10.05.17 Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
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188
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4 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
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THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017 • 5
Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
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Mere Women
One Good Show Had Us All Fly
Ayluminating
Ayla
Sydney-based hip hop heroes Spit Syndicate have announced a five-date tour around the country this July in support of new album One Good Shirt Had Us All Fly.
Brisbane singer/songwriter Ayla has returned with plenty of news to please fans. Shallow End, the first single from her upcoming EP, is out and she has also announced an east coast tour this June.
WAAX
House Of WAAX The first single off vibe-punk group WAAX’s forthcoming EP Wild & Weak was just released and is a taste of what to expect from their July headline tour. 6 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
Credits
Arts / Li Credits
Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Publisher Street Press Australia Pty Ltd
New Heights
Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast
Sydney faves Mere Women have announced the release details for their upcoming third studio full-length, Big Skies, along with a run of tour dates in support. You can expect both in June.
National Editor – Magazines Mark Neilsen Editor Bryget Chrisfield
Arts & Culture Editor Maxim Boon
Where and when? For more gig details go to theMusic.com.au
Gig Guide Justine Lynch gigs@themusic.com.au Editorial Assistants Brynn Davies, Sam Wall Senior Contributor Jeff Jenkins
How to tell if your boss is a robot: 1. Stab him in the neck with a fork 2. Apologize 3. Beg him not to call 911, you’re already on parole
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A Class Of Their Own Melbourne four-piece Gold Class have recently signed to Barely Dressed Records, released new single Twist In The Dark, and announced a tour of Australia. Fans can look forward to witnessing the poppunk spectacle in July.
Gold Class
THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017 • 7
Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Minnie & Liraz
Fiercely competitive bridge playing grandmothers take centre stage in the latest new release from Melbourne Theatre Company, Minnie & Liraz, from lauded playwright Lally Katz, known for her hilarious and poignant creations. It kicks off 12 May.
Feis Rois
Cel-Slick The second round of acts for the culturally rich National Celtic Festival in June has been announced. Among the new acts are Scotland’s Feis Rois and award-winning Irish composer Daire Mulhern.
175 The number of streams that equates to one sale, now that streams will count towards determining the ARIA album chart rankings.
8 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
My Fair Lady
Still Fair Lady Frequently described as the perfect musical, My Fair Lady is returning to Melbourne. Directed by Dame Julie Andrews, the 60th anniversary production opens at the Regent Theatre 12 May.
Arts / Li Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Hoodoo You
Bringing their iconic rock across Australia again, Hoodoo Gurus and You Am I have announced another Australian tour. The bands have shared stages over the past 25 years and are ready to wow audiences again in July and August.
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THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017 • 9
“G
After th heir photo shoot for The Music wra r ps, Pumaro rosa’s Isabel Munoz-Newsome, Nick ck Owen and Jamie Neville sit down with Anthony Carew tto discuss their relief at Aussie roa ad food and how they don’t do things gs “bitesized”. Cover and feature piics b byy Kane Hibberd.
10 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
etting a little bit overwhelmed is good,” says Isabel MunozNewsome, singer/guitarist of London quintet Pumarosa. She’s talking about being on stage, and those moments where things either go wrong or oh so right, and she’s lost in her band’s spectral, psychedelic alt-rock. “I had this really bad jetlag yesterday; this weird feeling like I was in an elevator, like blood was rushing up and down my body. And sometimes, when I dance [on stage], I jjust spin and spin and spin. And, playing last night, I thought: ‘I really shouldn’t do this, I’m dizzy already.’ But I did it anyway, and I was staggering around. I enjoyed - for a moment not being in control.” The day after playing a sold-out show in Melbourne, Pumarosa - Munoz-Newsome, drummer Nick Owen, guitarist Jamie Neville, bassist Henry Brown, keyboardist/ saxophonist Tomoya Suzuki - have just finished their cover shoot for The Music. In the studio space, strewn with spotlights, reflectors, and drop-sheets, the outside world is far away. But the highlight of their first Australian tour has been time spent in the outdoors; stepping off an overnight flight and heading for a swim at Coogee Bay. “It’s been really wonderful,” admits Owen. “Because on a rainy day in North America, where you’re only stopping at service stations,
and the only food you can find is totally processed, touring is pretty bleak.” Pumarosa’s first Australian tour has been a particular tonic for Neville, who, like so many Englishmen before him, came out here as an 18-year-old on a gap year. He ended up collecting money door-to-door in the far-flung Sydney suburbs for “a really fucked up company, just the worst people”. “So,” Neville says, “it’s been so nice coming back, because last time I was here I was just really depressed.” Suzuki, the band’s “natural adventurer”, is keen to see whatever he can. He’s got a million stories: working in a nature reserve in the Ecuadorian rainforest at 19 (“tracking monkeys for scientists and studying orchids”). Showing up at a UK festival with a “saxophone and a passport”, leading to an odyssey of hitching throughout Europe, from Barcelona to a “psy-trance” rave outside of Budapest. Spontaneously leaving a Romanian festival to travel for two months with “11 crusty hippies” through former Yugoslavia down into Turkey, and driving around Morocco for months “picking up hitch-hikers”. The band are engaging conversationalists, equally capable of talking about Brexit or Australian colonial identity, “Because Australia is such a beautiful place,” Neville thinks, “you must have this next-level colonial guilt; like
Music you’re living in a stolen paradise.” They touch on the migration of populations to cities and of daily life to social media. They broach Sydney lockout laws: “When you’re touring,” says Suzuki, “what stands out the most are these strange little regulations you have in different places; like, I was so confused by all the rules in Sydney about drinking.” When it comes to talking about their band, though, Pumarosa can find it hard to find the right words. “When you’re in band - performing music that you’ve made, words that you’ve written everything feels so on the line. Every word I sing, every gesture I make, it’s all me,” says Munoz-Newsome. “But, just like it can be hard to describe yourself to people, it can be hard to describe your band. I find doing the social media really hard because it’s so self-conscious and self-referential. And for me, the moment of being creative is the opposite of that. When something is coming out, is being imagined, it’s very personal and very pure. [Once] the label asked me if I could take photos or make a video of me working on the album artwork. And I was like, ‘No! No way! I really can’t do that!’ The act of making art, being honest in that moment, that’s quite frightening and quite sacred. To have that just be, like, Snapchatted, it’s just wrong.” “Making music,” says Neville, “you’re in the middle of a process that is completely freeing. We often have this collective, unspoken idea that we all just instinctively understand, and it will reveal itself to you as you’re doing it... We all just come together, in the one room - there’s no writing on a computer, building things or swapping files - and smash our ideas together, force something out of it. It’s very tactile.” “We’re reacting to sounds, following them, as much as ideas,” Owen offers. “Like
Sonic Youth, I think we’re often working with the energy of the guitar.” “I think we have a Sonic Youth-esque mentality: make pop music, but do it with a kind of anarchic tonality,” Neville furthers. “I would definitely define it as pop music: we’re not avant-garde, we make songs. But, within that, there’s lots of different perceptions. Some people might just look at us as straight pop, someone else would think our songs are all too long and difficult.”
then with the band as they slowly came together. Their debut single Priestess finally came out in 2015, and now their debut LP The Witch is here. The album strings the band’s long songs - none are less than four minutes, four are more than six - together; moving from the “very subdued” opener Dragonfly through to the “really mental, high energy” closer Snake. “Moving from this cinematic opener, that sets the mood, then building up towards this crazy, psychedelicHare Krishna climax,” Munoz-Newsome says, “it feels like a journey, more than a set of songs maximising their position for streaming services. We liked the way that felt. But maybe that’s a bad idea, marketing wise.” “Finishing an album,” says Owen, “you’ve planted a flag, marked out this territory. After years of work you can finally say: this is a finished work, this represents us.” As to just how it represents them, Pumarosa still aren’t sure. “We all have particularly different viewpoints, and there can be conflict in that,” says Suzuki. “I like that. If everyone agreed, it would just feel too safe. We’re not a single genre idea or a singular sound. You can listen to techno, or folk music from Africa, and connect those ideas, and draw influence from anywhere along that line. Everything is on the table.” “Anything goes,” says Munoz-Newsome, “as long as you do it wholeheartedly. The worst thing you can do is fake it.”
It feels like a journey, more than a set of songs maximising their position for streaming services. We liked the way that felt.
IT’S BARBICAN, NOT BARBICAN’T
“I think the fact that our songs are very long, and the words are quite dense, is a kind of response against that [digital] climate,” says Munoz-Newsome. “We’re not providing that instantaneous, bite-sized content. We’d hope people would be happy that we’re offering something that exists outside of that.” Growing up Munoz-Newsome never saw herself being in this position. Not just as the face of a budding buzz-band, but even making music. “I wasn’t writing songs when I was a kid,” she says. “I didn’t want to be in a band at all. It never even occurred to me. And then it just happened.” Of course, Pumarosa didn’t just happen. After studying visual art and painting and thinking that she’d find work as a scenographer, Munoz-Newsome was drawn onto the stage, first as a participant in performance art works. She began writing her first songs eight years ago, and spent years working on them, first just with Owen,
“I got into doing performance through performance art,” says Pumarosa frontwoman Isabel Munoz-Newsome. The singer’s stage presence - commanding, wild, free - owes, she thinks, a lot to these beginnings, helping out friends in the art world. “I found it really exciting, and dangerous. There was one piece that was quite horrific to watch. I did it [in 2008] with my friend Ed Fornieles. There was a big crowd, in the Barbican gallery, and I was there in my casual clothes. But [beside me] was a couture cocktail dress and make-up, and the crowd was instructed to take me from being me, as a regular person, into this female creature; get me
What: The Witch (Fiction/Caroline)
undressed, dress me up, put on my make-up. And my instruction was to resist. “There was the sound of a drumbeat, and the audience was instructed to do this, and the crowd just rushed me. Soon, I was in the air, upside-down; I wasn’t being hurt, but to see it was horrifying. It was a really violent act, a really intense work. Sometimes, still, I’ll meet people, and we’ll realise we have Ed in common, and they’ll say, ‘God, did you see that thing he did in the Barbican?’ And, I’ll be like ‘yeah, that was me!’ Knowing that you can go that far, and you’ll still be alright, it can embolden you. You think ‘I can do anything.’” THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017 • 11
Music
Acting Out Tim Rogers’ new album started life as a script. As the songwriting took over the other stage directions fell away, leaving a collection of character-driven imaginings that are both typical of Rogers, but also beyond the rock pig empire he’s so far built. By Liz Giuffre. To read the full interview head to theMusic.com.au
“I
was just in the company of some performers who were either my age or older. And the older gentlemen and ladies interested me far more, and I guess I’ve always been looking for role models,” Rogers says of the process of writing this time around. “As I’m getting older, I was desperate for someone who was living a life of exploration, but also some kind of discipline in performance. And actors need this incredible amount of discipline, it’s probably why I’m a terrible actor.” Those of us who have seen Rogers
As has been told to me by a couple of actors who I respect greatly, I’m a performer, not an actor.
perform as a bona fide thespian in stage productions like 2012’s The Story Of Mary MacLane By Herself, might be a little surprised by this admission. “Oh, I know I am,” he says matter of factly, backing up the assertion. “I mean, I’m enthusiastic. As has been told to me by a couple of actors who I respect greatly, I’m a performer, not an actor. And I would have found that a tremendous insult years ago, but it’s true. My sister is an exceptional actress, and dear friends I have are, but I just don’t have that discipline. [Instead] I’ve just got enthusiasm and a great face for distances.” With that, Rogers can’t help himself - selfdeprecation is always within arms reach. New album An Actor Repairs was inspired by the experiences of a 12 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
man Rogers imagined to be a few decades older than himself, drawing on the mentor quest, perhaps, but also a playbook for getting older generally. “[The line between autobiography and fantasy] is completely blurred with me - I mean, it’s probably mostly autobiographical because I’m a little fascinated at how I’ve ended up,” he continues. “To be 47 and be living this faux-boho life that I do, you’re caught in some very unusual circumstances that maybe wouldn’t be as funny to me at 27, but at 47 they’re fucking hilarious. People can be very open to you and they feel fine with being very critical to you - they comment on your appearance and your singing voice or the way you carry yourself, and people feel at liberty just to do it. And I do leave myself pretty open, but you do get yourself into some unusual circumstances. And they keep me awake, so I write songs about them to try and make sense of them.” While there’s not necessarily a thorough narrative on the album, there are thorough themes. Particularly compelling is the emergence of Rogers’ work supported by collaborations. Rogers’ generosity towards other artists has always been inspiring - and with each new release that kindness of spirit continues to impress. This time around vocalists like Clio Renner stand front and centre alongside him. Their duet, One More Late Night Phone Conversation, lifts the album - a collaboration that started after a pairing on the TV show RocKwiz. Then there are the more unusual collaborations, especially the divine clarinet duets that appear with his vocals on Age (A Couple Of Swells) and Forgiveness (the latter originally written for Rogers’ seven deadly sinsbased cabaret show Saliga a few years back). To call the result “transcendent” is perhaps a bit daggy, but it’s also completely bloody accurate. “On clarinet is Aviva Endean, who is incredible. I sent her the song [Age] and let her sit with her for a couple of weeks and that’s what she came up with, they’re her creations. I just wrote the initial melody and the chords and some little lines on piano are mine, but again Clio, who plays the piano, I said, ‘When you hear things, please go with them, don’t stick to the script,’ so she did. So hopefully I guess my job is to present songs and then give them an environment where they feel really comfortable to work within the song and find a melody within it, and then we’ll let everyone’s respective publishers fight it out.”
What: An Actor Repairs (Four Four/ABC/Universal) When & Where: 12 May, Workers Club, Geelong; 13 May, Melba Spiegeltent; 14 May, Flying Saucer Club; 20 May, Yarraville Club
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Music
Who Is The Last Young Renegade? They say don’t meet your heroes, but thankfully, as All Time Low’s humble frontman Alex Gaskarth describes the modus operandi behind their latest album, Last Young Renegade, to Uppy Chatterjee, we realise we have nothing to worry about.
W
e compare our current interview locations - he’s in his hotel lobby in the small English town of Bedford, rehearsing for their UK tour. “It’s very quiet in this room. I’m in the lobby, I feel like I’m kind of causing a scene by talking here. I think everybody can hear me yelling over everything.” Well, we’re kind of in a windy spot. “Are you on the high seas?” Gaskarth giggles.
There’s always shades of grey to every person and no one is all good and all bad.
It’s this relaxed, chirpy sort of humour that has seen the Baltimore pop punk quartet surf to the top of their game since their 2004 debut EP, The Three Words To Remember When Dealing With The End. From writing songs after school in year ten to selling out arenas around the globe as they near 30, it’s this mature hindsight of their years in the limelight that has shaped their seventh offering, Last Young Renegade. Gaskarth boldly self-reflects that the record is a chance for him to “confront some of [his] own personal stories”. “It’s written about characters, but a lot of the stories kind of come from my own experiences and the experiences of the people closest to me,” Gaskarth explains. With an over-arching “plot”, it’s the first time 14 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
he, as the band’s primary songwriter, has written an album this way. “[Since So Wrong It’s Right and Nothing Personal] we’re all in different places!” he exclaims of their past penchant for writing uplifting, summery tracks. “We’re not teens anymore and I think we’ve learned a lot about music and the way we write and the way we approach music - I think one of the big things at this point is to try and keep it fresh and finding ways to reinvent what the band does. So I think the way we approached this record was kinda a way to do that, it was a device to push us forward.” Aside from perhaps guitarist Jack Barakat’s romantic relationship with Playboy bunny Holly Madison back in 2010, the band have always given controversy a wide berth, never giving critics or social media’s pitchforkwielding squad something to fire up about. It was surprising, then, to see Gaskarth publicly state that Last Young Renegade would address all “the different versions of me that other people might have met over the years, through the ups and the downs, in the public eye and behind closed doors”. Does the band have indiscretions we don’t know about? “I don’t necessarily think it’s about drama, as far as being problematic or doing anything bad or wicked or evil, y’know? I don’t think that’s ever really been us,” Gaskarth confesses. “But I definitely have moments I’m not proud of that are personal, and in my relationships, the way I’ve dealt with people one-on-one and things like that. “There’s always shades of grey to every person, you know, and no one is all good and all bad, so I think that’s a lot of what this record is about - that if you could see yourself in a mirror and see all of your goods and bads, would you be happy with what you see?” Despite the strong lyrical theme, the frontman is tentative to call the record a concept record, seemingly in respectful salute to all the bands that have done concept records “so much better than us”, he says with a laugh. “Yeah, y’know, that kinda keeps getting thrown out there, but I hesitate to say it’s a concept record because it’s not- like, I love concept records and I love bands that have done concept records. I think of, like, Pink Floyd and Coheed & Cambria and Green Day and My Chemical Romance and theirs are much more fully fleshed out than this one is, y’know? “I think a lot of those have these stories that go along with them and ours I think is more- it has these overarching themes and sort of threads that connect these songs together. So in that sense, it has a story and a plot, but I hesitate to call it a concept record ... I don’t wanna put that label on it and have people go, ‘Well, I don’t get it!’” he says with a goofy voice, “’Cause it’s not quite that deep.”
When & Where: 14 May, Festival Hall
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THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017 • 15
Music
Frontlash
They See Me Rollin’
Mooy Beuno Groovin The Moo this past weekend was the absolute bomb, as expected. Head to the Live section to get the full rundown.
Bliss N Eso The local hip hop group knocks the mighty Ed Sheeran off the top of the ARIA album charts. Well played.
Community Radio Funding
Lashes
We don’t often give many nods to the Federal Government in here, but the $6.1 million in extra funding for community radio is most welcome.
Bliss N Eso
Backlash Trumpbull
Did anyone else cringe at the meeting between Donald Trump and Malcolm Turnbull? Actually, does any meeting between Donald Trump and a world leader not look cringeworthy?
Binge Eating
There are entirely too many boozy bites coming out lately. Liquor filled chocolate and BAC boosting donuts are all well and good, if kind of dumb, but the grilled cheese martini doing the Facebook rounds at the moment is not on.
Email Hacks Anyone else getting their conspiracy theories on after the French election campaign was hit by an email hack, much like the American one?
16 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
Fran Keaney from Melbourne outfit Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever explains “impossible waterfall” jams to Brynn Davies and the reason behind their “cumbersome name”.
A
ccording to Fran Keaney, who at the time of our call is frantically trying to set down lyrics for a new song, there’s “no real answer” behind the choice of the band’s verbose title. “It’s supposed to be a vague feeling. We used to just be called Rolling Blackouts but we had to change that because there was a band overseas with the same name and it wasn’t gonna work. It didn’t occur to us to shorten the name from Rolling Blackouts,” he laughs. “One of our earlier songs was called Rolling Blackouts and it was about Tom [Russo — guitarist] holed up sick in a hostel in Cambodia, so it’s informed by that. But also a lot of our themes have a connection to the idea of home and away — being somewhere and wanting to be somewhere else. Disconnected from someone else. Inland versus coastal. We just like the vibe and the audacity and the melodrama and the vagueness.” The Melbourne quintet have undergone numerous transformations since their inception as high school garage band Aura in 2003. After working in separate bands for a few years, the current set-up features Tom Russo and brother Joe, Joe White, Marcel Tussie and, of course, Keaney. “We never really gave it a tilt with the older ones and I
don’t think we really needed to,” Keaney comments on the band’s evolution. “We recorded something and put it out on MySpace, but other than that we didn’t even put things into community radio; it wasn’t quite up to the standard... But from those first bands you can probably trace our band. We’ve always played a similar type of music — jangly pop — since 2003, but we weren’t very disciplined about it and only now in this third iteration have we tired to execute it a bit better. We’re playing shows now where as before you’d play as the supporting band on a Tuesday night and then have a rest for two months,” he laughs. Keaney says their latest drop, The French Press EP, was approached in more or less the same way as their previous releases. “It’s sort of a collection of songs from the three songwriters in the band; two from me, two from Joe, two from Tom. It’s always been a communal thing, it’s never been a case of ‘I’ll be the singer, I’ll take all the credit for your song.’ That’s a song that you wrote, so it works if you sing it. It’s an organic thing, it’s a collective. On the EP’s title track, Keaney states, “We went about writing our different verses separately. Tom knew that his would be about being overseas having cast everything aside, adrift, and my one was gonna be back home: similarly lost, but trapped in a mundane day to day office life. We had the idea for a motif — French press — the idea of a coffee pot versus the French media. We thrashed out the song just jamming — we call these jams ‘impossible waterfalls’, like that picture of a waterfall that shouldn’t exist the way that it is, that just doesn’t stop flowing... It’s probably our favourite song to date.”
What: The French Press (Ivy League Records) When & Where: 11 & 12 May, The Tote; 2 Jun, Karova Lounge, Ballarat; 3 Jun, The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine
WED 10 MAY
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SCREEN SECT FILM CLUB
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THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017 • 17
Music
To Err
MASTERCHEFS
GO ROGUE Well it’s official, the MasterChef Australia hosts are a bunch of loose units. First, former MasterChef judge Marco Pierre White, who already looks like a wholly terrifying man even when he’s not cheesed off, has apparently locked horns with fellow judge Matt Preston. And not just a minor tiff. White has vowed “on his mother’s grave” to “get” Preston as revenge for comments made on the Kyle And Jackie O Show last year about White’s son and his alleged penchant for drugs and prostitutes. Meanwhile, fellow judge George Calombaris, already in hot water after it emerged he’d underpaid staff at his restaurant, Hellenic Republic, by a whopping $2.6 million, may be facing assault charges, after shoving a 19year-old at a football match, after the lad fired a few jibes at the chef about his wages scandal. We’re not sure seeing Calombaris throwing down with a teenager is anyone’s idea of a good time, but put Matt Preston and Marco Pierre White in the ring, and you better believe we’d be in the front row for that death match. Ding ding, round one!
18 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
Underground Lovers return with their second post-hiatus album Staring At You Staring At Me and a run of live shows. Founding member Vincent Giarrusso talks with Chris Familton about the theme of the album and harnessing the human element in machines.
A
s is their trademark, Underground Lovers have created a new album that draws from a wide range of styles - acoustic songwriter, electronica, shoegaze, psychedelia and indie rock. They marry those sounds together with seamless synchronicity but never lose their grasp on the art of songwriting. “At the end of the day, it’s about songs and songwriting and we’re really interested in the emotion of songs and how they can evoke feeling,” reflects Giarrusso. “The initial idea for this album was just a bunch of songs about Melbourne - St Kilda, Richmond, Warrandyte. As we started structuring the album, we realised it was about the things we always write about, which is male/female relationships within a chaotic and unbalanced world. Those ideas drove it. There are lots of ideas and themes that recur in our music over the years. That’s just how it works,” Giarusso reveals. “Having a few years between albums gets you thinking more and thinking deeper about what you want to do. I think that comes across on the album. It’s quite complex at
times even though we’re always striving for simplicity.” The album title refers to a world where human contact is diminishing and as well as exploring that subject lyrically, it’s also reflected sonically in their songs. “Instead of people looking and staring at each other they’re looking at screens. We tried to get that idea across in the technology we used. We all come from the school where we think that computers are dumb instruments and just tools to use and that they have to suit your needs instead of you following what they do. Whenever we use loops we try to make them as manual as possible so we are in control and it still has some human imperfection.” The realities of life, full-time jobs, having to organise six people and waiting times for German-pressed vinyl meant Staring At You Staring At Me has had a long gestation process, explains Giarrusso. “It was hard to get six people together when everyone is busy. We recorded it over six months and we didn’t know how it would turn out until the end. We pushed ourselves and found a new sort of structure for the long-play which was surprising for us. That kept it fresh.” The great story behind Underground Lovers is that after a nine-year hiatus, which Giarrusso puts down to the “twists and turns of human life” and describes personally as a tough time, the band are still creatively as strong as they ever have been. “When we came back together it was brilliant. It’s just the same as it ever was which was fantastic. It was worth the wait. We’re getting a lot of young people coming to shows which is exciting. They’re saying they like our new stuff better than the old stuff which is great and surprising!”
What: Staring At You Staring At Me (Rubber) When & Where: 12 May & 11 Jun, Northcote Social Club
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THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017 • 19
Music
Who The Hell Is Bjork? EVERY CLOUD HAS AN EGGY LINING Despite a quarter century’s contributions to his art, Brant Bjork tells Rod Whitfield he can’t hang up his boots just yet.
Just when you thought smashed avo couldn’t make brunch any more pretentious, along come cloud eggs to jump the breakfast shark. The hot new food trend has lit Instragram up with images of billowing, fluffy eggs, more or less assuring that before long cafes across the nation will be serving them up and charging $12 a pop. Much like their avocado counterparts, the trick to cloud eggs is far from cordon bleu. It’s basically a regular egg with the yolk separated from the whites, the whites beaten then baked. Fancier versions have herbs and cheese added, but even so, it’s still going to be one pricey way enjoy your brekkie staple. Babyboomer outrage will be off the charts!
20 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
B
rant Bjork is a living legend, especially in heavy music circles. For over a quarter of a century he has contributed strongly to some of the greatest and most important heavy and stoner rock bands and releases ever. From the seminal Kyuss to Fu Manchu to Vista Chino to Mondo Generator and his superb solo works, his CV is untouchable. It seems inconceivable that he is still searching for the defining music and moments of his career. But according to the man himself, as he speaks to us while driving through Santa Monica, California, this is indeed the case. “I’m just feeling like I could give more,” he states vehemently, “I’m not content with what I’ve achieved. I’m just being honest, I’m still searching for the holy grail.” He still feels as though he has plenty of creative juice left in the tank, and that the journey is just as important as some intangible end point or the reaching of an ultimate goal. “As I’ve said many times before, I think of myself as an artist, more than a musician,” he says, “and I’ve lived the life of an artist, I’m in pursuit of something, and there’s a good chance I just might not find it. But the joy is the process, as silly as it sounds it really is just a voyage of selfdiscovery, I’m still trying to figure out who the
hell I am, obviously I make rock records.” He laughs. So do you feel that if you ever did find that musical ‘holy grail’, would that be the moment you hang up your guitar, your mic and your sticks? “Well, that’s just it,” he agrees, “if I was able to make a record, or perform or make some sort of musical contribution that was exactly what I needed and wanted to do, then maybe I would hang it all up and go fishing.” In the meantime, while he is still searching for that elusive defining moment of his career, he is bringing his awesome solo band out with him for another tour of Australia. He is absolutely no stranger to our shores, having been here many times in the various iterations of his career. In fact, he has actually lost count of the number of times he has toured our shores. “I feel great about it, I always love to go to Australia,” he enthuses, “I’ve never bothered to keep count of how many times, it’s a lot. As long as I can just keep coming down.” And for followers of Bjork’s solo career, he promises a very crowd-pleasing setlist for the fans coming to see the shows in May. “We released our first record with this current line-up last year, called Tao Of The Devil,” he says, “so we’re going to be coming down and playing quite a bit from that record, plus a whole bunch of oldies, and we’re just going to come down and have a good time.”
When & Where: 11 May, Corner Hotel
In Focus PBS Radio Fes t i va l
PBS presenters Wendy Tonkin, Adriana & Rick Howe. Pic: Melissa Cowan
One Small Step is all it takes to support PBS 106.7FM, and that step is signing up to join in the fun during PBS Radio Festival 2017 this 15 - 28 May. If keeping PBS in orbit isn’t enough for you, members who sign up will receive an exclusive music collection including tracks from The Peep, Tempel, Broads and more, all from PBS’ Studio 5 Live series. Signing up also means entering the running to win a shiny new Vespa, among other prizes. Completely independent and non-for-profit, PBS continues to use the festival to provide a platform for underappreciated and underrepresented artists. THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017 • 21
Music
It Boys
Living Legends
It, Pennywise
The latest trailer for the upcoming It remake just dropped, and it’s offered a more nuanced look at the psychology behind Andres Muschietti’s much anticipated reboot of the Stephen King classic. It’s already been announced that the new film will be the first of two about a town stalked by a killer clown, the supernatural embodiment of the deepest fears of a ragtag group of misfit tweens. The latest trailer focuses on the members of the ‘Losers Club’. They are those plucky social outcasts familiar from most coming of age movies, but even in this two minute preview, they show a lot of heart and endearing comradery. The second instalment of this new It franchise jumps ahead to when the members of the Losers Club are all grown up, so it will be interesting to see how those relationships translate between films. This latest trailer is also notable for its very fleeting glimpse of Pennywise – King’s inspired horror nemesis – but that’s precisely why it’s so chilling. Bill Skarsgaard felt like an odd choice when the young actor was cast in this role – originally immortalised by the legendary Tim Curry – but any reservations we might have had about him pulling off the perfect Pennywise are definitely gone now. The film hits the big screen this September.
22 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid is ready and raring to bring the band’s new work to Aus on their upcoming tour, as Rod Whitfield discovers.
W
hen a legendary band like Living Colour release a new album, it’s hard not to sit up and take notice. Virtually 30 years ago the band released their debut LP, Vivid, and have subsequently released only a further four full-length studio records, (taking into account, of course, the hiatus the band took in the late ‘90s.) It’s definitely been quality over quantity for these titans of hard rock, funk, jazz, hip hop and experimental. 2017 will see the release of the band’s sixth studio album, Shade, and iconic guitar player Vernon Reid is more than happy to talk about its direction. “This record is funny, because a lot of what inspired it was thinking about re-connecting hard rock and metal to blues,” he explains, “but then we went with a hip hop producer, so it’s an interesting split in terms of what we wanted to do. But it worked out really well, it’s not a blues-rock record per se, there’s a feeling underneath it all that really talks about that, and I’m really happy with the way it’s turned out.” Reid explains that, while much of the material was written prior to the current political situation in America really kicking in, many of the themes and vibes created by the new record are directly relatable to what’s going on in The States right now. “We’ve been working on this record for a while, but
a lot of the stuff that’s going on right now, even if this record wasn’t written about that, Trump hadn’t even started campaigning, but a lot of the things that we talk about on the record are really relevant. “For example, we have a song on there called Two Sides, it’s all very atmospheric, and George Clinton makes an appearance on it, and in a lot of ways the song has something to say about how divided we are. There’s ‘two sides’ to every story, we have this duality that’s forced on us, left and right, black and white, male and female, all of that, and the lyrics speak of exactly where we are right now.” The band are heading Down Under in May for a tour that takes in all mainland state capitals, and Reid is very grateful to be getting away and getting some relief from what’s happening in his home country at the moment. “It’s always great to go down to Aus,” he enthuses, “so many great cities, and it’s just a wonderful vibe there. I’ve always enjoyed coming down. We always look forward to playing for the Australian people, and getting away from all that stuff for a while, we’re excited about it.” And in an extra special treat for the Aussie fans, the band will be playing some of the brand new tunes from Shade prior to its official release. “Yep, we definitely are,” he states, “we’re definitely playing some Shade, I’m really looking forward to getting some reaction to that from the Aussie fans.”
When & Where: 12 May, 170 Russell
Indie Indie
The Romeo Knights
Shadows At Bay
What’s your favourite song on it? All of them! We think they work together well, but maybe From The River To The Sea or the title track. We’ll like this EP if we like... Drop C alternative grunge with a new school feel. When and where is your launch/ next gig? 13 May, The Workers Club. We are super psyched!
EP Focus
T
he Romeo Knights’ latest album, Spires, is the result of extensive collaboration between bandmates Luke Price (drums), Sam Murray (Bass), Adam Kurzel (Guitars and vocals) and producer Matt Robins. “We liked [Robins’] previous work with Palace Of The King, Dandy Warhols, Dallas Frasca,” Kurzel explained, “plus he has a mighty ‘fro.” Recorded in West Melbourne in Coloursound Studios,”Spires musically relates to the ideological control and repressive nature of corporation, beliefs and egocentric individuals casting shadows on the unsuspecting in a manipulative way,” Kurzel says of the finished album. However Spires went through quite the transformation before it ended up where it is now, and nothing was finalised until they tested cuts from the album on their tour. Kurzel recalls, “Some songs morphed into alternate versions on tour and the better ones stuck with us.” As for what actually ended up on the album? That came partially down to chance. “Agreeing on songs to use for the album, some we knew had to be on there, some just couldn’t be left off, usually we flipped a coin or settled Greco-Roman wrestling style.” Although decision making may have resulted in the occasional bout of physical combat, Kurzel has nothing but praise for his bandmates — “Luke brought the rhythm to life with ambience and considered patterns. Sam had a bass sound all to his own. As a three-piece, the bass really becomes the link between the melody and rhythm.” When it comes time to play the tracks live, the band may have to channel their inner Houdini — “As a three-piece, there will need to be some crafty pieces of illusion going on. Maybe a curtain, possibly a straight jacket.”
When & Where: 12 May, Cherry Bar
Website link for more info? facebook.com/ShadowsatBay
Answered by: Alex Myers EP Title? This is What We’re Made Of How many releases do you have now? This is our first official release so we are very excited! Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? Donald Trump. Just kidding. More having positive outlooks as opposed to cynical views on things I guess, and getting inspired to push through when things aren’t the best.
Opal Ocean
Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? Many things, but I remember listening to a lot of Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories during the studio days. What’s your favourite song on it? I’m quite fond of Sleight Of Hand right now... but it changes over time.
Album Focus Answered by: Nadav Tabak Album title? Lost Fables Where did the title of your new album come from? We wanted to create a world full of stories and each one is represented by a track.
Will you do anything differently next time? Yes, I think we’ll take the making of the tunes from a different approach next time and let them breath more. When and where is your launch/ next gigs? 13 May, Compass Pizza. Website link for more info? opalocean.com.au
How many releases do you have now? Two, one EP and the debut album. How long did it take to write/record? About a year all up, we took our time with the writing of the songs.
THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017 • 23
Music
Postgraduate Panic Maggie Rogers tells Anthony Carew of her transition into adulthood and dealing with her rising stardom.
I
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,
My life has been changed by people behind computer screens, totally anonymous people that I’ve never met.
24 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
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; 23 Jul, Forum Theatre, Melbourne
Performers ALL OUR EXES LIVE IN TEXAS MEGAN WASHINGTON IMOGEN CLARK Jon Stevens JACK CARTY NEIL FINN PLUS MORE
Thursday 4 MAY The Studio-Sydney Opera House TICKETS $195 - ARTOFMUSIC.COM.AU Art of Music Live supports Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy, an inspirational charity that transform lives through music.
A GREAT EVENT SUPPORTING A GREAT CHARITY NORO.ORG.AU
@noroartofmusic #artofmusic #noroau THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017 • 25
Eat / Drink Eat/Drink
Smartphones ha ave revvolutioni ol nised pr pre etty much evvery fa facet fe, from m the ways we socia iallise, to o th the way we of modern life get our ne news fix ix, and d even how we fall in love ve. Anot otther he ansform med byy our de evi vic ces is how w we ea at. area of dailyy liliffe tra Wh hether you’re yo a proud ud hom me cook ok ko or ad addicted ed d tto ea ating hese are the food ap apps you ou n need d to dow ow wnl nload d today. y. out, the
For the stay-at-home
For the health
For the gourmand
For the restaurant
chef: Epicurious
conscious: Lifesum
recluse: Foodora
lover: Zomato
Home cooking apps are ten a penny, but this one is the leader of the pack. Epicurious is one of the most trusted recipe apps on the market, and with a beautifully conceived user interface, more than 30,000 tested and member-rated recipes, and extra functionality such as a shopping list manager and voice-activated commands for hands-free cooking, it’s easy to see why. You’ll find a range of different dishes from gourmet showstoppers to last minute munches for chefs of all experiences.
Eating right is only part of the secret of looking and feeling good. Lifesum goes beyond merely helping you track your nutrition by allowing users to build an all-around healthy lifestyle. Choose a specially tailored fitness plan, track your food intake either by inputting manually or by using the inbuilt barcode scanner, and select your goal, whether that be general wellbeing, weight loss or toning up. You can track your progress and get handy feedback too.
Want all the delicious variety of eating out without having to step outside your front door? There are many food delivery apps, but the most princely among them is undoubtedly foodora. Unlike many takeout apps, it only features a curated list of restaurants that serve up grub of the highest calibre. It also has a very handy tracking function that shows you exactly where your order is on the road and precisely how many minutes until your tucking in.
With its superbly streamlined interface, allowing users to compare restaurants by rating, distance, cuisine and popularity, Zomato - formerly known as Urbanspoon - is a must-have app for those looking to make the most of meal times whatever city they happen to be in. Check out menus, browse image galleries, read reviews by critics and food fans, and even make your reservation at this one-stop virtual shop catering to all your dining out needs. Bon appetite!
26 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
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THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017 • 27
Album / E Album/EP Reviews
Clowns
Album OF THE Week
Lucid Again
Poison City Records
★★★★½
Melbourne punks Clowns always deliver a sonic punch to the face. Whether it’s their chaotic live shows or potent albums, one always feels bruised and battered after a run-in with these, uh, clowns. That short, fast, rampant sound has felt like a steady onslaught across the five-piece’s previous two releases, and their latest Lucid Again is no different. But there’s a heck of a lot more going on here - a psychedelic bent, some straight singing from shouty frontman Stevie Williams - and it works, making for an interesting listen and opens the door that little bit wider to newcomers. New listeners can lean in to the opening title track - Williams’ gentle croon acting as a guide through twangy guitars - before the band pulls shirts over heads and delivers a punch to the guts with tracks like 15 Minutes Of Infamy and punchy single Dropped My Brain, solid flag bearers of Clowns’ sound. But Like A Knife At A Gunfight, Pickle and Noise In The Night delve back into swirling psychedelic guitars in between rampant riffs. Even Destroy The Evidence and closer Not Coping, both brutal bangers, open things up with a steady pace for motifs and breakdowns to shine. It’s this yin and yang approach that makes Lucid Again Clowns’ best to date. Carley Hall
The Pinheads
Girlpool
The Pinheads
Powerplant
Farmer & The Owl
Anti
★★★★
★★★★
The Pinheads are a rough mixture of punk rock - in the best possible way. Opener Second Coming is more a wall of loud jangle than anything else - but damn it’s fun. An older school pseudo surfer vibe takes over for Fight Or Flight, complete with the type of pop sensibility that Iggy himself would approve of. They take this trip a little further again with a supersonic high-pitched chorus in Wildfire, almost early B-52s in terms of its schlocky sci-fi-ness. The pace drops a bit for Slave, and after a slow intro Tough Luck takes us back to age 11 again. I Wanna Know is a bit simpler in its approach but still catchy (especially with descending backing vox), while Mudman provides a rare organicish moment - almost folkie and echoey - but a welcome break of pace. Mudman allows for a
The biggest difference between Powerplant and Girlpool’s previous folk punk releases is the addition of drums into the mix. Girlpool’s sound has always been somewhat characterised by its minimalist combination of guitar, bass and raw, exposed vocals, but the addition of drums enhances the slow burn of their climactic songs which takes the album to a whole new level. Lead single 123 does a great job of setting the tone of the album - it’s rich, dynamic and builds in texture like most of the tracks on Powerplant. Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker like to contrast softer moments of intricate guitar lines and their sweet, vulnerable voices singing in harmony with heavier moments of distortion, dissonance and crashing drums - both of these extremes
28 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
moment to stop and reflect, as well as being a solid tune that is still quite dark. The rock returns with Gimme Back, this time The Stones meets best of Aussie indie part Custard, part You Am I, part early Mick and the boys. To end, Spooky Ballad does what it says on the tin and is delivered with country guitar and echoey vocals, peppering the main protagonist’s heartache. Nicely done. Liz Giuffre
demonstrated on Corner Store and Soup. The Los Angeles duo showcase their songwriting talents and manage to match the quality of the instrumentals and vocal deliverance with both witty and emotive lyrics on songs like Sleepless, Your Heart and driving album closer Static Somewhere. Noteworthy are the lyrics on the deeply poetic It Gets More Blue “You know it don’t say much/The things that he did/ You’ll build him a tower/He’ll burn you a bridge”. With honest lyrics and memorable melodies, Powerplant is undoubtedly Girlpool’s best release yet. Madelyn Tait
EP Reviews Album/EP Reviews
Dead Letter Circus
Voyager
The Endless Mile
Independent
Ghost Mile
Ten To Two Records
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
LA Takedown
Best Troubador
Domino
II
Spunk
★★★
★★★★
★★★½
★★★½
Reworking heavy material into something a bit softer is an itch a lot of bands feel the need to scratch, and Brisbane lads Dead Letter Circus haven’t denied themselves that pleasure. The Endless Mile takes tracks from more than a decade’s worth of EPs and albums and tweaks their progressive bent into some unusual territory. The fast and furious pace of The Mile, The Space On The Wall and Lines transitions well into toe tappers instead of head boppers, but the reimaginings don’t always fly Disconnect And Apply and Are We Closer flirt with the addition of keys like a drunk Liberace, turning Here We Divide into some kind of calypso-funk beast.
Voyager’s versatility and personality have endeared the Perth act to a loyal audience which readily contributed to this album’s crowdfunding campaign. The faithful who pledged their hard-earned have been duly rewarded with polished melodic progressive metal gems. Perhaps a more ambient grower in parts than recent releases, there’s nonetheless earworms littered throughout. Playing with collective hearts and heads, their grooves pack a hefty punch, juxtaposed by lush synths and stirring solos. Danny Estrin’s engaging vocals afford To The Riverside, This Gentle Earth (1981) and the title track greater resonance. Sparingly utilised death grunts inject welcome counterpoints. Cerebral and emotionally striking, Ghost Mile is everything quality modern prog should be.
He’s sold truckloads of records in the US, earned the respect of Johnny Cash et al, but Merle Haggard hasn’t really registered on hipsters’ radar - until now. Self-confessed mega-fan Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy performs Best Troubador, his tribute album to Haggard, with tender passion and diligence, as every conceivable nuance of each song is explored. Unashamedly and unrepentantly country, there’s a familiar warmth throughout, particularly on the likes of I Always Get Lucky With You, a delicate ode that’s made all the more touching by Oldham’s sweeter than peaches croon.
Not quite the movie from ‘89 about tough cops and bank robbers, LA Takedown is Aaron M Olson’s instrumental project. If we were living in the ‘80s, LA Takedown would’ve been writing theme songs for shows like Knight Rider, MacGyver and Miami Vice. Widely described as Baywatch Krautrock, Olson and his band work the ‘80s cheesy theme song formula. While sounding like rare vintage nuggets of library music, it’s the element of kosmische in the mix that adds texture and steers this album away from being pure cheese. A playful safari on the moon with distinctly small screen cinematographic aspirations.
Carley Hall
More Reviews Online Dean Lewis Same Kind Of Different
Christopher H James
Guido Farnell
Brendan Crabb theMusic.com.au
Paul Weller A Kind Revolution
Listen to our This Week’s Releases playlist on
THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017 • 29
Live Re Live Reviews
Against Me! @ Groovin The Moo. Pic: Lucinda Goodwin
Allday @ Groovin The Moo. Pic: Lucinda Goodwin
Alice Ivy @ Groovin The Moo. Pic: Lucinda Goodwin
L-FRESH The LION @ Groovin The Moo. Pic: Lucinda Goodwin
Thundamentals @ Groovin The Moo. Pic: Lucinda Goodwin
Amy Shark @ Groovin The Moo. Pic: Lucinda Goodwin
30 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
Groovin The Moo Prince Of Wales Showground 6 May
It’s possible that the entire supply of glitter existent in Bendigo and beyond has found its way to the Prince of Wales Showground this morning. Approaching cars are filled to the brim with bright-eyed teens chugging servo coffees and piling all possible shiny substances on their faces as they pull up to the parking lot. With shimmering cheeks, lips, eyes and even beards, punters file into long lines to make their way into the venue as Lanks’ lush set pours out through the grounds and its surroundings, getting everyone pumped as they pass through the bag check. The bass pulsating through the speakers of the Moolin Rouge stage drags us deep into the undercover area where the lights are just beginning to brighten the stage for L-FRESH The LION’s set. The combo of L-FRESH and hype queen Mirrah, backed by their tight-as-can-be band, create an amazingly energetic vibe. Delicious chords complement L-FRESH’s equally engaging content, especially in Pray For Me. His lyrics about diversity, strength and migration hit home for plenty of punters, who passionately scream along to standout lyric “So excuse my smile when they try tell me what struggle is” in Get Mine. His commentaries on social injustices are delivered with the smoothest of flows and infectious positivity. Allday pulls a massive crowd for his set on the triple j stage, where punters push to get a little closer to the barrier and can be heard throughout the showgrounds, rapping along to verse after verse. Gracing the Moolin Rouge stage next is Alex Lahey, who puts on a stellar show. With a band that packs a punch, and a seriously comfortable stage presence, she’s got fans yelling along to song after song, especially Let’s Go Out, proving
the strength of her already super dedicated fan following. The fashion on the field is never boring, with wild outfits beckoning at every turn. Bindis now seem to exist on every possible part of people’s faces, dashikis are worn on top of hoodies, kimonos are paired with flower crowns and fishnets, and
L-FRESH and Mirrah, backed by their tightas-can-be band, create an amazingly energetic vibe. sombreros with ponchos. There’s even Native American headdresses... It’s an interesting mix, to say the very least. Keeping the crowd moving and the energy at its peak is Courtney Clarke - better known as CC:Disco! She’s completely killing it, mixing total hit after hit. After Clarke tells us Townsville’s crowd moved more than Bendigo’s, punters take it upon themselves to prove her wrong. They kick it up a notch as she drops Inner Circle’s Bad Boys, which serves as the perfect antidote! Stepping up tp the plate to cover Montaigne’s set is none other than electro-soul superstar, Alice Ivy. “I’ve got big shoes to fill!” she tells us, and damn does she fill them! With the help of guitar whizz Luy Amiel, and a guest appearance from rapper Charlie Threads, she destroys the stage with a ferocious funk frenzy of retro samples and energetic vocals to kill. It’s an undeniably impressive performance that leaves everyone wanting more. Fans can be heard screaming the chorus of 333 from all the way on the other side of the grounds as Against Me! smash
eviews Live Reviews
through their set on the triple j stage. They’re a total powerhouse of an act; a true testament to their years of experience. Over on The Plot stage, Kinder are providing the beats for those keen for a boogie. The only slight complaint here is the size of the dancefloor, which is situated at the very corner of the massive warehouse. A little more space would go down a treat, especially for those requiring a bit more space for their moves. “You can do anything to want to do,” finishes The Smith Street Band’s frontman Wil Wagner after an inspirational speech about pursuing what you want to in life. Death To The Lads is one of the loudest sung tracks of the entire day, with the chorus being yelled out from those front and centre
[Alice Ivy] destroys the stage with a ferocious funk frenzy of retro samples and energetic vocals to kill. of the stage all the way to those waiting in line for the toilet or kicking back on the grass with a burger. Slumberjack provide all the jams for those ready to get loose and limber as the day starts to get colder and a slight drizzle begins to fall. The bass is throbbing and the half-time drops are the perfect afternoon pick-me-up. Taking the place of Tash Sultana is Amy Shark who has the crowd totally transfixed, especially for Middle Of The Night. She’s definitely inducing the feels this afternoon, as she sings her heart out on the smoky
stage, with plenty of people spotted literally bawling their eyes out to this track. Adore is belted out and cute little lovers are seen screaming the lyrics to each other. It’s seemingly an emotional time for many. Clearly making waves in Australia is UK rapper, Loyle Carner with a large number of punters ready and raring to rap along to his hip hop tunes. They go wild for BFG, screaming “Of course I’m fuckin’ sad, I miss my fuckin’ Dad!” along with him. Clambering over the piles of cans and plates of food scraps, we make our way through the crowd contentedly swaying along to Milky Chance. As everyone belts out Cocoon, we follow the fairy lights to where Thundamentals are getting the crowd groovin’ as the night gets darker. Appearing from a haze of smoke onto a black stage illuminated by white lights spelling out her name is George Maple. Adorned in a metallic hooded ensemble with killer thigh-high boots to match, she struts onto the stage and totally takes control. With moves to kill and vocals to match, it’s hard to take your eyes off her, especially for Sticks And Horses. At this point of the evening, the air’s thick with the weird scent combo of stale rum, hot chips and wet grass. It’s too dark to see what food scraps we’re probably standing on, but this doesn’t keep punters from partying to PNAU on the matted grass, now flattened and damp with remnants of the early afternoon shenanigans. There’s a lot of wild dance moves happening when Snakehips take over with a solid selection of their old and new jams. Gold goes down an absolute treat with long-time fans. “Who still fucks with Soulja Boy though?!” they ask the crowd. Plenty in the crowd, surprisingly, as we’re transported to the strange times of 2007 as Crank That blasts through the speakers before they close with All My Friends (of course).
Summery festival fashions of the sunny afternoon are now thoroughly impractical as freezing winds blow through the
Ears prick up from the first blaring note that bleeds out of the speakers. grounds, so in an effort to avoid hypothermia, punters jump around to The Wombats, happily screaming along to 1996. Techno Fan brings upon multiple mini mosh pits as fans fling themselves around for the chorus, only to resume their head bobbing stance for the verse in anticipation to do it all over again. With cold noses and frozen fingertips, some clutching steaming hot coffees for that last bit of sustenance, ears prick up from the first blaring note that bleeds out of the speakers. Violent Soho are the kick in the face that punters need to rocket into total overdrive for that one final caffeinated, cacophonous rager before most make a beeline for the exit. Muscle Junkie goes down an absolute angry treat as fans scream “Fuck you, fuck you, I can’t trust you!” in gloriously bitter choral unison. Those seeking some solace from the icy weather head straight to Dillon Francis’ set for one last opportunity to show off their moves. He drops an intense selection of electro jams for a final few dangerous displays of enthusiastic choreography before punters are forced to wind up the evening - cold, completely content and most probably covered in glitter.
More Reviews Online theMusic.com.au/ music/live-reviews
The Darkness @ 170 Russell The Wombats @ Festival Hall Milky Chance @ Melbourne Town Hall Hans Zimmer @ Rod Laver Arena Toby Martin @ NGV Ali Barter @ Northcote Social Club Green Day @ Rod Laver Arena Crystal Ignite @ The Workers Club
Natasha Pinto To read the full review, head to theMusic.com.au
THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017 • 31
Arts Reviews Arts Reviews
Away
Theatre Until 28 May, Malthouse Theatre
★★★★ This is perhaps the most audacious and yet most sensitively handled production in Malthouse Theatre Artistic Director Matthew Lutton’s canon of Malthouse genre-busters. His previous remakes have had the advantage of at least some degree of theatrical ownership, using the bare bones of a plot as the scaffolding for original dialogue. Tackling an existing text has not blunted Lutton’s ingenuity, however. There is something innately prosaic in Michael Gow’s much loved Away, as it explores how the hairline cracks in a family’s relationships can split wide open under the stress of a holiday getaway.
But despite this seemingly ordinary premise, Lutton and his cast approach this text with the same careful attention to the cadence and canter of words as you’d expect from Shakespeare. Indeed, the presence of the Bard is writ large Away throughout this staging. Rather than allowing ‘60s Australiana to dictate his production’s identity, Lutton mines the Shakespearian subtext, repeatedly conjuring the fantastical spectres of A Midsummer Night’s Dream from the play’s opening, invoking the purging maelstrom of The Tempest (with a truly breathtaking scene change) at the play’s pivotal centre, and closing with the realisation of nature’s mortal limits at the final scene’s reference to King Lear. Throughout, the character of Tom (Liam Nunan) — a terminally ill aspiring actor, whose bright future will never be realised — is ever-present, watching as events unfold. Much like Puck or Ariel, he may already be an otherworldly creature, released from his earthly bonds. Lutton’s rendering transforms Gow’s yearning parable about the toll of denying secret emotional burdens from a work of harmless escapism into a feverish, woozy hallucination, where the peaks and pits of human emotion are amplified to near psychosis. And yet for all its stylistic hyperbole, the cast still unearth the ultimate truth of these characters with total clarity. Lutton’s vision for Gow’s great Australian play may not connect with more conservatively minded theatregoers, and despite admiration for this staging, you wouldn’t want every production of Away played this way. But the vivid intelligence that resonates throughout this production is indicative of an artist in the pursuit of something other to the current status quo. The fact that he’s willing to take such uncompromising risks and stay steadfastly true to his creative principles is precisely why Matthew Lutton is one of the most exhilarating directors in Australia today. Maxim Boon
32 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
Get Out
Get Out
Film In cinemas now
★★★★ It’s a truth universally acknowledged that white people are, in fact, The Worst. But just in case you needed a refresher on the subject, by all means check out Get Out, the debut feature film from writer-director Jordan Peele, perhaps best known as one-half of the comedy duo Key and Peele. Peele’s appreciation for the horror genre often bled into sketches on the duo’s TV series, and it reaches full bloom in this unsettling, mordantly funny, tremendously-crafted and thought-provoking “social thriller” (to use Peele’s phraseology). Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) has been dating Rose (Allison Williams) for a few months, and it’s time to meet the parents. This is usually nerve-wracking enough but Rose, who’s white, hasn’t informed her parents that her new man is African-American, something that can’t help put Chris a little on edge, despite Rose’s claims her dad is so small-l liberal he would have Obama for a third time. And, indeed, Dean and Missy (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener, perfect casting) are friendly and welcoming. Sure, a few things at the isolated family estate seem a little strange, then a lot strange, but it’s got to be the usual clumsy, well-intentioned actions of people trying desperately to make a good impression or at least not make a bad one, right? Spoiler alert: there definitely could. But it’s to Peele’s credit that the awkwardness of a poorly-phrased attempt at a compliment put the audiences as much on edge as the traditional horror-movie scenarios (the filmmaker is equally adept at both things, by the way - he’s clearly an apt student of genre conventions but also has a keen eye for everyday encounters full of meaning and portent). Get Out puts you in the hands of a supremely confident writer-director, one with clarity of purpose and strength of imagination. It’s chilling and confronting in all the best possible ways. Guy Davis
OPINION Opinion
Howzat!
Local Music By Jeff Jenkins Sting Street In person, Helen Shanahan seems fragile, as if she might break at any moment. But her songs are sturdy, and on stage and in the studio, she is in complete control. Helen made her debut album, Every Little Sting, in Nashville with Brad Jones, an American producer with a knack for making great records with Australian female artists, such as Missy Higgins, Melody Pool and Mia Wray. It’s a crowded market, but Perth’s Helen is world class, as good as it gets. She launches Every Little Sting in Melbourne this week, playing at Some Velvet Morning in Clifton Hill on Saturday night. Every Little Sting often sounds as if it’s the story of a woman at war with herself. “I’m so stretched out,” Helen sings. “I don’t know where I begin. Paper thin, oh how I wish I could throw it all in.” Elsewhere, she adds: “I can’t find a cure for why I’m so unsure.” First single, I Only Hide, documented Helen’s battle with anxiety, with the clip depicting Outside Helen (“the parts of me that were positive, free and fearless”), and Inside Helen (“the parts of me that felt fearful,
isolated and negative”). Second single, Camouflaged, continues the theme, with Helen pondering, “What would I be like if I wasn’t always hiding away?” Howzat!’s friend Mara is always moved to write whenever she hears something new from Helen. “It’s gorgeous, stunning, beautiful,” she said after hearing the album. “The lyrics are dark, but the feel of the music is warm. If that makes sense.” It makes perfect sense. Helen Shanahan makes heartbreak sound heavenly. Every Little Sting is magic.
Tim Time Tim Wheatley’s debut album, Cast Of Yesterday, was a cracker. Word is his second album is even better. Pillar To Post will be out on 25 Aug.
What’s It All About, Alfie? Where is Alfie Arcuri? Don’t know who he is? He won The
Helen Shanahan
Voice last year. How can we take a show seriously when its strike rate is so bad?
Good Times The ABC has started shooting The Easybeats, a two-part mini-series to air later this year.
Broken Model Models have had to cancel this week’s Ding Dong gig - singer Sean Kelly has broken his finger.
Hot Line “I love my team, but not after what they’ve done to me”- Underground Lovers, St Kilda Regret.
THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017 • 33
OPINION Opinion
OG F l ava s
Mary J Blige
n the ‘90s Mary J Blige and Faith Evans were cast as R&B rivals. Guided by Sean ‘Puff Daddy’ Combs, Blige, always dramatically confessional, was crowned the Queen Of Hip Hop Soul. Combs then discovered the quiet storm that was Evans, signing her to his fledgling Bad Boy Entertainment. Today she’s invariably identified as the widow of The Notorious BIG (aka Christopher Wallace) - the New York rapper slain in 1997 amid hip hop’s bicoastal war. In 2017, both divas are making comebacks. Latterly, Blige has challenged those who would typecast her as ‘R&B/soul’ (in 1999 she duetted with George Michael on a pop cover of Stevie Wonder’s As). She boldly collaborated with UK producers Disclosure on 2014’s The London Sessions (TLS). However, the singer returns to traditional hip hop soul on Strength Of A Woman. In the throes of an acrimonious divorce from husband/manager Martin
I
Urban And R&B News With Cyclone
Senyaka
Business Music When Your Club
I
t seems I can’t go a month without Needs A Boss praising the most forward tropical With Paz label on the planet, Man Recordings, and its luminary Daniel Haaksman. This time “Damn Dan” teams up with French producer extraordinaire Feadz (of Ed Banger Records)
34 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
and they take us on a fresh freestyle ride. Feadz featured on the Man label back in 2009, in a burst of baile funk frenzy, now the Capri Fruit EP is Feadz second endeavour, and together they team the French synth punch lines with freestyled, percussive, electronic 707 drum patterns. The collaboration in styles is not too dissimilar to South African house and kwaito, this is the direction that township funk needed to put it back on the map. With no vocals, it stands more to be a soundtrack to Europe’s future dance crews, having united dance sounds of Europe and Africa. Diamond Dealers EP Lialuma (Offering Recordings) explores the deeper side of Afro club. Most of the EP travels at approximately 122bpm, using variations of the syncopated drum pattern. The opening track Impi stands out in the club with the memorable kwaito chants and non demanding Durban styled ocals. Rush Hour will issue re-issue Senyaka - Bayanyonyoba feat DJ Bakstina later this month too! Vale Senyaka.
‘Kendu’ Isaacs, Blige expresses pain, anger and bitterness (the otherwise jazzy Set Me Free is full-on). But, ultimately, she extols resilience. The marquee guest, Kanye West raps on the affirmative opener (and current single) Love Yourself - produced by the lesser-known DJ Camper, with distinctive sampled horns. The angular Telling The Truth, courtesy of Canadian deep houser Kaytranada, could be a TLS outtake. Meanwhile, Evans has taken inspiration from Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable - that virtual duet with Nat King Cole - for The King & I. The narrative-driven project repurposes BIG recordings both recognisable and “unheard”. Additional vocalists include West Coast veteran Snoop Dogg. Most surprisingly, Lil’ Kim, Wallace’s mistress (and Evans’ real ‘nemesis’), blesses Lovin You For Life.
Superpitcher
Dance Moves
I
t’s difficult now to recall how novel the “Kompakt With Tim Finney sound” seemed circa 2001. At that time, I remember being blown away by the melange of influences that fed into the German label’s burgeoning minimal tech-house sound: Basic Channel and DJ Pierre and Theo Parrish and Herbert, sure, but also film scores, chart-pop, German schlager, post-punk, Brian Eno and Roxy
New Currents
OPINION Opinion
Music. All of these disparate inspirations combined to form a distinctly European, explicitly romantic form of techno. No single artist epitomised the aesthetic so much as Aksel Schaufler, whose early efforts as Superpitcher (see Tomorrow, Mushroom) located an unexpected common ground between minimalist drone and tuneful pop. Superpitcher subsequently released two vocal-heavy albums at a slothful pace, both of which were fine but which perhaps suffered contextually from the normalisation of Kompakt’s (and Schaufler’s) aesthetic preoccupations across the field of European dance music during the ‘00s. For his proposed third album after a seven-year lag, The Golden Ravedays, Schaufler has taken a different tack: the album comprises 24 tracks, each between ten and 20 minutes in length, released in pairs across 12 records, one for each month of 2017. Which means that, currently, only about a third of this projected six-hour behemoth is available — but that third is by itself a pretty amazing assemblage of music. Schaufler claims that these songs are a homage to the rave music of the ‘90s, but it’s difficult to spot a direct stylistic connection other than that this music is more distant from the pop music affectations that dominated his previous albums. Instead, it more closely resembles early efforts such as Heroin and Grace: mostly funereal, exploratory extended instrumentals that wander down mysterious corridors with an air of dreamy distraction. The releases to date tend to expand outwards as you work through them in chronological order. The A-side to The Golden Ravedays 1, Little Raver is closest to the archetypal Superpitcher “pop” sound, with Schaufler’s too reedy, too close voice murmuring over a sashaying organ and strings groove that recalls early Air. On the flip, Snow Blind tackles a similarly familiar mournful and hypnotic tech-house sound, draped in chimes and quiet alarms like a hundred kettles whistling in the distance. Things start to get more unexpected on volume two. What Do You Miss rides a disjointed groove structured around eerie guitar patterns and seasick strings, before gradually transmuting into a jazzy, Eastern European-flavoured horn-driven elegy, like Robert Wyatt trying to make techno.
Cherry Bar & Sailor Jerry presents
Pocket Love, the B-side to volume three, is the finest effort in the series to date: a near 18-minute drone of swirling bleeps that attains the same intoxicating sense of weightlessness as Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. On the new volume four, Howl sets a clattering percussion loop against nervous string riffs, sea shanty accordion and pasty approximations of wolf howls for yet another queasy epic of somewhat inscrutably mixed emotions. It seems reductive to say it, but a big part of the appeal to this latest twist in Schaufler’s aesthetic is simply the length of these tracks; indeed, the longer they are the better, with ideas that might seem relatively minor in a five-minute track acquiring a luster and immensity through both their repetition and their sense of drift and mutation. Long pegged a romantic, on these releases the producer is revealing himself to be one of our pre-eminent groove scientists, and the results of these experiments so far have been spectacular.
ALBUM LAUNCH Friday 12 May
Cherry Bar AC/DC Lane, Melbourne
SHADOWS AT BAY “This is What We’re Made of” EP Launch
May 13th 2017 Workers club, Fitzroy Matinee Show doors 1:00pm $10 Entry!
With Special Guests: Sigourney Beaver Follow No Rules
THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017 • 35
Comedy / G The Guide
Wed 10
Caravana Sun
Fight Club with Henry Hicks + Fabric: 303, Northcote
Dada Ono + Erin Will Be Mad + Yukumbabe: Bar Open, Fitzroy
The Cactus Channel & Sam Cromack
The Music Presents Mick Thomas & Roving Commisission: 19 May Thornbury Theatre; 20 May Suttons House of Music Ballarat; 21 May The Capital, Bendigo Performing Arts Centre; 17 Jun Caravan Music Club The Cactus Channel & Sam Cromack: 25 May Howler Horrorshow: 9 Jun Chelsea Heights Hotel Aspendale Gardens; 10 Jun Barwon Club Hotel South Geelong; 11 Jun 170 Russell
Gawurra: Basement Discs, Melbourne The Round Up feat. +Charles Jenkins + Luke Sinclair : Bella Union, Carlton South Paradiso 2+Joe Chindamo: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne Two Headed Dog + Loin House + Public High + Torrential Thrill: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Dillon Francis + DJ 4B: Corner Hotel, Richmond Alysha Joy + Huntly + Tom Girl: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy
Sunjacked
Skivvy + Emma Russack + Qwerty: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood
The crazy energy of Caravana Sun is blasting through the doors of Northcote Social Club this Saturday. If that isn’t motivation enough, the Sydney four-piece have also recruited Jack The Fox and Young Vincent.
Gallie + Hugh McKinley + Mijo Biscan: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East
Orsome Welles: 11 Jun The Loft Warnambool; 8 Jul Evelyn Hotel
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus + Young Lions: Max Watt’s, Melbourne
Luca Brasi: 23 & 25 Jun 170 Russell
Nashville Pussy + Cosmic Kahuna + Grindhouse: Northcote Social Club, Northcote
The Lemon Twigs: 25 Jul The Curtin Two Door Cinema Club: 25 Jul Festival Hall
Alison Avron + Tom Dickins: Open Studio, Northcote
Sigur Ros: 27 Jul Margaret Court Arena
Residual: Railway Hotel, Brunswick
At The Drive In: 28 Sep Festival Hall
Little Wise: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick
Tim Solly
New Mooners + Zockapilli + Hots: The Old Bar, Fitzroy Ali Belmont & The Delivery Boy + Hudson The Rapper: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Customer + The Shabbab + Huffman: The Tote (Front Bar), Collingwood Two Steps on the Water + Kandere + Boats: The Tote (Band Room), Collingwood Parmy Dhillion & The New Science + White Lightning + Splatterpuss: The Tote, Collingwood The Hunter Express: The Workers Club, Fitzroy
Shannon Noll: Gateway Hotel, Corio Northlane + Hands Like Houses + Void Of Vision + Winfield: Karova Lounge, Ballarat Marshall Okell: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East Sisters Akousmatica: Long Play, Fitzroy North Entombed A.D. + Anatomy + Earth + Black Jesus: Max Watt’s, Melbourne
Young Lions
Trivia: Wesley Anne, Northcote Mugs + Gee Seas + Picket Palace + Dole Cheque: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford
Thu 11 Good Golly, Mr Solly After a whirlwind couple of years with his former band Dirtland, Tim Solly is picking up his solo career from where it left off. He’ll be venturing to Wesley Anne Friday to promote his latest EP, Waking Up.
Mohair + Jimmy Carroll: 303, Northcote 1283: Bar Open, Fitzroy Glen Skuthorpe: Basement Discs, Melbourne Casey Bennetto: Bella Union, Carlton South The Vinyl Frontier: Belleville, Melbourne Joe Farnsworth Prime Time Quartet: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne Steph Brett: Charles Weston Hotel, Brunswick
Nocturnus AD + Vassafor + Denouncement Pyre + Tzun Tzu + Beyond Mortal Dreams + Sithlord + Sewercide: The Bendigo, Collingwood Jon Bennett: The Butterfly Club, Melbourne Wine, Whiskey, Women feat. Nat Henry + Jorja: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne Narcopaloma + Chin Beach + Mid/west: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood 36 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
Legerity + Arkive + The Omnific + more: Colonial Hotel (Blights Bar), Melbourne Brant Bjork + Sean Wheeler + Holy Serpent + Don Fernando + Fuck The Fitzroy Doom Scene: Corner Hotel, Richmond Mick Turner: Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Brunswick Huntly + Klara Zubonja + Frida: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy
Young Money Young Lions may just give the crowd a taste of their new single, Burn The Money, when they head to Max Watt’s this Wednesday and Friday to support The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.
Tired Lion + Tiny Little Houses: Northcote Social Club, Northcote The Monotremes + Ogopogo: Open Studio, Northcote Jackie Got Lemons + Peny Bohan: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick
Gigs / Live The Guide
Wounded Pig + She Beast + Derailment + Castration Party: The Bendigo, Collingwood
Total Control: Barwon Club Hotel, South Geelong
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus + Young Lions: Max Watt’s, Melbourne
Busy Kingdom: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne
Jon Bennett: The Butterfly Club, Melbourne
Benny Walker: Basement Discs, Melbourne
Dan Sultan: Memo Music Hall, St Kilda
The Dull Joys: The Curtin, Carlton
Global Safari with DJ Eddie Mac: Belleville, Melbourne
Diesel: Milanos Tavern, Brighton
Billy Davis & The Good Lords: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood
Massive
Joe Farnsworth Prime Time Quartet: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne Manipulations + Goldmann: Boney, Melbourne Other People with Oliver Schories: Brown Alley, Melbourne Davidson Brothers: Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh Afternoon Show with AcoustiKISS: Cherry Bar, Melbourne
Gonna Be ‘Uge Massive are currently supporting Living Colour for the Australian leg of their tour, and will be heading to 170 Russell Friday. The Aussie rock legends are gearing up for their own UK tour which kicks off next month.
The Weight Of Silence: Musicman Megastore, Bendigo
Longterm Romance + Hi-Tec Emotions + Jonny Telafone + Crystal Myth: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood
NGV Friday Nights feat. Gareth Liddiard: National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Southbank
Hope Drone + Sundr + Warpigs: The Old Bar, Fitzroy
Solardo: New Guernica, Melbourne
The Animals: The Palms at Crown, Southbank
Underground Lovers + Hamish Cowan + Sweet Whirl: Northcote
Beware! Black Holes + The Vibrajets: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg
Young Hysteria
The Romeo Knights: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Louie & The Pride: Compass Pizza Bar, Brunswick East Royal Headache: Corner Hotel, Richmond Models: Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne Angie McMahon: Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Brunswick Voyager + The Algorithm + Windwaker: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Soul Sacrifice - A Tribute To Santana: Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick
Tori Dunbar + Cheeky Chalk: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne
Harrison Craig: Geelong Performing Arts Centre (GPAC) (Drama Theatre), Geelong
Flower Drums + Crystal Myth + Karli White + Liotis: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood
Selahphonic + Ellery Cohen + Big Creature: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood
Fundraise The Roof
Mates Rates #2 with Hexdebt + The Faculty + Venetian Blinds: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood
Onra: Howler, Brunswick
How Get + Overtime + New Seddon Dads + Shiny Coin: The Old Bar, Fitzroy
Harrison Craig: Lighthouse Theatre, Warrnambool
Melbourne duo Young Hysteria are heading to Howler on Saturday for a good cause. Supporting Spirals and playing alongside Tram Cops, they will be playing as part of Index, an RMIT music and art fundraising night.
Bitch Prefect + Crop Top: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg
Max Teakle & his Honky-Tonky Friends: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East
Rosie Burgess + Tulalah + Kerryn Fields: The Toff In Town, Melbourne
Celeste Kate: Matthew Flinders Hotel, Chadstone
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever + Wet Lips: The Tote, Collingwood
Johnny Osbourne: Laundry Bar, Fitzroy
Mick Turner
Sarah Mary Chadwick + Sweet Whirl: The Tote (Upstairs), Collingwood
Jame Cameron + The Crazy Carnival + Accidental Bedfellows + Girl Friday: Wesley Anne (Band Room), Northcote
Clove + Larsen + The Belafontes + Blaire: 303, Northcote The Gallant Trees + Birthday Girl: 303, Northcote Cluster Zine Launch #5 feat. +Messy Mammals + The Wax Eaters + Discotears + Rhonda: Bar Open, Fitzroy
Creature Fear: Penny Black, Brunswick
Monkey Grip + Mannequin Death Squad + Jerkbeast + Thrasher Jynx: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick
Rowena Wise: Wesley Anne (Front Bar), Northcote
Living Colour + Massive: 170 Russell, Melbourne
Balkan Party Night with Peter Marjanovic + Byzantine Blue + Friends: Open Studio, Northcote
La Dance Macabre with Brunswick Massive: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy
The Flock: The Workers Club, Fitzroy
Fri 12
Social Club, Northcote
Josh Butler: Revolver Upstairs, Prahran
Turn’ Back Melbourne artist, musician and genuine guitar guru Mick Turner is continuing his residency at Edinburgh Castle on Thursday, this time around recruiting psychedelic pop enthusiasts Caroline No for the occasion.
One Last Time with Peter Criss: Sofitel Melbourne, Melbourne Crystal Ignite + Acolyte + Bottlecap + Grasshole: Sooki Lounge, Belgrave The Kujo Kings + The Mamas + Jam Jar: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick Skyrocku + Brooklyn ‘86: The B.East, Brunswick East IN:EXTREMIS: The Bendigo, Collingwood Ben Wright Smith: The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever + Bitch Diesel + The Great Outdoors + Jade Imagine: The Tote (Band Room), Collingwood Elizaband + Caroline No + Tammy Haider + The Pharos Projection: The Tote (Upstairs), Collingwood Tom Lee Richards: The Westernport Hotel, Phillip Island Tim Rogers: The Workers Club Geelong, Geelong The Mae Trio: Thornbury Theatre (Ballroom), Thornbury Tapestry - Carole King, Carly Simon, Rickie Lee Jones, Joni Mitchell with Gabrielle Parbo: Thornbury Theatre (Velvet Room), Thornbury Shannon Noll: Trak Lounge Bar, Toorak Samassin: Wesley Anne (Front Bar), Northcote Tim Solly: Wesley Anne, Northcote Jess Locke: Woody’s Bar, Collingwood
Puta Madre Brothers: The Curtin, Carlton
THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017 • 37
Comedy / G The Guide
mara
Afternoon Show with Callum Gentleman + Oskar Herbig: Open Studio, Northcote
Tim Rogers
Wallace: Penny Black, Brunswick
Juke Box Racket: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy Matt Black + T.K. Reeve: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick
Indie
Negfest feat. Encircling Sea + YLVA + Hope Drone + Adrift For Days + In Trenches + Cascades + No Haven: Reverence Hotel, Footscray The Union Club feat. The Recliners + The Jetsons: Richmond Bowling Club, Richmond
Have You Heard
When did you start making music and why? I started playing the violin when I was four because my grandpa also played and I thought it was cool. But it wasn’t until high school that I got into making electronic music. Sum up your musical sound in four words? Submerged, internal, murky, quiet. If you could only listen to one album forevermore, what would it be and why? Yellow House by Grizzly Bear, because every time I listen to it there is something I haven’t noticed before. There are so many interesting sounds layered in all the songs.
Inxsive: Satellite Lounge, Wheelers Hill Helen Shanahan: Some Velvet Morning, Clifton Hill
Roger That The musical gift that keeps on giving, Tim Rogers will be taking the stage at The Workers Club on Friday to continue blessing Australia with his presence. Rogers only recently dropped his latest album, An Actor Repairs.
When and where are your next gigs? 13 May, Kew Court House. I’m playing with Braille Face and Lucy Roleff for Spirit Level. Website link for more info? facebook.com/ events/1257261151036142/
Northlane + Hands Like Houses + Void Of Vision + Amberyse: Wool Exchange, Geelong Bad Pony + Swim Season: Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy Weird Weather + MF Jones + Bollard + Boss Salmon: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford
July Days + The Peeks + Paul Ryan: Cherry Bar, Melbourne
Norse + Somnium Nox + Myridian + Aquilus: The Bendigo, Collingwood Jon Bennett: The Butterfly Club, Melbourne
Morning Harvey + Plastic + Smoke Rings: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood
The Black Dahlia Murder + The Faceless + Putrid Pile + Whoretopsy + Unravel: Corner Hotel, Richmond
Emilee South + Special Guests: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood
Abbey Howlett: Edinburgh Gardens, Fitzroy North Mr Ruckman + The Rapatar + Manix + Mono + more: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy The Chantoozies + Splurge Acoustic: Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick The Hunter Express
Rough River: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood
The Hunter Express (aka Brad Ellis) is set to regale fans of his journey from slumming it 9-5 to life as an established musician. Ellis will be jamming out at The Workers Club this Wednesday.
Index RMIT Fundraiser feat. Spirals + Young Hysteria + Tram Cops: Howler, Brunswick Horris Green + Dewey & The Panel Beaters + Trucks + Electric Mud + Kuchi Kopi + Wax Nomads: Karova Lounge, Ballarat The Happy Lonesome: Labour In Vain, Fitzroy Yolanda Ingley II: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East
Buzz Kill: Bar Open, Fitzroy
Tim Moxam + Liz Stringer: Major Tom’s, Kyneton
Joe Farnsworth Prime Time Quartet: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne
Taa Pod: Max Watt’s, Melbourne
Northlane + Hands Like Houses + Void Of Vision + Pridelands: Chelsea Heights Hotel, Aspendale Gardens
Tim Rogers: The Melba Spiegeltent, Collingwood Spike The River + Actor Slash Model: The Old Bar, Fitzroy Afternoon Show with Piss Factory + Made Austria + Meme Girls: The Old Bar, Fitzroy Pikelet + Sha Gaze: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg
Fluff + Grim Rhythm + The Devours: Gin Lane, Belgrave
Working 9-5
Sat 13
Ciaran Boyle + Duncan Phillips & The Long Stand: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne
Opal Ocean: Compass Pizza Bar, Brunswick East
Ewah & The Vision Of Paradise + Hayley Couper + Lubalwa: Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne
Tim Guy: Charles Weston Hotel, Brunswick
38 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017
Hanksaw: Surabaya Johnny’s, St Kilda
Royal Headache: The Curtin, Carlton
Greatest rock’n’roll moment of your career to date? Not applicable yet.
Why should people come and see your band? I’m always trying new stuff live so it’s always exciting and scary for me and hopefully interesting for the audience.
James Curd + JPA: Sooki Lounge, Belgrave
Felix Riebl: Memo Music Hall, St Kilda Caravana Sun + Jack The Fox + Young Vincent: Northcote Social Club, Northcote Kev Walsh: Open Studio, Northcote
Dada Ono
Albums Trump Apples An album a day keeps the doctors away, according to Dada Ono. After releasing their debut album, Granny Loves Smith, the four-piece outfit will be hitting up Bar Open on Wednesday with Erin Will Be Mad and Yukumbabe.
Gigs / Live The Guide
Jyayo + James Love + Adrien Harris: The Toff In Town, Melbourne
Rattlin’ Bones Blackwood + Victor Cripes + Jess Parker: Cherry Bar, Melbourne
Idylls + Suss Cunts + Synthetics: The Tote (Band Room), Collingwood
The Climax: Compass Pizza Bar, Brunswick East
The Living Eyes + Gonzo: The Tote, Collingwood
Checkerboard: Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Brunswick
Van Walker + Ian Collard: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne
Damn Terran + Chelsea Bleach + The Second Sex + Hexdebt + Square Wave Ghost: The Tote, Collingwood
No Stairway + Unlucky + Wroklaw: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy
Andy Kentler Trio: The Gasometer Hotel (Front Bar), Collingwood
All Time Low + Neck Deep + The Maine: Festival Hall, West Melbourne
Orcha + Cool Explosions + Loboku + Zol Balint: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood
Tim Rogers + Steve Smyth: Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick
Rhysics + Forward Flank: The Old Bar, Fitzroy
Killing It
Snow Cone with+Do Good + International Velvet + Hachiku: Howler, Brunswick
Afternoon Show with The Girlatones + Caroline No + 19th Century Strongmen: The Old Bar, Fitzroy
After making waves with eerie music videos, Kill The Darling will be sure to bring their enigmatic vibe to Bar Open Sunday, where they’ll be out supporting Silveria for her Pelican album launch.
Olly & Scuzzi: The Westernport Hotel, Phillip Island Matinee Show with Shadows At Bay + Follow No Rules + Sigourney Beaver: The Workers Club, Fitzroy
Sunday Sessions with Carlos Peregin + Henry PK + James Hall: The Bendigo, Collingwood
Jon Bennett: The Butterfly Club, Melbourne
Allysha Joy + Nitida Atkinson: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
Steve Smyth: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Pappy + Qwerty + Woollen Kits: The Tote, Collingwood Pals + Scraggers + Vacations + Mount Defiance: The Tote, Collingwood Matinee Show with Jay Seeney Band + Natalie Pearson + Megan Sidwell: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Miff + The Yellow Greens + Liam Harlow: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Lily & The Drum + The Band Who Knew Too Much: Union Hotel, Brunswick Boadz: Wesley Anne, Northcote Afternoon Show with The Jackson Four: Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East
Down On The Wet Coast Before they head off to slay Europe, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever will continue their The French Press EP tour at The Tote on Thursday. Wet Lips are jumping into action for support duties.
Duncan Phillips & The Long Stand + Little Daniel: Union Hotel, Brunswick The Hula Hands + Alfred Harua: Wesley Anne, Northcote Australian Kiss Konvention 2017 feat. Peter Criss + Bruce Kulick: Wick Studios, Brunswick Peter Bibby’s Dog Act: Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy 2AM Show with Amyl & The Sniffers: Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy The Great Outdoors + Bitch Prefect + Weatherboards: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford
Sun 14 Mahmoud Ahmed + Ali Birra + The JAzmaris: Arts Centre Melbourne (Playhouse), Melbourne Caravana Sun: Baha Tacos, Rye Silveria + Kill The Darling + Creek + The Wandering Minstrel + Joshua From Jericho: Bar Open, Fitzroy Albare & the Urbanity Project: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne
Tired Lion
Afternoon Show with Jayson Watkin + Mitch Power: Open Studio, Northcote Peppercron Jazz: Open Studio, Northcote Big Band Frequency: Penny Black, Brunswick The Detonators: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy Unspoken Rule + TALK Groove Trio: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick
Jam Night with Yarra Banks: 303, Northcote The Oh Balters: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Neeko: Open Studio, Northcote Matt Walker: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick Chris Cain: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick King Stag: The Workers Club, Fitzroy
Tue 16 Shelby J: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne
Muso Tuesdays feat. Various Artists: Compass Pizza Bar, Brunswick East The Vacant Smiles + Trillionayers + Cosmos: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy
Marty Kelly & Co. + The Bakersfield Glee Club: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East
Tex Perkins & The Strangers + Freya Josephine Hollick: Northcote Social Club, Northcote
Mon 15
Chasing Ghosts: Cherry Bar, Melbourne
Chris Pickering: Labour In Vain, Fitzroy
Matinee Show with The Dusty Millers + The Collingwood Casanovas: Northcote Social Club, Northcote
Kill The Darling
Tom Tom Tuesday feat. Embedded Figures + Boats + Cystic Nightmare + Di Drew + DJ Jay Tee: Howler, Brunswick
Tiny Little Lion Impatient fans have been given a minor reprieve as Tired Lion have dropped the first single, Cinderella Dracula, from their upcoming debut album. To build even more anticipation, they’ll be heading to Northcote Social Club with Tiny Little Houses Thursday.
Claire Birchall + Eve Gowen: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick Harry Jakamarra + Gena Rose Bruce: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood Harmony Byrne + Mouth Tooth + Queen Magic: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood Flat Controller + Benign Girl + Co-Dependent Princess + Chloe/ Patrick + Gonzo: The Old Bar, Fitzroy Ben Mastwyk: The Standard Hotel, Fitzroy Pup Tentacle + Sault + Wroclaw: The Workers Club, Fitzroy
Trouble Peach: Reverence Hotel, Footscray Alex Burns Trio: Royal Oak Hotel, Fitzroy North
Australian Kiss Konvention 2017 feat. Peter Criss + Bruce Kulick: Wick Studios, Brunswick
The Thin White Ukes: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick
Motherslug + Religious Observance + Well + Birds: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford
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40 • THE MUSIC • 10TH MAY 2017