12.07.17 Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Brisbane / Free / Incorporating
Dead Of Winter DALLAS FRASCA
Broadbeach Country Music FANNY LUMSDEN
Queensland Music Festival THE GO-BETWEENS
A m e r i c a n B r o t h e r s B r i n g i n g G l a m o u r To S p l e n d o u r
Issue
148
IT’S NOT CALLED THE MUSIC BUSINESS FOR NOTHING Combine musical passion with business expertise through our Bachelor of Popular Music
With our Bachelor of Popular Music, you won’t only perfect your performance skills, but you’ll also dive into the business side of music – developing the skills to perform, produce, write, record, manage, market, teach, and more. Taught by the Queensland Conservatorium, one of Australia’s leading music schools, in conjunction with Griffith Business School, the Queensland College of Art, and Griffith Film School, the Bachelor of Popular Music will help you transform your musical passion into a lifelong music career.
Visit us at Open Day on 23 July or apply to audition at griffith.edu.au/popular-music
Find out what you could create at SAE’s Open Day. Our studios will be in action, equipment ready to try, student exhibitions on display and your future mentors ready to inspire.
BRISBANE CAMPUS - WEST END | BYRON BAY CAMPUS - EWINGSDALE RD
REGISTER TO ATTEND | sae.edu.au/events THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 3
JONSON STREET BYRON BAY FRIDAY 14 JULY
JACK TULLY & THE SEERS, THE SQUIDLICKERS, JONNY LINK
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14TH JULY
HOLIDAY HIGGS, WAVEVOM, CANDY LUCID DREAM
LADI6 (NZ) 15TH JULY
WEDNESDAY 19TH JULY
CLEA
THE SWAMPS THURSDAY 20TH JULY
16TH JULY
THE BABE RAINBOW FIRDAY 11TH AUGUST
THE DELTA RIGGS SATURDAY 12 AUGUST
THE BADLANDS FRIDAY 18TH AUGUST
LETTERS TO LIONS & MINI SKIRT SATURDAY 19TH AUGUST
THE JUNGLE GIANTS FRIDAY 25TH AUGUST
ISRAELI CHICKS & STORK SATURDAY 26TH AUGUST
THE COURTNEYS SATURDAY 2ND SEPTEMBER
OCEAN ALLEY THURSDAY 7TH SEPTEMBER
THE PIERCE BROTHERS SUNDAY 10TH SEPTEMBER
See an everchanging line-up See an everof indie, pop, changing line-up folk, alternative, of indie, country and rock pop, folk, at each Sunday alternative, Livespark. country and rock each Sunday Mix it up on at Livespark. the last Sunday of each month October features with Mixtape, a unique Jo Meares, collaboration LS Philosophy, between Graeme singerMoes, songwriters. Sean Sennett + more.
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GREEN CHIMNEYS RECORDS 20TH JULY
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LIAM BRYANT & THE HANDSOME DEVILS 22ND JULY
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FREE EVENT broadbeachcountry.com
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 5
Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Race Against Russo
Michelangelo Russo & Hugo Race
Hugo Race and Michelangelo Russo are set to embark on a headline tour to support their John Lee Hooker tribute album, John Lee Hooker’s World Today. The pair will cover Hooker’s biggest hits when their tour commences on 11 Aug.
Broad City
Yas, Queen Before Broad City makes its glorious return for a fourth instalment of hilarity later in the year, Ilana and Abbi’s Season 3 shenanigans are heading to Stan. Pull a sickie and binge the entire series (so far) on 19 Jul.
Rise Against
I have seen SpiderMan rebooted more times than I’ve seen a police officer convicted for murdering a black person @amoudouNDiaye 6 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
All Rise Politically charged punk legends Rise Against have just announced their return to Australia for a seven-stop headline tour next February. California rock outfit SWMRS will be jumping on for the entirety of the Australian/NZ tour. Stay tuned for dates.
Arts / Li Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Meg Mac
Mac Attack
Meg Mac’s debut album is right around the corner and the Aussie artist has unveiled a massive headline tour to celebrate. Her album Low Blows is out on 14 Jul, while her tour kicks off in September.
FRI 21 JUL
TYRON HAPI & COURTNEY MILLS
FRI 28 JUL
RNB FRIDAYS FT. HORIZON
FRI 11 AUG
Melvins
JAMES REYNE
SAT 12 AUG
NEW FOUND GLORY
WED 30 AUG STONE SOUR
Walk On The Melvins Side Melvins are back Down Under for a slew of shows in November. After releasing A Walk With Love & Death, the music veterans are ready to give Australia another dose of punk. LA’s Redd Kross are set to support.
SAT 12 SEPT
A FIST FULL OF ROCK FT. HOODO GURUS, YOU AM I, JEBEDIAH & ADALITA
FRI 8 SEPT TORY LANEZ
SAT 9 SEPT
HIGH SCHOOL REUNION
SAT 16 SEPT AFI
THUR 21 SEPT
MAX & IGGOR CAVALERA
FRI 22 SEPT
The Game
YOU ME AT SIX
SUN 24 SEPT LEGEND VOICES OF ROCK
FRI 29 SEPT THE GAME
Game Set Match Westside Story marks The Game’s last album before his impending retirement from music, so it’s fitting that he has just announced his last-ever(?) tour of Australia. His farewell tour is set for September, with tickets on sale 10 Jul.
SAT 30 SEPT
SING IT LOUD TOUR
MON OCT 2 AT THE DRIVE IN
(07) 3325 6777 TICKETS & INFO GO TO: EATONSHILLHOTEL.COM.AU EATONSHILLHOTELPAGE 646 SOUTHPINE RD EATONS HILL
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 7
Music / A Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
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Ladies and gentlemen, ratings juggernaut and pop culture phenomenon Game Of Thrones is finally returning to our screens for Season 7. If you haven’t done so already, mark 17 Jul in your calendars and strap yourselves in - winter has arrived.
Game Of Thrones
Swish Swish Bish Pop superstar Katy Perry has unveiled her Australian tour dates for 2018. The US singer will be heading to most of Australia’s main cities (including Adelaide!) to support her most recent release, Witness.
49 The number of speakers added to BIGSOUND 2017 in their ridiculous second line-up announcement 8 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
McLeod Nine ARIA Award-winning Sarah McLeod has a new album brewing, Rocky’s Diner, and an Australian headline tour has just been announced to celebrate. It’s been 12 years since McLeod’s latest solo effort, so August cannot come soon enough.
Sarah Mcleod
Arts / Lif Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Phields
Singer-songwriters Georgia Fields and Phia have combined their musical prowess for a massive 15-stop national headline tour. The two established musicians continue their Sky & Sea tour throughout July and August.
Georgia Fields & Phia
Katy Perry
Glenn Hughes
Purple Hughes Deep Purple’s Glenn Hughes will finally treat Australians to some of his former band’s biggest hits when he tours here in September. Deep Purple last played Down Under in ‘75, so die-hard fans are bound to lose their collective minds.
Come On Down Power-pop trio The Courtneys are coming to Australia in August. After already conquering Europe and the UK, the Canadian natives have set their sights Down Under to promote their second album, The Courtneys II. The Courtneys
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 9
L
Music
OUT ON A SWEET MUSICAL LIMB On their debut album Do Hollywood, The Lemon Twigs distill the history of popular music into the musical equivalent of technicolour pop art. Elder sibling Brian D’Addario chats with Chris Familton about their adventure so far and most importantly where it is heading.
10 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
ast year, word began to filter through online about two teenage brothers starting to turn heads in New York with their eclectic fashion sense and equally dizzying, pop culture grab-bag of musical styles. With a thrift store punk aesthetic, an all-in, kaleidoscopic approach to songwriting and enthusiastic live shows, Brian and Michael D’Addario were touted as the next big thing, a claim given greater kudos with the release of their debut album Do Hollywood last October. Brian D’Addario is hanging out in California for the week, sandwiched between the two weekends of the Coachella Festival where the band are making their first festival appearances. Festivals have a way of bringing out special performances, with bands going that extra mile to win over new fans. The Lemon Twigs ace card was bringing out one of their musical heroes, Todd Rundgren, to guest on their version of his song Couldn’t I Just Tell You which D’Addario enthusiastically says was “a dream come true!” “The show itself went well too. It was really our first festival and as we’re going to be doing a bunch of them it was nice knowing it’s not going to be a drastic change for us. I was expecting it to be like a major adjustment which it wasn’t. It felt different enough that it’ll be nice to do a bunch of festivals compared with the same thing we’ve been doing for the past couple of months.” One of the things that immediately hits you when listening to Do Hollywood is the way the duo pull from all corners of rock and pop music with a carnivalesque glee and playfulness. The Beach Boys, The Monkees, Queen, The Who, glam rock, power pop and psychedelia all combine in a wonderful collision of sound that D’Addario describes as “very stream of consciousness”. Though that worked for them on their debut, he sees it as an area they’ll be working to refine for their next record. “We didn’t really do much editing with the first record. That’s going to be the big difference between album one and two. The songs are going to be more structured and we’re going to try to make them just as interesting but with more thought in their structure. Before, we would just let the ideas come. Now we do that to a point and then stop and if we write anything extra it will probably become its own song. It’s just going to be more focused going forward I think.” The good news is they have the songs already written for their next album, installing a 24-track desk in their parents’ Long Island basement ahead of a whole month of recording in May before they head to Australia and then hit the northern hemisphere festival circuit.
Songwriting was generally a separate and individual process for the brothers but that too has been evolving to the point where greater collaboration between the pair has been happening. “There’s a certain type of song now that we can write together, which wasn’t the case before,” D’Addario explains. “Now we can complete a song together and even though the next album won’t be a complete collection of songs like that, we’re going to bring each other into the process much quicker. There will be a lot less detail behind who does what on the next record. A lot of the songs were written right after Do Hollywood and though they weren’t all collaborations they feel more like collaborations because when we record we’re not going to say, ‘This is my song, I have to sing lead and play all the instruments on it.’ It was a little immature that we did that in the past,” he says, with the benefit of hindsight. It is also easy to forget that the pair are only just exiting their teens and still developing their musical personalities and growing as players, something D’Addario points to as another agent of change in their music. “After recording the first album we were happy with each other’s songs enough to trust each other more. Also, Michael’s voice has got a lot stronger and my drumming has got stronger, whereas we were like ‘this is what you’re good at so you’re gonna do this...’ and I think since then we’ve both improved in different ways and we can have a little more fun with it.”
Both brothers spent time in front of the camera as child actors, which has prepared them somewhat for the peripherals around releasing music - videos, promotion, interviews, waiting around - but they’ve also had the added bonus of having two school friends also playing in The Lemon Twigs. Keyboardist Danny Ayala and bassist Megan Zeankowski give the group a full band dimension and add a sense of camaraderie to the unit. “Yeah, they’re very important,” enthuses D’Addario. “They’re very talented in their own right. It’s important that we have the people playing the parts who wrote them as opposed to people who are obviously hired hands. It’s cool because they have their own personalities on stage so it isn’t just people looking at Michael and I all the time,” he laughs. The brothers have began touring the USA with their exuberant high-kicking, guitar shredding and Keith Moonstyled drumming live show as well as making a foray into the European market, with surprising (to them) success. “European shows keep getting bigger. They have taken to the album more so than in the States. Even though we’re playing bigger places in the cities like LA and NY, there’s still a lot of touring we have to do in the US and it really feels like we’re at that first record place. In Europe it feels like a bigger thing. The shows getting bigger in that way is kind of an overwhelming thing but I feel like we are playing well and people we talk to after shows are really nice so it’s not like people are getting too fanatical about it. I’m happy about that, it’s not getting too crazy,” says D’Addario cautiously. Fashion has always gone hand in hand with music, whether as an extension of a person’s creative personality or as an attention grabber. In the case of The Lemon Twigs it’s a bit of both, with D’Addario explaining that much of the impetus for their style comes from Michael. “We really know what we don’t like with clothes and videos. With the clothes, Michael usually picks out a lot of the stuff and then I wear what he throws away. Now I shop a bit for my own self. It was really important to him in the beginning for us to dress up a bit.” As the Los Angeles nightlife beckons, we touch on one more obvious topic. The sibling relationship and how it has shown to be both a blessing and a curse in other famous musical partnerships such as those of the Everly, Davies, Gallagher and The Jesus & Mary Chain’s Reid brothers. “It’s a bit of both but I’m really happy to work with my brother. I can’t think of another musician that I respect more than him. I think he has an incredible amount of potential and if we continue to work together constructively we can do good stuff. I just hope that it stays that way.”
We didn’t really do much editing with the first record. That’s going to be the big difference between album one and two.
INTRODUCING... PAPA TWIG Brian and Michael D’Addario aren’t the only family members releasing albums. Their dad, Ronnie D’Addario, is a respected songwriter in his own right whose closest brush with fame was having one of his songs recorded (but unreleased) by The Carpenters just prior to Karen’s death. D’Addario self-recorded and played everything on his own albums in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s while also working as a session musician and recording engineer. Now those records are getting the CD reissue treatment via the label You Are The Cosmos, as well as a vinyl compilation The Best Of Ronnie D’Addario 1976-1983. There are also plans to release new material including an album called The Many Moods Of Papa Twig. It is easy to hear the influence of their father’s music on The Lemon Twigs. Soaked in heady, sweet melodies, clever arrangements and musical twists and turns they are all clearly drawing from the same well dug by the likes of Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, Todd Rundgren and Emitt Rhodes. Ronnie was responsible for the brothers always having instruments laying around the house, ensuring they were able to explore their musical curiosity whenever they felt like it and encouraging them from a young age.
When & Where: 23 Jul, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 11
Splendour In The Grass
K i s s & Te l l LANY frontman Paul Klein gets personal with Anthony Carew about relationships and life on the road.
“T
his feels like therapy, man,” says Paul Klein. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this.” The 29-yearold LANY leader is recounting his formative musical experiences, which are indivisible from his formative adolescent experiences. “[The first songs I ever wrote] were love songs, about this girl named Maura Morris. I wanted her to go to prom with me, so I wrote her a song, asking her to go to prom with me. I loved that girl, man. I played it live for her — gladly, there is no recording — while she was sitting on her bed, and I was sitting on a chair at the end of her bed. On acoustic guitar. She said yes. And she was my first kiss!” “I was the latest bloomer in the history of late-bloomers,” Klein continues. “I had my first kiss the week before I turned 17. I didn’t get armpit hair ‘til I was 18 years old. When everyone else grew, I didn’t.” Klein grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma (“It was pretty safe, pretty white, pretty middleof-nowhere”), and studied “music and music business” at university in Nashville. There, he met future LANY cohorts Les Priest and Jake Goss; but first, Klein moved to Los Angeles, trying — and failing — to start a solo career. Returning to Nashville in 2014, he meshed his “singer-songwriter stuff” with Priest and Goss’ electronic productions. They anonymously uploaded their first songs to Soundcloud, and the reaction was
12 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
unforeseen. “Six days later, we were getting emails from record labels,” Klein recounts. “It was unbelievable. I thought it was spam.” In 2015, they toured with Tove Styrke, Troye Sivan and Halsey, signed to Universal, and set about making their debut LP, which took 15 months due to their volume of gigs. “We played 115 shows last year,” Klein reasons. “We’ve played in 21 countries. Touring is constant. We don’t have the luxury that Harry Styles has, going and camping out in Jamaica until you get it all done.” The self-titled LANY LP matches a polished pop sound to uniformly sad lyrics. “[The songs] are about heartbreak and disappointment, and unmet expectations,” Klein says. “They’re written when whatever relationship I’m in kinda sucks. The last 12 months of my life has been really good, but really hard.” “On the road... the first thing that you do when you wake up is get out of the bus — where sometimes, there’s 200 kids waiting for me, and I’ve got slobber on my face and look like a mess — and go find the nearest coffee shop, use the restroom, shave my face, brush my teeth. When you’re on tour, it’s like you’ve pressed pause on your real life, whereas the people you leave back home, their lives go on. You’ve got some relationship that’s just on hold, with this person who’s ‘so in love with you’ but they’ve sent you no text messages, no phone messages, but you can see what they’ve been doing, all their posts on Instagram. It sounds petty, but this is real life, man. This is my life.”
what: LANY (Polydor/Universal)
when & where: 23 Jul, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands
Haim-er Time Este, Danielle and Alana Haim explain to Uppy Chatterjee that having Saturday family band practice was just the norm.
S
isters Alana (guitars/keys), Danielle (guitars/drums/vocals) and Este (bass) are all seated around the speakerphone tonight, on the whole in chipper, talkative moods as they divulge the details of their upcoming second effort, Something To Tell You. It’s a slog to tell them apart sometimes so we get the ladies to identify themselves when they’re speaking, but in their eagerness to speak, sometimes they forget and their voices blur into a collage of Californian accents. And it’s one key component of their LA upbringing that has subconsciously coloured their euphoric ‘90s jam of a single, Want You Back. Like the lovechild of Hanson’s MMMbop and maybe a Spice Girls hit, the one-shot video for the track features the siblings cheesily sauntering, grooving and fingerclickin’ their way through the LA suburb of Sherman Oaks. The band boil the ‘90s vibes down to one thing: the radio. “Back in the day our family car was this van and we didn’t have a tape deck or CD player or an aux cable for that matter... so we could just listen to the radio,” Este describes. “So there were a lot of singalongs in the car, like your typical road-trippin’ family. That’s just what you did. Instead of I Spy, it’d be Let’s Listen To Donna Summer For A Minute.” In said family van, the sisters travelled around LA to play shows in their family band Rockinhaim with their mother Donna on vocals and father Mordechai ‘Moti’ on drums, the five playing charity shows, fairs and malls before the girls started a band of their own. Often they played charity gigs for people suffering diabetes (Este was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at 14). “I think we grew up thinking that everyone’s family had a family band! So
Splendour In The Grass
Brigg It On Bishop Briggs tells Rod Whitfield that Australian crowds can expect “a lot of sweat”.
B I just assumed... my friends and I would be talking and they’d be like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m going to the mall on Saturday,’ and I’d be like, ‘Well, when are you fitting in family band practice?’” Este tells. “They’d be like, ‘What do you mean family band practice?’ And I’d be like, ‘’Cause my family band practices on Saturdays’... Then I quickly realised, I had a rude awakening, that no - just my family has a family band.” Eldest sister Este, middle child Danielle and “baby” Alana found their musical footing - and sisterly bond - going to gigs all around LA as soon as Este got her driver’s licence at 16. “Este was the oldest so we all kind of looked up to her music taste. Pretty much whatever Este liked, me and Danielle thought was really cool,” Alana remembers. When the sisters finally decided to try writing a song together, they pulled the guitar their mum had been given at 13 into the living room. Alana recalls, “It was a fucking awful song.” “We played in LA for five years before we went to our first SXSW and in those five years we played every venue we could, any time; it didn’t matter if it was a square of concrete, or a stage, or a petting zoo, or playing at 2pm. It didn’t matter what show it was; if there was a stage, if there was an amp, we’d play.” We joke that we’re glad we made a good enough impression for the girls to return, and one of them chirps, “The best, best impression!” Who said that? They yell, “All of us! United!”
ishop Briggs is an artist who has achieved worldwide success in a very short time and at a very young age. Much of this can be attributed to the fact that she has been able to develop a very unique, indefinable sound that is very much her own very early on in her career. And much of that can be put down to the fact that she has a very worldly background, having lived in England, Japan, Hong Kong and now the US. “It’s kind of a writer’s rite of passage, that as soon as you land in Japan you have to go to a Karaoke bar!” She laughs, “And so that’s what my family did. That was where I first saw my dad go up and sing Frank Sinatra. He was actually really good, but for him it was just a hobby. But when I saw him with this light in his eyes, there was something about it that I was just so drawn to, and ever since then I’ve just had this tunnel vision, hoping that this would be my reality.” Now, at the ripe old age of 24, Briggs, who is actually yet to release a full-length album, is experiencing global notoriety and is about to tour Australia for the very first time, and no one is more surprised than she, herself. “I honestly cannot believe it,” she says, “I wish I could express how much of a dream it’s been of mine to play in Australia, but words don’t do it justice. I really just can’t wait.” Her live show promises a highly intense, cathartic experience for uninitiated Aussie audiences. “Our show is high-energy, there’s a lot of sweat going on,” she describes,
“It’s really an emotional roller coaster to be honest, because these were songs that were written straight out of my diary. So there’s some moments in the show that are very intimate, and then there are other moments that are just about empowerment and aggression, and I just can’t wait for the Australian crowds to be a part of that with me.” And Briggs expects such openness in return from our crowds. “I can only hope that they are along for the ride with me,” she says, “From what I gather from my Australian friends, they’re not afraid of vulnerability, and I think that’s what’s really refreshing.” Such a whirlwind has her career been so far, she simply hasn’t had a spare moment to sit down and plan out her career, or set any longer term goals for herself. “It’s so interesting,” she states, “There are things that have happened, just in this past year alone, that I honestly could never have even dreamt of in my wildest dreams. There’s no sitting down and trying to predict things, only because we have had so many blessings that we didn’t know we would encounter. The only thing I can do is just write every day, record as much as I can and put my all into every single performance.”
when & where: 23 Jul, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands
what: Something To Tell You (Polydor/Universal)
when & where: 21 Jul, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands
THE MUSIC • 12TH 2TH JULY 2017 • 13
Splendour In The Grass
Blood Brothers Royal Blood vocalist/bassist Mike Kerr tells Steve Bell how backing up their stellar debut album was all about keeping things insular.
A
s far as debut albums go, you don’t get many more successful opening gambits than that of UK rock duo Royal Blood. Despite having only been a band for a touch over a year at the time of its 2014 release, their self-titled long-player debuted atop the UK album charts and found them honoured with a BRIT Award for Best British Band — bestowed by legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, no less — as well as countless other awards and accolades. And while they managed to shrug off any pressure when striving to concoct new follow-up effort How Did We Get So Dark? — which steers Royal Blood’s robust band dynamic into new and rewarding places — to hear frontman Mike Kerr talk about it, they weren’t even convinced until recently that a second album would even be viable. “Fuck, we didn’t even think we’d make back the 500 quid we spent on recording our demos first time around, so even contemplating a second album seemed hilarious,” he laughs. “I dunno, I guess towards the end of touring the first one I kind of felt like we could make another album for sure. “I think I was just so stoked that we managed to get an album out of such little in the first place, so the idea of making another one was, like, ‘I dunno if that’s even possible’, to be honest. But towards the end of it, we
14 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
had a lot more ideas coming together, and I was more comfortable in my shoes as frontman and as a bass player, and it kind of felt like we had another one in us.” They spent the best part of two years after Royal Blood touring the world — gaining huge new fanbases everywhere they played — but when time came to create new material they basically just pushed all that success out of their minds. “It’s a weird one, I think it’s just about switching off really,” Kerr reflects. “You have to make music for yourself, and I think the moment you stop doing that you lose everything that was cool about you in the first place. “So when we got back home it was about switching off from the world and abiding to no schedule and having no expectations, and I think we both decided that this record will take as long as it takes: I don’t care if it takes ten fucking years, we’re going to make an album that we think’s really cool, and that’s it. And we’re just going to shut the world off. “So we just went back into our own little world and it was me and Ben [Fletcher — drums] in a room staring at each other, kind of riffing off each other and coming back up with ideas again. That’s how it works, we don’t let anyone in really, and that’s when the ideas come together. And I think that in the future when we continue to make music it will stay like that, I really don’t believe in music being like homework you’ve got to hand in on time. Fuck that.”
what: How Did We Get So Dark? (Warner)
when & where: 22 Jul, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands
Eureka! Georg Holm tells Anthony Carew of the surreal moment when Sigur Ros were asked to be involved in both The Simpsons and Game Of Thrones.
W
hen you become as big as Icelandic post-rock icons Sigur Ros, it’s hard to find new frontiers. But, since the release of their last LP, 2013’s Kveikur, the band have lived out a pair of pure nerd dreams: appearing, in animated form, on The Simpsons in 2013 and then, a year later, in the flesh on Game Of Thrones. “We were actually on tour when we got the phone call from our manager saying, ‘The Simpsons want you to score an episode’,” says the band’s 41-year-old bassist/keyboardist Georg Holm. “We thought: ‘Wow, that’s amazing!’ We couldn’t remember anyone who’d scored an episode of The Simpsons, and this is a TV show that has been going forever, that is an icon. We did the score while we were on tour, backstage. We didn’t have to be anywhere. We didn’t have to be in San Francisco, or Los Angeles, or wherever it is that they do that show. I don’t know! “When we finished that, we were joking around, saying, ‘How can we top being on The Simpsons?’ The only thing we thought that could top that, or at least equal it, was being asked to be on Game Of Thrones. In my memory, there was only like a two-week gap between when we finished our Simpsons score and then getting another phone call from our manager, saying, ‘Hey, they want you to be on Game Of Thrones’. “It was so much fun, the whole thing, that whole time. They were so different. There was a lot of musical work that went into The Simpsons thing, and then nothing else. But then Game Of Thrones was very easy musical work - the song had already been written, we just needed to do our thing to it - but then we had to be there, in Croatia, for filming. It was a completely different thing to do. But equally exciting.”
Splendour In The Grass
Postgraduate Panic Maggie Rogers tells Anthony Carew of her transition into adulthood and dealing with her rising stardom.
It’s all a long, long way to come for a band from Reykjavik. Holm and Sigur Ros’ original drummer, Agust Aevar Gunnarsson “started about 20 or 30 different bands” in high school, often just the two of them. “In some ways, it was all the same band, and I feel like I’m still in that band,” Holm recounts. “Because, eventually, Agust and I would form a band with Jonsi, and that would go on to become Sigur Ros.” That teenaged trio’s “eureka moment” was when they spent five hours together in a studio in 1994 (“we look at each other like, ‘Holy shit, this is really good!’”), but even as they were emboldened to make their own individual sound - minted perfectly with their breakout second LP, 1999’s Agaetis Byrjun - they hardly expected it’d lead to global fame and fortune. “It’s pure joy. Absolutely amazing. Nothing we ever could’ve expected,” Holm beams. “We’re just these three guys from Iceland who hardly know how to play our instruments, and sing in Icelandic. Sigur Ros are currently at work on their eighth LP. “None of us really know where we are at,” Holm says; guessing that they’re 85% in, song-wise, feeling “like we need maybe two, maybe three more songs before we can start to understand it as a full record”. Fitting their cinematic sound, the trio never approach songs or albums with ideas or themes in mind. When asked to describe the sound of the songs on their forthcoming album, though, Holm is more forthcoming. “The music that we’re working on is very mixed, with very, very new sounds that I haven’t heard us creating before. There’s a very, very broad spectrum to it. To me, some of it is almost nostalgic; it reminds me of when I was younger.”
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n February 2016 Maggie Rogers was just another music student at NYU when Pharrell Williams conducted a master class where he listened to — and critiqued — student work. Williams fell in love with Rogers’ song Alaska, and when video of this hit the internet, Rogers became an instant hot name. Since then, everything that’s happened — signing deals, endless touring, releasing her EP Now That The Light Is Fading — has been a whirlwind. “It’s felt pretty crazy, pretty overwhelming,” says Rogers, 22. “My life has changed a lot. Mostly, that’s being on tour all the time, but there’s also this real natural transition. I just graduated college. That [year after] is a real crazy time for every postgraduate I know. It’s such a change, figuring out how to be an adult. It’s a weird thing... But, the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do with my life is make music, and now I have the opportunity to do that.” Rogers grew up “on the eastern shore of Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay”. Her family wasn’t musical, but she learnt harp and piano at eight years old, guitar and banjo at 13. That’s when she started writing her own songs “as a way for [her] to process all the emotions of middle school”; by 16, she was producing them. Long before she was a Next Big Thing, Rogers released two albums of folkie singer-songwriter material, 2012’s
The Echo and 2014’s Blood Ballet; the first coming out when she was in high school, the second in university. “Music was just something I always wanted to do, that always felt incredibly urgent to me. Songs have always been the way that I’ve understood and catalogued my life.” Alaska was written about a hiking trip in America’s wildest state; Rogers, having grown up in “the middle of nowhere”, spending her summers camping in Maine, is a proud “long distance hiker” (“being outside, without electricity, means a lot to me”). She sees parallels between her experiences hiking and her new form of travelling: endless touring. “The bus and the road feels a lot like a fancier way of hiking to me: you have a small group, not so many things, you’re moving every day, and you have a great sense of purpose.” In the middle of a five-month-long tour, Rogers is looking forward to sleeping and recording, but is tight-lipped about her forthcoming LP. “I think of making a record as creating a body of work, a whole artistic statement,” she offers. “Until that statement is complete, I don’t really feel comfortable talking about it.” Touring has allowed Rogers — after finding fame in ‘viral’ fashion — to humanise her experiences as a rising musician. “My life has been changed by people behind computer screens, totally anonymous people that I’ve never met,” she offers. “It’s been really gratifying to go places — in America and Europe — that I’ve never been before, and to actually get to see the people who like my music, the people who changed my life.”
what: Now That The Light Is Fading (EMI)
when & where: 21 Jul, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands
when & where: 23 Jul, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands
THE MUSIC • 12TH 2TH JULY 2017 • 15
Splendour In The Grass
What A Wonderful World Anthony West and Josephine Vander Gucht of Oh Wonder chat about the band’s accidental inception, the weirdness of their rise to fame and touring life with Anthony Carew.
“I
think the technical term is ‘fake it ‘til you make it’,” deadpans Anthony West. He’s one half of English electro duo Oh Wonder, a band who, at conception, was never meant to be a band, let alone a wildly successful one. “It began as purely a writing idea,” explains Josephine Vander Gucht, Oh Wonder’s other half. “We came together for songwriting, building a portfolio of songs that we could present to other artists, labels, managers and say, ‘Hi, we’re a writing duo, we’d love to write with your artist’. The whole thing was conceived from a behind-the-scenes perspective. There wasn’t any intention of going on tour or making albums. That’s all been a total accident... When strangers ask, ‘What do you do?’ and I say, ‘I’m in a band’ — that still feels alien to me.” When the pair decided to upload their first song, Body Gold, online in 2014, everything changed. “It immediately started resonating with people on this unexpectedly global level,” West recounts, “we [were] getting messages from people in Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Australia. Within the first week, we knew we’d
16 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
latched onto something different and more exciting than anything we’d ever done.” “Normally when you’re in a band,” Vander Gucht offers, “you’re sending the [Soundcloud] link around to all your family and friends, saying, ‘Please listen to my song! Let me know what you think of it!’ You’re hoping you’ll get, like, 50 plays out of it. But with [Body Gold], we didn’t tell anyone about it, we just uploaded it. And it was going into the hundreds of thousands of plays in the first few days, which we thought must’ve been a mistake. It felt like such a fluke, compared to everything else we’ve ever done. But, it just continued to happen that way. So, immediately we knew that [Oh Wonder] was different to anything else we’d ever done before.” Dealing with life on the road (West: “We love touring, but it’s not our natural habitat”) became a key theme for the next Oh Wonder album, Ultralife. The band’s second record pushes into bigger things. “The overarching theme” of Ultralife, Vander Gucht offers, “is the extremes of emotion that we all feel as human-beings. Feeling invincible one day, then completely trapped and isolated the next... That’s what touring is for us. Touring is the perfect environment for an emotional roller coaster. You’re experiencing the highest highs: performing songs that you’ve written for thousands of people in a foreign country is ridiculously incredible. But, then you’re back on the bus, in your pyjamas, eating tortilla chips covered with cheese that you’ve made in the microwave. And, that happens on a daily basis. We’re always trying to work our way through that, and make sense of that.”
what: Ultralife (Dew Process/Universal)
when & where: 23 Jul, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands
Picture Perfect Anthony Carew chats to Two Door Cinema Club’s Alex Trimble about the influence of the internet on their game plan.
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he last time Two Door Cinema Club were scheduled to play Splendour In The Grass, they didn’t make it. In 2014, with the Irish pop combo booked for their second Splendour appearance, they had to cancel after frontman Alex Trimble collapsed at Seattle airport and ended up in hospital. “That’s when everything came to an end,” says Trimble, 27, from London. Prior to that unexpected break - Trimble’s hospitalisation billed as a “stomach ailment” - the trio had never taken a break, not since starting Two Door Cinema Club as a trio of teens in County Down. “The first five, six years were so full-on, we didn’t really have time to process what we were doing. And we nearly killed ourselves in the process. Which is surprisingly easy to do, when you’re doing this kind of thing. It was one city to the next, one day after another, for years and years.” Trimble attributes his hospitalisation to “various things”, the gathered effect of years on the road. “Without taking time out to process what’s going on, to relax, to put things in perspective, you drive yourself crazy. You don’t eat properly, you don’t sleep properly, you end up exhausted. I wasn’t looking after myself very well. I was partying a little bit too much. It’s a lot of cumulative behaviour, and it takes its toll after five years.” “It’s a terrifying thought,” he continues, “that you’re slowly destroying yourself. So, it’s not something that I gave too much thought to. You just put it out of your mind. Ultimately, it ended up with me in hospital. That’s the point it took for us to put our hands up and say, ‘Maybe we need a break, now’.” The band — Trimble, guitarist Sam Halliday and bassist Kevin Baird — were ambitious from the beginning. After finishing high school, in 2007, they deferred from their university enrolments and set out touring.
Splendour In The Grass
Catfish If You Can Catfish & The Bottlemen were always destined for greatness although, as frontman Van McCann tells Anthony Carew, they already knew that. “The pressure we put on ourselves was intense,” Trimble recounts. “Once we got on the road, and discovered how much fun it was, how rewarding it was, each little nugget of success spurs you on. We were working our asses off. And we still are. You can’t let that slip. It doesn’t matter how much creativity and talent you have, if you don’t have that drive, that ambition, you’re not gonna take it anywhere.” The band broke out with their debut LP, 2010’s Tourist History, which went Platinum in the UK behind its five singles. The album was filled with three-minute bangers, their new-wave pop brightly mixed by French house producer Philippe Zdar, and released by French cult boutique Kitsune. “From the very beginning,” Trimble recounts, “we were always focused on making good pop music. As teenagers, we’d been in rock groups that were more progressive or self-indulgent, but that wasn’t really us. We wanted to make music that was accessible, and open, and relatable, and fun. For us, it’s always been important to have a good melody, to make something memorable, to be catchy.” 2012’s Beacon refined the Two Door Cinema Club formula. But Trimble’s battles and their subsequent time away informed the band’s goals for their third LP, 2016’s Gameshow. “What inspired the latest record was the internet,” says Trimble, simply. “It’s changed our world in so many ways. We don’t live in the same place we did ten years ago, even five years ago... The way we consume so many different things, music and art and television, and how we buy products, how we get information, it’s completely different.”
“W
hen we first started,” recounts Catfish & The Bottlemen frontman Van McCann, “the van broke down at the side of the road. We were sat there, talking to each other, and to pick each other up we were like, ‘Mate, we’re going to be selling out big arenas in fuckin’ Australia in a couple of years, let’s not worry about this! We’re gonna be sweet!’” When Catfish & The Bottlemen began, in Llandudno, Wales, McCann was 14. He’d grown up in Widnes, before his family moved to Wales. They were all Irish and musicians (“my grandad’s nearly 90, and he’s on tour in Ireland as we speak, playing fiddle”), so the young McCann was fed his namesake - Van Morrison - from birth. A childhood love of The Beatles, The Kinks, T. Rex, and The Doors led to an adolescence in thrall to Oasis, Arctic Monkeys, Sterephonics and Kings Of Leon. “I always loved [music],” McCann says. “The way that, if you’re havin’ a lousy day, you can put a tune on and [it’ll] make you feel class.” Like “that kid who’s just got into football, and wants to be a footballer [who’s] kickin’ a ball up against the wall all day, and when their mum says, ‘Come in for your dinner!’ they stay outside, still kickin’ a football”, McCann would spend all day on his guitar.
He started writing “poor” songs at 13 but, by the time the band began a year later, he already was turning out songs that’d end up on Catfish & The Bottlemen LPs. “I’d play them and people would be like, ‘Kid, you’re fucking ace! You’re mint!’” McCann recalls. “Everyone around us could see we were lovin’ it, they encouraged us. So we just threw ourselves into it. We found a new way of life: we’d write these songs, get in the van, drive around the country, and play ‘em, even if there was nobody there, or if it was sold out. We never played a gig where we didn’t think we blew the place away. We’ve felt like we’ve always been good... Me and the lads have been doing this for ten years, and we’re still coming off stage, side by side, buzzin’ every night, laughin’ our heads off.” McCann has reason to laugh. After Catfish & The Bottlemen’s debut, 2014’s The Balcony, cracked the UK Top 10, their second record, 2016’s The Ride, went to #1, and #6 in Australia. He’s about to head to Moscow to play with Richard Ashcroft (“never been, mate, I’ve only seen it in the Rocky films”), before playing a headlining show for 35,000 people in London. After returning to Australia for Splendour In The Grass and more arenasized shows, they’re supporting Green Day on a stadium tour in the US, “We’re doing one at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena in Los Angeles, which is like where the fuckin’ Stones play. It’s just a mad feelin.” Anyone else in McCann’s shoes might find the whole thing surreal. But the 24year-old enthusiastically offers, “I love this business [the music industry]”.
when & where: 22 Jul, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands
when & where: 22 Jul, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands
THE MUSIC • 12TH 2TH JULY 2017 • 17
CUlture Culture
Eton Rugged Rukus Solar-Powered Speaker
Just ‘cos you’ve stumbled back to your camp site doesn’t mean the party has to stop. This Bluetooth-enabled wireless speaker set will connect to most devices and has surprisingly great sound quality. It will hold eight hours of charge after the sun goes down, but while in direct light, it’ll play as long as your heart desires. What’s more, it’s water and shock resistant and can even double up as a phone charger, so whether you’re after some pre-show beats, or an end of the night chill out, the Rugged Rukus has got your back. $70 from Amazon.com
Coleman Hooligan 4 Man Tent Aside from the brilliantly appropriate name, there’s plenty of reasons why this is the ideal home away from home when festival season rolls around. Firstly, it takes less than ten minutes to throw up, thanks to its fool-proof design. It is much roomier than other comparable four-man tents on the market, plus its space-age material is super insulated, meaning it’ll keep you warm at night, but won’t heat up like a bloody sweat lodge the second sunlight hits it. $74 from Amazon.com
FKANT Solar Charger Going off grid is the feral peril of the festival experience. Technology has ruined us, and we’re all lost without our devices, whether you need them for snapping some selfies or figuring out where your crew has wandered off to. Luckily, some bright spark has invented the solution. The FKANT Solar Charger gets its juice direct from the sun and feeds it into your electronics. It also doubles as an emergency flashlight, has two USB ports for multi-device charging, and is water and shock resistant, so even when you’re at your worst, it’ s still at its best. $22 from Amazon.com
Don’t ca m p. . .
Glamp! 18 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
Coleman Self-Inflating Camp Pad Tent living needn’t be uncomfortable - or require ages stomping on a foot pump to inflate a blow-up mattress. This self-inflating sleep pad automatically blows up when unrolled and will even deflate when you’re done by switching the free-flow valve. It has a nifty tufted design to make it extra plush and even comes with an inbuilt pillow, so you can get some quality rack time when you find a few minutes for some shut eye in between acts. $34 from Amazon.com
Festivals are rough. Lack of sleep, sweaty tents, getting pickled in your own sweat after days in the same jocks. It’s fun, but let’s face it, it’s foul. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be. These are the essential gadgets that will transform your festival hell into Splendour In The Grass nirvana.
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THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 19
Credits Publisher Street Press Australia Pty Ltd Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast National Editor – Magazines Mark Neilsen
Music
Hungry To Help
Editor Mitch Knox Arts & Culture Editor Maxim Boon Gig Guide Editor Justine Lynch gigs@themusic.com.au Contributing Editor Bryget Chrisfield Editorial Assistant Sam Wall, Jessica Dale 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, Jack Doonar, Jake Sun, Liz Giuffre, Neil Griffiths, Nic Addenbrooke, Rip Nicholson, Roshan Clerke, Samuel J Fell, Sean Capel, Sean Hourigan, Tom Hersey, Tom Peasley, Uppy Chatterjee Photographers Barry Schipplock, Bec Taylor, Bianca Holderness, Bobby Rein, Cole Bennetts, Freya Lamont, John Stubbs, Kane Hibberd, Markus Ravik, Molly Burley, Stephen Booth, Terry Soo Sales Zara Klemick 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
20 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
Little BIGSOUND Program Manager Trina Massey tells Cyclone of the young talent that encourages and helps grow as artists.
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spiring and emerging music creatives can connect with each other and ask the big questions of music industry experts at Little BIGSOUND - a one-day event orchestrated by QMusic for those between 15 and 25 years old. Held at The Edge, it takes in networking sessions, panels, roundtables, labs and live showcases. Says program manager Trina Massey, “Little BIGSOUND is a way just to meet your tribe; meet likeminded people and also pick up some new skills - like kinda cut through all the noise and all the ideas about what the music industry is and actually hear from the industry, and the youth from the industry, that are really active and doing stuff... The whole program itself is built to get people interacting with each other, get people talking to each other and get people gaining more skills.” Before joining QMusic in January, Massey gained industry experience in varied promotion, booking and management roles. Yet she’s likewise involved in the creative side as a DJ. “I DJed this black-tie event for The (British) Royal Ballet this morning,” she reveals brightly. “It went to 2am.” In 2017, Little BIGSOUND is relaunching in a new format. Traditionally centred around panels and showcases, it will now be more hands-on - organisers responding to feedback from past participants in addition to Queensland’s leading music colleges. “I think the days of sitting in the room and just
listening to people talk all day are well and truly gone,” Massey suggests. “The best way to get people to interact is to actually have them interacting with their surrounds.” Little BIGSOUND boasts a wideranging program of activities. In the morning there will be a “mini-keynote” by Brisbane electrosoulster Airling (aka Hannah Shepherd), whose debut Hard To Sleep, Easy To Dream on Big Scary’s label Pieater was a recent triple j feature album. “When I first met Hannah, it was her first gig, as an 18 year old, at a venue,” Massey recalls. “So I’ve actually watched that transformation. I think she has a lot of really important and interesting things to say.” In another coup, The Kite String Tangle’s Danny Harley - whose 2014 Vessel EP was nominated for the Breakthrough Artist ARIA - will share how he composes in an Innovation Lab. Little BIGSOUND attendees can test Ableton Live in workshops and play with a collection of Korg synths. “There’s a little bit of something for everyone,” Massey enthuses. A music convention wouldn’t be a music convention without live performances. Little BIGSOUND will offer lunchtime showcases from two young local artists - the rootsy folk of Asha Jefferies and rising alt-country star Ruby Gilbert. And the day will close with slots by producer-type TOBI, indie-rock quartet Twelve Past Midnight and a “secret headline act”. Auspiciously, Airling is among the buzz acts who’s previously gigged at Little BIGSOUND (with her former band Charlie Mayfair), Massey notes. “There’s a great history of bands that have showcased at Little BIGSOUND that have moved on to create really great futures, which is exciting to be a part of.”
When & Where: 29 Jul, The Edge
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 21
Dead Of Winter Festival
Dead Of Winter
Reigniting The Power Checking in with rockin’ powerhouse Dallas Frasca, Rod Whitfield discovers that recent “profound and crazy experiences” in Darwin have inspired her to hit the stage with renewed energy.
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A
t the start of May, Dead Of Winter Festival dropped a behemoth line-up on us and we were entirely sold. At the end of May Brisbane’s premiere horror-hued alt and heavy event unleashed a second list that brought the total band roster up to 50+ and left us wondering how we were going to survive the two-month wait till we actually got to see it. The Bennies are stopping in for their only Queensland show. The Meanies will be there for one of their last national appearances before they ditch Down Under indefinitely. Brissy legends Hollow are even getting back together. From all over the state and the nation acts like The Porkers, Giants Of Science, Some Jerks, Black Rheno and Truth Corroded are converging to bust eardrums across five stages at Jubilee Hotel. And, since you can’t slap Bela Lugosi and some zombies on a poster and call your festival a horror show, there’s also a slew of carnivalesque side shows, burlesque, horror flicks, a themed night market and even a zombie make-ever booth for punters who forget to kit up before they show-up. Now we’re only two weeks out from Queensland’s heavy-lovers heaven. Since we still can’t really wait that long, we decided to get a sneak peak from a couple of the acts.
When & Where: 29 Jul, Jubilee Hotel
22 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
allas Frasca and co have been extremely hard at it, in the recording studio and on the road, virtually nonstop for over a decade now. So the members decided to pull back on the reins slightly and take it easy for a brief moment, just to allow themselves to catch a breath before going again. “There hasn’t really been a break in all that time,” the band’s frontwoman and namesake Dallas Frasca explains. “We did two enormous European tours, plus two Australian tours last year, and we got to the end of it and just said, ‘Let’s just chill for a little bit’. So it’s been awesome. You tend to get a bit robotic when you tour so much and this has just been a really great chance to go and find out who we are again.” All that said, the individual members have been far from idle during this fleeting moment of downtime and Frasca herself has been doing something rather special of late. “I’ve been out in the desert for almost nine weeks,” she says. “I’m back in Darwin for a few days, but then I’m heading back down to the desert. I’ve had some really profound and crazy experiences up here, and it just makes me feel I’m super-ready to get back on the stage.” More specifically, she has been working on a program called Desert Divas and she happily talks us through what that’s all about. “There’s been a couple of different programs that I’ve been really privileged to be involved in,” she states proudly. “There’s a real gap between Indigenous women and having a path, particularly with female Indigenous performers. These programs are designed to help facilitate the women and younger girls finding their voice. Even if it’s just a guitar lesson, or
Dead Of Winter Festival
Eeny, Meanie, Miny, Moe something as simple as that. “There’s a hell of a lot of talent out here, and this is about helping women find their power and their voice.” Guitarist Jeff Curran hasn’t exactly been sitting on his hands during this time, either. “Jeff’s been in Indonesia, and making records with Whitfield Crane from Ugly Kid Joe and Ross Wilson from Daddy Cool and Mondo Rock,” she says. This highly productive and fulfilling downtime is about to come to an end however as the band are set to head off on an east coast headlining tour, which includes their yearly trip to the Victorian snowfields and a major appearance at Brisbane’s incredible Dead Of Winter Festival of heavy music. “Oh my god, the lineup’s sick!” she enthuses of the festival. “There’s a heap of bands I really want to see, as well as playing ourselves. Obviously there’s The Meanies, and The Porkers, and The Bennies they’re all so rad! But there’s also a heap of more underground bands who you know about, but when you’re touring yourself it’s hard to get to their show. So we’re going to be down there early to check it all out.”
Ahead of what’s said to be an indefinite hiatus, Rod Whitfield has a chat with Link Meanie on where life is headed after 30 years in iconic punk outfit The Meanies.
I
n Aussie punk and underground rock circles at the very least, The Meanies are a band that need no introduction. Thus, fans have noted with great disappointment that the band, almost 30 years into their career, are soon to go on an indefinite hiatus. Co-founding member Link Meanie fills us in on why this is the case. “I’m going to live in Spain, and get hitched to my gal,” he reveals, “and who knows when I’ll be back. I’m sure I’ll come back at some stage, but we’ll see how it goes.” At this stage, he is unsure as to his level of motivation to re-unite with the band in a live capacity when he does come back to Australia. “I can’t say how I’m going to feel in six months or a year or two years down the track or however long it takes,” he says, “I’m sure that by that stage I’ll be kind of excited about getting back on the stage with The Meanies. But I really don’t know, we’ll just have to wait and see.” Barcelona is where Meanie is headed, and he has even surprised himself a little in making this massive, life-changing decision. “I love Spain,” he states, “I’ve traditionally been a real homebody, I didn’t think I’d ever move out of Melbourne. But I always thought that if I did, Spain would be the only place
I’d move to. So it’s worked out well.” Any idea what you will do over there, musically or work-wise? “I’ve got a job lined up as a matador!” he laughs, “No, that’s a dying thing in Spain I think. Seriously, there’s some options there, nothing hard and fast yet, there’s a couple of things in the works, I’ll just have to wait and see if they pan out.” Hardcore fans of the band need not despair completely however, as the band are doing one final extensive tour of the nation before Meanie jets off to the other side of the world, and he promises a very typical and crowd pleasing set for Meanies aficionados. “We always have, we’ve always done a good cross-section of all our records. We’ll probably end up doing 40 songs, that’ll end up being about a 20-minute set!” he laughs again, “I think we’ll manage to break the 50minute mark, but by that stage I’m normally gasping for air and trying not to throw up.” Almost three decades into their career, Meanie tells us that he is feeling every single one of those years and all of the mileage that the band has done in that time. “Oh fuck yes!” he states without hesitation, “the body hurts, I’ve done so many injuries to myself in The Meanies, my body’s a bit creaky, put it that way. “But I think we’re all pretty proud of what we’ve done, and if It’s Not Me, It’s You ends up being our last album, I feel like we’ve ended with our best and most consistent album.”
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 23
Broadbeach Country Music Festival
Broadbeach
Country Music Festival
F
or the fifth time beautiful Broadbeach is going to be packed to the outer limits with good vibes and great tunes, which you can enjoy for the staggering price of ‘absolutely free’. That’s right, it’s time for another Broadbeach Country Music Festival – maybe the only time of year you can get away mixing boardies with cowboy boots. It’s three days bursting with local and international talent, and that’s not hyperbole The event is set to feature 110 performances across more than 12 concert spaces in the suburb’s streets, bars, restaurants and parks, including a brand new big top stage in Kurrawa Park overlooking the beach. Run by Broadbeach Alliance, the family-friendly event has wrangled a whole new level of talent this year. US ‘70s soft-rock giants America are top-billed beside Aussie legends like Kasey Chambers, Troy Cassar-Daley and Shane Nicholson. Australia’s Got Talent runners-up The Wolfe Brothers will also join in the beachside extravaganza alongside multi-Golden Guitar-winning singer Sara Storer, Caitlyn Shadbolt, Tomato Tomato and Drew McAlister. With only a couple weeks to go until the cream of the country crop turns the Gold Coast paradise into a haven of live music, good eats and good old family fun – we spoke to a couple of the acts taking the stage.
When & Where: 28 – 30 Jul, Broadbeach
24 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
Fanning Out Fanny Lumsden tells Rod Whitfield of her plans to stalk America when they share a stage at Broadbeach Country Music Festival.
C
ountry New South Wales girl Fanny Lumsden is a true do it yourself, forget the music industry machine type of artist, both in terms of her recordings and her live tours. She joined us recently while on the road in Bundaberg to tell us how she prefers to build her career from a grass-roots level in order to keep her very much in touch with her fans. “We could have gone down the traditional label route, but we decided to do everything communitybased,” she says referring to her second album, which has been completely crowd-funded and should be released sometime this year, “that’s really worked for us over the last few years. We crowdfunded our first record and released it completely independently. “We also do this tour called the Country Halls tour,” she says. “This year will be its sixth year. We put a call out and we had 40 halls apply this year for our Country Halls tour. That’s another strong community-created thing. And we’ve just decided this way of doing things isn’t broken so let’s just continue it.” For Lumsden, it’s a matter of having to find new ways to run her career in this day and age when there is less money available to the industry and the old models are simply not working anymore. “You definitely do need to find new ways of doing things,” she concedes. “I’ve never really done the traditional model. It’s more about when opportunities that were going to come up have not come up and we’ve just said, ‘Oh, how are we going to do this?’ “So we’ve done the Country Halls shows that we’ve produced ourselves; that tour has gone from pretty much nothing. Six years ago we did three little halls and this year we’ve had 40 halls apply, and last year all the halls were sold out so it’s really come into its own.” Lumsden and her band are taking a breather from the Country Halls tour in late July to jump onto the line-up of the Broadbeach
Broadbeach Country Music Festival
Pick A Winner Country Music Festival. The festival features an incredible bill, of which she is very happy to be a part, and there are two artists in particular she is looking forward to catching. “Our first set we are playing right before Kasey Chambers on the main stage,” she reveals. “I think my 12-year-old self would have wet her pants with that little sitch back in the day of me singing The Captain in my bedroom.” And headlining the festival is the illustrious country-rock band America of A Horse With No Name fame. “It’s pretty amazing that they’ll be there!” she exclaims. “When I saw them on the line-up I was as thrilled as everyone else.
Rod Whitfield quizzes The Wilson Pickers guitarist Danny Widdicomb about his band’s broad appeal and why he thinks they “took off”.
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uitarist Danny Widdicomb of blues/ country/roots act The Wilson Pickers is very happy that his band are soon to play the Broadbeach Country Music Festival. Speaking from his home in Brisbane, he tells us that he is just as happy about the fact that The Wilson Pickers cross-genre classifications can be appreciated by a broad range of music lovers. “It’s funny how we straddle different genres,” he notes with a touch of surprise, “because the week before we’re playing at Splendour In The Grass and then we play this. So it’s great, it’s great to be able to do that. It’s good to cover both sides: the cool kids and just the general music fans.” Does that mean that you guys have a very broad appeal? “Well, apparently!” he laughs. “I didn’t think we would but, yeah! It looks like it.” When asked to describe his favourite kind of gig, Widdicomb shares, “For me, daytime outdoor festival gigs are the best; there’s just something about the feeling — people are inspired, they’re really happy to be out and about and listening to the music. There’s something special about it, compared to a normal club show. “I like to be able to see the audience as well, which you can’t generally do at nighttime in a club,” he adds. “So it’s gonna be great, I can’t wait.”
For what is a relatively new festival, having only started in 2013, this year’s Broadbeach Country Music Festival has attracted quite a stunning lineup of country and alt-country talent, and Widdicomb is quite humbled to be a part of it all and looking forward to seeing some of the other artists playing when they’re not. “Our good mate Troy Cassar-Daley’s playing, which is huge,” he says. “His band is amazing, he’ll have some pedal-steel in his band, which we’re excited about seeing. There’s heaps of other great artists, including a great up-andcoming young artist called Dana Gehrman, who’s hot stuff up here at the moment. “We’re going to stay the whole weekend, getting amongst it.” All members of The Wilson Pickers have many other projects on the go and the band really only started as a side project for them, but it quickly evolved into more of a focus for the people involved. Especially after they received an ARIA nomination in 2009. “You can tell from all the activities we do independently of each other, that’s how we always operated,” he recalls, “and then [singer] Andrew Morris had the idea of, because we’re all friends, getting together and making some sort of music that sounds like bluegrass, but with an Australian flavour. And it just took off.” And Widdicomb has a good idea about where their creative success came from. “I think the appeal is the five-part vocal harmonies. I think it just really resonated with people,” he muses, “and it became the most successful thing that any of us had done, which annoyed a couple of them,” he laughs.
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 25
Music
Frontlash Dreaming A Reality
Drink It In
Kardajala Kirridarra (NT) are heading to BIGSOUND and you can help them get here by pledging to their debut album project at their campaign page.
Answered by: Mick Destiny
Hometown:
A Stately Affair The Qld Music Festival is in full swing. Get to the website and support this big and beautiful state’s incredible musicians.
Party With A Purpose
Lashes
Crowbar are throwing a fundraiser for Liam Brennan of Shutup! Shutup! Shutup! (recently diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma) 11 Aug.Get well, Liam.
Katie Noonan
Backlash
Faking It And Making It Whether or not Spotify is flooding its playlists with made-up artists, some of those questionable acts’ songs are actually pretty good. Just saying. There’s a lesson in here somewhere, but damned if we know what it is.
Oh, Brother
Can we collectively agree to stop stoking the flames of the decades-old Gallagher brother rivalry now? Shit’s boring. We get it. They don’t like each other. Move on.
A Bad Joke Across the board, the undertone of breathless glee with which the shooting incident at a Melbourne nightclub has been reported - because of its sordid nature and involvement of Joker/Harley Quinn costumes - is fucking appalling. 26 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
At A Glance: The Demon Drink
Brisbane
Describe your sound:
The Demon Drink have been on the scene for a while now, and Kieran Waters explains to Louis Costello how they decided on their sound and general plan of attack for the new album.
The morning after hangover of Paul Kelly & Tom Waits.
Fun Fact About Yourself: I have an extra vertebrae.
#1 request on a rider: Berocca
W
hen bands don’t fit a particular mould, there’s a genuine chance that their aesthetic won’t resonate with audiences or potential fans. Thankfully, this is not the case for “rough and ready” roots rockers The Demon Drink, who have been consistently churning out “beer for your ears” since their first gig in 2012. “When we started, our aim was to get out and play live as often as we could, and we have. Because of this I think we’ve been able to make what is a fairly unconventional sound work,” lead vocalist Kieran Waters explains. The Demon Drink’s passion for the stage has rubbed off on not only fans, but the material they produce. “We have so much fun playing live and we wanted people to hear that in the album. We’ve all been in bands where the aim was to create ‘high art’ but this band is not like that,” refutes Waters, “If you can’t sing it or dance to it, it’s not on there [the album]”. After roughly half a decade, The Demon Dark are finally dropping their debut album, Highway Robbery. “I wanted to see if we could create a cohesive album capitalising on our individual styles,” Waters says of he and his brother turned bandmate Baron Field’s involvement. “In some ways it’s become a document of our long, interesting relationship.” Helmed by producer Jeff Lovejoy (who helped the band find their “vibe”), expect the unexpected from their upcoming debut — and their shows. “No two Demon Drink shows are alike. We just don’t work that way. Whatever happens, it’s sure to be entertaining.”
Dream support: Johnny Cash. That voice...
The scene needs more of: An understanding that musicians like to be paid for their services...
Five-year plan: Still banging our heads against the wall of rock and roll...
What: Highway Robbery When & Where: 14 Jul, Bloodhound Bar
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TICKETS $20–28 | ALL AGES PRINCIPAL PARTNER
© 2017 MARVEL
the
with Maxim & Sam
introducing your new podcast obsession does it grind your gears or earn your cheers? new episodes streaming every wednesday
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 27
Music
Love Goes On As some original members of legendary Brisbane band The Go-Betweens reunite to pay tribute to classic album 16 Lovers Lane, Amanda Brown and John Willsteed tell Steve Bell about the importance of embracing Brisbane’s cultural past.
T
here have been a lot of great albums to emerge from Brisbane since the beginning of the rock’n’roll era, and from a purely artistic perspective The Go-Betweens’ 1988 sixth effort 16 Lovers Lane must be considered up there with the finest to ever have emanated from the Queensland capital. Despite housing brilliant and enduring singles Streets Of Your Town, Was There Anything I Could Do? and Love Goes On, the record didn’t make any significant commercial inroads at the time — sadly none of the legendary band’s albums ever really did — but 16 Lovers Lane nonetheless remains a timeless Australian classic. Now under the auspices of Queensland Music Festival, three original members of the The GoBetweens who featured on the album — Lindy Morrison, Amanda Brown and John Willsteed — are revisiting 16 Lovers Lane to reinterpret it in a contemporary construct. To assist, they’ve enlisted a stellar line-up of guest musicians and an array of guest vocalists including Steve Kilbey (The Church), Mark Callaghan (The Riptides, GANGgajang) and Ron S Peno (Died Pretty), who will all bring their own unique flourishes to the beautiful collection of songs. “I’m really looking forward to playing those songs again, and particularly interested in hearing how the various singers interpret them,” Brown enthuses. “We won’t be straying too far away from the original arrangements, because I think people will enjoy the opportunity to hear them after 30 years — or nearly 30 years — but I’m sure the singers will bring their own things to the songs as well. “It literally took months to put together because the original remaining members — Lindy, John and myself — curated all those artists, and we had a rule The Go Betweens – 16 Lovers Lane that we wanted people who had
It’s not all about little Alfie Langer and Wally Lewis. God love ‘em, but there’s so much more to Brisbane than football.
28 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
a strong connection to the band or the musicians in the band or the music of The Go-Betweens, and preferably with a Queensland focus. We also tried to pick singers and match them with the songs that we thought they could really bring something to.” It’s always an array of intangible factors that make an album special in the long run, but Brown recalls realising that the band’s two frontmen and songwriters — Robert Forster and his good friend Grant McLennan, who tragically passed away in 2006 — were both at the top of their respective games when bringing the band their contributions for 16 Lovers Lane. “Without sounding like a total egomaniac, I knew it was a very strong collection of songs,” she laughs. “And because the nature of the set-up of the band was two songwriters, it meant that we had a very strict rule that they’d always have an equal number of songs on every album. So they were kind of continuously competing and intellectually sparring with each other, and I think that produced some great work. “And it also meant that each songwriter only had five songs each on the album, so it was their five absolute best songs, so the quality was there. And I think Lindy and I were quite harsh critics and weren’t afraid to say if something was weak or had a bad lyric or needed work on the arranging. “It was very collaborative, they’d bring in the bones of the songs and the band would arrange the songs. So when we had John Willsteed on board for that album, for example, he brought a lot of those very pretty, melodic nylon-string and acoustic guitar melodies: that’s him playing the guitar solo on Streets Of Your Town, and also the bass on that song which is quite melodic because he’s not actually a bass player and he played that bass part on a Stratocaster through an octave pedal. It gives it that really
Dive For Your Memory Rising Sydney singer-songwriter Montaigne is one of the tribute’s guest vocalist, and has had her eyes opened about The Go-Betweens’ indubitable legacy. What’s your personal history with The Go-Betweens and their music?
The Go-Betweens members Amanda Brown, Lindy Morrison and John Wilsteed, with QMF Artist Director Katie Noonan. Pic: Mick Richards
quite distinctive sound, which is a great sound but not your typical bass part.” Willsteed — who’d just joined the band prior to the album’s creation — also has fond memories of the album’s genesis. “I got a lot of joy out of just sitting there with Robert just playing acoustic guitar beds for the songs and stuff like that — I love playing music and I love making music, so I got to do a fair bit of it on that record,” he reflects. “And that’s one of the things that actually drew me to the idea of doing it live, having the opportunity to kind of revisit some of those bits and pieces that were layered into the album. “The album is quite dense in many ways, even though it has a lightness and a shimmery-ness about it, that is something that is deceptively made up of a lot of parts. A bit like how a spider’s web is a delicate thing made of gossamer, but in fact there’s a lot of complexity and intricateness in how it’s constructed.” Willsteed also firmly believes that it’s imperative that events like this help Brisbane embrace and reconnect with its rich cultural heritage. “I want to be very careful about the fact that it’s not a nostalgic thing,” he stresses. “I
think it’s very important for us to be constantly reiterating our cultural past because it’s so easily forgotten. There’s a lot of noise in the world — there’s an enormous amount of media out there and music from all sorts of times — and I think that Brisbane has never had a good relationship with its own past. We do it with buildings and we do it with culture, we knock stuff down and we just forget all about it. “So I feel like things like this [tribute] are very important, and that’s what my work is these days — it’s my academic work at university, I write about this stuff and I’m constantly looking at the past and trying to find ways of reinvigorating our history and putting it in new stories so that people can get an understanding of what a great history we actually live in right here, and that it’s not all about little Alfie Langer and Wally Lewis. God love ‘em, but there’s so much more to Brisbane than football.”
“It’s honestly not rich or populated by any means. [QMF Artistic Director] Katie Noonan asked if I’d like to be a part of the event and, after having listened to a few of the songs, I realised I’d really been missing out on something great theretofore!” Do you have a favourite track from 16 Lovers Lane? “Streets Of Your Town is great.” What are you most looking forward to about the QMF celebration of 16 Lovers Lane? “To unite with a host of wonderful artists and people for a bit of a sing and celebration of a great, venerated Australian band.”
When & Where: 14 Jul, QPAC
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 29
Album / E Album/EP Reviews
Album OF THE Week
Waxahatchee Out In The Storm Merge
★★★★½
Katie Crutchfield’s strike-rate is something of a marvel. Exceptionally prolific but remarkably consistent, Crutchfield’s songwriting hasn’t even faltered throughout the runaway success of her most celebrated and scrutinised project. If anything, Waxahatchee has only grown more ambitious and rewarding with every release. Out In The Storm continues that streak. Easily the project’s most polished effort, their fourth album was largely tracked live with Crutchfield’s collaborators under the ears of veteran alt-rock soundman John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth) and sounds absolutely beautiful. A remarkable evolution, given the bedroom studio of the project’s first effort.But, in a testament to Crutchfield’s unflappable songwriting, Out In The Storm retains the bruising honesty and intimacy of the band’s rawer recordings and performances. It’s a truly expressive piece of work. Whether awash with distortion and drums in stellar single Silver or floating on a tidal swell of organ in Recite Remorse, it’s an album that swings and moves with true feeling. Crutchfield’s collaborators (which include sister Allison Crutchfield and Sleater-Kinney’s touring guitarist Katie Harkin) are commendably tasteful in their contributions. There’s a great, shuddering sense of space to Sparks Fly, but this never overwhelms the song’s hook.In short, it’s another high watermark from an artist who probably owes the world a dud. Matt O’Neill
The Kite String Tangle
Meg Mac
The Kite String Tangle
EMI
Low Blows
★★★½
Exist. Recordings
★★★★ For an artist who emerged from the notoriously eclectic and spontaneous group Pigeon, The Kite String Tangle’s Danny Harley has always been remarkably precise in his work. In some cases, almost overly so. While understandably widely embraced, Harley’s early solo work seemed almost too delicate and beautiful; bordering on fragile.But his long-gestating debut solo album redresses that potential shortcoming. While equally as considered and precise as his early successes, The Kite String Tangle has a beautiful undercurrent of business ebbing and flowing beneath Harley’s golden vocals. It was hinted at in single The Prize — which moved from a stripped-back pulse into a blissful explosion of shivering electronics with each chorus 30 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
— and the album’s remaining tracks deliver on that promise. Harley has a knack for crafting irresistible, unique grooves from small fragments of colour and percussion. Combined with his yearning vocal style and an eclectic sense of dynamics, this creates an album that’s simply a joy to explore. Opener Waiting has a clean, UK-funky snap to its old-school breakbeats, but Know By Now is decorated with Floydian/Flaming Lips textural flourishes. It’s a record that’s consistently surprising but never jarring.One of the best Australian electronic albums in some time. Matt O’Neill
Meg Mac, aka Megan McInerney, seems to have been on a constant upswing since Every Lie snagged triple j’s Unearthed Artist Of The Year in 2014. Her debut EP got a Best Female Artist nod from the 2015 ARIA Music Awards, the same year that McInerney toured the US with D’Angelo, and she’s definitely aiming higher again with her debut LP. Track Grace Gold makes an instant impression with a mix to match McInerney’s impressive vocal - driven by chest-rumbling drums and bass and shot through quick electric stabs of funky guitar. It would almost be enough to make you wonder how close this album was to being named after the opener if the subsequent title-track Low Blow wasn’t packed with all the same qualities in equal measure.
They are both mega catchy and, most importantly, big without being bombastic. It’s a quality that McInerney has shown from the start and she seems to have just about perfected at Niles City Sound in Texas, showing the confidence and experience to rely on her abilities instead of trying to blow them out of proportion. McInerney keeps delivering on all the neo-soul promise of those first two singles - if this isn’t the cut that makes her an international household name the one that does likely won’t be far off. Sam Wall
EP Reviews Album/EP Reviews
Frankenbok Vicious, Lawless Fair Dinkum Records
Charles Jenkins & The Zhivagos
Oh Wonder
The Vamps
Ultralife
Wake Up
The Last Polaroid
Dew Process/Universal
EMI
Silver Stamp
★★★
★★★★
★★★
★
Perhaps formerly among the most derided of Aussie metal acts, Frankenbok have ignored the sniping and noisily plied their trade for 20 years. Only a couple of original members remain, however, the Melburnians’ modus operandi (hard-hitting grooves, a sizeable leaning towards thrash and occasionally death metal) packs a sonic gut-punch. Some tracks struggle to differentiate themselves from one another and Vicious, Lawless proves a few genuinely incisive hooks shy. Overall the album’s done and dusted in just 34 aggressive minutes, thus, a track like Fuck Off Or Destroy’s as subtle as the title suggests. Ugly, bare-knuckled fare with zero pretension, the ‘Bok can still ock.
Although he often goes off on interesting tangents (like albums built around a 20-piece string section or historical anecdotes about Melbourne), former Icecream Hands member Charles Jenkins here offers a collection of his classicist pop that occasionally longs for simpler times and technologies (such as the instant photographs of the album’s title and the venerable TDK D90 cassette of No Electronic Devices). Elsewhere, there’s the nearperfect suburban romanticism of Barkly Square, the wry self-cautionary tale of Everyone Loves Me and the closing Winter Ball — where sometime Zhivago Davey Lane (yes, the You Am I one) offers a splendid Brian May-inspired spiral for the guitar break.
British baby-faced popsters The Vamps are back with their second album and while their vocal talents can’t be faulted, squeaky-clean production has once again clearly been at their disposal. Whatever additional touches the four lads might have brought to the table have been smothered by Wake Up’s awful lyrics and mundane song structures, then smeared with character-less varnish. The self-titled single is anthemic and probably the most easily digestible, then the ridiculously worded Volcano follows (“Give me a tear drop/I’ll give you an ocean”) and it’s one quick descent into hell from there. One-dimensional at best just about sums up Wake Up.
Brendan Crabb
Ross Clelland
Ultralife is the second album from London-based alt-pop duo Oh Wonder. Josephine Vander Gucht and Anthony West’s voices combine seamlessly on each and every track, complemented by the familiar musical sound that helped earn them their large following — warm analogue synths mixed in with some live instrumentation, driving keys, solid beats and clean production. Album highlights include quirky, upbeat High On Humans; hauntingly beautiful, pianocarried My Friends; and building album-closer Waste. With their eloquence and knack for brilliantly simple and catchy melodies, Vander Gucht and West further prove that together they’re a force to be reckoned with.
Carley Hall
Madelyn Tait
More Reviews Online Integrity Howling, For The Nightmare Shall Consume
theMusic.com.au
Dear Seattle Dear Seattle
Listen to our This Week’s Releases playlist on
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 31
Live Re Live Reviews
Grinspoon @ The Tivoli. Pic: John Stubbs
Grinspoon, Hockey Dad, Good Boy The Tivoli 8 Jul
Grinspoon @ The Tivoli. Pic: John Stubbs
Pianos Become The Teeth @ The Triffid. Pic: Chris Di Maggio
Luca Brasi @ The Triffid. Pic: Chris Di Maggio
Luca Brasi @ The Triffid. Pic: Chris Di Maggio
Pianos Become The Teeth @ The Triffid. Pic: Chris Di Maggio
32 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
This tour. This night. It had to happen. Guide To Better Living meant, and still means, too much to too many for its 20th birthday to be skipped over, and the sold out shows right around the country - everywhere from Newcastle to Northbridge - all but attest to the fact that us Gen Xers and Xennials (it’s a thing, look it up) have been seriously gagging for a decent night out. ‘Enjoy your sleepover at Nan and Pop’s, kids - Mum and Dad are going to get fuuuuucked up.’ Okay, probably not the exact wording, but I’m sure the sentiment would have been the same. As an angsty teenager just getting comfortable with some heavier shades of rock, this record was an absolute revelation when it landed back in the spring of ‘97. I can still remember the shockwaves in the schoolyard. As Phil says in Railrider: “Something out of nowhere. Like a bullet from a gun.” That’s what it legitimately felt like. One of our grade’s more well regarded guitar slingers brought the record in to play for a few of us on the school’s big speaker system in the music block. As soon as those slabs of riffs sounded out, our collective beings were floored. Almost immediately, it was the only LP anyone seemed to have spinning in their Discmans. No one could believe that a bunch of questionable looking 20-yearolds from little old Lismore could make the coolest album a lot of us had ever heard. For my friends and I, Guide To Better Living became our soundtrack for early morning surf runs and late night hot laps around the suburbs. It was aired with almost expected regularity during weekend drinking sessions, when we’d take over an unlucky parents’ lounge or pool
For the next 45 minutes it feels like we’re catching up with an old friend. Time has passed, people have aged, but the feeling and energy remain the same.
room to drop a few glasses and fall over a bit. Grinspoon quickly became staples on the festival circuit, earning prime position on Livid, Big Day Out and Homebake bills. Although I’ve seen the band at least ten times, only this week did I realise that tonight’s concert will actually be the first time I’ve attended a Grinners headline show, such was their status as festival mainstays for the better part of two decades. “I’m a macho fucking number one champion.” The vibe is nostalgic and celebratory as soon as we enter The Tivoli’s main lobby. Guide To Better Living’s bright yellow logo is plastered across most items on the merch wall, and the album cover has been stretched out onto 2.5m x 2.5m fabric, so we grab a photo in the car with the lads. Good Boy get things off to a flyer, with no miscues or ramblings. Sonically you could mistake them for Eddy Current Suppression Ring’s younger brothers, though they’ve substituted that band’s erratic intensity with a more subtle warmness. Simply put, the guys are easy to like, and plenty of tins are raised when they drop recent nugget Poverty Line to round out their set.
eviews Live Reviews
Fellow youth Hockey Dad are taking care of main support duties, and although they barely acknowledge the now packed room to begin with, the songs speak volumes. The rocking duo are completely locked into their polished garage groove. Zach Stephenson has a vocal tone and storytelling quality that far outstrips his years, while drummer Billy Fleming just won’t fucking quit - creating a bedrock of creative rhythms that make the band’s tracks anything but ordinary. Good Boy frontman Rian King emerges at one stage to assist on vocals. I didn’t appreciate just how short his shorts were. So Tired and I Need A Woman kill. The hype around these guys is totally justified. It’s frantic scenes as everyone races around trying to squeeze in a final bar run, but we’re positioned at the ready as Grinspoon arrive to huge roars of appreciation. Guide To Better Living’s hectic one-two opening of Pressure Tested 1984 and Boundary are delivered with breakneck precision, and the pit is quick to pogo at any given opportunity. Frontman Phil Jamieson takes a moment to clock the jovial scenes before addressing us: “We’re Grinspoon, and this is Guide To Better Living.” Smoke cannons fire, Jamieson shows off some high kicking flair, while bassist Joe Hansen tucks up his knees and gets air. For the next 45 minutes it feels like we’re catching up with an old friend. Time has passed, people have aged, but the feeling and energy remain the same. Jamieson is in a playful mood, letting us know on more than one occasion that “this song’s about losing your hair”, while sporadically flailing his arms around and skipping like a loon - movements that joyously contradict every sound around him. Most lyrics are sung with the band by the majority of the sold out crowd, but some just have to be screamed, like “Happy
birthday!” in Pedestrian. A sharply styled Pat Davern delivers a choice guitar solo during Bad Funk Stripe, and everyone loves it because it’s Davern ripping a solo. Champion and Truk round out the full record with the same brute force we began with. With plenty of time still remaining until sign-off, Grinspoon take the opportunity to ice our night with a selection of choice cuts from their catalogue, but not before Jamieson sneaks to the back of the venue to strum out Guide To Better Living’s acoustic secret song, Protest, on his lonesome behind the mixing desk. By the time he’s returned to the main stage he’s found himself a jacket to wear. We’re upstairs on the balcony while all this takes place so it’s some legit theatrical magic for us. Chemical Heart extends the mellower mood for another song, but we’re fully amplified again soon after for the likes of Lost Control, Ready 1 and 1000 Miles. More Than You Are eventually completes tonight’s second stanza, with smoke and confetti filling the air. Screaming along with a huge smile, great memories from the past 20 years flash in our minds. Grinspoon have soundtracked our lives, and as Jamieson, Davern, Hansen and drummer Kristian Hopes take a bow, we let them know just how grateful we are. Benny Doyle
Luca Brasi, Pianos Become The Teeth, Maddy Jane, Speech Patterns The Triffid 30 Jun Right on the outskirts of the Brisbane CBD, crowds of live music enthusiasts with excited faces begin to pack out exaircraft hangar and now live music venue The Triffid to begin the craziness of the weekend.
The big concert venue, hosting hundreds, is ready to get crazy for a taste of Tasmanian punk rockers Luca Brasi on their Australian tour. Opening the show to a fairly packed-out venue is none other than Hobart’s Speech Patterns. While the crowd seem fairly relaxed and stagnant, it becomes pretty easy to spot a few people dancing around or headbanging in the front rows. As Speech Patterns close their set, people begin rushing in to catch a glimpse of Tasmania’s favourite frontperson, Maddy Jane. Pulling off an insanely vibrant and crowd-pleasing set, Jane
To everyone’s surprise, Violent Soho’s own James Tidswell jumps up on stage to rip into a guitar solo. gives a huge shout-out to local Brisbane band WAAX while delving right into a set any and every diehard WAAX fan would go thirst for. After shredding her track Drown It Out, it becomes impossible to find anyone who isn’t going wild. Jane certainly knows how to put on a great show! Next on the Luca Brasi lineup, Baltimore rockers Pianos Become The Teeth take the stage to deliver a beautifully relaxed set, showing that the crowd is truly theirs to own. While they don’t communicate with the crowd an awful lot, frontman Kyle Durfey makes his way around the stage with graceful movements, consistently getting the fans
psyched as they lead their set into the night. Finally, as the crowd begins to pour out chant upon chant for everyone’s Tassie favourites to take the stage, Luca Brasi arrive on stage accompanied by thunderous applause. Opening with Aeroplane, it’s impossible not to get caught within the crippling moshpit. In a crazy spectacle of bright lights, sweaty circle pits, crowd surfers plus beautifully synchronised guitar riffs and drum crashes, Luca Brasi rip into recently released track Got To Give, with patrons doing their very best to go as wild as they possibly can. Shredding out tracks Anything Near Conviction and Say It Back, it becomes impossible to find anyone not screaming the lyrics into each other’s faces. As the night draws to a close, there are chants for one more song. But finally, to everyone’s surprise, Violent Soho’s own James Tidswell jumps up on stage to rip into a guitar solo. With the crowd going crazy at their fave Mansfield boy shredding it, James reintroduces Luca Brasi as return to the stage. Going crazy with an additional song, Luca Brasi call Jane back out on stage to help close the night with crowd favourite Count Me Out. After a divine spectacle of roaring lyrics and an insane chorus, the crowd leaves the venue as a grand collective of mateship. What a wild night. Taylor Marshall
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Arts Reviews Arts Reviews
fucking good.” What’s left out of this sales pitch is that these animals are intelligent, sweet natured, loyal and gentle. One of these remarkable creatures is Okja, raised on a simple homestead in the Korean mountains as part of an international farming initiative. For ten years her days have been shared with 14-year-old Mija (played with astonishing nuance by An Seo Hyun), a young girl raised on the farm by her grandfather following the death of her parents. Mija and Okja have grown up together and are devoted to one another, so when the Mirando Corporation, which has ownership of the animal, comes to claim Okja, Mija refuses to give up hope of rescuing her four-legged friend. So far, so cheesy, but director Bong Joon-ho refuses to allow saccharine sentimentality to dull the razored edges of this dystopian fable about the realities of the meat industry and the horrors livestock face so that consumers can get their steaks, rashers and chops for cheap. There are nods to the kind of cinematic tropes this film might be likened to, a ripping urban caper with car chases and daring rescues. But it’s punctuated with moments of brutal reality, such as when Mija emerges from her desperate rescue attempt battered and bruised, or when Okja is horrifying forced into serial-mating. A powerhouse cast featuring Jake Gyllenhaal as crazed TV naturalist Dr Johnny Wilcox, Tilda Swinton as the quietly cut-throat Mirando sister, and Paul Dano as eco-warrior and Animal Liberation Front leader Jay, cement this beautiful, powerful, sobering film as Netflix’s first bona fide movie blockbuster. Okja
Okja Film Streaming via Netflix
★★★★ Cute animals are easy pray for moviemakers aiming to tug on the heartstrings, especially if those cute animals happen to have a cute kid for a bestie. But rarely have those fauna been destined for the abattoir - it’s here that Okja breaks new ground while surpassing many of its cinematic cousins for pure, soul-shaking heart. Heralded as a new and entirely organic form of livestock, the super pig is big, easy to raise, and most importantly, “tastes
Maxim Boon
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Film In cinemas now
★★★★ After 15 years, five solo movies, one scene-stealing supporting appearance and three actors donning the skin-tight spandex suit, it’s safe to assume we’re all up to speed with our friendly neighbourhood SpiderMan, correct? We know the origin of the Marvel Comics superhero — nerdy high-schooler Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider that passed on its array of arachnid abilities. We know what motivates him — Parker’s beloved Uncle Ben, who told Peter that “with great power comes great responsibility”, was shot and killed by an armed robber. Spider-Man: Homecoming, the latest movie to feature the wisecracking web-slinger, knows that you know this and as such is free to shift its focus to a part of the character’s life only briefly explored in the previous films. That is, how a teenager with more enthusiasm than expertise when it comes to his new superhuman powers learns to wield them wisely without harming anyone, including himself. What’s more, ...Homecoming offers a refreshing alternative to the majority of superhero movies by positioning itself as a high-school comedy with the spirit of John Hughes, Back To The Future and the much-loved TV series Freaks And Geeks in its veins. Don’t worry, action fans, our hero gets into his fair share of scrapes as he takes on a ruthless arms dealer. But while these scenes are exciting in a competent kind of way, the real enjoyment is watching Spidey navigate the world of superheroism... and Parker navigate the even more treacherous world of adolescence. It’s a charming detour of sorts, even in a year that has seen superhero stories move in a variety of new directions. And much of its appeal stems from young UK actor Holland in the lead, bringing an earnest, enthusiastic, bumbling and bewildered authenticity to a character. Guy Davis
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Comedy / G The Guide
Wed 12
Clea
Sean Fitzgerald: El Capitano, Noosa Heads Mark Sheils: Runcorn Tavern, Runcorn
Homegrown Battle of the Bands feat. Pet Possum + Pure Milk + Rude Rum + Andco: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley
Two Door Cinema Club
Casey Marie: The Triffid, Newstead Dead by April: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley
The Music Presents Dead Of Winter Festival: 29 Jul Jubilee Hotel Sarah McLeod: 22 Aug Crowbar Vera Blue: 25 Aug The Triffid; 26 Aug The Mills Precinct Toowoomba; 27 Aug Miami Marketta Maroochy Music & Vis Arts Festival: 26 Aug, Old Horton Park Golf Course Mew: 10 Sep The Triffid Dan Sultan: 21 Sep The Northern Byron Bay; 22 Max Watt’s At The Drive In: 2 Oct Eatons Hill Hotel Caligula’s Horse: 7 Oct The Triffid Alt-J: 10 Dec Riverstage
Thu 13 Estampa: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point Sean Fitzgerald: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads Bon But Not Forgotten feat. Simon Wright + Mark Evans + Tony Currenti + James Morley + SKENIE: Chardons Corner Hotel, Annerley Rico & The Fortuners + Dan Topp: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Pat Tierney + Bree Bullock: Junk Bar, Ashgrove
Clea-Patra Brisbane’s own Clea has been releasing a steady stream of new tunes, and now there’s a tour to showcase them all. Her Fairweather EP tour is wrapping up at The Foundry on 15 Jul with Nice Biscuit and Rory J Dawson.
All Our Exes Live In Texas + Ports: Miami Marketta (Studio 56), Miami
Fri 14
RocKwiz (Live): Moncrieff Entertainment Centre, Bundaberg
Woodes + Ash Hendricks + Meredith: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley
Phil & Tilley: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore
The Demon Drink + Mexico City + Sue Ray : Bloodhound Corner Bar, Fortitude Valley
Golden Sound + The New Buzz: The Bearded Lady, West End
Steely Dan Show: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point Young Guns : Chardons Corner Hotel, Annerley
Tiana Khasi
Drown This City + Save The Clock Tower: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley
Mama’s Hummer: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore Lizzard Wizzard + Belligerent Goat + The Flamingo Jones + Touch: The Bearded Lady, West End All Our Exes Live In Texas: The Bison Bar, Nambour Tkay Maidza + Ego: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley
Grun
Alex Henriksson + Indy Davies: Crowbar (Crowbar Black), Fortitude Valley Lotus Ship + Cakes + Arpier: Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise The Teskey Brothers: Junk Bar, Ashgrove Inkaza: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End
Thicker Than Water
RocKwiz (Live): Logan Entertainment Centre, Logan Central
Soulful songstress Tiana Khasi may be wrapped up in her current residency throughout July, but that isn’t stopping her from taking on the support slot for Ladi6 at The Foundry. Catch them alongside Jesswar on 14 Jul.
Tay Oskee: Mandala Organic Arts Cafe, Mermaid Beach
In Real Life + Julia R. Anderson + Tall Pines + Start Together: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley The Cloacas + Wavevom + Mammoth: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley Christian Patey + Isabel + Indigo Daze: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley Jack Beats: Wharf Tavern, Mooloolaba 36 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
The Swamps: Miami Marketta, Miami City Over Sand + Bella Maree: Night Quarter, Helensvale Queensland Music Festival: 16 Lovers Lane feat. Lindy Morrison + Amanda Brown + John Willsteed + Dan Kelly + Danny Widdicombe + Luke Daniel Peacock + Steve Kilbey + Mark Callaghan + Ron S Peno + Katie Noonan + Tyrone Noonan + Montaigne + Sam Cromack + Jen Boyce + Tim Nelson + Zoe Davis + Sahara Beck + Kirin J Callinan + Ben Salter + Bridget Lewis: Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), South Brisbane Mojo Webb + Will Sarginson: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna High Tropics + Fight Ibis + Big Whoops: Solbar, Maroochydore
Grun, Forrest, Grun Sydney band Grun are among the underground talent assembling on 21 Jul for Woolly Mammoth’s Ether Sessions, which celebrates a variety of bands in one single night. Playing alongside Grun are Little Dust, The Steady As She Goes and Requin.
Selfish Sons: The Flying Cock, Fortitude Valley Ladi6 + Tiana Khasi + Jesswar: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley
Gigs / Live The Guide
Frenzal Rhomb
The Stained Daisies + Lucas Melhop: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna Pandamic: Solbar, Maroochydore
HH3: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore BUDD + FAT + Chopper Division: Sonny’s House of Blues, Brisbane RocKwiz (Live): The Arts Centre Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise
A Rhomb In The Sack Officially nine studio albums deep, Frenzal Rhomb are bona fide touring veterans. Their latest effort, Hi-Vis High Tea, has given the punk rockers yet another chance to hit the circuit as The Triffid plays host on 21 Jul. Kayzo: The Met, Fortitude Valley DIET. + Jouk Mistrow: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Clare Bowen: The Star (formerly Jupiters), Broadbeach Pete Murray + Ben Wright Smith: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley Peter Combe with The Bellyflop In A Pizza Band : The Zoo, Fortitude Valley I Bet You Look Good on The Dancefloor with Various DJs: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley
Sat 15
Harrison King & The Lost Tribe + Marcus Blacke + Phil Smith: The Bearded Lady, West End Teddy Killerz: The Biscuit Factory, Fortitude Valley
The Floating Bridges + Sarah Frank + Casey Marie: Night Quarter, Helensvale All Our Exes Live In Texas: Old Museum, Fortitude Valley Beard & Moustache Competition 2017 feat. Dave Orr Band + more: Palmwoods Hotel, Palmwoods The Rolling Stones Experience: Park Ridge Tavern, Park Ridge Peter Combe: QUT - Gardens Point (Theatre), Brisbane
Game of Thrones Trivia: Eatons Hill Hotel, Eatons Hill
Pandamic: Miami Tavern (Shark Bar), Miami
Ryan Delaney: El Capitano, Noosa Heads
Jai Waetford: Old Museum, Fortitude Valley
Mark Sheils: Runcorn Tavern, Runcorn
The Teskey Brothers + Bree De Rome: Sonny’s House of Blues, Brisbane
Homegrown Battle of the Bands feat. Shorelines + Die For Mushies + Agents of the Enemy + Elle Jane & The Forces: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley
Pete Hunt: The Bearded Lady (Front Bar), West End
The Babe Rainbow
Jessica Says + Emerson Snowe + May Lyn: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane In Hearts Wake + Crossfaith + While She Sleeps + Polaris: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley Mass Sky Raid + Dollarosa + These Four Walls + Rival Fire + He Danced Ivy: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley Busby Marou: Warwick Town Hall, Warwick I Bet You Look Good on The Dancefloor with Various DJs: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley
Casey Marie
Moon + Vyrion + Greytomb + Graver + Somnium Nox: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley
Salacious + Forest + Meridian Theory + Chapters of Entropy + Trinatyde: New Globe Theatre, Fortitude Valley
Wed 19
Dillion James: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End
Clea + Nice Biscuit: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley
Julian Wood + DJ Nato + DJ Cain: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads
Kimmy Crew: Miami Marketta, Miami
Ben Salter: Junk Bar, Ashgrove
Warped Tour Club Takeover with APATE + All Hours + The Lost Knights + Various DJs: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley
Miss Mandy Swings: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point
Gypsy Adventures: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End
RocKwiz (Live): The Events Centre, Caloundra
Home Organ Party Experience with Barry Morgan: The Bison Bar, Nambour
Tay Oskee: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley
Ben Salter: Junk Bar, Ashgrove
Salacious + Forest + Meridian Theory + Chapters of Entropy + Trinatyde: Chardons Corner Hotel (Back Room), Annerley
Heading Home Casey Marie has been busy dropping stellar singles and accompanying music videos, but she’s heading back to her hometown to play The Triffid’s Acoustics Wednesdays. The young talent will be popping up on 12 Jul.
Sun 16 Brass Roots Live: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point Khan Harrison: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads
Babes & ‘Bows The Babe Rainbow have lined up a bunch of gigs to celebrate the release of their debut self-titled album. The trio will be heading to The Northern on the 20 Jul to serenade their fans along with Stella Donnelly.
Empanic + Gentle Persons Club + Sun In Alchemy: The Bearded Lady, West End
Salacious + Forest + Meridian Theory + Chapters of Entropy + Trinatyde: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley
Home Organ Party Experience with Barry Morgan: The Bison Bar, Nambour
Triffid Acoustics with Matty Rogers: The Triffid (Beer Garden), Newstead
Japandroids + WAAX: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Green Chimneys Records Presents Various Artists: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley Songs That Made Me feat. Deborah Conway + Clare Bowditch + Hannah Macklin: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley
Mon 17
Thu 20 Jeff Usher: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point Shannon Sol: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads Salacious + Forest + Meridian Theory + Chapters of Entropy + Trinatyde: Coronation Hotel, West Ipswich
RocKwiz (Live): Brolga Theatre, Maryborough
Lindsay ‘The Doctor’ McDougall + Emmy Hour + Adam Nigro: Crowbar (Crowbar Black), Fortitude Valley
Tue 18
Pete Murray + Ben Wright Smith: Great Western Hotel, Rockhampton
Tyler Cooney Trio: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End
M.E. Baird + Mexico City: Junk Bar, Ashgrove
Mark Sheils: Samford Valley Hotel, Samford Village
Troy Cassar-Daley: Kedron Wavell Services Club, Chermside
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 37
Comedy / G The Guide
Eddie Gazani: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End
Pete Murray + Ben Wright Smith: The Star (formerly Jupiters), Broadbeach
Tkay Maidza
Fanny Lumsden + Tobias: Longreach Civic & Cultural Centre, Longreach
Songs You Know & Love with Pete Cullen: The Triffid (Beer Garden), Newstead
Freckle & Floyd + Ryan Boyd: New Globe Theatre, Fortitude Valley
Sun 23
Lloyd Spiegel: Old Museum, Fortitude Valley
Brisbane City Big Band: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point
Jesse Morris + Rob De Maasi: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore
Troy Cassar-Daley: City Golf Club, Toowoomba
Bright At Night feat. Hey Baby! + The Jumpkicks + Atticus Chimps + The Stilts + Tracks: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley
Jack & Jay (Overthrow): Crowbar (Crowbar Black), Fortitude Valley Kaikai feat. Detox + Aja: EI8HT Nightclub (formerly Family Nightclub), Fortitude Valley
Draggs + Pious Faults + Liquid Face + Cold Cuts: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley
Fri 21 Louise Denson Group: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point Kaerulean + Lavidius + Blood of the Lannisters + Agents of the Enemy + Black Banner + Evil/Twin: Chardons Corner Hotel, Annerley
Amelia & The Grizzly: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End
Carry On Fledgling brewmeisters ROAM are hosting an event billed as “a fusion of live music and art”, enlisting Adelaide MC Tkay Maidza and visual artist Ego to kick the night into high gear. Their launch goes down at The Brightside 14 Jul.
Sunshine + Audun + Lockhart: Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise
Troy Cassar-Daley: Nambour RSL, Nambour
Sat 22
Broadbeach Country Music Festival feat. Round Mountain Girls + Tomato Tomato: Night Quarter, Helensvale
Aussie Pride Band: Albany Creek Tavern, Albany Creek
Pete Murray + Ben Wright Smith: Racehorse Hotel, Booval All Our Exes Live In Texas
John Malcolm: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna Highlife + Bassidi Kone: Solbar, Maroochydore Richie Langford: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore Mexico City: Sonny’s House of Blues, Brisbane
Texes All Our Exes Live In Texas have quite the avid fanbase, as is evident through their crowdfunded debut album When We Fall. The four-piece will be stopping by The Bison Bar on 14 Jul as part of their national tour.
Charlie Marshall + Sabrina Lawrie: Junk Bar, Ashgrove Salacious + Forest + Meridian Theory + Chapters of Entropy + Trinatyde: Kirra Sports Club, Coolangatta The Wet Fish: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End The New Savages: Miami Marketta, Miami Mass Sky Raid + These Four Walls + Chelsea Rockwells: Miami Tavern (Shark Bar), Miami
38 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
Pete Murray + Ben Wright Smith: Redland Bay Hotel, Redland Bay Frenzal Rhomb + Totally Unicorn: Solbar, Maroochydore Kristy Apps: The Bearded Lady (Front Bar), West End
DJ Set with Totally Unicorn: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Tyron Hapi + DJ Courtney Mills: Eatons Hill Hotel, Eatons Hill
Shades 1st Birthday with Iyaz: Lost Bar & Nightclub, Brisbane
Deafcult + Pleasure Symbols + Ultra Material + Spirit Bunny: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Liam Bryant & The Handsome Devils: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley My Friend The Chocolate Cake: The Judith Wright Centre, Fortitude Valley MitiS: The Met, Fortitude Valley Georgia Fields + Phia + Sky + Sea National: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Frenzal Rhomb + Totally Unicorn: The Triffid, Newstead The Stone Fox + Rat King Cole + Spookhill + The Spaces: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley Pendulum DJs: Wharf Tavern (The Helm), Mooloolaba Grun + Little Dust + The Steady As She Goes + Requin: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley
Trina Lincoln + Held to Ransom: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point DJ Kurt.is + DJ Brett PM: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads The Scam + Up The Anti + Plan Of Attack + The Knock Backs + Those Rat Bastards + Riot Punch + Goatzilla: Chardons Corner Hotel, Annerley Abramelin + Eternal Rest + Disentomb: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Troy Cassar-Daley: Ipswich Civic Centre, Ipswich Soulshift: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End Blues Arcadia: Miami Marketta, Miami
Kieran T Stevenson + Strangely Enough: The Bearded Lady, West End Latrice Royale + Jujubee: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Green Chimneys Records Presents Various Artists: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley Afternoon Show with Ambition Road + Thee & Me: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Americana Sunday Session with Tomato Tomato: The Triffid, Newstead
Tue 25 Kerry Raywood: Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro, West End Mark Sheils: Samford Valley Hotel, Samford Village
Frenzal Rhomb + Totally Unicorn: Miami Tavern, Miami Friendly Fire + Whiskey & Speed + Roadhouse + Concrete Lips + Periapsis + Captain Cake + The Surge + King Kongo + Son of Fallan + more: New Globe Theatre, Fortitude Valley Georgia Fields + Phia + Hayley Grace + Keegan Sparke: Night Quarter, Helensvale BB Factory + Blake Saban: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna Calais + Dosed: Solbar, Maroochydore Parker Street Dub Club: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore Lloyd Spiegel: Soundlounge, Currumbin Mid Year Prom with We The Prom Kings: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Balloons Kill Babies: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley
Drown This City
Drown Your Sorrows Melbourne post-metal outfit Drown This City have enlisted Save The Clock Tower to help out on their winter tour to promote their single Bend/Break. It all goes down at Crowbar Jul.
WANT TO MAKE A SPECIAL WEEKEND EVEN MORE SPECIAL?
Come get up close and personal with some of the rising stars at Splendour In The Grass when they hit the Sonic Sherpa tent to sign merch and meet the punters, with many big acts still to be announced!
DD DUMBO | AMY SHARK | JULIA JACKLIN | VERA BLUE | BAD//DREEMS | DAN SULTAN KIRIN J CALLINAN | LANY | THUNDAMENTALS | TOVE LO | SAN CISCO THE PEEP TEMPEL | THE WILSON PICKERS | ASGEIR | HOCKEY DAD
12/360 Logan Rd Stones Corner, 4120
(07) 3397 0180 sonicsherpa.com.au THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 39
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