The Music (Brisbane) Issue #128 by TheMusic.com.au

28.09.16 Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Brisbane / Free / Incorporating

Tour: Dan Sultan Tour: Richie Sambora & Orianthi InFocus: Bellingen Turtle Festival

Issue

128

2 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 â&#x20AC;¢ 3

THURS 29 SEPTEMBER

29TH SEPTEMBER

HOCKEY DAD (SOLD OUT) 30TH SEPTEMBER

YEO 1ST OCTOBER See an everchanging line-up of indie, pop, folk, alternative, country and rock each Sunday at Livespark. October features Jo Meares, LS Philosophy, Graeme Moes, Sean Sennett + more.

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FRI 30 SEPTEMBER

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THE BLACK SEEDS SAT 08 OCTOBER

TOTALLY UNICORN, THE COATHANGERS, PAGAN, BLEACH GIRLS THURS 13 OCTOBER

REGURGITATOR, JEREMY NEALE SAT 15 OCTOBER

OSAKA PUNCH

6TH OCTOBER

FRI 21 OCTOBER

JOSH RENNIE HYNES

SONS OF THE EAST, MELTING CAPS

7TH OCTOBER

TOTALLY UNICORN 8TH OCTOBER

TIGERMOTH 9TH OCTOBER

PRESENTED BY BRISBANE POWERHOUSE, BRISBANE AIRPORT AND APRA/ AMCOS. BRISBANE AIRPORT IS KEEPING THIS FREE.

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RTO No. 6124

THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 • 5

Lifestyle Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Chairflipped

Indie electro-pop maestros Chairlift have confirmed a run of Australian tour dates for this December. The two Brooklyn natives will make their way Down Under with their third LP Moth.

Chairlift

Nicole Millar

Millar’s Flight Sydney electro-pop singer Nicole Millar has detailed an expansive headline tour this October, taking in a bunch of summer festivals as well as shows along the east coast with her Tremble EP and upcoming single Signals.

Ben Lee

Wallis Bird

Summer Migration

Where and when? For more gig details go to theMusic.com.au 6 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

Off the back of her new album Home, Wallis Bird is heading Down Under for her first Australian tour in December and January. As well as her headline shows, Bird is also playing a series of festivals.

Han Solo

e / Cultu Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Credits

Publisher Street Press Australia Pty Ltd

Josh Pyke and Bob Evans

Together Again

Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast

Acclaimed Aussie troubadours Josh Pyke and Bob Evans will once again join forces for a national run, celebrating the ten-year anniversary of their firstever tour together this November and December.

National Editor – Magazines Mark Neilsen Editor Mitch Knox

Arts & Culture Editor Maxim Boon

Gig Guide Editor Justine Lynch gigs@themusic.com.au Contributing Editor Bryget Chrisfield

Editorial Assistant Brynn Davies, Sam Wall Senior Contributor Steve Bell

gLee After just releasing The Enemy Within from upcoming 11th studio album, Freedom, Love & The Recuperation Of The Human Mind, Ben Lee has announced he’ll be heading out on a national tour in November.

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 Cope, Guy Davis, Jake Sun, Joel Lohman, Liz Giuffre, Madeleine Laing, Mark Hebblewhite, Neil Griffiths, Paul Mulkearns, 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, Cole Bennetts, Dave Kan, Freya Lamont, John Stubbs, Kane Hibberd, Markus Ravik, Stephen Booth, Terry Soo Sales Nicole Ferguson sales@themusic.com.au Art Dept Ben Nicol, Felicity Case-Mejia Admin & Accounts Meg Burnham, Ajaz Durrani, Emma Clarke accounts@themusic.com.au

Star Wars pop-up

channel on Foxtel Rogue One is out in December so it’s time to marathon the entire Star Wars catalogue again. Foxtel are making it easy, screening all seven films between 30 Sep and 3 Oct on their Star Wars pop-up channel.

The number of years a 1.5m tall Velociraptor statue was missing after being stolen from Queensland’s Big Pineapple Festival, only to turn up last week at nearby Mount Coolum.

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— Brisbane

THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 • 7

Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Mary J Blige

Second Heat Much oBliged

Beloved Brisbane indie-pop crew Cub Sport have only just wrapped a national tour in support of their excellent debut album, This Is Our Vice, but they’ve just announced they’re going ‘round again in November/December .

Bluesfest’s second line-up announcement is massive, adding Grammy-winning artists Mary J Blige and Corinne Bailey Rae as well as Michael Kiwanuka, Nahko & Medicine For The People, Gallant and The Suffers to the lists.

Needs More Dog

theMusic.com.au: breaking news, up-to-the-minute reviews and streaming new releases

Little Creatures have revealed their second seasonal release. Dog Days Summer Beer is available for a limited time from October. We’ve had a sneaky pre-taste and trust us, it’s definitely the pick of bevs to beat the heat.

Dog Days Summer Beer

8 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

Arts / Li Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

The Falcon Has Landed

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children

Tim Burton’s latest film, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, hits theatres this Thursday. Starring Eva Green, Asa Butterfield and Samuel L Jackson the film follows the adventures of weird kid Jacob.

FRI 30 SEPT

RICHIE SAMBORA & ORIANTHI

Cub Sport

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THUR 6 OCT

Daily reminder that everyone around you is going through some type of struggle and you should find out what it is and use it against them. @UNTRESOR

MAYDAY PARADE

FRI 14 OCT L7

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BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE

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17 & 18 NOV Madama Butterfly

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(07) 3325 6777 Song & Dance Palace Opera & Ballet have announced their new season, carrying them through 2016 and into the new year. There’s plenty to see, from Paris Opera Ballet’s Swan Lake to Royal Opera’s Madama Butterfly.

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THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 • 9

Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Second Sun

Mallrat

Festival Of The Sun have released a second lineup announcement (as if they needed one) for their December Deep Sea edition. The Creases, Hey Geronimo, Mallrat and more have all joined the lists.

Band Of Skulls

The Laurels

Default Setting Celebrating their third album By Default, Southampton rockers Band Of Skulls have announced they will return to Australia in November for a series of headline shows and a Disconnect Festival appearance. Rolls Bayce

3 The number of shows Bring Me The Horizon had to cancel on their Australian tour after frontman Oli Sykes succumbed to a viral throat infection.

10 â&#x20AC;˘ THE MUSIC â&#x20AC;˘ 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

Rolling Following a killer BIGSOUND showcase Rolls Bayce dropped new single Inside Out last Friday. The psychesoul three-piece are playing a launch show for the track at The Foundry on 10 Nov.

Arts / Li Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

For all gig and event details check out theMusic.com.au.

We Is Sonicologists

KLP

The Laurels’ second full-length Sonicology is out next month and the psych rockers have announced a national tour from October through to December to celebrate. Lead single Hit & Miss is out now if you can’t wait.

Valley High Fortitude Valley will rock again when the annual Valley Fiesta rolls back into town, with a line-up spearheaded by Craig Nicholls and his current cohorts in The Vines, Yacht Club DJs, KLP, Joyride and more.

Ten-Year Empire

Anti-Flag

Veteran US punk outfit Anti-Flag will return to Australia this December with a special show in tow as the band look to celebrate ten years of their controversial major-label debut full-length, For Blood And Empire. THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 • 11

Music

Civil Engineering It’s taken Bernard Fanning a while to get his head around what he wants from his post-Powderfinger career, but he tells Steve Bell that new solo album Civil Dusk is a massive step in the right direction.

t’s been a strange journey for singer-songwriter Bernard Fanning in the last few years as he navigates the opening stages of his still-fledgling solo career. Stepping out of the huge shadow cast by Powderfinger — the Brisbane behemoth he fronted for almost two decades and who pulled up stumps in 2010 while still at the peak of their considerable powers — hasn’t been a straightforward proposition, and nor should it be. Trying to find your own way after being synonymous with such a well-established outfit for so long is a massive double-edged sword: on one hand, the extant familiarity and awareness gives a huge head start on someone starting out from scratch. On the other, there comes a certain burden of expectation as to how you’re going to proceed. Add to that the fact that continually ploughing the same furrow can also breed contempt and as an artist you’re effectively being pulled two ways at once. Even Fanning’s hyper-successful debut solo foray Tea & Sympathy — released back in 2005 during a Powderfinger hiatus — in a way exacerbates this dilemma. That album won multiple ARIAs and went five times Platinum, but it also took a path away from the Powderfinger rock sound that many assumed he would follow automatically when that band finally called it a day. Instead he branched out with 2013’s Departures, a more rock-based affair, albeit one based upon electronic beats and loops that Fanning constructed himself. Now, with his third solo album Civil Dusk, Fanning has in effect split the difference. The album features all organic instrumentation in the vein of Tea & Sympathy, but also meets the rock quota with up-tempo tracks that wouldn’t have sounded out of place coming from his alma mater. “There’s this weird combination when you’re writing — and this happened all the way through Powderfinger as well — where the record you’re making is kind of a stepping stone to the next one, and at the same time it’s like a stop sign before the next one, like, ‘Okay, don’t do that again’,” the singer contemplates. “So there’s things that do inform it and things that don’t — I definitely wanted to go back to writing songs on guitar or piano all the way through, that were complete so that I could play them by myself and it felt like a good song. “Which was not the case for Departures, where I was more than happy to have other things happening, just little stuff like sounds coming in and out and using all the technology at my disposal. But this time I definitely wanted to go back to the more traditional way of writing

12 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

— just write a song all the way through that you can play. So there’s a bit of both there in terms of responding to Departures and then kicking further along. “The thing is that Departures was really different from Tea & Sympathy obviously — and that was intentional — and I was really happy for this to be really different from Departures, more back towards what Tea & Sympathy was like. It’s not as ‘back porch’ as that and not as toe-tapping: I was really happy to have pop elbowing in on country songs on that record, while this is probably a little bit more folky. It’s folk and rock, with not as much country influence in there. “But by no stretch am I a country songwriter anyway, and I wouldn’t want to pretend for a moment that I am. For me it’s no different — it doesn’t really matter what genre it is, just whether it’s a good song or not. I’m just not very good at writing a disco song.”

What does stand out throughout Civil Dusk is the personal nature of the lyrics and narratives — many of which detail break-ups and hardships — although Fanning is quick to assure that this doesn’t relate back to his own happily married state. “It sounds really personal I guess, but most of the time actually I’m talking about things that I’ve witnessed more than really personal experience,” he reflects. “Of course whatever you experience informs what you’re going to write about and how you see other situations, but the idea of the thing was based on looking at the consequences of the decisions that you make and how they impact, not just immediately but over decades. Which you can only do when you’re an old coot like me I

The thing was based on looking at the consequences of the decisions that you make and how they impact, not just immediately but over decades.

guess — I couldn’t have written this record 20 years ago, because I wouldn’t have had the experience to do it. But I guess the personal side of it is very much about that kind of battle you have about little decisions and whether if they’re benefitting you — or the people around you like your family — that they have to harm other people, then how hard it is to make those decisions. “That makes it seems really fucking heavy, but the tone of the album isn’t like that and that’s intentional — I love doing that with music. I’ve always tended to write fairly depressing stuff lyrically, but fairly poppy music really in terms of the progressions and how things sound. And they’re quite melodic as well, really whistle-able melodies. I kinda can’t get away from that no matter how hard I try, although it’s not a terrible disease to have I guess as a songwriter so you just work with what you’ve got. But I’ve always really liked that idea of being able to kind of — without trying to sound too academic about it — juxtapose the lyric against the music, and just having that darkness in what’s being said but that lightness in what’s actually played.” And the next piece in this fascinating puzzle isn’t far away, a companion album Brutal Dawn due to follow Civil Dusk early next year. Although even Fanning’s not yet sure exactly how the two pieces are going to interact. “I’ve written a fair bit towards it so far but I haven’t completed the idea yet, but part of the reason for not completing it yet is to have a little break now and then reassess what I want to say with the last lot of songs that make up the one piece,” he tells. “For me anyway, when I’m in the middle of writing I don’t really listen to a lot of other music and I don’t even read that much a lot of the time, except for newspapers and that sort of stuff. I kinda find it hard to let other stuff in — it’s kinda like before and after that I’m able to look at it and then bring other influences in and make decisions about what it all means.”

Dusk ‘Til Dawn With Civil Dusk’s follow-up Brutal Dawn on the horizon, Bernard Fanning has no qualms about releasing two albums in quick succession at a time when some are questioning the format’s continued viability. “It’s not fucking Use Your Illusion I & 2,” Fanning laughs, referencing Guns N’ Roses’ ill-fated 1991 dual release foray. “There’s such a big emphasis these days on going back to that ‘60s approach where it’s all just about one song, and Nick [DiDia — producer] and I are like those two belligerent grumpy old guys in The Muppets sitting up in the stalls refusing to let go of the idea of the album, going, ‘Fuck it, instead of just making one let’s make two!’” He’s even of the belief that releasing the two albums as a pair will help shine some light on what’s come before. “I guess Departures was a little bit like that, me trying to do something that didn’t sound like I was in Powderfinger, and I think the demos of that album sounded a lot more like that than the record ended up being, but that’s alright that’s just how it works. I still think it’s a really good record, and it may actually make more sense after these two come out.”

What: Civil Dusk (Dew Process/Universal) When & Where: 18 Oct, The Arts Centre, Gold Coast; 10 & 11 Nov, The Tivoli; 12 Nov, The Northern, Byron Bay; 2 Jan, Falls Festival, North Byron Parklands

THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 • 13

Music

Sublime Survival The Jezabels’ Hayley Mary goes in-depth with Anthony Carew about the existential questions that drove Synthia, when the band faced illness and death, but also the sublime.

“T

ry and get as much deep existentialism in the article as you can,” suggests Hayley Mary. The 29-year-old singer of epic Sydney indie rockers The Jezabels once, infamously, told music critics to “get a real job”, and confesses that her instruction is partly motivated by the fact that she finds “music journalism a bit boring.” But, there’s also been plenty of deep existentialism in our conversation. In a coffee shop in St Peters, Mary has talked about everything from population limits (“it’s part of our evolution, our survival instinct is no longer going to be based on procreation”),

You can’t separate the time in which you made the record from the record.

to information-age overload (“sometimes I feel like I’m losing my mind”), to abandoning monogamy (“there’s something problematic about this ‘forever’ model of relationships that removes you from the moment”). But, mostly the conversation has charted the contrast between the bleakness of life - the horrors of the modern world, the dark future of the planet, the inevitable death of everyone you’ve ever known and loved - with the miracle of being alive. Given what The Jezabels have been going through during the past two years, it’s no surprise the conversation is tinged with life, death and the philosophical. During the making of 2014’s The Brink, Mary was battling a deep depression and keyboardist 14 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

Heather Shannon was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The latter fact remained private until earlier this year, when the band were forced to cancel tour dates in support of their third album, Synthia, due to Shannon’s ongoing treatment. “Because it came from such a negative thing, from illness, at first it felt really sad, and horrible,” says Mary. “But, because it’s such an intense situation, you’re forced to look for a silver lining. Heather’s quite good at that. You end up appreciating what you had a lot more, and then really looking forward to doing it again. That’s a big positive: I’ve looked back on the last ten years of the band, where we’ve toured the world, played to thousands of fans; it’s actually been quite a blessed life. Playing on stage is a magical experience, yet if you do it enough, you start taking it for granted. You don’t really think about how lucky you are until something shit happens.” Shannon’s recovery - “she’s currently in the clear, so it’s all as positive as it could be at this current moment” - has allowed for The Jezabels to reschedule their tour dates, undertaking their first full tour in two years. Mary is keen to return to stage, because she’s spent the past year “floating”, unsure of what to do with herself. Having wanted to be a singer her whole life, at first she didn’t know what to do with her newfound time. “It’s not like I had a back-up plan, something else I could do if this band didn’t work out,” she offers. “I did feel quite lost, like I was wandering, wondering if we were ever going to play again.” Mary has spent much of this year living in London, working on an “ideologically-driven” electronic project with two brothers that’s currently “all very under wraps, shrouded in mystery”. She also, in the time off following The Brink, travelled, including a trip across Death Valley in a Mustang convertible that inspired the single Pleasure Drive. “I sort of went a bit mad, I’ve gotta say. I love touring, I love moving, I love that nomadic lifestyle. I’m kind of addicted to it. So, I ended up travelling a lot,” Mary says. “It was kind of like a spiritual journey, but not through yoga or anything, more through partying and sex. A rock’n’roll kind of spiritual awakening.” Born in a time in which The Jezabels weren’t touring, and Shannon was undergoing treatment for her illness, Synthia captures the conflict of this period. The album’s epic sound and scope is, Mary says, representative of a band “in touch with larger questions at the time”. “You can’t separate the time in which you made the record from the record,” she offers. “Illness definitely figures into the themes of the album, but also the sublime. Which is something you definitely do ponder when you ponder illness and death, and the shortness of life: you start noticing the beauty, and the sublime, in everything.” “When you’re faced with someone close to you being in that situation, you question everything. I’d been more of a negative person in the past, but there comes a point where you realise that’s unsustainable. You need optimism to survive.”

When & Where: 6 Oct, The Triffid; 1 Jan, Falls Festival, North Byron Parklands

THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 â&#x20AC;¢ 15

Music

Better Man Now that Dan Sultan has matured and feels more comfortable in his own skin, Bryget Chrisfield discovers the singer-songwriter feels more confident writing “from a personal level”.

e was recently up at BIGSOUND performing with AB Original, whose January 26 track he features on, and Dan Sultan enthuses, “Those boys were one of the acts that were part of the festival and they did a keynote speech. And I went up there and it was my birthday that day so that was a great day.” Of the hip hop duo’s show at The Elephant Hotel during which he made a guest appearance, Sultan enthuses, “Yeah, it went off”. A teaser of Magnetic, the lead single from Sultan’s forthcoming album, materialised last week and is currently available for your ears. It’s only a 36-second

Although I’m a serious musician and an artist and I’m a writer, I’d hate to one day think that I take myself too seriously.

taste, but up until the point where Sultan’s voice enters the arrangement you could be forgiven for anticipating a hip hop verse. There’s fluttering piano, dramatic strings and then, boom! In comes that voice with its unmistakable power and husky undertones. “There’s a lot of different elements there,” Sultan allows. “We used a lot of electronic stuff on the record and a lot of synthesisers, but electronic drums mixed with organic drums as well and, you know, sorta beats that I haven’t really gone for before as well.” Referencing his upcoming album, Sultan assures, “I still think it’s very me: there’s some ballads in there and it’s still very soulful.” Although Sultan acknowledges, “We had a lotta success with the last record, with Blackbird,” he “just wanted to change it up”. “I didn’t wanna make 16 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

the same record twice,” he stresses. After admitting, “It’s scary,” Sultan states, “I’d rather be scared than bored.” Magnetic is about “change” and Sultan elaborates, “Changing the way I approach things on a pretty deep level, but also, you know, on not such a deep level as well; just sorta day to day, and taking care of myself, and I guess growing up in a lotta ways. And, you know, dare I say it: maturing, I guess.” He’s “33 now” and Sultan adds, “It’s a song about really just getting a lot more serious with myself, not just professionally but personally — that’s not to say that I’m taking myself more seriously ‘cause, you know, I’m still pretty realistic about everything and I still like to have a good time. And, you know, although I’m a serious musician and an artist and I’m a writer, I’d hate to one day think that I take myself too seriously. You know, ‘cause it’s not something that I find particularly attractive in other people, and in myself, you know what I mean? So that’s not really what I’m about.” Often Sultan answers in zigzags, as if gauging midsentence how a quote will read on the page and taking a detour to soften the edges of reader judgement. He comes across as an intensely private person and you immediately know when he’s not up for commenting on something, because he’ll tell you (“It’s not for me to say”). “I’ve always been an all or nothing type of person,” he points out, “but it’s just about what the ‘all’ is... is that the self-destructive side or is it the, you know, constructive side? And taking care of yourself and just being better to yourself and just being better in general; you know, I don’t think I had too far to go, but I think it never hurts to have a bit of a look at yourself.” Sultan says he often needs a reminder “not to be too hard on [himself]”. “I wanna cut myself a bit of slack,” he informs. When asked whether he feels more comfortable writing songs from personal experience these days, Sultan considers, “I think so,” before deciding, “Yeah, absolutely. And also I think I’ve experienced more so I’ve got more to write about from a personal level.” In the past, Sultan observes, “I’ve written a lot of songs that were based on empathy and what it would be like. I wrote my first album [Homemade Biscuits] that I did with Scott Wilson — he wrote a lot of those songs, but we wrote a bunch of songs together and I’d written a bunch of songs and, you know, they were love songs that I’d written and I hadn’t been in love at that stage so a lot of that was based on imagination. “I was pretty young. I started that record when I was 19, but I think now I’ve got more things to write about; I’ve got more of a story — I already had a bit of a story, but I think it’s a combination between having stuff to write about and, like you said, being more comfortable in my own skin and, you know, being more confident in writing about my own story where I might not have been a couple of records ago.”

When & Where: 9 Nov, The Triffid

D A N

S U L T A N

M A G N E T I C

T O U R

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS

CAITI BAKER + MORGAN BAIN

TICKETS ON SALE 15 SEPTEMBER DA N S U LTA N . CO M

THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 â&#x20AC;¢ 17

Frontlash

Music

Spirited Effort Props to the people who headed out to Pine Rivers Showground for the first-ever Brisbane Reclink Community Cup event – our city’s musicians in the Rocking Horses emerged victorious with a final score of 8.9.57 to 7.9.51 against the media folk of the Brisbane Lines.

Oral Health

Straight Outta The Park Ah, Ball Park Music. Even after all these years, you never disappoint us. Read our latest lashings of love upon the beloved Brissy group and other acts who wowed us recently in the Live section.

Putt-Putt Is Coming

Lashes

Holey Moley Golf Club opens in the Valley this week, and we could not be more excited to see the Rev/Mansion/whatever you know it as put to good use. Check out our first look online.

Holey Moley

Backlash Jumpin’ Jupiter

If you’re going to contribute to the continually rising price of festival tickets by being a fence-jumper, fine (we guess). But, also, you are the worst. Just know that.

Collecting Scalp(er)s Likewise, if you’re going to contribute to the pervasive issue of ticket scalping by buying up Crowded House tickets and trying to on-sell them for $900... well, you’re just the worst. There’s no redeeming quality here.

Burn Your Smartphone Artificial intelligence has, with some human assistance, composed a pop song that sounds like The Beatles. Nice knowing you all. 18 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

Teeth & Tongue’s Jess Cornelius didn’t wanna admit to Rookie magazine that she was “really drunk” at 11am, she tells Bryget Chrisfield.

“I

t’s always a bit of a weird thing with Teeth & Tongue,” Jess Cornelius muses, “’cause people are always like, ‘Is it solo or is it a band?’ And, you know, there’s press photos with the band and there’s press photos of just me and it’s just a really strange situation; it’s kind of ever-evolving.” Sitting in an airy Brunswick cafe, Cornelius wears a snug-looking houndstooth jacket and cradles a cup of chai tea (with soy) in her hands. There’s a hair elastic around her right wrist. “We did just recently replace the keyboardist-slash-backing singer,” Cornelius adds, before clarifying that Teeth & Tongue have been a four-piece for two years now. “Damian [Sullivan] the bass player’s been playing with us for three years and Marc [Regueiro-McKelvie]’s been playing with me since 2011 so, you know, it’s essentially longer than that for a lot of the members.” For Teeth & Tongue’s latest Give Up On Your Health album, Cornelius acknowledges, “The band were incredible, they were a much bigger part of the arrangement process than they ever have been before... They had a huge influence, I think, on the way the album sounds.” Before Cornelius took the songs to the band, she “had a bit of a songwriting workshop thing going on with Laura Jean”. “We met when we were both studying writing together... we both did the RMIT Professional Writing & Editing course,” she explains. The pair would “bring each other songs” since

Jean was “writing at the same time”. On songwriting, Cornelius observes, “You’re the only one who can fix it, but someone else can help you identify that a part’s not working.” After being accepted for a NES Artist Residency, Cornelius spent some time in Iceland hoping to work up some material for her latest album. “It didn’t necessarily produce the kinds of songs that I wanted to be doing for the next record, so it was interesting,” she admits. Although Cornelius “didn’t have all [her] normal resources”, she did “get access to the church... so there was all these, like, really bad piano ballads that came out,” she laughs. The motivation behind securing a residency for Cornelius was to see what would happen if she focused entirely on music “for two months”, although her initial urge was “to go somewhere warm”. “I was like, ‘I wanna go to Turkey or something and sit by the Mediterranean Sea and write songs’.” Dianne is a standout album track, and Cornelius commends, “Laura actually had a big part [in] that, she helped me with that one”. This song’s music video sees the band dancing around crazily in a bedroom and Cornelius confesses, “I felt really weird talking about it in interviews. I did this kinda interview with Rookie magazine in the US when they premiered the video... They were asking all about it and I think I ended up saying something like we’d had heaps of sugar, ‘cause I didn’t wanna say that I was really drunk. It was, like, 11 o’clock and I was wasted - I wasn’t wasted, but I had [to] be all jumping around. I was like, ‘I can’t say that’.” So does Cornelius ordinarily eat Fruit Loops straight from the box as depicted in said video? “Sometimes,” she chuckles.

What: Give Up On Your Health (Dot Dash/Remote Control) When & Where: 30 Sep, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art

THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 â&#x20AC;¢ 19

Music

Right Angles

Sia Songs On screen Black Mountain keyboardist Jeremy Schmidt tells Steve Bell that while many hard rock bands look to the past for inspiration, no one fucks with the formula like the Vancouver stalwarts. Australian-born singer-songwriter Sia has been tapped to compose original songs for Vox Lux, an upcoming feature-length drama about a pop star, played by The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo actress Rooney Mara, navigating the 21st century music industry. Set over 15 years beginning in 1999, the Brady Corbet-directed feature follows Mara’s character, Celeste, as she climbs her way up the celebrity ladder and engages with the major cultural tentpoles of the post-2000 era.

20 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

t’s been seven years since Vancouver hard rockers Black Mountain made the long trip Down Under, but they return armed with their epic fourth album IV, a collection which signifies a return to the free-flowing majesty of their formative work. “We definitely wanted to make a record that had a bit more of the sprawling dynamics that are unique to the band I suppose, but probably more in evidence on the first two records [2005’s Black Mountain and 2008’s In The Future],” reflects keyboardist Jeremy Schmidt. “I think we wanted to get back to that a little bit. Beyond that though I think we wanted to experiment and be fairly collaborative with the process, but we didn’t really have any preconceived notion of what it should be or otherwise, we just kinda got on with it.” None of which should imply that the more pop-structured third album Wilderness Heart doesn’t hold a worthy place in the band’s canon. “No, we love that record, I just think that the process of making it was a little dogmatic or something, less open-ended and a little less adventurous... although adventurous is probably the wrong word

because sonically there’s a lot going on on that record and I don’t think it’s so different, really. It’s very much a Black Mountain record, but I feel that there’s something about the spirit of the first two records and the new one that’s maybe a little more in tune with our sort of ID,” Schmidt chuckles. Looking to the past to fuel their old school heavy riffage is something that Black Mountain happily cop to. “I’d say most of our touchstones lay in the past, in terms of things we emulate or gravitate towards or are just part of our DNA really,” Schmidt ponders. “I listen to some contemporary music, but for the most part my view goes backwards — my gaze is cast backwards constantly. But it’s not so conscious. I do hear bands who’ve replicated a certain pastiche of some past kind of thing, and it ends up being pretty unfulfilling. It might be exciting to hear as a novelty for a bit, but there isn’t much to keep you going back to it. “Whereas I think maybe our combination of things is a little more perverse or something, there’s odd combinations of things that say mix something like Blue Oyster Cult with some kinda krautrock thing — for us that keeps it interesting. I mean we don’t consciously ever do anything like that, it just sort of ends up being that way because of the make-up of the band and the way we all kind of hear everything backwards to how another member of the band might hear it. We’re always poised at a slightly different angle.”

When & Where: 7 Oct, Woolly Mammoth

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Music

Mushrooms & Worms Jennifer Clavin believes that we need to embrace life’s dark side. She shares with Brynn Davies stories from a troubled past and explains that a mushroom trip and Jesus freaks unearthed Bleached’s second LP title Welcome The Worms.

f there’s one thing we learn from punk-ass American gals Bleached, it’s that life is shit, so you’d better figure out a way to enjoy it. As killer as that motto sounds, it’s been a hard lesson to learn for Jennifer Clavin who, along with sister Jessie and bassist Micayla Grace, is heading Down Under for the first time at the end of September. It’s been a torrid time for the musicians during the writing of their second album Welcome The Worms, whose apocalyptic title couldn’t have been a better fit for

part of it, and you kind of crave that pain in a way because it’s something that you’re feeling, so you get used to that feeling.” The album is flooded with dark themes juxtaposing vibrant pop-punk colouring, dirty heat broken up by jagged rock edges and mixed in with an air of sarcasm and defiance. Clavin poured her heart into the lyrics with brutal honesty, and the title had to be perfect. “Nothing was hitting me... It was 9am in the morning and my friends and I had been doing [mushrooms] all night, like, we kept taking more. Then... this freaky religious couple was handing out a homemade booklet and it was a bunch of cut and pasted words, and one of them said ‘welcome the worms’. When I saw that I was like ‘oh my god, this sums up the album to me so much’,” she gushes.

I’d come back to LA and I’d self medicate by drinking and taking drugs again and it wasn’t until after writing the full record that I finally have a grasp on my life. “Because I felt like so many of the lyrics were dark but also trying to see the light side of life or the beautiful side of life and how it’s kinda a package, the good and the bad. If it was all good, we’d be super bored. And I felt like Welcome The Worms was saying that - bring it on, bring on the dark side of life because we can take it... I feel like I’m in a position where I have a voice to say something, so I want to use it, you know? And I feel like lyric writing is a perfect opportunity to say something important.”

What: Welcome The Worms (Dead Oceans/Inertia) When & Where: 3 Oct, The Brightside the harsh realty Clavin is coming to terms with. “I was drinking a lot, partying a lot, not taking care of myself; kind of like being masochistic I guess, is a word that would describe it,” she confides. “Putting myself in really unhealthy relationships - one in particular, the last one I was in was just so unhealthy but I just kept allowing myself to be in it. At times I’d have moments of clarity... but then I’d come back to LA and I’d self-medicate by drinking and taking drugs again and it wasn’t until after writing the full record that I finally have a grasp on my life... I really let myself go down a dark hole, but I think it was all a lesson,” she says with a smile. “Feeling [trapped in a relationship], it’s crazy. It just becomes such a big part of who you are, the relationship and the unhealthy 22 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

How important is it to support the current shift towards eco conscious events like Bellingen Turtle Festival? Zoe Ryan: Very important! Events have the power to gather and unite us, as does music, so I think it makes sense that musicians and the music industry move towards aligning our activities with eco conscious events.

Pic: Katie Howard

Out Of Abingdon, Tina Fullerton: Bellingen Turtle Fest is a great way to raise awareness in a creative and uplifting way, this is so important in changing attitudes and consciousness, as an artist I feel empowered to be supporting it.

To read the full interviews head to theMusic.com.au

Is music a good medium to get out a message, such as with Bellingen Turtle Festival? Bears With Guns, Lachlan Russell: Yes, absolutely. It unites a group of like-minded people whose sole purpose for attending is to create this awareness, and therefore begin spreading it to others once having a (hopefully!) positive experience.

Have you ever loved turtles to the extent of having a pet turtle? Boewood, Adie Renwick: My family used to have many turtles living in our (abandoned into a green pond) swimming pool. I grew up seeing them in the Bellinger and surrounding lakes and dams!

In Focus Bellingen

Tur tle Festival

From 30 Sep to 2 Oct at Bellingen Showground, Bellingen Turtle Festival will raise support and awareness for (festival mascot) George and his fellow Bellingen River snapping turtles, who have suddenly found themselves on the critically endangered list. We spoke to some of the artists whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve signed up to fight the good fight.

Pic: Ricky Spencer

When did you find out about the plight of George and his fellow Bellingen River snapping turtles and what made you want to help out by playing? Hot Potato Band, Simon Ghali: We first heard about this through the Bellingen Turtle Festival crew and were instantly eager to help out where we could!

THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 â&#x20AC;˘ 23

Music

The Wolf Pack Killer Telly Amanda Knox

True crime is becoming the biggest entertainment trend around at present. Here are the real life thrillers not to miss.

Amanda Knox: Believe Her Hot on the heels of the surprise documentary hit Making A Murderer, a new documentary about the infamous death of British student Meredith Kercher, featuring the acquitted prime suspect of the killing Amanda Knox, premieres on Netflix this week.

Phoebe’s Fall Media empire Fairfax have jumped on the true crime bandwagon with a sixpart podcast series in the same vein as the hugely popular Serial. It examines the brutal killing of 24-year-old Pheobe Handsjuk in Melbourne in 2010. The first episode reached #1 in the iTunes chart last week.

Deep Water This new SBS series is taking the true crime model to new levels of meta. Via multiple platforms including a drama series starring Yael Stone (Orange Is The New Black), a documentary and an online investigation, it will explore a string of more than 80 murders of young gay men in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

24 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

Guitarist/vocalist Alex Hermes (aka Skuewolf) talks to Bryget Chrisfield about wolf masks, polyrhythms and how Dirty Wolves wrote their latest album backwards.

iven that Dirty Wolves’ striking press shots feature the duo wearing wolf masks, we can’t help but wonder about the logistics of lupine performance. “We’re really trimming the masks back so we’ve got the freedom to play,” Dirty Wolves guitarist/vocalist Alex Hermes (aka Skuewolf) illuminates, before stressing it’s important for the audience to “get that visual effect of the ears”. “’Cause Dirty Wolves represents the corruption of the world... it’s supposed to be, like, a reflection of what’s going on,” he continues. “So we wanna keep the look, but it’s been really difficult to pull it off.” Dirty Wolves’ latest Creation & Chaos “took about three years” and Hermes points out, “We came up with a concept before we even wrote the album.” The album “is supposed to be [about] the beauty of creation and the chaos of man,” Hermes chuckles. He cherry-picks a couple of album tracks for further investigation: Eleven.Eleven is about “Albert Einstein’s string theory” and Leviathan explores “the Book Of Revelation, and Christianity, and the impact that religion has had on man”. After making sure “all the topics” were covered, Hermes shares, “Getting into it [writing] was really, really difficult because

we wanted to write it backwards.” “It’s written from drums first because of all the odd timings and the polyrhythms and things like that,” Hermes clarifies. This technique was something Dirty Wolves utilised to develop “a more unique sound”. Trying to find your own niche as a band is “the hardest thing”, Hermes opines. “Not saying we succeeded, but we’re trying,” he laughs. So how are they going to recreate it all live? “It’s been really, really, really hard,” he allows. “Well, as a two-piece, it’s sort of just been a big job. And we’re bringing a lot of samples in because there’s a lot of timing changes... you can’t miss a chord or a beat.” Give their album a listen and you’ll understand exactly what Hermes means. “Polyrhythms get really, really difficult, because say you’ve got two odd timings running at the same time, simultaneous. So say if you’ve got a small circle and a really big circle, and the small circle’s sorta ticking at 12 and the big circle’s ticking at 12; eventually — you know, after so many rotations — they’ll both tick at the same time. And then what that does is it gives you that [makes a sound like a distant blizzard] — it’s like a vortex effect.” Red Sea are supporting Dirty Wolves on these upcoming dates and they’ve actually utilised this band’s singer, Erica Bowron, for a couple Creation & Chaos tracks. Hermes particularly commends the “massive effort” involved for Leviathan, which required that Bowron sing in Latin.

What: Creation & Chaos (MGM) When & Where: 7 Oct, Ric’s Bar

Music

Driving Force

Amy and Sarah Findlay tell Bryget Chrisfield how a drive in Kram’s car during which he played them a track he was working on reinforced Stonefield’s musical direction.

wo of the Findlay sisters, Amy (vocals, drums) and Sarah (keys, vocals), enter Breakfast Thieves where we’ve arranged to chat over lattes (one soy). Sarah wears a woolly jumper in a dark hue with fur trim. Her older sister Amy wears trademark black felt floppy hat over flowing blonde locks, oozing gypsyrocker spirit. Press play on Stonefield’s second album As Above, So Below and you’ll be struck by the set’s dynamic variation. “Working with Kram definitely pushed us to do that,” Amy shares, adding that he encouraged all of the sisters to sing a song (even if these “didn’t make the record”). “It was something the other girls were really uncomfortable doing,” Amy continues, “but it was good because we ended up writing, like, stylistically, really differently.” While guitarist Hannah’s song channelled a “Lou Reed kinda vibe”, according to Amy, “Sarah’s and [bassist] Holly’s were really pretty piano ballads”. “It was nice to try something different... but it just wasn’t right,” Sarah laughs, recalling her ‘experiment’. Stonefield met Kram a couple of years back when they supported Dan Sultan and the Spiderbait drummer/singer was Sultan’s special guest. They chatted after

the show and made plans to “catch up for breakfast”, Amy tells. “He did the score for an Australian film [Love Is Now] recently and he had this song left over... and he was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got this song that I’ve been working on that I feel like is the direction that you girls are starting to take for this new record’... And then we ended up going for a drive in his car and listening to it and we were like, ‘Yeah, this is exactly what we wanna do.’ “And then we were just like, ‘Yeah, you should come over and we’ll just jam and see what happens,’ and, yeah! We just became really quick friends and we were on the same page immediately... He spent a bunch of time at mum and dad’s - like, staying up there - and we kinda turned our house into a studio.” Three of Stonefield’s Findlay sisters still live at home with their parents in Darraweit Guim, but Amy has flown the coop. Their second album marks a “coming of age” for the band and Amy points out this is particularly relevant for her two youngest sisters, Holly and Sarah who were 16 and 12 respectively when Stonefield took out Unearthed High in 2010. Amy credits Kram with encouraging the sisters to think “outside the box”. “For songs that we were kinda like, ‘No way, that’s so not Stonefield,’ he was like, ‘But it’s a beautiful song! Who cares?’” After admitting they’re enjoying playing some of these new songs live, Amy confesses, “I think we used to be kind of scared to add in slower songs in our set.” Sarah interjects, “We didn’t wanna bore the audience or anything.”

What: As Above, So Below (Wunderkind/Mushroom Group) When & Where: 2 Oct, Caxton Street Festival; 4 Nov, SolBar, Maroochydore; 5 Nov, The Foundry; 6 Nov, Miami Marketta

There ain’t nothing like a ‘Hamdog’

Perth man Mark Murray had a dream: a cross between a hamburger and hotdog. Now the industrious foodie has managed to patent the concept, which he’s imaginatively dubbed the Hamdog. He’s not the first crazy cook to dream up an unlikely mashup. Here are our favourite Frankenfoods:

The Cronut A cross between a doughnut and croissant, this dessert genius was cooked up by New York City pastry chef Dominique Ansel.

Ramen Burger Another delicious invention from NYC, Keizo Shimamoto swapped boring ol’ burger buns for slabs of ramen noodles.

Pizza Cake We love pizza. We also love cake. Bringing these two vital food groups together is a thing of beauty that we want at every birthday, wedding day and every other day ending in a Y.

THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 • 25

Music

Growing Pains The Coathangers’ Stephanie Luke tells Anthony Carew that their discography functions like a chronological timeline, from elementary school to their “grown-up” record Nosebleed Weekend.

tephanie Luke has a confession to make. The drummer/vocalist for Atlanta punks The Coathangers, when on the band’s first tour of Australia in January 2015, developed an addiction to Vegemite. “No, like, seriously,” Luke says, from on a midtour pitstop in a place really called Truckee, California. “I’m hooked on it. I love it, honestly.” The trio — Luke, bassist/vocalist Meredith Franco, guitarist/vocalist Julia Kugel — are returning (“there’s no way in the world we ever thought we’d get to tour Australia once, let alone do it again; that’s insane!”) in

support of their fifth LP, Nosebleed Weekend. Working with producer Nic Jodoin, the record found their garage scuzz given some polish. “We definitely try to move forward on each record,” says Luke, “but we don’t just want to all of a sudden sound like some overproduced electronic bullshit band because that’s what’s in right now. We definitely wanna stay true to who we are, but we’ve gotten better at songwriting, at playing our instruments. So we should make a record that sounds better.” Like the band’s prior albums — 2007’s self-titled debut, 2009’s Scramble, 2011’s Larceny & Old Lace, 2014’s Suck My Shirt — it functions, Luke says, as a “snapshot in time. The first one is like elementary school. 26 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

We don’t just want to all of a sudden sound like some overproduced electronic bullshit band because that’s what’s in right now. We definitely wanna stay true to who we are. Then the second is middle school, then high school, then college.” By that analogy, that makes Nosebleed Weekend their adult, all-grown-up record, right? “Oh, god, yes!” Luke laughs. “We have grown up, become more responsible and mature in the way we treat each other. We’re basically all sisters. I went to high school with Julia. I was friends with Meredith before the band started. If something does happen on tour, we just give it a minute, talk it over, then on to the next day. Going through life playing music, it helps you handle things a little bit better. It’s a cathartic outlet. So, anything I’m going through, bad or good, I can put it into a song, into the music, into the live show.” Over their decade together, the three Coathangers have seen more of the world than they ever hoped, and answered endless questions about their gender as they’ve gone. “In certain parts of the world, like when we played in Serbia, or in Japan, it was considered weird that we were all female,” says Luke. “We get asked about that less these days, but I never know how to answer those questions. We have a bunch of friends who are in bands that’re all dudes, and they go through the same shit that we go through, the same ups and downs. So, it’s hard to know how different your experience actually is being in an all-female band.” “To us,” Luke continues, “feminism just means equality. Everyone should just be treated the same. There should be no difference between people. We’re happy being chicks, playing in a band. And if we’re inspiring young girls [to pick up instruments], that’s huge, but it’s not something that we ever set out to do. We never dreamed that could even happen.”

When & Where: 7 Oct, Black bear Lodge; 8 Oct, The Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay

Festival Program Fri Sep 30th - Sun Oct 2nd 2016 Friday

Saturday

TOWNES HALL

THE PORCH

10.00am

Main Gates/Campground Open

2.00pm

Arena/Bar Opens

3.00pm 4.00pm

Irish Mythen

Jess Ribeiro

9.20pm

11.00pm 12:00am

12. 30pm

2.00pm

Jordie Lane William Crighton

Karl S. Williams Davey Craddock & The Spectacles

The Hello Morning Henry Wagons & The Only Children Bar/Arena Closed

Melody Pool Charles Jenkins The Wilson Pickers

4.30pm

Raised By Eagles

5:20pm

Sunset Super Round

6.40pm

The Eastern

7.30pm

Sunday

Magpie Diaries

2:50pm 3.40pm

10.10pm

Leah Flanagan

1.20pm

James Thomson & The Strange Pilgrims

8.30pm

10.50am

Jason Walker

11.40am

Frank Sultana & The Sinister Kids

6..50pm 7.40pm

9am 10am

Andy Golledge Band

THE PORCH

Main Gate Open Gleny Rae’s Honky Tonk Trio

William John Jr

5.00pm 6.00pm

TOWNES HALL 8am

Brian Cadd Skyscraper Stan & The Commission Flats

8.40pm

THE PORCH 8.00am

Main Gate Open

9.30pm

9.00am

The Mid North

10.25pm

10.20am

Tracy McNeil & The Goodlife

11.20am

The Brothers Comatose

12.30pm

FESTIVAL CLOSE

11.10pm 12:00am

The Brothers Comatose Spookyland Dashville Progress Society Bar/Arena Closed

~ SUNDAY WIND DOWN EXCLUSIVE ~ Extend the fun with the Sunday night wind down. Kicking oﬀ from 2pm, featuring local Dashville acts and other special guests including The Wayward Henrys, Mark Moldre, Jen Mize, as well as an open-air cinema for the kids, bar and food options available. See over page or website for more info. Limited capacity, bookings essential.

+ Kickback On-site Camping, + Songwriter Collabs & Tributes.

+ Classic Cars & Bikes + Americana Inspired Grub.

THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 • 27

Indie Indie

The Bear Hunt

heartBeast’s Hamlet

Josh Rennie-Hynes

Have You Heard

Theatre Focus

Album Focus

Answered by: Lloyd Edgar

Album title? Furthermore

Sum up your musical sound in four words? Raw, loud, face melting.

HeartBeast has reimagined Hamlet as a dystopian power struggle in a secure compound. How does your score contribute to this? This immersive production explicitly challenges traditional barriers between the audience and performers, so it was vital that the sound world enhanced this experience while remaining sensitive to the production as a whole.

If you could only listen to one album forevermore, what would it be and why? Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm. I was 15 when the album came out and it blew my mind. The guitar work on the album is amazing too. It just gets me pumped.

Describe the score you’ve made for Hamlet? I have unapologetically bastardised sounds to accentuate the hyper-real or steampunk feel of the production: my aim is to ultimately immerse the audience into a haze of claustrophobia!

Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date? Shredding my way around Australia with my arm in a cast. I broke it two days before our last tour so I had no choice. Just took a shit load of drugs to help the pain.

Immersive theatre is at the forefront of contemporary performance practice. For you as a sound designer, what are the advantages of working in this context? Any theatre company that is willing to be at the cutting edge of an emerging innovative practice means they are willing to take risks and extend that liberty to both their performers and collaborators. HeartBeast has allowed me broad scope and freedom to experiment.

When did you start making music and why? I started making music when I got my first guitar at 14. I just plugged it in and turned everything to 11. I really wanted to be like The Stooges at the time.

Why should people come and see your band? Our live shows are always loud, raw and energetic! You just can’t get that from listening to a CD. When and where for your next gig? 6 Oct, The Brightside. Website link for more info? thebearhunt.com.au

When & Where: 7 — 21 Oct, Spring Hill Reservoirs

Where did the title of your new album come from? It came to me the day we wrapped up recording the album. It seemed fitting, being my second album. How many releases do you have now? One EP and two albums. How long did it take to write/record? I’ve been writing for it since I finished my last album and it took about three weeks to record. Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? Yes, I recorded it at my home studio in Woodford. So having the luxury of that time and space certainly helped with inspiration. What’s your favourite song on it? Annandale To Austin. I wrote that song in the morning, and recorded it that day. Will you do anything differently next time? I want to do a full band, live album for my next one. But there isn’t much I’d change on this album, I’m really proud of it. When and where is your launch/next gig? 6 Oct, The Foundry; 7 Oct, Bison Bar, Nambour; 8 Oct, Miami Marketta; 9 Oct, The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba Website link for more info? joshrenniehynes.com

28 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

Music

Lucifer Songs

Enjoy being overpowered by waves psychedelic doom? Well, Italian maestros Ufomammut have you covered. Mark Hebblewhite asked main man Urlo what we can expect on the band’s first Australian tour. ven though The Music is subjected to the world’s worst ever phone line and vocalist/bassist Urlo’s thick Italian accent, there’s no doubting how excited the venerable trio are to be visiting our shores. “We’ve always been fans of Monolord but have never played with them so that’s going to be great,” says Urlo about his upcoming Swedish tour mates. “And of course coming to Australia for the first time in our band’s history is amazing. Fans there have wanted us to come for a long time, and I love Australian bands like Buffalo - to finally get down there is a dream come true for this band.” Ufomammut have not only been around since 1999 they’ve also managed to keep the same line-up - no mean feat in an age where band members come and go with great regularity. How have the trio done it? “Well, we’re just too old to fight with each other I think,” laughs Urlo. “We’ve always got on very well because this band is a democracy. We decide on what we want to do together and where we want our music to go. For example, we decide on set lists together. When we come to Australia we’re going to focus on our last album - Ecate - and

of course play some of the older stuff on top of it because many people in Australia would not have had the chance to hear these songs before.” Italy’s metal scene has always been small by European standards. While the country does boast some very diverse acts - Rhapsody, Death SS and Lacuna Coil all come to mind the scene remains dwarfed by their northern cousins in Germany, France and Scandinavia. The Music wonders whether Italy’s staunch Catholicism has hindered the local scene’s development? “No I don’t think it’s really an issue,” says Urlo. “I mean - sure the Vatican is in Italy, and the country has a reputation for being religious. But really I think Italy is the same as many other countries where people go to church on Sundays but don’t [let] religion run their everyday lives. I think the bigger problem for metal in Italy is that pop music and dance music is very strong.” “The commercial styles of music rule everything here - you hear it from every car window, from houses as you pass. But of course that doesn’t really matter in the end. The underground scene here is very strong and there are many diverse metal bands in Italy that don’t sound like each other. I mean compare Ufomammut to say Rhapsody - we are completely different to them.” “I’m not complaining about metal being pretty underground in Italy - that’s the way it is. The scene we do have is very creative and has a lot of talented people in it who are really dedicated to what they do. I’ll always take that over having a larger scene just for the sake of it.”

TA L L

Shin Godzilla

TA I L S Hollywood may have had a crack at the genre as recently as 2014, but it’s been more than a decade since an authentically Japanese Godzilla has swum up from the briny deep. Fans of the cult B-movies from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s should be pumped for a new reboot, hitting Aussie cinema on 13 Oct, which will feature the tallest incarnation of the titular monster ever to stomp its way onto the silver screen.

When & Where: 6 Oct, Crowbar

THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 • 29

Eat / Drink Eat/Drink

COME THE PIES

Goat Pie Guy

The finals are upon us again and nothing goes together like footy and the humble pie. But not all pies are made equal, and the game of the year deserves nothing but the upper crust. When the final whistle blows it’s a given that some of us will need a meal to rival that sweet taste of victory, while the rest hunt something to drive away the bitter tang of defeat. Don’t play patsy to subpar pastries — here are a few places to get a slice of baked gold when Mrs Mac’s and Four’N Twenty just aren’t kicking goals.

Mick Hobson is a massive fan of goats, they’re one of his favourite ingredients. Looking to share his love with the world and showcase the delicate qualities of goat meat he started Goat Pie Guy, and we reckon he’s proved his point. Hobson’s signature creation is the Deluxe Goat Pie: slow cooked goat meat infused with honey and thyme, and finished with a balsamic reduction. Plus, to further meet your post final celebration/ commiseration needs, Goat Pie Guy are fully licensed, so you can knock back a Mountain Goat beer or cider with your pie (seriously). Where: 1/97 Braun Street Deagon

Yatala Pies have been the plate and the prize in one delicious package since 9500 BC, and Yalata Pies have been slinging them basically the whole time. Okay, that’s exaggerating, but this landmark bakery really has been part of the Australian culinary landscape for 130 years. After nearly a century a half manning the ovens, you can bet they know what they’re doing. Though most can’t pass the classic, tried-and-true Steak Pie, Yatala also make everything from vegetable to Lamb Coconut Curry pies. Our personal favourite is the Tradie: steak, bacon, cheese, tomato and egg. Where: 48 Old Pacific Highway Yatala

Beefy’s Pies

Jocelyn’s Provisions Jocelyn’s Provisions do everything from wedding cakes to biscuits, and smack bang in the centre circle is a mouth-watering selection of pies. They look as good as they taste, too. We’re sure more than one perplexed bride has found herself nibbling a Lamb & Rosemary pastry on the day of her nuptials after glimpsing these golden delights

30 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

while browsing Jocelyn’s more tier-centric creations. Since everything on offer is hand-made from traditional recipes using top-shelf ingredients we doubt they were too disappointed. Where: 8 Doggett Street Fortitude Valley

If you’re talking about genuine, good ol’ fashioned, ‘Strayan tucker then you’re probably talking about Beefy’s Pies. With the tagline “bigger, better, beefier” there isn’t much room for misinterpretation, and with years of awards pinned to their crust you know Beefy’s pies aren’t flaky. They even snagged Australia’s Best Gluten Free Pie at last year’s Great Aussie Meat Pie Competition in Sydney. Their menu has everything from Steak & Mushy Pea to Thai Green Curry and their flagship, the Signature Steak Pie, is made from all Aussie beef cooked in rich gravy and Beefy’s secret seasonings. Where: Shop 3 / Frizzo Road Palmview

Comedy

Winging It Improv comic and Big Fork Theatre member, Chris Martin, is a master of making it up as he goes along. Ahead of the first Big Fork’s Big Weekend, he talks to Maxim Boon about gynaecology, looking like an idiot and Brisbane’s comedy community.

t’s one of the most common anxiety dreams: you find yourself on a stage in front of an expectant audience, but you don’t know any of your lines. Cue crushing embarrassment and abject humiliation. But while this scenario might be the stuff of nightmares for some, it’s all in a day’s work for improv comic Chris Martin. A member of new kids on the Brisbane comedy block, Big Fork Theatre, Martin’s gags are best off the cuff, but it wasn’t always so. “The reassuring thing about improv is that no one is ever any good at it when they first start. Ever! Personally, I really sucked,” Martin shares. “It’s a tough format. It’s high stress, mind boggling and you have to break down your inhibitions. The crucial thing is to not be self-conscious about acting like an idiot in front of a crowd of people because that’s kind of the point! You’ve got to be prepared to look like a fool if that’s what the scene requires. It took me quite a while to get comfortable with that, but now I love people thinking I’m an idiot on stage. I’ve discovered the joy of making stuff up.” Improv comedy is in rude health Down Under. There are well-established scenes in Melbourne and Sydney, but Brisbane is nipping on their heels with a burgeoning appetite for improv from comedy lovers and comedians alike. “Over the past ten years or so it’s been catching on more and more here. Being a stand-up can be very solitary, so the chance to work with other people is definitely part of the appeal,” Martin explains. One of the most unpredictable elements of the art of improv comes from the audience, who spontaneously suggest the characters, scenarios and other comedy ingredients the performers on stage have to work with. “The most common character that gets requested

The most common character that gets requested is gynaecologist . For some reason, audiences really want to watch scenes about gynaecology

is gynaecologist. For some reason, audiences really want to watch scenes about gynaecology,” Martin reveals. “It’s obvious why people call that kind of thing out because they get a laugh, but they don’t seem to realise that they’re going to have to watch a scene about gynaecology! That’s very rarely going to end well. Morgues are another tricky one, mainly because no one really knows what to do — who goes to a morgue just to hang out?” Audiences might throw some curve balls, but having the right scene partner is the secret of winging it on stage, Martin says. “The key to good improv is trust, so when you work with the same people regularly you develop a great rapport. They know your strengths and weaknesses so you can play really well together. I go on stage knowing these people have my back, no matter how much I screw up they’re going to support me. You never want to go on stage without that team spirit.” With so many warm and fuzzy feelings in Brissy’s comedy scene, the Big Fork Theatre team have capitalised on this strong community vibe by presenting a weekend Festival celebrating the best local stand-up, sketch and improv comedy. The three-night event, Big Fork’s Big Weekend, will include appearances by improv veterans ImproMafia, an evening dedicated to Brisbane’s best comediennes including Emily McCool, Jennifer Eversfield, Simone Eclair and Petrina Macpherson, and collaboration between two of Queensland’s best sketch comedy groups, The Sexy Detectives and BangNation.

What: Big Fork’s Big Weekend When & Where: 30 Sep — 1 Oct, Independent Theatre, Paddington

THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 • 31

Music

Keeping The Peace After a playful debate about who wins the title of Best Guitarist, Richie Sambora and Orianthi tell Bryget Chrisfield they used to play table tennis with Prince.

hen RSO (Richie Sambora and Orianthi Panagaris) include Bon Jovi classics in their set, we’re tipping the audience singalongs reach a deafening level. Sambora jokes, “They hate it! They can’t stand it. People can’t stand it when you actually can surround them with a song that actually means something to their life.” Sambora confirms that touring as RSO allows the couple to play “a lot of covers” as well as “the hits that [they’ve] shared”. “We did Purple Rain the first time on stage and, you know, Prince doesn’t like — well he didn’t like, rest his soul — he didn’t like to have his material out

I was covered in blood... Fighting off pythons.

there. But he left ours out there, because he dug it; he dug what we did.” “I got to work with him and meet him,” Panagaris enthuses, “and he called us actually about eight months ago and I was running on the treadmill [laughs]. And he randomly called. And he would come over to the house and play table tennis with us and stuff.” “He was such a tremendous artist it was a damn shame, you know?” Sambora laments. Panagaris spent almost three years, which equates to two world tours, in Alice Cooper’s band and Sambora says he was “scared at first” when the pair met in Hawaii after a charity concert Cooper and his band played. “I was covered in blood... Fighting off pythons,” Panagaris

32 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

chuckles. The couple have been inseparable ever since and currently live together in Calabasas, California. During an interview with Billboard, Cooper claimed Prince kept ringing Panagaris during her tenure as touring guitarist, trying to steal her for his own band, but the guitarist corrects, “I think Alice thought he was trying to steal me, but no; he was just checking in and seeing what I was doing... He was just a cool person, he really was; he encouraged a lot of different artists and, yeah! So I feel really blessed to have known him, met him.” On becoming friends with your musical heroes, Sambora observes, “[It’s] unimaginable that the people that you grew up emulating, as heroes, become your friends and become, you know, compadres.” For Panagaris, this has definitely been the case since she grew up hearing Bon Jovi songs on the radio. When asked when they first became aware of each other, Sambora immediately jests, “Oh, Ori was four. I was playing my first night at Giants Stadium when Ori was born [laughs uproariously].” “I remember hearing Wanted... on the radio,” Panagaris jumps in, “and I loved the guitar riff, truly, and, you know, Richie’s such a great guitar player — that just stood out for me and, yeah! I remember hearing that; they were cranking it in Australia a lot.” Sambora self-congratulates, “It’s a good song,” before Panagaris continues: “Livin’ On A Prayer — I was playing that, you know, so I definitely remember hearing that on the radio and just thought that Richie was an amazing player.” On the songwriting process, Sambora reflects, “It’s amazing how sometimes songs come before the riff and sometimes the riff will come before the song; it’s just the feeling, you know? So that’s an interesting thing about being a guitar player and, you know, Ori is obviously one of the best guitar players in the world at any time.” “Richie is!” She laughs, sounding a tad embarrassed and repeating, “No, Richie is.” “No-no-no-no, it’s true! That’s it,” Sambora insists. Both Sambora and Panagaris have already released three solo albums and their collaborative RSO album, which the pair has been working on for about two years now, is almost ready to drop. Sambora reveals one song that he “found on a cassette that was 20 years old”, called O One Night Of Peace, made it onto this upcoming set and Panagaris reveals, “It’s a beautiful song”. “No “Normally that doesn’t happen,” Sambora advises, “norma “normally you don’t go back and find something from years ago. [The song has a] timeless melody and has a message: it’s because my friend [was] going to war and he asked me to take care of his kids if he got killed. You know, it’s heavy stuff, so: We all need one night of peace and, if we can have one, why can’t we have two?”

When & Where: 30 Sep, Eatons Hill Hotel

Music

A Darker Horse Totally Unicorn’s Drew Gardner tells Jonty Czuchwicki about the dark times that influenced their debut LP Dream Life, which was written from the ground up around Michael Bennett’s drums.

“I

was just talking to someone before about it and it’s kind of surreal because it’s been so long in the making, and yeah, having my first real listen back to it the other day, I was kind of like, ‘Fuck, we’ve actually done something pretty cool.’” At the time of the call we are roughly one week away from the release of Totally Unicorn’s debut album Dream Life; an anarchic and attention grabbing record full of twists and turns, a watermark that sincerely can’t be replicated. Vocalist and all ‘round cool guy Drew Gardner details the duality between turmoil and creativity that has brought him to this moment.

...it kind of took a different shift on things to our usual, like you know, ‘Party party, let’s have a good time’ kind of vibe.

“The whole vibe of the album is kind of based on the time that we were recording,” says Gardner. “It was a pretty shit time for most of the band members with personal things happening, and a couple of family members passed away - and break-ups and some drug related things, you know, so it kind of took a different shift on things to our usual, like you know, ‘Party party, let’s have a good time’ kind of vibe.” According to Gardner, Gardner these pressures unintentionally shaped Dream Life’s lyrical structure into a decidedly chronological story. “So it’s basically track by track - a story of the kind of things that happened in kind of a sequence of that time,

of last year,” states Gardner. “It’s funny because it wasn’t meant to be; I didn’t know what track order it was gonna be, but it kind of turns out that it is, lyrically from start to finish, the story from chapter one to the last one.” Totally Unicorn reportedly entered the studio to record Dream Life with up to 30 song ideas in various stages of completion. “Well it’s funny because we had all the songs, well most of the songs, written and we were on a bit of a time frame when we were recording the album because our drummer Michael [Bennett] lives in Adelaide.” Gardner has a habit of starting stories with “Well it’s funny because”. “He lived in McLaren Vale, big wine guy so that’s the reason he moved down there... So we booked in all this studio time, recorded all the stuff and kind of sat back and listened to it and we were like, ‘Ah, yeah it isn’t really our best,’ so Michael was like, ‘Well, you know, I can’t re-record my drums, I’ve got to pretty much go and we’ve spent all this money so you guys can re-write everything around my drum parts.’ So it was a super weird way to do it, but yeah. So they went back and it took about five months or so, re-wrote all the guitar parts and stuff around his drums and yeah, it came out fucking awesome!” In terms of procedure, Gardner has “never heard anyone really do much of that before”. As for the excess material from the album sessions, Gardner attests that it won’t ever see the light of day. “Um, nah not really, I think with a couple of like, maybe two songs we had we wrote on the spot in the studio, so we don’t really have much excess stuff. When we kind of write a song I guess, we’re pretty precious about sharing it so we don’t really have anything else extra in the bag aside from that.” Irrespective of the unpredictable challenges life will throw at all of us, Gardner cites Totally Unicorn’s constant drive to have fun as being responsible for their sharp juxtaposition between cartoon imagery and curb stomping heaviness. “As a band we like to have fun. It’s always about having fun for us. Even with the songs lyrically and stuff being a bit darker we’re still trying to see the lighter side of things. With the imagery and the illustrations for the artwork, all the little pictures that seem fucking crazy on the cover are all based on one of the songs on the album. So yeah, I think that thrown together like that it’s in your face and bright and stuff like that to keep it a little bit happier.” Gardner is also thankful for the mainstream media coverage the band is receiving, which can be difficult to attain for a heavy band. “I’m fucking over the moon, I can’t believe how well it’s going with the help from our label. I’m stoked, I can’t believe it. I think I remember the other day my brother messaged me and said ‘Oh, you’re getting played on triple j during the day like at ten o’clock, what’s going on?!’ and I was like ‘Yeah, I dunno!’” It sure won’t be the last time Aussies hear Totally Unicorn on their 10am smoko break.

What: Dream Life (Farmer & The Owl/Inertia) When & Where: Wh Wh 7 Oct, The Foundry; 8 Oct, The Northern, Byron Bay

THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 • 33

Music

The Royal Visit Recalling the day he received a letter to confirm he’d been dropped by Universal, Harts (aka Darren Hart) extols, “Within two hours I got contacted by Prince!” Bryget Chrisfield listens. Feature pic by Kane Hibberd.

f your parents christened you with the superstar-ready name of Darren Hart, you’d probably consider getting your ass into the public eye immediately. It’s clear this gent belongs in the spotlight. Look at him, will you? A picture of sartorial elegance. When shopping for our shoot, Hart explains, “We went down to Anton’s got, like, a real cool ‘60s-esque outfit and I loved the jacket! So I actually went the next day and I bought the jacket and then we used it for a video shoot as well,” he laughs. Hart’s beverage of choice today is water. He has very expressive hand gestures. For “this album” (Smoke Fire Hope Desire), Harts reveals, “We’re thinking about, ‘Well we really have to brand it properly’... A lot of the reasons why

One morning Prince just called me straight-up and I recognised his voice instantly.

I hadn’t done it yet was because I wanted the music to speak for itself... because if I started to wear certain stuff, I fall into the trap of being either too Prince or too Jimi Hendrix - with the appearance - so that was something that I was consciously avoiding for a long time. But now I’ve kind of embraced it.” He often laughs unexpectedly, usually while recalling personal career misfortunes. Understandably, Hart thought he’d hit the jackpot when he “was signed to Universal in 2011”, but “it wasn’t a good experience” (that laugh again). “The process of going through a major label just for one EP was a colossal waste of time,” he laments. 34 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

Although Hart “was in control of the music, which was good”, he bemoans, “I wasn’t in control of the scheduling... The EP was delivered to them in 2011 and it didn’t come out until 2013. So that’s two years that I was literally sitting at home doing nothing.” Waiting for the official word that he’d been dropped from Universal’s roster, Hart started freaking out (“No one really cares if I play the guitar behind my head”): “The day that I got the letter from [the label] saying, ‘You’re released,’ within two hours I got contacted by Prince! So I was like, ‘You can’t make that shit up!’” Turns out His Purple Highness’ majestic fingers discovered Hart via some YouTube videos he uploaded to hopefully gain some “exposure”, which “actually got [him] discovered”. “And it was nothing that a record label could do for me: it was something that it was my own idea and something I did for myself,” Hart enthuses. After emailing “back and forth” with Prince’s manager for “about a week”, Hart shares, “One day they just asked for my phone number. And one morning Prince just called me straight-up and I recognised his voice instantly.” Hart recalls the pair “hit it off straight away”. “At the end of the conversation he just said, ‘Do you wanna come out here for a while?’” he marvels. So was there someone waiting at Minneapolis St Paul International Airport, holding up a sign with Hart’s name on it? “Yeah, everything was taken care of from the moment I left Melbourne airport... and, yeah! Once I was there he went up to me straight away and gave me a huuuuuuge hug and he was just like, ‘Thanks for coming’. He was so appreciative that I went out there and I found that funny; I was like, ‘He does know he’s Prince, right?’.” The “behind closed doors” Prince, according to Hart, was “just a normal human and he’s down to earth and he’s humble and he’s appreciative for everything he has”. “There’s no - what’s the word? There’s no bullshit around it, you know? It’s real. And that inspired me to wanna have another huge go at the music industry,” Hart praises, “and we talked a lot; we spent a lotta time talking about music, recording, playing, jamming. He listened to a lotta songs I had at the time, which I was gonna put out as an album but I hadn’t announced it or anything; he gave me a little advice on it. And then as soon as I got home I started telling everyone I was gonna do an album and that was the [debut] Daydreamer album.” As soon as the story broke that Hart had been flown over at Prince’s behest, it made Hart “a little bit sad” when he noticed “all of a sudden the media jumped on board, all of a sudden triple j jumped on board, all of a sudden everybody started just, like, acknowledging it,” he laughs again. “All of a sudden record labels were interested again - and not just Australian, but Atlantic and big labels in the States took me out for meetings and stuff like that as well.” After being “blessed with that opportunity”, Hart hit the ground running and hasn’t “had a break” since. For his Smoke Fire Hope Desire set, Hart stresses, “I’ve gotta get some actual people to find it that can really put money into pushing this thing; that’s why I licensed it back to Universal and stuff ‘cause they are still the best label.” What: Smoke Fire Hope Desire (Dew Process/UMA) When & Where: 29 Sep, Solbar, Maroochydore; 30 Sep, The Zoo; 28 Oct, Valley Fiesta, Fortitude Valley

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THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 • 35

Album / E Album/EP Reviews

Bon Iver

22, A Million

Jagiaguwar/Inertia

★★★★

Album OF THE Week

The track list for 22, A Million is the stuff of nightmares if you’re in the phonetics or radio announcing games. There are song names like 666 ʇ (pronounced six six six upside down arrow), 21 M◊◊N WATER and more. And while the novelty, admittedly, does wear off, the angular and scattered titles accurately reflect the songs themselves. For an artist whose audience has been so enamoured by his voice and instrumental arrangements across his career, with 22, A Million Justin Vernon has thrown down the gauntlet. Gone are most of the lush layers of previous albums, replaced by auto-tune, glitchy beats and largely incomprehensible samples (including an uncredited Stevie Nicks sample on 10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄). 8 (circle) and 00000 Million are two exceptions, the former being the only fiveminute track that could easily sit on his previous two records, the latter pulled out of the Coldplay piano ballad playbook. For the majority of 22, A Million, though, this change in direction will be initially disconcerting. Whether fans react in the same divisive way as they did when Radiohead released Kid A or when Bob Dylan released Bringing It All Back Home remains to be seen. But this album — for better or worse — will challenge those listeners whose only relationship with Vernon is via Bon Iver to extricate the artist from the pigeonhole of a love song balladeer and recognise his undeniable artistic talent, removed from genre. Dylan Stewart

Slaves

Pixies

Take Control

Head Carrier

Virgin/EMI

Pixiesmusic/[PIAS] Australia

★★★★

★★★

Last year was big for Slaves, but instead of using their second term to enter the decadent expanse of a follow up production — smoothing out the dents and applying endless lacquer — they’ve honed in on the aggression of unheard facts as delivered by blunt instruments. Take Control feels like a step away from the light, their lo-fi grit augmented by something purposefully darker. Their adherence to a minimalist tool set feels thicker this time, hearty and distorted, like porridge with chunks of indignation and social injustice floating in it. The whole undertaking is candidly aggressive, brash and unapologetic, but they outright ask you to own it on the album open, Spit It Out, “What are you gonna do about it?” There are a few sidesteps

Pixies’ iconic singles are easily recognised, their early albums regularly canonised, but since reestablishing as an ongoing body culminating in 2014’s awkward Indie Cindy LP, the band’s regrowth seemed stunted. Here then is Frank Black, Joey Santiago and Dave Lovering trying to make peace with Kim Deal’s departure (causing turbulence that made Indie Cindy such an unsettling ride) and finding stability with new bassist Paz Lenchantin who finally jiggles into place like a slightly imperfectly sawn jigsaw piece. All I Think About Now’s very deliberate Where Is My Mind dopplegangery gives way to Lenchantin’s cooing vocals. Hear also the title track wherein Black defeatedly accepts he’s falling “down the drain again” before spitting out the two-word

36 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

from the fog; Consume Or Be Consumed, the Mike D feature, is fun (though it’s hard to gauge his presence through the rest of the production). Lies swings as far as it’s willing for the pop fences, synth-softened Steer Clear has Baxter Dury pleading for safe driving etiquette and even some skits thrown in — but more than any other piece, they feel like out of place vestiges from previous efforts. Fame seems to have grown on Slaves like a moss of conscience, as if knowing they were being listened to. They now want to make sure they are being heard. Good thing they’ve got something to say. Nic Addenbrooke

chorus like Satan sneezing from hay fever, then his throat cops an utter flogging on Baal’s Back in which he does his best Brian Johnson (note to AC/DC: Axl may sell tickets, but Frank could be really interesting). If the bigger picture is a patchwork of old tricks sewn together with refocussed enthusiasm, then Pixies 2016 are less loudQUIETloud and more ROUGHsweetROUGH. Head Carrier proves a reshaped Pixies can work even when they’re ripping their own records off. Might be time for some new tricks though. Mac McNaughton

EP Reviews Album/EP Reviews

friendships

Banks

Regina Spektor

Nullarbor 1988 – 1989

The Altar

Remember Us To Life

Harvest/EMI

Warner

Dot Dash/Remote Control

Drive-By Truckers American Band ATO/[PIAS] Australia

★★★

★★★★

While Melbourne outfit friendships are a self-described audio-visual duo, there’s still lots to be had by just focusing on their sounds for a while. Like the album name suggests, their sounds roll around in an apparently cavernous space — definitely one for your best headphones or sound system rather than streaming and a crappy phone speaker. Pedal To The Metal sounds exactly as the name suggests — rolling, exciting, with just the right amount of edge — while the space in Keep Smiling At Me Like That And You’ll Be Picking Your Teeth Up Out Of The Gutter is positively, wonderfully, creepy.

The first offering from altR&B singer-songwriter Banks, Goddess, was drippy but monotonous. On her second album she has upped the ante. The Altar experiments with distance, rhythm and a rainbow of distortion effects — Banks enters the album far away and spends the rest of the tracks coming forward and backing off. The album is at its best on songs like Gemini Feed and Poltergeist when it uses this push and pull to create compelling tension that allows the rhythm speak for itself. But often the album’s aspirations for drama are distracting and miss the mark; they end up undermining Banks’ — and the rhythm’s — sincerity.

“What a strange world we live in...” Regina Spektor’s lyrical maturity and musicality are one of those rare diamonds in the coal mine. Spektor brings everything we’ve come to expect of her and more in her latest 14track work of pure brilliance. Her signature piano riffs hit you so hard in the face your head starts to spin. Opener Bleeding Heart begins with an upbeat groove as Spektor makes her way through themes concerning past loves, fame and the unfortunate state of the world today. Her quirky storytelling sets a catchy tune in Grand Hotel before she tackles more important world issues in The Trapper & The Furrier.

From Black Lives Matter to gun control, border issues and immigration, the conservative right wing and exposing the ignorance of a rose-coloured nostalgia for the good old days. Drive-By Truckers have exploited their Southern rock, ‘60s soul and country lament to make a record lyrically topical and musically timeless. American Band lets their passion, disbelief and anger explode through rocking riffs and soaring solos for the most part, which makes the quieter moments all the more effective. But this record is no downer. Even at their most frustrated and bewildered, the band’s unmistakeable belief in the power of rock’n’roll is ever present.

Liz Giuffre

Tash Loh

Samantha Jonscher

Pete Laurie

More Reviews Online Brain Tentacles Brain Tentacles

theMusic.com.au

Epica The Holographic Principles

Sampology Natural Selections

THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 • 37

Album / E Album/EP Reviews

SURVIVE

Machinedrum

Opeth

Jenny Hval

RR7349

Human Energy

Sorceress

Blood Bitch

Relapse/Rocket

Ninja Tune/Inertia

Nuclear Blast

Sacred Bones/Rocket

★★★½

★★½

★★★½

There’s no date yet for the second series of Stranger Things, but fans of the paranormal can still get their nerve-shredding kicks as the creators of the first series soundtrack once again team up with their S U R V I V E bandmates. As you’d expect from an outfit dubbed Texas’ Tangerine Dream, there’s no end of analog creepiness and deep, droning transmissions from some nightmarish future, notably on the prog-like Wardenclyffe and the deeply ominous Sorcerer, which may unsettle you enough to believe that Eleven is stepping through a tear in the space/time fabric behind you.

Machinedrum, aka Travis Stewart, emerges from the dark labyrinthine bowels of the grimy megapolis that featured on 2013’s Vapor City to take what feels like a holiday in Ibiza. In reality, Machinedrum has moved to Los Angeles and served us a full slice of Californian dreaming. The beats bounce providing instant dancefloor gratification as the dude gets his happy on. There are a lot of guest vocalists across the album including MeLo-X and Dawn Richard, who show us exactly why they are so in demand right now. The cosmic consciousness that drives this album feels like a bright ray of hope in these supposedly dark times.

Is the inspiration finally running out? While some fans expressed dissatisfaction with Opeth’s prog direction, a change of course was perhaps necessary given how completely they’d mastered the art of epic metal. But where top cuts from their last two prog-orientated albums felt like an adventure, much of Sorceress sounds insular, comfortable and safe. Chrysalis is a rare highlight as for seven minutes the band seems to wake up to themselves, but elsewhere Sorceress is a mismatch of overly floral, quiet passages and hard-boiled, hook-free intense sections. It’s their first false step in an otherwise exceptional career.

No one makes music anything like Jenny Hval’s. A cinematic combination of avant-garde and noise-pop, it’d be a sub-genre unto itself if anyone knew what to call it. Blood Bitch is a concept album revolving around the theme of blood — in particular menstruation — re-imagining it as a source of artistic and creative power. While not as revelatory as 2015’s Apocalypse, girl Hval once again proves her tireless resourcefulness, be it through the visceral heavy breathing of the title track or the unpredictable heavily processed vocal carnage of The Plague.

Guido Farnell

Christopher H James

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38 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

Christopher H James

theMusic.com.au

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez El Bien y mal Nos Une

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Search for ‘The Music App’ on THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 • 39

Live Re Live Reviews

Enter Shikari @ The Triffid. Pic: Bobby Rein

Camp Cope @ The Triffid. Pic: Molly Burley

High Tension @ The Triffid. Pic: Molly Burley

The Bennies @ The Triffid. Pic: Molly Burley

40 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

Enter Shikari, Hacktivist

I Love Life

The Triffid 20 Sep

The Triffid 18 Sep

Previously touring Australia in 2014, Hacktivist return in the wake of their debut LP Outside The Box, which conveniently includes vocal cameos from Enter Shikari’s frontman, Rou Reynolds. Although we can all feel it coming, it doesn’t take long until the pocket-rocket himself takes to the mic to help the five-piece out on Taken, dedicating the track to British metalcore band Architects following the death of guitarist Tom Searle. While waiting in the northern Queensland-esque heat of the mosh, the lights blackout and an ominous British voice rants orders for obedience before realising he is surrounded by free-thinking people. This type of introduction is no surprise to fans of Enter Shikari, though atypical for The Triffid. As a spotlight flashes, reflecting the narrator’s feelings of panic, the four-piece emerge and, as Reynolds smashes a floor tom along with the crowd chanting, “And still we will be here standing like statues,” you know shit is about to go down with Solidarity. The set is jampacked full of old favourites and new releases. An aspect of Enter Shikari’s show that never ceases to impress is their ability to mash up their own tracks, scattering and smooshing bits and bobs, from their five albums, together to make one big, chaotic, fun mess, most notably with Slipshod mashed up with The Jester, and The Last Garrison meshed with No Sleep Tonight. Complete with broken mic stands, a crowd-surfing Rory Clewlow and flying limbs in a heckers circle pit, it is everything and more than you’d expect from an Enter Shikari show. Georgia Corpe

Joining the Brisbane leg of the second I Love Life Festival are punk-rock locals Lifeboat. There’s a small cult following of fans all bopping around as the four-piece smash out a stellar set. Next is Philadelphia indierock trio Cayetana. The three girls carry themselves with such confidence and composure, with boisterous lyrics and high kicking guitar riffs.

...you know shit is about to go down with Solidarity. From the minute The Hard Aches walk on stage, they are a powerhouse of energy, Ben David shouting into the mic then suddenly jumping halfway across the stage, kicking his legs and throwing his guitar about, only to return to the mic seconds later, ready to belt out the next verse of one of their many emotionally charged songs. It’s a mission to squeeze between the maze of bodies to get anywhere near the front for action-packed Rozwell Kid. Vocalist Jordan Hudkins is great at engaging his audience, in one scenario asking, “When I say, ‘420’, you say, ‘PUFF PUFF PUFF!’” only to remark afterwards, in a nervous voice, “Shhhh, don’t tell the police!” Rozwell Kid are full of almost childlike energy and enthusiasm, their indie-rock sound resonating with every person in the room. Bringing the party vibes down just a notch, Camp Cope are here to bless us with their

eviews Live Reviews

empowering feelgood music and you can feel the power of vocalist Georgia Maq’s lyrics. As a live band, Camp Cope aren’t as energetic as Rozwell Kid or The Hard Aches, but nonetheless exude a sense of comfort and confidence on stage. Michigan’s Pity Sex bring a slower, more shoegaze feel into the mix. While it’s a nice break from the high action, non-stop energy from previous bands, without Britty Drake’s vocals it’s missing a little someting. There’s a certain charm to it, though; there could be great things in the works for Pity Sex. High Tension hit the stage in a wild, animalistic fury, vocalist Karina Utomo exuding power, confidence and badassery. Their set is something else, 40 minutes of savage riffs, solos and spooky talent. Utomo stands above us all the whole time, jumping down into the photography pit to get right in photographers’ cameras, and climbing onto the barricade to reach out to fans and scream right into their faces. She even throws herself into the crowd of outstretched hands and surfs across the room, die-hard fans feeding her mic cord the whole time.

40 minutes of savage riffs, solos and spooky talent. After High Tension leave the stage, there’s a full halfhour before The Bennies are due to grace the stage, but the crowd doesn’t disperse. As the lights dim and the music starts, there’s an overwhelming roar and then out dances the band. They play around and engage the audience, with frontman Anty Horgan jumping about like

a mad man and messing around with his synthesiser. Horgan is full of energy, and likes to have a bit of a chat with his audience. After a few fan favourites they announce Let’s Go Get Stoned as their next song and, in true Bennies fashion, guitarist Jules Rozenbergs appears from off stage with a joint, and they all pass it around. Simultaneously, certain members of the crowd all start to light up joints of their own, and security certainly have their work cut out for them. It’s a high energy set and the crowd cries out in despair as they leave the stage. A deafening chorus for an encore fills the entire venue, and then, if even possible, a louder chorus of cheers follows as The Bennies once again emerge to play Legalise (But Don’t Tax) and, surprisingly, gift us with a second encore: a ten-minute epic saga O Brother, Where Art Thou. Carly Packer

Ball Park Music, The Creases The Triffid 24 Sep The Creases are looking more like a music video by The Smiths every time we see them. There’s an abundance of turtle necks and skivvies on stage as the fivepiece shake and shimmy to their brand of ‘80s-inspired indie-rock. The anthemic sounds of Impact that have the crowd singing along to its stadium-ready chorus. For a moment there, amid the raised hands and sassy dance moves, it almost feels like these guys are the headliners. However, Brisbane’s own Ball Park Music have a presence that’s hard to match. Taking to the stage without a word, the five-piece launch straight into older favourites as the underage section of the crowd nearly drowns them out with their singing from the balcony above. The group power through Ever

Since I Turned The Lights On, one of their recent record’s most frantic tracks, before lead singer Sam Cromack pulls shapes during the gleefully infantile Sad Rude Future Dude. It’s been said that songs should either be fast or sad and that the best ones are both; Ball Park seem to have an intuitive understanding of this golden rule as they slow things down afterwards for the melancholy:

They turn things all the way up to 11 with Trippin’ The Light Fantastic getting its own disco-ball lighting effects.

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BUGS @ The Zoo Robert Forster @ Aurora Spiegeltent The Keepaways @ The Zoo Dead Yet @ Crowbar

Surrender, Blushing, Coming Down and Leef. Cromack’s bandmates then exit the stage temporarily, leaving him to perform an acoustic rendition of It’s Nice To Be Alive. It’s a pleasant change of pace, but the audience are well and truly ready for the louder material when the band return to join him in playing Whipping Boy and Fence Sitter. They turn things all the way up to 11 with Trippin’ The Light Fantastic getting its own discoball lighting effects, while Pariah, She Only Loves Me When I’m There and Nihilist Party Anthem bring the set to a joyful finish. However, the hometown audience welcome them back for an encore and we’re treated to Harbour Of Lame Ducks, All I Want Is You and Cocaine Lion, the band as grateful to be back as we are to have them. Roshan Clerke

THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 • 41

Arts Reviews Arts Reviews

Transparent

Snowden Film In cinemas

★★★½

Transparent (Season 3) TV Streaming now on Stan

★★★★

Transparent achieves a rare feat: it communicates a universally accessible human story using the most complicated and specific means. Season Three of the Amazon series, following the gender transition of Mort as he comes out as Maura, a transgender woman (performed with astonishing sensitivity and detail by Jeffery Tambor), is perhaps the most narratively dense to date. Since the introduction of the quirky, mildly dysfunctional but largely stable Pfefferman family in season one, the dynamic of this clan has become just about as “alternative” as it’s possible to be. And yet, Transparent’s exploration of the inconstancy, capriciousness and downright peculiarity of the human experience manages to remain entirely relatable while touching new, heightened levels of poignancy. This isn’t a happy accident; the show’s creator, Jill Soloway, takes a distinctly meta approach to her storytelling. Season Two used flashbacks to reveal the specifics of the family’s Jewish, European heritage while simultaneously making observations about the progress American society has made since the influx of WWII refugees in the 1930s. Season Three uses the same device for a different purpose. These snapshots of the past reveal a more painful side to the Pfefferman’s story, refocusing the narrative to highlight the silent, corrosive struggle of living with gender dysphoria and the psychological scars that many trans people live with. “I am not transitioning. I am trans,” Maura repeatedly asserts, pointedly showing the semantic importance of being recognised by society in the same vernacular we personally identify with. There is a bittersweet, sorrowful undercurrent to this season, that colours the oddball humour that sits at the surface, and it’s this counterbalance of pathos that ultimately makes this show so powerfully affirming. Maxim Boon

42 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

There’s a long history of disillusionment in Oliver Stone’s body of work, with many of the writer-director’s protagonists coming to realise that the establishments or systems they’d put their faith in were cold-hearted, corrupt or deceitful. In the early years of Stone’s career, in films like Platoon, Wall Street, JFK and Born On The Fourth Of July, there was an outrage that gave his work an intensity that was almost unmatched in mainstream cinema. As the years have passed, Stone’s interest in people who have felt betrayed or disenchanted by the machinations of the powers that be has remained intact. But the incandescent fury that drove his earlier films has dimmed somewhat, as his new movie Snowden demonstrates. While it is pedestrian in its approach, this biopic of Edward Snowden, CIA analyst turned whistleblower, is still an engrossing story of a young man determined to do his part for his

Snowden

country, only to realise that the powerful organisations to which he’d pledged his allegiance had a different strategy in mind. Snowden, played with subdued but still interesting presence by Joseph GordonLevitt, is a patriot, one keen to combat terrorism in the years after September 11 attacks. His military training is cut short by two broken legs but his aptitude for technology makes him a natural for the battleground of the future — the computer connections rapidly spanning the entire world. He quickly gets a crash-course in how much the surveillance apparatus used by American intelligence agencies can see, and how the information it gathers can be used to America’s advantage. But he gradually understands that this apparatus is being used to monitor allies and even civilians, and it’s at this point that Snowden realises that he must act, even if it runs counter to everything he has believed before. Snowden’s actions have already been chronicled in the media, as well as the Oscarwinning documentary Citizenfour, but Stone’s film aims to present the man in addition to the man’s actions, thereby providing some insight into what some regard as one of the most treasonous deeds of recent times. However, the complexity of both Snowden and his situation feels somewhat diluted here, the film preferring to sidestep the grey areas in favour of a relatively blackand-white worldview. It’s a fine entry point to understanding who Edward Snowden was and why he did what he did, and a fine true-life conspiracy thriller. But it’s hard not to feel that it’s only scratching the surface of a story that affects us all. Guy Davis

Secret Sounds Presents

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THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 • 43

Comedy / G The Guide

Wed 28

Big Scary

Doomsday Festival feat. Acid King + Isaiah Mitchell + Seedy Jeezus + Indica: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley

In The Mood: Empire Theatre, Toowoomba

Lisa Mitchell

The Music Presents

Spring Break feat. Mashd n Kutcher + Joel Fletcher + Tenzin + DCUP + Brooklyn + Horizon + Nemo + Chumpion + more: Magnums Hotel, Airlie Beach Joe Bonamassa: Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), South Brisbane

Drapht: 6 Oct Wharf Tavern Mooloolaba; 7 Oct The Triffid

The Duke + Swamp Jenson: The Bearded Lady, West End

Lisa Mitchell: 15 Oct Woolly Mammoth

Acoustics With Attitude with Danny Widdicombe: The Triffid, Newstead

Emma Louise: 20 Oct Miami Marketta; 21 Oct Solbar Maroochydore; 22 Oct The Triffid

Thu 29

Kylie Auldist: 20 Oct Soundlounge Currumbin; 21 Oct Black Bear Lodge

Into It. Over It.: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley

Caligula’s Horse: 4 Nov The Triffid

Frenzal Rhomb + F.U.C + The Cutaways: Miami Tavern, Miami

A Day On The Green: 6 Nov Sirromet Wines Dan Sultan: 9 Nov The Triffid

In The Mood: Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) (Concert Hall), South Brisbane

Mullum Music Festival: 17 - 20 Nov Mullumbimby

Open Air Cinema feat. L.U.V: Rainforest Green, South Brisbane

Ben Lee: 19 Nov Old Museum

ROO + Aiden Bradley: Ric’s Bar, Fortitude Valley

Taasha Coates & The Melancholy Sweethearts: 19 Nov The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar Ne Obliviscaris: 3 Dec The Brightside

Harts + Smoke Fire Hope Desire: Solbar, Maroochydore Brodie Graham: Solbar (Lounge

Scare Campaign Crowd favourites Big Scary will be hitting The Triffid on 30 Sep to share their third album Animal. For the night, the Melbourne duo have recruited Dreller, the mystery solo project of Thomas Rawle. Hockey Dad + Horror My Friend: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley

The Good Ole Boys: Lefty’s Old Time Music Hall, Brisbane

Tom Lee-Richards + Virginia Sook: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane

Blue Child Collective: Mandala Organic Arts Cafe, Mermaid Beach

The Sonics + Straight Arrows + Hits: The Triffid, Newstead

The Francis Wolves + Plastic Fangs + The Unofficials: The Bearded Lady, West End

Max Chillen + The Kerbside Collective + Goodbye Moon: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley

The Snowdroppers + Persian Drugs: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley

Moksi: Wharf Tavern (The Helm), Mooloolaba

Yeo + Saatsuma + Take Your Time: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley

Fri 30 The Lulu Raes + Wild Honey: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley

Blaq Carrie

Alan Western & Peter Vance: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point Massroom: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads Ali Barter

The Barter System You can see Melbourne indie rocker Ali Barter supporting The Jezabels at The Triffid this 6 Oct. The four-piece are headed around the country with their third album Synthia.

Bar), Maroochydore Screamin’ Stevie & Hobby Rockers: The Bearded Lady, West End Suga Lu Band + David Spry: The Bison Bar, Nambour Chastity Belt + Tempura Nights + Pool Shop: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley

44 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

Heavy Metal High Trivia: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley RSO (Richie Sambora & Orianthi) + Sarah McLeod: Eatons Hill Hotel, Eatons Hill Chastity Belt + Donny Love + Wren Klauf: Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise Teeth & Tongue: Gallery Of Modern Art (GOMA), South Brisbane Coaster: Hamilton Hotel (Sports Bar), Hamilton Caloundra Music Festival feat. The Cat Empire + GANGgajang + The Lyrical + The Hot Potato Band + The Black Seeds + Tower of Power + The Ruins + Cheap Fakes + Erica Falls + The Coconut Kids + The Beautiful Girls + The Floating Bridges + Bullhorn + Anna & Jordan + Busby Marou + Jimmy Davis + George & Noriko + David Spry + Kim Churchill + Mick McCombe + Bearfoot + Bobby Alu & The Palm Royale + Bri Green + more: Kings Beach, Kings Beach

Brisbabes Brisbabes is back for round five at the foundry this 1 Oct. Heading the line-up this time around is Blaq Carrie, who’s backed by lady legends Whalehouse, Stevie and Quintessential Doll.

Big Scary + Dreller: The Triffid, Newstead Harts: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley Rebourne + Requiem: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley

Gigs / Live The Guide

Rare Words: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley BrisBabes #5 feat. Blaq Carrie + Whalehouse + Stevie + Quintessential Doll: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley

Diesel + Imogen Clark: The Triffid, Newstead Afternoon Show with Pete Cullen: The Triffid, Newstead HITS

Punchy Tunes Need something that can sate your hunger for rock and quench your thirst for violence? This 2 Oct at Max Watt’s HITS, Velociraptor and more will provide the soundtrack to the Australian Wrestling Association’s rumble.

Sat 01 Liam Burrows: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point AJ Leonard: Coorparoo Bowls Club, Coorparoo Frenzal Rhomb + F.U.C + The Cutaways: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Trainspotters feat. Collector + Rebel Yell + Brainbeau + Teva: Grand Central Hotel, Brisbane Crescent City Players: Greaser Bar, Brisbane

Sun 02 Jump Jive & Wail: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point Last Dinosaurs + Urthboy + Stonefield + Cub Sport + Elizabeth Rose + The Creases + Nicky Night Time + Pocketlove + The Honeysliders + The Walters + Brad Butcher + The Mad Mariachi + The Wet Fish + Dr Rhythm + Tim Fuchs + DJ Mumbles + Jawgoh + Pat Sweeney + Alex Millington + more: Caxton Street Festival, Brisbane

Brisbane International Guitar Festival feat. Adriano del Sal: Magda Community Artz, Bardon Louis Theroux: Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) (Concert Hall), South Brisbane Louis Theroux: Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC/Matinee), South Brisbane Lucky Lips: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna

Blackmountain + Lord Goat + Black Sun + Archive Earth: The Bearded Lady, West End

Shag Rock: Night Quarter, Helensvale

Wed 05

Open Air Cinema feat. Calais: Rainforest Green, South Brisbane

Enslaved: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley

5 Seconds of Summer + Hey Violet: Riverstage, Brisbane Silk n Oak + Low Down Riders: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore Alt Country Sundays with Suicide Country Hour + Stone River Fever + Mike Errol Jnr: The Bearded Lady, West End

Ellie Goulding + Years & Years + Asta: Riverstage, Brisbane Pup: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Loaded feat. Telegram + Tiny Migrants + Max Chillen: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley Triffid Acoustics with Tay Oskee: The Triffid, Newstead

The Bear Hunt

Frenzal Rhomb: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Horowitz + DJ Jimmy D + Grivs: Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise Caloundra Music Festival feat. Guy Sebastian + Erica Falls + Band of Frequencies + All Strings Attached + Daryl Braithwaite + Illy + The Swamp Stompers + Incognito Band + Ladyhawke + Ayla + Pete Allan + Chance Waters + Tower of Power + Fat Picnic + Mat McHugh + Dan Horne + Harry Manx + Caiti Baker + A French Butler Called Smith + The Counterfeit Umbrellas + Will Anderson + more: Kings Beach, Kings Beach Brisbane International Guitar Festival: Magda Community Artz, Bardon

Bear Season Local kids The Bear Hunt are returning to Brisbane to play the final show of their Who Made You God? east coast single tour at The Brightside, 6 Oct. The Halls, Regular Band and Cold Cuts support.

Dallas Frasca Antwon: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Newstead Roots Festival feat. Bullhorn + Dubmarine + Bearfoot + Leanne Tennant: The Triffid, Newstead

Buzzin’ Celebrating their fresh off the press, brand spanking new EP Dirt Buzz, Dallas Frasca have announced a world tour. The three-piece pull into Woolly Mammoth this 8 Oct with tour mates Ugly Kid Joe.

The Lulu Raes + Wharves + Wild Honey: Solbar, Maroochydore Terence Boyd Thallon: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore

The Pretty Littles: The Bearded Lady, West End

The Wet Fish: Caxton Street Festival, Brisbane

ICEHOUSE: Great Western Hotel, Rockhampton Caloundra Music Festival feat. Michael Franti & Spearhead + Skunkhour + Blues Arcadia + Caravana Sun + Incognito Band + Kate Miller-Heidke + The Floating Bridges + Paul Dempsey + George & Noriko + Blue King Brown + Hollow Coves + The Meltdown + Kim Churchill + Erica Falls + Nick Saxon + Khan Harrison + Bobby Alu & The Palm Royale + The Hot Potato Band + The Coconut Kids + Band of Frequencies + Chesterfield + Mason Hope + Cheap Fakes + Hayden Hack Trio + more: Kings Beach, Kings Beach

The Lulu Raes + Wild Honey + The Belligerents: Miami Tavern (Shark Bar), Miami

Rumble Rock 2016 feat. Hits + Velociraptor + The Way We Were + Shutup Shutup Shutup: Max Watt’s, West End The Black Seeds + Tijuana Cartel: Miami Marketta, Miami

Listen Out 2016 feat. Rufus + A$AP Ferg + Jauz + Stormzy + Travis Scott + Tchami + Baauer + Claptone + Gordon City + Yung Lean + Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals + LDRU + Cosmos Midnight + Ngaiire + Tash Sultana + Willow Beats + Sui Zhen + more: Victoria Park, Herston

Mon 03 Caloundra Music Festival feat. ICEHOUSE + Bullhorn + The Preatures + Tower of Power + Ivey + Bearfoot + Ash + Ayla + Incognito Band + Montaigne + Fat Picnic + Doolie + Harry Manx + Thirsty Merc + Ruby Gilbert + more: Kings Beach, Kings Beach

Thu 06 Jazz Singers Jam Night: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point Ufomammut + Monolord + Hobo Magic + Zong: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Mayday Parade + The Early November: Eatons Hill Hotel (All Ages), Eatons Hill Jai: Greaser Bar, Brisbane Patrick James: Junk Bar, Ashgrove Kallidad: Lefty’s Old Time Music Hall, Brisbane Skypilot: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore The Bear Hunt: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley

Bleached: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley

Josh Rennie-Hynes: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley

Escape The Fate + Dream On Dreamer + We Set Signals: The Triffid, Newstead

Kendall Layt: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane

Tue 04

The Jezabels + Ali Barter: The Triffid, Newstead

Sian Evans: New Farm Bowls Club, New Farm

Tom Combes: The Triffid (Beer Garden), Newstead

THE MUSIC 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 • 45

Comedy / G The Guide

These Guy + First Beige: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley

Beatles Afternoon — John Lennon’s Birthday: New Globe Theatre, Fortitude Valley

Tempura Nights

Drapht: Wharf Tavern (The Helm), Mooloolaba

Open Air Cinema feat. Hailey Calvert: Rainforest Green, South Brisbane

The Black Swamp + Dead End Kings + Massic: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley

Hoo8hoo + Sally Rose Skelton: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore

Fri 07

Chester: The Bearded Lady, West End

The Coathangers: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley

Breakaway + Stansbury: The Foundry (Foundry Records) (All Ages), Fortitude Valley

Caxton Street Jazz Band: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point

Emily Dawn + Sam Leslie: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane

Ocean Grove + Reactions + Sensaii + Deadlights: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley

Josh Rennie-Hynes: The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba

Mental As Anything: Hamilton Hotel, Hamilton Jo Meares + Ben Bunting: Junk Bar, Ashgrove Brian McKnight + Nathaniel: Jupiters, Broadbeach Black Tiger Sex Machine + Dabin: Max Watt’s, West End The Hard Aches + Foley!: Miami

Chaste Nights Brisbane locals Tempura Nights have scored a supporting slot for Chastity Belt who are out for their first ever Australian tour. Pool Shop will also be joining the two bands at The Brightside on 29 Sep. Moksi: The Met, Fortitude Valley Jack Colwell + Miles Brown + Bree De Rome: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Safia + Running Touch + Set Mo: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley Drapht + Dylan Joel + Marksman Lloyd: The Triffid, Newstead

Saatsuma

Gypsy & The Cat + Yoste + Landings: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley Backsliders + Transvaal Diamond Syndicate + Touch: Villa Noosa Hotel, Noosaville

Game Time Saatsuma will bring their blend of hip hop, house and neo soul to The Foundry on 30 Sep when they support Yeo’s Got No Game east coast tour with fellow tour mates Take Your Time.

Black Mountain + Dreamtime: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley

Sat 08 The Pickletones: Bloodhound Corner Bar, Fortitude Valley The David Bentley Trio: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point

Tavern (Shark Bar), Miami The Shakin Steamrollers: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna

Ausmuteants + Sex Drive + Ripped Off: Coronation Hoel, West Ipswich

Dallas Frasca + Band of Frequencies + Los Laws: Solbar, Maroochydore

The Hard Aches: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley

The Ocean Party: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore

Rockin’ for West Papua feat. The Poor + Wartooth + Paging Jimi: Currumbin Creek Tavern, Currumbin Waters

Ausmuteants: The Bearded Lady, West End Josh Rennie-Hynes: The Bison Bar, Nambour Osaka Punch: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Totally Unicorn + Pagan: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley

46 • THE MUSIC • 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016

The Night Sky — 2016 Greens Ball with Cheap Fakes + Some Jerks + Abbie Cardwell & The Texicans + DJ Fluent JB + Bertie Page: Old Museum, Fortitude Valley Mojo Webb Band + The Stained Daisies: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna CKNU + Emily Wurramara: Solbar (Main Stage), Maroochydore

Frnkiero & The Patience + Walter Schreifels: The Triffid, Newstead Afternoon Show with Clea: The Triffid, Newstead

Mon 10 The Aristocrats: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Belgrado + Black Deity + Occults + Bloodletter: The Bearded Lady, West End

Tue 11

Ben Cummiskey: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore

The Dire Straits Experience: Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) (Concert Hall), South Brisbane

Girlsuck + Jonny Cyrus + Piss Pain: The Bearded Lady, West End

Queensryche + Seraphic + Awaken Solace: The Triffid, Newstead

Alyce Platt & The Fish Shop Collective: The Bison Bar, Nambour Outlive: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley

Rockin’ for West Papua feat. Kold Creatures + Monster Fodder + System Trashed + Kaosphere + Alice Lost Her Way + Locus + Give It All: Chardons Corner Hotel, Annerley

Ayla: Studio 188, Ipswich

The Ocean Party + Big White + Thigh Master + Shorts: The Time Machine, Nambour

Trainspotters feat. The Ocean Party + Big White + Tempura Nights + Cannon + Thigh Master: Grand Central Hotel, Brisbane Aaron West Trio: Greaser Bar, Brisbane Josh Rennie-Hynes + Rabbit: Miami Marketta, Miami Safia + Running Touch + Set Mo: Night Quarter, Helensvale

Tigermoth + 2Dogs + Calski + Master Wolf: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley Breakaway + Stansbury: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar (All Ages), South Brisbane Patrick James: The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba The Levellers + Round Mountain Girls: The Triffid, Newstead Afternoon Show with Pete Cullen: The Triffid, Newstead Ayla + The Wandering Lost + Banter Club + The Gruvs: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley Lepers & Crooks: Villa Noosa Hotel (The V Room), Noosaville Dallas Frasca: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley

Sun 09 Brisbane Big Band: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point Alyce Platt & The Fish Shop Collective: Junk Bar, Ashgrove

Tijuana Cartel

The TJ Way Spring has sprung and Tijuana Cartel have taken their show on the road to celebrate. They will be playing their signature mix of world music and club beats at The Northern on 30 Sep.

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 HE MUSI M MUSIC C 28TH SEPTEMBER 2016 • 47

THE MUSIC 6TH JULY 2016 • 3