The Music (Brisbane) Issue #140

22.03.17 Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Issue

140

Brisbane / Free / Incorporating

Queensland Music Awards

The State Of Music Tour: The Waifs Bluesfest: Rhiannon Giddens Tour: Spiderbait

FRI 12TH MAY | HUDSON BALLROOM SYDNEY FRI 19TH MAY | HOWLER MELBOURNE FRI 26TH MAY | BRIGHTSIDE BRISBANE SAT 27TH MAY | BIG PINEAPPLE SUNSHINE COAST FRI 2ND JUNE | ROCKET BAR ADELAIDE SAT 3RD JUNE | JACK RABBIT SLIMS PERTH TICKETS AVAILABLE @ ALEXLAHEY.COM.AU

2 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 3

4 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

JONSON STREET BYRON BAY FRIDAY 24TH MARCH

LOS LAWS, ILL EAGLES, TOSIAC SATURDAY 25TH MARCH

DON’T MISS free live music every Sunday from 3.30pm.

SUN 19 MAR

THE RUMINATERS, MYLEE & THE MILKSHAKES, GALAXY GIRLS THURSDAY 30TH MARCH

THE VANNS, CREO, WHARVES SATURDAY 31 MARCH

URTHBOY, JOYRIDE SATURDAY 1 APRIL

GUY SEBASTIAN FRIDAY 7TH APRIL

Sue Ray with Glen Skuthorpe Brad Butcher

SUN 26 MAR

SAN MEI, AQUILA YOUNG, SEASIDE THURSDAY 13 APRIL

GOONS OF DOOM FRIDAY 14TH APRIL

THE SWAMPS SATURDAY 15 APRIL

IVY THURSDAY 21 APRIL

MAGIC BONES QMA feature with host Joel Edmondson

SATURDAY 22 APRIL

All ages welcome.

THE CHERRY DOLLS FRIDAY 28 APRIL

PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS Brisbane Airport is keeping Livespark free.

Mixtape is proudly supported

by APRA AMCOS.

FREE

BRISBANEPOWERHOUSE.ORG

SATURDAY 29 APRIL

ROLLING BLACKOUTS TICKETS AVAILABLE ONLINE WWW.THENORTHERN.COM.AU

23RD MARCH

THE DOG THAT’S ON THE GROG APPRECIATION NIGHT (FREE ENTRY) 24TH MARCH

SKEGSS DJ SET (FREE ENTRY) 25TH MARCH

CONTROL ZINE PRESENTS: ON LOCK CLUB 30TH MARCH

THE STEELE SYNDICATE 31ST MARCH

GUM 1ST APRIL

KYLE LIONHART 2ND APRIL

WE LOST THE SEA WWW.THEFOUNDRY.NET.AU THEFOUNDRY.OZTIX.COM.AU 228 WICKHAM STREET, FORTITUDE VALLEY

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 5

Music Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Ska Excited

Victorian ska punks The Resignators are stoked to announce that they will be heading out on the road with Mexican two-tone/ska act Los Kung Fu Monkeys in April.

The Resignators

FRI 24 MAR MEGA 90ÊS

Pretty Sneaky, Sys

RNB FRIDAYS FT. HORIZON

Sneaky Sound System are teaming up with Goodwill, Tonite Only and more for a Ministry Of Sound reunion tour that will highlight the best of midnoughties electro this May.

FRI 24 MAR SAT 1 APR

6TH ANNUAL RODEO

SAT 1 APR

B&S AFTER PARTY

MON 3 APR

ALTER BRIDGE

FRI 7 APR

EH 6TH BIRTHDAY FT. BROOKE EVERS

SAT 8 APR COG

FRI 21 APR

PUPPERTRY OF THE PENIS

THUR 27 APR THE DARKNESS

THUR 11 MAY STRASSMANÊS iTEDE

WED 17 MAY ERIC ANDRE

FRI 19 MAY

MOS REUNION TOUR

Sneaky Sound System

Big Scary

THUR 15 JUN ADAM HARVEY & BECCY COLE

Californian R&B singer Kehlani has announced that Australia will be sharing in her success with debut album, SweetSexySavage, this August when she brings her acclaimed record on tour.

SAT 17 JUN

YG LIVE & GUESTS

SUN 23 JUL DEF FX

SAT 12 AUG

NEW FOUND GLORY

(07) 3325 6777 TICKETS & INFO GO TO: EATONSHILLHOTEL.COM.AU EATONSHILLHOTELPAGE 646 SOUTHPINE RD EATONS HILL

6 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

Sexy Times

Big Gig Melburnian duo Big Scary are doing a final headline tour to celebrate their third record, Animal. Come and join the crowd in June with supporting acts Cub Sport and CC: Disco.

c / Arts / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Killing Time

Killing Heidi

Off the back of a stellar set of shows at Melbourne and Sydney’s zoo gigs, rockers Killing Heidi have announced their first headline tour in over ten years. Kicking off in June, don’t miss out!

Where and when? For more gig details go to theMusic.com.au

Emily Wurramara

Feelin’ The Blues Boomerang Festival will once again be a vital part of this year’s Byron Bay Bluesfest as a must-see showcase of local and international indigenous culture.

They’ve announced their line-up featuring Leonard Sumner, Emily Wurramara and more.

Kehlani

Chris Rock

Holy Moly Buckle yourselves in: acclaimed comedian, actor and director Chris Rock has announced his first tour of Australia in nine years. Visiting four cities this June, be prepared to laugh until you cry.

4 The number of nominations Flume has for the APRA Awards, the most of any artist.

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 7

Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Risebud

Orsome Welles

After teasing fans with a couple of singles heavy experimentalists Orsome Welles are set to drop a new EP in May titled Rise. Even better, they are planning to take on the road with a national tour in June and July.

Commotion On The Ocean Take part in the Sea N Sound Festival at Mooloolaba this June. Our favourite rock-folk band Boy & Bear will headline the festival, with Tijuana Cartel, Busby Marou, and a host of other local acts to follow.

Busby Marou

Join The Carty

[walks in to ER & pushes in front of guy with bullet wound asphyxiating on his own vomit]

It has been announced that Jack Carty is the first official patron for the Bello Winter Music Festival.

Performing alongside Carty at the Bellingen festival in July will be Salmonella Dub, Joe Pug, Bec Sandridge and more.

Me: my dick touched the toilet seat at McDonald’s @david8hughes 8 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

Jack Carty

Arts / Li Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Scream Out Loud

Screamfeeder

Screamfeeder are back with a new album Pop Guilt set for release in April. That same month they’ll do their own shows along the east coast.

DD Dumbo

Finding Utopia DD Dumbo is setting off for a six-date run of shows in June in support of his debut album, Utopia Defeated. It’s his first headline tour with a full band..

Squidgenini

Show Some Gratitunes The teams behind Deadlam and Against The Grain are launching a new night dubbed Why Thank You at The Foundry and they’re going big from day dot. Boss Moxi, Romeo Moon, Squidgenini and more kick things off 7 Apr. THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 9

Music

Queenslander!

In the lead-up to this month’s Queensland Music Awards, we spoke to a bunch of local shortlisted artists about what their nomination means to them and what makes the state so damn special when it comes to the creative arts (and beyond).

By Mitch Knox.

“Q

ueenslanders are a pretty unique beast, I reckon,” says singersongwriter Emily Wurramara, whose track Ngayuwa Ngelyeyiminama (I Love You) is up for the Indigenous category prize.

“As an adopted Queenslander, I love that you always seem to know someone. “Also, as I’ve travelled regionally from Cairns to Mount Isa and down to Longreach, I always find the audiences embracing and good to have a joke with post-show.”

Wurramara moved to Queensland from the Northern Territory in her youth, and immediately found comfort in songwriting — the practice becoming her way “to make sense of my two worlds”. “Songwriting… helped shape my identity,” she says. “I see myself with two homes.” In more ways than one; speaking of the significance of her nomination, Wurramara says, “It is an honour for my song to be shortlisted, not only because it’s a nice validation of me as a musician, but because the song is written and performed in my traditional language, Anindilyakwa, and the importance to me to be able share my culture.”

Good Boy

10 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

When asked about his favourite Queensland acts, guitarist Tom Lindeman, of dual Rock nominees Good Boy, effortlessly offers up a laundry list of revered locals.

“The John Steel Singers, The Creases, Thigh Master, Morning Harvey, Moses Gunn Collective, Cub Sport, Clea, Zefereli...” he says, demonstrating the depth of talent that exists even just in the south-east pocket of the state, let alone across its wide expanses. And, although much of the band’s experience in the state comes from that general corner, that’s only served to instill a deep love of the people

Leanne Tennant

who populate Good Boy’s shows.

“Queensland crowds always seem to have a bit more mongrel about them (in a good way),” he says. “Although that’s probably because our mates are filling most of the audience. There just seems to be more energy in the room when we play our home state.”

That’s not just because of the boys’ friends being in the room, of course — that’s just Queensland, it seems; in fact, Lindeman

says, “the sense of community within our scene” is one of the defining aspects of the state. “Good Boy being my first band, I only became part of the Brisbane music scene two years ago,” he says. “Since then, I’ve met countless bands, bookers, managers et cetera who are now close mates.”

Tim Nelson, the frontman of the aforename-dropped Cub Sport (who are nominated for the Pop, Video and Most Popular Group categories), agrees: “Having only been based in Brisbane, it’s hard to know what’s unique to Queensland’s artistic community, but from our experience it’s quite intimate, which has led to us making a lot of meaningful friendships with other people in the music community,” he says.

It would seem the state’s innate sense of community also serves to heighten the feeling of validation that arises from being nominated for a QMA, Nelson says.

“It’s really encouraging to receive recognition from people in the industry,” he muses. “The Queensland music scene is really strong, so to be nominated alongside acts like Violent Soho whose careers we aspire to is superexciting.”

“Encouraging” is a word that pops up a few times throughout our chats with the nominees; previous Most Promising Male winner Joseph Agius of The Creases (nominated for the Rock award) also busts

Emily Wurramara

Cub Sport

it out while discussing the QMAs. “It’s really encouraging to know that what you are doing is being recognised in an industry where it’s very difficult and often scary to put yourself out there,” the ever-humble Agius says.

It all seems to come back to that deep familial sense that runs through the veins of the Brisbane — and Queensland — music scenes, an indelible camaraderie that touches all who set out to make their mark as performers. “There’s a strong sense of family and community when playing in Queensland,” Agius says. “I think everyone here loves nothing more than supporting an act that is from where they are from and seeing them grow.”

Gold Coast musician Amy Shark, who broke through in a big way with her acclaimed single Adore, also believes in this sense of community, and says that it almost seems to be written into the state’s DNA. “Queenslanders are so passionate and 100 percent claim fellow Queenslanders,” she muses. “We just understand each other.”

Up-and-coming singer-songwriter Tia Gostelow — a rare non-Brisbane-based act who has made a massive impact on this year’s nominations list, picking up six nods across the board — may only be starting out in her career, but she, too, is already picking up on that deeply communal vibe that exists between artists and audiences alike. “[Queenslanders are] always there for a good time and I feel like they are always so proud and passionate about fellow Queenslanders

Tia Gostelow

that are succeeding in any way!” she enthuses. “Always a wild time!”

Being based in Mackay in the centralnorth-west city, however, has opened her eyes early to the invisible walls that exist as a result of isolation. “Most musical opportunities are in Brisbane, and I don’t think many people realise how difficult and expensive it can be living in a regional area and trying to pursue a music career,” she explains.

Nonetheless, there’s no state in which she’d rather be: “I feel like in Queensland we have such an incredible support mechanism through Arts Queensland, and I feel like the music industry really tries to get behind everybody, from bands and artists in Brisbane to people like me that come from a regional area like Mackay!”

That wider support, however, is only just starting to properly take root — as evidenced by initiatives such as the Qld Music Festival’s Songs That Made Me program, designed to boost the careers of female musicians in less-covered parts of the state. This is a fact not lost on Leah Martin-Brown of Evol Walks, who — after submitting for the awards since she was 15-years-old and never making it “past a Highly Commended”, is rightfully chuffed with her hard-earned nomination in this year’s Heavy category — is a little more tempered, although by no means pessimistic, about the state of the, er, state. “I believe we could benefit from more diverse venues and live music events that are promoted and heavily attended seven nights a week, rather than just Thursday to Sunday,” she says. “I feel

‘One big, mad, happy family’. If there’s a better way to describe the Queensland music scene, we don’t want to know about it.

Evol Walks

more venues in the country areas of our state would also help.”

This is also a common theme across the nominees’ responses. The venues that repeatedly rear their heads in being celebrated are almost exclusively Brisbane-based: The Foundry, The Triffid, The Tivoli, Junk Bar, Black Bear Lodge and The New Globe Theatre, among others, all earn accolades from the musicians who have played there… which is great, as long as they can keep doing so without mounting restrictions and pressure from authoritative bodies.

“Liquor licensing, noise limits, people moving next to live music venues then complaining about the live music,” Tennant laments while listing the obstacles to the continued blossoming of the state’s music scene. “Who even are these people?”

All that aside, it’s not just indoor venues that deserve a mention as being special to perform. “I feel our outdoor festivals, especially oceanside ones like Bleach Festival on the Gold Coast, are unique to Queensland because of our gorgeous weather and beautiful beaches,” Martin-Brown beams.

Ah, the Queensland climate — beautiful one day, perfect the next (unless you’re in Townsville, in which case you best enjoy humidity, all the time, forever), and, as Shark and Tennant explain, inescapably impactful on the overall artistic aesthetic of its musicians; at least, certainly from a personal perspective.

Says Shark: “I think [with] the relaxed vibe, and especially living near the beach, you kind of grow up differently. I find 90 percent of musicians from Queensland are extremely down to earth, in both their music and personality. Where I live has a pretty warm climate, with lots of sunshine, swimming holes and cheeky cold beverages, which I guess are conducive to new lyrical ideas,” Tennant offers. “Also, a lot of the people are mad like I am, so we’re one big, mad, happy family.”

When & Where: 27 Mar, Queensland Music Awards, Brisbane Powerhouse THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 11

Music

The Way We Were When Bryget Chrisfield sits down with Spiderbait - Janet English, Kram and Damian Whitty - they remember the writing and recording of Ivy And The Big Apples and how special it was to be the first Australian band to take out triple j’s Hottest 100 with “a cynical song about the music business”.

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

S

piderbait’s current tour sees the trio performing Ivy And The Big Apples in its entirety as the band celebrate 20 years since the album’s release. All three members - singer/drummer Mark Maher (Kram), Damian Whitty (Whitt) and bassist Janet English - have just wrapped up rehearsals at Bakehouse Studios in Richmond and we take a load off to discuss their double platinum-selling record. It turns out some of the early demos for Ivy And The Big Apples were recorded at Bakehouse, although Whitty specifies it was, “The other Bakehouse”. “Oh, in Fitzroy,” English recalls. “But we did a record downstairs here, didn’t we?”

Some where in central NSW probably around 1995. Driving to Queensland on tour. Endless driving in those days….Whitt’s panel van was called Bob the HQ.

I remember everyone saying, ‘You’ve won the triple j Hottest 100,’ and we said, ‘What’s that?’

“Yeah, we made our first album [Shashavaglava] here back when it was called Stable Sound in about 1991,” Whitty shares. “I think that was about six months before it became Bakehouse. It’s still the same, though - the office is the same, but it was 600 dollars for seven songs!”

The first recording sessions for Ivy And The Big Apples took place in March 1996 with Phil McKellar at Studios 301 in Sydney. After these initial sessions, Kram remembers they weren’t completely satisfied when they listened back. “We were just going, ‘It’s really great, and there’s some killer songs, but it’s just missing something’,” he says. “And so that’s when we went to Rockinghorse in Byron... And it wasn’t until that session 12 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

Main street of Banff on tour in Canada 1996, in the middle of recording Ivy. It was Elk rutting season. There were warning signs about not approaching the randy Elks.

that it kinda felt it was finished.”

“We weren’t even in the country when that record came out,” Whitty enlightens. “We were in Canada and the States. It came out in October ‘96.”

“I just remember I was at home for, like, two weeks of the entire year,” English recalls, “and I was living in this stinking share house that had mould and mushrooms growing out of the shower.”

“I think winning the Hottest 100 gave us a lot of confidence, too,” Kram acknowledges of Buy Me A Pony topping triple j’s annual poll for 1996. “We were the first Australian band to win, so that’s the first time ever that an Australian song had won.” There’s some confusion as to where the band members were at the time, but Whitt offers, “I think I was in Byron”. English remembers it differently: “I thought we were playing with Silverchair Rottnest island around 2002.

We love bikes and quokkas.

in Hobar Hobart that day. I remember everyone saying, ‘You’ve won the triple j Hottest 100,’ and we said, ‘What’s that?’

I’d never heard of it. I had no idea what it was.”

“We’ “We’re really proud of it,” Kram stresses.”It’s a really cool thing to win and to be the first... those sort of things really give you confidence that you’re going in the right direction. But also I was thinking about - it’s not just that we won, it’s the song! Because that’s a cynical song about the music business and it’s very humorous but it’s also very dark; about how artists get picked up and pumped up and then spat out and, you know, it happens all the time... and for the audience on triple j to vote for that song proves that they were feeling the same thing.”

When & Where: 30 & 31 Mar, The Tivoli

MARCH

r food fros 20t%icokfeft holde until able upe Redee7mpmigonnigthht g

WED 22

TRIFFID ACOUSTICS

W/LAURA MARDON - FREE IN THE GARDEN

DUNE RATS - LICENSED/ALL AGES - SOLD OUT W/SKEGGS & THE GOOCH PALMS THU 23

DUNE RATS - SOLD OUT

W/SKEGGS & THE GOOCH PALMS FRI 24

DUNE RATS - LICENSED/ALL AGES - SOLD OUT W/SKEGGS & THE GOOCH PALMS

OFFICIAL DUNE RATS AFTER PARTY FREE ENTRY FROM 11.30PM TIL LATE W/DUNE RATS DJ’S SAT 25

SKA BQ - SELLING FAST

W/MELBOURNE SKA ORCHESTRA & FRIENDS SUN 26

AMERICANA SESSIONS - FREE IN THE GARDEN W/WANDERERS

VINO & VIBES - SELLING FAST WED 29

TRIFFID ACOUSTICS - FREE IN THE GARDEN W/MATT HENRY THU 30

I PREVAIL - LICENSED/ALL AGES - SOLD OUT & SPECIAL GUESTS FRI 3

GUY SEBASTIAN - SELLING FAST & SPECIAL GUESTS

APRIL SAT 1

URTHBOY - SELLING FAST W/JOYRIDE & ALICE IVY SUN 2

AMERICANA SESSIONS - FREE IN THE GARDEN W/JORDAN MERRICK & SMALLTOWN ROMANCE THU 6

SHAPESHIFTER (NZ) & SPECIAL GUESTS FRI 7

KINGSWOOD - SELLING FAST W/WAAX & MADDY JANE SAT 8

KINGSWOOD - SELLING FAST W/WAAX & MADDY JANE WED 12

ST PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES - SELLING FAST W/HAT FITZ & CARA THU 13

BABAGANOUJ (Rare acoustic performance) - FREE ENTRY W/SLEEPCLUB & CLOUD TANGLE SUN 16

NAHKO & THE MEDICINE PEOPLE - SELLING FAST W/LUKA LESSON THU 20

BLACK STONE CHERRY & SPECIAL GUESTS FRI 21

WIDE OPEN ROAD

A CELEBRATION OF AUSTRALIAN MUSIC W/BAND OF FREQUENCIES, PC & THE BIFFS, SABRINA LAWRIE, SUBURBIA SUBURBIA & WHALEHOUSE SUN 23

WOLFMOTHER - SELLING FAST

W/DAVEY LAINE & IMMIGRANT UNION SPECIALS WEDNESDAY Mates dates 2 beers + 2 burgers from 5pm WWW.THETRIFFID.COM.AU | 7 STRATTON ST, NEWSTEAD TICKETS - WWW.OZTIX.COM.AU THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 13

Credits Publisher Street Press Australia Pty Ltd Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast National Editor – Magazines Mark Neilsen

Music

Good Feeling

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 Contributors Anthony Carew, Benny Doyle, Brendan Crabb, Caitlin Low, Carley Hall, Carly Packer, Chris Familton, Cyclone, Daniel Cribb, Dylan Stewart, Georgia Corpe, Guy Davis, Jake Sun, Liz Giuffre, Neil Griffiths, Nic Addenbrooke, Rip Nicholson, Roshan Clerke, Samuel J Fell, Sean Capel, Sean Hourigan, Tom Hersey, Tom Peasley, Tyler McLoughlan, Uppy Chatterjee Photographers Barry Schipplock, Bec Taylor, Bobby Rein, Cole Bennetts, Freya Lamont, John Stubbs, Kane Hibberd, Markus Ravik, Molly Burley, Stephen Booth, Terry Soo Sales Nicole Ferguson sales@themusic.com.au Art Dept Ben Nicol, Felicity Case-Mejia, Alex Foreman Admin & Accounts Meg Burnham, Ajaz Durrani, Emma Clarke accounts@themusic.com.au Distro distro@themusic.com.au Subscriptions store@themusic.com.au Contact Us Phone: (07) 3252 9666 info@themusic.com.au www.themusic.com.au Street: The Foundry, 228 Wickham St, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 Postal: Locked Bag 4300 Fortitude Valley QLD 4006

— Brisbane

14 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

Veteran visitors Violent Femmes are heading back south, and founding member Brian Ritchie tells Steve Bell why they’ve almost come to feel Australian over the years.

L

ast year, Milwaukee-bred folk rockers Violent Femmes released their ninth album We Can Do Anything, their first LP in 16 years, and returned to the live scene with a vengeance, their extensive Australian tour followed by months of shows all through North America.

Bassist Brian Ritchie - who’s called Tasmania home for close to a decade explains that the reason they’re returning Down Under so quickly is because of their decades-long affinity with our country.

“Australia’s our second home - or in my case, first home - and we always love touring here,” he chuckles. “On that last tour it was interesting that it was all Australian bands except for the Femmes, so it kind of brought home the reality that we’ve been part of the Australian music scene for so long that we’re almost considered Australian.

“We’ve been playing in Australia since 1984, and it never came and went. In some of the European markets you’re big and then you, like, fade, and then you have to make a comeback and then you’re big again, but it never stopped in Australia. People just adopted us here and we’ve always been popular.”

The Femmes’ jittery tales of teen angst resonate with troubled souls everywhere, but

Ritchie believes that in Australia more cool cliques got it as well. “I’ve heard from a lot of people over the years that [in Australia] our music was quite popular in the surf culture - people would go surfing and be on the beach listening to the Femmes,” he relates.

“So maybe because Australia has such a monolithic surf culture, that tied it all together for us. It’s nice to have something that speaks to the masses but still has some musical integrity, too.”

Ritchie believes that integrity and authenticity are imperative for any band to achieve longevity. “Well, we’re really part of the American music tradition,” he tells, “even going back before rock’n’roll even started, because we love country music and blues and jazz - all that stuff - and it all comes out in our music. Especially with the acoustic approach, which in some ways has as much in common with pre-rock’n’roll as it does with rock’n’roll itself.”

There’s also a new live document of Violent Femmes’ stripped-back roots in the pipeline. “We went around radio stations in the States last year and instead of just doing interviews we also made a point of playing songs,” Ritchie enthuses. “We brought along two old microphones and recorded only using those so it’s going to be a live album, but it’s not live at a gig it’s live at radio stations. They ranged from being almost as good as recording studios to just office buildings, so the sound quality changes and it’s a different vibe from every station. It’s more like a field recording mentality.”

When & Where: 29 Mar, The Tivoli; 31 Mar, Twin Towns, Tweed Heads; 1 Apr, Aussie World, Palmview

Music

Evergreen Heading into The Waifs’ 25th year, vocalist Vikki Thorn tells Rod Whitfield about meeting fans who are younger than the band and using some old tricks on their new album Ironbark.

I

t seems thoroughly implausible, but with some longrunning bands, it almost seems a case of one day you turn around and suddenly realise that they have been around for 25 years. And let’s look at that another way: that’s a quarter of a century. Such is the case with Western Australia’s favourite folky pop/rock trio The Waifs.

According to the band’s guitarist, vocalist and co-founding member Vikki Thorn, speaking from her home in Albany in the wild west, one of the trippiest parts about it is the fact they play to fans that weren’t even born when they first put the band together.

It’s become an inter-generational thing, we’re the band you can bring your parents to.

“That’s hilarious,” she says wryly. “That’s happened to me - a young guy comes up to me and says, ‘I love your music, I’ve been listening to it since I was four-years-old, my parents used to play it.’ It’s almost like, ‘You’ve got the wrong person!’” She laughs. “It’s become an intergenerational thing, we’re the band you can bring your parents to.”

At this juncture in the band’s career, Thorn feels it’s just about time for the band to reflect a little on what they’ve achieved over the last 25 years: “Because with all of this leading up to releasing an album and touring, we haven’t done that yet,” she states. “I just sent an email the other day saying ‘When the tour’s over, when do we celebrate?’

We need to have a party, we need to have something where we sit down and celebrate, just have a toast.”

The band have a brand new studio album set to be released, an epic double album entitled Ironbark. The 25-year milestone helped shape the album’s content as well. “We ended up recording 30 tracks,” she reveals, “then we said, ‘What are we going to do with that? Why did we record that many songs? That’s a bit silly.’ So we decided to make it a double album and make it the whole 25 songs for 25 years thing. That’s not the sort of thing we’ve ever done before, and we’ve never had that much material before, so it just made sense.”

The band are very happy with the results of their efforts this time around. Thorn believes that it was more of a collaborative effort and that it has something new and different to offer from their previous few studio albums; she feels their existing fans will find much to like within the grooves of Ironbark.

“There’s a lot more harmony stuff,” she says. “The tracks on the B-side of the album were the ones that felt more like individuals’ solo efforts, more representative of the individual writers in the band, whereas the main album is a lot more harmony, and we were more involved in those songs. That’s what we all felt like had been lacking a little in The Waifs’ direction in the last few albums - the albums started to sound like three individuals. So for our 25th anniversary album we decided that we needed to be all-in on this music.”

The Waifs head off on an extensive tour of the nation at the release of the album, and Thorn is very much looking forward to hitting the road again, although she has a slight touch of trepidation about playing the brand new tracks live. “The thing is, we’ve only ever played these songs when we recorded them that time in the studio,” she says. “We’re going out on tour, so we have to meet in a couple of weeks to rehearse, and that will be pretty much re-learning how to play those songs for the first time.”

For fans awaiting their return to the road, the band have some new and different stuff planned for these coming shows. “We’re gearing up, we’ve got lots of ideas.

We want this tour to look a little bit different to our other tours in terms of, I think we’re going to come out and do some stuff as a trio which we’ve not done for a long time.

So we’ll start the gig maybe playing retrospectively, and then bring [touring members] Jade and Ben on to play some of the new material.”

25 years down the track, Thorn is quite confident that the band have plenty left in them, in a creative sense.

From a personal perspective it’s slightly more touch and go, but overall the future still looks pretty rosy for this folk rock institution. “Creatively, absolutely. I can’t speak for the others, but we just have to see. We actually really enjoy it, but we have long periods off in between, to be with our families and just live our lives, and as long as the career can sit around that then I think we’re all happy.”

What: Ironbark (Jarrah Records) When & Where: 6 Apr, The Tivoli; 8 Apr, Night Quarter; 9 Apr, Munro Martin Parklands, Cairns

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 15

Music

Frontlash Banding Together

Shits N’ Gigs

Jeff Martin & Jeff Burrows (Tea Party), Sarah McLeod (Superjesus) and Mick Skelton (Baby Animals) will be at a Gold Coast benefit for muso Corey De Luka, who has cancer. Details: coreysjam.com.

It’s Always Sunny On The Internet The clip of Irish muso David Dockery slamming out his amazing drum accompaniment to Charlie Day’s famed ‘Pepe Silvia’ rant is incredible.

Lashes

Live & Local

It’s 4ZZZ’s Brisbane Live Music Week, with free concerts daily in the carpark from 5pm, broadcast live-to-air.

Jeff Martin

Backlash

Tackling Cultural Elitism The notion that the State Of Origin is somehow not culturally significant to Queensland - as per the reasoning for denying the Caxton extended trading hours on game night - is objectively nonsensical. Unsurprising that the government backflipped immediately.

Sheeran Utter Madness Ed Sheeran has 17 songs in the Top 100 Singles chart this week, next to his three top-10 albums. Man, when Australia is into something, it’s really into it, even if that something is a saccharine singersongwriter from the UK.

Vale Chuck Berry He was rock’n’roll. RIP.

16 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

The Dunies’ bassist Brett Jansch chats to Rod Whitfield about making a choose your own adventure videoclip and picking a good time over knuckling down to write the Dune Rats’ latest.

T

he music of Brisbane band Dune Rats could certainly be described as punk rock. However, it’s a fun, funny, happy style of punk, rather than the angsty, vicious, inner city style that most associate with the term. According to bassist Brett Jansch, their second album The Kids Will Know It’s Bullshit was just as much fun to make as it is to listen to.

“We wrote it in a bunch of different spots,” he recalls, “which was just a cool time. We were kinda just spending day to day doing what we wanted, not necessarily locking in to write. I think from doing that and having fun during the days, come the evenings we’d just be in the right headspace to nut out something that we were all really happy with. We just had bucketloads of laughter with it. It’s all about having a good time, otherwise it’s just not enjoyable to do.”

The band are about to head off on a very extensive tour of the nation in support of the album, and apparently that sense of fun and frivolity extends to their live show as well. “We all feel that to play Dunies music it has to be played with the right amount of conviction. I don’t really think when I play, I just get out and give it a crack and hopefully it goes all right!” he laughs. “In order to make

it fun and make it what it needs to be, I need to do what my body says I have to.”

That vibe even pervades their music videos. The clip they made for single Scott Green is an interactive, choose your own adventure affair; the viewer can control the action and where the characters go. It’s a ball to watch and involve yourself in, and Jansch is happy to explain how it came about.

“Originally it was Tony from Warner’s idea,” he explains. “There’s a couple of other videos out there that he linked me to a couple of months ago, saying, ‘Man, we should try and do something like this’. There was a Wiz Khalifa video and a Coldplay one, I think. So I clicked on them, and they were interesting, but it was like, you can do so much with that technology. You can go anywhere, as long as you’ve filmed the stuff for it. It was just a matter of filming the amount of content to make the technology work. The first time I watched it I was like, ‘Fuck yeah! It’s like an actual game!”

After their Australian tour the band have some major plans forming in the back of their minds regarding their activities for the rest of 2017. “We’re just going to smash this album tour as much as we can, while in the background figure out other places to go.

We’ll probably go to Europe. And our other idea was to do a video for each of the songs on the album, so watch out for that.”

What: The Kids Will Know It’s Bullshit (Ratbag/ Warner) When & Where: 22 - 24 Mar, The Triffid

VIOLENT FEMMES “Its classic Femmes” GUARDIAN

MARCH/APRIL 2017 WED. 29TH: BRISBANE THE TIVOLI OUT SOLD FRI. 31ST: TWEED HEADS TWIN TOWNS OUT SOLD SAT. 1ST: SUNSHINE COAST AUSSIE WORLD SPECIAL GUEST RAYELLA A L L S H O W S O N S A L E N O W F R O M F E E L P R E S E N T S . C O M • FA C E B O O K . C O M / F E E L P R E S E N T S

1st AUSTRALIAN

EVER

TOUR

was foundation trembling and, “the roar that greeted Teenage Kicks 1978, the band played it twice!” just like the late John Peel did back in

FRI. 7TH JULY THE TRIFFID THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 17

Music

Everybody Needs Good Neighbours?

Drink Of The Memory

Melbourne quartet Things Of Stone & Wood are revisiting their debut album The Yearning in full, and Greg Arnold tells Steve Bell that it’s still a labour of love.

Fans of the longest-running TV drama series in Australian broadcasting history, Neighbours, might be bidding a fond farewell to Ramsey Street as negotiations with the show’s producers and UK telly bosses have stalled.

Once one of the BBC’s most popular shows, screened not once but twice daily, Neighbours caused controversy in 2008 when it moved to the lesser viewed but commercially supported Channel 5.

Management of that channel has recently moved to America’s Viacom, and as such, talks regarding Neighbours’ future have gone the way of Helen Daniels, Madge Bishop and Bouncer, as Channel 5’s new American overlords review the network’s programming.

For now, the future is far from certain for the Neighbours cast and presumably employees of Melbourne’s Neighbours bus tour.

18 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

I

t’s been nearly 25 years since Melbourne folk-poppers Things Of Stone & Wood released their acclaimed 1993 debut album The Yearning, the record that catapulted the young four-piece to national fame almost overnight.

While these days the album is probably best remembered for ARIA-winning lead single Share This Wine and its smash hit follow-up Happy Birthday Helen - the song written for frontman Greg Arnold’s girlfriend (now wife), which somehow tapped into the national psyche - there’s much more than just those songs to The Yearning as a document.

Rife with familiar Melbourne imagery, the album’s deft lyrics also touched upon social issues such as racism, Indigenous culture, urban decay and the potential advent of war - topics that still resonate loudly today - all couched in interesting arrangements and perfectly hummable melodies.

On the eve of a reunion that finds them playing The Yearning in full for the first time, Arnold looks back fondly on this powerful opening gambit. “Obviously the history of the record - like so many records - is attached to its most prominent singles, but to us the album itself always had this thing about it,” he reflects. “At the time you

could really tell that amongst listeners: they sort of really, really responded to the whole thing.

Everyone’s personal favourites aren’t necessarily those big singles - often the singles are an invitation into the record. A song like In Our Home is unlikely to ever be a big-release single but to me that was a really big song on that album.

“We laboured on that album, in a really loving way.

We put a lot of time into it, we’d be going out on tour and coming back and working on another track. And there were a lot of EPs as well - the Happy Birthday Helen EP [1992] held a lot of songs that I sometimes forget weren’t on The Yearning. But The Yearning tells its own little story from start to finish and, while it’s not a concept album, it is an album that has this journey across the record which really makes sense unto itself. We took a lot of time over that and really cared about it.”

Hindsight has also made Arnold justifiably proud of Things Of Stone & Wood’s legacy as a whole. “I’m very proud and also very happy to see the way that it seems to have resonated,” he smiles. “You have a time after you’ve stopped touring and things like that where you’re sort of wondering where everything’s at and how your work is being viewed, and I suppose we’ve had this lovely time over the last few years where you can really feel the strength of the legacy and the way it’s resonated with people, and obviously for a long time now. It’s so great, we couldn’t be happier.”

When & Where: 1 Apr, Soundlounge; 2 Apr, Black Bear Lodge

Theatre

The Word That You Heard Dami Im is no beauty school dropout, but The X Factor winner is still a newcomer to musical theatre. She talks Teen Angel, gender bending and Grease with Alannah Maher.

T

here’s always a large amount of pressure on the shoulders of any stage production based on a hugely popular musical film. Follow the film wordfor-word and you risk being derivative, change things up too much and you risk offending diehard fans. And the next spectacular arena show hitting Australian stages is no exception: Grease is the word.

The plethora of catchy songs and cult characters Grease offers up means that audiences will be thrilled for (and ready to scrutinise) much more than the tumultuous teen love of Danny (Drew Weston) and Sandy (Meghan O’Shea).

However in the harsh light of the modern day, many would argue this 1978 musical film about a 1950s romance could stand to see some updates. And that’s exactly what we’re getting as Aussie pop darling Dami Im sweeps into a gender-bending take on Teen Angel.

While Im is no stranger to competition, having kicked some considerable butt as Australia’s highest placing Eurovision contestant (second overall) and as the winner of The X Factor 2013, taking on a musical theatre role poses a new challenge for this eclectic performer.

“Musical theatre, it’s a different genre but, as a performer, there’s a lot of things that cross over and it’s still, at the end of the day, performance and connecting with your audience, [which] is the same thing I do when I perform in my shows,” says Im. “The difference would be that I get to create another character and I’m not really being myself as much, I can pretend to be somebody else, an angel, for that performance. It’ll be different and it’ll be fun because I get to let go of what I know to be myself and pretend to be this other person.”

Singing one of the musical’s most popular earworms, Beauty School Dropout, Teen Angel is typically portrayed by an older white man who appears from the heavenly heights (complete with a chorus line of dancing angels)

I must be the only person in this country who hasn’t grown up watching Grease!

to tell a teenage girl, Frenchy (being played on stage by Stacey De Waard), what to do with her life (“Wipe off that angel face and go back to high school,” he croons).

The significance of changing up this character is not lost on Dami: “You know, it’s 2017, people. As a woman, it’s nice that a girl gets to speak to another girl rather than a man giving advice to a little girl about what she should do with her life. So it’s kind of empowering in a way, empowering but also fun to change things up.”

Arriving in Australia from Korea at the age of nine, Im grew up on a steady diet of Korean and Disney movies and orchestral concerts courtesy of her mother, a classically trained opera singer. She never watched Grease until adulthood, which in its own way, has helped her come to this character without any preconceived ideas about how the role has been traditionally played.

“I must be the only person in this country who hasn’t grown up watching Grease!” she laughs. “As an adult I watched it and I went, ‘Wow, this is really strange’. But I could see why it was such a classic.”

Joining an enthusiastic cast and crew, including fellow The X Factor alumnus Barry Conrad and over 800 young Brisbanites, Dami’s take on this divine role is set to win the hearts of Grease’s biggest fans and critics alike.

What: Grease - The Arena Experience When & Where: 7 - 9 Apr, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 19

Eat / Drink Eat/Drink

ORIGINAL FUDE BOYS

M

elbourne Ska Orchestra have a new record to share, Saturn Return, and they’re doing it by firing up the grill. The SKA-BQ, a travelling minifestival with eats, “drinks, scooters [and] a whole lotta ska”, promises to be a skankin’ good time.

“Our manager Anna Wallace remembers going to these types of things in the UK, where they have all the expats having a bit of a get together,” says bandleader Nicky Bomba. “There was a couple here, that used to happen in Sydney, but they all kind of went off for a while.

“It just made sense for the band, as the Melbourne Ska Orchestra, just doing a tour but we wanted to do something different. We thought, well, let’s resurrect that vibe and give it our own slant.”

You can’t fault the logic, if there are two things that are quintessentially about getting mates together and having a good time it’s BBQs and ska. Even the name is perfect. And with this SKA-BQ in particular, Bomba and co are going back to the roots with a Caribbean flavour.

“It’s all part of the big story, because the Caribbean

‘TRIFFIC If you’re wondering who’s going to be providing all of this Caribbean cookery look no further than venue of the hour, The Triffid. It’s just good sense, if you need someone to cater your good time BBQ you turn to the guys to put their own on all the time. Plus, since they gave their beer garden a reno last year the worldly menu has been top-nosh, from the Karaage chicken to the quesadillas.

20 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

culture, or the West Indian culture, when they moved to the UK in the ‘70s that’s how that second [ska] wave happened… And what a great gift. So I think celebrating that is a great vibe, and certainly celebrating that with the BBQ vibe and the whole multicultural kind of aspect of, really, what ska is.

“Normally the SKA-BQs that happened in the UK were Australians putting on a BBQ there with Australian tucker and that kind of thing. So we’re kind of bringing it full circle here by bringing in the Caribbean BBQ, so it’s gone Jamaica to the UK back to Australia.”

Although billed as Head Chef for the event, Bomba himself has promised to stay away from the grill: “Members of the Melbourne Ska Orchestra will happily say, and will reiterate, that when it comes to cooking you keep Bomba away from the kitchen... But I will be certainly sampling the culinary delights.

“I’m certainly not going to be eating much before I get there put it that way.”

What: SKA-BQ When & Where: 25 Mar, The Triffid

Film

Speaking Out Danish director Martin Zandvliet has braved public opinion to tell a WWII narrative that doesn’t vilify the Nazis. He spoke to Anthony Carew about the explosive truth in his film Land Of Mine.

L

and Of Mine, a film about German prisoners-ofwar clearing a Danish beach of live landmines in the wake of World War II, was among the nominees for Best Foreign Language Picture at this year’s Academy Awards. Meaning that, yes, its director, Martin Zandvliet, was in the building for the infamous ‘wrong envelope’ moment.

“Well, it was certainly entertaining,” chuckles Zandvliet, back in Copenhagen from Los Angeles, the Oscars debacle still fresh in his mind. “I think it’s nice to know that people are still human, and that they make

There were certain people who wished that I’d never told this story.

mistakes. And, then, that we have to work out how to fix them, to be honest and open. So, I liked it. Of course, I wasn’t one of the ones on stage thanking their moms and their wives, and then having to stop and take it back. I was just someone in the crowd. So, to me, it was amusing.”

The 46-year-old is in the middle of making his fourth film, The Outsider. His Land Of Mine follow-up is something radically different: a Yakuza movie about an American in Japan, which stars Jared Leto, Emile Hirsch, and Asano Tadanobu, and which was shot on location. The principle filmmakers — including his wife, cinematographer Camilla Hjelm Knudsen — were Zandvliet regulars, but the crew, and much of the cast,

were Japanese.

“You can never prepare for working in such a different culture,” Zandvliet says. “It was tough to direct in a language where you have no idea what they’re saying. I directed out of facial expressions, mimicry, had dialogue coaches nearby, but I used the actors as well, wanting to make sure that they felt fine with everything they were saying. A translation of a script is never just a translation of a script: a sentence can mean so many different things, depending on how you say it.”

The Outsider is, actually, Zandvliet’s second film in a row not in his native tongue; much of Land Of Mine is spoken in German. It depicts a history of spun words: when the Danes conscripted captured German soldiers to remove landmines laid during World War II, the Geneva convention wouldn’t allow “prisoners of war” to be kept after the ceasefire. So, instead, Denmark dubbed them “voluntary military personnel”.

Zandvliet had heard these stories, but, upon researching it, he found that most of the German soldiers were kids, recruited late in the war to fight a losing battle.

“When I went up to the cemeteries on the coast, and saw where these boys were buried — and how young they were, and how many there were — that’s when I knew I had to tell this story,” he offers. “I felt the need to tell it because, as far as World War II goes, we Danes have a tendency to tell stories as if we were only on the ‘good’ side. We become better people only if we learn from our past, not try to hide it.”

This practice, of employing German POWs to undertake the dangerous task of mine removal, also occurred in Holland, Norway, and France. But, where those countries were occupied in a totalitarian fashion, the occupation in Denmark was more benign; the country largely functioning as normal under German rule.

“We’ve always had a strange, complex relationship with Germany, because we were occupied, but in a less direct way,” Zandvliet says. Following the release of Land Of Mine, he found that depicting this piece of dark Danish history — and, empathising the Germans therein as he did — opened some old wounds. “It created a lot of press here, and I got a lot of hate-mail from it,” he recounts.

“There were certain people who wished that I’d never told this story. People didn’t find me patriotic enough — that old generation, that finds nationalism a positive thing.”

“It’s exactly the conversation I wanted to start,” Zandvliet continues. “When I wrote it, and when we were filming it, Europe was closing down its borders to Syrian refugees. And, now, it’s the global conversation: ‘Let’s close the borders. Let’s close down Europe. Let’s close down the States.’ To me, it’s a regressive step. People are judging each other, not helping each other, hate and fear are ruling over tolerance.”

What: Land Of Mine

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 21

Music

Adele -of-a Tour

The British songbird has been blowing the minds of Aussie audiences, and not just with her world class pipes. Here are the reasons why Adele’s Australian tour rocked our world.

Security Smack Down When overzealous security guards took buzz killing to officious new heights, Adele gave them an earful for telling gig-goers to sit down: “If you don’t like dancing don’t come to a fucking music show.”

Welcome To The Gun Show She might have the voice of an angel and be wearing a sparkly ball gown, but Adele is a mean shot with a T-shirt cannon. Her only foible – that they wouldn’t let her have a bigger one. BOOM!

Wedding Belles At her final Melbourne show, she spontaneously gave two loved-up fans a spot in the limelight. 40-year-old Chris took the chance to propose to his longterm boyfriend, which set the stadium erupting with cheers.

She’s A Belieber Poor ol’ Justin hasn’t felt the love much on his recent stint in Australia, but Adele isn’t one to twist the knife, coming to the Bieber’s defence (sort of): “If you started out at 12, you’d be like that too, okay!”

22 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

Hand Brake

The pesky prospect of real life has meant US doom-metal merchants Windhand have had to scale back operations to only play the shows they want to, drummer Ryan Wolfe tells Brendan Crabb.

W

hen asked why devotees of stoner/doom (or “stoom”, as now-defunct Canberra lords Pod People dubbed it) have remained loyal to the American outfit, Windhand sticksman Ryan Wolfe remarks,”That’s a good question. I don’t know how to answer that and not sound like a total fucking asshole”.

“When I first moved to Richmond [Virginia], I wasn’t in the band and I saw them play. I immediately walked up to Garrett [Morris, guitar] and was like, ‘I want to be in the band. I want to be your drummer.’ There’s just a feeling; it’s deep and it feels right. I was a fan before I was in the band, and it captured me so much that I knew I wanted to be in the band. The riffs that Garrett writes...

There’s something about them that harks back to me in the early ‘90s as a teenager listening to music like Nirvana and other punk-rock bands. It makes me feel good, but it also has aspects of The Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Sabbath and Zeppelin that I enjoy listening to now.”

Windhand - although relatively new, having formed in 2009 - are already crafting album number four. The metallers will hit Aussie shores alongside Relapse labelmates and fellow Virginians, Cough, too. But, as

Wolfe explains, recent events necessitated reevaluation of the work-life balance and they decided to make a concerted effort to be more selective regarding band activity.

“Especially this year, we had... A couple of things happen and we had to scale back quite a bit. I know since late summer we’ve tried to do things that were beneficial for us, scheduling-wise and locations as far as touring. But now, this year, we’re about to head off to Australia and New Zealand, which we had planned to do last year but had to postpone. As soon as we get home from Australia we’re flying out to the West Coast of the US and playing three shows in the Northwest of the US. This year’s a little bit all over the place, but we’re doing what we feel like we need to do and kinda [working] out where we need to be, where we need to go; not touring just to tour.

Garrett had a child a year or so ago, so with that happening we had to scale back a lot of stuff so he could adjust to being a father and take care of himself and his family.”

At one point, Windhand represented a full-time job for the drummer. Nowadays, when not on the road, he straddles selfemployment with working for a friend.

“We were given the green-light by all of our families for about three or four years, and we took advantage of it; we worked non-stop. It came to a point where it was time to pump the brakes just a little and start getting to where we could play the shows that we wanted to, but in a manner that we were all comfortable. It’s a good position to be in.”

When & Where: 2 Apr, Crowbar

Music

Ebb And Flow At A Glance: Rory J Dawson Hometown:

Y O U R S AY The final nominees in the BOQ People’s Choice Award at the Queensland Music Awards are: Most Popular Female Amy Shark vs Dami Im

Brisbane

Sounds like:

Amy Shark

Melancholic guitar-driven folk-pop with harmonies and old keyboards.

Even though his previous band “gently fell apart”, Rory J Dawson still continued to write songs and forged ahead on the solo path. By Brynn Davies.

“I

started out playing music as the frontman and songwriter for an indie pop band Friends Of Ben, and after that gently fell apart, I found myself still writing songs. So for the last couple of years I have been operating as a solo artist,” explains Brissy folk-pop muso Rory J Dawson. His EP While Away was recorded at Hunting Grounds Studios in Moorooka and mixed and mastered by Tristan Hoogland at Sing Sing Studios in Melbs. “Tristan is not only extremely skilled, he is one of a select few I can spend days locked in a room with,” jokes Dawson. “The EP is a miniature song cycle detailing the subtle ebbs and flows of a relationship over the course of a weekend away at the Sunshine Coast. I wanted the EP to have a narrative, with the songs serving as the key turning points in the story. At the time I was reading the collected short stories of John Cheever, and that certainly influenced the lyrics and melodic tone of the EP. I wanted to capture that same sense of this resigned melancholy pervading seemingly benign domestic settings.

“Today is my favourite [track] because I think the lyrics and instrumentation are the most in sync. Lyrically, the song is about the aftermath of a late night fight, and the guitar sound and the harmonies have this great nocturnal, almost exhausted quality to them that really suits that scene,” he enthuses.

For you if you like: The National, The Walkmen, Majical Cloudz

Dami Im

Number of releases: Two

Dream rider item: “Laphroaig Single Malt Whisky, it honestly helps me hit some of the lower notes in my songs.”

Most Popular Male Bernard Fanning vs Jarryd James Bernard Fanning

Currently inspiration: “A book of Beach Boys songs - I’ve been really studying Wilson’s chord structures.”

Fun Fact:

Jarryd James

“I snort when I laugh - the chances of me doing this on mic at a gig are high.”

Five year plan: “I hope to record and release an album in the next five years, and if possible, own several dogs.”

Most Popular Group The Veronicas vs Cub Sport The Veronicas

What: While Away (Independent) When & Where: 6 Apr, Junk Bar

Cub Sport

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 23

Bluesfest

The Snarky Spectrum With all the praise being heaped on Snarky Puppy’s side-projects, bandleader Michael League was starting to wonder if “maybe people only like us when we’re not being ourselves”. Cyclone knows that just isn’t true.

I

n 2014 the cult jazz ensemble Snarky Puppy won the Grammy for Best R&B Performance with a live cover of Brenda Russell’s It’s Something led by Lalah Hathaway - outvying Melbourne’s Hiatus Kaiyote. It was the first time an Australian act had been nominated in an R&B category and the local media massively hyped it up.

Luckily, everyone everywhere loves them.

Snarky Puppy’s bandleader Michael League laughs off the idea of ever scoping out his competition Down Under, stressing that it’s all love among the musicians. “Well, first off, I would never call any band in the world ‘competition’, because that’s of course not why anyone makes music, I think - or it’s definitely not why we’re supposed to make music,” he says from a San Francisco hotel.

“I’m a huge fan of Hiatus Kaiyote. In fact, many of the guys in our band are friends with many of the people in that band. We’ve been playing festivals and gigs with them for years.

But, actually, at the time of that Grammy ceremony, it was our first nomination as well and we had not met them yet. [But] it’s like an unnecessary discomfort, because neither band had anything to do with that situation.”

League is accruing quite a collection of Grammys, as Snarky Puppy recently collected

24 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

another Grammy in the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album category for 2016’s studio album Culcha Vulcha.

Snarky Puppy are most renowned for what League calls “special projects” - such as the live, vocal-oriented Family Dinner charity series. Indeed, Snarky Puppy’s Grammywinning Something (they dropped the ‘It’s’) featured on the first volume. Still, Family Dinner finds Snarky Puppy recording with lesser-known guests, typically allies, rather than superstars (Laura Mvula showing on the second edition). “We don’t like being around drama,” League quips. The buzz Sylva represented another side-project. This worried League. “The things that we got recognised for were the things that were not what we normally do. I think a lotta people found out about us through these special projects and maybe weren’t aware of what we do the other 99 percent of the time. So, for us, it’s cool to have this nomination for Culcha Vulcha and to see it doing so well - because you start thinking, ‘Well, maybe people only like us when we’re not being ourselves’.”

League will be visiting Australia twice in 2017. He’s just launched a global supergroup, Bokante (a Creole word for ‘exchange’), encompassing Snarky Puppy members and others, which had their inaugural international date at WOMADelaide. Then, in April, Snarky Puppy will make their Bluesfest premiere League himself excited to catch co-headliner Bonnie Raitt. “I’ve never seen her live and I’m such a huge fan.” As to what to expect from Snarky Puppy? “We’ll be playing a lotta music from Culcha Vulcha, combined with a mixture of music from all of our previous albums - all of the normal Snarky Puppy records, not the special projects.”

When & Where: 13 & 14 Apr, Bluesfest, Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm

Feelin’ Kinda Free Rising US singersongwriter Rhiannon Giddens tells Steve Bell why her new solo album Freedom Highway is a true labour of love.

R

hiannon Giddens’ first album away from the confines of her Grammy Award-winning band Carolina Chocolate Drops, Tomorrow Is My Turn (2015) - produced by venerated artist/ producer T Bone Burnett - found her predominantly reinterpreting classic songs of yesteryear made famous by esteemed artists such as Patsy Cline, Nina Simone, Dolly Parton and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. It earned immediate and raucous acclaim and signified to many a new star’s seemingly unstoppable ascent.

When time came to work on a follow-up album it would have been easy for Giddens to follow the path that had served her so well first time around. Instead she chose a completely different tack, her new album Freedom Highway containing nine original tracks as well as a traditional song and two civil rights-era songs.

“It’s just the next step,” Giddens ponders.

“I was happy to continue doing Carolina Chocolate Drops for as long as we could do it, but when T Bone stepped in and offered me a different direction I just went, ‘Well, these things just come along one time’. I just follow the flow - you want to do what’s been given to you to do and this was obviously the way to go.

“I’ve been able to carry some of the tenets from the Chocolate Drops with me, and I still work with a lot of those guys too, so I obviously still believe in that mission, but I can also do other things that I can’t do with the Chocolate Drops but can do on my own, so that’s important to explore.”

The tenets Giddens mentions refer to the non-musical impetus of Carolina

Bluesfest

For The Record

Chocolate Drops, whose mission statement is to educate as much as entertain. “Yeah, and to enlighten and to excavate, and to just show these things that don’t get talked about very much,” the singer explains. “Freedom Highway is absolutely in line with that, with songs from slave narratives and civil rights songs and the whole idea of just talking about things in a way that they maybe don’t always get talked about.

“In terms of the slave narrative stories, most of the time it’s always told from the man’s point of view and all of the songs I’ve written based on slave narratives are always from the women’s point of view. And just these song structures - that’s not a very common thing either - so we’re just trying to do what’s been given.

“It’s self-produced - or co-produced with myself and an extraordinary musician called Dirk Powell - and everybody in my band is on the record, so it’s kind of a much more personal record than the last one. The last one was incredible - it was such a great honour to work with T Bone - but you’ve got to keep moving and keep doing something different, so we went in a totally different direction with this one.”

There are some major moments in a muso’s life: meeting your wife, opening for Mavis Staples and, as The Record Company’s Chris Vos tells Liz Giuffre, the first time a lap steel looks you in the eye.

“I

try not to externally freak out, ever.

Even if I’m around somebody that I really admire, you know, I try to keep it together as much as possible,” Chris Vos says in a beautiful, low American drawl.

This cool composure isn’t surprising when you hear the band’s sonic style, but it is still impressive to us mere mortals.

Since The Record Company released their debut album Give It Back To You — a chest-kicking mix of blues, rock and beyond — a few years after forming, the band have gone on to play with some of their heroes, including spending some time with the legendary Mavis Staples. “Mavis Staples is one of my favourite artists of all time, and [her father] Pops Staples is one of my favourite artists of all time, too. When I met her they were doing their vocal warm-up — it was beautiful and I was very moved. She asked if I wanted to take a picture and I gave her a hug, and it was great,” Vos remembers.

Vos’ contribution of a well-placed falsetto and some awesome lap steel guitar has become a major facet of The Record Company’s style. The falsetto, he explains, originally stemmed from a “love of soul singing, people like Ray Charles and Al Green

and Marvin Gaye”, and an old-fashioned bedroom singalong.

As for the lap steel, something of an unusual instrument for new young artist to pick up, Vos explains it came out of a mixture of experimentation, luck and a moment where an instrument called out to him. “I loved this recording of Johnny Winter and Muddy Waters — I had just started playing guitar so I just laid my guitar on my lap [to play along], because I didn’t know any better, and then I found out later that’s a totally legitimate way to do it ... Then when I went to college, I walked into a guitar shop in the town and there was a lap steel, and I swear to god it was looking at me. It was sitting there, opposite the door, and I can remember seeing that guitar as distinctly as the day I saw my wife for the first time,” he says, now in a hushed tone.

While we don’t know how wise it is to compare your guitar to your spouse, Vos’ story is full of love and adoration. “I took it home and I just started playing it, and eventually started finding out more about tunings and how to use them. It’s just something that’s always been with me, I’ve always enjoyed it.” It’s an experience he’s had again, too (with guitars, not wives!). “Any musician can understand this. You can buy instruments, but sometimes — very rarely, but I swear to god a guitar will look at you.

And it will go, ‘You and me, this is what this is supposed to be.’ Whether I could afford to or not, I’ve figured out a way to bring the instrument home and I’ve never regretted any of those purchases,” he croons.

When & Where: 15 — 17 Apr, Bluesfest, Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm

When & Where: 13, 14 & 16 Apr, Bluesfest, Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 25

Indie Indie

The Vanns

Josh Needs

times. It was personally inspired by being so caught up with what’s been going on.

What’s your favourite song on it?

Harder To Find is our favourite tune on the EP. We’ll like this EP if we like...: Guitar-driven indie-rock tunes. A mix between the likes of Catfish & The Bottlemen, Kings Of Leon and Gang Of Youths.

EP Focus

J

osh Needs was inspired by John Mayer on his Vector EP — “I really love the way that John Mayer always delivers a great product, whether it’s his early albums or his recent Wave EP. The musicality and production of his songs certainly inspired the way we recorded and revisited the songs aiming for the quality sound and guitar tones,” he extols.

The young singer-songwriter has collaborated with Diesel, Russell Morris, Jon Stevens, Tommy & Phil Emmanuel and Kevin Borich, as well as playing Woodford Folk Festival, Blues On Broadbeach, Airlie Beach Festival, Tamworth Country Music Festival and at the Sydney Opera House. While he loves all of the tracks on his record, “I would say my favourite song is 17. It was a song I was really proud of after I’d written it, and to be able to recreate it how I imagined it to be in the studio was awesome.”

Working with Sydney producer Nathan Sheehy at A Sharp Studios, “For the time allocated [to record] we had to work efficiently and not go overboard or spend too much time on one particular section. Also, recording backing vocals [was a challenge], as I’d never recorded anything like this before. So I went home and practiced the shit out of it until it was right!”

Answered by: James Vann EP Title? Shake The Hand That Picks The Fight

Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? The EP name is about shutting out what you can’t face with temporary relief, which we’ve all done at

My Echo

Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making?

The excitement of doing our first album was inspiring in itself.

We all dug deep into our own personal experiences to write songs that are meaningful to us.

What’s your favourite song on it? Hey Little Darlin’. Slightly different tune for us, but I’m stoked with how it turned out.

Album Focus Answered by: Tom Snowdon

Where did the title of your new album come from? We have a strong bond within the band, more like family than friends. So we thought it was fitting for our debut record.

How many releases do you have now? This is our first full-length. We’ve done two EPs prior and a couple of singles.

How long did it take to write/record?

Probably the best part of six months writing flat out, although some of the songs on the record are up to five years old. We spent just over two weeks in the studio recording.

26 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

Website link for more info? thevannsband.com

How many releases do you have now? Shake The Hand That Picks The Fight is our third EP release.

Album title: Brothers What: Vector (Independent) When & Where: 25 & 26 Mar, SolBar, Maroochydore; 31 Mar & 1 Apr, The Avenue, Surfers Paradise; 5 Apr, The Bearded Lady

When and where is your launch/ next gig? 30 Mar, The Northern, Byron Bay

Will you do anything differently next time? I’d be open to trying anything, although we haven’t discussed much of the next record. Right now we are trying to push this one and tour as much as possible.

When and where is your launch/ next gig? 23 Mar, Woolly Mammoth; 24 Mar, Currumbin Creek Tavern.

Website link for more info? myecho.band

Music

Living In America

Reluctant rockstar/Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy tells Brendan Crabb that America is currently “like nothing I’ve ever seen in my lifetime”.

S

how Me A Leader, opening track and single from Alter Bridge’s 2016 record The Last Hero, is a rallying cry for someone who can be a guide through demanding times. Leadership and heroism are loosely over-arching themes throughout the remainder of the album. However, the members couldn’t have foreseen the discontent and global protest that occurred since its release, nor how swiftly it would all escalate.

“I didn’t know what would happen; it’s impossible because no one has a crystal ball,” the US heavy rockers’ genial vocalist/ guitarist Myles Kennedy ponders. “But seeing how everything has played out here, the record definitely seems to be proven to be somewhat prophetic in a way. Because of the subject matter there was the thought that once the election came and went that some of the emotions that were conveyed on that record might not be as relevant. But now it seems like, since the election and since this new administration - it seems, if anything, to have turned up the heat even more. Things are definitely pretty different over here in the States right now; like nothing I’ve ever seen in my lifetime.”

Despite the 24-hour news cycle and social media readily providing platforms that many artists are willing to utilise, some musicians seem reluctant to openly reveal a

political stance for fear of potentially creating division within their fanbase.

The quartet adopted a different tack.

“For us it was just really more a matter of expressing the emotions that we were feeling and that people around us were feeling. Some bands are good at taking their political feelings and, basically, they’ve got an agenda and they’re good at conveying that.

“That’s just not where Alter Bridge really stands; that’s not something we feel comfortable doing.

But at the same time... Definitely from an emotional standpoint and the frustration or passion or whatever it is, that definitely was manifested on this record. So with regards to which side you’re on, it seems like people relate to the songs, which is interesting.”

And it’s the music Kennedy seems most at ease discussing. Although blessed with a powerhouse voice that ideally complements Alter Bridge’s arena-sized riffage - Slash enlisted him for his solo outfit and members of Led Zeppelin auditioned the frontman for a project - Kennedy’s unassuming demeanour has resulted in being afforded tags such as “the reluctant rockstar”, or “the nicest guy in rock”.

“I guess it’s hard for me when people use the term ‘rockstar’,” he says. “Because I think of it like I’m a musician, I’m very fortunate to get to do what I do. When I think of rockstars I think of larger-than-life characters, but at the same time I realise that I’ve been very lucky that I’ve been doing this for a long time now. So I understand that people will put you in a category and put a term to your name.

What’s most important to me is hopefully I’m making people happy and that in itself helps give me purpose and the motivation to keep doing it.”

A To a d

With Hatt-itude

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single toad not in possession of any headgear, must be in want of a pimp daddy hat. Fortunately for one lucky amphibian, who visited the same stoop every night, a friendly human with a knack for miniature millinery, fashioned a whole wardrobe of nifty hats for the little fella.

Chris Newsome’s fashion forward approach to wildlife has become a viral sensation after posting some of Toad’s most fresh to death looks on Reddit. “The Toad never seemed to mind the hats,” Newsome reports. “I would just place them on its head and it would just sit there.”

When & Where: 3 Apr, Eatons Hill Hotel

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 27

STRONG SONGS The nominees for the APRA Music Awards have been announced, Song of The Year nominees are:

Music

Sweet Harmony

Adore – Amy Shark

Come Home (Cardinal Pell) – Tim Minchin

A Honeyblood song begins with Stina Tweeddale humming into her phone and isn’t done until she finds the “click”, the vocalist/guitarist tells Anthony Carew.

T Pool Party – Julia Jacklin

Satan – DD Dumbo

Skeleton Tree – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

28 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

he sight of people on their phones on the street has become quotidian, but Stina Tweeddale still feels selfconscious when she does it. That’s because the leader of Glaswegian garage-rockers Honeyblood isn’t just talking. “I’ll walk down the street holding my phone to my mouth, recording, humming into it like a crazy person,” she laughs. “I’ll get a melody in my head, and I want to capture it before it flutters away. I have this endless collection of melodies that may one day become something. My phone is overflowing with them.”

Tweeddale grew up in Edinburgh, always making up songs. Her dad was a musician (in local pub-rock institution Blues ‘N’ Trouble), so she picked up the guitar early and by adolescence was in thrall to riot grrrl.

“When I was 14, my first band just wanted to [be riot grrrl],” Tweeddale recalls. “People at my school really did not get it at all. There were only two other girls there who played guitar, and they were both in the band. We played the four chords that we knew, and just screamed.”

When studying economics and social history at University of Glasgow, she sang in the indie outfit Boycotts, but grew frustrated by not having “any say in how the music

was”. So, she quit that band - “that was difficult for me” - and decided to throw herself into her own songs.

“I’d always written my own songs, so I felt like it was time to take them as far as I could,” says Tweeddale.

“Honeyblood is the band I always wanted to be in when I was 14.

Honeyblood is just my personality, my soul, who I am, put into music.

Honeyblood is really my little creation.”

It didn’t take long for the decision to pay off: at the duo’s second gig Alex Knight from FatCat was there and signed the band, expectations setting in immediately. “It all happened very quickly. We were still very, very young, barely out of my bedroom, when we already had management and a record label,” Tweeddale says. “Before the first album came out, I wasn’t even sure if anyone would care, that people would want to listen to us.”

Yet, the response to Honeyblood’s selftitled 2014 debut emboldened Tweeddale, and its follow-up, 2016’s Babes Never Die (a phrase she first got tattooed on her torso), sounded bigger, bolder, louder. Each LP evinces Tweeddale’s mastery of earworms, her three-minute rockers all big on melody.

“When I write a song, I’m waiting for a ‘click’,” Tweeddale offers. “With [beloved single] Killer Bangs, I had these two separate [ideas] that I’d worked on and, when I put them together, I got that click. When something works, it clicks. And when it clicks, that’s when I know I’ve written a good melody. I don’t let a song go out in the world if I don’t get that click. Melody, for me, makes a song. If you can create a simple melody that anyone can sing along to, then your music will be memorable.”

When & Where: 31 Mar, The Brightside

Music

A Different View There’s a freedom to Guy Sebastian’s upcoming LP Conscious that the singer hasn’t explored yet. The Aussie favourite tells Daniel Cribb all about his new perspective on life and music in the lead up to a series of intimate album preview headline shows.

G

uy Sebastian describes his recent single Conscious as a “breaking of some shackles” for him. “For a while, I think I’ve been bound a little bit to a fear of letting people down, and almost not being myself because I’m trying to uphold this certain thing that was drummed into me for a lot of my life,” he begins. “I think sometimes it causes you to not necessarily be as real as you can be and to almost hide your flaws a little bit, but that’s just not a normal world because we’re all flawed and we all do silly things. Sometimes it’s better when you just let everything out in the open.

“I grew up fairly religious and I think that song’s about saying, ‘You know what? If you’ve got an opinion about me, I really don’t care,’ because I know who I am and I know that I don’t need to be weighed down by people’s opinions anymore.”

Sebastian believes that the change was triggered by growing up and having kids of his own and caring a lot less about what people think of him. “When you have kids, your whole world changes; you reshuffle your priority list and [your] kids come first,” he explains. “The person who they grow up to know as dad is way more important than someone criticising me for something I might say or do or believe in. As long as they grow up knowing I was

always honest with them, and real, and loved them as much as I humanly can, then that’s all that really matters.”

Following Conscious, Sebastian outlines that the upcoming album has a little bit more of an electronic tinge to it. “Obviously, there’s a lot of focus on electronic music at the moment and that’s the style of music I’ve been listening to the most; I’ve been discovering new artists and producers on Spotify. It’s an exciting time in music, to have so many people be able to have careers whether it be on SoundCloud or just streaming,” he states.

“My friend M-Phazes has a track out called Messiah and, you know, you’ve got people like him and Flume — so many producers who are just killing it — and it’s almost like they’ve brought production to the forefront to be

It’s really just about bringing something different – something people haven’t seen me do before and making it something a bit more intriguing. acknowledged as much as the artists are and I think that’s really important.

“I’ve worked with some incredible producers – I’m going to Sam Sakr’s studio right now, actually. Sam produced Conscious and he produced Home as well. I think anyone who likes electronic music will definitely be pretty inspired by Sam’s drum programming in particular.”

Sebastian describes his upcoming run of preview shows at intimate venues (for an arena filler like him at least) as “definitely different”. “Just last year I did a tour with a full band – horns, three singers, massive lighting show – and I was playing Rod Laver and Entertainment Centres around the country and to be in the headspace of being in a much-smaller music venue is exciting.

“I wanted to take the vibe I had in the studio to the stage and so basically I’ve just kept it really simple and really stripped back. I think I just wanted to keep that stripped-back production focus with these shows and just give my supporters and fans something as a point of difference. I’ve got a lot of fans that have been to every tour that I’ve ever put on, so it’s really just about bringing something different – something people haven’t seen me do before and making it something a bit more intriguing.

Those sort of venues will lend themselves to doing something like that. It’ll just be about lights and delivery in a very stripped-back way.”

When & Where: 31 Mar, The Triffid; 1 Apr, The Northern, Byron Bay

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 29

Album / E Album/EP Reviews

Album OF THE Week

Sleepmakeswaves Made Of Breath Only Bird’s Robe Records

Does perfection exist?

It’s a great philosophical question to ponder. In a musical sense, it could be said to exist within certain idioms, and from the perspective of individual listeners. Some fans may have what they feel to be the perfect rock album, the perfect metal album, the perfect jazz album, and so on.

In this humble writer’s opinion, Made Of Breath Only is the perfect instrumental rock album. Yep, it’s just that damn good. It lacks for nothing, everything you could possibly wish for in an album such as this is present - and present in droves beyond droves. It is immensely powerful, it is breathtakingly (pun intended) catchy, it has groove, it has ambience, imagery and conceptual oomph, it is dynamic to a fault, it has prodigious levels of musicianship and production value.

And even beyond those superlative-laden descriptions, it does something more intangible. It moves you, it speaks to your emotions, it carries you away to some distant, mystical land where things are wonderful and everyone is happy.

Nothing can be singled out for special mention here, every song, every moment, is flawless. Perfection exists in the form of four blokes from Sydney. This album is musical utopia.

Rod Whitfield

★★★★★

Lewis Watson

Ali Barter

Midnight

A Suitable Girl

Cooking Vinyl

Ronnie Records/Inertia

★★★

★★★★

Lewis Watson has matured since 2010 when he, his acoustic guitar and his emo fringe shot to internet fame with covers of Bombay Bicycle Club and Angus & Julia Stone (found among such riveting filler videos as some poopy video that features me being an ‘assclown’ and how to make a grilled cheese... honestly, if you haven’t dug back into your pubescent YouTube history, do so now.)

Adult Watson brings to the table an album of substance and delicately spun acoustic pop, thematically lighter-hearted than his debut record and earlier EPs (see titles: it’s got four sad songs on it BTW and another four sad songs).

Subtle string arrangements add a hint of melodrama to love songs such as deep the water, with single little light floating on expansive washes

With their honest, relatable lyrics and soaring choruses, each song on grunge/pop musician Ali Barter’s debut album A Suitable Girl sounds like it belongs on the soundtrack of an angsty ‘90s teen flick.

The many elements of grunge and punk incorporated into the album make it easy to draw comparisons to the music of Hole, but with its pop sensibility and witty lyrics, A Suitable Girl shares more commonalities with much of Liz Phair’s early music.

Uptempo highlights Cigarette, One Foot In and Far Away are equal parts catchy and cool, with singalong hooks delivered by Barter’s soft voice - sweet, but laden with attitude - cutting through layers of over-driven guitars and crashing drums. The anthemic Girlie Bits, an expression of frustration at

30 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

of electric guitar, introducing us to his latest, plugged-in incarnation (though hello hello and run reassures us that he hasn’t abandoned acousticmode entirely).

While he’s drawing influence from the trophy case of winterindie greats - Death Cab For Cutie, Bon Iver, Ben Howard - he doesn’t quite achieve the effect with finesse. But, admittedly, it’s hard to do strings like Coldplay.

A pleasant, easily consumed listen that comforts again and again, midnight is the musical embodiment of a B-grade teen romance.

Brynn Davies

gender expectations, stands out with driving instrumentals under repetitive but clever and meaningful lyrics: “Give us a smile princess, it’s better for business.” Emotive Tokyo, Walk/Talk and Please Stay show a more vulnerable side to the Melbourne singer, exploring themes of loneliness and longing.

A Suitable Girl is a dynamic, fun and edgy debut that brings back some ‘90s riot grrrl vibes and takes the listener on an emotional journey.

Madelyn Tait

EP Reviews Album/EP Reviews

Spiral Stairs

The Bug Vs Earth Angie

Doris & The Daggers

Concrete Desert

Shyness

Coolin’ By Sound

Ninja Tune/Inertia

Rice Is Nice

The Jesus & Mary Chain Damage And Joy ADA

★★★½

★★★½

★★★

★

You may know Scott Kannberg as a founding member of Pavement, but to many he’s also known as Spiral Stairs.

Doris & The Daggers is his second record under this moniker (the first: 2009’s The Real Feel). The four years Kannberg spent living in Australia have left their mark on this album, with The GoBetweens-y inflections found across the ten tracks and an unmistakable ode to Melbourne, Trams (Stole My Love). The depth of Doris... makes it unlike any Pavement record, but the local references - to Australia, Scotland and elsewhere - make it an enjoyable listen and a welcome return.

Doom metal band Earth team up with heavy bass producer The Bug, aka Kevin Martin, to deliver this low-slung album that grinds deep and heavy.

Themed around the idea of a Concrete Desert, this album offers ten instrumental visions of a futuristic post-apocalyptic world that bleakly contemplate the aftermath of destruction.

Earth’s deep distorted guitar drones and haunting twangy melodies collide with the intensity of The Bug’s massive growling bass and electronic noise. The result is a thick, oozing, toxic, aural sludge. An unrelenting noise that’s strangely evocative and wouldn’t be out of place on the next instalment of Mad Max.

Angie (aka Angela Garrick, Circle Pit, Southern Comfort, Ruined Fortune, Straight Arrows et al) is back with album three.

Shyness feels appropriately titled. It’s gentle, understated and at times reluctant to move from its comfort zone. Haunting vocal and guitar work revolves around cyclical piano chords for most of the record, making for an evocative if slightly repetitive experience. Listeners looking for more punch and texture might look through Garrick’s back catalogue. However, those happy to meditate in Shyness’ pocket of ambience will find plenty of comfort here.

It was probably asking too much.

Hopes were high for Jesus & The Mary Chain’s first studio album in 19 years after their well-received Psychocandy anniversary shows, but Damage And Joy is a barely coherent pile-up of cliches. Whereas each previous Mary Chain album had its own direction and merits, this is a hodgepodge of elements from different eras combined and melted down into a disposable rawk goo.

Hopelessly banal songs and limp performances make Damage And Joy one giant cringe. Don’t remember them this way.

Dylan Stewart

Christopher H James

Evan Young

Guido Farnell

More Reviews Online Soulwax From Deewee

theMusic.com.au

Steel Panther Lower The Bar

Listen to our This Week’s Releases playlist on

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 31

Live Re Live Reviews

Taking Back Sunday @ The Triffid. Pic: Terry Soo

Taking Back Sunday, Acceptance, Endless Heights The Triffid 18 Mar

Taking Back Sunday @ The Triffid. Pic: Terry Soo

Taking Back Sunday @ The Triffid.

Pic: Terry Soo

Taking Back Sunday @ The Triffid. Pic: Terry Soo

Taking Back Sunday @ The Triffid. Pic: Terry Soo

32 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

Kurt Vile @ QPAC. Pic: Stephen Booth

Sydney’s Endless Heights are a band filled with promise, but there are underlying issues with their performance at present that are holding them back from realising their full potential. As they thunder through a series of tunes that alternately seem to draw inspiration from the likes of Boysetsfire, Thursday and Deftones, among others, frontman Joel Martorana’s efforts at conveying a commanding presence become distracting at best.

US visitors Acceptance, however, mark a point of stark contrast as a highly polished and professional group of performers who effortlessly raise the bar for the night’s proceedings. So Contagious — from the band’s 2005 debut, Phantoms — marks an early highlight, generating a healthy sing-along from those in the crowd. These guys have overcome much over the past 12 years — including a lengthy break-up/hiatus — and it’s an absolute pleasure to see them in action (and crushing it) tonight.

Now seven albums deep into their career (and with their original, reformed line-up now responsible for more than half that oeuvre), Taking Back Sunday are a band at last at peace with who they are. Seven years on from the return of oncedeparted members John Nolan and Shaun Cooper, it’s clear that chief on the agenda for these five long-time friends is simply having fun — with their audience, with each other, with performing in general.

It’s evident from the outset that we’re in for a solid catalogue dive tonight as the band kick off proceedings with the pulseraising Death Wolf, from their

latest LP (and tour namesake) Tidal Wave, before immediately taking us back 11 years to 2006’s Louder Now, with the eagerly received Liar (It Takes One To Know One). Meanwhile, the ensuing enthusiastic response for debut-era crowd-

It truly becomes the Adam & John show as Lazzara and Nolan display their formidable dualvocal work favourite Timberwolves At New Jersey informs an educated guess about the prevailing age bracket of the fans in attendance tonight.

Frontman Adam Lazzara takes intermittent breaks to chat with the crowd, cutting a consistent figure of genuine warmth and appreciation for the opportunity to be playing in this city, in this country, with these people, and it truly becomes the Adam & John Show as Lazzara and Nolan display their formidable dual-vocal work, upon which Taking Back Sunday first built a chunk of their notoriety.

Another old gem, You’re So Last Summer, reignites the crowd once more, and the ceaselessly endearing Lazzara precedes newbie Call Come Running with a sweet anecdote about asking his dad to be involved in its “rock’n’roll video”.

Set Phasers To Stun, from 2004’s Where You Want To Be, really hammers home what a good job then-guitarist Fred Mascherino did of approximating Nolan’s vocal style on that album, as hearing this track — and, later, album-mate 180 By Summer,

eviews Live Reviews

both being standout inclusions tonight — with Nolan actually in the mix is an unexpectedly familiar delight.

The band ostensibly close their set with Louder Now pleaser My Blue Heaven and forgo the usual ceremony of walking offstage and feigning humility about their inevitable encore. Instead, they straightup give the people what they want, serving up a deafeningly received stab at quintessential favourite Cute Without The E (Cut From The Team) and one of the biggest sing-alongs of the night. Taking Back Sunday ultimately say farewell with MakeDamnSure, the band smiling and waving as they depart the stage having given us a satisfyingly comprehensive compendium of their eventful career to date, and leaving us hopeful for the continued fruitfulness of their enduring camaraderie.

Mitch Knox

Kurt Vile, Mick Turner Queensland Performing Arts Centre 9 Mar As Mick Turner lackadaisically wanders onto stage, he’s immediately dwarfed by the massive stage and high

The show soars despite little in the way of visual support ceilings of the ornate Lyric Theatre, but takes that in his barefoot stride and sets upon constructing a series of haunting, sometimes ramshackle soundscapes.

The guitarist can usually be

found safe in the confines of the Dirty Three but on his lonesome he uses loops to capture basic percussion and guitar lines, the resultant shimmering instrumentals far less visceral than his day job but no less enjoyable. He manipulates pedals and gently bends guitar notes to build tension and atmosphere, the three divergent pieces he offers in his 40minute slot forming the perfect precursor for what lies ahead.

It’s a very formal setting for Philadelphia singer-songwriter Kurt Vile to show off his wares (it’s hard to believe it’s nearly six years since he first visited Brisbane and rocked the grungy Valley room Woodland with his band The Violators) but the shaggy-haired singersongwriter wanders affably into the cavernous room and seems unfussed by his surroundings as he open with the beautifully stripped-back Feel My Pain, playing with the pitch and inflection of his voice to create sonic variations. His acoustic finger-picking is dexterous and suits songs like All In A Daze Work down to the ground, and he too uses subtle guitar loops to cover for the fact that creatively he’s all on his lonesome in this huge room.

It’s all quite laid-back, to the point you can tell that a song’s over when Vile just stops playing guitar and then kicks off the loop pedal ushering in sudden silence, and the songs take on a more freeform vibe here, to the benefit of recent tunes like Pretty Pimpin and Wild Imagination (which he jokes in the intro to have written about Brisbane). The singer doesn’t proffer much between songs in the way of audience interaction (the rare times he speaks are usually to profess his love to the crowd, which seems completely sincere), strumming through Wakin On A Pretty Day then sitting down with a banjo for a couple of rustic tracks (including

pithy unreleased track Don’t Bite).

He grabs his trusty acoustic again and runs through older faves Runners Up and Blackberry Song - his cosmic lyrics slightly more to the fore in this setting, tropes about dreams, friends and family popping up at regular intervals - then asks for requests and somehow pulls My Best Friends (Don’t Even Pass This) from amongst the shouted responses. Vile’s goofy demeanour and at-times childlike voice (offset by the occasional yelp or other vocal exhortation) prove captivating and the show soars despite little in the way of visual support, simply the strength of his charisma and powerful roots tunes like He’s Alright and Stand Inside enough to demand attention.

Older tune Best Love gets an airing - sounding both fragile and slightly discordant with this treatment - before the main set finishes with a rousing run through of Dust Bunnies, Vile raising his acoustic above his head in a scruffy one-handed salute as wanders into the offstage darkness. The applause is relatively muted but he returns for a cursory encore anyway, throwing in Peeping Tomboy to finish what is ultimately a strong solo performance. Holding court in a big room by yourself is no easy feat, and tonight Kurt Vile adds another string to his already impressive bow with a show that’s light on formalities but heavy on fun and vibe.

More Reviews Online theMusic.com.au/ music/live-reviews

Frightened Rabbit @ The Triffid Harts @ The Triffid Teenage Fanclub @ The Triffid

Steve Bell

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 33

34 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

Arts Reviews Arts Reviews

Jackson’s version, Kong ahas returned - along with a menagerie of monsters - in the loopy, lively adventure Kong: Skull Island.

It’s from the producers behind the 2014 Godzilla, and it’s clear that they’re looking to pit the pair of behemoths against one another in a super-sized showdown coming to a cinema near you within the next few years. However, while Godzilla was gripping but a little grim in tone, Skull Island is rip-roaring and rollicking - maybe a little too much so. There are times when its intention to keep pulses racing and knuckles white takes precedence over development of character or story. And this scribe realises it may seem silly to hope for that kind of thing in a movie about a big, grumpy primate squaring off against a variety of hostile beasties, but the best movies of its kind (including the original Kong) managed to achieve that kind of balance.

Still, the work by the star-studded cast and the top-notch technical team bringing the creatures to life does go a long way to giving Kong: Skull Island plenty of personality - more so than, say, the recent Jurassic World. It’s 1973, the tail end of the Vietnam War, and a shadowy American organisation named Monarch is aiming to explore - and claim - the mysterious Skull Island in the South Pacific before Russia can get its mitts on it. Monarch head honcho John Goodman assembles a crack team for his expedition, including steely SAS operative Tom Hiddleston, crusading photojournalist Brie Larson and fire-and-brimstone military man Samuel L Jackson, who’s leading a gun-toting squad of Vietnam veterans.

But will they be any match for the monsters of Skull Island, even with cabin-fever castaway John C Reilly - trapped on the island since the end of WWII - informing them about the island’s dark secrets? The short answer is, no, they won’t be any match at all - a good number of the explorers won’t be leaving Skull Island. But for devotees of big, loud and dumb-fun movies of this kind, their sacrifice won’t be in vain. Because at its best (and it’s good more often than not), Kong: Skull Island has a very distinctive, very enjoyable kind of disreputable kick.

Kong: Skull Island

Kong: Skull Island Film In Cinemas Now

★★★★ Every few decades for a while there, the cry went up: The king is dead, long live the king.

King Kong, that is. There were 40-or-so years between the classic 1933 original, which introduced awestruck audiences to the massive monkey with a weakness for blondes, and the 1976 remake that introduced Jessica Lange as the beauty who won the beast’s heart. Cut to 2005, when Peter Jackson used his Lord Of The Rings clout to retell the Kong story in a three-hour epic that paid loving tribute to the 1933 version.

Even though the big ape runs afoul of modern society by the end of each movie, Hollywood can’t keep from bringing him back.

And now, only a decade or so after

Loving

Loving Film In Cinemas Now

★★★½ It’s almost like this true story was destined to be made into a film, between the protagonists’ last name and the subject matter. Aussie actor Joel Edgerton gives an amazing performance as Richard Loving - one that’s garnered him a lot of critical acclaim and several nominations for major awards.

The story, written and directed by Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Mud, Midnight Special), follows interracial couple Richard and Mildred (Ruth Negga), who despite being legally married by the state of Washington in 1958, were deemed to be breaking the law in their home state of Virginia. We witness the plight of the Lovings as they are arrested for being a racially mixed couple and banished from their home state, unable to return together for 25 years. But the call of home is strong, especially with Mildred’s deep family ties, and they take their fight to the Supreme Court in the famous civil rights case, Loving V Virginia. The Lovings also became a bit of a celebrity couple, even appearing in Life magazine, which followed their battle for the recognition of their union, as well as to give their three children legitimacy and the right to inherit.

Loving is a modest film about two seemingly ordinary people who achieved extraordinary things.

Edgerton’s performance as the softly spoken man of few words sees a complete transformation, while Negga’s turn as a woman who just wanted to be able to love who she would and make a home for her family is also impressive. It’s a touching and moving story.

Vicki Englund

Guy Davis

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 35

Comedy / G The Guide

Wed 22

GUM

Beer Fest with Various Artists: Eatons Hill Hotel, Eatons Hill

Ryan Giles: El Capitano, Noosa Heads Skye Staniford: The Bearded Lady, West End

At the Dakota

The Music Presents The Jerry Cans: 22 Mar, The Northern Byron Bay; 23 Mar, SolBar; 24 Mar, Black Bear Lodge Guy Sebastian: 31 Mar The Triffid; 1 April The Northern Byron Bay The Waifs: 6 Apr The Tivoli; 8 Apr Miami Marketta Bluesfest: 13 – 17 Apr, Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm Laura Mvula: 15 Apr The Triffid

Homegrown Battle of the Bands Heat 2 feat. I Met The Maker + Struggle Town + Pinion + Odysseus Reborn: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Gregory Hoskins: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Blood, Sweat & Tears: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley Dune Rats + Skegss + The Gooch Palms: The Triffid, Newstead Triffid Acoustics with Laura Mardon: The Triffid, Newstead

Thu 23

Chewing GUM Returning home with another release under his belt, Australian psychpop solo act GUM (aka Jay Watson of Tame Impala and POND) will be playing at The Foundry on 31 Mar.

At The Dakota: 22 Apr The Milk Factory

Shining Bird: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley

Jeff Lang: 5 May Imperial Hotel Eumundi

Charmaine Jones + Eddie Gazani: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point

Sav Blonk + Kieran T Stevenson: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane

Go Van Go + Fuzz Pilot + The Viable: Coronation Hotel, West Ipswich

Orsome Welles: 16 Jun Black Bear Lodge

Signals + Piss Pain: Crowbar (Crowbar Black), Fortitude Valley

Dune Rats + Skegss + The Gooch Palms: The Triffid, Newstead

Goon On The Rocks + Sweet Gold + Young Offenders: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley

Trainspotters feat. My Echo + Shutup Shutup Shutup + The Way We Were: Woolly Mammoth (Front Bar), Fortitude Valley

My Echo: Currumbin Creek Tavern, Currumbin Waters

Horrorshow: 29 Jun Miami Marketta; 30 Jun The Northern Byron Bay; 1 Jul Max Watt’s

Vallis Alps

Luca Brasi: 30 Jun The Triffid

Fri 24

Bello Winter Music Festival: 6 - 9 Jul Bellingen

Urthboy

The Jerry Cans: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley Lisa La Celle Quintet: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point The Angry Anderson Band: Buderim Tavern, Buderim

Young Guns Sydney’s electronic duo Vallis Alps are playing two shows later this month at Woolly Mammoth on 25 and 26 Mar, where they’ll be supported by Melbourne rapper Baro.

The Shambolics + Jackie Marshall + Eden Mulholland + more: Junk Bar, Ashgrove

Asa Broomhall: Cardigan Bar, Sandgate

Shutup Shutup Shutup

There An Echo In Here?

The Jerry Cans: Solbar, Maroochydore

Locals Shutup Shutup Shutup and The Way We Were are supporting Melbourne’s My Echo for the Queensland leg of their tour for debut album Brothers . Join the party on 23 Mar at Woolly Mammoth.

Wanderers: Sonny’s House of Blues, Brisbane Mudshadows + Lip Sinder + The Schwifties: The Bearded Lady, West End Wednesday 13 + Bourbon Crow: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley

Treading Urth

Sonicman: Chardons Corner Hotel, Annerley

Shining Bird + Chris Flaskas: Night Quarter, Helensvale

Glenn Skuthorpe: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore

36 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

DJ DTroyt: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads

Aussie hip-hop legend Urthboy is back on the road again with a run of national shows that’ll be cruising through Byron Bay’s The Northern on 31 Mar, and a bit further up north come 1 Apr at The Triffid.

The Living End + The Bennies + Why Wait: Dalrymple Hotel, Garbutt Mega 90s feat. 2 Unlimited + Technotronic + Real McCoy + Dr Alban: Eatons Hill Hotel, Eatons Hill Lastlings + Yoste + Anh: Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise Cheap Fakes: Imperial Hotel, Eumundi Glenn Skuthorpe + Sue Ray: Junk Bar, Ashgrove

Gigs / Live The Guide

The Steele Syndicate

Young Lions: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley

Josh Needs: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore

Sun 26

Sat 25

The Hot Potato Band + Highlife: Solbar, Maroochydore

Signature Series + The Francis Wolves + Selecta Watson: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley

Cosmo’s Midnight + Muto: TBC Club (The Bowler Club), Fortitude Valley

Brunch with John Hoffman Group: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point

Biscotti: 4ZZZ (Carpark), Fortitude Valley Lastlings: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley Dixie Chicks + Avalanche City: Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Boondall

Steeling Stages Following on from their 2016 EP release titled Antipodes, Brisbane’s own octet The Steele Syndicate with be coming to The Foundry on 30 Mar for an evening of genre-defying goodness.

Amela: Maroochy Surf Club, Maroochydore Wanderers + Mark Ridout & the Rhythm: Miami Marketta, Miami Rick Dangerous & the Silkie Bantams: Miami Tavern (Shark Bar), Miami Alan Boyle + Dana Gehrman + Jen Mize: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna Doolie + Christian Patey + Fragile Animals: Solbar, Maroochydore Nicole Brophy: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore Some Jerks + Burning Circuits + Marville: The Bearded Lady, West End CC The Cat + The Brains Trust: The Boundary Hotel, West End Dream On Dreamer: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley

Men About Town: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point The Angry Anderson Band: Broadbeach Tavern, Broadbeach DJ Kurt.is + DJ Nato: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads Mojo Burning Festival feat. The Badlands + NIck Oliveri + The Blackwater Fever + Chase The Sun + Cheap Fakes + Dom Turner & Ian Collard + Electrik Lemonade + Elegant Shiva + Hobo Magic + Hussy Hicks + Lepers & Crooks + Mike Elrington + Rick Dangerous & the Silkie Bantams + The Royal Artillery + Transvaal Diamond Syndicate + more: Hamilton Hotel, Hamilton Rolling Stones Experience: Harvey Road Tavern, Clinton Silver Sircus: Junk Bar, Ashgrove Felicity Lawless + Luke Pauley: Miami Marketta, Miami Nicole Parker Brown + The Late Late Show: Night Quarter, Helensvale

Concrete Jungle feat. Accomplice Collective + All Strings Attached + Captain Dreamboat + His Merry Men + Meniscus + Monster Zoku Onsomb + Papperbok + Sacred Shrines + Signature Series + Yes Sir Noceur: Secret Location, Brisbane

Kyle Lionhart

Go Van Go + Fuzz Pilot + The Spindrift Saga: The Bearded Lady, West End

Jindalee Jazz Orchestra: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point

Boutique Brews Brass Band + Aaron West: The Boundary Hotel, West End

Borrowed Verse feat. Marcus Blacke + McKisko + Samuel Wagan Watson: Junk Bar, Ashgrove

A Breach Of Silence + Sensaii + Archetypes + Serene: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley

The Ruminaters: Miami Tavern (Shark Bar), Miami

Josh Needs: The Maleny Markets, Maleny Space Horse + Shed + Pleasure Seeker: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Restrung with Ed Kuepper + Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO): The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley

All Ages Show with Dune Rats + Skegss + The Gooch Palms: The Triffid, Newstead

CMC Rocks QLD 2017 feat. Dixie Chicks + Little Big Town + Kip Moore + Tyler Farr + Craig Campbell + Charles Esten + Michael Ray + Eric Paslay + Granger Smith + Drew Baldridge + The Shires + Ward Thomas + Lee Kernaghan + Morgan Evans + Adam Harvey + The McClymonts + The Wolfe Brothers + Jasmine Rae + Caitlyn Shadbolt + Brothers3 + Christie Lamb + Col Finley + Doug Bruce & The Tailgaters + Deep Creek Road + Imogen Clark + Kayla Mahon + Kaylens Rain + Mustered Courage + The Viper Creek Band + more + CMC Rocks Queensland: Willowbank Raceway, Willowbank

He’s been a Saint, a Laughing Clown and an Aint, but for the first time on 25 Mar at The Tivoli Ed Kuepper is going to lead an orchestra, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra to be precise.

Biscotti: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley

John Paul Young & the Allstar Band: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley

5 Bands for 5 Bucks with Vesper Green + The Jumpkicks + Alastyn + Hey Baby + The Double Happiness: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley

Highly Strung

Asa Broomhall + Tim Gaze + Doc Span: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna

Kill The Noise: The Met, Fortitude Valley Garrett Kato: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane

Ed Kuepper

Melbourne Ska Orchestra: The Triffid, Newstead

Home Is Where The Hart Is Byron Bay’s sweetly serenading Kyle Lionhart is back on the road again in celebration of his latest release, Call Back Home. Joining him at The Foundry on 1 Apr will be a group of special guests.

Songs You Know & Love with Betty Smokes & the Forgetaboudits: The Triffid (Beer Garden), Newstead Age Champion + Bixby Canyon + The Schwifties: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley CMC Rocks QLD 2017: Willowbank Raceway, Willowbank Vallis Alps + Baro: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley

Cosmos Midnight

Midnight Special Get ready to destroy the dancefloor at The Bowler Club this 25 Mar when Cosmo’s Midnight, freshly returned from North America, roll out their bass heavy bangers on the Aussie leg of their History tour. Muto to support.

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 37

Comedy / G The Guide

Age Champion

Urthboy + Joyride + Alice Ivy: Miami Marketta, Miami

Oslow

Matt Stillert: Solbar, Maroochydore Ondes + Low Dive + Saskia: The Bearded Lady, West End

Balance & Composure + Deafcult + Oslow + Introvert: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley The Steele Syndicate: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley Emily Wurramara + Chris Tamwoy: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Spiderbait: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley

According to drummer Scott Byron, Age Champion “got together in 2015 to help record some demo tracks for a friend studying sound engineering. We wrote four songs in our first practice and have been playing together ever since”.

There are more memorable origin stories out there. No one told them they had Chosen One status on their 15 birthdays and maybe they never felt the pinch of a radioactive spider, but from these humble beginnings they’ve grown into an outfit wielding the burgeoning live ferocity of predecessors like The Vines, The Hives and Queens Of The Stone Age. That ‘stage-first’ mentality has shaped their new EP Coming Of Age, although “the excitement of making a hard-hitting rock record kept us hungry,” as Byron tells it.

“All the tracks were born and grew through performing live,” says Byron. “We’d play heaps of gigs and every time we’d play the tracks they’d grow in some way.”

Aptly titled, Coming Of Age is a document of their progress, from genesis to sonic maturity.

“Get Up is special because we wrote it in our first ever practice,” Byron explains of one of the songs on the EP. “It was pretty bare-bones and it’s just grown into this massive track. Conversely, Ivy League was sick because we wrote and decided to record it at the 11th hour; we just instantly knew it was a ripper.”

I Prevail + Void Of Vision: The Triffid, Newstead

Oslow & Steady Tearing up The Brightside on 30 Mar are Oslow. They will be warming up the stage as national tour supports for American outfit Balance & Composure, alongside Introwvert and Deafcult.

38 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

Fri 31 Golden Vessel + OK Badlands + DJ James Wright: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley Howlin’ Time: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point

Josh Needs: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore Steve Manoa: Solbar, Maroochydore Ella Hooper: Sonny’s House of Blues, Brisbane C H U R C H with Various Artists: The Bearded Lady, West End Eddie Gazani + Friends: The Bison Bar, Nambour

Vallis Alps + Baro: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley

Twenty One Pilots: Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Boondall 2017 Queensland Music Awards with Cub Sport + Good Boy + Romy + Tia Gostelow: Brisbane Powerhouse, New Farm

Martha Baartz + Friends: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point

Wed 29 Family Guy Trivia: Eatons Hill Hotel, Eatons Hill The Ruminaters

The Rumours Are True The Northern will be in for quite a sweet treat come 25 Mar as The Ruminaters roll in with Mylee & The Milkshakes as well as Galaxy Girls in tow for a groovy evening of bouncing, indie-rockin’ dancing.

Sky Eater + Funken Dubs: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane

CMC Rocks QLD 2017: Willowbank Raceway, Willowbank

The Lyrical : Brunswick Hotel, New Farm DJ DTroyt: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads

Mon 27

Tue 28

Americana Sessions with Wanderers: The Triffid, Newstead

When & Where: 25 Mar, The Zoo

Kill The Noise: Wharf Tavern (The Helm), Mooloolaba

Satellites + Braves + Bukowski: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Amy Shark + Timberwolf: Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise Hugo Race: Junk Bar, Ashgrove Rich Davies and the Low Road: Lefty’s Old Time Music Hall, Brisbane Kimmy Crew: Miami Marketta, Miami Quarterfest with Shag Rock + Jacob Lee + Luke Morris: Night Quarter, Helensvale James Reyne: Racehorse Hotel, Booval Hussy Hicks: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna

Shannon Sol: El Capitano, Noosa Heads Jack Rodgers + Reuben Schafer: The Bearded Lady, West End Homegrown Battle of the Bands Heat 3 feat. Finding Yellow + Evactuation Plan + Belrose + In Real Life: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Violent Femmes: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley Matt Henry: The Triffid, Newstead

Thu 30 The East Pointers: Bellevue Hotel, Townsville Dr Jawbone & the Restless Souls: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point Gian: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads Georgia Maq + Bec Stevens: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley The Angels: Hamilton Hotel, Hamilton

Like A Storm

Storming Down Under Like A Storm will continue their support tour with international heavy-weights Alter Bridge at Eatons Hill Hotel on 3 Apr. They’ll be bringing the didgeridoos that they’ve successfully incorporated into their hard rockin’ metal sounds.

Gigs / Live The Guide

Guy Sebastian: The Triffid, Newstead

Miami Horror: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley

The Angels: Villa Noosa Hotel, Noosaville Hari Mata Hari + Valentino: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley

Sat 01 Miami Horror

Violent Femmes: Aussie World (The Shed), Palmview

Horror Show

River City Aces: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point

Two years on from All Possible Futures electronic poppers Miami Horror are back with The Shapes, the Melbournians’ conceptual album/sonic art experience. Catch them at it live at The Zoo, 31 Mar.

Gawurra: Brisbane Powerhouse, New Farm

The Vanns + Buck Dean & the Green Lips + Creo: Solbar, Maroochydore Terence Boyd Thallon: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore Josh Needs: The Avenue, Surfers Paradise Die Rude + The Mouldy Lovers + Foxfires: The Bearded Lady, West End

West Thebarton Brothel Party: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley AC/DC’s High Voltage Vs Highway To Hell performed by Choirboys: Ettamogah Pub, Palmview ICEHOUSE + James Reyne + Daryl Braithwaite + Shannon Noll + Dragon + Pseudo Echo: Harrigan’s Drift Inn, Jacobs Well The Bell Divers + Adele Pickvance: Junk Bar, Ashgrove Small Town Romance: Lefty’s Old Time Music Hall, Brisbane Old Man Friday + Ondre Davis: Miami Marketta, Miami

Dune Rats

FO Real FOMO In an effort to snag show of the year before it’s even really started Dune Rats with Skeggs and The Gooch Palms are touring together. Catch them this 22, 23 and 24 Mar at The Triffid.

Urthboy + Joyride + Alice Ivy: The Triffid, Newstead

Earthcore - One Night in Gold Coast with Liquid Soul + Animato: Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise

Sun 02

Mexico City + Rich Davies and the Low Road: Junk Bar, Ashgrove

Fat Picnic + Pink Matter: The Boundary Hotel, West End

Ups & Downs + Mick Medew & The Mesmerisers + Generation Jones: New Globe Theatre, Fortitude Valley

Honeyblood: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley

Round Mountain Girls: Night Quarter, Helensvale

Things Of Stone & Wood + Club Hoy: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley

GUM + Mossy + Top Dollar: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley

Hot Dub Time Machine + PNAU + Young Franco + Crooked Colours + Falcona DJs: Ocean View Estates, Ocean View

Trichotomy: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point

The Angels: Racehorse Hotel, Booval

Round Mountain Girls: Caloundra Power Boat Club, Golden Beach

Hat Fitz & Cara Robinson: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna

Windhand + Cough + Lizzard Wizzard + Indica: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley

Enschway: The Met, Fortitude Valley The Button Collective: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Spiderbait + Screamfeeder + Thigh Master: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley

Olly Friend: Sassafras Canteen, Paddington

Josh Needs: The Avenue, Surfers Paradise

Things Of Stone & Wood + Club Hoy: Soundlounge, Currumbin

Mon 03

Josh Needs: The Avenue, Surfers Paradise

Alter Bridge + Like A Storm: Eatons Hill Hotel, Eatons Hill

Greg Steps: The Bearded Lady, West End

Void Of Vision are putting on their baseball jerseys and heading to The Triffid this 30 Mar. Once there the five-piece are opening up the night for I Prevail who are here on their debut Aussie tour.

Asher Chapman + Taleena Peck: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore

Timothy James Bowen: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane

Silk n Oak: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore

Sight Unseen

A Day On The Green with Blondie + Cyndi Lauper + The Clouds + Montaigne + Alex Lahey: Sirromet Winery, Mount Cotton

We Lost The Sea: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley

The East Pointers + The Fergies: Solbar, Maroochydore

Void Of Vision

The Vanns + Creo: Miami Tavern (Shark Bar), Miami

Shag Rock + Mary Handsome + Magnus Murphy: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley

My Echo

Echoing Brothers

Oaklands: The Flying Cock, Fortitude Valley Kyle Lionhart + Daniel Trakell: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley Luka Lesson + Kahl Wallis: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Creo: The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba The Vanns: The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba

Having just released their highly anticipated debut album titled Brothers in early March, Melbourne’s My Echo are cutting up the coast line to show it off.

Join the party on 23 Mar at Woolly Mammoth.

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 39

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