26.07.17 Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Issue
199
Melbourne / Free / Incorporating
DAN SUL TA N I don’t consider myself political or preachy tour: minus the bear arts: melbourne festival tour: thy art is murder
Find out what you could create at SAE’s Open Day. Our studios will be in action, equipment ready to try, student exhibitions on display and your future mentors ready to inspire.
REGISTER TO ATTEND | sae.edu.au/events 2 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
MELBOURNE FESTIVAL
Browse the full program and book at www.festival.melbourne THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 3
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS
08.09.17
MARGARET COURT ARENA
4 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
250 High st, Northcote Hill 948
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Thu 3 August
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Sat 5 August
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THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 5
Music / A Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Blood, Sweat & Cheers
Royal Blood
This year’s Splendour In The Grass headliners Royal Blood have confirmed they’ll be returning for their largest Australian tour to date. The duo will be back in April and May for a slew of gigs.
Thar They Go
These New South Whales
After a string of singles, Sydney punk outfit These New South Whales are dropping their album, You Work For Us, on 25 Aug. To celebrate, they’ve also announced an Australian tour beginning in October.
400 The number of tickets only available to The KLF’s return event in England some 23 years after retiring from the music industry.
6 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
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Australian rock’n’roll royalty are getting together for Easyfever, a tour showcasing the work of The Easybeats and Stevie Wright. Chris Cheney, Phil Jamieson, Kram, Tex Perkins and Tim Rogers will set off in December to perform the tribute.
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An Australian Affair Client Liaison are the latest Splendour act to follow up with an Australian tour, part of what they’ve dubbed as A Foreign Affair World Tour. The indie pop group will be kicking it off at the end of August.
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Love Of The Chase Australian blues-rockers Chase The Sun are backing up the release of their single Ain’t No Love with a east coast single launch beginning 10 Aug. This single is the second off their upcoming third LP. THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 7
Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Wet & Salty Popcorn
Mac In Melbourne
Hot Tub Cinema Club
This October, Hot Tub Cinema Club is coming back to Melbourne, giving you the chance to watch some movie greats while rub-a-dub-dubbing in the tub. The location will be kept secret with the event spannng over two weeks.
Running from 5 - 22 Oct, Melbourne Festival is here to showcase culture, creativity and encourage positivity among the community. The main event this year is A 24-Decade History Of Popular Music by performance artist Taylor Mac.
50 Cent
Huntly
Get It Grrrl Sad Grrrls Festival is back for a third year in November to promote gender diversity, now adding Brisbane to the itinerary. A secret headliner is coming, but Moaning Lisa, Huntly and Rachel Maria Cox are already locked in.
Harlem
Colleen Green
Green-trotters US musicians Harlem and Colleen Green are joining forces with Australia’s Bleeding Knees Club to perform a bunch of shows across the east coast. Things kick off at the end of August.
Interviewer: u worked in sales before? Me: yeah Interviewer: what’s your background? Me [gets phone out]: picture of my dog eating spaghetti @david8hughes 8 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
Maja
A Bleeding Tour Singer-songwriter Maja is gearing up for the release of her second EP, Still Bleeding, by dropping details of a six-date tour throughout September. The now Melbourne-native will get the ball rolling at the Wesley Anne 1 Sep.
Arts / Li Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Taylor Mac
Can’t Wait
CW Stoneking
Come October, CW Stoneking will be playing five intimate shows around Victoria and New South Wales, which marks his first solo outing since his Heavenly Sounds tour in 2014. Rumours are also swirling that he’s working on new music.
[ Formerly The Hi- Fi Bar ]
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Get Rich Or Die Trying is officially 15 years old in 2018, and what better way to celebrate than have 50 Cent himself make a trip to Australia. The US rapper will be venturing to Melbourne and Sydney in February.
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THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 9
Music
IN FOR THE KILL Dan Sultan tells Bryget Chrisfield that his new record “showed itself” after a songwriting session with Julian Hamilton produced Killer track Cul-De-Sac. Cover and feature pics by Kane Hibberd.
D
an Sultan is already seated at a corner table when this scribe enters a cosy cafe in an inner city Melbourne suburb that has been chosen for our chat. Sultan’s just about to head up to Byron Bay for Splendour In The Grass where he’ll perform some tracks from his Killer new album, with a full band. “We’ve actually got our first show at Splendour, seven o’clock Saturday night,” he enthuses. “It’s exciting and we did a big production rehearsal yesterday, and went through the set, and it’s feeling really good.” You will already have heard Killer’s first couple of singles — Magnetic and Hold It Together — and now Kingdom, another taste from Sultan’s new album, is doing the rounds on radio. “I’m really proud of it,” Sultan says of Kingdom. “We’d written that [song] and then Pip [Norman], about a week later, said, ‘I’ve written another bit for it,’ and he sent it through... I was like, ‘Holy shit!’” Sultan recounts. “And it felt good before, but then after hearing it with the new bit in it that he just sort of demoed up throughout the track that we’d already done as a demo, I mean, it’s just — I can’t remember what it was like before.” Kingdom is a song about “getting better”, Sultan enlightens. “I think generally people are good, and people know the difference between right and wrong, but I think people can show apathy and complacency, and I think people can be lazy. And at the end of the day regardless of your opinion or your political persuasion — sexual persuasion or anything — I mean, people know the difference between right and wrong, you know? And it’s as simple as that. People might be confused, but at the same time they know the difference and it’s not a matter of opinion; if two people love each other then let ‘em do whatever they want, you
10 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
know, who gives a shit? For people to feel like other people’s freedom is taking away from theirs is ridiculous, and it’s self-centred and it’s arrogant, you know? “I don’t consider myself political or preachy. I’m opinionated and I speak up when I feel like it but, yeah! Look, that’s what it means to me. You put out a song, I mean, it means something different to everybody and it’s not for me to say that they’re right or wrong. Kingdom I’ve had people ask me if I’m Christian, you know? ‘Cause that’s what they get out of it, which [is] all good — I’m not gonna say that they’re right or wrong or anything. I mean, you put a song out there — it’s never belonged to me in the first place, I’m only the guy that sang it for the first time, you know? That’s the way I look at it... people’s emotions towards a song belong to them and their understanding about the song belongs to them, but the song itself — it’s its own thing, you know?” Sultan finds collaborating “exciting”. “You can come in with an idea and bounce it off someone, or a couple of people, and all of a sudden it just kinda blows up, you know, to a place you haven’t thought of before.” When asked who he collaborated with on Killer, Sultan tells, “I worked with Alex Burnett again, who’s a really good mate and we’ve done a lot of great stuff together, and Pip Norman — and again we worked together on Blackbird
and we worked a lot together on this — and obviously Jan [Skubizewski] again. So they’re the kinda three big collaborators.” In terms of collaborators he worked with for the first time on Killer, Sultan enlightens, “Jon Hume I worked with, who’s great, and he had a great studio in country Victoria. And that’s now Jan’s studio, Jan’s taken over that place with his young family.” Sultan also worked with Julian Hamilton (The Presets) in Sydney on a track called Cul-De-Sac. “We didn’t know each other beforehand,” Sultan explains of Hamilton. “It’s just one of those things that came up and it was great, Julian was great. I mean, I am a fan, you know, and he was a pleasure to work with.” After revealing that Cul-De-Sac was the first track he wrote that made it onto Killer, Sultan
The songs sort of present themselves and if you’re lucky you’re listening when they do.
continues, “I’d written a lotta songs previously, and I wrote a lot afterwards as well; there were about 50 songs all up. But that song was the first one that really — I mean, the record sort of showed itself, if you know what I mean? And then from there, after that, I was writing with that sort of vibe and that sort of energy in mind and in heart, you know? And so, yeah! You know, you’re writing and you’re writing and you think, ‘Well, what is it? What’s it gonna be?’ And then something like [Cul-De-Sac] comes along and you go, ‘Oh, okay!’ It helps to provide a bit more clarity to the situation.” Sultan stresses, “the song’s the boss, there’s no ego” when it comes to co-writes. “We’re not gonna use my bit just because I came up with it, I mean, we’re just gonna use whatever’s the best... the song lets you know what it wants to do and where it wants to go.” When asked whether he usually composes on guitar on piano, Sultan shares, “I write in my head. I have an idea pretty solidly in my head before I sit at an instrument. The instrument’s sort of secondary.” The album opener, Drover, is a song written about the Wave Hill walk-off in 1966, written from the perspective of an Indigenous drover. This protest by pastoral workers in the Northern Territory over poor working conditions was immortalised in From Little Things Big Things Grow and Sultan describes his own song as
a type of prequel to the Paul Kelly classic. On what made him decide to write the song from the driver’s perspective, Sultan offers, “It just happened, you know. I’m a bit of a hippy like that. The songs sort of present themselves and if you’re lucky you’re listening when they do. I mean, I’m sure I’ve missed a lot more than I’ve been able to grab but, yeah!... It’s like mathematics, mathematics existed before people had the capacity to understand it, you know? So I sorta see it in a similar way to that without getting too cosmic,” he chuckles. On whether he feels a stronger connection to material that’s written based on his own personal experience, Sultan ponders, “I mean, a part of the performance is having that empathy, you know, and going there, and I know, for me, there wouldn’t be much point in doing it if I didn’t feel that connection. So I don’t feel any more connected to the fiction or the nonfiction... You’ve got a responsibility, I think, as a performer and a writer to really to go there.”
What: Killer (Liberation Music) When & Where: 1 Sep, Wool Exchange; 2 Sep, Forum Theatre
LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR Although Dan Sultan “didn’t have a timeframe” in mind while working on Killer material, he reflects, “Between Get Out While You Can and Blackbird was, like, four or five years or something, you know. So this one’s a pretty quick turnaround by my standards.” The singles from Sultan’s upcoming album have already received triple j airplay so now he’s keen to find out how Killer will be received once it drops. “I know my neighbours don’t mind it, they’ve heard it,” he reveals. “I’d like to thank them as well, officially. Yeah, print that: thank you to my neighbours for putting up with me through the process.” Sultan says it’s always exciting to hear your songs being played on the radio and in the public domain. “A friend of mine heard Hold It Together in Bunnings the other day,” he tells. We suggest it might not be too exciting to hear a muzak version of one of his songs in an elevator, but Sultan chuckles, “Hey, it pays the bills, don’t judge.”
THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 11
Music
Life Time Thy Art Is Murder guitarist Andy Marsh tells Brendan Crabb about accepting erstwhile singer CJ McMahon back into the fold and choosing bitter pills over sweet ideals.
“R
ight up until six weeks out, eight weeks out to vocal tracking, it was still CJ McMahon in one hand, and Nicholas Arthur from Molotov Solution in the other,” Thy Art Is Murder’s forthright guitarist Andy Marsh explains of the scenario surrounding their fourth full-length, Dear Desolation. “Both phenomenal vocalists; in my opinion we could only have one or the other, no other vocalists worked to our taste.” McMahon stunned devotees of the Western Sydneybred, now international deathcore outfit by returning at this year’s UNIFY Gathering, after departing in 2015. In the interim, other singers including triple j’s Lochlan Watt substituted on the road. Reasons cited for the perennially
As we’ve gotten through the past seven months together, every day he just blows my mind.
outspoken McMahon’s leaving — financial woes, crippling drug addiction — have been extensively dissected. “He wanted to come back, but we weren’t sure whether we were willing to accept him back, [and] whether he had truly made the adjustments in his life that we felt he needed to assimilate into a band environment,” Marsh explains from his home in Minneapolis. “Once we nailed down that he was coming back, we felt that we had great songs, and his voice came back pretty well I feel. Him being better has made everyone get along better, him being better as a person... He made a lot of changes last year, and we were sceptical about that, but as we’ve gotten through the past seven months together, every day he just blows my mind. It has made the band a better unit together because he’s so mentally healthy now 12 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
that he’s not aggressive, he’s not angry at us, and we’re not treading around him in fear.” There may have been uncertainty regarding who would step up to the mic for Dear Desolation, but McMahon seemingly indirectly helped shape the record anyway. Songwriters Marsh and fellow guitarist Sean Delander again bunkered down in the US with producer Will Putney, who assisted with structures and arrangements. Marsh insists they “wrote music we were going to write anyhow” for the release, to be issued locally via the new Human Warfare label. “Obviously it’s second nature for us to picture CJ’s voice in mind, his delivery, and a sense of drama to the vocals that I feel Nick would... He would have a different spin on it. So we do have CJ in mind. Whether or not that really dictates how we write the music, I don’t think it does. “But it does change how we imagine it. It does influence the choice of words that I use when writing the lyrics as well, because I can imagine his voice. I pictured in my head as I’m writing the lyrics, there’s a little mini-CJ in my brain, saying it really sick,” Marsh chuckles. “Because I’m not a vocalist, I can’t scream the lyrics and imagine how it sounds. So I sit there and picture his voice, and then like an actor, he just comes in with his script, gives feedback, does his thing and fucking nailed it on this record.” Thy Art Is Murder’s chart-bothering 2015 album Holy War spawned controversy for the anti-religious stance of the title track’s video, and the cover’s image a child suicide bomber. This time around they tackle themes like existentialism and the human condition with trademark intensity. “Holy War was more outward expression — this happened to me, this is happening around me, this is causing this, and this is causing these feelings. And (2012’s) Hate was a little bit more primitive than that, where it was just unbridled aggression and hatred for those things,” the axeman explains. “Holy War became the discussion of what those things were. If you think about it in that progression or maturing stages of, I guess, my psyche, Dear Desolation is more what’s going on inside of my brain in response to that hate, or the discussion with yourself about realising I’m hateful or aggressive, sad or depressed. And also more about what feelings happen inside of myself at least, to understand what happens inside of everyone else that would make them do terrible things, or live lives that so far have been not understandable to me. “Just as I’m getting older and I had a kid, the thought of dying, being secular, so being a person of faith or atheist, and different levels of fear that come into contemplating those situations when you’re thinking of existential crises. One day I might die and I’ll never see my daughter again, whereas most faithful people live eternally. So, ‘Oh, I’ll die and then I’ll just sit up in the sky and wait for her to join me.’ Like, this very idealistic image of what that is. And that’s a beautiful thing to think that, but I’d rather swallow the difficult pill that this life is all that I have. A lot of the songs are that kind of discussion with myself, and coming to grips with that journey through life of expecting that death is final.”
What: Dear Desolation (Human Warfare/Rocket) When & Where: 29 Jul, Max Watt’s
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THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 13
Theatre
The Word Of God Celebrated author Christos Tsiolkas’ dark collection of short stories, Merciless Gods, is being taken from the page to the stage. Little Ones Theatre’s co-founder, Stephen Nicolazzo, takes Maxim Boon through the process.
D
irector Stephen Nicolazzo and writer Christos Tsiolkas share much in common. Both come from immigrant families, both are artists who have looked to the queer experience for inspiration, and both share an attraction to a bitter-sweet aesthetic, a volatile place where beauty and savagery intersect. But despite these similarities, Nicolazzo — an indie theatre maker with a successful, yet small-scale company — could not have imagined he’d have the opportunity to collaborate with the celebrated author, whose novels The Slap and Barracuda have had big budget TV adaptations in recent years. “My partner and I were listening to the radio
There’s something extremely classical to having those unspoken desires spoken out loud.
one morning, and Christos was on talking about Merciless Gods. He was explaining one of the stories and his affinity with Jean Genet, and I was so intrigued and excited by that,” Nicolazzo recalls. “Then my partner said, ‘You should really work with him.’ I laughed and said, ‘There’s no fucking way that’s ever going to happen.’” His initial scepticism was proved wrong after deciding to make contact with Tsiolkas. The pair’s shared passions proved to be the perfect springboard for a creative partnership. “Christos and I met up one afternoon over wine. Within the first five minutes, we agreed to work together on adapting Merciless Gods. Then we just enjoyed an afternoon drinking and talking about life and art and the kind of theatre that I make and our personal histories, both being ethnic queer kids,” Nicolazzo shares.
14 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
“It was a pretty mind-blowing experience, especially considering how much I loved reading his work growing up. It’s one of those moments that is completely surreal — something I’d never have thought possible.” The collection of 15 short stories that make up Tsiolkas’ Merciless Gods, explore the complexities of migrant life in Melbourne and the way sexuality and cultural identity are altered, confounded, and upended by being a stranger in a strange land. From gay saunas to prison cells to porn shoots, Tsiolkas offers an unapologetically gritty perspective, channelling a far darker energy than in some of his better-known books. But much like his bestseller The Slap, the stories in Merciless Gods juxtapose moments of extreme violence with the humdrum occurrences of everyday life. “He takes that kind of familiar banality and turns the volume way up, so high that it becomes something else,” Nicolazzo observes. “And that’s really informed the process of bringing this work to the stage — it’s the way I’ve dissected each of the stories, just taking one strand of it and then pulling it apart so that it feels otherworldly but also familiar.” Co-founder of queer theatre collective Little Ones Theatre, Nicolazzo’s canon of productions for the company bear a shared hallmark in the way they hijack traditional theatre tropes to communicate the otherness of the queer identity. This approach has often favoured narratives that have some measure of historical significance, such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Oscar Wilde’s The Little Prince. By contrast, Merciless Gods is altogether more overt, in both its contemporary setting and its connection to queer culture, but Nicolazzo has found a surprising number of classical resonances in Tsiolkas’ story-telling. “We’re embracing the literary vernacular, and allowing the characters to actually speak in a literary or poetic way, in much the same way that some of the characters in something like Genet’s The Balcony might speak,” he explains. “I think there’s something extremely classical to having those unspoken desires spoken out loud, and we’ve actually found ourselves going back to ideas of Greek Theatre, and the kind of really amped-up, robust, rich language that you can use in those ancient forms of theatre.” Nicolazzo has worked with playwright Dan Giovanni in taking eight of the Merciless Gods stories and transposing them for the theatre, but Tsiolkas has been a close collaborator on the project too, as an advisor and sounding board. “It’s been really great to have his presence because he loves theatre. He has a very good theatrical eye,” Nicolazzo says. “Christos said to us from the outset, ‘Don’t treat my work with total reverence,’ which is an incredible gift. He’s so, so generous, he’s like, ‘Just fuck with it.’ Having that level of freedom comes from that negotiation process between Dan as playwright, Christos as novelist, and me as theatre-maker. Theatre is all about finding the best provocation for a story, and then working out how that can best be translated to the stage. With Merciless Gods there are three minds working together to figure this out, feeding into the solution, being crafty together to find the best realisation possible.”
What: Merciless Gods When & Where: Until 15 Aug, Northcote Town Hall
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THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 15
Music
Blood, Love And Tears Following up on an ARIA Award-winning album is never an easy thing. Shane Nicholson tells Jessica Dale about the process this time round.
B
eing the producer on just one album is a lot of work and a time-consuming venture. Producing 12 albums in a year would be a considerable undertaking for most, but for Shane Nicholson, why not throw one more thing into the mix? Love And Blood is Nicholson’s sixth studio - his follow-up to 2015’s Hell Breaks Loose - an album which he somehow found the time to create in between playing the producer’s role on the 12 aforementioned works. “It got to the point where I felt like I was spending all my time making music for other people and I felt
“I’ve always been heavily involved in the production level of my own music but to be working as a producer for other people has given me that perspective that I can see from a producer’s viewpoint now and not just from the artist’s viewpoint,” he explains. “I can see from the other side the importance of giving them room to breathe, and that’s kind of where the magic happens in a record. I have become much better at sitting at the back of the room as an artist and letting the process happen, rather than trying to steer the ship all the time.” Creating a follow-up to a critically acclaimed and award-winning album is no easy feat, but for Nicholson, he was happy to allow the process to happen naturally. “I think it’s easy to cerebralise it all a lot, analyse it and talk about your process and all that and it’s kind of fun sometimes. It’s also not rocket science, it’s records,
I don’t think it’ll be all that long between drinks this time.
we’re just making albums, we’re not curing cancer or anything. These days I’m trying not to analyse what I do much and I think that’s maybe making it more enjoyable.” “I think there’s always things you learn on every record specifically about yourself as an artist and I think it’s just part of honing your skill set as a writer or as a record maker. I don’t have leftover songs anymore,” says Nicholson. “I used to write 20 songs for an album and pick the best ones, but I wrote 12 songs for this album and there’s no leftovers. I don’t finish the ones that don’t make the album anymore. I don’t think that’s because it’s easier or you’re better at it, I’m just maybe learning what isn’t worth finishing or isn’t going to stand the test.” “I’ve got some songs I’ve been writing for the next one, I don’t think it’ll be all that long between drinks this time.”
like I needed to make my own. I blanked out about two or three months in my calendar at the end of the year and ventured off to a little cabin on the Hawkesbury River and starting writing songs,” shares Nicholson. “It was just out of the need to be creative again and, I guess, purge a whole heap of stories that have been happening since the last record. That’s the catalyst for writing every album for me. You get built up full of stories and things you want to say or get out, then you make the record and move on, and wait until you get filled up again.” When ask if working as a producer for other people has impacted his own work, he agrees. 16 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
What: Love And Blood (Lost Highway Australia/ Universal Music) When & Where: 28 Jul, Basement Discs; 29 Jul, Broadbeach Country Music Festival, Gold Coast; 3 Aug, Spotted Mallard, Brunswick; 4 Aug, Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh
P R E R E G I S T E R F O R T I C K E T S AT W W W. M J R P R E S E N T S . C O M
THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 17
Music
Frontlash Phoar: Ragnarok
Poking The Bear
Anyone else’s head explode at how awesome Taika Waititi’s Thor flick looks in the latest trailer? We are raging fire.
Stranger & Thingier How about the Thriller-heavy Stranger Things season two trailer? (We swear not all the front lashes this week are from Comic-Con.)
Splendour Out
Lashes
Once again Splendour In The Grass has knocked our socks off and then left us high and dry and barefoot until its return next year. Head to the Live section online to see the full rundown. Thor: Ragnarok
Backlash The Bachelor
Hey, let’s pit a bunch of women against each other in an emotional death match where they compete to decide what their worth as human beings are, but it’s ok ‘cos they’re hot. NO THANK YOU.
Archibald Prize Finalists Last year, the country’s most prestigious art prize reached gender parity, but that clearly wasn’t high on the priorities this year. Lots of paintings of blokes, by blokes.
Hold Up The flipside of all of the amazing stuff coming out of San Diego Comic-Con is that in some instances we’re waiting many months – even over a year – for the things being spoken about to appear.
18 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
Minus The Bear has gone through quite the shake up over the past five years, and guitarist Dave Knudson tells Rod Whitfield all about it.
I
f you live in a city like Seattle, with its magnificent musical heritage that extends back well before things exploded in the early nineties, you can’t help but assimilate and be deeply affected by its vibe and its history. Dave Knudson, guitarist and co-founding member of Seattle indie rockers Minus The Bear, agrees wholeheartedly with this statement, and is proud of what his city has given the world in a musical and cultural sense. “Seattle has such a great history, even back before grunge even existed,” Knudson states, “what was so good about Seattle when I was growing up was that there was so many DIY clubs and venues and all-ages places. You’re in high school or junior high and you go to these shows and you realise that these are just regular people, that are just playing instruments, starting bands, promoting shows, so it was just a very welcoming community.” Part of that sense of community in the city was a feeling of friendly rivalry, which only led the musicians and bands to improve their individual and collective craft. “[That environment] nurtured young people and new artists,” he remembers, “and it was very empowering when you saw regular dudes step up onto a stage and totally tear it up. You thought ‘if I just practise a little bit
harder, or if I get into a really good band, I can do that.’” He feels that the isolated nature of the city, and its less than hospitable climate, also has a powerful effect on the city’s artistic output. “So there were lots of clubs, lots of all-ages action, lots of cool radio stations that would cover local stuff, a lot of ‘zines back before the internet,” he says, “and we’re kinda in the middle of nowhere, up in the north western corner of the States, and I think people get a little insular and they tend to help each other out. “It rains a lot, so you might go inside and play drums, write a song on your guitar, or write some lyrics, it really just inspires creativity and wanting to do something.” 15 years and six albums’ worth of Minus The Bear’s creativity will be on full display in Australia in August when the band comes to tour our nation, in what will be the band’s third trip Down Under and first in over five years. They have been through much change and upheaval since the last time they were here, for Soundwave in 2011, but they have put all that behind them now and are looking forward to reconnecting with their Aussie devotees. “We parted ways with our original drummer, we’ve changed labels, we’ve changed a lot of stuff,” he says. “For the last five years there’s been a lot of uncertainty, but also a lot of re-energising. We also knew we wanted to continue, it was eye-opening and fantastic at the same time. “But we’ll be with you guys at the beginning of August and that’ll be good fun.”
When & Where: 6 Aug, Max Watt’s
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THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 19
Industry
Tripp’s Top Tips
Take A Tripp To SXSW
Thinking of taking the band on the road and heading over to SXSW? Here’s what you need to know before making the trip.
Practice makes perfect “The most important one is don’t go until you’re ready. You need to be export ready, you need to have about $20,000 or more in your pocket.”
Visa, it’s not just a card in your wallet “Make sure you’ve got visas. Too many bands try to sneak into America on a tourist visa and they get turned back.”
Don’t catch the dreaded festival flu “Get a flu shot, because there’s nothing worse than catching the flu in America on tour and showing up at SXSW looking like death warmed over.”
Pack the necessities “Bring your own equipment if you can because everybody in America is renting equipment in Austin that week and some of the crappiest equipment in the world ends up there.”
Learn how to network effectively “Listen as intently as you speak when networking with the other people. And you are going to meet people, you’re not there to present your life story and your brilliant career ideas or music. Let the other guy talk a bit.”
20 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
Thinking about heading to SXSW? Jessica Dale finds out from the festival’s Pacific representative Phil Tripp why you should make an Australian stopover first.
W
hen you think about Violent Soho, Angus & Julia Stone, Bliss N Eso, John Butler Trio and Chet Faker, there’s not much musically that ties them all together. However, Aussie roots aside, there are two things they all have in common — one: they’ve all become wildly successful, and, two: they’ve showcased at South By Southwest. Known synonymously by just four letters, SXSW has been helping shape the music industry and the success of up-and-coming artists since it kicked off in Austin, Texas in 1987. Phil Tripp has been working with SXSW since 2002 and is the conduit for everything to do with Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii at the event. If ever there’s a man who can tell you what it will take for your band to have a successful SXSW run, it’s him. In preparation for the 2018 event, Tripp is bringing together eight SXSW veterans for a SXSW Meet ‘n’ Greet in both Sydney and Melbourne this August. It’s here that those hoping to attend next year’s event can find out first-hand from industry experts what will make your band stand out from the pack, as well as all the dos and do nots of the conference. “SXSW is about the best way that you can get through to media and the music business
in America in one shot,” says Tripp. “The people that I’ve selected, two from music and two from interactive, really explain the ins and outs of working SXSW, of how to get there and how to save money, dealing with being there,” he explains. “How to network properly and how not to appear to be some overzealous drunk at a bar with a demo. Also, the tips and techniques and secrets of SXSW — one of which is you should develop a 15-second elevator pitch and a 30second elevator pitch that you are absolutely rehearsed in so that you can do what you need to do if you meet somebody in a social situation, like an elevator.” “Glenn Dickie, who’s the Export Music Producer for Sounds Australia, has been to 17 SXSWs in a row. Marc Sousley, who used to work with C3 Presents in Austin — and he was also one of the people in charge of the Big Day Out after it was sold here — and now, of course, works for Secret Sounds Touring, he’s been ten years in a row, so he knows music inside and out.” Australians seem to have quite an affinity with SXSW and Tripp has seen a huge amount of bands achieve record deals, representation and huge media coverage from their time at the event. “Australia has gone from five bands in 2002, playing one showcase each, to 40 bands this year, many of whom played ten shows each,” says Tripp. “John Watson and Wolfmother is a fabulous example, and certainly Phil Stevens and the trajectory of John Butler Trio.” “Sometimes though [you think], ‘who the hell is that? Courtney Barnett, who the hell is she?’ Then all of a sudden she’s the star of the show.”
When & Where: 2 Aug, Corner Hotel
THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 21
Culture
MELBOURNE FESTIVAL 2017: EIGHT MUST-SEE SHOWS This year’s Melbourne Festival line-up has just dropped and it’s one seriously well-heeled spread of theatre, dance, music and performance. We’ve poured over 2017’s offering to select eight shows you won’t want to miss.
Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History Of Popular Music
The Magnetic Fields: 50 Song Memoir Upon reaching his half century a couple years back, Stephin Merritt, the frontman of American indie pop icons The Magnetic Fields, indulged in a bit of selfreflection. The result was a 50-song anthology chronicling his life, celebrating and lamenting the highs and lows of his five decades. Spread across two performances, each offering 25-years-worth of songs, Merritt will perform this audacious collection within a meticulously created reconstruction of his childhood bedroom. When: 21 & 22 Oct, Hamer Hall
Created by one of the most revered performance artists in the world, this epic ode to the history of modern music is the flagship event of this year’s festival. At the centre of this mercurial celebration of 240-years of pop culture, is the indomitable Taylor Mac, a performer who defies categorisation. Spread over four performances, each lasting six hours, this decade-by-decade journey through the soundtrack of America from 1776 to 2016 is a once in a generation quality show. Mac will also be bookending this year’s program with The Inauguration on 5 Oct and The Wrap on 22 Oct, featuring highlights from this magnum opus. When: 11, 13, 18 & 20 Oct, Forum Theatre
Caravan A collection of the boldest theatre makers in the country have come together to create this site-specific new work, taking a darkly comic look at love, life and living conditions in Australia’s underclass. Playwrights Patricia Cornelius, Melissa Reeves, Angus Cerini and Wayne Macauley have teamed up with theatre radicals Susie Dee and Nicci Wilks to tell the story of Judy and Donna, a mother and daughter living together in a dilapidated caravan, in a show that reveals the faded dreams and stark realities of those living on the lowest rung of society’s ladder. When: 5 — 22 Oct, Forecourt, Malthouse Theatre
22 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
Tree Of Codes Collaborations don’t get more world-class than this. Choreographer Wayne McGregor, visual artist Olafur Eliasson, and musician Jamie XX, three celebrated artists at the top of their game, have come together to produce an astonishingly vibrant evening of dance, music and visual spectacle. This remarkable response to writer Jonathan Safran Foer’s groundbreaking book-sculpture of the same name, will be performed by dancers from McGregor’s company supplemented by several soloists from the world’s most prestigious dance troupe, the Paris Opera Ballet. When: 17 — 21 Oct, State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne
Under Siege Created by acclaimed Chinese choreographer and dancer Yang Liping, this spectacular production offers a wild fusion of styles, from ballet to hip hop, to tell the story of the climactic battle between the Chu and Han armies, a pivotal moment in China’s history. Designed by Tim Yip, the Oscar-winning talent behind New Orientalist masterpiece Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, this stunningly vibrant evening of dance theatre tells a tale that proves, all is fair in love and war. When: 5 — 8 Oct, State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne
7 Pleasures Danish dance-maker Mette Ingvartsen gets to the naked truth of our human capacity for desire and the need for satisfaction, in this daring production. 12 dancers, who will perform naked, will come together to create a writhing assemblage of bodies, in a show that toes the line between art and indecency. Exploring ideas of body politics and how the naked form still has the power to shock, this is a beautifully dangerous celebration of our species’ most animalistic traits. When: 18 — 22 Oct, Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne
Tanderrum Now in its fifth year, this meeting of Aboriginal elders from the five clans of the Eastern Kulin nation, has become a festival tradition, as well as an important nod to the cultural heritage of Australia’s first nations. Based on a tradition dating back millennia, this sharing of culture between elders from the Wurundjeri, Boon Wurrung, Tuan Wurrung, Wadawurrung and Dja Dja Wurrung clans invites visitors to the festival and the people of Melbourne to be engaged and inspired by the rich history of our country. When: 4 Oct, Federation Square
Please Continue, (Hamlet) Theatre and reality collide in this groundbreaking event, as real life Australian legal professionals apply the letter of the law to one of Shakespeare’s most complex characters. Barristers, a sitting judge, and forensic experts will pour over the evidence and plead the case of a Danish prince. A real jury of Melburnians will then decide the youth’s fate, based on the compelling evidence and testimony. This entirely unscripted event is different at every performance, with an outcome that cannot be predicted, and this is the first time this exhilaratingly original concept will be using the Australian legal system as its foundation. When: 5 — 9 Oct, Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne
THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 23
Industry
NETFLIX
Pulling Strings
AND THRILL
Star Trek: Discovery
Melbourne Guitar Show organiser Greg Phillips with participant Bob Spencer
The streaming TV juggernaut dropped a bunch of trailers this weekend, driving the known universe wild with anticipation for what are likely to be the biggest hits of the year. Here’s what we went down.
Stranger Things Season 2 The teaser released earlier this year was pretty exciting, but it is weak sauce compared to this adrenaline raising sneak peek. Things do not look good for poor ol’ Will, as his involuntary leaps to the Upside-Down, as seen in the series one cliff-hanger, look to play a major role. Also, possibly the best use of Thriller ever? Streaming from 27 Oct.
Star Trek: Discovery Trekkies are already salivating at the prospect of a whole new chapter for the sci-fi franchise, but it looks like this actionpacked series won’t just be for superfans. While we’ll have to wait for the series to begin streaming, from 25 Sep, there’s plenty to suggest it follows the trend for long arc storytelling, rather than Star Trek’s usual episodic approach.
Marvel’s The Defenders The culmination of three years, and four separate shows, Defenders features the superhero supergroup of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. We’re keeping everything crossed that it turns out better than Iron Fist’s lack lustre first season, but with Sigourney Weaver on board, we’re feeling quietly optimistic. Streams from 18 Aug.
24 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
Melbourne Guitar Show coorganiser Greg Phillips chats with Rod Whitfield about the future of guitars and what this year’s show has in store.
T
here has been some news circulating recently that sales of electric guitars and amplifiers are declining, and quite rapidly. While on the surface, this may seem to be quite an alarming trend for people who love rock, metal and other styles of music based on the sumptuous sounds of an electrified six-string (or seven or eight string, whatever the case may be), Greg Phillips, co-organiser of the annual Melbourne Guitar Show, has more of a philosophical viewpoint on the issue and moves quickly to hose down any concern that these reports may cause. “I wouldn’t be worried too much actually,” he placates, from his home just outside Melbourne, “music is cyclical, and certainly at the moment there’s a lot of electronic music on the radio, but just as ‘80s synthpop gave way to ‘90s guitar grunge, that’s got to happen again at some stage. People are into trends and eventually start looking for something else.” He also cites another trend in the music industry that should give much encouragement to aficionados of the instrument. “The figures actually show that acoustic guitars are at record levels,” he informs us, “so the singer-songwriter thing is big. For the last 10 years, acoustic guitars have had a steady increase.”
Caulfield Racecourse may seem an odd choice for a guitar show, but Phillips feels it very much suits their needs as organisers, given its set-up. “It works well for us, because it’s got a lot of nooks and crannies!” He laughs, “we’ve created three floors of frettedinstrument fun. On the ground floor is your electrics, guitars, amps and pedals. Then you can go upstairs and play acoustic products, without all the noise. “Then there’s our ‘Whammy Bar’. The electric performances are up there, it’s a bit of a pub atmosphere, you’ll almost think you’re at the Corner Hotel.” This will be the show’s third year, and the line-up the organisers have in store for guitar loving punters this year is something very special. “This year is amazing because it’s actually the first year we’ve had international acts,” he reveals, “and these opportunities have come to us, rather than us seeking them.” Indeed, a serendipitous stroke of fortune saw a true legend of the instrument available on that weekend. “Steve Hackett, the original Genesis guitarist, just happened to be in town that weekend,” he says, “he’s a bit of a modest legend, his name may not be as well-known as your Pages and Gilmours and Claptons, but he was right there at the start of that prog-rock thing. “And he’s doing the only acoustic trio show, he’s doing the ‘Genesis Revisited’ thing around Australia, and we’re getting the only stripped-back thing, which is amazing.” Ultimately, variety is the key. “We try to cover as many musical guitar styles as possible. You’ve got your prog and metal shredders and your blues players, flamenco guys, slide players, ukulele players, bass guitars, the lot.”
When & Where: 5 & 6 Aug, Melbourne Guitar Show, Caulfield Racecourse
In Focus
Pic: Emma McEvoy
G e o rg i a
State Line
According to legendary Australian country musician Bill Chambers, Georgia State Line “represents the true essence of today’s country music,” and we’re fully on board (that pedal steel!). Georgia Delves fronts this cracking six-piece and you’ll feel as if you’ve been transported directly to Nashville once they kick into gear. Georgia State Line are currently on tour launching their debut EP Heaven Knows. Up for a road trip? Catch the band 5 Aug, Torquay Bowls Club; 6 Aug, Old Hepburn Hotel; 10 Aug, Sooki Lounge; 11 Aug, Saints & Sailors; 12 Aug, The Loft; 13 Aug, Martians Cafe; and/or 19 Aug, Old Church On The Hill. You can thank us later.
THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 25
this one. And, sure! Utopia Defeated is an awesome listen, but geez, have you given Big Scary’s Animal a spin lately? Percussively brilliant and with lyrics that’ll make you nod your head in appreciation while you dance, we’re really rooting for this one.
Music
Best Independent Single
Walking On AIR After taking a year off last year, the AIR Awards return in 2017. The Music consult their (broken) crystal ball and attempt to foresee what the future holds while fully appreciating our track record in predicting such matters is fairly grim.
AB Original
Nominees: AB Original (January 26 ft Dan Sultan), Alex Lahey (You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me), Big Scary (The Opposite Of Us), DD Dumbo (Satan), Flume (Never Be Like You ft Kai) Who will win: AB Original (January 26 ft Dan Sultan) Who should win: AB Original (January 26 ft Dan Sultan) Why? Once again, this category features a ridiculously strong handful of contenders. But January 26 just can’t/won’t be beaten. Dan Sultan’s hook adds an irresistibly melodic flourish, and Briggs and Trials totally take it there in this one (“Fuck that, homie!”). It’s a message we all need to take in. Respect.
Breakthrough Independent Artist Of The Year Nominees: AB Original, Alex Lahey, Camp Cope, DD Dumbo, Julia Jacklin Who will win: Alex Lahey Who should win: Alex Lahey Why? Because on the strength of just one EP, this rising star has performed at Splendour In The Grass, scored Pitchfork’s Best New Track, dazzled SXSW and supported Tegan & Sara across the UK. And have you met her manager? What a dead set legend!* (*Lahey is managed by The Music’s publisher Leigh Treweek.)
Best Independent Artist
Best Independent Hip Hop Album
Who will win: AB Original
Nominees: AB Original (Reclaim Australia), Hau (The No End Theory), L-Fresh The Lion (Become), Milwaukee Banks (Deep Into The Night), Remi (Divas And Demons)
Who should win: AB Original
Who will win: AB Original (Reclaim Australia)
Why? The AIR Awards are usually pretty on-the-ball in terms of dishing out accolades in a timely fashion (for example Flume took out this category in 2013, the same year he also took home the gongs for Best Independent Dance/Electronica Album and Best Independent Dance/Electronica Or Club Single). But historically this category favours artists with at least one album under their belt — after all, there’s always a lot of nominee crossover between this category and Breakthrough Independent Artist Of The Year (this year, AB Original, Alex Lahey and DD Dumbo are shortlisted for both of these awards). Come to think of it, back-to-back winner in this category Courtney Barnett (2014, 2015) didn’t release her debut album until 2015 but there’s an exception to every rule, right? Anyway, we’re tipping AB Original will take this one out and it’d be a popular choice.
Who should win: L-Fresh The Lion (Become)
Nominees: AB Original, Alex Lahey, Ali Barter, DD Dumbo, Flume
Why? It’s not uncommon for an artist to dominate the AIR Awards, taking home multiple gongs — Gurrumul (2008), Flume (2013) and Courtney Barnett (2015) — and it does feel like AB Original’s year. But in the spirit of sharing the love around, we reckon L-Fresh The Lion’s Become is a strong contender in this extremely strong shortlist. And obviously the Remi and Milwaukee Banks albums are cracking also. Go Aussie hip hop!
Best Independent Album Or EP Nominees: AB Original (Reclaim Australia), Alex Lahey (B-Grade University), Big Scary (Animal), DD Dumbo (Utopia Defeated), Ngaiire (Blastoma) Who will win: DD Dumbo (Utopia Defeated) Who should win: Big Scary (Animal) Why? Prior to this year, the accolade for Best Independent EP used to be grouped together with Best Independent Single, so it’ll be interesting to see whether an EP (Alex Lahey’s B-Grade University) can get up. Soz, Alex, we do reckon you’ll get to take a gong home at the ceremony this year, but also think DD Dumbo will deliver the acceptance speech for 26 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
Alex Lahey
Best Independent Dance/Electronica Album Nominees: Rainbow Chan (Spacings), Flume (Skin), Friendships (Nullarbor 1988-1989), Jagwar Ma (Every Now & Then), Elizabeth Rose (Intra) Who will win: Flume (Skin) Who should win: Friendships (Nullarbor 1988 — 1989)
Flume
Best Independent Country Album Nominees: Big Smoke (Time Is Golden), Bill Chambers (Cold Trail), William Crighton (William Crighton), Halfway (The Golden Halfway Record), Henry Wagons (After What I Did Last Night) Who will win: Bill Chambers (Cold Trail) Who should win: Big Smoke (Time Is Golden) Why? Because the Chambers family are Australian country music royalty and as such tend to collect a lot of awards. What we would dearly love to see happen, though, is for Big Smoke’s beautiful Time Is Golden set to be honoured.
Best Independent Blues’N’Roots Album Nominees: Julia Jacklin (Don’t Let The Kids Win), Russell Morris (Red Dirt — Red Heart), Archie Roach (Let Love Rule), The Waifs (Beautiful You), The Wilson Pickers (You Can’t Catch Fish From A Train) Who will win: Archie Roach (Let Love Rule) Who should win: Julia Jacklin (Don’t Let The Kids Win) Why? It’s lucky for these shortlisted artists that CW Stoneking didn’t release an album in 2016, because he’s taken home the trophy in this category three times! Our imaginary crystal ball tells us Archie Roach’s Let Love Rule will be victorious here and obviously we love him dearly, but it would be awesome to see talented newcomer Julia Jacklin (who’s been taking over the world one enviable European festival slot at a time) take the podium to deliver an acceptance speech for her glorious Don’t Let The Kids Win set. (Although, let’s face it, she’ll probably have to prerecord her acceptance speech direct from Roskilde Festival or something).
Why? Because Nullarbor 1988 — 1989 is the freshest thing going around and we’ve had Nullarbor 1988 — 1989 on high rotation religiously. It’s not the easiest listen, but farkin’ hell it’s arresting, dark, innovative and downright tribal at times. Flume’s outstanding Skin set (which has achieved Gold status both here and in the US) has pretty much already picked up every award on offer (Album Of The Year at the 2016 ARIA Awards and the Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 2017 Grammy Awards, ferchrissakes!) and it really is unstoppable so we’re tipping it’ll probably win this one as well to complete the set.
Best Independent Dance/Electronica Or Club Single Nominees: Flume (Never Be Like You ft Kai), Nick Murphy (Stop Me (Stop You)), Starley (Call On Me) Who will win: Flume (Never Be Like You ft Kai) Who should win: Nick Murphy (Stop Me (Stop You)) Why? Yeah, we get it, Flume’s Never Be Like You ft Kai is a killer track and if you listen to it once you’ll be walking around all day practising your falsetto, “I’LL NEVER BE LIKE YOU!” But his trophy cabinet is already groaning so it’s time to pass the baton. Starley’s Call On Me, while a total banger that showcases some seriously smokin’ vocals, kinda calls to mind that Eric Prydz (ft Steve Winwood) track of the same name. Sure, it’s taken us a minute to get used to the fact that Chet Faker has reverted to the name his parents gave him, but that voice of an angel remains the same and with Stop Me (Stop You) there’s just no stopping him. And, relax! Flume and Murphy are collaborating buddies so it’s all good. Just give the man his trophy, already.
Best Independent Hard Rock, Heavy Or Punk Album Nominees: Dead Letter Circus (Aesthesis), Hellions (Opera Oblivia), Luca Brasi (If This Is All We’re Going To Be), Twelve Foot Ninja (Outlier), Violent Soho (Waco)
Violent Soho
Who will win: Violent Soho (Waco) Who should win: Luca Brasi (If This Is All We’re Going To Be) Why? King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard dominated this category with their second win in 2015, but we suspect Waco by Violent Soho (which debuted at #1 on the ARIA Albums Chart and saw the lads collecting the ARIA for Best Rock Album in 2016) will be honoured this year. Not taking anything away from these Brisbane legends, but it just would just be so heart-warming to see one of Tasmania’s finest exports, Luca Brasi, walk away with this trophy for their excellent third long-player, If This Is All We’re Going To Be.
What: 11th AIR Awards When & Where: 27 Jul, Queens Theatre
THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 27
Album / E Album/EP Reviews
Album OF THE Week
Dan Sultan Killer
Liberation
★★★★½
This new album provides another strong platform to show off Dan Sultan’s skills. Added to his developing character is a great chorus of backing singers - taking the album dangerously (and wonderfully) close to Motown at times. Opener Drover has been described as a ‘prequel’ to From Little Things Big Things Grow, a deceptively catchy protest song finally unearthing some of the most important acts of defiance in the country’s history. Singles Kingdom and Hold It Together provide a great sense of the album’s overall energy and kick, but are by no means the sum of what Sultan can offer. For a change of pace, take in the swoon-iness of Cul-De-Sac and Fire Under Foot. Both are simply arranged, carried by the character of Sultan’s voice and mostly basic acoustics - just gorgeous. Follow this with the impassioned Magnetic and Over In Time (both introspective, though upbeat, rather than big ballad), and to end Easier Man jumps almost directly into gospel - a track that’s almost impossible not to hit ‘repeat’ on immediately after it’s done. In the hands of a lesser talent there would be times where the album’s themes would just march straight into Coma FM, but with Sultan it’s impossible to be complacent. Killer, indeed. Liz Giuffre
Shane Nicholson
Arcade Fire
Love And Blood
Everything Now
Lost Highway/Universal
Sony
★★★½
★★★★
Though Shane Nicholson is now firmly entrenched in Australian country music, he’s shown over his strong run of solo albums that he can still maintain a foot in the indie scene in which he forged his songwriting abilities. That positioning has enabled him to straddle alt-country and commercial country with equal aplomb. Love And Blood is no departure from his previous work, instead it hones in on his strengths of straight song structures, catchy melodies and well executed musicality with a workmanlike approach. It all seems to fit perfectly - almost too perfectly. Seamlessly even. The best country music shows cracks and the musical dirt beneath the fingernails. The opener and single Safe shares similarities with the reverb-laden guitars, lyrics and
Arcade Fire blast out an album of infectious pop songs with such irresistible uplift that it is impossible not to take flight and soar sky-high on these feelgood ibes. The anthemic title track is loaded with hooks that drill deep into your head. Everything from the rolling ABBA-esque piano to the pan pipe riff and the glorious hands-in-the-air “na na na” of the chorus will have listeners reaching for the repeat button. The indie rockers have allowed producers Thomas Bangalter and Pulp’s Steve Mackey to apply irresistible electro bounce while making their retro pop hooks shine. Portishead’s Geoff Barrow plays synths on Creature Comfort, which mixes themes of body issues, suicide and disillusion into a fierce electro workout that aims to stun. Two versions
28 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
cadence of Ryan Adams’ recent work. Elsewhere, Nicholson uses po-faced humour in I Don’t Dance and the Justin Townes Earle-ish Someone’s Gonna Pay and shapes astute relationship tales from common phrases on Bad Apple and One Trick Pony. The aforementioned lack of grit is partially compensated for by the wonderful New Orleans blues stagger and stomp of God’s Own Army — infectious, rousing, and sweet relief from the darker and slower songs on the album. This album again showcases Nicholson’s mature and consistently strong songwriting, placed right at the junction of country, rock and MOR. Chris Familton
of Infinite Content, dressed in raucous punk and easy country vibes, feels more like a ‘because we can’ experiment, while Electric Blue seems to refer to David Bowie’s Sound And Vision and feels like a tribute set to an instantly classic funk groove. There is much to fall in love with on this album. The Arcade is on Fire. Guido Farnell
EP Reviews Album/EP Reviews
Manchester Orchestra A Black Mile To The Surface
Make Them Suffer
Vic Mensa
Alice Cooper
The Autobiography
Paranormal
Worlds Apart
EMI
earMusic/Sony
Roadrunner/Warner
Caroline
★★★★
★★★½
★★★★
★★★★
Just 13 years into an already enviable career, Andy Hull and Robert McDowell are captaining Manchester Orchestra’s fifth through troublesome waters. Scoring the Danno/ Radcliffe vehicle Swiss Army Man using mostly a cappella and minimal orchestral sounds has reinvigorated the band’s love of its guitar section, which is delicately draped over Hull’s fragile vocals in The Parts and scalds with Foals-ish intensity on The Silence. When The Grocery wanders from a grey apartment block in search for a higher power to believe in it’s hard to imagine this is a band from Atlanta, Georgia not Brexitwounded Blighty. A Black Mile To The Surface is as brittle as it is powerful.
Bands get lots of slack for changing up their sound, and that’s what’s driven Make Them Suffer’s Worlds Apart. Keyboard/vocalist Booka Nile’s clean vocals provide an ethereal atmosphere when crossed with Sean Harmanis’ gnarly growls, yet they maintain their respected metal foundation with distorted guitar and pounding drum beats. With themes of change and self discovery in the soul-stirring Uncharted, (“To lose oneself is to find oneself”) to poignant spoken word apology in Save Yourself (“It’s ok to be wrong/ And I have been wrong/ And I am wrong”), Make Them Suffer have a lot to say, and aren’t holding back with this authentic, haunting and powerful release.
Age will not weary Alice Cooper. The black-eyed rocker returns after a six-year breather from 2011’s Welcome 2 My Nightmare with double album Paranormal. Having a staggering 26 albums (27 including this release) under his belt does make one wonder whether it’s a case of quantity over quality. But there’s a treasure trove of blues rock to be lapped up here. The opening title track is classic Cooper, stadium guitars followed by some stomping riffs, he pokes fun at his age in Fallen In Love, playful horror vibes creep into The Sound Of A, and the live bonus disc is a neat reminder of how many hits the great man gave us.
Mac McNaughton
Emily Blackburn
Initially slated for 2015 (it was scrapped to create a “more authentic” project), the debut LP from Chicago MC Vic Mensa has finally dropped. The Autobiography is a striking collection of woozy trap pop and intimate personal anecdotes, immediately recalling Kanye West’s Graduation. In a way, the record represents Mensa’s own valedictory: after several years refining his craft he’s ready to take on the world, armed with an exciting body of work. Down For Some Ignorance, Wings and Rollin’ Like A Stoner — a lavish earworm juxtaposing party sonics with musings on the pitfalls of excessive partying, ala Kendrick Lamar’s Swimming Pools — exhibit Mensa’s impressive ear for melody and ability to dissect the minutiae of his existence.
Carley Hall
Evan Young
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Rings Of Saturn Ultu Ulla
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THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 29
Live Re Live Reviews
Queens Of The Stone Age @ Festival Hall. Pic: Kane Hibberd
Queens Of The Stone Age, Ecca Vandal Festival Hall 20 Jul
Queens Of The Stone Age @ Festival Hall. Pic: Kane Hibberd
Ecca Vandal @ Festival Hall. Pic: Kane Hibberd
Catfish & The Bottlemen @ Festival Hall. Pic: Jaz Meadows
Fountaineer @ Festival Hall. Pic: Jaz Meadows
30 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
Catfish & The Bottlemen @ Festival Hall. Pic: Jaz Meadows
It’s totally not Ecca Vandal’s fault, but the crowd assembled in GA stand motionless throughout the duration of her set as if they have the following thought on loop in their minds: ‘What time does QOTSA start?’ The South African-born artist doesn’t let this put her off her game, however, and delivers a blistering set fronting her killer band. The drummer is a standout and Vandal whips her two-tone mane back and forth while caterwauling across this stage’s wide expanse. Vandal embodies rock’n’roll with a red flanno tied around her waist and Chuck Taylors on her feet. An absolute star in the making. Afternoon Delight repeats several times over the venue sound system as we brace ourselves for the incomparable majesty of Queens Of The Stone Age. Josh Homme saunters out with the aid of a walking stick before posing with it behind his shoulders, grinning like a song and dance man. Instantly, the sound is crisp and QOTSA effortlessly pump out their menacing voodoo magic. The hypnotic, circular You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire riff blows our faces off and then the drum demolition throughout No One Knows sees us shaking our heads in admiring disbelief. As for Homme: nobody does it better; his rock’n’roll essence should be bottled, sold and snorted. That falsetto during Smooth Sailing! Sometimes Homme limps a bit when walking in between songs, but once the rock’n’roll kicks in he’s a supernatural, immortal beast. When are they
gonna cast The Ginger Viking in Game Of Thrones? As for Sick, Sick, Sick, the song’s title pretty much sums up its greatness. There’s no running across the stage, it’s always stalking and prowling. Homme may have a dodgy knee, but there’s
You can’t help but feel aroused while experiencing Queens Of The Stone Age live. nothing wrong with those gyrating hips. “I’m here to do it with you,” Homme teases. Feel Good Hit Of The Summer is a relentless riff barrage and when Homme inserts a snippet of INXS’s Devil Inside we absolutely lose our shit. If I Had A Tail continues the demonic theme and Homme’s insouciant delivery (“I wanna suck/I wanna lick”) is sexual. By Little Sister we’re actually powerless. “My lady’s from Melbourne, she’s from Fitzroy,” Homme shares. “Did you just say, ‘Shut up’?” he asks a punter, before quipping, “That’s just what your mom said last night, she was like, ‘Josh, shut up and just fuck me.’” When Homme takes a seat at the piano for The Vampyre Of Time And Memory, his towering stature makes the instrument look like a toy. There’s a deafening singalong during Make It Wit Chu as we sing with gusto. Homme hilariously chastises a punter: “Don’t fucking boo, either, you dumb dick!” before introducing new track The Evil Has Landed. “Fingers crossed that Troy does
eviews Live Reviews
not fuck this up,” he jokes of guitarist Van Leeuwen. Homme tells us he just learned Queens Of The Stone Age have existed as a band for 30 years. “It ain’t good bye, it’s just good night,” Homme promises and the band’s main set closes with Go With The Flow. But it ain’t over yet. “This man smells fucking terrific and he looks fantastic,” Homme gushes of guitarist Dean Fertita. The frontman is in fine spirits, announcing, “Hi, everybody, I’m your fucked-up uncle! I’m Joshua!” A Song For The Dead completely finishes us off - these musicians start and stop on a dime. Homme climbs gingerly up onto the drum kit for the finale and we’re truly not worthy. It’s as if QOTSA’s instruments are having sexy conversations. Queens Of The Stone Age, you beautiful bunch of freaks. Rock’n’roll just doesn’t get any sexier than the sounds this band lovingly wrench from their instruments and these skilful players perform with a synergy that proves they’re a band of brothers who genuinely rate each other. You can’t help but feel aroused while experiencing Queens Of The Stone Age live. Thanks, QOTSA, we’re now all lubed up and ready to go. Bryget Chrisfield
Catfish & The Bottlemen, Fountaineer Festival Hall 21 Jul The support for tonight is kept very hush and there’s no sign of who we can expect on any event pages. Turns out it’s the boys from Bendigo: Fountaineer. The band grasp the audience’s attention with their heavy beats and
danceable tracks, doing a great job of warming everyone up. You can tell these guys are full of gratitude for the incredible opportunity they’ve been given thanks to this support slot (“Thanks for listening to our little songs about Bendigo”) and their modern synth-laden melodies alongside frontman Anthony White’s ‘80s rockesque vocals display charm and confidence. Twice in one year. How could we be so lucky? Since their January show, Catfish & The Bottlemen have had a major upgrade in the capacity of venue in which they play and tonight they prove why the general admission section sold out in a matter of minutes.
Catfish & The Bottlemen belong on stage.
period of time. The lighting is on steroids, washes of green and red with strobes perfectly timed to the fast-paced beats. In the audience, arms are flailing everywhere and punters are up on their friends’ shoulders, taking their shirts off - it’s an incredibly wild and infectious atmosphere; Catfish & The Bottlemen belong on stage. McCann covers every square centimetre of Festival Hall’s stage as he runs back and forth, playing guitar over his head, falling onto the floor and going absolutely wild as his band feed off their frontman’s contagious energy. Ending on Tyrants, an oldie from 2010’s The Beautiful Decay EP, Catfish & The Bottlemen give their absolute all to Melbourne fans and leave us with a promising statement: “We’ll come back as soon as we have our next album.” We’ll hold them to that. Emily Blackburn
Suddenly the crowd is packed in like sardines, all squished together. After blasting Dean Martin’s Ain’t That A Kick In The Head over the PA much to the confusion of this mixed-aged crowd, British rockers Catfish & The Bottlemen arrive on stage, smashing into Homesick to deafening screams and cheers. These seasoned performers play a mixed set that takes in their 2014 release The Balcony and 2016’s The Ride, as well as some sneaky EP tracks, which is much appreciated by fans old and new. Every song goes off, harder than the one before, as the crowd screams for more. “It took us two headline tours,” frontman Van McCann observes of how fast their fanbase has grown over a short
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kd lang @ The Plenary LANY @ Max Watt’s Cut Copy @ The Croxton Bonobo @ Forum Theatre PJ Morton @ Bird’s Basement Mark Seymour & The Undertow @ Athenaeum Theatre Billy Davis & The Good Lords @ The Night Cat Drown This City @ The Workers Club
THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 31
Arts Reviews Arts Reviews
It follows the misadventures of a regional theatre company as they attempt to perform ‘Nothing On’ - a saucy romp about tax evasion, elderly thieves and long lost daughters. Unfortunately, their chemistry is more explosive than entertaining. Lead actress Dotty (Louise Siversen) is overwhelmed by props. Nice-but-dim Freddie (Hugh Parker) wants to know his motivation. Blind optimist Belinda (Nicki Wendt) just wants everyone to get along, while clueless ingenue Brooke (Libby Munro) has at least learned her lines. Meanwhile, old drunk Selsdon (Steven Tandy) is on the grog, stage hand Tim (James Saunders) has lost the plot, Stage Manager Poppy (Emily Goddard) is having a break down, and cock of the walk geezer Garry (Ray Chong Nee) is, well kinda, you know what I mean? Derailed by clashing personalities, illicit affairs, scorned affections and piss-poor acting, this misfit cast of players cling-on by their fingertips as various forms of chaos create a Venn diagram for a bloody funny disaster. There’s no denying the hilarity that ensues, and this play’s international popularity and indestructible longevity (it’s been treading the boards almost non-stop since the early 1980s) is a credit to its entertaining silliness. It is, however, a very particular kind of comedy - a distinctly white, middle-class, affluent wheeze. With toffeevoiced luvvies cooing back stage in the ifyou-have-to-ask-you’ll-never-know vernacular, and a few wince-making racial and gendered references that shine a light on its 35-yearold sensibilities, there are moments when its jokes seem rather threadbare and elite. This production does, however, boast a first-rate cast - particularly notable is Simon Burke AO as the quietly exasperated, secretly philandering director, summoning just the right balance of dry British wit and withering authority. Louise Sivesen also shines as Dotty, whose transformation from ultra posh old pro to rickety cockney-voiced Mrs Clackett, the sardine loving house keeper, is pitch perfect. Noises Off
Noises Off Theatre Until 12 Aug, Southbank Theatre
★★★ Who doesn’t love a good LOL or two at the theatre? Melbourne audiences have had their sides perpetually split by a steady supply of rip-roaring comedies in recent months. Indeed, MTC’s 2017 season is especially laden with laughs, including a new production of the show hailed as the funniest ever penned, Michael Frayn’s perfect farce Noises Off. That may sound like an audacious claim, but there’s plenty of evidence to back it up. Its construction is like a Swiss clock, with each stumble, slammed door, spilled sardine or dropped trouser a perfectly assembled cog in a beautifully crafted mechanism of madness.
Maxim Boon 32 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
Merchant Of Venice
Merchant Of Venice Theatre Until 30 Jul, Arts Centre Melbourne
★★★★★ Of Shakespeare’s plays, The Merchant Of Venice is perhaps the most infamously difficult to unriddle, saddled as it is with a jarring competition of plots, some romantic, some comical, and crucially, some scathingly anti-Semitic. These hurdles haven’t deterred theatre-makers from taking on the challenge, but few directors would likely choose to make their Shakespearian debut with this problem play - even Shakespeare veterans have been hobbled by The Merchant. Beyond the glaring issues of ugly religious conflicts spun on an ambiguous moral axis, there’s also the matter of balancing the loaded dynamics of its lovers. Oh, and don’t forget to make it funny. It’s a mercilessly complex muddle of quandaries, that demands an equally complex response. And it certainly gets it in this production, and from a Shakespeare first-timer to boot. Director Anne-Louise Sarks delivers a stunningly assured staging, conjuring beautiful lyricism, nimble humour and stark, crushing cruelty in equal measure. The most miraculous accomplishment of this production is found in its handling of Shylock, rendered with outstanding clarity by Mitchell Butel. There’s a tangible lucidity underpinning the behaviour of this much-maligned character, as the incessant insults and abuses he suffers, the hissed insistences that he is “alien”, an outsider, an unwelcome element, are constantly reinforced by Sarks’ careful blocking. There are, of course, moments of light to balance this show’s many shadows, But ultimately, it is impossible not to be moved by Shylock in Sarks’ emotionally overwhelming staging, because his actions are not so much defined by his faith as they are by his humanity. It’s this searing, agonising revelation that powers this production’s parting gesture, a moment of sobering pain that exposes both the folly of such arbitrary hate and the hypocrisy of the “good Christian.” Maxim Boon
OPINION Opinion
Howzat!
Local Music By Jeff Jenkins Up Jumped A Swaggie You could call it a Mrs Marsh album. Remember the old ad when Mrs Marsh inexplicably explained the effectiveness of Colgate toothpaste with a piece of chalk? “Like liquid gets into this chalk ... ooh, it does get in.” Rebecca Barnard’s third solo album, Music For Listening And Relaxation, is a little like that. It takes a few listens, but it does get in. A collection of melancholic meditations on modern life, the album has an otherworldly feel, with Barnard’s dreamlike vocals floating across the instrumentation provided by Barnard and Michael den Elzen (Rebecca’s Empire, Schnell Fenster, Deadstar). Barnard came across the album title on an old record she found in an op shop in the Blue Mountains, and “it seemed to encapsulate the mood of the songs”. She sings about “things I can’t express, things you can’t explain”, advising the listener: “Don’t be afraid of the sound your heart makes.” On her first album in seven years, Barnard also sings about “growing up the right way”. Indeed, she was surrounded by music - her
dad, Len, who died in 2005, was one of Australia’s finest jazz drummers, while her uncle Bob Barnard is a renowned trumpet player. Their parents, Jim and Kath, started The Kath Barnard Jazz Band in the 1920s. Len joined the band in the 1940s when he was 12. Rebecca started singing with The Len Barnard Jazz Band when she was 13. Len and Bob’s work can now be found on a swag of reissues from Swaggie Records, the seminal local jazz label started by ARIA Hall of Famer Graeme Bell in 1949. Graeme and his band sold the label to Nevill Sherburn in 1954. Following Nevill’s passing in 2015, his friend the legendary Bill Armstrong has reactivated the label, re-releasing 28 titles through Readings and Thomas’ Music, for $10 each, including Bob Barnard And Friends’ Ned
Len and Rebecca Barnard
Kelly Jazz Suite and Riverboat Days, Len Barnard & Bob Barnard’s Brothers In Jazz, and Len Barnard’s Famous Jazz Band’s Hot Tuesday 1967 and The Mountebank 1968.
State Of The Heartache Nick Barker’s The Heartache State will unleash a new album, Last Of The Buffalo, in September, with a launch at the Caravan Club on 22 Oct.
Hip Hip Happy birthday to The Seekers’ Bruce Woodley, who turned 75 (on 25 Jul). And we remember Darryl Cotton, who died of liver cancer, aged 62, five years ago this week.
THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 33
OPINION Opinion
Trai ler Trash
Fragmented Frequencies Sparklehorse
Other Music
R
ecently I dreamt I was in a barn in rural Virginia in which Mark Linkous was recording his new From The Other album. Wearing welding goggles and a greasy white T-shirt, he sang some demos and we were eager to Side With Bob hear how the addition of a hay baler and chainsaw would alter the tunes. I woke up devastated. Baker Fish I’ll never get to hear this album because Linkous took his own life in 2010 after a lifelong battle with depression and addiction. What he left behind as Sparklehorse is remarkable, particularly in the depth of emotion that I wasn’t equipped to comprehend in the mid-to-late ‘90s. Yet listening back to 1995’s Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot and 1998’s Good Morning Spider, all I hear is fragility and frustration. We later learned that he laboured over his lyrics, and doubted and dreaded his music’s reception. Linkous may have re-entered my subconsciousness because I began listening to the podcast S-Town and it’s impossible not to connect with the despair, frustration and humanity of those who can’t fit into the world around them. In Linkous’ case, he couldn’t even bring himself to record vocals on 2009’s Dark Night Of The Soul because he thought no one cared. Decades later I’m only starting to understand. If dealing with depression call BeyondBlue 1300 224 636 or beyondblue.org.au.
Wa ke The Dead Against Me!
Punk And Hardcore With Sarah Petchell
gainst Me! are one of those bands that I knew I should probably like, but I just never could get into. I would like the odd song here or there, but that was about the extent of my interest in the band. Then, in 2012, Laura Jane Grace came out as a transgender woman. It didn’t really change my opinion of the music, but it definitely gave me a respect for the courage in her convictions to come
A
34 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
Stranger Things
out in such a very public way. I definitely wrote a column about it at the time. Recently I read Laura’s autobiography, Tranny: Confessions Of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout. And it was illuminating. It explored the depths of her gender dysphoria. It explained (but never excused) some of the dickish behaviour I had seen Tom Gabel (Laura’s name as a man) engage in when I worked as a music journalist. And mostly it just cemented this respect for her that had been building since 2012. It’s really hard for me to write about LGBTQI+ issues and I generally shy away from doing so because I don’t want to upset anyone or come across as speaking on anyone’s behalf. But what I do want to do is encourage people to read this book, or watch the recent interview Marc Fennell did with Laura (I’m sure you can find it on YouTube) and see the kind of bravery, diversity and ideas that we should be celebrating in our scene and in our community. Even if, like me, you’re not a fan of Against Me!
OPINION Opinion
Dives Into Your
B
efore we begin, a brief Screens but sincere tribute. We lost And Idiot Boxes filmmaker George A Romero last With Guy Davis week at the age of 77, and his impact upon independent cinema and popular culture cannot be underestimated. Romero’s output over a number of decades was hit and miss but he came up with a few bona fide classics of genre filmmaking, even outside his respected and celebrated gamechanging Dead series. I highly recommend The Crazies and especially Martin, both very much movies of their era in ways good and, uh, maybe problematic, but shot through with Romero’s own brand of social and political consciousness. And if you’re in the mood for a little flesh-eating mayhem, I’d say Day Of The Dead, which is up there with They Live for an ‘80s horror movie that feels remarkably relevant in the 21st century. It’s also gross as fuck, which I applaud and you should too. Back to the here and now, and something social media had made blindingly clear is that spending too much time in the proximity of people who share your cultural interests can be hazardous to your psychological health. For instance, a matter of minutes wallowing the mire of opinionated blather that makes up what is colloquially known as ‘Film Twitter’ — a brackish swamp of unbecoming enthusiasm, pompous pontification and chipon-shoulder defensiveness — can make you want to renounce any appreciation you may have ever had for moving pictures. But to kinda quote the great Alexei Sayle, there is only one thing that unites us and it’s not class or ideology, colour, creed or roots. It is the anticipation that arises when nerds the world over are presented with an array of what the dream merchants are sending our way over the coming months through the conduit of San Diego Comic Con, ground zero of geekiness. For a precious few days, genre devotees are able to set aside their differences — even if only a few minutes at a time — to revel in the magic of really good marketing. Trailers and sizzle reels are displayed to an audience eager to snap up the fantasies being peddled, and even if 96% of the time we’re disappointed by the finished product there’s generally still the feeling of, “Man, that looks so fucking cool.” Of course, some hit the bullseye while some fall slightly short of the mark for whatever reason. When it comes to the latter,
it could be a general sense of malaise that accompanies something like the new Justice League trailer, which is brightening its generally gloomy palette and adding a lot more Wonder Woman but still seems like a movie we already watched six months ago, or it could be a simple misstep, like the title card in the trailer for Steven Spielberg’s upcoming Ready Player One that calls the source material, the novel by Ernest Cline, “the holy grail of pop culture” when it is, in fact, a pandering pile of fanboy wanksocks that Spielberg has hopefully transcended through skilful direction. For mine, the two highlights outta SDCC were the trailers for the new season of Stranger Things, doubling down on the ‘80s nostalgia and topping it all off by scoring the scares to Michael Jackson’s Thriller (it works better than you might think!), and Thor: Ragnarok, which triples down on the neon-hued extravagance of the previous trailer and then throws a fleet of fucking pegasus for good measure. (Wait, Google has informed me that the plural of pegasus is in fact pegasi. The more you know!)
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THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 35
Comedy / G The Guide
Vera Blue
Wed 26
Chasing Ghosts
Oh Wonder + OKBadlands: 170 Russell, Melbourne Bohjass + Damien Ellis Band: 303, Northcote
Gavin Sing & The Word + Beautiful Moana + Crazy Comfort: Bar Open, Fitzroy Danika Smith + Allysha Joy: Belleville, Melbourne
The Music Presents Sigur Ros: 27 Jul Margaret Court Arena Vera Blue: 8 Aug Tap House Bendigo, 11 Aug 170 Russell, 12 Aug Wool Exchange Geelong; 10 Sep, 170 Russell Raised By Eagles: 18 Aug The Workers Club Geelong; 19 Aug The Croxton; 16 Sep Caravan Music Club Oakleigh; 17 Sep Torquay Bowls Club Sarah McLeod: 23 Aug The Workers Club Ali Barter: 25 Aug The Workers Club Geelong; 1 Sep Theatre Royal Castlemaine; 8 Sep Corner Hotel
One Trick Pony: Paul Simon 70s feat. Deborah Conway + Husky + Troy McMillin + Janine Maunder + Paul Williamson + more: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne Death Disco feat. Resident Kiti: Boney, Melbourne Muddy’s Blues Roulette with Julian James: Catfish (Front Bar), Fitzroy Frank Woodley: Comic’s Lounge, North Melbourne Connor Black Harry: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Banks + Tapz: Forum Theatre, Melbourne Poppongene + Culte + 808s & The Greatest Hits: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood
Hunt The Haunted After clocking up 21 live shows in and around Melbourne over the past six months, it would be fair to expect Chasing Ghosts to need a break from this city. Thankfully, they’ll be powering on at Northcote Social Club, Saturday.
Dan Sultan: 1 Sep Wool Exchange Geelong; 2 Sep Forum Theatre
America + Russell Morris: Hamer Hall, Melbourne
Wilder Genes + Yukumbabe + Murphry: The Bendigo, Collingwood
Stormzy + Manu Crook$: Forum Theatre, Melbourne
Mew: 12 Sep Max Watt’s
Shrimpwitch + Maureen + Moody Beaches: Howler, Brunswick
Manda Gleeson + Jessica Skye: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne
Kill The Darling: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood
The River Jesters: Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar, Melbourne
Aeora + Eilish Gilligan: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood
Hoodoo Gurus + You Am I: Kay St, Traralgon
Lomond Acoustica feat. Mike Rudd + Ian Collard + James Hickey: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East
Zoe Fox + Truly Holy: The Old Bar, Fitzroy
Jimmy Stewart + Steph Brett: Labour In Vain, Fitzroy
At The Drive In: 28 Sep Festival Hall Caligula’s Horse: 30 Sep Max Watt’s Mono: 10 Nov Max Watt’s Alt-J: 7 Dec Sidney Myer Music Bowl
The Filthy Teens
Jess De Luca + Mcrobin + Yellow Castle: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Weatherboards + Hi Tec Emotions + The Sadults + Hexdebt: The Tote (Upstairs), Collingwood
JLS & Co: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East
Frenzal Rhomb
Moonlover + Honey Badgers + Girlatones: The Tote (Front Bar), Collingwood The Ians + The Wrst + AMPon: The Tote (Band Room), Collingwood Anti-Violet + Amiko + The Miyagis: The Workers Club, Fitzroy
Sydney Scoundrels The Filthy Teens have dropped their debut Feels Like Space just last week, and they’re already coming out guns ablazing. Bar Open is set to welcome the Sydney natives this Thursday as part of their east coast tour.
Tenderloins + Ruth Lindsay + Luke Yeoward: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford
Thu 27 Kickin The B at 303 feat. Jake Mason Trio: 303, Northcote The Filthy Teens + Dom Kelly + Sofala: Bar Open, Fitzroy Renee Geyer: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne Mid Winter Moon Party with Jess Ribeiro + Moonlover + Poppongene + 808s & The Greatest Hits: Catfish, Fitzroy Brett Lee: Charles Weston Hotel, Brunswick
LCD Soundsystem: Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne Oliver Downes + Imogen Pemberton + Georgia Smith: Open Studio, Northcote Rebetiko: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick
36 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
A Rhomb In The Sack Officially nine studio albums deep, Frenzal Rhomb are bona fide touring veterans. Their latest effort, Hi-Vis High Tea, has given the punk rockers yet another chance to hit the circuit, with Corner Hotel playing host on Sunday.
Kattimoni: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Frank Woodley: Comic’s Lounge, North Melbourne Hannah Kate + ZK King + Stanley Street DJs: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy
Sigur Ros: Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne Comedy Night with Dave Thornton + Adam Richard + Ben Knight: McKinnon Hotel, McKinnon
Gigs / Live The Guide
Root Rat + Adore + Giles Warren + Ercha: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford
Fri 28
Bortier Okoe: 303, Northcote Phil Para Band: Baha Tacos, Rye
Trio Agogo
OK Agogo Trio Agogo are here to inject some Brazilian beats into your lives when they head to Edinburgh Castle this Friday. This is the second week of their two-week stint, so bring your kids (no seriously, they offered) and head down. Frenzal Rhomb + Totally Unicorn: Musicman Megastore, Bendigo Dear Diary (Women’s Melbourne Network Fundraiser) with Rose Callaghan + Clementine Ford + more: Northcote Social Club, Northcote Disco Volante feat. Anyo + Ben Lawrence + Casey Leaver + more: Onesixone, Prahran The Tortured Artists: Open Studio, Northcote Sun God Replica: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick Bloody Aztec + Dear Thieves + Danger & Plastic + Cash: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick
Aztx + San Fierro + Dandecat: Bar Open, Fitzroy Son of a Gunzel: Bar Open (Front Bar), Fitzroy Rates: Barwon Club Hotel, South Geelong
The Cure’s ‘Wish’ 25 Year Anniversary Show feat. Steve Kilbey + Evil Dick + The Exploding Boys + Hollie Joyce + Dave Challinor + JMS Harrison + Lisa Crawley + more: Corner Hotel, Richmond
La Danse Macabre with Brunswick Massive: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy
Trio Agogo: Edinburgh Castle Hotel (Front Bar), Brunswick
Alleged Associates + Zerafina Zara: Smokehouse 101, Maribyrnong
DJ Kit Convict: Edinburgh Castle Hotel (Beer Garden), Brunswick
Electric: The Cult Tribute + Alice Remains: Sooki Lounge, Belgrave
Crystal Ignite + Cicadastone + Blklst: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy
The Kujo Kings + Hello Tut Tut + King River Rising: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick
Marcie Jones + Fleetwood To The Max: Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick
Lucy Wise Trio: St Margaret’s Anglican Church, Eltham
East Coast Swag + The Attention Seekers + The No Goods: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick
In Store with Shane Nicholson: Basement Discs, Melbourne The Dao of Dylan feat. Monique diMattina + Rebecca Barnard: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne
Jim Lawrie
Pest Kontrol with DJ Scotty Pesticide: Boney, Melbourne Smalltown with Dense + Pika: Brown Alley, Melbourne Belmar Records Top 10 Vol. 5 feat. The Pearly Shells + Kerri Simpson + Andy Swann: Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh GSPF x Musicians for Hearing with Squidgenini + S.O. Crates + Luke King + Jess Ramsey: Catfish, Fitzroy Just A Gent + Moza: Chasers Nightclub, South Yarra Sebastrockets + The Credits + White Devil Detroit: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Frank Woodley: Comic’s Lounge, North Melbourne
Lawrie & Order After 18 months of intense writing and workshopping, Jim Lawrie is finally ready to unleash his latest album onto the world. Slacker Of The Year will be on full display at Northcote Social Club this Friday.
Alex Watts
Red Bull Sound Select feat. Jonti + Slum Sociable + 30/70: The Curtin, Carlton Roesy: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne
Stormzy + Manu Crook$: Forum Theatre, Melbourne
The Ivory Elephant + Sordid Ordeal: The B.East, Brunswick East
Dan Vogl + Hey Mammoth: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood
Bukowski + Turn South + Stranger + Clove: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood
Electric Mud + Department + Rayza + Rhysics + Lizard Queen: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood
Sistema En Decadencia + Enzyme + Execution + Wild Spears + Steed: The Bendigo, Collingwood
Runk + Matt Murray & The Durry Busters + The Good Wives + Foxtrot + Dedmedics: Karova Lounge, Ballarat
Howl At The Moon + On Diamond + Square Wave Ghost: The Old Bar, Fitzroy Trevor + LST: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg Midnight Express with Mas: The Toff In Town (Carriage Room), Melbourne Nothinge + Wars + Jonny Telafone + FigrHed Beats: The Tote (Upstairs), Collingwood Men of R&B with Lloyd + J Holiday + RL (of Next) + Eric Bellinger: Trak Lounge Bar, Toorak
Maximum Voltage Alex Watts is delivering ‘unadulterated Watts’ for two nights over the course of two weeks. Saturday will be the second night of piano heaven when Watts heads to Compass Pizza Bar, bringing a little class to the ‘za.
Colouring Cats + Moonlight Broadcast + Suldusk: Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East
Collingwood Casanovas + Max Teakle & his Honky-Tonky Friends: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East Liver Tonic feat. Hugo Race + Michelangelo + Ron S Peno + Cam Butler + Harry Howard & Edwina Preston + The Peptides + Sean Kelly & The Ears + Steve Kilbey + Greg Fleet + more: Memo Music Hall, St Kilda Jim Lawrie + New Band + Jess Cornelius: Northcote Social Club, Northcote The Disco feat. John Course + Jared Marston + DJ Rowie + more: Onesixone, Prahran
Harry Jakamarra + Jane McArthur: Tramway Hotel, North Fitzroy Bob Hutchison: Wesley Anne, Northcote
The Breadmakers: Labour In Vain, Fitzroy
Brett Franke: Compass Pizza Bar, Brunswick East
Mariachi Los Romanticos: Open Studio, Northcote Frenzal Rhomb + Totally Unicorn: Pier Bandroom (Pelly Bar), Frankston
Universal Outcasts + Children Of The Sun + Middle March + Kaz Garaz: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Davis Cosma + Michael Crowe + Tim Parry: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne Super-X + Still Mess + Pearl Bay: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood Manc 88-94 feat. Jon Dasilva: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood Howl At The Moon + Swim Team + Spiral Perm: The Old Bar, Fitzroy Emah Fox + Dear Plastic: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg Tove Lo + Tigertown: The Prince, St Kilda Sleazy Listening with Arks + Richard Kelly + Hysteric + K. Hoop: The Toff In Town (Carriage Room), Melbourne Poprocks At The Toff with Dr Phil Smith: The Toff In Town (Toff Ballroom), Melbourne
THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 37
Comedy / G The Guide
Driven To The Verge + The Name of a Ghost + The Gloom in the Corner + Disasters + Legerity: The Tote (Upstairs), Collingwood
Flyying Colours DJs: The Brunswick Hotel (Beer Garden), Brunswick
Just A Gent
Fierce Mild + Crystal Myth + Orcha + The Black Heart Death Cult: The Curtin, Carlton
Nick Anderson: The Westernport Hotel, Phillip Island
Tinsmith + Stephen O’Prey: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne
Mount Defiance + Press Club Band + Jo Neugebauer: The Workers Club, Fitzroy
Manchild + DJ Caruso: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood
Charm of Finches + Loren Kate: Thornbury Theatre (Velvet Room), Thornbury
Club Coco feat. CC:Disco! + Ben Fester + DJ Miss Goldie + more: The Night Cat, Fitzroy
Hoodoo Gurus + You Am I: Ulumbarra Theatre, Bendigo
Turnpike + No Sister + Don Bosco + Error Margins: The Old Bar, Fitzroy
Tiaryn: Wesley Anne (Front Bar), Northcote Jimmy Harwood Band + Little Grandeur + Sam Lush + New$hoes: Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East Magic Bones + Glass Skies + Latreenagers + Timmy Tourettes & the Shit Fuck Cunts: Woody’s Bar, Collingwood The Cherry Dolls + White Summer + Kooyong: Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy Turnpike + River of Snakes + Life Strike + Magpie: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford The Black Sorrows: Yarraville Club, Yarraville
Mount Defiance
Junior Fiction + Plaster of Paris + Singing Lessons: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg
Jolly Good Just A Gent is heading to Chasers Nightclub this Friday to play some absolute bangers for eager punters. Just a gentleman, his music, a jam-packed room and his special guest Moza. What’s not to love? GSPF Closing Party with Mildlife + Albrecht La’Brooy + Waving at Trains DJs: Catfish, Fitzroy
Purple Revolution - A Tribute to Prince with Andrew De Silva: Memo Music Hall, St Kilda
Secret Native: Charles Weston Hotel, Brunswick
Chasing Ghosts + Xak + The Valley Ends + Grave Street Blues: Northcote Social Club, Northcote
Smoke Stack Rhino + Black Aces + Snakeskin Alley: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Frank Woodley: Comic’s Lounge, North Melbourne Alex Watts: Compass Pizza Bar, Brunswick East Frenzal Rhomb + Totally Unicorn + Pagan: Corner Hotel, Richmond
Defy This Melbourne lads Mount Defiance released Teamwork last month, the lead single off their upcoming EP Yankee Flat. The four-piece will be tearing up The Workers Club this Friday to kick things up a notch.
Zoe K: Edinburgh Castle Hotel (Front Bar), Brunswick Momentum feat. The Core-tet + So.crates + Neil Morris + more: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy RL Grime + Tkay Maidza + Enschway + Herzeloyde: Festival Hall, West Melbourne Soul with a Capital S with Reverend Funk & The Horns Of Salvation: Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick Die Like A God + The Convoy + Lonely Shore: Gin Lane, Belgrave
Sat 29 Geotech 3: 303, Northcote Matthew Fagan + Romana Geermans: Art Gallery Of Ballarat, Ballarat Slow Grind Fever with DJ Richie 1250 + Mohair Slim + DJ Pierre Baroni + Mike Gurrieri: Bar Open, Fitzroy Skyrocku: Bar Open (Front Bar), Fitzroy Vintage Crop + Gonzo + Bones & Jones: Barwon Club Hotel, South Geelong Wojciech Myrczek + Pawel Tomaszewski: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne Jeff Lang: Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh
38 • THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017
The Settlement + Dan Lethbridge + Bill: The Toff In Town, Melbourne
Clean Shirt + Jess Locke Band + Crystal Myth + A Strange Day: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood 80s Only +BYO Vinyl Night: Hard Rubbish Bar, Preston Hollow Everdaze: Karova Lounge, Ballarat The Jim Cuomo Trio: La Niche Cafe, Fitzroy JMS Harrison + Cabin Inn: Labour In Vain, Fitzroy Dirty Rascal: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East Katherine Hymer + Astral Skulls + Mara!: Long Play, Fitzroy North Thy Art Is Murder + Alpha Wolf + Cursed Earth + Deadlights: Max Watt’s, Melbourne
Francesca Mountfort + Mindy Meng Wang + Mouth Tooth: Open Studio, Northcote Keith Sweat + CDB: Palais Theatre, St Kilda Twisted Willows: Penny Black, Brunswick Tim Guy: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy Afternoon Show with The Electric Blues Collective: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick Brat Farrar + Cakefight + DJ Kezbot: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick Afternoon Show with Wil Wagner + Joe Neubauer: Reverence Hotel, Footscray
In The Carriage with DJ JNett + Andee Frost: The Toff In Town (Carriage Room), Melbourne Moonrise #4 feat. Nite Fleit + Hymns + Faux Pas Noir + Common Nocturne + Bo Radley: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Peeping Tom + Clagg + Merchant + Religious Observance: The Tote (Band Room), Collingwood Hannah Kate + Anti Violet + Amiko: The Tote (Front Bar), Collingwood Bourgeois Bigots + Asset Stripper + Charles Ivves Singers + Bad Magic + Propolis: The Tote (Upstairs), Collingwood Olly & Scuzzi: The Westernport Hotel, Phillip Island Maddy Jane + Joe Mungovan + The Quivers: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Skronkadoodledoo + Amarillo: Union Hotel, Brunswick Hello Tut Tut: Wesley Anne (Front Bar), Northcote Everchanging + The Deckers + Twin Pines + The Devours: Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East
I Know The Chief + Peach Noise + Mitchell Gee: Revolver Upstairs, Prahran Ivy Lab: Rubix The Venue, Brunswick
The Settlement
Canyon: Satellite Lounge, Wheelers Hill DJ Brian Fantana + Luke Vecchio: Sooki Lounge, Belgrave Bluestone Junction: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick Hanksaw: Surabaya Johnny’s, St Kilda The Burnt Sausages + Shrimpwitch: The B.East, Brunswick East Lecherous Gaze + Power + Drunk Mums + Miss Destiny + No Class + Rabid Dogs: The Bendigo, Collingwood Afternoon Show with Dr Ric’s Dishonourable Discharge: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Rya Park + Saiyon Phelan + Dandecat + The Sand Dollars: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick
Never Settle After receiving a great deal of praise for their lead singles, The Settlement have at last dropped their LP, Stand In The Middle. They’ll be heading to The Toff In Town this Saturday to soak in the crowd’s adoration.
Gigs / Live The Guide
Steve Kilbey + Jules Douglas: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford
Sun 30
Afternoon Show with Maja + Annaliese Rose + Ruby Gill: 303, Northcote Spasmoslop + F-Zero + Ehsan Gelsi + Ciaran Geoghegan: 303, Northcote Ben Maltby Quartet: Bar Open (Front Bar), Fitzroy Sunday Sins with Laurence Hewson + Jimmy Roberts + Phil DeCarlo: Bar Open, Fitzroy Jam for Jobs & Justice Benefit with Hornstars + Moreland City Band + more: Bella Union, Carlton South
Amaya Laucirica: Noisy Ritual, Brunswick Marsden Williams + 245T: Open Studio, Northcote
Rambutan Jam Band: Penny Black, Brunswick
Angus Leslie + Tiryan: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg
Gratisfaction with Suns + Moonahlinks + Mystery Machine + The Grogans + Dan Fabris + more: The Toff In Town, Melbourne
Andy Leyfield & The Sound: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy
The Sunday Set with Andy Black + Mr Weir: The Toff In Town (Carriage Room), Melbourne
Afternoon Show with Dave Holmes Gang + Featherhead: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick
Down The Rabbit Hole with Nigel Last: The Toff In Town (Carriage Room), Melbourne
Robyn & The Rancheros: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick
Tankerville + Mod Vigil + Turnpike: The Tote (Front Bar), Collingwood
Late Nite Tuff Guy: Revolver Upstairs, Prahran
Little Rituals + One More Weekend + Run Rabbit Run: The Tote (Band Room), Collingwood
Andrew Nolte & his Orchestra: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick
He Cries Diamonds + The Castilles + Callan: The Tote (Upstairs), Collingwood Matinee Show with E.R.O.S + Glas + Cadet X + Byrd: The Workers Club, Fitzroy
Maddy Jane
MAMF feat. Seth Henderson + Davy Simony + Boadz: The Workers Club, Fitzroy
Alpha Wolf
Huff N’ Puff Alpha Wolf are out supporting Thy Art Is Murder this month for the release tour of their new album Dear Desolation, which is coming out in early August. Check them both out this Saturday at Max Watt’s.
Moreland City Soul Revue + Alison Ferrier: Union Hotel, Brunswick Zoj: Wesley Anne (Front Bar), Northcote Afternoon Show with Electric Tommy Johnston + Josephine Emery + Alex Gilbert: Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East Open Mic Comedy Night with Jess Pearman: Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East Afternoon Show with Alpha Wolf + Deadlights + Pridelands + Thornhill + 23:19: Wrangler Studios, West Footscray Trouble Peach + New Band + Spike The River + Will Coyote: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford
It’s A Maddy World This Saturday, singer-songwriter Maddy Jane is launching her latest single, No Other Way. The Tasmanian-native has recently wrapped up a sold out tour supporting Kingswood, and without skipping a beat, has begun main support duties for Polish Club.
Chris Endrey: Bella Union, Carlton South Albare & the Urbanity Project: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne Karate Boogaloo: Catfish (Front Bar), Fitzroy
Justin Bernasconi: The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine
Cherry Blues with Steve Boyd’s Rum Reverie: Cherry Bar (2pm), Melbourne
Afternoon Show with Blue Howl + Jared Brentnall + Creepy Flavour: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick
The Blue Two Few: Compass Pizza Bar, Brunswick East Frenzal Rhomb + Totally Unicorn + Pagan: Corner Hotel, Richmond Neon Tetra + Blyolk + The Empty Threats: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Benny James & The Blue Flames: Labour In Vain, Fitzroy Marty Kelly & Co. + Ian Bland & The Lamington Drive Orchestra: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East
Sambar: 303, Northcote Titus O’Reily: Comedy Theatre, Melbourne
The Paddy Cakes + Capital Avenue + One More Weekend: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick James Hickey + Jade Peterson + The Alan Ladds: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne Xmas In July feat. Kitty Bang: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood Polly + Spicy Boys + Deflator Gator: The Old Bar, Fitzroy Afternoon Show with Dellacoma Rio + Ablaze: The Old Bar, Fitzroy
Brooklyn’s Finest: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Wingspan: Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick Wind It Up with Various Artists: Northcote Social Club, Northcote Paul Williamson’s Hammond Combo: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy Charles Jenkins: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick The Daryl McKenzie Jazz Orchestra + Michelle Nicolle: The Apartment, Melbourne Funny at The Brunny Comedy Show: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Root Rat + Shepparton Airplane + Tidal Harmonics: The Old Bar, Fitzroy Ryan Bondy + Jade Alice: The Toff In Town, Melbourne
Shrimpwitch Angelcorpse + Nocturnal Graves + Belligerent Intent + Decrepit Soul: The Bendigo, Collingwood
Jeff Vader + The Detonators + Ace Bricklaying: Cherry Bar, Melbourne
Mon 31
Laura Madonna Murray: Compass Pizza Bar, Brunswick East
Angus Dawson + Anna O: The Workers Club, Fitzroy
Tue 01 Make It Up Club: Bar Open, Fitzroy Nestor Torres: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne Uncomfortable Science with Lachlan Mitchell: Boney, Melbourne
Which Witch Is Which? Shrimpwitch are swimming onto the Howler stage after recently owning a studio session at PBS 106.7FM. The salty rulers of the sea have promised dinner and a show (dinner optional) so head down to check them out this Wednesday.
Cult Leader: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Tali Mahoney + Eilish Gilligan + Francesca Gonzales + more: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Obscura Hail: Open Studio, Northcote Old Etiquettes + House Hats: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Band Slam: The Workers Club, Fitzroy The Moulin Beige: Wesley Anne, Northcote
THE MUSIC • 26TH JULY 2017 • 39
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