover music meets that has never really been interesting to me. This is a lot less formal and feels a lot more honest than a classical crossover gig. They have the tendency to get a little pretentious and I believe that if
you’re expressing yourself, don’t do it in a suit and tie like that. Just kick it in the arse.” Folds is bring yMusic down to Australia for a run of shows and though he currently calls Nashville home he has strong connections to this country, marrying and starting a family in Adelaide, collaborating with a number of Australian artists and enjoying early musical success here. “I think Australia and I were on the same page when I began. I think they really understood. Triple j really got Underground (1995), which didn’t really take off in the United States but it did in Australia,” Folds recalls. “The moment I landed there I loved the place. People were funny, the air felt good and it’s always been part of my life every since. I’d still live there if I could but I can’t, I have too much work to do over here but one day I’d love to. Depending on how our election goes over here I might be there earlier. I hope Australia remembers me and has pity on me,” laughs Folds. From the outside, Folds appears to have a comprehensive and possibly compulsive creative life: Recording, touring, appearing as a judge on a TV talent show, photography and until recently, running the legendary Studio A in Nashville. Is there time for nonmusical pursuits? “I don’t have much downtime for anything. As we talk I’m throwing clothes into a bag before we head out on tour, which is kind of the way I do things. It’s been suggested that if I take time off and have a life I’d have more to write about but I like living day to day, running around and being in different places and coming across different influences. When I stop it is just bad, like a fish out of water. I just have to keep going.” With that in mind Folds is already looking ahead to the next tour and the next recording project. “I’m going to be starting an interesting solo tour with a lot of toys on stage after the yMusic stuff. We finish touring that in Australia and then I’ll move into the solo touring and begin writing a solo piano record after all that.”
When & Where: 18 Aug, Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre
THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 33
Music
Get Shipfaced
The only reasons a party on a boat is a bad idea would be if you’re a) prone to sea sickness or b) drunk and it’s choppy. Other than that, boat festivals are the most awesome way to spend a weekend (or a week) – out in the sun, away from crushing crowds and sailing the high seas, me-hearty.
Rock The Boat Seven days at sea travelling to New Caledonia island paradises with a smorgasbord of artists to keep you entertained. Status Quo are bringing their live show Aquostic Live featuring their 16-piece band, accompanied by over 30 sailing companions including Baby Animals, Jon Stevens, Angry Anderson, The Radiators, Zep Boys and more.
Cruise N Groove One of Australia’s biggest seabound music festivals is hosting an eightnight extravaganza around the South Pacific, featuring Boney M, Marcia Hines, Go West, Nik Kershaw, Cutting Crew and more.
The Ship Departing from Singapore and floating homeward over four days, The Ship has a bill of killer artists from around the world tunes supplied by Knife Party, Peking Duk, Mashd N Kutcher, Andrew Rayel, Sander Van Doorn, Joel Fletcher, Marl and more. It’s hosted by none other than The Hoff!
34 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
Winning The Crowd
There is no sign of the party slowing down any time soon for Melbourne punks The Bennies. Frontman Anty Horgan talks to Carley Hall.
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hen one calls in to Anty Horgan, the party-hard frontman from Melbourne’s The Bennies, you can forgive the guy for being a bit held up trying to board a plane. Fresh from their recent jaunt touring the UK and Europe, and a few weeks out from the four-piece’s mammoth 27-date national tour, it’s safe to assume they’ve been very busy little Bennies indeed. But, 24 hours later, the vocalist phones in ahead of the band’s slot on the Big Pineapple Festival in Queensland, which has afforded the guys a bit of fun in the sun before the next onslaught of touring kicks off. Not that Horgan is looking forward to the mini hiatus; far from it. “I don’t like downtime,” he deadpans. “It’s just so much better to keep moving and doing stuff. And when you’re doing it frequently and you stop it’s really heavy. So I’m worried because we’ve got about three or four weeks off before our tour starts. I’ll probably play a lot of Mario Kart and smoke a lot of weed I reckon. “But it’s always been our intention [to tour this much]. When no one knew us we played like six gigs a week just in Melbourne. And that was dumb. No one came to any of the gigs. But we didn’t really care, we were playing. And also — this is going to sound like a cliche — but I am in a band with three
of my best friends who I love spending time with. I’ve been away from them two days now and I miss them.” The unstoppable party machine that is The Bennies has hazily knocked on the door of venues far and wide since 2014’s Heavy Disco EP hit the airwaves, followed by two lauded albums including this year’s Wisdom Machine. Their trademark psychedelic tights leave a searing impression wherever they’re busted out, but Horgan was never worried crowds wouldn’t stomach the band’s loose reggae-punk. “It’s more like — well this is going to sound really arrogant — but the one thing about our band is that we can win a crowd over,” Horgan laughs. “Like we’ve always been able to do that. Because no one likes the style of music that we play so we’ve had to everything that we can to try and get it over the line.” With a new bunch of fans made across the globe, an itch kicked in and the boys decided it was time to hit the road again back home. Standing out like a sore thumb on the massive list of shows is a slated gig in the weed capital of Australia, Nimbin. It’s a Bennies dream come true. “We’re really lucky because the guy with the venue is being super fucking awesome and really excited about the gig,” Horgan says. “He said there hasn’t been a punk gig in Nimbin for ages. We’re staying at the place we’re playing, which is a theatre painted in rasta colours. I’m so excited. I reckon we need to get someone along for the ride just to film it because I reckon there’d be some fucking funny stuff going down.”
When & Where: 14 Jul, Miami Tavern, Gold Coast; 15 Jul, The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba; 16 Jul, The Triffid; 17 Jul, Solbar, Maroochydoore; 18 Sep, I Love Life, The Triffid
THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 35
Album / E Album/EP Reviews
BadBadNotGood IV
Pod/Inertia
★★★★½
Album OF THE Week
BADBAGNOTGOOD’s IV opens with an air of mystery; the slowmoving And That, Too introduces the record’s heightened focus on the brass section and demonstrates that the instrumental jazz group have opened up to modernised production styles, with the end product sounding much more of a hybrid than the pure band mix that was founded in their debut. The keys sound closer to synthesisers here as Speaking Gently mixes gentle melodies with a fun and choppy drum beat as an explosive sax solo cuts in midway. Time Moves Slow (ft. Sam Herring) is a beautifully soulful and tear-jerking track. Herring’s voice evokes that of Bobby Womack’s contributions to Gorillaz on their Plastic Beach album, singing “Running away is easy, it’s the leaving that’s hard. Loving you was easy, it was you leaving that scarred.” The vulnerability is touching. Confessions Pt II (ft Colin Stetson) is a delightfully challenging freeform explosion of wailing saxophone that dials into a swaggering ‘70s funk bridge. Lavender (ft Kaytranada) is a brilliantly dirty and heavy bass-driven track built from a subtle tambourine line that sits right at the back of the mix. The title track features fast-paced drumming, a recurring hook and pervading sax that are met with a retro keyboard bridge in the middle. Quite a few babies will probably be conceived to Mick Jenkins’ verse on Hyssop Of Love, if not this entire record. Jonty Czuchwicki
The John Steel Singers
The Avalanches
Midnight At The Plutonium
Modular
Wildflower
★★★½
Create Control
★★★½
The triple j darlings and Aussie music festival stalwarts are back with their third LP, a follow-up to 2013’s Everything’s A Thread. The beginnings of the Zappa-esque funk hinted at on the aforementioned album are unleashed in full, glorious force on this latest record, which is heavily influenced by ‘80s psychedelic disco and early 2000s house party tunes. The Daft Punk-influenced Weekend Lover ends with that sweet, electric synth spazz-out and could have been the B-side track to Homework. Then there is the runner-up opening theme to Beverly Hills Cop that is Midnight At The Plutonium, featuring one of the best bass lines released this year. Can You Feel The Future - the third standout apparently started life as a guitar 36 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
loop about six years ago and turned into what guitarist Tim Morrissey has described as the best song the band have ever put to tape, and, after a few listens he may actually be right. All the tales are told with the same classic John Steel Singers irony and humour and with none of the hype or expectation from eight years ago - the confidence in writing and production is obvious. It definitely sounds like the group had lots of fun making this and at only eight songs it’s short, sweet and something to get excited about when they inevitably tour it. Adam Wilding
Are you so relieved The Avalanches are finally releasing their 16-years-in-the-making second album that you’ve already given it a five-star rating before pressing play or can you not move past Wildflower’s gestation period? When the tuba-enhanced voodoo magic of Frankie Sinatra (ft Danny Brown and MF Doom) dropped, it caused a reaction akin to jumping into the tub of the phosphorescent ice cream featured in the song’s inspired music video. Sadly, nothing else on this album reaches that song’s zenith. Since Since I Left You landed in 2000, Gorillaz, 2manyDJs, mash-ups and shortening attention spans have made us accustomed to schizophrenic sounds. And Wildflower’s Biz Markie-featuring The Noisy Eater certainly evokes Superfast
Jellyfish by Gorillaz. More sonic art piece than album, we always knew Wildflower would incorporate a feast of samples and encourage us to further explore the snippets we dig. There’s also live instrumentation — bowed saw, mellotron, Warren Ellis playing violin (Stepkids) — vinyl pops and crackles, computer game sound effects, traffic noise and vibrant sounds of life happening. Street recordings allow us to eavesdrop snatches of conversation; the listener becomes flaneur. If you took heaps of acid and thought you could ‘hear’ a kaleidoscope, it would sound a lot like Wildflower. Bryget Chrisfield
EP Reviews Album/EP Reviews
Canary
Sample Answer
Roisin Murphy
I Am Lion
Good Boy EP
Take Her Up To Monto Hit Reset
Independent
Create/Control
[PIAS] Australia
Hardly Art/Inertia
★★★½
★½
★★★½
★★★
Canary’s Matthew Kenneally sounds like a broken man on their second long-player. The Geelong native staggers from busking solemnly on a street corner in Burning Man to his bed where he’ll ruminate on his “cigarettes and dwindling flame” in Hide & Seek. When Chameleon’s aggressive rhythms are followed by a tempestuous Smile, it’s impossible not to be put into a Radiohead space. “This is not a cry for help,” Kenneally assures timidly in Disappointed. Perhaps not. But I Am Lion will likely give comfort to others struggling to lick their wounds.
Approachable, inoffensive, accessible — there’s a reason these words sound like criticisms. To make something interesting, even pop music, is to make something challenging. It’s a lesson Sample Answer has yet to learn. The EP’s title track is a dispiriting by-the-numbers affair that starts with that classic failure of imagination: a whistle. Proud is watery wouldbe white rap. Textile Baby has a bit of swing and snap but is, at heart, pedestrian. Art needn’t be offensive or brutal or oblique, but to be of any value it needs to issue a challenge to what has come before. Sample Answer’s great failure is the choice to play it safe.
Much like Neneh Cherry’s recent comeback album, Take Her Up To Monto has Roisin Murphy toying with a rather adult take on contemporary pop that, while a little rough around the edges, relies less on hooks that hang off traditional verse and chorus. This somewhat angular album contemplates modern life in the big city through acute lyrical observation. Murphy’s synths deliver sophisticated disco vibes, a light bossa and experimental jazz-inflected cabaret, and across all the genre shifts Murphy manages to be her delightfully quirky self.
The raucous nature of Hit Reset is a cacophony of sound. The Julie Ruin is for those who recognise the occasional requirement of a blast of volume into their earholes, when the concept of melody is replaced by straight-up energy. Kathleen Hanna is the woman behind The Julie Ruin, and has been rocking a similar sound in Le Tigre and Bikini Kill (as well as a solo version of Julie Ruin in the late ‘90s), and brings the passion and bluntness that everybody needs to hear once in a while.
Mac McNaughton
The Julie Ruin
Dylan Stewart
Guido Farnell
James d’Apice
More Reviews Online Emarosa 131
theMusic.com.au
Aphex Twin Cheetah EP
Sunny Hawkings Sheets Of Life
THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 37
Album / E Album/EP Reviews
Eric Copeland
Stillwater Giants
Biffy Clyro
Kylie Auldist
Black Bubblegum
Munich
Ellipsis
Waste Of Time
DFA/[PIAS] Australia
Independent
Warner
Freestyle Records
★★½
★★★
★★★
★★★½
Probably still better known as one half of New York noise shredders Black Dice, Eric Copeland has amassed a large, strange pile of solo material since 2007. But nothing in it matches this grimy lo-fi take on bubblegum-pop for sheer oddness. If a garage band broke all the amplifiers, they might just sound like Radio Weapons or Get My Own, while Rip It could pass for crusty vagabond reggae. Black Bubblegum has a freaky flavour alright, more acrid than sweet. Let’s call it something of an acquired taste.
If you’re onto a good thing, stick with it. Clearly Perth four-piece Stillwater Giants didn’t read the memo. Having delivered two of the best local EPs you’re ever likely to hear in 2011 and 2012 respectively, they’ve toned down pretty much everything for debut album Munich. Fortunately they did retain their gift for melody and the first five tracks here especially, Help You Out and Secret Agent are gorgeous little power pop moments. But the explosive, chiming guitars that made these guys really special are now seriously reigned in and quite low in the mix and after a four-year wait to unveil their debut, this represents a serious lost opportunity for greatness.
Coming off 2013’s epic double album Opposites, Scottish threepiece Biffy Clyro have knuckled down for a sharper burst of tunes, but the results remain mixed for this inconsistent band. Opener Wolves Of Winter is a cracker, laying out massive riffs and a stadium-ready chorus. But the boys roll out their best song first and while propulsive single Animal Style has good moments, it doesn’t quite hit the mark. Too many other tracks, though, are mired with cringe-worthy ‘90s-style vocals, dated guitar lines or are just overproduced. The exception is powerful ballad Medicine, which demonstrates just how good these guys can be once they forego the production tricks and just focus on a tune.
Paul Barbieri
Paul Barbieri
Kylie Auldist’s sultry soul-funk vocals are unmistakeable wherever they pop up - as a long-time collaborator with The Bamboos, on Kung’s remix of This Girl and in her own solo forays. In this short but sweet fivetrack wonder Auldist lets loose to dabble in disco, electro-funk and new boogie, and all with those forceful pipes that couldn’t sound more at home than they do here. While some tracks like the funk-driven Sensational and the ‘80s-rooted Good Time Girl lack something in their structure to make them more memorable, Auldist’s dynamic, playful, formidable form across all songs is supreme and unbeatable on the title track and Family Tree.
Christopher H James
Carley Hall
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38 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
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And we know everyone. On sale now. Go to store.themusic.com.au to get your copy today. THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 39
Live Re Live Reviews
Abbe May, Bec Sandridge, Pynes Black Bear Lodge 2 Jul
Abbe May @ Black Bear Lodge. Pic: Markus Ravik
Abbe May @ Black Bear Lodge. Pic: Markus Ravik
Abbe May @ Black Bear Lodge. Pic: Markus Ravik
Karnivool @ The Triffid. Pic: Barry Schipplock
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard @ The Triffid. Pic: Markus Ravik
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard @ The Triffid. Pic: Markus Ravik
40 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
It’s election day, the first Saturday since Queensland’s newly minted lockout laws, and there’s an air of defiance on the streets of Fortitude Valley. All this energy has made its way into Black Bear’s candlelit hideout, and these punters are determined to make the most of their night - politics be damned. With the kickass line-up of female/female-fronted acts, tonight is all about subversion, power, being a bitch, and being proud of it. Brisbane trio Pynes warms up the frosty evening with their brand of lo-fi indie-rock, citing inspiration from Patti Smith to The Drones. Big names to live up to, sure, but these newcomers (boasting ties to Little Scout and The John Steel Singers) easily earn some new fans with their unique shoegaze-meetsfolk sound. Bec Sandridge takes the stage sans band, like the mophaired, glam-rock lovechild of Debbie Harry and David Bowie. Fitting, especially when the singer/turtleneck advocate performs a crowd favourite cover of Bowie’s Heroes. Between banter about her sweat patches and other things only she could make appealing, Sandridge demonstrates her versatile pipes and six-string prowess a la St Vincent. Her songs are accessible and poppy, but the kind of poppy you want to tell all your friends about because you found her first. By the time Perth hellraiser Abbe May appears, the worshippers have flocked to the altar. May has been in recovery since a dangerous seizure on tour in 2013, and tonight’s return - in anticipation of her forthcoming album Bitchcraft sees a change of direction, both
in musicality and attitude. Over the past two years, she says she culled the people, habits and attitudes that weighed her down. This newfound freedom is clear. Tonight, May is confident as hell, talking to the crowd like
....she culled the people, habits and attitudes that weighed her down. their much cooler, much wiser older sister. The venue pulses during the sultry T.R.O.U.B.L.E. and No 1 Killa (a track from May’s side project Ghetto Crystals, with Doug May, San Cisco’s Scarlett Stevens and Gunns’ Jen Aslett). The tour’s namesake tune, Are We Flirting?, is a bass-heavy toe-tapper, and a self-assured taste of what’s still to come. Caitlin Low
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, ORB The Triffid 26 Jun Melbourne three-piece ORB are responsible for opening the portal to the underworld this evening, and are about as down-to-earth as you would expect from a band with a capitalised, monosyllabic name. The beginning of their set feels like a game of a sport with no discernible rules or patterns, the group cycling through musical ideas and altering time signatures seemingly at random. Meanwhile, lead singer Zak Olsen stares intensely at the neck of his guitar, wailing through a series of unintelligible lyrics.
eviews Live Reviews
However, the band’s closing three songs stretch out in length as the riffs tighten up and begin to approach something closer to transcendence. Olsen lifts his head up and engages the crowd as their final song Migration speeds up the chugging bass line of Tame Impala’s Elephant. Audience members form a circle pit, and for a moment there is nothing to been seen but a sea of flying sweat and uncombed hair. All seven members of Melbourne psychedelic garagerock band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard pile onto the stage behind large projections of evolving prisms. The bedraggled-looking band open with Robot Stop, Big Fig Wasp, Gamma Knife, People-Vultures and Mr Beat from the record. The famous flute comes out for a few minutes, before the band introduce a new song amid the chaos. Somehow, it’s even more high octane than everything that’s come before
Shoes, jackets, and other miscellaneous pieces of clothing are soaring through the room in slow motion as the crowd sways and writhes beneath the ceiling. it. Shoes, jackets, and other miscellaneous pieces of clothing are soaring through the room in slow motion as the crowd sways and writhes beneath the ceiling.
The band take the opportunity to detour into some of their older material, playing I’m In Your Mind, Cellophane, Trapdoor and Willoughby’s Beach. The latter in particularly is a refreshing departure from the mantra-like repetition of most of the material tonight, and The River’s groovy time signature is an additional delight. Afterwards, it’s time to return to the Nonagon Infinity album for the final run of songs. Evil Death Roll, Invisible Face, Wah Wah and Road Train are jammed into a medley before we return back to Robot Stop. The night comes to an end, but it feels like it’s only just beginning. Roshan Clerke
Karnivool, Fait The Triffid 23 Jun First up is Perth’s Fait, aka Elise Higgins. This little lady packs a punch with her twangy guitar and synth chops, with a band of players that admirably size up to her powerful presence. Halcyon’s key line manages to be light but has a heavy groove that anchors the atmospherics, ethereal motifs dominate Koto, and the low thuds of Surrender To tie everything up for this young band on the rise. When the lights dim and the stage is illuminated in a blue glow, there is no doubt Perth sons Karnivool have been sorely missed in between drinks; the time between today and last year’s celebratory tour to mark ten years since the release of debut album Themata is clearly too long to keep a dedicated Vooligan waiting. Whenever the melodic, polyrhythmic metal veterans chuck some dates on the calendar, the preceding buzz from within this tight little community injects an unusual undercurrent into their shows; they’re more like a gathering than a gig, a union of one big
family that knows what to expect but is grateful should there be a few surprises thrown in. With the band’s releases tracking at
They’re more like a gathering than a gig, a union of one big family that knows what to expect. every four years, it seems certain 2017 will be the year for album number four. A new song made it into the setlist during last year’s tour, so what will this Pre-animation tour hold? Well, more of the classics from this well oiled machine and yep, a new track or three. After the five boys belt everyone around the ears with chug-heavy favourite Goliath, a fresh little ditty called All It Takes lulls the crowd for a few minutes as they try to absorb every nuance of this intense, arrhythmic slowburner. A classic run of Simple Boy, Set Fire To The Hive, and We Are warms things up, along with leading man Ian Kenny’s increasingly elastic moves. A slightly slower paced All I Know lacks its usual punchy energy but things ramp back up again with old favourites Roquefort and Themata. After a brief departure the boys return with Aeons and traditional anthem closer New Day, and with a night in Brisbane still to go, they’ll reenergise and do it all over again, no doubt with some of the same faces that shouted, sweated and swore here tonight.
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Shihad @ The Triffid Custard @ Woolly Mammoth Swervedriver @ The Triffid
Carley Hall
THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 41
Arts Reviews Arts Reviews
Everybody Wants Some!!
Goldstone
Film In cinemas 7 Jul
★★½
Everybody Wants Some!! Film In cinemas
★★★★ Richard Linklater is a remarkable filmmaker, carving a long multifaceted career of quality, unique, character-focused, experiential, experimental independent cinema. This year sees his spiritual sequel to one of his best films, Dazed And Confused.Everybody Wants Some!! is set in Texas, 1980, and follows a college baseball team and their rowdy hijinks over the weekend before fall semester begins. Few capture a moment in time like Linklater. Like Dazed And Confused, he provides a snapshot of youthfulness at a time of cultural change, a nostalgic lens that also captures contemporary youth culture. Linklater masterfully goes deeper here than the predecessor in period focus, developing an engrossingly authentic look, feel and sound. The soundtrack particularly is an infectiously awesome period mixtape. His character focus is also sharper, centring almost exclusively on an ensemble of entertainingly layered men, deconstructing team dynamics and the brotherhood of college. It’s also an excuse to relish in his love of baseball. Much like Dazed And Confused, the cast is full of talented up-and-comers; many feel set for a solid film career. Glen Powell, Wyatt Russell, Tyler Hoechlin and Juston Street offer few excellent, authentic character performances throughout, while Blake Jenner shows depth (despite a blank face), proving a perfect freshman protagonist. Everybody Wants Some!! is an energetically fun nostalgia trip which will only improve with age. Sean Capel
42 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
Indigenous Australian filmmaker Ivan Sen is the definition of an auteur. As a writer, director, cinematographer, editor and composer, he imbues his films with a personal touch. Goldstone is his new film, a sequel to his his well received 2013 crime thriller Mystery Road. Unhinged following Mystery Road, Detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen) is on a missing persons case, leading him to the small town of Goldstone. Crossing paths with local cop
Goldstone
Josh (Alex Russell), his investigations soon reveal a deeper thread of corruption. Like its predecessor, Goldstone is extremely slow burn. After a promising start, it slows down to a languid pace, which lacks engagement. There are excellent parts, with effective exploration of the landscape which Sen captures in expansive beauty, and the climax is expertly directed. Furthermore the themes he explores are strong, such as corporate greed/corruption, racism and Indigenous mythology. However, it doesn’t save the film from immense monotony. The cast features some of the best Australian talent, with Jacki Weaver, David Wenham and David Gulpilil bring their (underused) best. Aaron Pedersen uncovers greater depths to Detective Swan in an overall grittier performance. It’s a shame the film also rests on Alex Russell, who gives an expressionless performance. Goldstone is an acquired taste, which should impress Mystery Road fans, but overall proves a slog to watch. Sean Capel
THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 43
Comedy / G The Guide
Wed 06
Tracy McNeil & The Goodlife
Emily Wurramura: Cardigan Bar, Sandgate Open Mic Night: Solbar, Maroochydore The Weeping Willows + Jen Mize: The Bison Bar, Nambour
Bob Evans: 11 Aug The Foundry
The Music Presents Bello Winter Music: 7 - 10 Jul Bellingen Bob Evans: 11 Aug, The Foundry sleepmakeswaves: 13 Aug The Triffid Dead Letter Circus: 26 Aug SolBar; 27 Aug The Triffid
Homegrown Heat 4feat. He Danced Ivy + Doozy Daze + Squid Party + KB Theory: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Facebook Friends Forever: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Acoustics With Attitude with Laura Mardon: The Triffid, Newstead
Thu 07 Chester + The Reversals + Port Royal: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley
Liz Stringer: 1 Sep, Junk Bar
Jazz Singers Jam Night: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point
A Day On The Green: 6 Nov, Sirromet Wines
Gian: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads Sail On! Sail On! + Blind Girls + Purity + Sleepwell: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley
As Thick As Throwing back to the old school styling’s of ‘70s US folk-rock, Tracy McNeil & The Goodlife will grace The Triffid stage for the release of their new album, Thieves. It all goes down 17 Jul.
Mat McHugh: Magnums Hotel, Airlie Beach The Fall Of Troy + Closure In Moscow + Meniscus + Osaka Punch: Max Watt’s, West End Silk n Oak: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore Lucky Legs Las Vegas Revue: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley
LDRU
Fri 08 Karise Eden + Dean Ray: Aussie World, Palmview Hits + Clever + Marville + Shifting Sands: Beetle Bar, Brisbane Deeds + Big Bad Echo + Post-Dusk: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley The Greats of 70s Country Music with Daniel Thompson: Brolga Theatre, Maryborough DJ Yagi: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads
Being Jane Lane + The Strums + Yaurout + Hanny J: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Broods + Vera Blue + Xavier Dunn: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley Smoking Martha + Trinatyde + Laceration Mantra + Azreal: The Triffid, Newstead Screamfeeder + BUDD + Walken + The Bear Hunt: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley
Big White
Plays Sublime + Hightime: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Tigerlily + Benibee + Jakey J + more: Eatons Hill Hotel, Eatons Hill Ivey + Peach Fur + Lotus Ship: Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise
On Point
The Russell Morris Band: Hamilton Hotel, Hamilton
With his mammoth track Keeping Score still going strong, LDRU is hitting up The Triffid, 15 Jul for a massive show as part of his nationwide tour. Support comes from the always entertaining Manilla Killa.
Johnathan Devoy: Hard Rock Cafe, Surfers Paradise Perry Keyes: Junk Bar, Ashgrove Niko Martin: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End Soulfluence: Queensland Multicultural Centre (QMC), Kangaroo Point The Empresarios: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna Toisoc + Halcyon Drive + In Caves: Solbar, Maroochydore
Wolver + Jouk Mistrow + Outside the Academy + The Keepaways: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley Vaguely Human + Xalvador Bank + The Montal Roys: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Glass Animals + Lastlings: The Triffid, Newstead Ghettoblaster: Wharf Tavern, Mooloolaba Stonefield + Verge Collection + Pop Cult: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley 44 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
Young Guns Get ready for a night of guitarpop madness as Big White hit The Foundry with debut album Teenage Dreams. The jangling Sydneysiders will be joined by Nick Nuisance & The Delinquents, Pool Shop and Alex L’Estrange, 15 Jul.
Hayden Hack Trio: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore British India: Soundlounge, Currumbin Some Jerks + The Stress Of Leisure + Hot Wings: The Bearded Lady, West End Staunch + Wilful Damage + South Paw + Rust Proof + Hatecrime: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Snails + more: The Met, Fortitude Valley
A Night In Texas + Iconoclast + To the Grave + Undermine The Supremacy + Condemned To Atrophy: Wharf Tavern (The Helm), Mooloolaba Willie Watson + Josh Hedley + Imogen Clark: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley
Gigs / Live The Guide
Georgia Mae
Headcage + Salt & Steel + Spook Hill: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane COG: The Triffid, Newstead
British India + Special Guests: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley
Halcyon Drive + The Blackwater Fever + Post Dream: Trainspotters, Brisbane Fugitive & the Vagabond + Byron Short + Dear WIllow: Villa Noosa Hotel, Noosaville
Who Run The World Brisbabes returns to The Foundry 16 Jul with a massive line-up of local ladies. At the helm this time is Georgia Mae, who will headline the huge evening with support from Yuuca, San Mei, Alice Ivy and Moodie Gloom.
Sat 09 Glen & The Peanut Butter Men + Keggin + The Wrath + The Scam + Punktilious: Beetle Bar, Brisbane Phil Barlow & The Wolf: Black Bunny Kitchen, Alexandra Heads
Halcyon Drive: Broadbeach Tavern, Broadbeach
Eastwood: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End
Stonefield
Phil & Trudy Edgeley + Whiskey & Me: Solbar, Maroochydore
Darktown River + June Low: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar (Afternoon), South Brisbane Soup Comedy Night: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane
Get Stoned Stonefield will take to the stage at Woolly Mammoth 7 Jul to promote their second album, As Above, So Below. Along with support from Verge Collection and Pop Cult, it’ll be a massive night of rock power.
COG: The Triffid, Newstead Triffid Stripped feat. King Pig: The Triffid (2pm), Newstead
Thu 14 Andrea Kirwin: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads
Martika
Weedeater + Conan + Lizzard Wizzard + Grieg: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Totally 80s feat. Martika + Berlin + Limahl + Katrina + Paul Lekakis + Stacey Q + Men Without Hats + Wa Wa Nee + Real Life: Jupiters, Broadbeach Tracy McNeil & The Good Life: Lefty’s Old Time Music Hall, Brisbane
Get Your Legwarmers Out
Mat McHugh: Tanks Arts Centre, Edge Hill
New Farm Records Presents Simi Lacroix + spacecowboy4005 + Goodbye Moon: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley
Sweet Jean : Junk Bar, Ashgrove
Hemingway + The Perries + Counterfeit Umbrellas + Tay Oskee: Peregian Originals, Peregian Beach
Dubmarine + Hemmingway: Solbar, Maroochydore
Prom 2016 feat. Paraless: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley
Brett Hammond: Hard Rock Cafe, Surfers Paradise
Chris Poulsen Trio: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End
Howling Time + Little Wing: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna
Wendy Matthews: The Arts Centre Gold Coast (Basement), Surfers Paradise
Speedracer + The Flame Fields + Sons Of The Soil + Wax Mammoth: Currumbin Creek Tavern, Currumbin Waters
James T.: Junk Bar, Ashgrove
Soulfluence: Queensland Multicultural Centre (QMC), Kangaroo Point
Juan Du Sol: TBC Club (The Bowler Club), Fortitude Valley
Open Mic Night: Solbar, Maroochydore
DJ Jasti: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads
Silk n Oak + DJ Massroom: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads
Runaway Weekend + Special Guests: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley
Manhattan Suede: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore
Andrew Saragossi: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End
These Guys + Madboots + Corporate Vibes: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley
Jim Crow Band: Black Bunny Kitchen, Alexandra Heads
Steele: Irish McGann’s Hotel, Roma
Joseph Liddy & Skeleton Horse: Old Museum, Fortitude Valley
Rory Ellis: Lefty’s Old Time Music Hall, Brisbane
Acoustics With Attitude with Bryce Schneider: The Triffid, Newstead
DJ Scorpio: The End, West End
Festival of the Goat feat. Peyote Goat-ie + The Skategoats + Spider Goat Canyon + Belligerent Goat + Goatzilla + Astrogoat + more: New Globe Theatre, Fortitude Valley
Fri 15
Sun 10
A Night In Texas + Colossvs + Inconoclast: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley
The Greats of 70s Country Music with Daniel Thompson: Moncrieff Entertainment Centre, Bundaberg
Totally 80s feat. Martika + Berlin + Limahl + Katrina + Paul Lekakis + Men Without Hats + Stacey Q + Wa Wa Nee + Real Life: Eatons Hill Hotel, Eatons Hill
Wed 13
Jason Lescalleet + Adam Sussman & Tim Green + Andrew Tuttle: The Bearded Lady, West End
What So Not + A-Trak + Rome Fortune: Max Watt’s, West End
Ganz + Akouo: Wharf Tavern (The Helm), Mooloolaba
Lagerstein + Valhalore + Terror Parade + Former Angels: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley
DJ Jasti + DJ Nato: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads
Inkaza: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End
Tue 12
Nostalgia will run rampant as Totally 80s takes over Eatons Hill Hotel, 12 Jul. Among the massive line-up of favourites are the likes of Martika, Berlin, Men Without Hats, Wa Wa Nee and heaps, heaps more.
The Bennies + Clowns + Axe Girl + Being Jane Lane: Miami Tavern, Miami Olly Friend + Joseph Van Der Hurk: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore Leah Flanagan: The Bearded Lady, West End
Tracy McNeil & The Good Life + Pat Tierney + Rory Ellis: Night Quarter, Helensvale George Maple + UV Boi: Oh Hello!, Fortitude Valley Soulfluence: Queensland Multicultural Centre (QMC), Kangaroo Point Pro Vita + Lunatics On Pogosticks + Jurassic Nark: Solbar, Maroochydore Hoo8hoo: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore Six Ft Hick + Evil & The Jerks: The Bearded Lady, West End Rory Ellis: The Bison Bar, Nambour Bistrotheque with Wild Honey: The Flying Cock, Fortitude Valley
Pro Vita + Lunatics On Pogosticks: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley
Loaded with Big White + Nick Nuisance & The Delinquents + Pool Shop + Alex L’Estrange: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley
Dave Is A Spy + Aiden Bradley + Connor Collet: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane
Big White + Nick Nuisance & The Delinquents + Pool Shop + Alex L’Estrange: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley
Ladyhawke: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley
Kuren: The Met, Fortitude Valley
THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 45
Comedy / G The Guide
Honey And Knives
Matt Gresham: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane
Closure In Moscow
The Bennies + Clowns + Axe Girl + Something Something Explosion: The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba Straight No Chaser: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley
LDRU + Manilla Killa: The Triffid, Newstead Beneb + Surfin Bird + Young Dingoes + Mason Hall + Doozy Daze: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley Ben Nicky: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley
Have You Heard
Indie
When did you start making music and why? I began writing music in grade eight with my high school band, for Battle Of The Bands. I haven’t written many songs since grade 12 and hope to start writing a few more. Sum up your musical sound in four words? Alternative, acoustic, folk, pop
If you could only listen to one album forevermore, what would it be and why? Coldplay — Viva La Vida. It’s such a catchy and well written album. I love how they write their albums so the songs flow onto one another and you feel a certain vibe throughout the album. Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date? My band won the state rock challenge in grade 11 and received the opportunity to play at Breath Of Life (Launceston music festival), which was a pretty cool experience.
Why should people come and see you? I’d like to think I write catchy songs that people can easily sing along to and possibly relate to. When and where for your next gig? 7 Jul, Keep One Eye on the Stranger @ Festival Of Voices, The Voicebox.
Sat 16 The Angels + Mi-Sex: Aussie World, Palmview Dirty Liars + Spike City + The Fred Band + Punktilious + Dangerous Folk: Beetle Bar, Brisbane Watch Your Step with DJ King O.P.P. + Greg Nunn: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley
Earth Caller
Dirty Tunes Melbourne hardcore favourites Earth Caller are gearing up for a massive two nights of heavy tunes at The Brightside, beginning 16 Jul. Support for the shows will come from fellow thrashers Deadlights and Death In Bloom.
Whiskey & Me: Black Bunny Kitchen, Alexandra Heads DJ Benny + DJ Nato: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads
Closure In Moscow have nabbed a massive support slot with US post-hardcore trio The Fall Of Troy at Max Watt’s, 7 Jul. The Aussie prog-rockers will join Mensicus and Osaka Punch for a huge night of tunes. Youngsmith: Solbar, Maroochydore
Tue 19
Faleepo Francisco + Mr Thompson + Los Laws: Solbar, Maroochydore
New Mojave Trio: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End
Sunrose + Mecca Mecca + Wallflower Meadows: The End, West End
Ivey + Lotus Ship + Peach Fur: Night Quarter, Helensvale
Brisbabes #4 feat. Georgia Mae + Yuuca + San Mei + Alice Ivy + Moodie Gloom: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley
Jason Daniels + Andrew Redford: O’Malley’s Irish Bar, Mooloolaba
Sam Tsui + Kurt Hugo Schneider + Kimmi Smiles: The Met, Fortitude Valley
An Evening of Sit Down with Billy Crystal + Andrew Denton: Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) (Concert Hall), South Brisbane
William Crighton + Claire Anne Taylor: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane The Bennies + Clowns + Axe Girl + Walken: The Triffid, Newstead
Free Time + Cannon + Primitive Notion + The Mosaics: Trainspotters, Brisbane Misguided + My Friend The Betrayer + Seasons Unending + Deadlines + Alerion: Villa Noosa Hotel, Noosaville
Sun 17 Alphabet Street: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End
Be’Lakor: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Ivey + Lotus Ship + Peach Fur: Foundry Records, Fortitude Valley
Ryan Delaney + SMLXL: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore
Wild Honey: Imperial Hotel, Eumundi
Misguided: The Lab, Brisbane
Hunting Jade: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End
Neha Kakkar + Tony Kakkar: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley
The Wildbloods: Lonestar Tavern, Mermaid Waters
Nicole Parker Brown + Felicity Lawless: Night Quarter, Helensvale BB Factory: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna
Russell Morris
Tay Oskee + Alice Night + Fresco + Special Guests: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley
The Bennies + Clowns + Axe Girl + Jobstopper + The Koffin Rockers: Solbar, Maroochydore
Eliza & The Delusionals + Cheesy Crust + Give It All + Worn Down + more: Mount Gravatt PCYC, Upper Mt Gravatt
46 • THE MUSIC • 6TH JULY 2016
Russian Over
Triffid Stripped feat. Tracy McNeil & The Good Life: The Triffid (2pm), Newstead
Mon 18 An Evening of Sit Down with Billy Crystal + Andrew Denton: Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) (Concert Hall), South Brisbane
Red On Red Russell Morris has just released Cut You Loose, the up-tempo guitar-driven second single from Red Dirt – Red Heart, the final installment of the Australian blues-roots album trilogy. You can see the lot live at Twin Towns this 9 Jul.
Nothing to do this weekend? Don’t worry, The Music has you sorted.
Head to events.themusic.com.au to see what’s coming up.
THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 47
Principal Partner
Brisbane Festival is an initiative of the Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council